with Billy.

"He'll keep her up in some haunt of his," said Jack, again and again,
"until he's worn her into consenting to marry him. And before that
happens, if I know old Rhoda, we'll find them."

"He's mine when we do find him, remember that," John DeWitt always said
through his teeth at this point in the discussion.

It was on the twelfth day of the hunt that the sheep-herder found them.
They were cinching up the packs after the noon rest when he rode up on
a burro. He was dust-coated and both he and the burro were panting.

"I've seen her! I've seen the señorita!" he shouted as he clambered
stiffly from the burro.

The three Americans stood rigid.

"Where? How? When?" came from three heat-cracked mouths.

The Mexican started to answer, but his throat was raw with alkali dust
and his voice was scarcely audible. DeWitt impatiently thrust a
canteen into the little fellow's hands.

"Hurry, for heaven's sake!" he urged.

The Mexican took a deep draught.

"The night after you left I moved up into the peaks, intending to cross
the range to lower pastures next day. A big storm came up and I made