, the
stallion overtook them instantly and shot into the lead. For that
matter, handicapped with a wretched ride, staggering weak from
underfeeding, he had been good enough to beat them in Glosterville, and
now he was transformed by rich pasture and glorious freedom.

The whole group disappeared, and when she reached the crest in turn, she
saw them streaking far off, hopelessly beyond pursuit, and in the rear
labored a grey mare, sadly outrun. Then, as she drew rein, with the mare
heaving and swaying from exhaustion beneath her, she remembered the
words of Lew Hervey: "It'll take ten years to get the chestnut!"
Marianne dropped her face in her hands and burst into tears.

It was only a momentary surrender. When she turned back to join the
downheaded men on the home-trail--for it was worse than useless to
follow Alcatraz on such jaded horses--Marianne had rallied to continue
the fight. Ten years to capture Alcatraz and the mares he led? She swept
the forms of the cowpunchers with one of those all-embracing glances of
which few great men and all excited women are capable. Yes, old age
would capture Alcatraz before such men as these. For this trail there
was needed a spirit as much superior to other men in tireless endurance
and in speed as Alcatraz was superior to other horses. There was needed
a man who stood among his fellows as Alcatraz had stood on the
hillcrest, defiant, lordly, and free. And as the thought drove home in
her, Marianne uttered a little cry of triumph. All in a breath she had
it. Red Perris was the man!

But would he come? Yes, for the sake of such a battle as this he would
journey to the end of the world and give his services for nothing.

CHAPTER XI

THE FAILURE

Before noon Shorty, that lightweight and tireless rider, unwearied, to
all appearance, by his efforts of that night, had started towards
Glosterville with her letter to Perris, but it was not until the next
day that she confessed what she had done to Hervey. Certainly he had
done more than his share in his effort to get back the Coles horses and
she had no wish to needlessly hurt his feelings by letting him know that
the business was to be taken out of his hands and given into those of a
more efficient worker. But Hervey surprised her by the complaisance with
which he heard the tidings.

"Never in my life hung out a shingle as a hoss-catcher," he assured her.
"He's welcome to the job. Me and the boys won't envy him none. It'll be