Riders of the Purple Sage

k to the rustlers crowned the events of the last few days with a confounding climax. That she should not want to return to them staggered Venters. Presently

his first knowledge had come when he lifted a white face quivering in a convulsion of agony; he had heard God's name whispered by blood-stained

of life had made her, but upon the revelation of dark eyes that pierced the infinite, upon a few pitiful, halting words

ur name?"

she an

s wh

enough-j

t the tint of shame in her face, at the momentary drooping of long lashes. She might be a rustler's girl,

atter," he said. "But this mat

rider?" she

ds. But I lost my place-lost all I owned-and now

to Cottonwoods-or G

e. I shot that rustler who was with you. Sooner or later he'll be found, an

e me-

e-to

es

poke shortly with a kin

ispering grew difficult, so low and fain

ike to take you some place where I could wat

d-t

of your wound. It's a bad one. And-Bess, if you don't

fraid-to die. But I'd rath

d Venters, interru

ved in an a

you back to him or to C

beautiful as he had never seen or felt beauty. They were as dark blue as the sky at night. Then the flashing changed to a long, th

broken whisper just reached his

't worry-sleep

f change within him. It seemed to be a vague passing of old moods, a dim coalescing of new forces, a moment of inexplicable transition. He was both cast down and uplifte

ile or more to the opening of the valley, where lay the strange scrawled rocks. He did not, however, venture boldly out into the op

cended a gradual swell of smooth stone. It was hard, polished, and full of pockets worn by centuries of eddying rain-water. A hundred yards up began a line of grotesque cedar-tree

w the trees sprang from holes in the bare rock. Ages of rain had run down the slope, circling, eddying in depressions, wearing deep round holes. There had been dry seasons, accumulations of dust, wind-blown seeds, and cedars rose wonderfully out of solid rock. But th

its upper margin. He passed shady pockets half full of water, and, as he marked the location for possible future need, he reflected that

branch and threw it. He crippled the rabbit, which started to flounder up the slope. Venters did not wish to lose the meat, and he never allowed cr

higher up. More than once he jerked over to seize it, only in vain, for the rabbit by renewed effort eluded his grasp. Thus the chase continued on up the bare slope. The farther Venters climbed the more determin

yellow cliff that rose skyward, a huge scarred and cracked bulk. It frowned down upon him as if to forbid further ascent. Venters bent ove

sixteen. That number carried his glance to the top of his first bulging bench of cliff-base. Above, after a mor

ps, up to where the buttress of wall hid further sight of them. He knew that behind the corner of stone would be a cave or a crack which could never be suspected from below. Chance, that had sported with him of late, now directed him to a probable hiding-place. Again he laid aside his rifle, and, removing boots and belt, he began to walk up the steps. Like a mountain goat, he was agile,

e noticed tracks of wildcats and rabbits in the dusty floor. At every turn he expected to come upon a huge cavern full of little square stone houses

ard might jar the ponderous cliffs from their foundation. Indeed, it seemed that these ruined cliffs were but awaiting a breath of wind to collapse and come tumbling down. Venters hesitated. It would be a foolhardy man who risked his life under the leaning, waiting avalanches of rock in that gigantic split. Yet how many years had they leaned there without falling! At the bottom of the incline was an immense heap of weathered sandstone all crumbling to dust, but there were

ers. "I'll climb-I'll see where this

as smooth as marble. Finally he surmounted it, surprised to find the walls still several hundred feet high, and a narrow gorge leading down on the other side. This was a divide between two inclines, about twenty yards wide. At one side stood an enormous rock. Venters gave it a second glance, because it rested on a pedestal. It attracted closer attention. It was like a colossal pear of stone standing on its stem. Around the bottom were thousands of little nicks just distinguishable to the eye. They were marks of stone hatchets. The cliff-dwellers had

lanced perfectly, ready to be dislodged by strong hands. Just below it leaned a tottering crag that would have toppled, starting an avalanche on an acclivity where no sl

had to roll it. They died, vanished, and here the rock stands, probably little changed.... But it mig

rods. A gloom hung between the up-sweeping walls. In a turn the passage narrowed to scarce a dozen feet, and her

g, half that wide, and its enclosing walls were smooth and stained, and curved inward, forming great caves. He decided that its floor was far higher than the level of Deception Pass and the intersecting canyons. No purple sage colored this valley floor. Instead there were

r me," said Venters. "Only birds can peep ov

e needed no more aid to scale that place. As he intended to make the move under cover of darkness, he wanted most to be able to tell where to climb up. So, taking several small stones with him, he stepped and slid down to the edge of the slope where he had left his rifle and boots. He placed the stones some yards apart. He left the rabbit lying upon the bench where the steps began. Then he addressed a keen-sighted, remembering gaze to the rim-wall above. It was serrated, and between two spears of rock, directly in line with his position, showed a zigzag crack that at night would let through the gleam of sky. This

o the grassy glade near camp and head the whinny of a horse, that he had forgotten Wrangl

loom, but the others were not in sight. Venters whistled low for the dogs, and when they came trotting to him he sent them out to search for the horses, and followed. It soon developed that they were not in the

not catch the white oval of a still face. He bent over it with a slight suspension of breath that was both caution lest

rms. Wrangle whinnied and thumped the ground as Venters passed him with the dogs. The sorrel knew he was being left behind, and was not sure whether he liked it or not. Venters went on and entered the thicket. Here he had to feel his way in pitch blackness and to wedge his progress between the close saplings. Time

k gate of the canyon. Then he leaned against a stone breast-high to him and gently released the girl from his hold. His brow and hair and the palms of his hands were wet, and there was a kind of nervous contraction of his muscles. They seemed to ripple and string tense. He had

pe. Venters mounted it and his dogs walked beside him. Once upon the stone he slowed to snail pace, straining his sight to avoid the pockets and holes. Foot by foot he went up. The weird cedars, like great demons and witches chain

. What he feared was to reopen one of her wounds. If he gave her a violent jar, or slipped

aded into the over-shadowing wall. He scanned the rim where the serrated points speared the sky, and he found the

s slope had appeared interminable to him; now, burdened as he was, he did not think of length or height or toil. He remembered only to avoid a misstep and to keep his direction. He climbed on, with frequent stops to watch the ri

er white face upturned, she opened her eyes. Wide, staring black, at once

?" she ask

replied

here-a

ever find you. I must climb a little here and call

d to gain, but he could see dimly a few feet before him. What he had attempted with care he now went at with surpassing lightness. Buoyant, rapid, sure, he attained the corner of wall and slipped around it. Here

-come," he c

came up f

-Ring," he repeated

eet; and out of the gray gloom below him swiftly c

ope. He climbed as if he had wings, the strength of a giant, and knew not the sense of fear. The sharp corner of cliff seemed to cut out of the darkness. He reached it and the protruding shelf, and then, entering the black shade of the notch, he moved blindly but surely to the place where he had left the saddle-bags. He heard the dogs, though he could not see them. Once more he carefully p

girl's voice came l

onscious that his laboring b

e-in a

es

erfall!... I hear it! Y

swelled to a pitch almost softly shrill and t

-cliffs," he panted. "You'r

wn and drew his blanket over him the action was the last before utter prostration. He stretched inert, wet, hot, his body one great

wanted to think. Earlier in the day he had dismissed an inexplicable feeling of change; but now, when there was no longer demand on his cu

more radiant they seemed; but that was not the difference he meant. Gradually it came to him that the distinction was not one he saw, but one he felt. In this he divined as much of the baffling change as he th