Rojas to have
prisoners. But in a few more days it turned out pretty sure that for
some reason Rojas was holdin' Thorne.

"Now it happened when this news came Colonel Weede was in Nogales with
his staff, an' the officer left in charge didn't know how to proceed.
Rojas's camp was across the line in Mexico, an' ridin' over there was
serious business. It meant a whole lot more than just scatterin' one
Greaser camp. It was what had been botherin' more'n one colonel along
the line. Thorne's feller soldiers was anxious to get him out of a bad
fix, but they had to wait for orders.

"When Nell found out Thorne was bein' starved an' beat in a dobe shack
no more'n two mile across the line, she shore stirred up that cavalry
camp. Shore! She told them soldiers Rojas was holdin'
Thorne--torturin' him to make him tell where Mercedes was. She told
about Mercedes--how sweet an' beautiful she was--how her father had
been murdered by Rojas--how she had been hounded by the bandit--how ill
an' miserable she was, waitin' for her lover. An' she begged the
cavalrymen to rescue Thorne.

"From the way it was told to me I reckon them cavalrymen went up in the
air. Fine, fiery lot of young bloods, I thought, achin' for a scrap.
But the officer in charge, bein' in a ticklish place, still held out
for higher orders.

"Then Nell broke loose. You-all know Nell's tongue is sometimes like a
choya thorn. I'd have give somethin' to see her work up that soldier
outfit. Nell's never so pretty as when she's mad. An' this last stunt
of hers was no girly tantrum, as Beldin' calls it. She musta been
ragin' with all the hell there's in a woman.... Can't you fellers see
her on Blanco Sol with her eyes turnin' black?"

Ladd mopped his sweaty face with his dusty scarf. He was beaming. He
was growing excited, hurried in his narrative.

"Right out then Nell swore she'd go after Thorne. If them cavalrymen
couldn't ride with a Western girl to save a brother American--let them
hang back! One feller, under orders, tried to stop Blanco Sol. An'
that feller invited himself to the hospital. Then the cavalrymen went
flyin' for their hosses. Mebbe Nell's move was just foxy--woman's
cunnin'. But I'm thinkin' as she felt then she'd have sent Blanco Sol
straight into Rojas's camp, which, I'd forgot to say, was in plain
sight.

"It didn't take long for every cavalryman in that camp to get wind of
what was comin' off. Shore they musta been wild. They s