Old Sudden achieved some front-page fame himself as a stalwart Napoleon of the desert--which he profanely resented, by the way.
On the third day Mary V was ordered to stay at home.

There were reasons which her father did not care to dwell upon, which made it extremely undesirable that the girl should be present when her lover was discovered.

And, since the search had narrowed to a point where discovery was practically certain within a few hours, Sudden was not to be cajoled or bullied.
Mary V was lying on the porch, wondering dully when the nightmare would end and she would wake up and find life just as it had always been, with Johnny alive and full of fun and ready to argue with her over every little thing.

It seemed grotesquely impossible that her own innocent command that he come to her should result in all this horror.
Upheld at first by a frenzied hope that they should find him, she now dreaded the finding, and refused to reckon the time since she had last heard his voice over the telephone.

Hurt and without water or food on the desert in all that heat--she set her teeth to stifle a groan.