The cattle trail wound for miles and miles down the slope.

Venters saw with a rider's keen vision ten, fifteen, twenty miles of clear purple sage.

There were no on-coming riders or rustlers to aid Card.

His only chance to escape lay in abandoning the stolen horses and creeping away in the sage to hide.

In ten miles Wrangle could run Black Star and Night off their feet, and in fifteen he could kill them outright.