70 files changed, 30510 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/14367-8.txt b/old/14367-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a016806
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10544 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of When A Man's A Man, by Harold Bell Wright
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: When A Man's A Man
+
+Author: Harold Bell Wright
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2004 [EBook #14367]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN'S A MAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+WHEN A MAN'S
+A MAN
+
+BY
+HAROLD BELL WRIGHT
+
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
+By arrangement with D. Appleton-Century Co.
+
+1916
+
+
+
+
+TO MY SONS
+GILBERT AND PAUL NORMAN
+THIS STORY OF MANHOOD
+IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
+BY THEIR FATHER
+
+
+
+
+_Acknowledgment_
+
+
+It is fitting that I should here express my indebtedness to those
+Williamson Valley friends who in the kindness of their hearts made this
+story possible.
+
+To Mr. George A. Carter, who so generously introduced me to the scenes
+described in these pages, and who, on the Pot-Hook-S ranch, gave to my
+family one of the most delightful summers we have ever enjoyed; to Mr.
+J.H. Stephens and his family, who so cordially welcomed me at rodeo
+time; to Mr. and Mrs. Joe Contreras, for their kindly hospitality; to
+Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Stewart, who, while this story was first in the
+making, made me so much at home in the Cross-Triangle home-ranch; to Mr.
+J.W. Cook, my constant companion, helpful guide, patient teacher and
+tactful sponsor, who, with his charming wife, made his home mine; to Mr.
+and Mrs. Herbert N. Cook, and to the many other cattlemen and cowboys,
+with whom, on the range, in the rodeos, in the wild horse chase about
+Toohey, after outlaw cattle in Granite Basin, in the corrals and
+pastures, I rode and worked and lived, my gratitude is more than I can
+put in words. Truer friends or better companions than these
+great-hearted, outspoken, hardy riders, no man could have. If my story
+in any degree wins the approval of these, my comrades of ranch and
+range. I shall be proud and happy. H.B.W.
+
+     "CAMP HOLE-IN-THE-MOUNTAIN"
+     NEAR TUCSON, ARIZONA
+     APRIL 29, 1916
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                               PAGE
+   I. AFTER THE CELEBRATION             11
+  II. ON THE DIVIDE                     23
+ III. IN THE BIG PASTURE                35
+  IV. AT THE CORRAL                     47
+   V. A BIT OF THE PAST                 81
+  VI. THE DRIFT FENCE                   91
+ VII. THINGS THAT ENDURE               115
+VIII. CONCERNING BRANDS                133
+  IX. THE TAILHOLT MOUNTAIN OUTFIT     159
+   X. THE RODEO                        181
+  XI. AFTER THE RODEO                  197
+ XII. FRONTIER DAY                     239
+XIII. IN GRANITE BASIN                 261
+ XIV. AT MINT SPRING                   281
+  XV. ON CEDAR RIDGE                   297
+ XVI. THE SKY LINE                     323
+
+[Illustration: WHEN A MAN'S A MAN]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+AFTER THE CELEBRATION.
+
+
+There is a land where a man, to live, must be a man. It is a land of
+granite and marble and porphyry and gold--and a man's strength must be
+as the strength of the primeval hills. It is a land of oaks and cedars
+and pines--and a man's mental grace must be as the grace of the untamed
+trees. It is a land of far-arched and unstained skies, where the wind
+sweeps free and untainted, and the atmosphere is the atmosphere of those
+places that remain as God made them--and a man's soul must be as the
+unstained skies, the unburdened wind, and the untainted atmosphere. It
+is a land of wide mesas, of wild, rolling pastures and broad, untilled,
+valley meadows--and a man's freedom must be that freedom which is not
+bounded by the fences of a too weak and timid conventionalism.
+
+In this land every man is--by divine right--his own king; he is his own
+jury, his own counsel, his own judge, and--if it must be--his own
+executioner. And in this land where a man, to live, must be a man, a
+woman, if she be not a woman, must surely perish.
+
+This is the story of a man who regained that which in his youth had been
+lost to him; and of how, even when he had recovered that which had been
+taken from him, he still paid the price of his loss. It is the story of
+a woman who was saved from herself; and of how she was led to hold fast
+to those things, the loss of which cost the man so great a price.
+
+The story, as I have put it down here, begins at Prescott, Arizona, on
+the day following the annual Fourth-of-July celebration in one of those
+far-western years that saw the passing of the Indian and the coming of
+the automobile.
