ng down to see him. Anybody gone for a doctor?"

"Rabbit's the only doctor. I suppose she can do him as much good as
anybody--he'll die, anyhow."

"He's not cut out for a sheepman," said Reid, ruminatively, shaking
his head in depreciation.

"I should _hope_ not!" said Joan, expressing in the emphasis, as well
as in the look of superior scorn that she gave him, the difference
that she felt lay between Mackenzie and a clod who might qualify for a
sheepman and no questions asked.

"I'll ride on over to camp with you," Reid proposed again, facing his
horse to accompany her.

"No, you mustn't leave the sheep alone at night--it's bad enough to do
it in the day. What was the trouble between him and Swan--who started
it?"

"Some of Swan's sheep got over with ours--I don't know how it
happened, or whose fault it was. I'd been skirmishin' around a little,
gettin' the lay of the country mapped out in my mind. Swan and
Mackenzie were mixin' it up when I got there."

"Carlson set his dogs on him!" Joan's voice trembled with her high
scorn of such unmanly dealing, such unworthy help.

"He must have; one of the dogs was shot, and I noticed Mackenzie's
hand was chewed up a little. They were scuffling to get hold of
Mackenzie's gun when I got there--he'd dropped it, why, you can search
me! Swan got it. He hit him once with it before I could--oh well, I
guess it don't make any difference, Mackenzie wouldn't thank me for
it. He's a surly devil!"

Joan touched his arm, as if to call him from his abstraction, leaning
to reach him, her face eager.

"You stopped Swan, you took the gun away from him, didn't you, Earl?"

"He's welcome to it--I owed him something."

Joan drew a deep breath, which seemed to reach her stifling soul and
revive it; a softness came into her face, a light of appreciative
thankfulness into her eyes. She reined closer to Reid, eager now to
hear the rest of the melancholy story.

"You took the gun away from Swan; I saw it in his scabbard down
there. Did you have to--did you have to--do anything to Carlson,
Earl?"

Reid laughed, shortly, harshly, a sound so old to come from young
lips. He did not meet Joan's eager eyes, but sat straight, head up,
looking off over the darkening hills.

"No, I didn't do anything to him--more than jam my gun in his neck. He
got away with thirty sheep more than belonged to him, though--I found
it out when I counted ours. I guess I was over there after them when
Dad was l