Dale awoke with a thundering curse.

"Shore!" exclaimed John. "I'd say the same--only I'm religious. Don't
thet beady-eyed greaser's gall make you want to spit all over yourself?
My Gawd! but Roy was mad! Roy's powerful fond of Miss Helen an' Bo....
Wal, then, Roy, first chance he got, braced Beasley an' give him some
straight talk. Beasley was foamin' at the mouth, Roy said. It was then
Riggs shot Roy. Shot him from behind Beasley when Roy wasn't lookin'!
An' Riggs brags of bein' a gun-fighter. Mebbe thet wasn't a bad shot for
him!"

"I reckon," replied Dale, as he swallowed hard. "Now, just what was
Roy's message to me?"

"Wal, I can't remember all Roy said," answered John, dubiously. "But
Roy shore was excited an' dead in earnest. He says: 'Tell Milt what's
happened. Tell him Helen Rayner's in more danger than she was last fall.
Tell him I've seen her look away acrost the mountains toward Paradise
Park with her heart in her eyes. Tell him she needs him most of all!'"

Dale shook all over as with an attack of ague. He was seized by a
whirlwind of passionate, terrible sweetness of sensation, when what
he wildly wanted was to curse Roy and John for their simple-minded
conclusions.

"Roy's--crazy!" panted Dale.

"Wal, now, Milt--thet's downright surprisin' of you. Roy's the
level-headest of any fellars I know."

"Man! if he MADE me believe him--an' it turned out untrue--I'd--I'd kill
him," replied Dale.

"Untrue! Do you think Roy Beeman would lie?"

"But, John--you fellows can't see my case. Nell Rayner wants me--needs
me!... It can't be true!"

"Wal, my love-sick pard--it jest IS true!" exclaimed John, feelingly.
"Thet's the hell of life--never knowin'. But here it's joy for you. You
can believe Roy Beeman about women as quick as you'd trust him to track
your lost hoss. Roy's married three girls. I reckon he'll marry some
more. Roy's only twenty-eight an' he has two big farms. He said he'd
seen Nell Rayner's heart in her eyes, lookin' for you--an' you can jest
bet your life thet's true. An' he said it because he means you to rustle
down there an' fight for thet girl."

"I'll--go," said Dale, in a shaky whisper, as he sat down on a pine log
near the fire. He stared unseeingly at the bluebells in the grass by his
feet while storm after storm possessed his breast. They were fierce and
brief because driven by his will. In those few moments of contending
strife Dale was immeasurably removed from that dark gulf