intercourse between him and this woman, who, in all probability, had been
his comrade for years? And she had been idealizing him, and his love for
her, and his loneliness! Kitty stood with eyes cast down, while images
crowded upon her, leaving her cold and smiling.

"But think," pleaded Judith; "if you don't come it will take me longer to
search the trail-marks. You could show me just where the horses ran--"

Kitty's eyes were still on the ground. She did not lift them, and Judith,
realizing that further appeal was but a waste of time, turned and ran
swiftly down the trail.

"He is her lover," said Kitty; and all the wilderness before her was no
lonelier than her heart.

Swift, intent, Judith traced Kitty's footprints. They followed the game
trail, the one she herself had taken earlier in the day. She traced them
back through the pine wood about a hundred rods, and then the trail-marks
grew confused. This was unquestionably the place where the horses had
taken fright, circled, reared, then dashed in different directions. She
traced the other horse, whose tracks led under low-hanging boughs. It
would have been a difficult matter for a horse with a rider to clear; and
now the impression of the horse's shoes grew fainter, from the lighter
footfalls of a horse at full gallop.

"Ah!" A cry broke from her as she saw the marks had become almost
eliminated by something that had dragged, something heavy. Those
long-drawn lines were finger-prints, where a hand had dragged in its vain
endeavor to grasp at something. A sickening image came persistently before
her eyes--Peter's upturned face, blood-smeared and disfigured.

"Sh-sh-sh!" She put her hand to her breast to still the beating of her
heart. She could hear the sound of hoofs falling muffled on the soft
ground, and a man's voice speaking in a soothing sing-song. She listened.
It was Peter's voice, reassuring the horse, asking him what kind of a bag
of nerves he was for a cow pony, to get frightened at a bear? Judith stood
tall and straight among the pines. Surely he could not blindly pass her
by. He must feel the joy in her heart that all was well with him. The
hoofs came nearer, the man's voice sounded but intermittently, as he got
his horse under better control. She felt as if he must come to her, as if
some overpowering consciousness of her presence would speak from her heart
to his; but his eyes scanned the distant trail for a glimpse of Kitty or
Kitty's horse. Judi