to attach the 'Square' to," she said.

"I've earned it," he said earnestly. "An' I've had a mighty hard time
provin' my right to wear it. There's men that will tempt you out of
pure deviltry, an' others that will try to shoot such a fancy out of
your system. But I didn't wear the 'Square' because I wanted to--folks
hung it onto me without me askin'. That's one reason I left Tombstone;
I'd got tired of posin' as an angel."

He saw her face grow thoughtful and a haunting expression come into her
eyes.

"You haven't told me how he looked," she said.

Sanderson lied. He couldn't tell her of the dissipation he had seen in
her brother's face, nor of the evilness that had been stamped there.
He drew a glowing picture of the man he had buried, and told her that
had he lived her brother would have done her credit.

But Sanderson suffered no remorse over the lie. For he saw her eyes
glow with pride, and he knew that the picture he had drawn would be the
ideal of her memory for the future.

CHAPTER XVII

THE TRAIL HERD

Kent Williams went to Lazette, and Sanderson spent the interval during
his departure and return in visiting the cattlemen and settlers in the
basin. The result of these visits was a sheaf of contracts for water,
the charge based on acreage, that reposed in Sanderson's pockets.
According to the terms of the contracts signed by the residents of the
basin, Sanderson was to furnish water within one year.

The length of time, Sanderson decided, would tell the story of his
success or failure. If he failed he would lose nothing, because of
having the contracts with the settlers, and if he won the contracts
would be valid.

Sanderson was determined to win. When after an absence of a week
Williams returned, to announce that he had made arrangements for the
material necessary to make a "regular" start, and that he had hired men
and teams to transport the material, Sanderson's determination became
grim. For Williams told him that he had "gone the limit," which meant
that every cent to Sanderson's credit in the Lazette bank had been
pledged to pay for the material the engineer had ordered.

"We're going to rush things from now on," Williams told Sanderson.
"Next week we'll need ten thousand dollars, at least."

Sanderson went into the house and had a long talk with Mary Bransford.
Coming out, he went to the corral, saddled Streak, and rode to Okar.

Shortly he was sitting at a desk opposite a li