ld not help Cordts. He lifted violently, raised Cordts a little,
and then appeared to be in peril of losing his balance.

Cordts leaned against the cliff. Then it dawned upon Slone that Lucy
had hit the horse-thief. Hard hit! He would not--he could not let go of
Hutchinson. His was a death clutch. The burly Hutchinson slipped from
his knee-hold, and as he moved Cordts swayed, his feet left the ledge,
he hung, upheld only by the tottering comrade.

What a harsh and terrible cry from Hutchinson! He made one last
convulsive effort and it doomed him. Slowly he lost his balance.
Cordts's dark, evil, haunting face swung round. Both men became lax and
plunged, and separated. The dust rose from the rough steps. Then the
dark forms shot down--Cordts falling sheer and straight, Hutchinson
headlong, with waving arms--down and down, vanishing in the depths. No
sound came up. A little column of yellow dust curled from the fatal
ledge and, catching the wind above, streamed away into the drifting
clouds of smoke.

CHAPTER XX

A darkness, like the streaming clouds overhead, seemed to blot out
Slone's sight, and then passed away, leaving it clearer.

Lucy was bending over him, binding a scarf round his shoulder and under
his arm. "Lin! It's nothing!" she was saying, earnestly. "Never touched
a bone!"

Slone sat up. The smoke was clearing away. Little curves of burning
grass were working down along the rim. He put out a hand to grasp Lucy,
remembering in a flash. He pointed to the ledge across the chasm.

"They're--gone!" cried Lucy, with a strange and deep note in her voice.
She shook violently. But she did not look away from Slone.

"Wildfire! The King!" he added, hoarsely.

"Both where they dropped. Oh, I'm afraid to--to look.... And, Lin, I
saw Sarch, Two Face, and Ben and Plume go down there."

She had her back to the chasm where the trail led down, and she pointed
without looking.

Slone got up, a little unsteady on his feet and conscious of a dull
pain.

"Sarch will go straight home, and the others will follow him," said
Lucy. "They got away here where Joel came up the trail. The fire chased
them out of the woods. Sarch will go home. And that'll fetch the
riders."

"We won't need them if only Wildfire and the King--" Slone broke off
and grimly, with a catch in his breath, turned to the horses.

How strange that Slone should run toward the King while Lucy ran to
Wildfire!

Sage King was a beaten, broken hors