for an open clearing. He should
have turned to the right as a thicket of chaparral lay in front now,
and there was no turning back. So, when Shandon's right hand shut down
tight upon the reins, gathering them up, there was but one thing to do,
turn still further to the left, skirt the thicket, try to turn to the
right again upon the further side. He was losing ground and he knew
it; but it was early in the race.

"They've handicapped us, Little Saxon," he said through set teeth.
"But we'll show them a race yet."

Ten miles of broken country, of hard riding, and the blood was hot on
the man's side and back while every leap of his horse shot him through
with pain. Ten miles and Endymion, Little Saxon's full brother, would
be half a mile ahead before the thicket was circled.

"After all Hume wins!" cursed Big Bill.

"It ain't fair! It ain't fair!" Dart's tremulous voice was shrieking
from far in the rear. "That big boob--"

"There's ten miles of it, Little Saxon," Shandon was muttering over and
over. "And the race isn't run yet. You won't let Endymion beat you,
Little Saxon! You won't let Sledge Hume--"

He cut sharply through the outer edge of the thicket and Little Saxon's
lean body, leaping like a greyhound's, lifted and glinted over the
ragged bushes. He swung to the right again, and saw MacKelvey, Big
Bill riding at his side, cutting across a little hollow to intercept
him. And again, with no alternative, he turned his horse out of the
course, and kept on up the higher land to his left.

Now Hume was lost to him; MacKelvey and the others dropped out of
sight; and he was riding his race alone. He knew that Little Saxon
could stand up under all that a horse could endure; but he knew, too,
that no horse that was ever foaled could keep up such a mad pace for
ten miles, that the gallant brute's heart would burst with five miles
of it. He tightened his reins a little, forcing the horse against its
will to slacken speed.

Now he bent in the saddle, easing his body as well as he could, trying
not to feel the pain that grew steadily in his shoulder. The lower
branches of the trees through which he sped whipped at him and he did
not feel them. Far ahead he saw two squares of white fluttering high
against the blue of the sky, and he knew the message that they carried
across the miles. He thought of how he and Wanda had signalled, how
she would be at the Bar L-M with the rest, how she would understand
w