hide his impatience and anxiety to see me go. The looks he cast at the
sun were significant, and, having no wish to antagonize him and every
wish to visit the spot again, I moved toward my horse with the intention
of untying him.

To my surprise the doctor held me back.

"You can't go to-night," said he, "your horse has hurt himself."

It was true. There was something the matter with the animal's left
forefoot. As the doctor lifted it, the manager came up. He agreed with
the doctor. I could not make the descent to Santa Fe on that horse that
night. Did I feel elated? Rather. I had no wish to descend. Yet I was
far from foreseeing what the night was to bring me.

I was turned over to the manager, but not without a final injunction
from the doctor. "Not a word to any one about your errand! Not a word
about the New York tragedy, as you value Mr. Fairbrother's life."

"Not a word," said I.

Then he left me.

To see the sun go down and the moon come up from a ledge hung, as it
were, in mid air! The experience was novel--but I refrain. I have more
important matters to relate.

I was given a bunk at the extreme end of the long sleeping-tent, and
turned in with the rest. I expected to sleep, but on finding that
I could catch a sight of the sick tent from under the canvas, I
experienced such fascination in watching this forbidden spot that
midnight came before I had closed my eyes. Then all desire to sleep
left me, for the patient began to moan and presently to talk, and,
the stillness of the solitary height being something abnormal, I could
sometimes catch the very words. Devoid as they were of all rational
meaning, they excited my curiosity to the burning point; for who could
tell if he might not say something bearing on the mystery?

But that fevered mind had recurred to early scenes and the babble which
came to my ears was all of mining camps in the Rockies and the dicker
of horses. Perhaps the uneasy movement of my horse pulling at the end of
his tether had disturbed him. Perhaps--

But at the inner utterance of the second "perhaps" I found myself up
on my elbow listening with all my ears, and staring with wide-stretched
eyes at the thicket of stunted trees where the road debouched on the
platform. Something was astir there besides my horse. I could catch
sounds of an unmistakable nature. A rider was coming up the trail.

Slipping back into my place, I turned toward the doctor, who lay some
two or three bunks