The new road led directly into the foothills. It was narrow and very
rough. The travelers were shaken about like marbles in a boy's pocket.
Wildcat Canyon, into which the road ran, was of a real loneliness--a
loneliness that penetrated one's consciousness like an odor or a sound. On
either side the foothills rose, dark and forbidding; to the left of the
road a deep arroyo ran; on the other, the slope of the hill rose gradually
to the sky line. Ahead, the hills seemed to come together as the road
became narrower and wound in and out, becoming finally a trail. There was
no trace of habitation to be seen, though here and there a few range
cattle wandered.

"Cabin's about two miles up the canyon," volunteered Merriam. "Can't see
it from here, the road winds too much."

Scott interrupted him suddenly. "There they are!" he cried, pointing up
the road. Three horsemen were riding rapidly in the same direction with
the car.

"She's not with them, Scott," Hard said, thankfully.

Scott did not answer. In his mind, he still saw the auto with the girl in
it, going toward the cabin up the canyon. Well, at all events, Juan
Pachuca would not reach that cabin alive! Merriam threw the car into its
full speed.

"They've piped us--see 'em cross the arroyo," he said. It was true. The
three riders had plunged into the depths of the arroyo and were out on the
other side. They did not seem to be running away, but kept to the rapid
trot which they had been riding.

"Don't know who we are and aiming to give us the idea that they're out for
a little moonlight ride," remarked Merriam. "This car can go, can't she?
Sam'd sure be sore if he knew I was runnin' her like this. Why don't we
beat it up to the cabin and get the girl and let them mosey along by
themselves?"

"Because we don't know that's where they've taken her," said Scott,
angrily. He concluded that Merriam had guessed right. Pachuca had no
particular reason to believe that the car held his enemies, or even that
Scott and Hard knew him guilty of Polly's disappearance. They would
safeguard themselves by riding on the other side of the arroyo but they
evidently did not intend to be scared out of their road to any further
extent.

The car was rapidly catching up with the riders and soon things must come
to a showdown. Scott fingered his gun lovingly.

"Hey, you guys, where you heading for?" demanded Merriam, loudly, as the
car came almost abreast of the three. They turned as the m