initial commit of ebook 4993HEADmain

5 files changed, 31033 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/2004-01-txsrn10.txt b/old/2004-01-txsrn10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf7e005
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2004-01-txsrn10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9654 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Texas Ranger, by William MacLeod Raine
+(#5 in our series by William MacLeod Raine)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: A Texas Ranger
+
+Author: William MacLeod Raine
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4993]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 7, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A TEXAS RANGER ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Jim Weiler, xooqi.com
+
+
+
+                             A Texas Ranger
+
+By William MacLeod Raine, 1910
+
+                    FOREWORD TO YE GENTLE READER.
+
+Within the memory of those of us still on the sunny side of forty the
+more remote West has passed from rollicking boyhood to its responsible
+majority. The frontier has gone to join the good Indian. In place of
+the ranger who patrolled the border for "bad men" has come the forest
+ranger, type of the forward lapping tide of civilization. The place
+where I write this-- Tucson, Arizona-- is now essentially more
+civilized than New York. Only at the moving picture shows can the old
+West, melodramatically overpainted, be shown to the manicured sons and
+daughters of those, still living, who brought law and order to the
+mesquite.
+
+As Arthur Chapman, the Western poet, has written:
+
+  No loopholes now are framing
+  Lean faces, grim and brown;
+  No more keen eyes are aiming
+  To bring the redskin down.
+  The plough team's trappings jingle
+  Across the furrowed field,
+  And sounds domestic mingle
+  Where valor hung its shield.
+  But every wind careering
+  Seems here to breathe a song--
+  A song of brave frontiering--
+  A saga of the strong.
+
+  Part I
+
+ (In Which Steve Plays Second Fiddle)
+
+THE MAN FROM THE PANHANDLE
+
+  CHAPTER I
+
+ A DESERT MEETING
+
+As she lay crouched in the bear-grass there came to the girl clearly
+the crunch of wheels over disintegrated granite. The trap had dipped
+into a draw, but she knew that presently it would reappear on the
+winding road. The knowledge smote her like a blast of winter, sent
+chills racing down her spine, and shook her as with an ague. Only the
+desperation of her plight spurred her flagging courage.
+
+Round the bend came a pair of bays hitched to a single-seated open
+rig. They were driven by a young man, and as he reached the summit he
+drew up opposite her and looked down into the valley.
+
+It lay in a golden glow at their feet, a basin of pure light and
+silence stretching mile on mile to the distant edge of jagged
+mountain-line which formed its lip. Sunlight strong as wine flooded a
+clean world, an amber Eden slumbering in an unbroken, hazy dream
+primeval.
+
+"Don't move!"
+
+At the summons the driver swung his head sharply to a picture he will
+never forget. A young woman was standing on the bank at the edge of
+the road covering him with a revolver, having apparently just stepped
+from behind the trunk of the cottonwood beside her. The color had fled
+her cheeks even to the edge of the dull red-copper waves of hair, but
+he could detect in her slim young suppleness no doubt or uncertainty.
+On the contrary, despite her girlish freshness, she looked very much
+like business. She was like some young wild creature of the forest
+cornered and brought to bay, but the very terror in her soul rendered
+her more dangerous. Of the heart beating like a trip-hammer the gray
+unwinking eyes that looked into hers read nothing. She had schooled
+her taut nerves to obedience, and they answered her resolute will
+steadily despite fluttering pulses.
+
+"Don't move!" she said again.
+
+"What do you want?" he asked harshly.
+
+"I want your team," she panted.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Never mind. I want it."
+
+The rigor of his gaze slowly softened to a smile compound both of
+humor and grimness. He was a man to appreciate a piquant situation,
+none the less because it was at his expense. The spark that gleamed in
+his bold eye held some spice of the devil.
+
+"All right. This is your hold-up, ma'am. I'll not move," he said,
+almost genially.
+
+She was uneasily aware that his surrender had been too tame. Strength
+lay in that close-gripped salient jaw, in every line of the reckless
+sardonic face, in the set of the lean muscular shoulders. She had
+nerved herself to meet resistance, and instead he was yielding with
+complacent good nature.
+
+"Get out!" she commanded.
+
+He stepped from the rig and offered her the reins. As she reached for
+them his right hand shot out and caught the wrist that held the
+weapon, his left encircled her waist and drew her to him. She gave a
+little cry of fear and strained from him, fighting with all her lissom
+strength to free herself.
+
+For all the impression she made the girdle round her waist might have
+been of steel. Without moving, he held her as she struggled, his brown
+muscular fingers slowly tightening round her wrist. Her stifled cry
+was of pain this time, and before it had died the revolver fell to the
+ground from her paralyzed grip.
+
+But her exclamation had been involuntary and born of the soft tender
+flesh. The wild eyes that flamed into his asked for no quarter and
+received none. He drew her slowly down toward him, inch by inch, till
+she lay crushed and panting against him, but still unconquered. Though
+he held the stiff resistant figure motionless she still flashed battle
+at him.
+
+He looked into the storm and fury of her face, hiding he knew not what
+of terror, and laughed in insolent delight. Then, very deliberately,
+he kissed her lips.
+
+"You-- coward!" came instantly her choking defiance.
+
+"Another for that," he laughed, kissing her again.
+
+Her little fist beat against his face and he captured it, but as he
+looked at her something that had come into the girl's face moved his
+not very accessible heart. The salt of the adventure was gone, his
+victory worse than a barren one. For stark fear stared at him, naked
+and unconcealed, and back of that he glimpsed a subtle something that
+he dimly recognized for the outraged maidenly modesty he had so
+ruthlessly trampled upon. His hands fell to his side reluctantly.
+
+She stumbled back against the tree trunk, watching him with fascinated
+eyes that searched him anxiously. They found their answer, and with a
+long ragged breath the girl turned and burst into hysterical tears.
+
+The man was amazed. A moment since the fury of a tigress had possessed
+her. Now she was all weak womanish despair. She leaned against the
+cottonwood and buried her face in her arm, the while uneven sobs shook
+her slender body. He frowned resentfully at this change of front, and
+because his calloused conscience was disturbed he began to justify
+himself. Why didn't she play it out instead of coming the baby act on
+him? She had undertaken to hold him up and he had made her pay
+forfeit. He didn't see that she had any kick coming. If she was this
+kind of a boarding-school kid she ought not to have monkeyed with the
+buzz-saw. She was lucky he didn't take her to El Paso with him and
+have her jailed.
+
+"I reckon we'll listen to explanations now," he said grimly after a
+minute of silence interrupted only by her sobs.
+
+The little fist that had struck at his face now bruised itself in
+unconscious blows at the bark of the tree. He waited till the staccato
+breaths had subsided, then took her by the shoulders and swung her
+round.
+
+"You have the floor, ma'am. What does this gun-play business mean?"
+
+Through the tears her angry eyes flashed starlike.
+
+"I sha'n't tell you," she flamed. "You had no right to-- How dared you
+insult me as you have?"
+
+"Did I insult you?" he asked, with suave gentleness. "Then if you feel
+insulted I expect you lay claim to being a lady. But I reckon that
+don't fit in with holding up strangers at the end of a gun. If I've
+insulted you I'll ce'tainly apologize, but you'll have to show me I
+have. We're in Texas, which is next door but one to Missouri, ma'am."
+
+"I don't want your apologies. I detest and hate you," she cried,
+
+"That's your privilege, ma'am, and it's mine to know whyfor I'm held
+up with a gun when I'm traveling peaceably along the road," he
+answered evenly.
+
+"I'll not tell you."
+
+He spoke softly as if to himself. "That's too bad. I kinder hate to
+take her to jail, but I reckon I must."
+
+She shrank back, aghast and white.
+
+"No, no! You don't understand. I didn't mean to-- I only wanted-- Why,
+I meant to pay you for the team."
+
+"I'll understand when you tell me," he said placidly.
+
+"I've told you. I needed the team. I was going to let you have one of
+our horses and seventy-five dollars. It's all I have with me."
+
+"One of your horses, you say? With seventy-five dollars to boot? And
+you was intending to arrange the trade from behind that gun. I expect
+you needed a team right bad."
+
+His steady eyes rested on her, searched her, appraised her, while he
+meditated aloud in a low easy drawl.
+
+"Yes, you ce'tainly must need the team. Now I wonder why? Well, I'd
+hate to refuse a lady anything she wants as bad as you do that." He
+swiftly swooped down and caught up her revolver from the ground,
+tossed it into the air so as to shift his hold from butt to barrel,
+and handed it to her with a bow. "Allow me to return the pop-gun you
+dropped, ma'am,"
+
+She snatched it from him and leveled it at him so that it almost
+touched his forehead. He looked at her and laughed in delighted
+mockery.
+
+"All serene, ma'am. You've got me dead to rights again."
+
+His very nonchalance disarmed her. What could she do while his low
+laughter mocked her?
+
+"When you've gone through me complete I think I'll take a little
+pasear over the hill and have a look at your hawss. Mebbe we might
+still do business."
+
+As he had anticipated, his suggestion filled her with alarm. She flew
+to bar the way.
+
+"You can't go. It isn't necessary."
+
+"Sho! Of course it's necessary. Think I'm going to buy a hawss I've
+never seen?" he asked, with deep innocence.
+
+"I'll bring it here."
+
+"In Texas, ma'am, we wait on the ladies. Still, it's your say-so when
+you're behind that big gun."
+
+He said it laughing, and she threw the weapon angrily into the seat of
+the rig.
+
+"Thank you, ma'am. I'll amble down and see what's behind the hill."
+
+By the flinch in her eyes he tested his center shot and knew it true.
+Her breast was rising and falling tumultuously. A shiver ran through
+her.
+
+"No-- no. I'm not hiding-- anything," she gasped.
+
+"Then if you're not you can't object to my going there."
+
+She caught her hands together in despair. There was about him
+something masterful that told her she could not prevent him from
+investigating; and it was impossible to guess how he would act after
+he knew. The men she had known had been bound by convention to respect
+a woman's wishes, but even her ignorance of his type made guess that
+this steel-eyed, close-knit young Westerner-- or was he a
+Southerner?-- would be impervious to appeals founded upon the rules of
+the society to which she had been accustomed. A glance at his
+stone-wall face, at the lazy confidence of his manner, made her
+dismally aware that the data gathered by her experience of the
+masculine gender were insufficient to cover this specimen.
+
+"You can't go."
+
+But her imperative refusal was an appeal. For though she hated him
+from the depths of her proud, untamed heart for the humiliation he had
+put upon her, yet for the sake of that ferocious hunted animal she had
+left lying under a cottonwood she must bend her spirit to win him.
+
+"I'm going to sit in this game and see it out," he said, not unkindly.
+
+"Please!"
+
+Her sweet slenderness barred the way about as electively as a mother
+quail does the road to her young. He smiled, put his big hands on her
+elbows, and gently lifted her to one side. Then he strode forward
+lightly, with the long, easy, tireless stride of a beast of prey,
+striking direct for his quarry.
+
+A bullet whizzed by his ear, and like a flash of light his weapon was
+unscabbarded and ready for action. He felt a flame of fire scorch his
+cheek and knew a second shot had grazed him.
+
+"Hands up! Quick!" ordered the traveler.
+
+Lying on the ground before him was a man with close-cropped hair and a
+villainous scarred face. A revolver in his hand showed the source of
+the bullets.
+
+Eye to eye the men measured strength, fighting out to the last ditch
+the moral battle which was to determine the physical one. Sullenly, at
+the last, the one on the ground shifted his gaze and dropped his gun
+with a vile curse.
+
+"Run to earth," he snarled, his lip lifting from the tobacco-stained
+upper teeth in an ugly fashion.
+
+The girl ran toward the Westerner and caught at his arm. "Don't
+shoot," she implored
+
+Without moving his eyes from the man on the ground he swept her back.
+
+"This outfit is too prevalent with its hardware," he growled. "Chew
+out an explanation, my friend, or you're liable to get spoiled."
+
+It was the girl that spoke, in a low voice and very evidently under a
+tense excitement.
+
+"He is my brother and he has-- hurt himself. He can't ride any farther
+and we have seventy miles still to travel. We didn't know what to do,
+and so--"
+
+"You started out to be a road-agent and he took a pot-shot at the
+first person he saw. I'm surely obliged to you both for taking so much
+interest in me, or rather in my team. Robbery and murder are quite a
+family pastime, ain't they?"
+
+The girl went white as snow, seemed to shrink before his sneer as from
+a deadly weapon; and like a flash of light some divination of the
+truth pierced the Westerner's brain. They were fugitives from justice,
+making for the Mexican line. That the man was wounded a single glance
+had told him. It was plain to be seen that the wear and tear of
+keeping the saddle had been too much for him.
+
+"I acted on an impulse," the girl explained in the same low tone. "I
+saw you coming and I didn't know-- hadn't money enough to buy the
+team-- besides--"
+
+He took the words out of her mouth when she broke down.
+
+"Besides, I might have happened to be a sheriff. I might be, but then
+I'm not."
+
+The traveler stepped forward and kicked the wounded man's revolver
+beyond his reach, then swiftly ran a hand over him to make sure he
+carried no other gun.
+
+The fellow on the ground eyed him furtively. "What are you going to do
+with me?" he growled.
+
+The other addressed himself to the girl, ignoring him utterly.
+
+"What has this man done?"
+
+"He has-- broken out from-- from prison."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"At Yuma."
+
+"Damn you, you're snitching," interrupted the criminal in a scream
+that was both wheedling and threatening.
+
+The young man put his foot on the burly neck and calmly ground it into
+the dust. Otherwise he paid no attention to him, but held the burning
+eyes of the girl that stared at him from a bloodless face.
+
+"What was he in for?"
+
+"For holding up a train."
+
+She had answered in spite of herself, by reason of something
+compelling in him that drew the truth from her.
+
+"How long has he been in the penitentiary?"
+
+"Seven years." Then, miserably, she added: "He was weak and fell into
+bad company. They led him into it."
+
+"When did he escape?"
+
+"Two days ago. Last night he knocked at my window-- at the window of
+the room where I lodge in Fort Lincoln. I had not heard of his escape,
+but I took him in. There were horses in the barn. One of them was
+mine. I saddled, and after I had dressed his wound we started. He
+couldn't get any farther than this."
+
+"Do you live in Fort Lincoln?"
+
+"I came there to teach school. My home was in Wisconsin before."
+
+"You came out here to be near him?"
+
+"Yes. That is, near as I could get a school. I was to have got in the
+Tucson schools next year. That's much nearer."
+
+"You visited him at the penitentiary?"
+
+"No. I was going to during the Thanksgiving vacation. Until last night
+I had not seen him since he left home. I was a child of seven then."
+
+The Texan looked down at the ruffian under his feet.
+
+"Do you know the road to Mexico by the Arivaca cut-off?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then climb into my rig and hit the trail hard-- burn it up till
+you've crossed the line."
+
+The fellow began to whine thanks, but the man above would have none of
+them, "I'm giving you this chance for your sister's sake. You won't
+make anything of it. You're born for meanness and deviltry. I know
+your kind from El Paso to Dawson. But she's game and she's white clear
+through, even if she is your sister and a plumb little fool. Can you
+walk to the road?" he ended abruptly.
+
+"I think so. It's in my ankle. Some hell-hound gave it me while we
+were getting over the wall," the fellow growled.
+
+"Don't blame him. His intentions were good. He meant to blow out your
+brains."
+
+The convict cursed vilely, but in the midst of his impotent rage the
+other stopped and dragged him to his feet.
+
+"That's enough. You padlock that ugly mouth and light a shuck."
+
+The girl came forward and the man leaned heavily on her as he limped
+to the road. The Texan followed with the buckskin she had been riding
+and tied it to the back of the road-wagon.
+
+"Give me my purse," the girl said to the convict after they were
+seated.
+
+She emptied it and handed the roll of bills it contained to the owner
+of the team. He looked at it and at her, then shook his head.
+
+"You'll need it likely. I reckon I can trust you. Schoolmarms are
+mostly reliable."
+
+"I had rather pay now," she answered tartly.
+
+"What's the rush?"
+
+"I prefer to settle with you now."
+
+"All right, but I'm in no sweat for my money. My team and the wagon
+are worth two hundred and fifty dollars. Put this plug at forty and it
+would be high." He jerked his head toward the brush where the other
+saddle-horse was. "That leaves me a balance of about two hundred and
+ten. Is that fair?"
+
+She bit her lip in vexation. "I expect so, but I haven't that much
+with me. Can't I pay this seventy on account?"
+
+"No, ma'am, you can't. All or none." There was a gleam of humor in his
+hard eyes. "I reckon you better let me come and collect after you get
+back to Fort Lincoln."
+
+She took out a note-book and pencil. "If you will give me your name
+and address please."
+
+He smiled hardily at her. "I've clean forgotten them."
+
+There was a warning flash in her disdainful eye.
+
+"Just as you like. My name is Margaret Kinney. I will leave the money
+for you at the First National Bank."
+
+She gathered up the rains deftly.
+
+"One moment." He laid a hand on the lines. "I reckon you think I owe
+you an apology for what happened when we first met."
+
+A flood of spreading color dyed her cheeks. "I don't think anything
+about it."
+
+"Oh, yes, you do," he contradicted. "And you're going to think a heap
+more about it. You're going to lay awake nights going over it."
+
+Out of eyes like live coals she gave him one look. "Will you take your
+hands from these reins please?"
+
+"Presently. Just now I'm talking and you're listening."
+
+"I don't care to hear any apologies, sir," she said stiffly.
+
+"I'm not offering any," he laughed, yet stung by her words.
+
+"You're merely insulting me again, I presume?"
+
+"Some young women need punishing. I expect you're one."
+
+She handed him the horsewhip, a sudden pulse of passion beating
+fiercely in her throat. "Very well. Make an end of it and let me see
+the last of you," she challenged.
+
+He cracked the lash expertly so that the horses quivered and would
+have started if his strong hand had not tightened on the lines.
+
+The Westerner laughed again. "You're game anyhow."
+
+"When you are quite through with me," she suggested, very quietly.
+
+But he noticed the fury of her deep-pupiled eyes, the turbulent rise
+and fall of her bosom.
+
+"I'll not punish you that way this time." And he gave back the whip.
+
+"If you won't use it I will."
+
+The lash flashed up and down, twined itself savagely round his wrist,
+and left behind a bracelet of crimson. Startled, the horses leaped
+forward. The reins slipped free from his numbed fingers. Miss Kinney
+had made her good-by and was descending swiftly into the valley.
+
+The man watched the rig sweep along that branch of the road which led
+to the south. Then he looked at his wrist and laughed.
+
+"The plucky little devil! She's a thoroughbred for fair. You bet I'll
+make her pay for this. But ain't she got sand in her craw? She's
+surely hating me proper." He laughed again in remembrance of the whole
+episode, finding in it something that stirred his blood immensely.
+
+After the trap had swept round a curve out of sight he disappeared in
+the mesquite and bear-grass, presently returning with the roan that
+had been ridden by the escaped convict.
+
+"Whoever would suppose she was the sister of that scurvy scalawag with
+jailbird branded all over his hulking hide? He ain't fit to wipe her
+little feet on. She's as fine as silk. Think of her going through what
+she is to save that coyote, and him as crooked as a dog's hind leg.
+There ain't any limit to what a good woman will do for a man when she
+thinks he's got a claim on her, more especially if he's a ruffian."
+
+With this bit of philosophic observation he rolled a cigarette and lit
+it.
+
+"Him fall into bad company and be led away?" he added in disgust.
+"There ain't any worse than him. But he'll work her to the limit
+before she finds it out."
+
+Leisurely he swung to the saddle and rode down into the valley of the
+San Xavier, which rolled away from his feet in numberless tawny waves
+of unfeatured foot-hills and mesas and washes. Almost as far as the
+eye could see there stretched a sea of hilltops bathed in sun. Only on
+the west were they bounded, by the irregular saw-toothed edge of the
+Frenchman Hills, silhouetted against an incomparable blue. For a
+stretch of many miles the side of the range was painted scarlet by
+millions of poppies splashed broadcast.
+
+"Nature's gone to flower-gardening for fair on the mountains,"
+murmured the rider. "What with one thing and another I've got a notion
+I'm going to take a liking to this country."
+
+The man was plainly very tired with rapid travel, and about the middle
+of the afternoon the young man unsaddled and picketed the animal near
+a water-hole. He lay down in the shadow of a cottonwood, flat on his
+back, face upturned to the deep cobalt sky. Presently the drowse of
+the afternoon crept over him. The slumberous valley grew hazy to his
+nodding eyes. The reluctant lids ceased to open and he was fast
+asleep.
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+ LIEUTENANT FRASER INTERFERES.
+
+The sun had declined almost to a saddle in the Cuesta del Burro when
+the sleeper reopened his eyes. Even before he had shaken himself free
+of sleep he was uneasily aware of something wrong. Hazily the sound of
+voices drifted to him across an immense space. Blurred figures crossed
+before his unfocused gaze.
+
+The first thing he saw clearly was the roan, still grazing in the
+circle of its picket-rope. Beside the bronco were two men looking the
+animal over critically.
+
+"Been going some," he heard one remark, pointing at the same time to
+the sweat-stains that streaked the shoulders and flanks.
+
+"If he had me on his back he'd still be burning the wind, me being in
+his boots," returned the second, with a grating laugh, jerking his
+head toward the sleeper. "Whatever led the durned fool to stop this
+side of the line beats me."
+
+"If he was hiking for Chihuahua he's been hitting a mighty crooked
+trail. I don't savvy it, him knowing the country as well as they say
+he does," the first speaker made answer.
+
+The traveler's circling eye now discovered two more men, each of them
+covering him with a rifle. A voice from the rear assured him there was
+also a fifth member to the party.
+
+"Look out! He's awake," it warned.
+
+The young man's hand inadvertently moved toward his revolver-butt.
+This drew a sharp imperative order from one of the men in front.
+
+"Throw up your hands, and damn quick!"
+
+"You seem to have the call, gentlemen," he smiled. "Would you mind
+telling me what it's all about?"
+
+"You know what it's all about as well as we do. Collect his gun, Tom."
+
+"This hold-up business seems to be a habit in this section. Second
+time to-day I've been the victim of it," said the victim easily.
+
+"It will be the last," retorted one of the men grimly.
+
+"If you're after the mazuma you've struck a poor bank."
+
+"You've got your nerve," cried one of the men in a rage; and another
+demanded: "Where did you get that hawss?"
+
+"Why, I got it--" The young man stopped in the middle of his sentence.
+His jaw clamped and his eyes grew hard. "I expect you better explain
+what right you got to ask that question."
+
+The man laughed without cordiality. "Seeing as I have owned it three
+years I allow I have some right."
+
+"What's the use of talking? He's the man we want, broke in another
+impatiently.
+
+"Who is the man you want?" asked their prisoner.
+
+"You're the man we want, Jim Kinney."
+
+"Wrong guess. My name is Larry Neill. I'm from the Panhandle and I've
+never been in this part of the country till two days ago."
+
+"You may have a dozen names. We don't care what you call yourself. Of
+course you would deny being the man we're after. But that don't go
+with us."
+
+"All right. Take me back to Fort Lincoln, or take me to the prison
+officials. They will tell you whether I am the man."
+
+The leader of the party pounced on his slip. "Who mentioned prison?
+Who told you we wanted an escaped prisoner?"
+
+"He's give himself away," triumphed the one edged Tom. "I guess that
+clinches it. He's riding Maloney's hawss. He's wounded; so's the man
+we want. He answers the description-- gray eyes, tall, slim, muscular.
+Same gun-- automatic Colt. Tell you there's nothin' to it, Duffield."
+
+"If you're not Kinney, how come you with this hawss? He stole it from
+a barn in Fort Lincoln last night. That's known," said the leader,
+Duffield.
+
+The imperilled man thought of the girl bing toward the border with her
+brother and the remembrance padlocked his tongue.
+
+"Take me to the proper authorities and I'll answer questions. But,
+I'll not talk here. What's the use? You don't believe a word I say."
+
+"You spoke the truth that time," said one.
+
+"If you ever want to do any explaining now's the hour," added another.
+
+"I'll do mine later, gentlemen."
+
+They looked at each other and one of them spoke.
+
+"It will be too late to explain then."
+
+"Too late?"
+
+Some inkling of the man's hideous meaning seared him and ran like an
+ice-blast through him.
+
+"You've done all the meanness you'll ever do in this world. Poor Dave
+Long is the last man you'll ever kill. We're going to do justice right
+now."
+
+"Dave Long! I never heard of him," the prisoner repeated mechanically.
+"Good God, do you think I'm a murderer?"
+
+One of the men thrust himself forward. "We know it. Y'u and that
+hellish partner of yours shot him while he was locking the gate. But
+y'u made a mistake when y'u come to Fort Lincoln. He lived there
+before he went to be a guard at the Arizona penitentiary. I'm his
+brother. These gentlemen are his neighbors. Y'u're not going back to
+prison. Y'u're going to stay right here under this cottonwood."
+
+If the extraordinary menace of the man appalled Neill he gave no sign
+of it. His gray eye passed from one to another of them quietly without
+giving any sign of the impotent tempest raging within him.
+
+"You're going to lynch me then?"
+
+"Y'u've called the turn."
+
+"Without giving me a chance to prove my innocence?"
+
+"Without giving y'u a chance to escape or sneak back to the
+penitentiary."
+
+The thing was horribly unthinkable. The warm mellow afternoon sunshine
+wrapped them about. The horses grazed with quiet unconcern. One of
+these hard-faced frontiersmen was chewing tobacco with machine-like
+regularity. Another was rolling a cigarette. There was nothing of
+dramatic effect. Not a man had raised his voice. But Neill knew there
+was no appeal. He had come to the end of the passage through a
+horrible mistake. He raged in bitter resentment against his fate,
+against these men who stood so quietly about him ready to execute it,
+most of all against the girl who had let him sacrifice himself by
+concealing the vital fact that her brother had murdered a guard to
+effect his escape. Fool that he had been, he had stumbled into a trap,
+and she had let him do it without a word of warning. Wild, chaotic
+thoughts crowded his brain furiously.
+
+But the voice with which he addressed them was singularly even and
+colorless.
+
+"I am a stranger to this country. I was born in Tennessee, brought up
+in the Panhandle. I'm an irrigation engineer by profession. This is my
+vacation. I'm headed now for the Mal Pais mines. Friends of mine are
+interested in a property there with me and I have been sent to look
+the ground over and make a report. I never heard of Kinney till
+to-day. You've got the wrong man, gentlemen."
+
+"We'll risk it," laughed one brutally. "Bring that riata, Tom."
+
+Neill did not struggle or cry out frantically. He stood motionless
+while they adjusted the rope round his bronzed throat. They had judged
+him for a villain; they should at least know him a man. So he stood
+there straight and lithe, wide-shouldered and lean-flanked, a man in a
+thousand. Not a twitch of the well-packed muscles, not a quiver of the
+eyelash nor a swelling of the throat betrayed any fear. His cool eyes
+were quiet and steady.
+
+"If you want to leave any message for anybody I'll see it's
+delivered," promised Duffield.
+
+"I'll not trouble you with any."
+
+"Just as you like."
+
+"He didn't give poor Dave any time for messages," cried Tom Long
+bitterly.
+
+"That's right," assented another with a curse.
+
+It was plain to the victim they were spurring their nerves to
+hardihood.
+
+"Who's that?" cried one of the men, pointing to a rider galloping
+toward them.
+
+The newcomer approached rapidly, covered by their weapons, and flung
+himself from his pony as he dragged it to a halt beside the group.
+
+"Steve Fraser," cried Duffield in surprise, and added, "He's an
+officer in the rangers."
+
+"Right, gentlemen. Come to claim my prisoner," said the ranger
+promptly.
+
+"Y'u can't have him, Steve. We took him and he's got to hang."
+
+The lieutenant of rangers shook his dark curly head.
+
+"Won't do, Duffield. Won't do at all," he said decisively. "You'd
+ought to know law's on top in Texas these days."
+
+Tom Long shouldered his way to the front. "Law! Where was the law when
+this ruffian Kinney shot down my poor brother Dave? I guess a rope and
+a cottonwood's good enough law for him. Anyhow, that's what he gits."
+
+Fraser, hard-packed, lithe, and graceful, laid a friendly hand on the
+other's shoulder and smiled sunnily at him.
+
+"I know how you feel, Tom. We all thought a heap of Dave and you're
+his brother. But Dave died for the law. Both you boys have always
+stood for order. He'd be troubled if he knew you were turned enemy to
+it on his account."
+
+"I'm for justice, Steve. This skunk deserves death and I'm going to
+see he gits it."
+
+"No, Tom."
+
+"I say yes. Y'u ain't sitting in this game, Steve."
+
+"I reckon I'll have to take a hand then."
+
+The ranger's voice was soft and drawling, but his eyes were
+indomitably steady. Throughout the Southwest his reputation for
+fearlessness was established even among a population singularly
+courageous. The audacity of his daredevil recklessness was become a
+proverb.
+
+"We got a full table. Better ride away and forget it," said another.
+
+"That ain't what I'm paid for, Jack," returned Fraser good-naturedly.
+"Better turn him over to me peaceable, boys. He'll get what's coming
+to him all right."
+
+"He'll get it now, Steve, without any help of yours. We don't aim to
+allow any butting in."
+
+"Don't you?"
+
+There was a flash of steel as the ranger dived forward. Next instant
+he and the prisoner stood with their backs to the cottonwood, a
+revolver having somehow leaped from its scabbard to his hand. His
+hunting-knife had sheared at a stroke the riata round the engineer's
+neck.
+
+"Take it easy, boys," urged Fraser, still in his gentle drawl, to the
+astonished vigilantes whom his sudden sally had robbed of their
+victim. "Think about it twice. We'll all be a long time dead. No use
+in hurrying the funerals."
+
+Nevertheless he recognized battle as inevitable. Friends of his though
+they were, he knew these sturdy plainsmen would never submit to be
+foiled in their purpose by one man. In the momentary silence before
+the clash the quiet voice of the prisoner made itself heard.
+
+"Just a moment, gentlemen. I don't want you spilling lead over me. I'm
+the wrong man, and I can prove it if you'll give me time. Here's the
+key to my room at the hotel in San Antonio. In my suit-case you'll
+find letters that prove--"
+
+"We don't need them. I've got proof right here," cut in Fraser,
+remembering.
+
+He slipped a hand into his coat pocket and drew out two photographs.
+"Boys, here are the pictures and descriptions of the two men that
+escaped from Yuma the other day. I hadn't had time to see this
+gentleman before he spoke, being some busy explaining the situation to
+you, but a blind jackass could see he don't favor either Kinney or
+Struve, You're sure barking up the wrong tree."
+
+The self-appointed committee for the execution of justice and the man
+from the Panhandle looked the prison photographs over blankly. Between
+the hard, clean-cut face of their prisoner and those that looked at
+them from the photographs it was impossible to find any resemblance.
+Duffield handed the prints back with puzzled chagrin.
+
+"I guess you're right, Steve. But I'd like this gentleman to explain
+how come he to be riding the horse one of these miscreants stole from
+Maloney's barn last night."
+
+Steve looked at the prisoner. "It's your spiel, friend," he said.
+
+"All right. I'll tell you some facts. Just as I was coming down from
+the Roskruge range this mo'ning I was held up for my team. One of
+these fellows-- the one called Kinney-- had started from Fort Lincoln
+on this roan here, but he was wounded and broke down. There was some
+gun-play, and he gave me this scratch on the cheek. The end of it was
+that he took my team and left me with his worn-out bronc. I plugged on
+all day with the hawss till about three mebbe, then seeing it was all
+in I unsaddled and picketed. I lay down and dropped asleep. Next I
+knew the necktie-party was in session."
+
+"What time was it y'u met this fellow Kinney?" asked Long sharply.
+
+"Must have been about nine or nine-thirty I judge."
+
+"And it's five now. That's eight hours' start, and four more before we
+can cut his trail on Roskruge. By God, we've lost him!"
+
+"Looks like," agreed another ruefully.
+
+"Make straight for the Arivaca cut-off and you ought to stand a show,"
+suggested Fraser.
+
+"That's right. If we ride all night, might beat him to it" Each of the
+five contributed a word of agreement.
+
+Five minutes later the Texan and the ranger watched a dust-cloud
+drifting to the south. In it was hidden the posse disappearing over
+the hilltop.
+
+Steve grinned. "I hate to disappoint the boys. They're so plumb
+anxious. But I reckon I'll strike the telephone line and send word to
+Moreno for one of the rangers to cut out after Kinney. Going my way,
+seh?"
+
+"If you're going mine."
+
+"I reckon I am. And just to pass the time you might tell me the real
+story of that hold-up while we ride."
+
+"The real story?"
+
+"Well, I don't aim to doubt your word, but I reckon you forgot to tell
+some of it." He turned on the other his gay smile. "For instance, seh,
+you ain't asking me to believe that you handed over your rig to Kinney
+so peaceful and that he went away and clean forgot to unload from you
+that gun you pack."
+
+The eyes of the two met and looked into each other's as clear and
+straight as Texas sunshine. Slowly Neill's relaxed into a smile.
+
+"No, I won't ask you to believe that. I owe you something because you
+saved my life--"
+
+"Forget it," commanded the lieutenant crisply.
+
+"And I can't do less than tell you the whole story."
+
+He told it, yet not the whole of it either; for there was one detail
+he omitted completely. It had to do with the cause for existence of
+the little black-and-blue bruise under his right eye and the purple
+ridge that seamed his wrist. Nor with all his acuteness could Stephen
+Fraser guess that the one swelling had been made by a gold ring on the
+clenched fist of an angry girl held tight in Larry Neill's arms, the
+other by the lash of a horsewhip wielded by the same young woman.
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+ A DISCOVERY
+
+The roan, having been much refreshed by a few hours on grass, proved
+to be a good traveller. The two men took a road-gait and held it
+steadily till they reached a telephone-line which stretched across the
+desert and joined two outposts of civilization. Steve strapped on his
+climbing spurs and went up a post lightly with his test outfit. In a
+few minutes he had Moreno on the wire and was in touch with one of his
+rangers.
+
+"Hello! This you, Ferguson? This is Fraser. No, Fraser-- Lieutenant
+Fraser. Yes. How many of the boys can you get in touch with right
+away? Two? Good. I want you to cover the Arivaca cut-off. Kinney is
+headed that way in a rig. His sister is with him. She is not to be
+injured under any circumstances. Understand? Wire me at the Mal Pais
+mines to-morrow your news. By the way, Tom Long and some of the boys
+are headed down that way with notions of lynching Kinney. Dodge them
+if you can and rush your man up to the Mal Pais. Good-bye."
+
+"Suppose they can't dodge them?" ventured Neill after Steve had
+rejoined him.
+
+"I reckon they can. If not-- well, my rangers are good boys; I expect
+they won't give up a prisoner."
+
+"I'm right glad to find you are going to the Mal Pais mines with me,
+lieutenant. I wasn't expecting company on the way."
+
+"I'll bet a dollar Mex against two plunks gold that you're wondering
+whyfor I'm going."
+
+Larry laughed. "You're right. I was wondering."
+
+"Well, then, it's this way. What with all these boys on Kinney's trail
+he's as good as rounded up. Fact is, Kinney's only a weak sister
+anyhow. He turned State's witness at the trial, and it was his
+testimony that convicted Struve. I know something about this because I
+happened to be the man that caught Struve. I had just joined the
+rangers. It was my first assignment. The other three got away. Two of
+them escaped and the third was not tried for lack of sufficient
+evidence. Now, then: Kinney rides the rods from Yuma to Marfa and is
+now or had ought to be somewhere in this valley between Posa Buena and
+Taylor's ranch. But where is Struve, the hardier ruffian of the two?
+He ain't been seen since they broke out. He sure never reached Ft.
+Lincoln. My notion is that he dropped off the train in the darkness
+about Casa Grande, then rolled his tail for the Mal Pais country. Your
+eyes are asking whys mighty loud, my friend; and my answer is that
+there's a man up there mebbe who has got to hide Struve if he shows
+up. That's only a guess, but it looks good to me. This man was the
+brains of the whole outfit, and folks say that he's got cached the
+whole haul the gang made from that S. P. hold-up. What's more, he
+scattered gold so liberal that his name wasn't even mentioned at the
+trial. He's a big man now, a millionaire copper king and into
+gold-mines up to the hocks. In the Southwest those things happen. It
+doesn't always do to look too closely at a man's past.
+
+"We'll say Struve drops in on him and threatens to squeak. Mebbe he
+has got evidence; mebbe he hasn't. Anyhow, our big duck wants to
+forget the time he was wearing a mask and bending a six-gun for a
+living. Also and moreover, he's right anxious to have other folks get
+a chance to forget. From what I can hear he's clean mashed on some
+girl at Amarillo, or maybe it's Fort Lincoln. See what a twist
+Strove's got on him if he can slip into the Mal Pais country on the q.
+t."
+
+"And you're going up there to look out for him?"
+
+"I'm going in to take a casual look around. There's no telling what a
+man might happen onto accidentally if he travels with his ear to the
+ground."
+
+The other nodded. He could now understand easily why Fraser was going
+into the Mal Pais country, but he could not make out why the ranger,
+naturally a man who lived under his own hat and kept his own counsel,
+had told him so much as he had. The officer shortly relieved his mind
+on this point.
+
+"I may need help while I'm there. May I call on you if I do, seh?"
+
+Neill felt his heart warm toward this hard-faced, genial frontiersman,
+who knew how to judge so well the timbre of a casual acquaintance.
+
+"You sure may, lieutenant."
+
+"Good. I'll count on you then."
+
+So, in these few words, the compact of friendship and alliance was
+sealed between them. Each of them was strangely taken with the other,
+but it is not the way of the Anglo-Saxon fighting man to voice his
+sentiment. Though each of them admired the stark courage and the
+flawless fortitude he knew to dwell in the other, impassivity sat on
+their faces like an ice-mask. For this is the hall-mark of the
+Southwest, that a man must love and hate with the same unchanging face
+of iron, save only when a woman is in consideration.
+
+They were to camp that night by Cottonwood Spring, and darkness caught
+them still some miles from their camp. They were on no road, but were
+travelling across country through washes and over countless hills. The
+ranger led the way, true as an arrow, even after velvet night had
+enveloped them.
+
+"It must be right over this mesa among the cottonwoods you see rising
+from that arroyo," he announced at last.
+
+He had scarcely spoken before they struck a trail that led them direct
+to the spring. But as they were descending this in a circle Fraser's
+horse shied.
+
+"Hyer you, Pinto! What's the matter with--"
+
+The ranger cut his sentence in two and slid from the saddle. When his
+companion reached him and drew rein the ranger was bending over a dark
+mass stretched across the trail. He looked up quietly.
+
+"Man's body," he said briefly.
+
+"Dead?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Neill dismounted and came forward. The moon-crescent was up by now and
+had lit the country with a chill radiance. The figure was dressed in
+the coarse striped suit of a convict.
+
+"I don't savvy this play," Fraser confessed softly to himself.
+
+"Do you know him?"
+
+"Suppose you look at him and see if you know him."
+
+Neill looked into the white face and shook his head.
+
+"No, I don't know him, but I suppose it is Struve."
+
+From his pocket the ranger produced a photograph and handed it to him.
+
+"Hyer, I'll strike a match and you'll see better."
+
+The match flared up in the slight breeze and presently went out, but
+not before Neill had seen that it was the face of the man who lay
+before them.
+
+"Did you see the name under the picture, seh?"
+
+"No."
+
+Another match flared and the man from the Panhandle read a name, but
+it was not the one he had expected to see. The words printed there
+were "James Kinney."
+
+"I don't understand. This ain't Kinney. He is a heavy-set man with a
+villainous face. There's some mistake."
+
+"There ce'tainly is, but not at this end of the line. This is Kinney
+all right. I've seen him at Yuma. He was heading for the Mal Pais
+country and he died on the way. See hyer. Look at these soaked
+bandages. He's been wounded-- shot mebbe-- and the wound broke out on
+him again so that he bled to death."
+
+"It's all a daze to me. Who is the other man if he isn't Kinney?"
+
+"We're coming to that. I'm beginning to see daylight," said Steve,
+gently. "Let's run over this thing the way it might be. You've got to
+keep in mind that this man was weak, one of those spineless fellows
+that stronger folks lead around by the nose. Well, they make their
+getaway at Yuma after Struve has killed a guard. That killing of Dave
+Long shakes Kinney up a lot, he being no desperado but only a poor
+lost-dog kind of a guy. Struve notices it and remembers that this
+fellow weakened before. He makes up his mind to take no chances. From
+that moment he watches for a chance to make an end of his pardner. At
+Casa Grande they drop off the train they're riding and cut across
+country toward the Mal Pais. Mebbe they quarrel or mebbe Struve gets
+his chance and takes it. But after he has shot his man he sees he has
+made a mistake. Perhaps they were seen travelling in that direction.
+Anyhow, he is afraid the body will be found since he can't bury it
+right. He changes his plan and takes a big chance; cuts back to the
+track, boards a freight, and reaches Fort Lincoln."
+
+"My God!" cried the other, startled for once out of his calm.
+
+The officer nodded. "You're on the trail right enough. I wish we were
+both wrong, but we ain't."
+
+"But surely she would have known he wasn't her brother, surely--"
+
+The ranger shook his head. "She hadn't seen the black sheep since she
+was a kid of about seven. How would she know what he looked like? And
+Struve was primed with all the facts he had heard Kinney blat out time
+and again. She wasn't suspecting any imposition and he worked her to a
+fare-you-well."
+
+Larry Neill set his teeth on a wave of icy despair.
+
+"And she's in that devil's power. She would be as safe in a den of
+rattlers. To think that I had my foot on his neck this mo'ning and
+didn't break it."
+
+"She's safe so long as she is necessary to him. She's in deadly peril
+as soon as he finds her one witness too many. If he walks into my
+boys' trap at the Arivaca cut-off, all right. If not, God help her!
+I've shut the door to Mexico and safety in his face. He'll strike back
+for the Mal Pais country. It's his one chance, and he'll want to
+travel light and fast."
+
+"If he starts back Tom Long's party may get him."
+
+"That's one more chance for her, but it's a slim one. He'll cut
+straight across country; they're following the trail. No, seh, our
+best bet is my rangers. They'd ought to land him, too."
+
+"Oh, ought to," derided the other impatiently. "Point is, if they
+don't. How are we going to save her? You know this country. I don't."
+
+"Don't tear your shirt, amigo," smiled the ranger. "We'll arrive
+faster if we don't go off half-cocked. Let's picket the broncs, amble
+down to the spring, and smoke a cigaret. We've got to ride twenty
+miles for fresh hawsses and these have got to have a little rest."
+
+They unsaddled and picketed, then strolled to the spring.
+
+"I've been thinking that maybe we have made a mistake. Isn't it
+possible the man with Miss Kinney is not Struve?" asked Neill.
+
+"That's easy proved. You saw him this mo'ning." The lieutenant went
+down into his pocket once more for a photograph. "Does this favor the
+man with Miss Kinney?"
+
+Under the blaze of another match, shielded by the ranger s hands,
+Larry looked into the scowling, villainous face he had seen earlier in
+the day. There could be no mistaking those leering, cruel eyes nor the
+ratlike, shifty look of the face, not to mention the long scar across
+it. His heart sank.
+
+"It's the man."
+
+"Don't you blame yourself for not putting his lights out. How could
+you tell who he was?"
+
+"I knew he was a ruffian, hide and hair."
+
+"But you thought he was her brother and that's a whole lot different.
+What do you say to grubbing here? We've got to go to the Halle ranch
+for hawsses and it's a long jog."
+
+They lit a fire and over their coffee discussed plans. In the midst of
+these the Southerner picked up idly a piece of wrapping-paper. Upon it
+was pencilled a wavering scrawl:
+
+Bleeding has broke out again. Can't stop it. Struve shot me and left
+me for dead ten miles back. I didn't kill the guard or know he meant
+to. J. KINNEY.
+
+Neill handed the paper to the ranger, who read it through, folded it,
+and gave it back to the other.
+
+"Keep that paper. We may need it." His grave eyes went up the trail to
+where the dark figure lay motionless in the cold moonlight. "Well,
+he's come to the end of the trail-- the only end he could have
+reached. He wasn't strong enough to survive as a bad man. Poor devil!"
+
+They buried him in a clump of cottonwoods and left a little pile of
+rocks to mark the spot.
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+ LOST!
+
+After her precipitate leave-taking of the man whose team she had
+bought or borrowed, Margaret Kinney nursed the fires of her
+indignation in silence, banking them for future use against the time
+when she should meet him again in the event that should ever happen.
+She brought her whip-lash snapping above the backs of the horses, and
+there was that in the supple motion of the small strong wrist which
+suggested that nothing would have pleased her more than having this
+audacious Texan there in place of the innocent animals. For whatever
+of inherited savagery lay latent in her blood had been flogged to the
+surface by the circumstances into which she had been thrust. Never in
+all her placid life had she known the tug of passion any closer than
+from across the footlights of a theatre.
+
+She had had, to be sure, one stinging shame, but it had been buried in
+far-away Arizona, quite beyond the ken of the convention-bound people
+of the little Wisconsin town where she dwelt. But within the past
+twelve hours Fate had taken hold of her with both hands and thrust her
+into Life. She sensed for the first time its roughness, its nakedness,
+its tragedy. She had known the sensations of a hunted wild beast, the
+flush of shame for her kinship to this coarse ruffian by her side, and
+the shock of outraged maiden modesty at kisses ravished from her by
+force. The teacher hardly knew herself for the same young woman who
+but yesterday was engrossed in multiplication tables and third
+readers.
+
+A sinister laugh from the man beside her brought the girl back to the
+present.
+
+She looked at him and then looked quickly away again. There was
+something absolutely repulsive in the creature-- in the big ears that
+stood out from the close-cropped head, in the fishy eyes that saw
+everything without ever looking directly at anything, in the crooked
+mouth with its irregular rows of stained teeth from which several were
+missing. She had often wondered about her brother, but never at the
+worst had she imagined anything so bad as this. The memory would be
+enough to give one the shudders for years.
+
+"Guess I ain't next to all that happened there in the mesquite," he
+sneered, with a lift of the ugly lip.
+
+She did not look at him. She did not speak. There seethed in her a
+loathing and a disgust beyond expression.
+
+"Guess you forgot that a fellow can sometimes hear even when he can't
+see. Since I'm chaperooning you I'll make out to be there next time
+you meet a good-looking lady-killer. Funny, the difference it makes,
+being your brother. You ain't seen me since you was a kid, but you
+plumb forgot to kiss me."
+
+There was a note in his voice she had not heard before, some hint of
+leering ribaldry in the thick laugh that for the first time stirred
+unease in her heart. She did not know that the desperate, wild-animal
+fear in him, so overpowering that everything else had been pushed to
+the background, had obscured certain phases of him that made her
+presence here such a danger as she could not yet conceive. That fear
+was now lifting, and the peril loomed imminent.
+
+He put his arm along the back of the seat and grinned at her from his
+loose-lipped mouth.
+
+"But o' course it ain't too late to begin now, my dearie."
+
+Her fearless level eyes met squarely his shifty ones and read there
+something she could dread without understanding, something that was an
+undefined sacrilege of her sweet purity. For woman-like her instinct
+leaped beyond reason.
+
+"Take down your arm," she ordered.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, sis. I reckon your brother--"
+
+"You're no brother of mine," she broke in. "At most it is an accident
+of birth I disown. I'll have no relationship with you of any sort."
+
+"Is that why you're driving with me to Mexico?" he jeered.
+
+"I made a mistake in trying to save you. If it were to do over again I
+should not lift a hand."
+
+"You wouldn't, eh?"
+
+There was something almost wolfish in the facial malignity that
+distorted him.
+
+"Not a finger."
+
+"Perhaps you'd give me up now if you had a chance?"
+
+"I would if I did what was right."
+
+"And you'd sure want to do what was right," he snarled.
+
+"Take down your arm," she ordered again, a dangerous glitter in her
+eyes.
+
+He thrust his evil face close to hers and showed his teeth in a blind
+rage that forgot everything else.
+
+"Listen here, you little locoed baby. I got something to tell you
+that'll make your hair curl. You're right, I ain't your brother. I'm
+Nick Struve-- Wolf Struve if you like that better. I lied you into
+believing me your brother, who ain't ever been anything but a
+skim-milk quitter. He's dead back there in the cactus somewhere, and I
+killed him!"
+
+Terror flooded her eyes. Her very breathing hung suspended. She gazed
+at him in a frozen fascination of horror.
+
+"Killed him because he gave me away seven years ago and was gittin'
+ready to round on me again. Folks don't live long that play Wolf
+Struve for a lamb. A wolf! That's what I am, a born wolf, and don't
+you forget it."
+
+The fact itself did not need his words for emphasis. He fairly reeked
+the beast of prey. She had to nerve herself against faintness. She
+must not swoon. She dared not.
+
+"Think you can threaten to give me up, do you? 'Fore I'm through with
+you you'll wish you had never been born. You'll crawl on your knees
+and beg me to kill you."
+
+Such a devil of wickedness she had never seen in human eyes before.
+The ruthlessness left no room for appeal. Unless the courage to tame
+him lay in her she was lost utterly.
+
+He continued his exultant bragging, blatantly, ferociously.
+
+"I didn't tell you about my escape; how a guard tried to stop me and I
+put the son of a gun out of business. There's a price on my head. D'ye
+think I'm the man to give you a chance to squeal on me? D'ye think
+I'll let a pink-and-white chit send me back to be strangled?" he
+screamed.
+
+The stark courage in her rose to the crisis. Not an hour before she
+had seen the Texan cow him. He was of the kind would take the whip
+whiningly could she but wield it. Her scornful eyes fastened on him
+contemptuously, chiseled into the cur heart of him.
+
+"What will you do?" she demanded, fronting the issue that must sooner
+or later rise.
+
+The raucous jangle of his laugh failed to disturb the steadiness of
+her gaze. To reassure himself of his mastery he began to bluster, to
+threaten, turning loose such a storm of vile abuse as she had never
+heard. He was plainly working his nerve up to the necessary pitch.
+
+In her first terror she had dropped the reins. Her hands had slipped
+unconsciously under the lap-robe. Now one of them touched something
+chilly on the seat beside her. She almost gasped her relief. It was
+the selfsame revolver with which she had tried to hold up the Texan.
+
+In the midst of Struve's flood of invective the girl's hand leaped
+quickly from the lap-robe. A cold muzzle pressed against his cheek
+brought the convict's outburst to an abrupt close.
+
+"If you move I'll fire," she said quietly.
+
+For a long moment their gazes gripped, the deadly clear eyes of the
+young woman and the furtive ones of the miscreant. Underneath the robe
+she felt a stealthy movement, and cried out quickly: "Hands up!"
+
+With a curse he threw his arms into the air.
+
+"Jump out! Don't lower your hands!"
+
+"My ankle," he whined.
+
+"Jump!"
+
+His leap cleared the wheel and threw him to the ground. She caught up
+the whip and slashed wildly at the horses. They sprang forward in a
+panic, flying wildly across the open plain. Margaret heard a revolver
+bark twice. After that she was so busy trying to regain control of the
+team that she could think of nothing else. The horses were young and
+full of spirit, so that she had all she could do to keep the trap from
+being upset. It wound in and out among the hills, taking perilous
+places safely to her surprise, and was at last brought to a stop only
+by the narrowing of a draw into which the animals had bolted.
+
+They were quiet now beyond any chance of farther runaway, even had it
+been possible. Margaret dropped the lines on the dashboard and began
+to sob, at first in slow deep breaths and then in quicker uneven ones.
+Plucky as she was, the girl had had about all her nerves could stand
+for one day. The strain of her preparation for flight, the long night
+drive, and the excitement of the last two hours were telling on her in
+a hysterical reaction.
+
+She wept herself out, dried her eyes with dabs of her little kerchief,
+and came back to a calm consideration of her situation. She must get
+back to Fort Lincoln as soon as possible, and she must do it without
+encountering the convict. For in the course of the runaway the
+revolver had been jolted from the trap.
+
+Not quite sure in which direction lay the road, she got out from the
+trap, topped the hill to her right, and looked around. She saw in all
+directions nothing but rolling hilltops, merging into each other even
+to the horizon's edge. In her wild flight among these hills she had
+lost count of direction. She had not yet learned how to know north
+from south by the sun, and if she had it would have helped but little
+since she knew only vaguely the general line of their travel.
+
+She felt sure that from the top of the next rise she could locate the
+road, but once there she was as uncertain as before. Before giving up
+she breasted a third hill to the summit. Still no signs of the road.
+Reluctantly she retraced her steps, and at the foot of the hill was
+uncertain whether she should turn to right or left. Choosing the left,
+from the next height she could see nothing of the team. She was not
+yet alarmed. It was ridiculous to suppose that she was lost. How could
+she be when she was within three or four hundred yards of the rig? She
+would cut across the shoulder into the wash and climb the hillock
+beyond. For behind it the team must certainly be.
+
+But at her journey's end her eyes were gladdened by no sight of the
+horses. Every draw was like its neighbor, every rolling rise a replica
+of the next. The truth came home to a sinking heart. She was lost in
+one of the great deserts of Texas. She would wander for days as others
+had, and she would die in the end of starvation and thirst. Nobody
+would know where to look for her, since she had told none where she
+was going. Only yesterday at her boarding-house she had heard a young
+man tell how a tenderfoot had been found dead after he had wandered
+round and round in intersecting circles. She sank down and gave
+herself up to despair.
+
+But not for long. She was too full of grit to give up without a long
+fight. How many hours she wandered Margaret Kinney did not know. The
+sun was high in the heavens when she began. It had given place to
+flooding moonlight long before her worn feet and aching heart gave up
+the search for some human landmark. Once at least she must have slept,
+for she stared up from a spot where she had sunk down to look up into
+a starry sky that was new to her.
+
+The moon had sailed across the vault and grown chill and faint with
+dawn before she gave up, completely exhausted, and when her eyes
+opened again it was upon a young day fresh and sweet. She knew by this
+time hunger and an acute thirst. As the day increased, this last she
+knew must be a torment of swollen tongue and lime-kiln throat.
+Yesterday she had cried for help till her voice had failed. A dumb
+despair had now driven away her terror.
+
+And then into the awful silence leaped a sound like a messenger of
+hope. It was a shot, so close that she could see the smoke rise from
+an arroyo near. She ran forward till she could look down into it and
+caught sight of a man with a dead bird in his hand. He had his back
+toward her and was stooping over a fire. Slithering down over the
+short dry grass, she was upon him almost before she could stop.
+
+"I've been lost all night and all yesterday," she sobbed.
+
+He snatched at the revolver lying beside him and whirled like a flash
+as if to meet an attack. The girl's pumping heart seemed to stand
+still. The man snarling at her was the convict Struve.
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+ LARRY NEILL TO THE RESCUE
+
+The snarl gave way slowly to a grim more malign than his open
+hostility.
+
+"So you've been lost! And now you're found-- come safe back to your
+loving brother. Ain't that luck for you? Hunted all over Texas till
+you found him, eh? And it's a powerful big State, too."
+
+She caught sight of something that made her forget all else.
+
+"Have you got water in that canteen?" she asked, her parched eyes
+staring at it.
+
+"Yes, dearie."
+
+"Give it me."
+
+He squatted tailor-fashion on the ground, put the canteen between his
+knees, and shoved his teeth in a crooked grin.
+
+"Thirsty?"
+
+"I'm dying for a drink"
+
+"You look like a right lively corpse."
+
+"Give it to me."
+
+"Will you take it now or wait till you get it?"
+
+"My throat's baked. I want water," she said hoarsely.
+
+"Most folks want a lot they never get."
+
+She walked toward him with her hand outstretched.
+
+"I tell you I've got to have it."
+
+He laughed evilly. "Water's at a premium right now. Likely there ain't
+enough here to get us both out of this infernal hole alive. Yes, it's
+sure at a premium."
+
+He let his eye drift insolently over her and take stock of his prey,
+in the same feline way of a cat with a mouse, gloating over her
+distress and the details of her young good looks. His tainted gaze got
+the faint pure touch of color in her face, the reddish tinge of her
+wavy brown hair, the desirable sweetness of her rounded maidenhood. If
+her step dragged, if dusky hollows shadowed her lids, if the native
+courage had been washed from the hopeless eyes, there was no spring of
+manliness hid deep within him that rose to refresh her exhaustion. No
+pity or compunction stirred at her sweet helplessness.
+
+"Do you want my money?" she asked wearily.
+
+"I'll take that to begin with."
+
+She tossed him her purse. "There should be seventy dollars there. May
+I have a drink now?"
+
+"Not yet, my dear. First you got to come up to me and put your arms
+round--"
+
+He broke off with a curse, for she was flying toward the little circle
+of cottonwoods some forty yards away. She had caught a glimpse of the
+water-hole and was speeding for it.
+
+"Come back here," he called, and in a rage let fly a bullet after her.
+
+She paid no heed, did not stop till she reached the spring and threw
+herself down full length to drink, to lave her burnt face, to drink
+again of the alkali brackish water that trickled down her throat like
+nectar incomparably delicious.
+
+She was just rising to her feet when Struve hobbled up.
+
+"Don't you think you can play with me, missie. When I give the word
+you stop in your tracks, and when I say 'Jump!' step lively."
+
+She did not answer. Her head was lifted in a listening attitude, as if
+to catch some sound that came faintly to her from a distance.
+
+"You're mine, my beauty, to do with as I please, and don't you forget
+it."
+
+She did not hear him. Her ears were attuned to voices floating to her
+across the desert. Of course she was beginning to wander in her mind.
+She knew that. There could be no other human beings in this sea of
+loneliness. They were alone; just they two, the degenerate ruffian and
+his victim. Still, it was strange. She certainly had imagined the
+murmur of people talking. It must be the beginning of delirium.
+
+"Do you hear me?" screamed Struve, striking her on the cheek with his
+fist. "I'm your master and you're my squaw."
+
+She did not cringe as he had expected, nor did she show fight. Indeed
+the knowledge of the blow seemed scarcely to have penetrated her
+mental penumbra. She still had that strange waiting aspect, but her
+eyes were beginning to light with new-born hope. Something in her
+manner shook the man's confidence; a dawning fear swept away his
+bluster. He, too, was now listening intently.
+
+Again the low murmur, beyond a possibility of doubt. Both of them
+caught it. The girl opened her throat in a loud cry for help. An
+answering shout came back clear and strong. Struve wheeled and started
+up the arroyo, bending in and out among the cactus till he disappeared
+over the brow.
+
+Two horsemen burst into sight, galloping down the steep trail at
+breakneck speed, flinging down a small avalanche of shale with them.
+One of them caught sight of the girl, drew up so short that his horse
+slid to its haunches, and leaped from the saddle in a cloud of dust.
+
+He ran toward her, and she to him, hands out to meet her rescuer.
+
+"Why didn't you come sooner? I've waited so long," she cried
+pathetically, as his arms went about her.
+
+"You poor lamb! Thank God we're in time!" was all he could say.
+
+Then for the first time in her life she fainted.
+
+The other rider lounged forward, a hat in his hand that he had just
+picked up close to the fire.
+
+"We seem to have stampeded part of this camping party. I'll just take
+a run up this hill and see if I can't find the missing section and
+persuade it to stay a while. I don't reckon you need me hyer, do you?"
+he grinned, with a glance at Neill and his burden.
+
+"All right. You'll find me here when you get back, Fraser," the other
+answered.
+
+Larry carried the girl to the water-hole and set her down beside it.
+He sprinkled her face with water, and presently her lids trembled and
+fluttered open. She lay there with her head on his arm and looked at
+him quite without surprise.
+
+"How did you find me?"
+
+"Mainly luck. We followed your trail to where we found the rig. After
+that it was guessing where the needle was in the haystack It just
+happened we were cutting across country to water when we heard a
+shot."
+
+"That must have been when he fired at me," she said.
+
+"My God! Did he shoot at you?"
+
+"Yes. Where is he now?" She shuddered.
+
+"Cutting over the hills with Steve after him."
+
+"Steve?"
+
+"My friend, Lieutenant Fraser. He is an officer in the ranger force."
+
+"Oh!" She relapsed into a momentary silence before she said: "He isn't
+my brother at all. He is a murderer." She gave a sudden little moan of
+pain as memory pierced her of what he had said. "He bragged to me that
+he had killed my brother. He meant to kill me, I think."
+
+"Sho! It doesn't matter what the coyote meant. It's all over now.
+You're with friends."
+
+A warm smile lit his steel-blue eyes, softened the lines of his lean,
+hard face. Never had shipwrecked mariner come to safer harbor than
+she. She knew that this slim, sun-bronzed Westerner was a man's man,
+that strength and nerve inhabited his sinewy frame. He would fight for
+her because she was a woman as long as he could stand and see.
+
+A touch of color washed back into her cheeks, a glow of courage into
+her heart. "Yes, it's all over. The weary, weary hours-- and the
+fear-- and the pain-- and the dreadful thirst-- and worst of all,
+him!"
+
+She began to cry softly, hiding her face in his coat-sleeve.
+
+"I'm crying because-- it's all over. I'm a little fool, just as-- as
+you said I was."
+
+"I didn't know you then," he smiled. "I'm right likely to make
+snap-shot judgments that are 'way off."
+
+"You knew me well enough to--" She broke off in the middle, bathed in
+a flush of remembrance that brought her coppery head up from his arm
+instantly.
+
+"Be careful. You're dizzy yet."
+
+"I'm all right now, thank you," she answered, her embarrassed profile
+haughtily in the air. "But I'm ravenous for something to eat. It's
+been twenty-four hours since I've had a bite. That's why I'm weepy and
+faint. I should think you might make a snap-shot judgment that
+breakfast wouldn't hurt me."
+
+He jumped up contritely. "That's right. What a goat I am!"
+
+His long, clean stride carried him over the distance that separated
+him from his bronco. Out of the saddle-bags he drew some sandwiches
+wrapped in a newspaper.
+
+"Here, Miss Margaret! You begin on these. I'll have coffee ready in
+two shakes of a cow's tail. And what do you say to bacon?"
+
+He understood her to remark from the depths of a sandwich that she
+said "Amen!" to it, and that she would take everything he had and as
+soon as he could get it ready. She was as good as her word. He found
+no cause to complain of her appetite. Bacon and sandwiches and coffee
+were all consumed in quantities reasonable for a famished girl who had
+been tramping actively for a day and a night, and, since she was a
+child of impulse, she turned more friendly eyes on him who had
+appeased her appetite.
+
+"I suppose you are a cowboy like everybody else in this country?" she
+ventured amiably after her hunger had become less sharp.
+
+"No, I belong to the government reclamation service."
+
+"Oh!" She had a vague idea she had heard of it before. "Who is it you
+reclaim? Indians, I suppose."
+
+"We reclaim young ladies when we find them wandering about the
+desert," he smiled.
+
+"Is that what the government pays you for?"
+
+"Not entirely. Part of the time I examine irrigation projects and
+report on their feasibility. I have been known to build dams and bore
+tunnels,"
+
+"And what of the young ladies you reclaim? Do you bore them?" she
+asked saucily.
+
+"I understand they have hitherto always found me very entertaining,"
+he claimed boldly, his smiling eyes on her.
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"But young ladies are peculiar. Sometimes we think we're entertaining
+them when we ain't."
+
+"I'm sure you are right."
+
+"And other times they're interested when they pretend they're not."
+
+"It must be comforting to your vanity to think that," she said coldly.
+For his words had recalled similar ones spoken by him twenty-four
+hours earlier, which in turn had recalled his unpardonable sin.
+
+The lieutenant of rangers appeared over the hill and descended into
+the draw. Miss Kinney went to meet him.
+
+"He got away?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, ma'am. I lost him in some of these hollows, or rather I never
+found him. I'm going to take my hawss and swing round in a circle."
+
+"What are you going to do with me?" she smiled.
+
+"I been thinking that the best thing would be for you to go to the Mal
+Pais mines with Mr. Neill."
+
+"Who is Mr. Neill?"
+
+"The gentleman over there by the fire."
+
+"Must I go with him? I should feel safer in your company, lieutenant."
+
+"You'll be safe enough in his, Miss Kinney."
+
+"You know me then?" she asked.
+
+"I've seen you at Fort Lincoln. You were pointed out to me once as a
+new teacher."
+
+"But I don't want to go to the Mal Pais mines. I want to go to Fort
+Lincoln. As to this gentleman, I have no claims on him and shall not
+trouble him to burden himself with me."
+
+Steve laughed. "I don't reckon he would think, it a terrible burden,
+ma'am. And about the Mal Pais-- this is how it is. Fort Lincoln is all
+of sixty miles from here as the crow flies. The mines are about
+seventeen. My notion was you could get there and take the stage
+to-morrow to your town."
+
+"What shall I do for a horse?"
+
+"I expect Mr. Neill will let you ride his. He can walk beside the
+hawss."
+
+"That won't do at all. Why should I put him to that inconvenience?
+I'll walk myself."
+
+The ranger flashed his friendly smile at her. He had an instinct that
+served him with women. "Any way that suits you and him suits me. I'm
+right sorry that I've got to leave you and take out after that hound
+Struve, but you may take my word for it that this gentleman will look
+after you all right and bring you safe to the Mal Pais."
+
+"He is a stranger to me. I've only met him once and on that occasion
+not pleasantly. I don't like to put myself under an obligation to him.
+But of course if I must I must."
+
+"That's the right sensible way to look at it. In this little old world
+we got to do a heap we don't want to do. For instance, I'd rather see
+you to the Mal Pais than hike over the hills after this fellow," he
+concluded gallantly.
+
+Neill, who had been packing the coffee-pot and the frying-pan, now
+sauntered forward with his horse.
+
+"Well, what's the program?" he wanted to know.
+
+"It's you and Miss Kinney for the Mal Pais, me for the trail. I ain't
+very likely to find Mr. Struve, but you can't always sometimes tell.
+Anyhow, I'm going to take a shot at it," the ranger answered.
+
+"And at him?" his friend suggested.
+
+"Oh, I reckon not. He may be a sure-enough wolf, but I expect this
+ain't his day to howl."
+
+Steve whistled to his pony, swung to the saddle when it trotted up,
+and waved his hat in farewell.
+
+His "Adios!" drifted back to them from the crown of the hill just
+before he disappeared over its edge.
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+ SOMEBODY'S ACTING MIGHTY FOOLISH.
+
+Larry Neill watched him vanish and then turned smiling to Miss Kinney.
+
+"All aboard for the Mal Pais," he sang out cheerfully.
+
+Too cheerfully perhaps. His assurance that all was well between them
+chilled her manner. He might forgive himself easily if he was that
+sort of man; she would at least show him she was no party, to it. He
+had treated her outrageously, had manhandled her with deliberate
+intent to insult. She would show him no one alive could treat her so
+and calmly assume to her that it was all right.
+
+Her cool eyes examined the horse, and him.
+
+"I don't quite see how you expect to arrange it, Mr. Neill. That is
+your name, isn't it?" she added indifferently.
+
+"That's my name-- Larry Neill. Easiest thing in the world to arrange.
+We ride pillion if it suits you; if not, I'll walk."
+
+"Neither plan suits me," she announced curtly, her gaze on the
+far-away hills.
+
+He glanced at her in quick surprise, then made the mistake of letting
+himself smile at her frosty aloofness instead of being crestfallen by
+it. She happened to look round and catch that smile before he could
+extinguish it. Her petulance hardened instantly to a resolution.
+
+"I don't quite know what we're going to do about it-- unless you
+walk," he proposed, amused at the absurdity of his suggestion.
+
+"That's just what I'm going to do," she retorted promptly.
+
+"What!" He wheeled on her with an astonished smile on his face.
+
+This served merely to irritate her.
+
+"I said I was going to walk."
+
+"Walk seventeen miles?"
+
+"Seventy if I choose."
+
+"Nonsense! Of course you won't."
+
+Her eyebrows lifted in ironic demurrer. "I think you must let me be
+the judge of that," she said gently.
+
+"Walk!" he reiterated. "Why, you're walked out. You couldn't go a
+mile. What do you take me for? Think I'm going to let you come that on
+me."
+
+"I don't quite see how you can help it, Mr. Neill," she answered.
+
+"Help it! Why, it ain't reasonable. Of course you'll ride."
+
+"Of course I won't."
+
+She set off briskly, almost jauntily, despite her tired feet and
+aching limbs.
+
+"Well, if that don't beat--" He broke off to laugh at the situation.
+After she had gone twenty steps he called after her in a voice that
+did not suppress its chuckle: "You ain't going the right direction,
+Miss Kinney."
+
+She whirled round on him in anger. How dared he laugh at her?
+
+"Which is the right way?" she choked.
+
+"North by west is about it."
+
+She was almost reduced to stamping her foot.
+
+Without condescending to ask more definite instructions she struck off
+at haphazard, and by chance guessed right. There was nothing for it
+but to pursue. Wherefore the man pursued. The horse at his heels
+hampered his stride, but he caught up with her soon.
+
+"Somebody's acting mighty foolish," he said.
+
+She said nothing very eloquently.
+
+"If I need punishing, ma'am, don't punish yourself, but me. You ain't
+able to walk and that's a fact."
+
+She gave her silent attention strictly to the business of making
+progress through the cactus and the sand.
+
+"Say I'm all you think I am. You can trample on me proper after we get
+to the Mal Pais. Don't have to know me at all if you don't want to.
+Won't you ride, ma'am? Please!"
+
+His distress filled her with a fierce delight. She stumbled defiantly
+forward.
+
+He pondered a while before he asked quietly:
+
+"Ain't you going to ride, Miss Kinney?"
+
+"No, I'm not. Better go on. Pray don't let me detain you."
+
+"All right. See that peak with the spur to it? Well, you keep that
+directly in line and make straight for it. I'll say good-by now,
+ma'am. I got to hurry to be in time for dinner. I'll send some one out
+from the camp to meet you that ain't such a villain as I am."
+
+He swung to the saddle, put spurs to his pony, and cantered away. She
+could scarce believe it, even when he rode straight over the hill
+without a backward glance. He would never leave her. Surely he would
+not do that. She could never reach the camp, and he knew it. To be
+left alone in the desert again; the horror of it broke her down, but
+not immediately. She went proudly forward with her head in the air at
+first. He might look round. Perhaps he was peeping at her from behind
+some cholla. She would not gratify him by showing any interest in his
+whereabouts. But presently she began to lag, to scan draws and mesas
+anxiously for him, even to call aloud in an ineffective little voice
+which the empty hills echoed faintly. But from him there came no
+answer.
+
+She sat down and wept in self-pity. Of course she had told him to go,
+but he knew well enough she did not mean it. A magnanimous man would
+have taken a better revenge on an exhausted girl than to leave her
+alone in such a spot, and after she had endured such a terrible
+experience as she had. She had read about the chivalry of Western men.
+Yet these two had ridden away on their horses and left her to live or
+die as chance willed it.
+
+"Now, don't you feel so bad, Miss Margaret. I wasn't aiming really to
+leave you, of course," a voice interrupted her sobs to say.
+
+She looked through the laced fingers that covered her face, mightily
+relieved, but not yet willing to confess it. The engineer had made a
+circuit and stolen up quietly behind.
+
+"Oh! I thought you had gone," she said as carelessly as she could with
+a voice not clear of tears.
+
+"Were you crying because you were afraid I hadn't?" he asked.
+
+"I ran a cactus into my foot. And I didn't say anything about crying."
+
+"Then if your foot is hurt you will want to ride. That seventeen miles
+might be too long a stroll before you get through with it."
+
+"I don't know what I'll do yet," she answered shortly.
+
+"I know what you'll do."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"You'll quit your foolishness and get on this hawss."
+
+She flushed angrily. "I won't!"
+
+He stooped down, gathered her up in his arms, and lifted her to the
+saddle.
+
+"That's what you're going to do whether you like it or not," he
+informed her.
+
+"How are you going to make me stay here, now you have put me here?"
+
+"I'm going to get on behind and hold you if it's necessary."
+
+He was sensible enough of the folly of it all, but he did not see what
+else he could do. She had chosen to punish him through herself in a
+way that was impossible. It was a childish thing to do, born of some
+touch of hysteria her experience had induced, and he could only treat
+her as a child till she was safely back in civilization.
+
+Their wills met in their eyes, and the man's, masculine and dominant,
+won the battle. The long fringe of hers fell to the soft cheeks.
+
+"It won't be at all necessary," she promised.
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"That's the way to talk."
+
+"If you care to know," she boiled over, "I think you the most hateful
+man I ever met."
+
+"That's all right," he grinned ruefully. "You're the most contrairy
+woman I ever bumped into, so I reckon honors are easy."
+
+He strode along beside the horse, mile after mile, in a silence which
+neither of them cared to break. The sap of youth flowed free in him,
+was in his elastic tread, in the set of his broad shoulders, in the
+carriage of his small, well-shaped head. He was as lean-loined and
+lithe as a panther, and his stride ate up the miles as easily.
+
+They nooned at a spring in the dry wash of Bronco Creek. After he had
+unsaddled and picketed he condescended to explain to her.
+
+"We'll stay here three hours or mebbe four through the heat of the
+day."
+
+"Is it far now?" she asked wearily.
+
+"Not more than seven miles I should judge. Are you about all in?"
+
+"Oh, no! I'm all right, thank you," she said, with forced
+sprightliness.
+
+His shrewd, hard gaze went over her and knew better.
+
+"You lie down under those live-oaks and I'll get some grub ready."
+
+"I'll cook lunch while you lie down. You must be tired walking so far
+through the sun," said Miss Kinney.
+
+"Have I got to pick you up again and carry you there?"
+
+"No, you haven't. You keep your hands off me," she flashed.
+
+But nevertheless she betook herself to the shade of the live-oaks and
+lay down. When he went to call her for lunch he found her fast asleep
+with her head pillowed on her arm. She looked so haggard that he had
+not the heart to rouse her.
+
+"Let her sleep. It will be the making of her. She's fair done. But
+ain't she plucky? And that spirited! Ready to fight so long as she can
+drag a foot. And her so sorter slim and delicate. Funny how she hangs
+onto her grudge against me. Sho! I hadn't ought to have kissed her,
+but I'll never tell her so."
+
+He went back to his coffee and bacon, dined, and lay down for a siesta
+beneath a cottonwood some distance removed from the live-oaks where
+Miss Kinney reposed. For two or three hours he slept soundly, having
+been in the saddle all night. It was mid-afternoon when he awoke, and
+the sun was sliding down the blue vault toward the sawtoothed range to
+the west. He found the girl still lost to the world in deep slumber.
+
+The man from the Panhandle looked across the desert that palpitated
+with heat, and saw through the marvelous atmosphere the smoke of the
+ore-mills curling upward. He was no tenderfoot, to suppose that ten
+minutes' brisk walking would take him to them. He guessed the distance
+at about two and a half hour's travel.
+
+"This is ce'tainly a hot evening. I expect we better wait till sundown
+before moving," he said aloud.
+
+Having made up his mind, it was characteristic of him that he was
+asleep again in five minutes. This time she wakened before him, to
+look into a wonderful sea of gold that filled the crotches of the
+hills between the purple teeth. No sun was to be seen-- it had sunk
+behind the peaks-- but the trail of its declension was marked by that
+great pool of glory into which she gazed.
+
+Margaret crossed the wash to the cottonwood under which her escort was
+lying. He was fast asleep on his back, his gray shirt open at the
+bronzed, sinewy neck. The supple, graceful lines of him were relaxed,
+but even her inexperience appreciated the splendid shoulders and the
+long rippling muscles. The maidenly instinct in her would allow but
+one glance at him, and she was turning away when his eyes opened.
+
+Her face, judging from its tint, might have absorbed some of the
+sun-glow into which she had been gazing.
+
+"I came to see if you were awake," she explained.
+
+"Yes, ma'am, I am," he smiled.
+
+"I was thinking that we ought to be going. It will be dark before we
+reach Mal Pais."
+
+He leaped to his feet and faced her.
+
+"C'rect."
+
+"Are you hungry?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He relit the fire and put on the coffee-pot before he saddled the
+horse. She ate and drank hurriedly, soon announcing herself ready for
+the start.
+
+She mounted from his hand; then without asking any questions he swung
+to a place behind her.
+
+"We'll both ride," he said.
+
+The stars were out before they reached the outskirts of the
+mining-camp. At the first house of the rambling suburbs Neill slipped
+to the ground and walked beside her toward the old adobe plaza of the
+Mexican town
+
+People passed them on the run, paying no attention to them, and others
+dribbled singly or in small groups from the houses and saloons. All of
+them were converging excitedly to the plaza.
+
+"Must be something doing here," said her guide. "Now I wonder what!"
+
+Round the next turn he found his answer. There must have been present
+two or three hundred men, mostly miners, and their gazes all focussed
+on two figures which stood against a door at the top of five or six
+steps. One of the forms was crouched on its knees, abject, cringing
+terror stamped on the white villainous face upturned to the electric
+light above. But the other was on its feet, a revolver in each hand, a
+smile of reckless daring on the boyish countenance that just now stood
+for law and order in Mal Pais.
+
+The man beside the girl read the situation at a glance. The handcuffed
+figure groveling on the steps belonged to the murderer Struve, and
+over him stood lightly the young ranger Steve Fraser. He was standing
+off a mob that had gathered to lynch his prisoner, and one glance at
+him was enough to explain how he had won his reputation as the most
+dashing and fearless member of a singularly efficient force. For plain
+to be read as the danger that confronted him was the fact that peril
+was as the breath of life to his nostrils.
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+
+ ENTER MR. DUNKE
+
+"He's my prisoner and you can't have him," the girl heard the ranger
+say.
+
+The answer came in a roar of rage. "By God, we'll show you!"
+
+"If you want him, take him. But don't come unless you are ready to pay
+the price!" warned the officer.
+
+He was bareheaded and his dark-brown curly hair crisped round his
+forehead engagingly. Round his right hand was tied a blood-stained
+handkerchief. A boy he looked, but his record was a man's, and so the
+mob that swayed uncertainly below him knew. His gray eyes were steady
+as steel despite the fire that glowed in them. He stood at ease, with
+nerve unshaken, the curious lifted look of a great moment about the
+poise of his graceful figure.
+
+"It is Lieutenant Fraser," cried Margaret, but as she looked down she
+missed her escort.
+
+An instant, and she saw him. He was circling the outskirts of the
+crowd at a run. For just a heart-beat she wondered what he was about,
+but her brain told her before her eye. He swung in toward the steps,
+shoulders down, and bored a way through the stragglers straight to the
+heart of the turmoil. Taking the steps in two jumps, he stood beside
+the ranger.
+
+"Hello, Tennessee," grinned that young man. "Come to be a
+pall-bearer?"
+
+"Hello, Texas! Can't say, I'm sure. Just dropped in to see what's
+doing."
+
+Steve's admiring gaze approved him a man from the ground up. But the
+ranger only laughed and said: "The band's going to play a right lively
+tune, looks like."
+
+The man from the Panhandle had his revolvers out already. "Yes, there
+will be a hot time in the old town to-night, I shouldn't wonder."
+
+But for the moment the attackers were inclined to parley. Their leader
+stepped out and held up a hand for a suspension of hostilities. He was
+a large man, heavily built, and powerful as a bear. There was about
+him an air of authority, as of one used to being obeyed. He was
+dressed roughly enough in corduroy and miner's half-leg boots, but
+these were of the most expensive material and cut. His cold gray eye
+and thin lips denied the manner of superficial heartiness he
+habitually carried. If one scratched the veneer of good nature it was
+to find a hard selfishness that went to his core.
+
+"It's Mr. Dunke!" the young school-teacher cried aloud in surprise.
+
+"I've got something to say to you, Mr. Lieutenant Ranger," he
+announced, with importance.
+
+"Uncork it," was Fraser's advice.
+
+"We don't want to have any trouble with you, but we're here for
+business. This man is a cold-blooded murderer and we mean to do
+justice on him."
+
+Steve laughed insolently. "If all them that hollers for justice the
+loudest got it done to them, Mr. Dunke, there'd be a right smart
+shrinkage in the census returns."
+
+Dunke's eye gleamed with anger. "We're not here to listen to any smart
+guys, sir. Will you give up Struve to us or will you not?"
+
+"That's easy. I will not."
+
+The mob leader turned to the Tennessean. "Young man, I don't know who
+you are, but if you mean to butt into a quarrel that ain't yours all
+I've got to say is that you're hunting an early grave."
+
+"We'll know about that later, seh."
+
+"You stand pat, do you?"
+
+"Well, seh, I draw to a pair that opens the pot anyhow," answered
+Larry, with a slight motion of his weapons.
+
+Dunke fell back into the mob, a shot rang out into the night, and the
+crowd swayed forward. But at that instant the door behind Fraser swung
+open. A frightened voice sounded in his ear.
+
+"Quick, Steve!"
+
+The ranger slewed his head, gave an exclamation of surprise, and
+hurriedly threw his prisoner into the open passage.
+
+"Back, Larry! Lively, my boy!" he ordered.
+
+Neill leaped back in a spatter of bullets that rained round him. Next
+moment the door was swung shut again.
+
+"You all right, Nell?" asked Fraser quickly of the young woman who had
+opened the door, and upon her affirmative reply he added: "Everybody
+alive and kicking? Nobody get a pill?"
+
+"I'm all right for one," returned Larry. "But we had better get out of
+this passage. I notice our friends the enemy are sending their cards
+through the door after us right anxious."
+
+As he spoke a bullet tore a jagged splinter from a panel and buried
+itself in the ceiling. A second and a third followed.
+
+"That's c'rect. We'd better be 'Not at home' when they call. Eh,
+Nell?"
+
+Steve put an arm affectionately round the waist of the young woman who
+had come in such timely fashion to their aid and ran through the
+passage with her to the room beyond, Neill following with the
+prisoner.
+
+"You're wounded, Steve," the young woman cried.
+
+He shrugged. "Scratch in the hand. Got it when I arrested him. Had to
+shoot his trigger finger off."
+
+"But I must see to it."
+
+"Not now; wait till we're out of the woods." He turned to his friend:
+"Nell, let me introduce to you Mr. Neill, from the Panhandle. Mr.
+Neill, this is my sister. I don't know how come she to drop down
+behind us like an angel from heaven, but that's a story will wait. The
+thing we got to do right now is to light a shuck out of here."
+
+His friend nodded, listening to the sound of blows battering the outer
+door. "They'll have it down in another minute. We've got to burn the
+wind seven ways for Sunday."
+
+"What I'd like to know is whether there are two entrances to this
+rat-trap. Do you happen to know, Nell?" asked Fraser of his sister.
+
+"Three," she answered promptly. "There's a back door into the court
+and a trap-door to the roof. That's the way I came."
+
+"And it's the way we'll go. I might a-known you'd know all about it
+give you a quarter of a chance," her brother said admiringly. "We'll
+duck through the roof and let Mr. Dunke hold the sack. Lead the way,
+sis."
+
+She guided them along another passageway and up some stairs to the
+second story. The trap-door that opened to the flat roof was above the
+bed about six feet. Neill caught the edges of the narrow opening, drew
+himself up, and wriggled through. Fraser lifted his sister by the
+waist high enough for Larry to catch her hands and draw her up.
+
+"Hurry, Steve," she urged. "They've broken in. Hurry, dear."
+
+The ranger unlocked his prisoner's handcuffs and tossed them up to the
+Tennessean.
+
+"Get a move on you, Mr. Struve, unless you want to figure in a necktie
+party," he advised.
+
+But the convict's flabby muscles were unequal to the task of getting
+him through the opening. Besides which, his wounded hand, tied up with
+a blood-soaked rag, impeded him. He had to be pulled from above and
+boosted from behind. Fraser, fit to handle his weight in wildcats, as
+an admirer had once put it, found no trouble in following. Steps were
+already heard on the stairs below when Larry slipped the cover to its
+place and put upon it a large flat stone which he found on the roof
+for that purpose. The fugitives crawled along the roof on their hands
+and knees so as to escape the observation of the howling mob outside
+the house. Presently they came into the shadows, and Nell rose, ran
+forward to a little ladder which led to a higher roof, and swiftly
+ascended. Neill, who was at her heels, could not fail to note the
+light supple grace with which she moved. He thought he had never seen
+a more charming woman in appearance. She still somehow retained the
+slim figure and taking ways of a girl, in conjunction with the soft
+rounded curves of a present-day Madonna.
+
+Two more roofs were crossed before they came to another open
+trap-door. A lamp in the room below showed it to be a bedroom with two
+cots in it. Two children, one of them a baby, were asleep in these. A
+sweet-faced woman past middle age looked anxiously up with hands
+clasped together as in prayer.
+
+"Is it you, Nellie?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, mother, and Steve, and his friend. We're all right."
+
+Fraser dropped through, and his sister let herself down into his arms.
+Struve followed, and was immediately handcuffed. Larry put back the
+trap and fastened it from within before he dropped down.
+
+"We shall have to leave at once, mother, without waiting to dress the
+children," explained Fraser. "Wrap them in blankets and take some
+clothes along. I'll drop you at the hotel and slip my prisoner into
+the jail the back way if I can; that is, if another plan I have
+doesn't work."
+
+The oldest child awoke and caught sight of Fraser. He reached out his
+hands in excitement and began to call: "Uncle Steve! Uncle Steve back
+again."
+
+Fraser picked up the youngster. "Yes, Uncle Steve is back. But we're
+going to play a game that Indians are after us. Webb must be good and
+keep very, very still. He mustn't say a word till uncle tells him he
+may."
+
+The little fellow clapped his hands. "Goody, goody! Shall we begin
+now?"
+
+"Right this minute, son. Better take your money with you, mother. Is
+father here?"
+
+"No, he is at the ranch. He went down in the stage to-day."
+
+"All right, friends. We'll take the back way. Tennessee, will you look
+out for Mr. Struve? Sis will want to carry the baby."
+
+They passed quietly down-stairs and out the back door. The starry
+night enveloped them coldly, and the moon looked down through rifted
+clouds. Nature was peaceful as her own silent hills, but the raucous
+jangle of cursing voices from a distance made discord of the harmony.
+They slipped along through the shadows, meeting none except occasional
+figures hurrying to the plaza. At the hotel door the two men separated
+from the rest of the party, and took with them their prisoner.
+
+"I'm going to put him for safe-keeping down the shaft of a mine my
+father and I own," explained Steve. "He wouldn't be safe in the jail,
+because Dunke, for private reasons, has made up his mind to put out
+his lights."
+
+"Private reasons?" echoed the engineer.
+
+"Mighty good ones, too. Ain't that right?" demanded the ranger of
+Struve.
+
+The convict cursed, though his teeth still chattered with fright from
+the narrow escape he had had, but through his prison jargon ran a hint
+of some power he had over the man Dunke. It was plain he thought the
+latter had incited the lynching in order to shut the convict's mouth
+forever.
+
+"Where is this shaft?" asked Neill.
+
+"Up a gulch about half a mile from here."
+
+Fraser's eyes fixed themselves on a young man who passed on the run.
+He suddenly put his fingers to his lips and gave a low whistle. The
+running man stopped instantly, his head alert to catch the direction
+from which the sound had come. Steve whistled again and the stranger
+turned toward them.
+
+"It's Brown, one of my rangers," explained the lieutenant.
+
+Brown, it appeared, had just reached town and stabled his horse when
+word came to him that there was trouble on the plaza. He had been
+making for it when his officer's whistle stopped him.
+
+"It's all over except getting this man to safety. I'm going to put him
+down an abandoned shaft of the Jackrabbit. He'll be safe there, and
+nobody will think to look for him in any such place," said Fraser.
+
+The man from the Panhandle drew his friend to one side. "Do you need
+me any longer? I left Miss Kinney right on the edge of that mob, and I
+expect I better look around and see where she is now."
+
+"All right. No, we don't need you. Take care you don't let any of
+these miners recognize you. They might make you trouble while they're
+still hot. Well, so-long. See you to-morrow at the hotel."
+
+The Tennessean looked to his guns to make sure they hung loose in the
+scabbards, then stepped briskly back toward the plaza.
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+
+ WOULD YOU WORRY ABOUT ME?
+
+Margaret Kinney's heart ceased beating in that breathless instant
+after the two dauntless friends had flung defiance to two hundred.
+There was a sudden tightening of her throat, a fixing of dilated eyes
+on what would have been a thrilling spectacle had it not meant so much
+more to her. For as she leaned forward in the saddle with parted lips
+she knew a passionate surge of fear for one of the apparently doomed
+men that went through her like swift poison, that left her dizzy with
+the shock of it.
+
+The thought of action came to her too late. As Dunke stepped back to
+give the signal for attack she cried out his name, but her voice was
+drowned in the yell of rage that filled the street. She tried to spur
+her horse into the crowd, to force a way to the men standing with such
+splendid fearlessness above this thirsty pack of wolves. But the
+denseness of the throng held her fixed even while revolvers flashed.
+
+And then the miracle happened. She saw the door open and limned in a
+penumbra of darkness the white comely face of a woman. She saw the
+beleaguered men sway back and the door close in the faces of the
+horde. She saw bullets go crashing into the door, heard screams of
+baffled fury, and presently the crash of axes into the panels of the
+barrier that held them back. It seemed to fade away before her gaze,
+and instead of it she saw a doorway full of furious crowding miners.
+
+Then presently her heart stood still again. From her higher place in
+the saddle, well back in the outskirts of the throng, in the dim light
+she made out a figure crouching on the roof; then another, and
+another, and a fourth. She suffered an agony of fear in the few
+heart-beats before they began to slip away. Her eyes swept the faces
+near her. One and all they were turned upon the struggling mass of
+humanity at the entrance to the passage. When she dared look again to
+the roof the fugitives were gone. She thought she perceived them
+swarming up a ladder to the higher roof, but in the surrounding
+grayness she could not be sure of this.
+
+The stamping of feet inside the house continued. Once there was the
+sound of an exploding revolver. After a long time a heavy figure
+struggled into view through the roof-trap. It was Dunke himself. He
+caught sight of the ladder, gave a shout of triumph, and was off in
+pursuit of his flying prey. As others appeared on the roof they, too,
+took up the chase, a long line of indistinct running figures.
+
+There were other women on the street now, most of them Mexicans, so
+that Margaret attracted little attention. She moved up opposite the
+house that had become the scene of action, expecting every moment to
+hear the shots that would determine the fate of the victims.
+
+But no shots came. Lights flashed from room to room, and presently one
+light began to fill a room so brilliantly that she knew a lamp must
+have been overturned and set the house on fire. Dunke burst from the
+front door, scarce a dozen paces from her. There was a kind of lurid
+fury in his eyes. He was as ravenously fierce as a wolf balked of its
+kill. She chose that moment to call him.
+
+"Mr. Dunke!"
+
+Her voice struck him into a sort of listening alertness, and again she
+pronounced his name.
+
+"You, Miss Kinney-- here?" he asked in amazement.
+
+"Yes-- Miss Kinney."
+
+"But-- What are you doing here? I thought you were at Fort Lincoln."
+
+"I was, but I'm here now."
+
+"Why? This is no place for you to-night. Hell's broke loose."
+
+"So it seems," she answered, with shining eyes.
+
+"There's trouble afoot, Miss Margaret. No girl should be out, let
+alone an unprotected one."
+
+"I did not come here unprotected. There was a man with me. The one,
+Mr. Dunke, that you are now looking for to murder!"
+
+She gave it to him straight from the shoulder, her eyes holding his
+steadily.
+
+"Struve?" he gasped, taken completely aback.
+
+"No, not Struve. The man who stood beside Lieutenant Fraser, the one
+you threatened to kill because he backed the law."
+
+"I guess you don't know all the facts, Miss Kinney." He came close and
+met her gaze while he spoke in a low voice. "There ain't many know
+what I know. Mebbe there ain't any beside you now. But I know you're
+Jim Kinney's sister."
+
+"You are welcome to the knowledge. It is no secret. Lieutenant Fraser
+knows it. So does his friend. I'm not trying to hide it. What of it?"
+
+Her quiet scorn drew the blood to his face.
+
+"That's all right. If you do want to keep it quiet I'm with you. But
+there's something more. Your brother escaped from Yuma with this
+fellow Struve. Word came over the wire an hour or two ago that Struve
+had been captured and that it was certain he had killed his pal, your
+brother. That's why I mean to see him hanged before mo'ning."
+
+"He did kill my brother. He told me so himself." Her voice carried a
+sob for an instant, but she went on resolutely. "What has that to do
+with it? Isn't there any law in Texas? Hasn't he been captured? And
+isn't he being taken back to his punishment?"
+
+"He told you so himself!" the man echoed. "When did he tell you? When
+did you see him?"
+
+"I was alone with him for twelve hours in the desert."
+
+"Alone with you?" His puzzled face showed how he was trying to take
+this in, "I don't understand. How could he be alone with you?"
+
+"I thought he was my brother and I was helping him to escape from Fort
+Lincoln."
+
+"Helping him to escape! Helping Wolf Struve to escape! Well, I'm
+darned if that don't beat my time. How come you to think him your
+brother?" the man asked suspiciously.
+
+"It doesn't matter how or why. I thought so. That's enough."
+
+"And you were alone with him-- why, you must have been alone with him
+all night," cried Dunke, coming to a fresh discovery.
+
+"I was," she admitted very quietly.
+
+A new suspicion edged itself into his mind. "What did you talk about?
+Did he say anything about-- Did he-- He always was a terrible liar.
+Nobody ever believed Wolf Struve."
+
+Without understanding the reason for it, she could see that he was
+uneasy, that he was trying to discount the value of anything the
+convict might have told her. Yet what could Struve the convict, No.
+9,432, have to do with the millionaire mine-owner, Thomas J. Dunke?
+What could there be in common between them? Why should the latter fear
+what the other had to tell? The thing was preposterous on the face of
+it, but the girl knew by some woman's instinct that she was on the
+edge of a secret Dunke held hidden deep in his heart from all the
+world. Only this much she guessed; that Struve was a sharer of his
+secret, and therefore he was set on lynching the man before he had
+time to tell it.
+
+"They got away, didn't they?" she asked.
+
+"They got away-- for the present," he answered grimly. "But we're
+still hunting them."
+
+"Can't you let the law take its course, Mr. Danke? Is it necessary to
+do this terrible thing?"
+
+"Don't you worry any about it, Miss Kinney. This ain't a woman's job.
+I'll attend to it."
+
+"But my friends," she reminded him.
+
+"We ain't intending to hurt them any. Come, I'll see you home. You
+staying at the hotel?"
+
+"I don't know. I haven't made any arrangements yet."
+
+"Well, we'll go make them now."
+
+But she did not move. "I'm not going in till I know how this comes
+out."
+
+He was a man used to having his own brutal way, one strong by nature,
+with strength increased by the money upon which he rode rough-shod to
+success.
+
+He laughed as he caught hold of the rein. "That's ridiculous!"
+
+"But my business, I think," the girl answered sharply, jerking the
+bridle from his fingers.
+
+Dunke stared at her. It was his night of surprises. He failed to
+recognize the conventional teacher he knew in this bright-eyed,
+full-throated young woman who fronted him so sure of herself. She
+seemed to him to swim brilliantly in a tide of flushed beauty, in
+spite of the dust and the stains of travel. She was in a shapeless
+khaki riding-suit and a plain, gray, broad-brimmed Stetson. But the
+one could not hide the flexible curves that made so frankly for grace,
+nor the other the coppery tendrils that escaped in fascinating
+disorder from under its brim.
+
+"You hadn't ought to be out here. It ain't right."
+
+"I don't remember asking you to act as a standard of right and wrong
+for me."
+
+He laughed awkwardly. "We ain't quarreling, are we, Miss Margaret?"
+
+"Certainly I am not. I don't quarrel with anybody but my friends."
+
+"Well, I didn't aim to offend you anyway. You know me better than
+that." He let his voice fall into a caressing modulation and put a
+propitiatory hand on her skirt, but under the uncompromising hardness
+of her gaze the hand fell away to his side. "I'm your friend--
+leastways I want to be."
+
+"My friends don't lynch men."
+
+"But after what he did to your brother."
+
+"The law will take care of that. If you want to please me call off
+your men before it is too late."
+
+It was his cue to please her, for so far as it was in him the man
+loved her. He had set his strong will to trample on his past, to rise
+to a place where no man could shake his security with proof of his
+former misdeeds. He meant to marry her and to place her out of reach
+of those evil days of his. Only Struve was left of the old gang, and
+he knew the Wolf well enough to be sure that the fellow would delight
+in blackmailing him. The convict's mouth must be closed. But just now
+he must promise t she wanted, and he did.
+
+The promise was still on his lips when a third person strode into
+their conversation.
+
+"Sorry I had to leave you so hastily, Miss Kinney. I'm ready to take
+you to the hotel now if it suits you."
+
+Both of them turned quickly, to see the man from the Panhandle
+sauntering forth from the darkness. There was a slight smile on his
+face, which did not abate when he nodded to Dunke amiably.
+
+"You?" exclaimed the mine-owner angrily.
+
+"Why, yes-- me. Hope we didn't inconvenience you, seh, by postponing
+the coyote's journey to Kingdom Come. My friend had to take a hand
+because he is a ranger, and I sat in to oblige him. No hard feelings,
+I hope."
+
+"Did you-- Are you all safe?" Margaret asked.
+
+"Yes, ma'am. Got away slick and clean."
+
+"Where?" barked Dunke.
+
+"Where what, my friend?"
+
+"Where did you take him?"
+
+Larry laughed in slow deep enjoyment. "I hate to disappoint you, but
+if I told that would be telling. No, I reckon I won't table my cards
+yet a while. If you're playing in this game of Hi-Spy go to it and
+hunt."
+
+"Perhaps you don't know that I am T. J. Dunke."
+
+"You don't say! And I'm General Grant. This lady hyer is Florence
+Nightingale or Martha Washington, I disremember which."
+
+Miss Kinney laughed. "Whichever she is she's very very tired," she
+said. "I think I'll accept your offer to see me to the hotel, Mr.
+Neill."
+
+She nodded a careless good night to the mine-owner, and touched the
+horse with her heel. At the porch of the rather primitive hotel she
+descended stiffly from the saddle.
+
+Before she left the Southerner-- or the Westerner, for sometimes she
+classified him as one, sometimes as the other-- she asked him one
+hesitant question.
+
+"Were you thinking of going out again tonight?"
+
+"I did think of taking a turn out to see if I could find Fraser.
+Anything I can do for you?"
+
+"Yes. Please don't go. I don't want to have to worry about you. I have
+had enough trouble for the present."
+
+"Would you worry about me?" he asked quietly, his eyes steadily on
+her.
+
+"I lie awake about the most unaccountable things sometimes."
+
+He smiled in his slow Southern fashion. "Very well. I'll stay indoors.
+I reckon Steve ain't lost, anyhow. You're too tired to have to lie
+awake about me to-night. There's going to be lots of other nights for
+you to think of me."
+
+She glanced at him with a quick curiosity. "Well, of all the conceit I
+ever heard!"
+
+"I'm the limit, ain't I?" he grinned as he took himself off.
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+
+ DOWN THE JACKRABBIT SHAFT.
+
+Next morning Larry got up so late that he had to Order a special
+breakfast for himself, the dining-room being closed. He found one
+guest there, however, just beginning her oatmeal, and he invited
+himself to eat at her table.
+
+"Good mawnin', Miss Kinney. You don't look like you had been lying
+awake worrying about me," he began by way of opening the conversation.
+
+Nor did she. Youth recuperates quickly, and after a night's sound
+sleep she was glowing with health and sweet vitality. He could see a
+flush beat into the fresh softness of her flesh, but she lifted her
+dark lashes promptly to meet him, and came to the sex duel gaily.
+
+"I suppose you think I had to take a sleeping-powder to keep me from
+it?" she flashed back.
+
+"Oh, well, a person can dream," he suggested.
+
+"How did you know? But you are right. I did dream of you."
+
+To the waiter he gave his order before answering her. "Some oatmeal
+and bacon and eggs. Yes, coffee. And some hot cakes, Charlie. Did you
+honest dream about me?" This last not to the Chinese waiter who had
+padded soft-footed to the kitchen.
+
+"Yes."
+
+She smiled shyly at him with sweet innocence, and he drew his chair a
+trifle closer
+
+"Tell me."
+
+"I don't like to."
+
+"But you must. Go on."
+
+"Well," very reluctantly. "I dreamed I was visiting the penitentiary
+and you were there in stripes. You were in for stealing a sheep, I
+think. Yes, that was it, for stealing a sheep."
+
+"Couldn't you make it something more classy if you're bound to have me
+in?" he begged, enjoying immensely the rise she was taking out of him.
+
+"I have to tell it the way it was," she insisted, her eyes bubbling
+with fun. "And it seems you were the prison cook. First thing I knew
+you were standing in front of a wall and two hundred of the prisoners
+were shooting at you. They were using your biscuits as bullets."
+
+"That was a terrible revenge to take on me for baking them."
+
+"It seems you had your sheep with you-- the one you stole, and you and
+it were being pelted all over."
+
+"Did you see a lady hold-up among those shooting at me?" he inquired
+anxiously.
+
+She shook her head. "And just when the biscuits were flying thickest
+the wall opened and Mr. Fraser appeared. He caught you and the sheep
+by the back of your necks, and flung you in. Then the wall closed, and
+I awoke."
+
+"That's about as near the facts as dreams usually get."
+
+He was very much pleased, for it would have been a great
+disappointment to him if she had admitted dreaming about him for any
+reason except to make fun of him. The thing about her that touched his
+imagination most was something wild and untamed, some quality of
+silken strength in her slim supple youth that scoffed at all men and
+knew none as master. He meant to wrest from her if he could an
+interest that would set him apart in her mind from all others, but he
+wanted the price of victory to cost him something. Thus the value of
+it would be enhanced.
+
+"But tell me about your escape-- all about it and what became of
+Lieutenant Fraser. And first of all, who the lady was that opened the
+door for you," she demanded.
+
+"She was his sister."
+
+"Oh! His sister." Her voice was colorless. She observed him without
+appearing to do so. "Very pretty, I thought her. Didn't you?"
+
+"Right nice looking. Had a sort of an expression made a man want to
+look at her again."
+
+"Yes."
+
+Innocently unaware that he was being pumped, he contributed more
+information. "And that game."
+
+"She was splendid. I can see her now opening the door in the face of
+the bullets."
+
+"Never a scream out of her either. Just as cool."
+
+"That is the quality men admire most, isn't it-- courage?"
+
+"I don't reckon that would come first. Course it wouldn't make a hit
+with a man to have a woman puling around all the time."
+
+"My kind, you mean."
+
+Though she was smiling at him with her lips, it came to him that his
+words were being warped to a wrong meaning.
+
+"No, I don't," he retorted bluntly.
+
+"As I remember it, I was bawling every chance I got yesterday and the
+day before," she recalled, with fine contempt of herself.
+
+"Oh, well! You had reason a-plenty. And sometimes a woman cries just
+like a man cusses. It don't mean anything. I once knew a woman wet her
+handkerchief to a sop crying because her husband forgot one mo'ning to
+kiss her good-by. She quit irrigating to run into a burning house
+after a neighbor's kids."
+
+"I accept your apology for my behavior if you'll promise I won't do it
+again," she laughed. "But tell me more about Miss Fraser. Does she
+live here?"
+
+For a moment he was puzzled. "Miss Fraser! Oh! She gave up that name
+several years ago. Mrs. Collins they call her. And say, you ought to
+see her kiddies. You'd fall in love with them sure."
+
+The girl covered her mistake promptly with a little laugh. It would
+never do for him to know she had been yielding to incipient jealousy.
+"Why can't I know them? I want to meet her too."
+
+The door opened and a curly head was thrust in. "Dining-room closes
+for breakfast at nine. My clock says it's ten-thirty now. Pretty near
+work to keep eating that long, ain't it? And this Sunday, too! I'll
+have you put in the calaboose for breaking the Sabbath."
+
+"We're only bending it," grinned Neill. "Good mo'ning, Lieutenant. How
+is Mrs. Collins, and the pickaninnies?"
+
+"First rate. Waiting in the parlor to be introduced to Miss Kinney."
+
+"We're through," announced Margaret, rising.
+
+"You too, Tennessee? The proprietor will be grateful."
+
+The young women took to each other at once. Margaret was very fond of
+children, and the little boy won her heart immediately. Both he and
+his baby sister were well-trained, healthy, and lovable little folks,
+and they adopted "Aunt Peggy" enthusiastically.
+
+Presently the ranger proposed to Neill an adjournment.
+
+"I got to take some breakfast down the Jackrabbit shaft to my
+prisoner. Wanter take a stroll that way?" he asked.
+
+"If the ladies will excuse us."
+
+"Glad to get rid of you," Miss Kinney assured him promptly, but with a
+bright smile that neutralized the effect of her sauciness. "Mrs.
+Collins and I want to have a talk."
+
+The way to the Jackrabbit lay up a gulch behind the town. Up one
+incline was a shaft-house with a great gray dump at the foot of it.
+This they left behind them, climbing the hill till they came to the
+summit.
+
+The ranger pointed to another shaft-house and dump on the next
+hillside.
+
+"That's the Mal Pais, from which the district is named. Dunke owns it
+and most of the others round here. His workings and ours come together
+in several places, but we have boarded up the tunnels at those points
+and locked the doors we put in. Wonder where Brown is? I told him to
+meet me here to let us down."
+
+At this moment they caught sight of him coming up a timbered draw. He
+lowered them into the shaft, which was about six hundred feet deep.
+From the foot of the shaft went a tunnel into the heart of the
+mountain. Steve led the way, flashing an electric searchlight as he
+went.
+
+"We aren't working this part of the mine any more," he explained. "It
+connects with the newer workings by a tunnel. We'll go back that way
+to the shaft."
+
+"You've got quite a safe prison," commented the other.
+
+"It's commodious, anyhow; and I reckon it's safe. If a man was to get
+loose he couldn't reach the surface without taking somebody into
+partner-ship with him. There ain't but three ways to daylight; one by
+the shaft we came down, another by way of our shaft-house, and the
+third by Dunke's, assuming he could break through into the Mal Pais.
+He'd better not break loose and go to wandering around. There are
+seventeen miles of workings down here in the Jackrabbit, let alone the
+Mal Pais. He might easily get lost and starve to death. Here he is at
+the end of this tunnel."
+
+Steve flashed the light twice before he could believe his eyes. There
+was no sign of Struve except the handcuffs depending from an iron
+chain connected by a heavy staple with the granite wall. Apparently he
+had somehow managed to slip from the gyves by working at them
+constantly.
+
+The officer turned to his friend and laughed. "I reckon I'm holding
+the sack this time. See. There's blood on these cuffs. He rasped his
+hands some before he got them out."
+
+"Well, you've still got him safe down here somewhere."
+
+"Yes, I have or Dunke has. The trouble is both the mines are shut down
+just now. He's got about forty miles of tunnel to play
+hide-and-go-seek in. He's in luck if he doesn't starve to death."
+
+"What are you going to do about it?"
+
+"I'll have to get some of my men out on search-parties-- just tell
+them there's a man lost down here without telling them who. I reckon
+we better say nothing about it to the ladies. You know how
+tender-hearted they are. Nellie wouldn't sleep a wink to-night for
+worrying."
+
+"All right. We'd better get to it at once then."
+
+Fraser nodded. "We'll go up and rustle a few of the boys that know the
+mine well. I expect before we find him Mr. Wolf Struve will be a lamb
+and right anxious for the shepherd to arrive."
+
+All day the search proceeded without results, and all of the next day.
+The evening of this second day found Struve still not accounted for.
+
+  CHAPTER X
+
+ IN A TUNNEL OF THE MAL PAIS
+
+Although Miss Kinney had assured Neill that she was glad to be rid of
+him it occurred to her more than once in the course of the day that he
+was taking her a little too literally. On Sunday she did not see a
+glimpse of him after he left. At lunch he did not appear, nor was he
+in evidence at dinner. Next morning she learned that he had been to
+breakfast and had gone before she got down. She withheld judgment till
+lunch, being almost certain that he would be on hand to that meal. His
+absence roused her resentment and her independence. If he didn't care
+to see her she certainly did not want to see him. She was not going to
+sit around and wait for him to take her down into the mine he had
+promised she should see. Let him forget his appointment if he liked.
+He would wait a long time before she made any more engagements with
+him.
+
+About this time Dunke began to flatter himself that he had made an
+impression. Miss Kinney was all smiles. She was graciously pleased to
+take a horseback ride over the camp with him, nor did he know that her
+roving eye was constantly on the lookout for a certain spare,
+clean-built figure she could recognize at a considerable distance by
+the easy, elastic tread. Monday evening the mine-owner called upon her
+and Mrs. Collins, whose brother also was among the missing, and she
+was delighted to accept his invitation to go through the Mal Pais
+workings with him.
+
+"That is, if Mrs. Collins will go, too," she added as an afterthought.
+
+That young woman hesitated. Though this man had led his miners against
+her brother, she was ready to believe the attack not caused by
+personal enmity. The best of feeling did not exist between the owners
+of the Jackrabbit and those of the Mal Pais. Dunke was suspected of
+boldly crossing into the territory of his neighbor where his veins did
+not lead. But there had been no open rupture. For the very reason that
+an undertow of feeling existed Nellie consented to join the party. She
+did not want by a refusal to put into words a hostility tha e had
+always carefully veiled. She was in the position of not wanting to go
+at all, yet wanting still less to decline to do so.
+
+"I shall be glad to go," she said.
+
+"Fine. We'll start about nine, or nine-thirty say. I'll drive up in a
+surrey."
+
+"And we'll have lunch for the party put up at the hotel here. I'll get
+some fruit to take along," said Margaret.
+
+"We'll make a regular picnic of it," added Dunke heartily. "You'll
+enjoy eating out of a dinner-pail for once just like one of my miners,
+Miss Kinney,"
+
+After he had gone Margaret mentioned to Mrs. Collins her feeling
+concerning him. "I don't really like him. Or rather I don't give him
+my full confidence. He seems pleasant enough, too." She laughed a
+little as she added: "You know he does me the honor to admire me."
+
+"Yes, I know that. I was wondering how you felt about it."
+
+"How ought one to feel about one of the great mining kings of the
+West?"
+
+"Has that anything to do with it, my dear? I mean his being a mining
+king?" asked Mrs. Collins gently.
+
+Margaret went up to her and kissed her. "You're a romantic little
+thing. That's because you probably married a heaven-sent man. We can't
+all be fortunate."
+
+"We none of us need to marry where we don't love."
+
+"Goodness me! I'm not thinking of marrying Mr. Dunke's millions. The
+only thing is that I don't have a Croesus to exhibit every day at my
+chariot wheels. It's horrid of course, but I have a natural feminine
+reluctance to surrendering him all at once. I don't object in the
+least to trampling on him, but somehow I don't feel ready for his
+declaration of independence."
+
+"Oh, if that's all!" her friend smiled.
+
+"That's quite all."
+
+"Perhaps you prefer Texans who come from the Panhandle."
+
+Mrs. Collins happened to be looking straight at her out of her big
+brown eyes. Wherefore she could not help observing the pink glow that
+deepened in the soft cheeks.
+
+"He hasn't preferred me much lately."
+
+Nellie knitted her brow in perplexity. "I don't understand. Steve's
+been away, too, nearly all the time. Something is going on that we
+don't know about."
+
+"Not that I care. Mr. Neill is welcome to stay away."
+
+Her new friend shot a swift slant look at her. "I don't suppose you
+trample on him much."
+
+Margaret flushed. "No, I don't. It's the other way. I never saw
+anybody so rude. He does not seem to have any saving sense of the
+proper thing."
+
+"He's a man, dearie, and a good one. He may be untrammeled by
+convention, but he is clean and brave. He has eyes that look through
+cowardice and treachery, fine strong eyes that are honest and
+unafraid."
+
+"Dear me, you must have studied them a good deal to see all that in
+them," said Miss Peggy lightly, yet pleased withal.
+
+"My dear," reproached her friend, so seriously that Peggy repented.
+
+"I didn't really mean it," she laughed. "I've heard already on good
+authority that you see no man's eyes except the handsome ones in the
+face of Mr. Tim Collins."
+
+"I do think Tim has fine eyes," blushed the accused.
+
+"No doubt of it. Since you have been admiring my young man I must
+praise yours," teased Miss Kinney.
+
+"Am I to wish you joy? I didn't know he was your young man," flashed
+back the other.
+
+"I understand that you have been trying to put him off on me."
+
+"You'll find he does not need any 'putting off' on anybody."
+
+"At least, he has a good friend in you. I think I'll tell him, so that
+when he does condescend to become interested in a young woman he may
+refer her to you for a recommendation."
+
+The young wife borrowed for the occasion some of Miss Peggy's
+audacity. "I'm recommending him to that young woman now, my dear," she
+made answer.
+
+Dunke's party left for the mine on schedule time, Water-proof coats
+and high lace-boots had been borrowed for the ladies as a protection
+against the moisture they were sure to meet in the tunnels one
+thousand feet below the ground. The mine-owner had had the
+hoisting-engine started for the occasion, and the cage took them down
+as swiftly and as smoothly as a metropolitan elevator. Nevertheless
+Margaret clung tightly to her friend, for if was her first experience
+of the kind. She had never before dropped nearly a quarter of a mile
+straight down into the heart of the earth and she felt a smothered
+sensation, a sense of danger induced by her unaccustomed surroundings.
+It is the unknown that awes, and when she first stepped from the cage
+and peered down the long, low tunnel through which a tramway ran she
+caught her breath rather quickly. She had an active imagination, and
+she conjured cave-ins, explosions, and all the other mine horrors she
+had read about.
+
+Their host had spared no expense to make the occasion a gala one.
+Electric lights were twinkling at intervals down the tunnel, and an
+electric ore-car with a man in charge was waiting to run them into the
+workings nearly a mile distant. Dunke dealt out candles and assisted
+his guests into the car, which presently carried them deep into the
+mine. Margaret observed that the timbered sides of the tunnel leaned
+inward slightly and that the roof was heavily cross-timbered.
+
+"It looks safe," she thought aloud.
+
+"It's safe enough," returned Dunke carelessly. "The place for cave-ins
+is at the head of the workings, before we get drifts timbered."
+
+"Are we going into any of those places?"
+
+"I wouldn't take you into any place that wasn't safe, Miss Margaret."
+
+"Is it always so dreadfully warm down here?" she asked.
+
+"You must remember we're somewhere around a thousand feet in the heart
+of the earth. Yes, it's always warm."
+
+"I don't see how the men stand it and work."
+
+"Oh, they get used to it."
+
+They left the car and followed a drift which took them into a region
+of perpetual darkness, into which the electric lights did not
+penetrate. Margaret noticed that her host carried his candle with
+ease, holding it at an angle that gave the best light and most
+resistance to the air, while she on her part had much ado to keep hers
+from going out. Frequently she had to stop and let the tiny flame
+renew its hold on the base of supplies. So, without his knowing it,
+she fell behind gradually, and his explanations of stopes, drifts,
+air-drills, and pay-streaks fell only upon the already enlightened
+ears of Mrs. Collins.
+
+The girl had been picking her way through some puddles of water that
+had settled on the floor, and when she looked up the lights of those
+ahead had disappeared. She called to them faintly and hurried on,
+appalled at the thought of possibly losing them in these dreadful
+underground catacombs where Stygian night forever reigned. But her
+very hurry delayed her, for in her haste the gust of her motion swept
+out the flame. She felt her way forward along the wall, in a darkness
+such as she had never conceived before. Nor could she know that by
+chance she was following the wrong wall. Had she chosen the other her
+hand must have come to a break in it which showed that a passage at
+that point deflected from the drift toward the left. Unconsciously she
+passed this, already frightened but resolutely repressing her fear.
+
+"I'll not let them know what an idiot I am. I'll not! I'll not!" she
+told herself.
+
+Therefore she did not call yet, thinking she must come on them at any
+moment, unaware that every step was taking her farther from the
+gallery into which they had turned. When at last she cried out it was
+too late. The walls hemmed in her cry and flung it back tauntingly to
+her-- the damp walls against which she crouched in terror of the
+subterranean vault in which she was buried. She was alone with the
+powers of darkness, with the imprisoned spirits of the underworld that
+fought inarticulately against the audacity of the puny humans who
+dared venture here. So her vivid imagination conceived it, terrorizing
+her against both will and reason.
+
+How long she wandered, a prey to terror, calling helplessly in the
+blackness, she did not know. It seemed to her that she must always
+wander so, a perpetual prisoner condemned to this living grave. So
+that it was with a distinct shock of glad surprise she heard a voice
+answer faintly her calls. Calling and listening alternately, she
+groped her way in the direction of the sounds, and so at last came
+plump against the figure of the approaching rescuer.
+
+"Who is it?" a hoarse voice demanded.
+
+But before she could answer a match flared and was held close to her
+face. The same light that revealed her to him told the girl who this
+man was that had met her alone a million miles from human aid. The
+haggard, drawn countenance with the lifted upper lip and the sunken
+eyes that glared into hers belonged to the convict Nick Struve.
+
+The match went out before either of them spoke.
+
+"You-- you here!" she exclaimed, and was oddly conscious that her
+relief at meeting even him had wiped out for the present her fear of
+the man.
+
+"For God's sake, have you got anything to eat?" he breathed thickly.
+
+It had been part of the play that each member of their little party
+should carry a dinner-pail just like an ordinary miner. Wherefore she
+had hers still in her hand.
+
+"Yes, and I have a candle here. Have you another match?"
+
+He lit the candle with a shaking hand.
+
+"Gimme that bucket," he ordered gruffly, and began to devour
+ravenously the food he found in it, tearing at sandwiches and gulping
+them down like a hungry dog.
+
+"What day is this?" he stopped to ask after he had stayed the first
+pangs.
+
+She told him Tuesday.
+
+"I ain't eaten since Saturday," he told her. "I figured it was a week.
+There ain't any days in this place-- nothin' but night. Can't tell one
+from another."
+
+"It's terrible," she agreed.
+
+His appetite was wolfish. She could see that he was spent, so weak
+with hunger that he had reeled against the wall as she handed him the
+dinner-pail. Pallor was on the sunken face, and exhaustion in the
+trembling hands and unsteady gait.
+
+"I'm about all in, what with hunger and all I been through. I thought
+I was out of my head when I heard you holler." He snatched up the
+candle from the place where he had set it and searched her face by its
+flame. "How come you down here? You didn't come alone. What you doin'
+here?" he demanded suspiciously.
+
+"I came down with Mr. Dunke and a, friend to look over his mine. I had
+never been in one before."
+
+"Dunke!" A spasm of rage swept the man's face. "You're a friend of
+his, are you? Where is he? If you came with him how come you to be
+roaming around alone?"
+
+"I got lost. Then my light went out."
+
+"So you're a friend of Dunke, that damned double-crosser! He's a
+millionaire, you think, a big man in this Western country. That's what
+he claims, eh?" Struve shook a fist into the air in a mad burst of
+passion. "Just watch me blow him higher'n a kite. I know what he is,
+and I got proof. The Judas! I keep my mug shut and do time while he
+gets off scot-free and makes his pile. But you listen to me, ma'am.
+Your friend ain't nothin' but an outlaw. If he got his like I got mine
+he'd be at Yuma to-day. Your brother could a-told you. Dunke was at
+the head of the gang that held up that train. We got nabbed, me and
+Jim. Burch got shot in the Catalinas by one of the rangers, and Smith
+died of fever in Sonora. But Dunke, curse him, he sneaks out and buys
+the officers off with our plunder. That's what he done-- let his
+partners get railroaded through while he sails out slick and easy. But
+he made one mistake, Mr. Dunke did. He wrote me a letter and told me
+to keep mum and he would fix it for me to get out in a few months. I
+believed him, kept my mouth padlocked, and served seven years without
+him lifting a hand for me. Then, when I make my getaway he tries first
+off to shut my mouth by putting me out of business. That's what your
+friend done, ma'am."
+
+"Is this true?" asked the girl whitely.
+
+"So help me God, every word of it."
+
+"He let my brother go to prison without trying to help him?"
+
+"Worse than that. He sent him to prison. Jim was all right when he
+first met up with Dunke. It was Dunke that got him into his wild ways
+and led him into trouble. It was Dunke took him into the hold-up
+business. Hadn't been for him Jim never would have gone wrong."
+
+She made no answer. Her mind was busy piecing out the facts of her
+brother's misspent life. As a little girl she remembered her big
+brother before he went away, good-natured, friendly, always ready to
+play with her. She was sure he had not been bad, only fatally weak.
+Even this man who had slain him was ready to testify to that.
+
+She came back from her absorption to find Struve outlining what he
+meant to do.
+
+"We'll go back this passage along the way you came. I want to find Mr.
+Dunke. I allow I've got something to tell him he will be right
+interested in hearing."
+
+He picked up the candle and led the way along the tunnel. Margaret
+followed him in silence.
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+
+ THE SOUTHERNER TAKES A RISK
+
+The convict shambled forward through the tunnel till he came to a
+drift which ran into it at a right angle.
+
+"Which way now?" he demanded.
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Don't know," he screamed. "Didn't you just come along here? Do you
+want me to get lost again in this hell-hole?"
+
+The stricken fear leaped into his face. He had forgotten her danger,
+forgotten everything but the craven terror that engulfed him. Looking
+at him, she was struck for the first time with the thought that he
+might be on the verge of madness.
+
+His cry still rang through the tunnel when Margaret saw a gleam of
+distant light. She pointed it out to Struve, who wheeled and fastened
+his eyes upon it. Slowly the faint yellow candle-rays wavered toward
+them. A man was approaching through the gloom, a large man whom she
+presently recognized as Dunke. A quick gasp from the one beside her
+showed that he too knew the man. He took a dozen running steps
+forward, so that in his haste the candle flickered out.
+
+"That you, Miss Margaret?" the mine-owner called.
+
+Neither she nor Struve answered. The latter had stopped and was
+waiting tensely his enemy's approach. When he was within a few yards
+of the other Dunke raised his candle and peered into the blackness
+ahead of him.
+
+"What's the matter? Isn't it you, Miss Peggy?"
+
+"No, it ain't. It's your old pal, Nick Struve. Ain't you glad to see
+him, Joe?"
+
+Dunke looked him over without a word. His thin lips set and his gaze
+grew wall-eyed. The candle passed from right to left hand.
+
+Struve laughed evilly. "No, I'm not going to pay you that way-- not
+yet; nor you ain't going to rid yourself of me either. Want to know
+why, Mr. Millionaire Dunke, what used to be my old pal? Want to know
+why it ain't going to do you any good to drop that right hand any
+closeter to your hip pocket?"
+
+Still Dunke said nothing, but the candle-glow that lit his face showed
+an ugly expression.
+
+"Don't you whip that gun out, Joe Dunke. Don't you! 'Cause why? If you
+do you're a goner."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that I kept the letter you wrote me seven years ago, and have
+put it where it will do you no good if anything happens to me. That's
+why you won't draw that gun, Joe Dunke. If you do it will send you to
+Yuma. Millionaire you may be, but that won't keep you from wearing
+stripes."
+
+Struve's voice rang exultantly. From the look in the face of his old
+comrade in crime who had prospered at his expense, as he chose to
+think, he saw that for the time being he had got the whip-hand.
+
+There was a long silence before Dunke asked hoarsely:
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"I want you to hide me. I want you to get me out of this country. I
+want you to divvy up with me. Didn't we grub-stake you with the haul
+from the Overland? Don't we go share and share alike, the two of us
+that's left? Ain't that fair and square? You wouldn't want to do less
+than right by an old pal, cap, you that are so respectable and proper
+now. You ain't forgot the man that lay in the ditch with you the night
+we held up the flyer, the man that rode beside you when you shot--"
+
+"For God's sake don't rake up forgotten scrapes. We were all young
+together then. I'll do what's right by you, but you got to keep your
+mouth shut and let me manage this."
+
+"The way you managed it before when you let me rot at Yuma seven
+years," jeered Struve.
+
+"I couldn't help it. They were on my trail and I had to lie low. I
+tell you I'll pull you through if you do as I say."
+
+"And I tell you I don't believe a word you say. You double-crossed me
+before and you will again if you get a chance. I'll not let you out of
+my sight."
+
+"Don't be a fool, Nick. How can I help you if I can't move around to
+make the arrangements for running you across the line?"
+
+"And what guarantee have I got you ain't making arrangements to have
+me scragged? Think I'm forgetting Saturday night?"
+
+The girl in the blackness without the candle-shine moved slightly.
+
+"What's that?" asked Dunke, startled.
+
+"What's what?"
+
+"That noise. Some one moved."
+
+Dunke's revolver came swiftly from his pocket.
+
+"I reckon it must a-been the girl."
+
+"What girl? Miss Kinney?"
+
+Dunke's hard eyes fastened on the other like steel augers.
+
+Margaret came forward and took wraithlike shape.
+
+"I want you to take me to Mrs. Collins, Mr. Dunke," she said.
+
+The steel probes shifted from Struve to her.
+
+"What did you hear, Miss Kinney? This man is a storehouse of lies. I
+let him run on to see how far he would go."
+
+Struve's harsh laugh filled the tunnel.
+
+"Take me to Mrs. Collins," she reiterated wearily.
+
+"Not till I know what you heard," answered Dunke doggedly.
+
+"I heard everything," she avowed boldly. "The whole wretched,
+miserable truth."
+
+She would have pushed past him, but he caught her arm.
+
+"Let me go!"
+
+"I tell you it's all a mistake. I can explain it. Give me time."
+
+"I won't listen, I want never to see either of you again. What have I
+ever done that I should be mixed up with such men?" she cried, with
+bitter despair.
+
+"Don't go off half-cocked. 'Course I'll take you to Mrs. Collins if
+you like. But you got to listen to what I say."
+
+Another candle glimmered dimly in the tunnel and came toward them. It
+presently stopped, and a voice rolled along the vault.
+
+"Hello, there!"
+
+Margaret would have known that voice anywhere among a thousand. Now it
+came to her sweet as water after a drought. She slipped past Dunke and
+ran stumbling through the darkness to its source.
+
+"Mr. Neill! Mr. Neill!"
+
+The pitiful note in her voice, which he recognized instantly, stirred
+him to the core. Astonished that she should be in the mine and in
+trouble, he dashed forward, and his candle went out in the rush.
+Groping in the darkness her hands encountered his. His arms closed
+round her, and in her need of protection that brushed aside
+conventions and non-essentials, the need that had spoken in her cry of
+relief, in her hurried flight to him, she lay panting and trembling in
+his arms. He held her tight, as one who would keep his own against the
+world.
+
+"How did you get here-- what has happened?" he demanded.
+
+Hurriedly she explained.
+
+"Oh, take me away, take me away!" she concluded, nestling to him with
+no thought now of seeking to disguise her helpless dependence upon
+him, of hiding from herself the realization that he was the man into
+whose keeping destiny had ordained that she was to give her heart.
+
+"All right, honey. You're sure all safe now," he said tenderly, and in
+the blackness his lips sought and met hers in a kiss that sealed the
+understanding their souls had reached.
+
+At the sound of Neill's voice Dunke had extinguished the candle and
+vanished in the darkness with Struve, the latter holding him by the
+arm in a despairing grip. Neill shouted again and again, as he
+relighted his candle, but there came no answer to his calls.
+
+"We had better make for the shaft," he said.
+
+They set out on the long walk to the opening that led up to the light
+and the pure air. For a while they walked on in silence. At last he
+took her hand and guided her fingers across the seam on his wrist.
+
+"It don't seem only four days since you did that, honey," he murmured.
+
+"Did I do that?" Her voice was full of self-reproach, and before he
+could stop her she lifted his hand and kissed the welt.
+
+"Don't, sweet. I deserved what I got and more. I'm ready with that
+apology you didn't want then, Peggy."
+
+"But I don't want it now, either. I won't have it. Didn't I tell you I
+wouldn't? Besides," she added, with a little leap of laughter in her
+voice, "why should you ask pardon for kissing the girl you were meant
+to-- to----"
+
+He finished it for her.
+
+"To marry, Peggy. I didn't know it then, but I knew it before you said
+good-by with your whip."
+
+"And I didn't know it till next morning," she said.
+
+"Did you know it then, when you were so mean to me?"
+
+"That was why I was so mean to you. I had to punish myself and you
+because I-- liked you so well."
+
+She buried her face shyly in his coat to cover this confession.
+
+It seemed easy for both of them to laugh over nothing in the
+exuberance of their common happiness. His joy pealed now delightedly.
+
+"I can't believe it-- that four days ago you wasn't on the earth for
+me. Seems like you always belonged; seems like I always enjoyed your
+sassy ways."
+
+"That's just the way I feel about you. It's really scandalous that in
+less than a week-- just a little more than half a week-- we should be
+engaged. We are engaged, aren't we?"
+
+"Very much."
+
+"Well, then-- it sounds improper, but it isn't the least bit. It's
+right. Isn't it?"
+
+"It ce'tainly is."
+
+"But you know I've always thought that people who got engaged so soon
+are the same kind of people that correspond through matrimonial
+papers. I didn't suppose it would ever happen to me."
+
+"Some right strange things happen while a person is alive, Peggy."
+
+"And I don't really know anything at all about you except that you say
+your name is Larry Neill. Maybe you are married already."
+
+She paused, startled at the impossible thought.
+
+"It must have happened before I can remember, then," he laughed.
+
+"Or engaged. Very likely you have been engaged a dozen times. Southern
+people do, they say."
+
+"Then I'm an exception."
+
+"And me-- you don't know anything about me."
+
+"A fellow has to take some risk or quit living," he told her gaily.
+
+"When you think of my temper doesn't it make you afraid?"
+
+"The samples I've had were surely right exhilarating," he conceded.
+"I'm expecting enough difference of opinion to keep life interesting."
+
+"Well, then, if you won't be warned you'll just have to take me and
+risk it."
+
+And she slipped her arm into his and held up her lips for the kiss
+awaiting her.
+
+  CHAPTER XII
+
+ EXIT DUNKE
+
+Dunke plowed back through the tunnel in a blind whirl of passion.
+Rage, chagrin, offended vanity, acute disappointment, all blended with
+a dull heartache to which he was a stranger. He was a dangerous man in
+a dangerous mood, and so Wolf Struve was likely to discover. But the
+convict was not an observant man. His loose upper lip lifted in the
+ugly sneer to which it was accustomed.
+
+"Got onto you, didn't she?"
+
+Dunke stuck his candle in a niche of the ragged granite wall, strode
+across to his former partner in crime, and took the man by the throat.
+
+"I'll learn you to keep that vile tongue of yours still," he said
+between set teeth, and shook the hapless man till he was black in the
+face.
+
+Struve hung, sputtering and coughing, against the wall where he had
+been thrown. It was long before he could do more than gasp.
+
+"What-- what did you do-- that for?" His furtive ratlike face looked
+venomous in its impotent anger. "I'll pay you for this-- and don't
+you-- forget it, Joe Dunke!"
+
+"You'd shoot me in the back the way you did Jim Kinney if you got a
+chance. I know that; but you see you won't get a chance."
+
+"I ain't looking for no such chance. I--"
+
+"That's enough. I don't have to stand for your talk even if I do have
+to take care of you. Light your candle and move along this tunnel
+lively."
+
+Something in Dunke's eye quelled the rebellion the other contemplated.
+He shuffled along, whining as he went that he would never have looked
+for his old pal to treat him so. They climbed ladders to the next
+level, passed through an empty stope, and stopped at the end of a
+drift.
+
+"I'll arrange to get you out of here to-night and have you run across
+the line. I'm going to give you three hundred dollars. That's the last
+cent you'll ever get out of me. If you ever come back to this country
+I'll see that you're hanged as you deserve."
+
+With that Dunke turned on his heel and was gone. But his contempt for
+the ruffian he had cowed was too fearless. He would have thought so if
+he could have known of the shadow that dogged his heels through the
+tunnel, if he could have seen the bare fangs that had gained Struve
+his name of "Wolf," if he could have caught the flash of the knife
+that trembled in the eager hand. He did not know that, as he shot up
+in the cage to the sunlight, the other was filling the tunnel with
+imprecations and wild threats, that he was hugging himself with the
+promise of a revenge that should be sure and final.
+
+Dunke went about the task of making the necessary arrangements
+personally. He had his surrey packed with food, and about eleven
+o'clock drove up to the mine and was lowered to the ninth level. An
+hour later he stepped out of the cage with a prisoner whom he kept
+covered with a revolver.
+
+"It's that fellow Struve," he explained to the astonished engineer in
+the shaft-house. "I found him down below. It seems that Fraser took
+him down the Jackrabbit and he broke loose and worked through to our
+ground."
+
+"Do you want any help in taking him downtown, sir? Shall I phone for
+the marshal?"
+
+His boss laughed scornfully.
+
+"When I can't handle one man after I've got him covered I'll let you
+know, Johnson."
+
+The two men went out into the starlit night and got into the surrey.
+The play with the revolver had hitherto been for the benefit of
+Johnson, but it now became very real. Dunke jammed the rim close to
+the other's temple.
+
+"I want that letter I wrote you. Quick, by Heaven! No fairy-tales, but
+the letter!"
+
+"I swear, Joe--"
+
+"The letter, you villain! I know you never let it go out of your
+possession. Give it up! Quick!"
+
+Struve's hand stole to his breast, came out slowly to the edge of his
+coat, then leaped with a flash of something bright toward the other's
+throat. Simultaneously the revolver rang out. A curse, the sound of a
+falling body, and the frightened horses leaped forward. The wheels
+slipped over the edge of the narrow mountain road, and surrey, horses,
+and driver plunged a hundred feet down to the sharp, broken rocks
+below.
+
+Johnson, hearing the shot, ran out and stumbled over a body lying in
+the road. By the bright moonlight he could see that it was that of his
+employer. The surrey was nowhere in sight, but he could easily make
+out where it had slipped over the precipice. He ran back into the
+shaft-house and began telephoning wildly to town.
+
+  CHAPTER XIII
+
+ STEVE OFFERS CONGRATULATIONS
+
+When Fraser reached the dining-room for breakfast his immediate family
+had finished and departed. He had been up till four o'clock and his
+mother had let him sleep as long as he would. Now, at nine, he was up
+again and fresh as a daisy after a morning bath.
+
+He found at the next table two other late breakfasters.
+
+"Mo'ning, Miss Kinney. How are you, Tennessee?" he said amiably.
+
+Both Larry and the young woman admitted good health, the latter so
+blushingly that Steve's keen eyes suggested to him that he might not
+be the only one with news to tell this morning.
+
+"What's that I hear about Struve and Dunke?" asked Neill at once.
+
+"Oh, you've heard it. Well, it's true. I judge Dunke was arranging to
+get him out of the country. Anyhow, Johnson says he took the fellow
+out to his surrey from the shaft-house of the Mal Pais under his gun.
+A moment later the engineer heard a shot and ran out. Dunke lay in the
+road dead, with a knife through his heart. We found the surrey down in
+the canyon. It had gone over the edge of the road. Both the hawsses
+were dead, and Struve had disappeared. How the thing happened I reckon
+never will be known unless the convict tells it. My guess would be
+that Dunke attacked him and the convict was just a little bit more
+than ready for him."
+
+"Have you any idea where Struve is?"
+
+"The obvious guess would be that he is heading for Mexico. But I've
+got another notion. He knows that's where we will be looking for him.
