convulsion of fear. She had seen men fight, but never to the death.
Roberts crouched like a wolf at bay. There was a madness upon him.
He shook like a rippling leaf. Suddenly his shoulder lurched--his
arm swung.

Joan wheeled away in horror, shutting her eyes, covering her ears,
running blindly. Then upon her muffled hearing burst the boom of a
gun.




3

Joan ran on, stumbling over rocks and brush, with a darkness before
her eyes, the terror in her soul. She was out in the cedars when
someone grasped her from behind. She felt the hands 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 unintelligible. She reached for the snag
of a dead cedar and, leaning there, fought her weakness, that cold
black horror which seemed a physical thing in her mind, her blood,
her muscles.

When she recovered enough for the thickness to leave her sight she
saw Kells coming, leading her horse and his own. At sight of him a
strange, swift heat shot through her. Then she was confounded with
the thought of Roberts.

"Ro--Roberts?" she faltered.