ssly from one tree to another which gave a better
view of the window, Steve stumbled against the prostrate body of a man.

Some one ripped out a sullen oath and a grip of steel caught at the
ankle of the cowpuncher.

Taken by surprise, Yeager was dragged to the ground.

"What are you doing here?" demanded a voice Steve recognized instantly
as belonging to Harrison.

The prisoner made no resistance. He ran into a patter of frightened,
apologetic Spanish.

"What's your name?"

"Pedro Cabenza, senor," replied the owner of that name. "It is so hot in
the stable. So I bring my blankets here and sleep."

"Hmp!" Harrison took time for reflection. "Know where I put up?"

"Si, senor."

The prizefighter gave him a dollar. "Stay here. Keep an eye on that
lighted window upstairs. If anything happens--if you hear a noise--if a
woman screams, come and knock me up right away. Understand?"

The docile Cabenza repeated his instructions like a parrot.

"Good enough," Harrison nodded. "I'll give you another dollar when you
come. But don't wake me for nothing."

"No, senor."

"And you'd better keep your mouth shut unless you want your head beat
off," advised the white man as he left.

The one who had given his name as Cabenza grinned to himself. He was
now Harrison's hired watcher. Both of them were in league to frustrate
any deviltry on the part of Pasquale. He wondered what the prizefighter
would give to know that he had his enemy so wholly in his power, that he
had only to lay hands on him and cry out to doom him to a painful and a
violent death.

Yeager dozed and wakened and dozed again. Always when he looked the
light was still burning. Toward morning he saw the figure of Ruth in the
window. When she turned away the light went out. He judged she had put
her anxieties from her and given herself to sleep at last. But not until
the camp began to stir with the renewal of life for another day did he
leave his post and return to the stable.

During the morning he slept under a cottonwood and made up arrears of
rest lost while on guard. About noon Harrison came down the street and
stopped at sight of him. The man was livid with anger. Yeager could
guess the reason. He had spent a stormy ten minutes with old Pasquale
demanding his rights and had issued from the encounter without profit.
From the place where Steve was sitting he had heard the high, excited
voices. It had occurred to him that the protest of Harrison had gone