the ridge.

"Hell!" said Farrish.

In the cottage door stood a figure in blue silks, intently gazing
after the disappearing horseman.

"He catchum, allee light!" murmured Slim Jim.

CHAPTER XIX

SMYTHE'S LAST BUDGET

Seth had heard at the post-office that the deer were coming down
unusually early from their summer haunts high in the mountains. A fine
herd had been seen just above Bratner's, and Seth proposed to Marion
that she should have a try at them. They would start early in the
morning, stop the night at Bratner's, and be back home late the second
evening. Marion reluctantly consented, and before going to bed that
night she laid out woolen underwear, her stoutest riding costume, with
divided skirts and knickerbockers and tan boots lacing almost to her
knees. She did not want to go, but, as more than once before, she
yielded to Seth's insistence rather than attempt an explanation.

That night, however, summer departed from the Park. A dry storm
descended on the valley, and Marion lay awake while the wind howled
around the corners of the ranch house, of which every timber seemed to
be crying out in agony. She knew that high among the rocks the storm
was smashing about in fury, and even in its sheltered hollow the house
was hammered as if the elements were bent upon its annihilation. When
each prodigious outcry had spent itself and died away there was still
the moaning and fretting and troubled whimpering that reminded her of
the plaints of an invalid pleading for help between paroxysms of pain.
She was strangely depressed by it, unaccountably distressed, and was
glad when the first faint whitening of the window curtains told her of
the dawn. She arose and dressed--after a moment's hesitation--in the
costume she had prepared the night before. Seth surely would not
insist on the shooting trip in such weather, she thought, but it would
please him to see her dressed for it. Besides, the temperature of her
room reminded her that she would need warm clothes if she went out
anywhere on such a day.

"Good, Marion!" cried Seth sure enough, when he saw her at the
breakfast table. "Glad you're not discouraged by a little wind."

"But--you don't mean to go on a day like this?"

"Why not?"

"The wind, and--we'll get soaking wet."

"No, it's only a wind storm, and this is the tail end of it. The
sun'll be out in a couple of hours. We needn't start in a hurry. We'll
leave the horses as they are--they're all