were alone. "Hush, child! You mustn't speak of him like that,"
warned the older woman.

"Why mustn't I? That's what I want to know."

"Is isn't healthy."

"What do you mean?"

Again that anxious look flashed round in the dusk. "The Bannister
outfit is the worst in the land. Ned Bannister is king of the
whole Big Horn country and beyond that to the Tetons."

"And you mean to tell me that everybody is afraid of him--that
men like Mr. Sothern dare not say their soul is their own?" the
newcomer asked, contemptuously.

"Not so loud, child. He has spies everywhere That's the trouble.
You don't know who is in with him. He's got the whole region
terrified."

"Is he so bad?"

"He is a devil. Last year he and his hell riders swept down on
Topaz and killed two bartenders just to see them kick, Ned
Bannister said. Folks allow they knew too much."

"But the law--the Government? Haven't you a sheriff and
officers?"