ly.

"Lone, you know how ugly a story can grow if it's left alone. Do _you_
believe that girl actually saw a man shot? Or do you think she was
crazy?"

Lone met Warfield's eyes fairly. "I think she was plumb out of her
head," he answered. And he added with just the right degree of
hesitation: "I don't think she's what you'd call right crazy, Mr.
Warfield. Lots of folks go outa their heads and talk crazy when they
get a touch of fever, and they get over it again."

"Let's have a fair understanding," Warfield insisted. "Do you think I am
justified in the course I am taking, or don't you?"

"Hunting her up? Sure, I do! If you and Hawkins rode on home, I'd keep
on hunting till I located her. If she's been raving around like you say,
she's in no shape to be riding these hills alone. She's got to be taken
care of."

Warfield gave him another sharp scrutiny and rode on. "I always prefer
to deal in the open with every one," he averred. "It may not be my
affair, strictly speaking. The Quirt and the Sawtooth aren't very
intimate. But the Quirt's having trouble enough to warrant any one in
lending a hand; and common humanity demands that I take charge of the
girl until she is herself again."

"I don't know as any one would question that," Lone assented and ground
his teeth afterwards because he must yield even the appearance of
approval. He knew that Warfield must feel himself in rather a desperate
position, else he would never trouble to make his motives so clear to
one of his men. Indeed, Warfield had protested his unselfishness in the
matter too much and too often to have deceived the dullest man who owned
the slightest suspicion of him. Lone could have smiled at the sight of
Senator Warfield betraying himself so, had smiling been possible to him
then.

He dropped behind the two at the first rough bit of trail and felt
stealthily to test the hanging of his six-shooter, which he might need
in a hurry. Those two men would never lay their hands on Lorraine Hunter
while he lived to prevent it. He did not swear it to himself; he had no
need.

They rode on to Fred Thurman's ranch, dismounted at Warfield's
suggestion--which amounted to a command--and began a careful search of
the premises. If Warfield had felt any doubt of Lone's loyalty he
appeared to have dismissed it from his mind, for he sent Lone to the
stable to search there, while he and Hawkins went into the house. Lone
guessed that the two felt the need of a privat