ch gave an uninterrupted view across the flat stretch which lay
between them and the ranch that was such an eyesore to Canby.

As she took in the sweep of country her gaze concentrated upon the
moving objects she saw in it. Puzzled at first, her look of perplexity
was succeeded by one of consternation, then horror. With swift
comprehension she grasped fully the meaning of a scene that was being
enacted before her.

Her expression attracted Canby's attention even before she pointed and
cried sharply:

"Look!"

Aunt Lizzie was still busy with her pebbles, a tiny, tragic figure she
looked, in view of what was happening, as she walked along in leisurely
fashion, stopping every step or two to pick up and examine a stone that
attracted her attention.

The herd of long-horns had come closer, but one had drawn out from the
others and was shaking its head as it trotted down upon her.

Wallie had long since abandoned the pony he was leading, and with all
the speed his own was capable of, was doing his best to intercept the
animal before it reached her. But he was still a long way off and even
as Helene cried out the steer broke into a gallop.

Canby, too, instantly grasped the situation.

"If I only had a rifle!"

"Perhaps we can turn it! We'll have to make an awful run for it but we
can try!"

They had already gathered the reins and were spurring their horses down
the declivity.

Canby's thoroughbred leaped into the air as the steel pricked it and
Helene was soon left behind. She saw that she could figure only as a
spectator, so she slowed down and watched what followed in fascinated
horror.

Canby was considerably farther off than Wallie, in the beginning, but
the racing blood in the former's horse's veins responded gallantly to
the urge of its rider. It stretched out and laid down to its work like a
hare with the hounds behind it, quickly equalizing the distance.

Aunt Lizzie was poking at a rock with her toe when she looked up
suddenly and saw her danger. The steer with a spread of horns like
antlers and tapering to needle points was rushing down upon her,
infuriated.

For a moment she stood, weak with terror, unable to move, until her will
asserted itself and then, shrieking, she ran as fast as her stiff old
legs could carry her.

Wallie and Canby reached the steer almost together. A goodly distance
still intervened between it and Aunt Lizzie, but the gap was shortening
with sickening rapidity and Helene