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CHAPTER II. Late that night, with jaded steeds, a little troop o? cavalry was pushing westward across the desert The young Hay moon was sinking to rest, its pure pallid light shining faintly in contrast with the ruddy glow of some distant beacon in the mountains beneath. Ever since nightfall the rock buttress at the pass had been reflecting the lurid glare of the leaping flames as, time and again, unseen bat busy hands heaped on fresh fuel and sent the sparks whirl? ing in fiery eddies to the sky. Languid and depressed after a long day's bat? tling with the fierce white sunshine, horses and men would gladly have spent the early hours of night dozing at their rode bivouac in the ChristobaL Ever since 9 in the morning, after a long night march, they had sought such shade as the burning rocks might afford, scooping np the tepid water from the natural tanks at the bottom of the canyon and thanking providence it was not alkali The lieutenant commanding, a tall, wiry, keenfaced young fellow, had made the rounds of his camp at sunset, care? fully picking up and scrutinizing the feet of his horses and sending the far? rier to tack on here and there a starting shoe, Gaunt and sunburned were his short coupled California chargers, as were their toughlooking riders; fetlocks and beards were uniformly ragged; shoes of leather and shoes of iron showed equal wear. A bronze faced sergeant, silently following his young chief, watched him with inquiring eyes and waited for the decision that was to condemn the command to another night march across the desert, or remand them to rest until an hour or so before the dawn. "How far did you say it was to Cer alvc's, sergeant?" "About 22 vrx*s? west." "And to Moreno's?" "About 15, sir.; off here." And the sergeant pointed out across the plain, lying like a duncolored b1 ~ket far toward the southern horizon. "We can get barlev and water at both?" "Plenty, sir." "The men would rather wait here, I suppose, until 2 or 3 o'clock?" "Very much, sir; they haven't been able to rest at all today. I've fed out the last of tho barley, though." The lieutenant reflected a moment, pensively studying the legs of the trum? peter's horse. "Is there any chance of Moreno's people not having heard about the Apaches in the Christobal?" "Hardly, sir ; they are nearer tho Tuc? son road than we are. The stage must have gone through this morning early. It's nothing new anyhow. ..I've never known the time when the Indians were not in the neighborhood of that range. Moreno, too. is an old hand, sir." The lieutenant looked long and in? tently out over the dreary flats beyond the foot hills. Like thc- bottom of some prehistoric lake long since sucked dry by the action of the sun, the parched earth stretched away in mile after mile of monotonous, life ridden desert, a Sa? hara without sign of an oasis, a sandy barren shunned even by scorpion and centipede. Already the glow was dy-' ing from the western sky. The red rim of the distant range was purpling. The golden gleam that flashed from rock to rock as the. sun went down had van? ished from all but the loftiest summits, and deep, dark shadows were creeping slowly out across the plain. Over the great expanse not so m ich as the faint? est spark could be S? en. Aloft, the greater stars were beginning to peep through the veil of pallid blue, while over the distant pass the sun's fair handmaiden and trainbearer. with slow, stately mien, was sinking in the wakb of her lord, as though following him to his rest. Not a breath of air was astir. The night came on still as the realms i of solitude. Only the low chatter of j the men, the occasional stamp of iron ! s?od hoof or the munching jaws of the tired steeds broke in upon the perfect silence. From their covert in the west? ward slope of the Christobal the two i sentries of the little command looked upon a lifeless world. Beneath them, ; whiffing their pipes after their frugal supper, the troopers were chatting in low tones, some of them already spread? ing their blankets among the shelving rocks. The embers from the cook's fire glowed a deeper red as the darkness gathered in the pass, and every man seemed to start as though stung with sudden spur when sharp, quick and imperative there came the cry from the lips of the farther sentry : "Fire, sir-out to the west!" In an instant Lieutenant Drummond had leaped down the rocky canyon, and In an instant Lieutenon t Drummond was standing by thc