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[Illustration: "Lennon elevated his rifle and sent a parting shot overthe heads of the fleeing riders"]

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BLOOM OF CACTUS

ByROBERT AMES BENNET

Frontispiece byRALPH PALLEN COLEMAN

Garden City New YorkDOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY1920

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Copyright, 1919, by Doubleday, Page & CompanyAll Rights Reserved, including that of translation intoforeign languages, including the Scandinavian

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Ambushed 3II. Off Trail 13III. The Gila Monster 24IV. Pards in Peril 35V. Dead Hole 47VI. Her Folks 55VII. Craft and Cruelty 62VIII. Cactus Carmena 75IX. The Man Who Was 85X. The Setter of Traps 95XI. Cross Currents 107XII. A Bargain 117XIII. The Blossoming 127XIV. The Prowler 136XV. Crooked Ways 145XVI. The Drop 156XVII. Death Play 168XVIII. The Attack 180XIX. Out of the Frying Pan-- 192XX. Into the Fire 201XXI. Treachery 211XXII. The Sacrifice 222XXIII. Out of the Past 234XXIV. His Daughter's Father 245

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BLOOM OF CACTUS

CHAPTER I

AMBUSHED

As Lennon drove his heavily packed burro over the round of the ridgeabove the camp spring, all the desolate Arizona waste around him wastransformed by the splendour of dawn. Up out of mysterious velvetyblue-black valleys loomed the massive purple-walled fortresses andcities of the mountain giants, guarded by titanic skyward toweringpyramids and turrets of exquisite rose pink. 

The burro was not interested in scenery or light effects. He topped theridge and plodded slowly down the steep trail on the far side. Lennonlingered to enjoy the glorious illusion of the view. 

All too soon, as the glaring sun cleared the high plateau on the easternhorizon, the ethereal colours of daybreak faded. The magic towers andpyramids lowered and shrank in bulk until they became only bald ruggedpeaks and buttes. 

No less remorselessly the flood of hot white sunrays burned away theshadow tapestry of the valleys. In place of the cool mysterious valesthere were left only scorched gulleys and dry washes sparsely set withgreasewood and sagebrush and cactus. 

Yet the interest in Lennon's alert gray eyes increased rather thanlessened as he swung away down slope after his burro. The trail he wasfollowing was very old. Above almost every arable valley bottom theheights were crested with the stone ruins of ancient pueblos. Notimprobably, Coronado or others of the early Spanish explorers had riddenthis trail, west and north around the great bend, into the territory ofthe Moquis and Navahos. 

Within the memory of settlers not yet white-haired, more than onewar-party of renegade Apaches had sneaked along the ancient way insearch of victims. Every few yards of the bad lands offered perfectlurking places for liers-in-wait along the trail. 

Lennon glanced at the butt of his rifle in its sheath on the burro'spack. He recalled the tales of the old prospector whose copper mine hewas seeking to rediscover. But his glance was only momentary. He knewthat twenty-seven years had passed since the last murderous Indianoutbreak in this land of desolation. 

In those days a lone prospector would never have thought of trampingthis trail without his rifle ready in hand, and the hammer at half cock. Lennon began to whistle a dance tune as he sauntered unconcernedly atthe heels of his slow-moving burro up a rise and along a badly brokenrocky slope. 

They came down into a sandy wash that curved out of the mass of jaggedridges on the north. When midway across the bottom of the arroyo Lennonheard a sharp ping close above his ear--his sombrero whirled from hishead. Before the hat struck the sand the rocky sides of the washreverberated with the report of a rifle shot. 

Lennon had never before been under fire, yet his reaction to the shotwas almost instantaneous. One jump brought him alongside the burro. Hecrouched below the level of the pack and clutched the butt of hissheathed rifle. Again the gulley walls reverberated. The burro droppeddead, with a bullet through his head. 

As the beast fell, Lennon hit the sand almost at the same moment, hisrifle gripped in his right hand. Flattened out behind the inert body ofthe burro, he peered around the end of the pack. A bullet thwacked inthe sand close at his right. He thought he could see a haze ofsemi-smokeless powder vapour above a jagged crag up-slope where the washtwisted in a sharp bend. He fired four shots in quick succession atpromising notches in the crag. 

Immediately after his fourth shot an arm and rifle were thrust up abovethe rock in a convulsive gesture, then suddenly disappeared. No morebullets came pinging down the arroyo. 

Lennon gathered himself together and bounded on across the bottom of thewash to where the trail ran up a small side gully. From the gully hestarted to creep with cautious slowness up the left bank of the arroyo, under cover of the rocks and jutting points. 

Now crawling, now springing from rock to rock, he worked his way half upto the crag, yet failed to catch a single glimpse of the lier-in-wait orto draw another shot. His conviction that he had killed the lurkerbecame so firm that he stood erect to cover the remaining distance at arush. 

From down across the arroyo came a sharp clatter of hoofs. He whirled, with his rifle at his shoulder. Over the barrel he saw a scraggy ponyloping down into the wash along the trail of the burro. The pony's riderwas armed with a rifle. Lennon took quick aim--only to drop the muzzleof his weapon. The rider had flung up a gauntleted hand, palm outward. Amusical feminine hail rang aslant the arroyo:

"_Wa-hoo!_ Friend! Don't shoot!"

Lennon had already perceived that the rider was a woman. He jumped clearof the bank and sprinted down the rocky, sandy bed of the wash. 

"Get off!" he shouted. "Hide behind your horse--quick! Danger. "

The rider brought her pony to an abrupt halt below the dead burro anddropped out of her saddle on the far side. Only her old cowboy sombrero, the bottom of her khaki divided-skirt and her high laced boots werevisible to Lennon. 

With a startled snort, the ewe-necked pony plunged and backed around, clear of his motionless mistress. Lennon's first glance showed him thatshe was young and more than pretty. He was already leaping over the deadburro and brought up close before the girl to shield her with his body. 

"Down!" he cried. "Down, before he fires!"

The dark eyes of the girl met his anxious look with a cool, level gaze. Her cheeks were ruddy with rich colour under their deep coat of tan. Thecorners of her rather large, but shapely mouth quirked in an amused halfsmile. 

"Don't tell me you're not a tenderfoot, " she rallied, in a softlyvibrant, contralto voice. "I heard shots, so came a-running. Yourattacker must have vamosed, else you'd have collected lead on thejump. "

"That's so, " agreed Lennon. "Only I really think I nailed the beggar. Yet you must take no chances. Get under cover while I make sure. "

"You've already done that--standing here ten seconds without drawing ashot. When a mountain lion misses his game first crack, he sometimes isso shamed he clears out. Same way with a broncho Apache. "

"Apache? But I thought all Indians were now on reservations. "

The girl dropped the reins of her skittish, snorting pony and picked upLennon's new sombrero. Through the middle of the high peak was a neatlydrilled bullet hole. 

"Poor shot--for an Apache, " she said. "Good, though, for ventilation. "

The dry humour of this brought a twinkle into the Easterner's gray eyes. He took the hat from her outstretched gloved hand, but paused with ithalf raised to his close-cropped head. 

"If you'll permit me . .. My name is Lennon--Jack Lennon--miningengineer. "

"Engineer is all right, but can you shoot?" queried the girl. 

"I have had pretty good luck with running deer. This is my first man. "

"All right, Mr. Lennon. I'm going up to look for signs. Come along ifyou want to. "

"No, you must stay here. I insist----"

But the girl was already swinging away up the bed of the arroyo, herspurs jingling on the stones. Lennon started to block the way butchanged his mind when he perceived her amused smile. Instead of tryingto stop her, he attempted to take the lead. The girl quickened her pace. 

He had lowered more than one record in his college track meets; but thegirl was accustomed to rough ground, and he was not. She was still sideby side with him when he dashed up around the bend in the arroyo. 

Both held their rifles ready to fire as they rushed the rear ledges ofthe jagged crag. From the upper side the slopes around were all open toview. Lennon came to a panting halt and stared about in frank surprise. He had fully expected to see the limp form of a dead Apache lying on therocks. 

The girl sprang past him into a niche of the crag and bent to pick up acartridge shell. 

"A thirty-two, " she said. "Same calibre as my rifle. .. . And look at thistrack--Apache-made moccasin. Easy to tell the print from that of a Pimaor Moqui. "

To Lennon the track was only a small narrow blur. 

"I was right, " added the girl. "No trace of blood. You scored a cleanmiss and the bird has flown. All safe around here now, but may bedangerous on the trail ahead. Happens I know that a bunch of bronchosare loose over this way. They're looking for trouble. "

"Bronchos? You mean wild horses--mustangs?"

"No--Apaches. Renegades are called bronchos. What do you figure on doingnow, with your burro dead? Out prospecting, I noticed by your outfit. What were you heading up this way for, anyhow? The agents don't wantprospectors on the Moqui or Navaho reservations. "

"But I didn't intend to cross the boundary, " explained Lennon. "Aboutseventy miles on around this trail bend, I was to strike in eastward toa three-towered mountain. Old friend of mine discovered a big coppervein there in the early 'Nineties. A party of Indians ran him out of thecountry and so maimed him that he never could return. "

"Why, that must be Cripple Sim and his----" The girl checked herself andtightened her lips. "Well, what you going to do about it? Hike back tothe railroad?"

"Certainly--to get another burro. We might return together for mutualprotection, unless you'd rather trust to your pony's heels. "

The girl looked him up and down with sharp appraisal. 

There was no hint of timidity in his smile. 

"Don't figure there's any joke about a bunch of bronchos, " she said. "They like to kill just for pure devilment, and when they can make itwithout risk, their choice of game is a white man. "

"Or woman, " put in Lennon, no longer smiling. 

"Choicer still. But a man will do. How about that hole in your hat?Hadn't you better catch the first train East, and keep going?"

Lennon flushed, rallied himself, and smiled. 

"I didn't come to Arizona for my health. I might say it was on business, but I've no objection to a bit of sport on the side. "

The dark eyes of the girl flashed with a look of almost fierceintensity. 

"I'll call your bluff, " she challenged. "We'll see if you'refour-flushing. Dead Hole--Dad's ranch--is only a few miles southeast ofTriple Butte, the mountain you're headed for. I know the short cutacross the Basin. Want to come along?"

"The Indians, " protested Lennon. "No, do not misunderstand me, please. It is all right for a man to take chances. But a girl like you----"

"Like me? Well, the kind of girl I am is this--I'm going home. I've nomind to back up. Good-bye, Mr. Jack Lennon. "

He was beside her again before she had reached the bed of the arroyo. 

"I have a compass, " he said. "Perhaps I'll get to your ranch even ifyour pony outruns me. Only trouble, I can't lug both tools and food. "

The girl stopped short to draw off her glove and offer him her strongwhite hand. 

"I'm Carmena Farley. I don't like rattlers, coyotes, or quitters. "

"I may prove to be a quitter, Miss Farley, but I'd like at least to beentered for the game. "

The dark-eyed daughter of Arizona looked at him searchingly. 

"You will be risking the highest of all stakes--your life, " she warned. 

Lennon smiled. "Oh, no; not the highest. There are other things moreprecious. "

"Maybe, " she assented. "But not everybody would agree with you. "

CHAPTER II

OFF TRAIL

By the time the two reached the dead burro again the somber mood of thegirl had lightened. 

"First thing is to sort over your pack, " she said. "We'll cull outwhat's not needed. "

The girths of the packsaddle were cut loose, and the animal was draggedclear of the pack. When Lennon's very creditable diamond-hitch had beenthrown off, the girl overhauled the pack and made quick decisions. 

"We'll leave most of the flour. You can stock up at the ranch withcornmeal. Same with your cooking outfit. Throw out all but one drill andall the giant powder--no, keep half a dozen sticks. "

"But, Miss Farley, I can't begin to lug a quarter of----"

"Don't forget my pony, " cut in Carmena. 

"He can't carry you and all this truck of mine, " remonstrated Lennon. "I'll not permit you to walk. You must have hurt your foot. I saw youlimp. "

"I'm not asking your permission, thanks. "

As she unbuckled her spurs Lennon noticed that the girl's boots were notbuilt with the usual cowboy high heels. They would be suitable forwalking. 

The pony had wandered some distance down the wash, cunningly twitchinghis trailing reins to one side, clear of his hoofs. While Lennon startedto cache his packsaddle and the other discarded articles of his outfit, Carmena went after her would-be stray, limping and gingerly picking hersteps when she saw that the young man's back was turned. After catchingher pony she crouched down behind a corner of rock to unlace her boots. They came off with difficulty. 

Inside the boots, she had been wearing a pair of curious high-topboot-moccasins with thick back-doubled toes. In a twinkling she strippedoff the moccasins and thrust them down into the bottom of one of thesaddlebags. With her feet uncramped and easy in her relaced boots, shesprang into the saddle and loped back up the trail. 

Lennon's cache was a cavity under an overhanging ledge. Before he hadblocked the opening to his satisfaction with fragments of rock the restof his outfit had been securely packed upon the pony by Carmena. Nothingwas left out except rifles, cartridge-belts and two half-gallon canteensof water. 

"Keep your gun loaded and never put all your water on your horse. " Thegirl gave her companion the two first maxims of desert travel. "Comealong. No use trying to hide your cache or your trail from Apaches. Onlyanother Apache can do that. It's high time we hit out, anyhow. "

To the surprise of Lennon, she started up the arroyo. When he joinedher, the pony, whose reins had been tied to the pack, snorted and shied. But at a call from Carmena, the skittish beast followed his mistress upthe arroyo like a dog. 

"How about the chance of running into that murderous savage if we gothis way?" Lennon inquired. 

"You might be safer if you hurried back to the railroad, " repliedCarmena, and she swung the steepening side of the arroyo. 

Lennon's lips tightened. He did not again question his guide's choice ofroute. But, like her, he held his rifle ready as they came up over theround of a stony ridge. Though neither could see the slightest sign oflurking Indians, Carmena hastened to lead her pony across the ridgecrest and down the other side. 

When safe below the skyline the girl broke into a dog trot. She held tothe pace, on a long slant along the ridge side, until they came up intothe mouth of a small caņon. Between the bald ledges of the dry channelwere bars of sand and gravel. Lennon pointed to the hoofprints of ahorse that had come down the caņon at a gallop. 

"This must be the trail of our renegade, " he said. 

Carmena paused to fix him with a somber gaze. 

"The whole bunch of bronchos may be up here, but it's the only way intothe Basin; and, once in, they may get behind us. Now's your chance toquit--your last chance. "

This time Lennon was ready for her. 

"Lead on, Miss Macduff, and--perhaps you know the rest of thequotation. "

"Yes, " gloomily retorted the girl. "Don't blame me if we meet up withthose broncs. The joke will be on you. "

"How about your safety? Wouldn't you have a better chance if mounted?"

"Want to back out, do you?"

"By no means. My idea is to dump the pack from your pony. Then, if weare attacked, I may be able to hold the renegades while you gallop off. "

The girl's rich colour deepened into a flush. The thick fringe of herlashes swept down to hide the glow in her eyes. Without a word she swungahead, on up the caņon. Though not a little puzzled over her abruptness, Lennon felt certain that she had been far from displeased by hismatter-of-fact suggestion. 

He had no chance to urge the desirability of his plan. At his firstrather loud-spoken remonstrance Carmena flung back at him a curt gesturefor silence and led on at a quickened pace. Her swift ascent slackenedonly at the twists of the narrowing caņon; at these she would swing inclose to the inner side of the bends and creep around, with her riflehalf raised. 

By mid-morning the bed of the caņon had become much rougher and steeper. The pony, for all his goat-like agility and sure-footedness, founddifficulty in scrambling up some of the ledges. 

Neither the rapid pace nor the climbing bothered Lennon. But between theburning heat and his very natural excitement over Carmena's stealthybearing at the turns, he became keyed to rather a high pitch. 

After a last sharp turn, the caņon broadened and flared out in atrough-like valley at the top of a high, cedar-clad, ridge-rimmed mesa. 

"Wait!" Lennon exclaimed. "Look ahead, Miss Farley--all bare and open!Not a bit of shelter until we cross to the trees!"

The girl faced about, her red lips twisted in a smile of contempt, buther eyes clouded with disappointment. 

"I told you, down at the lower end, it was your last chance to quit. "

"Quite true. I've burnt my bridges. The question now is one of advance, not retreat. What if there are Indian watchers on those ridges? Would itnot be best for me to hold their attention by going straight up the openvalley, while you take the horse around through the cedars?"

Carmena met his proposal with a chuckle that brought a flush intoLennon's lean face. But her troubled eyes had cleared and there was anote of relief underlying her mirth. 

"What's the matter with you, too, keeping under cover?" she rallied. "Besides, we don't go to the head of the valley. We slant up to the leftthrough that notch in the ridge. "

This banter, coupled with the assurance that the girl knew exactly whatshe was about, cooled Lennon's excitement. His high strung nervesrelaxed. 

"No need to remind you I'm a tenderfoot, " he jibed at himself. "Comingup the caņon I've been shooting Apaches at every bend. "

The mirth left Carmena's face. Her lips straightened in hard lines andher eyes flashed. 

"It's no joke, " she said. "I'm right glad you're steadying down. If wemeet that bunch of bronchos, there's just one thing to do--shoot first. It'll be time enough to ask questions afterward. Is that clear?"

"Perfectly, Miss Farley. I have you to consider, and I presume nopeaceful Indians come into these bad lands. "

"Pimas and Moquis cut their hair square across the forehead. If you seeany others, shoot--to kill!"

"I will, " said Lennon, certain that he understood the cause of thegirl's almost fierce insistence. He knew that the treatment of capturedwomen by renegade Indians is a far worse fate than death. 

Carmena took note of his set jaw, drew in a deep breath, and swungaround to angle up the slope at the side of the caņon head. Half an hourof winding advance through the midst of the scraggly low-growing treesbrought them to the notch in the rim-ridge. Below this break the mesaside pitched steeply into a great basin that was blotched with whitealkali flats, wave-marked with sand dunes, and broken with jagged hillsand skeleton-like ridges. 

The air was so dry and clear that even far out in the Basin, many milesaway, Lennon could distinguish patches of green. Nearer at hand appearedblurs of a grayish vegetation. But at his pleased exclamation Carmenatold him that he was looking at no oasis. What he saw was only the greenof mesquite and palo verde, the fluted columns of the giant sahuaro, andthe gray of sagebrush. In all that wide waste of desolation notrickling rill or even the smallest of pools glinted under the fiercerays of the mid-day sun. 

Over beyond the north side of the Basin, above the lesser peaks andbuttes, appeared a higher mountain. The top, dwarfed by distance but asclear cut in outline as a cameo, was divided into three thick tower-likemasses. 

"There's your Triple Butte, " said Carmena. 

"What! So near as that? We can make it by mid-afternoon. "

The girl smiled. "You might, if you hurried enough. It's only fortymiles away on a beeline. "

Lennon stared, openly incredulous: "Forty miles?"

"Near fifty-five by way of the water-holes--forty to the ranch. We'llstrike for the nearest tank. I've noticed your canteen has been emptysome time. Here's mine. "

Though Lennon's throat was parched, he sought to refuse the offeredcanteen, which was still half full. Carmena dropped it at his feet andbegan to zigzag down the mesa side. 

Noon had passed before they gained the foot of the steep slope. Carmenafollowed out along a ridge of bare rock, past scattered growths ofthornscrub and cactus, to where windblown sand lay in sterile driftsalongside the ledges. Here she turned up a narrow cleft of the ridge andentered the mouth of a small cave. 

She knelt to dip her hat down a hole in the bottom of the cave. The hatcame up brimful of water. She drank deeply, refilled the hat, and backedout past Lennon to water the eager pony. 

"I'll thank you to fill the canteens and give the bronc as much more ashe can drink, " she directed. "There's firewood on around that point ofrocks. Keep your gun handy. "

Lennon was already drinking from a refilled canteen. He found thecliff-shaded water of the spring pure and deliciously cool. The wateringof the pony took no little time and patience. Though the beast was toothirsty to show any of his former skittishness, Lennon's sombrero wasleaky from the bullet holes. 

When at last he drove the pony on along Carmena's trail, he noticed tinycloudlets of dark smoke, like the puffs of a giant's pipe, risingstraight up in the still air from behind the point of rocks. By the timehe rounded the corner the smoke had thinned and lightened to an almostinvisible haze. 

A bright little fire of dry sticks was blazing in a sandy hollow. Carmena knelt beside it, leaning on the muzzle of her rifle. Her darkeyes were gazing off across the desert basin in a look that betrayedboth eagerness and dread. 

"Hello. Ready for the frying pan?" sang out Lennon. Then he perceivedthe tenseness of the girl's attitude and hastened to swing up his rifle. "What is it? Sighted another Apache?"

"No. But I put greasewood on the fire. You saw the smoke?"

"A few puffs--yes. "

The girl rose and eyed him somberly. 

"Few puffs, you say. .. . If that bunch of bronchos is anywhere withinfifteen miles--with a clear view this way--we can expect a visit. "

"Should we not cut and run?"

"Why? We couldn't hide our tracks. Even if the devils aren't mounted, they'd soon overtake us. An Indian can lope along all day, like acoyote. "

Lennon looked deliberately around at the ridge and sat down to clean andreload his rifle. Carmena's eyes flashed. 

"You've got the idea, " she said. "We'll eat and back up to the spring. The cave is an easy place to hold. You said you can shoot?"

"Rather well. Very long range rifle, too. I've knocked over a caribouwith it at nearly a mile, up on Hudson Bay. "

Carmena glanced at the high-power weapon and then raised her flashingeyes to gaze over the bent head of its owner. Midway out across thedesolate Basin, from the top of a craggy hill to the right of the lineof Triple Butte, puffs of smoke were rising into the cloudlesssteel-blue sky. 

The girl hastened to loosen her pony's pack and take from her saddlebagsa frying pan, several slices of bacon, and a big chunk of corn pone. 

CHAPTER III

THE GILA MONSTER

The bacon was ready almost as soon as Lennon's rifle. Carmena rose frombeside the embers of the fire with the pan and corn bread. 

"Fetch the canteens, " she directed. "We'll eat over here under thatoverhanging rock. "

But at the edge of the shade, below the outjutting cliff ledge, shestopped short with her gaze fixed upon an object close to thesand-sculptured wall of rock. 

"Ever see a Gila monster?" she queried. 

"No. You don't mean to say--really----"

Lennon had sprung forward beside her. His curious eyes at once perceivedthe hideous, thickset lizard that lay flattened upon the shadowed sandas if in a torpor. The reptile's dirty orange-mottled black body was asloathsome as its venomous blunt-nosed head. 

"Big specimen--almost two feet long, " remarked Carmena. "Hold on. Don'tshoot. That sure would tell the bronchos where we are. "

"But if we are to eat here?" questioned Lennon. "I don't fancy thecompany of this sweet wiggler--not that I believe the wild yarns aboutthem. All lizards are non-poisonous. No poison glands have ever beenfound in the mouth of these so-called monsters. "

"Just look and see, " rejoined the girl. "But look in the lower jaw. Trouble is, you science sharps expected to find hollow fangs and thesacs above, like a rattler's. Do you know why a Gila monster flops onhis back when he bites? It's to let the loose poison in his lower jawdrain into the hollow teeth. "

"Really?"

The girl faced him with a challenging look. 

"If they turn over, it's as bad as being struck by a six-footdiamond-back. They lock their jaws, and the poison---- But I've seen aman snap the head off one of those big snakes. Let's see if you have thenerve to toss this little lizard outside. "

Lennon's smile faded as he perceived that the girl was in sober earnest. Very naturally he hesitated. He was not given to bravado, and evenwithout her assertion that the reptile was deadly poisonous, he wouldhave loathed to touch so repulsive a creature. 

But there is no spur so galling as the derisive smile of a comely youngwoman. Lennon dropped his rifle, walked in beside the Gila monster, andsuddenly clutching the lizard in mid-body, flung it several yards outupon the sun-scorched sand. The girl's scorn gave place to a look ofgrave approval. 

"You'll do, " she said. "Fact is, they're so sluggish in the shade youdidn't run the slightest risk. You couldn't know that, though. Yes, you'll do. Only don't try playing with the fellow out there in the sun. The light livens them up. "

The advice was needless. Lennon felt quite ready to sit down beside thegirl and start eating, though he first rubbed his hands thoroughly inthe sand. Neither had much to say. They were alike intent uponsatisfying their keen hunger and keeping a sharp lookout against thechance of an attack. 

After a time Lennon noticed that the Gila monster had crawled up on alittle sand ridge in the full glare of the mid-day sun. It was viciouslysnapping its jaws and twitching its thick head from side to side. Carmena gave no heed to the angered reptile. She was gazing off towardthe jagged hill from which had risen the distant smoke puffs. 

As the girl finished her share of the hearty food she leaned sideways, with her ungloved hand on the sand at the edge of the cliff shadow. Likethe hand, her wrist was white and well rounded. She drew off her oldsombrero. 

Lennon's gaze lifted to the wealth of dark hair that lay coiled abouther shapely head. The girl was neither pretty nor beautiful, yet therewas a certain handsomeness about her strong features. 

Out of the tail of his eye Lennon caught a glimpse of a black and orangeblur streaking toward them over the hot sand. He had seen many dartinglizards that day. But none had moved more swiftly than the clumsilybuilt Gila monster now darted at the disturbers of his torpor. There wasno time for thought. Lennon sensed that the reptile aimed to strike atCarmena's bared wrist. 

"Jump!" he cried, and flung himself forward to block the attack with hisout-thrust right hand. 

An instant later the Gila monster snapped its gaping jaws together onthe fleshy edge of Lennon's palm. It whirled over upon its back. Caughtoutstretched and almost prone upon the ground, Lennon sought to wrenchhis hand free and draw away. The heavy lizard was dragged along with itscrooked legs futilely clawing the air. But its powerful jaws remainedclenched on the hand with bulldog tenacity. 

A voice shrilled in Lennon's ear: "Hold still! Hold still!"

Carmena stooped over the writhing monster to thrust the muzzle of asmall revolver against the side of its lower jaw. The bullet shatteredthe jaw and blew it half off. A vigorous kick hurled the now harmlessreptile aside. 

Lennon had started to raise himself to a sitting position. Carmena flungherself upon her knees and caught up his torn hand to her red lips. Shesucked hard at the wounds----

With the suddenness of a dropped veil, the hot, white glare of thedesert noon went black before Lennon's eyes. He sank down upon the sand, unconscious. 

When the light of returning life glimmered back into his brain, he firstwas dimly aware of a pale Madonna face that appeared to hover closeabove him. His clearing gaze gradually made out the girl's features. There was no colour even in her lips. Her eyes were wide with grief anddread. 

She saw the dawning consciousness in his eyes. 

"Jack!" she whispered--"Jack!--You haven't left me--you won't leave me!"

"Who--what's the matter?---- Oh, that----"

He sought to raise his right arm. It was strangely numb and heavy. Thegirl lifted it from her lap, where it had been lying. He saw that hersilk handkerchief had been knotted around his bared forearm and twistedvery tight with the barrel of the little revolver. From the tourniquetdown, the arm and wrist and hand were black, and beginning to swell. The lacerations torn in the side of the palm by the Gila monster'sfangs appeared to be clotted with purple blood. 

"I rubbed in snake medicine--permanganate of potash crystals, " quaveredthe girl. "That'll kill the poison and not hurt you a bit. You're allright now--only we'll have to ease off a little on your arm. Take somegood deep breaths. "

Though sick and giddy and still faint, Lennon forced himself to obey. Herallied sufficiently to sit up. Carmena loosened the tourniquet andbriskly rubbed his swollen hand and arm. The tingling pain of returningcirculation roused him like a stimulant. But the poison had not all beensucked from the wounds or counteracted in the veins by the permanganate. Before the girl could again twist tight the tourniquet he sank down forthe second time, unconscious. 

Out of the utter blankness of oblivion he first dreamed that he wasalternately swimming through a rough sea and rocking in a wave-tossedboat---- A gush of water dashed into his face--then the sea appeared tosolidify into dry sand. He became conscious that Carmena was violentlyrolling him from side to side and slapping his face. She paused in thispunishment to pump his arms above his head, forcing the air in and outof his lungs. 

He struggled feebly to free himself. The girl jerked him to a sittingposition and, with a desperate output of lithe strength, grasped hisbody from behind to heave him upright. He gained his feet, but was fartoo giddy to stand alone. The girl clasped his left arm about her neckand rushed him out beside the pony. 

"Brace up!" she breathlessly implored him. "Grip hold of his mane withyour good hand. We'll have to hit out. The broncs are coming. "

She ran back to snatch up Lennon's sombrero, the rifles and one of thecanteens. The other had been emptied into Lennon's face. Out again shedarted to clap the sombrero on his drenched head and steady him with ahand on the tourniquet. A guttural command started the pony off at awalk. The direction chosen by his mistress was northwest, aslant theBasin, almost at right angles to the jagged hill where she had seen thesmoke puffs. 

For a while Lennon tottered and reeled like a drunken man. Time andagain he stumbled and would have sunk down upon the hot sand but for theconvulsive clutch of his left hand on the pony's mane and the strongsupport of Carmena at his other side. He was giddy and nauseated andleaden-footed. Every step required an agonized effort of will power. 

Yet the exertion of walking proved the best of treatment for him. Before half a mile had been covered, his head had cleared and hisstrength was fast returning. To offset this benefit, his arm was nowblacker than ever and rapidly swelling. Carmena gave him a copious drinkfrom the canteen, hesitated, glanced toward the smoke hill, and came toa desperate decision. 

"We can't let that arm go, " she said. "The tie must come off. Get readyfor a rush. "

At her command, the pony quickened his pace to a jog trot. As they ranalong beside him Carmena untwisted her revolver from the tourniquet. This time Lennon did not lose consciousness. Either the remaining poisonhad been almost destroyed by the permanganate or else his previousreactions to the venom had rendered him partly immune. 

Though the nausea and giddiness again threatened to overcome him, thesupport of Carmena and her pony kept him steadied. Very soon the rununder the hot sun had him panting for breath. His highly oxygenizedblood gushed through his arteries in a veritable stream of life. Hisface glistened with a profuse sweat. 

Carmena held to the pace until he fell down, gasping for water andcompletely exhausted. The wonder was that he had been able to do so muchafter the terrible shock of the Gila monster poison. They had come intothe midst of scattered mesquite trees, which offered a degree of cover. Carmena first tied up the pony, then opened the half gallon canteen forLennon. 

While he sought to quench his fierce thirst, she hastily threw off thepony's loosened pack. Silk tent, blankets, prospector's tools, packsacks, bacon, flour--all were discarded. From her saddlebags shedumped half of her own bacon and all but a pint of cornmeal. Into itsplace she slipped the half dozen sticks of dynamite, with their fusesand caps. 

