"Two days, perhaps. We can't follow them. What can be done?"
"Some of Holderness's men are Mormons, and others are square fellows.

They wouldn't stand for such work as this, and somebody ought to ride in
there and tell them."

"And get shot up by the men paid to do the dirty work. No. I won't hear
of it. This amounts to nothing; we seldom use this hole, only twice a

year when driving the flock. But it makes me fear for Silver Cup and
Seeping Springs."

"It makes me fear for the sheep, if this wind doesn't change."
"Ah! I had forgotten the river scent. It's not strong to-night. We

might venture if it wasn't for the strip of sand. We'll camp here and
start the drive at dawn."

The sun went down under a crimson veil; a dull glow spread, fan-shaped,
upward; twilight faded to darkness with the going down of the wind.

August Naab paced to and fro before his tired and thirsty flock.
"I'd like to know," said Hare to Dave, "why those men filled up this

waterhole."
"Holderness wants to cut us off from Silver Cup Spring, and this was a

half-way waterhole. Probably he didn't know we had the sheep upland, but
he wouldn't have cared. He's set himself to get our cattle range and

he'll stop at nothing. Prospects look black for us. Father never gives
up. He doesn't believe yet that we can lose our water. He prays and

hopes, and sees good and mercy in his worst enemies."
"If Holderness works as far as Silver Cup, how will he go to work to

steal another man's range and water?"
"He'll throw up a cabin, send in his men, drive in ten thousand steers."

"Well, will his men try to keep you away from your own water, or your
cattle?"

"Not openly. They'll pretend to welcome us, and drive our cattle away in
our absence. You see there are only five of us to ride the ranges, and

we'd need five times five to watch all the stock."
"Then you can't stop this outrage?"

"There's only one way," said Dave, significantly tapping the black handle
of his Colt. "Holderness thinks he pulls the wool over our eyes by

talking of the cattle company that employs him. He's the company
himself, and he's hand and glove with Dene."

"And I suppose, if your father and you boys were to ride over to
Holderness's newest stand, and tell him to get off there would be a

fight."
"We'd never reach him now, that is, if we went together. One of us alone

might get to see him, especially in White Sage. If we all rode over to
his ranch we'd have to fight his men before we reached the corrals. You

yourself will find it pretty warm when you go out with us on the ranges,
and if you make White Sage you'll find it hot. You're called 'Dene's

spy' there, and the rustlers are still looking for you. I wouldn't worry
about it, though."

"Why not, I'd like to know?" inquired Hare, with a short laugh.
"Well, if you're like the other Gentiles who have come into Utah you

won't have scruples about drawing on a man. Father says the draw comes
natural to you, and you're as quick as he is. Then he says you can beat

any rifle shot he ever saw, and that long-barrelled gun you've got will
shoot a mile. So if it comes to shooting--why, you can shoot. If you

want to run--who's going to catch you on that white-maned stallion? We
talked about you, George and I; we're mighty glad you're well and can

ride with us." Long into the night Jack Hare thought over this talk. It
opened up a vista of the range-life into which he was soon to enter. He

tried to silence the voice within that cried out, eager and reckless, for
the long rides on the windy open. The years of his illness returned in

fancy, the narrow room with the lamp and the book, and the tears over
stories and dreams of adventure never to be for such as he. And now how

wonderful was life! It was, after all, to be full for him. It was
already full. Already he slept on the ground, open to the sky. He

looked up at a wild black cliff, mountain-high, with its windworn star of
blue; he felt himself on the threshold of the desert, with that subtle

mystery waiting; he knew himself to be close to strenuous action on the
ranges, companion of these sombre Mormons, exposed to their peril, making

their cause his cause, their life his life. What of their friendship,
their confidence? Was he worthy? Would he fail at the pinch? What a

man he must become to approach their simple estimate of him! Because he
had found health and strength, because he could shoot, because he had the

fleetest horse on the desert, were these reasons for their friendship?
No, these were only reasons for their trust. August Naab loved him.

Mescal loved him; Dave and George made of him a brother. 'They shall
have my life," he muttered.

