man smiled: "_Oui_, A'm fol' de trail, all right. Two hoss,
shod, mak' good trail for Injun. Eef dey swim een de wattaire lak de
feesh, eef dey fly een de air lak de bird, Ol' Bat he no kin pick oop de
trail--but, by Goss! Eef dey walk, or ron, or stan' still dey got to
mak' de sign on de groun' an' me--A'm fin' dat out--" The words died in
his throat as he jerked his horse to a stand. From behind a projecting
shoulder of rock a man stepped directly into their path.

"Stick 'em up!" The command rang with a metallic hardness in the
rock-walled coulee, and Bat's hands flew upward. From the rear Endicott
saw that the man who barred the way was squat, bow-legged, and bearded,
and that he held a gun in either hand. For one sickening instant he
thought of Alice in the power of this man, and reckless of consequences,
he forced his horse to the fore. "Damn you!" he cried leaning forward in
the saddle, "where's my wife?"

Old Bat cried out a warning, and then stared in surprise at the man on
the ground who was returning his guns to their holsters, and grinning as
he did it.

"Damn me, where's your wife?" repeated the man, "ain't that a kind of a
rough way, pardner, to ask a question of a stranger? Or mebbe you're
jest na'chelly rough, an' can't help it." The metallic hardness was gone
from the voice. Endicott noticed that a tuft of hair stuck through a
hole in the crown of the man's hat, and that upon close inspection the
bearded face had lost its look of villainy.

"But--my wife!" he persisted, "you brought her here! She----"

"Not me," interrupted the man, "I didn't bring her nowheres. An' besides
she ain't here."

"Where is she? And who did bring her! Speak up, man!"

"She's safe enough. You don't need to worry about her. She's over to
Cinnabar Joe's ranch on Red Sand. Purdy took her there yesterday."

"Purdy!" shouted Endicott, "do you mean the Purdy that----"

"Yup," interrupted the other, "the Purdy that you took a shot at a year
ago an' creased. Why in hell couldn't you of shot a half an inch lower
that night?"

"How do you know she's safe?" cried Endicott. "How do you know he ever
took her there? I wouldn't trust Purdy out of my sight!"

"You an' me both," grinned the man, "an', I didn't. I trailed along from
the time they hit the bad lands till he delivered her at the ranch. He's
after the reward an' he had to keep her safe."

"But the people at the ranch--this Cinnabar Joe?"

"Ace high all around--the br