and most of all I remember one glimpse of Mat Nivers's face with big,
staring eyes, and firm-set mouth; and I remember my fleeting impression
that she could take care of herself if we could; and over all a sudden
shadow as the moon, in pity of our terror, hid its face behind a tiny
cloud.

When it shone out again we were dashing by separate ways up the steep
slope to the west ridge, but, strangely enough, the Mexican horseman
with a follower or two had turned away from us and was chasing off
somewhere out of sight.

Up on top of the bluff, with Rex Krane and Aunty Boone, we watched and
waited. The wooded Neosho valley full of inky blackness seemed to us
like a bottomless gorge of terror which no moonlight could penetrate. We
strained our ears to catch the rattle of the wagons, but the noise from
the saloon, coming faintly now and then, was all the sound we could hear
save the voices of the night rising up from the river, and the
whisperings of the open prairie to the west.

In that hour Rex Krane became our good angel.

"Keep the law, 'Hold fast'! You made a splendid race of it, and if
Providence made that fellow lose you gettin' out, and led him and his
gang sideways from you, I reckon she will keep on takin' care of you
till Clarenden resumes control, so don't you worry."

But for his brave presence the terror of that lonely watch would have
been harder than the peril of the street, for he seemed more like a
gentle mother than the careless, scoffing invalid of the trail.

Midnight came, and the chill of midnight. We huddled together in our
wagon and still we waited. Down in the village the lights still burned,
and angry voices with curses came to our ears at intervals.

Meantime the three men across the river moved cautiously, hoping that
we were safe on the bluff, and knowing that they dared not follow us too
rapidly. The wagons creaked and the harness rattled noisily in the night
stillness, as slowly, one by one, they lumbered through the darkness
across the river and up the bank to the village street. Here they halted
and grouped together.

"We must hide out and wait, Clarenden," Jondo counciled. "I hope
the ponies and the wagon ahead are safe, but they stirred things up. If
we go now we'll all be caught."

The three wagons fell apart and halted wide of the trail where the
oak-trees made the blackest shade. The minutes dragged out like hours,
and the anxiety for the unprotected group on the bluff made t