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The sun had reached slightly beyond its zenith when Jean Blakely and Carol Foster in shirts, slacks and rubber-soled tennis shoes, all that Jean could find, alighted from their car. Jean had driven the vehicle into the deserted old quarry at the base of an easily accessible foot-hill, confident that it was not apt to be discovered there. She had kept presence of mind enough to bring along a canteen filled with water, which she could carry over her shoulder, and both girls had stuffed crackers in their pockets, just in case...

Moving upward at an untiring gait, the young wives talked sparingly, as if conserving their energies. Often, they stopped to listen to the great silence growing heavier around them as they ascended, hoping to hear a bark or howl which could give them a direction to follow. But they heard nothing, with the exception of the ever-increasing, hushed wildness surrounding them.

If nothing else, Jean thought, following a little apprehensive twinge at one point when she glanced back, the hushed tranquillity was certainly conducive to looking into one's soul! And that, she had been doing for the past hour as they climbed... wondering how it was all going to end, and what was to happen between Mark and herself. There was no question in her mind but that she loved him as much, perhaps more, than ever... though he might well come to hate her for what she was doing! But even so, she had to do it, had to try and protect her animal-lover... the handsome dog that had brought her such unequalled, sensual pleasure these past days... and nights! Dear God... she couldn't imagine him dead... murdered... a bullet ripping into his beautiful loving body and perhaps from Mark's very rifle... !

"Hey... ! Maybe, we should take a little rest, Honey?" Carol said, catching hold of her arm and moving around to look into her face. "Y-You're crying! What is it, Baby... ? Don't worry, we'll find him in time..."

Jean sniffled loudly and nodded her head, making the pony- tail she'd quickly formed her long blonde-hair into, bob cutely to her dark-eyed friend. "I-I was just thinking, is all," she said, finding a hankie and blowing her nose.

Carol took the canteen and drank from it, then passed it to Jean who capped it without drinking. The willowy brunette was looking back toward the general direction of the route they'd followed, an anxious expression momentarily clouding her attractive face. Jean saw it, then watched the girl look upward at the position of the sun.

"I-It's getting on," Carol said. "Did you bring a watch?"

"No."

Again, her vivacious partner looked skyward. "Must be around four-o'clock. Still some four hours or more of daylight. D-Do you think you can remember the way back, Jean?"

For a moment, the blonde wife didn't answer. Then: "I'm not sure... but Caesar'll know the way, once we find him!"

Carol uncontrollably snapped a sharp, discerning glance at the other, reading the desperation in Jean's wide, blue eyes. God, they appeared almost vacant for one brief second, and she couldn't help but wonder if the reoccurring effects of the LSD wasn't again creeping over her! Oh Lord, she hoped not! And there was a storm brewing off to the east, heavy, dark menacing clouds that were rapidly moving in their direction! Damn... had they made a foolish mistake coming into these deceiving hills this way... ?

"M-Maybe, we should start back down, Jean," the lithesome brunette suggested in a catching voice. "It's getting late, and there's a storm coming, see... ?"

Jean looked at her in surprise, almost as if she could hardly believe her friend's words. She began to answer by shaking her head. Then: "I have no intentions of going back down until I find him, Carol! I've got to warn him, don't you understand? You go back if you want... take the water... but I'm going on... right down through that gully and up that furthest hill! I don't know whether I'm right or not, but it has a remote look... wild and forbidden enough to be the sort of place he would go... !"

"Damnit, Jean!" Carol gasped. "I just can't go off and leave you up here like this! Please... try to realize that he's a very capable animal, and that he's stayed alive this long! We've done our best... !"

"No, I said! I'm not going back down, Carol!" Jean distraughtly exclaimed. "I've got to find him! I'd never be able to live with myself if I didn't try to stop the killing of one of my lovers by another! How could I? Here, take the water! I'm going on... !"

"Wait!" Carol called after her when the voluptuous pony- tailed blonde had taken a half-dozen steps.

"Well... ?" Jean replied, turning to face her friend.

"Well... ? Well, shit! I'm going with you! What do you think... ?"


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Mark's posse, with both him and Link Morgan riding lead horses, ascended into the hills at a pace-sparing rate, designed to save the animals until something concrete gave them a sign. The hours beneath the hot, California sun passed slowly, but by late afternoon they were well into the depths where Mark began to feel they would find something. After a rest period in which they ate and drank lightly, they progressed toward a thick wooded and brush-filled area, finding their first indications.

The remains of a recently killed sheep were scattered about, along with the obvious stool of dogs, sufficient to advise both Mark and Link Morgan that the wild-pack had been there not too many hours before.

"What do you think, Link?" the young deputy questioned the older and more experienced hunter.

