en at last he let her
stop playing he seemed a man transformed.

"You have given me a great pleasure, a very great pleasure, Miss
Messiter," he thanked her warmly, his Western idiom sloughed with his
villainy for the moment. "It has been a good many months since I have
heard any decent music. With your permission I shall come again."

Her hesitation was imperceptible. "Surely, if you wish." She felt it
would be worse than idle to deny the permission she might not be able to
refuse.

With perfect grace he bowed, and as he wheeled away met with a little
shock of remembrance the gaze of his cousin. For a long moment their
eyes bored into each other. Neither yielded the beat of an eyelid, but
it was the outlaw that spoke.

"I had forgotten y'u. That's strange, too because it was for y'u I came.
I'm going to take y'u home with me.

"Alive or dead?" asked the other serenely.

"Alive, dear Ned."

"Same old traits cropping out again. There was always something feline
about y'u. I remember when y'u were a boy y'u liked to torment wild
animals y'u had trapped."

"I play with larger game now--and find it more interesting."

"Just so. Miss Messiter, I shall have to borrow a pony from y'u,
unless--" He broke off and turned indifferently to the bandit.

"Yes, I brought a hawss along with me for y'u," replied the other to the
unvoiced question. "I thought maybe y'u might want to ride with us."

"But he can't ride. He couldn't possibly. It would kill him," the girl
broke out.

"I reckon not." The man from the Shoshones glanced at his victim as he
drew on his gauntlets. "He's a heap tougher than y'u think."

"But it will. If he should ride now, why--It would be the same as
murder," she gasped. "You wouldn't make him ride now?"

"Didn't y'u hear him order his hawss, ma'am? He's keen on this ride.
Of course he don't have to go unless he wants to." The man turned his
villainous smile on his cousin, and the latter interpreted it to mean
that if he preferred, the point of attack might be shifted to the girl.
He might go or he might stay. But if he stayed the mistress of the Lazy
D would have to pay for his decision.

"No, I'll ride," he said at once.

Helen Messiter had missed the meaning of that Marconied message that
flashed between them. She set her jaw with decision. "Well, you'll not.
It's perfectly ridiculous. I won't hear of such a thing."

"Y'u seem right welcome. Hadn't y'u better stay, Ned?" murmured the
outla