d. He must be cool--cool
and steady and sure--and he must act now--NOW!

Helen saw the racing horse make a desperate leap as the spurs tore his
heaving sides; she saw that swiftly whirling loop leave the rider's
hand, as the man leaned forward in his saddle. Curiously she watched the
loop open with beautiful precision, as the coils were loosed and the
long, thin line lengthened through the air. It seemed to move so
slowly--those wickedly lowered horns were so near! Then she saw the
rider's right hand move with flashlike quickness to the saddle horn, as
he threw his weight back, and the horse, with legs braced and hoofs
plowing the ground, stopped in half his own length, and set his weight
against the weight of the steer. The flexible riata straightened as a
rod of iron, the steer's head jerked sideways; his horns buried
themselves in the ground; he fell, almost at her feet. And then, as the
cowboy leaped from his horse, Helen felt herself sinking into a soft,
thick darkness that, try as she might, she could not escape.

Still master of himself, but with a kind of fierce coolness, Patches ran
to the fallen steer and securely tied the animal down. But when he
turned to the woman who lay unconscious on the ground, a sob burst from
his lips, and tears were streaming down his dust-grimed cheeks. And as
he knelt beside her he called again and again that name which, a year
before, he had whispered as he stood with empty, outstretched arms,
alone, on the summit of the Divide.

Lifting her in his arms, he carried her to the hammock, and finding
water and a towel, wet her brow and face; and all the while, in an agony
of fear, he talked to her with words of love.

Overwrought by the unexpected, and, to him, almost miraculous meeting
with Helen--weak and shaken by the strain of those moments of her
danger, when her life depended so wholly upon his coolness and
skill--unnerved by the sight of her lying so still and white, and beside
himself with the strength of his passion--the man made no effort to
account for her presence in that wild and lonely spot, so far from the
scenes amid which he had learned to know and love her. He was conscious
only that she was there--that she had been very near to death--that he
had held her in his arms--and that he loved her with all the strength of
his manhood.

Presently, with a low cry of joy, he saw the blood creep back into her
white cheeks. Slowly her eyes opened and she looked wonderingly