The bleating of the sheep heralded another day. With the brightening
light began the drive over the sand. Under the cliff the shade was cool

and fresh; there was no wind; the sheep made good progress. But the
broken line of shade crept inward toward the flock, and passed it. The

sun beat down, and the wind arose. A red haze of fine sand eddied about
the toiling sheep and shepherds. Piute trudged ahead leading the

king-ram, old Socker, the leader of the flock; Mescal and Hare rode at
the right, turning their faces from the sand-filled puffs of wind; August

and Dave drove behind; Wolf, as always, took care of the stragglers. An
hour went by without signs of distress; and with half the five-mile trip

at his back August Naab's voice gathered cheer. The sun beat hotter.
Another hour told a different story--the sheep labored; they had to be

forced by urge of whip, by knees of horses, by Wolf's threatening bark.
They stopped altogether during the frequent hot sand-blasts, and could

not be driven. So time dragged. The flock straggled out to a long
irregular line; rams refused to budge till they were ready; sheep lay

down to rest; lambs fell. But there was an end to the belt of sand, and
August Naab at last drove the lagging trailers out upon the stony bench.

The sun was about two hours past the meridian; the red walls of the
desert were closing in; the V-shaped split where the Colorado cut through

was in sight. The trail now was wide and unobstructed and the distance
short, yet August Naab ever and anon turned to face the canyon and shook

his head in anxious foreboding.
It quickly dawned upon Hare that the sheep were behaving in a way new and

singular to him. They packed densely now, crowding forward, many raising
their heads over the haunches of others and bleating. They were not in

their usual calm pattering hurry, but nervous, excited, and continually
facing west toward the canyon, noses up.

On the top of the next little ridge Hare heard Silvermane snort as he did
when led to drink. There was a scent of water on the wind. Hare caught

it, a damp, muggy smell. The sheep had noticed it long before, and now
under its nearer, stronger influence began to bleat wildly, to run

faster, to crowd without aim.
"There's work ahead. Keep them packed and going. Turn the wheelers,"

ordered August.
What had been a drive became a flight. And it was well so long as the

sheep headed straight up the trail. Piute had to go to the right to
avoid being run down. Mescal rode up to fill his place. Hare took his

cue from Dave, and rode along the flank, crowding the sheep inward.
August cracked his whip behind. For half a mile the flock kept to the

trail, then, as if by common consent, they sheered off to the right.
With this move August and Dave were transformed from quiet almost to

frenzy. They galloped to the fore, and into the very faces of the
turning sheep, and drove them back. Then the rear-guard of the flock

curved outward.
"Drive them in!" roared August.

Hare sent Silvermane at the deflecting sheep and frightened them into
line.

Wolf no longer had power to chase the stragglers; they had to be turned
by a horse. All along the flank noses pointedoutward; here and there

sheep wilder than the others leaped forward to lead a widening wave of
bobbing woolly backs. Mescal engaged one point, Hare another, Dave

another, and August Naab's roan thundered up and down the constantly
broken line. All this while as the shepherds fought back the sheep, the

flight continued faster eastward, farther canyonward. Each side gained,
but the flock gained more toward the canyon than the drivers gained

toward the oasis.
By August's hoarse yells, by Dave's stern face and ceaseless swift

action, by the increasing din, Hare knew terrible danger hung over the
flock; what it was he could not tell. He heard the roar of the river

rapids, and it seemed that the sheep heard it with him. They plunged
madly; they had gone wild from the scent and sound of water. Their eyes

gleamed red; their tongues flew out. There was no aim to the rush of the
great body of sheep, but they followed the leaders and the leaders

followed the scent. And the drivers headed them off, rode them down,
ceaselessly, riding forward to check one outbreak, wheeling backward to

check another.
The flight became a rout. Hare was in the thick of dust and din, of the

terror-stricken jumping mob, of the ever-starting, ever-widening streams
of sheep; he rode and yelled and fired his Colt. The dust choked him,

the sun burned him, the flying pebbles cut his cheek. Once he had a
glimpse of Black Bolly in a melee of dust and sheep; Dave's mustang

blurred in his sight; August's roan seemed to be double. Then
Silvermane, of his own accord, was out before them all.