+His record shows that he used to trail with a bunch of outlaws up in
+Wyoming. That was most twenty years ago. His old pals have disappeared
+long since. But he knows that country up there. He'll figure that down
+here he's sure to be caught and hanged sooner or later. Up there he'll
+have a chance to hide under another name."
+
+Neill nodded. "That's a big country up there and the mountains are
+full of pockets. If he can reach there he will be safe."
+
+"Maybe," the ranger amended quietly.
+
+"Would you follow him?"
+
+The officer's opaque gaze met the eyes of his friend. "We don't aim to
+let a prisoner make his getaway once we get our hands on him. Wyoming
+ain't so blamed far to travel after him-- if I learn he is there."
+
+For a moment all of them were silent. Each of them was thinking of the
+fellow and the horrible trail of blood he had left behind him in one
+short week. Margaret looked at her lover and shuddered. She had not
+the least doubt that this man sitting opposite them would bring the
+criminal back to his punishment, but the sinister grotesque shadow of
+the convict seemed to fall between her and her happiness.
+
+Larry caught her hand under the table and gave it a little pressure of
+reassurance. He spoke in a low voice. "This hasn't a thing to do with
+us, Peggy-- not a thing. They were already both out of your life."
+
+"Yes, I know, but--"
+
+"There aren't any buts." He smiled warmly, and his smile took the
+other man into their confidence. "You've been having a nightmare.
+That's past. See the sunshine on those hills. It's bright mo'ning,
+girl. A new day for you and for me."
+
+Steve grinned. "This is awful sudden, Tennessee. You must a-been
+sawing wood right industrious on the hawssback ride and down in the
+tunnel. I expect there wasn't any sunshine down there, was there?"
+
+"You go to grass, Steve."
+
+"No, Tennessee is ce'tainly no two-bit man. Lemme see. One-- two--
+three-- four days. That's surely going some," the ranger soliloquized.
+
+"Mr. Fraser," the young woman reproved with a blush.
+
+"Don't mind him, Peggy. He's merely jealous," came back Larry.
+
+"Course I'm jealous. Whyfor not? What license have these Panhandle
+guys to come in and tote off our girls? But don't mind me. I'll pay
+strict attention to my ham and eggs and not see a thing that's going
+on."
+
+"Lieutenant!" Miss Margaret was both embarrassed and shocked.
+
+"Want me to shut my eyes, Tennessee?"
+
+"Next time we get engaged you'll not be let in on the ground floor,"
+Neill predicted.
+
+"Four days! My, my! If that ain't rapid transit for fair!"
+
+"You're a man of one idea, Steve. Cayn't you see that the fact's the
+main thing, not the time it took to make it one?"
+
+"And counting out Sunday and Monday, it only leaves two days."
+
+"Don't let that interfere with your breakfast. You haven't been
+elected timekeeper for this outfit, you know!"
+
+Fraser recovered from his daze and duly offered congratulations to the
+one and hopes for unalloyed joy to the other party to the engagement.
+
+"But four days!" he added in his pleasant drawl. "That's sure some
+precipitous. Just to look at him, ma'am"-- this innocently to Peggy--
+"a man wouldn't think he had it in him to locate, stake out, and do
+the necessary assessment work on such a rich claim as the Margaret
+Kinney all in four days. Mostly a fellow don't strike such high-grade
+ore without a lot of--"
+
+"That will do for you, lieutenant," interrupted Miss Kinney, with
+merry, sparkling eyes. "You needn't think we're going to let you trail
+this off into a compliment now. I'm going to leave you and see what
+Mrs. Collins says. She won't sit there and parrot 'Four days' for the
+rest of her life."
+
+With which Mistress Peggy sailed from the room in mock hauteur.
+
+When Larry came back from closing the door after her, his friend fell
+upon him with vigorous. hands to the amazement of Wun Hop, the waiter.
+
+"You blamed lucky son of a gun," he cried exuberantly between punches.
+"You've ce'tainly struck pure gold, Tennessee. Looks like Old Man Good
+Luck has come home to roost with you, son."
+
+The other, smiling, shook hands with him. "I'm of that opinion myself,
+Steve," he said.
+
+  Part II
+
+THE GIRL OF LOST VALLEY
+
+  CHAPTER I
+
+ IN THE FIRE ZONE
+
+"Say, you Teddy hawss, I'm plumb fed up with sagebrush and scenery. I
+kinder yearn for co'n bread and ham. I sure would give six bits for a
+drink of real wet water. Yore sentiments are similar, I reckon,
+Teddy."
+
+The Texan patted the neck of his cow pony, which reached round
+playfully and pretended to nip his leg. They understood each other,
+and were now making the best of a very unpleasant situation. Since
+morning they had been lost on the desert. The heat of midday had found
+them plowing over sandy wastes. The declining sun had left them among
+the foothills, wandering from one to another, in the vain hope that
+each summit might show the silvery gleam of a windmill, or even that
+outpost of civilization, the barb-wire fence. And now the stars looked
+down indifferently, myriads of them, upon the travelers still plodding
+wearily through a land magically transformed by moonlight to a silvery
+loveliness that blotted out all the garish details of day.
+
+The Texan drew rein. "We all been discovering that Wyoming is a
+powerful big state. Going to feed me a cigarette, Teddy. Too bad a
+hawss cayn't smoke his troubles away," he drawled, and proceeded to
+roll a cigarette, lighting it with one sweeping motion of his arm,
+that passed down the leg of his chaps and ended in the upward curve at
+his lips.
+
+The flame had not yet died, when faintly through the illimitable
+velvet night there drifted to him a sound.
+
+"Did you hear that, pardner?" the man demanded softly, listening
+intently for a repetition of it.
+
+It came presently, from away over to the left, and, after it, what
+might have been taken for the popping of a distant bunch of
+firecrackers.
+
+"Celebrating the Fourth some premature, looks like. What? Think not,
+Teddy! Some one getting shot up? Sho! You are romancin', old hawss."
+
+Nevertheless he swung the pony round and started rapidly in the
+direction of the shots. From time to time there came a renewal of
+them, though the intervals grew longer and the explosions were now
+individual ones. He took the precaution to draw his revolver from the
+holster and to examine it carefully.
+
+"Nothing like being sure. It's a heap better than being sorry
+afterward," he explained to the cow pony.
+
+For the first time in twelve hours, he struck a road. Following this
+as it wound up to the summit of a hill, he discovered that the area of
+disturbance was in the valley below. For, as he began his descent,
+there was a flash from a clump of cotton-woods almost at his feet.
+
+"Did yo' git him?" a voice demanded anxiously.
+
+"Don't know, dad," the answer came, young, warm, and tremulous.
+
+"Hello! There's a kid there," the Texan decided. Aloud, he asked
+quietly: "What's the row, gentlemen?"
+
+One of the figures whirled-- it was the boyish one, crouched behind a
+dead horse-- and fired at him.
+
+"Hold on, sonny! I'm a stranger. Don't make any more mistakes like
+that."
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+"Steve Fraser they call me. I just arrived from Texas. Wait a jiff,
+and I'll come down and explain."
+
+He stayed for no permission, but swung from the saddle, trailed the
+reins, and started down the slope. He could hear a low-voiced colloquy
+between the two dark figures, and one of them called roughly:
+
+"Hands up, friend! We'll take no chances on yo'."
+
+The Texan's hands went up promptly, just as a bullet flattened itself
+against a rock behind him. It had been fired from the bank of the dry
+wash, some hundred and fifty yards away.
+
+"That's no fair! Both sides oughtn't to plug at me," he protested,
+grinning.
+
+The darkness which blurred detail melted as Fraser approached, and the
+moonlight showed him a tall, lank, unshaven old mountaineer, standing
+behind a horse, his shotgun thrown across the saddle.
+
+"That's near enough, Mr. Fraser from Texas," said the old man, in a
+slow voice that carried the Southern intonation. "This old gun is
+loaded with buckshot, and she scatters like hell. Speak yore little
+piece. How came yo' here, right now?"
+
+"I got lost in the Wind River bad lands this mo'ning, and I been
+playing hide and go seek with myself ever since."
+
+"Where yo' haided for?"
+
+"Gimlet Butte."
+
+"Huh! That's right funny, too."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because all yo' got to do to reach the butte is to follow this road
+and yore nose for about three miles."
+
+A bullet flung up a spurt of sand beside the horse.
+
+The young fellow behind the dead horse broke in, with impatient alarm:
+"He's all right, dad. Can't you tell by his way of talking that he's
+from the South? Make him lie down."
+
+Something sweet and vibrant in the voice lingered afterward in the
+Texan's mind almost like a caress, but at the time he was too busy to
+think of this. He dropped behind a cottonwood, and drew his revolver.
+
+"How many of them are there?" he asked of the lad, in a whisper.
+
+"About six, I think. I'm sorry I shot at you."
+
+"What's the row?"
+
+"They followed us out of Gimlet Butte. They've been drinking. Isn't
+that some one climbing up the side of the ridge?"
+
+"I believe it is. Let me have your rifle, kid."
+
+"What for?" The youngster took careful aim, and fired.
+
+A scream from the sagebrush-- just one, and then no more.
+
+"Bully for you', Arlie," the old man said.
+
+None of them spoke for some minutes, then Fraser heard a sob-- a
+stifled one, but unmistakable none the less.
+
+"Don't be afraid, kid. We'll stand 'em off," the Texan encouraged.
+
+"I ain't afraid, but I-- I---- Oh, God, I've killed a man."
+
+The Texan stared at him, where he lay in the heavy shadows, shaken
+with his remorse. "Holy smoke! Wasn't he aiming to kill you? He likely
+isn't dead, anyhow. You got real troubles to worry about, without
+making up any."
+
+He could see the youngster shaking with the horror of it, and could
+hear the staccato sobs forcing themselves through the closed teeth.
+Something about it, some touch of pathos he could not account for,
+moved his not very accessible heart. After all, he was a slim little
+kid to be engaged in such a desperate encounter Fraser remembered his
+own boyhood and the first time he had ever seen bloodshed, and,
+recalling it, he slipped across in the darkness and laid an arm across
+the slight shoulder.
+
+"Don't you worry, kid. It's all right. You didn't mean--"
+
+He broke off in swift, unspeakable amazement. His eye traveled up the
+slender figure from the telltale skirt. This was no boy at all, but a
+girl. As he took in the mass of blue-black hair and the soft but
+clean-cut modeling from ear to chin, his hand fell from her shoulder.
+What an idiot he had been not to know from the first that such a voice
+could have come only from a woman! He had been deceived by the
+darkness and by the slouch hat she wore. He wanted to laugh in
+sardonic scorn of his perception.
+
+But on the heel of that came a realization of her danger. He must get
+her out of there at once, for he knew that the enemy must be circling
+round, to take them on the flank too. It was not a question of whether
+they could hold off the attackers. They might do that, and yet she
+might be killed while they were doing it. A man used to coping with
+emergencies, his brain now swiftly worked out a way of escape.
+
+"Yore father and I will take care of these coyotes. You slip along
+those shadows up the hill to where my Teddy hawss is, and burn the
+wind out of here," he told her.
+
+"I'll not leave dad," she said quickly.
+
+The old mountaineer behind the horse laughed apologetically. "I been
+trying to git her to go, but she won't stir. With the pinto daid, o'
+course we couldn't both make it."
+
+"That's plumb foolishness," the Texan commented irritably.
+
+"Mebbe," admitted the girl; "but I reckon I'll stay long as dad does."
+
+"No use being pigheaded about it."
+
+Her dark eyes flashed. "Is this your say-so, Mr.
+Whatever-your-name-is?" she asked sharply, less because she resented
+what he said than because she was strung to a wire edge.
+
+His troubled gaze took in again her slim girlishness. The frequency of
+danger had made him proof against fear for himself, but just now he
+was very much afraid for her. Hard man as he was, he had the
+Southerner's instinctive chivalry toward woman.
+
+"You better go, Arlie," her father counseled weakly.
+
+"Well, I won't," she retorted emphatically.
+
+The old man looked whimsically at the Texan. "Yo' see yo'self how it
+is, stranger."
+
+Fraser saw, and the girl's stanchness stirred his admiration even
+while it irritated him. He made his decision immediately.
+
+"All right. Both of you go."
+
+"But we have only one horse," the girl objected. "They would catch
+us."
+
+"Take my Teddy."
+
+"And leave you here?" The dark eyes were full on him again, this time
+in a wide-open surprise.
+
+"Oh, I'll get out once you're gone. No trouble about that."
+
+"How?"
+
+"We couldn't light out, and leave yo' here," the father interrupted.
+
+"Of course we couldn't," the girl added quickly. "It isn't your
+quarrel, anyhow."
+
+"What good can you do staying here?" argued Fraser. "They want you,
+not me. With you gone, I'll slip away or come to terms with them. They
+haven't a thing against me."
+
+"That's right," agreed the older man, rubbing his stubbly beard with
+his hand. "That's sho'ly right."
+
+"But they might get you before they understood," Arlie urged.
+
+"Oh, I'll keep under cover, and when it's time, I'll sing out and let
+them know. Better leave me that rifle, though." He went right on,
+taking it for granted that she had consented to go: "Slip through
+those shadows up that draw. You'll have no trouble with Teddy. Whistle
+when you're ready, and your father will make a break up the hill on
+his hawss. So-long. See you later some time, mebbe."
+
+She went reluctantly, not convinced, but overborne by the quality of
+cheerful compulsion that lay in him. He was not a large man, though
+the pack and symmetry of his muscles promised unusual strength. But
+the close-gripped jaw, the cool serenity of the gray eyes that looked
+without excitement upon whatever they saw, the perfect poise of his
+carriage-- all contributed to a personality plainly that of a leader
+of men.
+
+It was scarce a minute later that the whistle came from the hilltop.
+The mountaineer instantly swung to the saddle and set his pony to a
+canter up the draw. Fraser could see him join his daughter in the dim
+light, for the moon had momentarily gone behind a cloud, but almost at
+once the darkness swallowed them.
+
+Some one in the sagebrush called to a companion, and the Texan knew
+that the attackers had heard the sound of the galloping horses.
+Without waiting an instant, he fired twice in rapid succession.
+
+"That'll hold them for a minute or two," he told himself. "They won't
+understand it, and they'll get together and have a powwow."
+
+He crouched behind the dead horse, his gaze sweeping the wash, the
+sagebrush, and the distant group of cottonwoods from which he had seen
+a shot fired. Though he lay absolutely still, without the least
+visible excitement, he was alert and tense to the finger tips. Not the
+slightest sound, not the smallest motion of the moonlit underbrush,
+escaped his unwavering scrutiny.
+
+The problem before him was to hold the attackers long enough for Arlie
+and her father to make their escape, without killing any of them or
+getting killed himself. He knew that, once out of the immediate
+vicinity, the fugitives would leave the road and take to some of the
+canyons that ran from the foothills into the mountains. If he could
+secure them a start of fifteen minutes that ought to be enough.
+
+A voice from the wash presently hailed him:
+
+"See here! We're going to take you back with us, old man. That's a
+cinch. We want you for that Squaw Creek raid, and we're going to have
+you. You done enough damage. Better surrender peaceable, and we'll
+promise to take you back to jail. What say?"
+
+"Gimme five minutes to think it over," demanded the Texan.
+
+"All right, five minutes. But you want to remember that it's all off
+with you if you don't give up. Billy Faulkner's dead, and we'll sure
+come a-shooting."
+
+Fraser waited till his five minutes was nearly up, then plunged across
+the road into the sagebrush growing thick there. A shot or two rang
+out, without stopping him. Suddenly a man rose out of the sage in
+front of him, a revolver in his hand.
+
+For a fraction of a second, the two men faced each other before either
+spoke.
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+Fraser's answer was to dive for the man's knees, just as a football
+tackle does. They went down together, but it was the Texan got up
+first. A second man was running toward him.
+
+"Hands up, there!" the newcomer ordered.
+
+Fraser's hand went up, but with his forty-five in it. The man pitched
+forward into the sage. The Southerner twisted forward again, slid down
+into the dry creek, and ran along its winding bed for a hundred yards.
+Then he left it, cutting back toward the spot where he had lain behind
+the dead horse. Hiding in the sage, he heard the pursuit pouring down
+the creek, waited till it was past, and quickly recrossed the road.
+Here, among the cow-backed hills, he knew he was as safe as a needle
+in a haystack.
+
+"I had to get that anxious guy, but it might have been a whole lot
+worse. I only plugged his laig for him," he reflected comfortably.
+"Wonder why they wanted to collect the old man's scalp, anyhow? The
+little girl sure was game. Just like a woman, though, the way she
+broke down because she hit that fellow."
+
+Within five minutes he was lost again among the thousand hills that
+rose like waves of the sea, one after another. It was not till nearly
+morning that he again struck a road.
+
+He was halted abruptly by a crisp command from behind a bowlder:
+
+"Up with your hands-- quick!"
+
+"Who are you, my friend?" the Texan asked mildly.
+
+"Deputy sheriff," was the prompt response. "Now, reach for the sky,
+and prompt, too."
+
+"Just as you say. You've ce'tainly got the crawl on me."
+
+The deputy disarmed his captive, and drove him into town before him.
+When morning dawned, Fraser found himself behind the bars. He was
+arrested for the murder of Faulkner.
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+ A COMPACT
+
+After the jailer had brought his breakfast, Fraser was honored by a
+visit from the sheriff, a big, rawboned Westerner, with the creases of
+fifty outdoor years stamped on his brown, leathery face.
+
+He greeted his prisoner pleasantly enough, and sat down on the bed.
+
+"Treating you right, are they?" he asked, glancing around. "Breakfast
+up to the mark?"
+
+"I've got no kick coming, thank you," said Fraser.
+
+"Good!"
+
+The sheriff relapsed into sombre silence. There was a troubled look in
+the keen eyes that the Texan did not understand. Fraser waited for the
+officer to develop the object of his visit, and it was set down to his
+credit. A weaker man would have rushed at once into excuses and
+explanations. But in the prisoner's quiet, steely eyes, in the
+close-shut mouth and salient jaw, in the set of his well-knit figure,
+Sheriff Brandt found small room for weakness. Whoever he was, this man
+was one who could hold his own in the strenuous game of life.
+
+"My friend," said the sheriff abruptly, "you and I are up against it.
+There is going to be trouble in town to-night."
+
+The level, gray eyes looked questioningly at the sheriff.
+
+"You butted into grief a-plenty when you lined up with the cattlemen
+in this sheep war. Who do you ride for?"
+
+"I'm not riding for anybody," responded Fraser. "I just arrived from
+Texas. Didn't even know there was a feud on."
+
+Brandt laughed incredulously. "That will sound good to a jury, if your
+case ever comes to that stage. How do you expect to explain Billy
+Faulkner's death?"
+
+"Is there any proof I killed him?"
+
+"Some. You were recognized by two men last night while you were trying
+to escape. You carried a rifle that uses the same weight bullet as the
+one we dug out of Billy. When you attacked Tom Peake you dropped that
+rifle, and in your getaway hadn't time to pick it up again. That is
+evidence enough for a Wyoming jury, in the present state of public
+opinion."
+
+"What do you mean by 'in the present state of public opinion'?"
+
+"I mean that this whole country is pretty nearly solid against the
+Cedar Mountain cattlemen, since they killed Campeau and Jennings in
+that raid on their camp. You know what I mean as well as I do."
+
+Fraser did not argue the point. He remembered now having seen an
+account of the Squaw Creek raid on a sheep camp, ending in a battle
+that had resulted in the death of two men and the wounding of three
+others. He had been sitting in a hotel at San Antonio, Texas, when he
+had read the story over his after-dinner cigar. The item had not
+seemed even remotely connected with himself. Now he was in prison at
+Gimlet Butte, charged with murder, and unless he was very much
+mistaken the sheriff was hinting at a lynching. The Squaw Creek raid
+had come very near to him, for he knew the fight he had interrupted
+last night had grown out of it,
+
+"What do you mean by trouble to-night?" he asked, in an even,
+conversational tone.
+
+The sheriff looked directly at him. "You're a man, I reckon. That
+calls for the truth. Men are riding up and down this country to-day,
+stirring up sentiment against your outfit. To-night the people will
+gather in town, and the jail will be attacked."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I'll uphold the law as long as I can."
+
+Fraser nodded. He knew Brandt spoke the simple truth. What he had
+sworn to do he would do to the best of his ability. But the Texan
+knew, too, that the ramshackle jail would be torn to pieces and the
+sheriff overpowered.
+
+From his coat pocket he drew a letter, and presented it to the other.
+"I didn't expect to give this to you under these circumstances, Mr.
+Brandt, but I'd like you to know that I'm on the level when I say I
+don't know any of the Squaw Creek cattlemen and have never ridden for
+any outfit in this State."
+
+Brandt tore open the letter, and glanced hurriedly through it. "Why,
+it's from old Sam Slauson! We used to ride herd together when we were
+boys." And he real aloud:
+
+"Introducing Steve Fraser, lieutenant in the Texas Rangers."
+
+He glanced up quickly. "You're not the Fraser that ran down Chacon and
+his gang of murderers?"
+
+"Yes, I was on that job."
+
+Brandt shook hands heartily. "They say it was a dandy piece of work. I
+read that story in a magazine. You delivered the goods proper."
+
+The ranger was embarrassed. "Oh, it wasn't much of a job. The man that
+wrote it put in the fancy touches, to make his story sell, I expect."
+
+"Yes, he did! I know all about that!" the sheriff derided. "I've got
+to get you out of this hole somehow. Do you mind if I send for
+Hilliard, the prosecuting attorney? He's a bright young fellow, loaded
+to the guards with ideas. What I want is to get at a legal way of
+fixing this thing up, you understand. I'll call him up on the phone,
+and have him run over."
+
+Hilliard was shortly on the spot-- a short, fat little fellow with
+eyeglasses. He did not at first show any enthusiasm in the prisoner's
+behalf.
+
+"I don't doubt for a moment that you are the man this letter says you
+are, Mr. Fraser," he said suavely. "But facts are stubborn things. You
+were seen carrying the gun that killed Faulkner. We can't get away
+from that just because you happen to have a letter of introduction to
+Mr. Brandt."
+
+"I don't want to get away from it," retorted. Fraser. "I have
+explained how I got into the fight. A man doesn't stand back and see
+two people, and one of them a girl, slaughtered by seven or eight."
+
+The lawyer's fat forefinger sawed the air. "That's how you put it.
+Mind, I don't for a moment say it isn't the right way. But what the
+public wants is proof. Can you give evidence to show that Faulkner and
+his friends attacked Dillon and his daughter? Have you even got them
+on hand here to support your statement? Have you got a grain of
+evidence, apart from your bare word?"
+
+"That letter shows--"
+
+"It shows nothing. You might have written it yourself last night.
+Anyhow, a letter of introduction isn't quite an excuse for murder."
+
+"It wasn't murder."
+
+"That's what you say. I'll be glad to have you prove it."
+
+"They followed Dillon-- if that is his name-- out of town."
+
+"They put it that they were on their way home, when they were
+attacked."
+
+"By an old man and his daughter," the Texan added significantly.
+
+"There again we have only your statement for it. Half a dozen men had
+been in town during the day from the Cedar Mountain district. These
+men were witnesses in the suit that rose over a sheep raid. They may
+all have been on the spot, to ambush Faulkner's crowd."
+
+Brandt broke in: "Are you personally convinced that this gentleman is
+Lieutenant Fraser of the Rangers?"
+
+"Personally, I am of opinion that he is, but--"
+
+"Hold your horses, Dave. Believing that, do you think that we ought to
+leave him here to be lynched to-night by Peake's outfit?"
+
+"That isn't my responsibility, but speaking merely as a private
+citizen, I should say, No."
+
+"What would you do with him then?"
+
+"Why not take him up to your house?"
+
+"Wouldn't be safe a minute, or in any other house in town."
+
+"Then get out of town with him."
+
+"It can't be done. I'm watched."
+
+Hilliard shrugged.
+
+The ranger's keen eyes went from one to another. He saw that what the
+lawyer needed was some personal interest to convert him into a
+partisan. From his pocket he drew another letter and some papers.
+
+"If you doubt that I am Lieutenant Fraser you can wire my captain at
+Dallas. This is a letter of congratulation to me from the Governor of
+Texas for my work in the Chacon case. Here's my railroad ticket, and
+my lodge receipt. You gentlemen are the officers in charge. I hold you
+personally responsible for my safety-- for the safety of a man whose
+name, by chance, is now known all over this country."
+
+This was a new phase of the situation, and it went home to the
+lawyer's mind at once. He had been brought into the case willy nilly,
+and he would be blamed for anything that happened to this young Texan,
+whose deeds had recently been exploited broadcast in the papers. He
+stood for an instant in frowning thought, and as he did so a clause in
+the letter from the Governor of Texas caught and held his eye.
+
+  which I regard as the ablest, most daring, and, at the same time,
+  the most difficult and most successful piece of secret service that
+  has come to my knowledge....
+
+Suddenly, Hilliard saw the way out-- a way that appealed to him none
+the less because it would also serve his own ambitions.
+
+"Neither you nor I have any right to help this gentleman to escape,
+sheriff. The law is plain. He is charged with murder. We haven't any
+right to let our private sympathies run away with us. But there is one
+thing we can do."
+
+"What is that?" the sheriff asked.
+
+"Let him earn his freedom."
+
+"Earn it! How?"
+
+"By serving the State in this very matter of the Squaw Creek raid. As
+prosecuting attorney, it is in my discretion to accept the service of
+an accomplice to a crime in fixing the guilt upon the principals.
+Before the law, Lieutenant Fraser stands accused of complicity. We
+believe him not guilty, but that does not affect the situation. Let
+him go up into the Cedar Mountain country and find out the guilty
+parties in the Squaw Creek raid."
+
+"And admit my guilt by compromising with you?" the Texan scoffed.
+
+"Not at all. You need not go publicly. In point of fact, you couldn't
+get out of town alive if it were known. No, we'll arrange to let you
+break jail on condition that you go up into the Lost Canyon district,
+and run down the murderers of Campeau and Jennings, That gives us an
+excuse for letting you go. You see the point-- don't you?"
+
+The Texan grinned. "That isn't quite the point, is it?" he drawled.
+"If I should be successful, you will achieve a reputation, without any
+cost to yourself. That's worth mentioning,"
+
+Hilliard showed a momentary embarrassment.
+
+"That's incidental. Besides, it will help your reputation more than
+mine "
+
+Brandt got busy at once with the details of the escape. "We'll loosen
+up the mortar round the bars in the south room. They are so rickety
+anyhow I haven't kept any prisoners there for years. After you have
+squeezed through you will find a horse saddled in the draw, back here.
+You'll want a gun of course."
+
+"Always providing Lieutenant Fraser consents to the arrangement," the
+lawyer added smoothly.
+
+"Oh, I'll consent," laughed Fraser wryly. "I have no option. Of
+course, if I win I get the reward-- whatever it is."
+
+"Oh, of course."
+
+"Then I'm at your service, gentlemen, to escape whenever you say the
+word."
+
+"The best time would be right after lunch. That would give you five
+hours before Nichols was in here again," the sheriff suggested.
+
+"Suppose you draw a map, showing the route I'm to follow to reach
+Cedar Mountain. I reckon I had better not trouble folks to ask them
+the way." And the Texan grinned.
+
+"That's right. I'll fix you up, and tell you later just where you'll
+find the horse," Brandt answered.
+
+"You're an officer yourself, lieutenant," said the lawyer. "You know
+just how much evidence it takes to convict. Well, that's just how much
+we want. If you have to communicate with us, address 'T. L. Meredith,
+Box 117.' Better send your letter in cipher. Here's a little code I
+worked out that we sometimes use. Well, so-long. Good hunting,
+lieutenant."
+
+Fraser nodded farewell, but did not offer to shake hands.
+
+Brandt lingered for an instant. "Don't make any mistake, Fraser, about
+this job you've bit off. It's a big one, and don't you forget it.
+People are sore on me because I have fallen down on it. I can't help
+it. I just can't get the evidence. If you tackle it, you'll be in
+danger from start to finish. There are some bad men in this country,
+and the worst of them are lying low in Lost Valley."
+
+The ranger smiled amiably. "Where is this Lost Valley?"
+
+"Somewhere up in the Cedar Mountain district. I've never been there.
+Few men have, for it is not easy to find; and even if it were
+strangers are not invited."
+
+"Well, I'll have to invite myself."
+
+"That's all right. But remember this. There are men up there who would
+drill holes in a dying man. I guess Lost Valley is the country God
+forgot."
+
+"Sounds right interesting."
+
+"You'll find it all that, and don't forget that if they find out what
+you are doing there, it will be God help Steve Fraser!"
+
+The ranger's eyes gleamed. "I'll try to remember it."
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+ INTO LOST VALLEY
+
+It was one-twenty when Fraser slipped the iron bar from the masonry
+into which it had been fixed and began to lower himself from the
+window. The back of the jail faced on the bank of a creek; and into
+the aspens, which ran along it at this point in a little grove, the
+fugitive pushed his way. He descended to the creek edge and crossed
+the mountain stream on bowlders which filled its bed. From here he
+followed the trail for a hundred yards that led up the little river.
+On the way he passed a boy fishing and nodded a greeting to him.
+
+"What time is it, mister?" the youngster asked.
+
+A glance at his watch showed the Texan that it was one-twenty-five.
+
+"The fish have quit biting. Blame it all, I'm going home. Say, mister,
+Jimmie Spence says they're going to lynch that fellow who killed Billy
+Faulkner-- going to hang him to-night, Jimmie says. Do you reckon they
+will?"
+
+"No, I reckon not."
+
+"Tha's what I told him, but Jimmie says he heard Tom Peake say so.
+Jimmie says this town will be full o' folks by night."
+
+Without waiting to hear any more of Jimmie's prophecies, Fraser
+followed the trail till it reached a waterfall Brandt bad mentioned,
+then struck sharply to the right. In a little bunch of scrub oaks he
+found a saddled horse tied to a sapling. His instructions were to
+cross the road, which ran parallel with the stream, and follow the
+gulch that led to the river. Half an hour's travel brought him to
+another road. Into this he turned, and followed it.
+
+In a desperate hurry though he was, Steve dared not show it. He held
+his piebald broncho to the ambling trot a cowpony naturally drops
+into. From his coat pocket he flashed a mouthharp for use in
+emergency.
+
+Presently he met three men riding into town. They nodded at him, in
+the friendly, casual way of the outdoors West. The gait of the pony
+was a leisurely walk, and its rider was industriously executing, "I
+Met My Love In the Alamo."
+
+"Going the wrong way, aren't you?" one of the three suggested.
+
+"Don't you worry, I'll be there when y'u hang that guy they caught
+last night," he told them with a grin.
+
+From time to time he met others. All travel seemed to be headed
+townward. There was excitement in the air. In the clear atmosphere
+voices carried a long way, and all the conversation that came to him
+was on the subjects of the war for the range, the battle of the
+previous evening, and the lynching scheduled to take place in a few
+hours. He realized that he had escaped none too soon, for it was
+certain that as the crowd in town multiplied, they would set a watch
+on the jail to prevent Brandt from slipping out with his prisoner.
+
+About four miles from town he cut the telephone wires, for he knew
+that as soon as his escape became known to the jailer, the sheriff
+would be notified, and he would telephone in every direction the
+escape of his prisoner, just the same as if there had been no
+arrangement between them. It was certain, too, that all the roads
+leading from Gimlet Butte would be followed and patrolled immediately.
+For which reason he left the road after cutting the wires, and took to
+the hill trail marked out for him in the map furnished by Brandt.
+
+By night, he was far up in the foothills. Close to a running stream,
+he camped in a little, grassy park, where his pony could find forage.
+Brandt had stuffed his saddlebags with food, and had tied behind a
+sack, with a feed or two of oats for his horse. Fraser had ridden the
+range too many years to risk lighting a fire, even though he had put
+thirty-five miles between him and Gimlet Butte. The night was chill,
+as it always is in that altitude, but he rolled up in his blanket, got
+what sleep he could, and was off again by daybreak.
+
+Before noon he was high in the mountain passes, from which he could
+sometimes look down into the green parks where nested the little
+ranches of small cattlemen. He knew now that he was beyond the danger
+of the first hurried pursuit, and that it was more than likely that
+any of these mountaineers would hide him rather than give him up.
+Nevertheless, he had no immediate intention of putting them to the
+test.
+
+The second night came down on him far up on Dutchman Creek, in the
+Cedar Mountain district. He made a bed, where his horse found a meal,
+in a haystack of a small ranch, the buildings of which were strung
+along the creek. He was weary, and he slept deep. When he awakened
+next morning, it was to hear the sound of men's voices. They drifted
+to him from the road in front of the house.
+
+Carefully he looked down from the top of his stack upon three horsemen
+talking to the bare-headed ranchman whom they had called out from his
+breakfast.
+
+"No, I ain't seen a thing of him. Shot Billy Faulkner, you say? What
+in time for?" the rancher was innocently asking.
+
+"You know what for, Hank Speed," the leader of the posse made sullen
+answer. "Well, boys, we better be pushing on, I expect."
+
+Fraser breathed freer when they rode out of sight. He had overslept,
+and had had a narrow shave; for his pony was grazing in the alfalfa
+field within a hundred yards of them at that moment. No sooner had the
+posse gone than Hank Speed stepped across the field without an
+instant's hesitation and looked the animal over, after which he
+returned to the house and came out again with a rifle in his hands.
+
+The ranger slid down the farther side of the stack and slipped his
+revolver from its holster. He watched the ranchman make a tour of the
+out-buildings very carefully and cautiously, then make a circuit of
+the haystack at a safe distance. Soon the rancher caught sight of the
+man crouching against it.
+
+"Oh, you're there, are you? Put up that gun. I ain't going to do you
+any harm."
+
+"What's the matter with you putting yours up first?" asked the Texan
+amiably.
+
+"I tell you I ain't going to hurt you. Soon as I stepped out of the
+house I seen your horse. All I had to do was to say so, and they would
+have had you slick."
+
+"What did you get your gun for, then?"
+
+"I ain't taking any chances till folks' intentions has been declared.
+You might have let drive at me before I got a show to talk to you."
+
+"All right. I'll trust you." Fraser dropped his revolver, and the
+other came across to him.
+
+"Up in this country we ain't in mourning for Billy Faulkner. Old man
+Dillon told me what you done for him. I reckon we can find cover for
+you till things quiet down. My name is Speed."
+
+"Call me Fraser."
+
+"Glad to meet you, Mr. Fraser. I reckon we better move you back into
+the timber a bit. Deputy sheriffs are some thick around here right
+now. If you have to lie hid up in this country for a spell, we'll make
+an arrangement to have you taken care of."
+
+"I'll have to lie hid. There's no doubt about that. I made my jail
+break just in time to keep from being invited as chief guest to a
+necktie party."
+
+"Well, we'll put you where the whole United States Army couldn't find
+you."
+
+They had been walking across the field and now crawled between the
+strands of fence wire.
+
+"I left my saddle on top of the stack," the ranger explained.
+
+"I'll take care of it. You better take cover on top of this ridge till
+I get word to Dillon you're here. My wife will fix you up some
+breakfast, and I'll bring it out."
+
+"I've ce'tainly struck the good Samaritan," the Texan smiled.
+
+"Sho! There ain't a man in the hills wouldn't do that much for a
+friend."
+
+"I'm glad I have so many friends I never saw."
+
+"Friends? The hills are full of them. You took a hand when old man
+Dillon and his girl were sure up against it. Cedar Mountain stands
+together these days. What you did for them was done for us all," Speed
+explained simply.
+
+Fraser waited on the ridge till his host brought breakfast of bacon,
+biscuits, hard-boiled eggs, and coffee. While he ate, Speed sat down
+on a bowlder beside him and talked.
+
+"I sent my boy with a note to Dillon. It's a good thirty miles from
+here, and the old man won't make it back till some time to-morrow.
+Course, you're welcome at the house, but I judge it wouldn't be best
+for you to be seen there. No knowing when some of Brandt's deputies
+might butt in with a warrant. You can slip down again after dark and
+burrow in the haystack. Eh? What think?"
+
+"I'm in your hands, but I don't want to put you and your friends to so
+much trouble. Isn't there some mountain trail off the beaten road that
+I could take to Dillon's ranch, and so save him from the trip after
+me?"
+
+Speed grinned. "Not in a thousand years, my friend. Dillon's ranch
+ain't to be found, except by them that know every pocket of these
+hills like their own back yard. I'll guarantee you couldn't find it in
+a month, unless you had a map locating it."
+
+"Must be in that Lost Valley, which some folks say is a fairy tale,"
+the ranger said carelessly, but with his eyes on the other.
+
+The cattleman made no comment. It occurred to Fraser that his remark
+had stirred some suspicion of him. At least, it suggested caution.
+
+"If you're through with your breakfast, I'll take back the dishes,"
+Speed said dryly.
+
+The day wore to sunset. After dark had fallen the Texan slipped
+through the alfalfa field again and bedded in the stack. Before the
+morning was more than gray he returned to the underbrush of the ridge.
+His breakfast finished, and Speed gone, he lay down on a great flat,
+sun-dappled rock, and looked into the unflecked blue sky. The season
+was spring, and the earth seemed fairly palpitating with young life.
+The low, tireless hum of insects went on all about him. The air was
+vocal with the notes of nesting birds. Away across the valley he could
+see a mountain slope, with snow gulches glowing pink in the dawn.
+Little checkerboard squares along the river showed irrigated patches.
+In the pleasant warmth he grew drowsy. His eyes closed, opened, closed
+again.
+
+He was conscious of no sound that awakened him, yet he was aware of a
+presence that drew him from drowsiness to an alert attention.
+Instinctively, his hand crept to his scabbarded weapon.
+
+"Don't shoot me," a voice implored with laughter-- a warm, vivid
+voice, that struck pleasantly on his memory.
+
+The Texan turned lazily, and leaned on his elbow. She came smiling out
+of the brush, light as a roe, and with much of its slim, supple grace.
+Before, he had seen her veiled by night; the day disclosed her a dark,
+spirited young creature. The mass of blue-black hair coiled at the
+nape of the brown neck, the flash of dark eyes beneath straight, dark
+eyebrows, together with a certain deliberation of movement that was
+not languor, made it impossible to doubt that she was a Southerner by
+inheritance, if not by birth.
+
+"I don't reckon I will," he greeted, smiling. "Down in Texas it ain't
+counted right good manners to shoot up young ladies."
+
+"And in Wyoming you think it is."
+
+"I judge by appearances, ma'am."
+
+"Then you judge wrong. Those men did not know I was with dad that
+night. They thought I was another man. You see, they had just lost
+their suit for damages against dad and some more for the loss of six
+hundred sheep in a raid last year. They couldn't prove who did it."
+She flamed into a sudden passion of resentment. "I don't defend them
+any. They are a lot of coyotes, or they wouldn't have attacked two
+men, riding alone."
+
+He ventured a rapier thrust. "How about the Squaw Creek raid? Don't
+your friends sometimes forget to fight fair, too?"
+
+He had stamped the fire out of her in an instant. She drooped visibly.
+"Yes-- yes, they do," she faltered. "I don't defend them, either. Dad
+had nothing to do with that. He doesn't shoot in the back."
+
+"I'm glad to hear it," he retorted cheerfully. "And I'm glad to hear
+that your friends the enemy didn't know it was a girl they were
+attacking. Fact is, I thought you were a boy myself when first I
+happened in and you fanned me with your welcome."
+
+"I didn't know. I hadn't time to think. So I let fly. But I was so
+excited I likely missed you a mile."
+
+He took off his felt hat and examined with interest a bullet hole
+through the rim. "If it was a mile, I'd hate to have you miss me a
+hundred yards," he commented, with a little ripple of laughter.
+
+"I didn't! Did I? As near as that?" She caught her hands together in a
+sudden anguish for what might have been.
+
+"Don't you care, ma'am. A miss is as good as a mile. It ain't the
+first time I've had my hat ventilated. I mentioned it, so you wouldn't
+get discouraged at your shooting. It's plenty good. Good enough to
+suit me. I wouldn't want it any better."
+
+"What about the man I wounded." she asked apprehensively. "Is he-- is
+it all right?"
+
+"Haven't you heard?"
+
+"Heard what?" He could see the terror in her eyes.
+
+"How it all came out?"
+
+He could not tell why he did it, any more than he could tell why he
+had attempted no denial to the sheriff of responsibility for the death
+of Faulkner, but as he looked at this girl he shifted the burden from
+her shoulders to his. "You got your man in the ankle. I had worse luck
+after you left. They buried mine."
+
+"Oh!" From her lips a little cry of pain forced itself. "It wasn't
+your fault. It was for us you did it. Oh, why did they attack us?"
+
+"I did what I had to do. There is no blame due either you or me for
+it," he said, with quiet conviction.
+
+"I know. But it seems so dreadful. And then they put you in jail-- and
+you broke out! Wasn't that it?"
+
+"That was the way of it, Miss Arlie. How did you know?"
+
+"Henry Speed's note to father said you had broken jail. Dad wasn't at
+home. You know, the round-up is on now and he has to be there. So I
+saddled, and came right away."
+
+"That was right good of you."
+
+"Wasn't it?" There was a softened, almost tender, jeer in her voice.
+"Since you only saved our lives!"
+
+"I ain't claiming all that, Miss Arlie."
+
+"Then I'll claim it for you. I suppose you gave yourself up to them
+and explained how it was after we left."
+
+"Not exactly that. I managed to slip away, through the sage. It was
+mo'ning before I found the road again. Soon as I did, a deputy tagged
+me, and said, 'You're mine.' He spoke for me so prompt and seemed so
+sure about what he was saying, I didn't argue the matter with him." He
+laughed gayly.
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then he herded me to town, and I was invited to be the county's
+guest. Not liking the accommodations, I took the first chance and flew
+the coop. They missed a knife in my pocket when they searched me, and
+I chipped the cement away from the window bars, let myself down by the
+bed linen, and borrowed a cow-pony I found saddled at the edge of
+town. So, you see, I'm a hawss thief too, ma'am."
+
+She could not take it so lightly as he did, even though she did not
+know that he had barely escaped with his life. Something about his
+debonair, smiling hardihood touched her imagination, as did also the
+virile competence of the man. If the cool eyes in his weatherbeaten
+face could be hard as agates, they could also light up with sparkling
+imps of mischief. Certainly he was no boy, but the close-cut waves of
+crisp, reddish hair and the ready smile contributed to an impression
+of youth that came and went.
+
+"Willie Speed is saddling you a horse. The one you came on has been
+turned loose to go back when it wants to. I'm going to take you home
+with me," she told him.
+
+"Well, I'm willing to be kidnapped."
+
+"I brought your horse Teddy. If you like, you may ride that, and I'll
+take the other."
+
+"Yore a gentleman, ma'am. I sure would."
+
+When Arlie saw with what pleasure the friends met, how Teddy nickered
+and rubbed his nose up and down his master's coat and how the Texan
+put him through his little repertoire of tricks and fed him a lump of
+sugar from his coat pocket, she was glad she had ridden Teddy instead
+of her own pony to the meeting.
+
+They took the road without loss of time. Arlie Dillon knew exactly how
+to cross this difficult region. She knew the Cedar Mountain district
+as a grade teacher knows her arithmetic. In daylight or in darkness,
+with or without a trail, she could have traveled almost a bee line to
+the point she wanted. Her life had been spent largely in the saddle--
+at least that part of it which had been lived outdoors. Wherefore she
+was able to lead her guest by secret trails that wound in and out
+among the passes and through unsuspected gorges to hazardous descents
+possible only to goats and cow ponies. No stranger finding his way in
+would have stood a chance of getting out again unaided.
+
+Among these peaks lay hidden pockets and caches by hundreds, rock
+fissures which made the country a very maze to the uninitiated. The
+ranger, himself one of the best trailers in Texas, doubted whether he
+could retrace his steps to the Speed place.
+
+After several hours of travel, they emerged from a gulch to a little
+valley known as Beaver Dam Park. The girl pointed out to her companion
+a narrow brown ribbon that wound through the park.
+
+"There's the road again. That's the last we shall see of it-- or it
+will be when we have crossed it. Once we reach the Twin Buttes that
+are the gateway to French Cańon you are perfectly safe. You can see
+the buttes from here. No, farther to the right."
+
+"I thought I'd ridden some tough trails in my time, but this country
+ce'tainly takes the cake," Fraser said admiringly, as his gaze swept
+the horizon. "It puts it over anything I ever met up with. Ain't that
+right, Teddy hawss?"
+
+The girl flushed with pleasure at his praise. She was mountain bred,
+and she loved the country of the great peaks.
+
+They descended the valley, crossed the road, and in an open grassy
+spot just beyond, came plump upon four men who had unsaddled to eat
+lunch.
+
+The meeting came too abruptly for Arlie to avoid it. One glance told
+her that they were deputies from Gimlet Butte. Without the least
+hesitation she rode forward and gave them the casual greeting of
+cattleland. Fraser, riding beside her, nodded coolly, drew to a halt,
+and lit a cigarette.
+
+"Found him yet, gentlemen?" he asked.
+
+"No, nor we ain't likely to, if he's reached this far," one of the men
+answered.
+
+"It would be some difficult to collect him here," the Texan admitted
+impartially.
+
+"Among his friends," one of the deputies put in, with a snarl.
+
+Fraser laughed easily. "Oh, well, we ain't his enemies, though he
+ain't very well known in the Cedar Mountain country. What might he be
+like, pardner?"
+
+"Hasn't he lived up here long?" asked one of the men, busy with some
+bacon over a fire.
+
+"They say not."
+
+"He's a heavy-set fellow, with reddish hair; not so tall as you, I
+reckon, and some heavier. Was wearing chaps and gauntlets when he made
+his getaway. From the description, he looks something like you, I
+shouldn't wonder."
+
+Fraser congratulated himself that he had had the foresight to discard
+as many as possible of these helps to identification before he was
+three miles from Gimlet Butte. Now he laughed pleasantly.
+
+"Sure he's heavier than me, and not so tall."
+
+"It would be a good joke, Bud, if they took you back to town for this
+man," cut in Arlie, troubled at the direction the conversation was
+taking, but not obviously so.
+
+"I ain't objecting any, sis. About three days of the joys of town
+would sure agree with my run-down system," the Texan answered
+joyously.
+
+"When you cowpunchers do get in, you surely make Rome howl," one of
+the deputies agreed, with a grin. "Been in to the Butte lately?"
+
+The Texan met his grin. "It ain't been so long."
+
+"Well, you ain't liable to get in again for a while," Arlie said
+emphatically. "Come on, Bud, we've got to be moving."
+
+"Which way is Dead Cow Creek?" one of the men called after them.
+
+Fraser pointed in the direction from which he had just come.
+
+After they had ridden a hundred yards, the girl laughed aloud her
+relief at their escape. "If they go the way you pointed for Dead Cow
+Creek, they will have to go clear round the world to get to it. We're
+headed for the creek now."
+
+"A fellow can't always guess right," pleaded the Texan. "If he could,
+what a fiend he would be at playing the wheel! Shall I go back and
+tell him I misremembered for a moment where the creek is?"
+
+"No, sir. You had me scared badly enough when you drew their attention
+to yourself. Why did you do it?"
+
+"It was the surest way to disarm any suspicion they might have had.
+One of them had just said the man they wanted was like me. Presently,
+one would have been guessing that it was me." He looked at her drolly,
+and added: "You played up to me fine, sis."
+
+A touch of deeper color beat into her dusky cheeks. "We'll drop the
+relationship right now, if you please. I said only what you made me
+say," she told him, a little stiffly.
+
+But presently she relaxed to the note of friendliness, even of
+comradeship, habitual to her. She was a singularly frank creature,
+having been brought up in a country where women were few and far, and
+where conventions were of the simplest. Otherwise, she would not have
+confessed to him with unconscious näiveté, as she now did, how greatly
+she had been troubled for him before she received the note from Speed.
+
+"It worried me all the time, and it troubled dad, too. I could see
+that. We had hardly left you before I knew we had done wrong. Dad did
+it for me, of course; but he felt mighty bad about it. Somehow, I
+couldn't think of anything but you there, with all those men shooting
+at you. Suppose you had waited too long before surrendering! Suppose
+you had been killed for us!" She looked at him, and felt a shiver run
+over her in the warm sunlight. "Night before last I was worn out. I
+slept some, but I kept dreaming they were killing you. Oh, you don't
+know bow glad I was to get word from Speed that you were alive." Her
+soft voice had the gift of expressing feeling, and it was resonant
+with it now.
+
+"I'm glad you were glad," he said quietly.
+
+Across Dead Cow Creek they rode, following the stream up French Cańon
+to what was known as the Narrows. Here the great rock walls, nearly
+two thousand feet high, came so close together as to leave barely room
+for a footpath beside the creek which boiled down over great bowlders.
+Unexpectedly, there opened in the wall a rock fissure, and through
+this Arlie guided her horse.
+
+The Texan wondered where she could be taking him, for the fissure
+terminated in a great rock slide some two hundred yards ahead of them.
+Before reaching this she turned sharply to the left, and began winding
+in and out among the big bowlders which had fallen from the summit far
+above.
+
+Presently Fraser observed with astonishment that they were following a
+path that crept up the very face of the bluff. Up-- up-- up they went
+until they reached a rift in the wall, and into this the trail went
+precipitously. Stones clattered down from the hoofs of the horses as
+they clambered up like mountain goats. Once the Texan had to throw
+himself to the ground to keep Teddy from falling backward.
+
+Arlie, working her pony forward with voice and body and knees, so that
+from her seat in the saddle she seemed literally to lift him up,
+reached the summit and looked back.
+
+"All right back there?" she asked quietly.
+
+"All right," came the cheerful answer. "Teddy isn't used to climbing
+up a wall, but he'll make it or know why."
+
+A minute later, man and horse were beside her.
+
+"Good for Teddy," she said, fondling his nose.
+
+"Look out! He doesn't like strangers to handle him."
+
+"We're not strangers. We're tillicums. Aren't we, Teddy?"
+
+Teddy said "Yes" after the manner of a horse, as plain as words could
+say it.
+
+From their feet the trail dropped again to another gorge, beyond which
+the ranger could make out a stretch of valley through which ran the
+gleam of a silvery thread.
+
+"We're going down now into Mantrap Gulch. The patch of green you see
+beyond is Lost Valley," she told him,
+
+"Lost Valley," he repeated, in amazement. "Are we going to Lost
+Valley?"
+
+"You've named our destination."
+
+"But-- you don't live in Lost Valley."
+
+"Don't I?"
+
+"Do you?"
+
+"Yes," she answered, amused at his consternation, if it were that.
+
+"I wish I had known," he said, as if to himself.
+
+"You know now. Isn't that soon enough? Are you afraid of the place,
+because people make a mystery of it?" she demanded impatiently.
+
+"No. It isn't that." He looked across at the valley again, and asked
+abruptly: "Is this the only way in?"
+
+"No. There is another, but this is the quickest."
+
+"Is the other as difficult as this?"
+
+"In a way, yes. It is very much more round-about. It isn't known much
+by the public. Not many outsiders have business in the valley."
+
+She volunteered no explanation in detail, and the man beside her said,
+with a grim laugh:
+
+"There isn't any general admission to the public this way, is there?"
+
+"No. Oh, folks can come if they want to."
+
+He looked full in her face, and said significantly: "I thought the way
+to Lost Valley was a sort of a secret-- one that those who know are
+not expected to tell."
+
+"Oh, that's just talk. Not many come in but our friends. We've had to
+be careful lately. But you can't call a secret what a thousand folks
+know."
+
+It was like a blow in the face to him. Not many but their friends! And
+she was taking him in confidently because he was her friend. What sort
+of a friend was he? he asked himself. He could not perform the task to
+which he was pledged without striking home at her. If he succeeded in
+ferreting out the Squaw Creek raiders he must send to the
+penitentiary, perhaps to death, her neighbors, and possibly her
+relatives. She had told him her father was not implicated, but a
+daughter's faith in her parent was not convincing proof of his
+innocence. If not her father, a brother might be involved. And she was
+innocently making it easy for him to meet on a friendly footing these
+hospitable, unsuspecting savages, who had shed human blood because of
+the unleashed passions in them!
+
+In that moment, while he looked away toward Lost Valley, he sickened
+of the task that lay before him. What would she think of him if she
+knew?
+
+Arlie, too, had been looking down the gulch toward the valley. Now her
+gaze came slowly round to him and caught the expression of his face.
+
+"What's the matter?" she cried.
+
+"Nothing. Nothing at all. An old heart pain that caught me suddenly."
+
+"I'm sorry. We'll soon be home now. We'll travel slowly."
+
+Her voice was tender with sympathy; so, too, were her eyes when he met
+them.
+
+He looked away again and groaned in his heart.
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+ THE WARNING OF MANTRAP GULCH
+
+They followed the trail down into the cańon. As the ponies slowly
+picked their footing on the steep narrow path, he asked:
+
+"Why do they call it Mantrap Gulch?"
+
+"It got its name before my time in the days when outlaws hid here. A
+hunted man came to Lost Cańon, a murderer wanted by the law for more
+crimes than one. He was well treated by the settlers. They gave him
+shelter and work. He was safe, and he knew it. But he tried to make
+his peace with the law outside by breaking the law of the valley. He
+knew that two men were lying hid in a pocket gulch, opening from the
+valley-- men who were wanted for train robbery. He wrote to the
+company offering to betray these men if they would pay him the reward
+and see that he was not punished for his crimes.
+
+"It seems he was suspected. His letter was opened, and the exits from
+the valley were both guarded. Knowing he was discovered, he tried to
+slip out by the river way. He failed, sneaked through the settlement
+at night, and slipped into the cańon here. At this end of it he found
+armed men on guard. He ran back and found the entrance closed. He was
+in a trap. He tried to climb one of the walls. Do you see that point
+where the rock juts out?"
+
+"About five hundred feet up? Yes."
+
+"He managed to climb that high. Nobody ever knows how he did it, but
+when morning broke there he was, like a fly on a wall. His hunters
+came and saw him. I suppose he could hear them laughing as their
+voices came echoing up to him. They shot above him, below him, on
+either side of him. He knew they were playing with him, and that they
+would finish him when they got ready. He must have been half crazy
+with fear. Anyhow, he lost his hold and fell. He was dead before they
+reached him. From that day this has been called Mantrap Gulch."
+
+The ranger looked up at the frowning walls which shut out the
+sunlight. His imagination pictured the drama-- the hunted man's wild
+flight up the gulch; his dreadful discovery that it was closed; his
+desperate attempt to climb by moonlight the impossible cliff, and the
+tragedy that overtook him.
+
+The girl spoke again softly, almost as if she were in the presence of
+that far-off Nemesis. "I suppose he deserved,it. It's an awful thing
+to be a traitor; to sell the people who have befriended you. We can't
+put ourselves in his place and know why he did it. All we can say is
+that we're glad-- glad that we have never known men who do such
+things. Do you think people always felt a sort of shrinking when they
+were near him, or did he seem just like other men?"
+
+Glancing at the man who rode beside her, she cried out at the stricken
+look on his face. "It's your heart again. You're worn out with anxiety
+and privations. I should have remembered and come slower," she
+reproached herself.
+
+"I'm all right-- now. It passes in a moment," he said hoarsely.
+
+But she had already slipped from the saddle and was at his bridle
+rein. "No-- no. You must get down. We have plenty of time. We'll rest
+here till you are better."
+
+There was nothing for it but to obey. He dismounted, feeling himself a
+humbug and a scoundrel. He sat down on a mossy rock, his back against
+another, while she trailed the reins and joined him.
+
+"You are better now, aren't you?" she asked, as she seated herself on
+an adjacent bowlder.
+
+Gruffly he answered: "I'm all right."
+
+She thought she understood. Men do not like to be coddled. She began
+to talk cheerfully of the first thing that came into her head. He made
+the necessary monosyllabic responses when her speech put it up to him,
+but she saw that his mind was brooding over something else. Once she
+saw his gaze go up to the point on the cliff reached by the fugitive.
+
+But it was not until they were again in the saddle that he spoke.
+
+"Yes, he got what was coming to him. He had no right to complain."
+
+"That's what my father says. I don't deny the justice of it, but
+whenever I think of it, I feel sorry for him."
+
+"Why?"
+
+Despite the quietness of the monosyllable, she divined an eager
+interest back of his question.
+
+"He must have suffered so. He wasn't a brave man, they say. And he was
+one against many. They didn't hunt him. They just closed the trap and
+let him wear himself out trying to get through. Think of that awful
+week of hunger and exposure in the hills before the end!"
+
+"It must have been pretty bad, especially if he wasn't a game man. But
+he had no legitimate kick coming. He took his chance and lost. It was
+up to him to pay."
+
+"His name was David Burke. When he was a little boy I suppose his
+mother used to call him Davy. He wasn't bad then; just a little boy to
+be cuddled and petted. Perhaps he was married. Perhaps he had a
+sweetheart waiting for him outside, and praying for him. And they
+snuffed his life out as if he had been a rattlesnake."
+
+"Because he was a miscreant and it was best he shouldn't live. Yes,
+they did right. I would have helped do it in their place."
+
+"My father did," she sighed.
+
+They did not speak again until they had passed from between the chill
+walls to the warm sunshine of the valley beyond. Among the rocks above
+the trail, she glimpsed some early anemones blossoming bravely.
+
+She drew up with a little cry of pleasure. "They're the first I have
+seen. I must have them."
+
+Fraser swung from the saddle, but he was not quick enough. She reached
+them before he did, and after they had gathered them she insisted upon
+sitting down again.
+
+He had his suspicions, and voiced them. "I believe you got me off just
+to make me sit down."
+
+She laughed with deep delight. "I didn't, but since we are here we
+shall." And she ended debate by sitting down tailor-fashion, and
+beginning to arrange her little bouquet.
+
+A meadow lark, troubadour of spring, trilled joyously somewhere in the
+pines above. The man looked up, then down at the vivid creature busy
+with her flowers at his feet. There was kinship between the two. She,
+too, was athrob with the joy note of spring.
+
+"You're to sit down," she ordered, without looking up from the sheaf
+of anemone blossoms she was arranging.
+
+He sank down beside her, aware vaguely of something new and poignant
+in his life.
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+ JED BRISCOE TAKES A HAND
+
+Suddenly a footfall, and a voice:
+
+"Hello, Arlie! I been looking for you everywhere."
+
+The Texan's gaze took in a slim dark man, goodlooking after a fashion,
+but with dissipation written on the rather sullen face.
+
+"Well, you've found me," the girl answered coolly.
+
+"Yes, I've found you," the man answered, with a steady, watchful eye
+on the Texan.
+
+Miss Dillon was embarrassed at this plain hostility, but indignation
+too sparkled in her eye. "Anything in particular you want?"
+
+The newcomer ignored her question. His hard gaze challenged the
+Southerner; did more than challenge-- weighed and condemned.
+
+But this young woman was not used to being ignored. Her voice took on
+an edge of sharpness.
+
+"What can I do for you, Jed?"
+
+"Who's your friend?" the man demanded bluntly, insolently.
+
+Arlie's flush showed the swift, upblazing resentment she immediately
+controlled. "Mr. Fraser-- just arrived from Texas. Mr. Fraser, let me
+introduce to you Mr. Briscoe."
+
+The Texan stepped forward to offer his hand, but Briscoe deliberately
+put both of his behind him.
+
+"Might I ask what Mr. Fraser, just arrived from Texas, is doing here?"
+the young man drawled, contriving to make an insult of every syllable.
+
+The girl's eyes flashed dangerously. "He is here as my guest."
+
+"Oh, as your guest!"
+
+"Doesn't it please you, Jed?"
+
+"Have I said it didn't please me?" he retorted smoothly.
+
+"Your looks say it."
+
+He let out a sudden furious oath. "Then my looks don't lie any."
+
+Fraser was stepping forward, but with a gesture Arlie held him back.
+This was her battle, not his.
+
+"What have you got to say about it?" she demanded.
+
+"You had no right to bring him here. Who is he anyhow?"
+
+"I think that is his business, and mine."
+
+"I make it mine," he declared hotly. "I've heard about this fellow
+from your father. You met up with him on the trail. He says his name
+is Fraser. You don't even know whether that is true. He may be a spy.
+How do you know he ain't?"
+
+"How do I know you aren't?" she countered swiftly.
+
+"You've known me all my life. Did you ever see him before?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Well, then!"
+
+"He risked his life to save ours."
+
+"Risked nothing! It was a trick, I tell you."
+
+"It makes no difference to me what you tell me. Your opinion can't
+affect mine."
+
+"You know the feeling of the valley just now about strangers," said
+Briscoe sullenly.
+
+"It depends on who the stranger is."
+
+"Well, I object to this one."
+
+"So it seems; but I don't know any law that makes me do whatever you
+want me to." Her voice, low and clear, cut like a whiplash.
+
+Beneath the dust of travel the young man's face burned with anger.
+"We're not discussing that just now. What I say is that you had no
+right to bring him here-- not now, especially. You know why," he
+added, almost in a whisper.
+
+"If you had waited and not attempted to brow-beat me, I would have
+shown you that that is the very reason I had to bring him."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"Never mind what I mean. You have insulted my friend, and through him,
+me. That is enough for one day." She turned from him haughtily and
+spoke to the Texan. "If you are ready, Mr. Fraser, we'll be going
+now."
+
+The ranger, whose fingers had been itching to get at the throat of
+this insolent young man, turned without a word and obediently brought
+the girl's pony, then helped her to mount. Briscoe glared, in a silent
+tempest of passion.
+
+"I think I have left a glove and my anemones where we were sitting,"
+the girl said sweetly to the Texan.
+
+Fraser found them, tightened the saddle girth, and mounted Teddy. As
+they cantered away, Arlie called to him to look at the sunset behind
+the mountains.
+
+From the moment of her dismissal of Briscoe the girl had apparently
+put him out of her thoughts. No fine lady of the courts could have
+done it with more disdainful ease. And the Texan, following her lead,
+played his part in the little comedy, ignoring the other man as
+completely as she did.
+
+The young cattleman, furious, his teeth set in impotent rage, watched
+it all with the lust to kill in his heart. When they had gone, he
+flung himself into the saddle and rode away in a tumultuous fury.
+
+Before they had covered two hundred yards Arlie turned to her
+companion, all contrition. "There! I've done it again. My fits of
+passion are always getting me into trouble. This time one of them has
+given you an enemy, and a bad one, too."
+
+"No. He would have been my enemy no rnatter what you said. Soon as he
+put his eyes on me, I knew it."
+
+"Because I brought you here, you mean?"
+
+"I don't mean only that. Some folks are born to be enemies, just as
+some are born to be friends. They've only got to look in each other's
+eyes once to know it."
+
+"That's strange. I never heard anybody else say that. Do you really
+mean it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And did you ever have such an enemy before? Don't answer me if I
+oughtn't to ask that," she added quickly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In Texas. Why, here we are at a ranch!"
+
+"Yes. It's ours, and yours as long as you want to stay. Did you feel
+that you were enemies the moment you saw this man in Texas?"
+
+"I knew we were going to have trouble as soon as we looked at each
+other. I had no feeling toward him, but he had toward me."
+
+"And did you have trouble?"
+
+"Some, before I landed him. The way it turned out he had most of it."
+
+She glanced quickly at him. "What do you mean by 'landed'?"
+
+"I am an officer in the Texas Rangers."
+
+"What are they? Something like our forest rangers?"
+
+"No. The duty of a Texas Ranger is to enforce the law against
+desperadoes. We prevent crime if we can. When we can't do that, we
+hunt down the criminals."
+
+Arlie looked at him in a startled silence.
+
+"You are an officer of the law-- a sort of sheriff?" she said, at
+last.
+
+"Yes, in Texas. This is Wyoming." He made his distinction, knowing it
+was a false one. Somehow he had the feeling of a whipped cur.
+
+"I wish I had known. If you had only told me earlier," she said, so
+low as to be almost a whisper.
+
+"I'm sorry. If you like, I'll go away again," he offered.
+
+"No, no. I'm only thinking that it gives Jed a hold, gives him
+something to stir up his friends with, you know. That is, it would if
+he knew. He mustn't find out."
+
+"Be frank. Don't make any secret of it. That's the best way," he
+advised.
+
+She shook her head. "You don't know Jed's crowd. They'd be suspicious
+of any officer, no matter where he came from."
+
+"Far as I can make out, that young man is going to be loaded with
+suspicions of me anyhow," he laughed.
+
+"It isn't anything to laugh at. You don't know him," she told him
+gravely.
+
+"And can't say I'm suffering to," he drawled.
+
+She looked at him a little impatiently, as if he were a child playing
+with gunpowder and unaware of its potentialities.
+
+"Can't you understand? You're not in Texas with your friends all
+around you. This is Lost Valley-- and Lost Valley isn't on the map.
+Men make their own law here. That is, some of them do. I wouldn't give
+a snap of my fingers for your life if the impression spread that you
+are a spy. It doesn't matter that I know you're not. Others must feel
+it, too."
+
+"I see. And Mr. Briscoe will be a molder of public opinion?"
+
+"So far as he can he will. We must forestall him."
+
+"Beat him to it, and give me a clean bill of moral health, eh?"
+
+She frowned. "This is serious business, my friend."
+
+"I'm taking it that way," he said smilingly.
+
+"I shouldn't have guessed it."
+
+Yet for all his debonair ease the man had an air of quiet competence.
+His strong, bronzed face and neck, the set of his shoulders, the light
+poise of him in the saddle, the steady confidence of the gray eyes,
+all told her as much. She was aware of a curiosity about what was
+hidden behind that stone-wall face of his.
+
+"You didn't finish telling me about that enemy in Texas," she
+suggested suddenly.
+
+"Oh, there ain't much to tell. He broke out from the pen, where I had
+put him when I was a kid. He was a desperado wanted by the
+authorities, so I arrested him again."
+
+"Sounds easy."
+
+"He made some trouble, shot up two or three men first." Fraser lifted
+his hand absently.
+
+"Is that scar on your hand where he shot you?" Arlie asked.
+
+He looked up in quick surprise. "Now, how did you know that?"
+
+"You were talking of the trouble he made and you looked at your hand,"
+she explained. "Where is he now? In the penitentiary?"
+
+"No. He broke away before I got him there."
+
+She had another flash of inspiration. "And you came to Wyoming to get
+him again."
+
+"Good gracious, ma'am, but you're ce'tainly a wizard! That's why I
+came, though it's a secret."
+
+"What is he wanted for?"
+
+"Robbing a train, three murders and a few other things."
+
+As she swung from her pony in front of the old-fashioned Southern log
+house, Artie laughed at him over her shoulder.
+
+"You're a fine officer! Tell all you know to the first girl you meet!"
+
+"Well, you see, the girl happened to be-- you!"
+
+After the manner of the old-fashioned Southern house a wide "gallery"
+bisected it from porch to rear. Saddles hung from pegs in the gallery.
+Horse blankets and bridles, spurs and saddlebags, lay here and there
+in disarray. A disjointed rifle which some one had started to clean
+was on the porch. Swiftly Arlie stripped saddle, bridle, and blanket
+from her pony and flung them down as a contribution to the general
+disorder, and at her suggestion Fraser did the same. A half-grown lad
+came running to herd the horses into a corral close at hand.
+
+"I want you when you've finished feeding, Bobbie," Arlie told the lad.
+Then briefly to her guest: "This way, please."
+
+She led him into a large, cheerful living room, into which, through
+big casement windows, the light streamed. It was a pleasant room,
+despite its barbaric touch. There was a grizzly bear skin before the
+great open, stone fireplace, and Navajo rugs covered the floor and
+hung on the walls. The skin of a silver-tip bear was stretched beneath
+a writing desk, a trophy of Arlie's rifle, which hung in a rack above.
+Civilization had furnished its quota to the room in a piano, some
+books, and a few photographs.
+
+The Texan observed that order reigned here, even though it did not
+interfere with the large effect of comfort.
+
+The girl left him, to return presently with her aunt, to whom she
+introduced him. Miss Ruth Dillon was a little, bright-eyed old lady,
+whose hair was still black, and her step light. Evidently she had her
+instructions, for she greeted their guest with charming cordiality,
+and thanked him for the service he had rendered her brother and her
+niece.
+
+Presently the boy Bobbie arrived for further orders. Arlie went to her
+desk and wrote hurriedly.
+
+"You're to give this note to my father," she directed. "Be sure he
+gets it himself. You ought to find him down in Jackson's Pocket, if
+the drive is from Round Top to-day. But you can ask about that along
+the road."
+
+When the boy had gone, Arlie turned to Fraser.
+
+"I want to tell father you're here before Jed gets to him with his
+story," she explained. "I've asked him to ride down right away. He'll
+probably come in a few hours and spend the night here."
+
+After they had eaten supper they returned to the living room, where a
+great fire, built by Jim the negro horse wrangler, was roaring up the
+chimney.
+
+It was almost eleven o'clock when horses galloped up and Dillon came
+into the house, followed by Jed Briscoe. The latter looked triumphant,
+the former embarrassed as he disgorged letters and newspapers from his
+pocket.
+
+"I stopped at the office to get the mail as I came down. Here's yore
+paper, Ruth."
+
+Miss Dillon pounced eagerly upon the Gimlet Butte Avalanche, and
+disappeared with it to her bedroom. She had formerly lived in Gimlet
+Butte, and was still keenly interested in the gossip of the town.
+
+Briscoe had scored one against Arlie by meeting her father, telling
+his side of the story, and returning with him to the house.
+Nevertheless Arlie, after giving him the slightest nod her duty as
+hostess would permit, made her frontal attack without hesitation.
+
+"You'll be glad to know, dad, that Mr. Fraser is our guest. He has had
+rather a stormy time since we saw him last, and he has consented to
+stay with us a few days till things blow over."
+
+Dillon, very ill at ease, shook hands with the Texan, and was
+understood to say that he was glad to see him.
+
+"Then you don't look it, dad," Arlie told him, with a gleam of vexed
+laughter.
+
+Her father turned reproachfully upon her. "Now, honey, yo' done wrong
+to say that. Yo' know Mr. Fraser is welcome to stay in my house long
+as he wants. I'm proud to have him stay. Do you think I forgot already
+what he done for us?"
+
+"Of course not. Then it's all settled," Arlie cut in, and rushed on to
+another subject. "How's the round-up coming, dad?"
+
+"We'll talk about the round-up later. What I'm saying is that Mr,
+Fraser has only got to say the word, and I'm there to he'p him till
+the cows come home."
+
+"That's just what I told him, dad."
+
+"Hold yore hawsses, will yo', honey? But, notwithstanding which, and
+not backing water on that proposition none, we come to another p'int."
+
+"Which Jed made to you carefully on the way down," his daughter
+interrupted scornfully.
+
+"It don't matter who made it. The p'int is that there are reasons why
+strangers ain't exactly welcome in this valley right now, Mr. Fraser.
+This country is full o' suspicion. Whilst it's onjust, charges are
+being made against us on the outside. Right now the settlers here have
+got to guard against furriners. Now I know yo're all right, Mr.
+Fraser. But my neighbors don't know it."
+
+"It was our lives he saved, not our neighbors'," scoffed Arlie.
+
+"K'rect. So I say, Mr. Fraser, if yo' are out o' funds, I'll finance
+you. Wherever you want to go I'll see you git there, but I hain't got
+the right to invite you to stay in Lost Valley."
+
+"Better send him to Gimlet Butte, dad! He killed a man in helping us
+to escape, and he 's wanted bad! He broke jail to get here! Pay his
+expenses back to the Butte! Then if there's a reward, you and Jed can
+divide it!" his daughter jeered.
+
+"What's that? Killed a man, yo' say?"
+
+"Yes. To save us. Shall we send him back under a rifle guard? Or shall
+we have Sheriff Brandt come and get him?"
+
+"Gracious goodness, gyurl, shet up whilst I think. Killed a man, eh?
+This valley has always been open to fugitives. Ain't that right, Jed?"
+
+"To fugitives, yes," said Jed significantly. "But that fact ain't
+proved."
+
+"Jed's getting right important. We'll soon be asking him whether we
+can stay here," said Arlie, with a scornful laugh. "And I say it is
+proved. We met the deputies the yon side of the big cańon."
+
+Briscoe looked at her out of dogged, half-shuttered eyes. He said
+nothing, but he looked the picture of malice.
+
+Dillon rasped his stubbly chin and looked at the Texan. Far from an
+alert-minded man, he came to conclusions slowly. Now he arrived at
+one.
+
+"Dad burn it, we'll take the 'fugitive' for granted. Yo' kin lie up
+here long as yo' like, friend. I'll guarantee yo' to my neighbors. I
+reckon if they don't like it they kin lump it. I ain't a-going to give
+up the man that saved my gyurl's life."
+
+The door opened and let in Miss Ruth Dillon. The little old lady had
+the newspaper in her hand, and her beady eyes were shining with
+excitement.
+
+"It's all in here, Mr. Fraser-- about your capture and escape. But you
+didn't tell us all of it. Perhaps you didn't know, though, that they
+had plans to storm the jail and hang you?"
+
+"Yes, I knew that," the Texan answered coolly. "The jailer told me
+what was coming to me. I decided not to wait and see whether he was
+lying. I wrenched a bar from the window, lowered myself by my bedding,
+flew the coop, and borrowed a horse. That's the whole story, ma'am,
+except that Miss Arlie brought me here to hide me."
+
+"Read aloud what the paper says," Dillon ordered.
+
+His sister handed the Avalanche to her niece. Arlie found the article
+and began to read:
+
+"A dastardly outrage occurred three miles from Gimlet Butte last
+night. While on their way home from the trial of the well-known Three
+Pines sheep raid case, a small party of citizens were attacked by
+miscreants presumed to be from the Cedar Mountain country. How many of
+these there were we have no means of knowing, as the culprits
+disappeared in the mountains after murdering William Faulkner, a
+well-known sheep man, and wounding Tom Long."
+
+There followed a lurid account of the battle, written from the point
+of view of the other side. After which the editor paid his respects to
+Fraser, though not by name.
+
+"One of the ruffians, for some unknown reason-- perhaps in the hope of
+getting a chance to slay another victim-- remained too long near the
+scene of the atrocity and was apprehended early this morning by that
+fearless deputy, James Schilling. He refused to give his name or any
+other information about himself. While the man is a stranger to Gimlet
+Butte, there can be no doubt that he is one of the Lost Valley
+desperadoes implicated in the Squaw Creek raid some months ago. Since
+the bullet that killed Faulkner was probably fired from the rifle
+carried by this man, it is safe to assume that the actual murderer was
+apprehended. The man is above medium height, well built and muscular,
+and carries all the earmarks of a desperate character."
+
+Arlie glanced up from her reading to smile at Fraser. "Dad and I are
+miscreants, and you are a ruffian and a desperate character," she told
+him gayly.
+
+"Go on, honey," her father urged.
+
+The account told how the prisoner had been confined in the jail, and
+how the citizens, wrought up by the continued lawlessness of the Lost
+Valley district, had quietly gathered to make an example of the
+captured man. While condemning lynching in general, the Avalanche
+wanted to go on record as saying that if ever it was justifiable this
+was the occasion. Unfortunately, the prisoner, giving thus further
+evidence of his desperate nature, had cut his way out of prison with a
+pocketknife and escaped from town by means of a horse he found saddled
+and did not hesitate to steal. At the time of going to press he had
+not yet been recaptured, though Sheriff Brandt had several posses on
+his trail. The outlaw had cut the telephone wires, but it was
+confidently believed he would be captured before he reached his
+friends in the mountains.
+
+Arlie's eyes were shining. She looked at Briscoe and handed him the
+paper triumphantly. This was her vindication for bringing the hunted
+man to Lost Valley. He had been fighting their battles and had almost
+lost his life in doing it. Jed might say what he liked while she had
+this to refute him.
+
+"I guess that editor doesn't believe so confidently as he pretends,"
+she said. "Anyhow, he has guessed wrong. Mr. Fraser has reached his
+friends, and they'll look out for him."
+
+Her father came to her support radiantly. "You bet yore boots they
+will, honey. Shake hands on it, Mr. Fraser. I reckon yore satisfied
+too, Jed. Eh, boy?"
+
+Briscoe viewed the scene with cynical malice. "Quite a hero, ain't he?
+If you want to know, I stand pat. Mr. Fraser from Texas don't draw the
+wool over my eyes none. Right now I serve notice to that effect.
+Meantime, since I don't aim to join the happy circle of his admirers,
+I reckon I'll duck."
+
+He nodded impudently at Arlie, turned on his heel, and went trailing
+off with jingling spur. They heard him cursing at his horse as he
+mounted. The cruel swish of a quirt came to them, after which the
+swift pounding of a horse's hoofs. The cow pony had found its gallop
+in a stride.
+
+The Texan laughed lightly. "Exit Mr. Briscoe, some disappointed," he
+murmured.
+
+He noticed that none of the others shared his mirth.
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+ A SURE ENOUGH WOLF
+
+Briscoe did not return at once to the scene of the round-up. He
+followed the trail toward Jackson's Pocket, but diverged after he had
+gone a few miles and turned into one of the hundred blind gulches that
+ran out from the valley to the impassable mountain wall behind. It was
+known as Jack Rabbit Run, because its labyrinthine trails offered a
+retreat into which hunted men might always dive for safety. Nobody
+knew its recesses better than Jed Briscoe, who was acknowledged to be
+the leader of that faction in the valley which had brought it the bad
+name it held.
+
+Long before Jed's time there had been such a faction, then the
+dominant one of the place, now steadily losing ground as civilization
+seeped in, but still strong because bound by ties of kindred and of
+interest to the honest law-abiding majority. Of it were the outlaws
+who came periodically to find shelter here, the hasty men who had
+struck in heat and found it necessary to get beyond the law's reach
+for a time, and reckless cowpunchers, who foregathered with these,
+because they were birds of a feather. To all such, Jack Rabbit Run was
+a haven of rest.
+
+By devious paths the cattleman guided his horse until he came to a
+kind of pouch, guarded by a thick growth of aspens. The front of these
+he skirted, plunged into them at the farther edge, and followed a
+narrow trail which wound among them till the grove opened upon a
+saucer-shaped valley in which nestled a little log cabin. Lights
+gleamed from the windows hospitably and suggested the comfortable
+warmth of a log fire and good-fellowship. So many a hunted man had
+thought as he emerged from that grove to look down upon the valley
+nestling at his feet.
+
+Jed turned his horse into a corral back of the house, let out the hoot
+of an owl as he fed and watered, and returning to the cabin, gave the
+four knocks that were the signal for admission.
+
+Bolts were promptly withdrawn and the door thrown open by a slender,
+fair-haired fellow, whose features looked as if they had been roughed
+out and not finished. He grinned amiably at the newcomer and greeted
+him with: "Hello, Jed."
+
+"Hello, Tommie," returned Briscoe, carelessly, and let his glance pass
+to the three men seated at the table with cards and poker chips in
+front of them, The man facing Briscoe was a big, heavy-set,
+unmistakable ruffian with long, drooping, red mustache, and
+villainous, fishy eyes. It was observable that the trigger finger of
+his right hand was missing. Also, there was a nasty scar on his right
+cheek running from the bridge of the nose halfway to the ear. This
+gave surplusage to the sinister appearance he already had. To him
+Briscoe spoke first, attempting a geniality he did not feel.
+
+"How're they coming, Texas?"
+
+"You ain't heard me kicking any, have you?" the man made sullen
+answer.
+
+"Not out loud," said Briscoe significantly, his eyes narrowing after a
+trick they had when he was most on his guard.
+
+"I reckon my remarks will be plumb audible when I've got any kick to
+register, seh."
+
+"I hope not, Mr. Johnson. In this neck of woods a man is liable to get
+himself disliked if he shoots off his mouth too prevalent. Folks that
+don't like our ways can usually find a door open out of Lost Valley--
+-if they don't wait too long!"
+
+"I'm some haidstrong. I reckon I'll stay." He scowled at Jed with
+disfavor, meeting him eye to eye. But presently the rigor of his gaze
+relaxed. Me remembered that he was a fugitive from justice, and at the
+mercy of this man who had so far guessed his secret. Putting a
+temporary curb on his bilious jealousy, he sulkily added: "Leastways,
+if there's no objection, Mr. Briscoe. I ain't looking for trouble with
+anybody."
+
+"A man who's looking for it usually finds it, Mr. Johnson. A man that
+ain't, lives longer and more peaceable." At this point Jed pulled
+himself together and bottled his arrogance, remembering that he had
+come to make an alliance with this man. "But that's no way for friends
+to talk. I got a piece of news for you. We'll talk it over in the
+other room and not disturb these gentlemen."
+
+One of the "gentlemen" grinned. He was a round-bodied, bullet-headed
+cowpuncher, with a face like burnt leather. He was in chaps, flannel
+shirt, and broad-brimmed hat. From a pocket in his chaps a revolver
+protruded. "That's right, Jed. Wrap it up proper. You'd hate to
+disturb us, wouldn't you?"
+
+"I'll not interrupt you from losing your money more than five minutes,
+Yorky," answered Briscoe promptly.
+
+The third man at the table laughed suddenly. "Ay bane laik to know how
+yuh feel now, Yorky?" he taunted.
+
+"It ain't you that's taking my spondulix in, you big, overgrown
+Swede!" returned Yorky amiably. "It's the gent from Texas. How can a
+fellow buck against luck that fills from a pair to a full house on the
+draw?"
+
+The blond giant, Siegfried-- who was not a Swede, but a Norwegian--
+announced that he was seventeen dollars in the game himself.
+
+Tommie, already broke, and an onlooker, reported sadly.
+
+"Sixty-one for me, durn it!"
+
+Jed picked up a lamp, led the way to the other room, and closed the
+door behind them.
+
+"I thought it might interest you to know that there's a new arrival in
+the valley, Mr. Struve," he said smoothly.
+
+"Who says my name's Struve?" demanded the man who called himself
+Johnson, with fierce suspicion.
+
+Briscoe laughed softly. "I say it-- Wolf Struve. Up till last month
+your address for two years has been number nine thousand four hundred
+and thirty-two, care of Penitentiary Warden, Yuma, Arizona."
+
+"Prove it. Prove it," blustered the accused man.
+
+"Sure." From his inside coat pocket Jed took out a printed notice
+offering a reward for the capture of Nick Struve, alias "Wolf" Struve,
+convict, who had broken prison on the night of February seventh, and
+escaped, after murdering one of the guards. A description and a
+photograph of the man wanted was appended.
+
+"Looks some like you. Don't it, Mr.-- shall I say Johnson or Struve?"
+
+"Say Johnson!" roared the Texan. "That ain't me. I'm no jailbird."
+
+"Glad to know it." Briscoe laughed in suave triumph. "I thought you
+might be. This description sounds some familiar. I'll not read it all.
+But listen: 'Scar on right cheek, running from bridge of nose toward
+ear. Trigger finger missing; shot away when last arrested. Weight,
+about one hundred and ninety.' By the way, just out of curiosity, how
+heavy are you, Mr. Johnson? 'Height, five feet nine inches.
+Protuberant, fishy eyes. Long, drooping, reddish mustache.' I'd shave
+that mustache if I were you, Mr.-- er-- Johnson. Some one might
+mistake you for Nick Struve."
+
+The man who called himself Johnson recognized denial as futile. He
+flung up the sponge with a blasphemous oath. "What do you want? What's
+your game? Do you want to sell me for the reward? By thunder, you'd
+better not!"
+
+Briscoe gave way to one of the swift bursts of passion to which he was
+subject. "Don't threaten me, you prison scum! Don't come here and try
+to dictate what I'm to do, and what I'm not to do. I'll sell you if I
+want to. I'll send you back to be hanged like a dog. Say the word, and
+I'll have you dragged out of here inside of forty-eight hours."
+
+Struve reached for his gun, but the other, wary as a panther, had him
+covered while the convict's revolver was still in his pocket.
+
+"Reach for the roof! Quick-- or I'll drill a hole in you! That's the
+idea. I reckon I'll collect your hardware while I'm at it. That's a
+heap better."
+
+Struve glared at him, speechless.
+
+"You're too slow on the draw for this part of the country, my friend,"
+jeered Briscoe. "Or perhaps, while you were at Yuma, you got out of
+practice. It's like stealing candy from a kid to beat you to it. Don't
+ever try to draw a gun again in Lost Valley while you're asleep. You
+might never waken."
+
+Jed was in high good humor with himself. His victim looked silent
+murder at him.
+
+"One more thing, while you're in a teachable frame of mind," continued
+Briscoe. "I run Lost Valley. What I say, goes here. Get that soaked
+into your think-tank, my friend. Ever since you came, you've been
+disputing that in your mind. You've been stirring up the boys against
+me. Think I haven't noticed it? Guess again, Mr. Struve. You'd like to
+be boss yourself, wouldn't you? Forget it. Down in Texas you may be a
+bad, bad man, a sure enough wolf, but in Wyoming you only stack up to
+coyote size. Let this slip your mind, and I'll be running Lost Valley
+after your bones are picked white by the buzzards."
+
+"I ain't a-goin' to make you any trouble. Didn't I tell you that
+before?" growled Struve reluctantly.
+
+"See you don't, then. Now I'll come again to my news. I was telling
+you that there's another stranger in this valley, Mr. Struve. Hails
+from Texas, too. Name of Fraser. Ever hear of him?"
+
+Briscoe was hardly prepared for the change which came over the Texan
+at mention of that name. The prominent eyes stared, and a deep,
+apoplectic flush ran over the scarred face. The hand that caught at
+the wall trembled with excitement.
+
+"You mean Steve Fraser-- Fraser of the Rangers!" he gasped.
+
+"That's what I'm not sure of. I got to milling it over after I left
+him, and it come to me I'd seen him or his picture before. You still
+got that magazine with the article about him?"
+
+"Yes,"
+
+"I looked it over hurriedly. Let me see his picture again, and I'll
+tell you if it's the same man."
+
+"It's in the other room."
+
+"Get it."
+
+Struve presently returned with the magazine, and, opening it, pointed
+to a photograph of a young officer in uniform, with the caption
+underneath:
+
+            LIEUTENANT STEPHEN FRASER OF THE TEXAS RANGERS
+Who, single-handed, ran down and brought to justice the worst gang of
+                    outlaws known in recent years.
+
+"It's the same man," Briscoe announced.
+
+The escaped convict's mouth set in a cruel line.
+
+"One of us, either him or me, never leaves this valley alive," he
+announced.
+
+Jed laughed softly and handed back the revolver. "That's the way to
+talk. My friend, if you mean that, you'll need your gun. Here's hoping
+you beat him to it."
+
+"It won't be an even break this time if I can help it."
+
+"I gather that it was, last time."
+
+"Yep. We drew together." Struve interlarded his explanation with
+oaths. "He's a devil with a gun. See that?" He held up his right band.
+
+"I see you're shy your most useful finger, if that's what you mean."
+
+"Fraser took it off clean at twenty yards. I got him in the hand, too,
+but right or left he's a dead shot. He might 'a' killed me if he
+hadn't wanted to take me alive. Before I'm through with him he'll wish
+he had."
+
+"Well, you don't want to make any mistake next time. Get him right."
+
+"I sure will." Hitherto Struve had been absorbed in his own turbid
+emotions, but he came back from them now with a new-born suspicion in
+his eyes. "Where do you come in, Mr. Briscoe? Why are you so plumb
+anxious I should load him up with lead? If it's a showdown, I'd some
+like to see your cards too."
+
+Jed shrugged. "My reasons ain't urgent like yours. I don't favor spies
+poking their noses in here. That's all there's to it."
+
+Jed had worked out a plot as he rode through the night from the Dillon
+ranch-- one so safe and certain that it pointed to sure success. Jed
+was no coward, but he had a spider-like cunning that wove others as
+dupes into the web of his plans.
+
+The only weakness in his position lay in himself, in that sudden
+boiling up of passion in him that was likely to tear through his own
+web and destroy it. Three months ago he had given way to one of these
+outbursts, and he knew that any one of four or five men could put a
+noose around his neck. That was another reason why such a man as this
+Texas ranger must not be allowed to meet and mix with them.
+
+It was his cue to know as much as he could of every man that came into
+the valley. Wherefore he had run down the record of Struve from the
+reward placard which a detective agency furnished him of hundreds of
+criminals who were wanted. What could be more simple than to stir up
+the convict, in order to save himself, to destroy the ranger who had
+run him down before? There would be a demand so insistent for the
+punishment of the murderer that it could not be ignored. He would find
+some pretext to lure Struve from the valley for a day or two, and
+would arrange it so that he would be arrested while he was away. Thus
+he would be rid of both these troublesome intruders without making a
+move that could be seen.
+
+It was all as simple as A B C. Already Struve had walked into the
+trap. As Jed sat down to take a hand in the poker game that was in
+progress, he chuckled quietly to himself. He was quite sure that he
+was already practically master of the situation.
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+
+ THE ROUND-UP
+
+"Would you like to take in the round-up to-day?"
+
+Arlie flung the question at Fraser with a frank directness of
+sloe-black eyes that had never known coquetry. She was washing
+handkerchiefs, and her sleeves were rolled to the elbows of the
+slender, but muscular, coffee-brown arms.
+
+"I would."
+
+"If you like you may ride out with me to Willow Spring. I have some
+letters to take to dad."
+
+"Suits me down to the ground, ma'am."
+
+It was a morning beautiful even for Wyoming. The spring called
+potently to the youth in them. The fine untempered air was like wine,
+and out of a blue sky the sun beat pleasantly down through a
+crystal-clear atmosphere known only to the region of the Rockies.
+Nature was preaching a wordless sermon on the duty of happiness to two
+buoyant hearts that scarce needed it.
+
+Long before they reached the scene of the round-up they could hear the
+almost continual bawl of worried cattle, and could even see the cloud
+of dust they stirred. They passed the remuda, in charge of two lads
+lounging sleepily in their saddles with only an occasional glance at
+the bunch of grazing horses they were watching. Presently they looked
+down from a high ridge at the busy scene below.
+
+Out of Lost Valley ran a hundred rough and wooded gulches to the
+impassable cliff wall which bounded it. Into one of these they now
+descended slowly, letting their ponies pick a way among the loose
+stones and shale which covered the steep hillside.
+
+What their eyes fell upon was cattle-land at its busiest. Several
+hundred wild hill cattle were gathered in the green draw, and around
+them was a cordon of riders holding the gather steady. Now and again
+one of the cows would make a dash to escape, and instantly the nearest
+rider would wheel, as on a batter's plate, give chase, and herd the
+animal back after a more or less lengthy pursuit.
+
+Several of the riders were cutting out from the main herd cows with
+unmarked calves, which last were immediately roped and thrown. Usually
+it took only an instant to determine with whose cow the calf had been,
+and a few seconds to drive home the correct brand upon the sizzling
+flank. Occasionally the discussion was more protracted, in order to
+solve a doubt as to the ownership, and once a calf was released that
+it might again seek its mother to prove identity.
+
+Arlie observed that Fraser's eyes were shining.
+
+"I used to be a puncher myse'f," he explained. "I tell you it feels
+good to grip a saddle between your knees, and to swallow the dust and
+hear the bellow of the cows. I used to live in them days. I sure did."
+
+A boyish puncher galloped past with a whoop and waved his hat to
+Arlie. For two weeks he had been in the saddle for fourteen hours out
+of the twenty-four. He was grimy with dust, and hollow-eyed from want
+of sleep. A stubbly beard covered his brick-baked face. But the
+unquenchable gayety of the youthful West could not be extinguished.
+Though his flannel shirt gaped where the thorns had torn it, and the
+polka-dot bandanna round his throat was discolored with sweat, he was
+as blithely debonair as ever.
+
+"That's Dick France. He's a great friend of mine," Arlie explained.
+
+"Dick's in luck," Fraser commented, but whether because he was
+enjoying himself so thoroughly or because he was her friend the ranger
+did not explain.
+
+They stayed through the day, and ate dinner at the tail of the chuck
+wagon with the cattlemen. The light of the camp fires, already blazing
+in the nipping night air, shone brightly. The ranger rode back with
+her to the ranch, but next morning he asked Arlie if she could lend
+him an old pair of chaps discarded by her father.
+
+She found a pair for him.
+
+"If you don't mind, I'll ride out to the round-up and stay with the
+boys a few days," he suggested.
+
+"You're going to ride with them," she accused.
+
+"I thought I would. I'm not going to saddle myse'f on you two ladies
+forever."
+
+"You know we're glad to have you. But that isn't it. What about your
+heart? You know you can't ride the range."
+
+He flushed, and knew again that feeling of contempt for himself, or,
+to be more exact, for his position.
+
+"I'll be awful careful, Miss Arlie," was all he found to say.
+
+She could not urge him further, lest he misunderstand her.
+
+"Of course, you know best," she said, with a touch of coldness.
+
+He saddled Teddy and rode back. The drive for the day was already on,
+but he fell in beside young France and did his part. Before two days
+had passed he was accepted as one of these hard-riding punchers, for
+he was a competent vaquero and stood the grueling work as one born to
+it. He was, moreover, well liked, both because he could tell a good
+story and because these sons of Anak recognized in him that dynamic
+quality of manhood they could not choose but respect. In this a
+fortunate accident aided him.
+
+They were working Lost Creek, a deep and rapid stream at the point
+where the drive ended. The big Norwegian, Siegfried, trying to head
+off a wild cow racing along the bank with tail up, got too near the
+edge. The bank caved beneath the feet of his pony, and man and horse
+went head first into the turbid waters. Fraser galloped up at once,
+flung himself from his saddle, and took in at a glance the fact that
+the big blond Hercules could not swim.
+
+The Texan dived for him as he was going down, got hold of him by the
+hair, and after a struggle managed somehow to reach the farther shore.
+As they both lay there, one exhausted, and the other fighting for the
+breath he had nearly lost forever, Dillon reached the bank.
+
+"Is it all right, Steve?" he called anxiously.
+
+"All right," grinned the ranger weakly. "He'll go on many a spree yet.
+Eh, Siegfried?"
+
+The Norwegian nodded. He was still frightened and half drowned. It was
+not till they were riding up the creek to find a shallow place they
+could ford that he spoke his mind.
+
+"Ay bane all in ven you got me, pardner."
+
+"Oh, you were still kicking."
+
+"Ay bane t'ink Ay had van chance not to get out. But Ay bane not
+forget dees. Eef you ever get in a tight place, send vor Sig
+Siegfried."
+
+"That's all right, Sig."
+
+Nobody wasted any compliments on him. After the fashion of their kind,
+they guyed the Norwegian about the bath he had taken. Nevertheless,
+Fraser knew that he had won the liking of these men, as well as their
+deep respect. They began to call him by his first name, which hitherto
+only Dillon had done, and they included him in the rough, practical
+jokes they played on each other.
+
+One night they initiated him-- an experience to be both dreaded and
+desired. To be desired because it implies the conferring of the
+thirty-second degree of the freemasonry of Cattleland's approval; to
+be dreaded because hazing is mild compared with some features of the
+exercises.
+
+Fraser was dragged from sweet slumber, pegged face down on his
+blankets, with a large-sized man at the extremity of each arm and leg,
+and introduced to a chapping. Dick France wielded the chaps vigorously
+upon the portions of his anatomy where they would do the most
+execution. The Texan did not enjoy it, but he refrained from saying
+so. When he was freed, he sat down painfully on a saddle and remarked
+amiably:
+
+"You're a beautiful bunch, ain't you? Anybody got any smoking?"
+
+This proper acceptance of their attentions so delighted these
+overgrown children that they dug up three bottles of whisky that were
+kept in camp for rattlesnake bites, and made Rome howl. They had
+ridden all day, and for many weary days before that; but they were
+started toward making a night of it when Dillon appeared.
+
+Dillon was boss of the round-up-- he had been elected by general
+consent, and his word was law. He looked round upon them with a
+twinkling eye, and wanted to know how long it was going to last. But
+the way he put his question was:
+
+"How much whisky is there left?"
+
+Finding there was none, he ordered them all back to their blankets.
+After a little skylarking, they obeyed. Next day Fraser rode the
+hills, a sore, sore man. But nobody who did not know could have
+guessed it. He would have died before admitting it to any of his
+companions. Thus he won the accolade of his peers as a worthy
+horse-man of the hills.
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+
+ THE BRONCHO BUSTERS
+
+Jed Briscoe rejoined the round-up the day following Fraser's
+initiation. He took silent note of the Texan's popularity, of how the
+boys all called him "Steve" because he had become one of them, and
+were ready either to lark with him or work with him. He noticed, too,
+that the ranger did his share of work without a whimper, apparently
+enjoying the long, hard hours in the saddle. The hill riding was of
+the roughest, and the cattle were wild as deers and as agile. But
+there was no break-neck incline too steep for Steve Fraser to follow.
+
+Once Jed chanced upon Steve stripped for a bath beside the creek, and
+he understood the physical reason for his perfect poise. The wiry,
+sinuous muscles, packed compactly without obtrusion, played beneath
+the skin like those of a panther. He walked as softly and as easily as
+one, with something of the rippling, unconscious grace of that jungle
+lord. It was this certainty of himself that vivified the steel-gray
+eyes which looked forth unafraid, and yet amiably, upon a world
+primitive enough to demand proof of every man who would hold the
+respect of his fellows.
+
+Meanwhile, Briscoe waited for Struve and his enemy to become entangled
+in the net he was spinning. He made no pretense of fellowship with
+Fraser; nor, on the other hand, did he actively set himself against
+him with the men. He was ready enough to sneer when Dick France grew
+enthusiastic about his new friend, but this was to be expected from
+one of his jaundiced temper.
+
+"Who is this all-round crackerjack you're touting, Dick?" he asked
+significantly.
+
+France was puzzled. "Who is he? Why, he's Steve Fraser."
+
+"I ain't asking you what his name is. I'm asking who he is. What does
+he do for a living? Who recommended him so strong to the boys that
+they take up with him so sudden?"
+
+"I don't care what he does for a living. Likely, he rides the range in
+Texas. When it comes to recommendations, he's got one mighty good one
+written on his face,"
+
+"You think so, do you?"
+
+"That's what I think, Jed. He's the goods-- best of company, a
+straight-up rider, and a first-rate puncher. Ask any of the boys."
+
+"I'm using my eyes, Dick. They tell me all I need to know."
+
+"Well, use them to-morrow. He's going to take a whirl at riding Dead
+Easy. Next day he's going to take on Rocking Horse. If he makes good
+on them, you'll admit he can ride."
+
+"I ain't saying he can't ride. So can you. If it's plumb gentle, I can
+make out to stick on a pony myself."
+
+"Course you can ride. Everybody knows that. You're the best ever. Any
+man that can win the championship of Wyoming---- But you'll say
+yourself them strawberry roans are wicked devils."
+
+"He hasn't ridden them yet, Dick."
+
+"He's going to."
+
+"We'll be there to see it. Mebbe he will. Mebbe he won't. I've known
+men before who thought they were going to."
+
+It was in no moment of good-natured weakness that Fraser had consented
+to try riding the outlaw horses. Nor had his vanity anything to do
+with it. He knew a time might be coming when he would need all the
+prestige and all the friendship he could earn to tide him over the
+crisis. Jed Briscoe had won his leadership, partly because he could
+shoot quicker and straighter, ride harder, throw a rope more
+accurately, and play poker better than his companions,
+
+Steve had a mind to show that he, too, could do some of these things
+passing well. Wherefore, he had let himself be badgered good-naturedly
+into trying a fall with these famous buckers. As the heavy work of the
+round-up was almost over, Dillon was glad to relax discipline enough
+to give the boys a little fun.
+
+The remuda was driven up while the outfit was at breakfast. His
+friends guyed Steve with pleasant prophecy.
+
+"He'll be hunting leather about the fourth buck!"
+
+"If he ain't trying to make of himse'f one of them there Darius Green
+machines!" suggested another.
+
+"Got any last words, Steve? Dead Easy most generally eats 'em alive,"
+Dick derided.
+
+"Sho! Cayn't you see he's so plumb scared he cayn't talk?"
+
+Fraser grinned and continued to eat. When he had finished he got his
+lariat from the saddle, swung to Siegfried's pony, and rode
+unobtrusively forward to the remuda. The horses were circling round
+and round, so that it was several minutes before he found a chance.
+When he did, the rope snaked forward and dropped over the head of the
+strawberry roan. The horse stood trembling, making not the least
+resistance, even while the ranger saddled and cinched.
+
+But before the man settled to the saddle, the outlaw was off on its
+furious resistance. It went forward and up into the air with a
+plunging leap. The rider swung his hat and gave a joyous whoop. Next
+instant there was a scatter of laughing men as the horse came toward
+them in a series of short, stiff-legged bucks which would have jarred
+its rider like a pile driver falling on his head had he not let
+himself grow limp to meet the shock.
+
+All the tricks of its kind this unbroken five-year-old knew. Weaving,
+pitching, sunfishing, it fought superbly, the while Steve rode with
+the consummate ease of a master. His sinuous form swayed instinctively
+to every changing motion of his mount. Even when it flung itself back
+in blind fury, he dropped lightly from the saddle and into it again as
+the animal struggled to its feet.
+
+The cook waved a frying pan in frantic glee. "Hurra-ay! You're the
+goods, all right, all right."
+
+"You bet. Watch Steve fan him. And he ain't pulled leather yet. Not
+once."
+
+An unseen spectator was taking it in from the brow of a little hill
+crowned with a group of firs. She had reached this point just as the
+Texan had swung to the saddle, and she watched the battle between
+horse and man intently. If any had been there to see, he might have
+observed a strange fire smouldering in her eyes. For the first time
+there was filtering through her a vague suspicion of this man who
+claimed to have heart trouble, and had deliberately subjected himself
+to the terrific strain of such a test. She had seen broncho busters
+get off bleeding at mouth and nose and ears after a hard fight, and
+she had never seen a contest more superbly fought than this one. But
+full of courage as the horse was, it had met its master and began to
+know it.
+
+The ranger's quirt was going up and down, stinging Dead Easy to more
+violent exertions, if possible. But the outlaw had shot its bolt. The
+plunges grew less vicious, the bucks more feeble. It still pitched,
+because of the unbroken gameness that defied defeat, but so
+mechanically that the motions could be forecasted.
+
+Then Steve began to soothe the brute. Somehow the wild creatu ecame
+aware that this man who was his master was also disposed to be
+friendly. Presently it gave up the battle, quivering in every limb.
+Fraser slipped from the saddle, and putting his arm across its neck
+began to gentle the outlaw. The animal had always looked the
+incarnation of wickedness. The red eyes in its ill-shaped head were
+enough to give one bad dreams. A quarter of an hour before, it had bit
+savagely at him. Now it stood breathing deep, and trembling while its
+master let his hand pass gently over the nose and neck with soft words
+that slowly won the pony back from the terror into which it had worked
+itself.
+
+"You did well, Mr. Fraser from Texas," Jed complimented him, with a
+smile that thinly hid his malice. "But it won't do to have you going
+back to Texas with the word that Wyoming is shy of riders. I ain't any
+great shakes, but I reckon I'll have to take a whirl at Rocking
+Horse." He had decided to ride for two reasons. One was that he had
+glimpsed the girl among the firs; the other was to dissipate the
+admiration his rival had created among the men.
+
+Briscoe lounged toward the remuda, rope in hand. It was his cue to get
+himself up picturesquely in all the paraphernalia of the cowboy.
+Black-haired and white-toothed, lithe as a wolf, and endowed with a
+grace almost feline, it was easy to understand how this man appealed
+to the imagination of the reckless young fellows of this primeval
+valley. Everything he did was done well. Furthermore, he looked and
+acted the part of leader which he assumed.
+
+Rocking Horse was in a different mood from its brother. It was hard to
+rope, and when Jed's raw-hide had fallen over its head it was
+necessary to reėnforce the lariat with two others. Finally the pony
+had to be flung down before a saddle could be put on. When Siegfried,
+who had been kneeling on its head, stepped back, the outlaw staggered
+to its feet, already badly shaken, to find an incubus clamped to the
+saddle.
+
+No matter how it pitched, the human clothespin stuck to his seat, and
+apparently with as little concern as if he had been in a rowboat
+gently moved to and fro by the waves. Jed rode like a centaur, every
+motion attuned to those of the animal as much as if he were a part of
+it. No matter how it pounded or tossed, he stuck securely to the
+hurricane deck of the broncho.
+
+Once only he was in danger, and that because Rocking Horse flung
+furiously against the wheel of a wagon and ground the rider's leg till
+he grew dizzy with the pain. For an instant he caught at the saddle
+horn to steady himself as the roan bucked into the open again.
+
+"He's pulling leather!" some one shouted.
+
+"Shut up, you goat!" advised the Texan good-naturedly. "Can't you see
+his laig got jammed till he's groggy? Wonder is, he didn't take the
+dust! They don't raise better riders than he is."
+
+"By hockey! He's all in. Look out! Jed's falling," France cried,
+running forward.
+
+It looked so for a moment, then Jed swam back to clear consciousness
+again, and waved them back. He began to use his quirt without mercy.
+
+"Might know he'd game it out," remarked Yorky.
+
+He did. It was a long fight, and the horse was flecked with bloody
+foam before its spirit and strength failed. But the man in the saddle
+kept his seat till the victory was won.
+
+Steve was on the spot to join heartily the murmur of applause, for he
+was too good a sportsman to grudge admiration even to his enemy.
+
+"You're the one best bet in riders, Mr. Briscoe. It's a pleasure to
+watch you," he said frankly.
+
+Jed's narrowed eyes drifted to him. "Oh, hell!" he drawled with
+insolent contempt, and turned on his heel.
+
+From the clump of firs a young woman was descending, and Jed went to
+meet her.
+
+"You rode splendidly," she told him with vivid eyes. "Were you hurt
+when you were jammed again the wagon? I mean, does it still hurt?" For
+she noticed that he walked with a limp.
+
+"I reckon I can stand the grief without an amputation. Arlie, I got
+something to tell you."
+
+She looked at him in her direct fashion and waited.
+
+"It's about your new friend." He drew from a pocket some leaves torn
+out of a magazine. His finger indicated a picture. "Ever see that
+gentleman before?"
+
+The girl looked at it coolly. "It seems to be Mr. Fraser taken in his
+uniform; Lieutenant Fraser, I should say."
+
+The cattleman's face fell. "You know, then, who he is, and what he's
+doing here."
+
+Without evasion, her gaze met his. "I understood him to say he was an
+officer in the Texas Rangers. You know why he is here."
+
+"You're right, I do. But do you?"
+
+"Well, what is it you mean? Out with it, Jed," she demanded
+impatiently.
+
+"He is here to get a man wanted in Texas, a man hiding in this valley
+right now."
+
+"I don't believe it," she returned quickly. "And if he is, that's not
+your business or mine. It's his duty, isn't it?"
+
+"I ain't discussing that. You know the law of the valley, Arlie."
+
+"I don't accept that as binding, Jed. Lots of people here don't.
+Because Lost Valley used to be a nest of miscreants, it needn't always
+be. I don't see what right we've got to set ourselves above the law."
+
+"This valley has always stood by hunted men when they reached it.
+That's our custom, and I mean to stick to it."
+
+"Very well. I hold you to that," she answered quickly. "This man
+Fraser is a hunted man. He's hunted because of what he did for me and
+dad. I claim the protection of the valley for him."
+
+"He can have it-- if he's what he says he is. But why ain't he been
+square with us? Why didn't he tell who he was?"
+
+"He told me."
+
+"That ain't enough, Arlie. If he did, you kept it quiet. We all had a
+right to know."
+
+"If you had asked him, he would have told you."
+
+"I ain't so sure he would. Anyhow, I don't like it. I believe he is
+here to get the man I told you of. Mebbe that ain't all."
+
+"What more?" she scoffed.
+
+"This fellow is the best range detective in the country. My notion is
+he's spying around about that Squaw Creek raid."
+
+Under the dusky skin she flushed angrily. "My notion is you're daffy,
+Jed. Talk sense, and I'll listen to you. You haven't a grain of
+proof."
+
+"I may get some yet," he told her sulkily.
+
+She laughed her disbelief. "When you do, let me know,"
+
+And with that she gave her pony the signal to more forward.
+
+Nevertheless, she met the ranger at the foot of the little hill with
+distinct coldness. When he came up to shake hands, she was too busy
+dismounting to notice.
+
+"Your heart must be a good deal better. I suppose Lost Valley agrees
+with you." She had swung down on the other side of the horse, and her
+glance at him across the saddle seat was like a rapier thrust.
+
+He was aware at once of being in disgrace with her, and it chafed him
+that he had no adequate answer to her implied charge.
+
+"My heart's all right," he said a little gruffly.
+
+"Yes, it seems to be, lieutenant."
+
+She trailed the reins and turned away at once to find her father. The
+girl was disappointed in him. He had, in effect, lied to her. That was
+bad enough; but she felt that his lie had concealed something, how
+much she scarce dared say. Her tangled thoughts were in chaos. One
+moment she was ready to believe the worst; the next, it was impossible
+to conceive such a man so vile a spy as to reward hospitality with
+treachery.
+
+Yet she remembered now that it had been while she was telling of the
+fate of the traitor Burke that she had driven him to his lie. Or had
+he not told it first when she pointed out Lost Valley at his feet?
+Yes, it was at that moment she had noticed his pallor. He had, at
+least, conscience enough to be ashamed of what he was doing. But she
+recognized a wide margin of difference between the possibilities of
+his guilt. It was one thing to come to the valley for an escaped
+murderer; it was quite another to use the hospitality of his host as a
+means to betray the friends of that host. Deep in her heart she could
+not find it possible to convict him of the latter alternative. He was
+too much a man, too vitally dynamic. No; whatever else he was, she
+felt sure he was not so hopelessly lost to decency. He had that
+electric spark of self-respect which may coexist with many faults, but
+not with treachery.
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+
+ A SHOT FROM BALD KNOB
+
+A bunch of young steers which had strayed from their range were to be
+driven to the Dillon ranch, and the boss of the rodeo appointed France
+and Fraser to the task.
+
+"Yo'll have company home, honey," he told his daughter, "and yo'll be
+able to give the boys a hand if they need it. These hill cattle are
+still some wild, though we've been working them a week. Yo're a heap
+better cowboy than some that works more steady at the business."
+
+Briscoe nodded. "You bet! I ain't forgot that day Arlie rode Big
+Timber with me two years ago. She wasn't sixteen then, but she herded
+them hill steers like they belonged to a milk bunch."
+
+He spoke his compliment patly enough, but somehow the girl had an
+impression that he was thinking of something else. She was right, for
+as he helped gather the drive his mind was busy with a problem.
+Presently he dismounted to tighten a cinch, and made a signal to a
+young fellow known as Slim Leroy. The latter was a new and tender
+recruit to Jed's band of miscreants. He drew up beside his leader and
+examined one of the fore hoofs of his pony.
+
+"Slim, I'm going to have Dillon send you for the mail to-day. When he
+tells you, that's the first you know about it. Understand? You'll have
+to take the hill cut to Jack Rabbit Run on your way in. At the cabin
+back of the aspens, inquire for a man that calls himself Johnson. If
+he's there, give him this message: 'This afternoon from Bald Knob.'
+Remember! Just those words, and nothing more. If he isn't there,
+forget the message. You'll know the man you want because he is shy his
+trigger finger and has a ragged scar across his right cheek. Make no
+mistake about this, Slim."
+
+"Sure I won't."
+
+Briscoe, having finished cinching, swung to his saddle and rode up to
+say good-by to Arlie.
+
+"Hope you'll have no trouble with this bunch. If you push right along
+you'd ought to get home by night," he told her.
+
+Arlie agreed carelessly. "I don't expect any trouble with them.
+So-long, Jed."
+
+It would not have been her choice to ride home with the lieutenant of
+rangers, but since her father had made the appointment publicly she
+did not care to make objection. Yet she took care to let Fraser see
+that he was in her black books. The men rode toward the rear of the
+herd, one on each side, and Arlie fell in beside her old playmate,
+Dick. She laughed and talked with him about a hundred things in which
+Steve could have had no part, even if he had been close enough to
+catch more than one word out of twenty. Not once did she even look his
+way. Quite plainly she had taken pains to forget his existence.
+
+"It was Briscoe's turn the other day," mused the Texan. "It's mine
+now. I wonder when it will be Dick's to get put out in the cold!"
+
+Nevertheless, though he tried to act the philosopher, it cut him that
+the high-spirited girl had condemned him. He felt himself in a false
+position from which he could not easily extricate himself. The worst
+of it was that if it came to a showdown he could not expect the simple
+truth to exonerate him.
+
+From where they rode there drifted to him occasionally the sound of
+the gay voices of the young people. It struck him for the first time
+that he was getting old. Arlie could not be over eighteen, and Dick
+perhaps twenty-one. Maybe young people like that thought a fellow of
+twenty-seven a Methusaleh.
+
+After a time the thirsty cattle smelt water and hit a bee line so
+steadily for it that they needed no watching. Every minute or two one
+of the leaders stretched out its neck and let out a bellow without
+slackening its pace.
+
+Steve lazed on his pony, shifting his position to ease his cramped
+limbs after the manner of the range rider. In spite of himself, his
+eyes would drift toward the jaunty little figure on the pinto. The
+masculine in him approved mightily her lissom grace and the proud lilt
+of her dark head, with its sun-kissed face set in profile to him. He
+thought her serviceable costume very becoming, from the pinched felt
+hat pinned to the dark mass of hair, and the red silk kerchief knotted
+loosely round the pretty throat, to the leggings beneath the corduroy
+skirt and the flannel waist with sleeves rolled up in summer-girl
+fashion to leave the tanned arms bare to the dimpled elbows.
+
+The trail, winding through a narrow defile, brought them side by side
+again.
+
+"Ever notice what a persistent color buckskin is, Steve?" inquired
+France, by way of bringing him into the conversation. "It's strong in
+every one of these cattle, though the old man has been trying to get
+rid of it for ten years."
+
+"You mustn't talk to me, Dick," responded his friend gravely. "Little
+Willie told a lie, and he's being stood in a corner."
+
+Arlie flushed angrily, opened her mouth to speak, and, changing her
+mind, looked at him witheringly. He didn't wither, however. Instead,
+he smiled broadly, got out his mouth organ, and cheerfully entertained
+them with his favorite, "I Met My Love In the Alamo."
+
+The hot blood under dusky skin held its own in her cheeks. She was
+furious with him, and dared not trust herself to speak. As soon as
+they had passed through the defile she spurred forward, as if to turn
+the leaders. France turned to his friend and laughed ruefully.
+
+"She's full of pepper, Steve."
+
+The ranger nodded. "She's all right, Dick. If you want to know, she's
+got a right to make a doormat of me. I lied to her. I was up against
+it, and I kinder had to. You ride along and join her. If you want to
+get right solid, tell her how many kinds of a skunk I am. Worst of it
+is, I ain't any too sure I'm not."
+
+"I'm sure for you then, Steve," the lad called back, as he loped
+forward after the girl.
+
+He was so sure, that he began to praise his friend to Arlie, to tell
+her of what a competent cowman he was, how none of them could make a
+cut or rope a wild steer like him. She presently wanted to know
+whether Dick could not find something more interesting to talk about.
+
+He could not help smiling at her downright manner. "You've surely got
+it in for him, Arlie. I thought you liked him."
+
+She pulled up her horse, and looked at him. "What made you think that?
+Did he tell you so?"
+
+Dick fairly shouted. "You do rub it in, girl, when you've got a down
+on a fellow. No, he didn't tell me. You did."
+
+"Me?" she protested indignantly. "I never did."
+
+"Oh, you didn't say so, but I don't need a church to fall on me before
+I can take a hint. You acted as though you liked him that day you and
+him came riding into camp."
+
+"I didn't do any such thing, Dick France. I don't like him at all,"
+very decidedly.
+
+"All the boys do-- all but Jed. I don't reckon he does."
+
+"Do I have to like him because the boys do?" she demanded.
+
+"O' course not." Dick stopped, trying to puzzle it out. "He says you
+ain't to blame, that he lied to you. That seems right strange, too. It
+ain't like Steve to lie."
+
+"How do you know so much about him? You haven't known him a week."
+
+"That's what Jed says. I say it ain't a question of time. Some men
+I've knew ten years I ain't half so sure of. He's a man from the
+ground up. Any one could tell that, before they had seen him five
+minutes "
+
+Secretly, the girl was greatly pleased. She so wanted to believe that
+Dick was right. It was what she herself had thought.
+
+"I wish you'd seen him the day he pulled Siegfried out of Lost Creek.
+Tell you, I thought they were both goners," Dick continued.
+
+"I expect it was most ankle-deep," she scoffed. "Hello, we're past
+Bald Knob!"
+
+"They both came mighty nigh handing in their checks."
+
+"I didn't know that, though I knew, of course, he was fearless," Arlie
+said.
+
+"What's that?" Dick drew in his horse sharply, and looked back.
+
+The sound of a rifle shot echoed from hillside to hillside. Like a
+streak of light, the girl's pinto flashed past him. He heard her give
+a sobbing cry of anguish. Then he saw that Steve was slipping very
+slowly from his saddle.
+
+A second shot rang out. The light was beginning to fail, but he made
+out a man's figure crouched among the small pines on the shoulder of
+Bald Knob. Dick jerked out his revolver as he rode back, and fired
+twice. He was quite out of pistol range, but he wanted the man in
+ambush to see that help was at hand. He saw Arlie fling herself from
+her pony in time to support the Texan just as he sank to the ground.
+
+"She'll take care of Steve. It's me for that murderer," the young man
+thought.
+
+Acting upon that impulse, he slid from his horse and slipped into the
+sagebrush of the hillside. By good fortune he was wearing a gray shirt
+of a shade which melted into that of the underbrush. Night falls
+swiftly in the mountains, and already dusk was softly spreading itself
+over the hills.
+
+Dick went up a draw, where young pines huddled together in the trough;
+and from the upper end of this he emerged upon a steep ridge, eyes and
+ears alert for the least sign of human presence. A third shot had rung
+out while he was in the dense mass of foliage of the evergreens, but
+now silence lay heavy all about him. The gathering darkness blurred
+detail, so that any one of a dozen bowlders might be a shield for a
+crouching man.
+
+Once, nerves at a wire edge from the strain on him, he thought he saw
+a moving figure. Throwing up his gun, he fired quickly. But he must
+have been mistaken, for, shortly afterward, he heard some one crashing
+through dead brush at a distance.
+
+"He's on the run, whoever he is. Guess I'll get back to Steve,"
+decided France wisely.
+
+He found his friend stretched on the ground, with his head in Arlie's
+lap.
+
+"Is it very bad?" he asked the girl.
+
+"I don't know. There's no light. Whatever shall we do?" she moaned.
+
+"I'm a right smart of a nuisance, ain't I?" drawled the wounded man
+unexpectedly.
+
+She leaned forward quickly. "Where are you hit?"
+
+"In the shoulder, ma'am."
+
+"Can you ride, Steve? Do you reckon you could make out the five
+miles?" Dick asked.
+
+Arlie answered for him. She had felt the inert weight of his heavy
+body and knew that he was beyond helping himself. "No. Is there no
+house near? There's Alec Howard's cabin."
+
+"He's at the round-up, but I guess we had better take Steve there-- if
+we could make out to get him that far."
+
+The girl took command quietly. "Unsaddle Teddy."
+
+She had unloosened his shirt and was tying her silk kerchief over the
+wound, from which blood was coming in little jets.
+
+"We can't carry him," she decided. "It's too far. We'll have to lift
+him to the back of the horse, and let him lie there. Steady, Dick.
+That's right. You must hold him on, while I lead the horse."
+
+Heavy as he was, they somehow hoisted him, and started. He had fainted
+again, and hung limply, with his face buried in the mane of the pony.
+It seemed an age before the cabin loomed, shadow-like, out of the
+darkness. They found the door unlocked, as usual, and carried him in
+to the bed.
+
+"Give me your knife, Dick," Arlie ordered quietly. "And I want water.
+If that's a towel over there, bring it."
+
+"Just a moment. I'll strike a light, and we'll see where we're at."
+
+"No. We'll have to work in the dark. A light might bring them down on
+us." She had been cutting the band of the shirt, and now ripped it so
+as to expose the wounded shoulder.
+
+Dick took a bucket to the creek, and presently returned with it. In
+his right hand he carried his revolver. When he reached the cabin he
+gave an audible sigh of relief and quickly locked the door.
+
+"Of course you'll have to go for help, Dick. Bring old Doc Lee."
+
+"Why, Arlie, I can't leave you here alone. What are you talking
+about?"
+
+"You'll have to. It's the only thing to do. You'll have to give me
+your revolver. And, oh, Dick, don't lose a moment on the way."
+
+He was plainly troubled. "I just can't leave you here alone, girl.
+What would your father say if anything happened? I don't reckon
+anything will, but we can't tell. No, I'll stay here, too. Steve must
+take his chance."
+
+"You'll not stay." She flamed round upon him, with the fierce passion
+of a tigress fighting for her young. "You'll go this minute-- this
+very minute!"
+
+"But don't you see I oughtn't to leave you? Anybody would tell you
+that," he pleaded.
+
+"And you call yourself his friend," she cried, in a low, bitter voice.
+
+"I call myself yours, too," he made answer doggedly.
+
+"Then go. Go this instant. You'll go, anyway; but if you're my friend,
+you'll go gladly, and bring help to save us both."
+
+"I wisht I knew what to do," he groaned.
+
+Her palms fastened on his shoulders. She was a creature transformed.
+Such bravery, such feminine ferocity, such a burning passion of the
+spirit, was altogether outside of his experience of her or any other
+woman. He could no more resist her than he could fly to the top of
+Bald Knob.
+
+"I'll go, Arlie."
+
+"And bring help soon. Get Doc Lee here soon as you can. Leave word for
+armed men to follow. Don't wait for them."
+
+"No."
+
+"Take his Teddy horse. It can cover ground faster than yours,"
+
+"Yes."
+
+With plain misgivings, he left her, and presently she heard the sound
+of his galloping horse. It seemed to her for a moment as if she must
+call him back, but she strangled the cry in her throat. She locked the
+door and bolted it, then turned back to the bed, upon which the
+wounded man was beginning to moan in his delirium.
+
+  CHAPTER X
+
+ DOC LEE
+
+Arlie knew nothing of wounds or their treatment. All she could do was
+to wash the shoulder in cold water and bind it with strips torn from
+her white underskirt. When his face and hands grew hot with the fever,
+she bathed them with a wet towel. How badly he was hurt-- whether he
+might not even die before Dick's return-- she had no way of telling.
+His inconsequent babble at first frightened her, for she had never
+before seen a person in delirium, nor heard of the insistence with
+which one harps upon some fantasy seized upon by a diseased mind.
+
+"She thinks you're a skunk, Steve. So you are. She's dead right-- dead
+right-- dead right. You lied to her, you coyote! Stand up in the
+corner, you liar, while she whangs at you with a six-gun! You're a
+skunk-- dead right."
+
+So he would run on in a variation of monotony, the strong, supple,
+masterful man as helpless as a child, all the splendid virility
+stricken from him by the pressure of an enemy's finger. The eyes that
+she had known so full of expression, now like half-scabbarded steel,
+and now again bubbling from the inner mirth of him, were glazed and
+unmeaning. The girl had felt in him a capacity for silent
+self-containment; and here he was, picking at the coverlet with
+restless fingers, prattling foolishly, like an infant.
+
+She was a child of impulse, sensitive and plastic. Because she had
+been hard on him before he was struck down, her spirit ran open-armed
+to make amends. What manner of man he was she did not know. But what
+availed that to keep her, a creature of fire and dew, from the clutch
+of emotions strange and poignant? He had called himself a liar and a
+coyote, yet she knew it was not true, or at worst, true in some
+qualified sense. He might be hard, reckless, even wicked in some ways.
+But, vaguely, she felt that if he were a sinner he sinned with
+self-respect. He was in no moral collapse, at least. It was impossible
+to fit him to her conception of a spy. No, no! Anything but that!
+
+So she sat there, her fingers laced about her knee, as she leaned
+forward to wait upon the needs she could imagine for him, the dumb
+tragedy of despair in her childish face.
+
+The situation was one that made for terror. To be alone with a wounded
+man, his hurt undressed, to hear his delirium and not to know whether
+he might not die any minute-- this would have been enough to cause
+apprehension. Add to it the darkness, her deep interest in him, the
+struggle of her soul, and the dread of unseen murder stalking in the
+silent night.
+
+Though her thought was of him, it was not wholly upon him. She sat
+where she could watch the window, Dick's revolver in another chair
+beside her. It was a still, starry night, and faintly she could see
+the hazy purple, mountain line. Somewhere beneath those uncaring stars
+was the man who had done this awful thing. Was he far, or was he near?
+Would he come to make sure he had not failed? Her fearful heart told
+her that he would come.
+
+She must have fought her fears nearly an hour before she heard the
+faintest of sounds outside. Her hand leaped to the revolver. She sat
+motionless, listening, with nerves taut. It came again presently, a
+deadened footfall, close to the door. Then, after an eternity, the
+latch clicked softly. Some one, with infinite care, was trying to
+discover whether the door was locked.
+
+His next move she anticipated. Her eyes fastened on the window, while
+she waited breathlessly. Her heart was stammering furiously. Moments
+passed, in which she had to set her teeth to keep from screaming
+aloud. The revolver was shaking so that she had to steady the barrel
+with her left hand. A shadow crossed one pane, the shadow of a head in
+profile, and pushed itself forward till shoulders, arm, and poised
+revolver covered the lower sash. Very, very slowly the head itself
+crept into sight.
+
+Arlie fired and screamed simultaneously. The thud of a fall, the
+scuffle of a man gathering himself to his feet again, the rush of
+retreating steps, all merged themselves in one single impression of
+fierce, exultant triumph.
+
+Her only regret was that she had not killed him. She was not even sure
+that she had hit him, for her bullet had gone through the glass within
+an inch of the inner woodwork. Nevertheless, she knew that he had had
+a shock that would carry him far. Unless he had accomplices with him--
+and of that there had been no evidence at the time of the attack from
+Bald Knob-- he would not venture another attempt. Of one thing she was
+sure. The face that had looked in at the window was one she had never
+seen before, In this, too, she found relief-- for she knew now that
+the face she had expected to see follow the shadow over the pane had
+been that of Jed Briscoe; and Jed had too much of the courage of
+Lucifer incarnate in him to give up because an unexpected revolver had
+been fired in his face.
+
+Time crept slowly, but it could hardly have been a quarter of an hour
+later that she heard the galloping of horses.
+
+"It is Dick!" she cried joyfully, and, running to the door, she
+unbolted and unlocked it just as France dragged Teddy to a halt and
+flung himself to the ground.
+
+The young man gave a shout of gladness at sight of her.
+
+"Is it all right, Arlie?"
+
+"Yes. That is-- I don't know. He is delirious. A man came to the
+window, and I shot at him. Oh, Dick, I'm so glad you're back."
+
+In her great joy, she put her arms round his neck and kissed him. Old
+Doctor Lee, dismounting more leisurely, drawled his protest.
+
+"Look-a-here, Arlie. I'm the doctor. Where do I come in?"
+
+"I'll kiss you, too, when you tell me he'll get well." The
+half-hysterical laugh died out of her voice, and she caught him
+fiercely by the arm. "Doc, doc, don't let him die," she begged.
+
+He had known her all her life, had been by the bedside when she came
+into the world, and he put his arm round her shoulders and gave her a
+little hug as they passed into the room.
+
+"We'll do our level best, little girl."
+
+She lit a lamp, and drew the window curtain, so that none could see
+from the outside. While the old doctor arranged his instruments and
+bandages on chairs, she waited on him. He noticed how white she was,
+for he said, not unkindly:
+
+"I don't want two patients right now, Arlie. If you're going to keel
+over in a faint right in the middle of it, I'll have Dick help."
+
+"No, no, I won't, doc. Truly, I won't," she promised.
+
+"All right, little girl. We'll see how game you are. Dick, hold the
+light. Hold it right there. See?"
+
+The Texan had ceased talking, and was silent, except for a low moan,
+repeated at regular intervals. The doctor showed Arlie how to
+administer the anaesthetic after he had washed the wound. While he was
+searching for the bullet with his probe she flinched as if he had
+touched a bare nerve, but she stuck to her work regardless of her
+feelings, until the lead was found and extracted and the wound
+dressed.
+
+Afterward, Dick found her seated on a rock outside crying
+hysterically. He did not attempt to cope with the situation, but
+returned to the house and told Lee.
+
+"Best thing for her. Her nerves are overwrought and unstrung. She'll
+be all right, once she has her cry out. I'll drift around, and jolly
+her along."
+
+The doctor presently came up and took a seat beside her.
+
+"Wha-- what do you think, doctor?" she sobbed.
+
+"Well, I think it's tarnation hot operating with a big kerosene lamp
+six inches from your haid," he said, as he mopped his forehead.
+
+"I mean-- will he-- get well?"
+
+Lee snorted. "Well, I'd be ashamed of him if he didn't. If he lets a
+nice, clean, flesh wound put him out of business he don't deserve to
+live. Don't worry any about him, young lady. Say, I wish I had zwei
+beer right now, Arlie."
+
+"You mean it? You're not just saying it to please me?"
+
+"Of course, I mean it," he protested indignantly. "I wish I had
+three."
+
+"I mean, are you sure he'll get well?" she explained, a faint smile
+touching her wan face.
+
+"Yes, I mean that, too, but right now I mean the beer most. Now,
+honest, haven't I earned a beer?"
+
+"You've earned a hundred thousand, doc. You're the kindest and dearest
+man that ever lived," she cried.
+
+"Ain't that rather a large order, my dear?" he protested mildly. "I
+couldn't really use a hundred thousand. And I'd hate to be better than
+Job and Moses and Pharaoh and them Bible characters. Wouldn't I have
+to give up chewing? Somehow, a halo don't seem to fit my haid. It's
+most too bald to carry one graceful.... You may do that again if you
+want to." This last, apropos of the promised reward which had just
+been paid in full.
+
+Arlie found she could manage a little laugh by this time.
+
+"Well, if you ain't going to, we might as well go in and have a look
+at that false-alarm patient of ours," he continued. "We'll have to sit
+up all night with him. I was sixty-three yesterday. I'm going to quit
+this doctor game. I'm too old to go racing round the country nights
+just because you young folks enjoy shooting each other up. Yes, ma'am,
+I'm going to quit. I serve notice right here. What's the use of having
+a good ranch and some cattle if you can't enjoy them?"
+
+As the doctor had been serving notice of his intention to quit
+doctoring for over ten years, Arlie did not take him too seriously.
+She knew him for what he was-- a whimsical old fellow, who would drop
+in the saddle before he would let a patient suffer; one of the old
+school, who loved his work but liked to grumble over it.
+
+"Maybe you'll be able to take a rest soon. You know that young doctor
+from Denver, who was talking about settling here----"
+
+This, as she knew, was a sore point with him. "So you're tired of me,
+are you? Want a new-fangled appendix cutter from Denver, do you? Time
+to shove old Doc Lee aside, eh?"
+
+"I didn't say that, doc," she repented.
+
+"Huh! You meant it. Wonder how many times he'd get up at midnight and
+plow through three-foot snow for six miles to see the most ungrateful,
+squalling little brat----"
+
+"Was it me, doc?" she ungrammatically demanded.
+
+"It was you, Miss Impudence."
+
+They had reached the door, but she held him there a moment, while she
+laughed delightedly and hugged him. "I knew it was me. As if we'd let
+our old doc go, or have anything to do with a young ignoramus from
+Denver! Didn't you know I was joking? Of course you did."
+
+He still pretended severity. "Oh, I know you. When it comes to
+wheedling an old fool, you've got the rest of the girls in this valley
+beat to a fare-you-well."
+
+"Is that why you always loved me?" she asked, with a sparkle of
+mischief in her eye.
+
+"I didn't love you. I never did. The idea!" he snorted. "I don't know
+what you young giddy pates are coming to. Huh! Love you!"
+
+"I'll forgive you, even if you did," she told him sweetly.
+
+"That's it! That's it!" he barked. "You forgive all the young idiots
+when they do. And they all do-- every last one of them. But I'm too
+old for you, young lady. Sixty-three yesterday. Huh!"
+
+"I like you better than the younger ones."
+
+"Want us all, do you? Young and old alike. Well, count me out."
+
+He broke away, and went into the house. But there was an unconquerably
+youthful smile dancing in his eyes. This young lady and he had made
+love to each other in some such fashion ever since she had been a year
+old. He was a mellow and confirmed old bachelor, but he proposed to
+continue their innocent coquetry until he was laid away, no matter
+which of the young bucks of the valley had the good fortune to win her
+for a wife.
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+
+ THE FAT IN THE FIRE
+
+For two days Fraser remained in the cabin of the stockman Howard,
+France making it his business to see that the place was never left
+unguarded for a moment. At the end of that time the fever had greatly
+abated, and he was doing so well that Doctor Lee decided it would be
+better to move him to the Dillon ranch for the convenience of all
+parties.
+
+This was done, and the patient continued steadily to improve. His
+vigorous constitution, helped by the healthy, clean, outdoor life he
+had led, stood him in good stead. Day by day he renewed the blood he
+had lost. Soon he was eating prodigious dinners, and between meals was
+drinking milk with an egg beaten in it.
+
+On a sunny forenoon, when he lay in the big window of the living room,
+reading a magazine, Arlie entered, a newspaper in her hand. Her eyes
+were strangely bright, even for her, and she had a manner of repressed
+excitement, Her face was almost colorless.
+
+"Here's some more in the Avalanche about our adventure near Gimlet
+Butte," she told him, waving the paper.
+
+"Nothing like keeping in the public eye," said Steve, grinning. "I
+don't reckon our little picnic at Bald Knob is likely to get in the
+Avalanche, though. It probably hasn't any correspondent at Lost
+Valley. Anyhow, I'm hoping not."
+
+"Mr. Fraser, there is something in this paper I want you to explain.
+But tell me first when it was you shot this man Faulkner. I mean at
+just what time in the fight."
+
+"Why, I reckon it must have been just before I ducked."
+
+"That's funny, too." She fixed her direct, fearless gaze on him. "The
+evidence at the coroner's jury shows that it was in the early part of
+the fight he was shot, before father and I left you."
+
+"No, that couldn't have been, Miss Arlie, because----"
+
+"Because----" she prompted, smiling at him in a peculiar manner.
+
+He flushed, and could only say that the newspapers were always getting
+things wrong.
+
+"But this is the evidence at the coroner's inquest," she said, falling
+grave again on the instant. "I understand one thing now, very clearly,
+and that is that Faulkner was killed early in the fight, and the other
+man was wounded in the ankle near the finish."
+
+He shook his head obstinately. "No, I reckon not."
+
+"Yet it is true. What's more, you knew it all the time."
+
+"You ce'tainly jump to conclusions, Miss Arlie."
+
+"And you let them arrest you, without telling them the truth! And they
+came near lynching you! And there's a warrant out now for your arrest
+for the murder of Faulkner, while all the time I killed him, and you
+knew it!"
+
+He gathered together his lame defense. "You run ahaid too fast for me,
+ma'am. Supposing he was hit while we were all there together, how was
+I to know who did it?"
+
+"You knew it couldn't have been you, for he wasn't struck with a
+revolver. It couldn't have been dad, since he had his shotgun loaded
+with buckshot."
+
+"What difference did it make?" he wanted to know impatiently. "Say I'd
+have explained till kingdom come that I borrowed the rifle from a
+friend five minutes after Faulkner was hit-- would anybody have
+believed me? Would it have made a bit of difference?"
