d down into his hand. He became aware of a dull, throbbing pain.

Not much time did Jean waste in arriving at what was best to do. For
the time being he had escaped, and whatever had been his peril, it was
past. In dense, rugged country like this he could not be caught by
rustlers. But he had only a knife left for a weapon, and there was
very little meat in the pocket of his coat. Salt and matches he
possessed. Therefore the imperative need was for him to find the last
camp, where he could get rifle and ammunition, bake bread, and rest up
before taking again the trail of the rustlers. He had reason to
believe that this canyon was the one where the fight on the Rim, and
later, on a bench of woodland below, had taken place.

Thereupon he arose and glided down under the spruces toward the level,
grassy open he could see between the trees. And as he proceeded, with
the slow step and wary eye of an Indian, his mind was busy.

Queen had in his flight unerringly worked in the direction of this
canyon until he became lost in the fog; and upon regaining his bearings
he had made a wonderful and heroic effort to surmount the manzanita
slope and the Rim and find the rendezvous of his comrades. But he had
failed up there on the ridge. In thinking it over Jean arrived at a
conclusion that Queen, finding he could go no farther, had waited, guns
in hands, for his pursuer. And he had died in this position. Then by
strange coincidence his comrades had happened to come across him and,
recognizing the situation, they had taken the shells from his guns and
propped him up with the idea of luring Jean on. They had arranged a
cunning trick and ambush, which had all but snuffed out the last of the
Isbels. Colter probably had been at the bottom of this crafty plan.
Since the fight at the Isbel ranch, now seemingly far back in the past,
this man Colter had loomed up more and more as a stronger and more
dangerous antagonist then either Jorth or Daggs. Before that he had
been little known to any of the Isbel faction. And it was Colter now
who controlled the remnant of the gang and who had Ellen Jorth in his
possession.

The canyon wall above Jean, on the right, grew more rugged and loftier,
and the one on the left began to show wooded slopes and brakes, and at
last a wide expanse with a winding, willow border on the west and a
long, low, pine-dotted bench on the east. It took several moments of
study for Jean to recognize the rugged