Oh,--it makes me furious!"

In that short drive to town Phil got confirmed in a great many things
he had previously considered merely gossip and conjecture.

At the entrance to Eileen's home he handed over the reins.

"Are you going to clear yourself with the police regarding Mayor
Brenchfield, Phil?" asked Eileen.

"That is just what Jim asked, girlie. I may, some day. And I may
never require to. Meantime, Brenchfield is stewing in his own juices.
I prefer, for a while at any rate, to let him work away--as you said
not so very long ago--and leave the result or issue to his Creator.
What is it the Great Book says?--'Vengeance is mine. I will repay.'"

Eileen sighed and turned her head away to hide a tell-tale tear.

"Well--I shall not see you again for a long time, little girlie.
Good-bye, and--and, God bless you!"

And there among the shade trees of the avenue Eileen threw the reins
aside and sprang down beside Phil. His arms went about her agile
little body, as her fingers clung to him. He kissed her lips, her eyes
and her hair. Then he caught her face in his hands again, as he had
done out at the ranch, looked deeply into the heart of her eyes, and
her eyes answered him bravely.

He kissed her solemnly on the lips once more and let her go.

When she looked back at the turn of the avenue, he was still standing
there where she had left him.

CHAPTER XXII

Fire Begets Hot Air

Late one afternoon three months after Eileen's departure for the
coast, just as the dark was beginning to come down and as Phil was
turning off the main road by the trail leading to the ranch, he
noticed a man in sheepskin chaps making for the trees a hundred yards
behind the farmhouse. He stopped his horse and watched him quietly,
for there was something in the fellow's gait that seemed familiar to
him. The man mounted a horse among the trees, came out boldly,
cantered through the orchard on to the main road and away.

The spring thaw was on, mud was everywhere, and the stranger's beast
ambled away with the silence of a ghost.

Phil did not know what to make of it, so he questioned Jim on the
subject.

"Were any of that Redmans gang in seeing you?" he asked.

"Seeing me? Good land, no! Why?"

"Oh, I saw what looked like one of them getting on his horse among the
trees at the back there, and riding away."

"Uhm!" said Jim, rubbing his chin.

"I thought it was Skookum, but I couldn't be quite sure.

"I wonder what