"I'd oughta worked it out," he grumbled. "There ain't any excuse for my swallowing what Jack Harpe told me. Lordy, I was easy."
"What do you care now? Everything's all right, and you've got me, haven't you?" And here she leaned across the bran sack to kiss him.
She could not understand why his return kiss lacked warmth.
* * * * *
"Sun's been up two hours," he announced. "And the hosses have had a good rest. We'd better be goin'."
"What are you climbing the tree for, then?" she demanded.
"I want to look over our back trail," he told her, clambering into the branches of a tall cedar. "I know we covered a whole heap of ground last night, but you never can tell."
Apparently you never could tell. For, when he arrived near the top of the cedar and looked out across a sea of treetops to the flat at the base of the mountain, he saw that which made him catch his breath and slide earthward in a hurry.
"What is it?" asked Molly in alarm at his expression.
"They picked up our trail somehow," he answered, whipping up a blanket and saddle and throwing both on her horse. "They're about three miles back on the flat just a-burnin' the ground."