ey lost sight
of her."

A little further Bud showed Brent where the two mules had turned aside
to the right and, a mile further on, where Alexander had also abandoned
the main road and gone to the left.

"She held ter ther highway a mile further then she 'lowed ter," growled
Sellers. "Thar's jest one reasonable cause fer thet. She knowed she
war bein' spied on, an' she aimed ter shake 'em off. I wonder _did_
she shake 'em off."

When they had almost reached the Gap itself and were proceeding warily
they came to a narrow ford at whose edge Bud drew rein.

"Let's pause an' study this hyar proposition out afore we rides on any
further," he suggested.

It was a particularly wild and desolate spot where the road bent so
sharply that they had turned a corner and come upon the crossing of the
water without a previous view. They had been riding toward what had
seemed a sheer wall of bluff, and that abrupt angle had brought them to
a point where the road dipped sharply down and lost itself in the
rapidly running waters of a narrow creek. On the opposite shore the
road came out again with a right-angle turn to thread its course along
a shelf of higher ground as a narrow cornice might run along a wall.
Below was a drop to the creek; above the perpendicular uplift of the
precipice.

"This hyar's ther commencement of Wolf-Pen Gap," Bud Sellers
enlightened his companion. "This is just erbout whar they aimed ter
lay-way her at. I shouldn't marvel none ef some of 'em's watchin' us
from them thickets up on thet bluff right now."

"Then let's hurry across," Brent nervously suggested. "Once we get
over the stream the cliff itself will shield us. They can't shoot
straight down."

"Oh, I reckon they don't hardly aim ter harm us," reassured Bud. "An'
anyhow we've got ter tutor this matter jest right. Thet creek's norrer
but hit's deep beyond fordin'. We needs must swim our mules acros't."

Brent shuddered at the sight of the chill water but Bud went on
inexorably. "Now, ye've got ter start as fur up es ye handily
kin--because ther current's swift--an' if hit carries yer beyond thet
small bend ye comes out in quicksand. Jest foller me. I'll go fust."

Brent had faced a number of adventures of late, but for this newest one
he had little stomach. Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and prepared
to go ahead and follow his companion's lead, since need left no
alternative.

As Bud's mule thrust its fore-feet into the