ok!... An' with a
horrible understandin' cry he slid forrard on his face."

Judkins paused in his narrative, breathing heavily while he wiped his
perspiring brow.

"Thet's about all," he concluded. "Lassiter left the meetin'-house an' I
hurried to catch up with him. He was bleedin' from three gunshots,
none of them much to bother him. An' we come right up here. I found you
layin' in the hall, an' I hed to work some over you."

Jane Withersteen offered up no prayer for Dyer's soul.

Lassiter's step sounded in the hall--the familiar soft, silver-clinking
step--and she heard it with thrilling new emotions in which was a vague
joy in her very fear of him. The door opened, and she saw him, the old
Lassiter, slow, easy, gentle, cool, yet not exactly the same Lassiter.
She rose, and for a moment her eyes blurred and swam in tears.

"Are you--all--all right?" she asked, tremulously.

"I reckon."

"Lassiter, I'll ride away with you. Hide me till danger is past--till
we are forgotten--then take me where you will. Your people shall be my
people, and your God my God!"

He kissed her hand with the quaint grace and courtesy that came to him
in rare moments.

"Black Star an' Night are ready," he said, simply.

His quiet mention of the black racers spurred Jane to action. Hurrying
to her room, she changed to her rider's suit, packed her jewelry, and
the gold that was left, and all the woman's apparel for which there
was space in the saddle-bags, and then returned to the hall. Black Star
stamped his iron-shod hoofs and tossed his beautiful head, and eyed her
with knowing eyes.

"Judkins, I give Bells to you," said Jane. "I hope you will always keep
him and be good to him."

Judkins mumbled thanks that he could not speak fluently, and his eyes
flashed.

Lassiter strapped Jane's saddle-bags upon Black Star, and led the racers
out into the court.

"Judkins, you ride with Jane out into the sage. If you see any riders
comin' shout quick twice. An', Jane, don't look back! I'll catch up
soon. We'll get to the break into the Pass before midnight, an' then
wait until mornin' to go down."

Black Star bent his graceful neck and bowed his noble head, and his
broad shoulders yielded as he knelt for Jane to mount.

She rode out of the court beside Judkins, through the grove, across
the wide lane into the sage, and she realized that she was leaving
Withersteen House forever, and she did not look back. A strange, dreamy,
calm peac