Their horses were fresh and eager and the girls had a hard time holding them into a leisurely walk on the way back from town. Gale and Valerie--the other girls had remained at the ranch house to pack some of their things, for they were to leave for the East day after tomorrow--were the only ones who had felt eager for an early morning ride. Tom had saddled their horses for them and the girls had ridden into Coxton to get a last look at the little western town. They made some trifling purchases in the general store and now were on their way back to the ranch.

The sun shone down, its brilliance sending little dust eddies up from the road. At the roadside a bird twittered.

“Funny,” Valerie said, “I never thought of them as having birds in Arizona.”

Gale laughed. “Why shouldn’t they?”

“I don’t know. It just never occurred to me. Did it you?” “I read about them in an encyclopedia,” Gale confessed laughingly. “I’m afraid that is the way most of us become acquainted with places we’ve never seen. It’s a very unsatisfying way.”

“I suppose you have an idea in your head to go to see all the places in the world some day?”

“How did you guess?” Gale demanded gayly. “That is just what I’ve been keeping up my sleeve. Do you possess the same secret yen?”

“I do,” Val said smilingly. “But the places I want to see are a little far to walk and there’s not much hope of my going any other way.”

They turned off the trail into the ranch yard and Janet hailed them frantically.

“Hi there! Come and hear the news!” she called.

“What is it?” Gale asked as they dismounted and left their horses’ reins dangling.

“Hear ye, hear ye,” Carol chanted, “the Sheriff is about to capture the famous outlaws.”

“Just like he did several times,” Val said dryly.

“This time he is not going to let them out of his sight one minute until they are sentenced and on their way to a federal prison,” Janet said.

“How does he propose to catch them?” Gale asked, sitting astride the banister. “A little while ago,” Janet said, her voice a confidential whisper, “a rider came from across the valley somewhere. He says one of the bandits was seen about five miles on the other side of Coxton.”

“Only seen!” Valerie echoed.

“Is that all?” Gale added. “I thought they at least had the three of them tied to a tree or something.”

“Let me finish!” Janet said. “He also said that they have Pedro--he fell off his horse and hurt himself--or something,” she added vaguely. “Anyway they’ve got him.”

“Let’s hope they keep him,” Val said heartily. “Why doesn’t the Sheriff go get him?”

“He is,” Carol interrupted. “He and his men are getting their horses ready now. We’re going, too,” she continued. “We coaxed and coaxed until Mr. Wilson said we might ride along if we didn’t get in the way. Everybody’s going,” she added.

“Well, I’m not!” Val said positively. “Everybody can go that wants to. I’m staying right here!”

“Oh, Val,” Janet began coaxingly.

“I’m staying with Val,” Gale agreed. “Nine chances out of ten it will be a wild goose chase anyway.”

“You’re going to miss all the fun,” Carol threatened.

“I don’t mind,” Val said. “Besides, I don’t want even one more glimpse of Pedro or I’ll dream about him again.”

“Oh, but everybody is going,” Janet said, “Virginia--Madge--Tom--us,” she enumerated.

“You’ll be quite alone,” added Carol.

“We don’t mind,” Gale assured them.

From the house came Virginia and Phyllis and Madge. Their voices were added to Janet’s and Carol’s, but Gale and Valerie remained firm in their decision to remain at the ranch. The girls trailed off to the corral to get their mounts. Valerie and Gale walked with them and joined Mr. Wilson, Tom, and the Sheriff where they were talking.

“Going along?” Tom asked.

“No,” Gale shook her head. “We’re of the opinion it is all a wild goose chase so we’re staying here.”

“I rather agree with you,” he said in a low tone, “but it is up to the Sheriff to follow every lead you know or the people will say he is shirking his duty. I don’t believe those fellows are even in the United States any more,” he continued. “Anyway, it won’t take long to make sure.”

“I hope it is true,” Valerie said. “I’ve had the jitters ever since those fellows got away again.”

“Well, Val, I’ll give Pedro your regards when I see him,” Carol said as the girls rode up.

“You don’t have to bother,” Val said hastily.

“You better come along,” Janet laughed. “My sixth sense tells me we are due for some excitement.”

“No,” Val said. “I’m going to stay here and make fudge.”

“Now why didn’t you tell me that sooner?” Tom said aggrievedly. “Fudge is my weakness.”

“We’ll save you some,” Gale promised. “Adios!”

The girls and the Sheriff, with his men and Mr. Wilson and Tom, rode away in a cloud of dust. Valerie and Gale leaned on the corral fence, watching them out of sight. Then they turned and proceeded leisurely up to the house.

