e through the forest had been made!

Creech dismounted. "Git off, Lucy. You, Joel, hurry an' hand me the
little pack.... Now I'll take Lucy an' the King down in hyar. You go
thet way with the hosses an' make as if you was hidin' your trail, but
don't. Do you savvy?"

Joel shook his head. He looked sullen, somber, strange. His father
repeated what he had said.

"You're wantin' Cordts to split on the trail?" asked Joel.

"Sure. He'll ketch up with you sometime. But you needn't be afeared if
he does."

"I ain't a-goin' to do thet."

"Why not?" Creech demanded, slowly, with a rising voice.

"I'm a-goin' with you. What d'ye mean, Dad, by this move? You'll be
headin' back fer the Ford. An' we'd git safer if we go the other way."

Creech evidently controlled his temper by an effort. "I'm takin' Lucy
an' the King back to Bostil."

Joel echoed those words, slowly divining them. "Takin' them BOTH! The
girl.... An' givin' up the King!"

"Yes, both of them. I've changed my mind, Joel. Now--you--"

But Creech never finished what he meant to say. Joel Creech was
suddenly seized by a horrible madness. It was then, perhaps, that the
final thread which linked his mind to rationality stretched and
snapped. His face turned green. His strange eyes protruded. His jaw
worked. He frothed at the mouth. He leaped, apparently to get near his
father, but he missed his direction. Then, as if sight had come back,
he wheeled and made strange gestures, all the while cursing
incoherently. The father's shocked face began to show disgust. Then
part of Joel's ranting became intelligible.

"Shut up!" suddenly roared Creech.

"No, I won't!" shrieked Joel, wagging his head in spent passion. "An'
you ain't a-goin' to take thet girl home.... I'll take her with me....
An' you take the hosses home!"

"You're crazy!" hoarsely shouted Creech, his face going black. "They
allus said so. But I never believed thet."

"An' if I'm crazy, thet girl made me.... You know what I'm a-goin' to
do? ... I'll strip her naked--an' I'll--"

Lucy saw old Creech lunge and strike. She heard the sodden blow. Joel
went down. But he scrambled up with his eyes and mouth resembling those
of a mad hound Lucy once had seen. The fact that he reached twice for
his gun and could not find it proved the breaking connection of nerve
and sense. Creech jumped and grappled with Joel. There was a wrestling,
strained struggle. Creech's hair stood up and his face had a kind of
sic