, Starr Wiley, and come back for more if
you want it. You know what's coming to you!"

Billie started in sheer amazement. There before her, sprung from
nowhere, was her companion of yesterday, the smug young man who had
wanted to play the chaperon, and who had seemed surprised and shocked
when she revealed her identity. Her eyes blazed.

"How come you to butt in on this little argument?" There was an
ominous note in her slow drawl. "No one asked you to sit in, Senor
Duenna, I'm playing my own hand. You durn fool, don't you see I had
the coyote covered all the time?"

Her hand moved from the hip pocket of her khaki skirt and he saw the
glint of the sun upon a small but business-like, blunt-nosed revolver.

Kearn Thode stepped back, his face crimson at the name she had dubbed
him as well as at the unexpectedness of her attack, and at that moment
Starr Wiley leaped, snarling, from the undergrowth.

The girl stood fascinated. She had seen many rough-and-tumble fights
in the history of Limasito, but the clean-cut scientific way the two
lean, lithe, well-matched figures sprang to combat thrilled her.

Wiley was the heavier of the two, but indolence and dissipation had
softened him and Thode was in the pink of condition. After the first
blind onslaught he steadied himself and parried, waiting for the
opening his opponent's uncontrolled rage would give him. It was soon
forthcoming; a side-stepped lunge left Wiley's pallid face exposed and
Thode caught him fairly on the point of the jaw. He shot across the
road, crumpled into the ditch and lay quivering and still, as his
victim of the day before.

Panting, Thode turned to the girl.

"I am sorry," he said stiffly. "I didn't mean to butt in on your game,
but, having started, I had to finish."

She seemed not to have heard. Her eyes were shining and a little spot
of clear rose showed in her cheeks as she held out her hand.

"A good, clean knock-out!" she cried. "I wish Dad could have seen it.
You're some fighter, Mr.----?"

"Duenna," he supplied grimly. "Do you wish me to leave you here with
him now, or shall I wait until he comes to, and see if he wants a fresh
deal?"

She laughed merrily.

"Wiley won't be looking for anything but home and a stiff drink of
hooch when he gets back to the world," she remarked. "I reckon he's in
for quite a siesta."

"We can't very well leave him there." Thode spoke reflectively. "Last
time, he had a buckboard and I