nto a neat bandage she placed the
handkerchief over the wound after pushing back the rebellious hair and
bound it into place with the strip, deftly patting it here and pushing it
there until it suited her. Then, drawing it tight, she unfastened the
gold breast-pin which she wore at her throat and pinned the bandage into
place, stepping back to regard her work with satisfaction.

"There!" she cried laughing delightedly. "You look real well in a bandage!
But I am sorry there is need for one," she said, sobering instantly.
"But, then, it could have been much worse, very much worse, couldn't
it?" she asked, smiling brightly.

Before The Orphan could reply, Bill saw a break in the conversation, or
thought he did, and hastened to say something, for he felt unnatural.

"I got yore smokin', Orphant!" he cried, clambering up to his seat.
"Leastawise, I had before them war-whoops--yep! Here she is, right side
up and fine and dandy!"

Could he have seen the look which the outlaw flashed at him he would have
quailed with sudden fear. Three gasps arose in chorus, and the women
drew back from the outlaw, fearful and shocked and severe. But with
the sheriff's younger sister it was only momentarily, for she quickly
recovered herself and the look of fear left her eyes. So this, then,
was the dreaded Orphan, the outlaw of whom her brother had written! This
young, sinewy, good-looking man, who had swayed so unsteadily on his
feet, was the man the stories of whose outrages had filled the pages of
Eastern newspapers and magazines! Could he possibly be guilty of the
murders ascribed to him? Was he capable of the inhumanity which had
made his name a synonym of terror? As she wondered, torn by conflicting
thoughts, he looked at her unflinchingly, and his thin lips wore a
peculiar smile, cynical and yet humorous.

Bill leaped to the ground with the smoking tobacco and, blissfully
unconscious of what he had done, continued unruffled.

"That was d----n fine--begging the ladies' pardon," he cried. "Yes sir,
it was plumb sumptious, it shore was! And when I tell the sheriff how
you saved his sisters, he'll be some tickled! You just bet he will! And
I'll tell it right, too! Just leave the telling of it to me. Lord, when
I looked back to see how far them war-whoops were from my back hair, and
saw you tearing along like you was a shore enough express train, I just
had to yell, I was so tickled. It was just like I held a pair of deuces
in a big ja