Lite thought it would be better if he rode out to meet her, and told her what had happened, so that she need not come upon it unprepared.

There was nothing else that he could bring himself to do, and his mood demanded action of some sort; one could not sit down at peace with a fresh tragedy like that hanging over the place.
He had reached the stable when a horse walked out from behind the hay corral and stopped, eyeing him curiously.

It was Johnny's horse.

Even as improvident a cowpuncher as Johnny Croft had been likes to own a "private" horse,--one that is his own and can be ridden when and where the owner chooses.

Lite turned and went over to it, caught it by the dragging bridle-reins, and led it into an empty stall.