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Show 308 THE MORMON LION horses, trusting to obtain fresh' mounts here at the crossing. · A bare suggestion was enough. Hatch promptly said that we should leave our fagged animals and take in exchange their pack mule and pair of big ridingmules. As we started for th~ir bivouac Lucy's reply m German and broken Enghsh to one of their questions removed the last cause of suspicion against us. She had not looked natural to them as an American boy. That the boy was Dutch accounted to them for all peculiarities of her appearance. While Hatch off-saddled and rubbed down our weary animals, his companion set before us a hearty meal of coffee, bacon and crackers. We devoured it outstretched upon the soft cool sand beside the nar~ row stream. Lucy's eyelids were drooping from lack of sleep. As soon as we finished eating, I told her to roll over and take a nap. Going over near Hatch, I stretched out and lay watching him groom my horse. It grieved me to leave the beautiful animal behind, but he was too outspent to carry me on to Las Vegas over the fiftyfive miles of desert. At night he possibly might have made it- never in the withering heat of the day. On the other hand, by making a complete exchange of animals, I would be taking away all the fresh ones from the pursuers who, I felt~certain , must now' be following us. • · An hour was the utmost I dared allow Lucy. She awoke more refreshed than I had hoped. Our saddles and pack had been transferred to the three fresh mules. Lucy made a gallant though unsuccessful effort to mount one of the big brutes. I lilted her on, jesting at the clumsiness of Dutchmen. A moment later I was in my own saddle. We crossed over the stream and started off, with a hearty farewell from the duped murderers. CHAPTER XXXIII VENGEANCE LucY endured until a merciful sandhill hid us from v1ew of the watchers. Then I took her into my arms partly sustaining her weight with a sling that I mad~ of my own and Waller's belt. By shifting from one riding mule to the other every few m1les, I was able to push the beasts so hard that they brought us in sight of Las Vegas a little after noon. We stopped to water the mules at the creek a mile from the fort. 1 was ahnost spent. I had to drug myself as ~~II as Lucy with a big drink of Waller's wh1skey. lhe liquor enabled us to ride into the settlement with an appearance of freshness that belied our real exhaustiOn. The stock-tender and others of the brethren at Las Vegas remembered me from my previous visits with Clulcott and Waller, so that my statement of our mJsswn ~as rece1ved w1thout suspicion. While apJ?roachmg the fort, I had seen a light spring wagon which, though old, seemed to be m very good condition. I was so nearly exhausted that I knew I could no longer carry Lucy ; and I was no less certain that for her _to nde alone even a few miles more would kill her. 1 he moment I had explained our mission I made the Danite sign and demanded the loan of the wagon and a span of fresh mules The stock-tender hastened to assure me that before we had finished our dinner, he would have th~ best span of mules at Las Vegas harnessed to the wagon. The miSSIOn blacksmith volunteered to see )09 |
