Bloom of Cactus

he cool spring water had been very refreshing, lofty cliffs shadowed the ca?on bed from the hot morning sunrays, an

towering precipices and past narrow side ca?ons. At last they came to a break in the sheer walls. The cliff

ised eye proved unexpectedly easy. As they climbed in steep zigzags from terrace to terra

-they crawled. If any circled and climbed the mesa, the si

find help there?

'll be safe enough, once we get

at all like y

wn at him with a somber, clouded look

her. She's cuddlier than a kitten. Eyes bluer than forget-me-nots, J

Lennon. "Your father must be a fi

deepened. But the soft glow of her eye

red. "Not his fault, either. He came West

Lennon. "Ranch work can'

o another terrace

n we were starving. Dad got in with him. He can't break l

said

le he paused to catch his breath she opened the canteen. They were by now badly in need of a drin

e faltered. "If only you'll t

pulling me through this scrape. Perhaps I can pull hi

e girl. "That's th

ether. I'm working for a big copper syndicate. If I relocate the mine I am to receive twenty thousand

's eyes

e money I want. You don't sabe. Promise you won'

ou do not

t the barest h

well.

she murmured, and she start

the girl did not linger to talk. She dropped the pony's reins and st

vered the ground almost as fast as if both had been mounted. As each drank from the canteen at every stop and Carmena twice wet the no

untain crack became even more steep. In places the pony had to jump like a goat down five and six-foot ledges. Time and again he slid on his haunches. At the worst pl

r it was ended. They came down into the bottom of the low

and she reeled ahead along the

unlight. The pony whinnied. Carmena led the way out into an oval

g hay meadows, grazed a herd of cattle and twenty or thirty head of horses. Three quarters of a mile to the left, in a

toward the an

ellings,

ith the ladder. We'll make it i

oward the cliff ruins. As Lennon jogged after her he saw a rope ladder slide down the under cliff, followe

the hoisting rope when Lennon came staggering and panting up beside the girl. She poin

e time to get up. Cochise and Pete must have ridden over

ers who were racing swiftly down

them off," he said. "The

ghed Carmena. "Dad won'

e tried to kill you!-And th

inced and

ans hereabouts. I'll be safe enough now, soon as

ould have been safe at the first. You have risked your ow

en you know!" she whispered, and sh

that the saddle load had already been hoisted

s right elbow through the rungs to get any use of his injured arm. But the riders racing swiftly across the head of the valley wou

As Lennon scrambled up and through the deep entrance after her he glimpsed a thin gray fac

girl was rapidly winding in on a miner's windlass. She stopped to tug at

ad gathered in less than ten yards when a bullet whizzed between their heads and splattered on the stone wall at the rear

d it come a moment sooner Lennon must have been struck. Carmena's hand shoo

he game. Guess Cochise is feeling pretty bad in h

ed Lennon. "We can easily pick off both o

ght slip away before the others came but they'd make a clean sweep of the stock and