Chapter 13
THE SOMBRE LINEAUGUST NAAB hoped that Mescal might have returned in his
absence; but to Hare such hope was vain. The women of the oasis met
them with gloomy faces presaging bad news, and they were reluctant
to tell it. Mescal's flight had been forgotten in the sterner and
sadder misfortune that had followed.
Snap Naab's wife lay dangerously ill, the victim of his drunken
frenzy. For days after the departure of August and Jack the man had
kept himself in a stupor; then his store of drink failing, he had
come out of his almost senseless state into an insane frenzy. He
had tried to kill his wife and wreck his cottage, being prevented
in the nick of time by Dave Naab, the only one of his brothers who
dared approach him. Then he had ridden off on the White Sage trail
and
