ly, it was the rattling of loose stones, possibly her anger
dulled her sensibilities to the point where they were incapable of
taking note of her surroundings, but the fact remains that as she
approached the mouth of a wide coulee that gave into the valley from
the eastward, she did not hear the rumble of hundreds of pounding
hoofs that each second grew louder and more ominous, until as she
reached the mouth of the coulee a rider swept into the valley, his
horse straining every muscle to keep ahead of the herd that thundered
in his wake.

Apparently the horseman did not notice her, and the next moment Patty
was engulfed in the herd. The girl lived one wild moment of terror. In
front, behind, upon each side were madly plunging horses, eyes
staring, mouths agape exposing long white teeth that flashed wickedly
in the moonlight, manes tossing wildly, and air whistling through
wide-flaring nostrils. On and on they swept down the valley. The roar
of hoofs rose to a mighty crescendo of thunder, above which, now and
then, the terrified girl caught fierce yells from the flank of the
herd. So close were the terrorized horses running that it was
impossible for the girl to see the ground before her. Sweating,
plunging bodies surged against her legs threatening each moment to
scrape her feet from the stirrups. Gripping the horn with both hands
she rode in a sort of daze.

Glancing over her shoulder, she caught an occasional flash of white as
the men on the flanks waved sheets above their heads, whose flapping,
fluttering folds urged the maddened horses into a perfect frenzy of
action.

In front, and a little to one side of Patty, a horse went down, a big
roan colt, and she got one horrible glimpse of a grotesquely twisted
neck, and a tangle of thrashing hoofs as another horse plunged onto
his fallen comrade. A horrible scream split the air as he, too, went
down, and the sudden side-surge of the herd all but unseated the
clinging girl. In a second it was over and the herd thundered on.
Patty closed her eyes, and with white, tight-pressed lips, wondered
when her horse would go down. She pictured the bloody, battered
_thing_ that had been herself, lying flattened and gruesome, in the
moonlight when the pounding hoofs swept past.

Time and distance ceased to be. Patty was carried helplessly on, a
part of that frenzied flood of flesh, muscles rigid, brain
tense--waiting for the inevitable moment--the horrible moment that was
to mar