ried to sleep. He was cross. He had
wanted to ride in the foremost vehicle with the fine four-in-hand. He
hated being put at the tail end of the procession with stupid Alfaretta
Babcock, a speechless man, and a nervous, half-hysterical woman for
companions. But the chuckle that escaped him a moment later proved that
his slumber was only a pretended one. At a particularly rough spot in
the road and a particularly shrill scream from Miss Milliken, the angry
ranchman faced about and rudely ordered: "Shut up!" Then his lips closed
with a click and nothing further escaped them during all that drive.

Alfaretta giggled; then strained her eyes again to pierce the distance
which she had been studying for some time. Then she laid a hand on
Monty's head and shook it vigorously:

"Wake up, boy! Look ahead and see if either wagon is in sight! 'Tisn't
so awful dark yet but I wish--I wish I could get a glimpse of Dolly and
Jim. That fool driver might have taken the wrong road where it branched
off a ways back."

Silent Pete heard and guessed this was the truth, but he ventured no
reply. His business was to drive his own horses and let the tenderfoot
look out for himself. But Monty roused himself enough to assure Alfy:

"He wouldn't do that! Why, that road is nothing but a trail through the
woods. Dark as midnight. Don't worry." Then he settled himself to sleep
again.

Now the fact was that "T. Sorrel," as his fellow ranchmen called him,
had more conceit than common sense. He had heard that the branch road
was a short cut to "Roderick's," but not that it was impassable for a
team. A man on horseback might pass safely over it, by daylight and with
a trustworthy mount. Not otherwise; and though the opening was fairly
clear the trail entered a hopeless tangle of underbrush and fallen
timber but a short way further on. To go forward then became impossible,
and equally so the turning back. The lively blacks resented the
scratching of briers and broken branches upon their tender limbs and
pranced and fretted wildly. A molly cottontail scurried across the track
before them and with a mutual, frenzied impulse they shied and sprang
into the air.

The buckboard flew upward, turned turtle, scattered its load in all
directions, then settled into a broken heap, while the light traces
yielded to the strength of the horses, and they rushed madly forward out
of sight.

At that very moment it had been, that Silent Pete and his wagon had
passe