orrigan either," he said. "Look at your horse down
there. If you're all right, I'll go down and see how many bones he's
broken. You had a chance for a nasty pile-up. Do you know that?"

"I'm grateful," said Mary Hope soberly. "But it was Lorrigan meanness
brought me here; it was a Lorrigan got me into the trouble now, and a
Lorrigan got me out of it. It's _always_ the Lorrigans."

"Yes, and a Lorrigan's got to see you a little farther before you're
through with them, so cheer up." Lance laughed again, an amused
little chuckle that was calculated to take the droop out of Mary
Hope's lips, and failed completely.

He saw her cheeks were reddening, saw too that her face gave evidence
of no particular bodily pain. She had probably fainted from fright,
more than anything else, he decided, and her fright was now forgotten
in her animosity. He slid off the bank, went down to where Jamie lay,
took him by the bridle and urged him to stand. Which Jamie, after one
or two scrambling attempts, managed to do. But the horse was hurt. He
could scarcely hobble to the trail.

Without paying any visible attention to Mary Hope, Lance removed her
saddle from Jamie, and brought it up to where she sat dispiritedly
watching him. His manner was brisk, kind enough, but had an aloofness
which made her keenly aware that he accepted her adherence to the feud
and tacitly took his own place with the Lorrigans. Over this emergency
she felt that he had unspokenly set a flag of truce. His attitude
depressed her.

"There are just two things to do," he said, laying the saddle at her
feet. "You may ride that livery horse back home, and I'll come along
to-morrow and pick him up and take him in with me to Jumpoff; or you
can let me go down to the ranch and bring up a gentle horse, and you
can ride that home. I can get him when I come out to-morrow with my
traps. I advise you to take the gentle horse from the ranch, after the
shake-up you've had. This town horse is not easy gaited, by any means.
Your horse I'll manage to get down to the ranch and do what I can for
him. It's his shoulder, I think, from the way he acts. He may be all
right after a while."

Mary Hope looked distressfully at Jamie, standing dejected where Lance
had left him, his head sagging, every line of him showing how sick of
life he was. She glanced swiftly up at Lance, bent her head suddenly
and pressed the tips of her fingers along her cheek bones, wiping away
tears that came brimmin