h they had
just come. Then a light broke upon Ellhorn and he slapped his knee
with his palm and broke into a laugh.

"Tom Tuttle, I reckon I'm onto his curves! He's goin' to strike the
mountain road back of town a ways and come in alone, past Frenchy
Delarue's place, as if he'd just come to town!"

"Frenchy Delarue! Does he mean to have it out with Frenchy for the way
he talked at that mass-meetin'? Say, Nick, we ought to be handy, for
he'll sure need us. Come on, let's ride out that way." And Tuttle
began to climb down from his high perch. Ellhorn stopped him with
another roar of laughter.

"Tommy, sometimes I think you sure ain't got any more sense than a
two-year-old! Emerson don't care anything about Frenchy Delarue, or
what he said at a dozen mass-meetings. He don't hold things against a
man that way." Ellhorn ended with another laugh and sat there
chuckling while Tom looked at him resentfully.

"I don't see what you want to make a fool of a fellow for," he said
sulkily. "If you-all don't want to tell me what it's all about, say
so, and I won't ask any more questions."

Ellhorn slapped him on the shoulder. "That's all right, Tommy. It was
such a good joke I couldn't help it. Don't you remember that stunning
pretty girl we saw on the street with the kid the day Emerson came
into town, that I told you was Frenchy Delarue's daughter?"

"What? Emerson! You don't mean--say, Nick! I don't--Emerson?" And
Tuttle stopped, from sheer inability to express his mingled feelings,
and stared at his companion, his face the picture of mystified
amazement.

Ellhorn nodded. "I don't know anything about it, but two or three
times I've seen things about Emerson that made me think he must be
gettin' into that sort of trouble somewhere, and if he is I sure think
it can't be anybody but Miss Delarue."

Tuttle was silent a few moments, thinking the matter over. Then he
shook his head doubtfully.

"If it was you or me, Nick, I could understand it. But Emerson! Nick,
I can't believe it until I know it's so!"

"I wouldn't have thought so either, but you never can tell," Nick
replied oracularly. "Now, I'd kiss Amada Garcia, or any other pretty
girl, every time I got a chance. You wouldn't do it unless you could
sneak around behind the house where nobody could see, and you wouldn't
say a word about it afterward. But Emerson, well, maybe Emerson would
too, but I don't reckon he would even think about kissin' her unless
she asked hi