sentrt/s side. ?MT,I8933YC/lAKLE5 KJKO, fieldglass in hand was standing'b: sentry's side. No need to qne "Where away?" Far ont across the intervening i a column of flame was darting uptt gaining force and vol?me with e moment. The lieutenant never paused to raise the glass to his < No magnifying power was needer see the distant pyre; no proloi search to tell him what was me The troopers who had spiting to t feet and were already eagerly fol] ing turned short in their tracks at first word. 44 Saddle up, men. It's the bei at the signal peak." Then came a scene of hustle, words were (spoken; no further or given. With the skill of long prac the men gathered their few belongi shook out the dingy horseblankets then, after careful folding, laid tl creaseless back of the gaunt wither their faithful mounts. The worn saddles were deftly set ; lariats co: and swung from thecanfcle rings; di old hits and bridles adjusted ; then a the slipping into carbine slings thimble belts, the quick lacing of Ind moccasin or canvas legging, the fillin, canteens in the tepid tanks below, wi all the time the cooks and pad were flying about gathering up pots and pans and storing rations, b and blankets on the roomy appare; Drummond was in the act of swing into saddle when his sergeant haste: np. . "Beg pardon, lieutenant, but sha! leave a small guard with the pack tra or can they come right along?" ''They'll go with ns, of course, can't leave them here. We must he for Ceralvo's at once. How could th Indians have got over that way?" *4 It is beyond me to say, sir. I did know they ever went west of the Sa: Maria." 44I can hardly believe it now, 1 there's no doubting that signal; it is call ns thither at all speed wheres we may be and means only one thi -"Apaches here.' Sergeant Wing not the man to get stampeded. . G they have jumped the stage, do y think, or attacked some of Ceralvi people?" 44Lord knows, sir. I don't see h< they could have swung around the] There's nothing to tempt them alo: that range until they get to the pi itself. They must have come aron: south of Moreno's." 441 think not, sergeant." The words wore spoken in a ve quiet voice. Drummond turned in STJ prise, his foot in the stirrup, and look at the speaker, a keen eyed trooper middle age, whose hair was alrea< sprinkled with gray. 44Why not. Bland?" 4 4 Because we have been along tl range for nearly 50 miles below her sir, and haven't crossed a sign, and b cause I understand now what I couldn account for at 2 o'clock-what thought must be imagination." 4'What was that?" "Smoke, sir, off toward the Gili north of Ceralvo's, I should say, ju about north of west of where we are. "Why didn't you report it?" 44 You were asleep, sir, and by tl time I got the glasses and looked it ka faded out entirely, but it's my belief tl Indians are between us and the rive: or were over there north oz Ceralvo today. If not Indians, who?" "You ride with me, Bland. V. talk with you furt1 ?er about this. Com on with the men as soon as you hav the packs ready, sergeant" Ands saying Lieutenant Drummond mounte and rode slowly down the windin trail among the bowlders. At the foe of the slope, where the water lay gleam ing in its rocky bed, he reined his hors to the left to give him his fill of th pool, and here the troop addressed a Bland presently joined him. "Where was it you enlisted, Bland?' was the younger soldier's first ques rion. 4'I understand you are familia: with all this country." "At Tucscn, sir, six months ago. aft er the stage company discharged me." "I remember," was the answer a? the lieutenant gently drew rein to Hf: his horse's head. 4 ' I think you were sc frank as to give the reason of yow quitting their employment." 4 4 Well, there was no sense trying tc conceal it or anything else a man maj do out here, lieutenant. They fired mi for drinking too much at the wrong time. The section boss said he couldn't help himself, and I don't suppose he could" "As 1 remember, " said Drummond presently, and with hesitation, for he hated to pry into the past of a man who spoke so frankly and who made no effort to conceal his weakness, "you were driver of the buckboard the Mo? rales gang held up last November over near the Catarinas." 