im. I'll have your supper
as soon as you are ready."

Patches almost fell asleep at the table. As soon as they had finished he
went to his bed, where he remained, as Phil reported at intervals during
the next forenoon, "dead to the world," until dinner time. In the
afternoon they gathered under the walnut trees--the Cross-Triangle
household and the friends from the neighboring ranch--and Patches told
them his story; how, when he had left the ranch that night, he had
ridden straight to his old friend Stanford Manning; and how Stanford had
gone with him to the sheriff, where, through Manning's influence,
together with the letter which Patches had brought from the Dean, he had
been made an officer of the law. As he told them briefly of his days and
nights alone, they needed no minute details to understand what it had
meant to him.

"It wasn't the work of catching Nick in a way to ensure his conviction
that I minded," he said, "but the trouble was, that while I was watching
Nick day and night, and dodging him all the time, I was afraid some
enthusiastic cow-puncher would run on to me and treat himself to a shot
just for luck. Not that I would have minded that so much, either, after
the first week," he added in his droll way, "but considering all the
circumstances it would have been rather a poor sort of finish."

"And what about Yavapai Joe?" asked Phil.

Patches smiled. "Where is Joe? What's he been doing all day?"

The Dean answered. "He's just been moseyin' around. I tried to get him
to talk, but all he would say was that he'd rather let Mr. Knight tell
it."

"Billy," said Patches, "will you find Yavapai Joe, and tell him that I
would like to see him here?"

When Little Billy, with the assistance of Jimmy and Conny and Jack, had
gone proudly on his mission, Patches said to the others, "Technically,
of course, Joe is my prisoner until after the trial, but please don't
let him feel it. He will be the principal witness for the state."

When Yavapai Joe appeared, embarrassed and ashamed in their presence,
Patches said, as courteously as he would have introduced an equal, "Joe,
I want my friends to know your real name. There is no better place in
the world than right here to start that job of man-making that we have
talked about. You remember that I told you how I started here."

Yavapai Joe lifted his head and stood straighter by his tall friend's
side, and there was a new note in his voice as he answered, "Whateve