g objects in all that immense circle of desolation and
death.

Keith turned in the saddle, looking back past Neb--who swayed in his
seat, with head lolling on his breast as though asleep, his horse
plodding after the others--along the slight trail they had made across
the desert. So far as eye could reach nothing moved, nothing apparently
existed. Fronting again to the north he looked upon the same grim
barrenness, only that far off, against the lighter background of distant
sky, there was visible a faint blur, a bluish haze, which he believed to
be the distant sand dunes bordering the Arkansas. The intense dreariness
of it all left a feeling of depression. His eyes turned and regarded the
girl riding silently beside him. The same look of depression was visible
upon her face, and she was gazing off into the dull distance with
lack-lustre eyes, her slender form leaning forward, her hands clasped
across the pommel. The long weariness of the night had left traces on
her young face, robbing it of some of its freshness, yet Keith found it
more attractive in the growing daylight than amid the lamp shadows
of the evening before. He had not previously realized the peculiar
clearness of her complexion, the rose tint showing through the olive
skin, or the soft and silky fineness of her hair, which, disarranged,
was strangely becoming under the broad brim of the hat she wore,
drawn low until it shadowed her eyes. It was not a face to be easily
associated with frontier concert halls, or any surrender to evil; the
chin round and firm, the lips full, yet sufficiently compressed; the
whole expression that of pure and dignified womanhood. She puzzled him,
and he scarcely knew what to believe, or exactly how to act toward her.

"Our friends back yonder should be turning out from the corral by now,"
he said finally, anxious to break the silence, for she had not spoken
since he ended his tale. "It will not be long until they discover
Hawley's predicament, and perhaps the welkin already rings with
profanity. That may even account for the blue haze out yonder."

She turned her eyes toward him, and the slightest trace of a smile
appeared from out the depths of their weariness.

"If they would only remain satisfied with that. Will they follow us, do
you think? And are we far enough away by this time to be safe?"

"It is hardly likely they will let us escape without a chase," he
answered slowly. "We possess too much information now that we