he announced crisply. "I left my horse
outside, tied. It's gone now. Know anything about it, any of you
boys?"

They looked their interest. Hereabouts one man did not trifle with
another man's horse. But there was no answer to his direct question.

"I've got to be riding," he went on quietly. "Who can lend me a
saddle-horse for the night? I'll pay double what it's worth."

Whitey Wimble gave his bar a long swipe with his wet towel.

"If you're askin' favors, seems to me you're on the wrong side the
street, ain't you, stranger?"

"Meaning I am a Packard?"

"You got me the firs' time. That's Packard's Town over yonder. Your
crowd----"

"Look at my eye!" then said Steve quickly.

A big man with a thin little voice at the far end of the room giggled.

"I seen it already," said Wimble.

"Know Joe Woods? Well, he's got another just like it. Know Blenham?
Blenham sicked him on me! Know old man Packard? He's sicking Blenham
on me. Want to know what I want a horse for? Blenham's got a head
start and I want to overhaul him! To tell him he's a crook and a
thief. Now is this side of Red Creek open to me or is it shut? What's
the answer, Whitey Wimble?"

Wimble appeared both impressed and yet hesitant. Here was a Packard to
deal with and Whitey Wimble when taking over the destiny of the Old
Trusty had been set clear in the matter that he had a ripe, old feud to
maintain; and still, looking at it the other way, here was a man who
carried the sign of Joe Woods's fist upon his bruised face, who
announced that he was out to get Blenham, that there was open trouble
between him and old man Packard.

Whitey Wimble, beginning by looking puzzled, wound up by turning a
distressed face toward Steve.

"It's kind of a fine point," he suggested finally. "Now, come right
down to it, it sort of looks to me----"

"Fine point!" cried Steve hotly, a sudden anger growing within him as
he thought how Blenham had played the game all along the line, how
Blenham might well prove too shrewd for a boy like Barbee, how a set of
prejudiced fools here in the Old Trusty by denying him the loan of a
horse might seriously be aiding Blenham whom none of them had any love
for. "Why, damn it, man, haven't I told you that Blenham has just put
a raw deal across on me, that he's coming close to getting away with
it, that all I ask is a horse to run him down? Who's going to let me
have one? I'm in a hurry!"

Never until now did