p figure to
the shelter of the arcade just as Hervey and his men thundered up to
the closed gate of the patio, and there the foreman drew rein in a
cloud of dust and cursed his surprise at the sight of the ranchman.

The group in the patio, and the shining form of Alcatraz, were self
explanatory. His plans were ruined at the very verge of a triumph. He
hardly needed to hear the voice of Jordan saying: "I asked you to get
rid of a gun-fighting killer--and you've tried to murder a _man_.
Hervey, get out of the Valley and stay out if you're fond of a whole
skin!"

And Hervey went.

* * * * *

There followed a strange time for Alcatraz. He could not be led from
the patio. They could only take him by tying every hoof and dragging
him, and such force Marianne would not let the cowpunchers use. So day
after day he roamed in that strange corral while men came and stared
at him through the strong bars of the gate, but no one dared enter
the enclosure with the wild horse saving the girl alone, and even she
could not touch him.

It was all very strange. And strangest of all was when the girl came
out of the door through which the master had been carried and looked
at Alcatraz, and wept. Every evening she came but she had no way of
answering the anxious whinny with which he called for Red Jim again.

Strange, too, was the hush which brooded over the house. Even the
cowpunchers, when they came to the gate, talked softly. But still the
master did not come. Two weeks dragged on, weary weeks of waiting, and
then the door to the house opened and again they carried him out on
a wicker couch, a pale and wasted figure, around whom the man on the
crutches and the girl and half a dozen cowpunchers gathered laughing
and talking all at once.

"Stand back from him, now," ordered Marianne, "and watch Alcatraz."

So they drew away under the arcade and Alcatraz heard the voice of the
master calling weakly.

It was not well that the others should be so near. For how could one
tell from what hand a rope might be thrown or in what hand a gun might
suddenly flash? But still the voice called and Alcatraz went slowly,
snorting his protest and suspicion, until he stood at the foot of the
couch and stretching forth his nose, still with his frightened glance
fixed on the watchers, Alcatraz sniffed the hand of Red Jim. It
turned. It patted him gently. It drew his gaze away from the others
and into the eyes of this