he had overtaken his quarry, and in the obscurity had passed it.

But Sergeant Weber was an old hand on the Plains, and notwithstanding the
darkness and the generally stony nature of the ground, he presently
discovered that the fresh trail of the wagons was missing. Thurstane tried
to retrace his steps, but starless night had already fallen thick around
him, and before long he had to come to a halt. He was opposite the mouth
of the ravine; he was within five hundred yards of Clara, and raging
because he could not find her. Suddenly Coronado's cooking fires flickered
through the gloom; in five minutes the two parties were together.

It was a joyous meeting to Thurstane and a disgusting one to Coronado.
Nevertheless the latter rushed at the officer, grasped him by both hands,
and shouted, "All hail, Lieutenant! So, there you are at last! My dear
fellow, what a pleasure!"

"Yes, indeed, by Jove!" returned the young fellow, unusually boisterous in
his joy, and shaking hands with everybody, not rejecting even muleteers.
And then what throbbing, what adoration, what supernal delight, in the
moment when he faced Clara.

In the morning the journey recommenced. As neither Thurstane nor Coronado
had now any cause for hurry, the pace was moderate. The soldiers marched
on foot, in order to leave the government mules no other load than the
rations and ammunition, and so enable them to recover from their sharp
push of over eighty miles. The party now consisted of twenty-five men, for
the most part pretty well armed. Of the other sex there were, besides Mrs.
Stanley and Clara, a half-breed girl named Pepita, who served as lady's
maid, and two Indian women from Garcia's hacienda, whose specialties were
cooking and washing. In all thirty persons, a nomadic village.