s.
'Why, if you came crawling to me now I'd spit on you. And, so help me
God, I'll ruin the last one of you and your precious flock of lambs
before I have done with you. If Jim Courtot can't do the trick, I'll
do for you first and Jim next.'

He wheeled his horse and left her, groping wonderingly for an
explanation of her fury. He had not spoken with her above a score of
times in his life. He had merely been decent to her when, in the
beginning, it struck him that after all she was only a defenceless
woman and that men were hard on her. That his former simple kindness
would have awakened any serious affection had failed to suggest itself
to him.

But swiftly he forgot Sanchia and her vindictiveness. She had
mentioned Courtot; for a little as he rode into the hills he puzzled
over Courtot's recurrent disappearances. He recalled how, always when
he came to a place where he might expect to find the gambler, he had
passed on. Here of late he was like some sinister will-o'-the-wisp.
What was it that urged him? A lure that beckoned? A menace that
drove? He thought of Kish Taka. There was a nemesis to dog any man.
Jim Courtot had dwelt with the desert Indians; he had come to know in
what savage manner they meted out their retributive justice. Was Kish
Taka still unsleeping, patient, relentless on Courtot's trail? Kish
Taka and his dog?

But his horse's hoofs were beating out a merry music on the winding
trail that led toward the Red Hill country, and at the end of the trail
was Helen. Helen had not gone East. The frown in his eyes gave place
to his smile; the sunlight was again golden and glorious; the emptiness
of the world was replaced by a large content.

'They just couldn't stand being so close to what they had lost,' he
argued. 'It was a right move to come up here.'

He found the new camp without trouble. As he entered the lower end of
the tiny valley he saw the canvas-walled cabin at the farther end,
under the cliffs. He saw Helen herself. She was just stepping out
through the door. He came racing on to her, waving his hat by way of
greeting. He slipped down from the saddle, let his bundle fall and
caught both of her hands in his.

After this long, unexplained absence Helen had meant to be very stiff
when, on some fine day, Alan Howard remembered to come again. But now,
under his ardent eyes, the colour ran up into her cheeks in rebellious
defiance of her often strengthened determination an