The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-10-20
6continued.5


 ed vfgor Wi1lock had grown thirsty. and as the sun rose higher and beat down on him from an uncfouded sky, his eyes searched the plains eagerly for some shelter that promised water. He did not look in vain. A Against the horizon rose the low blue shapes of the Wichita mountains, looking at first like fiat sheets of cardboard, cut out by a careless hand and set upright in the eand. He advanced, growing weaker. breathing with more difficulty, but stfl! muttering.s Not yet-not just yet!'' The mountains had begun to spread apart. There were long ranges and short. Here and there, a form that had seemed an integral part of some range. defined itself as distinct from all others, lying like an island of rock in a sea of unbroken desert. Wil1ock was approaching the Wichita moun- fafns from their southwestern extrem- z 1ty. As far as he could see in onel di- xection the grotesque forms stretched in isolated chains or single groups; but fin the other the end was reached, and beyond la5e the qnbroken waste of the Panhandle.
 Swaying on his great legs as with The weakness of an infant, he was now very near the end of the system. A wall of granite spnrsely dotted with green rose above him to a height of about $50 feet.
 He sank to the ground, his eyes. red And dimmed. For some time he re mained there inert staring his brain refusing to work If wonder stood a white object between him and the mountain, a curious white something with wheels, might it not be a covered wagon2 No; it was mirage. But was it possible for q mirage to deceive him into the fancy that wagon stood only, q fewl hundred feet away? Per haps it was really a wagon. He star ed stupfdly. not moving. There were There was no sign of life. If captured by the Indians t would not have been left intact. But how came wagon into this barren world?
 He stared up at the sun as if to as- sure himself that he was awake, then laughed hoarselx, foolishly. He began to crawl forward, but the wagon did not move. As it grew palmer in all it's details a new strength came to him. He Astroye to rise and, after several at tenpts, succeeded. He staggered for ward till his hands grasped one of sthe wheels. It was no dreaHn.a
 A searching look distinguished two objects that excluded from attention aH others. Upon mattress at the rear of the wagon lay a woman her face covered by a cloth, and near the front seat stood keg of water. The rigid form of the woman and the posi- ton of the arms and hands showed that she was dead
 The man recognized this truth, but if made only a dim impression. That keg of water meant 1ife-and life was q thousandfold more to him than death He drew himself upon the seat, snatch ed at the tfn-cup beside the keg and drew out the cleth covered corncob that stopped the flow. Having slaked his thirst there was mingled with his sense Of inenable content an over whelmfng desire for sleep He drop ped on the second mattress, on which bedclothes were carelessly strewn. His head found the empty pillo9V that lay indented as it had been left by some vanished sleeper As his eye1tds closed he fell sound asleep. But for the ris ing and falling of his powerful breast he was motionIess as the body of the woman.
 On the domeIike summit of Mount Welsh. mile away, mountain lior showed his sinuous form against the sky TOO feet in afr. and from the mountain side near at hand stared from among the thick greenery of g cedar the face of an Indian whose black hair was adorned by single red feather
 When WilIock started up from the mattress in the covered wagon the sur had set. Every object, however, was clearly ]defncd in the first glow of the long August twilight, and it needed but glance to recall the events that had brought him to seek shelter and slum- Der beside the dead woman. He felt an overpowering desire to look on her face. For years there had been nc women in his world but the abandoned creatures who sought shelter in the re sorts of Beer City in No Mans Land.
 CHAPTER IT..
 The Last Wagon.
 R a ~ILLOCK believed now the AAE story that Henry Gledware
 W had reiterated in accents of abject terror. Surely this was the Hast wagon in that train which Red KimbaH had attacked the morning before. Impossible as it had seemed to the highway ymen, GledsvaEe must have been warned Of the attack in time to turn about and lash his horses out of danger of discovery. At this spot Gled- ware had cut loose the horses, mount ed one with his stepdaughter, leaving fhe other to go at will. This, then, was the mother of that child whose arm he'd lain in warm confidence about Is neck On hands and knees Will rock crept to the other mattress and lifted the margin of ,the large white cloth
 His hand moved stealthiIy, slowly. Catching sight of something that faint ly glea1ned at the collar of the dress, he hesitated Ills determination to ex- anime the countenance was as firm as ever, but his impulse to put it off as long as possible was even stronger. He bent down to look closer at the orna-