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Page 280

| Ashton smiled warmly. "Well, Sasha, it looks as though Crispin has suddenly taken charge of this whole affair," he said, placing an arm around his friend's shoulder. "Do you know? I kind of like it." |

| "Me too," Sasha said, worming her way between the two men and placing an arm about each of them. |

| They joined the others. Again no fire was built, for they did not want to give the kangarooers a whiff of the smoke. Everyone had to postpone their morning cups of scalding hot coffee for a while longer. They sat around chatting and eating a breakfast of dried pumpkin, jerked beef, and fruit. |

| Then they all mounted their steeds and set out for another day of hunting. Sasha felt proud riding beside Ashton, glad that he had accepted her presence. |

| But she could not shake the dread of what lay ahead of them. |

| Perhaps even their deaths. . . . |

| Sasha rode straight-backed on Cloud, though everything in her rebelled at the thought of having to go another inch on the horse. It had been a long, uneventful day riding through the outback. She looked over at Ashton sullenly, wanting to ask him if he thought they would ever find the kangarooers, and how many days he was going to continue riding before he gave up. Though she had loved Rufus as though he were her brother and wanted to find his assailant as badly as Ashton did, she could not bear to think that the search would go endlessly onward. They needed to get on with the rest of their lives. Rufus would want that! |

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