The sheep had almost gained the victory; their keen noses were pointed
toward the water; nothing could stop their flight; but still the drivers

dashed at them, ever fighting, never wearying, never ceasing.
At the last incline, where a gentle slope led down to a dark break in the

desert, the rout became a stampede. Left and right flanks swung round,
the line lengthened, and round the struggling horses, knee-deep in woolly

backs, split the streams to flow together beyond in one resistless river
of sheep. Mescal forced Bolly out of danger; Dave escaped the right

flank, August and Hare swept on with the flood, till the horses, sighting
the dark canyon, halted to stand like rocks.

"Will they run over the rim ?" yelled Hare, horrified. His voice came to
him as a whisper. August Naab, sweat-stained in red dust, haggard, gray

locks streaming in the wind, raised his arms above his head, hopeless.
The long nodding line of woolly forms, lifting like the crest of a yellow

wave, plunged out and down in rounded billow over the canyon rim. With
din of hoofs and bleats the sheep spilled themselves over the precipice,

and an awful deafening roar boomed up from the river, like the spreading
thunderous crash of an avalanche.

How endless seemed that fatal plunge! The last line of sheep, pressing
close to those gone before, and yet impelled by the strange instinct of

life, turned their eyes too late on the brink, carried over by their own
momentum.

The sliding roar ceased; its echo, muffled and hollow, pealed from the
cliffs, then rumbled down the canyon to merge at length in the sullen,

dull, continuous sound of the rapids.
Hare turned at last from that narrow iron-walled cleft, the depth of

which he had not seen, and now had no wish to see; and his eyes fell upon
a little Navajo lamb limping in the trail of the flock, headed for the

canyon, as sure as its mother in purpose. He dismounted and seized it to
find, to his infinite wonder and gladness, that it wore a string and bell

round its neck. It was Mescal's pet.
X

RIDING THE RANGES
The shepherds were home in the oasis that evening, and next day the

tragedy of the sheep was a thing of the past. No other circumstance of
Hare's four months with the Naabs had so affected him as this swift

inevitable sweeping away of the flock; nothing else had so vividly told
him the nature of this country of abrupt heights and depths. He

remembered August Naab's magnificentgesture of despair; and now the man
was cheerful again; he showed no sign of his great loss. His tasks were

many, and when one was done, he went on to the next. If Hare had not had
many proofs of this Mormon's feeling he would have thought him callous.

August Naab trusted God and men, loved animals, did what he had to do
with all his force, and accepted fate. The tragedy of the sheep had been

only an incident in a tragical life--that Hare divined with awe.
Mescal sorrowed, and Wolf mourned in sympathy with her, for their

occupation was gone, but both brightened when August made known his
intention to cross the river to the Navajo range, to trade with the

Indians for another flock. He began his preparations immediately. The
snow-freshets had long run out of the river, the water was low, and he

wanted to fetch the sheep down before the summer rains. He also wanted
to find out what kept his son Snap so long among the Navajos.

