er his countenance as he thought of the
unpleasant surprise he was about to impart. Stretching out his stiffened
fingers over the blaze, he said in his most brutal tones:

"Your polkying friend is none other than Ramerrez."

The Girl's eyes opened wide, but they did not look at the Sheriff. They
looked straight before her.

"I warned you, girl," spoke up Ashby, "that you should bank with us
oftener."

The Girl gave no sign of having heard him. Her slender figure seemed to
have shrunken perceptibly as she stared stupidly, uncomprehendingly,
into space.

"We say that Johnson was--" repeated Rance, impatiently.

"--what?" fell from the Girl's lips, her face pale and set.

"Are you deaf?" demanded Rance; and then, emphasising every word, he
rasped out: "The fellow you've been polkying with is the man that has
been asking people to hold up their hands."

"Oh, go on--you can't hand me out that!" Nevertheless the Girl looked
wildly about the room.

Angrily Rance strode over to her and sneered bitingly:

"You don't believe it yet, eh?"

"No, I don't believe it yet!" rapped out the Girl, laying great stress
upon the last word. "I know he isn't."

"Well, he _is_ Ramerrez, and he _did_ come to The Polka to rob it,"
retorted the Sheriff.

All at once the note of resentment in the Girl's voice became positive;
she flared back at him, though she flushed in spite of herself.

"But he didn't rob it!"

"That's what gits me," fretted Sonora. "He didn't."

"I should think it would git you," snapped back the Girl, both in her
look and voice rebuking him for his words.

It was left to Ashby to spring another surprise.

"We've got his horse," he said pointedly.

"An' I never knowed one o' these men to separate from his horse,"
commented Sonora, still smarting under the Girl's reprimand.

"Right you are! And now that we've got his horse and this storm is on,
we've got him," said Rance, triumphantly. "But the last seen of
Johnson," he went on with a hasty movement towards the Girl and eyeing
her critically, "he was heading this way. You seen anything of him?"

The Girl struggled hard to appear composed.

"Heading this way?" she inquired, reddening.

"So Nick said," declared Sonora, looking towards that individual for
proof of his words.

But Nick had caught the Girl's lightning glance imposing silence upon
him; in some embarrassment he stammered out:

"That is, he was--Sid said he saw 'im take the trail, too."