Bucky O'Connor.................................................................................................................................................1

William MacLeod Raine ..........................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER 1. ENTER "BEARTRAP" COLLINS................................................................................2

CHAPTER 2. TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION..............................................................5

CHAPTER 3. THE SHERIFF INTRODUCES HIMSELF...................................................................11

CHAPTER 4. A BLUFF IS CALLED ...................................................................................................19

CHAPTER 5. BUCKY ENTERTAINS .................................................................................................30

CHAPTER 6. BUCKY MAKES A DISCOVERY...............................................................................35

CHAPTER 7. IN THE LAND OF REVOLUTIONS............................................................................45

CHAPTER 8. FIRST BLOOD!.............................................................................................................49

CHAPTER 9. "ADORE HAS ONLY ONE D."....................................................................................59

CHAPTER 10. THE HOLDUP OF THE M. C. P. FLYER................................................................65

CHAPTER 11. "STONE WALLS DO NOT A PRISON MAKE."......................................................68

CHAPTER 12. A CLEAN WHITE MAN'S OPTION..........................................................................77

CHAPTER 13. BUCKY'S FIRSTRATE REASONS ..........................................................................81

CHAPTER 14. LE ROI EST MORT; VIVE LE ROI...........................................................................85

CHAPTER 15. IN THE SECRET CHAMBER .....................................................................................93

CHAPTER 16. JUAN VALDEZ SCORES .........................................................................................100

CHAPTER 17. HIDDEN VALLEY ....................................................................................................104

CHAPTER 18. A DINNER FOR THREE ...........................................................................................112

CHAPTER 19. A VILLON OF THE DESERT ...................................................................................119

CHAPTER 20. BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY ..................................................................................126

CHAPTER 21. THE WOLF PACK....................................................................................................133

CHAPTER 22. FOR A GOOD REASON...........................................................................................140

She had been aware of him from the moment of his spectacular entrance, though no slightest sign of interest

manifested itself in her indolent, incurious eyes. Indeed, his abundant and picturesque area was so vivid that

it would have been difficult not to feel his presence anywhere, let alone on a journey so monotonous as this

It had been at a watertank, near Socorro, that the Limited, churning furiously through brown Arizona in

pursuit of a lost halfhour, jarred to a sudden halt that shook sleep from the drowsy eyes of bored passengers.

Through the window of her Pullman the young woman in Section 3 had glimpsed a bevy of angry train

officials eddying around a sturdy figure in the center, whose strong, lean head rose confidently above the

press. There was the momentary whirl of a scuffle, out of the tangle of which shot a brakeman as if propelled

from a catapult. The circle parted, brushed aside by a pair of lean shoulders, muscular and broad. Yet a few

moments and the owner of the shoulders led down the aisle to the vacant section opposite her a procession

"You had no right to flag the train, Sheriff Collins, and you'll have to get off; that's all there is to it," the

"Oh, that's all right," returned the offender with easy good nature, making himself at home in Section 4. "Tell

"Didn't I hear you say the train was late? Don't you think you'd arrive earlier at the end of your run if your

"I hate to disoblige," murmured the owner of the jingling spurs, the dusty corduroys, and the big, gray hat,

putting his feet leisurely on the cushion in front of him. "But doesn't it occur to you that you are a man of one

"This is the Coast Limited. It doesn't stop for anybodynot even for the president of the road."

"You don't say! Well, I ce'tainly appreciate the honor you did me in stopping to take me on." His slight drawl

"But you had no right to flag the train. Can't you understand ANYTHING?" groaned the conductor.

"You explain it again to me, sonny. I'm surely thick in the haid," soothed the intruder, and listened with bland

"Wellwell! Disrupted the whole transcontinental traffic, didn't I? And me so innocent, too. Now, this is

how I figured it out. Here's me in a hurry to get to Tucson. Here comes your train afoggin'also and

likewise hittin' the high spots for Tucson. Seemed like we ought to travel in company, and I was some

dubious she'd forget to stop unless I flagged her. Wherefore, I aired my bandanna in the summer breeze."

"But you don't understand." The conductor began to explain anew as to a dull child. "It's against the law.

"Well, it does seem to be worrying you," Mr. Collins conceded. "Don't mind me. Free your mind proper."

The conductor, glancing about nervously, noticed that passengers were smiling broadly. His official dignity

was being chopped to mincemeat. Back came his harassed gaze to the imperturbable Collins with the

brown, sunbaked face and the eyes blue and untroubled as an Arizona sky. Out of a holster attached to the

sagging belt that circled the corduroy trousers above his hips gleamed the butt of a revolver. But in the last

analysis the weapon of the occasion was purely a moral one. The situation was one not covered in the

company's rule book, and in the absence of explicit orders the trainman felt himself unequal to that

unwavering gaze and careless poise. Wherefore, he retreated, muttering threats of what the company would

"Now, if I had only known it was against the law. My thick haid's always roping trouble for me," the

That official unbent. "Talking about thick heads, I'm glad my porter has one. If it weren't ironplated and

"No, did I? Ce'tainly an accident. The nigger must have been in my way as I climbed into the car. Took the

kink out of his hair, you say? Here, Sam!" He tossed a bill to the porter, who was rolling affronted eyes at

The white smile flashed at him by the porter was a receipt for indemnity paid in full.

Sheriff Collins' perception of his neighbor across the aisle was more frank in its interest than the girl's had

been of him. The level, fearless gaze of the outdoors West looked at her unabashed, appreciating swiftly her

points as they impinged themselves upon his admiration. The long, lithe lines of the slim, supple body, the

languid grace missing hauteur only because that seemed scarce worth while, the unconscious pride of self that

fails to be offensive only in a young woman so well equipped with good looks as this one indubitably was the

rider of the plains had appraised them all before his eyes dismissed her from his consideration and began a

Inside of half an hour he had made himself persona grata to everybody in the car except his darkeyed

neighbor across the way. That this dispenser of smiles and cigars decided to leave her out in the distribution

of his attentions perhaps spoke well for his discernment. Certainly responsiveness to the geniality of casual

fellow passengers did not impress Mr. Collins as likely to be an outstanding, quality in her. But with the

drummer from Chicago, the young mining engineer going to Sonora, the two shy little English children just

in front of him traveling to meet their father in California, he found intuitively common ground of interest.

Even Major Mackenzie, the engineer in charge of the large irrigation project being built by a company in

It was after Collins had halfdepopulated the car by leading the more jovial spirits back in search of liquid

refreshments that an urbane clergyman, now of Boston but formerly of Pekin, Illinois, professedly much

interested in the sheriff's touchandgo manner as presumably quite characteristic of the West, dropped into

"Val Collins is his name," said the major. "Sometimes called 'Beartrap Collins.' He has always lived on the

frontier. At least, I met him twelve years ago when he was riding mail between Aravaipa and Mesa. He was a

boy then, certainly not over eighteen, but in a desperate fight he had killed two men who tried to hold up the

mail. Cowpuncher, stagedriver, miner, trapper, sheriff, rough rider, politicianhe's past master at them

"And why the appellation of 'Beartrap,' may I ask?" The smack of pulpit oratory was not often missing in

"Well, sir, that's a story. He was trapping in the Tetons about five years ago thirty miles from the nearest

ranchhouse. One day, while he was setting a beartrap, a slide of snow plunged down from the tree

branches above and freed the spring, catching his hand between its jaws. With his feet and his other hand he

tried to open that trap for four hours, without the slightest success. There was not one chance in a million of

help from outside. In point of fact, Collins had not seen a human being for a month. There was only one thing

"You probably noticed that he wears a glove over his left hand. The reason, sir, is that he has an artificial

"You mean" The Reverend Peter paused to lengthen his delicious thrill of horror.

"Yes, sir. That's just what I mean. He hacked his hand off at the wrist with his huntingknife."

Mackenzie flung him a disgusted look. "We don't go much on heroes out here. He's game, if that's what you

mean. And able, too. Bucky O'Connor himself isn't any smarter at following a trail."

"He's the man that just ran down Fernendez. Think I'll have a smoke, sir. Care to join me?"

But the PekinBostonian preferred to stay and jot down in his notebook the story of the beartrap, to be used

later as a sermon illustration. This may have been the reason he did not catch the quick look that passed

without the slightest flicker of the eyelids between Major Mackenzie and the young woman in Section 3. It

was as if the old officer had wired her a message in some code the cipher of which was known only to them.

But the sheriff, returning at the head of his cohorts, caught it, and wondered what meaning might lie back of

that swift glance. Major Mackenzie and this darkeyed beauty posed before others as strangers, yet between

Collins did not know that the aloofness in the eyes of Miss Wainwrighthe had seen the name on her

suitcasegave way to horror when her glance fell on his gloved hand. She had a swift, shuddering vision of

a grimfaced man, jaws set like a vise, hacking at his wrist with a huntingknife. But the engaging

impudence of his eye, the rollicking laughter in his voice, shut out the picture instantly.

The young man resumed his seat, and Miss Wainwright her listless inspection of the flying stretches of brown

desert. Dusk was beginning to fall, and the porter presently lit the lamps. Collins bought a magazine from the

newsboy and relapsed into it, but before he was well adjusted to reading the Limited pounded to a second

Instantly the magazine was thrown aside and Collins' curly head thrust out of the window. Presently the head

reappeared, simultaneously with the crack of a revolver, the first of a detonating fusillade.

"Another of your impatient citizens eager to utilize the unspeakable convenience of rapid transit," suggested

"No, sir; nothing so illegal," smiled the cattleman, a whimsical light in his daredevil eyes. He leaned forward

and whispered a word to the little girl in front of him, who at once led her younger brother back to his

"I had hoped it would prove to be more diverting experience for a tenderfoot," condescended the gentleman

"It's ce'tainly a pleasure to be able to gratify you, sir. You'll be right pleased to know that it is a train

holdup." He waved his hand toward the door, and at the word, as if waiting for his cue, a masked man

There was a ring of crisp menace in the sinister voice that was a spur to obedience. The unanimous show of

hands voted "Aye" with a hasty precision that no amount of drill could have compassed.

It was a situation that might have made for laughter had there been spectators to appreciate. But of whatever

amusement was to be had one of the victims seemed to hold a monopoly. Collins, his arm around the English

children by way of comfort, offered a sardonic smile at the consternation his announcement and its

fulfillment had created, but none of his fellow passengers were in the humor to respond.

The shock of an earthquake could not have blanched ruddy faces more surely. The Chicago drummer, fat and

florid, had disappeared completely behind a buttress of the company's upholstery.

"God bless my soul!" gasped the PekinBostonian, dropping his eyeglass and his accent at the same moment.

The dismay in his face found a reflection all over the car. Miss Wainwright's hand clutched at her breast for

an instant, and her color ebbed till her lips were ashen, but her neighbor across the aisle noticed that her eyes

"Gents to the right and ladies to the left; line up against the walls; everybody waltz." called the man behind

"Keep still, or I'll shoot you full of holes," growled the autocrat of the artillery.

At the sound of Collins' voice, the masked man had started perceptibly, and his right hand had jumped

forward an inch or two to cover the speaker more definitely. Thereafter, no matter what else engaged his

attention, the gleaming eyes behind the red bandanna never wandered for a moment from the big plainsman.

He was taking no risks, for he remembered the saying current in Arizona, that after Collins' hardware got into

action there was nothing left to do but plant the deceased and collect the insurance. He had personal reasons

The trainconductor fussed up to the masked outlaw with a ludicrous attempt at authority. "You can't rob the

passengers on this train. I'm not responsible for the expresscar, but the coaches"

"Drift, you redhaired son of a Mexican?" ordered the man behind the red bandanna. "Git back to that seat

The minutes ticked themselves away in a tense strain marked by pounding hearts. The outlaw stood at the end

"Why doesn't the music begin?" volunteered Collins, by way of conversation, and quoted: "On with the

A dull explosion answered his question. The bandits were blowing open the safe in the expresscar with

A second masked figure joined his companion at the end of the passage and held a hurried conversation with

"Only thirty thousand in the expresscar. Not a red cent on the old man himself."

Collins slewed his head and raked him with keen eyes that missed not a detail. He was certain that he had

never seen the man before, yet he knew at once that the trim, wiry figure, so clean of build and so gallant of

bearing, could belong only to Wolf Leroy, the most ruthless outlaw of the Southwest. It was written in his

jaunty insolence, in the flashing eyes. He was a handsome fellow, whitetoothed, blackhaired, lithely

tigerish, with masterful mouth and eyes of steel, so far as one might judge behind the white mask he wore.

Alert, cruel, fearless from the head to the heel of him, he looked the very devil to lead an enterprise so

lawless and so desperate as this. His vigilant eyes swept contemptuously up and down the car, rested for a

"Bah! A flock of sheeptamest bunch of spring lambs we ever struck. I'll send Scott in to go through them.

Another of the highwaymen took his place, a stout, squat figure in the flannel shirt, spurs, and chaps of a

cowpuncher. It took no second glance to tell Collins this bandylegged fellow had been a rider of the range.

"Come, gentlemen, get a move on you," Collins implored. "This train's due at Tucson by eight o'clock. We're

more than an hour late now. I'm holding down the job of sheriff in that same town, and I'm awful anxious to

get a posse out after a bunch of trainrobbers. So burn the wind, and go through the car on the jump. Help

yourself to anything you find. Who steals my purse takes trash. 'Tis something, nothing. 'Twas mine; 'tis his.

That's right, you'll find my roll in that lefthand pocket. I hate to have you take that gun, though. I meant to

run you down with that same old Colt's reliable. Oh, well, just as you say. No, those kids get a free pass.

Collins' running fire of comment had at least the effect of restoring the color to some cheeks that had been

washed white and of snatching from the outlaws some portion of their sense of dominating the situation. But

"That lady across the aisle gets a pass, too, boys," continued the sheriff. "She's scared stiff now, and you

won't bother her, if you're white men. Her watch and purse are on the seat. Take them, if you want them, and

Miss Wainwright listened to this dialogue silently. She stood before them cool and imperious and

unwavering, but her face was bloodless and the pulse in her beautiful soft throat fluttered like a caged bird.

"Who's doing this job?" demanded one of the holdups, wheeling savagely on the impassive officer "Did I

"You are. I'd hate to be messing the job like youholding up the wrong train by mistake." This was a shot in

the dark, and it did not quite hit the bull'seye. "I wouldn't trust you boys to rob a henroost, the amateur way

you go at it. When you get through, you'll all go to drinking like blue blotters. I know your kindhellbent

to spend what you cash in, and every mother's son of you in the pen or with his toes turned up inside of a

Collins smiled at him with confidence superb "Mebbe I willand if I don't Bucky O'Connor willthose of

you that are left alive when you go through shooting each other in the back. Oh, I see your finish to a

"Cheese it, or I'll bump you off." The first out law drove his gun into the sheriff's ribs.

"That's all right. You don't need to punctuate that remark. I line up with the skypilot and chew the cud of

silence. I merely wanted to frame up to you how this thing's going to turn out. Don't come back at me and say

"You make my head ache," snarled the bandylegged outlaw sourly, as he passed down with his sack,

accumulating tribute as he passed down the aisle with his sack, accumulating tribute as he went.

The redkerchiefed robber whooped when they came to the car conductor. "Dig up, Mr. Pullman. Go way

down into your jeans. It's a right smart pleasure to divert the plunder of your bloated corporation back to the

The drummer contributed to the sack eightyfour dollars, a diamond ring, and a gold watch. His hands were

"What's the matter, Fatty? Got a chill?" inquired one of the robbers, as he deftly swept the plunder into the

"ForGod's sakedon't shoot. I havea wifeand five children," he stammered, with chattering teeth.

"No race suicide for Fatty. But whyfor do they let a sick man like you travel all by his lone?"

"Plumb chuck full of malaria," soliloquized the owner of the weapon, playfully running its business end over

the Chicago man's anatomy. "Shakes worse'n a pair of dice. Here, Fatty. Load up with quinine and whisky.

It's sure good for chills." The man behind the bandanna gravely handed his victim back a dollar. "Write me if

it cures you. Now for the skypilot. No white chips on this plate, parson. It's a contribution to the needy

The man of the cloth reluctantly said thirty dollars, a Lincoln penny, and a silverplated watch inherited from

The Pullman porter came into the car under compulsion of a revolver in the hand of a fourth outlaw, one in a

black mask. His trembling finger pointed out the satchel and suitcase of Major Mackenzie, and under orders

he carried out the baggage belonging to the irrigation engineer. Collin observed that the bandit in the black

mask was so nervous that the revolver in his hand quivered like an aspen in the wind. He was slenderer and

It was just after he had left that three shots in rapid succession rang out in the still night air.

The redbandannaed one and his companion, who had apparently been waiting for the signal, retreated

backward to the end of the car, still keeping the passengers covered. They flung rapidly two or three bullets

through the roof, and under cover of the smoke slipped out into the night. A moment later came the thud of

galloping horses, more shots, and, when the patter of hoofs had died awaysilence.

The sheriff was the first to break it. He thrust his brown hands deep into his pockets and laughedlaughed

Collins wiped his eyes. "Call 'em anything you like. What pleases me is that the reverend gentleman should

have had this diverting experience so prompt after he was wishing for it." He turned, with concern, to the

clergyman. "Satisfied, sir? Did our little entertainment please, or wasn't it up to the mark?"

But the transported native of Pekin was game. "I'm quite satisfied, if you are. I think the affair cost you a

"That's right," agreed the sheriff heartily. "But I don't grudge itnot a cent of it. The show was worth the

The car conductor had a broadside ready for him. "Seems to me you shot off your mouth more than you did

Collins laughed, and clapped him on the back. "That's right. I'm a regular phonograph, when you wind me

up." He did not think it necessary to explain that he had talked to make the outlaws talk, and that he had noted

the quality of their voices so carefully that he would know them again among a thousand. Also he had

observedother thingsthe garb of each of the men he had seen, their weapons, their manner, and their

The clanking car took up the rhythm of the rails as the delayed train plunged forward once more into the

night. Again the clack of tongues, set free from fear, buzzed eagerly. The glow of the afterclap of danger was

on them, and in the warm excitement each forgot the paralyzing fear that had but now padlocked his lips.

Courage came flowing back into flabby cheeks and red blood into hearts of water.

At the next station the Limited stopped, and the conductor swung from a car before the wheels had ceased

"Fire a message through for me, Pat. The Limited has been held up," he announced.

"That's right. Get this message right through to Sabin. I'm not going to wait for an answer. Tell him I'll stop at

With which the conductor was out again waving his lantern as a signal for the train to start. Sheriff Collins

and Major Mackenzie had entered the office at his heels. They too had messages to send, but it was not until

the train was already plunging into the night that the station agent read the yellow slips they had left and

"Lieutenant Bucky O'Connor, Douglas, Arizona," was the address he read at the top of each. His comment

serves to show the opinion generally in the sunburned territory respecting one of its citizens.

"You're wise guys, gents, both of yez. This is shure a case for the leftenant. It's send for Bucky quick when

Sitting down, he gave the call for Tucson, preparatory to transmitting the conductor's message to the division

superintendent. His fingers were just striking the first tap when a silken voice startled him.

The agent looked up and nearly fell from his stool. He was gazing into the end of a revolver held carelessly in

"Kaintucky, but I been here a right smart spell. Why? You takin' the census?" came the drawling answer.

"I didn't hear you come in, either," the man behind the mask mocked. But even as he spoke his manner

changed, and crisp menace rang in his voice. "Have you sent those messages yet?"

Up shot the station agent's hands. The bandit glanced over the written sheets and commented aloud:

"Huh! One from the conductor and one from Mackenzie. I expected those. But this one from Collins is

ce'tainly a surprise party. I didn't know he was on the train. Lucky for him I didn't, or mebbe I'd aput his

light for good and all. Friend, I reckon we'll suppress these messages. Military necessity, you understand."

"The conductor will wire when he reaches Apache," the operator suggested, not very boldly.

The outlaw rolled a cigarette deftly and borrowed a match. "He most surely will. But Apache is seventy miles

from here. That gives us an extra hour and a half, and with us right now time is a heap more valuable than

money. You may tell Bucky O'Connor when you see him that that extra hour and a half cinches our escape,

It may have been true, as the train robber had just said, that time was more valuable to him then than money,

but if so he must have held the latter of singularly little value. For he sat him down on the counter with his

back against the wall and his legs stretched full length in front of him and glanced over the Tucson Star in

The operator, beginning to get over his natural fright, could not withhold a reluctant admiration of this man's

aplomb. There was a certain pantherish lightness about the outlaw's movements, a trim grace of figure which

yet suggested rippling muscles perfectly under control, and a quiet wariness of eye more potent than words at

repressing insurgent impulses. Certainly if ever there was a cool customer and one perfectly sure of himself,

"Not a thing in the Star today," Pat's visitor commented, as he flung it away with a yawn. "I'll let a thousand

dollars of the express company's money that there will be something more interesting in it tomorrow."

"But I won't be here to read it. My engagements take me south. I'll make a present to the great Lieutenant

O'Connor of the information. We're headed south, tell him. And tell Mr. Sheriff Collins, toohappy to

entertain him if he happens our way. If it would rest your hands any there's no law against putting them in

From outside there came a short sharp whistle. The man on the counter answered it, and slipped at once to the

floor. The door opened, to let in another masked form, but one how different from the first! Here was no

confidence almost insolent in its nonchalance. The figure was slight and boyish, the manner deprecating, the

brown eyes shy and shrinking He was so obviously a novice at outlawry that fear sat heavy upon his

His chief relieved the operator of the revolver in his desk, broke it, emptied out the shells, and flung them

"You'll not shoot yourself by accident now," he explained, and with that he had followed his companion into

There came to the station agent the sound of galloping horses, growing fainter, until a heavy silence seemed

to fill the night. He stole to the door and locked it, pulled down the window blinds, and then reloaded his

revolver with feverish haste. This done, he sat down before his keys with the weapon close at hand and

frantically called for Tucson over and over again. No answer came to him, nor from the other direction when

he tried that. The young bandit had told the truth. His companions had cut the wires and so isolated from the

world for the time the scene of the holdup. The agent understood now why the leader of the outlaws had

honored him with so much of his valuable time. He had stayed to hold back the telegrams until he knew the

Beartrap Collins, presuming on the new intimacy born of an exciting experience shared in common, stepped

across the aisle, flung aside Miss Wainwright's impedimenta, and calmly seated himself beside her. She was a

young woman capable of a hauteur chillier than ice to undue familiarity, but she did not choose at this

moment to resent his assumption of a footing that had not existed an hour ago. Picturesque and

unconventional conduct excuses itself when it is garbed in picturesque and engaging manners. She had,

besides, other reasons for wanting to meet him, and they had to do with a sudden suspicion that flamed like

tow in her brain. She had something for which to thank himmuch more than he would be likely to guess,

she thoughtand she was wondering, with a surge of triumph, whether the irony of fate had not made his

"But, after all, I did not lose so much as you. Her dark, deeppupiled eyes, longlashed as Diana's, swept

"That's a true word. My reputation has gone glimmering for fair, I guess." He laughed ruefully. "I shouldn't

wonder, ma'am, when election time comes round, if the boys ain't likely to elect to private life the sheriff that

His humorous glance roamed round the car. "Now, I couldn't think it proper for me to shoot up this

sumptuous palace on wheels. And wouldn't some casual passenger be likely to get his lights put out when the

band began to play? Would you want that Boston church to be shy a preacher, ma'am?"

Her lips parted slightly in a curve of scorn. "I suppose you had your reasons for not interfering."

"That was Wolf who came in to see they were doing the job right. He's the worst desperado on the bordera

sure enough bad proposition, I reckon. They say he's part Spanish and part Indian, but all pisen. Others say

he's a college man of good family. I don't know about that, for nobody knows who he really is. But the name

is a byword in the country. People lower their voices when they speak of him and his nightriders."

Her narrowed eyes looked over the strong lines of his lean face and were unconvinced. "I expect you found a

He turned to her with frank curiosity. "I'd like real well to have you put a name to it."

But he was instantly aware that her interest had been side tracked. Major Mackenzie had entered the car and

was coming down the aisle. Plainer than words his eyes asked a question, and hers answered it.

Mackenzie frowned. "The scoundrels took thirty thousand from the express car, I understand. Twenty

thousand of it belonged to our company. I was expecting to pay off the men next Tuesday."

"Hope we'll be able to run them down for you," returned Collins cheerfully. "I suppose you lay it to Wolf

"Of course. The work was too well done to leave any doubt of that." The major resumed his seat behind Miss

To that young woman the sheriff repeated his unanswered question in the form of a statement. "I'm waiting to

She was possessed of that spice of effrontery more to be desired than beauty. "Shall we say that you had no

Her untender eyes mocked his astonishment. "Do I choose the wrong word?" she asked, with an audacity of a

courage that delighted him. "Perhaps they are not your friendsthese train robbers? Perhaps they are mere

His bold eyes studied with a new interest her superb, confident youththe rolling waves of splendid Titian

hair, the lovely, subtle eyes with the depths of shadowy pools in them, the alluring lines of long and supple

loveliness. Certainly here was no sweet, ingenuous youth all prone to blushes, but the complex heir of that

worldold wisdom the weaker sex has shaped to serve as a weapon against the strength that must be met with

"You're smart as a whip, Miss Wainwright. I take off my hat to a young lady so clever. I guess you're right.

"Yes," he went on evenly, "I once earmarked him so that I'd know him again in case we met."

"Earmarked him. Figure of speech, ma'am. You may not have observed that the curlyheaded person behind

the guns was shy the forefinger of his right hand. We had a little difficulty once when he was resisting arrest,

and it just happened that my gun fanned away his trigger finger." He added reminiscently:

"A good boy, too, Neil was once. We used to punch together on the Hashknife. A straightup rider, the kind a

fellow wants when Old Man Trouble comes knocking at the door. Well, I reckon he's a miscreant now, all

"I've been pirootin' around this country, boy and man, for fifteen years. I ain't responsible for every yellow

"And I noticed that when you told them not to rob the children and not to touch me they did as you said."

He seemed to be struggling with his mirth. "I see you do. Well, ma'am, I've been most everything since I hit

"I think you mentioned an inference." The low laugh welled out of him and broke in his face. "I've been busy

Her startled eyes and the swift movement of her hand toward her heart showed him how nearly he had struck

He leaned forward, so close that even in the roar of the train his low whisper reached her. "Shall I tell you

why the holdups didn't find more money on your father or in the express car, Miss Mackenzie?"

"Shall I tell you why your hand went to your breast when I first mentioned that the train was going to be held

up, and again when your father's eyes were firing a mighty pointed question at you?"

Her gallant bearing compelled his admiration. The scornful eyes, the satirical lift of the nostrils, the erect,

graceful figure, all flung a challenge at him. He called himself hard names for putting her on the rack, but the

"I noticed you went right chalky when I announced the holdup, and I thought it was because you were

scared. That was where I did you an injustice, ma'am, and you can call this an apology. You've got sand. If it

hadn't been for what you carry in the chamois skin hanging on the chain round your neck you would have

enjoyed every minute of the little entertainment. You're as game as they make them."

"May I ask how you arrived at this melodramatic conclusion?" she asked, her disdainful lip curling.

"By using my eyes and my ears, ma'am. I shouldn't have noticed your likeness to Major Mackenzie, perhaps,

if I hadn't observed that there was a secret understanding between you. Now, whyfor should you be passing

as strangers? I could guess one reason, and only one. There have twice been attempted holdups of the

paymaster of the Yuba reservoir. It was to avoid any more of these that Major Mackenzie took charge

personally of paying the men. He has made good up till now. But there have been rumors for months that he

would be held up either before leaving the train or while he was crossing the desert. He didn't want to be seen

taking the boodle from the express company at Tucson. He would rather have the impression get out that this

was just a casual visit. It occurred to him to bring along some unsuspected party to help him out. The robbers

would never expect to find the money on a woman. That's why the major brought his daughter with him.

Doesn't it make you some uneasy to be carrying fifty thousand in small bills sewed in your clothes and hung

She broke into musical laughter, natural and easy. "I don't happen to have fifty thousand with me."

"I should think, ma'am, you'd crinkle more than a silklined lady sailing down a church aisle on Sunday."

"I expect that's the signal for 'Exit Collins.' I'll say goodby till next time, Miss Mackenzie."

"It's a little guess about how this train robbery is coming out. If you don't mind, I'll leave it with you." He tore

the page out, put it in an empty envelope, sealed the flap, and handed it to her.

"I've been thinking that waywith the help of Lieutenant Bucky O'Connor, I mean."

He offered her his hand again. "We're slowing down for Apache. Goodbytill next time."

He understood it to be an unvoiced apology of its owner for her suspicions, and his instinct was correct. For

how could her doubts hold their ground when he had showed himself a sharer in her secret and a guardian of

it? And how could anything sinister lie behind those frank, unwavering eyes or consist with that long, clean

At Apache no telegrams were found waiting for those who had been expecting them. Communication with

the division superintendent at Tucson uncovered the fact that no message of the holdup had yet reached him.

"We're in the infant class, major," he told Mackenzie, with a sardonic laugh. "Leroy must have galloped

down the line direct to the station after the holdup. Likely enough he went into the depot just as we went

out. That gives him the other hour or two he needs to make his getaway with the loot. Well, it can't be helped

now. If I can only reach Bucky there's one chance in fifty he can head them off from crossing into Sonora.

Soon as I can get together a posse I'll take up the trail from the point of the holdup. But they'll have a whole

From Apache Collins sent three dispatches. One was to his deputy, Dillon, at Tucson. It read:

"Order special to carry posse with horses from Tucson to Big Gap. Must leave by midnight. Have track

The third was a notification to Lieutenant O'Connor, of the Arizona Rangers, of the holdup, specifying time

and place of the occurrence. The sheriff knew it was not necessary to add that the bandits were probably

heading south to get into Sonora. Bucky would take that for granted and do his best to cover the likely spots

It was nearly eleven when the Limited drew in to Tucson. Sabin was on the platform anxiously awaiting their

The railroad man was chewing nervously on an unlit cigar. "Yes, sheriff. You want only an engine and one

"That will be enough. I've got to go uptown now and meet Dillon. Midnight sharp, please."

"Thirty thousand, I hear, besides what they took from the passengers. The conductor will tell you all about it.

A disappointment awaited him in the telegrapher's room at the depot. He found a wire, but not from the

person he expected. The ranger in charge at Douglas said that Lieutenant O'Connor was at Flag staff, but

pending that officer's return he would put himself under the orders of Sheriff Collins and wait for

The sheriff whistled softly to himself and scratched his head. Bucky would not have waited for instructions.

By this time that live wire would have finished telephoning all over Southern Arizona and would himself

have been in the saddle. But Bucky in Flagstaff, nearly three hundred miles from the battlefield, so far as the

present emergency went, might just as well be in Calcutta. Collins wired instructions to the ranger and sent a

"I expect I'll hear this time he's skipped over to Winslow," he told himself, with a rueful grin.

The special with the posse on board drew out at midnight sharp. It reached the scene of the holdup before

daybreak. The loading board was lowered and the horses led from the car and picketed. Meanwhile two of the

men lit a fire and made breakfast while the others unloaded the outfit and packed for the trail. The first faint

streaks of gray dawn were beginning to fleck the sky when Collins and Dillon, with a lantern, moved along

the railroad bed to the little clump of cottonwoods where the outlaws had probably lain while they waited for

the express. They scanned this ground inch by inch. The coals where their campfire had been were still

alive. Broken bits of food lay scattered about. Halftrampled into the ground the sheriff picked up a narrow

gold chain and locket. This last he opened, and found it to contain a tiny photograph of a young mother and

babe, both laughing happily. A close search failed to disclose anything else of interest.

They returned to their companions, ate breakfast, and saddled. It was by this time light enough to be moving.

The trail was easy as a printed map, for the object of the outlaws had been haste rather than secrecy. The

"Now, I wonder why this trail don't run straight south instead of bearing to the left into the hills. Looks like

they're going to cache their stolen gold up in the mountains before they risk crossing into Sonora. They figure

"I believe you've guessed it, Val. Stands to reason they'll want to get rid of the loot soon as they can. Oh,

Dillon's disgust proved justifiable, for the trail had lost itself in a mountain stream, up or down which the

outlaws must have filed. A month later and the creek would have been dry. But it was still spring. The

mountain rains had not ceased feeding the brook, and of this the outlaws had taken advantage to wipe out

The sheriff looked anxiously at the sky. "It's fixin' to rain, Jim. Don't that beat the Dutch? If it does, that lets

The men they were after might have gone either upstream or down. It was impossible to know definitely

which, nor was there time to follow both. Already big drops of rain were splashing down.

"We'll take a chance, and go up. They're probably up in the hills somewhere right now," said Collins, with

He had guessed right. A mile farther upstream horses had clambered to the bank and struck deeper into the

hills. But already rain was falling in a brisk shower. The posse had not gone another quarter of a mile before

the trail was washed out. They were now in a rough and rocky country getting every minute steeper.

"It's going to be like lookin' for a needle in a haystack, Val," Dillon growled.

Collins nodded. "We ain't got one chance in a hundred, Jim, but I reckon we'll take that chance."

For three days they blundered around in the hills before they gave it up. The first night, about dusk, the

pursuers were without knowing it so warm that one of the bandits lay with his rifle on a rock rim not a stone's

throw above them as they wound through a little ravine. But Collins got no glimpse of the robbers. At last he

reluctantly gave the word to turn back. Probably the men he wanted had already slipped down to the plains

and across to Mexico. If not, they might play hide and seek with him a month in the recesses of these

Next morning the sheriff struck a telephone wire, tapped it, got Sabin on the line, told him of his failure and

that he was returning to Tucson. About the middle of the afternoon the dispirited posse reached its

A young man lay stretched full length on the loading board, with a broadbrimmed felt hat over his eyes. He

wore a gray flannel shirt and corduroy trousers thrust into halfleg laced boots. At the sound of voices he

turned lazily on his side and watched the members of the posse swing wearily from their saddles. An amiable

Collins swung round, as if he had been pricked with a knife point. He stared an instant before he let out a

The latter got up nimbly in time to be hospitably thumped and punched. He was a lithe, slender young fellow,

of medium height, and he carried himself lightly with that manner of sunburned competency given only by

While the men reloaded the car he and the sheriff stood apart and talked in low tones. Collins told what he

"Yes, it ce'tainly looks like one of Wolf Leroy's jobs," he agreed. "Nobody else but Leroy would have had the

nerve to follow you right up to the depot and put the kibosh on sending those wires. He's surely game from

the toes up. Think of him sittin' there reading the newspaper half an hour after he held up the Limited!"

"He did. He's the only train robber ever in the business that could have done it. Oh, the Wolf's tracks are all

"No doubt about that. I told you I recognized York Neil by him being shy that trigger finger I fanned off

"Yes. I warned him two months ago that if he didn't break away he'd die sudden. Somehow I couldn't

persuade him he was an awful sick man right then. You saw four of these holdups in all, didn't you, Val?"

"Four's right. First off Neil, then the fellow I took to be the Wolf. After he went out a bowlegged fellow came

in, and last a slim little kid that was a sure enough amateur, the way his gun shook."

"I figured out two more. A big gazabo in a red wig held up Frost, the engineer. He knew it was a wig because

he saw long black hair peeping out around his neck. Then there must 'a' been another in charge of blowing up

Bucky nodded. "Looks like you got it figured about right, Val. The Mexican is easy to account for. The Wolf

spends about half his time down in Chihuahua and trains with some highclass greasers down there. Well,

we'll see what we'll see. I'll set my rangers at rounding up the border towns a bit, and if I don't start anything

there I'll hike down into Mexico and see what's doing. I'll count on you to run the Arizona end of it while I'm

away, Val. The Wolf's outfit is a pretty wild one, and it won't be long till something begins to howl. We'll

keep an eye on the gambling halls and see who is burning up money. Oh, they'll leave plenty of smoke behind

"There will be plenty of smoke if we ever do round 'em up, not to mention a heap of good lead that will be

spilled," the sheriff agreed placidly. "Well, all I got to say is the sooner the quicker. The bunch borrowed a

mighty good .45 of mine I need in my biz. I kinder hanker to get it back muy pronto."