+
+The man was walking along one of the few roads that lead out from the
+little city, through the mountain gaps and passes, to the wide, unfenced
+ranges, and to the lonely scattered ranches on the creeks and flats and
+valleys of the great open country that lies beyond.
+
+From the fact that he was walking in that land where the distances are
+such that men most commonly ride, and from the many marks that
+environment and training leave upon us all, it was evident that the
+pedestrian was a stranger. He was a man in the prime of young
+manhood--tall and exceedingly well proportioned--and as he went forward
+along the dusty road he bore himself with the unconscious air of one
+more accustomed to crowded streets than to that rude and unpaved
+highway. His clothing bore the unmistakable stamp of a tailor of rank.
+His person was groomed with that nicety of detail that is permitted only
+to those who possess both means and leisure, as well as taste. It was
+evident, too, from his movement and bearing, that he had not sought the
+mile-high atmosphere of Prescott with the hope that it holds out to
+those in need of health. But, still, there was a something about him
+that suggested a lack of the manly vigor and strength that should have
+been his.
+
+A student of men would have said that Nature made this man to be in
+physical strength and spiritual prowess, a comrade and leader of men--a
+man's man--a man among men. The same student, looking more closely,
+might have added that in some way--through some cruel trick of
+fortune--this man had been cheated of his birthright.
+
+The day was still young when the stranger gained the top of the first
+hill where the road turns to make its steep and winding way down through
+scattered pines and scrub oak to the Burnt Ranch.
+
+Behind him the little city--so picturesque in its mountain basin, with
+the wild, unfenced land coming down to its very dooryards--was slowly
+awakening after the last mad night of its celebration. The tents of the
+tawdry shows that had tempted the crowds with vulgar indecencies, and
+the booths that had sheltered the petty games of chance where
+loud-voiced criers had persuaded the multitude with the hope of winning
+a worthless bauble or a tinsel toy, were being cleared away from the
+borders of the plaza, the beauty of which their presence had marred. In
+the plaza itself--which is the heart of the town, and is usually kept
+with much pride and care--the bronze statue of the vigorous Rough Rider
+Bucky O'Neil and his spirited charger seemed pathetically out of place
+among the litter of colored confetti and exploded fireworks, and the
+refuse from various "treats" and lunches left by the celebrating
+citizens and their guests. The flags and bunting that from window and
+roof and pole and doorway had given the day its gay note of color hung
+faded and listless, as though, spent with their gaiety, and mutely
+conscious that the spirit and purpose of their gladness was past, they
+waited the hand that would remove them to the ash barrel and the rubbish
+heap.
+
+Pausing, the man turned to look back.
+
+For some minutes he stood as one who, while determined upon a certain
+course, yet hesitates--reluctant and regretful--at the beginning of his
+venture. Then he went on; walking with a certain reckless swing, as
+though, in ignorance of that land toward which he had set his face, he
+still resolutely turned his back upon that which lay behind. It was as
+though, for this man, too, the gala day, with its tinseled bravery and
+its confetti spirit, was of the past.
+
+A short way down the hill the man stopped again. This time to stand half
+turned, with his head in a listening attitude. The sound of a vehicle
+approaching from the way whence he had come had reached his ear.
+
+As the noise of wheels and hoofs grew louder a strange expression of
+mingled uncertainty, determination, and something very like fear came
+over his face. He started forward, hesitated, looked back, then turned
+doubtfully toward the thinly wooded mountain side. Then, with tardy
+decision he left the road and disappeared behind a clump of oak bushes,
+an instant before a team and buckboard rounded the turn and appeared in
+full view.
+
+An unmistakable cattleman--grizzly-haired, square-shouldered and
+substantial--was driving the wild looking team. Beside him sat a
+motherly woman and a little boy.
+
+As they passed the clump of bushes the near horse of the half-broken
+pair gave a catlike bound to the right against his tracemate. A second
+jump followed the first with flash-like quickness; and this time the
+frightened animal was accompanied by his companion, who, not knowing
+what it was all about, jumped on general principles. But, quick as they
+were, the strength of the driver's skillful arms met their weight on the
+reins and forced them to keep the road.
+
+"You blamed fools"--the driver chided good-naturedly, as they plunged
+ahead--"been raised on a cow ranch to get scared at a calf in the
+brush!"
+
+Very slowly the stranger came from behind the bushes. Cautiously he
+returned to the road. His fine lips curled in a curious mocking smile.
+But it was himself that he mocked, for there was a look in his dark eyes
+that gave to his naturally strong face an almost pathetic expression of
+self-depreciation and shame.
