athered moisture enough for scant growth
among the boulders worn out of the cliffs by erosion. It was the
safest place to wait, as it was also the most likely place for
treachery if any was intended to Clodomiro. At either end of the pass
lay open range and brown desert, with only far patches of oasis where
a well was found, or a sunken river marked a green pasture in some
valley.

When he wrote the note he had not thought of danger to Clodomiro,
regarding him only as a fearless messenger, but if the boy should
prove an incumbrance to Cavayso after they were free of Soledad, that
might prove another matter, and as old Isidro had stated, no one
trusted a Perez man when a woman was in question!

He dismounted to listen and seek safe shadow, for the dusk had come,
and desert stars swung like brilliant lamps in the night sky, and the
white rocks served as clear background for any moving body.

The plan was, if possible, to get the woman out with Clodomiro while
the men were at supper. The _manta_ of Elena could cover her, and if
she could walk with a water jar to the far well as any Indian woman
would walk, and a horse hid in the willows there----!

It had been well thought out, and if nothing had interfered they
should have reached the canon an hour earlier. If Clodomiro had failed
it might be a serious matter, and Kit Rhodes had some anxious moments
for the stolen woman while dusk descended on the canon.

He listened for the beat of horse hoofs, but what he heard first was a
shot, and a woman's scream, and then the walls of the canon echoed the
tumult of horses racing towards him in flight.

He recognized Clodomiro by the bare head and banda, and a woman bent
low beside him, her _manta_ flapping like the wings of a great bird as
her horse leaped forward beside the Indian boy.

Back of them galloped a man who slowed up and shot backward at the
foremost of a pursuing band.

He missed, and the fire was returned, evidently with some effect, for
the first marksman grunted and cursed, and Kit heard the clatter of
his gun as it fell from his hand. He leaned forward and spurred his
horse to outrun the pursuers. He was evidently Marto.

Kit had a mental vision of fighting Marto alone for the woman at Mesa
Blanca, or fighting with the entire band and decided to halt the
leader of the pursuers and gain that much time at least for the woman
and Clodomiro.

He had mounted at the first sound of the runaways, and crouching l