"Here's hoping," Bucky nodded gayly. "I bet there will be a right lively wolf hunt. Hello! The car's loaded.

The special drew out from the side track and gathered speed. Soon the rhythmic chant of the rails sounded

monotonously, and the plains on either side of the track swam swiftly to the rear.

Torpid lay Aravaipa in a coma of sunheat. Its adobelined streets basked in the white glare of an Arizona

spring at midday. One or two Papago Indians, with their pottery wares, squatted in the shade of the buildings,

but otherwise the plaza was deserted. Not even a moving dog or a lounging peon lent life to the drowsy

Such was the impression borne in upon the young man riding townward on a wiry buckskin that had just

topped the rise which commanded the valley below. The rider presented a striking enough appearance to take

and hold the roving eye of any young woman in search of romance. He was a slender, lithe young Adonis of

medium height. His hair and eyebrows left one doubtful whether to pronounce them black or brown, but the

eyes called for an immediate verdict of Irish blue. Every inch of him spoke of competencypromised

mastership of any situation likely to arise. But when the last word is said it was the eyes that dominated the

personality. They could run the whole gamut of emotions, or they could be impervious as a stone wall. Now

they were deep and innocent as a girl's, now they rollicked with the buoyant youth in them. Comrades might

see them bubbling with fun, and the next moment enemies find them opague as a leaden sky. Not the least

wonder of them was that they looked out from under long lashes, soft enough for any maiden, at a world they

The young man drew rein above the valley, sitting his horse in the easy, negligent fashion of one that lives in

the saddle. A thumb was hitched carelessly in the front pocket of his chaps, which pocket served also as a

Even in the moment that he sat there a change came over Aravaipa. As a summer shower sweeps across a

lake so something had ruffled the town to sudden life. From stores and saloons men dribbled, converging

"I reckon, Bucky, the band has begun to play," the rider told himself aloud. "Mebbe we better move on down

But no halfexpected revolver shots shattered the stillness, even though interest did not abate.

"There's ce'tainly something doing at the Silver Dollar this glad mo'ning. Chinks, greasers, and several other

kinds of citizens driftin' that way, not to mention white men. I expect there will be room for you, Bucky, if

He cantered down the plaza, swung from the saddle, threw the rein over the pony's head to the ground, and

jingled across the sidewalk into the gambling house. It was filled with a motley crowd of miners, vaqueros,

tourists, cattlemen, Mexicans, Chinese, and a sample of the rest of the heterogeneous population of the

Southwest. Behind this assemblage the newcomer tiptoed in vain to catch a glimpse of the cause of the

excitement. Wherefore, he calmly removed an almondeyed Oriental from a chair on which he was standing,

tipped the exCantonese a half dollar, and appropriated the point of vantage himself.

There was a cleared space in the corner by the roulette table, and here, his chair tipped back against the wall

and a glass of whisky in front of him, sat a sufficiently strange specimen of humanity. He was a man of about

fifty years, large boned and gaunt. Dressed in fringed buckskin trousers and a silverlaced Mexican

sombrero, he affected the long hair, the sweeping mustache, and the ferocious aspect that are the custom of

the pseudoWesterners who do business in the East with fake medical remedies. Around his waist was a belt

garnished with knives by the dozen. These were long and pointed, sharpened to a razor edge. One of them

was in his hand poised for a throw at the instant Bucky mounted the chair and looked over the densely packed

The ranger's keen glance swept to the wall and took in the target. A slim lad of about fifteen stood against it

with his arms outstretched. Above and below each hand and on either side of the swelling throat knives

quivered in the frame wall. There was a flash of steel, and the seventh knife sank into the wood so close to

the crisp curls that a lock hung by a hair, almost completely severed by the blade. The boy choked back a

The bully sipped at his highball and deliberately selected another knife. To Bucky's swift inspection it was

plain he had drunk too much and that a very little slip might make an end of the boy. The fascinated horror in

"Now, f'ler cit'zens, I will continue for your 'musement by puttin' next two knives on right and lef' sides of his

cheek. Observe, pleash, that these will land less than an inch from hish eyes. As the champion knife thrower

What he claimed his audience had to guess, for at this instant another person took a part in the act. Bucky had

stepped lightly across the intervening space on the shoulders of the tightly packed crowd and had dropped as

"I reckon you've about wore out that target. What's the matter with trying a brand new one drawled the

ranger, his quiet, unwavering eye fixed on the bloated, mottled face of the imitation "bad man."

The bully, half seas over, leaned forward and gripped his knife. He was sober enough to catch the jeer

running through the other's words without being sufficiently master of himself to appreciate the menace that

"Wha's that? Say that again!" he burst out, purple to the collar line. He was not used to having beardless boys

with long, soft eyelashes interfering with his amusements, and a blind rage flooded his heart.

"I allowed that a change of targets would vary the entertainment, if you haven't any objections, seh," the

"Who is this kid?" demanded the bully, with a sweep of his arm toward the intruder.

Nobody seemed to know, wherefore the ranger himself gave the information mildly:

A faint murmur of surprise soughed through the crowd, for Bucky O'Connor of the Arizona Rangers was by

way of being a public hero just now on account of his capture of Fernendez, the stage robber. But the knife

thrower had but lately arrived in the country. The youth carried with him none of the earmarks of his trade,

unless it might be that quiet, steady gaze that seemed to search the soul. His voice was soft and drawling, his

manner almost apologetic. In the smile that came and went was something sweet and sunny, in his bearing a

gay charm that did not advertise the recklessness that bubbled from his daredevil spirit. Surely here was an

easy victim upon whom to vent his spleen, thought the other in his growing passion.

"You want to be my target, do you?" he demanded, tugging ferociously at his long mustache.

He was leaning back easily against the wall, his thumb hitched carelessly in the revolver pocket of his worn

leather chaps. He looked at ease, every jaunty inch of him, but a big bronzed cattleman who had just pushed

his way in noticed that the frosty blue eyes never released for an instant those of the enemy.

The bully at the table passed an uncertain hand over his face to clear his blurred vision, poised the cruel blade

in his hand, and sent it flashing forward with incredible swiftness. The steel buried itself two inches deep in

the soft pine beside Bucky's head. So close had it shaved him that a drop of blood gathered and dropped from

"Good shot," commented the ranger quietly, and on the instant his revolver seemed to leap from its holster to

Again a murmur eddied through the crowd. The bullet had neatly bored the bully's ear. He raised his hand in

dazed fashion and brought it away covered with blood. With staring eyes he looked at his moist red fingers,

The big cattleman, who by this time had pushed a way with his broad shoulders to the front, observed the two

men attentively with a derisive smile on his frank face. He was seeing a bluff called, and he enjoyed it.

"You'll be able to wear earrings, Mr. Champion of the Universe, after I have ventilated the other," suggested

But his opponent had had enough, and more than enough. It was one thing to browbeat a harmless boy, quite

another to measure courage with a young gamecock like this. He had all the advantage of the first move. He

was an expert and could drive his first throw into the youth's heart. But at bottom he was a coward and lacked

the nerve, if not the inclination, to kill. If he took up that devilmaycare challenge he must fight it out alone.

Moreover, as his furtive glance went round the ring of faces, he doubted whether a rope and the nearest

telegraph pole might not be his fate if he went the limit. Sourly he accepted defeat, raging in his craven spirit

Bucky moved forward with the curious lightness of a man springfooted. His gaze held the other's shifting

All said, the eye is a prince of weapons. It is a moral force more potent than the physical, and by it men may

measure strength to a certainty. So now these two clinched and battled with it till the best man won. The

showman's look gave way before the stark courage of the other. His was no match for the inscrutable,

unwavering eye that commanded him. His fingers began to twitch, edged slowly toward his waist. For an

instant they fumbled at the buckle of the belt, which presently fell with a rattle to the floor.

"Now, roll yore trail to the wall. Face this way! Arms out! That's good! You rest there comfortable while I

He removed the knives that hemmed in the boy and supported the halffainting figure to a chair beside the

roulette table. But always he remained in such a position as to keep the big bully he was baiting in view. The

boy dropped into the chair and covered his face with his hands, sobbing with deep, broken breaths. The

ranger touched caressingly the crisp, fair hair that covered the head in short curls.

"Don't you worry, bub. Now, don't you. It's all over with now. That coyote won't pester you any more. Will

At the last words he wheeled suddenly to the showman. "You're right sorry already you got so gay, ain't you?

He waited for an answer, and his gaze held fast to the bloated face that cringed before his attack.

"Dead easy jay, I reckon you mean. Now, chirp, up and tell the boy how sorry you are you got fresh with

"He's my boy. I guess I can do what I like with him," the man burst out angrily. "I wasn't hurting him any,

Bucky fondled suggestively the revolver in his hand. A metallic click came to his victim.

"You can put in your order now for them earrings we were mentionin', Mr. Deadeasy. You see, I had to

"Funny how you will get off the subject. We were discussin' an apology when you got to wandering in yore

The mottled face showed white in patches. Beads of perspiration stood out on the forehead of Hardman. "I

A bullet plowed a path through the long hair that fell to the showman's shoulders and snipped a lock from it.

"You don't need to explain a thing to me, seh. I'm sure resting easy in my mind. But as you were about to

remark you're fair honin' for a chance to ask the kid's pardon. Now, ain't I a mind reader, seh?"

"Better late than too late. Now, I've a good mind to take a vote whether I'd better unload the rest of the pills in

this old reliable medicine box at you. Mebbe I ought to pump one into that coyote heart of yours."

For answer the ranger tossed the weapon on the table with a scornful laugh and strode up to the other. The

wouldbe bad man towered six inches above him, and weighed half as much again. But O'Connor whirled

"I'd hate to waste a funeral on him," he said, as he sauntered back to the boy at the table.

The lad was beginning to recover, though his breath still came with a catch. His rag of a handkerchief was

dabbing tears out of his eyes. O'Connor noticed how soft his hands and how delicate his features.

"This kid ain't got any more business than a rabbit going around in the show line with that big scoundrel. He's

one of these gentle, rockmetosleepmother kids that ought to stay in the home nest and not go buttin' into

Bucky had been brought up in the school of experience, where every student keeps his own head or goes to

the wall. All his short life he had played a lone hand, as he would have phrased it. He had campaigned in

Cuba as a mere boy. He had ridden the range and held his own on the hurricane deck of a bucking broncho.

From cowpunching he had graduated into the tough little body of territorial rangers at the head of which was

"Hurry Up" Millikan. This had brought him a large and turbulent experience in the knack of taking care of

himself under all circumstances. Naturally, a man of this type, born and bred to the code of the outdoors

West, could not fail of a certain contempt for a boy that broke down and cried when the game was going

But Bucky's contempt was tolerant, after all. He could not deny his sympathy to a youngster in trouble. Again

"Brace up, bub. The worst is yet to come," he laughed awkwardly. "I reckon there's no use spillin' any more

The lad's big brown eyes looked up into the serene blue ones and found comfort in their strength. "No, he's

"This is a free country, son. We don't have masters if we're good Americans, though we all have to take

orders from our superior officers. You don't need to serve this fellow unless you want to. That's a cinch."

The boy's troubled eyes were filmed with reminiscent terror. "You don't know him. He is terrible when he is

"I don't think it," returned Bucky contemptuously. "He's the worst blowhard ever. Say the word and I'll run

The boy whipped up the sleeve of the fancy Mexican jacket he wore and showed a long scar on his arm. "He

did that one day when he was angry at me. He pretended to others that it was an accident, but I knew better.

This morning I begged him to let me leave him. He beat me, but he was still mad; and when he took to

drinking I was afraid he would work himself up to stick me again with one of his knives."

Bucky looked at the scar in the soft, rounded arm and swept the boy with a sudden puzzled glance that was

"Oh, for years. Ever since I was a little fellow. He took me after my father and mother died of yellow fever in

"I would work. I would do anything I could. Really, I would try to pay my way, and I don't eat much," Frank

Bucky smiled. "I expect they can stand all you eat without going to the poorhouse. It's a bargain then. I'll take

"You're so good to me. I never had anybody be so good before." Tears stood in the big eyes and splashed

"Cut out the water works, kid. You want to take a brace and act like a man," advised his new friend

"I know. I know. If you knew what I have done maybe you wouldn't ask me to go with you. II can't tell

A hand fell on the ranger's shoulder and a voice in his ear. "Young man, I want you."

The lieutenant whirled like a streak of lightning, finger on trigger already. "I'll trouble you for yore warrant,

The man confronting him was the big cattleman who had entered the Silver Dollar in time to see O'Connor's

The level eyes of the young man fastened on those of the cattleman, and, before he spoke again, were

satisfied. For both of these men belonged to the old West whose word is as good as its bond, that West which

will go the limit for a cause once under taken without any thought of retreat, regardless of the odds or the

letter of the law. Though they had never met before, each knew at a glance the manner of man the other was.

"All right, seh. If you want me I reckon I'm here large as life," the ranger said,

Bucky laid a hand on the shoulder of the boy. "This kid goes with me. I'm keeping an eye on him for the

"My business is private, but I expect that can be arranged. We'll take the inner room and let him have the

Having reached the poker room upstairs, that same private room which had seen many a big game in its day

between the big cattle kings and mining men of the Southwest, Bucky's host ordered refreshments and then

"Webb Mackenzie, who came from Texas last year and bought the Rocking Chair Ranch?"

Webb Mackenzie was so distinctively a product of the West that no other segment of the globe could have

produced him. Big, rawboned, tanned to a leathery brickbrown, he was as much of the frontier as the ten

thousand cows he owned that ran the range on half as many hills and draws. He stood six feet two and tipped

the beam at two hundred twelve pounds, not an ounce of which was superfluous flesh. Temperamentally, he

was frank, imperious, freehearted, what men call a prince. He wore a loose tailormade suit of brown stuff

and a broadbrimmed lightgray Stetson. For the rest, you may see a hundred like him at the yearly stock

convention held in Denver, but you will never meet a man even among them with a sounder heart or better

"I've got a story to tell you, Lieutenant O'Connor," he began. "I've been meaning to see you and tell it ever

since you made good in that Fernendez matter. It wasn't your gameness. Anybody can be game. But it looked

to me like you were using the brains in the top of your head, and that happens so seldom among law officers I

wanted to have a talk with you. Since yesterday I've been more anxious. For why? I got a letter from my

brother telling me Sheriff Collins showed him a locket he found at the place of the T. P. Limited holdup.

That locket has in it a photograph of my wife and little girl. For fifteen years I haven't seen that picture. When

I saw it last 'twas round my little baby's neck. What's more, I haven't seen her in that time, either."

"Haven't seen or heard of her. So far as I know she may not be alive now. This locket is the first hint I have

had since she was taken away, the very first news of her that has reached me, and I don't know what to make

of that. One of the robbers must have been wearing it, the way I figure it out. Where did he get it? That's what

The cattleman offered O'Connor a cigar and lit one himself. For a minute he puffed slowly at his Havana,

leaning far back in his chair with eyes reminiscent and half shut. Then he shook himself back into the present

"I don't reckon you ever heard tell of Dave Henderson. It was back in Texas I knew him, and he's been

missing sixteen years come the eleventh of next August. For fifteen years I haven't mentioned his name,

because Dave did me the dirtiest wrong that one man ever did another. Back in the old days he and I used to

trail together. We was awful thick, and mostly hunted in couples. We began riding the same season back on

the old Kittredge Ranch, and we went in together for all the kinds of spreeing that young fellows who are

footloose are likely to do. Fact is, we suited each other from the ground up. We frolicked round aplenty, like

young colts will, and there was nothing on this green earth Dave could have asked from me that I wouldn't

have done for him. Nothing except one, I reckon, and Dave never asked that of me."

Mackenzie puffed at his cigar a silent moment before resuming. "It happened we both fell in love with the

same girl, little Frances Clark, of the Double T Ranch. Dave was a better looker than me and a more taking

fellow, but somehow Frances favored me from the start. Dave stayed till the finish, and when he seen he had

lost he stood up with me at the wedding. We had agreed, you see, that whoever won it wasn't to break up our

"Well, Frankie and I were married, and in course of time we had two children. My boy, Tom, is the older.

The other was a little girl, named after her mother." The cattleman waited a moment to steady his voice, and

spoke through teeth set deep in his Havana. "I haven't seen her, as I said, since she was two years and ten

Bucky looked up quickly with a question on his lips, but he did not need to word it.

Mackenzie nodded. "Yes, Dave took her with him when he lit out across the line for Mexico"

But I'll have to go back to something that happened earlier. About three months before this time Dave and me

were riding through a cut in the Sierra Diablo Mountains, when we came on a Mexican who had been

wounded by the Apaches. I reckon we had come along just in time to scare them off before they finished him.

We did our best for him, but he died in about two hours. Before dying, he made us a present of a map we

found in his breast pocket. It showed the location of a very rich mine he had found, and as he had no near kin

"Just then the roundup came on, and we were too busy to pay much attention to the mine. Each of us would

have trusted the other with his life, or so I thought. But we cut the paper in half, each of us keeping one part,

in order that nobody else could steal the secret from the one that held the paper. The last time I had been in El

Paso I had bought my little girl a gold chain with two lockets pendent. These lockets opened by a secret

spring, and in one of them I put my half of the map. It seemed as safe a place as I could devise, for the chain

never left the child's neck, and nobody except her mother, Dave, and I knew that it was placed there. Dave

hid his half under a rock that was known to both of us. The strange thing about the story is that my false

friend, in the hurry of his flight, forgot to take his section of the map with him. I found it under the rock next

day, so that his vile treachery availed him nothing from a mercenary point of view."

"Didn't take his half of the map with him. That's right funny," Bucky mused aloud.

"Mebbe if you understood that a heap of things might be clear that are dark now."

"Mebbe. Knowing Dave Henderson as I did, or, rather, as I thought I did, such treachery as his was almost

unbelievable. He was the sweetest, sunniest soul I ever knew, and no two brothers could have been as fond of

each other as we seemed to be. But there was no chance of mistake. He had gone, and taken our child with

him, likely in accordance with a plan of revenge long cherished by him. We never heard of him or the child

again. They disappeared as completely as if the earth had swallowed them up. Our cook, too, left with him

"Your cook?" It was the second comment Bucky had ventured, and it came incisively. "What manner of man

"A huge, lumbering braggart. I could never understand why Dave took the man with him."

"But I tell you he did. They disappeared the same night, and the trail showed they went the same road. We

followed them for about an hour next day, but a heavy rain came up and blotted out the tracks."

"Back at the ranch I had pictures of Dave, but I burned them after he left. Yes, I reckon we have one of

The ranger asked a few questions that made clearer the situation on the day of the kidnapping, and some more

concerning Anderson, then fell again into the role of a listener while Mackenzie concluded his story.

"All these years I have kept my eyes open, confident that at last I would discover something that would help

me to discover the whereabouts of my child, or, at least, give me a chance to punish the scoundrel who

betrayed my confidence. Yesterday my brother's letter gave the first clue we have had. I want that lead

worked. Ferret this thing out to the bottom, lieutenant. Get me something definite to go on. That's what I want

you to do. Run the thing to earth, get at the facts, and find my child for me. I'll give you carte blanche up to a

hundred thousand dollars. All I ask of you is to make good. Find the little girl, or else bring me face to face

O'Connor was strangely interested in this story of treachery and mystery. He rose with shining eyes and held

out his hand. "I don't know, seh. but I'll try damned hard to do three things: find out what has become of the

little girl, of Dave Henderson, and of the scoundrel who stole your baby because he thought the map was in

"That is exactly what I mean. Your cook, Anderson, kidnapped the child, looks like to me. I saw that locket

Collins found. My guess was that the marks on the end of the chain were deep teeth marks. The man that

stole your baby tried first to cut the chain with his teeth so as to steal the chain. You see, he could not find the

clasp in the dark. Then the child wakened and began to cry. He clapped a hand over its mouth and carried the

little girl out of the room. Then he heard somebody moving about, lost his nerve, and jumped on the horse

that was waiting, saddled, at the door. He took the child along simply because he had to in order to get the

"It's contributory evidence, seh. Your friend could have slipped the chain from her neck any day, or he could

have opened the locket and taken the map. No need for him to steal in at night. Do you happen to remember

The cattleman's forehead frowned in thought. "I do remember, now, that she was afraid of him. She always

ran screaming to her mother when he tried to be friendly with her. He was a sour sort of fellow."

"That helps out the case a heap, for it shows that he wanted to make friends with her and she refused. He was

thus forced to take the chain when she was asleep instead of playing with her till he had discovered the spring

"You and your friend talked it over evenings when he was at the ranch, and other places, too, I expect."

"But you're ignoring the important fact. Dave disappeared too that night, with my little girl."

Bucky cut in sharply with a question. "Did he? How do you know he disappeared WITH her? Why not

"All the difference in the world. If he left after the cook, you have been doing him an injustice for fifteen

Mackenzie leaned forward, excitement burning in his eyes. "Prove that, young man, and I'll thank you to the

last day of my life. It's for my wife's sake more than my own I want my little girl back. She jes' pines for her

every day of her life. But for my friendif you can give me back the clean memory of Dave you'll have done

"It's only a working theory, but this is what I'm getting at. You and Henderson had arranged to take an early

start on a two days' deer hunt next mo'ning. That's what you told me, isn't it?"

"Well, let's suppose a case. Along comes Dave before daybreak, when the first hooters were beginning to

call. Just as he reaches your ranch he notices a horse slipping away in the darkness. Perhaps he hears the little

girl cry out. Anyhow, instead of turning in at the gate, he decides to follow. Probably he isn't sure there's

anything wrong, but when he finds out how the horse he's after is burning the wind his suspicions grow

stronger. He settles down to a long chase. In the darkness, we'll say, he loses his man, but when it gets lighter

he picks up the trail again. The tracks lead south, across the line into Mexico. Still he keeps plodding on. The

man in front sees him behind and gets scared because he can't shake him off. Very likely he thinks it is you

on his track. Anyhow, while the child is asleep he waits in ambush, and when Henderson rides up he shoots

him down. Then he pushes on deeper into Chihuahua, and proceeds to lose himself there by changing his

"You think he murdered Dave?" The cattleman got up and began to pace up and down the floor.

Webb Mackenzie's face was pallid, but there was a new light of hope in it. "I believe you're right. God knows

I hope so. That may sound a horrible thing to say of my best friend, but if it has got to be one or the otherif

it is certain that my old bunkie came to his death foully in Chihuahua while trying to save my baby, or is

alive today, a skulking coward and villainwith all my heart I hope he is dead." He spoke with a

passionate intensity which showed how much he had cared for his early friend, and how much the latter's

apparent treachery had cut him. "I hope you'll never have a friend go back on you, Mr. O'Connor, the one

friend you would have banked on to a finish. Why, Dave Henderson saved my life from a bunch of Apaches

once when it was dollars to doughnuts he would lose his own if he tried it. We were prospecting in the

Galiuros together, and one mo'ning when he went down to the creek to water the hawsses he sighted three of

the red devils edging up toward the cabin. There might have been fifty of them there for all he knew, and he

had a clear run to the plains if he wanted to back one of the ponies and take it. Most any man would have

saved his own skin, but not Dave. He hoofed it back to the cabin, under fire every foot of the way, and

together we made it so hot for them that they finally gave up getting us. We were in the Texas Rangers

together, and pulled each other through a lot of close places. And then at the end Why, it hurt me more

Bucky nodded. Since he was a man and not a father, he could understand how the hurt would rankle year

"That's another kink we have got to unravel in this tangle. First off, there's your little girl, to find if she is still

alive. Second, we must locate Dave Henderson or his grave. Third, there's something due the scoundrel who

is responsible for this. Fourthly, brethren, there's that map section to find. And lastly, we've got to find just

how this story you've told me got mixed with the story of the holdup of the Limited. For it ce'tainly looks as

if the two hang together. I take it that the thing to do is to run down the gang that held up the Limited. Once

we do that, we ought to find the key to the mystery of your little girl's disappearance. Or, at least, there is a

"Good enough. I like the way you go at this. Already I feel a heap better than I did."

"If the cards fall our way you're going to get this thing settled once for all. I can't promise my news will be

good news when I get it, but anything will be better than the uncertainty you've been in, I take it," said

"Of course. I remember, now. You're the good bad man of the West," Mackenzie answered amiably. "Well, I

"I've got to take that kid in the next room out to my ranch first. I won't stand for that knife thrower making a

"What's the matter with me taking the boy out to the Rocking Chair with me? My wife and I will see he's

"That would be the best plan, if it won't trouble you too much. We'd better keep his whereabouts quiet till this

"Yes, though I hardly think he'd be fool enough to show up at the Rocking Chair. If my vaqueros met up with

him prowling around they might show him as warm a welcome as you did half an hour ago."

"A chapping would sure do him a heap of good," grinned Bucky, and so dismissed the Champion of the

Bucky began at once to tap the underground wires his official position made accessible to him. These ran

over Southern Arizona, Sonora, and Chihuahua. All the places to which criminals or frontiersmen with

money were wont to resort were reported upon. For the ranger's experience had taught him that since the men

he wanted had money in their pockets to burn gregarious impulse would drive them from the far silent places

of the desert to the roulette and faro tables where the wolf and the lamb disport themselves together.

The photograph from Webb Mackenzie of the cook Anderson reached him at Tucson the third day after his

interview with that gentleman, at the same time that Collins dropped in on him to inquire what progress he

O'Connor told him of the Aravaipa episode, and tossed across the table to him the photograph he had just

"If we could discover the gent that sat for this photo it might help us. You don't by any chance know him, do

The ranger again examined the faded picture. A resemblance in it to somebody he had met recently haunted

vaguely his memory. As he looked the indefinite suggestion grew sharp and clear. It was a photograph of the

showman who had called himself Hardman. All the trimmings were lacking, to be surethe fierce mustache,

the long hair, the buckskin trappings, none of them were here. But beyond a doubt it was the same

shiftyeyed villain. Nor did it shake Bucky's confidence that Mackenzie had seen him and failed to recognize

the man as his old cook. The fellow was thoroughly disguised, but the camera had happened to catch that

curious furtive glance of his. But for that O'Connor would never have known the two to be the same.

Bucky was at the telephone half an hour. In the middle of the next afternoon his reward came in the form of a

The telegram was marked from Epitaph, and for that town the ranger and the sheriff entrained immediately.

Bucky's eye searched in vain the platform of the Epitaph depot for Malloy, of the Rangers, whose wire had

brought him here. The cause of the latter's absence was soon made clear to him in a note he found waiting for

"The old man has just sent me out on hurryup orders. Don't know when I'll get back. Suggest you take in the

It was the last sentence that caught Bucky's attention. Jim Malloy had not written it except for a reason.

Wherefore the lieutenant purchased two tickets for the performance far back in the house. From the local

newspaper he gathered that the showman was henceforth to be a resident of Epitaph. Mr. Jay Hardman, or

Signor Raffaello Cavellado, as he was known the world over by countless thousands whom he had

entertained, had purchased a corral and livery stable at the corner of Main and Boothill Streets and solicited

the patronage of the citizens of Hualpai County. That was the purport of the announcement which Bucky

That evening Signor Raffaello Cavellado made a great hit with his audience. He swaggered through his act

magnificently, and held his spectators breathless. Bucky took care to see that a post and the sheriff's big body

After it was over O'Connor and the sheriff returned to the hotel, where also Hardman was for the present

staying, and sent word up to his room that one of the audience who had admired very much the artistic

performance would like the pleasure of drinking a glass of wine with Signor Cavellado if the latter would

favor him with his company in room seven. The Signor was graciously pleased to accept, and followed his

Bucky remained quietly in the corner of the room back of the door until the showman had entered, and while

the latter was meeting Collins he silently locked the door and pocketed the key.

The sheriff acknowledged Hardman's condescension brusquely and without shaking hands. "Glad to meet

you, seh. But you're mistaken in one thing. I'm not your host. This gentleman behind you is."

The man turned and saw Bucky, who was standing with his back against the door, a bland smile on his face.

"Yes, seh. I'm your host tonight. Sheriff Collins, hyer, is another guest. I'm glad to have the pleasure of

entertaining you, Signor Raffaello Cavellado," Bucky assured him, in his slow, gentle drawl, without

For the fellow was plainly disconcerted at recognition of his host. He turned with a show of firmness to

Collins. "If you're a sheriff, I demand to have that door opened at once," he blustered.

Val put his hands in his pockets and tipped back his chair. "I ain't sheriff of Hualpai County. My jurisdiction

"I reckon I'm holding all the aces, Signor Cavellado," explained the ranger affably. "Or do you prefer in

"Andersona good plain name. I wonder, now, why you changed it?" Bucky's innocent eyes questioned him

blandly as he drew from his pocket a little box and tossed it on the table. "Open that box for me, Mr.

With trembling fingers the big coward fumbled at the string. With all his fluent will he longed to resist, but

the compelling eyes that met his so steadily were not to be resisted. Slowly he unwrapped the paper and took

the lid from the little box, inside of which was coiled up a thin gold chain with locket pendant.

"Be seated," ordered Bucky sternly, and after the man had found a chair the ranger sat down opposite him.

From its holster he drew a revolver and from a pocket his watch. He laid them on the table side by side and

"We had better understand each other, Mr. Anderson. I've come here to get from you the story of that chain,

so far as you know it. If you don't care to tell it I shall have to mess this floor up with your remains. Get one

proposition into your cocoanut right now. You don't get out of this room alive with your secret. It's up to you

Quite without dramatics, as placidly as if he were discussing railroad rebates, the ranger delivered his

ultimatum. It seemed plain that he considered the issue no responsibility of his.

Anderson stared at him in silent horror, moistening his dry lips with the tip of his tongue. Once his gaze

shifted to the sheriff but found small comfort there. Collins had picked up a newspaper and was absorbed in

He looked up from his newspaper in mild protest at such unreason. "Me? I ain't sittin' in this game. Seems

"Better not waste your time, signor, on side issues," advised the man behind the gun. "For I plumb forgot to

tell you I'm allowing only three minutes to begin your story, half of which three has already slipped away to

yesterday's seven thousand years. Without wantin' to hurry you, I suggest the wisdom of a prompt decision."

"Would he what? Oh, shoot you up. Cayn't tell till I see. If he says he will he's liable to. He always was that

"Yes, it's sure a heap against the law, but then Bucky ain't a lawyer. I don't reckon he cares sour grapes for the

"There's a heap of cases the law don't reach prompt. This is one of them," contributed the ranger cheerfully.

He pocketed his watch and picked up the .45. "Any last message or anything of that sort, signor? I don't want

The whilom bad man's teeth chattered. "I'll tell you anything you want to know."

"Now, that's right sensible. I hate to come into another man's house and clutter it up. Reel off your yarn."

"I want the whole story of your kidnapping of the Mackenzie child, how came you to do it, what happened to

Dave Henderson, and full directions where I may locate Frances Mackenzie. Begin at the beginning, and I'll

fire questions at you when you don't make any point clear to me. Turn loose your yarn at me hot off the bat."

The man told his story sullenly. While he was on the roundup as cook for the riders he had heard Mackenzie

and Henderson discussing together the story of their adventure with the dying Spaniard and their hopes of

riches from the mine he had left them. From that night he had set himself to discover the secret of its location,

had listened at windows and at keyholes, and had once intercepted a letter from one to the other. By chance

he had discovered that the baby was carrying the secret in her locket, and he had set himself to get it from

But his chance did not come. He could not make friends with her, and at last, in despair of finding a better

opportunity, he had slipped into her room one night in the small hours to steal the chain. But it was wound

round her neck in such a way that he could not slip it over her head. She had awakened while he was

fumbling with the clasp and had begun to cry. Hearing her mother moving about in the next room, he had

hastily carried the child with him, mounted the horse waiting in the yard, and ridden away.

In the road he became aware, some time later, that he was being pursued. This gave him a dreadful fright, for,

as Bucky had surmised, he thought his pursuer was Mackenzie. All night he rode southward wildly, but still

his follower kept on his trail till near morning, when he eluded him. He crossed the border, but late that

afternoon got another fright. For it was plain he was still being followed. In the endless stretch of rolling hills

he twice caught sight of a rider picking his way toward him. The heart of the guilty man was like water. He

could not face the outraged father, nor was it possible to escape so dogged a foe by flight. An alternative

suggested itself, and he accepted it with sinking courage. The child was asleep in his arms now, and he

hastily dismounted, picketed his horse, and stole back a quarter of a mile, so that the neighing of his bronco

might not betray his presence. Then he lay down in a dense mesquit thicket and waited for his foe. It seemed

an eternity till the man appeared at the top of a rise fifty yards away. Hastily Anderson fired, and again. The

man toppled from his horse, dead before he struck the ground. But when the cook reached him he was

horrified to see that the man he had killed was a member of the Rurales, or Mexican border police. In his

He fled at once, pursued by a thousand fears. Late the next night he reached a Chihuahua village, after having

been lost for many hours. The child he still carried with him, simply because he had not the heart to leave it

to die in the desert alone. A few weeks later he married an American woman he met in Sonora. They adopted

Meanwhile, he was horrified to learn that Dave Henderson, following hard on his trail, had been found

bending over the spot where the dead soldier lay, had been arrested by a body of Rurales, tried hurriedly, and

convicted to life imprisonment. The evidence had been purely circumstantial. The bullet found in the dead

body of the trooper was one that might have come from his rifle, the barrel of which was empty and had been

recently fired. For the rest, he was a hated Americano, and, as a matter of course, guilty. His judges took

pains to see that no message from him reached his friends in the States before he was buried alive in the

prison. In that horrible hole an innocent man had been confined for fifteen years, unless he had died during

That, in substance, was the story told by the showman, and Bucky's incisive questions were unable to shake

any portion of it. As to the missing locket, the man explained that it had been broken off by accident and lost.

When he discovered that only half the secret was contained on the map section he had returned the paper to

the locket and let the child continue to carry it. Some years after the death of the child, Frances, his wife had

"It must have been about two months ago, down at Nogales, that I sold it to a fellow. I was playing faro and

And to that he stuck stoutly, nor could he be shaken from it. Both O'Connor and the sheriff believed he was

lying, for they were convinced that he was the bandit with the red wig who had covered the engineer while

his companions robbed the train. But of this they had no proof. Nor did Bucky even mention his suspicion to

Hardman, for it was his intention to turn him loose and have him watched. Thus, perhaps, he would be caught

corresponding or fraternizing with some of the other outlaws. Collins left the room before the showman, and

Meanwhile, Bucky went out and tapped another of his underground wires. This ran directly to the Mexican

consul at Tucson, to whom Bucky had once done a favor of some importance, and from him to Sonora and

Chihuahua. It led to musty old official files, to records already yellowed with age, to court reports and prison

registers. In the end it flashed back to Bucky great news. Dave Henderson, arrested for the murder of the

Rurales policeman, was still serving time in a Mexican prison for another man's crime. There in Chihuahua

for fifteen years he had been lost to the world in that underground hole, blotted out from life so effectually

that few now remembered there had been such a person. It was horrible, unthinkable, but none the less true.

For a week Bucky had been in the little border town of Noches, called there by threats of a race war between

the whites and the Mexicans. Having put the quietus on this, he was returning to Epitaph by way of the

Huachuca Mountains. There are still places in Arizona where rapid transit can be achieved more

expeditiously on the back of a bronco than by means of the railroad, even when the latter is available. So now

Bucky was taking a short cut across country instead of making the two train changes, with the consequent

He traveled at night and in the early morning, to avoid the heat of the midday sun, and it was in the evening

of the second and last day that the skirts of happy chance led him to an adventure that was to affect his whole

future life. He knew a waterhole on the Del Oro, where cows were wont to frequent even in the summer

drought, and toward this he was making in the fagend of the sultry day. While still some hundred yards

distant he observed a spiral of smoke rising from a campfire at the spring, and he at once made a more

circumspect approach. For it might be any one of a score of border ruffians who owed him a grudge and

would be glad to pay it in the silent desert that tells no tales and betrays no secrets to the inquisitive.