+
+Her shining eyes were more eloquent than a thousand tongues. "I don't
+say it would, but there was always the chance. You didn't take it. You
+would have let them hang you, without speaking the word that brought
+me into it. Why?"
+
+"I'm awful obstinate when I get my back up," he smiled.
+
+"That wasn't it. You did it to save a girl you had never seen but
+once. I want to know why."
+
+"All right. Have it your own way. But don't ask me to explain the
+whyfors. I'm no Harvard professor."
+
+"I know," she said softly. She was not looking at him, but out of the
+window, and there were tears in her voice.
+
+"Sho! Don't make too much of it. We'll let it go that I ain't all
+coyote, after all. But that don't entitle me to any reward of merit.
+Now, don't you cry, Miss Arlie. Don't you."
+
+She choked back the tears, and spoke in deep self-scorn. "No! You
+don't deserve anything except what you've been getting from me--
+suspicion and distrust and hard words! You haven't done anything worth
+speaking of-- just broke into a quarrel that wasn't yours, at the risk
+of your life; then took it on your shoulders to let us escape; and,
+afterward, when you were captured, refused to drag me in, because I
+happen to be a girl! But it's not worth mentioning that you did all
+this for strangers, and that later you did not tell even me, because
+you knew it would trouble me that I had killed him, though in
+self-defense. And to think that all the time I've been full of hateful
+suspicions about you! Oh, you don't know how I despise myself!"
+
+She let her head fall upon her arm on the table, and sobbed.
+
+Fraser, greatly disturbed, patted gently the heavy coil of blue-black
+hair.
+
+"Now, don't you, Arlie; don't you. I ain't worth it. Honest, I ain't.
+I did what it was up to me to do. Not a thing more. Dick would have
+done it. Any of the boys would. Now, let's look at what you've done
+for me."
+
+From under the arm a muffled voice insisted she had done nothing but
+suspect him.
+
+"Hold on, girl. Play fair. First off you ride sixty miles to help me
+when I'm hunted right hard. You bring me to your home in this valley
+where strangers ain't over and above welcome just now. You learn I'm
+an officer and still you look out for me and fight for me, till you
+make friends for me. It's through you I get started right with the
+boys. On your say-so they give me the glad hand. You learn I've lied
+to you, and two or three hours later you save my life. You sit there
+steady, with my haid in your lap, while some one is plugging away at
+us. You get me to a house, take care of my wounds, and hold the fort
+alone in the night till help comes. Not only that, but you drive my
+enemy away. Later, you bring me home, and nurse me like I was a
+long-lost brother. What I did for you ain't in the same class with
+what you've done for me."
+
+"But I was suspicious of you all the time."
+
+"So you had a right to be. That ain't the point, which is that a girl
+did all that for a man she thought might be an enemy and a low-down
+spy. Men are expected to take chances like I did, but girls ain't. You
+took 'em. If I lived a thousand years, I couldn't tell you all the
+thanks I feel."
+
+"Ah! It makes it worse that you're that kind of a man. But I'm going
+to show you whether I trust you." Her eyes were filled with the glad
+light of her resolve. She spoke with a sort of proud humility. "Do you
+know, there was a time when I thought you might have-- I didn't really
+believe it, but I thought it just possible-- that you might have come
+here to get evidence against the Squaw Creek raiders? You'll despise
+me, but it's the truth."
+
+His face lost color. "And now?" he asked quietly.
+
+"Now? I would as soon suspect my father-- or myself! I'll show you
+what I think. The men in it were Jed Briscoe and Yorky and Dick France
+"Stop," he cried hoarsely.
+
+"Is it your wound?" she said quickly.
+
+"No. That's all right. But you musn't tell----"
+
+"I'm telling, to show whether I trust you. Jed and Yorky and Dick and
+Slim----"
+
+She stopped to listen. Her father's voice was calling her. She rose
+from her seat.
+
+"Wait a moment. There's something I've got to tell you," the Texan
+groaned.
+
+"I'll be back in a moment. Dad wants to see me about some letters."
+
+And with that she was gone. Whatever the business was, it detained her
+longer than she expected. The minutes slipped away, and still she did
+not return. A step sounded in the hall, a door opened, and Jed Briscoe
+stood before him.
+
+"You're here, are you?" he said.
+
+The Texan measured looks with him. "Yes, I'm here."
+
+"Grand-standing still, I reckon."
+
+"If you could only learn to mind your own affairs," the Texan
+suggested evenly.
+
+"You'll wish I could before I'm through with you."
+
+"Am I to thank you for that little courtesy from Bald Knob the other
+evening?"
+
+"Not directly. At three hundred yards, I could have shot a heap
+straighter than that. The fool must have been drunk."
+
+"You'll have to excuse him. It was beginning to get dark. His
+intentions were good."
+
+There was a quick light step behind him, and Arlie came into the room.
+She glanced quickly from one to the other, and there was apprehension
+in her look.
+
+"I've come to see Lieutenant Fraser on business," Briscoe explained,
+with an air patently triumphant.
+
+Arlie made no offer to leave the room. "He's hardly up to business
+yet, is he?" she asked, as carelessly as she could.
+
+"Then we'll give it another name. I'm making a neighborly call to ask
+how he is, and to return some things he lost."
+
+Jed's hand went into his pocket and drew forth leisurely a photograph.
+This he handed to Arlie right side up, smiling the while, with a kind
+of masked deviltry.
+
+"Found it in Alec Howard's cabin. Seems your coat was hanging over the
+back of a chair, lieutenant, and this and a paper fell out. One of the
+boys must have kicked it to one side, and it was overlooked. Later, I
+ran across it. So I'm bringing it back to you."
+
+In spite of herself Arlie's eyes fell to the photograph. It was a
+snapshot of the ranger and a very attractive young woman. They were
+smiling into each other's eyes with a manner of perfect and friendly
+understanding. To see it gave Arlie a pang. Flushing at her mistake,
+she turned the card over and handed it to the owner.
+
+"Sorry. I looked without thinking," she said in a low voice.
+
+Fraser nodded his acceptance of her apology, but his words and his
+eyes were for his enemy. "You mentioned something else you had found,
+seems to me."
+
+Behind drooping eyelids Jed was malevolently feline. "Seems to me I
+did."
+
+From his pocket came slowly a folded paper. He opened and looked it
+over at leisure before his mocking eyes lifted again to the wounded
+man. "This belongs to you, too, but I know you'll excuse me if I keep
+it to show to the boys before returning it."
+
+"So you've read it," Arlie broke in scornfully.
+
+He grinned at her, and nodded. "Yes, I've read it, my dear. I had to
+read it, to find out whose it was. Taken by and large, it's a right
+interesting document, too."
+
+He smiled at the ranger maliciously, yet with a certain catlike
+pleasure in tormenting his victim. Arlie began to feel a tightening of
+her throat, a sinking of the heart. But Fraser looked at the man with
+a quiet, scornful steadfastness. He knew what was coming, and had
+decided upon his course.
+
+"Seems to be a kind of map, lieutenant. Here's Gimlet Butte and the
+Half Way House and Sweetwater Dam and the blasted pine. Looks like it
+might be a map from the Butte to this part of the country. Eh, Mr.
+Fraser from Texas?"
+
+"And if it is?"
+
+"Then I should have to ask you how you come by it, seeing as the map
+is drawn on Sheriff Brandt's official stationery," Jed rasped swiftly.
+
+"I got it from Sheriff Brandt, Mr. Briscoe, since you want to know.
+You're not entitled to the information, but I'll make you a gift of
+it. He gave it to me to guide me here."
+
+Even Briscoe was taken aback. He had expected evasion, denial,
+anything but a bold acceptance of his challenge. His foe watched the
+wariness settle upon him by the narrowing of his eyes.
+
+"So the sheriff knew you were coming?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I thought you broke jail. That was the story I had dished up to me."
+
+"I did, with the help of the sheriff."
+
+"Oh, with the help of the sheriff? Come to think of it, that sounds
+right funny-- a sheriff helping his prisoner to escape."
+
+"Yet it is true, as it happens."
+
+"I don't doubt it, lieutenant. Fact is, I had some such notion all the
+time. Now, I wonder why-for he took so friendly an interest in you."
+
+"I had a letter of introduction to him from a friend in Texas. When he
+knew who I was, he decided he couldn't afford to have me lynched
+without trying to save me."
+
+"I see. And the map?"
+
+"This was the only part of the country in which I would be safe from
+capture. He knew I had a claim on some of the Cedar Mountain people,
+because it was to help them I had got into trouble."
+
+"Yes, I can see that." Arlie nodded quickly. "Of course, that is just
+what the sheriff would think."
+
+"Folks can always see what they want to, Arlie," Jed commented. "Now,
+I can't see all that, by a lot."
+
+"It isn't necessary you should, Mr. Briscoe," Fraser retorted.
+
+"Or else I see a good deal more, lieutenant," Jed returned, with his
+smooth smile. "Mebbe the sheriff helped you on your way because you're
+such a good detective. He's got ambitions, Brandt has. So has
+Hilliard, the prosecuting attorney. Happen to see him, by the way?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Jed nodded. "I figured you had. Yes, it would be Hilliard worked the
+scheme out, I expect."
+
+"You're a good deal of a detective yourself, Mr. Briscoe," the Texan
+laughed hardily. "Perhaps I could get you a job in the rangers."
+
+"There may be a vacancy there soon," Jed agreed.
+
+"What's the use of talking that way, Jed? Are you threatening Mr.
+Fraser? If anything happens to him, I'll remember this," Arlie told
+him.
+
+"Have I mentioned any threats, Arlie? It is well known that Lieutenant
+Fraser has enemies here. It don't take a prophet to tell that, after
+what happened the other night."
+
+"Any more than it takes a prophet to tell that you are one of them."
+
+"I play my own hand. I don't lie down before him, or any other man.
+He'd better not get in my way, unless he's sure he's a better man than
+I am."
+
+"But he isn't in your way," Arlie insisted. "He has told a plain
+story. I believe every word of it."
+
+"I notice he didn't tell any of his plain story until we proved it on
+him. He comes through with his story after he's caught with the goods.
+Don't you know that every criminal that is caught has a smooth
+explanation?"
+
+"I haven't any doubt Mr. Briscoe will have one when his turn comes,"
+the ranger remarked.
+
+Jed wheeled on him. His eyes glittered menace. "You've said one word
+too much. I'll give you forty-eight hours to get out of this valley."
+
+"How dare you, Jed-- and in my house!" Arlie cried. "I won't have it.
+I won't have blood shed between you."
+
+"It's up to him," answered the cattleman, his jaw set like a vise.
+"Persuade him to git out, and there'll be no blood shed."
+
+"You have no right to ask it of him. You ought not----" She stopped,
+aware of the futility of urging a moral consideration upon the man,
+and fell back upon the practical. "He couldn't travel that soon, even
+if he wanted to. He's not strong enough. You know that."
+
+"All right. We'll call it a week. If he's still here a week from
+to-day, there will be trouble."
+
+With that, he turned on his heel and left the room. They heard his
+spurs trailing across the porch and jingling down the steps, after
+which they caught a momentary vision of him, dark and sinister, as his
+horse flashed past the window.
+
+The ranger smiled, but rather seriously. "The fat's in the fire now,
+sure enough, ma'am."
+
+She turned anxiously upon him. "Why did you tell him all that? Why did
+you let him go away, believing you were here as a spy to trap him and
+his friends?"
+
+"I let him have the truth. Anyhow, I couldn't have made good with a
+denial. He had the evidence. I can't keep him from believing what he
+wants to."
+
+"He'll tell all his friends. He'll exaggerate the facts and stir up
+sentiment against you. He'll say you came here as a detective, to get
+evidence against the Squaw Creek raiders." "Then he'll tell the
+truth!"
+
+She took it in slowly, with a gathering horror. "The truth!" she
+repeated, almost under her breath. "You don't mean---- You can't
+mean---- Are you here as a spy upon my friends?"
+
+"I didn't know they were your friends when I took the job. If you'll
+listen, I'll explain."
+
+Words burst from her in gathering bitterness.
+
+"What is there to explain, sir? The facts cry to heaven. I brought you
+into this valley, gave you the freedom of our home against my father's
+first instinct. I introduced you to my friends, and no doubt they told
+you much you wanted to know. They are simple, honest folks, who don't
+know a spy when they see one. And I-- fool that I am-- I vouched for
+you. More, I stood between you and the fate you deserved. And, lastly,
+in my blind conceit, I have told you the names of the men in the Squaw
+Creek trouble. If I had only known-- and I had all the evidence, but I
+was so blind I would not see you were a snake in the grass."
+
+He put out a hand to stop her, and she drew back as if his touch were
+pollution. From the other side of the room, she looked across at him
+in bitter scorn.
+
+"I shall make arrangements to have you taken out of the valley at
+once, sir."
+
+"You needn't take the trouble, Miss Arlie. I'm not going out of the
+valley. If you'll have me taken to Alec Howard's shack, which is where
+you brought me from, I'll be under obligations to you."
+
+"Whatever you are, I'm not going to have your blood on my hands.
+You've got to leave the valley."
+
+"I have to thank you for all your kindness to me. If you'd extend it a
+trifle further and listen to what I've got to say, I'd be grateful."
+
+"I don't care to hear your excuses. Go quickly, sir, before you meet
+the end you deserve, and give up the poor men I have betrayed to you."
+She spoke in a choked voice, as if she could scarce breathe.
+
+"If you'd only listen before you----"
+
+"I've listened to you too long. I was so sure I knew more than my
+father, than my friends. I'll listen no more."
+
+The Texan gave it up. "All right, ma'am. Just as you say. If you'll
+order some kind of a rig for me, I'll not trouble you longer. I'm
+sorry that it's got to be this way. Maybe some time you'll see it
+different."
+
+"Never," she flashed passionately, and fled from the room.
+
+He did not see her again before he left. Bobbie came to get him in a
+light road trap they had. The boy looked at him askance, as if he knew
+something was wrong. Presently they turned a corner and left the ranch
+shut from sight in a fold of the hills.
+
+At the first division of the road Fraser came to a difference of
+opinion with Bobbie.
+
+"Arlie said you was going to leave the valley. She told me I was to
+take you to Speed's place."
+
+"She misunderstood. I am going to Alec Howard's."
+
+"But that ain't what she told me."
+
+Steve took the reins from him, and turned into the trail that led to
+Howard's place. "You can explain to her, Bobbie, that you couldn't
+make me see it that way."
+
+An hour later, he descended upon Howard-- a big, rawboned ranchman,
+who had succumbed quickly to a deep friendship for this "Admirable
+Crichton" of the plains.
+
+"Hello, Steve! Glad to death to see you. Hope you've come to stay, you
+old pie eater," he cried joyously, at sight of the Texan.
+
+Fraser got down. "Wait here a moment, Bobbie. I want to have a talk
+with Alec. I may go on with you."
+
+They went into the cabin, and Fraser sat down. He was still far from
+strong.
+
+"What's up, Steve?" the rancher asked.
+
+"You asked me to stay, Alec. Before I say whether I will or not, I've
+got a story to tell you. After I've told it, you can ask me again if
+you want me to stop with you. If you don't ask me, I'll ride off with
+the boy."
+
+"All right. Fire ahead, old hoss. I'll ask you fast enough."
+
+The Texan told his story from the beginning. Only one thing he
+omitted-- that Arlie had told him the name of the Squaw Creek raiders.
+
+"There are the facts, Alec. You've got them from beginning to end.
+It's up to you. Do you want me here?"
+
+"Before I answer that, I'll have to put a question myse'f, Steve. Why
+do you want to stay? Why not leave the valley while you're still able
+to?"
+
+"Because Jed Briscoe put it up to me that I'd got to leave within a
+week. I'll go when I'm good and ready."
+
+Alec nodded his appreciation of the point. "Sure. You don't want to
+sneak out, with yore tail betwixt yore laigs. That brings up another
+question, Steve. What about the Squaw Creek sheep raiders? Just for
+argument, we'll put it that some of them are my friends. You
+understand-- just for argument. Are you still aiming to run them
+down?"
+
+Fraser met his frank question frankly. "No, Alec, I've had to give up
+that notion long since-- soon as I began to guess they were friends of
+Miss Arlie. I'm going back to tell Hilliard so. But I ain't going to
+be run out by Briscoe."
+
+"Good enough. Put her there, son. This shack's yore home till hell
+freezes over, Steve."
+
+"You haven't any doubts about me, Alec. If you have, better say so
+now."
+
+"Doubts? I reckon not. Don't I know a man when I see one? I'm plumb
+surprised at Arlie." He strode to the door, and called to Bobbie:
+"Roll along home, son. Yore passenger is going to stay a spell with
+me."
+
+"Of course, I understand what this means, Alec. Jed and his crowd
+aren't going to be any too well pleased when they learn you have taken
+me in. They may make you trouble," the ranger said.
+
+The big cow man laughed. "Oh, cut it out, Steve. Jed don't have to O.
+K. my guest list. Not on yore life. I'm about ready for a ruction with
+that young man, anyway. He's too blamed bossy. I ain't wearing his
+brand. Fact is, I been having notions this valley has been suffering
+from too much Briscoe. Others are sharing that opinion with me. Ask
+Dick France. Ask Arlie, for that matter."
+
+"I'm afraid I'm off that young lady's list of friends."
+
+"Sho! She'll come round. She's some hot-haided. It always was her way
+to get mad first, and find out why afterward. But don't make any
+mistake about her, Steve. She's the salt of the earth, Arlie Dillon
+is. She figured it out you wasn't playing it quite on the square with
+her. Onct she's milled it around a spell, she'll see things different.
+I've knowed her since she was knee-high, and I tell you she's a game
+little thoroughbred."
+
+The Texan looked at him a moment, then stared out of the window.
+
+"We won't quarrel about that any, Alec. I'll indorse those sentiments,
+and then some, even if she did call me a snake in the grass."
+
+  CHAPTER XII
+
+ THE DANCE
+
+The day after Fraser changed his quarters, Dick France rode up to the
+Howard ranch. Without alighting, he nodded casually to Alec, and then
+to his guest.
+
+"Hello, Steve! How's the shoulder?"
+
+"Fine and dandy."
+
+"You moved, I see." The puncher grinned.
+
+"If you see it for yourself, I'll not attempt to deny it."
+
+"Being stood in the corner some more, looks like! Little Willie been
+telling some more lies?"
+
+"Come in, Dick, and I'll put you wise."
+
+Steve went over the story again. When he mentioned the Squaw Creek
+raid, he observed that his two friends looked quickly at each other
+and then away. He saw, however, that Dick took his pledge in regard to
+the raiders at face value, without the least question of doubt. He
+made only one comment on the situation.
+
+"If Jed has served notice that he's going after you, Steve, he'll
+ce'tainly back the play. What's more, he won't be any too particular
+how he gets you, just so he gets you. He may come a-shooting in the
+open. Then, again, he may not. All according to how the notion strikes
+him."
+
+"That's about it," agreed Howard.
+
+"While it's fresh on my mind, I'll unload some more comfort. You've
+got an enemy in this valley you don't know about."
+
+"The one that shot me?"
+
+"I ain't been told that. I was to say, 'One enemy more than he knows
+of.' "
+
+"Who told you to say it?"
+
+"I was to forget to tell you that, Steve."
+
+"Then I must have a friend more than I know of, too."
+
+"I ain't so sure about that. You might call her a hostile friend."
+
+"It's a lady, then. I can guess who."
+
+"Honest, I didn't mean to tell you, Steve. It slipped out."
+
+"I won't hold it against you."
+
+"She sent for me last night, and this morning I dropped round. Now,
+what do you reckon she wanted with me?"
+
+"Give it up."
+
+"I'm to take a day off and ride around among the boys, so as to see
+them before Jed does. I'm to load 'em up with misrepresentations about
+how you and the sheriff happen to be working in cahoots. I gathered
+that the lady is through with you, but she don't want your scalp
+collected by the boys."
+
+"I'm learning to be thankful for small favors," Fraser said dryly.
+"She figures me up a skunk, but hates to have me massacreed in her
+back yard. Ain't that about it, Dick?"
+
+"Somewheres betwixt and between," France nodded. "Say, you lads going
+to the dance at Millikan's?"
+
+"Didn't know there was one."
+
+"Sure. Big doings. Monday night. Always have a dance after the spring
+round-up. Jed and his friends will be there-- that ought to fetch
+you!" Dick grinned.
+
+"I haven't noticed any pressing invitation to my address yet," said
+Steve.
+
+"I'm extending it right now. Millikan told me to pass the word among
+the boys. Everybody and his neighbor invited." Dick lit a cigar, and
+gathered up his reins. "So-long, boys. I got to be going." Over his
+shoulder he fired another joyous shot as he cantered away. "I reckon
+that hostile friend will be there, too, Steve, if that's any
+inducement."
+
+Whether it was an inducement is not a matter of record, but certain it
+is that the Texan found it easy to decide to go. Everybody in the
+valley would be there, and absence on his part would be construed as
+weakness, even as a confession of guilt. He had often observed that a
+man's friends are strong for him only when he is strong for himself.
+
+Howard and his guest drove to Millikan's Draw, for the wound of the
+latter was still too new to stand so long a horseback ride. They
+arrived late, and the dance was already in full swing. As they stabled
+and fed the team, they could hear the high notes of the fiddles and
+the singsong chant of the caller.
+
+"Alemane left. Right han' t'yer pardner, an' gran' right and left.
+Ev-v-rybody swing."
+
+The ranch house was a large one, the most pretentious in the valley. A
+large hall opened into a living room and a dining room, by means of
+large double doors, which had been drawn back, so as to make one room
+of them.
+
+As they pushed their way through the crowd of rough young fellows who
+clustered round the door, as if afraid their escape might be cut off,
+Fraser observed that the floor was already crowded with dancers.
+
+The quadrille came to an end as he arrived, and, after they had seated
+their partners, red-faced perspiring young punchers swelled the knot
+around the door.
+
+Alec stayed to chaff with them, while the Texan sauntered across the
+floor and took a seat on one of the benches which lined the walls. As
+he did so, a man and his partner, so busy in talk with each other that
+they had not observed who he was, sat down beside him in such position
+that the young woman was next him. Without having looked directly at
+either of them, Fraser knew that the girl was Arlie Dillon, and her
+escort Jed Briscoe. She had her back half turned toward him, so that,
+even after she was seated she did not recognize her neighbor.
+
+Steve smiled pleasantly, and became absorbed in a rather noisy bout of
+repartee going on between one swain and his lass, not so absorbed,
+however, as not to notice that he and his unconscious neighbors were
+becoming a covert focus of attention. He had already noticed a shade
+of self-consciousness in the greeting of those whom he met, a hint of
+a suggestion that he was on trial. Among some this feeling was
+evidently more pronounced. He met more than one pair of eyes that gave
+back to his genial nod cold hostility.
+
+At such an affair as this, Jed Briscoe was always at his best. He was
+one of the few men in the valley who knew how to waltz well, and music
+and rhythm always brought out in him a gay charm women liked. His
+lithe grace, his assurance, his ease of manner and speech, always
+differentiated him from the other ranchmen.
+
+No wonder rumor had coupled his name with that of Arlie as her future
+husband. He knew how to make light love by implication, to skate
+around the subject skilfully and boldly with innuendo and suggestion.
+
+Arlie knew him for what he was-- a man passionate and revengeful, the
+leader of that side of the valley's life which she deplored. She did
+not trust him. Nevertheless, she felt his fascination. He made that
+appeal to her which a graceless young villain often does to a good
+woman who lets herself become interested in trying to understand the
+sinner and his sins. There was another reason why just now she showed
+him special favor. She wanted to blunt the edge of his anger against
+the Texan ranger, though her reason for this she did not admit even to
+herself.
+
+She had-- oh, she was quite sure of this-- no longer any interest in
+Fraser except the impersonal desire to save his life. Having thought
+it all over, she was convinced that her friends had nothing to fear
+from him as a spy. That was what he had tried to tell her when she
+would not listen.
+
+Deep in her heart she knew why she had not listened. It had to do with
+that picture of a pretty girl smiling up happily into his eyes-- a
+thing she had not forgotten for one waking moment since. Like a knife
+the certainty had stabbed her heart that they were lovers. Her
+experience had been limited. Kodaks had not yet reached Lost Valley as
+common possessions. In the mountains no girl had her photograph taken
+beside a man unless they had a special interest in each other. And the
+manner of these two had implied the possession of a secret not known
+to the world.
+
+So Arlie froze her heart toward the Texan, all the more because he had
+touched her girlish imagination to sweet hidden dreams of which her
+innocence had been unnecessarily ashamed. He had spoken no love to
+her, nor had he implied it exactly. There had been times she had
+thought something more than friendship lay under his warm smile. But
+now she scourged herself for her folly, believed she had been
+unmaidenly, and set her heart to be like flint against him. She had
+been ready to give him what he had not wanted. Before she would let
+him guess it she would rather die, a thousand times rather, she told
+herself passionately.
+
+She presently became aware that attention was being directed toward
+her and Jed and somebody who sat on the other side of her. Without
+looking round, she mentioned the fact in a low voice to her partner of
+the dance just finished. Jed looked up, and for the first time
+observed the man behind her. Instantly the gayety was sponged from his
+face.
+
+"Who is it?" she asked.
+
+"That man from Texas."
+
+Arlie felt the blood sting her cheeks. The musicians were just
+starting a waltz. She leaned slightly toward Jed, and said, in a low
+voice:
+
+"Did you ask me to dance this with you?"
+
+He had not, but he did now. He got to his feet, with shining eyes, and
+whirled her off. The girl did not look toward the Texan. Nevertheless,
+as they circled the room, she was constantly aware of him. Sitting
+there, with a smile on his strong face, apparently unperturbed, he
+gave no hint of the stern fact that he was circled by enemies, any one
+of whom might carry his death in a hip pocket. His gaze was serene,
+unabashed, even amused.
+
+The young woman was irritably suspicious that he found her anger
+amusing, just as he seemed to find the dangerous position in which he
+was placed. Yet her resentment coexisted with a sympathy for him that
+would not down. She believed he was marked for death by a coterie of
+those present, chief of whom was the man smiling down into her face
+from half-shut, smouldering eyes.
+
+Her heart was a flame of protest against their decree, all the more so
+because she held herself partly responsible for it. In a panic of
+repentance, she had told Dick of her confession to the ranger of the
+names of the Squaw Creek raiders, and France had warned his
+confederates. He had done this, not because he distrusted Fraser, but
+because he felt it was their due to get a chance to escape if they
+wanted to do so.
+
+Always a creature of impulse, Arlie had repented her repentance when
+too late. Now she would have fought to save the Texan, but the horror
+of it was that she could not guess how the blow would fall. She tried
+to believe he was safe, at least until the week was up.
+
+When Dick strolled across the floor, sat down beside Steve, and began
+casually to chat with him, she could have thanked the boy with tears.
+It was equivalent to a public declaration of his intentions. At least,
+the ranger was not friendless. One of the raiders was going to stand
+by him. Besides Dick, he might count on Howard; perhaps on others.
+
+Jed was in high good humor. All along the line he seemed to be
+winning. Arlie had discarded this intruder from Texas and was showing
+herself very friendly to the cattleman. The suspicion of Fraser which
+he had disseminated was bearing fruit; and so, more potently, was the
+word the girl had dropped incautiously. He had only to wait in order
+to see his rival wiped out. So that, when Arlie put in her little
+plea, he felt it would not cost him anything to affect a large
+generosity.
+
+"Let him go, Jed. He is discredited. Folks are all on their guard
+before him now. He can't do any harm here. Dick says he is only
+waiting out his week because of your threat. Don't make trouble. Let
+him sneak back home, like a whipped cur," she begged.
+
+"I don't want any trouble with him, girl. All I ask is that he leave
+the valley. Let Dick arrange that, and I'll give him a chance."
+
+She thanked him, with a look that said more than words.
+
+It was two hours later, when she was waltzing with Jed again, that
+Arlie caught sight of a face that disturbed her greatly. It was a
+countenance disfigured by a ragged scar, running from the bridge of
+the nose. She had last seen it gazing into the window of Alec Howard's
+cabin on a certain never-to-be-forgotten night.
+
+"Who is that man-- the one leaning against the door jamb, just behind
+Slim Leroy?" she asked.
+
+"He's a fellow that calls himself Johnson. His real name is Struve,"
+Jed answered carelessly.
+
+"He's the man that shot the Texas lieutenant," she said.
+
+"I dare say. He's got a good reason for shooting him. The man broke
+out of the Arizona penitentiary, and Fraser came north to rearrest
+him. At least, that's my guess. He wouldn't have been here to-night if
+he hadn't figured Fraser too sick to come. Watch him duck when he
+learns the ranger's here."
+
+At the first opportunity Arlie signaled to Dick that she wanted to see
+him. Fraser, she observed, was no longer in the dancing rooms. Dick
+took her out from the hot room to the porch.
+
+"Let's walk a little, Dick. I want to tell you something."
+
+They sauntered toward the fine grove of pines that ran up the hillside
+back of the house.
+
+"Did you notice that man with the scar, Dick?" she presently asked.
+
+"Yes. I ain't seen him before. Must be one of the Rabbit Run guys, I
+take it."
+
+"I've seen him. He's the man that shot your friend. He was the man I
+shot at when he looked in the window,"
+
+"Sure, Arlie?"
+
+"Dead sure, Dick. He's an escaped convict, and he has a grudge at your
+friend. He is afraid of him, too. Look out for Lieutenant Fraser
+to-night. Don't let him wander around outside. If he does, there may
+be murder done."
+
+Even as she spoke, there came a sound from the wooded hillside-- the
+sound of a stifled cry, followed by an imprecation and the heavy
+shuffling of feet.
+
+"Listen, Dick!"
+
+For an instant he listened. Then: "There's trouble in the grove, and
+I'm not armed," he cried.
+
+"Never mind! Go-- go!" she shrieked, pushing him forward.
+
+For herself, she turned, and ran like a deer for the house.
+
+Siegfried was sitting on the porch, whittling a stick.
+
+"They-- they're killing Steve-- in the grove," she panted.
+
+Without a word he rolled off, like a buffalo cow, toward the scene of
+action.
+
+Arlie pushed into the house and called for Jed.
+
+  CHAPTER XIII
+
+ THE WOLF HOWLS
+
+As Steve strolled out into the moonlight, he left behind him the
+monotonous thumping of heavy feet and the singsong voice of the
+caller.
+
+         "Birdie fly out,
+          Crow hop in,
+          Join all hands
+         And circle ag'in."
+
+came to him, in the high, strident voice of Lute Perkins. He took a
+deep breath of fresh, clean air, and looked about him. After the hot,
+dusty room, the grove, with its green foliage, through which the
+moonlight filtered, looked invitingly cool. He sauntered forward,
+climbed the hill up which the wooded patch straggled, and sat down,
+with his back to a pine.
+
+Behind the valley rampart, he could see the dim, saw-toothed Teton
+peaks, looking like ghostly shapes in the moonlight. The night was
+peaceful. Faint and mellow came the sound of jovial romping from the
+house; otherwise, beneath the distant stars, a perfect stillness held.
+
+How long he sat there, letting thoughts happen dreamily rather than
+producing them of gray matter, he did not know. A slight sound, the
+snapping of a twig, brought his mind to alertness without causing the
+slightest movement of his body.
+
+His first thought was that, in accordance with dance etiquette in the
+ranch country, his revolver was in its holster under the seat of the
+trap in which they had driven over. Since his week was not up, he had
+expected no attack from Jed and his friends. As for the enemy, of whom
+Arlie had advised him, surely a public dance was the last place to
+tempt one who apparently preferred to attack from cover. But his
+instinct was certain. He did not need to look round to know he was
+trapped.
+
+"I'm unarmed. You'd better come round and shoot me from in front. It
+will look better at the inquest," he said quietly.
+
+"Don't move. You're surrounded," a voice answered.
+
+A rope snaked forward and descended over the ranger's head, to be
+jerked tight, with a suddenness that sent a pain like a knife thrust
+through the wounded shoulder. The instinct for self-preservation was
+already at work in him. He fought his left arm free from the rope that
+pressed it to his side, and dived toward the figure at the end of the
+rope. Even as he plunged, he found time to be surprised that no
+revolver shot echoed through the night, and to know that the reason
+was because his enemies preferred to do their work in silence.
+
+The man upon whom he leaped gave a startled oath and stumbled backward
+over a root.
+
+Fraser, his hand already upon the man's throat, went down too. Upon
+him charged men from all directions. In the shadows, they must have
+hampered each other, for the ranger, despite his wound-- his shoulder
+was screaming with pain-- got to his knees, and slowly from his knees
+to his feet, shaking the clinging bodies from him.
+
+Wrenching his other hand from under the rope, he fought them back as a
+hurt grizzly does the wolf pack gathered for the kill. None but a very
+powerful man could ever have reached his feet. None less agile and
+sinewy than a panther could have beaten them back as at first he did.
+They fought in grim silence, yet the grove was full of the sounds of
+battle. The heavy breathing, the beat of shifting feet, the soft
+impact of flesh striking flesh, the thud of falling bodies-- of these
+the air was vocal. Yet, save for the gasps of sudden pain, no man
+broke silence save once.
+
+"The snake'll get away yet!" a hoarse voice cried, not loudly, but
+with an emphasis that indicated strong conviction.
+
+Impossible as it seemed, the ranger might have done it but for an
+accident. In the struggle, the rope had slipped to a point just below
+his knees. Fighting his way down the hill, foot by foot, the Texan
+felt the rope tighten. One of his attackers flung himself against his
+chest and he was tripped. The pack was on him again. Here there was
+more light, and though for a time the mass swayed back and forth, at
+last they hammered him down by main strength. He was bound hand and
+foot, and dragged back to the grove.
+
+They faced their victim, panting deeply from their exertions. Fraser
+looked round upon the circle of distorted faces, and stopped at one.
+Seen now, with the fury and malignancy of its triumph painted upon it,
+the face was one to bring bad dreams.
+
+The lieutenant, his chest still laboring heavily, racked with the
+torture of his torn shoulder, looked into that face out of the only
+calm eyes in the group.
+
+"So it's you, Struve?"
+
+"Yes, it's me-- me and my friends."
+
+"I've been looking for you high and low."
+
+"Well, you've found me," came the immediate exultant answer.
+
+"I reckon I'm indebted to you for this." Fraser moved his shoulder
+slightly.
+
+"You'll owe me a heap more than that before the night's over."
+
+"Your intentions were good then, I expect. Being shy a trigger finger
+spoils a man's aim."
+
+"Not always."
+
+"Didn't like to risk another shot from Bald Knob, eh? Must be some
+discouraging to hit only once out of three times at three hundred
+yards, and a scratch at that."
+
+The convict swore. "I'll not miss this time, Mr. Lieutenant."
+
+"You'd better not, or I'll take you back to the penitentiary where I
+put you before."
+
+"You'll never put another man there, you meddling spy," Struve cried
+furiously.
+
+"I'm not so sure of that. I know what you've got against me, but I
+should like to know what kick your friends have coming," the ranger
+retorted.
+
+"You may have mine, right off the reel, Mr. Fraser, or whatever you
+call yourself. You came into this valley with a lie on your lips. We
+played you for a friend, and you played us for suckers. All the time
+you was in a deal with the sheriff for you know what. I hate a spy
+like I do a rattlesnake."
+
+It was the man Yorky that spoke. Steve's eyes met his.
+
+"So I'm a spy, am I?"
+
+"You know best."
+
+"Anyhow, you're going to shoot me first, and find out afterward?"
+
+"Wrong guess. We're going to hang you." Struve, unable to keep back
+longer his bitter spleen, hissed this at him.
+
+"Yes, that's about your size, Struve. You can crow loud now, when the
+odds are six to one, with the one unarmed and tied at that. But what I
+want to know is-- are you playing fair with your friends? Have you
+told them that every man in to-night's business will hang, sure as
+fate? Have you told them of those cowardly murders you did in Arizona
+and Texas? Have you told them that your life is forfeit, anyway? Do
+they know you're trying to drag them into your troubles? No? You
+didn't tell them that. I'm surprised at you, Struve."
+
+"My name's Johnson."
+
+"Not in Arizona, it isn't. Wolf Struve it is there, wanted for murder
+and other sundries." He turned swiftly from him to his confederates.
+"You fools, you're putting your heads into a noose. He's in already,
+and wants you in, too. Test him. Throw the end of that rope over the
+limb, and stand back, while he pulls me up alone. He daren't-- not for
+his life, he daren't. He knows that whoever pulls on that rope hangs
+himself as surely as he hangs me."
+
+The men looked at each other, and at Struve. Were they being led into
+trouble to pay this man's scores off for him? Suspicion stirred
+uneasily in them.
+
+"That's right, too. Let Johnson pull him up," Slim Leroy said
+sullenly.
+
+"Sure. You've got more at stake than we have. It's up to you,
+Johnson," Yorky agreed.
+
+"That's right," a third chipped in.
+
+"We'll all pull together, boys," Struve insinuated. "It's only a bluff
+of his. Don't let him scare you off."
+
+"He ain't scaring me off any," declared Yorky. "He's a spy, and he's
+getting what is coming to him. But you're a stranger too, Johnson. I
+don't trust you any-- not any farther than I can see you, my friend.
+I'll stand for being an aider and abettor, but I reckon if there's any
+hanging to be done you'll have to be the sheriff," replied Yorky
+stiffly.
+
+Struve turned his sinister face on one and another of them. His lips
+were drawn back, so that the wolfish teeth gleamed in the moonlight.
+He felt himself being driven into a trap, from which there was no
+escape. He dared not let Fraser go with his life, for he knew that,
+sooner or later, the ranger would run him to earth, and drag him back
+to the punishment that was awaiting him in the South. Nor did he want
+to shoulder the responsibility of murdering this man before five
+witnesses.
+
+Came the sound of running footsteps.
+
+"What's that?" asked Slim nervously.
+
+"Where are you, Steve?" called a voice.
+
+"Here," the ranger shouted back.
+
+A moment later Dick France burst into the group. "What's doing?" he
+panted.
+
+The ranger laughed hardily. "Nothing, Dick. Nothing at all. Some of
+the boys had notions of a necktie party, but they're a little shy of
+sand. Have you met Mr. Struve, Dick? I know you're acquainted with the
+others, Mr. Struve is from Yuma. An old friend of mine. Fact is, I
+induced him to locate at Yuma."
+
+Dick caught at the rope, but Yorky flung him roughly back.
+
+"This ain't your put in, France," he said. "It's up to Johnson." And
+to the latter: "Get busy, if you're going to."
+
+"He's a spy on you-all, just the same as he is on me," blurted the
+convict.
+
+"That's a lie, Struve," pronounced the lieutenant evenly. "I'm going
+to take you back with me, but I've got nothing against these men. I
+want to announce right now, no matter who tells a different story,
+that I haven't lost any Squaw Creek raiders and I'm not hunting any."
+
+"You hear? He came into this valley after me."
+
+"Wrong again, Struve. I didn't know you were here. But I know now, and
+I serve notice that I'm going to take you back with me, dead or alive.
+That's what I'm paid for, and that's what I'm going to do."
+
+It was amazing to hear this man, with a rope round his neck, announce
+calmly what he was going to do to the man who had only to pull that
+rope to send him into eternity. The very audacity of it had its
+effect.
+
+Slim spoke up. "I don't reckon we better go any farther with this
+thing, Yorky."
+
+"No, I don't reckon you had," cut in Dick sharply. "I'll not stand for
+it."
+
+Again the footsteps of a running man reached them. It was Siegfried.
+He plunged into the group like a wild bull, shook the hair out of his
+eyes, and planted himself beside Fraser. With one backward buffet of
+his great arm he sent Johnson heels over head. He caught Yorky by the
+shoulders, strong man though the latter was, and shook him till his
+teeth rattled, after which he flung him reeling a dozen yards to the
+ground. The Norwegian was reaching for Dick when Fraser stopped him.
+
+"That's enough of a clean-up right now, Sig. Dick butted in like you
+to help me," he explained.
+
+"The durned coyotes!" roared the big Norseman furiously, leaping at
+Leroy and tossing him over his head as an enraged bull does. He turned
+upon the other three, shaking his tangled mane, but they were already
+in flight.
+
+"I'll show them. I'll show them," he kept saying as he came back to
+the man he had rescued.
+
+"You've showed them plenty, Sig. Cut out the rough house before you
+maim some of these gents who didn't invite you to their party."
+
+The ranger felt the earth sway beneath him as he spoke. His wound had
+been torn loose in the fight, and was bleeding. Limply he leaned
+against the tree for support.
+
+It was at this moment he caught sight of Arlie and Briscoe as they ran
+up. Involuntarily he straightened almost jauntily. The girl looked at
+him with that deep, eager look of fear he had seen before, and met
+that unconquerable smile of his.
+
+The rope was still round his neck and the coat was stripped from his
+back. He was white to the lips, and she could see he could scarce
+stand, even with the support of the pine trunk. His face was bruised
+and battered. His hat was gone; and hidden somewhere in his crisp
+short hair was a cut from which blood dripped to the forehead. The
+bound arm had been torn from its bandages in the unequal battle he had
+fought. But for all his desperate plight he still carried the
+invincible look that nothing less than death can rob some men of.
+
+The fretted moonlight, shifting with the gentle motion of the foliage
+above, fell full upon him now and showed a wet, red stain against the
+white shirt. Simultaneously outraged nature collapsed, and he began to
+sink to the ground.
+
+Arlie gave a little cry and ran forward. Before he reached the ground
+he had fainted; yet scarcely before she was on her knees beside him
+with his head in her arms.
+
+"Bring water, Dick, and tell Doc Lee to come at once. He'll be in the
+back room smoking. Hurry!" She looked fiercely round upon the men
+assembled. "I think they have killed him. Who did this? Was it you,
+Yorky? Was it you that murdered him?"
+
+"I bane t'ink it take von hoondred of them to do it," said Siegfried.
+"Dat fallar, Johnson, he bane at the bottom of it."
+
+"Then why didn't you kill him? Aren't you Steve's friend? Didn't he
+save your life?" she panted, passion burning in her beautiful eyes.
+
+Siegfried nodded. "I bane Steve's friend, yah! And Ay bane kill
+Johnson eef Steve dies."
+
+Briscoe, furious at this turn of the tide which had swept Arlie's
+sympathies back to his enemy, followed Struve as he sneaked deeper
+into the shadow of the trees. The convict was nursing a sprained wrist
+when Jed reached him.
+
+"What do you think you've been trying to do, you sap-headed idiot?"
+Jed demanded. "Haven't you sense enough to choose a better time than
+one when the whole settlement is gathered to help him? And can't you
+ever make a clean job of it, you chuckle-minded son of a greaser?"
+
+Struve turned, snarling, on him. "That'll be enough from you, Briscoe.
+I've stood about all I'm going to stand just now."
+
+"You'll stand for whatever I say," retorted Jed. "You've cooked your
+goose in this valley by to-night's fool play. I'm the only man that
+can pull you through. Bite on that fact, Mr. Struve, before you unload
+your bile on me."
+
+The convict's heart sank. He felt it to be the truth. The last thing
+he had heard was Siegfried's threat to kill him.
+
+Whether Fraser lived or died he was in a precarious position and he
+knew it.
+
+"I know you're my friend, Jed," he whined. "I'll do what you say.
+Stand by me and I'll sure work with you."
+
+"Then if you take my advice you'll sneak down to the corral, get your
+horse, and light out for the run. Lie there till I see you."
+
+"And Siegfried?"
+
+"The Swede won't trouble you unless this Texan dies. I'll send you
+word in time if he does."
+
+Later a skulking shadow sneaked into the corral and out again. Once
+out of hearing, it leaped to the back of the horse and galloped wildly
+into the night.
+
+  CHAPTER XIV
+
+ HOWARD EXPLAINS
+
+Two horsemen rode into Millikan's Draw and drew up in front of the big
+ranch house. To the girl who stepped to the porch to meet them they
+gave friendly greeting. One of them asked:
+
+"How're things coming, Arlie?"
+
+"Better and better every day, Dick. Yesterday the doctor said he was
+out of danger."
+
+"It's been a tough fight for Steve," the other broke in. "Proper
+nursing is what pulled him through. Doc says so."
+
+"Did he say that, Alec? I'll always think it was doc. He fought for
+that life mighty hard, boys."
+
+Alec Howard nodded: "Doc Lee's the stuff. Here he comes now, talking
+of angels."
+
+Doctor Lee dismounted and grinned. "Which of you lads is she making
+love to now?"
+
+Arlie laughed. "He can't understand that I don't make love to anybody
+but him," she explained to the younger men.
+
+"She never did to me, doc," Dick said regretfully.
+
+"No, we were just talking about you, doc."
+
+"Fire ahead, young woman," said the doctor, with assumed severity.
+"I'm here to defend myself now."
+
+"Alec was calling you an angel, and I was laughing at him," said the
+girl demurely.
+
+"An angel-- huh!" he snorted.
+
+"I never knew an angel that chewed tobacco, or one that could swear
+the way you do when you're mad," continued Arlie.
+
+"I don't reckon your acquaintance with angels is much greater than
+mine, Miss Arlie Dillon. How's the patient?"
+
+"He's always wanting something to eat, and he's cross as a bear."
+
+"Good for him! Give him two weeks now and he'll be ready to whip his
+weight in wild cats."
+
+The doctor disappeared within, and presently they could hear his loud,
+cheerful voice pretending to berate the patient.
+
+Arlie sat down on the top step of the porch.
+
+"Boys, I don't know what I would have done if he had died. It would
+have been all my fault. I had no business to tell him the names of you
+boys that rode in the raid, and afterward to tell you that I told
+him," she accused herself.
+
+"No, you had no business to tell him, though it happens he's safe as a
+bank vault," Howard commented.
+
+"I don't know how I came to do it," the girl continued. "Jed had made
+me suspicious of him, and then I found out something fine he had done
+for me. I wanted him to know I trusted him. That was the first thing I
+thought of, and I told it. He tried to stop me, but I'm such an
+impulsive little fool."
+
+"We all make breaks, Arlie. You'll not do it again, anyhow," France
+comforted.
+
+Doctor Lee presently came out and pronounced that the wounded man was
+doing well. "Wants to see you boys. Don't stay more than half an hour.
+If they get in your way, sweep 'em out, Arlie."
+
+The cowpunchers entered the sick room with the subdued, gingerly tread
+of professional undertakers.
+
+"I ain't so had as that yet, boys," the patient laughed. "You're
+allowed to speak above a whisper. Doc thinks I'll last till night,
+mebbe, if I'm careful."
+
+They told him all the gossip of the range-- how young Ford had run off
+with Sallie Laundon and got married to her down at the Butte; how
+Siegfried had gone up and down the valley swearing he would clean out
+Jack Rabbit Run if Steve died; how Johnson had had another row with
+Jed and had chosen to take water rather than draw. Both of his
+visitors, however, had something on their minds they found some
+difficulty in expressing.
+
+Alec Howard finally broached it.
+
+"Arlie told you the names of some of the boys that were in the Squaw
+Creek sheep raid. She made a mistake in telling you anything, but
+we'll let that go in the discard. It ain't necessary that you should
+know the names of the others, but I'm going to tell you one of them,
+Steve."
+
+"No, I don't want to know."
+
+"This is my say-so. His name is Alec Howard."
+
+"I'm sorry to hear that, Alec. I don't know why you have told me."
+
+"Because I want you to know the facts of that raid, Steve. No killing
+was on the program. That came about in a way none of us could
+foresee."
+
+"This is how it was, Steve," explained Dick. "Word came that Campeau
+was going to move his sheep into the Squaw Creek district. Sheep never
+had run there. It was understood the range there was for our cattle.
+We had set a dead line, and warned them not to cross it. Naturally, it
+made us sore when we heard about Campeau.
+
+"So some of us gathered together hastily and rode over. Our intentions
+were declared. We meant to drive the sheep back and patrol the dead
+line. It was solemnly agreed that there was to be no shooting, not
+even of sheep."
+
+The story halted here for a moment before Howard took it up again.
+"Things don't always come out the way you figure them. We didn't
+anticipate any trouble. We outnumbered them two to one. We had the
+advantage of the surprise. You couldn't guess that for anything but a
+cinch, could you?"
+
+"And it turned out different?"
+
+"One of us stumbled over a rock as we were creeping forward. Campeau
+heard us and drew. The first shot came from them. Now, I'm going to
+tell you something you're to keep under your own hat. It will surprise
+you a heap when I tell you that one man on our side did all the
+damage. He was at the haid of the line, and it happens he is a dead
+shot. He is liable to rages, when he acts like a crazy man. He got one
+now. Before we could put a stopper on him, he had killed Campeau and
+Jennings, and wounded the herders. The whole thing was done before you
+could wink an eye six times. For just about that long we stood there
+like roped calves. Then we downed the man in his tracks, slammed him
+with the butt of a revolver."
+
+Howard stopped and looked at the ranger before he spoke again. His
+voice was rough and hoarse.
+
+"Steve, I've seen men killed before, but I never saw anything so awful
+as that. It was just like they had been struck by lightning for
+suddenness. There was that devil scattering death among them and the
+poor fellows crumpling up like rabbits. I tell you every time I think
+of it the thing makes me sick."
+
+The ranger nodded. He understood. The picture rose before him of a man
+in a Berserk rage, stark mad for the moment, playing Destiny on that
+lonely, moonlit hill. The face his instinct fitted to the
+irresponsible murderer was that of Jed Briscoe. Somehow he was sure of
+that, beyond the shadow of a doubt. His imagination conceived that
+long ride back across the hills, the deep agonies of silence, the
+fierce moments of vindictive accusation. No doubt for long the tug of
+conscience was with them in all their waking hours, for these men were
+mostly simple-minded cattlemen caught in the web of evil chance.
+
+"That's how it was, Steve. In as long as it takes to empty a
+Winchester, we were every one of us guilty of a murder we'd each have
+given a laig to have stopped. We were all in it, all tied together,
+because we had broke the law to go raiding in the first place.
+Technically, the man that emptied that rifle wasn't any more guilty
+than us poor wretches that stood frozen there while he did it. Put it
+that we might shave the gallows, even then the penitentiary would bury
+us. There was only one thing to do. We agreed to stand together, and
+keep mum."
+
+"Is that why you're telling me, Alec?" Fraser smiled.
+
+"We ain't telling you, not legally," the cow-puncher answered coolly.
+"If you was ever to say we had, Dick and me would deny it. But we
+ain't worrying any about you telling it. You're a clam, and we know
+it. No, we're telling you, son, because we want you to know about how
+it was. The boys didn't ride out to do murder. They rode out simply to
+drive the sheep off their range."
+
+The Texan nodded. "That's about how I figured it. I'm glad you told
+me, boys. I reckon I don't need to tell you I'm padlocked in regard to
+this."
+
+Arlie came to the door and looked in. "It's time you boys were going.
+Doc said a half hour"
+
+"All right, Arlie," responded Dick. "So-long, Steve. Be good, you old
+pie eater."
+
+After they had gone, the Texan lay silent for a long time. He
+understood perfectly their motive in telling him the story. They had
+not compromised themselves legally, since a denial would have given
+them two to one in the matter of witnesses. But they wished him to see
+that, morally, every man but one who rode on that raid was guiltless
+of the Squaw Creek murders.
+
+Arlie came in presently, and sat down near the window with some
+embroidery.
+
+"Did the boys tire you?" she asked, noting his unusual silence.
+
+"No. I was thinking about what they told me. They were giving me the
+inside facts of the Squaw Creek raid."
+
+She looked up in surprise. "They were?" A little smile began to dimple
+the corners of her mouth. "That's funny, because they had just got
+through forgiving me for what I told you."
+
+"What they told me was how the shooting occurred."
+
+"I don't know anything about that. When I told you their names I was
+only telling what I had heard people whisper. That's all I knew."
+
+"You've been troubled because your friends were in this, haven't you?
+You hated to think it of them, didn't you?" he asked.
+
+"Yes. It has troubled me a lot."
+
+"Don't let it trouble you any more. One man was responsible for all
+the bloodshed. He went mad and saw red for half a minute. Before the
+rest could stop him, the slaughter was done. The other boys aren't
+guilty of that, any more than you or I."
+
+"Oh, I'm glad-- I'm glad," she cried softly. Then, looking up quickly
+to him: "Who was the man?" she asked.
+
+"I don't know. It is better that neither of us should know that."
+
+"I'm glad the boys told you. It shows they trust you."
+
+"They figure me out a white man," he answered carelessly.
+
+"Ah! That's where I made my mistake." She looked at him bravely,
+though the color began to beat into her cheeks beneath the dusky tan.
+"Yet I knew it all the time-- in my heart. At least, after I had given
+myself time to think it over. I knew you couldn't be that. If I had
+given you time to explain-- but I always think too late."
+
+His eyes, usually so clear and steely, softened at her words. "I'm
+satisfied if you knew-- in your heart."
+
+"I meant----" she began, with a flush.
+
+"Now, don't spoil it, please," he begged.
+
+Under his steady, half-smiling gaze, her eyes fell. Two weeks ago she
+had been a splendid young creature, as untaught of life as one of the
+wild forest animals and as unconsciously eager for it. But there had
+come a change over her, a birth of womanhood from that night when she
+had stood between Stephen Fraser and death. No doubt she would often
+regret it, but she had begun to live more deeply. She could never go
+back to the care-free days when she could look all men in the face
+with candid, girlish eyes. The time had come to her, as it must to all
+sensitive of life, when she must drink of it, whether she would or no.
+
+"Because I'd rather you would know it in your heart than in your
+mind," he said.
+
+Something sweet and terrifying, with the tingle and warmth of rare
+wine in it, began to glow in her veins. Eyes shy, eager, frightened,
+met his for an instant. Then she remembered the other girl. Something
+hard as steel ran through her. She turned on her heel and left the
+room.
+
+  CHAPTER XV
+
+ THE TEXAN PAYS A VISIT
+
+From that day Fraser had a new nurse. Arlie disappeared, and her aunt
+replaced her a few hours later and took charge of the patient. Steve
+took her desertion as an irritable convalescent does, but he did not
+let his disappointment make him unpleasant to Miss Ruth Dillon.
+
+"I'm a chump," he told himself, with deep disgust. "Hadn't any more
+sense than to go scaring off the little girl by handing out a line of
+talk she ain't used to. I reckon now she's done with me proper."
+
+He continued to improve so rapidly that within the prescribed two
+weeks he was on horseback again, though still a little weak and washed
+out. His first ride of any length was to the Dillon ranch. Siegfried
+accompanied him, and across the Norwegian's saddle lay a very
+business-like rifle.
+
+As they were passing the mouth of a cańon, the ranger put a casual
+question: "This Jack Rabbit Run, Sig?"
+
+"Yah. More men wanted bane lost in that gulch than any place Ay knows
+of."
+
+"That so? I'm going in there to-morrow to find that man Struve," his
+friend announced carelessly.
+
+The big blonde giant looked at him. "Yuh bain't, Steve? Why, yuh
+bain't fit to tackle a den uh wild cats." An admiring grin lit the
+Norwegian's face. "Durn my hide, yuh've got 'em all skinned for grit,
+Steve. Uh course, Ay bane goin' with yuh."
+
+"If it won't get you in bad with your friends I'll be glad to have
+you, Sig."
+
+"They bain't my friends. Ay bane shook them, an' served notice to that
+effect."
+
+"Glad of it."
+
+"Yuh bane goin' in after Struve only?"
+
+"Yes. He's the only man I want."
+
+"Then Ay bane go in, and bring heem out to yuh."
+
+Fraser shook his head. "No, old man, I've got to play my own hand."
+
+"Ay t'ink it be a lot safer f'r me to happen in an' get heem,"
+remonstrated Siegfried.
+
+"Safer for me," corrected the lieutenant, smiling. "No, I can't work
+that way. I've got to take my own chances. You can go along, though,
+on one condition. You're not to interfere between me and Struve. If
+some one else butts in, you may ask him why, if you like.
+
+"Ay bane t'ink yuh von fool, Steve. But Ay bane no boss. Vat yuh says
+goes."
+
+They found Arlie watering geraniums in front of the house. Siegfried
+merely nodded to her and passed on to the stables with the horses.
+Fraser dismounted, offering her his hand and his warm smile.
+
+He had caught her without warning, and she was a little shy of him.
+Not only was she embarrassed, but she saw that he knew it. He sat down
+on the step, while she continued to water her flowers.
+
+"You see your bad penny turned up again, Miss Arlie," he said.
+
+"I didn't know you were able to ride yet, Lieutenant Fraser."
+
+"This is my first try at it. Thought I'd run over and say 'Thank you'
+to my nurse."
+
+"I'll call auntie," she said quickly.
+
+He shook his head. "Not necessary, Miss Arlie. I settled up with her.
+I was thinking of the nurse that ran off and left me."
+
+She was beginning to recover herself. "You want to thank her for
+leaving while there was still hope," she said, with a quick little
+smile.
+
+"Why did you do it? I've been mighty lonesome the past two weeks," he
+said quietly.
+
+"You would be, of course. You are used to an active outdoor life, and
+I suppose the boys couldn't get round to see you very often."
+
+"I wasn't thinking of the boys," he meditated aloud.
+
+Arlie blushed; and to hide her embarrassment she called to Jimmie, who
+was passing: "Bring up Lieutenant Fraser's Teddy. I want him to see
+how well we're caring for his horse."
+
+As a diversion, Teddy served very well. Horse and owner were both
+mightily pleased to see each other. While the animal rubbed its nose
+against his coat, the ranger teased and petted it.
+
+"Hello, you old Teddy hawss. How air things a-comin', pardner?" he
+drawled, with a reversion to his Texas speech. "Plumb tickled to death
+to meet up with yore old master, ain't you? How come it you ain't
+fallen in love with this young lady and forgot Steve?"
+
+"He thinks a lot of me, too," Arlie claimed promptly.
+
+"Don't blame you a bit, Teddy. I'll ce'tainly shake hands with you on
+that. But life's jest meetin' and partin', old hawss. I got to take
+you away for good, day after to-morrow."
+
+"Where are you going?" the girl asked quickly. Then, to cover the
+swift interest of her question: "But, of course, it is time you were
+going back to your business."
+
+"No, ma'am, that is just it. Seems to me either too soon or too late
+to be going."
+
+She had her face turned from him, and was busy over her plants, to
+hide the tremulous dismay that had shaken her at his news.
+
+She did not ask him what he meant, nor did she ask again where he was
+going. For the moment, she could not trust her voice to say more.
+
+"Too late, because I've seen in this valley some one I'll never
+forget, and too soon because that some one will forget me, sure as a
+gun," he told her.
+
+"Not if you write to him."
+
+"It isn't a him. It's my little nurse."
+
+"I'll tell auntie how you feel about it, and I'm sure she won't forget
+you."
+
+"You know mighty well I ain't talking about auntie."
+
+"Then I suppose you must mean me."
+
+"That's who I'm meaning."
+
+"I think I'll be able to remember you if I try-- by Teddy," she
+answered, without looking at him, and devoted herself to petting the
+horse.
+
+"Is it-- would it be any use to say any more, Arlie?" he asked, in a
+low voice, as he stood beside her, with Teddy's nose in his hands.
+
+"I-- I don't know what you mean, sir. Please don't say anything more
+about it." Then again memory of the other girl flamed through her.
+"No, it wouldn't-- not a bit of use, not a bit," she broke out
+fiercely.
+
+"You mean you couldn't----"
+
+The flame in her face, the eyes that met his, as if drawn by a magnet,
+still held their anger, but mingled with it was a piteous plea for
+mercy. "I-- I'm only a girl. Why don't you let me alone?" she cried
+bitterly, and hard upon her own words turned and ran from the room.
+
+Steve looked after her in amazed surprise. "Now don't it beat the band
+the way a woman takes a thing."
+
+Dubiously he took himself to the stable and said good-by to Dillon.
+
+An hour later she went down to dinner still flushed and excited.
+Before she had been in the room two minutes her father gave her a
+piece of startling news.
+
+"I been talking to Steve. Gracious, gyurl, what do you reckon that
+boy's a-goin' to do?"
+
+Arlie felt the color leap into her cheeks.
+
+"What, dad?"
+
+"He's a'goin' back to Gimlet Butte, to give himself up to Brandt, day
+after to-morrow."
+
+"But-- what for?" she gasped.
+
+"Durned if I know! He's got some fool notion about playin' fair. Seems
+he came into the Cedar Mountain country to catch the Squaw Creek
+raiders. Brandt let him escape on that pledge. Well, he's give up that
+notion, and now he thinks, dad gum it, that it's up to him to
+surrender to Brandt again."
+
+The girl's eyes were like stars. "And he's going to go back there and
+give himself up, to be tried for killing Faulkner."
+
+Dillon scratched his head. "By gum, gyurl, I didn't think of that. We
+cayn't let him go."
+
+"Yes, we can."
+
+"Why, honey, he didn't kill Faulkner, looks like. We cayn't let him go
+back there and take our medicine for us. Mebbe he would be lynched.
+It's a sure thing he'd be convicted."
+
+"Never mind. Let him go. I've got a plan, dad." Her vivid face was
+alive with the emotion which spoke in it. "When did he say he was
+going?" she asked buoyantly.
+
+"Day after to-morrow. Seems he's got business that keeps him hyer
+to-morrow. What's yore idee, honey?"
+
+She got up, and whispered it in his ear. His jaw dropped, and he
+stared at her in amazement.
+
+  CHAPTER XVI
+
+ THE WOLF BITES
+
+Steve came drowsily to consciousness from confused dreams of a cattle
+stampede and the click of rifles in the hands of enemies who had the
+drop on him. The rare, untempered sunshine of the Rockies poured into
+his window from a world outside, wonderful as the early morning of
+creation. The hillside opposite was bathed miraculously in a flood of
+light, in which grasshoppers fiddled triumphantly their joy in life.
+The sources of his dreams discovered themselves in the bawl of thirsty
+cattle and the regular clicking of a windmill.
+
+A glance at his watch told him that it was six o'clock.
+
+"Time to get up, Steve," he told himself, and forthwith did.
+
+He chose a rough crash towel, slipped on a pair of Howard's moccasins,
+and went down to the river through an ambient that had the sparkle and
+exhilaration of champagne. The mountain air was still finely crisp
+with the frost, in spite of the sun warmth that was beginning to
+mellow it. Flinging aside the Indian blanket he had caught up before
+leaving the cabin, he stood for an instant on the bank, a human being
+with the physical poise, compactness, and lithe-muscled smoothness of
+a tiger.
+
+Even as he plunged a rifle cracked. While he dived through the air,
+before the shock of the icy water tingled through him, he was planning
+his escape. The opposite bank rose ten feet above the stream. He kept
+under the water until he came close to this, then swam swiftly along
+it with only his head showing, so as to keep him out of sight as much
+as possible.
+
+Half a stone's throw farther the bank fell again to the water's edge,
+the river having broadened and grown shallow, as mountain creeks do.
+The ranger ran, stooping, along the bank, till it afforded him no more
+protection, then dashed across the stony-bottomed stream to the
+shelter of the thick aspens beyond.
+
+Just as he expected, a shot rang from far up the mountainside. In
+another instant he was safe in the foliage of the young aspens.
+
+In the sheer exhilaration of his escape he laughed aloud.
+
+"Last show to score gone, Mr. Struve. I figured it just right. He
+waited too long for his first shot. Then the bank hid me. He wasn't
+expecting to see me away down the stream, so he hadn't time to sight
+his second one."
+
+Steve wound his way in and out among the aspens, working toward the
+tail of them, which ran up the hill a little way and dropped down
+almost to the back door of the cabin. Upon this he was presently
+pounding.
+
+Howard let him in. He had a revolver in his hand, the first weapon he
+could snatch up.
+
+"You durned old idiot! It's a wonder you ain't dead three ways for
+Sunday," he shouted joyfully at sight of him. "Ain't I told you 'steen
+times to do what bathin' you got to do, right here in the shack?"
+
+The Texan laughed again. Naked as that of Father Adam, his splendid
+body was glowing with the bath and the exercise.
+
+"He's ce'tainly the worst chump ever, Alec. Had me in sight all the
+way down to the creek, but waited till I wasn't moving. Reckon he was
+nervous. Anyhow, he waited just one-tenth of a second too late. Shot
+just as I leaned forward for my dive. He gave me a free hair-cut
+though."
+
+A swath showed where the bullet had mowed a furrow of hair so close
+that in one place it had slightly torn the scalp.
+
+"He shot again, didn't he?"
+
+"Yep. I swam along the far bank, so that he couldn't get at me, and
+crossed into the aspens. He got another chance as I was crossing, but
+he had to take it on the fly, and missed."
+
+The cattleman surveyed the hillside cautiously through the front
+window. "I reckon he's pulled his freight, most likely. But we'll stay
+cooped for a while, on the chance. You're the luckiest cuss I ever did
+see. More lives than a cat."
+
+Howard laid his revolver down within reach, and proceeded to light a
+fire in the stove, from which rose presently the pleasant odors of
+aromatic coffee and fried ham and eggs.
+
+"Come and get it, Steve," said Howard, by way of announcing breakfast.
+"No, you don't. I'll take the window seat, and at that we'll have the
+curtain drawn."
+
+They were just finishing breakfast when Siegfried cantered up.
+
+"You bane ready, Steve?" he called in.
+
+Howard appeared in the doorway. "Say, Sig, go down to the corral and
+saddle up Teddy for Steve, will you? Some of his friends have been
+potshotting at him again. No damage done, except to my feelings, but
+there's nothing like being careful."
+
+Siegfried's face darkened. "Ay bane like for know who it vas?"
+
+Howard laughed. "Now, if you'll tell Steve that he'll give you as much
+as six bits, Sig. He's got notions, but they ain't worth any more than
+yours or mine. Say, where you boys going to-day? I've a notion to go
+along."
+
+"Oh, just out for a little pasear," Steve answered casually. "Thought
+you were going to work on your south fence to-day."
+
+"Well, I reckon I better. It sure needs fixing. You lads take good
+care of yourselves. I don't need to tell you not to pass anywhere near
+the run, Sig," he grinned, with the manner of one giving a superfluous
+warning.
+
+Fraser looked at Siegfried, with a smile in his eyes. "No, we'll not
+pass the run to-day, Alec."
+
+A quarter of an hour later they were in the saddle and away. Siegfried
+did not lead his friend directly up the cańon that opened into Jack
+Rabbit Run, but across the hills to a pass, which had to be taken on
+foot. They left the horses picketed on a grassy slope, and climbed the
+faint trail that went steeply up the bowlder-strewn mountain.
+
+The ascent was so steep that the last bit had to be done on all fours.
+It was a rock face, though by no means an impossible one, since
+projecting ledges and knobs offered a foothold all the way. From the
+summit, the trail edged its way down so precipitously that twice
+fallen pines had to be used as ladders for the descent.
+
+As soon as they were off the rocks, the big blonde gave the signal for
+silence. "Ay bane t'ink we might meet up weeth some one," he
+whispered, and urged Steve to follow him as closely as possible.
+
+It was half an hour later that Sig pointed out a small clearing ahead
+of them. "Cabin's right oop on the edge of the aspens. See it?"
+
+The ranger nodded assent.
+
+"Ay bane go down first an' see how t'ings look."
+
+When the Norwegian entered the cabin, he saw two men seated at a
+table, playing seven up. The one facing him was Tommie, the cook; the
+other was an awkward heavy-set fellow, whom he knew for the man he
+wanted, even before the scarred, villainous face was twisted toward
+him.
+
+Struve leaped instantly to his feet, overturning his chair in his
+haste. He had not met the big Norseman since the night he had
+attempted to hang Fraser.
+
+"Ay bane not shoot yuh now," Siegfried told him.
+
+"Right sure of that, are you?" the convict snarled, his hand on his
+weapon. "If you've got any doubts, now's the time to air them, and
+we'll settle this thing right now."
+
+"Ay bane not shoot, Ay tell you."
+
+Tommie, who had ducked beneath the table at the prospect of trouble,
+now cautiously emerged.
+
+"I ain't lost any pills from either of your guns, gents," he
+explained, with a face so laughably and frankly frightened that both
+of the others smiled.
+
+"Have a drink, Siegfried," suggested Struve, by way of sealing the
+treaty. "Tommie, get out that bottle."
+
+"Ay bane t'ink Ay look to my horse first," the Norwegian answered, and
+immediately left by way of the back door not three minutes before Jed
+Briscoe entered by the front one.
+
+Jed shut the door behind him and looked at the convict.
+
+"Well?" he demanded.
+
+Struve faced him sullenly, without answering.
+
+"Tommie, vamos," hinted Briscoe gently, and as soon as the cook had
+disappeared, he repeated his monosyllable: "Well?"
+
+"It didn't come off," muttered the other sulkily.
+
+"Just what I expected. Why not?"
+
+Struve broke into a string of furious oaths. "Because I missed him--
+missed him twice, when he was standing there naked before me. He was
+coming down to the creek to take a bath, and I waited till he was
+close. I had a sure bead on him, and he dived just as I fired. I got
+another chance, when he was running across, farther down, and, by
+thunder, I missed again."
+
+Jed laughed, and the sound of it was sinister.
+
+"Couldn't hit the side of a house, could you? You're nothing but a
+cheap skate, a tin-horn gambler, run down at the heels. All right. I'm
+through with you. Lieutenant Fraser, from Texas, can come along and
+collect whenever he likes. I'll not protect a false alarm like you any
+longer."
+
+Struve looked at him, as a cornered wolf might have done. "What will
+you do?"
+
+"I'll give you up to him. I'll tell him to come in and get you. I'll
+show him the way in, you white-livered cur!" bullied the cattleman,
+giving way to one of his rages.
+
+"You'd better not," snarled the convict. "Not if you want to live."
+
+As they stood facing each other in a panting fury the door opened, to
+let in Siegfried and the ranger.
+
+Jed's rage against Struve died on the spot. He saw his enemy, the
+ranger, before him, and leaped to the conclusion that he had come to
+this hidden retreat to run him down for the Squaw Creek murders.
+Instantly, his hand swept to the hilt of his revolver.
+
+That motion sealed his doom. For Struve knew that Siegfried had
+brought the ranger to capture him, and suspected in the same flash
+that Briscoe was in on the betrayal. Had not the man as good as told
+him so, not thirty seconds before? He supposed that Jed was drawing to
+kill or cover him, and, like a flash of lightning, unscabbarded and
+fired.
+
+"You infernal Judas, I'll get you anyhow," he cried.
+
+Jed dropped his weapon, and reeled back against the wall, where he
+hung for a moment, while the convict pumped a second and a third
+bullet into his body. Briscoe was dead before Fraser could leap
+forward and throw his arms round the man who had killed him.
+
+Between them, they flung Struve to the ground, and disarmed him. The
+convict's head had struck as he went down, and it was not for some
+little time that he recovered fully from his daze. When he did his
+hands were tied behind him.
+
+"I didn't go for to kill him," he whimpered, now thoroughly frightened
+at what he had done. "You both saw it, gentlemen. You did, lieutenant.
+So did you, Sig. It was self-defense. He drew on me. I didn't go to do
+it."
+
+Fraser was examining the dead man's wounds. He looked up, and said to
+his friend: "Nothing to do for him, Sig. He's gone."
+
+"I tell you, I didn't mean to do it," pleaded Struve. "Why,
+lieutenant, that man has been trying to get me to ambush you for
+weeks. I'll swear it." The convict was in a panic of terror, ready to
+curry favor with the man whom he held his deadliest enemy. "Yes,
+lieutenant, ever since you came here. He's been egging me on to kill
+you."
+
+"And you tried it three times?"
+
+"No, sir." He pointed vindictively at the dead man, lying face up on
+the floor. "It was him that ambushed you this morning. I hadn't a
+thing to do with it."
+
+"Don't lie, you coward."
+
+They carried the body to the next room and put it on a bed. Tommie was
+dispatched on a fast horse for help.
+
+Late in the afternoon he brought back with him Doctor Lee, and half an
+hour after sunset Yorky and Slim galloped up. They were for settling
+the matter out of hand by stringing the convict Struve up to the
+nearest pine, but they found the ranger so very much on the spot that
+they reconsidered.
+
+"He's my prisoner, gentlemen. I came in here and took him-- that is,
+with the help of my friend Siegfried. I reckon if you mill it over a
+spell, you'll find you don't want him half as bad as we do," he said
+mildly.
+
+"What's the matter with all of us going in on this thing, lieutenant?"
+proposed Yorky.
+
+"I never did see such a fellow for necktie parties as you are, Yorky.
+Not three weeks ago, you was invitin' me to be chief mourner at one of
+your little affairs, and your friend Johnson was to be master of
+ceremonies. Now you've got the parts reversed. No, I reckon we'll have
+to disappoint you this trip."
+
+"What are you going to do with him?" asked Yorky, with plain
+dissatisfaction.
+
+"I'm going to take him down to Gimlet Butte. Arizona and Wyoming and
+Texas will have to scrap it out for him there." "When, you get him
+there," Yorky said significantly.
+
+"Yes, when I get him there," answered the Texan blandly, carefully
+oblivious of the other's implication.
+
+The moon was beginning to show itself over a hill before the Texan and
+Siegfried took the road with their captive. Fraser had carelessly let
+drop a remark to the effect that they would spend the night at the
+Dillon ranch.
+
+His watch showed eleven o'clock before they reached the ranch, but he
+pushed on without turning in and did not stop until they came to the
+Howard place.
+
+They roused Alec from sleep, and he cooked them a post-midnight
+supper, after which he saddled his cow pony, buckled on his belt, and
+took down his old rifle from the rack.
+
+"I'll jog along with you lads and see the fun," he said.
+
+Their prisoner had not eaten. The best he could do was to gulp down
+some coffee, for he was in a nervous chill of apprehension. Every gust
+of wind seemed to carry to him the patter of pursuit. The hooting of
+an owl sent a tremor through him.
+
+"Don't you reckon we had better hurry?" he had asked with dry lips
+more than once, while the others were eating.
+
+He asked it again as they were setting off.
+
+Howard looked him over with rising disgust, without answering.
+Presently, he remarked, apropos of nothing: "Are all your Texas wolves
+coyotes, Steve?"
+
+He would have liked to know at least that it was a man whose life he
+was protecting, even though the fellow was also a villain. But this
+crumb of satisfaction was denied him.
+
+  CHAPTER XVII
+
+ ON THE ROAD TO GIMLET BUTTE
+
+"We'll go out by the river way," said Howard tentatively. "Eh, what
+think, Sig? It's longer, but Yorky will be expecting us to take the
+short cut over the pass."
+
+The Norwegian agreed. "It bane von chance, anyhow."
+
+By unfrequented trails they traversed the valley till they reached the
+cańon down which poured Squaw Creek on its way to the outside world. A
+road ran alongside this for a mile or two, but disappeared into the
+stream when the gulch narrowed. The first faint streaks of gray dawn
+were lightening the sky enough for Fraser to see this. He was riding
+in advance, and commented upon it to Siegfried, who rode with him.
+
+The Norwegian laughed. "Ay bane t'ink we do some wadin'."
+
+They swung off to the right, and a little later splashed through the
+water for a few minutes and came out into a spreading valley beyond
+the sheer walls of the retreat they had left. Taking the road again,
+they traveled faster than they had been able to do before.
+
+"Who left the valley yesterday for Gimlet Butte, Sig?" Howard asked,
+after it was light enough to see. "I notice tracks of two horses."
+
+"Ay bane vondering. Ay t'ink mebbe West over----"
+
+"I reckon not. This ain't the track of his big bay. Must 'a' been
+yesterday, too, because it rained the night before."
+
+For some hours they could see occasionally the tracks of the two
+horses, but eventually lost them where two trails forked.
+
+"Taking the Sweetwater cutout to the Butte, I reckon," Howard
+surmised.
+
+They traveled all day, except for a stop about ten o'clock for
+breakfast, and another late in the afternoon, to rest the horses. At
+night, they put up at a ranch house, and were in the saddle again
+early in the morning. Before noon, they struck a telephone line, and
+Fraser called up Brandt at a ranch.
+
+"Hello! This Sheriff Brandt? Lieutenant Fraser, of the Texas Rangers,
+is talking. I'm on my way to town with a prisoner. We're at Christy's,
+now. There will, perhaps, be an attempt to take him from us. I'll
+explain the circumstances later. ... Yes.... Yes.... We can hold him,
+I think, but there may be trouble.... Yes, that's it. We have no legal
+right to detain him, I suppose.... That's what I was going to suggest.
+Better send about four men to meet us. We'll come in on the Blasted
+Pine road. About nine to-night, I should think."
+
+As they rode easily along the dusty road, the Texan explained his plan
+to his friends.
+
+"We don't want any trouble with Yorky's crowd. We ain't any of us
+deputies, and my commission doesn't run in Wyoming, of course. My
+notion is to lie low in the hills two or three hours this afternoon,
+and give Brandt a chance to send his men out to meet us. The
+responsibility will be on them, and we can be sworn in as deputies,
+too,"
+
+They rested in a grassy draw, about fifteen miles from town, and took
+the trail again shortly after dark. It was an hour later that Fraser,
+who had an extraordinary quick ear, heard the sound of men riding
+toward them. He drew his party quickly into the shadows of the hills,
+a little distance from the road.
+
+They could hear voices of the advancing party, and presently could
+make out words.
+
+"I tell you, they've got to come in on this road, Slim," one of the
+men was saying dogmatically. "We're bound to meet up with them. That's
+all there is to it."
+
+"Yorky," whispered Howard, in the ranger's ear.
+
+They rode past in pairs, six of them in all. As chance would have it,
+Siegfried's pony, perhaps recognizing a friend among those passing,
+nickered shrilly its greeting. Instantly, the riders drew up.
+
+"Where did that come from?" Yorky asked, in a low voice.
+
+"From over to the right. I see men there now See! Up against that
+hill." Slim pointed toward the group in the shadow.
+
+Yorky hailed them. "That you, Sig?"
+
+"Yuh bane von good guesser," answered the Norwegian.
+
+"How many of you are there?"
+
+"Four, Yorky," Fraser replied.
+
+"There are six of us. We've got you outnumbered, boys."
+
+Very faintly there came to the lieutenant the beat of horses' feet. He
+sparred for time.
+
+"What do you want, Yorky?"
+
+"You know what we want. That murderer you've got there-- that's what
+we want."
+
+"We're taking him in to be tried, Yorky. Justice will be done to him."
+
+"Not at Gimlet Butte it won't. No jury will convict him for killing
+Jed Briscoe, from Lost Valley. We're going to hang him, right now."
+
+"You'll have to fight for him, my friend, and before you do that I
+want you to understand the facts."
+
+"We understand all the facts we need to, right now."
+
+The lieutenant rode forward alone. He knew that soon they too would
+hear the rhythmic beat of the advancing posse.
+
+"We've got all night to settle this, boys. Let's do what is fair and
+square. That's all I ask."
+
+"Now you're shouting, lieutenant. That's all we ask."
+
+"It depends on what you mean by fair and square," another one spoke
+up.
+
+The ranger nodded amiably at him. "That you, Harris? Well, let's look
+at the facts right. Here's Lost Valley, that's had a bad name ever
+since it was inhabited. Far as I can make out its settlers are honest
+men, regarded outside as miscreants. Just as folks were beginning to
+forget it, comes the Squaw Creek raid. Now, I'm not going into that,
+and I'm not going to say a word against the man that lies dead up in
+the hills. But I'll say this: His death solves a problem for a good
+many of the boys up there. I'm going to make it my business to see
+that the facts are known right down in Gimlet Butte. I'm going to lift
+the blame from the boys that were present, and couldn't help what
+happened."
+
+Yorky was impressed, but suspicion was not yet banished from his mind.
+"You seem to know a lot about it, lieutenant."
+
+"No use discussing that, Yorky. I know what I know. Here's the great
+big point: If you lynch the man that shot Jed, the word will go out
+that the valley is still a nest of lawless outlaws. The story will be
+that the Squaw Creek raiders and their friends did it. Just as the
+situation is clearing up nicely, you'll make it a hundred times worse
+by seeming to indorse what Jed did on Squaw Creek."
+
+"By thunder, that's right," Harris blurted.
+
+Fraser spoke again. "Listen, boys. Do you hear horses galloping? That
+is Sheriff Brandt's deputies, coming to our assistance. You've lost
+the game, but you can save your faces yet. Join us, and kelp escort
+the prisoner to town. Nobody need know why you came out. We'll put it
+that it was to guard against a lynching."
+
+The men looked at each other sheepishly. They had been outwitted, and
+in their hearts were glad of it. Harris turned to the ranger with a
+laugh. "You're a good one, Fraser. Kept us here talking, while your
+reėnforcements came up. Well, boys, I reckon we better join the
+Sunday-school class."
+
+So it happened that when Sheriff Brandt and his men came up they found
+the mountain folk united. He was surprised at the size of the force
+with the Texan.
+
+"You're certainly of a cautious disposition, lieutenant. With eight
+men to help you, I shouldn't have figured you needed my posse," he
+remarked.
+
+"It gives you the credit of bringing in the prisoner, sheriff," Steve
+told him unblushingly, voicing the first explanation that came to his
+mind.
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII
+
+ A WITNESS IN REBUTTAL
+
+Two hours later, Lieutenant Fraser was closeted with Brandt and
+Hilliard. He told them his story-- or as much of it as he deemed
+necessary. The prosecuting attorney heard him to an end before he gave
+a short, skeptical laugh.
+
+"It doesn't seem to me you've quite lived up to your reputation,
+lieutenant," he commented.
+
+"I wasn't trying to," retorted Steve.
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"I have told you how I got into the valley. I couldn't go in there and
+betray my friends."
+
+Hilliard wagged his fat forefinger. "How about betraying our trust?
+How about throwing us down? We let you escape, after you had given us
+your word to do this job, didn't we?"
+
+"Yes. I had to throw you down. There wasn't any other way."
+
+"You tell a pretty fishy story, lieutenant. It doesn't stand to reason
+that one man did all the mischief on that Squaw Creek raid."
+
+"It is true. Not a shadow of a doubt of it. I'll bring you three
+witnesses, if you'll agree to hold them guiltless."
+
+"And I suppose I'm to agree to hold you guiltless of Faulkner's death,
+too?" the lawyer demanded.
+
+"I didn't say that. I'm here, Mr. Hilliard, to deliver my person,
+because I can't stand by the terms of our agreement. I think I've been
+fair with you."
+
+Hilliard looked at Brandt, with twinkling eyes. It struck Fraser that
+they had between them some joke in which he was not a sharer.
+
+"You're willing to assume full responsibility for the death of
+Faulkner, are you? Ready to plead guilty, eh?"
+
+Fraser laughed. "Just a moment. I didn't say that. What I said was
+that I'm here to stand my trial. It's up to you to prove me guilty."
+
+"But, in point of fact, you practically admit it."
+
+"In point of fact, I would prefer not to say so. Prove it, if you
+can."
+
+"I have witnesses here, ready to swear to the truth, lieutenant."
+
+"Aren't your witnesses prejudiced a little?"
+
+"Maybe." The smile on Hilliard's fat face broadened. "Two of them are
+right here. Suppose we find out."
+
+He stepped to the door of the inner office, and opened it. From the
+room emerged Dillon and his daughter. The Texan looked at Arlie in
+blank amazement.
+
+"This young lady says she was present, lieutenant, and knows who fired
+the shot that killed Faulkner."
+
+The ranger saw only Arlie. His gaze was full of deep reproach. "You
+came down here to save me," he said, in the manner of one stating a
+fact.
+
+"Why shouldn't I? Ought I to have let you suffer for me? Did you think
+I was so base?"
+
+"You oughtn't to have done it. You have brought trouble on yourself."
+
+Her eyes glowed with deep fires. "I don't care. I have done what was
+right. Did you think dad and I would sit still and let you pay forfeit
+for us?"
+
+The lieutenant's spirits rejoiced at the thing she had done, but his
+mind could not forget what she must go through.
+
+"I'm glad and I'm sorry," he said simply.
+
+Hilliard came, smiling, to relieve the situation. "I've got a piece of
+good news for both of you. Two of the boys that were in that shooting
+scrap three miles from town came to my office the other day and
+admitted that they attacked you. It got noised around that there was a
+girl in it, and they were anxious to have the thing dropped. I don't
+think either of you need worry about it any more."
+
+Dillon gave a shout. "Glory, hallelujah!" He had been much troubled,
+and his relief shone on his face. "I say, gentlemen, that's the best
+news I've heard in twenty years. Let's go celebrate it with just one."
+
+Brandt and Hilliard joined him, but the Texan lingered.
+
+"I reckon I'll join you later, gentlemen," he said.
+
+While their footsteps died away he looked steadily at Arlie. Her eyes
+met his and held fast. Beneath the olive of her cheeks, a color began
+to glow.
+
+He held out both his hands. The light in his eyes softened,
+transfigured his hard face. "You can't help it, honey. It may not be
+what you would have chosen, but it has got to be. You're mine."
+
+Almost beneath her breath she spoke. "You forgot-- the other girl."
+
+"What other girl? There is none-- never was one."
+
+"The girl in the picture."
+
+His eyes opened wide. "Good gracious! She's been married three months
+to a friend of mine. Larry Neill his name is."
+
+"And she isn't your sweetheart at all? Never was?"
+
+"I don't reckon she ever was. Neill took that picture himself. We were
+laughing, because I had just been guying them about how quick they got
+engaged. She was saying I'd be engaged myself before six months. And I
+am. Ain't I?"
+
+She came to him slowly-- first, the little outstretched hands, and
+then the soft, supple, resilient body. Slowly, too, her sweet
+reluctant lips came round to meet his.
+
+"Yes, Steve, I'm yours. I think I always have been, even before I knew
+you."
+
+"Even when you hated me?" he asked presently.
+
+"Most of all, when I hated you," She laughed happily. "That was just
+another way of love."
+
+"We'll have fifty years to find out all the different ways," the man
+promised.
+
+"Fifty years. Oh, Steve!"
+
+She gave a happy little sigh, and nestled closer.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A TEXAS RANGER ***
+
+This file should be named txsrn10.txt or txsrn10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, txsrn11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, txsrn10a.txt
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04
+
+Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/old/2004-01-txsrn10.zip b/old/2004-01-txsrn10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e51d2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2004-01-txsrn10.zip
diff --git a/old/2004-01-txsrn10h.htm b/old/2004-01-txsrn10h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2186180
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2004-01-txsrn10h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,9086 @@
+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html>
+<head>
+<title>A Texas Ranger, by William MacLeod Raine</title>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<style type="text/css">
+<!--
+body {margin:10%; text-align:justify}
+blockquote {font-size:14pt}
+P {font-size:14pt}
+-->
+</style>
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Texas Ranger,
+<br>by William MacLeod Raine
+<br>(#5 in our series by William MacLeod Raine)
+</h1>
+
+<pre>
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: A Texas Ranger
+
+Author: William MacLeod Raine
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4993]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 7, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A TEXAS RANGER ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Jim Weiler, xooqi.com
+
+</pre>
+
+<h1>A Texas Ranger</h1>
+<h2>By William MacLeod Raine, 1910</h2>
+  <HR>
+<P ALIGN=Center class="center">
+F<SMALL>OREWORD</SMALL> <SMALL>TO</SMALL> <SMALL><SUP>Y</SUP>E</SMALL>
+G<SMALL>ENTLE</SMALL> R<SMALL>EADER</SMALL>.
+<P>
+Within the memory of those of us still on the sunny side of forty the more
+remote West has passed from rollicking boyhood to its responsible majority.
+The frontier has gone to join the good Indian. In place of the ranger who
+patrolled the border for "bad men" has come the forest ranger, type of the
+forward lapping tide of civilization. The place where I write this&#151; Tucson,
+Arizona&#151; is now essentially more civilized than New York. Only at the moving
+picture shows can the old West, melodramatically overpainted, be shown to
+the manicured sons and daughters of those, still living, who brought law
+and order to the mesquite.
+<P>
+As Arthur Chapman, the Western poet, has written:
+<BLOCKQUOTE>
+  No loopholes now are framing<BR>
+  Lean faces, grim and brown; <BR>
+  No more keen eyes are aiming<BR>
+  To bring the redskin down.<BR>
+  <BR>
+  The plough team's trappings jingle<BR>
+  Across the furrowed field, <BR>
+  And sounds domestic mingle<BR>
+  Where valor hung its shield.<BR>
+  <BR>
+  But every wind careering<BR>
+  Seems here to breathe a song&#151; <BR>
+  A song of brave frontiering&#151; <BR>
+  A saga of the strong.<BR>
+</BLOCKQUOTE>
+<h3>Part I</h3>
+<h4><I>(In Which Steve Plays Second Fiddle)</I></h4>
+<h2>THE MAN FROM THE PANHANDLE</h2>
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+<h4>A DESERT MEETING</h4>
+<P>
+As she lay crouched in the bear-grass there came to the girl clearly the
+crunch of wheels over disintegrated granite. The trap had dipped into a draw,
+but she knew that presently it would reappear on the winding road. The knowledge
+smote her like a blast of winter, sent chills racing down her spine, and
+shook her as with an ague. Only the desperation of her plight spurred her
+flagging courage.
+<P>
+Round the bend came a pair of bays hitched to a single-seated open rig. They
+were driven by a young man, and as he reached the summit he drew up opposite
+her and looked down into the valley.
+<P>
+It lay in a golden glow at their feet, a basin of pure light and silence
+stretching mile on mile to the distant edge of jagged mountain-line which
+formed its lip. Sunlight strong as wine flooded a clean world, an amber Eden
+slumbering in an unbroken, hazy dream primeval.
+<P>
+"Don't move!"
+<P>
+At the summons the driver swung his head sharply to a picture he will never
+forget. A young woman was standing on the bank at the edge of the road covering
+him with a revolver, having apparently just stepped from behind the trunk
+of the cottonwood beside her. The color had fled her cheeks even to the edge
+of the dull red-copper waves of hair, but he could detect in her slim young
+suppleness no doubt or uncertainty. On the contrary, despite her girlish
+freshness, she looked very much like business. She was like some young wild
+creature of the forest cornered and brought to bay, but the very terror in
+her soul rendered her more dangerous. Of the heart beating like a trip-hammer
+the gray unwinking eyes that looked into hers read nothing. She had schooled
+her taut nerves to obedience, and they answered her resolute will steadily
+despite fluttering pulses.
+<P>
+"Don't move!" she said again.
+<P>
+"What do you want?" he asked harshly.
+<P>
+"I want your team," she panted.
+<P>
+"What for?"
+<P>
+"Never mind. I want it."
+<P>
+The rigor of his gaze slowly softened to a smile compound both of humor and
+grimness. He was a man to appreciate a piquant situation, none the less because
+it was at his expense. The spark that gleamed in his bold eye held some spice
+of the devil.
+<P>
+"All right. This is your hold-up, ma'am. I'll not move," he said, almost
+genially.
+<P>
+She was uneasily aware that his surrender had been too tame. Strength lay
+in that close-gripped salient jaw, in every line of the reckless sardonic
+face, in the set of the lean muscular shoulders. She had nerved herself to
+meet resistance, and instead he was yielding with complacent good nature.
+<P>
+"Get out!" she commanded.
+<P>
+He stepped from the rig and offered her the reins. As she reached for them
+his right hand shot out and caught the wrist that held the weapon, his left
+encircled her waist and drew her to him. She gave a little cry of fear and
+strained from him, fighting with all her lissom strength to free herself.
+<P>
+For all the impression she made the girdle round her waist might have been
+of steel. Without moving, he held her as she struggled, his brown muscular
+fingers slowly tightening round her wrist. Her stifled cry was of pain this
+time, and before it had died the revolver fell to the ground from her paralyzed
+grip.
+<P>
+But her exclamation had been involuntary and born of the soft tender flesh.
+The wild eyes that flamed into his asked for no quarter and received none.
+He drew her slowly down toward him, inch by inch, till she lay crushed and
+panting against him, but still unconquered. Though he held the stiff resistant
+figure motionless she still flashed battle at him.
+<P>
+He looked into the storm and fury of her face, hiding he knew not what of
+terror, and laughed in insolent delight. Then, very deliberately, he kissed
+her lips.
+<P>
+"You&#151; coward!" came instantly her choking defiance.
+<P>
+"Another for that," he laughed, kissing her again.
+<P>
+Her little fist beat against his face and he captured it, but as he looked
+at her something that had come into the girl's face moved his not very accessible
+heart. The salt of the adventure was gone, his victory worse than a barren
+one. For stark fear stared at him, naked and unconcealed, and back of that
+he glimpsed a subtle something that he dimly recognized for the outraged
+maidenly modesty he had so ruthlessly trampled upon. His hands fell to his
+side reluctantly.
+<P>
+She stumbled back against the tree trunk, watching him with fascinated eyes
+that searched him anxiously. They found their answer, and with a long ragged
+breath the girl turned and burst into hysterical tears.
+<P>
+The man was amazed. A moment since the fury of a tigress had possessed her.
+Now she was all weak womanish despair. She leaned against the cottonwood
+and buried her face in her arm, the while uneven sobs shook her slender body.
+He frowned resentfully at this change of front, and because his calloused
+conscience was disturbed he began to justify himself. Why didn't she play
+it out instead of coming the baby act on him? She had undertaken to hold
+him up and he had made her pay forfeit. He didn't see that she had any kick
+coming. If she was this kind of a boarding-school kid she ought not to have
+monkeyed with the buzz-saw. She was lucky he didn't take her to El Paso with
+him and have her jailed.
+<P>
+"I reckon we'll listen to explanations now," he said grimly after a minute
+of silence interrupted only by her sobs.
+<P>
+The little fist that had struck at his face now bruised itself in unconscious
+blows at the bark of the tree. He waited till the staccato breaths had subsided,
+then took her by the shoulders and swung her round.
+<P>
+"You have the floor, ma'am. What does this gun-play business mean?"
+<P>
+Through the tears her angry eyes flashed starlike.
+<P>
+"I sha'n't tell you," she flamed. "You had no right to&#151; How dared you insult
+me as you have?"
+<P>
+"Did I insult you?" he asked, with suave gentleness. "Then if you feel insulted
+I expect you lay claim to being a lady. But I reckon that don't fit in with
+holding up strangers at the end of a gun. If I've insulted you I'll ce'tainly
+apologize, but you'll have to show me I have. We're in Texas, which is next
+door but one to Missouri, ma'am."
+<P>
+"I don't want your apologies. I detest and hate you," she cried,
+<P>
+"That's your privilege, ma'am, and it's mine to know whyfor I'm held up with
+a gun when I'm traveling peaceably along the road," he answered evenly.
+<P>
+"I'll not tell you."
+<P>
+He spoke softly as if to himself. "That's too bad. I kinder hate to take
+her to jail, but I reckon I must."
+<P>
+She shrank back, aghast and white.
+<P>
+"No, no! You don't understand. I didn't mean to&#151; I only wanted&#151; Why, I meant
+to pay you for the team."
+<P>
+"I'll understand when you tell me," he said placidly.
+<P>
+"I've told you. I needed the team. I was going to let you have one of our
+horses and seventy-five dollars. It's all I have with me."
+<P>
+"One of your horses, you say? With seventy-five dollars to boot? And you
+was intending to arrange the trade from behind that gun. I expect you needed
+a team right bad."
+<P>
+His steady eyes rested on her, searched her, appraised her, while he meditated
+aloud in a low easy drawl.
+<P>
+"Yes, you ce'tainly must need the team. Now I wonder why? Well, I'd hate
+to refuse a lady anything she wants as bad as you do that." He swiftly swooped
+down and caught up her revolver from the ground, tossed it into the air so
+as to shift his hold from butt to barrel, and handed it to her with a bow.
+"Allow me to return the pop-gun you dropped, ma'am,"
+<P>
+She snatched it from him and leveled it at him so that it almost touched
+his forehead. He looked at her and laughed in delighted mockery.
+<P>
+"All serene, ma'am. You've got me dead to rights again."
+<P>
+His very nonchalance disarmed her. What could she do while his low laughter
+mocked her?
+<P>
+"When you've gone through me complete I think I'll take a little
+<I>pasear</I> over the hill and have a look at your hawss. Mebbe we might
+still do business."
+<P>
+As he had anticipated, his suggestion filled her with alarm. She flew to
+bar the way.
+<P>
+"You can't go. It isn't necessary."
+<P>
+"Sho! Of course it's necessary. Think I'm going to buy a hawss I've never
+seen?" he asked, with deep innocence.
+<P>
+"I'll bring it here."
+<P>
+"In Texas, ma'am, we wait on the ladies. Still, it's your say-so when you're
+behind that big gun."
+<P>
+He said it laughing, and she threw the weapon angrily into the seat of the
+rig.
+<P>
+"Thank you, ma'am. I'll amble down and see what's behind the hill."
+<P>
+By the flinch in her eyes he tested his center shot and knew it true. Her
+breast was rising and falling tumultuously. A shiver ran through her.
+<P>
+"No&#151; no. I'm not hiding&#151; anything," she gasped.
+<P>
+"Then if you're not you can't object to my going there."
+<P>
+She caught her hands together in despair. There was about him something masterful
+that told her she could not prevent him from investigating; and it was impossible
+to guess how he would act after he knew. The men she had known had been bound
+by convention to respect a woman's wishes, but even her ignorance of his
+type made guess that this steel-eyed, close-knit young Westerner&#151; or was
+he a Southerner?&#151; would be impervious to appeals founded upon the rules of
+the society to which she had been accustomed. A glance at his stone-wall
+face, at the lazy confidence of his manner, made her dismally aware that
+the data gathered by her experience of the masculine gender were insufficient
+to cover this specimen.
+<P>
+"You can't go."
+<P>
+But her imperative refusal was an appeal. For though she hated him from the
+depths of her proud, untamed heart for the humiliation he had put upon her,
+yet for the sake of that ferocious hunted animal she had left lying under
+a cottonwood she must bend her spirit to win him.
+<P>
+"I'm going to sit in this game and see it out," he said, not unkindly.
+<P>
+"Please!"
+<P>
+Her sweet slenderness barred the way about as electively as a mother quail
+does the road to her young. He smiled, put his big hands on her elbows, and
+gently lifted her to one side. Then he strode forward lightly, with the long,
+easy, tireless stride of a beast of prey, striking direct for his quarry.
+<P>
+A bullet whizzed by his ear, and like a flash of light his weapon was
+unscabbarded and ready for action. He felt a flame of fire scorch his cheek
+and knew a second shot had grazed him.
+<P>
+"Hands up! Quick!" ordered the traveler.
+<P>
+Lying on the ground before him was a man with close-cropped hair and a villainous
+scarred face. A revolver in his hand showed the source of the bullets.
+<P>
+Eye to eye the men measured strength, fighting out to the last ditch the
+moral battle which was to determine the physical one. Sullenly, at the last,
+the one on the ground shifted his gaze and dropped his gun with a vile curse.
+<P>
+"Run to earth," he snarled, his lip lifting from the tobacco-stained upper
+teeth in an ugly fashion.
+<P>
+The girl ran toward the Westerner and caught at his arm. "Don't shoot," she
+implored
+<P>
+Without moving his eyes from the man on the ground he swept her back.
+<P>
+"This outfit is too prevalent with its hardware," he growled. "Chew out an
+explanation, my friend, or you're liable to get spoiled."
+<P>
+It was the girl that spoke, in a low voice and very evidently under a tense
+excitement.
+<P>
+"He is my brother and he has&#151; hurt himself. He can't ride any farther and
+we have seventy miles still to travel. We didn't know what to do, and so&#151;"
+<P>
+"You started out to be a road-agent and he took a pot-shot at the first person
+he saw. I'm surely obliged to you both for taking so much interest in me,
+or rather in my team. Robbery and murder are quite a family pastime, ain't
+they?"
+<P>
+The girl went white as snow, seemed to shrink before his sneer as from a
+deadly weapon; and like a flash of light some divination of the truth pierced
+the Westerner's brain. They were fugitives from justice, making for the Mexican
+line. That the man was wounded a single glance had told him. It was plain
+to be seen that the wear and tear of keeping the saddle had been too much
+for him.
+<P>
+"I acted on an impulse," the girl explained in the same low tone. "I saw
+you coming and I didn't know&#151; hadn't money enough to buy the team&#151; besides&#151;"
+<P>
+He took the words out of her mouth when she broke down.
+<P>
+"Besides, I might have happened to be a sheriff. I might be, but then I'm
+not."
+<P>
+The traveler stepped forward and kicked the wounded man's revolver beyond
+his reach, then swiftly ran a hand over him to make sure he carried no other
+gun.
+<P>
+The fellow on the ground eyed him furtively. "What are you going to do with
+me?" he growled.
+<P>
+The other addressed himself to the girl, ignoring him utterly.
+<P>
+"What has this man done?"
+<P>
+"He has&#151; broken out from&#151; from prison."
+<P>
+"Where?"
+<P>
+"At Yuma."
+<P>
+"Damn you, you're snitching," interrupted the criminal in a scream that was
+both wheedling and threatening.
+<P>
+The young man put his foot on the burly neck and calmly ground it into the
+dust. Otherwise he paid no attention to him, but held the burning eyes of
+the girl that stared at him from a bloodless face.
+<P>
+"What was he in for?"
+<P>
+"For holding up a train."
+<P>
+She had answered in spite of herself, by reason of something compelling in
+him that drew the truth from her.
+<P>
+"How long has he been in the penitentiary?"
+<P>
+"Seven years." Then, miserably, she added: "He was weak and fell into bad
+company. They led him into it."
+<P>
+"When did he escape?"
+<P>
+"Two days ago. Last night he knocked at my window&#151; at the window of the room
+where I lodge in Fort Lincoln. I had not heard of his escape, but I took
+him in. There were horses in the barn. One of them was mine. I saddled, and
+after I had dressed his wound we started. He couldn't get any farther than
+this."
+<P>
+"Do you live in Fort Lincoln?"
+<P>
+"I came there to teach school. My home was in Wisconsin before."
+<P>
+"You came out here to be near him?"
+<P>
+"Yes. That is, near as I could get a school. I was to have got in the Tucson
+schools next year. That's much nearer."
+<P>
+"You visited him at the penitentiary?"
+<P>
+"No. I was going to during the Thanksgiving vacation. Until last night I
+had not seen him since he left home. I was a child of seven then."
+<P>
+The Texan looked down at the ruffian under his feet.
+<P>
+"Do you know the road to Mexico by the Arivaca cut-off?"
+<P>
+"Yes."
+<P>
+"Then climb into my rig and hit the trail hard&#151; burn it up till you've crossed
+the line."
+<P>
+The fellow began to whine thanks, but the man above would have none of them,
+"I'm giving you this chance for your sister's sake. You won't make anything
+of it. You're born for meanness and deviltry. I know your kind from El Paso
+to Dawson. But she's game and she's white clear through, even if she is your
+sister and a plumb little fool. Can you walk to the road?" he ended abruptly.
+<P>
+"I think so. It's in my ankle. Some hell-hound gave it me while we were getting
+over the wall," the fellow growled.
+<P>
+"Don't blame him. His intentions were good. He <I>meant</I> to blow out your
+brains."
+<P>
+The convict cursed vilely, but in the midst of his impotent rage the other
+stopped and dragged him to his feet.
+<P>
+"That's enough. You padlock that ugly mouth and light a shuck."
+<P>
+The girl came forward and the man leaned heavily on her as he limped to the
+road. The Texan followed with the buckskin she had been riding and tied it
+to the back of the road-wagon.
+<P>
+"Give me my purse," the girl said to the convict after
+they were seated.
+<P>
+She emptied it and handed the roll of bills it contained to the owner of
+the team. He looked at it and at her, then shook his head.
+<P>
+"You'll need it likely. I reckon I can trust you. Schoolmarms are mostly
+reliable."
+<P>
+"I had rather pay now," she answered tartly.
+<P>
+"What's the rush?"
+<P>
+"I prefer to settle with you now."
+<P>
+"All right, but I'm in no sweat for my money. My team and the wagon are worth
+two hundred and fifty dollars. Put this plug at forty and it would be high."
+He jerked his head toward the brush where the other saddle-horse was. "That
+leaves me a balance of about two hundred and ten. Is that fair?"
+<P>
+She bit her lip in vexation. "I expect so, but I haven't that much with me.
+Can't I pay this seventy on account?"
+<P>
+"No, ma'am, you can't. All or none." There was a gleam of humor in his hard
+eyes. "I reckon you better let me come and collect after you get back to
+Fort Lincoln."
+<P>
+She took out a note-book and pencil. "If you will give me your name and address
+please."
+<P>
+He smiled hardily at her. "I've clean forgotten them."
+<P>
+There was a warning flash in her disdainful eye.
+<P>
+"Just as you like. My name is Margaret Kinney. I will leave the money for
+you at the First National Bank."
+<P>
+She gathered up the rains deftly.
+<P>
+"One moment." He laid a hand on the lines. "I reckon you think I owe you
+an apology for what happened when we first met."
+<P>
+A flood of spreading color dyed her cheeks. "I don't think anything about
+it."
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, you do," he contradicted. "And you're going to think a heap more
+about it. You're going to lay awake nights going over it."
+<P>
+Out of eyes like live coals she gave him one look. "Will you take your hands
+from these reins please?"
+<P>
+"Presently. Just now I'm talking and you're listening."
+<P>
+"I don't care to hear any apologies, sir," she said stiffly.
+<P>
+"I'm not offering any," he laughed, yet stung by her words.
+<P>
+"You're merely insulting me again, I presume?"
+<P>
+"Some young women need punishing. I expect you're one."
+<P>
+She handed him the horsewhip, a sudden pulse of passion beating fiercely
+in her throat. "Very well. Make an end of it and let me see the last of you,"
+she challenged.
+<P>
+He cracked the lash expertly so that the horses quivered and would have started
+if his strong hand had not tightened on the lines.
+<P>
+The Westerner laughed again. "You're game anyhow."
+<P>
+"When you are quite through with me," she suggested, very quietly.
+<P>
+But he noticed the fury of her deep-pupiled eyes, the turbulent rise and
+fall of her bosom.
+<P>
+"I'll not punish you that way this time." And he gave back the whip.
+<P>
+"If you won't use it I will."
+<P>
+The lash flashed up and down, twined itself savagely round his wrist, and
+left behind a bracelet of crimson. Startled, the horses leaped forward. The
+reins slipped free from his numbed fingers. Miss Kinney had made her good-by
+and was descending swiftly into the valley.
+<P>
+The man watched the rig sweep along that branch of the road which led to
+the south. Then he looked at his wrist and laughed.
+<P>
+"The plucky little devil! She's a thoroughbred for fair. You bet I'll make
+her pay for this. But ain't she got sand in her craw? She's surely hating
+me proper." He laughed again in remembrance of the whole episode, finding
+in it something that stirred his blood immensely.
+<P>
+After the trap had swept round a curve out of sight he disappeared in the
+mesquite and bear-grass, presently returning with the roan that had been
+ridden by the escaped convict.
+<P>
+"Whoever would suppose she was the sister of that scurvy scalawag with jailbird
+branded all over his hulking hide? He ain't fit to wipe her little feet on.
+She's as fine as silk. Think of her going through what she is to save that
+coyote, and him as crooked as a dog's hind leg. There ain't any limit to
+what a good woman will do for a man when she thinks he's got a claim on her,
+more especially if he's a ruffian."
+<P>
+With this bit of philosophic observation he rolled a cigarette and lit it.
+<P>
+"Him fall into bad company and be led away?" he added in disgust. "There
+ain't any worse than him. But he'll work her to the limit before she finds
+it out."
+<P>
+Leisurely he swung to the saddle and rode down into the valley of the San
+Xavier, which rolled away from his feet in numberless tawny waves of unfeatured
+foot-hills and mesas and washes. Almost as far as the eye could see there
+stretched a sea of hilltops bathed in sun. Only on the west were they bounded,
+by the irregular saw-toothed edge of the Frenchman Hills, silhouetted against
+an incomparable blue. For a stretch of many miles the side of the range was
+painted scarlet by millions of poppies splashed broadcast.
+<P>
+"Nature's gone to flower-gardening for fair on the mountains," murmured the
+rider. "What with one thing and another I've got a notion I'm going to take
+a liking to this country."
+<P>
+The man was plainly very tired with rapid travel, and about the middle of
+the afternoon the young man unsaddled and picketed the animal near a water-hole.
+He lay down in the shadow of a cottonwood, flat on his back, face upturned
+to the deep cobalt sky. Presently the drowse of the afternoon crept over
+him. The slumberous valley grew hazy to his nodding eyes. The reluctant lids
+ceased to open and he was fast asleep.
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+<h4>LIEUTENANT FRASER INTERFERES.</h4>
+<P>
+The sun had declined almost to a saddle in the Cuesta del Burro when the
+sleeper reopened his eyes. Even before he had shaken himself free of sleep
+he was uneasily aware of something wrong. Hazily the sound of voices drifted
+to him across an immense space. Blurred figures crossed before his unfocused
+gaze.
+<P>
+The first thing he saw clearly was the roan, still grazing in the circle
+of its picket-rope. Beside the bronco were two men looking the animal over
+critically.
+<P>
+"Been going some," he heard one remark, pointing at the same time to the
+sweat-stains that streaked the shoulders and flanks.
+<P>
+"If he had me on his back he'd still be burning the wind, me being in
+<I>his</I> boots," returned the second, with a grating laugh, jerking his
+head toward the sleeper. "Whatever led the durned fool to stop this side
+of the line beats me."
+<P>
+"If he was hiking for Chihuahua he's been hitting a mighty crooked trail.
+I don't savvy it, him knowing the country as well as they say he does," the
+first speaker made answer.
+<P>
+The traveler's circling eye now discovered two more men, each of them covering
+him with a rifle. A voice from the rear assured him there was also a fifth
+member to the party.
+<P>
+"Look out! He's awake," it warned.
+<P>
+The young man's hand inadvertently moved toward his revolver-butt. This drew
+a sharp imperative order from one of the men in front.
+<P>
+"Throw up your hands, and damn quick!"
+<P>
+"You seem to have the call, gentlemen," he smiled. "Would you mind telling
+me what it's all about?"
+<P>
+"You know what it's all about as well as we do. Collect his gun, Tom."
+<P>
+"This hold-up business seems to be a habit in this section. Second time to-day
+I've been the victim of it," said the victim easily.
+<P>
+"It will be the last," retorted one of the men grimly.
+<P>
+"If you're after the mazuma you've struck a poor bank."
+<P>
+"You've got your nerve," cried one of the men in a rage; and another demanded:
+"Where did you get that hawss?"
+<P>
+"Why, I got it&#151;" The young man stopped in the middle of his sentence. His
+jaw clamped and his eyes grew hard. "I expect you better explain what right
+<I>you</I> got to ask that question."
+<P>
+The man laughed without cordiality. "Seeing as I have owned it three years
+I allow I have some right."
+<P>
+"What's the use of talking? He's the man we want, broke in another impatiently.
+<P>
+"Who is the man you want?" asked their prisoner.
+<P>
+<I>"You're</I> the man we want, Jim Kinney."
+<P>
+"Wrong guess. My name is Larry Neill. I'm from the Panhandle and I've never
+been in this part of the country till two days ago."
+<P>
+"You may have a dozen names. We don't care what you call yourself. Of course
+you would deny being the man we're after. But that don't go with us."
+<P>
+"All right. Take me back to Fort Lincoln, or take me to the prison officials.
+They will tell you whether I am the man."
+<P>
+The leader of the party pounced on his slip. "Who mentioned prison? Who told
+you we wanted an escaped prisoner?"
+<P>
+"He's give himself away," triumphed the one edged Tom. "I guess that clinches
+it. He's riding Maloney's hawss. He's wounded; so's the man we want. He answers
+the description&#151; gray eyes, tall, slim, muscular. Same gun&#151; automatic Colt.
+Tell you there's nothin' to it, Duffield."
+<P>
+"If you're not Kinney, how come you with this hawss? He stole it from a barn
+in Fort Lincoln last night. That's known," said the leader, Duffield.
+<P>
+The imperilled man thought of the girl bing toward the border with her brother
+and the remembrance padlocked his tongue.
+<P>
+"Take me to the proper authorities and I'll answer questions. But, I'll not
+talk here. What's the use? You don't believe a word I say."
+<P>
+"You spoke the truth that time," said one.
+<P>
+"If you ever want to do any explaining now's the hour," added another.
+<P>
+"I'll do mine later, gentlemen."
+<P>
+They looked at each other and one of them spoke.
+<P>
+"It will be too late to explain then."
+<P>
+"Too late?"
+<P>
+Some inkling of the man's hideous meaning seared him and ran like an ice-blast
+through him.
+<P>
+"You've done all the meanness you'll ever do in this world. Poor Dave Long
+is the last man you'll ever kill. We're going to do justice right now."
+<P>
+"Dave Long! I never heard of him," the prisoner repeated mechanically. "Good
+God, do you think I'm a murderer?"
+<P>
+One of the men thrust himself forward. "We know it. Y'u and that hellish
+partner of yours shot him while he was locking the gate. But y'u made a mistake
+when y'u come to Fort Lincoln. He lived there before he went to be a guard
+at the Arizona penitentiary. I'm his brother. These gentlemen are his neighbors.
+Y'u're not going back to prison. Y'u're going to stay right here under this
+cottonwood."
+<P>
+If the extraordinary menace of the man appalled Neill he gave no sign of
+it. His gray eye passed from one to another of them quietly without giving
+any sign of the impotent tempest raging within him.
+<P>
+"You're going to lynch me then?"
+<P>
+"Y'u've called the turn."
+<P>
+"Without giving me a chance to prove my innocence?"
+<P>
+"Without giving y'u a chance to escape or sneak back to the penitentiary."
+<P>
+The thing was horribly unthinkable. The warm mellow afternoon sunshine wrapped
+them about. The horses grazed with quiet unconcern. One of these hard-faced
+frontiersmen was chewing tobacco with machine-like regularity. Another was
+rolling a cigarette. There was nothing of dramatic effect. Not a man had
+raised his voice. But Neill knew there was no appeal. He had come to the
+end of the passage through a horrible mistake. He raged in bitter resentment
+against his fate, against these men who stood so quietly about him ready
+to execute it, most of all against the girl who had let him sacrifice himself
+by concealing the vital fact that her brother had murdered a guard to effect
+his escape. Fool that he had been, he had stumbled into a trap, and she had
+let him do it without a word of warning. Wild, chaotic thoughts crowded his
+brain furiously.
+<P>
+But the voice with which he addressed them was singularly even and colorless.
+<P>
+"I am a stranger to this country. I was born in Tennessee, brought up in
+the Panhandle. I'm an irrigation engineer by profession. This is my vacation.
+I'm headed now for the Mal Pais mines. Friends of mine are interested in
+a property there with me and I have been sent to look the ground over and
+make a report. I never heard of Kinney till to-day. You've got the wrong
+man, gentlemen."
+<P>
+"We'll risk it," laughed one brutally. "Bring that riata, Tom."
+<P>
+Neill did not struggle or cry out frantically. He stood motionless while
+they adjusted the rope round his bronzed throat. They had judged him for
+a villain; they should at least know him a man. So he stood there straight
+and lithe, wide-shouldered and lean-flanked, a man in a thousand. Not a twitch
+of the well-packed muscles, not a quiver of the eyelash nor a swelling of
+the throat betrayed any fear. His cool eyes were quiet and steady.
+<P>
+"If you want to leave any message for anybody I'll see it's delivered," promised
+Duffield.
+<P>
+"I'll not trouble you with any."
+<P>
+"Just as you like."
+<P>
+"He didn't give poor Dave any time for messages," cried Tom Long bitterly.
+<P>
+"That's right," assented another with a curse.
+<P>
+It was plain to the victim they were spurring their nerves to hardihood.
+<P>
+"Who's that?" cried one of the men, pointing to a rider galloping toward
+them.
+<P>
+The newcomer approached rapidly, covered by their weapons, and flung himself
+from his pony as he dragged it to a halt beside the group.
+<P>
+"Steve Fraser," cried Duffield in surprise, and added, "He's an officer in
+the rangers."
+<P>
+"Right, gentlemen. Come to claim my prisoner," said the ranger promptly.
+<P>
+"Y'u can't have him, Steve. We took him and he's got to hang."
+<P>
+The lieutenant of rangers shook his dark curly head.
+<P>
+"Won't do, Duffield. Won't do at all," he said decisively. "You'd ought to
+know law's on top in Texas these days."
+<P>
+Tom Long shouldered his way to the front. "Law! Where was the law when this
+ruffian Kinney shot down my poor brother Dave? I guess a rope and a cottonwood's
+good enough law for him. Anyhow, that's what he gits."
+<P>
+Fraser, hard-packed, lithe, and graceful, laid a friendly hand on the other's
+shoulder and smiled sunnily at him.
+<P>
+"I know how you feel, Tom. We all thought a heap of Dave and you're his brother.
+But Dave died for the law. Both you boys have always stood for order. He'd
+be troubled if he knew you were turned enemy to it on his account."
+<P>
+"I'm for justice, Steve. This skunk deserves death and I'm going to see he
+gits it."
+<P>
+"No, Tom."
+<P>
+"I say yes. Y'u ain't sitting in this game, Steve."
+<P>
+"I reckon I'll have to take a hand then."
+<P>
+The ranger's voice was soft and drawling, but his eyes were indomitably steady.
+Throughout the Southwest his reputation for fearlessness was established
+even among a population singularly courageous. The audacity of his daredevil
+recklessness was become a proverb.
+<P>
+"We got a full table. Better ride away and forget it," said another.
+<P>
+"That ain't what I'm paid for, Jack," returned Fraser good-naturedly. "Better
+turn him over to me peaceable, boys. He'll get what's coming to him all right."
+<P>
+"He'll get it now, Steve, without any help of yours. We don't aim to allow
+any butting in."
+<P>
+"Don't you?"
+<P>
+There was a flash of steel as the ranger dived forward. Next instant he and
+the prisoner stood with their backs to the cottonwood, a revolver having
+somehow leaped from its scabbard to his hand. His hunting-knife had sheared
+at a stroke the riata round the engineer's neck.
+<P>
+"Take it easy, boys," urged Fraser, still in his gentle drawl, to the astonished
+vigilantes whom his sudden sally had robbed of their victim. "Think about
+it twice. We'll all be a long time dead. No use in hurrying the funerals."
+<P>
+Nevertheless he recognized battle as inevitable. Friends of his though they
+were, he knew these sturdy plainsmen would never submit to be foiled in their
+purpose by one man. In the momentary silence before the clash the quiet voice
+of the prisoner made itself heard.
+<P>
+"Just a moment, gentlemen. I don't want you spilling lead over me. I'm the
+wrong man, and I can prove it if you'll give me time. Here's the key to my
+room at the hotel in San Antonio. In my suit-case you'll find letters that
+prove&#151;"
+<P>
+"We don't need them. I've got proof right here," cut in Fraser, remembering.
+<P>
+He slipped a hand into his coat pocket and drew out two photographs. "Boys,
+here are the pictures and descriptions of the two men that escaped from Yuma
+the other day. I hadn't had time to see this gentleman before he spoke, being
+some busy explaining the situation to you, but a blind jackass could see
+he don't favor either Kinney or Struve, You're sure barking up the wrong
+tree."
+<P>
+The self-appointed committee for the execution of justice and the man from
+the Panhandle looked the prison photographs over blankly. Between the hard,
+clean-cut face of their prisoner and those that looked at them from the
+photographs it was impossible to find any resemblance. Duffield handed the
+prints back with puzzled chagrin.
+<P>
+"I guess you're right, Steve. But I'd like this gentleman to explain how
+come he to be riding the horse one of these miscreants stole from Maloney's
+barn last night."
+<P>
+Steve looked at the prisoner. "It's your spiel, friend," he said.
+<P>
+"All right. I'll tell you some facts. Just as I was coming down from the
+Roskruge range this mo'ning I was held up for my team. One of these fellows&#151; the
+one called Kinney&#151; had started from Fort Lincoln on this roan here, but he
+was wounded and broke down. There was some gun-play, and he gave me this
+scratch on the cheek. The end of it was that he took my team and left me
+with his worn-out bronc. I plugged on all day with the hawss till about three
+mebbe, then seeing it was all in I unsaddled and picketed. I lay down and
+dropped asleep. Next I knew the necktie-party was in session."
+<P>
+"What time was it y'u met this fellow Kinney?" asked Long sharply.
+<P>
+"Must have been about nine or nine-thirty I judge."
+<P>
+"And it's five now. That's eight hours' start, and four more before we can
+cut his trail on Roskruge. By God, we've lost him!"
+<P>
+"Looks like," agreed another ruefully.
+<P>
+"Make straight for the Arivaca cut-off and you ought to stand a show," suggested
+Fraser.
+<P>
+"That's right. If we ride all night, might beat him to it" Each of the five
+contributed a word of agreement.
+<P>
+Five minutes later the Texan and the ranger watched a dust-cloud drifting
+to the south. In it was hidden the posse disappearing over the hilltop.
+<P>
+Steve grinned. "I hate to disappoint the boys. They're so plumb anxious.
+But I reckon I'll strike the telephone line and send word to Moreno for one
+of the rangers to cut out after Kinney. Going my way, seh?"
+<P>
+"If you're going mine."
+<P>
+"I reckon I am. And just to pass the time you might tell me the real story
+of that hold-up while we ride."
+<P>
+"The real story?"
+<P>
+"Well, I don't aim to doubt your word, but I reckon you forgot to tell some
+of it." He turned on the other his gay smile. "For instance, seh, you ain't
+asking me to believe that you handed over your rig to Kinney so peaceful
+and that he went away and clean forgot to unload from you that gun you pack."
+<P>
+The eyes of the two met and looked into each other's as clear and straight
+as Texas sunshine. Slowly Neill's relaxed into a smile.
+<P>
+"No, I won't ask you to believe that. I owe you something because you saved
+my life&#151;"
+<P>
+"Forget it," commanded the lieutenant crisply.
+<P>
+"And I can't do less than tell you the whole story."
+<P>
+He told it, yet not the whole of it either; for there was one detail he omitted
+completely. It had to do with the cause for existence of the little
+black-and-blue bruise under his right eye and the purple ridge that seamed
+his wrist. Nor with all his acuteness could Stephen Fraser guess that the
+one swelling had been made by a gold ring on the clenched fist of an angry
+girl held tight in Larry Neill's arms, the other by the lash of a horsewhip
+wielded by the same young woman.
+<h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+<h4>A DISCOVERY</h4>
+<P>
+The roan, having been much refreshed by a few hours on grass, proved to be
+a good traveller. The two men took a road-gait and held it steadily till
+they reached a telephone-line which stretched across the desert and joined
+two outposts of civilization. Steve strapped on his climbing spurs and went
+up a post lightly with his test outfit. In a few minutes he had Moreno on
+the wire and was in touch with one of his rangers.
+<P>
+"Hello! This you, Ferguson? This is Fraser. No, Fraser&#151; Lieutenant Fraser.
+Yes. How many of the boys can you get in touch with right away? Two? Good.
+I want you to cover the Arivaca cut-off. Kinney is headed that way in a rig.
+His sister is with him. She is not to be injured under any circumstances.
+Understand? Wire me at the Mal Pais mines to-morrow your news. By the way,
+Tom Long and some of the boys are headed down that way with notions of lynching
+Kinney. Dodge them if you can and rush your man up to the Mal Pais. Good-bye."
+<P>
+"Suppose they can't dodge them?" ventured Neill after Steve had rejoined
+him.
+<P>
+"I reckon they can. If not&#151; well, my rangers are good boys; I expect they
+won't give up a prisoner."
+<P>
+"I'm right glad to find you are going to the Mal Pais mines with me, lieutenant.
+I wasn't expecting company on the way."
+<P>
+"I'll bet a dollar Mex against two plunks gold that you're wondering whyfor
+I'm going."
+<P>
+Larry laughed. "You're right. I <I>was</I> wondering."
+<P>
+"Well, then, it's this way. What with all these boys on Kinney's trail he's
+as good as rounded up. Fact is, Kinney's only a weak sister anyhow. He turned
+State's witness at the trial, and it was his testimony that convicted Struve.
+I know something about this because I happened to be the man that caught
+Struve. I had just joined the rangers. It was my first assignment. The other
+three got away. Two of them escaped and the third was not tried for lack
+of sufficient evidence. Now, then: Kinney rides the rods from Yuma to Marfa
+and is now or had ought to be somewhere in this valley between Posa Buena
+and Taylor's ranch. But where is Struve, the hardier ruffian of the two?
+He ain't been seen since they broke out. He sure never reached Ft. Lincoln.
+My notion is that he dropped off the train in the darkness about Casa Grande,
+then rolled his tail for the Mal Pais country. Your eyes are asking whys
+mighty loud, my friend; and my answer is that there's a man up there mebbe
+who has got to hide Struve if he shows up. That's only a guess, but it looks
+good to me. This man was the brains of the whole outfit, and folks say that
+he's got cached the whole haul the gang made from that S. P. hold-up. What's
+more, he scattered gold so liberal that his name wasn't even mentioned at
+the trial. He's a big man now, a millionaire copper king and into gold-mines
+up to the hocks. In the Southwest those things happen. It doesn't always
+do to look too closely at a man's past.
+<P>
+"We'll say Struve drops in on him and threatens to squeak. Mebbe he has got
+evidence; mebbe he hasn't. Anyhow, our big duck wants to forget the time
+he was wearing a mask and bending a six-gun for a living. Also and moreover,
+he's right anxious to have other folks get a chance to forget. From what
+I can hear he's clean mashed on some girl at Amarillo, or maybe it's Fort
+Lincoln. See what a twist Strove's got on him if he can slip into the Mal
+Pais country on the q. t."
+<P>
+"And you're going up there to look out for him?"
+<P>
+"I'm going in to take a casual look around. There's no telling what a man
+might happen onto accidentally if he travels with his ear to the ground."
+<P>
+The other nodded. He could now understand easily why Fraser was going into
+the Mal Pais country, but he could not make out why the ranger, naturally
+a man who lived under his own hat and kept his own counsel, had told him
+so much as he had. The officer shortly relieved his mind on this point.
+<P>
+"I may need help while I'm there. May I call on you if I do, seh?"
+<P>
+Neill felt his heart warm toward this hard-faced, genial frontiersman, who
+knew how to judge so well the timbre of a casual acquaintance.
+<P>
+"You sure may, lieutenant."
+<P>
+"Good. I'll count on you then."
+<P>
+So, in these few words, the compact of friendship and alliance was sealed
+between them. Each of them was strangely taken with the other, but it is
+not the way of the Anglo-Saxon fighting man to voice his sentiment. Though
+each of them admired the stark courage and the flawless fortitude he knew
+to dwell in the other, impassivity sat on their faces like an ice-mask. For
+this is the hall-mark of the Southwest, that a man must love and hate with
+the same unchanging face of iron, save only when a woman is in consideration.
+<P>
+They were to camp that night by Cottonwood Spring, and darkness caught them
+still some miles from their camp. They were on no road, but were travelling
+across country through washes and over countless hills. The ranger led the
+way, true as an arrow, even after velvet night had enveloped them.
+<P>
+"It must be right over this mesa among the cottonwoods you see rising from
+that arroyo," he announced at last.
+<P>
+He had scarcely spoken before they struck a trail that led them direct to
+the spring. But as they were descending this in a circle Fraser's horse shied.
+<P>
+"Hyer you, Pinto! What's the matter with&#151;"
+<P>
+The ranger cut his sentence in two and slid from the saddle. When his companion
+reached him and drew rein the ranger was bending over a dark mass stretched
+across the trail. He looked up quietly.
+<P>
+"Man's body," he said briefly.
+<P>
+"Dead?"
+<P>
+"Yes."
+<P>
+Neill dismounted and came forward. The moon-crescent was up by now and had
+lit the country with a chill radiance. The figure was dressed in the coarse
+striped suit of a convict.
+<P>
+"I don't savvy this play," Fraser confessed softly to himself.
+<P>
+"Do you know him?"
+<P>
+"Suppose you look at him and see if <I>you</I> know him."
+<P>
+Neill looked into the white face and shook his head.
+<P>
+"No, I don't know him, but I suppose it is Struve."
+<P>
+From his pocket the ranger produced a photograph and handed it to him.
+<P>
+"Hyer, I'll strike a match and you'll see better."
+<P>
+The match flared up in the slight breeze and presently went out, but not
+before Neill had seen that it was the face of the man who lay before them.
+<P>
+"Did you see the name under the picture, seh?"
+<P>
+"No."
+<P>
+Another match flared and the man from the Panhandle read a name, but it was
+not the one he had expected to see. The words printed there were "James Kinney."
+<P>
+"I don't understand. This ain't Kinney. He is a heavy-set man with a villainous
+face. There's some mistake."
+<P>
+"There ce'tainly is, but not at this end of the line. This is Kinney all
+right. I've seen him at Yuma. He was heading for the Mal Pais country and
+he died on the way. See hyer. Look at these soaked bandages. He's been
+wounded&#151; shot mebbe&#151; and the wound broke out on him again so that he bled
+to death."
+<P>
+"It's all a daze to me. Who is the other man if he isn't Kinney?"
+<P>
+"We're coming to that. I'm beginning to see daylight," said Steve, gently.
+"Let's run over this thing the way it might be. You've got to keep in mind
+that this man was weak, one of those spineless fellows that stronger folks
+lead around by the nose. Well, they make their getaway at Yuma after Struve
+has killed a guard. That killing of Dave Long shakes Kinney up a lot, he
+being no desperado but only a poor lost-dog kind of a guy. Struve notices
+it and remembers that this fellow weakened before. He makes up his mind to
+take no chances. From that moment he watches for a chance to make an end
+of his pardner. At Casa Grande they drop off the train they're riding and
+cut across country toward the Mal Pais. Mebbe they quarrel or mebbe Struve
+gets his chance and takes it. But after he has shot his man he sees he has
+made a mistake. Perhaps they were seen travelling in that direction. Anyhow,
+he is afraid the body will be found since he can't bury it right. He changes
+his plan and takes a big chance; cuts back to the track, boards a freight,
+and reaches Fort Lincoln."
+<P>
+"My God!" cried the other, startled for once out of his calm.
+<P>
+The officer nodded. "You're on the trail right enough. I wish we were both
+wrong, but we ain't."
+<P>
+"But surely she would have known he wasn't her brother, surely&#151;"
+<P>
+The ranger shook his head. "She hadn't seen the black sheep since she was
+a kid of about seven. How would she know what he looked like? And Struve
+was primed with all the facts he had heard Kinney blat out time and again.
+She wasn't suspecting any imposition and he worked her to a fare-you-well."
+<P>
+Larry Neill set his teeth on a wave of icy despair.
+<P>
+"And she's in that devil's power. She would be as safe in a den of rattlers.
+To think that I had my foot on his neck this mo'ning and didn't break it."
+<P>
+"She's safe so long as she is necessary to him. She's in deadly peril as
+soon as he finds her one witness too many. If he walks into my boys' trap
+at the Arivaca cut-off, all right. If not, God help her! I've shut the door
+to Mexico and safety in his face. He'll strike back for the Mal Pais country.
+It's his one chance, and he'll want to travel light and fast."
+<P>
+"If he starts back Tom Long's party may get him."
+<P>
+"That's one more chance for her, but it's a slim one. He'll cut straight
+across country; they're following the trail. No, seh, our best bet is my
+rangers. They'd ought to land him, too."
+<P>
+"Oh, ought to," derided the other impatiently. "Point is, if they don't.
+How are we going to save her? You know this country. I don't."
+<P>
+"Don't tear your shirt, <I>amigo,"</I> smiled the ranger. "We'll arrive faster
+if we don't go off half-cocked. Let's picket the broncs, amble down to the
+spring, and smoke a cigaret. We've got to ride twenty miles for fresh hawsses
+and these have got to have a little rest."
+<P>
+They unsaddled and picketed, then strolled to the spring.
+<P>
+"I've been thinking that maybe we have made a mistake. Isn't it possible
+the man with Miss Kinney is not Struve?" asked Neill.
+<P>
+"That's easy proved. You saw him this mo'ning." The lieutenant went down
+into his pocket once more for a photograph. "Does this favor the man with
+Miss Kinney?"
+<P>
+Under the blaze of another match, shielded by the ranger s hands, Larry looked
+into the scowling, villainous face he had seen earlier in the day. There
+could be no mistaking those leering, cruel eyes nor the ratlike, shifty look
+of the face, not to mention the long scar across it. His heart sank.
+<P>
+"It's the man."
+<P>
+"Don't you blame yourself for not putting his lights out. How could you tell
+who he was?"
+<P>
+"I knew he was a ruffian, hide and hair."
+<P>
+"But you thought he was her brother and that's a whole lot different. What
+do you say to grubbing here? We've got to go to the Halle ranch for hawsses
+and it's a long jog."
+<P>
+They lit a fire and over their coffee discussed plans. In the midst of these
+the Southerner picked up idly a piece of wrapping-paper. Upon it was pencilled
+a wavering scrawl:
+<P>
+Bleeding has broke out again. Can't stop it. Struve shot me and left me for
+dead ten miles back. I didn't kill the guard or know he meant to. J.
+K<SMALL>INNEY.</SMALL>
+<P>
+Neill handed the paper to the ranger, who read it through, folded it, and
+gave it back to the other.
+<P>
+"Keep that paper. We may need it." His grave eyes went up the trail to where
+the dark figure lay motionless in the cold moonlight. "Well, he's come to
+the end of the trail&#151; the only end he could have reached. He wasn't strong
+enough to survive as a bad man. Poor devil!"
+<P>
+They buried him in a clump of cottonwoods and left a little pile of rocks
+to mark the spot.
+<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+<h4>LOST!</h4>
+<P>
+After her precipitate leave-taking of the man whose team she had bought or
+borrowed, Margaret Kinney nursed the fires of her indignation in silence,
+banking them for future use against the time when she should meet him again
+in the event that should ever happen. She brought her whip-lash snapping
+above the backs of the horses, and there was that in the supple motion of
+the small strong wrist which suggested that nothing would have pleased her
+more than having this audacious Texan there in place of the innocent animals.
+For whatever of inherited savagery lay latent in her blood had been flogged
+to the surface by the circumstances into which she had been thrust. Never
+in all her placid life had she known the tug of passion any closer than from
+across the footlights of a theatre.
+<P>
+She had had, to be sure, one stinging shame, but it had been buried in far-away
+Arizona, quite beyond the ken of the convention-bound people of the little
+Wisconsin town where she dwelt. But within the past twelve hours Fate had
+taken hold of her with both hands and thrust her into Life. She sensed for
+the first time its roughness, its nakedness, its tragedy. She had known the
+sensations of a hunted wild beast, the flush of shame for her kinship to
+this coarse ruffian by her side, and the shock of outraged maiden modesty
+at kisses ravished from her by force. The teacher hardly knew herself for
+the same young woman who but yesterday was engrossed in multiplication tables
+and third readers.
+<P>
+A sinister laugh from the man beside her brought the girl back to the present.
+<P>
+She looked at him and then looked quickly away again. There was something
+absolutely repulsive in the creature&#151; in the big ears that stood out from
+the close-cropped head, in the fishy eyes that saw everything without ever
+looking directly at anything, in the crooked mouth with its irregular rows
+of stained teeth from which several were missing. She had often wondered
+about her brother, but never at the worst had she imagined anything so bad
+as this. The memory would be enough to give one the shudders for years.
