CHAPTER VII

THE FIRST LESSON

After crawling on her hands and knees for several yards, Rhoda rose and
started on a run down the long slope to the open desert. But after a
few steps she found running impossible, for the slope was a wilderness
of rock, thickly grown with cholla and yucca with here and there a
thicker growth of cat's-claw.

Almost at once her hands were torn and bleeding and she thought
gratefully for the first time of her buckskin trousers which valiantly
resisted all detaining thorns. The way dropped rapidly and after her
first wild spurt Rhoda leaned exhausted and panting against a boulder.
She had not the vaguest idea of where she was going or of what she was
going to do, except that she was going to lose herself so thoroughly
that not even Kut-le could find her. After that she was quite willing
to trust to fate.

After a short rest she started on, every sense keen for the sound of
pursuit, but none came. As the silent minutes passed Rhoda became
elated. How easy it was! What a pity that she had not tried before!
At the foot of the slope, she turned up the arroyo. Here her course
grew heavier. The arroyo was cut by deep ruts and gullies down which
the girl slid and tumbled in mad haste only to find rock masses over
which she crawled with utmost difficulty. Now and again the stout
vamps of her hunting boots were pierced by chollas and, half frantic in
her haste, she was forced to stop and struggle to pull out the thorns.