coyote from the
daylight. I've got an idea what you was hangin' around for that
day--I've got the same idea now. You're tryin' to locate that heathen
idol. You're wastin' your time. You're doin' more--you're runnin' a
heap of risk. For what you've just got is only a sample of what you'll
get if you stray over onto my range again. That goes for the sneakin'
thief you call your father, or any of your damned crowd."

He stood, slouching a little, watching Taggart until the latter rode
well out into the valley. Then without a word he walked over to the
sill upon which he had been working before the arrival of Taggart,
seized a hammer, and began to drive wedges wherever they were necessary.

Presently he heard a voice behind him, and he turned to confront Betty.

"I heard what you said to Taggart, of course, about him trying to shoot
you. I didn't know that. He deserved punishment for it. But I am
sure that part of the punishment you dealt him was administered because
of the way he talked about me. If that is so, I wish to thank you."

"You might as well save your breath," he said gruffly; "I didn't do it
for you."

She laughed. "Then why didn't you choose another place to call him to
account?"

He did not answer, driving another wedge home with an extra vicious
blow.

She watched him in silence for an instant, and then, with a laugh which
might have meant amusement or something akin to it, she turned and
walked to the house.

CHAPTER XII

A PEACE OFFERING

If there was one trait in Betty's character that bothered Calumet more
than another, it was her frankness. More than once during the days
that followed Neal Taggart's visit Calumet was made to feel the absence
of guile in her treatment of him. The glances she gave him were as
straightforward and direct as her words, and it became plain to him
that with her there were no mental reservations. Her attitude toward
him had not changed; she still dealt with him as the school teacher
deals with the unruly scholar--with a personal aloofness that promised
an ever-widening gulf if he persisted in defying her authority.
Calumet got this impression and it grew on him; it was disconcerting,
irritating, and he tried hard to shake it off, to no avail.

He had considered carefully the impulse which had moved him to entice
Taggart to the Lazy Y, and was convinced that it had been aroused
through a desire to take some step to avenge his father. He told