"Miss Last," said Kenset gently, "I'm a stranger to you. I have little or no influence with you, but I beg you to listen to me. You say there is no help for the conditions existing in Lost Valley. That outrage follows outrage. True. I grant the thing is appalling. But there is redress. There is a law above the sheriff, when it can be proven that that officer has refused to do his duty. That law is invested in the coroner. Your coroner can arrest your sheriff. He can investigate a murder--he can issue a warrant and serve it anywhere in the State. He can subpoena witnesses. Did you know that?" Tharon shook her head. "Nor you?" he asked Conford. "I knew somethin' like that--but what's th' use? Banner's a brave man, but he's got a family. An' he's been only one against th' whole push. What could he do when there wasn't another man in th' Valley dared to stand behind him? You saw what happened to Pete. He struck up Courtrey's arm when he shot at Tharon one night last spring. Th' same thing'd happen to Banner if he tried to pull off anythin' like that." A light flamed up in Kenset's eyes. "If you, Miss Last," he said straightly, "will give me your word to do no shooting, something like that will be pulled off here, and shortly." He looked directly at Tharon, and for the first time in her life she felt the strength of a gaze she couldn't meet--not fully. But Tharon shook her head. "I'm sworn," she said simply. Kenset's face lost a bit of colour. Billy, watching, turned grey beneath his tan. He saw something which none other did, a thing that darkened the heavens all suddenly. "Then," said Kenset quietly, "we'll have to do without your promise and go ahead anyway. We'll ride back to town, demand of Service a proper investigation by a coroner's jury, and begin at the bottom." Tharon moved uneasily in her saddle. "Why are you doin' this?" she asked. "Why are you mixin' up in our troubles? Why don't you go back to your cabin an' your pictures an' books an' things, an' let us work out our own affairs?" Kenset lifted a quick hand, dropped it again. "God knows!" he said. "Let's go." And he wheeled his horse and started for Corvan, the others falling into line at his side. When Kenset, quietly impervious to the veiled hostility that met him everywhere, faced Steptoe Service and made his request, that dignitary felt a chill go down his spine. Like Old Pete he felt the man beneath the surface. He met him, however, with bluster and refused all reopening of a matter which he declared settled with the burial of the snow-packer in the sliding canyons where he was found. "Very well," said Kenset shortly, "you see I have witnesses to this," and he turned on his heel and went out. "Now, Miss Last," he said when they were in the wholesome summer sunlight once more, "if you have any friends whom you think would stand for the right, send for them." "Th' Vigilantes," said the girl, "we'll gather them in twenty-four hours." "The Vigilantes?"