Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-01-03


 about as elastic as ivory, lieutenant, and you have no spare flesh about you !. either. That and the good luck of the cavalryman saved you from worse fate. You've got a battered head, broken arm and had the breath knocked out of you, and that's about all But we'll have you on your feet by the time the fellows come from Stoneman.
 But how about the young ladies ?" again asked Drummond wearily and anxiously, for his head was still heavy and painful and his anxiety great. He was weak, too, from the shock. Wont they suffer Ineantime?"
 Well, they might-at least Miss Ruth, the younger, might in the reac- tion after their fearful experience, but I'm something of doctor, as said, and shall be able to prevent all that. !"
 Howl"
 Well. by giving her something to do. Just as soon as they've had a chance to rest, both young ladies will be put on duty. Miss Ruth is to nurse you
 Suppose she doesn't want to?,
 "The case isn't supposable, lieuten- ant. She would have gone into hys- terics this morning, think, had she not been detailed, as a preventive, to hold your head. At all events, she quieted down the instant she was told by her sister to climb into the wagon again and sit still as a mouse and see that your face was kept cool and moist and shaded from the glare. " And now Sergeant Wings lips were twitehing with merriment, and Drummond, hard ly knowing how to account for his en- barrassment, asked no more. His anna teur surgeon chatted blithely on.
 There's an abundant store of provi- sions here-dried meat, frijoles, chile, chocolate. You shall have cup in a moment. There's ammunition in plen- ty. There's even a keg of mescal, which, saving your presence, sir, as l 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 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 50 feet away, gnarled and stunted little cedar jutted out from some crev- 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:
 Two of our fellers are coming with the old yellow ambulance, sergeant, but 1 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's s death, and Mullan's. and all the devil $ 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-as they d have to-the civil authorities would immediately stepi in and claim jurisdic- tion-clafm the prisoners too. We'd simply have to turn them over to jus tice as 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 foll I oo1, tering like Apaches through the noun tains and will reassemble and count noses later on. Thanks to you and c 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, hope to heav- en they'll never lose sight of till they run him down."
 "Who's that, sir?''
 "The fellow who was enlisted in 0 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.''
 "Blandl Henry Bland!" exclaimed Sergeant Wing, leaping to his feet in uncomfortable excitement. Do you mean it, sir? Had he enlisted? Do you mean that he was the man Miss Harvey spoke ef-the disguised soldier, she called him p
 And Drummond, amazed at Wings emotion, gazed up to see the sergeant's features working almost convulsively, his face paling, his eyes full of intense anxiety.
 "Why, 1 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 enc hap pened to miss him."
 Wings hands were raised on high in a gesture almost tragic, then dropped helplessly by his side. With stihed groan the tall soldier turned abruptly xvorf cfri tho