Instead, he saw her father just mounting in haste at the corral.

He saw him swing his quirt down along the side of his horse and go tearing down the trail, leaving the wire gate flat upon the ground behind him,--which was against all precedent.
Lite quickened his own pace.

He did not know why big Aleck Douglas should be hitting that pace out of the coulee, but since Aleck's pace was habitually unhurried, the inference was plain enough that there was some urgent need for haste.

Lite let down the rails of the barred gate from the meadow into the pasture, mounted, and went galloping across the uneven sod.

His first anxious thought was for the girl.