ry, Kate, but if
they's Dan's blood in your little girl it ain't my fault. It ain't
anything he's taught her. It's just that bein' alone with him has
brought out what she really is."

"I won't believe you, Buck. I don't dare listen to you!"

"You got to listen, Kate, because you know I'm right. D'you think that
any kind of teachin' could make her learn how to stand and keep from
cryin' when she was whipped?"

"I know."

She spoke softly, as if some terrible power might overhear them talk,
and Buck lowered his voice in turn.

"She's wild, Kate, I knew it when I seen the way she handled Bart. She's
wild!"

"Then I'll have her tame again."

"You tried that once and failed."

"Dan was a man when I tried, and his nature was formed. Joan is only a
baby--my baby. She's half mine. She has my hair and my eyes."

"I don't care what the color of her eyes is, I know what's behind them.
Look at 'em, and then tell me who she takes after."

"Buck, why do you talk like this? What do you want me to do?"

"A hard thing. Send Joan back to Dan."

"Never!"

"He'll never give her up, I tell you."

"Oh, God help me. What shall I do? I'll keep her! I'll make her tame."

"But you'll never keep her that way. Think of Dan. Think of the yaller
in his eyes, Kate."

"Until I die," she said with sudden quiet, "I'll fight to keep her."

And he answered with equal solemnity: "Until Dan dies he'll fight to
have her. And he's never been beat yet."

Through a breathing space he stared at her and she at him, and the eyes
of Buck Daniels were the first to turn. Everything that was womanly and
gentle had died from her face, and in its stead was something which made
Buck rise and wander from the room.

He found Lee Haines and told him briefly all that had passed. The great
battle, they decided, had begun between Kate and Barry for the sake of
the child, and that battle would go on until one of them was dead or the
prize for which they struggled lost. Barry would come on the trail and
find them at the ranch, and then he would strike for Joan. And they had
no help for the struggle against him. The cowpunchers would scatter
at the first sign of Barry, at the first shrill of his ill-omened
whistling. They might ride for Elkhead and raise a posse from among the
citizens, but it would take two days to do that and gather a number of
effective fighters for the crisis, and in the meantime the chances were
large that Barry would strike the ranc