One of Lennon's full gallon canteens was slung to the saddlehorn, opposite the horsehair rope. From its mate the girl refilled the smallercanteen, which Lennon had already more than half emptied. She took adeep drink and then carefully closed both canteens. 

"Sorry, but we must cut it close on water, " she said. "The bronchos haveus headed off from the other tanks. With your hand useless, we can'tfight. We'll have to swing around through the dry side of the Basin. Notime to lose! They'll be on our trail before long. "

Lennon sprang to his feet. 

"Mount your horse and ride as fast as you can, " he ordered. "I'll trotalong after you. Don't bother about me. I can shoot well enoughleft-handed to hold off the beggars until dark. "

Carmena suddenly came close to him, her eyes aglow with soft radiance. She caught up his injured hand. It was still swollen and bleeding, butthe purple-black discoloration had lightened to red; her deft fingerstore a strip from her handkerchief and bound up the ragged wounds. 

"There. Now you'll get on and ride, " she said. "You don't suppose I'llleave you to those devils, after you saved my life!"

"But it is you who have saved mine, Miss Farley. "

"To say that--when you jammed your hand into the monster's mouth! If hehad bit me I'd have had no show at all. You didn't know how to treat thepoison. No. Either the bronchos will get us both, or we're going to winthrough to the ranch together. "

"But, Miss Farley----"

The heat-flush in the girl's tanned cheeks deepened to rose. 

"I never before knew a man like you, Jack. Won't you call me Carmena?"

The candid directness of this rather took Lennon's breath. But the girlwas of the desert--efficient, resolute, crude in dress, yet richcoloured as the bloom of the red-flowered cactus. She had saved himfrom the horrible death of the Gila monster's poison and was now intentupon saving him from even worse fate at the hands of the murderousApaches. 

He caught up her willing hand in an eager clasp. 

"Carmena!--To have a girl like you for pal--it's simply ripping!"

"Pal?" she repeated the word after him, as if not quite certain of itsmeaning. "Oh, you mean pard. Yes, we're partners now--for this deal atleast--whether it means life or death. "

CHAPTER IV

PARDS IN PERIL

As Lennon's clasp relaxed, the girl's tightened. She drew him toward thepony. 

"You've got to ride, " she said. "You can't stand the pace. That poisonis no joke. Don't want to hold me back, do you?"

The question overcame Lennon's reluctance. The girl had refused to leavehim, and she was right about the poison. He could endure the severe painof his wounded hand, but he was still weak and badly shaken from theeffects of the venom. Unless he rode he would be a drag upon her. 

"Very well, " he agreed, and he permitted her to help him clamber up intothe saddle. 

No time was lost over lengthening the stirrup leathers. Carmena handedhim his rifle and the half-emptied gallon canteen, caught up the smallone and her own rifle, and started off in lead of the pony. Her easyswinging stride, though seemingly unhurried, covered the ground fasterthan the pony could walk. Every little while the animal had to breakinto a jog to catch up with her. 

At the far end of the scattered mesquite growth Carmena edged off to theleft, down a shallow wash that brought them around to the west side of aridge. Under cover of the gaunt earth-rib of worn rock she headed north, straight for the distant towers of Triple Butte. 

The deceptive green of occasional palo-verde bushes now gave place tothe columns of the giant sahuaro. The fluted, leafless stems of thesehigh-towering cactus candelabras bristled with fierce thorns, yet eachwas crowned with the glory of a gorgeous foot-wide blossom. 

Over the loose hot sand, amidst this shadeless mockery of a forest, Carmena swung steadily along at her graceful stride. Her movementsseemed as lacking in effort as the lope of a coyote or the bound of acat. Lennon would not have realized how greatly she was exerting herselfhad he not seen how frequently she drank from her canteen. 

No one of white blood, however thoroughly inured to thirst, can walkfast under the blistering sun, in the bone-dry air of the desert, without need of much water. Lennon, though riding, was no less parchedthan the girl. He was fresh from a moist climate, and the Gila monsterpoison had put him into a feverish condition. Hard as he tried, he couldnot resist drinking. His canteen was emptied even sooner thanCarmena's. 

This was little past mid-afternoon. They had left the sahuaros behindand were coming down among widely scattered salt bushes to the border ofan utterly barren alkali flat. For the first time since the stop in themesquite, Carmena halted her quick advance. But it was not to rest. Thefeverish crimson of Lennon's face sobered her reassuring smile. Shepeered searchingly back along the trail, glanced at the sun, and hastilytransferred to their empty canteens all but a quart from the fullcanteen on the saddlehorn. 

"We've got to make it last till sundown, Jack, " she warned. "Then, ifonly we can hold our lead, we'll be able to keep going all night. "

Lennon drew out two half dollars. "How about trying these in ourmouths?"

"They'll help, " she replied, and she took one. "Be ready to tie yourneckerchief over your nose, soon as we strike the alkali. "

The wisdom of this advice was evident when they started out across thesnow-white flat. Every step stirred up clouds of alkali dust that hungabout the fugitives like thick smoke. The impalpable powder penetratedtheir clothes, smarted in their eyes, and all but choked them, evenbehind the veiling neckerchiefs. 

Before they had half crossed the fearful dust flat Carmena was walkingas slowly as the pony. At the far side she sank down beside athick-stemmed cactus. Lennon, half delirious from fever, sought tospring off, with the vague idea of forcing her to ride. He succeededonly in tumbling upon the sand. The startled pony shied clear. With asmothered cry, Carmena leaped up to grasp his bridle. 

"Close call!" she gasped at Lennon. "If he'd made off--no show for us atall. "

Lennon was too far gone for speech. His canteen was already half empty. Carmena gave him a sip from her own and dragged him around until hishead lay in the small blot of shade made by a cactus stem. Half an hourpassed before he was able to get back into the saddle. But the restappeared to have fully restored the girl's strength. She set off at apace that again forced the pony into an occasional jog. 

After a time the sheltering ridge ran down into the sandy level of thedesert. Yet Carmena continued to find a route protected by inequalitiesof the ground or by growths of cactus and thorn scrub from any eyes thatmight be peering across the Basin. As the sun sank nearer to the westernrim of buttes and mesas she kept an ever closer watch to the rear. Herown and Lennon's canteens were again empty and her seemingly tirelessstride was at last beginning to flag. 

By the time the lower edge of the sun touched the rim of the Basin thefugitives had come opposite a long range of broken hills. Carmenadragged herself wearily up over an out-thrust spur ridge. Lennon wasswaying in the saddle, and his tongue, like hers, had begun to swell. But the girl did not offer to open the canteen on the saddlehorn. 

At the top of the ridge she hurried the pony down below the skyline andcrept back to peer over a ledge. Far to the rear, across theshadow-streaked waste, her anxious eyes sighted a group of moving dots. She ran to seize the pony's bridle and urge him into a jog. 

"Must hurry!" she rasped in a thirst-harshened voice. "They're trailingus--on the lope!"

The alarm shocked Lennon out of his semi-delirium. His relaxing grip onthe rifle tightened. He straightened in the saddle. Carmena did not lookback at him. She was turning into the mouth of a wash that appeared tohead over toward the far side of the hills. Half a mile up the wash thegravelly bottom changed to loose stones. Carmena smashed the smallercanteen and tossed it off to one side. 

Some distance farther along the footing became all rock. Carmena stoppedon a flat ledge and flung the big canteen she was carrying as far as shecould up the arroyo. She then changed from her boots to the long-leggedmoccasins that she had hidden in one of the saddlebags. No less hastilyshe cut strips from the Navaho saddleblanket to tie over the pony'slightly shod hoofs. 

The sun had now been down for several minutes, and the clear deserttwilight was beginning to fade. Carmena turned the pony and carefullyled him at an easy angle up a flight of solid step ledges on the side ofthe arroyo. Half circling a hill, she descended another arroyo that rannorthwest, back down into the level desert. 

By the time the edge of the broken ground had been reached dusk wasdeepening into night. Carmena halted and eased Lennon down out of thesaddle. Water, trickled a few drops at a time between his cracked lips, gradually soothed his swollen tongue and parched throat. His fever wasalready subsiding in the coolness of nightfall. 

Carmena gave him almost half of the remaining quart of water. A halfpint more she used to rinse her own mouth and moisten the nostrils ofthe pony. The few sips left were held in reserve. 

Scant as was the water ration, it enabled both the girl and Lennon tosuck at lumps of raw bacon. They lay silently mouthing and chewing thegreasy fat, their rifles ready and their ears alert for the slightestthud of approaching hoofs. But no sound broke the deathlike stillness ofthe desert night. 

"Looks like we fooled 'em, " whispered Carmena. "They must have found thecanteens--figured we'd gone desperate with thirst and headed on acrossfor the nearest water hole. Can you mount again?"

Lennon dragged himself to his feet. 

"You're wonderful!" he murmured. "If you'd leave me here--I'm only adrag. You could ride at a gallop----"

She grasped his arm and pushed him around beside the horse. 

"Don't be looney. We can go all night without a drop. Count on me toout-travel the pony till sun-up. Get on. You don't suppose I'm goingback on my pard, do you?"

There was no room for argument. Lennon's condition was still so seriousthat she had to help him into the saddle. With the pony in lead, she setout straight toward the North Star. 

Before many miles Lennon caught himself lapsing into a doze. He hadalmost dropped his rifle. To make certain against its loss, he thrust itinto his cartridge belt like a pistol. After this he drowsed off againinto a half torpor of sleep and exhaustion. Some automatic functioningof his subconscious mind kept him balanced in the saddle. 

When at last he roused from the stupor it was to a miserablerealization of pain and weariness and cold. A bleak gray light wasfiltering over the eastern rim of mesas down into the blackness of theBasin. Dry as was this land of desolation, it was not so utterly arid asthe sea-level deserts of the lower Colorado. 

Lennon shivered and forced open his heavy eyelids. He first made out thebowed figure of Carmena plodding along, with one backward-dragged handnoosed in the reins of the weary pony. The gray light graduallybrightened. He saw that the girl was swaying, almost staggering. Heforced out a hoarse cry:

"Stop!"

The call broke the hypnotic spell of motion that alone had enabled thegirl to keep placing one leaden foot before the other. She tottered andsank down and lay still. Lennon dropped out of the saddle to bend overher. Like the knees of the pony, the girl's moccasins were torn with thethorns of cacti and desert bushes, against which they had struck in thedark. 

She had not fainted. Her dark eyes gazed up at Lennon, wide with ananguish of self-reproach. 

"Used up--can't make it, " she whispered. "No chance for both--aftersun-up. Ride hard toward Triple Butte. "

Lennon's reply was to open the canteen and hold it to her lips. Only afew drops were left when she managed to thrust it away. He put hisuninjured arm about her slender waist and lifted her to her feet. 

"Ride--your turn, " he commanded. "I walk. Never say die!"

Her sunken eyes lighted with a faint glow. A last flicker of strengthenabled her, with his help, to pull herself into the saddle. Lennoncaught up her rifle and started off toward Triple Butte in desperatehaste. 

An hour after sunrise found him still staggering forward almost at a dogtrot. The northern border mesas of the Basin were now only a shortdistance ahead. But already his swollen tongue was beginning to blackenin his mouth. When at last he came to the foot of the lower mesa hecould barely totter. 

Carmena rode up alongside. She huskily whispered for him to hand overher rifle and grasp the stirrup leather. He had not dragged along besidethe pony more than a hundred paces when a jerk on the reins headed theweary beast around into the mouth of a broad caņon. Carmena uttered asharp cry and pointed ahead. Near the base of the canon wall a darkpatch on the ledges was shimmering in the sunrays. 

Hope flared high in the hearts of the perishing fugitives--only toflicker and die out again in utter despair. The black patch waswater--a tiny spring that seeped from a horizontal crevice between thestratas of rock--but its trickle was spread out in a paper-thin sheetdown the sloping lower ledges. At their foot it vanished in the dry sandof the caņon bed. 

They could cool their swollen tongues and so obtain temporary relieffrom their suffering. But they could not suck up enough water to quenchtheir terrible thirst. Nor could they collect in the canteen even a gillof water to take with them. 

Lennon, however, was an engineer. Even while hope fled from him, hiseyes were peering around with the scrutiny of a trained observer andthinker. 

His roving gaze fixed upon a bank a little way out from the caņon mouth. He staggered down to it and came back with a handful of dry clay. Thishe spread out upon the least tilted of the wet ledges. By patting andscraping he soon had a little ball that kneaded like putty in his eagerfingers. 

Carmena already had perceived his purpose and was hurrying to fetch aheaping hatful of the dry clay. Before many minutes they had built alittle concave dam, in which the down-seeping water slowly but steadilycollected. 

When at last they had quenched their thirst Lennon took his rifle andwent to sit under a shady ledge where he could look out into the Basin. Carmena lingered at the spring to water the pony and fill the canteen. She then gave all the cornmeal to the beast and brought slices of rawbacon to share with Lennon. 

He clasped the hand in which she held out his first slice. 

"So we made it, after all. Good work?"

"Yes, we made it, Jack!" she exulted. "Close shave--but worth the risk. I know now for sure you're a man, a real man!"

Her glowing eyes brought a deeper red into Lennon's sunburnt face. 

"I'm still pretty much of a tenderfoot, " he protested. "And there's thisgame arm. I'd rather run than fight. "

The girl smiled. 

"That's all right till you get back the use of your hand. But it won'thurt to show those bronchos the range of your rifle. They're coming abit too fast to suit us. "

Lennon stared out across the open plain. Rather more than a mile away adozen or more riders were loping along the trail of the fugitives. 

The sights slid up on Lennon's rifle. He put the butt to his leftshoulder and rested the barrel across a rock. The first bullet raised apuff of dust a little to the left of the Indians. The second must haveshrieked close over their heads. They wheeled their ponies and scatteredout in fanlike formation. 

Lennon's fourth shot caught one of the ponies broadside. The beasttumbled over and lay motionless. Its rider dashed behind a cactus. Therest of the Apaches wrenched their ponies about and raced to get backbeyond range. They had not bargained on a rifle that could shoot so far. A renegade prefers to kill without risk to himself. 

"That's enough, " chuckled Carmena. "There's no cover for 'em unless theycrawl up afoot. Some will ride around and climb the mesa. Time we weremoving. Come on. We'll beat 'em into the Hole. "

Lennon elevated his rifle and sent a parting shot over the heads of thefleeing riders. When he came running back into the caņon mouth Carmenahad the canteen swung to the saddlehorn and was lacing on her boots, inplace of the torn moccasins. 

After a last deep drink from the pool and another sombreroful for thepony, the little dam was carefully scraped off the ledge and the claycovered with a loose boulder. The Apaches would be able to lap the wetstone but not to drink. They were not engineers or dam builders. 

CHAPTER V

DEAD HOLE

The race up the caņon was far different from the terrible flight of theprevious day and the misery of the night. The cool spring water had beenvery refreshing, lofty cliffs shadowed the caņon bed from the hotmorning sunrays, and the pain of Lennon's lacerated hand had eased to adull ache. He took turn about with Carmena, riding and running. 

The caņon bottom was fairly smooth. For more than an hour the fugitivesraced up the great cleft between the towering precipices and past narrowside caņons. At last they came to a break in the sheer walls. The cliffon the right leaned back in a series of terraces that formed a brokengiant stairway to the top of the mesa. 

Carmena led the pony up a sloping shelf ledge. The line of ascent pickedout by her practised eye proved unexpectedly easy. As they climbed insteep zigzags from terrace to terrace Lennon trailed behind. Carmenanoticed his frequent glances down into the caņon bottom. 

"Don't worry, " she said. "They didn't rush the caņon mouth--theycrawled. If any circled and climbed the mesa, the side caņons cut 'emoff from us. We'll beat 'em to the Hole. "

"The Hole--we'll find help there?" queried Lennon. 

"Slade is away. But I figure we'll be safe enough, once we get in. There's Dad and--my sister. "

"If they are at all like you, Carmena!"

The girl paused on a ledge to gaze down at him with a somber, cloudedlook that brightened into a tender smile. 

"Elsie is as much like me as a lily is like a cactus. No thorns about_her_. She's cuddlier than a kitten. Eyes bluer than forget-me-nots, Jack; hair yellow as corn silk. She's only eighteen and sweet as honey. "

"I'm picturing an angel, " bantered Lennon. "Your father must be a fineman to have two such daughters. "

The flush in the girl's tanned cheeks deepened. But the soft glow of hereyes faded and left them dull and haggard. 

"Dad's been unlucky all 'round, " she murmured. "Not his fault, either. He came West for his health--almost died--one lung gone. "

"Hard lines, " sympathized Lennon. "Ranch work can't be easy for a sickman. "

The girl climbed to another terrace before she replied:

"That's not the worst of it. Slade came six years ago--when we werestarving. Dad got in with him. He can't break loose. If only we couldget away, Dad would be all right. "

"Yes?" said Lennon. 

Carmena remained silent until he came panting up after her to the top ofthe steepest ascent. While he paused to catch his breath she opened thecanteen. They were by now badly in need of a drink. Before starting onup the ledges she met Lennon's smiling gaze with a look of tremulousappeal. 

"Dad used to be a lawyer, " she faltered. "If only you'll try to like himand--and help. "

"Of course!" exclaimed Lennon. "Aren't we pals? You're pulling methrough this scrape. Perhaps I can pull him out of his hole. You calledit Dead Hole, didn't you?"

"Yes, " murmured the girl. "That's the name and--it fits. "

"You've stood by me. I'll stand by you, " Lennon pledged himself. "We'lllook for that copper mine together. I'm working for a big coppersyndicate. If I relocate the mine I am to receive twenty thousand incash and ten per cent. Of the stock. Your half of the cash should pullyour dad out of his hole. "

The girl's eyes dilated. 

"Don't--don't tell Dad!" she gasped. "It's not the money I want. Youdon't sabe. Promise you won't say a word to Dad about the money--or themine?"

"Why, if you do not wish me----"

"Not a word--not the barest hint! Promise!"

"Very well. Only----"

"You'll learn all too soon!" she murmured, and she started quickly upthe last ascent. 

When they rounded the brink, twelve hundred feet above the caņon bed, the girl did not linger to talk. She dropped the pony's reins andstarted off at a jog across the hot, level, cedar-dotted top of themesa. 

Lennon galloped ahead of her, tied the pony, and ran on afoot. Carmenacopied the maneuver. In this manner, taking turn about, they covered theground almost as fast as if both had been mounted. As each drank fromthe canteen at every stop and Carmena twice wet the nostrils of thepony, none was yet exhausted when, at the end of five or six miles, thegirl headed down into a quickly narrowing valley. 

The funnel-shaped trough pinched to a steep chute between precipicesthat leaned closer together overhead the deeper the fugitives descended. The bed of the narrow mountain crack became even more steep. In placesthe pony had to jump like a goat down five and six-foot ledges. Time andagain he slid on his haunches. At the worst place of all the beast wassaved from certain destruction only by snubbing his horsehair picketrope around a corner of rock and so easing his descent to betterfooting. 

But, as Carmena remarked, the steeper the grade the sooner it was ended. They came down into the bottom of the lower caņon, bruised and exhaustedbut with no bones broken. 

"Almost there, " panted Carmena, and she reeled ahead along theboulder-strewn bed of the chasm. 

At the second turn the cliff ended in a vertical slit-glare of sunlight. The pony whinnied. Carmena led the way out into an oval cliff-walledvalley, two or three miles long and half as broad. 

First to strike Lennon's desert-starved eyes was the vivid gratefulverdure of irrigated cornfields. Beyond, in browning hay meadows, grazeda herd of cattle and twenty or thirty head of horses. Three quarters ofa mile to the left, in a cavity forty feet up the rock wall and wellunder an overhang of the towering precipices, nestled a group of stoneruins. 

Lennon pointed toward the ancient buildings. 

"Cliff dwellings, I take it. "

"Yes--I told Elsie to be ready with the ladder. We'll make it in timefor the call of Cochise. "

Before Lennon could inquire the meaning of this, she sprang upon thepony and loped along the cliff foot toward the cliff ruins. As Lennonjogged after her he saw a rope ladder slide down the under cliff, followed by a rope reeved through a crane that thrust out from anotheropening in the faįade of the cliff building. 

Carmena's saddle and bags, saddle blanket and rifle, and thecanteen--all were fast to the hoisting rope when Lennon came staggeringand panting up beside the girl. She pointed toward the head of thevalley and caught the rifle from him to tie it on the load. 

"A miss is as good as a mile, " she said. "We'll just have time to getup. Cochise and Pete must have ridden over around and come down HellCaņon. Ours was Devil's Chute. "

Lennon frowned at the pair of riders who were racing swiftly down aslantfrom the head of the valley. 

"We'll be ready to pick them off, " he said. "There's no cover underhere. "

"Too late for that, " sighed Carmena. "Dad won't let us. Besides--Pete----"

"But when the murderers have tried to kill you!--And they'll steal allhis cattle. "

The girl winced and looked down. 

"No. You see Dad--he is friends with all the--Indians hereabouts. I'llbe safe enough now, soon as Cochise cools off. It's only a question ofyou. "

"I see!" exclaimed Lennon. "You know the renegades. You would have beensafe at the first. You have risked your own life just to save mine. I'llnever forget that, Carmena. "

"If only--if only you'll remember--when you know!" she whispered, andshe turned to start up the rope ladder. 

As Lennon stepped forward after her he noticed that the saddle load hadalready been hoisted above his reach and was rapidly going higher. 

A rope ladder draped upon the face of a smooth rock wall and unfastenedbelow is at best not easy to climb. Lennon had to crook his right elbowthrough the rungs to get any use of his injured arm. But the ridersracing swiftly across the head of the valley would soon be within shortrifle range. Lennon's left hand was only a few rungs below Carmena'sboot heels all the way up the ladder. 

At the top the girl pulled herself in over the worn stone sill of amassive-walled doorway. As Lennon scrambled up and through the deepentrance after her he glimpsed a thin gray face, with bleary red eyesand loose lips, leering at him out of the darkness of an inner room. 

To the right, a little way back from the next opening, a smallfair-haired girl was rapidly winding in on a miner's windlass. Shestopped to tug at a rope. The crane swung around into the entrance withthe saddle and rifles. 

Carmena had already faced about to haul the ladder up the cliff. Lennoncaught hold with his left hand to help her. They had gathered in lessthan ten yards when a bullet whizzed between their heads and splatteredon the stone wall at the rear of the room. Carmena hooked the ladderover a peg at the side of the doorway and forcibly dragged Lennon out ofthe opening. 

Two more bullets whizzed in, one of them angling up close over the sill. Had it come a moment sooner Lennon must have been struck. Carmena's handshook and her voice quavered, though she sought to speak in anunconcerned tone:

"That's warmer than I expected at this stage of the game. Guess Cochiseis feeling pretty bad in his heart. We'll have to let him cool downawhile. "

"Why not return his compliments?" suggested Lennon. "We can easily pickoff both of the devils without exposing ourselves. "

"And get the rest of the bunch down on us! No, Jack, they've got usholed up. We might slip away before the others came but they'd make aclean sweep of the stock and everything else. Come and meet Elsie. Cochise will soon tire of wasting cartridges. "

CHAPTER VI

HER FOLKS

The fair-haired girl was cowering behind the massive front wall of thecliff house. At every shot from the rifles of the infuriated Apaches shecrouched lower. Carmena held out reassuring arms to her. 

"There, there, Blossom, " she soothed. "You've no need to be scared. "

The trembler sprang to clasp the neck of the older girl. 

"Oh, Mena, Mena!" she sobbed. "I'm so glad you're back! It's been awful!Dad had one of his spells; and now, with Cochise angry----"

"We'll manage him--never fear. He's stopped shooting already. Quit yourshaking. I don't want Jack to think you a silly little rabbit. "

For the first time the panic-stricken girl appeared to realize thatLennon was a stranger. She lifted her head from Carmena's bosom to stareat him with innocent childish wonderment. Her piquant little face wasflowerlike in its delicate contours and apricot tinting; her big blueeyes were the pure intense blue of alpine forget-me-nots. No line of herpretty face bore the slightest resemblance to Carmena's comely butstrong features. 

"O-o-oh!" she voiced her amazement. "He's new--and he's white!"

"Yes, but he and I are pards, " Carmena reassured her. "Shake hands. Hehas come to help us. "

"To help us?" The young girl held out a timid hand. "You--you won't sidewith Cochise? You won't let him take me?"

"'Course he won't, " put in Carmena. "Didn't I tell you we're pards? Hisname is Jack Lennon, and he's a real man. "

Lennon was pressing the soft little hand of the younger girl. 

"So you are Sister Elsie, " he said. "Carmena is right. I will not sidewith Cochise--if that's our hot friend down below. "

The girl's rosebud lips parted in a smile of wondering delight. 

"You called me sister! Then you'll be my brother--my Brother Jack!"

Lennon was astonished that any girl more than fourteen could be sonaīve. Yet the effect was more than charming. 

"I'll be only too happy, if Carmena has no objection. "

He glanced up into the face of the older girl and surprised a look notmeant for him to see. As the down-drooping lashes veiled her dark eyes adeep blush glowed under the tan of her dust-grimed, haggard face. Therealization of the meaning of that blush and glance sobered Lennon. 

The girl had known him a scant seven-and-twenty hours. But in that fullday had been packed more intense peril and emotion than many couplesshare in a lifetime. He had saved her and she him. Together they hadsuffered agonies of thirst and exhaustion, and together they had cheatedthe murderous Apaches. Even now, down beneath them at the foot of thisancient cliff refuge, the leader of the renegades was futilely cursing. 

Lennon was a white man, and he had proved himself not a quitter. Thegirl had been overwrought by their terrible flight. That she shouldfancy herself beginning to fall in love with him was quiteunderstandable. The discovery of the fact set his jaded nerves totingling with a pleasant thrill even as he realized the awkwardness ofthe situation. 

By way of diversion, he stepped around to take his rifle from thesaddle. As he straightened up with it the muzzle of a double-barreledshotgun thrust out at him from a small slit window in the end wall ofthe room. Behind the gun, framed deep by the thick stone of the windowcasing, he saw the leering gray face that he had first caught a glimpseof in another opening at the opposite end of the room. 

A thin dry voice that was shrill with fear snarled at him:

"Hands up! Drop that gun!"

Carmena flung herself between Lennon and the threatening muzzle. 

"Don't shoot, Dad! He's a friend!" she cried. 

Over her shoulder Lennon saw the reddened eyes blink and the muscles ofthe gray face twitch. The muzzle of the shotgun wavered. 

"Put your gun down, Dad, " Carmena ordered. "Mr. Lennon and I arepartners. Come out here and meet him. "

Both face and gun disappeared. After several moments a smallishgray-haired man shuffled out through the doorway on the right of thewindow and scurried across the opening into which the crane had swungits load. As he unbent his emaciated body to face the visitor his breathwas heavy with the fumes of whiskey. 

Lennon knew without looking that Carmena's eyes were fixed upon him inmute appeal. He had given her his promise to help her father. There wasno betrayal of repugnance in the friendly offer of his hand. 

"My name is Lennon, Mr. Farley. Your daughter tells me you were alawyer. I'm a professional man myself--engineer. "

Farley stiffened to a show of dignity. 

"I am still a lawyer, " he rasped. "I must stipulate that you arereceived here with reservations. Your presence is a trespass. This ranchis private property and----"

"All right, Dad. That lets you out with Slade and Cochise, " interruptedCarmena. "We'll all bear witness. Come in now. We're both half dead forwant of food and sleep. Those devils ran us clear across the Basin. "

Lennon glanced at his rifle. 

"How about the two below?"

"We might send down a pie to them, " suggested the timid Elsie. "Thatwould make Cochise feel better. "

To the vast surprise of Lennon Carmena took this preposterous proposalseriously. 

"All right, Blossom. But not a drop of tizwin, mind. This way, Jack. "

The doorway opened into a large living-room, homelike with bright-huedNavaho rugs, a quantity of cliff-dweller pottery, and a sufficiency ofheavy, comfortable furniture hewn out of cedar. The chairs were seatedand backed with tightly stretched rawhide. Several artistic picturesfrom periodicals were pasted on the stone walls. In one corner a pot wasboiling over a charcoal brazier. 

As the fair-haired Elsie thrust a big pie into a loop-handled basket andhurried out, Carmena fetched two large bowls brimming with soup. Whileher back was turned Farley winked leeringly at the visitor and offeredhim a half-emptied whiskey flask. Carmena was in time to see Lennonrefuse the drink. Her fatigue-bent shoulders straightened to adeep-drawn breath, and her sunken eyes glowed softly. 

Cool water from a sweating jar and rich meat broth thickened with beansand corn were, at last, equal to the task of satisfying even so ravenousa hunger and thirst as Lennon's. Elsie had come back with her basketempty. She set to waiting upon Carmena and "Brother Jack" with shydelight. 

The other visitors, down below, evidently had not been displeased by thegift of the pie. There was no resumption of the firing. Lennon felt thathe understood the reason, when the girl divided another pie between himand Carmena. It was made of dewberries, sweetened with honey. 

Lennon found his eyelids beginning to droop. At a word from Carmena, Farley led him to a cool dark inner room. He curtly pointed out a rudebed-frame across which had been stretched a rawhide. Lennon fell asleepthe moment he lay down upon the elastic bed. 

CHAPTER VII

CRAFT AND CRUELTY

When Lennon wakened he was at first so stiff and sore that he couldhardly turn over. Yet his strength had in good part returned to him, andhe was aware of a grateful feeling of refreshment and well-being. 

Someone had covered him over with a finely woven old Navaho rug. Inpushing it off he noticed a fresh bandage on his wounded hand and thearm above. Under the cloth was an aromatic resinous salve. He nextdiscovered that his boots and socks had been taken off and his badlyblistered feet washed and treated with a healing powder. 

He sat up on the side of the bedstead. Before him stood a chair drapedwith a towel and a change of coarse, but clean clothes. On theclean-swept floor were a pair of soft moccasins, a dishpan, a bar ofsoap, and a large jar of water. 

When he limped out of his bedroom he had "tubbed" himself as thoroughlyas an Englishman and felt as ravenous as a wolf. Elsie was alone in theliving room, deftly handling pots and pans on the charcoal brazier. 

"Good morning, " he hailed. "Glad I'm just in time for breakfast. "

The girl upturned her wide blue eyes to him in a look of shy delight. 

"I heard you splashing about and I hustled, " she replied. "But it's notbreakfast--it's dinner. "

"So early as this?"

