A canyon night-hawk voiced his lonely, weird, and melancholy cry, and it seemed to pierce and mark the silence.

A pale star, peering out of a sky that had begun to turn blue, marked the end of twilight.  And all the purple shadows moved and hovered and changed till, softly and mysteriously, they embraced black night.

Beautiful, wild, strange, silent Surprise Valley!  Shefford saw it before and beneath him, a dark abyss now, the abode of loneliness.  He imagined faintly what was in Fay Larkin’s heart.  For the last time she had seen the sun set there and night come with its dead silence and sweet mystery and phantom shadows, its velvet blue sky and white trains of stars.

He, who had dreamed and longed and searched, found that the hour had been incalculable for him in its import.

XVII.  THE TRAIL TO NONNEZOSHE

When Shefford awoke next morning and sat up on his bed of pinyon boughs the dawn had broken cold with a ruddy gold brightness under the trees.  Nas Ta Bega and Lassiter were busy around a camp-fire; the mustangs were haltered near by; Jane Withersteen combed out her long, tangled tresses with a crude wooden comb; and Fay Larkin was not in sight.  As she had been missing from the group at sunset, so she was now at sunrise.  Shefford went out to take his last look at Surprise Valley.

On the evening before the valley had been a place of dusky red veils and purple shadows, and now it was pink-walled, clear and rosy and green and white, with wonderful shafts of gold slanting down from the notched eastern rim.  Fay stood on the promontory, and Shefford did not break the spell of her silent farewell to her wild home.  A strange emotion abided with him and he knew he would always, all his life, regret leaving Surprise Valley.

Then the Indian called.

“Come, Fay,” said Shefford, gently.

And she turned away with dark, haunted eyes and a white, still face.

The somber Indian gave a silent gesture for Shefford to make haste.  While they had breakfast the mustangs were saddled and packed.  And soon all was in readiness for the flight.  Fay was given Nack-yal, Jane the saddled horse Shefford had ridden, and Lassiter the Indian’s roan.  Shefford and Nas Ta Bega were to ride the blanketed mustangs, and the sixth and last one bore the pack.  Nas Ta Bega set off, leading this horse; the others of the party lined in behind, with Shefford at the rear.

Nas Ta Bega led at a brisk trot, and sometimes, on level stretches of ground, at an easy canter; and Shefford had a grim realization of what this flight was going to be for these three fugitives, now so unaccustomed to riding.  Jane and Lassiter, however, needed no watching, and showed they had never forgotten how to manage a horse.  The Indian back-trailed yesterday’s path for an hour, then headed west to the left, and entered a low pass.  All parts