Gazing back, as I hastened, I saw her still there,
leaning against the sheet-iron of the groggery and ostensibly weeping.

Having shaken her off and resisted contrary temptation I looked not again
but paced rapidly for the clean atmosphere of the rough-and-honest bull
train. As a companion, better for me Mr. Jenks. When my wrath cooled I
felt that I might have acted the cad but I had not acted the simpleton.

The advance of the day's life was stirring all along the road, where under
clouds of dust the four and six horse-and-mule wagons hauled water for the
town, pack outfits of donkeys and plodding miners wended one way or the
other, soldiers trotted in from the military post, and Overlanders slowly
toiled for the last supply depot before creaking onward into the desert.

Along the railway grade likewise there was activity, of construction
trains laden high with rails, ties, boxes and bales, puffing out, their
locomotives belching pitchy black smoke that extended clear to the
ridiculous little cabooses; of wagon trains ploughing on, bearing supplies
for the grading camps; and a great herd of loose animals, raising a
prodigious spume as they were driven at a trot--they also heading
westward, ever westward, under escort of a protecting detachment of
cavalry, riding two by two, accoutrements flashing.

The sights were inspiring. Man's work at empire building beckoned me, for
surely the wagoning of munitions to remote outposts of civilization was
very necessary. Consequently I trudged best foot forward, although on
empty stomach and with empty pockets; but glad to be at large, and
exchanging good-natured greetings with the travelers encountered.

Nevertheless my new boots were burning, my thigh was chafed raw from the
swaying Colt's, and my face and throat were parched with the dust, when in
about an hour, the flag of the military post having been my landmark, I
had arrived almost at the willow-bordered river and now scanned about for
the encampment of my train.

Some dozen white-topped wagons were standing grouped in a circle upon the
trampled dry sod to the south of the road. Figures were busily moving
among them, and the thin blue smoke of their fires was a welcoming signal.
I marked women, and children. The whole prospect--they, the breakfast
smoke, the grazing animals, the stout vehicles, a line of washed
clothing--was homy. So I veered aside and made for the spot, to inquire my
way if nothing more.

First I addr