Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1923-01-26

Of food, and with a gesture at once
humble, yet that Of a chief, he in
vited Mercedes to enter. A few more
gestures and fewer words disclosed
his plan. In this inaccessible nook
Mercedes was to be hidden. The men
were to go around upon the opposite
rim, and block the trail leading down
to the waterhole.
Ladd chose the smallest gun in the
party and gave it to Mercedes.
ashore it's best to go the limit on
bein' ready" he said, simply. 'The
chances are you'll need it. But
If you do"
He left off there, and his break was
significant. Mercedes answered him
with a fearless and indemitable fash
of eyes. Thorne was the only n who
showed any shaken nerve. His leave
taking of his wife vas affecting and
hurried. Then he and the rangers
carefully stepped in the tracks of the
Yaqui. He strobe on up the trail
toward a higher point, where pres
emily his dark figure stood m%otionless
HBdllSI lHc ShN. III lahSCAo oDo
Thorne selected a deep depression, out
of which led several ruts deep enough
for cover. Here the men laid down
rifles and guns, and, removing their
heavy cartridge belts, settled down
to wait.
Jim Lash crawled into a little strip
of shade and bided the time TRANQUILITY.
Laid was restless and impatient and
watchful, every little while rising to
look up the f~ar-reaching slope, and
then to the right, where Yaqui's dark
figure stood out from a high point of
the rim. Thorne grew silent. and
seemed consumed by a slow, sullen
rage. Gale was neither calm nor free
of a gnawing suspense nor of a wait
ing wrath. But as best he could he
put the pending action out of mind.
It came over him all of a sudden
that he had not grasped the stupen-
dous nature of this desert setting.
There was the m%easureless red slope,
It's lower ridges finally sinking into
white sand dunes toward the blue sea.
The cold, sparkling light, the white
sun, the deep azure of sky, the feeling
of boundless expanse all around him
these meant high altitude. South
ward the barren red simply merged
into distance. The field of craters
rose in high, dark wheels toward the
dominating peaks. When Gale with
drew his gaze from the magnitude of
these spaces and heights the crater
beneath him seemed dwarfed. Yet
while he gazed it spread and deep
ened and multiplied its ragged lines.
No. he could not grasp the meaning
Of size or distance here. There was
too much to stun the sight. But the
mood In which nataure had created
this convulsed world seized hold upon
him.
The hours passed. AS the sun
climbed the clear sky, steely lights van
ished, the blue hazes deepened, and
slowly the glistening surfaces of lava
turned redder. Ladd was concerned
to discover that Yaqui was missing
from his outlook upon the high point.
Jim Lash came out of the shady crew
ice, and stood up to buckle on his car
fridge belt. His narrow, gray glance
slowly roved from the height of lava
down along the slope, paused in doubt,
and then swept on to reSurvey the
whole vast eastern dip of the plateau.
Il reckon my eyes are PORE" he said.
"Mebbe it's this d-n red glare. Any
way, what's them creepin' spots up
there?"
"Shore 1 seen them. Mountain
Sheep replied Laid.
"Guess again, Laddy. Dick, |
reckon you'd better flash the glass up
the slope"
Gale adjusted the field glass and be-
gan to search the lava, beginning close
at hand and working away from him.
Presently the glass became stationary.
81 see half a dozen small animals,
brown in color. They look like sheep.
But I couldn't distinguish mountain
sheep from antelope"
"Shore they're bighorn," said Laddy.
81 reckon if you'll pull around to the
east an search under that long wall
of lava-there-youll see what l see"
added Jim.
The glass climbed and circled, wa
vered an instant, then fixed steady
as a rock. There was a b~reathless
silence.
Fourteen horses two packed =
some mounted-others without riders,
and lame" said Gale, slowly.
Yaqui appeared far up the trail,
coming swiftly. Presently he saw the
rangers and halted to wave his arms
and point. Then he vanished as if the
lava had opened beneath him.
'Lemme thai glass" suddenly said
Jim Lash. I'm SEEM red, l tell you.
3. Well, pore as my eyes are they
had it right. Rojas an his outfit have
left the trail. lady, I'll be DANCED
if the Greaser bunch hasn't vamoosed.
Gone out of sight Right there not a
half mile away, the whole caboodle-
gomez"