he ties of love--mine by all its
vows--I will go back, I will take your place and leave you here--here
in this land of dead things, to make your peace with God!"

Beads of sweat broke out on Jack's forehead as he listened. He bit his
lips until they bled. Clenching his fingers until the nails sank into
the palms of his hands, he cried warningly in his agony: "I wouldn't
say no more, if I was you. Go--for God's sake, go!"

Dick slowly moved toward the mouth of the canon, still hesitating.

From the hillside a rifle-shot rang out. The ball struck Dick in the
leg. He fell, and lay motionless.

Pulling his revolver, Jack stooped and ran under the overhanging ledge,
peering about to see where the shot had come from. He raised his gun
to fire, when a volley of rifle-shots rang through the canon, the
bullets kicking up little spurts of dust about him and chipping edges
off the rocks. Jack dropped on his knees and crept to his rifle,
clipping his revolver back into his holster.

Crouching behind a rock with his rifle to his shoulder, he waited for
the attackers to show themselves.

Experience on the plains taught them that the fight would be a slow
one, unless the Apaches sought only to divert attention for the time
being to cover their flight southward. After the one shot, which
struck Dick, and the volley directed at Jack, not a rifle had been
fired. Peering over the boulder, Jack could see nothing.

The Lava Beds danced before his eyes in the swelter of the glaring
sunshine. Far off the snow-capped mountains mockingly reared their
peaks into the intense blue of the heavens. Since the attackers were
covered with alkali-dust from the long ride, a color which would merge
into the desert floor when a man lay prone, detection of any movement
was doubly difficult. Behind any rock and in any clump of sage-brush
might lie an assailant.

Dick had fallen near the spring. He struggled back to consciousness,
to find his left leg numb and useless. When the ball struck him he
felt only a sharp pinch. His fainting was caused by a shock to his
weakened body, but not from fear or pain. With the return to his
senses came a horrible, burning thirst, and a horrible sinking
sensation in the pit of his stomach. He lay breathing heavily until he
got a grip on himself. Then he tore the bandanna handkerchief from his
neck and bound up the wound, winding the bandage as tightly as his
strength permitted to check the blood-f