He flung the bridlerein over his pony's neck and crept forward on foot, warily and noiselessly. While still

some little way from the waterhole he was arrested by a sound that startled him. He could make out a

"You're mine to do with as I like. I'm your uncle. I've raised you from a kid, and, by the great mogul! you

can't sneak off with the first goodfor nothing scoundrel that makes eyes at you. Thought you had slipped

away from me, you whitefaced, sniveling little idiot, but I'll show you who is master."

The lash of a whip rose and fell twice on quivering flesh before Bucky leaped into the fireglow and wrested

"Dare to touch a woman, would you?" cried the ranger, swinging the whip vigorously across the broad

But when Bucky had finished with the fellow and flung him a limp, writhing huddle of welts to the ground,

three surprises awaited him. The first was that it was not a woman he had rescued at all, but a boy, and, as the

flickering firelight played on his face, the ranger came to an unexpected recognition. The slim lad facing him

was no other than Frank Hardman, whom he had left a few days before at the Rocking Chair under the care of

motherly Mrs. Mackenzie. The young man's eyes went back with instant suspicion to the fellow he had just

punished, and his suspicions were verified when the leaping light revealed the face of the showman

Bucky laughed. "I ce'tainly seem to be interfering in your affairs a good deal, Mr. Anderson. You may take

my word for it that you was the last person in the world I expected to meet here, unless it might be this boy. I

left him safe at a ranch fifty miles from here, and I left you a staid business man of Epitaph. But it seems

"He found me where I was staying. I was out riding alone on an errand for Mrs. Mackenzie when he met me

and made me go with him. He has arranged to have me meet his wife in Mexico. The show wouldn't draw

well without me. You know I do legerdemain," Frank explained, in his low, sweet voice.

"So you had plans of your own, Mr. Anderson. Now, that was right ambitious of you. But I reckon I'll have to

interfere with them again. Go through him, kid, and relieve him of any guns he happens to be garnished with.

Might as well help yourself to his knives, too. He's so fond of letting them fly around promiscuous he might

Now we can sit down and have a friendly talk. Where did you say you was intending to spend the next few

weeks before I interrupted so unthinking and disarranged your plans? I'm talking to you, Mr. Anderson."

What Bucky thought was: "Right strange direction to be taking for Sonora. I'll bet my pile you were going up

into the hills to meet some of Wolf Leroy's gang. But why you were taking the kid along beats me, unless it

"Oh, you'll like Epitaph a heap better. I allow you ought to stay at that old town. It's a real interesting place.

Finished in the adobe style and that sort of thing. The jail's real comfy, too."

"Would I? Why, I'm hungry enough to eat a leather mailsack. Trot on your grub, young man, and watch my

Bucky did ample justice to the sandwiches and lemonade the lad set in front of him, but he ate with a wary

"I'm a new man," he announced briskly, when he had finished. "That veal loaf sandwich went sure to the right

spot. If you had been a young lady instead of a boy you couldn't fix things up more appetizing."

The lad's face flushed with embarrassment, apparently at the ranger's compliment, and the latter, noticed how

delicate the small face was. It made an instinctive, wistful appeal for protection, and Bucky felt an odd little

"Might think I was the kid's father to see what an interest I take in him," the young man told himself

reprovingly. "It's all tommyrot, too. A boy had ought to have more grit. I expect he needed that licking all

When Bucky had eaten, the camp things were repacked for travel. Epitaph was only twentythree miles

away, and the ranger preferred to ride in the cool of the night rather than sit up till daybreak with his prisoner.

Besides, he could then catch the morning train from that town and save almost a day.

So hour after hour they plodded on, the prisoner in front, O'Connor in the center, and Frank Hardman

bringing up the rear. It was an Arizona night of countless stars, with that peculiar soft, velvety atmosphere

that belongs to no other land or time. In the distance the jagged, violet line of mountains rose in silhouette

against a sky not many shades lighter, while nearer the cool moonlight flooded a land grown magical under

The ranger rode with a limp ease that made for rest, his body shifting now and again in the saddle, so as to

It must have been well past midnight that he caught the long breath of a sigh behind him. The trail had

broadened at that point, for they were now down in the rolling plain, so that two could ride abreast in the

Bucky laughed. "You're ce'tainly the queerest kid I've run up against. I guess you didn't scramble up in this

roughandtumble West like I did. You're too soft for this country." He let his firm brown fingers travel over

the lad's curly hair and down the smooth cheek. "There it is again. Shrinking away as if I was going to hurt

you. I'll bet a biscuit you never licked the stuffing out of another fellow in your life."

"No, sir," murmured the youth, and Bucky almost thought he detected a little, chuckling laugh.

"Well, you ought to be ashamed of it. When come back from old Mexico I'm going to teach you how to put

up your dukes. You're going to ride the range with me, son, and learn to stick to your saddle when the bronc

and you disagrees. Oh, I'll bet all you need is training. I'll make a man out of you yet," the ranger assured his

charge cheerfully. "Will you?" came the innocent reply, but Bucky for a moment had the sense of being

"Yes, I 'will you,' sissy," he retorted, without the least exasperation. "Don't think you know it all. Right now

you're riding like a wooden man. You want to take it easy in the saddle. There's about a dozen different

positions you can take to rest yourself." And Bucky put him through a course of sprouts. "Don't sit there

laughing at folks that knows a heap more than you ever will get in your noodle, and perhaps you won't be so

done up at the end of a little jaunt like this," he concluded. And to his conclusion he presently added a

postscript: "Why, I know kids your age can ride day and night for a week on the roundup without being all

"That's a lie," retorted the ranger, with immediate frankness. "You're not a day over fifteen, I'll bet."

"That's another of them. You meant to say eighteen, but you found I wouldn't swallow it. Now, Master Frank,

you want to learn one thing prompt if you and I are to travel together. I can't stand a liar. You tell the truth, or

"Oh, no, I'm not," came the ranger's prompt unmoved answer. "But just because you're such a weak little kid

that I could break you in two isn't any reason why I should put up with any foolishness from you. I mean to

"You've ce'tainly been good and spoiled, but you needn't ride your high hawss with me. Here's the long and

the short of it. To tell lies ain't square. If I ask you anything you don't want to answer tell me to go to hell, but

don't lie to me. If you do I'll punish you the same as if you were my brother, so long as you trail with me. If

Bucky waved a hand easily into space. "That's all right, too, son. There's a heap of directions you can hit from

here. Take any one you like. But if I was as beat as you are, I think I'd keep on the Epitaph road." He laughed

his warm, friendly laugh, before the geniality of which discord seemed to melt, and again his arm went round

the other's weary shoulders with a caressing gesture that was infinitely protecting.

The boy laughed tremulously. "You're awfully good to me. I know I'm a crybaby, sissy boy, but if you'll be

It certainly was strange the way Bucky's pulse quickened and his blood tingled when he touched the little

fellow and heard that velvet voice's soft murmur. Yes, it surely was strange, but perhaps the young Irishman's

explanation was not the correct one, after all. The cause he offered to himself for this odd joy and tender

"I'm surely plumb locoed, or else gone soft in the haid," he told himself grimly.

But the reason for those queer little electric shocks that pulsed through him was probably a more elemental

Arrived at Epitaph, Bucky turned loose his prisoner with a caution and made his preparations to leave

immediately for Chihuahua. Collins had returned to Tucson, but was in touch with the situation and ready to

Bucky, having packed, was confronted with a difficulty. He looked at it, and voiced his perplexity.

"Now, what am I going to do with you, Curly Haid? I expect I had better ship you back to the Rocking

"I don't want to go back there. He'll come out again and find me after you leave."

"Where do you want to go, then? If you were a girl I could put you in the convent school here," he reflected

Again that swift, deep blush irradiated the youth's cheeks. "Why can't I go with you?" he asked shyly.

The ranger laughed. "Mebbe you think I'm going on a picnic. Why, I'm starting out to knock the chip off Old

Man Trouble's shoulder. Like as not some greaser will collect Mr. Bucky's scalp down in manyana land. No,

"If it is so dangerous as that, you will need help. I'm awful good at making up, and I can speak Spanish like a

"Sho! You don't want to go running your neck into a noose. It's a jailbreak I'm planning, son. There may be

guns apopping before we get back to God's countryif we ever do. Add to that, trouble and then some, for

there's a revolution scheduled for old Chihuahua just now, as your uncle happens to know from reliable

"Two can always work better than one. Try me, Bucky," pleaded the boy, the last word slipping out with a

"Sure you won't faint if we get in a tight pinch, Curly?" scoffed O'Connor, even though in his mind he was

debating a surrender. For he was extraordinarily taken with the lad, and his judgment justified what the boy

"But I may not be with you. That's the trouble. Supposing I should be caught, what would you do?"

"Follow any orders you had given me before that time. If you had not given any, I would use my best

"I'll give them now," smiled Bucky. "If I'm lagged, make straight for Arizona and tell Webb Mackenzie or

"Only on condition that you obey orders explicitly. I'm running this cuttingout expedition."

Bucky's big brown fist caught the little one and squeezed it. "Then it's a deal, kid. I only hope I'm doing right

"Of course you are. Haven't you promised to make a man of me?" And again Bucky caught that note of

stifled laughter in the voice, though the big brown eyes met his quite seriously.

They took the train that night for El Paso, Bucky in the lower berth and his friend in the upper of section six

of one of the Limited's Pullman cars. The ranger was awake and up with the day. For a couple of hours he sat

in the smoking section and discussed politics with a Chicago drummer. He knew that Frank was very tired,

and he let him sleep till the diner was taken on at Lordsburg. Then he excused himself to the traveling man.

"I reckon I better go and wake up my pardner. I see the chuckwagon is toddling along behind us."

Bucky drew aside the curtains and shook the boy gently by the shoulder. Frank's eyes opened and looked at

the ranger with that lack of comprehension peculiar to one roused suddenly from deep sleep.

"Time to get up, Curly. The nigger just gave the first call for the chuckwagon."

An understanding of the situation flamed over the boy's face. He snatched the curtains from the Arizonian

and gathered them tightly together. "I'll thank you not to be so familiar," he said shortly from behind the

"I beg your pahdon, your royal highness. I should have had myself announced and craved an audience, I

reckon," was Bucky's ironic retort; and swiftly on the heels of it he added. "You make me tired, kid."

O'Connor was destined to be "made tired" a good many times in the course of the next few days. In all the

little personal intimacies Frank possessed a delicate fastidiousness outside the experience of the ranger. He

was a scrupulously clean man himself, and rather nice as to his personal habits, but it did not throw him into a

flame of embarrassment to brush his teeth before his fellow passengers. Nor did it send him into a fit if a

friend happened to drop into his room while he was finishing his dressing. Bucky agreed with himself that

this excess of shyness was foolishness, and that to indulge the boy was merely to lay up future trouble for

him. A dozen times he was on the point of speaking his mind on the subject, but some unusual quality of

"Blame it all, I'm getting to be a regular old granny. What Master Frank needs is a firstclass dressingdown,

and here the little cuss has got me bluffed to a fareyouwell so that I'm mum as a hooter on the nest," he

admitted to himself ruefully. "Just when something comes up that needs a good round damn I catch that big

brown Sunday school eye of his, and it's Bucky back to Webster's unabridged. I've got to quit trailing with

him, or I'll be joining the church first thing I know. He makes me feel like I want to be good, confound the

Notwithstanding the ranger's occasional moments of exasperation, the two got along swimmingly. Each of

them found a continued pleasure in delving into the other's unexplored mental recesses. They drifted into one

of those quick, spontaneous likings that are rare between man and man. Some subtle quality of affection

bubbled up like a spring in the hearts of each for the other. Young Hardman could perhaps have explained

what lay at the roots of it, but O'Connor admitted that he was "buffaloed" when he attempted an analysis of

From El Paso a leisurely run on the Mexican Central Pacific took them to Chihuahua, a quaint old city

something about the size of El Paso. Both Bucky and his friend were familiar with the manners of the

country, so that they felt at home among the narrow adobe streets, the lounging, goodnatured peons, and the

imitation Moorish architecture. They found rooms at a quiet, inconspicuous hotel, and began making their

plans for an immediate departure in the event that they succeeded in their object.

At a distance it had seemed an easy thing to plan the escape of David Henderson and to accomplish it by

craft, but a sight of the heavy stone walls that encircled the prison and of the numerous armed guards who

"It isn't a very gay outlook," Bucky admitted cheerfully to his companion, "but I expect we can pull it off

somehow. If these Mexican officials weren't slower than molasses in January it might have been better to

wait and have him released by process of law on account of Hardman's confession. But it would take them

two or three years to come to a decision. They sure do hate to turn loose a gringo when they have got the

hogtie on him. Like as not they would decide against him at the last, then. Course I've got the law

machinery grinding, too, but I'm not banking on it real heavy. We'll get him out first any old way, then get the

"I expect it's time to let you in on the ground floor, son. I reckon you happen to know that down in these

Spanish countries there's usually a revolution hatching. There s two parties among the aristocrats, those for

the government and those ferninst. The 'ins' stand pat, but the 'outs' have always got a revolution up their

sleeves. Now, there's mostly a white man mixed up in the affair. They have to have him to run it and to shoot

afterward when the government wins. You see, somebody has to be shot, and it's always so much to the good

if they can line up gringoes instead of natives. Nine times out of ten it's an IrishAmerican lad that is

engineering the scheme. This time it happens to be Mickey O'Halloran, an old friend of mine. I'm going to

"And spoiling for trouble, of course. Is it likely he could keep his fist out of the hive when there's such a gem

It had been Frank's suggestion that they choose rooms at a hotel which open into each other and also connect

with an adjoining pair. The reason for this had not at first been apparent to the ranger, but as soon as they

"It is very likely that we shall be under surveillance after a day or two, especially if we are seen around the

prison a good deal. Well, we'll slip out the back way tonight, disguised in some other rig, come boldly in by

the front door, and rent the rooms next ours. Then we shall be able to go and come, either as ourselves or as

"Unless we should get caught. Then we would have a great deal less. What's your notion of a rigup to

"We might have several, in case of emergencies. For one thing, we could easily be street showmen. You can

"I'm no play actor, even if you are," said Bucky. "I don't want to be your husband, thank you."

"And you think you could pass for a girl? You're slim and soft enough, but I'll bet you would give it away

The boy laughed, and shot a swift glance at O'Connor under his long lashes. "I appeared as a girl in one of the

"Leave that to me. I'll buy some today while you are looking the ground over for our first assault an the

"I don't know. It seems to me pretty risky. But you might buy the things, and we'll see how you look in them.

Better not get all the things at the same store. Sort of scatter your purchases around."

They separated at the door of the hotel, Frank to choose the materials he needed, and O'Connor to look up

O'Halloran and get a permit to visit the prison from the proper authorities. When the latter returned

triumphantly with his permit he found the boy busy with a needle and thread and surrounded by a litter of

"My aunt, Mrs. Hardman. I used to do all the plain sewing on my costumes. Did you see your friend and get

"You bet I did, and didn't. Mickey was out, but I left him a note. The other thing I pulled off all right. I'm to

be allowed to visit the prison and make a careful inspection of it at my leisure There's nothing like a pull,

"Does the permit say you are to be allowed to steal any one of the prisoners you take a fancy to? asked Frank,

"A good deal of it is already made, as you see. I'm just making a few changes. Do you want to try on your

"Is THIS mine?" asked the ranger, picking up with smiling contempt the rather gaudy blouse that lay on a

Bucky returned a few minutes later in his gipsy uniform, with a deprecating grin.

"I'll have to stain your face. Then you'll do very well," said Frank, patting and pulling at the clothes here and

there. "It's a good fit, if I do say it that chose it. The first thing you want to do when you get out in it is to roll

in the dust and get it soiled. No respectable gipsy wears new clothes. Better have a tear or two in it, too."

"Making up was my business for a good many years, you know," returned the lad quietly. "If you'll step into

It was a long halfhour later that Bucky thumped on the door between the rooms. "Pretty nearly ready, kid?

"Ten minutes is long enough, and fifteen, say, if she is going to a dance. You've been thirtyfive by my

"It's plain you never were married, Mr. Innocent. Why, a girl can't fix her hair in less than half an hour."

"Well, you got a wig there, ain't you? It doesn't take but about five seconds to stick that on. Hurry up, gringo!

Nevertheless, Mr. Bucky had to wait his comrade's pleasure. But when he got a vision of the result, it was so

little what he had expected that it left him staring in amazement, his jaw fallen and his eyes incredulous.

Bucky's eyes circled the room, to make sure that the boy was not hidden somewhere, and came back to rest

on his surprise with a look that was almost consternation. Was this vivid, dazzling creature the boy he had

been patronizing, lecturing, promising to thrash any time during the past four days? The thing was

unbelievable, not yet to be credited by his jarred brain. How incredibly blind he had been! What an idiot of

sorts! Why, the marks of sex sat on her beyond any possibility of doubt. Every line of the slim, lissom figure,

every curve of the soft, undulating body, the sweep of rounded arm, of tapering waistline, of wellturned

ankle, contributed evidence of what it were folly to ask further proof. How could he have ever seen those

lovely, softlashed eyes and the delicate little hands without conviction coming home to him? And how

could he have heard the low murmur of her voice, the catch of her sobs, without knowing that they were a

She was dressed like a Spanish dancing girl, in short kilts, red sash, and jaunty little cap placed sidewise on

her head. She wore a wig of black hair, and her face was stained to a dusky, gipsy hue. Over her thumb hung

castanets and in her hand was a tambourine. Roguishly she began to sway into a slow, rhythmic dance,

beating time with her instruments as she moved. Gradually the speed quickened to a faster time. She swung

gracefully to and fro with all the lithe agility of the race she personified. No part could have been better

conceived or executed. Even physically she displayed the large, brilliant eyes, the ringleted, coalblack hair,

the tawny skin, and the flashing smile that showed small teeth of dazzling ivory, characteristic of the

Romanies he had met. It was a daring part to play, but the young man watching realized that she had the free

grace to carry it out successfully. She danced the fandango to a finish, swept him another low bow, and

presented laughingly to him the tambourine for his donation. Then, suddenly flinging aside the instrument,

Bucky drew a handful of change from his pocket and selected a gold eagle. "I suppose I must cross your palm

with gold," he said, even while his subconscious mind was running on the new complication presented to him

He was very clear about one thing. He must not let her know that he knew her for a girl. To him she must still

be a boy, or their relation would become impossible. She had trusted in her power to keep her secret from

him. On no other terms would she have come with him; of so much he was sure, even while his mind groped

for a sufficient reason to account for an impulse that might have impelled her. If she found out that he knew,

the knowledge would certainly drive her at once from him. For he knew that not the least charm of the

extraordinary fascination she had for him lay in her sweet innocence of heart, a fresh innocence that consisted

with this gay Romany abandon, and even with a mental experience of the sordid, seamy side of life as

comprehensive as that of many a woman twice her age. She had been defrauded out of her childish

inheritance of innocence, but, somehow, even in her foul environment the seeds of a rare personal purity had

persistently sprung up and flourished. Some flowers are of such native freshness that no nauseous

Meanwhile, her voice ran on with the patter of her craft. There was the usual dark woman to be circumvented

and the light one to be rewarded. Jealousies and rivalries played their part in the nonsense she glibly recited,

With a queer little tug at his heart he watched the dainty finger that ran so lightly over his open palm,

watched, too, the bent head so gracefully fine of outline and the face so mobile of expression when the deep

eyes lifted to his in question of the correctness of her reading. He would miss the little partner that had wound

himself so tightly round his heart. He wondered if he would find compensating joy in this exquisite creature

Suddenly tiring of her diversion, she dropped his hand. "You don't say I do it well," she charged, aware

"You do it very well indeed. I didn't think you had it in you, kid. What's worrying me is that I can never live

"All you have to do is to look sour and frown if anybody gets too familiar with me. You can do that, can't

"Oh, that will be easy for mesince you are going to make me up. As a simple child of nature I'm no

She thought, but did not say, that art would go a long way before it could show anything more pleasing than

this rider of the plains. It was not alone his face, with the likable blue eyes that could say so many things in a

minute, but the gallant ease of his bearing. Such a springy lightness, such sinewy grace of undulating muscle,

were rare even on the frontier. She had once heard Webb Mackenzie say of him that he could whip his weight

in wildcats, and it was easy of belief after seeing how surely he was master of the dynamic power in him. It is

the emergency that sifts men, and she had seen him rise to several with a readiness that showed the stuff in

That evening they slipped out unobserved in the dusk, and a few minutes later a young gipsy and his bride

presented themselves at the inn to be put up. The scowling young Romany was particular, considering that he

spent most nights in the open, with a sky for a roof. So the master of the inn thought when he rejected on one

pretense or another the first two rooms that were shown him. He wanted two rooms, and they must connect.

Had the innkeeper such apartments? The innkeeper had, but he would very much like to see the price in

advance if he was going to turn over to guests of such light baggage the best accommodations in the house.

This being satisfactorily arranged, the young gipsies were left to themselves in the room they had rented.

The first thing that the man did when they were alone was to roll a cigarette, which operation he finished

deftly with one hand, while the other swept a match in a circular motion along his trousers leg. In very fair

English the Spanish gipsy said: "You ce'tainly ought to learn to smoke, kid. Honest, it's more comfort than a

The knock that sounded on the door was neither gentle nor apologetic. It sounded as if somebody had flung a

O'Connor smiled, remembering that soft tap of yore. "I reckon" he was beginning, when the door opened

This proved to be a huge, redhaired Irishman, with a face that served just now merely as a setting for an

irresistible smile. The owner of the flaming head looked round in surprise on the pair of Romanies and began

"Beg pardon. I didn't know The damned dago told me " He stopped in confusion, with a scrape and a bow to

"Sir, I demand an explanation of this most unwarrantable intrusion," spoke the ranger haughtily, in his best

"You durned old hawssstealing greaser, cayn't you talk English?" drawled the gipsy, with a grin.

The other's mouth fell open with astonishment He stared at the slim, dusky young Spaniard for an instant

"You would, would you, you old pieeating fraud! Try to fool your Uncle Mick and make him think you a

greaser, would you? I'll learn yez to play horse with a fullgrown, ablebodied white man." He punctuated his

Swiftly Mr. O'Halloran came to flushed rigidity. "Madam, I must still be apologizing. The surprise of

Bucky doubled up with apparent mirth. "Get into the other room, Curly, and get your other togs on," he

ordered. "Can't you see that Mick is going to fall in love with you if he sees you a minute longer, you young

"Don't you talk that way to a lady, Bucky," warned O'Halloran, again blushing vividly, after she had

disappeared into the next room. "And I want to let yez have it right off the bat that if you've been leading that

little Mexican senorita into trouble you've got a quarrel on with Mike O'Halloran."

"You bet I ain't. You see, Mick, that handsome lady you're going to lick the stuffing out of me about is only a

"No!" denied Mick, his eyes two excited interrogationpoints. "You can't stuff me with any such fairytale,

"All right. Wait and see," suggested the ranger easily. "Have a smoke while you're falling out of love."

"You young limb, I want you to tell me all about it this very minute, before I punch holes in yez."

Bucky lit his cigar, leaned back, and began to tell the story of Frank Hardman and the knifethrower. Only

one thing he omitted to tell, and that was the conviction that had come home to him a few moments ago that

his little comrade was no boy, but a woman. O'Halloran was a chivalrous Irishman, a daredevil of an

adventurer, with a pure love of freedom that might very likely in the end bring him to face a row of loaded

carbines with his back to a wall, but Bucky had his reticencies that even loyal friendship could not break

down. This girl's secret he meant to guard until such time as she chose of her own free will to tell it.

Frank returned just as he finished the tale of the knife episode, and Mick's frank open eyes accused him of

idiocy for ever having supposed that this lad was a woman. Why, he was a little fellow not over fifteennot

a day past fifteen, he would swear to that. He was, to be sure, a slender, girlish young fellow, a good deal of a

sissy by the look of him, but none the less a sure enough boy. Convinced of this, the big Irishman dismissed

"And what are yez doing down in greaser land? Thought you was rustling cows for a living somewheres in

"Me? Oh, I came down on business. We'll talk about that presently. How's your onehawss revolution getting

O'Halloran's eyes flashed a warning, with the slightest nod in the world toward the boy.

"Don't worry about him. He's straight as a string and knows how to keep his mouth shut. You can tell him

anything you would me." He turned to the boy sitting quietly in an inconspicuous corner. "Mum's the word,

The latter got up, tiptoed to each door in turn, flung it suddenly open to see that nobody was spying behind it,

and then turned the lock. "I have use for me head for another year or two, and it's just as well to see that

nobody is spying. You understand, Bucky, that I'm risking me life in telling you what I'm going to. If you

"He's as safe as I am, Mike. Is it likely I would take any risks about a thing of that sort with my old bunkie's

"Good enough. The kid looks stanch, and, anyhow, if you guarantee him that's enough for me." He accepted

another of the ranger's cigars, puffed it to a red glow, and leaned back to smile at his friend. "Glory, but it's

good to see ye, Bucky, me bye. You'll never know how a man's eyes ache to see a straightup white man in

this land of greasers. It's the God's truth I'm telling ye when I say that I haven't had a scrimmage with me

hands since I came here. The only idea this forsaken country has of exchanging compliments is with a knife

in the dark." He shook his flaming head regretfully at the deplorably lost condition of a country where the

"If I wasn't tied up with this Valdez bunch I'd get out tomorrow, and sometimes I have half a mind to pull

out anyhow. If you've never been associated, me lad, with half a dozen most divilishly polite senors, each one

of them watching the others out of the corner of his slant eyes for fear they are going to betray him or

assassinate him first, you'll never know the joys of life in this peaceful and contented land of indolence. Life's

loaded to the guards with uncertainties, so eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you hang, or your friend

will carve ye in the back with a knife, me old priest used to say, or something like it. 'Tis certain he must have

"Which is why you're here, you old fraud," smiled Bucky. "You've got to grumble, of course, but you couldn't

be dragged away while there's a chance of a row. Don't I know you of old, Reddy?"

"Anyway, here I am, with me neck so near to the rope it fairly aches sometimes. If you have any inclinations

"Thank you, no. The fact is that we have a little private war of our own on hand, Mike. I was thinking maybe

"No reasonable man could ask fairer than that," agreed O'Halloran, his grin expanding. "Well, then, what's

"There's an American in the government prison here under a life sentence. He is not guilty, and he has

"I knew you wouldn't stand to see a man like Henderson rot in a dungeon. No Irishman would."

"You needn't blarney me. I'm too old a bird to be caught with chaff. It's a dirty shame, of course, about this

man Henderson, but I'm not running the criminal jurisprudence of Mexico meself."

"And I said to Webb Mackenzie: 'Mickey O'Halloran is the man to see; he'll know the best way to do it as

"You've certainly kissed the blarney stone, Mr. O'Connor," returned the revolutionist dryly. "Well, then, what

"Nothing much. Get Henderson out and help us to get safely from the country whose reputation you

"Mercy of Hiven! Bring me the moon and a handful of stars, says he, as cool as you please."

The ranger told the story of Henderson and Mackenzie's lost child in such a way that it lost nothing in the

telling. O'Halloran was moved. "'Tis a damned shame about this man Henderson," he blurted out.

Bucky leaned back comfortably and waved airily his brown hand. "It's up to you," his gay, impudent eyes

"I don't say I won't be able to help you," conceded O'Halloran. "It happens, me bye, that you've dropped in on

me just before the band begins to play." He lowered his voice almost to a whisper. "There's a shipment of

pianos being brought down the line this week. The night after they arrive I'm looking for music."

"You have a mind like a tack, Bucky. Rifles is the alias of them pianos. They'll make merry music once we

"That's all very well, but have you reckoned with the government at Mexico? Chihuahua isn't the whole

country, Mickey. Suppose President Diaz takes a hand in the game and sends troops in on you?"

"He won't," answered the other, with a wink. "He's been seen. The president isn't any too friendly to that old

tyrant Megales, who is now governor here. There's an election next week. The man that gets most votes will

be elected, and I'm thinking, Bucky, that the man with most rifles will the most votes. Now, says Diaz, in

effect, with an official wave of his hand, 'Settle your own rows, gintlemen. I don't give a damn whether

Megales or Valdez is governor of Chihuahua, subject, of coorse, to the will of the people.' Then he winks at

Valdez wid his off eye as much as to say: 'Go in an' win, me boy; me prayers are supporting ye. But be sure

ye do nothing too illegal.' So there ye are, Bucky. If ould Megales was to wake up election morning and find

that the pollingplaces was in our hands, his soldiers disarmed or bought over, and everything contributing

smoothly to express the will of the people in electing him to take a swift hike out of Chihuahua, it is likely

that he might accept the inevitable as the will of fate and make a strategic retreat to climes more healthy."

"And if in the meantime he should discover those rifles, or one of those slanteyed senors should turn out a

"Don't talk in that cruel way. You make me neck ache in anticipation," returned O'Halloran blithely.

"I think we'll not travel with you in public till after the election, Mr. O'Halloran," reflected Bucky aloud.

"'Twould be just as well, me son. My friends won't be overpopular with Megales if the cards fall his way."

"It would be a pity if me pull wouldn't do a little thing like that," scoffed the conspirator genially.

"But, win or lose, I may be able to help you. We need musicians to play those pianos we're bringing in. Well,

the most dependable men we can set to play some of them are the prisoners in the fortress. There's likely to

be a wholesale jail delivery the night before the election. Now, it's just probable that the lads we free will

fight to keep their freedom. That's why we use them. They HAVE to be true to us because, if they don't,

"Of course. I wish I could take a hand myself. But I can't, because I'm a soldier of a friendly power. We'll get

Henderson out the night before the election and leave on the late train. You'll have to arrange the program in

O'Halloran looked drolly at him. "I'm liking your nerve, young man. I pull the chestnuts out of the fire for yez

and, likely enough, get burned. You walk off with your chestnut, and never a 'Thank ye' for poor Mickey the

"It doesn't look like quite a square deal, does it?" laughed the ranger. "Well, we might vary the program a bit.

Bucky O'Connor, Arizona ranger, can't stop and take a hand in such a game, but I don't know anything to

"You'll do nothing of the kind, seh. You'll do just as I say, according to the agreement you made with me

when I let you come," was Bucky's curt answer. "We're not playing this game to please you, Master Frank."

Yet though the ranger spoke curtly, though he still tried to hold toward his comrade precisely the same

attitude as he had before discovering her sex, he could not put into his words the same peremptory sting that,

he had done before when he found that occasionally necessary. For no matter how severely he must seem to

deal with her to avoid her own suspicions as to what he knew, as well as to keep from arousing those of

others, his heart was telling a very different story all the time. He could see again the dainty grace with which

she had danced for him, heard again that low voice breaking into a merry piping lilt, warmed once more to

the living, elusive smile, at once so tender and mocking. He might set his will to preserve an even front to her

Occasionally Alice Mackenzie met Collins on the streets of Tucson. Once she saw him at the hotel where she

was staying, deep in a discussion with her father of ways and means of running down the robbers of the

Limited. He did not, however, make the least attempt to push their train acquaintanceship beyond the give

and take of casual greeting. Without showing himself unfriendly, he gave her no opportunity to determine

how far they would go with each other. This rather piqued her, though she would probably have rebuffed him

They met one morning in front of a drug store downtown. She carried a parasol that was lilactrimmed,

which shade was also the outstanding note of her dress. She was looking her very best, and no doubt knew it.

"Good morning, Miss Mackenzie. Weather like this I'm awful glad I ain't a mummy," he told her. "The

"To be continued in our next," he amended. "Won't you come in and have a sundae? You look as if you didn't

Looking across the little table at him over her sundae, she questioned him with innocent impudence. "I saw

you and dad deep in plans Tuesday. I suppose by now you have all the train robbers safely tucked away in the

"Not yet!" Her lifted eyebrows and the derisive flash beneath mocked politely his confidence. "By this time I

"What about that investment in futurities you made on the train? The month is more than half up. Do you see

"It looks now as if I might be a false prophet, but I feel way down deep that I won't. In this prophet's business

"Really. I'm very curious to know what it is you predicted. Was it something good?"

"Then I think you'll get it," she laughed. "I have noticed that it is the people that expect thingsand then go

out and take themthat inherit the earth these days. The meek have been dispossessed."

"I didn't say you had, but you'll get along just as well without them,'' she answered with a cool little laugh as

"I'd like to discuss that proposition with you more at length. May I call on you some evening this week, Miss

There was a sparkle of hidden malice in her answer. "You're too late, Mr. Collins. We'll have to leave it

He was distinctly disappointed, though he took care not to show it. Nevertheless, the town felt empty after her

train had gone. He was glad when later in the day a message came calling him to Epitaph. It took him at least

Before he had been an hour at Epitaph the sheriff knew he had struck gold this time. Men were in town

spending money lavishly, and at a rough description they answered to the ones he wanted. Into the Gold

Nugget Saloon that evening dropped Val Collins, big, blond, and jaunty. He looked far less the vigorous

sheriff out for business than the gregarious cowpuncher on a search for amusement.

Del Hawkes, an oldtime friend of his staging days, pounced on him and dragged him to the bar, whence his

glance fell genially on the roulette wheel and its devotees, wandered casually across the impassive poker and

Mexican monte players, took in the enthroned musicians, who were industriously murdering "La Paloma,"

and came to rest for barely an instant at a distant faro table. In the curlyhaired goodlooking young fellow

facing the dealer he saw one of the men he had come seeking. Nor did he need to look for the hand with the

missing trigger finger to be sure it was York Neilthat same gay, merryhearted York with whom he used

to ride the range, changed now to a miscreant who had elected to take the short cut to wealth.

But the man beside Neil, the darkhaired, pallid fellow from whose presence something at once formidable

and sinister and yet gallant seemed to breathethe very sight of him set the mind of Collins at work busily

upon a wild guess. Surely here was a worthy figure upon whom to set the name and reputation of the

Yet the sheriff's eyes rested scarce an instant before they went traveling again, for he wanted to show as yet

no special interest in the object of his suspicions. The gathering was a motley one, picturesque in its diversity.

For here had drifted not only the stranded derelicts of a frontier civilization, but selected types of all the

turbid elements that go to make up its success. Mexican, millionaire, and miner brushed shoulders at the

roulettewheel. Chinaman and cowpuncher, Papago and plainsman, tourist and tailor, bucked the tiger side

by side with a democracy found nowhere else in the world. The click of the wheel, the monotonous call of the

croupier, the murmur of many voices in alien tongues, and the highpitched jarring note of boisterous

laughter, were all merged in a medley of confusion as picturesque as the scene itself.

"No, I don't know as 'tis. Nearly always somethin' doing in little old Epitaph," answered the public quencher

"Playing with the lid off back there, ain't they?" The sheriff's nod indicated the distant farotable.

"It's Wolf Leroythat Mexicanlooking fellow there," Hawkes explained in a whisper. "A bad man with the

gun, they say, too. Well, him and York Neil and Scott Dailey blew in last night from their mine, up at

Saguache. Gave it out he was going to break the bank, Leroy did. Backing that opinion usually comes high,

"That shorthorn in chaps and a yellow bandanna is the gentleman; him that's playing the wheel so constant.

You don't miss no worldbeater when you don't know Scott. He's Leroy's Man Friday. Understand they've

"The Dalriada. Some other guy is in with them; fellow by the name of Hardman, if I recollect; just bought out

"Queer thing, luck; strikes about as unexpected as lightning. Have another, Del?"

"Don't care if I do, Val. It always makes me thirsty to see people I like. Anything new up Tucson way?"

The band had fallen on "Manzanilla," and was rending it with variations when Collins circled round to the

wheel and began playing the red. He took a place beside the bowlegged vaquero with the yellow bandanna

knotted loosely round his throat. For five minutes the cowpuncher attended strictly to his bets. Then he

"This place is my hoodoo. I can't win" The sentence died in the man's throat, became an inarticulate gurgle

He had looked up and met the steady eyes of the sheriff, and the surprise of it had driven the blood from his

heart. A revolver thrust into his face could not have shaken him more than that serene smile.

