wly.

"It's takin' chances," he growled. "String him up, I say. He knows us all
now, and I'd sooner he'd look through a rope than me."

"You shore are ornery, Pete," said a third, "an' plumb set on stretchin'
yore neck. Cain't yuh see that if yuh hang this feller we'll have both the
sheep and cattlemen ag'in us?"

"Shore, that's sense," broke in another. "Less hear Joe's scheme."

"'Tain't so blame much, boys," countered the chief modestly. "We'll make
this Larkin swear never to give word agin us if we don't kill him. Then
we'll run him off into the hills for four or five days with a guard,
finish our own drive, and clear out, lettin' him go. What d'ye think of
that?"

"It's a reg'lar hum-dinger, Joe," said one man, and the others concurred
in the laudatory opinion.

But at the first sentence to Larkin, that young man upset their well-laid
plans.

"Larkin," said Joe, "we allow as how we'd like to make a bargain with
yuh?"

"If you are going to bargain with me to break the law, you had better not
say anything about it," was the reply.

"I was jest about startin' one of them mutual protective, benefit and
literary sassieties," suggested Joe tactfully as a feeler, while his
comrades grinned.

"Don't want to hear about it," retorted Bud, divining the intention. "You
can do anything you like with me, but don't tell me your bargains. I've
got troubles enough with my sheep without signing on any more. Now, look
here, men, I don't want to interfere with you, and it only wastes your
time to bother with me. Suppose you let me go about my business and you go
about yours."

"Swear on oath never to recognize or bear witness against us?"

"No. What kind of a crook do you think I am? If I were put under oath by a
sheriff, I would have to accuse you, and I'd do it."

Joe Parker's face lost its expression of genial amiability and he looked
about on a circle of dark countenances.

"I'm plumb sorry you act this-a-way," he said aggrievedly. "Boys, where's
the nearest tree?"

"Ten miles."

"After dinner everybody saddle up," came the order.

CHAPTER VII

PRAIRIE BELL

When Juliet Bissell rode back to the Bar T ranch after her parting with
Larkin at the fork of Grass Creek, she was a decidedly more thoughtful and
sober young woman than she had been at the same hour the day previous.

Although blessed with an adoring father and a rather eccentric mother, she
had, for the last year, begun to feel the stirring