“Gosh darn it, this hole in my ribs don’t amount to much, but it sure hurts,” he complained. “No, kid, I couldn’t let you go up against that _hombre_. I’ve lived my life an’ it don’t matter so much. This kid of mine thinks a heap of you. I couldn’t let you go against as hard a proposition as Mark Steele. An’ there was no time to wait for deputies. You would ’a’ gone after him in spite of hell an’ high water the minute you knew he was in town. So I went after him myself. I’ve stood out against gun play for years now. But you notice I ain’t sheddin’ no tears.” “Nor me,” Robin replied. “Only I wish you hadn’t took him off my hands at your own risk.” “Shucks,” Sutherland rumbled. “You take the runnin’ of the Block S off _my_ hands an’ we’ll call it square. If there’s anything in what I’ve had to listen to from May the last few days it’s all in the family anyhow.” “You mean that?” Robin asked. “Yes. You’ll do,” Sutherland grinned. “I was only joshin’ you at the ranch last week. Wanted to see how you’d take it. I’d trust May’s judgment in a matter of that kind, even if I doubted my own--which I don’t. Hit the trail an’ tell her how the play come up with Mark--an’ tell Lum Yip to bring me some ice water.” Robin delivered this order to the Chinese boy. Then he found May, told her briefly what had happened. She dashed off to her father’s room again. In a minute she came back, flushed, laughing. “Isn’t he the grandest old person,” she said to Robin. “Do you know what he said to me? He said: ‘Get to blazes out of here and leave me rest! Go an’ plague that fellow you’re goin’ to marry. He’ll be sorry when he gets to know what he’s got on his hands as well as I do.’” “Huh!” Robin grunted. “If the fellow lives till he’s sorry he’ll beat Methuselah’s record for old age.” “Let’s go out on the porch,” she suggested. Robin stood with his arms about her looking off toward the blue dome of Old Centennial, the sharp cone of Shadow Butte. The sun dipped low, its rim touching the horizon. Distant windows flashed like heliographs. A cool breeze fluttered the porch awnings. In his mind’s eye Robin could see all the beauty of those distant hills, the far reach of the plains. Something seemed to have been mysteriously restored to him, some dark cloud blown away, something seemed to have set his heart singing and uplifted him with a strangely comforting sense of peace and security. He drew the girl up close to him, and they stood for a long time in silence, Robin’s fingers playing hide and seek in the tangle of her yellow hair. THE END