k down and he
wouldn't come to the house, just stayed out and watched the wind and
lightning?"

"He is funny that way," Charley admitted.

"Well, he'll never catch that mare," Parker said, "she's too--"

"Oh, I don't know," Chuck interrupted, "look how he has tamed Captain
Jack," referring to the Ramblin' Kid's own horse, one time a famous
renegade.

"How was that?" Carolyn June inquired carelessly.

"Captain Jack was an outlaw, too," Bert explained. "He run over on the
East Mesa on the Una de Gata. Charley and me and th' Ramblin' Kid got
him to going one day when there was some ranch mares in his bunch. One
of them was a hand-raised filly, was a pet and she was--well, pretty
hot! We worked them over the rim of the Mesa and into the canyon, it
was a box-gorge from where they hit it to its head, and at the upper end
there was a wing corral. The mare swung up the canyon towards the ranch
and--Jack wouldn't quit her! We was pounding right on their heels and
before he knowed it we had them penned--"

"That shows what happens when a he-thing goes locoed over a female
critter," Chuck whispered to Parker; "you and Old Heck want to watch
out!"

"Be careful, you danged fool!" Parker hissed as he kicked at Chuck's
shins under the table. Excited, he made a mistake in the foot he should
have used and viciously slammed his left toe against Ophelia's dainty
ankle.

The widow looked startled and suddenly sat up very straight in her
chair.

Parker realized his error, turned red, choked, leaned close to Chuck and
breathed hoarsely, "I'll kill you some day for that!"

"He sure went crazy when he found he was corraled," Charley said, "and
forgot all about the mare."

"He sure did," Bert continued, while Carolyn June listened intently,
"and was plumb wild to bu'st down the pen and be free again. Charley nor
me didn't want him and so th' Ramblin' Kid said he'd take him. Just then
Tony Malush--we was punchin' for him--come riding up and was going to
shoot Captain Jack on account of wanting to clean the range of the
outlaw stallions. He yanked out his gun and started to pull a drop on
old Jack's head. Th' Ramblin' Kid jerked his own forty-four and told
Tony he'd kill him if he shot the renegade broncho. Tony backed up, but
it made him sore and he fired th' Ramblin' Kid. The darned little cuss
set there a minute thinking, then slid off his horse, stripped him of
riding gear, flung saddle, blanket and bridle over the bars into th