The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1914-10-24
CHAPTER OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.

Ssspeat-l I1fI I'm Sltl.---N EiNCfE<NNGE.s
Between the moment when discoy-
cry OF The men OH the ridge trail In
terrupted their simple and hurried
brea kfast and that which found Rose
and Barcus mounted on the back OF
their own horse, and making the best
OF their way down the canyon In pur--
suit OF Alan, but little time had lapsed.
And what Alan had counted mis-
fortune proved TO be their sole SAL
vation: but for the fact that no reas-
| ible way of physical communication ex-
listed between the upper trail and that
which followed the meanderings OF the
canyon. nothing could have saved them.
To the truth of this the party on the
heights furnished aboundant Testimony
with interinitteniy popping pistols--
wasting their ammunition in futile
though. sincere attempts at long range
imarksmanshfp.
And even with it's double burden,
their horse made better titne upon the
broad level than those who followed
| the ridge trail.-~By midmorning. when
| they approached the foothills that ran
down to the desert, the pursuit. was
! more titan n mile in the rear, and shut
| off to boot by n monolithic hill. while
Alan was many weary mile in adj
yance.
! lie sat upon his horse. just then, at
stanastili upon the summit of n round
| ed Knoll, the -Painted Hills lifting up
behind him, the desert before unfold
Ing like map-but like a map all
blurred. obscured to Iincoherence by the
heat haze that simnered over 1t like
cloud of vapor escaping from the
mouth of hell.
| Only in the near foreground was any
| thing definite to be distinguished in
the aspect of that sunbitten WASTE
bleached earth patterned in almost or.
! derby arrangement by sagebrush and
gnarled cacti. At the distance OF half
a mile all blended into one vast plain
! OF glazing gray that stretched over
the round OF the world to a broke en- wall
/ of purple hills that reeled sdrunkenly
in the hazevelled southwest
Was Judith out there, somewhere.
| lost, dcfenseless, forlorn, irrpotent to
lifa a hand to shield her face from the
blast Of that savage sun?
| Staring beneath a shading hand he
! dfscerned nothing that moved upon tile
| surface OF the desert but Its myriad
heat-derils juggling monotonousiy their
fnfernal danse matabrc..
! Or--as seemed more probable-was
she back there among the Painted
| Hills, lying still and iifeless. crushed
beneath the weight of that fallen horse :
J No rest for Alan till he,fknews !.
Descending the knoll he reibed his
/ tagging mount back into the trail fol-
lowing Its winding. course through the
foothills and round the base of that
| monolithic mountain toward the juno
ton with the ridge trail, miles away.
Now and again ne would pause and
use his glasses to rake both hills and
| stricken plain: but never once dis
covered any Sign OF living thing, II
1 one except the occasional rattlesnake
that slithered from beneath his horses
hoofs.
| IT approached the hour OF noon before
he gained the point where the two
trails Joined and struck out across the
/. desert. And here he discovered what
j he thought indisputable indications that
the fright OF Judith's horse had per-
/ sisted (perhaps because OF her strug-
giles to free herself) even to the eX-
itent OF driving It out upon tho desert
! Continued To-morrnw)