countenance revealed, with new intelligence. There could be no doubt--it
was the face of her who had cared for him so tenderly in that tent at
Manassas before the fever came and he had lost consciousness. And that,
then, was Willis Waite lying in that shallow grave near the Cimmaron
Crossing, and for whose death he had been arrested. 'T was a strange
world, and a small one. What a miserable ending to a life like his--a
division commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, a Lieutenant-Governor
of his State. What strange combination of circumstances could ever have
brought such a man to this place, and sent him forth across those Indian-
scouted plains? Surely nothing ordinary. And why should those border
desperadoes have followed, through sixty miles of desolation, to trike him
down? It was not robbery, at least in the ordinary sense. What then? And
how was "Black Bart" involved? Why should he be sufficiently interested to
swear out a warrant, and then assist in his arrest? There must be
something to all this not apparent upon the surface--some object, some
purpose shrouded in mystery. No mere quarrel, no ordinary feud, no
accident of meeting, no theory of commonplace robbery, would account for
the deed, or for the desperate efforts now being made to conceal it.

Some way, these questions, thus surging upon him, became a call to live,
to fight, to unravel their mystery. The memory of that sweet-faced woman
who had bent above him when the fever began its mastery, appealed to him
now with the opportunity of service. He might be able to clear this, bring
to her the truth, save her from despair, and hand over to justice the
murderers of her husband. It was up to him alone to accomplish this--no
one else knew what he knew, suspected what he suspected. And there was but
one way--through escape. To remain there in weak surrender to fate could
have but one ending, and that swift and sudden. He had no doubt as to
"Black Bart's" purpose, or of his ability to use the "Red Light" outfit as
desired. The whole plan was clearly evident, and there would be no delay