Even then he felt the temptation. There lay the forest on the farther side,
a forest which would shelter him, and above the forest, hardly a mile back,
began the Grizzly Peaks. They lunged straight up to snowy summits, and all
along their sides blue shadows of the afternoon drifted through a network
of ravines--a promise of peace, a surety of safety if he could reach that
labyrinth.
He was almost glad when he left the mockery of the river's noise to turn
aside for Ganton. There it lay in a bend of the Asper in the low-lands, and
every town where men lived was an enemy. He could see them now gathered
just outside the village, twenty men, perhaps and fifteen spare horses, the
best they had, for the posse.
On past Ganton, and again a call upon Satan to meet the first spurt of the
posse on its new horses. There was something in the stallion to answer,
some incredible reserve of nerve strength and courage. There was a slight
labor, now, and something of the same heave and pitch which comes in the
gait of a common horse; also, when he put Satan up the first slope beyond
Ganton he noted a faltering, a deeper lowering of the head.
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