ght be that some of Pango Dooni's men lay between them and the Bar of
Balmud, but the chance was faint.

"By the hand of Heaven," said the hillsman, "if we reach to the Bar of
Balmud, these dogs shall eat their own heads for dinner!"

They set their horses in the way, and gave the sorrel and mare the bit
and spur. The beasts leaned again to their work as though they had just
come from a feeding-stall and knew their riders' needs. The men rode
light and free, and talked low to their horses as friend talks to
friend. Five miles or more they went so, and then the mare stumbled. She
got to her feet again, but her head dropped low, her nostrils gaped red
and swollen, and the sorrel hung back with her, for a beast, like a man,
will travel farther two by two than one by one. At another point where
they had a long view behind they looked back. Their pursuers were
gaining. Tang-a-Dahit spurred his horse on.

"There is one chance," said he, "and only one. See where the point juts
out beyond the great medlar tree. If, by the mercy of God, we can but
make it!"

The horses gallantly replied to call and spur. They rounded a curve
which made a sort of apse to the side of the valley, and presently they
were hid from their pursuers. Looking back from the thicket they saw the
plainsmen riding hard. All at once Tang-a-Dahit stopped.

"Give me the sorrel," said he. "Quick--dismount!" Cumner's Son did as he
was bid. Going a little to one side, the hillsman pushed through a thick
hedge of bushes, rolled away a rock, and disclosed an opening which led
down a steep and rough-hewn way to a great misty valley beneath, where
was never a bridle-path or causeway over the brawling streams and
boulders.

"I will ride on. The mare is done, but the sorrel can make the Bar of
Balmud."

Cumner's Son opened his mouth to question, but stopped, for the eyes of
the hillsman flared up, and Tang-a-Dahit said:

"My arm in blood has touched thy arm, and thou art in my hills and not
in thine own country. Thy life is my life, and thy good is my good.
Speak not, but act. By the high wall of the valley where no man bides
there is a path which leads to the Bar of Balmud; but leave it not,
whether it go up or down or be easy or hard. If thy feet be steady,
thine eye true, and thy heart strong, thou shalt come by the Bar of
Balmud among my people."

Then he caught the hand of Cumner's Son in his own and kissed him
between the eyes after the manner of a kinsm