n you ought to
remember.... Greaves, there are men rubbin' elbows with you right heah
that my Indian son is goin' to track down!'"

Jean bent his head in stunned cognizance of the notoriety with which
his father had chosen to affront any and all Tonto Basin men who were
under the ban of his suspicion. What a terrible reputation and trust
to have saddled upon him! Thrills and strange, heated sensations
seemed to rush together inside Jean, forming a hot ball of fire that
threatened to explode. A retreating self made feeble protests. He saw
his own pale face going away from this older, grimmer man.

"Son, if I could have looked forward to anythin' but blood spillin' I'd
never have given you such a name to uphold," continued the rancher.
"What I'm goin' to tell you now is my secret. My other sons an' Ann
have never heard it. Jim Blaisdell suspects there's somethin' strange,
but he doesn't know. I'll shore never tell anyone else but you. An'
you must promise to keep my secret now an' after I am gone."

"I promise," said Jean.

"Wal, an' now to get it out," began his father, breathing hard. His
face twitched and his hands clenched. "The sheepman heah I have to
reckon with is Lee Jorth, a lifelong enemy of mine. We were born in
the same town, played together as children, an' fought with each other
as boys. We never got along together. An' we both fell in love with
the same girl. It was nip an' tuck for a while. Ellen Sutton belonged
to one of the old families of the South. She was a beauty, an' much
courted, an' I reckon it was hard for her to choose. But I won her an'
we became engaged. Then the war broke out. I enlisted with my brother
Jean. He advised me to marry Ellen before I left. But I would not.
That was the blunder of my life. Soon after our partin' her letters
ceased to come. But I didn't distrust her. That was a terrible time
an' all was confusion. Then I got crippled an' put in a hospital. An'
in aboot a year I was sent back home."

At this juncture Jean refrained from further gaze at his father's face.

"Lee Jorth had gotten out of goin' to war," went on the rancher, in
lower, thicker voice. "He'd married my sweetheart, Ellen.... I knew
the story long before I got well. He had run after her like a hound
after a hare.... An' Ellen married him. Wal, when I was able to get
aboot I went to see Jorth an' Ellen. I confronted them. I had to know
why she had gone back on me. Lee Jorth hadn't