lls from a
hip pocket and laid a five-dollar note on the table.

"That meal was worth it," he said to the girl with a smile.

She shook her head. "I--I couldn't take it," she said.

"That's clean money, miss. I earned it circumventin' three of the most
ornery card sharps in Arizona."

She continued to shake her head. "You do not understand," she
murmured. "It--it wouldn't make any difference. We couldn't take money
from a stranger who came to us--hungry. It wouldn't make any
difference who you were."

"Aw, we need it, sis!" blurted out the boy. "The Coyote's all right.
He wouldn't lie to us."

Rathburn laughed and, stepping to the boy, ran his fingers in his
hair. "I guess I've made a friend," he said in a wistful voice. Then
he picked up the bill on the table and stuffed it into the boy's
pocket. His eyes encountered the poster again and they clouded. He
turned away from it.

"Miss, you'll let me thank you--sure."

She nodded, retreating a few paces.

"Then I'll be going," he said, stepping to the door.

"To--to Dry Lake?" she found the voice to ask.

"Yes. To Dry Lake."

He left the house and in a few minutes reappeared from the direction
of the barn, riding his dun-colored horse. He did not stop, but
galloped down the valley, waving a hand in farewell which the boy
answered.

The day was nearly spent. The sun was low in the west, sliding down
like a ball of gold toward the rim of the blue mountains. A stiff
breeze had sprung up, driving the heat before it. At the lower end of
the valley Rathburn found the trail he had left when he detoured to
the ranch. He turned westward upon it, put spurs to his horse, and
sped toward town.

It was just as well that the girl could not see the look which came to
his face as he rode into the sunset.

CHAPTER III

THE LAW

Night had descended when Rathburn came in sight of the little town on
the edge of the foothills. He rode slowly toward it, staring moodily
at the flickering lights between interlaced branches which waved and
weaved in the wind blowing down from the mountains. In all the
distance he had traveled from the lonely ranch where he had met the
girl and the boy he had encountered no one. He surmised that the trail
to the desert hills to eastward was not a popular one.

As he neared the town he saw that it consisted of one main street with
buildings clustered about it, and numerous shacks scattered in the lee
of the hills. There were trees c