ould put those three on their guard and
would probably not benefit him in the long run. They could work the
brands on other cattle.

He hunched forward in the saddle and let Rattler choose his own trail
up the hill. Though he did not know it, trouble had caught Billy
Louise in that same place, and had sent her forward with drooping
shoulders and a mind so absorbed that she gave no attention to her
horse; but that is merely a trifling coincidence. The thing he had to
decide was far more complicated than Billy Louise's problem.

Should he go straight to Seabeck and tell him what he had found out?
He did not know Seabeck, except as he had met him once or twice on the
trail and exchanged trivial greetings and a few words about the
weather. Besides, Seabeck would very soon find out--

There it stood at his shoulder, grinning at him malevolently--his past.
It tied his hands. Buck Olney he could deal with single-handed; for
Olney had the fear of him that is born of a guilty conscience. He
could send Buck "over the road" whenever he chose to tell some things
he knew; he could do it without any compunctions, too. Buck Olney, the
stock inspector, deserved no mercy at Ward's hands; and would get none,
if ever they met where Ward would have a chance at him.

Olney he could deal with, alone. But with the evidence of those
rebranded cattle, and the testimony of two men, together with the
damning testimony of his past! Ward lifted his head and stared heavily
at the pine slope before him. He could not go to Seabeck and tell him
anything. In the black hour of that ride, he could not think of
anything that he could do that would save him.

And then quite suddenly, in his desperation, he decided upon something.
He laughed hardly, turned Rattler back from the homeward trail, and
returned to the corral in the canyon. "They started this game, and
they've put it up to me," he told himself grimly, "and they needn't
squeal if they burn their own fingers."

He hurried, for he had some work ahead of him, and the sun was sliding
past the noon mark already. He reached the corral and went about what
he had to do as if he were working for wages and wanted to give good
measure.

First, he rebuilt the little fire just outside the corral where the
cattle could not trample it, but where one might thrust a branding iron
into its midst from between the rails. When it was going properly, he
searched certain likely hiding-places and fou