d away into dreamland. Why not?
The object of his mission was accomplished. Fanny and Ruth Harvey were
safe. All that was left for the party to do now was rest in quiet
until another morn, then it would be quite possible to start on the
return without waiting for the coming of their friends. Before sunset
his men would be reassembled; they could have a long night's sleep,
and with the rising of the morrow's sun, convoying their three wagons
and their recaptured treasures, the little detachment would take the
back track for the Tucson road, confident of meeting "old Harvey"
and, probably, a doctor on the way. He himself, though most in need of
surgical attention when they reached the caves, had such confidence in
the skill of Sergeant Wing as to feel that his arm was set as
perfectly as could be done by almost any other practitioner, and
before dropping off to sleep had quite determined that he would make
the morning march in saddle.

Still, he could not sleep for any great length of time. The instinct
of vigilance and the sense of responsibility would not leave him. In
his half-dreaming, half-waking state, he once thought he heard a light
foot-fall, and presently as he dozed with eyelids shut there came a
soft touch upon his temple. Lifting his hand he seized that of his
visitor,--Fanny Harvey.

"Why are you not resting?" he asked, "and where is Ruth?"

"Ruth is sleeping, as we hoped you might be. 'Tired Nature's sweet
restorer' is all you need, Mr. Drummond, yet you do not seem to have
had more than a cat nap. Twice I have stolen in here to see you, and
then, though I was fearful of waking you, you slept peacefully through
it all."

"Well, I must have slept a couple of hours anyway, and I slept soundly
until within the last few minutes. Have none of the men got back yet,
Miss Harvey? Do you know what time it is? I suppose Wing is
sleeping."

"Mr. Wing ought to be sleeping, but he isn't. The sentry--Patterson I
think they call him--summoned him up to the lookout there in the
rocks, oh, about an hour ago, and when the sergeant came back he
mounted his horse and rode away down the canon. He said there was
something requiring his attention. But you are to drink this chocolate
and lie still."

Drummond slowly strove to rise. He was too anxious, too nervous, to
remain where he was.

"And none of them have returned yet?" he asked. "I cannot understand
that. No, please do not strive to detain me here. I'm perfectly a