nostrils
twitching like a dog's. "Smell um smoke," he said. "Somebody shoot. You
see um Blake French?"

"He was here, but he has gone," Faith told him.

The old Indian's dark eyes peered at her, noting her agitation. "Me ol'
man," he said. "Angus, him my tillikum. You him klootchman, him wife,
all same my tillikum. Goo'-by."

Faith, left alone, knew she could not sleep. She dreaded the darkness,
the lying waiting for slumber which would not come. She decided to stay
before the fire till daylight. Then she would go to the Mackay ranch.

The wind had ceased, and in the comparative stillness she heard a low,
distant drumming which she recognized as the sound of horses' hoofs.
They approached, halted, and she started up in apprehension. What would
happen next? Was everybody abroad that night? Footsteps tramped on the
veranda; somebody knocked.

"Who is there?" she demanded.

"Me--Turkey."

She opened the door. There stood Turkey. Shadowy in the background was
Rennie with the horses. She saw that Turkey was armed.

"What's the matter?" he asked. "You look sick. Where's Angus?"

She told him, finding relief in the confidence. Turkey might bring Angus
back, or see that no harm befell him. As he listened a hard light came
into Turkey's eyes.

"If Angus don't get Blake and Nick Garland, I will," he declared. "But I
didn't know they were here. I thought they were with the bunch that did
up Braden."

"Did up Braden?"

Turkey nodded. "The French boys--I thought sure Blake was in it, but I
guess he couldn't have been--blew open Braden's safe and got away with
the whole works. Braden was shot. Dave and I are part of a posse raised
to round them up, and I wanted Angus. Braden, before he died, said that
Gavin French is the man that shot father."

CHAPTER XLII

OUTLAWS!

Mr. Braden, some twenty-four hours after his interview with Judge Riley,
made the shocking discovery that in all probability he had laid down a
pat hand before a bluff. But though the discovery brought him to the
verge of an apoplectic fit, it came too late. He had signed a statement
covering the facts. Under the circumstances it did not matter who had
the deeds. If Garland, then his scheme of blackmail would fall down. Mr.
Braden found ample to occupy him in the crisis which the loss of the
coal property made in his affairs.

The fact was that he was very hard up. The supposed ownership of a
promising coal mine had bolstered up his shaky c