moonlight. And across the valley I seen two little shadows slidin',
smooth and steady. It was Dan and Satan and Black Bart!"

"Buck!"

"My heart, it stood plumb still! I gives my hoss the spurs and we went
down the next slope. And I don't remember nothin' except that we got to
the Circle K Bar after a million years, 'most, and when we got there the
piebald flops on the ground--near dead. But I made the change and
started off agin, and that next hoss was even better than the piebald--a
sure goer! When he started I could tell by his gait what he was, and I
looked up at the sky----"

He stopped, embarrassed.

"And thanked God, Buck?"

"Kate, I ain't ashamed if maybe I did. But since then I ain't seen or
heard Dan, but all the time I rode I was expecting to hear his whistle
behind me, close up."

All the life died from her face.

"No, Buck, if he'd a followed all the way he would have caught you in
spite of your relay. No, I understand what happened. After a while he
remembered that Mac Strann was waiting for him back in Brownsville. And
he left your trail to be taken up later and went back to Brownsville.
You didn't see him follow you after you left the Circle X Bar?"

"No. I didn't dare look back. But somehow I knew he was comin'."