me
time before he came back, emerging from the darkness as noiselessly as
he had gone. David had eaten his supper and was asleep, the girl
sitting beyond him withdrawn from the fire glow. Daddy John was
examining the sick horse, and Courant joined him, walking round the
beast and listening to the old man's opinions as to its condition.
They were not encouraging. It seemed likely that David's carelessness
would cost the train two valuable animals.

To the outward eye peace had again settled on the camp. The low
conferrings of the two men, the dying snaps of the charred twigs, were
the only sounds. The night brooded serene about the bivouac, the large
stars showing clear now that the central glare had sunk to a red heap
of ruin. Far away, on the hills, the sparks of Indian fires gleamed.
They had followed the train for days, watching it like the eyes of
hungry animals, too timid to come nearer. But there was no cause for
alarm, for the desert Indians were a feeble race, averse to bloodshed,
thieves at their worst, descending upon the deserted camping grounds to
carry away what the emigrants left.

Nevertheless, when the sound of hoof beats came from the trail both men
made a quick snatch for their rifles, and Susan jumped to her feet with
a cry of "Some one's coming." They could see nothing, the darkness
hanging like a curtain across their vision. Courant, with his rifle in
the hollow of his arm, moved toward the sounds, his hail reaching clear
and deep into the night. An answer came in a man's voice, the hoof
beats grew louder, and the reaching light defined approaching shapes.
Daddy John threw a bunch of sage on the fire, and in the rush of flame
that flew along its branches, two mounted men were visible.

They dropped to the ground and came forward. "From California to the
States," the foremost said to Susan, seeing a woman with fears to be
allayed. He was tall and angular with a frank, copper-tanned face,
overtopped by a wide spread of hat, and bearded to the eyes. He wore a
loose hickory shirt and buckskin breeches tucked into long boots,
already broken from the soles. The other was a small and comical
figure with an upstanding crest of sunburned blond hair, tight curled
and thick as a sheep's fleece. When he saw Susan he delayed his
advance to put on a ragged army overcoat that hung to his heels, and
evidently hid discrepancies in his costume not meet for a lady's eye.
Both men were powdered with d