"And as I ain't asked nothing for myself since I run off from home
I guess God won't mind putting the little girl on my expense-
account."



CHAPTER V
A NEW ROBINSON CRUSOE


It came over him with disconcerting suddenness that he had lost a
great deal of time, and that every moment spent in the covered wagon
was fraught with imminent danger. It was not in his mind that the
hand of highwaymen might discover his hiding-place. Knowing them
as he did, he was sure they would not come so far from their haunts
or from the Sante Fe train in pursuit of him. But the Indians
roamed the Panhandle, as much at home there as in their
reservations--and here they were much more dangerous. Had no savage
eye discerned that wagon during the brilliant August day? Might it
be that even while he slept at the feet of the dead woman, a
feathered head had slipped under the canvas side, a red face had
bent over him?

It was a disquieting fancy. Willock told himself that, had such
been the case, his scalp-lock would not still adorn his own person;
for all that, he was eager to be gone. Instead of eating in the
wagon, he wrapped up some food in a bread-cloth, placed this with
a few other articles in a tarpaulin--among them, powder and shot--
and, having lifted the keg of water to one shoulder, and the