yond expression was that long, black
stretch of narrow, desolate alley-way leading down toward the creek
bridge and the old fort beyond. She had been over that path once in
broad daylight, and it made her shudder to think she must now feel her
way there alone through the dark. The growing fear of it got upon her
nerves as she stood hesitating; then, almost angry with herself, she
advanced swiftly down toward the distant glowing lights of the Gayety.
It was just beyond there that the alley turned off toward the
foothills, a mere thread of a path wandering amid a maze of unlighted
tents and disreputable shacks; she remembered this, and the single
rotten strip of plank which answered for a sidewalk.

There was an unusually boisterous, quarrelsome crowd congregated in
front of the Poodle-Dog, and she turned aside into the middle of the
street in order to get past undisturbed. Some one called noisily for
her to wait and have a drink, but she never glanced about, or gave
slightest heed. At the curb a drunken woman reeled against her,
peering sneeringly into her face with ribald laugh, but Beth Norvell
pushed silently past, and vanished into the protecting shadows beyond.

The wide doors of the brilliantly illuminated Gayety were flung open,
the bright light from within streaming far across the road. Many of
its patrons, heated with liquor and the dance, had swarmed forth upon
the broad platform outside in search of fresher air. To avoid pushing
her way through this noisy crowd the girl swiftly crossed the street
into the darkness opposite. As she paused there for an instant,
scarcely conscious that the glow of the lamps reflected full upon her
face, there sounded a sudden clatter of horses' hoofs to her right, and
a half-dozen riders swept around the sharp corner, dashing forward into
the glare. She had barely time in which to leap backward out of their
direct path, when one of the horsemen jerked his mount upon its
haunches, and, uttering an oath of astonishment, leaned forward across
his pommel, staring down into her startled face. Then he laughed.

"Go on, boys," he cried, sitting erect, with a wave of his hand to the
others. "I 'll catch up within half a mile. I 've got a word to say
first to this precious dove fluttering here." He struck the flank of
his horse, causing the sensitive beast to quiver, his own lips curling
maliciously. The girl, panting between parted lips, never lowered her
eyes from his fac