ran like the ribs of a wash-board. And they grew deep and
verdant, with looming, towered walls. That night Lucy felt lost in an
abyss. The dreaming silence kept her awake many moments while sleep had
already seized upon her eyelids. And then she dreamed of Cordts
capturing her, of carrying her miles deeper into these wild and purple
cliffs, of Slone in pursuit on the stallion Wildfire, and of a savage
fight. And she awoke terrified and cold in the blackness of the night.

On the next day Creech traveled west. This seemed to Lucy to be far to
the left of the direction taken before. And Lucy, in spite of her utter
weariness, and the necessity of caring for herself and her horse, could
not but wonder at the wild and frowning canyon. It was only a tributary
of the great canyon, she supposed, but it was different, strange,
impressive, yet intimate, because all about it was overpowering, near
at hand, even the beetling crags. And at every turn it seemed
impossible to go farther over that narrow and rock-bestrewn floor. Yet
Creech found a way on.

Then came hours of climbing such slopes and benches and ledges as Lucy
had not yet encountered. The grasping spikes of dead cedar tore her
dress to shreds, and many a scratch burned her flesh. About the middle
of the afternoon Creech led up over the last declivity, a yellow slope
of cedar, to a flat upland covered with pine and high bleached grass.
They rested.

"We've fooled Cordts, you can be sure of thet," said Creech. "You're a
game kid, an', by Gawd! if I had this job to do over I'd never tackle
it again!"

"Oh, you're sure we've lost him?" implored Lucy.

"Sure as I am of death. An' we'll make surer in crossin' this bench.
It's miles to the other side where I'm to keep watch fer Joel. An' we
won't leave a track all the way."

"But this grass?" questioned Lucy. "It'll show our tracks."

"Look at the lanes an' trails between. All pine mats thick an' soft an'
springy. Only an Indian could follow us hyar on Wild Hoss Bench."

Lucy gazed before her under the pines. It was a beautiful forest, with
trees standing far apart, yet not so far but that their foliage
intermingled. A dry fragrance, thick as a heavy perfume, blew into her
face. She could not help but think of fire--how it would race through
here, and that recalled Joel Creech's horrible threat. Lucy shuddered
and put away the memory. "I can't go--any farther--to-day," she said.

Creech looked at her compassionately