The Border Legion

s as the coils of a snake. Then she was ready to faint, but she must not faint. She struggled away, stood free. It was the man Bill who had caught her. He said something that was unin

ls coming, leading her horse and his own. At sight of him a strange, swift

ts?" she

"Miss Randle, I had to take the

u-Is he

ave hurt somebody. He'll ride back to Hoadley and te

she wh

ing to ride out into the border-if it's possib

go home. Oh, pl

n't thin

will you-

ear, flawless, like crystal, without coldness, warmt

asked, wo

ectors over there are going to strike gold. Strike it

wholly believed him. As it was, a half doubt troubled her. She remembered the character Roberts had given this man. Still, she was recovering her nerve. It had been the certainty of disaster to Roberts that had

with a grin on his coarse red face, "you go b

s called after him: "And say, Bill, don't s

Haw!" lau

n Joan's ears. But she was used to violent

ide. You'll need all your strength. So I advise you to come quie

no sign of Roberts. Then more cedars intervened and the camp site was lost to view. When she glanced ahead her first thought was to take in the points of Kells's horse. She had been used to horses all her life. K

-tailed deer bounded out of the open spaces; and the gray-domed, glistening moun

soon he would make a rich gold-strike. What a roar and a stampede he would raise at her loss! The village camp might be divided on that score, she thought, because the few young women in that little settlement hated her, and the young men would have more peace without her. Suddenly her thought shifted to Jim Cleve, the cause of her present misfortune. She had forgotten Jim. In the interval somehow he had grown. Sweet to remember how he had fought for her and kept it secret! After all, she had misjudged him. She had hated him because she liked him. Maybe she did more! That gave her a shock. She recalled his kisses and then flamed all over. If she did not hate him she ought to. He had been so useless; he ran after her so; he was the laughing-stock of the village; his actions made her other admirers and friends believe she cared for him, was playing fast-and-loose with him. Still, there was a difference now. He had terribly transgressed. He had frightened her with threats of dire ruin

the miles of foot-hills were climbed and descended. A green gap of ca?o

on here and rest the horses," he said to Joan. "I can't say that you're

had a habit of close observation, and she thought that either the men with the packs had now one more horse than she remembered, or else she had not seen the extra one. Her attention shifted then. She watched Kells unsaddle the horses. He was wiry, muscular, quick with his hands. The big, blue-cylindered gun swung in front of him. That gun had a queer kind of attraction for her. The curved black butt made her think of a sharp grip of hand upon it. Kells did not hobble the ho

acks, Bill,"

Joan when Kells could not notice. Halloway whistled a Dixie tune. Then Bill took advantage of the absence of Kells, who went down to the brook

wimmen." Whereupon Halloway guffawed, and between them, in lower tones,

into you men

ed around, bluste

plied Bill. He showed that among wild, unham

liatory smile. "Bill sort of warms up. He jest can't help it. An' s

ose look at his eyes and again she was startled. They were not like eyes, but just gray

ack in the shade of an alderbush. A sailing shadow crossed near her, and, looking up, she saw an eagle flying above the ramparts of the ca?on. Then she had a drowsy spell, but she succumbed to it only to the extent of closing her eyes. Time dragged on. She would rather have been in the saddle. These men were l

d to have a preoccupied air that somehow did not fit the amiableness of his face. He looked gentle, good-natured; he was soft-spoken; he gave an impression of kindness. But Joan began to realize that he was not what he seemed. He had

lted in Bill's grasping back at her hand. She jerked it away, scarcely comprehending. Then all under the brown of his face she saw creep a dark, ruddy tide. He reached for her then-put his hand on her breast. It was an instinctiv

a quick step and a shar

CK!" cr

full in the face. The man fell, limp and heavy, and he lay there, with a bloody gash across h

" she cried. "He-

ck of an electric current. His face had not changed, but his eyes wer

ere's a trail. Go up the ca?on. I'll come presently. Don't ru

y. She only obeyed, conscious of some force that dominated her. Once she heard loud voices, then the shrill neigh of a horse. The trail swung under the left wall of the ca?on and ran along the noisy brook. She thought she heard shots and was st

bted all about him, save that subtle essence of violence, of ruthl

ng them and leading her pony. Nothing could be seen of the other men. Kells rapidly overhauled h

p," he

he bravely faced him. "W

mpany," he re

she per

it was because you were winning

egard!" Joan exc

groundless after his swift glance at her. Perhaps unconsciousness of his meaning, a simulated innocence, and ignorance might serve her with this strange man. She resolved to try it, to use all her woman's intuition and wit and cunning. Here was an edu

f the ransom I'm after," went on Kells, with a

imagine a mockery in it? Was there any reason to believe a word this man sai

of deer and cougar. The crashing of wild animals into the chaparral, and the scarcely frightened flight of rabbits and grouse attested to the wildness of the place. They passed an old tumbledown log cabin,

t a pack-horse. He resented that burden. He did not know how to swing it. This made her deeply thoughtful and she watched closer than ever. All at once there dawned on her the fact that the resemblance here was to Roberts's horse. She caught her breath and felt again that cold gnawing of fear within her. Then she closed her eyes the better to remember significant points about Roberts's sorrel-a white left front foot, an ol

utterly overwhelm her. And as she conquered the sickening weakness her mind quickened to the changed aspect of her situation. She understood Kells and the appalling nature of her peril. She did not know how she understood him now, but doubt had utterly fled. All was clear, real, grim, present. Like a child she had been deceived, for no reason she could see. That talk of ransom was false. Likewise Kells's assertion that he had parted company with Halloway and Bill because he would not

had been terrible enough, without the dread of worse. The truth of her capture, the meaning of it, were raw, shocking spurs to Joan Randle's intelligence and courage. Since she still lived, which was strange indeed in the illuminating light of her later insight into Kells and his kind, she had to meet him with all that was catlike and subtle and devilish at the command of a woman. She had to win him, foil him, kill him-or go to her death. She was no girl to be dragged into the mountain fastness by a desperado and made a playt