got--my boots--on--anyhow," replied Blue, huskily.

He lurched into the yard and slid down on the grass and stretched out.

"Man! Y'u're hurt bad!" exclaimed Blaisdell. The others halted in
their slow march and, as if by tacit, unspoken word, lowered the body
of Isbel to the ground. Then Blaisdell knelt beside Blue. Jean left
Colmor to Gordon and hurried to peer down into Blue's dim face.

"No, I ain't--hurt," said Blue, in a much weaker voice. "I'm--jest
killed! ... It was Queen! ... Y'u all heerd me--Queen was--only bad man
in that lot. I knowed it.... I could--hev killed him.... But I
was--after Lee Jorth an' his brothers...."

Blue's voice failed there.

"Wal!" ejaculated Blaisdell.

"Shore was funny--Jorth's face--when I said--King Fisher," whispered
Blue. "Funnier--when I bored--him through.... But it--was--Queen--"

His whisper died away.

"Blue!" called Blaisdell, sharply. Receiving no answer, he bent lower
in the starlight and placed a hand upon the man's breast.

"Wal, he's gone.... I wonder if he really was the old Texas King
Fisher. No one would ever believe it.... But if he killed the Jorths,
I'll shore believe him."

CHAPTER X

Two weeks of lonely solitude in the forest had worked incalculable
change in Ellen Jorth.

Late in June her father and her two uncles had packed and ridden off
with Daggs, Colter, and six other men, all heavily armed, some somber
with drink, others hard and grim with a foretaste of fight. Ellen had
not been given any orders. Her father had forgotten to bid her good-by
or had avoided it. Their dark mission was stamped on their faces.

They had gone and, keen as had been Ellen's pang, nevertheless, their
departure was a relief. She had heard them bluster and brag so often
that she had her doubts of any great Jorth-Isbel war. Barking dogs did
not bite. Somebody, perhaps on each side, would be badly wounded,
possibly killed, and then the feud would go on as before, mostly talk.
Many of her former impressions had faded. Development had been so
rapid and continuous in her that she could look back to a day-by-day
transformation. At night she had hated the sight of herself and when
the dawn came she would rise, singing.

Jorth had left Ellen at home with the Mexican woman and Antonio. Ellen
saw them only at meal times, and often not then, for she frequently
visited old John Sprague or came home late to do her own cooking.

It was but a short distance u