saying, Lieutenant Drummond mounted and rode slowly down the winding
trail among the boulders. At the foot of the slope, where the water
lay gleaming in its rocky bed, he reined his horse to the left to give
him his fill of the pool, and here the trooper addressed as Bland
presently joined him.

"Where was it you enlisted, Bland?" was the younger soldier's first
question. "I understand you are familiar with all this country."

"At Tucson, sir, six months ago, after the stage company discharged
me."

"I remember," was the answer, as the lieutenant gently drew rein to
lift his horse's head. "I think you were so frank as to give the
reason of your quitting their employment."

"Well, there was no sense trying to conceal it, or anything else a man
may do out here, lieutenant. They fired me for drinking too much at
the wrong time. The section boss said he couldn't help himself, and I
don't suppose he could."

"As I remember," said Drummond, presently, and with hesitation, for he
hated to pry into the past of a man who spoke so frankly and who made
no effort to conceal his weakness, "you were driver of the buck-board
the Morales gang held up last November over near the Catarinas."

"Yes; that's the time I got drunk, sir. It's all that saved me from
being killed, and between keeping sober and losing my life or getting
drunk and losing a job, I preferred the latter."