nobody knows me,
so you'll not take it as a slight that I didn't recognize you, Mr.
Sheriff."

"No harm done, Duke, no harm done. Well, I guess you're a little wider
known than you make out. I didn't bring a man along with me because I
knew you were up here at Philbrook's. Hold up your hand and be sworn."

"What's the occasion?" Lambert inquired, making no move to comply with
the order.

"I've got a warrant for this man Kerr over south of here, and I want you
to go with me. Kerr's a bad egg, in a nest of bad eggs. There's likely
to be too much trouble for one man to handle alone. You do solemnly
swear to support the constitution of the----"

"Wait a minute, Mr. Sheriff," Lambert demurred; "I don't know that I
want to mix up in----"

"It's not for you to say what you want to do--that's my business," the
sheriff said sharply. He forthwith deputized Lambert, and gave him a
duplicate of the warrant. "You don't need it, but it'll clear your mind
of all doubt of your power," he explained. "Can we get through this
fence?"

"Up here six or seven miles, about opposite Kerr's place. But I'd like
to go on to the house and change horses; I've rode this one over forty
miles today already."

The sheriff agreed. "Where's that outlaw you won from Jim Wilder?" he
inquired, turning his eyes on Lambert in friendly appreciation.

"I'll ride him," Lambert returned briefly. "What's Kerr been up to?"

"Mortgaged a bunch of cattle he's got over there to three different
banks. He was down a couple of days ago tryin' to put through another
loan. The investigation that banker started laid him bare. He promised
Kerr to come up tomorrow and look over his security, and passed the word
on to the county attorney. Kerr said he'd just bought five hundred head
of stock. He wanted to raise the loan on them."

"Five hundred," said Lambert, mechanically repeating the sheriff's
words, doing some calculating of his own.

"He ain't got any that ain't blanketed with mortgage paper so thick
already they'd go through a blizzard and never know it. His scheme was
to raise five or six thousand dollars more on that outfit and skip the
country."

And Grace Kerr had relied on his infatuation for her to work on him for
the loan of the necessary cattle. Lambert could not believe that it was
all her scheme, but it seemed incredible that a man as shrewdly
dishonest as Kerr would entertain a plan that promised so little outlook
of success. They must have be