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Show 312 THE MORMON LION trail and stood on watch. Until the moon rose, I paced up and down the dark road, listening for the hoof beats of the pursuers' horses. Though so weary that I hardly could keep my feet, I dared not sit down, for fear of falling asleef. At last the moon rose. went back to hitch up and start on again. Lucy was fast asleep. But the rolling and hard bumping of the wagon as I trotted the mules downhill soon shook her out of her slumber. A few minutes brought us down into a vast plain where the road stretched away between giant yuccas: Their immense flower-stalks towered high above us and cast strange black shadows in the pale moonlight. Though the going was extremely rough, Lucy crept forward to the seat and asked me to take her up beside me. During the ride from Las Vegas and her refreshing sleep she had recovered strenl)th wonderfully. Until morning she sat at my side w1th one slender arm around me, and supported me as much as I supported her. Had I been alone, I must have fallen into a doze. Very likely I would have been thrown out. She cheered and encouraged me through those long hours over the rough road. Dawn found us among desolate hills, ascending a valley that would have been as barren but for a few small and widely scattered greasewood bushes. I was in a stupor of sleepiness and fatigue, yet the rocks along each side of the valley were so odd and striking in their forms that I recognized the locality and roused myself. Hard as had been the travelling all the way from Las Vegas, our mules were not yet exhausted. At the crack of the whip they quickened their pace and rattled us along at a trot until we came to the head of the valley. After a short rest, they put their shoulders to the collars and hauled us steadily up the stiff ascent of black volcanic rock and white marble. At the top of the rise we came to the little rill of the Kingston Springs. Too exhausted to rub down THE MORMON LION the mules, I unharnessed them as soon as they had drunk their fill, and let them roll. Lucy had filled their feed-baf;l'S. Tying the animals to the wagon, I climbed up mto the hay and started to eat the food handed to me by Lucy. But I was so utterly spent that I fell asleep before I had taken a dozen swallows. I awoke with the feeling that I was in a furnace. My head was bare, and the midday sun was blazing down into my face with the fierce heat of the desert. I put up my hand and turned my head. Lucy lay beside me, sleeping as peacefully as a young child. The broad brim of Wafler's hat shaded her flushed face. Her arm lay across my neck. I saw that all was well with my darling. My heart filled with joyous courage. We had passed the worst. I felt certain that we could continue to out-distance the pursuit-if, indeed, there was any pursuit. A few days more, and we should be absolutely safe. From the freshness of Lucy's skin I saw that she had washed away the dust and grime in the spring rill. I determined to do the same before hitching up. As I gently drew my neck from under her arm her finger tips caressed my cheek and her lips murmured my name: , "David!-dear David!" She did not open her eyes. I rose quietly yet quickly to look back along the road. . . . Down the valley, less than two miles away, I saw a little drove of mules or horses ambling up the ascent in a cloud of dust. There were at least two riders. I flung myself over the side of the wagon and sprang forward to harness the mules- They were gone. For some moments I stood staring about in bewilderment, utterly dumbfounded. Lucy's voice rouse me from my daze: "David! what is it? You look so strange." " The mules I " I gasped. |
