st verse."

Thurston eased his leg to a better position, drew himself up till his
shoulders rested against the rock and began, with an occasional, odd
break in his voice:

"I saw the holy city
Beside the tideless Sea;
The light of God was on its street
The gates were open wide.
And all who would might enter
And no one was denied."

"Wonder if that there--applies--to bone-headed--cowpunchers," Bob
muttered drowsily. "'And all--who would--" Thurston glanced quickly at
his face; caught his breath sharply at what he saw there written, and
dropped his head upon his arms.

And so Park and his men, hurrying to the sound of the shooting, found
them in the shadow of the rock.

CHAPTER VII. AT THE STEVENS PLACE

When the excitement of the outrage had been pushed aside by the
insistent routine of everyday living, Thurston found himself thrust from
the fascination of range life and into the monotony of invalidism, and
he was anything but resigned. To be sure, he was well cared for at the
Stevens ranch, where Park and the boys had taken him that day, and Mrs.
Stevens mothered him as he could not remember being mothered before.

Hank Graves rode over nearly every day to sit beside the bed and curse
the Wagner gang back to their great-great-grandfathers and down to more
than the third generation yet unborn, and to tell him the news. On the
second visit he started to give him the details of Bob's funeral; but
Thurston would not listen, and told him so plainly.

"All right then, Bud, I won't talk about it. But we sure done the right
thing by the boy; had the best preacher in Shellanne out, and flowers
till further notice: a cross uh carnations, and the boys sent up to
Minot and had a spur made uh--oh, well, all right; I'll shut up about
it, I know how yuh feel, Bud; it broke us all up to have him go that
way. He sure was a white boy, if ever there was one, and--ahem!"

"I'd give a thousand dollars, hard coin, to get my hands on them
Wagners. It would uh been all off with them, sure, if the boys had run
acrost 'em. I'd uh let 'em stay out and hunt a while longer, only old
Lauman'll get 'em, all right, and we're late as it is with the calf
roundup. Lauman'll run 'em down--and by the Lord! I'll hire Bowman
myself and ship him out from Helena to help prosecute 'em. They're dead
men if he takes the case against 'em, Bud, and I'll get him, sure--and
to hell with the cost of it! They'll swing for