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."I reckon you won't bother nobody any more," he said.He turned to Betty, the pale stiffness of his lips softening a little as she smiled at him."I want to thank you," he said, "for sendin' Toban after me.He caught me.I wasn't ridin' so fast an' I heard him comin'.I knowed who it was, an' stopped to have it out with him.He yelled that he didn't want me; that you'd sent him after me.We met Dade an' Malcolm—we'd passed Double Fork an' nothin' was bogged down.So we knowed somebody'd framed somethin' up.I come on ahead." He grinned."Toban's been braggin' some about his horse, but I reckon that don't go any more.That black horse can run." He indicated Taggart."I reckon he come here just to bother you," he said.She told him about the diagram and he started, stepping quickly to where Taggart lay, searching in his pockets until he found the paper.Then he went to the door.Standing in it, he looked as he had looked that day when he had humiliated Neal Taggart in her presence.The gentleness which she had seen in him some hours before—and which she had welcomed—had disappeared; his lips had become stiff and pale again, his eyes were narrowed and brilliant with the old destroying fire.She grew rigid and drew a deep, quivering breath, for she saw that the pistol was still in his hand."What are you going to do?" she asked."I reckon old Taggart will still be waitin' in the timber grove," he said with a short, grim laugh."They've bothered me enough.I'm goin' to send him where I sent his coyote son."At that word she was close to him, her hands on his shoulders."Don't!" she pleaded; "please don't!" She shuddered and cast a quick, shrinking glance at the man on the floor."There has been enough trouble tonight," she said."You stay here!" she commanded, trying to pull him away from the door, but not succeeding.He seized her face with his hands in much the same manner in which he had seized it in his father's office on the night of his return to the Lazy Y—she felt the cold stock of the pistol against her cheek and shuddered again.A new light had leaped into his eyes—the suspicion that she had seen there many times before."Are you wantin' old Taggart to get away with the idol?" he demanded."He can't!" she denied."He hasn't the diagram, has he? You have just put it in your pocket!"A quick embarrassment swept over him; he dropped his hands from her face."I reckon that's right," he admitted."But I'm goin' to' send him over the divide, idol or no idol.""He won't be in the timber grove," she persisted; "he must have heard the shooting and he wouldn't stay.""I reckon he won't be able to run away from that black horse," he laughed."I'll ketch him before he gets very far.""You shan't go!" she declared, making a gesture of impotence."Don't you see?" she added."It isn't Taggart that I care about—it's you.I don't want you to be shot—killed.I won't have it! If Taggart hasn't gone by this time he will be hidden somewhere over there and when he sees you he will shoot you!""Well," he said, watching her face with a curious smile; "I'm takin' a look, anyway." In spite of her efforts to prevent him he stepped over the threshold.She was about to follow him when she saw him wheel swiftly, his pistol at a poise as his gaze fell upon something outside the ranchhouse.And then she saw him smile."It's Bob," he said; "with a rifle." And he helped the boy, white of face and trembling, though with the light of stern resolution in his eyes, into the kitchen."Bob'll watch you," he said; "so's nothin' will happen to you.Besides—" he leaned forward in a listening attitude; "Toban an' the boys are comin'.I reckon what I'm goin' to do won't take me long—if Taggart's in the timber."He stepped down and vanished around the corner of the ranchhouse.He had scarcely gone before there was a clatter of hoofs in the ranchhouse yard, a horse dashed up to the edge of the porch, came to a sliding halt and the lank figure of Toban appeared before the door in which Betty was standing
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