cleared away and cleaned with
a speed fully as marvelous as the preparation of the supper, Joan
remembered with a guilty start the message which she should have given
to Daddy Dan, and she brought out the paper, much rumpled.

He stood by the fire to read the letter.

"Dan come back to us. The house is empty and there's no sign of you
except your clothes and the skins you left drying in the vacant room.
Joan sits all day, mourning for you, and my heart is breaking. Oh, Dan,
I don't grieve so much for what has been done, but I tremble for what
you may do in the future."

With the letter still in his hand Dan walked thoughtfully to Satan and
took the fine head between his fingers.

"S'pose some gent was to drop you, Satan," he murmured. "S'pose he was
to plug you while you was doin' your best to take me where I want to go.
S'pose he shot you not for anything you'd done but because of something
agin me. And s'pose after killin' you he was to sneak up on me with a
lot of other gents and try to murder me before I had a chance to fight
back. Satan, wouldn't I be right to trail 'em all--and kill 'em one by
one? Wouldn't it?"

Joan heard very little of the words--only a soft murmur of anxiety, and
she saw that Daddy Dan was very thoughtful indeed. The stallion reached
for the brim of Dan's hat--it was withdrawn from his reach--his head
bowed, like a nod of assent.

"Why, even Satan can see I'm right," murmured Dan, and moving back to
the fire, he tore the letter into many pieces which fluttered down in a
white stream and made the blaze leap up.

Chapter XXI. The Acid Test

Mrs. Johnny Sommers managed to preserve her dignity while she escorted
the visitor into the front room, and even while she asked him to sit
down and wait, but once she had closed the door behind her she cast
dignity far away and did two steps at a time going upstairs. The result
was that she, reached the room of Betty Neal entirely out of breath; two
hundred pounds of fat, good-natured widowhood do not go with speed. She
tossed open the door without any preliminary knock and stood there very
red with a clearly defined circle of white in the center of each check.
For a moment there was no sound except her panting and Betty Neal stared
wildly at her from above her book.

"He's come!" gasped Mrs. Sommers.

"Who?"

"Him!"

As if this odd explanation made everything clear, Betty Neal sprang from
her chair and she grew so pale that every freckl