r.

"Get down--friends--and come to the fire."

Three horsemen advanced to the foreground; others, a troop of eight or
ten, remained in the shadow, a silent group.

Hare sank back against the stone. He knew the foremost of those horsemen
though he had never seen him.

"Dene," whispered Mescal, and confirmed his instinctive fear.

Hare was nervously alive to the handsome presence of the outlaw.
Glimpses that he had caught of "bad" men returned vividly as he noted
the clean-shaven face, the youthful, supple body, the cool, careless
mien. Dene's eyes glittered as he pulled off his gauntlets and beat the
sand out of them; and but for that quick fierce glance his leisurely
friendly manner would have disarmed suspicion.

"Are you the Mormon Naab?" he queried.

"August Naab, I am."

"Dry camp, eh? Hosses tired, I reckon. Shore it's a sandy trail. Where's
the rest of you fellers?"

"Cole and his men were in a hurry to make White Sage to-night. They were
travelling light; I've heavy wagons."

"Naab, I reckon you shore wouldn't tell a lie?"

"I have never lied."

"Heerd of a young feller thet was in Lund--pale chap--lunger, we'd call
him back West?"

"I heard that he had been mistaken for a spy at Lund and had fled toward
Bane."

"Hadn't seen nothin' of him this side of Lund?"

"No."

"Seen any Navvies?"

"Yes."

The outlaw stared hard at him. Apparently he was about to speak of
the Navajos, for his quick uplift of head at Naab's blunt affirmative
suggested the impulse. But he checked himself and slowly drew on his
gloves.

"Naab, I'm shore comin' to visit you some day. Never been over thet
range. Heerd you hed fine water, fine cattle. An' say, I seen thet
little Navajo girl you have, an' I wouldn't mind seein' her again."

August Naab kicked the fire into brighter blaze. "Yes fine range," he
presently replied, his gaze fixed on Dene. "Fine water, fine cattle,
fine browse. I've a fine graveyard, too; thirty graves, and not one a
woman's. Fine place for graves, the canyon country. You don't have to
dig. There's one grave the Indians never named; it's three thousand feet
deep."

"Thet must be in hell," replied Dene, with a smile, ignoring the covert
meaning. He leisurely surveyed Naab's four sons, the wagons and horses,
till his eye fell upon Hare and Mescal. With that he swung in his saddle
as if to dismount.

"I shore want a look around."

"Get down, get down," returned the Mormon. The deep voice,