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Dick Gordon hobbled up the road, quite unaware for sohts were busy with the finale that had just been enacted He could not keep fro ruefully at the difference between it and the one of his day-dreams He was too much of a Westerner not to see the humor of the co part, but he had insight enough to divine that it was much more likely to prove melodrama than farce

Don Manuel was not the man to sit down under such an insult as he had endured, even though he had brought it upon himself It would too surely be noised round that the Americano was the claimant to the estate, in which event he was very likely to play the part of a sheath for restless stilettos

This did not trouble hi of the episode lay in Valencia Valdés' attitude toward him He had been kicked out for his unworthiness He had been cast aside as a spy and a sneak

The worst of it was that he felt his clumsiness deserved no less an issue to the adventure Confound that little Don Manuel for bobbing up at such an inconvenient time! It was fierce luck

He stopped his traally it was all his So his Denver lawyers had told hi the case over carefully The courts would decide for him in all probability; morally he had not the shadow of a claied to those who had settled in it and were using it for their needs His claim was merely a paper one It had not a scintilla of natural justice back of it

He resurams of pain to headquarters He cut an aspen by the roadside and tri-stick and, as he went forward, leanedfor fair if I don't look out," he told hiood for a twelve- one of his frequent stops to rest that a buggy appeared round the turn from the same direction he had come It drew to a halt in front of hiot out

"Señorita Maria sends a carriage for Señor Gordon to take him to Corbett's," he said