d the poor beast's neck, but spoke
nothing. As I helped her on my Tophet I put my lips to the sleeve of her
dress. Mother of Heaven! what could a man do--she was so dam' brave.

"Dawn was just breaking oozy and grey at the swell of the prairie over
the Jumping Sandhills. They lay quiet and shining in the green-brown
plain; but I knew that there was a churn beneath which could set those
swells of sand in motion, and make glory-to-God of an army. Who can tell
what it is? A flood under the surface, a tidal river-what? No man knows.
But they are sea monsters on the land. Every morning at sunrise they
begin to eddy and roll--and who ever saw a stranger sight? Bien, I
looked back. There were those four pirates coming on, about three miles
away. What was there to do? The girl and myself on my blown horse were
too much. Then a great idea come to me. I must reach and cross the
Jumping Sandhills before sunrise. It was one deadly chance.

"When we got to the edge of the sand they were almost a mile behind. I
was all sick to my teeth as my poor Tophet stepped into the silt. Sacre,
how I watched the dawn! Slow, slow, we dragged over that velvet powder.
As we reached the farther side I could feel it was beginning to move.
The sun was showing like the lid of an eye along the plain. I looked
back. All four horsemen were in the sand, plunging on towards us. By the
time we touched the brown-green prairie on the farther side the sand was
rolling behind us. The girl had not looked back. She seemed too dazed.
I jumped from the horse, and told her that she must push on alone to the
Fort, that Tophet could not carry both, that I should be in no danger.
She looked at me so deep--ah, I cannot tell how! then stooped and kissed
me between the eyes--I have never forgot. I struck Tophet, and she was
gone to her happiness; for before 'lights out!' she reached the Fort and
her lover's arms.

"But I stood looking back on the Jumping Sandhills. So, was there ever
a sight like that--those hills gone like a smelting-floor, the sunrise
spotting it with rose and yellow, and three horses and their riders
fighting what cannot be fought?--What could I do? They would have got
the girl and spoiled her life, if I had not led them across, and they
would have killed me if they could. Only one cried out, and then but
once, in a long shriek. But after, all three were quiet as they fought,
until they were gone where no man could see, where none cries out so
we can