aged door looked perfectly innocent on the
outside. With a bannock stuffed into one pocket, a chunk of bacon in
the other, he left the cabin and swung off again in that long, tireless
stride of his, Jack following contentedly at his heels.

At the farther end of Skyline Meadow he stopped, took a tough leather
leash from his pocket and fastened it to Jack's collar.

"We don't go running to paw nobody's stomach and say, 'Wow-wow! Here
we are back again!'" he told the dog, pulling its ears affectionately.
"Maybe we get shot or something like that. We trail, and we keep our
mouth still, Yack. One bark, and I lick you good!"

Jack flashed out a pink tongue and licked his master's chin to show how
little he was worried over the threat, and went racing along at the end
of the leash, taking Swan's trail and his own back to where they had
climbed out of the canyon.

At the bottom Swan spoke to the dog in an undertone, and Jack
obediently started up the canyon on the trail of the five horses who
had passed that way since noon. It was starlight now, and Swan did not
hurry. He was taking it for granted that Warfield and Hawkins would
stop when it became too dark to follow the hoofprints, and without Jack
to show them the way they would perforce remain where they were until
daybreak.

They would do that, he reasoned, if they were sincere in wanting to
overtake Lorraine and in their ignorance that they were also following
Al Woodruff. And try as he would, he could not see the object of so
foolish a plan as this abduction carried out in collusion with two men
of unknown sentiments in the party. They had shown no suspicion of
Al's part in the affair, and Swan grinned when he thought of the mutual
surprise when they met.

He was not disappointed. They reached timber line, following the
seldom used trail that wound over the divide to Bear Top Pass and so,
by a difficult route which he did not believe Al would attempt after
dark, to the country beyond the mountain. Where dark overtook them,
they stopped in a sheltered nook to wait, just as Swan had expected
they would. They were close to the trail, where no one could pass
without their knowledge.

In the belief that it was only Lorraine they were following, and that
she would be frightened and would come to the cheer of a campfire, they
had a fine, inviting blaze. Swan made his way as close as he dared,
without being discovered, and sat down to wait. He could see noth