nd take the path on the other side of the house. Don't
mount them until you're far below the house. Go slow all the way.
Sounds travel far up this canyon."

"Aren't you coming with us?"

"No."

"But when they find us gone?"

"Think of Dan--not me!"

"God be merciful to you!"

In a moment the back door of the shanty creaked. They must be opening
it by inches. When it was wide they would run for the stable. He
wished now that he had warned Kate to walk, for a slow moving object
catches the eye more seldom than one which travels fast. If Lee Haines
was watching at that moment his attention must be held to Buck for one
all important minute. He stood up, rolled a cigarette swiftly, and
lighted it. The spurt and flare of the match would hold even the most
suspicious eye for a short time, and in those few seconds Kate and her
father might pass out of view behind the stable.

He sat down again. A muffled sneeze came from the ranch house and Buck
felt his blood run cold. The forgotten cigarette between his fingers
burned to a dull red and then went out. In the stable a horse stamped.
He leaned back, locked his hands idly behind his head, and commenced
to whistle. Now there was a snort, as of a horse when it leaves the
shelter of a barn and takes the first breath of open air.

All these sounds were faint, but to Buck, straining his ears in an
agony of suspense, each one came like the blast of a trumpet. Next
there was a click like that of iron striking against rock. Evidently
they were leading the horses around on the far side of the house.
With a trembling hand he relighted his cigarette and waited, waited,
waited. Then he saw them pass below the house! They were dimly
stalking figures in the night, but to Buck it seemed as though they
walked in the blaze of ten thousand searchlights. He held his breath
in expectancy of that mocking laugh from the house--that sharp command
to halt--that crack of the revolver.

Yet nothing happened. Now he caught the click of the horses' iron
shoes against the rocks farther and farther down the valley. Still no
sound from the ranch house. They were safe!

It was then that the great temptation seized on Buck.

It would be simple enough for him to break away. He could walk to the
stable, saddle his horse, and tear past the ranch house as fast as his
pony could gallop. By the time the outlaws were ready for the pursuit,
he would be a mile or more away, and in the hills such a handicap