to _think_ he's going to make it. Once we
give up, it will be all off."

"You are such a help, Jim," she sighed, dabbing at her eyes with her
little handkerchief. "And you're the _best_ man."

"That's right. I'll be the best man when we pull off that big wedding of
yours and his."

Her heart went out to him with a rush. "You're the only friend both of
us have," she cried impulsively.

With the coming of Doctor Brown, Jim resigned his post of comforter in
chief, but he stayed at Seven Mile until the crisis was past and the
patient on the mend. Next day Slim, Budd, and Phil Sanderson rode in
from Noches. They were caked with the dust of their fifty-mile ride, but
after they had washed and eaten, Yeager had a long talk with them. He
learned, among other things, that Healy had telephoned Sheriff Gill that
Keller was lying wounded at Seven Mile, and that the sheriff was
expecting to follow them in a few hours.

"Coming to arrest Brill for assault with intent to kill, I reckon,"
Yeager suggested dryly.

Phil turned on him petulantly. "What's the use of you trying to get away
with that kind of talk, Jim? This fellow Keller was recognized as one of
the robbers."

"That ain't what Slim has just been telling, Phil. He says he recognized
the hawss, and thinks it was Keller in the saddle. Now, I don't think
anything about it. I _know_ Keller was with me in the hills when this
hold-up took place."

"You're his friend, Jim," the boy told him significantly.

"You bet I am. But I ain't a bank robber, if that's what you mean,
Phil."

His clear eyes chiselled into those of the boy and dominated him.

"I didn't say you were," Phil returned sulkily. "But I reckon we all
recall that you lied for him once. Whyfor would it be a miracle if you
did again?"

Jim might have explained, but did not, that it was not for Keller he had
lied. He contented himself with saying that the roan with the white
stockings had been stolen from the pasture before the holdup. He
happened to know, because he was spending the night in Keller's shack
with him at the time.

Slim cut in, with drawling sarcasm: "You've got a plumb perfect alibi
figured out for him, Jim. I reckon you've forgot that Brill saw him
riding through the Pass with the rest of his outfit."

"Brill says so. I say he didn't," returned Yeager calmly.

Toward evening Gill arrived and formally put Keller under arrest.
Practically, it amounted only to the precaution of leaving a d