a thunder of hoofs, and
suddenly a man burst into the room. Patty recognized him as Bill, of
the Samuelson ranch. "Come on, Jack, quick! Git yer gun, while I slam
the kak on yer cayuse. The raid's on, they've cut out a bunch of them
three an' four-year-olds offen the east slope an' they're a-foggin'
'em off."

"Bill! Oh, Bill!" cried the girl, in desperation. But the man had
plunged toward the corral, followed by Pierce, buckling on his
cartridge belt as he ran. A moment later both men were in the saddle,
and the sound of pounding hoofs grew far away.

In tears, Patty turned to the woman. "Oh, why couldn't he have
believed me?" she cried. "He thinks I'm one of that detestable gang of
thieves! But, you--surely you don't think I'm a horse-thief?" In
broken sentences she related the facts to the woman, and finished by
begging her to go up to the Samuelson ranch. "I'll ride on to town
for the doctor myself!" she exclaimed. "And surely you can do that
much for your neighbor."

"Do that much fer 'em!" the woman exclaimed. "I reckon they ain't
nothin' I wouldn't do fer _them_. Mebbe Jack's right, an' mebbe he's
wrong. I've saw him be both, 'fore now. Anyways, it ain't a-goin' to
do Samuelsons no harm, nor the horse-thieves no good fer me to go up
there. You hit the trail fer town, an' I'll ride up the crick." The
woman cut short the girl's thanks. "You better take straight on down
Porky 'til it crosses the trail," she advised. "It's a little longer
but you won't git lost that way, an' chances is you would if I tried
to tell you the short cut. Thompsons is great friends with
Samuelsons," called the woman, as Patty mounted. "Better change horses
there! Or, mebbe Thompson'll go on to town fer you."

Below the Pierce ranch the trail was not so good but, unheeding, the
girl held her horse to his pace. In her heart now was no wild
exhilaration of moonlight, nor was there any lurking fear of unknown
horsemen, only a mighty rage--a rage engendered by Pierce's
accusation, but which expanded with each leap of her horse until it
included Vil Holland, Bethune, the Samuelson cowboys, and even Len
Christie and the Samuelsons themselves--a senseless, consuming rage
that caused the blood to throb hotly to her temples and found vicious
expression in driving the rowels into her horse's sides until the
animal tore down the rough, half-lit trail at a pace that sent the
loose stones flying from beneath his hoofs in rattling volleys.

Possib