illiant tangle of hair fell over her shoulder. Ben
Letts caught the movement and Tessibel knew it.

Alert as a young deer, she turned and fled back up the lane. Daddy's
boots impeded her speed and one after the other she kicked them off. She
could hear the man running after her, shouting his rage into her
tingling ears. He was gaining upon the girl and commanded her to stop.

"If I get my claws on ye once," he growled, "it'll be bad for ye."

Tessibel heard and flew faster. There was no one to help her and her
only salvation lay in her own two sturdy little legs and bruised feet.
She reached the tracks but did not dare run the ties--she might trip in
the darkness, and nothing could save her from her enemy. Her eyes,
strained with convulsive fright, lifted one moment to the sky, and her
glance fell directly upon the giant pine whose branches formed the image
of her fantastic God. Her lips fell apart with a gasp--she fancied her
Deity sent her an assurance of aid.

"Goddy--Goddy," was her petition, "for the love of yer Christ ... and
the student."

Suddenly out upon the air rang the voice of one of Tessibel's friends.
The brindle bulldog from Kennedy's farm had heard the unequal race. With
short tail raised, his fat neck bristling with stubby hair, he started
for the tracks, as Tess did for the fence when she heard his growl. As
the girl came on and on, the dog bounded along the ground toward her.
Tess opened her lips and spoke sharply--and a pleased bark came in
response.

God had heard and answered her. One wild leap in the air, and the sound
of tearing clothes as her already tattered skirt came in contact with
the barbed wire--and Tess was crouching down in the safe-keeping of the
brindle bull. The dog whirled frantically around, licking her face. Fear
weakened her tongue--she could not speak--only little spasmodic sobs
burst from the parted lips. She caught the huge dog to her breast and
waited.

Ben Letts was on the tracks; she could hear his big chest heaving with
fast-coming breath. He halted on the other side of the fence.

Pete scented an enemy and straightened out his strong muscles like whip
cords, a hoarse growl coming from between his jaws.

Ben leaned over the fence with an oath.

"Ye'd better come away from him," he grunted threateningly. "Ye air
thinking the brute can save ye--but I'll put a bullet through his pate."

Tessibel knew that the man had no rifle with him; and by the time he
could g