get out?" Sam asked.

Fendrick knelt on the edge of the pit and showed him where a rope had been
dragged so heavily that it had cut deeply into the clay.

"Someone pulled him out."

"What's it mean anyhow? Kate wasn't in that hole, was she?"

Cass shook his head. "This is my guess. Someone was coming along here in
the dark and fell in. Suppose Miss Cullison heard him calling as she came
up the gulch. What would she do?"

"Come up and help the fellow out."

"Sure she would. And if he was hungry--as he likely was--she would cook
her quail for him."

"And then? Why didn't she come home?"

Luck turned a gray agonized face on him. "Boy, don't you see? The man was
Blackwell."

"And if you'll put yourself in Blackwell's place you'll see that he
couldn't let her go home to tell where she had seen him," Fendrick
explained.

"Then where is she? What did he do with her?"

There came a moment's heavy silence. The pale face of the boy turned from
the sheepman to his father. "You don't think that--that----"

"No, I don't," Cass answered. "But let's look this thing squarely in the
face. There were three things he could do with her. First, he might leave
her in the pit. He didn't do that because he hadn't the nerve. She might
be found soon and set the hunters on his track. Or she might die in that
hole and he be captured later with her pinto. I know him. He always plays
a waiting game when he can. Takes no chances if he can help it."

"You think he took her with him then," Luck said.

"Yes. There's a third possibility. He may have shot her when he got a good
chance, but I don't think so. He would keep her for a hostage as long as
he could."

"That's the way I figure it," agreed Cullison. "He daren't hurt her, for
he would know Arizona would hunt him down like a wolf if he did."

"Then where's he taking her?" Sam asked.

"Somewhere into the hills. He knows every pocket of them. His idea will be
to slip down and cut across the line into Sonora. He's a rotten bad lot,
but he won't do her any harm unless he's pushed to the wall. The fear of
Luck Cullison is in his heart."

"That's about it," nodded Luck. "He's somewhere in these hills unless he's
broken through. Bolt 'phoned me that one of his posse came on the ashes of
a camp fire still warm. They're closing in on him. He's got to get food or
starve, unless he can break through."

"There's a chance he'll make for one of my sheep camps to lay in a supply.
Wouldn't