“But the ladies, where are they?” asked Drummond, uneasily.

“Occupying the sanctum sanctorum, the innermost shrine among the rocks.  This is a wonderful spot, sir.  We might eventually have starved these people out if once they got here, but ten determined soldiers could hold it against ten hundred.  I’ve as yet had only a glance, but the Morenos have been here before, it is most evident, for the senorita herself showed Miss Harvey into the cave reserved for the women.  There they have cool water, cool and fresh air, and complete shelter.”

And now, as with experienced hands the sergeant stripped off Drummond’s hunting-shirt and carefully exposed the bruised and lacerated arm and shoulder, he plied his patient with questions as to whether he felt any internal pain or soreness.  “How a man could be flattened out and rolled over by such a weight and not be mashed into a jelly is what I can’t understand.  You’re about as elastic as ivory, lieutenant, and you have no spare flesh about you either.  That and the good luck of the cavalryman saved you from worse fate.  You’ve got a battered head, a broken arm, and had the breath knocked out of you, and that’s about all.  But we’ll have you on your feet by the time the fellows come from Stoneman.”

“But how about the young ladies?” again asked Drummond, wearily and anxiously, for his head was still heavy and painful and his anxiety great.  He was weak, too, from the shock.  “Won’t they suffer meantime?”

“Well, they might,—­at least Miss Ruth, the younger, might in the reaction after their fearful experience; but I’m something of a doctor, as I said, and I shall be able to prevent all that.”

“How?”

“Well, by giving her something to do.  Just as soon as they’ve had a chance to rest, both young ladies will be put on duty.  Miss Ruth is to nurse you.”

“Suppose she doesn’t want to?”

“The case isn’t supposable, lieutenant.  She would have gone into hysterics this morning, I think, had she not been detailed, as a preventive, to hold your head.  At all events, she quieted down the instant she was told by her sister to climb into the wagon again and sit still as a mouse and see that your face was kept cool and moist and shaded from the glare.”  And now Sergeant Wing’s lips were twitching with merriment, and Drummond, hardly knowing how to account for his embarrassment, asked no more.  His amateur surgeon, however, chatted blithely on.

“There’s an abundant store of provisions here, dried meat, frijoles, chile, chocolate.—­You shall have a cup in a moment.—­There’s ammunition in plenty.  There’s even a keg of mescal, which, saving your presence, sir, as I am temporary commander, shall be hidden before the men begin coming in with their prisoners.  There’s barley in abundance for horses and mules; water to drink and water to bathe in.  We could hardly be better off anywhere.”