se in the back."

"But you!" exclaimed Lennon. "That was ripping the way you--what d'you
say?--got the drop on Cochise. My right hand is still too weak for a
knockout blow."

Carmena gravely drew a sheath knife from the pocket of her skirt.

"He knows I usually carry my revolver," she said.

Lennon stared.

"Your revolver wasn't in your pocket? Yet you sheathed your rifle!"

"Didn't you notice his men had their guns pointed at us across their
laps? Sheathing mine was what gave me the chance to bluff him. It's all
right now. He won't try any more tricks this time."

She sent a clear call ringing up the cliff. At once the hoist rope began
to reeve down through the pulley of the crane. The rope ladder soon
lowered from the other opening. Both saddles were fastened to the hoist
hook. But Lennon thrust his rifle through the back of his cartridge
belt.

They found Farley in the doorway, nervously peering down the valley
after the Indians.

"Cochise was hiding in Devil's Chute until you rode out of sight," he
quavered. "He demanded tizwin. I convinced him that Slade took away
every drop. He then threatened to seize you for his woman and torture
Mr. Lennon, if I did not send down Elsie. I postponed the decision until
your return."

"All right, Dad. We persuaded him to let us come up. But now we're here,
I think we'll take no more rides till Slade comes."

Lennon freed his rifle from the belt and stepped in through the doorway
after the father and daughter. His first glance inside the cliff house
showed him Elsie labouring at the windlass. He hastened to take the
crank out of her plump little hands. His one-armed winding soon hoisted
the saddles to the crane. The moment the load was safe, Elsie
tremblingly lifted his hand to look at the blackening bruises left by
Cochise's steel grip.

"Does it--does it hurt much, Jack?" she whispered. "Once I saw him snap
a dog's leg."

Lennon smilingly denied the sharp pain of the strained ligaments. But
inwardly his anger against Cochise hardened into enmity as he looked
into the girl's innocent eyes and recalled that the brutal Apache
considered her his woman.

His reassurance brought instant relief to her volatile mind. She began
to chatter gaily about how she and Carmena would entertain him during
the wait for Slade. In this the older girl joined with cordial
heartiness. Elsie displayed a high stack of women's magazines, for which
Carmena was a regular subscriber. Every