find him or to ask what he is or even where he is beyond that he has gone to Sonora." "Lieutenant," said Patterson, suddenly appearing at the opening, "could you step here a moment?" Drummond springs up. "One moment, Mr. Drummond," whispers Wing, weakly; "I must say one word to you--alone." "I'll return in a minute, sergeant. Let me see what Patterson wants." Miss Harvey and Ruth have risen; the former is very pale and evidently trembling under some strong emotion. Once more she bends over him. "Drink this, Mr. Wing, and now talk no more than you absolutely have to." Then renewing the cooling bandage on his forehead, her hands seem to linger--surely her eyes do--as she rises once more to her feet. Meantime the lieutenant has stepped out into the canon. "What is it, Patterson? quick!" "That was some of our fellows, sir, a squad of four; but they turned all of a sudden and galloped back out of sight. It looks to me as though they were attacked." "How far away were they? How many miles down the desert?" "Oh, at least six or eight miles down, sir; down beyond where you met them yesterday." "How about our trail? Anybody in sight there?" "Nobody, sir, not even a thing, not even a whiff of dust." "Very well. Keep on the alert. It's good to know that all the Apaches are not around us yet. Neither bullet nor arrow can get down here so long as we man the rocks above. I'll be out in a moment." Then once more he kneels by Wing. "Lieutenant, did you ever see a girl behave with greater bravery? Do you know what she has undergone?--Miss Harvey, I mean?" "Both are behaving like heroines, Wing, and I think I am beginning to see through this plot at last." "Never let mother know it,--promise me, sir,--but when Harvey discharged him--my uncle, I mean--he swore he'd be revenged on the old man, and 'twas he----" "The double-dyed villain! I know, I understand now, Wing; you needn't tell me. He has been in the pay of the Morales gang for months. He enlisted so as to learn all the movements of officers and scouting-parties. He enlisted under his benefactor's name. He has forged that, too, in all probability, and then, deserting, it was he who sought to carry away these precious girls, and he came within an ace of succeeding. By the Eternal, but there will be a day of reckoning for him if ever 'C' troop runs foul of him again! No wonder you couldn't sleep, poor fellow, for thinking of that mother. This caps the climax of his scoundrelism. Where,--when did you see him last?--since he enlisted?" But now Wing's face is again averted. He is covering it with his arms.