when Gale, thinking to
fight his weariness, raised his head, he saw that one of the horses in
the lead was riderless. Ladd was carrying Mercedes. Dick marveled
that her collapse had not come sooner. Another time, rousing himself
again, he imagined they were now on a good hard road.

It seemed that hours passed, though he knew only little time had
elapsed, when once more he threw off the spell of weariness. He heard
a dog bark. Tall trees lined the open lane down which he was riding.
Presently in the gray gloom he saw low, square houses with flat roofs.
Ladd turned off to the left down another lane, gloomy between trees.
Every few rods there was one of the squat houses. This lane opened
into wider, lighter space. The cold air bore a sweet perfume--whether
of flowers or fruit Dick could not tell. Ladd rode on for perhaps a
quarter of a mile, though it seemed interminably long to Dick. A grove
of trees loomed dark in the gray morning. Ladd entered it and was lost
in the shade. Dick rode on among trees. Presently he heard voices,
and soon another house, low and flat like the others, but so long he
could not see the farther end, stood up blacker than the trees. As he
dismounted, cramped and sore, he could scarcely stand. Lash came
alongside. He spoke, and some one with a big, hearty voice replied to
him. Then it seemed to Dick that he was led into blackness like pitch,
where, presently, he felt blankets thrown on him and then his drowsy
faculties faded.

IV

FORLORN RIVER

WHEN Dick opened his eyes a flood of golden sunshine streamed in at the
open window under which he lay. His first thought was one of blank
wonder as to where in the world he happened to be. The room was large,
square, adobe-walled. It was littered with saddles, harness, blankets.
Upon the floor was a bed spread out upon a tarpaulin. Probably this
was where some one had slept. The sight of huge dusty spurs, a gun
belt with sheath and gun, and a pair of leather chaps bristling with
broken cactus thorns recalled to Dick the cowboys, the ride, Mercedes,
and the whole strange adventure that had brought him there.

He did not recollect having removed his boots; indeed, upon second
thought, he knew he had not done so. But there they stood upon the
floor. Ladd and Lash must have taken them off when he was so exhausted
and sleepy that he could not tell what was happening. He felt a dead
weight of complete lassitude, and he did not want