ico
under the guard arranged for her, and when I come back----"

"But Kit," protested Billie, "to think of her alone with that thieving
Indian! He took flour and bacon too! And if she hopes to find her
husband----"

"She doesn't," concluded Kit thoughtfully turning over the certificate
signed by the padre and him, of the husband's safe burial in the sands
of Soledad. He glanced at Billie in doubt. One never knew how safe it
was to tell things,--some things,--to a woman; also Billie was so
enchanted by Jocasta's sad beauty, and----

"No, I reckon she doesn't hope much along that line. She has probably
gone back to the wilderness for another reason,--one I never suspected
until last night. And Lark-child, we won't talk about that, not at
least till I return from the 'back of beyond' over there," and he
pointed eastward where shafts of copper light touched the gray veil of
the morning.

After his first explosion of amazement Cap Pike regarded the
elopement, as he called it, very philosophically, considering his
disgust over lost mules and flour and bacon.

"What did I tell you right here last night?" he demanded of Kit. "Soft
as velvet and hard as hell,--that's what I said! She looks to me like
a cross between a saint in a picture frame and a love bird in a tree,
and her eyes! Yet after all no man can reckon on that blood,--she is
only a girl of the hills down there, and the next we hear of her
she'll likely be leaden' a little revolution of her own."

The young chap made no reply, but busied himself hastening a scant
breakfast in order that the worn mules be got to water before the
worst heat of a dry day. Also the losses to the culinary outfit did
make problems for the trip.

Cap eyed him askance for a space, and then with a chuckle wilfully
misconstrued his silence and lowered his tone.

"I don't blame you for feeling downhearted on your luck, Bub, for she
sure was a looker! But it's all in a lifetime, and as you ramble along
in years, you'll find that most any hombre can steal them, and take
them home, but when it comes to getting a permanent clinch on the
female affections----"

Billie, who was giving a short ration of water to the burro, called
across to ask what Kit was laughing at in that hilarious way. She also
stated that she did not think it a morning for hilarity, not at all!
That wonderful, beautiful, mystery woman might be going to her death!

After the packs were all on, Cap Pike swung the mules