like a funeral. Surely
nothing can have happened. Oh, surely----" She caught her breath
sharply, her eyes dilating. "Look!" she cried. "The last pack horse!"

The load on the last horse was a shapeless thing, not compact and built
up like a pack, but hanging low on either side, shrouded by a canvas.
From under this cover a hand and arm dangled, swinging to and fro with
each motion of the animal.

Clyde felt a great fear, cold as the clutch of a dead hand itself,
close on her heart, driving the young blood from her cheeks. "It can't
be!" she said to herself. "Oh--it _can't_ be."

Hess swore beneath his breath. If it were Casey Dunne lying across that
pack horse----He put a huge protective arm around Clyde's shoulders, as
if to shield her from the evil they both feared.

But she slipped from beneath his arm and fled down the steps toward the
party who would have passed in the direction of the stables without
halting. The sheriff, seeing her, pulled up. She caught McHale's
hardened paw in both her hands, searching his eyes for the truth. But
McHale's face, though weary and lined with pain, and, moreover,
rendered decidedly unprepossessing by a growth of stubble, contained no
signs of disaster.

"Where's Casey, Tom?"

"Casey?" McHale replied. "Why, he hiked on ahead to git a medicine man
to fix up this arm of mine. Arm's done busted. He ought to be here most
any time now."

To Clyde it was as if the sun had shot through a lowering, ominous
cloud. She was faint with the joy of relief. "Thank God! Thank God!"
she murmured.

"You seem to be upset about something, ma'am," said the sheriff gently.
"Has anything went wrong?"

Hess answered for her. "What have you got on that last pack horse,
sheriff?"

Jim Dove looked around and muttered an oath. "If that ain't plumb
careless of me! I thought I had him all covered up. Rope must have
slipped. That's Jake Betts, holdup and bad man, that's been callin'
himself Dade around here. There's five hundred reward for him, and to
collect the money I had to pack him in. I sure didn't allow to scare
any women by lettin' an arm hang loose. And the little lady thought it
was Dunne? Dunne's all safe and rugged. We thought he'd be here ahead
of us."

Hess followed the sheriff to the stable and introduced himself, going
directly to the point, as was his custom.

"Sheriff," he said, "I've just come, and naturally I don't know all
that has happened, but there are two or three things