un for your life you haven't noticed how
dark it's gettin' up here on the heights an' how hard it's snowin'. It's
comin' down a lot thicker than it was when we crossed the first time."

It was true. Dick noticed now that the snow was pouring down, and that
all the peaks and ridges were lost in the white whirlwind.

"I told you that I had been a traveler," said Red Blaze. "I've been as
far as fifty miles from Townsville, and I know all the country in every
direction, twenty miles from it, inch by inch. Inside five minutes the
snowstorm will be on us full blast, an' we won't be able to see more'n
twenty yards away. An' that crowd that's follerin' won't be able to see
either. An' me knowin' the ground inch by inch I'll take you straight
back to your regiment while they'll get lost in the storm."

There was room now in the road for the three to ride abreast, and they
kept close together. They heard once a shout behind them and saw the
flash of a firearm in the white hurricane, but no bullet struck them,
and they kept steadily on their course, Red Blaze directing with the
sure instinct that comes of long use and habit.

Heavier and heavier grew the snow. There was but little wind now, and it
came straight down. It seemed to Dick that the whole earth was
blotted out by the white fall. He and the sergeant resigned themselves
completely to the guidance of Red Blaze, who never veered an inch from
the right path.

"If I didn't know the way my hoss would," he said. "I'd just give him
his head an' he'd take us straight to his warm stable in Townsville, an'
the two bundles of oats that I mean to give him. I reckon it was pretty
smart of me, wasn't it, to order a snowstorm an' have it come just when
it was needed."

Again the cheerful eyes twinkled in the flaming face.

"You're certainly a winner," said Dick, "and you win for us all."

The snow was now so deep in the pass that they could not proceed at
great speed, but they did the best they could, and, as Red Blaze said,
their best, although it might be somewhat slow, was certainly better
than that of Skelly and his men. Dick believed in fact that the raiders
had been compelled to abandon the pursuit.

When they reached a lower level, where the snow was far less dense, they
stopped and listened. The sergeant's ears had been trained to uncommon
keenness by his life on the plains, and he could hear nothing but the
sigh of the falling snow. Nor could Petty, who had fine ears h