ved child, and cannot even trust himself to speak of
it.

And Fate was still against them. The God that meant to cure was
merciful and merciless as is the knife. Sinless as was this gentle
flower, even she must suffer and endure, for here were obstacles again,
even here across their path! They were upon them almost before they
knew it, yet upon them unseen, unheard, for, absorbed in each other,
this opposing couple knew nothing but their own affair, and well they
might, for a sob was the first sound to catch the soldier's ear, a
stifled cry, and then a deep, manly voice imploring, protesting, a
torrent of murmured words, fond, assuring, caressing, passionate, a
deluge of thrilling endearments, a mingling of sobs and kisses, for the
woman's overcharged nature had broken under the strain, and in the
refuge of his clasping arms was sobbing her heart out on this new
lover's breast. Archer, raging, would have brushed them by, but Lilian
held him. "Not that way; oh, not that way!" she whispered hoarsely. And
then he understood, and together they fled back the way they came.

CHAPTER XXVII.

It was a merciful Providence, as many of the exiles later said, that
brought the commanding general himself late that starlit evening back
to Prescott. His stout mountain wagon, and special six-mule team had
whirled him up from the Verde after the briefest of conferences with
the cavalry colonel there in command. An Indian runner from Almy had
reached them early that Thursday morning, announcing the return of
Stannard and his troop, accompanied by Lieutenant Harris, 'Tonio and
certain of the Apache-Mohaves, the arrest by civil authorities and
attempted suicide of Case, and the further gathering under the wing of
the law of Jose Sanchez, of Munoz, and even of Dago, all of whom, it
was said, were wanted at Prescott. Stannard found the Archers gone,
found himself, as senior captain, temporarily in command of the post,
and called upon to furnish military escort for the civil _posse
comitatus_. Stannard was a soldier pure and simple. He would have shown
as a mammoth bull in a china shop had he and his troop been at the
moment in the Southern states, instead of the south-western territory.
He stood ready to do any amount of arresting the government might
order. He was entirely willing to send a subaltern and a score of
troopers to convoy the entire party--sheriff and deputies, posse and
prisoners--to the territorial capital, but, like