after him for us?"

Red's jaws closed spasmodically at the appeal underlying her forced
levity; his grasp tightened ever so little but of other sign he was
guiltless. Then he turned and looked at Douglass with preternatural
gravity:

"I'm shore honahed, Miss Grace, with yuah commission! Yuh leave it to
me! I'll see he gits he's milk regulah an' goes to hes leetle baid at
seven every night. On yuah return I'll hand him oveh to you all wropped
up in cotton bats, tied with pink ribbon like thet about yuah naick,
thet is, purvidin' I kin rustle thu ribbon."

His meaning was unmistakable, and though blushing at his audacity, Grace
took up the gage. Deliberately unclasping the tiny golden heart, which
held the narrow band in place, she made a dainty little roll of the
silk, fastened the end with the jewel and laid it in Red's bronze paw.
Douglass, watching the little by-play with a curious interest, wondered
at the quiver in that iron fist which could hold the weight of a heavy
Colt's .45 with never a tremor.

Among the mail handed him later by old Hank was an official-looking
document dated Denver. It was from the office of the State Registrar of
brands and was almost laconic in its brevity:

"The brand O-O (left side); earmarks, square crop right, underbit left;
is registered in the name of Bartholomew Coogan. He claims residence at
Gunnison, and range in Gunnison County from Texas Creek to Quartz Creek.
Date of record May 1st, 1898."

He reread the letter three times with exceeding care, his eyes narrowing
to mere slits, then thrust it into an inner pocket. He was very
thoughtful on the homeward ride, his preoccupied air at the supper table
emboldening Punk to irreverent levity:

"These yeah partin's are shore deespiritin' things!" he observed,
lugubriously, to nobody in particular. "I don't wonder none thet gloom
has settled in one great gob oveh thu achin' souls of this yeah outfit.
Why, I'm so sad, mahself, thet I kin hawdly eat pie!" Nevertheless he
cast avaricious glances at Douglass's portion of that comestible and
later took advantage of his abstraction to filch the savory morsel.

"Yuh'll be sum sadder if yuh don't keep yuah hooks on yuah side of the
table!" warned Red, sinisterly, as he successfully repelled a similar
assault on his own reserves. "Yuh moon-faced pie-eater, what yuh got to
be sad about 'ceptin' thet yuh are alive?"

"Why," said Woolly, with well-feigned sympathy, "don't yuh know thet
Pun