“Dearest!” Dave held her away in gentle hands.  “I was afraid you’d go to pieces like this, but I had to break through the best way I could.  I learned you were here and something about what was going on from the people at the next ranch.  But I expected to find him here, too.”

“How did you manage to get here?”

“I hardly know.  I just wouldn’t let ’em stop me.  This lieutenant wouldn’t let me in until I told him I was from Monterey with important news.  I don’t remember all I did tell him.  I tried to get here last night, but I had trouble.  They caught me, and I had to buy my way through.  I’ve bribed and bullied and lied clear from Romero.  I reckon they couldn’t imagine I’d risk being here if I wasn’t a friend.”

It was more Dave’s tone than his words that roused Alaire to an appreciation of what he said.

“Are you alone?” she asked, in vague dismay.  “Then what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know yet.  My plans ended here.”

“Dave!  You rode in just to find me!  Just to be with me?”

“Yes.  And to get him.”  Alaire saw his face twitch, and realized that it was very haggard, very old and tired.  “They lifted my guns—­a bunch of fellows at the Rio Negro crossing.  Some of them were drunk and wouldn’t believe I was an amigo.  So I finally had to ride for it.”

“Can’t you take me away?” she asked, faintly.  “What will you do when—­he comes?”

“I reckon I’ll manage him somehow.”  His grip upon her tightened painfully, and she could feel him tremble.  “I was afraid I wouldn’t find you.  I—­O God, Alaire!” He buried his face in her hair.

“I had a terrible scene with him last night.  He insists upon marrying me.  I—­I was hoping you’d come.”

“How could I, when nobody knew where you were?”

“Didn’t you know?  I wrote you.”  He shook his head.  “Then how did you learn?”

“From Jose.  I caught him within an hour of the murder, and made him tell me everything.”

Alaire’s eyes dilated; she held herself away, saying, breathlessly:  “Murder!  Is that what it was?  He—­Longorio—­told me something quite different.”

“Naturally.  It was he who hired Jose to do the shooting.”

“Oh-h!” Alaire hid her face in her hands.  She looked up again quickly, however, and her cheeks were white.  “Then he won’t spare you, Dave.”  She choked for an instant.  “We must get away before he comes.  There must be some way of escape.  Think!”

“I’m pretty tired to think.  I’m pretty near played out,” he confessed.

“They’re watching me, but they’d let you go.”

“Now that I’m here I’m going to stay until—­”

She interrupted, crying his name loudly, “Dave!”

“Yes.  What is it?”

“Wait!  Let me think.”  She closed her eyes; her brows drew together as if in the labor of concentration.  When she lifted her lids her eyes were alight, her voice was eager.  “I know how.  I see it.  He won’t dare—­But you must do what I tell you.”