Carefully the girl slipped back from the rock toward the pool, gained its lip, and dropped swiftly away down the cañon.
At a little distance she drew a deep breath and looked back.
The blue cañon lay still under the filtered rays of the noon sun, empty, murmurous, enchanted.
The mouth of the cave was black and vacant.
There was no sign of fiery eyes and slavering jaws, of a thin little leg under a fringe of blue jeans rags!
With eyes dilated and lips closed in amazed silence Nance Allison made her way back to Buckskin, mounted and returned to the flats of Nameless.
She had found Mystery with a capital, but she knew that she must wait with patience its unravelling.
Those pale eyes between the flat ears held a challenge which only a fool would disregard—it would take time and patience.
But, for the love of humanity, why was a child hiding like a fawn in Blue Stone Cañon—with only a dog to guard it—and with no sign of camp or people?