The Kid was afraid that H.J.Owens would come back and see him and cut off his ears if he went that way--but he did not pull Silver back and make him go some other way, for all that.

If he left him alone, Silver would take him right straight home.

Daddy Chip and the boys said so.

And he would tell them how mean that man was.

They would fix him, all right! Halfway up the coulee Silver turned into a narrow gulch that seemed to lead nowhere at all except into the side of a big, black-shadowed bluff.
Up on the hillside a coyote began to yap with a shrill staccato of sounds that trailed off into a disconsolate whimper.