"Well, I don't see how it could be anything so very important."
"There, I knew it! Doug, I'm so proud of myself that if I don't tell some one, I'll burst. Give me your word of honor you'll never give it away and I'll tell you."
"I swear I'll die before I'll peep!"
"Still think it's funny, don't you! All right, mister, prepare to faint!
I was out helping Scott Parsons run cattle."
Douglas gasped.
"There, Doug Spencer! You're such a wonder! Of course," honestly, "I didn't do the hardest part. Scott had got 'em all together in a corral before I got there. But I held the herd in a little canyon for a couple of hours while he got old Nelson off the scent. Then we drove 'em across the ridge, down into the desert country west of Mesa Pass. He's going to sell 'em in Mountain City and my share is a good bucking horse, like I told you."
Douglas sat perfectly still, so torn by conflicting emotions that for a time he was speechless. Finally, from the chaos of his mind rose an overwhelming anger.
"Do you think that's a decent thing to do? A girl, running cattle and with a confessed murderer at that? I sure am ashamed of you, Jude!"
"Can you beat a man!" cried Judith to the flaming heavens. "He won't even give me credit for being a cattle wrangler! And he says he loves me!"
Doug's voice was furious. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, stealing cattle and running round with that Inez Rodman!"