the lure of Terry, and, quite
gay about it, they sped away through the moonlight. While Terry,
driver, perforce kept her eyes busied with the road, Steve Packard
leaned back in his seat and contented himself with the vision of his
fellow adventurer.

"Terry Temple," he told her emphatically and utterly sincerely, "you
are absolutely the prettiest thing I ever saw."

"I'm not a thing," said Terry. "And besides, I know it already.
And----"

Then it was that they got their first puncture; a worn tire cut through
by a sharp fragment of rock so that they heard the air gush out
windily. Terry jammed on her brakes. Steve jumped out and made hasty
examination.

"Looks like a man had gone after it with a hand-ax," he announced
cheerfully. "Good thing you've got a spare."

Terry flung down from her seat impatiently.

"I need some new tires," she said, as she from one side and he from the
other began seeking in the tool-box under the seat for jack and wrench.
"That spare is soft, too, and half worn through; I'll bet we get more
than one puncture before the job's done. But it's mounted, anyway."

Steve went down on his knee and began jacking the car up; Terry
standing over him was busy with her wrench loosening the lugs at the
rim. Then, while he made the exchange and tightened the nuts, she
strapped the punctured tire in its carrier and slipped back into her
seat. As Steve got in beside her he marked how speculatively her eyes
were busied with the road.

"We've got them behind us, haven't we?" he asked.

Terry nodded quickly.

"Yes. We've got the head start and they're on horseback. It's no
trick to beat them to it. But-- Oh, I saw a look on Blenham's face
to-night! He's bad, Steve Packard; all bad; the kind that stops at
nothing! And somehow, somehow he's got a strangle-hold on poor old dad
and is making him do this. We've got the head start, we can beat them
to Red Creek, but----"

"But you don't like the idea of leaving your father alone in Blenham's
company to-night?" he finished for her. "Is that it?"

Again she nodded. He could see her teeth set to nibbling at her lips.

"Then," he suggested, "why go to Red Creek at all? Why not turn back
here and stop them? You can take Mr. Temple back home with you. I
imagine that between the two of us we can make Blenham understand he is
not wanted this time."

"I was thinking of that," said Terry.

And where the Ranch Number Ten road runs into the