Collins took him by the arm with a jovial laugh meant to cover their retreat, and led him into one of the

curtained alcove rooms. As they entered he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Leroy and Neil were still

intent on their game. Not for a moment, not even while the barkeeper was answering their call for liquor, did

the sheriff release Scott from the rigor of his eyes, and when the attendant drew the curtain behind him the

"Why, that I was in that " Scott stopped abruptly, and watched the smile broaden on the strong face opposite

"Now, ain't it funny how people's thoughts get to running on the same thing? Last time I met up with you

there you was collecting a hundred dollars and keepthechange cents from me, and now here you are

spending it. It's ce'tinly curious how both of us are remembering that little seance in the Pullman car."

"Yes, sir. It comes up right vivid before me. There was you atrainin' your guns on me"

"That's right. How come I to make such a mistake? Of cou'se you carried the sack and York Neil held the

The sheriff's voice showed only a pleasant interest, but the outlaw's frightened eyes were puzzled at this

"Wearing a bandanna same color and pattern as you did the night of our jamboree on the Limited, I see.

Instinctively a shaking hand clutched at the kerchief. "It don't cut any ice because a holdup wears a mask

Scott, beads of perspiration on his forehead, collapsed as to his defense. He fell back sullenly to his first

"Can't I?" The sheriff's smile went out like a snuffed candle. Eyes and mouth were cold and hard as chiseled

marble. He leaned forward far across the table, a confident, dominating assurance painted on his face. "Can't

I? Don't you bank on that. I can prove all I need to, and your friends will prove the rest. They'll be falling all

over themselves to tell what they knowand Mr.Dailey will be holding the sack again, while Leroy and the

"It's a damned lie. Leroy would never" He stopped, again just in time to bite back the confession hovering

The curtain parted, and a figure darkened the doorwaya slender, lithe figure that moved on springs. Out of

its sardonic, devilmaycare face gleamed malevolent eyes which rested for a moment on Dailey, before

Scott pulled himself together and tried to bluff, but at the look on his chief's face the words died in his throat.

Collins did not lift a finger or move an eyelash, but with the first word a wary alertness ran through him and

starched his figure to rigidity. He gathered himself together for what might come.

"Well, I am waiting. What it is Leroy would never do?" The voice carried a scoff with it, the implication that

"Mr. Dailey was beginning a testimonial of your virtues just as you right happily arrived in time to hear it.

But Dailey had never a word left. His blunders had been crying ones, and his chief's menacing look had

warned him what to expect. The courage oozed out of his heart, for he counted himself already a dead man.

"And who are you, my friend, that make so free with Wolf Leroy's name?" It was odd how every word of the

drawling sentence contrived to carry a taunt and a threat with it, strange what a deadly menace the glittering

The eyes of the men met like rapiers, as steady and as searching as cold steel. Each of them was appraising

"I've been discussing with your friend the late holdup on the Transcontinental Pacific."

"Ah!" Leroy knew that the sheriff was serving notice on them of his purpose to run down the bandits. Swiftly

his mind swept up the factors of the situation. Should he draw now and chance the result, or wait for a more

certain ending? He decided to wait, moved by the consideration that even if he were victorious the lawyers

"Well, that don't interest me any, though I suppose you have to explain a heap how come they to hold you up

and take your gun. I'll leave you and your jellyfish Scott to your gabfest. Then you better run back home to

Tucson. We don't go much on visiting sheriffs here." He turned on his heel with an insolent laugh, and left

The superb contempt of the man, his readiness to give the sheriff a chance to pump out of Dailey all he knew,

served to warn Collins that his life was in imminent danger. On no hypothesis save onethat Leroy had

already condemned them both to death in his mindcould he account for such rashness. And that the blow

would fall soon, before he had time to confer with other officers, was a corollary to the first proposition.

"Against him. Protect yourself by lining up with me. It's your only show on earth."

Dailey's eyes flashed. "Then, by thunder, I ain't taking it! I'm no coyote, to round on my pardners."

The sheriff shook his head. "You'd never get away alive. Besides, I want you for holding up the Limited. The

safest place for you is in jail, and that's where I'm going to put you. Drop that gun! Quick! That's right. Now,

you and I are going out of this saloon by the back door. I'm going to walk beside you, and we're going to

laugh and talk as if we were the best of friends, but my hand ain't straying any from the end of my gun. Get

As Collins and his prisoner reappeared in the main lobby of the Gold Nugget, a Mexican slipped out of the

"I want you to call a hack for me, Del. Bring it round to the back door, and arrange with the driver to whip up

for the depot as soon as we get in. We ought to catch that 12:20 uptrain. When the hack gets here just show

up in the door. If you see Leroy or Neil hanging around the door, put your hand up to your tie. If the coast is

"Sure," said Hawkes, and was off at once, though just a thought unsteady from his frequent libations.

Both hands of the big clock on the wall pointed to twelve when Hawkes appeared again in the doorway at the

rear of the Gold Nugget. With a wink at Collins, he made straight for the cocktail he thought he needed.

"Now," said the sheriff, and immediately he and Dailey passed through the back door.

Instantly two shots rang out. Collins lurched forward to the ground, drawing his revolver as he fell. Scott,

twisting from his grasp, ran in a crouch toward the alley along the shadow of the buildings. Shots spattered

against the wall as his pursuers gave chase. When the Gold Nugget vomited from its rear door a rush of

humanity eager to see the trouble, the noise of their footsteps was already dying in the distance.

Hawkes found his friend leaning against the back of the hack, his revolver smoking in his hand.

Collins stopped, unwilling to blame his friend. He knew now that Hawkes, having mixed his drinks earlier in

"Get me a horse, Del, and round up two or three of the boys. I've got to get after those fellows. They are the

ones that held up the Limited last week. Find out for me what hotel they put up at here. I want their rooms

searched. Send somebody round to the corrals, and let me know where they stabled their horses. If they left

Fifteen minutes later Collins was in the saddle ready for the chase, and only waiting for his volunteer posse to

join him. They were just starting when a frightened Chinaman ran into the plaza with the news that there had

been shooting just back of his laundry on the edge of town and that a man had been killed.

When the sheriff reached the spot, he lowered himself from the saddle and limped over to the black mass

huddled against the wall in the bright moonlight. He turned the riddled body over and looked down into the

face of the dead man. I was that of the outlaw, Scott Dailey. That the body had been thoroughly searched was

evident, for all around him were scattered his belongings. Here an old letter and a sack of tobacco, its

contents emptied on the ground; there his coat and vest, the linings of each of them ripped out and the pockets

emptied. Even the boots and socks of the man had been removed, so thorough had been the search. Whatever

the murderers had been looking for it was not money, since his purse, still fairly well lined with greenbacks,

"What in time were they after?" frowned Collins. "If it wasn't his moneyand it sure wasn'twhat was it? I

ce'tainly would like to know what the Wolf wanted so blamed bad. Guess I'll not follow Mr. Leroy just now

till my leg is in better shape. Maybe I had better investigate a little bit round town first."

The body was taken back to the Gold Nugget and placed on a table, pending the arrival of the undertaker. It

chanced that Collins, looking absently over the crowd, glimpsed a gray felt hat that looked familiar by reason

of a frayed silver band found it. Underneath the hat was a Mexican, and him the sheriff ordered to step

"I ain't worrying about your name, son. What I want to know is where you found that hat."

"Muy bien, senor." And the dusty hat was passed from hand to hand till it reached the sheriff.

Collins ripped off the silver band and tore out the sweatpad. It was an off chanceone in a thousandbut

worth trying none the less. And a moment later he knew it was the chance that won. For sewed to the inside

of the discolored sweatpad was a little strip of silk. With his knife he carefully removed the strip, and found

between it and the leather a folded fragment of paper closely covered with writing. He carried this to the

light, and made it out to be a memorandum of direction of some sort. Slowly he spelled out the poorly written

From Y. N. took Unowhat. Went twenty yards strate for big rock. Eight feet direckly west. Fifty yards in

direcksion of suthern Antelope Peke. Then eighteen to nerest cotonwood. J. H. begins hear.

Collins read the scrawl twice before an inkling of its meaning came home to him. Then in a flash his brain

was lighted. It was a memorandum of the place where Dailey's share of the plunder was buried.

His confederates had known that he had it, and had risked capture to make a thorough search for the paper.

That they had not found it was due only to the fact that the murdered man had lost his hat as he scurried down

The doctor, having arrived, examined the wound and suggested an anaesthetic. Collins laughed.

"I reckon not, doc. You round up that lead pill and I'll endure the grief without knockout drops."

While the doctor was probing for the bullet lodged in his leg, the sheriff studied the memorandum found in

Dailey's hat. He found it blind, disappointing work, for there was no clearly indicated startingpoint. Bit by

This was clear enough, so far as it went. It could only mean that from York Neil the writer had taken the

plunder to hide. ButWHERE did he take it? From what point? A startingpoint must be found somewhere,

or the memorandum was of no use. Probably only Neil could supply the needed information, now that Dailey

Went twenty yards strate for big rock. Eight feet direckly west. Fifty yards in direcksion of suthern Antelope

Was J. H. a person? If so, what did he begin. If Dailey had buried his plunder, what had J. H. left to do?

But had he buried it? Collins smiled. It was not likely he had handed it over to anybody else to hide for him.

He clapped his hand down on his knee. "By the jumping California frog, I've got it!" he told himself. "They

hid the bulk of what they got from the Limited all together. Went out in a bunch to hide it. Blindfolded each

other, and took turn about blinding up the trail. No one of them can go get the loot without the rest. When

they want it, every one of these memoranda must be Johnnyonthespot before they can dig up the

mazuma. No wonder Wolf Leroy searched so thorough for this bit of paper. I'll bet a stack of blue chips

against Wolf's chance of heaven that he's the sorest trainrobber right this moment that ever punctured a

Collins laughed softly, nor had the smile died out of his eyes when Hawkes came into the room with

information to the point. He had made a round of the corrals, and discovered that the outlaws' horses had

been put up at Jay Hardman's place, a tumbledown feedstation on the edge of town.

"Jay didn't take kindly to my questions," Hawkes explained, "but after a little rockmetosleepmother talk

I soothed him down some, and cut the trail of Wolf Leroy and his partners. The old man give me several

specimens of langwidge unwashed and uncombed when I told him Wolf and York was outlaws and

trainrobbers. Didn't believe a word of it, he said. 'Twas just like the fool officers to jump an innocent party. I

told Jay to keep his shirt onhe could turn his wolf lose when they framed up that he was in it. Well, sir! I

plumb thought for a moment he was going to draw on me when I said that. Say he must be the fellow that's in

Collins' eyes narrowed to slits, as they always did when he was thinking intensely. Were their suspicions of

the showman about to be justified? Did Jay Hardman's interest in Leroy have its source merely in their being

birds of a feather, or was there a more direct community of lawlessness between them? Was he a member of

Wolf Leroy's murderous gang? Three men had joined in the chase of Dailey, but the tracks had told him that

only two horses had galloped from the scene of the murder into the night. The inference left to draw was that

a local accomplice had joined them in the chase of Scott, and had slipped back home after the deed had been

What more likely than that Hardman had been this accomplice? Hawkes said he was a big longhaired

fellow. So was the man that had held up the engineer of the Limited. He was"J. H. begins hear." Like a

flash the illwritten scrawl jumped to his sight. "J. H." was Jay Hardman. What luck!

The doctor finished his work, and Collins tested his leg gingerly. "Del, I'm going over to have a little talk

"You mustn't walk on that leg for a week or two yet, Mr. Collins," the doctor explained, shaking his head.

"That so, doctor? And it nothing but a nice clean fleshwound! Sho! I've a deal more confidence in you than

"Sure." The sheriff smiled. "I'm living at my own risk, doctor. But I'd a heap rather be alive than daid, and

take all the risk that's coming, too. But since you make a point of it, I'll do most of my walking on a bronco's

They found Mr. Hardman just emerging from the stable with a saddlepony when they rode into the corral.

The fellow held a wary position on the farther side of his horse, the while he ripped out a raucous string of

"Real fluent, ain't he?" murmured Hawkes, as he began to circle round to flank the enemy.

"Stay right there, Del Hawkes. Move, you redhaided son of a brand blotter, and I'll pump holes in you!" A

Collins rode slowly forward, his hand on the butt of the revolver that still lay in its scabbard. The Winchester

covered every step of his progress, but he neither hastened nor faltered, though he knew his life hung in the

balance. If his steely blue eyes had released for one moment the wolfish ones of the villain, if he had

But the eyes of a brave man are the king of weapons. Hardman's fingers itched at the trigger he had not the

But he did not fire, though Collins rode up to him, dismounted, and threw the end of the rifle carelessly from

"Don't be rash, Hardman. I've come here to put you under arrest for robbing the T. P. Limited, and I'm going

The indolent, contemptuous drawl, so free of even a suggestion of the strain the sheriff must have been under,

"I guess not," retorted the sheriff easily. "Del, you better relieve Mr. Hardman of his ballast. He ain't really fit

to be trusted with a weapon, and him so excitable. That Winchester came awful near going off, friend. You

don't want to be so careless when you're playing with firearms. It's a habit that's liable to get you into

Collins had not shaved death so closely without feeling a reaction of boyish gaiety at his adventure. It

"Now we'll go into a committee of the whole, gentlemen, adjourn to the stable, and have a little game of

'Button, button, who's got the button?' You first, Mr. Hardman. If you'll kindly shuck your coat and vest, we'll

They diligently searched the miscreant without hiding anything pertaining to "J. H. begins hear."

"He's bound to have it somewhere," asseverated Collins. "It don't stand to reason he was making his getaway

Hawkes, under the direction of his friend, ripped up linings and tore away pockets from clothing. The saddle

Finally Hawkes scratched his poll and looked down on the wreckage. "I hate to admit it, Val, but the old fox

An idea hit the sheriff. He walked up to Hardman and ordered him to open his mouth.

Collins poked his revolver against the closed mouth. "Swear for us, old bird. Get a move on you."

The mouth opened, and Collins inserted two fingers. When he withdrew them they brought a set of false

teeth. Under the plate was a tiny rubber bag that stuck to it. Inside the bag was a paper. And on it was written

four lines in Spanish. Those lines told what he wanted to know. They, too, were part of a direction for finding

The sheriff wired at once to Bucky, in Chihuahua. Translated into plain English, his cipher dispatch meant:

After all, adventures are to the adventurous. In this prosaic twentieth century the Land of Romance still

beckons to eager eyes and gallant hearts. The rutted moneygrabber may deny till he is a nerveracked

countingmachine, but youth, even to the end of time, will laugh to scorn his pessimism and venture with

So it was that Bucky and his little comrade found nothing of dulness in the mission to which they had

devoted themselves. In their task of winning freedom for the American immured in the Chihuahua dungeon

they already found themselves in the heart of a web of intrigue, the stakes of which were so high as to carry

life and death with them in the balance. But for them the sun shone brightly. It was enough that they played

the game and shared the risks together. The jocund morning was in their hearts, and brought with it an augury

O'Connor carried with him to the grim fortress not only his permit for an inspection, but also a note from

O'Halloran that was even more potent in effect. For Colonel Ferdinand Gabilonda, warden of the prison, had

a shrewd suspicion that a plot was under way to overthrow the unpopular administration of Megales, and

though he was an officeholder under the present government he had no objection to ingratiating himself

with the opposition, providing it could be done without compromising himself openly. In other words, the

warden was sitting on the fence waiting to see which way the cat would jump. If the insurgents proved the

stronger party, he meant to throw up his hat and shout "Viva Valdez." On the other hand, if the government

party crushed them he would show himself fussily active in behalf of Megales. Just now he was exerting all

his diplomacy to maintain a pleasant relationship with both. Since it was entirely possible that the big

Irishman O'Halloran might be the man on horseback within a very few days, the colonel was all suave words

Indeed he did him the unusual honor of a personally conducted inspection. Gabilonda was a fat little man,

with a soft, purring voice and a pompous manner. He gushed with the courteous volubility of his nation,

explaining with great gusto this and that detail of the work. Bucky gave him outwardly a deferent ear, but his

alert mind and eyes were scanning the prisoners they saw. The ranger was trying to find in one of these

scowling, defiant faces some resemblance to the picture his mind had made of Henderson.

But Bucky looked in vain. If the man he wanted was among these he had changed beyond recognition. In the

end he was forced to ask Gabilonda plainly if he would not take him to see David Henderson, as he knew a

man in Arizona who was an old friend of his, and he would like to be able to tell him that he had seen his

Henderson was breaking stone when O'Connor got his first glimpse of him. He continued to swing his

hammer listlessly, without looking up, when the door opened to let in the warden and his guests. But

something in the ranger's steady gaze drew his eyes. They were dull eyes, and sullen, but when he saw that

"It is against the rules, senor, but if you will be brief" The colonel shrugged, and turned his back to them,

in order not to see. It must be said for Gabilonda that his capacity for blinking what he did not think it

Surprise filtered into the dull eyes. "That was my name," the man answered bitterly. "I have a number now."

The man's eyes were no longer dull now, but flaming with hatred. "Curse him, I'll take nothing from his

hands. For fifteen years he has let me rot in hell without lifting a hand for me."

"He thought you dead. It can all be explained. It was only last week that the mystery of your disappearance

"Then why didn't he come himself? It was to save his little girl I got myself into this place. If I had been in

"He doesn't know yet you are here. I wrote him simply that I knew where you were, and then I came at once."

Bucky glanced round warily at the fat colonel gazing placidly out of the barred window. "I mean to rescue

"Do you mean it? For God's sake! don't lie to me. If there's no hope for me, don't say there is." The prisoner's

voice shook and his hands trembled. He was only the husk of the man he had been, but it did Bucky's heart

good to see that the germ of life was still in him. Back in Arizona, on the Rocking Chair Ranch, with the free

winds of the plains beating on his face, he would pick up again the old strands of his broken life, would again

learn to love the lowing of cattle and the early morning call of the hooter to his mate.

"I mean it. As sure as I stand here I'll get you out, or, if I don't, Webb Mackenzie will. We're calling the

matter to the attention of the United States Government, but we are not going to wait till that time to free you.

Tears leaped to the prisoner's eyes. He had been a game man in the dead years that were past, none gamer in

Texas, and he could still face his jailers with an impassive face; but this first kindly word from his native land

in fifteen years to the man buried alive touched the fount of his emotions. He turned away and leaned against

the grating of his cell, his head resting on his forearm. "My God! man, you don't know what it means to me.

Sometimes I think I shall go mad and rave. After all these years But I know you'll failIt's too good to be

"I'll not fail, though I may be delayed. But I can't say more. Gabilonda is coming back. Next time I see you it

Gabilonda bowed urbanely. "If the senor has seen all he cares to of this department we will return to the

"Certainly, colonel. I can't appreciate too much your kindness in allowing me to study your system so

"Any friend of my friend the Senor O'Halloran is cherished deeply in my heart," came back the smiling

"I am honored, sir, to receive such consideration at the hands of so distinguished a soldier as Colonel

Gabilonda," bowed Bucky gravely, in his turn, with the most flowery Spanish he could muster.

There was another halfhour of the mutual exchange of compliments before O'Connor could get away.

Alphonse and Gaston were fairly outdone, for the Arizonian, with a smile hidden deep behind the solemnity

of his blue eyes, gave as good as he got. When he was at last fairly in the safety of his own rooms he gave

way to limp laughter while describing to his little friend that most ceremonious parting.

"He pressed me to his manly bay window, Curly, and allowed he was plumb tickled to death to have met me.

"Mr. O'Halloran was here while you were away. He seemed very anxious to see you; said he would call again

Came at that instant O'Halloran's ungentle knock, on the heels of which his red head came through the open

"You're the very lad I'm wanting to see, Bucky," he announced, and followed this declaration by locking all

"Is that tough neck of yours aching again, Reddy?" inquired his friend whimsically.

"That tyrant Megales is onto our game. Somebody's leaked, or else he has a spy in our councilsas we have

"That the guns are to be brought in tonight. He has sent out a guard to bring them in safely to him. If he gets

"Glory be! there is. You see, he doesn't know that we know what he has done. For that reason he sent out

only a guard of forty men. If he sent more we would suspect what he was doing, ye see. That is the way the

old fox reasoned. But fortythey were able to slip out of the city on last night's train in civilian's clothes and

"Why didn't he send a couple of hundred men openly, and at the same time arrest you all?"

"That doesn't suit his book at all. For one thing, he probably doesn't know all of us, and he doesn't want to

bag half of us and throw the rest into immediate rebellion. It's his play not to force the issue until after the

election, Bucky. He controls all the election machinery and will have himself declared reelected, the old

scamp, notwithstanding that he's the most unpopular man in the State. To precipitate trouble now would be

just foolishness, he argues. So he'll just capture our arms, and after the election give me and my friends quiet

hell. Nothing public, you knowjust unfortunate assassinations that he will regret exceedingly, me bye. But

I have never yit been assassinated, and, on principle, I object to being trated so. It's very destructive to a

"And so we've arranged to take a few lads up the line and have a train holdup. I'm the robberinchief.

Bucky met his twinkling eye gaily. "Mr. O'Connor is debarred from taking part in such an outrageous affair

by international etiquette, but he knows a gypsy lad would be right glad to join, I reckon."

"Bully for him. If you'll kindly have him here I'll come around and collect him this evening at eightthirty

"We'll do our best," grinned the revolutionist. "Music provided by Megales' crack military band. A lively and

enjoyable occasion guaranteed to all who attend. Your friend will meet some of the smartest officers in the

After the conspirator had gone, Frank spoke up. "You wouldn't go away with him and leave me here alone,

"I ce'tainly shouldn't take you with me, kid. I don't want my little friend all shot up by greasers."

"If you're going, I want to go, too. Supposing if anything were to happen to you, what could I do?"

"You're always talking about a square deal. Do you think that is one? I might say that I don't want YOU shot.

You don't care anything about my feelings." The soft voice had a little break in it that Bucky loved.

He walked across to his partner, that rare, tender smile of his in his eyes. "If I'm always talking about a square

deal I reckon I have got to give you one. Now, what would you think a square deal, Curly? Would it be

square for me to let my friend O'Halloran stand all the risk of this and then me take the reward when

Henderson has been freed by him? Would that be your notion of the right telling?"

"I didn't say that, though I don't see why you have to mix yourself up in his troubles. Why should you go out

"I'm not going to kill any of them," he smiled "Besides, that isn't the way I look at it. This fellow Megales is a

despot. He has made out to steal the liberty of the people from them. President Diaz can't interfere because

the old rascal governor does everything with that smooth, oily way of his under cover of law. It's up to some

of the people to put up a good strong kick for themselves. I ain't a bit sorry to give them the loan of my foot

"Then can't I go, too? I don't want to be left alone here and you away fighting."

Bucky's eyes gleamed. He dared an experiment in an indifferent drawl. "Whyfor don't you want to stay alone,

His partner's cheeks were patched with roses. Shyly the long, thick lashes lifted and let the big brown eyes

"Would you care if one of their pills happened along in the scrimmage and put me out of business? Honest,

"You haven't any right to talk that way. It's cruel," was the reply that burst from the pretty lips, and he noticed

"Well, I won't talk that way any more, little partner," he answered gaily, taking the small hand in his. "For

reasons good. I'm fireproof. The Mexican bullet hasn't been cast yet that can find Bucky O'Connor's heart."

"But you mustn't think that, either, and be reckless," was the next injunction. The shy laugh rang like music.

"Oh, I'll behave," he laughed; for the young man found it very easy to be happy when those sweet eyes were

showing concern for him. "I've got several good reasons why I don't aim to get bumped off just yet. Heaps of

firstrate reasons. I'll tell you what some of them are one of these days," he dared to add.

"You had better tell me now." The gaze that fell before his steady eyes was both shy and eager.

"No, I reckon I'll wait, Curly," he answered, turning away with a long breath. "Well, we better go out and get

"Just as you like." The lad's breath was coming a little fast. They had been on the edge of some moment of

intimacy that Bucky's partner both longed for and dreaded. "But you have not told me yet whether I can go

"You can't. I'm sorry. I'd like firstrate to take you, if you want to go, but I can't do it. I hate to disappoint you

if you're set on it, but I've got to, kid. Anything else you want I'll be glad to do."

"Very well." Swift as a flash came the demand: "Tell me these heaps of firstrate reasons you were

Under the suntan he flushed. "I reckon I'll have to make another exception, Curly. Those reasons ain't ripe

"Then if you areif anything happensI'll never know them. And you promised you would tell meyou,

"Would it do if I wrote those reasons and left them in a sealed envelope? Then in case anything happened you

could open it and satisfy that robust curiosity of yours." He recognized that he had trapped himself, and he

"You may write them, if you like. But I'm going to open the letter, anyway. The reasons belong to me now.

"I'll make a new deal with you, then," he smiled. "I'll take awful good care of myself tonight if you'll

promise not to open the envelope for two weeks unlesswell, unless that something happens that we ain't

"Better say when we're back across the line again. That may be inside of three days, if everything goes well,"

Bucky shook the little hand that was offered him and wished mightily that he had the right to celebrate with

That afternoon the ranger wrote with a good deal of labor the letter he had promised. It appeared to be a

difficult thing for him to deliver himself even on paper of those good and sufficient reasons. He made and

destroyed no less than half a dozen openings before at last he was fairly off. Meanwhile, Master Frank, busy

over some alterations in Bucky's gypsy suit, took pleasure in deriding with that sweet voice the harassed

"It might be a love letter from the pains you take with it. Would you like me to come and help you with it?"

"I ain't used to letter writing much," apologized the scribe, wiping his bedewed brow, which had suddenly

"Apparently not. I expect, from the time you give it, the result will be a literary classic."

"Don't you disturb me, Curly, or I'll never get done," implored the tortured ranger.

"You're doing well. You've only been an hour and a half on six lines," the tormentor mocked.

Womanlike, she was quite at her ease, since he was very far indeed from being at his. Yet she had a problem

Had he discovered, after all, that she was not a boy, and had his reasonsthe ones he was trying to tell in

that disturbing letteranything to do with that discovery? Such a theory accounted for several things she had

noticed in him of late. There was an added respect in his manner for her. He never now invaded the room

recognized as hers without a specific invitation, nor did he seem any longer to chafe at the little personal

marks of fastidiousness that had at first appeared to annoy him. To be sure, he ordered her about, just as he

had been in the habit of doing at first. But it was conceivable that this might be a generous blind to cover up

"How do you spell guessedone s or two?" he presently asked, out of the throes of composition.

Bucky laid down his pen and pretended to glare at him. "You young rascal, what do you mean by bothering

me like that? Act like that, you young imp, and you'll never grow up to be a gentleman."

Their glances caught and held, the minds of each of them busy over that last prediction of his. For one long

instant masks were off and both were trying to find an answer to a question in the eyes opposite. Then

voluntarily each gaze released the other in a confusion of sweet shame. For the beating of a lash, soul had

looked into naked soul, all disguise stripped from them. She knew that he knew. Yet in that instant when his

secret was surprised from him another secret, sweeter than the morning song of birds, sang its way into both

Agua Negra is twelve miles from Chihuahua as the crow flies, but if one goes by rail one twists round thirty

sinuous miles of rough mountainous country in the descent from the pass to the capital of the State. The ten

men who slipped singly or by twos out of the city in the darkness that evening and met at the rendezvous of

the Santa Dolorosa mission did not travel by rail to the pass, but followed a horseback trail which was not

At the mission O'Halloran and his friend found gathered half a dozen Mexicans, one or two of them tough old

campaigners, the rest young fellows eager for the excitement of their first active service.

Bucky was introduced to those present under the name of Alessandro Perdoza, and presently also to the two

missing members of the party who arrived together a few moments later. Juan Valdez was the son of the

candidate who was opposing the reelection of Megales, and Manuel Garcia was his bosom friend, and the

young man to whom his sister was engaged. They were both excellent types of the honorable aristocratic

young Mexican. They were lightly built, swarthy your men, possessed of that perfect grace and courtesy

which can be found at its best in the Spanish races. Gay, handsome young cavaliers as they were, filled with

the pride of family, Bucky thought them almost ideal companions for such a harebrained adventure as this.

The ranger was a social democrat to the marrow. He had breathed in with the Southwest breezes the

conviction that every man must stand on his own bottom, regardless of adventitious circumstance, but he was

not fool enough to think all men equal. It had been his experience that some men, by grace of the strength in

them, were born to be masters and others by their weakness to be servants. He knew that the best any

civilization can offer a man is a chance. Given that, it is up to every man to find his own niche.

But though he had no sense of deference to what is known as good blood, Bucky had too much horse sense to

resent the careless, halfindifferent greeting which these two young sprouts of aristocracy bestowed on the

rest of the party. He understood that it was the natural product of their education and of that of the others.

"All here," returned O'Halloran briskly. "Rodrigo will guide the party. I ride next with Senor Garcia. Perdoza

and Senor Valdez will bring up the rear. Forward, gentlemen, and may the Holy Virgin bring a happy

termination to our adventure." He spoke in Mexican, as they all did, though for the next two hours

conversation was largely suspended, owing to the difficulty of the precipitous trail they were following.

Coming to a bit of the road where they were able to ride two abreast, O'Connor made comment on the

smallness of their number. "O'Halloran must have a good deal of confidence in his men. Forty to ten is rather

"There are six more to join us at the pass. The wagons have gone round by the road and the drivers will assist

"Of course it is all in the surprise. I have seen three men hold up a train with five hundred people on it. Once I

knew a gang to stick up a treasure train with three heavily armed guards protecting the gold. They got them

"Yes, if they have had any warning or if our plans slip a cog anywhere we shall be repulsed to a certainty."

By the light of a moon struggling out from behind rolling clouds Bucky read eleventhirty on his watch when

the party reached Agua Negra. It was still thirty minutes before the Flyer was due, and O'Halloran disposed

his forces with explicit directions as to the course to be followed by each detail. Very rapidly he sketched his

orders as to the present disposition of the wagons and the groups of attackers. When the train slowed down to

remove the obstacles they placed on the track, Garcia and another young man were to command parties

covering the train from both sides, while Rodrigo and one of the drivers were to cover the engineer and the

O'Halloran himself, with Bucky and young Valdez, rode rapidly in the direction of the approaching train. At

Concho the engine would take on water for the last stiff climb of the ascent, and here he meant to board the

train unnoticed, just as it was pulling out, in order to emphasize the surprise at the proper moment and render

resistance useless. If the troopers were all together in the car next the one with the boxes of rifles, he

calculated that they might perhaps be taken unawares so sharply as to render bloodshed unnecessary.

Concho was two miles from the summit, and when the three men galloped down to the little station the

headlight of the approaching engine was already visible. They tied their horses in the mesquit and lurked in

the thick brush until the engine had taken water and the signal for the start was given Then O'Halloran and

Bucky slipped across in the darkness to the train and swung themselves to the platform of the last car. To

Valdez, very much against his will, had fallen the task of taking the horses back to Agua Negra Since the

track wound round the side of the mountain in such a way as to cover five miles in making the summit from

Concho, the young Mexican had ample time to get back to the scene of action before the train arrived.

The big Irishman and Bucky rested quietly in the shadows of the back platform for some time. Then they

entered the last car, passed through it, and on to the next. In the sleeper they met the conductor, but

O'Halloran quietly paid their fares and passed forward. As they had hoped, the whole detail of forty men were

in a special car next to the one containing the arms consigned to Michael O'Halloran, importer of pianos.

Lieutenant Chaves, in charge of the detail sent out to see that the rifles reached Governor Megales instead of

the men who had paid for them, was finding his assignment exceedingly uninteresting. There was at

Chihuahua a certain blackeyed dona with whom he had expected to enjoy a pleasant evening's flirtation. It

was confounded luck that it had fallen to him to take charge of the escort for the guns. He had endured in

consequence an unpleasant day of dusty travel and many hours of boredom through the evening. Now he was

He was connected with a certain Arizona outfit which of late had been making money very rapidly. If one

more coup like the last could be pulled off safely by his friend Wolf Leroy he would resign from the army

and settle down. It would then no longer be necessary to bore himself with such details as this.

There was, of course, no necessity for alertness in his present assignment. The opposition was scarcely mad

enough to attempt taking the guns from forty armed men. Chaves devoutly hoped they would, in order that he

might get a little glory, at least, out of the affair. But of course such an expectation would be ridiculous. No,

the journey would continue to be humdrum to the end, he was wearily assured of that, and consequently

attempted to steal a half hour's sleep while propped against a window with his feet in the seat opposite.

The gallant lieutenant was awakened by a cessation of the drumming of the wheels. Opening his eyes, he saw

that the train was no longer in motion. He also sawand his consciousness of that fact was much more

acutethe rim of a revolver about six inches from his forehead. Behind the revolver was a man, a young

"Don't move, sir. No cause for being uneasy. Just sit quiet and everything will be serene. No, I wouldn't reach

Chaves cast a hurried eye down the car, and at the end of it beheld the huge Irishman, O'Halloran, dominating

the situation with a pair of revolvers. Chaves' lambs were ranged on either side of the car, their hands in the

air. Back came the lieutenant's gaze to the impassive face in front of him. Taken by and large, it did not seem

an auspicious moment for garnering glory. He decided to take the advice bestowed on him.

"Better put your hands up and vote with your men. Then you won't be tempted to play with your gun and

Since the lieutenant had no objections to offer, the smiling gypsy possessed himself of the revolver. At the

same instant two more men appeared at the end of the car. One of them was Juan Valdez and another one of

the muleskinners. Simultaneously with their entrance rang out a most disconcerting fusillade of small arms

in the darkness without. Megales' military band, as O'Halloran had facetiously dubbed them to the ranger,

arrived at the impression that there were about a thousand insurgents encompassing the train. Chaves choked

with rage, but the rest of the command yielded to the situation very tranquilly, with no desire to offer

themselves as targets to this crackling explosion of Colts. Muy bien! After all, Valdez was a better man to

Swiftly Valdez and the wagon driver passed down the car and gathered the weapons from the seats of the

troopers. Raising a window, they passed them out to their friends outside. Meanwhile, the sound of an axe

could be heard battering at the door of the next car, and presently the crash of splintering wood announced

"Breaking furniture, I reckon," drawled Bucky, in English, for the moment forgetful of the part he was

playing. "I hope they'll be all right careful of them pianos and not mishandle them so they'll get out of tune."

O'Connor shrugged, answering in Spanish: "I am Romany. Who shall say, whether American, or Spanish, or

The lieutenant continued to smile his meaning grin. "Yet you are American," he persisted.

Chaves lifted his eyebrows. "For believing that you are in costume, that you are wearing a disguise, Mr.

Bucky laughed outright, and offered a gay retort. "Believe me, lieutenant, I am no more disguised as a gypsy

The Mexican officer flushed with anger at the suggestion of contempt in the careless voice. His generalship

was discredited. He had been outwitted and made to yield without a blow. But to have it flung in his teeth

"If you and I ever meet on equal terms, senor, God pity you," he ground out between his set jaws.

Bucky bowed, answering the furious anger in the man's face as much as his words. "I shall try to be careful

A whistle blew, and then again. The revolver of Bucky rang out almost on the same instant as those of

O'Halloran. Under cover of the smoke they slipped out of the car just as Rodrigo leaped down from the cab of

the engine. Slowly the train began to back down the incline in the same direction from which it had come.

The orders given the engineer were to move back at a snail's pace until he reached Concho again. There he

was to remain for two hours. That Chaves would submit to this O'Halloran did not for a moment suspect.

