ed. "G-glory be, son. I 'most had heart f-failure
whilst you was hoofin' it over the mesa. Oh, boy! I'm g-glad to see
you."

Bob sat down and panted for breath. "I got to go--back again," he
whispered from a dry throat.

"What's that?" demanded Harshaw. "Back where?"

"To--to the river. I came to get help--for Houck."

"Houck?"

"He's down there in the willows wounded."

CHAPTER XXXIV

AN OBSTINATE MAN STANDS PAT

A moment of blank silence fell on the little group crouched among the
boulders. Bob's statement that he had to go back through the fire
zone--to Houck--had fallen among them like a mental bombshell.

Blister was the first to find his voice. "You been down there l-lookin'
after him?"

"Yes. They hit him in the leg--twice. An' once in the side. He's outa his
head. I got him water from the river."

"Was that when I heard shootin' down there?" Dud asked.

"I reckon."

"Well, I'll be d-dawg-goned!" Blister exclaimed.

Of life's little ironies he had never seen a stranger example than this.
It had fallen to Bob Dillon to look after his bitter enemy, to risk his
life for him, to traverse a battle-field under heavy fire in order to get
help for him. His mind flashed back to the boy he had met less than a
year ago, a pallid, trembling weakling who had shriveled under the acid
test of danger. He had traveled a long way since then in self-conquest.

"Houck was down in the open last I seen him," Hawks said. "Did he crawl
to the willows?"

"I kinda helped him," Bob said, a little ashamed.

"Hmp! An' now you think we'd ought to let two-three men get shot going
after him across the mesa," Harshaw said. "Nothin' doing. Not right away
anyhow. Houck's foolishness got him into the hole where he is. He'll have
to wait till we clean out this nest in the gulch. Soon as we've done that
we'll go after him."

"But the Utes will rush the willows," Bob protested mildly.

"Sorry, but he'll have to take his chance of that. Any of the rest of us
would in his place. You've done what you could, son. That lets you out."

"No, I'm going back," Bob said quietly. "I told him I would. I got to
go."

"That wouldn't be r-right sensible, would it?" asked Blister. "N-not
right away anyhow. After we get those b-birds outa the blackberry bushes,
time enough then for you to h-hit the back trail."

"No, I promised." There was in Bob's face a look Blister had never seen
there before, something hard and dogged and impla