y I didn't come sooner, honey. Those
Utes had been let go. We had to follow them up a long ways. When we
got them back and put them on that trail from the waterhole, they
found it led straight across the flats to where the horses and wagon
had stood. There the tracks of the Indian shoes ended, and the tracks
of shod hoofs led off into the brush. We followed them all the way
'round to the lower waterhole and up the lower creek to the ranch, and
there they took us right to Rocket's heels. The Jap said Kid had his
saddle in the wagon when he came back from town, and he had a new hat.
Mr. Blake did some hot shooting at that assassin on the hill. So,
putting two and two together--"

"Oh, Daddy, I know--I knew when I saw him look at Lafe!"

"The--" Knowles choked back the epithet. "Yes, Mrs. Blake told us
about that--and about her husband! Jumping Jehosaphat! Think of his
being your brother! You must have been plumb locoed, to keep still
about that! Why didn't you tell us, honey?--leastways me, your
Daddy!"

"I--I--But about Genevieve? Tell me. You could have come sooner if
she--Was she lost? I was sure that pony--"

"Better have given her a fast one. It came on so dark before he was
half down the mountain that she was knocked out of the saddle by a
branch. He went on down to the waterhole. She tried to catch
him--couldn't. Got lost and wandered all around before she got down to
the waterhole and caught him. We had got to the ranch at dusk, and all
the posse had turned in for the night. She came loping down the divide
just after moonrise. We started as soon as we could rake up all the
picket-pins and rope. Wanted Mrs. Blake to wait and come on later; but
talk about grit! We simply couldn't make her stay behind."

Isobel thrust herself free from her father's arms and darted out
through the circle of rugged, earnest-faced punchers and cowmen to
where Genevieve lay resting with the baby clasped to her bosom.

"Dear! you poor dear!" she murmured, kneeling to stroke the head of
the weary young mother.

"I shall soon be rested," replied Genevieve. "How about Tom? Have you
kept watch of him? Has he moved?"

The girl shrank back, unable to face her sister-in-law's eager look.

"No--I--The fire--it--it disappeared, and I could not see."

Genevieve smiled, and the reddening dawn lent a trace of color to her
pale face. "It was a good sign. He could not have been suffering so
much. He must have slept, and the fire died down."