y a moon, big and round
and brilliant, casting over the earth a flood of wonderland light,
streaming down upon the dunes and flats in mystic sheen, bringing out
the desert in soft outline. Near by, the light brought out the form of
Pat, standing a short distance off with drooping head, motionless in all
the splendor of his perfect outline. Stephen turned back to the man. He
found him staring hard at the horse. He did not understand this until
the fellow burst out excitedly, his eyes still fixed on Pat.

"Whose horse is that?" he demanded. "Tell me. Do you own that black
horse?"

Stephen slowly shook his head. He thought the question but another
expression of the stranger's nervous apprehension due to his experience.
Yet he explained.

"He belongs back in New Mexico," he said, quietly--"the Rio Grande
Valley. He was stolen last spring. Been ridden pretty hard since, I
guess. I happen to know where he belongs, though, and I was taking him
to a shipping-point when I lost my way. That's the horse you heard
nicker a while ago," he added, soothingly.

The man sank flat again.

"I stole him," he blurted out. "I--I hope you'll get him back where he
belongs. His--his name is Pat. He's--he's the best horse I ever rode."
He relapsed, into silence, motionless, as one dead.

Stephen himself remained motionless. He looked at the man curiously. He
believed that he ought to feel bitter toward him, since he saw in him
the cause of all his own misery. But somehow he found that he could feel
nothing but pity. In this man with eyes closed and gasping lips Stephen
saw only a brother-mortal in distress, as he himself was in distress,
and he forgave him for anything he had done.

He looked at Pat, understanding the temptation, and then turned his eyes
pityingly toward the man--the stranger, dozing, murmuring strangely in
his sleep. Seeing him at rest, and realizing the long hours before
daybreak, Stephen finally dropped over upon one elbow, and prepared to
pass the night as best he could. He was suffering torture from his arm
and shoulder, and burning with the fever shown in his hot skin and
parched lips.

The night passed restlessly. He saw the first rays of dawn break over
the range and creep farther and farther down the valley, throwing a pale
pink over the landscape and sending gaunt shadows slinking off into the
light. A whinny from Pat aroused him. He arose painfully, gazed at the
man at his feet, and then turned his eyes towa