ounded, yet it's impossible to bring him to. Give Woods a little more
whiskey and see if you can get a word out of the major or Feeny."

But efforts with the half-suffocated men had no effect. The whiskey
with Woods had better results. He presently ceased his shivering sobs
and could answer more questions. Drummond begged for particulars of
the capture, and these the man found it difficult to give. He was
stationed at the back door, the corral side, he said, and hardly saw
the final rush. But there was something so queer about it. There had
been a few minutes' lull. Then Harvey and Feeny both began to talk
excitedly and to call out that the "road agents" were running away,
and then presently there came sound of galloping hoofs and cheering,
and both the sergeant and Mr. Harvey had shouted that the troops were
coming and rushed out to meet them,--"And the next thing I knew," said
Woods, "was seeing Feeny flattened out on the ground and crawling on
his hands and knees and the room filled with roughs, some Mexicans,
some Yanks, and I slipped into the corral and saw one of them shoot
Feeny as he was trying to crawl after me; and while they were swearing
and searching for the safe and carrying it out, Mr. Dawes and Mullan
managed, somehow, to help the paymaster out, and then went in after
the other man." Then Woods could tell little more. One thing, he said,
amazed and excited him so he couldn't believe his eyes, but he was
almost ready to swear that the fellow Feeny ran to shake hands with
was a soldier in uniform, and that he held Feeny's hand while another
man came up behind and "mashed" him with the butt of his pistol, and
that this fellow in soldier clothes was the man who afterwards shot
Feeny as he was trying to crawl away.

Drummond looked around at the man incredulous,--almost derisive. The
story was improbable, too much so to deserve even faint attention.
Just then Meinecke came back and, precise as ever, stood attention
and saluted.

"Herr Lieutenant, Private Bland is not with my party at all, sir."

"Did you leave him back with the packs?"

"No, sir; the men say he wasn't with us all night. He rode ahead with
the lieutenant until we came to Corporal Donovan's body."

"He's not been with me since," exclaimed the lieutenant. "Sergeant
Lee, ask if any of the men have seen him."

Lee was gone but a moment, then came back with grave face and troubled
eyes, bringing with him a young trooper who was serving his f