g the circumstances of her life on Yellow
Creek, and written under the impulse and hope inspired by the Padre's
support had given her the keenest interest. All the mystical side of
her nature had been stirred in a manner she could not deny, had no
desire to deny.

Yes, she had come to investigate, to observe, to seek the truth of her
own pronouncement. She had come without scruple, to watch their
effect. To weigh them in the balance of her scientific mysticism. She
had come to watch the struggles of the young girl in the toils which
enveloped her. Her mind was the diseased mind of the fanatic, prompted
by a nature in which cruelty held chief place.

But now had come this delay. Such was her nature that personal danger
ever appalled her. Death and disaster in the abstract were nothing to
her, but their shadows brushing her own person was something more than
terrifying. And as she thought of the immensity of the world about
her, the gloom, the awful hush, the spirit of the hills got hold of
her and left her full of apprehension.

The teamster now devoted his whole attention to his whereabouts. His
passenger's interminable questioning silenced, he felt more at his
ease. And feeling at his ease he was able to bring his prairie-trained
faculties to bear on the matter in hand. As they progressed down the
slope he closely observed the tall, distant crown which he thought he
recognized, and finally made up his mind that his estimate was right.
It certainly was the cone crown of Devil's Hill. Thus his certainty
now only left him concerned with the ultimate development of the trail
they were on.

It was quite impossible to tell what that might be. The road seemed to
be making directly for the mouth of the canyon, and yet all his
experience warned him that such a destination would be unusual. It
must turn away. Yet where? How?

He searched ahead on the hillside above him for a modification of its
slope. And a long way ahead he fancied he detected such an indication.
But even so, the modification was so slight that there seemed little
enough hope.

He kept on with dogged persistence. To return was not to be thought of
yet. Any approach to vacillation now would be quite fatal.

The trail was fading out to little more than a double cattle track,
and the farther he looked along it the more indistinct it seemed to
become. Yet it continued, and the ever downward slope went on, and on.

His anxious eyes were painfully alert. Wh