Wildfire worked away from this open valley, back to the south end, where the
great monuments loomed, and still farther back, where they grew closer, till
at length some of them were joined by weathered ridges to the walls of the
surrounding plateau. For all that Slone could see, Wildfire was in perfect
condition. But Nagger was not the horse he had been. Slone realized that in
one way or another the pursuit was narrowing down to the end.
He found a water-hole at the head of a wash in a split in the walls, and here
he let Nagger rest and graze one whole day--the first day for a long time that
he had not kept the red stallion in sight. That day was marked by the good
fortune of killing a rabbit, and while eating it his gloomy, fixed mind
admitted that he was starving. He dreaded the next sunrise. But he could not
hold it back. There, behind the dark monuments, standing sentinel-like, the
sky lightened and reddened and burst into gold and pink, till out of the
golden glare the sun rose glorious. And Slone, facing the league-long shadows
of the monuments, rode out again into the silent, solemn day, on his hopeless
quest.
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