but isn't it really a serious
thing--a menace to everyone--having those convicts out of prison?"

"It isn't going to be a knitting-bee, rounding them up," Van admitted.
"And meantime they're going to be exacting of everyone they meet."

She looked at him half seriously, but altogether brightly.

"And what if they chance to meet you?"

"Oh, we'd exchange courtesies, I reckon."

She had no intention of confessing how much she had overheard, but she
was tremendously interested--almost fearful for the man's safety, she
hardly dared ask herself why. She approached her subject artfully.

"Do you know them, then?"

"Well, yes, the leader--slightly," he answered. "I sent him up for
murder, stealing cattle, and robbing sluices. He was too annoying to
have around."

"Oh! Then won't he feel ugly, resentful?" she inquired earnestly.
"Won't he try to hunt you up--and pay you back?"

Van regarded her calmly.

"He told me to expect my pay--if ever he escaped--and he's doubtless got
his check-book along."

"His check-book?"

"Colt--forty-four," Van drawled by way of explanation.

She turned a trifle pale.

"He'd shoot you on sight?"

"If he sighted me first."

Her breath came hard. She realized that the quiet-seeming horseman at
her side would kill a fellow-being--this convict, at least--as readily as
he might destroy a snake.

"How long ago did you put him in jail?" she inquired.

"Four years ago this summer."

"Have you always lived here--out West?"

"I've lived every day I've been here," he answered evasively. "Do I look
like a native?"

She laughed. "Oh, I don't know. We came here straight from New York, a
week ago, Elsa and I. Mr. Bostwick joined us two days later. I really
know nothing of the country at all."

"New York," he said, and relapsed into silent meditation. How far away
seemed old New Amsterdam! How long seemed the brief six years since he
had started forth with his youthful health, his strength, determination,
boyish dreams, and small inheritance to build up a fortune in the West!
What a mixture of sunshine and failure it had been! What glittering
hopes had lured him hither and yon in the mountains, where each great
gateway of adventure had charged its heavy toll!

He had lost practically all of his money; he had gained his all of
manhood. He had suffered privation and hardship; he had known the vast
comfort of friends--true friends, as certain as the very heart in his
breas