+<P>
+"Guess I ain't next to all that happened there in the mesquite," he sneered,
+with a lift of the ugly lip.
+<P>
+She did not look at him. She did not speak. There seethed in her a loathing
+and a disgust beyond expression.
+<P>
+"Guess you forgot that a fellow can sometimes hear even when he can't see.
+Since I'm chaperooning you I'll make out to be there next time you meet a
+good-looking lady-killer. Funny, the difference it makes, being your brother.
+You ain't seen me since you was a kid, but you plumb forgot to kiss me."
+<P>
+There was a note in his voice she had not heard before, some hint of leering
+ribaldry in the thick laugh that for the first time stirred unease in her
+heart. She did not know that the desperate, wild-animal fear in him, so
+overpowering that everything else had been pushed to the background, had
+obscured certain phases of him that made her presence here such a danger
+as she could not yet conceive. That fear was now lifting, and the peril loomed
+imminent.
+<P>
+He put his arm along the back of the seat and grinned at her from his
+loose-lipped mouth.
+<P>
+"But o' course it ain't too late to begin now, my dearie."
+<P>
+Her fearless level eyes met squarely his shifty ones and read there something
+she could dread without understanding, something that was an undefined sacrilege
+of her sweet purity. For woman-like her instinct leaped beyond reason.
+<P>
+"Take down your arm," she ordered.
+<P>
+"Oh, I don't know, sis. I reckon your brother&#151;"
+<P>
+"You're no brother of mine," she broke in. "At most it is an accident of
+birth I disown. I'll have no relationship with you of any sort."
+<P>
+"Is that why you're driving with me to Mexico?" he jeered.
+<P>
+"I made a mistake in trying to save you. If it were to do over again I should
+not lift a hand."
+<P>
+"You wouldn't, eh?"
+<P>
+There was something almost wolfish in the facial malignity that distorted
+him.
+<P>
+"Not a finger."
+<P>
+"Perhaps you'd give me up now if you had a chance?"
+<P>
+"I would if I did what was right."
+<P>
+"And you'd sure want to do what was right," he snarled.
+<P>
+"Take down your arm," she ordered again, a dangerous glitter in her eyes.
+<P>
+He thrust his evil face close to hers and showed his teeth in a blind rage
+that forgot everything else.
+<P>
+"Listen here, you little locoed baby. I got something to tell you that'll
+make your hair curl. You're right, I ain't your brother. I'm Nick Struve&#151; Wolf
+Struve if you like that better. I lied you into believing me your brother,
+who ain't ever been anything but a skim-milk quitter. He's dead back there
+in the cactus somewhere, and I killed him!"
+<P>
+Terror flooded her eyes. Her very breathing hung suspended. She gazed at
+him in a frozen fascination of horror.
+<P>
+"Killed him because he gave me away seven years ago and was gittin' ready
+to round on me again. Folks don't live long that play Wolf Struve for a lamb.
+A wolf! That's what I am, a born wolf, and don't you forget it."
+<P>
+The fact itself did not need his words for emphasis. He fairly reeked the
+beast of prey. She had to nerve herself against faintness. She must not swoon.
+She dared not.
+<P>
+"Think you can threaten to give <I>me</I> up, do you? 'Fore I'm through with
+you you'll wish you had never been born. You'll crawl on your knees and beg
+me to kill you."
+<P>
+Such a devil of wickedness she had never seen in human eyes before. The
+ruthlessness left no room for appeal. Unless the courage to tame him lay
+in her she was lost utterly.
+<P>
+He continued his exultant bragging, blatantly, ferociously.
+<P>
+"I didn't tell you about my escape; how a guard tried to stop me and I put
+the son of a gun out of business. There's a price on my head. D'ye think
+I'm the man to give you a chance to squeal on me? D'ye think I'll let a
+pink-and-white chit send me back to be strangled?" he screamed.
+<P>
+The stark courage in her rose to the crisis. Not an hour before she had seen
+the Texan cow him. He was of the kind would take the whip whiningly could
+she but wield it. Her scornful eyes fastened on him contemptuously, chiseled
+into the cur heart of him.
+<P>
+"What will you do?" she demanded, fronting the issue that must sooner or
+later rise.
+<P>
+The raucous jangle of his laugh failed to disturb the steadiness of her gaze.
+To reassure himself of his mastery he began to bluster, to threaten, turning
+loose such a storm of vile abuse as she had never heard. He was plainly working
+his nerve up to the necessary pitch.
+<P>
+In her first terror she had dropped the reins. Her hands had slipped
+unconsciously under the lap-robe. Now one of them touched something chilly
+on the seat beside her. She almost gasped her relief. It was the selfsame
+revolver with which she had tried to hold up the Texan.
+<P>
+In the midst of Struve's flood of invective the girl's hand leaped quickly
+from the lap-robe. A cold muzzle pressed against his cheek brought the convict's
+outburst to an abrupt close.
+<P>
+"If you move I'll fire," she said quietly.
+<P>
+For a long moment their gazes gripped, the deadly clear eyes of the young
+woman and the furtive ones of the miscreant. Underneath the robe she felt
+a stealthy movement, and cried out quickly: "Hands up!"
+<P>
+With a curse he threw his arms into the air.
+<P>
+"Jump out! Don't lower your hands!"
+<P>
+"My ankle," he whined.
+<P>
+"Jump!"
+<P>
+His leap cleared the wheel and threw him to the ground. She caught up the
+whip and slashed wildly at the horses. They sprang forward in a panic, flying
+wildly across the open plain. Margaret heard a revolver bark twice. After
+that she was so busy trying to regain control of the team that she could
+think of nothing else. The horses were young and full of spirit, so that
+she had all she could do to keep the trap from being upset. It wound in and
+out among the hills, taking perilous places safely to her surprise, and was
+at last brought to a stop only by the narrowing of a draw into which the
+animals had bolted.
+<P>
+They were quiet now beyond any chance of farther runaway, even had it been
+possible. Margaret dropped the lines on the dashboard and began to sob, at
+first in slow deep breaths and then in quicker uneven ones. Plucky as she
+was, the girl had had about all her nerves could stand for one day. The strain
+of her preparation for flight, the long night drive, and the excitement of
+the last two hours were telling on her in a hysterical reaction.
+<P>
+She wept herself out, dried her eyes with dabs of her little kerchief, and
+came back to a calm consideration of her situation. She must get back to
+Fort Lincoln as soon as possible, and she must do it without encountering
+the convict. For in the course of the runaway the revolver had been jolted
+from the trap.
+<P>
+Not quite sure in which direction lay the road, she got out from the trap,
+topped the hill to her right, and looked around. She saw in all directions
+nothing but rolling hilltops, merging into each other even to the horizon's
+edge. In her wild flight among these hills she had lost count of direction.
+She had not yet learned how to know north from south by the sun, and if she
+had it would have helped but little since she knew only vaguely the general
+line of their travel.
+<P>
+She felt sure that from the top of the next rise she could locate the road,
+but once there she was as uncertain as before. Before giving up she breasted
+a third hill to the summit. Still no signs of the road. Reluctantly she retraced
+her steps, and at the foot of the hill was uncertain whether she should turn
+to right or left. Choosing the left, from the next height she could see nothing
+of the team. She was not yet alarmed. It was ridiculous to suppose that she
+was lost. How could she be when she was within three or four hundred yards
+of the rig? She would cut across the shoulder into the wash and climb the
+hillock beyond. For behind it the team must certainly be.
+<P>
+But at her journey's end her eyes were gladdened by no sight of the horses.
+Every draw was like its neighbor, every rolling rise a replica of the next.
+The truth came home to a sinking heart. She was lost in one of the great
+deserts of Texas. She would wander for days as others had, and she would
+die in the end of starvation and thirst. Nobody would know where to look
+for her, since she had told none where she was going. Only yesterday at her
+boarding-house she had heard a young man tell how a tenderfoot had been found
+dead after he had wandered round and round in intersecting circles. She sank
+down and gave herself up to despair.
+<P>
+But not for long. She was too full of grit to give up without a long fight.
+How many hours she wandered Margaret Kinney did not know. The sun was high
+in the heavens when she began. It had given place to flooding moonlight long
+before her worn feet and aching heart gave up the search for some human landmark.
+Once at least she must have slept, for she stared up from a spot where she
+had sunk down to look up into a starry sky that was new to her.
+<P>
+The moon had sailed across the vault and grown chill and faint with dawn
+before she gave up, completely exhausted, and when her eyes opened again
+it was upon a young day fresh and sweet. She knew by this time hunger and
+an acute thirst. As the day increased, this last she knew must be a torment
+of swollen tongue and lime-kiln throat. Yesterday she had cried for help
+till her voice had failed. A dumb despair had now driven away her terror.
+<P>
+And then into the awful silence leaped a sound like a messenger of hope.
+It was a shot, so close that she could see the smoke rise from an arroyo
+near. She ran forward till she could look down into it and caught sight of
+a man with a dead bird in his hand. He had his back toward her and was stooping
+over a fire. Slithering down over the short dry grass, she was upon him almost
+before she could stop.
+<P>
+"I've been lost all night and all yesterday," she sobbed.
+<P>
+He snatched at the revolver lying beside him and whirled like a flash as
+if to meet an attack. The girl's pumping heart seemed to stand still. The
+man snarling at her was the convict Struve.
+<h3>CHAPTER V</h3>
+<h4>LARRY NEILL TO THE RESCUE</h4>
+<P>
+The snarl gave way slowly to a grim more malign than his open hostility.
+<P>
+"So you've been lost! And now you're found&#151; come safe back to your loving
+brother. Ain't that luck for you? Hunted all over Texas till you found him,
+eh? And it's a powerful big State, too."
+<P>
+She caught sight of something that made her forget all else.
+<P>
+"Have you got water in that canteen?" she asked, her parched eyes staring
+at it.
+<P>
+"Yes, dearie."
+<P>
+"Give it me."
+<P>
+He squatted tailor-fashion on the ground, put the canteen between his knees,
+and shoved his teeth in a crooked grin.
+<P>
+"Thirsty?"
+<P>
+"I'm dying for a drink"
+<P>
+"You look like a right lively corpse."
+<P>
+"Give it to me."
+<P>
+"Will you take it now or wait till you get it?"
+<P>
+"My throat's baked. I want water," she said hoarsely.
+<P>
+"Most folks want a lot they never get."
+<P>
+She walked toward him with her hand outstretched.
+<P>
+"I tell you I've got to have it."
+<P>
+He laughed evilly. "Water's at a premium right now. Likely there ain't enough
+here to get us both out of this infernal hole alive. Yes, it's sure at a
+premium."
+<P>
+He let his eye drift insolently over her and take stock of his prey, in the
+same feline way of a cat with a mouse, gloating over her distress and the
+details of her young good looks. His tainted gaze got the faint pure touch
+of color in her face, the reddish tinge of her wavy brown hair, the desirable
+sweetness of her rounded maidenhood. If her step dragged, if dusky hollows
+shadowed her lids, if the native courage had been washed from the hopeless
+eyes, there was no spring of manliness hid deep within him that rose to refresh
+her exhaustion. No pity or compunction stirred at her sweet helplessness.
+<P>
+"Do you want my money?" she asked wearily.
+<P>
+"I'll take that to begin with."
+<P>
+She tossed him her purse. "There should be seventy dollars there. May I have
+a drink now?"
+<P>
+"Not yet, my dear. First you got to come up to me and put your arms round&#151;"
+<P>
+He broke off with a curse, for she was flying toward the little circle of
+cottonwoods some forty yards away. She had caught a glimpse of the water-hole
+and was speeding for it.
+<P>
+"Come back here," he called, and in a rage let fly a bullet after her.
+<P>
+She paid no heed, did not stop till she reached the spring and threw herself
+down full length to drink, to lave her burnt face, to drink again of the
+alkali brackish water that trickled down her throat like nectar incomparably
+delicious.
+<P>
+She was just rising to her feet when Struve hobbled up.
+<P>
+"Don't you think you can play with me, missie. When I give the word you stop
+in your tracks, and when I say 'Jump!' step lively."
+<P>
+She did not answer. Her head was lifted in a listening attitude, as if to
+catch some sound that came faintly to her from a distance.
+<P>
+"You're mine, my beauty, to do with as I please, and don't you forget it."
+<P>
+She did not hear him. Her ears were attuned to voices floating to her across
+the desert. Of course she was beginning to wander in her mind. She knew that.
+There could be no other human beings in this sea of loneliness. They were
+alone; just they two, the degenerate ruffian and his victim. Still, it was
+strange. She certainly had imagined the murmur of people talking. It must
+be the beginning of delirium.
+<P>
+"Do you hear me?" screamed Struve, striking her on the cheek with his fist.
+"I'm your master and you're my squaw."
+<P>
+She did not cringe as he had expected, nor did she show fight. Indeed the
+knowledge of the blow seemed scarcely to have penetrated her mental penumbra.
+She still had that strange waiting aspect, but her eyes were beginning to
+light with new-born hope. Something in her manner shook the man's confidence;
+a dawning fear swept away his bluster. He, too, was now listening intently.
+<P>
+Again the low murmur, beyond a possibility of doubt. Both of them caught
+it. The girl opened her throat in a loud cry for help. An answering shout
+came back clear and strong. Struve wheeled and started up the arroyo, bending
+in and out among the cactus till he disappeared over the brow.
+<P>
+Two horsemen burst into sight, galloping down the steep trail at breakneck
+speed, flinging down a small avalanche of shale with them. One of them caught
+sight of the girl, drew up so short that his horse slid to its haunches,
+and leaped from the saddle in a cloud of dust.
+<P>
+He ran toward her, and she to him, hands out to meet her rescuer.
+<P>
+"Why didn't you come sooner? I've waited so long," she cried pathetically,
+as his arms went about her.
+<P>
+"You poor lamb! Thank God we're in time!" was all he could say.
+<P>
+Then for the first time in her life she fainted.
+<P>
+The other rider lounged forward, a hat in his hand that he had just picked
+up close to the fire.
+<P>
+"We seem to have stampeded part of this camping party. I'll just take a run
+up this hill and see if I can't find the missing section and persuade it
+to stay a while. I don't reckon you need me hyer, do you?" he grinned, with
+a glance at Neill and his burden.
+<P>
+"All right. You'll find me here when you get back, Fraser," the other answered.
+<P>
+Larry carried the girl to the water-hole and set her down beside it. He sprinkled
+her face with water, and presently her lids trembled and fluttered open.
+She lay there with her head on his arm and looked at him quite without surprise.
+<P>
+"How did you find me?"
+<P>
+"Mainly luck. We followed your trail to where we found the rig. After that
+it was guessing where the needle was in the haystack It just happened we
+were cutting across country to water when we heard a shot."
+<P>
+"That must have been when he fired at me," she said.
+<P>
+"My God! Did he shoot at you?"
+<P>
+"Yes. Where is he now?" She shuddered.
+<P>
+"Cutting over the hills with Steve after him."
+<P>
+"Steve?"
+<P>
+"My friend, Lieutenant Fraser. He is an officer in the ranger force."
+<P>
+"Oh!" She relapsed into a momentary silence before she said: "He isn't my
+brother at all. He is a murderer." She gave a sudden little moan of pain
+as memory pierced her of what he had said. "He bragged to me that he had
+killed my brother. He meant to kill me, I think."
+<P>
+"Sho! It doesn't matter what the coyote meant. It's all over now. You're
+with friends."
+<P>
+A warm smile lit his steel-blue eyes, softened the lines of his lean, hard
+face. Never had shipwrecked mariner come to safer harbor than she. She knew
+that this slim, sun-bronzed Westerner was a man's man, that strength and
+nerve inhabited his sinewy frame. He would fight for her because she was
+a woman as long as he could stand and see.
+<P>
+A touch of color washed back into her cheeks, a glow of courage into her
+heart. "Yes, it's all over. The weary, weary hours&#151; and the fear&#151; and the
+pain&#151; and the dreadful thirst&#151; and worst of all, him!"
+<P>
+She began to cry softly, hiding her face in his coat-sleeve.
+<P>
+"I'm crying because&#151; it's all over. I'm a little fool, just as&#151; as you said
+I was."
+<P>
+"I didn't know you then," he smiled. "I'm right likely to make snap-shot
+judgments that are 'way off."
+<P>
+"You knew me well enough to&#151;" She broke off in the middle, bathed in a flush
+of remembrance that brought her coppery head up from his arm instantly.
+<P>
+"Be careful. You're dizzy yet."
+<P>
+"I'm all right now, thank you," she answered, her embarrassed profile haughtily
+in the air. "But I'm ravenous for something to eat. It's been twenty-four
+hours since I've had a bite. That's why I'm weepy and faint. I should think
+you might make a snap-shot judgment that breakfast wouldn't hurt me."
+<P>
+He jumped up contritely. "That's right. What a goat I am!"
+<P>
+His long, clean stride carried him over the distance that separated him from
+his bronco. Out of the saddle-bags he drew some sandwiches wrapped in a
+newspaper.
+<P>
+"Here, Miss Margaret! You begin on these. I'll have coffee ready in two shakes
+of a cow's tail. And what do you say to bacon?"
+<P>
+He understood her to remark from the depths of a sandwich that she said "Amen!"
+to it, and that she would take everything he had and as soon as he could
+get it ready. She was as good as her word. He found no cause to complain
+of her appetite. Bacon and sandwiches and coffee were all consumed in quantities
+reasonable for a famished girl who had been tramping actively for a day and
+a night, and, since she was a child of impulse, she turned more friendly
+eyes on him who had appeased her appetite.
+<P>
+"I suppose you are a cowboy like everybody else in this country?" she ventured
+amiably after her hunger had become less sharp.
+<P>
+"No, I belong to the government reclamation service."
+<P>
+"Oh!" She had a vague idea she had heard of it before. "Who is it you reclaim?
+Indians, I suppose."
+<P>
+"We reclaim young ladies when we find them wandering about the desert," he
+smiled.
+<P>
+"Is that what the government pays you for?"
+<P>
+"Not entirely. Part of the time I examine irrigation projects and report
+on their feasibility. I have been known to build dams and bore tunnels,"
+<P>
+"And what of the young ladies you reclaim? Do you bore them?" she asked saucily.
+<P>
+"I understand they have hitherto always found me very entertaining," he claimed
+boldly, his smiling eyes on her.
+<P>
+"Indeed!"
+<P>
+"But young ladies are peculiar. Sometimes we think we're entertaining them
+when we ain't."
+<P>
+"I'm sure you are right."
+<P>
+"And other times they're interested when they pretend they're not."
+<P>
+"It must be comforting to your vanity to think that," she said coldly. For
+his words had recalled similar ones spoken by him twenty-four hours earlier,
+which in turn had recalled his unpardonable sin.
+<P>
+The lieutenant of rangers appeared over the hill and descended into the draw.
+Miss Kinney went to meet him.
+<P>
+"He got away?" she asked.
+<P>
+"Yes, ma'am. I lost him in some of these hollows, or rather I never found
+him. I'm going to take my hawss and swing round in a circle."
+<P>
+"What are you going to do with me?" she smiled.
+<P>
+"I been thinking that the best thing would be for you to go to the Mal Pais
+mines with Mr. Neill."
+<P>
+"Who is Mr. Neill?"
+<P>
+"The gentleman over there by the fire."
+<P>
+"Must I go with him? I should feel safer in your company, lieutenant."
+<P>
+"You'll be safe enough in his, Miss Kinney."
+<P>
+"You know me then?" she asked.
+<P>
+"I've seen you at Fort Lincoln. You were pointed out to me once as a new
+teacher."
+<P>
+"But I don't want to go to the Mal Pais mines. I want to go to Fort Lincoln.
+As to this gentleman, I have no claims on him and shall not trouble him to
+burden himself with me."
+<P>
+Steve laughed. "I don't reckon he would think, it a terrible burden, ma'am.
+And about the Mal Pais&#151; this is how it is. Fort Lincoln is all of sixty miles
+from here as the crow flies. The mines are about seventeen. My notion was
+you could get there and take the stage to-morrow to your town."
+<P>
+"What shall I do for a horse?"
+<P>
+"I expect Mr. Neill will let you ride his. He can walk beside the hawss."
+<P>
+"That won't do at all. Why should I put him to that inconvenience? I'll walk
+myself."
+<P>
+The ranger flashed his friendly smile at her. He had an instinct that served
+him with women. "Any way that suits you and him suits me. I'm right sorry
+that I've got to leave you and take out after that hound Struve, but you
+may take my word for it that this gentleman will look after you all right
+and bring you safe to the Mal Pais."
+<P>
+"He is a stranger to me. I've only met him once and on that occasion not
+pleasantly. I don't like to put myself under an obligation to him. But of
+course if I must I must."
+<P>
+"That's the right sensible way to look at it. In this little old world we
+got to do a heap we don't want to do. For instance, I'd rather see you to
+the Mal Pais than hike over the hills after this fellow," he concluded gallantly.
+<P>
+Neill, who had been packing the coffee-pot and the frying-pan, now sauntered
+forward with his horse.
+<P>
+"Well, what's the program?" he wanted to know.
+<P>
+"It's you and Miss Kinney for the Mal Pais, <I>me</I> for the trail. I ain't
+very likely to find Mr. Struve, but you can't always sometimes tell. Anyhow,
+I'm going to take a shot at it," the ranger answered.
+<P>
+"And at him?" his friend suggested.
+<P>
+"Oh, I reckon not. He may be a sure-enough wolf, but I expect this ain't
+his day to howl."
+<P>
+Steve whistled to his pony, swung to the saddle when it trotted up, and waved
+his hat in farewell.
+<P>
+His "Adios!" drifted back to them from the crown of the hill just before
+he disappeared over its edge.
+<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3>
+<h4>SOMEBODY'S ACTING MIGHTY FOOLISH.</h4>
+<P>
+Larry Neill watched him vanish and then turned smiling to Miss Kinney.
+<P>
+"All aboard for the Mal Pais," he sang out cheerfully.
+<P>
+Too cheerfully perhaps. His assurance that all was well between them chilled
+her manner. He might forgive himself easily if he was that sort of man; she
+would at least show him she was no party, to it. He had treated her outrageously,
+had manhandled her with deliberate intent to insult. She would show him no
+one alive could treat her so and calmly assume to her that it was all right.
+<P>
+Her cool eyes examined the horse, and him.
+<P>
+"I don't quite see how you expect to arrange it, Mr. Neill. That is your
+name, isn't it?" she added indifferently.
+<P>
+"That's my name&#151; Larry Neill. Easiest thing in the world to arrange. We ride
+pillion if it suits you; if not, I'll walk."
+<P>
+"Neither plan suits me," she announced curtly, her gaze on the far-away hills.
+<P>
+He glanced at her in quick surprise, then made the mistake of letting himself
+smile at her frosty aloofness instead of being crestfallen by it. She happened
+to look round and catch that smile before he could extinguish it. Her petulance
+hardened instantly to a resolution.
+<P>
+"I don't quite know what we're going to do about it&#151; unless <I>you</I> walk,"
+he proposed, amused at the absurdity of his suggestion.
+<P>
+"That's just what I'm going to do," she retorted promptly.
+<P>
+"What!" He wheeled on her with an astonished smile on his face.
+<P>
+This served merely to irritate her.
+<P>
+"I said I was going to walk."
+<P>
+"Walk seventeen miles?"
+<P>
+"Seventy if I choose."
+<P>
+"Nonsense! Of course you won't."
+<P>
+Her eyebrows lifted in ironic demurrer. "I think you must let me be the judge
+of that," she said gently.
+<P>
+"Walk!" he reiterated. "Why, you're walked out. You couldn't go a mile. What
+do you take me for? Think I'm going to let you come that on me."
+<P>
+"I don't quite see how you can help it, Mr. Neill," she answered.
+<P>
+"Help it! Why, it ain't reasonable. Of course you'll ride."
+<P>
+"Of course I won't."
+<P>
+She set off briskly, almost jauntily, despite her tired feet and aching limbs.
+<P>
+"Well, if that don't beat&#151;" He broke off to laugh at the situation. After
+she had gone twenty steps he called after her in a voice that did not suppress
+its chuckle: "You ain't going the right direction, Miss Kinney."
+<P>
+She whirled round on him in anger. How dared he laugh at her?
+<P>
+"Which <I>is</I> the right way?" she choked.
+<P>
+"North by west is about it."
+<P>
+She was almost reduced to stamping her foot.
+<P>
+Without condescending to ask more definite instructions she struck off at
+haphazard, and by chance guessed right. There was nothing for it but to pursue.
+Wherefore the man pursued. The horse at his heels hampered his stride, but
+he caught up with her soon.
+<P>
+"Somebody's acting mighty foolish," he said.
+<P>
+She said nothing very eloquently.
+<P>
+"If I need punishing, ma'am, don't punish yourself, but me. You ain't able
+to walk and that's a fact."
+<P>
+She gave her silent attention strictly to the business of making progress
+through the cactus and the sand.
+<P>
+"Say I'm all you think I am. You can trample on me proper after we get to
+the Mal Pais. Don't have to know me at all if you don't want to. Won't you
+ride, ma'am? Please!"
+<P>
+His distress filled her with a fierce delight. She stumbled defiantly forward.
+<P>
+He pondered a while before he asked quietly:
+<P>
+"Ain't you going to ride, Miss Kinney?"
+<P>
+"No, I'm not. Better go on. Pray don't let me detain you."
+<P>
+"All right. See that peak with the spur to it? Well, you keep that directly
+in line and make straight for it. I'll say good-by now, ma'am. I got to hurry
+to be in time for dinner. I'll send some one out from the camp to meet you
+that ain't such a villain as I am."
+<P>
+He swung to the saddle, put spurs to his pony, and cantered away. She could
+scarce believe it, even when he rode straight over the hill without a backward
+glance. He would never leave her. Surely he would not do that. She could
+never reach the camp, and he knew it. To be left alone in the desert again;
+the horror of it broke her down, but not immediately. She went proudly forward
+with her head in the air at first. He might look round. Perhaps he was peeping
+at her from behind some cholla. She would not gratify him by showing any
+interest in his whereabouts. But presently she began to lag, to scan draws
+and mesas anxiously for him, even to call aloud in an ineffective little
+voice which the empty hills echoed faintly. But from him there came no answer.
+<P>
+She sat down and wept in self-pity. Of course she had told him to go, but
+he knew well enough she did not mean it. A magnanimous man would have taken
+a better revenge on an exhausted girl than to leave her alone in such a spot,
+and after she had endured such a terrible experience as she had. She had
+read about the chivalry of Western men. Yet these two had ridden away on
+their horses and left her to live or die as chance willed it.
+<P>
+"Now, don't you feel so bad, Miss Margaret. I wasn't aiming really to leave
+you, of course," a voice interrupted her sobs to say.
+<P>
+She looked through the laced fingers that covered her face, mightily relieved,
+but not yet willing to confess it. The engineer had made a circuit and stolen
+up quietly behind.
+<P>
+"Oh! I thought you had gone," she said as carelessly as she could with a
+voice not clear of tears.
+<P>
+"Were you crying because you were afraid I hadn't?" he asked.
+<P>
+"I ran a cactus into my foot. And I didn't say anything about crying."
+<P>
+"Then if your foot is hurt you will want to ride. That seventeen miles might
+be too long a stroll before you get through with it."
+<P>
+"I don't know what I'll do yet," she answered shortly.
+<P>
+"I know what you'll do."
+<P>
+"Yes?"
+<P>
+"You'll quit your foolishness and get on this hawss."
+<P>
+She flushed angrily. "I won't!"
+<P>
+He stooped down, gathered her up in his arms, and lifted her to the saddle.
+<P>
+"That's what you're going to do whether you like it or not," he informed
+her.
+<P>
+"How are you going to make me stay here, now you have put me here?"
+<P>
+"I'm going to get on behind and hold you if it's necessary."
+<P>
+He was sensible enough of the folly of it all, but he did not see what else
+he could do. She had chosen to punish him through herself in a way that was
+impossible. It was a childish thing to do, born of some touch of hysteria
+her experience had induced, and he could only treat her as a child till she
+was safely back in civilization.
+<P>
+Their wills met in their eyes, and the man's, masculine and dominant, won
+the battle. The long fringe of hers fell to the soft cheeks.
+<P>
+"It won't be at all necessary," she promised.
+<P>
+"Are you sure?"
+<P>
+"Quite sure."
+<P>
+"That's the way to talk."
+<P>
+"If you care to know," she boiled over, "I think you the most hateful man
+I ever met."
+<P>
+"That's all right," he grinned ruefully. "You're the most contrairy woman
+<I>I</I> ever bumped into, so I reckon honors are easy."
+<P>
+He strode along beside the horse, mile after mile, in a silence which neither
+of them cared to break. The sap of youth flowed free in him, was in his elastic
+tread, in the set of his broad shoulders, in the carriage of his small,
+well-shaped head. He was as lean-loined and lithe as a panther, and his stride
+ate up the miles as easily.
+<P>
+They nooned at a spring in the dry wash of Bronco Creek. After he had unsaddled
+and picketed he condescended to explain to her.
+<P>
+"We'll stay here three hours or mebbe four through the heat of the day."
+<P>
+"Is it far now?" she asked wearily.
+<P>
+"Not more than seven miles I should judge. Are you about all in?"
+<P>
+"Oh, no! I'm all right, thank you," she said, with forced sprightliness.
+<P>
+His shrewd, hard gaze went over her and knew better.
+<P>
+"You lie down under those live-oaks and I'll get some grub ready."
+<P>
+"I'll cook lunch while you lie down. You must be tired walking so far through
+the sun," said Miss Kinney.
+<P>
+"Have I got to pick you up again and carry you there?"
+<P>
+"No, you haven't. You keep your hands off me," she flashed.
+<P>
+But nevertheless she betook herself to the shade of the live-oaks and lay
+down. When he went to call her for lunch he found her fast asleep with her
+head pillowed on her arm. She looked so haggard that he had not the heart
+to rouse her.
+<P>
+"Let her sleep. It will be the making of her. She's fair done. But ain't
+she plucky? And that spirited! Ready to fight so long as she can drag a foot.
+And her so sorter slim and delicate. Funny how she hangs onto her grudge
+against me. Sho! I hadn't ought to have kissed her, but I'll never tell her
+so."
+<P>
+He went back to his coffee and bacon, dined, and lay down for a siesta beneath
+a cottonwood some distance removed from the live-oaks where Miss Kinney reposed.
+For two or three hours he slept soundly, having been in the saddle all night.
+It was mid-afternoon when he awoke, and the sun was sliding down the blue
+vault toward the sawtoothed range to the west. He found the girl still lost
+to the world in deep slumber.
+<P>
+The man from the Panhandle looked across the desert that palpitated with
+heat, and saw through the marvelous atmosphere the smoke of the ore-mills
+curling upward. He was no tenderfoot, to suppose that ten minutes' brisk
+walking would take him to them. He guessed the distance at about two and
+a half hour's travel.
+<P>
+"This is ce'tainly a hot evening. I expect we better wait till sundown before
+moving," he said aloud.
+<P>
+Having made up his mind, it was characteristic of him that he was asleep
+again in five minutes. This time she wakened before him, to look into a wonderful
+sea of gold that filled the crotches of the hills between the purple teeth.
+No sun was to be seen&#151; it had sunk behind the peaks&#151; but the trail of its
+declension was marked by that great pool of glory into which she gazed.
+<P>
+Margaret crossed the wash to the cottonwood under which her escort was lying.
+He was fast asleep on his back, his gray shirt open at the bronzed, sinewy
+neck. The supple, graceful lines of him were relaxed, but even her inexperience
+appreciated the splendid shoulders and the long rippling muscles. The maidenly
+instinct in her would allow but one glance at him, and she was turning away
+when his eyes opened.
+<P>
+Her face, judging from its tint, might have absorbed some of the sun-glow
+into which she had been gazing.
+<P>
+"I came to see if you were awake," she explained.
+<P>
+"Yes, ma'am, I am," he smiled.
+<P>
+"I was thinking that we ought to be going. It will be dark before we reach
+Mal Pais."
+<P>
+He leaped to his feet and faced her.
+<P>
+"C'rect."
+<P>
+"Are you hungry?"
+<P>
+"Yes."
+<P>
+He relit the fire and put on the coffee-pot before he saddled the horse.
+She ate and drank hurriedly, soon announcing herself ready for the start.
+<P>
+She mounted from his hand; then without asking any questions he swung to
+a place behind her.
+<P>
+"We'll both ride," he said.
+<P>
+The stars were out before they reached the outskirts of the mining-camp.
+At the first house of the rambling suburbs Neill slipped to the ground and
+walked beside her toward the old adobe plaza of the Mexican town
+<P>
+People passed them on the run, paying no attention to them, and others dribbled
+singly or in small groups from the houses and saloons. All of them were
+converging excitedly to the plaza.
+<P>
+"Must be something doing here," said her guide. "Now I wonder what!"
+<P>
+Round the next turn he found his answer. There must have been present two
+or three hundred men, mostly miners, and their gazes all focussed on two
+figures which stood against a door at the top of five or six steps. One of
+the forms was crouched on its knees, abject, cringing terror stamped on the
+white villainous face upturned to the electric light above. But the other
+was on its feet, a revolver in each hand, a smile of reckless daring on the
+boyish countenance that just now stood for law and order in Mal Pais.
+<P>
+The man beside the girl read the situation at a glance. The handcuffed figure
+groveling on the steps belonged to the murderer Struve, and over him stood
+lightly the young ranger Steve Fraser. He was standing off a mob that had
+gathered to lynch his prisoner, and one glance at him was enough to explain
+how he had won his reputation as the most dashing and fearless member of
+a singularly efficient force. For plain to be read as the danger that confronted
+him was the fact that peril was as the breath of life to his nostrils.
+<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3>
+<h4>ENTER MR. DUNKE</h4>
+<P>
+"He's my prisoner and you can't have him," the girl heard the ranger say.
+<P>
+The answer came in a roar of rage. "By God, we'll show you!"
+<P>
+"If you want him, take him. But don't come unless you are ready to pay the
+price!" warned the officer.
+<P>
+He was bareheaded and his dark-brown curly hair crisped round his forehead
+engagingly. Round his right hand was tied a blood-stained handkerchief. A
+boy he looked, but his record was a man's, and so the mob that swayed uncertainly
+below him knew. His gray eyes were steady as steel despite the fire that
+glowed in them. He stood at ease, with nerve unshaken, the curious lifted
+look of a great moment about the poise of his graceful figure.
+<P>
+"It is Lieutenant Fraser," cried Margaret, but as she looked down she missed
+her escort.
+<P>
+An instant, and she saw him. He was circling the outskirts of the crowd at
+a run. For just a heart-beat she wondered what he was about, but her brain
+told her before her eye. He swung in toward the steps, shoulders down, and
+bored a way through the stragglers straight to the heart of the turmoil.
+Taking the steps in two jumps, he stood beside the ranger.
+<P>
+"Hello, Tennessee," grinned that young man. "Come to be a pall-bearer?"
+<P>
+"Hello, Texas! Can't say, I'm sure. Just dropped in to see what's doing."
+<P>
+Steve's admiring gaze approved him a man from the ground up. But the ranger
+only laughed and said: "The band's going to play a right lively tune, looks
+like."
+<P>
+The man from the Panhandle had his revolvers out already. "Yes, there will
+be a hot time in the old town to-night, I shouldn't wonder."
+<P>
+But for the moment the attackers were inclined to parley. Their leader stepped
+out and held up a hand for a suspension of hostilities. He was a large man,
+heavily built, and powerful as a bear. There was about him an air of authority,
+as of one used to being obeyed. He was dressed roughly enough in corduroy
+and miner's half-leg boots, but these were of the most expensive material
+and cut. His cold gray eye and thin lips denied the manner of superficial
+heartiness he habitually carried. If one scratched the veneer of good nature
+it was to find a hard selfishness that went to his core.
+<P>
+"It's Mr. Dunke!" the young school-teacher cried aloud in surprise.
+<P>
+"I've got something to say to you, Mr. Lieutenant Ranger," he announced,
+with importance.
+<P>
+"Uncork it," was Fraser's advice.
+<P>
+"We don't want to have any trouble with you, but we're here for business.
+This man is a cold-blooded murderer and we mean to do justice on him."
+<P>
+Steve laughed insolently. "If all them that hollers for justice the loudest
+got it done to them, Mr. Dunke, there'd be a right smart shrinkage in the
+census returns."
+<P>
+Dunke's eye gleamed with anger. "We're not here to listen to any smart guys,
+sir. Will you give up Struve to us or will you not?"
+<P>
+"That's easy. I will not."
+<P>
+The mob leader turned to the Tennessean. "Young man, I don't know who you
+are, but if you mean to butt into a quarrel that ain't yours all I've got
+to say is that you're hunting an early grave."
+<P>
+"We'll know about that later, seh."
+<P>
+"You stand pat, do you?"
+<P>
+"Well, seh, I draw to a pair that opens the pot anyhow," answered Larry,
+with a slight motion of his weapons.
+<P>
+Dunke fell back into the mob, a shot rang out into the night, and the crowd
+swayed forward. But at that instant the door behind Fraser swung open. A
+frightened voice sounded in his ear.
+<P>
+"Quick, Steve!"
+<P>
+The ranger slewed his head, gave an exclamation of surprise, and hurriedly
+threw his prisoner into the open passage.
+<P>
+"Back, Larry! Lively, my boy!" he ordered.
+<P>
+Neill leaped back in a spatter of bullets that rained round him. Next moment
+the door was swung shut again.
+<P>
+"You all right, Nell?" asked Fraser quickly of the young woman who had opened
+the door, and upon her affirmative reply he added: "Everybody alive and kicking?
+Nobody get a pill?"
+<P>
+"I'm all right for one," returned Larry. "But we had better get out of this
+passage. I notice our friends the enemy are sending their cards through the
+door after us right anxious."
+<P>
+As he spoke a bullet tore a jagged splinter from a panel and buried itself
+in the ceiling. A second and a third followed.
+<P>
+"That's c'rect. We'd better be 'Not at home' when they call. Eh, Nell?"
+<P>
+Steve put an arm affectionately round the waist of the young woman who had
+come in such timely fashion to their aid and ran through the passage with
+her to the room beyond, Neill following with the prisoner.
+<P>
+"You're wounded, Steve," the young woman cried.
+<P>
+He shrugged. "Scratch in the hand. Got it when I arrested him. Had to shoot
+<I>his</I> trigger finger off."
+<P>
+"But I must see to it."
+<P>
+"Not now; wait till we're out of the woods." He turned to his friend: "Nell,
+let me introduce to you Mr. Neill, from the Panhandle. Mr. Neill, this is
+my sister. I don't know how come she to drop down behind us like an angel
+from heaven, but that's a story will wait. The thing we got to do right now
+is to light a shuck out of here."
+<P>
+His friend nodded, listening to the sound of blows battering the outer door.
+"They'll have it down in another minute. We've got to burn the wind seven
+ways for Sunday."
+<P>
+"What I'd like to know is whether there are two entrances to this rat-trap.
+Do you happen to know, Nell?" asked Fraser of his sister.
+<P>
+"Three," she answered promptly. "There's a back door into the court and a
+trap-door to the roof. That's the way I came."
+<P>
+"And it's the way we'll go. I might a-known you'd know all about it give
+you a quarter of a chance," her brother said admiringly. "We'll duck through
+the roof and let Mr. Dunke hold the sack. Lead the way, sis."
+<P>
+She guided them along another passageway and up some stairs to the second
+story. The trap-door that opened to the flat roof was above the bed about
+six feet. Neill caught the edges of the narrow opening, drew himself up,
+and wriggled through. Fraser lifted his sister by the waist high enough for
+Larry to catch her hands and draw her up.
+<P>
+"Hurry, Steve," she urged. "They've broken in. Hurry, dear."
+<P>
+The ranger unlocked his prisoner's handcuffs and tossed them up to the
+Tennessean.
+<P>
+"Get a move on you, Mr. Struve, unless you want to figure in a necktie party,"
+he advised.
+<P>
+But the convict's flabby muscles were unequal to the task of getting him
+through the opening. Besides which, his wounded hand, tied up with a blood-soaked
+rag, impeded him. He had to be pulled from above and boosted from behind.
+Fraser, fit to handle his weight in wildcats, as an admirer had once put
+it, found no trouble in following. Steps were already heard on the stairs
+below when Larry slipped the cover to its place and put upon it a large flat
+stone which he found on the roof for that purpose. The fugitives crawled
+along the roof on their hands and knees so as to escape the observation of
+the howling mob outside the house. Presently they came into the shadows,
+and Nell rose, ran forward to a little ladder which led to a higher roof,
+and swiftly ascended. Neill, who was at her heels, could not fail to note
+the light supple grace with which she moved. He thought he had never seen
+a more charming woman in appearance. She still somehow retained the slim
+figure and taking ways of a girl, in conjunction with the soft rounded curves
+of a present-day Madonna.
+<P>
+Two more roofs were crossed before they came to another open trap-door. A
+lamp in the room below showed it to be a bedroom with two cots in it. Two
+children, one of them a baby, were asleep in these. A sweet-faced woman past
+middle age looked anxiously up with hands clasped together as in prayer.
+<P>
+"Is it you, Nellie?" she asked.
+<P>
+"Yes, mother, and Steve, and his friend. We're all right."
+<P>
+Fraser dropped through, and his sister let herself down into his arms. Struve
+followed, and was immediately handcuffed. Larry put back the trap and fastened
+it from within before he dropped down.
+<P>
+"We shall have to leave at once, mother, without waiting to dress the children,"
+explained Fraser. "Wrap them in blankets and take some clothes along. I'll
+drop you at the hotel and slip my prisoner into the jail the back way if
+I can; that is, if another plan I have doesn't work."
+<P>
+The oldest child awoke and caught sight of Fraser. He reached out his hands
+in excitement and began to call: "Uncle Steve! Uncle Steve back again."
+<P>
+Fraser picked up the youngster. "Yes, Uncle Steve is back. But we're going
+to play a game that Indians are after us. Webb must be good and keep very,
+very still. He mustn't say a word till uncle tells him he may."
+<P>
+The little fellow clapped his hands. "Goody, goody! Shall we begin now?"
+<P>
+"Right this minute, son. Better take your money with you, mother. Is father
+here?"
+<P>
+"No, he is at the ranch. He went down in the stage to-day."
+<P>
+"All right, friends. We'll take the back way. Tennessee, will you look out
+for Mr. Struve? Sis will want to carry the baby."
+<P>
+They passed quietly down-stairs and out the back door. The starry night enveloped
+them coldly, and the moon looked down through rifted clouds. Nature was peaceful
+as her own silent hills, but the raucous jangle of cursing voices from a
+distance made discord of the harmony. They slipped along through the shadows,
+meeting none except occasional figures hurrying to the plaza. At the hotel
+door the two men separated from the rest of the party, and took with them
+their prisoner.
+<P>
+"I'm going to put him for safe-keeping down the shaft of a mine my father
+and I own," explained Steve. "He wouldn't be safe in the jail, because Dunke,
+<I>for private reasons,</I> has made up his mind to put out his lights."
+<P>
+"Private reasons?" echoed the engineer.
+<P>
+"Mighty good ones, too. Ain't that right?" demanded the ranger of Struve.
+<P>
+The convict cursed, though his teeth still chattered with fright from the
+narrow escape he had had, but through his prison jargon ran a hint of some
+power he had over the man Dunke. It was plain he thought the latter had incited
+the lynching in order to shut the convict's mouth forever.
+<P>
+"Where is this shaft?" asked Neill.
+<P>
+"Up a gulch about half a mile from here."
+<P>
+Fraser's eyes fixed themselves on a young man who passed on the run. He suddenly
+put his fingers to his lips and gave a low whistle. The running man stopped
+instantly, his head alert to catch the direction from which the sound had
+come. Steve whistled again and the stranger turned toward them.
+<P>
+"It's Brown, one of my rangers," explained the lieutenant.
+<P>
+Brown, it appeared, had just reached town and stabled his horse when word
+came to him that there was trouble on the plaza. He had been making for it
+when his officer's whistle stopped him.
+<P>
+"It's all over except getting this man to safety. I'm going to put him down
+an abandoned shaft of the Jackrabbit. He'll be safe there, and nobody will
+think to look for him in any such place," said Fraser.
+<P>
+The man from the Panhandle drew his friend to one side. "Do you need me any
+longer? I left Miss Kinney right on the edge of that mob, and I expect I
+better look around and see where she is now."
+<P>
+"All right. No, we don't need you. Take care you don't let any of these miners
+recognize you. They might make you trouble while they're still hot. Well,
+so-long. See you to-morrow at the hotel."
+<P>
+The Tennessean looked to his guns to make sure they hung loose in the scabbards,
+then stepped briskly back toward the plaza.
+<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3>
+<h4>WOULD YOU WORRY ABOUT ME?</h4>
+<P>
+Margaret Kinney's heart ceased beating in that breathless instant after the
+two dauntless friends had flung defiance to two hundred. There was a sudden
+tightening of her throat, a fixing of dilated eyes on what would have been
+a thrilling spectacle had it not meant so much more to her. For as she leaned
+forward in the saddle with parted lips she knew a passionate surge of fear
+for one of the apparently doomed men that went through her like swift poison,
+that left her dizzy with the shock of it.
+<P>
+The thought of action came to her too late. As Dunke stepped back to give
+the signal for attack she cried out his name, but her voice was drowned in
+the yell of rage that filled the street. She tried to spur her horse into
+the crowd, to force a way to the men standing with such splendid fearlessness
+above this thirsty pack of wolves. But the denseness of the throng held her
+fixed even while revolvers flashed.
+<P>
+And then the miracle happened. She saw the door open and limned in a penumbra
+of darkness the white comely face of a woman. She saw the beleaguered men
+sway back and the door close in the faces of the horde. She saw bullets go
+crashing into the door, heard screams of baffled fury, and presently the
+crash of axes into the panels of the barrier that held them back. It seemed
+to fade away before her gaze, and instead of it she saw a doorway full of
+furious crowding miners.
+<P>
+Then presently her heart stood still again. From her higher place in the
+saddle, well back in the outskirts of the throng, in the dim light she made
+out a figure crouching on the roof; then another, and another, and a fourth.
+She suffered an agony of fear in the few heart-beats before they began to
+slip away. Her eyes swept the faces near her. One and all they were turned
+upon the struggling mass of humanity at the entrance to the passage. When
+she dared look again to the roof the fugitives were gone. She thought she
+perceived them swarming up a ladder to the higher roof, but in the surrounding
+grayness she could not be sure of this.
+<P>
+The stamping of feet inside the house continued. Once there was the sound
+of an exploding revolver. After a long time a heavy figure struggled into
+view through the roof-trap. It was Dunke himself. He caught sight of the
+ladder, gave a shout of triumph, and was off in pursuit of his flying prey.
+As others appeared on the roof they, too, took up the chase, a long line
+of indistinct running figures.
+<P>
+There were other women on the street now, most of them Mexicans, so that
+Margaret attracted little attention. She moved up opposite the house that
+had become the scene of action, expecting every moment to hear the shots
+that would determine the fate of the victims.
+<P>
+But no shots came. Lights flashed from room to room, and presently one light
+began to fill a room so brilliantly that she knew a lamp must have been
+overturned and set the house on fire. Dunke burst from the front door, scarce
+a dozen paces from her. There was a kind of lurid fury in his eyes. He was
+as ravenously fierce as a wolf balked of its kill. She chose that moment
+to call him.
+<P>
+"Mr. Dunke!"
+<P>
+Her voice struck him into a sort of listening alertness, and again she pronounced
+his name.
+<P>
+"You, Miss Kinney&#151; here?" he asked in amazement.
+<P>
+"Yes&#151; Miss Kinney."
+<P>
+"But&#151; What are you doing here? I thought you were at Fort Lincoln."
+<P>
+"I was, but I'm here now."
+<P>
+"Why? This is no place for you to-night. Hell's broke loose."
+<P>
+"So it seems," she answered, with shining eyes.
+<P>
+"There's trouble afoot, Miss Margaret. No girl should be out, let alone an
+unprotected one."
+<P>
+"I did not come here unprotected. There was a man with me. The one, Mr. Dunke,
+that you are now looking for to murder!"
+<P>
+She gave it to him straight from the shoulder, her eyes holding his steadily.
+<P>
+"Struve?" he gasped, taken completely aback.
+<P>
+"No, not Struve. The man who stood beside Lieutenant Fraser, the one you
+threatened to kill because he backed the law."
+<P>
+"I guess you don't know all the facts, Miss Kinney." He came close and met
+her gaze while he spoke in a low voice. "There ain't many know what I know.
+Mebbe there ain't any beside you now. But <I>I</I> know you're Jim Kinney's
+sister."
+<P>
+"You are welcome to the knowledge. It is no secret. Lieutenant Fraser knows
+it. So does his friend. I'm not trying to hide it. What of it?"
+<P>
+Her quiet scorn drew the blood to his face.
+<P>
+"That's all right. If you do want to keep it quiet I'm with you. But there's
+something more. Your brother escaped from Yuma with this fellow Struve. Word
+came over the wire an hour or two ago that Struve had been captured and that
+it was certain he had killed his pal, your brother. That's why I mean to
+see him hanged before mo'ning."
+<P>
+"He did kill my brother. He told me so himself." Her voice carried a sob
+for an instant, but she went on resolutely. "What has that to do with it?
+Isn't there any law in Texas? Hasn't he been captured? And isn't he being
+taken back to his punishment?"
+<P>
+"He told you so himself!" the man echoed. "When did he tell you? When did
+you see him?"
+<P>
+"I was alone with him for twelve hours in the desert."
+<P>
+"Alone with you?" His puzzled face showed how he was trying to take this
+in, "I don't understand. How could he be alone with <I>you?"</I>
+<P>
+"I thought he was my brother and I was helping him to escape from Fort Lincoln."
+<P>
+"Helping him to escape! Helping Wolf Struve to escape! Well, I'm darned if
+that don't beat my time. How come you to think him your brother?" the man
+asked suspiciously.
+<P>
+"It doesn't matter how or why. I thought so. That's enough."
+<P>
+"And you were alone with him&#151; why, you must have been alone with him all
+night," cried Dunke, coming to a fresh discovery.
+<P>
+"I was," she admitted very quietly.
+<P>
+A new suspicion edged itself into his mind. "What did you talk about? Did
+he say anything about&#151; Did he&#151; He always was a terrible liar. Nobody ever
+believed Wolf Struve."
+<P>
+Without understanding the reason for it, she could see that he was uneasy,
+that he was trying to discount the value of anything the convict might have
+told her. Yet what could Struve the convict, No. 9,432, have to do with the
+millionaire mine-owner, Thomas J. Dunke? What could there be in common between
+them? Why should the latter fear what the other had to tell? The thing was
+preposterous on the face of it, but the girl knew by some woman's instinct
+that she was on the edge of a secret Dunke held hidden deep in his heart
+from all the world. Only this much she guessed; that Struve was a sharer
+of his secret, and therefore he was set on lynching the man before he had
+time to tell it.
+<P>
+"They got away, didn't they?" she asked.
+<P>
+"They got away&#151; for the present," he answered grimly. "But we're still hunting
+them."
+<P>
+"Can't you let the law take its course, Mr. Danke? Is it necessary to do
+this terrible thing?"
+<P>
+"Don't you worry any about it, Miss Kinney. This ain't a woman's job. I'll
+attend to it."
+<P>
+"But my friends," she reminded him.
+<P>
+"We ain't intending to hurt them any. Come, I'll see you home. You staying
+at the hotel?"
+<P>
+"I don't know. I haven't made any arrangements yet."
+<P>
+"Well, we'll go make them now."
+<P>
+But she did not move. "I'm not going in till I know how this comes out."
+<P>
+He was a man used to having his own brutal way, one strong by nature, with
+strength increased by the money upon which he rode rough-shod to success.
+<P>
+He laughed as he caught hold of the rein. "That's ridiculous!"
+<P>
+"But my business, I think," the girl answered sharply, jerking the bridle
+from his fingers.
+<P>
+Dunke stared at her. It was his night of surprises. He failed to recognize
+the conventional teacher he knew in this bright-eyed, full-throated young
+woman who fronted him so sure of herself. She seemed to him to swim brilliantly
+in a tide of flushed beauty, in spite of the dust and the stains of travel.
+She was in a shapeless khaki riding-suit and a plain, gray, broad-brimmed
+Stetson. But the one could not hide the flexible curves that made so frankly
+for grace, nor the other the coppery tendrils that escaped in fascinating
+disorder from under its brim.
+<P>
+"You hadn't ought to be out here. It ain't right."
+<P>
+"I don't remember asking you to act as a standard of right and wrong for
+me."
+<P>
+He laughed awkwardly. "We ain't quarreling, are we, Miss Margaret?"
+<P>
+"Certainly I am not. I don't quarrel with anybody but my friends."
+<P>
+"Well, I didn't aim to offend you anyway. You know me better than that."
+He let his voice fall into a caressing modulation and put a propitiatory
+hand on her skirt, but under the uncompromising hardness of her gaze the
+hand fell away to his side. <I>"I'm</I> your friend&#151; leastways I want to
+be."
+<P>
+"My friends don't lynch men."
+<P>
+"But after what he did to your brother."
+<P>
+"The law will take care of that. If you want to please me call off your men
+before it is too late."
+<P>
+It was his cue to please her, for so far as it was in him the man loved her.
+He had set his strong will to trample on his past, to rise to a place where
+no man could shake his security with proof of his former misdeeds. He meant
+to marry her and to place her out of reach of those evil days of his. Only
+Struve was left of the old gang, and he knew the Wolf well enough to be sure
+that the fellow would delight in blackmailing him. The convict's mouth must
+be closed. But just now he must promise    t she wanted, and he did.
+<P>
+The promise was still on his lips when a third person strode into their
+conversation.
+<P>
+"Sorry I had to leave you so hastily, Miss Kinney. I'm ready to take you
+to the hotel now if it suits you."
+<P>
+Both of them turned quickly, to see the man from the Panhandle sauntering
+forth from the darkness. There was a slight smile on his face, which did
+not abate when he nodded to Dunke amiably.
+<P>
+"You?" exclaimed the mine-owner angrily.
+<P>
+"Why, yes&#151; me. Hope we didn't inconvenience you, seh, by postponing the coyote's
+journey to Kingdom Come. My friend had to take a hand because he is a ranger,
+and I sat in to oblige him. No hard feelings, I hope."
+<P>
+"Did you&#151; Are you all safe?" Margaret asked.
+<P>
+"Yes, ma'am. Got away slick and clean."
+<P>
+"Where?" barked Dunke.
+<P>
+"Where what, my friend?"
+<P>
+"Where did you take him?"
+<P>
+Larry laughed in slow deep enjoyment. "I hate to disappoint you, but if I
+told that would be telling. No, I reckon I won't table my cards yet a while.
+If you're playing in this game of Hi-Spy go to it and hunt."
+<P>
+"Perhaps you don't know that I am T. J. Dunke."
+<P>
+"You don't say! And I'm General Grant. This lady hyer is Florence Nightingale
+or Martha Washington, I disremember which."
+<P>
+Miss Kinney laughed. "Whichever she is she's very very tired," she said.
+"I think I'll accept your offer to see me to the hotel, Mr. Neill."
+<P>
+She nodded a careless good night to the mine-owner, and touched the horse
+with her heel. At the porch of the rather primitive hotel she descended stiffly
+from the saddle.
+<P>
+Before she left the Southerner&#151; or the Westerner, for sometimes she classified
+him as one, sometimes as the other&#151; she asked him one hesitant question.
+<P>
+"Were you thinking of going out again tonight?"
+<P>
+"I did think of taking a turn out to see if I could find Fraser. Anything
+I can do for you?"
+<P>
+"Yes. Please don't go. I don't want to have to worry about you. I have had
+enough trouble for the present."
+<P>
+"Would you worry about me?" he asked quietly, his eyes steadily on her.
+<P>
+"I lie awake about the most unaccountable things sometimes."
+<P>
+He smiled in his slow Southern fashion. "Very well. I'll stay indoors. I
+reckon Steve ain't lost, anyhow. You're too tired to have to lie awake about
+me to-night. There's going to be lots of other nights for you to think of
+me."
+<P>
+She glanced at him with a quick curiosity. "Well, of all the conceit I ever
+heard!"
+<P>
+"I'm the limit, ain't I?" he grinned as he took himself off.
+<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3>
+<h4>DOWN THE JACKRABBIT SHAFT.</h4>
+<P>
+Next morning Larry got up so late that he had to Order a special breakfast
+for himself, the dining-room being closed. He found one guest there, however,
+just beginning her oatmeal, and he invited himself to eat at her table.
+<P>
+"Good mawnin', Miss Kinney. You don't look like you had been lying awake
+worrying about me," he began by way of opening the conversation.
+<P>
+Nor did she. Youth recuperates quickly, and after a night's sound sleep she
+was glowing with health and sweet vitality. He could see a flush beat into
+the fresh softness of her flesh, but she lifted her dark lashes promptly
+to meet him, and came to the sex duel gaily.
+<P>
+"I suppose you think I had to take a sleeping-powder to keep me from it?"
+she flashed back.
+<P>
+"Oh, well, a person can dream," he suggested.
+<P>
+"How did you know? But you are right. I did dream of you."
+<P>
+To the waiter he gave his order before answering her. "Some oatmeal and bacon
+and eggs. Yes, coffee. And some hot cakes, Charlie. Did you honest dream
+about me?" This last not to the Chinese waiter who had padded soft-footed
+to the kitchen.
+<P>
+"Yes."
+<P>
+She smiled shyly at him with sweet innocence, and he drew his chair a trifle
+closer
+<P>
+"Tell me."
+<P>
+"I don't like to."
+<P>
+"But you must. Go on."
+<P>
+"Well," very reluctantly. "I dreamed I was visiting the penitentiary and
+you were there in stripes. You were in for stealing a sheep, I think. Yes,
+that was it, for stealing a sheep."
+<P>
+"Couldn't you make it something more classy if you're bound to have me in?"
+he begged, enjoying immensely the rise she was taking out of him.
+<P>
+"I have to tell it the way it was," she insisted, her eyes bubbling with
+fun. "And it seems you were the prison cook. First thing I knew you were
+standing in front of a wall and two hundred of the prisoners were shooting
+at you. They were using your biscuits as bullets."
+<P>
+"That was a terrible revenge to take on me for baking them."
+<P>
+"It seems you had your sheep with you&#151; the one you stole, and you and it
+were being pelted all over."
+<P>
+"Did you see a lady hold-up among those shooting at me?" he inquired anxiously.
+<P>
+She shook her head. "And just when the biscuits were flying thickest the
+wall opened and Mr. Fraser appeared. He caught you and the sheep by the back
+of your necks, and flung you in. Then the wall closed, and I awoke."
+<P>
+"That's about as near the facts as dreams usually get."
+<P>
+He was very much pleased, for it would have been a great disappointment to
+him if she had admitted dreaming about him for any reason except to make
+fun of him. The thing about her that touched his imagination most was something
+wild and untamed, some quality of silken strength in her slim supple youth
+that scoffed at all men and knew none as master. He meant to wrest from her
+if he could an interest that would set him apart in her mind from all others,
+but he wanted the price of victory to cost him something. Thus the value
+of it would be enhanced.
+<P>
+"But tell me about your escape&#151; all about it and what became of Lieutenant
+Fraser. And first of all, who the lady was that opened the door for you,"
+she demanded.
+<P>
+"She was his sister."
+<P>
+"Oh! His sister." Her voice was colorless. She observed him without appearing
+to do so. "Very pretty, I thought her. Didn't you?"
+<P>
+"Right nice looking. Had a sort of an expression made a man want to look
+at her again."
+<P>
+"Yes."
+<P>
+Innocently unaware that he was being pumped, he contributed more information.
+"And <I>that</I> game."
+<P>
+"She was splendid. I can see her now opening the door in the face of the
+bullets."
+<P>
+"Never a scream out of her either. Just as cool."
+<P>
+"That is the quality men admire most, isn't it&#151; courage?"
+<P>
+"I don't reckon that would come first. Course it wouldn't make a hit with
+a man to have a woman puling around all the time."
+<P>
+"My kind, you mean."
+<P>
+Though she was smiling at him with her lips, it came to him that his words
+were being warped to a wrong meaning.
+<P>
+"No, I don't," he retorted bluntly.
+<P>
+"As I remember it, I was bawling every chance I got yesterday and the day
+before," she recalled, with fine contempt of herself.
+<P>
+"Oh, well! You had reason a-plenty. And sometimes a woman cries just like
+a man cusses. It don't mean anything. I once knew a woman wet her handkerchief
+to a sop crying because her husband forgot one mo'ning to kiss her good-by.
+She quit irrigating to run into a burning house after a neighbor's kids."
+<P>
+"I accept your apology for my behavior if you'll promise I won't do it again,"
+she laughed. "But tell me more about Miss Fraser. Does she live here?"
+<P>
+For a moment he was puzzled. "Miss Fraser! Oh! She gave up that name several
+years ago. Mrs. Collins they call her. And say, you ought to see her kiddies.
+You'd fall in love with them sure."
+<P>
+The girl covered her mistake promptly with a little laugh. It would never
+do for him to know she had been yielding to incipient jealousy. "Why can't
+I know them? I want to meet her too."
+<P>
+The door opened and a curly head was thrust in. "Dining-room closes for breakfast
+at nine. My clock says it's ten-thirty now. Pretty near work to keep eating
+that long, ain't it? And this Sunday, too! I'll have you put in the calaboose
+for breaking the Sabbath."
+<P>
+"We're only bending it," grinned Neill. "Good mo'ning, Lieutenant. How is
+Mrs. Collins, and the pickaninnies?"
+<P>
+"First rate. Waiting in the parlor to be introduced to Miss Kinney."
+<P>
+"We're through," announced Margaret, rising.
+<P>
+"You too, Tennessee? The proprietor will be grateful."
+<P>
+The young women took to each other at once. Margaret was very fond of children,
+and the little boy won her heart immediately. Both he and his baby sister
+were well-trained, healthy, and lovable little folks, and they adopted "Aunt
+Peggy" enthusiastically.
+<P>
+Presently the ranger proposed to Neill an adjournment.
+<P>
+"I got to take some breakfast down the Jackrabbit shaft
+to my prisoner. Wanter take a stroll that way?" he asked.
+<P>
+"If the ladies will excuse us."
+<P>
+"Glad to get rid of you," Miss Kinney assured him promptly, but with a bright
+smile that neutralized the effect of her sauciness. "Mrs. Collins and I want
+to have a talk."
+<P>
+The way to the Jackrabbit lay up a gulch behind the town. Up one incline
+was a shaft-house with a great gray dump at the foot of it. This they left
+behind them, climbing the hill till they came to the summit.
+<P>
+The ranger pointed to another shaft-house and dump on the next hillside.
+<P>
+"That's the Mal Pais, from which the district is named. Dunke owns it and
+most of the others round here. His workings and ours come together in several
+places, but we have boarded up the tunnels at those points and locked the
+doors we put in. Wonder where Brown is? I told him to meet me here to let
+us down."
+<P>
+At this moment they caught sight of him coming up a timbered draw. He lowered
+them into the shaft, which was about six hundred feet deep. From the foot
+of the shaft went a tunnel into the heart of the mountain. Steve led the
+way, flashing an electric searchlight as he went.
+<P>
+"We aren't working this part of the mine any more," he explained. "It connects
+with the newer workings by a tunnel. We'll go back that way to the shaft."
+<P>
+"You've got quite a safe prison," commented the other.
+<P>
+"It's commodious, anyhow; and I reckon it's safe. If a man was to get loose
+he couldn't reach the surface without taking somebody into partner-ship with
+him. There ain't but three ways to daylight; one by the shaft we came down,
+another by way of our shaft-house, and the third by Dunke's, assuming he
+could break through into the Mal Pais. He'd better not break loose and go
+to wandering around. There are seventeen miles of workings down here in the
+Jackrabbit, let alone the Mal Pais. He might easily get lost and starve to
+death. Here he is at the end of this tunnel."
+<P>
+Steve flashed the light twice before he could believe his eyes. There was
+no sign of Struve except the handcuffs depending from an iron chain connected
+by a heavy staple with the granite wall. Apparently he had somehow managed
+to slip from the gyves by working at them constantly.
+<P>
+The officer turned to his friend and laughed. "I reckon I'm holding the sack
+this time. See. There's blood on these cuffs. He rasped his hands some before
+he got them out."
+<P>
+"Well, you've still got him safe down here somewhere."
+<P>
+"Yes, I have or Dunke has. The trouble is both the mines are shut down just
+now. He's got about forty miles of tunnel to play hide-and-go-seek in. He's
+in luck if he doesn't starve to death."
+<P>
+"What are you going to do about it?"
+<P>
+"I'll have to get some of my men out on search-parties&#151; just tell them there's
+a man lost down here without telling them who. I reckon we better say nothing
+about it to the ladies. You know how tender-hearted they are. Nellie wouldn't
+sleep a wink to-night for worrying."
+<P>
+"All right. We'd better get to it at once then."
+<P>
+Fraser nodded. "We'll go up and rustle a few of the boys that know the mine
+well. I expect before we find him Mr. Wolf Struve will be a lamb and right
+anxious for the shepherd to arrive."
+<P>
+All day the search proceeded without results, and all of the next day. The
+evening of this second day found Struve still not accounted for.
+<h3>CHAPTER X</h3>
+<h4>IN A TUNNEL OF THE MAL PAIS</h4>
+<P>
+Although Miss Kinney had assured Neill that she was glad to be rid of him
+it occurred to her more than once in the course of the day that he was taking
+her a little too literally. On Sunday she did not see a glimpse of him after
+he left. At lunch he did not appear, nor was he in evidence at dinner. Next
+morning she learned that he had been to breakfast and had gone before she
+got down. She withheld judgment till lunch, being almost certain that he
+would be on hand to that meal. His absence roused her resentment and her
+independence. If he didn't care to see her she certainly did not want to
+see him. She was not going to sit around and wait for him to take her down
+into the mine he had promised she should see. Let him forget his appointment
+if he liked. He would wait a long time before she made any more engagements
+with him.
+<P>
+About this time Dunke began to flatter himself that he had made an impression.
+Miss Kinney was all smiles. She was graciously pleased to take a horseback
+ride over the camp with him, nor did he know that her roving eye was constantly
+on the lookout for a certain spare, clean-built figure she could recognize
+at a considerable distance by the easy, elastic tread. Monday evening the
+mine-owner called upon her and Mrs. Collins, whose brother also was among
+the missing, and she was delighted to accept his invitation to go through
+the Mal Pais workings with him.
+<P>
+"That is, if Mrs. Collins will go, too," she added as an afterthought.
+<P>
+That young woman hesitated. Though this man had led his miners against her
+brother, she was ready to believe the attack not caused by personal enmity.
+The best of feeling did not exist between the owners of the Jackrabbit and
+those of the Mal Pais. Dunke was suspected of boldly crossing into the territory
+of his neighbor where his veins did not lead. But there had been no open
+rupture. For the very reason that an undertow of feeling existed Nellie consented
+to join the party. She did not want by a refusal to put into words a hostility
+tha    e had always carefully veiled. She was in the position of not wanting
+to go at all, yet wanting still less to decline to do so.
+<P>
+"I shall be glad to go," she said.
+<P>
+"Fine. We'll start about nine, or nine-thirty say. I'll drive up in a surrey."
+<P>
+"And we'll have lunch for the party put up at the hotel here. I'll get some
+fruit to take along," said Margaret.
+<P>
+"We'll make a regular picnic of it," added Dunke heartily. "You'll enjoy
+eating out of a dinner-pail for once just like one of my miners, Miss Kinney,"
+<P>
+After he had gone Margaret mentioned to Mrs. Collins her feeling concerning
+him. "I don't really like him. Or rather I don't give him my full confidence.
+He seems pleasant enough, too." She laughed a little as she added: "You know
+he does me the honor to admire me."
+<P>
+"Yes, I know that. I was wondering how you felt about it."
+<P>
+"How ought one to feel about one of the great mining kings of the West?"
+<P>
+"Has that anything to do with it, my dear? I mean his being a mining king?"
+asked Mrs. Collins gently.
+<P>
+Margaret went up to her and kissed her. "You're a romantic little thing.
+That's because you probably married a heaven-sent man. We can't all be
+fortunate."
+<P>
+"We none of us need to marry where we don't love."
+<P>
+"Goodness me! I'm not thinking of marrying Mr. Dunke's millions. The only
+thing is that I don't have a Croesus to exhibit every day at my chariot wheels.
+It's horrid of course, but I have a natural feminine reluctance to surrendering
+him all at once. I don't object in the least to trampling on him, but somehow
+I don't feel ready for his declaration of independence."
+<P>
+"Oh, if that's all!" her friend smiled.
+<P>
+"That's quite all."
+<P>
+"Perhaps you prefer Texans who come from the Panhandle."
+<P>
+Mrs. Collins happened to be looking straight at her out of her big brown
+eyes. Wherefore she could not help observing the pink glow that deepened
+in the soft cheeks.
+<P>
+"He hasn't preferred <I>me</I> much lately."
+<P>
+Nellie knitted her brow in perplexity. "I don't understand. Steve's been
+away, too, nearly all the time. Something is going on that we don't know
+about."
+<P>
+"Not that I care. Mr. Neill is welcome to stay away."
+<P>
+Her new friend shot a swift slant look at her. "I don't suppose you trample
+on <I>him</I> much."
+<P>
+Margaret flushed. "No, I don't. It's the other way. I never saw anybody so
+rude. He does not seem to have any saving sense of the proper thing."
+<P>
+"He's a man, dearie, and a good one. He may be untrammeled by convention,
+but he is clean and brave. He has eyes that look through cowardice and treachery,
+fine strong eyes that are honest and unafraid."
+<P>
+"Dear me, you must have studied them a good deal to see all that in them,"
+said Miss Peggy lightly, yet pleased withal.
+<P>
+"My dear," reproached her friend, so seriously that Peggy repented.
+<P>
+"I didn't really mean it," she laughed. "I've heard already on good authority
+that you see no man's eyes except the handsome ones in the face of Mr. Tim
+Collins."
+<P>
+"I <I>do</I> think Tim has fine eyes," blushed the accused.
+<P>
+"No doubt of it. Since you have been admiring my young man I must praise
+yours," teased Miss Kinney.
+<P>
+"Am I to wish you joy? I didn't know he was your young man," flashed back
+the other.
+<P>
+"I understand that you have been trying to put him off on me."
+<P>
+"You'll find he does not need any 'putting off' on anybody."
+<P>
+"At least, he has a good friend in you. I think I'll tell him, so that when
+he does condescend to become interested in a young woman he may refer her
+to you for a recommendation."
+<P>
+The young wife borrowed for the occasion some of Miss Peggy's audacity. "I'm
+recommending him to that young woman now, my dear," she made answer.
+<P>
+Dunke's party left for the mine on schedule time, Water-proof coats and high
+lace-boots had been borrowed for the ladies as a protection against the moisture
+they were sure to meet in the tunnels one thousand feet below the ground.
+The mine-owner had had the hoisting-engine started for the occasion, and
+the cage took them down as swiftly and as smoothly as a metropolitan elevator.
+Nevertheless Margaret clung tightly to her friend, for if was her first
+experience of the kind. She had never before dropped nearly a quarter of
+a mile straight down into the heart of the earth and she felt a smothered
+sensation, a sense of danger induced by her unaccustomed surroundings. It
+is the unknown that awes, and when she first stepped from the cage and peered
+down the long, low tunnel through which a tramway ran she caught her breath
+rather quickly. She had an active imagination, and she conjured cave-ins,
+explosions, and all the other mine horrors she had read about.
+<P>
+Their host had spared no expense to make the occasion a gala one. Electric
+lights were twinkling at intervals down the tunnel, and an electric ore-car
+with a man in charge was waiting to run them into the workings nearly a mile
+distant. Dunke dealt out candles and assisted his guests into the car, which
+presently carried them deep into the mine. Margaret observed that the timbered
+sides of the tunnel leaned inward slightly and that the roof was heavily
+cross-timbered.
+<P>
+"It <I>looks</I> safe," she thought aloud.
+<P>
+"It's safe enough," returned Dunke carelessly. "The place for cave-ins is
+at the head of the workings, before we get drifts timbered."
+<P>
+"Are we going into any of those places?"
+<P>
+"I wouldn't take <I>you</I> into any place that wasn't safe, Miss Margaret."
+<P>
+"Is it always so dreadfully warm down here?" she asked.
+<P>
+"You must remember we're somewhere around a thousand feet in the heart of
+the earth. Yes, it's always warm."
+<P>
+"I don't see how the men stand it and work."
+<P>
+"Oh, they get used to it."
+<P>
+They left the car and followed a drift which took them into a region of perpetual
+darkness, into which the electric lights did not penetrate. Margaret noticed
+that her host carried his candle with ease, holding it at an angle that gave
+the best light and most resistance to the air, while she on her part had
+much ado to keep hers from going out. Frequently she had to stop and let
+the tiny flame renew its hold on the base of supplies. So, without his knowing
+it, she fell behind gradually, and his explanations of stopes, drifts,
+air-drills, and pay-streaks fell only upon the already enlightened ears of
+Mrs. Collins.
+<P>
+The girl had been picking her way through some puddles of water that had
+settled on the floor, and when she looked up the lights of those ahead had
+disappeared. She called to them faintly and hurried on, appalled at the thought
+of possibly losing them in these dreadful underground catacombs where Stygian
+night forever reigned. But her very hurry delayed her, for in her haste the
+gust of her motion swept out the flame. She felt her way forward along the
+wall, in a darkness such as she had never conceived before. Nor could she
+know that by chance she was following the wrong wall. Had she chosen the
+other her hand must have come to a break in it which showed that a passage
+at that point deflected from the drift toward the left. Unconsciously she
+passed this, already frightened but resolutely repressing her fear.
+<P>
+"I'll not let them know what an idiot I am. I'll not! I'll not!" she told
+herself.
+<P>
+Therefore she did not call yet, thinking she must come on them at any moment,
+unaware that every step was taking her farther from the gallery into which
+they had turned. When at last she cried out it was too late. The walls hemmed
+in her cry and flung it back tauntingly to her&#151; the damp walls against which
+she crouched in terror of the subterranean vault in which she was buried.
+She was alone with the powers of darkness, with the imprisoned spirits of
+the underworld that fought inarticulately against the audacity of the puny
+humans who dared venture here. So her vivid imagination conceived it, terrorizing
+her against both will and reason.
+<P>
+How long she wandered, a prey to terror, calling helplessly in the blackness,
+she did not know. It seemed to her that she must always wander so, a perpetual
+prisoner condemned to this living grave. So that it was with a distinct shock
+of glad surprise she heard a voice answer faintly her calls. Calling and
+listening alternately, she groped her way in the direction of the sounds,
+and so at last came plump against the figure of the approaching rescuer.
+<P>
+"Who is it?" a hoarse voice demanded.
+<P>
+But before she could answer a match flared and was held close to her face.
+The same light that revealed her to him told the girl who this man was that
+had met her alone a million miles from human aid. The haggard, drawn countenance
+with the lifted upper lip and the sunken eyes that glared into hers belonged
+to the convict Nick Struve.
+<P>
+The match went out before either of them spoke.
+<P>
+"You&#151; you here!" she exclaimed, and was oddly conscious that her relief at
+meeting even him had wiped out for the present her fear of the man.
+<P>
+"For God's sake, have you got anything to eat?" he breathed thickly.
+<P>
+It had been part of the play that each member of their little party should
+carry a dinner-pail just like an ordinary miner. Wherefore she had hers still
+in her hand.
+<P>
+"Yes, and I have a candle here. Have you another match?"
+<P>
+He lit the candle with a shaking hand.
+<P>
+"Gimme that bucket," he ordered gruffly, and began to devour ravenously the
+food he found in it, tearing at sandwiches and gulping them down like a hungry
+dog.
+<P>
+"What day is this?" he stopped to ask after he had stayed the first pangs.
+<P>
+She told him Tuesday.
+<P>
+"I ain't eaten since Saturday," he told her. "I figured it was a week. There
+ain't any days in this place&#151; nothin' but night. Can't tell one from another."
+<P>
+"It's terrible," she agreed.
+<P>
+His appetite was wolfish. She could see that he was spent, so weak with hunger
+that he had reeled against the wall as she handed him the dinner-pail. Pallor
+was on the sunken face, and exhaustion in the trembling hands and unsteady
+gait.
+<P>
+"I'm about all in, what with hunger and all I been through. I thought I was
+out of my head when I heard you holler." He snatched up the candle from the
+place where he had set it and searched her face by its flame. "How come you
+down here? You didn't come alone. What you doin' here?" he demanded suspiciously.
+<P>
+"I came down with Mr. Dunke and a, friend to look over his mine. I had never
+been in one before."
+<P>
+"Dunke!" A spasm of rage swept the man's face. "You're a friend of his, are
+you? Where is he? If you came with him how come you to be roaming around
+alone?"
+<P>
+"I got lost. Then my light went out."
+<P>
+"So you're a friend of Dunke, that damned double-crosser! He's a millionaire,
+you think, a big man in this Western country. That's what he claims, eh?"
+Struve shook a fist into the air in a mad burst of passion. "Just watch me
+blow him higher'n a kite. I know what he is, and I got proof. The Judas!
+I keep my mug shut and do time while he gets off scot-free and makes his
+pile. But you listen to me, ma'am. Your friend ain't nothin' but an outlaw.
+If he got his like I got mine he'd be at Yuma to-day. Your brother could
+a-told you. Dunke was at the head of the gang that held up that train. We
+got nabbed, me and Jim. Burch got shot in the Catalinas by one of the rangers,
+and Smith died of fever in Sonora. But Dunke, curse him, he sneaks out and
+buys the officers off <I>with our plunder.</I> That's what he done&#151; let his
+partners get railroaded through while he sails out slick and easy. But he
+made one mistake, Mr. Dunke did. He wrote me a letter and told me to keep
+mum and he would fix it for me to get out in a few months. I believed him,
+kept my mouth padlocked, and served seven years without him lifting a hand
+for me. Then, when I make my getaway he tries first off to shut my mouth
+by putting me out of business. That's what your friend done, ma'am."
+<P>
+"Is this true?" asked the girl whitely.
+<P>
+"So help me God, every word of it."
+<P>
+"He let my brother go to prison without trying to help him?"
+<P>
+"Worse than that. He <I>sent</I> him to prison. Jim was all right when he
+first met up with Dunke. It was Dunke that got him into his wild ways and
+led him into trouble. It was Dunke took him into the hold-up business. Hadn't
+been for him Jim never would have gone wrong."
+<P>
+She made no answer. Her mind was busy piecing out the facts of her brother's
+misspent life. As a little girl she remembered her big brother before he
+went away, good-natured, friendly, always ready to play with her. She was
+sure he had not been bad, only fatally weak. Even this man who had slain
+him was ready to testify to that.
+<P>
+She came back from her absorption to find Struve outlining what he meant
+to do.
+<P>
+"We'll go back this passage along the way you came. I want to find Mr. Dunke.
+I allow I've got something to tell him he will be right interested in hearing."
+<P>
+He picked up the candle and led the way along the tunnel. Margaret followed
+him in silence.
+<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3>
+<h4>THE SOUTHERNER TAKES A RISK</h4>
+<p>
+The convict shambled forward through the tunnel till he came to a drift which
+ran into it at a right angle.
+<P>
+"Which way now?" he demanded.
+<P>
+"I don't know."
+<P>
+"Don't know," he screamed. "Didn't you just come along here? Do you want
+me to get lost again in this hell-hole?"
+<P>
+The stricken fear leaped into his face. He had forgotten her danger, forgotten
+everything but the craven terror that engulfed him. Looking at him, she was
+struck for the first time with the thought that he might be on the verge
+of madness.
+<P>
+His cry still rang through the tunnel when Margaret saw a gleam of distant
+light. She pointed it out to Struve, who wheeled and fastened his eyes upon
+it. Slowly the faint yellow candle-rays wavered toward them. A man was
+approaching through the gloom, a large man whom she presently recognized
+as Dunke. A quick gasp from the one beside her showed that he too knew the
+man. He took a dozen running steps forward, so that in his haste the candle
+flickered out.
+<P>
+"That you, Miss Margaret?" the mine-owner called.
+<P>
+Neither she nor Struve answered. The latter had stopped and was waiting tensely
+his enemy's approach. When he was within a few yards of the other Dunke raised
+his candle and peered into the blackness ahead of him.
+<P>
+"What's the matter? Isn't it you, Miss Peggy?"
+<P>
+"No, it ain't. It's your old pal, Nick Struve. Ain't you glad to see him,
+Joe?"
+<P>
+Dunke looked him over without a word. His thin lips set and his gaze grew
+wall-eyed. The candle passed from right to left hand.
+<P>
+Struve laughed evilly. "No, I'm not going to pay you that way&#151; not yet; nor
+you ain't going to rid yourself of me either. Want to know why, Mr. Millionaire
+Dunke, what used to be my old pal? Want to know why it ain't going to do
+you any good to drop that right hand any closeter to your hip pocket?"
+<P>
+Still Dunke said nothing, but the candle-glow that lit his face showed an
+ugly expression.
+<P>
+"Don't you whip that gun out, Joe Dunke. Don't you! 'Cause why? If you do
+you're a goner."
+<P>
+"What do you mean?"
+<P>
+"I mean that I kept the letter you wrote me seven years ago, and have put
+it where it will do you no good if anything happens to me. That's why you
+won't draw that gun, Joe Dunke. If you do it will send you to Yuma. Millionaire
+you may be, but that won't keep you from wearing stripes."
+<P>
+Struve's voice rang exultantly. From the look in the face of his old comrade
+in crime who had prospered at his expense, as he chose to think, he saw that
+for the time being he had got the whip-hand.
+<P>
+There was a long silence before Dunke asked hoarsely:
+<P>
+"What do you want?"
+<P>
+"I want you to hide me. I want you to get me out of this country. I want
+you to divvy up with me. Didn't we grub-stake you with the haul from the
+Overland? Don't we go share and share alike, the two of us that's left? Ain't
+that fair and square? You wouldn't want to do less than right by an old pal,
+cap, you that are so respectable and proper now. You ain't forgot the man
+that lay in the ditch with you the night we held up the flyer, the man that
+rode beside you when you shot&#151;"
+<P>
+"For God's sake don't rake up forgotten scrapes. We were all young together
+then. I'll do what's right by you, but you got to keep your mouth shut and
+let me manage this."
+<P>
+"The way you managed it before when you let me rot at Yuma seven years,"
+jeered Struve.
+<P>
+"I couldn't help it. They were on my trail and I had to lie low. I tell you
+I'll pull you through if you do as I say."
+<P>
+"And I tell you I don't believe a word you say. You double-crossed me before
+and you will again if you get a chance. I'll not let you out of my sight."
+<P>
+"Don't be a fool, Nick. How can I help you if I can't move around to make
+the arrangements for running you across the line?"
+<P>
+"And what guarantee have I got you ain't making arrangements to have me scragged?
+Think I'm forgetting Saturday night?"
+<P>
+The girl in the blackness without the candle-shine moved slightly.
+<P>
+"What's that?" asked Dunke, startled.
+<P>
+"What's what?"
+<P>
+"That noise. Some one moved."
+<P>
+Dunke's revolver came swiftly from his pocket.
+<P>
+"I reckon it must a-been the girl."
+<P>
+"What girl? Miss Kinney?"
+<P>
+Dunke's hard eyes fastened on the other like steel augers.
+<P>
+Margaret came forward and took wraithlike shape.
+<P>
+"I want you to take me to Mrs. Collins, Mr. Dunke," she said.
+<P>
+The steel probes shifted from Struve to her.
+<P>
+"What did you hear, Miss Kinney? This man is a storehouse of lies. I let
+him run on to see how far he would go."
+<P>
+Struve's harsh laugh filled the tunnel.
+<P>
+"Take me to Mrs. Collins," she reiterated wearily.
+<P>
+"Not till I know what you heard," answered Dunke doggedly.
+<P>
+"I heard everything," she avowed boldly. "The whole wretched, miserable truth."
+<P>
+She would have pushed past him, but he caught her arm.
+<P>
+"Let me go!"
+<P>
+"I tell you it's all a mistake. I can explain it. Give me time."
+<P>
+"I won't listen, I want never to see either of you again. What have I ever
+done that I should be mixed up with such men?" she cried, with bitter despair.
+<P>
+"Don't go off half-cocked. 'Course I'll take you to Mrs. Collins if you like.
+But you got to listen to what I say."
+<P>
+Another candle glimmered dimly in the tunnel and came toward them. It presently
+stopped, and a voice rolled along the vault.
+<P>
+"Hello, there!"
+<P>
+Margaret would have known that voice anywhere among a thousand. Now it came
+to her sweet as water after a drought. She slipped past Dunke and ran stumbling
+through the darkness to its source.
+<P>
+"Mr. Neill! Mr. Neill!"
+<P>
+The pitiful note in her voice, which he recognized instantly, stirred him
+to the core. Astonished that she should be in the mine and in trouble, he
+dashed forward, and his candle went out in the rush. Groping in the darkness
+her hands encountered his. His arms closed round her, and in her need of
+protection that brushed aside conventions and non-essentials, the need that
+had spoken in her cry of relief, in her hurried flight to him, she lay panting
+and trembling in his arms. He held her tight, as one who would keep his own
+against the world.
+<P>
+"How did you get here&#151; what has happened?" he demanded.
+<P>
+Hurriedly she explained.
+<P>
+"Oh, take me away, take me away!" she concluded, nestling to him with no
+thought now of seeking to disguise her helpless dependence upon him, of hiding
+from herself the realization that he was the man into whose keeping destiny
+had ordained that she was to give her heart.
+<P>
+"All right, honey. You're sure all safe now," he said tenderly, and in the
+blackness his lips sought and met hers in a kiss that sealed the understanding
+their souls had reached.
+<P>
+At the sound of Neill's voice Dunke had extinguished the candle and vanished
+in the darkness with Struve, the latter holding him by the arm in a despairing
+grip. Neill shouted again and again, as he relighted his candle, but there
+came no answer to his calls.
+<P>
+"We had better make for the shaft," he said.
+<P>
+They set out on the long walk to the opening that led up to the light and
+the pure air. For a while they walked on in silence. At last he took her
+hand and guided her fingers across the seam on his wrist.
+<P>
+"It don't seem only four days since you did that, honey," he murmured.
+<P>
+"Did I do that?" Her voice was full of self-reproach, and before he could
+stop her she lifted his hand and kissed the welt.
+<P>
+"Don't, sweet. I deserved what I got and more. I'm ready with that apology
+you didn't want then, Peggy."
+<P>
+"But I don't want it now, either. I won't have it. Didn't I tell you I wouldn't?
+Besides," she added, with a little leap of laughter in her voice, "why should
+you ask pardon for kissing the girl you were meant to&#151; to&#151;&#151;"
+<P>
+He finished it for her.
+<P>
+"To marry, Peggy. I didn't know it then, but I knew it before you said good-by
+with your whip."
+<P>
+"And I didn't know it till next morning," she said.
+<P>
+"Did you know it then, when you were so mean to me?"
+<P>
+"That was why I was so mean to you. I had to punish myself and you because
+I&#151; liked you so well."
+<P>
+She buried her face shyly in his coat to cover this confession.
+<P>
+It seemed easy for both of them to laugh over nothing in the exuberance of
+their common happiness. His joy pealed now delightedly.
+<P>
+"I can't believe it&#151; that four days ago you wasn't on the earth for me. Seems
+like you always belonged; seems like I always enjoyed your sassy ways."
+<P>
+"That's just the way I feel about you. It's really scandalous that in less
+than a week&#151; just a little more than half a week&#151; we should be engaged. We
+<I>are</I> engaged, aren't we?"
+<P>
+"Very much."
+<P>
+"Well, then&#151; it sounds improper, but it isn't the least bit. It's right.
+Isn't it?"
+<P>
+"It ce'tainly is."
+<P>
+"But you know I've always thought that people who got engaged so soon are
+the same kind of people that correspond through matrimonial papers. I didn't
+suppose it would ever happen to <I>me."</I>
+<P>
+"Some right strange things happen while a person is alive, Peggy."
+<P>
+"And I don't really know anything at all about you except that you say your
+name is Larry Neill. Maybe you are married already."
+<P>
+She paused, startled at the impossible thought.
+<P>
+"It must have happened before I can remember, then," he laughed.
+<P>
+"Or engaged. Very likely you have been engaged a dozen times. Southern people
+do, they say."
+<P>
+"Then I'm an exception."
+<P>
+"And me&#151; you don't know anything about me."
+<P>
+"A fellow has to take some risk or quit living," he told her gaily.
+<P>
+"When you think of my temper doesn't it make you afraid?"
+<P>
+"The samples I've had were surely right exhilarating," he conceded. "I'm
+expecting enough difference of opinion to keep life interesting."
+<P>
+"Well, then, if you won't be warned you'll just have to take me and risk
+it."
+<P>
+And she slipped her arm into his and held up her lips for the kiss awaiting
+her.
+<h3>CHAPTER XII</h3>
+<h4>EXIT DUNKE</h4>
+<P>
+Dunke plowed back through the tunnel in a blind whirl of passion. Rage, chagrin,
+offended vanity, acute disappointment, all blended with a dull heartache
+to which he was a stranger. He was a dangerous man in a dangerous mood, and
+so Wolf Struve was likely to discover. But the convict was not an observant
+man. His loose upper lip lifted in the ugly sneer to which it was accustomed.
+<P>
+"Got onto you, didn't she?"
+<P>
+Dunke stuck his candle in a niche of the ragged granite wall, strode across
+to his former partner in crime, and took the man by the throat.
+<P>
+"I'll learn you to keep that vile tongue of yours still," he said between
+set teeth, and shook the hapless man till he was black in the face.
+<P>
+Struve hung, sputtering and coughing, against the wall where he had been
+thrown. It was long before he could do more than gasp.
+<P>
+"What&#151; what did you do&#151; that for?" His furtive ratlike face looked venomous
+in its impotent anger. "I'll pay you for this&#151; and don't you&#151; forget it,
+Joe Dunke!"
+<P>
+"You'd shoot me in the back the way you did Jim Kinney if you got a chance.
+I know that; but you see you won't get a chance."
+<P>
+"I ain't looking for no such chance. I&#151;"
+<P>
+"That's enough. I don't have to stand for your talk even if I do have to
+take care of you. Light your candle and move along this tunnel lively."
+<P>
+Something in Dunke's eye quelled the rebellion the other contemplated. He
+shuffled along, whining as he went that he would never have looked for his
+old pal to treat him so. They climbed ladders to the next level, passed through
+an empty stope, and stopped at the end of a drift.
+<P>
+"I'll arrange to get you out of here to-night and have you run across the
+line. I'm going to give you three hundred dollars. That's the last cent you'll
+ever get out of me. If you ever come back to this country I'll see that you're
+hanged as you deserve."
+<P>
+With that Dunke turned on his heel and was gone. But his contempt for the
+ruffian he had cowed was too fearless. He would have thought so if he could
+have known of the shadow that dogged his heels through the tunnel, if he
+could have seen the bare fangs that had gained Struve his name of "Wolf,"
+if he could have caught the flash of the knife that trembled in the eager
+hand. He did not know that, as he shot up in the cage to the sunlight, the
+other was filling the tunnel with imprecations and wild threats, that he
+was hugging himself with the promise of a revenge that should be sure and
+final.
+<P>
+Dunke went about the task of making the necessary arrangements personally.
+He had his surrey packed with food, and about eleven o'clock drove up to
+the mine and was lowered to the ninth level. An hour later he stepped out
+of the cage with a prisoner whom he kept covered with a revolver.
+<P>
+"It's that fellow Struve," he explained to the astonished engineer in the
+shaft-house. "I found him down below. It seems that Fraser took him down
+the Jackrabbit and he broke loose and worked through to our ground."
+<P>
+"Do you want any help in taking him downtown, sir? Shall I phone for the
+marshal?"
+<P>
+His boss laughed scornfully.
+<P>
+"When I can't handle one man after I've got him covered I'll let you know,
+Johnson."
+<P>
+The two men went out into the starlit night and got into the surrey. The
+play with the revolver had hitherto been for the benefit of Johnson, but
+it now became very real. Dunke jammed the rim close to the other's temple.
+<P>
+"I want that letter I wrote you. Quick, by Heaven! No fairy-tales, but the
+letter!"
+<P>
+"I swear, Joe&#151;"
+<P>
+"The letter, you villain! I know you never let it go out of your possession.
+Give it <I>up!</I> Quick!"
+<P>
+Struve's hand stole to his breast, came out slowly to the edge of his coat,
+then leaped with a flash of something bright toward the other's throat.
+Simultaneously the revolver rang out. A curse, the sound of a falling body,
+and the frightened horses leaped forward. The wheels slipped over the edge
+of the narrow mountain road, and surrey, horses, and driver plunged a hundred
+feet down to the sharp, broken rocks below.
+<P>
+Johnson, hearing the shot, ran out and stumbled over a body lying in the
+road. By the bright moonlight he could see that it was that of his employer.
+The surrey was nowhere in sight, but he could easily make out where it had
+slipped over the precipice. He ran back into the shaft-house and began
+telephoning wildly to town.
+<h3>CHAPTER XIII</h3>
+<h4>STEVE OFFERS CONGRATULATIONS</h4>
+<P>
+When Fraser reached the dining-room for breakfast his immediate family had
+finished and departed. He had been up till four o'clock and his mother had
+let him sleep as long as he would. Now, at nine, he was up again and fresh
+as a daisy after a morning bath.
+<P>
+He found at the next table two other late breakfasters.
+<P>
+"Mo'ning, Miss Kinney. How are you, Tennessee?" he said amiably.
+<P>
+Both Larry and the young woman admitted good health, the latter so blushingly
+that Steve's keen eyes suggested to him that he might not be the only one
+with news to tell this morning.
+<P>
+"What's that I hear about Struve and Dunke?" asked Neill at once.
+<P>
+"Oh, you've heard it. Well, it's true. I judge Dunke was arranging to get
+him out of the country. Anyhow, Johnson says he took the fellow out to his
+surrey from the shaft-house of the Mal Pais under his gun. A moment later
+the engineer heard a shot and ran out. Dunke lay in the road dead, with a
+knife through his heart. We found the surrey down in the canyon. It had gone
+over the edge of the road. Both the hawsses were dead, and Struve had
+disappeared. How the thing happened I reckon never will be known unless the
+convict tells it. My guess would be that Dunke attacked him and the convict
+was just a little bit more than ready for him."
+<P>
+"Have you any idea where Struve is?"
+<P>
+"The obvious guess would be that he is heading for Mexico. But I've got another
+notion. He knows that's where we will be looking for him. His record shows
+that he used to trail with a bunch of outlaws up in Wyoming. That was most
+twenty years ago. His old pals have disappeared long since. But he knows
+that country up there. He'll figure that down here he's sure to be caught
+and hanged sooner or later. Up there he'll have a chance to hide under another
+name."
+<P>
+Neill nodded. "That's a big country up there and the mountains are full of
+pockets. If he can reach there he will be safe."
+<P>
+"Maybe," the ranger amended quietly.
+<P>
+"Would you follow him?"
+<P>
+The officer's opaque gaze met the eyes of his friend. "We don't aim to let
+a prisoner make his getaway once we get our hands on him. Wyoming ain't so
+blamed far to travel after him&#151; if I learn he is there."
+<P>
+For a moment all of them were silent. Each of them was thinking of the fellow
+and the horrible trail of blood he had left behind him in one short week.
+Margaret looked at her lover and shuddered. She had not the least doubt that
+this man sitting opposite them would bring the criminal back to his punishment,
+but the sinister grotesque shadow of the convict seemed to fall between her
+and her happiness.
+<P>
+Larry caught her hand under the table and gave it a little pressure of
+reassurance. He spoke in a low voice. "This hasn't a thing to do with us,
+Peggy&#151; not a thing. They were already both out of your life."
+<P>
+"Yes, I know, but&#151;"
+<P>
+"There aren't any buts." He smiled warmly, and his smile took the other man
+into their confidence. "You've been having a nightmare. That's past. See
+the sunshine on those hills. It's bright mo'ning, girl. A new day for you
+and for me."
+<P>
+Steve grinned. "This is awful sudden, Tennessee. You must a-been sawing wood
+right industrious on the hawssback ride and down in the tunnel. I expect
+there wasn't any sunshine down there, was there?"
+<P>
+"You go to grass, Steve."
+<P>
+"No, Tennessee is ce'tainly no two-bit man. Lemme see. One&#151; two&#151; three&#151; four
+days. That's surely going some," the ranger soliloquized.
+<P>
+"Mr. Fraser," the young woman reproved with a blush.
+<P>
+"Don't mind him, Peggy. He's merely jealous," came back Larry.
+<P>
+"Course I'm jealous. Whyfor not? What license have these Panhandle guys to
+come in and tote off our girls? But don't mind me. I'll pay strict attention
+to my ham and eggs and not see a thing that's going on."
+<P>
+"Lieutenant!" Miss Margaret was both embarrassed and shocked.
+<P>
+"Want me to shut my eyes, Tennessee?"
+<P>
+"Next time we get engaged you'll not be let in on the ground floor," Neill
+predicted.
+<P>
+"Four days! My, my! If that ain't rapid transit for fair!"
+<P>
+"You're a man of one idea, Steve. Cayn't you see that the fact's the main
+thing, not the time it took to make it one?"
+<P>
+"And counting out Sunday and Monday, it only leaves two days."
+<P>
+"Don't let that interfere with your breakfast. You haven't been elected
+timekeeper for this outfit, you know!"
+<P>
+Fraser recovered from his daze and duly offered congratulations to the one
+and hopes for unalloyed joy to the other party to the engagement.
+<P>
+"But four days!" he added in his pleasant drawl. "That's sure some precipitous.
+Just to look at him, ma'am"&#151; this innocently to Peggy&#151; "a man wouldn't think
+he had it in him to locate, stake out, and do the necessary assessment work
+on such a rich claim as the Margaret Kinney all in four days. Mostly a fellow
+don't strike such high-grade ore without a lot of&#151;"
+<P>
+"That will do for you, lieutenant," interrupted Miss Kinney, with merry,
+sparkling eyes. "You needn't think we're going to let you trail this off
+into a compliment now. I'm going to leave you and see what Mrs. Collins says.
+<I>She</I> won't sit there and parrot 'Four days' for the rest of her life."
+<P>
+With which Mistress Peggy sailed from the room in mock hauteur.
+<P>
+When Larry came back from closing the door after her, his friend fell upon
+him with vigorous. hands to the amazement of Wun Hop, the waiter.
+<P>
+"You blamed lucky son of a gun," he cried exuberantly between punches. "You've
+ce'tainly struck pure gold, Tennessee. Looks like Old Man Good Luck has come
+home to roost with you, son."
+<P>
+The other, smiling, shook hands with him. "I'm of that opinion myself, Steve,"
+he said.
+<h3>Part II</h3>
+<h2>THE GIRL OF LOST VALLEY</h2>
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+<h4>IN THE FIRE ZONE</h4>
+<P>
+"Say, you Teddy hawss, I'm plumb fed up with sagebrush and scenery. I kinder
+yearn for co'n bread and ham. I sure would give six bits for a drink of real
+wet water. Yore sentiments are similar, I reckon, Teddy."
+<P>
+The Texan patted the neck of his cow pony, which reached round playfully
+and pretended to nip his leg. They understood each other, and were now making
+the best of a very unpleasant situation. Since morning they had been lost
+on the desert. The heat of midday had found them plowing over sandy wastes.
+The declining sun had left them among the foothills, wandering from one to
+another, in the vain hope that each summit might show the silvery gleam of
+a windmill, or even that outpost of civilization, the barb-wire fence. And
+now the stars looked down indifferently, myriads of them, upon the travelers
+still plodding wearily through a land magically transformed by moonlight
+to a silvery loveliness that blotted out all the garish details of day.
+<P>
+The Texan drew rein. "We all been discovering that Wyoming is a powerful
+big state. Going to feed me a cigarette, Teddy. Too bad a hawss cayn't smoke
+his troubles away," he drawled, and proceeded to roll a cigarette, lighting
+it with one sweeping motion of his arm, that passed down the leg of his chaps
+and ended in the upward curve at his lips.
+<P>
+The flame had not yet died, when faintly through the illimitable velvet night
+there drifted to him a sound.
+<P>
+"Did you hear that, pardner?" the man demanded softly, listening intently
+for a repetition of it.
+<P>
+It came presently, from away over to the left, and, after it, what might
+have been taken for the popping of a distant bunch of firecrackers.
+<P>
+"Celebrating the Fourth some premature, looks like. What? Think not, Teddy!
+Some one getting shot up? Sho! You are romancin', old hawss."
+<P>
+Nevertheless he swung the pony round and started rapidly in the direction
+of the shots. From time to time there came a renewal of them, though the
+intervals grew longer and the explosions were now individual ones. He took
+the precaution to draw his revolver from the holster and to examine it carefully.
+<P>
+"Nothing like being sure. It's a heap better than being sorry afterward,"
+he explained to the cow pony.
+<P>
+For the first time in twelve hours, he struck a road. Following this as it
+wound up to the summit of a hill, he discovered that the area of disturbance
+was in the valley below. For, as he began his descent, there was a flash
+from a clump of cotton-woods almost at his feet.
+<P>
+"Did yo' git him?" a voice demanded anxiously.
+<P>
+"Don't know, dad," the answer came, young, warm, and tremulous.
+<P>
+"Hello! There's a kid there," the Texan decided. Aloud, he asked quietly:
+"What's the row, gentlemen?"
+<P>
+One of the figures whirled&#151; it was the boyish one, crouched behind a dead
+horse&#151; and fired at him.
+<P>
+"Hold on, sonny! I'm a stranger. Don't make any more mistakes like that."
+<P>
+"Who are you?"
+<P>
+"Steve Fraser they call me. I just arrived from Texas. Wait a jiff, and I'll
+come down and explain."
+<P>
+He stayed for no permission, but swung from the saddle, trailed the reins,
+and started down the slope. He could hear a low-voiced colloquy between the
+two dark figures, and one of them called roughly:
+<P>
+"Hands up, friend! We'll take no chances on yo'."
+<P>
+The Texan's hands went up promptly, just as a bullet flattened itself against
+a rock behind him. It had been fired from the bank of the dry wash, some
+hundred and fifty yards away.
+<P>
+"That's no fair! Both sides oughtn't to plug at me," he protested, grinning.
+<P>
+The darkness which blurred detail melted as Fraser approached, and the moonlight
+showed him a tall, lank, unshaven old mountaineer, standing behind a horse,
+his shotgun thrown across the saddle.
+<P>
+"That's near enough, Mr. Fraser from Texas," said the old man, in a slow
+voice that carried the Southern intonation. "This old gun is loaded with
+buckshot, and she scatters like hell. Speak yore little piece. How came yo'
+here, right now?"
+<P>
+"I got lost in the Wind River bad lands this mo'ning, and I been playing
+hide and go seek with myself ever since."
+<P>
+"Where yo' haided for?"
+<P>
+"Gimlet Butte."
+<P>
+"Huh! That's right funny, too."
+<P>
+"Why?"
+<P>
+"Because all yo' got to do to reach the butte is to follow this road and
+yore nose for about three miles."
+<P>
+A bullet flung up a spurt of sand beside the horse.
+<P>
+The young fellow behind the dead horse broke in, with impatient alarm: "He's
+all right, dad. Can't you tell by his way of talking that he's from the South?
+Make him lie down."
+<P>
+Something sweet and vibrant in the voice lingered afterward in the Texan's
+mind almost like a caress, but at the time he was too busy to think of this.
+He dropped behind a cottonwood, and drew his revolver.
+<P>
+"How many of them are there?" he asked of the lad, in a whisper.
+<P>
+"About six, I think. I'm sorry I shot at you."
+<P>
+"What's the row?"
+<P>
+"They followed us out of Gimlet Butte. They've been drinking. Isn't that
+some one climbing up the side of the ridge?"
+<P>
+"I believe it is. Let me have your rifle, kid."
+<P>
+"What for?" The youngster took careful aim, and fired.
+<P>
+A scream from the sagebrush&#151; just one, and then no more.
+<P>
+"Bully for you', Arlie," the old man said.
+<P>
+None of them spoke for some minutes, then Fraser heard a sob&#151; a stifled one,
+but unmistakable none the less.
+<P>
+"Don't be afraid, kid. We'll stand 'em off," the Texan encouraged.
+<P>
+"I ain't afraid, but I&#151; I&#151;&#151;  Oh, God, I've killed a man."
+<P>
+The Texan stared at him, where he lay in the heavy shadows, shaken with his
+remorse. "Holy smoke! Wasn't he aiming to kill you? He likely isn't dead,
+anyhow. You got real troubles to worry about, without making up any."
+<P>
+He could see the youngster shaking with the horror of it, and could hear
+the staccato sobs forcing themselves through the closed teeth. Something
+about it, some touch of pathos he could not account for, moved his not very
+accessible heart. After all, he was a slim little kid to be engaged in such
+a desperate encounter Fraser remembered his own boyhood and the first time
+he had ever seen bloodshed, and, recalling it, he slipped across in the darkness
+and laid an arm across the slight shoulder.
+<P>
+"Don't you worry, kid. It's all right. You didn't mean&#151;"
+<P>
+He broke off in swift, unspeakable amazement. His eye traveled up the slender
+figure from the telltale skirt. This was no boy at all, but a girl. As he
+took in the mass of blue-black hair and the soft but clean-cut modeling from
+ear to chin, his hand fell from her shoulder. What an idiot he had been not
+to know from the first that such a voice could have come only from a woman!
+He had been deceived by the darkness and by the slouch hat she wore. He wanted
+to laugh in sardonic scorn of his perception.
+<P>
+But on the heel of that came a realization of her danger. He must get her
+out of there at once, for he knew that the enemy must be circling round,
+to take them on the flank too. It was not a question of whether they could
+hold off the attackers. They might do that, and yet she might be killed while
+they were doing it. A man used to coping with emergencies, his brain now
+swiftly worked out a way of escape.
+<P>
+"Yore father and I will take care of these coyotes. You slip along those
+shadows up the hill to where my Teddy hawss is, and burn the wind out of
+here," he told her.
+<P>
+"I'll not leave dad," she said quickly.
+<P>
+The old mountaineer behind the horse laughed apologetically. "I been trying
+to git her to go, but she won't stir. With the pinto daid, o' course we couldn't
+both make it."
+<P>
+"That's plumb foolishness," the Texan commented irritably.
+<P>
+"Mebbe," admitted the girl; "but I reckon I'll stay long as dad does."
+<P>
+"No use being pigheaded about it."
+<P>
+Her dark eyes flashed. "Is this your say-so, Mr. Whatever-your-name-is?"
+she asked sharply, less because she resented what he said than because she
+was strung to a wire edge.
+<P>
+His troubled gaze took in again her slim girlishness. The frequency of danger
+had made him proof against fear for himself, but just now he was very much
+afraid for her. Hard man as he was, he had the Southerner's instinctive chivalry
+toward woman.
+<P>
+"You better go, Arlie," her father counseled weakly.
+<P>
+"Well, I won't," she retorted emphatically.
+<P>
+The old man looked whimsically at the Texan. "Yo' see yo'self how it is,
+stranger."
+<P>
+Fraser saw, and the girl's stanchness stirred his admiration even while it
+irritated him. He made his decision immediately.
+<P>
+"All right. Both of you go."
+<P>
+"But we have only one horse," the girl objected. "They would catch us."
+<P>
+"Take my Teddy."
+<P>
+"And leave you here?" The dark eyes were full on him again, this time in
+a wide-open surprise.
+<P>
+"Oh, I'll get out once you're gone. No trouble about that."
+<P>
+"How?"
+<P>
+"We couldn't light out, and leave yo' here," the father interrupted.
+<P>
+"Of course we couldn't," the girl added quickly. "It isn't your quarrel,
+anyhow."
+<P>
+"What good can you do staying here?" argued Fraser. "They want you, not me.
+With you gone, I'll slip away or come to terms with them. They haven't a
+thing against me."
+<P>
+"That's right," agreed the older man, rubbing his stubbly beard with his
+hand. "That's sho'ly right."
+<P>
+"But they might get you before they understood," Arlie urged.
+<P>
+"Oh, I'll keep under cover, and when it's time, I'll sing out and let them
+know. Better leave me that rifle, though." He went right on, taking it for
+granted that she had consented to go: "Slip through those shadows up that
+draw. You'll have no trouble with Teddy. Whistle when you're ready, and your
+father will make a break up the hill on his hawss. So-long. See you later
+some time, mebbe."
+<P>
+She went reluctantly, not convinced, but overborne by the quality of cheerful
+compulsion that lay in him. He was not a large man, though the pack and symmetry
+of his muscles promised unusual strength. But the close-gripped jaw, the
+cool serenity of the gray eyes that looked without excitement upon whatever
+they saw, the perfect poise of his carriage&#151; all contributed to a personality
+plainly that of a leader of men.
+<P>
+It was scarce a minute later that the whistle came from the hilltop. The
+mountaineer instantly swung to the saddle and set his pony to a canter up
+the draw. Fraser could see him join his daughter in the dim light, for the
+moon had momentarily gone behind a cloud, but almost at once the darkness
+swallowed them.
+<P>
+Some one in the sagebrush called to a companion, and the Texan knew that
+the attackers had heard the sound of the galloping horses. Without waiting
+an instant, he fired twice in rapid succession.
+<P>
+"That'll hold them for a minute or two," he told himself. "They won't understand
+it, and they'll get together and have a powwow."
+<P>
+He crouched behind the dead horse, his gaze sweeping the wash, the sagebrush,
+and the distant group of cottonwoods from which he had seen a shot fired.
+Though he lay absolutely still, without the least visible excitement, he
+was alert and tense to the finger tips. Not the slightest sound, not the
+smallest motion of the moonlit underbrush, escaped his unwavering scrutiny.
+<P>
+The problem before him was to hold the attackers long enough for Arlie and
+her father to make their escape, without killing any of them or getting killed
+himself. He knew that, once out of the immediate vicinity, the fugitives
+would leave the road and take to some of the canyons that ran from the foothills
+into the mountains. If he could secure them a start of fifteen minutes that
+ought to be enough.
+<P>
+A voice from the wash presently hailed him:
+<P>
+"See here! We're going to take you back with us, old man. That's a cinch.
+We want you for that Squaw Creek raid, and we're going to have you. You done
+enough damage. Better surrender peaceable, and we'll promise to take you
+back to jail. What say?"
+<P>
+"Gimme five minutes to think it over," demanded the Texan.
+<P>
+"All right, five minutes. But you want to remember that it's all off with
+you if you don't give up. Billy Faulkner's dead, and we'll sure come a-shooting."
+<P>
+Fraser waited till his five minutes was nearly up, then plunged across the
+road into the sagebrush growing thick there. A shot or two rang out, without
+stopping him. Suddenly a man rose out of the sage in front of him, a revolver
+in his hand.
+<P>
+For a fraction of a second, the two men faced each other before either spoke.
+<P>
+"Who are you?"
+<P>
+Fraser's answer was to dive for the man's knees, just as a football tackle
+does. They went down together, but it was the Texan got up first. A second
+man was running toward him.
+<P>
+"Hands up, there!" the newcomer ordered.
+<P>
+Fraser's hand went up, but with his forty-five in it. The man pitched forward
+into the sage. The Southerner twisted forward again, slid down into the dry
+creek, and ran along its winding bed for a hundred yards. Then he left it,
+cutting back toward the spot where he had lain behind the dead horse. Hiding
+in the sage, he heard the pursuit pouring down the creek, waited till it
+was past, and quickly recrossed the road. Here, among the cow-backed hills,
+he knew he was as safe as a needle in a haystack.
+<P>
+"I had to get that anxious guy, but it might have been a whole lot worse.
+I only plugged his laig for him," he reflected comfortably. "Wonder why they
+wanted to collect the old man's scalp, anyhow? The little girl sure was game.
+Just like a woman, though, the way she broke down because she hit that fellow."
+<P>
+Within five minutes he was lost again among the thousand hills that rose
+like waves of the sea, one after another. It was not till nearly morning
+that he again struck a road.
+<P>
+He was halted abruptly by a crisp command from behind a bowlder:
+<P>
+"Up with your hands&#151; quick!"
+<P>
+"Who are you, my friend?" the Texan asked mildly.
+<P>
+"Deputy sheriff," was the prompt response. "Now, reach for the sky, and prompt,
+too."
+<P>
+"Just as you say. You've ce'tainly got the crawl on me."
+<P>
+The deputy disarmed his captive, and drove him into town before him. When
+morning dawned, Fraser found himself behind the bars. He was arrested for
+the murder of Faulkner.
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+<h4>A COMPACT</h4>
+<P>
+After the jailer had brought his breakfast, Fraser was honored by a visit
+from the sheriff, a big, rawboned Westerner, with the creases of fifty outdoor
+years stamped on his brown, leathery face.
+<P>
+He greeted his prisoner pleasantly enough, and sat down on the bed.
+<P>
+"Treating you right, are they?" he asked, glancing around. "Breakfast up
+to the mark?"
+<P>
+"I've got no kick coming, thank you," said Fraser.
+<P>
+"Good!"
+<P>
+The sheriff relapsed into sombre silence. There was a troubled look in the
+keen eyes that the Texan did not understand. Fraser waited for the officer
+to develop the object of his visit, and it was set down to his credit. A
+weaker man would have rushed at once into excuses and explanations. But in
+the prisoner's quiet, steely eyes, in the close-shut mouth and salient jaw,
+in the set of his well-knit figure, Sheriff Brandt found small room for weakness.
+Whoever he was, this man was one who could hold his own in the strenuous
+game of life.
+<P>
+"My friend," said the sheriff abruptly, "you and I are up against it. There
+is going to be trouble in town to-night."
+<P>
+The level, gray eyes looked questioningly at the sheriff.
+<P>
+"You butted into grief a-plenty when you lined up with the cattlemen in this
+sheep war. Who do you ride for?"
+<P>
+"I'm not riding for anybody," responded Fraser. "I just arrived from Texas.
+Didn't even know there was a feud on."
+<P>
+Brandt laughed incredulously. "That will sound good to a jury, if your case
+ever comes to that stage. How do you expect to explain Billy Faulkner's death?"
+<P>
+"Is there any proof I killed him?"
+<P>
+"Some. You were recognized by two men last night while you were trying to
+escape. You carried a rifle that uses the same weight bullet as the one we
+dug out of Billy. When you attacked Tom Peake you dropped that rifle, and
+in your getaway hadn't time to pick it up again. That is evidence enough
+for a Wyoming jury, in the present state of public opinion."
+<P>
+"What do you mean by 'in the present state of public opinion'?"
+<P>
+"I mean that this whole country is pretty nearly solid against the Cedar
+Mountain cattlemen, since they killed Campeau and Jennings in that raid on
+their camp. You know what I mean as well as I do."
+<P>
+Fraser did not argue the point. He remembered now having seen an account
+of the Squaw Creek raid on a sheep camp, ending in a battle that had resulted
+in the death of two men and the wounding of three others. He had been sitting
+in a hotel at San Antonio, Texas, when he had read the story over his
+after-dinner cigar. The item had not seemed even remotely connected with
+himself. Now he was in prison at Gimlet Butte, charged with murder, and unless
+he was very much mistaken the sheriff was hinting at a lynching. The Squaw
+Creek raid had come very near to him, for he knew the fight he had interrupted
+last night had grown out of it,
+<P>
+"What do you mean by trouble to-night?" he asked, in an even, conversational
+tone.
+<P>
+The sheriff looked directly at him. "You're a man, I reckon. That calls for
+the truth. Men are riding up and down this country to-day, stirring up sentiment
+against your outfit. To-night the people will gather in town, and the jail
+will be attacked."
+<P>
+"And you?"
+<P>
+"I'll uphold the law as long as I can."
+<P>
+Fraser nodded. He knew Brandt spoke the simple truth. What he had sworn to
+do he would do to the best of his ability. But the Texan knew, too, that
+the ramshackle jail would be torn to pieces and the sheriff overpowered.
+<P>
+From his coat pocket he drew a letter, and presented it to the other. "I
+didn't expect to give this to you under these circumstances, Mr. Brandt,
+but I'd like you to know that I'm on the level when I say I don't know any
+of the Squaw Creek cattlemen and have never ridden for any outfit in this
+State."
+<P>
+Brandt tore open the letter, and glanced hurriedly through it. "Why, it's
+from old Sam Slauson! We used to ride herd together when we were boys." And
+he real aloud:
+<P>
+"Introducing Steve Fraser, lieutenant in the Texas Rangers."
+<P>
+He glanced up quickly. "You're not the Fraser that ran down Chacon and his
+gang of murderers?"
+<P>
+"Yes, I was on that job."
+<P>
+Brandt shook hands heartily. "They say it was a dandy piece of work. I read
+that story in a magazine. You delivered the goods proper."
+<P>
+The ranger was embarrassed. "Oh, it wasn't much of a job. The man that wrote
+it put in the fancy touches, to make his story sell, I expect."
+<P>
+"Yes, he did! I know all about that!" the sheriff derided. "I've got to get
+you out of this hole somehow. Do you mind if I send for Hilliard, the prosecuting
+attorney? He's a bright young fellow, loaded to the guards with ideas. What
+I want is to get at a legal way of fixing this thing up, you understand.
+I'll call him up on the phone, and have him run over."
+<P>
+Hilliard was shortly on the spot&#151; a short, fat little fellow with eyeglasses.
+He did not at first show any enthusiasm in the prisoner's behalf.
+<P>
+"I don't doubt for a moment that you are the man this letter says you are,
+Mr. Fraser," he said suavely. "But facts are stubborn things. You were seen
+carrying the gun that killed Faulkner. We can't get away from that just because
+you happen to have a letter of introduction to Mr. Brandt."
+<P>
+"I don't want to get away from it," retorted. Fraser. "I have explained how
+I got into the fight. A man doesn't stand back and see two people, and one
+of them a girl, slaughtered by seven or eight."
+<P>
+The lawyer's fat forefinger sawed the air. "That's how you put it. Mind,
+I don't for a moment say it isn't the right way. But what the public wants
+is <I>proof</I>. Can you give evidence to show that Faulkner and his friends
+attacked Dillon and his daughter? Have you even got them on hand here to
+support your statement? Have you got a grain of evidence, apart from your
+bare word?"
+<P>
+"That letter shows&#151;"
+<P>
+"It shows nothing. You might have written it yourself last night. Anyhow,
+a letter of introduction isn't quite an excuse for murder."
+<P>
+"It wasn't murder."
+<P>
+"That's what you say. I'll be glad to have you prove it."
+<P>
+"They followed Dillon&#151; if that is his name&#151; out of town."
+<P>
+<I>"They</I> put it that they were on their way home, when they were attacked."
+<P>
+"By an old man and his daughter," the Texan added significantly.
+<P>
+"There again we have only your statement for it. Half a dozen men had been
+in town during the day from the Cedar Mountain district. These men were witnesses
+in the suit that rose over a sheep raid. They may all have been on the spot,
+to ambush Faulkner's crowd."
+<P>
+Brandt broke in: "Are you personally convinced that this gentleman is Lieutenant
+Fraser of the Rangers?"
+<P>
+"Personally, I am of opinion that he is, but&#151;"
+<P>
+"Hold your horses, Dave. Believing that, do you think that we ought to leave
+him here to be lynched to-night by Peake's outfit?"
+<P>
+"That isn't my responsibility, but speaking merely as a private citizen,
+I should say, No."
+<P>
+"What would you do with him then?"
+<P>
+"Why not take him up to your house?"
+<P>
+"Wouldn't be safe a minute, or in any other house in town."
+<P>
+"Then get out of town with him."
+<P>
+"It can't be done. I'm watched."
+<P>
+Hilliard shrugged.
+<P>
+The ranger's keen eyes went from one to another. He saw that what the lawyer
+needed was some personal interest to convert him into a partisan. From his
+pocket he drew another letter and some papers.
+<P>
+"If you doubt that I am Lieutenant Fraser you can wire my captain at Dallas.
+This is a letter of congratulation to me from the Governor of Texas for my
+work in the Chacon case. Here's my railroad ticket, and my lodge receipt.
+You gentlemen are the officers in charge. I hold you personally responsible
+for my safety&#151; for the safety of a man whose name, by chance, is now known
+all over this country."
+<P>
+This was a new phase of the situation, and it went home to the lawyer's mind
+at once. He had been brought into the case willy nilly, and he would be blamed
+for anything that happened to this young Texan, whose deeds had recently
+been exploited broadcast in the papers. He stood for an instant in frowning
+thought, and as he did so a clause in the letter from the Governor of Texas
+caught and held his eye.
+<BLOCKQUOTE>
+  <P>
+  which I regard as the ablest, most daring, and, at the same time, the most
+  difficult and most successful piece of secret service that has come to my
+  knowledge....
+</BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>
+Suddenly, Hilliard saw the way out&#151; a way that appealed to him none the less
+because it would also serve his own ambitions.
+<P>
+"Neither you nor I have any right to help this gentleman to escape, sheriff.
+The law is plain. He is charged with murder. We haven't any right to let
+our private sympathies run away with us. But there is one thing we can do."
+<P>
+"What is that?" the sheriff asked.
+<P>
+"Let him earn his freedom."
+<P>
+"Earn it! How?"
+<P>
+"By serving the State in this very matter of the Squaw Creek raid. As prosecuting
+attorney, it is in my discretion to accept the service of an accomplice to
+a crime in fixing the guilt upon the principals. Before the law, Lieutenant
+Fraser stands accused of complicity. We believe him not guilty, but that
+does not affect the situation. Let him go up into the Cedar Mountain country
+and find out the guilty parties in the Squaw Creek raid."
+<P>
+"And admit my guilt by compromising with you?" the Texan scoffed.
+<P>
+"Not at all. You need not go publicly. In point of fact, you couldn't get
+out of town alive if it were known. No, we'll arrange to let you break jail
+on condition that you go up into the Lost Canyon district, and run down the
+murderers of Campeau and Jennings, That gives us an excuse for letting
+<I>you</I> go. You see the point&#151; don't you?"
+<P>
+The Texan grinned. "That <I>isn't quite</I> the point, is it?" he drawled.
+"If I should be successful, you will achieve a reputation, without any cost
+to yourself. That's worth mentioning,"
+<P>
+Hilliard showed a momentary embarrassment.
+<P>
+"That's incidental. Besides, it will help your reputation more than mine
+"
+<P>
+Brandt got busy at once with the details of the escape. "We'll loosen up
+the mortar round the bars in the south room. They are so rickety anyhow I
+haven't kept any prisoners there for years. After you have squeezed through
+you will find a horse saddled in the draw, back here. You'll want a gun of
+course."
+<P>
+"Always providing Lieutenant Fraser consents to the arrangement," the lawyer
+added smoothly.
+<P>
+"Oh, I'll consent," laughed Fraser wryly. "I have no option. Of course, if
+I win I get the reward&#151; whatever it is."
+<P>
+"Oh, of course."
+<P>
+"Then I'm at your service, gentlemen, to escape whenever you say the word."
+<P>
+"The best time would be right after lunch. That would give you five hours
+before Nichols was in here again," the sheriff suggested.
+<P>
+"Suppose you draw a map, showing the route I'm to follow to reach Cedar Mountain.
+I reckon I had better not trouble folks to ask them the way." And the Texan
+grinned.
+<P>
+"That's right. I'll fix you up, and tell you later just where you'll find
+the horse," Brandt answered.
+<P>
+"You're an officer yourself, lieutenant," said the lawyer. "You know just
+how much evidence it takes to convict. Well, that's just how much we want.
+If you have to communicate with us, address 'T. L. Meredith, Box 117.' Better
+send your letter in cipher. Here's a little code I worked out that we sometimes
+use. Well, so-long. Good hunting, lieutenant."
+<P>
+Fraser nodded farewell, but did not offer to shake hands.
+<P>
+Brandt lingered for an instant. "Don't make any mistake, Fraser, about this
+job you've bit off. It's a big one, and don't you forget it. People are sore
+on me because I have fallen down on it. I can't help it. I just can't get
+the evidence. If you tackle it, you'll be in danger from start to finish.
+There are some bad men in this country, and the worst of them are lying low
+in Lost Valley."
+<P>
+The ranger smiled amiably. "Where is this Lost Valley?"
+<P>
+"Somewhere up in the Cedar Mountain district. I've never been there. Few
+men have, for it is not easy to find; and even if it were strangers are not
+invited."
+<P>
+"Well, I'll have to invite myself."
+<P>
+"That's all right. But remember this. There are men up there who would drill
+holes in a dying man. I guess Lost Valley is the country God forgot."
+<P>
+"Sounds right interesting."
+<P>
+"You'll find it all that, and don't forget that if they find out what you
+are doing there, it will be God help Steve Fraser!"
+<P>
+The ranger's eyes gleamed. "I'll try to remember it."
+<h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+<h4>INTO LOST VALLEY</h4>
+<P>
+It was one-twenty when Fraser slipped the iron bar from the masonry into
+which it had been fixed and began to lower himself from the window. The back
+of the jail faced on the bank of a creek; and into the aspens, which ran
+along it at this point in a little grove, the fugitive pushed his way. He
+descended to the creek edge and crossed the mountain stream on bowlders which
+filled its bed. From here he followed the trail for a hundred yards that
+led up the little river. On the way he passed a boy fishing and nodded a
+greeting to him.
+<P>
+"What time is it, mister?" the youngster asked.
+<P>
+A glance at his watch showed the Texan that it was one-twenty-five.
+<P>
+"The fish have quit biting. Blame it all, I'm going home. Say, mister, Jimmie
+Spence says they're going to lynch that fellow who killed Billy Faulkner&#151; going
+to hang him to-night, Jimmie says. Do you reckon they will?"
+<P>
+"No, I reckon not."
+<P>
+"Tha's what I told him, but Jimmie says he heard Tom Peake say so. Jimmie
+says this town will be full o' folks by night."
+<P>
+Without waiting to hear any more of Jimmie's prophecies, Fraser followed
+the trail till it reached a waterfall Brandt bad mentioned, then struck sharply
+to the right. In a little bunch of scrub oaks he found a saddled horse tied
+to a sapling. His instructions were to cross the road, which ran parallel
+with the stream, and follow the gulch that led to the river. Half an hour's
+travel brought him to another road. Into this he turned, and followed it.
+<P>
+In a desperate hurry though he was, Steve dared not show it. He held his
+piebald broncho to the ambling trot a cowpony naturally drops into. From
+his coat pocket he flashed a mouthharp for use in emergency.
+<P>
+Presently he met three men riding into town. They nodded at him, in the friendly,
+casual way of the outdoors West. The gait of the pony was a leisurely walk,
+and its rider was industriously executing, "I Met My Love In the Alamo."
+<P>
+"Going the wrong way, aren't you?" one of the three suggested.
+<P>
+"Don't you worry, I'll be there when y'u hang that guy they caught last night,"
+he told them with a grin.
+<P>
+From time to time he met others. All travel seemed to be headed townward.
+There was excitement in the air. In the clear atmosphere voices carried a
+long way, and all the conversation that came to him was on the subjects of
+the war for the range, the battle of the previous evening, and the lynching
+scheduled to take place in a few hours. He realized that he had escaped none
+too soon, for it was certain that as the crowd in town multiplied, they would
+set a watch on the jail to prevent Brandt from slipping out with his prisoner.
+<P>
+About four miles from town he cut the telephone wires, for he knew that as
+soon as his escape became known to the jailer, the sheriff would be notified,
+and he would telephone in every direction the escape of his prisoner, just
+the same as if there had been no arrangement between them. It was certain,
+too, that all the roads leading from Gimlet Butte would be followed and patrolled
+immediately. For which reason he left the road after cutting the wires, and
+took to the hill trail marked out for him in the map furnished by Brandt.
+<P>
+By night, he was far up in the foothills. Close to a running stream, he camped
+in a little, grassy park, where his pony could find forage. Brandt had stuffed
+his saddlebags with food, and had tied behind a sack, with a feed or two
+of oats for his horse. Fraser had ridden the range too many years to risk
+lighting a fire, even though he had put thirty-five miles between him and
+Gimlet Butte. The night was chill, as it always is in that altitude, but
+he rolled up in his blanket, got what sleep he could, and was off again by
+daybreak.
+<P>
+Before noon he was high in the mountain passes, from which he could sometimes
+look down into the green parks where nested the little ranches of small
+cattlemen. He knew now that he was beyond the danger of the first hurried
+pursuit, and that it was more than likely that any of these mountaineers
+would hide him rather than give him up. Nevertheless, he had no immediate
+intention of putting them to the test.
+<P>
+The second night came down on him far up on Dutchman Creek, in the Cedar
+Mountain district. He made a bed, where his horse found a meal, in a haystack
+of a small ranch, the buildings of which were strung along the creek. He
+was weary, and he slept deep. When he awakened next morning, it was to hear
+the sound of men's voices. They drifted to him from the road in front of
+the house.
+<P>
+Carefully he looked down from the top of his stack upon three horsemen talking
+to the bare-headed ranchman whom they had called out from his breakfast.
+<P>
+"No, I ain't seen a thing of him. Shot Billy Faulkner, you say? What in time
+for?" the rancher was innocently asking.
+<P>
+"You know what for, Hank Speed," the leader of the posse made sullen answer.
+"Well, boys, we better be pushing on, I expect."
+<P>
+Fraser breathed freer when they rode out of sight. He had overslept, and
+had had a narrow shave; for his pony was grazing in the alfalfa field within
+a hundred yards of them at that moment. No sooner had the posse gone than
+Hank Speed stepped across the field without an instant's hesitation and looked
+the animal over, after which he returned to the house and came out again
+with a rifle in his hands.
+<P>
+The ranger slid down the farther side of the stack and slipped his revolver
+from its holster. He watched the ranchman make a tour of the out-buildings
+very carefully and cautiously, then make a circuit of the haystack at a safe
+distance. Soon the rancher caught sight of the man crouching against it.
+<P>
+"Oh, you're there, are you? Put up that gun. I ain't going to do you any
+harm."
+<P>
+"What's the matter with you putting yours up first?" asked the Texan amiably.
+<P>
+"I tell you I ain't going to hurt you. Soon as I stepped out of the house
+I seen your horse. All I had to do was to say so, and they would have had
+you slick."
+<P>
+"What did you get your gun for, then?"
+<P>
+"I ain't taking any chances till folks' intentions has been declared. You
+might have let drive at me before I got a show to talk to you."
+<P>
+"All right. I'll trust you." Fraser dropped his revolver, and the other came
+across to him.
+<P>
+"Up in this country we ain't in mourning for Billy Faulkner. Old man Dillon
+told me what you done for him. I reckon we can find cover for you till things
+quiet down. My name is Speed."
+<P>
+"Call me Fraser."
+<P>
+"Glad to meet you, Mr. Fraser. I reckon we better move you back into the
+timber a bit. Deputy sheriffs are some thick around here right now. If you
+have to lie hid up in this country for a spell, we'll make an arrangement
+to have you taken care of."
+<P>
+"I'll have to lie hid. There's no doubt about that. I made my jail break
+just in time to keep from being invited as chief guest to a necktie party."
+<P>
+"Well, we'll put you where the whole United States Army couldn't find you."
+<P>
+They had been walking across the field and now crawled between the strands
+of fence wire.
+<P>
+"I left my saddle on top of the stack," the ranger explained.
+<P>
+"I'll take care of it. You better take cover on top of this ridge till I
+get word to Dillon you're here. My wife will fix you up some breakfast, and
+I'll bring it out."
+<P>
+"I've ce'tainly struck the good Samaritan," the Texan smiled.
+<P>
+"Sho! There ain't a man in the hills wouldn't do that much for a friend."
+<P>
+"I'm glad I have so many friends I never saw."
+<P>
+"Friends? The hills are full of them. You took a hand when old man Dillon
+and his girl were sure up against it. Cedar Mountain stands together these
+days. What you did for them was done for us all," Speed explained simply.
+<P>
+Fraser waited on the ridge till his host brought breakfast of bacon, biscuits,
+hard-boiled eggs, and coffee. While he ate, Speed sat down on a bowlder beside
+him and talked.
+<P>
+"I sent my boy with a note to Dillon. It's a good thirty miles from here,
+and the old man won't make it back till some time to-morrow. Course, you're
+welcome at the house, but I judge it wouldn't be best for you to be seen
+there. No knowing when some of Brandt's deputies might butt in with a warrant.
+You can slip down again after dark and burrow in the haystack. Eh? What think?"
+<P>
+"I'm in your hands, but I don't want to put you and your friends to so much
+trouble. Isn't there some mountain trail off the beaten road that I could
+take to Dillon's ranch, and so save him from the trip after me?"
+<P>
+Speed grinned. "Not in a thousand years, my friend. Dillon's ranch ain't
+to be found, except by them that know every pocket of these hills like their
+own back yard. I'll guarantee you couldn't find it in a month, unless you
+had a map locating it."
+<P>
+"Must be in that Lost Valley, which some folks say is a fairy tale," the
+ranger said carelessly, but with his eyes on the other.
+<P>
+The cattleman made no comment. It occurred to Fraser that his remark had
+stirred some suspicion of him. At least, it suggested caution.
+<P>
+"If you're through with your breakfast, I'll take back the dishes," Speed
+said dryly.
+<P>
+The day wore to sunset. After dark had fallen the Texan slipped through the
+alfalfa field again and bedded in the stack. Before the morning was more
+than gray he returned to the underbrush of the ridge. His breakfast finished,
+and Speed gone, he lay down on a great flat, sun-dappled rock, and looked
+into the unflecked blue sky. The season was spring, and the earth seemed
+fairly palpitating with young life. The low, tireless hum of insects went
+on all about him. The air was vocal with the notes of nesting birds. Away
+across the valley he could see a mountain slope, with snow gulches glowing
+pink in the dawn. Little checkerboard squares along the river showed irrigated
+patches. In the pleasant warmth he grew drowsy. His eyes closed, opened,
+closed again.
+<P>
+He was conscious of no sound that awakened him, yet he was aware of a presence
+that drew him from drowsiness to an alert attention. Instinctively, his hand
+crept to his scabbarded weapon.
+<P>
+"Don't shoot me," a voice implored with laughter&#151; a warm, vivid voice, that
+struck pleasantly on his memory.
+<P>
+The Texan turned lazily, and leaned on his elbow. She came smiling out of
+the brush, light as a roe, and with much of its slim, supple grace. Before,
+he had seen her veiled by night; the day disclosed her a dark, spirited young
+creature. The mass of blue-black hair coiled at the nape of the brown neck,
+the flash of dark eyes beneath straight, dark eyebrows, together with a certain
+deliberation of movement that was not languor, made it impossible to doubt
+that she was a Southerner by inheritance, if not by birth.
+<P>
+"I don't reckon I will," he greeted, smiling. "Down in Texas it ain't counted
+right good manners to shoot up young ladies."
+<P>
+"And in Wyoming you think it is."
+<P>
+"I judge by appearances, ma'am."
+<P>
+"Then you judge wrong. Those men did not know I was with dad that night.