"So late! You've slept all the rest of yesterday and all night and allmorning. I thought you'd never wake. Sit down. "

"How about the others?"

"Oh, Dad just nibbles when he has his tizwin spells, and Mena ate hersmid-morning. "

The table top had been scrubbed. Lennon sat down at the nearest cornerand fell to on the omelette and fried chicken, cream cheese, salad, cornbread and honey that she set before him. The food was all served inbowls and jugs of quaintly beautiful ancient cliff-dweller pottery. 

"There's no cream for your coffee, " the girl apologized. "The milksoured. Mena was asleep, and I dassn't go down to the goats alone. Cochise has come back with all the bunch. Dad was cross not to getcream. He's cranky over his food. "

"You say those red devils are all down there?"

The girl cringed. 

"Don't--don't speak so loud. Cochise might hear you. He's stoppedswearing. I lowered a whole basketful of pies to them. Carmena isgetting ready to give him a big talking to. She--she won't let them getus. "

"That's good news, " rallied Lennon. 

For the first time he was able to look away from his food long enough tonotice that Elsie was wearing a fresh pretty frock of blue-dottedcalico. He smiled at her amusedly. 

"Didn't you promise to be a sister to me--or something like that? Whynot sit down with me and celebrate our escape?"

The girl clasped her hands together in childlike delight. 

"Oh, do you want me to be, really and truly? Only I don't know how toact to a brother. Sisters are different. They kiss eachother--sometimes. If you don't mind, I'll just sit and watch. I had minewith Mena. "

With unconscious grace, she perched on the edge of the table. 

"You eat ever so much nicer than Cochise. "

"I should hope so--a wild Indian!"

"But he isn't. He's educated--he went to the Reservation school. Heknows a whole lot. That's why he's never been sent up. They caught himonly once. But Dad got him off. Dad's a lawyer, you know. He didn't wantto go out and leave us, but he's so scarey he does everything Sladetells him. "

Lennon recalled Carmena's plea for him to help her father and sister. Hethought he understood the situation. 

"So this Slade and the Indians are keeping all of you prisoners, here inthe Hole, are they? Yet Carmena got out. Why hasn't she taken you andyour Dad?"

Elsie's big blue eyes rounded. 

"But they won't let us out--only one at a time, and I'm 'fraid to goalone, 'cause of Cochise. Besides, the Hole is Dad's ranch. He won'tgive it up and Slade keeps promising him his share of the profits, andit's a mighty flourishing business. "

"What, farming in a place like this?"

"Course not. That's just for fodder. We're stockholders, Dad says. Wecon--conduct a stock exchange. Slade sells what the bunch maverick andbrand-blot. "

The terms brought no enlightenment to Lennon. He was from the Atlanticcoast. 

"You mean they deal in cattle?" he inquired. 

"Cattle and horses--and tizwin, " added Elsie, screwing up her lusciouslittle mouth over the last word as if it had a bad taste. 

Lennon caught a half glimmer of the truth. But the girl's thoughts hadflitted butterfly-fashion----

"I hope your feet don't hurt. Mena's were even rawer--awful bad. Shejust couldn't help crying when I sopped them with the tizwin. She saysthat's all it's good for. _I_ never knew her to cry before. But you weretoo dead asleep to feel the smart. I'll have your boots oiled and yourclothes cleaned before you need 'em. "

Quite naturally, Lennon inferred from this chatter that Elsie had firstmade Carmena comfortable and then, with innocent concern for him, hadventured into his room alone to treat his injured hand and feet. 

He laid down his fork to clasp one of her plump, capable little handswith grateful warmth. 

"It was most kind of you, Elsie, to care for my injuries. "

The grown-up child beamed at him radiantly. 

"I think you awful nice, Jack! I just knew I'd like you, the minute Iset eyes on you. "

"My word!--when I looked like a dying tramp, " teased Lennon. 

Carmena had not exaggerated. Elsie was sweet as honey and cuddlier thana kitten. He felt tempted to put a finger under her dainty up-tiltedchin. 

"Now that I look more like a matinee idol, just how much more do youlike me?" he bantered. 

"Oh, heaps more than I liked the first pard Mena brought in. He was acowman, and after they made him pay a whole lot to get loose, Mena setCochise on him 'cause he wanted me to go away to live with him--likeSlade. They filled him up with tizwin and left him out in the middle ofthe Basin, with only tizwin in his canteen. Mena said it served himright and dead men tell no tales. "

Lennon stiffened. 

"You can't mean to say your father and sister were parties to such anoutrage--that they helped to rob a man and then abandon him to die ofthirst?"

"Why not?" demanded Elsie, with unexpected spirit. "He wasn't what Menathought him. He was a _bad_ cowman. He wanted to bring his bunch andshoot up the Hole and kill us all and make me go with him. You see howit was, don't you?"

"Yes, " agreed Lennon, certain that he understood. 

His surmise was that Carmena had sought help from a neighbouringrancher, and the man had proved himself a scoundrel. Elsie had notmentioned any proposal of marriage. Whatever the lawlessness ofFarley's Indian associates, they had apparently put the guilty man toransom and then turned him loose to die in the desert, merely by way ofvengeance for his attempted wrong against the girl. 

Yet both of the girls had given out that the partnership with theApaches and the unknown Slade was by no means satisfactory. Farleyfeared his associates, and they would permit him and Carmena to leavethe Hole only one at a time. 

On the other hand, when he first met Carmena, she had been alone on thetrail, only a few miles from the railway. Why had she not galloped tothe nearest station and led a sheriff's posse to free her father andsister? She knew that Cochise and his fellows were "bronchos. "

Across the train of Lennon's thoughts fell a black shadow of suspicion. Was it possible that the girl had acted as a decoy to lure him into thisill-omened Dead Hole? She had previously brought in another man, who hadin effect been murdered, after paying ransom. 

In his own case, the girl had herself suffered far too much during theirflight from the Apaches for the pursuit to have been a sham. But she mayvery well have had an arrangement with the renegades to lure a victiminto the Basin; and then, untrustful of their bloodthirsty instincts, had fled with her prize to the Hole, so that he might be put to ransom. 

The more Lennon pondered the situation, the more everything related toit appeared in a worse and worse light--everything and everybody, exceptthe open-eyed innocent little Elsie. The Apaches admittedly wererenegades. The absent Slade had been mentioned by no means favourably. Farley was far from prepossessing either in appearance or words oractions. As for Carmen, even the tender glances that he had surprisedmight be explained by the coquetry of a Delilah. 

Lennon rose from his chair with an appearance Of calm deliberation. 

"Would you be so kind as to bring me my rifle, Elsie?" he asked. "Withsmokeless powder a gun needs frequent cleaning and oiling. "

"Yes. Carmena always keeps hers clean as a whistle. But Dad put yoursaway. He said he apprehended that you might become per--perturbed andcommit an assault with a deadly weapon. He and Mena are talking thingsover now---- No, they're coming out. Want to hear Mena give it toCochise?"

The girl darted through the largest doorway. Lennon, still affectingcool indifference, stepped out after her into the long, bare anteroomwhose rear wall Cochise and his mate had so angrily splashed withbullets. 

Farley was crouched at the far side of the rope-ladder doorway. Carmenahad bent her head to pass under the massive lintel. Lennon followedElsie to the side of the doorway opposite Farley. The lawyer-ranchmanappeared to cringe, yet he held to his position and even attempted aningratiating smile as he rasped out a half-whispered, "G'day. "

Lennon gave him a curt nod and bent down to peer into the deep entrance. Carmena did not glance around. If she heard him, she gave no heed. Shehad seated herself upon a Navaho rug and was leaning forward to lookover the cliff, with her hands on the sillstone at the brink. Down belowLennon could see only a single swarthy face, bound about the foreheadwith a wide cloth band. The other Indians were in nearer the base of thecliff. 

Instead of crouching in tense readiness to dodge back out of danger, Carmena gazed over at her late pursuers with serene fearlessness. Herrich contralto voice, no longer harsh from thirst, rang mockingly downthe cliff:

"Howdy, boys. Glad you've begun to cool off. Quite a warm run, wasn'tit?"

From below came an explosion of thick gutturals and hissings. Carmenaflung out a hand in a gesture of refusal. 

"No, I won't, Cochise. I'll talk American, and so will you---- Andyou'll speak decently, or we chop off. Sabe?"

There followed a silence of several moments. Carmena's patience soonreached its snapping point. She frowned and started to draw back. Thevoice below called up, still thick and guttural, but speaking clear-cutEnglish:

"You lied. You said you catch another sucker. "

"I said I would fetch another man to the Hole, and I have done it. Anylie about that?" countered the girl. 

"Dam' plenty, " came back an angry shout. "You knew what we want himfor. "

"How about Slade? What'll he want him for? Haven't you any sense anymore, Cochise? Have you forgotten how Dad had to get you loose? Don'tyou see you've got to keep on playing the game our way? Yours is out ofdate. Even in the days of your Uncle Cochise and Geronimo it didn'twork. "

"They got a heap of fun. "

"Well, let me tell you one thing--the new man is my game, not yours. Youhad your chance and missed it. He stood up full of Gila monster poisonand got away from you--threw you off his trail--tricked a bunch ofApache trailers--out-ran and out-thirsted you. Want me to tell that toSlade?"

The taunt was followed by another prolonged silence. Carmena smiled andtossed down first a bare corn cob and then a full ear. 

"Which will you have?" she asked. "Your way, you'll get the cob. My way, we'll all have a share of corn. A man who could fool and out-game youwouldn't make a poor partner to take into our business. We'll wait forSlade to decide. "

"You give me my woman, I wait, " bargained the unseen Cochise. 

Carmena fairly blazed with anger. She hurled down another bare corncob. 

"She's not your woman. You sha'n't have her! We'll see what Slade saysabout that and about your running me across the Basin. You know youcan't scare me. Now, is it fight, or do you back up?"

The reply was a jabber of hissings and gutturals. Carmena jerked herhand about in swift signs and cried back in uncouth thick-tongued Apachewords. The dispute at last ended in a sullen mutter from below and asudden thudding of hoofs. The Apaches dashed out from under the cliff, loping their horses toward a corral over across to the left of thecornfields. 

Carmena drew back out of the deep doorway, with a look of profoundrelief. At sight of Lennon she smiled and caught up his wounded hand. 

"I've made Cochise back up, " she said. "We're safe from the bunch tillSlade returns--only none of us can leave the Hole. How's your armfeeling?"

The dark eyes were very clear and straightforward in their gaze. Lennonflushed with shame over his black suspicions. These renegade Apaches, and Slade as well, probably were bad men. Farley no doubt was in withthem. But he appeared to be an unwilling associate, barred from escapeby sickness, drink, and fear. Carmena had begged for help to get him andElsie out of the Hole. 

Lennon permitted his hand to linger in her gentle clasp. 

"It seems to be much better, " he replied to her question. 

"That's good. Let's hope it will be all right before Slade gets back. You heard me bluff off Cochise with the partnership talk?"

Farley was backing across the room, gray-faced and trembling like a veryold man. 

"Slade will be angered, " he quavered. "I'll lose all--all!"

"Leave him to me. I'll handle him, " promised Carmena. "Remember what youagreed. Jack is to be a full partner. "

Lennon felt a sudden rekindling of suspicion. 

"May I ask you to explain all this about a partnership?" he queried. 

"Why, of course, " replied the girl. She drew close to him and loweredher voice. 

"Dad refuses to give up everything and leave the Hole. So I've allowedhim to think you'll come in with the bunch. My idea is to bring about asplit between Slade and Cochise. We'll then have a fighting chance. Allwe can do now is take things easy and get your hand in shape. "

"My rifle was taken by your father. I would rather like to----"

"Dad, hand over Jack's rifle, " called the girl. 

Elsie glided across to the dark doorway through which Farley wasdisappearing. Within a few moments the missing rifle was thrust out toher. She brought it to Carmena, who handed it over to Lennon. Aseemingly casual examination showed him that it had not been tamperedwith. 

His last flicker of suspicion died away. 

CHAPTER VIII

CACTUS CARMENA

Immediately after the armistice Carmena and Elsie went down to attendthe goats and chickens that were penned in small enclosures a shortdistance up-valley from the cliff house. The girls also gathered asupply of fresh vegetables from a nearby kitchen garden. At dusk therope ladder was hauled up. 

In the morning Carmena took Lennon to see the valley. She had roped apair of ponies near the garden enclosure. Though the rifles werecarried, no occasion arose that called for use of the weapons. TheApaches in charge of the stock merely grunted in response to Carmena'sfriendly greeting and stared stolidly as she and Lennon rode by. 

All the other Indians seemed to have left the valley. But Carmena saidthat guards were always posted in the two main exits. Escape up Devil'sChute with a horse was impossible. 

Beyond the narrow mouth of the Chute caņon the two skirted along theedge of the flourishing cornfields and the hay pastures of the lowervalley. All the way they followed an irrigation canal of the ancientcliff dwellers that had been restored to use. It curved and twistedalong the higher ground under the towering cliff walls. 

At the foot of the Hole the valley narrowed, funnel-like, into a ratherwide box caņon. The caņon bed offered a broad level runway down which ahorse could have sprinted at top speed. 

Carmena caught the glance of pleased surprise that Lennon fixed upon aheavy farm wagon that stood inside the mouth of the caņon. 

"It's not so easy as you think, " she said. "There's a thirty-foot cliffabout a mile down. Nothing has ever come in or gone out that way exceptby rope, and the windlass is always guarded. Hell Caņon is no easier. Itforks, and the forks both fork twice, and there's only one branch youcan get out through. We might be able to make it, either route. Butthere's Dad and Elsie. "

"You spoke of bringing about a difference between Cochise and Slade, "said Lennon. "What is your plan?"

"It all depends. I have several ideas. One is to offer Slade a share inyour copper-mine deal. But we'll hold that back. He knows that mattersmust soon come to a show-down with the bunch. Cochise has been gettingharder to hold for the past three years. You know, he claims that Elsiebelongs to him. "

Lennon stared in amazement. 

"What! your sister--that little pink and white blossom?"

"But she's not really my sister. That's the pinch. Cochise brought herwith him when he first came to the Hole, two years before Slade. Heclaimed he had found her over beyond Triple Butte. She was crazed fromthirst--never has been able to remember what had happened or anythingabout her life before she came here. "

"My word! Has no inquiry ever been made for her? Did you not advertise?What were her clothes like?"

"Rags and tatters. No one came. Nobody outside knows there is such aplace as Dead Hole, except by vague report. Dad and I just happened tostumble into it. About advertising Elsie, we tried that some. There wasno answer. We think she belonged to a stray family, out prospecting. Theothers must have died of thirst. "

"Or were murdered by Cochise, " put in Lennon. 

Carmena's eyes narrowed. 

"Maybe--maybe not. It was just after he jumped the Reservation. But hewas only a sulky schoolboy then, playing hookey. Besides, he had notharmed the child. He worked for Dad and was right decent, till he got inwith Slade and the--business started. "

Lennon was not to be diverted to another subject. The mystery of Elsie'sparentage intrigued him. With the realization that the two girls werenot of blood kin, Lennon found himself dwelling upon the differencesbetween them. Elsie, cleared of any kinship to Farley, at once became inhis thoughts a being of finer nature than her foster-sister. 

In contrast, Carmena now seemed to show distinctly the taint of Farley'sblood. Her frank manner took on the tinge of boldness. Her vigour andstrength now seemed mannish, if not coarse. 

Might not what he had taken for high spirit and courage be no more thancallous hardihood? Was there not a certain garishness about her richcolouring? And was all the brown of her skin on the outside? Both herhair and eyes were dark, and there was her Spanish name--Carmena. Wasshe not, in part, of Mexican blood?

Some hint of Lennon's thoughts may have shown in his expression. Otherwise the girl's next remark was pure coincidence:

"Ever since Slade added tizwin to the business, I've had to be prettymuch the man of the family. He persuaded us that Dad would die without alot of stimulant. That's how he got hold of Dad. Once the habit wasfixed, I couldn't break Dad of it. With you here, I'm hoping he mayremember his old grit and pride, and brace up. "

"But about your--foster-sister, " said Lennon. 

"Isn't she just too sweet for anything!" broke in Carmena. "I've triedto be the cactus fence to guard her against the trampling beasts. "

"Such as this Cochise. You say he claims her?"

"For the last three years. Indian girls marry young. He'd have kicked away through the cactus fence before this, if it hadn't been for Slade. You know, Slade has his own bunch of Navaho punchers. So, you see, Cochise has to----"

Carmena stopped to point across the upper end of the valley. 

"Talk of the devil----" she exclaimed. 

Over below the cliff house Lennon saw a small group of mounted menwaiting for the basket that was being lowered to them on the hoist rope. 

"If it's only Elsie's pies; if only they haven't bluffed Dad intosending down a jug of tizwin!" murmured Carmena. 

"We've been outplayed. We can't get back, " said Lennon. "Shall I drivethem off again with my rifle?"

"No. Cochise agreed to wait for Slade. I'm going to make him stick toit. We'll ride on around. Maybe they'll not wait. "

The two had loped along under the precipices on the northwest side ofthe valley and were already near Hell Caņon, at the upper end. The mouthof the caņon belied its name. The bed, though rocky, was neither steepnor broken. Along the ledges of the cliff foot a canal had been chiseledin the solid rock by the cliff-dwellers. A small stream was flowingthrough it, down around the left corner of the caņon mouth. 

Carmena noticed the look of professional interest that Lennon fixed uponthe ancient water way. 

"You're an engineer, " she said. "Pretty good piece of irrigation workfor those old mummies, isn't it? All we had to do was rebuild the intakedam and clean out the ditch. Here's the tank. "

The ponies slowed to a walk up the side of an enormous natural pothole, which the ancient builders had converted into a storage reservoir bymeans of an earthen dam. 

Carmena jumped her pony across the intake canal and loped ahead towardthe cliff house. Lennon was too intent upon overtaking her to more thanglance at the stand of rough-made beehives, the kitchen garden, and thegoat and chicken sheds, past which his pony galloped. 

Carmena reined in to jerk her thumb at a tumbledown brush hut. 

"Our home, till Slade got up the cliff. "

"How?"

"Piecing ladders together, one a-top the other. There are our callers;and it's pie, thank goodness. Keep your gun down. Shake hands, if theyoffer; but let me do the talking. "

"If you wish. "

"I do. The one all in white man's clothes is Cochise. Next him, with theMex sombrero, is Pete. He's one of Slade's Navahos. He stands in withCochise, and I stand in with him. Sabe?"

"You mean he's your man--tips you off--all that?"

"Yes. I think we'll be able to count on him later, when it comes to theshow-down. Don't forget now: That run 'cross the Basin never happened. We're all heap good friends and pards. "

Lennon nodded. He did not fancy the situation, but he was willing forthe time being to trust to his companion's lead. Side by side they rodeup and stopped before the seven Indians. Lennon looked them over withthe cool direct gaze of the dominant white man. 

Five of them were replicas of the herdsmen down the valley. Pete theNavaho--he of the Mexican sombrero--also wore Mexican leg-buttonedbreeches and a red cotton shirt, the tails of which hung outside. Helooked to be the youngest of the group. He and Cochise were the onlyones who did not avoid Lennon's eye. 

Cochise the Apache leader proved a surprise to Lennon. He was as youngas the white man and far from ugly. Though his head, under his oldcowboy hat, was as square and massive as the cloth-bound heads of theother Apaches, and his shoulders were still broader, his face might havebelonged to a Sicilian or Andalusian aristocrat--swarthy, bold-featured, and handsome. 

Carmena raised her voice in cheerful greeting: "How, boys!--_Buenoamigo_, Pete. Howdy, Cochise. Fine day. Hope the pie was good. Shakewith Jack, our new partner. "

The Apache leader wiped the pie juice from his short, small hands uponhis leather chaps, and replied with a show of geniality:

"Howdy. Fine day. Glad to meet new pard. Shake. "

Lennon offered his left hand. His bridle reins and rifle were looselyheld in his bandaged right. Carmena was thrusting her rifle into itssaddle-sheath. Instead of clasping hands, palm to palm, Cochise clutchedLennon's wrist in a grip that almost crushed the bones. His other handclosed on the hilt of a knife. 

"Sit still, Jack, " murmured Carmena. 

The warning was needless. Lennon had not stirred in his saddle or madethe slightest attempt to struggle. 

"Who's the liar now, Cochise?" reproached Carmena. "You said you'd waittill Slade came. "

"I catch your pard. I keep him till Slade come. Then I have my fun. Youswap my woman for him, I let him go now. "

The girl smiled. 

"Maybe you'll let him go anyway, _amigo_. I've got you covered, and Ifigure the first bullet will go through that pie you just ate. "

The glittering black eyes of the Apache shot a sidelong glance downtoward the girl's right hand. It had slipped into a pocket in the foldof her divided skirt. Her smile widened. 

"Think it over, " she advised. "What happens to us won't be any fun toyou after you've got yours. "

The steel-sinewed fingers that were clutched about Lennon's wristopened. 

"All dam' good joke--arm handshake, " the Apache sought to explain awayhis treacherous attempt. "Make sure you got nerve. Sabe? Guess I got togo. Good-bye. "

"Oh, do stay and visit a bit longer, " Carmena smilingly urged him. "Wecan talk a while with you and Pete. But the others may as well bestarting, don't you think?"

Something in her pocket thrust up the fold of her skirt. Cochisemuttered a word or two that sent the other Apaches loping off down thevalley. When they were some distance away, Carmena nodded almost gaily:

"Well, boys, I suppose the pie is all gone. So, if you feel you have togo, too. .. . Good-bye, Pete. Maybe you know, Cochise, it's sometimes asign of bad luck to look back or drop off your horse. "

The two Indians wheeled their ponies and loped after the others. 

Cochise did not look back. 

CHAPTER IX

THE MAN WHO WAS

Lennon sprang from his pony and steadied his rifle across the saddle. Carmena drew in a deep breath. 

"That's right, " she approved. "Keep him covered. Shoot if he turns--butnot Pete. "

The Navaho had drawn rein to tail in behind the pony of his leader. Hethrust a hand overhead in a swift sign gesture. 

"You see, Jack. I knew we could count on Pete. The boy thinks a gooddeal of me. He was ready to shoot Cochise in the back. "

"But you!" exclaimed Lennon. "That was ripping the way you--what d'yousay?--got the drop on Cochise. My right hand is still too weak for aknockout blow. "

Carmena gravely drew a sheath knife from the pocket of her skirt. 

"He knows I usually carry my revolver, " she said. 

Lennon stared. 

"Your revolver wasn't in your pocket? Yet you sheathed your rifle!"

"Didn't you notice his men had their guns pointed at us across theirlaps? Sheathing mine was what gave me the chance to bluff him. It's allright now. He won't try any more tricks this time. "

She sent a clear call ringing up the cliff. At once the hoist rope beganto reeve down through the pulley of the crane. The rope ladder soonlowered from the other opening. Both saddles were fastened to the hoisthook. But Lennon thrust his rifle through the back of his cartridgebelt. 

They found Farley in the doorway, nervously peering down the valleyafter the Indians. 

"Cochise was hiding in Devil's Chute until you rode out of sight, " hequavered. "He demanded tizwin. I convinced him that Slade took awayevery drop. He then threatened to seize you for his woman and tortureMr. Lennon, if I did not send down Elsie. I postponed the decision untilyour return. "

"All right, Dad. We persuaded him to let us come up. But now we're here, I think we'll take no more rides till Slade comes. "

Lennon freed his rifle from the belt and stepped in through the doorwayafter the father and daughter. His first glance inside the cliff houseshowed him Elsie labouring at the windlass. He hastened to take thecrank out of her plump little hands. His one-armed winding soon hoistedthe saddles to the crane. The moment the load was safe, Elsietremblingly lifted his hand to look at the blackening bruises left byCochise's steel grip. 

"Does it--does it hurt much, Jack?" she whispered. "Once I saw him snapa dog's leg. "

Lennon smilingly denied the sharp pain of the strained ligaments. Butinwardly his anger against Cochise hardened into enmity as he lookedinto the girl's innocent eyes and recalled that the brutal Apacheconsidered her his woman. 

His reassurance brought instant relief to her volatile mind. She beganto chatter gaily about how she and Carmena would entertain him duringthe wait for Slade. In this the older girl joined with cordialheartiness. Elsie displayed a high stack of women's magazines, for whichCarmena was a regular subscriber. Every three or four months they werebrought in from the nearest post office by Slade. 

Elsie fairly showered Lennon with naīve questions about the faraway landof cities and green trees and vast stretches of water. Aside from themagazines and what had been told her by Farley and Carmena, she had noknowledge of the world outside the Hole. 

Beneath Carmena's quiet manner Lennon discovered an interest as keen asthat of her foster-sister and very much more intelligent. She hadchildhood memories of Ohio. Much to his distaste, she persuaded Farleyto remain most of the day with them in the living room. 

But as the wreck that once had been a man listened to Lennon's talk, his bent shoulders began to straighten and his drink-bleared eyescleared. By evening he was talking as one man of culture to another. Heeven showed occasional flashes of a once brilliant mind. 

Carmena took care to keep her father stimulated with frequent cups ofcoffee. The whiskey flask appeared to be quite forgotten. After supper, at his suggestion, Elsie brought out an old dog-eared set ofShakespeare. In the flaring light of a homemade tallow candle he readparts of "King Lear" and "Hamlet, " with his rapt eyes frequently off thepage for a dozen lines or more. 

Lennon's aversion to the broken old drunkard had by now mellowed totolerance and a degree of pity. He realized what the man had been beforesickness had pulled him down and drink degraded him. At times Farley'swhiskey-shattered mind tended to wander. But Lennon good-humouredlyhelped Carmena to bridge the gaps. When her father's face became grayand drawn, the girl said he was sleepy and took him off to bed. 

She returned, to find Elsie perched on the arm of Lennon's chair. Theywere both peering at a magazine illustration, with their heads so closetogether that Elsie's yellow curls brushed Lennon's cheek. 

The warm glow in Carmena's eyes faded; her smiling lips tightened. Hervoice vibrated with a touch of sharpness:

"Sleep time, Blossom. "

Elsie sprang to her light feet with docile obedience. But she lingeredto eye Lennon wistfully as he stood up to meet Carmena's level glance. 

"Aren't you going to say good night, Jack?" she coaxed. "Don't--don'tbrothers ever kiss their sisters good night?"

Lennon cast a half-doubtful glance at the girl's unsmilingfoster-sister, hesitated, caught Elsie's golden head between his handsand bent to kiss her forehead. She drew back, overcome with suddenshyness. 

Carmena held out a firm hand to Lennon. 

"Good night, Jack--and thank you for--Dad. It's two years since he hasbeen anything like to-day. "

"The pleasure was mine, " replied Lennon. 

His tone was not uncordial, but his eyes had turned to watch Elsie danceacross to one of the inner doorways that led into a short passage. Carmena swung around after her foster-sister, with her head well up andher boot heels briskly clicking on the stone floor. 

The discovery at his bedside of his own clothes thoroughly cleaned andhis boots well oiled added a touch of gratitude to his tender, compassionate, delightful thoughts of Elsie. He lay awake for an hour ormore, dwelling upon her dainty beauty and fascinating innocence. 

But the bleak gray light of dawn brought sober reflections. Whatinterest could he have in the young girl other than to help her escapefrom the savage Cochise? She was a waif, of unknown parentage. Mentallyshe was little more than a child, and all her conscious experience hadbeen confined to the environment of this crude desert valley. 

Lennon came out to breakfast with scant appetite. But his moodiness hadcompany. Elsie sat at table tearful-eyed and drooping. Carmena's eyeswere somber and her expression was hard. In reply to Lennon's politeinquiry for Farley she coldly replied that her father was not hungry. 

Through one of the outer slit windows of the living room Lennon saw athin column of smoke down the valley toward the corral. Carmena answeredhis unspoken question:

"They're brand-blotting the last bunch of cattle brought into the Hole. "

"Brand-blotting?"

"Yes. You wouldn't care to see it--especially when Cochise takes part. "

Elsie uttered a smothered little gasp that quickened again all ofLennon's repressed tenderness and compassion. He looked around, tryingto think of some means to divert her. His glance fell upon one of thebowls of ancient pottery. 

"May I ask you to show me the rest of this cliff house? Or are the otherrooms in ruins?"

Elsie instantly brightened. 

"Oh, no, course not. Only some of the top ones have tumbled in. Dadwon't mind if we show Jack the mummies, will he, Mena?"

"Fetch candles, " directed Carmena, clearly as relieved as the others atthe thought of diversion. 

They started to ramble through the interior of the cliff house, takingwith them a light ladder to climb to the upper stories. In the lowerrooms at the near end were stored quantities of corn on the cob, driedfruit, and vegetables, honey, dried beef, bacon, and other foods. Thefamily was sufficiently stocked to withstand a half year's siege. 

The upper rooms were for the most part empty. Others showed onlyfragments of broken pottery. Some had been broken in through their sidewalls or were open above and littered with the débris of their roofs. Lennon surmised the existence of several sealed lower chambers, at theback. 

Carmena led the way down again and zigzagged through connected roomstoward the far end of the great community house. To the rear of thefront row of rooms was a large chamber heaped with cliff-dwellermummies. 

"Slade had them all dumped in here, " explained Carmena. "Like theIndians, Elsie is still scared of them. But they have been dead a longtime, poor things. They'll not hurt anybody. They'd protect you, Blossom, if Cochise should get up the cliff and you hid in that corner. He thinks them bad medicine. Slade laughs at Indian spirits. He saysthat corn spirits are the only ones that can put a spell on a man. "

"They--they're an awful hold on Dad, " quavered Elsie. "He didn't everused to speak cross to me. "

In the flickering candle light Carmena's eyes glinted with a look thatLennon thought to be fierce resentment. She thrust past him to thedoorway. 

"Wait. I'll be back, " she called. 

Elsie was tremblingly eager to follow, but Lennon lacked her fear of thedesiccated builders of the cliff house. At one end of the room he hadcome upon what to him was a very interesting heap of their no lessancient possessions. Most of the beautiful old pottery had been smashed, but among the fragments Lennon found several ceremonial stones andtablets, a bone awl, many obsidian arrowheads, and a few brokenturquoise ornaments. 

His search was cut short by the return of Carmena. She carried a modernIndian basket-vase that would have been very convenient for holdingLennon's collection. But she gave him no chance to ask for it. Shestared in at him and Elsie from the doorway, her dark eyes glitteringstrangely in the candle light. Her lips were hardset in a bitter smile. 

"He's--asleep. Come, " she said. 

