The Ely miner., 1937-11-11
CHAPTER XI-COntinued

| COulQ 90 queer tnnSS 10 IIldIi
whose head wasn't too strong in the
first place. Lon Magoon, half out
law, half sneak-thief, all coyote,
might have turned at last into some
thing which must be destroyed at
sight, without hesitation.
Then he walked to the dead horse
and roughly verified the angle of
the shot; then turned and began to
climb the canyon slope.
''Billy, come back! You can't"
"You stay down." he ordered her
savagely. "Or by God, I'll tie you
down with my pigging-string!"
1t would have been easy then to
walk into gunfire, easy to shoot it
out with an ambushed man. AL
ways keeping his eye on Marian's
position, he searched those upper
slopes, backward, forward, and
quartering. But what happened to
him was the one hardest thing of
ALTO find the broken country emp
ty and silent, with nothing in it to
fight or trail.
In the end he could only go back
to the girl with no result to show,
and no assurance as to what was
ahead. He would not have been sur
prised, when he turned his back on
that emptiness, if gun had spoken
from a place where no one was,
and brought him down.
mo catchum," he told Marian.
She had not stayed under cover,
but was sitting on a rock, a little
apart from her dead horse. No use
quarreling with her over that; she
had already proved to him that he
couldn't control anything she chose
to do. He put himself between her
and the rim. 'It's long walk
back" he said morosely. 'That's
my fault. I'm not used to this stuff,
or / wouldn't have lost my pony.
When I saw your horse drop-I lost
my head, guess"
Because it was l." she said with
an unexpected, deep-striking clarity.
''We'd better get going, think. T"
eve can't go on? And get"
"That must have been the man
we were after, that killed your
horse"
She drew a deep breath, and stood
up. For a moment she looked all
about her, upward at the high, tow
ering rims. Then suddenly he saw
her sway.
He stepped forward in time to
steady her with his hands on her
arms. And now he found that she
was trembling violently. Her face
was white, making her eyes look
enormous, and very dark. Billy
| I'm afraid" She sat down on the
rock again, as if her knees would
not hold her up.
mo more danger, child. It's all
over, and he's gone"
''But who could it be? Why should
he want to-hurt me?"
"I-I don't know that. I can't
imagine any living thing wanting to
hurt you. 1 swear, by la Madre de
Dios!-he'n pay for it if I live to
find him. Now don't you be afraid
any more. It's all over, for now" /"
The tears began to roll down her
face, and she hid them with her
hands. Quickly he looked about him,
checking the throw of the land. Then
he lifted her up and led her to a
pocket gully at the foot of the pre-
cipitous north slope. When he had
made sure that searching lead could
not reach them here, he got the
blanket from her dead pony, and
spread it for her to rest upon; and
gathered bits of dead brush to build
tiny fire. Striking fire kind of
seems like setting up mark" he
apologized. 'But you're plenty safe
If you stay close under the rock
split. Now you take it easy. Well
rest here an hour or so; then We'll
go back"
Marian drew up her knees, and hid
her eyes against them. One of her
hands reached out to him uncer-
tainly, and he took it. Her fingers
were moist and cold, with a tremor
in them; he warmed them between
his hands, noticing how huge his
hands were made to look by her slim
fingers.
Presently she looked up, shook her
head sharply, and drew away her
hand. 'I'm all right now. Did you
ever see such silliness?"
"Rest easy. We've got lots of
time"
The dusk had closed more rapidly
at the last, and little light was left
in the sky; but a moon was rising
behind high point of rocks, sill
houetting crag that looked like a
horses head.
He noticed how huge it looked, as
moons do when they are low to the
earth. The horse-head crag had a
400-foot profile, but it looked little
against the moon, which was made
to look bigger than mountain, big
ger than a range.
"You know" he said, cts funny
how badly things work out; never
the way you want them to be. Many
and many night, lying out in the
hills, watching my fire-like this
I've thought about how it would be,
if you were there. How I'd get you
to like these hills, and the coyotes
talking, and the smell of smoke in
your hair-you know, foolish stuff. -
81 do love the hills" she said.
He shook his head. '"This isn't
it. This isn't right. You ought to
be able to lie by your fire and smell
pine timber. And that crick out
there ought to have water running
in it. You sit and listen to running
water, and pretty soon you get to
hear voices in it; sometimes you
lie awake for hours trying to get
what they say. But what's more to
the point, there's likewise trout in
the water. There ought to be nice
pan of trout frying, here on the
fire."
"You fit with things like that, you