e; but in all the long years she has been at my side,
I can think of no instance in which she has played me false. Her nature
is passionate, and she is sometimes quick to anger, but behind it all
she is devotion itself and you can trust her absolutely."

He paused expectantly, but as Wiley made no response he rose up and
knocked out his pipe.

"Well, good night," he said. "It is time we were retiring if we are to
cross the Valley to-morrow. Have a drink? Well, all right; it's just as
well. You're a good boy, Wiley; I'm proud of you."

He clapped him on the shoulder as he went off to bed, but Wiley sat
brooding by the fire. Death Valley Charley took his blankets and rolled
up in the creek bed, so that his burros could not sneak by him in the
night, and Heine laid down beside him; but when all was quiet Wiley rose
up silently and tiptoed about the camp. He strapped on his pistol and
picked up his gun, but as he was groping in the darkness for his canteen
Heine trotted up and flapped his ears. It was his sign of friendship,
like wagging his tail, and Wiley patted him quietly; but when he was
gone, he lifted the canteen and slung it over his shoulder. In the land
where he was going there were more dangers than one, but lack of water
was the greatest. He stepped out into the moonlight and then, from the
cave, he heard a muffled sound. Virginia was there and he was running
away from her. He listened again--she was crying! Not weeping aloud or
in choking sobs but in stifled, heart-broken sighs. He lowered his gun
and stood scowling and irresolute, then he turned back and went to bed.

In the morning they started late, resting in the shade of the Gateway
until the sun had swung to the west; and then, as the shadow of the
Panamints stretched out across the Valley, they repacked and started
down the slope. In the lead went old Jinny, the mother of the bunch, and
Jack and Johnny and Baby; and following behind his burros, paced Death
Valley Charley with a long, willow club in his hand. The Colonel strode
ahead, his mind on weighty matters; and behind him came Virginia on her
free-footed burro with Wiley plodding silently in the rear. At irregular
intervals Heine would drop back from the lead and sniff at them each in
turn, but nothing was said, for the air was furnace dry and they were
saving their strength for the sand.

At sundown they reached the edge of the first yielding sand-dune that
presaged the long pull to come and De