he
saw her throw herself from the saddle, he saw the released animal
plunge on again under a blow from the quirt which Betty had snatched
from the horn, the whole act taking so little time that it hardly
seemed that the horse had stopped for a second's time. Kendric
duplicated her act and ran toward the spot where she had disappeared.
In another moment his hand had closed about hers, was greeted by a
little welcoming squeeze, and he and Betty slipped side by side into
the thicker dark at the mouth of a friendly canon.

CHAPTER XVIII

OF FLIGHT, PURSUIT, AND A LAIR IN THE CLIFFS

Straightway Jim Kendric began to understand the real Betty. He broke a
way through the bushes for her, confident that the noise of their
progress was lost in the increasing beat of hoofs and rattle of loose
stones. They stumbled into a rocky trail in the bottom of the canon
and made what haste they could, climbing higher into the mountain
solitudes. The pursuit had swept by them; they could hear occasional
shouts and twice gunshots. They came to a pile of tumbled boulders
across their path and crawled up. There was a flattish place at the
top in which stunted plants were growing. Here they sat for a little
while, hiding and resting and listening. Hardly had they settled
themselves here when they heard again the clear tones of Zoraida's
whistle. Not more than fifty yards away they made out the form of
Zoraida's white horse.

There was a little sound from where Betty sat, and Jim thought that she
was sobbing. "Poor little kid," he had it on his lips to mutter when
the sound repeated itself and, amazed, he recognized it for a giggle of
pure delight. This from Betty, sitting on a rock in the mountains with
a crowd of outlaws riding up and down seeking her!

"You're about as logical an individual as I ever knew," was what he
said. And with a grunt, at that.

"I never claimed to be logical," retorted Betty. "I'm just a girl."

Even then, while they whispered and fell silent and watched and
listened, he began to understand the girl whom he was to come to know
very well before many days. She did not pretend at high fearlessness;
when she was afraid she was very much afraid, and had no thought to
hide the fact. Tonight her fright had come as near killing as fright
can. But then she was alone and there was no one but herself to make
the fight for her. Now it was different. Since Jim had come she had
allowed her own respons