out to string yuh up, wasn't he?"

This time there was a long hesitation as Bud tried vainly to catch the
drift of the other's interrogation.

"Yes," he answered slowly at last.

"Well, then, he must have been one of the rustlers," cried Stelton in a
triumphant voice, turning to the rest of the men, who were listening
intently.

"All right, I admit it," remarked Larkin coolly. "I don't see where that
is taking you."

"Just keep yore shirt on an' yuh will in a minute," retorted Stelton.
"Now just one or two more questions.

"Do you remember the first night Caldwell came to the Bar T ranch?"

Larkin did not answer. A premonition that he was in the toils of this man
concerning that dark thing in his past life smote him with a chill of
terror. He remembered wondering that very night whether or not Stelton had
been listening to his talk with Caldwell. Then the recollection suddenly
came to him that, even though he had heard, the foreman could not expose
the thing that was back of it all. Once more he regained his equilibrium.

"Yes, I remember that night," he said calmly.

"All right!" snapped Stelton, his words like pistol-shots. "Then yuh
remember that Smithy Caldwell got five hundred dollars from yuh after a
talk by the corral, don't you?"

"Yes," replied Larkin, in immense relief that Stelton had not mentioned
the blackmail.

"Well, then, gents," cried the foreman with the air of a lawyer making a
great point, "yuh have the admission from Larkin that he gave money
secretly to one of the rustlers. If that ain't connivance and ackchul
support I'm a longhorn heifer."

He sat down on the grass triumphantly.

It seemed to Bud Larkin as though some gigantic club had descended on the
top of his head and numbed all his senses. Careful as he had been, this
wily devil had led him into a labyrinthic maze of questions, the end of
which was a concealed precipice. And, like one of his own sheep, he had
leaped over it at the leader's call!

He looked at the faces of his judges. They were all dark now and
perplexed. Even Billy Speaker seemed convinced. Bud admitted to himself
that his only chance was to refute Stelton's damaging inference. But how?

The cowmen were beginning to talk in low tones among themselves and there
was not much time. Suddenly an idea came. With a difficult effort he
controlled his nervous trepidation.

"Men," he said, "Stelton did not pursue his questions far enough."

"What d'yuh mean by tha