found the lamb.

"And what you aiming to do with it?"

"I'm going to tie up its leg and take it across the river. Some of the
C. F. herders are sure to find it before night."

"Sho! What are you fooling with Cass Fendrick's sheep for?" he grumbled.

"It isn't a sheep, but a lamb. And I'm not going to see it suffer, no
matter who owns it."

She was already walking toward the river. Protestingly he followed, and
lent a hand at tying up the leg with the girl's handkerchief.

"I'll just ride across and leave it outside the fence," she said.

"Lemme go. I know the river better."

Sweeney did not wait for her assent, but swung to the saddle. She handed
him the lamb, and he forded the stream. At no place did the water come
above the fetlocks of the horse.

"I'm so glad you know the dangerous places. Be careful you don't drown,"
she mocked.

The rider's laughter rang back to her. One of her jokes went a long way
with Sweeney. The danger of the river had been the flimsiest of excuses.
What he had been afraid of was that one of Fendrick's herders might be
lurking in some arroyo beyond the fence. There was little chance that he
would dare hurt her, but he might shout something unpleasant.

In point of fact, Sweeney saw some one disappear into a wash as he reached
the fence. The rider held up the lamb, jabbered a sentence of broncho
Spanish at the spot where the man had been, put down his bleating burden,
and cantered back to his own side of the river without unnecessary delay.
No bullets had yet been fired in the Cullison-Fendrick feud, but a
"greaser" was liable to do anything, according to the old puncher's
notion. Anyhow, he did not want to be a temptation to anyone with a gun in
his hand.

An hour later, Kate, on the return trip, topped the rise where she had
found the lamb. Pulling up her pony, to rest the horse from its climb, she
gazed back across the river to the rolling ridges among which lay the
C. F. ranch. Oddly enough, she had never seen Cass Fendrick. He had come
to Papago County a few years before, and had bought the place from an
earlier settler. In the disagreement that had fallen between the two men,
she was wholly on the side of her father. Sometimes she had wondered what
manner of man this Cass Fendrick might be; disagreeable, of course, but
after precisely what fashion.

"Your property, I believe, Miss Cullison."

She turned at sound of the suave, amused drawl, and looked upon a dark,
slim yo