she said. "You stay here!" she commanded, trying to
pull him away from the door, but not succeeding.

He seized her face with his hands in much the same manner in which he
had seized it in his father's office on the night of his return to the
Lazy Y--she felt the cold stock of the pistol against her cheek and
shuddered again. A new light had leaped into his eyes--the suspicion
that she had seen there many times before.

"Are you wantin' old Taggart to get away with the idol?" he demanded.

"He can't!" she denied. "He hasn't the diagram, has he? You have just
put it in your pocket!"

A quick embarrassment swept over him; he dropped his hands from her
face. "I reckon that's right," he admitted. "But I'm goin' to' send
him over the divide, idol or no idol."

"He won't be in the timber grove," she persisted; "he must have heard
the shooting and he wouldn't stay."

"I reckon he won't be able to run away from that black horse," he
laughed. "I'll ketch him before he gets very far."

"You shan't go!" she declared, making a gesture of impotence. "Don't
you see?" she added. "It isn't Taggart that I care about--it's you. I
don't want you to be shot--killed. I won't have it! If Taggart hasn't
gone by this time he will be hidden somewhere over there and when he
sees you he will shoot you!"

"Well," he said, watching her face with a curious smile; "I'm takin' a
look, anyway." In spite of her efforts to prevent him he stepped over
the threshold. She was about to follow him when she saw him wheel
swiftly, his pistol at a poise as his gaze fell upon something outside
the ranchhouse. And then she saw him smile.

"It's Bob," he said; "with a rifle." And he helped the boy, white of
face and trembling, though with the light of stern resolution in his
eyes, into the kitchen.

"Bob'll watch you," he said; "so's nothin' will happen to you.
Besides--" he leaned forward in a listening attitude; "Toban an' the
boys are comin'. I reckon what I'm goin' to do won't take me long--if
Taggart's in the timber."

He stepped down and vanished around the corner of the ranchhouse.

He had scarcely gone before there was a clatter of hoofs in the
ranchhouse yard, a horse dashed up to the edge of the porch, came to a
sliding halt and the lank figure of Toban appeared before the door in
which Betty was standing.

He looked at her, noted her white face, and peered over her shoulder at
Bob, with the rifle, at Taggart on the floor.