Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: "WHO ARE YOU?" "WATER!" HE GASPED. Page 20.] BRAND BLOTTERS By WILLIAM MacLEOD RAINE Author Of Wyoming, Bucky O'Connor, Mavericks, A Texas Ranger, Ridgway Of Montana, Etc. Illustrations By CLARENCE ROWE Grosset & Dunlap Publishers New York Made in the United States of America Copyright, 1909, by J. B. Lippincott Co. Copyright, 1911, by Street & Smith Copyright, 1912, by G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY Brand Blotters TO FRANK N. SPINDLER In Memory of Certain Sunday Afternoon Tramps Long Ago, During Which We Solved the Problems of the Nation CONTENTS PART I MELISSY OF THE BAR DOUBLE G CHAPTER PAGE I A Crossed Trail 11 II Brand Blotting 18 III An Accusation 35 IV The Man with the Chihuahua Hat 49 V The Tenderfoot Takes up a Claim 61 VI "Hands Up" 75 VII Watering Sheep 98 VIII The Boone-Bellamy Feud is Renewed 109 IX The Danger Line 121 X Jack Goes to the Head of the Class 141 XI A Conversation 156 XII The Tenderfoot Makes a Proposition 163 XIII Old Acquaintances 182 XIV Concerning the Boone-Bellamy-Yarnell Feud 191 PART II DEAD MAN'S CACHE CHAPTER PAGE I Kidnapped 199 II A Capture 209 III The Tables Turned 217 IV The Real Bucky and the False 231 V A Photograph 243 VI In Dead Man's Cache 255 VII "Trapped!" 266 VIII An Escape and a Capture 276 IX A Bargain 286 X The Price 301 XI Squire Latimer Takes a Hand 306 XII The Taking of the Cache 322 XIII Melissy Entertains 334 XIV Black MacQueen Cashes his Checks 340 PART I MELISSY OF THE BAR DOUBLE G CHAPTER I A CROSSED TRAIL The tenderfoot rose from the ledge upon which he had been lying and stretched himself stiffly. The chill of the long night had set him shivering. His bones ached from the pressure of his body upon the rock where he had slept and waked and dozed again with troubled dreams. The sharpness of his hunger made him light-headed. Thirst tortured him. His throat was a lime-kiln, his tongue swollen till it filled his mouth.