er knowledge of the habits of wild animals served June well now. The
first instinct was to get back to the road and run down it at full speed,
taking to the brush only when she heard the pursuit. But this would not
do. The sage here was much heavier and thicker than it was nearer Bear
Cat. She would find a place to hide in it till he left to drive back and
cut her off from town. There was one wild moment when she thought of
slipping down to the buckboard and trying to escape in it. June gave this
up because she would have to back it along the narrow road for fifteen or
twenty yards before she could find a place to turn.

On hands and knees she wound deeper into the sage, always moving toward
the rim-rock at the top of the hill. She was still perilously close to
Houck. His muffled oaths, the thrashing of the bushes, the threats and
promises he stopped occasionally to make; all of these came clear to her
in spite of the whistling wind.

It had come on to rain mistily. June was glad of that. She would have
welcomed a heavy downpour out of a black night. The rim-rock was close
above. She edged along it till she came to a scar where the sandstone had
broken off and scorched a path down the slope. Into the hollow formed by
two boulders resting against each other she crawled.

For hours she heard Jake moving about, first among the aspens and later
on the sage hill. The savage oaths that reached her now and again were
evidence enough that the fellow was in a vile temper. If he should find
her now, she felt sure he would carry out his vow as to the horsewhip.

The night was cold. June shivered where she lay close to the ground. The
rain beat in uncomfortably. But she did not move till Houck drove away.

Even then she descended to the road cautiously. He might have laid a trap
for her by returning on foot in the darkness. But she had to take a
chance. What she meant to do was clear in her mind. It would require all
her wits and strength to get safely back to town.

She plodded along the road for perhaps a mile, then swung down from the
mesa to the river. The ford where Jake had driven across was farther
down, but she could not risk the crossing. Very likely he was lying in
wait there.

June took off her brogans and tied them round her neck. She would have
undressed, but she was afraid of losing the clothes while in the stream.

It was dark. She did not know the river, how deep it was or how strong
the current. As she waded