he day is really quite warm--makes one appreciate such a
delightfully cool retreat, don't you think?"

"Heard us comin' an' thought you'd play the spy, did you?" growled the
Tailholt Mountain man.

Patches smiled. "Really, you know, I am afraid I didn't think much about
it," he said gently. "I'm troubled that way, you see," he explained,
with elaborate politeness. "Often do things upon impulse, don't you
know--beastly embarrassing sometimes."

Nick glared at this polite, soft-spoken gentleman, with half-amused
anger. "I heard there was a dude tenderfoot hangin' 'round the
Cross-Triangle," he said, at last. "You're sure a hell of a fine
specimen. You've had your drink; now s'pose you get a-goin'."

"I beg pardon?" drawled Patches, looking at him with innocent inquiry.

"Vamoose! Get out! Go on about your business."

"Really, Mr. Cambert, I understood that this was open range--" Patches
looked about, as though carefully assuring himself that he was not
mistaken in the spot.

The big man's eyes narrowed wickedly. "It's closed to you, all right."
Then, as Patches did not move, "Well, are you goin', or have I got to
start you?" He took a threatening step toward the intruder.

"No," returned Patches easily, "I am certainly not going--not just at
present--and," he added thoughtfully, "if I were you, I wouldn't try to
start _anything_."

Something in the extraordinary self-possession of this soft-spoken
stranger made the big man hesitate. "Oh, you wouldn't, heh?" he
returned. "You mean, I s'pose, that you propose to interfere with my
business."

"If, by your business, you mean beating a man who is so unable to
protect himself, I certainly propose to interfere."

For a moment Nick glared at Patches as though doubting his own ears.
Then rage at the tenderfoot's insolence mastered him. With a vile
epithet, he caught the loaded quirt in his hand by its small end, and
strode toward the intruder.

But even as the big man swung his wicked weapon aloft, a hard fist, with
the weight of a well-trained and well-developed shoulder back of it,
found the point of his chin with scientific accuracy. The force of the
blow, augmented as it was by Nick's weight as he was rushing to meet it,
was terrific. The man's head snapped back, and he spun half around as he
fell, so that the uplifted arm with its threatening weapon was twisted
under the heavy bulk that lay quivering and harmless.

Patches coolly bent over the unconscious man