heads, and watched him. Shefford certainly returned the
attention. There was no Indian with them. Presently, with a snort, the
leader, which appeared to be a stallion, trotted behind the others,
seemed to be driving them, and went clear round the band to get in the
lead again. He was taking them in to water, the same as the dogs had
taken the sheep.

These incidents were new and pleasing to Shefford. How ignorant he had
been of life in the wilderness! Once more he received subtle intimations
of what he might learn out in the open; and it was with a less weighted
heart that he faced the gateway between the huge yellow bluffs on his
left and the slow rise of ground to the black mesa on his right. He
looked back in time to see the trading-post, bleak and lonely on the
bare slope, pass out of sight behind the bluffs. Shefford felt no
fear--he really had little experience of physical fear--but it was
certain that he gritted his teeth and welcomed whatever was to come to
him. He had lived a narrow, insulated life with his mind on spiritual
things; his family and his congregation and his friends--except that
one new friend whose story had enthralled him--were people of quiet
religious habit; the man deep down in him had never had a chance. He
breathed hard as he tried to imagine the world opening to him, and
almost dared to be glad for the doubt that had sent him adrift.

The tracks of the Indian girl's pony were plain in the sand. Also there
were other tracks, not so plain, and these Shefford decided had been
made by Willetts and the girl the day before. He climbed a ridge, half
soft sand and half hard, and saw right before him, rising in striking
form, two great yellow buttes, like elephant legs. He rode between them,
amazed at their height. Then before him stretched a slowly ascending
valley, walled on one side by the black mesa and on the other by low
bluffs. For miles a dark-green growth of greasewood covered the valley,
and Shefford could see where the green thinned and failed, to give place
to sand. He trotted his horse and made good time on this stretch.

The day contrasted greatly with any he had yet experienced. Gray clouds
obscured the walls of rock a few miles to the west, and Shefford saw
squalls of snow like huge veils dropping down and spreading out. The
wind cut with the keenness of a knife. Soon he was chilled to the bone.
A squall swooped and roared down upon him, and the wind that bore the
driving white p