her again he was disappointed for that day,
at least. They reached Corbett's with never another glimpse of her; nor
was there any sign of her horse in front of the post office and general
store.

"Must have taken that lower trail that leads back to the ranch,"
hazarded Gordon.

"I reckon," agreed his friend. "Seems funny, too; her knowing you was on
the upper one."

"Guy me all you like. I can stand it," returned Dick cheerfully.

For he had scored once in spite of her. He had saved her from a fall, at
a place where, to say the least, it would have been dangerous. She had
announced herself indifferent to his existence; but the very fact that
she had felt called upon to say so gave denial to the statement. She
might hate him, and she probably did; at least, she had him on her mind
a good deal. The young man was sure of that. He was shrewdly of opinion
that his chances were better if she hated him than if she never thought
of him at all.

CHAPTER VIII

TAMING AN OUTLAW

"Something doing back of the corral, Mr. Gordon."

Yeager, the horse-wrangler at Corbett's, stopped in front of the porch,
and jerked his head, with a twisted grin, in the direction indicated.

Everything about the little stableman was crooked. From the slope of his
legs to the set of his bullet head on the narrow shoulders, he was awry.
But he had an instinct about horses that was worth more than the beauty
of any slim, tanned _vaquero_ of the lot.

Only one horse had he failed to subdue. That was Teddy, a rakish sorrel
that had never yet been ridden. Many had tried it, but none had stuck to
the saddle to the finish; and some had been carried from the corral to
the hospital.

Dick got up and strolled back, with his hands in his pockets.

A dozen _vaqueros_ and loungers sat and stood around the mouth of the
corral, from which a slim young Mexican was leading the sorrel.

"So, it's you, Master Pedro," thought the young American. "I didn't
expect to see you here."

The lad met his eyes quietly as he passed, giving him a sullen nod of
greeting; evidently he hoped he had not been recognized as the previous
day's ambusher.

"Is Pedro going to ride the outcast?" Dick asked of Yeager, in surprise.

Yeager grinned.

"He's going to try. The boy's slap-up rider, but he ain't got it in him
to break Teddy--no, nor any man in New Mexico ain't."

Dick looked the horse over carefully, as it stood there while the boy
tightened the girths--