Lennon followed the eager Elsie, who was vastly relieved to leave themummy vault. Yet she was no less mystified than Lennon by herfoster-sister's manner. She shrank back behind him when, after passingthrough two corn-stacked rooms near the far end of the cliff house, Carmena stopped before an entrance that had been closed with a door ofheavy planks. The thick iron hasp was secured with a big padlock. 

Carmena handed her candle to Lennon and took a key from her basket. 

"Oh, Mena!" whispered Elsie. "Oh, you can't be going to--to---- You knowhow angry Dad--and Slade----"

For answer, Carmena thrust the key into the padlock. 

CHAPTER X

THE SETTER OF TRAPS

The unlocked door squeaked shrilly on its hinges as it swung in beforethe heave of Carmena's shoulder. Elsie peeped fearfully back pastLennon. Carmena pushed on into the secret room. 

Lennon had expected to see some kind of treasure chamber. He staredblankly at the big object in the centre of the room--a complex objectthat somehow reminded him of his laboratory experiments in college. Astep nearer, with his own and Carmena's candles upraised, gave him aclear view of the bulging copper boiler, the tubes and worm andfermenting vats. The air of the room was pervaded with a sour smell. 

At his exclamation Carmena gave him a sombre glance. 

"You see now?"

"A still, " he said. "This tizwin you've been talking about--it'smoonshine whiskey. Your father----"

"No--Slade!" broke in the girl with passionate emphasis. "He brought thething into the Hole and forced Dad to run it. He's the one toblame--not Dad. He bootlegs it to the Indians. "

"Indians? That's a Federal penitentiary offense!"

"What could we do? If he's convicted, he'll swear that Dad is just asguilty. You see why I couldn't go for the sheriff?"

"Yes, " said Lennon; but he looked at Elsie. 

Carmena's face whitened. 

"If it hadn't been for Dad, there's no telling what Cochise would havedone with her. Anyhow, he's my father. "

To this Lennon could make no answer. He turned again to stare at the bigstill. Fuel had been placed in the firebox, ready for lighting. Carmenaknelt down before it and dipped her hand into the Indian basket. Oneafter the other, she laid out the six sticks of dynamite and the capsand fuses that she had saved from Lennon's prospecting outfit. 

She looked up at him, gravely expectant. 

"You said you'd help us, Jack. I want this whole thing fixed so it willnever make another drop of poison. "

"At once?"

"No. They'd be sure we did it, and I figure---- Can you fix it so itwill go off a quarter minute after the fire is lighted?"

"Oh-h, Mena!" cried Elsie. "What you going to do? You know Dad alwayslights the fire. "

"Never fear, Blossom. I'll take good care of Dad. If Jack does what Iwant, there'll be no more of the nasty tizwin to make Dad cross andsick. "

Lennon found himself regarding the girl with rekindled admiration forher ingenuity and daring. 

"So this is why you saved the dynamite?" he remarked. "Will it not bedangerous--I mean, to anger that man Slade, you know?"

"Anything to save Dad---- If you're afraid, just tell me how to fix it. I'll do the work and take all blame--if it fails. You can go back withElsie and be able to swear you didn't have a hand in it. "

The girl's tone was as contemptuous as when, at their first meeting onthe trail, she had jeered him into cutting across the desert with her. He looked the still over with a professional eye. 

The chimney stones were laid in mud plaster. But the stones of thefirebox, or furnace, were loose. On one side they extended out in arough platform that held the water-cooled vat of the condensation worm. From the two-foot space between the furnace hole and the vat Lennonbegan to pull out the stones. He was able to make a hole down to thesolid stone floor. 

A crack gave opening enough to thrust the stiff fuse from the fireboxinto the hole. To make certain of results, Lennon used three pieces offuse, which were attached with caps to the sticks of dynamite, in thebottom of the hole. He then put the stones back in their places. Theends of the fuses were hidden by the tinder of the fuel in the firebox. 

When Lennon stood up and dusted off his hands, no slightest sign wasleft to betray that the charge of dynamite had been planted. 

"There you are, " he said. "The fuses are cut for fifteen seconds, andthey will start burning as soon as the tinder is fired. "

"You're sure the boiler will be blown up?" queried Carmena. "Yourdynamite is out from under it, and there's all the rock in the way. "

Lennon smiled at her ignorance of explosives. 

"The stones will double the destruction. After that charge detonates, there will be a hole in the floor, a good deal of shattered stone, andsome splinters and shreds of metal. Everything in the room will besmashed. Is that satisfactory?"

Carmena shuddered as if seized with a fever chill, but pulled herselftogether. "All right. We'll go now. "

She picked up her basket and backed out after the others, scrutinizingthe floor to make certain they had left nothing to tell of their visit. 

"It's a secret, Blossom, " she cautioned. "Promise you'll never tell anyone?"

"But--you'll have to tell Dad, Mena. He always goes in with Slade andCochise to measure the mash--And you know he sometimes goes in first tostart the cooking. "

"Didn't I say I'd take care of Dad?" reassured Carmena. 

Lennon stepped before her, his gray eyes wide with dread. 

"Wait, " he demanded. "What is it you plan to do? Elsie says yourfather's partners---- But I have told you the dynamite will destroyeverything in the room. If you scheme to get those men in there, give methat key. I shall not permit such a trap to remain. "

"Why not? You promised to help. "

"Not this way. It would be cold-blooded murder. "

"You say that when they----?"

Carmena checked her indignant protest and gazed down at herfoster-sister. 

"Well, then, how if I use that blast to blow Slade and Cochise apart?"she inquired. "Suppose I make each think the other put the giant powerin the furnace?"

"Too great a risk. We will explode the charge at once, or draw it. "

Carmena's eyes flashed. 

"No. They shall not make another drop of poison in that devilpot. But ifwe blew it up now, Slade will put the blame on us---- Tell youwhat--I'll just misplace the key. That will give us time to act afterSlade comes. "

"Have I your promise you will not try to get him into that death trap?"

"Yes. "

Back in the living room they became aware that the day was almost gone. Carmena asked Lennon to cover her from above with his rifle while shewent down to milk the goats. He offered to change places with her, buthad to confess that he did not know how to milk. 

The ladder had been drawn up. To save time, the girl directed Lennon tolower her by means of the hoist rope. Though there was no sign of anIndian nearer than the corral and she smiled at the suggestion ofdanger, he saw her slip her small revolver into the bosom of her dress. 

The moment the slackening of the hoist rope told him she had reached theground he hurried with his rifle to an embrazured window in the livingroom. He looked down and saw her calmly walking away toward the goatpens. The goats flocked to nibble the salt that she had brought forthem. She knelt down and started milking. 

Elsie had already busied herself at the charcoal brazier. After a time, when her pots were simmering, she came to cuddle up in the window besideLennon. 

"My goodness, but hasn't it been an awful nice day, Jack, " she sighed inheartfelt contentment. "Mena is--is the best sister in all the wholeworld. But it's doubly nice to have a brother like you. Isn't it, just?"

She snuggled her head against Lennon's right shoulder. He reached acrossand stroked her silky hair without looking away from the valley. 

"I am glad you like me, Blossom. You know, Carmena brought me to helpher get you away from this place. "

"Me--and Dad, Jack. Don't forget Dad. Mena never does. And Dad won'tever give up the Hole, 'cause he said so. That's why Mena shot yourburro to make you fight Cochise. "

Lennon chuckled. 

"Carmena came along after the Apache shot my burro. "

"Oh, but that's the joke, " tittered the girl, in her turn. "Mena was the'Pache. She shot your hat off and your burro to see how you'd behave, and when you didn't scare, she rode 'round to make you come with her. "

The enlarged version struck Lennon as just so much the morepreposterous. 

"To be sure, " he made mock agreement. "Only, by the way, what was thepoint of the joke?"

"You mean, why did she do it?"

"Yes. Why ruin a twelve-dollar sombrero and a ten-dollar burro?"

"So's you'd get mad and fight Cochise, of course. She was desp'rit, soshe told him she'd get another man into the Basin to be caught and madeto pay. But she planned, when she signalled them, to warn you and slipaway while you fought them. "

"Ripping!" praised Lennon. "Wonderful flight of fancy. And after thefight?"

"Oh, that depends. You'd prob'ly been dead. But if you'd killed all thatpart of the bunch, Mena would have brought you into the Hole to shoot upthe rest and make Slade quit. "

"I see. Quite in keeping with the burro. But why, then, did she help merun away?"

Elsie's playful tone sobered. 

"Why, 'cause you couldn't fight, of course. After she signalled Cochiseyou went and got bit by the Gila monster and saved her life. Course shehad to save you then. "

"Saved!" bantered Lennon. "A fact--a solid fact at last, in this sea offiction. What a slip! I was beginning to fancy you quite a consistentfairy-tale tinker, Blossom. Take that last touch about her signallingCochise. She sent a message by wireless, I presume. "

"Wireless? Is that what you call smoke signalling?"

"Smoke?"--Before Lennon's mental vision flashed a vivid picture of thepuffs of smoke rising into the noontime desert sky from the ridge nearthe waterhole--"Smoke signalling!"

What a dupe he had been! Even now, when the truth had been spread outbefore his eyes, he had taken it for pure fiction. Yet every seemingabsurdity in Elsie's account became credible the moment he consideredthe facts he knew, in the light of understanding. 

Though Carmena had made much of probable danger from the "bronchos, " shehad sent up those telltale puffs of smoke. During the flight across theBasin she had changed from boots to moccasins, which he now knew to beof Apache style, if not of Apache make. They would account for themoccasin print behind the crag from which his hat had been shot off andhis burro killed. For her to cut down to her pony, pull on her boots, and ride around to the wash along the trail had been easy. 

The purpose of her strange attack clearly had been to break up hisprospecting trip by the death of the burro and to test whether he couldand would fight. No less clear, now, was the subtle manner in which shehad both spurred his daring with her derision and appealed to hischivalry for protection against the murderous bronchos. All the timeCochise and his band were over in the Basin, waiting for her to lure avictim within their power. 

On this point was it not probable that Elsie was mistaken? Had notCarmena's intention been to have her savage accomplices capture him andhold him for ransom? The game might well have included a pretendedcapture of herself, so that chivalry would lead him to pay a largerransom. 

No--Elsie's explanation was the more probable. And he could trust hertruthfulness. Whatever he might think of Carmena, this child-minded girlat least was absolutely innocent of any scheming. Her dread of Cochisecould not possibly have been feigned. 

Even Carmena must be given her due. She had been driven desperate by thethreats of Cochise to take Elsie as his squaw; and the partnership ofher father in the illicit making and bootlegging of moonshine whiskeyhad prevented her from appealing to the law for protection. But, on theother hand, she had deliberately taken the risk of killing the firstchance stranger that came along the Moqui trail----

Lennon frowned as he pictured the hole through the crown of hissombrero. That had been an uncomfortably close shot. Why had not thegirl met him face to face on the trail and frankly asked for his aid?Instead of that straightforward, above-board procedure, she had riskedshooting him, had deceived him, had led him into a trap where he wouldhave had to kill all the bronchos or be killed. In the first case, according to Elsie, she would have had him help her attack the rest ofthe Apaches in the Hole. But if he had been killed she undoubtedly hadplanned to put all the blame on him. 

He was no coward. As he mulled over the situation his eyes sparkled atthe thought of how, with his long-range rifle, he might have out-foughtCochise and his followers. But that was not the rub. Carmena had treatedhim as a blind dupe--had thrown dust in his eyes and beguiled him intothe double snare that she had set for him and Cochise. 

He would have been only too glad to take the venture with her if she hadtold him beforehand. But she had not trusted him. The accident of theGila monster's bite alone had blocked her scheme to make him chance thesacrifice of his life in complete ignorance of her real purpose. 

With his hand disabled, he of course had become valueless at the time asa tool to rid her of Cochise. Yet there was the chance that he could beused in the Hole. That would account for the seeming devotion andself-sacrifice by which she had saved him from the Gila monster poison, from death by thirst, and from Apache torture. 

The prejudice that had been first implanted in Lennon's mind by therepulsiveness of the girl's drunken father now prevented him from makingany allowances for her difficult position. Had it not been for herrelationship to that weak-faced besotted moonshiner, Lennon might havestopped to consider how love for her foster-sister had driven herdesperate, and how desperation might have kept her from telling thetruth of the situation to the stranger on the trail. 

The average stranger would have referred her to the sheriff--and sheloved her father. But Lennon could see only her lack of trust in him andher deceit. 

CHAPTER XI

CROSS CURRENTS

Elsie's childlike eyes had been watching the evening shadow of thecliffs creep along the valley after the retreating sunlight. Drawn atlast by Lennon's tense silence, she looked up and saw his frown. 

"Oh! oh, Jack!" she cried. "What is it? You look so cross! Is it--is it'cause what I told about Mena? Oh, it is! I know it is, the way youlook! Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I'm 'fraid! It's a secret, and I promised notto tell. Mena was 'splaining all about you to Dad, and I heard--and nowshe'll be so cross at me if she knows I told! Please, please Jack, promise you won't tell her I told you!"

Lennon put a comforting arm about the shoulders of the panic-strickengirl. 

"You dear little frightened bird! Don't be afraid, I will not tell. Andremember, I am to be a real brother to you. No matter what any one says, you are to trust in my care and protection. "

One of Elsie's arms timidly stole up about his neck. From across theroom sounded a hiccough that ended in a dry hacking cough. Lennon jerkedhis head around. The besotted face of Farley, ghastly white andblear-eyed, was leering at them through a hole in the rear wall. 

Before Lennon could free himself from the soft clasp of the girl's armand dash across the room, the eavesdropper had disappeared. Elsie dartedafter Lennon to clutch his half-raised rifle. 

"Don't shoot--don't shoot!" she begged. "It's only Dad. He's having oneof his spells. But he won't hurt you--not if you keep by me. "

Lennon peered through the hole in the wall. He made out the flaccid formof Farley, outstretched upon the stone floor in a drunken stupor. Theman evidently had been on the verge of unconsciousness when he leeredthrough the hole. The chance was slight that he would ever rememberanything of what he had seen or heard. 

With a feeling of disgust that was not unmingled with relief, Lennonstarted back to the outer window. An odour of scorched food sent Elsieflying to her neglected pots. As half in the deep window embrazure, Lennon paused to watch her, the overhanging cliff ledges reverberatedwith an impatient call. He reluctantly turned his gaze away from thegraceful little cook to look down below the window. Carmena stoodwaiting, with the end of the hoist rope looped about her. 

Lennon's steady winding at the windlass soon brought up the living loadto the crane. Elsie darted out to swing her foster-sister around intothe opening and take from her the brimming pail of goat's milk. Carmenalooked down at Lennon's bandaged hand, which was gripped upon the crankof the windlass. 

"You ought to be careful, " she gravely warned him. "Working won't helpyour hurt. "

"On the contrary, the wounds are fast healing, and use of the hand tendsto bring back its strength. It is already much improved. "

"Good. "

"I shall leave off the bandages after to-night. "

Carmena's eyes narrowed. 

"No. You're to keep them on, and don't let any one else--even Dad--seeyour hand. The more helpless Slade and Cochise think you are, thebetter. "

To this Lennon readily agreed. His knowledge of the completeness withwhich the girl had duped him only added to his realization of herability. But he promised himself that any advantage gained by hispretense of helplessness should be used only with a view to Elsie'sbenefit. 

Such pity as he had felt for Farley before the discovery of the illicitwhiskey-still was now smothered in disgust. He would fight for Elsie, but he would not lift a finger to help rid Dead Hole of Farley'sboot-leg confederates. 

Carmena had turned about to peer down the half-shadowed valley. 

"I thought sure Slade would get here to-night, " she said. "He's overduealready. Well, we can count on him for to-morrow. Maybe you had betterlet me hide your rifle. "

"Is that necessary?"

Lennon's tone was more curt than he had intended. The girl entered theliving room and went on through into a rear room. 

She did not come out again that evening, but sent word by Elsie thatFarley was sick and needed nursing. Lennon was only too pleased to supand visit alone with the younger girl. Elsie's piquant daintiness wasmore than ever fascinating to him. He spent a delightful evening, thoughat times his enjoyment was dampened by remembrance of the danger thatthreatened her. 

Carmena came to the breakfast table pale and weary-eyed. From herlaconic remarks to Elsie, Lennon gathered that she had spent the nightwaiting upon her father. After forcing herself to eat a hasty meal, shecame around the table and laid an old short-barreled revolver besideLennon's bowl-plate. 

"It's Dad's, " she said. "He's too sick to use it, anyhow. Put it in yourpocket out of sight and have Elsie hide your rifle where either of youcan readily get it. I saw the signal. Slade is coming. "

Elsie almost dropped the pot of fresh coffee that she was settling. Carmena took it and a kettle of hot water and went out without lookingat Lennon. 

In the extreme corner of the room was a dutch-oven built of stone slabs. Elsie started a fire in it, placed large kettles of food on her brazier, and began to mix white flour dough. 

"Slade likes pies as much as Cochise--and white biscuits. That's why hebrings us flour. He says he's going to make me his cook. It always getsCochise awful mad. "

The bare suggestion that the doubtful partners of Farley were accustomedto imply ownership in the innocent, helpless girl brought an angry flushinto Lennon's lean face. He unloaded the short-barreled revolver, madecareful test of its action, and as carefully reloaded the old stylecylinder. The weapon was well suited for hip-pocket wear. At thesuggestion of Elsie, he hung his rifle under his bed. 

Carmena half carried her father into the living-room and seated him inone of the big chairs. He was very white and shaky but rational. He hadbeen bathed and dressed, and his eyes showed proof of soothingtreatment. Though the sight and odour of the cooking nauseated him, hewas braced by a drink made from some bitter desert herb known to thegirls for its tonic effect. 

"Now, Dad, remember you're sick. Just sit here quietly and leave all thebusiness to me, " said Carmena. "Jack will keep you company. "

She looked at Lennon, cool-eyed and self-possessed. 

"Watch your bad arm, Mr. Lennon, " she advised. "You don't want to goaround with it loose like that. Elsie will fetch you a sling. I'm goingto lower the ladder. Slade doesn't enjoy being made to wait. "

Elsie brought one of her floursack dish-towels, which Lennon, with mockseriousness, permitted her to knot over his shoulder in a sling. Theloop of cloth extended along his arm from elbow to finger tips withouthiding the bandages. 

Farley glowed at the sling with sour suspicion. 

"You climbed the ladder with that arm when you first came, " he snapped. "There has been all this time for it to improve. "

"Do such poison wounds always improve?" parried Lennon. "I was willingto risk using the arm. But you heard what your daughter said. "

He went across the room to look from an outer window. A large band ofhorsemen was racing full tilt up the valley. They were already near. Attheir head rode Cochise and a big red-faced white man. As Lennon lookedout at them Carmena swung down the rope ladder. 

The tall rangy American horse of the white man forged ahead of theIndian ponies and brought his rider under the cliff as Carmena reachedthe foot of the ladder. She called out to him in a tone of joyfulgreeting and hastened forward to offer her hand. The man ignored herwelcome and jerked a thumb up at the window from which Lennon waslooking. 

Cochise came galloping to the cliff foot with his band of Apaches andfour or five Navahos. All reined their ponies to one side exceptCochise. He sprang off to confront Carmena, with denunciatory words andgestures. The white man leisurely swung out of his saddle and took theattitude of a judge between the girl and Cochise. After no littledisputing, he silenced the young Apache with a curt gesture and enteredinto a low-voiced conference with Carmena. Now and then Cochise broke inwith guttural objections. 

At last the three seemed to reach some kind of an agreement. Theystarted up the ladder, Carmena waiting until the last. The white man, who undoubtedly was the partner called Slade, led Cochise. The crisisover Lennon's presence in Dead Hole had come to a head. He felt certainthat the period of waiting was about to end in some definite actioneither against himself or against the Apache leader. 

The meeting was by no means unpleasant. After a short pause Carmena ledthe visitors in from the big anteroom. Cochise cast a covert glance atElsie, and with an air of stolid indifference to the others sat down atthe table. Slade was neither silent nor stolid. He stared hard about theliving room and bellowed over to Elsie, who was raking her pies out ofthe dutch oven:

"Ho, howdy, Cookie Gal! 'Most ready to feed me, huh? Won't have to herdme to it. Lord, but I'm sick of Injun grub! Guess this trip I'll surehave to rope and brand you for my home corral!"

Carmena broke in on this coarsely jovial banter with smiling deference:

"You see it's as I told you, Mr. Slade--Dad is almost used up. But I'llact for him and----"

Slade's ham-like hand came down upon Farley's stooped shoulder in athwack that doubled the invalid over and set him to coughing. 

"Brace up, Dad, " the trader-cowman rallied him in his bull voice. "You're not dead yet. Good thing for us your bark's worse'n your bite. Huh, Cochise?"

His massive body shook with a roar of laughter at the joke. 

"This is Mr. Lennon--our guest, " Carmena again interposed. 

The big trader swung around to stare down upon the guest. Lennon stood agood six feet in his boots, but Slade over-topped him by two or threeinches and was no less thickset than tall. He looked Lennon straight inthe eyes, crushed his left hand in a hearty grip, and greeted him in atone of bluff cordiality. 

"So you're Carmena's new pard. Glad to see you in Dead Hole. She saysyou want to dicker with us. "

"I said he might want to, " murmured the girl. 

Slade grinned genially at the guest's bandaged arm. 

"No might about it, Carmena. Your dad came into Dead Hole for hishealth. But I figger Lennon here knows it ain't no general healthresort. "

"Miss Farley will tell you, I was in urgent need of a change from theBasin, " drawled Lennon, as he languidly sank back into his chair. "Deucetake it! The results of a Gila monster's bite are more serious than Iwould have anticipated. "

"Sure--apt to be mighty serious, son, if you don't look out what youdo, " agreed Slade. "Guess, though, Carmena got you started off right. We'll see about it soon's I've fed. Here's my Cookie Gal dishing up. "

He thumped down at the table and voraciously fell to upon the food thatElsie hastened to serve him and Cochise. While he plied knife and spoonhe chaffed the blushing girl with a familiarity that made Lennon's bloodboil. Elsie's forced smile and murmured responses did not conceal thepainfulness of her embarrassment. 

Yet Lennon's hot impulse to interpose was checked and cooled when hethought to look at Carmena. Like her father, she was smiling at Sladeand at the same time covertly watching Cochise. The handsome face of theyoung Apache seemed utterly blank of all expression except gluttonishenjoyment of the food he was wolfing. But under the edge of the tableLennon saw his hand steal down and fondle the hilt of his sheath knife. 

The game was now evident. If the rivals were permitted to attack eachother, one or both would almost certainly be killed. A murderous feudbetween their men would as certainly follow. Lennon's anger against theunpleasant pair was intense enough for him to consider the schemejustified, though its suggestion of treachery deepened his prejudiceagainst Carmena. 

CHAPTER XII

A BARGAIN

During the meal prepared by Elsie a solemn avowal by Slade that the cookmust go home with him brought the knife of Cochise half out of itssheath. 

Slade either did not see the movement, or, if he did, he contemptuouslydisregarded its menace. He had turned to Farley, his big red face andpale blue eyes suddenly sober. 

"Well, Dad, " he boomed, "guess we'd better hold a seance and git BrotherCochise back into a proper spiritual frame of mind. I got someconverting work for him to go out and do. "

Cochise shot a side glance at Elsie. 

"You leave my woman--I go. Sabe?"

The trader burst into his hoarse laugh. 

"Go to hell! Can't you take a joke? We're pards, ain't we? Can't I joshthe gal without you gitting rattlesnakey? Don't suppose I meant it, doyou? Come on, Dad. Git a hustle on you. We got to hold that seance. "

He looked at Lennon with a hard smile. 

"We run a lodge here---- Spirits Order Secret Scotch Rites. We'll gointo a seance and find out whether to initiate you. "

"Dad is too sick, " interposed Carmena. "He can't help any. I'll take hisplace. "

"No. He's going to come, and you'll stick here, " ordered Slade. 

Farley rose and tottered out into the anteroom with him and Cochise. Lennon sprang up beside the coolly smiling girl. 

"You've permitted them to go--knowing what will happen!"

"Nothing will happen. I changed keys on Dad. He'll come back. Then Iwill go in his place. "

"You shall not, " forbade Lennon. "I told you it would be murder. "

"How about Blossom?" queried the girl. "Slade isn't joking and you knownow what he is like. "

Lennon looked at the prospective victim, hesitated, and tightened hisjaw. 

"I must hold you to your promise. Set them upon each other, if youwish---- But it shall not be that other way. "

"If you hold me to my promise, " said Carmena, her eyes hot with scorn. 

She started to help Elsie clear the food-splattered table. 

Before many minutes Farley reeled in, speechless from terror. Hecollapsed into the first chair and held out a key in his wavering hand. Carmena looked at it, nodded understandingly, and hastened out, with asignificant glance for Lennon. 

He was not altogether reassured. After a few moments he followed heralong the front row of the cliff house rooms. He was close enough tohear the talk that followed when she joined Cochise and Slade at thepadlocked door. The trader gruffly accepted her excuses for her father, but swore violently when the two keys that she had brought failed toopen the lock. 

She explained how she had changed her father's clothes, and took uponherself all the blame with regard to the misplacing of the key. Aftermuch soothing talk, she at last quieted Slade by promising to have agiven quantity of whiskey distilled before his next visit. 

"That'll do, " he conceded. "Look out you don't forgit it, though, orI'll take it out of Dad's hide. Now, Cochise, you hit the high placesfor them hosses. Don't do no shooting this time. Just natchelly have 'emdrift off. Git a move on you. "

Had not Lennon been wearing moccasins, he must have been caught. As itwas, he glided back through the many rooms, undetected. 

Farley had crept into his own room. His absence gave Lennon opportunityto calm Elsie's fears and comfort her with the promise that he wouldsave her from both Slade and Cochise. The tread of heavy boots sent herscurrying out of the living room. 

Slade strode in after Carmena and jerked a chair around to where hecould look close into Lennon's face. 

"Now, young man, what's this bunk about you and Carmena being pards?" hedemanded. "What business you got in Dead Hole, anyhow? Cochise says youshot a hoss of hisn. "

"I told you how that started, " interposed Carmena. "It wasn't our faultthat Cochise flew off the handle. Jack had to shoot to save me as wellas himself. "

Slade stared hard at the girl and then at Lennon. 

"Well, supposing the young devil did break loose. What of it? How aboutthis pard bunk? That's what I want to know. "

"I fear that Miss Farley has found me rather a disappointment, " put inLennon, and he looked at his trussed arm. 

"Not at all--just the other way 'round, " Carmena glowingly asserted. "Figure it out for yourself, Mr. Slade. A man who could follow up a Gilamonster bite by outrunning Cochise and his bunch across the Basin, andthen make them back up. Can you wonder I think he's a man for us to tieto?"

"If we needed a new pard, " qualified Slade. "Fact is, we don't, and youknow it. We got enough a'ready to do the work and split up our profits. "

Carmena cast a significant glance toward Elsie, who had ventured back torenew the fire in her oven. 

"How about Cochise getting out of hand? All the time it's harder to holdhim. He's beginning to bristle up even to you. "

Slade's tobacco-stained teeth showed in a grin of contemptuousindifference. 

"Bah. I'll pull his head off if he gits sassy, and he knows it. "

"Of course. He'd have no show--unless a pot-shot or a knife in yourback---- If only he was white!"

"Surely you do not mean to say, Miss Farley, that Cochise would attackhis own partner, " Lennon backed up the girl's play. "I saw him pull outthat long knife of his under the table, but imagined it was merely theIndian way of easing his feelings against Mr. Slade. "

"Pulled his knife on me, did he?" bellowed the trader, in a sudden burstof anger. 

"And just because you dared speak kindly to Elsie, " sympathized Carmena. 

Strange enough, the barbed sting appeared to quiet rather than enrageSlade. He laughed. 

"No four-flushing, Mena. Needn't try to pull the wool over my eyes. Ican't run my business without Cochise, and you know it. You got to showme a deal with more in it, before you talk about a shift of pards. I'mrunning this shebang. There ain't no place for Lennon 'round Dead Hole. He best hit out back the way he come. "

Carmena's look told Lennon that he must make the next play. He thoughtquickly. If the girl was not mistaken, Slade would take Elsie away withhim and chance the revenge of Cochise. The Apache might be appeased bypermission to follow his intended victim back into the Basin. 

Had Lennon considered only himself he would have been willing to chancea fight with the renegade. But the mere thought of abandoning Elsie toeither the Apache or this brutal trader was altogether unbearable. 

"Indeed, yes--to be sure, Mr. Slade, " he blandly made reply. "If you donot desire me as a partner, I have no wish to remain here. Doubtless Ishall not require your aid to find the mine for which I am looking. "

"Mine?" queried Slade, his pale eyes narrowing. "What mine?"

"It's the lost lode, " cut in Carmena, her rich voice quivering witheagerness. "I couldn't say anything until Jack spoke. He was headed forthe mine when his burro was shot and we had to leave his outfit--thanksto Cochise. But he knows where to find the lost lode. Got it fromCripple Sim--back East. It's somewhere over near Triple Butte. You seenow why I thought you'd be glad to have me bring Jack in as a partner?"

The red face of the trader fairly glowed with geniality. He held out hisbeefy hand to Lennon. 

"Shake, pard. Why didn't you speak up sooner? I might have knowed youwas O. K. But Carmena is only a gal, and we got to be careful ofstrangers in these parts. Bad place for hoss thieves and brand-blotters. That's why I put up with a mean Injun like Cochise. He and his bunch seeto it we don't lose no stock. "

"Yes, they're great on rounding up, and so far they have never committedany murders--that can be proved against them, " put in Carmena, with anironical smile. "Just the same, it wasn't their fault they didn't getJack. Do you wonder he won't have them in on this lost-lode deal? Eitherhe plays a lone hand, or we run Cochise out of the country. "

"My offer is ten thousand in cash, " said Lennon. "The copper companypays me twice that and----"

"Copper, huh? What's a copper company got to do with a gold lode?"demanded Slade. 

"But Jack says the lost lode is copper, not gold, " said Carmena. "Maybewe've been mistaken all these years. Sim told Jack it was a copper mine, and Sim ought to know. "

Lennon caught the significant glance that the girl covertly gave toSlade. He was seized with black doubt whether her scheming was againstSlade or with Slade against himself. Yet he continued to play to herlead----

"Yes, the discoverer of the mine should know whether it was gold orcopper. "

After some argument, Slade finally admitted that the old rumour aboutCripple Sim's fabulously rich lost gold mine might be an "exaggeration. "With much hemming and hawing, he then agreed that if the lost mine wererediscovered he would accept ten thousand dollars and rid Dead Hole ofCochise. 

