across dangerous mountain
roads to save me."

"Oh, that!" She tossed off his thanks with a little shrug. "They are so
impulsive, my boys ... like children, you know.... I was a little afraid
they might----"

"I was a little afraid myself they might," he agreed dryly. "But when
you say children--well, don't you think wolves is a more accurate term
for them?"

"Oh, no--no!" Her protest was quick, eager, imperative. "You don't know
how loyal they can be--how faithful. They are really just like children,
so impulsive--so unreasoning."

"Afraid I can't enthuse with you on that subject for a day or two yet,"
he answered with a laugh. "Truth is I found their childlike impulses
both painful and annoying. Next time you see them you might mention that
I'm liable to have an impulse of my own they won't enjoy."

"That's one of the things I want to talk with you about. Manuel says you
mean to prosecute. I hope you won't. They're friends of mine. They
thought they were helping me. Of course I have no claim on you, but----"

"You have a claim, Miss Valdes. We'll take that up presently. Just now
we're talking about a couple of criminals due for a term in the
penitentiary. I offered them terms. They wouldn't accept. Good enough.
They'll have to stand the gaff, I reckon."

She realized at once there was no use arguing with him. The steel in his
eyes told her he had made up his mind and was not to be moved. But she
could not desert her foolish dependents.

"I know. What you say is quite true, but--I'll have to come to some
agreement with you. I can't let them be punished for their loyalty to
me."

Her direct, unflinching look, its fearlessness, won his admiration. In
her slim suppleness, vibrant, feminine to the finger tips, alluring with
the unconscious appeal of sex, there was a fine courage to face frankly
essential facts. But he was a hard man to move once he had made up his
mind. For all his frivolous impudence and his boyish good nature, he
knew his own mind, and held to it with the stiffness characteristic of
outdoor Westerners.

"You're not in this, Miss Valdes. I'll settle my own accounts with your
friends Sebastian and Pablo."

"But even for your own sake----" She stopped, intuitively aware that
this was not the ground upon which to treat with him. He would never
drop the charges against the Mexicans merely because there was danger in
pressing them.

"I reckon I'll have to try to look out for myself. Maybe next