d Eve were settled for
good in the village, and that he had no intention of returning to the
hills. Barnriff's comment was mixed. The women said, "Poor dears, they
can't live apart." Again the men disagreed. Their charity was less
kind, especially amongst those who had yet to collect the payment of
their I. O. U.'s. They said with sarcastic smile, "Wants to live on
his woman, and play 'draw.'" And time soon showed them to be
somewhere near the mark.

Will sold his furs, paid his debts, sighed his relief, and settled
down to a life in Barnriff. A month later he found to his profound
chagrin that the small margin of dollars left over after paying off
his I. O. U.'s had vanished, and a fresh crop of paper was beginning
to circulate. Whiskey and "draw" had got into his blood, and all
unconsciously he found himself pledged to it.

It was during this time that scandal definitely laid its clutch upon
the village. But it was not until later that its forked tongue grew
vicious. It was at the time that word got round the village that there
was trouble in Eve's little home that the caldron began to seethe. No
one knew how it got round; yet it surely did. Scandal said that Eve
and Will quarreled, that they quarreled violently, that Will had
struck her, that money was the bottom of the trouble, that Will had
none to meet his gambling debts, and that Eve, who had been steadily
supplying him out of her slender purse, had at last refused to do so
any more.

It went on to say that Will was a drunken sot, that his methods at
cards were not above suspicion, and that altogether he was rapidly
becoming an undesirable.

Peter Blunt heard the scandal; he had watched things himself very
closely. Jim Thorpe heard, but, curiously enough, rumor about these
two did not seem to reach the "AZ" ranch easily.

However, what did reach Jim infuriated him almost beyond words. It was
this last rumor that sent him riding furiously into the village late
one night, and drew him up at Peter Blunt's hut.

He found the gold seeker reading a well-known history of the Peruvian
Aztecs, but without hesitation broke in upon his studies.

"What's this I hear, Peter?" he demanded, without any preamble. "I
mean about the--the Hendersons."

His dark eyes were fierce. His clean-cut features were set and angry.
But these signs didn't seem to hurry Peter's answer. He laid his book
aside and folded his hands behind his head, while he searched the
other's face wi