zing on the slope. Very
likely he had already verified his doubts as to burnt brands.

Homer Dinsmore spoke for the first time. His voice was harsh. "Why don't
you tell the truth? You came to get evidence against us."

"Evidence?" repeated Arthur dully.

"To prove we're rustlin' stock. You know damn well."

"Why, I--I--"

"And you didn't come alone. Ellison never sent a tenderfoot like you out
except with others. Where are the rest of yore party? Come through."

"I'm alone." Arthur stuck to that doggedly.

"If he's got a bunch of Rangers back of him we better burn the wind
outa here," suggested Gurley, looking around uneasily.

Overstreet looked at him with scorn and chewed tobacco imperturbably.
"Keep yore shirt on, Steve. Time enough to holler when you're hurt."

"I haven't got a bunch of Rangers with me," cried Ridley desperately,
beads of sweat on his brow. It had come to him that if he persuaded
these men he had no companions with him he would be sealing his doom.
They could murder him with impunity. But he could not betray Jack. He
must set his teeth to meet the worst before he did that. "I tell you I'm
alone. I don't know what you mean about the cattle. I haven't been
across the valley. I came here, and I hadn't slept all night. So I was
all worn out. And somehow I fell asleep."

"All alone, eh?" Pete Dinsmore murmured it suavely. His crafty mind was
weighing the difference this made in the problem before the outlaws--the
question as to what to do with this man. They could not let him go back
with his evidence. It would not be safe to kill him if he had merely
strayed from a band of Rangers. But assuming he told the truth, that he
had no companions, then there was a very easy and simple way out for the
rustlers. The Ranger could not tell what he knew--however much or little
that might be--_if he never returned to town_.

"I keep telling you that I'm alone, that I got lost," Arthur insisted.
"What would I be doing here without a horse if I had friends?"

"Tha's right," agreed Gurley. "I reckon he got lost like he said."

He, too, by the same process of reasoning as Pete Dinsmore, had come to
a similar conclusion. He reflected craftily that Ridley was probably
telling the truth. Why should he persist in the claim that he was alone
if he had friends in the neighborhood, since to persuade his captors of
this was to put himself wholly in their power?

"You're easily fooled, Steve," sneered Homer. "I've