lay low 'til you hear from Bat, there, or me. Then you do
as we say, an' don't ask no questions."

The rumble of horses' feet sounded from the direction of the little
town and the Texan whispered to Bat: "Find out where they lock him up.
An' when the excitement dies down you find me. I ain't a-goin' to lose
sight of _her_--see." The half-breed grinned his understanding and Tex
swung his horse in close beside the girl and awaited the coming of the
posse.

With a yell the onrushing cowboys whom the deputy had recruited from
the dance-hall spied the little group and, thundering up at full
gallop, formed a closely packed circle about them. Recognizing the
deputy who was vociferously urging his horse from the rear, Tex forced
his way through the circle and called him aside.

"Say, Sam," he drawled, in a tone that caused the deputy's hair to
prickle at its roots; "about some an' sundry insultin' remarks you
passed agin' the lady, yonder----"

"No, I never----"

"That'll be about all the lyin' you need to do now. An' just let this
sink in. You can lock up the pilgrim where you damn please. But the
lady goes to the hotel. If you aim to hold her as a witness you can
appoint a guard--an' I'm the guard. D'you get me? 'Cause if there's
any misunderstandin' lingerin' in them scrambled aigs you use fer
brains, I'll just start out by tellin' the boys what a hell of a brave
arrest you pulled off, an' about the nervy stand you made agin' odds to
guard your prisoners when I yipped at you from the brush. Then, after
they get through havin' their fun out of you, I'll just waste a shell
on you for luck--see?"

"Sure, Tex, that sounds reasonable," the other rattled on in evident
relief. "Fact is, I be'n huntin' fer you ever sense I suspicioned
they'd be'n a murder. 'If I c'd only find Tex,' I says to myself, I
says, 'he'd be worth a hull posse hisself.' Jest you go ahead an'
night-herd the lady. I'll tell her myself so's it'll be official. An'
me an' the rest of the boys here, we'll take care of the pilgrim, which
he ain't no pilgrim at all, but a desperate desperado, or he couldn't
never have got Jack Purdy the way he done."

The Texan grinned and, forcing his horse through the crowd, reached the
girl's side where he was joined a few moments later by the deputy.
Despite her embarrassing situation Alice Marcum could scarce restrain a
smile at the officer's sudden obsequious deference. Stetson in hand,
he bowed awkw