, 1905-02-01

sky, with men aboard of her, her very
cordage standing out to his strained
gaze. On she swept without a sound.
u phantom ship, Il dream of derisiou. a
thing for men to curse. And there
ahead a shimmering lake of water,
dimpling and alluring. No.; a crystal
stream it was. o God. for one sweet
moment he had believed his desire a
fact, but he knew it was Il mocking.
haunting mirage, oft seen before. and
there was no lake and no stream save
in a world apart from this desert!
AT last he bowed his head on Luey's
dropping neck, where she had paused.
and, dry eyed, sobbed aloud. Lo, just
ahead lay n saffron wad of soap root
He dismOunted and felt it. 1t was
yet moist from the mouth that had
spat it forth. Indians, Indians! In.
dians. Boy" he shrieked, boy,
paws coming!' He thought of her
terror, he thought of-that instant he
remembered those Mexican women at
Albuquerque, Seyadra's wife and
daughter, and of how the older had in
sisted that Boy was no longer Il child,
but of an age to be in that country
eve a married He himself
but lately had noted in this tropical
climate her rounded limbs and slender
ing waist. \ thought may be Il thorn
piercing the soul, and so was Captain
Robinson stung back to the steadied
poise of a man.
He sprung from his saddle and, TAX
ing his canteen. poured ii little water
under Lucy's hanging tongue and wet
her nostrils and patted her TANKS, bid
ding her nerve herself for a last effort.
He tipped the canteen to his lips, TOOK Il
swallow and stepped out upon the viii
derness again, and, rs if ii had sprung
up of Itself, there, under his eye, lay n
limb of mesquite, IA little tuft of the
foliage still clinging to its tip, as he
himself had trimmed it and given it as
a plaything to the sick child. His own
knife had rounded the end to make it
smooth for the tender palm. His blood
leaped within him, and he stepped on
afoot, his hungry look searching hither
and thither, rowing into the perspec-
hves of every direction. What was
that faint depression over there? 1t
vast was the trace of a cloyen hoof,
for there yet remained the fairly de-
fined impression of two toes. Way be-
yond there was another and-oh, mar
veli-beyond another, and by and by
another. Examining closely, he dis
covered a thin, crisp crust lying i'll
patches along the surface, which ex-
! planned the tracks and that he, too,
was leaving the mark of his foot i'll
this alkali spot. BY this time he had
been alone several hours-it seemed
a year-and then he stopped and pick
ed up the lasso he always carried
| slung to the horn of his saddle. Had
he dropped it just now, or was he real
ly retracing the trail of the night be-
fore? He would have bartered his last
possession to know.
Lucy whinnied wistfully and looked
over the whipping sands to the right
and Whinnied again.
Good horse, if you We're a dog. if
you were only Tige, | might hope in
your scent the captain said aloud.
But, surely, old girl, with your legs
and my eyes we ought to find her." and
he pushed on.
BY and by he came to a Standstill
and. despairing. looked about him for
the hundredth time. Then he took his
revolver from his hip pocket and fired
a shot into the air, reckless of the dan
ger it might bring upon him. give
shots left he thought as he replaced
his six shooter and listened. Away off
on one side there was the cry of Il boot
owl. responded to in the distance by
the same weird note. pitched in the
same KEY. AN owl in the daytime"
he thought cOntemptuously. why,
that's too plain. You hounds of hell,
if you've laid hands on my little girl,
heaven must give me my revenge on
more than one of you
Mechanically he set his gaze ahead
upon a dark spot, and in that hot and
yellow air, all meshed and mazed with
a tangle Of golden rays, it seemed to
move and culver. another mirage"
he muttered. "Oh, Boy! I'm going
mad, [ know. Somewhere on this wide
desert you are, paws only boy. Oh, let
me find your
And again the spot way yonder SEEM
ed to move. He had passed it now in
the distance and was leaving it off
to the left. God help him, he was mad
to leave it SO, and, d%espairing still, he
once more took out his revolver and
fired it in the air, then listened.
The spot seemed like a figure rising
to its knees. then to it's feet, tearing at