Warden nodded, wearily, and dropped his chin to his chest.  After an interval, during which the crowd watched him intently, he staggered to his feet and reeled into the coach, and the crowd saw him no more.  An instant later the conductor went toward the coach, grinning, signaling the engineer.

A low cheer rose from the crowd as the train started, and a man far back toward the station shouted, loudly: 

“If they hadn’t been in such a damned hurry, we’d have raised a collection to send him to hell!”

A little later Lawler and Ruth and Shorty formed the van of the crowd that walked down the street toward the Wolf—­where the Circle L men had left their horses.  Ruth walked between Lawler and Shorty.  Ruth was very pale, and her lips were trembling.  In front of the Willets Hotel—­in the flood of light that came through the windows, she clutched at Lawler’s sleeve.

“Hurry, Kane,” she begged; “they have killed daddy!”

“Don’t you believe it, Miss Ruth,” said Shorty, softly, into her ear.  “When I left Joe Hamlin he was a whole lot alive—­an’ gettin’ more alive right along.  I left Andy Miller with him—­an’ Andy’s got more sabe of medicine than any doctor in these parts!”

“Shorty!” she breathed, springing around in front of him and catching him by the shoulders—­standing on tip-toe to do it. “Shorty, you don’t mean it?”

Shorty laughed lowly.  “I’m reckonin’ to mean it, Miss Ruth.”

“But how,” she questioned, her hands still on his shoulders, her eyes wide and questioning; “how did you happen to go to the Two Bar?”

“Well, you see, Miss Ruth,” laughed the giant—­while the crowd which had followed them stood off at a little distance and watched—­“it was like this.  Me an’ the boys—­an’ your dad—­had been tryin’ for a long time to ketch Singleton runnin’ an iron on the Circle L cattle.  Your dad an’ me had run a bunch into that gully near the Two Bar, an’ tonight me an’ the boys was waitin’ in the gully for your dad to bring Singleton there.  Your dad had been brandin’ stolen stock—­at my orders—­an’ tonight he was goin’ to refuse—­makin’ Singleton do it.  For Singleton was really doin’ the rustlin’.  An’ your dad——­”

“Was doing it all for you?  Is that what you mean, Shorty?”

“Why, I reckon, Miss Ruth.  You see——­”

Ruth had to leap upward to do it.  But somehow the height was achieved.  Two arms went around Shorty’s neck and Ruth’s lips were pressed against his with a resounding smack.

“O Shorty!” she exclaimed as she hugged him tightly, after kissing him; “I just love you!”

Shorty blushed furiously.  As soon as Ruth released him he grinned with embarrassment and walked with giant strides down the street to where he and his men had left the horses, the laughter and jibes of his fellows following him.

CHAPTER XLIII