ll you've got to do is to keep the girls hid till I can guide him
up to your camp. Or, failin' thet, till you can slip the girls down to
Pine."

"No one but you an' your brothers ever seen my senaca. But it could be
found easy enough."

"Anson might blunder on it. But thet ain't likely."

"Why ain't it?"

"Because I'll stick to thet sheep-thief's tracks like a wolf after a
bleedin' deer. An' if he ever gets near your camp I'll ride in ahead of
him."

"Good!" declared Dale. "I was calculatin' you'd go down to Pine, sooner
or later."

"Not unless Anson goes. I told John thet in case there was no fight on
the stage to make a bee-line back to Pine. He was to tell Al an' offer
his services along with Joe an' Hal."

"One way or another, then, there's bound to be blood spilled over this."

"Shore! An' high time. I jest hope I get a look down my old 'forty-four'
at thet Beasley."

"In that case I hope you hold straighter than times I've seen you."

"Milt Dale, I'm a good shot," declared Roy, stoutly.

"You're no good on movin' targets."

"Wal, mebbe so. But I'm not lookin' for a movin' target when I meet up
with Beasley. I'm a hossman, not a hunter. You're used to shootin' flies
off deer's horns, jest for practice."

"Roy, can we make my camp by to-morrow night?" queried Dale, more
seriously.

"We will, if each of us has to carry one of the girls. But they'll do it
or die. Dale, did you ever see a gamer girl than thet kid Bo?"

"Me! Where'd I ever see any girls?" ejaculated Dale. "I remember some
when I was a boy, but I was only fourteen then. Never had much use for
girls."

"I'd like to have a wife like that Bo," declared Roy, fervidly.

There ensued a moment's silence.

"Roy, you're a Mormon an' you already got a wife," was Dale's reply.

"Now, Milt, have you lived so long in the woods thet you never heard of
a Mormon with two wives?" returned Roy, and then he laughed heartily.

"I never could stomach what I did hear pertainin' to more than one wife
for a man."

"Wal, my friend, you go an' get yourself ONE. An' see then if you
wouldn't like to have TWO."

"I reckon one 'd be more than enough for Milt Dale."

"Milt, old man, let me tell you thet I always envied you your freedom,"
said Roy, earnestly. "But it ain't life."

"You mean life is love of a woman?"

"No. Thet's only part. I mean a son--a boy thet's like you--thet you
feel will go on with your life after you're gone."

"I've thought o