And he remembered how white and still it had once looked in the starlight.

And again stern thought fought his strange fancies.

Would all his labor and his love be for naught?
Would he lose her, after all?
What did the dark shadow around her portend?
Did calamity lurk on that long upland trail through the sage?
Why should his heart swell and throb with nameless fear?
He listened to the silence and told himself that in the broad light of day he could dispel this leaden-weighted dread.
At the first hint of gray over the eastern rim he awoke Bess, saddled the burros, and began the day's travel.

He wanted to get out of the Pass before there was any chance of riders coming down.

They gained the break as the first red rays of the rising sun colored the rim.
For once, so eager was he to get up to level ground, he did not send Ring or Whitie in advance.