"That's good, Charley," Shields responded with a laugh. "The dog just wouldn't mind, and he was only a snarling, no-account cur at that, wasn't he?" Then he looked at the coach, and his heart softened to the hunted man. "I can see it all, now," he said slowly. "Those punchers must have forced him out of the Backbone, and he was getting away when he saw the plight you were in. By God!" he cried in appreciation of the act. "It wasn't no one man's work, five Apaches! One man stopping five of those devils--it was no work for a murderer, not much! It was clean-cut nerve, and if I ever see him I'll tell him so, too! I'll let him know that he's got some friends in this country. They can say what they please, but there's more manhood in him to the square inch than there is in all the people who cry him down; and who are in a great way responsible for his being an outlaw. I'm ready to swear that he never wantonly shot a man down; no, sir, he didn't. And I reckon he never had much show, from what I know of him." "Helen was real kind to him," remarked the spinster. "She bathed his wound and bandaged it. Spoiled her very best skirt, too." "You're a good girl, Sis," Shields said, looking fondly at the beautiful girl at his side. His arm went around her shoulder and he affectionately patted her cheek. "I'm proud of you, and we'll have to see if we can't get another 'very best skirt,' too." Then he laughed: "But I'll bet he blesses the warrior who fired that shot--he's not used to having pretty girls fuss about him." Mary looked quickly at her sister. "Why, Helen! You've lost your gold pin! Where do you suppose it has gone? I'll look in the stage for it before we forget about it. Dear me, dear me," she cried as she entered the vehicle, "this has indeed been a terrible day!" Bill grinned and turned toward his team. "I reckon she'll find it some day," he said in a low aside as he passed the sheriff. "I'll just bet she does. It'll be in at the finish of a whole lot of things, and people, too, you bet," he added enigmatically. Shields looked quickly at the driver, his face brightened and he smiled knowingly at the words. "I reckon it will; fool punchers, for instance?" Bill turned his head and one eye closed in an emphatic wink. "Keno," he replied. Mary bustled out again, very much agitated. "I can't find it. Where do you suppose you lost it, dear? I've looked everywhere in the stage." "Probably back where we stopped before," Helen replied quietly. "We were so agitated that we would never have noticed it if it slipped down." "Well--" began Mary. "No use going back for it, Miss Shields," promptly interrupted Bill from his high seat. "We just couldn't find it in all that trampled sand, not if we hunted all week for it with a comb." "You're right, Bill," gravely responded the sheriff. "We never could." As they entered the defile of the Backbone the sheriff suddenly remembered what Bill had told him and he stopped and dismounted.