was beginning to think that we should easy win the race if the girl could
but hold out, if it did not kill her, the chestnut struck a leg into the
crack of the prairie, and horse and girl spilt on the ground together.
She could hardly move, she was so weak, and her face was like death. I
put a pistol to the chestnut's head, and ended it. The girl stooped and
kissed the poor beast's neck, but spoke nothing. As I helped her on my
Tophet I put my lips to the sleeve of her dress. Mother of Heaven! what
could a man do--she was so dam' brave.

"Dawn was just breaking oozy and grey at the swell of the prairie over
the Jumping Sandhills. They lay quiet and shining in the green-brown
plain; but I knew that there was a churn beneath which could set those
swells of sand in motion, and make glory-to-God of an army. Who can tell
what it is? A flood under the surface, a tidal river-what? No man knows.
But they are sea monsters on the land. Every morning at sunrise they
begin to eddy and roll--and who ever saw a stranger sight? Bien, I looked
back. There were those four pirates coming on, about three miles away.
What was there to do? The girl and myself on my blown horse were too
much. Then a great idea come to me. I must reach and cross the Jumping
Sandhills before sunrise. It was one deadly chance.

"When we got to the edge of the sand they were almost a mile behind. I
was all sick to my teeth as my poor Tophet stepped into the silt. Sacre,
how I watched the dawn! Slow, slow, we dragged over that velvet powder.
As we reached the farther side I could feel it was beginning to move. The
sun was showing like the lid of an eye along the plain. I looked back.
All four horsemen were in the sand, plunging on towards us. By the time
we touched the brown-green prairie on the farther side the sand was
rolling behind us. The girl had not looked back. She seemed too dazed. I
jumped from the horse, and told her that she must push on alone to the