“This desperado, Bannister, is my cousin,” answered the sheepman gravely.
“But if he was your cousin, why should he want—to kill you?”
“That’s a long story, Lieutenant. Will y’u hear it now?”
“If you feel strong enough to tell it.”
“Oh, I’m strong enough.” He glanced at Helen. “Perhaps we had better not tire Miss Messiter with it. If y’u’ll come to my room—”
“I should like, above all things, to hear it again,” interrupted that young woman promptly.
For the man she loved had just come back to her from the brink of the grave and she was still reluctant to let him out of her sight.
So Ned Bannister told his story once more, and out of the alcove came the happy foreman and Nora to listen to the tale. While he told it his sweetheart’s contented eyes were on him. The excitement of the night burnt pleasantly in her veins, for out of the nettle danger she had plucked safety for her sheepman.
CHAPTER XX.
TWO CASES OF DISCIPLINE
The Fourth of July celebration at Gimlet Butte had been a thing of the past for four days and the Lazy D had fallen back into the routine of ranch life. The riders were discussing supper and the continued absence of Reddy when that young man drew back the flap and joined them.