ked to me."

"Sure. That's all right, Jess. But you want to remember that public
sentiment is against us. We've pretty near gone our limit up here. If
there was no other reason but that, it would be enough to make us let
this young fellow alone. We can't afford a killing in the park now."

Tighe assented, almost with servility. But the cattleman carried away
with him a conviction that the man had yielded too easily, that his
restless brain would go on planning destruction for young Beaudry just
the same.

He was on his way up Chicito Canon and he stopped at Rothgerber's ranch
to see Beaudry. The young man was not at home.

"He start early this morning to canfass for his vindmill," the old
German explained.

After a moment's thought Rutherford left a message. "Tell him it isn't
safe for him to stay in the park; that certain parties know who 'R.B.'
is and will sure act on that information. Say I said for him to come
and see me as soon as he gets back. Understand? Right away when he
reaches here."

The owner of the horse ranch left his mount in the Rothgerber corral
and passed through the pasture on foot to Chicito. Half an hour later
he dropped into the _jacal_ of Meldrum.

He found the indomitable Dingwell again quizzing Meldrum about his
residence at Santa Fe during the days he wore a striped uniform. The
former convict was grinding his teeth with fury.

"I reckon you won't meet many old friends when you go back this time,
Dan. Maybe there will be one or two old-timers that will know you, but
it won't be long before you make acquaintances," Dave consoled him.

"Shut up, or I'll pump lead into you," he warned hoarsely.

The cattleman on the bed shook his head. "You'd like to fill me full
of buckshot, but it wouldn't do at all, Dan. I'm the goose that lays
the golden eggs, in a way of speaking. Gun me, and it's good-bye to
that twenty thousand in the gunnysack." He turned cheerfully to
Rutherford, who was standing in the doorway. "Come right in, Hal.
Glad to see you. Make yourself at home."

"He's deviling me all the time," Meldrum complained to the owner of the
horse ranch. "I ain't a-going to stand it."

Rutherford looked at the prisoner, a lean, hard-bitten Westerner with
muscles like steel ropes and eyes unblinking as a New Mexico sun. His
engaging recklessness had long since won the liking of the leader of
the Huerfano Park outlaws.

"Don't bank on that golden egg business, Dave,