+
+As the pedestrian crossed the creek at the Burnt Ranch, Joe Conley,
+leading a horse by a riata which was looped as it had fallen about the
+animal's neck, came through the big corral gate across the road from
+the house. At the barn Joe disappeared through the small door of the
+saddle room, the coil of the riata still in his hand, thus compelling
+his mount to await his return.
+
+At sight of the cowboy the stranger again paused and stood hesitating in
+indecision. But as Joe reappeared from the barn with bridle, saddle
+blanket and saddle in hand, the man went reluctantly forward as though
+prompted by some necessity.
+
+"Good morning!" said the stranger, courteously, and his voice was the
+voice that fitted his dress and bearing, while his face was now the
+carefully schooled countenance of a man world-trained and well-poised.
+
+With a quick estimating glance Joe returned the stranger's greeting and,
+dropping the saddle and blanket on the ground, approached his horse's
+head. Instantly the animal sprang back, with head high and eyes defiant;
+but there was no escape, for the rawhide riata was still securely held
+by his master. There was a short, sharp scuffle that sent the gravel by
+the roadside flying--the controlling bit was between the reluctant
+teeth--and the cowboy, who had silently taken the horse's objection as a
+matter of course, adjusted the blanket, and with the easy skill of long
+practice swung the heavy saddle to its place.
+
+As the cowboy caught the dangling cinch, and with a deft hand tucked the
+latigo strap through the ring and drew it tight, there was a look of
+almost pathetic wistfulness on the watching stranger's face--a look of
+wistfulness and admiration and envy.
+
+Dropping the stirrup, Joe again faced the stranger, this time
+inquiringly, with that bold, straightforward look so characteristic of
+his kind.
+
+And now, when the man spoke, his voice had a curious note, as if the
+speaker had lost a little of his poise. It was almost a note of apology,
+and again in his eyes there was that pitiful look of self-depreciation
+and shame.
+
+"Pardon me," he said, "but will you tell me, please, am I right that
+this is the road to the Williamson Valley?"
+
+The stranger's manner and voice were in such contrast to his general
+appearance that the cowboy frankly looked his wonder as he answered
+courteously, "Yes, sir."
+
+"And it will take me direct to the Cross-Triangle Ranch?"
+
+"If you keep straight ahead across the valley, it will. If you take the
+right-hand fork on the ridge above the goat ranch, it will take you to
+Simmons. There's a road from Simmons to the Cross-Triangle on the far
+side of the valley, though. You can see the valley and the
+Cross-Triangle home ranch from the top of the Divide."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+The stranger was turning to go when the man in the blue jumper and
+fringed leather chaps spoke again, curiously.
+
+"The Dean with Stella and Little Billy passed in the buckboard less than
+an hour ago, on their way home from the celebration. Funny they didn't
+pick you up, if you're goin' there!"
+
+The other paused questioningly. "The Dean?"
+
+The cowboy smiled. "Mr. Baldwin, the owner of the Cross-Triangle, you
+know."
+
+"Oh!" The stranger was clearly embarrassed. Perhaps he was thinking of
+that clump of bushes on the mountain side.
+
+Joe, loosing his riata from the horse's neck, and coiling it carefully,
+considered a moment. Then: "You ain't goin' to walk to the
+Cross-Triangle, be you?"
+
+That self-mocking smile touched the man's lips; but there was a hint of
+decisive purpose in his voice as he answered, "Oh, yes."
+
+Again the cowboy frankly measured the stranger. Then he moved toward the
+corral gate, the coiled riata in one hand, the bridle rein in the other.
+"I'll catch up a horse for you," he said in a matter-of-fact tone, as if
+reaching a decision.
+
+The other spoke hastily. "No, no, please don't trouble."
+
+Joe paused curiously. "Any friend of Mr. Baldwin's is welcome to
+anything on the Burnt Ranch, Stranger."
+
+"But I--ah--I--have never met Mr. Baldwin," explained the other lamely.
+
+"Oh, that's all right," returned the cowboy heartily. "You're a-goin'
+to, an' that's the same thing." Again he started toward the gate.
+
+"But I--pardon me--you are very kind--but I--I prefer to walk."
+
+Once more Joe halted, a puzzled expression on his tanned and
+weather-beaten face. "I suppose you know it's some walk," he suggested
+doubtfully, as if the man's ignorance were the only possible solution of
+his unheard-of assertion.
+
+"So I understand. But it will be good for me. Really, I prefer to walk."
+
+Without a word the cowboy turned back to his horse, and proceeded
+methodically to tie the coiled riata in its place on the saddle. Then,
+without a glance toward the stranger who stood watching him in
+embarrassed silence, he threw the bridle reins over his horse's head,
+gripped the saddle horn and swung to his seat, reining his horse away
+from the man beside the road.
