y," Chris laughed back. "Ban could never possibly
betray me."

They turned their horses out of the stream. Dolly stopped to brush a fly
from her knee with her nose, and Ban urged past into the narrow way of
the path. The space was too restricted to make him return, save with
much trouble, and Chris allowed him to go on. Lute, riding behind, dwelt
with her eyes upon her lover's back, pleasuring in the lines of the bare
neck and the sweep out to the muscular shoulders.

Suddenly she reined in her horse. She could do nothing but look, so
brief was the duration of the happening. Beneath and above was the
almost perpendicular bank. The path itself was barely wide enough for
footing. Yet Washoe Ban, whirling and rearing at the same time, toppled
for a moment in the air and fell backward off the path.

So unexpected and so quick was it, that the man was involved in the
fall. There had been no time for him to throw himself to the path. He
was falling ere he knew it, and he did the only thing possible--slipped
the stirrups and threw his body into the air, to the side, and at the
same time down. It was twelve feet to the rocks below. He maintained an
upright position, his head up and his eyes fixed on the horse above him
and falling upon him.

Chris struck like a cat, on his feet, on the instant making a leap
to the side. The next instant Ban crashed down beside him. The animal
struggled little, but sounded the terrible cry that horses sometimes
sound when they have received mortal hurt. He had struck almost squarely
on his back, and in that position he remained, his head twisted partly
under, his hind legs relaxed and motionless, his fore legs futilely
striking the air.

Chris looked up reassuringly.

"I am getting used to it," Lute smiled down to him. "Of course I need
not ask if you are hurt. Can I do anything?"

He smiled back and went over to the fallen beast, letting go the girths
of the saddle and getting the head straightened out.

"I thought so," he said, after a cursory examination. "I thought so at
the time. Did you hear that sort of crunching snap?"

She shuddered.

"Well, that was the punctuation of life, the final period dropped at
the end of Ban's usefulness." He started around to come up by the path.
"I've been astride of Ban for the last time. Let us go home."

At the top of the bank Chris turned and looked down.

"Good-by, Washoe Ban!" he called out. "Good-by, old fellow."

The animal was struggl