e asked lightly, holding it out. "Just
on general principles."

But she shook her head.

"I can't take no favours from you when I've just took stand against
you, can I?" she asked in turn.

"Well, of all the ridiculous----"

The man laughed again shortly, tossed the package on the step,
mounted, whirled and rode away without a backward glance.

Tharon stood frowning where he left her until the brown horse and its
rider were well down along the levels toward Black Coulee.

Then a sigh at her shoulder recalled her and she turned to see the
wistful dark face of Paula gazing raptly in the same direction.

"He was so handsome, Senorita," said the girl, "to be so hardly dealt
with."

"Paula," said the mistress bitingly, "will you remember who you're
talkin' to? Do you want to go back to th' Pomos under th' Rockface?"

"Saints forbid!" cried Paula instantly.

"Then keep your sighs for Jose an' mind your manners. Pick up that
bundle."

Swiftly and obediently the girl did as she was told, unrolling the
wrapper from the package.

She brought to light the meal-sack which Tharon had dropped that day
on Baston's porch.

A slow flush stained Tharon's cheeks at the sight, and she went
abruptly into the house.

When the riders came in at night she told them in detail about the
whole affair, for Last's and its men were one, their interests the
same.

They held counsel around the long table in the dining room under the
hanging lamp, and Conford at her right was spokesman for the rest.

"He's somethin' official, all right, I make no doubt, Tharon," he said
when he had listened attentively, "but what or who I don't know. I
heard from Dixon about him comin' into Corvan that day, an' that he
had rode far. No one knows his business, or what he's in Lost Valley
for. He's some mysterious."

"He's goin' to stay, so he told me," went on the girl, "goin' to build
a house up where the pines begin an' means to ride. But how'll he
live? What an' who will he ride for? He said for Government."

"What's he mean by that?"

"Search me."

"Wasn't there nothin' about him different? Nothin' you could judge him
by?" asked Billy.

"Yes, there was. He wore somethin' on his breast, a sign, a dull-like
thing with words an' letters on it."

"So?" said Conford quickly, "what was it like, Tharon? Can't you
describe it?"

"Can with a pencil," said Tharon, rising. "Come on in."

She went swiftly to the big desk in the other room and r