t the coroner insisted on
looking the ground over first.

"You study the case from the outside," said he, "and I'll size it up
from the inside."

As the dead man had neither wife nor children to weep for him, Mrs.
Kitsong, his sister, a tall, gaunt woman, assumed the role of chief
mourner, while Abe went round uttering threats about "stringing the
Kauffmans up," till the sheriff, a good man and faithful officer,
jealous of his authority, interfered.

"None of that lynching talk! There'll be no rope work in this county
while I am sheriff," he said, with noticeable decision.

In a few moments Carmody, having finished his examination of the body,
said to the sheriff: "Go after this man Kauffman and his daughter. It
seems they've had some trouble with Watson and I want to interrogate
them. Search the cabin for weapons and bring all the woman's shoes," he
added. And while the sheriff rode away up the trail on his sinister
errand, Hanscom with sinking heart remained to testify at the inquest.

A coroner in the mountains seven thousand feet above the sea-level and
twenty miles from a court-house must be excused for slight informalities
in procedure, and Carmody confidentially said to the ranger:

"I don't expect for a minute the sheriff will find the Kauffmans. If
they did for Watson, they undoubtedly pulled out hotfoot. But we've got
to make a bluff at getting 'em, anyway."

To this the ranger made no reply, but a sense of loss filled his heart.

As soon as the jury was selected the condition of the body was noted,
and Abe Kitsong, as witness, was in the midst of his testimony (and the
shadows of the great peaks behind the cabin had brought the evening
chill into the air) when the sheriff reappeared, escorting a mountain
wagon in which Kauffman and his daughter were seated.

Hanscom stared in mingled surprise and dismay--surprise that they had
not fled and dismay at the girl's predicament--and muttered: "Now what
do you think of that! It takes an Eastern tenderfoot to kill a man and
then go quietly home and wait for results."

Kauffman glared about him defiantly, but the face of the girl remained
hidden in her bonnet; only her bowed head indicated the despair into
which she had fallen.

With a deep sense of pity and regret, Hanscom went to meet her. "Don't
be scared," he said. "I'll see that you have a square deal."

She peered down into his face as he spoke, but made no reply, and he
conceived of her as one bur