ow how
it was done.

"The girl, she'd been knocked cold before this happened. So while Bard
and Drew sat together bindin' up each other's wounds--because they was
shot pretty near to pieces--they talked it over and they seen pretty
clear that the girl would never marry the man that had killed her
father. Of course, old Bill Drew, he'd done the killing, but that wasn't
any reason why he had to take the blame.

"They made up their minds that right there and then with the dead men
lyin' all around 'em, they'd match coins to see which one would take the
blame of havin' killed Piotto--meanin' that the other one would get the
girl--if he could.

"And Bard lost. So he had to take the credit of havin' killed old
Piotto. I'd of give something to have seen the two of 'em sittin'
there--oozin' blood--after that marchin' was decided. Because they tell
me that Bard was as big as Drew and looked pretty much the same.

"Then Bard, he asked Drew to let him have one chance at the girl,
lettin' her know first what he'd done, but jest trustin' to his power of
talk. Which, of course, didn't give him no show. While he was makin'
love to the girl she outs with a knife and tries to stick him--nice,
pleasant sort she must have been--and Drew, he had to pry the two of 'em
apart.

"That made the girl look sort of kind on Drew and she swore that sooner
or later she'd have the blood of Bard for what he'd done--either have it
herself or else send someone after him to the end of the world. She was
a wild one, all right.

"She was so wild that Drew, after they got married, took her over on the
far side of the range and built that old house that's rottin' there
now. Bard, he left the range and wasn't never seen again, far as I
know."

It was clear to Anthony, bitterly clear. His father had had a grim scene
in parting with Drew and had placed the continent between them. And in
the Eastern states he had met that black-eyed girl, his mother, and
loved her because she was so much like the wild daughter of Piotto. The
girl Joan in dying had probably extracted from Drew a promise that he
would kill Bard, and that promise he had lived to fulfil.

"So Joan died?" he queried.

"Yep, and was buried under them two trees in front of the house. I don't
think she lived long after they was married, but about that nobody
knows. They was clear off by themselves and there isn't any one can tell
about their life after they was married. All we know is that Dr