She had carried it off to the last without breaking down, but, once in her own room, the girl's face showed haggard in the moonlight. It was one thing to jest about it with him; it was another to face the facts as they stood. She was in the power of her father's enemy, the man whose proffer of friendship they had rejected with scorn. Her pride cried out that she could not endure mercy from him even if he wished to extend it. Surely there must be some other way out than the humiliation of begging him not to prosecute. She could see none but one, and that was infinitely worse. Yet she knew it would be her father's first impulsive instinct to seek to fight her out of her trouble, the more because it was through him that it had fallen upon her. At all hazards she must prevent this. CHAPTER XI A CONVERSATION Not five minutes after Melissy had left the deputy sheriff, another rider galloped up the road. Jack, returning from his room, where he had left the box of gold locked up, waited on the porch to see who this might be. The horseman proved to be the man Norris, or Boone, and in a thoroughly bad temper, as Jack soon found out. "Have you see anything of 'Lissie Lee?" he demanded immediately. "Miss Lee has just left me. She has gone to her room," answered Flatray quietly. "Well, I want to see her," said the other hoarsely. "I reckon you better postpone it to to-morrow. She's some played out and needs sleep." "Well, I'm going to see her now." Jack turned, still all gentleness, and called to Jim Budd, who was in the store. "Oh, Jim! Run upstairs and knock on Miss Melissy's door and tell her Mr. Norris is down here. Ask if she will see him to-night." "You're making a heap of formality out of this, Mr. Buttinsky," sneered the cowpuncher. Jack made no answer, unless it were one to whistle gently and look out into the night as if he were alone. "No, seh. She doan' wan' tuh see him to-night," announced Jim upon his return. "That seems to settle it, Mr. Norris," said Jack pleasantly. "Not by a hell of a sight. I've got something to say to her, and I'm going to say it." "To-morrow," amended the officer. "I said to-night." "But your say doesn't go here against hers. I reckon you'll wait." "Not so's you could notice it." The cowpuncher took a step forward toward the stairway, but Flatray was there before him. "Get out of the way, you. I don't stand for any butting-in," the cowboy blustered. "Don't be a goat, Norris. She's tired, and she says she don't want to see you. That's enough, ain't it?" Norris leaped back with an oath to draw his gun, but Jack had the quickest draw in Arizona. The puncher found himself looking into the business end of a revolver.