he was sure, however, that she
would not go to sleep, and she lay there, comfortably for, it seemed
merely a few minutes. And then a sound assailed her ears and she started
up, realizing that she had been asleep. For a chill had come into the
air of the cabin, and she knew the fire had gone out.

She sat up, breathing fast, and ran to her father's room. The bed had
not been slept in; and she emerged from the room, her face pallid with
resolution.

Running to the outside door she swung it open and looked out. Far out
upon the clear, moonlit sweep of plain stretching toward Willets, she
saw the shadowy figures of two horsemen.

Moving swiftly, she went to the corral, caught her pony, saddled it,
threw on a bridle, mounted and rode after the two horsemen, urging the
pony to its best efforts.

The speed at which the pony traveled did not equal the pace of the
animals ahead of her, however, and she steadily lost ground, though the
night was so clear that she did not lose sight of the figures in front
of her until they reached the shadows of Willets' buildings. She did
lose them there, though, and when she rode down the dimly lighted street
she could see no sign of them.

There was no one about, and she rode back and forth on the street,
searching for Hamlin's horse, which would give her a clue to Hamlin's
whereabouts. And at last, peering into a vacant space between two
buildings she saw Hamlin's horse, and another, hitched to a rail near an
outside stairway.

She got off the pony, threw the reins over its head and ran around to
the front of the building, into the light of some oil-lamps that stabbed
the semi-gloom of the street.

The building was occupied by the Wolf Saloon. She knew that, and it was
that knowledge that caused her to hesitate as she stood in front of it.
But her father was in there, she was certain. She had recognized the
horse that had been hitched close to her father's as one that Singleton
had ridden to the Hamlin cabin on several of his visits, and the cold
determination that had seized her at last gave her courage to swing the
front door of the saloon open. She hesitated on the threshold, white,
shaking with dread, almost afraid, now that she had come this far, to
face the terrible men she knew she would find inside. The ill-fame of
the place was notorious.

But while she hesitated, she heard her father's voice--a sound that
drove her to instant action, for it was high-pitched, and carried a