too quick for her. He stepped back, picked up Snake's reins and
mounted his own horse. He looked back at her appraisingly, saw her
glare of hatred and grinned at it, while he touched his horse with the
spurs and rode away, leading Snake behind him.

Lorraine said nothing until Al, riding at a lope, passed the field at
the mouth of Spirit Canyon where the blaze-faced roan still fed with
the others. They were feeding along the creek quite close to the
fence, and the roan walked toward them. The sight of it stirred
Lorraine out of her dumb horror.

"You killed Fred Thurman! I saw you," she cried suddenly.

"Well, you ain't going to holler it all over the country," Al flung
back at her over his shoulder. "When you're married to me, you'll come
mighty close to keeping your mouth shut about it."

"I'll never marry you! You--you fiend! Do you think I'd marry a
cold-blooded murderer like you?"

Al turned in the saddle and looked at her intently. "If I'm all that,"
he told her coolly, "you can figure out about what'll happen to you if
you _don't_ marry me. If you saw what I done to Fred Thurman, what do
you reckon I'd do to _you_?" He looked at her for a minute, shrugged
his shoulders and rode on, crossing the creek and taking a trail which
Lorraine did know. Much of the time they travelled in the water,
though it slowed their space. Where the trail was rocky, they took it
and made better time.

Snake lagged a little on the upgrades, but he was well trained to lead
and gave little trouble. Lorraine thought longingly of Yellowjacket
and his stubbornness and tried to devise some way of escape. She could
not believe that fate would permit Al Woodruff to carry out such a
plan. Lone would overtake them, perhaps,--and then she remembered that
Lone would have no means of knowing which way she had gone. If Hawkins
and Senator Warfield came after them, her plight would be worse than
ever. Still, she decided that she must risk that danger and give Lone
a clue.

She dropped a glove beside the trail, where it lay in plain sight of
any one following them. But presently Al looked over his shoulder, saw
that one of her hands was bare, and tied Snake's reins to his saddle
and his own horse to a bush. Then he went back down the trail until he
found the glove. He put it into his pocket, came silently up to
Lorraine and pulled off her other glove. Without a word he took her
wrists in a firm clasp, tied them together