s
brandin'-business right now."

Sage-brush did not care to accept the offer, but Echo ordered him to go
with the Lazy K outfit. Seeing it was useless to argue with her, he
said: "Come on, boys."

Ere they had ridden out of sight, Echo sank, exhausted, on the seat by
the fire. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

Polly played the role of comforter.

"Don't mind 'em," she said. "Better come to the ranch with me. You're
all tuckered out. You've been runnin' this ranch fer a month like a
man."

"I'll take your advice, Polly, and ride home. Tell Dad I want him,
will you?"

CHAPTER XVI

Death of McKee, Disappointed Desperado

Bud's conscience was not troubling him so much now. In fact, he was
rather proud of his conduct of late. He had "shaken" Buck McKee, and
he had forgiven Echo for all the hard thoughts he had against
her--without considering that she would be more than woman if she
failed to harbor resentment against the man who had prevented her from
calling her husband back from the desert.

In the absence of Slim, both Bud and McKee attained a feeling of
security in the matter of Terrill murder. McKee had already ventured
to use some of his share of the robbery in gambling. Bud had not yet
convinced himself either of the right or the advisability of spending
his share. Both conscience and fear advised him to keep the
blood-money intact. He carried it with him wherever he went, and
became, in time, quite pleased with himself because of his compunctions
in doing so. He was even pharisaical about McKee's gambling. No, when
his mind had come clear about keeping it, he would make an honest use
of it, such as investing it in a saloon in Florence. When, however, he
suggested to Polly that dispensing liquors over a bar and running a
faro-game on the side would be a congenial occupation, suited to their
talents, she sat down forcibly upon his aspiration, and they finally
compromised on Polly's proposition to conduct a livery-stable in
Tucson, where, Polly felt, though she did not say so to Bud, that
Sheriff Hoover, with whom she had been flirting too dangerously, would
not be in evidence, as in Florence.

Polly, however, was greatly puzzled over Bud's confidence in his
ability to raise the wind that would launch this delectable, but to her
mind illusory, enterprise. In a moment of weakness he intimated that
he already had the money in hand.

How had he got it? she demanded.

"Saved