her eyes, dilated with fear, brimming with tears. He led her
from the harness room to the outer room, where Mrs. Tree and Hilma took
charge of her, and then, impatient, refusing to answer the hundreds of
anxious questions that assailed him, hurried back to the harness room.
Already the balloting was in progress, Osterman acting as temporary
chairman on the very first ballot he was made secretary of the League
pro tem., and Magnus unanimously chosen for its President. An executive
committee was formed, which was to meet the next day at the Los Muertos
ranch house.

It was half-past one o'clock. In the barn outside the greater number of
the guests had departed. Long since the musicians had disappeared. There
only remained the families of the ranch owners involved in the meeting
in the harness room. These huddled in isolated groups in corners of the
garish, echoing barn, the women in their wraps, the young men with
their coat collars turned up against the draughts that once more made
themselves felt.

For a long half hour the loud hum of eager conversation continued to
issue from behind the door of the harness room. Then, at length, there
was a prolonged scraping of chairs. The session was over. The men came
out in groups, searching for their families.

At once the homeward movement began. Every one was worn out. Some of the
ranchers' daughters had gone to sleep against their mothers' shoulders.

Billy, the stableman, and his assistant were awakened, and the teams
were hitched up. The stable yard was full of a maze of swinging lanterns
and buggy lamps. The horses fretted, champing the bits; the carry-alls
creaked with the straining of leather and springs as they received their
loads. At every instant one heard the rattle of wheels as vehicle after
vehicle disappeared in the night.

A fine, drizzling rain was falling, and the lamps began to show dim in a
vague haze of orange light.

Magnus Derrick was the last to go. At the doorway of the barn he found
Annixter, the roll of names--which it had been decided he was to keep
in his safe for the moment--under his arm. Silently the two shook hands.
Magnus departed. The grind of the wheels of his carry-all grated sharply
on the gravel of the driveway in front of the ranch house, then, with
a hollow roll across a little plank bridge, gained the roadway. For a
moment the beat of the horses' hoofs made itself heard on the roadway.
It ceased. Suddenly there was a great silence.