own."

"Where'd you get the eye, Carson?" demanded Lee.

Carson grinned broadly, an evil grin of a distorted, battered face.

"You want to take a good look at ol' Poker Face," he chuckled. "He
won't cheat no more games of crib for a coon's age. I jus' nacherally
beat him all to hell, Bud."

"Where are the rest of the men?" Lee asked.

"Watching the fires an' seeing no more don't get started."

Then Lee told him of Judith. Carson's good eye opened wide with
interest. Carson's bruised lips sought to form for a whistle which
managed to give them the air of a maidenly pout.

"He had the nerve!" he muttered. "Trevors had the nerve! Bud, we
ought to make a little call on that gent."

Then, seeing Lee's face, Carson realized that anything he might have to
remark on this score was superfluous. Lee had already thought of that.

They roped a couple of the wandering horses, improvised hackamores from
the rope cut in two, and went to meet Judith. Carson snatched eagerly
at her hand and squeezed it and looked inexpressible things from his
one useful eye. He gave his saddled horse to her, watched her and Lee
ride on to the ranch, and sent Tommy to the old cabin for another rope,
while he rounded up some more horses in a narrow canon for Burkitt and
Hampton.

"You damn' fool," he said growlingly to Hampton, "look what you've
done."

"Of course I'm a damn fool," replied Hampton, by now his old cheerful
self. "I've apologized to Judith and Lee and Burkitt. I apologize to
you. I'll tell you confidentially that I'm a sucker and a
Come-on-Charlie. I haven't got the brains of a jack-rabbit."

Carson went away grumbling. But for the first time he felt a vague
respect for Pollock Hampton.

"He'll be a real man some day," thought Carson, "if the fool-killer
don't pick him off first."

"You may come and see me this evening," Judith told Bud Lee as he left
her to Marcia's arms. "I'll be eating and sleeping and taking baths
until then. Thank you for the bacon--and the water--and----"

She smiled at him from Marcia's excited embrace. Bud Lee, the blood
tingling through him, left her.

"Before I come to you, Judith girl," he whispered to himself as he
went, "I'll have to have little talk with Bayne Trevors."

XXIX

LEE AND OLD MAN CARSON RIDE TOGETHER

Bud Lee, riding alone toward the Western Lumber Camp, turned in his
saddle to glance back as he heard hoof-beats behind him. It was
Carson, and the