trust the
mail or any one else. He hated to go to the ranch, but he must give them
to her himself.

Turkey thereupon saddled his blue mare and clattered away. The mare was
in high spirits, the morning cool, and youth and good health surged in
Turkey's veins. As he rode he sang classics of the old frontier which
for excellent reasons have never been embalmed in type. Within a couple
of miles of his destination the road dipped down to a wooden flat,
crossed a creek and mounted a steep grade. Turkey, walking the blue
mare, was half way up when a horse and rider appeared at the top. To his
amazement they bore down on him at a run, and to his greater amazement
the rider was a girl. For anybody to run a horse down that grade was to
tempt Providence. But in a moment he realized that the horse was running
away.

The girl had given up trying to hold him, and was letting him run. The
animal, a powerful bay, had the bit, and his eyes showed white. His
rider was sitting still, holding the horn with one hand, trying to
adjust her body to the thumping jar of the downhill run. She was staying
with it gamely, and though her face was white her mouth was set. She was
a complete stranger to Turkey.

The latter was not foolish enough to endeavor to stop a runaway head on,
on a grade. He wheeled his mare in to the bank, giving right-of-way.

"Stay with it!" he yelled. "I'll get you at the bottom!" And as the big
bay thundered past he regained the road and sent the mare down after
the runaway at a pace which even he considered risky.

He reached the bottom some fifty yards behind the bay, and for the first
time called on the real speed of the mare. She overhauled rapidly, but
as he drew nearly level and reached for the rein, the bay swerved,
abandoned the road and took to the brush. But the blue mare was
accustomed to hard riding after wild, long-legged steers up and down
brush-covered coulees. She stuck to the bay, through an undergrowth that
slashed and whipped, and once more brought Turkey level. This time he
got a hold, and dragged the bay to a halt.

"Th--thank you!" the girl murmured, and swayed a little, catching the
horn with both hands. "I--I think I'll get down, for a minute."

"Sure!" Turkey agreed, but as he saw how she slid from the saddle he
leaped down and caught her.

"I'll be all right in a minute. I must have been frightened. It's so
silly of me."

She sat down on the grass, and Turkey tied the bay to a sapling.