“Give Roy pretty lady,” demanded the boy.

Beaudry shook his head slowly.  “I reckon that’s ’most the only thing you can ask your dad for that he won’t give you.”  He continued unsteadily, looking at the picture in the palm of his hand.  “Lady-Bird I called her, son.  She used to fill the house with music right out of her heart. . . .  Fine as silk and true as gold.  Don’t you ever forget that your mother was a thoroughbred.”  His voice broke.  “But I hadn’t ought to have let her stay out here.  She belonged where folks are good and kind, where they love books and music.  Yet she wouldn’t leave me because . . . because . . .  Maybe you’ll know why she wouldn’t some day, little son.”

He drew a long, ragged breath and slipped the case back under his shirt.

Quickly Beaudry rose and began to bustle about with suspicious cheerfulness.  He whistled while he packed and saddled.  In the fresh cool morning air they rode across the valley and climbed to the mesa beyond.  The sun mounted higher and the heat shimmered on the trail in front of them.  The surface of the earth was cracked in dry, sun-baked tiles curving upward at the edges.  Cat’s-claw clutched at the legs of the travelers.  Occasionally a swift darted from rock to rock.  The faint, low voices of the desert were inaudible when the horse moved.  The riders came out of the silence and moved into the silence.

It was noon when Beaudry drew into the suburbs of Battle Butte.  He took an inconspicuous way by alleys and side streets to the corral.  His enemies might or might not be in town.  He wanted to take no chances.  All he asked was to postpone the crisis until Royal was safe aboard a train.  Crossing San Miguel Street, the riders came face to face with a man Beaudry knew to be a spy of the Rutherfords.  He was a sleek, sly little man named Chet Fox.

“Evening sheriff.  Looks some like we-all might have rain,” Fox said, rasping his unshaven chin with the palm of a hand.

“Looks like,” agreed Beaudry with a curt nod and rode on.

Fox disappeared around a corner, hurried forward for half a block, and turned in at the Silver Dollar Saloon.  A broad-shouldered, hawk-nosed man of thirty was talking to three of his friends.  Toward this group Fox hurried.  In a low voice he spoke six words that condemned John Beaudry to death.

“Beaudry just now rode into town.”

Hal Rutherford forgot the story he was telling.  He gave crisp, short orders.  The men about him left by the back door of the saloon and scattered.

Meanwhile the sheriff rode into the Elephant Corral and unsaddled his horse.  He led the animal to the trough in the yard and pumped water for it.  His son trotted back beside him to the stable and played with a puppy while the roan was being fed.

Jake Sharp, owner of the corral, stood in the doorway and chatted with the sheriff for a minute.  Was it true that a new schoolhouse was going to be built on Bonito?  And had the sheriff heard whether McCarty was to be boss of Big Creek roundup?