"Why, that kid, Overton, knew one of the gang--one, at least--all the time. Yet Overton shot his old-time friend. And Overton knew all along where the bunch was hiding. And did you hear how neatly he led Corporal Cotter right to the cave of the gang? Now if that don't prove----" Hyman promptly knocked Hooper down. "It proves, Bill," growled Hyman, "that you're so fond of lying that you don't know the truth when you hear it." CHAPTER XXIV CONCLUSION TIP BRANDERS recovered. So did the leader of the gang with which Tip had foolishly cast his evil lot down in Pueblo, when he had first come west after robbing his mother. The man wounded in the neck had been at no time in a dangerous condition. Not much sympathy need be wasted on Tip. He had chosen his own place in life, and had filled it. Before Tip was out of the local hospital, and in his cell in jail, his mother, who had read of his fate in a newspaper in her home town, joined her son in the town of Clowdry. She stood by her son to the last, until the testimony of officers and soldiers from Fort Clowdry had sent him away to prison for ten years. At first, on his recovery, Tip Branders had been inclined to be boastful. He had shown his boldness by his thieving exploits and by daring to face the steady rifle fire of Private Hal Overton, United States Army. But when the sentence of the court came upon him Tip broke down. He wept and could hardly stand. He implored the judge to lessen his sentence. All the braggadocio in him ran out as rapidly as the sawdust from a punctured doll. The other members of the band received equally severe sentences, for all had been engaged in battle with troops who represent law and order. From that trial Hal and Noll journeyed to Denver. Major Davis, of the Seventeenth Cavalry, also traveled from his post, for the trial of the baffled men who had attempted to rob the United States mail was on in the United States District Court. These men, too, were sent away to the penitentiary for long terms. The writer of the anonymous note against Hal had so far escaped detection. "We've been getting a lot of travel lately," smiled Hal as the two chums trudged down the road from the railway station to Fort Clowdry on their return from Denver. "All we're going to have for a while, I hope," returned Noll Terry quietly. "I'd sooner put in my time learning soldiering." "Not tired of the army yet, Noll?" "I never shall be, nor you either, Hal, as long as we're young enough to serve." "What I dread," mused Hal, "is the time when if we live to that age, we shall be too old for the Army, and will have to go away and settle down in some town as retired men of the Army." "That will be time to die, won't it?" asked Noll, so solemnly that Private Overton laughed merrily. "That time is a long way off, Noll Terry. Let's see; we're eighteen now, and a fellow doesn't have to be retired, for age, until he's sixty-two."