“It’s God’s truth.  Here’s Mr. Ned Harvey himself.”

In an instant Wing was kneeling by the side of the prostrate man.

“Merciful heaven, my friend, but they’ve used you fearfully!  They only bound and held me till Jackson got back from Ceralvo’s a couple of hours ago.  Are you shot,—­injured?”

“No, no,” groaned Harvey.  “But I am broken, utterly broken, and my sisters are in the hands of those hounds.”

“Never worry about that, man.  I know young Drummond well.  There isn’t a braver, better officer in the old regiment if he is but a boy.  He’ll never drop that trail till he overtakes them, and by the time he needs us, old Pike here and I will be at his side.  Thank the Lord, those louts were frightened off and never took our horses.  They’re fresh as daisies both of ’em.  Cheer up, Mr. Harvey.  If hard riding and hard fighting will do it, we’ll have your sisters here to nurse you before another night.—­Come, Pike,” he cried, as he vaulted into saddle.  “Now for the liveliest gallop of your lazy, good-for-nothing life.  Come on!”

VII.

A new May morning was breaking, its faint rosy light warming the crests of the Santa Maria, when Lieutenant Drummond signalled “halt” to his little band, the first halt since leaving Moreno’s at half-past two.  Down in a rocky canon a number of hoof-prints on the trail diverged to the left and followed an abrupt descent, while the wagons had kept to the right, and by a winding and more gradual road seemed to have sought a crossing farther to the west.  It was easy to divine that, with such elements in the gang, there had been no long separation between the horsemen and the treasure they were guarding, and, eager as he was to overtake the renegades, Drummond promptly decided to follow the hoof-tracks, rightly conjecturing, too, that they would bring him to water in the rocky tanks below.  Dismounting and leading his big sorrel, he sprang lightly from ledge to ledge down what seemed a mere goat-trail, each man in succession dismounting at the same point, and, with more or less elasticity, coming on in the footsteps of his leader.  The faint wan light of early dawn was rendering neighboring objects visible on the sandy plain behind them, but had not yet penetrated into the depths of the gorge.  Lying far to the west of the Tucson road, this was a section of the country unknown to any of the troop, and with every prospect of a broiling ride across the desert ahead so soon as the sun was up, no chance for watering their horses could be thrown away.  Just as he expected, Drummond found the descent becoming more gradual, and in a moment or two the bottom of the dark rift was found, and presently, keeping keen lookout for the reflection of the stars still lingering overhead, the leading men were rewarded, and halted at the edge of a shining pool of clear, though not very cool, water, and the horses thrust their hot muzzles