ed to Lee
with even greater poignancy than his face. "I'm sorry," she said to him,
"but it was my duty to help Mr. Cavanagh."

He glanced up with a quick sidewise slant. "That's all right, miss; I
should have had sense enough to keep out of this business." He spoke with
difficulty, and his voice was hoarse with emotion.

Lize turned to Lee. "The Doc said 'no liquor,' but I guess here's where I
draw one--I feel faint."

Ross hurried to her side, while young Gregg tendered a handsome flask.
"Here's something."

Lize put it away. "Not from you. Just reach under my desk, Ross; you'll
find some brandy there. That's it," she called, as he produced a bottle.
Clutching it eagerly, she added: "They say it's poison, but it's my meat
to-night."

She was, in truth, very pale, and her hands were trembling in a weakness
that went to her daughter's heart. Lee admired her bravery, her manlike
readiness of action, but her words, her manner (now that the stress of the
battle was over), hurt and shamed her. Little remained of the woman in
Lize, and the old sheep-herder eyed her with furtive curiosity.

"I was afraid you'd shoot," Lize explained to Ross, "and I didn't want you
to muss up your hands on the dirty loafers. I had the right to kill; they
were trespassers, and I'd 'a' done it, too."

"I don't think they intended to actually assault me," he said, "but it's a
bit discouraging to find the town so indifferent over both the breaking of
the laws and the doings of a drunken mob. I'm afraid the most of them are
a long way from law-abiding people yet."

Joe, who did not like the position in which he stood as respecting Lee,
here made an offer of aid. "I don't suppose my word is any good now, but
if you'll let me do it I'll go out and round up Judge Higley. I think I
know where he is."

To this Lize objected. "You can't do that, Ross; you better hold the fort
right here till morning."

Lee was rather sorry, too, for young Gregg, who bore his buffeting with
the imperturbable face of the heroes of his class. He had gone into this
enterprise with much the same spirit in which he had stolen gates and
misplaced signs during his brief college career, and he was now disposed
(in the presence of a pretty girl) to carry it out with undiminished
impudence. "It only means a fine, anyway," he assured himself.

Cavanagh did not trust Gregg, either, and as this was the first time he
had been called upon to arrest men for killing game out o