level space. He hastily jumped
up and began to scramble back up toward the tunnel's mouth. He could
not see it from below, he could see only the patch of brush which,
since it was directly above him, must conceal it. He saw his rifle
where it stood on end, the muzzle jammed between two rocks. He wanted
to call to Betty but did not dare, not knowing how close some of
Zoraida's men might be. Betty could not hold on there forever; she
would slip as he had done or, frightened terribly, by now she might be
seeking frenziedly to make her way back to the treasure chamber.

But as it happened Betty was to make the descent with less violence
than Kendric's. She had thought that surely Jim had been snatched away
from her to a broken death below; she had gone dizzy with sick fear;
she had struggled for a securer grip--and she, too, had slipped. Down
she sped, half fainting. But somewhere her wide sash caught and held
briefly, letting her slip again before her fingers could find a hold,
but breaking the momentum of her progress. So, when she was shot out
into the open, a few yards above Kendric, the brush all but stopped
her. And then, as she was slipping by him, Kendric caught her and held
her.

Betty sat up and stared at him incredulously. Then there came into her
eyes such a light as Jim Kendric had never seen in eyes of man or woman.

"I thought you were dead," said Betty simply. "And I did not want to
live."

He helped her to her feet and they hurried down the slope. He caught
up his rifle, merely grunted at the discovery of a sight knocked off,
found near it the bag of food and treasure, and led the way down into
the canon. A glance upward showed him no sign of Zoraida's men.

"There are the horses," whispered Betty.

Down in the bed of the ravine were a dozen or more saddled ponies.
They stood where their riders had left them, their reins over their
heads and dragging on the ground.

"Run!" said Kendric. "If we can get into saddle before they see us
we're as good as at home!"

Hand in hand they ran, stumbling along the slope, crashing through the
brush. But as they drew nearer and the ponies pricked up their ears
they forced themselves to go slowly. Kendric caught the nearest horse,
tarrying for no picking and choosing, and helped Betty up into the
saddle. The next moment he, too, was mounted. He looked again up the
mountainside. Still no sign of Zoraida's men. A broad grin of high
satisfaction