is has been expressin' its opinion right plain. You've
arrived in time to chirp in with a 'Me, too.'"

Healy had evidently just ridden up, for he was still in the saddle. He
relaxed into one of the easy attitudes used by men of the plains to rest
themselves without dismounting.

"You know my sentiments, Jim," he replied, not unamiably.

"Sure I know them. Plumb dissatisfied with me, ain't you? Makes me feel
awful bad." Jim was sailing into the full tide of his sarcasm when
Keller touched him on the shoulder.

"I'd like to see you for a moment, Mr. Yeager, if you can give me the
time," he said.

Healy took in the nester with an eye of jade. "Your twin brother wants
you, Jim. Run along with him. Don't mind us."

"I won't, Brill."

The young man rose, and sauntered off with the Bear Creek settler. At
the corral fence, some fifty yards from the house, he stopped under the
shade of a live oak, and put his arms on the top rail. He had allowed
himself to show no sign of it, but he resented this claim upon him that
seemed to ally him further with the enemy.

"Here I am, Mr. Keller. What can I do for you?"

"You're a friend of Miss Sanderson. You would stand between her and
trouble?" the other demanded abruptly.

"I expect."

"Then find out for me what Phil Sanderson did with the knife his sister
lent him two days ago. Find out whether he lent it to anybody, and, if
so, who."

"What for?"

It had come to a show-down, and the other tabled his cards.

"I found that knife yesterday mo'ning. It was lying beside the dead cow
in the park where your friends happened on me. I reckon the rustlers
must have heard me coming and drove the calf away just before I arrived.
In his hurry one of them forgot that knife. If you'll tell me the man
who had it in his pocket yesterday when he left-home, I'll tell you who
one of the Malpais rustlers is."

Jim considered this, his gaze upon the far-away range. When he brought
it back to Keller, he was smiling incredulously.

"I hear you say so, seh. But what a man with, a halter round his neck
says don't go far before a court."

"I expected you to say about that."

"Then I haven't disappointed you." He continued presently, with cold
hostility: "That story you cooked up is about the only one you could
spring. What surprises me is that a man with as good a head as yours
took twenty-four hours to figure out your explanation. I want to tell
you, too, that it don't make any hit with m