sack.

"I wouldn't wonder a damned bit if the Morales gang _were_ around
here," was his discomforting assurance. "None of 'em have been seen
about Tucson for a week before we left. Wish I could stay and stand by
you, but my first duty is with Mr. Harvey. I've been in his employ
nigh on to eight years."

"What sort of looking man is Ned Harvey?" persisted the sergeant,
still hopeful of some fraud.

"Tall, dark, smooth face; looks like a Spaniard almost. I never saw
anybody who resembled him hereabouts. I'm afraid it's no plant. I
don't want to offend you, sergeant, but I wish to God it _was_ all the
Morales gang's doings and that it was only your money they were after.
If it's Apaches and they have got the old man's children, he'll never
get over it."

"By heaven!" muttered Feeny to himself, as the loyal fellow put spurs
to his horse and disappeared,--"by heaven! I begin to believe it's
both."

And now with gloomy face the sergeant returned to where he had left
Major Plummer watching the westward trail. A brief word at the
door-way assured him the clerk was still alert and ready. A pause
under the open window, high above the ground, of the room where slept
Moreno's wife and daughter, if they slept at all, told him that all
was silence there if not slumber, and then he joined his superior.

"That fellow was of the right sort, sergeant," said Plummer. "I wish