She saw he was bound to wring more from her. "No," she answered, "it isn't, father." "What else?" "I'm afraid----" she hesitated, and then spoke out: "I can't come back--not just as I was, anyway." "Why not?" "It's too late, father." "What do you mean?" he asked. "When I come back from the East," she spoke slowly but collectedly, "I expect to go into a new home." "Where?" "In the Falling Wall." For a moment he did not speak, only looked at her fixedly: "What I've heard's so, then?" he said, after a pause. "What have you heard?" "The story is you're going to marry Jim Laramie." Kate, in turn, stood silently regarding her father, and as if she knew she must face it out. "Is that so?" he demanded harshly. She burst into tears, but through her tears the two men heard her answer: "Yes, father." Barb picked up his hat without wincing: "I guess that ends things 'tween you and me." He started uncertainly for the door. "Father!" Kate protested, taking a quick step after him as he passed out. "You don't do him justice. You don't know him." But slamming the door shut behind him, he cut off her words. If they reached his ears he gave them no heed. CHAPTER XXXIX BARB MAKES A SURPRISING ALLIANCE By a happy chance, on the night of Laramie's great hour, Sawdy and Lefever returned from Medicine Bend. It was late when they arrived--into the early morning hours, in fact, and at the Mountain House the bar was not only closed but securely closed--barricaded against just such marauders. Even the night clerk had gone to bed. But this was less of an embarrassment, for the two adventurers, turning on the lights, took his pass keys from the drawer and, opening the doors of one room after another in the face of a variety of protests, kept on till they found satisfactory quarters that "seemed" unoccupied--quarters in which at least the beds were unoccupied. The hardy scouts slept late. They breakfasted late, in what Sawdy called the hotel "ornery," and while they were reducing the visible supply of ham and eggs, Tenison walked in on them to ask about complaints made at the office by indignant guests whose privacy had been invaded during the night. Rebuffed on this subject, all knowledge being disclaimed, Tenison was called on for the story of events since the two had been away, and of these Laramie's escape from the canyon came first. Tenison reported further, in confidence, Laramie's success with Kate. Had the news provided every man in the Falling Wall with a brand-new wife, it could not have been more to the humor of Sawdy and Lefever.