cartridge belt, completely studded with cartridges. Suspended from the
belt were two ivory-handled pistols that had seen much service.

They had belonged to his father. Later, he had worn them himself--in
the days when his character had been in process of developing, when he
had earned, with them, a reputation which had made him respected
throughout the state.

They were, he felt, symbols of an ancient time. The day was coming when
men would ride the open range without guns, when the wearing of guns
would bring upon a man the distrust and the condemnation of his kind.
Law and order would supersede the rule of the gun, and the passions of
men would have to be regulated by the statute books.

He had brought the two guns with him upon the impulse of a moment. He
would be away from the Circle L for at least two years, and he wanted
the guns where he could look at them occasionally. For they brought into
his mind a picture of his father as he had seen him, many times, wearing
them; and they reminded him of days when he, too, had worn them--days
that had a romantic charm all their own.




CHAPTER XXXIX

SLADE'S PRISONER


When Ruth regained the use of her senses she was lying on a bed in a