"You won't come with me then? You'll stick with him? After he put a chain on you!" "At least he did not stand back and see another man put a chain on me!" "Is that my answer?" "Yes!" she cried in sudden fury. "And now ... _go!_" "I'll go, all right," said Deveril. And began to laugh. All that old light laughter of his, gay and untroubled, which so many a time had made dancing echoes in the souls of those who heard, bubbled up again. He looked, as he had done when first she saw him, a slender, darkly handsome and utterly care-free incarnation of debonair insolence. Still striking the right note, he shrugged his shoulders and tossed his club away as he said insolently: "What need of all this heavy artillery ... since the Queen of my Heart says Nay? I'll travel light after this!" He turned away. But at the second step he stopped and swung about and told her: "I have a guess where Billy Winch will be taking Mexicali Joe! And I'll be in on the final settlement. If you, with a rush of blood to the head, throw in with Standing, I'll play the game out! And what will you have left to trade to me for the pile I'm going to make out of this?... For I heard, too, when Mexicali yelled out! And I'm throwing in with Taggart and Gallup, headed straight for Light Ladies' Gulch!" Lynette, unable to see anything in all the wide world clearly, could only stoop her head over the stricken dog. Her arms tightened about Thor.... If only Billy Winch would come in time, if only Billy Winch would save that flickering little fire of life ... then, though she hated all the rest of the world she'd love Billy Winch.... CHAPTER XXIII Bruce Standing running, breaking a straight path through the brush, came swiftly into the little upper valley. When in answer to his whistling his horse came trotting up to him, he did not tarry to saddle; he had picked up his bridle on his way and now mounted and struck off bareback through the woods with no second's delay. "Get into it, Daylight!" he muttered. "We're riding for old Thor to-day!" From a distance Billy Winch, hurrying homeward, heard that long call he knew so well. He pulled his horse down from a steady canter and turned, calling to Mexicali Joe to come back with him. Once within sight Standing waved and shouted again; Winch and Joe sensed urgency and dipped their spurs, riding back to a meeting with him. Winch stared and frowned while his employer made his curt explanation; Mexicali Joe gasped. But neither man had a word to say; Standing laid his brief command upon them and the three turned back, riding hard, into the mountains.