know him
before he worked on the Y Bar?"

"Y Bar!" Cinnabar laughed, "that bird never seen the Y Bar onless he's
be'n tryin' to run off some Y Bar horses."

"Run off horses! Is he a horse-thief, too?"

Cinnabar waved his arms in despair: "Oh, no," he asserted, emphasizing
the ponderous sarcasm of his words with a dolorous shaking of the head,
"he ain't no horse-thief. He's--judge of the supreme court. An' the
reason he lives in the bad lands is because all the judges of the
supreme court lives in the bad lands."

The girl interrupted him: "Don't try to be facetious. You do it badly.
But the fact is, he don't live in the bad lands, he don't look like a
horse-thief, he don't act like a horse-thief--and I don't believe he is
a horse-thief--so there! When he struck out this morning on Purdy's
trail----"

"On Purdy's trail!" Cinnabar fairly shouted the words. "Who's on who's
trail? What's all this mixup about? Purdy ain't no horse-thief! He's a
wet nurse in a orphan asylum! He's clean lookin' an' wholesome. He
wouldn't lie!"

"Purdy!" exclaimed Janet, "have you been talking about Purdy all this
time?"

A sudden gleam of comprehension shot from Cinnabar's eyes: "Who did you
think I was talkin' about," he grinned, "the Gazookus of Timbucktoo?"

The girl broke into a peal of silvery laughter. A weight seemed suddenly
to have been lifted from her heart--a weight that had borne heavier and
heavier with the words of Cinnabar Joe. There was a chance that her
Texan would prove to be the man she wanted him to be--the man she had
pictured him during the long hours of the previous afternoon when alone
in the cabin her thoughts had reverted again and again to the parting at
the edge of the bad lands--the touch of his hand on her arm, the strong,
firm grip of his fingers, and the strange rapturous something that had
leaped from his eyes straight into her heart. But, all that was before
she had known of--the other woman. The laughter died from her lips, and
her eyes narrowed slightly. Cinnabar Joe was speaking:

"An' I suppose you've be'n talkin' about Tex Benton. She told Jennie he
was on Purdy's trail."

"How did she know?"

"Search me. Jest naturally know'd that if he wasn't dead, that's what
he'd be doin', I guess. How'd Purdy git holt of her, anyway?"

"This woman and Tex were washed ashore when the ferry broke its cable,
and while Tex was trying to get some horses, Purdy came along and found
her."

"Where's the pil