back through the willows, Kate following half a dozen
yards behind.

"Listen here, Shorty," said Haines in a cautious voice. "You heard her
name?"

"Sure."

"Well, that's the daughter of the man that raised Whistling Dan. I
saw her at Morgan's place. She's probably been tipped off that he's
following Silent, but she has no idea who we are."

"Sure she hasn't. She's a great looker, eh, Lee?"

"She'll do, I guess. Now get this: The girl is after Whistling Dan,
and if she meets him she'll persuade him to come back to her father's
place. She'll take him off our trail, and I guess none of us'll be
sorry to know that he's gone, eh?"

"I begin to follow you, Lee. You've always had the head!"

"All right. Now we'll get Purvis to tell the girl that he's heard a
peculiar whistling around here this evening. We'll advise her to stick
around and go out when she hears the whistling again. That way she'll
meet him and head him off, savvy?"

"Right," said Rhinehart.

"Then beat it ahead as fast as you can and wise up the boys."

"That's me--specially about their bein' Y Circle X fellers, eh?"

He chuckled and made ahead as fast as his long legs could carry him.
Haines dropped back beside Kate.

"Everything goes finely," he assured her. "I told Rhinehart what to
do. He's gone ahead to the camp. Now all you have to do is to keep
your head. One of the boys will tell you that we've heard some
whistling near the camp this evening. Then I'll ask you to stay around
for a while in case the whistling should sound again, do you see?
Remember, never ask a question!"

It was even more simple than Haines had hoped. Silent's men suspected
nothing. After all, Kate's deception was a small affair, and her
frankness, her laughter, and her beauty carried all before her.

The long riders became quickly familiar with her, but through their
rough talk, the Westerners' reverence for a woman ran like a thread of
gold over a dark cloth. Her fear lessened and almost passed away while
she listened to their talk and watched their faces. The kindly human
nature which had lain unexpressed in most of them for months together
burst out torrent-like and flooded about her with a sense of security
and power. These were conquerors of men, fighters by instinct and
habit, but here they sat laughing and chattering with a helpless girl,
and not a one of them but would have cut the others' throats rather
than see her come to harm. The roughness of their past