"Come right to your door, do they?" he asked, as she helped him to the
ham and eggs.

"Maybe they do, and maybe they don't."

"Well, here's one come right in the middle of the night. Somehow, I jest
couldn't make out to wait till morning, Bess."

"Oh, you," she laughed, with a demand for more of this sort of chaffing
in her hazel eyes.

At this kind of rough give and take he was an adept. After breakfast he
stayed and helped her wash the dishes, romping with her the whole time
in the midst of gay bursts of laughter and such repartee as occurred to
them.

He found his young hostess so entertaining that he did not get away
until the morning was half gone. By the time he reached Seven Mile the
sun was past the meridian, and the stage a lessening patch of dust in
the distance.

Before he was well out of the saddle, Phyllis Sanderson was standing in
the doorway of the store, with a question in her eyes.

"Well?" he forced her to say at last.

Leisurely he turned, as if just aware of her presence.

"Oh, it's you. Mornin', Phyl."

"What did you find out?"

"I met your friend."

"What friend?"

"Mr. Keller, the rustler and bank robber," he drawled insolently,
looking full in her face.

"Tell me at once what you found out."

"I found Mr. Keller riding a roan with four white stockings and a wound
on its flank."

She caught at the jamb. "You didn't, Brill!"

"I ce'tainly did," he jeered.

"What--what did you do?" Her lips were white as her cheeks.

"I haven't done, anything--yet. You see, I was alone. The other boys
hadn't arrived then."

"And he wasn't alone?"

"No; he had three friends with him. I couldn't make out whether any more
of them were college chums of yours."

Without another word, she turned her back on him and went into the
store. All night she had lain sleepless and longed for and dreaded the
coming of the day. Over the wire from Noches had come at dawn fuller
details of the robbery, from her brother Phil, who was spending two or
three days in town.

It appeared that none of the wounded men would die, though the president
had had a narrow escape. Posses had been out all night, and a fresh one
was just starting from Noches. It was generally believed, however, that
the bandits would be able to make good their escape with the loot.

Her father was absent, making a round of his sheep camps, and would not
be back for a week. Hence her hands were very full with the store and
the ranch.