"He'd planned to go back to Ranger," he said. "But, after being up most of the night before, he was too tired. He told them at Ranger he'd be back. And if I'd been there they'd have got me," he ended. "Unless they was lookin' for Kelly especial," said Dick. "They took his money belt." "Mebby," muttered Jed,--"mebby they made a mistake." CHAPTER XVI The Candle Burns Time went on, and the country dropped back from the singing pitch of excitement to which the killing of the horse buyer raised it. Men agreed that some one of that country had fired the shots into that blanket, but it is not a safe thing to suspect too openly. Dick Worth worked continually, but his efforts were without result. A reward of two hundred and fifty dollars for the slayer, dead or alive, disclosed nothing. After the evidence had been sifted, and each man had asked his quota of questions and passed judgment on the veracity of the myriad stories, Dick said to himself: "We'll settle down now and see who leaves the country." Jed and VB went about the winter's work in a leisurely way. For days after the visit of Worth the old man was quieter than usual. The realization of how the world looked on this young fellow he had come to love had been driven in upon him. There could be no mistaking it; and as he reasoned the situation out, he recognized the attitude of men as the only logical thing to expect. With his quietness came a new tenderness, a deeper devotion. The two sat, one night, listening to the drawing of the stove and the whip of the wind as it sucked down the gulch. The candle burned steadily in its bottle. Jed watched it a long time, and, still gazing at the steady flame, he said, as though unconscious that thoughts found vocal expression: "Th' candle's burnin' bright, VB." The other looked slowly around at it and smiled. "Yes, Jed; it surely burns bright." At the instant an unusually vicious gust of wind rattled the windows and a vagrant draft caught the flame of the taper, bending it low, dulling its orange. "But yet sometimes," the younger man went on, "something comes along--something that makes it flicker--that takes some of the assurance from it." Jed had started in his chair as the flame bowed before the draft. "But it-- You ain't been flickerin' lately, have you?" he asked, with a look in the old eyes that was beseeching. Young VB rose and commenced to walk about thumbs hooked in his belt.