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After crawling on her hands and knees for several yards, Rhoda rose and started on a run down the long slope to the open desert But after a few steps she found running iroith cholla and yucca with here and there a thicker growth of cat's-claw
Alht gratefully for the first time of her buckskin trousers which valiantly resisted all detaining thorns The way dropped rapidly and after her first wild spurt Rhoda leaned exhausted and panting against a boulder She had not the vaguest idea of where she was going or of what she was going to do, except that she was going to lose herself so thoroughly that not even Kut-le could find her After that she was quite willing to trust to fate
After a short rest she started on, every sense keen for the sound of pursuit, but none came As the silent minutes passed Rhoda became elated How easy it was! What a pity that she had not tried before! At the foot of the slope, she turned up the arroyo Here her course grew heavier The arroyo was cut by deep ruts and gullies dohich the girl slid and tumbled in mad haste only to find rock masses over which she craith ut boots were pierced by chollas and, half frantic in her haste, she was forced to stop and struggle to pull out the thorns
It was not long before the girl's scant strength was gone, and when after a round, she was too done up to rise She lay face to the stars, half sobbing with excitement and disappointment After a ti She kne that until she was inured to the desert and had a working knowledge of its ways, escape was impossible She must bide her time and wait for her friends to rescue her She had no idea how far she had come froain she could not guess If he did not, then unless a white stumbled on her she must die in the desert Well then, let it be so! The old lethargy closed in on her and she lay ht howls of the coyote packs circling nearer and nearer Nothing could more perfectly interpret the horrible desolation of the desert, Rhoda thought, than the de she lay she neither knew nor cared But just as she fancied that the coyotes had drawn so near that she could hear their footsteps, a hand was laid on her arm