CHAPTER TWENTY.
KIDNAPPED Lorraine had once had a nasty fall from riding down hill at a gallop.
She remembered that accident and permitted Snake to descend Granite Ridge at a walk, which was fortunate, since it gave the horse a chance to recover a little from the strain of the terrific pace at which she had ridden him that morning.

At first it had been fighting fury that had impelled her to hurry; now it was fear that drove her homeward where Lone was, and Swan, and that stolid, faithful Jim.

She felt that Senator Warfield would never dare to carry out his covert threat, once she reached home.

Nevertheless, the threat haunted her, made her glance often over her shoulder.
At the Thurman ranch, which she was passing with a sickening memory of the night when she and Swan had carried her father there, Al Woodruff rode out suddenly from behind the stable and blocked the trail, his six-shooter in his hand, his face stony with determination.

Lorraine afterwards decided that he must have seen or heard her coming down the ridge and had waited for her there.