though!" broke in the puncher. "Guess you didn't find it
any funnier than I did seeing her hanging onto his shoulder."

"Curse him!" cried Ashton, his jealousy flaring at the remembrance.

"Now you're talking!" approved Gowan. "That shows you like her like I
do. You're not going to stand for her losing her fortune."

"Her fortune?"

"By his flooding us off our range."

"Ah--as for that, I have been thinking it over. She told me Mr.
Knowles owns five sections. If water is put on them--Western Colorado
fruit lands are very valuable, you know."

"That's a lie. Water can't make five sections worth a range
like ours. But supposing it could--" the puncher leaned towards
Ashton, his eyes glaring with the cold malignancy of a striking
rattlesnake's--"supposing it could, how about us letting her
lose her good name?"

"Good God!" gasped Ashton. "It can't come to that!"

"Can't it? can't it? Where's your eyes? And him a married man! The--"
Gowan cursed horribly.

"You really believe it!" cried Ashton, convinced by the other's
outburst.

"Believe it? I know it!" declared Gowan. "If you thought half as much
of her as I do--"

"I do!--not half, but a hundred times more!"

"Yes, you do?"

"I swear it! I'd do anything for her!"

"Except save her from him."

"No, no! How can I? Tell me how!"

The puncher bent nearer to the half-frenzied man. "You're going down
that gulch with him. Suppose a spike gets knocked out or a rope breaks
or a loose rock gets pushed over?"

"God!" cried Ashton, putting his hands over his eyes. "That would be
murder!"

"_Bah!_ You'd make a dog sick! Willing to do anything for her--except
save her from him! And nothing to it but just an accident that's just
as like as not to happen anyway."

"But--murder!" shudderingly muttered Ashton.

"Murder a skunk," sneered Gowan. "If saving her from him isn't a case
of justifiable homicide, what is? Don't you get the idea? Just a
likely accident, down there where nobody can see."

Ashton dropped his hands, half clenched, to his sides. Beads of cold
sweat were gathering and running down his drawn face.

"I can't!" he whispered. "I--I can't!"

"Not if I agree to get out of the way and give you clear running?"
tempted Gowan.

"You would?"

"Yes. You see how much I like her. You rid her of him, and I'll let
you have her for doing it."

Ashton shuddered.

"Think it over--and watch him mighty close tonight," advised the
tempter.

A red flus