+
+The stranger, thus abruptly dismissed, moved hurriedly away.
+
+Half way to the creek the cowboy checked his horse and looked back at
+the pedestrian as the latter was making his way under the pines and up
+the hill. When the man had disappeared over the crest of the hill, the
+cowboy muttered a bewildered something, and, touching his horse with the
+spurs, loped away, as if dismissing a problem too complex for his simple
+mind.
+
+All that day the stranger followed the dusty, unfenced road. Over his
+head the wide, bright sky was without a cloud to break its vast expanse.
+On the great, open range of mountain, flat and valley the cattle lay
+quietly in the shade of oak or walnut or cedar, or, with slow, listless
+movement, sought the watering places to slake their thirst. The wild
+things retreated to their secret hiding places in rocky den and leafy
+thicket to await the cool of the evening hunting hour. The very air was
+motionless, as if the never-tired wind itself drowsed indolently.
+
+And alone in the hushed bigness of that land the man walked with his
+thoughts--brooding, perhaps, over whatever it was that had so strangely
+placed him there--dreaming, it may be, over that which might have been,
+or that which yet might be--viewing with questioning, wondering,
+half-fearful eyes the mighty, untamed scenes that met his eye on every
+hand. Nor did anyone see him, for at every sound of approaching horse or
+vehicle he went aside from the highway to hide in the bushes or behind
+convenient rocks. And always when he came from his hiding place to
+resume his journey that odd smile of self-mockery was on his face.
+
+At noon he rested for a little beside the road while he ate a meager
+sandwich that he took from the pocket of his coat. Then he pushed on
+again, with grim determination, deeper and deeper into the heart and
+life of that world which was, to him, so evidently new and strange. The
+afternoon was well spent when he made his way--wearily now, with
+drooping shoulders and dragging step--up the long slope of the Divide
+that marks the eastern boundary of the range about Williamson Valley.
+
+At the summit, where the road turns sharply around a shoulder of the
+mountain and begins the steep descent on the other side of the ridge, he
+stopped. His tired form straightened. His face lighted with a look of
+wondering awe, and an involuntary exclamation came from his lips as his
+unaccustomed eyes swept the wide view that lay from his feet unrolled
+before him.
+
+Under that sky, so unmatched in its clearness and depth of color, the
+land lay in all its variety of valley and forest and mesa and
+mountain--a scene unrivaled in the magnificence and grandeur of its
+beauty. Miles upon miles in the distance, across those primeval reaches,
+the faint blue peaks and domes and ridges of the mountains ranked--an
+uncounted sentinel host. The darker masses of the timbered hillsides,
+with the varying shades of pine and cedar, the lighter tints of oak
+brush and chaparral, the dun tones of the open grass lands, and the
+brighter note of the valley meadows' green were defined, blended and
+harmonized by the overlying haze with a delicacy exquisite beyond all
+human power to picture. And in the nearer distances, chief of that army
+of mountain peaks, and master of the many miles that lie within their
+circle, Granite Mountain, gray and grim, reared its mighty bulk of cliff
+and crag as if in supreme defiance of the changing years or the hand of
+humankind.
+
+In the heart of that beautiful land upon which, from the summit of the
+Divide, the stranger looked with such rapt appreciation, lies Williamson
+Valley, a natural meadow of lush, dark green, native grass. And, had the
+man's eyes been trained to such distances, he might have distinguished
+in the blue haze the red roofs of the buildings of the Cross-Triangle
+Ranch.
+
+For some time the man stood there, a lonely figure against the sky,
+peculiarly out of place in his careful garb of the cities. The schooled
+indifference of his face was broken. His self-depreciation and mockery
+were forgotten. His dark eyes glowed with the fire of excited
+anticipation--with hope and determined purpose. Then, with a quick
+movement, as though some ghost of the past had touched him on the
+shoulder, he looked back on the way he had come. And the light in his
+eyes went out in the gloom of painful memories. His countenance,
+unguarded because of his day of loneliness, grew dark with sadness and
+shame. It was as though he looked beyond the town he had left that
+morning, with its litter and refuse of yesterday's pleasure, to a life
+and a world of tawdry shams, wherein men give themselves to win by means
+fair or foul the tinsel baubles that are offered in the world's petty
+games of chance.
