uch show, from
what I know of him."

"Helen was real kind to him," remarked the spinster. "She bathed his wound
and bandaged it. Spoiled her very best skirt, too."

"You're a good girl, Sis," Shields said, looking fondly at the beautiful
girl at his side. His arm went around her shoulder and he affectionately
patted her cheek. "I'm proud of you, and we'll have to see if we can't
get another 'very best skirt,' too." Then he laughed: "But I'll bet he
blesses the warrior who fired that shot--he's not used to having pretty
girls fuss about him."

Mary looked quickly at her sister. "Why, Helen! You've lost your gold pin!
Where do you suppose it has gone? I'll look in the stage for it before we
forget about it. Dear me, dear me," she cried as she entered the vehicle,
"this has indeed been a terrible day!"

Bill grinned and turned toward his team. "I reckon she'll find it some
day," he said in a low aside as he passed the sheriff. "I'll just bet she
does. It'll be in at the finish of a whole lot of things, and people, too,
you bet," he added enigmatically.

Shields looked quickly at the driver, his face brightened and he smiled
knowingly at the words. "I reckon it will; fool punchers, for instance?"

Bill turned his head and one eye closed in an emphatic wink. "Keno," he
replied.

Mary bustled out again, very much agitated. "I can't find it. Where do
you suppose you lost it, dear? I've looked everywhere in the stage."

"Probably back where we stopped before," Helen replied quietly. "We were
so agitated that we would never have noticed it if it slipped down."

"Well--" began Mary.

"No use going back for it, Miss Shields," promptly interrupted Bill from
his high seat. "We just couldn't find it in all that trampled sand, not
if we hunted all week for it with a comb."

"You're right, Bill," gravely responded the sheriff. "We never could."

As they entered the defile of the Backbone the sheriff suddenly remembered
what Bill had told him and he stopped and dismounted.

"You keep right on, Bill," he said. "I'm going up to hunt that fool
puncher. Lord, but it's a joke! This game is getting better every day--I'm
getting so I sort of like to have The Orphan around. He's shore original,
all right."

"He's better than a marked deck in a darkened room," laughed the driver.
"He shore ought to be framed, or something like that."

"You better go with them, Charley," the sheriff said as his friend made a
move at dismounting.