But the track would be kept obstructed till six o'clock in the morning, and a sufficient guard would wait in the

underbrush to see that the right of way was not cleared. In the meantime the wagons would be pushing

toward Chihuahua as fast as they could be hurried, and the rest of the riders would guard them till they

separated on the outskirts of the town and slipped quietly in. In order to forestall any telegraphic

communication between Lieutenant Chaves and his superiors in the city, the wires had been cut. On the face

of it, the guns seemed to be safe. Only one thing had O'Halloran forgotten. Eight miles across the hills from

The two young Spanish aristocrats rode in advance of the convoy on the return trip, while O'Halloran and

Bucky brought up the rear. The roads were too rough to permit of rapid travel, but the teams were pushed as

fast as it could safely be done in the dark. It was necessary to get into the city before daybreak, and also

before word reached Megales of the coup his enemies had made. O'Halloran calculated that this could be

"When the governor finds we have recaptured the arms, will he not have all your leaders arrested today and

"He willif he can lay hands on them. But he had better catch his hare before he cooks it. I'm thinking that

none of us will be at home today when his men come with a polite invitation to go along with them."

"Then he'll spend all day strengthening his position. With this warning he will be a fool if he can't make

"Oh, the army is on his side, is it? Now, what would you say if most of the officers were ready to come over

to us as soon as we declare ourselves? And ye speak of strengthening his position. The beauty of his position,

me lad, from our point of view, is that he doesn't know his weak places. He'll be the most undeceived man in

"Tonight. Tomorrow is election day, and we want all the byes we can on hand to help us out."

"Do you expect to throw the prison doors wide openlet every scoundrel in Chihuahua loose on the public."

"We couldn't do that, since half of them are loose already," retorted O'Halloran dryly. "And as for the

restwe expect to make a selection, me son, to weed out a few choice ruffians and keep them behind the

bars. But if ye know anything about the prisons of this country, you're informed, sir, that half the poor fellows

behind bars don't belong there so much as the folk that put them there. I'm Irish, as ye are yourself, and it's

me instinct to fight for the under dog. Why shouldn't the lads rotting behind those walls have another chance

at the game? By the mother of Moses! they shall, if Mike O'Halloran has anything to say about it."

"You ce'tainly conduct your lawful elections in a beautifully lawless way," grinned the ranger.

"In order to give the greatest liberty to each individual man. But here comes young Valdez riding back as if

The filibuster rode forward and talked with the young man for a few minutes in a low voice. When he

rejoined Bucky he nodded his head toward the young man, who was again headed for the front of the column.

"There's the best lad in the State of Chihuahua. He's a Mexican, all right, but he has as much sense as a white

man. He doesn't mix issues. Now, the lad's in love with Carmencita Megales, the prettiest blackeyed lass in

Mexico, and, by the same token, so is our friend Chaves, who just gave us the guns a little while ago. But

Valdez is a man from the heel of him to the head. Miss Carmencita has her nose in the air because Juan

doesn't snuggle up to ould Megales and flatter him the same way young Chaves does. So the lad is persona

non grata at court with the lady, and that tin soldier who gave up the guns without a blow gets the lady's

smiles. But it's my opinion that, for all her haughty ways, miss would rather have our honest fighting lad than

A couple of miles from the outskirts of the city the wagons separated, and each was driven to the assigned

place for the hiding of the rifles till night. At the edge of the town Bucky made arrangements to join his

friend again at the monument in the centre of the plaza within fifteen minutes. He was to bring his little

partner with him, and O'Halloran was to take them to a place where they might lie in hiding till the time set

"I would go with ye, but I want to take charge of the unloading. Don't lose any time, lad, for as soon as

Megales learns of what has happened his fellows will scour the town for every mother's son of us. Of course

you have been under surveillance, and it's likely he'll try to bag you with the rest of us. It was a great piece of

foolishness me forgetting about the line of the Chihuahua Northern and its telegraph. But there's a chance

Chaves has forgot, too. Anyway, get back as soon as you can; after we're hidden, it will be like looking for a

Bucky went singing up the stairway of the hotel to his room. He was keen to get back to his little friend after

the hazards of the night, eager to see the brown eyes light up with joy at sight of him and to hear the soft

voice with the trailing inflection drawl out its shy questions. So he took the stairs three at a time, with a song

"'Tis you shall reign, shall reign alone My dark Rosaleen! My own Rosaleen! 'Tis you shall have the golden

O'Connor, somewhat out of breath, was humming the last line when he passed through the gypsy apartments

and opened his own door, to meet one of the surprises of his life. Yet he finished the verse, though he was

looking down the barrels of two revolvers in the hands of a pair of troopers, and though Lieutenant Chaves,

Bucky's sardonic laughter rang out gayly. "I ce'tainly didn't expect to meet you here, lieutenant. May I ask if

"Not exactly, senor. But it is quite possible you may have before twentyfour hours," came the swift retort.

"Interesting, if true," remarked the ranger carelessly, tossing his gloves on the bed. "And may I ask to what I

"I am returning your call, sir, and at the very earliest opportunity. I assure you that I have been in the city less

than ten minutes, Senor whateveryouchoosetocallyourself. My promptness I leave you to admire."

"Oh, you're prompt enough, lieutenant. I noticed that when you handed over your gun to me so lamblike." He

laughed it out flippantly, buoyantly, though it was on his mind to wonder whether the choleric little officer

But Chaves merely folded his arms and looked sternly at the American with a manner very theatrical.

"Stirring up insurrection against the government. The prisoner will not talk," decreed his captor, a frowning

But here the popinjay officer reckoned without his host, for that gentleman had the most indomitable eyes in

Arizona. It was not necessary for him to stiffen his will to meet the other's attack. His manner was still lazy,

his gaze almost insolent in its indolence, but somewhere in the blue eyes was that which told Chaves he was

his master. The Mexican might impotently rebeland did; he might feed his vanity with the swiftness of his

revenge, but in his heart he knew that the moment was not his, after all, or that it was his at least with no

"The prisoner will not talk," repeated Bucky, with drawling mockery. "Sure he will, general. There's several

things he's awful curious to know. One of them is how you happen to be Johnnieonthespot so opportune."

The lieutenant's dignity melted before his vanity. Having so excellent a chance to sun the latter, he delivered

himself of an oration. After all, silent contempt did not appear to be the best weapon to employ with this

"Senor, no Chaves ever forgets an insult. Last night you, a common American, insulted me grosslyme,

Lieutenant Ferdinand Chaves, me, of the bluest Castilian blood." He struck himself dramatically on the

breast. "I submit, senor, but I vow revenge. I promised myself to spit on you, to spit on your Stars and

Stripes, the flag of a nation of dirty traders. Ha! I do so now in spirit. The hour I have longed for is come."

Bucky took one step forward. His eyes had grown opaque and flinty. "Take care, you cur."

Swiftly Chaves hurried on without pressing the point. He had a prophetic vision of his neck in the vise grip of

those brown, sinewy hands, and, though his men would afterward kill the man, small good would he get from

"And so what do I do? I think, and having thought I act with the swiftness of a Chaves. How? I ride across

country. I seize a hand car. My men pump me to town on the roadbed of the Northern. I telephone to the

hotels and find where Americans are staying. Then I come here like the wind, arrest your friend, and send

"That's real kind of you, general," replied Bucky, in irony sportive. "But you really are putting yourself out

too much for me. I reckon I'll not trouble you to go so far. By the way, did I understand you to say you had

Indifferently he flung out the question, if his voice were index of his feeling, but his heart was pumping faster

"He is in prison, where you will shortly join him. Soldiers, to the commandant with your captive."

If Bucky had had any idea of attempting escape, he now abandoned it at once. The place of all places where

he most ardently desired to be at that moment was in the prison with his little comrade. His desire marched

with that of Chaves so far, and the latter could not hurry him there too fast to suit him.

One feature of the situation made him chuckle, and that was this: The fiery lieutenant, intent first of all on his

revenge, had given first thought to the capture of the man who had made mincemeat of his vanity and

rendered him a possible subject of ridicule to his fellow officers. So eager had he been to accomplish this that

he had failed as yet to notify his superiors of what had happened, with the result that the captured guns had

been safely smuggled in and hidden. Bucky thought he could trust O'Halloran to see that he did not stay long

behind bars and bolts, unless indeed the game went against that sanguine and most cheerful plotter. In which

eventwell, that was a contingency that would certainly prove embarrassing to the ranger. It might indeed

turn out to be a good deal more than embarrassing in the end. The thing that he had done would bear a plain

name if the Megales faction won the dayand the punishment for it would be easy to guess. But it was not

of himself that O'Connor was thinking. He had been in tight places before and squeezed safely out. But his

little friend, the one he loved better than his life, must somehow be extricated, no matter how the cards fell.

The ranger was taken at once before General Carlo, the ranking army officer at Chihuahua, and, after a sharp

preliminary examination, was committed to prison. The impression that O'Connor got of Carlo was not a

reassuring one. The man was a military despot, apparently, and a stickler for discipline. He had a hanging

face, and, in the Yaqui war, had won the nickname of "the butcher' for his merciless treatment of captured

natives. If Bucky were to get the same short shrift as they didand he began to suspect as much when his

trial was set for the same day before a military tribunalit was time for him to be setting what few worldly

affairs he had in order. Technically, Megales had a legal right to have him put to death and the impression

lingered with Bucky that the sly old governor would be likely to do that very thing and later be full of profuse

regrets to the United States Government that inadvertently a citizen of the great republic had been punished

Bucky was registered and receipted for at the prison office, after which he was conducted to his cell. The

corridors dripped as he followed under ground the guide who led the way with a flickering lantern. It was a

gruesome place to contemplate as a permanent abode. But the young American knew that his stay here would

Reaching the end of a narrow, crooked corridor that sloped downward, the turnkey unlocked a ponderous iron

door with a huge key, and one of the guards following at Bucky's heels, pushed him forward. He fell down

From the top of the steps came a derisive laugh as the door swung to and left him in utter darkness.

Stiffly the ranger got to his knees and was about to rise when a sound stopped him. Something was panting in

deep breaths at the other side of the cell. A shiver of terror went goosequilling down O'Connor's back. Had

they locked him up with some wild beast, to be torn to pieces? Or was this the ghost of some previous

occupant? In such blackness of gloom it was easy to believe, or, at least, to imagine impossible conceptions

that the light of day would have scattered in an instant. He was afraidafraid to the marrow.

And then out of the darkness came a small, trembling voice: "Are you a prisoner, too, sir?"

Bucky wanted to shout aloud his reliefand his delight. The sheer joy of his laughter told him how badly he

had been frightened. That voicewere he sunk in twice as deep and dark an infernohe would know it

He had hold of her hands by this time, was trying to peer down into the happybrown eyes he knew were

scanning him. "I can't see you yet, Curly Haid, but it's sure you, I reckon. I'll have to pass my hand over your

face the way a blind man does," he laughed, and, greatly daring, he followed his own suggestion, and let his

fingers wander across her crisp, thick hair, down her soft, warm cheeks, and over the saucy nose and laughing

Presently she drew away shyly, but the lilt of happiness in her voice told him she was not offended. "I can see

you, Bucky." The last word came as usual, with that sweet, hesitating, upward inflection that made her

familiarity wholly intoxicating, even while the comradeship of it left room for an interpretation either of gay

mockery or something deeper. "Yes, I can see you. That's because I have been here longer and am more used

to the darkness. I think I've been here about a year." He felt her shudder. "You don't know how glad I am to

"No gladder than I am to feel you," he answered gayly. "It's worth the price of admission to find you here,

He had forgotten the pretense that still lay between them, so far as words went when they had last parted. Nor

did it yet occur to him that he had swept aside the convention of her being a boy. But she was vividly aware

of it, and aware, too, of the demand his last words had made for a recognition of the relationship that existed

But, in woman's way, she ignored his frontal attack. He was going at too impetuous a speed for her

reluctance. "How long have you known that I wasn't a boynot from the first, surely?"

"I don't know why I didn't, but I didn't. I was sure locoed," he confessed. "It was when you came out dressed

as a gypsy that I knew. That explained to me a heap of things I never had understood before about you."

"It explained, I suppose, why I never had licked the stuffing out of any other kid, and why you did not get

"Yes, and it explained how you happened to say you were eighteen. By mistake you let the truth slip out.

"I remember you didn't. I think you conveyed the impression to me diplomatically that you had doubts."

"I said it was a lie," he laughed. "I sure do owe you a heap of apologies for being so plumb dogmatic when

you knew best. You'll have to sit down on me hard once in a while, or there won't be any living with me."

Blushingly she did some more ignoring. "That was the first time you threatened to give me a whipping," she

"No, that wasn't it. In the back of my haid somewhere there was an instinct that said: 'Bucky, you chump, if

you don't keep your hands off this kid you'll be right sorry all your life.' Not being given to many ideas, I paid

"Well, it's too bad, for I probably needed that whipping, and now you'll never be able to give it to me."

Saucily her merry eyes shot him from under the long lashes. "I'm not so sure of that. Girls can be mighty

"That's the way girls are meant to be, I expect," he laughed. "But fifteenyearold boys have to be herded

She rescued her hands from him and led the way to a bench that served for a seat. "Sit down here, sir. There

are one or two things that I have to explain." She sat down beside him at the farther end of the bench.

"This light is so dim, I can't see you away over there," he pleaded, moving closer.

She seemed to find a difficulty in beginning, even though the darkness helped her by making it impossible for

him to see her embarrassment. Presently he chuckled softly. "No, ma'am, I can't even hear you. If you're

"Yes, I have to say it." And swiftly she blurted it out. "Why do you suppose I came with you to Mexico?"

"I don't know." He grappled with her suggestion for a moment. "I supposeyou said it was because you

"Well, I wasn't. At least, I wasn't afraid that much. I knew that I would have been quite safe next time with

"You can't think of any reason?" She leaned forward and looked directly into his eyeseyes as honest and as

But he stood unconvictednay, acquitted. The one reason she had dreaded he might offer to himself had

evidently never entered his head. Whatever guesses he might have made on the subject, he was plainly

guiltless of thinking she might have come with him because she was in love with him.

"No, I can't think of any other reason, if the one you gave isn't the right one."

"Perhaps there is a reason why I should want him out of prison, a better reason than you could possibly

"I don't savvy it. How can there be? You don't know him, do you? He's been in prison almost ever since you

were born." And on top of his last statement Bucky's eyes began to open with a new light. "Good heavens! It

She did not answer him in words, but from her neck she slipped a chain and handed it to him. On the chain

The ranger struck a match and examined the trinket. "It's the very missing locket. See! Here's the other one.

Compare them together." He touched the spring and it opened, but the match was burned out and he had to

light another. "Here's the mine map that has been lost all these years. How did you get this? Have you always

She laughed, answering him categorically. "I don't know, for sure. Yes, at least a great many years. Less than

"And won't until you give me a chance to do some of the talking," she interrupted dryly.

"That's right. I reckon I am getting off left foot first. It's your powwow now," he conceded.

"So long as I can remember exactly I have always lived with the man Hardman and his wife. But before that I

can vaguely recall something different. It has always seemed like a kind of fairyland, for I was a very little tot

then. But one of the things I seem to remember was a sweet, kindeyed mother and a big, laughing father.

Then, too, there were horses and lots of cows. That is about all, except that the chain around my neck seemed

to have some connection with my early life. That's why I always kept it very carefully, and, after one of the

"I suppose he did, and when he discovered that it held only half the secret of the mine he probably put it back

"It was lost at the place where the robbers waited to hold up the T. P. Limited. Probably you lost it first and

"What was the first clue your father had had for many years about his little girl. He happened to be at

Aravaipa the day you and I first met. I guess he took a fancy to me, for he asked me to take this case up for

him and see if I couldn't locate you. I ran Hardman down and made him tell me the whole story. But he lied

"He is a born liar," the girl commented. "Well, to get on with my story. Anderson, or Hardman, as he now

calls himself, except when he uses his stage name of Cavallado, went into the show business and took me

with him. When I was a little bit of a girl he used to use me for all sorts of things, such as a target for his

knife throwing and to sell medicine to the audience. Lots of people would buy because I was such a morsel of

a creature, and I suppose he found me a drawing card. We moved all over the country for years. I hated the

"You poor little lamb," murmured the man. "And when did you find out who you were?"

"I heard you talking to him the night you took him back to Epitaph, and then I began to piece things together.

You remember you went over the whole story with him again just before we reached the town."

"I didn't know. But when you mentioned the locket and the map, I knew. Then it seemed to me that since this

man Henderson had lost so many years of his life trying to save me I must do something for him. So I asked

you to take me with you. I had been a boy so long I didn't think you would know the difference, and you did

"Maybe, and maybe not," he smiled. "Point is, I do know, and it makes a heap of difference to me."

"That ain't it," he was beginning, when a thought brought him up short. As the daughter of Webb Mackenzie

this girl was no longer a penniless outcast, but the heiress of onehalf interest in the big Rocking Chair

Ranch, with its fifteen thousand head of cattle. As the first he had a perfect right to love her and to ask her to

marry him, but as the latterwell, that was quite a different affair. He had not a cent to bless himself with

outside of his little ranch and his salary, and, though he might not question his own motives under such

circumstances, there would be plenty who would question them for him. He was an independent young man

as one could find in a long day's ride, and his pride rose up to padlock his lips.

She looked across at him in shy surprise, for all the eagerness had in an instant been sponged from his face.

With a hard, impassive countenance he dropped the hand he had seized and turned away.

She was hurt, and deeply. It was all very well for her to try her little wiles to delay him, but in her heart she

longed to hear the words he had been about to say. It had been very sweet to know that this brown, handsome

son of Arizona loved her, very restful to know that for the first time in her life she could trustfully let her

weakness lean on the strength of another. And, more than either, though she sometimes smilingly pretended

to deny it to herself, was the ultimate fact that she loved him. His voice was music to her, his presence joy.

He was always so reliable, so little the victim of his moods. What could have come over him now to change

him in that swift instant? Was she to blame? Had she unknowingly been at fault? Or was there something in

her story that had chilled him? It was characteristic of her that it was herself she doubted and not him; that it

She felt her heart begin to swell, and choked back a sob. It wrung him to hear the little breath catch, but he

was a man, strongwilled and resolute. Though he dug his finger nails into his palms till the flesh was cut he

"No, I'm not angry at you." His voice was cold because he dared not trust himself to let his tenderness creep

"I haven't done anything that I ought not to? Perhaps you think it wasn'twasn't nice toto come here with

"I don't think anything of the kind," his hard voice answered. "I think you're a prince, if you want to know."

She smiled a little wanly, trying to coax him back into friendliness. "Then if I'm a prince you must be a

"I meant a prince of good fellows" "Oh!" She could be stiff, too, if it came to that.

The light of a lantern coming down the steps blinded them for a moment. Behind the lantern peered the

yellow face of the turnkey. "Ho, there, Americano! They want you up above," the man said. "The generals,

and the colonels, and the captains want a little talk with you before they hang you, senor."

The two soldiers behind the fellow cackled merrily at his wit, and the encouraged turnkey tried again.

"We shall trouble you but a little time. Only a few questions, senor, an order, and then poco tiempo, after a

"Never mind, muchacho. This is no affair of yours. Your turn will come later. Have no fear of that," nodded

"Ho, ho! Let him explain that to the generals and the colonels," croaked the old fellow. "And that you may

"If I don't come back before three hours read the letter that I wrote you yesterday, dear. I have left matches on

that bench so that you may have a light. Be brave, pardner. Don't lose your nerve, whatever you do. We'll

He spoke in a low voice, so that the guards might not hear, and it was in kind that she answered.

"I'm afraid, Bucky; afraid away down deep. You don't half believe yourself what you say. I can't stand it to be

here alone and not know what's going on. They might bebe doing what that man said, and I not know

anything about it till afterward." She broke down and began to sob. "Oh, I know I'm a dreadful little coward,

"Sho! What he says is nothing. I'm an American citizen, and I reckon that will carry us through all right.

Uncle Sam has awful long arms, and these greasers know it. I'm expecting to come back here again, little

pardner. But if I don't make it, I want you, just as soon as they turn you loose, to go straight to your father's

"Come! This won't do. Look alive, senor," the turnkey ordered, and to emphasize his words reached a hand

forward to pluck away the sobbing lad. Bucky caught his wrist and tightened on it like a vise. "Hands off,

Gently he unfastened her fingers. "You know I would if I could, Curly; but it isn't my sayso."

And with that he was gone. Ashenfaced she watched him go, and as soon as the door had closed groped her

way to the bench and sank down on it, her face covered with her hands. He was going to his death. Her lover

was going to his death. Why had she let him go? Why had she not done somethingthought of some way to

The ranger's guards led him to the military headquarters in the next street from the prison. He observed that

nearly a whole company of Rurales formed the escort, and this led him to conclude that the government party

was very uneasy as to the situation and had taken precautions against a possible attempt at rescue. But no

such attempt was made. The sunny streets were pretty well deserted, except for a few lounging peons hardly

interested enough to be curious. The air of peace, of order, sat so incongruously over the plaza that Bucky's

heart fell. Surely this was the last place on earth for a revolution to make any headway of consequence. His

friends were hidden away in holes and cellars, while Megales dominated the situation with his troops. To

Yet even while the thought was in his mind he caught a glimpse in a doorway of a man he recognized. It was

Rodrigo, one of his allies of the previous night's escapade, and it seemed to him that the man was trying to

tell him something with his eyes. If so, the meaning of his message failed to carry home, for after the ranger

So far as the trial itself went, O'Connor hoped for nothing and was the less disappointed. One glance at his

judges was enough to convince him of the futility of expectation. He was tried by a courtmartial presided

over by General Carlo. Beside him sat a Colonel Onate and Lieutenant Chaves. In none of the three did he

find any room for hope. Carlo was a hater of Americans and a butcher by temperament and choice, Chaves a

personal enemy of the prisoner, and Onate looked as grim an old scoundrel as Jeffreys the hanging judge of

James Stuart. Governor Megales, though not technically a member of the court, was present, and took an

active part in the prosecution. He was a stout, swarthy little man, with black, beady eyes that snapped

restlessly to and fro, and from his manner to the officers in charge of the trial it was plain that he was a despot

The court did not trouble itself with forms of law. Chaves was both principal witness and judge,

notwithstanding the protest of the prisoner. Yet what the lieutenant had to offer in the way of testimony was

so tinctured with bitterness that it must have been plain to the veriest novice he was no fit judge of the case.

But Bucky knew as well as the judges that his trial was a merely perfunctory formality. The verdict was

decided ere it began, and, indeed, so eager was Megales to get the farce over with that several times he

It took them just fifteen minutes from the time the young American was brought into the room to find him

guilty of treason and to decide upon immediate execution as the fitting punishment.

General Carlo turned to the prisoner. "Have you anything to say before I pronounce sentence of death upon

"I have," answered Bucky, looking him straight in the eyes. "I am an American, and I demand the rights of a

"An American?" Incredulously Megales lifted his eyebrows. "You are a Spanish gypsy, my friend."

The ranger was fairly caught in his own trap. He had donned the gypsy masquerade because he did not want

to be taken for what he was, and he had succeeded only too well. He had played into their hands. They would,

of course, claim, in the event of trouble with the United States, that they had supposed him to be what his

costume proclaimed him, and they would be able to make good their pretense with a very decent appearance

"We understand each other perfectly, governor. I know and you know that I am an American. As a citizen of

the United States I claim the protection of that flag. I demand that you will send immediately for the United

Megales leaned forward with a thin, cruel smile on his face. "Very well, senor. Let it be as you say. Your

friend, Senor O'Halloran, is the United States consul. I shall be very glad to send for him if you can tell me

where to find him. Having business with him today, I have despatched messengers who have been unable to

find him at home. But since you know where he is, and are in need of him, perhaps you can assist me with

Again Bucky was fairly caught. He had no reason to doubt that the governor spoke truth in saying that

O'Halloran was the United States consul. There were in the city as permanent residents not more than three or

four citizens of the United States. With the political instinct of the Irish, it would be very characteristic of

O'Halloran to work his "pull" to secure for himself the appointment. That he had not happened to mention the

fact to his friend could be accounted for by reason of the fact that the duties of the office at that place were

The Mexican tyrant brought his clinched fist slowly down on the table in front of him. "It is necessary to

remember, sir. It is necessary to answer a few questions. If you answer them to our satisfaction you may yet

"Indeed!" Bucky swept his fat bulk scornfully from head to foot. "If I were what you think me, do you

"You mean that you would not think you had any option if you were in my place, but since I'm a clean white

man there's an option. By God! sir, it doesn't take me a whole lot of time to make it, either. I'll see you rot in

The words rang like a bell through the room, not loud, but clear and vibrant. There was a long instant's

silence after the American finished speaking, and as his eyes swept from one to another of the enemy Bucky

met with a surprise. On Colonel Onate's face was a haggard look of fearsurely it was fearthat lifted in

relief at the young man's brave challenge. He had been dreading something, and the dread was lifted. Onate!

Onate! The ranger's memory searched the past few days to locate the name. Had O'Halloran mentioned it?

Was this man one of the officers expected to join the opposition when it declared itself against Megales? He

had a vague recollection of the name, and he could have heard it only through his friend.

"Was Juan Valdez a member of the party that took the rifles from Lieutenant Chaves and his escort?"

Chaves flushed angrily and laid a hand on his revolver. "Who are you that play dice with death, like a fool?"

At the words a certain fear, followed by a look of triumph, passed over the face of Chaves. It was as if he had

had an unpleasant shock that had instantly proved groundless. Bucky did not at the time understand it.

"Why don't you shoot? It's about your size, you pinhead, to kill an unarmed man."

"I'll tell you nothing, except that I'm Bucky O'Connor, of the Arizona Rangers. Chew on that a while,

governor, and see how it tastes. Kill me, and Uncle Sam is liable to ask mighty loud whyfor; not because I'm

such a mighty big toad in the puddle, but because any man that stands under that flag has back of him the

biggest, best, and gamest country on God's green footstool." Bucky spoke in English this time, straight as he

"Indeed!" Politely the governor smiled at him with a malice almost devilish. "If so, it will be after you are

Colonel Onate leaned forward and whispered something to General Carlo, who shook his head and frowned.

Presently the black head of Chaves joined them, and the three were in excited discussion. Arms waved like

signals, as is usual among the Latin races who talk with their hands and expressive shrugs of the shoulders.

Outvoted by two to one, Onate appealed to the governor, who came up and listened, frowning, to both sides

of the debate. In their excitement the voices raised, and to Bucky came snatches of phrases that told him his

life hung in the balance. Carlo and Chaves were for having him executed out of hand, at latest, by sunset. The

latter was especially vindictive. Indeed, it seemed to the ranger that ever since he had mentioned his name

this man had set himself more malevolently to compass his death. Onate maintained, on the other hand, that

their prisoner was worth more to them alive than dead. There was a chance that he might weaken before

morning and tell secrets. At worst they would still have his life as a card to hold in case of need over the head

of the rebels. If it should turn out that this was not needed, he could be executed in the morning as well as

It may be conceived with what anxiety Bucky listened to the whispered conversation and waited for the

decision of the governor. He was a game man, noted even in a country famous for its courageous citizens, but

he felt strangely weak now as he waited with that leathercrusted face of his bereft of all expression.

"Give him till morning to weaken. If he still stays obstinate, hang him in the dawn," decided the governor, his

Not a flicker of the eyelid betrayed the Arizonian's emotion, but for an instant the world swam dizzily before

him. Safe till morning! Before then a hundred chances might change the current of the game in his favor.

How brightly the sunshine flooded the room! What a glorious world it was, after all! Through the open

window poured the rich, fullthroated song of a meadow lark, and the burden of its blithe song was, "How

How long Frances Mackenzie gave herself up to despair she never knew, but when at last she resolutely took

herself in hand it seemed hours later. "Bucky told me to be brave, he told me not to lose my nerve," she

repeated to herself over and over again, drawing comfort from the memory of his warm, vibrant voice. "He

said he would come back, and he hates a liar. So, of course, he will come." With such argument she tried to

But on top of all her reassurances would come a swift, blinding vision of gallant Bucky being led to his death

that crumpled her courage as a hammer might an empty egg shell. What was the use of her pretending all was

well when at that very moment they might be murdering him? Then in her agony she would pace up and

down, wringing her hands, or would beat them on the stone walls till the soft flesh was bruised and bleeding.

It was in the reaction, after one of these paroxysms of despair, that in her groping for an anchor to make fast

"He said in three hours I was to read it if he didn't come back. It must be more than three hours now," she

said aloud to herself, and knew a fresh dread at his prolonged absence beyond the limit he had set.

In point of fact, he had been gone less than threequarters of an hour, but in each one of them she had lived a

By snatches she read her letter, a sentence or a fragment of a sentence at a time as the light served. Luckily he

had left a case nearly full of matches, and one after another of them dropped, charred and burned out, before

she had finished reading. After she had read it, her first love letter, she must needs go over it again, to learn

by heart the sweet phrases in which he had wooed her. It was a commonplace note enough, far more neutral

than the strong, virile writer who had lacked the cunning to transmit his feeling to ink and paper. But, after

all, it was from him, and it told the divine message, however haltingly. No wonder she burned her little finger

tips from the flame of the matches creeping nearer unheeded. No wonder she pressed it to her lips in the

darkness and dreamed her happy dream in those few moments when she was lost in her love before cruel

"I told you, Little Curly Haid, that I had firstrate reasons for not wanting to be killed by these Mexicans. So

I have, the best reasons going. But they are not ripe to tell you, and so I write them.

"I guessed your secret, little pardner, right away when I seen you in a girl's outfit. If I hadn't been blind as a

bat I would have guessed it long since, for all the time my feelings were telling me mighty loud that you were

"I'll not leave you to guess my secret the way you did me yours, dear Curly, but right prompt I'll set down

adore (with one D) and say you hit the bull'seye that time without expecting to. But if I was saying it I

would not use any French words sweetheart, but plain American. And the word would be love, without

any D's. Now you have got the straight of it, my dear. I love youlove youlove you, from the crown of

that curly hear to the soles of your little feet. What's more, you have got to love me, too, since I am,

"P. S.And now, Curly, you know my firstrate reasons for not meaning to get shot up by any of these

So the letter ran, and it went to her heart directly as rain to the thirsty roots of flowers. He loved her.

Whatever happened, she would always have that comfort. They might kill him, but they could not take away

that. The words of an old Scotch song that Mrs. Mackenzie sang came back to her:

"The span o' life's nae large eneugh, Nor deep enough the sea, Nor braid eneugh this weary warld, To part my

No, they could not part their hearts in this world or the next, and with this sad comfort she flung herself on

the rough bed and sobbed. She would grieve still, but the wildness of her grief and despair was gone,

scattered by the knowledge that however their troubles eventuated they were now one in heart.

She was roused after a long time by the sound of the huge key grating in the lock. Through the opened door a

figure descended, and by an illuminating swing of the turnkey's lantern she saw that it was Bucky. Next

moment the door had closed and they were in each other's arms. Bucky's stubborn pride, the remembrance of

the riches which of a sudden had transformed his little partner into an heiress and set a high wall of separation

between them, these were swept clean away on a great wave of love which took Bucky off his feet and left

Again he passed his hand across her face. "You've been crying, little pardner. Were you crying on account of

"On account of myself, because I was afraid I had lost you. Oh, Bucky, isn't it too good to be true?"

The ranger smiled, remembering that he had about fourteen hours to live, if the Megales faction triumphed.

"Good! I should think it is. Bully! I've been famished to see Curly Haid again."

"And to know that everything is going to come out all right and that we love each other."

"That's right good hearing and most ce'tainly true on my side of it. But how do you happen to know it so

"But you weren't to read it for three hours," he pretended to reprove, holding her at arm's length to laugh at

"You little rogue, you didn't play fair." And to punish her he drew her soft, supple body to him in a close

embrace, and for the first time kissed the sweet mouth that yielded itself to him.

"Tell me all about what happened to you," she bade him playfully, after speech was again in order.

"Sure." He caught her hand to lead her to the bench and she winced involuntarily.

"I burned it," she explained, adding, with a ripple of shy laughter: "When I was reading your letter. It doesn't

But he had to see for himself and make much over the little blister that the flame of a match revealed to him.

For they were both very much in love, and, in consequence, bubbling over with the foolishness that is the

But though her lover had acquiesced so promptly to her demand for a full account of his adventures since

leaving her, that young man had no intention of offering an unexpurged edition of them. It was his hope that

O'Halloran would storm the prison during the night and effect a rescue. If so, good; if not, there was no need

of her knowing that for them the new day would usher in fresh sorrow. So he gave her an account of his trial

and its details, told her how he had been convicted, and how Colonel Onate had fought warily to get the

sentence of execution postponed in order to give their friends a chance to rescue them.

"When Megales remanded me to prison I wanted to let out an Arizona yell, Curly. It sure seemed too good to

"But he may want the sentence carried out some time, if he changes his mind. Maybe in a week or two he

may take a notion that " She stopped, plainly sobered by the fear that the good news of his return might not

"We won't cross that bridge till we come to it. You don't suppose our friends are going to sit down and fold

their hands, do you? Not if I've got Mike O'Halloran and young Valdez sized up right. Fur is going to begin

to fly pretty soon in this man's country. But it's up to us to help all we can, and I reckon we'll begin by taking

Wickiup was distinctly good, since the word is used to apply to a frail Indian hut, and this cell was nothing

less than a tomb built in the solid rock by blowing out a chamber with dynamite and covering the front with a

solid sheet of iron, into which a door fitted. It did not take a very long investigation to prove to Bucky that

escape was impossible by any exit except the door, which meant the same thing as impossible at all under

present conditions. Yet he did not yield to this opinion without going over every inch of the walls many times

"I reckon they want to keep us, Curly. Mr. Megales has sure got us real safe this time. I'd be plumb

discouraged about breaking jail out of this cage. It's ce'tainly us to stay hitched a while."

About dark tortillas and frijoles were brought down to them by the facetious turnkey, who was accompanied

"Why don't my little birdies sing?" he asked, with a wink at the soldiers. "One of them will not do any

"What do you mean about one not singing after daybreak?" asked the girl, with eyes dilating.

"What! Hasn't he told you? Senor the ranger is to be hanged at the dawn unless he finds his tongue for

Governor Megales. Ho, ho! Our birdie must speak even if he doesn't sing." And with that as a parting shot the

He shrugged his shoulders. "What was the use, girlie? I knew it would worry you, and do no good. Better let

"While you kept watch alone and waited through the long night. Oh, Bucky!" She crept close to him and put

her arms around his neck, holding him tight, as if in the hope that she could keep him against the untoward

"Don't give up, little friend. I don't. Somehow I'll slip out, and then you'll have to live for me and not die for

"But" She blanched at the alternative. "Oh, Bucky, we must do something. We must we must."

"It ain't so bad as it looks, honey. You want to remember that Mike O'Halloran is on deck. What's the matter

with him knocking out a home run and bringing us both in. I put a heap of confidence in that redhaided

"You say that just toto give me courage. You don't really think he can do anything," she said wanly.

"That's just what I think, Curly. Some men have a way of getting things done. When you look at O'Halloran

you feel this, the same as you do when you look at Val Collins. Oh, he'll get us out all right. I've been in

several tighter holes than this one." His mention of Collins suggested a diversion, and he took up a less

distressing theme lightly. "Wonder what Val is doing at this precise moment. I'll bet he's beginning to make

things warm for Wolf Leroy's bunch of miscreants. We'll have the robbers of the Limited behind the bars

He had succeeded in diverting her attention better than he had dared to hope. Her big eyes fixed on his much

"That's another thing I must tell you. I didn't think to before. But I want you to know all about me now. Don't

"What is it you have done that is so awful?" he smiled, and went to gather her into his arms.

She stayed him with a gesture of her hand. "No, not yet. Mebbe after you know you won't want to. I was one

"Yes, Bucky. I expect you'll hate me now. What is it you called mea miscreant? Well, that's what I am."

His arms slipped round her as she began to sob, and he gentled her till she could again speak. "Tell me all

"I didn't go into it because I wanted to. My master made me. I don't know much about the others, except that I

"Yes. But that's it, Bucky. I hated them all, and I was in mortal fear all the time. StillI can't betray them.

They thought I went in freely with themall but Hardman. It wouldn't be right for me to tell what I know.

