m in the hills above the
Jackpot and show him the way down there, after which he would ride to
meet the girl who was waiting for him. This would give him time enough to
get away safely. It was no business of his whether or not Doble was
taken. He was an overbearing brute, anyhow.

An hour's riding through the chaparral brought him to the watershed far
above the Jackpot. Otero picked his way to the upper end of a gulch.

"Leesten, muchacho. Go down--down--down. First the gulch, then a canon,
then the Jackpot. You go on thees trail."

He dropped the boy to the ground, watched him start, then turned away at
a Spanish trot.

The trail was a rough and precipitous one. Stumbling as he walked, Keith
went sobbing down the gulch. He had wept himself out, and his sobs had
fallen to a dry hiccough. A forlorn little chap, tired and sleepy, he
picked his way among the mesquite, following the path along the dry creek
bed. The catclaw tore his stockings and scratched him. Stone bruises hurt
his tender feet. He kept traveling, because he was afraid to give up.

He reached the junction of the gulch and the canon. A small stream, which
had survived the summer drought, trickled down the bed of the latter.
Through tangled underbrush Keith crept to the water. He lay down and
drank, after which he sat on a rock and pitied himself. In five minutes
he would have been asleep if a sound had not startled him. Some one was
snoring on the other side of a mesquite thicket.

Keith jumped up, pushed his way through, and almost stumbled over a
sleeping man. He knelt down and began to shake the snorer. The man did
not awaken. The foghorn in his throat continued to rumble intermittently,
now in crescendo, now in diminuendo.

"Wake up, man!" Keith shouted in his ear in the interval between shakes.

The sleeper was a villainous-looking specimen. His face and throat were
streaked with black. There was an angry wheal across his cheek. One of
the genus tramp would have scorned his charred clothes. Keith cared for
none of these details. He wanted to unload his troubles to a "grown-up."

The youngster roused the man at last by throwing water in his face.
Shorty sat up, at the same time dragging out a revolver. His gaze
fastened on the boy, after one swift glance round.

"Who's with you, kid?" he demanded.

Keith began to sniffle. "Nobody."

"Whadya doin' here?"

"I want my daddy."

"Who is yore daddy? What's yore name?"

"Keith Crawford."

S