"Oh, Lafe, do be careful. They tell such dreadful things about him. Mrs. Brown says he could hit a two-bit piece at a hundred yards." "Don't. Let's be cheerful," said the sheriff, and laughed. "It'll only be a few days, hon. I'll get him all right." "Well," said Hetty, with a sigh of content, clinging to his arm, "there's one comfort. If anything ever did happen to you, I'd know it, if you were in Jericho." "How?" he asked, much diverted. "Why, you booby, I could feel it. Isn't it strange, Lafe? I feel as if we'd known each other all our lives. We must have been made for each other." "That's right queer," said the sheriff solemnly. "I often get that feeling myself." As I have a suspicion that other loving young people have talked like this before, enough of it. CHAPTER XXI A FIGHT IN THE DARK As Lafe was coming from dinner at the Fashion annex next noon, a Mexican handed him a letter. It was undated and without beginning. [Illustration: "As Lafe was coming from dinner ... a Mexican handed him a letter."] Steve's sore. Look out for him. ANNIE. The sheriff had received so many warnings in his time that he had grown callous and seldom attached any significance to them, but he knew that Dutch Annie was not given to foolish alarm. So he tore her note into minute particles and saw to the oiling of his six-shooter. That was the only preparation against trouble that Johnson was wont to make. The sheriff's two-roomed frame shack was somewhat removed from its neighbors. It was a full half mile from the Widow's house, where Hetty lodged. His housekeeping had a fine touch of simplicity. If all things were favorable, and he had nothing else to do, Lafe would make the bed once in a while. To do him justice, he had been known to sweep the place, also. That was not a particularly arduous task, because the furniture consisted of the bed aforesaid, one chair, one table with three legs, which stood propped against the wall, and a packing case for a washstand. About seven o'clock that evening he led a spare horse to the Widow's house and took Hetty for a ride. They talked of the future--soberly, almost as a staid married couple. She never indulged in coquetry, and their courtship had not been of the kind to make jealousy of others expedient or a desirable weapon for her use. After she had dismounted at the gate: "I wish you weren't going. I'm sort of nervous to-night." The sheriff smiled down at her. "I reckon you'd best get a glass case to keep me in, hon." "I know it's silly--but you'll be awful careful, won't you, Lafe?" "Sure," he said. "There ain't a native in ten counties that likes getting hurt less'n I do." He put the horses up and repaired to the Fashion, for he had it in mind to ascertain the latest gossip of Moffatt. It was not to be supposed that a man of the outlaw's temper would take the expulsion of Picnic Kate from Badger in a spirit of decorous humility.