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All these preparations had occupied barely half-an-hour, so much were they simplified by habit. To the right of the camp, but far distant, arose from the sand a mass of gum-trees and ironwoods, the only trees produced by these arid plains. Here a second troop had halted. They had neither carts nor baggage mules, but were about double the number of the other party.
Then he flung up his hands, snapped out an order, whirled on his heel and went swiftly to the near rack where stood Bolt and the rest of the Ironwoods. Like a set of puppets on strings his men drew after him and they left Wylackie Bob where he fell. In a matter of seconds the whole Stronghold gang was mounted and clattering down the street out of the town toward the open range.
She heard a yell behind her, glanced back and saw that the three Ironwoods were sweeping behind her, closing in together. It was to be a race at last! At last the whispered comparisons that had stirred under the speech of the Valley concerning the Ironwoods and the Finger Marks was to have justification. For the first and only time, in her knowledge, they were to run.
The girl struck a hand on the king's shoulder so passionately that he jumped and snorted. "Some day," she said tensely, "El Rey will run th' Ironwoods off their feet an' I'll run th' heart out of their master, damn him! Put th' horses out. It's supper time." She threw her right limb over the stallion's neck swiftly and with lithe grace, and slid abruptly to the ground.
The Ironwoods were in evidence everywhere, but strange to say, there were no Finger Marks. Not a man from the Holding was in town. When Cleve and Ellen, alone together, rode in, it lacked yet a half hour of the time set for trial. There was no place to go but Baston's, so they dismounted at the hitch-rack.
He it was who saw who feared. He touched her wrist with timid fingers and she flashed him a swift glance that half melted to a smile. Then she forgot him and all the rest for the Ironwoods were thundering in from the outside levels, were coming into town. Ahead rode Courtrey, big, black, keen, his wide hat swept back on his iron-grey hair, an imposing presence.
"I said I'd get you, Buck Courtrey!" she muttered, "that some day I'd run th' Ironwoods off their feet th' heart out of their master! "Run, damn you for it's your last ride!" Then she dropped forward again and watched the distance closing down. Nearer nearer nearer! The note rose another notch. Never in his life had El Rey run as he ran now. Always he had had reserves. He had them now.
"I don't believe," she said at last, "that there's a bunch of horses in Lost Valley to come nigh 'em. Ironwoods or anything else I'd back th' Finger Marks." "So would we," said Conford quietly, "though we've seen th' Ironwoods run a little." "That's th' word, Burt," said Curly, "a little. Who of us has ever seen Courtrey let Bolt run like he wanted to? Not a darned one.
She stepped back in the house, then came out, and she had added nothing to her attire save her daddy's belt and guns. Without these she never left the Holding now. Bareheaded, slender, she was a thing of beauty, and there was a quiet command about her which subdued the great El Rey himself, the proudest horse in all the Valley, outside of Courtrey's Ironwoods, Bolt and Arrow.
What a power it had been in its might, floating sycamores and ironwoods as if they were reeds, lapping high against the granite walls, moving the very rocks in its bed until they ground together! But now the sand lay dry and powdery, the willows and water-moodies were dead to the roots, and even the ancient cottonwoods from which it derived its name were dying inch by inch.
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