+They thought I was another man. You see, they had just lost their suit for
+damages against dad and some more for the loss of six hundred sheep in a
+raid last year. They couldn't prove who did it." She flamed into a sudden
+passion of resentment. "I don't defend them any. They are a lot of coyotes,
+or they wouldn't have attacked two men, riding alone."
+<P>
+He ventured a rapier thrust. "How about the Squaw Creek raid? Don't your
+friends sometimes forget to fight fair, too?"
+<P>
+He had stamped the fire out of her in an instant. She drooped visibly. "Yes&#151; yes,
+they do," she faltered. "I don't defend them, either. Dad had nothing to
+do with that. He doesn't shoot in the back."
+<P>
+"I'm glad to hear it," he retorted cheerfully. "And I'm glad to hear that
+your friends the enemy didn't know it was a girl they were attacking. Fact
+is, I thought you were a boy myself when first I happened in and you fanned
+me with your welcome."
+<P>
+"I didn't know. I hadn't time to think. So I let fly. But I was so excited
+I likely missed you a mile."
+<P>
+He took off his felt hat and examined with interest a bullet hole through
+the rim. "If it was a mile, I'd hate to have you miss me a hundred yards,"
+he commented, with a little ripple of laughter.
+<P>
+"I didn't! Did I? As near as that?" She caught her hands together in a sudden
+anguish for what might have been.
+<P>
+"Don't you care, ma'am. A miss is as good as a mile. It ain't the first time
+I've had my hat ventilated. I mentioned it, so you wouldn't get discouraged
+at your shooting. It's plenty good. Good enough to suit me. I wouldn't want
+it any better."
+<P>
+"What about the man I wounded." she asked apprehensively. "Is he&#151; is it all
+right?"
+<P>
+"Haven't you heard?"
+<P>
+"Heard what?" He could see the terror in her eyes.
+<P>
+"How it all came out?"
+<P>
+He could not tell why he did it, any more than he could tell why he had attempted
+no denial to the sheriff of responsibility for the death of Faulkner, but
+as he looked at this girl he shifted the burden from her shoulders to his.
+"You got your man in the ankle. I had worse luck after you left. They buried
+mine."
+<P>
+"Oh!" From her lips a little cry of pain forced itself. "It wasn't your fault.
+It was for us you did it. Oh, why did they attack us?"
+<P>
+"I did what I had to do. There is no blame due either you or me for it,"
+he said, with quiet conviction.
+<P>
+"I know. But it seems so dreadful. And then they put you in jail&#151; and you
+broke out! Wasn't that it?"
+<P>
+"That was the way of it, Miss Arlie. How did you know?"
+<P>
+"Henry Speed's note to father said you had broken jail. Dad wasn't at home.
+You know, the round-up is on now and he has to be there. So I saddled, and
+came right away."
+<P>
+"That was right good of you."
+<P>
+"Wasn't it?" There was a softened, almost tender, jeer in her voice. "Since
+you only saved our lives!"
+<P>
+"I ain't claiming all that, Miss Arlie."
+<P>
+"Then I'll claim it for you. I suppose you gave yourself up to them and explained
+how it was after we left."
+<P>
+"Not exactly that. I managed to slip away, through the sage. It was mo'ning
+before I found the road again. Soon as I did, a deputy tagged me, and said,
+'You're mine.' He spoke for me so prompt and seemed so sure about what he
+was saying, I didn't argue the matter with him." He laughed gayly.
+<P>
+"And then?"
+<P>
+"Then he herded me to town, and I was invited to be the county's guest. Not
+liking the accommodations, I took the first chance and flew the coop. They
+missed a knife in my pocket when they searched me, and I chipped the cement
+away from the window bars, let myself down by the bed linen, and borrowed
+a cow-pony I found saddled at the edge of town. So, you see, I'm a hawss
+thief too, ma'am."
+<P>
+She could not take it so lightly as he did, even though she did not know
+that he had barely escaped with his life. Something about his debonair, smiling
+hardihood touched her imagination, as did also the virile competence of the
+man. If the cool eyes in his weatherbeaten face could be hard as agates,
+they could also light up with sparkling imps of mischief. Certainly he was
+no boy, but the close-cut waves of crisp, reddish hair and the ready smile
+contributed to an impression of youth that came and went.
+<P>
+"Willie Speed is saddling you a horse. The one you came on has been turned
+loose to go back when it wants to. I'm going to take you home with me," she
+told him.
+<P>
+"Well, I'm willing to be kidnapped."
+<P>
+"I brought your horse Teddy. If you like, you may ride that, and I'll take
+the other."
+<P>
+"Yore a gentleman, ma'am. I sure would."
+<P>
+When Arlie saw with what pleasure the friends met, how Teddy nickered and
+rubbed his nose up and down his master's coat and how the Texan put him through
+his little repertoire of tricks and fed him a lump of sugar from his coat
+pocket, she was glad she had ridden Teddy instead of her own pony to the
+meeting.
+<P>
+They took the road without loss of time. Arlie Dillon knew exactly how to
+cross this difficult region. She knew the Cedar Mountain district as a grade
+teacher knows her arithmetic. In daylight or in darkness, with or without
+a trail, she could have traveled almost a bee line to the point she wanted.
+Her life had been spent largely in the saddle&#151; at least that part of it which
+had been lived outdoors. Wherefore she was able to lead her guest by secret
+trails that wound in and out among the passes and through unsuspected gorges
+to hazardous descents possible only to goats and cow ponies. No stranger
+finding his way in would have stood a chance of getting out again unaided.
+<P>
+Among these peaks lay hidden pockets and caches by hundreds, rock fissures
+which made the country a very maze to the uninitiated. The ranger, himself
+one of the best trailers in Texas, doubted whether he could retrace his steps
+to the Speed place.
+<P>
+After several hours of travel, they emerged from a gulch to a little valley
+known as Beaver Dam Park. The girl pointed out to her companion a narrow
+brown ribbon that wound through the park.
+<P>
+"There's the road again. That's the last we shall see of it&#151; or it will be
+when we have crossed it. Once we reach the Twin Buttes that are the gateway
+to French Ca&ntilde;on you are perfectly safe. You can see the buttes from
+here. No, farther to the right."
+<P>
+"I thought I'd ridden some tough trails in my time, but this country ce'tainly
+takes the cake," Fraser said admiringly, as his gaze swept the horizon. "It
+puts it over anything I ever met up with. Ain't that right, Teddy hawss?"
+<P>
+The girl flushed with pleasure at his praise. She was mountain bred, and
+she loved the country of the great peaks.
+<P>
+They descended the valley, crossed the road, and in an open grassy spot just
+beyond, came plump upon four men who had unsaddled to eat lunch.
+<P>
+The meeting came too abruptly for Arlie to avoid it. One glance told her
+that they were deputies from Gimlet Butte. Without the least hesitation she
+rode forward and gave them the casual greeting of cattleland. Fraser, riding
+beside her, nodded coolly, drew to a halt, and lit a cigarette.
+<P>
+"Found him yet, gentlemen?" he asked.
+<P>
+"No, nor we ain't likely to, if he's reached this far," one of the men answered.
+<P>
+"It would be some difficult to collect him here," the Texan admitted impartially.
+<P>
+"Among his friends," one of the deputies put in, with a snarl.
+<P>
+Fraser laughed easily. "Oh, well, we ain't his enemies, though he ain't very
+well known in the Cedar Mountain country. What might he be like, pardner?"
+<P>
+"Hasn't he lived up here long?" asked one of the men, busy with some bacon
+over a fire.
+<P>
+"They say not."
+<P>
+"He's a heavy-set fellow, with reddish hair; not so tall as you, I reckon,
+and some heavier. Was wearing chaps and gauntlets when he made his getaway.
+From the description, he looks something like you, I shouldn't wonder."
+<P>
+Fraser congratulated himself that he had had the foresight to discard as
+many as possible of these helps to identification before he was three miles
+from Gimlet Butte. Now he laughed pleasantly.
+<P>
+"Sure he's heavier than me, and not so tall."
+<P>
+"It would be a good joke, Bud, if they took you back to town for this man,"
+cut in Arlie, troubled at the direction the conversation was taking, but
+not obviously so.
+<P>
+"I ain't objecting any, sis. About three days of the joys of town would sure
+agree with my run-down system," the Texan answered joyously.
+<P>
+"When you cowpunchers do get in, you surely make Rome howl," one of the deputies
+agreed, with a grin. "Been in to the Butte lately?"
+<P>
+The Texan met his grin. "It ain't been so long."
+<P>
+"Well, you ain't liable to get in again for a while," Arlie said emphatically.
+"Come on, Bud, we've got to be moving."
+<P>
+"Which way is Dead Cow Creek?" one of the men called after them.
+<P>
+Fraser pointed in the direction from which he had just come.
+<P>
+After they had ridden a hundred yards, the girl laughed aloud her relief
+at their escape. "If they go the way you pointed for Dead Cow Creek, they
+will have to go clear round the world to get to it. We're headed for the
+creek now."
+<P>
+"A fellow can't always guess right," pleaded the Texan. "If he could, what
+a fiend he would be at playing the wheel! Shall I go back and tell him I
+misremembered for a moment where the creek is?"
+<P>
+"No, sir. You had me scared badly enough when you drew their attention to
+yourself. Why did you do it?"
+<P>
+"It was the surest way to disarm any suspicion they might have had. One of
+them had just said the man they wanted was like me. Presently, one would
+have been guessing that it <I>was</I> me." He looked at her drolly, and added:
+"You played up to me fine, sis."
+<P>
+A touch of deeper color beat into her dusky cheeks. "We'll drop the relationship
+right now, if you please. I said only what you made me say," she told him,
+a little stiffly.
+<P>
+But presently she relaxed to the note of friendliness, even of comradeship,
+habitual to her. She was a singularly frank creature, having been brought
+up in a country where women were few and far, and where conventions were
+of the simplest. Otherwise, she would not have confessed to him with unconscious
+n&auml;ivet&eacute;, as she now did, how greatly she had been troubled for
+him before she received the note from Speed.
+<P>
+"It worried me all the time, and it troubled dad, too. I could see that.
+We had hardly left you before I knew we had done wrong. Dad did it for me,
+of course; but he felt mighty bad about it. Somehow, I couldn't think of
+anything but you there, with all those men shooting at you. Suppose you had
+waited too long before surrendering! Suppose you had been killed for us!"
+She looked at him, and felt a shiver run over her in the warm sunlight. "Night
+before last I was worn out. I slept some, but I kept dreaming they were killing
+you. Oh, you don't know bow glad I was to get word from Speed that you were
+alive." Her soft voice had the gift of expressing feeling, and it was resonant
+with it now.
+<P>
+"I'm glad you were glad," he said quietly.
+<P>
+Across Dead Cow Creek they rode, following the stream up French Ca&ntilde;on
+to what was known as the Narrows. Here the great rock walls, nearly two thousand
+feet high, came so close together as to leave barely room for a footpath
+beside the creek which boiled down over great bowlders. Unexpectedly, there
+opened in the wall a rock fissure, and through this Arlie guided her horse.
+<P>
+The Texan wondered where she could be taking him, for the fissure terminated
+in a great rock slide some two hundred yards ahead of them. Before reaching
+this she turned sharply to the left, and began winding in and out among the
+big bowlders which had fallen from the summit far above.
+<P>
+Presently Fraser observed with astonishment that they were following a path
+that crept up the very face of the bluff. Up&#151; up&#151; up they went until they
+reached a rift in the wall, and into this the trail went precipitously. Stones
+clattered down from the hoofs of the horses as they clambered up like mountain
+goats. Once the Texan had to throw himself to the ground to keep Teddy from
+falling backward.
+<P>
+Arlie, working her pony forward with voice and body and knees, so that from
+her seat in the saddle she seemed literally to lift him up, reached the summit
+and looked back.
+<P>
+"All right back there?" she asked quietly.
+<P>
+"All right," came the cheerful answer. "Teddy isn't used to climbing up a
+wall, but he'll make it or know why."
+<P>
+A minute later, man and horse were beside her.
+<P>
+"Good for Teddy," she said, fondling his nose.
+<P>
+"Look out! He doesn't like strangers to handle him."
+<P>
+"We're not strangers. We're <I>tillicums</I>. Aren't we, Teddy?"
+<P>
+Teddy said "Yes" after the manner of a horse, as plain as words could say
+it.
+<P>
+From their feet the trail dropped again to another gorge, beyond which the
+ranger could make out a stretch of valley through which ran the gleam of
+a silvery thread.
+<P>
+"We're going down now into Mantrap Gulch. The patch of green you see beyond
+is Lost Valley," she told him,
+<P>
+"Lost Valley," he repeated, in amazement. "Are we going to Lost Valley?"
+<P>
+"You've named our destination."
+<P>
+"But&#151; you don't live in Lost Valley."
+<P>
+"Don't I?"
+<P>
+"Do you?"
+<P>
+"Yes," she answered, amused at his consternation, if it
+were that.
+<P>
+"I wish I had known," he said, as if to himself.
+<P>
+"You know now. Isn't that soon enough? Are you afraid of the place, because
+people make a mystery of it?" she demanded impatiently.
+<P>
+"No. It isn't that." He looked across at the valley again, and asked abruptly:
+"Is this the only way in?"
+<P>
+"No. There is another, but this is the quickest."
+<P>
+"Is the other as difficult as this?"
+<P>
+"In a way, yes. It is very much more round-about. It isn't known much by
+the public. Not many outsiders have business in the valley."
+<P>
+She volunteered no explanation in detail, and the man beside her said, with
+a grim laugh:
+<P>
+"There isn't any general admission to the public this way, is there?"
+<P>
+"No. Oh, folks can come if they want to."
+<P>
+He looked full in her face, and said significantly: "I thought the way to
+Lost Valley was a sort of a secret&#151; one that those who know are not expected
+to tell."
+<P>
+"Oh, that's just talk. Not many come in but our friends. We've had to be
+careful lately. But you can't call a secret what a thousand folks know."
+<P>
+It was like a blow in the face to him. Not many but their friends! And she
+was taking him in confidently because he was her friend. What sort of a friend
+was he? he asked himself. He could not perform the task to which he was pledged
+without striking home at her. If he succeeded in ferreting out the Squaw
+Creek raiders he must send to the penitentiary, perhaps to death, her neighbors,
+and possibly her relatives. She had told him her father was not implicated,
+but a daughter's faith in her parent was not convincing proof of his innocence.
+If not her father, a brother might be involved. And she was innocently making
+it easy for him to meet on a friendly footing these hospitable, unsuspecting
+savages, who had shed human blood because of the unleashed passions in them!
+<P>
+In that moment, while he looked away toward Lost Valley, he sickened of the
+task that lay before him. What would she think of him if she knew?
+<P>
+Arlie, too, had been looking down the gulch toward the valley. Now her gaze
+came slowly round to him and caught the expression of his face.
+<P>
+"What's the matter?" she cried.
+<P>
+"Nothing. Nothing at all. An old heart pain that caught me suddenly."
+<P>
+"I'm sorry. We'll soon be home now. We'll travel slowly."
+<P>
+Her voice was tender with sympathy; so, too, were her eyes when he met them.
+<P>
+He looked away again and groaned in his heart.
+<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+<h4>THE WARNING OF MANTRAP GULCH</h4>
+<P>
+They followed the trail down into the ca&ntilde;on. As the ponies slowly
+picked their footing on the steep narrow path, he asked:
+<P>
+"Why do they call it Mantrap Gulch?"
+<P>
+"It got its name before my time in the days when outlaws hid here. A hunted
+man came to Lost Ca&ntilde;on, a murderer wanted by the law for more crimes
+than one. He was well treated by the settlers. They gave him shelter and
+work. He was safe, and he knew it. But he tried to make his peace with the
+law outside by breaking the law of the valley. He knew that two men were
+lying hid in a pocket gulch, opening from the valley&#151; men who were wanted
+for train robbery. He wrote to the company offering to betray these men if
+they would pay him the reward and see that he was not punished for his crimes.
+<P>
+"It seems he was suspected. His letter was opened, and the exits from the
+valley were both guarded. Knowing he was discovered, he tried to slip out
+by the river way. He failed, sneaked through the settlement at night, and
+slipped into the ca&ntilde;on here. At this end of it he found armed men
+on guard. He ran back and found the entrance closed. He was in a trap. He
+tried to climb one of the walls. Do you see that point where the rock juts
+out?"
+<P>
+"About five hundred feet up? Yes."
+<P>
+"He managed to climb that high. Nobody ever knows how he did it, but when
+morning broke there he was, like a fly on a wall. His hunters came and saw
+him. I suppose he could hear them laughing as their voices came echoing up
+to him. They shot above him, below him, on either side of him. He knew they
+were playing with him, and that they would finish him when they got ready.
+He must have been half crazy with fear. Anyhow, he lost his hold and fell.
+He was dead before they reached him. From that day this has been called Mantrap
+Gulch."
+<P>
+The ranger looked up at the frowning walls which shut out the sunlight. His
+imagination pictured the drama&#151; the hunted man's wild flight up the gulch;
+his dreadful discovery that it was closed; his desperate attempt to climb
+by moonlight the impossible cliff, and the tragedy that overtook him.
+<P>
+The girl spoke again softly, almost as if she were in the presence of that
+far-off Nemesis. "I suppose he deserved,it. It's an awful thing to be a traitor;
+to sell the people who have befriended you. We can't put ourselves in his
+place and know why he did it. All we can say is that we're glad&#151; glad that
+we have never known men who do such things. Do you think people always felt
+a sort of shrinking when they were near him, or did he seem just like other
+men?"
+<P>
+Glancing at the man who rode beside her, she cried out at the stricken look
+on his face. "It's your heart again. You're worn out with anxiety and privations.
+I should have remembered and come slower," she reproached herself.
+<P>
+"I'm all right&#151; now. It passes in a moment," he said hoarsely.
+<P>
+But she had already slipped from the saddle and was at his bridle rein. "No&#151; no.
+You must get down. We have plenty of time. We'll rest here till you are better."
+<P>
+There was nothing for it but to obey. He dismounted, feeling himself a humbug
+and a scoundrel. He sat down on a mossy rock, his back against another, while
+she trailed the reins and joined him.
+<P>
+"You are better now, aren't you?" she asked, as she seated herself on an
+adjacent bowlder.
+<P>
+Gruffly he answered: "I'm all right."
+<P>
+She thought she understood. Men do not like to be coddled. She began to talk
+cheerfully of the first thing that came into her head. He made the necessary
+monosyllabic responses when her speech put it up to him, but she saw that
+his mind was brooding over something else. Once she saw his gaze go up to
+the point on the cliff reached by the fugitive.
+<P>
+But it was not until they were again in the saddle that he spoke.
+<P>
+"Yes, he got what was coming to him. He had no right to complain."
+<P>
+"That's what my father says. I don't deny the justice of it, but whenever
+I think of it, I feel sorry for him."
+<P>
+"Why?"
+<P>
+Despite the quietness of the monosyllable, she divined an eager interest
+back of his question.
+<P>
+"He must have suffered so. He wasn't a brave man, they say. And he was one
+against many. They didn't hunt him. They just closed the trap and let him
+wear himself out trying to get through. Think of that awful week of hunger
+and exposure in the hills before the end!"
+<P>
+"It must have been pretty bad, especially if he wasn't a game man. But he
+had no legitimate kick coming. He took his chance and lost. It was up to
+him to pay."
+<P>
+"His name was David Burke. When he was a little boy I suppose his mother
+used to call him Davy. He wasn't bad then; just a little boy to be cuddled
+and petted. Perhaps he was married. Perhaps he had a sweetheart waiting for
+him outside, and praying for him. And they snuffed his life out as if he
+had been a rattlesnake."
+<P>
+"Because he was a miscreant and it was best he shouldn't live. Yes, they
+did right. I would have helped do it in their place."
+<P>
+"My father did," she sighed.
+<P>
+They did not speak again until they had passed from between the chill walls
+to the warm sunshine of the valley beyond. Among the rocks above the trail,
+she glimpsed some early anemones blossoming bravely.
+<P>
+She drew up with a little cry of pleasure. "They're the first I have seen.
+I must have them."
+<P>
+Fraser swung from the saddle, but he was not quick enough. She reached them
+before he did, and after they had gathered them she insisted upon sitting
+down again.
+<P>
+He had his suspicions, and voiced them. "I believe you got me off just to
+make me sit down."
+<P>
+She laughed with deep delight. "I didn't, but since we are here we shall."
+And she ended debate by sitting down tailor-fashion, and beginning to arrange
+her little bouquet.
+<P>
+A meadow lark, troubadour of spring, trilled joyously somewhere in the pines
+above. The man looked up, then down at the vivid creature busy with her flowers
+at his feet. There was kinship between the two. She, too, was athrob with
+the joy note of spring.
+<P>
+"You're to sit down," she ordered, without looking up from the sheaf of anemone
+blossoms she was arranging.
+<P>
+He sank down beside her, aware vaguely of something new and poignant in his
+life.
+<h3>CHAPTER V</h3>
+<h4>JED BRISCOE TAKES A HAND</h4>
+<P>
+Suddenly a footfall, and a voice:
+<P>
+"Hello, Arlie! I been looking for you everywhere."
+<P>
+The Texan's gaze took in a slim dark man, goodlooking after a fashion, but
+with dissipation written on the rather sullen face.
+<P>
+"Well, you've found me," the girl answered coolly.
+<P>
+"Yes, I've found you," the man answered, with a steady, watchful eye on the
+Texan.
+<P>
+Miss Dillon was embarrassed at this plain hostility, but indignation too
+sparkled in her eye. "Anything in particular you want?"
+<P>
+The newcomer ignored her question. His hard gaze challenged the Southerner;
+did more than challenge&#151; weighed and condemned.
+<P>
+But this young woman was not used to being ignored. Her voice took on an
+edge of sharpness.
+<P>
+"What can I do for you, Jed?"
+<P>
+"Who's your friend?" the man demanded bluntly, insolently.
+<P>
+Arlie's flush showed the swift, upblazing resentment she immediately controlled.
+"Mr. Fraser&#151; just arrived from Texas. Mr. Fraser, let me introduce to you
+Mr. Briscoe."
+<P>
+The Texan stepped forward to offer his hand, but Briscoe deliberately put
+both of his behind him.
+<P>
+"Might I ask what Mr. Fraser, just arrived from Texas, is doing here?" the
+young man drawled, contriving to make an insult of every syllable.
+<P>
+The girl's eyes flashed dangerously. "He is here as my guest."
+<P>
+"Oh, as your guest!"
+<P>
+"Doesn't it please you, Jed?"
+<P>
+"Have I said it didn't please me?" he retorted smoothly.
+<P>
+"Your looks say it."
+<P>
+He let out a sudden furious oath. "Then my looks don't lie any."
+<P>
+Fraser was stepping forward, but with a gesture Arlie held him back. This
+was her battle, not his.
+<P>
+"What have you got to say about it?" she demanded.
+<P>
+"You had no right to bring him here. Who is he anyhow?"
+<P>
+"I think that is his business, and mine."
+<P>
+"I make it mine," he declared hotly. "I've heard about this fellow from your
+father. You met up with him on the trail. He says his name is Fraser. You
+don't even know whether that is true. He may be a spy. How do you know he
+ain't?"
+<P>
+"How do I know you aren't?" she countered swiftly.
+<P>
+"You've known me all my life. Did you ever see him before?"
+<P>
+"Never."
+<P>
+"Well, then!"
+<P>
+"He risked his life to save ours."
+<P>
+"Risked nothing! It was a trick, I tell you."
+<P>
+"It makes no difference to me what you tell me. Your opinion can't affect
+mine."
+<P>
+"You know the feeling of the valley just now about strangers," said Briscoe
+sullenly.
+<P>
+"It depends on who the stranger is."
+<P>
+"Well, I object to this one."
+<P>
+"So it seems; but I don't know any law that makes me do whatever you want
+me to." Her voice, low and clear, cut like a whiplash.
+<P>
+Beneath the dust of travel the young man's face burned with anger. "We're
+not discussing that just now. What I say is that you had no right to bring
+him here&#151; not now, especially. You know why," he added, almost in a whisper.
+<P>
+"If you had waited and not attempted to brow-beat me, I would have shown
+you that that is the very reason I had to bring him."
+<P>
+"How do you mean?"
+<P>
+"Never mind what I mean. You have insulted my friend, and through him, me.
+That is enough for one day." She turned from him haughtily and spoke to the
+Texan. "If you are ready, Mr. Fraser, we'll be going now."
+<P>
+The ranger, whose fingers had been itching to get at the throat of this insolent
+young man, turned without a word and obediently brought the girl's pony,
+then helped her to mount. Briscoe glared, in a silent tempest of passion.
+<P>
+"I think I have left a glove and my anemones where we were sitting," the
+girl said sweetly to the Texan.
+<P>
+Fraser found them, tightened the saddle girth, and mounted Teddy. As they
+cantered away, Arlie called to him to look at the sunset behind the mountains.
+<P>
+From the moment of her dismissal of Briscoe the girl had apparently put him
+out of her thoughts. No fine lady of the courts could have done it with more
+disdainful ease. And the Texan, following her lead, played his part in the
+little comedy, ignoring the other man as completely as she did.
+<P>
+The young cattleman, furious, his teeth set in impotent rage, watched it
+all with the lust to kill in his heart. When they had gone, he flung himself
+into the saddle and rode away in a tumultuous fury.
+<P>
+Before they had covered two hundred yards Arlie turned to her companion,
+all contrition. "There! I've done it again. My fits of passion are always
+getting me into trouble. This time one of them has given you an enemy, and
+a bad one, too."
+<P>
+"No. He would have been my enemy no rnatter what you said. Soon as he put
+his eyes on me, I knew it."
+<P>
+"Because I brought you here, you mean?"
+<P>
+"I don't mean only that. Some folks are born to be enemies, just as some
+are born to be friends. They've only got to look in each other's eyes once
+to know it."
+<P>
+"That's strange. I never heard anybody else say that. Do you really mean
+it?"
+<P>
+"Yes."
+<P>
+"And did you ever have such an enemy before? Don't answer me if I oughtn't
+to ask that," she added quickly.
+<P>
+"Yes."
+<P>
+"Where?"
+<P>
+"In Texas. Why, here we are at a ranch!"
+<P>
+"Yes. It's ours, and yours as long as you want to stay. Did you feel that
+you were enemies the moment you saw this man in Texas?"
+<P>
+"I knew we were going to have trouble as soon as we looked at each other.
+I had no feeling toward him, but he had toward me."
+<P>
+"And did you have trouble?"
+<P>
+"Some, before I landed him. The way it turned out he had most of it."
+<P>
+She glanced quickly at him. "What do you mean by 'landed'?"
+<P>
+"I am an officer in the Texas Rangers."
+<P>
+"What are they? Something like our forest rangers?"
+<P>
+"No. The duty of a Texas Ranger is to enforce the law against desperadoes.
+We prevent crime if we can. When we can't do that, we hunt down the criminals."
+<P>
+Arlie looked at him in a startled silence.
+<P>
+"You are an officer of the law&#151; a sort of sheriff?" she said, at last.
+<P>
+"Yes, in Texas. This is Wyoming." He made his distinction, knowing it was
+a false one. Somehow he had the feeling of a whipped cur.
+<P>
+"I wish I had known. If you had only told me earlier," she said, so low as
+to be almost a whisper.
+<P>
+"I'm sorry. If you like, I'll go away again," he offered.
+<P>
+"No, no. I'm only thinking that it gives Jed a hold, gives him something
+to stir up his friends with, you know. That is, it would if he knew. He mustn't
+find out."
+<P>
+"Be frank. Don't make any secret of it. That's the best way," he advised.
+<P>
+She shook her head. "You don't know Jed's crowd. They'd be suspicious of
+any officer, no matter where he came from."
+<P>
+"Far as I can make out, that young man is going to be loaded with suspicions
+of me anyhow," he laughed.
+<P>
+"It isn't anything to laugh at. You don't know him," she told him gravely.
+<P>
+"And can't say I'm suffering to," he drawled.
+<P>
+She looked at him a little impatiently, as if he were a child playing with
+gunpowder and unaware of its potentialities.
+<P>
+"Can't you understand? You're not in Texas with your friends all around you.
+This is Lost Valley&#151; and Lost Valley isn't on the map. Men make their own
+law here. That is, some of them do. I wouldn't give a snap of my fingers
+for your life if the impression spread that you are a spy. It doesn't matter
+that I know you're not. Others must feel it, too."
+<P>
+"I see. And Mr. Briscoe will be a molder of public opinion?"
+<P>
+"So far as he can he will. We must forestall him."
+<P>
+"Beat him to it, and give me a clean bill of moral health, eh?"
+<P>
+She frowned. "This is serious business, my friend."
+<P>
+"I'm taking it that way," he said smilingly.
+<P>
+"I shouldn't have guessed it."
+<P>
+Yet for all his debonair ease the man had an air of quiet competence. His
+strong, bronzed face and neck, the set of his shoulders, the light poise
+of him in the saddle, the steady confidence of the gray eyes, all told her
+as much. She was aware of a curiosity about what was hidden behind that
+stone-wall face of his.
+<P>
+"You didn't finish telling me about that enemy in Texas," she suggested suddenly.
+<P>
+"Oh, there ain't much to tell. He broke out from the pen, where I had put
+him when I was a kid. He was a desperado wanted by the authorities, so I
+arrested him again."
+<P>
+"Sounds easy."
+<P>
+"He made some trouble, shot up two or three men first." Fraser lifted his
+hand absently.
+<P>
+"Is that scar on your hand where he shot you?" Arlie asked.
+<P>
+He looked up in quick surprise. "Now, how did you know that?"
+<P>
+"You were talking of the trouble he made and you looked at your hand," she
+explained. "Where is he now? In the penitentiary?"
+<P>
+"No. He broke away before I got him there."
+<P>
+She had another flash of inspiration. "And you came to Wyoming to get him
+again."
+<P>
+"Good gracious, ma'am, but you're ce'tainly a wizard! That's why I came,
+though it's a secret."
+<P>
+"What is he wanted for?"
+<P>
+"Robbing a train, three murders and a few other things."
+<P>
+As she swung from her pony in front of the old-fashioned Southern log house,
+Artie laughed at him over her shoulder.
+<P>
+"You're a fine officer! Tell all you know to the first girl you meet!"
+<P>
+"Well, you see, the girl happened to be&#151; you!"
+<P>
+After the manner of the old-fashioned Southern house a wide "gallery" bisected
+it from porch to rear. Saddles hung from pegs in the gallery. Horse blankets
+and bridles, spurs and saddlebags, lay here and there in disarray. A disjointed
+rifle which some one had started to clean was on the porch. Swiftly Arlie
+stripped saddle, bridle, and blanket from her pony and flung them down as
+a contribution to the general disorder, and at her suggestion Fraser did
+the same. A half-grown lad came running to herd the horses into a corral
+close at hand.
+<P>
+"I want you when you've finished feeding, Bobbie," Arlie told the lad. Then
+briefly to her guest: "This way, please."
+<P>
+She led him into a large, cheerful living room, into which, through big casement
+windows, the light streamed. It was a pleasant room, despite its barbaric
+touch. There was a grizzly bear skin before the great open, stone fireplace,
+and Navajo rugs covered the floor and hung on the walls. The skin of a silver-tip
+bear was stretched beneath a writing desk, a trophy of Arlie's rifle, which
+hung in a rack above. Civilization had furnished its quota to the room in
+a piano, some books, and a few photographs.
+<P>
+The Texan observed that order reigned here, even though it did not interfere
+with the large effect of comfort.
+<P>
+The girl left him, to return presently with her aunt, to whom she introduced
+him. Miss Ruth Dillon was a little, bright-eyed old lady, whose hair was
+still black, and her step light. Evidently she had her instructions, for
+she greeted their guest with charming cordiality, and thanked him for the
+service he had rendered her brother and her niece.
+<P>
+Presently the boy Bobbie arrived for further orders. Arlie went to her desk
+and wrote hurriedly.
+<P>
+"You're to give this note to my father," she directed. "Be sure he gets it
+himself. You ought to find him down in Jackson's Pocket, if the drive is
+from Round Top to-day. But you can ask about that along the road."
+<P>
+When the boy had gone, Arlie turned to Fraser.
+<P>
+"I want to tell father you're here before Jed gets to him with his story,"
+she explained. "I've asked him to ride down right away. He'll probably come
+in a few hours and spend the night here."
+<P>
+After they had eaten supper they returned to the living room, where a great
+fire, built by Jim the negro horse wrangler, was roaring up the chimney.
+<P>
+It was almost eleven o'clock when horses galloped up and Dillon came into
+the house, followed by Jed Briscoe. The latter looked triumphant, the former
+embarrassed as he disgorged letters and newspapers from his pocket.
+<P>
+"I stopped at the office to get the mail as I came down. Here's yore paper,
+Ruth."
+<P>
+Miss Dillon pounced eagerly upon the Gimlet Butte <I>Avalanche</I>, and
+disappeared with it to her bedroom. She had formerly lived in Gimlet Butte,
+and was still keenly interested in the gossip of the town.
+<P>
+Briscoe had scored one against Arlie by meeting her father, telling his side
+of the story, and returning with him to the house. Nevertheless Arlie, after
+giving him the slightest nod her duty as hostess would permit, made her frontal
+attack without hesitation.
+<P>
+"You'll be glad to know, dad, that Mr. Fraser is our guest. He has had rather
+a stormy time since we saw him last, and he has consented to stay with us
+a few days till things blow over."
+<P>
+Dillon, very ill at ease, shook hands with the Texan, and was understood
+to say that he was glad to see him.
+<P>
+"Then you don't look it, dad," Arlie told him, with a gleam of vexed laughter.
+<P>
+Her father turned reproachfully upon her. "Now, honey, yo' done wrong to
+say that. Yo' know Mr. Fraser is welcome to stay in my house long as he wants.
+I'm proud to have him stay. Do you think I forgot already what he done for
+us?"
+<P>
+"Of course not. Then it's all settled," Arlie cut in, and rushed on to another
+subject. "How's the round-up coming, dad?"
+<P>
+"We'll talk about the round-up later. What I'm saying is that Mr, Fraser
+has only got to say the word, and I'm there to he'p him till the cows come
+home."
+<P>
+"That's just what I told him, dad."
+<P>
+"Hold yore hawsses, will yo', honey? But, notwithstanding which, and not
+backing water on that proposition none, we come to another p'int."
+<P>
+"Which Jed made to you carefully on the way down," his daughter interrupted
+scornfully.
+<P>
+"It don't matter who made it. The p'int is that there are reasons why strangers
+ain't exactly welcome in this valley right now, Mr. Fraser. This country
+is full o' suspicion. Whilst it's onjust, charges are being made against
+us on the outside. Right now the settlers here have got to guard against
+furriners. Now I know yo're all right, Mr. Fraser. But my neighbors don't
+know it."
+<P>
+"It was our lives he saved, not our neighbors'," scoffed Arlie.
+<P>
+"K'rect. So I say, Mr. Fraser, if yo' are out o' funds, I'll finance you.
+Wherever you want to go I'll see you git there, but I hain't got the right
+to invite you to stay in Lost Valley."
+<P>
+"Better send him to Gimlet Butte, dad! He killed a man in helping us to escape,
+and he 's wanted bad! He broke jail to get here! Pay his expenses back to
+the Butte! Then if there's a reward, you and Jed can divide it!" his daughter
+jeered.
+<P>
+"What's that? Killed a man, yo' say?"
+<P>
+"Yes. To save us. Shall we send him back under a rifle guard? Or shall we
+have Sheriff Brandt come and get him?"
+<P>
+"Gracious goodness, gyurl, shet up whilst I think. Killed a man, eh? This
+valley has always been open to fugitives. Ain't that right, Jed?"
+<P>
+"To fugitives, yes," said Jed significantly. "But that fact ain't proved."
+<P>
+"Jed's getting right important. We'll soon be asking him whether <I>we</I>
+can stay here," said Arlie, with a scornful laugh. "And I say it is proved.
+We met the deputies the yon side of the big ca&ntilde;on."
+<P>
+Briscoe looked at her out of dogged, half-shuttered eyes. He said nothing,
+but he looked the picture of malice.
+<P>
+Dillon rasped his stubbly chin and looked at the Texan. Far from an alert-minded
+man, he came to conclusions slowly. Now he arrived at one.
+<P>
+"Dad burn it, we'll take the 'fugitive' for granted. Yo' kin lie up here
+long as yo' like, friend. I'll guarantee yo' to my neighbors. I reckon if
+they don't like it they kin lump it. I ain't a-going to give up the man that
+saved my gyurl's life."
+<P>
+The door opened and let in Miss Ruth Dillon. The little old lady had the
+newspaper in her hand, and her beady eyes were shining with excitement.
+<P>
+"It's all in here, Mr. Fraser&#151; about your capture and escape. But you didn't
+tell us all of it. Perhaps you didn't know, though, that they had plans to
+storm the jail and hang you?"
+<P>
+"Yes, I knew that," the Texan answered coolly. "The jailer told me what was
+coming to me. I decided not to wait and see whether he was lying. I wrenched
+a bar from the window, lowered myself by my bedding, flew the coop, and borrowed
+a horse. That's the whole story, ma'am, except that Miss Arlie brought me
+here to hide me."
+<P>
+"Read aloud what the paper says," Dillon ordered.
+<P>
+His sister handed the <I>Avalanche</I> to her niece. Arlie found the article
+and began to read:
+<P>
+"A dastardly outrage occurred three miles from Gimlet Butte last night. While
+on their way home from the trial of the well-known Three Pines sheep raid
+case, a small party of citizens were attacked by miscreants presumed to be
+from the Cedar Mountain country. How many of these there were we have no
+means of knowing, as the culprits disappeared in the mountains after murdering
+William Faulkner, a well-known sheep man, and wounding Tom Long."
+<P>
+There followed a lurid account of the battle, written from the point of view
+of the other side. After which the editor paid his respects to Fraser, though
+not by name.
+<P>
+"One of the ruffians, for some unknown reason&#151; perhaps in the hope of getting
+a chance to slay another victim&#151; remained too long near the scene of the
+atrocity and was apprehended early this morning by that fearless deputy,
+James Schilling. He refused to give his name or any other information about
+himself. While the man is a stranger to Gimlet Butte, there can be no doubt
+that he is one of the Lost Valley desperadoes implicated in the Squaw Creek
+raid some months ago. Since the bullet that killed Faulkner was probably
+fired from the rifle carried by this man, it is safe to assume that the actual
+murderer was apprehended. The man is above medium height, well built and
+muscular, and carries all the earmarks of a desperate character."
+<P>
+Arlie glanced up from her reading to smile at Fraser. "Dad and I are miscreants,
+and you are a ruffian and a desperate character," she told him gayly.
+<P>
+"Go on, honey," her father urged.
+<P>
+The account told how the prisoner had been confined in the jail, and how
+the citizens, wrought up by the continued lawlessness of the Lost Valley
+district, had quietly gathered to make an example of the captured man. While
+condemning lynching in general, the <I>Avalanche</I> wanted to go on record
+as saying that if ever it was justifiable this was the occasion. Unfortunately,
+the prisoner, giving thus further evidence of his desperate nature, had cut
+his way out of prison with a pocketknife and escaped from town by means of
+a horse he found saddled and did not hesitate to steal. At the time of going
+to press he had not yet been recaptured, though Sheriff Brandt had several
+posses on his trail. The outlaw had cut the telephone wires, but it was
+confidently believed he would be captured before he reached his friends in
+the mountains.
+<P>
+Arlie's eyes were shining. She looked at Briscoe and handed him the paper
+triumphantly. This was her vindication for bringing the hunted man to Lost
+Valley. He had been fighting their battles and had almost lost his life in
+doing it. Jed might say what he liked while she had this to refute him.
+<P>
+"I guess that editor doesn't believe so confidently as he pretends," she
+said. "Anyhow, he has guessed wrong. Mr. Fraser has reached his friends,
+and they'll look out for him."
+<P>
+Her father came to her support radiantly. "You bet yore boots they will,
+honey. Shake hands on it, Mr. Fraser. I reckon yore satisfied too, Jed. Eh,
+boy?"
+<P>
+Briscoe viewed the scene with cynical malice. "Quite a hero, ain't he? If
+you want to know, I stand pat. Mr. Fraser from Texas don't draw the wool
+over my eyes none. Right now I serve notice to that effect. Meantime, since
+I don't aim to join the happy circle of his admirers, I reckon I'll duck."
+<P>
+He nodded impudently at Arlie, turned on his heel, and went trailing off
+with jingling spur. They heard him cursing at his horse as he mounted. The
+cruel swish of a quirt came to them, after which the swift pounding of a
+horse's hoofs. The cow pony had found its gallop in a stride.
+<P>
+The Texan laughed lightly. "Exit Mr. Briscoe, some disappointed," he murmured.
+<P>
+He noticed that none of the others shared his mirth.
+<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3>
+<h4>A SURE ENOUGH WOLF</h4>
+<p>
+Briscoe did not return at once to the scene of the round-up. He followed
+the trail toward Jackson's Pocket, but diverged after he had gone a few miles
+and turned into one of the hundred blind gulches that ran out from the valley
+to the impassable mountain wall behind. It was known as Jack Rabbit Run,
+because its labyrinthine trails offered a retreat into which hunted men might
+always dive for safety. Nobody knew its recesses better than Jed Briscoe,
+who was acknowledged to be the leader of that faction in the valley which
+had brought it the bad name it held.
+<P>
+Long before Jed's time there had been such a faction, then the dominant one
+of the place, now steadily losing ground as civilization seeped in, but still
+strong because bound by ties of kindred and of interest to the honest law-abiding
+majority. Of it were the outlaws who came periodically to find shelter here,
+the hasty men who had struck in heat and found it necessary to get beyond
+the law's reach for a time, and reckless cowpunchers, who foregathered with
+these, because they were birds of a feather. To all such, Jack Rabbit Run
+was a haven of rest.
+<P>
+By devious paths the cattleman guided his horse until he came to a kind of
+pouch, guarded by a thick growth of aspens. The front of these he skirted,
+plunged into them at the farther edge, and followed a narrow trail which
+wound among them till the grove opened upon a saucer-shaped valley in which
+nestled a little log cabin. Lights gleamed from the windows hospitably and
+suggested the comfortable warmth of a log fire and good-fellowship. So many
+a hunted man had thought as he emerged from that grove to look down upon
+the valley nestling at his feet.
+<P>
+Jed turned his horse into a corral back of the house, let out the hoot of
+an owl as he fed and watered, and returning to the cabin, gave the four knocks
+that were the signal for admission.
+<P>
+Bolts were promptly withdrawn and the door thrown open by a slender, fair-haired
+fellow, whose features looked as if they had been roughed out and not finished.
+He grinned amiably at the newcomer and greeted him with: "Hello, Jed."
+<P>
+"Hello, Tommie," returned Briscoe, carelessly, and let his glance pass to
+the three men seated at the table with cards and poker chips in front of
+them, The man facing Briscoe was a big, heavy-set, unmistakable ruffian with
+long, drooping, red mustache, and villainous, fishy eyes. It was observable
+that the trigger finger of his right hand was missing. Also, there was a
+nasty scar on his right cheek running from the bridge of the nose halfway
+to the ear. This gave surplusage to the sinister appearance he already had.
+To him Briscoe spoke first, attempting a geniality he did not feel.
+<P>
+"How're they coming, Texas?"
+<P>
+"You ain't heard me kicking any, have you?" the man made sullen answer.
+<P>
+"Not out loud," said Briscoe significantly, his eyes narrowing after a trick
+they had when he was most on his guard.
+<P>
+"I reckon my remarks will be plumb audible when I've got any kick to register,
+seh."
+<P>
+"I hope not, Mr. Johnson. In this neck of woods a man is liable to get himself
+disliked if he shoots off his mouth too prevalent. Folks that don't like
+our ways can usually find a door open out of Lost Valley&#151; -<I>if they don't
+wait too long!"</I>
+<P>
+"I'm some haidstrong. I reckon I'll stay." He scowled at Jed with disfavor,
+meeting him eye to eye. But presently the rigor of his gaze relaxed. Me
+remembered that he was a fugitive from justice, and at the mercy of this
+man who had so far guessed his secret. Putting a temporary curb on his bilious
+jealousy, he sulkily added: "Leastways, if there's no objection, Mr. Briscoe.
+I ain't looking for trouble with anybody."
+<P>
+"A man who's looking for it usually finds it, Mr. Johnson. A man that ain't,
+lives longer and more peaceable." At this point Jed pulled himself together
+and bottled his arrogance, remembering that he had come to make an alliance
+with this man. "But that's no way for friends to talk. I got a piece of news
+for you. We'll talk it over in the other room and not disturb these gentlemen."
+<P>
+One of the "gentlemen" grinned. He was a round-bodied, bullet-headed cowpuncher,
+with a face like burnt leather. He was in chaps, flannel shirt, and broad-brimmed
+hat. From a pocket in his chaps a revolver protruded. "That's right, Jed.
+Wrap it up proper. You'd hate to disturb us, wouldn't you?"
+<P>
+"I'll not interrupt you from losing your money more than five minutes, Yorky,"
+answered Briscoe promptly.
+<P>
+The third man at the table laughed suddenly. "Ay bane laik to know how yuh
+feel now, Yorky?" he taunted.
+<P>
+"It ain't you that's taking my spondulix in, you big, overgrown Swede!" returned
+Yorky amiably. "It's the gent from Texas. How can a fellow buck against luck
+that fills from a pair to a full house on the draw?"
+<P>
+The blond giant, Siegfried&#151; who was not a Swede, but a Norwegian&#151; announced
+that he was seventeen dollars in the game himself.
+<P>
+Tommie, already broke, and an onlooker, reported sadly.
+<P>
+"Sixty-one for me, durn it!"
+<P>
+Jed picked up a lamp, led the way to the other room, and closed the door
+behind them.
+<P>
+"I thought it might interest you to know that there's a new arrival in the
+valley, Mr. Struve," he said smoothly.
+<P>
+"Who says my name's Struve?" demanded the man who called himself Johnson,
+with fierce suspicion.
+<P>
+Briscoe laughed softly. "I say it&#151; Wolf Struve. Up till last month your address
+for two years has been number nine thousand four hundred and thirty-two,
+care of Penitentiary Warden, Yuma, Arizona."
+<P>
+"Prove it. Prove it," blustered the accused man.
+<P>
+"Sure." From his inside coat pocket Jed took out a printed notice offering
+a reward for the capture of Nick Struve, alias "Wolf" Struve, convict, who
+had broken prison on the night of February seventh, and escaped, after murdering
+one of the guards. A description and a photograph of the man wanted was appended.
+<P>
+"Looks some like you. Don't it, Mr.&#151; shall I say Johnson or Struve?"
+<P>
+"Say Johnson!" roared the Texan. "That ain't me. I'm no jailbird."
+<P>
+"Glad to know it." Briscoe laughed in suave triumph. "I thought you might
+be. This description sounds some familiar. I'll not read it all. But listen:
+'Scar on right cheek, running from bridge of nose toward ear. Trigger finger
+missing; shot away when last arrested. Weight, about one hundred and ninety.'
+By the way, just out of curiosity, how heavy are you, Mr. Johnson? 'Height,
+five feet nine inches. Protuberant, fishy eyes. Long, drooping, reddish
+mustache.' I'd shave that mustache if I were you, Mr.&#151; er&#151; Johnson. Some
+one might mistake you for Nick Struve."
+<P>
+The man who called himself Johnson recognized denial as futile. He flung
+up the sponge with a blasphemous oath. "What do you want? What's your game?
+Do you want to sell me for the reward? By thunder, you'd better not!"
+<P>
+Briscoe gave way to one of the swift bursts of passion to which he was subject.
+"Don't threaten me, you prison scum! Don't come here and try to dictate what
+I'm to do, and what I'm not to do. I'll sell you if I want to. I'll send
+you back to be hanged like a dog. Say the word, and I'll have you dragged
+out of here inside of forty-eight hours."
+<P>
+Struve reached for his gun, but the other, wary as a panther, had him covered
+while the convict's revolver was still in his pocket.
+<P>
+"Reach for the roof! Quick&#151; or I'll drill a hole in you! That's the idea.
+I reckon I'll collect your hardware while I'm at it. That's a heap better."
+<P>
+Struve glared at him, speechless.
+<P>
+"You're too slow on the draw for this part of the country, my friend," jeered
+Briscoe. "Or perhaps, while you were at Yuma, you got out of practice. It's
+like stealing candy from a kid to beat you to it. Don't ever try to draw
+a gun again in Lost Valley while you're asleep. You might never waken."
+<P>
+Jed was in high good humor with himself. His victim looked silent murder
+at him.
+<P>
+"One more thing, while you're in a teachable frame of mind," continued Briscoe.
+"I run Lost Valley. What I say, goes here. Get that soaked into your think-tank,
+my friend. Ever since you came, you've been disputing that in your mind.
+You've been stirring up the boys against me. Think I haven't noticed it?
+Guess again, Mr. Struve. You'd like to be boss yourself, wouldn't you? Forget
+it. Down in Texas you may be a bad, bad man, a sure enough wolf, but in Wyoming
+you only stack up to coyote size. Let this slip your mind, <I>and I'll be
+running Lost Valley after your bones are picked white by the buzzards."</I>
+<P>
+"I ain't a-goin' to make you any trouble. Didn't I tell you that before?"
+growled Struve reluctantly.
+<P>
+"See you don't, then. Now I'll come again to my news. I was telling you that
+there's another stranger in this valley, Mr. Struve. Hails from Texas, too.
+Name of Fraser. Ever hear of him?"
+<P>
+Briscoe was hardly prepared for the change which came over the Texan at mention
+of that name. The prominent eyes stared, and a deep, apoplectic flush ran
+over the scarred face. The hand that caught at the wall trembled with excitement.
+<P>
+"You mean Steve Fraser&#151; Fraser of the Rangers!" he gasped.
+<P>
+"That's what I'm not sure of. I got to milling it over after I left him,
+and it come to me I'd seen him or his picture before. You still got that
+magazine with the article about him?"
+<P>
+"Yes,"
+<P>
+"I looked it over hurriedly. Let me see his picture again, and I'll tell
+you if it's the same man."
+<P>
+"It's in the other room."
+<P>
+"Get it."
+<P>
+Struve presently returned with the magazine, and, opening it, pointed to
+a photograph of a young officer in uniform, with the caption underneath:
+<P ALIGN=Center class="center">
+L<SMALL>IEUTENANT</SMALL> S<SMALL>TEPHEN</SMALL> F<SMALL>RASER</SMALL>
+<SMALL>OF THE </SMALL>T<SMALL>EXAS</SMALL> R<SMALL>ANGERS</SMALL><BR>
+Who, single-handed, ran down and brought to justice the worst gang of outlaws
+known in recent years.
+<P>
+"It's the same man," Briscoe announced.
+<P>
+The escaped convict's mouth set in a cruel line.
+<P>
+"One of us, either him or me, never leaves this valley alive," he announced.
+<P>
+Jed laughed softly and handed back the revolver. "That's the way to talk.
+My friend, if you mean that, you'll need your gun. Here's hoping you beat
+him to it."
+<P>
+"It won't be an even break this time if I can help it."
+<P>
+"I gather that it <I>was</I>, last time."
+<P>
+"Yep. We drew together." Struve interlarded his explanation with oaths. "He's
+a devil with a gun. See that?" He held up his right band.
+<P>
+"I see you're shy your most useful finger, if that's what you mean."
+<P>
+"Fraser took it off clean at twenty yards. I got him in the hand, too, but
+right or left he's a dead shot. He might 'a' killed me if he hadn't wanted
+to take me alive. Before I'm through with him he'll wish he had."
+<P>
+"Well, you don't want to make any mistake next time. Get him right."
+<P>
+"I sure will." Hitherto Struve had been absorbed in his own turbid emotions,
+but he came back from them now with a new-born suspicion in his eyes. "Where
+do you come in, Mr. Briscoe? Why are you so plumb anxious I should load him
+up with lead? If it's a showdown, I'd some like to see your cards too."
+<P>
+Jed shrugged. "My reasons ain't urgent like yours. I don't favor spies poking
+their noses in here. That's all there's to it."
+<P>
+Jed had worked out a plot as he rode through the night from the Dillon ranch&#151; one
+so safe and certain that it pointed to sure success. Jed was no coward, but
+he had a spider-like cunning that wove others as dupes into the web of his
+plans.
+<P>
+The only weakness in his position lay in himself, in that sudden boiling
+up of passion in him that was likely to tear through his own web and destroy
+it. Three months ago he had given way to one of these outbursts, and he knew
+that any one of four or five men could put a noose around his neck. That
+was another reason why such a man as this Texas ranger must not be allowed
+to meet and mix with them.
+<P>
+It was his cue to know as much as he could of every man that came into the
+valley. Wherefore he had run down the record of Struve from the reward placard
+which a detective agency furnished him of hundreds of criminals who were
+wanted. What could be more simple than to stir up the convict, in order to
+save himself, to destroy the ranger who had run him down before? There would
+be a demand so insistent for the punishment of the murderer that it could
+not be ignored. He would find some pretext to lure Struve from the valley
+for a day or two, and would arrange it so that he would be arrested while
+he was away. Thus he would be rid of both these troublesome intruders without
+making a move that could be seen.
+<P>
+It was all as simple as A B C. Already Struve had walked into the trap. As
+Jed sat down to take a hand in the poker game that was in progress, he chuckled
+quietly to himself. He was quite sure that he was already practically master
+of the situation.
+<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3>
+<h4>THE ROUND-UP</h4>
+<P>
+"Would you like to take in the round-up to-day?"
+<P>
+Arlie flung the question at Fraser with a frank directness of sloe-black
+eyes that had never known coquetry. She was washing handkerchiefs, and her
+sleeves were rolled to the elbows of the slender, but muscular, coffee-brown
+arms.
+<P>
+"I would."
+<P>
+"If you like you may ride out with me to Willow Spring. I have some letters
+to take to dad."
+<P>
+"Suits me down to the ground, ma'am."
+<P>
+It was a morning beautiful even for Wyoming. The spring called potently to
+the youth in them. The fine untempered air was like wine, and out of a blue
+sky the sun beat pleasantly down through a crystal-clear atmosphere known
+only to the region of the Rockies. Nature was preaching a wordless sermon
+on the duty of happiness to two buoyant hearts that scarce needed it.
+<P>
+Long before they reached the scene of the round-up they could hear the almost
+continual bawl of worried cattle, and could even see the cloud of dust they
+stirred. They passed the remuda, in charge of two lads lounging sleepily
+in their saddles with only an occasional glance at the bunch of grazing horses
+they were watching. Presently they looked down from a high ridge at the busy
+scene below.
+<P>
+Out of Lost Valley ran a hundred rough and wooded gulches to the impassable
+cliff wall which bounded it. Into one of these they now descended slowly,
+letting their ponies pick a way among the loose stones and shale which covered
+the steep hillside.
+<P>
+What their eyes fell upon was cattle-land at its busiest. Several hundred
+wild hill cattle were gathered in the green draw, and around them was a cordon
+of riders holding the gather steady. Now and again one of the cows would
+make a dash to escape, and instantly the nearest rider would wheel, as on
+a batter's plate, give chase, and herd the animal back after a more or less
+lengthy pursuit.
+<P>
+Several of the riders were cutting out from the main herd cows with unmarked
+calves, which last were immediately roped and thrown. Usually it took only
+an instant to determine with whose cow the calf had been, and a few seconds
+to drive home the correct brand upon the sizzling flank. Occasionally the
+discussion was more protracted, in order to solve a doubt as to the ownership,
+and once a calf was released that it might again seek its mother to prove
+identity.
+<P>
+Arlie observed that Fraser's eyes were shining.
+<P>
+"I used to be a puncher myse'f," he explained. "I tell you it feels good
+to grip a saddle between your knees, and to swallow the dust and hear the
+bellow of the cows. I used to live in them days. I sure did."
+<P>
+A boyish puncher galloped past with a whoop and waved his hat to Arlie. For
+two weeks he had been in the saddle for fourteen hours out of the twenty-four.
+He was grimy with dust, and hollow-eyed from want of sleep. A stubbly beard
+covered his brick-baked face. But the unquenchable gayety of the youthful
+West could not be extinguished. Though his flannel shirt gaped where the
+thorns had torn it, and the polka-dot bandanna round his throat was discolored
+with sweat, he was as blithely debonair as ever.
+<P>
+"That's Dick France. He's a great friend of mine," Arlie explained.
+<P>
+"Dick's in luck," Fraser commented, but whether because he was enjoying himself
+so thoroughly or because he was her friend the ranger did not explain.
+<P>
+They stayed through the day, and ate dinner at the tail of the chuck wagon
+with the cattlemen. The light of the camp fires, already blazing in the nipping
+night air, shone brightly. The ranger rode back with her to the ranch, but
+next morning he asked Arlie if she could lend him an old pair of chaps discarded
+by her father.
+<P>
+She found a pair for him.
+<P>
+"If you don't mind, I'll ride out to the round-up and stay with the boys
+a few days," he suggested.
+<P>
+"You're going to ride with them," she accused.
+<P>
+"I thought I would. I'm not going to saddle myse'f on you two ladies forever."
+<P>
+"You know we're glad to have you. But that isn't it. What about your heart?
+You know you can't ride the range."
+<P>
+He flushed, and knew again that feeling of contempt for himself, or, to be
+more exact, for his position.
+<P>
+"I'll be awful careful, Miss Arlie," was all he found to say.
+<P>
+She could not urge him further, lest he misunderstand her.
+<P>
+"Of course, you know best," she said, with a touch of coldness.
+<P>
+He saddled Teddy and rode back. The drive for the day was already on, but
+he fell in beside young France and did his part. Before two days had passed
+he was accepted as one of these hard-riding punchers, for he was a competent
+vaquero and stood the grueling work as one born to it. He was, moreover,
+well liked, both because he could tell a good story and because these sons
+of Anak recognized in him that dynamic quality of manhood they could not
+choose but respect. In this a fortunate accident aided him.
+<P>
+They were working Lost Creek, a deep and rapid stream at the point where
+the drive ended. The big Norwegian, Siegfried, trying to head off a wild
+cow racing along the bank with tail up, got too near the edge. The bank caved
+beneath the feet of his pony, and man and horse went head first into the
+turbid waters. Fraser galloped up at once, flung himself from his saddle,
+and took in at a glance the fact that the big blond Hercules could not swim.
+<P>
+The Texan dived for him as he was going down, got hold of him by the hair,
+and after a struggle managed somehow to reach the farther shore. As they
+both lay there, one exhausted, and the other fighting for the breath he had
+nearly lost forever, Dillon reached the bank.
+<P>
+"Is it all right, Steve?" he called anxiously.
+<P>
+"All right," grinned the ranger weakly. "He'll go on many a spree yet. Eh,
+Siegfried?"
+<P>
+The Norwegian nodded. He was still frightened and half drowned. It was not
+till they were riding up the creek to find a shallow place they could ford
+that he spoke his mind.
+<P>
+"Ay bane all in ven you got me, pardner."
+<P>
+"Oh, you were still kicking."
+<P>
+"Ay bane t'ink Ay had van chance not to get out. But Ay bane not forget dees.
+Eef you ever get in a tight place, send vor Sig Siegfried."
+<P>
+"That's all right, Sig."
+<P>
+Nobody wasted any compliments on him. After the fashion of their kind, they
+guyed the Norwegian about the bath he had taken. Nevertheless, Fraser knew
+that he had won the liking of these men, as well as their deep respect. They
+began to call him by his first name, which hitherto only Dillon had done,
+and they included him in the rough, practical jokes they played on each other.
+<P>
+One night they initiated him&#151; an experience to be both dreaded and desired.
+To be desired because it implies the conferring of the thirty-second degree
+of the freemasonry of Cattleland's approval; to be dreaded because hazing
+is mild compared with some features of the exercises.
+<P>
+Fraser was dragged from sweet slumber, pegged face down on his blankets,
+with a large-sized man at the extremity of each arm and leg, and introduced
+to a chapping. Dick France wielded the chaps vigorously upon the portions
+of his anatomy where they would do the most execution. The Texan did not
+enjoy it, but he refrained from saying so. When he was freed, he sat down
+painfully on a saddle and remarked amiably:
+<P>
+"You're a beautiful bunch, ain't you? Anybody got any smoking?"
+<P>
+This proper acceptance of their attentions so delighted these overgrown children
+that they dug up three bottles of whisky that were kept in camp for rattlesnake
+bites, and made Rome howl. They had ridden all day, and for many weary days
+before that; but they were started toward making a night of it when Dillon
+appeared.
+<P>
+Dillon was boss of the round-up&#151; he had been elected by general consent,
+and his word was law. He looked round upon them with a twinkling eye, and
+wanted to know how long it was going to last. But the way he put his question
+was:
+<P>
+"How much whisky is there left?"
+<P>
+Finding there was none, he ordered them all back to their blankets. After
+a little skylarking, they obeyed. Next day Fraser rode the hills, a sore,
+sore man. But nobody who did not know could have guessed it. He would have
+died before admitting it to any of his companions. Thus he won the accolade
+of his peers as a worthy horse-man of the hills.
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3>
+<h4>THE BRONCHO BUSTERS</h4>
+<P>
+Jed Briscoe rejoined the round-up the day following Fraser's initiation.
+He took silent note of the Texan's popularity, of how the boys all called
+him "Steve" because he had become one of them, and were ready either to lark
+with him or work with him. He noticed, too, that the ranger did his share
+of work without a whimper, apparently enjoying the long, hard hours in the
+saddle. The hill riding was of the roughest, and the cattle were wild as
+deers and as agile. But there was no break-neck incline too steep for Steve
+Fraser to follow.
+<P>
+Once Jed chanced upon Steve stripped for a bath beside the creek, and he
+understood the physical reason for his perfect poise. The wiry, sinuous muscles,
+packed compactly without obtrusion, played beneath the skin like those of
+a panther. He walked as softly and as easily as one, with something of the
+rippling, unconscious grace of that jungle lord. It was this certainty of
+himself that vivified the steel-gray eyes which looked forth unafraid, and
+yet amiably, upon a world primitive enough to demand proof of every man who
+would hold the respect of his fellows.
+<P>
+Meanwhile, Briscoe waited for Struve and his enemy to become entangled in
+the net he was spinning. He made no pretense of fellowship with Fraser; nor,
+on the other hand, did he actively set himself against him with the men.
+He was ready enough to sneer when Dick France grew enthusiastic about his
+new friend, but this was to be expected from one of his jaundiced temper.
+<P>
+"Who is this all-round crackerjack you're touting, Dick?" he asked significantly.
+<P>
+France was puzzled. "Who is he? Why, he's Steve Fraser."
+<P>
+"I ain't asking you what his name is. I'm asking who he is. What does he
+do for a living? Who recommended him so strong to the boys that they take
+up with him so sudden?"
+<P>
+"I don't care what he does for a living. Likely, he rides the range in Texas.
+When it comes to recommendations, he's got one mighty good one written on
+his face,"
+<P>
+"You think so, do you?"
+<P>
+"That's what I think, Jed. He's the goods&#151; best of company, a straight-up
+rider, and a first-rate puncher. Ask any of the boys."
+<P>
+"I'm using my eyes, Dick. They tell me all I need to know."
+<P>
+"Well, use them to-morrow. He's going to take a whirl at riding Dead Easy.
+Next day he's going to take on Rocking Horse. If he makes good on them, you'll
+admit he can ride."
+<P>
+"I ain't saying he can't ride. So can you. If it's plumb gentle, I can make
+out to stick on a pony myself."
+<P>
+"Course you can ride. Everybody knows that. You're the best ever. Any man
+that can win the championship of Wyoming&#151;&#151;  But you'll say yourself them
+strawberry roans are wicked devils."
+<P>
+"He hasn't ridden them yet, Dick."
+<P>
+"He's going to."
+<P>
+"We'll be there to see it. Mebbe he will. Mebbe he won't. I've known men
+before who thought they were going to."
+<P>
+It was in no moment of good-natured weakness that Fraser had consented to
+try riding the outlaw horses. Nor had his vanity anything to do with it.
+He knew a time might be coming when he would need all the prestige and all
+the friendship he could earn to tide him over the crisis. Jed Briscoe had
+won his leadership, partly because he could shoot quicker and straighter,
+ride harder, throw a rope more accurately, and play poker better than his
+companions,
+<P>
+Steve had a mind to show that he, too, could do some of these things passing
+well. Wherefore, he had let himself be badgered good-naturedly into trying
+a fall with these famous buckers. As the heavy work of the round-up was almost
+over, Dillon was glad to relax discipline enough to give the boys a little
+fun.
+<P>
+The remuda was driven up while the outfit was at breakfast. His friends guyed
+Steve with pleasant prophecy.
+<P>
+"He'll be hunting leather about the fourth buck!"
+<P>
+"If he ain't trying to make of himse'f one of them there Darius Green machines!"
+suggested another.
+<P>
+"Got any last words, Steve? Dead Easy most generally eats 'em alive," Dick
+derided.
+<P>
+"Sho! Cayn't you see he's so plumb scared he cayn't talk?"
+<P>
+Fraser grinned and continued to eat. When he had finished he got his lariat
+from the saddle, swung to Siegfried's pony, and rode unobtrusively forward
+to the remuda. The horses were circling round and round, so that it was several
+minutes before he found a chance. When he did, the rope snaked forward and
+dropped over the head of the strawberry roan. The horse stood trembling,
+making not the least resistance, even while the ranger saddled and cinched.
+<P>
+But before the man settled to the saddle, the outlaw was off on its furious
+resistance. It went forward and up into the air with a plunging leap. The
+rider swung his hat and gave a joyous whoop. Next instant there was a scatter
+of laughing men as the horse came toward them in a series of short, stiff-legged
+bucks which would have jarred its rider like a pile driver falling on his
+head had he not let himself grow limp to meet the shock.
+<P>
+All the tricks of its kind this unbroken five-year-old knew. Weaving, pitching,
+sunfishing, it fought superbly, the while Steve rode with the consummate
+ease of a master. His sinuous form swayed instinctively to every changing
+motion of his mount. Even when it flung itself back in blind fury, he dropped
+lightly from the saddle and into it again as the animal struggled to its
+feet.
+<P>
+The cook waved a frying pan in frantic glee. "Hurra-ay! You're the goods,
+all right, all right."
+<P>
+"You bet. Watch Steve fan him. And he ain't pulled leather yet. Not once."
+<P>
+An unseen spectator was taking it in from the brow of a little hill crowned
+with a group of firs. She had reached this point just as the Texan had swung
+to the saddle, and she watched the battle between horse and man intently.
+If any had been there to see, he might have observed a strange fire smouldering
+in her eyes. For the first time there was filtering through her a vague suspicion
+of this man who claimed to have heart trouble, and had deliberately subjected
+himself to the terrific strain of such a test. She had seen broncho busters
+get off bleeding at mouth and nose and ears after a hard fight, and she had
+never seen a contest more superbly fought than this one. But full of courage
+as the horse was, it had met its master and began to know it.
+<P>
+The ranger's quirt was going up and down, stinging Dead Easy to more violent
+exertions, if possible. But the outlaw had shot its bolt. The plunges grew
+less vicious, the bucks more feeble. It still pitched, because of the unbroken
+gameness that defied defeat, but so mechanically that the motions could be
+forecasted.
+<P>
+Then Steve began to soothe the brute. Somehow the wild creatu    ecame aware
+that this man who was his master was also disposed to be friendly. Presently
+it gave up the battle, quivering in every limb. Fraser slipped from the saddle,
+and putting his arm across its neck began to gentle the outlaw. The animal
+had always looked the incarnation of wickedness. The red eyes in its ill-shaped
+head were enough to give one bad dreams. A quarter of an hour before, it
+had bit savagely at him. Now it stood breathing deep, and trembling while
+its master let his hand pass gently over the nose and neck with soft words
+that slowly won the pony back from the terror into which it had worked itself.
+<P>
+"You did well, Mr. Fraser from Texas," Jed complimented him, with a smile
+that thinly hid his malice. "But it won't do to have you going back to Texas
+with the word that Wyoming is shy of riders. I ain't any great shakes, but
+I reckon I'll have to take a whirl at Rocking Horse." He had decided to ride
+for two reasons. One was that he had glimpsed the girl among the firs; the
+other was to dissipate the admiration his rival had created among the men.
+<P>
+Briscoe lounged toward the remuda, rope in hand. It was his cue to get himself
+up picturesquely in all the paraphernalia of the cowboy. Black-haired and
+white-toothed, lithe as a wolf, and endowed with a grace almost feline, it
+was easy to understand how this man appealed to the imagination of the reckless
+young fellows of this primeval valley. Everything he did was done well.
+Furthermore, he looked and acted the part of leader which he assumed.
+<P>
+Rocking Horse was in a different mood from its brother. It was hard to rope,
+and when Jed's raw-hide had fallen over its head it was necessary to
+re&euml;nforce the lariat with two others. Finally the pony had to be flung
+down before a saddle could be put on. When Siegfried, who had been kneeling
+on its head, stepped back, the outlaw staggered to its feet, already badly
+shaken, to find an incubus clamped to the saddle.
+<P>
+No matter how it pitched, the human clothespin stuck to his seat, and apparently
+with as little concern as if he had been in a rowboat gently moved to and
+fro by the waves. Jed rode like a centaur, every motion attuned to those
+of the animal as much as if he were a part of it. No matter how it pounded
+or tossed, he stuck securely to the hurricane deck of the broncho.
+<P>
+Once only he was in danger, and that because Rocking Horse flung furiously
+against the wheel of a wagon and ground the rider's leg till he grew dizzy
+with the pain. For an instant he caught at the saddle horn to steady himself
+as the roan bucked into the open again.
+<P>
+"He's pulling leather!" some one shouted.
+<P>
+"Shut up, you goat!" advised the Texan good-naturedly. "Can't you see his
+laig got jammed till he's groggy? Wonder is, he didn't take the dust! They
+don't raise better riders than he is."
+<P>
+"By hockey! He's all in. Look out! Jed's falling," France cried, running
+forward.
+<P>
+It looked so for a moment, then Jed swam back to clear consciousness again,
+and waved them back. He began to use his quirt without mercy.
+<P>
+"Might know he'd game it out," remarked Yorky.
+<P>
+He did. It was a long fight, and the horse was flecked with bloody foam before
+its spirit and strength failed. But the man in the saddle kept his seat till
+the victory was won.
+<P>
+Steve was on the spot to join heartily the murmur of applause, for he was
+too good a sportsman to grudge admiration even to his enemy.
+<P>
+"You're the one best bet in riders, Mr. Briscoe. It's a pleasure to watch
+you," he said frankly.
+<P>
+Jed's narrowed eyes drifted to him. "Oh, hell!" he drawled with insolent
+contempt, and turned on his heel.
+<P>
+From the clump of firs a young woman was descending, and Jed went to meet
+her.
+<P>
+"You rode splendidly," she told him with vivid eyes. "Were you hurt when
+you were jammed again the wagon? I mean, does it still hurt?" For she noticed
+that he walked with a limp.
+<P>
+"I reckon I can stand the grief without an amputation. Arlie, I got something
+to tell you."
+<P>
+She looked at him in her direct fashion and waited.
+<P>
+"It's about your new friend." He drew from a pocket some leaves torn out
+of a magazine. His finger indicated a picture. "Ever see that gentleman before?"
+<P>
+The girl looked at it coolly. "It seems to be Mr. Fraser taken in his uniform;
+Lieutenant Fraser, I should say."
+<P>
+The cattleman's face fell. "You know, then, who he is, and what he's doing
+here."
+<P>
+Without evasion, her gaze met his. "I understood him to say he was an officer
+in the Texas Rangers. You know why he is here."
+<P>
+"You're right, I do. But do you?"
+<P>
+"Well, what is it you mean? Out with it, Jed," she demanded impatiently.
+<P>
+"He is here to get a man wanted in Texas, a man hiding in this valley right
+now."
+<P>
+"I don't believe it," she returned quickly. "And if he is, that's not your
+business or mine. It's his duty, isn't it?"
+<P>
+"I ain't discussing that. You know the law of the valley, Arlie."
+<P>
+"I don't accept that as binding, Jed. Lots of people here don't. Because
+Lost Valley used to be a nest of miscreants, it needn't always be. I don't
+see what right we've got to set ourselves above the law."
+<P>
+"This valley has always stood by hunted men when they reached it. That's
+our custom, and I mean to stick to it."
+<P>
+"Very well. I hold you to that," she answered quickly. "This man Fraser is
+a hunted man. He's hunted because of what he did for me and dad. I claim
+the protection of the valley for him."
+<P>
+"He can have it&#151; if he's what he says he is. But why ain't he been square
+with us? Why didn't he tell who he was?"
+<P>
+"He told me."
+<P>
+"That ain't enough, Arlie. If he did, you kept it quiet. We all had a right
+to know."
+<P>
+"If you had asked him, he would have told you."
+<P>
+"I ain't so sure he would. Anyhow, I don't like it. I believe he is here
+to get the man I told you of. Mebbe that ain't all."
+<P>
+"What more?" she scoffed.
+<P>
+"This fellow is the best range detective in the country. My notion is he's
+spying around about that Squaw Creek raid."
+<P>
+Under the dusky skin she flushed angrily. "My notion is you're daffy, Jed.
+Talk sense, and I'll listen to you. You haven't a grain of proof."
+<P>
+"I may get some yet," he told her sulkily.
+<P>
+She laughed her disbelief. "When you do, let me know,"
+<P>
+And with that she gave her pony the signal to more forward.
+<P>
+Nevertheless, she met the ranger at the foot of the little hill with distinct
+coldness. When he came up to shake hands, she was too busy dismounting to
+notice.
+<P>
+"Your heart must be a good deal better. I suppose Lost Valley agrees with
+you." She had swung down on the other side of the horse, and her glance at
+him across the saddle seat was like a rapier thrust.
+<P>
+He was aware at once of being in disgrace with her, and it chafed him that
+he had no adequate answer to her implied charge.
+<P>
+"My heart's all right," he said a little gruffly.
+<P>
+"Yes, it seems to be, lieutenant."
+<P>
+She trailed the reins and turned away at once to find her father. The girl
+was disappointed in him. He had, in effect, lied to her. That was bad enough;
+but she felt that his lie had concealed something, how much she scarce dared
+say. Her tangled thoughts were in chaos. One moment she was ready to believe
+the worst; the next, it was impossible to conceive such a man so vile a spy
+as to reward hospitality with treachery.
+<P>
+Yet she remembered now that it had been while she was telling of the fate
+of the traitor Burke that she had driven him to his lie. Or had he not told
+it first when she pointed out Lost Valley at his feet? Yes, it was at that
+moment she had noticed his pallor. He had, at least, conscience enough to
+be ashamed of what he was doing. But she recognized a wide margin of difference
+between the possibilities of his guilt. It was one thing to come to the valley
+for an escaped murderer; it was quite another to use the hospitality of his
+host as a means to betray the friends of that host. Deep in her heart she
+could not find it possible to convict him of the latter alternative. He was
+too much a man, too vitally dynamic. No; whatever else he was, she felt sure
+he was not so hopelessly lost to decency. He had that electric spark of
+self-respect which may coexist with many faults, but not with treachery.
+<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3>
+<h4>A SHOT FROM BALD KNOB</h4>
+<P>
+A bunch of young steers which had strayed from their range were to be driven
+to the Dillon ranch, and the boss of the rodeo appointed France and Fraser
+to the task.
+<P>
+"Yo'll have company home, honey," he told his daughter, "and yo'll be able
+to give the boys a hand if they need it. These hill cattle are still some
+wild, though we've been working them a week. Yo're a heap better cowboy than
+some that works more steady at the business."
+<P>
+Briscoe nodded. "You bet! I ain't forgot that day Arlie rode Big Timber with
+me two years ago. She wasn't sixteen then, but she herded them hill steers
+like they belonged to a milk bunch."
+<P>
+He spoke his compliment patly enough, but somehow the girl had an impression
+that he was thinking of something else. She was right, for as he helped gather
+the drive his mind was busy with a problem. Presently he dismounted to tighten
+a cinch, and made a signal to a young fellow known as Slim Leroy. The latter
+was a new and tender recruit to Jed's band of miscreants. He drew up beside
+his leader and examined one of the fore hoofs of his pony.
+<P>
+"Slim, I'm going to have Dillon send you for the mail to-day. When he tells
+you, that's the first you know about it. Understand? You'll have to take
+the hill cut to Jack Rabbit Run on your way in. At the cabin back of the
+aspens, inquire for a man that calls himself Johnson. If he's there, give
+him this message: 'This afternoon from Bald Knob.' Remember! Just those words,
+and nothing more. If he isn't there, forget the message. You'll know the
+man you want because he is shy his trigger finger and has a ragged scar across
+his right cheek. Make no mistake about this, Slim."
+<P>
+"Sure I won't."
+<P>
+Briscoe, having finished cinching, swung to his saddle and rode up to say
+good-by to Arlie.
+<P>
+"Hope you'll have no trouble with this bunch. If you push right along you'd
+ought to get home by night," he told her.
+<P>
+Arlie agreed carelessly. "I don't expect any trouble with them. So-long,
+Jed."
+<P>
+It would not have been her choice to ride home with the lieutenant of rangers,
+but since her father had made the appointment publicly she did not care to
+make objection. Yet she took care to let Fraser see that he was in her black
+books. The men rode toward the rear of the herd, one on each side, and Arlie
+fell in beside her old playmate, Dick. She laughed and talked with him about
+a hundred things in which Steve could have had no part, even if he had been
+close enough to catch more than one word out of twenty. Not once did she
+even look his way. Quite plainly she had taken pains to forget his existence.
+<P>
+"It was Briscoe's turn the other day," mused the Texan. "It's mine now. I
+wonder when it will be Dick's to get put out in the cold!"
+<P>
+Nevertheless, though he tried to act the philosopher, it cut him that the
+high-spirited girl had condemned him. He felt himself in a false position
+from which he could not easily extricate himself. The worst of it was that
+if it came to a showdown he could not expect the simple truth to exonerate
+him.
+<P>
+From where they rode there drifted to him occasionally the sound of the gay
+voices of the young people. It struck him for the first time that he was
+getting old. Arlie could not be over eighteen, and Dick perhaps twenty-one.
+Maybe young people like that thought a fellow of twenty-seven a Methusaleh.
+<P>
+After a time the thirsty cattle smelt water and hit a bee line so steadily
+for it that they needed no watching. Every minute or two one of the leaders
+stretched out its neck and let out a bellow without slackening its pace.
+<P>
+Steve lazed on his pony, shifting his position to ease his cramped limbs
+after the manner of the range rider. In spite of himself, his eyes would
+drift toward the jaunty little figure on the pinto. The masculine in him
+approved mightily her lissom grace and the proud lilt of her dark head, with
+its sun-kissed face set in profile to him. He thought her serviceable costume
+very becoming, from the pinched felt hat pinned to the dark mass of hair,
+and the red silk kerchief knotted loosely round the pretty throat, to the
+leggings beneath the corduroy skirt and the flannel waist with sleeves rolled
+up in summer-girl fashion to leave the tanned arms bare to the dimpled elbows.
+<P>
+The trail, winding through a narrow defile, brought them side by side again.
+<P>
+"Ever notice what a persistent color buckskin is, Steve?" inquired France,
+by way of bringing him into the conversation. "It's strong in every one of
+these cattle, though the old man has been trying to get rid of it for ten
+years."
+<P>
+"You mustn't talk to me, Dick," responded his friend gravely. "Little Willie
+told a lie, and he's being stood in a corner."
+<P>
+Arlie flushed angrily, opened her mouth to speak, and, changing her mind,
+looked at him witheringly. He didn't wither, however. Instead, he smiled
+broadly, got out his mouth organ, and cheerfully entertained them with his
+favorite, "I Met My Love In the Alamo."
+<P>
+The hot blood under dusky skin held its own in her cheeks. She was furious
+with him, and dared not trust herself to speak. As soon as they had passed
+through the defile she spurred forward, as if to turn the leaders. France
+turned to his friend and laughed ruefully.
+<P>
+"She's full of pepper, Steve."
+<P>
+The ranger nodded. "She's all right, Dick. If you want to know, she's got
+a right to make a doormat of me. I lied to her. I was up against it, and
+I kinder had to. You ride along and join her. If you want to get right solid,
+tell her how many kinds of a skunk I am. Worst of it is, I ain't any too
+sure I'm not."
+<P>
+"I'm sure for you then, Steve," the lad called back, as he loped forward
+after the girl.
+<P>
+He was so sure, that he began to praise his friend to Arlie, to tell her
+of what a competent cowman he was, how none of them could make a cut or rope
+a wild steer like him. She presently wanted to know whether Dick could not
+find something more interesting to talk about.
+<P>
+He could not help smiling at her downright manner. "You've surely got it
+in for him, Arlie. I thought you liked him."
+<P>
+She pulled up her horse, and looked at him. "What made you think that? Did
+he tell you so?"
+<P>
+Dick fairly shouted. "You do rub it in, girl, when you've got a down on a
+fellow. No, he didn't tell me. You did."
+<P>
+"Me?" she protested indignantly. "I never did."
+<P>
+"Oh, you didn't say so, but I don't need a church to fall on me before I
+can take a hint. You acted as though you liked him that day you and him came
+riding into camp."
+<P>
+"I didn't do any such thing, Dick France. I don't like him at all," very
+decidedly.
+<P>
+"All the boys do&#151; all but Jed. I don't reckon he does."
+<P>
+"Do I have to like him because the boys do?" she demanded.
+<P>
+"O' course not." Dick stopped, trying to puzzle it out. "He says you ain't
+to blame, that he lied to you. That seems right strange, too. It ain't like
+Steve to lie."
+<P>
+"How do you know so much about him? You haven't known him a week."
+<P>
+"That's what Jed says. I say it ain't a question of time. Some men I've knew
+ten years I ain't half so sure of. He's a man from the ground up. Any one
+could tell that, before they had seen him five minutes "
+<P>
+Secretly, the girl was greatly pleased. She so wanted to believe that Dick
+was right. It was what she herself had thought.
+<P>
+"I wish you'd seen him the day he pulled Siegfried out of Lost Creek. Tell
+you, I thought they were both goners," Dick continued.
+<P>
+"I expect it was most ankle-deep," she scoffed. "Hello, we're past Bald Knob!"
+<P>
+"They both came mighty nigh handing in their checks."
+<P>
+"I didn't know that, though I knew, of course, he was fearless," Arlie said.
+<P>
+"What's that?" Dick drew in his horse sharply, and looked back.
+<P>
+The sound of a rifle shot echoed from hillside to hillside. Like a streak
+of light, the girl's pinto flashed past him. He heard her give a sobbing
+cry of anguish. Then he saw that Steve was slipping very slowly from his
+saddle.
+<P>
+A second shot rang out. The light was beginning to fail, but he made out
+a man's figure crouched among the small pines on the shoulder of Bald Knob.
+Dick jerked out his revolver as he rode back, and fired twice. He was quite
+out of pistol range, but he wanted the man in ambush to see that help was
+at hand. He saw Arlie fling herself from her pony in time to support the
+Texan just as he sank to the ground.
+<P>
+"She'll take care of Steve. It's me for that murderer," the young man thought.
+<P>
+Acting upon that impulse, he slid from his horse and slipped into the sagebrush
+of the hillside. By good fortune he was wearing a gray shirt of a shade which
+melted into that of the underbrush. Night falls swiftly in the mountains,
+and already dusk was softly spreading itself over the hills.
+<P>
+Dick went up a draw, where young pines huddled together in the trough; and
+from the upper end of this he emerged upon a steep ridge, eyes and ears alert
+for the least sign of human presence. A third shot had rung out while he
+was in the dense mass of foliage of the evergreens, but now silence lay heavy
+all about him. The gathering darkness blurred detail, so that any one of
+a dozen bowlders might be a shield for a crouching man.
+<P>
+Once, nerves at a wire edge from the strain on him, he thought he saw a moving
+figure. Throwing up his gun, he fired quickly. But he must have been mistaken,
+for, shortly afterward, he heard some one crashing through dead brush at
+a distance.
+<P>
+"He's on the run, whoever he is. Guess I'll get back to Steve," decided France
+wisely.
+<P>
+He found his friend stretched on the ground, with his head in Arlie's lap.
+<P>
+"Is it very bad?" he asked the girl.
+<P>
+"I don't know. There's no light. Whatever shall we do?" she moaned.
+<P>
+"I'm a right smart of a nuisance, ain't I?" drawled the wounded man unexpectedly.
+<P>
+She leaned forward quickly. "Where are you hit?"
+<P>
+"In the shoulder, ma'am."
+<P>
+"Can you ride, Steve? Do you reckon you could make out the five miles?" Dick
+asked.
+<P>
+Arlie answered for him. She had felt the inert weight of his heavy body and
+knew that he was beyond helping himself. "No. Is there no house near? There's
+Alec Howard's cabin."
+<P>
+"He's at the round-up, but I guess we had better take Steve there&#151; if we
+could make out to get him that far."
+<P>
+The girl took command quietly. "Unsaddle Teddy."
+<P>
+She had unloosened his shirt and was tying her silk kerchief over the wound,
+from which blood was coming in little jets.
+<P>
+"We can't carry him," she decided. "It's too far. We'll have to lift him
+to the back of the horse, and let him lie there. Steady, Dick. That's right.
+You must hold him on, while I lead the horse."
+<P>
+Heavy as he was, they somehow hoisted him, and started. He had fainted again,
+and hung limply, with his face buried in the mane of the pony. It seemed
+an age before the cabin loomed, shadow-like, out of the darkness. They found
+the door unlocked, as usual, and carried him in to the bed.
+<P>
+"Give me your knife, Dick," Arlie ordered quietly. "And I want water. If
+that's a towel over there, bring it."
+<P>
+"Just a moment. I'll strike a light, and we'll see where we're at."
+<P>
+"No. We'll have to work in the dark. A light might bring them down on us."
+She had been cutting the band of the shirt, and now ripped it so as to expose
+the wounded shoulder.
+<P>
+Dick took a bucket to the creek, and presently returned with it. In his right
+hand he carried his revolver. When he reached the cabin he gave an audible
+sigh of relief and quickly locked the door.
+<P>
+"Of course you'll have to go for help, Dick. Bring old Doc Lee."
+<P>
+"Why, Arlie, I can't leave you here alone. What are you talking about?"
+<P>
+"You'll have to. It's the only thing to do. You'll have to give me your revolver.
+And, oh, Dick, don't lose a moment on the way."
+<P>
+He was plainly troubled. "I just can't leave you here alone, girl. What would
+your father say if anything happened? I don't reckon anything will, but we
+can't tell. No, I'll stay here, too. Steve must take his chance."
+<P>
+"You'll not stay." She flamed round upon him, with the fierce passion of
+a tigress fighting for her young. "You'll go this minute&#151; this very minute!"
+<P>
+"But don't you see I oughtn't to leave you? Anybody would tell you that,"
+he pleaded.
+<P>
+"And you call yourself his friend," she cried, in a low, bitter voice.
+<P>
+"I call myself yours, too," he made answer doggedly.
+<P>
+"Then go. Go this instant. You'll go, anyway; but if you're my friend, you'll
+go gladly, and bring help to save us both."
+<P>
+"I wisht I knew what to do," he groaned.
+<P>
+Her palms fastened on his shoulders. She was a creature transformed. Such
+bravery, such feminine ferocity, such a burning passion of the spirit, was
+altogether outside of his experience of her or any other woman. He could
+no more resist her than he could fly to the top of Bald Knob.
+<P>
+"I'll go, Arlie."
+<P>
+"And bring help soon. Get Doc Lee here soon as you can. Leave word for armed
+men to follow. Don't wait for them."
+<P>
+"No."
+<P>
+"Take his Teddy horse. It can cover ground faster than yours,"
+<P>
+"Yes."
+<P>
+With plain misgivings, he left her, and presently she heard the sound of
+his galloping horse. It seemed to her for a moment as if she must call him
+back, but she strangled the cry in her throat. She locked the door and bolted
+it, then turned back to the bed, upon which the wounded man was beginning
+to moan in his delirium.
+<h3>CHAPTER X</h3>
+<h4>DOC LEE</h4>
+<P>
+Arlie knew nothing of wounds or their treatment. All she could do was to
+wash the shoulder in cold water and bind it with strips torn from her white
+underskirt. When his face and hands grew hot with the fever, she bathed them
+with a wet towel. How badly he was hurt&#151; whether he might not even die before
+Dick's return&#151; she had no way of telling. His inconsequent babble at first
+frightened her, for she had never before seen a person in delirium, nor heard
+of the insistence with which one harps upon some fantasy seized upon by a
+diseased mind.
+<P>
+"She thinks you're a skunk, Steve. So you are. She's dead right&#151; dead right&#151; dead
+right. You lied to her, you coyote! Stand up in the corner, you liar, while
+she whangs at you with a six-gun! You're a skunk&#151; dead right."
+<P>
+So he would run on in a variation of monotony, the strong, supple, masterful
+man as helpless as a child, all the splendid virility stricken from him by
+the pressure of an enemy's finger. The eyes that she had known so full of
+expression, now like half-scabbarded steel, and now again bubbling from the
+inner mirth of him, were glazed and unmeaning. The girl had felt in him a
+capacity for silent self-containment; and here he was, picking at the coverlet
+with restless fingers, prattling foolishly, like an infant.
+<P>
+She was a child of impulse, sensitive and plastic. Because she had been hard
+on him before he was struck down, her spirit ran open-armed to make amends.
+What manner of man he was she did not know. But what availed that to keep
+her, a creature of fire and dew, from the clutch of emotions strange and
+poignant? He had called himself a liar and a coyote, yet she knew it was
+not true, or at worst, true in some qualified sense. He might be hard, reckless,
+even wicked in some ways. But, vaguely, she felt that if he were a sinner
+he sinned with self-respect. He was in no moral collapse, at least. It was
+impossible to fit him to her conception of a spy. No, no! Anything but that!
+<P>
+So she sat there, her fingers laced about her knee, as she leaned forward
+to wait upon the needs she could imagine for him, the dumb tragedy of despair
+in her childish face.
+<P>
+The situation was one that made for terror. To be alone with a wounded man,
+his hurt undressed, to hear his delirium and not to know whether he might
+not die any minute&#151; this would have been enough to cause apprehension. Add
+to it the darkness, her deep interest in him, the struggle of her soul, and
+the dread of unseen murder stalking in the silent night.
+<P>
+Though her thought was of him, it was not wholly upon him. She sat where
+she could watch the window, Dick's revolver in another chair beside her.
+It was a still, starry night, and faintly she could see the hazy purple,
+mountain line. Somewhere beneath those uncaring stars was the man who had
+done this awful thing. Was he far, or was he near? Would he come to make
+sure he had not failed? Her fearful heart told her that he would come.
+<P>
+She must have fought her fears nearly an hour before she heard the faintest
+of sounds outside. Her hand leaped to the revolver. She sat motionless,
+listening, with nerves taut. It came again presently, a deadened footfall,
+close to the door. Then, after an eternity, the latch clicked softly. Some
+one, with infinite care, was trying to discover whether the door was locked.
+<P>
+His next move she anticipated. Her eyes fastened on the window, while she
+waited breathlessly. Her heart was stammering furiously. Moments passed,
+in which she had to set her teeth to keep from screaming aloud. The revolver
+was shaking so that she had to steady the barrel with her left hand. A shadow
+crossed one pane, the shadow of a head in profile, and pushed itself forward
+till shoulders, arm, and poised revolver covered the lower sash. Very, very
+slowly the head itself crept into sight.
+<P>
+Arlie fired and screamed simultaneously. The thud of a fall, the scuffle
+of a man gathering himself to his feet again, the rush of retreating steps,
+all merged themselves in one single impression of fierce, exultant triumph.
+<P>
+Her only regret was that she had not killed him. She was not even sure that
+she had hit him, for her bullet had gone through the glass within an inch
+of the inner woodwork. Nevertheless, she knew that he had had a shock that
+would carry him far. Unless he had accomplices with him&#151; and of that there
+had been no evidence at the time of the attack from Bald Knob&#151; he would not
+venture another attempt. Of one thing she was sure. The face that had looked
+in at the window was one she had never seen before, In this, too, she found
+relief&#151; for she knew now that the face she had expected to see follow the
+shadow over the pane had been that of Jed Briscoe; and Jed had too much of
+the courage of Lucifer incarnate in him to give up because an unexpected
+revolver had been fired in his face.
+<P>
+Time crept slowly, but it could hardly have been a quarter of an hour later
+that she heard the galloping of horses.
+<P>
+"It is Dick!" she cried joyfully, and, running to the door, she unbolted
+and unlocked it just as France dragged Teddy to a halt and flung himself
+to the ground.
+<P>
+The young man gave a shout of gladness at sight of her.
+<P>
+"Is it all right, Arlie?"
+<P>
+"Yes. That is&#151; I don't know. He is delirious. A man came to the window, and
+I shot at him. Oh, Dick, I'm so glad you're back."
+<P>
+In her great joy, she put her arms round his neck and kissed him. Old Doctor
+Lee, dismounting more leisurely, drawled his protest.
+<P>
+"Look-a-here, Arlie. I'm the doctor. Where do I come in?"
+<P>
+"I'll kiss you, too, when you tell me he'll get well." The half-hysterical
+laugh died out of her voice, and she caught him fiercely by the arm. "Doc,
+doc, don't let him die," she begged.
+<P>
+He had known her all her life, had been by the bedside when she came into
+the world, and he put his arm round her shoulders and gave her a little hug
+as they passed into the room.
+<P>
+"We'll do our level best, little girl."
+<P>
+She lit a lamp, and drew the window curtain, so that none could see from
+the outside. While the old doctor arranged his instruments and bandages on
+chairs, she waited on him. He noticed how white she was, for he said, not
+unkindly:
+<P>
+"I don't want two patients right now, Arlie. If you're going to keel over
+in a faint right in the middle of it, I'll have Dick help."
+<P>
+"No, no, I won't, doc. Truly, I won't," she promised.
+<P>
+"All right, little girl. We'll see how game you are. Dick, hold the light.
+Hold it right there. See?"
+<P>
+The Texan had ceased talking, and was silent, except for a low moan, repeated
+at regular intervals. The doctor showed Arlie how to administer the anaesthetic
+after he had washed the wound. While he was searching for the bullet with
+his probe she flinched as if he had touched a bare nerve, but she stuck to
+her work regardless of her feelings, until the lead was found and extracted
+and the wound dressed.
+<P>
+Afterward, Dick found her seated on a rock outside crying hysterically. He
+did not attempt to cope with the situation, but returned to the house and
+told Lee.
+<P>
+"Best thing for her. Her nerves are overwrought and unstrung. She'll be all
+right, once she has her cry out. I'll drift around, and jolly her along."
+<P>
+The doctor presently came up and took a seat beside her.
+<P>
+"Wha&#151; what do you think, doctor?" she sobbed.
+<P>
+"Well, I think it's tarnation hot operating with a big kerosene lamp six
+inches from your haid," he said, as he mopped his forehead.
+<P>
+"I mean&#151; will he&#151; get well?"
+<P>
+Lee snorted. "Well, I'd be ashamed of him if he didn't. If he lets a nice,
+clean, flesh wound put him out of business he don't deserve to live. Don't
+worry any about him, young lady. Say, I wish I had <I>zwei</I> beer right
+now, Arlie."
+<P>
+"You mean it? You're not just saying it to please me?"
+<P>
+"Of course, I mean it," he protested indignantly. "I wish I had
+<I>three."</I>
+<P>
+"I mean, are you sure he'll get well?" she explained, a faint smile touching
+her wan face.
+<P>
+"Yes, I mean that, too, but right now I mean the beer most. Now, honest,
+haven't I earned a beer?"
+<P>
+"You've earned a hundred thousand, doc. You're the kindest and dearest man
+that ever lived," she cried.
+<P>
+"Ain't that rather a large order, my dear?" he protested mildly. "I couldn't
+really use a hundred thousand. And I'd hate to be better than Job and Moses
+and Pharaoh and them Bible characters. Wouldn't I have to give up chewing?
+Somehow, a halo don't seem to fit my haid. It's most too bald to carry one
+graceful.... You may do that again if you want to." This last, apropos of
+the promised reward which had just been paid in full.
+<P>
+Arlie found she could manage a little laugh by this time.
+<P>
+"Well, if you ain't going to, we might as well go in and have a look at that
+false-alarm patient of ours," he continued. "We'll have to sit up all night
+with him. I was sixty-three yesterday. I'm going to quit this doctor game.
+I'm too old to go racing round the country nights just because you young
+folks enjoy shooting each other up. Yes, ma'am, I'm going to quit. I serve
+notice right here. What's the use of having a good ranch and some cattle
+if you can't enjoy them?"
+<P>
+As the doctor had been serving notice of his intention to quit doctoring
+for over ten years, Arlie did not take him too seriously. She knew him for
+what he was&#151; a whimsical old fellow, who would drop in the saddle before
+he would let a patient suffer; one of the old school, who loved his work
+but liked to grumble over it.
+<P>
+"Maybe you'll be able to take a rest soon. You know that young doctor from
+Denver, who was talking about settling here&#151;&#151;"
+<P>
+This, as she knew, was a sore point with him. "So you're tired of me, are
+you? Want a new-fangled appendix cutter from Denver, do you? Time to shove
+old Doc Lee aside, eh?"
+<P>
+"I didn't say that, doc," she repented.
+<P>
+"Huh! You meant it. Wonder how many times he'd get up at midnight and plow
+through three-foot snow for six miles to see the most ungrateful, squalling
+little brat&#151;&#151;"
+<P>
+"Was it me, doc?" she ungrammatically demanded.
+<P>
+"It was you, Miss Impudence."
+<P>
+They had reached the door, but she held him there a moment, while she laughed
+delightedly and hugged him. "I knew it was me. As if we'd let our old doc
+go, or have anything to do with a young ignoramus from Denver! Didn't you
+know I was joking? Of course you did."
+<P>
+He still pretended severity. "Oh, I know you. When it comes to wheedling
+an old fool, you've got the rest of the girls in this valley beat to a
+fare-you-well."
+<P>
+"Is that why you always loved me?" she asked, with a sparkle of mischief
+in her eye.
+<P>
+"I didn't love you. I never did. The idea!" he snorted. "I don't know what
+you young giddy pates are coming to. Huh! Love you!"
+<P>
+"I'll forgive you, even if you did," she told him sweetly.
+<P>
+"That's it! That's it!" he barked. "You forgive all the young idiots when
+they do. And they all do&#151; every last one of them. But I'm too old for you,
+young lady. Sixty-three yesterday. Huh!"
+<P>
+"I like you better than the younger ones."
+<P>
+"Want us all, do you? Young and old alike. Well, count me out."
+<P>
+He broke away, and went into the house. But there was an unconquerably youthful
+smile dancing in his eyes. This young lady and he had made love to each other
+in some such fashion ever since she had been a year old. He was a mellow
+and confirmed old bachelor, but he proposed to continue their innocent coquetry
+until he was laid away, no matter which of the young bucks of the valley
+had the good fortune to win her for a wife.
+<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3>
+<h4>THE FAT IN THE FIRE</h4>
+<P>
+For two days Fraser remained in the cabin of the stockman Howard, France
+making it his business to see that the place was never left unguarded for
+a moment. At the end of that time the fever had greatly abated, and he was
+doing so well that Doctor Lee decided it would be better to move him to the
+Dillon ranch for the convenience of all parties.
+<P>
+This was done, and the patient continued steadily to improve. His vigorous
+constitution, helped by the healthy, clean, outdoor life he had led, stood
+him in good stead. Day by day he renewed the blood he had lost. Soon he was
+eating prodigious dinners, and between meals was drinking milk with an egg
+beaten in it.
+<P>
+On a sunny forenoon, when he lay in the big window of the living room, reading
+a magazine, Arlie entered, a newspaper in her hand. Her eyes were strangely
+bright, even for her, and she had a manner of repressed excitement, Her face
+was almost colorless.
+<P>
+"Here's some more in the <I>Avalanche</I> about our adventure near Gimlet
+Butte," she told him, waving the paper.
+<P>
+"Nothing like keeping in the public eye," said Steve, grinning. "I don't
+reckon our little picnic at Bald Knob is likely to get in the
+<I>Avalanche</I>, though. It probably hasn't any correspondent at Lost Valley.
+Anyhow, I'm hoping not."
+<P>
+"Mr. Fraser, there is something in this paper I want you to explain. But
+tell me first when it was you shot this man Faulkner. I mean at just what
+time in the fight."
+<P>
+"Why, I reckon it must have been just before I ducked."
+<P>
+"That's funny, too." She fixed her direct, fearless gaze on him. "The evidence
+at the coroner's jury shows that it was in the early part of the fight he
+was shot, before father and I left you."
+<P>
+"No, that couldn't have been, Miss Arlie, because&#151;&#151;"
+<P>
+"Because&#151;&#151;" she prompted, smiling at him in a peculiar manner.
+<P>
+He flushed, and could only say that the newspapers were always getting things
+wrong.
+<P>
+"But this is the evidence at the coroner's inquest," she said, falling grave
+again on the instant. "I understand one thing now, very clearly, and that
+is that Faulkner was killed early in the fight, and the other man was wounded
+in the ankle near the finish."
+<P>
+He shook his head obstinately. "No, I reckon not."
+<P>
+"Yet it is true. What's more, you knew it all the time."
+<P>
+"You ce'tainly jump to conclusions, Miss Arlie."
+<P>
+"And you let them arrest you, without telling them the truth! And they came
+near lynching you! And there's a warrant out now for your arrest for the
+murder of Faulkner, <I>while all the time I killed him, and you knew it!"</I>
+<P>
+He gathered together his lame defense. "You run ahaid too fast for me, ma'am.
+Supposing he was hit while we were all there together, how was I to know
+who did it?"
+<P>
+"You knew it couldn't have been you, for he wasn't struck with a revolver.
+It couldn't have been dad, since he had his shotgun loaded with buckshot."
+<P>
+"What difference did it make?" he wanted to know impatiently. "Say I'd have
+explained till kingdom come that I borrowed the rifle from a friend five
+minutes after Faulkner was hit&#151; would anybody have believed me? Would it
+have made a bit of difference?"
+<P>
+Her shining eyes were more eloquent than a thousand tongues. "I don't say
+it would, but there was always the chance. You didn't take it. You would
+have let them hang you, without speaking the word that brought me into it.
+Why?"
+<P>
+"I'm awful obstinate when I get my back up," he smiled.
+<P>
+"That wasn't it. You did it to save a girl you had never seen but once. I
+want to know why."
+<P>
+"All right. Have it your own way. But don't ask me to explain the whyfors.
+I'm no Harvard professor."
+<P>
+"I know," she said softly. She was not looking at him, but out of the window,
+and there were tears in her voice.
+<P>
+"Sho! Don't make too much of it. We'll let it go that I ain't all coyote,
+after all. But that don't entitle me to any reward of merit. Now, don't you
+cry, Miss Arlie. Don't you."
+<P>
+She choked back the tears, and spoke in deep self-scorn. "No! You don't deserve
+anything except what you've been getting from me&#151; suspicion and distrust
+and hard words! You haven't done anything worth speaking of&#151; just broke into
+a quarrel that wasn't yours, at the risk of your life; then took it on your
+shoulders to let us escape; and, afterward, when you were captured, refused
+to drag me in, because I happen to be a girl! But it's not worth mentioning
+that you did all this for strangers, and that later you did not tell even
+me, because you knew it would trouble me that I had killed him, though in
+self-defense. And to think that all the time I've been full of hateful suspicions
+about you! Oh, you don't know how I despise myself!"
+<P>
+She let her head fall upon her arm on the table, and sobbed.
+<P>
+Fraser, greatly disturbed, patted gently the heavy coil of blue-black hair.
+<P>
+"Now, don't you, Arlie; don't you. I ain't worth it. Honest, I ain't. I did
+what it was up to me to do. Not a thing more. Dick would have done it. Any
+of the boys would. Now, let's look at what you've done for me."
+<P>
+From under the arm a muffled voice insisted she had done nothing but suspect
+him.
+<P>
+"Hold on, girl. Play fair. First off you ride sixty miles to help me when
+I'm hunted right hard. You bring me to your home in this valley where strangers
+ain't over and above welcome just now. You learn I'm an officer and still
+you look out for me and fight for me, till you make friends for me. It's
+through you I get started right with the boys. On your say-so they give me
+the glad hand. You learn I've lied to you, and two or three hours later you
+save my life. You sit there steady, with my haid in your lap, while some
+one is plugging away at us. You get me to a house, take care of my wounds,
+and hold the fort alone in the night till help comes. Not only that, but
+you drive my enemy away. Later, you bring me home, and nurse me like I was
+a long-lost brother. What I did for you ain't in the same class with what
+you've done for me."
+<P>
+"But I was suspicious of you all the time."
+<P>
+"So you had a right to be. That ain't the point, which is that a girl did
+all that for a man she thought might be an enemy and a low-down spy. Men
+are expected to take chances like I did, but girls ain't. You took 'em. If
+I lived a thousand years, I couldn't tell you all the thanks I feel."
+<P>
+"Ah! It makes it worse that you're that kind of a man. But I'm going to show
+you whether I trust you." Her eyes were filled with the glad light of her
+resolve. She spoke with a sort of proud humility. "Do you know, there was
+a time when I thought you might have&#151; I didn't really believe it, but I thought
+it just possible&#151; that you might have come here to get evidence against the
+Squaw Creek raiders? You'll despise me, but it's the truth."
+<P>
+His face lost color. "And now?" he asked quietly.
+<P>
+"Now? I would as soon suspect my father&#151; or myself! I'll show you what I
+think. The men in it were Jed Briscoe and Yorky and Dick France "Stop," he
+cried hoarsely.
+<P>
+"Is it your wound?" she said quickly.
+<P>
+"No. That's all right. But you musn't tell&#151;&#151;"
+<P>
+"I'm telling, to show whether I trust you. Jed and Yorky and Dick and Slim&#151;&#151;"
+<P>
+She stopped to listen. Her father's voice was calling her. She rose from
+her seat.
+<P>
+"Wait a moment. There's something I've got to tell you," the Texan groaned.
+<P>
+"I'll be back in a moment. Dad wants to see me about some letters."
+<P>
+And with that she was gone. Whatever the business was, it detained her longer
+than she expected. The minutes slipped away, and still she did not return.
+A step sounded in the hall, a door opened, and Jed Briscoe stood before him.
+<P>
+"You're here, are you?" he said.
+<P>
+The Texan measured looks with him. "Yes, I'm here."
+<P>
+"Grand-standing still, I reckon."
+<P>
+"If you could only learn to mind your own affairs," the Texan suggested evenly.
+<P>
+"You'll wish I could before I'm through with you."
+<P>
+"Am I to thank you for that little courtesy from Bald Knob the other evening?"
+<P>
+"Not directly. At three hundred yards, I could have shot a heap straighter
+than that. The fool must have been drunk."
+<P>
+"You'll have to excuse him. It was beginning to get dark. His intentions
+were good."
+<P>
+There was a quick light step behind him, and Arlie came into the room. She
+glanced quickly from one to the other, and there was apprehension in her
+look.
+<P>
+"I've come to see Lieutenant Fraser on business," Briscoe explained, with
+an air patently triumphant.
+<P>
+Arlie made no offer to leave the room. "He's hardly up to business yet, is
+he?" she asked, as carelessly as she could.
+<P>
+"Then we'll give it another name. I'm making a neighborly call to ask how
+he is, and to return some things he lost."
+<P>
+Jed's hand went into his pocket and drew forth leisurely a photograph. This
+he handed to Arlie right side up, smiling the while, with a kind of masked
+deviltry.
+<P>
+"Found it in Alec Howard's cabin. Seems your coat was hanging over the back
+of a chair, lieutenant, and this and a paper fell out. One of the boys must
+have kicked it to one side, and it was overlooked. Later, I ran across it.
+So I'm bringing it back to you."
+<P>
+In spite of herself Arlie's eyes fell to the photograph. It was a snapshot
+of the ranger and a very attractive young woman. They were smiling into each
+other's eyes with a manner of perfect and friendly understanding. To see
+it gave Arlie a pang. Flushing at her mistake, she turned the card over and
+handed it to the owner.
+<P>
+"Sorry. I looked without thinking," she said in a low voice.
+<P>
+Fraser nodded his acceptance of her apology, but his words and his eyes were
+for his enemy. "You mentioned something else you had found, seems to me."
+<P>
+Behind drooping eyelids Jed was malevolently feline. "Seems to me I did."
+<P>
+From his pocket came slowly a folded paper. He opened and looked it over
+at leisure before his mocking eyes lifted again to the wounded man. "This
+belongs to you, too, but I know you'll excuse me if I keep it to show to
+the boys before returning it."
+<P>
+"So you've read it," Arlie broke in scornfully.
+<P>
+He grinned at her, and nodded. "Yes, I've read it, my dear. I had to read
+it, to find out whose it was. Taken by and large, it's a right interesting
+document, too."
+<P>
+He smiled at the ranger maliciously, yet with a certain catlike pleasure
+in tormenting his victim. Arlie began to feel a tightening of her throat,
+a sinking of the heart. But Fraser looked at the man with a quiet, scornful
+steadfastness. He knew what was coming, and had decided upon his course.
+<P>
+"Seems to be a kind of map, lieutenant. Here's Gimlet Butte and the Half
+Way House and Sweetwater Dam and the blasted pine. Looks like it might be
+a map from the Butte to this part of the country. Eh, Mr. Fraser from Texas?"
+<P>
+"And if it is?"
+<P>
+"Then I should have to ask you how you come by it, seeing as the map is drawn
+on Sheriff Brandt's official stationery," Jed rasped swiftly.
+<P>
+"I got it from Sheriff Brandt, Mr. Briscoe, since you want to know. You're
+not entitled to the information, but I'll make you a gift of it. He gave
+it to me to guide me here."
+<P>
+Even Briscoe was taken aback. He had expected evasion, denial, anything but
+a bold acceptance of his challenge. His foe watched the wariness settle upon
+him by the narrowing of his eyes.
+<P>
+"So the sheriff knew you were coming?"
+<P>
+"Yes."
+<P>
+"I thought you broke jail. That was the story I had dished up to me."
+<P>
+"I did, with the help of the sheriff."
+<P>
+"Oh, with the help of the sheriff? Come to think of it, that sounds right
+funny&#151; a sheriff helping his prisoner to escape."
+<P>
+"Yet it is true, as it happens."
+<P>
+"I don't doubt it, lieutenant. Fact is, I had some such notion all the time.
+Now, I wonder why-for he took so friendly an interest in you."
+<P>
+"I had a letter of introduction to him from a friend in Texas. When he knew
+who I was, he decided he couldn't afford to have me lynched without trying
+to save me."
+<P>
+"I see. And the map?"
+<P>
+"This was the only part of the country in which I would be safe from capture.
+He knew I had a claim on some of the Cedar Mountain people, because it was
+to help them I had got into trouble."
+<P>
+"Yes, I can see that." Arlie nodded quickly. "Of course, that is just what
+the sheriff would think."
+<P>
+"Folks can always see what they want to, Arlie," Jed commented. "Now, I can't
+see all that, by a lot."
+<P>
+"It isn't necessary you should, Mr. Briscoe," Fraser retorted.
+<P>
+"Or else I see a good deal more, lieutenant," Jed returned, with his smooth
+smile. "Mebbe the sheriff helped you on your way because you're such a good
+detective. He's got ambitions, Brandt has. So has Hilliard, the prosecuting
+attorney. Happen to see him, by the way?"
+<P>
+"Yes."
+<P>
+Jed nodded. "I figured you had. Yes, it would be Hilliard worked the scheme
+out, I expect."
+<P>
+"You're a good deal of a detective yourself, Mr. Briscoe," the Texan laughed
+hardily. "Perhaps I could get you a job in the rangers."
+<P>
+"There may be a vacancy there soon," Jed agreed.
+<P>
+"What's the use of talking that way, Jed? Are you threatening Mr. Fraser?
+If anything happens to him, I'll remember this," Arlie told him.
+<P>
+"Have I mentioned any threats, Arlie? It is well known that Lieutenant Fraser
+has enemies here. It don't take a prophet to tell that, after what happened
+the other night."
+<P>
+"Any more than it takes a prophet to tell that you are one of them."
+<P>
+"I play my own hand. I don't lie down before him, or any other man. He'd
+better not get in my way, unless he's sure he's a better man than I am."
+<P>
+"But he isn't in your way," Arlie insisted. "He has told a plain story. I
+believe every word of it."
+<P>
+"I notice he didn't tell any of his plain story until we proved it on him.
+He comes through with his story after he's caught with the goods. Don't you
+know that every criminal that is caught has a smooth explanation?"
+<P>
+"I haven't any doubt Mr. Briscoe will have one when his turn comes," the
+ranger remarked.
+<P>
+Jed wheeled on him. His eyes glittered menace. "You've said one word too
+much. I'll give you forty-eight hours to get out of this valley."
+<P>
+"How dare you, Jed&#151; and in my house!" Arlie cried. "I won't have it. I won't
+have blood shed between you."
+<P>
+"It's up to him," answered the cattleman, his jaw set like a vise. "Persuade
+him to git out, and there'll be no blood shed."
+<P>
+"You have no right to ask it of him. You ought not&#151;&#151;" She stopped, aware
+of the futility of urging a moral consideration upon the man, and fell back
+upon the practical. "He couldn't travel that soon, even if he wanted to.
+He's not strong enough. You know that."
+<P>
+"All right. We'll call it a week. If he's still here a week from to-day,
+there will be trouble."
+<P>
+With that, he turned on his heel and left the room. They heard his spurs
+trailing across the porch and jingling down the steps, after which they caught
+a momentary vision of him, dark and sinister, as his horse flashed past the
+window.
+<P>
+The ranger smiled, but rather seriously. "The fat's in the fire now, sure
+enough, ma'am."
+<P>
+She turned anxiously upon him. "Why did you tell him all that? Why did you
+let him go away, believing you were here as a spy to trap him and his friends?"
+<P>
+"I let him have the truth. Anyhow, I couldn't have made good with a denial.
+He had the evidence. I can't keep him from believing what he wants to."
+<P>
+"He'll tell all his friends. He'll exaggerate the facts and stir up sentiment
+against you. He'll say you came here as a detective, to get evidence against
+the Squaw Creek raiders." <I>"Then he'll tell the truth!"</I>
+<P>
+She took it in slowly, with a gathering horror. "The truth!" she repeated,
+almost under her breath. "You don't mean&#151;&#151;  You can't mean&#151;&#151;  Are you here
+as a spy upon my friends?"
+<P>
+"I didn't know they were your friends when I took the job. If you'll listen,
+I'll explain."
+<P>
+Words burst from her in gathering bitterness.
+<P>
+"What is there to explain, sir? The facts cry to heaven. I brought you into
+this valley, gave you the freedom of our home against my father's first instinct.
+I introduced you to my friends, and no doubt they told you much you wanted
+to know. They are simple, honest folks, who don't know a spy when they see
+one. And I&#151; fool that I am&#151; I vouched for you. More, I stood between you
+and the fate you deserved. And, lastly, in my blind conceit, I have told
+you the names of the men in the Squaw Creek trouble. If I had only known&#151; and
+I had all the evidence, but I was so blind I would not see you were a snake
+in the grass."
+<P>
+He put out a hand to stop her, and she drew back as if his touch were pollution.
+From the other side of the room, she looked across at him in bitter scorn.
+<P>
+"I shall make arrangements to have you taken out of the valley at once, sir."
+<P>
+"You needn't take the trouble, Miss Arlie. I'm not going out of the valley.
+If you'll have me taken to Alec Howard's shack, which is where you brought
+me from, I'll be under obligations to you."
+<P>
+"Whatever you are, I'm not going to have your blood on my hands. You've got
+to leave the valley."
+<P>
+"I have to thank you for all your kindness to me. If you'd extend it a trifle
+further and listen to what I've got to say, I'd be grateful."
+<P>
+"I don't care to hear your excuses. Go quickly, sir, before you meet the
+end you deserve, and give up the poor men I have betrayed to you." She spoke
+in a choked voice, as if she could scarce breathe.
+<P>
+"If you'd only listen before you&#151;&#151;"
+<P>
+"I've listened to you too long. I was so sure I knew more than my father,
+than my friends. I'll listen no more."
+<P>
+The Texan gave it up. "All right, ma'am. Just as you say. If you'll order
+some kind of a rig for me, I'll not trouble you longer. I'm sorry that it's
+got to be this way. Maybe some time you'll see it different."
+<P>
+"Never," she flashed passionately, and fled from the room.
+<P>
+He did not see her again before he left. Bobbie came to get him in a light
+road trap they had. The boy looked at him askance, as if he knew something
+was wrong. Presently they turned a corner and left the ranch shut from sight
+in a fold of the hills.
+<P>
+At the first division of the road Fraser came to a difference of opinion
+with Bobbie.
+<P>
+"Arlie said you was going to leave the valley. She told me I was to take
+you to Speed's place."
+<P>
+"She misunderstood. I am going to Alec Howard's."
+<P>
+"But that ain't what she told me."
+<P>
+Steve took the reins from him, and turned into the trail that led to Howard's
+place. "You can explain to her, Bobbie, that you couldn't make me see it
+that way."
+<P>
+An hour later, he descended upon Howard&#151; a big, rawboned ranchman, who had
+succumbed quickly to a deep friendship for this "Admirable Crichton" of the
+plains.
+<P>
+"Hello, Steve! Glad to death to see you. Hope you've come to stay, you old
+pie eater," he cried joyously, at sight of the Texan.
+<P>
+Fraser got down. "Wait here a moment, Bobbie. I want to have a talk with
+Alec. I may go on with you."
+<P>
+They went into the cabin, and Fraser sat down. He was still far from strong.
+<P>
+"What's up, Steve?" the rancher asked.
+<P>
+"You asked me to stay, Alec. Before I say whether I will or not, I've got
+a story to tell you. After I've told it, you can ask me again if you want
+me to stop with you. If you don't ask me, I'll ride off with the boy."
+<P>
+"All right. Fire ahead, old hoss. I'll ask you fast enough."
+<P>
+The Texan told his story from the beginning. Only one thing he omitted&#151; that
+Arlie had told him the name of the Squaw Creek raiders.
+<P>
+"There are the facts, Alec. You've got them from beginning to end. It's up
+to you. Do you want me here?"
+<P>
+"Before I answer that, I'll have to put a question myse'f, Steve. Why do
+you want to stay? Why not leave the valley while you're still able to?"
+<P>
+"Because Jed Briscoe put it up to me that I'd got to leave within a week.
+I'll go when I'm good and ready."
+<P>
+Alec nodded his appreciation of the point. "Sure. You don't want to sneak
+out, with yore tail betwixt yore laigs. That brings up another question,
+Steve. What about the Squaw Creek sheep raiders? Just for argument, we'll
+put it that some of them are my friends. You understand&#151; just for argument.
+Are you still aiming to run them down?"
+<P>
+Fraser met his frank question frankly. "No, Alec, I've had to give up that
+notion long since&#151; soon as I began to guess they were friends of Miss Arlie.
+I'm going back to tell Hilliard so. But I ain't going to be run out by Briscoe."
+<P>
+"Good enough. Put her there, son. This shack's yore home till hell freezes
+over, Steve."
+<P>
+"You haven't any doubts about me, Alec. If you have, better say so now."
+<P>
+"Doubts? I reckon not. Don't I know a man when I see one? I'm plumb surprised
+at Arlie." He strode to the door, and called to Bobbie: "Roll along home,
+son. Yore passenger is going to stay a spell with me."
+<P>
+"Of course, I understand what this means, Alec. Jed and his crowd aren't
+going to be any too well pleased when they learn you have taken me in. They
+may make you trouble," the ranger said.
+<P>
+The big cow man laughed. "Oh, cut it out, Steve. Jed don't have to O. K.
+my guest list. Not on yore life. I'm about ready for a ruction with that
+young man, anyway. He's too blamed bossy. I ain't wearing his brand. Fact
+is, I been having notions this valley has been suffering from too much Briscoe.
+Others are sharing that opinion with me. Ask Dick France. Ask Arlie, for
+that matter."
+<P>
+"I'm afraid I'm off that young lady's list of friends."
+<P>
+"Sho! She'll come round. She's some hot-haided. It always was her way to
+get mad first, and find out why afterward. But don't make any mistake about
+her, Steve. She's the salt of the earth, Arlie Dillon is. She figured it
+out you wasn't playing it quite on the square with her. Onct she's milled
+it around a spell, she'll see things different. I've knowed her since she
+was knee-high, and I tell you she's a game little thoroughbred."
+<P>
+The Texan looked at him a moment, then stared out of the window.
+<P>
+"We won't quarrel about that any, Alec. I'll indorse those sentiments, and
+then some, even if she did call me a snake in the grass."
+<h3>CHAPTER XII</h3>
+<h4>THE DANCE</h4>
+<P>
+The day after Fraser changed his quarters, Dick France rode up to the Howard
+ranch. Without alighting, he nodded casually to Alec, and then to his guest.
+<P>
+"Hello, Steve! How's the shoulder?"
+<P>
+"Fine and dandy."
+<P>
+"You moved, I see." The puncher grinned.
+<P>
+"If you see it for yourself, I'll not attempt to deny it."
+<P>
+"Being stood in the corner some more, looks like! Little Willie been telling
+some more lies?"
+<P>
+"Come in, Dick, and I'll put you wise."
+<P>
+Steve went over the story again. When he mentioned the Squaw Creek raid,
+he observed that his two friends looked quickly at each other and then away.
+He saw, however, that Dick took his pledge in regard to the raiders at face
+value, without the least question of doubt. He made only one comment on the
+situation.
+<P>
+"If Jed has served notice that he's going after you, Steve, he'll ce'tainly
+back the play. What's more, he won't be any too particular how he gets you,
+just so he gets you. He may come a-shooting in the open. Then, again, he
+may not. All according to how the notion strikes him."
+<P>
+"That's about it," agreed Howard.
+<P>
+"While it's fresh on my mind, I'll unload some more comfort. You've got an
+enemy in this valley you don't know about."
+<P>
+"The one that shot me?"
+<P>
+"I ain't been told that. I was to say, 'One enemy more than he knows of.'
+"
+<P>
+"Who told you to say it?"
+<P>
+"I was to forget to tell you that, Steve."
+<P>
+"Then I must have a friend more than I know of, too."
+<P>
+"I ain't so sure about that. You might call her a hostile friend."
+<P>
+"It's a lady, then. I can guess who."
+<P>
+"Honest, I didn't mean to tell you, Steve. It slipped out."
+<P>
+"I won't hold it against you."
+<P>
+"She sent for me last night, and this morning I dropped round. Now, what
+do you reckon she wanted with me?"
+<P>
+"Give it up."
+<P>
+"I'm to take a day off and ride around among the boys, so as to see them
+before Jed does. I'm to load 'em up with misrepresentations about how you
+and the sheriff happen to be working in cahoots. I gathered that the lady
+is through with you, but she don't want your scalp collected by the boys."
+<P>
+"I'm learning to be thankful for small favors," Fraser said dryly. "She figures
+me up a skunk, but hates to have me massacreed in her back yard. Ain't that
+about it, Dick?"
+<P>
+"Somewheres betwixt and between," France nodded. "Say, you lads going to
+the dance at Millikan's?"
+<P>
+"Didn't know there was one."
+<P>
+"Sure. Big doings. Monday night. Always have a dance after the spring round-up.
+Jed and his friends will be there&#151; that ought to fetch you!" Dick grinned.
+<P>
+"I haven't noticed any pressing invitation to my address yet," said Steve.
+<P>
+"I'm extending it right now. Millikan told me to pass the word among the
+boys. Everybody and his neighbor invited." Dick lit a cigar, and gathered
+up his reins. "So-long, boys. I got to be going." Over his shoulder he fired
+another joyous shot as he cantered away. "I reckon that hostile friend will
+be there, too, Steve, if that's any inducement."
+<P>
+Whether it was an inducement is not a matter of record, but certain it is
+that the Texan found it easy to decide to go. Everybody in the valley would
+be there, and absence on his part would be construed as weakness, even as
+a confession of guilt. He had often observed that a man's friends are strong
+for him only when he is strong for himself.
+<P>
+Howard and his guest drove to Millikan's Draw, for the wound of the latter
+was still too new to stand so long a horseback ride. They arrived late, and
+the dance was already in full swing. As they stabled and fed the team, they
+could hear the high notes of the fiddles and the singsong chant of the caller.
+<P>
+"Alemane left. Right han' t'yer pardner, an' gran' right and left. Ev-v-rybody
+swing."
+<P>
+The ranch house was a large one, the most pretentious in the valley. A large
+hall opened into a living room and a dining room, by means of large double
+doors, which had been drawn back, so as to make one room of them.
+<P>
+As they pushed their way through the crowd of rough young fellows who clustered
+round the door, as if afraid their escape might be cut off, Fraser observed
+that the floor was already crowded with dancers.
+<P>
+The quadrille came to an end as he arrived, and, after they had seated their
+partners, red-faced perspiring young punchers swelled the knot around the
+door.
+<P>
+Alec stayed to chaff with them, while the Texan sauntered across the floor
+and took a seat on one of the benches which lined the walls. As he did so,
+a man and his partner, so busy in talk with each other that they had not
+observed who he was, sat down beside him in such position that the young
+woman was next him. Without having looked directly at either of them, Fraser
+knew that the girl was Arlie Dillon, and her escort Jed Briscoe. She had
+her back half turned toward him, so that, even after she was seated she did
+not recognize her neighbor.
+<P>
+Steve smiled pleasantly, and became absorbed in a rather noisy bout of repartee
+going on between one swain and his lass, not so absorbed, however, as not
+to notice that he and his unconscious neighbors were becoming a covert focus
+of attention. He had already noticed a shade of self-consciousness in the
+greeting of those whom he met, a hint of a suggestion that he was on trial.
+Among some this feeling was evidently more pronounced. He met more than one
+pair of eyes that gave back to his genial nod cold hostility.
+<P>
+At such an affair as this, Jed Briscoe was always at his best. He was one
+of the few men in the valley who knew how to waltz well, and music and rhythm
+always brought out in him a gay charm women liked. His lithe grace, his
+assurance, his ease of manner and speech, always differentiated him from
+the other ranchmen.
+<P>
+No wonder rumor had coupled his name with that of Arlie as her future husband.
+He knew how to make light love by implication, to skate around the subject
+skilfully and boldly with innuendo and suggestion.
+<P>
+Arlie knew him for what he was&#151; a man passionate and revengeful, the leader
+of that side of the valley's life which she deplored. She did not trust him.
+Nevertheless, she felt his fascination. He made that appeal to her which
+a graceless young villain often does to a good woman who lets herself become
+interested in trying to understand the sinner and his sins. There was another
+reason why just now she showed him special favor. She wanted to blunt the
+edge of his anger against the Texan ranger, though her reason for this she
+did not admit even to herself.
+<P>
+She had&#151; oh, she was quite sure of this&#151; no longer any interest in Fraser
+except the impersonal desire to save his life. Having thought it all over,
+she was convinced that her friends had nothing to fear from him as a spy.
+That was what he had tried to tell her when she would not listen.
+<P>
+Deep in her heart she knew why she had not listened. It had to do with that
+picture of a pretty girl smiling up happily into his eyes&#151; a thing she had
+not forgotten for one waking moment since. Like a knife the certainty had
+stabbed her heart that they were lovers. Her experience had been limited.
+Kodaks had not yet reached Lost Valley as common possessions. In the mountains
+no girl had her photograph taken beside a man unless they had a special interest
+in each other. And the manner of these two had implied the possession of
+a secret not known to the world.
+<P>
+So Arlie froze her heart toward the Texan, all the more because he had touched
+her girlish imagination to sweet hidden dreams of which her innocence had
+been unnecessarily ashamed. He had spoken no love to her, nor had he implied
+it exactly. There had been times she had thought something more than friendship
+lay under his warm smile. But now she scourged herself for her folly, believed
+she had been unmaidenly, and set her heart to be like flint against him.
+She had been ready to give him what he had not wanted. Before she would let
+him guess it she would rather die, a thousand times rather, she told herself
+passionately.
+<P>
+She presently became aware that attention was being directed toward her and
+Jed and somebody who sat on the other side of her. Without looking round,
+she mentioned the fact in a low voice to her partner of the dance just finished.
+Jed looked up, and for the first time observed the man behind her. Instantly
+the gayety was sponged from his face.
+<P>
+"Who is it?" she asked.
+<P>
+"That man from Texas."
+<P>
+Arlie felt the blood sting her cheeks. The musicians were just starting a
+waltz. She leaned slightly toward Jed, and said, in a low voice:
+<P>
+"Did you ask me to dance this with you?"
+<P>
+He had not, but he did now. He got to his feet, with shining eyes, and whirled
+her off. The girl did not look toward the Texan. Nevertheless, as they circled
+the room, she was constantly aware of him. Sitting there, with a smile on
+his strong face, apparently unperturbed, he gave no hint of the stern fact
+that he was circled by enemies, any one of whom might carry his death in
+a hip pocket. His gaze was serene, unabashed, even amused.
+<P>
+The young woman was irritably suspicious that he found her anger amusing,
+just as he seemed to find the dangerous position in which he was placed.
+Yet her resentment coexisted with a sympathy for him that would not down.
+She believed he was marked for death by a coterie of those present, chief
+of whom was the man smiling down into her face from half-shut, smouldering
+eyes.
+<P>
+Her heart was a flame of protest against their decree, all the more so because
+she held herself partly responsible for it. In a panic of repentance, she
+had told Dick of her confession to the ranger of the names of the Squaw Creek
+raiders, and France had warned his confederates. He had done this, not because
+he distrusted Fraser, but because he felt it was their due to get a chance
+to escape if they wanted to do so.
+<P>
+Always a creature of impulse, Arlie had repented her repentance when too
+late. Now she would have fought to save the Texan, but the horror of it was
+that she could not guess how the blow would fall. She tried to believe he
+was safe, at least until the week was up.
+<P>
+When Dick strolled across the floor, sat down beside Steve, and began casually
+to chat with him, she could have thanked the boy with tears. It was equivalent
+to a public declaration of his intentions. At least, the ranger was not
+friendless. One of the raiders was going to stand by him. Besides Dick, he
+might count on Howard; perhaps on others.
+<P>
+Jed was in high good humor. All along the line he seemed to be winning. Arlie
+had discarded this intruder from Texas and was showing herself very friendly
+to the cattleman. The suspicion of Fraser which he had disseminated was bearing
+fruit; and so, more potently, was the word the girl had dropped incautiously.
+He had only to wait in order to see his rival wiped out. So that, when Arlie
+put in her little plea, he felt it would not cost him anything to affect
+a large generosity.
+<P>
+"Let him go, Jed. He is discredited. Folks are all on their guard before
+him now. He can't do any harm here. Dick says he is only waiting out his
+week because of your threat. Don't make trouble. Let him sneak back home,
+like a whipped cur," she begged.
+<P>
+"I don't want any trouble with him, girl. All I ask is that he leave the
+valley. Let Dick arrange that, and I'll give him a chance."
+<P>
+She thanked him, with a look that said more than words.
+<P>
+It was two hours later, when she was waltzing with Jed again, that Arlie
+caught sight of a face that disturbed her greatly. It was a countenance
+disfigured by a ragged scar, running from the bridge of the nose. She had
+last seen it gazing into the window of Alec Howard's cabin on a certain
+never-to-be-forgotten night.
+<P>
+"Who is that man&#151; the one leaning against the door jamb, just behind Slim
+Leroy?" she asked.
+<P>
+"He's a fellow that calls himself Johnson. His real name is Struve," Jed
+answered carelessly.
+<P>
+"He's the man that shot the Texas lieutenant," she said.
+<P>
+"I dare say. He's got a good reason for shooting him. The man broke out of
+the Arizona penitentiary, and Fraser came north to rearrest him. At least,
+that's my guess. He wouldn't have been here to-night if he hadn't figured
+Fraser too sick to come. Watch him duck when he learns the ranger's here."
+<P>
+At the first opportunity Arlie signaled to Dick that she wanted to see him.
+Fraser, she observed, was no longer in the dancing rooms. Dick took her out
+from the hot room to the porch.
+<P>
+"Let's walk a little, Dick. I want to tell you something."
+<P>
+They sauntered toward the fine grove of pines that ran up the hillside back
+of the house.
+<P>
+"Did you notice that man with the scar, Dick?" she presently asked.
+<P>
+"Yes. I ain't seen him before. Must be one of the Rabbit Run guys, I take
+it."
+<P>
+"I've seen him. He's the man that shot your friend. He was the man I shot
+at when he looked in the window,"
+<P>
+"Sure, Arlie?"
+<P>
+"Dead sure, Dick. He's an escaped convict, and he has a grudge at your friend.
+He is afraid of him, too. Look out for Lieutenant Fraser to-night. Don't
+let him wander around outside. If he does, there may be murder done."
+<P>
+Even as she spoke, there came a sound from the wooded hillside&#151; the sound
+of a stifled cry, followed by an imprecation and the heavy shuffling of feet.
+<P>
+"Listen, Dick!"
+<P>
+For an instant he listened. Then: "There's trouble in the grove, and I'm
+not armed," he cried.
+<P>
+"Never mind! Go&#151; go!" she shrieked, pushing him forward.
+<P>
+For herself, she turned, and ran like a deer for the house.
+<P>
+Siegfried was sitting on the porch, whittling a stick.
+<P>
+"They&#151; they're killing Steve&#151; in the grove," she panted.
+<P>
+Without a word he rolled off, like a buffalo cow, toward the scene of action.
+<P>
+Arlie pushed into the house and called for Jed.
+<h3>CHAPTER XIII</h3>
+<h4>THE WOLF HOWLS</h4>
+<P>
+As Steve strolled out into the moonlight, he left behind him the monotonous
+thumping of heavy feet and the singsong voice of the caller.
+<blockquote>
+<p class="left">
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "Birdie fly out,<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Crow hop in,<BR>
+&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Join all hands<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And circle ag'in."<BR>
+</blockquote>
+<P align=justify class="full">
+came to him, in the high, strident voice of Lute Perkins. He took a deep
+breath of fresh, clean air, and looked about him. After the hot, dusty room,
+the grove, with its green foliage, through which the moonlight filtered,
+looked invitingly cool. He sauntered forward, climbed the hill up which the
+wooded patch straggled, and sat down, with his back to a pine.
+<P>
+Behind the valley rampart, he could see the dim, saw-toothed Teton peaks,
+looking like ghostly shapes in the moonlight. The night was peaceful. Faint
+and mellow came the sound of jovial romping from the house; otherwise, beneath
+the distant stars, a perfect stillness held.
+<P>
+How long he sat there, letting thoughts happen dreamily rather than producing
+them of gray matter, he did not know. A slight sound, the snapping of a twig,
+brought his mind to alertness without causing the slightest movement of his
+body.
+<P>
+His first thought was that, in accordance with dance etiquette in the ranch
+country, his revolver was in its holster under the seat of the trap in which
+they had driven over. Since his week was not up, he had expected no attack
+from Jed and his friends. As for the enemy, of whom Arlie had advised him,
+surely a public dance was the last place to tempt one who apparently preferred
+to attack from cover. But his instinct was certain. He did not need to look
+round to know he was trapped.
