There came the first slopes, the talus of strewn, broken, disintegrating rock, and then the first of the cliffs.  Now the sheriff rode in the fore and Virginia kept her frowning eyes always upon his form leading the way.  They entered the broad mouth of a ravine, found an uneven trail, were swallowed up by its utter and impenetrable blackness.

“Give Persis her head,” Norton advised her.  “She’ll find her way and follow me.”

His voice, low-toned as it was, stabbed through the silence, startling her, coming unexpectedly out of the void which had drawn him and his horse gradually beyond the quest of her straining eyes.  She sighed, sat back in her saddle, relaxed, and loosened her reins.

For an hour they climbed almost steadily, winding in and out.  Now, high above the bed of the gorge, the darkness had thinned about them; more than once the girl saw the clear-cut silhouette of man and beast in front of her or swerving off to right or left.  When, after a long time, he spoke again he was waiting for her to come up with him.  He had dismounted, loosened the cinch of his saddle and tied his horse to a stunted, twisted tree in a little flat.

“We have to go ahead on foot now,” he told her as he put out his hand to help her down.  And then as they stood side by side:  “Tired much?”

“No,” she answered.  “I was just in the mood to ride.”

He took down the rope from her saddle strings, tied Persis, and, saying briefly, “This way,” again went on.  She kept her place almost at his heels, now and again accepting the hand he offered as their way grew steeper underfoot.  Half an hour ago she knew that they had swerved off to the left, away from the deep gorge into whose mouth they had ridden so far below; now she saw that they were once more drawing close to the steep-walled canon.  Its emptiness, black and sinister, lay between them and a group of bare peaks which stood up like cathedral spires against the sky.

“This would be simple enough in the daytime,” Norton told her during one of their brief pauses.  “In the dark it’s another matter.  Not tired out, are you?”

“No,” she assured him the second time, although long ago she would have been glad to throw herself down to rest, were their errand less urgent.

“We’ve got some pretty steep climbing ahead of us yet,” he went on quietly.  “You must be careful not to slip.  Oh,” and he laughed carelessly, “you’d stop before you got to the bottom, but then a drop of even half a dozen feet is no joke here.  If you’ll pardon me I’ll make sure for you.”

With no further apology or explanation he slipped the end of a rope about her waist, tying it in a hard knot.  Until now she had not even known that he had brought a rope; now she wondered just how hazardous was the hidden trail which they were travelling; if it were in truth but the matter of half a dozen feet which she would fall if she slipped?  He made the other end of the short tether fast about his own body, said “Ready?” and again she followed him closely.