her
hair with his gentle, timid touch.

"Everything just looks awful to me, with Dad and mother both gone, and me
here alone on this big ranch, with only Ling and grub-liners. And to think
of it all the rest of my life like this--with nobody that I belong to, or
that belongs to me!"

Something was recalled to McArthur with a start by Susie's words. He had
forgotten!

"Come, Susie, come with me."

She followed him outside, where he unbuckled his saddle-pocket and took a
daguerreotype from a wooden box which had come in the mail. The gilt frame
was tarnished, the purple velvet lining faded, and when he handed the case
to Susie she had to hold it slanting in the light to see the picture.

"Dad!"

She looked at McArthur with eyes wide in wonder.

"Donald MacDonald, my aunt Harriet's brother, who went north to buy furs
for the Hudson Bay Company!" McArthur's eyes were smiling through the
moisture in them.

"We've got one just like it!" Susie cried, still half unable to believe
her eyes and ears.

"I was sure that day you mimicked your father when he said, 'Never forget
you are a MacDonald!' for I have heard my aunt say that a thousand times,
and in just that way. But I wanted to be surer before I said anything to
you, so I sent for this."

"Oh, pardner!" and with a sudden impulse which was neither Scotch nor
Indian, but entirely of herself, Susie threw her arms about his neck and
all but choked him in the only hug which Peter McArthur, A.M., Ph.D.,
could remember ever having had.

XXI

THE MURDERER OF WHITE ANTELOPE

It was nearly dusk, and Ralston was only a few hundred yards from the Bar
C gate, when he met Babe, highly perfumed and with his hair suspiciously
slick, coming out. Babe's look of disappointment upon seeing him was not
flattering, but Ralston ignored it in his own delight at the meeting.

"What was your rush? I was just goin' over to see you," was Babe's glum
greeting.

"And I'm here to see you," Ralston returned, "but I forgot to perfume
myself and tallow my hair."

"Aw-w-w," rumbled Babe, sheepishly. "What'd you want?"

"You know what I'm in the country for?"

Babe nodded.

"I've located my man, and he's going to drive off a big bunch to-night.
There's two of them in fact, and I'll need help. Are you game for it?"

"Oh, mamma!" Babe rolled his eyes in ecstasy.

"He has a horror of doing time," Ralston went on, "and if he has any show
at all, he's going to put up a hard fi