Even as she realized the completeness of her surrender, the Sergeant, relaxing none of his watchfulness, checked his pony so that they could ride onward side by side.
"We will follow the trail back," he explained, glancing aside at her face.

"It is easier to follow than to strike out for ourselves across the open." "Where does it lead ?" "To an old cow-camp on the Cimarron.

There is a trooper there waiting.
Shall I tell you the story ?" "I wish you would." "And then I am to have yours in return--everything ?" "Yes," she said, and their eyes met.

"There is nothing to conceal--from you." He told his tale simply, and in few words; how he had missed, and sought after her in Dodge; how that searching had led directly to the discovery of crime, and finally the revealment of Major McDonald's body.

He told of his efforts at organizing a party to follow the fugitives, inspired by a belief that she was a prisoner, of the trip through the blizzard, and of how he had succeeded in outstripping Dupont in the race.
The girl listened silently, able from her own experience to fill in the details of that relentless pursuit, which could not be halted either by storm or bullets.