iring on our camp. We've feared it--in the
dark.... And here I am, away without leave--practically a deserter!"

"Go back! Go back, before you're too late!" cried Mercedes.

"Better make tracks, Thorne," added Gale. "It can't help our
predicament for you to be arrested. I'll take care of Mercedes."

"No, no, no," replied Thorne. "I can get away--avoid arrest."

"That'd be all right for the immediate present. But it's not best for
the future. George, a deserter is a deserter!... Better hurry. Leave
the girl to me till tomorrow."

Mercedes embraced her lover, begged him to go. Thorne wavered.

"Dick, I'm up against it," he said. "You're right. If only I can get
back in time. But, oh, I hate to leave her! Old fellow, you've saved
her! I already owe you everlasting gratitude. Keep out of Casita,
Dick. The U.S. side might be safe, but I'm afraid to trust it at
night. Go out in the desert, up in the mountains, in some safe place.
Then come to me in camp. We'll plan. I'll have to confide in Colonel
Weede. Maybe he'll help us. Hide her from the rebels--that's all."

He wrung Dick's hand, clasped Mercedes tightly in his arms, kissed her,
and murmured low over her, then released her to rush off into the
darkness. He disappeared in the gloom. The sound of his dull
footfalls gradually died away.

For a moment the desert silence oppressed Gale. He was unaccustomed to
such strange stillness. There was a low stir of sand, a rustle of
stiff leaves in the wind. How white the stars burned! Then a coyote
barked, to be bayed by a dog. Gale realized that he was between the
edge of an unknown desert and the edge of a hostile town. He had to
choose the desert, because, though he had no doubt that in Casita there
were many Americans who might befriend him, he could not chance the
risks of seeking them at night.

He felt a slight touch on his arm, felt it move down, felt Mercedes
slip a trembling cold little hand into his. Dick looked at her. She
seemed a white-faced girl now, with staring, frightened black eyes that
flashed up at him. If the loneliness, the silence, the desert, the
unknown dangers of the night affected him, what must they be to this
hunted, driven girl? Gale's heart swelled. He was alone with her. He
had no weapon, no money, no food, no drink, no covering, nothing except
his two hands. He had absolutely no knowledge of the desert, of the
direction or whereabouts of the boundary line be