of fact
his heart was breaking with love for her--love that he believed
unrequited--and he yearned to tear loose his bonds and crush her in his
arms.

It was Barbara's turn now to be hurt. She drew herself up.

"I am sorry that I have disturbed your rest," she said, and walked away,
her head in the air; but all the way back to the ranchhouse she kept
repeating over and over to herself: "Tomorrow they will shoot him!
Tomorrow they will shoot him! Tomorrow they will shoot him!"

CHAPTER XIV. 'TWIXT LOVE AND DUTY

FOR an hour Barbara Harding paced the veranda of the ranchhouse, pride
and love battling for the ascendency within her breast. She could not
let him die, that she knew; but how might she save him?

The strains of music and the laughter from the bunkhouse had ceased. The
ranch slept. Over the brow of the low bluff upon the opposite side of
the river a little party of silent horsemen filed downward to the ford.
At the bluff's foot a barbed-wire fence marked the eastern boundary of
the ranch's enclosed fields. The foremost horseman dismounted and cut
the strands of wire, carrying them to one side from the path of the feet
of the horses which now passed through the opening he had made.

Down into the river they rode following the ford even in the darkness
with an assurance which indicated long familiarity. Then through a
fringe of willows out across a meadow toward the ranch buildings
the riders made their way. The manner of their approach, their utter
silence, the hour, all contributed toward the sinister.

Upon the veranda of the ranchhouse Barbara Harding came to a sudden
halt. Her entire manner indicated final decision, and determination. A
moment she stood in thought and then ran quickly down the steps and in
the direction of the office. Here she found Eddie dozing at his post.
She did not disturb him. A glance through the window satisfied her that
he was alone with the prisoner. From the office building Barbara passed
on to the corral. A few horses stood within the enclosure, their heads
drooping dejectedly. As she entered they raised their muzzles and
sniffed suspiciously, ears a-cock, and as the girl approached closer
to them they moved warily away, snorting, and passed around her to the
opposite side of the corral. As they moved by her she scrutinized them
and her heart dropped, for Brazos was not among them. He must have been
turned out into the pasture.

She passed over to the bars that close