by Unknown
Bob loosened the bandanna from his throat and with it covered the face of the outlaw. He straightened the body and folded the hands across the breast. It was not in his power to obliterate from the face the look of ghastly, rigid terror stamped on it during the last terrible moments.
The young husband went back to his waiting wife. He stood by her stirrup while she looked down at him, white-faced.
"Who was it?" she whispered.
"Jake Houck," he told her gravely. "The Utes did it--because he killed Black Arrow, I reckon."
She shuddered. A cloud had come over the beautiful world.
"We'll go on now," he said gently. "I'll come back later with your father."
They rode in silence up the long hill. At the top of it he drew rein and smiled at his bride.
"You'll not let that spoil the day, will you, June? He had it coming, you know. Houck had gone bad. If it hadn't been the Utes, it would have been the law a little later."
"Yes, but--" She tried to answer his smile, not very successfully. "It's rather--awful, isn't it?"
He nodded. "Let's walk over to the cabin, dear."
She swung down, into his arms. There she found comfort that dissipated the cloud from her mind. When she ran into the house to throw her arms around Pete Tolliver's neck, she was again radiant.
"Guess! Guess what!" she ordered her father.
Pete looked at his daughter and at the bashful, smiling boy.
"I reckon I done guessed, honeybug," he answered, stroking her rebellious hair.
"You're to come and live with us. Isn't he, Bob?"
The young husband nodded sheepishly. He felt that it was a brutal thing to take a daughter from her father. It had not occurred to him before, but old Pete would feel rather out of it now.
Tolliver looked at Bob over the shoulder of his daughter.
"You be good to her or I'll--" His voice broke.
"I sure will," the husband promised.
June laughed. "He's the one ought to worry, Dad. I'm the flyaway on this team."
Bob looked at her, gifts in his eyes. "I'm worryin' a heap," he said, smiling.
THE END
Table of Contents
Wyoming
Brand Blotters
Ridgway of Montana
A Texas Ranger
Bucky O’Connor
Mavericks
Crooked Trails and Straight
The Vision Splendid
The Pirate of Panama
A Daughter of the Dons
Steve Yeager
The Highgrader
The Yukon Trail
The Sheriff’s Son
A Man Four-Square
Oh You Tex!
The Big Town Round-Up
Gunsight Pass
Tangled Trails
Man Size
The Fighting Edge
Contents