"You'll not need to argue that with me, honey. I see it. You must keep quiet. Don't tell anybody else what

But the form in which he had expressed his feeling was unfortunate. It brought them back to the menace of

their situation. Neither of them could tell how long he would be alive and kicking. She flung herself into his

When the news reached O'Halloran that Megales had scored on the opposition by arresting Bucky O'Connor,

the Irishman swore fluently at himself for his oversight in forgetting the Northern Chihuahua. So far as the

success of the insurgents went, the loss of the ranger was a matter of no importance, since O'Halloran knew

well that nothing in the way of useful information could be cajoled or threatened out of him. But, personally,

it was a blow to the filibuster, because he knew that the governor would not hesitate to execute his friend if

his fancy or his fears ran that way, and the big, redheaded Celt would not have let Bucky go to death for a

"And do you think you're fit to run even a donation party, you great, blundering gumph?" Mike asked

himself, in disgust. "You a conspirator! You a leader of a revolution! By the ghost of Brian Boru, you had

But he was not the man to let grass grow under his feet while he hesitated how to remedy his mistake.

Immediately he got in touch with Valdez and a few of his party, and decided on a bold counterstroke that, if

successful, would oppose a checkmate to the governor's check and would also make unnecessary the

"But mind, gentlemen," said Juan Valdez plainly, "the governor must not be injured personally. I shall not

consent to any violence, no matter what the issue. Furthermore, I should like to be given charge of the palace,

in order to see that his wants are properly provided for. We cannot afford to have our movement discredited

O'Halloran smothered a smile. "Quite right, senor. Success at all hazards, but, if possible, success with peace.

And, faith, subject to the approval of the rest of those present, I do hereby appoint you keeper of the

governor's person and his palace, as well as all that do dwell therein, including his man servants, his maid

servants, and his daughter. We hold you personally responsible for their safe keeping. See that none of them

cherish the enemy or give aid and comfort to them." The Irishman finished, with a broad smile that seemed to

Nothing could be done in broad daylight, while the troops of the government party patrolled the streets and

were prepared to pounce on the first suspects that poked their noses out of the holes where they were hidden.

Nevertheless, their spies were busy all day, reporting to the opposition leaders everything that happened of

interest. In the course of the day General Valdez, the father of Juan, was arrested on suspicion of complicity

and thrown into prison, as were a score of others thought to be in touch with the Valdez faction. All day the

troops of the governor were fussily busy, but none of the real leaders of the insurgents was taken. For General

Valdez, though he had been selected on account of his integrity and great popularity to succeed Megales, was

It was just after nightfall that a farmer drove into Chihuahua with a wagonload of alfalfa. He was halted once

or twice by guards on the streets, but, after a very cursory inspection, was allowed to pass. His route took him

past the back of the governor's palace, an impressive stone affair surrounded by beautiful grounds. Here he

stopped, as if to fasten a tug. Out of the hay tumbled fifteen men armed with rifles and revolvers, all of them

"Now, me lads, we're all heroes by our talk. It's up to us to make good. I can promise one thing: by this time

O'Halloran's concluding question was a merely rhetorical one, for without waiting for an answer he started at

the double toward the palace, taking advantage of the dense shrubbery that offered cover up to the last twenty

yards. This last was covered with a rush so rapid that the guard was surprised into a surrender without a

Double guard was on duty on account of the strained situation, but the officer in charge, having been won

over to the Valdez side, had taken care to pick them with much pains. As a consequence, the insurgents met

friends in place of enemies, and within three minutes controlled fully the palace. Every entrance was at once

closed and guarded, so that no news of the reversal could reach the military barracks.

So silently had the palace been taken that, except the guards and one or two servants held as prisoners, not

"Senor Valdez, you are appointed to notify the senorita that she need not be alarmed at what has occurred.

Senor Garcia will act as captain of the day, and allow nobody to leave the building under any pretext

whatever. I shall personally put the tyrant under arrest. Rodrigo and Jose will accompany me."

O'Halloran left his subordinates at the door when he entered the apartments of the governor. The outer room

was empty, and the Irishman passed through it to the inner one, where Megales was accustomed to take his

Tonight, however, that gentleman was in no mood for peaceful reflection followed by slumber. He was on

the edge of a volcano, and he knew it. The question was whether he could hold the lid on without an eruption.

General Valdez he dared not openly kill, on account of his fame and his popularity, but that pestilent

Irishman O'Halloran could be assassinated and so could several of his alliesif they only gave him time.

That was the rub. The general dissatisfaction at his rule had been no secret, of course, but the activity of the

faction opposing him, the boldness and daring with which it had risked all to overthrow him, had come as so

complete a surprise that he had been unprepared to meet it. Everywhere tonight his guards covered the city,

ready to crush rebellion as soon as it showed its head. Carlo was in personal charge of the troops, and would

remain so until after the election tomorrow, at which he would be declared formally reelected. If he could

keep his hands on the reins for twentyfour hours more the worst would be past. He would give a good deal

to know what that mad Irishman, O'Halloran, was doing just now. If he could once get hold of him, the

At that precise moment in walked the mad Irishman pat to the Mexican's thought of him.

"Buenos noches, excellency. I understand yon have been looking for me. I am, senor, yours to command."

The governor's first thought was that he was a victim of treachery, his second that he was a dead man, his

third that he would die as a Spanish gentleman ought. He was pale to the eyes, but he lost no whit of his

"As a loan, excellency, merely as a loan. After tomorrow it will be returned you in the event you still need

The big Celt looked shocked. "Not at all! The bulletins may perhaps have to report you accidentally killed or

"I understand; but before this lamentable accident happens I beg leave to assure myself that the palace really

is in your hands, senor. A mere formality, of course." The governor smiled his thinlipped smile and touched

Twice Megales pressed the electric bell, but no orderly appeared in answer to it. He bowed to the inevitable.

"I grant you victor, Senor O'Halloran. Would it render your victory less embarrassing if I were to give you

material immediately for that bulletin on suicide?" He asked the question quite without emotion, as

O'Halloran had never liked the man. The Irish in him had always boiled at his tyranny. But he had never

disliked him so little as at this moment. The fellow had pluck, and that was one certain passport to the

"On the contrary, it would distress me exceedingly. Let us reserve that bulletin as a regrettable possibility in

"Which means, I infer, that you have need of me before I pass by the Socratic method," he suggested, still

with that pale smile set in granite "I shall depend on you to let me know at what precise hour you would like

to order an epitaph written for me. Say the word at your convenience, and within five minutes your bulletin

"Begad, excellency, I like your spirit. If it's my sayso, you will live to be a hundred. Come the cards are

against you. Some other day they may fall more pat for you. But the jig's up now."

"The utmost freedom compatible with the circumstances. Your friends may either leave or remain and accept

the new order of things. I'm afraid it will be necessary for you and General Carlo to leave the state for your

"Of course. Such property as you cannot well take may be left in the hands of an agent and disposed of later."

Megales eyed him narrowly. "Is it your opinion, on honor, that the general and I would reach the boundaries

"I pledge you my honor and that of Juan Valdez that you will be safely escorted out of the country if you will

consent to a disguise. It is only fair to him to say that he stands strong for your life."

"Then, sir, I accept your terms if you can make it plain to me that you are strong enough to take the city

From his pocket O'Halloran drew a typewritten list and handed it to the governor, who glanced it over with

"Certainly. Choose the name of any one of them you like and send for him. You are at liberty to ask him

The governor drew a pencilmark through a name. O'Halloran clapped his hands and Rodrigo came into the

"Rodrigo, the governor desires you to carry a message to Colonel Onate. He is writing it now. You will give

Colonel Onate my compliments and ask him to make as much haste as is convenient."

Megales signed and sealed the note he was writing and handed it to O'Halloran, who in turn passed it to

"Colonel Onate should be here in fifteen minutes at the farthest. May I in the meantime offer you a glass of

wine, Dictator O'Halloran?" At the Irishman's smile, the Mexican governor hastened to add,

misunderstanding him purposely: "Perhaps I assume too much in taking the part of host here. May I ask

"You do me too much honor, excellency. Neither in person nor by deputy, I fear. And, as for the glass of

winewith all my heart. Good liquor is always in order, whether for a funeral or a marriage."

"Or an abdication, you might add. I drink to a successful reign, Senor Dictator: Le roi est mort; vive le roi!"

The Irishman filled a second glass. "And I drink to Governor Megales, a brave man. May the cards fall better

The governor bowed ironically. "A brave man certainly, and you might add: 'Who loses his stake without

"We play with stacked cards, excellency. Who can forestall the treachery of trusted associates?"

"Sir, your apology for me is very generous, no less so than the terms you offer," returned Megales

O'Halloran laughed. "Well, if you don't like my explanations I shall have to let you make your own. And, by

"Young Valdez is in love with your daughter. I am sure that she is fond of him, but she is very loyal to you

The Spaniard's eye flashed, but his answer came suavely as he interrupted: "Don't you think you had better

leave Senor Valdez and me to arrange our own family affairs? We could not think of troubling you to attend

Megales bowed. "Your recommendation goes a long way with me, senor, and, in truth, I have known him

"You think so? A matter of definitions, one may suppose. Loyal to the authorized government of his country,

"Egad, you have me there, excellency. 'Tis a question of point of view, I'm thinking. But you'll never tell me

the lad pretended one thing and did another. I'll never believe you like that milksop Chaves better."

"I doubt it will be no choice of yours. Juan Valdez is an ill man to deny what he sets his heart on. If the lady

"I shall give her to the knave and wash my hands of her. Since treason thrives she may at last come back to

"Less likely things have happened. What news, Rodrigo?" This last to the messenger, who at that moment

Onate was plainly puzzled at the summons to attend the governor, and mixed with his perplexity was a very

evident anxiety. He glanced quickly at O'Halloran as he entered, as if asking for guidance, and then as

questioningly at Megales. Had the Irishman played Judas and betrayed them all? Or was the coup already

"Colonel Onate, I have sent for you at the request of Governor Megales to set his mind at rest on a disturbing

point. His health is failing and he considers the advisability of retiring from the active cares of state. I have

assured him that you, among others, would, under such circumstances, be in a friendly relation to the next

Megales pierced him with his beady eyes. "In other words, Colonel Onate, are you one of the traitors

"Indeed I have no doubt you do. I am answered," he exclaimed scornfully. "And what is the price of

"I was merely curious to know what position you would hold under the new administration."

O'Halloran choked a laugh, for by chance the governor had hit the nail on the head. Onate was to be Secretary

of State under Valdez, and this was the bait that had been dangled temptingly under his nose to induce a

"If you mean to reflect upon my honor I can assure you that my conscience is clear," answered Onate blackly.

"Indeed, colonel, I do not doubt it. I have always admired your conscience and its adaptability." The governor

He walked to his desk, unlocked a drawer, and drew forth a parchment, which he tossed across to the

Irishman. "It is my commission as governor. Allow me to place it in your hands and put myself at the service

"If you will kindly write notes, I will send a messenger to General Carlo and another to Colonel Gabilonda

Megales sat down and wrote two notes, which he turned over to O'Halloran. The latter read them, saw them

When Gabilonda was announced, General Carlo followed almost at his heels. The latter glanced in surprise at

"I did not catch him. He has caught me, and, incidentally, you, general," answered the sardonic Megales.

"That is precisely what I have done. Cast your eye over that paper, general, and then tell me of what use the

army would be to us. Half the officers are with the enemy, among them the patriotic Colonel Onate, whom

you see present. A resistance would be futile, and would only result in useless bloodshed."

"Seeing is believing, general," returned O'Halloran, and he gave a little nod to Onate.

"The call to arms, general. It means that the old regime is at an end in Chihuahua. VIVA VALDEZ."

O'Halloran laughed. "I'm afraid he will not be able to give the countersign to Garcia. In the meantime,

excellency, pending his return, I would suggest that you notify Colonel Gabilonda to turn over the prison to

He was interrupted as he wrote by a great shout from the plaza. "VIVA VALDEZ!" came clearly across the

night air, and presently another that stole the color from the cheek of Megales.

"Death to the tyrant! Death to Megales!" repeated the governor, after the shouts reached them.

"I fear, Senor Dictator, that your pledge to see me across the frontier will not avail against that maddog

The Irishman set his bulldog jaw. "I'll get you out safely or, begad! I'll go down fighting with you."

"I think we are likely to have interesting times, my dear dictator. Be sure I shall watch your doings with

interest so long as your friends allow me to watch anything in this present world." The governor turned to his

desk and continued the letter with a firm hand. "I think this should relieve you of responsibility, colonel."

O'Halloran had been thinking rapidly. "Governor, I think the safest place for you and General Carlo, for a day

or two, will be in the prison. I intend to put my friend O'Connor in charge of its defense, with a trustworthy

command. There is no need of word reaching the mob as to where you are hidden. I confess the quarters will

"No narrower than those we shall occupy very soon if we do not accept your suggestion," smiled Megales.

"Buertos! Anything to escape the pressing attentions of your friends outside. I ask only one favor, the loan of

a revolver, in order that we may disappoint the mad dogs if they overpower the guard of Senor O'Connor."

Hastily O'Halloran rapped out orders, gathered together a little force of five men, and prepared to start. Both

Carlo and Megales he furnished with revolvers, that they might put an end to their lives in case the worst

happened. But before they had started Juan Valdez and Carmencita Megales came running toward them.

"Where are you going? It is too late. The palace is surrounded!" cried the young man. "Look!" He swept an

excited arm toward the window. "There are thousands and thousands of frenzied people calling for the lives

Carlo shook like a leaf, but Megales only smiled at O'Halloran his wintry smile. "That is the trouble in

keeping a mad dog, senor. One never knows when it may get out of leash and bite perhaps even the hand that

Carmencita flung herself, sobbing, into the arms of her father and filled the palace with her screams. Megales

"To my private office," he ordered briskly. "Come, general, there is still a chance."

O'Halloran failed to see it, but he joined the little group that hurried to the private office. Megales dragged his

desk from the corner where it set and touched a spring that opened a panel in the wall. Carlo, blanched with

fear at the threats and curses that filled the night, sprang toward the passageway that appeared.

Megales plucked him back. "One moment, general. Ladies first. Carmencita, enter."

Carlo followed her, after him the governor, and lastly Gabilonda, tearing himself from a whispered

conversation with O'Halloran. The panel swung closed again, and Valdez and O'Halloran lifted back the desk

just as Garcia came running in to say that the mob would not be denied. Immediately O'Halloran threw open

a French window and stepped out to the little railed porch upon which it opened. He had the chance of his life

to make a speech, and that is the one thing that no Irishman can resist. He flung out from his revolver three

shots in rapid succession to draw the attention of the mob to him. In this he succeeded beyond his hopes. The

word ran like wildfire that the mad Irishman, O'Halloran, was about to deliver a message to them, and from

all sides of the building they poured to hear it. He spoke in Mexican, rapidly, his great bull voice reaching to

"Fellow lovers of liberty, the hour has struck that we have worked and prayed for. The glorious redemption of

our State has been accomplished by your patriotic hands. An hour ago the tyrants, Megales and Carlo, slipped

out of the palace, mounted swift horses, and are galloping toward the frontier."

A roar of rage, such as a tiger disappointed of its kill might give, rose into the night. Such a terrible cry no

"But the pursuit is already on. Swift riders are in chase, with orders not to spare their horses so only they

capture the fleeing despots. We expect confidently that before morning the tyrants will be in our hands. In the

meantime, let us show ourselves worthy of the liberty we have won. Let us neither sack nor pillage, but show

our great president in the City of Mexico that not ruffians but an outraged people have driven out the

The huge Celt was swimming into his periods beautifully, but it was very apparent to him that the mob must

"But one sacred duty calls to us from heaven, my fellow citizens. Already I see in your glorious faces that

you behold the duty. Then forward, patriots! To the plaza, and let us tear down, let us destroy by fire, let us

annihilate the statue of the dastard Megales which defaces our fair city. Citizens, to your patriotic duty!"

Another wild yell rang skyward, and at once the fringes of the crowd began to vanish plazaward, its centre

began to heave, its flanks to stir. Three minutes later the grounds of the palace were again dark and empty.

The escaping party groped its way along the passage in the wall, down a rough, narrow flight of stone steps to

a second tunnel, and along this underground way for several hundred yards. Since he was the only one

familiar with the path they were traversing, the governor took the lead and guided the others. At a distance of

perhaps an eighth of a mile from the palace the tunnel forked. Without hesitation, Megales kept to the right.

A stone's throw beyond this point of divergence there began to be apparent a perceptible descent which

Megales reached up and put his weight on a rope suspended from the roof. Slowly the solid masonry swung

on a pivot, leaving room on either side for a person to squeeze through. The governor found it a tight fit, as

"I was more slender last time I passed through there. It has been several years since then," said the governor,

They found themselves in a small chamber fitted up as a living room in a simple way. There were three plain

"This must be close to the prison. We have been coming in that direction all the time. It is strange that it

could be so near and I not know of it," said the warden, looking around curiously.

Megales smiled. "I am the only person alive that knew of the existence of this room or of the secret passage

until half an hour ago. I had it built a few years since by Yaquis when I was warden of the prison. The other

Again Megales smiled. "I thought you knew me better, Carlo. The Yaquis who built this were condemned

raiders. I postponed their execution a few months while they were working on this. It was a convenience both

"And is also a convenience to me," smiled Carlo, who was beginning to recover from his terror.

"But I don't quite understand yet how we are to get out of here except by going back the way we came," said

"Which for some of us might prove a dangerously unhealthy journey. True, colonel, and therefore one to be

avoided." Megales stepped to the wall, spanned with his fingers a space from the floor above a joint in the

masonry, and pressed against the concrete. Inch by inch the wall fell back and opened into a lower corridor of

the prison, the very one indeed which led to the cell in which Bucky and his love were imprisoned.

Cautiously the Spaniard's glance traveled down the passage to see it was empty before he opened the panel

door more than enough to look through. Then he beckoned to Gabilonda. "Behold, doubting Thomas!"

"But this only brings us from one prison to another," objected the general. "We might be penned in here as

"Even that contingency has been provided for. You noticed, perhaps, where the tunnel forked. The left branch

runs down to the riverwash, and by ten minutes' digging with the tools lying there one can force an exit."

"Your excellency is certainly a wonder, and all this done without arousing the least suspicion of anybody,"

"The wise man, my dear colonel, prepares for emergencies; the fool trusts to his luck," replied the governor

"Are we to stay here for the present, colonel?" broke in the governor's daughter. "And can you furnish

"My dear senorita, I have accommodations and to spare. But the trouble is that your presence would become

known. I should be the happiest' man alive to put my all at the accommodation of Chihuahua's fairest

daughter. But if it should get out that you are here" Gabilonda stopped to shrug his fat shoulders at the

"We shall have to stay here, or, at least, in the lower tier of cells. I'm sorry, Carmencita, but there is no other

The warden's face cleared. "That is really not a point for me to decide, governor. This young American,

O'Connor, is now in charge of the prison. I must release him at once, and shall then bring him here to confer

Bucky's eyes opened wide when Gabilonda and Megales came alone and without a lantern to his cell. In the

darkness it was impossible to recognize them, but once within the closed cell the warden produced a dark

"Circumstances have arisen that make the utmost vigilance necessary," explained the warden. "I may begin

my explanations by congratulating you and your young friend. Let me offer a thousand felicitations. Neither

If he expected either of them to fall on his neck and weep tears of gratitude at his pompous announcement,

the colonel was disappointed. From the darkness where the ranger's little partner sat on the bed came a deep

"I may conclude, then, that Mike O'Halloran has been getting in his work?" was his cool reply.

"Exactly, senor. He is the man on horseback and I travel afoot," smiled Megales.

Bucky looked him over coolly from head to foot. "Still I can't quite understand why your exexcellency does

"Because, senor, in the course of human events Providence has seen fit to reverse our positions. I am now

your prisoner and you my jailer," explained Megales, and urbanely added a whimsical question. "Shall you

"It would be a pleasure, and, I reckon, a duty too. But I can't promise till I've seen Mike. Do some more

explaining, colonel. I want to know all about the roundup O'Halloran is boss of. Did he make a right good

The subtleties of American humor baffled the little Mexican, but he appreciated the main drift of the ranger's

query, and narrated with much gesticulation the story of the coup that O'Halloran had pulled off in capturing

"It was an exceedingly neat piece of strategy," its victim admitted. "I would give a good deal to have the

privilege of hanging your redheaded friend, but since that is denied me, I must be grateful he does not take a

"I understand he has decided to deport me," retorted Megales lightly. "It is perhaps better politics, on the

"Unless rumor is a lying jade, you should be a good judge of that, governor," said the American, eyeing him

Megales shrugged. "One of the penalties of fame is that one gets credit for much he does not deserve. There

was your immortal General Lincoln, a wit so famous in your country that every good story is fathered upon

him, I understand. So with your humble servant. Let a man accomplish his vendetta upon the body of an

"Still, if you deserve your reputation as much as our immortal General Lincoln deserves his, the world may

be pardoned for an occasional error." O'Connor turned to the warden. "What does he mean by saying that he

"It is his desire, senor, that, pending the present uncertain state of public opinion, you accept the command of

the prison and hold safe all persons detained here, including his excellency and General Carlo. He desired me

to assure you that as soon as is possible he will arrive to confer with you in person."

"If you're not you have to earn your grub and lodgings. I'll appoint you my deputy, colonel. And, first off, my

orders are to lock up his excellency and General Carlo in this cell till morning."

"I know that a heap better than you do, colonel," said Bucky dryly. "But if it was good enough for me and my

pardner, here, I reckon it's good enough for them. Anyhow, we'll let them try it, won't we, Frank;"

The colonel explained how they had reached the prison and the circumstances that had led to their hurried

flight, while the ranger whistled the air of a cowboy song, his mind busy with this new phase of the case.

"She's one of these here Spanish blueblooded senoritas used to guitar serenades under her window. Now,

what would you do with her in a jail, Bucky?" he asked himself, in humorous dismay; but even as he

reflected on it his roving eye fell on his friend. "The very thing. I'll take Curly Haid in to her and let them fall

in love with each other. You're liable to be some busy, Bucky, and shy on leisure to entertain a lady, let alone

And so he arranged it. Leaving the former governor and General Carlo in the cell just vacated by them,

Frances and he accompanied Gabilonda to the secret room behind the corridor wall.

All three parties to the introduction that followed acknowledged secretly to a surprise. Miss Carmencita had

expected the friend of big, rough, homely O'Halloran to resemble him in kind, at least. Instead, she looked on

a bronzed young Apollo of the saddle with something of that same lithe grace she knew and loved in Juan

Valdez. And the shy boy beside himwhy, the darling was sweet enough to kiss. The big, brown, helpless

eyes, the blushing, soft cheeks, the crop of thick, light curls were details of an extraordinarily taking picture.

Really, if these two were fair specimens, Americans were not so bad, after all. Which conclusion Juan

But if the young Spanish girl found a little current of pleasure in her surprise, Bucky and his friend were

aware of the same sensation. All the charm of her race seemed summed up in Carmencita Megales. She was

of blue blood, every feature and motion told that. The fine, easy set of her head, the fire in the dark,

heavylashed eyes, the sweep of dusky chin and cheek and throat certified the same story. She had, too, that

coquettish hint of uncertainty, that charm of mystery so fatal in its lure to questing man. Even physically the

contradiction of sex attracted. Slender and lissom as a fawn, she was yet a creature of exquisitely rounded

curves. Were her eyes brown or black orin the sunlighttouched with a gleam of copper? There was

always uncertainty. But much more was there fire, a quality that seemed to flash out from her inner self. She

was a child of whims, a victim of her moods. Yet in her, too, was a passionate loyalty that made fickleness

impossible. She knew how to love and how to hate, and, despite her impulses, was capable of surrender

All of this Bucky did not read in that first moment of meeting, but the shrewd judgment behind the level blue

eyes came to an appraisal roughly just. Before she had spoken three sentences he knew she had all her sex's

reputed capacity for injustice as well as its characteristic flashes of generosity.

"Are you one of the men who have rebelled against my father and attempted to murder him?" she flashed.

"I'm the man he condemned to be hanged tomorrow morning at dawn for helping Juan Valdez take the guns,"

"I'm a friend of Michael O'Halloran, who stood between him and the mob that wanted to kill him."

"Who first plotted against him and seduced his officers to betray him," she quickly replied.

"I reckon, ma'am, we better agree to disagree on politics," said Bucky goodnaturedly. "We're sure liable to

see things different from each other. Castile and Arizona don't look at things with the same eyes."

She looked at him just then with very beautiful and scornful ones, at any rate. "I should hope not."

"You see, we're living in the twentieth century up in the sunburned State," said Bucky, with smiling aplomb.

"When I see the ladies I think you're ce'tainly in the golden age, but when I break into your politics, I'm some

"In a general way, but eliminating the most objectionable points of the king fellow."

"You're very kind." She interrupted her scorn to ask him where he meant her to sleep.

"Not right away. Colonel, I'll ask you to go to the office and notify me as soon as Senor O'Halloran arrives."

He waited till the colonel had gone before adding: "I'm going to leave this boy with you, senorita, for a while.

He'll explain some things to you that I can't. In about an hour I'll be back, perhaps sooner. So long, Curly.

The flame of color that swept into the cheeks of Frances, the appeal in the shamed eyes, held Carmencita's

surprised gaze. Then coolly it traveled over the girl and came back to her burning face.

But the scorn in her voice was too much for Frances. She had been judged and condemned in that cool stare,

"No, no, no!" she cried, running forward and catching at the other's hand. "I'm not that. You don't

Coldly Carmencita disengaged her hand and wiped it with her kerchief. "I understand enough. Please do not

"Then you are a heartless, cruel woman," flamed Frances. "I'm goodas good as you are." The color patched

her cheek and ebbed again. "I wouldn't treat a dog as you do me. Oh, cruel, cruel!"

The surprising extravagance of her protest, the despair that rang in the fresh young voice, caught the interest

of the Mexican girl. Surely such a heartbroken cry did not consist with guilt. But the factswhen a young

and pretty girl masquerades through the country in the garb of a boy with a handsome young man, not much

Frances was quick to see that the issue was reopened. "Oh, senorita, it isn't as you think. Do I look like"

She broke off to cover with her hands a face in which the pink and white warred with alternate success. "I

ought not to have come. I ought never to have come. I see that now. But I didn't think he would know. You

"A remarkably pretty one, child," said Miss Carmencita, a smile dimpling her cheeks. "But how do you mean

Frances explained, giving a rapid sketch of her life with the Hardmans during which she had appeared every

night on the stage as a boy without the deception being suspected. She had cultivated the tricks and ways of

boys, had tried to dress to carry out the impression, and had always succeeded until she had made the mistake

Carmencita heard her out, but not as a judge. Very early in the story her doubts fled and she succumbed to the

mothering instinct in her. She took the American girl in her arms and laughed and cried with her; for her

imagination seized on the romance of the story and delighted in its fresh unconventionality. Since she had

been born Carmencita's life had been ordered for her with precision by the laws of caste. Her environment

wrapped her in so that she must follow a set and beaten path. It was, to be sure, a flowerstrewn one, but

often she impotently rebelled against its very orderliness. And here in her arms was a victim of that

adventurous romance she had always longed so passionately to know. Was it wonder she found it in her heart

"And this young cavalierthe Senor Bucky, is it you call him?surely you love him, my dear."

"Oh, senorita!" The blushing face was buried on her new friend's shoulder. "You don't know how good he is."

Miss Carmencita thought of one and demurred silently. "I'm sure this paragon of lovers is at least part of what

"Sometimes I think he does, but once" Frances broke off to ask, in a pink flame: "How does a lover act?"

Miss Carmencita's laughter rippled up. "Gracious me, have you never had one before."

"Well, he should make verses to you and pretty speeches. He should sing serenades about undying love under

your window. Bonbons should bombard you, roses make your rooms a bower. He should be ardent as

Romeo, devoted as a knight of old. These be the signs of a true love," she laughed.

Frances' face fell. If these were the tokens of true love, her ranger was none. For not one of the symptoms

could fairly be said to fit him. Perhaps, after all, she had given him what he did not want.

"Must he do all that? Must he make verses?" she asked blankly, not being able to associate Bucky with

"He must," teased her tormentor, running a saucy eye over her boyish garb. "And why not with so fair a

Rosalind for a subject?" She broke off to quote in her pretty, uncertain English, acquired at a convent in the

"From the east to western Ind, No jewel is like Rosalind. Her worth being mounted on the wind, Through all

All the pictures, fairest lin'd, Are but black to Rosalind. Let no face be kept in mind But the fair of Rosalind."

So your Shakespeare has it, does he not?" she asked, reverting again to the Spanish language, in which they

had been talking. But swift on the heels of her raillery came repentance. She caught the dispirited girl to her

embrace laughingly. "No, no, child! Nonsense ripples from my tongue. These follies are but for a carpet

lover. You shall tell me more of your Senor Bucky and I shall make no sport of it."

When Bucky returned at the expiration of the time he had set himself, he found them with their arms twined

about each other's waists, whispering the confidences that every girl on the threshold of womanhood has to

"I reckon you like my pardner better than you do me," smiled Bucky to Miss Carmencita.

Bucky's eyes rested for a moment almost tenderly on Frances. "I reckon he is better worth knowing," he said.

Out of the corner of his eye O'Connor caught the embarrassed, reproachful look that Frances gave her

audacious friend, and he found it easy to fit quotation marks round the admirable qualities that had just been

ascribed to him. He guessed himself blushing a deux with his little friend, and also divined Miss Carmencita's

"I AM all those things you mentioned and a heap more you forgot to say," claimed the ranger boldly, to

relieve the situation. "Only I didn't know for sure that folks had found it out. My mind's a heap easier to know

Under her long, dark lashes Miss Carmencita looked at him in gentle derision. "I'm of opinion, sir, that you

Bucky carried the war into the enemy's country. "Which same, I expect, might be said of Chihuahua's most

beautiful belle. And, talking of Senor ,Valdez reminds me that I owe a duty to his father, who is confined

To which, in mocking travesty, added, in English, Miss Carmencita, who seemed to have an acute attack of

"Good night, good night; parting is such sweet sorrow That I shall say good night till It be morrow."

The first thing Bucky did after leaving the two young women was to go down in person with one of the

guards to the cell of David Henderson. The occupant of the cell was asleep, but he woke up when the two

The prisoner fell to trembling like an aspen. "God, man, do you mean it?" he begged. "You wouldn't deceive

"It's true, friend, every word of it. You'll live to ride the range again and count your cattle on the free hillside.

"But may I? Will they let me?" trembled Henderson, fearful lest his cup of joy be dashed from him. "I'm not

dreaming, am I? I'll not wake the way I often do and find that it is all a dream, will I?" He caught at the lapel

"No, your dreams are true at last, Dave Henderson. Come, old friend, take a drink of this to steady you. It's all

Tears streamed down the face of the man rescued from a living grave. He dashed them away impatiently with

a shaking hand. "I used to be as game as other men, young man, and now you see what a weakling I am.

Don't judge me too hard. Happiness is a harder thing to stand than pain or grief. They've tried to break my

"You'll be all right as soon as you are able to realize it. I don't wonder the shock unnerves you. Have you

Pathetically the prisoner looked round on his few belongings. Some of them had become endeared to him by

years of use and association, but they had served their time. "No, I want to forget it all. I came in with

nothing. I'll take out nothing. I want to blot it all out like a hideous nightmare."

Bucky ordered Colonel Gabilonda to bring up from his cell General Valdez and the other arrested suspects.

They reached the office at the same time as Mike O'Halloran, who greeted them with the good news that the

day was won. The Megales faction had melted into mist, and all over the city a happy people was shouting

"I congratulate you, general. We have just telegraphed the news over the State that Megales has resigned and

fled. There can be no doubt that you will be elected governor tomorrow and that the people's party will win

the day with an unprecedented vote. Glory be, Chihuahua is at last free from the heel of tyranny. Viva

Bucky at once introduced to General Valdez the American prisoner who had suffered so long and unjustly.

He recited the story of the abduction of the child, of Henderson's pursuit, of the killing of the trooper, and of

the circumstantial evidence that implicated the Texan and upon which he was convicted. He then drew from

his pocket a signed and attested copy of the confession of the knife thrower and handed it to the general.

Valdez looked it over, asked an incisive question or two of Bucky, heard from Henderson his story, and, after

a few moments' discussion of the matter with O'Halloran, promised a free pardon as his first official act after

The vote next day amply justified the hopes of O'Halloran and his friends. The whole ticket, sent out by

telegraph and messengers throughout the State, was triumphantly elected by large majorities. Only in one or

two outoftheway places, where the news of the fall of Megales did not arrive in time to affect the voting,

It was after Valdez's election had been made certain by the returns that O'Halloran and Juan Valdez posted to

the prison and visited father and daughter. They separated in the lower corridor, one to visit the defeated

governor, the other Miss Carmencita. The problem before Juan Valdez was to induce that young woman to

remain in Chihuahua instead of accompanying her father in his flight. He was a good fighter, and he meant to

win, if it were a possibility. She had tacitly admitted that she loved him, but he knew that she felt that loyalty

When O'Halloran was admitted to the cell where the governor and the general were staying he laughed aloud.

"Faith, gentlemen, is this the best accommodation Governor Valdez can furnish his guests? We must petition

"We are being told, one may suppose, that General Valdez is the newly elected governor?"

"Right, your excellency, elected by a large majority to succeed the late Governor Megales."

"Late!" The former governor lifted his eyebrows. "Am I also being told that necessity demands the posting of

"Not at all. Sure, I gave you me word, excellency. And that is one of the reasons why I am here. We have

arranged to run a special down the line tonight, in order to avoid the risk of the news leaking out that you

are still here. Can you make your arrangements to take that train, or will it hurry your packing too much?"

Megales laughed. "I have nothing to take with me except my daughter. The rest of my possessions may be

"Oh, he can talk for himself. " O'Halloran grinned. "He's doing it right now, by the same token. Shall we

interrupt a teteatete and go pay our compliments to Miss Carmencita? You will want to find out whether

Miss Carmencita was at that moment reiterating her everlasting determination to go wherever her father went.

"If you think, sir, that your faithlessness to him is a recommendation of your promised faithfulness to me, I

can only wish you more light on the feelings of a daughter," she was informing Valdez, when her father

"Brava, senorita!" he applauded, with subtle irony, clapping his hands. "Brava, brava!"

That young woman swam blushingly toward him and let her face disappear in an embrace.

"You see, one can't have everything, Senor Valdez," continued Megales lightly. "For me, I cannot have both

Chihuahua and my life; you, it seems, cannot have both your successful revolution and my daughter. "

"Your excellency, she loves me. Of that I am assured. It rests with you to say whether her life will be spoiled

or not. You know what I can offer her in addition to a heart full of devotion. It is enough. Shall she be

sacrificed to her loyalty to you?" the young man demanded, with all the ardor of his warmblooded race.

"It is no sacrifice to love and obey my father," came a low murmur from the former governor's shoulder.

"Since the world began it has been the law of life that the young should leave their parents for a home of their

"So the Scripture says," agreed Megales sardonically. "It further counsels to love one's enemies, but, I think,

"Sir, I am not your enemy. Political exigencies have thrown us into different camps, but we are not so small

as to let such incidentals come between us as a vital objection in such a matter."

"You argue like a lawyer," smiled the governor. "You forget that I am neither judge nor jury. Tyrant I may

have been to a fickle people that needed a firm hand to rule them, but tyrant I am not to my only daughter."

"I neither consent nor refuse. You must go to a more final authority than mine for an answer, young man."

Megales turned her till her unconsenting eyes met his. "Do you want to marry this young man, Carmencita?"

"I didn't quite ask what you had told him. The question is whether you love him."

"I hope so," smiled her father. "But do you love him? An honest answer, if you please."

It was Valdez that broke triumphantly the moment's silence that followed. "She does. She does. I claim the

But victory spoke too prematurely in his voice. Cried the proud Spanish girl passionately: "I hate him!"

