tly closed the stable door and darted into the shadow of
the stable. Then he crouched, ran low behind a big drift, and gained the
side of a building next to the Willets Hotel. He was close to the two
riders, and he grinned maliciously when he saw that one of them was a
woman.

He heard Lawler knock on the rear door of the hotel; and he crouched in
the shadow of the building until Lawler and the woman entered. But just
before the two entered, Singleton caught sight of the woman's face as
she turned toward him for an instant and the dull light shone upon her.

He watched until Lawler came out again and rode away; and from behind
another building on the other side of the street he saw Lawler going
directly south, which direction would take him to Number One Circle L
line camp.

Then Singleton mounted his horse and followed the trail taken by Lawler.
By the time Singleton struck Lawler's trail, Lawler was out of sight
beyond a low ridge, and Singleton leisurely examined the tracks in the
snow.

He discovered that two sets of tracks led in the direction Lawler was
taking. He followed them for several miles, until there seemed to be no
doubt that Della had been with Lawler at the line camp; then he grinned
and wheeled his horse toward the Two Diamond.

* * * * *

Gary Warden was also following the two sets of tracks that led
northward. He had come upon them accidentally, while riding with one of
his men slightly in advance of the others as they went toward Willets,
where Warden intended to take the bodies of Link and Givens. He had said
nothing to his companion regarding the tracks, though he noted the
other saw them also, and was studying them, puzzled.

"Them tracks ain't more'n half a dozen hours old," the man said once,
tentatively. But receiving no answer from Warden he said no more.

In places there were three sets of tracks--two going northward, and one
leading back. Warden, his eyes glowing malevolently, followed them until
they took him into Willets. An hour later, his face flushed with
passion, he was in a little office with Sheriff Moreton, demanding
Lawler's arrest on a charge of murder.

Moreton, a slender man of medium height with a lean, strong face and
keen, penetrating eyes, had listened patiently to Warden's story.

"Lawler told you he killed 'em, eh? Well then, I reckon he must
have--Lawler ain't in the habit of lyin'. You got any witness that
Lawler killed 'em, ma