"Honey! it's all right now!" he assured her. "We're here with everything that's needed. We'll soon yank him up out of that hole!" The baby, frightened by the rush and tumult of the off-leaping riders, began to scream. Someone took him from the girl's arms and handed him to his mother as she was lifted down out of her saddle. Isobel pressed her face against her father's sweaty breast. "Hold on, Miss Chuckie!" sang out one of the men. "Don't let go yet. Where's Gowan--Kid Gowan?" She shuddered convulsively, yet managed to reply: "He--was trying to--to roll the rock down. Tom, my brother, is right below it. I heard and came to see. His back was to me. I could not shoot--I could not raise my pistol. When I spoke, he whirled and shot at me. He--" "Kid--shot at you?" cried Knowles. "At you? 'Tain't possible!" "He didn't mean to. He fired before he saw who I was. Then he saw. He forgot everything--everything except that he had shot at me. He backed off--there--over the edge!" A sudden hush fell on the excited crowd. One man went to peer down from the place to which the girl had pointed. He came back softly. "Same place where the last bunch of sheep went over," he said. "Rest of us were pretty sick--ready to quit. He kept after them until the last ewe jumped. Said they'd gone to hell, where they belonged." "He's the one that's gone there!" said the sheriff. "Look at the way this bowlder is pried loose, ready to roll over! Once heard tell that his real dad was Billie the Kid. Some of you mayn't have heard tell of Billie. He was the coldest blooded, promiscuous murderer of them days when we used to drive from Texas to Montana and the boys used to shoot-up towns and each other just for fun. Well, this Kid Gowan has got Billie's eyes and slit mouth. Can't say I ever took to him, but seeing as how he was a crack-up puncher and Wes Knowles' foreman--" "That's it! I can't understand it--Kid has been almost like a son to me all these years!" complained Knowles perplexedly. He explained to his daughter. "You're wondering why I didn't come sooner, honey. Those Utes had been let go. We had to follow them up a long ways. When we got them back and put them on that trail from the waterhole, they found it led straight across the flats to where the horses and wagon had stood. There the tracks of the Indian shoes ended, and the tracks of shod hoofs led off into the brush. We followed them all the way 'round to the lower waterhole and up the lower creek to the ranch, and there they took us right to Rocket's heels. The Jap said Kid had his saddle in the wagon when he came back from town, and he had a new hat. Mr. Blake did some hot shooting at that assassin on the hill. So, putting two and two together--" "Oh, Daddy, I know--I knew when I saw him look at Lafe!"