declared Lawler.

He strode to the door, leaped upon Red King and rode away.

Inside the cabin, Hamlin got to his feet and swayed toward the door,
reaching it and looking out, to see Lawler riding rapidly toward
Willets.




CHAPTER III

A WOMAN'S EYES


There had been a day when Willets was but a name, designating a water
tank and a railroad siding where panting locomotives, hot and dry from a
long run through an arid, sandy desert that stretched westward from the
shores of civilization, rested, while begrimed, overalled men adjusted a
metal spout which poured refreshing water into gaping reservoirs.

In that day Willets sat in the center of a dead, dry section, swathed in
isolation so profound that passengers in the coaches turned to one
another with awe in their voices and spoke of God and the insignificance
of life.

But there was a small river near the water tank--the headwaters of the
Wolf--or there had been no tank. And a prophet of Business, noting
certain natural advantages, had influenced the railroad company to build