Megales understood the quality of her hate, and beckoned to his future soninlaw. "I have some

arrangements to make for our journey tonight. Would it distress you, senor, if I were to leave you for a

"I think, Senor Dictator, I shall have to make the trip with only General Carlo for a companion," answered the

The Irishman swung his hat. "Hip, hip, hurrah! You're a gentleman I could find it in me heart to both love and

"And you're a gentleman," returned the governor, with a bow, "I could find it in my heart to hang high as

"Sure, you're a broth of a lad, Senor Megales," he said irreverently, in good, broad Irish brogue. "Here, me

bye, where are you hurrying?" he added, catching at the sleeve of Frances Mackenzie, who was slipping

"Please, Mr. O'Halloran, I've been up to the office after water. I'm taking it to Senorita Carmencita."

"She doesn't want water just now. You go back to the office, son, and stay there thirty minutes. Then you take

"Forget it, kid, just as she has. Water! Why, she's drinking nectar of the gods. Just you do as I tell ye."

Frances was puzzled, but she obeyed, even though she could not understand his meaning. She understood

better when she slid back the panel at the expiration of the allotted time and caught a glimpse of Carmencita

Across the desert into the hills, where the sun was setting in a great splash of crimson in the saddle between

two distant peaks, a bunch of cows trailed heavily. Their tongues hung out and they panted for water,

stretching their necks piteously to low now and again. For the heat of an Arizona summer was on the baked

But the end of the journey was at hand and the cowpuncher in charge of the drive relaxed in the saddle after

the easy fashion of the vaquero when he is under no tension. He did not any longer cast swift, anxious

glances behind him to make sure no pursuit was in sight. For he had reached safety. He knew the 'Open

sesame' to that rock wall which rose sheer in front of him. Straight for it he and his companion took their

gather, swinging the cattle adroitly round a great slab which concealed a gateway to the secret canon. Half a

mile up this defile lay what was called Hidden Valley, an inaccessible retreat known only to those who

It was as the man in charge circled round to head the lead cows in that a faint voice carried to him. He

stopped, listening. It came again, a dry, parched call for help that had no hope in it. He wheeled his pony as

on a half dollar, and two minutes later caught sight of an exhausted figure leaning against a cottonwood. He

needed no second guess to surmise that she was lost and had been wandering over the sandy desert through

the hot day. With a shout, he loped toward her, and had his water bottle at her lips before she had recovered

"Since ten this morning. I came with my aunt to gather poppies, and somehow I got separated from her and

the rig. These hills look so alike. I must have got turned round and mistaken one for another."

"You have to be awful careful here. Some one ought to have told you," he said indignantly.

"Oh, they told me, but of course I knew best," she replied, with quick scorn of her own selfsufficiency.

"Well, it's all right now," the cowpuncher told her cheerfully. He would not for a thousand dollars have told

her how near it had come to being all wrong, how her life had probably depended upon that faint wafted call

He put her on his horse and led it forward to the spot where the cattle waited at the gateway. Not until they

came full upon them did he remember that it was dangerous for strange young women to see him with those

"They are my uncle's cattle. I could tell the brand anywhere. Are you one of his riders? Are we close to the

He flung a quick glance at her. "Not very close. Are you from the Rocking Chair?"

"Yes." She said it with a touch of annoyance, for he looked at her as a man does who has heard of her before.

She knew that the story had been bruited far and wide of how she had passed through the hands of the train

robbers carrying thirty thousand dollars on her person. She had no doubt that it was in this connection her

"Hardman, you ride up to the ranch and tell Leroy I've just found Miss Mackenzie wandering around on the

desert, lost. Ask him whether I'm to bring her up. She's played out and can't travel far, tell him."

He helped her dismount. She did not understand why it was necessary to wait, but that was his business and

"They were," he corrected. "Cattle change hands a good deal in this country," he added dryly.

"A right smart distance. You've been traveling, you see, for eight or nine hours."

It occurred to her that there was something elusive, something not quite frank, about the replies of this young

man. Her glance raked him again and swept up the details of his person. One of them that impressed itself

upon her mind was the absence of a finger on his right hand. Another was that he was a walking arsenal. This

startled her, though she was not yet afraid. She relapsed into silence, to which he seemed willing to consent.

Once and again her glance swept him. He looked a tough, weatherbeaten Westerner, certainly not a man

whom a woman need be afraid to meet alone on the plains, but the oftener she looked the more certain she

became that he was not a casual puncher busy at the legitimate work of his craft.

At the sound of a horses footfall she turned, and she saw that whereas they had been two, now they were

three. The newcomer was a slender, graceful man, dark and lithe, with quick, piercing eyes, set deep in the

The man bowed, with a sweep of his hat almost derisive. "Miss Mackenzie, I believe."

"If we are, you are the young lady that beat us out of thirty thousand dollars. We'll collect now," he told her,

"He'll have to raise thirty thousand dollars to redeem his daughter." He let his bold eyes show their

"Do you mean" She read the flash of triumph in his ribald eyes and broke off. There was no need to ask

"That's what I mean exactly, ma'am. You're welcome to the hospitality of Hidden Valley. What's ours is

yours. You're welcome to stay as long as you like, but I reckon YOU'RE NOT WELCOME TO GO

"The major's got friends that are. If it's a showdown he'll dig the dough up. I ain't a bit worried about that. His

"Why should he?" She stood as straight and unbending as a young pine, courage regnant in the very poise of

the fine head. "You daren't harm a hair of my head, and he knows it. For your life, you daren't."

His eyes glittered. Wolf Leroy was never a safe man to fling a challenge at. "Don't you be too sure of that, my

dear. There ain't one thing on this green earth I daren't do if I set my mind to it. And your friends know it."

The other man broke in, easy and unmoved. "Hold yore hawses, cap. We got no call to be threatening this

young lady. We keep her for a ransom because that's business. But she's as safe here as she would be at the

The Wolf snarled. "The word of a miscreant. That'll comfort her a heap. And York Neil's word don't always

The girl gave her champion a quiet little nod and a low "Thank you." It was not much, but enough. For on the

frontier "white men" do not war on women. Her instinct gave just the right manner of treating his help. It

assumed that since he was what he was he could do no less. Moreover, it had the unexpected effect of

spurring the Wolf's vanity, or something better than his vanity. She could see the battle in his face, and the

"Beg your pardon, Miss Mackenzie. York's right. I'll add my word to his about your safety. I'm a wolf, they'll

They turned and followed through the gateway the cattle which Hardman and another rider were driving up

the canon. Presently the walls fell back, the gulch opened to a saucershaped valley in which nestled a little

Leroy indicated it with a wave of his hand. "Welcome to Hidden Valley, Miss Mackenzie," he said cynically.

"Afraid I'm likely to wear my welcome out if you keep me here until my father raises thirty thousand

"Don't you worry any about that. We need the refining influences of ladies' society here. I can see York's a

heap improved already. Just to teach us manners you're worth your board and keep." Then hardily, with a

sweeping gesture toward the weary cattle: "Besides, your uncle has sent up a contribution to help keep you

Leroy surrendered his room to Miss Mackenzie and put at her service the old Mexican woman who cooked

for him. She was a silent, taciturn creature, as wrinkled as leather parchment and about as handsome, but

Alice found safety in the very knowledge of the presence of another woman in the valley. She was among

robbers and cutthroats, but old Juanita lent at least a touch of domesticity to a situation that would otherwise

have been impossible. The girl was very uneasy in her mind. A cold dread filled her heart, a fear that was a

good deal less than panicterror, however. For she trusted the man Neil even as she distrusted his captain.

Miscreant he had let himself be called, and doubtless was, but she knew no harm could befall her from his

companions while he was alive to prevent it. A reassurance of this came to her that evening in the fragment of

a conversation she overheard. They were passing her window which she had raised on account of the heat

"Go slow, York. I gave her my word, too. Do you think I'm allowing to break it while you're away?"

"No, I don't. Look here, Phil. I'm not looking for trouble. You're majordomo of this outfit What you say

"You're hinting it awful loud. I stand for it this time, York, but never again. You butt in once more and you

They had moved on again, and she did not hear Neil's answer. Nevertheless, she was comforted to know she

had one friend among these desperate outlaws, and that comfort gave her at least an hour or two of broken,

In the morning when she had dressed she found her room door unlocked, and she stepped outside into the

sunshine. York Neil was sitting on the porch at work on a broken spur strap. Looking up, he nodded a casual

good morning. But she knew why he was there, and gratitude welled up in her heart. Not a young woman

who gave way to every impulse, she yielded to one now, and shook hands with him. Their eyes met for a

An eye derisive witnessed the handshake. "An alliance against the teeth of the wolf, I'll bet. Good mo'ning,

"He slept here on the po'ch," explained Leroy, amused. "It's a great fad, this outdoor sleeping. The doctors

recommend it strong for sick people. You wouldn't think to look at him York was sick. He looks plumb

husky. But looks are right deceptive. It's a fact, Miss Mackenzie, that he was so sick last night I wasn't dead

The eyes of the men met like rapiers. Neil said nothing, and Leroy dropped him from his mind as if he were a

The outlaw led her to the dining room, where the young woman met a fresh surprise. The table was white

with immaculate linen and shone with silver. She sat down to breakfast food with cream, followed by quail

on toast, bacon and eggs, and really good coffee. Moreover, she discovered that this terror of the border knew

how to handle his knife and fork, was not deficient in the little niceties of table decorum. He talked, and

talked well, ignoring, like a perfect host, the relation that existed between them. They sat opposite each other

and ate alone, waited upon by the Mexican woman. Alice wondered if he kept solitary state when she was not

It was evening before Hardman returned from the mission upon which he had been sent in place of the

obstinate Neil. He reported at once to Leroy, who came smilingly to the place where she was sitting on the

"Webb Mackenzie's going to raise that thirty thousand, all right. He's promised to raise it inside of three

He looked with halfshut, smoldering eyes at her slender exquisiteness, compact of a strange charm that was

both wellbred and gypsyish. There was a scarceveiled passion in his gaze that troubled her. More than

"Three days ain't so long. I could stand three months of you and wish for more," he told her.

Lightly she turned the subject, but not without a chill of fear. Three days was a long time. Much might

It was next day that an incident occurred which was to affect the course of events more than she could guess

at the time. A bunch of wild hill steers had been driven down by Hardman, Reilly, and Neil in the afternoon

and were inclosed in the corral with the cows from the Rocking Chair Ranch. Just before sunset Leroy, who

had been away all day, returned and sauntered over from the stable to join Alice. It struck the girl from his

flushed appearance that he had been drinking. In his eye she found a wild devil of lawlessness that set her

heart pounding. If Neil and he clashed now there would be murder done. Of that she felt sure.

That she set herself to humor the Wolf's whims was no more for her own safety than for that of the man who

had been her friend. She curbed her fears, clamped down her startled maiden modesty, parried his advances

with light words and gay smiles. Once Neil passed, and his eyes asked a question. She shook her head,

unnoticed by Leroy. She would fight her own battle as long as she could. It was to divert him that she

proposed they go down to the corral and look at the wild cattle the men had driven down. She told him she

had heard a great deal about them, but had never seen any. If he would go with her she would like to look at

The outlaw was instantly at her service, and they sauntered across. In her hand the girl carried a closed

They stood at the gate of the corral looking at the longlegged, shaggy creatures, as wild and as active almost

as hill deer. On horseback one could pass to and fro among them without danger, but in a closed corral a man

on foot would have taken a chance. Nobody knew this better than Leroy. But the liquor was still in his head,

"They need water," he said, and with that opened the gate and started for the windmill.

He sauntered carelessly across, with never a glance at the dangerous animals among which he was venturing.

A great bull pawed the ground lowered its head, and made a rush at the unconscious man. Alice called to him

to look out, then whipped open the gate and ran after him. Leroy turned, and, in a flash, saw that which for an

instant filled him with a deadly paralysis. Between him and the bull, directly in the path of its rush, stood this

Even as his revolver flashed out from the scabbard the outlaw knew he was too late to save her, for she stood

in such a position that he could not hit a vital spot. Suddenly her umbrella opened in the face of the animal.

frightened, it set its feet wide and slithered to a halt so close to her that its chorus pierced the silk of the

umbrella. With one hand Leroy swept the girl behind him; with the other he pumped three bullets into the

forehead of the bull. Without a groan it keeled over, dead before it reached the ground.

Alice leaned against the iron support of the windmill. She was so white that the man expected her to sink

"Come!" he ordered, and, putting an arm round her waist, he ran with her to the gate. Yet a moment, and they

She leaned against him helpless for an instant before she had strength to disengage herself. "Thank you. I'm

"Then we're quits, for you saved mine," she answered, with a shaken attempt at a smile.

He shook his head. "That's not the same at all. I had to do that, and there was no risk to it. But you chose to

She saw that he was greatly moved, and that his emotion had swept away the effects of the liquid as a fresh

"I didn't think there was a woman alive had the pluck to do itand for me, your enemy. That what you count

"Except the danger of yourself," she said, in low voice, meeting him eye to eye.

He accepted her correction with a groan, an wheeled away, leaning his arms on the corral fence and looking

"I haven't met a woman of your kind before in ten years," he said presently. "I've lived on you looks, your

motions, the inflections of your voice. I suppose I've been starved for that sort of thing and didn't know it till

you came. It's been like a glimpse of heaven to me." He laughed bitterly: and went on: "Of course, I had to

take to drinking and let you see the devil I am. When I'm sober you would be as safe with me as with York.

But the excitement of meeting you I have to ride my emotions to death so as to drain them to the uttermost.

Her voice said more than the words. He looked at her curiously. "You're only a girl. What do you know about

men of my sort? You have been wrappered and sheltered all your life. And yet you understand me better than

any of the people I meet. All my life I have fought with myself. I might have been a gentleman and I'm only a

wolf. My appetites and passions, stronger than myself dragged me down. It was Kismet, the destiny ordained

"Isn't there always hope for a man who knows his weaknesses and fights against them?" she asked timidly.

"No, there is not," came the harsh answer. "Besides, I don't fight. I yield to mine. Enough of that. It is you we

have to consider, not me. You have saved my life, and I have got to pay the debt."

"That doesn't matter. you did it. I'm going to take you back to your father and straight as I can."

She could only ignore the hunger that stared out of his eyes for her. "What about your friends? Will they let

"They'll do as I say. What kicking they do will be done mostly in private, and when they're away from me."

"You won't make trouble for me. If there's any trouble it Will be for them," he said grimly.

Neither of them made any motion toward the house. The girl felt a strange impulse of tenderness toward this

man who had traveled so fast the road to destruction. She had seen before that deep hunger of the eyes, for

she was of the type of woman that holds a strong attraction for men. It told her that he had looked in the face

of his happiness too latetoo late by the many years of a misspent life that had decreed inexorably the

"I am sorry," she said again. "I didn't see that in you at first. I misjudged you. One can't label men just good

His low, sardonic laughter rippled out. "I'm bad enough. Don't make any mistake about that, Miss Mackenzie.

"As bad as they make them, but not wolf clear through," he said again. "Something's happened to me today.

It won't change me. I've gone too far for that. But some morning when you read in the papers that Wolf Leroy

died with his boots on and everybody in sight registers his opinion of the deceased you'll remember one

York Neil came toward them from the house. It was plain from his manner he had a joke up his sleeve.

"You got a visitor in there," Neil said, with a grin and a jerk of his thumb toward the house. "Came

blundering into the draw sorter accidentallike, but some curious. So I asked him if he wouldn't light and stay

"You go and see. I ain't giving away what your Christmas presents are. I aim to let Santa surprise you a few.

Miss Mackenzie followed the outlaw chief into the house, and over his shoulder glimpsed two men. One of

them was the Irishman, Cork Reilly, and he sat with a Winchester across his knees. The other had his back

toward them, but he turned as they entered, and nodded casually to the outlaw. Helen's heart jumped to her

The two men looked at each other steadily in a long silence. Wolf Leroy was the first to speak.

"I ce'tainly do seem to butt in considerable, Mr. Leroy," admitted Collins, with an answering smile.

"I'd hate to gamble on that heavy," returned Collins easily. Then he caught sight of the girl's white face, and

"Oh, that's all right I'm shaking hands with the lady. Did you think I was inviting you to drill a hole in me,

"Along with Scott? Well, no. You see, I'm a regular cat to kill, Mr. Leroy, and I couldn't conscientiously join

the angels with so lame a story as a game laig to explain my coming," said Collins cheerfully.

"Yes, I understand. You'd be willing to accommodate with a hole in the haid instead of one in the laig. But I'll

"What are you doing here? Didn't I warn you to attend to your own business and leave me alone?"

"Seems to me you did load me up with some good advice, but I plumb forgot to follow it."

"Well, I did and I didn't," corrected the sheriff easily. "I've got a fivethousand policy in the Southeastern

Life Insurance Company, so I reckon it's some risk to them. And, by the way, it's a company I can

"Does it insure against suicide?" asked Leroy, his masked, smiling face veiling thinly a ruthless purpose.

"And against hanging. Let me strongly urge you to take out a policy at once," came the prompt retort.

"Quite. When you and York Neil and Hardman made an end of Scott you threw ropes round your own necks.

The sheriff's unflinching look met the outlaw's black frown serene and cleareyed.

"And would he know that you had committed suicide when you ran this place down and came here?" asked

"Well, he ought to know it. The fact is, Mr. Leroy, that it hadn't penetrated my thinktank that this was your

"Not exactly. I was looking for Miss Mackenzie. I cut her trail about six miles from the Rocking Chair and

followed it where she wandered around. The trail led directly away from the ranch toward the mountains.

That didn't make me any easy in my mind. So I just jogged along and elected myself an investigating

committee. I arrived some late, but here I am, right side upand so hearty welcome that my friend Cork

won't hear of my leaving at all. He don't do a thing but entertain menever lets his attention wander. Oh, I'm

Wolf Leroy turned to Alice. "I think you had better go to your room," he said gently.

"Oh, no, no; let me stay," she implored. "You would neveryou would never" The words died on her

He met her gaze fully, and answered her doggedly. "You're not in this, Miss Mackenzie. It's between him and

Her troubled gaze shifted to the strong, brown, sunbaked face of the man who had put himself in this deadly

peril to save her. His keen, bluegray eyes, very searching and steady, met hers with a courage she thought

"Have you forgotten already?and you said you would always remember." She almost whispered it.

She had stung his consent at last. "Very well," he said, and opened the door to let her pass into the inner

"Don't you see that he came here to save me?" she cried, when they were alone. "Don't you see it was for me?

"I see that he has found it. If I let him go, he will bring back a posse to take us."

"Because, Miss Mackenzie, the money we took from the express car of the Limited is hidden here, and I don't

know where it is; because the sun won't ever rise on a day when Val Collins will drive me out of Arizona."

"I don't know what you mean about the money, but you must let him go. You spoke of a service I had done

A sardonic smile touched his face. "A lot you know of him. He thinks it his duty to rid the earth of vermin

like us. He'd never let up till he got us or we got him. Well, we've got him now, good and plenty. He took his

chances, didn't he? It isn't as if he didn't know what he was up against. He'll tell you himself it's a square deal.

"It's his life or mineand not only mine, but my men's," continued the outlaw. "Would you turn a wolf loose

"We're not talking about the ordinary manhe'd promise anything and lie tomorrow. But Sheriff Collins

won't do it. If you think you can twist a promise out of him not to take advantage of what he has found out

you're guessing wrong. When you think he's a quitter, just look at that cork hand of his, and remember how

He laughed, leaning carelessly against the mantelshelf. But his narrowed eyes watched her vigilantly. "I

"They say he's a dead shot. I'm a few with a gun myself. We'll ride down to the plains together, and find a

good lonely spot suitable for a graveyard. Then one of us will ride away, and the other will stay, or perhaps

She was white to the lips, but at his next word the blood came flaming back to her cheeks.

"Why don't you tell the truth? Why don't you; say you love him, and be done with it? Say it and I'll take him

She covered her face with her hands, but with two steps he had reached her and captured he hands.

Leroy bowed ironically. "I congratulate Mr. Collins, who is now quite safe, so far as I am concerned.

Some word of sympathy for the reckless scamp trembled on her lips, but her instinct told her would hold it

But as he heeled away she laid a timid hand on his arm. He turned and looked grimly down at the working

face, at the sweet, soft, pitiful eyes brimming with tears. She was pure woman now, all the caste pride

"Oh, you lambyou precious lamb," he groaned, and clicked his teeth shut on the poignant pain of his loss.

"I think you're splendid," she told him. "Oh, I know what you've donethat you are not good. I know you've

wasted your life and lived with your hand against every man's. But I can't help all that. I look for the good in

you, and I find it. Even in your sins you are not petty. You know how to rise to an opportunity."

This man of contradictions, forever the creature of his impulses, gave the lie to her last words by signally

failing to rise to this one. He snatched her to him, and looked down hungryeyed at her sweet beauty, as fresh

Then, flinging her from him, he led the way into the next room. Flushed and disheveled, she followed. He

had outraged her maiden instincts and trampled down her traditions of caste, but she had no time to think of

"If you're through explaining the mechanism of that Winchester to Sheriff Collins we'll reluctantly dispense

with your presence, Mr. Reilly. We have arranged a temporary treaty of peace," the chief outlaw said.

Reilly, a huge lout of a fellow with a lowering countenance, ventured to expostulate. "Ye want to be careful

His chief exploded with lowvoiced fury. "When I ask your advice, give it, you fatbrained son of a brand

"We're going to the Rocking Chair in the morning, Mr. Collinsat least, you and Miss Mackenzie are going

there. I'm going part way. We've arranged a little deal all by our lones, subject to your approval. You get

away without that hole in your head. Miss Mackenzie goes with you, and I get in return the papers you took

"Not at all. I'll be glad to death to see you blundering in again when Miss Mackenzie isn't here to beg you off.

The point is that in exchange for your freedom and Miss Mackenzie's I get those papers you left in a

safetydeposit vault in Epitaph. It'll save me the trouble of sticking up the First National and winging a few

"All I ask is to get those papers in my hand and a fourhour start before you begin the hunt. Is it a deal?"

"It's a deal, but I give it to you straight that I'll be after you as soon as the four hours are up," returned Collins

promptly. "I don't know what magic Miss Mackenzie used. Still, I must compliment her on getting us out

But though the sheriff looked smilingly at Alice, that young woman, usually mistress of herself in all

emergencies, did not lift her eyes to meet his. Indeed, he thought her strangely embarrassed. She was as

flushed and tonguetied as a country girl in unaccustomed company. She seemed another woman than the

selfpossessed young beauty he had met a month before on the Limited, but he found her shy abashment

"I guess you thought you had come to the end of the passage, Mr. Collins," suggested the outlaw, with listless

"I didn't know whether to order the flowers or not, but 'way down in my heart I was backing my luck,"

"Of course it's understood that you are on parole until we separate," said Leroy curtly.

"Then we'll have supper at once, for we'll have to be on the road early." He clapped his hands together, and

the Mexican woman appeared. Her master flung out a command or two in her own language.

In a surprisingly short time the meal was ready, set out on a table white with Irish linen and winking with cut

"Mr. Leroy does not believe at all in doing when in Rome as the Romans do," Alice explained to Collins, in

answer to his start of amazement. "He's a regular Aladdin. I shouldn't be a bit surprised to see electric lights

"One has to attempt sometimes to blot out the forsaken desert," said Leroy. "Try this cut of slow elk, Miss

She turned to the sheriff, who first apologized, with a smile, to his host. "Slow elk, Miss Mackenzie, is veal

that has been rustled. I expect Mr. Leroy has pressed a stray calf into our Service "

The outlaw smiled at her ready wit, and took on himself the burden of further explanation. "And this

particular slow elk comes from a ranch on the Aravaipa owned by Mr. Collins. York shot it up in the hills a

"Shouldn't have been straying so far from its range," suggested Collins, with a laugh. "But it's good veal,

"Thank you," burlesqued the bandit gravely, with such an ironic touch of convention that Alice smiled.

After dinner Leroy produced cigars, and with the permission of Miss Mackenzie the two men smoked while

the conversation ran on a topic as impersonal as literature. A criticism of novels and plays written to illustrate

the frontier was the line into which the discussion fell, and the girl from the city, listening with a vivid

interest, was pleased to find that these two real men talked with point and a sense of dexterous turns. She felt

a sort of proud proprietorship in their power, and wished that some of the tailors' models she had met in

society, who held so good a conceit of themselves, might come under the spell of their strong, tolerant

virility. Whatever the difference between them, it might be truly said of both that they had lived at first hand

and come in touch closely with all the elemental realities. One of them was a romantic villain and the other an

unromantic hero, but her pulsing emotions morally condemned one no more than the other.

This was the sheer delight of her esthetic sense of fitness, that strong men engaged in a finish fight could rise

to so perfect a courtesy that an outsider could not have guessed the antagonism that ran between them,

Leroy gave the signal for breaking up by looking at his watch. "Afraid I must say 'Lights out.' It's past eleven.

We'll have to be up and on our way with the hooters. Sleep well, Miss Mackenzie. You don't need to worry

He held the door for her as she passed out; and, in passing, her eyes rose to meet his.

It had been the day of Alice Mackenzie' life. Emotions and sensations, surging through her, had trodden on

each other's heels. Womanlike, she welcomed the darkness to analyze and classify the turbid chaos of her

mind. She had been swept into sympathy with an outlaw, to give him no worse name. She had felt herself

nearer to him than to some honest men she could name who had offered her their love.

Surely, that had been bad enough, but worse was to follow. This discerning scamp had torn aside her veils of

maiden reserve and exposed the secret fancy of her heart, unknown before even to herself. She had confessed

love for this bighearted sheriff and frontiersman. Here she could plead an ulterior motive. To save his life

any deception was permissible. Yes, but where lay the truth? With that insistent demand of the outlaw had

rushed over her a sudden wave of joy. What could it mean unless it meant what she would not admit that it

could mean? Why, the man was impossible. He was not of her class. She had scarce seen him a halfdozen

A remembrance flashed through her that brought her from the bed in a barefoot search for matches. When the

candle was relit he slipped a chamoisskin pouch from her neck and from it took a sealed envelope. It was the

note in which the sheriff on the night of the train robbery had written his prediction of how the matter would

come out. She was to open the envelope in a month, and the month was up tonight.

As she tore open the flap it came to her with one of her little flashing smiles that she could never have

guessed under what circumstances she would read it. By the dim flame of a guttering candle, in a cotton

nightgown borrowed from a Mexican menial, a prisoner of the very man who had robbed her and the

recipient of a practical confession of love from him not three hours earlier! Surely here was a situation to

beggar romance. But before she had finished reading the reality was still more unbelievable.

I have just met for the first time the woman I am going to marry if God is good to one. I am writing this

because I want her to know it as soon as I decently can. Of course, I am not worthy of her, but then I don't

So the fact goesI'm bound to marry her if there's nobody else in the way. This isn't conceit. It is a

deepseated certainty I can't get away from, and don't want to. When she reads this, she will think it a piece

Her swiftpulsing heart was behaving very queerly. It seemed to hang delightfully still, and then jump

forward with odd little beats of joy. She caught a glimpse of her happy face, and blew out the light for shame,

groping her way back to bed with the letter carefully guarded against crumpling by her hand.

Foolish presumption indeed. Why, he had only seen her once, and he said he would marry her with never a

byyourleave! Wasn't that what he had said? She had to strike another match to learn the lines that had not

stuck word for word in her mind, and after that another match to get a picture of the scrawl to visualize in the

How dared he take her for granted? But what a masterly way of wooing for the right man! What idiotic folly

if he had been the wrong one! Was he, then, the right one? She questioned herself closely, but came to no

more definite answer than thisthat her heart went glad with a sweet joy to know he wanted to marry her.

She resolved to put him from her mind, and in this resolve she fell at last into smiling sleep.

When Alice Mackenzie looked back in after years upon the incidents connected with that ride to the Rocking

Chair, it was always with a kind of glorified pride in her villainhero. He had his moments, had this

twentiethcentury Villon, when he represented not unworthily the divinity in man; and this day held more

than one of them. Since he was what he was, it also held as many of his black moods.

The start was delayed, owing to a cause Leroy had not foreseen. When York went, sleepyeyed, to the corral

to saddle the ponies, he found the bars into the pasture let clown, and the whole remunda kicking up its heels

in a paddock large as a goodsized city. The result was that it took two hours to run up the bunch of ponies and

another halfhour to cut out, rope, and saddle the three that were wanted. Throughout the process Reilly sat

Leroy, making an end of slapping on and cinching the last saddle, wheeled suddenly on the Irishman. "What's

"You've been looking it right hard. Ain't you man enough to say it instead of playing dirty little

Reilly flung a look at Neil that plainly demanded support, and then descended with truculent defiance from

"Who says I let down the bars? You bet I am man enough to say what I think; and if ye think I ain't got the

His master encouraged him with ironic derision. "That's right, Reilly. Who's afraid? Cough it up and show

"Yes?" Leroy rolled and lit a cigarette, his black eyes fixed intently on the malcontent. "Well, register it on

"That's the point." The curlyheaded Neil had lounged up to his comrade's support. "Why have you got to be

"Perhaps you would like to be majordomo of this outfit, Neil?" scoffed his chief, eying him scornfully.

"No, sir. I ain't aimin' for no such thing. But we don't like the way things are shaping. What does all this here

funny business mean, anyhow?" His thumb jerked toward Collins, already mounted and waiting for Leroy to

join him. "Two days ago this world wasn't big enough to hold him and you. Well, I git the drop on him, and

then you begin to cotton up to him right away. Big dinner last nightchampagne corks popping, I hear.

What I want to know is what it means. And here's this Miss Mackenzie. She's good for a big ransom, but I

"I see you're not. You should try stumpspeaking, my friend. There's a field fox you there."

"Think you're getting the doublecross?" asked Leroy pleasantly, his vigilant eyes covering them like a

"Now you're shouting. That's what I'd like right well to know. There he sits"with another thumbjerk at

Collins"and I'm a Chink if he ain't carryin' them same two guns I took offen him, one on the train and one

here the other day. I ain't sayin' it ain't all right, cap. But what I do say ishow about it?"

Leroy did some thinking out loud. "Of course I might tell you boys to go to the devil. That's my right,

because you chose me to run this outfit without any advice from the rest of you. But you're such infants, I

reckon I had better explain. You're always worrying those fat brains of yours with suspicions. After we stuck

up the Limited you couldn't trust me to take care of the swag. Reilly here had to cook up a fool scheme for us

all to hide it blindfold together. I told you straight what would happen, and it did. When Scott crossed the

divide we were in a Jim Dandy of a hole. We had to have that paper of his to find the boodle. Then Hardman

gets caught, and coughs up his little recipe for helping to find hidden treasure. Who gets them both? Mr.

Sheriff Collins, of course. Then he comes visiting us. Not being a fool, he leaves the documents behind in a

safetydeposit vault. Unless I can fix up a deal with him, Mr. Reilly's wise play buncoes us and himself out

"Because he won't do it. Threaten nothing! Collins ain't that kind of a hairpin. He'd tell us to shoot and be

"You've a head like a sheep, York," admired Leroy. "YOU don't need any brickwall hints to hit you. As

"Wrong guess, York. I allow he would come down with a right smart posse and wipe us off the face of the

earth. Collins tells me the major has sent for a couple of Apache trailers from the reservation. That means it's

up to us to hike for Sonora. The only point is whether we take that buried money with us or leave it here. If I

make a deal with Collins, we get it. If I don't, it's somebody else's goldmine. Anything more the committee

of investigation would like to know?" concluded Leroy, as his cold eyes raked them scornfully and came to

"Not for mine," said Neil, with an apologetic laugh. "I'm satisfied. I just wanted to know. And I guess Cork

"One moment. You'll listen to me, now. You have taken the liberty to assume I was going to sell you out. I'll

not stand that from any man alive. Tomorrow night I'll get back from Tucson. We'll dig up the loot and

divide it. And right then we quit company. You go your way and I go mine." And with that as a parting shot,

Alice Mackenzie might have searched the West with a finetooth comb and not found elsewhere two such

riders for an escort as fenced her that day. Physically they were a pair of superb animals, each perfect after

his fashion. If the fairhaired giant, with his lean, broad shoulders and rippling flow of muscles, bulked more

strikingly in a display of sheer strength, the sinewy, tigerish grace of the dark Apollo left nothing to be

desired to the eye. Both of them had been brought up in the saddle, and each was fit to the minute for any

But on this pleasant morning no test of their power seemed likely to arise, and she could study them at her

ease without hindrance. She had never seen Leroy look more the vagabond enthroned. For dress, he wore the

common equipment of Cattlelandjingling spurs, fringed chaps, leather cuffs, gray shirt, with kerchief

knotted loosely at the neck, and revolver ready to his hand. But he carried them with an air, an inimitable

grace, that marked him for a prince among his fellows. Something of the kind she hinted to him in jesting

paradoxical fashion, making an attempt to win from his sardonic gloom one of his quick, flashing smiles.

He countered by telling her what he had heard York say to Reilly of her. "She's a princess, Cork," York had

said. "Makes my Epitaph gyurl look like a chromo beside her. Somehow, when she looks at a fellow, he feels

All of them laughed at that, but both Leroy and the sheriff tried to banter her by insisting that they knew

"You can be very splendid when you want to give a man that whitewashed feeling; he isn't right sure whether

She laughed in the slow, indolent way she had, taking the straw hat from her dark head to catch better the

"I didn't know I was so terrible. I don't think yon ever had any awe of anybody, Mr. Leroy." Her soft cheek

flushed in unexpected memory of that moment when he had brushed aside all her maiden reserves and

ravished mad kisses from her. "And Mr. Collins is big enough to take care of himself," she added hastily, to

Collins, with his eyes on the lightshot waves that crowned her vivid face, wondered whether he was or not.

If she had been a woman to desire in the queenly, halfinsolent indifference of manner with which she had

first met him, how much more of charm lay in this piquant gaiety, in the warm sweetness of her softer and

more pliant mood! It seemed to him she had the gift of comradeship to perfection.

They unsaddled and ate lunch in the shade of the liveoaks at El Dorado Springs, which used to be a

muchfrequented wateringhole in the days when Camp Grant thrived and muleskinners freighted supplies

in to feed Uncle Sam's pets. Two hours later they stopped again at the edge of the Santa Cruz wash, two miles

It was while they were resaddling that Collins caught sight of a cloud of dust a mile or two away. He unslung

his fieldglasses, and looked long at the approaching dustswirl. Presently he handed the binoculars to

"Five of them; and that roundbellied Papago pony in front belongs to Sheriff Forbes, or I'm away wrong."

Leroy lowered the glasses, after a long, unflurried inspection. "Looks that way to me. Expect I'd better be

In a few sentences he and Collins arranged a meeting for next day up in the hills. He trailed his spurs through

the dust toward Alice Mackenzie, and offered her his brown hand and wistful smile irresistible. "Goodby.

He laughed ruefully. "Your father wouldn't indorse those unwise sentiments, I reckonand I'd hate to bet

your husband would," he added audaciously, with a glance at Collins. "But I love to hear you say it, even

though we never could be. You're a right game, stanch little pardner. I'll back that opinion with the lid off."

"You should be a good judge of those qualities. I'm only sorry you don't always use them in a good cause."

"And that will be never. Solong, sheriff. Tell Forbes I've got a particular engagement in the hills, but I'll be

He rode up the draw and disappeared over the brow of the hillock. She caught another glimpse of him a

minute later on the summit of the hill beyond. He waved a hand at her, halfturning in his saddle as he rode.

Presently she lost him, but faintly the wind swept back to her a haunting snatch of uncouth song:

Were the words drifted to her by the wind. She thought it pathetically likely he might get the wish of his

To Sheriff Forbes, dropping into the draw a few minutes later with his posse, Collins was a well of

misinformation literally true. Yes, he had followed Miss Mackenzie's trail into the hills and found her at a

mountain ranchhouse. She had been there a couple of days, and was about to set out for the Rocking Chair

with the owner of the place, when he arrived and volunteered to see her as far as her uncle's ranch.

"I reckon there ain't any use asking you if you seen anything of Wolf Leroy's outfit," said Forbes, a

"No, I reckon there's no use asking me that," returned Collins, with a laugh that deceptively seemed to

"We're after them for rustling a bunch of Circle 33 cows. Well, I'll be moving. Glad you found the lady, Val.

