ng through her nerves. The
blow, it seemed, had fallen upon her forehead, and she thrust a hand up
mechanically to the spot. But the action yielded her no enlightenment.
There was no pain, no sign.

She peered through the open window and realized that the moon had
risen. She stared at it, and presently it occurred to her that she
must have slept, and, by the position of the moon above the horizon,
for at least an hour.

Then her thoughts returned to the blow which had awakened her, and the
conclusion followed that it must have been the result of the half-blind
flight of one of those great winged beetles.

She closed the window abruptly. She closed the second one. Then,
having drawn the curtains, she fumbled for the matches and lit the
candles upon her dressing bureau. It was her intention to search for
the intruding beetle, and then retire.

But her search terminated abruptly. It terminated even as it began.
That which had struck her was lying almost at her feet upon the soft
rug on which she stood, and within a yard of where she had been
sitting. It was a piece of paper tied about a small ball of soil.

She stared down at it for some startled moments. The effects of her
dread were still upon her, and they set up a sort of panic which made
her fearful of touching the missile. But it could not remain there
uninspected. There could be no thought of retiring without learning
the meaning of what lay there on the floor.

Gingerly she stooped with a candle in her hand. She stooped lower, but
making no attempt to touch the thing which had disturbed her. The
candle revealed a folded sheet of white paper. A string bound it round
the rooted portion of a grass tuft.

After a few moments she reached out and picked it up. The next moment
she was standing erect at her bureau, and with a pair of scissors she
severed the string and dropped the grass tuft to the floor.

The paper was folded and thumb-marked by dirty hands. With shaking
fingers and tense nerves she deliberately unfolded it.

It was a note, and she read it eagerly.

"You sold the lives of men for a price. You had it your way then.
We're goin' to have our way now. You'll pay for that deal the only way
we know."

* * * * * *

Elvine sat watching the scenes of the work of the range. The men were
returning from distant points making for the ranch house where their
evening meal was awaiting them at the bunkhous