"We might git up a company our own selves, Lennon, but we couldn't bringin any railroad to develop a _copper_ mine, " he repeated what Carmenahad already remarked. "Take what you can git and be thankful, is mymotto. Soon's we find that mine, you can count on me to run Cochiseclean out of the country. "

Carmena drew in a deep quavering breath. 

"That's such a relief, Mr. Slade! I've been so afraid for Elsie. I knowthat Cochise figures on making off with her at the first chance. "

"He does, does he?" growled the trader. "Well, then, you're going tostick here and see he don't git no chance, while I go with our new pard. How's that, Lennon?"

"Good enough, " agreed Lennon. 

"Elsie and I will hunt up some tools, " said Carmena and she hurried herfoster-sister out into the store-rooms before Slade could voice anobjection. 

He at once began to give Lennon a pessimistic account of the smallprofits and many risks and hardships of a trader's life in this aridland of mesas and caņons. As for the cattle business, there was morework than money in it, what with mountain lions, wolves, andbrand-blotters. 

Lennon checked himself on the point of asking the meaning of the strangeterm. He recalled that Elsie had said something about mavericking andbrand-blotting by the Apaches. Unless Farley and the girls wereconniving with Cochise, the Indian could not be carrying on any work inthe Hole unknown to Slade, and he had just intimated that brand-blottingwas some kind of harmful or criminal action. 

CHAPTER XIII

THE BLOSSOMING

At the supper table Slade returned to his jovial praises of Elsie as acook. Under his bold admiring gaze the girl blushed much and ate little. Lennon kept his head with difficulty. To sit quiet and feignindifference required all his self-control. 

Farley had been brought in by Carmena. Toward the end of the meal Sladebegan to browbeat the abject, liquor-poisoned man. Lennon had no pity tospare for his broken-spirited host, but his compassion for Elsie and hisgrowing anger against Slade soon received fresh stimulation. 

The trader made blunt demand that Farley should agree to give Elsie tohim in marriage--Indian marriage. After considerable bullyragging, Farley weakly gave way. Carmena continued strongly to protest, but herplea was only for a legal marriage. 

Slade contended that one kind of marriage was as good as another. But hefinally said he would wait and take Elsie out to where they could get alicense and a minister. This would be immediately after the relocationof the mine and the driving off of Cochise. 

Lennon was more than satisfied over the final agreement. Once rid ofCochise and out of the Hole with Slade and Elsie, he felt certain of hisability to save the girl from a forced marriage. In keeping with hisassumed indifference to the affair he changed the subject by inquiringwhen the start for Triple Butte would be made. 

"Daybreak, " muttered Slade, and he fixed an intent gaze upon Elsie. "I'll be ready by then. I'll bunk with you to-night, Dad. Come in andwe'll check up on business accounts. "

The moment the two older men left the living room Elsie burst into tearsand began piteously imploring Lennon and Carmena to save her. Carmenaclapped a hand over the quivering lips of the terrified girl and rushedher out of hearing of Slade. 

At the same time Lennon stepped out after the trader to keep him fromturning back. The massive bulk of Slade shadowed the light of the candlethat Farley was carrying into a second of the inner rooms. 

The trader looked back, but failed to see Lennon, who had stepped to oneside of the living-room doorway. The bull voice rumbled in what wasevidently intended for a murmur:

"Well, Dad, I guess Carmena ain't such a fool as you might expect fromher being your gal. She sure got that tenderfoot roped mighty slick. Just wait and watch me hogtie the cripple. All I got to do is let himlead me to that there gold mine. Then I figger he's apt to git lost. Mebbe he believes that bunk about the lode being copper, and mebbe hedon't. The point is, I git the mine, and he----"

The rest of the prediction was lost to Lennon. He went back into theliving room and pulled his arm out of the sling to test his grip onFarley's short-barrelled revolver. His wounded hand had almost regainedits full strength. As he replaced the arm in the sling Elsie peepedtimidly into the room. She saw that he was alone and darted out to clasphis arm. 

"Oh, Jack, dear Jack!" she panted. "You--you won't let Slade take meeither, will you? You promised about Cochise. But Carmena--she saysSlade--that maybe I'll have to marry him--unless you have heaps of grit. He's no better than Cochise. But at least he's not an Indian, Menasays. "

Lennon patted the yellow locks of the girl's back-flung head. 

"Never fear, Blossom. We will take care of you. Where is Carmena?"

"She's still looking for Dad's old pick for you. We found the pan andspade. Mena says Dad stumbled into Dead Hole 'cause he was looking forthat lost gold mine of Cripple Sim's you're after. Then he went intostock. "

"Was he--did he--er--brand-blot before Slade came?"

"Oh, no. Slade and Cochise started the business. Cochise rounds up thehosses and cattle when Slade tells him of a good chance, and the 'Pachesrustle 'em and bring 'em into the Hole and make the brands over, andthen they run 'em out Hell Caņon, and Slade sells 'em under his othername. Dad's share is for the feed and the use of the Hole. "

For the first time Lennon's suspicions of the Dead Hole partners wereclarified and confirmed. The gang were not only moonshiners but horseand cattle thieves. Slade was the ringleader and brains of the gang, while Cochise and his followers were the crafty and probably murderousrustlers and brand-blotters. 

Farley was a more or less willing accomplice. He may have been forcedinto the criminal partnership, but now refused to attempt an escape. Rather than give up his share of the loot, he chose to risk the greatdanger to his little foster-daughter. 

The realization that Slade was even more of a criminal than themoonshining and bootlegging had indicated, quickened Lennon'scompassion for the girl. She was so artless and clinging andhelpless----

He put his free arm about her quivering shoulders. In a twinkling herhands were clasped about his neck and she was smiling up into his facein naīve delight. 

"Dear, dear Jack!" she whispered. "You're just awful nice to me. Ibelieve, really and truly, I love you even more than Mena. "

The girl was too childlike in mind to realize the meaning of her sweetemotion. Lennon made allowance for her innocence, but her allusion toCarmena startled him, though the words were ambiguous. Elsie may onlyhave meant that she loved him more than she loved Carmena--not that sheloved him more than Carmena loved him. 

The girl's upturned piquant face was more than tempting. Its flowerlikedelicacy and prettiness and the glow in her wide blue eyes were morethan he could withstand. He bent down and pressed a kiss upon herhalf-parted lips. 

"You darling!" he said. "You adorable little Blossom!"

She sought shyly to draw away from him. He held her fast. The kiss hadput an end to his last doubt. 

"Wait, dear, do not try to get away from me, " he commanded. "I am goingto keep you--always. Until I get you out of here--safe from Slade andCochise--I shall be just your Brother Jack. But I love you, dear, andwhen we reach a town we shall be married. "

"O-o-oh! Then I'll belong to you--I'll be your woman?"

"You will be my darling little wife. I will be good to you and take careof you--always. "

"Oh, you dear, nice Jack! And Mena--she'll go along too and help takecare of me and love us? Won't she? You know I couldn't ever bear to goaway and leave Mena. "

Along with his amusement over the child's naīve suggestion Lennon wasconscious of an odd thrill. He remembered the look in Carmena's darkeyes when she saved him from the poison of the Gila monster and at theend of their desperate flight across the Basin. They had risked deathtogether--and _she_ was not a child. 

But close upon these pleasantly disquieting remembrances of the oldergirl came the harsh afterthought of his suspicions against her. He bentto kiss Elsie with almost aggressive fervour. 

From the doorway behind him came a stifled cry that might have been asob. He held fast to Elsie and glanced over his shoulder. Carmena wasstanding in the doorway, with her head bent. As Lennon looked, shestraightened and came toward him, cold-eyed and determined. 

"What are you doing, Jack Lennon?" she demanded. "I trusted you. Ibelieved that you were not the kind to take advantage of Blossom. Ithought you----"

Elsie struggled free from Lennon to fling her arms about herfoster-sister. 

"Oh, Mena, please, please don't be cross with Jack! I love him so, and--and he loves me back!"

Lennon met Carmena's hard stare with a gaze no less cool and resolute. 

"Elsie is to be my wife, " he declared. "I shall marry her as soon aspossible. "

"Your wife? Marry her? You mean that?"

"Yes. "

Carmena's fixed gaze wavered and sank. But almost immediately she lookedup again, her eyes lustrous with soft radiance. 

"She is very precious to me, Jack. She deserves to be safe and happy allthe rest of her life. "

Before Lennon could reply, the girl gently freed herself from Elsie andturned to go. 

"Pardon me--one moment, Miss Farley, " appealed Lennon. "There issomething I must tell you. I happened to overhear Slade speak to yourfather. He insists that the lost mine is a gold lode and proposes totake possession when I have led him to it. "

The girl smiled a bit mockingly. 

"What else could you expect?" she asked. "If he hadn't believed it agold lode he wouldn't have made the deal with you. When you show him thecopper, it will be up to you to hold him to his bargain. We have nochance unless he splits with Cochise. "

"Why not persuade your father to slip out of the Hole with us--startimmediately? The Apaches have gone off. I'll engage to tie up Slade. Wewould have an all-night lead. "

"No, " refused Carmena. "The Hole belongs to Dad. He will not leave it. Besides, there are at least three Apaches on watch in Hell Caņon. "

Lennon realized the uselessness of arguing with the girl. If, as hestill half suspected, she was scheming with Slade, the less said abouther father's share in the stock stealing the better. 

"Very well, " he acquiesced. "I shall try to manage Slade. If he isunreasonable, I will do as I think best. "

"So will I, " replied Carmena, her eyes sombre. 

"Come on, Blossom. Slade said he would leave at daybreak. "

She abruptly turned away, and made no remonstrance when Elsie offeredher lips to Lennon for a good-night kiss. 

Left alone, he sat down in one of the big chairs and fell to planninghow, after the relocation of the copper lode, he would make his escape. He would bring a sheriff's posse to arrest Slade and his fellowcriminals. Elsie would then be freed from all danger, and the mine couldbe developed. 

CHAPTER XIV

THE PROWLER

From his plans for the breaking up of the criminal gang Lennon'sthoughts drifted into pleasant reveries about his adorable littlewife-to-be. Drowsiness crept upon him. When the lone candle on the tableburned down, flickered, and went out, he was too sound asleep to waken. But his sleep was troubled with uneasy dreams. 

In the midst of a nightmare that lived over his flight from the bronchosacross the desert, he was roused with a start to alert wakefulness. Someheavy-breathing creature was stealthily shuffling about in the blacknight of the unlighted room. A thump, followed by a muttered curse, betrayed the identity of the prowler. With utmost caution Lennon slippedhis arm from the sling, drew Farley's revolver, and barricaded himselfbehind the chair. Slade shuffled nearer--so near that hiswhiskey-poisoned breath struck in Lennon's face. Again came a thud and acurse. The prowler had stubbed his stockinged toe against a chair leg. 

Lennon aimed the revolver toward the sound, in expectation of anupflaring match. Discovery would mean instant attack by the huge-framedscoundrel. Of that he had no doubt. Slade would not be groping about inthe dark in this stealthy manner unless intent upon an evil purpose. 

But no match flamed. The shuffling feet moved past Lennon to the walland along the wall toward the doorway that opened upon the short passageto the girl's room. No door barred the passage at either end. Thepurpose of the prowler was now unmistakable. 

For the second time Lennon had cause to be thankful that he had notchanged to his boots. His moccasined feet noiselessly felt their wayafter the heavy-footed shuffler. Slade was already through the doorwayinto the passage. Lennon followed. The finger-tips of his outgropingleft hand touched the back of the prowler. 

A startled grunt warned Lennon to dodge back a step and crouch. Aheavier grunt told him of a violent out-clutch or blow, which, meetingonly empty air, had wrenched the breath from the big body of thestriker. 

Again Lennon pointed his revolver--and again the expected match failedto crackle and flare. Slade stood silent for several seconds, holdinghis breath. But Lennon was no less still. The tense listener expelledhis pent-up breath in a grunt of disgust. 

"Huh! Must 'a' been the tizwin. Fools a man. "

Lennon straightened up and again groped with his hand as he heard Sladeshuffle on along the passage. There was need of utmost caution. He didnot wish to shoot. But he knew that the grip of Slade's thick arms wouldbe as dangerous as the hug of a grizzly. 

This time the outstretched finger-tips barely grazed the prowler'sshirt. Lennon took a quick step forward, clutched the back of Slade'sneck as a guide for his blow, and struck him with the butt of therevolver under the right ear. The massive body of the trader slumpeddown as if hit by a sledge. 

The weight of the falling man dragged Lennon after. But the utterlimpness of the body under him stayed his hand from a second blow. Hethrust the revolver back into his pocket and grasped Slade under thearmpits. The body remained flaccid even when dragged out of the passage. 

Lennon struck a match and bent low over the ghastly face of the man hehad felled. The scoundrel was only stunned. Lennon's look of anxietygave place to a stern smile. Though certain of the man's guiltyintentions, he could not put an end to him. 

He again grasped the unconscious man and dragged him across the livingroom and out beside the crane of the hoist. A loop of the rope-end aboutthe clumsy ankles, and two or three turns of the windlass lifted theinert body so that it dangled head downward. 

To swing the crane out through the opening and lower away on the ropewas the easiest part of the undertaking. Lennon reversed the crank ofthe windlass, around and around, with purposeful deliberation. He hopedthat Slade would recover consciousness while still swinging in mid-air. There was grim pleasure in the thought of how the scoundrel would firstbecome aware of the dim starlit precipice beside him and then wouldrouse to the shame and danger of his hanging. 

When the rope was rather less than half unwound from the windlass Lennonpaused to shift his grip on the crank. At the same moment a candle thathad been masked by a blanket glowed out at him from the doorway of theliving room. The muzzle of a small revolver thrust forward above thecandle. 

"Hands up--quick--or I'll shoot, " threatened a vibrant, low-pitchedvoice. 

The menace was very real. Most men would have obeyed the command and letSlade drop to a head-foremost smash on the cliff foot. Lennon cried backat the threatener without releasing his hold on the windlass:

"Pardon me, Miss Farley--I----"

"You!" Holding up the candle, Carmena stepped in to peer about the biganteroom. "Way you were stooped over I mistook you for---- Almost fired. What you doing?"

The query was charged with suspicion. Lennon thrust in the crank peg, folded his arms, and leaned against the windlass. 

"I met your father's partner wandering about, and thought he needed anairing. "

The girl stared from the windlass out along the taut rope. 

"You don't mean----"

"Yes, dangling head down. "

"Dead?"

"Merely knocked out--worse luck! But one way of restoring consciousnessis to raise the feet above the head. He may wake up any moment andappreciate the situation. "

"Any moment?" cried Carmena. She half dropped her candlestick on thestone floor and sprang to the windlass. "Quick! We must haul him upbefore he comes to. "

Lennon did not budge. 

"No, Miss Farley. That beast shall not again set foot in this placeuntil Elsie is safe away. "

The girl's eyes widened. Her hand clutched and drew close across herrounded bosom the folds of the blanket that she had flung about hershoulders to cover her night gown. Her face paled and as quickly flushedscarlet. 

"I thought I heard sounds in the passage, but the rug curtain muffledthem, " she murmured. "Was he trying to--to----"

"Had been drinking, " replied Lennon. "My regret now is that the blow didnot kill him. "

"And leave us no chance against Cochise? He's the only living creaturethat Cochise fears. Can't you see we must make believe--must keep upwith him until we are rid of the Apaches? Bad as he is, he's a whiteman. Cochise is a--devil! When he tired of Blossom, he'd give her to hismen. "

Convinced against his will, Lennon began to wind in on the windlass. Carmena went to the edge of the cliff. When the body of Slade camespinning and swinging up out of the gloom she held down the light andpeered anxiously at the knot that held the rope about his thick ankles. It showed no signs of slipping. His down-hung head wobbled up into theflickering light of the candle. The face was purple; the bloodshot eyeswere glazed. 

Carmena swung in the crane and freed the rope the moment Lennon easedoff. Slade was wheezing as if almost suffocated. At Carmena's urging, Lennon helped her drag the stupefied man back into the living room. Thegirl ran to fetch a bowl of water. 

"Loosen your clothes, " she whispered in Lennon's ear. "Hide yourmoccasins--look as if you'd just jumped out of bed--get your arm back inthe sling. That's it. Now lift his head and shoulders up against thischair. "

As Lennon raised the flaccid upper body, Carmena began to dash waterinto the purple face. The blotched skin gradually lightened to itsnatural red. The pale eyes lost their fishy glaze. They stared dazedlyup into the deeply concerned face of Carmena. She flung the last cupfulof water from the bowl. Slade roused enough to mumble virulent curses. 

"Oh!" exclaimed Carmena, in a tone of sympathetic relief. "He's notdead--he's coming to. Oh, Mr. Slade, what happened? Did you fall againstthe table? Or was it a fit? You looked terribly black in the face, as ifyou'd had a fit. That's why I used the water. Jack held you up to drainthe blood out of your head. "

Slade scowled at his helpers. Lennon frowned back at him but followed upthe girl's lead. 

"Once saw a man taken with apoplexy--stroke of paralysis, you know. Notparalyzed are you? Try lifting your arms and legs?"

Slade glowered morosely, but caught the look of concern in Carmena'sface and stiffened with sudden alarm. She watched with an intentscrutiny as he gingerly lifted one limb after another. 

"Bunk!" he growled. "I ain't paralyzed. Needn't think you can con me. "

"Wait--your face!" warned the girl. "It looked queer. Try smiling. "

"No, it's all right now, " said Lennon. "Sometimes these first strokes ofapoplexy paralyze only for a few moments. "

Carmena changed her look of sympathy to one of sharp reproof. 

"I don't think it's that at all. You've just been working on oursympathies, Mr. Slade. Own up now. You took too much tizwin to know whatyou were about. You came in here for a drink of water and fell againstthe table corner. "

The glaring eyes of the trader narrowed in a look of crafty calculation. Lennon followed the man's thoughts by his expression. The effects of themoonshine whiskey, of the blow under his ear, and of the suffocation hadnot yet passed. They had left him lax and shaken and rather muddled. Hehad been given his fill for one night. Carmena's reproaches disarmedhis suspicion that she and Lennon knew what he had been about. Hisguilty anger at the two subsided into derision of their blindness. 

"Well, what if I did git tanked up?" he growled. "It's my tizwin as muchas Dad's, ain't it? I'm going back to bed to sleep it off. "

Lennon took the candle from Carmena. 

"Permit me to carry the light for you, Slade. Your hand is too unsteady. I'm not so sure about Miss Farley's explanation of your mishap. I stillbelieve you had a stroke--not as heavy a stroke as it might havebeen--not fatal, you know, but heavy enough to put you down and out. "

Slade was staggering to his feet. Lennon followed him to the room whereFarley lay sprawled in drunken slumber beside an empty whiskey jug. Assoon as Slade had dropped upon the bed Lennon took the candle back tothe living room. Carmena had gone. 

He gathered up an armful of Navaho rugs and moved one of the heavychairs around to the doorway of the passage into the girl's room. 

CHAPTER XV

CROOKED WAYS

At gray dawn Elsie started to go out into the living room. Midway of thedusky passage her foot struck against a roundish object. She bent downto look. A dim form was lying in the passage, with feet against thechair that blocked the outer doorway. 

The girl's half shriek brought Lennon up at a bound, his revolver out. 

"Who's there?" he demanded. 

"Oh--oh, Jack!" the girl sobbed her relief. 

He clasped her to him protectingly. 

"All right, sweetheart--all right, " he said, soothingly. "You see I havebeen here on watch. Slade---- But that is past. I see light outside. Hewill soon be leaving with me. "

Elsie clutched him, in renewed panic. 

"But I'm afraid! I don't want you to leave me, Jack. You'll never, nevercome back! I want to go along, too. If you leave me, I'm awful afraidCochise'll catch me!"

"You dear little frightened Blossom! But I cannot take you now. You muststay with Carmena. She will keep you up here, safe from Cochise. I willcome back--never fear. I will come back and take you away. "

"Take me--away from Dead Hole? Oh, how wonderful! Mena says I came fromoutside, where are all the book things and people--like you. I can'tremember, but I'll just love to go out and see the wide world withyou--and Mena--and Dad. Only Dad doesn't want to leave the Hole at all. "

"You shall go with me out of this place, " replied Lennon. "I will bringthe sheriff and have him arrest every member of this band of outlaws. "

The rug curtains of the inner room flung apart. Carmena sprang out intothe passage. She drew her foster-sister away from Lennon with a grasp asresolute as it was gentle. 

"Go and start breakfast, Blossom, " she directed. "The sooner they leavethe better. "

Elsie darted to the doorway and disappeared. Lennon started after her. He was checked by a low-spoken command from Carmena:

"Stop. I want a show-down from you, Jack Lennon. I heard what you saidabout the sheriff. Good thing Slade wasn't in earshot. You'd have abullet in you by now. You may yet. What are you aiming to do?"

"You say you heard me, " said Lennon. "I spoke clearly. "

"Do you count Dad in the gang?"

"Don't you?"

In the brightening light of red dawn Lennon saw the girl's eyes cloudwith anguish. At sight of her grief and suffering a wave of compassionsurged up within him. The flood overwhelmed and submerged all hisprejudice against her. 

He started to express his pity and sympathy--only to be checked beforethe words could leave his lips. The girl's eyes were ablaze. Her mouthstraightened in resolute lines. 

"All right, Mr. Lennon, " she said. "You've shown your hand. Here's mine:You'll give your pledge to leave the sheriff out of this deal, or you'llnever reach the trail. "

"Very kind of you, indeed, to warn me, Miss Farley. I presume you willtell Slade and Cochise to be ready if I attempt to escape. "

Though the girl's lips remained firm, her eyes again dilated withanguish. She turned about and groped her way into the inner room. Lennonfelt an odd mingling of shame and regret, of anger and an emotion thatwent far beyond sympathy. 

Elsie soon came with a bowl of coffee, which Carmena had sent for Lennonto give to Slade. There was no need of words to make clear her wish tobe rid of the visitors. Lennon found Slade lying as torpid as Farley. But the hot coffee roused him to morose alertness. 

Breakfast was served by Carmena, though her excuse for the absence ofElsie failed to satisfy the surly-tempered trader. The younger girl didnot appear until Slade dropped the rope ladder and went scrambling downthe cliff face. Carmena was already lowering Lennon's outfit to thetrader's Navaho followers, who had come at dawn. 

With a last word to Elsie to be brave but careful until his return, Lennon gently freed himself from her clinging embrace, put his arm backin the sling, and stepped into the loop of the hoist rope. The girlslowered him to the cliff foot. 

The Navahos, who were dressed as Mexicans, already had the prospectingoutfit lashed on a pack horse. At Lennon's request, Slade derisivelyordered one of them to hold the tenderfoot's pony. Lennon nursed his armand climbed into his saddle with a show of difficulty. The more awkwardand disabled he could make himself appear to his travelling companionsthe better would be his chances later. 

Slade put spurs to his big horse and galloped off down the valley, leaving Lennon to trail behind with the Navahos. The pace did notslacken until the party raced down into the lower caņon and around adouble turn to the drop in the bed. 

On the brink of the cliff was set a crane similar in design to the oneat the cliff house but much larger. Hauled back, it was hidden frombelow by a corner of rock. Swung out, its block and tackle, operated bya one-pony windlass, could hoist or lower a two-pony load in the lightbasket cage woven of wire and withes. One of the three Apache guardshitched his pony to the windlass. 

Slade went down first, with his horse and Lennon and one of the Apaches. Before the horse was led through the cage door out upon the smoothledges at the foot of the cliff the Apache fastened thick pads ofrawhide upon his hoofs. This was also done for the ponies as they swungdown, two by two, in the cage. 

Lennon had noted the arrangement and working of the crane and hoist withthe eye of an engineer. When he turned his attention to the hoof pads, Slade gratuitously explained that the rawhide was needed to keep thehorses from slipping on the ledges of the cliff. Lennon took this with acareless nod. 

He had already inferred the true reason for the practice. The ledgeswere neither slippery nor steep. But scratches made by ironshod hoofs onthe rocks might have led expert trackers to suspect the hoisting ofstolen stock up the cliff. 

Down where the bed was of loose stones and gravel a rough trail from thelower caņon twisted up a side gorge. Pursuers trailing a bunch of stolencattle or horses would of course turn up the gorge. A glance or two atthe sheer thirty-foot wall of the upstep in the bed of the main caņonwould convince the most astute of cowboys that not even a puma could goup that way. 

At the edge of the trail the Apache took off the hoof-pads and returnedto the cage. He was being hoisted up the cliff when Lennon loped afterSlade down-trail around a sharp bend in the caņon. 

A hard ride down the caņon for five miles or more, then up a steep breakand across cedar-dotted mesas, brought the party out to the Moqui trailshortly after mid-morning. Lennon frowned at the clear-marked trail. 

His plans as first made had been to cut and run for the railway themoment he should reach the main trail. But he had discovered that hispony was the slowest of the mounts and that the four Navahos always keptbehind him. He could neither drop to the rear nor race ahead of Slade'sbig American thoroughbred. 

Slade turned to the right, away from the railway, and pushed the pacefor another hour. The trail led through a rather wide valley. Near thehead they came to a well-watered oasis of corn and bean fields. Acrossfrom the trail stood an abandoned Moqui pueblo. 

The ruins had been sufficiently restored to house Slade's tradingestablishment and the score or more families of his Navaho cowpunchers. The small storeroom was crowded with bales and boxes, but Lennon noticedthat behind the front piles many of the boxes were empty. Thislegitimate business was more or less of a sham to cover the whiskeyrunning. 

Slade's quarters in a half-detached group of stone rooms were somewhatincongruously furnished. A rather handsome but sad-eyed young Indianwoman in a dirty blue wrapper covertly "dished up" a noon meal for hermaster and Lennon on the fly-covered table. 

The greasy warmed-over chile con carne, the half-cooked tortillas andthe muddy coffee accounted for Slade's praises of Elsie as a cook. TheIndian girl slunk and cowered under his curses. Whenever she passed himshe cringed as if expectant of a blow. Lennon was doubly relieved whenSlade's impatience to be off on the search for the lost lode hurried himout into the clean open air. 

The horses had been fed and watered and were waiting near the spring, beside a young peach tree. Slade paused to bellow guttural commands at aNavaho sheepherder who was driving a small flock down the valley. 

Lennon hastened ahead toward the spring, eager to seize his opportunity. He had only to secure his rifle, leap on Slade's big thoroughbred, andrace away down the back trail. The American horse could easily outrunthe Indian ponies. Once beyond rifle range of the pueblo his escapewould be certain. 

The horses were soon only a few steps away. Lennon nerved himself forthe dash. From behind a scraggly bunch of scrub that appeared too thinto screen even a coyote rose all four of Slade's personal retainers. Though they were as stolid and silent as wooden Indians, each had hisrifle in hand. Lennon thought he caught a glitter of suspicion in theircovert glances. 

Bitter as was his disappointment, he was quick to make the best of thesituation. A sharp command and jerk of his thumb toward Slade led themto believe he had come for them at the order of their master. 

Slade hailed the tenderfoot with bluff cordiality when the mounted partyloped up the slope to him. 

"Gitting het up, huh? You act like an old-timer on a gold stampede. Never before knew a prospector to go loco over copper. "

"You should bear in mind I am an engineer, not a prospector, " repliedLennon. "If I am successful over this copper project and it proves to beas large as I have been led to expect, I shall have won a place well upin my profession. "

Slade grunted contemptuously and spurred his horse into a gallop. Withina mile he turned off trail to cut across country. Beyond the firstmesas, which were a part of the trader-cowman's cattle range, came ajumbled waste of crags and broken ridges. 

On the edge of this devil's dooryard of bare rocks and no less dry andsterile ravines Slade gave over the lead to the oldest of his Navahos. Awhite man could have found his way only by blind chance through the mazeof twisted clefts that seamed the unscalable cliffs and crags. 

Lennon soon lost all sense of direction. He realized that he could nothope to find his way out of these worst of bad lands without a guide. Hemust put off his plans to escape until the return to the trail. He beganto surmise that Cripple Sim's inability to relocate the lost lode maynot have been due altogether to his maiming by Apache arrows. 

But this jagged waste that had kept the secret of the mine hidden for ageneration would offer an impassable barrier to any railway. Unless aneasier route could be found, the entire project was already provedhopeless. Even a vein of solid copper could not be worked at a profit ifthe metal had to be packed out on burros. 

Yet there remained the chance of another route to the lode; and Lennonwas not minded to confide his disappointment to Slade. He spurred hispony to keep pace with the others. The sooner the mine was relocated andthe party back at the trail, the sooner he could make his attempt toescape. After Elsie had been freed from her dangerous prison in DeadHole he could take time to search for a feasible route to the mine. 

Toward sundown the old Navaho led the party clear of the shattered rockmaze and up the side of a small mesa. From the table top Lennon saw themighty towers of Triple Butte startlingly close ahead. Slade reined into stare hard-eyed at the engineer. 

"There's your butte, " he rumbled. "Which side do we head?"

"North, " replied Lennon, without a moment's hesitation. 

Though he had been lost since leaving the trail, he clearly rememberedall the directions given by the old prospector as to the position of thelode in relation to Triple Butte. From the top of the mesa practicalrailway routes appeared to offer to the east and north of the greatbutte. 

Lennon studied the landscape until he noticed that the Navaho leader hadheaded south of east instead of north. Certain that his reply to Sladehad been misunderstood, he spurred forward to explain that they wereveering away from the lost lode. 

Slade rode on without a word of acknowledgment. The presence of theNavahos made his contemptuous silence doubly galling. Lennon took it asa foretaste of what was to come and masked his chagrin. For Elsie'ssake, he could not afford to quarrel with Slade at this stage of thedangerous game that must be played. 

CHAPTER XVI

THE DROP

At sunset the reason for the guide's choice of route disclosed itself. The party came to a group of small springs. 

Lennon's throat had been parched for the last two hours. He spurred hisjaded pony forward to the mesquite bushes where the Navahos wereunsaddling, and slipped off to dip his empty canteen in the largestspring. 

The guide muttered gutturally to Slade who was staring up narrow-eyed atthe broken shoulder of Triple Butte. He wrenched himself about to scowlat Lennon. The engineer had straightened and was raising the half-filledcanteen to drink. 

"Hey, you!" bellowed Slade. "Drop that!"

The bullying command was more than Lennon could endure. He waved thecanteen ironically at the trader, turned half away, and put the openingto his mouth. Slade whipped out his revolver and fired. The canteen flewout of Lennon's hand and thumped down upon the stone beside the spring. 

For a moment Lennon was so astonished that he stood motionless, staringdown at the canteen. The water gushed and gurgled through the holespierced through the middle of the vessel by the heavy bullet. 

