The Border Legion

"Sleep well, Dandy Dale," said Kells, cheerfully, yet not without

pathos. "Alder Creek to-morrow! ... Then you'll never sleep again!"

At times she seemed to feel that he regretted her presence, and

always this fancy came to her with mocking or bantering suggestion

that the costume and mask she wore made her a bandit's consort, and

she could not escape the wildness of this gold-seeking life. The

truth was that Kells saw the insuperable barrier between them, and

in the bitterness of his love he lied to himself, and hated himself

for the lie.

About the middle of the afternoon of the next day the tired

cavalcade rode down out of the brush and rock into a new, broad,

dusty road. It was so new that the stems of the cut brush along the

borders were still white. But that road had been traveled by a

multitude.

Out across the valley in the rear Joan saw a canvas-topped wagon,

and she had not ridden far on the road when she saw a bobbing pack-

burros to the fore. Kells had called Wood and Smith and Pearce and

Cleve together, and now they went on in a bunch, all driving the

pack-train. Excitement again claimed Kells; Pearce was alert and

hawk-eyed; Smith looked like a hound on a scent; Cleve showed

genuine feeling. Only Bate Wood remained proof to the meaning of

that broad road.

All along, on either side, Joan saw wrecks of wagons, wheels,

harness, boxes, old rags of tents blown into the brush, dead mules

and burros. It seemed almost as if an army had passed that way.

Presently the road crossed a wide, shallow brook of water, half

clear and half muddy; and on the other side the road followed the

course of the brook. Joan heard Smith call the stream Alder Creek,

and he asked Kells if he knew what muddied water meant. The bandit's

eyes flashed fire. Joan thrilled, for she, too, knew that up-stream

there were miners washing earth for gold.

A couple of miles farther on creek and road entered the mouth of a

wide spruce-timbered gulch. These trees hid any view of the slopes

or floor of the gulch, and it was not till several more miles had

been passed that the bandit rode out into what Joan first thought

was a hideous slash in the forest made by fire. But it was only the

devastation wrought by men. As far as she could see the timber was

down, and everywhere began to be manifested signs that led her to

expect habitations. No cabins showed, however, in the next mile.

They passed out of the timbered part of the gulch into one of

rugged, bare, and stony slopes, with bunches of sparse alder here

and there. The gulch turned at right angles and a great gray slope

shut out sight of what lay beyond. But, once round that obstruction,

Kells halted his men with short, tense exclamation.