ous
family surrey, the others ordinary mountain wagons. In the hinder seat
of the surrey, and beside the sheriff, sat a gray-haired man.

"It is Senator Brisbane!" said Curtis to Wilson, and a keen pang of
anticipated loss came to him, for he knew that Brisbane had come to take
his daughter away. But his face was calm as he went down to the gate to
meet his distinguished and powerful enemy.

The ex-Senator was hot, weary, and angry. He had arrived in Pinon City
on the early train, just as the county attorney and the sheriff were
about to set forth. A few words with these officials assuaged his
anxiety for his daughter but increased his irritation towards Curtis.
Leaving orders for another team to follow, he had taken passage with the
sheriff, an action he regretted at once. The seats were too low and too
narrow for his vast bulk, and his knees grew weary. The wind came from
the plain hot and insolent, bringing no relief to the lungs; on the
contrary, it filled his eyes and ears with dust and parched the skin
like a furnace blast. Altogether the conditions of his ride had been
torturing to the great man, and he had ridden the latter part of it in
grim silence, mentally execrating both Lawson and Curtis for luring his
daughter so far from civilization.

No one spoke till the agent, pacing calmly down to the gate, stepped
into the road and said:

"Good-evening, gentlemen, will you get out and come in?"

Even then Brisbane made no reply, but the sheriff spoke up: "I suppose
we'll have to. This is Senator Brisbane, Major. He was very anxious
about his daughter and so came in with me. This is Mr. Grismore, our
county attorney."

Curtis bowed slightly. "Mr. Grismore I have seen. Senator Brisbane I
have met. Send your horses down to the corral, sheriff, and come in; you
can't return to-night."

As the sheriff got out he said: "This second team is the Senator's, and
the reporter for the Associated Press is in there with Streeter."

Brisbane got out slowly and painfully, and a yellow-gray pallor came
into his face as he stood beside the carriage steadying himself by
resting his hand on the wheel. The young county attorney, eager to serve
the great politician, sprang out and offered a hand, and Curtis, with
sudden pity in his heart, made a step forward, but Brisbane put them
both aside harshly.

"No, no! I'm all right now. My legs were cramped--that's all. They'll
limber up in a minute. The seats were too low for a man