The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-03-15
There's an abundant store OF

chocolate. You shall have cup in a
moment There's ammunition in plen-
ty. There's even keg of mescal,
which, saving your presence. sir, as !
am temporary commander, shall be
hidden before the men begin coming in
with their prisoners. There's barley
in abundance for horses and mules,
water to drink and water to bathe in.
We could hardly be better off any
where.
Drummond looked curiously about
him SO far as was possible without
moving his painstricken head. He was
lying in a deep recess in some dark and
rocky canyon whose sides were vertical
walls. Tumbling down from the wood
ed heights above-rare sight in Arizona
"a little brook of clear, sparkling
water came brawling and splashing over
its stony bed at his feet and went on
down the gorge to its opening on the
sandy plain. There, presumably, it
burrowed into the bosom of the earth,
for no vestige of running stream could
the Cababi valley show. The walls
about him were in places grimy with
the smoke of cook fires. Overhead,
not SO feet away, a gnarled and stunted
little cedar jutted out from some crew
ice in the rocks and stood at the edge
of the cliff. A soldier was clinging
to it with one hand and pointing out
toward the east with the other. Drum
mond recognized the voice as that of
one of his own troop when the man
called out:
1.-Two of our fellers are coming with
the old yellow ambulance, sergeant,
but can't see the Others.
''All right, Patterson. Try to see
where the rest have gone and what
they're doing. I'll send the glass up to
you presently. What I'm afraid of,
lieutenant, is that in their rage over
Donovan 8 death, and Mullan s. and all
the devils work done there at Moreno's
and your mishap, too, the men have
become uncomfortable and will never
let up on the pursuit until they have
killed the last one of that gang. These
two who are coming in with the bodies
Of the Morales brothers probably have
wornout horses, or perhaps Lee ordered
them to stay and guard the safe. The
last saw of any of the gang they were
disappearing over the desert to the
south, striking for Sonora pass.
II wonder they didn't all come in
here," said Drummond.
well, hardly that, lieutenant They
knew they would be followed here, pen
ned up. where their capture would only
be question of time. A hundred cav
alrymen would be around them in a
very few hours, and we could send to
Lowell for those old mountain howitzers
and just leisurely shell them out.
Then. when they surrendered-a they'd
have to-the civil authorities would
Immediately step in and claim jurisdic-
tion-claim the prisoners too. We'd
simply have to turn them over to JUS
tice as a matter of course, and you
know, and they know, that the only
judge apt to sit on their case would be
that of our eminent frontiersman and
fellow citizen-Lynch. They are scat
tering like Apaches through the noun
tains and will reassemble and count
noses later on. Thanks to you and q
troop, they have lost all they had gained
and their leaders besides. No, sir, they
won't stop this side of the Mexican
line."
There's one, Wing, I hope to heav-
en- they'll never lose sight of till they
run MN down. E4
81
1.-THE fellow who was enlisted in G
troop last winter at Tucson and desert
ed last night to join this gang. He
drove for the stage company last year
and was discharged. He gave his name
as Bland.'
"Bland! Henry Bland!'' exclaimed
Sergeant Wing, leaping to his feet in
uncomfortable excitement. do you
mean it, sir? Had he enlistedl Do
you mean that he was the man Miss
Harvey spoke of-the disguised soldier,
she called him?''
And Drummond, amazed at Wings
emotion, gazed up to see the sergeant q
features working almost convulsively,
his face paling, his eyes full of intense
anxiety.
why, cannot doubt it, sergeant.
He ran away from us on the discovery
of Donovan's body and rode straight
for Moreno's, beating us there proba-
bly, by an hour or SO, for no one hap
pened to miss him."
Wings hands were raised on high in
q gesture almost tragic, then dropped
helplessly by his side. With a stifled
groan the tall soldier turned abruptly
away and went striding toward the
opening of the canyon, leaving Drum
mond wondering and perplexed.
When, q quarter of an hour later, the
sergeant returned. bringing with him
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