pain rode slowly up the main road
without expecting to meet any one, and he reached the rise where the
trail forked to Duke's ranch unchallenged. Here he stopped his horse
and looked down toward the roof that sheltered Nan. Night had fallen
everywhere, and the increasing rain obscured even the outline of the
house. But a light shone through one uncurtained window. He waited
some time for a sound of life, for a door to open or close, or for the
dog to bark--he heard nothing. Slipping out of the wet saddle, he led
his horse in the darkness under the shelter of the lone pine-tree and,
securing him, walked slowly toward the house.

The light came from a window in the living-room. Up-stairs and toward
the kitchen everything was dark. De Spain walked gingerly around to
where he could command the living-room window. He could see within,
the figures of three men but, owing to the dim light and the distance
at which he stood, he could identify none of them with certainty.
Mindful of the admonitions he had been loaded with, he tramped around
the house in narrowing circles, pausing at times to look and listen.
In like manner he circled the barn and stables, until he had made sure
there was no ambush and that he was alone outside. He then went among
the horses and, working with a flash-light, found Nan's pony, a bridle
and, after an ineffectual search for a saddle, led the bareback horse
out to where his own stood. Walking over to Nan's window he signalled
and called to her. Getting no answer, he tossed a bit of gravel up
against her window. His signal met with no response and, caching his
rifle under the kitchen porch, he stepped around to the front of the
house, where, screened by a bit of shrubbery, he could peer at close
range into the living-room.

Standing before the fire burning in the open hearth, and with his back
to it, he now saw Gale Morgan. Sitting bolt upright beside the table,
square-jawed and obdurate, his stubby brier pipe supported by his hand
and gripped in his great teeth, Duke Morgan looked uncompromisingly
past his belligerent nephew into the fire. A third and elderly man,
heavy, red-faced, and almost toothless as he spoke, sat to the right
of the table in a rocking-chair, and looked at Duke; this was the old
lawyer and justice from Sleepy Cat, the sheriff's brother--Judge
Druel.

Nan was not to be seen. Gale, big and aggressive, was doing most of
the talking, and energetically, as was his habit. Duke liste