Williams news., 1915-01-14
man and woman who had found them

selves.
 Twenty miles ahead lay the northern pass, and from there 1t was ten more to Gadsden, but they spoke neither of the pass nor of Gadsden nor of who talk was like that of children, incon- sequential and happy. They told of the times when they had seen each other, and what they had thought; of the days of their childhood, before they had met at Fortuna: of hopes and fears and thwarted ambitions and all the young dreams of life.
 Bud told of his battle-scarred father and their ranch in Arizona; of his mother and horse-breaking brothers, and his wanderings through the West; Gracia of her mother, with nothing of her father, and how she had hirted in order to be sent to school where she could gaze upon the upstanding Amer jeans. Only Bud thought of the trail and scanned the horizon for rebels, but he seemed more to seek her eyes than to watch for enemies and death.
 They rode on until the sun sank low and strange tracks struck their trail from the east. Bud observed that the horses were shod. and more tracks of mounted men came in beyond. He turned sharply toward the west and followed rocky ledge to the hills, without leaving a hoof-print to mark the way of their retreat
 Those hoof prints brought Bud back from the land of dreams in which he had been wandering to realfza- ton of the dangers that lurked about them. But little way ahead was the
 pass they must cross. and he sud-
 denly realized that they could not safely do SO in the broad light Of day. He must not take such chances
 of losing his new found happiness.
 By the signs the land ahead was full
 of bandits and ladrones, men to whom
 human life was nothing and woman
 no more sacred than a brute. At the
 pass all trails converged. from the
 north and from the south. Not by any
 chance could a man pass over it in the
 daytime without meeting some one or
 the way, and if the base revoltosos
 once set eyes on Gracia 1t would takt
 more than a nod to restrain them.
 So, in sheltered ravine they sough
 cover until it was dark, and wh1l'
 Gracia slept, the heavy-headed But
 watched the plain from the height
 above.
 AS he watched he dreamed of home in which this woman now sleep
 ing beside him was the queen. Ill
 dreamed of years to come with un bounded happiness throughout all
 them! Thoughts of Phil and duty t'
 his pardner were far away. Nothinl on the plain below served to distrac him from this dream of happiness !. As far as he could see there wa
 nothing that savored of danger fo ], the woman in his keeping. Ther
 were no sounds or signs Of eithe , federal or revolutionary troops. froI both of which they were fleeing, an from both of which he must guar her. Again they were in world tha l' was all their own. an Eden with Dr one man and one woman.
 .' For an hour and more he watche and dreamed, and with the dream p came the desire for sleep, the cry
 nature for rest. Gracia stirred, the 6 spoke softly to him. calling him T. name, and her voice was as mus
 far away.
 Q When she awoke and found him no 10 ding Gracia insisted upon taking b lg place. Now that she had been I ot freshed her dark eyes were bright al K sparkling. but Bud could hardly SC 'e The long watching by night and by d. a had left his eyes bloodshot and sw 'i- len, with lids that dropped in spite ut him. If he did not sleep now pt might doze in the saddle later, or II ae blindly into some rebel camp; so ps made her promise to call him and l as down to rest until dark.
 Ae The stars were all out when lis awoke, startled by her hand on
 hair. but she reassured him with up word and led him up the hill to tn lis lookout. It was then that he und ne stood her silence. In the brief hot
 during which he had slept the ns serted country seemed suddenly nd have come to life.
 1n' By daylight there had been nothl 'se to suggest the presence Of m let But now as the velvet night { len tied down upon the land it broul mo out the glimmering specks of h en- dred camp-fres to the east and to Fas north. But the fires to which Ora
 pointed were set fairly in their tr red and they barred the way to Gadsdeu up "Look!" she said. ''I did not VI ss to wake you. but the fires have spr' ma up everywhere. These last ones M" right In the pass
 the When did you see them?" asl to h,. h..d .tm heavv V en. sleep. Have they been there lon tne "No; only . few minutes" she neS svered. At sundown l saw those c .., l %o tho oast-they are along the