“We’ve got to find a cabin,” said the Panther.

“Why not make it a whole city with a fine big hotel right in the center of it?” said Obed.  “Seems to me there’s about as much chance of one as the other.”

“No, there ain’t,” said the Panther.  “There ain’t no town, but there are huts.  I’ve rid over this country for twenty year an’ I know somethin’ about it.  There are four or five settlers’ cabins in the valleys of the creeks runnin’ down to the Rio Grande.  I had a mighty good dinner at one of ’em once.  They’re more’n likely to be abandoned now owin’ to the war an’ their exposed situation, but if the roofs haven’t fell in any of ’em is good enough for us.”

“Then you lead on,” said Obed.  “The quicker we get there the happier all of us will be.”

“I may not lead straight, but I’ll get you there,” replied the Panther confidently.

Roylston, at his own urgent insistence, dismounted and walked a little while.  When he betook himself again to the back of Old Jack he spoke with quiet confidence.

“I’m regaining my strength rapidly,” he said.  “In a week or two I shall be as good as I ever was.  Meanwhile my debt to you, already great, is accumulating.”

The Panther laughed.

“You don’t owe us nothin’,” he said.  “Why, on this frontier it’s one man’s business to help another out of a scrape.  If we didn’t do that we couldn’t live.”

“Nevertheless, I shall try to pay it,” said Roylston, in significant tones.

“For the moment we’ll think of that hut we’re lookin’ for,” said the Panther.

“It will be more than a hut,” said Will, who was of a singularly cheerful nature.  “I can see it now.  It will be a gorgeous palace.  Its name will be the Inn of the Panther.  Menials in gorgeous livery will show us to our chambers, one for every man, where we will sleep between white sheets of the finest linen.”

“I wonder if they will let us take our rifles to bed with us,” said Ned, “because in this country I don’t feel that I can part with mine, even for a moment.”

“That is a mere detail which we will discuss with our host,” said Obed.  “Perhaps, after you have eaten of the chicken and drunk of the wine at this glorious Inn of the Panther, you will not be so particular about the company of your rifle, Mr. Fulton.”

The Panther uttered a cry of joy.

“I’ve got my b’arin’s exactly now,” he said.  “It ain’t more’n four miles to a cabin that I know of, an’ if raiders haven’t smashed it it’ll give us all the shelter we want.”

“Then lead us swiftly,” said Obed.  “There’s no sunset or anything to give me mystical lore, but the coming of that cabin casts its shadow before, or at least I want it to do it.”

The Panther’s announcement brought new courage to every one and they quickened their lagging footsteps.  He led toward a dark line of timber which now began to show through the driving snow, and when they passed among the trees he announced once more and with exultation: