Endicott laughed happily, and in the darkness his hand stole across and gripped the hand of the Texan in a mighty grip: "I wish to God there was some way I could thank you," he said. "Had it not been for you, I never could have won her. Why, man, I never got acquainted with myself until the past three days!" "There ain't any posses out," grinned Tex. "The fellow I met in the coulee there by Antelope Butte told me. They think you were lynched. He told me somethin' else, too--but that'll keep." As they were saddling up, the following morning, the Texan grinned: "I'll bet old Long Bill Kearney's in a pleasin' frame of mind." "He's had time to meditate a little on his sins," answered Alice. "No--not Long Bill ain't. If he started in meditatin' on them, he'd starve to death before he'd got meditated much past sixteen--an' he's fifty, if he's a day." "There are four of us and only three horses," exclaimed Endicott, as he tightened his cinch. "That's all right. The horses are fresh. I'm light built, an' we'll change off makin' 'em carry double. It ain't so far." The morning sun was high when the horses turned into the coulee that led to Long Bill's ranch. Bat, who had scouted ahead to make sure that he had not succeeded in slipping his bonds and had plotted mischief, sat grinning beside the corral fence as he listened, unobserved, to the whimpering and wailing of the man who lay bound beside the cabin door. "What's the matter, Willie?" smiled Tex, as he slipped from his seat behind Endicott's saddle. "Didn't your breakfast set right?" The man rolled to face them at the sound of the voice, and such a stream of obscene blasphemy poured from his lips as to cause even the Texan to wince. Without a word the cowboy reached for a bar of soap that lay awash in the filthy water of a basin upon a bench beside the door, and jammed it down the man's throat. The sounds changed to a sputtering, choking gurgle. "Maybe that'll learn you not to talk vile when there's ladies around." "Water!" the man managed to gasp. "Will you quit your damn swearin'?" Long Bill nodded, and Tex held a dipper to his lips. "Go catch up the horses, Bat, an' we'll be gettin' out of here. They's some reptiles so mean that even their breath is poison." As Bat started for the alfalfa field the man fairly writhed with fury: "I'll hev the law on ye, ye--" he stopped abruptly as Tex reached for the soap. "You won't have the law on no one, you lizard! You don't dare to get within hollerin' distance of the law." "I will pay you a reasonable amount for any damage to your field, and for the food, and the use of your horses," offered Endicott, reaching for his pocket.