The Trey o' Hearts/Chapter 39
CHAPTER XXXIX
The Man in the Shadow
TWO hundred feet if one he fell from the lip of the cliff. Then suddenly the Thing that had been Hopi Jim Slade was checked in its headlong descent by the outstanding trunk of a tree, over which it remained, doubled up, limp, horrible. …
The man who had compassed the bandit's death stepped back, thrust the weapon, still smoking, into the holster strapped to his thigh, and snatched up a case containing binoculars.
Not before the glasses were adjusted to his vision did he find time to respond absently to the inquiries of his two companions. Now the girl plucked at his sleeve, deflecting the glasses from the object which they were following so sedulously as it moved along the heights, a running horse with a woman bound upon its back, both sharply in silhouette against the burning blue.
"Alan," the girl demanded, "what is it? Why did you fire?"
"Judith," he affirmed with a look of poignant solicitude. "She's roped to the back of that crazy broncho! See for yourself, one false step, and she'll be killed!"
While the girl focussed her glasses upon that speck that flew against the sky, Alan turned to the two horses hobbled nearby, and seizing a saddle threw it over the back of one.
At this the other man strode to his side and dropped a detaining hand upon his arm.
"What are you going to do?" he demanded.
Alan shook the hand off and went on with his self-appointed task.
"Go after her, Tom, of course," he replied. "What else? That animal is crazy, I tell you. Think of being carried that way—all day, perhaps—face up to this brutal sun! She'll go mad if something isn't done"
"You've gone mad yourself already," Mr. Barcus contended darkly. "What's it to you if she does? Suppose you do succeed in rescuing her, what then? As soon as she gets on her pins, she'll try to stick a knife into you, like as not. I suppose you'd like me to call your conduct chivalry? I'll tell you what I call it—lunacy!"
"Don't be an ass," Alan responded temperately, gathering the reins together. "Who warned us yesterday in time to prevent our being crushed by that rock? Judith! Why was she separated from Marrophat and the others—alone up there when that beast sneaked up behind her—I saw it all—and grabbed her and roped her to that broncho, if it wasn't that she had broken with, them for good and all, and started to fight on our side?"
"You're raving," Barcus commented. He looked to the girl. "Rose—Miss Trine—reason with this madman"
Dropping the glasses, the girl came swiftly and confidently to her lover's side, lifting her lips to his.
"Go, sweetheart!" she told him. "Save her if you can!"
With a look of triumph for the benefit of Mr. Barcus, Alan Law gathered Rose Trine into his arms.
With an indignant grunt, Mr. Barcus caught up the glasses and turned his back. …
"Go on!" he grumbled, pretending to ignore the hand Alan offered him from the saddle. "I've got no patience with you. … But go!" he insisted, of a sudden seizing the hand and pressing it fervently. "And God go with you, my friend!" 
HE LEAPED … DOWN, DOWN, UPON THE WATCHER BELOW.
THEIR EYES SCANNED THE HORIZON FOR AN APPROACHING SHIP.