ace
was aglow and eager. "It's time Malapi was civilized. We mustn't give
these bad men provocation. It's better to avoid them."

"Yes," admitted Bob dryly. "Well, you tell all that to Dave. Maybe he's
the kind o' lad that will pack up and light out because he's afraid of
Dug Doble and his outfit. Then again maybe he ain't."

Crawford shook his head. He was a game man himself. He would go through
when the call came, and he knew quite well that Sanders would do the
same. Nor would any specious plea sidetrack him. At the same time there
was substantial justice in the contention of his daughter. Dave had no
business getting mixed up in this row. The fact that he was an ex-convict
would be in itself a damning thing in case the courts ever had to pass
upon the feud's results. The conviction on the records against him would
make a second conviction very much easier.

"You're right, Bob. Dave won't let Dug's crowd run him out. But you keep
an eye on him. Don't let him go out alone nights. See he packs a gun."

"Packs a gun!" Joyce was sitting in a rocking-chair under the glow of the
lamp. She was darning one of Keith's stockings, and to the young man
watching her--so wholly winsome girl, so much tender but business-like
little mother--she was the last word in the desirability of woman.
"That's the very way to find trouble, Dad. He's been doing his best to
keep out of it. He can't, if he stays here. So he must go away, that's
all there is to it."

Her father laughed. "Ain't it scandalous the way she bosses us all
around, Bob?"

The face of the girl sparkled to a humorous challenge. "Well, some one
has got to boss you-all boys, Dad. If you'd do as I say you wouldn't have
any trouble with that old Steelman or his gunmen."

"We wouldn't have any oil wells either, would we, honey?"

"They're not worth having if you and Dave Sanders and Bob have to live in
danger all the time," she flashed.

"Glad you look at it that way, Joy," Emerson retorted with a rueful
smile. "Fact is, we ain't goin' to have any more oil wells than a
jackrabbit pretty soon. I'm at the end of my rope right now. The First
National promised me another loan on the Arizona ranch, but Brad has got
a-holt of it and he's called in my last loan. I'm not quittin'. I'll put
up a fight yet, but unless things break for me I'm about done."

"Oh, Dad!" Her impulse of sympathy carried Joyce straight to him. Soft,
rounded arms went round his neck with impassioned te