The sheriff hardly saw her. He was chewing the bitter cud of defeat and was absorbed in his thoughts. He was still young enough to have counted on the effect upon Melissy of his return to town with one of the abductors as his prisoner. It happened that she was on the porch watering her flower boxes when he passed the house. "Jack!" she cried, and on the heels of her exclamation: "What's the matter with you? Been hurt?" A gray pallor had pushed through the tan of her cheeks. She knew her heart was beating fast. "Bumped into a piece of bad luck," he grinned, and told her briefly what had occurred. She took him into the house and washed his head for him. After she saw how serious the cuts were she insisted on sending for a doctor. When his wounds were dressed she fed him and made him lie down and sleep on her father's bed. The sun was sliding down the heavens to a crotch in the hills before he joined her again. She was in front of the house clipping her roses. "Is the invalid better?" she asked him. "He's a false alarm. But he did have a mighty thumping headache that has gone now." "I've been wondering why you didn't meet Lieutenant O'Connor. He must have taken the road you came in on." The young man's eyes lit. "Is Bucky here already?" "He was. He's gone. I was greatly disappointed in him. He's not half the man you think he is." "Oh, but he is. Everybody says so." "I never saw a more conceited man, or a more hateful one. There's something about him--oh, I don't know. But he isn't good. I'm sure of that." "His reputation isn't of that kind. They say he's devoted to his wife and kids." "His wife and children." Melissy recalled the smoldering admiration in his bold eyes. She laughed shortly. "That finishes him with me. He's married, is he? Well, I know the kind of husband he is." Jack flashed a quick look at her. He guessed what she meant. But this did not square at all with what his friends had told him of O'Connor. "Did he ask for me?" "No. He said he preferred to play a lone hand. His manner was unpleasant all the time. He knows it all. I could see that." "Anyhow, he's a crackerjack in his line. Have you heard from your father since he set out?" "Not yet." "Well, I'm going to start to-night with a posse for the Cache. If O'Connor comes back, tell him I'll follow the Roaring Fork." "You'll not go this time without a gun, Jack," she said with a ghost of a smile. "No. I want to make good this trip." "You did splendidly before. Not one man in a hundred would have done so well." "I'm a wonder," he admitted with a grin. "But you will take care of yourself--not be foolish." "I don't aim to take up residence in Boot Hill cemetery if I can help it." "Boone and his men are dangerous characters. They are playing for high stakes. They would snuff your life out as quick as they would wink. Don't forget that." "You don't want me to lie down before Dunc Boone, do you?" "No-o. Only don't be reckless. I told father the same."