e eastern and southern sides still lay in
darkness, but the stupendous cliffs frowning on the north and west
were lighted somewhat from the east. The southern wall, though
shrouded, seemed to rise in an unending series of beetling aretes.

De Spain caught his breath. No description he had ever heard of the
nook that screened the Morgans from the outside world had prepared him
for what he saw. From side to side of the gigantic mountain fissure,
it could hardly be, de Spain thought, more than a few thousand
yards--so completely was his sense of proportion stunned by the
frowning cliffs which rose, at points, half a mile into the sky. But
it was actually several miles from wall to wall, and the Gap was more
than as much in depth, as it ran back to a mere wedge between unnamed
Superstition peaks.

Every moment that he pushed ahead warned him that daylight would come
suddenly and his time to act would be short. The trail he followed
broadened into a road, and he strained his eyes for signs, first of
life, and then of habitation. The little creek, now beside his way,
flowed quietly albeit swiftly along, and his utmost vigilance could
detect no living thing stirring; but a turn in the trail, marked by a
large pine-tree and conforming to a bend of the stream, brought him up
startled and almost face to face with a long, rambling ranch-house.
The gable end of the two-story portion of the building was so close to
him that he instantly reined up to seek hiding from its upper and
lower windows.

From Scott's accurate description he knew the place. This was Duke
Morgan's ranch-house, set as a fortress almost at the mouth of the
Gap. To pass it unobserved was to compass the most ticklish part of
his mission, and without changing his slow pace he rode on, wondering
whether a bullet, if fired from any of the low, open windows--which he
could almost throw his hat into as he trotted past--would knock him
off his horse or leave him a chance to spur away. But no bullet
challenged him and no sound came from the silent house. He cantered
away from the peril, thinking with a kind of awe of Nan, asleep, so
close, under that roof--confident, too, he had not been seen--though,
in matter of fact, he had been.

He quickened his pace. The place he wanted to reach was more than a
mile distant. Other cabins back toward the north wall could be seen
dimly to his right, but all were well removed from his way. He found,
in due time, the ford in the c