suddenly dry.

"You done guessed it first crack," Tom nodded.

"Not yet, boys," protested Haines in his whispering falsetto. "I reckon
we'd ought to wait an' see how the girl comes out."

"Why had we?" demanded a squat puncher from the Keystone. "What
difference does it make? If ever any one needed stringin' up, it's the
guy here. He's worse than Douglas or any other Injun ever was. Is it yore
notion we'd oughta sit around with our hands in our pockets, Blister,
while reptiles like this Houck make our girls swim the river at night an'
plough barefoot through snowstorms? I ain't that easy-dispositioned
myself."

"Shorty's sure whistlin'. Same here," another chap-clad rider chipped
in.

"An' here."

Blister dropped into the background inconspicuously and vanished. He
appeared to be in a minority of one, not counting Houck, and he needed
reenforcements.

"We'll hear what Mr. Houck has to say before we pass judgment," Larson
said.

But Houck, looking into the circle of grim faces that surrounded him,
knew that he was condemned. Nothing that he could say would make any
difference. He shrugged his heavy shoulders.

"What's the use? You've done made up yore minds."

He noticed that the younger fellows were pressing closer to him. Pretty
soon they would disarm him. If he was going to make a fight for his life,
it had to be now. His arm dropped to his side, close to the butt of the
revolver he carried.

He was too late. Hollister jumped for his wrist and at the same time Mike
flung himself across the bar and garroted him. He struggled fiercely to
free himself, but was dragged down to the floor and pinioned. Before he
was lifted up his hands were tied behind him.

Unobserved, the front door of the barroom had opened. An ice-coated
figure was standing on the threshold.

Houck laughed harshly. "Come right in, Tolliver. You'll be in time to
take a hand in the show."

The little trapper's haggard eyes went round in perplexity. "What's the
trouble?" he asked mildly.

"No trouble a-tall," answered the big prisoner hardily. "The boys are
hangin' me. That's all."

CHAPTER XIV

HOUCK TAKES A RIDE

Tolliver rubbed a hand uncertainly over a bristly chin. "Why, what are
they doin' that for, Jake?"

"Are you the Tolliver girl's father?" asked Larson.

"Yes, sir."

"Then we got bad news for you. She's sick."

"Sick?" the trapper's lips trembled.

"A mighty sick girl. This man here--this Houck, if that