loved him."

Patting her head, as if she were a tired child, he said: "It'll all
come out right in the end. You can't never tell from the sody-card
what's in hock at the bottom of the deck."

Further confidences between father and daughter were interrupted by the
boys of the round-up dashing up to the wagon, with Peruna in the midst
of the group. Peruna had been disarmed. Dragging the prisoner from
his bronco, they led him before Allen, who had risen from his seat.

"What's all this, boys?" asked the ranchman.

Sage-brush, as foreman, explained: "This yere's Peruna of the Lazy K
outfit."

Allen looked at the prisoner, who maintained a sullen silence. "What's
he been doin'?"

"Mostly everything, but Fresno caught red-handed brandin' one of our
yearlin's," cried Sage-brush.

"It's a lie!" broke in Peruna, glancing doggedly from one to another of
his guards. He knew death was the penalty of the crime of which he
stood accused. He felt that a stout denial would gain him time, and
that Buck and his outfit might come up and save him.

"Polite your conversation in the presence of a lady," cried
Parenthesis, nodding toward Echo.

"That calf was follerin' my cow," answered Peruna sullenly.

"It was follerin' one of our longhorned Texas cows with the Sweetwater
brand spread all over her," shouted Show Low, moving menacingly toward
the cowering Peruna.

"Fresno he calls him," continued Sage-brush, taking up the story; "an'
this yere Peruna--drinking bad turns loose his battery and wings Fresno
some bad--then little Billie Nicker comes along, and Peruna plugs him
solid."

Poor Billie had been Show Low's bunkie on many a long drive. That
veteran now paid this last tribute to his friend. "Billie, who ain't
never done no harm to no one--"

"He reached for his gun--" began Peruna. Sage-brush would not let him
finish his lame defense.

"You shet up!" he cried. "We don't want your kind on this range, an'
the quicker that's published the quicker we'll get shet of ye. We're
goin' to take the law in our own hands now--come on, boys."

Two of the boys seized Peruna, dragging him toward his horse. Echo
halted them, however, with the query: "What are you going to do with
this man?"

"Take him down to the creek and hang him to that big cottonwood--"
cried Show Low savagely.

Before Echo could answer, Peruna demanded a hearing. "Hol' on a
minute, I got something to say about that!"

"Out with it," growled S