ange positions, he remained seated beside the fire,
wrapped in sober thought. Outside, in the green-white light of the moon,
he heard the horses one by one sink to rest. Around him the desert,
gripped in death-stillness, pressed close, while overhead the
star-sprinkled dome of heaven, unclouded, arched in all its wonted
glittering majesty. A long time he sat there, keenly alive to these
things, yet thinking strange thoughts, thoughts of his loneliness, and
what might have been, and where he might have been, had he never met the
girl. These were new thoughts, and he presently arose to rid himself of
them and turned in, and soon was in a doze.

Some time later, he did not know how much later, he was aroused by a
sound as of distant thunder. But as he lifted his head the sound
disappeared. Yet when he dropped his head back again he heard it. He
pressed his left ear close to earth. The sound grew louder and seemed to
come nearer. Again he lifted his head. As before, he could hear nothing
save the snoring of the large man and the dream-twitching of the
Professor. He gazed about him. The camp was still. He peered outside in
the moonlight. The horses were all down--at rest. At length he dropped
back once more, closed his eyes sleepily, and soon dozed a second time.

But again he was aroused. He whipped up his head. The sound was
thundering in his ears. He heard trampling hoofs--many
hoofs--immediately outside. He leaped to his feet. He saw
horsemen--Indians--the renegades--crowding past, riding frantically to
the north. He called sharply to the others, who were already waking and
leaping to their feet. He turned to the horses. They were all there,
standing now, alert and tense. Wheeling, he stared after the Indians.
They were speeding away like the wind, close huddled, fleeing in a
panic. He watched them, dazed, saw them ascend a rise, become a
vacillating speck in the moonlight, and drop from view in a hollow
beyond the rise. He turned to the men. All stood in mute helplessness,
only half comprehending. He opened his mouth to speak, but as he did so
there came a sudden interruption.

It was a bugle-call, rollicking across the desert, crashing into the
death-like hush which had settled upon the camp. He turned his eyes
toward the sound--to the south. Over a giant sand-dune, riding grouped,
with one or two in the lead, swept a company of cavalrymen. Down the
slope they galloped, moonlight playing freely upon them, bringing ou