Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/118

 him she bravely promised the dog that the next day he would surely come.

Many doubts had arisen in her mind; the possible failure of her letter to reach him or the chance that some mishap had befallen the old man on his long trip across the treacherous snow combs of the peaks.

She still dreaded the cry that sounded every few nights in the canyon but restlessness at last forced her away from the cabin in the daytime. She took long tramps with Flash, climbing to some commanding point from which she could scan the surrounding country. She explored their own immediate vicinity but not until a week after her arrival at the cabin did she venture into new territory.

Then one afternoon she turned downstream. The canyon gradually widened until it shaded into another at right angles a mile below the cabin. Here the two streams forked into one. The girl climbed the high ridge on the opposite side and looked down upon a still wider valley.

A sudden storm swept down across the divide, and she sought shelter under an overhanging ledge.

The rain fell in torrents and the lightning flashed and cracked until it seemed to play along