ice that he had never heard called him to see, to feel the vast
hard externals of heaven and earth, all that represented the open, the
free, silence and solitude and space.

Once more his thoughts, like his steps, were halted by Ladd's actions.
The cowboy reined in his horse, listened a moment, then swung down out
of the saddle. He raised a cautioning hand to the others, then slipped
into the gloom and disappeared. Gale marked that the halt had been
made in a ridged and cut-up pass between low mesas. He could see the
columns of cactus standing out black against the moon-white sky. The
horses were evidently tiring, for they showed no impatience. Gale
heard their panting breaths, and also the bark of some animal--a dog or
a coyote. It sounded like a dog, and this led Gale to wonder if there
was any house near at hand. To the right, up under the ledges some
distance away, stood two square black objects, too uniform, he thought,
to be rocks. While he was peering at them, uncertain what to think,
the shrill whistle of a horse pealed out, to be followed by the
rattling of hoofs on hard stone. Then a dog barked. At the same
moment that Ladd hurriedly appeared in the road a light shone out and
danced before one of the square black objects.

"Keep close an' don't make no noise," he whispered, and led his horse
at right angles off the road.

Gale followed, leading Mercedes's horse. As he turned he observed that
Lash also had dismounted.

To keep closely at Ladd's heels without brushing the cactus or
stumbling over rocks and depressions was a task Gale found impossible.
After he had been stabbed several times by the bayonetlike spikes,
which seemed invisible, the matter of caution became equally one of
self-preservation. Both the cowboys, Dick had observed, wore leather
chaps. It was no easy matter to lead a spirited horse through the
dark, winding lanes walled by thorns. Mercedes horse often balked and
had to be coaxed and carefully guided. Dick concluded that Ladd was
making a wide detour. The position of certain stars grown familiar
during the march veered round from one side to another. Dick saw that
the travel was fast, but by no means noiseless. The pack animals at
times crashed and ripped through the narrow places. It seemed to Gale
that any one within a mile could have heard these sounds. From the
tops of knolls or ridges he looked back, trying to locate the mesas
where the light had danced and the d