circle; then turning to them he said slowly, with
deliberate, smileless irony, "And now, my brave gentlemen,--knights
of the bull and gallant mustang hunters,--I want to inform YOU that I
believe that Mr. Peyton was MURDERED, and if the man who killed him is
anywhere this side of hell, I intend to find him. Good! You understand
me! Now lift up the body,--you two, by the shoulders; you two, by the
feet. Let your horses follow. For I intend that you four shall carry
home your master in your arms, on foot. Now forward to the corral by the
back trail. Disobey me, or step out of line and"--He raised the revolver
ominously.

If the change wrought in the dead man before them was weird and
terrifying, no less distinct and ominous was the change that, during the
last few minutes, had come over the living speaker. For it was no longer
the youthful Clarence who sat there, but a haggard, prematurely worn,
desperate-looking avenger, lank of cheek, and injected of eye, whose
white teeth glistened under the brown mustache and thin pale lips that
parted when his restrained breath now and then hurriedly escaped them.

As the procession moved on, two men slunk behind with the horses.

"Mother of God! Who is this wolf's whelp?" said Manuel.

"Hush!" said his companion in a terrified whisper. "Have you not heard?
It is the son of Hamilton Brant, the assassin, the duelist,--he who
was fusiladed in Sonora." He made the sign of the cross quickly. "Jesus
Maria! Let them look out who have cause, for the blood of his father is
in him!"

CHAPTER VII.

What other speech passed between Clarence and Peyton's retainers was not
known, but not a word of the interview seemed to have been divulged by
those present. It was generally believed and accepted that Judge Peyton
met his death by being thrown from his half-broken mustang, and dragged
at its heels, and medical opinion, hastily summoned from Santa Inez
after the body had been borne to the corral, and stripped of its
hideous encasings, declared that the neck had been broken, and death had
followed instantaneously. An inquest was deemed unnecessary.

Clarence had selected Mary to break the news to Mrs. Peyton, and the
frightened young girl was too much struck with the change still visible
in his face, and the half authority of his manner, to decline, or even
to fully appreciate the calamity that had befallen them. After the first
benumbing shock, Mrs. Peyton passed into that strange ex