-"
the man grinned--"maybe she won't be so damned uppity as McWhorter's
gal." He sprang into the saddle, and, after a careful survey of the
bluff and the surrounding bench, headed away from the river and came to
the coulee a half-mile back from its mouth at a point where the sides
allowed easy descent.

Once in the coulee Purdy again headed for the river, riding slowly, with
a hand on the butt of his gun. Rounding an abrupt bend, he drew up
sharply. Not fifty yards from him, a blaze-faced buckskin, saddled and
bridled, with a lariat rope trailing from the saddle horn, was cropping
grass. His eyes surveyed every nook and cranny of the coulee for signs
of the rider, but seeing none he approached the horse which raised its
head and nickered friendly greeting. He loosened his rope, but the horse
made no effort to escape, and riding close the man reached down and
secured the reins which he made fast to the horn of his own saddle and
dismounted. "Yer a plumb gentle brute," he muttered as he coiled the
trailing rope and secured it in place, "Y Bar brand--that's over
somewhere acrost the river." Again he grinned, evilly: "Looks like they
come from the other side, in which case, providin' they don't no
men-folks show up in the next few minutes er so, things looks purty
favourable for yours truly. With the river like it is, an' the ferry
gone, they can't no one bother from the other side, an' by the time they
find out she's missin', they'll think she got drownded along with the
rest. Things is sure framin' my way, now," he grinned, as he swung into
the saddle and, leading the buckskin, headed down the coulee with his
thoughts centred on the woman who lay on the little grassed slope at its
mouth. "Be hell if she was dead," he growled, "be just my luck--but if
she is, I'll cache her in a mud crack somewheres an' maybe her friends
from acrost will stick up a reward, an' I'll make Cinnabar Joe or Long
Bill go an' collect it an' fork it over."

Proceeding cautiously, Purdy rode down the coulee, and at its mouth,
dismounted and proceeded directly to the motionless form. Swiftly he
stooped and lifted the hat-brim that had pushed forward over her face,
then with an oath he leaped erect and jerking his gun from its holster,
glared wildly about him. But save for the two horses, and a buzzard that
wheeled high in the blue above, there was no living, moving thing within
his range of vision, and the only sounds were the soft rattle of
bit-c