The first coherent thought of the engineer was that Slade had intendedto murder him. He put his hand to the pocket that held Farley's revolverand turned to face Slade. The trader's weapon was already back in itsholster. His stained teeth showed in a wide grin. 

"May I ask what you mean by shooting at me?" demanded Lennon. 

Slade's mirth burst out in a roar of laughter. 

"Shooting at you--shooting _now_?" he jibed when he could speak. "Youmust figger I'm plumb loco. Any fool ought to know anybody would holdoff till you located the mine. Even supposing I was going to plant you, I'd wait, wouldn't I, huh?"

Lennon saw the point even clearer than the trader intended. He wassupposed to take the piece of grim humour as a reassurance. The derisivebanter was an unintentional notification that he could expect to bemurdered immediately after the finding of the lost lode. But until thenhe must continue to play the dupe. 

"I must confess I do not fancy your Western jokes, " he said. "You havespoiled a perfectly good canteen. "

"Happens you're worth more to me than it; and you was dead set onfilling up with that poison water, " rejoined Slade. 

"Poison?"

The old Navaho was drinking from the second spring, less than two pacesaway from the first. Lennon pointed at him. 

"Sure, " said Slade. "It's not the only case I know of finding good water'longside arsenic, in a copper district. "

The actions of the Indians bore out the truth of their master'sassertion, or at least proved that they believed the first springpoisonous. The horses were picketed well away from it and from the jointrill of the two springs, which trickled down slope a few yards beforeseeping away among the stones. 

The camp supper of bacon and flapjacks was soon followed by thespreading of blankets on the nearest stretches of sand. The Navahos wentoff to one side. Slade ordered Lennon to keep near him and carefullyencircled their bedding-down place with the coils of a horsehair lariat. 

The purpose of the lariat became apparent to Lennon when he was rousedby the chill of dawn. He saw one of the Navahos rake out of the embersof the evening's fire a torpid tarantula as big as his hand. 

Lennon thought of Elsie's daintiness and soft ways. The girl was utterlyout of keeping with this fierce land of desolation and thirst, of thornsand poison springs, of venomous reptiles and insects, of ferociousbeasts and men. She did not belong and never would. She was a gardenflower. 

Carmena was different. Her rich bloom was more like the flowers of thedesert growths--the thorn-guarded yucca and needled cactus. There wasnothing soft and cuddly about _her_. 

At the realization of where his thoughts were drifting, Lennon wrenchedhis mental focus back to Elsie. What concern could the fate of Carmenabe to him? She belonged with her drunken, criminal father in Dead Hole. All thought and effort must be centred on the rescue of Elsie. 

After a hasty meal of flapjacks, bacon, and coffee, the party startedout to work north around Triple Butte. The country was now unknownground even to the old Navaho guide. But he showed great craft inpuzzling out the directions given to him. 

An inner pocket hid the map that Lennon had brought from the East. Hetook care that Slade and the Navahos thought he was going by memory. Hadhe told of the map at any time after reaching Dead Hole he now feltcertain that he never would have lived to get this near the mine. Sladewould have taken the map and killed him out of hand. So at least Lennonbelieved. 

Once the party rounded upon the northern slopes of Triple Butte, thepoints described on the map became easily recognizable. All thatremained to do was to ride around a spur ridge and slant into the valleythat headed up between the western and central towers of the greatbutte. Here the searchers came upon trees and grass and running water. Farther up stood a small cabin, near a spring that had been blasted outand rimmed with rock to form a convenient basin. 

Lennon spurred forward beside Slade. 

"Promising. What?" he remarked. 

"Not what, but where?" growled the trader. "Hold on--that looks like anold burro trail. "

"Yes. Up first ravine toward left edge of middle butte, half a mile tolode, " Lennon quoted the last directions that he had read on the map. 

Slade signed for the Navahos to wait at the spring. A brutal jab of thespurs sent his horse bounding off at top speed. Lennon's pony was leftbehind until the leader wheeled into the first ravine and came upagainst a steep slide of loose rock. To force even the nimblest ofmounts to attempt such an ascent would have meant risking a bad fall. 

As Lennon loped his pony into the ravine the trader swore blasphemouslyand swung out of his saddle to scramble up the slide. Great as was hisstrength, it was offset by the fact that his weight tended to bring theloose stones sliding down at every step. Lennon was not only lighter andmore agile but had the advantage of better wind. 

He was but a few steps below when Slade reached the head of the slide. Close above them the ascent was barred by high ledges that dropped offfrom the upper part of the ravine. Slade stared savagely at the dullreddish-brown face of the ledges. The metallic surface plainly showedthe use of pick and dynamite. He uttered a furious oath as he turnedupon Lennon. 

"You lying skunk!" he bellowed. "This ain't no gold mine!"

All the way up the slide Lennon had perceived the copper in the floatrock. He was prepared for the trader's outburst. Farley's revolver layready in his grasp, behind the sling on his right arm. 

"Have you--what do you call it?--gone loco?" he asked. "I told youdistinctly my search was for a copper mine. The gold lode was your ownfancy. You will now apologize for that term you used. "

Had one of his Navahos made the demand, Slade could not have been moreamazed. He gaped, dumbfounded. Then his rage burst out again withredoubled fury. But the sight of Lennon's revolver muzzle put an abruptend to his violent curses. 

"Good enough, " said Lennon. "Now my apology, if you please. "

The cool politeness of the request emphasized its deadly earnestness. Lennon was keen for an excuse to shoot the big scoundrel. The look inhis eye was unmistakable. 

"All right, " grunted Slade. "Have it your own way. I back up. "

"You apologize?"

"Sure. Even a tenderfoot is entitled to that--when he gits the drop onyou. "

"Quite true, " agreed Lennon, and he thrust the revolver into his pocket. "Now, with regard to the lode, our next step will be----"

"What'd you say you was to git from your copper company?" broke inSlade, suddenly straight-eyed and cordial. 

"Twenty thousand bonus for relocating the lode, and----"

"You can draw on 'em for it?"

"For half, at least. You shall have your ten thousand as soon as yourid the Farleys of Cochise and his gang. That was the agreement. "

The trader thwacked his beefy hand down on Lennon's shoulder. 

"That's a go, pard. I own up honest I figgered your talk of copper wasall bunk. But I aim to stand by my bargains. Only you're sure now thishere lode ain't no blind, are you? You ain't got that gold mine, too, hiding out hereabouts?"

"I give you my word, Slade, this is the only mine or lode of which Iknow. "

Slade's look was more profane than a spoken curse. 

"Huh--another El Dorado lie roped and branded. Only thing to do is to goafter that bonus of yours. "

"I must take samples and measurements for my report, " said Lennon. "Thecompany does not pay for the guesses of its engineers. "

None too willingly Slade took the end of the small steel-ribbonengineer's tape that was held out to him. Lennon measured the width ofthe copper ledges, noted the trend and dip of the immense lode, andcalculated its thickness where exposed. Samples were then gathered. 

Upon the return down the slide the trader suddenly paused to point atthe skull of a half-buried human skeleton. 

"Huh, " he grunted. "Cripple Sim didn't have no pard. But look at thepick--another prospector. Must 'a' stumbled on the mine. Lots of good itdone him. See that hole? His pard plugged him through the head, streakedout, got lost, died. That's how I figger it. "

"Poor chap!" Lennon murmured his pity for the murdered man, and helingered to cover over the skeleton with a pile of loose stones. 

At the spring he found the Indians cooking another round of flapjacks, bacon, and coffee. After the meal the party waited through the heat ofmid-day while the horses cropped the grass along the banks of the springrill. 

At first there seemed nothing of interest about the old cabin. Thethatch had half blown off; the adobe-plastered stone fireplace andchimney had tumbled down, and sand had drifted in past the broken wattledoor. But when Lennon went in to take advantage of the patch of shadethat was offered, he was shocked to find the skeleton of a woman huddledin the far corner. 

Summoned by his call, Slade eyed the skeleton with callous indifference. 

"Well, what you kicking up such a fuss about?" he growled. "Mebbe it's asquaw--mebbe a white woman. What's the difference? Been dead eight orten years, by the look of things. Must 'a' got hers same time as theman. We're lucky they didn't git our mine. "

The start back was made so late that the party did not reach the arsenicspring until dusk. Lennon had convinced himself that Slade planned toreturn to Dead Hole and at least make a pretense of earning the tenthousand dollars. 

His own scheme was to seize Slade's horse and make a run for therailway. But first he must wait to be guided back through the devil'sdooryard of crags and clefts. 

He fell asleep with his hand upon the butt of his revolver and therevolver under his body. He awoke at dawn to find his wrists lashedtogether. One of the Navahos stood on guard beside him. The revolver wasgone. Slade and the others were already eating. 

No food was brought to Lennon. But after he had been roughly tossed intohis saddle by the Navahos, Slade brought a drink of water from thearsenic spring and offered it with mock hospitality. 

"It's a dry ride, " he urged. "Take a good swaller, son. It'll keep youfrom gitting thirsty. "

Lennon looked at him steady-eyed. 

"May I ask what you expect to gain by this, Slade?"

"Gain?--me?" The trader stared back no less unwaveringly. "I just doneit to save you gitting in trouble. You're too careless--way you handle agun. Might hurt somebody one of these here days. Anyhow, this'll helpyou think things over. Sabe?"

The poison water splashed down upon the dry rocks. Slade mounted, toride off after the guide. The other Navahos lashed Lennon to his saddleand drove his pony before them, along with the pack horse. 

Though the old Navaho found a rather shorter way out through the jumblemaze of the bad lands, Lennon's mouth and throat were dust dry and histongue swollen before the party reached the trail. 

The thirst torture continued until the arrival at the pueblo. ThereSlade at last gave drink to his prisoner and disclosed his purpose, witha pretense of indignation. 

"You ought to be strung up for trying to shoot me, Lennon. But I'm aneasy-going man--easy and forgiving. You only got to make out your reportand send for that twenty thousand. When it comes on, I'll let you go. "

"Very kind of you, I'm sure, " replied Lennon, after he had drained thelast drop of water from the jar. "However, I am in no hurry to make myreport. I shall send it on and draw your half of the money--after youhave kept your bargain with regard to Cochise. "

Slade deliberately drew his revolver and aimed it between Lennon's eyes. 

"Just remember, your riding in the way you did was to set you tothinking, " he reminded. "This ain't no joke. Guess you'll agree now togit started on that report, huh?"

Lennon smiled at the revolver and the still more menacing steel-whiteeyes that glared at him along the barrel. 

"Is it not time you set to thinking yourself, Slade?" he suggested. "Alive, I am worth ten thousand dollars to you, as soon as you keep yourbargain. Dead, I would not be worth a penny to you or any one else. "

The brick red of the trader's big face purpled and the hand that grippedthe revolver shook with the excess of his rage as he jammed the weaponback into its holster. 

"Wait, " he said. "We'll see what Cochise can do to make you behave. "

CHAPTER XVII

DEATH PLAY

Fresh horses were saddled, and Lennon was tied on as before. His lasthope of escape went glimmering. He realized that he had missed his onechance when the party first reached the main trail, coming out of DeadHole. 

To have attacked even then would have been a desperate undertaking--oneman against five. But he would have had at least a fighting chance. Nowhe was unarmed and bound, unable even to shift in the saddle. 

Slade set a hot pace that fast ate up the hard miles of the returntrail. But no pony could carry his massive weight as had the horse. Before the main caņon was reached, his mount began to flag. Only themost merciless of rowelling could goad the jaded beast out of a jogexcept for short spurts. In the descent to the caņon the pony began tostumble badly. But Slade held him up with an iron grip on thejaw-breaking Spanish ring-bit. 

The smooth caņon bed was only a few yards below when, at the last sharptwist in the descent, the still air vibrated with a sibilant rattle. Slade's pony snorted and jumped sideways, leaving Lennon a clear view ofthe big diamond-back rattlesnake that lay coiled in the middle of thetrail. The gaping jaws of the angry snake and the peculiar billowing ofits body so fixed Lennon's gaze that he only half glimpsed the finalstumble of Slade's pony. 

Unable to keep his footing among the loose stones of the side slope, theexhausted animal plunged headlong. Slade managed to fling himself clear, but fell prone on the sharp-edged stones. His nose was skinned and onecheek gashed. He bounded up, fairly beside himself with rage, and beganto kick the head of the fallen pony. 

The luckless beast struggled to rise, got half to his feet, screamed, and fell over. Something about his hindquarters had been wrenched ortorn or broken. Slade swore furiously and jerked out his revolver tofire repeatedly into the body of the struggling beast. The fourth shotwas through the head. 

At the sudden stilling of his victim's struggles, the trader's halfinsane rage cooled from its mad heat without losing any of itsvirulence. One of the Navahos had dismounted and run forward to stonethe rattlesnake. Slade uttered a guttural hissing command. Instead ofcrushing the snake, the Indian teased it with the butt of his leatherquirt. 

The reptile lashed out in a vicious stroke. An instant later the Navahostraightened up with his hand gripped about the snake's neck closebehind the deadly triangular head. He gave no heed to its five-foot bodywrithing and coiling about his bare arm. 

Slade swung up into the path and looked from the new prisoner to Lennonwith a glint in his pale eyes as malignant as the cold glare of thesnake. 

"You're one of these here science sharps, " he jeered. "We'll have youtest out if a Gila monster bite fixes a man against rattler poison. "

"Rather a costly experiment for you if I prove not to be immune, "rallied Lennon. "You must have a keen interest in science so to riskyour ten thousand. "

"Mebbe. It ain't much of a gamble, though. I stand to rake in twentythousand if I win, and you ain't liable to let it go as far as thebite. "

"Twenty thousand?" questioned Lennon. "If you take Cochise in on thisblackmailing scheme, you will have to divide the proceeds with him. Whynot keep your bargain and earn your half of the bonus without this riskof losing all?"

The trader's eyes narrowed in crafty calculation. He looked about at thesnake and then down at the slaughtered horse. A sudden grin twisted hiscoarse mouth. 

"You're right, son, " he chuckled. "Why split the twenty with a dam'Apache? Ain't time now to make the Hole 'fore dark, anyhow--and here'sour rawhide. We'll try out that science experiment right here. "

He signed for the man with the snake to go on down into the caņon bed. The other Indians were already unsaddling the dead burro. Slade muttereda command to them in the thick indistinct intonations of their language. They at once started to flay the pony. 

Slade led Lennon's mount down where the snake holder had halted beside asangre de dragon tree. One of the Indians followed and began to cutstakes from the tree. The sap of the tree was as red as blood and soastringent that when Slade dabbed a little on his cheek the wound atonce ceased to bleed. 

The flayers soon came with the limp rawhide. Slade turned along thecaņon to a spot where the rays of the low western sun still slanted downbetween the cliffs. He spoke again in the Navaho tongue. The Indiansdrove a stake firmly into the sand and tied the rattlesnake to it with athree-foot thong cut from the pony skin. 

Lennon was now pulled from his pony and stretched out, face down, justbeyond reach of the snake. Regardless of the bandage on his hand, hisarms were jerked out sideways and fastened with yard-long thongs tostakes driven at right angles to a point a foot or so in front of hishead. From stakes set on the opposite side of the snake several linescut from the raw pony hide were flung across past the snake and bound toLennon's arms at the shoulder. 

By hauling on the lines from ahead, the Indians dragged Lennon an inchat a time toward the snake. He heard the sharp ominous rattle, andtwisted his head up out of the sand to face the danger. The snake hadcoiled in front of the first stake. Though its venomous head was drawnback, the long curved fangs of the gaping jaws were less than three feetbefore Lennon's eyes. 

Even as he looked up, the reptile shot forward straight at his face. Heinvoluntarily blinked. In the same instant a drop of fluid spatteredagainst his closed eyelid and he heard a soft thud in the sand closebefore his chin. A puff of dust whiffed up into his nostrils. It clottedthe dew-like drop of liquid on his eyelid. 

He opened his eyes in a wide stare. The head of the big rattlesnake layflat on the sand, less than eight inches before his face. It had lashedout to the full length of the thong. Had the thong broken, or even hadits loop about the reptile's neck slipped, the poison-dripping fangsmust have lashed Lennon's face. 

Intense as were the heat and dryness of the caņon bed, Lennon suddenlyfelt his skin bathed in clammy sweat. For the first time in his life heknew terror. He glared into the cold, malignant eyes of the snake andsaw death, certain and horrible. Panic seized him. He writhed and dughis fingers and boot toes into the sand in a frantic attempt to workhimself back away from the hideous forward-straining reptile. 

The desperate struggle was utterly futile. The lines ahead had beenstretched taut and knotted fast to their stakes. With his armsoutstretched he could get very little purchase for thrusting himselfback against the elastic pull of the rawhide ropes. 

But he was no coward. Realization of his helplessness brought him theresignation of despair. With resignation came a stilling of his wildpanic. Frantic terror gave way to reasoning thought. 

Had his torturer been Cochise, there might have been no room for hope. But Slade was a white man. He might prefer gold to the lust of torture. The death of his victim would mean the loss of the ransom money. Lennon's tense nerves and rigid muscles relaxed. He allowed hisupward--and backward-strained head to sink down until one cheek restedupon the hot sand. The change of position brought the top of his headvery close to the snake. But he trusted to Slade's avarice to see thathe escaped the fangs. 

Slade and the Indians had been gloating upon the struggles and terror oftheir victim. At Lennon's quieting down the trader burst into a derisivelaugh. 

"Sort of wilted a'ready, huh?" he jeered. "Well, you're wise to take arest while you still got time. Rawhide shrinks a whole lot when it gitsto drying. Only question is how much slower the rattler's whang strap'llshorten up than your lines. "

For the first time a clear perception of the real devilishness of thetorture flashed into Lennon's abnormally active mind. He was to lieoutstretched through the long hours, without food or water, while theshrinking rawhide dragged him with frightful slowness closer and closerto those fangs of death. 

The thong of the snake also would be contracting. But it was much theshorter, and therefore would shrink less. The uncertainty of how fastand how much the different fastenings would contract doubled thetorturing knowledge that the shrinking must inevitably pull him withinreach of the snake. 

Physical agony would then soon be added to the mental anguish of dread. For, once the snake's horny snout grazed the top of his head, he wouldbe forced to keep his head raised, on penalty of being pierced by thefangs if he should seek to rest. 

Then was when Slade no doubt felt certain that the overstrained nervesof his victim would give way. Lennon foresaw that if worse came toworst, he must agree to terms. After holding up his head as long as hisstrength lasted, he would be forced to yield. Why not yield at once andsave all the torture?

As he asked himself the question, a grateful shadow swept down thecaņon. The sun was setting. Lennon reconsidered his half-formeddecision. During the night the rawhide might continue to shrink a littlein the dry air, but the darkness and chill would quiet the snake. Itwould lie still until sunrise. Time enough to yield when yielding shouldbecome inevitable!

"If you'll pardon me, Slade, " he said, "I believe I'll take a nap. Goodnight. Pleasant dreams. "

Slade started to curse but ended in a derisive laugh. 

"Think you'll four-flush, huh? Well, we'll see after sun-up. "

He turned his back on the prisoner and walked over to where the oldNavaho was starting a fire for the inevitable flapjacks, bacon, andcoffee. The thought of food nauseated Lennon. But he would have given athousand dollars for one of the canteens of water. Regardless of a hissfrom the half-strangled snake, he laid his other cheek over on thecooling sand. 

After a time Slade came with a blazing stick for torch to wish him amocking good night. Lennon smiled back at him with a show of confidence. The trader cursed but soon went off to roll in his blankets. This provedLennon's surmise that the real test would not come before morning. 

He lay for a long time wide-eyed, forcing himself to consider in detailevery aspect of the situation and to calculate his chances. Beyondquestion, Slade intended to murder him. But there was first the ransommoney to be secured. Would he wait for it, as in the case of the cowmanwhom Elsie had told about? Or might he not fall into a rage and destroyhis victim as he had killed the pony?

If he could keep his temper, the probabilities were that he wouldprolong the torture until he had gained his end. After that might come ashort respite for the victim. 

Lennon next recalled all he knew about snakes and their poison glands. After that he closed his eyes and relaxed both mentally and physically. The cool of nightfall had somewhat eased his thirst and the ache fromthe strain of the rawhide lines on his shoulders. He dozed off tosleep. 

He was so far spent and his last thought so calm that he slept soundlyall night. But the chill damp of dewfall roused him at the first grayingof dawn. To the shivering of his cramped body from the cold was soonadded a shudder of fear and loathing. Against his head, just above theforehead, was pressed a cold hard object--the snout of the rattlesnake. 

But the reptile was too torpid from the cold to strike. After a time theslight moistening of the rawhide by the dew enabled Lennon to forcehimself back nearly an inch. This was at sunrise. Slade came to gloat athis struggle. 

"Go it, " he mocked. "Wiggle while you can. Both them lines and therattler'll git busy soon's the sun hets up a bit. Excuse me while Ifeed. I'll git back in time for the fun. "

The breakfast fire was beside a patch of thorn scrub several yards away. Lennon watched until his enemy had sat down on the sand opposite theNavahos. He then lifted his head. 

The first rays of the sun had begun to warm the snake. At Lennon'smovement it stirred sluggishly. The dull eyes began to brighten with theglare of returning life and anger. Lennon dropped his head forward. 

Enraged by the feigned attack, the snake struck. The long fangs came sonear their mark that Lennon felt them or the snout pass through hishair. Spurts of venom from the overcharged poison glands sprayed inagainst his scalp. 

For the second time since being pegged out Lennon felt his skin goclammy with cold sweat. His flesh crept with horror. Death had grazedhim by a fraction of an inch. Another stroke might break or loosen thesnake's bond. Yet he nerved himself again and shook his head from sideto side. 

The movement roused the snake to fury. It lashed out in stroke afterstroke. But the very excess of the reptile's anger quickly exhausted itsstrength. The hideous head flattened down on the sand. 

A sideward glance told Lennon that his deadly play had not been heededby Slade and the Navahos. But he knew he had no time to spare. He filledhis parched mouth with sand and raised his head. The snake did not move. 

Lennon blew sand into the glaring eyes of the rattler. The jaws gapedangrily. He blew all the remaining sand in between the high-curvedfangs. The snake struck viciously and sank down, inert. A film closedover the sand-filled eyes. 

By pulling himself forward, Lennon gained a little relaxing of thethongs that held his arms outstretched. He drew up his knees and flunghis body up and forward. From a height of several inches his breast camedown squarely upon the head of the snake, with all the weight of hisbody in the blow. 

When Slade rushed cursing from the fire, Lennon lay in what appeared tobe a swoon, with the body of the rattlesnake writhing about his head. Atthe angry bellow of the trader the Indians came running to slashLennon's bonds and jerk him away from the snake. 

Slade ripped out an astounded oath. 

"He's beaten the game!" he cried. 

The head of the reptile had been crushed. 

CHAPTER XVIII

THE ATTACK

The trader possibly may have been overcome with admiration for hisvictim's courage. More probably he was moved by the need to keep himalive for further torture. He signed one of the Navahos to use hiscanteen. Lennon had feigned unconsciousness in the hope of this result. 

He permitted a good quart of water to trickle down his parched throatbefore he showed signs of reviving. Even after he thought best to feignstupor no longer he made a show of great weakness. When jerked to hisfeet by the Indians, he tottered and crumpled down again. Slade swore, but ordered food and coffee brought. 

Lennon's tongue was still too swollen for him to eat much of the greasysolids. The strong coffee, however, both stimulated him and completedthe quenching of his thirst. The old Navaho held the spout of the bigtin coffee pot to his lips and poured until the last drop of muddy blackfluid drained from the grounds. 

The ponies were saddled, and Lennon was lifted upon his mount none toogently. He swayed in the saddle and clutched the horn. Slade made a signfor the prisoner's hands to be left unbound. During the ride up thecaņon Lennon continued to feign weakness, lurching and swaying in thesaddle. 

Slade had taken the pinto pony of the youngest Navaho, who rode doublewith one of the other men. The five miles to the cliff break in thecaņon bed, down which they had been lowered in the basket, was coveredat a lope. 

As the party came galloping to the under ledges Slade bellowed adeep-chested hail that boomed in loud reverberations upon the loftyprecipices of the caņon sides. But no answering cry came down from thecliff, nor was there any sign of the hoist cage basket. 

The old Navaho raised a shrill quavering wail that carried like the howlof a coyote. Again the reverberating echoes ran up the precipices andslowly died out far above, and again no response came from the top ofthe cross barrier. 

"The lazy skunks!" growled Slade. "Off watch, huh? Keep me waiting, willthey? I'll tan their dirty hides for 'em. "

He rode down caņon a few yards and emptied his revolver into the air, firing the shots in couples. This time the echoes had not died outskyward before a dark face with cloth-bound forehead peered down fromthe brink of the cross cliff. Slade roared up an angry command--andabruptly fell silent. 

The downlooker was making some quick gestures. Slade flung up his handin an answering gesture. The signaller disappeared. Slade shouted anorder to the best mounted of his men. The Navaho wheeled his pony andraced away down caņon on the back trail. 

The basket cage of the lift swung out over the cliff brink. It began tolower. Regardless of hoof marks, Slade spurred his pony up the footledges. Lennon followed with the others. 

A glance at the trader's face had told him danger was toward. 

Lennon could think of but two explanations. Either a band of vengefulcattlemen had discovered and attacked the rustlers' secret stronghold, or Cochise had returned and taken advantage of Slade's absence to carryout his designs against Elsie. 

The man sent back by Slade evidently was riding to summon reinforcementsof Navahos from the pueblo. Whether they were to be used against theApaches or to aid them against an outside posse was the question. Ifthe first were the case, Lennon felt that he must be armed to fight. 

The thought of either Elsie or Carmena in the clutches of Cochise filledhim with dread and horror. The suspense of the uncertainty wasunbearable. He forced his pony up beside the trader's pinto while thebasket cage was yet several feet overhead. 

"See here, Slade, " he said, "you've given me a rough deal. But we'reboth white men. We can't permit Cochise to have Farley's girls. That isunthinkable. I'll agree to forget the snake. Give me my rifle and we'llgo through with our bargain. "

"Like hell we will!" growled the trader. "Minute I turned my back you'dpot me. "

"No, " pledged Lennon. "I give you my word. "

Slade continued to scowl with surly suspicion. 

"Guess we'll take a look first. Git a move on you. Pile in. No time tohoist the hosses. "

He swung from his saddle, with Lennon's rifle in one hand and his own inthe other. Both cartridge belts were buckled about his massive body. Hesprang into the wicker cage of the lift as it bumped upon the ledge. Lennon and the three Navahos crowded in after him. 

The Indian above peered over the cliff brink. At a signal from theNavaho he again vanished. The hoist rope tautened. With a creak, thecage scraped on the ledge and began to swing up the cliff face abovethe abandoned horses. 

To Lennon the ascent seemed maddeningly slow. The Navahos leaned againstthe wicker sides of the cage in stolid silence, their faces more thanever like bronze images. None cast a glance upward. But Slade could nothide his mingled uneasiness and anger. 

"Didn't think the young devil had the gall, " he muttered. "Acting likehe'd been bit by a hydrophoby skunk. Nothing meaner 'n a mad wolf. I'd'a' give him Carmena quick enough. .. . Learn her not to pass up a whiteman agin when she had her chance. But the young gal---- Blast Cochise. When I told him flat----"

The cage crept up over the brink of the cliff. One of the Navahos leapedhigh to grasp the guy rope of the crane. His pull swung crane and cagearound toward the horse windlass. The moment the occupants jumped fromthe cage the Navaho allowed the crane to swing out again over the cliffedge. The pony that was hitched to the bar of the windlass started tolower the cage by reversing at a jog trot. 

Though the Indian with the pony wore an Apache head cloth, Lennonrecognized his ugly young face at the first clear view. He was Pete, theNavaho who had been with the Apaches under the cliff house on the daythat Cochise had trapped Lennon and Carmena. Slade's manner toward himwas that of a half-distrustful master. He questioned him hastily inEnglish. 

Pete answered haltingly, with frequent lapses into the gutturals andhissings of his native tongue. His eyes glittered with fierceexcitement. Lennon gathered that Cochise and his men were in the midstof an attack on the cliff house. This would seem to prove that the girlswere still safe--and would remain safe. How could the Apaches hope toscale the sheer cliff without aid from above?

But Slade's scowl showed that the situation by no means pleased him. Hemounted Pete's pony and rushed the party up to the head of the caņon. Instead of preparing to hold this position until the arrival of hisreinforcements, he kept on up the valley at a jog trot. Once clear ofthe caņon, Lennon could make out the sound of distant shots echoing downthe valley along the cliffs. 

Within the first half mile the rescuers came upon a drove of bigAmerican horses. Every one showed signs of cruel driving over rocks andthrough thornscrub and cactus. When they scented the Navahos theysnorted with terror, and all but two managed to bolt clear. 

In a trice the Indians had each of the frightened pair bridled with aleather thong fast about the lower jaw. Pete mounted the better animal. Slade drew rein beside the other horse and glowered at Lennon. 

"How about it?" he demanded. "You said you'd back me up. How do I know Ican count on you not knifing me?"

"You have my word, " replied Lennon, striving hard to repress hiseagerness. 

The irregular firing up the valley became more rapid. Slade scowled andthrust out Lennon's high-power rifle. 

"It's a go--that new deal. Take your belt, too. Guess I can count on youtill Cochise is made a good Indian. "

With the white men and Pete mounted and the unmounted Navahos eachgripping the mane of a horse, the party rushed up the valley atredoubled speed. Midway Slade angled down into the bed of an arroyo thatcurved around on the right of the corral and up to the mouth of HellCaņon. Though the horses were kept at a fast trot, the Navahos ran alongbeside them, seemingly without effort. 

As the head of the valley was neared, the irregular crackling roar ofthe rifle shots abruptly ceased. Lennon's heart skipped a beat. Thesudden hush might mean that Cochise had given up his attack on thecliff house. On the other hand, it might be due to an overwhelming ofthe defense. 

Slade sent one of his men springing up the side of the arroyo. TheNavaho glanced over the edge of the bank toward the cliff house anddashed obliquely back into the dry channel, his hand twisting in swiftsigns. Slade held on up the arroyo. Near the mouth of Hell Caņon heflung himself off and motioned Lennon to follow. 

The old Navaho led the way up the side of the reservoir, with Pete aclose second. Near the top the leaders flattened down to crawl over theround of the ancient dam. The others crept after them. A mutteredcommand from Slade had kept Lennon in the rear. But a sudden freshoutburst of shots cut short his frightful suspense. The Apaches hadneither abandoned their attack nor had they yet captured the cliffhouse. 

