though, so expect to receive $3,000 by express some time before I
put in an appearance. I hope you got the mortgage renewed at the
end of the year. If my failure to show up then has caused you
trouble, you'll forgive me, old fellow, I know, under the
circumstances. I'll make it up to you. I owe you everything.
You're the best friend a man ever had. That's why I'm writing to
you instead of to Uncle Jim, for I want you to do me another
friendly service. Just break it gently to Echo Allen that I'm
alive and well though pretty badly damaged by that renegade McKee
and tell her that it wasn't my fault I wasn't home the day I
promised. She'll forgive me, I know, and be patient a while
longer. It's all for her sake I'm staying away. Give her the
letter I enclose.
"Your old bunkie,
Dick Lane"


CHAPTER II
The Heart of a Girl

Jim Allen was the sole owner and proprietor of Allen Hacienda.
His ranch, the Bar One, stretched for miles up and down the
Sweetwater Valley. Bounded on the east and west by the
foot-hills, the tract was one of the garden spots of Arizona.
Southward lay the Sweetwater Ranch, owned by Jack Payson.
Northward was the home ranch of the Lazy K, an Ishmaelitish
outfit, ever at petty war with the other settlers in the
district. It was a miscellaneous and constantly changing crowd,
recruited from rustlers from Wyoming, gamblers from California,
half-breed outlaws from the Indian Territory; in short, "bad men"