She don't look none played out from her little trek across the desert. Funny, ain't it, how she could have

The Arizona sun was setting in its accustomed blaze of splendor, when Val Collins and Alice Mackenzie put

their horses again toward the ranch and the rainbowhued west. In his contented eyes were reflected the

sunshine and a serenity born of life in the wide, open spaces. They rode in silence for long, the gentle evening

"Did you ever meet a man of such promises gone wrong so utterly? He might have been anythingand it has

come to this, that he is hunted like a wild beast. I never saw anything so pitiful. I would give anything to save

He had no need to ask to whom she was referring. "Can't be done. Good qualities bulge out all over him, but

they don't count for anything. 'Unstable as water.' That's what's the matter with him. He is the slave of his

own whims. Hence he is only the splendid wreck of a man, full of all kinds of rich outcropping payore that

pinch out when you try to work them. They don't raise men gamer, but that only makes him a more dangerous

foe to society. Same with his loyalty and his brilliancy. He's got a haid on him that works like they say old J.

E. B. Stuart's did. He would run into a hundred traps, but somehow he always worked his men out of them.

That's Leroy, too. If he had been an ordinary criminal he would have been rounded up years ago. It's his

audacity, his iron nerve, his ,good horsesense judgment that saves his skin. But he's ce'tainly up against it at

He laughed. "I think it more likely he'll capture Forbes. But we know now where he hangs out, and who he is.

He has always been a mystery till now. The mystery is solved, and unless he strikes out for Sonora, Leroy is

"Does he strike you as a man likely to be taken alive? I look to see a dramatic exit to the sound of cracking

"Yes, that would be like him," she confessed with shudder. "I think he was made to lead a forlorn hope. Pity

"I guess he does have more moments set to music than most of us, and I'll bet, too, he has hidden way in him

a list of 'Thou shalt nots.' I read a book once by a man named Stevenson that was sure virgin gold. He showed

how every man, no matter how low he falls, has somewhere in him a light that burns, some rag of honor for

which he is still fighting I'd hate to have to judge Leroy. Some men, I reckon, have to buck against so much

"Yet you will go out to hunt him down?" she' said, marveling at the broad sympathy of the man.

"Sure I will. My official duty is to look out for society. If something in the machine breaks loose and goes to

ripping things to pieces, the engineer has to stop the damage, even if he has to smash the rod that's causing

The ponies dropped down again into the bed of the wash, and plowed across through the heavy sand. After

"It's a month and a day since I first met you Miss Mackenzie," he said, apparently apropos of nothing.

"Did you think it was a book of poems? No, ma'am, it was a letter. You were to read it in a month. Time was

"Could I read a letter I left at Tucson, when it was a hundred miles away?" she smiled with sweet patronage.

She put her pony to a canter, and they galloped side by side in silence for half a mile. After she had slowed

"I said in that letter that I had just met the young lady I was expecting to marry."

"I wish I had happened to go into the other Pullman, but, of course, I couldn't know the young lady you were

"That I said in the letter you took so much trouble to lose that I expected to marry the young woman passing

"It can't be too soon for me," she flashed back, sweeping him with proud, indignant eyes.

"No, sir, I won'tnot if you were the last man on earth," she interrupted hotly, whipping herself into a

genuine rage. "I never was so insulted in my life. It would be ridiculous if it weren't soso outrageous. You

EXPECT, do you? And it isn't conceit, but a deepseated certainty you can't get away from."

"Yes, sir, I read itand for sheer, unmatched impudence I have never seen its like."

Not being able, for reasons equestrian, to stamp her foot, she gave her bronco the spur.

When Collins again found conversation practicable, the Rocking Chair, a white adobe huddle in the

"It's a right quaint old ranch, and it's seen a heap of roughandtumble life in its day. If those old adobe

bricks could tell stories, I expect they could put some of these romances out of business." Miss Mackenzie's

"All this country's interesting. Take Tucson now that burg is loaded to the roofs with live stories. It's an

allright business town, toothe best in the territory," he continued patriotically. "She ain't so great as

Douglas on ore or as Phoenix on lungers, but when it comes, to the gitupandgit hustle, she's there

He was still expatiating in a monologue with grave enthusiasm on the town of his choice, when they came to

"Some folks don't like itcall it adobetown, and say it's full of greasers. Everybody to his taste, I say. Little

She gave a queer little laugh as he talked. She had put a taboo on his love story herself, but she resented the

perfectly unmoved good humor with which he seemed to be accepting her verdict. She made up her mind to

"I'll take the horses round to the stable, Miss Mackenzie. Probably I won't see you again before I leave, but

She nodded a curt goodby and passed into the house. She was vexed and indignant, but had too strong a

"I forgot to ask him whether he loves me or Tucson more, and as one of the subjects seems to be closed I'll

probably never find out," she told herself, but with a queer little tug of pain in her laughter.

To minimize the risk, Megales and Carlo left the prison by the secret passage, following the fork to the river

bank and digging at the piledup sand till they had forced an exit. O'Halloran met them here with horses, and

the three men followed the riverwash beyond the limits of the town and cut across by a trail to a siding on the

Central Mexican Pacific tracks. The Irishman was careful to take no chances, and kept his party in the

It drew up at the siding, and the three men boarded one of the two cars which composed it. The coach next

the engine was occupied by a dozen trusted soldiers, who had formerly belonged to the bodyguard of

Megales. The last car was a private one, and in it the three found Henderson, Bucky O'Connor, and his little

Frances was exceedingly eager to don again the clothes proper to her sex, and she had promised herself that,

once habited as she desired, nothing could induce her ever to masquerade again. Until she met and fell in love

with the ranger she had thought nothing of it, since it had been merely a matter of professional business to

which she had been forced. Indeed, she had sometimes enjoyed the humor of the deception. It had lent a spice

o enjoyment to a life not crowded with it. But after she met Bucky there had grown up in her a new

sensitiveness. She wanted to be womanly, to forget her turbid past and the shifts to which she had sometimes

been put. She had been a child; she was now a woman. She wanted to be one of whom he need be in no way

When their train began to pull out of the depot at Chihuahua she drew a deep sigh of relief.

"It's good to get away from here back to the States. I'm tired of plots and counterplots. For the rest of my life I

The young man smiled. "I reckon I must quit trying to make you a gentleman. Fact is, I don't want you to be

She slanted a look at him to see what that might mean and another up the car to make sure that Henderson

"It was rather hopeless, wasn't it?" she smiled. "We'll do pretty well if we succeed in making me a lady in

"Well, you got lots of time to learn it," he replied cheerfully. "And I've got a notion tucked away in the back

of my haid that you haven't got such a heap to study up. Mrs. Mackenzie will put you next to the etiquette

A shadow fell on the piquant, eager face beside him. "Do you think she will love me?"

She decided to ask for no more reasons. Henderson, pleased at the wide stretch of plain as only one who had

missed the open air for many years could be, was on the observation platform in the rear of the car, one

glance at his empty seat showed her. There was no safety for her shyness in the presence of that proverbial

three which makes a crowd, and she began to feel her heart again in panic as once before. She took at once

"I do need a mother so much, after growing up like Topsy all these years. And mine is the dearest woman in

the world. I fell in love with her before, and I did not know who she was when I was at he ranch."

"I'll agree to the second dearest in the world, but I reckon you shoot too high when you say the plumb

"She is. We'll quarrel if you don't agree," trying desperately to divert him from the topic she knew he meant

to pursue. For in the past two days he had been so busy helping O'Halloran that he had not even had a

glimpse of her. As a consequence of which each felt halfdubious of the other's love, and Frances felt wholly

"Well, we're due for a quarrel, I reckon. But we'll postpone it till we got more time to give it. He drew a

watch from his pocket and glanced at it "In less than fifteen minutes Mike and our two friends who are

making their getaway will come in that door Henderson just went out of. That means we won't get a chance

to be alone together, for about two days. I've got something to say to you, Curly Haid, that won't keep that

long with out running my temperature clear up. So I'm allowing to say it right now immediate. No, you don't

need to turn them brown appealers on me. It won't do a mite of good. It's Bucky to the bat and he's bound to

"I think I hear Mr. Henderson coming," murmured Frances, for lack of something more effective to say.

"Not him. He's hogtied to the scenery long enough to do my business. Now, it won't take me long if I get off

"Why, honey, that loveletter I wrote you. If there was more than one it must have been wrote in my sleep,

He could just hear her confused answer: "Oh, yes, I read that. I told you that before."

"You don't say. Now, ain't that too bad? But, girl o' mine, I expect you were able to make it out, even if I did

get the letters to milling around wrong. I meant them feelings all right. Outside of the spelling, did you have

"I'll bet you know it by heart, honey, and, if you don't, you'll find it in your inside vest pocket, tucked away

"Sho! Pinned to your shirt then, little pardner. I ain't particular which. Point is, if you need to refresh that

ailin' memory of yours, the document isright handy. But you don't need to. It just says one little sentence

over and over again. All you have got to do is to say one little word, and you don't have to say it but once."

"You understand me all right. What my letter said was 'I love you,' and what you have got to say is: 'Yes'"

"I'm in luck," he breathed deeply. "In golden luck to have you look at me twice. Are you sure?"

"Sure. I loved you that first day I met you. I've loved you every day since," she confessed simply.

"But you once said you didn't want to be my husband," she taunted sweetly. "Don't you remember? In the

She shook her head. "No, dear. We shall have to wait. It wouldn't be fair to my mother to lose me just as soon

as she finds me. It is her right to get acquainted with me just as if I belonged to her alone. You understand

what I mean, Bucky. She must not feel as if she never had found me, as if she never had been first with me.

We can love each other more simply if she doesn't know about you. We'll have it for a secret for a month or

She put her little hand on his arm appealingly to win his consent. His eyes rested on it curiously, Then he

took it in his big brown one and turned it palm up. Its delicacy and perfect finish moved him, for it seemed to

him that in the contrast between the two hands he saw in miniature the difference of sex. His showed strength

and competency and the roughness that comes of the struggle of life. But hers was strangely tender and

confiding, compact of the qualities that go to make up the strength of the weak. Surely he deserved the worst

if he was not good to her, a shield and buckler against the storms that must beat against them in the great

"Sure, sweetheart I had forgotten about your mother's claim. We can wait, I reckon," he added with a smile.

"You must always set me straight when I lose the trail of what's right, Curly Haid. You are to be a

He kissed her again hurriedly, for the train was jarring to a halt. Before he could answer in words, O'Halloran

"All serene, Bucky. This is the last scene, and the show went without a hitch in the performance anywhere. "

"And say, Bucky, who do you think is in the other coach dressed as one of the guards?"

"Our friend Chaves. He's escaping because he thinks we'll have him assassinated in revenge," the big

Irishman returned gleefully. "You should have seen his color, me bye, when he caught sight of me. I asked

him if he'd been reduced to the ranks, and he begged me not to tell you he was here. Go in and devil him."

At the Rocking Chair Ranch there was bustle and excitement. Mexicans scrubbed and scoured under the

direction of Alice and Mrs. Mackenzie, and vaqueros rode hither and thither on bootless errands devised by

their nervous master. For late that morning a telephone call from Aravaipa had brought Webb to the receiver

to listen to a telegram. The message was from Bucky, then on the train on his way home.

That was the message which had disturbed the serenity of big Webb Mackenzie and had given to the

motherly heart of his wife an unusual flutter. The best of news it could not be, for the ranger had already

written them of the confession of Anderson, which included the statement of the death of their little daughter.

But at least he might bring the next best news, information that David Henderson was free at last and his long

So all day hurried preparations were being made to receive the honored guests with a fitting welcome. The

Rocking Chair was a big ranch, and its hospitality was famous all over the Southwest. It was quite

unnecessary to make special efforts to entertain, but Webb and his wife took that means of relieving the strain

Higher crept the hot sun of baked Arizona. It passed the zenith and began to descend toward the purple hills

in the west, went behind them with a great rainbow splash of brilliancy peculiar to that country Dusk came,

and died away in the midst of a loveconcert of quails. Velvet night, with its myriad stars, entranced the land

"I wish that young man had let us know which way he was coming, so I could go and meet them. If they

come by the river they should be in the Box canyon by this time. But if I was to ride out, like as not they

He had to look again, so absentminded had been his last glance at the watch. "Ninefifteen. Why didn't I

telephone to Rogers and ask him to find out which way they were coming? Sometimes I'm mighty

As Mackenzie had guessed, the party was winding its way through the Box Canyon at that time of speaking.

Bucky and Frances led the way, followed by Henderson and the vaquero whom Mackenzie had telephoned to

"I reckon this night was made for us, Curly Haid. Even good old Arizona never turned out such a one before.

I expect it was ordered for us ever since it was decided we belonged to each other. That may have been

thousands of years ago." Bucky laughed, to relieve the tension, and looked up at the milky way above. "We're

like those stars, honey. All our lives we have been drifting around, but all the time it had been decided by the

Godofthingsastheyare that our orbits were going to run together and gravitate into the same one when

"Does it?" Presently she added: "I'm all atremble, Bucky. To think I'm going to meet my father and my

mother for the first time really, for I don't count that other time when we didn't know. Suppose they shouldn't

"But they might not. You think, you silly boy, that because you do everybody must. But I'm so glad I'm

clothed and in my right mind again. I couldn't have borne to meet my mother with that boys suit on. Do you

think I look nice in this? I had to take what I could find readymade, you know."

Unless his eyes were blinded by the glamour of love, he saw the sweetest vision of loveliness he had known.

Such a surpassing miracle of soft, dainty curves, such surplusage of beauty in bare throat, speaking eye, sweet

mouth, and dimpled cheeks! But Bucky was a lover, and perhaps no fair judge, for in that touch of vagueness,

of fairyland, lent by the moonlight, he found the world almost too beautiful to believe. Did she look NICE?

The vaquero with them rode forward and pointed to the valley below, where the ranchhouse huddled in a

Presently there came a shout from the ranch, and a man galloped toward them. He passed Bucky with a wave

"Dave! Dave, old partner," he cried, leaping from his horse and catching the other's hand. "After all these

years you've risen from the dead and come back to me." His voice was broken with emotion.

"Come! Let's canter forward to the ranch," said Bucky to Frances and the vaquero, thinking it best to leave

Mrs. Mackenzie and Alice met them at the gate. "Did you bring him? Did you bring Dave?" the older lady

"Frances Mackenzie. She is your daughter, returned, after all these years, to love and be loved."

The mother gave a little throat cry, steadied herself, and fell into the arms of her daughter. "Oh, my baby! My

Quietly Bucky slipped away to the stables with the ponies. As quietly Alice disappeared into the house. This

When Bucky returned to the house, he found his sweetheart sitting between her father and mother, each of

whom was holding one of her hands. Henderson had retired to clean himself up. Happy tears were coursing

down the cheeks of the mother, and Webb found it necessary to blow his nose frequently. He jumped up at

"Young man, you're to blame for this. You've found my friend and you've found my daughter. Brought them

both back to us on the same day. What do you want? Name it, and it's yours, if I can give it."

Bucky looked at Frances with a smile in his eyes. He knew very well what he wanted, but he was under

"I'll set you up in the cattle business, sir. I'll buy you sheep, if you prefer. I'll get you an interest in a mine. Put

"It's not all you'll get. Do you think I'm a cheap piker? No, sir. You've got to let me grubstake you."

"All right, seh. You're the doctor. Give me an interest in that map and I'll prospect the mine this summer, if I

"Good enough, and I'll finance the proposition. You and Dave can take halfshares in the property. In the

"My foreman's quit on me. Gone into business for himself. I'm looking for a good man. Will you be my

Bucky's heart leaped. He had been thinking of how he must report almost immediately to HurryUp Millikan,

of the rangers. Now, he could resign from that body and stay near his love. Certainly things were coming his

"I'd like to try it, seh," he answered. "I may not make good, but I sure would like to have a chance at it."

"Make good! Of course you'll make good. You're the best man in Arizona, sir," cried Webb extravagantly. He

Frances blushed, but answered bravely: "Yes, sir. He makes everything right when he takes hold of it."

"Good. We're not going to let him get away from us after making us so happy, are we, mother? This young

man is going to stay right here. We never had but one son, and we are going to treat him as much like one as

"If he will consent, Webb." She went up to the ranger and kissed his tanned cheek. "You must pardon an old

"Oh, I'll consent, all right, and I reckon, ma'am, it's mighty good of you to treat me so white. I'll sure try to

Webb thumped him on the back. "Now, you're shouting. We want you to be one of us, young man."

Once more that happy, wireless message of eyes followed by O'Connor's assent. "That's what I want myself,

Bucky found a surprise waiting for him at the stables. A heavy hand descended upon his shoulder. He

They went out and sat down on the big rocks back of the corral. Here each told the other his story, with

certain reservations. Collins had just got back from Epitaph, where he had been to get the fragments of paper

which told the secret of the buried treasure. He was expecting to set out in the early morning to meet Leroy.

"Of course if that's the agreement." Nevertheless, the ranger formed a private intention not to be far from the

Leroy smiled down ironically on the four flushed, startled faces that looked up at him. Suspicion was alive in

every rustle of the men's clothes. It breathed from the lowering countenances. It itched at the fingers longing

for the trigger. The unending terror of a bandit's life is that no man trusts his fellow. Hence one betrays

The outlaw chief had slipped into the room so silently that the first inkling they had of his presence was that

gentle, insulting voice. Now, as he lounged easily before them, leg thrown over the back of a chair and

thumbs sagging from his trouser pockets, they looked the picture of schoolboys caught by their master in a

conspiracy. How long had he been there? How much had he heard? Full of suspicion and bad whisky as they

were, his confident contempt still cowed the very men who were planning his destruction. A minute before

they had been full of loud threats and boastings; now they could only search each other's faces sullenly for a

"Celebrating Chaves' return from manana land, I reckon. That's the proper ticket. I wonder if we couldn't

Mr. Hardman, not enjoying the derisive raillery, took a hand in the game. "I expect the boys hadn't better

"We're thick, are we?" Leroy's indolent eyes narrowed slightly as they rested on him.

"Ain't you? It sure seemed that way to me when I looked out of that mesquit wash just above Eldorado

Springs and seen you and him eating together like brothers and laughing to beat the band. You was so clost to

"If that's the word you want to use, cap. And you were enjoying yourselves proper."

"Laughing, were we? That must have been when he told me how funny you looked in the 'altogether'

"Told you that, did he?" Mr. Hardman incontinently dropped repartee as a weapon too subtle, and fell back

"That's right pat to the minute, cap, what you say about the information he leaks," put in Neil. "How about

that information? I'll be plumb tickled to death to know you're carrying it in you vest pocket."

"Then ye are a bigger fool than I had expected sorr, to come back here at all," said the Irishman truculently.

"I begin to think so myself, Mr. Reilly. Why keep faith with a set of swine like you?"

Leroy nodded, watching them with steady, alert eyes. He knew he stood on the edge of a volcano that might

"What did I tell yez?" Reilly turned savagely to the other disaffected members of the gang. "Didn't I tell yez

Somehow Leroy's revolver seemed to jump to his hand without a motion on his part. It lay loosely in his limp

Beneath the velvet of Leroy's voice ran a note more deadly than any threat could have been. It rang a bell for

a silence in which the clock of death seemed to tick. But as the seconds fled Reilly's courage oozed away. He

dared not accept the invitation to reach for his weapon and try conclusions with this debonair young

"What's that?" demanded Neil. "I ain't no coward, even if Jay is. I don't knuckle under to any man. You got a

right to ante up with some information. I want to know why you ain't got them papers you promised to bring

"And I, too, senor. I desire to know what it means," added Chaves, his eyes glittering.

"That's the way to chirp, gentlemen. I haven't got them because Forbes blundered on us, and I had to take a

"I don't know what to think yet. You're either a fool or a traitor. I ain't quite made up my mind. When I find

out you'll ce'tainly hear from me straight. Come on, boys." And Neil vanished through the door.

An hour later there came a knock at Leroy's door. Neil answered his permission to enter, followed by the

other trio of flushed beauties. To the outlaw chief it was at once apparent with what Dutch courage they had

been fortifying themselves to some resolve. It was characteristic of him, though he knew on how precarious a

thread his life was hanging, that disgust at the foul breaths with which they were polluting the atmosphere

"I wish, Lieutenant Chaves, next time you emigrate you'd bring another brand of poison out to the boys. I

The outlaw chief's hard eye ran over the rebels and read them like a primer They had come to depose him

certainly, to kill him perhaps. Though this last he doubted. It wouldn't be like Neil to plan his murder, and it

wouldn't be like the others to give him warning and meet him in the open. Warily he stood behind the table,

watching their awkward embarrassment with easy assurance. Carefully he placed face downward on the table

the Villon he had been reading, but he did it without lifting his eyes from them.

"Then suppose we come to it and get the room aired as soon as possible," Leroy said tartly.

"You're such a slapup dude you'd ought to be a hotel clerk, cap. You're sure wasted out here.

So we boys got together and held a little election. Consequence is, wefact is, we"

"To fill the vacancy created by my resignation. Poor York! You're the sacrifice, are you? On the whole, I

think you fellows have made a wise choice. York's game, and he won't squeal on you, which is more than I

could say of Reilly, or the play actor, or the gentlemen from Chihuahua. But you want to watch out for a

"We didn't come here to listen to a speech, cap, but to notify you we was dissatisfied, and wouldn't have you

"In that event, having heard the report of the committee, if there's no further new business, I declare this

meeting adjourned sine die. Kindly remove the perfume tubs, Captain Neil, at your earliest convenience."

The quartette retreated ignominiously. They had come prepared to gloat over Leroy's discomfiture, and he

had mocked them with that insolent ease of his that set their teeth in helpless rage.

But the deposed chief knew they had not struck their last blow. Throughout the night he could hear the

lowvoiced murmur of their plottings, and he knew that if the liquor held out long enough there would be

sudden death at Hidden Valley before twentyfour hours were up. He looked carefully to his rifle and his

revolvers, testing several shells to make sure they had not been tampered with in his absence. After he had

made all necessary preparations, he drew the blinds of his window and moved his easychair from its

customary place beside the fire. Also he was careful not to sit where an shadow would betray his position.

But the night passed without mishap, and with morning he ventured forth to his meeting with the sheriff. He

might have slipped out from the back door of his cabin and gained the canyon, by circling unobserved, up the

draw and over the hogback, but he would not show by these precautions any fear of the cutthroats with whom

he had to deal. As was his scrupulous custom, he shaved and took his morning bath before appearing

outdoors. In all Arizona no trimmer, more graceful figure of jaunty recklessness could be seen than this one

stepping lightly forth to knock at the bunkhouse door behind which he suspected were at least two men

Neil came to the door in answer to his knock and within he could see the villainous faces at bloodshot eyes of

"Good mo'ning, Captain Neil. I'm on my way to keep that appointment I mentioned last night I'd ce'tainly be

glad to have you go along. Nothing like being on the spot to prevent doublecrossing."

"Just as you say. Reilly, I guess you better saddle Twostep and the Lazy B roan."

Neil was across the room in two strides. "When I tell you to do a thing, jump! Get a move on and saddle

"I see you made them jump," commented the former captain audibly, seating himself comfortably on a rock.

"It's the only way you'll get along with them. See that they come to time or pump lead into them. You'll find

Neil and Leroy had hardly passed beyond the rockslide before the others, suspicion awake in their sodden

brains, dodged after them on foot. For three miles they followed the broncos as the latter picked their way up

"If Mr. Collins is here, he's lying almighty low," exclaimed Neil, as he swung from his pony at the foot of the

bluff from the brow of which the gray dump of the mine straggled down like a Titan's beard.

York whirled, revolver in hand, but the man who had risen from behind the big boulder beside the trail was

Neil's revolver slid back into its holster. "Mornin', Val. What's new down at Tucson?" he said amiably.

"I understood I was to meet you alone, Mr. Leroy," said the sheriff quickly, his bluegray eyes on the former

"That was the agreement, Mr. Collins, but it seems the boys are on the anxious seat about these little socials

of ours. They've embraced the notion that I'm selling them. I hated to have them harassed with doubts, so I

invited the new majordomo of the ranch to come with me. Of cou'se, if you object"

"I don't object in the least, but I want him to understand the agreement. I've got a posse waiting at Eldorado

Springs, and as soon as I get back there we take the trail after you. Bucky O'Connor is at the head of the

York grinned. "We'll be in Sonora then, Val. Think I'm going to wait and let you shoot off my other fingers?"

Collins fished from his vest pocket the papers he had taken from Scott hat and from Webster. "I think I'll be

Leroy took them from him and handed them to Neil. "Don't let us detain you any longer, Mr. Collins. I know

The sheriff nodded a good day, cut down the hill on the slant, and disappeared in a mesquit thicket, from the

The two outlaws retraced their way to the foot of the hill and remounted their broncos.

"I want to say, cap, that I'm eating humblepie in big chunks right this minute," said Neil shamefacedly,

scratching his curly poll and looking apologetically at his former chief. "I might 'a' knowed you was straight

as a string, all I've seen of you these last two years. If those coyotes say another word, cap"

An exploding echo seemed to shake the mountain, and then another. Leroy swayed in the saddle, clutching at

his side. He pitched forward, his arms round the horse's neck, and slid slowly to the ground.

Neil was off his horse in an instant, kneeling beside him. He lifted him in his arms and carried him behind a

"It's that hound Collins," he muttered, as he propped the wounded man's head on his arm. "By God, I didn't

He nodded. "Right this timeHardman and Chaves and Reilly. They shot to get us both. With us out of the

"More than I can carry, York; shot through and through. I've been doubtful of Reilly for a long time;"

"By the Lord, if I don't get the rattlesnake for this!" swore Neil between his teeth. "Ain't there nothin' I can do

In sharp succession four shots rang out. Neil grasped his rifle, leaning forward and crouching for cover. He

"He's got oneor he's quit living. That's a sure thing. Why don't you circle up on them from behind, York?"

Leroy smiled faintly. "Not a thing. I'll be right here when you get back, York."

The curlyheaded young puncher took Leroy's hand in his, gulping down a boyish sob. "I ain't been square

with you, cap. I reckon after this when you git wellI'll not be such a coyote any more."

The dying man's eyes were lit with a beautiful tenderness. "There's one thing you can do for me, York. . . .

I'm out of the game, but I want you to make a new start. . . . I got you into this life, boy. Quit it, and live

The cowboybandit choked. "Don't you worry about me, cap. I'm all right. I'd just as lief quit this deviltry,

"I want you to promise, boy." A whimsical, halfcynical smile touched Leroy's eyes. "You see, after living

After Neil had left him, Leroy's eyes closed. Faintly he heard two more shots echoing down the valley, but

Neil dodged rapidly round the foot of the mountain with intent to cut off the bandits as they retreated. He

found the sheriff crouching behind a rock scarce two hundred yards from the scene of the murder. At the

Together they zigzagged up the side of the mountain. Twice from above there came sounds of rifle shots.

Neil was the first to strike the trail to the mine. None too soon for as he stepped upon it, breathing heavily

from his climb, Reilly swung round a curve and whipped his weapon to his shoulder. The man fired before

York could interfere and stood watching tensely the result of his shot. He was silhouetted against the skyline,

a beautiful mark, but Neil did not cover him. Instead, he spoke quietly to the other.

The man whirled and saw Neil for the first time. His answer was instant. Flinging up his rifle, he pumped a

Neil's retort came in a flash. Reilly clutched at his heart and toppled backward from the precipice upon which

he stood. Collins joined the cowpuncher and together they stepped forward to the point from which Reilly

At the curve they came face to face with Bucky O'Connor. Three weapons went up quicker than the beating

"Just pirootin' around, Val. It occurred to me Leroy might not mean to play fair with you, so I kinder invited

myself to the party. When I heard shooting I thought it was you they had bushwhacked, so I sat in to the

"You guessed wrong, Bucky. Reilly and the others rounded on Leroy. While they were at it they figured to

The ranger turned a jade eye on the outlaw. Has Mr. Neil turned honest man, Val? Taken him into your

The sheriff laid a hand on the shoulder of the man who had been his friend before he turned miscreant.

"Don't you worry about Neil, Bucky," he advised gently. "It was York shot Reilly, after York had cut loose at

him, and I shouldn't wonder if that didn't save your life. Neil has got to stand the gaff for what he's done, but

"That makes only one left to account for. I wonder who he is?" Collins turned absentmindedly to Neil. The

latter looked at him out of an expressionless face. Even though his confederate had proved traitor he would

"I plumb forgot the situation for a moment," the sheriff grinned. "Anyhow, we better be hittin' his trail."

"You and Neil go back. I'll follow up this gentleman who is escaping," the ranger said.

And so it was arranged. The two men returned from their grim work of justice to the place where the outlaw

"Reilly and Hardman are killed. How are you feelin', cap?" The cowpuncher knelt beside the dying outlaw

"Shot all to pieces, boy. No, I got no time to have you play doctor with me." He turned to Collins with a

gleam of his unconquerable spirit. "You came pretty near making a clean roundup, sheriff. I'm the fourth to

"I got him into this, sheriff. He was all right before he knew me. I want him to get a chance now. "

"I wish I could give him a pardon, but I can't do it. I'll see the governor for him though."

The wounded man spoke to Collins alone for a few minutes, then began to wander in his mind He babbled

feebly of childhood days back in his Kentucky home. The word most often on his lips was "Mother." So, with

his head resting on Neil's arm and his hand in that of his friend, he slipped away to the Great Beyond.

The young ladies, following the custom of Arizona in summer, were riding by the light of the stars to avoid

the heat of the day. They rode leisurely, chatting as their ponies paced side by side. For though they were

cousins they were getting acquainted with each other for the first time. Both of them found this a delightful

process, not the less so because they were temperamentally very different. Each of them knew already that

they were going to be great friends. They had exchanged the histories of their lives, lying awake girl fashion

to talk into the small hours, each omitting certain passages, however, that had to do with two men who were

Bucky O'Connor and Sheriff Collins were returning to the Rocking Chair Ranch from Epitaph, where they

had just been to deposit twentyseven thousand dollars and a prisoner by the name of Chaves. Just at the

point where the road climbed from the plains and reached the summit of the first stiff hill the two parties met

and passed. The ranger and the sheriff reined in simultaneously. Yet a moment and all four of them were

They turned toward the ranch, Bucky and Frances leading the way. Alice, riding beside her lover in the

darkness, found the defenses upon which she had relied begin to fail her. Nevertheless, she summoned them

to her support and met him full armed with the evasions and complexities of her sex.

"Of course. But I'm sorry that father has been called to Phoenix. I suppose you came to tell him about your

"Yes. Tell me your news. Over the telephone all sorts of rumors have come to us. But even these were

"I thought of telephoning you the facts. Then I decided to ride out and tell you at once. I knew you would

Her patrician manner was gone. Her eyes looked their thanks at him. "That was good of you. I have been very

It seemed to her that his look was one of grave tenderness. "No, that is not true. You remember what we said

He told her, beginning at the moment of his meeting with the outlaws at the Dalriada dump and continuing to

the last scene of the tragedy. It touched her so nearly that she could not hear him through dryeyed.

"And he spoke of me?" She said it in a low voice, to herself rather than to him.

"It was just before his mind began to wanderalmost his last conscious thought. He said that when you

heard the news you would remember. What you were to remember he didn't say. I took it you would know."

"Yes. I was to remember that he was not all wolf to me." She told it with a little break of tears in her voice.

"Then he told me to tell you that it was the best way out for him. He had come to the end of the road, and it

would not have been possible for him to go back." Presently Collins added gently: "If you don't mind my

saying so, I think he was right. He was content to go, quite game and steady in his easy way. If he had lived,

there could have been no going back for him. It was his nature to go the limit. The tragedy is in his life, not in

"Yes, I know that, but it hurts one to think it had to bethat all his splendid gifts and capabilities should end

like this, and that we are forced to see it is best. He might have done so much."

"And instead he became a miscreant. I reckon there was a lack in him somewhere."

"You say yourself he helped you against the other outlaws. Then he showed you where to start in finding the

buried money. He isn't a bad man. You know how he stood by me when I was a prisoner," she pleaded.

He nodded. "That goes a long way with me, Miss Mackenzie. The governor is a right good friend of mine. I

meant to ask him for a pardon. I reckon Neil means to live straight from now on. He promised Leroy he

would. He's only a wild cowpuncher gone wrong, and now he's haided right he'll pull up and walk the

Collins smiled. "He saved me the trouble. Coming through the Canon Del Oro in the night, he ducked. I

"Father will be pleased to know you got the treasure back," Alice said presently, after they had ridden a bit in

"What pleases father pleases me." Her voice, cool as the plash of ice water, might have daunted a less

resolute man. But this one had long since determined the manner of his wooing and was not to be driven from

"I'm glad of that. Your father's right friendly to me," he announced, with composure.

"Sho! I ain't going to run away and hide because you look like you don't know I'm in Arizona. What kind of a

lover would I be if I broke for cover every time you flashed those dark eyes at me?"

"It might be a first rate thing for you if I did, Miss Mackenzie. All your life you haven't done anything but

trample on sissy boys. Now, I expect I'm not a sissy boy, but a fair imitation of a man, and I shouldn't wonder

but you'd find me some too restless for a doormat." His maimed hand happened to be resting on the saddle

horn as he spoke, and the story of the maiming emphasized potently the truth of his claim.

"Don't you assume a good deal, Mr. Collins, when you imply that I have any desire to master you?"

"Not a bit," he assured her cheerfully. "Every woman wants to boss the man she's going to marry, but if she

"You are quite sure I am going to marry you?" she asked gentlytoo gently, he thought.

"I'm only reasonably sure," he informed her. "You see, I can't tell for certain whether your pride or your good

"I do. It's the most absurd proposalI suppose you call it a proposalthat ever I heard."

"Not today, ma'am. There are going to be a lot of tomorrows for you and me, and Tucson will have to wait

She flashed a look at him that mocked his confidence. "I've heard about the vanity of girls, but never in my

experience have I met any so colossal as this masculine vanity now on exhibit. Do you really think, Mr.

Collins, that all you have to do to win a woman is to look impressive and tell her that you have decided to

"It is perfectly ridiculousyour absurd attitude of taking everything for granted. Well, it may be the Tucson

"No, I reckon not. Back there a boy persuades girl he loves her by ruining her digestion with candy and all

sorts of ice arrangements from sodafountain. But I'm uncivilized enough to assume you're a woman of sense

The velvet night was attuned to the rhythm of her love. She felt herself, in this sea of moon romance, being

swept from her moorings. Stareyed, she gazed at him while she still fought again his dominance.

"You ARE uncivilized. Would you beat me when I didn't obey?" she asked tremulously.

"Oh, you would love me." She looked across under her long lashes, not as boldly as she would have liked,

and her gaze fell before his. "I haven t heard before that that was in the compact you proposed. I don't think

She looked down at him, a man out of a thousand and for her one out of a hundred million. Before she was

conscious of willing it she stood beside him. He trailed the reins of the ponies, and in two strides came back

"I want you. girl." His arm swept round her, and he held her while he looked down into her shining eyes. "So

He laughed in deep delight. "that we love each other. They're welcome to the thought. I haven't told you

that I love you, eh? I tell you now. It's my last trump, and right here I table it. I'm no desert poet, but I love

you from that dark crown of yours to those little feet that tap the floor so impatient sometimes. I love you all

the time, no matter what mood you're inwhen you flash dark angry eyes at me and when you laugh in that

slow, understanding way nobody else in God's world has the trick of. Makes no difference to me whether

you're glad or mad, I want you just the same. That's the reason why I'm going to make you love me."

"Because. Oh, you big blind manbecause I love you already." She burlesqued his drawl with a little joyous

laugh: "I reckon if you're right set on it I'll have to marry you, Val Collins."

His arm tightened about her as if he would hold her against the whole world. His ardent eyes possessed hers.

She felt herself grow faint with a poignant delight. Her lips met his slowly in their first kiss.