, 1923-02-07
CHAPTER xi.-continued.

itaih Va ilNu. AZ tUt ulttA Vi lie
notch, where two streams met, a mar
row gully wound and assembled. Yaqui
led Dinblo into 1t. and then began the
most la%borlous and vcxatious and
painful of all slow travel.
The ~disintegrating surface of n lava
bed was mt once the toughest. the
hardest. the meancst. the cruelest. the
most deceitful kind of ground TO
travel. The fugl,ives made slow
progress. They picked a cautious,
winding way to and fro I'm little stems
here and there along thu MANY twists
of the trail. IN and down the unayoid-
able depressions. round and round the
toles. Al noon. so winding hack upop
itself had been their course, they ap-
p.ared to have come only n short dis.
tsnce up the lava slope.
I, was rough work for them. II was
terrible work for the horses. Blunco
Diablo refused to answer to the power
of the Yaaui. He baked. he plunged.
he BIT and kicked. He had to be pulled
and beaten over many places. Mer-
cedcs' horse almost threw her. and
she was put upon Blanco Sol. The
white charger snorted n protest. then.
obedIent to Gales stern call. patiently
lowered his noble head and paved the
lava for n footing that would hold.
The lava caused Gale toll and
worry and pain, but he hated the
choyas. He came almost to believe
what he had heard claimed by desert
trs yelers-that the choya was aliye
an leaned Mt man or beast. Certaln
II was when Gale passed one. IL he
did not nut all attention to avoiding
II. he was hooked through his chaps
md held by barbed thorns. The pain
was almost uncomfortable. II WINS like
no other. II burned. stung. bent
alr,ost scanned tn freeze II mode
useless arm or leg. II made him bite
his tongue to keel from crying out.
II made the sweat roll off him. II
uade him sick.
Moreover. bad as the choya was for
man, II was infinitely worse for beast.
A Jagged stab from this poisoned cac-
tus was the only thing Blanco Sol
could not stand. Many times that day,
before he carried Mercedes, he had
wildly snortad md then stood trem.
bling while Gale picked broken thorns
from the muscular legs. But after
Mercedes had been put upon SO Gale
made sure NO choya touched him.
The afternoon passed like the morn
ing, II, ceaseless winding and twist
ing an climbing along this abandoned
trail. Gale saw many wa~terholes,
mostly dry, some containing water, all
of them c~atch-baslns. full only after
rainy season. Little ugly punched
bushes, that Gale scarcely recognized
as me, anites. prev near these holes:
also ,runted ereasewood and prickly
pear. There was no grass, and the
choya alone Aourished in that hard
soil
Darkness overlook the party ms they
unracked beside n pool of water deep
under an %overnanging shelf of lava.
1t had been p uard day. The horses
drank their MI, and then stood pa
tiently win drooplng heads. Hunger
and thirst were appeased. and a warm
Gre cheered the weary and footsore
fugitives. Yaqui said. Sleep" And
% another Light passed.
Upon the following morning, ten
miles or more up the slow-ascendlng
lava slope. Gale was in the rear of
all the other horses. so MS to take,
for Mercedes sake. the advantage of
tie broken trail. Yaqui was leading
Dlablo, winding around n break. His
head vras rent as he stepped slowly
and ~unevenly upon the lava. Gale
turned to look back, the first time In
Of Rojas in certain pursuit; but 1t
seemed absurd to look for him.
YaQui Jed on, and Gale often glanced
up from his task to witch the Indian.
Presently he saw him stop, turn. and
look back. Ladd did likewise, and
then Jim and Thorne. Gale found the
desire Irresistible. Thereafter he
often rested Blanco Sol. and looked