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right. We couldn't budge 'em. They went on en' split round the
rocks, en' the most of 'em was turned sharp to the left by a deep

wash we hedn't seen--hed no chance to see.
"The other three boys--Jimmy Vail, Joe Willis, an' thet little

Cairns boy--a nervy kid! they, with Cairns leadin', tried to buck
thet herd round to the pocket. It was a wild, fool idee. I

couldn't do nothin'. The boys got hemmed in between the steers
an' the wash--thet they hedn't no chance to see, either. Vail an'

Willis was run down right before our eyes. An' Cairns, who rode a
fine hoss, he did some ridin'. I never seen equaled, en' would

hev beat the steers if there'd been any room to run in. I was
high up an' could see how the steers kept spillin' by twos an'

threes over into the wash. Cairns put his hoss to a place thet
was too wide fer any hoss, an' broke his neck an' the hoss's too.

We found that out after, an' as fer Vail an' Willis--two thousand
steers ran over the poor boys. There wasn't much left to pack

home fer burying!...An', Miss Withersteen, thet all happened
yesterday, en' I believe, if the white herd didn't run over the

wall of the Pass, it's runnin' yet."
On the morning of the second day after Judkins's recital, during

which time Jane remained indoors a prey to regret and sorrow for
the boy riders, and a new and now strangelyinsistent fear for

her own person, she again heard what she had missed more than she
dared honestly confess--the soft, jingling step of Lassiter.

Almost overwhelmingrelief surged through her, a feeling as akin
to joy as any she could have been capable of in those gloomy

hours of shadow, and one that suddenly stunned her with the
significance of what Lassiter had come to mean to her. She had

begged him, for his own sake, to leave Cottonwoods. She might yet
beg that, if her weakening courage permitted her to dare absolute

loneliness and helplessness, but she realized now that if she
were left alone her life would become one long, hideous

nightmare.
When his soft steps clinked into the hall, in answer to her

greeting, and his tall, black-garbed form filled the door, she
felt an inexpressible sense of immediate safety. In his presence

she lost her fear of the dim passageways of Withersteen House and
of every sound. Always it had been that, when he entered the

court or the hall, she had experienced a distinctlysickening but
gradually lessening shock at sight of the huge black guns

swinging at his sides. This time the sickening shock again
visited her, it was, however, because a revealing flash of

thought told her that it was not alone Lassiter who was
thrillingly welcome, but also his fatal weapons. They meant so

much. How she had fallen--how broken and spiritless must she
be--to have still the same old horror of Lassiter's guns and his

name, yet feel somehow a cold, shrinking protection in their law
and might and use.

"Did you trail Venters--find his wonderful valley?" she asked,
eagerly.

"Yes, an' I reckon it's sure a wonderful place."
"Is he safe there?"

"That's been botherin' me some. I tracked him an' part of the
trail was the hardest I ever tackled. Mebbe there's a rustler or

somebody in this country who's as good at trackin' as I am. If
that's so Venters ain't safe."

"Well--tell me all about Bern and his valley."
To Jane's surprise Lassiter showed disinclination for further

talk about his trip. He appeared to be extremely fatigued. Jane
reflected that one hundred and twenty miles, with probably a

great deal of climbing on foot, all in three days, was enough to
tire any rider. Moreover, it presently developed that Lassiter

had returned in a mood of singularsadness and preoccupation. She
put it down to a moodiness over the loss of her white herd and

the now precarious condition of her fortune.
Several days passed, and as nothing happened, Jane's spirits

began to brighten. Once in her musings she thought that this
tendency of hers to rebound was as sad as it was futile.

Meanwhile, she had resumed her walks through the grove with
little Fay.

One morning she went as far as the sage. She had not seen the
slope since the beginning of the rains, and now it bloomed a rich

deep purple. There was a high wind blowing, and the sage tossed
and waved and colored beautifully from light to dark. Clouds

scudded across the sky and their shadows sailed darkly down the
sunny slope.

Upon her return toward the house she went by the lane to the
stables, and she had scarcely entered the great open space with

its corrals and sheds when she saw Lassiter hurriedly
approaching. Fay broke from her and, running to a corral fence,

began to pat and pull the long, hanging ears of a drowsy burro.
One look at Lassiter armed her for a blow.

Without a word he led her across the wide yard to the rise of the
ground upon which the stable stood.

"Jane--look!" he said, and pointed to the ground.
Jane glanced down, and again, and upon steadier vision made out

splotches of blood on the stones, and broad, smooth marks in the
dust, leading out toward the sage.

"What made these?" she asked.
"I reckon somebody has dragged dead or wounded men out to where

there was hosses in the sage."
"Dead--or--wounded--men!"

"I reckon--Jane, are you strong? Can you bear up?"
His hands were gentlyholding hers, and his eyes--suddenly 'she

could no longer look into them. "Strong?" she echoed, trembling.
"I--I will be."

Up on the stone-flag drive, nicked with the marks made by the
iron-shod hoofs of her racers, Lassiter led her, his grasp ever

growing firmer.
"Where's Blake--and--and Jerb?" she asked, haltingly.

