"Hullo, Tom!" Hard returned the handshake quite as heartily. "Glad to see you. We were beginning to think we were marooned on this place." "We?" Tom's face lit up. "You're all right? All of you? Didn't none of you get killed by them Yaquis?" "Why, didn't Scott tell you?" demanded Hard, with sudden anxiety. "I ain't seen Scott sence you all went off together," said Tom, puzzled. "Hold on! Do you mean to say that they haven't shown up yet? Scott and the girl?" "Well, I left Athens yestiddy morning. You see, I walked to Conejo and picked up Mendoza and his car." "You walked to Conejo!" Hard's voice was awed. "'Twa'n't much. I took my time. You see, the Chink brought us word that there was something going on over here. He seen the barn burning when he was up on the mesa, and he didn't know what was up. He pretty nigh killed Cochise, so I had to walk. I knew there was no use coming here with no horses, so I went to Conejo. They've got martial law there. The Colonel's a nice young feller, if he is a greaser, and he loaned me Mendoza and the Ford. Now what happened here, anyhow?" Hard gave a brief outline of their adventures. "Mrs. Conrad," he said, "is an old friend of Herrick's and mine, who's had to leave her plantation in the South, and is on her way home. She is going East with Miss Street. She and I tried camping out at Soria's last night after Gonzales left us, but we got starved out and we tramped it back here, waiting for someone to come after us. I'm lame as I can be." Clara's face lit up when she saw the three men enter, and she shook hands cordially with Johnson and the old Mexican. Then an anxious look came into her eyes. Hard, seeing it, spoke quickly. "Johnson left Athens yesterday before Scott and Polly got there," he said, reassuringly. "He walked to Conejo." "Walked to Conejo!" "You see, Tom, Mrs. Conrad and I walked here from Soria's and we've both been crippled ever since. A walk to Conejo fills us with excited admiration." Tom chuckled. "Well, I always could walk," he replied. "Never done anything particular with the other end of me, but I could always depend on my feet. Say, folks, Mendoza's got his car outside. How about a quick bite and then beating it for Athens?" Clara turned eagerly to Herrick. "You'll come, won't you, Victor? I hate to think of your being here alone when everything is so upset." Herrick smiled and patted her hand affectionately. "You will give me no peace until I do, so I will go," he said. * * * * * It was a sober little crowd that sat around the dining-room table at Athens that night. Though their joy had been very great at the safe coming of Hard and Clara in Mendoza's car, it had been tinged with gloom at the non-arrival of Scott and Polly. Jimmy Adams was reported much improved.