ll! that accounts for much. But what was she doing up there in
the company of that old Dutchman?"

"I don't know why she came West, but I'm glad she did. I'm glad to have
known her. That old Dutchman, as you call him, is her stepfather and a
fine chap."

"But Carmody has arrested her. What caused him to do that?"

"I don't know. I can't understand it. It may be that Kitsong has put the
screws on him some way."

The judge reflected. "As the only strange woman in the valley, the girl
naturally falls under suspicion of having made those footprints."

"I know it, Judge, but you have only to see her--to hear her voice--to
realize how impossible it is for her to kill even a coyote. All I ask,
now, is that you save her from going to jail."

"I don't see how I can interfere," Brinkley answered, with gentle
decision. "As coroner, Carmody has the case entirely in his hands till
after the verdict. But don't take her imprisonment too hard," he added,
with desire to comfort him. "Throop has a good deal of discretion and
I'll 'phone him to make her stay as little like incarceration as
possible. You see, while nominally she's only a witness for the state,
actually she's on trial for murder, and till you can get your other
woman before the jury she's a suspect. If you are right, the jury will
at once bring in a verdict against other parties, known or unknown, and
she will be free--except that she may have to remain to testify in her
own case against the raiders. Don't worry, my dear fellow. It will come
out all right."

Hanscom was now in the grasp of conflicting emotions. In spite of
Brinkley's refusal to interfere, he could not deny a definite feeling of
pleasure in the fact that Helen was returning and that he was about to
see her again. "Anyhow, I have another opportunity to serve her," he
thought, as he turned down the street toward the station. "Perhaps after
the verdict she will not feel so eager to leave the country."

VI

Meanwhile the fugitives on the westbound express were nearing the town
in charge of the marshal of Lone Rock, and Helen (who had telegraphed
her plight to Hanscom and had received no reply) was in silent dread of
the ordeal which awaited her. Her confidence in the ranger had not
failed, but, realizing how difficult it was to reach him, she had small
hope of seeing his kindly face at the end of her journey.

"He may be riding some of those lonely heights this moment," she
thought, and wondered wh