ow her pansy eyes
deepened in color with excitement, with the tremulous fear of what she
was to learn.

"Mr. Yeager, I--wanted to ask you about--about the holdup."

"What about it, Miss Ruth?"

"Did you--know any of them?"

"How could I? They were masked." His eyes had taken on a film of
wariness that blotted out for the moment their kindness.

"I didn't know--I thought, perhaps,--" She tried a new start. "Did you
say that three of them were Mexicans?"

"Two of them," he corrected.

There was the least quiver of her lip. "The others were--both big men,
didn't you say?"

"I didn't say."

A footstep sounded on the crisp gravel walk. Steve looked up, in time to
catch the flash of warning menace Harrison sent toward the girl.

"Mr. Yeager has been having a pipe-dream, Ruth. Don't wake him up,"
jeered the heavy.

Ruth fled unobtrusively and left the men alone.

"Hear you're going on a vacation," said Harrison gruffly.

"You've heard correct." Yeager pleated his hatband with steady fingers.
His voice was even and placid.

Harrison looked him over with indolent insolence. "Some folks find this
climate don't agree with them. Some folks find it better to drift out,
casual-like, y' understand?"

"Yes?"

"I'm tellin' it to you straight."

"That you're going to leave? The Lunar Company will miss you," suggested
the range-rider politely.

"Think you're darned clever, don't you? It's you that's leaving the
company, Mr. Yeager."

"For a week."

"For good."

"Hadn't heard of it. News to me," answered Steve lightly.

"I'm givin' you the tip. See?"

"Oncet I knew a fellow who lived to be 'most ninety minding his own
business," observed the cowpuncher to the world in general as he held up
and examined his work.

"It ain't considered safe to get gay with me. I'm liable to lam your
head off," threatened the big man sullenly.

"And then again you're liable not to. I'm not freightin' with your
outfit, Mr. Harrison. Kindly lay off of me and you'll find we get along
fine."

Steve rose and passed on his way to the street. Harrison was in two
minds whether to force an issue again with him, but something in the
contour of that close-gripped jaw, in the gleam of the steady eyes, was
more potent than the dull rage surging in him. He let the opportunity
pass.

Four Bits carried Yeager away from Los Robles at a road gait. Horse and
rider were taking the border trail. It led them through a desolate
country of des