s companion sitting behind a rock.

"Lost him in these rocks, did you?" he asked.

A sardonic smile lit up the face of his friend.

"No, Steve, I found him; but he persuaded me I oughtn't to travel so
fast on this leg. You see, he had a rifle, and my six-gun was
outclassed. I couldn't get into range, and decided to hunt cover, after
he took another crack at me."

"I should think you'd know better than to go hunting bear with a
twenty-two."

"It ain't a twenty-two; but, for a fact, it don't carry a mile. I got
what I want, though. I know who the gentleman is."

"Sure it wasn't a lady, Dick?"

"Don't you, Steve," warned Gordon. "She's a lady and a Christian. You
wouldn't say that if you knew her. Besides, she saved my life."

"Who was it? That Pesky fellow?"

"No. He's hot-blooded; but he wouldn't strike below the belt. He's a
gentleman. This was one of the lads on her home-place, an
eighteen-year-old boy named Pedro. He's in love with her. I saw it soon
as I set eyes on him the day I went there. He worships her as if she
were a saint. Of course, he loves her without any hope; but that doesn't
keep him from being jealous of me. He's heard about the row, and he
thinks he'll do her a service by putting me out of the game."

"Sort of fix you up with that permanent residence you were talking
about," suggested Steve.

"He didn't make good this time, anyhow. I'll bet a hat he'd catch it if
Miss Valdes knew what he had been doing."

"She may be a Christian and all you say, Dick, but she don't run a
Sunday school on her ranch and train these young greasers proper. I
don't like this ambushing. They might git the wrong man."

"I'm not partial to it, myself. That lead pill hummed awful close to
me."

They had by this time returned to the road, and Dick picked up his hat
from the dust. There were two little round holes in the crown, and one
in the brim.

"If he had shot an inch lower I would have qualified for that permanent
residence, Steve," Dick laughed.

"Hmp! Let's get out of here _pronto_, Dick. I'm darned if I like to be
the target at a shooting gallery. And next time I go riding there's
going to be a good old Winchester lying over my saddle-horn."

Now, as very chance would have it, Miss Valdes, too, rode the hill trail
that afternoon; and every step of the broncos lessened the distance
between them.

They met at a turn of the steep path. Davis was in the lead, and the
girl passed him just in time to m