; "no lover
would talk that way to his girl." There was relief in his voice, for he
had been hoping that the man was a brother.

"Vickers said to swing sharply to the left after passing the middle,"
declared the driver sonorously, "but I don't see any wagon tracks--that
miserable rain last night must have obliterated them."

"I reckon the rain has _obliterated_ them," grinned the rider, laboring
with the word, "if that means wipin' them out. Leastways, they ain't
there any more."

"I feel quite sure that Mr. Vickers said to turn to the right after
passing the middle, Willard," came the girl's voice.

"I certainly ought to be able to remember that, Ruth!" said the driver,
gruffly. "I heard him distinctly!"

"Well," returned the girl with a nervous little laugh, "perhaps I was
mistaken, after all." She placed a hand lightly on the driver's arm. And
the words she spoke then were not audible to the rider, so softly were
they uttered. And the driver laughed with satisfaction. "You've said it!"
he declared. "I'm certainly able to pilot this ship to safety!" He pulled
on the reins and spoke sharply to the blacks. They responded with a jerk
that threw the occupants of the buckboard against the backs of the seats.

The rider's eyes gleamed. "Hush!" he said, addressing no one in
particular. "Calamity's goin' to claim another victim!" He raised one
hand to his lips, making a funnel of it. He was about to shout at the
driver, but thought better of the idea and let the hand drop. "Shucks,"
he said, "I reckon there ain't any real danger. But I expect the boss
gasser of the outfit will be gettin' his'n pretty quick now." He leaned
forward and watched the buckboard, his lean under jaw thrown forward, a
grim smile on his lips. He noted with satisfaction that the elderly
couple in the rear seat, and the girl in the front one, were holding on
tightly, and that the driver, busy with the reins, was swaying from one
side to the other as the wagon bumped over the impeding stones of the
river bed.

The blacks reached the middle of the stream safely and were crowding of
their own accord to the right, when the driver threw his weight on the
left rein and swung them sharply in that direction. For a few feet they
traveled evenly enough but when they were still some distance from the
bank, the horse on the left sank quickly to his shoulders, lunged, stood
on his hind legs and pawed the air impotently, and then settled back,
snorting and tre