orm in the blackness which
enveloped her. She tripped over buried sagebrush, falling frequently,
picking herself up to run on, calling, urging the dog to get ahead and
turn the leaders.

"Way 'round 'em, Shep! Way 'round 'em, boy!" she pleaded. But the dog,
half-trained and bewildered, ran only a little way, to return and fawn
upon her as though apologetic for his uselessness.

There was no thought or fear for herself in her mind as she ran--she
thought only of the sheep that were drifting rapidly before the storm,
now they were well started, and she could tell by the rocks rolling from
above her that they were making their way out of the gulch to the flat
open country.

If only she could get ahead and turn them before they split up and
scattered she could perhaps hold them until morning. Was it long until
morning, she wondered? Breathless, exhausted from climbing and
floundering and stumbling, the full fury of the blizzard struck her when
she reached the top. The driving ice particles stung her skin and
eyeballs when she turned to face it, the wind carried her soothing calls
from her lips as she uttered them, her skirt whipped about her as though
it would soon be in ribbons, and then with a leap and a flicker the
flame went out in the smoke-blackened chimney, leaving her in darkness.

There was a panic-stricken second as she stood, a single human atom in
the howling white death about her but it passed quickly. She dreaded the
physical suffering which experience told her would come when her body
cooled and the wind penetrated her garments, yet there was no feeling of
self-pity. It was all a part of the business and would come to any
herder. The sheep were the chief consideration, and she never doubted
but that she could endure it somehow until daylight.

"I've got to keep moving or I'll freeze solid," she told herself
practically, and added between her set teeth with a grim whimsicality:

"Be a man, Kate Prentice! It's part of the price of success and you've
got to pay it!"

Kate knew that hourly she was getting farther from the wagon as the
sheep drifted and she followed. But daylight would bring surcease of
suffering--she had only to endure and keep moving. So she stamped her
feet and swung her arms, tied her handkerchief over her ears, rubbed her
face with snow when absence of feeling told her it was freezing, and
prayed for morning. Surely the storm was too severe to be a long one--it
would slacken when dayl