ht myself
inspecting first the upper air, and next the earth, and speculating if
the hill were hollow; and mystery began to film over the hitherto sharp
figures of black curly and yellow, while the lonely country around grew
so unpleasant to my nerves that I was glad when Pidcock decided that he
must give up for to-day. We found the little group of people beginning
to disperse at the ambulance.

"Fooled yer ag'in, did they?" said the old man. "Played the blanket
trick on yer, I expect. Guess yer gold's got pretty far by now." With
this parting, and propped upon his stick, he went as he had come. Not
even at any time of his youth, I think, could he have been
companionable, and old age had certainly filled him with the impartial
malevolence of the devil. I rejoice to say that he presided at none of
our further misadventures.

Short twenty-eight thousand dollars and two mules, we set out anew, the
Major, the cook, and I, along the Thomas road, with the sun drawing
closer down upon the long steel saw that the peaks to our westward made.
The site of my shock lay behind me--I knew now well enough that it had
been a shock, and that for a long while to come I should be able to feel
the earth spatter from Mr. Adams's bullet against my ear and sleeve
whenever I might choose to conjure that moment up again--and the present
comfort in feeling my distance from that stone in the road increase
continually put me in more cheerful spirits. With the quick rolling of
the wheels many subjects for talk came into my mind, and had I been
seated on the box beside the cook we should have found much in common.
Ever since her real tenderness to those wounded men I had wished to ask
the poor old creature how she came in this weary country, so far from
the pleasant fields of cotton and home. Her hair was gray, and she had
seen much, else she had never been so kind and skilful at bandaging. And
I am quite sure that somewhere in the chambers of her incoherent mind
and simple heart abided the sweet ancient fear of God and love of her
fellow-men--virtues I had met but little in Arizona.

"De hole family, scusin' two," she was saying, "dey bust loose and tuck
to de woods." And then she moralized upon the two who stayed behind and
were shot. "But de Gennul he 'low dat wuz mighty pore reasonin'."

I should have been glad to exchange views with her, for Major Pidcock
was dull company. This prudent officer was not growing distant from his
disaster, and