+<P>
+"I'm unarmed. You'd better come round and shoot me from in front. It will
+look better at the inquest," he said quietly.
+<P>
+"Don't move. You're surrounded," a voice answered.
+<P>
+A rope snaked forward and descended over the ranger's head, to be jerked
+tight, with a suddenness that sent a pain like a knife thrust through the
+wounded shoulder. The instinct for self-preservation was already at work
+in him. He fought his left arm free from the rope that pressed it to his
+side, and dived toward the figure at the end of the rope. Even as he plunged,
+he found time to be surprised that no revolver shot echoed through the night,
+and to know that the reason was because his enemies preferred to do their
+work in silence.
+<P>
+The man upon whom he leaped gave a startled oath and stumbled backward over
+a root.
+<P>
+Fraser, his hand already upon the man's throat, went down too. Upon him charged
+men from all directions. In the shadows, they must have hampered each other,
+for the ranger, despite his wound&#151; his shoulder was screaming with pain&#151; got
+to his knees, and slowly from his knees to his feet, shaking the clinging
+bodies from him.
+<P>
+Wrenching his other hand from under the rope, he fought them back as a hurt
+grizzly does the wolf pack gathered for the kill. None but a very powerful
+man could ever have reached his feet. None less agile and sinewy than a panther
+could have beaten them back as at first he did. They fought in grim silence,
+yet the grove was full of the sounds of battle. The heavy breathing, the
+beat of shifting feet, the soft impact of flesh striking flesh, the thud
+of falling bodies&#151; of these the air was vocal. Yet, save for the gasps of
+sudden pain, no man broke silence save once.
+<P>
+"The snake'll get away yet!" a hoarse voice cried, not loudly, but with an
+emphasis that indicated strong conviction.
+<P>
+Impossible as it seemed, the ranger might have done it but for an accident.
+In the struggle, the rope had slipped to a point just below his knees. Fighting
+his way down the hill, foot by foot, the Texan felt the rope tighten. One
+of his attackers flung himself against his chest and he was tripped. The
+pack was on him again. Here there was more light, and though for a time the
+mass swayed back and forth, at last they hammered him down by main strength.
+He was bound hand and foot, and dragged back to the grove.
+<P>
+They faced their victim, panting deeply from their exertions. Fraser looked
+round upon the circle of distorted faces, and stopped at one. Seen now, with
+the fury and malignancy of its triumph painted upon it, the face was one
+to bring bad dreams.
+<P>
+The lieutenant, his chest still laboring heavily, racked with the torture
+of his torn shoulder, looked into that face out of the only calm eyes in
+the group.
+<P>
+"So it's you, Struve?"
+<P>
+"Yes, it's me&#151; me and my friends."
+<P>
+"I've been looking for you high and low."
+<P>
+"Well, you've found me," came the immediate exultant answer.
+<P>
+"I reckon I'm indebted to you for this." Fraser moved his shoulder slightly.
+<P>
+"You'll owe me a heap more than that before the night's over."
+<P>
+"Your intentions were good then, I expect. Being shy a trigger finger spoils
+a man's aim."
+<P>
+"Not always."
+<P>
+"Didn't like to risk another shot from Bald Knob, eh? Must be some discouraging
+to hit only once out of three times at three hundred yards, and a scratch
+at that."
+<P>
+The convict swore. "I'll not miss this time, Mr. Lieutenant."
+<P>
+"You'd better not, or I'll take you back to the penitentiary where I put
+you before."
+<P>
+"You'll never put another man there, you meddling spy," Struve cried furiously.
+<P>
+"I'm not so sure of that. I know what you've got against me, but I should
+like to know what kick your friends have coming," the ranger retorted.
+<P>
+"You may have mine, right off the reel, Mr. Fraser, or whatever you call
+yourself. You came into this valley with a lie on your lips. We played you
+for a friend, and you played us for suckers. All the time you was in a deal
+with the sheriff for <I>you know what.</I> I hate a spy like I do a rattlesnake."
+<P>
+It was the man Yorky that spoke. Steve's eyes met his.
+<P>
+"So I'm a spy, am I?"
+<P>
+"You know best."
+<P>
+"Anyhow, you're going to shoot me first, and find out afterward?"
+<P>
+"Wrong guess. We're going to hang you." Struve, unable to keep back longer
+his bitter spleen, hissed this at him.
+<P>
+"Yes, that's about your size, Struve. You can crow loud now, when the odds
+are six to one, with the one unarmed and tied at that. But what I want to
+know is&#151; are you playing fair with your friends? Have you told them that
+every man in to-night's business will hang, sure as fate? Have you told them
+of those cowardly murders you did in Arizona and Texas? Have you told them
+that your life is forfeit, anyway? Do they know you're trying to drag them
+into your troubles? No? You didn't tell them that. I'm surprised at you,
+Struve."
+<P>
+"My name's Johnson."
+<P>
+"Not in Arizona, it isn't. Wolf Struve it is there, wanted for murder and
+other sundries." He turned swiftly from him to his confederates. "You fools,
+you're putting your heads into a noose. He's in already, and wants you in,
+too. Test him. Throw the end of that rope over the limb, and stand back,
+while he pulls me up alone. He daren't&#151; not for his life, he daren't. He
+knows that whoever pulls on that rope hangs himself as surely as he hangs
+me."
+<P>
+The men looked at each other, and at Struve. Were they being led into trouble
+to pay this man's scores off for him? Suspicion stirred uneasily in them.
+<P>
+"That's right, too. Let Johnson pull him up," Slim Leroy said sullenly.
+<P>
+"Sure. You've got more at stake than we have. It's up to you, Johnson," Yorky
+agreed.
+<P>
+"That's right," a third chipped in.
+<P>
+"We'll all pull together, boys," Struve insinuated. "It's only a bluff of
+his. Don't let him scare you off."
+<P>
+"He ain't scaring me off any," declared Yorky. "He's a spy, and he's getting
+what is coming to him. But you're a stranger too, Johnson. I don't trust
+you any&#151; not any farther than I can see you, my friend. I'll stand for being
+an aider and abettor, but I reckon if there's any hanging to be done you'll
+have to be the sheriff," replied Yorky stiffly.
+<P>
+Struve turned his sinister face on one and another of them. His lips were
+drawn back, so that the wolfish teeth gleamed in the moonlight. He felt himself
+being driven into a trap, from which there was no escape. He dared not let
+Fraser go with his life, for he knew that, sooner or later, the ranger would
+run him to earth, and drag him back to the punishment that was awaiting him
+in the South. Nor did he want to shoulder the responsibility of murdering
+this man before five witnesses.
+<P>
+Came the sound of running footsteps.
+<P>
+"What's that?" asked Slim nervously.
+<P>
+"Where are you, Steve?" called a voice.
+<P>
+"Here," the ranger shouted back.
+<P>
+A moment later Dick France burst into the group. "What's doing?" he panted.
+<P>
+The ranger laughed hardily. "Nothing, Dick. Nothing at all. Some of the boys
+had notions of a necktie party, but they're a little shy of sand. Have you
+met Mr. Struve, Dick? I know you're acquainted with the others, Mr. Struve
+is from Yuma. An old friend of mine. Fact is, I induced him to locate at
+Yuma."
+<P>
+Dick caught at the rope, but Yorky flung him roughly back.
+<P>
+"This ain't your put in, France," he said. "It's up to Johnson." And to the
+latter: "Get busy, if you're going to."
+<P>
+"He's a spy on you-all, just the same as he is on me," blurted the convict.
+<P>
+"That's a lie, Struve," pronounced the lieutenant evenly. "I'm going to take
+you back with me, but I've got nothing against these men. I want to announce
+right now, no matter who tells a different story, that I haven't lost any
+Squaw Creek raiders and I'm not hunting any."
+<P>
+"You hear? He came into this valley after me."
+<P>
+"Wrong again, Struve. I didn't know you were here. But I know now, and I
+serve notice that I'm going to take you back with me, dead or alive. That's
+what I'm paid for, and that's what I'm going to do."
+<P>
+It was amazing to hear this man, with a rope round his neck, announce calmly
+what he was going to do to the man who had only to pull that rope to send
+him into eternity. The very audacity of it had its effect.
+<P>
+Slim spoke up. "I don't reckon we better go any farther with this thing,
+Yorky."
+<P>
+"No, I don't reckon you had," cut in Dick sharply. "I'll not stand for it."
+<P>
+Again the footsteps of a running man reached them. It was Siegfried. He plunged
+into the group like a wild bull, shook the hair out of his eyes, and planted
+himself beside Fraser. With one backward buffet of his great arm he sent
+Johnson heels over head. He caught Yorky by the shoulders, strong man though
+the latter was, and shook him till his teeth rattled, after which he flung
+him reeling a dozen yards to the ground. The Norwegian was reaching for Dick
+when Fraser stopped him.
+<P>
+"That's enough of a clean-up right now, Sig. Dick butted in like you to help
+me," he explained.
+<P>
+"The durned coyotes!" roared the big Norseman furiously, leaping at Leroy
+and tossing him over his head as an enraged bull does. He turned upon the
+other three, shaking his tangled mane, but they were already in flight.
+<P>
+"I'll show them. I'll show them," he kept saying as he came back to the man
+he had rescued.
+<P>
+"You've showed them plenty, Sig. Cut out the rough house before you maim
+some of these gents who didn't invite you to their party."
+<P>
+The ranger felt the earth sway beneath him as he spoke. His wound had been
+torn loose in the fight, and was bleeding. Limply he leaned against the tree
+for support.
+<P>
+It was at this moment he caught sight of Arlie and Briscoe as they ran up.
+Involuntarily he straightened almost jauntily. The girl looked at him with
+that deep, eager look of fear he had seen before, and met that unconquerable
+smile of his.
+<P>
+The rope was still round his neck and the coat was stripped from his back.
+He was white to the lips, and she could see he could scarce stand, even with
+the support of the pine trunk. His face was bruised and battered. His hat
+was gone; and hidden somewhere in his crisp short hair was a cut from which
+blood dripped to the forehead. The bound arm had been torn from its bandages
+in the unequal battle he had fought. But for all his desperate plight he
+still carried the invincible look that nothing less than death can rob some
+men of.
+<P>
+The fretted moonlight, shifting with the gentle motion of the foliage above,
+fell full upon him now and showed a wet, red stain against the white shirt.
+Simultaneously outraged nature collapsed, and he began to sink to the ground.
+<P>
+Arlie gave a little cry and ran forward. Before he reached the ground he
+had fainted; yet scarcely before she was on her knees beside him with his
+head in her arms.
+<P>
+"Bring water, Dick, and tell Doc Lee to come at once. He'll be in the back
+room smoking. Hurry!" She looked fiercely round upon the men assembled. "I
+think they have killed him. Who did this? Was it you, Yorky? Was it you that
+murdered him?"
+<P>
+"I bane t'ink it take von hoondred of them to do it," said Siegfried. "Dat
+fallar, Johnson, he bane at the bottom of it."
+<P>
+"Then why didn't you kill him? Aren't you Steve's friend? Didn't he save
+your life?" she panted, passion burning in her beautiful eyes.
+<P>
+Siegfried nodded. "I bane Steve's friend, yah! And Ay bane kill Johnson eef
+Steve dies."
+<P>
+Briscoe, furious at this turn of the tide which had swept Arlie's sympathies
+back to his enemy, followed Struve as he sneaked deeper into the shadow of
+the trees. The convict was nursing a sprained wrist when Jed reached him.
+<P>
+"What do you think you've been trying to do, you sap-headed idiot?" Jed demanded.
+"Haven't you sense enough to choose a better time than one when the whole
+settlement is gathered to help him? And can't you ever make a clean job of
+it, you chuckle-minded son of a greaser?"
+<P>
+Struve turned, snarling, on him. "That'll be enough from you, Briscoe. I've
+stood about all I'm going to stand just now."
+<P>
+"You'll stand for whatever I say," retorted Jed. "You've cooked your goose
+in this valley by to-night's fool play. I'm the only man that can pull you
+through. Bite on that fact, Mr. Struve, before you unload your bile on me."
+<P>
+The convict's heart sank. He felt it to be the truth. The last thing he had
+heard was Siegfried's threat to kill him.
+<P>
+Whether Fraser lived or died he was in a precarious position and he knew
+it.
+<P>
+"I know you're my friend, Jed," he whined. "I'll do what you say. Stand by
+me and I'll sure work with you."
+<P>
+"Then if you take my advice you'll sneak down to the corral, get your horse,
+and light out for the run. Lie there till I see you."
+<P>
+"And Siegfried?"
+<P>
+"The Swede won't trouble you unless this Texan dies. I'll send you word in
+time if he does."
+<P>
+Later a skulking shadow sneaked into the corral and out again. Once out of
+hearing, it leaped to the back of the horse and galloped wildly into the
+night.
+<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3>
+<h4>HOWARD EXPLAINS</h4>
+<P>
+Two horsemen rode into Millikan's Draw and drew up in front of the big ranch
+house. To the girl who stepped to the porch to meet them they gave friendly
+greeting. One of them asked:
+<P>
+"How're things coming, Arlie?"
+<P>
+"Better and better every day, Dick. Yesterday the doctor said he was out
+of danger."
+<P>
+"It's been a tough fight for Steve," the other broke in. "Proper nursing
+is what pulled him through. Doc says so."
+<P>
+"Did he say that, Alec? I'll always think it was doc. He fought for that
+life mighty hard, boys."
+<P>
+Alec Howard nodded: "Doc Lee's the stuff. Here he comes now, talking of angels."
+<P>
+Doctor Lee dismounted and grinned. "Which of you lads is she making love
+to now?"
+<P>
+Arlie laughed. "He can't understand that I don't make love to anybody but
+him," she explained to the younger men.
+<P>
+"She never did to me, doc," Dick said regretfully.
+<P>
+"No, we were just talking about you, doc."
+<P>
+"Fire ahead, young woman," said the doctor, with assumed severity. "I'm here
+to defend myself now."
+<P>
+"Alec was calling you an angel, and I was laughing at him," said the girl
+demurely.
+<P>
+"An angel&#151; huh!" he snorted.
+<P>
+"I never knew an angel that chewed tobacco, or one that could swear the way
+you do when you're mad," continued Arlie.
+<P>
+"I don't reckon your acquaintance with angels is much greater than mine,
+Miss Arlie Dillon. How's the patient?"
+<P>
+"He's always wanting something to eat, and he's cross as a bear."
+<P>
+"Good for him! Give him two weeks now and he'll be ready to whip his weight
+in wild cats."
+<P>
+The doctor disappeared within, and presently they could hear his loud, cheerful
+voice pretending to berate the patient.
+<P>
+Arlie sat down on the top step of the porch.
+<P>
+"Boys, I don't know what I would have done if he had died. It would have
+been all my fault. I had no business to tell him the names of you boys that
+rode in the raid, and afterward to tell you that I told him," she accused
+herself.
+<P>
+"No, you had no business to tell him, though it happens he's safe as a bank
+vault," Howard commented.
+<P>
+"I don't know how I came to do it," the girl continued. "Jed had made me
+suspicious of him, and then I found out something fine he had done for me.
+I wanted him to know I trusted him. That was the first thing I thought of,
+and I told it. He tried to stop me, but I'm such an impulsive little fool."
+<P>
+"We all make breaks, Arlie. You'll not do it again, anyhow," France comforted.
+<P>
+Doctor Lee presently came out and pronounced that the wounded man was doing
+well. "Wants to see you boys. Don't stay more than half an hour. If they
+get in your way, sweep 'em out, Arlie."
+<P>
+The cowpunchers entered the sick room with the subdued, gingerly tread of
+professional undertakers.
+<P>
+"I ain't so had as that yet, boys," the patient laughed. "You're allowed
+to speak above a whisper. Doc thinks I'll last till night, mebbe, if I'm
+careful."
+<P>
+They told him all the gossip of the range&#151; how young Ford had run off with
+Sallie Laundon and got married to her down at the Butte; how Siegfried had
+gone up and down the valley swearing he would clean out Jack Rabbit Run if
+Steve died; how Johnson had had another row with Jed and had chosen to take
+water rather than draw. Both of his visitors, however, had something on their
+minds they found some difficulty in expressing.
+<P>
+Alec Howard finally broached it.
+<P>
+"Arlie told you the names of some of the boys that were in the Squaw Creek
+sheep raid. She made a mistake in telling you anything, but we'll let that
+go in the discard. It ain't necessary that you should know the names of the
+others, but I'm going to tell you one of them, Steve."
+<P>
+"No, I don't want to know."
+<P>
+"This is my say-so. His name is Alec Howard."
+<P>
+"I'm sorry to hear that, Alec. I don't know why you have told me."
+<P>
+"Because I want you to know the facts of that raid, Steve. No killing was
+on the program. That came about in a way none of us could foresee."
+<P>
+"This is how it was, Steve," explained Dick. "Word came that Campeau was
+going to move his sheep into the Squaw Creek district. Sheep never had run
+there. It was understood the range there was for our cattle. We had set a
+dead line, and warned them not to cross it. Naturally, it made us sore when
+we heard about Campeau.
+<P>
+"So some of us gathered together hastily and rode over. Our intentions were
+declared. We meant to drive the sheep back and patrol the dead line. It was
+solemnly agreed that there was to be no shooting, not even of sheep."
+<P>
+The story halted here for a moment before Howard took it up again. "Things
+don't always come out the way you figure them. We didn't anticipate any trouble.
+We outnumbered them two to one. We had the advantage of the surprise. You
+couldn't guess that for anything but a cinch, could you?"
+<P>
+"And it turned out different?"
+<P>
+"One of us stumbled over a rock as we were creeping forward. Campeau heard
+us and drew. The first shot came from them. Now, I'm going to tell you something
+you're to keep under your own hat. It will surprise you a heap when I tell
+you that one man on our side did all the damage. He was at the haid of the
+line, and it happens he is a dead shot. He is liable to rages, when he acts
+like a crazy man. He got one now. Before we could put a stopper on him, he
+had killed Campeau and Jennings, and wounded the herders. The whole thing
+was done before you could wink an eye six times. For just about that long
+we stood there like roped calves. Then we downed the man in his tracks, slammed
+him with the butt of a revolver."
+<P>
+Howard stopped and looked at the ranger before he spoke again. His voice
+was rough and hoarse.
+<P>
+"Steve, I've seen men killed before, but I never saw anything so awful as
+that. It was just like they had been struck by lightning for suddenness.
+There was that devil scattering death among them and the poor fellows crumpling
+up like rabbits. I tell you every time I think of it the thing makes me sick."
+<P>
+The ranger nodded. He understood. The picture rose before him of a man in
+a Berserk rage, stark mad for the moment, playing Destiny on that lonely,
+moonlit hill. The face his instinct fitted to the irresponsible murderer
+was that of Jed Briscoe. Somehow he was sure of that, beyond the shadow of
+a doubt. His imagination conceived that long ride back across the hills,
+the deep agonies of silence, the fierce moments of vindictive accusation.
+No doubt for long the tug of conscience was with them in all their waking
+hours, for these men were mostly simple-minded cattlemen caught in the web
+of evil chance.
+<P>
+"That's how it was, Steve. In as long as it takes to empty a Winchester,
+we were every one of us guilty of a murder we'd each have given a laig to
+have stopped. We were all in it, all tied together, because we had broke
+the law to go raiding in the first place. Technically, the man that emptied
+that rifle wasn't any more guilty than us poor wretches that stood frozen
+there while he did it. Put it that we might shave the gallows, even then
+the penitentiary would bury us. There was only one thing to do. We agreed
+to stand together, and keep mum."
+<P>
+"Is that why you're telling me, Alec?" Fraser smiled.
+<P>
+"We ain't telling you, not legally," the cow-puncher answered coolly. "If
+you was ever to say we had, Dick and me would deny it. But we ain't worrying
+any about you telling it. You're a clam, and we know it. No, we're telling
+you, son, because we want you to know about how it was. The boys didn't ride
+out to do murder. They rode out simply to drive the sheep off their range."
+<P>
+The Texan nodded. "That's about how I figured it. I'm glad you told me, boys.
+I reckon I don't need to tell you I'm padlocked in regard to this."
+<P>
+Arlie came to the door and looked in. "It's time you boys were going. Doc
+said a half hour"
+<P>
+"All right, Arlie," responded Dick. "So-long, Steve. Be good, you old pie
+eater."
+<P>
+After they had gone, the Texan lay silent for a long time. He understood
+perfectly their motive in telling him the story. They had not compromised
+themselves legally, since a denial would have given them two to one in the
+matter of witnesses. But they wished him to see that, morally, every man
+but one who rode on that raid was guiltless of the Squaw Creek murders.
+<P>
+Arlie came in presently, and sat down near the window with some embroidery.
+<P>
+"Did the boys tire you?" she asked, noting his unusual silence.
+<P>
+"No. I was thinking about what they told me. They were giving me the inside
+facts of the Squaw Creek raid."
+<P>
+She looked up in surprise. "They were?" A little smile began to dimple the
+corners of her mouth. "That's funny, because they had just got through forgiving
+me for what I told you."
+<P>
+"What they told me was how the shooting occurred."
+<P>
+"I don't know anything about that. When I told you their names I was only
+telling what I had heard people whisper. That's all I knew."
+<P>
+"You've been troubled because your friends were in this, haven't you? You
+hated to think it of them, didn't you?" he asked.
+<P>
+"Yes. It has troubled me a lot."
+<P>
+"Don't let it trouble you any more. One man was responsible for all the
+bloodshed. He went mad and saw red for half a minute. Before the rest could
+stop him, the slaughter was done. The other boys aren't guilty of that, any
+more than you or I."
+<P>
+"Oh, I'm glad&#151; I'm glad," she cried softly. Then, looking up quickly to him:
+"Who was the man?" she asked.
+<P>
+"I don't know. It is better that neither of us should know that."
+<P>
+"I'm glad the boys told you. It shows they trust you."
+<P>
+"They figure me out a white man," he answered carelessly.
+<P>
+"Ah! That's where I made my mistake." She looked at him bravely, though the
+color began to beat into her cheeks beneath the dusky tan. "Yet I knew it
+all the time&#151; in my heart. At least, after I had given myself time to think
+it over. I knew you couldn't be that. If I had given you time to explain&#151; but
+I always think too late."
+<P>
+His eyes, usually so clear and steely, softened at her words. "I'm satisfied
+if you knew&#151; <I>in your heart."</I>
+<P>
+"I meant&#151;&#151;" she began, with a flush.
+<P>
+"Now, don't spoil it, please," he begged.
+<P>
+Under his steady, half-smiling gaze, her eyes fell. Two weeks ago she had
+been a splendid young creature, as untaught of life as one of the wild forest
+animals and as unconsciously eager for it. But there had come a change over
+her, a birth of womanhood from that night when she had stood between Stephen
+Fraser and death. No doubt she would often regret it, but she had begun to
+live more deeply. She could never go back to the care-free days when she
+could look all men in the face with candid, girlish eyes. The time had come
+to her, as it must to all sensitive of life, when she must drink of it, whether
+she would or no.
+<P>
+"Because I'd rather you would know it in your <I>heart</I> than in your mind,"
+he said.
+<P>
+Something sweet and terrifying, with the tingle and warmth of rare wine in
+it, began to glow in her veins. Eyes shy, eager, frightened, met his for
+an instant. Then she remembered the other girl. Something hard as steel ran
+through her. She turned on her heel and left the room.
+<h3>CHAPTER XV</h3>
+<h4>THE TEXAN PAYS A VISIT</h4>
+<P>
+From that day Fraser had a new nurse. Arlie disappeared, and her aunt replaced
+her a few hours later and took charge of the patient. Steve took her desertion
+as an irritable convalescent does, but he did not let his disappointment
+make him unpleasant to Miss Ruth Dillon.
+<P>
+"I'm a chump," he told himself, with deep disgust. "Hadn't any more sense
+than to go scaring off the little girl by handing out a line of talk she
+ain't used to. I reckon now she's done with me proper."
+<P>
+He continued to improve so rapidly that within the prescribed two weeks he
+was on horseback again, though still a little weak and washed out. His first
+ride of any length was to the Dillon ranch. Siegfried accompanied him, and
+across the Norwegian's saddle lay a very business-like rifle.
+<P>
+As they were passing the mouth of a ca&ntilde;on, the ranger put a casual
+question: "This Jack Rabbit Run, Sig?"
+<P>
+"Yah. More men wanted bane lost in that gulch than any place Ay knows of."
+<P>
+"That so? I'm going in there to-morrow to find that man Struve," his friend
+announced carelessly.
+<P>
+The big blonde giant looked at him. "Yuh bain't, Steve? Why, yuh bain't fit
+to tackle a den uh wild cats." An admiring grin lit the Norwegian's face.
+"Durn my hide, yuh've got 'em all skinned for grit, Steve. Uh course, Ay
+bane goin' with yuh."
+<P>
+"If it won't get you in bad with your friends I'll be glad to have you, Sig."
+<P>
+"They bain't my friends. Ay bane shook them, an' served notice to that effect."
+<P>
+"Glad of it."
+<P>
+"Yuh bane goin' in after Struve only?"
+<P>
+"Yes. He's the only man I want."
+<P>
+"Then Ay bane go in, and bring heem out to yuh."
+<P>
+Fraser shook his head. "No, old man, I've got to play my own hand."
+<P>
+"Ay t'ink it be a lot safer f'r me to happen in an' get heem," remonstrated
+Siegfried.
+<P>
+"Safer for me," corrected the lieutenant, smiling. "No, I can't work that
+way. I've got to take my own chances. You can go along, though, on one condition.
+You're not to interfere between me and Struve. If some one else butts in,
+you may ask him why, if you like.
+<P>
+"Ay bane t'ink yuh von fool, Steve. But Ay bane no boss. Vat yuh says goes."
+<P>
+They found Arlie watering geraniums in front of the house. Siegfried merely
+nodded to her and passed on to the stables with the horses. Fraser dismounted,
+offering her his hand and his warm smile.
+<P>
+He had caught her without warning, and she was a little shy of him. Not only
+was she embarrassed, but she saw that he knew it. He sat down on the step,
+while she continued to water her flowers.
+<P>
+"You see your bad penny turned up again, Miss Arlie," he said.
+<P>
+"I didn't know you were able to ride yet, Lieutenant Fraser."
+<P>
+"This is my first try at it. Thought I'd run over and say 'Thank you' to
+my nurse."
+<P>
+"I'll call auntie," she said quickly.
+<P>
+He shook his head. "Not necessary, Miss Arlie. I settled up with her. I was
+thinking of the nurse that ran off and left me."
+<P>
+She was beginning to recover herself. "You want to thank her for leaving
+while there was still hope," she said, with a quick little smile.
+<P>
+"Why did you do it? I've been mighty lonesome the past two weeks," he said
+quietly.
+<P>
+"You would be, of course. You are used to an active outdoor life, and I suppose
+the boys couldn't get round to see you very often."
+<P>
+"I wasn't thinking of the boys," he meditated aloud.
+<P>
+Arlie blushed; and to hide her embarrassment she called to Jimmie, who was
+passing: "Bring up Lieutenant Fraser's Teddy. I want him to see how well
+we're caring for his horse."
+<P>
+As a diversion, Teddy served very well. Horse and owner were both mightily
+pleased to see each other. While the animal rubbed its nose against his coat,
+the ranger teased and petted it.
+<P>
+"Hello, you old Teddy hawss. How air things a-comin', pardner?" he drawled,
+with a reversion to his Texas speech. "Plumb tickled to death to meet up
+with yore old master, ain't you? How come it you ain't fallen in love with
+this young lady and forgot Steve?"
+<P>
+"He thinks a lot of me, too," Arlie claimed promptly.
+<P>
+"Don't blame you a bit, Teddy. I'll ce'tainly shake hands with you on that.
+But life's jest meetin' and partin', old hawss. I got to take you away for
+good, day after to-morrow."
+<P>
+"Where are you going?" the girl asked quickly. Then, to cover the swift interest
+of her question: "But, of course, it is time you were going back to your
+business."
+<P>
+"No, ma'am, that is just it. Seems to me either too soon or too late to be
+going."
+<P>
+She had her face turned from him, and was busy over her plants, to hide the
+tremulous dismay that had shaken her at his news.
+<P>
+She did not ask him what he meant, nor did she ask again where he was going.
+For the moment, she could not trust her voice to say more.
+<P>
+"Too late, because I've seen in this valley some one I'll never forget, and
+too soon because that some one will forget me, sure as a gun," he told her.
+<P>
+"Not if you write to him."
+<P>
+"It isn't a him. It's my little nurse."
+<P>
+"I'll tell auntie how you feel about it, and I'm sure she won't forget you."
+<P>
+"You know mighty well I ain't talking about auntie."
+<P>
+"Then I suppose you must mean me."
+<P>
+"That's who I'm meaning."
+<P>
+"I think I'll be able to remember you if I try&#151; by Teddy," she answered,
+without looking at him, and devoted herself to petting the horse.
+<P>
+"Is it&#151; would it be any use to say any more, Arlie?" he asked, in a low voice,
+as he stood beside her, with Teddy's nose in his hands.
+<P>
+"I&#151; I don't know what you mean, sir. Please don't say anything more about
+it." Then again memory of the other girl flamed through her. "No, it
+wouldn't&#151; not a bit of use, not a bit," she broke out fiercely.
+<P>
+"You mean you couldn't&#151;&#151;"
+<P>
+The flame in her face, the eyes that met his, as if drawn by a magnet, still
+held their anger, but mingled with it was a piteous plea for mercy. "I&#151; I'm
+only a girl. Why don't you let me alone?" she cried bitterly, and hard upon
+her own words turned and ran from the room.
+<P>
+Steve looked after her in amazed surprise. "Now don't it beat the band the
+way a woman takes a thing."
+<P>
+Dubiously he took himself to the stable and said good-by to Dillon.
+<P>
+An hour later she went down to dinner still flushed and excited. Before she
+had been in the room two minutes her father gave her a piece of startling
+news.
+<P>
+"I been talking to Steve. Gracious, gyurl, what do you reckon that boy's
+a-goin' to do?"
+<P>
+Arlie felt the color leap into her cheeks.
+<P>
+"What, dad?"
+<P>
+"He's a'goin' back to Gimlet Butte, to give himself up to Brandt, day after
+to-morrow."
+<P>
+"But&#151; what for?" she gasped.
+<P>
+"Durned if I know! He's got some fool notion about playin' fair. Seems he
+came into the Cedar Mountain country to catch the Squaw Creek raiders. Brandt
+let him escape on that pledge. Well, he's give up that notion, and now he
+thinks, dad gum it, that it's up to him to surrender to Brandt again."
+<P>
+The girl's eyes were like stars. "And he's going to go back there and give
+himself up, to be tried for killing Faulkner."
+<P>
+Dillon scratched his head. "By gum, gyurl, I didn't think of that. We cayn't
+let him go."
+<P>
+"Yes, we can."
+<P>
+"Why, honey, he didn't kill Faulkner, looks like. We cayn't let him go back
+there and take our medicine for us. Mebbe he would be lynched. It's a sure
+thing he'd be convicted."
+<P>
+"Never mind. Let him go. I've got a plan, dad." Her vivid face was alive
+with the emotion which spoke in it. "When did he say he was going?" she asked
+buoyantly.
+<P>
+"Day after to-morrow. Seems he's got business that keeps
+him hyer to-morrow. What's yore idee, honey?"
+<P>
+She got up, and whispered it in his ear. His jaw dropped, and he stared at
+her in amazement.
+<h3>CHAPTER XVI</h3>
+<h4>THE WOLF BITES</h4>
+<P>
+Steve came drowsily to consciousness from confused dreams of a cattle stampede
+and the click of rifles in the hands of enemies who had the drop on him.
+The rare, untempered sunshine of the Rockies poured into his window from
+a world outside, wonderful as the early morning of creation. The hillside
+opposite was bathed miraculously in a flood of light, in which grasshoppers
+fiddled triumphantly their joy in life. The sources of his dreams discovered
+themselves in the bawl of thirsty cattle and the regular clicking of a windmill.
+<P>
+A glance at his watch told him that it was six o'clock.
+<P>
+"Time to get up, Steve," he told himself, and forthwith did.
+<P>
+He chose a rough crash towel, slipped on a pair of Howard's moccasins, and
+went down to the river through an ambient that had the sparkle and exhilaration
+of champagne. The mountain air was still finely crisp with the frost, in
+spite of the sun warmth that was beginning to mellow it. Flinging aside the
+Indian blanket he had caught up before leaving the cabin, he stood for an
+instant on the bank, a human being with the physical poise, compactness,
+and lithe-muscled smoothness of a tiger.
+<P>
+Even as he plunged a rifle cracked. While he dived through the air, before
+the shock of the icy water tingled through him, he was planning his escape.
+The opposite bank rose ten feet above the stream. He kept under the water
+until he came close to this, then swam swiftly along it with only his head
+showing, so as to keep him out of sight as much as possible.
+<P>
+Half a stone's throw farther the bank fell again to the water's edge, the
+river having broadened and grown shallow, as mountain creeks do. The ranger
+ran, stooping, along the bank, till it afforded him no more protection, then
+dashed across the stony-bottomed stream to the shelter of the thick aspens
+beyond.
+<P>
+Just as he expected, a shot rang from far up the mountainside. In another
+instant he was safe in the foliage of the young aspens.
+<P>
+In the sheer exhilaration of his escape he laughed aloud.
+<P>
+"Last show to score gone, Mr. Struve. I figured it just right. He waited
+too long for his first shot. Then the bank hid me. He wasn't expecting to
+see me away down the stream, so he hadn't time to sight his second one."
+<P>
+Steve wound his way in and out among the aspens, working toward the tail
+of them, which ran up the hill a little way and dropped down almost to the
+back door of the cabin. Upon this he was presently pounding.
+<P>
+Howard let him in. He had a revolver in his hand, the first weapon he could
+snatch up.
+<P>
+"You durned old idiot! It's a wonder you ain't dead three ways for Sunday,"
+he shouted joyfully at sight of him. "Ain't I told you 'steen times to do
+what bathin' you got to do, right here in the shack?"
+<P>
+The Texan laughed again. Naked as that of Father Adam, his splendid body
+was glowing with the bath and the exercise.
+<P>
+"He's ce'tainly the worst chump ever, Alec. Had me in sight all the way down
+to the creek, but waited till I wasn't moving. Reckon he was nervous. Anyhow,
+he waited just one-tenth of a second too late. Shot just as I leaned forward
+for my dive. He gave me a free hair-cut though."
+<P>
+A swath showed where the bullet had mowed a furrow of hair so close that
+in one place it had slightly torn the scalp.
+<P>
+"He shot again, didn't he?"
+<P>
+"Yep. I swam along the far bank, so that he couldn't get at me, and crossed
+into the aspens. He got another chance as I was crossing, but he had to take
+it on the fly, and missed."
+<P>
+The cattleman surveyed the hillside cautiously through the front window.
+"I reckon he's pulled his freight, most likely. But we'll stay cooped for
+a while, on the chance. You're the luckiest cuss I ever did see. More lives
+than a cat."
+<P>
+Howard laid his revolver down within reach, and proceeded to light a fire
+in the stove, from which rose presently the pleasant odors of aromatic coffee
+and fried ham and eggs.
+<P>
+"Come and get it, Steve," said Howard, by way of announcing breakfast. "No,
+you don't. I'll take the window seat, and at that we'll have the curtain
+drawn."
+<P>
+They were just finishing breakfast when Siegfried cantered up.
+<P>
+"You bane ready, Steve?" he called in.
+<P>
+Howard appeared in the doorway. "Say, Sig, go down to the corral and saddle
+up Teddy for Steve, will you? Some of his friends have been potshotting at
+him again. No damage done, except to my feelings, but there's nothing like
+being careful."
+<P>
+Siegfried's face darkened. "Ay bane like for know who it vas?"
+<P>
+Howard laughed. "Now, if you'll tell Steve that he'll give you as much as
+six bits, Sig. He's got notions, but they ain't worth any more than yours
+or mine. Say, where you boys going to-day? I've a notion to go along."
+<P>
+"Oh, just out for a little <I>pasear,"</I> Steve answered casually. "Thought
+you were going to work on your south fence to-day."
+<P>
+"Well, I reckon I better. It sure needs fixing. You lads take good care of
+yourselves. I don't need to tell you not to pass anywhere near the run, Sig,"
+he grinned, with the manner of one giving a superfluous warning.
+<P>
+Fraser looked at Siegfried, with a smile in his eyes. "No, we'll not pass
+the run to-day, Alec."
+<P>
+A quarter of an hour later they were in the saddle and away. Siegfried did
+not lead his friend directly up the ca&ntilde;on that opened into Jack Rabbit
+Run, but across the hills to a pass, which had to be taken on foot. They
+left the horses picketed on a grassy slope, and climbed the faint trail that
+went steeply up the bowlder-strewn mountain.
+<P>
+The ascent was so steep that the last bit had to be done on all fours. It
+was a rock face, though by no means an impossible one, since projecting ledges
+and knobs offered a foothold all the way. From the summit, the trail edged
+its way down so precipitously that twice fallen pines had to be used as ladders
+for the descent.
+<P>
+As soon as they were off the rocks, the big blonde gave the signal for silence.
+"Ay bane t'ink we might meet up weeth some one," he whispered, and urged
+Steve to follow him as closely as possible.
+<P>
+It was half an hour later that Sig pointed out a small clearing ahead of
+them. "Cabin's right oop on the edge of the aspens. See it?"
+<P>
+The ranger nodded assent.
+<P>
+"Ay bane go down first an' see how t'ings look."
+<P>
+When the Norwegian entered the cabin, he saw two men seated at a table, playing
+seven up. The one facing him was Tommie, the cook; the other was an awkward
+heavy-set fellow, whom he knew for the man he wanted, even before the scarred,
+villainous face was twisted toward him.
+<P>
+Struve leaped instantly to his feet, overturning his chair in his haste.
+He had not met the big Norseman since the night he had attempted to hang
+Fraser.
+<P>
+"Ay bane not shoot yuh now," Siegfried told him.
+<P>
+"Right sure of that, are you?" the convict snarled, his hand on his weapon.
+"If you've got any doubts, now's the time to air them, and we'll settle this
+thing right now."
+<P>
+"Ay bane not shoot, Ay tell you."
+<P>
+Tommie, who had ducked beneath the table at the prospect
+of trouble, now cautiously emerged.
+<P>
+"I ain't lost any pills from either of your guns, gents," he explained, with
+a face so laughably and frankly frightened that both of the others smiled.
+<P>
+"Have a drink, Siegfried," suggested Struve, by way of sealing the treaty.
+"Tommie, get out that bottle."
+<P>
+"Ay bane t'ink Ay look to my horse first," the Norwegian answered, and
+immediately left by way of the back door not three minutes before Jed Briscoe
+entered by the front one.
+<P>
+Jed shut the door behind him and looked at the convict.
+<P>
+"Well?" he demanded.
+<P>
+Struve faced him sullenly, without answering.
+<P>
+"Tommie, <I>vamos,"</I> hinted Briscoe gently, and as soon as the cook had
+disappeared, he repeated his monosyllable: "Well?"
+<P>
+"It didn't come off," muttered the other sulkily.
+<P>
+"Just what I expected. Why not?"
+<P>
+Struve broke into a string of furious oaths. "Because I missed him&#151; missed
+him twice, when he was standing there naked before me. He was coming down
+to the creek to take a bath, and I waited till he was close. I had a sure
+bead on him, and he dived just as I fired. I got another chance, when he
+was running across, farther down, and, by thunder, I missed again."
+<P>
+Jed laughed, and the sound of it was sinister.
+<P>
+"Couldn't hit the side of a house, could you? You're nothing but a cheap
+skate, a tin-horn gambler, run down at the heels. All right. I'm through
+with you. Lieutenant Fraser, from Texas, can come along and collect whenever
+he likes. I'll not protect a false alarm like you any longer."
+<P>
+Struve looked at him, as a cornered wolf might have done. "What will you
+do?"
+<P>
+"I'll give you up to him. I'll tell him to come in and get you. I'll show
+him the way in, you white-livered cur!" bullied the cattleman, giving way
+to one of his rages.
+<P>
+"You'd better not," snarled the convict. "Not if you want to live."
+<P>
+As they stood facing each other in a panting fury the door opened, to let
+in Siegfried and the ranger.
+<P>
+Jed's rage against Struve died on the spot. He saw his enemy, the ranger,
+before him, and leaped to the conclusion that he had come to this hidden
+retreat to run him down for the Squaw Creek murders. Instantly, his hand
+swept to the hilt of his revolver.
+<P>
+That motion sealed his doom. For Struve knew that Siegfried had brought the
+ranger to capture him, and suspected in the same flash that Briscoe was in
+on the betrayal. Had not the man as good as told him so, not thirty seconds
+before? He supposed that Jed was drawing to kill or cover him, and, like
+a flash of lightning, unscabbarded and fired.
+<P>
+"You infernal Judas, I'll get you anyhow," he cried.
+<P>
+Jed dropped his weapon, and reeled back against the wall, where he hung for
+a moment, while the convict pumped a second and a third bullet into his body.
+Briscoe was dead before Fraser could leap forward and throw his arms round
+the man who had killed him.
+<P>
+Between them, they flung Struve to the ground, and disarmed him. The convict's
+head had struck as he went down, and it was not for some little time that
+he recovered fully from his daze. When he did his hands were tied behind
+him.
+<P>
+"I didn't go for to kill him," he whimpered, now thoroughly frightened at
+what he had done. "You both saw it, gentlemen. You did, lieutenant. So did
+you, Sig. It was self-defense. He drew on me. I didn't go to do it."
+<P>
+Fraser was examining the dead man's wounds. He looked up, and said to his
+friend: "Nothing to do for him, Sig. He's gone."
+<P>
+"I tell you, I didn't mean to do it," pleaded Struve. "Why, lieutenant, that
+man has been trying to get me to ambush you for weeks. I'll swear it." The
+convict was in a panic of terror, ready to curry favor with the man whom
+he held his deadliest enemy. "Yes, lieutenant, ever since you came here.
+He's been egging me on to kill you."
+<P>
+"And you tried it three times?"
+<P>
+"No, sir." He pointed vindictively at the dead man, lying face up on the
+floor. "It was him that ambushed you this morning. I hadn't a thing to do
+with it."
+<P>
+"Don't lie, you coward."
+<P>
+They carried the body to the next room and put it on a bed. Tommie was dispatched
+on a fast horse for help.
+<P>
+Late in the afternoon he brought back with him Doctor Lee, and half an hour
+after sunset Yorky and Slim galloped up. They were for settling the matter
+out of hand by stringing the convict Struve up to the nearest pine, but they
+found the ranger so very much on the spot that they reconsidered.
+<P>
+"He's my prisoner, gentlemen. I came in here and took him&#151; that is, with
+the help of my friend Siegfried. I reckon if you mill it over a spell, you'll
+find you don't want him half as bad as we do," he said mildly.
+<P>
+"What's the matter with all of us going in on this thing, lieutenant?" proposed
+Yorky.
+<P>
+"I never did see such a fellow for necktie parties as you are, Yorky. Not
+three weeks ago, you was invitin' me to be chief mourner at one of your little
+affairs, and your friend Johnson was to be master of ceremonies. Now you've
+got the parts reversed. No, I reckon we'll have to disappoint you this trip."
+<P>
+"What are you going to do with him?" asked Yorky, with plain dissatisfaction.
+<P>
+"I'm going to take him down to Gimlet Butte. Arizona and Wyoming and Texas
+will have to scrap it out for him there." <I>"When,</I> you get him there,"
+Yorky said significantly.
+<P>
+"Yes, when I get him there," answered the Texan blandly, carefully oblivious
+of the other's implication.
+<P>
+The moon was beginning to show itself over a hill before the Texan and Siegfried
+took the road with their captive. Fraser had carelessly let drop a remark
+to the effect that they would spend the night at the Dillon ranch.
+<P>
+His watch showed eleven o'clock before they reached the ranch, but he pushed
+on without turning in and did not stop until they came to the Howard place.
+<P>
+They roused Alec from sleep, and he cooked them a post-midnight supper, after
+which he saddled his cow pony, buckled on his belt, and took down his old
+rifle from the rack.
+<P>
+"I'll jog along with you lads and see the fun," he said.
+<P>
+Their prisoner had not eaten. The best he could do was to gulp down some
+coffee, for he was in a nervous chill of apprehension. Every gust of wind
+seemed to carry to him the patter of pursuit. The hooting of an owl sent
+a tremor through him.
+<P>
+"Don't you reckon we had better hurry?" he had asked with dry lips more than
+once, while the others were eating.
+<P>
+He asked it again as they were setting off.
+<P>
+Howard looked him over with rising disgust, without answering. Presently,
+he remarked, apropos of nothing: "Are all your Texas wolves coyotes, Steve?"
+<P>
+He would have liked to know at least that it was a man whose life he was
+protecting, even though the fellow was also a villain. But this crumb of
+satisfaction was denied him.
+<h3>CHAPTER XVII</h3>
+<h4>ON THE ROAD TO GIMLET BUTTE</h4>
+<P>
+"We'll go out by the river way," said Howard tentatively. "Eh, what think,
+Sig? It's longer, but Yorky will be expecting us to take the short cut over
+the pass."
+<P>
+The Norwegian agreed. "It bane von chance, anyhow."
+<P>
+By unfrequented trails they traversed the valley till they reached the
+ca&ntilde;on down which poured Squaw Creek on its way to the outside world.
+A road ran alongside this for a mile or two, but disappeared into the stream
+when the gulch narrowed. The first faint streaks of gray dawn were lightening
+the sky enough for Fraser to see this. He was riding in advance, and commented
+upon it to Siegfried, who rode with him.
+<P>
+The Norwegian laughed. "Ay bane t'ink we do some wadin'."
+<P>
+They swung off to the right, and a little later splashed through the water
+for a few minutes and came out into a spreading valley beyond the sheer walls
+of the retreat they had left. Taking the road again, they traveled faster
+than they had been able to do before.
+<P>
+"Who left the valley yesterday for Gimlet Butte, Sig?" Howard asked, after
+it was light enough to see. "I notice tracks of two horses."
+<P>
+"Ay bane vondering. Ay t'ink mebbe West over&#151;&#151;"
+<P>
+"I reckon not. This ain't the track of his big bay. Must 'a' been yesterday,
+too, because it rained the night before."
+<P>
+For some hours they could see occasionally the tracks of the two horses,
+but eventually lost them where two trails forked.
+<P>
+"Taking the Sweetwater cutout to the Butte, I reckon," Howard surmised.
+<P>
+They traveled all day, except for a stop about ten o'clock for breakfast,
+and another late in the afternoon, to rest the horses. At night, they put
+up at a ranch house, and were in the saddle again early in the morning. Before
+noon, they struck a telephone line, and Fraser called up Brandt at a ranch.
+<P>
+"Hello! This Sheriff Brandt? Lieutenant Fraser, of the Texas Rangers, is
+talking. I'm on my way to town with a prisoner. We're at Christy's, now.
+There will, perhaps, be an attempt to take him from us. I'll explain the
+circumstances later. ... Yes.... Yes.... We can hold him, I think, but there
+may be trouble.... Yes, that's it. We have no legal right to detain him,
+I suppose.... That's what I was going to suggest. Better send about four
+men to meet us. We'll come in on the Blasted Pine road. About nine to-night,
+I should think."
+<P>
+As they rode easily along the dusty road, the Texan explained his plan to
+his friends.
+<P>
+"We don't want any trouble with Yorky's crowd. We ain't any of us deputies,
+and my commission doesn't run in Wyoming, of course. My notion is to lie
+low in the hills two or three hours this afternoon, and give Brandt a chance
+to send his men out to meet us. The responsibility will be on them, and we
+can be sworn in as deputies, too,"
+<P>
+They rested in a grassy draw, about fifteen miles from town, and took the
+trail again shortly after dark. It was an hour later that Fraser, who had
+an extraordinary quick ear, heard the sound of men riding toward them. He
+drew his party quickly into the shadows of the hills, a little distance from
+the road.
+<P>
+They could hear voices of the advancing party, and presently could make out
+words.
+<P>
+"I tell you, they've got to come in on this road, Slim," one of the men was
+saying dogmatically. "We're bound to meet up with them. That's all there
+is to it."
+<P>
+"Yorky," whispered Howard, in the ranger's ear.
+<P>
+They rode past in pairs, six of them in all. As chance would have it, Siegfried's
+pony, perhaps recognizing a friend among those passing, nickered shrilly
+its greeting. Instantly, the riders drew up.
+<P>
+"Where did that come from?" Yorky asked, in a low voice.
+<P>
+"From over to the right. I see men there now See! Up against that hill."
+Slim pointed toward the group in the shadow.
+<P>
+Yorky hailed them. "That you, Sig?"
+<P>
+"Yuh bane von good guesser," answered the Norwegian.
+<P>
+"How many of you are there?"
+<P>
+"Four, Yorky," Fraser replied.
+<P>
+"There are six of us. We've got you outnumbered, boys."
+<P>
+Very faintly there came to the lieutenant the beat of horses' feet. He sparred
+for time.
+<P>
+"What do you want, Yorky?"
+<P>
+"You know what we want. That murderer you've got there&#151; that's what we want."
+<P>
+"We're taking him in to be tried, Yorky. Justice will be done to him."
+<P>
+"Not at Gimlet Butte it won't. No jury will convict him for killing Jed Briscoe,
+from Lost Valley. We're going to hang him, right now."
+<P>
+"You'll have to fight for him, my friend, and before you do that I want you
+to understand the facts."
+<P>
+"We understand all the facts we need to, right now."
+<P>
+The lieutenant rode forward alone. He knew that soon they too would hear
+the rhythmic beat of the advancing posse.
+<P>
+"We've got all night to settle this, boys. Let's do what is fair and square.
+That's all I ask."
+<P>
+"Now you're shouting, lieutenant. That's all we ask."
+<P>
+"It depends on what you mean by fair and square," another one spoke up.
+<P>
+The ranger nodded amiably at him. "That you, Harris? Well, let's look at
+the facts right. Here's Lost Valley, that's had a bad name ever since it
+was inhabited. Far as I can make out its settlers are honest men, regarded
+outside as miscreants. Just as folks were beginning to forget it, comes the
+Squaw Creek raid. Now, I'm not going into that, and I'm not going to say
+a word against the man that lies dead up in the hills. But I'll say this:
+His death solves a problem for a good many of the boys up there. I'm going
+to make it my business to see that the facts are known right down in Gimlet
+Butte. I'm going to lift the blame from the boys that were present, and couldn't
+help what happened."
+<P>
+Yorky was impressed, but suspicion was not yet banished from his mind. "You
+seem to know a lot about it, lieutenant."
+<P>
+"No use discussing that, Yorky. I know what I know. Here's the great big
+point: If you lynch the man that shot Jed, the word will go out that the
+valley is still a nest of lawless outlaws. The story will be that the Squaw
+Creek raiders and their friends did it. Just as the situation is clearing
+up nicely, you'll make it a hundred times worse by seeming to indorse what
+Jed did on Squaw Creek."
+<P>
+"By thunder, that's right," Harris blurted.
+<P>
+Fraser spoke again. "Listen, boys. Do you hear horses galloping? That is
+Sheriff Brandt's deputies, coming to our assistance. You've lost the game,
+but you can save your faces yet. Join us, and kelp escort the prisoner to
+town. Nobody need know why you came out. We'll put it that it was to guard
+against a lynching."
+<P>
+The men looked at each other sheepishly. They had been outwitted, and in
+their hearts were glad of it. Harris turned to the ranger with a laugh. "You're
+a good one, Fraser. Kept us here talking, while your re&euml;nforcements
+came up. Well, boys, I reckon we better join the Sunday-school class."
+<P>
+So it happened that when Sheriff Brandt and his men came up they found the
+mountain folk united. He was surprised at the size of the force with the
+Texan.
+<P>
+"You're certainly of a cautious disposition, lieutenant. With eight men to
+help you, I shouldn't have figured you needed my posse," he remarked.
+<P>
+"It gives you the credit of bringing in the prisoner, sheriff," Steve told
+him unblushingly, voicing the first explanation that came to his mind.
+<h3>CHAPTER XVIII</h3>
+<h4>A WITNESS IN REBUTTAL</h4>
+<P>
+Two hours later, Lieutenant Fraser was closeted with Brandt and Hilliard.
+He told them his story&#151; or as much of it as he deemed necessary. The prosecuting
+attorney heard him to an end before he gave a short, skeptical laugh.
+<P>
+"It doesn't seem to me you've quite lived up to your reputation, lieutenant,"
+he commented.
+<P>
+"I wasn't trying to," retorted Steve.
+<P>
+"What do you mean by that?"
+<P>
+"I have told you how I got into the valley. I couldn't go in there and betray
+my friends."
+<P>
+Hilliard wagged his fat forefinger. "How about betraying our trust? How about
+throwing us down? We let you escape, after you had given us your word to
+do this job, didn't we?"
+<P>
+"Yes. I had to throw you down. There wasn't any other way."
+<P>
+"You tell a pretty fishy story, lieutenant. It doesn't stand to reason that
+one man did all the mischief on that Squaw Creek raid."
+<P>
+"It is true. Not a shadow of a doubt of it. I'll bring you three witnesses,
+if you'll agree to hold them guiltless."
+<P>
+"And I suppose I'm to agree to hold you guiltless of Faulkner's death, too?"
+the lawyer demanded.
+<P>
+"I didn't say that. I'm here, Mr. Hilliard, to deliver my person, because
+I can't stand by the terms of our agreement. I think I've been fair with
+you."
+<P>
+Hilliard looked at Brandt, with twinkling eyes. It struck Fraser that they
+had between them some joke in which he was not a sharer.
+<P>
+"You're willing to assume full responsibility for the death of Faulkner,
+are you? Ready to plead guilty, eh?"
+<P>
+Fraser laughed. "Just a moment. I didn't say that. What I said was that I'm
+here to stand my trial. It's up to you to prove me guilty."
+<P>
+"But, in point of fact, you practically admit it."
+<P>
+"In point of fact, I would prefer not to say so. Prove it, if you can."
+<P>
+"I have witnesses here, ready to swear to the truth, lieutenant."
+<P>
+"Aren't your witnesses prejudiced a little?"
+<P>
+"Maybe." The smile on Hilliard's fat face broadened. "Two of them are right
+here. Suppose we find out."
+<P>
+He stepped to the door of the inner office, and opened it. From the room
+emerged Dillon and his daughter. The Texan looked at Arlie in blank amazement.
+<P>
+"This young lady says she was present, lieutenant, and knows who fired the
+shot that killed Faulkner."
+<P>
+The ranger saw only Arlie. His gaze was full of deep reproach. "You came
+down here to save me," he said, in the manner of one stating a fact.
+<P>
+"Why shouldn't I? Ought I to have let you suffer for me? Did you think I
+was so base?"
+<P>
+"You oughtn't to have done it. You have brought trouble on yourself."
+<P>
+Her eyes glowed with deep fires. "I don't care. I have done what was right.
+Did you think dad and I would sit still and let you pay forfeit for us?"
+<P>
+The lieutenant's spirits rejoiced at the thing she had done, but his mind
+could not forget what she must go through.
+<P>
+"I'm glad and I'm sorry," he said simply.
+<P>
+Hilliard came, smiling, to relieve the situation. "I've got a piece of good
+news for both of you. Two of the boys that were in that shooting scrap three
+miles from town came to my office the other day and admitted that they attacked
+you. It got noised around that there was a girl in it, and they were anxious
+to have the thing dropped. I don't think either of you need worry about it
+any more."
+<P>
+Dillon gave a shout. "Glory, hallelujah!" He had been much troubled, and
+his relief shone on his face. "I say, gentlemen, that's the best news I've
+heard in twenty years. Let's go celebrate it with just one."
+<P>
+Brandt and Hilliard joined him, but the Texan lingered.
+<P>
+"I reckon I'll join you later, gentlemen," he said.
+<P>
+While their footsteps died away he looked steadily at Arlie. Her eyes met
+his and held fast. Beneath the olive of her cheeks, a color began to glow.
+<P>
+He held out both his hands. The light in his eyes softened, transfigured
+his hard face. "You can't help it, honey. It may not be what you would have
+chosen, but it has got to be. You're mine."
+<P>
+Almost beneath her breath she spoke. "You forgot&#151; the other girl."
+<P>
+"What other girl? There is none&#151; never was one."
+<P>
+"The girl in the picture."
+<P>
+His eyes opened wide. "Good gracious! She's been married three months to
+a friend of mine. Larry Neill his name is."
+<P>
+"And she isn't your sweetheart at all? Never was?"
+<P>
+"I don't reckon she ever was. Neill took that picture himself. We were laughing,
+because I had just been guying them about how quick they got engaged. She
+was saying I'd be engaged myself before six months. And I am. Ain't I?"
+<P>
+She came to him slowly&#151; first, the little outstretched hands, and then the
+soft, supple, resilient body. Slowly, too, her sweet reluctant lips came
+round to meet his.
+<P>
+"Yes, Steve, I'm yours. I think I always have been, even before I knew you."
+<P>
+"Even when you hated me?" he asked presently.
+<P>
+"Most of all, when I hated you," She laughed happily. "That was just another
+way of love."
+<P>
+"We'll have fifty years to find out all the different ways," the man promised.
+<P>
+"Fifty years. Oh, Steve!"
+<P>
+She gave a happy little sigh, and nestled closer.
+
+<pre>
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A TEXAS RANGER ***
+
+This file should be named txsrn10.txt or txsrn10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, txsrn11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, txsrn10a.txt
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+<a href="http://gutenberg.net">http://gutenberg.net</a> or
+<a href="http://promo.net/pg">http://promo.net/pg</a>
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+<a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04">http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04</a> or
+<a href="ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03">ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03</a>
+
+Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html">http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html</a>
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart &lt;hart@pobox.com&gt;
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+<a href="mailto:hart@pobox.com">hart@pobox.com</a>
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
+
+</pre>
+</BODY></HTML>
diff --git a/old/2004-01-txsrn10h.zip b/old/2004-01-txsrn10h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4af267c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2004-01-txsrn10h.zip
diff --git a/old/4993-h.htm.2021-01-27 b/old/4993-h.htm.2021-01-27
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f43802
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/4993-h.htm.2021-01-27
@@ -0,0 +1,12293 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      A Texas Ranger, by William Macleod Raine,
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Texas Ranger, by William MacLeod Raine
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Texas Ranger
+
+Author: William MacLeod Raine
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4993]
+Last Updated: March 12, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TEXAS RANGER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jim Weiler and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      A TEXAS RANGER
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By William MacLeod Raine,
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      1910
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_FORE"> FOREWORD TO YE GENTLE READER. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_PART"> <big><b>PART I &mdash; THE MAN FROM THE PANHANDLE</b></big>
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I &mdash; A DESERT MEETING </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II &mdash; LIEUTENANT FRASER INTERFERES.
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III &mdash; A DISCOVERY </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV &mdash; LOST! </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V &mdash; LARRY NEILL TO THE RESCUE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI &mdash; SOMEBODY'S ACTING MIGHTY
+      FOOLISH. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII &mdash; ENTER MR. DUNKE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII &mdash; WOULD YOU WORRY ABOUT ME?
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX &mdash; DOWN THE JACKRABBIT SHAFT.
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X &mdash; IN A TUNNEL OF THE MAL PAIS
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI &mdash; THE SOUTHERNER TAKES A RISK
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII &mdash; EXIT DUNKE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII &mdash; STEVE OFFERS CONGRATULATIONS
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_PART2"> <big><b>PART II &mdash; THE GIRL OF LOST VALLEY</b></big>
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER I &mdash; IN THE FIRE ZONE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER II &mdash; A COMPACT </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER III &mdash; INTO LOST VALLEY </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER IV &mdash; THE WARNING OF MANTRAP GULCH
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER V &mdash; JED BRISCOE TAKES A HAND </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER VI &mdash; A SURE ENOUGH WOLF </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER VII &mdash; THE ROUND-UP </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER VIII &mdash; THE BRONCHO BUSTERS </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER IX &mdash; A SHOT FROM BALD KNOB </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER X &mdash; DOC LEE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XI &mdash; THE FAT IN THE FIRE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XII &mdash; THE DANCE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XIII &mdash; THE WOLF HOWLS </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XIV &mdash; HOWARD EXPLAINS </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XV &mdash; THE TEXAN PAYS A VISIT </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XVI &mdash; THE WOLF BITES </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER XVII &mdash; ON THE ROAD TO GIMLET BUTTE
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0031"> CHAPTER XVIII &mdash; A WITNESS IN REBUTTAL </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_FORE" id="link2H_FORE">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      FOREWORD TO YE GENTLE READER.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Within the memory of those of us still on the sunny side of forty the more
+      remote West has passed from rollicking boyhood to its responsible
+      majority. The frontier has gone to join the good Indian. In place of the
+      ranger who patrolled the border for &ldquo;bad men&rdquo; has come the forest ranger,
+      type of the forward lapping tide of civilization. The place where I write
+      this&mdash;Tucson, Arizona&mdash;is now essentially more civilized than
+      New York. Only at the moving picture shows can the old West,
+      melodramatically overpainted, be shown to the manicured sons and daughters
+      of those, still living, who brought law and order to the mesquite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Arthur Chapman, the Western poet, has written:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  No loopholes now are framing
+  Lean faces, grim and brown;
+  No more keen eyes are aiming
+  To bring the redskin down.
+  The plough team's trappings jingle
+  Across the furrowed field,
+  And sounds domestic mingle
+  Where valor hung its shield.
+  But every wind careering
+  Seems here to breathe a song&mdash;
+  A song of brave frontiering&mdash;
+  A saga of the strong.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PART" id="link2H_PART">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      PART I &mdash; THE MAN FROM THE PANHANDLE
+    </h1>
+    <h3>
+      (In Which Steve Plays Second Fiddle)
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I &mdash; A DESERT MEETING
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As she lay crouched in the bear-grass there came to the girl clearly the
+      crunch of wheels over disintegrated granite. The trap had dipped into a
+      draw, but she knew that presently it would reappear on the winding road.
+      The knowledge smote her like a blast of winter, sent chills racing down
+      her spine, and shook her as with an ague. Only the desperation of her
+      plight spurred her flagging courage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Round the bend came a pair of bays hitched to a single-seated open rig.
+      They were driven by a young man, and as he reached the summit he drew up
+      opposite her and looked down into the valley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It lay in a golden glow at their feet, a basin of pure light and silence
+      stretching mile on mile to the distant edge of jagged mountain-line which
+      formed its lip. Sunlight strong as wine flooded a clean world, an amber
+      Eden slumbering in an unbroken, hazy dream primeval.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't move!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the summons the driver swung his head sharply to a picture he will
+      never forget. A young woman was standing on the bank at the edge of the
+      road covering him with a revolver, having apparently just stepped from
+      behind the trunk of the cottonwood beside her. The color had fled her
+      cheeks even to the edge of the dull red-copper waves of hair, but he could
+      detect in her slim young suppleness no doubt or uncertainty. On the
+      contrary, despite her girlish freshness, she looked very much like
+      business. She was like some young wild creature of the forest cornered and
+      brought to bay, but the very terror in her soul rendered her more
+      dangerous. Of the heart beating like a trip-hammer the gray unwinking eyes
+      that looked into hers read nothing. She had schooled her taut nerves to
+      obedience, and they answered her resolute will steadily despite fluttering
+      pulses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't move!&rdquo; she said again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want?&rdquo; he asked harshly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want your team,&rdquo; she panted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind. I want it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The rigor of his gaze slowly softened to a smile compound both of humor
+      and grimness. He was a man to appreciate a piquant situation, none the
+      less because it was at his expense. The spark that gleamed in his bold eye
+      held some spice of the devil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. This is your hold-up, ma'am. I'll not move,&rdquo; he said, almost
+      genially.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was uneasily aware that his surrender had been too tame. Strength lay
+      in that close-gripped salient jaw, in every line of the reckless sardonic
+      face, in the set of the lean muscular shoulders. She had nerved herself to
+      meet resistance, and instead he was yielding with complacent good nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get out!&rdquo; she commanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stepped from the rig and offered her the reins. As she reached for them
+      his right hand shot out and caught the wrist that held the weapon, his
+      left encircled her waist and drew her to him. She gave a little cry of
+      fear and strained from him, fighting with all her lissom strength to free
+      herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For all the impression she made the girdle round her waist might have been
+      of steel. Without moving, he held her as she struggled, his brown muscular
+      fingers slowly tightening round her wrist. Her stifled cry was of pain
+      this time, and before it had died the revolver fell to the ground from her
+      paralyzed grip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But her exclamation had been involuntary and born of the soft tender
+      flesh. The wild eyes that flamed into his asked for no quarter and
+      received none. He drew her slowly down toward him, inch by inch, till she
+      lay crushed and panting against him, but still unconquered. Though he held
+      the stiff resistant figure motionless she still flashed battle at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked into the storm and fury of her face, hiding he knew not what of
+      terror, and laughed in insolent delight. Then, very deliberately, he
+      kissed her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&mdash;coward!&rdquo; came instantly her choking defiance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another for that,&rdquo; he laughed, kissing her again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her little fist beat against his face and he captured it, but as he looked
+      at her something that had come into the girl's face moved his not very
+      accessible heart. The salt of the adventure was gone, his victory worse
+      than a barren one. For stark fear stared at him, naked and unconcealed,
+      and back of that he glimpsed a subtle something that he dimly recognized
+      for the outraged maidenly modesty he had so ruthlessly trampled upon. His
+      hands fell to his side reluctantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stumbled back against the tree trunk, watching him with fascinated
+      eyes that searched him anxiously. They found their answer, and with a long
+      ragged breath the girl turned and burst into hysterical tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man was amazed. A moment since the fury of a tigress had possessed
+      her. Now she was all weak womanish despair. She leaned against the
+      cottonwood and buried her face in her arm, the while uneven sobs shook her
+      slender body. He frowned resentfully at this change of front, and because
+      his calloused conscience was disturbed he began to justify himself. Why
+      didn't she play it out instead of coming the baby act on him? She had
+      undertaken to hold him up and he had made her pay forfeit. He didn't see
+      that she had any kick coming. If she was this kind of a boarding-school
+      kid she ought not to have monkeyed with the buzz-saw. She was lucky he
+      didn't take her to El Paso with him and have her jailed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon we'll listen to explanations now,&rdquo; he said grimly after a minute
+      of silence interrupted only by her sobs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little fist that had struck at his face now bruised itself in
+      unconscious blows at the bark of the tree. He waited till the staccato
+      breaths had subsided, then took her by the shoulders and swung her round.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have the floor, ma'am. What does this gun-play business mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the tears her angry eyes flashed starlike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sha'n't tell you,&rdquo; she flamed. &ldquo;You had no right to&mdash;How dared you
+      insult me as you have?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I insult you?&rdquo; he asked, with suave gentleness. &ldquo;Then if you feel
+      insulted I expect you lay claim to being a lady. But I reckon that don't
+      fit in with holding up strangers at the end of a gun. If I've insulted you
+      I'll ce'tainly apologize, but you'll have to show me I have. We're in
+      Texas, which is next door but one to Missouri, ma'am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want your apologies. I detest and hate you,&rdquo; she cried,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's your privilege, ma'am, and it's mine to know whyfor I'm held up
+      with a gun when I'm traveling peaceably along the road,&rdquo; he answered
+      evenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll not tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke softly as if to himself. &ldquo;That's too bad. I kinder hate to take
+      her to jail, but I reckon I must.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She shrank back, aghast and white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no! You don't understand. I didn't mean to&mdash;I only wanted&mdash;Why,
+      I meant to pay you for the team.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll understand when you tell me,&rdquo; he said placidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've told you. I needed the team. I was going to let you have one of our
+      horses and seventy-five dollars. It's all I have with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of your horses, you say? With seventy-five dollars to boot? And you
+      was intending to arrange the trade from behind that gun. I expect you
+      needed a team right bad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His steady eyes rested on her, searched her, appraised her, while he
+      meditated aloud in a low easy drawl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you ce'tainly must need the team. Now I wonder why? Well, I'd hate
+      to refuse a lady anything she wants as bad as you do that.&rdquo; He swiftly
+      swooped down and caught up her revolver from the ground, tossed it into
+      the air so as to shift his hold from butt to barrel, and handed it to her
+      with a bow. &ldquo;Allow me to return the pop-gun you dropped, ma'am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She snatched it from him and leveled it at him so that it almost touched
+      his forehead. He looked at her and laughed in delighted mockery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All serene, ma'am. You've got me dead to rights again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His very nonchalance disarmed her. What could she do while his low
+      laughter mocked her?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you've gone through me complete I think I'll take a little pasear
+      over the hill and have a look at your hawss. Mebbe we might still do
+      business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he had anticipated, his suggestion filled her with alarm. She flew to
+      bar the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can't go. It isn't necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sho! Of course it's necessary. Think I'm going to buy a hawss I've never
+      seen?&rdquo; he asked, with deep innocence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll bring it here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Texas, ma'am, we wait on the ladies. Still, it's your say-so when
+      you're behind that big gun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He said it laughing, and she threw the weapon angrily into the seat of the
+      rig.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, ma'am. I'll amble down and see what's behind the hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By the flinch in her eyes he tested his center shot and knew it true. Her
+      breast was rising and falling tumultuously. A shiver ran through her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;no. I'm not hiding&mdash;anything,&rdquo; she gasped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then if you're not you can't object to my going there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She caught her hands together in despair. There was about him something
+      masterful that told her she could not prevent him from investigating; and
+      it was impossible to guess how he would act after he knew. The men she had
+      known had been bound by convention to respect a woman's wishes, but even
+      her ignorance of his type made guess that this steel-eyed, close-knit
+      young Westerner&mdash;or was he a Southerner?&mdash;would be impervious to
+      appeals founded upon the rules of the society to which she had been
+      accustomed. A glance at his stone-wall face, at the lazy confidence of his
+      manner, made her dismally aware that the data gathered by her experience
+      of the masculine gender were insufficient to cover this specimen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can't go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But her imperative refusal was an appeal. For though she hated him from
+      the depths of her proud, untamed heart for the humiliation he had put upon
+      her, yet for the sake of that ferocious hunted animal she had left lying
+      under a cottonwood she must bend her spirit to win him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm going to sit in this game and see it out,&rdquo; he said, not unkindly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her sweet slenderness barred the way about as electively as a mother quail
+      does the road to her young. He smiled, put his big hands on her elbows,
+      and gently lifted her to one side. Then he strode forward lightly, with
+      the long, easy, tireless stride of a beast of prey, striking direct for
+      his quarry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A bullet whizzed by his ear, and like a flash of light his weapon was
+      unscabbarded and ready for action. He felt a flame of fire scorch his
+      cheek and knew a second shot had grazed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hands up! Quick!&rdquo; ordered the traveler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lying on the ground before him was a man with close-cropped hair and a
+      villainous scarred face. A revolver in his hand showed the source of the
+      bullets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eye to eye the men measured strength, fighting out to the last ditch the
+      moral battle which was to determine the physical one. Sullenly, at the
+      last, the one on the ground shifted his gaze and dropped his gun with a
+      vile curse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Run to earth,&rdquo; he snarled, his lip lifting from the tobacco-stained upper
+      teeth in an ugly fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl ran toward the Westerner and caught at his arm. &ldquo;Don't shoot,&rdquo;
+       she implored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without moving his eyes from the man on the ground he swept her back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This outfit is too prevalent with its hardware,&rdquo; he growled. &ldquo;Chew out an
+      explanation, my friend, or you're liable to get spoiled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the girl that spoke, in a low voice and very evidently under a
+      tense excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is my brother and he has&mdash;hurt himself. He can't ride any farther
+      and we have seventy miles still to travel. We didn't know what to do, and
+      so&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You started out to be a road-agent and he took a pot-shot at the first
+      person he saw. I'm surely obliged to you both for taking so much interest
+      in me, or rather in my team. Robbery and murder are quite a family
+      pastime, ain't they?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl went white as snow, seemed to shrink before his sneer as from a
+      deadly weapon; and like a flash of light some divination of the truth
+      pierced the Westerner's brain. They were fugitives from justice, making
+      for the Mexican line. That the man was wounded a single glance had told
+      him. It was plain to be seen that the wear and tear of keeping the saddle
+      had been too much for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I acted on an impulse,&rdquo; the girl explained in the same low tone. &ldquo;I saw
+      you coming and I didn't know&mdash;hadn't money enough to buy the team&mdash;besides&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took the words out of her mouth when she broke down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides, I might have happened to be a sheriff. I might be, but then I'm
+      not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The traveler stepped forward and kicked the wounded man's revolver beyond
+      his reach, then swiftly ran a hand over him to make sure he carried no
+      other gun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fellow on the ground eyed him furtively. &ldquo;What are you going to do
+      with me?&rdquo; he growled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other addressed himself to the girl, ignoring him utterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has this man done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has&mdash;broken out from&mdash;from prison.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At Yuma.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Damn you, you're snitching,&rdquo; interrupted the criminal in a scream that
+      was both wheedling and threatening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man put his foot on the burly neck and calmly ground it into the
+      dust. Otherwise he paid no attention to him, but held the burning eyes of
+      the girl that stared at him from a bloodless face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was he in for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For holding up a train.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had answered in spite of herself, by reason of something compelling in
+      him that drew the truth from her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long has he been in the penitentiary?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seven years.&rdquo; Then, miserably, she added: &ldquo;He was weak and fell into bad
+      company. They led him into it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When did he escape?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two days ago. Last night he knocked at my window&mdash;at the window of
+      the room where I lodge in Fort Lincoln. I had not heard of his escape, but
+      I took him in. There were horses in the barn. One of them was mine. I
+      saddled, and after I had dressed his wound we started. He couldn't get any
+      farther than this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you live in Fort Lincoln?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came there to teach school. My home was in Wisconsin before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You came out here to be near him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. That is, near as I could get a school. I was to have got in the
+      Tucson schools next year. That's much nearer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You visited him at the penitentiary?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I was going to during the Thanksgiving vacation. Until last night I
+      had not seen him since he left home. I was a child of seven then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan looked down at the ruffian under his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know the road to Mexico by the Arivaca cut-off?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then climb into my rig and hit the trail hard&mdash;burn it up till
+      you've crossed the line.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fellow began to whine thanks, but the man above would have none of
+      them, &ldquo;I'm giving you this chance for your sister's sake. You won't make
+      anything of it. You're born for meanness and deviltry. I know your kind
+      from El Paso to Dawson. But she's game and she's white clear through, even
+      if she is your sister and a plumb little fool. Can you walk to the road?&rdquo;
+       he ended abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think so. It's in my ankle. Some hell-hound gave it me while we were
+      getting over the wall,&rdquo; the fellow growled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't blame him. His intentions were good. He meant to blow out your
+      brains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The convict cursed vilely, but in the midst of his impotent rage the other
+      stopped and dragged him to his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's enough. You padlock that ugly mouth and light a shuck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl came forward and the man leaned heavily on her as he limped to
+      the road. The Texan followed with the buckskin she had been riding and
+      tied it to the back of the road-wagon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me my purse,&rdquo; the girl said to the convict after they were seated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She emptied it and handed the roll of bills it contained to the owner of
+      the team. He looked at it and at her, then shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll need it likely. I reckon I can trust you. Schoolmarms are mostly
+      reliable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had rather pay now,&rdquo; she answered tartly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the rush?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I prefer to settle with you now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, but I'm in no sweat for my money. My team and the wagon are
+      worth two hundred and fifty dollars. Put this plug at forty and it would
+      be high.&rdquo; He jerked his head toward the brush where the other saddle-horse
+      was. &ldquo;That leaves me a balance of about two hundred and ten. Is that
+      fair?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She bit her lip in vexation. &ldquo;I expect so, but I haven't that much with
+      me. Can't I pay this seventy on account?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, ma'am, you can't. All or none.&rdquo; There was a gleam of humor in his
+      hard eyes. &ldquo;I reckon you better let me come and collect after you get back
+      to Fort Lincoln.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took out a note-book and pencil. &ldquo;If you will give me your name and
+      address please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled hardily at her. &ldquo;I've clean forgotten them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a warning flash in her disdainful eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as you like. My name is Margaret Kinney. I will leave the money for
+      you at the First National Bank.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She gathered up the rains deftly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One moment.&rdquo; He laid a hand on the lines. &ldquo;I reckon you think I owe you
+      an apology for what happened when we first met.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A flood of spreading color dyed her cheeks. &ldquo;I don't think anything about
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, you do,&rdquo; he contradicted. &ldquo;And you're going to think a heap more
+      about it. You're going to lay awake nights going over it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Out of eyes like live coals she gave him one look. &ldquo;Will you take your
+      hands from these reins please?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Presently. Just now I'm talking and you're listening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't care to hear any apologies, sir,&rdquo; she said stiffly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm not offering any,&rdquo; he laughed, yet stung by her words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're merely insulting me again, I presume?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some young women need punishing. I expect you're one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She handed him the horsewhip, a sudden pulse of passion beating fiercely
+      in her throat. &ldquo;Very well. Make an end of it and let me see the last of
+      you,&rdquo; she challenged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He cracked the lash expertly so that the horses quivered and would have
+      started if his strong hand had not tightened on the lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Westerner laughed again. &ldquo;You're game anyhow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you are quite through with me,&rdquo; she suggested, very quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he noticed the fury of her deep-pupiled eyes, the turbulent rise and
+      fall of her bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll not punish you that way this time.&rdquo; And he gave back the whip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you won't use it I will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lash flashed up and down, twined itself savagely round his wrist, and
+      left behind a bracelet of crimson. Startled, the horses leaped forward.
+      The reins slipped free from his numbed fingers. Miss Kinney had made her
+      good-by and was descending swiftly into the valley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man watched the rig sweep along that branch of the road which led to
+      the south. Then he looked at his wrist and laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The plucky little devil! She's a thoroughbred for fair. You bet I'll make
+      her pay for this. But ain't she got sand in her craw? She's surely hating
+      me proper.&rdquo; He laughed again in remembrance of the whole episode, finding
+      in it something that stirred his blood immensely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the trap had swept round a curve out of sight he disappeared in the
+      mesquite and bear-grass, presently returning with the roan that had been
+      ridden by the escaped convict.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whoever would suppose she was the sister of that scurvy scalawag with
+      jailbird branded all over his hulking hide? He ain't fit to wipe her
+      little feet on. She's as fine as silk. Think of her going through what she
+      is to save that coyote, and him as crooked as a dog's hind leg. There
+      ain't any limit to what a good woman will do for a man when she thinks
+      he's got a claim on her, more especially if he's a ruffian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With this bit of philosophic observation he rolled a cigarette and lit it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Him fall into bad company and be led away?&rdquo; he added in disgust. &ldquo;There
+      ain't any worse than him. But he'll work her to the limit before she finds
+      it out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Leisurely he swung to the saddle and rode down into the valley of the San
+      Xavier, which rolled away from his feet in numberless tawny waves of
+      unfeatured foot-hills and mesas and washes. Almost as far as the eye could
+      see there stretched a sea of hilltops bathed in sun. Only on the west were
+      they bounded, by the irregular saw-toothed edge of the Frenchman Hills,
+      silhouetted against an incomparable blue. For a stretch of many miles the
+      side of the range was painted scarlet by millions of poppies splashed
+      broadcast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nature's gone to flower-gardening for fair on the mountains,&rdquo; murmured
+      the rider. &ldquo;What with one thing and another I've got a notion I'm going to
+      take a liking to this country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man was plainly very tired with rapid travel, and about the middle of
+      the afternoon the young man unsaddled and picketed the animal near a
+      water-hole. He lay down in the shadow of a cottonwood, flat on his back,
+      face upturned to the deep cobalt sky. Presently the drowse of the
+      afternoon crept over him. The slumberous valley grew hazy to his nodding
+      eyes. The reluctant lids ceased to open and he was fast asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II &mdash; LIEUTENANT FRASER INTERFERES.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The sun had declined almost to a saddle in the Cuesta del Burro when the
+      sleeper reopened his eyes. Even before he had shaken himself free of sleep
+      he was uneasily aware of something wrong. Hazily the sound of voices
+      drifted to him across an immense space. Blurred figures crossed before his
+      unfocused gaze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first thing he saw clearly was the roan, still grazing in the circle
+      of its picket-rope. Beside the bronco were two men looking the animal over
+      critically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Been going some,&rdquo; he heard one remark, pointing at the same time to the
+      sweat-stains that streaked the shoulders and flanks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he had me on his back he'd still be burning the wind, me being in his
+      boots,&rdquo; returned the second, with a grating laugh, jerking his head toward
+      the sleeper. &ldquo;Whatever led the durned fool to stop this side of the line
+      beats me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he was hiking for Chihuahua he's been hitting a mighty crooked trail.
+      I don't savvy it, him knowing the country as well as they say he does,&rdquo;
+       the first speaker made answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The traveler's circling eye now discovered two more men, each of them
+      covering him with a rifle. A voice from the rear assured him there was
+      also a fifth member to the party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look out! He's awake,&rdquo; it warned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man's hand inadvertently moved toward his revolver-butt. This
+      drew a sharp imperative order from one of the men in front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Throw up your hands, and damn quick!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You seem to have the call, gentlemen,&rdquo; he smiled. &ldquo;Would you mind telling
+      me what it's all about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know what it's all about as well as we do. Collect his gun, Tom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This hold-up business seems to be a habit in this section. Second time
+      to-day I've been the victim of it,&rdquo; said the victim easily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be the last,&rdquo; retorted one of the men grimly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you're after the mazuma you've struck a poor bank.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've got your nerve,&rdquo; cried one of the men in a rage; and another
+      demanded: &ldquo;Where did you get that hawss?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I got it&mdash;&rdquo; The young man stopped in the middle of his
+      sentence. His jaw clamped and his eyes grew hard. &ldquo;I expect you better
+      explain what right you got to ask that question.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man laughed without cordiality. &ldquo;Seeing as I have owned it three years
+      I allow I have some right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the use of talking? He's the man we want, broke in another
+      impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is the man you want?&rdquo; asked their prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're the man we want, Jim Kinney.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wrong guess. My name is Larry Neill. I'm from the Panhandle and I've
+      never been in this part of the country till two days ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may have a dozen names. We don't care what you call yourself. Of
+      course you would deny being the man we're after. But that don't go with
+      us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. Take me back to Fort Lincoln, or take me to the prison
+      officials. They will tell you whether I am the man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The leader of the party pounced on his slip. &ldquo;Who mentioned prison? Who
+      told you we wanted an escaped prisoner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's give himself away,&rdquo; triumphed the one edged Tom. &ldquo;I guess that
+      clinches it. He's riding Maloney's hawss. He's wounded; so's the man we
+      want. He answers the description&mdash;gray eyes, tall, slim, muscular.
+      Same gun&mdash;automatic Colt. Tell you there's nothin' to it, Duffield.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you're not Kinney, how come you with this hawss? He stole it from a
+      barn in Fort Lincoln last night. That's known,&rdquo; said the leader, Duffield.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The imperilled man thought of the girl bing toward the border with her
+      brother and the remembrance padlocked his tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take me to the proper authorities and I'll answer questions. But, I'll
+      not talk here. What's the use? You don't believe a word I say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You spoke the truth that time,&rdquo; said one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you ever want to do any explaining now's the hour,&rdquo; added another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll do mine later, gentlemen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They looked at each other and one of them spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be too late to explain then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Too late?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Some inkling of the man's hideous meaning seared him and ran like an
+      ice-blast through him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've done all the meanness you'll ever do in this world. Poor Dave Long
+      is the last man you'll ever kill. We're going to do justice right now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dave Long! I never heard of him,&rdquo; the prisoner repeated mechanically.
+      &ldquo;Good God, do you think I'm a murderer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the men thrust himself forward. &ldquo;We know it. Y'u and that hellish
+      partner of yours shot him while he was locking the gate. But y'u made a
+      mistake when y'u come to Fort Lincoln. He lived there before he went to be
+      a guard at the Arizona penitentiary. I'm his brother. These gentlemen are
+      his neighbors. Y'u're not going back to prison. Y'u're going to stay right
+      here under this cottonwood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If the extraordinary menace of the man appalled Neill he gave no sign of
+      it. His gray eye passed from one to another of them quietly without giving
+      any sign of the impotent tempest raging within him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're going to lynch me then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Y'u've called the turn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without giving me a chance to prove my innocence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without giving y'u a chance to escape or sneak back to the penitentiary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The thing was horribly unthinkable. The warm mellow afternoon sunshine
+      wrapped them about. The horses grazed with quiet unconcern. One of these
+      hard-faced frontiersmen was chewing tobacco with machine-like regularity.
+      Another was rolling a cigarette. There was nothing of dramatic effect. Not
+      a man had raised his voice. But Neill knew there was no appeal. He had
+      come to the end of the passage through a horrible mistake. He raged in
+      bitter resentment against his fate, against these men who stood so quietly
+      about him ready to execute it, most of all against the girl who had let
+      him sacrifice himself by concealing the vital fact that her brother had
+      murdered a guard to effect his escape. Fool that he had been, he had
+      stumbled into a trap, and she had let him do it without a word of warning.
+      Wild, chaotic thoughts crowded his brain furiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the voice with which he addressed them was singularly even and
+      colorless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a stranger to this country. I was born in Tennessee, brought up in
+      the Panhandle. I'm an irrigation engineer by profession. This is my
+      vacation. I'm headed now for the Mal Pais mines. Friends of mine are
+      interested in a property there with me and I have been sent to look the
+      ground over and make a report. I never heard of Kinney till to-day. You've
+      got the wrong man, gentlemen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll risk it,&rdquo; laughed one brutally. &ldquo;Bring that riata, Tom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Neill did not struggle or cry out frantically. He stood motionless while
+      they adjusted the rope round his bronzed throat. They had judged him for a
+      villain; they should at least know him a man. So he stood there straight
+      and lithe, wide-shouldered and lean-flanked, a man in a thousand. Not a
+      twitch of the well-packed muscles, not a quiver of the eyelash nor a
+      swelling of the throat betrayed any fear. His cool eyes were quiet and
+      steady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you want to leave any message for anybody I'll see it's delivered,&rdquo;
+       promised Duffield.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll not trouble you with any.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He didn't give poor Dave any time for messages,&rdquo; cried Tom Long bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's right,&rdquo; assented another with a curse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was plain to the victim they were spurring their nerves to hardihood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who's that?&rdquo; cried one of the men, pointing to a rider galloping toward
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The newcomer approached rapidly, covered by their weapons, and flung
+      himself from his pony as he dragged it to a halt beside the group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steve Fraser,&rdquo; cried Duffield in surprise, and added, &ldquo;He's an officer in
+      the rangers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right, gentlemen. Come to claim my prisoner,&rdquo; said the ranger promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Y'u can't have him, Steve. We took him and he's got to hang.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lieutenant of rangers shook his dark curly head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won't do, Duffield. Won't do at all,&rdquo; he said decisively. &ldquo;You'd ought to
+      know law's on top in Texas these days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tom Long shouldered his way to the front. &ldquo;Law! Where was the law when
+      this ruffian Kinney shot down my poor brother Dave? I guess a rope and a
+      cottonwood's good enough law for him. Anyhow, that's what he gits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser, hard-packed, lithe, and graceful, laid a friendly hand on the
+      other's shoulder and smiled sunnily at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know how you feel, Tom. We all thought a heap of Dave and you're his
+      brother. But Dave died for the law. Both you boys have always stood for
+      order. He'd be troubled if he knew you were turned enemy to it on his
+      account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm for justice, Steve. This skunk deserves death and I'm going to see he
+      gits it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Tom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say yes. Y'u ain't sitting in this game, Steve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon I'll have to take a hand then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger's voice was soft and drawling, but his eyes were indomitably
+      steady. Throughout the Southwest his reputation for fearlessness was
+      established even among a population singularly courageous. The audacity of
+      his daredevil recklessness was become a proverb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We got a full table. Better ride away and forget it,&rdquo; said another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That ain't what I'm paid for, Jack,&rdquo; returned Fraser good-naturedly.
+      &ldquo;Better turn him over to me peaceable, boys. He'll get what's coming to
+      him all right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He'll get it now, Steve, without any help of yours. We don't aim to allow
+      any butting in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a flash of steel as the ranger dived forward. Next instant he
+      and the prisoner stood with their backs to the cottonwood, a revolver
+      having somehow leaped from its scabbard to his hand. His hunting-knife had
+      sheared at a stroke the riata round the engineer's neck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take it easy, boys,&rdquo; urged Fraser, still in his gentle drawl, to the
+      astonished vigilantes whom his sudden sally had robbed of their victim.
+      &ldquo;Think about it twice. We'll all be a long time dead. No use in hurrying
+      the funerals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless he recognized battle as inevitable. Friends of his though
+      they were, he knew these sturdy plainsmen would never submit to be foiled
+      in their purpose by one man. In the momentary silence before the clash the
+      quiet voice of the prisoner made itself heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just a moment, gentlemen. I don't want you spilling lead over me. I'm the
+      wrong man, and I can prove it if you'll give me time. Here's the key to my
+      room at the hotel in San Antonio. In my suit-case you'll find letters that
+      prove&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We don't need them. I've got proof right here,&rdquo; cut in Fraser,
+      remembering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He slipped a hand into his coat pocket and drew out two photographs.
+      &ldquo;Boys, here are the pictures and descriptions of the two men that escaped
+      from Yuma the other day. I hadn't had time to see this gentleman before he
+      spoke, being some busy explaining the situation to you, but a blind
+      jackass could see he don't favor either Kinney or Struve, You're sure
+      barking up the wrong tree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The self-appointed committee for the execution of justice and the man from
+      the Panhandle looked the prison photographs over blankly. Between the
+      hard, clean-cut face of their prisoner and those that looked at them from
+      the photographs it was impossible to find any resemblance. Duffield handed
+      the prints back with puzzled chagrin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess you're right, Steve. But I'd like this gentleman to explain how
+      come he to be riding the horse one of these miscreants stole from
+      Maloney's barn last night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve looked at the prisoner. &ldquo;It's your spiel, friend,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. I'll tell you some facts. Just as I was coming down from the
+      Roskruge range this mo'ning I was held up for my team. One of these
+      fellows&mdash;the one called Kinney&mdash;had started from Fort Lincoln on
+      this roan here, but he was wounded and broke down. There was some
+      gun-play, and he gave me this scratch on the cheek. The end of it was that
+      he took my team and left me with his worn-out bronc. I plugged on all day
+      with the hawss till about three mebbe, then seeing it was all in I
+      unsaddled and picketed. I lay down and dropped asleep. Next I knew the
+      necktie-party was in session.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What time was it y'u met this fellow Kinney?&rdquo; asked Long sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must have been about nine or nine-thirty I judge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it's five now. That's eight hours' start, and four more before we can
+      cut his trail on Roskruge. By God, we've lost him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Looks like,&rdquo; agreed another ruefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make straight for the Arivaca cut-off and you ought to stand a show,&rdquo;
+       suggested Fraser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's right. If we ride all night, might beat him to it.&rdquo; Each of the
+      five contributed a word of agreement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five minutes later the Texan and the ranger watched a dust-cloud drifting
+      to the south. In it was hidden the posse disappearing over the hilltop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve grinned. &ldquo;I hate to disappoint the boys. They're so plumb anxious.
+      But I reckon I'll strike the telephone line and send word to Moreno for
+      one of the rangers to cut out after Kinney. Going my way, seh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you're going mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon I am. And just to pass the time you might tell me the real story
+      of that hold-up while we ride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The real story?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I don't aim to doubt your word, but I reckon you forgot to tell
+      some of it.&rdquo; He turned on the other his gay smile. &ldquo;For instance, seh, you
+      ain't asking me to believe that you handed over your rig to Kinney so
+      peaceful and that he went away and clean forgot to unload from you that
+      gun you pack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The eyes of the two met and looked into each other's as clear and straight
+      as Texas sunshine. Slowly Neill's relaxed into a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I won't ask you to believe that. I owe you something because you
+      saved my life&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forget it,&rdquo; commanded the lieutenant crisply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I can't do less than tell you the whole story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He told it, yet not the whole of it either; for there was one detail he
+      omitted completely. It had to do with the cause for existence of the
+      little black-and-blue bruise under his right eye and the purple ridge that
+      seamed his wrist. Nor with all his acuteness could Stephen Fraser guess
+      that the one swelling had been made by a gold ring on the clenched fist of
+      an angry girl held tight in Larry Neill's arms, the other by the lash of a
+      horsewhip wielded by the same young woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III &mdash; A DISCOVERY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The roan, having been much refreshed by a few hours on grass, proved to be
+      a good traveller. The two men took a road-gait and held it steadily till
+      they reached a telephone-line which stretched across the desert and joined
+      two outposts of civilization. Steve strapped on his climbing spurs and
+      went up a post lightly with his test outfit. In a few minutes he had
+      Moreno on the wire and was in touch with one of his rangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello! This you, Ferguson? This is Fraser. No, Fraser&mdash;Lieutenant
+      Fraser. Yes. How many of the boys can you get in touch with right away?
+      Two? Good. I want you to cover the Arivaca cut-off. Kinney is headed that
+      way in a rig. His sister is with him. She is not to be injured under any
+      circumstances. Understand? Wire me at the Mal Pais mines to-morrow your
+      news. By the way, Tom Long and some of the boys are headed down that way
+      with notions of lynching Kinney. Dodge them if you can and rush your man
+      up to the Mal Pais. Good-bye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suppose they can't dodge them?&rdquo; ventured Neill after Steve had rejoined
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon they can. If not&mdash;well, my rangers are good boys; I expect
+      they won't give up a prisoner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm right glad to find you are going to the Mal Pais mines with me,
+      lieutenant. I wasn't expecting company on the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll bet a dollar Mex against two plunks gold that you're wondering
+      whyfor I'm going.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Larry laughed. &ldquo;You're right. I was wondering.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, it's this way. What with all these boys on Kinney's trail
+      he's as good as rounded up. Fact is, Kinney's only a weak sister anyhow.
+      He turned State's witness at the trial, and it was his testimony that
+      convicted Struve. I know something about this because I happened to be the
+      man that caught Struve. I had just joined the rangers. It was my first
+      assignment. The other three got away. Two of them escaped and the third
+      was not tried for lack of sufficient evidence. Now, then: Kinney rides the
+      rods from Yuma to Marfa and is now or had ought to be somewhere in this
+      valley between Posa Buena and Taylor's ranch. But where is Struve, the
+      hardier ruffian of the two? He ain't been seen since they broke out. He
+      sure never reached Ft. Lincoln. My notion is that he dropped off the train
+      in the darkness about Casa Grande, then rolled his tail for the Mal Pais
+      country. Your eyes are asking whys mighty loud, my friend; and my answer
+      is that there's a man up there mebbe who has got to hide Struve if he
+      shows up. That's only a guess, but it looks good to me. This man was the
+      brains of the whole outfit, and folks say that he's got cached the whole
+      haul the gang made from that S. P. hold-up. What's more, he scattered gold
+      so liberal that his name wasn't even mentioned at the trial. He's a big
+      man now, a millionaire copper king and into gold-mines up to the hocks. In
+      the Southwest those things happen. It doesn't always do to look too
+      closely at a man's past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll say Struve drops in on him and threatens to squeak. Mebbe he has
+      got evidence; mebbe he hasn't. Anyhow, our big duck wants to forget the
+      time he was wearing a mask and bending a six-gun for a living. Also and
+      moreover, he's right anxious to have other folks get a chance to forget.
+      From what I can hear he's clean mashed on some girl at Amarillo, or maybe
+      it's Fort Lincoln. See what a twist Strove's got on him if he can slip
+      into the Mal Pais country on the q. t.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you're going up there to look out for him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm going in to take a casual look around. There's no telling what a man
+      might happen onto accidentally if he travels with his ear to the ground.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other nodded. He could now understand easily why Fraser was going into
+      the Mal Pais country, but he could not make out why the ranger, naturally
+      a man who lived under his own hat and kept his own counsel, had told him
+      so much as he had. The officer shortly relieved his mind on this point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may need help while I'm there. May I call on you if I do, seh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Neill felt his heart warm toward this hard-faced, genial frontiersman, who
+      knew how to judge so well the timbre of a casual acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You sure may, lieutenant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good. I'll count on you then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, in these few words, the compact of friendship and alliance was sealed
+      between them. Each of them was strangely taken with the other, but it is
+      not the way of the Anglo-Saxon fighting man to voice his sentiment. Though
+      each of them admired the stark courage and the flawless fortitude he knew
+      to dwell in the other, impassivity sat on their faces like an ice-mask.
+      For this is the hall-mark of the Southwest, that a man must love and hate
+      with the same unchanging face of iron, save only when a woman is in
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were to camp that night by Cottonwood Spring, and darkness caught
+      them still some miles from their camp. They were on no road, but were
+      travelling across country through washes and over countless hills. The
+      ranger led the way, true as an arrow, even after velvet night had
+      enveloped them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be right over this mesa among the cottonwoods you see rising from
+      that arroyo,&rdquo; he announced at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had scarcely spoken before they struck a trail that led them direct to
+      the spring. But as they were descending this in a circle Fraser's horse
+      shied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hyer you, Pinto! What's the matter with&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger cut his sentence in two and slid from the saddle. When his
+      companion reached him and drew rein the ranger was bending over a dark
+      mass stretched across the trail. He looked up quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Man's body,&rdquo; he said briefly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dead?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Neill dismounted and came forward. The moon-crescent was up by now and had
+      lit the country with a chill radiance. The figure was dressed in the
+      coarse striped suit of a convict.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't savvy this play,&rdquo; Fraser confessed softly to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suppose you look at him and see if you know him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Neill looked into the white face and shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don't know him, but I suppose it is Struve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      From his pocket the ranger produced a photograph and handed it to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hyer, I'll strike a match and you'll see better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The match flared up in the slight breeze and presently went out, but not
+      before Neill had seen that it was the face of the man who lay before them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you see the name under the picture, seh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another match flared and the man from the Panhandle read a name, but it
+      was not the one he had expected to see. The words printed there were
+      &ldquo;James Kinney.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't understand. This ain't Kinney. He is a heavy-set man with a
+      villainous face. There's some mistake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There ce'tainly is, but not at this end of the line. This is Kinney all
+      right. I've seen him at Yuma. He was heading for the Mal Pais country and
+      he died on the way. See hyer. Look at these soaked bandages. He's been
+      wounded&mdash;shot mebbe&mdash;and the wound broke out on him again so
+      that he bled to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all a daze to me. Who is the other man if he isn't Kinney?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We're coming to that. I'm beginning to see daylight,&rdquo; said Steve, gently.
+      &ldquo;Let's run over this thing the way it might be. You've got to keep in mind
+      that this man was weak, one of those spineless fellows that stronger folks
+      lead around by the nose. Well, they make their getaway at Yuma after
+      Struve has killed a guard. That killing of Dave Long shakes Kinney up a
+      lot, he being no desperado but only a poor lost-dog kind of a guy. Struve
+      notices it and remembers that this fellow weakened before. He makes up his
+      mind to take no chances. From that moment he watches for a chance to make
+      an end of his pardner. At Casa Grande they drop off the train they're
+      riding and cut across country toward the Mal Pais. Mebbe they quarrel or
+      mebbe Struve gets his chance and takes it. But after he has shot his man
+      he sees he has made a mistake. Perhaps they were seen travelling in that
+      direction. Anyhow, he is afraid the body will be found since he can't bury
+      it right. He changes his plan and takes a big chance; cuts back to the
+      track, boards a freight, and reaches Fort Lincoln.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My God!&rdquo; cried the other, startled for once out of his calm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer nodded. &ldquo;You're on the trail right enough. I wish we were both
+      wrong, but we ain't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But surely she would have known he wasn't her brother, surely&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger shook his head. &ldquo;She hadn't seen the black sheep since she was
+      a kid of about seven. How would she know what he looked like? And Struve
+      was primed with all the facts he had heard Kinney blat out time and again.
+      She wasn't suspecting any imposition and he worked her to a
+      fare-you-well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Larry Neill set his teeth on a wave of icy despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And she's in that devil's power. She would be as safe in a den of
+      rattlers. To think that I had my foot on his neck this mo'ning and didn't
+      break it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She's safe so long as she is necessary to him. She's in deadly peril as
+      soon as he finds her one witness too many. If he walks into my boys' trap
+      at the Arivaca cut-off, all right. If not, God help her! I've shut the
+      door to Mexico and safety in his face. He'll strike back for the Mal Pais
+      country. It's his one chance, and he'll want to travel light and fast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he starts back Tom Long's party may get him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's one more chance for her, but it's a slim one. He'll cut straight
+      across country; they're following the trail. No, seh, our best bet is my
+      rangers. They'd ought to land him, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, ought to,&rdquo; derided the other impatiently. &ldquo;Point is, if they don't.
+      How are we going to save her? You know this country. I don't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't tear your shirt, amigo,&rdquo; smiled the ranger. &ldquo;We'll arrive faster if
+      we don't go off half-cocked. Let's picket the broncs, amble down to the
+      spring, and smoke a cigarette. We've got to ride twenty miles for fresh
+      hawsses and these have got to have a little rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They unsaddled and picketed, then strolled to the spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've been thinking that maybe we have made a mistake. Isn't it possible
+      the man with Miss Kinney is not Struve?&rdquo; asked Neill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's easy proved. You saw him this mo'ning.&rdquo; The lieutenant went down
+      into his pocket once more for a photograph. &ldquo;Does this favor the man with
+      Miss Kinney?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the blaze of another match, shielded by the ranger's hands, Larry
+      looked into the scowling, villainous face he had seen earlier in the day.
+      There could be no mistaking those leering, cruel eyes nor the ratlike,
+      shifty look of the face, not to mention the long scar across it. His heart
+      sank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's the man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you blame yourself for not putting his lights out. How could you
+      tell who he was?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knew he was a ruffian, hide and hair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you thought he was her brother and that's a whole lot different. What
+      do you say to grubbing here? We've got to go to the Halle ranch for
+      hawsses and it's a long jog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They lit a fire and over their coffee discussed plans. In the midst of
+      these the Southerner picked up idly a piece of wrapping-paper. Upon it was
+      pencilled a wavering scrawl:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bleeding has broke out again. Can't stop it. Struve shot me and left me
+      for dead ten miles back. I didn't kill the guard or know he meant to. J.
+      KINNEY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neill handed the paper to the ranger, who read it through, folded it, and
+      gave it back to the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep that paper. We may need it.&rdquo; His grave eyes went up the trail to
+      where the dark figure lay motionless in the cold moonlight. &ldquo;Well, he's
+      come to the end of the trail&mdash;the only end he could have reached. He
+      wasn't strong enough to survive as a bad man. Poor devil!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They buried him in a clump of cottonwoods and left a little pile of rocks
+      to mark the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV &mdash; LOST!
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      After her precipitate leave-taking of the man whose team she had bought or
+      borrowed, Margaret Kinney nursed the fires of her indignation in silence,
+      banking them for future use against the time when she should meet him
+      again in the event that should ever happen. She brought her whip-lash
+      snapping above the backs of the horses, and there was that in the supple
+      motion of the small strong wrist which suggested that nothing would have
+      pleased her more than having this audacious Texan there in place of the
+      innocent animals. For whatever of inherited savagery lay latent in her
+      blood had been flogged to the surface by the circumstances into which she
+      had been thrust. Never in all her placid life had she known the tug of
+      passion any closer than from across the footlights of a theatre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had had, to be sure, one stinging shame, but it had been buried in
+      far-away Arizona, quite beyond the ken of the convention-bound people of
+      the little Wisconsin town where she dwelt. But within the past twelve
+      hours Fate had taken hold of her with both hands and thrust her into Life.
+      She sensed for the first time its roughness, its nakedness, its tragedy.
+      She had known the sensations of a hunted wild beast, the flush of shame
+      for her kinship to this coarse ruffian by her side, and the shock of
+      outraged maiden modesty at kisses ravished from her by force. The teacher
+      hardly knew herself for the same young woman who but yesterday was
+      engrossed in multiplication tables and third readers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sinister laugh from the man beside her brought the girl back to the
+      present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him and then looked quickly away again. There was something
+      absolutely repulsive in the creature&mdash;in the big ears that stood out
+      from the close-cropped head, in the fishy eyes that saw everything without
+      ever looking directly at anything, in the crooked mouth with its irregular
+      rows of stained teeth from which several were missing. She had often
+      wondered about her brother, but never at the worst had she imagined
+      anything so bad as this. The memory would be enough to give one the
+      shudders for years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guess I ain't next to all that happened there in the mesquite,&rdquo; he
+      sneered, with a lift of the ugly lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not look at him. She did not speak. There seethed in her a
+      loathing and a disgust beyond expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guess you forgot that a fellow can sometimes hear even when he can't see.
+      Since I'm chaperooning you I'll make out to be there next time you meet a
+      good-looking lady-killer. Funny, the difference it makes, being your
+      brother. You ain't seen me since you was a kid, but you plumb forgot to
+      kiss me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a note in his voice she had not heard before, some hint of
+      leering ribaldry in the thick laugh that for the first time stirred unease
+      in her heart. She did not know that the desperate, wild-animal fear in
+      him, so overpowering that everything else had been pushed to the
+      background, had obscured certain phases of him that made her presence here
+      such a danger as she could not yet conceive. That fear was now lifting,
+      and the peril loomed imminent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his arm along the back of the seat and grinned at her from his
+      loose-lipped mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But o' course it ain't too late to begin now, my dearie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her fearless level eyes met squarely his shifty ones and read there
+      something she could dread without understanding, something that was an
+      undefined sacrilege of her sweet purity. For woman-like her instinct
+      leaped beyond reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take down your arm,&rdquo; she ordered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I don't know, sis. I reckon your brother&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're no brother of mine,&rdquo; she broke in. &ldquo;At most it is an accident of
+      birth I disown. I'll have no relationship with you of any sort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that why you're driving with me to Mexico?&rdquo; he jeered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I made a mistake in trying to save you. If it were to do over again I
+      should not lift a hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wouldn't, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something almost wolfish in the facial malignity that distorted
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a finger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you'd give me up now if you had a chance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would if I did what was right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you'd sure want to do what was right,&rdquo; he snarled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take down your arm,&rdquo; she ordered again, a dangerous glitter in her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thrust his evil face close to hers and showed his teeth in a blind rage
+      that forgot everything else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen here, you little locoed baby. I got something to tell you that'll
+      make your hair curl. You're right, I ain't your brother. I'm Nick Struve&mdash;Wolf
+      Struve if you like that better. I lied you into believing me your brother,
+      who ain't ever been anything but a skim-milk quitter. He's dead back there
+      in the cactus somewhere, and I killed him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Terror flooded her eyes. Her very breathing hung suspended. She gazed at
+      him in a frozen fascination of horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Killed him because he gave me away seven years ago and was gittin' ready
+      to round on me again. Folks don't live long that play Wolf Struve for a
+      lamb. A wolf! That's what I am, a born wolf, and don't you forget it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fact itself did not need his words for emphasis. He fairly reeked the
+      beast of prey. She had to nerve herself against faintness. She must not
+      swoon. She dared not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think you can threaten to give me up, do you? 'Fore I'm through with you
+      you'll wish you had never been born. You'll crawl on your knees and beg me
+      to kill you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a devil of wickedness she had never seen in human eyes before. The
+      ruthlessness left no room for appeal. Unless the courage to tame him lay
+      in her she was lost utterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued his exultant bragging, blatantly, ferociously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't tell you about my escape; how a guard tried to stop me and I put
+      the son of a gun out of business. There's a price on my head. D'ye think
+      I'm the man to give you a chance to squeal on me? D'ye think I'll let a
+      pink-and-white chit send me back to be strangled?&rdquo; he screamed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stark courage in her rose to the crisis. Not an hour before she had
+      seen the Texan cow him. He was of the kind would take the whip whiningly
+      could she but wield it. Her scornful eyes fastened on him contemptuously,
+      chiseled into the cur heart of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will you do?&rdquo; she demanded, fronting the issue that must sooner or
+      later rise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The raucous jangle of his laugh failed to disturb the steadiness of her
+      gaze. To reassure himself of his mastery he began to bluster, to threaten,
+      turning loose such a storm of vile abuse as she had never heard. He was
+      plainly working his nerve up to the necessary pitch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In her first terror she had dropped the reins. Her hands had slipped
+      unconsciously under the lap-robe. Now one of them touched something chilly
+      on the seat beside her. She almost gasped her relief. It was the selfsame
+      revolver with which she had tried to hold up the Texan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of Struve's flood of invective the girl's hand leaped quickly
+      from the lap-robe. A cold muzzle pressed against his cheek brought the
+      convict's outburst to an abrupt close.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you move I'll fire,&rdquo; she said quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a long moment their gazes gripped, the deadly clear eyes of the young
+      woman and the furtive ones of the miscreant. Underneath the robe she felt
+      a stealthy movement, and cried out quickly: &ldquo;Hands up!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With a curse he threw his arms into the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jump out! Don't lower your hands!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My ankle,&rdquo; he whined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jump!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His leap cleared the wheel and threw him to the ground. She caught up the
+      whip and slashed wildly at the horses. They sprang forward in a panic,
+      flying wildly across the open plain. Margaret heard a revolver bark twice.
+      After that she was so busy trying to regain control of the team that she
+      could think of nothing else. The horses were young and full of spirit, so
+      that she had all she could do to keep the trap from being upset. It wound
+      in and out among the hills, taking perilous places safely to her surprise,
+      and was at last brought to a stop only by the narrowing of a draw into
+      which the animals had bolted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were quiet now beyond any chance of farther runaway, even had it been
+      possible. Margaret dropped the lines on the dashboard and began to sob, at
+      first in slow deep breaths and then in quicker uneven ones. Plucky as she
+      was, the girl had had about all her nerves could stand for one day. The
+      strain of her preparation for flight, the long night drive, and the
+      excitement of the last two hours were telling on her in a hysterical
+      reaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She wept herself out, dried her eyes with dabs of her little kerchief, and
+      came back to a calm consideration of her situation. She must get back to
+      Fort Lincoln as soon as possible, and she must do it without encountering
+      the convict. For in the course of the runaway the revolver had been jolted
+      from the trap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not quite sure in which direction lay the road, she got out from the trap,
+      topped the hill to her right, and looked around. She saw in all directions
+      nothing but rolling hilltops, merging into each other even to the
+      horizon's edge. In her wild flight among these hills she had lost count of
+      direction. She had not yet learned how to know north from south by the
+      sun, and if she had it would have helped but little since she knew only
+      vaguely the general line of their travel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She felt sure that from the top of the next rise she could locate the
+      road, but once there she was as uncertain as before. Before giving up she
+      breasted a third hill to the summit. Still no signs of the road.
+      Reluctantly she retraced her steps, and at the foot of the hill was
+      uncertain whether she should turn to right or left. Choosing the left,
+      from the next height she could see nothing of the team. She was not yet
+      alarmed. It was ridiculous to suppose that she was lost. How could she be
+      when she was within three or four hundred yards of the rig? She would cut
+      across the shoulder into the wash and climb the hillock beyond. For behind
+      it the team must certainly be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But at her journey's end her eyes were gladdened by no sight of the
+      horses. Every draw was like its neighbor, every rolling rise a replica of
+      the next. The truth came home to a sinking heart. She was lost in one of
+      the great deserts of Texas. She would wander for days as others had, and
+      she would die in the end of starvation and thirst. Nobody would know where
+      to look for her, since she had told none where she was going. Only
+      yesterday at her boarding-house she had heard a young man tell how a
+      tenderfoot had been found dead after he had wandered round and round in
+      intersecting circles. She sank down and gave herself up to despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But not for long. She was too full of grit to give up without a long
+      fight. How many hours she wandered Margaret Kinney did not know. The sun
+      was high in the heavens when she began. It had given place to flooding
+      moonlight long before her worn feet and aching heart gave up the search
+      for some human landmark. Once at least she must have slept, for she stared
+      up from a spot where she had sunk down to look up into a starry sky that
+      was new to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon had sailed across the vault and grown chill and faint with dawn
+      before she gave up, completely exhausted, and when her eyes opened again
+      it was upon a young day fresh and sweet. She knew by this time hunger and
+      an acute thirst. As the day increased, this last she knew must be a
+      torment of swollen tongue and lime-kiln throat. Yesterday she had cried
+      for help till her voice had failed. A dumb despair had now driven away her
+      terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then into the awful silence leaped a sound like a messenger of hope.
+      It was a shot, so close that she could see the smoke rise from an arroyo
+      near. She ran forward till she could look down into it and caught sight of
+      a man with a dead bird in his hand. He had his back toward her and was
+      stooping over a fire. Slithering down over the short dry grass, she was
+      upon him almost before she could stop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've been lost all night and all yesterday,&rdquo; she sobbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He snatched at the revolver lying beside him and whirled like a flash as
+      if to meet an attack. The girl's pumping heart seemed to stand still. The
+      man snarling at her was the convict Struve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V &mdash; LARRY NEILL TO THE RESCUE
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      The snarl gave way slowly to a grim more malign than his open hostility.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you've been lost! And now you're found&mdash;come safe back to your
+      loving brother. Ain't that luck for you? Hunted all over Texas till you
+      found him, eh? And it's a powerful big State, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She caught sight of something that made her forget all else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you got water in that canteen?&rdquo; she asked, her parched eyes staring
+      at it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, dearie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give it me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He squatted tailor-fashion on the ground, put the canteen between his
+      knees, and shoved his teeth in a crooked grin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thirsty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm dying for a drink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You look like a right lively corpse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give it to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you take it now or wait till you get it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My throat's baked. I want water,&rdquo; she said hoarsely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most folks want a lot they never get.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked toward him with her hand outstretched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you I've got to have it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed evilly. &ldquo;Water's at a premium right now. Likely there ain't
+      enough here to get us both out of this infernal hole alive. Yes, it's sure
+      at a premium.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He let his eye drift insolently over her and take stock of his prey, in
+      the same feline way of a cat with a mouse, gloating over her distress and
+      the details of her young good looks. His tainted gaze got the faint pure
+      touch of color in her face, the reddish tinge of her wavy brown hair, the
+      desirable sweetness of her rounded maidenhood. If her step dragged, if
+      dusky hollows shadowed her lids, if the native courage had been washed
+      from the hopeless eyes, there was no spring of manliness hid deep within
+      him that rose to refresh her exhaustion. No pity or compunction stirred at
+      her sweet helplessness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you want my money?&rdquo; she asked wearily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll take that to begin with.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She tossed him her purse. &ldquo;There should be seventy dollars there. May I
+      have a drink now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not yet, my dear. First you got to come up to me and put your arms round&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He broke off with a curse, for she was flying toward the little circle of
+      cottonwoods some forty yards away. She had caught a glimpse of the
+      water-hole and was speeding for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come back here,&rdquo; he called, and in a rage let fly a bullet after her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She paid no heed, did not stop till she reached the spring and threw
+      herself down full length to drink, to lave her burnt face, to drink again
+      of the alkali brackish water that trickled down her throat like nectar
+      incomparably delicious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was just rising to her feet when Struve hobbled up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you think you can play with me, missie. When I give the word you
+      stop in your tracks, and when I say 'Jump!' step lively.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not answer. Her head was lifted in a listening attitude, as if to
+      catch some sound that came faintly to her from a distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're mine, my beauty, to do with as I please, and don't you forget it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not hear him. Her ears were attuned to voices floating to her
+      across the desert. Of course she was beginning to wander in her mind. She
+      knew that. There could be no other human beings in this sea of loneliness.
+      They were alone; just they two, the degenerate ruffian and his victim.
+      Still, it was strange. She certainly had imagined the murmur of people
+      talking. It must be the beginning of delirium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you hear me?&rdquo; screamed Struve, striking her on the cheek with his
+      fist. &ldquo;I'm your master and you're my squaw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not cringe as he had expected, nor did she show fight. Indeed the
+      knowledge of the blow seemed scarcely to have penetrated her mental
+      penumbra. She still had that strange waiting aspect, but her eyes were
+      beginning to light with new-born hope. Something in her manner shook the
+      man's confidence; a dawning fear swept away his bluster. He, too, was now
+      listening intently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the low murmur, beyond a possibility of doubt. Both of them caught
+      it. The girl opened her throat in a loud cry for help. An answering shout
+      came back clear and strong. Struve wheeled and started up the arroyo,
+      bending in and out among the cactus till he disappeared over the brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two horsemen burst into sight, galloping down the steep trail at breakneck
+      speed, flinging down a small avalanche of shale with them. One of them
+      caught sight of the girl, drew up so short that his horse slid to its
+      haunches, and leaped from the saddle in a cloud of dust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He ran toward her, and she to him, hands out to meet her rescuer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why didn't you come sooner? I've waited so long,&rdquo; she cried pathetically,
+      as his arms went about her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You poor lamb! Thank God we're in time!&rdquo; was all he could say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then for the first time in her life she fainted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other rider lounged forward, a hat in his hand that he had just picked
+      up close to the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We seem to have stampeded part of this camping party. I'll just take a
+      run up this hill and see if I can't find the missing section and persuade
+      it to stay a while. I don't reckon you need me hyer, do you?&rdquo; he grinned,
+      with a glance at Neill and his burden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. You'll find me here when you get back, Fraser,&rdquo; the other
+      answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Larry carried the girl to the water-hole and set her down beside it. He
+      sprinkled her face with water, and presently her lids trembled and
+      fluttered open. She lay there with her head on his arm and looked at him
+      quite without surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did you find me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mainly luck. We followed your trail to where we found the rig. After that
+      it was guessing where the needle was in the haystack It just happened we
+      were cutting across country to water when we heard a shot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must have been when he fired at me,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My God! Did he shoot at you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. Where is he now?&rdquo; She shuddered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cutting over the hills with Steve after him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steve?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My friend, Lieutenant Fraser. He is an officer in the ranger force.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; She relapsed into a momentary silence before she said: &ldquo;He isn't my
+      brother at all. He is a murderer.&rdquo; She gave a sudden little moan of pain
+      as memory pierced her of what he had said. &ldquo;He bragged to me that he had
+      killed my brother. He meant to kill me, I think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sho! It doesn't matter what the coyote meant. It's all over now. You're
+      with friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A warm smile lit his steel-blue eyes, softened the lines of his lean, hard
+      face. Never had shipwrecked mariner come to safer harbor than she. She
+      knew that this slim, sun-bronzed Westerner was a man's man, that strength
+      and nerve inhabited his sinewy frame. He would fight for her because she
+      was a woman as long as he could stand and see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A touch of color washed back into her cheeks, a glow of courage into her
+      heart. &ldquo;Yes, it's all over. The weary, weary hours&mdash;and the fear&mdash;and
+      the pain&mdash;and the dreadful thirst&mdash;and worst of all, him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She began to cry softly, hiding her face in his coat-sleeve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm crying because&mdash;it's all over. I'm a little fool, just as&mdash;as
+      you said I was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't know you then,&rdquo; he smiled. &ldquo;I'm right likely to make snap-shot
+      judgments that are 'way off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You knew me well enough to&mdash;&rdquo; She broke off in the middle, bathed in
+      a flush of remembrance that brought her coppery head up from his arm
+      instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be careful. You're dizzy yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm all right now, thank you,&rdquo; she answered, her embarrassed profile
+      haughtily in the air. &ldquo;But I'm ravenous for something to eat. It's been
+      twenty-four hours since I've had a bite. That's why I'm weepy and faint. I
+      should think you might make a snap-shot judgment that breakfast wouldn't
+      hurt me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He jumped up contritely. &ldquo;That's right. What a goat I am!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His long, clean stride carried him over the distance that separated him
+      from his bronco. Out of the saddle-bags he drew some sandwiches wrapped in
+      a newspaper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, Miss Margaret! You begin on these. I'll have coffee ready in two
+      shakes of a cow's tail. And what do you say to bacon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He understood her to remark from the depths of a sandwich that she said
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; to it, and that she would take everything he had and as soon as he
+      could get it ready. She was as good as her word. He found no cause to
+      complain of her appetite. Bacon and sandwiches and coffee were all
+      consumed in quantities reasonable for a famished girl who had been
+      tramping actively for a day and a night, and, since she was a child of
+      impulse, she turned more friendly eyes on him who had appeased her
+      appetite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose you are a cowboy like everybody else in this country?&rdquo; she
+      ventured amiably after her hunger had become less sharp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I belong to the government reclamation service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; She had a vague idea she had heard of it before. &ldquo;Who is it you
+      reclaim? Indians, I suppose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We reclaim young ladies when we find them wandering about the desert,&rdquo; he
+      smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that what the government pays you for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not entirely. Part of the time I examine irrigation projects and report
+      on their feasibility. I have been known to build dams and bore tunnels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what of the young ladies you reclaim? Do you bore them?&rdquo; she asked
+      saucily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand they have hitherto always found me very entertaining,&rdquo; he
+      claimed boldly, his smiling eyes on her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But young ladies are peculiar. Sometimes we think we're entertaining them
+      when we ain't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sure you are right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And other times they're interested when they pretend they're not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be comforting to your vanity to think that,&rdquo; she said coldly. For
+      his words had recalled similar ones spoken by him twenty-four hours
+      earlier, which in turn had recalled his unpardonable sin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lieutenant of rangers appeared over the hill and descended into the
+      draw. Miss Kinney went to meet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He got away?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, ma'am. I lost him in some of these hollows, or rather I never found
+      him. I'm going to take my hawss and swing round in a circle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do with me?&rdquo; she smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I been thinking that the best thing would be for you to go to the Mal
+      Pais mines with Mr. Neill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is Mr. Neill?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The gentleman over there by the fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must I go with him? I should feel safer in your company, lieutenant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll be safe enough in his, Miss Kinney.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know me then?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've seen you at Fort Lincoln. You were pointed out to me once as a new
+      teacher.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I don't want to go to the Mal Pais mines. I want to go to Fort
+      Lincoln. As to this gentleman, I have no claims on him and shall not
+      trouble him to burden himself with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve laughed. &ldquo;I don't reckon he would think, it a terrible burden,
+      ma'am. And about the Mal Pais&mdash;this is how it is. Fort Lincoln is all
+      of sixty miles from here as the crow flies. The mines are about seventeen.
+      My notion was you could get there and take the stage to-morrow to your
+      town.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall I do for a horse?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect Mr. Neill will let you ride his. He can walk beside the hawss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That won't do at all. Why should I put him to that inconvenience? I'll
+      walk myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger flashed his friendly smile at her. He had an instinct that
+      served him with women. &ldquo;Any way that suits you and him suits me. I'm right
+      sorry that I've got to leave you and take out after that hound Struve, but
+      you may take my word for it that this gentleman will look after you all
+      right and bring you safe to the Mal Pais.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a stranger to me. I've only met him once and on that occasion not
+      pleasantly. I don't like to put myself under an obligation to him. But of
+      course if I must I must.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the right sensible way to look at it. In this little old world we
+      got to do a heap we don't want to do. For instance, I'd rather see you to
+      the Mal Pais than hike over the hills after this fellow,&rdquo; he concluded
+      gallantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neill, who had been packing the coffee-pot and the frying-pan, now
+      sauntered forward with his horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what's the program?&rdquo; he wanted to know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's you and Miss Kinney for the Mal Pais, me for the trail. I ain't very
+      likely to find Mr. Struve, but you can't always sometimes tell. Anyhow,
+      I'm going to take a shot at it,&rdquo; the ranger answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And at him?&rdquo; his friend suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I reckon not. He may be a sure-enough wolf, but I expect this ain't
+      his day to howl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve whistled to his pony, swung to the saddle when it trotted up, and
+      waved his hat in farewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His &ldquo;Adios!&rdquo; drifted back to them from the crown of the hill just before
+      he disappeared over its edge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI &mdash; SOMEBODY'S ACTING MIGHTY FOOLISH.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Larry Neill watched him vanish and then turned smiling to Miss Kinney.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All aboard for the Mal Pais,&rdquo; he sang out cheerfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Too cheerfully perhaps. His assurance that all was well between them
+      chilled her manner. He might forgive himself easily if he was that sort of
+      man; she would at least show him she was no party, to it. He had treated
+      her outrageously, had manhandled her with deliberate intent to insult. She
+      would show him no one alive could treat her so and calmly assume to her
+      that it was all right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her cool eyes examined the horse, and him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't quite see how you expect to arrange it, Mr. Neill. That is your
+      name, isn't it?&rdquo; she added indifferently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's my name&mdash;Larry Neill. Easiest thing in the world to arrange.
+      We ride pillion if it suits you; if not, I'll walk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither plan suits me,&rdquo; she announced curtly, her gaze on the far-away
+      hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He glanced at her in quick surprise, then made the mistake of letting
+      himself smile at her frosty aloofness instead of being crestfallen by it.
+      She happened to look round and catch that smile before he could extinguish
+      it. Her petulance hardened instantly to a resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't quite know what we're going to do about it&mdash;unless you
+      walk,&rdquo; he proposed, amused at the absurdity of his suggestion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's just what I'm going to do,&rdquo; she retorted promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; He wheeled on her with an astonished smile on his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This served merely to irritate her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said I was going to walk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Walk seventeen miles?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seventy if I choose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense! Of course you won't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her eyebrows lifted in ironic demurrer. &ldquo;I think you must let me be the
+      judge of that,&rdquo; she said gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Walk!&rdquo; he reiterated. &ldquo;Why, you're walked out. You couldn't go a mile.
+      What do you take me for? Think I'm going to let you come that on me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't quite see how you can help it, Mr. Neill,&rdquo; she answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Help it! Why, it ain't reasonable. Of course you'll ride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I won't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She set off briskly, almost jauntily, despite her tired feet and aching
+      limbs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if that don't beat&mdash;&rdquo; He broke off to laugh at the situation.
+      After she had gone twenty steps he called after her in a voice that did
+      not suppress its chuckle: &ldquo;You ain't going the right direction, Miss
+      Kinney.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She whirled round on him in anger. How dared he laugh at her?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which is the right way?&rdquo; she choked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;North by west is about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was almost reduced to stamping her foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without condescending to ask more definite instructions she struck off at
+      haphazard, and by chance guessed right. There was nothing for it but to
+      pursue. Wherefore the man pursued. The horse at his heels hampered his
+      stride, but he caught up with her soon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Somebody's acting mighty foolish,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She said nothing very eloquently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I need punishing, ma'am, don't punish yourself, but me. You ain't able
+      to walk and that's a fact.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave her silent attention strictly to the business of making progress
+      through the cactus and the sand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say I'm all you think I am. You can trample on me proper after we get to
+      the Mal Pais. Don't have to know me at all if you don't want to. Won't you
+      ride, ma'am? Please!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His distress filled her with a fierce delight. She stumbled defiantly
+      forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He pondered a while before he asked quietly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ain't you going to ride, Miss Kinney?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I'm not. Better go on. Pray don't let me detain you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. See that peak with the spur to it? Well, you keep that
+      directly in line and make straight for it. I'll say good-by now, ma'am. I
+      got to hurry to be in time for dinner. I'll send some one out from the
+      camp to meet you that ain't such a villain as I am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He swung to the saddle, put spurs to his pony, and cantered away. She
+      could scarce believe it, even when he rode straight over the hill without
+      a backward glance. He would never leave her. Surely he would not do that.
+      She could never reach the camp, and he knew it. To be left alone in the
+      desert again; the horror of it broke her down, but not immediately. She
+      went proudly forward with her head in the air at first. He might look
+      round. Perhaps he was peeping at her from behind some cholla. She would
+      not gratify him by showing any interest in his whereabouts. But presently
+      she began to lag, to scan draws and mesas anxiously for him, even to call
+      aloud in an ineffective little voice which the empty hills echoed faintly.
+      But from him there came no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat down and wept in self-pity. Of course she had told him to go, but
+      he knew well enough she did not mean it. A magnanimous man would have
+      taken a better revenge on an exhausted girl than to leave her alone in
+      such a spot, and after she had endured such a terrible experience as she
+      had. She had read about the chivalry of Western men. Yet these two had
+      ridden away on their horses and left her to live or die as chance willed
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, don't you feel so bad, Miss Margaret. I wasn't aiming really to
+      leave you, of course,&rdquo; a voice interrupted her sobs to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked through the laced fingers that covered her face, mightily
+      relieved, but not yet willing to confess it. The engineer had made a
+      circuit and stolen up quietly behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I thought you had gone,&rdquo; she said as carelessly as she could with a
+      voice not clear of tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Were you crying because you were afraid I hadn't?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ran a cactus into my foot. And I didn't say anything about crying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then if your foot is hurt you will want to ride. That seventeen miles
+      might be too long a stroll before you get through with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know what I'll do yet,&rdquo; she answered shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know what you'll do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll quit your foolishness and get on this hawss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She flushed angrily. &ldquo;I won't!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stooped down, gathered her up in his arms, and lifted her to the
+      saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what you're going to do whether you like it or not,&rdquo; he informed
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are you going to make me stay here, now you have put me here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm going to get on behind and hold you if it's necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was sensible enough of the folly of it all, but he did not see what
+      else he could do. She had chosen to punish him through herself in a way
+      that was impossible. It was a childish thing to do, born of some touch of
+      hysteria her experience had induced, and he could only treat her as a
+      child till she was safely back in civilization.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their wills met in their eyes, and the man's, masculine and dominant, won
+      the battle. The long fringe of hers fell to the soft cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It won't be at all necessary,&rdquo; she promised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you sure?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the way to talk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you care to know,&rdquo; she boiled over, &ldquo;I think you the most hateful man
+      I ever met.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's all right,&rdquo; he grinned ruefully. &ldquo;You're the most contrary woman I
+      ever bumped into, so I reckon honors are easy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He strode along beside the horse, mile after mile, in a silence which
+      neither of them cared to break. The sap of youth flowed free in him, was
+      in his elastic tread, in the set of his broad shoulders, in the carriage
+      of his small, well-shaped head. He was as lean-loined and lithe as a
+      panther, and his stride ate up the miles as easily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They nooned at a spring in the dry wash of Bronco Creek. After he had
+      unsaddled and picketed he condescended to explain to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll stay here three hours or mebbe four through the heat of the day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it far now?&rdquo; she asked wearily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not more than seven miles I should judge. Are you about all in?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no! I'm all right, thank you,&rdquo; she said, with forced sprightliness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His shrewd, hard gaze went over her and knew better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You lie down under those live-oaks and I'll get some grub ready.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll cook lunch while you lie down. You must be tired walking so far
+      through the sun,&rdquo; said Miss Kinney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I got to pick you up again and carry you there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you haven't. You keep your hands off me,&rdquo; she flashed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But nevertheless she betook herself to the shade of the live-oaks and lay
+      down. When he went to call her for lunch he found her fast asleep with her
+      head pillowed on her arm. She looked so haggard that he had not the heart
+      to rouse her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let her sleep. It will be the making of her. She's fair done. But ain't
+      she plucky? And that spirited! Ready to fight so long as she can drag a
+      foot. And her so sorter slim and delicate. Funny how she hangs onto her
+      grudge against me. Sho! I hadn't ought to have kissed her, but I'll never
+      tell her so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went back to his coffee and bacon, dined, and lay down for a siesta
+      beneath a cottonwood some distance removed from the live-oaks where Miss
+      Kinney reposed. For two or three hours he slept soundly, having been in
+      the saddle all night. It was mid-afternoon when he awoke, and the sun was
+      sliding down the blue vault toward the sawtoothed range to the west. He
+      found the girl still lost to the world in deep slumber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man from the Panhandle looked across the desert that palpitated with
+      heat, and saw through the marvelous atmosphere the smoke of the ore-mills
+      curling upward. He was no tenderfoot, to suppose that ten minutes' brisk
+      walking would take him to them. He guessed the distance at about two and a
+      half hour's travel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is ce'tainly a hot evening. I expect we better wait till sundown
+      before moving,&rdquo; he said aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having made up his mind, it was characteristic of him that he was asleep
+      again in five minutes. This time she wakened before him, to look into a
+      wonderful sea of gold that filled the crotches of the hills between the
+      purple teeth. No sun was to be seen&mdash;it had sunk behind the peaks&mdash;but
+      the trail of its declension was marked by that great pool of glory into
+      which she gazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Margaret crossed the wash to the cottonwood under which her escort was
+      lying. He was fast asleep on his back, his gray shirt open at the bronzed,
+      sinewy neck. The supple, graceful lines of him were relaxed, but even her
+      inexperience appreciated the splendid shoulders and the long rippling
+      muscles. The maidenly instinct in her would allow but one glance at him,
+      and she was turning away when his eyes opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her face, judging from its tint, might have absorbed some of the sun-glow
+      into which she had been gazing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came to see if you were awake,&rdquo; she explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, ma'am, I am,&rdquo; he smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was thinking that we ought to be going. It will be dark before we reach
+      Mal Pais.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He leaped to his feet and faced her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;C'rect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you hungry?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He relit the fire and put on the coffee-pot before he saddled the horse.
+      She ate and drank hurriedly, soon announcing herself ready for the start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She mounted from his hand; then without asking any questions he swung to a
+      place behind her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll both ride,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stars were out before they reached the outskirts of the mining-camp.
+      At the first house of the rambling suburbs Neill slipped to the ground and
+      walked beside her toward the old adobe plaza of the Mexican town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      People passed them on the run, paying no attention to them, and others
+      dribbled singly or in small groups from the houses and saloons. All of
+      them were converging excitedly to the plaza.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must be something doing here,&rdquo; said her guide. &ldquo;Now I wonder what!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Round the next turn he found his answer. There must have been present two
+      or three hundred men, mostly miners, and their gazes all focussed on two
+      figures which stood against a door at the top of five or six steps. One of
+      the forms was crouched on its knees, abject, cringing terror stamped on
+      the white villainous face upturned to the electric light above. But the
+      other was on its feet, a revolver in each hand, a smile of reckless daring
+      on the boyish countenance that just now stood for law and order in Mal
+      Pais.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man beside the girl read the situation at a glance. The handcuffed
+      figure groveling on the steps belonged to the murderer Struve, and over
+      him stood lightly the young ranger Steve Fraser. He was standing off a mob
+      that had gathered to lynch his prisoner, and one glance at him was enough
+      to explain how he had won his reputation as the most dashing and fearless
+      member of a singularly efficient force. For plain to be read as the danger
+      that confronted him was the fact that peril was as the breath of life to
+      his nostrils.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII &mdash; ENTER MR. DUNKE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's my prisoner and you can't have him,&rdquo; the girl heard the ranger say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The answer came in a roar of rage. &ldquo;By God, we'll show you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you want him, take him. But don't come unless you are ready to pay the
+      price!&rdquo; warned the officer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was bareheaded and his dark-brown curly hair crisped round his forehead
+      engagingly. Round his right hand was tied a blood-stained handkerchief. A
+      boy he looked, but his record was a man's, and so the mob that swayed
+      uncertainly below him knew. His gray eyes were steady as steel despite the
+      fire that glowed in them. He stood at ease, with nerve unshaken, the
+      curious lifted look of a great moment about the poise of his graceful
+      figure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Lieutenant Fraser,&rdquo; cried Margaret, but as she looked down she
+      missed her escort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An instant, and she saw him. He was circling the outskirts of the crowd at
+      a run. For just a heart-beat she wondered what he was about, but her brain
+      told her before her eye. He swung in toward the steps, shoulders down, and
+      bored a way through the stragglers straight to the heart of the turmoil.
