"Ma'am," he said, huskily, "Pepper an' me owe you a debt we never can pay; but we can try right hard to square up some of it. I'll never forget th' last half-hour, never." "How did you come to get in it?" asked Margaret, glancing where she last had seen the body of Lang. It was gone, and so was the horse. The sands, still undulating, were slowly assuming their mask of innocence. "Pepper got goin' so fast she couldn't stop quick enough, which was my fault. I didn't try to turn her in time." "And that--that other--man. Who was he, and what happened to him?" "I reckon he got tangled in th' wire, an' got his rope mixed up with it. An' somehow we got to shootin'. When th' excitement stopped he was there, an' I was where you found me." "Who was he?" she demanded. "He was a Triangle puncher, Ma'am; Lang was his name." "He was one of the men whom I ordered to stay off our range--we couldn't keep the wire on those posts, and I suspected them strongly. Are you sure he was only tangled in the wire?" "Well, I wouldn't just say nothin' about that. Mebby he was tryin' to help th' cow that was mired, an' got afoul of th' wire. But that don't make no difference, anyhow, now. Have you got any wire at th' ranch?" "I think so," she answered. "We'll put it up some day soon, so it'll take some time, an' more trouble, to get it loose." She nodded and took a paper out of her waist. "Here are the figures for the year we took possession." He looked them over. "Uh-huh," he said, "they're what I want." "It is surprising that we have as many left as we have," she said. "We are about ready to give up, admit our failure, and go back East." "Ma'am," said Johnny, with great earnestness, "don't you do it. Just sit tight an' see things come around yore way. Luck allus turns. Stick it out, an' see." "Do you believe in luck?"