at
Hotspur. A single shot rang out, a long tremor ran through the horse's
body, a single sound like a sigh shook it and Jack's best beloved friend
and servant was gone forever.

"Take me back to the ranch, please," she whispered hoarsely, all her
courage gone. Harry lifted her on his broncho and for a time walked
beside her. Then Frank changed places and Harry rode. For a part of the
time, Jack cried silently. She had not mentioned the pain in her arm,
although it grew stiffer each moment, but now and then she winced.

"You are hurt, aren't you, Miss Ralston?" Frank questioned. "I was
afraid you were all along." But Jack shook her head; she could think of
nothing but Hotspur.

Jean, however, was thinking of something else. She remembered that it
was after midnight and they were not yet back at the Simpson ranch.
What would Aunt Sallie and Mr. Simpson say? And what would Laura and
Mrs. Post think of them? Jean shivered, for now that the excitement of
their trip with its sad ending was over, she realised that she and Jack
ought never to have gone off riding alone. Poor Jean's cheeks were hot
with blushes, in spite of her shivers. She and Jack had not meant to do
anything wrong, still they ought to have known better. Was it because
they had no mother that neither of them had thought?

Just before they reached the ranch, Jack turned a white face toward the
other truants. "Remember, please, that whatever blame we receive for
to-night's ride, the fault is all mine; I proposed the ride, I would go
farther when Jean asked me to turn back. Don't anybody say anything
different, for you know it is true."

Frank Kent listened silently. He made no reply, but it was hardly his
idea that a man should allow a girl to shoulder all the blame for any
mistake.

Mrs. Simpson and her husband rushed down from the veranda, and were
followed by a few of Jean's, Jack's and Harry's most intimate friends.
Dan Norton was waiting for Frank, with an unpleasant grin on his face.
Laura and most of the company had gone to bed, but Laura's mother
surveyed the two ranch girls with an expression they had never seen in
their free happy girlhood.

"I shall never forgive you children as long as I live," Aunt Sallie
exclaimed angrily. "Where in the world have you been? I knew you had
been left to your own devices, Jean and Jack, but I did think you had
more judgment than to ride across the country at this time of the
night."

"It was all my fault,"