"I'll take Billy and go at once. Dave, you join George and Zeke out on

• venture [´ventʃə] n.投机 v.冒险；敢于 (初中英语单词)
• twilight [´twailait] n.黎明；黄昏 (初中英语单词)
• pretend [pri´tend] v.假装；借口；妄求 (初中英语单词)
• welcome [´welkəm] a.受欢迎的；可喜的 (初中英语单词)
• absence [´æbsəns] n.不在，缺席；缺乏 (初中英语单词)
• illness [´ilnis] n.生病，不健康，疾病 (初中英语单词)
• waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
• companion [kəm´pæniən] n.同伴；同事；伴侣 (初中英语单词)
• worthy [´wə:ði] a.有价值的；值得的 (初中英语单词)
• estimate [´estimət, ´estimeit] n.估计；评价 vt.估价 (初中英语单词)
• distress [di´stres] n.痛苦 vt.使苦恼 (初中英语单词)
• altogether [,ɔ:ltə´geðə] ad.完全；总而言之 (初中英语单词)
• frequent [´fri:kwənt] a.常见的，频繁的 (初中英语单词)
• driven [´driv(ə)n] drive 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
• nervous [´nə:vəs] a.神经的；神经过敏的 (初中英语单词)
• flight [flait] n.逃走；飞行；班机 (初中英语单词)
• pointed [´pɔintid] a.尖(锐)的；中肯的 (初中英语单词)
• backward [´bækwəd] ad.向后 a.向后的 (初中英语单词)
• accord [ə´kɔ:d] n.&vi.符合 vt.给与 (初中英语单词)
• victory [´viktəri] n.胜利，战胜 (初中英语单词)
• incline [in´klain] v.(使)倾斜 n.斜坡 (初中英语单词)
• whisper [´wispə] v.耳语 n.低语；沙沙声 (初中英语单词)
• instinct [´instiŋkt] n.本能；直觉；天资 (初中英语单词)
• continuous [kən´tinjuəs] a.连续不断的；延长的 (初中英语单词)
• magnificent [mæg´nifisənt] a.壮丽的；豪华的 (初中英语单词)
• gesture [´dʒestʃə] n.手势 v.打手势 (初中英语单词)
• despair [di´speə] vi.&n.绝望 (初中英语单词)
• cheerful [´tʃiəful] a.快乐的；高兴的 (初中英语单词)
• tragedy [´trædʒidi] n.悲剧；惨案；灾难 (初中英语单词)
• incident [´insidənt] n.小事件；事变 (初中英语单词)
• sympathy [´simpəθi] n.同情，怜悯 (初中英语单词)
• crimson [´krimzən] a.&n.深(紫)红(的) (高中英语单词)
• openly [´əupənli] ad.公开地；直率地 (高中英语单词)
• mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
• reckless [´rekləs] a.不注意的；鲁莽的 (高中英语单词)
• threshold [´θreʃhəuld] n.门槛；入门；开端 (高中英语单词)
• inward [´inwəd] a.向内的；心灵上的 (高中英语单词)
• colorado [,kɔlə´rɑ:dəu] n.科罗拉多(州) (高中英语单词)
• outward [´autwəd] a.外面的 ad.向外 (高中英语单词)
• outbreak [´autbreik] n.(战争等的)爆发 (高中英语单词)
• infinite [´infinit] a.无限的，无穷的 (高中英语单词)
• sweeping [´swi:piŋ] a.掠过的 n.扫除；清除 (高中英语单词)
• abrupt [ə´brʌpt] a.突然的；粗鲁的 (高中英语单词)
• drawing [´drɔ:iŋ] n.画图；制图；图样 (英语四级单词)
• strenuous [´strenjuəs] a.费力的；奋发的 (英语四级单词)
• canyon [´kænjən] n.峡谷 (英语四级单词)
• eastward [´i:stwəd] a.&ad.向东(的) (英语四级单词)
• hoarse [hɔ:s] a.嘶哑的；嗓门粗哑的 (英语四级单词)
• haggard [´hægəd] a.憔悴的 (英语四级单词)
• billow [´biləu] n.巨浪 v.(使)翻腾 (英语四级单词)
• gladness [´glædnis] n.愉快，高兴，喜悦 (英语四级单词)
• upland [´ʌplənd] n.高地；山地 (英语六级单词)
• august [ɔ:´gʌst] a.尊严的；威严的 (英语六级单词)
• meridian [mə´ridiən] n.&a.正午(的) (英语六级单词)
• densely [´densli] ad.密集地；浓厚地 (英语六级单词)
• cracked [krækt] a.有裂缝的；碎的；粗哑 (英语六级单词)
• ceaseless [´si:slis] a.不绝的，不停的 (英语六级单词)
• affected [ə´fektid] a.做作的；假装的 (英语六级单词)
• vividly [´vividli] ad.活泼地；生动地 (英语六级单词)