41 Yes; that's the time I got drunk, sir. It's all that saved mo from being killed, and between keeping sober and losing my life or getting drunk and losing a job I preferred the latter. " "Yet you were in a measure respon? sible for tho safety of your passengers and mail, were you not?" "Well, no, sir; not after tho warning I gave the company. I told them Kamon Morales was in Tucson the night before we had to pull out, and wherever ho was that infernal cutthroat of a brother of hi.; wasn't far away. I told them it was taking chances to let Judgo Gillette and that infantry quartermas? ter try to go through without escort. I begged to throw up the jul) that very "night, "but "they held ine to my contrat and I had to go. We were jnmped n 10 miles out of town, and before ai one conld draw a derringer every mi of ns was covered. The judge mig have known they'd shoot him on sig ever since that greaser from Hermosil was lynched. But they never harm? the quartermaster. " "Huh! The devil they didn't: laughed the lieutenant. "They tot his watch and his money and ever thing he had on except his underclotl ing. How long had you been drivii when that happened?" "Just eight months, sir, betwe* Tucson and Grant." "And did you never serve with tl cavalry before ? You ride as thong you had." "Most men hereabouts served on 01 side or other, " said Bland calmly, j Ms horse finished his long pull at tl water. "And your side was" "Confederate," was the brief repl? "I was born in Texas. Here comes tl troop, sir." "Come on, then. I want to ask ye about that trail to Crittenden as YU ride. We make first for the Picaci pass from here." "Why, that's south of west, sir," ai swered Bland. ' ' I had thought perhaj the lieutenant would want to go nortl ward toward the Gila to head off an parties of the Apaches that might I striving to get away eastward wit their booty. They must have picke up something over at the Bend. " "They're more likely to go soutt ward, Bland, for they know whei we've been scouting all the week. $c I'll march straight to the signal. Ther they must know where the Indian have gone." "Aye,- aye, sir, but then you canon! pursue, and a stern chase is a lon, one." Drummond turned in his saddle a they rode forth upon the dark falda an* gazed long i nd fixedly at the trooper b; his side. Imperturbably Bland con tinned to look straight ahead. Quee stories had been acoat regarding thi new acquisition. He mingled but lit tie with the men. He affected rathe the society of the better class of non commissioned officers, an offense no likely to be condoned in a recruit. H< was already distinguished for his eas? mastery of every detail of a cavalry man's duty, and for his readiness to g< at any or all times on scout, escort oi patrol, and the more hazardous or loneh the task the better he seemed to like it Then he was helpful about the office! m g\ rrison, wrote a neat hand, was of? ten pressed into service to aid with the quartermaster or commissary papers, and had been offered permanent daily duty as company clerk, but begged off, saying he loved a horse and cavalry work too well to be immured in an office. He was silence and reticence itself on matters affecting other people, but the soul of frankness apparently where he was personally concerned. Any? body was welcome to know his past, he said. He was raised in Texas.; had lived for years on the frontier; had been through Arizona with a bull team in the fifties, and had 'listed under the banner of the Lone Star when Texas went the way of all the sisterhood of southern (not border) states, and then, being stranded after the war, had4 ' bull whacked" again through New Mexico; had drifted again across the Mimbres and down to the old Spanish-Mexican town of Tucson ; had tried prospecting, mail riding, buckboard driving, gam? bling ; had been one of the sheriff's posse that cleaned out Sonora Bill's little band of thugs and cutthroats and had expressed entire willingness to officiate as that lively outlaw's executioner in case of his capture. He had twice been robbed while driv? ing the stage across the divide and had been left for dead in the Maricopa range, an episode which he said was t^e primal cause of his dissipations later. Finally, after a summary dis? charge he had come to the adjutant at Camp Lowell, presented two or three certificates of good character and brav? ery in the field from officers who bore famous names in the southern army, and the regimental recruiting officer thought he could put up with an occa? sional drunk in a man who promised to make as good a trooper under the stars and stripes as he had made under the stars and bars. And so he was enlisted, j and to the surprise of everybody hadn't i taken a drop since. j Now this, said the rank and file, was proof positive of something radically wrong, either in his disposition or his record. It was entirely comprehensible and fully in accordance with hum; .