ed down from the door of the manager's office and strode
slowly toward the bunkhouse. On the way he passed several of the men,
but he paid no attention to them, his face wearing an evil expression,
his eyes glittering venomously.

When he reached the bunkhouse he passed several more of the men without
a word, going directly to a corner of the room where sat Tucson and
conversing earnestly with his friend. A little later both he and
Tucson rose and passed out of the bunkhouse, walking toward the
blacksmith shop.

After a little they appeared, again joining the group outside the
bunkhouse. It was while Leviatt and Tucson were in the blacksmith shop
that Ferguson had come in. When they came out again the stray-man had
disappeared into the manager's office.

Since the day when in the manager's office, Ferguson had walked across
the floor to return to Leviatt the leather tobacco pouch that the
latter had dropped in the depression on the ridge above the gully where
the stray-man had discovered the dead Two Diamond cow and her calf,
Leviatt had known that the stray-man suspected him of being leagued
with the rustlers. But this knowledge had not disturbed him. He felt
secure because of his position. Even the stray-man would have to have
absolute, damning evidence before he could hope to be successful in
proving a range boss guilty of cattle stealing.

Leviatt had been more concerned over the stray-man's apparent success
in courting Mary Radford. His hatred--beginning with the shooting
match in Dry Bottom--had been intensified by the discovery of Ferguson
on the Radford porch in Bear Flat; by the incident at the bunkhouse,
when Rope Jones had prevented Tucson from shooting the stray-man from
behind, and by the discovery that the latter suspected him of
complicity with the cattle thieves. But it had reached its highest
point when Mary Radford spurned his love. After that he had realized
that just so long as the stray-man lived and remained at the Two
Diamond there would be no peace or security for him there.

Yet he had no thought of settling his differences with Ferguson as man
to man. Twice had he been given startling proof of the stray-man's
quickness with the six-shooter, and each time his own slowness had been
crushingly impressed on his mind. He was not fool enough to think that
he could beat the stray-man at that game.

But there were other ways. Rope Jones had discovered that--when it had
been too late