clearer atmosphere. He was working up.
Horses were everywhere, and it was ridiculous to try to drive all those
he encountered. At length there were none running back. All were
heading across, to and fro, or down the valley. And when Pan reached
the long ascent of that bowl he saw a magnificent spectacle.

A long black mass of horses was sweeping onward toward the gateway to
the corrals, and to the fence. Dust columns, like smoke, curled up
from behind them and swung low on the breeze. Pan saw riders behind
them, and to the left. He had perhaps been the only one to go through
that valley bowl. The many bands of horses, now converged into one
great herd, had no doubt crossed it. They were fully four miles
distant. Pan saw his opportunity to cut across and down to the right
toward where the fence met the wash. If the horses swerved, as surely
some or all of them would do, he could head them off. To that end he
gave Sorrel free rein and had a splendid run of several miles to the
point halfway between the fence and the wash.

Here from a high point of ground he observed the moving pace of dust
and saw the black wheel-shaped mass of horses sweep down the valley
like a storm. The spectacle was worth all the toil and time he had
given, even if not one beast was captured. But Pan, with swelling
heart and beaming eye, felt assured of greater success than he had
hoped for. There were five thousand horses in that band, more by ten
times than he had ever before seen driven. They could not all get
through that narrow gateway to the corrals. Pan wondered how his few
riders could have done so well. Luck! The topography of the valley!
The wild horses took the lanes of least resistance; and the level or
downhill ground favored a broad direct line toward the fence trap Pan
and his men had contrived.

"Looks like Dad and all the rest of them have swung round on this
side," soliloquized Pan, straining his eyes.

That was good, but Pan could not understand how they had ever
accomplished it. Perhaps they had been keen enough to see that the
wild horses would now have to go through the gateway or turn south
along the fence.

Pan watched eagerly. Whatever was going to happen must come very soon,
as swiftly as those fast wild horses could run another mile. He saw
them sweep down on the bluff and round it, and then begin to spread, to
disintegrate. Again dust clouds settled over one place. It was in the
apex. What a