* i nature and the merits of the case that a man should quit drinking when he quit the army, but that a man with the blot of an occasional spree on his escutcheon should enlist for any other cause than sheer desperation and should then be I come a teetotaler was nothing short of j prima facie evidence of moral deprav? ity. . j ' ' There's something behind it all, f el i lers," said Corporal Murphy, "and I I mean to keep an eye on him ?rom this j out. If he don't dhrink next payday, look out for him. He's a professional ! gambler laying for your hard earned crreenbacjks. ' ' * ""And so while the seniors among the sergeants were becoming gradually the associates, if net the intimates, of this j fine looking trooper, the mass of the j regiment, or rather the little detach ; ment thereof stationed at Lowell, looked ; upon Bland with the eye of suspicion, j There was one sergeant who repudiated j him entirely, and who openly professed i his disbelief in Bland's account of i himself, and that was Feeny. "He i may have testimonials from all Texas," ; said he hotly, "but I've no use for that ' sort of credentials. Who can vouch for his goings and comings hereabouts '. before ho joined us? I think Murphy's I right, and if I was stationed at Lowell and belonged to his troop you bet I'd ! watch him close. ' ' Now, in all the command it would j have been a hard matter to find a sol ! dier in whose favor appearances were i so unanimously allied. Tall, erect, j sinewy and active, he rode or walked j with an easy grace that none could f; to mark. His features were fine a clear cut; his eyes a dark hazel, wi heavy curling lashes and "bushy, lo arched brows ; his complexion, natura] dark, was bronzed by sun and sar storm to a hue almost Mexican. 1 shaved clean all but the heavy mi tache that drooped over his firm li] and'the sprinkling of gray about t brows, temples and mustache w most becoming to his peculiar styl One prominent mark had he whi the descriptive book of his compa; referred to simply as "saber scar < right jaw,'* but it deserved menti> more extended, for the whitish stre? ran like a groove from just below t ear tip to the angle of the square, res lute chin. It looked as though in soi desperate fray a mad sweep had be made with vengeful blade straight f the jugular, and, just missing th* had laid open the jaw for full foi inches. "But," said Feeny, "what could] have been doing, and in what positi< could he have been, sitting or standin to get a saber stroke like that ? Whe was his guard ? A bowie knife, now * '? and there the suggestion ended. But it was the scarred side of Bland soldierly face that young Lieutena Drummond was so closely studying ; they rode out into the starlit Arizoi night. He, too, had heard the can chat about this apparently frank, ope: hearted trooper, and had found himse more than onc^ speculating as to h real past, not the past of his imagin tion or of his easy offhand description By this time, in perfect silence save f< the occasional clink of canteen, tl gurgle of imprisoned water, or, once i a while, the click of ironshod hoof, tl troop was marching in shadowy co umn of twos well out beyond the falc and over the almost dead level of tl plain. Far ahead the beacon sti blazed' brightly and beckoned them OJ It was time for precaution. "Sergeant, "said Drummond, "sea a corporal and four men forward. L< them spread ' out across the front an keep 300 or 400 yards ahead of u? Better take those with the freshe? horses, as I want them to scout thoi oughly and to be on tho alert for th faintest sound. Any of our men wh know this valley well?" "None better than Bland here, sir, was the half hesitant reply. "W-e-1-1, I need Bland just nen Put some of the old hands and olde heads on, and don't let anything escap their notice." "Beg pardon, lieutenant, but what' to be the line of direction ? When w started it was understood that we wer to take the shortest cut for Ceralvo's and now we're heading for the Pi cacho." "No, we make for tho pass first that's the quickest way to reach th signal station, then we learn where t strike for the Indians. Did you eve hear of. their being as far west as th Maricopa range before?" "Never, sir, in the whole time we'v been here, and since the lieutenan joined they've never been heard o crossing the Santa Maria valley. " "What on earth could