ry and soft-footed as a
panther. It took him a long half-hour to reach the boulder bed. Rifle in
hand, he lowered himself from rock to rock, taking advantage of every
shadow....

An hour later Dinsmore called to 'Mona. "Asleep, girl?"

"No," she answered in a small voice.

"Slip out with these cartridges to Steve and find out if anythin's
doin'. Then you'd better try to sleep. 'Paches don't attack at night."

Ramona crept along the ledge back of the big boulders. Gurley had
gone--vanished completely. Her heart stood still. There was some vague
thought in her mind that the Indians had somehow disposed of him. She
called to Dinsmore in a little stifled shout that brought him on the
run.

"He's gone!" she gasped.

The eyes of Dinsmore blazed. He knew exactly how to account for the
absence of the man. "I might 'a' known it. The yellow coyote! Left us in
the lurch to save his own hide!"

"Perhaps he's gone for help," the girl suggested faintly.

"No chance. He's playin' a lone hand--tryin' for a get-away himself,"
her companion said bitterly. "You'll have to take his place here. If you
see anything move, no matter what it is, shoot at it."

"If I call you will you come?" she begged.

"On the jump," he promised. "Don't go to sleep. If they should come it
will be up through the boulder bed. I'm leavin' you here because you can
watch from cover where you can't possibly be seen. It's different on the
other side."

She knew that, but as soon as he had left her the heart of the girl
sank. She was alone, lost in a night of howling savages. The horrible
things they did to their captives--she recalled a story whispered to her
by a girl friend that it had been impossible to shake out of her mind.
In the middle of the night she had more than once found herself sitting
bolt upright in bed, wakened from terrible dreams of herself as a
prisoner of the Apaches.

'Mona prayed, and found some comfort in her prayers. They were the
frank, selfish petitions of a little child.

"God, don't let me die. I'm so young, and so frightened. Send Daddy to
save me ... or Jack Roberts."

She recited the twenty-third Psalm aloud in a low voice. The fourth
verse she went back to, repeating it several times.

"'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort
me.'"

And the last verse:

"'Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of