e conference after their
visit to the Quirt, but he could see no way to slip unobserved to the
house and eavesdrop, so he looked perfunctorily through all the sheds
and around the depleted haystacks,--wherever a person could find a
hiding place. He was letting himself down through the manhole in the
stable loft when Swan's voice, lowered almost to a whisper, startled
him.

"What the hell!" Lone ejaculated under his breath. "I thought you were
on another trail!"

"That trail leads here, Lone. Did you find Raine yet?"

"Not a sign of her. Swan, I don't know what to make of it. I did think
them two were stalling. I thought they either hadn't seen her at all, or
had got hold of her and were trying to square themselves on the insanity
dodge. But if they know where she is, they're acting damn queer, Swan.
They _want_ her. They haven't got her yet."

"They're in the house," Swan reassured Lone. "I heard them walking. You
don't think they've got her there, Lone?"

"If they have," gritted Lone, "they made the biggest blunder of their
lives bringing me over here. No, I could see they wanted to get off
alone and hold a powwow. They expected she'd be at the Quirt."

"I think Al Woodruff, he's maybe got her, then," Swan declared, after
studying the matter briefly. "All the way he follows the trail over
here, Lone. I could see you sometimes in the trail. He was keeping hid
from the trail--I think because Raine was riding along, this morning,
and he's following. The tracks are that old."

"They said they had trailed Raine this far, coming from the Sawtooth,"
Lone told him worriedly. "What do you think Al would want----"

"Don't she see him shoot Fred Thurman? By golly, I'm scared for that
girl, Loney!"

Lone stared at him. "He wouldn't dare!"

"A coward is a brave man when you scare him bad enough," Swan stated
flatly. "I'm careful always when I corner a coward."

"Al ain't a coward. You've got him wrong."

"Maybe, but he kills like a coward would kill, and he's scared he will
be caught. Warfield, he's scared, too. You watch him, Lone.

"Now I tell you what I do. Yack, he picks up the trail from here to
where you can follow easy. We know two places where he didn't go with
her, and from here is two more trails he could take. But one goes to the
main road, and he don't take that one, I bet you. I think he takes that
girl up Spirit Canyon, maybe. It's woods and wild country in a few
miles, and plenty of places to hide, an