Pagina 437 di 439

The ranger saw only Arlie. His gaze was full of deep reproach.

"You came down here to save me," he said, in the manner of one

stating a fact.

"Why shouldn't I? Ought I to have let you suffer for me? Did you

think I was so base?"

"You oughtn't to have done it. You have brought trouble on

yourself."

Her eyes glowed with deep fires. "I don't care. I have done what

was right. Did you think dad and I would sit still and let you

pay forfeit for us?"

The lieutenant's spirits rejoiced at the thing she had done, but

his mind could not forget what she must go through.

"I'm glad and I'm sorry," he said simply.

Hilliard came, smiling, to relieve the situation. "I've got a

piece of good news for both of you. Two of the boys that were in

that shooting scrap three miles from town came to my office the

other day and admitted that they attacked you. It got noised

around that there was a girl in it, and they were anxious to have

the thing dropped. I don't think either of you need worry about

it any more."