“Glad to meet any friend of my father, Mr. Ryan.”  Roy Beaudry offered his hand.  His fine eyes glowed.

“Wait,” warned the little cowpuncher grimly.  “I’m no liar, whativer else I’ve been.  Mebbe you’ll be glad you’ve met me—­an’ mebbe you won’t.  First off, I was no friend of your father.  I trailed with the Rutherford outfit them days.  It’s all long past and I’ll tell youse straight that he just missed me in the round-up that sent two of our bunch to the pen.”

In the heart of young Beaudry a dull premonition of evil stirred.  His hand fell limply.  Why had this man come out of the dead past to seek him?  His panic-stricken eyes clung as though fascinated to those of Ryan.

“Do you mean . . . that you were a rustler?”

Ryan looked full at him.  “You’ve said it.  I was a wild young colt thim days, full of the divil and all.  But remimber this.  I held no grudge at Jack Beaudry.  That’s what he was elected for—­to put me and my sort out of business.  Why should I hate him because he was man enough to do it?”

“That’s not what some of your friends thought.”

“You’re right, worse luck.  I was out on the range when it happened.  I’ll say this for Hal Rutherford.  He was full of bad whiskey when your father was murdered. . . .  But that ended it for me.  I broke with the Huerfano gang outfit and I’ve run straight iver since.”

“Why have you come to me?  What do you want?” asked the young lawyer, his throat dry.

“I need your help.”

“What for?  Why should I give it?  I don’t know you.”

“It’s not for mysilf that I want it.  There’s a friend of your father in trouble.  When I saw the sign with your name on it I came in to tell you.”

“What sort of trouble?”

“That’s a long story.  Did you iver hear of Dave Dingwell?”

“Yes.  I’ve never met him, but he put me through law school.”

“How come that?”

“I was living in Denver with my aunt.  A letter came from Mr. Dingwell offering to pay the expenses of my education.  He said he owed that much to my father.”

“Well, then, Dave Dingwell has disappeared off the earth.”

“What do you mean—­disappeared?” asked Roy.

“He walked out of the Legal Tender Saloon one night and no friend of his has seen him since.  That was last Tuesday.”

“Is that all?  He may have gone hunting—­or to Denver—­or Los Angeles.”

“No, he didn’t do any one of the three.  He was either murdered or else hid out in the hills by them that had a reason for it.”

“Do you suspect some one?”

“I do,” answered Ryan promptly.  “If he was killed, two tinhorn gamblers did it.  If he’s under guard in the hills, the Rutherford gang have got him.”

“The Rutherfords, the same ones that—?”

“The ver-ry same—­Hal and Buck and a brood of young hellions they have raised.”