“I wish them luck,” Valerie declared. “And now for the fudge!”

The K Bar O possessed a very fine Chinese cook who did the cooking for the ranch house, as well as the bunkhouse, and he presided in solitary estate over the kitchen and its equipment. Loo Wong had very definite ideas about who was privileged to set foot in his domestic kingdom, and Mrs. Wilson was the only one whom he greeted with his wide smile. The “boss-lady” was welcome at any time, but woe to the others who tried to muss up his kitchen.

Now as the girls entered the ranch house and approached the kitchen they went on tiptoe. Together they peeped around the door. Everything was spick and span, but Loo Wong was nowhere in sight.

“It seems the coast is clear,” smiled Gale.

“Ah, but if Loo Wong returns there will be fireworks,” Val declared. “However, here goes.”

From the closet Valerie brought the pan and the necessary ingredients while Gale sat on the edge of the table and watched. The brown mixture was on the stove and a delicious odor filled the room. When Valerie took the pan from the fire to beat the fudge Gale stuck an experimental finger in it for a taste.

“Ouch!” she cried.

Valerie giggled. “You might have known it was hot,” she said unsympathetically. “Just the same, it tastes good,” Gale declared. “When can I have a piece?”

“When it gets cold!” Valerie said. “Come along, young lady,” she said, leading Gale into the other room. “Let it alone for a while.”

The girls took magazines and settled themselves for the rest of the afternoon. The silence was undisturbed but for the occasional rustling of paper when a page was turned. Val got up and turned on the radio. Soft music filtered into the room.

“Imagine,” Gale smiled lazily from her comfortable position, “way out here we can dance to music from California or New York.”

“Hm,” Val answered, executing a few intricate steps from sheer joy and happiness.

“Val,” Gale continued teasingly, coaxingly, “how about that fudge? It is a shame to leave it all by itself in the kitchen.”

“It ought to be cold enough now,” was Val’s opinion and there was a concerted rush for the kitchen.

With appropriate ceremony Val cut the candy and each of them chose a piece.

“Ah,” Gale murmured. “It is delicious, delightful, de----” Her voice died slowly away. Standing in the doorway was Loo Wong looking mightily unpleased and angry. He took in the two girls and then the dirty dishes piled on the sink. With difficulty Gale swallowed the last remaining bit of her fudge as Loo Wong took a further step toward them.

“We’ll wash the dishes,” Val said hastily, seeking to placate him.

Gale held out the fudge. “H-Have a piece,” she invited.

Loo Wong looked from one girl to the other. Slowly he reached out and took a piece of candy. Wonderingly he bit into it and a slow grin spread over his yellow face.

“Missy alle same fline cook,” he declared. “You teach Loo Wong?”

If the girls had looked at each other they would have laughed so neither glanced at the other. Both of them had expected dire results for mussing Wong’s kitchen, but instead he wanted them to teach him to make fudge.

Gale, inwardly shaking with mirth, sat on the table and watched while Val instructed the Chinaman. Loo Wong might be adept at making flapjacks and other western specialties, but when it came to candy he wasn’t so artful. He insisted on doing things wrong and Val was becoming exasperated. But finally it was done, and set out to cool. Loo Wong, the grin of a delighted child on his face, hands hidden in voluptuous sleeves, bowed low and went out to the bunkhouse to start supper.

“I wouldn’t have missed that for anything,” Gale declared with a hearty laugh. “When he first came in I expected no less than murder. Instead----”

“We better wash the dishes,” Val declared. “He might take it into his head to come back. It was funny, wasn’t it?” she murmured laughingly. “He looked so serious all the time, too. And you,” she said, “you wouldn’t help me explain it to him.”

Gale laughed. “He asked you. Besides, I was enjoying myself,” she added.

“There!” Val sighed when the dishes were clean and tucked away in their proper places. “Now everything is just as we found it.”

“I’m going back to my magazine,” Gale declared. “I wonder when the girls will get back?”

Above the music on the radio a knock sounded.

“Maybe Loo Wong has returned,” Val said with a laugh, jumping up and going to the kitchen. At the same time another knock came on the front door.

“What is this?” she heard Gale murmur as she got up to see who was there.

Val pulled open the kitchen door and stumbled back in amazement. Terror gripped her heart and her hands were suddenly cold. She caught at the table for support.

“What do you want--here?” she asked through dry lips.

