's
sake, go at once! Forget Alcatraz--forget the mares--but start at
once, Mr. Perris!"

Even a blind man might have guessed many things from the tremor of
her voice. Lew Hervey saw enough to make his eyes contract to the
brightness of a ferret's as he glanced from the girl to handsome Jim
Perris. But the red-headed adventurer was quite blind, quite deaf.
No matter how the thing had been done, he knew that the girl and the
foreman were now both combined to drive him from the ranch, from
Alcatraz. For a moment of blind anger he wanted to crush, kill,
destroy. Then he turned on his heel and strode towards the arch which
led into the patio.

"Mind you!" called Lew Hervey in warning. "It's on your own head,
Perris. If you don't leave, I'll throw you off!"

Red Jim flashed about under the shade of the arch.

"Come get me, and be damned," he said.

And then he was gone. The cowpunchers, furious at this open defiance
of them all, boiled out into the patio, growling.

"You see?" said Hervey to the girl. "He won't be satisfied till
there's a killing!"

"Keep them back!" she pleaded. "Don't let them go, Mr. Hervey. Don't
let them follow him!"

One sharp, short order from Hervey stopped the foremost as they ran
for the entrance. In fact, not one of them was peculiarly keen to
follow such a trail as this in the darkness. Breathless silence fell
over the patio, and then they heard the departing beat of the hoofs of
Red's horse. And the shock of every footfall struck home in the heart
of Marianne and filled her with a great loneliness and terror. And
then the noise of the gallop died away in the far-off night.

CHAPTER XVII

INVISIBLE DANGER

Alcatraz, cresting the hill, warned the mares with a snort. One by one
the bays brought up their beautiful heads to attention but the grey,
as was her custom in moments of crisis or indecision, trotted forward
to the side of the leader and glanced over the rolling lands below.
Her decision was instant and decisive. She shook her head and turning
to the side, she started down the left slope at a trot. Alcatraz
called her back with another snort. He knew, as well as she did, the
meaning of that faint odor on the east wind: it was man, unmistakably
the great enemy; but during five days that scent had hung steadily
here and yet, over all the miles which he could survey there was no
sign of a man nor any places where man could be concealed. There was
not a tree; there was not a fa