back to
camp. I'll stay here and hold down the find."

Wetherell, tremulous with excitement and weak in the knees, remounted
his horse and set off for camp. It was a long climb, and the latter part
of it tedious by reason of the growing darkness and the weariness of the
horses. Wetherell's pony would not lead and was fairly at the end of his
powers, but at last they reached their camping-place. Wetherell's first
thought was of Pogosa. She was nowhere in sight and her tepee was empty.

"She on hill," declared Eugene. "Lying down on stone. Injun cry there
three days."

"The poor old thing! She'll be famished and chilled to the bone. It's a
shame, our leaving her alone this way. But that's the way of the man in
love with gold. Greed destroys all that is tender and loyal in a man. I
am going right up and bring her down. Eugene, you start a fire and put
some coffee on to boil."

With a heart full of pity the repentant gold-seeker hurried toward the
cairn. The crumpled little figure, so tragic in its loneliness and
helpless grief, was lying where he had left it. She did not stir at the
sound of his footsteps, nor when he laid his hand softly on her
shoulder.

"Come, Pogosa," he said, with gentle authority. "Come, coffee, fire
waiting. We found the mine. You're rich. You shall go back to your
people. Come!"

Something in the feel of her shoulder, in the unyielding rigidity of her
pose, startled and stilled him. He shook her questioningly. She was
stark as stone. Her body had been cold for many hours. Her spirit was
with Iapi.

THE OUTLAW

_--still seeks sanctuary in the green timber, finding the
storms of the granite peaks less to be feared than the fury
of his neighbors._

VII

THE OUTLAW

I

Freeman Ward, geologist for the government, was not altogether easy in
his mind as he led his little pack-train out of Pinedale, a frontier
settlement on the western slope of the Rocky Mountain divide, for he had
permitted the girl of his deepest interest to accompany him on his
expedition.

Alice Mansfield, accustomed to having her way, and in this case
presuming upon Ward's weakness, insisted on going. Outwardly he had
argued against it, making much of the possible storms, of the rough
trails, of the cold and dampness. But she argued that she was quite as
able to go as Mrs. Adams, the wife of the botanist of the expedition. So
Ward had yielded, and here these women were forming part