Elation, mingled with renewed fear for the girls, sent Lennon scramblingup beside the leaders. He came to where they were peering over the crestof the dam. Slade growled a command for the fool tenderfoot to get downout of sight. But after Lennon's first look across the top of theembankment main force would have been required to drag him back. 

He had already guessed that Pete had stolen away down into the lowercaņon, unknown to the Apaches. The only other explanation was that theNavaho had been posted as guard at the cross cliff. This was improbable, as the only need for watchers was to help in-comers up the otherwiseimpassable barrier. That Pete had not been missed was evident from thefailure of the Apaches to oppose the rush of the rescuers up the valley. 

The mystery of how Cochise hoped to take the cliff house became clear toLennon at the first glance. The ancient stronghold was less than half amile away from the reservoir. In the crystal-clear air Lennon made out acrooked line of poles and what appeared to be three or four sacks ofcorn lying upon the cliff foot. Above these objects eight or nineApaches were raising a long ladder of spliced poles against the face ofthe rock wall. The fallen poles were the shattered remains of a firstladder that had collapsed. 

The ladder raisers were protected in their work by the incessantshooting of the other members of the band. From a crescent of positionswell out in the valley the riflemen poured a cross-fire of bullets intoall the openings of the cliff house. The Indian at the nearest end ofthe crescent lay not more than a hundred yards beyond the far side ofthe reservoir. 

Even as Lennon grasped the plan of attack, the heavy-butted ladder cameto an upright position directly under the main doorway of the cliffhouse. On the instant a pair of nimble Apaches scrambled to the top, dragging with them a shorter ladder. They hoisted it above them andspliced its foot to the head of the main one. 

No less swiftly, another ladder was passed up and lashed to the top ofthe second. The new top reached within two yards of the brink of theforty-foot cliff. A third Apache started to carry up a short ladder. After he passed the middle of the ascent, his weight, added to that ofthe men above, made the much-spliced main ladder bow and sway. 

One of the upper men crawled through the rungs to wedge himself betweenthe top and the cliff. The third man handed up the short ladder andbegan to creep down again. The second topman gingerly hoisted the lastlink in the shaky line of ascent. 

The Apaches lying out from the cliff concentrated their fire on theopening above the ladder. For any one in the cliff house to haveventured into the doorway would have meant certain death. 

Protected by the storm of bullets, the topmost Apache held up the lastladder while his mate against the cliff spliced it fast. The top rungstood level with the sill of the doorway. 

The third man had stopped his descent ten or fifteen feet below. As soonas the splicing was secure, the first man drew something from the beltof his breech-clout and started up the last rungs. 

Lennon could restrain himself no longer. He thrust his rifle forward totake aim. From beside him a big hairy red hand reached out to clutch thebarrel. Slade's deep voice growled a command:

"Wait! If they ain't got Carmena a'ready----"

"But if once he gets in!" cried Lennon. "He must have a revolver!"

"Knife too, " added Slade. "Wait, though. We'll all put our sights onhim. But don't shoot unless he gits half through the door. "

A glance at the Navahos showed Lennon that they were already taking aim. The trader clearly had some good reason for waiting. Lennon nodded. 

"Very well, " he agreed. 

Slade drew back his hand. As Lennon again took aim he saw the first ofthe Apache attackers thrust up an arm to grasp the corner of the sillstone. The man paused while the riflemen poured an extra violent volleyof bullets into the doorway. He then made a quick gesture. 

The shots continued, but they were aimed high. Otherwise the attackermust have been struck as he flung himself up before the opening. Thecatlike movement brought him head and shoulders above the sill. Hetwisted forward to writhe into the doorway. Lennon's finger started tocrook against the trigger of his rifle. But he did not fire. 

Instead of thrusting forward, the Apache straightened upright withconvulsive suddenness. His out-clutching arms beat the empty air. Hetoppled sideways and plunged headlong. 

"Through the brain!" chuckled Slade. "No, they ain't got Carmena--yet. "

CHAPTER XIX

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN----

Before the falling Apache smashed down upon the cliff foot the man whohad last climbed the long ladder made an upward rush. He was within halfa dozen rungs of the top when a large round object rolled out of thedoorway. With the quickness of a puma he swung off to one side. 

The big missile grazed past the dodger. Three or four yards farther downit crashed upon the ladder. All the mid section of the wobbly structurewas shattered to flinders. The lower part slithered sideways along thecliff face, the upper part and the two climbers plunged downward. 

The cliffs rang with the yells of the ladder holders as they leapedaway. They bounded like startled deer. But one was struck in the back bythe splintered end of a falling ladder pole. He pitched on his face, rolled over, and lay as still as the fallen climbers. 

"Four!" exultantly exclaimed Slade. "Four--done up by a keg of water. And the three first"--Lennon had thought them sacks of corn at the footof the ladder--"seven, and Pete with us--leaves less 'n twenty of 'em, counting Cochise. And mebbe Carmena has potted one or two more out inthe scrub. "

"You'll attack?" asked Lennon. 

"Sure. No chance of holding Cochise after him losing them men. Theothers would turn on him like mad coyotes if he backed up. Just holdyour hosses a bit, though, till I tell you. "

Lennon impatiently glanced away from his rifle sights. For the firsttime he saw that the Navahos were no longer alongside him. Pete wascreeping aslant the dam toward the cliffs. The three others had circledto the left and were disappearing into the irrigation canal where itcurved down valley below the reservoir. 

"Got to flush them snakes in the grass, " explained Slade. "Pick yourmark and wait. I'll start off with this here devil across the tank. "

The scattered ladder raisers were bunching again close under the cliff, to one side of the cliff house openings. One of them made signs to theoutlying riflemen. The others began to work on the broken ladders. Thefiring had almost ceased. 

Slade moved a few yards along the dam. Lennon drew back his rifle, looked carefully at the lock and magazine, and took up a position fromwhich he could fire with the greatest rapidity. He had been ready onlya few minutes when from the irrigation canal, down the valley behind theApache riflemen, came the reports of three shots, fired in rapidsuccession. 

A fourth shot roared from Slade's rifle. Lennon began to fire as fast ashe could take aim. His mark was the group of Apaches on the cliff foot. One fell and lay motionless. Another tumbled over, but rebounded to joinin the dash of his companions down the slope. 

The bare ledges of the cliff foot offered no shelter. The nearest coverwas the ruined Farley ranch hut, a hundred yards or more away, in thedirection of the reservoir. But as the Apaches raced for the refugefirst one of their leaders and then another pitched to the ground. 

The others swerved and went flying out toward the irrigation canal. Aburst of shots from the canal again forced them to swerve. They fledtoward a patch of rocks and cactus in the direction of Devil's Chute. Only four reached the cover. 

As Lennon had emptied his magazine during the first few seconds, he knewthat he could not have shot more than one of the fugitives. The threeNavahos had spread out along the canal, and Pete had hidden at theruined hut. They had the Apaches under fire from flank and rear. Sladehad dodged down to run around the head of the reservoir and leap theinlet canal. 

The thwack and screech of a glanced bullet that flicked a spurt ofgravel into Lennon's face, warned him that the Navahos were not doingall the firing. Though so many of the Apaches had been killed in thesurprise of the counter attack, the survivors of the band stilloutnumbered the rescuers two or three to one. 

Lennon knew enough to creep back under the round of the dam. Once safebelow the crest, he sprinted after Slade at top speed. He was undercover until he leaped the inlet canal and skirted along the natural rockrim on the far side of the reservoir. 

The problem now was to find a sheltered way from the brink of the rimover and down into the Farleys' kitchen garden. Slade had somehow madethe crossing. He was safe in a position of vantage at the goat pens. 

Before Lennon could locate the sheltered line of descent he noticed thatsome of the shots sounded from farther down the valley. His firstthought was that more Apaches were coming to join in the fight. Slade'sreinforcements from the pueblo could not be expected before late in theday. 

For a moment the situation appeared truly desperate. The odds werealready heavy enough, without the addition of more Apaches. But acautious peep over the rock rim disclosed to Lennon the happy truth. Out-manoeuvred and cut off from the best cover, the Apaches werebeginning to fall back down the valley. 

By close scrutiny, Lennon made out a brown form wriggling away behind aclump of cactus that shut off the view of Slade and the Navahos. At thesecond bullet from the high-power rifle the creeping Apache rolled over. There was no need for a third shot. 

After this hit Lennon saw not the slightest sign of the retreating band. But he continued to rake the rocks and cactus clumps with frequentshots, while the Navahos in the ditch followed along the flank of theirhalf-exposed enemies. 

Lennon became aware that shots were being fired from the cliff house. Soon afterward he saw Slade rush boldly along the cliff foot. TheApaches were too intent upon flight to fire at the now distant enemiesin their rear. One glance at the trader sent Lennon bounding up over therim of rock and down the slope. 

The rope ladder dropped from the cliff house doorway. By the time Lennonreached the tumbledown ranch hut Slade was at the top of the ladder andPete was beginning to climb. Lennon dashed on along the cliff foot. Hegave no heed to the dead Apaches that lay huddled or sprawled amidst thewreckage of the wooden ladder poles and rungs. At the foot of the ropeladder he thrust his rifle through the back of his belt and swung up asfast as he could climb. 

Before he had ascended twenty feet a half-spent bullet thudded againstthe cliff face at his elbow. Another grazed his side. At least one ofthe distant Apaches had turned about and was making uncomfortably closeshots at the climber. Lennon stopped short. A bullet struck less than aspan above his head. He hurried on up by irregular jerks and dashes. 

More bullets struck around him. One seared his thigh. Owing, however, either to sheer good fortune or to his jerky ascent, he reached the topof the ladder without a serious wound. 

Pete lay flattened out in the doorway behind a sack of corn. He wasfiring down the valley. Lennon flung himself in past the young Navaho. Safe within the cliff house, he reeled against the massive wall andstood panting for breath. 

From the doorway of the living room came a happy cry. Elsie darted outto fling her arms about Lennon. 

"Oh! oh! oh! You did get up, Jack--you did!" she cried. "Mena wasdreadfully afraid for you. The 'Paches have killed one of Slade'spunchers and are chasing the others back. "

Lennon kissed the quivering girl and thrust her from him to grasp hisrifle. 

"We're safe now, Blossom. But I must help to cover the retreat of ourmen. "

He ran to the crane-hoist opening. Slade was crouched behind a barricadeof corn-filled sacks, hotly blazing away down the valley. Lennon hurriedon into the living room. 

Beside the nearest outer window Farley lay upon a pile of rugs verywhite and still. His neck and right leg were swathed in bandages. Therifle under the window showed that the broken drunkard had not lackedcourage to join in the defense of his home. 

Carmena stood at the next window, too intent upon her firing to heed herexposed position. A bullet had grazed the side of her head. At sight ofthe blood trickling down on her cheek Lennon felt an almost irresistibleimpulse to run over and draw her out of danger. 

But the angle of the girl's rifle barrel told him that the fight wasrapidly coming back up the valley. He sprang to Farley's window. As helooked down, the two Navahos broke from the last scant cover and cameleaping and zigzagging up toward the cliff foot. 

Lennon thrust out his rifle and began to pump shots at the scrub andcactus clumps above which rose thin puffs of semi-smokeless powder. Abullet nipped the point of his shoulder. He jumped back to refill hismagazine. Before he could again empty it, another bullet seared acrossthe top of his head. He reeled and fell senseless. 

When he recovered consciousness he was first aware of the face ofCarmena. In his first daze, he fancied that he was out on the far sideof the Basin, lying upon the sand under the cliff where the Gila monsterhad bitten his hand. The girl's eyes were clouded with the same look ofprofound concern that he had then seen in their shadowy depths. 

But as his own gaze cleared he noticed two marked differences in herappearance. One of her pale cheeks was streaked with crimson, and thedark eyes were wide not with dread alone. They gazed down at him heavywith the anguish of mingled grief and yearning. He knew that he waslooking into the girl's inmost heart. 

A hand was thrust between their faces--a little dimpled hand that held abowl of red liquid. Elsie's voice quavered urgently:

"Let me fix your hurt with the dragon sap, Mena. He's alive again. "

Carmena's long lashes drooped upon her white cheeks. She drew back. Lennon turned aside his violently aching head. Across the living room hesaw Pete cauterizing a bullet wound on the bare arm of a fellow Navahowith the astringent red sap of the sangre de dragon tree. 

Elsie noticed Lennon's roving look of inquiry. 

"They shot the other one on the ladder, " she explained. "But Slade isn'thurt, and he hauled the ladder up. Cochise can't get us now. "

"Not now, " whispered Carmena. "But if Slade----"

Her low-pitched voice broke and hushed to a frightened silence. 

Slade swaggered in from the anteroom and stood grinning as if very wellsatisfied with what he saw. 

CHAPTER XX

INTO THE FIRE

Carmena rallied and smiled up at the big trader with a show of trustfulconfidence. "I knew you'd keep your part of the deal, Mr. Slade, " shesaid. "You've fought off Cochise and saved us, and there's a good bighole in his bunch. All we need do now is wait for your punchers to comein and wipe out the rest. "

"Sure!" agreed Slade. "I done it. Now I got a dead cinch all 'round. "

He drew his revolver and twirled the cylinder as if to make certain thatit had been fully reloaded. 

"Yep--a dead cinch. With me up here, Cochise won't try no more poleladders. You and my Cookie Gal better hustle up some feed. Ain't hadnothing but bacon and flapjacks since I left. "

Elsie fluttered across to light her charcoal brazier. But Carmenalingered beside Lennon. 

"Huh, " muttered Slade. "Where'd sonny boy git hit? Ain't plunked bad, ishe?"

"Oh, no. I----"

"No, not fatal, " Carmena broke in on Lennon's disclaimer of seriousinjury. She gave Slade a significant side glance. 

"No, I'm sure it won't prove fatal--just cut the bone a bit. Jack'll getover it all right if he keeps perfectly quiet. "

Slade's big face took on a look of solemn concern. 

"Quiet--huh? Can't let him take no risks. He's worth ten thousand to me. Here, you, Pete--and you----"

A guttural command in Navaho and a careless wave of the revolver broughtPete and his wounded but still active companion hurrying forward. 

Carmena sprang up and held out her arms to the trader. Lennon failed tosee her face. He saw only how Slade swept his left arm about the girland swung her around in a bearlike embrace. Lennon sought to leap up. The Navahos seized him on either side and forced him down again. 

He caught a glimpse of Carmena futilely clutching for Slade's throat. The big man burst into a bellow of contemptuous laughter and flung herfrom him. 

"Bah!" he jeered. "What you bucking about? Don't figger I want _you_ anymore, do you?"

"No--no, of course not. I---- But Jack's head--If you hogtie him----"

"Got to be kept quiet, ain't he? You said it yourself. What you hangingfire for, Pete?"

The heavy revolver swung around in another seemingly careless gesture. Pete and the wounded Navaho hogtied Lennon with expert quickness. 

Slade shifted around to nudge Farley in the ribs with the toe of hiscowhide boot. The badly wounded man stirred and opened his haggard eyesto blink at the disturber. 

"Has--Cochise---- What! you?" he murmured. "You have run off the devils?Girls safe?"

"You bet they're safe, Dad. How you feeling? Looks like they plugged youpretty bad. "

"Very--very bad, " gasped Farley. "I--do not expect to--survive. "

"Aw, keep a stiff upper lip. You'll pull through. "

Farley's discoloured eyelids quivered and drooped. Slade had beenpeering sideways at the rigidly posed Carmena. He laughedgood-humouredly, put up his revolver, and grinned toward Elsie. 

"I smell grub--real grub. Carmena, you git over to the far window andkeep a lookout while I feed up. Just leave your gun lie. We don't wantto rile up Cochise till we git him cornered. "

The girl looked at Lennon and hesitated. Slade rested his hand on hiship. She hurried off to the window toward which he had pointed. 

Seated alone at the table, the trader feasted upon the food set beforehim by Elsie. While he gormandized he tormented the shrinking girl withhis coarse gallantry. When at last his gluttonous appetite was satisfiedhe called for another pie. Elsie obediently brought the last of herbaking and bent over the corner of the table to set it before him. 

With the quickness of a striking grizzly, Slade lunged forward andclutched her soft round arm. At her startled shriek he wrenched hismassive body half around and menaced everyone in the room with asweeping wave of his revolver. 

Lennon had been bound too tightly to do more than writhe. Pete and hisfellow Navaho stood as if turned to stone. But Farley had twisted abouton the floor, and Carmena was springing away from her outlook windowtoward the table. The revolver barrel paused in line with herforward-rushing figure. 

"Stop!" bellowed Slade. 

The savage roar threatened instant death. Carmena came to a sudden halt. She stood panting and quivering, her face white, her eyes dilated withhorror. 

"Huh! Thought you'd rush me, did you?" growled the trader. "You didn'tstop any too soon to save your bacon, you she-wildcat. Stand still now, or you'll git gentled with a club. "

"But--but, Mr. Slade----" gasped the horror-stricken girl. "Blossom--she's only a child. She's so young and--and innocent! Oh, won't you--won't you please take me instead?"

"You?" sneered the trader. "Jealous, are you? Well, you're too late now. Wouldn't take me when you had the chance. Now I wouldn't have you evenif I couldn't git her. "

"But she--little Blossom! Oh, you can't--you can't be so heartless! Youpromised to wait----"

"Wait?" Slade jerked the half-fainting Elsie around the corner of thetable. 

"Ain't I waited all this time? This is same as Injun country, and squawsmate-up young. I'm going to take my Cookie Gal now. Sabe? Injun marriageis good enough 'round these parts for any woman, white or red. "

"You--beast!" cried Carmena, and she flung herself at him in a fury ofdespair. 

A few seconds before he would have shot her down. Now, instead offiring, he released his hold on Elsie's arm and thrust out to meet thefrantic rush of her foster-sister. The big red hand clutched fast onCarmena's throat and held her off at arm's length. Contemptuouslyheedless of her frenzied struggles, he fixed a hard stare on Pete. 

"You, " he ordered, "git a hustle on. Rope this hellcat, pronto. "

Though Pete's hesitancy was almost imperceptible, Slade's revolver swungup toward him. The young Navaho sprang forward, jabbering to his fellowtribesman. As the two seized and started to bind Carmena, Slade grinnedat her, derisively. 

"Guess you wish you hadn't, " he jeered. "I'll learn you who's boss. How'llyou like being let down to Cochise, huh?"

The danger to Elsie had horrified and enraged Lennon no less thanCarmena. He had been writhing in his rawhide bonds, in a furiousstruggle to break loose. Now he lay exhausted and hopeless, his wristsand ankles cut and bleeding from the cruelly tight thongs. Even thehideous threat against Carmena could not goad his flaccid muscles torenewed efforts. 

Behind him he heard a peculiar wheezing. He twisted his head about tolook. Farley was creeping along the floor. As Lennon caught sight ofhim, the desperately wounded man clutched his rifle and straightened upon his knees. His ghastly face was blotched with angry purple. Hissunken eyes flamed with vengeful fire. He raised the muzzle of the rifletoward Slade with the last flare of his failing strength. 

"You scoundrel!" he shrilled. "Harm my daughter, would you?"

Slade's savage bellow was drowned in the crash of the rifle. Thebull-like roar of the trader sharpened to a yell of pain. An instantlater two answering shots came back at the swaying avenger. 

Farley fell upon his back, with his arms outflung crosswise and hisglazing eyes upturned. As he lived, so he had died--futilely. Yet he hadat least made the attempt to rise above his weakness and degeneracy. Hehad died like a man. 

Slade stood at the end of the table, mopping the base of his neck withhis dirty neckerchief. The rifle had missed his jugular vein by littlemore than an inch. He cauterized the wound with sangre de dragon sap, cursing blasphemously and barking commands at the Navahos. 

Pete ran to signal from the nearest window. His companion hurried tomake certain that Farley was dead. Slade shouldered past the half-boundCarmena and came to stare gloatingly down at Lennon. Between his thicklegs Lennon saw Carmena twist about and roll over toward herterror-stricken sister. Slade was too intent upon mocking his otherprisoner to look about at the girls. 

"Well, son, you seen what happened to Dad, trying to murder his pard, "he admonished. "Hope it'll be a warning to you. I'm a peaceful man. Igot to have law and order. Cochise ripped loose with his bunch. You seenhow I smashed his play. 'Fore night my Navahos'll clean up what's leftof 'em all. "

Lennon choked down his rage and loathing. Not he alone was in the powerof this brutal scoundrel. For the sake of the girls he must play fortime. 

"Yes, to be sure!" he said. "That was clever generalship on your part, Slade. As for Farley--you of course had to shoot him, in self-defense. But now all is settled. You will keep your word to go through with yourbargain. "

"I will, will I, huh?"

"How else? We have had our little misunderstandings. But you are a whiteman and you gave your word to go through with our deal. "

The trader's face blackened with a ferocious scowl. 

"Try to be funny with me, will you? I'll skin you alive!"

"You misunderstood me, quite, " said Lennon, soothingly. "How could Ithink other than that you intend to keep your bargain. I mentioned itbecause I wish to suggest an addition to the terms. If you will releaseCarmena and postpone your marriage to Elsie until we can get a licenseand a minister, I shall be pleased to give five thousand toward thebride's trousseau. "

For a long moment Slade stood glowering, morosely suspicious of theproposal. When he sensed its precise meaning, he burst into mockinglaughter. 

"So that's what you're after, huh? Think you can bribe me, do you? Well, just let me tell you, sonny boy--when I want a squaw I take her. As forthat she-wildcat, she's going down to Cochise right now. What's more, you're going with her if you don't agree to write that mine report andshell out the whole twenty thousand. "

"You devil!" cried Lennon. "I'll give you all--everything I possess--tosave the girls from you. But if you harm either one of them--if yourefuse to set them both free--you shall not have a dollar of my money. "

"Huh--I sha'n't, sha'n't I?"

"Not a cent! You are a thief, a murderer, a liar--and you know it. Yourword is not to be trusted. Take your choice. Kill me, or accept mypledge to pay you the money when you have brought me and the girls safeto the nearest town. "

The corner of Slade's coarse lip drew up in a wolfish snarl. 

"Kill you? Just wait and see. Killing's a heap too easy. Wait tillCochise has had a little fun with you. Mebbe you won't agree to bereasonable then, huh?"

The pale eyes of the trader glittered with cold malevolence as he swungaround to the window from which Pete was signalling. He boldly thrusthis head out and shouted to the Apaches in their own tongue. From belowcame an answering shout. Slade called down to them for several momentsin hissing thick-tongued gutturals. 

When at last he drew back and faced about, his mouth was twisted in agrin of evil satisfaction. He stared across the room, blinked, andstared again, with his grin distorted into an angry grimace. 

Carmena lay where he had last seen her. But Elsie was nowhere in sight. 

CHAPTER XXI

TREACHERY

The inaction of the trader was brief. At his harsh question the woundedNavaho thrust out a slim finger toward one of the rear exits from theliving room. Slade spoke a fierce command to Pete in the Navaho tongueand rushed out through the opening to which the Indian had pointed. 

Carmena uttered a horrified cry and sought to struggle up on her boundfeet. As she fell, Pete and the other Navaho caught hold of her. Theycarried her out into the anteroom, without paying the slightest heed toLennon's threats and pleadings. He writhed and twisted himself towardthe doorway. Before he had reached the opening, the wounded Navahobounded back into the room. He seized Lennon and dragged him out. 

Pete had squatted down to fasten a loop of the hoist rope about Carmena, who lay behind the sacks of corn that barricaded the crane-hoistentrance. She was speaking rapidly to the young Navaho in mingledSpanish and English. At sight of the other Navaho and Lennon she paused. 

Pete took the opportunity to mutter a sullen reply:

"_Basta. _ Slade, him bad med'cine. Me no fight him. You go Cochise, _muypronto_. "

"Wait!" urged the girl. "You want me to be your woman. Remember what Ipromised if you'd help Slade to get up the caņon against Cochise. I'llpromise more now. I'll give you all those horses and cattle--and I'llgive you myself. Sabe? I'll be your woman. "

The Indian's eyes gleamed with avid desire. But he did not falter. 

"Woman no good, me dead. "

"Afraid--you girl!" taunted Carmena. "He's only a man. A single shotwill kill him. You have only to----"

"_Basta. _ Him big devil. Me no shoot him. Him say you go Cochise, _muypronto_. "

The stubborn coward turned away toward the windlass. Carmena glaredafter him in agonized desperation. 

"All right--all right, Pete!" she cried. "Lower me to Cochise. Butlisten! You needn't fight Slade or any one. You heard how he fooledCochise--made him feel good by promising him me and Jack?"

"Me send you down, pronto. "

"Yes--yes. Only first, if you want me to be your woman, listen. Youlower me, I make bargain with Cochise and----"

The rest of the fiercely urgent proposal was in Spanish. Pete came to apause and cast a stealthy glance at his fellow Navaho. The man haddragged Lennon out past the windlass and turned back to grasp the crankhandle. 

"You damn sure Cochise him no kill me? You no lie?" demanded Pete. 

"Won't you be proving you are his friend?" countered the girl. "You knowSlade only half trusts you. He'll be sure to shoot you, soon as hispunchers come. How about it? Do you promise? It's your only chance toget me, so long as you daren't tackle Slade yourself. "

"Slade, him big devil. Injun no can----"

"Just wait and see, " broke in Carmena. "Remember, there'll be tizwin foryou--all you can drink--heaps of tizwin!"

"Ugh!" grunted Pete. "Slade no come. _Bueno_--me do him you say. "

He grunted to the other Navaho and swung the crane outward as thetightening rope lifted the girl above the sacks of corn. She disappearedfrom view below the barrier. The Navaho lowered away with adeliberation that set Lennon's teeth on edge. The strain on his nerveswas not lessened by the total silence of the waiting Apaches down below. 

At last the rope slackened. After a brief pause it was rapidly wound inon the barrel of the windlass. Pete had already dragged Lennon to theopening and heaved him up on the barricade. When the rope loop came upto the crane, he jerked it in, made fast to Lennon, and shoved him offinto space. 

Lennon plunged down nearly a dozen feet before the tautened rope stoppedhis fall with a violent jerk. He hung dangling, with nothing between himand the wreckage-strewn ledges of the cliff foot, thirty feet beneath. 

The first jerk had started his body to gyrating. The rapidity with whichhe was lowered increased the movement. By the time he reached the clifffoot he was spinning like a roast before an old-time fireplace. 

At first he had been able to make out Carmena standing in the midst of aclose group of Apaches. But she and the Indians and the cliff wall hadall merged into a blurred whirl before his dizzy eyes by the time hestruck the cliff foot. With the slackening of the rope he rolled over, too giddy even to attempt to steady himself with his bound hands. 

While his eyes were yet too dazed for clear vision, he heard Carmena'svoice, low-pitched and vibrant with passionate pleading:

". .. And him too, Cochise. I'm not asking you to give up your fun withhim. Only wait till you've made sure of Slade. There's not a second tolose. You have us. We can't get away. But if you don't do what I ask, you won't get Slade. He'll be up there--safe--with your woman! And hisNavahos will trap you here in the Hole. "

"You lie!" grunted the young Apache. "Slade send you down to git hisnoose on me. I haul up pony lift--hit out Hell Caņon--take you and whitefool. Heap fun with you and him!"

"What then?" queried Carmena. "You know you'll have Slade on yourtrail--Slade and a posse and the soldiers. Slade will have to wipe youout to cover up what we've been doing here. He'll lay it all on you andyour bunch--all the stealing. Can't you see? If he can't wipe you outhimself, he'll set the soldiers on your trail. "

Lennon looked up and saw before his clearing eyes the dark evillyhandsome face of the Apache leader. It was as stolid as the faces of hisincomprehending followers. But his black eyes were fierce with hate. 

"You lie!" he repeated. "You say, kill Slade. You say you no care whatbecome of you. "

"Because I know you, Cochise, " cajoled the girl, her voice soft andconfiding. "Weren't we friends before Slade came? Weren't we good toyou? Remember how we kept you hid in the Hole and never told the IndianAgent? You'll not forget that. You'll treat me and Jack, my new pard, all right when I've helped you kill Slade. "

"Dam' friend--you, " jeered the Indian. "You kept my woman. "

"What if I did? How about now? Do you want Slade to have her? You knowhe has been scheming all along to take her from you. Are you going tolet him do it? Think about her--and about the tizwin--that tizwin hiddenfrom you by Slade--barrels of tizwin! All yours if only you have thenerve to go up after Slade!"

Cochise looked up the cliff, with a sudden ferocious scowl. Lennon wasgasping for breath against the frightfulness of what he had heard. Tosave herself, Carmena was betraying her foster-sister to the fiendishsavage. Elsie's fate in the hands of Slade was fearful enough withoutthe added horror of what she would suffer in the hands of Cochise. 

"Carmena!" he cried. "Carmena, are you mad? Think of Blossom! What doesit matter if we are tortured? Surely you can't intend----"

"Why not?" cried back the girl, her face aflame with vengeful anger. "That big beast first ruined my father; now he has murdered him. Cochise, you'll have to choose quickly. Run off with us and have yourfun, and have Slade trail you down; or kill him and get your woman andthe tizwin--barrels of tizwin!"

The young Apache plucked out his knife and sprang at the girl. A strokeslashed through the thongs that bound her wrists. Her ankles had alreadybeen freed. Cochise made a sharp upward gesture. Carmena shook her headand pointed to Lennon. 

"Let him lead the way up--unarmed, " she suggested. 

The advantage of the plan was instantly grasped by the crafty Apache. Athis command, two of his men cut loose Lennon's bonds and jerked him tohis feet. 

"Wait, Carmena! Wait!" begged Lennon. "Think of Elsie!"

But the girl had already signalled to those above. The rope ladder cameslipping down the cliff face. Lennon fell silent. Protests were nowuseless. The lowering of the ladder laid the cliff stronghold open tothe merciless Apaches. 

He turned away from the girl, full of loathing. Slade might possiblyhave refrained at the last moment from wronging Elsie. But Cochise----

There was no need of the Apache's prodding knife point to start him upthe ladder. Though he did not relish having to act as a living shieldfor the attackers, he was more than willing to go first. Unluckily thetightness of his bonds had so bruised the ligaments of his wrists andankles and left his limbs so numb that he had to climb with painfulslowness. 

Cochise, following at his heels, cursed and jabbed his knife intoLennon's leg. The cruel goading stung the benumbed muscles to quickeraction. Lennon sprinted up the ladder, clear of his torturer. A glancedown the rungs showed him three Apaches below Cochise, and Carmena atthe foot, waiting with the remainder of the band. The ladder would notsafely bear more than five climbers at a time. 

