like a hungry
wolf, and though a coward at heart, spring upon her if she showed
weakness or defeat.

Digging her nails in the palms of her hands, Jacqueline crashed on,
shouting when she could. A little while before, she had felt ill and
deadly tired; now, forgetting both, her old courage revived. In the
tragedies of the afternoon, her rifle had been forgotten and left
outside the mine, but the big cat back of her would never dare attack
her if she kept steadily on, frightening it by loud shouting and
trampling.

How far Jack walked that night she never knew. There were times when the
cougar kept back of her, then he seemed to be walking along by her side
in the shelter of the thicket. Now and then Jack believed he slipped in
front of her, crouching in a clump of underbrush, but she never once
caught sight of the big furtive cat, though she was always conscious of
the presence slinking near her. If it is necessary to prove that the
modern American girl still has the nerve and fortitude of her pioneer
grandmother, Jacqueline Ralston proved it that night. Not for a moment
did she falter in her long march in the darkness.

A few hours before daylight the rain suddenly ceased and the stars came
out as though the storm had not interrupted the usual hour of their
appearance. Now Jack could rest at last! Having come through the wooded
place, her enemy no longer pursued her. There were no more rocks ahead.
She had reached the end of the gorge; the country beyond was a well-nigh
unbroken plain.

A few yards farther on the young girl spied, like a dim sentinel, the
outline of a solitary tree with its close, low branches sweeping the
ground. Even in the darkness of night she knew a comfortable shelter
could be found in it, for its beautiful boughs extended in a solid mass
of foliage from its crown to its base, so the rain could scarcely have
soaked through them. Jack crawled into the cradle-shaped branches and
lay down to wait for the dawn and whatever the new day might bring
forth, wondering if she were too tired to care what happened to her or
if she had earned any shadow of right to the title Carlos had once
given her: "The Girl Who Was Never Afraid."

It never dawned on her that sleep could come; but before the lamps in
the sky went out she had journeyed to that dim country where we find
strength for the next day's need.

CHAPTER X

BY THE WAYSIDE TENT

Hardly had the three more adventurous members of the ca