The launch would be waiting; the fair Dorothy should find herself safe prisoner aboard the _Zulu Queen_ before she knew what had taken place.

True, there would be a crowd; the fire people, and what others were abroad at that hour, would rush to the burning house.

And yet who would think of questioning Storri, so heroically rescuing life?
Who would dream of stopping him who was only taking the rescued fainting one to safe shelter and medical help?
In the bustle and alarm, Storri was bound to succeed; there was no least chance of interference.
If Storri could have read the jealous breast of the San Reve, in which kindly soil a wildest suspicion was never two hours old before it had grown to the granite dignity of things certain, his criminal hopes might not have soared so high! Had he known how his every step was shadowed by the sleepless Inspector Val, and that what the latter did not surmise was invariably told him by Steamboat Dan, his horrid confidence would have been less insolent in its anticipations! Mayhap there be those among you who have "punched" the casual cow, and whose beef-wanderings included the drear wide-stretching waste yclept the Texas Panhandle.

If so you have noted, studded hither and yon about the scene, certain conical hillocks or mountainettes of sand.

Those dwarf sand-mountains were born of the labor of the winds, which in those distant regions are famous for persistent, not to say pernicious industry.