conies for a while. This civilized life is a little too busy for me."

Rosa, who had been listening, understood his mood much better than the
men, and with her small hands upon his arm she pleaded: "Take me with
you! I hate these people--I want to go with you."

He turned a tender, pitying, almost paternal glance upon her. "No, girl,
no. I can't do that. You're too young. It wouldn't be right to snarl a
grown woman's life up with mine--much less a child like you." Then, as
if to soften the effect of his irrevocable decision, he added: "Perhaps
some time we'll meet again. But it's good-by now." He put his arm about
her and drew her to his side and patted her shoulder as if she were a
lad. Then he turned. "Lend me a dollar, Judge! I'm anxious to ride."

The judge looked troubled. "We're sorry, Ed--but if you feel that way,
why--"

"That's the way I feel," answered the trailer, and his tone was
conclusive.

* * * * *

Dusk was falling when, mounted on his horse, with his "stake" in his
pocket, Kelley rode out of the stable into the street swarming with
excited men. The opposition had regained its courage. Yells of vengeance
rose: "Lynch him! Lynch the dog!" was the cry.

Reining his bronco into the middle of the road, with rifle across the
pommel of his saddle, Kelley advanced upon the crowd, in the shadowy
fringes of which he could see ropes swinging in the hands of Mink's
drunken partisans.

"Come on, you devils!" he called. "Throw a rope if you dare."

Awed by the sheer bravery of the challenge, the crowd slowly gave way
before him.

The block seemed a mile long to Kelley, but he rode it at a walk, his
horse finding his own way, until at last he reached the bridge which led
to the high-line Red Mountain road. Here he paused, faced about, and
sheathed his Winchester, then with a wave of his hand toward Rosa
Lemont, who had followed him thus far, he called out:

"Good-by, girl! You're the only thing worth saving in the whole dern
town. _Adios!_"

And, defeated for the first time in his life, Tall Ed turned his
cayuse's head to the San McGill range, with only the memory of a
worshipful child-woman's face to soften the effect of his hard
experience as the Marshal of Brimstone Basin.

PARTNERS FOR A DAY

I

Cinnebar was filled with those who took chances. The tenderfoot staked
his claim on the chance of selling it again. The prospector toiled in
his overland tunnel on th