t shoot again," he cried, as she moved. She could not
tell what he meant, what really had happened, except that he was
helpless. She rose and fled, groping, stumbling, falling. She could
hear him crying out. He did not follow her.

In the forest growth at this altitude the trees stood large, straight
and tall, not very close together. The earth was covered with a dense
floor of pine needles. As she ran she felt her feet slipping, sinking.
Now and again she brought up against a tree. Still she kept on,
sobbing, her hands outstretched, getting away farther than would have
been possible in denser cover. She felt the sand of the roadway under
her feet as her course curved back toward the road, endeavored to
follow the trail for a time, but found herself again on the pine
needles, running she knew not where or how. She had no hope. She knew
she was fleeing death and facing death. Very well, she would meet it
further on and in a better guise.

She felt that she was passing down, along the mountain side, advanced
more rapidly, stumbling, tripping--and so at last fell full length over
a log which lay across her course. Stunned by the impact of her fall
beyond and below the unseen barrier, she lay prone and quite
unconscious.

At a length of unknown moments, she gained her senses. She sat up,
felt about her, listened. There was no sound of pursuit. Only the
high wailing of the pines came to her ears.

She could not know it, but the men were not following her. When they
heard the sound of three shots ring out, every man busy in his work of
sabotage stopped where he was. Was it a surprise? Were officers or
the ranchers coming? They scattered, hiding among the trees.

They could hear the bellowing of Big Aleck, beseeching aid. They
advanced cautiously, to spy out what had happened and saw him rolling
from side to side, striving to rise, falling back. The woman was
nowhere visible.

"Who done it, Aleck?" demanded the man next in command, when he had
ventured closer. "Did she shoot you?"

Aleck groaned as he rolled over, his face upward. A nod showed his
crippled shoulder. His other hand Big Aleck feebly placed upon his
hip. They bent over him.

"By God, she got you fair that time!" said one investigator. "She's
plugged you twice. She wasn't blind. Where did she go?"

"I don't know where--I heard her run. God, that leg! What will I do?
I can't stay here alone!"

"I tell you, you'll have to!