little danger of discovery. He lay down on the rocks, pillowing his head
on the saddle, but his brain was too active to permit sleeping. Finally he
drew the letters from out his pocket, and began examining them. They
yielded very little information, those taken from the older man having no
envelopes to show to whom they had been addressed. The single document
found in the pocket of the other was a memorandum of account at the
Pioneer Store at Topeka, charged to John Sibley, and marked paid. This
then must have been the younger man's name, as the letters to the other
began occasionally "Dear Will." They were missives such as a wife might
write to a husband long absent, yet upon a mission of deep interest to
both. Keith could not fully determine what this mission might be, as the
persons evidently understood each other so thoroughly that mere allusion
took the place of detail. Twice the name Phyllis was mentioned, and once a
"Fred" was also referred to, but in neither instance clearly enough to
reveal the relationship, although the latter appeared to be pleaded for.
Certain references caused the belief that these letters had been mailed
from some small Missouri town, but no name was mentioned. They were
invariably signed "Mary." The only other paper Keith discovered was a
brief itinerary of the Santa Fe trail extending as far west as the Raton
Mountains, giving the usual camping spots and places where water was
accessible. He slipped the papers back into his pocket with a distinct
feeling of disappointment, and lay back staring up at the little strip of
blue sky. The silence was profound, even his horse standing motionless,
and finally he fell asleep.

The sun had disappeared, and even the gray of twilight was fading out of
the sky, when Keith returned again to consciousness, aroused by his horse
rolling on the soft turf. He awoke thoroughly refreshed, and eager to get
away on his long night's ride. A cold lunch, hastily eaten, for a fire
would have been dangerous, and he saddled up and was off, trotting out of