ng Pablo with you, and tell him I said he was to bring his
rifle. If Loustalot gets me, he is to follow on Panchito and get
Loustalot. Thank you, Miss Parker."

He swung lightly into the unaccustomed flat saddle and, disdaining to
follow the road, cut straight across country; Panchito taking the
fences easily, the hounds belling lustily as they strung out behind
him. Kay did not wait to follow his flight, but calling for William to
get out the car, she ran round to the barn and delivered Farrel's
message to Pablo, who grunted his comprehension and started for his
cabin at a surprising rate of speed for an old man. Five minutes after
Farrel had left the Rancho Palomar, Kay and Pablo were roaring down the
valley in pursuit.

Half a mile beyond the mission they came upon Don Mike and his father's
enemy. In the first mile, the latter had ridden the gray out; spent,
gasping, the gallant animal was proceeding at a leg-weary, lumbering
gallop when Miguel Farrel, following on Panchito at half that gallant
animal's speed, came up with Loustalot. Straight at the big gray he
drove, "hazing" him off the road and stopping him abruptly. At the
same time, he leaped from Panchito full on top of Loustalot, and bore
the latter crashing to the ground.

The chase was over. Half-stunned, the enemy of Don Miguel Jose Farrel
II lay flat on his back, blinking up at Don Miguel Farrel III as the
latter's knees pressed the Loustalot breast, the while his fingers
clasped the hairy Loustalot throat in a grip that was a promise of
death if the latter struggled.

As Kay drew up in the car and, white-faced and wondering, gazed at the
unwonted spectacle, Miguel Farrel released his captive and stood erect.

"So sorry to have made a brawl in your presence, Miss Parker, but he
would have ruined our old Bob horse if I hadn't overtaken him." He
turned to the man on the ground. "Get up, Loustalot!" The latter
staggered to his feet. "Pablo," Farrel continued, "take this man back
to the ranch and lock him up in your private calaboose. See that he
does not escape, and permit no one to speak with him."

Prom the gray's saddle he took a short piece of rope, such as vaqueros
use to tie the legs of an animal when they have roped and thrown it.

"Mount!" he commanded. Loustalot climbed wearily aboard the spent
gray, and held his hands behind him with Farrel bound them securely.
Pablo thereupon mounted Panchito, took the gray's leading-rope, and