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No one was in sight around the ranch Never had it appearedcattle and horses in the foreground, the haystack half eaten away, the cows in the fenced pasture, the colu, the cackle of hens, the solid, well-built cabins--all these seemed to repudiate Jean's haste and his darkness of mind This place was, his father's faralloped up the lane some one saw hiray-headed father came out upon the porch Jean sa he' waved the womenfolk back, and then strode out into the lane Bill and Guy reached his side as Jean pulled his heaving horse to a halt They all looked at Jean, swiftly and intently, with a little, hard, fiery gleaely identical in the eyes of each Probably before a as spoken they knehat to expect

"Wal, you shore was in a hurry," rerihtly pale Jean leaped off his horse

"Bernardino has just been killed--un"

Gaston Isbel see breath that let his chest sag A terrible deadly glint, pale and cold as sunlight on ice, grely to dominate his clear eyes

"A-huh!" ejaculated Bill Isbel, hoarsely

Not one of the threeThey were silent a moment, motionless, locked in the secret seclusion of their own minds Then they listened with absorption to Jean's brief story

"Wal, that lets us in," said his father "I e had more time Reckon I'd done better to listen to you boys an' have my men close at hand Jacobs happened to ride over That makes five of us besides the women"

"Aw, dad, you don't reckon they'll round us up heah?" asked Guy Isbel

"Boys, I always feared they ht," replied the old man "But I never really believed they'd have the nerve Shore I ought to have figgered Daggs better This heah secret bizness an' shootin' at us from ambush looked aboot Jorth's size to ht without our friends"

"Let them come," said Jean "I sent for Blaisdell, Blue, Gordon, and Fredericks Maybe they'll get here in time But if they don't it needn't worry usaround We'll want plenty of water, wood, and meat in the house"