ode and loudly hailed "Moreno!"

But hissing, snapping wood-work alone replied. Guided by an
experienced sergeant, some of the troopers, never halting, rode on
into the eastward darkness, and there were stationed as videttes to
guard against surprise. Returning to where he had passed his
lieutenant, the sergeant dismounted, allowing his weary horse to
stand, and then began minute examination. Following the freshest
hoof-tracks, he found the young officer riding about through the thick
smoke within the corral.

"Any sign of Moreno or his people, sir?" he hailed.

"Not yet. Just see what's beyond that door-way. My horse is frightened
at something there and I can't see for the smoke."

Obedient, the sergeant pushed ahead, bending low to avoid the stifling
fumes. Between the tumbled-down heap of barley-sacks and the crumbling
wall lay some writhing objects in the sand, and his stout heart almost
failed him at the moan of agony that met his ear.

"Help! water! Oh, for Christ's sake, water!"

One bound carried him out of sight of his superior. The next instant,
dragging by the foot a prostrate form, he emerged from the bank into
the fresher air of the centre of the corral. Off came his canteen and
was held to the parched lips of a stranger in scorched civilian dress,
his beard and hair singed by the flames, his legs and arms securely
bound.

"Who are you and what's happened? Whose work is this?" demanded the
lieutenant, leaping from saddle to his side. The man seemed swooning
away, but the sergeant dashed water in his face.

"Quick!--the others!--or they'll burn to death."

"What others? Where, man?" exclaimed the soldiers, springing to their
feet.

"Oh! somewhere in there,--the far end of the corral--or Moreno's west
room," was the gasping reply.

Another rush into the whirling, eddying smoke, another search along
under the wall, and presently in the flickering light the rescuing
pair came upon a barrier of barley-sacks, burning in places from huge
flakes of fire falling from the blazing rafters of the overhanging
shed, and behind this, senseless, suffocated, helplessly bound, two
other forms. Thrusting the sacks aside, the troopers seized and
dragged forth their hapless fellow-creatures. Jarred by sudden
pressure, a burning upright snapped. There was a crackling, crashing
sound, and down came the rafters, sending another column of flame to
light up the features of men rescued not an instant too soon from the