I'll watch for Lassiter and ride in with him." "Good night." Then she left him and moved away, a white, gliding shape that soon vanished in the shadows.
Venters waited until the faint slam of a door assured him she had reached the house, and then, taking up his rifle, he noiselessly slipped through the bushes, down the knoll, and on under the dark trees to the edge of the grove.

The sky was now turning from gray to blue; stars had begun to lighten the earlier blackness; and from the wide flat sweep before him blew a cool wind, fragrant with the breath of sage.

Keeping close to the edge of the cottonwoods, he went swiftly and silently westward.

The grove was long, and he had not reached the end when he heard something that brought him to a halt.

Low padded thuds told him horses were coming this way.