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"By Heaven! I know that!" shouted Auchincloss, tottering up, with his face now black-red "Do you think thet's new to me? Shut up, Dale! I can't stand it"

"But Al--there's worse," went on Dale, hurriedly "Worse! Your life's threatened--an' your niece, Helen--she's to be--"

"Shut up--an' clear out!" roared Auchincloss, waving his huge fists

He see all over, he backed into the door A few seconds of rage had transformed hian Dale, appealingly

"Friend, hey?" returned the rancher, with grim, bitter passion "Then you're the only one Milt Dale, I'm rich an' I'm a dyin' man I trust nobody But, you wild hunter--if you're reaser sheep-thief! DO somethin'--an' then co, into the house, and slammed the door

Dale stood there for a blankup his rifle, he strode away

Toward sunset Dale located the camp of his four Mormon friends, and reached it in time for supper

John, Roy, Joe, and Hal Beeman were sons of a pioneer Mormon who had settled the little co men in years, but hard labor and hard life in the open had e stood between John and Roy, and between Roy and Joe, and likewise Joe and Hal When it cauish from one another Horsemen, sheep-herders, cattle-raisers, hunters--they all possessed long, wiry, powerful frames, lean, bronzed, still faces, and the quiet, keen eyes of men used to the open

Their ca in a cove surrounded by aspens, so for Beasley, near the village, they had ridden to and fro from camp, after the habit of seclusion peculiar to their kind

Dale and the brothers hadup But their exchange of confidences had wholly concerned things pertaining to the forest Dale ate supper with the any hint of the purpose for in his mind After the meal he helped Joe round up the horses, hobble the the pines Later, when the shadows stole through the forest on the cool wind, and the calowed comfortably, Dale broached the subject that possessed him