tempt then out so far? There's nothing to b? gained and every chance of being cn off by troopu from Grant and Bowie even if they do succeed in slipping fr us." "That's more than I can tell, sir The men say the paymaster's coming along this week ; they heard it from th< quartermaster's train we passed at th< Ci?nega three days ago. " Trooper Bland was riding in silenci on the left of the detachment com mander as he had been directed. Th? sergeant had come up on the othei flank. "What men heard this?" askec Drummond, quickly. "Why, Patterson told me, sir, anc Lucas and Quinn, and I think Blanc here was talking with the train escori and must have heard it." "Did you, Bland?" asked the lien tenant, as he whirled suddenly in his saddle and faced the trooper. "Yes, sir," was the prompt reply; "several of the men spoke of it. It's about tho most welcome piece of news they could give to fellows who had f oui months' pay due." In the isolation of this mountain scouting business, when, as often hap? pens; one officer is out alone for weeks with no comrades or associates but his detachment, it naturally results that a greater freedom cf intercourse and speech is developed between the com? mander and some, at least, of his party than would ever be the case in years of garrison life ; and so it happened that for the moment Dnimmond forgot the commander in the man. "It is most extraordinary," he said, "that just when a paymaster is anxious to keep secret the date and route of his coming the whole thing is heralded ahead. We have no telegraph and yet three days ago we knew that Major Plummer was starting.on his first trip. He ought to have been at Ceralvo's last night. By Jupiter ! suppose he was -and had but a small escort ? What else could that signal fire mean ? Here ! get those men out to the front now at once; we must push ahead for all we're worth." And so at midnight, with steeds panting and jaded, with the pass and the Picacho only four miles ahead, the little detachment was tripping noise? lessly through the darkness, and, all alert and eager, Drummond was riding midway between his scouts and the main body so that no sound close at hand might distract his attention from hails or signals farther out. Suddenly he heard an exclamation ahead, the snort of a frightened horse, then some muffled objurgations, a rider urging a reluctant steed to approach some suspicious ob? ject, and, spurring his own spirited charger forward. Mr. Drummond came presently upon the corporal just dis? mounting in the darkness and striving to lead his boon companion, whom he could not drive, up to somo dark object lying on tho plain. This, too, failed. A low whistle, however, brought ono of the other scouts trotting in to tho res? cue. "xxvntx alni it mimne, Barke, .. saxa the corporal, handing np the reins. "There's something ont here this brote shied at and I can't get him near it again." With that he poshed ont to the front while the others listened ex? pectant. A moment later a match was struck, and presently burned brightly in the black and breathless night. Then came the startled cry : "My God, lieutenant, it's Corporal Donovan and his horse-both dead." And even there Mr. Drummond noted that Bland was about the first of the column to come hurrying forward to the scene. Ten minutes' investigation threw but little light upon the tragedy. Some stumps of candles were found in the saddlebags and packs, and with these the men scoured the plain for signs. Spreading well out from the center, they closely examined the sandy level. From the north came the trail of two cavalry horses, shod alike, both at tb* lope, both draggy and weary. From the point where lay Donovan and his steed there was but one horse track. Whirling sharply around, the rider had sent his mount at a thundering gallop back across the valley; then 100 yards away, in long curve, he had reined him to the southeast. The troopers who followed the hoof marks out about an eighth of a mile declared that, un? wounded, both horse and rider were making the best of their way toward Moreno's ranch. Farther search, not 50 yards to the front, revealed the fact that at the edge of a little depression and behind some cactus bushes three human forms had been lying prone, and from this point probably had sped 1 the deadly bullet. "Apaches, by God!" muttered one of the men. "Apaches, your grandmother!" was the sergeant's fierce reply. "Will you never learn sense, Moore? When did Apaches take to wearing store clothes