The conversation was interrupted by the youthful Jimmy Coyle, who, with his rifle still clutched in his right hand, came scrambling into the hollow from the clearing, his flapping leather chaparajos looking absurdly wide for his slim and boyish figure. “We’ve gotta git outa here,” remarked Jimmy, without preliminary words of any sort. “You can’t tell what side’s goin’ to stray in here next. The invaders might even be comin’ back.” “You’re right, son,” replied the Texan, getting to his feet. “It’s dangerous for you to be here with me. If you’ll just bring my horse down here where I can get him, I’ll be obliged. Then you folks had better be riding on.” “You’re going with us,” replied Alma. “Where?” asked Bertram. “There’s no place in this part of the country where they won’t hang my hide on the barn door, after the thing that’s happened right here.” “Yes, there is. We’re not all savages here. I don’t dare take you back to the home ranch, up Powderhorn River, but Jimmy and I have a hiding place all arranged for you, where it won’t be necessary to explain things to folks.” “Yes, I reckon most people here will be inclined to shoot first and listen to explanations afterward,” said Bertram. “But you can’t afford to put yourself in a questionable light by sheltering one of Swingley’s rustlers. I can’t hide the fact that I’m a Texan.” “Nobody wants you to,” answered the girl with a smile. “Jimmy will have the horses at the edge of the draw in a moment, and we’ll start on a nice quiet trail back into the hills, where we won’t meet a soul.” “But--but I haven’t any claim on you,” stammered Bertram. “Oh, yes you have--two claims. Didn’t you help me on my way, once when I started home, and once in Denver?” “But those things didn’t amount to anything. And you know I came in here with this invading crowd that killed your stepfather. How do you know that I didn’t have a hand in shooting him?” “Those things can be straightened out later. Right now you’re badly hurt, and the one thing is to get you cared for.” “That’s putting it impersonally enough,” ventured Bertram. “Why should I put it otherwise? I wouldn’t leave even a known enemy under such circumstances, and I don’t know that you are an enemy--not yet.” The young Texan smiled quizzically. “Since you put it on that basis,” he replied, “I’ll accept your offer. I admit that I’m too wabbly to put up much of an argument with any man who might stop me, orally or with a gun.” Just how “wabbly” Bertram was, he did not comprehend until he had climbed to the top of the draw, where Jimmy had brought the horses. Even though Jimmy assisted him on one side and Alma on the other, he had difficulty in negotiating the steep trail. But he managed to get into the saddle without aid.