s what's left of the ranch; and there," with a glance
at the blanket-shrouded form, "is what's left of the Bennetts. I'll jog
back to the post by and by."

"Oh, then you're not going on with us?" said Stannard, relieved in
mind, he hardly knew why.

"No, sir, I only rode out here to investigate and report. We, of
course, hoped to save _some_thing."

"Pity you hadn't spared yourself and not spoiled the pie," thought
Stannard as he looked about him over the scene of desolation. The men
were snapping their tin mugs and the refilled canteens to the saddle
rings. The captain rode over to 'Tonio, a kindly light in his blue-gray
eyes. He whipped off the right gauntlet and held forth his hand.

"No Apache-Mohave!" said he stoutly. "Apache Tonto. Si! Now catch 'em
Teniente Harris." Poor lingo that "pidgin" Indian of the desert and the
long ago, but it served its purpose. 'Tonio grasped the proffered hand,
a grateful gleam in his black eyes; warned with the other hand the
captain's charger from certain tracks he had been jealously guarding;
then pointed eagerly, here, there, in half a dozen places, where
footprints were still unmarred in the powdery dust. "Si--si--Apache
Tonto!" and the long, skinny finger darted, close to the ground, from
one print to the other. "No Apache-Mohave! No!"

"Then come! Mount!" called Stannard. "Leave a corporal and four men
here as guard until the ambulance gets out from the post," he added, to
the first sergeant. "Mount the troop, soon's you're ready. I'm going
ahead with 'Tonio and the scouts. _Ugashi_, 'Tonio! Good-by, Mr.
Willett. Take one of the men, if you need an orderly," he shouted back,
over a flannel-shirted shoulder, innocent of badge or strap of any
kind. In point of dress or equipment there was absolutely no difference
between the captain of cavalry and his fifty men.

A moment later, spreading out over the low ground like so many hounds
throwing off for a scent, 'Tonio and his scouts were trotting away
toward a dip in the rugged heights to the north-east, for thither, the
moment it was light enough even faintly to see, the keen eyes of the
Apaches had trailed the fugitives, and now with bounding feet they
followed the sign, Tonio foremost, his mount discarded. Afoot, like his
fellows, and bending low, pointing every now and then to half turned
pebble, to broken twig or bruised weed, he drove ever eagerly forward,
the stolid bearing of the Indian giving way with each successive m