+      Taking the steps in two jumps, he stood beside the ranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, Tennessee,&rdquo; grinned that young man. &ldquo;Come to be a pall-bearer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, Texas! Can't say, I'm sure. Just dropped in to see what's doing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve's admiring gaze approved him a man from the ground up. But the
+      ranger only laughed and said: &ldquo;The band's going to play a right lively
+      tune, looks like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man from the Panhandle had his revolvers out already. &ldquo;Yes, there will
+      be a hot time in the old town to-night, I shouldn't wonder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But for the moment the attackers were inclined to parley. Their leader
+      stepped out and held up a hand for a suspension of hostilities. He was a
+      large man, heavily built, and powerful as a bear. There was about him an
+      air of authority, as of one used to being obeyed. He was dressed roughly
+      enough in corduroy and miner's half-leg boots, but these were of the most
+      expensive material and cut. His cold gray eye and thin lips denied the
+      manner of superficial heartiness he habitually carried. If one scratched
+      the veneer of good nature it was to find a hard selfishness that went to
+      his core.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's Mr. Dunke!&rdquo; the young school-teacher cried aloud in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've got something to say to you, Mr. Lieutenant Ranger,&rdquo; he announced,
+      with importance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Uncork it,&rdquo; was Fraser's advice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We don't want to have any trouble with you, but we're here for business.
+      This man is a cold-blooded murderer and we mean to do justice on him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve laughed insolently. &ldquo;If all them that hollers for justice the
+      loudest got it done to them, Mr. Dunke, there'd be a right smart shrinkage
+      in the census returns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dunke's eye gleamed with anger. &ldquo;We're not here to listen to any smart
+      guys, sir. Will you give up Struve to us or will you not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's easy. I will not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mob leader turned to the Tennessean. &ldquo;Young man, I don't know who you
+      are, but if you mean to butt into a quarrel that ain't yours all I've got
+      to say is that you're hunting an early grave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll know about that later, seh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You stand pat, do you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, seh, I draw to a pair that opens the pot anyhow,&rdquo; answered Larry,
+      with a slight motion of his weapons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dunke fell back into the mob, a shot rang out into the night, and the
+      crowd swayed forward. But at that instant the door behind Fraser swung
+      open. A frightened voice sounded in his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quick, Steve!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger slewed his head, gave an exclamation of surprise, and hurriedly
+      threw his prisoner into the open passage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Back, Larry! Lively, my boy!&rdquo; he ordered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neill leaped back in a spatter of bullets that rained round him. Next
+      moment the door was swung shut again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You all right, Nell?&rdquo; asked Fraser quickly of the young woman who had
+      opened the door, and upon her affirmative reply he added: &ldquo;Everybody alive
+      and kicking? Nobody get a pill?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm all right for one,&rdquo; returned Larry. &ldquo;But we had better get out of
+      this passage. I notice our friends the enemy are sending their cards
+      through the door after us right anxious.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke a bullet tore a jagged splinter from a panel and buried itself
+      in the ceiling. A second and a third followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's c'rect. We'd better be 'Not at home' when they call. Eh, Nell?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve put an arm affectionately round the waist of the young woman who had
+      come in such timely fashion to their aid and ran through the passage with
+      her to the room beyond, Neill following with the prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're wounded, Steve,&rdquo; the young woman cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shrugged. &ldquo;Scratch in the hand. Got it when I arrested him. Had to
+      shoot his trigger finger off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I must see to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not now; wait till we're out of the woods.&rdquo; He turned to his friend:
+      &ldquo;Nell, let me introduce to you Mr. Neill, from the Panhandle. Mr. Neill,
+      this is my sister. I don't know how come she to drop down behind us like
+      an angel from heaven, but that's a story will wait. The thing we got to do
+      right now is to light a shuck out of here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His friend nodded, listening to the sound of blows battering the outer
+      door. &ldquo;They'll have it down in another minute. We've got to burn the wind
+      seven ways for Sunday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I'd like to know is whether there are two entrances to this
+      rat-trap. Do you happen to know, Nell?&rdquo; asked Fraser of his sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three,&rdquo; she answered promptly. &ldquo;There's a back door into the court and a
+      trap-door to the roof. That's the way I came.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it's the way we'll go. I might a-known you'd know all about it give
+      you a quarter of a chance,&rdquo; her brother said admiringly. &ldquo;We'll duck
+      through the roof and let Mr. Dunke hold the sack. Lead the way, sis.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She guided them along another passageway and up some stairs to the second
+      story. The trap-door that opened to the flat roof was above the bed about
+      six feet. Neill caught the edges of the narrow opening, drew himself up,
+      and wriggled through. Fraser lifted his sister by the waist high enough
+      for Larry to catch her hands and draw her up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hurry, Steve,&rdquo; she urged. &ldquo;They've broken in. Hurry, dear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger unlocked his prisoner's handcuffs and tossed them up to the
+      Tennessean.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get a move on you, Mr. Struve, unless you want to figure in a necktie
+      party,&rdquo; he advised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the convict's flabby muscles were unequal to the task of getting him
+      through the opening. Besides which, his wounded hand, tied up with a
+      blood-soaked rag, impeded him. He had to be pulled from above and boosted
+      from behind. Fraser, fit to handle his weight in wildcats, as an admirer
+      had once put it, found no trouble in following. Steps were already heard
+      on the stairs below when Larry slipped the cover to its place and put upon
+      it a large flat stone which he found on the roof for that purpose. The
+      fugitives crawled along the roof on their hands and knees so as to escape
+      the observation of the howling mob outside the house. Presently they came
+      into the shadows, and Nell rose, ran forward to a little ladder which led
+      to a higher roof, and swiftly ascended. Neill, who was at her heels, could
+      not fail to note the light supple grace with which she moved. He thought
+      he had never seen a more charming woman in appearance. She still somehow
+      retained the slim figure and taking ways of a girl, in conjunction with
+      the soft rounded curves of a present-day Madonna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two more roofs were crossed before they came to another open trap-door. A
+      lamp in the room below showed it to be a bedroom with two cots in it. Two
+      children, one of them a baby, were asleep in these. A sweet-faced woman
+      past middle age looked anxiously up with hands clasped together as in
+      prayer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it you, Nellie?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, mother, and Steve, and his friend. We're all right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser dropped through, and his sister let herself down into his arms.
+      Struve followed, and was immediately handcuffed. Larry put back the trap
+      and fastened it from within before he dropped down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall have to leave at once, mother, without waiting to dress the
+      children,&rdquo; explained Fraser. &ldquo;Wrap them in blankets and take some clothes
+      along. I'll drop you at the hotel and slip my prisoner into the jail the
+      back way if I can; that is, if another plan I have doesn't work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The oldest child awoke and caught sight of Fraser. He reached out his
+      hands in excitement and began to call: &ldquo;Uncle Steve! Uncle Steve back
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser picked up the youngster. &ldquo;Yes, Uncle Steve is back. But we're going
+      to play a game that Indians are after us. Webb must be good and keep very,
+      very still. He mustn't say a word till uncle tells him he may.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little fellow clapped his hands. &ldquo;Goody, goody! Shall we begin now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right this minute, son. Better take your money with you, mother. Is
+      father here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, he is at the ranch. He went down in the stage to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, friends. We'll take the back way. Tennessee, will you look out
+      for Mr. Struve? Sis will want to carry the baby.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed quietly down-stairs and out the back door. The starry night
+      enveloped them coldly, and the moon looked down through rifted clouds.
+      Nature was peaceful as her own silent hills, but the raucous jangle of
+      cursing voices from a distance made discord of the harmony. They slipped
+      along through the shadows, meeting none except occasional figures hurrying
+      to the plaza. At the hotel door the two men separated from the rest of the
+      party, and took with them their prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm going to put him for safe-keeping down the shaft of a mine my father
+      and I own,&rdquo; explained Steve. &ldquo;He wouldn't be safe in the jail, because
+      Dunke, for private reasons, has made up his mind to put out his lights.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Private reasons?&rdquo; echoed the engineer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mighty good ones, too. Ain't that right?&rdquo; demanded the ranger of Struve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The convict cursed, though his teeth still chattered with fright from the
+      narrow escape he had had, but through his prison jargon ran a hint of some
+      power he had over the man Dunke. It was plain he thought the latter had
+      incited the lynching in order to shut the convict's mouth forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is this shaft?&rdquo; asked Neill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Up a gulch about half a mile from here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser's eyes fixed themselves on a young man who passed on the run. He
+      suddenly put his fingers to his lips and gave a low whistle. The running
+      man stopped instantly, his head alert to catch the direction from which
+      the sound had come. Steve whistled again and the stranger turned toward
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's Brown, one of my rangers,&rdquo; explained the lieutenant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Brown, it appeared, had just reached town and stabled his horse when word
+      came to him that there was trouble on the plaza. He had been making for it
+      when his officer's whistle stopped him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all over except getting this man to safety. I'm going to put him
+      down an abandoned shaft of the Jackrabbit. He'll be safe there, and nobody
+      will think to look for him in any such place,&rdquo; said Fraser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man from the Panhandle drew his friend to one side. &ldquo;Do you need me
+      any longer? I left Miss Kinney right on the edge of that mob, and I expect
+      I better look around and see where she is now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. No, we don't need you. Take care you don't let any of these
+      miners recognize you. They might make you trouble while they're still hot.
+      Well, so-long. See you to-morrow at the hotel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Tennessean looked to his guns to make sure they hung loose in the
+      scabbards, then stepped briskly back toward the plaza.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII &mdash; WOULD YOU WORRY ABOUT ME?
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Margaret Kinney's heart ceased beating in that breathless instant after
+      the two dauntless friends had flung defiance to two hundred. There was a
+      sudden tightening of her throat, a fixing of dilated eyes on what would
+      have been a thrilling spectacle had it not meant so much more to her. For
+      as she leaned forward in the saddle with parted lips she knew a passionate
+      surge of fear for one of the apparently doomed men that went through her
+      like swift poison, that left her dizzy with the shock of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thought of action came to her too late. As Dunke stepped back to give
+      the signal for attack she cried out his name, but her voice was drowned in
+      the yell of rage that filled the street. She tried to spur her horse into
+      the crowd, to force a way to the men standing with such splendid
+      fearlessness above this thirsty pack of wolves. But the denseness of the
+      throng held her fixed even while revolvers flashed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then the miracle happened. She saw the door open and limned in a
+      penumbra of darkness the white comely face of a woman. She saw the
+      beleaguered men sway back and the door close in the faces of the horde.
+      She saw bullets go crashing into the door, heard screams of baffled fury,
+      and presently the crash of axes into the panels of the barrier that held
+      them back. It seemed to fade away before her gaze, and instead of it she
+      saw a doorway full of furious crowding miners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then presently her heart stood still again. From her higher place in the
+      saddle, well back in the outskirts of the throng, in the dim light she
+      made out a figure crouching on the roof; then another, and another, and a
+      fourth. She suffered an agony of fear in the few heart-beats before they
+      began to slip away. Her eyes swept the faces near her. One and all they
+      were turned upon the struggling mass of humanity at the entrance to the
+      passage. When she dared look again to the roof the fugitives were gone.
+      She thought she perceived them swarming up a ladder to the higher roof,
+      but in the surrounding grayness she could not be sure of this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stamping of feet inside the house continued. Once there was the sound
+      of an exploding revolver. After a long time a heavy figure struggled into
+      view through the roof-trap. It was Dunke himself. He caught sight of the
+      ladder, gave a shout of triumph, and was off in pursuit of his flying
+      prey. As others appeared on the roof they, too, took up the chase, a long
+      line of indistinct running figures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were other women on the street now, most of them Mexicans, so that
+      Margaret attracted little attention. She moved up opposite the house that
+      had become the scene of action, expecting every moment to hear the shots
+      that would determine the fate of the victims.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But no shots came. Lights flashed from room to room, and presently one
+      light began to fill a room so brilliantly that she knew a lamp must have
+      been overturned and set the house on fire. Dunke burst from the front
+      door, scarce a dozen paces from her. There was a kind of lurid fury in his
+      eyes. He was as ravenously fierce as a wolf balked of its kill. She chose
+      that moment to call him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Dunke!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her voice struck him into a sort of listening alertness, and again she
+      pronounced his name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, Miss Kinney&mdash;here?&rdquo; he asked in amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;Miss Kinney.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But&mdash;What are you doing here? I thought you were at Fort Lincoln.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was, but I'm here now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why? This is no place for you to-night. Hell's broke loose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it seems,&rdquo; she answered, with shining eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's trouble afoot, Miss Margaret. No girl should be out, let alone an
+      unprotected one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not come here unprotected. There was a man with me. The one, Mr.
+      Dunke, that you are now looking for to murder!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave it to him straight from the shoulder, her eyes holding his
+      steadily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Struve?&rdquo; he gasped, taken completely aback.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not Struve. The man who stood beside Lieutenant Fraser, the one you
+      threatened to kill because he backed the law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess you don't know all the facts, Miss Kinney.&rdquo; He came close and met
+      her gaze while he spoke in a low voice. &ldquo;There ain't many know what I
+      know. Mebbe there ain't any beside you now. But I know you're Jim Kinney's
+      sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are welcome to the knowledge. It is no secret. Lieutenant Fraser
+      knows it. So does his friend. I'm not trying to hide it. What of it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her quiet scorn drew the blood to his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's all right. If you do want to keep it quiet I'm with you. But
+      there's something more. Your brother escaped from Yuma with this fellow
+      Struve. Word came over the wire an hour or two ago that Struve had been
+      captured and that it was certain he had killed his pal, your brother.
+      That's why I mean to see him hanged before mo'ning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He did kill my brother. He told me so himself.&rdquo; Her voice carried a sob
+      for an instant, but she went on resolutely. &ldquo;What has that to do with it?
+      Isn't there any law in Texas? Hasn't he been captured? And isn't he being
+      taken back to his punishment?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He told you so himself!&rdquo; the man echoed. &ldquo;When did he tell you? When did
+      you see him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was alone with him for twelve hours in the desert.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alone with you?&rdquo; His puzzled face showed how he was trying to take this
+      in, &ldquo;I don't understand. How could he be alone with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought he was my brother and I was helping him to escape from Fort
+      Lincoln.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Helping him to escape! Helping Wolf Struve to escape! Well, I'm darned if
+      that don't beat my time. How come you to think him your brother?&rdquo; the man
+      asked suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn't matter how or why. I thought so. That's enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you were alone with him&mdash;why, you must have been alone with him
+      all night,&rdquo; cried Dunke, coming to a fresh discovery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was,&rdquo; she admitted very quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A new suspicion edged itself into his mind. &ldquo;What did you talk about? Did
+      he say anything about&mdash;Did he&mdash;He always was a terrible liar.
+      Nobody ever believed Wolf Struve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without understanding the reason for it, she could see that he was uneasy,
+      that he was trying to discount the value of anything the convict might
+      have told her. Yet what could Struve the convict, No. 9,432, have to do
+      with the millionaire mine-owner, Thomas J. Dunke? What could there be in
+      common between them? Why should the latter fear what the other had to
+      tell? The thing was preposterous on the face of it, but the girl knew by
+      some woman's instinct that she was on the edge of a secret Dunke held
+      hidden deep in his heart from all the world. Only this much she guessed;
+      that Struve was a sharer of his secret, and therefore he was set on
+      lynching the man before he had time to tell it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They got away, didn't they?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They got away&mdash;for the present,&rdquo; he answered grimly. &ldquo;But we're
+      still hunting them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't you let the law take its course, Mr. Danke? Is it necessary to do
+      this terrible thing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you worry any about it, Miss Kinney. This ain't a woman's job. I'll
+      attend to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But my friends,&rdquo; she reminded him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We ain't intending to hurt them any. Come, I'll see you home. You staying
+      at the hotel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know. I haven't made any arrangements yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we'll go make them now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But she did not move. &ldquo;I'm not going in till I know how this comes out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was a man used to having his own brutal way, one strong by nature, with
+      strength increased by the money upon which he rode rough-shod to success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed as he caught hold of the rein. &ldquo;That's ridiculous!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But my business, I think,&rdquo; the girl answered sharply, jerking the bridle
+      from his fingers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dunke stared at her. It was his night of surprises. He failed to recognize
+      the conventional teacher he knew in this bright-eyed, full-throated young
+      woman who fronted him so sure of herself. She seemed to him to swim
+      brilliantly in a tide of flushed beauty, in spite of the dust and the
+      stains of travel. She was in a shapeless khaki riding-suit and a plain,
+      gray, broad-brimmed Stetson. But the one could not hide the flexible
+      curves that made so frankly for grace, nor the other the coppery tendrils
+      that escaped in fascinating disorder from under its brim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You hadn't ought to be out here. It ain't right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't remember asking you to act as a standard of right and wrong for
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed awkwardly. &ldquo;We ain't quarreling, are we, Miss Margaret?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly I am not. I don't quarrel with anybody but my friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I didn't aim to offend you anyway. You know me better than that.&rdquo;
+       He let his voice fall into a caressing modulation and put a propitiatory
+      hand on her skirt, but under the uncompromising hardness of her gaze the
+      hand fell away to his side. &ldquo;I'm your friend&mdash;leastways I want to
+      be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My friends don't lynch men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But after what he did to your brother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The law will take care of that. If you want to please me call off your
+      men before it is too late.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was his cue to please her, for so far as it was in him the man loved
+      her. He had set his strong will to trample on his past, to rise to a place
+      where no man could shake his security with proof of his former misdeeds.
+      He meant to marry her and to place her out of reach of those evil days of
+      his. Only Struve was left of the old gang, and he knew the Wolf well
+      enough to be sure that the fellow would delight in blackmailing him. The
+      convict's mouth must be closed. But just now he must promise t she wanted,
+      and he did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The promise was still on his lips when a third person strode into their
+      conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sorry I had to leave you so hastily, Miss Kinney. I'm ready to take you
+      to the hotel now if it suits you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Both of them turned quickly, to see the man from the Panhandle sauntering
+      forth from the darkness. There was a slight smile on his face, which did
+      not abate when he nodded to Dunke amiably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You?&rdquo; exclaimed the mine-owner angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes&mdash;me. Hope we didn't inconvenience you, seh, by postponing
+      the coyote's journey to Kingdom Come. My friend had to take a hand because
+      he is a ranger, and I sat in to oblige him. No hard feelings, I hope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you&mdash;Are you all safe?&rdquo; Margaret asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, ma'am. Got away slick and clean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo; barked Dunke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where what, my friend?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did you take him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Larry laughed in slow deep enjoyment. &ldquo;I hate to disappoint you, but if I
+      told that would be telling. No, I reckon I won't table my cards yet a
+      while. If you're playing in this game of Hi-Spy go to it and hunt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you don't know that I am T. J. Dunke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't say! And I'm General Grant. This lady hyer is Florence
+      Nightingale or Martha Washington, I disremember which.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Kinney laughed. &ldquo;Whichever she is she's very very tired,&rdquo; she said.
+      &ldquo;I think I'll accept your offer to see me to the hotel, Mr. Neill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She nodded a careless good night to the mine-owner, and touched the horse
+      with her heel. At the porch of the rather primitive hotel she descended
+      stiffly from the saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before she left the Southerner&mdash;or the Westerner, for sometimes she
+      classified him as one, sometimes as the other&mdash;she asked him one
+      hesitant question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Were you thinking of going out again tonight?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did think of taking a turn out to see if I could find Fraser. Anything
+      I can do for you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. Please don't go. I don't want to have to worry about you. I have had
+      enough trouble for the present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you worry about me?&rdquo; he asked quietly, his eyes steadily on her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I lie awake about the most unaccountable things sometimes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled in his slow Southern fashion. &ldquo;Very well. I'll stay indoors. I
+      reckon Steve ain't lost, anyhow. You're too tired to have to lie awake
+      about me to-night. There's going to be lots of other nights for you to
+      think of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She glanced at him with a quick curiosity. &ldquo;Well, of all the conceit I
+      ever heard!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm the limit, ain't I?&rdquo; he grinned as he took himself off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX &mdash; DOWN THE JACKRABBIT SHAFT.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Next morning Larry got up so late that he had to Order a special breakfast
+      for himself, the dining-room being closed. He found one guest there,
+      however, just beginning her oatmeal, and he invited himself to eat at her
+      table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good mawnin', Miss Kinney. You don't look like you had been lying awake
+      worrying about me,&rdquo; he began by way of opening the conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor did she. Youth recuperates quickly, and after a night's sound sleep
+      she was glowing with health and sweet vitality. He could see a flush beat
+      into the fresh softness of her flesh, but she lifted her dark lashes
+      promptly to meet him, and came to the sex duel gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose you think I had to take a sleeping-powder to keep me from it?&rdquo;
+       she flashed back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, well, a person can dream,&rdquo; he suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did you know? But you are right. I did dream of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To the waiter he gave his order before answering her. &ldquo;Some oatmeal and
+      bacon and eggs. Yes, coffee. And some hot cakes, Charlie. Did you honest
+      dream about me?&rdquo; This last not to the Chinese waiter who had padded
+      soft-footed to the kitchen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She smiled shyly at him with sweet innocence, and he drew his chair a
+      trifle closer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't like to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you must. Go on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; very reluctantly. &ldquo;I dreamed I was visiting the penitentiary and
+      you were there in stripes. You were in for stealing a sheep, I think. Yes,
+      that was it, for stealing a sheep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Couldn't you make it something more classy if you're bound to have me
+      in?&rdquo; he begged, enjoying immensely the rise she was taking out of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have to tell it the way it was,&rdquo; she insisted, her eyes bubbling with
+      fun. &ldquo;And it seems you were the prison cook. First thing I knew you were
+      standing in front of a wall and two hundred of the prisoners were shooting
+      at you. They were using your biscuits as bullets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was a terrible revenge to take on me for baking them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems you had your sheep with you&mdash;the one you stole, and you and
+      it were being pelted all over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you see a lady hold-up among those shooting at me?&rdquo; he inquired
+      anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She shook her head. &ldquo;And just when the biscuits were flying thickest the
+      wall opened and Mr. Fraser appeared. He caught you and the sheep by the
+      back of your necks, and flung you in. Then the wall closed, and I awoke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's about as near the facts as dreams usually get.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was very much pleased, for it would have been a great disappointment to
+      him if she had admitted dreaming about him for any reason except to make
+      fun of him. The thing about her that touched his imagination most was
+      something wild and untamed, some quality of silken strength in her slim
+      supple youth that scoffed at all men and knew none as master. He meant to
+      wrest from her if he could an interest that would set him apart in her
+      mind from all others, but he wanted the price of victory to cost him
+      something. Thus the value of it would be enhanced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But tell me about your escape&mdash;all about it and what became of
+      Lieutenant Fraser. And first of all, who the lady was that opened the door
+      for you,&rdquo; she demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was his sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! His sister.&rdquo; Her voice was colorless. She observed him without
+      appearing to do so. &ldquo;Very pretty, I thought her. Didn't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right nice looking. Had a sort of an expression made a man want to look
+      at her again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Innocently unaware that he was being pumped, he contributed more
+      information. &ldquo;And that game.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was splendid. I can see her now opening the door in the face of the
+      bullets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never a scream out of her either. Just as cool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the quality men admire most, isn't it&mdash;courage?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't reckon that would come first. Course it wouldn't make a hit with
+      a man to have a woman puling around all the time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My kind, you mean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Though she was smiling at him with her lips, it came to him that his words
+      were being warped to a wrong meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don't,&rdquo; he retorted bluntly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I remember it, I was bawling every chance I got yesterday and the day
+      before,&rdquo; she recalled, with fine contempt of herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, well! You had reason a-plenty. And sometimes a woman cries just like
+      a man cusses. It don't mean anything. I once knew a woman wet her
+      handkerchief to a sop crying because her husband forgot one mo'ning to
+      kiss her good-by. She quit irrigating to run into a burning house after a
+      neighbor's kids.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I accept your apology for my behavior if you'll promise I won't do it
+      again,&rdquo; she laughed. &ldquo;But tell me more about Miss Fraser. Does she live
+      here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment he was puzzled. &ldquo;Miss Fraser! Oh! She gave up that name
+      several years ago. Mrs. Collins they call her. And say, you ought to see
+      her kiddies. You'd fall in love with them sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl covered her mistake promptly with a little laugh. It would never
+      do for him to know she had been yielding to incipient jealousy. &ldquo;Why can't
+      I know them? I want to meet her too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened and a curly head was thrust in. &ldquo;Dining-room closes for
+      breakfast at nine. My clock says it's ten-thirty now. Pretty near work to
+      keep eating that long, ain't it? And this Sunday, too! I'll have you put
+      in the calaboose for breaking the Sabbath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We're only bending it,&rdquo; grinned Neill. &ldquo;Good mo'ning, Lieutenant. How is
+      Mrs. Collins, and the pickaninnies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First rate. Waiting in the parlor to be introduced to Miss Kinney.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We're through,&rdquo; announced Margaret, rising.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You too, Tennessee? The proprietor will be grateful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young women took to each other at once. Margaret was very fond of
+      children, and the little boy won her heart immediately. Both he and his
+      baby sister were well-trained, healthy, and lovable little folks, and they
+      adopted &ldquo;Aunt Peggy&rdquo; enthusiastically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the ranger proposed to Neill an adjournment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I got to take some breakfast down the Jackrabbit shaft to my prisoner.
+      Wanter take a stroll that way?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If the ladies will excuse us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad to get rid of you,&rdquo; Miss Kinney assured him promptly, but with a
+      bright smile that neutralized the effect of her sauciness. &ldquo;Mrs. Collins
+      and I want to have a talk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The way to the Jackrabbit lay up a gulch behind the town. Up one incline
+      was a shaft-house with a great gray dump at the foot of it. This they left
+      behind them, climbing the hill till they came to the summit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger pointed to another shaft-house and dump on the next hillside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the Mal Pais, from which the district is named. Dunke owns it and
+      most of the others round here. His workings and ours come together in
+      several places, but we have boarded up the tunnels at those points and
+      locked the doors we put in. Wonder where Brown is? I told him to meet me
+      here to let us down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment they caught sight of him coming up a timbered draw. He
+      lowered them into the shaft, which was about six hundred feet deep. From
+      the foot of the shaft went a tunnel into the heart of the mountain. Steve
+      led the way, flashing an electric searchlight as he went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We aren't working this part of the mine any more,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;It
+      connects with the newer workings by a tunnel. We'll go back that way to
+      the shaft.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've got quite a safe prison,&rdquo; commented the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's commodious, anyhow; and I reckon it's safe. If a man was to get
+      loose he couldn't reach the surface without taking somebody into
+      partner-ship with him. There ain't but three ways to daylight; one by the
+      shaft we came down, another by way of our shaft-house, and the third by
+      Dunke's, assuming he could break through into the Mal Pais. He'd better
+      not break loose and go to wandering around. There are seventeen miles of
+      workings down here in the Jackrabbit, let alone the Mal Pais. He might
+      easily get lost and starve to death. Here he is at the end of this
+      tunnel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve flashed the light twice before he could believe his eyes. There was
+      no sign of Struve except the handcuffs depending from an iron chain
+      connected by a heavy staple with the granite wall. Apparently he had
+      somehow managed to slip from the gyves by working at them constantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer turned to his friend and laughed. &ldquo;I reckon I'm holding the
+      sack this time. See. There's blood on these cuffs. He rasped his hands
+      some before he got them out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you've still got him safe down here somewhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I have or Dunke has. The trouble is both the mines are shut down
+      just now. He's got about forty miles of tunnel to play hide-and-go-seek
+      in. He's in luck if he doesn't starve to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do about it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll have to get some of my men out on search-parties&mdash;just tell
+      them there's a man lost down here without telling them who. I reckon we
+      better say nothing about it to the ladies. You know how tender-hearted
+      they are. Nellie wouldn't sleep a wink to-night for worrying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. We'd better get to it at once then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser nodded. &ldquo;We'll go up and rustle a few of the boys that know the
+      mine well. I expect before we find him Mr. Wolf Struve will be a lamb and
+      right anxious for the shepherd to arrive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All day the search proceeded without results, and all of the next day. The
+      evening of this second day found Struve still not accounted for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X &mdash; IN A TUNNEL OF THE MAL PAIS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Although Miss Kinney had assured Neill that she was glad to be rid of him
+      it occurred to her more than once in the course of the day that he was
+      taking her a little too literally. On Sunday she did not see a glimpse of
+      him after he left. At lunch he did not appear, nor was he in evidence at
+      dinner. Next morning she learned that he had been to breakfast and had
+      gone before she got down. She withheld judgment till lunch, being almost
+      certain that he would be on hand to that meal. His absence roused her
+      resentment and her independence. If he didn't care to see her she
+      certainly did not want to see him. She was not going to sit around and
+      wait for him to take her down into the mine he had promised she should
+      see. Let him forget his appointment if he liked. He would wait a long time
+      before she made any more engagements with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About this time Dunke began to flatter himself that he had made an
+      impression. Miss Kinney was all smiles. She was graciously pleased to take
+      a horseback ride over the camp with him, nor did he know that her roving
+      eye was constantly on the lookout for a certain spare, clean-built figure
+      she could recognize at a considerable distance by the easy, elastic tread.
+      Monday evening the mine-owner called upon her and Mrs. Collins, whose
+      brother also was among the missing, and she was delighted to accept his
+      invitation to go through the Mal Pais workings with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is, if Mrs. Collins will go, too,&rdquo; she added as an afterthought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That young woman hesitated. Though this man had led his miners against her
+      brother, she was ready to believe the attack not caused by personal
+      enmity. The best of feeling did not exist between the owners of the
+      Jackrabbit and those of the Mal Pais. Dunke was suspected of boldly
+      crossing into the territory of his neighbor where his veins did not lead.
+      But there had been no open rupture. For the very reason that an undertow
+      of feeling existed Nellie consented to join the party. She did not want by
+      a refusal to put into words a hostility that he had always carefully
+      veiled. She was in the position of not wanting to go at all, yet wanting
+      still less to decline to do so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be glad to go,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fine. We'll start about nine, or nine-thirty say. I'll drive up in a
+      surrey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we'll have lunch for the party put up at the hotel here. I'll get
+      some fruit to take along,&rdquo; said Margaret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll make a regular picnic of it,&rdquo; added Dunke heartily. &ldquo;You'll enjoy
+      eating out of a dinner-pail for once just like one of my miners, Miss
+      Kinney.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After he had gone Margaret mentioned to Mrs. Collins her feeling
+      concerning him. &ldquo;I don't really like him. Or rather I don't give him my
+      full confidence. He seems pleasant enough, too.&rdquo; She laughed a little as
+      she added: &ldquo;You know he does me the honor to admire me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I know that. I was wondering how you felt about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How ought one to feel about one of the great mining kings of the West?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has that anything to do with it, my dear? I mean his being a mining
+      king?&rdquo; asked Mrs. Collins gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Margaret went up to her and kissed her. &ldquo;You're a romantic little thing.
+      That's because you probably married a heaven-sent man. We can't all be
+      fortunate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We none of us need to marry where we don't love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Goodness me! I'm not thinking of marrying Mr. Dunke's millions. The only
+      thing is that I don't have a Croesus to exhibit every day at my chariot
+      wheels. It's horrid of course, but I have a natural feminine reluctance to
+      surrendering him all at once. I don't object in the least to trampling on
+      him, but somehow I don't feel ready for his declaration of independence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, if that's all!&rdquo; her friend smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's quite all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you prefer Texans who come from the Panhandle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Collins happened to be looking straight at her out of her big brown
+      eyes. Wherefore she could not help observing the pink glow that deepened
+      in the soft cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He hasn't preferred me much lately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nellie knitted her brow in perplexity. &ldquo;I don't understand. Steve's been
+      away, too, nearly all the time. Something is going on that we don't know
+      about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that I care. Mr. Neill is welcome to stay away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her new friend shot a swift slant look at her. &ldquo;I don't suppose you
+      trample on him much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margaret flushed. &ldquo;No, I don't. It's the other way. I never saw anybody so
+      rude. He does not seem to have any saving sense of the proper thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a man, dearie, and a good one. He may be untrammeled by convention,
+      but he is clean and brave. He has eyes that look through cowardice and
+      treachery, fine strong eyes that are honest and unafraid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me, you must have studied them a good deal to see all that in them,&rdquo;
+       said Miss Peggy lightly, yet pleased withal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear,&rdquo; reproached her friend, so seriously that Peggy repented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't really mean it,&rdquo; she laughed. &ldquo;I've heard already on good
+      authority that you see no man's eyes except the handsome ones in the face
+      of Mr. Tim Collins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do think Tim has fine eyes,&rdquo; blushed the accused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt of it. Since you have been admiring my young man I must praise
+      yours,&rdquo; teased Miss Kinney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Am I to wish you joy? I didn't know he was your young man,&rdquo; flashed back
+      the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand that you have been trying to put him off on me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll find he does not need any 'putting off' on anybody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least, he has a good friend in you. I think I'll tell him, so that
+      when he does condescend to become interested in a young woman he may refer
+      her to you for a recommendation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young wife borrowed for the occasion some of Miss Peggy's audacity.
+      &ldquo;I'm recommending him to that young woman now, my dear,&rdquo; she made answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dunke's party left for the mine on schedule time, Water-proof coats and
+      high lace-boots had been borrowed for the ladies as a protection against
+      the moisture they were sure to meet in the tunnels one thousand feet below
+      the ground. The mine-owner had had the hoisting-engine started for the
+      occasion, and the cage took them down as swiftly and as smoothly as a
+      metropolitan elevator. Nevertheless Margaret clung tightly to her friend,
+      for if was her first experience of the kind. She had never before dropped
+      nearly a quarter of a mile straight down into the heart of the earth and
+      she felt a smothered sensation, a sense of danger induced by her
+      unaccustomed surroundings. It is the unknown that awes, and when she first
+      stepped from the cage and peered down the long, low tunnel through which a
+      tramway ran she caught her breath rather quickly. She had an active
+      imagination, and she conjured cave-ins, explosions, and all the other mine
+      horrors she had read about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their host had spared no expense to make the occasion a gala one. Electric
+      lights were twinkling at intervals down the tunnel, and an electric
+      ore-car with a man in charge was waiting to run them into the workings
+      nearly a mile distant. Dunke dealt out candles and assisted his guests
+      into the car, which presently carried them deep into the mine. Margaret
+      observed that the timbered sides of the tunnel leaned inward slightly and
+      that the roof was heavily cross-timbered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks safe,&rdquo; she thought aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's safe enough,&rdquo; returned Dunke carelessly. &ldquo;The place for cave-ins is
+      at the head of the workings, before we get drifts timbered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we going into any of those places?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wouldn't take you into any place that wasn't safe, Miss Margaret.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it always so dreadfully warm down here?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must remember we're somewhere around a thousand feet in the heart of
+      the earth. Yes, it's always warm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't see how the men stand it and work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, they get used to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They left the car and followed a drift which took them into a region of
+      perpetual darkness, into which the electric lights did not penetrate.
+      Margaret noticed that her host carried his candle with ease, holding it at
+      an angle that gave the best light and most resistance to the air, while
+      she on her part had much ado to keep hers from going out. Frequently she
+      had to stop and let the tiny flame renew its hold on the base of supplies.
+      So, without his knowing it, she fell behind gradually, and his
+      explanations of stopes, drifts, air-drills, and pay-streaks fell only upon
+      the already enlightened ears of Mrs. Collins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl had been picking her way through some puddles of water that had
+      settled on the floor, and when she looked up the lights of those ahead had
+      disappeared. She called to them faintly and hurried on, appalled at the
+      thought of possibly losing them in these dreadful underground catacombs
+      where Stygian night forever reigned. But her very hurry delayed her, for
+      in her haste the gust of her motion swept out the flame. She felt her way
+      forward along the wall, in a darkness such as she had never conceived
+      before. Nor could she know that by chance she was following the wrong
+      wall. Had she chosen the other her hand must have come to a break in it
+      which showed that a passage at that point deflected from the drift toward
+      the left. Unconsciously she passed this, already frightened but resolutely
+      repressing her fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll not let them know what an idiot I am. I'll not! I'll not!&rdquo; she told
+      herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Therefore she did not call yet, thinking she must come on them at any
+      moment, unaware that every step was taking her farther from the gallery
+      into which they had turned. When at last she cried out it was too late.
+      The walls hemmed in her cry and flung it back tauntingly to her&mdash;the
+      damp walls against which she crouched in terror of the subterranean vault
+      in which she was buried. She was alone with the powers of darkness, with
+      the imprisoned spirits of the underworld that fought inarticulately
+      against the audacity of the puny humans who dared venture here. So her
+      vivid imagination conceived it, terrorizing her against both will and
+      reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How long she wandered, a prey to terror, calling helplessly in the
+      blackness, she did not know. It seemed to her that she must always wander
+      so, a perpetual prisoner condemned to this living grave. So that it was
+      with a distinct shock of glad surprise she heard a voice answer faintly
+      her calls. Calling and listening alternately, she groped her way in the
+      direction of the sounds, and so at last came plump against the figure of
+      the approaching rescuer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is it?&rdquo; a hoarse voice demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But before she could answer a match flared and was held close to her face.
+      The same light that revealed her to him told the girl who this man was
+      that had met her alone a million miles from human aid. The haggard, drawn
+      countenance with the lifted upper lip and the sunken eyes that glared into
+      hers belonged to the convict Nick Struve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The match went out before either of them spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&mdash;you here!&rdquo; she exclaimed, and was oddly conscious that her
+      relief at meeting even him had wiped out for the present her fear of the
+      man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For God's sake, have you got anything to eat?&rdquo; he breathed thickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had been part of the play that each member of their little party should
+      carry a dinner-pail just like an ordinary miner. Wherefore she had hers
+      still in her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and I have a candle here. Have you another match?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He lit the candle with a shaking hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gimme that bucket,&rdquo; he ordered gruffly, and began to devour ravenously
+      the food he found in it, tearing at sandwiches and gulping them down like
+      a hungry dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What day is this?&rdquo; he stopped to ask after he had stayed the first pangs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She told him Tuesday.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't eaten since Saturday,&rdquo; he told her. &ldquo;I figured it was a week.
+      There ain't any days in this place&mdash;nothin' but night. Can't tell one
+      from another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's terrible,&rdquo; she agreed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His appetite was wolfish. She could see that he was spent, so weak with
+      hunger that he had reeled against the wall as she handed him the
+      dinner-pail. Pallor was on the sunken face, and exhaustion in the
+      trembling hands and unsteady gait.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm about all in, what with hunger and all I been through. I thought I
+      was out of my head when I heard you holler.&rdquo; He snatched up the candle
+      from the place where he had set it and searched her face by its flame.
+      &ldquo;How come you down here? You didn't come alone. What you doin' here?&rdquo; he
+      demanded suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came down with Mr. Dunke and a friend to look over his mine. I had
+      never been in one before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dunke!&rdquo; A spasm of rage swept the man's face. &ldquo;You're a friend of his,
+      are you? Where is he? If you came with him how come you to be roaming
+      around alone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I got lost. Then my light went out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you're a friend of Dunke, that damned double-crosser! He's a
+      millionaire, you think, a big man in this Western country. That's what he
+      claims, eh?&rdquo; Struve shook a fist into the air in a mad burst of passion.
+      &ldquo;Just watch me blow him higher'n a kite. I know what he is, and I got
+      proof. The Judas! I keep my mug shut and do time while he gets off
+      scot-free and makes his pile. But you listen to me, ma'am. Your friend
+      ain't nothin' but an outlaw. If he got his like I got mine he'd be at Yuma
+      to-day. Your brother could a-told you. Dunke was at the head of the gang
+      that held up that train. We got nabbed, me and Jim. Burch got shot in the
+      Catalinas by one of the rangers, and Smith died of fever in Sonora. But
+      Dunke, curse him, he sneaks out and buys the officers off with our
+      plunder. That's what he done&mdash;let his partners get railroaded through
+      while he sails out slick and easy. But he made one mistake, Mr. Dunke did.
+      He wrote me a letter and told me to keep mum and he would fix it for me to
+      get out in a few months. I believed him, kept my mouth padlocked, and
+      served seven years without him lifting a hand for me. Then, when I make my
+      getaway he tries first off to shut my mouth by putting me out of business.
+      That's what your friend done, ma'am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this true?&rdquo; asked the girl whitely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So help me God, every word of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He let my brother go to prison without trying to help him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Worse than that. He sent him to prison. Jim was all right when he first
+      met up with Dunke. It was Dunke that got him into his wild ways and led
+      him into trouble. It was Dunke took him into the hold-up business. Hadn't
+      been for him Jim never would have gone wrong.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She made no answer. Her mind was busy piecing out the facts of her
+      brother's misspent life. As a little girl she remembered her big brother
+      before he went away, good-natured, friendly, always ready to play with
+      her. She was sure he had not been bad, only fatally weak. Even this man
+      who had slain him was ready to testify to that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She came back from her absorption to find Struve outlining what he meant
+      to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll go back this passage along the way you came. I want to find Mr.
+      Dunke. I allow I've got something to tell him he will be right interested
+      in hearing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He picked up the candle and led the way along the tunnel. Margaret
+      followed him in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI &mdash; THE SOUTHERNER TAKES A RISK
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The convict shambled forward through the tunnel till he came to a drift
+      which ran into it at a right angle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which way now?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't know,&rdquo; he screamed. &ldquo;Didn't you just come along here? Do you want
+      me to get lost again in this hell-hole?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The stricken fear leaped into his face. He had forgotten her danger,
+      forgotten everything but the craven terror that engulfed him. Looking at
+      him, she was struck for the first time with the thought that he might be
+      on the verge of madness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His cry still rang through the tunnel when Margaret saw a gleam of distant
+      light. She pointed it out to Struve, who wheeled and fastened his eyes
+      upon it. Slowly the faint yellow candle-rays wavered toward them. A man
+      was approaching through the gloom, a large man whom she presently
+      recognized as Dunke. A quick gasp from the one beside her showed that he
+      too knew the man. He took a dozen running steps forward, so that in his
+      haste the candle flickered out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you, Miss Margaret?&rdquo; the mine-owner called.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither she nor Struve answered. The latter had stopped and was waiting
+      tensely his enemy's approach. When he was within a few yards of the other
+      Dunke raised his candle and peered into the blackness ahead of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter? Isn't it you, Miss Peggy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it ain't. It's your old pal, Nick Struve. Ain't you glad to see him,
+      Joe?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dunke looked him over without a word. His thin lips set and his gaze grew
+      wall-eyed. The candle passed from right to left hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve laughed evilly. &ldquo;No, I'm not going to pay you that way&mdash;not
+      yet; nor you ain't going to rid yourself of me either. Want to know why,
+      Mr. Millionaire Dunke, what used to be my old pal? Want to know why it
+      ain't going to do you any good to drop that right hand any closeter to
+      your hip pocket?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Still Dunke said nothing, but the candle-glow that lit his face showed an
+      ugly expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you whip that gun out, Joe Dunke. Don't you! 'Cause why? If you do
+      you're a goner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean that I kept the letter you wrote me seven years ago, and have put
+      it where it will do you no good if anything happens to me. That's why you
+      won't draw that gun, Joe Dunke. If you do it will send you to Yuma.
+      Millionaire you may be, but that won't keep you from wearing stripes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve's voice rang exultantly. From the look in the face of his old
+      comrade in crime who had prospered at his expense, as he chose to think,
+      he saw that for the time being he had got the whip-hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a long silence before Dunke asked hoarsely:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want you to hide me. I want you to get me out of this country. I want
+      you to divvy up with me. Didn't we grub-stake you with the haul from the
+      Overland? Don't we go share and share alike, the two of us that's left?
+      Ain't that fair and square? You wouldn't want to do less than right by an
+      old pal, cap, you that are so respectable and proper now. You ain't forgot
+      the man that lay in the ditch with you the night we held up the flyer, the
+      man that rode beside you when you shot&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For God's sake don't rake up forgotten scrapes. We were all young
+      together then. I'll do what's right by you, but you got to keep your mouth
+      shut and let me manage this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The way you managed it before when you let me rot at Yuma seven years,&rdquo;
+       jeered Struve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I couldn't help it. They were on my trail and I had to lie low. I tell
+      you I'll pull you through if you do as I say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I tell you I don't believe a word you say. You double-crossed me
+      before and you will again if you get a chance. I'll not let you out of my
+      sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be a fool, Nick. How can I help you if I can't move around to make
+      the arrangements for running you across the line?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what guarantee have I got you ain't making arrangements to have me
+      scragged? Think I'm forgetting Saturday night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl in the blackness without the candle-shine moved slightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that?&rdquo; asked Dunke, startled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That noise. Some one moved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dunke's revolver came swiftly from his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon it must a-been the girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What girl? Miss Kinney?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dunke's hard eyes fastened on the other like steel augers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Margaret came forward and took wraithlike shape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want you to take me to Mrs. Collins, Mr. Dunke,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The steel probes shifted from Struve to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did you hear, Miss Kinney? This man is a storehouse of lies. I let
+      him run on to see how far he would go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve's harsh laugh filled the tunnel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take me to Mrs. Collins,&rdquo; she reiterated wearily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not till I know what you heard,&rdquo; answered Dunke doggedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard everything,&rdquo; she avowed boldly. &ldquo;The whole wretched, miserable
+      truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She would have pushed past him, but he caught her arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me go!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you it's all a mistake. I can explain it. Give me time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won't listen, I want never to see either of you again. What have I ever
+      done that I should be mixed up with such men?&rdquo; she cried, with bitter
+      despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't go off half-cocked. 'Course I'll take you to Mrs. Collins if you
+      like. But you got to listen to what I say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another candle glimmered dimly in the tunnel and came toward them. It
+      presently stopped, and a voice rolled along the vault.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, there!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margaret would have known that voice anywhere among a thousand. Now it
+      came to her sweet as water after a drought. She slipped past Dunke and ran
+      stumbling through the darkness to its source.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Neill! Mr. Neill!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The pitiful note in her voice, which he recognized instantly, stirred him
+      to the core. Astonished that she should be in the mine and in trouble, he
+      dashed forward, and his candle went out in the rush. Groping in the
+      darkness her hands encountered his. His arms closed round her, and in her
+      need of protection that brushed aside conventions and non-essentials, the
+      need that had spoken in her cry of relief, in her hurried flight to him,
+      she lay panting and trembling in his arms. He held her tight, as one who
+      would keep his own against the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did you get here&mdash;what has happened?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hurriedly she explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, take me away, take me away!&rdquo; she concluded, nestling to him with no
+      thought now of seeking to disguise her helpless dependence upon him, of
+      hiding from herself the realization that he was the man into whose keeping
+      destiny had ordained that she was to give her heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, honey. You're sure all safe now,&rdquo; he said tenderly, and in the
+      blackness his lips sought and met hers in a kiss that sealed the
+      understanding their souls had reached.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the sound of Neill's voice Dunke had extinguished the candle and
+      vanished in the darkness with Struve, the latter holding him by the arm in
+      a despairing grip. Neill shouted again and again, as he relighted his
+      candle, but there came no answer to his calls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We had better make for the shaft,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They set out on the long walk to the opening that led up to the light and
+      the pure air. For a while they walked on in silence. At last he took her
+      hand and guided her fingers across the seam on his wrist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It don't seem only four days since you did that, honey,&rdquo; he murmured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I do that?&rdquo; Her voice was full of self-reproach, and before he could
+      stop her she lifted his hand and kissed the welt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't, sweet. I deserved what I got and more. I'm ready with that apology
+      you didn't want then, Peggy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I don't want it now, either. I won't have it. Didn't I tell you I
+      wouldn't? Besides,&rdquo; she added, with a little leap of laughter in her
+      voice, &ldquo;why should you ask pardon for kissing the girl you were meant to&mdash;to&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He finished it for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To marry, Peggy. I didn't know it then, but I knew it before you said
+      good-by with your whip.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I didn't know it till next morning,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you know it then, when you were so mean to me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was why I was so mean to you. I had to punish myself and you because
+      I&mdash;liked you so well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She buried her face shyly in his coat to cover this confession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seemed easy for both of them to laugh over nothing in the exuberance of
+      their common happiness. His joy pealed now delightedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't believe it&mdash;that four days ago you wasn't on the earth for
+      me. Seems like you always belonged; seems like I always enjoyed your sassy
+      ways.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's just the way I feel about you. It's really scandalous that in less
+      than a week&mdash;just a little more than half a week&mdash;we should be
+      engaged. We are engaged, aren't we?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then&mdash;it sounds improper, but it isn't the least bit. It's
+      right. Isn't it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It ce'tainly is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you know I've always thought that people who got engaged so soon are
+      the same kind of people that correspond through matrimonial papers. I
+      didn't suppose it would ever happen to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some right strange things happen while a person is alive, Peggy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I don't really know anything at all about you except that you say
+      your name is Larry Neill. Maybe you are married already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She paused, startled at the impossible thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have happened before I can remember, then,&rdquo; he laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or engaged. Very likely you have been engaged a dozen times. Southern
+      people do, they say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I'm an exception.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And me&mdash;you don't know anything about me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A fellow has to take some risk or quit living,&rdquo; he told her gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you think of my temper doesn't it make you afraid?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The samples I've had were surely right exhilarating,&rdquo; he conceded. &ldquo;I'm
+      expecting enough difference of opinion to keep life interesting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, if you won't be warned you'll just have to take me and risk
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And she slipped her arm into his and held up her lips for the kiss
+      awaiting her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII &mdash; EXIT DUNKE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Dunke plowed back through the tunnel in a blind whirl of passion. Rage,
+      chagrin, offended vanity, acute disappointment, all blended with a dull
+      heartache to which he was a stranger. He was a dangerous man in a
+      dangerous mood, and so Wolf Struve was likely to discover. But the convict
+      was not an observant man. His loose upper lip lifted in the ugly sneer to
+      which it was accustomed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got onto you, didn't she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dunke stuck his candle in a niche of the ragged granite wall, strode
+      across to his former partner in crime, and took the man by the throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll learn you to keep that vile tongue of yours still,&rdquo; he said between
+      set teeth, and shook the hapless man till he was black in the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve hung, sputtering and coughing, against the wall where he had been
+      thrown. It was long before he could do more than gasp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&mdash;what did you do&mdash;that for?&rdquo; His furtive ratlike face
+      looked venomous in its impotent anger. &ldquo;I'll pay you for this&mdash;and
+      don't you&mdash;forget it, Joe Dunke!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'd shoot me in the back the way you did Jim Kinney if you got a
+      chance. I know that; but you see you won't get a chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't looking for no such chance. I&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's enough. I don't have to stand for your talk even if I do have to
+      take care of you. Light your candle and move along this tunnel lively.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Something in Dunke's eye quelled the rebellion the other contemplated. He
+      shuffled along, whining as he went that he would never have looked for his
+      old pal to treat him so. They climbed ladders to the next level, passed
+      through an empty stope, and stopped at the end of a drift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll arrange to get you out of here to-night and have you run across the
+      line. I'm going to give you three hundred dollars. That's the last cent
+      you'll ever get out of me. If you ever come back to this country I'll see
+      that you're hanged as you deserve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that Dunke turned on his heel and was gone. But his contempt for the
+      ruffian he had cowed was too fearless. He would have thought so if he
+      could have known of the shadow that dogged his heels through the tunnel,
+      if he could have seen the bare fangs that had gained Struve his name of
+      &ldquo;Wolf,&rdquo; if he could have caught the flash of the knife that trembled in
+      the eager hand. He did not know that, as he shot up in the cage to the
+      sunlight, the other was filling the tunnel with imprecations and wild
+      threats, that he was hugging himself with the promise of a revenge that
+      should be sure and final.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dunke went about the task of making the necessary arrangements personally.
+      He had his surrey packed with food, and about eleven o'clock drove up to
+      the mine and was lowered to the ninth level. An hour later he stepped out
+      of the cage with a prisoner whom he kept covered with a revolver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's that fellow Struve,&rdquo; he explained to the astonished engineer in the
+      shaft-house. &ldquo;I found him down below. It seems that Fraser took him down
+      the Jackrabbit and he broke loose and worked through to our ground.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you want any help in taking him downtown, sir? Shall I phone for the
+      marshal?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His boss laughed scornfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I can't handle one man after I've got him covered I'll let you know,
+      Johnson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men went out into the starlit night and got into the surrey. The
+      play with the revolver had hitherto been for the benefit of Johnson, but
+      it now became very real. Dunke jammed the rim close to the other's temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want that letter I wrote you. Quick, by Heaven! No fairy-tales, but the
+      letter!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I swear, Joe&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The letter, you villain! I know you never let it go out of your
+      possession. Give it up! Quick!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve's hand stole to his breast, came out slowly to the edge of his
+      coat, then leaped with a flash of something bright toward the other's
+      throat. Simultaneously the revolver rang out. A curse, the sound of a
+      falling body, and the frightened horses leaped forward. The wheels slipped
+      over the edge of the narrow mountain road, and surrey, horses, and driver
+      plunged a hundred feet down to the sharp, broken rocks below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Johnson, hearing the shot, ran out and stumbled over a body lying in the
+      road. By the bright moonlight he could see that it was that of his
+      employer. The surrey was nowhere in sight, but he could easily make out
+      where it had slipped over the precipice. He ran back into the shaft-house
+      and began telephoning wildly to town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII &mdash; STEVE OFFERS CONGRATULATIONS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When Fraser reached the dining-room for breakfast his immediate family had
+      finished and departed. He had been up till four o'clock and his mother had
+      let him sleep as long as he would. Now, at nine, he was up again and fresh
+      as a daisy after a morning bath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found at the next table two other late breakfasters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mo'ning, Miss Kinney. How are you, Tennessee?&rdquo; he said amiably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both Larry and the young woman admitted good health, the latter so
+      blushingly that Steve's keen eyes suggested to him that he might not be
+      the only one with news to tell this morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that I hear about Struve and Dunke?&rdquo; asked Neill at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you've heard it. Well, it's true. I judge Dunke was arranging to get
+      him out of the country. Anyhow, Johnson says he took the fellow out to his
+      surrey from the shaft-house of the Mal Pais under his gun. A moment later
+      the engineer heard a shot and ran out. Dunke lay in the road dead, with a
+      knife through his heart. We found the surrey down in the canyon. It had
+      gone over the edge of the road. Both the hawsses were dead, and Struve had
+      disappeared. How the thing happened I reckon never will be known unless
+      the convict tells it. My guess would be that Dunke attacked him and the
+      convict was just a little bit more than ready for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you any idea where Struve is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The obvious guess would be that he is heading for Mexico. But I've got
+      another notion. He knows that's where we will be looking for him. His
+      record shows that he used to trail with a bunch of outlaws up in Wyoming.
+      That was most twenty years ago. His old pals have disappeared long since.
+      But he knows that country up there. He'll figure that down here he's sure
+      to be caught and hanged sooner or later. Up there he'll have a chance to
+      hide under another name.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Neill nodded. &ldquo;That's a big country up there and the mountains are full of
+      pockets. If he can reach there he will be safe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe,&rdquo; the ranger amended quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you follow him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer's opaque gaze met the eyes of his friend. &ldquo;We don't aim to let
+      a prisoner make his getaway once we get our hands on him. Wyoming ain't so
+      blamed far to travel after him&mdash;if I learn he is there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment all of them were silent. Each of them was thinking of the
+      fellow and the horrible trail of blood he had left behind him in one short
+      week. Margaret looked at her lover and shuddered. She had not the least
+      doubt that this man sitting opposite them would bring the criminal back to
+      his punishment, but the sinister grotesque shadow of the convict seemed to
+      fall between her and her happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Larry caught her hand under the table and gave it a little pressure of
+      reassurance. He spoke in a low voice. &ldquo;This hasn't a thing to do with us,
+      Peggy&mdash;not a thing. They were already both out of your life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I know, but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There aren't any buts.&rdquo; He smiled warmly, and his smile took the other
+      man into their confidence. &ldquo;You've been having a nightmare. That's past.
+      See the sunshine on those hills. It's bright mo'ning, girl. A new day for
+      you and for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve grinned. &ldquo;This is awful sudden, Tennessee. You must a-been sawing
+      wood right industrious on the hawssback ride and down in the tunnel. I
+      expect there wasn't any sunshine down there, was there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You go to grass, Steve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Tennessee is ce'tainly no two-bit man. Lemme see. One&mdash;two&mdash;three&mdash;four
+      days. That's surely going some,&rdquo; the ranger soliloquized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Fraser,&rdquo; the young woman reproved with a blush.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't mind him, Peggy. He's merely jealous,&rdquo; came back Larry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Course I'm jealous. Whyfor not? What license have these Panhandle guys to
+      come in and tote off our girls? But don't mind me. I'll pay strict
+      attention to my ham and eggs and not see a thing that's going on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lieutenant!&rdquo; Miss Margaret was both embarrassed and shocked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Want me to shut my eyes, Tennessee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Next time we get engaged you'll not be let in on the ground floor,&rdquo; Neill
+      predicted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Four days! My, my! If that ain't rapid transit for fair!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're a man of one idea, Steve. Cayn't you see that the fact's the main
+      thing, not the time it took to make it one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And counting out Sunday and Monday, it only leaves two days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't let that interfere with your breakfast. You haven't been elected
+      timekeeper for this outfit, you know!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser recovered from his daze and duly offered congratulations to the one
+      and hopes for unalloyed joy to the other party to the engagement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But four days!&rdquo; he added in his pleasant drawl. &ldquo;That's sure some
+      precipitous. Just to look at him, ma'am&rdquo;&mdash;this innocently to Peggy&mdash;&ldquo;a
+      man wouldn't think he had it in him to locate, stake out, and do the
+      necessary assessment work on such a rich claim as the Margaret Kinney all
+      in four days. Mostly a fellow don't strike such high-grade ore without a
+      lot of&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will do for you, lieutenant,&rdquo; interrupted Miss Kinney, with merry,
+      sparkling eyes. &ldquo;You needn't think we're going to let you trail this off
+      into a compliment now. I'm going to leave you and see what Mrs. Collins
+      says. She won't sit there and parrot 'Four days' for the rest of her
+      life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With which Mistress Peggy sailed from the room in mock hauteur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Larry came back from closing the door after her, his friend fell upon
+      him with vigorous hands to the amazement of Wun Hop, the waiter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You blamed lucky son of a gun,&rdquo; he cried exuberantly between punches.
+      &ldquo;You've ce'tainly struck pure gold, Tennessee. Looks like Old Man Good
+      Luck has come home to roost with you, son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other, smiling, shook hands with him. &ldquo;I'm of that opinion myself,
+      Steve,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_PART2" id="link2H_PART2">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      PART II &mdash; THE GIRL OF LOST VALLEY
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I &mdash; IN THE FIRE ZONE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, you Teddy hawss, I'm plumb fed up with sagebrush and scenery. I
+      kinder yearn for co'n bread and ham. I sure would give six bits for a
+      drink of real wet water. Yore sentiments are similar, I reckon, Teddy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan patted the neck of his cow pony, which reached round playfully
+      and pretended to nip his leg. They understood each other, and were now
+      making the best of a very unpleasant situation. Since morning they had
+      been lost on the desert. The heat of midday had found them plowing over
+      sandy wastes. The declining sun had left them among the foothills,
+      wandering from one to another, in the vain hope that each summit might
+      show the silvery gleam of a windmill, or even that outpost of
+      civilization, the barb-wire fence. And now the stars looked down
+      indifferently, myriads of them, upon the travelers still plodding wearily
+      through a land magically transformed by moonlight to a silvery loveliness
+      that blotted out all the garish details of day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan drew rein. &ldquo;We all been discovering that Wyoming is a powerful
+      big state. Going to feed me a cigarette, Teddy. Too bad a hawss cayn't
+      smoke his troubles away,&rdquo; he drawled, and proceeded to roll a cigarette,
+      lighting it with one sweeping motion of his arm, that passed down the leg
+      of his chaps and ended in the upward curve at his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flame had not yet died, when faintly through the illimitable velvet
+      night there drifted to him a sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you hear that, pardner?&rdquo; the man demanded softly, listening intently
+      for a repetition of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It came presently, from away over to the left, and, after it, what might
+      have been taken for the popping of a distant bunch of firecrackers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Celebrating the Fourth some premature, looks like. What? Think not,
+      Teddy! Some one getting shot up? Sho! You are romancin', old hawss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless he swung the pony round and started rapidly in the direction
+      of the shots. From time to time there came a renewal of them, though the
+      intervals grew longer and the explosions were now individual ones. He took
+      the precaution to draw his revolver from the holster and to examine it
+      carefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing like being sure. It's a heap better than being sorry afterward,&rdquo;
+       he explained to the cow pony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the first time in twelve hours, he struck a road. Following this as it
+      wound up to the summit of a hill, he discovered that the area of
+      disturbance was in the valley below. For, as he began his descent, there
+      was a flash from a clump of cotton-woods almost at his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did yo' git him?&rdquo; a voice demanded anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't know, dad,&rdquo; the answer came, young, warm, and tremulous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello! There's a kid there,&rdquo; the Texan decided. Aloud, he asked quietly:
+      &ldquo;What's the row, gentlemen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the figures whirled&mdash;it was the boyish one, crouched behind a
+      dead horse&mdash;and fired at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold on, sonny! I'm a stranger. Don't make any more mistakes like that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steve Fraser they call me. I just arrived from Texas. Wait a jiff, and
+      I'll come down and explain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stayed for no permission, but swung from the saddle, trailed the reins,
+      and started down the slope. He could hear a low-voiced colloquy between
+      the two dark figures, and one of them called roughly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hands up, friend! We'll take no chances on yo'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan's hands went up promptly, just as a bullet flattened itself
+      against a rock behind him. It had been fired from the bank of the dry
+      wash, some hundred and fifty yards away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's no fair! Both sides oughtn't to plug at me,&rdquo; he protested,
+      grinning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The darkness which blurred detail melted as Fraser approached, and the
+      moonlight showed him a tall, lank, unshaven old mountaineer, standing
+      behind a horse, his shotgun thrown across the saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's near enough, Mr. Fraser from Texas,&rdquo; said the old man, in a slow
+      voice that carried the Southern intonation. &ldquo;This old gun is loaded with
+      buckshot, and she scatters like hell. Speak yore little piece. How came
+      yo' here, right now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I got lost in the Wind River bad lands this mo'ning, and I been playing
+      hide and go seek with myself ever since.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where yo' haided for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gimlet Butte.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Huh! That's right funny, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because all yo' got to do to reach the butte is to follow this road and
+      yore nose for about three miles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A bullet flung up a spurt of sand beside the horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young fellow behind the dead horse broke in, with impatient alarm:
+      &ldquo;He's all right, dad. Can't you tell by his way of talking that he's from
+      the South? Make him lie down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Something sweet and vibrant in the voice lingered afterward in the Texan's
+      mind almost like a caress, but at the time he was too busy to think of
+      this. He dropped behind a cottonwood, and drew his revolver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How many of them are there?&rdquo; he asked of the lad, in a whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About six, I think. I'm sorry I shot at you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the row?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They followed us out of Gimlet Butte. They've been drinking. Isn't that
+      some one climbing up the side of the ridge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe it is. Let me have your rifle, kid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for?&rdquo; The youngster took careful aim, and fired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A scream from the sagebrush&mdash;just one, and then no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bully for you', Arlie,&rdquo; the old man said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None of them spoke for some minutes, then Fraser heard a sob&mdash;a
+      stifled one, but unmistakable none the less.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be afraid, kid. We'll stand 'em off,&rdquo; the Texan encouraged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't afraid, but I&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;Oh, God, I've killed a man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan stared at him, where he lay in the heavy shadows, shaken with
+      his remorse. &ldquo;Holy smoke! Wasn't he aiming to kill you? He likely isn't
+      dead, anyhow. You got real troubles to worry about, without making up
+      any.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He could see the youngster shaking with the horror of it, and could hear
+      the staccato sobs forcing themselves through the closed teeth. Something
+      about it, some touch of pathos he could not account for, moved his not
+      very accessible heart. After all, he was a slim little kid to be engaged
+      in such a desperate encounter Fraser remembered his own boyhood and the
+      first time he had ever seen bloodshed, and, recalling it, he slipped
+      across in the darkness and laid an arm across the slight shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you worry, kid. It's all right. You didn't mean&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He broke off in swift, unspeakable amazement. His eye traveled up the
+      slender figure from the telltale skirt. This was no boy at all, but a
+      girl. As he took in the mass of blue-black hair and the soft but clean-cut
+      modeling from ear to chin, his hand fell from her shoulder. What an idiot
+      he had been not to know from the first that such a voice could have come
+      only from a woman! He had been deceived by the darkness and by the slouch
+      hat she wore. He wanted to laugh in sardonic scorn of his perception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But on the heel of that came a realization of her danger. He must get her
+      out of there at once, for he knew that the enemy must be circling round,
+      to take them on the flank too. It was not a question of whether they could
+      hold off the attackers. They might do that, and yet she might be killed
+      while they were doing it. A man used to coping with emergencies, his brain
+      now swiftly worked out a way of escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yore father and I will take care of these coyotes. You slip along those
+      shadows up the hill to where my Teddy hawss is, and burn the wind out of
+      here,&rdquo; he told her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll not leave dad,&rdquo; she said quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old mountaineer behind the horse laughed apologetically. &ldquo;I been
+      trying to git her to go, but she won't stir. With the pinto daid, o'
+      course we couldn't both make it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's plumb foolishness,&rdquo; the Texan commented irritably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mebbe,&rdquo; admitted the girl; &ldquo;but I reckon I'll stay long as dad does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No use being pigheaded about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her dark eyes flashed. &ldquo;Is this your say-so, Mr. Whatever-your-name-is?&rdquo;
+       she asked sharply, less because she resented what he said than because she
+      was strung to a wire edge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His troubled gaze took in again her slim girlishness. The frequency of
+      danger had made him proof against fear for himself, but just now he was
+      very much afraid for her. Hard man as he was, he had the Southerner's
+      instinctive chivalry toward woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You better go, Arlie,&rdquo; her father counseled weakly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I won't,&rdquo; she retorted emphatically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man looked whimsically at the Texan. &ldquo;Yo' see yo'self how it is,
+      stranger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser saw, and the girl's stanchness stirred his admiration even while it
+      irritated him. He made his decision immediately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. Both of you go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But we have only one horse,&rdquo; the girl objected. &ldquo;They would catch us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take my Teddy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And leave you here?&rdquo; The dark eyes were full on him again, this time in a
+      wide-open surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I'll get out once you're gone. No trouble about that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We couldn't light out, and leave yo' here,&rdquo; the father interrupted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course we couldn't,&rdquo; the girl added quickly. &ldquo;It isn't your quarrel,
+      anyhow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What good can you do staying here?&rdquo; argued Fraser. &ldquo;They want you, not
+      me. With you gone, I'll slip away or come to terms with them. They haven't
+      a thing against me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's right,&rdquo; agreed the older man, rubbing his stubbly beard with his
+      hand. &ldquo;That's sho'ly right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But they might get you before they understood,&rdquo; Arlie urged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I'll keep under cover, and when it's time, I'll sing out and let them
+      know. Better leave me that rifle, though.&rdquo; He went right on, taking it for
+      granted that she had consented to go: &ldquo;Slip through those shadows up that
+      draw. You'll have no trouble with Teddy. Whistle when you're ready, and
+      your father will make a break up the hill on his hawss. So-long. See you
+      later some time, mebbe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She went reluctantly, not convinced, but overborne by the quality of
+      cheerful compulsion that lay in him. He was not a large man, though the
+      pack and symmetry of his muscles promised unusual strength. But the
+      close-gripped jaw, the cool serenity of the gray eyes that looked without
+      excitement upon whatever they saw, the perfect poise of his carriage&mdash;all
+      contributed to a personality plainly that of a leader of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was scarce a minute later that the whistle came from the hilltop. The
+      mountaineer instantly swung to the saddle and set his pony to a canter up
+      the draw. Fraser could see him join his daughter in the dim light, for the
+      moon had momentarily gone behind a cloud, but almost at once the darkness
+      swallowed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some one in the sagebrush called to a companion, and the Texan knew that
+      the attackers had heard the sound of the galloping horses. Without waiting
+      an instant, he fired twice in rapid succession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That'll hold them for a minute or two,&rdquo; he told himself. &ldquo;They won't
+      understand it, and they'll get together and have a powwow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He crouched behind the dead horse, his gaze sweeping the wash, the
+      sagebrush, and the distant group of cottonwoods from which he had seen a
+      shot fired. Though he lay absolutely still, without the least visible
+      excitement, he was alert and tense to the finger tips. Not the slightest
+      sound, not the smallest motion of the moonlit underbrush, escaped his
+      unwavering scrutiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The problem before him was to hold the attackers long enough for Arlie and
+      her father to make their escape, without killing any of them or getting
+      killed himself. He knew that, once out of the immediate vicinity, the
+      fugitives would leave the road and take to some of the canyons that ran
+      from the foothills into the mountains. If he could secure them a start of
+      fifteen minutes that ought to be enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A voice from the wash presently hailed him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See here! We're going to take you back with us, old man. That's a cinch.
+      We want you for that Squaw Creek raid, and we're going to have you. You
+      done enough damage. Better surrender peaceable, and we'll promise to take
+      you back to jail. What say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gimme five minutes to think it over,&rdquo; demanded the Texan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, five minutes. But you want to remember that it's all off with
+      you if you don't give up. Billy Faulkner's dead, and we'll sure come
+      a-shooting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser waited till his five minutes was nearly up, then plunged across the
+      road into the sagebrush growing thick there. A shot or two rang out,
+      without stopping him. Suddenly a man rose out of the sage in front of him,
+      a revolver in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a fraction of a second, the two men faced each other before either
+      spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser's answer was to dive for the man's knees, just as a football tackle
+      does. They went down together, but it was the Texan got up first. A second
+      man was running toward him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hands up, there!&rdquo; the newcomer ordered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser's hand went up, but with his forty-five in it. The man pitched
+      forward into the sage. The Southerner twisted forward again, slid down
+      into the dry creek, and ran along its winding bed for a hundred yards.
+      Then he left it, cutting back toward the spot where he had lain behind the
+      dead horse. Hiding in the sage, he heard the pursuit pouring down the
+      creek, waited till it was past, and quickly recrossed the road. Here,
+      among the cow-backed hills, he knew he was as safe as a needle in a
+      haystack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had to get that anxious guy, but it might have been a whole lot worse.
+      I only plugged his laig for him,&rdquo; he reflected comfortably. &ldquo;Wonder why
+      they wanted to collect the old man's scalp, anyhow? The little girl sure
+      was game. Just like a woman, though, the way she broke down because she
+      hit that fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Within five minutes he was lost again among the thousand hills that rose
+      like waves of the sea, one after another. It was not till nearly morning
+      that he again struck a road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was halted abruptly by a crisp command from behind a bowlder:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Up with your hands&mdash;quick!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are you, my friend?&rdquo; the Texan asked mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Deputy sheriff,&rdquo; was the prompt response. &ldquo;Now, reach for the sky, and
+      prompt, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as you say. You've ce'tainly got the crawl on me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The deputy disarmed his captive, and drove him into town before him. When
+      morning dawned, Fraser found himself behind the bars. He was arrested for
+      the murder of Faulkner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II &mdash; A COMPACT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      After the jailer had brought his breakfast, Fraser was honored by a visit
+      from the sheriff, a big, rawboned Westerner, with the creases of fifty
+      outdoor years stamped on his brown, leathery face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He greeted his prisoner pleasantly enough, and sat down on the bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Treating you right, are they?&rdquo; he asked, glancing around. &ldquo;Breakfast up
+      to the mark?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've got no kick coming, thank you,&rdquo; said Fraser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sheriff relapsed into sombre silence. There was a troubled look in the
+      keen eyes that the Texan did not understand. Fraser waited for the officer
+      to develop the object of his visit, and it was set down to his credit. A
+      weaker man would have rushed at once into excuses and explanations. But in
+      the prisoner's quiet, steely eyes, in the close-shut mouth and salient
+      jaw, in the set of his well-knit figure, Sheriff Brandt found small room
+      for weakness. Whoever he was, this man was one who could hold his own in
+      the strenuous game of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My friend,&rdquo; said the sheriff abruptly, &ldquo;you and I are up against it.
+      There is going to be trouble in town to-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The level, gray eyes looked questioningly at the sheriff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You butted into grief a-plenty when you lined up with the cattlemen in
+      this sheep war. Who do you ride for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm not riding for anybody,&rdquo; responded Fraser. &ldquo;I just arrived from
+      Texas. Didn't even know there was a feud on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Brandt laughed incredulously. &ldquo;That will sound good to a jury, if your
+      case ever comes to that stage. How do you expect to explain Billy
+      Faulkner's death?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there any proof I killed him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some. You were recognized by two men last night while you were trying to
+      escape. You carried a rifle that uses the same weight bullet as the one we
+      dug out of Billy. When you attacked Tom Peake you dropped that rifle, and
+      in your getaway hadn't time to pick it up again. That is evidence enough
+      for a Wyoming jury, in the present state of public opinion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by 'in the present state of public opinion'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean that this whole country is pretty nearly solid against the Cedar
+      Mountain cattlemen, since they killed Campeau and Jennings in that raid on
+      their camp. You know what I mean as well as I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser did not argue the point. He remembered now having seen an account
+      of the Squaw Creek raid on a sheep camp, ending in a battle that had
+      resulted in the death of two men and the wounding of three others. He had
+      been sitting in a hotel at San Antonio, Texas, when he had read the story
+      over his after-dinner cigar. The item had not seemed even remotely
+      connected with himself. Now he was in prison at Gimlet Butte, charged with
+      murder, and unless he was very much mistaken the sheriff was hinting at a
+      lynching. The Squaw Creek raid had come very near to him, for he knew the
+      fight he had interrupted last night had grown out of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by trouble to-night?&rdquo; he asked, in an even,
+      conversational tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sheriff looked directly at him. &ldquo;You're a man, I reckon. That calls
+      for the truth. Men are riding up and down this country to-day, stirring up
+      sentiment against your outfit. To-night the people will gather in town,
+      and the jail will be attacked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll uphold the law as long as I can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser nodded. He knew Brandt spoke the simple truth. What he had sworn to
+      do he would do to the best of his ability. But the Texan knew, too, that
+      the ramshackle jail would be torn to pieces and the sheriff overpowered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From his coat pocket he drew a letter, and presented it to the other. &ldquo;I
+      didn't expect to give this to you under these circumstances, Mr. Brandt,
+      but I'd like you to know that I'm on the level when I say I don't know any
+      of the Squaw Creek cattlemen and have never ridden for any outfit in this
+      State.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Brandt tore open the letter, and glanced hurriedly through it. &ldquo;Why, it's
+      from old Sam Slauson! We used to ride herd together when we were boys.&rdquo;
+       And he real aloud:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Introducing Steve Fraser, lieutenant in the Texas Rangers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He glanced up quickly. &ldquo;You're not the Fraser that ran down Chacon and his
+      gang of murderers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I was on that job.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Brandt shook hands heartily. &ldquo;They say it was a dandy piece of work. I
+      read that story in a magazine. You delivered the goods proper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger was embarrassed. &ldquo;Oh, it wasn't much of a job. The man that
+      wrote it put in the fancy touches, to make his story sell, I expect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he did! I know all about that!&rdquo; the sheriff derided. &ldquo;I've got to
+      get you out of this hole somehow. Do you mind if I send for Hilliard, the
+      prosecuting attorney? He's a bright young fellow, loaded to the guards
+      with ideas. What I want is to get at a legal way of fixing this thing up,
+      you understand. I'll call him up on the phone, and have him run over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hilliard was shortly on the spot&mdash;a short, fat little fellow with
+      eyeglasses. He did not at first show any enthusiasm in the prisoner's
+      behalf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't doubt for a moment that you are the man this letter says you are,
+      Mr. Fraser,&rdquo; he said suavely. &ldquo;But facts are stubborn things. You were
+      seen carrying the gun that killed Faulkner. We can't get away from that
+      just because you happen to have a letter of introduction to Mr. Brandt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to get away from it,&rdquo; retorted. Fraser. &ldquo;I have explained
+      how I got into the fight. A man doesn't stand back and see two people, and
+      one of them a girl, slaughtered by seven or eight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lawyer's fat forefinger sawed the air. &ldquo;That's how you put it. Mind, I
+      don't for a moment say it isn't the right way. But what the public wants
+      is proof. Can you give evidence to show that Faulkner and his friends
+      attacked Dillon and his daughter? Have you even got them on hand here to
+      support your statement? Have you got a grain of evidence, apart from your
+      bare word?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That letter shows&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shows nothing. You might have written it yourself last night. Anyhow,
+      a letter of introduction isn't quite an excuse for murder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It wasn't murder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what you say. I'll be glad to have you prove it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They followed Dillon&mdash;if that is his name&mdash;out of town.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They put it that they were on their way home, when they were attacked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By an old man and his daughter,&rdquo; the Texan added significantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There again we have only your statement for it. Half a dozen men had been
+      in town during the day from the Cedar Mountain district. These men were
+      witnesses in the suit that rose over a sheep raid. They may all have been
+      on the spot, to ambush Faulkner's crowd.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Brandt broke in: &ldquo;Are you personally convinced that this gentleman is
+      Lieutenant Fraser of the Rangers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Personally, I am of opinion that he is, but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold your horses, Dave. Believing that, do you think that we ought to
+      leave him here to be lynched to-night by Peake's outfit?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That isn't my responsibility, but speaking merely as a private citizen, I
+      should say, No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What would you do with him then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not take him up to your house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wouldn't be safe a minute, or in any other house in town.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then get out of town with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It can't be done. I'm watched.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hilliard shrugged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger's keen eyes went from one to another. He saw that what the
+      lawyer needed was some personal interest to convert him into a partisan.
+      From his pocket he drew another letter and some papers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you doubt that I am Lieutenant Fraser you can wire my captain at
+      Dallas. This is a letter of congratulation to me from the Governor of
+      Texas for my work in the Chacon case. Here's my railroad ticket, and my
+      lodge receipt. You gentlemen are the officers in charge. I hold you
+      personally responsible for my safety&mdash;for the safety of a man whose
+      name, by chance, is now known all over this country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a new phase of the situation, and it went home to the lawyer's
+      mind at once. He had been brought into the case willy nilly, and he would
+      be blamed for anything that happened to this young Texan, whose deeds had
+      recently been exploited broadcast in the papers. He stood for an instant
+      in frowning thought, and as he did so a clause in the letter from the
+      Governor of Texas caught and held his eye.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  which I regard as the ablest, most daring, and, at the same time,
+  the most difficult and most successful piece of secret service that
+  has come to my knowledge....
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly, Hilliard saw the way out&mdash;a way that appealed to him none
+      the less because it would also serve his own ambitions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither you nor I have any right to help this gentleman to escape,
+      sheriff. The law is plain. He is charged with murder. We haven't any right
+      to let our private sympathies run away with us. But there is one thing we
+      can do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that?&rdquo; the sheriff asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him earn his freedom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Earn it! How?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By serving the State in this very matter of the Squaw Creek raid. As
+      prosecuting attorney, it is in my discretion to accept the service of an
+      accomplice to a crime in fixing the guilt upon the principals. Before the
+      law, Lieutenant Fraser stands accused of complicity. We believe him not
+      guilty, but that does not affect the situation. Let him go up into the
+      Cedar Mountain country and find out the guilty parties in the Squaw Creek
+      raid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And admit my guilt by compromising with you?&rdquo; the Texan scoffed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all. You need not go publicly. In point of fact, you couldn't get
+      out of town alive if it were known. No, we'll arrange to let you break
+      jail on condition that you go up into the Lost Canyon district, and run
+      down the murderers of Campeau and Jennings, That gives us an excuse for
+      letting you go. You see the point&mdash;don't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan grinned. &ldquo;That isn't quite the point, is it?&rdquo; he drawled. &ldquo;If I
+      should be successful, you will achieve a reputation, without any cost to
+      yourself. That's worth mentioning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hilliard showed a momentary embarrassment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's incidental. Besides, it will help your reputation more than mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Brandt got busy at once with the details of the escape. &ldquo;We'll loosen up
+      the mortar round the bars in the south room. They are so rickety anyhow I
+      haven't kept any prisoners there for years. After you have squeezed
+      through you will find a horse saddled in the draw, back here. You'll want
+      a gun of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Always providing Lieutenant Fraser consents to the arrangement,&rdquo; the
+      lawyer added smoothly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I'll consent,&rdquo; laughed Fraser wryly. &ldquo;I have no option. Of course, if
+      I win I get the reward&mdash;whatever it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I'm at your service, gentlemen, to escape whenever you say the
+      word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The best time would be right after lunch. That would give you five hours
+      before Nichols was in here again,&rdquo; the sheriff suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suppose you draw a map, showing the route I'm to follow to reach Cedar
+      Mountain. I reckon I had better not trouble folks to ask them the way.&rdquo;
+       And the Texan grinned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's right. I'll fix you up, and tell you later just where you'll find
+      the horse,&rdquo; Brandt answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're an officer yourself, lieutenant,&rdquo; said the lawyer. &ldquo;You know just
+      how much evidence it takes to convict. Well, that's just how much we want.
+      If you have to communicate with us, address 'T. L. Meredith, Box 117.'
+      Better send your letter in cipher. Here's a little code I worked out that
+      we sometimes use. Well, so-long. Good hunting, lieutenant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser nodded farewell, but did not offer to shake hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Brandt lingered for an instant. &ldquo;Don't make any mistake, Fraser, about
+      this job you've bit off. It's a big one, and don't you forget it. People
+      are sore on me because I have fallen down on it. I can't help it. I just
+      can't get the evidence. If you tackle it, you'll be in danger from start
+      to finish. There are some bad men in this country, and the worst of them
+      are lying low in Lost Valley.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger smiled amiably. &ldquo;Where is this Lost Valley?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Somewhere up in the Cedar Mountain district. I've never been there. Few
+      men have, for it is not easy to find; and even if it were strangers are
+      not invited.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'll have to invite myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's all right. But remember this. There are men up there who would
+      drill holes in a dying man. I guess Lost Valley is the country God
+      forgot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sounds right interesting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll find it all that, and don't forget that if they find out what you
+      are doing there, it will be God help Steve Fraser!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger's eyes gleamed. &ldquo;I'll try to remember it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III &mdash; INTO LOST VALLEY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was one-twenty when Fraser slipped the iron bar from the masonry into
+      which it had been fixed and began to lower himself from the window. The
+      back of the jail faced on the bank of a creek; and into the aspens, which
+      ran along it at this point in a little grove, the fugitive pushed his way.
+      He descended to the creek edge and crossed the mountain stream on bowlders
+      which filled its bed. From here he followed the trail for a hundred yards
+      that led up the little river. On the way he passed a boy fishing and
+      nodded a greeting to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What time is it, mister?&rdquo; the youngster asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A glance at his watch showed the Texan that it was one-twenty-five.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fish have quit biting. Blame it all, I'm going home. Say, mister,
+      Jimmie Spence says they're going to lynch that fellow who killed Billy
+      Faulkner&mdash;going to hang him to-night, Jimmie says. Do you reckon they
+      will?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I reckon not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tha's what I told him, but Jimmie says he heard Tom Peake say so. Jimmie
+      says this town will be full o' folks by night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without waiting to hear any more of Jimmie's prophecies, Fraser followed
+      the trail till it reached a waterfall Brandt bad mentioned, then struck
+      sharply to the right. In a little bunch of scrub oaks he found a saddled
+      horse tied to a sapling. His instructions were to cross the road, which
+      ran parallel with the stream, and follow the gulch that led to the river.
+      Half an hour's travel brought him to another road. Into this he turned,
+      and followed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a desperate hurry though he was, Steve dared not show it. He held his
+      piebald broncho to the ambling trot a cowpony naturally drops into. From
+      his coat pocket he flashed a mouthharp for use in emergency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently he met three men riding into town. They nodded at him, in the
+      friendly, casual way of the outdoors West. The gait of the pony was a
+      leisurely walk, and its rider was industriously executing, &ldquo;I Met My Love
+      In the Alamo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Going the wrong way, aren't you?&rdquo; one of the three suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you worry, I'll be there when y'u hang that guy they caught last
+      night,&rdquo; he told them with a grin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From time to time he met others. All travel seemed to be headed townward.
+      There was excitement in the air. In the clear atmosphere voices carried a
+      long way, and all the conversation that came to him was on the subjects of
+      the war for the range, the battle of the previous evening, and the
+      lynching scheduled to take place in a few hours. He realized that he had
+      escaped none too soon, for it was certain that as the crowd in town
+      multiplied, they would set a watch on the jail to prevent Brandt from
+      slipping out with his prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About four miles from town he cut the telephone wires, for he knew that as
+      soon as his escape became known to the jailer, the sheriff would be
+      notified, and he would telephone in every direction the escape of his
+      prisoner, just the same as if there had been no arrangement between them.
+      It was certain, too, that all the roads leading from Gimlet Butte would be
+      followed and patrolled immediately. For which reason he left the road
+      after cutting the wires, and took to the hill trail marked out for him in
+      the map furnished by Brandt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By night, he was far up in the foothills. Close to a running stream, he
+      camped in a little, grassy park, where his pony could find forage. Brandt
+      had stuffed his saddlebags with food, and had tied behind a sack, with a
+      feed or two of oats for his horse. Fraser had ridden the range too many
+      years to risk lighting a fire, even though he had put thirty-five miles
+      between him and Gimlet Butte. The night was chill, as it always is in that
+      altitude, but he rolled up in his blanket, got what sleep he could, and
+      was off again by daybreak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before noon he was high in the mountain passes, from which he could
+      sometimes look down into the green parks where nested the little ranches
+      of small cattlemen. He knew now that he was beyond the danger of the first
+      hurried pursuit, and that it was more than likely that any of these
+      mountaineers would hide him rather than give him up. Nevertheless, he had
+      no immediate intention of putting them to the test.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second night came down on him far up on Dutchman Creek, in the Cedar
+      Mountain district. He made a bed, where his horse found a meal, in a
+      haystack of a small ranch, the buildings of which were strung along the
+      creek. He was weary, and he slept deep. When he awakened next morning, it
+      was to hear the sound of men's voices. They drifted to him from the road
+      in front of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Carefully he looked down from the top of his stack upon three horsemen
+      talking to the bare-headed ranchman whom they had called out from his
+      breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I ain't seen a thing of him. Shot Billy Faulkner, you say? What in
+      time for?&rdquo; the rancher was innocently asking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know what for, Hank Speed,&rdquo; the leader of the posse made sullen
+      answer. &ldquo;Well, boys, we better be pushing on, I expect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser breathed freer when they rode out of sight. He had overslept, and
+      had had a narrow shave; for his pony was grazing in the alfalfa field
+      within a hundred yards of them at that moment. No sooner had the posse
+      gone than Hank Speed stepped across the field without an instant's
+      hesitation and looked the animal over, after which he returned to the
+      house and came out again with a rifle in his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger slid down the farther side of the stack and slipped his
+      revolver from its holster. He watched the ranchman make a tour of the
+      out-buildings very carefully and cautiously, then make a circuit of the
+      haystack at a safe distance. Soon the rancher caught sight of the man
+      crouching against it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you're there, are you? Put up that gun. I ain't going to do you any
+      harm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter with you putting yours up first?&rdquo; asked the Texan
+      amiably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you I ain't going to hurt you. Soon as I stepped out of the house
+      I seen your horse. All I had to do was to say so, and they would have had
+      you slick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did you get your gun for, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't taking any chances till folks' intentions has been declared. You
+      might have let drive at me before I got a show to talk to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. I'll trust you.&rdquo; Fraser dropped his revolver, and the other
+      came across to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Up in this country we ain't in mourning for Billy Faulkner. Old man
+      Dillon told me what you done for him. I reckon we can find cover for you
+      till things quiet down. My name is Speed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call me Fraser.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad to meet you, Mr. Fraser. I reckon we better move you back into the
+      timber a bit. Deputy sheriffs are some thick around here right now. If you
+      have to lie hid up in this country for a spell, we'll make an arrangement
+      to have you taken care of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll have to lie hid. There's no doubt about that. I made my jail break
+      just in time to keep from being invited as chief guest to a necktie
+      party.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we'll put you where the whole United States Army couldn't find
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They had been walking across the field and now crawled between the strands
+      of fence wire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I left my saddle on top of the stack,&rdquo; the ranger explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll take care of it. You better take cover on top of this ridge till I
+      get word to Dillon you're here. My wife will fix you up some breakfast,
+      and I'll bring it out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've ce'tainly struck the good Samaritan,&rdquo; the Texan smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sho! There ain't a man in the hills wouldn't do that much for a friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad I have so many friends I never saw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Friends? The hills are full of them. You took a hand when old man Dillon
+      and his girl were sure up against it. Cedar Mountain stands together these
+      days. What you did for them was done for us all,&rdquo; Speed explained simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser waited on the ridge till his host brought breakfast of bacon,
+      biscuits, hard-boiled eggs, and coffee. While he ate, Speed sat down on a
+      bowlder beside him and talked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sent my boy with a note to Dillon. It's a good thirty miles from here,
+      and the old man won't make it back till some time to-morrow. Course,
+      you're welcome at the house, but I judge it wouldn't be best for you to be
+      seen there. No knowing when some of Brandt's deputies might butt in with a
+      warrant. You can slip down again after dark and burrow in the haystack.
+      Eh? What think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm in your hands, but I don't want to put you and your friends to so
+      much trouble. Isn't there some mountain trail off the beaten road that I
+      could take to Dillon's ranch, and so save him from the trip after me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Speed grinned. &ldquo;Not in a thousand years, my friend. Dillon's ranch ain't
+      to be found, except by them that know every pocket of these hills like
+      their own back yard. I'll guarantee you couldn't find it in a month,
+      unless you had a map locating it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must be in that Lost Valley, which some folks say is a fairy tale,&rdquo; the
+      ranger said carelessly, but with his eyes on the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cattleman made no comment. It occurred to Fraser that his remark had
+      stirred some suspicion of him. At least, it suggested caution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you're through with your breakfast, I'll take back the dishes,&rdquo; Speed
+      said dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day wore to sunset. After dark had fallen the Texan slipped through
+      the alfalfa field again and bedded in the stack. Before the morning was
+      more than gray he returned to the underbrush of the ridge. His breakfast
+      finished, and Speed gone, he lay down on a great flat, sun-dappled rock,
+      and looked into the unflecked blue sky. The season was spring, and the
+      earth seemed fairly palpitating with young life. The low, tireless hum of
+      insects went on all about him. The air was vocal with the notes of nesting
+      birds. Away across the valley he could see a mountain slope, with snow
+      gulches glowing pink in the dawn. Little checkerboard squares along the
+      river showed irrigated patches. In the pleasant warmth he grew drowsy. His
+      eyes closed, opened, closed again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was conscious of no sound that awakened him, yet he was aware of a
+      presence that drew him from drowsiness to an alert attention.
+      Instinctively, his hand crept to his scabbarded weapon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't shoot me,&rdquo; a voice implored with laughter&mdash;a warm, vivid
+      voice, that struck pleasantly on his memory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan turned lazily, and leaned on his elbow. She came smiling out of
+      the brush, light as a roe, and with much of its slim, supple grace.
+      Before, he had seen her veiled by night; the day disclosed her a dark,
+      spirited young creature. The mass of blue-black hair coiled at the nape of
+      the brown neck, the flash of dark eyes beneath straight, dark eyebrows,
+      together with a certain deliberation of movement that was not languor,
+      made it impossible to doubt that she was a Southerner by inheritance, if
+      not by birth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't reckon I will,&rdquo; he greeted, smiling. &ldquo;Down in Texas it ain't
+      counted right good manners to shoot up young ladies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And in Wyoming you think it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I judge by appearances, ma'am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you judge wrong. Those men did not know I was with dad that night.
+      They thought I was another man. You see, they had just lost their suit for
+      damages against dad and some more for the loss of six hundred sheep in a
+      raid last year. They couldn't prove who did it.&rdquo; She flamed into a sudden
+      passion of resentment. &ldquo;I don't defend them any. They are a lot of
+      coyotes, or they wouldn't have attacked two men, riding alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He ventured a rapier thrust. &ldquo;How about the Squaw Creek raid? Don't your
+      friends sometimes forget to fight fair, too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had stamped the fire out of her in an instant. She drooped visibly.
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;yes, they do,&rdquo; she faltered. &ldquo;I don't defend them, either. Dad
+      had nothing to do with that. He doesn't shoot in the back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad to hear it,&rdquo; he retorted cheerfully. &ldquo;And I'm glad to hear that
+      your friends the enemy didn't know it was a girl they were attacking. Fact
+      is, I thought you were a boy myself when first I happened in and you
+      fanned me with your welcome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't know. I hadn't time to think. So I let fly. But I was so excited
+      I likely missed you a mile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took off his felt hat and examined with interest a bullet hole through
+      the rim. &ldquo;If it was a mile, I'd hate to have you miss me a hundred yards,&rdquo;
+       he commented, with a little ripple of laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't! Did I? As near as that?&rdquo; She caught her hands together in a
+      sudden anguish for what might have been.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you care, ma'am. A miss is as good as a mile. It ain't the first
+      time I've had my hat ventilated. I mentioned it, so you wouldn't get
+      discouraged at your shooting. It's plenty good. Good enough to suit me. I
+      wouldn't want it any better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What about the man I wounded.&rdquo; she asked apprehensively. &ldquo;Is he&mdash;is
+      it all right?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven't you heard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heard what?&rdquo; He could see the terror in her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How it all came out?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He could not tell why he did it, any more than he could tell why he had
+      attempted no denial to the sheriff of responsibility for the death of
+      Faulkner, but as he looked at this girl he shifted the burden from her
+      shoulders to his. &ldquo;You got your man in the ankle. I had worse luck after
+      you left. They buried mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; From her lips a little cry of pain forced itself. &ldquo;It wasn't your
+      fault. It was for us you did it. Oh, why did they attack us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did what I had to do. There is no blame due either you or me for it,&rdquo;
+       he said, with quiet conviction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know. But it seems so dreadful. And then they put you in jail&mdash;and
+      you broke out! Wasn't that it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was the way of it, Miss Arlie. How did you know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Henry Speed's note to father said you had broken jail. Dad wasn't at
+      home. You know, the round-up is on now and he has to be there. So I
+      saddled, and came right away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was right good of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wasn't it?&rdquo; There was a softened, almost tender, jeer in her voice.
+      &ldquo;Since you only saved our lives!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't claiming all that, Miss Arlie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I'll claim it for you. I suppose you gave yourself up to them and
+      explained how it was after we left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not exactly that. I managed to slip away, through the sage. It was
+      mo'ning before I found the road again. Soon as I did, a deputy tagged me,
+      and said, 'You're mine.' He spoke for me so prompt and seemed so sure
+      about what he was saying, I didn't argue the matter with him.&rdquo; He laughed
+      gayly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then he herded me to town, and I was invited to be the county's guest.
+      Not liking the accommodations, I took the first chance and flew the coop.
+      They missed a knife in my pocket when they searched me, and I chipped the
+      cement away from the window bars, let myself down by the bed linen, and
+      borrowed a cow-pony I found saddled at the edge of town. So, you see, I'm
+      a hawss thief too, ma'am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She could not take it so lightly as he did, even though she did not know
+      that he had barely escaped with his life. Something about his debonair,
+      smiling hardihood touched her imagination, as did also the virile
+      competence of the man. If the cool eyes in his weatherbeaten face could be
+      hard as agates, they could also light up with sparkling imps of mischief.
+      Certainly he was no boy, but the close-cut waves of crisp, reddish hair
+      and the ready smile contributed to an impression of youth that came and
+      went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Willie Speed is saddling you a horse. The one you came on has been turned
+      loose to go back when it wants to. I'm going to take you home with me,&rdquo;
+       she told him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'm willing to be kidnapped.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I brought your horse Teddy. If you like, you may ride that, and I'll take
+      the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yore a gentleman, ma'am. I sure would.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Arlie saw with what pleasure the friends met, how Teddy nickered and
+      rubbed his nose up and down his master's coat and how the Texan put him
+      through his little repertoire of tricks and fed him a lump of sugar from
+      his coat pocket, she was glad she had ridden Teddy instead of her own pony
+      to the meeting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They took the road without loss of time. Arlie Dillon knew exactly how to
+      cross this difficult region. She knew the Cedar Mountain district as a
+      grade teacher knows her arithmetic. In daylight or in darkness, with or
+      without a trail, she could have traveled almost a bee line to the point
+      she wanted. Her life had been spent largely in the saddle&mdash;at least
+      that part of it which had been lived outdoors. Wherefore she was able to
+      lead her guest by secret trails that wound in and out among the passes and
+      through unsuspected gorges to hazardous descents possible only to goats
+      and cow ponies. No stranger finding his way in would have stood a chance
+      of getting out again unaided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among these peaks lay hidden pockets and caches by hundreds, rock fissures
+      which made the country a very maze to the uninitiated. The ranger, himself
+      one of the best trailers in Texas, doubted whether he could retrace his
+      steps to the Speed place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After several hours of travel, they emerged from a gulch to a little
+      valley known as Beaver Dam Park. The girl pointed out to her companion a
+      narrow brown ribbon that wound through the park.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's the road again. That's the last we shall see of it&mdash;or it
+      will be when we have crossed it. Once we reach the Twin Buttes that are
+      the gateway to French CaƱon you are perfectly safe. You can see the buttes
+      from here. No, farther to the right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought I'd ridden some tough trails in my time, but this country
+      ce'tainly takes the cake,&rdquo; Fraser said admiringly, as his gaze swept the
+      horizon. &ldquo;It puts it over anything I ever met up with. Ain't that right,
+      Teddy hawss?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl flushed with pleasure at his praise. She was mountain bred, and
+      she loved the country of the great peaks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They descended the valley, crossed the road, and in an open grassy spot
+      just beyond, came plump upon four men who had unsaddled to eat lunch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The meeting came too abruptly for Arlie to avoid it. One glance told her
+      that they were deputies from Gimlet Butte. Without the least hesitation
+      she rode forward and gave them the casual greeting of cattleland. Fraser,
+      riding beside her, nodded coolly, drew to a halt, and lit a cigarette.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Found him yet, gentlemen?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, nor we ain't likely to, if he's reached this far,&rdquo; one of the men
+      answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be some difficult to collect him here,&rdquo; the Texan admitted
+      impartially.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Among his friends,&rdquo; one of the deputies put in, with a snarl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser laughed easily. &ldquo;Oh, well, we ain't his enemies, though he ain't
+      very well known in the Cedar Mountain country. What might he be like,
+      pardner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hasn't he lived up here long?&rdquo; asked one of the men, busy with some bacon
+      over a fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a heavy-set fellow, with reddish hair; not so tall as you, I reckon,
+      and some heavier. Was wearing chaps and gauntlets when he made his
+      getaway. From the description, he looks something like you, I shouldn't
+      wonder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser congratulated himself that he had had the foresight to discard as
+      many as possible of these helps to identification before he was three
+      miles from Gimlet Butte. Now he laughed pleasantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure he's heavier than me, and not so tall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be a good joke, Bud, if they took you back to town for this
+      man,&rdquo; cut in Arlie, troubled at the direction the conversation was taking,
+      but not obviously so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't objecting any, sis. About three days of the joys of town would
+      sure agree with my run-down system,&rdquo; the Texan answered joyously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you cowpunchers do get in, you surely make Rome howl,&rdquo; one of the
+      deputies agreed, with a grin. &ldquo;Been in to the Butte lately?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan met his grin. &ldquo;It ain't been so long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you ain't liable to get in again for a while,&rdquo; Arlie said
+      emphatically. &ldquo;Come on, Bud, we've got to be moving.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which way is Dead Cow Creek?&rdquo; one of the men called after them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser pointed in the direction from which he had just come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After they had ridden a hundred yards, the girl laughed aloud her relief
+      at their escape. &ldquo;If they go the way you pointed for Dead Cow Creek, they
+      will have to go clear round the world to get to it. We're headed for the
+      creek now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A fellow can't always guess right,&rdquo; pleaded the Texan. &ldquo;If he could, what
+      a fiend he would be at playing the wheel! Shall I go back and tell him I
+      misremembered for a moment where the creek is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir. You had me scared badly enough when you drew their attention to
+      yourself. Why did you do it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was the surest way to disarm any suspicion they might have had. One of
+      them had just said the man they wanted was like me. Presently, one would
+      have been guessing that it was me.&rdquo; He looked at her drolly, and added:
+      &ldquo;You played up to me fine, sis.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A touch of deeper color beat into her dusky cheeks. &ldquo;We'll drop the
+      relationship right now, if you please. I said only what you made me say,&rdquo;
+       she told him, a little stiffly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But presently she relaxed to the note of friendliness, even of
+      comradeship, habitual to her. She was a singularly frank creature, having
+      been brought up in a country where women were few and far, and where
+      conventions were of the simplest. Otherwise, she would not have confessed
+      to him with unconscious nƤivetƩ, as she now did, how greatly she had been
+      troubled for him before she received the note from Speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It worried me all the time, and it troubled dad, too. I could see that.
+      We had hardly left you before I knew we had done wrong. Dad did it for me,
+      of course; but he felt mighty bad about it. Somehow, I couldn't think of
+      anything but you there, with all those men shooting at you. Suppose you
+      had waited too long before surrendering! Suppose you had been killed for
+      us!&rdquo; She looked at him, and felt a shiver run over her in the warm
+      sunlight. &ldquo;Night before last I was worn out. I slept some, but I kept
+      dreaming they were killing you. Oh, you don't know how glad I was to get
+      word from Speed that you were alive.&rdquo; Her soft voice had the gift of
+      expressing feeling, and it was resonant with it now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad you were glad,&rdquo; he said quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Across Dead Cow Creek they rode, following the stream up French CaƱon to
+      what was known as the Narrows. Here the great rock walls, nearly two
+      thousand feet high, came so close together as to leave barely room for a
+      footpath beside the creek which boiled down over great bowlders.
+      Unexpectedly, there opened in the wall a rock fissure, and through this
+      Arlie guided her horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan wondered where she could be taking him, for the fissure
+      terminated in a great rock slide some two hundred yards ahead of them.
+      Before reaching this she turned sharply to the left, and began winding in
+      and out among the big bowlders which had fallen from the summit far above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Fraser observed with astonishment that they were following a
+      path that crept up the very face of the bluff. Up&mdash;up&mdash;up they
+      went until they reached a rift in the wall, and into this the trail went
+      precipitously. Stones clattered down from the hoofs of the horses as they
+      clambered up like mountain goats. Once the Texan had to throw himself to
+      the ground to keep Teddy from falling backward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie, working her pony forward with voice and body and knees, so that
+      from her seat in the saddle she seemed literally to lift him up, reached
+      the summit and looked back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right back there?&rdquo; she asked quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; came the cheerful answer. &ldquo;Teddy isn't used to climbing up a
+      wall, but he'll make it or know why.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A minute later, man and horse were beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good for Teddy,&rdquo; she said, fondling his nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look out! He doesn't like strangers to handle him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We're not strangers. We're tillicums. Aren't we, Teddy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Teddy said &ldquo;Yes&rdquo; after the manner of a horse, as plain as words could say
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From their feet the trail dropped again to another gorge, beyond which the
+      ranger could make out a stretch of valley through which ran the gleam of a
+      silvery thread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We're going down now into Mantrap Gulch. The patch of green you see
+      beyond is Lost Valley,&rdquo; she told him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lost Valley,&rdquo; he repeated, in amazement. &ldquo;Are we going to Lost Valley?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've named our destination.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But&mdash;you don't live in Lost Valley.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she answered, amused at his consternation, if it were that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I had known,&rdquo; he said, as if to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know now. Isn't that soon enough? Are you afraid of the place,
+      because people make a mystery of it?&rdquo; she demanded impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. It isn't that.&rdquo; He looked across at the valley again, and asked
+      abruptly: &ldquo;Is this the only way in?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. There is another, but this is the quickest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the other as difficult as this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a way, yes. It is very much more round-about. It isn't known much by
+      the public. Not many outsiders have business in the valley.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She volunteered no explanation in detail, and the man beside her said,
+      with a grim laugh:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There isn't any general admission to the public this way, is there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Oh, folks can come if they want to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked full in her face, and said significantly: &ldquo;I thought the way to
+      Lost Valley was a sort of a secret&mdash;one that those who know are not
+      expected to tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that's just talk. Not many come in but our friends. We've had to be
+      careful lately. But you can't call a secret what a thousand folks know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was like a blow in the face to him. Not many but their friends! And she
+      was taking him in confidently because he was her friend. What sort of a
+      friend was he? he asked himself. He could not perform the task to which he
+      was pledged without striking home at her. If he succeeded in ferreting out
+      the Squaw Creek raiders he must send to the penitentiary, perhaps to
+      death, her neighbors, and possibly her relatives. She had told him her
+      father was not implicated, but a daughter's faith in her parent was not
+      convincing proof of his innocence. If not her father, a brother might be
+      involved. And she was innocently making it easy for him to meet on a
+      friendly footing these hospitable, unsuspecting savages, who had shed
+      human blood because of the unleashed passions in them!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In that moment, while he looked away toward Lost Valley, he sickened of
+      the task that lay before him. What would she think of him if she knew?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie, too, had been looking down the gulch toward the valley. Now her
+      gaze came slowly round to him and caught the expression of his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter?&rdquo; she cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing. Nothing at all. An old heart pain that caught me suddenly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sorry. We'll soon be home now. We'll travel slowly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her voice was tender with sympathy; so, too, were her eyes when he met
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked away again and groaned in his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV &mdash; THE WARNING OF MANTRAP GULCH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      They followed the trail down into the caƱon. As the ponies slowly picked
+      their footing on the steep narrow path, he asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do they call it Mantrap Gulch?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It got its name before my time in the days when outlaws hid here. A
+      hunted man came to Lost CaƱon, a murderer wanted by the law for more
+      crimes than one. He was well treated by the settlers. They gave him
+      shelter and work. He was safe, and he knew it. But he tried to make his
+      peace with the law outside by breaking the law of the valley. He knew that
+      two men were lying hid in a pocket gulch, opening from the valley&mdash;men
+      who were wanted for train robbery. He wrote to the company offering to
+      betray these men if they would pay him the reward and see that he was not
+      punished for his crimes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems he was suspected. His letter was opened, and the exits from the
+      valley were both guarded. Knowing he was discovered, he tried to slip out
+      by the river way. He failed, sneaked through the settlement at night, and
+      slipped into the caƱon here. At this end of it he found armed men on
+      guard. He ran back and found the entrance closed. He was in a trap. He
+      tried to climb one of the walls. Do you see that point where the rock juts
+      out?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About five hundred feet up? Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He managed to climb that high. Nobody ever knows how he did it, but when
+      morning broke there he was, like a fly on a wall. His hunters came and saw
+      him. I suppose he could hear them laughing as their voices came echoing up
+      to him. They shot above him, below him, on either side of him. He knew
+      they were playing with him, and that they would finish him when they got
+      ready. He must have been half crazy with fear. Anyhow, he lost his hold
+      and fell. He was dead before they reached him. From that day this has been
+      called Mantrap Gulch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger looked up at the frowning walls which shut out the sunlight.
+      His imagination pictured the drama&mdash;the hunted man's wild flight up
+      the gulch; his dreadful discovery that it was closed; his desperate
+      attempt to climb by moonlight the impossible cliff, and the tragedy that
+      overtook him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl spoke again softly, almost as if she were in the presence of that
+      far-off Nemesis. &ldquo;I suppose he deserved it. It's an awful thing to be a
+      traitor; to sell the people who have befriended you. We can't put
+      ourselves in his place and know why he did it. All we can say is that
+      we're glad&mdash;glad that we have never known men who do such things. Do
+      you think people always felt a sort of shrinking when they were near him,
+      or did he seem just like other men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Glancing at the man who rode beside her, she cried out at the stricken
+      look on his face. &ldquo;It's your heart again. You're worn out with anxiety and
+      privations. I should have remembered and come slower,&rdquo; she reproached
+      herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm all right&mdash;now. It passes in a moment,&rdquo; he said hoarsely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But she had already slipped from the saddle and was at his bridle rein.
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;no. You must get down. We have plenty of time. We'll rest here
+      till you are better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was nothing for it but to obey. He dismounted, feeling himself a
+      humbug and a scoundrel. He sat down on a mossy rock, his back against
+      another, while she trailed the reins and joined him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are better now, aren't you?&rdquo; she asked, as she seated herself on an
+      adjacent bowlder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gruffly he answered: &ldquo;I'm all right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She thought she understood. Men do not like to be coddled. She began to
+      talk cheerfully of the first thing that came into her head. He made the
+      necessary monosyllabic responses when her speech put it up to him, but she
+      saw that his mind was brooding over something else. Once she saw his gaze
+      go up to the point on the cliff reached by the fugitive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was not until they were again in the saddle that he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he got what was coming to him. He had no right to complain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what my father says. I don't deny the justice of it, but whenever
+      I think of it, I feel sorry for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Despite the quietness of the monosyllable, she divined an eager interest
+      back of his question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must have suffered so. He wasn't a brave man, they say. And he was one
+      against many. They didn't hunt him. They just closed the trap and let him
+      wear himself out trying to get through. Think of that awful week of hunger
+      and exposure in the hills before the end!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have been pretty bad, especially if he wasn't a game man. But he
+      had no legitimate kick coming. He took his chance and lost. It was up to
+      him to pay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His name was David Burke. When he was a little boy I suppose his mother
+      used to call him Davy. He wasn't bad then; just a little boy to be cuddled
+      and petted. Perhaps he was married. Perhaps he had a sweetheart waiting
+      for him outside, and praying for him. And they snuffed his life out as if
+      he had been a rattlesnake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because he was a miscreant and it was best he shouldn't live. Yes, they
+      did right. I would have helped do it in their place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father did,&rdquo; she sighed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They did not speak again until they had passed from between the chill
+      walls to the warm sunshine of the valley beyond. Among the rocks above the
+      trail, she glimpsed some early anemones blossoming bravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She drew up with a little cry of pleasure. &ldquo;They're the first I have seen.
+      I must have them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser swung from the saddle, but he was not quick enough. She reached
+      them before he did, and after they had gathered them she insisted upon
+      sitting down again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had his suspicions, and voiced them. &ldquo;I believe you got me off just to
+      make me sit down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed with deep delight. &ldquo;I didn't, but since we are here we shall.&rdquo;
+       And she ended debate by sitting down tailor-fashion, and beginning to
+      arrange her little bouquet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A meadow lark, troubadour of spring, trilled joyously somewhere in the
+      pines above. The man looked up, then down at the vivid creature busy with
+      her flowers at his feet. There was kinship between the two. She, too, was
+      athrob with the joy note of spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're to sit down,&rdquo; she ordered, without looking up from the sheaf of
+      anemone blossoms she was arranging.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sank down beside her, aware vaguely of something new and poignant in
+      his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V &mdash; JED BRISCOE TAKES A HAND
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Suddenly a footfall, and a voice:
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, Arlie! I been looking for you everywhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan's gaze took in a slim dark man, goodlooking after a fashion, but
+      with dissipation written on the rather sullen face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you've found me,&rdquo; the girl answered coolly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I've found you,&rdquo; the man answered, with a steady, watchful eye on
+      the Texan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Dillon was embarrassed at this plain hostility, but indignation too
+      sparkled in her eye. &ldquo;Anything in particular you want?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The newcomer ignored her question. His hard gaze challenged the
+      Southerner; did more than challenge&mdash;weighed and condemned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this young woman was not used to being ignored. Her voice took on an
+      edge of sharpness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can I do for you, Jed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who's your friend?&rdquo; the man demanded bluntly, insolently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie's flush showed the swift, upblazing resentment she immediately
+      controlled. &ldquo;Mr. Fraser&mdash;just arrived from Texas. Mr. Fraser, let me
+      introduce to you Mr. Briscoe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan stepped forward to offer his hand, but Briscoe deliberately put
+      both of his behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Might I ask what Mr. Fraser, just arrived from Texas, is doing here?&rdquo; the
+      young man drawled, contriving to make an insult of every syllable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl's eyes flashed dangerously. &ldquo;He is here as my guest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, as your guest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doesn't it please you, Jed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I said it didn't please me?&rdquo; he retorted smoothly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your looks say it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He let out a sudden furious oath. &ldquo;Then my looks don't lie any.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser was stepping forward, but with a gesture Arlie held him back. This
+      was her battle, not his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you got to say about it?&rdquo; she demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had no right to bring him here. Who is he anyhow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think that is his business, and mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I make it mine,&rdquo; he declared hotly. &ldquo;I've heard about this fellow from
+      your father. You met up with him on the trail. He says his name is Fraser.
+      You don't even know whether that is true. He may be a spy. How do you know
+      he ain't?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do I know you aren't?&rdquo; she countered swiftly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've known me all my life. Did you ever see him before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He risked his life to save ours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Risked nothing! It was a trick, I tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It makes no difference to me what you tell me. Your opinion can't affect
+      mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know the feeling of the valley just now about strangers,&rdquo; said
+      Briscoe sullenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It depends on who the stranger is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I object to this one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it seems; but I don't know any law that makes me do whatever you want
+      me to.&rdquo; Her voice, low and clear, cut like a whiplash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath the dust of travel the young man's face burned with anger. &ldquo;We're
+      not discussing that just now. What I say is that you had no right to bring
+      him here&mdash;not now, especially. You know why,&rdquo; he added, almost in a
+      whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you had waited and not attempted to brow-beat me, I would have shown
+      you that that is the very reason I had to bring him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind what I mean. You have insulted my friend, and through him, me.
+      That is enough for one day.&rdquo; She turned from him haughtily and spoke to
+      the Texan. &ldquo;If you are ready, Mr. Fraser, we'll be going now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger, whose fingers had been itching to get at the throat of this
+      insolent young man, turned without a word and obediently brought the
+      girl's pony, then helped her to mount. Briscoe glared, in a silent tempest
+      of passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I have left a glove and my anemones where we were sitting,&rdquo; the
+      girl said sweetly to the Texan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser found them, tightened the saddle girth, and mounted Teddy. As they
+      cantered away, Arlie called to him to look at the sunset behind the
+      mountains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the moment of her dismissal of Briscoe the girl had apparently put
+      him out of her thoughts. No fine lady of the courts could have done it
+      with more disdainful ease. And the Texan, following her lead, played his
+      part in the little comedy, ignoring the other man as completely as she
+      did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young cattleman, furious, his teeth set in impotent rage, watched it
+      all with the lust to kill in his heart. When they had gone, he flung
+      himself into the saddle and rode away in a tumultuous fury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before they had covered two hundred yards Arlie turned to her companion,
+      all contrition. &ldquo;There! I've done it again. My fits of passion are always
+      getting me into trouble. This time one of them has given you an enemy, and
+      a bad one, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. He would have been my enemy no matter what you said. Soon as he put
+      his eyes on me, I knew it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I brought you here, you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't mean only that. Some folks are born to be enemies, just as some
+      are born to be friends. They've only got to look in each other's eyes once
+      to know it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's strange. I never heard anybody else say that. Do you really mean
+      it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did you ever have such an enemy before? Don't answer me if I oughtn't
+      to ask that,&rdquo; she added quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Texas. Why, here we are at a ranch!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. It's ours, and yours as long as you want to stay. Did you feel that
+      you were enemies the moment you saw this man in Texas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knew we were going to have trouble as soon as we looked at each other.
+      I had no feeling toward him, but he had toward me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did you have trouble?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some, before I landed him. The way it turned out he had most of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She glanced quickly at him. &ldquo;What do you mean by 'landed'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am an officer in the Texas Rangers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are they? Something like our forest rangers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. The duty of a Texas Ranger is to enforce the law against desperadoes.
+      We prevent crime if we can. When we can't do that, we hunt down the
+      criminals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie looked at him in a startled silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are an officer of the law&mdash;a sort of sheriff?&rdquo; she said, at
+      last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, in Texas. This is Wyoming.&rdquo; He made his distinction, knowing it was
+      a false one. Somehow he had the feeling of a whipped cur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I had known. If you had only told me earlier,&rdquo; she said, so low as
+      to be almost a whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sorry. If you like, I'll go away again,&rdquo; he offered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no. I'm only thinking that it gives Jed a hold, gives him something
+      to stir up his friends with, you know. That is, it would if he knew. He
+      mustn't find out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be frank. Don't make any secret of it. That's the best way,&rdquo; he advised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She shook her head. &ldquo;You don't know Jed's crowd. They'd be suspicious of
+      any officer, no matter where he came from.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Far as I can make out, that young man is going to be loaded with
+      suspicions of me anyhow,&rdquo; he laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It isn't anything to laugh at. You don't know him,&rdquo; she told him gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And can't say I'm suffering to,&rdquo; he drawled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him a little impatiently, as if he were a child playing with
+      gunpowder and unaware of its potentialities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't you understand? You're not in Texas with your friends all around
+      you. This is Lost Valley&mdash;and Lost Valley isn't on the map. Men make
+      their own law here. That is, some of them do. I wouldn't give a snap of my
+      fingers for your life if the impression spread that you are a spy. It
+      doesn't matter that I know you're not. Others must feel it, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see. And Mr. Briscoe will be a molder of public opinion?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far as he can he will. We must forestall him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beat him to it, and give me a clean bill of moral health, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She frowned. &ldquo;This is serious business, my friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm taking it that way,&rdquo; he said smilingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shouldn't have guessed it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet for all his debonair ease the man had an air of quiet competence. His
+      strong, bronzed face and neck, the set of his shoulders, the light poise
+      of him in the saddle, the steady confidence of the gray eyes, all told her
+      as much. She was aware of a curiosity about what was hidden behind that
+      stone-wall face of his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You didn't finish telling me about that enemy in Texas,&rdquo; she suggested
+      suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, there ain't much to tell. He broke out from the pen, where I had put
+      him when I was a kid. He was a desperado wanted by the authorities, so I
+      arrested him again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sounds easy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He made some trouble, shot up two or three men first.&rdquo; Fraser lifted his
+      hand absently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that scar on your hand where he shot you?&rdquo; Arlie asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked up in quick surprise. &ldquo;Now, how did you know that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were talking of the trouble he made and you looked at your hand,&rdquo; she
+      explained. &ldquo;Where is he now? In the penitentiary?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. He broke away before I got him there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had another flash of inspiration. &ldquo;And you came to Wyoming to get him
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good gracious, ma'am, but you're ce'tainly a wizard! That's why I came,
+      though it's a secret.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is he wanted for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Robbing a train, three murders and a few other things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As she swung from her pony in front of the old-fashioned Southern log
+      house, Artie laughed at him over her shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're a fine officer! Tell all you know to the first girl you meet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you see, the girl happened to be&mdash;you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After the manner of the old-fashioned Southern house a wide &ldquo;gallery&rdquo;
+       bisected it from porch to rear. Saddles hung from pegs in the gallery.
+      Horse blankets and bridles, spurs and saddlebags, lay here and there in
+      disarray. A disjointed rifle which some one had started to clean was on
+      the porch. Swiftly Arlie stripped saddle, bridle, and blanket from her
+      pony and flung them down as a contribution to the general disorder, and at
+      her suggestion Fraser did the same. A half-grown lad came running to herd
+      the horses into a corral close at hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want you when you've finished feeding, Bobbie,&rdquo; Arlie told the lad.
+      Then briefly to her guest: &ldquo;This way, please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She led him into a large, cheerful living room, into which, through big
+      casement windows, the light streamed. It was a pleasant room, despite its
+      barbaric touch. There was a grizzly bear skin before the great open, stone
+      fireplace, and Navajo rugs covered the floor and hung on the walls. The
+      skin of a silver-tip bear was stretched beneath a writing desk, a trophy
+      of Arlie's rifle, which hung in a rack above. Civilization had furnished
+      its quota to the room in a piano, some books, and a few photographs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan observed that order reigned here, even though it did not
+      interfere with the large effect of comfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl left him, to return presently with her aunt, to whom she
+      introduced him. Miss Ruth Dillon was a little, bright-eyed old lady, whose
+      hair was still black, and her step light. Evidently she had her
+      instructions, for she greeted their guest with charming cordiality, and
+      thanked him for the service he had rendered her brother and her niece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the boy Bobbie arrived for further orders. Arlie went to her
+      desk and wrote hurriedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're to give this note to my father,&rdquo; she directed. &ldquo;Be sure he gets it
+      himself. You ought to find him down in Jackson's Pocket, if the drive is
+      from Round Top to-day. But you can ask about that along the road.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the boy had gone, Arlie turned to Fraser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to tell father you're here before Jed gets to him with his story,&rdquo;
+       she explained. &ldquo;I've asked him to ride down right away. He'll probably
+      come in a few hours and spend the night here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After they had eaten supper they returned to the living room, where a
+      great fire, built by Jim the negro horse wrangler, was roaring up the
+      chimney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was almost eleven o'clock when horses galloped up and Dillon came into
+      the house, followed by Jed Briscoe. The latter looked triumphant, the
+      former embarrassed as he disgorged letters and newspapers from his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I stopped at the office to get the mail as I came down. Here's yore
+      paper, Ruth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Dillon pounced eagerly upon the Gimlet Butte Avalanche, and
+      disappeared with it to her bedroom. She had formerly lived in Gimlet
+      Butte, and was still keenly interested in the gossip of the town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Briscoe had scored one against Arlie by meeting her father, telling his
+      side of the story, and returning with him to the house. Nevertheless
+      Arlie, after giving him the slightest nod her duty as hostess would
+      permit, made her frontal attack without hesitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll be glad to know, dad, that Mr. Fraser is our guest. He has had
+      rather a stormy time since we saw him last, and he has consented to stay
+      with us a few days till things blow over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dillon, very ill at ease, shook hands with the Texan, and was understood
+      to say that he was glad to see him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you don't look it, dad,&rdquo; Arlie told him, with a gleam of vexed
+      laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her father turned reproachfully upon her. &ldquo;Now, honey, yo' done wrong to
+      say that. Yo' know Mr. Fraser is welcome to stay in my house long as he
+      wants. I'm proud to have him stay. Do you think I forgot already what he
+      done for us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course not. Then it's all settled,&rdquo; Arlie cut in, and rushed on to
+      another subject. &ldquo;How's the round-up coming, dad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll talk about the round-up later. What I'm saying is that Mr. Fraser
+      has only got to say the word, and I'm there to he'p him till the cows come
+      home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's just what I told him, dad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold yore hawsses, will yo', honey? But, notwithstanding which, and not
+      backing water on that proposition none, we come to another p'int.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which Jed made to you carefully on the way down,&rdquo; his daughter
+      interrupted scornfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It don't matter who made it. The p'int is that there are reasons why
+      strangers ain't exactly welcome in this valley right now, Mr. Fraser. This
+      country is full o' suspicion. Whilst it's onjust, charges are being made
+      against us on the outside. Right now the settlers here have got to guard
+      against furriners. Now I know yo're all right, Mr. Fraser. But my
+      neighbors don't know it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was our lives he saved, not our neighbors',&rdquo; scoffed Arlie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;K'rect. So I say, Mr. Fraser, if yo' are out o' funds, I'll finance you.
+      Wherever you want to go I'll see you git there, but I hain't got the right
+      to invite you to stay in Lost Valley.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better send him to Gimlet Butte, dad! He killed a man in helping us to
+      escape, and he 's wanted bad! He broke jail to get here! Pay his expenses
+      back to the Butte! Then if there's a reward, you and Jed can divide it!&rdquo;
+       his daughter jeered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that? Killed a man, yo' say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. To save us. Shall we send him back under a rifle guard? Or shall we
+      have Sheriff Brandt come and get him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gracious goodness, gyurl, shet up whilst I think. Killed a man, eh? This
+      valley has always been open to fugitives. Ain't that right, Jed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To fugitives, yes,&rdquo; said Jed significantly. &ldquo;But that fact ain't proved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jed's getting right important. We'll soon be asking him whether we can
+      stay here,&rdquo; said Arlie, with a scornful laugh. &ldquo;And I say it is proved. We
+      met the deputies the yon side of the big caƱon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Briscoe looked at her out of dogged, half-shuttered eyes. He said nothing,
+      but he looked the picture of malice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dillon rasped his stubbly chin and looked at the Texan. Far from an
+      alert-minded man, he came to conclusions slowly. Now he arrived at one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dad burn it, we'll take the 'fugitive' for granted. Yo' kin lie up here
+      long as yo' like, friend. I'll guarantee yo' to my neighbors. I reckon if
+      they don't like it they kin lump it. I ain't a-going to give up the man
+      that saved my gyurl's life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened and let in Miss Ruth Dillon. The little old lady had the
+      newspaper in her hand, and her beady eyes were shining with excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all in here, Mr. Fraser&mdash;about your capture and escape. But you
+      didn't tell us all of it. Perhaps you didn't know, though, that they had
+      plans to storm the jail and hang you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I knew that,&rdquo; the Texan answered coolly. &ldquo;The jailer told me what
+      was coming to me. I decided not to wait and see whether he was lying. I
+      wrenched a bar from the window, lowered myself by my bedding, flew the
+      coop, and borrowed a horse. That's the whole story, ma'am, except that
+      Miss Arlie brought me here to hide me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Read aloud what the paper says,&rdquo; Dillon ordered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His sister handed the Avalanche to her niece. Arlie found the article and
+      began to read:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A dastardly outrage occurred three miles from Gimlet Butte last night.
+      While on their way home from the trial of the well-known Three Pines sheep
+      raid case, a small party of citizens were attacked by miscreants presumed
+      to be from the Cedar Mountain country. How many of these there were we
+      have no means of knowing, as the culprits disappeared in the mountains
+      after murdering William Faulkner, a well-known sheep man, and wounding Tom
+      Long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There followed a lurid account of the battle, written from the point of
+      view of the other side. After which the editor paid his respects to
+      Fraser, though not by name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of the ruffians, for some unknown reason&mdash;perhaps in the hope of
+      getting a chance to slay another victim&mdash;remained too long near the
+      scene of the atrocity and was apprehended early this morning by that
+      fearless deputy, James Schilling. He refused to give his name or any other
+      information about himself. While the man is a stranger to Gimlet Butte,
+      there can be no doubt that he is one of the Lost Valley desperadoes
+      implicated in the Squaw Creek raid some months ago. Since the bullet that
+      killed Faulkner was probably fired from the rifle carried by this man, it
+      is safe to assume that the actual murderer was apprehended. The man is
+      above medium height, well built and muscular, and carries all the earmarks
+      of a desperate character.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie glanced up from her reading to smile at Fraser. &ldquo;Dad and I are
+      miscreants, and you are a ruffian and a desperate character,&rdquo; she told him
+      gayly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on, honey,&rdquo; her father urged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The account told how the prisoner had been confined in the jail, and how
+      the citizens, wrought up by the continued lawlessness of the Lost Valley
+      district, had quietly gathered to make an example of the captured man.
+      While condemning lynching in general, the Avalanche wanted to go on record
+      as saying that if ever it was justifiable this was the occasion.
+      Unfortunately, the prisoner, giving thus further evidence of his desperate
+      nature, had cut his way out of prison with a pocketknife and escaped from
+      town by means of a horse he found saddled and did not hesitate to steal.
+      At the time of going to press he had not yet been recaptured, though
+      Sheriff Brandt had several posses on his trail. The outlaw had cut the
+      telephone wires, but it was confidently believed he would be captured
+      before he reached his friends in the mountains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie's eyes were shining. She looked at Briscoe and handed him the paper
+      triumphantly. This was her vindication for bringing the hunted man to Lost
+      Valley. He had been fighting their battles and had almost lost his life in
+      doing it. Jed might say what he liked while she had this to refute him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess that editor doesn't believe so confidently as he pretends,&rdquo; she
+      said. &ldquo;Anyhow, he has guessed wrong. Mr. Fraser has reached his friends,
+      and they'll look out for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her father came to her support radiantly. &ldquo;You bet yore boots they will,
+      honey. Shake hands on it, Mr. Fraser. I reckon yore satisfied too, Jed.
+      Eh, boy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Briscoe viewed the scene with cynical malice. &ldquo;Quite a hero, ain't he? If
+      you want to know, I stand pat. Mr. Fraser from Texas don't draw the wool
+      over my eyes none. Right now I serve notice to that effect. Meantime,
+      since I don't aim to join the happy circle of his admirers, I reckon I'll
+      duck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He nodded impudently at Arlie, turned on his heel, and went trailing off
+      with jingling spur. They heard him cursing at his horse as he mounted. The
+      cruel swish of a quirt came to them, after which the swift pounding of a
+      horse's hoofs. The cow pony had found its gallop in a stride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan laughed lightly. &ldquo;Exit Mr. Briscoe, some disappointed,&rdquo; he
+      murmured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He noticed that none of the others shared his mirth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI &mdash; A SURE ENOUGH WOLF
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Briscoe did not return at once to the scene of the round-up. He followed
+      the trail toward Jackson's Pocket, but diverged after he had gone a few
+      miles and turned into one of the hundred blind gulches that ran out from
+      the valley to the impassable mountain wall behind. It was known as Jack
+      Rabbit Run, because its labyrinthine trails offered a retreat into which
+      hunted men might always dive for safety. Nobody knew its recesses better
+      than Jed Briscoe, who was acknowledged to be the leader of that faction in
+      the valley which had brought it the bad name it held.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Long before Jed's time there had been such a faction, then the dominant
+      one of the place, now steadily losing ground as civilization seeped in,
+      but still strong because bound by ties of kindred and of interest to the
+      honest law-abiding majority. Of it were the outlaws who came periodically
+      to find shelter here, the hasty men who had struck in heat and found it
+      necessary to get beyond the law's reach for a time, and reckless
+      cowpunchers, who foregathered with these, because they were birds of a
+      feather. To all such, Jack Rabbit Run was a haven of rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By devious paths the cattleman guided his horse until he came to a kind of
+      pouch, guarded by a thick growth of aspens. The front of these he skirted,
+      plunged into them at the farther edge, and followed a narrow trail which
+      wound among them till the grove opened upon a saucer-shaped valley in
+      which nestled a little log cabin. Lights gleamed from the windows
+      hospitably and suggested the comfortable warmth of a log fire and
+      good-fellowship. So many a hunted man had thought as he emerged from that
+      grove to look down upon the valley nestling at his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed turned his horse into a corral back of the house, let out the hoot of
+      an owl as he fed and watered, and returning to the cabin, gave the four
+      knocks that were the signal for admission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bolts were promptly withdrawn and the door thrown open by a slender,
+      fair-haired fellow, whose features looked as if they had been roughed out
+      and not finished. He grinned amiably at the newcomer and greeted him with:
+      &ldquo;Hello, Jed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, Tommie,&rdquo; returned Briscoe, carelessly, and let his glance pass to
+      the three men seated at the table with cards and poker chips in front of
+      them, The man facing Briscoe was a big, heavy-set, unmistakable ruffian
+      with long, drooping, red mustache, and villainous, fishy eyes. It was
+      observable that the trigger finger of his right hand was missing. Also,
+      there was a nasty scar on his right cheek running from the bridge of the
+      nose halfway to the ear. This gave surplusage to the sinister appearance
+      he already had. To him Briscoe spoke first, attempting a geniality he did
+      not feel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How're they coming, Texas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You ain't heard me kicking any, have you?&rdquo; the man made sullen answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not out loud,&rdquo; said Briscoe significantly, his eyes narrowing after a
+      trick they had when he was most on his guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon my remarks will be plumb audible when I've got any kick to
+      register, seh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope not, Mr. Johnson. In this neck of woods a man is liable to get
+      himself disliked if he shoots off his mouth too prevalent. Folks that
+      don't like our ways can usually find a door open out of Lost Valley&mdash;if
+      they don't wait too long!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm some haidstrong. I reckon I'll stay.&rdquo; He scowled at Jed with
+      disfavor, meeting him eye to eye. But presently the rigor of his gaze
+      relaxed. Me remembered that he was a fugitive from justice, and at the
+      mercy of this man who had so far guessed his secret. Putting a temporary
+      curb on his bilious jealousy, he sulkily added: &ldquo;Leastways, if there's no
+      objection, Mr. Briscoe. I ain't looking for trouble with anybody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man who's looking for it usually finds it, Mr. Johnson. A man that
+      ain't, lives longer and more peaceable.&rdquo; At this point Jed pulled himself
+      together and bottled his arrogance, remembering that he had come to make
+      an alliance with this man. &ldquo;But that's no way for friends to talk. I got a
+      piece of news for you. We'll talk it over in the other room and not
+      disturb these gentlemen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the &ldquo;gentlemen&rdquo; grinned. He was a round-bodied, bullet-headed
+      cowpuncher, with a face like burnt leather. He was in chaps, flannel
+      shirt, and broad-brimmed hat. From a pocket in his chaps a revolver
+      protruded. &ldquo;That's right, Jed. Wrap it up proper. You'd hate to disturb
+      us, wouldn't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll not interrupt you from losing your money more than five minutes,
+      Yorky,&rdquo; answered Briscoe promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third man at the table laughed suddenly. &ldquo;Ay bane laik to know how yuh
+      feel now, Yorky?&rdquo; he taunted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It ain't you that's taking my spondulix in, you big, overgrown Swede!&rdquo;
+       returned Yorky amiably. &ldquo;It's the gent from Texas. How can a fellow buck
+      against luck that fills from a pair to a full house on the draw?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The blond giant, Siegfried&mdash;who was not a Swede, but a Norwegian&mdash;announced
+      that he was seventeen dollars in the game himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tommie, already broke, and an onlooker, reported sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sixty-one for me, durn it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed picked up a lamp, led the way to the other room, and closed the door
+      behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought it might interest you to know that there's a new arrival in the
+      valley, Mr. Struve,&rdquo; he said smoothly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who says my name's Struve?&rdquo; demanded the man who called himself Johnson,
+      with fierce suspicion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Briscoe laughed softly. &ldquo;I say it&mdash;Wolf Struve. Up till last month
+      your address for two years has been number nine thousand four hundred and
+      thirty-two, care of Penitentiary Warden, Yuma, Arizona.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prove it. Prove it,&rdquo; blustered the accused man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure.&rdquo; From his inside coat pocket Jed took out a printed notice offering
+      a reward for the capture of Nick Struve, alias &ldquo;Wolf&rdquo; Struve, convict, who
+      had broken prison on the night of February seventh, and escaped, after
+      murdering one of the guards. A description and a photograph of the man
+      wanted was appended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Looks some like you. Don't it, Mr.&mdash;shall I say Johnson or Struve?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say Johnson!&rdquo; roared the Texan. &ldquo;That ain't me. I'm no jailbird.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad to know it.&rdquo; Briscoe laughed in suave triumph. &ldquo;I thought you might
+      be. This description sounds some familiar. I'll not read it all. But
+      listen: 'Scar on right cheek, running from bridge of nose toward ear.
