It came over him with disconcerting suddenness that he had lost a great deal of time,and that every moment spent in the covered wagon was fraught with imminent danger.It was not in his mind that the hand of highwaymen might discover his hiding-place.Knowing them as he did,he was sure they would not come so far from their haunts or from the Sante Fe train in pursuit of him.But the Indians roamed the Panhandle,as much at home there as in their reservations--and here they were much more dangerous.Had no savage eye discerned that wagon during the brilliant August day?Might it be that even while he slept at the feet of the dead woman,a feathered head had slipped under the canvas side,a red face had bent over him?
It was a disquieting fancy.Willock told himself that,had such been the case,his scalp-lock would not still adorn his own person;for all that,he was eager to be gone.Instead of eating in the wagon,he wrapped up some food in a bread-cloth,placed this with a few other articles in a tarpaulin--among them,powder and shot--and,having lifted the keg of water to one shoulder,and the rope-bound tarpaulin to the other,he left the wagon with a loaded gun in his hand.
Twilight had faded to starlight and the mountain range stood blackly defined against the glittering stars.It was easy to find his way,for on the level sands there were no impediments,and when the mountain was reached,a low divide offered him easy passage up the ascent.For the most part the slopes were gradual and in steeper places,ledges of granite,somewhat like giant stairs,assisted him to the highest ridge.From this vantage-point he could see the level plain stretching away on the farther side;he could count the ridges running parallel to the one on which he had paused,and note the troughs between,which never descended to the level ground to deserve the name of valleys.Looking down upon this tortured mass of granite,he seemed gazing over a petrified sea that,in the fury of a storm,had been caught at the highest dashing of its waves,and fixed in threatening motion which throughout the ages would remain as calm and secure as the level waste that stretched from the abrupt walls in every direction.