s tried to hide, and he was coming in to
reach a savage hand once more toward that supremacy which he knew full
well to be slipping from him.

And from the blind mouth in the Rockface at the west where the roofed
cut led to the mystery and the grandeur of the Canon Country, a
strange procession came slowly out to crawl across the green
expanse--a woman on a silver horse, a rider on a red roan who sat
behind the saddle and bore in his arms a man whose heavy head lolled
upon his shoulder in all but mortal weakness.

Thus Fate, who had for so long played with life and death in Lost
Valley, tiring of the play, drew in the strings of the puppets and set
the stage for the last act.

As Tharon and Billy crept up to Baston's store and stopped at the
steps, a dozen eager men leaped forward to their help.

"Easy!" warned the girl. "He's ben hurt a long time, an' he's had an
awful trip. There's fever in him, an' th' wound in his shoulder opened
a bit with th' haulin'. Lay him down on th' porch a while to rest."

But Kenset opened his dark eyes with the old quiet smile and looked at
her.

"I'm worth a dozen dead men yet, Miss Last," he said.

As he lay, a trim, long figure in his semi-military garments, on the
edge of the porch, the populace of Corvan streamed in from the
outskirts and gathered in the open street. Whispers and comments were
rife among them, a new courage was noticeable everywhere. The
Vigilantes were present, many of them.

Question and answer passed swiftly and quietly back and forth between
Dixon, Jameson, Hill and Tharon. In a few pregnant moments she knew
what had happened in Corvan--they knew the secret of False Ridge and
the Cup o' God.

"An' now these strangers from below--they ben a-actin' awful queer,
ain't a-feared o' nothin' an' they ben goin' all over like a couple o'
hounds. One of 'em's got on a badge of some sort," said Jameson,
"didn't mean t' show it, I allow, but Hill, here, seen it by
chanct----"

Kenset raised himself quickly on an elbow.

"By all that's lucky!" he said softly, excitedly. "Burn-Harris and
O'Hallan! My Secret Service men!"

* * * * *

And it was even so, for by the end of another hour the two strangers
came riding in and were brought forward to the steps where Kenset lay,
to clasp his hand and greet him with all the pleasure of previous
acquaintance.

Then they requested that a space be cleared to the end of ear-shot an