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Roberts brought the borrowed blanket and several saddle-blankets

over to where Joan was, and laying thean to kick and

scrape stones and brush aside

"Pretty rocky place, this here is," he said "Reckon you'll sleep

so the blankets into a bed Presently Joan felt

a tug at her riding-skirt She looked down

"I'll be right by you," he whispered, with his big hand to his

oin' to sleep none"

Whereupon he returned to the camp-fire Presently Joan, not because

she was tired or sleepy, but because she wanted to act naturally,

lay down on the bed and pulled a blanket up over her There was no

le of spurs and

the rustle of cedar brush By and by Roberts ca his saddle, and lay down near her Joan raised up a little

to see Kells motionless and absorbed by the fire He had a strained

and tense position She sank back softly and looked up at the cold

bright stars What was going to happen to her? Soht shadows, the silence, the presence of strange men,

all told her And a shudder that was a thrill ran over and over her

She would lie awake It would be impossible to sleep And suddenly

into her full mind flashed an idea to slip away in the darkness,

find her horse, and so escape frohts for a long while If she had not been used to

Western ways she would have tried just that thing But she rejected

it She was not sure that she could slip away, or find her horse, or

elude pursuit, and certainly not sure of her way home It would be