o his horse, untie the halter, and mount. Ellen had an impression
of his arrowlike straight figure, and sinuous grace and ease. Then he
looked back at the promontory, as if to fix a picture of it in his
mind, and rode away along the Rim. She watched him out of sight. What
ailed her? Something was wrong with her, but she recognized only relief.

When Isbel had been gone long enough to assure Ellen that she might
safely venture forth she crawled through the pine thicket to the Rim on
the other side of the point. The sun was setting behind the Black
Range, shedding a golden glory over the Basin. Westward the zigzag Rim
reached like a streamer of fire into the sun. The vast promontories
jutted out with blazing beacon lights upon their stone-walled faces.
Deep down, the Basin was turning shadowy dark blue, going to sleep for
the night.

Ellen bent swift steps toward her camp. Long shafts of gold preceded
her through the forest. Then they paled and vanished. The tips of
pines and spruces turned gold. A hoarse-voiced old turkey gobbler was
booming his chug-a-lug from the highest ground, and the softer chick of
hen turkeys answered him. Ellen was almost breathless when she
arrived. Two packs and a couple of lop-eared burros attested to the
fact of Antonio's return. This was good news for Ellen. She heard the
bleat of lambs and tinkle of bells coming nearer and nearer. And she
was glad to feel that if Isbel had visited her camp, most probably it
was during the absence of the herders.

The instant she glanced into her tent she saw the package Isbel had
carried. It lay on her bed. Ellen stared blankly. "The--the
impudence of him!" she ejaculated. Then she kicked the package out of
the tent. Words and action seemed to liberate a dammed-up hot fury.
She kicked the package again, and thought she would kick it into the
smoldering camp-fire. But somehow she stopped short of that. She left
the thing there on the ground.

Pepe and Antonio hove in sight, driving in the tumbling woolly flock.
Ellen did not want them to see the package, so with contempt for
herself, and somewhat lessening anger, she kicked it back into the
tent. What was in it? She peeped inside the tent, devoured by
curiosity. Neat, well wrapped and tied packages like that were not
often seen in the Tonto Basin. Ellen decided she would wait until
after supper, and at a favorable moment lay it unopened on the fire.
What did she care what it cont