at traitress!"

He dipped his spurs and shot down a knoll, hoping to be out of sight,
to wait until they had passed, then to double on his trail. But his
luck had deserted him. He did not know the woods here, he lost ground
in going about a rocky pile of earth, and MacKelvey caught sight of him.

"Hume!" came the big voice. "Hold on!"

"_Hold on_!"

It was as though the world, filled with shouting voices, was calling
behind him. Like an undertone through it the cool laughter of a woman.

He drove his spurs deeper, he swung his snorting beast about, he raised
his quirt striking mightily with it, and rushed on. Where? It did not
matter. Anywhere except toward the men in front, anywhere as long as
it was away from the men behind. He heard MacKelvey call again, more
loudly, he saw the sheriff wave his arm at him, and he rode on, his
head down now, careless of where he went so that the way led him
farther, farther from what lay behind.

Suddenly, booming in his ears, came the roar of the river. On, his
leaping horse carried him, stumbling, threatening to unseat its rider,
plunging on. The roar of the river grew louder; again there were ten
thousand voices shouting, clamouring, yelling at him. He topped a last
ridge here and looking down saw the black chasm of the river, the steep
banks.

"If I only had Endymion! God! If I only had Endymion."

He jerked savagely at his reins, stopping his horse. As he looked back
and saw that MacKelvey and Johnson and another man were riding toward
him. He glanced again at the deep chasm of the river. A quick shudder
swept through him and left him steady, whitefaced, cold.

"Hume!" shouted MacKelvey.

Then Hume's spurs drank blood again, once more his frightened horse was
leaping under him, plunging down toward the river. Louder and louder
yelled the many voices, mocking, jeering, calling, echoing away into
titanic laughter. And through it all, like the fine note of a violin
through the pulsing of an orchestra, sounded the cool music of a
woman's laughter.

"Curse her!" shrieked Hume. "Curse them all. A fool girl did this, a
fool Shandon did it--"

Like a missile from a giant's catapult he rushed down the steep slope;
MacKelvey, from the ridge watched him and wondered. He saw that the
man had shaken his reins loose, that his horse had almost reached the
verge of the chasm, that as the animal was ready to gather his great
muscles for the leap the reins had t