A form which he did not recognize rushed up out of the darkness and
confronted the three belligerently. "You're a-disturbin' the peace,"
he yelled. "We don't stand for nothing like that in Camas. You're my
prisoners--all uh yuh." The edict seemed to include even the bartender,
peering over the shoulder of Bob Nevin, who struggled with several
others for immediate passage through the doorway.

"I guess not, pardner," retorted Pink, facing him as defiantly as though
the marshal were not twice his size.

The marshal lunged for him; but the Silent One, reaching a long arm from
the door-step, rapped him smartly on the head with his gun. The marshal
squawked and went down in a formless heap.

"Come on, boys," said the Silent One coolly. "I think we'd better go.
Your friend seems to have vanished in thin air."

Rowdy, grumbling mightily over what looked unpleasantly like retreat,
was pushed toward his horse and mounted under protest. Likewise Pink,
who was for staying and cleaning up the whole town. But the Silent One
was firm, and there was that in his manner which compelled obedience.

Harry Conroy might have been an optical--and aural--illusion, for all
the trace there was of him. But when the three rode out into the little
street, a bullet pinged close to Rowdy's left ear, and the red bark of a
revolver spat viciously from a black shadow beside the Come Again.

Rowdy and the two turned and rode back, shooting blindly at the place,
but the shadow yawned silently before them and gave no sign. Then the
Silent One, observing that the marshal was getting upon a pair of very
unsteady legs, again assumed the leadership, and fairly forced Rowdy and
Pink into the homeward trail.

CHAPTER 7. Rowdy in a Tough Place.

Rowdy, with nice calculation, met Miss Conroy just as she had left
the school-house, and noted with much satisfaction that she was riding
alone. Miss Conroy, if she had been at all observant, must have seen the
light of some fixed purpose shining in his eyes; for Rowdy was resolved
to make her a partner in his dreams of matters domestic. And, of a
truth, his easy assurance was the thinnest of cloaks to hide his inner
agitation.

"The round-up just got in yesterday afternoon," he told her, as he swung
into the trail beside her. "We're going to start out again to-morrow, so
this is about the only chance I'll have to see you for a while."

"I knew the round-up must be in," said Miss Conroy calmly. "I heard t