hree days old.

Then, indeed, did the universe sag and darken to the Mistress of
Last's.

She put out a hand to steady herself and found it grasped in the
strong one of Billy, who stood at her shoulder like her shadow.

"Steady!" he whispered. "Steady, Tharon."

She drew her trembling fingers across her eyes, wet her lips which
felt dry as ashes. The same ache that had come with Jim Last's final
smile was already in her heart, but intensified a thousand times. She
felt all suddenly, as if there was nothing in Lost Valley worth while,
nothing in all the world! That drying stain at her feet seemed to shut
out the sun, moon and stars with its sinister darkness. She felt a
nausea at the pit of her stomach, a need for air in her cramped
lungs.

Strange, she had never known that one could be so detached from all
familiar things, could seem so lost in a sea of stupid agony. Why was
it so? If this dark blot of blood had come from the veins of Billy
now, of Conford, or Jack or Curly, her own men, would she have lost
her grip like this? And then she became dully conscious that Billy had
put her in the big chair by the table and had joined the others in
their exhaustive search for any clew to the tragedy. She saw the moon
rising over the tops of the pine trees at the glade's edge, heard the
little song of the running stream.

That was the little stream that Kenset had looked for in his ideal
spot, this was the home he had made for himself, these were the things
of the other life he had known, these soft, dark pictures, the books
on the tables, the brass things shining in the light from the lamp....
She knew that she was cold in the summer night, that she was staring
miserably out of the open door, scarcely conscious of the scattered
voices of her men, searching, searching, hunting, in widening circles
outside.... Then they came back talking in low voices and she roused
herself desperately. Her limbs were stiff when she rose from the big
chair, her hands were icy.

"No use, Tharon," said Conford quietly, "we can't find a damned thing.
If Courtrey's bunch killed Kenset they made a clean get-away with all
evidence. That much has th' new law done in th' Valley--killed th'
insolence of th' gun man. Let's go home."

It was Billy, faithful and still, who helped her--for the first time
in her life!--to mount a horse. She went up on El Rey as if she
were old. Then they were riding down the smooth floor of the little
glade, leavi