ould be found; but, as luck would have it, I
went through without trying. I had gone farther from men and things,
however, than I thought, and this return pursuit was a million times
worse than the other, for I couldn't go fast enough to shake Death, who
ran with his hand on my cantle or rode on my horse's rump. It was then
I found Alluna. She was with a hunting-party of Pah-Utes, who knew
nothing of me nor of the white man's affairs, and cared less; and when
I saw the little squaw I rode my horse up beside her, laid the sick
child in her arms, then tumbled out of the saddle. They had a harder
job to pull me through than they did to save Merridy, for I'd given the
baby all the water and hadn't slept or rested for many years, so it
seemed.

"The little one was playing around several days before I got back my
reason. Meanwhile the party had moved North, taking us with them, and,
as it happened, just missing a posse who were returning from the desert.

"When I was able to get about I told Alluna that I must be going, but
as I told her I watched her face, and saw the sign I wanted--the white
girl had clutched at her like she had at me, and she couldn't give her
up, so I made a dicker with her old man. It took all the money I had to
buy that squaw, but I knew the kiddie must have a woman's care; and the
three of us started out soon after, alone, and broke, and aimless--and
we've been going ever since.

"That's the heart of the story, Lieutenant, and that's how I started to
drift. Since then we three have never rested. I left them once in Idaho
and went back to Mesa, riding all the way, mostly by night, but Bennett
was gone. He'd run down mighty fast after Merridy died, so I heard,
growing sullen and uglier day by day--and I reckon I was the only one
who knew why--till he had a killing in his place. It was unprovoked,
and instead of stopping to face it out the yellow in him rose to the
surface and he left before sunup, as I had left, making a clean
getaway, too, for there was no such hullabaloo raised about killing a
man as there was about--the other. So my trip was all for nothing.

"I was used to disappointment by now, so I took it quiet and went back
to Alluna and the little one, knowing that some day we two men would
meet. You see, I figured that God had framed a cold hand for me, but He
would surely give me a pair before the game closed. Of course, never
having seen Bennett, I was handicapped, and, added to that, he c