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222 "Straight ahead, my man!" she said. "Make for the nearest pass through those hills yonder, and don't delay unless you're anxious for trouble."

The car began to move. The three men left in the desert made no effort to plead their cause. It was not until five minutes later that she realized what had made them so content to abide by her will.

Then she heard their voices lifted together in a howl that was quickly answered, first, by fainter yells from a distant quarter of the desert, then by a growing rumour of galloping hoofs.

The night glasses in the car afforded her glimpses of some six or seven horsemen making toward the spot where Marrophat, Hicks, and Jimmy waited beside a beacon which they had lighted.

Half a dozen sentences exchanged with the chauffeur advised her that these were horsemen from the town of Mesa who had charged themselves with the duty of avenging the death of Hopi Jim Slade, who had followed Rose and Barcus until these last eluded them in the duststorm; who had later effected a junction with the car and been purchased to the uses of her father.

The subsequent division of forces, it appeared, was due to the fact that two passes were available for escape by way of the southern hills. The horsemen had been designated to investigate and shut up the