“He—he—he war—”
The voice grew faint, and though the girl bent her ear close to the lips of the dying man, she failed to catch the whispered words, and the secret that Malcolm Hornby had kept for so many years died with him there by the scorched meadows of the Cosos over which, like a shroud, hung a suffocating pall of yellow smoke.
Old Joe Bindloss lifted the little mountain girl to her feet, and, with hands on her shoulders, brought her face to face with him.
“I ain’t got no Pap now,” she murmured. “I ain’t got no friends, no nothin’ that a girl wants so much.”
Grace Harlowe slipped an arm about her.
“Yes, you have, Judy. We are your friends, now and always,” said Grace gently. “And I think you have a Pap that you haven’t reckoned on,” she added, nodding towards Joe Bindloss.
For a moment the old rancher and the mountain girl stood gazing into each other’s eyes, then he drew her, unresisting, to him and lightly touched her forehead with his lips.
“Oh, Pap!” sobbed Judy, her arms slipping about the neck of Old Joe Bindloss as she buried her head on his shoulder.
CHAPTER XXIV
FAREWELL TO THE COSOS
The Overland Riders and the men from the Circle O ranch walked to the edge of the precipice and looked down. The girls shivered and quickly turned, facing the other way, while the men gazed solemnly into the abyss.