ibility to shift to his shoulders. It was
instinctive in her to turn to some man, to have some man to trust and
to depend upon. Jim was looking out for her and right now, while
Zoraida and her men searched up and down, Betty clasped her arms about
her gathered-up knees and sat cozily at the side of the man whose sole
duty, as she saw it, was to guard her with his life. So Betty, close
enough to touch the rifle across Jim's arm, could giggle as she
pictured Zoraida rushing by the very spot where they hid.

"You're not afraid, then?" asked Jim.

"Not now," whispered Betty.

They did not budge for half an hour. During that time Kendric did a
deal of hard thinking. Their plight was still far from satisfactory.
No food, no water, no horses, and in the heart of a land of which they
know nothing except that it was hard and bleak and closely patrolled by
Zoraida's riders. That they could succeed now in eluding pursuit for
the rest of the night seemed assured. But tomorrow? Where there was
one man looking for them now there would be ten tomorrow. And there
were the questions of food and water. Above all else, water.

At last, when it was very still all about them, they moved on again.
They climbed over the rocks and further up the canon. Here there were
more trees and thicker darkness, and their progress was painfully slow.
They skirted patches of thorny bushes; they went on hands and knees up
sharp inclines. They stopped frequently, panting and straining their
ears for some sound to tell them of a pursuer; they went on again, side
by side or with Kendric ahead, breaking trail.

"We'll have to dig in somewhere before dawn," said Jim once while they
rested. "Where we can stick close during daylight tomorrow."

Betty merely nodded; all such details were to be left to him. It was
his clear-cut task to take care of her; just how he did it was not
Betty's concern. So they went on, left the canon where there was a way
out, made their toilsome way over a low ridge and slid and rolled down
into the next ravine. And here, at the bottom, they found water. A
thin trickle from a spring, wending its way down to the larger stream
in the valley. They lay down, side by side, and drank. Then they sat
back and looked at each other in the starlight.

"Betty," said Jim impulsively, "you're a brick!"

"Am I?" said Betty. And by her voice he knew that she was pleased.

"We're not as far from the house as I'd like," he sai