"There 's no trail I know about along this bank, sir," he replied
respectfully, "but the big cottonwood with the dead branch forking out
at the top is the ford guide."
They rode down in moody silence into the next depression, and began
wearily climbing the long hill opposite, apparently the last before
coming directly down the banks of the stream. As his barely moving
horse topped the uneven summit, the lieutenant suddenly drew in his
rein, and uttering an exclamation of surprise, bent forward, staring
intently down in his immediate front. For a single instant he appeared
to doubt the evidence of his own eyes; then he swung hastily from out
the saddle, all weariness forgotten.
"My God!" he cried, sharply, his eyes suspiciously sweeping the bare
slope. "There are two bodies lying here--white people!"
They lay all doubled up in the coarse grass, exactly as they had
fallen, the man resting face downward, the slender figure of the girl
clasped vice-like in his arms, with her tightly closed eyes upturned
toward the glaring sun. Their strange, strained, unnatural posture,
the rigidity of their limbs, the ghastly pallor of the exposed young
face accentuated by dark, dishevelled hair, all alike seemed to
indicate death.
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