eiling his eyes, he
peered narrowly through it at the doctor.

"There's a man in the graveyard up at Cheyenne that made a talk like
that one time," he said.

"I'll have to take your word for that," returned Slavens, quite unmoved.
"I'll meet you at the hotel in Meander tomorrow morning at nine o'clock
for a settlement, one way or the other."

"One way or the other," repeated Boyle.

He mounted his horse and rode away toward Meander, trailing a thin line
of smoke behind him.

Agnes hurried forward to meet Slavens as he turned toward her. Her face
was bloodless, her bosom agitated.

"I heard part of what you said," she told him. "Surely you don't mean to
go over there and fight him on his own ground, among his friends?"

"I'm going over there to see the county attorney," said he. "He's from
Kansas, and a pretty straight sort of chap, it seemed to me from what I
saw of him. I'm going to put this situation of ours before him, citing a
hypothetical case, and get his advice. I don't believe that there's a
shred of a case against you, and I doubt whether Boyle can bluff the
government officials into making a move in it, even with all his
influence."

"And you'll come back here and tell me what he says, no matter what his
opinion may be, before you act one way or another?"

"If you wish it, although--Well, yes--if you wish it."

"I do, most earnestly," she assured him.

"You need a good sleep," he counseled. "Turn in as soon as I'm gone, and
don't worry about this. There's a good deal of bluff in Boyle."

"He's treacherous, and he shoots wonderfully. He killed that poor fellow
last night without ever seeing him at all."

"But I'm not going to take a shot at him out of the dark," said he.

"I know. But I'll be uneasy until you return."

"There's too much trouble in your face today for one of your years," he
said, lifting her chin with rather a professional rebuke in his eyes.
"You'll have to put it down, or it will make you old. Go right on
dreaming and planning; things will come out exactly as you have
designed."

"Perhaps," she agreed, but with little hope in her voice.

Slavens saddled his horse after they had refreshed themselves with
coffee. Agnes stood by, racked with an anxiety which seemed to grind her
heart. The physician thought of the pioneer women of his youth, of those
who lived far out on the thin edge of prairie reaches, and in the gloom
of forests which groaned around them in the lone winds o