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betrayal of terror and knowledge and self

The scene of her isolation had a curious fascination for her

So--and she shuddered--was to happen to her here in this

lonely, silent gorge There were some flat stones made into a rude

seat under the balsam-tree, and a swift, yard-wide streaainst the tree, Joan went

closer A card, the ace of hearts, had been pinned to the bark by a

small cluster of bullet-holes, every one of which touched the red

heart, and one of them had obliterated it Below the circle of

bulletholes, scrawled in rude letters with a lead-pencil, was the

nahts back, when Jim Cleve had

ined

they were actual men she was to meet and fear! And here she was the

prisoner of one of the cabin was merely a shed, without fireplace or

, and the floor was a covering of balsa dried

out and withered A dim trail led away froe of trails, this one had not seen the imprint of a

horse track forplace, one of those, perhaps, that caossip said was

inaccessible to any save a border hawk Joan knew that only an

Indian could follow the tortuous and rocky trail by which Kells had

brought her in She would never be tracked there by her own people