shadowy covers from its
morning face and piling them about its feet; I thought of some joke of
Beverly's; and I wondered about one of the oxen that had seemed sick in
the evening. I tried to think of nothing and a thousand things came into
my mind. But of life and death and love and suffering, I thought not at
all.

Meantime, Jondo waited anxiously for my coming. Rex and Beverly had gone
to sleep at the end of their watch and nobody else in camp knew of my
going. At dawn a breeze began to swing in from the north, and with its
refreshing touch the weariness and worries of yesterday were swept away.
Everybody wakened in a good humor. But Jondo had not slept, and his
face was sterner than ever as the duties of the day began.

Before sunrise I began to be missed.

"Where's Gail?" Bill Banney was the first to ask.

"That's Clarenden's job, not mine," another of the bull-whackers
resented a command of Jondo's.

"Gail! Gail! Anybody on earth seen Gail Clarenden this morning?" came
from a far corner of the camp.

"Have you lost a man, Jondo?" Smith, still sick in his wagon, inquired.

And the sun was filling the eastern horizon with a roseate glow. It
would be above the edge of the plains in a little while, and still I had
not returned.

Breakfast followed, with many questions for the absent one. There was an
eagerness to be off early and an uneasiness began to pervade the camp.

"Jondo, you'll have to dig up Gail now. I saw him putting out northwest
about one o'clock," Rex Krane said, aside to the train captain.

"If he isn't here in ten minutes. I'll have to start out after him,"
Jondo replied.

Ten minutes are long to one who waits. The boys were ready for the camp
order. "Catch up!" to start the harnessing of teams. But it was not
given. The sun's level rays, hot and yellow, smote the camp, and a low
murmur ran from wagon to wagon. Jondo waited a minute longer, then he
climbed to the wagon tongue at the head of the ellipse of vehicles, his
commanding form outlined against the open space, his fine face illumined
by the sunlight.

"Boys, listen to me."

Men listened when Jondo spoke.

"I believe we are in danger, but you have doubted my word. I leave the
days to prove who is right. At midnight I sent Gail Clarenden to find
out what is beyond that ridge--a band of men running parallel with us
that shadows us day by day. If he is not here in ten minutes, we must go
after him."

A hush fell on the camp. The