toms of these farther fires,
had these fly-by-night rescuers to warrant their mission. The story had
its probable side. Peaceable as had been the Apache-Mohaves, the fact
that a clash had occurred between them and some of the agent's
forces,--a clash in which Comes Flying had been killed,--might readily
turn the scale and send them on the war-path. If so, the first and
nearest whites were apt to be the victims. If so, Bennett and his
beloved wife and boys might well have been murdered in their beds--or
spared for a harsher fate. In any event, the first duty--the obvious
one--for Harris and his scouts was to reach the spot with all speed;
ascertain, if possible, the fate of the ranch folk, then act as their
discoveries might direct. All this Harris was turning over in mind as
he hurried ahead. The road, though little worn, was distinct, and now
that they were out of the bottom and skirting the stony bed of a little
mountain stream, quite firm and dry. Six miles an hour, easily, his
swarthy, half-naked fellows were making without ever "turning a hair."
His own lean broncho, long trained to such work, scrambled along in
that odd, short-legged trot, and Harris himself, trained to perfection,
hard and dry, all sinewy strength, rode easily along--he could have
done almost as well afoot--at the head of his men, keeping them to
their pace, yet never overdriving.

But with Willett the case was different. For him there had been no hard
and dry scouting. It had been wet work in the Columbia country. It had
been "hunt-your-hole business" in the lava beds, where the hat that
showed above the rocks was sure to get punctured. Then the month of
feasting in that most lavish of cities, "'Frisco, the Golden," and the
fortnight's voyage by sea, with further symposiums, and finally some
hours of frontier hospitality at Prescott and at Almy, all had combined
to spoil his condition, and before he had ridden forty minutes Hal
Willett found himself blown and shaken. He lagged behind to regain
breath, then galloped forward to lose it. He knew that Harris had left
him in anger and indignation not unjustifiable. He knew he had not full
warrant for his authority. He knew Harris was entitled to unhampered
command, and that he had hampered. Yet, now, believing that Harris was
pushing swiftly ahead as much to "shake" him as to reach the scene, he
again dug spurs to his laboring troop horse, and came sputtering over
the loose stones to the young leader