ve
her and hers.

The girl stood waiting beside the fire. She had tried to run to meet
them and found that she could not move. The suddenness of their coming
after all that fearful night of waiting seemed to numb her limbs.

They rushed down upon her, waving, shouting questions. Her father, on
Rocket, was the first to reach her. He sprang off and ran to put his
arm about her quivering shoulders.

"Honey! it's all right now!" he assured her. "We're here with
everything that's needed. We'll soon yank him up out of that hole!"

The baby, frightened by the rush and tumult of the off-leaping riders,
began to scream. Someone took him from the girl's arms and handed him
to his mother as she was lifted down out of her saddle. Isobel pressed
her face against her father's sweaty breast.

"Hold on, Miss Chuckie!" sang out one of the men. "Don't let go yet.
Where's Gowan--Kid Gowan?"

She shuddered convulsively, yet managed to reply: "He--was trying
to--to roll the rock down. Tom, my brother, is right below it. I heard
and came to see. His back was to me. I could not shoot--I could not
raise my pistol. When I spoke, he whirled and shot at me. He--"

"Kid--shot at you?" cried Knowles. "At you? 'Tain't possible!"

"He didn't mean to. He fired before he saw who I was. Then he saw. He
forgot everything--everything except that he had shot at me. He backed
off--there--over the edge!"

A sudden hush fell on the excited crowd. One man went to peer down
from the place to which the girl had pointed. He came back softly.
"Same place where the last bunch of sheep went over," he said. "Rest
of us were pretty sick--ready to quit. He kept after them until the
last ewe jumped. Said they'd gone to hell, where they belonged."

"He's the one that's gone there!" said the sheriff. "Look at the way
this bowlder is pried loose, ready to roll over! Once heard tell that
his real dad was Billie the Kid. Some of you mayn't have heard tell of
Billie. He was the coldest blooded, promiscuous murderer of them days
when we used to drive from Texas to Montana and the boys used to
shoot-up towns and each other just for fun. Well, this Kid Gowan has
got Billie's eyes and slit mouth. Can't say I ever took to him, but
seeing as how he was a crack-up puncher and Wes Knowles' foreman--"

"That's it! I can't understand it--Kid has been almost like a son to
me all these years!" complained Knowles perplexedly. He explained to
his daughter. "You're wondering wh