pursue the subject further when they were
interrupted by the approach of a horse, which pulled up abruptly at
the front door. A beautiful, full-blooded mare, of tremendous
proportions, reared high in the air, then dropped to a stand-still as
docile as a lamb.

Mayor Brenchfield, groomed to perfection in leggings and riding
breeches, slid to the ground, thrust his reins through a hitching ring
and stepped inside, thus providing the third side of an interesting
triangle for conversation.

They had been talking for some fifteen minutes, when the conversation
veered to the subject that had been uppermost in everyone's mind in
the neighbourhood of Vernock for many weeks past.

"I see the Assizes have got through with their work at last," put in
Ben Todd.

Brenchfield's eyebrows moved slightly.

"Yes?"

"Loo Yick, the chink, is to hang."

"You bet,--the yellow skunk! Imagine a fine girl like Lottie Mays
being done to death by that; and every man that ever saw her just
crazy for her."

"Well!--Lottie and her kind take chances all the time. Somebody
generally gets them in the finish," put in Royce Pederstone. "She
wasn't content with her price, but stole his wad as well. The town
would be better quit of the bunch."

"Guess you're right," agreed Brenchfield. "But it does seem a pity we
can't cut down in the number of Chinamen we have in the Okanagan."

"Yes!" put in Todd, "but you know who brought them here. You fellows
with the ranches, looking for cheap help, did it."

He laughed. "And, by God, you got it with a vengeance; and all that
goes with it. They're likely to rout us out of house and land before
they're through with us. You will have one _high-U_ time getting them
out,--believe me."

"And Pierre Qu'appelle got sent down for ten years."

"Guess that ends the wholesale thieving that has been going on around
Vernock these last five years."

"Hope so!" exclaimed the Mayor. "But you can't always sometimes
tell."

"Pierre didn't have the ghost of a chance; caught with the goods on
him," remarked Todd.

"Seems funny to me that he should play a lone game, though," said
Royce Pederstone.

"Not when you know the bunch he gangs with," remarked Ben Todd.
"They're generally all in it, and one man takes the risk and the
blame. He'll get his share kept for him till he comes out again.

"Morrison of the O.K. Supply Company says he has had over seven
thousand dollars' worth of feed and flour stolen from his w