+      Trigger finger missing; shot away when last arrested. Weight, about one
+      hundred and ninety.' By the way, just out of curiosity, how heavy are you,
+      Mr. Johnson? 'Height, five feet nine inches. Protuberant, fishy eyes.
+      Long, drooping, reddish mustache.' I'd shave that mustache if I were you,
+      Mr.&mdash;er&mdash;Johnson. Some one might mistake you for Nick Struve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man who called himself Johnson recognized denial as futile. He flung
+      up the sponge with a blasphemous oath. &ldquo;What do you want? What's your
+      game? Do you want to sell me for the reward? By thunder, you'd better
+      not!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Briscoe gave way to one of the swift bursts of passion to which he was
+      subject. &ldquo;Don't threaten me, you prison scum! Don't come here and try to
+      dictate what I'm to do, and what I'm not to do. I'll sell you if I want
+      to. I'll send you back to be hanged like a dog. Say the word, and I'll
+      have you dragged out of here inside of forty-eight hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve reached for his gun, but the other, wary as a panther, had him
+      covered while the convict's revolver was still in his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Reach for the roof! Quick&mdash;or I'll drill a hole in you! That's the
+      idea. I reckon I'll collect your hardware while I'm at it. That's a heap
+      better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve glared at him, speechless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're too slow on the draw for this part of the country, my friend,&rdquo;
+       jeered Briscoe. &ldquo;Or perhaps, while you were at Yuma, you got out of
+      practice. It's like stealing candy from a kid to beat you to it. Don't
+      ever try to draw a gun again in Lost Valley while you're asleep. You might
+      never waken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed was in high good humor with himself. His victim looked silent murder
+      at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One more thing, while you're in a teachable frame of mind,&rdquo; continued
+      Briscoe. &ldquo;I run Lost Valley. What I say, goes here. Get that soaked into
+      your think-tank, my friend. Ever since you came, you've been disputing
+      that in your mind. You've been stirring up the boys against me. Think I
+      haven't noticed it? Guess again, Mr. Struve. You'd like to be boss
+      yourself, wouldn't you? Forget it. Down in Texas you may be a bad, bad
+      man, a sure enough wolf, but in Wyoming you only stack up to coyote size.
+      Let this slip your mind, and I'll be running Lost Valley after your bones
+      are picked white by the buzzards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't a-goin' to make you any trouble. Didn't I tell you that before?&rdquo;
+       growled Struve reluctantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See you don't, then. Now I'll come again to my news. I was telling you
+      that there's another stranger in this valley, Mr. Struve. Hails from
+      Texas, too. Name of Fraser. Ever hear of him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Briscoe was hardly prepared for the change which came over the Texan at
+      mention of that name. The prominent eyes stared, and a deep, apoplectic
+      flush ran over the scarred face. The hand that caught at the wall trembled
+      with excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean Steve Fraser&mdash;Fraser of the Rangers!&rdquo; he gasped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what I'm not sure of. I got to milling it over after I left him,
+      and it come to me I'd seen him or his picture before. You still got that
+      magazine with the article about him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I looked it over hurriedly. Let me see his picture again, and I'll tell
+      you if it's the same man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's in the other room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve presently returned with the magazine, and, opening it, pointed to a
+      photograph of a young officer in uniform, with the caption underneath:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      LIEUTENANT STEPHEN FRASER OF THE TEXAS RANGERS
+
+     Who, single-handed, ran down and brought to justice
+     the worst gang of outlaws known in recent years.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's the same man,&rdquo; Briscoe announced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The escaped convict's mouth set in a cruel line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of us, either him or me, never leaves this valley alive,&rdquo; he
+      announced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed laughed softly and handed back the revolver. &ldquo;That's the way to talk.
+      My friend, if you mean that, you'll need your gun. Here's hoping you beat
+      him to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It won't be an even break this time if I can help it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I gather that it was, last time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yep. We drew together.&rdquo; Struve interlarded his explanation with oaths.
+      &ldquo;He's a devil with a gun. See that?&rdquo; He held up his right band.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see you're shy your most useful finger, if that's what you mean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fraser took it off clean at twenty yards. I got him in the hand, too, but
+      right or left he's a dead shot. He might 'a' killed me if he hadn't wanted
+      to take me alive. Before I'm through with him he'll wish he had.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you don't want to make any mistake next time. Get him right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sure will.&rdquo; Hitherto Struve had been absorbed in his own turbid
+      emotions, but he came back from them now with a new-born suspicion in his
+      eyes. &ldquo;Where do you come in, Mr. Briscoe? Why are you so plumb anxious I
+      should load him up with lead? If it's a showdown, I'd some like to see
+      your cards too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed shrugged. &ldquo;My reasons ain't urgent like yours. I don't favor spies
+      poking their noses in here. That's all there's to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed had worked out a plot as he rode through the night from the Dillon
+      ranch&mdash;one so safe and certain that it pointed to sure success. Jed
+      was no coward, but he had a spider-like cunning that wove others as dupes
+      into the web of his plans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only weakness in his position lay in himself, in that sudden boiling
+      up of passion in him that was likely to tear through his own web and
+      destroy it. Three months ago he had given way to one of these outbursts,
+      and he knew that any one of four or five men could put a noose around his
+      neck. That was another reason why such a man as this Texas ranger must not
+      be allowed to meet and mix with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was his cue to know as much as he could of every man that came into the
+      valley. Wherefore he had run down the record of Struve from the reward
+      placard which a detective agency furnished him of hundreds of criminals
+      who were wanted. What could be more simple than to stir up the convict, in
+      order to save himself, to destroy the ranger who had run him down before?
+      There would be a demand so insistent for the punishment of the murderer
+      that it could not be ignored. He would find some pretext to lure Struve
+      from the valley for a day or two, and would arrange it so that he would be
+      arrested while he was away. Thus he would be rid of both these troublesome
+      intruders without making a move that could be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was all as simple as A B C. Already Struve had walked into the trap. As
+      Jed sat down to take a hand in the poker game that was in progress, he
+      chuckled quietly to himself. He was quite sure that he was already
+      practically master of the situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII &mdash; THE ROUND-UP
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      &ldquo;Would you like to take in the round-up to-day?&rdquo;
+     </h3>
+    <p>
+      Arlie flung the question at Fraser with a frank directness of sloe-black
+      eyes that had never known coquetry. She was washing handkerchiefs, and her
+      sleeves were rolled to the elbows of the slender, but muscular,
+      coffee-brown arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you like you may ride out with me to Willow Spring. I have some
+      letters to take to dad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suits me down to the ground, ma'am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a morning beautiful even for Wyoming. The spring called potently to
+      the youth in them. The fine untempered air was like wine, and out of a
+      blue sky the sun beat pleasantly down through a crystal-clear atmosphere
+      known only to the region of the Rockies. Nature was preaching a wordless
+      sermon on the duty of happiness to two buoyant hearts that scarce needed
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Long before they reached the scene of the round-up they could hear the
+      almost continual bawl of worried cattle, and could even see the cloud of
+      dust they stirred. They passed the remuda, in charge of two lads lounging
+      sleepily in their saddles with only an occasional glance at the bunch of
+      grazing horses they were watching. Presently they looked down from a high
+      ridge at the busy scene below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Out of Lost Valley ran a hundred rough and wooded gulches to the
+      impassable cliff wall which bounded it. Into one of these they now
+      descended slowly, letting their ponies pick a way among the loose stones
+      and shale which covered the steep hillside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What their eyes fell upon was cattle-land at its busiest. Several hundred
+      wild hill cattle were gathered in the green draw, and around them was a
+      cordon of riders holding the gather steady. Now and again one of the cows
+      would make a dash to escape, and instantly the nearest rider would wheel,
+      as on a batter's plate, give chase, and herd the animal back after a more
+      or less lengthy pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several of the riders were cutting out from the main herd cows with
+      unmarked calves, which last were immediately roped and thrown. Usually it
+      took only an instant to determine with whose cow the calf had been, and a
+      few seconds to drive home the correct brand upon the sizzling flank.
+      Occasionally the discussion was more protracted, in order to solve a doubt
+      as to the ownership, and once a calf was released that it might again seek
+      its mother to prove identity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie observed that Fraser's eyes were shining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I used to be a puncher myse'f,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;I tell you it feels good
+      to grip a saddle between your knees, and to swallow the dust and hear the
+      bellow of the cows. I used to live in them days. I sure did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A boyish puncher galloped past with a whoop and waved his hat to Arlie.
+      For two weeks he had been in the saddle for fourteen hours out of the
+      twenty-four. He was grimy with dust, and hollow-eyed from want of sleep. A
+      stubbly beard covered his brick-baked face. But the unquenchable gayety of
+      the youthful West could not be extinguished. Though his flannel shirt
+      gaped where the thorns had torn it, and the polka-dot bandanna round his
+      throat was discolored with sweat, he was as blithely debonair as ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's Dick France. He's a great friend of mine,&rdquo; Arlie explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dick's in luck,&rdquo; Fraser commented, but whether because he was enjoying
+      himself so thoroughly or because he was her friend the ranger did not
+      explain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stayed through the day, and ate dinner at the tail of the chuck wagon
+      with the cattlemen. The light of the camp fires, already blazing in the
+      nipping night air, shone brightly. The ranger rode back with her to the
+      ranch, but next morning he asked Arlie if she could lend him an old pair
+      of chaps discarded by her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She found a pair for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you don't mind, I'll ride out to the round-up and stay with the boys a
+      few days,&rdquo; he suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're going to ride with them,&rdquo; she accused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought I would. I'm not going to saddle myse'f on you two ladies
+      forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know we're glad to have you. But that isn't it. What about your
+      heart? You know you can't ride the range.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He flushed, and knew again that feeling of contempt for himself, or, to be
+      more exact, for his position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll be awful careful, Miss Arlie,&rdquo; was all he found to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She could not urge him further, lest he misunderstand her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, you know best,&rdquo; she said, with a touch of coldness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saddled Teddy and rode back. The drive for the day was already on, but
+      he fell in beside young France and did his part. Before two days had
+      passed he was accepted as one of these hard-riding punchers, for he was a
+      competent vaquero and stood the grueling work as one born to it. He was,
+      moreover, well liked, both because he could tell a good story and because
+      these sons of Anak recognized in him that dynamic quality of manhood they
+      could not choose but respect. In this a fortunate accident aided him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were working Lost Creek, a deep and rapid stream at the point where
+      the drive ended. The big Norwegian, Siegfried, trying to head off a wild
+      cow racing along the bank with tail up, got too near the edge. The bank
+      caved beneath the feet of his pony, and man and horse went head first into
+      the turbid waters. Fraser galloped up at once, flung himself from his
+      saddle, and took in at a glance the fact that the big blond Hercules could
+      not swim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan dived for him as he was going down, got hold of him by the hair,
+      and after a struggle managed somehow to reach the farther shore. As they
+      both lay there, one exhausted, and the other fighting for the breath he
+      had nearly lost forever, Dillon reached the bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it all right, Steve?&rdquo; he called anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; grinned the ranger weakly. &ldquo;He'll go on many a spree yet. Eh,
+      Siegfried?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Norwegian nodded. He was still frightened and half drowned. It was not
+      till they were riding up the creek to find a shallow place they could ford
+      that he spoke his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay bane all in ven you got me, pardner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you were still kicking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay bane t'ink Ay had van chance not to get out. But Ay bane not forget
+      dees. Eef you ever get in a tight place, send vor Sig Siegfried.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's all right, Sig.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nobody wasted any compliments on him. After the fashion of their kind,
+      they guyed the Norwegian about the bath he had taken. Nevertheless, Fraser
+      knew that he had won the liking of these men, as well as their deep
+      respect. They began to call him by his first name, which hitherto only
+      Dillon had done, and they included him in the rough, practical jokes they
+      played on each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One night they initiated him&mdash;an experience to be both dreaded and
+      desired. To be desired because it implies the conferring of the
+      thirty-second degree of the freemasonry of Cattleland's approval; to be
+      dreaded because hazing is mild compared with some features of the
+      exercises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser was dragged from sweet slumber, pegged face down on his blankets,
+      with a large-sized man at the extremity of each arm and leg, and
+      introduced to a chapping. Dick France wielded the chaps vigorously upon
+      the portions of his anatomy where they would do the most execution. The
+      Texan did not enjoy it, but he refrained from saying so. When he was
+      freed, he sat down painfully on a saddle and remarked amiably:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're a beautiful bunch, ain't you? Anybody got any smoking?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This proper acceptance of their attentions so delighted these overgrown
+      children that they dug up three bottles of whisky that were kept in camp
+      for rattlesnake bites, and made Rome howl. They had ridden all day, and
+      for many weary days before that; but they were started toward making a
+      night of it when Dillon appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dillon was boss of the round-up&mdash;he had been elected by general
+      consent, and his word was law. He looked round upon them with a twinkling
+      eye, and wanted to know how long it was going to last. But the way he put
+      his question was:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much whisky is there left?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Finding there was none, he ordered them all back to their blankets. After
+      a little skylarking, they obeyed. Next day Fraser rode the hills, a sore,
+      sore man. But nobody who did not know could have guessed it. He would have
+      died before admitting it to any of his companions. Thus he won the
+      accolade of his peers as a worthy horse-man of the hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII &mdash; THE BRONCHO BUSTERS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Jed Briscoe rejoined the round-up the day following Fraser's initiation.
+      He took silent note of the Texan's popularity, of how the boys all called
+      him &ldquo;Steve&rdquo; because he had become one of them, and were ready either to
+      lark with him or work with him. He noticed, too, that the ranger did his
+      share of work without a whimper, apparently enjoying the long, hard hours
+      in the saddle. The hill riding was of the roughest, and the cattle were
+      wild as deers and as agile. But there was no break-neck incline too steep
+      for Steve Fraser to follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once Jed chanced upon Steve stripped for a bath beside the creek, and he
+      understood the physical reason for his perfect poise. The wiry, sinuous
+      muscles, packed compactly without obtrusion, played beneath the skin like
+      those of a panther. He walked as softly and as easily as one, with
+      something of the rippling, unconscious grace of that jungle lord. It was
+      this certainty of himself that vivified the steel-gray eyes which looked
+      forth unafraid, and yet amiably, upon a world primitive enough to demand
+      proof of every man who would hold the respect of his fellows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, Briscoe waited for Struve and his enemy to become entangled in
+      the net he was spinning. He made no pretense of fellowship with Fraser;
+      nor, on the other hand, did he actively set himself against him with the
+      men. He was ready enough to sneer when Dick France grew enthusiastic about
+      his new friend, but this was to be expected from one of his jaundiced
+      temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is this all-round crackerjack you're touting, Dick?&rdquo; he asked
+      significantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      France was puzzled. &ldquo;Who is he? Why, he's Steve Fraser.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't asking you what his name is. I'm asking who he is. What does he
+      do for a living? Who recommended him so strong to the boys that they take
+      up with him so sudden?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't care what he does for a living. Likely, he rides the range in
+      Texas. When it comes to recommendations, he's got one mighty good one
+      written on his face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think so, do you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what I think, Jed. He's the goods&mdash;best of company, a
+      straight-up rider, and a first-rate puncher. Ask any of the boys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm using my eyes, Dick. They tell me all I need to know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, use them to-morrow. He's going to take a whirl at riding Dead Easy.
+      Next day he's going to take on Rocking Horse. If he makes good on them,
+      you'll admit he can ride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't saying he can't ride. So can you. If it's plumb gentle, I can
+      make out to stick on a pony myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Course you can ride. Everybody knows that. You're the best ever. Any man
+      that can win the championship of Wyoming&mdash;&mdash;But you'll say
+      yourself them strawberry roans are wicked devils.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He hasn't ridden them yet, Dick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's going to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll be there to see it. Mebbe he will. Mebbe he won't. I've known men
+      before who thought they were going to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in no moment of good-natured weakness that Fraser had consented to
+      try riding the outlaw horses. Nor had his vanity anything to do with it.
+      He knew a time might be coming when he would need all the prestige and all
+      the friendship he could earn to tide him over the crisis. Jed Briscoe had
+      won his leadership, partly because he could shoot quicker and straighter,
+      ride harder, throw a rope more accurately, and play poker better than his
+      companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve had a mind to show that he, too, could do some of these things
+      passing well. Wherefore, he had let himself be badgered good-naturedly
+      into trying a fall with these famous buckers. As the heavy work of the
+      round-up was almost over, Dillon was glad to relax discipline enough to
+      give the boys a little fun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The remuda was driven up while the outfit was at breakfast. His friends
+      guyed Steve with pleasant prophecy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He'll be hunting leather about the fourth buck!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he ain't trying to make of himse'f one of them there Darius Green
+      machines!&rdquo; suggested another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got any last words, Steve? Dead Easy most generally eats 'em alive,&rdquo; Dick
+      derided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sho! Cayn't you see he's so plumb scared he cayn't talk?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser grinned and continued to eat. When he had finished he got his
+      lariat from the saddle, swung to Siegfried's pony, and rode unobtrusively
+      forward to the remuda. The horses were circling round and round, so that
+      it was several minutes before he found a chance. When he did, the rope
+      snaked forward and dropped over the head of the strawberry roan. The horse
+      stood trembling, making not the least resistance, even while the ranger
+      saddled and cinched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But before the man settled to the saddle, the outlaw was off on its
+      furious resistance. It went forward and up into the air with a plunging
+      leap. The rider swung his hat and gave a joyous whoop. Next instant there
+      was a scatter of laughing men as the horse came toward them in a series of
+      short, stiff-legged bucks which would have jarred its rider like a pile
+      driver falling on his head had he not let himself grow limp to meet the
+      shock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the tricks of its kind this unbroken five-year-old knew. Weaving,
+      pitching, sunfishing, it fought superbly, the while Steve rode with the
+      consummate ease of a master. His sinuous form swayed instinctively to
+      every changing motion of his mount. Even when it flung itself back in
+      blind fury, he dropped lightly from the saddle and into it again as the
+      animal struggled to its feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cook waved a frying pan in frantic glee. &ldquo;Hurra-ay! You're the goods,
+      all right, all right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You bet. Watch Steve fan him. And he ain't pulled leather yet. Not once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An unseen spectator was taking it in from the brow of a little hill
+      crowned with a group of firs. She had reached this point just as the Texan
+      had swung to the saddle, and she watched the battle between horse and man
+      intently. If any had been there to see, he might have observed a strange
+      fire smouldering in her eyes. For the first time there was filtering
+      through her a vague suspicion of this man who claimed to have heart
+      trouble, and had deliberately subjected himself to the terrific strain of
+      such a test. She had seen broncho busters get off bleeding at mouth and
+      nose and ears after a hard fight, and she had never seen a contest more
+      superbly fought than this one. But full of courage as the horse was, it
+      had met its master and began to know it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger's quirt was going up and down, stinging Dead Easy to more
+      violent exertions, if possible. But the outlaw had shot its bolt. The
+      plunges grew less vicious, the bucks more feeble. It still pitched,
+      because of the unbroken gameness that defied defeat, but so mechanically
+      that the motions could be forecasted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Steve began to soothe the brute. Somehow the wild creatute became
+      aware that this man who was his master was also disposed to be friendly.
+      Presently it gave up the battle, quivering in every limb. Fraser slipped
+      from the saddle, and putting his arm across its neck began to gentle the
+      outlaw. The animal had always looked the incarnation of wickedness. The
+      red eyes in its ill-shaped head were enough to give one bad dreams. A
+      quarter of an hour before, it had bit savagely at him. Now it stood
+      breathing deep, and trembling while its master let his hand pass gently
+      over the nose and neck with soft words that slowly won the pony back from
+      the terror into which it had worked itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You did well, Mr. Fraser from Texas,&rdquo; Jed complimented him, with a smile
+      that thinly hid his malice. &ldquo;But it won't do to have you going back to
+      Texas with the word that Wyoming is shy of riders. I ain't any great
+      shakes, but I reckon I'll have to take a whirl at Rocking Horse.&rdquo; He had
+      decided to ride for two reasons. One was that he had glimpsed the girl
+      among the firs; the other was to dissipate the admiration his rival had
+      created among the men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Briscoe lounged toward the remuda, rope in hand. It was his cue to get
+      himself up picturesquely in all the paraphernalia of the cowboy.
+      Black-haired and white-toothed, lithe as a wolf, and endowed with a grace
+      almost feline, it was easy to understand how this man appealed to the
+      imagination of the reckless young fellows of this primeval valley.
+      Everything he did was done well. Furthermore, he looked and acted the part
+      of leader which he assumed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocking Horse was in a different mood from its brother. It was hard to
+      rope, and when Jed's raw-hide had fallen over its head it was necessary to
+      reƫnforce the lariat with two others. Finally the pony had to be flung
+      down before a saddle could be put on. When Siegfried, who had been
+      kneeling on its head, stepped back, the outlaw staggered to its feet,
+      already badly shaken, to find an incubus clamped to the saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No matter how it pitched, the human clothespin stuck to his seat, and
+      apparently with as little concern as if he had been in a rowboat gently
+      moved to and fro by the waves. Jed rode like a centaur, every motion
+      attuned to those of the animal as much as if he were a part of it. No
+      matter how it pounded or tossed, he stuck securely to the hurricane deck
+      of the broncho.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once only he was in danger, and that because Rocking Horse flung furiously
+      against the wheel of a wagon and ground the rider's leg till he grew dizzy
+      with the pain. For an instant he caught at the saddle horn to steady
+      himself as the roan bucked into the open again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's pulling leather!&rdquo; some one shouted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shut up, you goat!&rdquo; advised the Texan good-naturedly. &ldquo;Can't you see his
+      laig got jammed till he's groggy? Wonder is, he didn't take the dust! They
+      don't raise better riders than he is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By hockey! He's all in. Look out! Jed's falling,&rdquo; France cried, running
+      forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It looked so for a moment, then Jed swam back to clear consciousness
+      again, and waved them back. He began to use his quirt without mercy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Might know he'd game it out,&rdquo; remarked Yorky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did. It was a long fight, and the horse was flecked with bloody foam
+      before its spirit and strength failed. But the man in the saddle kept his
+      seat till the victory was won.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve was on the spot to join heartily the murmur of applause, for he was
+      too good a sportsman to grudge admiration even to his enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're the one best bet in riders, Mr. Briscoe. It's a pleasure to watch
+      you,&rdquo; he said frankly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed's narrowed eyes drifted to him. &ldquo;Oh, hell!&rdquo; he drawled with insolent
+      contempt, and turned on his heel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the clump of firs a young woman was descending, and Jed went to meet
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You rode splendidly,&rdquo; she told him with vivid eyes. &ldquo;Were you hurt when
+      you were jammed again the wagon? I mean, does it still hurt?&rdquo; For she
+      noticed that he walked with a limp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon I can stand the grief without an amputation. Arlie, I got
+      something to tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him in her direct fashion and waited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's about your new friend.&rdquo; He drew from a pocket some leaves torn out
+      of a magazine. His finger indicated a picture. &ldquo;Ever see that gentleman
+      before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl looked at it coolly. &ldquo;It seems to be Mr. Fraser taken in his
+      uniform; Lieutenant Fraser, I should say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cattleman's face fell. &ldquo;You know, then, who he is, and what he's doing
+      here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without evasion, her gaze met his. &ldquo;I understood him to say he was an
+      officer in the Texas Rangers. You know why he is here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're right, I do. But do you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what is it you mean? Out with it, Jed,&rdquo; she demanded impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is here to get a man wanted in Texas, a man hiding in this valley
+      right now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't believe it,&rdquo; she returned quickly. &ldquo;And if he is, that's not your
+      business or mine. It's his duty, isn't it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't discussing that. You know the law of the valley, Arlie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't accept that as binding, Jed. Lots of people here don't. Because
+      Lost Valley used to be a nest of miscreants, it needn't always be. I don't
+      see what right we've got to set ourselves above the law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This valley has always stood by hunted men when they reached it. That's
+      our custom, and I mean to stick to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well. I hold you to that,&rdquo; she answered quickly. &ldquo;This man Fraser is
+      a hunted man. He's hunted because of what he did for me and dad. I claim
+      the protection of the valley for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He can have it&mdash;if he's what he says he is. But why ain't he been
+      square with us? Why didn't he tell who he was?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He told me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That ain't enough, Arlie. If he did, you kept it quiet. We all had a
+      right to know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you had asked him, he would have told you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't so sure he would. Anyhow, I don't like it. I believe he is here
+      to get the man I told you of. Mebbe that ain't all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What more?&rdquo; she scoffed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This fellow is the best range detective in the country. My notion is he's
+      spying around about that Squaw Creek raid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the dusky skin she flushed angrily. &ldquo;My notion is you're daffy, Jed.
+      Talk sense, and I'll listen to you. You haven't a grain of proof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may get some yet,&rdquo; he told her sulkily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed her disbelief. &ldquo;When you do, let me know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with that she gave her pony the signal to more forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, she met the ranger at the foot of the little hill with
+      distinct coldness. When he came up to shake hands, she was too busy
+      dismounting to notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your heart must be a good deal better. I suppose Lost Valley agrees with
+      you.&rdquo; She had swung down on the other side of the horse, and her glance at
+      him across the saddle seat was like a rapier thrust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was aware at once of being in disgrace with her, and it chafed him that
+      he had no adequate answer to her implied charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My heart's all right,&rdquo; he said a little gruffly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it seems to be, lieutenant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She trailed the reins and turned away at once to find her father. The girl
+      was disappointed in him. He had, in effect, lied to her. That was bad
+      enough; but she felt that his lie had concealed something, how much she
+      scarce dared say. Her tangled thoughts were in chaos. One moment she was
+      ready to believe the worst; the next, it was impossible to conceive such a
+      man so vile a spy as to reward hospitality with treachery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet she remembered now that it had been while she was telling of the fate
+      of the traitor Burke that she had driven him to his lie. Or had he not
+      told it first when she pointed out Lost Valley at his feet? Yes, it was at
+      that moment she had noticed his pallor. He had, at least, conscience
+      enough to be ashamed of what he was doing. But she recognized a wide
+      margin of difference between the possibilities of his guilt. It was one
+      thing to come to the valley for an escaped murderer; it was quite another
+      to use the hospitality of his host as a means to betray the friends of
+      that host. Deep in her heart she could not find it possible to convict him
+      of the latter alternative. He was too much a man, too vitally dynamic. No;
+      whatever else he was, she felt sure he was not so hopelessly lost to
+      decency. He had that electric spark of self-respect which may coexist with
+      many faults, but not with treachery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX &mdash; A SHOT FROM BALD KNOB
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A bunch of young steers which had strayed from their range were to be
+      driven to the Dillon ranch, and the boss of the rodeo appointed France and
+      Fraser to the task.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yo'll have company home, honey,&rdquo; he told his daughter, &ldquo;and yo'll be able
+      to give the boys a hand if they need it. These hill cattle are still some
+      wild, though we've been working them a week. Yo're a heap better cowboy
+      than some that works more steady at the business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Briscoe nodded. &ldquo;You bet! I ain't forgot that day Arlie rode Big Timber
+      with me two years ago. She wasn't sixteen then, but she herded them hill
+      steers like they belonged to a milk bunch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke his compliment patly enough, but somehow the girl had an
+      impression that he was thinking of something else. She was right, for as
+      he helped gather the drive his mind was busy with a problem. Presently he
+      dismounted to tighten a cinch, and made a signal to a young fellow known
+      as Slim Leroy. The latter was a new and tender recruit to Jed's band of
+      miscreants. He drew up beside his leader and examined one of the fore
+      hoofs of his pony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Slim, I'm going to have Dillon send you for the mail to-day. When he
+      tells you, that's the first you know about it. Understand? You'll have to
+      take the hill cut to Jack Rabbit Run on your way in. At the cabin back of
+      the aspens, inquire for a man that calls himself Johnson. If he's there,
+      give him this message: 'This afternoon from Bald Knob.' Remember! Just
+      those words, and nothing more. If he isn't there, forget the message.
+      You'll know the man you want because he is shy his trigger finger and has
+      a ragged scar across his right cheek. Make no mistake about this, Slim.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure I won't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Briscoe, having finished cinching, swung to his saddle and rode up to say
+      good-by to Arlie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hope you'll have no trouble with this bunch. If you push right along
+      you'd ought to get home by night,&rdquo; he told her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie agreed carelessly. &ldquo;I don't expect any trouble with them. So-long,
+      Jed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It would not have been her choice to ride home with the lieutenant of
+      rangers, but since her father had made the appointment publicly she did
+      not care to make objection. Yet she took care to let Fraser see that he
+      was in her black books. The men rode toward the rear of the herd, one on
+      each side, and Arlie fell in beside her old playmate, Dick. She laughed
+      and talked with him about a hundred things in which Steve could have had
+      no part, even if he had been close enough to catch more than one word out
+      of twenty. Not once did she even look his way. Quite plainly she had taken
+      pains to forget his existence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was Briscoe's turn the other day,&rdquo; mused the Texan. &ldquo;It's mine now. I
+      wonder when it will be Dick's to get put out in the cold!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, though he tried to act the philosopher, it cut him that the
+      high-spirited girl had condemned him. He felt himself in a false position
+      from which he could not easily extricate himself. The worst of it was that
+      if it came to a showdown he could not expect the simple truth to exonerate
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From where they rode there drifted to him occasionally the sound of the
+      gay voices of the young people. It struck him for the first time that he
+      was getting old. Arlie could not be over eighteen, and Dick perhaps
+      twenty-one. Maybe young people like that thought a fellow of twenty-seven
+      a Methusaleh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a time the thirsty cattle smelt water and hit a bee line so steadily
+      for it that they needed no watching. Every minute or two one of the
+      leaders stretched out its neck and let out a bellow without slackening its
+      pace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve lazed on his pony, shifting his position to ease his cramped limbs
+      after the manner of the range rider. In spite of himself, his eyes would
+      drift toward the jaunty little figure on the pinto. The masculine in him
+      approved mightily her lissom grace and the proud lilt of her dark head,
+      with its sun-kissed face set in profile to him. He thought her serviceable
+      costume very becoming, from the pinched felt hat pinned to the dark mass
+      of hair, and the red silk kerchief knotted loosely round the pretty
+      throat, to the leggings beneath the corduroy skirt and the flannel waist
+      with sleeves rolled up in summer-girl fashion to leave the tanned arms
+      bare to the dimpled elbows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trail, winding through a narrow defile, brought them side by side
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ever notice what a persistent color buckskin is, Steve?&rdquo; inquired France,
+      by way of bringing him into the conversation. &ldquo;It's strong in every one of
+      these cattle, though the old man has been trying to get rid of it for ten
+      years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mustn't talk to me, Dick,&rdquo; responded his friend gravely. &ldquo;Little
+      Willie told a lie, and he's being stood in a corner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie flushed angrily, opened her mouth to speak, and, changing her mind,
+      looked at him witheringly. He didn't wither, however. Instead, he smiled
+      broadly, got out his mouth organ, and cheerfully entertained them with his
+      favorite, &ldquo;I Met My Love In the Alamo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hot blood under dusky skin held its own in her cheeks. She was furious
+      with him, and dared not trust herself to speak. As soon as they had passed
+      through the defile she spurred forward, as if to turn the leaders. France
+      turned to his friend and laughed ruefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She's full of pepper, Steve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger nodded. &ldquo;She's all right, Dick. If you want to know, she's got
+      a right to make a doormat of me. I lied to her. I was up against it, and I
+      kinder had to. You ride along and join her. If you want to get right
+      solid, tell her how many kinds of a skunk I am. Worst of it is, I ain't
+      any too sure I'm not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sure for you then, Steve,&rdquo; the lad called back, as he loped forward
+      after the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was so sure, that he began to praise his friend to Arlie, to tell her
+      of what a competent cowman he was, how none of them could make a cut or
+      rope a wild steer like him. She presently wanted to know whether Dick
+      could not find something more interesting to talk about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He could not help smiling at her downright manner. &ldquo;You've surely got it
+      in for him, Arlie. I thought you liked him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She pulled up her horse, and looked at him. &ldquo;What made you think that? Did
+      he tell you so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick fairly shouted. &ldquo;You do rub it in, girl, when you've got a down on a
+      fellow. No, he didn't tell me. You did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Me?&rdquo; she protested indignantly. &ldquo;I never did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you didn't say so, but I don't need a church to fall on me before I
+      can take a hint. You acted as though you liked him that day you and him
+      came riding into camp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't do any such thing, Dick France. I don't like him at all,&rdquo; very
+      decidedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the boys do&mdash;all but Jed. I don't reckon he does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I have to like him because the boys do?&rdquo; she demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O' course not.&rdquo; Dick stopped, trying to puzzle it out. &ldquo;He says you ain't
+      to blame, that he lied to you. That seems right strange, too. It ain't
+      like Steve to lie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know so much about him? You haven't known him a week.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what Jed says. I say it ain't a question of time. Some men I've
+      knew ten years I ain't half so sure of. He's a man from the ground up. Any
+      one could tell that, before they had seen him five minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Secretly, the girl was greatly pleased. She so wanted to believe that Dick
+      was right. It was what she herself had thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you'd seen him the day he pulled Siegfried out of Lost Creek. Tell
+      you, I thought they were both goners,&rdquo; Dick continued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect it was most ankle-deep,&rdquo; she scoffed. &ldquo;Hello, we're past Bald
+      Knob!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They both came mighty nigh handing in their checks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't know that, though I knew, of course, he was fearless,&rdquo; Arlie
+      said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that?&rdquo; Dick drew in his horse sharply, and looked back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound of a rifle shot echoed from hillside to hillside. Like a streak
+      of light, the girl's pinto flashed past him. He heard her give a sobbing
+      cry of anguish. Then he saw that Steve was slipping very slowly from his
+      saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A second shot rang out. The light was beginning to fail, but he made out a
+      man's figure crouched among the small pines on the shoulder of Bald Knob.
+      Dick jerked out his revolver as he rode back, and fired twice. He was
+      quite out of pistol range, but he wanted the man in ambush to see that
+      help was at hand. He saw Arlie fling herself from her pony in time to
+      support the Texan just as he sank to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She'll take care of Steve. It's me for that murderer,&rdquo; the young man
+      thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Acting upon that impulse, he slid from his horse and slipped into the
+      sagebrush of the hillside. By good fortune he was wearing a gray shirt of
+      a shade which melted into that of the underbrush. Night falls swiftly in
+      the mountains, and already dusk was softly spreading itself over the
+      hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick went up a draw, where young pines huddled together in the trough; and
+      from the upper end of this he emerged upon a steep ridge, eyes and ears
+      alert for the least sign of human presence. A third shot had rung out
+      while he was in the dense mass of foliage of the evergreens, but now
+      silence lay heavy all about him. The gathering darkness blurred detail, so
+      that any one of a dozen bowlders might be a shield for a crouching man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once, nerves at a wire edge from the strain on him, he thought he saw a
+      moving figure. Throwing up his gun, he fired quickly. But he must have
+      been mistaken, for, shortly afterward, he heard some one crashing through
+      dead brush at a distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's on the run, whoever he is. Guess I'll get back to Steve,&rdquo; decided
+      France wisely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found his friend stretched on the ground, with his head in Arlie's lap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it very bad?&rdquo; he asked the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know. There's no light. Whatever shall we do?&rdquo; she moaned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm a right smart of a nuisance, ain't I?&rdquo; drawled the wounded man
+      unexpectedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She leaned forward quickly. &ldquo;Where are you hit?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the shoulder, ma'am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you ride, Steve? Do you reckon you could make out the five miles?&rdquo;
+       Dick asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie answered for him. She had felt the inert weight of his heavy body
+      and knew that he was beyond helping himself. &ldquo;No. Is there no house near?
+      There's Alec Howard's cabin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's at the round-up, but I guess we had better take Steve there&mdash;if
+      we could make out to get him that far.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl took command quietly. &ldquo;Unsaddle Teddy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had unloosened his shirt and was tying her silk kerchief over the
+      wound, from which blood was coming in little jets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can't carry him,&rdquo; she decided. &ldquo;It's too far. We'll have to lift him
+      to the back of the horse, and let him lie there. Steady, Dick. That's
+      right. You must hold him on, while I lead the horse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Heavy as he was, they somehow hoisted him, and started. He had fainted
+      again, and hung limply, with his face buried in the mane of the pony. It
+      seemed an age before the cabin loomed, shadow-like, out of the darkness.
+      They found the door unlocked, as usual, and carried him in to the bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me your knife, Dick,&rdquo; Arlie ordered quietly. &ldquo;And I want water. If
+      that's a towel over there, bring it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just a moment. I'll strike a light, and we'll see where we're at.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. We'll have to work in the dark. A light might bring them down on us.&rdquo;
+       She had been cutting the band of the shirt, and now ripped it so as to
+      expose the wounded shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick took a bucket to the creek, and presently returned with it. In his
+      right hand he carried his revolver. When he reached the cabin he gave an
+      audible sigh of relief and quickly locked the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course you'll have to go for help, Dick. Bring old Doc Lee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Arlie, I can't leave you here alone. What are you talking about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll have to. It's the only thing to do. You'll have to give me your
+      revolver. And, oh, Dick, don't lose a moment on the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was plainly troubled. &ldquo;I just can't leave you here alone, girl. What
+      would your father say if anything happened? I don't reckon anything will,
+      but we can't tell. No, I'll stay here, too. Steve must take his chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll not stay.&rdquo; She flamed round upon him, with the fierce passion of a
+      tigress fighting for her young. &ldquo;You'll go this minute&mdash;this very
+      minute!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But don't you see I oughtn't to leave you? Anybody would tell you that,&rdquo;
+       he pleaded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you call yourself his friend,&rdquo; she cried, in a low, bitter voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I call myself yours, too,&rdquo; he made answer doggedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then go. Go this instant. You'll go, anyway; but if you're my friend,
+      you'll go gladly, and bring help to save us both.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wisht I knew what to do,&rdquo; he groaned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her palms fastened on his shoulders. She was a creature transformed. Such
+      bravery, such feminine ferocity, such a burning passion of the spirit, was
+      altogether outside of his experience of her or any other woman. He could
+      no more resist her than he could fly to the top of Bald Knob.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll go, Arlie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And bring help soon. Get Doc Lee here soon as you can. Leave word for
+      armed men to follow. Don't wait for them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take his Teddy horse. It can cover ground faster than yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With plain misgivings, he left her, and presently she heard the sound of
+      his galloping horse. It seemed to her for a moment as if she must call him
+      back, but she strangled the cry in her throat. She locked the door and
+      bolted it, then turned back to the bed, upon which the wounded man was
+      beginning to moan in his delirium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X &mdash; DOC LEE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Arlie knew nothing of wounds or their treatment. All she could do was to
+      wash the shoulder in cold water and bind it with strips torn from her
+      white underskirt. When his face and hands grew hot with the fever, she
+      bathed them with a wet towel. How badly he was hurt&mdash;whether he might
+      not even die before Dick's return&mdash;she had no way of telling. His
+      inconsequent babble at first frightened her, for she had never before seen
+      a person in delirium, nor heard of the insistence with which one harps
+      upon some fantasy seized upon by a diseased mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She thinks you're a skunk, Steve. So you are. She's dead right&mdash;dead
+      right&mdash;dead right. You lied to her, you coyote! Stand up in the
+      corner, you liar, while she whangs at you with a six-gun! You're a skunk&mdash;dead
+      right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So he would run on in a variation of monotony, the strong, supple,
+      masterful man as helpless as a child, all the splendid virility stricken
+      from him by the pressure of an enemy's finger. The eyes that she had known
+      so full of expression, now like half-scabbarded steel, and now again
+      bubbling from the inner mirth of him, were glazed and unmeaning. The girl
+      had felt in him a capacity for silent self-containment; and here he was,
+      picking at the coverlet with restless fingers, prattling foolishly, like
+      an infant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was a child of impulse, sensitive and plastic. Because she had been
+      hard on him before he was struck down, her spirit ran open-armed to make
+      amends. What manner of man he was she did not know. But what availed that
+      to keep her, a creature of fire and dew, from the clutch of emotions
+      strange and poignant? He had called himself a liar and a coyote, yet she
+      knew it was not true, or at worst, true in some qualified sense. He might
+      be hard, reckless, even wicked in some ways. But, vaguely, she felt that
+      if he were a sinner he sinned with self-respect. He was in no moral
+      collapse, at least. It was impossible to fit him to her conception of a
+      spy. No, no! Anything but that!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So she sat there, her fingers laced about her knee, as she leaned forward
+      to wait upon the needs she could imagine for him, the dumb tragedy of
+      despair in her childish face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The situation was one that made for terror. To be alone with a wounded
+      man, his hurt undressed, to hear his delirium and not to know whether he
+      might not die any minute&mdash;this would have been enough to cause
+      apprehension. Add to it the darkness, her deep interest in him, the
+      struggle of her soul, and the dread of unseen murder stalking in the
+      silent night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though her thought was of him, it was not wholly upon him. She sat where
+      she could watch the window, Dick's revolver in another chair beside her.
+      It was a still, starry night, and faintly she could see the hazy purple,
+      mountain line. Somewhere beneath those uncaring stars was the man who had
+      done this awful thing. Was he far, or was he near? Would he come to make
+      sure he had not failed? Her fearful heart told her that he would come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She must have fought her fears nearly an hour before she heard the
+      faintest of sounds outside. Her hand leaped to the revolver. She sat
+      motionless, listening, with nerves taut. It came again presently, a
+      deadened footfall, close to the door. Then, after an eternity, the latch
+      clicked softly. Some one, with infinite care, was trying to discover
+      whether the door was locked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His next move she anticipated. Her eyes fastened on the window, while she
+      waited breathlessly. Her heart was stammering furiously. Moments passed,
+      in which she had to set her teeth to keep from screaming aloud. The
+      revolver was shaking so that she had to steady the barrel with her left
+      hand. A shadow crossed one pane, the shadow of a head in profile, and
+      pushed itself forward till shoulders, arm, and poised revolver covered the
+      lower sash. Very, very slowly the head itself crept into sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie fired and screamed simultaneously. The thud of a fall, the scuffle
+      of a man gathering himself to his feet again, the rush of retreating
+      steps, all merged themselves in one single impression of fierce, exultant
+      triumph.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her only regret was that she had not killed him. She was not even sure
+      that she had hit him, for her bullet had gone through the glass within an
+      inch of the inner woodwork. Nevertheless, she knew that he had had a shock
+      that would carry him far. Unless he had accomplices with him&mdash;and of
+      that there had been no evidence at the time of the attack from Bald Knob&mdash;he
+      would not venture another attempt. Of one thing she was sure. The face
+      that had looked in at the window was one she had never seen before, In
+      this, too, she found relief&mdash;for she knew now that the face she had
+      expected to see follow the shadow over the pane had been that of Jed
+      Briscoe; and Jed had too much of the courage of Lucifer incarnate in him
+      to give up because an unexpected revolver had been fired in his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Time crept slowly, but it could hardly have been a quarter of an hour
+      later that she heard the galloping of horses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Dick!&rdquo; she cried joyfully, and, running to the door, she unbolted
+      and unlocked it just as France dragged Teddy to a halt and flung himself
+      to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man gave a shout of gladness at sight of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it all right, Arlie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. That is&mdash;I don't know. He is delirious. A man came to the
+      window, and I shot at him. Oh, Dick, I'm so glad you're back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In her great joy, she put her arms round his neck and kissed him. Old
+      Doctor Lee, dismounting more leisurely, drawled his protest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look-a-here, Arlie. I'm the doctor. Where do I come in?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll kiss you, too, when you tell me he'll get well.&rdquo; The half-hysterical
+      laugh died out of her voice, and she caught him fiercely by the arm. &ldquo;Doc,
+      doc, don't let him die,&rdquo; she begged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had known her all her life, had been by the bedside when she came into
+      the world, and he put his arm round her shoulders and gave her a little
+      hug as they passed into the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll do our level best, little girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She lit a lamp, and drew the window curtain, so that none could see from
+      the outside. While the old doctor arranged his instruments and bandages on
+      chairs, she waited on him. He noticed how white she was, for he said, not
+      unkindly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want two patients right now, Arlie. If you're going to keel over
+      in a faint right in the middle of it, I'll have Dick help.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, I won't, doc. Truly, I won't,&rdquo; she promised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, little girl. We'll see how game you are. Dick, hold the light.
+      Hold it right there. See?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan had ceased talking, and was silent, except for a low moan,
+      repeated at regular intervals. The doctor showed Arlie how to administer
+      the anaesthetic after he had washed the wound. While he was searching for
+      the bullet with his probe she flinched as if he had touched a bare nerve,
+      but she stuck to her work regardless of her feelings, until the lead was
+      found and extracted and the wound dressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Afterward, Dick found her seated on a rock outside crying hysterically. He
+      did not attempt to cope with the situation, but returned to the house and
+      told Lee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Best thing for her. Her nerves are overwrought and unstrung. She'll be
+      all right, once she has her cry out. I'll drift around, and jolly her
+      along.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor presently came up and took a seat beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wha&mdash;what do you think, doctor?&rdquo; she sobbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I think it's tarnation hot operating with a big kerosene lamp six
+      inches from your haid,&rdquo; he said, as he mopped his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean&mdash;will he&mdash;get well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lee snorted. &ldquo;Well, I'd be ashamed of him if he didn't. If he lets a nice,
+      clean, flesh wound put him out of business he don't deserve to live. Don't
+      worry any about him, young lady. Say, I wish I had zwei beer right now,
+      Arlie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean it? You're not just saying it to please me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, I mean it,&rdquo; he protested indignantly. &ldquo;I wish I had three.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean, are you sure he'll get well?&rdquo; she explained, a faint smile
+      touching her wan face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I mean that, too, but right now I mean the beer most. Now, honest,
+      haven't I earned a beer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've earned a hundred thousand, doc. You're the kindest and dearest man
+      that ever lived,&rdquo; she cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ain't that rather a large order, my dear?&rdquo; he protested mildly. &ldquo;I
+      couldn't really use a hundred thousand. And I'd hate to be better than Job
+      and Moses and Pharaoh and them Bible characters. Wouldn't I have to give
+      up chewing? Somehow, a halo don't seem to fit my haid. It's most too bald
+      to carry one graceful.... You may do that again if you want to.&rdquo; This
+      last, apropos of the promised reward which had just been paid in full.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie found she could manage a little laugh by this time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if you ain't going to, we might as well go in and have a look at
+      that false-alarm patient of ours,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;We'll have to sit up all
+      night with him. I was sixty-three yesterday. I'm going to quit this doctor
+      game. I'm too old to go racing round the country nights just because you
+      young folks enjoy shooting each other up. Yes, ma'am, I'm going to quit. I
+      serve notice right here. What's the use of having a good ranch and some
+      cattle if you can't enjoy them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the doctor had been serving notice of his intention to quit doctoring
+      for over ten years, Arlie did not take him too seriously. She knew him for
+      what he was&mdash;a whimsical old fellow, who would drop in the saddle
+      before he would let a patient suffer; one of the old school, who loved his
+      work but liked to grumble over it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe you'll be able to take a rest soon. You know that young doctor from
+      Denver, who was talking about settling here&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This, as she knew, was a sore point with him. &ldquo;So you're tired of me, are
+      you? Want a new-fangled appendix cutter from Denver, do you? Time to shove
+      old Doc Lee aside, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't say that, doc,&rdquo; she repented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Huh! You meant it. Wonder how many times he'd get up at midnight and plow
+      through three-foot snow for six miles to see the most ungrateful,
+      squalling little brat&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it me, doc?&rdquo; she ungrammatically demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was you, Miss Impudence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They had reached the door, but she held him there a moment, while she
+      laughed delightedly and hugged him. &ldquo;I knew it was me. As if we'd let our
+      old doc go, or have anything to do with a young ignoramus from Denver!
+      Didn't you know I was joking? Of course you did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He still pretended severity. &ldquo;Oh, I know you. When it comes to wheedling
+      an old fool, you've got the rest of the girls in this valley beat to a
+      fare-you-well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that why you always loved me?&rdquo; she asked, with a sparkle of mischief
+      in her eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't love you. I never did. The idea!&rdquo; he snorted. &ldquo;I don't know what
+      you young giddy pates are coming to. Huh! Love you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll forgive you, even if you did,&rdquo; she told him sweetly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's it! That's it!&rdquo; he barked. &ldquo;You forgive all the young idiots when
+      they do. And they all do&mdash;every last one of them. But I'm too old for
+      you, young lady. Sixty-three yesterday. Huh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like you better than the younger ones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Want us all, do you? Young and old alike. Well, count me out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He broke away, and went into the house. But there was an unconquerably
+      youthful smile dancing in his eyes. This young lady and he had made love
+      to each other in some such fashion ever since she had been a year old. He
+      was a mellow and confirmed old bachelor, but he proposed to continue their
+      innocent coquetry until he was laid away, no matter which of the young
+      bucks of the valley had the good fortune to win her for a wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI &mdash; THE FAT IN THE FIRE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      For two days Fraser remained in the cabin of the stockman Howard, France
+      making it his business to see that the place was never left unguarded for
+      a moment. At the end of that time the fever had greatly abated, and he was
+      doing so well that Doctor Lee decided it would be better to move him to
+      the Dillon ranch for the convenience of all parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was done, and the patient continued steadily to improve. His vigorous
+      constitution, helped by the healthy, clean, outdoor life he had led, stood
+      him in good stead. Day by day he renewed the blood he had lost. Soon he
+      was eating prodigious dinners, and between meals was drinking milk with an
+      egg beaten in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On a sunny forenoon, when he lay in the big window of the living room,
+      reading a magazine, Arlie entered, a newspaper in her hand. Her eyes were
+      strangely bright, even for her, and she had a manner of repressed
+      excitement, Her face was almost colorless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here's some more in the Avalanche about our adventure near Gimlet Butte,&rdquo;
+       she told him, waving the paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing like keeping in the public eye,&rdquo; said Steve, grinning. &ldquo;I don't
+      reckon our little picnic at Bald Knob is likely to get in the Avalanche,
+      though. It probably hasn't any correspondent at Lost Valley. Anyhow, I'm
+      hoping not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Fraser, there is something in this paper I want you to explain. But
+      tell me first when it was you shot this man Faulkner. I mean at just what
+      time in the fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I reckon it must have been just before I ducked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's funny, too.&rdquo; She fixed her direct, fearless gaze on him. &ldquo;The
+      evidence at the coroner's jury shows that it was in the early part of the
+      fight he was shot, before father and I left you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that couldn't have been, Miss Arlie, because&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; she prompted, smiling at him in a peculiar manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He flushed, and could only say that the newspapers were always getting
+      things wrong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is the evidence at the coroner's inquest,&rdquo; she said, falling
+      grave again on the instant. &ldquo;I understand one thing now, very clearly, and
+      that is that Faulkner was killed early in the fight, and the other man was
+      wounded in the ankle near the finish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He shook his head obstinately. &ldquo;No, I reckon not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet it is true. What's more, you knew it all the time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You ce'tainly jump to conclusions, Miss Arlie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you let them arrest you, without telling them the truth! And they
+      came near lynching you! And there's a warrant out now for your arrest for
+      the murder of Faulkner, while all the time I killed him, and you knew it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He gathered together his lame defense. &ldquo;You run ahaid too fast for me,
+      ma'am. Supposing he was hit while we were all there together, how was I to
+      know who did it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You knew it couldn't have been you, for he wasn't struck with a revolver.
+      It couldn't have been dad, since he had his shotgun loaded with buckshot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What difference did it make?&rdquo; he wanted to know impatiently. &ldquo;Say I'd
+      have explained till kingdom come that I borrowed the rifle from a friend
+      five minutes after Faulkner was hit&mdash;would anybody have believed me?
+      Would it have made a bit of difference?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her shining eyes were more eloquent than a thousand tongues. &ldquo;I don't say
+      it would, but there was always the chance. You didn't take it. You would
+      have let them hang you, without speaking the word that brought me into it.
+      Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm awful obstinate when I get my back up,&rdquo; he smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That wasn't it. You did it to save a girl you had never seen but once. I
+      want to know why.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. Have it your own way. But don't ask me to explain the whyfors.
+      I'm no Harvard professor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know,&rdquo; she said softly. She was not looking at him, but out of the
+      window, and there were tears in her voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sho! Don't make too much of it. We'll let it go that I ain't all coyote,
+      after all. But that don't entitle me to any reward of merit. Now, don't
+      you cry, Miss Arlie. Don't you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She choked back the tears, and spoke in deep self-scorn. &ldquo;No! You don't
+      deserve anything except what you've been getting from me&mdash;suspicion
+      and distrust and hard words! You haven't done anything worth speaking of&mdash;just
+      broke into a quarrel that wasn't yours, at the risk of your life; then
+      took it on your shoulders to let us escape; and, afterward, when you were
+      captured, refused to drag me in, because I happen to be a girl! But it's
+      not worth mentioning that you did all this for strangers, and that later
+      you did not tell even me, because you knew it would trouble me that I had
+      killed him, though in self-defense. And to think that all the time I've
+      been full of hateful suspicions about you! Oh, you don't know how I
+      despise myself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She let her head fall upon her arm on the table, and sobbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser, greatly disturbed, patted gently the heavy coil of blue-black
+      hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, don't you, Arlie; don't you. I ain't worth it. Honest, I ain't. I
+      did what it was up to me to do. Not a thing more. Dick would have done it.
+      Any of the boys would. Now, let's look at what you've done for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      From under the arm a muffled voice insisted she had done nothing but
+      suspect him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold on, girl. Play fair. First off you ride sixty miles to help me when
+      I'm hunted right hard. You bring me to your home in this valley where
+      strangers ain't over and above welcome just now. You learn I'm an officer
+      and still you look out for me and fight for me, till you make friends for
+      me. It's through you I get started right with the boys. On your say-so
+      they give me the glad hand. You learn I've lied to you, and two or three
+      hours later you save my life. You sit there steady, with my haid in your
+      lap, while some one is plugging away at us. You get me to a house, take
+      care of my wounds, and hold the fort alone in the night till help comes.
+      Not only that, but you drive my enemy away. Later, you bring me home, and
+      nurse me like I was a long-lost brother. What I did for you ain't in the
+      same class with what you've done for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I was suspicious of you all the time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you had a right to be. That ain't the point, which is that a girl did
+      all that for a man she thought might be an enemy and a low-down spy. Men
+      are expected to take chances like I did, but girls ain't. You took 'em. If
+      I lived a thousand years, I couldn't tell you all the thanks I feel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! It makes it worse that you're that kind of a man. But I'm going to
+      show you whether I trust you.&rdquo; Her eyes were filled with the glad light of
+      her resolve. She spoke with a sort of proud humility. &ldquo;Do you know, there
+      was a time when I thought you might have&mdash;I didn't really believe it,
+      but I thought it just possible&mdash;that you might have come here to get
+      evidence against the Squaw Creek raiders? You'll despise me, but it's the
+      truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His face lost color. &ldquo;And now?&rdquo; he asked quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now? I would as soon suspect my father&mdash;or myself! I'll show you
+      what I think. The men in it were Jed Briscoe and Yorky and Dick France.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop,&rdquo; he cried hoarsely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it your wound?&rdquo; she said quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. That's all right. But you musn't tell&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm telling, to show whether I trust you. Jed and Yorky and Dick and Slim&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stopped to listen. Her father's voice was calling her. She rose from
+      her seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a moment. There's something I've got to tell you,&rdquo; the Texan
+      groaned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll be back in a moment. Dad wants to see me about some letters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with that she was gone. Whatever the business was, it detained her
+      longer than she expected. The minutes slipped away, and still she did not
+      return. A step sounded in the hall, a door opened, and Jed Briscoe stood
+      before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're here, are you?&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan measured looks with him. &ldquo;Yes, I'm here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grand-standing still, I reckon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you could only learn to mind your own affairs,&rdquo; the Texan suggested
+      evenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll wish I could before I'm through with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Am I to thank you for that little courtesy from Bald Knob the other
+      evening?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not directly. At three hundred yards, I could have shot a heap straighter
+      than that. The fool must have been drunk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll have to excuse him. It was beginning to get dark. His intentions
+      were good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a quick light step behind him, and Arlie came into the room. She
+      glanced quickly from one to the other, and there was apprehension in her
+      look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've come to see Lieutenant Fraser on business,&rdquo; Briscoe explained, with
+      an air patently triumphant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie made no offer to leave the room. &ldquo;He's hardly up to business yet, is
+      he?&rdquo; she asked, as carelessly as she could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we'll give it another name. I'm making a neighborly call to ask how
+      he is, and to return some things he lost.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed's hand went into his pocket and drew forth leisurely a photograph.
+      This he handed to Arlie right side up, smiling the while, with a kind of
+      masked deviltry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Found it in Alec Howard's cabin. Seems your coat was hanging over the
+      back of a chair, lieutenant, and this and a paper fell out. One of the
+      boys must have kicked it to one side, and it was overlooked. Later, I ran
+      across it. So I'm bringing it back to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of herself Arlie's eyes fell to the photograph. It was a snapshot
+      of the ranger and a very attractive young woman. They were smiling into
+      each other's eyes with a manner of perfect and friendly understanding. To
+      see it gave Arlie a pang. Flushing at her mistake, she turned the card
+      over and handed it to the owner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sorry. I looked without thinking,&rdquo; she said in a low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser nodded his acceptance of her apology, but his words and his eyes
+      were for his enemy. &ldquo;You mentioned something else you had found, seems to
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Behind drooping eyelids Jed was malevolently feline. &ldquo;Seems to me I did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      From his pocket came slowly a folded paper. He opened and looked it over
+      at leisure before his mocking eyes lifted again to the wounded man. &ldquo;This
+      belongs to you, too, but I know you'll excuse me if I keep it to show to
+      the boys before returning it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you've read it,&rdquo; Arlie broke in scornfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He grinned at her, and nodded. &ldquo;Yes, I've read it, my dear. I had to read
+      it, to find out whose it was. Taken by and large, it's a right interesting
+      document, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled at the ranger maliciously, yet with a certain catlike pleasure
+      in tormenting his victim. Arlie began to feel a tightening of her throat,
+      a sinking of the heart. But Fraser looked at the man with a quiet,
+      scornful steadfastness. He knew what was coming, and had decided upon his
+      course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seems to be a kind of map, lieutenant. Here's Gimlet Butte and the Half
+      Way House and Sweetwater Dam and the blasted pine. Looks like it might be
+      a map from the Butte to this part of the country. Eh, Mr. Fraser from
+      Texas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if it is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I should have to ask you how you come by it, seeing as the map is
+      drawn on Sheriff Brandt's official stationery,&rdquo; Jed rasped swiftly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I got it from Sheriff Brandt, Mr. Briscoe, since you want to know. You're
+      not entitled to the information, but I'll make you a gift of it. He gave
+      it to me to guide me here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Briscoe was taken aback. He had expected evasion, denial, anything
+      but a bold acceptance of his challenge. His foe watched the wariness
+      settle upon him by the narrowing of his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So the sheriff knew you were coming?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought you broke jail. That was the story I had dished up to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did, with the help of the sheriff.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, with the help of the sheriff? Come to think of it, that sounds right
+      funny&mdash;a sheriff helping his prisoner to escape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet it is true, as it happens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't doubt it, lieutenant. Fact is, I had some such notion all the
+      time. Now, I wonder why-for he took so friendly an interest in you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had a letter of introduction to him from a friend in Texas. When he
+      knew who I was, he decided he couldn't afford to have me lynched without
+      trying to save me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see. And the map?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This was the only part of the country in which I would be safe from
+      capture. He knew I had a claim on some of the Cedar Mountain people,
+      because it was to help them I had got into trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I can see that.&rdquo; Arlie nodded quickly. &ldquo;Of course, that is just what
+      the sheriff would think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Folks can always see what they want to, Arlie,&rdquo; Jed commented. &ldquo;Now, I
+      can't see all that, by a lot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It isn't necessary you should, Mr. Briscoe,&rdquo; Fraser retorted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or else I see a good deal more, lieutenant,&rdquo; Jed returned, with his
+      smooth smile. &ldquo;Mebbe the sheriff helped you on your way because you're
+      such a good detective. He's got ambitions, Brandt has. So has Hilliard,
+      the prosecuting attorney. Happen to see him, by the way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed nodded. &ldquo;I figured you had. Yes, it would be Hilliard worked the
+      scheme out, I expect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're a good deal of a detective yourself, Mr. Briscoe,&rdquo; the Texan
+      laughed hardily. &ldquo;Perhaps I could get you a job in the rangers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There may be a vacancy there soon,&rdquo; Jed agreed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the use of talking that way, Jed? Are you threatening Mr. Fraser?
+      If anything happens to him, I'll remember this,&rdquo; Arlie told him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I mentioned any threats, Arlie? It is well known that Lieutenant
+      Fraser has enemies here. It don't take a prophet to tell that, after what
+      happened the other night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Any more than it takes a prophet to tell that you are one of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I play my own hand. I don't lie down before him, or any other man. He'd
+      better not get in my way, unless he's sure he's a better man than I am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he isn't in your way,&rdquo; Arlie insisted. &ldquo;He has told a plain story. I
+      believe every word of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I notice he didn't tell any of his plain story until we proved it on him.
+      He comes through with his story after he's caught with the goods. Don't
+      you know that every criminal that is caught has a smooth explanation?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven't any doubt Mr. Briscoe will have one when his turn comes,&rdquo; the
+      ranger remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed wheeled on him. His eyes glittered menace. &ldquo;You've said one word too
+      much. I'll give you forty-eight hours to get out of this valley.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How dare you, Jed&mdash;and in my house!&rdquo; Arlie cried. &ldquo;I won't have it.
+      I won't have blood shed between you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's up to him,&rdquo; answered the cattleman, his jaw set like a vise.
+      &ldquo;Persuade him to git out, and there'll be no blood shed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have no right to ask it of him. You ought not&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; She
+      stopped, aware of the futility of urging a moral consideration upon the
+      man, and fell back upon the practical. &ldquo;He couldn't travel that soon, even
+      if he wanted to. He's not strong enough. You know that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. We'll call it a week. If he's still here a week from to-day,
+      there will be trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, he turned on his heel and left the room. They heard his spurs
+      trailing across the porch and jingling down the steps, after which they
+      caught a momentary vision of him, dark and sinister, as his horse flashed
+      past the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger smiled, but rather seriously. &ldquo;The fat's in the fire now, sure
+      enough, ma'am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned anxiously upon him. &ldquo;Why did you tell him all that? Why did you
+      let him go away, believing you were here as a spy to trap him and his
+      friends?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I let him have the truth. Anyhow, I couldn't have made good with a
+      denial. He had the evidence. I can't keep him from believing what he wants
+      to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He'll tell all his friends. He'll exaggerate the facts and stir up
+      sentiment against you. He'll say you came here as a detective, to get
+      evidence against the Squaw Creek raiders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then he'll tell the truth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took it in slowly, with a gathering horror. &ldquo;The truth!&rdquo; she repeated,
+      almost under her breath. &ldquo;You don't mean&mdash;&mdash;You can't mean&mdash;&mdash;Are
+      you here as a spy upon my friends?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't know they were your friends when I took the job. If you'll
+      listen, I'll explain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Words burst from her in gathering bitterness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is there to explain, sir? The facts cry to heaven. I brought you
+      into this valley, gave you the freedom of our home against my father's
+      first instinct. I introduced you to my friends, and no doubt they told you
+      much you wanted to know. They are simple, honest folks, who don't know a
+      spy when they see one. And I&mdash;fool that I am&mdash;I vouched for you.
+      More, I stood between you and the fate you deserved. And, lastly, in my
+      blind conceit, I have told you the names of the men in the Squaw Creek
+      trouble. If I had only known&mdash;and I had all the evidence, but I was
+      so blind I would not see you were a snake in the grass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He put out a hand to stop her, and she drew back as if his touch were
+      pollution. From the other side of the room, she looked across at him in
+      bitter scorn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall make arrangements to have you taken out of the valley at once,
+      sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't take the trouble, Miss Arlie. I'm not going out of the
+      valley. If you'll have me taken to Alec Howard's shack, which is where you
+      brought me from, I'll be under obligations to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whatever you are, I'm not going to have your blood on my hands. You've
+      got to leave the valley.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have to thank you for all your kindness to me. If you'd extend it a
+      trifle further and listen to what I've got to say, I'd be grateful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't care to hear your excuses. Go quickly, sir, before you meet the
+      end you deserve, and give up the poor men I have betrayed to you.&rdquo; She
+      spoke in a choked voice, as if she could scarce breathe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you'd only listen before you&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've listened to you too long. I was so sure I knew more than my father,
+      than my friends. I'll listen no more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan gave it up. &ldquo;All right, ma'am. Just as you say. If you'll order
+      some kind of a rig for me, I'll not trouble you longer. I'm sorry that
+      it's got to be this way. Maybe some time you'll see it different.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never,&rdquo; she flashed passionately, and fled from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not see her again before he left. Bobbie came to get him in a light
+      road trap they had. The boy looked at him askance, as if he knew something
+      was wrong. Presently they turned a corner and left the ranch shut from
+      sight in a fold of the hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first division of the road Fraser came to a difference of opinion
+      with Bobbie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arlie said you was going to leave the valley. She told me I was to take
+      you to Speed's place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She misunderstood. I am going to Alec Howard's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that ain't what she told me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve took the reins from him, and turned into the trail that led to
+      Howard's place. &ldquo;You can explain to her, Bobbie, that you couldn't make me
+      see it that way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later, he descended upon Howard&mdash;a big, rawboned ranchman,
+      who had succumbed quickly to a deep friendship for this &ldquo;Admirable
+      Crichton&rdquo; of the plains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, Steve! Glad to death to see you. Hope you've come to stay, you old
+      pie eater,&rdquo; he cried joyously, at sight of the Texan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser got down. &ldquo;Wait here a moment, Bobbie. I want to have a talk with
+      Alec. I may go on with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They went into the cabin, and Fraser sat down. He was still far from
+      strong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's up, Steve?&rdquo; the rancher asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You asked me to stay, Alec. Before I say whether I will or not, I've got
+      a story to tell you. After I've told it, you can ask me again if you want
+      me to stop with you. If you don't ask me, I'll ride off with the boy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. Fire ahead, old hoss. I'll ask you fast enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan told his story from the beginning. Only one thing he omitted&mdash;that
+      Arlie had told him the name of the Squaw Creek raiders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are the facts, Alec. You've got them from beginning to end. It's up
+      to you. Do you want me here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Before I answer that, I'll have to put a question myse'f, Steve. Why do
+      you want to stay? Why not leave the valley while you're still able to?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because Jed Briscoe put it up to me that I'd got to leave within a week.
+      I'll go when I'm good and ready.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alec nodded his appreciation of the point. &ldquo;Sure. You don't want to sneak
+      out, with yore tail betwixt yore laigs. That brings up another question,
+      Steve. What about the Squaw Creek sheep raiders? Just for argument, we'll
+      put it that some of them are my friends. You understand&mdash;just for
+      argument. Are you still aiming to run them down?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser met his frank question frankly. &ldquo;No, Alec, I've had to give up that
+      notion long since&mdash;soon as I began to guess they were friends of Miss
+      Arlie. I'm going back to tell Hilliard so. But I ain't going to be run out
+      by Briscoe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good enough. Put her there, son. This shack's yore home till hell freezes
+      over, Steve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You haven't any doubts about me, Alec. If you have, better say so now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doubts? I reckon not. Don't I know a man when I see one? I'm plumb
+      surprised at Arlie.&rdquo; He strode to the door, and called to Bobbie: &ldquo;Roll
+      along home, son. Yore passenger is going to stay a spell with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, I understand what this means, Alec. Jed and his crowd aren't
+      going to be any too well pleased when they learn you have taken me in.
+      They may make you trouble,&rdquo; the ranger said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The big cow man laughed. &ldquo;Oh, cut it out, Steve. Jed don't have to O. K.
+      my guest list. Not on yore life. I'm about ready for a ruction with that
+      young man, anyway. He's too blamed bossy. I ain't wearing his brand. Fact
+      is, I been having notions this valley has been suffering from too much
+      Briscoe. Others are sharing that opinion with me. Ask Dick France. Ask
+      Arlie, for that matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm afraid I'm off that young lady's list of friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sho! She'll come round. She's some hot-haided. It always was her way to
+      get mad first, and find out why afterward. But don't make any mistake
+      about her, Steve. She's the salt of the earth, Arlie Dillon is. She
+      figured it out you wasn't playing it quite on the square with her. Onct
+      she's milled it around a spell, she'll see things different. I've knowed
+      her since she was knee-high, and I tell you she's a game little
+      thoroughbred.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan looked at him a moment, then stared out of the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We won't quarrel about that any, Alec. I'll indorse those sentiments, and
+      then some, even if she did call me a snake in the grass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII &mdash; THE DANCE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The day after Fraser changed his quarters, Dick France rode up to the
+      Howard ranch. Without alighting, he nodded casually to Alec, and then to
+      his guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, Steve! How's the shoulder?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fine and dandy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You moved, I see.&rdquo; The puncher grinned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you see it for yourself, I'll not attempt to deny it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Being stood in the corner some more, looks like! Little Willie been
+      telling some more lies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in, Dick, and I'll put you wise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve went over the story again. When he mentioned the Squaw Creek raid,
+      he observed that his two friends looked quickly at each other and then
+      away. He saw, however, that Dick took his pledge in regard to the raiders
+      at face value, without the least question of doubt. He made only one
+      comment on the situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Jed has served notice that he's going after you, Steve, he'll
+      ce'tainly back the play. What's more, he won't be any too particular how
+      he gets you, just so he gets you. He may come a-shooting in the open.
+      Then, again, he may not. All according to how the notion strikes him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's about it,&rdquo; agreed Howard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;While it's fresh on my mind, I'll unload some more comfort. You've got an
+      enemy in this valley you don't know about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The one that shot me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't been told that. I was to say, 'One enemy more than he knows of.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who told you to say it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was to forget to tell you that, Steve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I must have a friend more than I know of, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't so sure about that. You might call her a hostile friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a lady, then. I can guess who.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Honest, I didn't mean to tell you, Steve. It slipped out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won't hold it against you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She sent for me last night, and this morning I dropped round. Now, what
+      do you reckon she wanted with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give it up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm to take a day off and ride around among the boys, so as to see them
+      before Jed does. I'm to load 'em up with misrepresentations about how you
+      and the sheriff happen to be working in cahoots. I gathered that the lady
+      is through with you, but she don't want your scalp collected by the boys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm learning to be thankful for small favors,&rdquo; Fraser said dryly. &ldquo;She
+      figures me up a skunk, but hates to have me massacreed in her back yard.
+      Ain't that about it, Dick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Somewheres betwixt and between,&rdquo; France nodded. &ldquo;Say, you lads going to
+      the dance at Millikan's?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Didn't know there was one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure. Big doings. Monday night. Always have a dance after the spring
+      round-up. Jed and his friends will be there&mdash;that ought to fetch
+      you!&rdquo; Dick grinned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven't noticed any pressing invitation to my address yet,&rdquo; said Steve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm extending it right now. Millikan told me to pass the word among the
+      boys. Everybody and his neighbor invited.&rdquo; Dick lit a cigar, and gathered
+      up his reins. &ldquo;So-long, boys. I got to be going.&rdquo; Over his shoulder he
+      fired another joyous shot as he cantered away. &ldquo;I reckon that hostile
+      friend will be there, too, Steve, if that's any inducement.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether it was an inducement is not a matter of record, but certain it is
+      that the Texan found it easy to decide to go. Everybody in the valley
+      would be there, and absence on his part would be construed as weakness,
+      even as a confession of guilt. He had often observed that a man's friends
+      are strong for him only when he is strong for himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Howard and his guest drove to Millikan's Draw, for the wound of the latter
+      was still too new to stand so long a horseback ride. They arrived late,
+      and the dance was already in full swing. As they stabled and fed the team,
+      they could hear the high notes of the fiddles and the singsong chant of
+      the caller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alemane left. Right han' t'yer pardner, an' gran' right and left.
+      Ev-v-rybody swing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranch house was a large one, the most pretentious in the valley. A
+      large hall opened into a living room and a dining room, by means of large
+      double doors, which had been drawn back, so as to make one room of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they pushed their way through the crowd of rough young fellows who
+      clustered round the door, as if afraid their escape might be cut off,
+      Fraser observed that the floor was already crowded with dancers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The quadrille came to an end as he arrived, and, after they had seated
+      their partners, red-faced perspiring young punchers swelled the knot
+      around the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alec stayed to chaff with them, while the Texan sauntered across the floor
+      and took a seat on one of the benches which lined the walls. As he did so,
+      a man and his partner, so busy in talk with each other that they had not
+      observed who he was, sat down beside him in such position that the young
+      woman was next him. Without having looked directly at either of them,
+      Fraser knew that the girl was Arlie Dillon, and her escort Jed Briscoe.
+      She had her back half turned toward him, so that, even after she was
+      seated she did not recognize her neighbor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve smiled pleasantly, and became absorbed in a rather noisy bout of
+      repartee going on between one swain and his lass, not so absorbed,
+      however, as not to notice that he and his unconscious neighbors were
+      becoming a covert focus of attention. He had already noticed a shade of
+      self-consciousness in the greeting of those whom he met, a hint of a
+      suggestion that he was on trial. Among some this feeling was evidently
+      more pronounced. He met more than one pair of eyes that gave back to his
+      genial nod cold hostility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At such an affair as this, Jed Briscoe was always at his best. He was one
+      of the few men in the valley who knew how to waltz well, and music and
+      rhythm always brought out in him a gay charm women liked. His lithe grace,
+      his assurance, his ease of manner and speech, always differentiated him
+      from the other ranchmen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No wonder rumor had coupled his name with that of Arlie as her future
+      husband. He knew how to make light love by implication, to skate around
+      the subject skilfully and boldly with innuendo and suggestion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie knew him for what he was&mdash;a man passionate and revengeful, the
+      leader of that side of the valley's life which she deplored. She did not
+      trust him. Nevertheless, she felt his fascination. He made that appeal to
+      her which a graceless young villain often does to a good woman who lets
+      herself become interested in trying to understand the sinner and his sins.
+      There was another reason why just now she showed him special favor. She
+      wanted to blunt the edge of his anger against the Texan ranger, though her
+      reason for this she did not admit even to herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had&mdash;oh, she was quite sure of this&mdash;no longer any interest
+      in Fraser except the impersonal desire to save his life. Having thought it
+      all over, she was convinced that her friends had nothing to fear from him
+      as a spy. That was what he had tried to tell her when she would not
+      listen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deep in her heart she knew why she had not listened. It had to do with
+      that picture of a pretty girl smiling up happily into his eyes&mdash;a
+      thing she had not forgotten for one waking moment since. Like a knife the
+      certainty had stabbed her heart that they were lovers. Her experience had
+      been limited. Kodaks had not yet reached Lost Valley as common
+      possessions. In the mountains no girl had her photograph taken beside a
+      man unless they had a special interest in each other. And the manner of
+      these two had implied the possession of a secret not known to the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Arlie froze her heart toward the Texan, all the more because he had
+      touched her girlish imagination to sweet hidden dreams of which her
+      innocence had been unnecessarily ashamed. He had spoken no love to her,
+      nor had he implied it exactly. There had been times she had thought
+      something more than friendship lay under his warm smile. But now she
+      scourged herself for her folly, believed she had been unmaidenly, and set
+      her heart to be like flint against him. She had been ready to give him
+      what he had not wanted. Before she would let him guess it she would rather
+      die, a thousand times rather, she told herself passionately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She presently became aware that attention was being directed toward her
+      and Jed and somebody who sat on the other side of her. Without looking
+      round, she mentioned the fact in a low voice to her partner of the dance
+      just finished. Jed looked up, and for the first time observed the man
+      behind her. Instantly the gayety was sponged from his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is it?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That man from Texas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie felt the blood sting her cheeks. The musicians were just starting a
+      waltz. She leaned slightly toward Jed, and said, in a low voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you ask me to dance this with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had not, but he did now. He got to his feet, with shining eyes, and
+      whirled her off. The girl did not look toward the Texan. Nevertheless, as
+      they circled the room, she was constantly aware of him. Sitting there,
+      with a smile on his strong face, apparently unperturbed, he gave no hint
+      of the stern fact that he was circled by enemies, any one of whom might
+      carry his death in a hip pocket. His gaze was serene, unabashed, even
+      amused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young woman was irritably suspicious that he found her anger amusing,
+      just as he seemed to find the dangerous position in which he was placed.
+      Yet her resentment coexisted with a sympathy for him that would not down.
+      She believed he was marked for death by a coterie of those present, chief
+      of whom was the man smiling down into her face from half-shut, smouldering
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her heart was a flame of protest against their decree, all the more so
+      because she held herself partly responsible for it. In a panic of
+      repentance, she had told Dick of her confession to the ranger of the names
+      of the Squaw Creek raiders, and France had warned his confederates. He had
+      done this, not because he distrusted Fraser, but because he felt it was
+      their due to get a chance to escape if they wanted to do so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Always a creature of impulse, Arlie had repented her repentance when too
+      late. Now she would have fought to save the Texan, but the horror of it
+      was that she could not guess how the blow would fall. She tried to believe
+      he was safe, at least until the week was up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Dick strolled across the floor, sat down beside Steve, and began
+      casually to chat with him, she could have thanked the boy with tears. It
+      was equivalent to a public declaration of his intentions. At least, the
+      ranger was not friendless. One of the raiders was going to stand by him.
+      Besides Dick, he might count on Howard; perhaps on others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed was in high good humor. All along the line he seemed to be winning.
+      Arlie had discarded this intruder from Texas and was showing herself very
+      friendly to the cattleman. The suspicion of Fraser which he had
+      disseminated was bearing fruit; and so, more potently, was the word the
+      girl had dropped incautiously. He had only to wait in order to see his
+      rival wiped out. So that, when Arlie put in her little plea, he felt it
+      would not cost him anything to affect a large generosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him go, Jed. He is discredited. Folks are all on their guard before
+      him now. He can't do any harm here. Dick says he is only waiting out his
+      week because of your threat. Don't make trouble. Let him sneak back home,
+      like a whipped cur,&rdquo; she begged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want any trouble with him, girl. All I ask is that he leave the
+      valley. Let Dick arrange that, and I'll give him a chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She thanked him, with a look that said more than words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was two hours later, when she was waltzing with Jed again, that Arlie
+      caught sight of a face that disturbed her greatly. It was a countenance
+      disfigured by a ragged scar, running from the bridge of the nose. She had
+      last seen it gazing into the window of Alec Howard's cabin on a certain
+      never-to-be-forgotten night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is that man&mdash;the one leaning against the door jamb, just behind
+      Slim Leroy?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a fellow that calls himself Johnson. His real name is Struve,&rdquo; Jed
+      answered carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's the man that shot the Texas lieutenant,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare say. He's got a good reason for shooting him. The man broke out of
+      the Arizona penitentiary, and Fraser came north to rearrest him. At least,
+      that's my guess. He wouldn't have been here to-night if he hadn't figured
+      Fraser too sick to come. Watch him duck when he learns the ranger's here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first opportunity Arlie signaled to Dick that she wanted to see
+      him. Fraser, she observed, was no longer in the dancing rooms. Dick took
+      her out from the hot room to the porch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let's walk a little, Dick. I want to tell you something.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They sauntered toward the fine grove of pines that ran up the hillside
+      back of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you notice that man with the scar, Dick?&rdquo; she presently asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I ain't seen him before. Must be one of the Rabbit Run guys, I take
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've seen him. He's the man that shot your friend. He was the man I shot
+      at when he looked in the window.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure, Arlie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dead sure, Dick. He's an escaped convict, and he has a grudge at your
+      friend. He is afraid of him, too. Look out for Lieutenant Fraser to-night.
+      Don't let him wander around outside. If he does, there may be murder
+      done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even as she spoke, there came a sound from the wooded hillside&mdash;the
+      sound of a stifled cry, followed by an imprecation and the heavy shuffling
+      of feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, Dick!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For an instant he listened. Then: &ldquo;There's trouble in the grove, and I'm
+      not armed,&rdquo; he cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind! Go&mdash;go!&rdquo; she shrieked, pushing him forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For herself, she turned, and ran like a deer for the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Siegfried was sitting on the porch, whittling a stick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They&mdash;they're killing Steve&mdash;in the grove,&rdquo; she panted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without a word he rolled off, like a buffalo cow, toward the scene of
+      action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie pushed into the house and called for Jed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII &mdash; THE WOLF HOWLS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As Steve strolled out into the moonlight, he left behind him the
+      monotonous thumping of heavy feet and the singsong voice of the caller.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+         &ldquo;Birdie fly out,
+          Crow hop in,
+          Join all hands
+         And circle ag'in.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      came to him, in the high, strident voice of Lute Perkins. He took a deep
+      breath of fresh, clean air, and looked about him. After the hot, dusty
+      room, the grove, with its green foliage, through which the moonlight
+      filtered, looked invitingly cool. He sauntered forward, climbed the hill
+      up which the wooded patch straggled, and sat down, with his back to a
+      pine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Behind the valley rampart, he could see the dim, saw-toothed Teton peaks,
+      looking like ghostly shapes in the moonlight. The night was peaceful.
+      Faint and mellow came the sound of jovial romping from the house;
+      otherwise, beneath the distant stars, a perfect stillness held.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How long he sat there, letting thoughts happen dreamily rather than
+      producing them of gray matter, he did not know. A slight sound, the
+      snapping of a twig, brought his mind to alertness without causing the
+      slightest movement of his body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His first thought was that, in accordance with dance etiquette in the
+      ranch country, his revolver was in its holster under the seat of the trap
+      in which they had driven over. Since his week was not up, he had expected
+      no attack from Jed and his friends. As for the enemy, of whom Arlie had
+      advised him, surely a public dance was the last place to tempt one who
+      apparently preferred to attack from cover. But his instinct was certain.
+      He did not need to look round to know he was trapped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm unarmed. You'd better come round and shoot me from in front. It will
+      look better at the inquest,&rdquo; he said quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't move. You're surrounded,&rdquo; a voice answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A rope snaked forward and descended over the ranger's head, to be jerked
+      tight, with a suddenness that sent a pain like a knife thrust through the
+      wounded shoulder. The instinct for self-preservation was already at work
+      in him. He fought his left arm free from the rope that pressed it to his
+      side, and dived toward the figure at the end of the rope. Even as he
+      plunged, he found time to be surprised that no revolver shot echoed
+      through the night, and to know that the reason was because his enemies
+      preferred to do their work in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man upon whom he leaped gave a startled oath and stumbled backward
+      over a root.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser, his hand already upon the man's throat, went down too. Upon him
+      charged men from all directions. In the shadows, they must have hampered
+      each other, for the ranger, despite his wound&mdash;his shoulder was
+      screaming with pain&mdash;got to his knees, and slowly from his knees to
+      his feet, shaking the clinging bodies from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wrenching his other hand from under the rope, he fought them back as a
+      hurt grizzly does the wolf pack gathered for the kill. None but a very
+      powerful man could ever have reached his feet. None less agile and sinewy
+      than a panther could have beaten them back as at first he did. They fought
+      in grim silence, yet the grove was full of the sounds of battle. The heavy
+      breathing, the beat of shifting feet, the soft impact of flesh striking
+      flesh, the thud of falling bodies&mdash;of these the air was vocal. Yet,
+      save for the gasps of sudden pain, no man broke silence save once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The snake'll get away yet!&rdquo; a hoarse voice cried, not loudly, but with an
+      emphasis that indicated strong conviction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Impossible as it seemed, the ranger might have done it but for an
+      accident. In the struggle, the rope had slipped to a point just below his
+      knees. Fighting his way down the hill, foot by foot, the Texan felt the
+      rope tighten. One of his attackers flung himself against his chest and he
+      was tripped. The pack was on him again. Here there was more light, and
+      though for a time the mass swayed back and forth, at last they hammered
+      him down by main strength. He was bound hand and foot, and dragged back to
+      the grove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They faced their victim, panting deeply from their exertions. Fraser
+      looked round upon the circle of distorted faces, and stopped at one. Seen
+      now, with the fury and malignancy of its triumph painted upon it, the face
+      was one to bring bad dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lieutenant, his chest still laboring heavily, racked with the torture
+      of his torn shoulder, looked into that face out of the only calm eyes in
+      the group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it's you, Struve?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it's me&mdash;me and my friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've been looking for you high and low.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you've found me,&rdquo; came the immediate exultant answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon I'm indebted to you for this.&rdquo; Fraser moved his shoulder
+      slightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll owe me a heap more than that before the night's over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your intentions were good then, I expect. Being shy a trigger finger
+      spoils a man's aim.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not always.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Didn't like to risk another shot from Bald Knob, eh? Must be some
+      discouraging to hit only once out of three times at three hundred yards,
+      and a scratch at that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The convict swore. &ldquo;I'll not miss this time, Mr. Lieutenant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'd better not, or I'll take you back to the penitentiary where I put
+      you before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll never put another man there, you meddling spy,&rdquo; Struve cried
+      furiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm not so sure of that. I know what you've got against me, but I should
+      like to know what kick your friends have coming,&rdquo; the ranger retorted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may have mine, right off the reel, Mr. Fraser, or whatever you call
+      yourself. You came into this valley with a lie on your lips. We played you
+      for a friend, and you played us for suckers. All the time you was in a
+      deal with the sheriff for you know what. I hate a spy like I do a
+      rattlesnake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the man Yorky that spoke. Steve's eyes met his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I'm a spy, am I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anyhow, you're going to shoot me first, and find out afterward?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wrong guess. We're going to hang you.&rdquo; Struve, unable to keep back longer
+      his bitter spleen, hissed this at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that's about your size, Struve. You can crow loud now, when the odds
+      are six to one, with the one unarmed and tied at that. But what I want to
+      know is&mdash;are you playing fair with your friends? Have you told them
+      that every man in to-night's business will hang, sure as fate? Have you
+      told them of those cowardly murders you did in Arizona and Texas? Have you
+      told them that your life is forfeit, anyway? Do they know you're trying to
+      drag them into your troubles? No? You didn't tell them that. I'm surprised
+      at you, Struve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name's Johnson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in Arizona, it isn't. Wolf Struve it is there, wanted for murder and
+      other sundries.&rdquo; He turned swiftly from him to his confederates. &ldquo;You
+      fools, you're putting your heads into a noose. He's in already, and wants
+      you in, too. Test him. Throw the end of that rope over the limb, and stand
+      back, while he pulls me up alone. He daren't&mdash;not for his life, he
+      daren't. He knows that whoever pulls on that rope hangs himself as surely
+      as he hangs me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men looked at each other, and at Struve. Were they being led into
+      trouble to pay this man's scores off for him? Suspicion stirred uneasily
+      in them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's right, too. Let Johnson pull him up,&rdquo; Slim Leroy said sullenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure. You've got more at stake than we have. It's up to you, Johnson,&rdquo;
+       Yorky agreed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's right,&rdquo; a third chipped in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll all pull together, boys,&rdquo; Struve insinuated. &ldquo;It's only a bluff of
+      his. Don't let him scare you off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He ain't scaring me off any,&rdquo; declared Yorky. &ldquo;He's a spy, and he's
+      getting what is coming to him. But you're a stranger too, Johnson. I don't
+      trust you any&mdash;not any farther than I can see you, my friend. I'll
+      stand for being an aider and abettor, but I reckon if there's any hanging
+      to be done you'll have to be the sheriff,&rdquo; replied Yorky stiffly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve turned his sinister face on one and another of them. His lips were
+      drawn back, so that the wolfish teeth gleamed in the moonlight. He felt
+      himself being driven into a trap, from which there was no escape. He dared
+      not let Fraser go with his life, for he knew that, sooner or later, the
+      ranger would run him to earth, and drag him back to the punishment that
+      was awaiting him in the South. Nor did he want to shoulder the
+      responsibility of murdering this man before five witnesses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Came the sound of running footsteps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that?&rdquo; asked Slim nervously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are you, Steve?&rdquo; called a voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here,&rdquo; the ranger shouted back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment later Dick France burst into the group. &ldquo;What's doing?&rdquo; he
+      panted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger laughed hardily. &ldquo;Nothing, Dick. Nothing at all. Some of the
+      boys had notions of a necktie party, but they're a little shy of sand.
+      Have you met Mr. Struve, Dick? I know you're acquainted with the others,
+      Mr. Struve is from Yuma. An old friend of mine. Fact is, I induced him to
+      locate at Yuma.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick caught at the rope, but Yorky flung him roughly back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This ain't your put in, France,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It's up to Johnson.&rdquo; And to
+      the latter: &ldquo;Get busy, if you're going to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a spy on you-all, just the same as he is on me,&rdquo; blurted the
+      convict.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a lie, Struve,&rdquo; pronounced the lieutenant evenly. &ldquo;I'm going to
+      take you back with me, but I've got nothing against these men. I want to
+      announce right now, no matter who tells a different story, that I haven't
+      lost any Squaw Creek raiders and I'm not hunting any.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You hear? He came into this valley after me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wrong again, Struve. I didn't know you were here. But I know now, and I
+      serve notice that I'm going to take you back with me, dead or alive.
+      That's what I'm paid for, and that's what I'm going to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was amazing to hear this man, with a rope round his neck, announce
+      calmly what he was going to do to the man who had only to pull that rope
+      to send him into eternity. The very audacity of it had its effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slim spoke up. &ldquo;I don't reckon we better go any farther with this thing,
+      Yorky.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don't reckon you had,&rdquo; cut in Dick sharply. &ldquo;I'll not stand for
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the footsteps of a running man reached them. It was Siegfried. He
+      plunged into the group like a wild bull, shook the hair out of his eyes,
+      and planted himself beside Fraser. With one backward buffet of his great
+      arm he sent Johnson heels over head. He caught Yorky by the shoulders,
+      strong man though the latter was, and shook him till his teeth rattled,
+      after which he flung him reeling a dozen yards to the ground. The
+      Norwegian was reaching for Dick when Fraser stopped him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's enough of a clean-up right now, Sig. Dick butted in like you to
+      help me,&rdquo; he explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The durned coyotes!&rdquo; roared the big Norseman furiously, leaping at Leroy
+      and tossing him over his head as an enraged bull does. He turned upon the
+      other three, shaking his tangled mane, but they were already in flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll show them. I'll show them,&rdquo; he kept saying as he came back to the
+      man he had rescued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've showed them plenty, Sig. Cut out the rough house before you maim
+      some of these gents who didn't invite you to their party.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger felt the earth sway beneath him as he spoke. His wound had been
+      torn loose in the fight, and was bleeding. Limply he leaned against the
+      tree for support.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this moment he caught sight of Arlie and Briscoe as they ran up.
+      Involuntarily he straightened almost jauntily. The girl looked at him with
+      that deep, eager look of fear he had seen before, and met that
+      unconquerable smile of his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rope was still round his neck and the coat was stripped from his back.
+      He was white to the lips, and she could see he could scarce stand, even
+      with the support of the pine trunk. His face was bruised and battered. His
+      hat was gone; and hidden somewhere in his crisp short hair was a cut from
+      which blood dripped to the forehead. The bound arm had been torn from its
+      bandages in the unequal battle he had fought. But for all his desperate
+      plight he still carried the invincible look that nothing less than death
+      can rob some men of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fretted moonlight, shifting with the gentle motion of the foliage
+      above, fell full upon him now and showed a wet, red stain against the
+      white shirt. Simultaneously outraged nature collapsed, and he began to
+      sink to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie gave a little cry and ran forward. Before he reached the ground he
+      had fainted; yet scarcely before she was on her knees beside him with his
+      head in her arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring water, Dick, and tell Doc Lee to come at once. He'll be in the back
+      room smoking. Hurry!&rdquo; She looked fiercely round upon the men assembled. &ldquo;I
+      think they have killed him. Who did this? Was it you, Yorky? Was it you
+      that murdered him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I bane t'ink it take von hoondred of them to do it,&rdquo; said Siegfried. &ldquo;Dat
+      fallar, Johnson, he bane at the bottom of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then why didn't you kill him? Aren't you Steve's friend? Didn't he save
+      your life?&rdquo; she panted, passion burning in her beautiful eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Siegfried nodded. &ldquo;I bane Steve's friend, yah! And Ay bane kill Johnson
+      eef Steve dies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Briscoe, furious at this turn of the tide which had swept Arlie's
+      sympathies back to his enemy, followed Struve as he sneaked deeper into
+      the shadow of the trees. The convict was nursing a sprained wrist when Jed
+      reached him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you think you've been trying to do, you sap-headed idiot?&rdquo; Jed
+      demanded. &ldquo;Haven't you sense enough to choose a better time than one when
+      the whole settlement is gathered to help him? And can't you ever make a
+      clean job of it, you chuckle-minded son of a greaser?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve turned, snarling, on him. &ldquo;That'll be enough from you, Briscoe.
+      I've stood about all I'm going to stand just now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll stand for whatever I say,&rdquo; retorted Jed. &ldquo;You've cooked your goose
+      in this valley by to-night's fool play. I'm the only man that can pull you
+      through. Bite on that fact, Mr. Struve, before you unload your bile on
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The convict's heart sank. He felt it to be the truth. The last thing he
+      had heard was Siegfried's threat to kill him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether Fraser lived or died he was in a precarious position and he knew
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you're my friend, Jed,&rdquo; he whined. &ldquo;I'll do what you say. Stand by
+      me and I'll sure work with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then if you take my advice you'll sneak down to the corral, get your
+      horse, and light out for the run. Lie there till I see you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Siegfried?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Swede won't trouble you unless this Texan dies. I'll send you word in
+      time if he does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Later a skulking shadow sneaked into the corral and out again. Once out of
+      hearing, it leaped to the back of the horse and galloped wildly into the
+      night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV &mdash; HOWARD EXPLAINS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Two horsemen rode into Millikan's Draw and drew up in front of the big
+      ranch house. To the girl who stepped to the porch to meet them they gave
+      friendly greeting. One of them asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How're things coming, Arlie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better and better every day, Dick. Yesterday the doctor said he was out
+      of danger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's been a tough fight for Steve,&rdquo; the other broke in. &ldquo;Proper nursing
+      is what pulled him through. Doc says so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he say that, Alec? I'll always think it was doc. He fought for that
+      life mighty hard, boys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alec Howard nodded: &ldquo;Doc Lee's the stuff. Here he comes now, talking of
+      angels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Lee dismounted and grinned. &ldquo;Which of you lads is she making love
+      to now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie laughed. &ldquo;He can't understand that I don't make love to anybody but
+      him,&rdquo; she explained to the younger men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She never did to me, doc,&rdquo; Dick said regretfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, we were just talking about you, doc.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fire ahead, young woman,&rdquo; said the doctor, with assumed severity. &ldquo;I'm
+      here to defend myself now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alec was calling you an angel, and I was laughing at him,&rdquo; said the girl
+      demurely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An angel&mdash;huh!&rdquo; he snorted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never knew an angel that chewed tobacco, or one that could swear the
+      way you do when you're mad,&rdquo; continued Arlie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't reckon your acquaintance with angels is much greater than mine,
+      Miss Arlie Dillon. How's the patient?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's always wanting something to eat, and he's cross as a bear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good for him! Give him two weeks now and he'll be ready to whip his
+      weight in wild cats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor disappeared within, and presently they could hear his loud,
+      cheerful voice pretending to berate the patient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie sat down on the top step of the porch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Boys, I don't know what I would have done if he had died. It would have
+      been all my fault. I had no business to tell him the names of you boys
+      that rode in the raid, and afterward to tell you that I told him,&rdquo; she
+      accused herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you had no business to tell him, though it happens he's safe as a
+      bank vault,&rdquo; Howard commented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know how I came to do it,&rdquo; the girl continued. &ldquo;Jed had made me
+      suspicious of him, and then I found out something fine he had done for me.
+      I wanted him to know I trusted him. That was the first thing I thought of,
+      and I told it. He tried to stop me, but I'm such an impulsive little
+      fool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We all make breaks, Arlie. You'll not do it again, anyhow,&rdquo; France
+      comforted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Lee presently came out and pronounced that the wounded man was
+      doing well. &ldquo;Wants to see you boys. Don't stay more than half an hour. If
+      they get in your way, sweep 'em out, Arlie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cowpunchers entered the sick room with the subdued, gingerly tread of
+      professional undertakers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't so had as that yet, boys,&rdquo; the patient laughed. &ldquo;You're allowed
+      to speak above a whisper. Doc thinks I'll last till night, mebbe, if I'm
+      careful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They told him all the gossip of the range&mdash;how young Ford had run off
+      with Sallie Laundon and got married to her down at the Butte; how
+      Siegfried had gone up and down the valley swearing he would clean out Jack
+      Rabbit Run if Steve died; how Johnson had had another row with Jed and had
+      chosen to take water rather than draw. Both of his visitors, however, had
+      something on their minds they found some difficulty in expressing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alec Howard finally broached it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arlie told you the names of some of the boys that were in the Squaw Creek
+      sheep raid. She made a mistake in telling you anything, but we'll let that
+      go in the discard. It ain't necessary that you should know the names of
+      the others, but I'm going to tell you one of them, Steve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don't want to know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is my say-so. His name is Alec Howard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sorry to hear that, Alec. I don't know why you have told me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I want you to know the facts of that raid, Steve. No killing was
+      on the program. That came about in a way none of us could foresee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is how it was, Steve,&rdquo; explained Dick. &ldquo;Word came that Campeau was
+      going to move his sheep into the Squaw Creek district. Sheep never had run
+      there. It was understood the range there was for our cattle. We had set a
+      dead line, and warned them not to cross it. Naturally, it made us sore
+      when we heard about Campeau.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So some of us gathered together hastily and rode over. Our intentions
+      were declared. We meant to drive the sheep back and patrol the dead line.
+      It was solemnly agreed that there was to be no shooting, not even of
+      sheep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The story halted here for a moment before Howard took it up again. &ldquo;Things
+      don't always come out the way you figure them. We didn't anticipate any
+      trouble. We outnumbered them two to one. We had the advantage of the
+      surprise. You couldn't guess that for anything but a cinch, could you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it turned out different?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of us stumbled over a rock as we were creeping forward. Campeau heard
+      us and drew. The first shot came from them. Now, I'm going to tell you
+      something you're to keep under your own hat. It will surprise you a heap
+      when I tell you that one man on our side did all the damage. He was at the
+      haid of the line, and it happens he is a dead shot. He is liable to rages,
+      when he acts like a crazy man. He got one now. Before we could put a
+      stopper on him, he had killed Campeau and Jennings, and wounded the
+      herders. The whole thing was done before you could wink an eye six times.
+      For just about that long we stood there like roped calves. Then we downed
+      the man in his tracks, slammed him with the butt of a revolver.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Howard stopped and looked at the ranger before he spoke again. His voice
+      was rough and hoarse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steve, I've seen men killed before, but I never saw anything so awful as
+      that. It was just like they had been struck by lightning for suddenness.
+      There was that devil scattering death among them and the poor fellows
+      crumpling up like rabbits. I tell you every time I think of it the thing
+      makes me sick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger nodded. He understood. The picture rose before him of a man in
+      a Berserk rage, stark mad for the moment, playing Destiny on that lonely,
+      moonlit hill. The face his instinct fitted to the irresponsible murderer
+      was that of Jed Briscoe. Somehow he was sure of that, beyond the shadow of
+      a doubt. His imagination conceived that long ride back across the hills,
+      the deep agonies of silence, the fierce moments of vindictive accusation.
+      No doubt for long the tug of conscience was with them in all their waking
+      hours, for these men were mostly simple-minded cattlemen caught in the web
+      of evil chance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's how it was, Steve. In as long as it takes to empty a Winchester,
+      we were every one of us guilty of a murder we'd each have given a laig to
+      have stopped. We were all in it, all tied together, because we had broke
+      the law to go raiding in the first place. Technically, the man that
+      emptied that rifle wasn't any more guilty than us poor wretches that stood
+      frozen there while he did it. Put it that we might shave the gallows, even
+      then the penitentiary would bury us. There was only one thing to do. We
+      agreed to stand together, and keep mum.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that why you're telling me, Alec?&rdquo; Fraser smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We ain't telling you, not legally,&rdquo; the cow-puncher answered coolly. &ldquo;If
+      you was ever to say we had, Dick and me would deny it. But we ain't
+      worrying any about you telling it. You're a clam, and we know it. No,
+      we're telling you, son, because we want you to know about how it was. The
+      boys didn't ride out to do murder. They rode out simply to drive the sheep
+      off their range.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan nodded. &ldquo;That's about how I figured it. I'm glad you told me,
+      boys. I reckon I don't need to tell you I'm padlocked in regard to this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie came to the door and looked in. &ldquo;It's time you boys were going. Doc
+      said a half hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, Arlie,&rdquo; responded Dick. &ldquo;So-long, Steve. Be good, you old pie
+      eater.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After they had gone, the Texan lay silent for a long time. He understood
+      perfectly their motive in telling him the story. They had not compromised
+      themselves legally, since a denial would have given them two to one in the
+      matter of witnesses. But they wished him to see that, morally, every man
+      but one who rode on that raid was guiltless of the Squaw Creek murders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie came in presently, and sat down near the window with some
+      embroidery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did the boys tire you?&rdquo; she asked, noting his unusual silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I was thinking about what they told me. They were giving me the
+      inside facts of the Squaw Creek raid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked up in surprise. &ldquo;They were?&rdquo; A little smile began to dimple the
+      corners of her mouth. &ldquo;That's funny, because they had just got through
+      forgiving me for what I told you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What they told me was how the shooting occurred.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know anything about that. When I told you their names I was only
+      telling what I had heard people whisper. That's all I knew.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've been troubled because your friends were in this, haven't you? You
+      hated to think it of them, didn't you?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. It has troubled me a lot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't let it trouble you any more. One man was responsible for all the
+      bloodshed. He went mad and saw red for half a minute. Before the rest
+      could stop him, the slaughter was done. The other boys aren't guilty of
+      that, any more than you or I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I'm glad&mdash;I'm glad,&rdquo; she cried softly. Then, looking up quickly
+      to him: &ldquo;Who was the man?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know. It is better that neither of us should know that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad the boys told you. It shows they trust you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They figure me out a white man,&rdquo; he answered carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! That's where I made my mistake.&rdquo; She looked at him bravely, though
+      the color began to beat into her cheeks beneath the dusky tan. &ldquo;Yet I knew
+      it all the time&mdash;in my heart. At least, after I had given myself time
+      to think it over. I knew you couldn't be that. If I had given you time to
+      explain&mdash;but I always think too late.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His eyes, usually so clear and steely, softened at her words. &ldquo;I'm
+      satisfied if you knew&mdash;in your heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I meant&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; she began, with a flush.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, don't spoil it, please,&rdquo; he begged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under his steady, half-smiling gaze, her eyes fell. Two weeks ago she had
+      been a splendid young creature, as untaught of life as one of the wild
+      forest animals and as unconsciously eager for it. But there had come a
+      change over her, a birth of womanhood from that night when she had stood
+      between Stephen Fraser and death. No doubt she would often regret it, but
+      she had begun to live more deeply. She could never go back to the
+      care-free days when she could look all men in the face with candid,
+      girlish eyes. The time had come to her, as it must to all sensitive of
+      life, when she must drink of it, whether she would or no.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I'd rather you would know it in your heart than in your mind,&rdquo; he
+      said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something sweet and terrifying, with the tingle and warmth of rare wine in
+      it, began to glow in her veins. Eyes shy, eager, frightened, met his for
+      an instant. Then she remembered the other girl. Something hard as steel
+      ran through her. She turned on her heel and left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV &mdash; THE TEXAN PAYS A VISIT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      From that day Fraser had a new nurse. Arlie disappeared, and her aunt
+      replaced her a few hours later and took charge of the patient. Steve took
+      her desertion as an irritable convalescent does, but he did not let his
+      disappointment make him unpleasant to Miss Ruth Dillon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm a chump,&rdquo; he told himself, with deep disgust. &ldquo;Hadn't any more sense
+      than to go scaring off the little girl by handing out a line of talk she
+      ain't used to. I reckon now she's done with me proper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued to improve so rapidly that within the prescribed two weeks he
+      was on horseback again, though still a little weak and washed out. His
+      first ride of any length was to the Dillon ranch. Siegfried accompanied
+      him, and across the Norwegian's saddle lay a very business-like rifle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they were passing the mouth of a caƱon, the ranger put a casual
+      question: &ldquo;This Jack Rabbit Run, Sig?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yah. More men wanted bane lost in that gulch than any place Ay knows of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That so? I'm going in there to-morrow to find that man Struve,&rdquo; his
+      friend announced carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The big blonde giant looked at him. &ldquo;Yuh bain't, Steve? Why, yuh bain't
+      fit to tackle a den uh wild cats.&rdquo; An admiring grin lit the Norwegian's
+      face. &ldquo;Durn my hide, yuh've got 'em all skinned for grit, Steve. Uh
+      course, Ay bane goin' with yuh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it won't get you in bad with your friends I'll be glad to have you,
+      Sig.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They bain't my friends. Ay bane shook them, an' served notice to that
+      effect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yuh bane goin' in after Struve only?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. He's the only man I want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then Ay bane go in, and bring heem out to yuh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser shook his head. &ldquo;No, old man, I've got to play my own hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay t'ink it be a lot safer f'r me to happen in an' get heem,&rdquo;
+       remonstrated Siegfried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Safer for me,&rdquo; corrected the lieutenant, smiling. &ldquo;No, I can't work that
+      way. I've got to take my own chances. You can go along, though, on one
+      condition. You're not to interfere between me and Struve. If some one else
+      butts in, you may ask him why, if you like.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay bane t'ink yuh von fool, Steve. But Ay bane no boss. Vat yuh says
+      goes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They found Arlie watering geraniums in front of the house. Siegfried
+      merely nodded to her and passed on to the stables with the horses. Fraser
+      dismounted, offering her his hand and his warm smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had caught her without warning, and she was a little shy of him. Not
+      only was she embarrassed, but she saw that he knew it. He sat down on the
+      step, while she continued to water her flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see your bad penny turned up again, Miss Arlie,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't know you were able to ride yet, Lieutenant Fraser.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is my first try at it. Thought I'd run over and say 'Thank you' to
+      my nurse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll call auntie,&rdquo; she said quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shook his head. &ldquo;Not necessary, Miss Arlie. I settled up with her. I
+      was thinking of the nurse that ran off and left me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was beginning to recover herself. &ldquo;You want to thank her for leaving
+      while there was still hope,&rdquo; she said, with a quick little smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did you do it? I've been mighty lonesome the past two weeks,&rdquo; he said
+      quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would be, of course. You are used to an active outdoor life, and I
+      suppose the boys couldn't get round to see you very often.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wasn't thinking of the boys,&rdquo; he meditated aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie blushed; and to hide her embarrassment she called to Jimmie, who was
+      passing: &ldquo;Bring up Lieutenant Fraser's Teddy. I want him to see how well
+      we're caring for his horse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As a diversion, Teddy served very well. Horse and owner were both mightily
+      pleased to see each other. While the animal rubbed its nose against his
+      coat, the ranger teased and petted it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, you old Teddy hawss. How air things a-comin', pardner?&rdquo; he
+      drawled, with a reversion to his Texas speech. &ldquo;Plumb tickled to death to
+      meet up with yore old master, ain't you? How come it you ain't fallen in
+      love with this young lady and forgot Steve?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He thinks a lot of me, too,&rdquo; Arlie claimed promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't blame you a bit, Teddy. I'll ce'tainly shake hands with you on
+      that. But life's jest meetin' and partin', old hawss. I got to take you
+      away for good, day after to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are you going?&rdquo; the girl asked quickly. Then, to cover the swift
+      interest of her question: &ldquo;But, of course, it is time you were going back
+      to your business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, ma'am, that is just it. Seems to me either too soon or too late to be
+      going.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had her face turned from him, and was busy over her plants, to hide
+      the tremulous dismay that had shaken her at his news.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not ask him what he meant, nor did she ask again where he was
+      going. For the moment, she could not trust her voice to say more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Too late, because I've seen in this valley some one I'll never forget,
+      and too soon because that some one will forget me, sure as a gun,&rdquo; he told
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not if you write to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It isn't a him. It's my little nurse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll tell auntie how you feel about it, and I'm sure she won't forget
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know mighty well I ain't talking about auntie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I suppose you must mean me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's who I'm meaning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I'll be able to remember you if I try&mdash;by Teddy,&rdquo; she
+      answered, without looking at him, and devoted herself to petting the
+      horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it&mdash;would it be any use to say any more, Arlie?&rdquo; he asked, in a
+      low voice, as he stood beside her, with Teddy's nose in his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&mdash;I don't know what you mean, sir. Please don't say anything more
+      about it.&rdquo; Then again memory of the other girl flamed through her. &ldquo;No, it
+      wouldn't&mdash;not a bit of use, not a bit,&rdquo; she broke out fiercely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean you couldn't&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The flame in her face, the eyes that met his, as if drawn by a magnet,
+      still held their anger, but mingled with it was a piteous plea for mercy.
+      &ldquo;I&mdash;I'm only a girl. Why don't you let me alone?&rdquo; she cried bitterly,
+      and hard upon her own words turned and ran from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve looked after her in amazed surprise. &ldquo;Now don't it beat the band the
+      way a woman takes a thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dubiously he took himself to the stable and said good-by to Dillon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later she went down to dinner still flushed and excited. Before
+      she had been in the room two minutes her father gave her a piece of
+      startling news.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I been talking to Steve. Gracious, gyurl, what do you reckon that boy's
+      a-goin' to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Arlie felt the color leap into her cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, dad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a'goin' back to Gimlet Butte, to give himself up to Brandt, day
+      after to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But&mdash;what for?&rdquo; she gasped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Durned if I know! He's got some fool notion about playin' fair. Seems he
+      came into the Cedar Mountain country to catch the Squaw Creek raiders.
+      Brandt let him escape on that pledge. Well, he's give up that notion, and
+      now he thinks, dad gum it, that it's up to him to surrender to Brandt
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl's eyes were like stars. &ldquo;And he's going to go back there and give
+      himself up, to be tried for killing Faulkner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dillon scratched his head. &ldquo;By gum, gyurl, I didn't think of that. We
+      cayn't let him go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, honey, he didn't kill Faulkner, looks like. We cayn't let him go
+      back there and take our medicine for us. Mebbe he would be lynched. It's a
+      sure thing he'd be convicted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind. Let him go. I've got a plan, dad.&rdquo; Her vivid face was alive
+      with the emotion which spoke in it. &ldquo;When did he say he was going?&rdquo; she
+      asked buoyantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Day after to-morrow. Seems he's got business that keeps him hyer
+      to-morrow. What's yore idee, honey?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She got up, and whispered it in his ear. His jaw dropped, and he stared at
+      her in amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI &mdash; THE WOLF BITES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Steve came drowsily to consciousness from confused dreams of a cattle
+      stampede and the click of rifles in the hands of enemies who had the drop
+      on him. The rare, untempered sunshine of the Rockies poured into his
+      window from a world outside, wonderful as the early morning of creation.
+      The hillside opposite was bathed miraculously in a flood of light, in
+      which grasshoppers fiddled triumphantly their joy in life. The sources of
+      his dreams discovered themselves in the bawl of thirsty cattle and the
+      regular clicking of a windmill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A glance at his watch told him that it was six o'clock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Time to get up, Steve,&rdquo; he told himself, and forthwith did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He chose a rough crash towel, slipped on a pair of Howard's moccasins, and
+      went down to the river through an ambient that had the sparkle and
+      exhilaration of champagne. The mountain air was still finely crisp with
+      the frost, in spite of the sun warmth that was beginning to mellow it.
+      Flinging aside the Indian blanket he had caught up before leaving the
+      cabin, he stood for an instant on the bank, a human being with the
+      physical poise, compactness, and lithe-muscled smoothness of a tiger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even as he plunged a rifle cracked. While he dived through the air, before
+      the shock of the icy water tingled through him, he was planning his
+      escape. The opposite bank rose ten feet above the stream. He kept under
+      the water until he came close to this, then swam swiftly along it with
+      only his head showing, so as to keep him out of sight as much as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half a stone's throw farther the bank fell again to the water's edge, the
+      river having broadened and grown shallow, as mountain creeks do. The
+      ranger ran, stooping, along the bank, till it afforded him no more
+      protection, then dashed across the stony-bottomed stream to the shelter of
+      the thick aspens beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as he expected, a shot rang from far up the mountainside. In another
+      instant he was safe in the foliage of the young aspens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the sheer exhilaration of his escape he laughed aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last show to score gone, Mr. Struve. I figured it just right. He waited
+      too long for his first shot. Then the bank hid me. He wasn't expecting to
+      see me away down the stream, so he hadn't time to sight his second one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Steve wound his way in and out among the aspens, working toward the tail
+      of them, which ran up the hill a little way and dropped down almost to the
+      back door of the cabin. Upon this he was presently pounding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Howard let him in. He had a revolver in his hand, the first weapon he
+      could snatch up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You durned old idiot! It's a wonder you ain't dead three ways for
+      Sunday,&rdquo; he shouted joyfully at sight of him. &ldquo;Ain't I told you 'steen
+      times to do what bathin' you got to do, right here in the shack?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Texan laughed again. Naked as that of Father Adam, his splendid body
+      was glowing with the bath and the exercise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's ce'tainly the worst chump ever, Alec. Had me in sight all the way
+      down to the creek, but waited till I wasn't moving. Reckon he was nervous.
+      Anyhow, he waited just one-tenth of a second too late. Shot just as I
+      leaned forward for my dive. He gave me a free hair-cut though.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A swath showed where the bullet had mowed a furrow of hair so close that
+      in one place it had slightly torn the scalp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He shot again, didn't he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yep. I swam along the far bank, so that he couldn't get at me, and
+      crossed into the aspens. He got another chance as I was crossing, but he
+      had to take it on the fly, and missed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cattleman surveyed the hillside cautiously through the front window.
+      &ldquo;I reckon he's pulled his freight, most likely. But we'll stay cooped for
+      a while, on the chance. You're the luckiest cuss I ever did see. More
+      lives than a cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Howard laid his revolver down within reach, and proceeded to light a fire
+      in the stove, from which rose presently the pleasant odors of aromatic
+      coffee and fried ham and eggs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come and get it, Steve,&rdquo; said Howard, by way of announcing breakfast.
+      &ldquo;No, you don't. I'll take the window seat, and at that we'll have the
+      curtain drawn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They were just finishing breakfast when Siegfried cantered up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You bane ready, Steve?&rdquo; he called in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Howard appeared in the doorway. &ldquo;Say, Sig, go down to the corral and
+      saddle up Teddy for Steve, will you? Some of his friends have been
+      potshotting at him again. No damage done, except to my feelings, but
+      there's nothing like being careful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Siegfried's face darkened. &ldquo;Ay bane like for know who it vas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Howard laughed. &ldquo;Now, if you'll tell Steve that he'll give you as much as
+      six bits, Sig. He's got notions, but they ain't worth any more than yours
+      or mine. Say, where you boys going to-day? I've a notion to go along.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, just out for a little pasear,&rdquo; Steve answered casually. &ldquo;Thought you
+      were going to work on your south fence to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I reckon I better. It sure needs fixing. You lads take good care of
+      yourselves. I don't need to tell you not to pass anywhere near the run,
+      Sig,&rdquo; he grinned, with the manner of one giving a superfluous warning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser looked at Siegfried, with a smile in his eyes. &ldquo;No, we'll not pass
+      the run to-day, Alec.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour later they were in the saddle and away. Siegfried did
+      not lead his friend directly up the caƱon that opened into Jack Rabbit
+      Run, but across the hills to a pass, which had to be taken on foot. They
+      left the horses picketed on a grassy slope, and climbed the faint trail
+      that went steeply up the bowlder-strewn mountain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ascent was so steep that the last bit had to be done on all fours. It
+      was a rock face, though by no means an impossible one, since projecting
+      ledges and knobs offered a foothold all the way. From the summit, the
+      trail edged its way down so precipitously that twice fallen pines had to
+      be used as ladders for the descent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they were off the rocks, the big blonde gave the signal for
+      silence. &ldquo;Ay bane t'ink we might meet up weeth some one,&rdquo; he whispered,
+      and urged Steve to follow him as closely as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was half an hour later that Sig pointed out a small clearing ahead of
+      them. &ldquo;Cabin's right oop on the edge of the aspens. See it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger nodded assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay bane go down first an' see how t'ings look.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Norwegian entered the cabin, he saw two men seated at a table,
+      playing seven up. The one facing him was Tommie, the cook; the other was
+      an awkward heavy-set fellow, whom he knew for the man he wanted, even
+      before the scarred, villainous face was twisted toward him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve leaped instantly to his feet, overturning his chair in his haste.
+      He had not met the big Norseman since the night he had attempted to hang
+      Fraser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay bane not shoot yuh now,&rdquo; Siegfried told him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right sure of that, are you?&rdquo; the convict snarled, his hand on his
+      weapon. &ldquo;If you've got any doubts, now's the time to air them, and we'll
+      settle this thing right now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay bane not shoot, Ay tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tommie, who had ducked beneath the table at the prospect of trouble, now
+      cautiously emerged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't lost any pills from either of your guns, gents,&rdquo; he explained,
+      with a face so laughably and frankly frightened that both of the others
+      smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have a drink, Siegfried,&rdquo; suggested Struve, by way of sealing the treaty.
+      &ldquo;Tommie, get out that bottle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay bane t'ink Ay look to my horse first,&rdquo; the Norwegian answered, and
+      immediately left by way of the back door not three minutes before Jed
+      Briscoe entered by the front one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed shut the door behind him and looked at the convict.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve faced him sullenly, without answering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tommie, vamos,&rdquo; hinted Briscoe gently, and as soon as the cook had
+      disappeared, he repeated his monosyllable: &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It didn't come off,&rdquo; muttered the other sulkily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just what I expected. Why not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve broke into a string of furious oaths. &ldquo;Because I missed him&mdash;missed
+      him twice, when he was standing there naked before me. He was coming down
+      to the creek to take a bath, and I waited till he was close. I had a sure
+      bead on him, and he dived just as I fired. I got another chance, when he
+      was running across, farther down, and, by thunder, I missed again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed laughed, and the sound of it was sinister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Couldn't hit the side of a house, could you? You're nothing but a cheap
+      skate, a tin-horn gambler, run down at the heels. All right. I'm through
+      with you. Lieutenant Fraser, from Texas, can come along and collect
+      whenever he likes. I'll not protect a false alarm like you any longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Struve looked at him, as a cornered wolf might have done. &ldquo;What will you
+      do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll give you up to him. I'll tell him to come in and get you. I'll show
+      him the way in, you white-livered cur!&rdquo; bullied the cattleman, giving way
+      to one of his rages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'd better not,&rdquo; snarled the convict. &ldquo;Not if you want to live.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As they stood facing each other in a panting fury the door opened, to let
+      in Siegfried and the ranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed's rage against Struve died on the spot. He saw his enemy, the ranger,
+      before him, and leaped to the conclusion that he had come to this hidden
+      retreat to run him down for the Squaw Creek murders. Instantly, his hand
+      swept to the hilt of his revolver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That motion sealed his doom. For Struve knew that Siegfried had brought
+      the ranger to capture him, and suspected in the same flash that Briscoe
+      was in on the betrayal. Had not the man as good as told him so, not thirty
+      seconds before? He supposed that Jed was drawing to kill or cover him,
+      and, like a flash of lightning, unscabbarded and fired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You infernal Judas, I'll get you anyhow,&rdquo; he cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jed dropped his weapon, and reeled back against the wall, where he hung
+      for a moment, while the convict pumped a second and a third bullet into
+      his body. Briscoe was dead before Fraser could leap forward and throw his
+      arms round the man who had killed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between them, they flung Struve to the ground, and disarmed him. The
+      convict's head had struck as he went down, and it was not for some little
+      time that he recovered fully from his daze. When he did his hands were
+      tied behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't go for to kill him,&rdquo; he whimpered, now thoroughly frightened at
+      what he had done. &ldquo;You both saw it, gentlemen. You did, lieutenant. So did
+      you, Sig. It was self-defense. He drew on me. I didn't go to do it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser was examining the dead man's wounds. He looked up, and said to his
+      friend: &ldquo;Nothing to do for him, Sig. He's gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you, I didn't mean to do it,&rdquo; pleaded Struve. &ldquo;Why, lieutenant,
+      that man has been trying to get me to ambush you for weeks. I'll swear
+      it.&rdquo; The convict was in a panic of terror, ready to curry favor with the
+      man whom he held his deadliest enemy. &ldquo;Yes, lieutenant, ever since you
+      came here. He's been egging me on to kill you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you tried it three times?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir.&rdquo; He pointed vindictively at the dead man, lying face up on the
+      floor. &ldquo;It was him that ambushed you this morning. I hadn't a thing to do
+      with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't lie, you coward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They carried the body to the next room and put it on a bed. Tommie was
+      dispatched on a fast horse for help.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Late in the afternoon he brought back with him Doctor Lee, and half an
+      hour after sunset Yorky and Slim galloped up. They were for settling the
+      matter out of hand by stringing the convict Struve up to the nearest pine,
+      but they found the ranger so very much on the spot that they reconsidered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's my prisoner, gentlemen. I came in here and took him&mdash;that is,
+      with the help of my friend Siegfried. I reckon if you mill it over a
+      spell, you'll find you don't want him half as bad as we do,&rdquo; he said
+      mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter with all of us going in on this thing, lieutenant?&rdquo;
+       proposed Yorky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never did see such a fellow for necktie parties as you are, Yorky. Not
+      three weeks ago, you was invitin' me to be chief mourner at one of your
+      little affairs, and your friend Johnson was to be master of ceremonies.
+      Now you've got the parts reversed. No, I reckon we'll have to disappoint
+      you this trip.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do with him?&rdquo; asked Yorky, with plain
+      dissatisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm going to take him down to Gimlet Butte. Arizona and Wyoming and Texas
+      will have to scrap it out for him there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When, you get him there,&rdquo; Yorky said significantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, when I get him there,&rdquo; answered the Texan blandly, carefully
+      oblivious of the other's implication.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon was beginning to show itself over a hill before the Texan and
+      Siegfried took the road with their captive. Fraser had carelessly let drop
+      a remark to the effect that they would spend the night at the Dillon
+      ranch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His watch showed eleven o'clock before they reached the ranch, but he
+      pushed on without turning in and did not stop until they came to the
+      Howard place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They roused Alec from sleep, and he cooked them a post-midnight supper,
+      after which he saddled his cow pony, buckled on his belt, and took down
+      his old rifle from the rack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll jog along with you lads and see the fun,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their prisoner had not eaten. The best he could do was to gulp down some
+      coffee, for he was in a nervous chill of apprehension. Every gust of wind
+      seemed to carry to him the patter of pursuit. The hooting of an owl sent a
+      tremor through him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you reckon we had better hurry?&rdquo; he had asked with dry lips more
+      than once, while the others were eating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He asked it again as they were setting off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Howard looked him over with rising disgust, without answering. Presently,
+      he remarked, apropos of nothing: &ldquo;Are all your Texas wolves coyotes,
+      Steve?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He would have liked to know at least that it was a man whose life he was
+      protecting, even though the fellow was also a villain. But this crumb of
+      satisfaction was denied him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII &mdash; ON THE ROAD TO GIMLET BUTTE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll go out by the river way,&rdquo; said Howard tentatively. &ldquo;Eh, what think,
+      Sig? It's longer, but Yorky will be expecting us to take the short cut
+      over the pass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Norwegian agreed. &ldquo;It bane von chance, anyhow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By unfrequented trails they traversed the valley till they reached the
+      caƱon down which poured Squaw Creek on its way to the outside world. A
+      road ran alongside this for a mile or two, but disappeared into the stream
+      when the gulch narrowed. The first faint streaks of gray dawn were
+      lightening the sky enough for Fraser to see this. He was riding in
+      advance, and commented upon it to Siegfried, who rode with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Norwegian laughed. &ldquo;Ay bane t'ink we do some wadin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They swung off to the right, and a little later splashed through the water
+      for a few minutes and came out into a spreading valley beyond the sheer
+      walls of the retreat they had left. Taking the road again, they traveled
+      faster than they had been able to do before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who left the valley yesterday for Gimlet Butte, Sig?&rdquo; Howard asked, after
+      it was light enough to see. &ldquo;I notice tracks of two horses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay bane vondering. Ay t'ink mebbe West over&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon not. This ain't the track of his big bay. Must 'a' been
+      yesterday, too, because it rained the night before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For some hours they could see occasionally the tracks of the two horses,
+      but eventually lost them where two trails forked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Taking the Sweetwater cutout to the Butte, I reckon,&rdquo; Howard surmised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They traveled all day, except for a stop about ten o'clock for breakfast,
+      and another late in the afternoon, to rest the horses. At night, they put
+      up at a ranch house, and were in the saddle again early in the morning.
+      Before noon, they struck a telephone line, and Fraser called up Brandt at
+      a ranch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello! This Sheriff Brandt? Lieutenant Fraser, of the Texas Rangers, is
+      talking. I'm on my way to town with a prisoner. We're at Christy's, now.
+      There will, perhaps, be an attempt to take him from us. I'll explain the
+      circumstances later.... Yes.... Yes.... We can hold him, I think, but
+      there may be trouble.... Yes, that's it. We have no legal right to detain
+      him, I suppose.... That's what I was going to suggest. Better send about
+      four men to meet us. We'll come in on the Blasted Pine road. About nine
+      to-night, I should think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As they rode easily along the dusty road, the Texan explained his plan to
+      his friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We don't want any trouble with Yorky's crowd. We ain't any of us
+      deputies, and my commission doesn't run in Wyoming, of course. My notion
+      is to lie low in the hills two or three hours this afternoon, and give
+      Brandt a chance to send his men out to meet us. The responsibility will be
+      on them, and we can be sworn in as deputies, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They rested in a grassy draw, about fifteen miles from town, and took the
+      trail again shortly after dark. It was an hour later that Fraser, who had
+      an extraordinary quick ear, heard the sound of men riding toward them. He
+      drew his party quickly into the shadows of the hills, a little distance
+      from the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They could hear voices of the advancing party, and presently could make
+      out words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you, they've got to come in on this road, Slim,&rdquo; one of the men
+      was saying dogmatically. &ldquo;We're bound to meet up with them. That's all
+      there is to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yorky,&rdquo; whispered Howard, in the ranger's ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They rode past in pairs, six of them in all. As chance would have it,
+      Siegfried's pony, perhaps recognizing a friend among those passing,
+      nickered shrilly its greeting. Instantly, the riders drew up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did that come from?&rdquo; Yorky asked, in a low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From over to the right. I see men there now See! Up against that hill.&rdquo;
+       Slim pointed toward the group in the shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yorky hailed them. &ldquo;That you, Sig?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yuh bane von good guesser,&rdquo; answered the Norwegian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How many of you are there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Four, Yorky,&rdquo; Fraser replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are six of us. We've got you outnumbered, boys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Very faintly there came to the lieutenant the beat of horses' feet. He
+      sparred for time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want, Yorky?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know what we want. That murderer you've got there&mdash;that's what
+      we want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We're taking him in to be tried, Yorky. Justice will be done to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at Gimlet Butte it won't. No jury will convict him for killing Jed
+      Briscoe, from Lost Valley. We're going to hang him, right now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll have to fight for him, my friend, and before you do that I want
+      you to understand the facts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We understand all the facts we need to, right now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lieutenant rode forward alone. He knew that soon they too would hear
+      the rhythmic beat of the advancing posse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We've got all night to settle this, boys. Let's do what is fair and
+      square. That's all I ask.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you're shouting, lieutenant. That's all we ask.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It depends on what you mean by fair and square,&rdquo; another one spoke up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger nodded amiably at him. &ldquo;That you, Harris? Well, let's look at
+      the facts right. Here's Lost Valley, that's had a bad name ever since it
+      was inhabited. Far as I can make out its settlers are honest men, regarded
+      outside as miscreants. Just as folks were beginning to forget it, comes
+      the Squaw Creek raid. Now, I'm not going into that, and I'm not going to
+      say a word against the man that lies dead up in the hills. But I'll say
+      this: His death solves a problem for a good many of the boys up there. I'm
+      going to make it my business to see that the facts are known right down in
+      Gimlet Butte. I'm going to lift the blame from the boys that were present,
+      and couldn't help what happened.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yorky was impressed, but suspicion was not yet banished from his mind.
+      &ldquo;You seem to know a lot about it, lieutenant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No use discussing that, Yorky. I know what I know. Here's the great big
+      point: If you lynch the man that shot Jed, the word will go out that the
+      valley is still a nest of lawless outlaws. The story will be that the
+      Squaw Creek raiders and their friends did it. Just as the situation is
+      clearing up nicely, you'll make it a hundred times worse by seeming to
+      indorse what Jed did on Squaw Creek.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By thunder, that's right,&rdquo; Harris blurted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser spoke again. &ldquo;Listen, boys. Do you hear horses galloping? That is
+      Sheriff Brandt's deputies, coming to our assistance. You've lost the game,
+      but you can save your faces yet. Join us, and kelp escort the prisoner to
+      town. Nobody need know why you came out. We'll put it that it was to guard
+      against a lynching.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men looked at each other sheepishly. They had been outwitted, and in
+      their hearts were glad of it. Harris turned to the ranger with a laugh.
+      &ldquo;You're a good one, Fraser. Kept us here talking, while your
+      reƫnforcements came up. Well, boys, I reckon we better join the
+      Sunday-school class.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So it happened that when Sheriff Brandt and his men came up they found the
+      mountain folk united. He was surprised at the size of the force with the
+      Texan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're certainly of a cautious disposition, lieutenant. With eight men to
+      help you, I shouldn't have figured you needed my posse,&rdquo; he remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It gives you the credit of bringing in the prisoner, sheriff,&rdquo; Steve told
+      him unblushingly, voicing the first explanation that came to his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII &mdash; A WITNESS IN REBUTTAL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Two hours later, Lieutenant Fraser was closeted with Brandt and Hilliard.
+      He told them his story&mdash;or as much of it as he deemed necessary. The
+      prosecuting attorney heard him to an end before he gave a short, skeptical
+      laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn't seem to me you've quite lived up to your reputation,
+      lieutenant,&rdquo; he commented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wasn't trying to,&rdquo; retorted Steve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have told you how I got into the valley. I couldn't go in there and
+      betray my friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hilliard wagged his fat forefinger. &ldquo;How about betraying our trust? How
+      about throwing us down? We let you escape, after you had given us your
+      word to do this job, didn't we?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I had to throw you down. There wasn't any other way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You tell a pretty fishy story, lieutenant. It doesn't stand to reason
+      that one man did all the mischief on that Squaw Creek raid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is true. Not a shadow of a doubt of it. I'll bring you three
+      witnesses, if you'll agree to hold them guiltless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I suppose I'm to agree to hold you guiltless of Faulkner's death,
+      too?&rdquo; the lawyer demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't say that. I'm here, Mr. Hilliard, to deliver my person, because
+      I can't stand by the terms of our agreement. I think I've been fair with
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hilliard looked at Brandt, with twinkling eyes. It struck Fraser that they
+      had between them some joke in which he was not a sharer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're willing to assume full responsibility for the death of Faulkner,
+      are you? Ready to plead guilty, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fraser laughed. &ldquo;Just a moment. I didn't say that. What I said was that
+      I'm here to stand my trial. It's up to you to prove me guilty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, in point of fact, you practically admit it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In point of fact, I would prefer not to say so. Prove it, if you can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have witnesses here, ready to swear to the truth, lieutenant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aren't your witnesses prejudiced a little?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe.&rdquo; The smile on Hilliard's fat face broadened. &ldquo;Two of them are
+      right here. Suppose we find out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stepped to the door of the inner office, and opened it. From the room
+      emerged Dillon and his daughter. The Texan looked at Arlie in blank
+      amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This young lady says she was present, lieutenant, and knows who fired the
+      shot that killed Faulkner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ranger saw only Arlie. His gaze was full of deep reproach. &ldquo;You came
+      down here to save me,&rdquo; he said, in the manner of one stating a fact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn't I? Ought I to have let you suffer for me? Did you think I
+      was so base?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You oughtn't to have done it. You have brought trouble on yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her eyes glowed with deep fires. &ldquo;I don't care. I have done what was
+      right. Did you think dad and I would sit still and let you pay forfeit for
+      us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lieutenant's spirits rejoiced at the thing she had done, but his mind
+      could not forget what she must go through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad and I'm sorry,&rdquo; he said simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hilliard came, smiling, to relieve the situation. &ldquo;I've got a piece of
+      good news for both of you. Two of the boys that were in that shooting
+      scrap three miles from town came to my office the other day and admitted
+      that they attacked you. It got noised around that there was a girl in it,
+      and they were anxious to have the thing dropped. I don't think either of
+      you need worry about it any more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dillon gave a shout. &ldquo;Glory, hallelujah!&rdquo; He had been much troubled, and
+      his relief shone on his face. &ldquo;I say, gentlemen, that's the best news I've
+      heard in twenty years. Let's go celebrate it with just one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Brandt and Hilliard joined him, but the Texan lingered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon I'll join you later, gentlemen,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While their footsteps died away he looked steadily at Arlie. Her eyes met
+      his and held fast. Beneath the olive of her cheeks, a color began to glow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He held out both his hands. The light in his eyes softened, transfigured
+      his hard face. &ldquo;You can't help it, honey. It may not be what you would
+      have chosen, but it has got to be. You're mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost beneath her breath she spoke. &ldquo;You forgot&mdash;the other girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What other girl? There is none&mdash;never was one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The girl in the picture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His eyes opened wide. &ldquo;Good gracious! She's been married three months to a
+      friend of mine. Larry Neill his name is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And she isn't your sweetheart at all? Never was?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't reckon she ever was. Neill took that picture himself. We were
+      laughing, because I had just been guying them about how quick they got
+      engaged. She was saying I'd be engaged myself before six months. And I am.
+      Ain't I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She came to him slowly&mdash;first, the little outstretched hands, and
+      then the soft, supple, resilient body. Slowly, too, her sweet reluctant
+      lips came round to meet his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Steve, I'm yours. I think I always have been, even before I knew
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even when you hated me?&rdquo; he asked presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most of all, when I hated you,&rdquo; She laughed happily. &ldquo;That was just
+      another way of love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll have fifty years to find out all the different ways,&rdquo; the man
+      promised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fifty years. Oh, Steve!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a happy little sigh, and nestled closer.
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Texas Ranger, by William MacLeod Raine
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TEXAS RANGER ***
+
+***** This file should be named 4993-h.htm or 4993-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/4/9/9/4993/
+
+Produced by Jim Weiler and David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase &ldquo;Project
+Gutenberg&rdquo;), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (&ldquo;the Foundation&rdquo;
+ or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; appears, or with which the phrase &ldquo;Project
+Gutenberg&rdquo; is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+&ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original &ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, &ldquo;Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.&rdquo;
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+&ldquo;Defects,&rdquo; such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the &ldquo;Right
+of Replacement or Refund&rdquo; described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+
+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>