And daylight found him
urging Wildfire in pursuit. On the rocky places Slone found the cedar berries
Lucy had dropped. He welcomed sight of them, but he did not need them. This
man Creech could never hide a trail from him, Slone thought grimly, and it
suited him to follow that trail at a rapid trot. If he lost the tracks for a
distance he went right on, and he knew where to look for them ahead. There was
a vast difference between the cunning of Creech and the cunning of a wild
horse. And there was an equal difference between the going and staying powers
of Creech's mustangs and Wildfire. Yes, Slone divined that Lucy's salvation
would be Wildfire, her horse. The trail grew rougher, steeper, harder, but the
stallion kept his eagerness and his pace. On many an open length of canyon or
height of wild upland Slone gazed ahead hoping to see Creech's mustangs. He
hoped for that even when he knew he was still too far behind. And then,
suddenly, in the open, sandy flat of an intersecting canyon he came abruptly
on a fresh trail of three horses, one of them shod.
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