In another moment she had seen Aldous and Joanne, and was running toward them.
They advanced to meet her.

Suddenly Aldous stopped, and with a sharp warning to Joanne he threw his rifle half to his shoulder, and faced the rocks from which the speeding figure had come.

In that same instant they both recognized her.

It was Marie, the woman who had ridden the bear at Tete Jaune, and with whom Mortimer FitzHugh had bought Joe DeBar! She staggered up to them, panting, exhausted, her breath coming in gulping sobs.

For a moment she could not speak.