“I shall be greatly obliged if you will show me to the hotel,” she said.

“Lady, you wait here,” he replied, slowly, as if his thought did not come swiftly.  “I’ll go fetch the porter.”

She thanked him, and as he went out, closing the door, she sat down in considerable relief.  It occurred to her that she should have mentioned her brother’s name.  Then she fell to wondering what living with such uncouth cowboys had done to Alfred.  He had been wild enough in college, and she doubted that any cowboy could have taught him much.  She alone of her family had ever believed in any latent good in Alfred Hammond, and her faith had scarcely survived the two years of silence.

Waiting there, she again found herself listening to the moan of the wind through the wires.  The horse outside began to pound with heavy hoofs, and once he whinnied.  Then Madeline heard a rapid pattering, low at first and growing louder, which presently she recognized as the galloping of horses.  She went to the window, thinking, hoping her brother had arrived.  But as the clatter increased to a roar, shadows sped by—­lean horses, flying manes and tails, sombreroed riders, all strange and wild in her sight.  Recalling what the conductor had said, she was at some pains to quell her uneasiness.  Dust-clouds shrouded the dim lights in the windows.  Then out of the gloom two figures appeared, one tall, the other slight.  The cowboy was returning with a porter.

Heavy footsteps sounded without, and lighter ones dragging along, and then suddenly the door rasped open, jarring the whole room.  The cowboy entered, pulling a disheveled figure—­that of a priest, a padre, whose mantle had manifestly been disarranged by the rude grasp of his captor.  Plain it was that the padre was extremely terrified.

Madeline Hammond gazed in bewilderment at the little man, so pale and shaken, and a protest trembled upon her lips; but it was never uttered, for this half-drunken cowboy now appeared to be a cool, grim-smiling devil; and stretching out a long arm, he grasped her and swung her back to the bench.

“You stay there!” he ordered.

His voice, though neither brutal nor harsh nor cruel, had the unaccountable effect of making her feel powerless to move.  No man had ever before addressed her in such a tone.  It was the woman in her that obeyed—­not the personality of proud Madeline Hammond.

The padre lifted his clasped hands as if supplicating for his life, and began to speak hurriedly in Spanish.  Madeline did not understand the language.  The cowboy pulled out a huge gun and brandished it in the priest’s face.  Then he lowered it, apparently to point it at the priest’s feet.  There was a red flash, and then a thundering report that stunned Madeline.  The room filled with smoke and the smell of powder.  Madeline did not faint or even shut her eyes, but she felt as if she were fast in a cold vise.  When she could see