his part of the country
before I get through with them. But that ain't the point now. What I
want to know is how they came to send a girl to do their dirty killing
for them."

"They didn't send me. I just saw you, and--and shot on an impulse. Your
men have clubbed and poisoned our sheep. They wounded one of our
herders, and beat his brother when they caught him unarmed. They have
done a hundred mean and brutal things. You are at the bottom of it all;
and when I saw you riding there, looking like the lord of all the earth,
I just----"

"Well?"

"Couldn't help--what I did."

"You're a nicely brought up young woman--about as savage as the rest of
your wolf breed," jeered Weaver.

Yet he exulted in her--in the impulse of ferocity that had made her
strike swiftly, regardless of risk to herself, at the man who had
hounded and harried her kin to the feud that was now raging. Her shy,
untamed beauty would not itself have attracted him; but in combination
with her fierce courage it made to him an appeal which he conceded
grudgingly.

"What in Heaven's name brought you back after you had once got away?"
Weaver asked.

The girl looked at Keller without answering.

"I reckon I can tell you that, seh," explained that young man. "She
figured you would jump on me as the guilty party. It got on her
conscience that she had left an innocent man to stand for it. I
shouldn't wonder but she got to seeing a picture of you-all hanging me
or shooting me up. So she came back to own up, if she saw you had caught
me."

Weaver nodded. "That's the way I figure it, too. Gamest thing I ever saw
a woman do," he said in an undertone to Keller, with whom he was now
standing a little apart.

The latter agreed. "Never saw the beat of it. She's scared stiff, too.
Makes it all the pluckier. What will you do with her?"

"Take her along with me back to the ranch."

"I wouldn't do that," said the young man quickly.

"Wouldn't you?" Weaver's hard gaze went over him haughtily. "When I want
your advice, I'll ask you for it, young man. You're in luck to get off
scot-free yourself. That ought to content you for one day."

"But what are you going to do with her? Surely not have her imprisoned
for attacking you?"

"I'll do as I dashed please, and don't you forget it, Mr. Keller. Better
mind your own business, if you've got any."

With which Buck Weaver turned on his heel, and swung slowly to the
saddle. His arm was paining him a great deal, but