"Well... after this, my guess would be they'd head for water," the big man said. "Probably off to the south toward Wiley's Stream. That's the nearest," he added, hoping the other wouldn't see through his lie.

"How about the pond?" Mark asked, nodding his head eastward in the general direction of a spring-fed, small body of water he was familiar with. "Red Heart mountain is there, too, and honeycombed with caves... perfect lairs for them to avoid the elements, like that storm that's coming up."

"No... I don't think so," Morgan replied without looking at him. "This sonofabitch is too smart to pick the obvious. Besides, we scoured that area last night..."

"Maybe," Mark said, looking off toward the sky-rising hill called Red Heart, his own intellects drawing him in that direction. "But I still think that's where he... they, might hole-up. It's a perfect terrain for that uncanny brute to ferret out..."

"I don't know, Mark," Frank Clifford put in. "I don't want to interfere, but Link's got a good point. Besides, if the posse last night covered that area, no use of backtracking."

His timely butting-in was all Link needed. Trying not to show it, he leaped onto the opening. "Well... the deputy's got a point, too. We covered that ground at night... could be more productive in daylight."

"So... ? What you got in mind, Link?" Frank Clifford asked.

"An idea... that maybe we should split up. There's twenty- two of us all together... more than enough divided to take care of that fucking horde should either group come across them," the scheming police chief said, knowing that he'd have to somehow slip away from his group to do what he intended. But that wouldn't be too difficult, and he knew these hills like the back of his hand. He could find Blakely's posse with little effort, then, completely destroy the broken-down rifle he had carried in his saddlebag purposely for the job... after it was done!

"I don't know," Mark started, somehow uneasy with the idea of splitting the men. But several more came forward in agreement, finally persuading him. "Well... all right, if all of you think it's best," he said, glancing toward Steve who was constantly making notes. "Chief Morgan will head one group, and I'll handle the other. We'll plan to meet at Razor Ridge. Whichever group gets there first, waits for the other. Should any of us hear a lot of shooting, we'll know the others have discovered the pack. Okay?"

A conglomeration of agreements filled the mountain air. Then, Mark added: "Should either party come onto them, I insist there be no brutality, understand? Kill them quick and clean!"

"Right!" Frank Clifford and several others chimed in.

"Okay," Mark said. "Let's decide who's riding with whom... ?"

Chapter 26

Caesar's vantage point was such that he could witness the two groups of horse-carried, male humans moving in separate directions, as well as his golden-one and the fiery-eyed female stumbling through the ravine below him. Only the huge barrier of rocks divided the party of males from the pair of females he had thought were his friends! Now, his keen animal brain sought other answers! By chance alone had he, through intuitive instinct, become aware of the mass human presence and moved above them to investigate! What he saw slowly enraged him! They had deeply penetrated his domain, with both the golden-one's male-human and the brute-man heading them! But more hurting than all else was the apparent fact that his loving, human-mate and the fiery-eyed one had somehow brought them there!

For a long moment, the great and powerful animal stood picturesquely outlined against the skyline, his tongue licking out characteristically; then, a deep whimper emitted from his broad chest. He had been betrayed! How, he was not yet certain, but retribution for such traitorism he was inherently steeped in! The handsome, massive animal whimpered inside himself once more before he backed off, turned, then leaped away as silently as he'd appeared!


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A sudden rumble of deep, distant thunder sent a curdling chill up Carol Foster's spine. From behind, she called to the girl only yards in front of her and said: "It's a storm, Jean! Let's find someplace to get out of it!"

The young blonde wife paused to look back, almost as if just remembering at that moment that Carol was with her. "We'll start climbing right here," she said. "There's an overhanging ledge up there; it'll shelter us. Anyway, it's just a little thunderstorm..."

"We should have turned back!" Carol said, reaching her and grasping onto the other's arms. "This is crazy, Jean... !"

"Oh... ooohhh, Carol, I'm sorry!" the blonde girl exclaimed. "I told you to go back... !"

"Damnit, I'm not about to go anywhere without you!"

"Are you afraid?"

"Well, it's getting dark enough to be... and that storm's almost on top of us, girl, if you haven't seen it!" Carol half- whimpered. "I-I mean if... if we only knew where we were going... !"

Jean started to console her friend, but she never had to. The sudden appearance of a horse carrying the huge frame of Link Morgan whipped her breath away. For a moment, she stood as frozen, then undeniably welcomed the sight of the big Chief of Police.

"Look!" she said, pointing. "It's Chief Morgan!"

Carol did, not in the least disappointed with his unexpected appearance, though she could think of others that might be more pleasing! "Oh Goddd... !" she sighed.

