It was an ambush that he dreaded.

He realized that if the outlaws stopped and waited for him he would be at a terrible disadvantage.

In open fight he was confident His prairie-bred mount took the rough trail at a swift canter, evading the boulders and knife-edged trap in the same guarded manner that she galloped over prairie-dog and badger holes out upon the plain.

Twice in the ten minutes that followed their entrance into the chasm Philip saw movement ahead of him, and each time his revolver leaped to it.

Once it was a wolf, again the swiftly moving shadow of an eagle sweeping with spread wings between him and the sun.