t--" There was no need for him to finish that sentence.

"I don't know," said Marian, "what I shall do. I hadn't thought much
about it."

"I haven't thought much about anything else," Bud told her
straightforwardly. "If Jerry flags you, you 'd better keep going.
Couldn't you go to friends?"

"I could--if I had any. Bud, you don't understand. Eddie is the only
relative I have on earth, that I know at all. He is--he's with the
Catrockers and Lew dominates him completely. Lew has pushed Ed into
doing things so that I must shield both or neither. And Eddie's just a
boy. So I've no one at all."

Bud studied this while they rode on through the defile that was more
frequently a tunnel, since the succession of caves always had an outlet
which Marian found. She had stopped now and dismounted, and they were
leading their horses down a steep, scrambling place with the stars
showing overhead.

"A blowhole," Marian informed him briefly. "We'll come into another
cave, soon, and while it's safe if you know it, I'll explain now that
you must walk ahead of your horse and keep your right hand always in
touch with the wall until we see the stars again. There's a ledge-five
feet wide in the narrowest place, if you are nervous about ledges--and
if you should get off that you'd have a drop of ten feet or so. We found
that the ledge makes easier travelling, because the bottom is full of
rocks and nasty depressions that are noticeable only with lights."

She started off again, and Bud followed her, his gloved fingers touching
the right wall, his soul humbled before the greatness of this little
woman with the deep, troubled eyes. When they came out into the
starlight she stopped and listened for what seemed to Bud a very long
time.

"If they are coming, they are a long way behind us," she said
relievedly, and remounted. "Boise knows his trail and has made
good time. And your horse has proven beyond all doubt that he's a
thoroughbred. I've seen horses balk at going where we have gone."

"And I've seen men who counted themselves brave as any, who wouldn't do
what you are doing to-night; Jerry, for instance. I wish you'd go back.
I can't bear having you take this risk."

"I can't go back, Bud. Not if they find I've gone." Then he heard her
laugh quietly. "I can't imagine now why I stayed and endured it all this
while. I think I only needed the psychological moment for rebellion, and
to-night the moment came. So you see you have really d