side. He was giddy and nauseated and
leaden-footed. Every step required an agonized effort of will power.

Yet the exertion of walking proved the best of treatment for him.
Before half a mile had been covered, his head had cleared and his
strength was fast returning. To offset this benefit, his arm was now
blacker than ever and rapidly swelling. Carmena gave him a copious drink
from the canteen, hesitated, glanced toward the smoke hill, and came to
a desperate decision.

"We can't let that arm go," she said. "The tie must come off. Get ready
for a rush."

At her command, the pony quickened his pace to a jog trot. As they ran
along beside him Carmena untwisted her revolver from the tourniquet.
This time Lennon did not lose consciousness. Either the remaining poison
had been almost destroyed by the permanganate or else his previous
reactions to the venom had rendered him partly immune.

Though the nausea and giddiness again threatened to overcome him, the
support of Carmena and her pony kept him steadied. Very soon the run
under the hot sun had him panting for breath. His highly oxygenized
blood gushed through his arteries in a veritable stream of life. His
face glistened with a profuse sweat.

Carmena held to the pace until he fell down, gasping for water and
completely exhausted. The wonder was that he had been able to do so much
after the terrible shock of the Gila monster poison. They had come into
the midst of scattered mesquite trees, which offered a degree of cover.
Carmena first tied up the pony, then opened the half gallon canteen for
Lennon.

While he sought to quench his fierce thirst, she hastily threw off the
pony's loosened pack. Silk tent, blankets, prospector's tools,
packsacks, bacon, flour--all were discarded. From her saddlebags she
dumped half of her own bacon and all but a pint of cornmeal. Into its
place she slipped the half dozen sticks of dynamite, with their fuses
and caps.

One of Lennon's full gallon canteens was slung to the saddlehorn,
opposite the horsehair rope. From its mate the girl refilled the smaller
canteen, which Lennon had already more than half emptied. She took a
deep drink and then carefully closed both canteens.

"Sorry, but we must cut it close on water," she said. "The bronchos have
us headed off from the other tanks. With your hand useless, we can't
fight. We'll have to swing around through the dry side of the Basin. No
time to lose! They'll be on our trail before l