ip and entered the cleft
which the Lorrigans called the Slide.

A slide it was, and down it Rab slid on his rump. An old watercourse,
with sheer rock walls that formed the base of the Tooth itself. Had
there been room Mary Hope would have turned back. But the cleft was so
narrow that a pack horse must be adept at squeezing past protuberances
and gauging the width of its pack if it would travel the trail. A
sharp turn presently showed her the end of the cleft, and they emerged
thankfully upon a sage-grown shelf along which the trail proceeded
more gently.

Then came another cleft, with great boulders at the end, which a horse
must negotiate carefully if he would not break a leg or two. It was
here that old Tom Lorrigan had died under his horse before help came
that way. But Rab had covered many rough trails, and he picked his way
over the boulders safely,--though not as a runaway horse should have
traveled.

After that there came a treacherous bit of shale, across which Mary
Hope thought it best to lead her runaway steed which refused for a
time to venture farther. Being a Douglas she was obstinate. Being
obstinate, she would not turn back, especially since the trail would
be even worse in the climbing than it was in the descent. Rab, she
realized worriedly, could not slide up that narrow, rock-bottomed
cleft down which he had coasted so readily.

"They must be devil horses that ride this way, Rab," she sighed when
she had remounted on the lower margin of the shale. "And the Lorrigans
na doot have magic. But I dinna think that even they could run away
down it."

She struck Rab sharply with the quirt and dug in her heels. If Rab was
to run it must be immediately, for the level valley lay just below and
the Lorrigan house was around the next point of the hill.

Rab would not run. He stopped abruptly and kicked with both feet. Mary
Hope struck him again, a little harder, and Rab kicked again, more
viciously. The trail was much better for kicking than for running, but
Mary Hope would not accept the compromise, and at last Rab yielded to
the extent of loping cautiously down the last steep declivity. When he
reached level ground he laid back his ears and galloped as fast as his
stiffened shoulders would let him. So Mary Hope very nearly achieved a
dashing pace as she neared the corrals of the wicked Lorrigans.

"Well! Yuh traveling, or just goin' somewhere?" A young voice yelled
at her as she went past the stable.