the third time; read it aloud, so his
sister could hear.

"LAMY: I meant to take you back and give you up, for I was pretty
sore. Then I saw your resemblance to your small brother by the
freckles and eyes and I remembered he had said something about you
saying some decent things about me. I guess you thought they were
nice things, anyway.

"Then I thought maybe you got your ideas about easy money from
the stuff you'd heard about me, and I sort of felt kind of
responsible. I thought I'd teach you a lesson by flirting with
that posse and telling you that killing story to show you what
a man is up against in this game. I guess I can't get away
from it because they won't let me. But you don't have to start.
I was going to give you a good talking to before I let you go,
but I hadn't counted on the little kid in the house. I'm glad he
told the truth. He'll remember that. I gave you back your gun
because you hit the nail on the head when you said if I was
square I'd give it to you and let you make a run for it.

"I took the money off you so if they got us I could take the blame
and let you off. I can take the blame without hurting my
reputation, so don't worry. I'm not doing this so much for your
sake as for your kid brother and your sister. I figure you'd sort
of caught on when I heard they hadn't located my horse. That was a
good turn. Do me another by getting some sense. There's plenty of
us fellows that's quite capable to furnish the bad examples.

"RATHBURN."

The girl was crying softly with an arm about her brother's neck when
he finished reading.

"What--what are you going to do, Eddie?" she sobbed.

"I'm goin' to irrigate!" said Ed Lamy with a new note in his voice.
"I'm goin' to build a sure-enough ranch for us with this piece of
paper for a corner stone!"

Dawn was breaking over the mountains, strewing the gleaming peaks with
warm rosettes of color. A clear sky, as deep and blue as any sea,
arched its canopy above. Virgin stands of pine and fir marched up the
steep slopes to fling their banners of green against the snow. Silver
ribbons of streams laughed in the welcome sunlight.

In a rock-walled gulch, far above the head of Sunrise Canon, a fire
was burning, its thin smoke streamer riding on a vagrant breeze. Near
by lay a dun-colored horse on its side, tied fast. A man was squatting
by the blaze.

"I