e Gila River. "An
I swore I would do as much fer him some day. Now I perpose that we all
give him a kick, an' let him go; let him have two hours' start, after
which the game-laws will be out on him."

Sage-brush cried out against the plan, but Echo was moved by McKee's
appeal for his comrade, and, speaking low and beseechingly to
Sage-brush, said: "It will save a range-war that we can't afford to
have till Jack and Slim get back." Sage-brush finally assented.

"Two hours' start. Well, he'll have to go some, if he gets away. Kick
him and let him go," he commanded.

Echo turned away.

The cowboys who held Peruna threw him to the ground, and every man of
the Allen and Payson ranches gave him a vicious kick, Show Low putting
in an extra one for his murdered bunkie. Last of all, McKee
approached the prostrate man, and made the mistake which was to cost
him his life by booting Peruna cruelly. The man was a stupid fellow by
nature, and what wits he had were addled by the habit he had acquired
of consuming patent-medicines containing alcohol, morphin, and other
stimulating and stupefying drugs. He was as revengeful as stupid, and
could have forgiven McKee's putting the rope around his neck more
easily than Buck's joining in the humiliation which saved his life.

Rising from the ground and trembling with anger, Peruna turned on the
half-breed, saying: "I'll square this deal, Buck McKee."

"Losin' vallyble time, Peruna. Git!" was all that his former boss
deigned to answer.

Peruna limped over to his horse, which Parenthesis had been holding in
custody, mounted it, and rode off at a lope for the river ford. He
crossed it in sight of the Sweetwater outfit, and disappeared behind
the riverbank. Here he dismounted, and, picking a small branch of
cactus, put it under his horse's tail. The poor beast clapped the tail
against it, and, with a scream, set off on a wild gallop across the
mesa. Peruna hobbled up the river a mile or so, half-waded, half-swam,
to the other side, and entered an arroyo, whose course led back near
the camp of the Sweetwater outfit. He had been disarmed by the cowboys
of his revolver, but not of his knife.

After Peruna had been visited with his punishment, Echo retraced her
steps.

Bowing to her, hat in hand, Buck made his apologies. "Ma'am, I'm plumb
sorry. My mother was a Cherokee squaw, but I'm white in some spots.
If you'll let your ranch boss come along with us, we'll settle thi