amp.

"What're yuh doin' this for?" stormed Stelton, at a loss to explain the
sudden appearance of Larkin in Caldwell's place, but beginning to have a
terrible fear.

"Don't you know?"

"No, I don't." His tone was convincing.

"Well, I'll tell you. All the rustlers are taken, and I have absolute
proof that you are their leader," replied Bud coolly. "I allow old Bissell
will be glad to see you when you're brought in, eh?"

Stelton laughed contemptuously.

"What proof?" he demanded.

"A note to Smithy Caldwell that he forgot to burn. He tried to swallow it
when I captured him, but I saw him first."

Stelton stood the blow well and made no answer, but Larkin, watching him,
saw his head drop a trifle as though he were crushed by some heavy weight.

"What're yuh goin' to do with me now?" he asked at last.

"Ship you under guard to the Bar T ranch, where the rest have gone. Then
the cattlemen can settle your case when they come back from their
vacation."

For an instant it was on Stelton's tongue to blurt out what had happened
two days previous, but an instinctive knowledge that Larkin would profit
by the information restrained him, and he continued riding on in silence,
a prey to dismal thoughts better imagined than described.

CHAPTER XX

SOMEBODY NEW TURNS UP

Utterly exhausted with his day's riding and the stress of his other
labors, Bud Larkin, driving his captive, arrived at the sheep camp shortly
before sundown. Faint with hunger--for he had not eaten since morning--he
turned Stelton over to the eager sheepmen who rode out to meet him.

Things had gone well that day with the drive, for the animals, under
pressure, had made fifteen miles. The cattle, at first hard to manage, had
finally been induced to lead and flank the march, but neither they nor the
sheep had grazed much.

When Larkin arrived they had just reached a stream and had been separated
from the sheep that both might drink untainted water. Sims had set his
night watchers, and these were beginning to circle the herd. The sheep
were bedding down on a near-by rise of ground.

Larkin, having eaten, cooled and bathed himself in the stream and returned
to the camp for rest. Shortly thereafter a single horseman, laden with a
bulky apparatus, was seen approaching from a distance. Immediately men
mounted and rode out to meet him, and returned with him to camp when he
had proved himself harmless and expressed a desire to remain all night i