What Lassiter could do another skilful tracker might duplicate.

Among the many riders with whom Venters had ridden he recalled no one who could have taken his trail at Cottonwoods and have followed it to the edge of the bare slope in the pass, let alone up that glistening smooth stone.

Lassiter, however, was not an ordinary rider.
Instead of hunting cattle tracks he had likely spent a goodly portion of his life tracking men.

It was not improbable that among Oldring's rustlers there was one who shared Lassiter's gift for trailing.

And the more Venters dwelt on this possibility the more perturbed he grew.
Lassiter's visit, moreover, had a disquieting effect upon Bess, and Venters fancied that she entertained the same thought as to future seclusion.