the plain in the direction whence it came.

CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR.

A MAN AND A MULE.

Carefully as ever, Hamersley and the Texan keep to their place of
concealment. They dare not do otherwise. The slope by which they
ascended is treeless, the cedars only growing upon the summit. The
gorge, too, by which they went up, and at the bottom of which their
mules were left, debouches westwardly on the plain--the direction in
which the lancers have ridden off. Any of these chancing to look back
would be sure to catch sight of them if they show themselves outside the
sheltering scrub. They have their apprehensions about their animals.
It is a wonder these have not been seen by the soldiers. Although
standing amid large boulders, a portion of the bodies of both are
visible from the place mentioned. Fortunately for their owners, their
colour closely resembled the rocks, and for which the troopers may have
mistaken them. More probably, in their impatience to proceed upon the
return route, none of them turn their eyes in that direction.

An equally fortunate circumstance is the fact of the mules being
muffled. Otherwise they might make themselves heard. Not a sound,
either snort or hinney, escape them; not so much as the stamping of a
hoof. They stand patient and silent, as if they themselves had fear of
the men who are foes to their masters.

For a full hour after the lancers have left these stay crouching behind
the cedars. Even an hour does not take the troop out of sight.
Cumbered with their captives, they march at slow, measured pace--a walk.
Moreover, the pellucid atmosphere of the Staked Plain makes objects
visible at double the ordinary distance. They are yet but five miles
from the buttes, and, looking back, could see a man at their base, more
surely one mounted.

The two who are on the summit allow quite twenty minutes more to elapse
before they think of leaving it. Then, deeming it safe, they prepare to
descend.

Still they are in no haste. Their intention is to follow the cavalcade,
but by no means to overtake it. Nor do they care to keep it in sight,
but the contrary, since that might beget danger to themselves. They
anticipate no difficulty in taking up the trail of a troop like that
Walt confidently declares he could do so were he blindfolded as their
mules, adding, in characteristic phraseology, "I ked track the skunks by
thar smell."

Saying this he proposes a "bit o' brakwist," a propos