the hours dragged
their slow length along.

It was late in the afternoon before her vigil was rewarded. Not from
just the direction in which he had galloped away, but from farther up
the valley, Haig reappeared. He rode as rapidly as before, straight to
the door of the stable, reined up a moment there, and was off
again,--this time down the valley on a white road that was visible to
Marion until it curved behind the distant point of the ridge on which
she sat.

"Now where's he going?" she murmured, wrinkling her forehead as she
saw him once more vanish from her sight.

She did not know that road, but guessed that it joined the main
highway somewhere far down the Brightwater. No matter! Here was her
opportunity; for she saw, with quick appreciation, that she would now
be able to place herself between him and the ranch buildings without
showing herself to the men at the corrals. And then? She could not
"hold him up" like a highwayman; and if she did not stop him he would
raise his hat (perhaps), and ride past her without a word. And how was
she to stop him? She had come there with a very definite purpose, but
with no clear plan, trusting to the inspiration of the moment. And now
the moment had arrived; but where was the inspiration? She had risen
impulsively to her feet, and stood staring between narrowed eyelids,
and beneath a puckered brow, at the white road, now quite empty again.
Then suddenly--

"Ah!" she gasped.

And thereupon she blushed, and looked furtively around her, as if she
had been caught in some doubtful, if not discreditable, act. But there
was no time for moral subtleties. She staggered--for her legs were
stiff from inaction--to her pony, replaced her raincoat behind the
saddle, mounted in hot haste, and rode down the steep hill toward the
houses. At a little distance from them the road she traveled joined
the other. There she turned abruptly, and followed the unfamiliar road
until she was safely out of sight of any chance observer at the barn,
and yet not so far from the trail she had just left but that she could
return to it if, by any chance, he should come back that way.

Dismounting quickly at the chosen spot, she turned Tuesday until he
stood squarely across the road. Then her nimble fingers flew at the
cinches of the saddle.

"There now!" she exclaimed, hot with excitement and exertion.

She stepped back to view her handiwork, and laughed nervously. Next
she drew a tiny mirror and a bit