The Uphill Climb

e this Part

dled and bridled, with reins dragging; the telltale, upward toss of its head when it started on to find a swee

ght have turned him loose to feed, but if that were the case, he had strayed farther than was ever intended; the chances, since no human being was in sight, were all against de

hat he might ride down into it and climb the bank beyond-when he saw a head and pair of shoulders moving slowly along, just over the brow of the hill w

iately pictured to himself puckered eyebrows and lips pressed tightly together. "And I'll bet

no longer for an easy crossing. He glanced up and down the washout, saw no more promising poin

t flung forward to catch the bank beyond, he knew it better. And when, after a sickening minute of frenzied sc

like gully ten feet deep, and there was nothing to do but follow it to where they might climb out. Ford was worried about the girl, and made a futile attempt to stand in th

rew always deeper; and then, without any warning, it stopped abruptly upon a coulée's rim, with jumbled rocks and between them a sheer descent to the slope below. Ford guessed the

ank, as Ford pulled him round, and retraced his steps. It was too rough for riding, even if he had not wanted to save th

g heavily beside him, Ford knew that, for all the good there was in him at present, he might as well have left him at the bottom. He walked around him, rubbing leg and shoulder muscles until he located the hurt, and shook his head

t he recognized at last the undulating outline of the ridge over which she had appeared, and made what haste he co

ncealed by a clump of low rose bushes. She was not unconscious, as he had thought, but was crying silently, wi

which was very slight in itself but none the less eloquent and unmistakable. Ford backed

ad and looked at

t in fumbling unseen hairpins and in straightening her hat. "I don't know

ver the hill, after your horse, and I saw you fall down and stay down.

cusingly, with a measuring glance at the s

't know this part of the country, and I went down it instead

down over one spurred foot with a truly feminine instinct, before she answered him. She seemed to be thinkin

et back to the ranch. I suppose they'll hunt me up if I stay away long enough-but

solute helplessness, more than at what she said. "A

as if she grudged yielding even that much to circum

e you're in trouble," he hinted irrel

ching him from under her lashes. "And I can't help sh

law of the open-to help a fellow out in a pinch. When I h

riously. "Then

ry and a stranger to you. I'm perfectly willing to stay that way, if you prefer. I'm not trying to scrape acquaintance on the strength of your being in trouble; but

at last, and Ford gave a shrug at her apparent obstinacy and turned away to where Rambler stood with his head drooped and his eyes half closed. He pi

I am, it would seem," the girl obser

re. We went to the bottom and it took me quite a while to find a way out. That's why I was so long getting her

xpect to help any one else, with your horse in that condition," she added. And when

his country. I was heading for the

y we would have to go to get there. There are other washouts

Ford suppl

pardon? Yo

lf with a tart distinctness. A late, untoward incident had m

lacken your eye, Mr. Campbell, wh

bent over the fore ankles of Rambler, trying to discover other sprains. He felt that he was going to dislike this girl very much before he succeeded in gettin

been fighting a wi

g full at her with lowering brows. "It seems to me the only subject whic

uspect her of being secretly amused. He began also mentally to accuse her of not being too badly hurt to walk, if she wanted to; indeed, his skepticism we

t, as she no doubt knew the shortest way to the neares

ing up at him from where sh

expect me to carry you." Ford's

oo great a favor to suggest t

d to her, irritated to the point where

if I had to haze him all over the count

red seed-ball off the bush nearest her and was n

s holding himself rigidly hac

eed-ball and began upon it. "He should be somewher

, since the trail ran more or less in that direction. Without a word to the girl, or a glance toward her, he started up the hill, hoping to get his bearings and a sight of the horse from the top. He could not remember when he had been so angry with a woman. "If

tude, and he knitted his brows over the contrast between it and her manner when he left her. "I don't suppose a woman knows, herself, what she means,

ad said at first about being afraid of coyotes. And, although the storm of three days ago had been swept into mere memory by that sudden chinook wind, and the days

d a coyote trotting leisurely up the farther slope. He went farther down the shallow coulée, then up to the high level beyond, his rope coiled loosely over one arm with the end dragging a foot behind him. Bu

sting any time over her horse, and to fear that he might not be a

ness come quickly. He found it difficult to tell exactly at which point he had crossed the ridge, coming over; and although experience in the open develops in a man a certain animal instinct for directions handed down by our primitive ancestry, Ford went wide in his anx

remarked to the dark shadow of the rose bushes. "I'll put you on mine. It will b

ered at the spot where he knew she must be. "If you want to try it, we'd better be

ave been just there, under his hands; or, he thought, she may have moved to some other spot, and be waiting in the dark to see what he would do. His palms touched the pressed grasses where she had been, but h

ess all around him. While it burned he looked for her, and when it grew to black cinders and was near to scorching his hand, he made another and looked farther. He laid aside his dignity and called, and wh

went back to the horse, and urged him to limp up the hill. He did not say anything then or think anything much; at least, he did not think coh

of meat, and the doe meant all that hot venison steaks and rich, brown gravy can mean to a man meat-hungry. While he unsheathed his hunting knife, he gloated over the feast he would have, that n

isaster-rather a relief, if anything-he felt that same wordless rage, the same sense of utter chagrin. She h

nearest point of the coulée he had crossed in searching for the girl's horse, and made for it. He had n

spring, and was warming his wet hands over a little fire when the first gl

osses my trail, she goes and disappears off the face of the earth!" He fumbled for his tobacco and papers. It was a "dry camp" he was

n spare this particular girl just as easy as

lowing apart the thin lea

y on a man that was just trying to help her out of a fix. W