te
shut. He pulled it back, and clucked to the horses, seeing that she
did not start them.

Mary Warren knew nothing of horses. It seemed to her that the correct
thing to do was to drop the reins loosely, shaking them a little. The
half wild horses, with their uncanny brute sense, knew the absence of a
master, and took instant advantage of the knowledge. With one will
they sprang, lunged, and started forward, plunging. Mary Warren
dropped the lines.

"_Sit still there_!" she heard a voice call out imperatively. Then,
"Whoa! damn you, whoa now!"

She could see nothing, but sensed combat. Sim Gage had sprung forward
and caught the cheek strap of the nearest horse. It reared and struck
out wildly. She heard an exclamation, as though of pain, but could not
see him as he swung across to the other horse and caught his fingers in
its nostrils, still calling out to them, imperiously, in the voice of a
commander.

At length they halted, quieted. She heard his voice speaking brokenly.
"Set still where you are, ma'am. I'll tie 'em."

"You're hurt!" she called out. "It was my fault."

"I'm all right. Just you set still."

Apparently he finished fastening the horses to something. She heard
him come to the end of the seat, knew that he was reaching up his arms
to help her down. But when she swung her weight from the seat she felt
him wince.

"One of 'em caught me on the knee," he admitted. "It was my new pants,
too."

She could not see his face, gray with pain now under the dust.

"It's all my fault--I didn't dare tell you--I don't know anything about
horses. I don't know anything about anything out here!"

"Take hold of my left hand coat sleeve," he answered to her confession.
"We'll walk on into the yard. Keep hold of me, and I'll keep hold of
them horses. I'll look out if they jump."

For some reason of their own the team became less fractious. He limped
along the road, his hand at the bit of the more vicious. She could
feel him limp.

"You're hurt--they did jump on you!" she reiterated.

"Knee's busted some, but we'll git along. Don't you mind. Anyhow,
we're here. Now, you go off, a little ways--it's all level here--and
I'll unhitch these critters."

"That's the barn over there," he added, pointing in a direction which
she could not see. "Plain trail between the house and the corral gate.
On beyond is my hay lands and the willers along the creek. There's a
sort of spring thataway"--a