required brief arc, Howard’s blow landed.  With all of his force, with all of the weight of his body, he struck Jim Courtot square upon the chin.  Courtot went over backwards, spilling out of the chair that crumpled and snapped and broke to pieces; his gun flew wide across the room.  Howard’s impetus carried him on across the table so that he too fell, and across the body of the man he had struck.  But when Alan got to his feet, Jim Courtot lay still and unconscious.  And, for one, Longstreet thought that he had seen manslaughter done; the man’s look was of death.

Howard picked up his hat and then what few of the scattered coins he judged were Longstreet’s.  Then he took the gaping little man by the arm and led him to the door.

‘Miss Helen wanted you,’ he said as they passed outside.

‘Did you kill him?’ Longstreet was shuddering.

‘No,’ was the cool answer.  ’But it looks as if I’d have to some day.  Better not say anything about this to Miss Helen.’

‘Good heavens, no!’ ejaculated Longstreet.  ‘Not a word!’

Chapter IX

Helen Knew

Second only to her father’s was Helen’s eager interest in the world about her.  The ride back to Desert Valley through the rich moonlight was an experience never to be forgotten.  She and Howard alone in what appeared an enchanted and limitless garden of silence and of slumber, their horses’ feet falling without noise as though upon deep carpets, the bright moon and its few attendant stars working the harsh land of the day over into a soft sweet country of subtle allurement—­the picture of all this was to spring up vivid and vital in many an idle hour of the days to follow.  Little speech passed between them that night:  they rode close together, they forgot the wagon which rocked and jolted along somewhere far behind them; they were content to be content without analysing.  And at the end of the ride, when she felt Alan’s strong hands aiding her from her saddle, Helen sighed.

The next morning early she and her father left Desert Valley, going straight to the professor’s destination in the Last Ridge country.  They did not see Howard, who had breakfasted and ridden away before dawn, leaving with the kitchen boy a brief note of apology.  The note said that his business was urgent and that he would call to see them in a day or so; further that Tod Barstow and Chuck Evans had orders to haul their goods in the wagon for them and to help them pitch camp.

Their departure was like a small procession.  The wagon, carrying all their household goods, went ahead.  Longstreet’s two pack-horses were tied to the tail end of the wagon and trotted along with slack tie-ropes.  Behind them rode the Longstreets upon saddle-horses, which Chuck Evans had brought to the house for them with his employer’s compliments.

‘Al said you was to ride this one, miss,’ said Chuck Evans.