How's she making out? Full of fight and hope to the last,
I'll bet."
"They had me under herd; but she was wishing for the Bar Cross buddies
to butt in, I believe. Reckon your sheriff-man guessed it. He had her
under guard, too."
"Nice man, the sheriff! How'd you get away from your herder?"
"He don't just remember," said Pringle.
"Who was it?"
"Applegate. Dreadful absent-minded, Applegate is. Ouch! There went my
other shin. Had any sleep?"
"Most all night. Something woke me up about two hours ago, and I kept
on the look-out ever since."
"That was me, I guess. I had to step lively. They was crowding me."
"If the Bar Cross happened to get word," observed Foy thoughtfully,
"we might stand some hack. But they won't. It's good-by, vain world,
for ours! Say, in case a miracle happens for you, just make a memo
about the sheriff being a nuisance, will you?"
"I'll tie a string on my finger. Anything else?"
"You might stick around and cheer Stella up a little. I'll do as much
for you sometime. I'm thinking she'll feel pretty bad at first. Here
we are!"
A faint glimmer showed ahead. They crawled under low bushes and
stumbled out, in what seemed at first a dazzle of light; into a
small saucer-shaped plat of earth a few feet across, enclosed by
an irregular oval made by great blocks of stone, man-high.
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