and thought about the situation. Sympathize
though he did with Mead's trouble, he could not help a little feeling
of gratification that after all there was to be no wife to come
between them and take Emerson away from him and Nick. Emerson would
forget all about it in a little while and their lifelong friendship
would go on and be just as it had always been. On the whole, he felt
pleased, and at the same time ashamed that he was pleased, that Miss
Delarue was going to marry Wellesly.

"I don't think much of her judgment, though," he commented to himself,
contemptuously. "Any girl that would take that scrub Wellesly when she
might have Emerson Mead--well, she can't amount to much! Bah!
Emerson's better off without her!"

That evening, as the four men sat smoking under the cottonwoods, Mead
said quietly:

"Judge, I'm goin' to pull my freight."

"What do you mean, Emerson?"

"I mean that this country will be better off without me and I'll be
better off without it. I'm goin' to light out."

"Soon?"

"As soon as I can give away this ranch to the Fillmore outfit, or
anybody that will have it. Nick, you and Tom better take it. I'll give
it to you for love and affection and one dollar, if you want to take
the fight along with it."

"Nothing would please me better," Nick replied, "than to clean up all
your old scores against the Fillmore outfit, but I reckon if we take
it we'll just run it for you until you-all come back."

"All right. I'll turn it over to you to-morrow. You can have all you
can make out of it and if I'm not back inside of five years you can
divide it between you."

"Everybody will say you are running away from the Whittaker case and
that you are afraid to face a trial," said Judge Harlin.

"They may say what they damn please," replied Mead.

Something like a smothered sob sounded from Tuttle's chair, and he
exclaimed fiercely, "They'd better not say that to me!"

"There's no likelihood," said Judge Harlin, "that the grand jury will
indict you, as things stand now, or that the case would amount to much
if they should. If you want to stay and face the music, Emerson, I
don't think you need to feel apprehensive about the result."

"Oh, I'm not afraid of the trial, if there should be one. But I don't
think there'll be any. I'm not going to submit to arrest, trial, or
anything else, until they can prove that Will Whittaker's dead, and
they can't do that. I told Wellesly that I would let them arres