gh to obtain two additional bits of information--the location of
the S Bar and the distance to the town of San Felipe. Then he turned
his horse's head about, and with a cheerful wave of his hand, struck
out for the latter place. The last he saw of Mrs. Thomas, she was
turning her team.

Kid Wolf realized that he had quite a problem on his hands. The work
ahead of him promised to be difficult, but, as usual, he had gone into
it impulsively--and yet coolly.

"We've got a big ordah to fill, Blizzahd," he murmured, as his white
horse swung into a long lope. "I hope we haven't promised too much."

He wondered if in his endeavor to cheer up the despondent woman he had
aroused hopes that might not materialize. The plight of Mrs. Thomas
had stirred him deeply. His pulses had raced with anger at her
persecutors--whoever they were. His Southern chivalry, backed up by
his own code--the code of the West--prompted him to promise what he had.

"A gentleman, Blizzahd," he mused, "couldn't do othahwise. We've got
to see this thing through!"

Ma Thomas--he had seen at a glance--was a plains-woman. Courage and
character were in her kindly face. The Texan's heart had gone out to
her in her trouble and need.

Once again he found himself in his native territory, but in a country
gone strange to him. Ranchers and ranches had come in overnight, it
seemed to him. A year or two can make a big difference in the West.
Two years ago, Indians--to-day, cattle! Twenty miles below rolled the
muddy Rio. It was Texas--stern, vast, mighty.

And, if what Mrs. Thomas had said was correct, law hadn't kept pace
with the country's growth. There was no law. Kid Wolf knew what that
meant. His face was very grim as he left the wagon trail behind.

The town of San Felipe--two dozen brown adobes, through which a
solitary street threaded its way--sprawled in the bottom of a canyon
near the Rio Grand. The cow camp had grown, in a few brief months,
with all the rapidity of an agave plant, which adds five inches to its
size in twenty-four hours. San Felipe was noisy and wide awake.

It was December. The sun, however, was warm overhead. The sky was
cloudless and the distant range of low mountains stood out sharp and
clear against the sky. As Kid Wolf rode into the town, a hard wind was
blowing across the sands and it was high noon.

San Felipe's single street presented an interesting appearance. Most
of the long, flat adobes were saloo