's what he calls
himself--took her away from the young fellow she'd married and started up
to Brown's Park with her. Somehow she gave him the slip, swam the river,
an' came back to town barefoot through the snow. Seems she lost her shoes
while she was crossin' the Blanco."

The color washed away beneath the tan of the father's face. "Where's she
at?"

"Here--at the hotel. Mrs. Gillespie an' Doc Tuckerman are lookin' after
her."

"I'd like to go to her right away."

"Sure. Dud, you know where the room is. Take Mr. Tolliver there."

"Pete." Houck's voice was hoarse, but no longer defiant. In this little
man, whom he had always bullied and dominated, whose evil genius he had
been, lay his hope of life. "Pete, you ain't a-going to leave yore old
pardner to be hanged."

Tolliver looked bleakly at him. The spell this man had woven over him
twenty-odd years ago was broken forever. "I'm through with you, Jake," he
said.

"You ain't intendin' to lift a hand for me?"

"Not a finger."

"Won't you tell these men howcome it I rode down to Bear Cat after
June?"

The Piceance Creek man's jaw tightened. His small eyes flashed hate.
"Sure, I'll tell 'em that. About two-three weeks ago Houck showed up at
my place an' stayed overnight. I knew him when we was both younger, but I
hadn't seen him for a long time. He took a notion to my June. She didn't
want to have a thing to do with him, but he bullied her, same as he did
me. June she found out he knew something about me, an' she was afraid to
make him mad. I reckon finally he got some kinda promise outa her. He had
some business at Meeker, an' he was comin' back to the ranch yestiddy.
Then he aimed to bring her here to get married."

He was looking steadily at Houck. Pete had found at last the courage to
defy him. He could tell anything he liked about the escape from Canyon
City.

"I was away all day lookin' over my traps an' fixin' them up. When I
reached home I found two notes. I got 'em here somewheres." Tolliver
fumbled in his coat pockets, but did not find them. "One was from June.
She said she was runnin' away to marry the Dillon boy. The other was from
Jake Houck. He'd got to the house before I did, found her note to me, an'
lit out after her. Soon's I could run up a horse I hit the trail too."

"Threw me down, eh, Pete?" Houck said bitterly. "Well, there's two can
play at that."

Tolliver did not flinch. "Go to it, soon as you've a mind to. I don't owe
you a thi