and heeled boots? There's no Apache in this, lieutenant. Look here, sir, and here. Move out farther, some of you fellows, and see where they hid their horses. Corporal Donovan was with C troop down the Gila last week, sir. They were to meet and escort the pay? master most like. It's my belief he was one of the guard and that the am? bulance has been jumped this very night. These are road agents, not Apaches, and God knows what's hap? pened if they've got away with Patsy. Sure ho was one of the nerviest men in the whole troop, sir." Drummond listened, every nerve a-tingle, even while with hurried hands he cut open the shirt at the brawny throat and felt for fluttering heart beat or faintesf sign of life. Useless. The shot hole under the left eye told plainly that the leaden missile had torn its way through the brain and that death must have been instan? taneous. The soldier's arms and ac? couterments, the horse's equipments, were gone. The bodies lay unmuti lated. The story was plain. Separated in some way from the detachment, Don? ovan and his companion had probably sighted the signal blazing at the pass and come riding hard to reach the spot, when the unseen foe crouching across A match was struck and humed brightly in thc black and breathless night. their path had suddenly fired the fatal shots. Now, where was the paymas? ter? Where the escort? Wnere the men who fed the signal fire-the fire that long before midnight had died ut? terly away ? Whither should the weary detachment direct its march ? Ceral vo's lay a dozen miles off to the north? west, Moreno's perhaps eight or nine to the soothest. Why had the escaped trooper headed his fleeing steed in that direction? Had there been pursuit? Aye, 10 minutes' search over the still and deso?ate plain revealed the fact that two horsemen lurking in a sand pit or dry arroyo had pushed forth at top speed and ridden away fall tilt across the desert, straight as the crow flies, toward Moreno's well. Even while Drummond, holding brief consul? tation with his sergeant, was deliberat? ing whether to turn thither or to push for the signal peak and learn what he could from the little squad of blue ! jackets there on duty, the matter was j decided for him. Sudden and shrill j there came the cry from the outskirts I of the now dismounted troop clustered ! about the bedy of their comrade. "Another fire, lieutenant! Look! j out here toward the Santa Maria." The sergeant sprang to his feet, j shouldering his burly way through the I excited throng. One moment more and j his voice was heard in louder, fiercer j tones; j "?STo signal this time, sir. By God, ! they've fired Moreno's ranch!" CHAPTER IH. Shortly after sunset on this same hot ! evening the serge ant in charge of the j little signal party at the Picacho came J strolling forth from his tent puffing at ? a battered brier root pipe. Southward and a few hundred feet below his perch j the Yuma road came twisting through j tho pass, and then disappeared in the j gathering darkness across the desert i plain that stretched between them and j the distant Santa Maria. Over to the j east the loftiest crags of the Christobal ? were still faintly tinged by the last j touch of departed day. Southward i still, beyond the narrow and tortuous pass, the range rose high and precipi? tous, covered and fringed with black j masses of cedar, stunted pine and juni ; North of west, on the line of the now i invisible road and far out toward the I Gila, a faint light was just twinkling. There lay Ceralvj's, and nowhere else, save where the embers of the cook fire still glowed in a deep crevice among the rocks, was there light of any kind to be seen. A lonely spot was this in which to spend one's days, yet the sol? dier in charge seemed in no wise op? pressed with sense of isolation. It was his comrade, sitting moodily on a convenient rock, elbows on knees and chin deepbnried in his brown and hairy hands, who seemed brooding over the desolation of his surroundings. Watching him in silence a moment, a quiet smile of amusement on his lips, Sergeant Wing sauntered ver and placed a friendly hand on the broad blue shoulder. "Well, Pikey, are you wishing your? self back in Trisco?" "I'm wishing myself in Tophet, ser? geant; it may be hotter, but it isn't as lonely as this infernal hole." 1 * No, its populous enough probably, ' ' was the response; "and," added he, with a whimsical smile, "no doubt you've lots of friends there, Pike." " ' Maybe I have, and maybe I haven't. At