And now they came to a surprising break in the trail. It twisted from
the floor of the valley up a steep slope, crossed the low crest of the
hills, and finally came out above a broad and open valley.

"What does he mean," said Bill Dozier aloud, "by breakin' for Jack
Merchant's house?"




CHAPTER 5


The yell with which Andrew Lanning had shot out of Martindale, and which
only Jasper Lanning had recognized, was no more startling to the men of
the village than it was to Andrew himself. Mingled in an ecstasy of
emotion, there was fear, hate, anger, grief, and the joy of freedom in
that cry; but it froze the marrow of Andy's bones to hear it.

Fear, most of all, was driving him out of the village. Just as he rushed
around the bend of the street he looked back to the crowd of men
tumbling upon their horses; every hand there would be against him. He
knew them. He ran over their names and faces. Thirty seconds before he
would rather have walked on the edge of a cliff than rouse the anger of
a single one among these men, and now, by one blow, he had started them
all after him.

Once, as he topped the rise, the folly of attempting to escape from
their long-proved cunning made him draw in on the rein a little; but the
horse only snorted and shook his head and burst into a greater effort of