, was Barbee, and this was his first man.

"Andy Sprague, it was," said Barbee. "He's dead now."

There fell a heavy, breathless silence upon the three standing there
under the stars. Terry shivered as though with cold and drew a step
closer to Steve; he felt her hand on his arm. Barbee lighted his
cigarette, his hands steady, but his face looking terribly serious in
the brief-lived light shed upon it.

"I heard you shootin'," said Barbee. "I rode this way, on the jump. I
was only about a mile up the valley; maybe a shade less. He had his
horse close an' was on him an' poundin' leather lively to get out. We
come pretty close to runnin' into each other. I hollered at him to
hold on an' he jus' rode on his spurs an' I shot. Emptied my gun. Got
him twice, bein' that lucky, an' him that unlucky. He slid off his
cayuse an' clawed aroun' an'--an' he's dead now," ended Barbee briefly.

"Did he tell you anything? Did he say anything that would implicate
anybody?"

"Meanin'," said Barbee steadily, "did he squeal on his pals?"

"Just that. Did he mention any names?"

"No," replied Barbee thoughtfully. "He jus' cusses me an' dies game.
But this here was in his pocket."

He passed it to his employer. It was a bit of note-paper. Steve and
Terry read it together as Steve struck one match after another. Then
they looked into each other's faces, grown very tense, while Barbee
smoked in silence. The few words were:

BLENHAM: This here Mex don't seem to know what I mean. Next time send
a man as can talk English. Anyway I am coming to-night. I don't want
no killing if it ain't necessary, but there ain't going to be a hide or
hoof left in Drop Off by morning.

And the signature, cramped and stiff, was that of Steve's grandfather.

"So," muttered Steve heavily. "The old man has gone the limit, has he?
He meant it when he said he'd stop at nothing to smash me. And yet I
can't believe----"

"Let me see it again," Terry commanded.

She took the paper from his fingers and with it his block of sulphur
matches. For even Terry, to whom old man Packard was as relentless and
unscrupulous as Satan himself, hesitated to believe that he was hand in
glove with Blenham in this.

There might be a way to read between the lines, to come to some other
understanding of the baffling situation. Evidently the old man had
given the note to the "Mex" who did not know enough of the English
language to carry word of mout