ane to the stables,
and she had scarcely entered the great open space with its corrals and
sheds when she saw Lassiter hurriedly approaching. Fay broke from her
and, running to a corral fence, began to pat and pull the long, hanging
ears of a drowsy burro.

One look at Lassiter armed her for a blow.

Without a word he led her across the wide yard to the rise of the ground
upon which the stable stood.

"Jane--look!" he said, and pointed to the ground.

Jane glanced down, and again, and upon steadier vision made out
splotches of blood on the stones, and broad, smooth marks in the dust,
leading out toward the sage.

"What made these?" she asked.

"I reckon somebody has dragged dead or wounded men out to where there
was hosses in the sage."

"Dead--or--wounded--men!"

"I reckon--Jane, are you strong? Can you bear up?"

His hands were gently holding hers, and his eyes--suddenly she could no
longer look into them. "Strong?" she echoed, trembling. "I--I will be."

Up on the stone-flag drive, nicked with the marks made by the iron-shod
hoofs of her racers, Lassiter led her, his grasp ever growing firmer.

"Where's Blake--and--and Jerb?" she asked, haltingly.

"I don't know where Jerb is. Bolted, most likely," replied Lassiter, as
he took her through the stone door. "But Blake--poor Blake! He's gone
forever!... Be prepared, Jane."

With a cold prickling of her skin, with a queer thrumming in her ears,
with fixed and staring eyes, Jane saw a gun lying at her feet with
chamber swung and empty, and discharged shells scattered near.

Outstretched upon the stable floor lay Blake, ghastly white--dead--one
hand clutching a gun and the other twisted in his bloody blouse.

"Whoever the thieves were, whether your people or rustlers--Blake killed
some of them!" said Lassiter.

"Thieves?" whispered Jane.

"I reckon. Hoss-thieves!... Look!" Lassiter waved his hand toward the
stalls.

The first stall--Bells's stall--was empty. All the stalls were empty. No
racer whinnied and stamped greeting to her. Night was gone! Black Star
was gone!

CHAPTER XVI. GOLD

As Lassiter had reported to Jane, Venters "went through" safely, and
after a toilsome journey reached the peaceful shelter of Surprise
Valley. When finally he lay wearily down under the silver spruces,
resting from the strain of dragging packs and burros up the slope and
through the entrance to Surprise Valley, he had leisure to think, and
a great deal of the t