e water
from his tattered clothes and pointing over his shoulder to the west.

"We're coming, Charley. Dearie, stand up. Now, _now_!" Marylyn was
dragged to her feet. The light was quenched. The outcast faced about.
And the three headed for the river, with The Squaw leading at a trot.

As they crossed the plowed land rimming the yard, sleepy birds fluttered
up in front of them with startled cheeps and a whistle of wings. They
swerved to find the shack road, along which the way was freer and more
quiet, and the pace easy. Charley glanced back now and then to see if
they were close; or, halted them, when they listened, holding their
breath.

They paused for the last time near the river end of the corn, and close
to the coulee crossing. From there Dallas saw that the pyres were lower,
and that other buildings of the Row were ablaze; the roof of a scout
hut, too; and the prairie, over which travelled widening crescents of
gold. But the fire was the only thing that was moving. For not a single
man was in sight.

Charley was not watching toward Brannon, only along the nearer bank, to
the south.

Of a sudden, as their eyes followed his, a gun-shot rang out from the
cottonwood grove.

"Mr. Lounsbury!" cried Dallas, starting forward.

"No--he's gone----"

That moment they saw between them and the landing the silhouette of a
figure.

It was not Lounsbury's; it was too short and thick-set for his.
Moreover, it seemed to be casting aside clothes as it ran.

Like one, The Squaw and Marylyn bolted for the coulee. Dallas
hesitated--then followed. Near the brink, they missed the steep road,
and went slipping, sliding, and rolling down the sumach-grown side. Then
they struck the bristling bottom--righted--turned their feet up it--and
fled.

CHAPTER XXXVI

SOME UNEXPECTED DISCOVERIES

His face as blanched as a dead man's, his voice pealing out above the
babel like a bell, Oliver stood to windward of the double furnace,
giving quick orders on right and left.

"Two men there on the Major's quarters--Let the guard-house go--Use your
blanket, Flaherty, use your _blanket_--Sergeant," as Kippis passed close
by, "clear the Row and bring 'em all down here. Don't let 'em stop for
anything--Boys, _boys_! turn out those horses!"

A trooper rushed up and leaned, yelling, to his captain's ear. "They
won't go, sir; they're hamstrung!"

With a command, the captain fairly threw the man toward a point where
help was needed