d been going
from bad to worse. If an overpowering love gripped him, a yielding to
it in a right way might make a better man of him. Pan could not see
anything else. He had known more than one good-for-nothing cowboy,
drinking and gambling himself straight to hell, who had fooled his
detractors and had taken the narrow trail for a woman others deemed
worthless. There was something about this kind of fight that appealed
to Pan. As for the girl, Louise Melliss, and her reaction to such a
desperate climax, Pan had only his strange faith that it might create a
revolution in her soul. At least he was absolutely sure she would
never return to such a life, and she was young.

Pan sought his blankets very late, and it seemed he scarcely had closed
his eyes when Juan called him. It was pitch dark outside. The boys
were stirring, the horses pounding, the campfire crackling. He pulled
on his boots with a will. Glad he was to return to the life of camps,
horses, cold dawns, hard fare and hard riding. He smelled the frying
ham, the steaming coffee.

"Mawnin', pardner," drawled Blinky. "Shore thought you was daid. Grab
a pan of grub heah.... An' say, cowboy, from now on you can call me
Somers--Frank Somers. I'm proud of the name, but I reckon it was
ashamed of me."

"Ah-huh! All right, Blink Somers," replied Pan cheerfully. "You'll
always be Blink to me."

They ate standing and sitting before the campfire, in the chill
blackness just beginning to turn gray. Then swift hands and lean
strong arms went at beds and packs, horses and saddles. When dawn
broke the hunters were on their way, far up the cedar slope.

Pan gazed back and down upon Marco, a ragged one-street town of motley
appearance, its white tents, its adobe huts, its stone buildings, and
high board fronts, mute and still in the morning grayness. What greed,
what raw wild life slept there!

Far beyond the town he saw the green-patched farm, the little gray
cabin where his mother and Lucy slept, no doubt dreaming of the hopes
he had fostered in them. Some doubt, some fear, intangible and
inexplicable, passed over him as he looked. Would all be well with
Lucy? There was indeed much to be feared, and he could never give
happiness full rein until he had her safe away from Marco.

Once out of sight of the town Pan forced himself to the job ahead. And
as always, to ride a good-gaited horse with open country ahead lulled
his mind into content.

Bli