s glad that Curly had left the gates open. As she crossed the
familiar ground between the old Acton home and the ranch house on the
other side of the sandy wash, she saw them. They were carrying him into
the house as she rode into the yard, and at sight of that still form the
gray mist came again, and she caught the saddle horn to save herself
from falling. But it was only a moment until she was strong again, and
ready to do all that Mrs. Baldwin asked.

Phil had regained consciousness before they started home with him, but
he was very weak from the loss of blood and the journey in the
buckboard, though Bob drove ever so carefully, was almost more than he
could bear. But with the relief that came when he was at last lying
quietly in his own bed, and with the help of the stimulant, the splendid
physical strength and vitality that was his because of his natural and
unspoiled life again brought him back from the shadows into the light of
full consciousness.

It was then that the Dean, while Mrs. Baldwin and Kitty were occupied
for a few moments in another part of the house, listened to all that his
foreman could tell him about the affair up to the time that he had
fallen unconscious. The Dean asked but few questions. But when the
details were all clearly fixed in his mind, the older man bent over Phil
and looked straight into the lad's clear and steady eyes, while he asked
in a low tone, "Phil, did Patches do this?"

And the young man answered, "Uncle Will, I don't know."

With this he closed his eyes wearily, as though to sleep, and the Dean,
seeing Kitty in the doorway, beckoned her to come and sit beside the
bed. Then he stole quietly from the room.

As in a dream Phil had seen Kitty when she rode into the yard. And he
had been conscious of her presence as she moved about the house and the
room where he lay. But he had given no sign that he knew she was there.
As she seated herself, at the Dean's bidding, the cowboy opened his eyes
for a moment, and looked up into her face. Then again the weary lids
closed, and he gave no hint that he recognized her, save that the white
lips set in firmer lines as though at another stab of pain.

As she watched alone beside this man who had, since she could remember,
been a part of her life, and as she realized that he was on the very
border line of that land from which, if he entered, he could never
return to her, Kitty Reid knew the truth that is greater than any
knowledge that