rd, when poor, little, distraught Betty came
anxiously round the building, still on her quest for her man. She
heard Sol's voice, and her eyes grew wide and shone in fear and anger.
She darted toward the out-house. Phil tried to stop her, but it was
useless. Inside she went, and when she surveyed the scene before
her--the two strong, calculating men standing watching her husband
whom she loved with all the strength of her robust little being, and
he roped and hog-tied like some wild animal--her whole womanly nature
welled up and overflowed.

"What have you done?" she cried fiercely, her voice weakening as she
went on. "Solly, dearie,--my own Sol!"

And Sol cursed, and shrieked, and struggled, unheeding. She ran
forward to him and placed her arms about his great neck where the
veins were swollen almost to bursting point. She patted his huge,
heaving, hairy chest. She wiped away the perspiration from his
forehead and the white ooze from his lips. She laid her face gently
against his, tapping his cheek with her fingers; crooning to him and
kissing him as she would a baby.

Slowly the big fellow melted under her influence. His struggling
gradually ceased. Betty kept on calling his name again and again. Her
tears dropped on to his upturned, distorted face, and those tears did
what knotted lariats and wooden beams had failed to do--they brought
peace and sanity back to the eyes of big Sol Hanson.

His head cradled back in his Betty's arms and he panted, looked up at
her, and, after a few minutes, smiled crookedly.

"Loosen them ropes!" Betty commanded of Brenchfield and Royce
Pederstone.

"We daren't do it," answered the Mayor.

"You loose them quick," she cried again, "or I'll kill you.

"Them fellows is skeered you'll hurt them, Sol. Tell them Solly you
won't touch 'em,--will you, Solly?"

Sol shook his head.

Phil came forward to do the needful. At the same instant, Royce
Pederstone's good sense took in the situation better than Brenchfield's
dogged mind could.

"Guess we might take a chance, Graham!" he said quietly.

"You ain't takin' any chances with my Solly. Give me a knife and beat
it, both of you. I ain't skeered o' my man."

The Mayor opened his jack-knife and handed it to Betty. He and Royce
Pederstone went into the yard together. Phil stood watching by the
barn door.

Shortly afterwards, Sol came out, his big hand clasped over Betty's
little one. He looked away from the men in the yard, shame-f