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Rh "I don't know the lay o' the land exactly, but I'm comin purty nigh it."

"Would you know the spot if you were in the vicinity?" asked Allen, eagerly.

"I think I would."

"Then we must take him along," said the young ranchman to Ike Watson. "But what shall we do with Bluckburn?"

"He ought ter be lynched right now," was the old hunter's stern reply. During his days among the rough characters of the mountains he and his companions had had small use for jails and lockups. The law of the land, so called, was administered on the spot.

A long discussion followed, which ended in a determination to take Bluckburn back to Daddy Wampole's place. They would leave him there a prisoner, and then take Slavin along with them, that he might locate Barnaby Winthrop's place of confinement.

Bluckburn was secured on his horse's back, and Slavin was disarmed, and in less than half an hour the return to the crossroads hotel was begun.

It was a long and tedious ride to Allen who was impatient to be off to find his uncle. But