h Sancho was everywhere in evidence, grave, courteous, hospitable,
imperturbable; though one or two ranchmen rode in and out during the
morning, and there was a little gathering, perhaps half a dozen of men
and _mozos_, apparently awaiting the coming of the stage at noon, the
women kept out of sight. At twelve the old lorgnette was brought to bear
on the eastward trail, but, to the apparent surprise of the loungers,
one o'clock came and no stage, and so did four and five and then Blake
and Loring took counsel together in the seclusion of the willow copse,
while their men, silent and observant, gathered about the horses thirty
yards away, grooming and feeding and looking carefully to their shoeing,
for there was portent on the desert air and symptoms of lively work
ahead.

At six came Sancho, oppressed with grievous anxiety as to the safety of
the stage. There has been rumors of Apache raids to the east of
Maricopa. Only three days before he had warned the caballeros--the
gentlemen of the court who were going back to Grant and Bowie, to be on
their guard every inch of the way beyond the Wells, and now his heart
was heavy. He feared that, disdainful of his caution, they had driven
straight into ambush. Ought not the Teniente Blake to push forward at
once with his whole force and ascertain their fate? Blake bade him hold
his peace. If harm had come to that stage, said he, it was not on the
eastward, but the westward run, not at the hands of Apaches, but of
outlaws, and Sancho went back looking blacker than night and saying in
the seclusion of the corral, to beetle-browed _hermano mio_ and his
dusky wife, things that even in Spanish sounded ill and would not be
publishable in English. Both officers by this time felt that there was
mischief abroad. It was decided between them that if by midnight the
stage did not arrive, Loring, with the precious packet in one saddle-bag
and the court proceedings in the other, should take eight men as escort
and gallop for the west until he reached the platoon sent forward at
dawn. From that point the danger would be less, and with either the same
or a smaller number of fresh riders he could push on for Yuma, sending
all the others back to join Blake, who meantime, with what little force
he had, would scout eastward for news of the stage.

But that plan was destined never to be carried out. The long day came to
an end. The darkness settled down over sandy plain and distant mountain.
The sil