She shook her head.

"He won't come, Buck. He'll go back to meet Mac Strann--and then----"
She ran to the chair of Buck swiftly and caught his hands: "What sort of
a man is Mac Strann?"

But Buck smiled strangely up into her face.

"Does it make any difference," he said, "to Dan?"

She went slowly back to her place.

"No," she admitted, "no difference."

"If you came by relays for twenty-four hours," said the doctor,
numbering his points upon accurate fingertips, "it is humanly impossible
that this man could have followed you very closely. It will probably
take him another day to arrive."

But here his glance fell upon old Joe Cumberland, and found the
cattleman smiling faintly to himself.

Buck Daniels was considering the last remark seriously.

"No," he said, "it _ain't_ possible. Besides, what Kate says may be
true. She ought to know--she says he'll wait for Mac Strann. I didn't
think of that; I thought I was savin' Dan from another--well, what a
damn fool I been!"