s
Tolliver and of that long ago was rehearsed over and over; all the
wrongs the family had suffered at the hands of the Falins were retold,
and in spite of herself June felt the old hatred of her childhood
reawakening against them so fiercely that she was startled: and she knew
that if she were a man she would be as ready now to take up a Winchester
against the Falins as though she had known no other life.

Loretta got no comfort from her in her tentative efforts to talk of Buck
Falin, and once, indeed, June gave her a scathing rebuke. With every day
her feeling for her father and Bub was knit a little more closely, and
toward Dave grew a little more kindly. She had her moods even against
Hale, but they always ended in a storm of helpless tears. Her father
said little of Hale, but that little was enough. Young Dave was openly
exultant when he heard of the favouritism shown a Falin by the Guard
at the Gap, the effort Hale had made to catch Rufe Tolliver and his
well-known purpose yet to capture him; for the Guard maintained a fund
for the arrest and prosecution of criminals, and the reward it offered
for Rufe, dead or alive, was known by everybody on both sides of the
State line. For nearly a week no word was heard of the fugitive, and
then one night, after supper, while June was sitting at the fire, the
back door was opened, Rufe slid like a snake within, and when June
sprang to her feet with a sharp cry of terror, he gave his brutal laugh:

"Don't take much to skeer you--does it?" Shuddering she felt his evil
eyes sweep her from head to foot, for the beast within was always
unleashed and ever ready to spring, and she dropped back into her seat,
speechless. Young Dave, entering from the kitchen, saw Rufe's look and
the hostile lightning of his own eyes flashed at his foster-uncle, who
knew straightway that he must not for his own safety strain the boy's
jealousy too far.

"You oughtn't to 'a' done it, Rufe," said old Judd a little later, and
he shook his head. Again Rufe laughed:

"No--" he said with a quick pacificatory look to young Dave, "not to
HIM!" The swift gritting of Dave's teeth showed that he knew what was
meant, and without warning the instinct of a protecting tigress leaped
within June. She had seen and had been grateful for the look Dave gave
the outlaw, but without a word she rose new and went to her own room.
While she sat at her window, her step-mother came out the back door and
left it open for a m