found precarious foothold in the sand, gleamed the solitary Indian
fire. About its embers, no doubt, squatted the chiefs and older
warriors, feasting and taking council, while the younger bucks lay,
rifles in hand, along the night-enshrouded slope, their cruel, vengeful
eyes seeking to distinguish the outlines of the coach against the black
curtain of the bluff.

This had proven thus far their salvation--that steep uplift of earth
against which the stage had crashed in its mad dash--for its
precipitant front had compelled the savages to attack from one
direction only, a slight overhang, not unlike a roof, making it
impossible even to shoot down from above. But this same sharp incline
was now likewise a preventive of escape. Hamlin shook his head as he
recalled to mind its steep ascent, without root or shrub to cling to.
No, it would never do to attempt that; not with her. Perhaps alone he
might scramble up somehow, but with her the feat would be impossible.
He dismissed this as hopeless, his memory of their surroundings
drifting from point to point aimlessly. He saw the whole barren vista
as it last stood revealed under the glow of the sun--the desolate
plateau above, stretching away into the dim north, the brown level of
the plains, broken only by sharp fissures In the surface, treeless,
extending for unnumbered leagues. To east and west the valley, now
scarcely more green than those upper plains, bounded by its verdureless
bluffs, ran crookedly, following the river course, its only sign of
white dominion the rutted trail. Beyond the stream there extended
miles of white sand-dunes, fantastically shapen by the wind, gradually
changing into barren plains of alkali. Between crouched the vigilant
Indian sentinels, alert and revengeful.

Certain facts were clear--to remain meant death, torture for him if