"So he was here? I heard he wanted to see
me. Know which way he has gone ? "

Yates studied him keenly. Then again he lifted
his ponderous shoulders.
" He was looking for you," he said, his meaning
clear in the hardness of his eyes. "And, if you
want to know, he's up Las Palmas way."

" That happens to be lucky," Alan told him, turn-
ing away. " Fm going up there now to look at some
calves in French Valley. If I happen to miss him

121



Desert Valley

and you see him you can tell him for me that Fm
ready to talk with him any time."

He went ou( in dead silence. Many eyes followed
him^ many eyes which when his tall form had passed
through the door came back to other eyes narrowed
and thoughtful. For Alan Howard was well known
here in San Juan, and never before had a man of
them seen him wearing a gun at his hip. There
were bets offered and taken before he was halfway
to the stable. His own men, hearing, were thought-
ful and said nothing. All except Bandy O^Neil,
who smashed his big fist on the bar and stared
angrily into the florid face of Yates and cried out
loudly that Jim Courtot was a card sharp and a
crook and that Jim Courtot's friends were as Jim
Courtot. Yates for the third time shrugged his
thick shoulders. But his look was like a knife clash-
ing with the cowboy's.
