st her heart, straight towards McCauley's. We wasn't more'n a mile
away when I thought--the wind was behind me, you see--that I heard a
sort of far off whistling down the wind! My God!"

He could not go on for a moment, and Kate Cumberland sat with parted
lips, twisting her fingers together and then tearing them apart once
more.

"Well, that mile was the worst in my life. I thought maybe the man I'd
sent on ahead hadn't been able to leave me a relay at McCauley's, and if
he hadn't I knew I'd die somewhere in the hills beyond. And they looked
as black as dead men, and all sort of grinnin' down at me.

"But when I got to McCauley's, there stood a hoss right in front of the
house. It didn't take me two second to make the saddle-change. And then
I was off agin!"

A sigh of relief came from Byrne and Kate.

"That hoss was a beauty. Not long-legged like Bess, nor half so fast,
but he was jest right for the hills. Climbed like a goat and didn't let
up. Up and up we goes. The wind blows the clouds away when we gets to
the top of the climb and I looks down into the valley all white in the
moonlight. And across the valley I seen two little shadows slidin',
smooth and steady. It was Dan and Satan and Black Bart!"

"Buck!"

"My heart, it stood plumb still! I gives my hoss the spurs and we went
down the next slope. And I don't remember nothin' except that we got to
the Circle K Bar after a million years, 'most, and when we got there the
piebald flops on the ground--near dead. But I made the change and
started off agin, and that next hoss was even better than the piebald--a
sure goer! When he started I could tell by his gait what he was, and I
looked up at the sky----"

He stopped, embarrassed.

"And thanked God, Buck?"

"Kate, I ain't ashamed if maybe I did. But since then I ain't seen or
heard Dan, but all the time I rode I was expecting to hear his whistle
behind me, close up."

All the life died from her face.

"No, Buck, if he'd a followed all the way he would have caught you in
spite of your relay. No, I understand what happened. After a while he
remembered that Mac Strann was waiting for him back in Brownsville. And
he left your trail to be taken up later and went back to Brownsville.
You didn't see him follow you after you left the Circle X Bar?"

"No. I didn't dare look back. But somehow I knew he was comin'."

She shook her head.

"He won't come, Buck. He'll go back to meet Mac Strann--and then----"
She