Spurred even more by the plan that he had in mind than by the threat ofthe knife, Lennon sought to increase his lead over Cochise. But theIndian's wrists were not strained, and his flexible moccasins gave abetter hold on the ladder rungs than Lennon's stiff boot soles. With theknife between his teeth, the young Apache swung up in swift pursuit. 

Instead of gaining, Lennon lost his lead. Another downward glance, as hegrasped the last rung below the sill of the cliff house doorway, showedhim that Cochise was again at his heels. He must change the tactics ofhis plan. He uttered a startled cry and pretended to slip down a rung. 

Cochise let go the ladder with one hand to jab his knife at Lennon'sleg. Lennon jerked up the leg and kicked down with all his strength. Theheel of his boot struck squarely in the upturned face of the Apache. Thedownward and outward force of the blow jerked loose Cochise's one-handedgrip on the ladder. But even as he toppled backward, he crooked a legwith catlike quickness over one of the rungs. 

Lennon saw only that his enemy was falling. His hand had already gropedover the edge of the sill. Without another downward glance, he flunghimself up and into the doorway. The wild scramble and plunge all butdrove him headlong over the sack of corn and against the menacing muzzleof Pete's rifle. 

That double traitor stood crouched at the inner side of the thick-walledentrance, torn between fear of Cochise and terror of Slade. Lennon hadcounted upon this dread and uncertainty of the young Navaho. He flungout his hands to him in urgent gestures. 

"Quick--quick!" he cried. "Cut loose the ladder! Cochise will kill you!He's coming! Cut the ladder!"

The Indian shrank back to peer at the inner openings of the cliffhouse. 

"Carmena--him no lie, " he muttered. "Cochise kill 'um Slade. "

"But you first!" urged Lennon. "He will----"

The band of an Apache headress shot up above the edge of the door sill. Lennon sprang at Pete to clutch his knife. The Navaho flung up hisrifle. A chance blow of the barrel sent Lennon staggering half acrossthe anteroom. 

The Apache writhed up into the doorway and bounded over the sack ofcorn, his knife poised to strike. Pete whirled and fired from the hip. An instant later he was locked in the clutch of the yelling, slashingApache. As they crashed down together in a furious death grapple, asecond Apache came scrambling in over the cliff edge. Side by side withhim appeared Cochise, the print of Lennon's boot-heel already blackeningon his ferociously scowling forehead. 

Pete's rifle had fallen outward into the doorway, alongside the sack ofcorn. Lennon was unarmed. There was no time for him to wrest the knifefrom the wounded Apache and slash the ladder ropes. Cochise clutchedPete's rifle and started to swing it around. His companion thrust out arevolver. 

The shot missed Lennon by inches as he leaped to the side opposite theliving room. He dashed out the first opening and started to run throughthe front row of rooms, shouting at the top of his voice. 

"Slade! Slade!" he yelled. "Cochise--Apaches! Defend yourself!"

From the inner rooms on his right came back an angry bellow. "What thedevil?"

Lennon twisted aside through a black doorway. Farther in he saw aglimmer of light. Sharp turns through two more doorways brought him intoa kiva, or sacred chamber of the cliff dwellers, that was lighted by apair of candles. Slade stood beside the broken-edged entrance hole withdrawn revolver. The wounded Navaho was peering down from a hole in theceiling. 

"Elsie!" panted Lennon. "Hide her! Pete betrayed you! All theApaches--coming up the ladder!"

Slade sprang sideways along the figure-decorated wall of the kiva. Heleaped to grasp the edge of the ceiling hole. The Navaho helped him drawup into the dark room above. As his feet swung clear Lennon leaped inturn to grasp the edge of the hole. 

"Give me a hand up, " he called. "I'll help you defend Elsie. "

"Sure. You'll serve for wolf bait, " jeered Slade. 

His big hand thrust down and tapped the butt of the heavy revolver onthe top of Lennon's head. 

CHAPTER XXII

THE SACRIFICE

The treacherous blow was just hard enough to stun Lennon. Hisunconsciousness probably lasted only a few seconds. He roused to thesound of heavy firing and the pungent odour of powder. He opened hiseyes. 

One of the candles had been extinguished. The other showed one woundedand two dead Apaches lying upon the floor of the kiva. At the entranceother attackers were stealthily thrusting in to fire at the hole in theceiling. The flash of answering shots spewed out of the black spaceabove the hole. 

Lennon had enough presence of mind to lie still. Dislodged by thefusillade of bullets, the dry materials of the ancient ceiling showeredupon him. In the room above he heard the shriek of a mortally struckman. Another fusillade followed. Then a revolver came whirling down outof the darkness. 

The Apaches yelled and burst into the kiva. They rushed toward the hole, firing upward as fast as they could pump their magazines. Unnoticed inthe excitement, Lennon rolled clear of their trampling feet and soughtto grasp Slade's fallen revolver. A chance kick sent it out of hisreach. 

Wild with blood-thirst, the last Apaches were trying to climb up thebacks of those who had first leaped to seize the edge of the ceilinghole. Under the strain of their jerking weight one of the ancient beamsgave way. 

Down crashed a part of the floor above. With it came Slade, bellowingwith rage, bleeding from several wounds, and his right arm shattered. His massive body fell upon and knocked down two of the crowding Apaches. He staggered up and struck out with his maul-like fist. 

The voice of Cochise sounded above the din of the fight. The Apachesflung themselves at Slade like wolves attacking a maimed bull. But theyused neither rifles nor knives. The trader was borne down by the weightof numbers and his left arm lashed fast to his backward twisted feet. 

Cochise had caught up the flickering candle. He sprang upon the back ofanother man and peered into the room above. When at last he jumped downhis face was distorted with anger. He shook his knife in Slade's face. 

"Where you hide my woman?" he demanded. 

"She hid herself, " growled Slade. "I was still looking for her. "

"Big mouth--big lie!" scoffed Cochise, and he thrust the flame of thecandle against Slade's nose. 

The trader puffed out the light. Lennon had been edging around towardthe door. He took instant advantage of the darkness to slip out and runtoward the living room. There he might hope to find a rifle and diefighting. 

In the anteroom he came face to face with a pair of Apaches, who stoodon guard over Carmena. At their gestures, emphasized by half-raisedrifles, he backed into the corner beside the girl. She flashed him alook of profound relief and put a tremulous hand on his arm. 

"Jack--I thought they'd killed you. Slade?"

"Prisoner, like ourselves. But they've still to find Elsie--no thanks toyou!"

He drew away as if her touch were a pollution. She flushed, hesitated, and opened her lips to speak. With a burst of yells, the Apaches rushedin, dragging Slade in their midst. 

At sight of Lennon, Cochise wrinkled his bruised forehead in a scowl ofevil satisfaction. But when he swaggered forward he looked only atCarmena. 

"Slade swear you hide my woman, " he said. 

"How could I?" replied Carmena. "He had me tied up and lowered to you. He was up here with her all that time. "

The face of the young Apache became impassive. He turned about and spokesoftly to Slade. The trader, half dead from his wounds, raised his bighead to mumble a denial. 

At a word from Cochise, one of his men ran to fetch Elsie's brazier fromthe living room. In the bottom of the brazier was still a bed of glowingcoals. The Apaches cut free one of Slade's feet and started to thrust itin upon the fire. 

Carmena flung up her hands before her eyes. 

"No!--no, Cochise!" she cried. "Kill him--he deserves to be killed! Butnot the torture--I can't bear it! I'll try to find Elsie for you. Ithink I know where she's hidden. "

Lennon stared, more than ever filled with horror of her treachery. 

"You--you!" he grasped. "That child--give her, to save that scoundrel?"

"And ourselves, " added Carmena, her lips curved in a cajoling smile atCochise. "When I've found her--and the tizwin--we'll be friends. Won'twe, Cochise?"

"Sure. Dam' good friends, " smoothly agreed the Apache. "You find mywoman quick, I let you go. Sabe?"

"_And_ the tizwin--the barrels of tizwin, " added Carmena. "Come on, allof us together---- You, too, Jack. "

She signed to the Apaches and called out a few words in their own thickguttural tongue. 

Lennon did not hang back. Great as was his abhorrence of the girl, hestarted forward beside her. Probably owing to his ready advance, he wasnot again bound, though Cochise ordered a pair of his followers to guardthe white man. The other Apaches pressed close after the leaders, drawnby their fierce craving for tizwin. 

Regardless of Lennon's look of loathing, Carmena lighted a candle andled the way direct to the mummy room. From a ceiling beam of the roomhad been hung a crudely stuffed horned owl with wide-spread wings. Atsight of the big gray-white bird and of the mummies even Cochiseadvanced less than a step inside the entrance. 

Carmena went in with the candle and methodically peered among and behindall the heaps of rubbish. When she came back to the entrance her darkbrows were drawn together in a frown, as if she were puzzled and tryingto think of another hiding place. She looked at Lennon with a levelglance. 

"Hereafter you will recall that the quick and the dead are associated, "she murmured. 

She faced about to the superstitious Apaches. 

"You see, Cochise. Your woman doesn't like these old dried spirits anymore than you do. Come on. "

Cochise and his men drew back before her advancing candle. They had nofancy to be left in the darkness with the bird of night and the "driedspirits" of the ancient cliff dwellers. They were not so backward, however, in the other inner rooms to which Carmena led them. Where therewas a ceiling hole, one or more readily mounted with the candle tosearch the space above. 

But nowhere was trace found of Elsie, though the candle had burned to astub when the searchers reached the last inner room. They came from itinto a front room, one exit of which was closed with a padlocked door ofheavy planks. Lennon recognized the entrance to the still-room. 

Carmena handed a key to Cochise and stood shielding the flickering flameof the candle. 

"Maybe we'll find both together, " she said. "It would have been justlike Slade to lock your woman in with the tizwin. "

She added a guttural murmur in Apache. The Indians pushed forward astheir leader snapped open the padlock. The heavy door swung open. Allsurged into the still-room except one of Lennon's guards, and he cranedhis neck to gape at the still. Into Lennon's ear breathed a faintwhisper: "Keep back. "

A moment later Carmena was darting in after the Apaches. She took hershielding hand away from the candle to point at a pile of jugs behindthe still. With the gesture she called out in Apache. Cochise and allthe others rushed to dig into the pile of jugs. Carmena glided to thestill and bent down. She thrust the candle into the opening of thefirebox. 

For the first time Lennon grasped what the girl was about. And with thathe realized in a flash all the cool courage and cleverness andself-sacrifice of the plan that she had schemed out against the bruteforce of Slade and the cruel cunning of Cochise. Elsie was safe hiddenin the mummy room, Slade was dying or dead, and now she had luredCochise and his murderous followers into the death trap!

He saw the flare of the lighted tinder in the firebox. The fuse mustalready be burning. Yet the girl remained stooped before the still. Shewould be blown to pieces no less certainly than the Apaches. 

Lennon glanced desperately at his guard, who stood beside him in thedoorway. The almost naked Apache was a mass of sinewy muscle, and hisbeady eyes were fixed upon the prisoner in alert watchfulness. Yet hewas not quick enough to dodge Lennon's uppercut. He sprawled backwardand struck his shock head upon the stone floor. 

Carmena had straightened and faced about. At sight of Lennon boundingtoward her she thrust out her hands in a repellant gesture. 

He clutched her outflung hands and dragged her toward the door. Frombehind the still came an answering yell. Cochise and another Apacherushed around at the couple. Carmena lunged forward, to thrust Lennon atthe doorway. Unbalanced by the shove, he stumbled over the Apache whomhe had knocked senseless. 

Carmena fell, rolled to one side, and struggled to her knees as Cochiseleaped to the doorway after Lennon. Behind them roared a deafeningdetonation. 

Though Lennon was out in the anteroom, he was hurled down by the forceof the explosion. He staggered to his feet and faced about. In the thickof the smoke that spumed from the still-room Cochise bounded from thefloor and came at him with upraised knife. Lennon barely saved himselfby the quickest of side-stepping. 

Cochise shot past, whirled, and closed in with the fury of a wildcat. Lennon's parry of the knife stab was sheer luck, but not the blow thathe drove to the solar plexus. Superb as was the physical condition ofthe young Apache, that solid jolt sent him reeling back, gasping forbreath. 

Lennon closed and sought to wrest away the knife. He twisted down on theApache's wrist. The knife fell to the floor. He bent to grasp it. Cochise dropped upon him and seized his throat. The slender sinewy handstightened with frightful force. A few seconds of that throttlingpressure would have brought unconsciousness to Lennon. In vain he soughtto tear loose the strangle hold. 

He was on the verge of frantic flurry when his failing reason fixed uponthe fact that there was a lump under his down-pressed back. By greateffort he wrenched his body around. His groping hand grasped the fallenknife. 

At the second stroke the terrible clutch on his throat relaxed. Cochisetwisted convulsively and rolled over on his back. 

Lennon wheezed, felt his throat, and jerked himself over, ready to drivethe knife into the heart of his merciless enemy. Cochise lay inert, hismouth agape and his eyes rolled up so that only the whites could beseen. Lennon's deep-drawn sigh of satisfaction over that death-maskface caught in the midst and turned into a gasp. He flung himself aboutto the doorway of the still-room. Where the still had stood was now onlya hole in the stone floor. He did not look too closely at the generalwreckage. 

His half-dazed roving gaze fell upon Carmena. She lay as inert asCochise and the Apache guard. Yet she was not dead. A fragment of stoneor metal, or the shock of the explosion, had injured her back. 

He carried her out into the anteroom. She revived. But when she soughtto rise, she sank back with an ominous limpness. 

"Carmena!" he cried. "Carmena--what is it? You're hurt!"

She smiled up at him, her dark eyes radiant with infinite tenderness anddevotion. 

"It's all right, Jack--all right, " she murmured. "I wanted to do it--forBlossom--and you, dear. Now you are safe. The way up the caņon is clear. Take the right fork, then, each time, the left of the next forks. Thetrail is only a few miles west, over the mesas. You'll find Blossom inthe mummy room. Hurry off with her before Slade's men come. Hurry--don'tlinger----"

"You----" broke in Lennon. "Can you think I would leave you here?"

"There's no other way. My back--I can't sit up, and my legs are numb. Ican't move them. "

"I'll carry you, and there's the hoist rope. "

"No use. I couldn't ride. "

"I'll carry you, " repeated Lennon. 

The girl laid a gently caressing hand on his arm. 

"Don't you understand, dear? My back--it must be broken. We must thinkof Blossom. You must hurry off with her while there is time. Isn't itgood that you love her?"

Lennon uttered a choking cry and caught the girl up in his arms. Heclasped her to him in an agony of love and remorse. 

"Carmena! To have thought so wrong of you--of you who were giving yourlife! I've been a fool--a blind fool. Forgive me! That child---- My God!I can't give you up--I'll _not_ give you up!"

"Then--you do--love me, Jack, " sighed the girl. Her arms crept up abouthis neck. "You do love me--I'm glad now you did not let me die--atonce--in there. "

"Not at all!" vowed Lennon. "Even though your back---- You'll not die. "

"I can't live--like this, dear. And there's Blossom. You must get heraway before Slade's men---- But first find me my little pistol. I gaveit to Blossom--to use if there was no other way left. Leave it with me, and hurry off with her while there's time. Hurry!"

Lennon's clasp tightened. 

"No. I'll never leave you--never while----"

From the inner rooms of the cliff house came a burst of piercingchildish shrieks. Carmena twisted about in Lennon's suddenly loosenedembrace. There was a sound like the snap of a dry twig. Carmena screamedand fell over sideways in a deathlike faint. 

CHAPTER XXIII

OUT OF THE PAST

As Lennon knelt beside the swooning girl the shrieks rang nearer. Elsiecame flying through the rear opening, in wild fright. Her dress was tornand her yellow hair full of dust and wooden bits. Lennon sprang up, certain that the Apache who had been wounded in the kiva was pursuingher. 

In her flurry she appeared to heed nothing until almost upon the body ofCochise. But one glance at the ghostly whites of the Apache's upturnedeyes sent her shrinking backward, stricken to horrified silence. Herwild stare fixed first upon Carmena and then shifted to Lennon. With ashriek, she flung herself upon him, clutching him about the body infrantic terror. 

"Oh! oh! Papa! Papa! Papa!" she screamed, in a childish treble. "BadIndian! He's hurting mamma! He's choking mamma!"

Lennon pressed her face hard against his breast to stifle her shrieks. 

"Be still, " he shouted. "Stop that noise. You're safe. Be still. Hearme? You're safe. "

Checked by the sternness of his voice the distracted girl hushed herhysterical cries. When he repeated that she was safe, she at last seemedto grasp the fact. Yet she continued to cling fast to him. 

"Tell me quick, " he demanded. "Is an Indian following you?"

"No-no-no!" she babbled. "It's mamma--he's choking her! He----"

The tremulous words broke off in a gasp of astonishment. The wild blueeyes stared up at Lennon in bewildered lack of recognition. 

"Why--why, you're not my papa!" she cried. 

"Of course not, Blossom. I'm Jack--Brother Jack. Don't you know me?"

The girl shrank back. 

"You're not my brother. Let me go. I haven't any brother. I never sawyou before. "

"Oh, Blossom!" came a cry beside them. 

Lennon's glance darted aslant. 

Carmena had risen to a sitting position with her arms outstretchedtoward Elsie. Her face was white from pain, and she was swaying--but shewas sitting upright. Realization of what that meant burst upon Lennonlike a flood of golden sunshine. 

He dropped on his knees to fling a supporting arm about the girl'sshoulders. 

"Dearest, it's not true--not true that you---- Your back! You're able torise!"

Carmena lowered her gaze from her bewildered sister. 

"What, I----" she murmured. "Why, so I am! There was a snap, and then, oh, such a pain! It must be the bone had only slipped. That twistsnapped it back into place. "

"But the pain, dear?"

"It's getting better. It's good pain. It proves I'm alive again--allalive. Raise me up, Jack. I want to see if I can stand. "

He lifted her with utmost gentleness. Her teeth clenched upon her lip. But, once she was upright, the pain again eased. She was delighted tofind that she could stand with no more than half support from him. 

"Yes--all alive, " she repeated and she turned to Elsie. "With a braceI'll be able to rise. Blossom, you can bind on----"

"I'm not Blossom. I'm--I'm Elsie Lane, " faltered the younger girl. "Andyou're not my mamma, no more than he's my papa. "

Lennon and Carmena stared at each other questioningly. The girl seemedrational, yet clearly she recognized neither of them. Carmena was firstto catch an inkling of the truth. 

"No, dear, " she soothed. "Of course we're not your papa and mamma. Ofcourse you're Elsie Lane. But we want to help you. We are your friends, dear. What has happened? Tell us. "

The girl stared from them to her surroundings, more than everbewildered. But the hideous gape of Cochise's mouth and his upturnedglassy eyes drew from her a whimpering cry. She shrank around to hidebehind Lennon and clutch his arm. 

"Oh! That man--that bad Indian--he came after papa found old Sim's mine, and mamma fed him, and--and then he choked her, and I ran to get papa, and papa was lying down at the bottom, with an awful red hole in hishead--and I ran back to mamma--and she was dead. The bad Indian waschasing our ponies. I was 'fraid he'd kill me, too, and I ran and ranand ran, right up past the middle tower of the giant's castle and downthe other side, and I got awful thirsty. Then--then I went to sleep--andwhen I woke up the roof was falling on me and it was night, and when Igot out here, you weren't my papa and mamma, but there was that badIndian. "

Lennon needed no verification of the tragedy that the girl evidentlyremembered as having occurred only a few hours past. Before his mentalvision rose the gruesome images of the skeleton at the foot of the mineslide and the skeleton in the cabin. 

"I've been blind, " he murmured to Carmena. "Sim told me that nine yearsago he gave maps of his mine and the Triple Butte region to a doctornamed Lane. "

Carmena was gazing yearningly at the unresponsive Elsie. 

"All these years!" she sighed. "First her childhood all a blank to her, and now all the years with me lost! I'm a stranger to her--to my littleBlossom! Oh, Jack!"

"Give her time. She will remember. Such cases are not unknown, "comforted Lennon. He turned to Elsie. 

"Listen, dear. I found your papa and mamma and buried them. Now I havekilled the bad Indian. But you have been sick--out of your head--a longtime. This lady--Carmena--has taken care of you and she loves you. "

The child-minded girl peered up at her foster-sister. 

"You--you love me? But I know it. You look at me like mamma does. "

Carmena smiled radiantly. Lennon hastened to add an urgent appeal. 

"She is hurt, Elsie, and more bad Indians are coming. Won't you help meget her safe away from here?"

The request diverted the girl's thoughts before she could yield again topanic. Instead of going frantic and becoming a drag upon Lennon'sefforts, she helped support Carmena through to the hoist room. 

Slade was lying as the Apaches had left him, beside the charcoalbrazier, his left arm still lashed behind to his right foot. He had diedfrom his wounds. As they passed by, Lennon shielded Elsie from theunpleasant sight. But Carmena looked full at the big twisted body of theman who had ruined and murdered her father. 

"He deserved it all and more--far more, " she murmured. "First to makeDad believe the brand-blotting was a part of his honest cattle business, and then----"

"What's that?" interrupted Lennon. "You mean he deceived your father? Idid not understand it that way. "

"Yes. He lied. Dad was an Easterner like yourself. Slade had himincriminated before he knew it was stock stealing. Then he forced tizwinmaking upon us. You know the consequences to poor Dad. And what if thebig beast had found Blossom! Oh, I should have waited for Cochise totorture him. But I could not bear it. "

"Because you are yourself, Carmena--as tender-hearted as you are strongand brave and wise. "

"Silly, you mean--to lose a single moment now in talk. Put me down here. I can get to the hoist. Hurry with Elsie--get saddles, food, your rifle. Hurry! We must get out of the Hole before Slade's punchers come. "

Lennon eased the girl to the floor and ran into the living room. Elsiedarted after him. Nor did she stop to be directed. She went straight toher food cupboard, without paying the slightest heed to the outstretchedbody of the luckless Farley. Lennon threw a rug over the pitiful formand hastened to drag three saddles and as many canteens out to thehoist. 

Carmena had crept back close to the body of Slade. She waved Lennon tohurry. He ran back for his rifle and the food. Elsie already had packedtwo pairs of saddlebags with flour, bacon, and dried meat, and wasunlashing the broad stiff hair girth from another saddle. 

"Here's just the thing to brace Mena's back, " she said. 

"Good enough. It will go round her two or three times and----"

Lennon stopped short to stare at the eager girl. 

"Why Blossom, you call her Mena--and you went direct to the foodcupboard. You've remembered all!"

The girl gazed up at him, wide-eyed. 

"Oh, did I? Have I! I did it without thinking. It just seemed natural. But my name isn't Blossom--and it's--it's awful queer--I never saw thisplace before. "

"You have, " contradicted Lennon. "It has been a long, long dream, littleBlossom. You are beginning to remember it now. "

"O-oh--like a dream---- It does seem as if everything--and you--you'reBrother Jack, who was going to marry me. But how silly--when I'm onlyten years old! Of course it's just all a dream. "

Lennon caught at the point----

"Yes, yes, that's a dream, only a dream about our marrying. You've beendreaming for years, and now you're much older than ten--much older. Butthat other is only a fancy--a mistake. It's Mena I'm to marry, andyou're to be our dear little sister. Remember, I'm to be yourbrother--your Brother Jack. "

"I'll remember, " promised Elsie. "You're good, like her. You buried papaand mamma and you killed that bad Indian. "

A cry from Carmena sent Lennon bounding out into the anteroom, with hisrifle ready to fire. The girl had crouched low behind the massive bodyof Slade. She pointed to the far corner of the room and shrilledwarningly:

"Look out, Jack! Cochise!--there in the window!"

Lennon dashed straight at the dark opening where he had seen the grayface of Farley on his first coming to the cliff house. He thrust in themuzzle of his rifle and then his head. Though shadowed, the inner roomwas light enough for him to see that it was empty. He went back toCarmena. 

"No one there, " he said. "Just your fancy, dear. You'renervous--overwrought. But no wonder. The sooner we're down and away fromhere, the better. "

"Wait. First take this, " replied Carmena. She held up a thick-paddedleather belt. 

"Slade's, " she explained. "I guessed he might be carrying it. It's hismoney-belt, stuffed with big bills. He lied about the partnershipbank-account. Take it, Jack--for Elsie and me. It's ours by rights. Hecheated us of our heritage. We have to leave Dad's ranch. "

The belt was already fast about Lennon's waist. Elsie appeared, draggingthe saddlebags and the girth. Lennon brought the wide cinch to wraparound Carmena's waist. The double fold lashed fast with the straps madea broad stiff corsage support for her wrenched back. 

In quick succession, Lennon then lowered, over the sacks of corn in thehoist opening, first Elsie, then the outfit, and lastly Carmena. Sheasked to see her father, but Lennon dissuaded her. He thought best thather last impression of Slade's victim should be the broken man'sredeeming flare of vengeful love and fatherhood. 

The moment the slackening hoist rope told him that Elsie had steadiedher foster-sister down upon the cliff foot, Lennon ran to descend therope ladder. Time was passing, and there was still much to be done. Hemust catch and saddle three good horses. Slade's punchers might not comefor four or five hours. But the earlier the start of the fugitives, thebetter would be their chance of escape if the Navahos should seek totrack them down. 

Elsie had drawn Carmena away from the heap of saddles and bags to a seaton a ledge. As Lennon sprang toward them from the foot of the shakingladder Carmena called out and pointed over his head. One rope of theladder had sagged as if broken. A moment later the ladder cameslithering down the cliff face. 

"Cut--That face in the window--Cochise! He's not dead!" cried Carmena. "Oh, Jack, if you hadn't come down fast! He tried to make you fall!"

Lennon was already running out to aim his rifle at the doorway fromwhich the ladder had fallen. There was no sign of the ladder-cutter. Outof the side of his eye Lennon saw the crane swing back into the otheropening and the hoist rope jerk upward. He swung his rifle to that side. 

The top sack of corn in the barricade slewed out over the brink. Ittoppled and came plunging downward. Above it a dark head came intosight, half out-thrust over the top of the other sacks. 

Lennon fired up past the falling bag of grain. The head jerked upward, twisted, and lay still on the edge of the barricade, as the sack of cornthudded and burst on the cliff foot within two feet of the saddles. Tomake doubly certain, Lennon sent up another bullet, as well-aimed as thefirst. 

His lips were set in a smile of stern satisfaction as he came to whereElsie was cowering in the arms of Carmena. 

"You were right--as usual, " he said. "The knife could only have knockedhim out for a time. He must have played 'possum. But he was disabled. Crawled after us--couldn't get a gun till we left and too eager towait--thought we'd be under the hoist. Yet why he should have exposedhimself----"

"His wounds, " divined Carmena. "The strain of heaving over the sack wastoo much for him. He collapsed. You're sure you didn't miss him, Jack?"

"No. Through the head--same as he shot Blossom's father. "

CHAPTER XXIV

HIS DAUGHTER'S FATHER

Carmena stroked the dishevelled Elsie's yellow locks. 

"There, there, sweetheart, " she said soothingly. "The fighting is allover. The bad Indian really is dead this time. You've no more need to befrightened. Brother Jack and I will take care of you. "

Elsie gazed up into the loving dark eyes of her comforter. 

"Why, of course, Mena, when you've always----"

The blue eyes suddenly widened. 

"But--but not always--papa and mamma--it seems only yesterday---- No, you--all these years---- But then I can't be only ten! My goodness, whata funny rumbly-wumble in my head--just like two dreams mixed up--onlythey're real--both of them!"

"Yes, both real--all real, Blossom. "

"Except one thing, " hastily put in Lennon. "It is Carmena whom I amgoing to marry, Elsie. Remember that. "

The girl looked at him, blushing and dimpling with shy delight. 

"Oh, it'll be ever so much nicer, 'cause then I can be just your dearlittle sister, and Mena loves you a thousand times more. "

Carmena's cheeks flooded with scarlet, but she faced Lennon with a lookof unflinching candour. 

"Yes, Jack, I do. I tricked you into the Basin. For Dad's sake, I wasready to lead you to almost certain death from Cochise and his bunch. But after that Gila monster I loved you--I put you above all else exceptBlossom's safety and Dad's good name. "

Lennon glowed back at her, proud that he had won the love of such awoman, yet humble over the consciousness of how he had misjudged her. 

"You had no thought for yourself, " he said. "You would have given yourlife--and more. You failed to save your father's life, but we shall savehis name. Did Slade's Navahos share in the stock stealing?"

"Only Pete. Of the others, Slade's four bodyguards alone knew about theHole. But, once in, any of the punchers can trail us. "

"No, " declared Lennon. "To be sure, there is one of the four left. Butwhat if he does bring the punchers? All I need do is catch a pony, ridedown the valley, and haul up the lift in the lower caņon. "

"Of course!" agreed Carmena. "What a loon I've been not to think of itmyself! Of course, Cochise would have done it if we hadn't got the bunchup the cliff when we did. It will take the Navahos till noon to-morrowto ride all the way back and round to the head of Hell Caņon. "

"Good enough, " said Lennon. "That solves all our difficulties. We can goout the caņon to-night and have a long start for the railway. There wewill report how Slade and your father have been killed in a fight with aband of Apache stock thieves. "

"Oh, Jack! And Slade's Navahos will scatter when they hear he is dead, and they'll never talk. They're Indians. But the stock here in the Hole, what if the sheriff wants to investigate?"

Lennon pointed upward. 

"If he should manage to get into the cliff house, there's nothingincriminating left. The dynamite obliterated the still. As for thestock, we will drive it out with us and deliver it up as part of theloot retaken by us from the thieves. "

Carmena put Elsie aside and rose to lay her hands on Lennon's shoulders. 

"Now I know for sure you love me, " she said. "You love me enough toforget Dad as you knew him and to remember only that he was my father. You would shield his good name as you would shield your own. Yet I amthe daughter of a rustler, of a moonshiner, of a drunken criminal. "

"No, " denied Lennon. "You are the daughter of an unfortunate gentleman, who paid bitterly for his mistakes--who gave his life in an attempt tosave you and the child whom he had taken in and sheltered. Let God judgewhether he was not far more victim than wrongdoer. "

"But the daughter of a weak man----"

Lennon smiled into her troubled eyes. 

"You glory of the desert--you cactus blossom! It was your very strengththat repelled me, like the spines of the cactus. I never had known yourlike. I thought a woman must be weak and clinging. "

He cast a smiling glance at the wide-eyed Elsie. 

"But now, dear, I know that the bloom of the desert thorn may be evenmore fragrant and lovely than any garden flower. "

THE END

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The Country Life Press--Garden City, N. Y.