"
The half-breed relieved her of the horses and Alice rushed to the side
of Endicott who had reined his horse out of the water and dismounted
stiffly.
"Oh, Winthrop!" she cried joyfully. "Then they didn't hang you,
and----"
Endicott laughed: "No, they didn't hang me but they put a lot of local
colour into the preliminaries. I certainly thought my time had come,
when friend Tex here gave the word to throw off the rope." The girl
flashed a grateful glance into the face of the Texan who sat his horse
with the peculiar smile curling his lips.
"Oh, how can I ever thank you?" she cried impulsively. "I think you
are just _splendid_! And I'll never, _never_ distrust you again. I've
been a perfect fool and----"
"Yes," answered the man gruffly, and Alice noticed that the smile was
gone from his lips. "But you ain't out of the woods yet. Bat's got
that horse packed an' as soon as Winthrup, there, can crawl up the side
of that bronc we better be hittin' the trail. If we can make the
timber at the head of Cow Creek divide by daylight, we can slip down
into the bad lands tomorrow night."
Endicott painfully raised a foot to the stirrup, and the Texan turned
abruptly to the girl.
"Can you make it?" he asked. She replied with an eager affirmative and
the Texan shot her a glance of approval as he watched her mount, for
well he knew that she must have fared very little better than Endicott
in the matter of aching muscles.
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