"I don't know where Jerb is. Bolted, most likely," replied
Lassiter, as he took her through the stone door. "But Blake--poor

Blake! He's gone forever!...Be prepared, Jane."
With a cold prickling of her skin, with a queer thrumming in her

ears, with fixed and staring eyes, Jane saw a gun lying at her
feet with chamber swung and empty, and discharged shells

scattered near.
Outstretched upon the stable floor lay Blake, ghastly

white--dead--one hand clutching a gun and the other twisted in
his bloody blouse.

"Whoever the thieves were, whether your people or rustlers--Blake
killed some of them!" said Lassiter.

"Thieves?" whispered Jane.
"I reckon. Hoss-thieves!...Look!" Lassiter waved his hand toward

the stalls.
The first stall--Bells's stall--was empty. All the stalls were

empty. No racer whinnied and stamped greeting to her. Night was
gone! Black Star was gone!

CHAPTER XVI. GOLD
As Lassiter had reported to Jane, Venters "went through" safely,

and after a toilsome journey reached the peaceful shelter of
Surprise Valley. When finally he lay wearily down under the

silver spruces, resting from the strain of dragging packs and
burros up the slope and through the entrance to Surprise Valley,

he had leisure to think, and a great deal of the time went in
regretting that he had not been frank with his loyal friend, Jane

Withersteen.
But, he kept continually recalling, when he had stood once more

face to face with her and had been shocked at the change in her
and had heard the details of her adversity, he had not had the

heart to tell her of the closer interest which had entered his
life. He had not lied; yet he had kept silence.

Bess was in transports over the stores of supplies and the outfit
he had packed from Cottonwoods. He had certainly brought a

hundred times more than he had gone for; enough, surely, for
years, perhaps to make permanent home in the valley. He saw no

reason why he need ever leave there again.
After a day of rest he recovered his strength and shared Bess's

pleasure in rummaging over the endless packs, and began to plan
for the future. And in this planning, his trip to Cottonwoods,

with its revived hate of Tull and consequent unleashing of fierce
passions, soon faded out of mind. By slower degrees his

friendship for Jane Withersteen and his contrition drifted from
the active preoccupation of his present thought to a place in

memory, with more and more infrequent recalls.
And as far as the state of his mind was concerned, upon the

second day after his return, the valley, with its golden hues and
purple shades, the speaking west wind and the cool, silent night,

and Bess's watching eyes with their wonderful light, so wrought
upon Venters that he might never have left them at all.

That very afternoon he set to work. Only one thing hindered him
upon beginning, though it in no wise checked his delight, and

that in the multiplicity of tasks planned to make a paradise out
of the valley he could not choose the one with which to begin. He

had to grow into the habit of passing from one dreamy pleasure to
another, like a bee going from flower to flower in the valley,

and he found this wandering habit likely to extend to his labors.
Nevertheless, he made a start.

At the outset he discovered Bess to be both a considerable help
in some ways and a very great hindrance in others. Her excitement

and joy were spurs, inspirations; but she was utterly
impracticable in her ideas, and she flitted from one plan to

another with bewildering vacillation. Moreover, he fancied that
she grew more eager, youthful, and sweet; and he marked that it

was far easier to watch her and listen to her than it was to
work. Therefore he gave her tasks that necessitated her going

often to the cave where he had stored his packs.
Upon the last of these trips, when he was some distance down the

terrace and out of sight of camp, he heard a scream, and then the
sharp barking of the dogs.

For an instant he straightened up, amazed. Danger for her had
been absolutely out of his mind. She had seen a rattlesnake--or a

wildcat. Still she would not have been likely to scream at sight
of either; and the barking of the dogs was ominous. Dropping his

work, he dashed back along the terrace. Upon breaking through a
clump of aspens he saw the dark form of a man in the camp. Cold,

then hot, Venters burst into frenzied speed to reach his guns. He
was cursing himself for a thoughtless fool when the man's tall

form became familiar and he recognized Lassiter. Then the
reversal of emotions changed his run to a walk; he tried to call

out, but his voice refused to carry; when he reached camp there
was Lassiter staring at the white-faced girl. By that time Ring

and Whitie had recognized him.
"Hello, Venters! I'm makin' you a visit," said Lassiter, slowly.

"An' I'm some surprised to see you've a--a young feller for
company."

One glance had sufficed for the keen rider to read Bess's real
sex, and for once his cool calm had deserted him. He stared till

the white of Bess's cheeks flared into crimson. That, if it were
needed, was the concluding evidence of her femininity, for it

went fittingly with her sun-tinted hair and darkened, dilated
eyes, the sweetness of her mouth, and the striking symmetry of

her slender shape.
"Heavens! Lassiter!" panted Venters, when he caught his breath.

"What relief--it's only you! How--in the name of all that's
wonderful--did you ever get here?"

"I trailed you. We--I wanted to know where you was, if you had a
safe place. So I trailed you."

"Trailed me," cried Venters, bluntly.
"I reckon. It was some of a job after I got to them smooth rocks.

I was all day trackin' you up to them little cut steps in the


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