en his eagerness to champion her that had made an
enemy of Alva Dale.

He hated Dale, but not more than he hated Maison and Silverthorn for
the part they were playing--and had played--in trying to rob him of his
land.

Nyland was a plodder, but there ran in his veins the fighting blood of
ancestors who had conquered the hardships and dangers of a great,
rugged country, and there had been times when he thought of Dale and
the others that his blood had leaped like fire through his veins.

Twice Peggy had prevented him from killing Alva Dale.

Nyland was afflicted with a premonition of evil when he got off the
train at Okar. To the insistence of the owner of the livery stable,
where he had left his horse, Nyland replied:

"I ain't got no time to do any drinkin'; I've got to get home."

The premonition of evil still oppressed him as he rode his horse
homeward. He rode fast, his face set and worried.

When he reached the clearing through which Dale had come on the night
he had visited the Nyland cabin, he looked furtively around, for the
dire foreboding that had gripped him for hours had grown suddenly
stronger.

He halted his horse and sat motionless in the saddle, intently
examining every object within view.

It was to the horse corral that he finally turned when he could see
nothing strange in the objects around him. He had looked at the house,
and there seemed to be nothing wrong here, for he could see Peggy's
wash on the line that ran from a porch column to a corner of the stable.

The actions of the three horses in the corral was what attracted his
attention. They were crowding the rail at the point nearest him,
neighing shrilly, though with a curious clacking in their throats that
he instantly detected.

"They're wantin' water," he said aloud. He rode to the water trough
and saw that it was dry, with a deposit in the bottom which did not
contain a drop of moisture.

"There ain't been no water put in there since I left," he decided;
"them horses is chokin' with thirst."

A pulse of anxiety ran over him. There was no doubt in his mind now
that his presentiment of evil was not without foundation, and he
wheeled his horse and sent it toward the house.

"Peggy would give them water if she was able to be on her feet," he
declared, "she's that kind."

But halfway to the house another thought assailed him. It drew his
brows together in a scowl, it stiffened his lips until they were in
straight, hard