we can. He's had the hardest luck an' he complained not wance."
When Sergeant Meek came, Stub gave him the note. The sergeant read it.
"The cap'n says for us to keep our arms, and not lose the baggage. Yes, that's the caper. Bear in mind, lads. We're for Chihuahua in the morning."
They, also, were sent down to Chihuahua. Stub never saw any of them again, either. He heard, much later, that the lieutenant and six had safely reached Natchitoches; but from Chihuahua no word ever came back of Sergeant Meek, Corporal Jerry, Baroney the interpreter, Privates Sparks, Dougherty, Mountjoy, Miller, and Pat Smith, except that General Salcedo, the commander, had found them a hard lot to handle and had got them out of his province as quickly as he might.
So probably they caught up with Lieutenant Pike somewhere in the United States; and as likely as not some of them were with him to support him when he fell, dying on the field of battle, away north in Canada, during the War of 1812.
They all loved him.
