tted six miles to the hour. At that gait
fifty miles would not have wet or turned a hair of his dazzling white
coat. Gale, bearing in mind the ever-present possibility of
encountering more raiders and of being pursued, saved the strength of
the horse. Once out of sight of Papago Well, Gale dismounted and
walked beside the horse, steadying with one firm hand the helpless,
dangling Yaqui.

The sun cleared the eastern ramparts, and the coolness of morning fled
as if before a magic foe. The whole desert changed. The grays wore
bright; the mesquites glistened; the cactus took the silver hue of
frost, and the rocks gleamed gold and red. Then, as the heat
increased, a wind rushed up out of the valley behind Gale, and the
hotter the sun blazed down the swifter rushed the wind. The wonderful
transparent haze of distance lost its bluish hue for one with tinge of
yellow. Flying sand made the peaks dimly outlined.

Gale kept pace with his horse. He bore the twinge of pain that darted
through his injured hip at every stride. His eye roved over the wide,
smoky prospect seeking the landmarks he knew. When the wild and bold
spurs of No Name Mountains loomed through a rent in flying clouds of
sand he felt nearer home. Another hour brought him abreast of a dark,
straight shaft rising clear from a beetling escarpment. This was a
monument marking the international boundary line. When he had passed
it he had his own country under foot. In the heat of midday he halted
in the shade of a rock, and, lifting the Yaqui down, gave him a drink.
Then, after a long, sweeping survey of the surrounding desert, he
removed Sol's saddle and let him roll, and took for himself a welcome
rest and a bite to eat.

The Yaqui was tenacious of life. He was still holding his own. For the
first time Gale really looked at the Indian to study him. He had a
large head nobly cast, and a face that resembled a shrunken mask. It
seemed chiseled in the dark-red, volcanic lava of his Sooner
wilderness. The Indian's eyes were always black and mystic, but this
Yaqui's encompassed all the tragic desolation of the desert. They were
fixed on Gale, moved only when he moved. The Indian was short and
broad, and his body showed unusual muscular development, although he
seemed greatly emaciated from starvation or illness.

Gale resumed his homeward journey. When he got through the pass he
faced a great depression, as rough as if millions of gigantic spikes
had