way down a rocky ridge and were once more in the heart of the
upper forest belt. In an upland meadow, through whose narrow boundaries
a thin, cold stream trickled, they nooned. Long had Gloria hungered for
the moment when she would see King swing down from the saddle; during
the last half-hour she had begun to fear that his brutality knew no
bounds and that he would spare neither the horses nor her but crowd on
until nightfall. When he did dismount by the creek she drew rein fifty
feet from him.

King slipped Buck's bridle, dropped the tie-rope, and let the animal
forage along the fringes of the brook. To Gloria, in a voice which
struck her as being as chill as the grey, overcast sky, he said:

"Better let your horse eat. We've got to go pretty steady to get
anywhere to-day."

Gloria got down stiffly from her saddle. In all the days of her life she
had never been so unutterably weary. Further, she was faint from hunger
and her throat pained her; she went to the creek and threw herself down
and put her face into the cool water, from which she rose with a long
sigh. She had seen how King did with his tie-rope; she did similarly,
but was too tired to trouble with removing the bit from her horse's
mouth. Still Blackie accepted his handicapped opportunity and joined
Buck in tearing and ripping at the lush grass. It was more inviting than
the manzanita-bushes and occasional sunflower-leaves at which he had
snatched during the day.

King made coffee and fried bacon; the horses had earned an hour of rest
and fodder, and a man has the right to bacon and coffee even though hard
miles lie before him. While he pottered with his fire he looked more
than once at the sky in the south-west. With all of his heart he wished
that he had turned back with Gloria this morning. By now he could have
set her feet in a trail which even a fool could travel back to the log
house, and he could be again hastening upon his errand. Gloria lay
inert; she chewed slowly at a bit broken from a slab of hard chocolate
and kept her eyes closed. Her face was very white; two big tears of
distress slipped out from the shut lids. But King did not come close
enough to see them.

When his coffee was ready he called to her, saying indifferently:
"Better have a cup. It helps." But Gloria did not reply. King seemed not
to notice whether she ate or not. But, when he had drunk his own coffee
and she still lay quiet on the grass, he sweetened a cup for her, put
s