e
is in the mood.

"Hold! hold!" I broke in on him. "Save that to tell to Senorita Vallois.
I'd rather you'd inform me as to how soon I'm to reach Santa Fe."

"That's the question," he replied. "We've first to round the headwaters
of this stream, then those of the Red River. Afterwards it is not
unlikely we can manage so to lose ourselves as to contrive to wander
into the midst of the Spanish settlements."

I stared glumly at the snowy peaks towering upon the western horizon.
"That may be months hence. We cannot travel fast among the mountains.
Why not strike first for Santa Fe?"

"The Spanish settlements must all lie to the southward of yonder grand
peak. Santa Fe is rumored to have a mild climate; hence it must lie to
the south of our present position," he argued. "Therefore we must first
explore the sources of the Arkansas. When we go south among the
Spaniards, there is no telling what they will do with us, but it is fair
to presume that they will at least do their best to check our
explorations."

"Very true," I assented. "Suppose, then, that I part company from you
here, and strike out to cross my barrier alone?"

"No!" he exclaimed.

"Why not?"

"You surely would perish. I could not spare you a horse. We shall need
all for the packs before the week is out. Without a horse, and alone,
you surely would perish, either in this bleak desert or among those
mountain wilds."

"Yet I am willing to chance it. I hoped to have crossed the barrier--to
have reached her side--before now."

"If not for your own sake, John, then for ours! You are the best shot
among us. Since Wilkinson left, you have in effect taken his place as
second in command. You know how highly the men regard you. Should aught
happen to me, you are the only one of our number capable of taking my
place and carrying out the various objects of the expedition."

"Meek is a fine soldier," I said.

"A good sergeant and a brave man--so brave that we could count upon him
to 'raise a little dust' at the first opportunity. He's brave to
rashness, but quite incapable of keeping notes, either of our route or
of the many scientific features which we are certain to encounter."

"Yet--to wait, it may be months longer!"

"We need you, John."

"Very well," I replied. I could not do other than give way to that
argument.

Such was the quenching of my newly aroused hopes. I should cross the
barrier to Alisanda; I vowed I would cross it, or die. But the att