ed sigh. She took off her sombrero and the
light shone on the rippling, dark-brown hair, hanging in a tangled
braid. The curved nape of her neck showed a warm tint of golden tan.
She wore a gray blouse, soiled and torn, that clung to her lissome
shoulders.

"Colter, what are y'u goin' to do?" she asked, suddenly. Her voice
carried something Jean did not remember. It thrilled into the icy
fixity of his senses.

"We'll stay heah," was the response, and it was followed by a clinking
step of spurred boot.

"Shore I won't stay heah," declared Ellen. "It makes me sick when I
think of how Uncle Tad died in there alone--helpless--sufferin'. The
place seems haunted."

"Wal, I'll agree that it's tough on y'u. But what the hell CAN we do?"

A long silence ensued which Ellen did not break.

"Somethin' has come off round heah since early mawnin'," declared
Colter. "Somers an' Springer haven't got back. An' Antonio's gone....
Now, honest, Ellen, didn't y'u heah rifle shots off somewhere?"

"I reckon I did," she responded, gloomily.

"An' which way?"

"Sounded to me up on the bluff, back pretty far."

"Wal, shore that's my idee. An' it makes me think hard. Y'u know
Somers come across the last camp of the Isbels. An' he dug into a
grave to find the bodies of Jim Gordon an' another man he didn't know.
Queen kept good his brag. He braced that Isbel gang an' killed those
fellars. But either him or Jean Isbel went off leavin' bloody tracks.
If it was Queen's y'u can bet Isbel was after him. An' if it was
Isbel's tracks, why shore Queen would stick to them. Somers an'
Springer couldn't follow the trail. They're shore not much good at
trackin'. But for days they've been ridin' the woods, hopin' to run
across Queen.... Wal now, mebbe they run across Isbel instead. An' if
they did an' got away from him they'll be heah sooner or later. If
Isbel was too many for them he'd hunt for my trail. I'm gamblin' that
either Queen or Jean Isbel is daid. I'm hopin' it's Isbel. Because if
he ain't daid he's the last of the Isbels, an' mebbe I'm the last of
Jorth's gang.... Shore I'm not hankerin' to meet the half-breed. That's
why I say we'll stay heah. This is as good a hidin' place as there is
in the country. We've grub. There's water an' grass."

"Me--stay heah with y'u--alone!"

The tone seemed a contradiction to the apparently accepted sense of her
words. Jean held his breath. But he could not still the slowly
m