being carried swiftly away from them.

Once in the shelter of the spur, Lynch did not halt but rode on at full
speed, heading northward. For half a mile or so the thudding hoof-beats of
the two horses alone broke the silence. Then, as their advance opened up a
fresh sweep of country, Lynch jerked his mount to a standstill with a
suddenness that raised a cloud of dust about them.

"Hell!" he rasped, staring from under narrowing lids.

For full half a minute he sat motionless, his face distorted with baffled
fury and swiftly growing fear. Then his eyes flashed toward the hills on
the right and swept them searchingly. A second later he had turned his
cayuse and was speeding towards a narrow break between two spurs, keeping
a tight hold on the girl's bridle.

"You try any monkey tricks," he flung back over one shoulder, "and
I'll--kill yuh."

Mary made no answer, but the savage ferocity of his tone made her shiver,
and she instantly abandoned the plan she had formed of trying, by little
touches of hand and heel, to make Freckles still further hamper Lynch's
actions. Through the settling dust-haze she had seen the cause of his
perturbation--a single horseman less than a mile away galloping straight
toward them--and felt that her enemy was cornered. But the very strength
of her exultation gave her a passionate longing for life and happiness,
and she realized vividly the truth of Lynch's callous, sneering words,
that when one actually got down to it, it was not an easy thing to die.
She must take no chances. Surely it could be only a question of a little
time now before she would be free.

But presently her high confidence began to fade. With the manner of one on
perfectly familiar ground, Lynch rode straight into the break between the
rocks, which proved to be the entrance to a gully that widened and then
turned sharply to the right. Here he stopped and ordered Mary to ride in
front of him.

"You go ahead," he growled, flinging her the reins. "Don't lose any time,
neither."

Without question she obeyed, choosing the way from his occasional, tersely
flung directions. This led them upward, slowly, steadily with many a twist
and turn, until at length, passing through a narrow opening in the rocks,
Mary came out suddenly on a ledge scarcely a dozen feet in width. On one
side the cliffs rose in irregular, cluttered masses, too steep to climb.
On the other was a precipitous drop into a canyon of unknown depth.

"Get down,