ded
in crowding the roan to the bank. Hawk saw the opportunity and held
his hand out to Kate:

"Reach up!" he shouted.

"Give him both hands!" cried Laramie, punching and pushing her horse
against the bank. As Kate swept along, her hands upstretched, Hawk
caught her wrists and, bracing himself in the slipping earth, dragged
her up and out of the saddle. The roan, with Laramie's hand on his
bridle, swept on downstream. The clay bank, under the strain of the
double load, gave under Hawk's feet. But without releasing Kate's
hands he threw himself flat and, matching his dead weight against the
chance of being dragged in, caught her with one arm and flung the other
backward into the dark. A clump of willow shoots clutched in his
sinewy fingers gave him a stay and, putting forth all his strength, he
drew Kate slowly up. She scrambled across his prostrate body to safety.

The force of the gnawing current had already undercut the soft clay.
The next instant the whole bank began to sink. Hawk shouted to Kate to
run. She saw him struggling in the crumbling earth. Crying out in her
excitement she stretched her hands toward him. He waved her back. As
he did so, a great section of the bank on which he was struggling
broke, and in the big, soft splash, Hawk went into the creek.

CHAPTER XXVII

KATE DEFIES

The instant he saw Kate in Hawk's keeping, Laramie rode down with the
flood, looking sharply for a chance to get out the two horses; when
finally he did get them ashore he was spent. Leading Kate's horse, he
made his way up-creek through the willows to where she should be with
Hawk.

Hawk's horse he found browsing in the heavy wet grass at the old ford.
Neither Kate nor Hawk were in sight. Laramie walked down to the
water's edge where Hawk had pulled her out. Familiar with the meander
of the bank below the ford, he saw what had happened. The bank,
under-cut, had been swallowed by the flood. Laramie ran down stream
and came suddenly on Kate standing alone on a rock jutting out above
the torrent.

In the uncertain light of the gray morning he saw her anxious face.
She explained what had happened. Laramie showed no alarm. "I guess
Abe will handle himself," he said.

"Can't we do anything to help him?"

"I'll put you on your trail, then I'll ride down the creek and look for
him. He'll make it if his strength doesn't give out."

Laramie took Kate up the creek and, riding through the hills, brough