His heart beat rapidly as it approached.

She was there! But at her side, as she descended from the coach, was the mysterious horseman of the Sierra road.

Key could not mistake the well-built figure, whatever doubt there had been about the features, which had been so carefully concealed.

With the astonishment of this rediscovery, there flashed across him again the fatefulness of the inspiration which had decided him not to go in the coach.

His presence there would have no doubt warned the stranger, and so estopped this convincing denouement.