ers
shot him up for crossing the dead-line."

"Didn't this fellow hold up the ranch and try to take Ned Bannister away
with him?"

"Yes, ma'am. But that doesn't look good to most people. They say he had
his friends come to take him away so y'u wouldn't hold him and let us
boys get him. This cousin business is a fairy tale the way they size it
up. How come this cousin to let him go if he held up the ranch to put
the sick man out of business? No, miss. This country has made up its
mind that your friend is the original Ned Bannister. My opinion is that
nothing on earth can save him."

"I don't want your opinion. I'm going to save him, I tell you; and you
are going to help. Are his friends nothing but a bunch of quitters?" she
cried, with sparkling eyes.

"I didn't know I was such a great friend of his," answered the cowboy
sulkily.

"You're a friend of Jim McWilliams, aren't you? Are you going to sneak
away and let these curs hang him?"

Denver flushed. "Y'u're dead right, Miss Helen. I guess I'll see it out
with you. What's the orders?"

"I want you to help me organize a defense. Get all Mac's friends stirred
up to make a fight for him. Bring as many of them in to see me during
the day as you can. If you see any of the rest of the Lazy D boys send
them in to me for instructions. Report yourself every hour to me. And
make sure that at least three of your friends that you can trust are
hanging round the jail all day so as to be ready in case any attempt is
made to storm it before dark."

"I'll see to it." Denver hung on his heel a moment before leaving. "It's
only square to tell y'u, Miss Helen, that this means war here tonight.
These streets are going to run with blood if we try to save them."

"I'm taking that responsibility," she told him curtly; but a moment
later she added gently: "I have a plan, my friend, that may stop this
outrage yet. But you must do your best for me." She smiled sadly at him.
"You're my foreman, to-day, you know."

"I'm going to do my level best, y'u may tie to that," he told her
earnestly.

"I know you will." And their fingers touched for an instant.

Through a window the girl could see a crowd pouring down the street
toward the hotel. She flew up the stairs and out upon the second-story
piazza that looked down upon the road.

From her point of vantage she easily picked them out--the two unarmed
men riding with their hands tied behind their backs, encircled by a
dozen riders arm