neighbouring
rancher, and the man had proved himself a scoundrel. Elsie had not
mentioned any proposal of marriage. Whatever the lawlessness of
Farley's Indian associates, they had apparently put the guilty man to
ransom and then turned him loose to die in the desert, merely by way of
vengeance for his attempted wrong against the girl.

Yet both of the girls had given out that the partnership with the
Apaches and the unknown Slade was by no means satisfactory. Farley
feared his associates, and they would permit him and Carmena to leave
the Hole only one at a time.

On the other hand, when he first met Carmena, she had been alone on the
trail, only a few miles from the railway. Why had she not galloped to
the nearest station and led a sheriff's posse to free her father and
sister? She knew that Cochise and his fellows were "bronchos."

Across the train of Lennon's thoughts fell a black shadow of suspicion.
Was it possible that the girl had acted as a decoy to lure him into this
ill-omened Dead Hole? She had previously brought in another man, who had
in effect been murdered, after paying ransom.

In his own case, the girl had herself suffered far too much during their
flight from the Apaches for the pursuit to have been a sham. But she may
very well have had an arrangement with the renegades to lure a victim
into the Basin; and then, untrustful of their bloodthirsty instincts,
had fled with her prize to the Hole, so that he might be put to ransom.

The more Lennon pondered the situation, the more everything related to
it appeared in a worse and worse light--everything and everybody, except
the open-eyed innocent little Elsie. The Apaches admittedly were
renegades. The absent Slade had been mentioned by no means favourably.
Farley was far from prepossessing either in appearance or words or
actions. As for Carmen, even the tender glances that he had surprised
might be explained by the coquetry of a Delilah.

Lennon rose from his chair with an appearance Of calm deliberation.

"Would you be so kind as to bring me my rifle, Elsie?" he asked. "With
smokeless powder a gun needs frequent cleaning and oiling."

"Yes. Carmena always keeps hers clean as a whistle. But Dad put yours
away. He said he apprehended that you might become per--perturbed and
commit an assault with a deadly weapon. He and Mena are talking things
over now---- No, they're coming out. Want to hear Mena give it to
Cochise?"

The girl darted through t