Eugene Manlove Rhodes

“ The Apaches were not in sight. Don slowed to a walk. Black Noche was foam-white, failing, but stumbled gallantly along as if he knew how much depended on him.
"It'll be dark before I leave you. I'll go on clear to the top of Timber Mountain. There I'll build a fire right on the crest, undouble my saddle blanket, hold it up before the fire, take it way, hold it up again; so they'll see the fire at Dundee in short dots or long dashes—just like the Morse code, only for the eye instead of the ear. It's an old dodge. Everybody knows it. ”

“ IX A HUNDRED terrible seconds before, Kennedy had spurred from behind his sheltering knoll on the mountain crest. One look across the Gap, the gleam of a white dress by the wagon; the line of least resistance led straight to death and shame. ”

“ After dark I'll gain on the Indians, and when I get to the top I'll be so far ahead that I'll have time enough. But Noche can never take you to the top. I'll lead him up as far as he can go and then leave him. That's one reason. There are two better ones. They can see a fire better if it is built on the skyline. Then they can see the signal at Palomas to the northwest, just as they do at Dundee on the northeast. If any one in Palomas or Vega Blanco can read Morse that gives your father a much better chance—and us too. It's only six or seven miles to Palomas, and eighteen to Dundee. ”