ped the fallen
knife.

At the second stroke the terrible clutch on his throat relaxed. Cochise
twisted convulsively and rolled over on his back.

Lennon wheezed, felt his throat, and jerked himself over, ready to drive
the knife into the heart of his merciless enemy. Cochise lay inert, his
mouth agape and his eyes rolled up so that only the whites could be
seen. Lennon's deep-drawn sigh of satisfaction over that death-mask
face caught in the midst and turned into a gasp. He flung himself about
to the doorway of the still-room. Where the still had stood was now only
a hole in the stone floor. He did not look too closely at the general
wreckage.

His half-dazed roving gaze fell upon Carmena. She lay as inert as
Cochise and the Apache guard. Yet she was not dead. A fragment of stone
or metal, or the shock of the explosion, had injured her back.

He carried her out into the anteroom. She revived. But when she sought
to rise, she sank back with an ominous limpness.

"Carmena!" he cried. "Carmena--what is it? You're hurt!"

She smiled up at him, her dark eyes radiant with infinite tenderness and
devotion.

"It's all right, Jack--all right," she murmured. "I wanted to do it--for
Blossom--and you, dear. Now you are safe. The way up the canon is clear.
Take the right fork, then, each time, the left of the next forks. The
trail is only a few miles west, over the mesas. You'll find Blossom in
the mummy room. Hurry off with her before Slade's men come. Hurry--don't
linger----"

"You----" broke in Lennon. "Can you think I would leave you here?"

"There's no other way. My back--I can't sit up, and my legs are numb. I
can't move them."

"I'll carry you, and there's the hoist rope."

"No use. I couldn't ride."

"I'll carry you," repeated Lennon.

The girl laid a gently caressing hand on his arm.

"Don't you understand, dear? My back--it must be broken. We must think
of Blossom. You must hurry off with her while there is time. Isn't it
good that you love her?"

Lennon uttered a choking cry and caught the girl up in his arms. He
clasped her to him in an agony of love and remorse.

"Carmena! To have thought so wrong of you--of you who were giving your
life! I've been a fool--a blind fool. Forgive me! That child---- My God!
I can't give you up--I'll _not_ give you up!"

"Then--you do--love me, Jack," sighed the girl. Her arms crept up about
his neck. "You do love me--I'm glad now you did not let me die--at
once--in t