"Holy smoke!" he said; "what's happened?"

She told him quickly, in short, brief sentences; her eyes glowing with
fear. He tried to squeeze past her to get into the kitchen, but she
prevented him, blocking the doorway, pushing hysterically against him
with her hands.

"Calumet has gone to the timber grove--to the clearing--to look for Tom
Taggart. Taggart will ambush him, will kill him! I don't want him
killed! Go to him, Toban--get him to come back!"

"Shucks," said Toban, grinning; "I reckon you don't need to worry none.
If Taggart's over in the timber an' he sees Calumet he'll just
naturally forget he's got a gun. But if it'll ease your mind any, I'll
go after him. Damn his hide, anyway!" he chuckled. "I was braggin' up
my cayuse to him, an' after we met Dade an' Malcolm he run plumb away
from me. Ride! Holy smoke!"

He crossed the porch, leaped into the saddle and disappeared amid a
clatter of hoofs.

Betty stood rigid in the doorway, listening--dreading to hear that
which she expected to hear--the sound of a pistol shot which would tell
her that Calumet and Taggart had met.

But no sound reached her ears from the direction of the timber grove.
She heard another sound presently--the faint beat of hoofs that grew
more distinct each second. It was Dade and Malcolm coming, she knew,
and when they finally rode up and Dade flung himself from the saddle
and darted to her side she was paler than at any time since her first
surprise of the night.

Again she was forced to tell her story. And after it was finished, and
she had watched Dade and Malcolm carry Neal Taggart from the room, she
went over to where Bob sat, took him by the shoulder and led him to one
of the kitchen windows, and there, holding him close to her, her face
white, she stared with dreading, anxious eyes through the glass toward
the timber clump. She would have gone out to see for herself, but she
knew that she could do nothing. If he did not come back she knew that
she would not want to stay at the Lazy Y any longer; she knew that
without him--

She no longer weighed him in the balances of her affection as she stood
there by the window, she did not critically array his good qualities
against the bad. She had passed that point now. She merely wanted
him. That was all--she just wanted him. And when at last she saw him
coming; heard his voice, she hugged Bob closer to her, and with her
face against his sobbed silently.

A fe