of cries after the swift-moving horseman
and, clustered in an excited group, watched the Lady with a dozen
great strides round the Calabasas trail and disappear with her rider
into the whirling snow.

She fell at once into an easy reaching step, and de Spain, busy with
his reflections, hardly gave thought to what she was doing, and little
more to what was going on about him.

No moving figure reflects the impassive more than a horseman of the
mountains, on a long ride. Though never so swift-borne, the man,
looking neither to the right nor to the left, moving evenly and
statue-like against the sky, a part of the wiry beast under him,
presents the very picture of indifference to the world around him. The
great swift wind spreading over the desert emptied on it snow-laden
puffs that whirled and wrapped a cloud of flakes about horse and rider
in the symbol of a shroud. De Spain gave no heed to these skirmishing
eddies, but he knew what was behind them, and for the wind, he only
wished it might keep the snow in the air till he caught sight of Nan.

The even reach of the horse brought him to the point where Nan had
changed to the stage wagon. Without a break in her long stride, Lady
Jane took the hint of her swerving rider, put her nose into the wind,
and headed north. De Spain, alive to the difficulties of his venture,
set his hat lower and bent forward to follow the wagon along the sand.
With the first of the white flurries passed, he found himself in a
snowless pocket, as it were, of the advancing storm. He hoped for
nothing from the prospect ahead; but every moment of respite from the
blinding whirl was a gain, and with his eyes close on the trail that
had carried Nan into danger, he urged the Lady on.

When the snow again closed down about him he calculated from the
roughness of the country that he should be within a mile of the road
that Nan was trying to reach, from the Gap to Sleepy Cat. But the
broken ground straight ahead would prevent her from driving directly
to it. He knew she must hold to the right, and her curving track, now
becoming difficult to trail, confirmed his conclusion.

A fresh drive of the wind buffeted him as he turned directly north.
Only at intervals could he see any trace of the wagon wheels. The
driving snow compelled him more than once to dismount and search for
the trail. Each time he lost it the effort to regain it was more
prolonged. At times he was compelled to ride the desert in wide