fe."

"Yes, Val is free and safe-quite. The Riders of the Plains could not
cross the river. It was too high. And so Tom Gellatly and Val got away.
Val rides straight for the American border, and the other rides here."
They were now near the house, but Jen said, eagerly: "Go on. Tell me
all."

"I knew what had happened soon, and I rode away, too, and last night I
found Tom Gellatly lying beside his horse on the prairie. I have brought
him here to you. You two are even now, Jen Galbraith."

They were at the tavern door. The traveller and Pierre lifted, down
the wounded and unconscious man, and brought him and laid him on Val
Galbraith's bed.

The traveller examined the wounds in the shoulder and the head, and
said: "The head is all right. If I can get the bullet out of the
shoulder he'll be safe enough--in time."

The surgery was skilful but rude, for proper instruments were not at
hand; and in a few hours he, whom we shall still call Sergeant Tom, lay
quietly sleeping, the pallor gone from his face and the feeling of death
from his hand.

It was near midnight when he waked. Jen was sitting beside him. He
looked round and saw her. Her face was touched with the light that shone
from the Prairie Star. "Jen," he said, and held out his hand.

She turned from the window and stood beside his bed. She took his
outstretched hand. "You are better, Sergeant Tom"? she said, gently.

"Yes, I'm better; but it's not Sergeant Tom I am any longer, Jen."

"I forgot that."

"I owed you a great debt, Jen. I couldn't remain one of the Riders of
the Plains and try to pay it. I left them. Then I tried to save Val, and
I did. I knew how to do it without getting anyone else into trouble. It
is well to know the trick of a lock and the hour that guard is changed.
I had left, but I relieved guard that night just the same. It was a new
man on watch. It's only a minute I had; for the regular relief watch was
almost at my heels. I got Val out just in time. They discovered us, and
we had a run for it. Pretty Pierre has told you. That's right. Val is
safe now--"

In a low strained voice, interrupting him, she said, "Did Val leave you
wounded so on the prairie?"

"Don't let that ate at your heart. No, he didn't. I hurried him off, and
he didn't know how bad I was hit. But I--I've paid my debt, haven't I,
Jen?" With eyes that could not see for tears, she touched pityingly,
lovingly, the wounds on his head and shoulder, and said: "These pay