The man who stood on the threshold advanced slowly into the room and closed the door behind him. All too well she had recognized him. It was Pedro, the Mexican who had sworn revenge. He was here, the Sheriff hadn’t caught him. Slowly she began to back away toward the other room. Perhaps together she and Gale could do something. Possessed solely with an unreasoning terror she turned and fled into the living room where she flung herself on Gale.

“Gale--what’ll we do?” she demanded wildly.

“Keep your chin up,” Gale said into Val’s ear. “It seems we have two visitors.”

“Two?” Val said in surprise. “Who--oh!”

While Pedro entered from the kitchen, Val faced the other man whom Gale had been forced to let in at the front door. It was the bank bandit, the same man who with his partner they had held up in the cabin when the Sheriff arrested the three. The man who had boasted that no jail could hold him. It seemed he had spoken the truth for here he was again, free.

Pedro looked across at his companion who was fingering a horsehair rope and smiled. That smile made the girls’ blood run cold. It was like an evil shadow of what was to come.

Gale felt Val’s hand tighten convulsively on hers. She looked at her friend. Poor Val, she looked scared to death. Gale hoped she didn’t show her own fright as plainly. Somehow, the knowledge that Valerie was frightened and was counting on her, Gale, for help, served to banish some of Gale’s own terror. When one was terror-stricken, one couldn’t think clearly and goodness knew, they were in need of some straight, clear thinking at this moment. How had these men eluded the police so long? How had they managed to keep in the vicinity and remain hidden from their pursuers?

“How--how did you get here?” Gale said nervously. “We thought----”

“We were miles away, eh?” the outlaw said with a loud laugh. “We couldn’t leave without payin’ a final visit to you. It was easy to get your friends off the ranch.”

“But what if we had gone with them?” Gale demanded, wishing desperately that they had gone with the others.

“We’d have tried another way,” he said calmly. “You ride alone sometimes.”

“But it is nicer so,” Pedro put in. “No one will hear you--scream!”

Valerie, who had been listening in frightened and worried silence, now permitted herself a gleam of triumph. They supposed no one would hear, did they? Loo Wong was in the bunkhouse. In fact, he might at any moment come here to the big ranch house. And surely he would hear? Val smiled to herself. Both girls had pretty good lungs and once they let out a yell, Loo Wong would have to have bad ears indeed not to hear them!

“Loo Wong,” Val said in the barest of whispers to Gale.

Gale nudged her friend in understanding. It was well that they did have a faint hope of help, but it would not do to let these men know of Loo Wong. They had come here bloodthirsty and revengeful. What would happen before they left? Of that she scarcely dared to think. The outlaw was fingering his rope again, in a most unpleasant manner. What was he contemplating? She shivered at the malicious look on his face. They might try anything, they were utterly ruthless. She wished frantically that there was some way in which they might summon Loo Wong.

“No, as I said, we couldn’t leave without paying a visit to you,” the outlaw continued. “Did you ever see anybody horsewhipped?” he asked next.

Gale paled at the suggestion. “You can’t mean to--you must be mad!” she said.

“Oh, an’ I might as well tell you, there’s no use yellin’ for that crazy cook o’ the Wilsons. My pal is takin’ care of him.”

That took all the wind out of the girls’ sails. It was the final blow. Now they were certainly cornered. All their friends away and Loo Wong--incapacitated.

“Are you mad to come here like this?” Gale said stormily. She had decided it was better to put up a staunch front. “You know what will happen when you are caught, and you will be caught! The Sheriff will shoot you on sight!” “We won’t be here,” the man said confidently. “Tonight we’re leavin’ the country for good, eh, Pedro?”

“SÍ,” replied his companion with a wide grin. “We go ver’ fast.”

“Not fast enough to get away,” Gale said confidently. “And when they catch you----”

“That’s enough! They’re not goin’ to catch us,” he repeated, jerking his rope between his hands and taking a firm grip on the handle.

Gale wished suddenly that they had not come to Arizona at all this summer. But then when they had started out who had thought things might come to this? The West nowadays was supposed to be calm and orderly, with no traces of the old-time Billy the Kid and his confederates. They had wanted adventures and now they were certainly getting them.

“I wonder if Janet’s sixth sense told her of this,” Val murmured, with a dry attempt at humor.

“Ever since you landed here things have been poppin’,” the outlaw resumed, fixing a stern eye on Gale. “First you grab the bank money and land us in jail. Then you hand us over to the Sheriff again.” “And we’ll do it a third time,” Gale said.

“Not when we get through,” the man assured her. “I reckon we’ve got a little score to settle and we’re goin’ to do it--now!”