intense disapproval of this halt. When Alcatraz actually started back
towards the place where the cowpunchers had dropped the pursuit, she
threw herself across his way, striving to turn him with bared teeth and
flirting heels.

He merely kept a weaving course to avoid her, his head high and his ears
back, which was a manner the mare had never seen in him before; she
could only tell that she was less than nothing to him. Once she strove
to draw back by running a little distance west and then turning and
calling him but her whinny made him not so much as shake his head. At
length she surrendered and sullenly took up his trail.

He roved swiftly across the hollows; he sneaked up to every commanding
rise as though he feared the guns of men might be just beyond the crest
and these tactics continued until they came in view of the small row of
black figures riding against the sunset. The grey halted at once,
rearing and snorting, for the sight brought again that hateful smell of
blood but her leader moved quietly after the cowpunchers; he was taking
the man-trail!

It was arduous work, frisking from one point of vantage to another,
never knowing when the Great Enemy might turn. They could make death
speak from the distance of half a mile; under shelter of the hills they
might even double back to close range; they might be luring him by the
pretense that he was unseen.

In such maneuvers the mare was a dangerous encumbrance, for though she
had fallen into the spirit of the thing at once and never uttered even
the faintest whinny yet it would be far easier for the men to hear and
see two than to detect one. Alcatraz strove to drive her back,