all events, I've none here. Why in thunder couldn't you let me look into that business over at Ceralvo's instead of Jackson? He gets everything worth having. I'm shelved for his sake day after day." "Couldn't send you, Pike, on any such quest as that. Those greasers have sharp eyes, and one look at your face would convince them that we'd lost our grip or were in for a funeral. Jackson, now, rides in as blithe as a May morning-a May morning out of Arizona, I mean. They never get the best of him. The only trouble is he stays too long; he ought to be back here now." "Humph! he'll be apt to come back in a hurry with Pat Donovan and those C troop fellows spending their money like water at Ceralvo's." "Yon still insist they're over there, do yon, Pike? I think they're not. I flagged old Feeny half an hour ago that they hadn't come through here." 4 ' Who was that fellow who rode back here with the note?" asked Pike. ; "I don't know his name. 'Dutchy' j they call him in C troop. He's on ; his second enlistment." '4 More fool he ! The man who re-en? lists in this territory must be either drunk or Dutch. " And Pike relapsed into gloomy silence again, his eyes fixed npon the faint flicker of the bar lights at Ceralvo's miles away, but Wing only laughed again, and still puning away at his pipe went on down the winding trail to where in the deep shelter of the rocky walls a pool of water lay gleaming. Here he threw himself flat, and lying aside his pre? cious pipe drank long and eagerly; then with a sudden plunge he doused his hot face in the cooling flood and came up dripping. "Thank the Lord I have no desert march to make today-all on a wild gooso chase,"was his pious ejacula? tion. "What on earth could have in? duced the paymaster to send a detach? ment over to the Gila?" He took from his pocket a penciled note and slowly twisted it in his fingers. It was too dark to read, but in its soldierly brevity he almost knew it by heart. "The maj'* sent Donovan with half the escort back to the Gila on an Apache scare this morning. They will prob? ably return your way, empty handed. Signal if they have passed. Latham knows your code and we have a good glass. Send man to Ceralvo's with orders* for them to join at once if they haven't come, and flag or torch when they pass you. It's my belief they've gono there." This was signed by Feeny and over and again had Wing been speculating as to what it all meant. When the es? cort with the anibnlanc? and paymaster went through before the dawn, Feeny had roused him to ask if anything had been heard of Indians on the warpath between them and the Sonora line, and the answer was both prompt and posi? tive, "No." As for tfceir being north or north of west of his rrtation. and np toward the Gila, Wing scouted the sug? gestion. He wished, however, that Jackson were back with such tidings as he had picked up at Ceralvo's. It was always best to be prepared, even though this was some distance away from the customary raiding ground of the tribe. Just then there came a hail from aloft. Pikey was shouting. "All right," answered Wing cheer? ily; "be there in a minnte, " and then he went springing np the trail as though the climb of 400 feet were a mere bag? atelle. "What's np? Jackson here?" he asked, short of breath, as he reached the little nook in which their brush covered tents were pitched. There was no re? ply. "Pike! O Pike: Where are you?" he called. And presently, faint and far, some- . where down in the dark canyon to the south, a voice replied : "Downhyar. Something's coming up the road." Surely enough. Probably a quarter mile away a dim light as of a swing? ing lantern could be seen following the winding of the rough and rock ribbed road. Then came the click of ironshod hoofs, the crack of the long mule whip, and a resonant imprecation in Spanish leveled at the invisible draft ani? mals. Bounding lightly down the southward path, Sergeant Wing soon reached the roadside, and there found Pike in converse with a brace of horse? men. "It's old Harvey's outfit, from Yuma, making for Moreno's, " vouchsafed the soldier. "Oh, is that you, Sergeant Wing? I ought to have known yon were here. I'm Ned Harvey." And the taller horseman held out a hand, which Wing grasped and shook with cordial fervor. "Which way, Mr. Harvey, and who are with you?" "Home to Tucson. My sisters are in Concord behind us, going to visit the old folks for a few weeks before their trip to Cuba. ' ' [TO BE CONTINXJED.] Subscribe for this paper now.