The noble beast responded with a fresh burst of speed. Powers had reached the pass, and abandoning his horse took to his heels, disappearing through the pass. Mason quickly made the pass, dismounted, and looking to his weapons, plunged after him. He could hear his man from an occasional stone he dislodged. He was climbing the steep side of the gorge. Soon, the faint sounds from the outlaw ceased. Mason was puzzled and afraid the fugitive would give him the slip, but he determined to keep on climbing the steep side of the gorge, while running a chance of getting shot from ambush. After a laborious climb he reached a small plateau where he beheld a sight that brought a cry of rage from his lips. It was Josephine struggling in the arms of the outlaw! Mason instantly threw his rifle to his shoulder. “Hands up! Powers, or I’ll fire,” he called sharply. Powers looked up startled, and with bloodshot eyes. “Shoot!” he cried savagely, swinging Josephine in front of him as a shield. Mason lowered his gun in dismay. “Why don’t you shoot?” Powers taunted him, still holding the girl in front of him. “You coward!” Mason flung the words at him, his eyes blazing with fury. “Drop the girl and fight me like a man. I’ll fight you empty handed.” Suiting the action to his words, he threw his rifle and revolver on the ground. Powers sneered. “If you value this girl’s life, don’t move from your tracks,” he said, with a brutal oath, holding a knife up to Mason’s horrified eyes. “I’ll kill her with this knife if you don’t leave your guns here. Go back down the gorge and give me thirty minutes’ start and you can save her life. I am going to the coast with her and we’ll get married.” “Powers, you’re crazy,” Mason answered to gain time. “If you harm that girl, I’ll hound you to your grave.” Josephine had given a cry of delight when Mason first had borne down on Powers. Now, she had ceased struggling and was watching Mason with imploring eyes. Powers showed signs of uneasiness. He was in fear his other pursuers would show up any minute. “Come, give me thirty minutes’ start or the girl dies!” he threatened. Great beads of sweat started on Mason’s forehead. He had about made up his mind to obey the fiend’s demand and take a chance of rescuing the girl later, when the sharp crack of a rifle broke the awful stillness, followed by a yell from above them. Powers clapped his hand to his side and pitched forward on his face. Mason looked up to see where the yell and shot had come from, and saw Scotty standing on a huge boulder holding a smoking rifle in his hands and waving his hat at them. The girl stood looking down at Powers as though in a daze. Mason leaped quickly to her side. “Oh, Jack,” Josephine cried, her eyes swimming with tears, and collapsed in his arms. CHAPTER VIII THE MEXICAN ESCAPES