ady?" he demanded briefly.

"You can just bet your eyes I mean it!"

Hannon turned toward the stable. "All right. We'll see who's going to
put or shut up!" he jeered over his shoulder. "You ride the Prince
just two little minutes and I'll stay and work for you!"

Bud Lee from the doorway interfered. He was a man who loved fair play
and he knew the Prince. "None of that, Ward," he called sternly. "Not
the Prince!"

But Judith, her eyes aflame, whirled upon Lee, her voice like a whip as
she said: "Lee, you keep out of this. The sooner you learn who's
running things here the better for you."

"Maybe so," said Lee quietly. "But don't you fool yourself you can
ride Prince. There's not a man on the job except me that can ride
him." It was not boastfully said, but with calm assurance. "He's an
outlaw, Miss Judith. He's the horse that killed Jimmy Carpenter last
spring, and Jimmy----"

"Go ahead, Ward," ordered Judith. "You don't have to stop every time
the wind blows, do you?"

Even Bud Lee smiled. But old Carson spoke up, saying: "Bud's right,
miss. And if Ward wants to know, he's a low-down dawg to try to turn a
trick like this. . . ."

"Go ahead, Ward," Judith repeated. "I've got something to do to-day
besides play pussy-wants-a-corner with you boys."

Ward went, his eyes filled with malice. Two or three of the other men
joined their voices to Bud's and Carson's, expostulating, telling of
that fearful thing, an outlaw horse. Judith maintained a scornful
silence.

In due time Ward came back. He was leading a saddled horse, a great,
wild-eyed roan that snapped viciously as he came on, walking with the
wide, spreading stride of a horse little used to the saddle. Judith
measured him with her eyes as she had measured the men in the
bunk-house.

"He's an ugly devil," she said, and Lee, at her side, smiled again.
But the girl had not altered her intention. She stepped closer,
looking to cinch, bit, and reins. She commanded Ward to draw the
latigo tighter, and Ward did so, dodging back as the big brute snapped
at him.

Judith laughed. "Look out, Ward," she taunted him. "He's after your
hair!"

Two men held the Prince. At Judith's command they shortened the
stirrups and then blinded him with a bandanna handkerchief. Then,
moving with almost incredible swiftness, she was in the saddle, the
reins firmly gripped. The Prince, a sudden trembling thrilling through
him, stood with his four feet