it's I--Juliet!" cried the girl, recognizing the speaker and
running toward him.

There was a surprised exclamation out of the darkness, and the sound of a
man vaulting from the saddle. The next moment and he had clasped his
daughter in his arms.

Larkin, his mission completed, started to back away from the scene, but
the girl herself wrecked this intention.

"It was Mr. Larkin who called out," she said, evidently in answer to a
question. "He saved my life, father, and he has brought me safely back. He
is standing right over there."

At this Bud turned and ran, but the sound of a pony closing in on him
brought him to a stop.

"Well, what do you want?" he demanded angrily.

"Bissell wants to see you," said the rider whose voice the sheepman
recognized as that of Stelton.

Not deigning to enter an argument with the foreman, Bud walked back to
where Bissell stood beside his horse.

"Now the sheep are out of the way, if you want to learn anything about
rustlers I guess our friend here can tell you," remarked Stelton
suddenly, in a voice exultant as it was ugly.

"Oh, yes, father," added Juliet, "he's been with them for almost two
days."

"Is this so, Mr. Larkin?" asked Bissell.

"Yes."

"Well, we won't discuss it now," said the cowman. "Let's go back to the
ranch house and get something to eat. I have an extra horse here, Larkin,
if you care to ride."

"I don't care to, thanks," answered Bud dryly. "Since you have ruined me,
you will do me a favor by letting me go."

"I allow I'd like to do you a favor," rejoined Bissell with equal
courtesy, "but I've got to find out about them rustlers. We won't keep yuh
long."

"Come on, get up on that horse," said the voice of Stelton close beside
him, and Bud turned to look into the long barrel of the foreman's gun that
was stuck under his nose.

Trembling with suppressed fury, he did as he was told, but on the ten-mile
ride to the Bar T ranch said nothing, and only revolved in his mind one
question: How did Stelton know he had been with the rustlers before Julie
had said anything about them?

CHAPTER XI

MADE PRISONER

At three o'clock the next afternoon Beef Bissell felt better than he had
for some time, this condition being a result of his vindictive triumph
over Bud Larkin, and the fact that that young man was in his hands. He
felt that the back of the sheep business had been broken as far as his
range and his county were concerned.

I have put