norted there, and she barely stifled the
cry which his strange behavior brought to her lips. Because of her
senseless panic she punished him the more severely, and sent him on.
And then she saw what the horse had already seen.

A blue-shirted figure lay half in the road, half in the undergrowth
that fringed it, one arm crooked under him and his face prone in the
dust; a bulkier mass was stretched wholly within the trail--and she
recognized him, too. Big Louie's face was upturned, and the
explanation of the two rifle reports and the driverless team was here.
For Big Louie's hand still clutched the handle of a canvas pail. They
had stopped to water the horses; they had been shot down from behind.
And first of all, unable to move, while horror parched her lips, the
girl remembered words which the limp one, half in the road and half in
the underbrush, had spoken to her in a moment of sternness.

"He has fired upon me from cover," the man who loved her had said. "He
has been taking money from a man who was bent on beating me at any
price!"

Giddiness rose and swayed her, and she beat Ragtime mercilessly for his
fear. Instinct clamored flight, and she forced herself to wait,
panting for that other shot which might leave her, too, lying in the
road. But even in that first frozen moment she began to reason
clearly. Back with the sleek team which welcomed her with questioning
eyes she left Ragtime, for he would stand there, and retraced her way
on foot. She could not do it, she sobbed drily--but she raced to him
and knelt and searched with swift fingers before the words were past
her lips. Her hand found moisture beneath his right shoulder; it was
stained red when she held it up and stared at it. And then she was
closest to fainting.

"Blood sickens me!" she whimpered aloud. "Blood sickens me!" But she
managed to turn him over upon his back. With brown head against his
heart, she listened--listened and would not believe that her to-morrow
might come too late. And then she caught the slack pound of his pulse.

From there on she was less panic-stricken; she gained control of
faculties shocked for a time into uselessness. Method marked her
acts--deliberation mechanical but sure. She was horribly afraid of Big
Louie, but she finally disentangled the handle of the pail from those
loose fingers, and ran to the brook which babbled near at hand.
Returning, she drenched Steve's face with icy water; she lifted his
he