Ed Lamy drew rein with an exclamation of surprise. "There's not much time, an' I don't hanker to be seen--afoot," said Rathburn quickly. "Where's my horse?" "He's in a pocket on a shale slope this side of the timber on a line from the house where you left him," replied Lamy readily. "Or you can have mine." "Don't want him," said Rathburn curtly. "You going in to see the sheriff?" Lamy nodded. "His orders. Say, Coyote----" "He'll probably meet you on the way," Rathburn interrupted with a sneer. "You can be figurin' out what to say to him. My saddle with the horse?" "It's hanging from a tree where you go into the pocket. Big limestone cliffs there below the shale. Say, Coyote, my sister an' kid brother was tellin' me about your visit that morning, an' I guess I understand----" "We can't stand here talkin'," Rathburn broke in, pulling the tobacco sack from his shirt pocket. He extracted a folded piece of paper. "Here's a note I wrote you in jail before I left. Read it on the way in when there's no one watching you. Maybe you'll learn something from it; maybe you won't. I expect you wanted money to fix that ranch up; but you'll get further by doing a little irrigating from up that stream than by trying to be a bandit. You just naturally ain't cut out for the part!" With these words he handed Lamy the note and bounded back up the slope. The screen of cedar bushes closed behind him as Lamy pushed on, looking back, wondering and confused, with heightened color in his face. It was late that night when Lamy returned to the little ranch house. Frankie had gone to bed, but his sister was waiting up for him with a meal and hot tea ready. He talked to his sister in a low voice while he ate. When he had finished he read the note for the third time; read it aloud, so his sister could hear. "LAMY: I meant to take you back and give you up, for I was pretty sore. Then I saw your resemblance to your small brother by the freckles and eyes and I remembered he had said something about you saying some decent things about me. I guess you thought they were nice things, anyway. "Then I thought maybe you got your ideas about easy money from the stuff you'd heard about me, and I sort of felt kind of responsible. I thought I'd teach you a lesson by flirting with that posse and telling you that killing story to show you what a man is up against in this game. I guess I can't get away from it because they won't let me. But you don't have to start. I was going to give you a good talking to before I let you go, but I hadn't counted on the little kid in the house. I'm glad he told the truth. He'll remember that. I gave you back your gun because you hit the nail on the head when you said if I was square I'd give it to you and let you make a run for it.