tten her
hero, her soldier! Hardly. Yet no word would she speak.

"The little lady seems all unstrung yet, lieutenant. Miss Fanny will
have to talk for her, I fancy." And Wing's clear, handsome eyes were
raised to Miss Harvey's face as he spoke in a look that seemed to tell
how much he envied the soldier who was the object of such devoted
attention. "Shall we move ahead? The others will join us later on."

But when a few minutes later strong arms lifted the tall lieutenant
from the wagon and bore him to a blanket-covered shelter in a deep
rocky recess where the sun's rays seemed rarely to penetrate, and a
cup of clear, cool water was held to his lips, Drummond's one
available hand was uplifted in hopes of capturing the ministering
fingers. There was neither difficulty nor resistance. It was Sergeant
Wing's gauntlet, and Wing's cordial voice again accosted him.

"Glad to see you so chipper, lieutenant. Now, I have some little
knowledge of surgery. Your right arm is broken below the elbow, and
you're badly shocked and bruised. I have no doubt the surgeon will be
with us by this time to-morrow, but I can set that arm just as soon as
I have looked the ground over and disposed of ourselves and our
prisoners to the best advantage."

"How many prisoners have we?" asked Drummond.

"Well, as yet, only Moreno and his interesting family and two of their
gang, who are very badly wounded. Some of the others were neither
prompt nor explicit about surrendering, and the men seem to have been
a trifle impatient in one or two cases. You should hear the old woman
protesting to Miss Harvey her innocence and her husband's spotless
character. You understand Spanish, do you not?"

"No, only the smattering we pick up at the Point and what 'broncho'
Spanish I have added to it out here. Where did you learn it, sergeant?
They tell me you speak it like a native."

Wing's sunburned face--a fine, clear-cut, and manly one it was--seemed
to grow a shade or two redder.

"Oh, I have spoken it many years. My boyhood was spent on the Pacific
slope. Pardon me, sir, I want to look more carefully after your
injuries now."

"But the ladies, where are they?" asked Drummond, uneasily.

"Occupying the sanctum sanctorum, the innermost shrine among the
rocks. This is a wonderful spot, sir. We might eventually have starved
these people out if once they got here, but ten determined soldiers
could hold it against ten hundred. I've as yet had only a glance