“They fired at you.  Thank God, none of them hit you,” said Keller, with emphasis.

Her swift gaze appreciated the deep feeling that welled from him.  “Of course they did not know I was a woman.  All they could see was that somebody was riding through the chaparral.”

“Jimmie, what do you think of a girl game enough to take so big a chance to save a friend?  Deserves a Carnegie medal, don’t you reckon?” Keller put the question to the third passenger, using him humorously as a vent to his feelings.

Phyllis did not look at him, nor he at her.  “And what do you think of a man game enough to take the same chance to save a girl who was not even a friend?” the girl asked of little Jimmie, as lightly as she could.

“Wasn’t she?  Well, if my friends will save my life every time I need them to, like this enemy did, I’ll be satisfied with them a-plenty.”

“He stood by her, too,” she answered, trying to keep the matter impersonal.

“Perhaps he wanted to make her his friend,” Larrabie suggested.

“There is no perhaps about his success,” she said quietly, her gaze just beyond the ears of her horse.  The young man dared now to look at her—­a child of the sun despite her duskiness.  Eagerly he awaited the deep, lustrous eyes that would presently sweep round upon him, big and dark and sparkling.  When she turned her head, they were full of that new womanly dignity that yet did not obscure the shy innocence.

“Look!” Jimmie Tryon pointed suddenly to the figure of a man disappearing from the road into the mesquite two hundred yards in front of them.

“That’s odd.  I reckon you’d better wait here, and let me investigate a few,” suggested Keller.

“Be careful,” she said anxiously.

“It’s all right.  Don’t worry,” the young man assured her.

He got down from the trap and dived into the underbrush, rifle in hand.  The two in the buggy waited a long time.  No sound came to them from the cactus-covered waste to indicate what was happening.  When Phyllis’ watch told her that he had been gone ten minutes, a cheerful hail came from the road in front.

“All right.  Come on.”

But it was far from all right.  Keller had with him an old Mexican herder, called Manuel Quito—­a man in the employ of her father.  A bandanna was tied round his shoulder, and it was soaked with bloodstains.  He told his story with many shrugs and much excited gesticulation.  He and Jesus Menendez had been herding on Lone Pine when riders of the Twin Star outfit had descended upon them and attacked the sheep.  He and Menendez had elected to fight, and Jesus had been shot down; he himself had barely escaped with his life—­and that not without a wound.  The cow-punchers had followed him, and continued to fire at him, but he had succeeded in escaping.  Yes—­he felt sure that Menendez was dead.  Even if he had not been dead at first, they would have killed him.