Never stopping to saddle, he leaped upon the bare, brown back and went clattering down the canon. "Keep your eye on Moreno, there!" he shouted up to the lookout. "If he tries to slip away, shoot him." Ten minutes' brisk gallop through the windings of the gorge brought him to the edge of the sandy plain. There, under a little clump of willows, was the ambulance, its mules unhitched and hoppled securely, nibbling placidly at such scant herbage as they could find. The horses of the two guards, unsaddled, were drooping in the shade, too tired to hunt for anything to eat. "Saddle up, men. Hitch in and get that team to the head of the canon, lively now," was his brief order to the sleepy trooper who greeted him, carbine in hand. "What's up, sergeant?" queried another, springing out from the willows. "Lee told us to wait here, or wherever we could find shade and water." "Wait? How long and what for?" "Blessed if I know how long. None of 'em ain't in sight from here coming back; but 'what for' is easy to answer. The paymaster's chest." "The paymaster's chest?" cried Wing. "Why, isn't that here in the ambulance?" "Not a hinge of it. Those Greasers swapped it onto an _apparejo_ while we were all running for Harvey's daughters. The money's half-way to Sonora by this time." IX. Peaceful as was his rest, Drummond slept only an hour or so. For months he had lived in the open air, "on the war-path" said his captain, a veteran who had won his spurs twice over in the war of the rebellion, and declared himself quite ready to take his ease now and let the youngsters see for themselves the hollowness of military glory. Weariness and physical exhaustion had lent their claims, and despite bruises and many a pang, despite the realization of the presence of the fair girls whom his dash and energy had rescued from robber hands, the young fellow had dozed away into dreamland. Why not? The object of his mission was accomplished. Fanny and Ruth Harvey were safe. All that was left for the party to do now was rest in quiet until another morn, then it would be quite possible to start on the return without waiting for the coming of their friends. Before sunset his men would be reassembled; they could have a long night's sleep, and with the rising of the morrow's sun, convoying their three wagons and their recaptured treasures, the little detachment would take the back track for the Tucson road, confident of meeting "old Harvey" and, probably, a doctor on the way. He himself, though most in need of surgical attention when they reached the caves, had such confidence in the skill of Sergeant Wing as to feel that his arm was set as perfectly as could be done by almost any other practitioner, and before dropping off to sleep had quite determined that he would make the morning march in saddle.