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She clasped his hand, turned quickly away, and went down a lane with the rider

Venters rode to the barn, and, leaping off, shouted for Jerd The boy ca Venters sent his His own horse he turned loose into the nearest corral Then he went for Wrangle The giant sorrel had earned his name for a trait the opposite of amiability He came readily out of the barn, but once in the yard he broke froed about with ears laid back

Venters had to rope him, and then he kicked down a section of fence, stood on his hind legs, crashed down and fought the rope

Jerd returned to lend a hand

"Wrangle don't git enough work," said Jerd, as the big saddle went on "He's unruly when he's corralled, an' wants to run Wait till he se!"

"Jerd, this horse is an iron-jawed devil I never straddled him but once Run? Say, he's swift as wind!"

When Venters's boot touched the stirrup the sorrel bolted, giving hi of this fiery horse recalled to Venters days that were not really long past, when he rode into the sage as the leader of Jane Withersteen's riders

Wrangle pulled hard on a tight rein He galloped out of the lane, down the shady border of the grove, and hauled up at the watering-trough, where he pranced and chaot off and filled his canteen while the horse drank The dogs, Ring and Whitie, ca up for their drink Then Venters ree

A wide, white trail wound away down the slope One keen, sweeping glance told Venters that there was neither man nor horse nor steer within the lie Ring loped in the lead and Whitie loped in the rear

Wrangle settled gradually into an easy swinging canter, and Venters's thoughts, now that the rush and flurry of the start were past, and the longof late singular coincidences

There was the night ride of Tull's, which, viewed in the light of subsequent events, had a look of his covertand his Masked Rider and his rustlers riding muffled horses; the report that Tull had ridden out that e disappearance of Jane Withersteen's riders, the unusually determined attempt to kill the one Gentile still in her enificent riding of her racer, and lastly the driving of the red herd These events, to Venters's color ofJane's accusation of bitterness, he tried hard to put aside his rancor in judging Tull But it was bitter knowledge that made him see the truth He had felt the shadow of an unseen hand; he had watched till he saw its dim outline, and then he had traced it to a man's hate, to the rivalry of a Mor arm of a terrible creed That unseen hand had ainst Jane Withersteen Her riders had been called in, leaving her without help to drive seven thousand head of cattle But to Venters it seemed extraordinary that the pohich had called in these riders had left so many cattle to be driven by rustlers and harried by wolves For hand in glove with that poas an insatiate greed; they were one and the same