"What the hell you girls trying to do, kill yourselves?" Morgan blurted. Apprehensively, he looked up at the clouded skies. "In seconds, there'll be a downpour that'll send flash- floods all through these gullies! Come on!" he ordered, swinging down from his mount. "Let's climb!"


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Struggling on hands and knees into the mouth of a cave, Jean couldn't help but wonder what would happen to the horse Link Morgan had abandoned below! She turned to help Carol behind her, and then the big frame of Link Morgan who moved into the cave opening with surprising agility. She hardly noticed the faint smirk curling the lips of the police chief as she looked down to see the saddled animal standing fast...

Morgan read the concern on her face, his smirk broadening. The horse was in no danger, he knew, getting to his feet and setting his rifle against the wall of rock. There'd be no flash- flood... probably no more than a few drops of rain, but it'd been the perfect gimmick to scare them up into the cave!

He'd had no problem getting away from his party! Putting Frank Clifford in charge, he'd used the excuse that he wanted to investigate a distance into the ravine for signs, and that he'd join up with them later on the other side of Wiley's Stream. His plan, of course, was to double back and sight Mark Blakely's group from a perfect ambush point he was well familiar with... but what the hell... here he'd stumbled onto Blakely's wife, along with that goddamned writer's doll!

Shit, he'd almost tumbled out of the saddle when he spotted them. After all, they didn't exactly compose the scene a man expected to find in the depths of this friggin' wild country! But there was hardly time to speculate on why, or what the hell they were doing there; only that they were starting to scale the accessible bank was important! And the goddamned cave where those three teenaged punks were holed-up was directly above them! What the hell, there was nothing to do but join them and revamp his plans! The deputy was going to win a few more minutes reprieve... !

"The horse... will it be all right?" Jean anxiously questioned the big lawman.

"Don't worry, it'll take care of itself," Morgan replied, his mean eyes ogling Jean's appealing curves the tight slacks and shirt were temptingly enhancing. The ripely pointed mounds of her firm breasts were straining the shirt-front, while the slacks were stretched tautly over the smooth, rounded ovals of her buttocks and across the small swelling of her belly, snugly clinging to the puffy "vee" at the adjoining angle her voluptuously full thighs formed. He couldn't help but remember her naked beauty. The night he'd fucked her at Lydia's! Christ... ! "The question is, what're you girls up to in these hills?" he probed, though a crazy goddamned answer was already forming in his tired brain.

"We... we were hiking and got lost," Carol quickly put in when she saw Jean struggling for words.

"Y-Yes... that's it... we got lost!' Jean followed, nodding her pony-tailed head.

A grin stretched the police chief's lips. He shifted his glance to the vivacious, willowy brunette, his lustful eyes rakingly appraising her lissome, curved, young body. There was something fiery in her expression that intrigued him, even reminded him of Lydia Newell, that illusion alone enough to cause a stirring in his heavy loins. He said: "You ah... you don't expect me to believe that shit, do you? I mean, with a pack of wild raping dogs menacing these hills, you dollies just come out for a hike? Let's try another answer, what do you say?"

"I-I don't believe it's necessary for us to give you any explanations, Link Morgan!" Jean suddenly snapped at him, then turned to Carol. "Come on, let's get out of this place! The sun is shining again... !" She paused at the odd expression on her friend's attractive face. The brunette wife was looking beyond her toward the back of the cave, with her small, slender nose raised as if she were smelling something... "What is it, Carol... ?"

Jean pivoted to follow the direction of her stare before the other could answer, noticing for the first time that the tunnel was quite deep and arched off to the right... ! And... and there was some sort of light... a flickering light, similar to what a flame might cause... !

"D-Do you smell that, Jean?" Carol hesitatingly questioned, suddenly looking toward the big frame of a grinning Link Morgan. "I-It's marijuana... pot! Someone's back there... !"

When Jean swung around toward Morgan, he had picked up his rifle and was using it to point in the direction of the flickering light. "Too late now, girls," he growled, his voice undeniably threatening, his red-face an open leer. "I don't know what I'll wind up doing with you, but we'll decide that when the time comes. Get moving, both of you! Let's go back and join the company!"

"Oh... oh God, Jean... !" Carol frightenedly hesitated, grasping the young blonde wife's hand.

"Don't be afraid, Carol!" Jean bravely pretended, taking the brunette's small hand and holding it tightly in her equally tiny one, even as her flesh began to crawl at what might await them ahead. She'd already had experience with Link Morgan!

"Move!" the corrupt police chief barked, slapping them both luridly across their full buttocks, a lustful charge taunting his groin at the resilient give of their rounded ass-cheeks. "Maybe, we'll just have a party while we're making up our minds what to do with you bitches!"