+
+And yet, even as he looked back, there was in the man's face as much of
+longing as of regret. He seemed as one who, realizing that he had
+reached a point in his life journey--a divide, as it were--from which he
+could see two ways, was resolved to turn from the path he longed to
+follow and to take the road that appealed to him the least. As one
+enlisting to fight in a just and worthy cause might pause a moment,
+before taking the oath of service, to regret the ease and freedom he was
+about to surrender, so this man paused on the summit of the Divide.
+
+Slowly, at last, in weariness of body and spirit, he stumbled a few feet
+aside from the road, and, sinking down upon a convenient rock, gave
+himself again to the contemplation of that scene which lay before him.
+And there was that in his movement now that seemed to tell of one who,
+in the grip of some bitter and disappointing experience, was yet being
+forced by something deep in his being to reach out in the strength of
+his manhood to take that which he had been denied.
+
+Again the man's untrained eyes had failed to note that which would have
+first attracted the attention of one schooled in the land that lay about
+him. He had not seen a tiny moving speck on the road over which he had
+passed. A horseman was riding toward him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ON THE DIVIDE.
+
+
+Had the man on the Divide noticed the approaching horseman it would have
+been evident, even to one so unacquainted with the country as the
+stranger, that the rider belonged to that land of riders. While still at
+a distance too great for the eye to distinguish the details of fringed
+leather chaps, soft shirt, short jumper, sombrero, spurs and riata, no
+one could have mistaken the ease and grace of the cowboy who seemed so
+literally a part of his horse. His seat in the saddle was so secure, so
+easy, and his bearing so unaffected and natural, that every movement of
+the powerful animal he rode expressed itself rhythmically in his own
+lithe and sinewy body.
+
+While the stranger sat wrapped in meditative thought, unheeding the
+approach of the rider, the horseman, coming on with a long, swinging
+lope, watched the motionless figure on the summit of the Divide with
+careful interest. As he drew nearer the cowboy pulled his horse down to
+a walk, and from under his broad hat brim regarded the stranger
+intently. He was within a few yards of the point where the man sat when
+the latter caught the sound of the horse's feet, and, with a quick,
+startled look over his shoulder, sprang up and started as if to escape.
+But it was too late, and, as though on second thought, he whirled about
+with a half defiant air to face the intruder.
+
+The horseman stopped. He had not missed the significance of that hurried
+movement, and his right hand rested carelessly on his leather clad
+thigh, while his grey eyes were fixed boldly, inquiringly, almost
+challengingly, on the man he had so unintentionally surprised.
+
+As he sat there on his horse, so alert, so ready, in his cowboy garb and
+trappings, against the background of Granite Mountain, with all its
+rugged, primeval strength, the rider made a striking picture of virile
+manhood. Of some years less than thirty, he was, perhaps, neither as
+tall nor as heavy as the stranger; but in spite of a certain boyish look
+on his smooth-shaven, deeply-bronzed face, he bore himself with the
+unmistakable air of a matured and self-reliant man. Every nerve and
+fiber of him seemed alive with that vital energy which is the true
+beauty and the glory of life.
+
+The two men presented a striking contrast. Without question one was the
+proud and finished product of our most advanced civilization. It was as
+evident that the splendid manhood of the other had never been dwarfed by
+the weakening atmosphere of an over-cultured, too conventional and too
+complex environment. The stranger with his carefully tailored clothing
+and his man-of-the-world face and bearing was as unlike this rider of
+the unfenced lands as a daintily groomed thoroughbred from the
+sheltered and guarded stables of fashion is unlike a wild, untamed
+stallion from the hills and ranges about Granite Mountain. Yet, unlike
+as they were, there was a something that marked them as kin. The man of
+the ranges and the man of the cities were, deep beneath the surface of
+their beings, as like as the spirited thoroughbred and the unbroken wild
+horse. The cowboy was all that the stranger might have been. The
+stranger was all that the cowboy, under like conditions, would have
+been.
+
+As they silently faced each other it seemed for a moment that each
+instinctively recognized this kinship. Then into the dark eyes of the
+stranger--as when he had watched the cowboy at the Burnt Ranch--there
+came that look of wistful admiration and envy.
+
+And at this, as if the man had somehow made himself known, the horseman
+relaxed his attitude of tense readiness. The hand that had held the
+bridle rein to command instant action of his horse, and the hand that
+had rested so near the rider's hip, came together on the saddle horn in
+careless ease, while a boyish smile of amusement broke over the young
+man's face.
+
+That smile brought a flash of resentment into the eyes of the other and
+a flush of red darkened his untanned cheeks. A moment he stood; then
+with an air of haughty rebuke he deliberately turned his back, and,
+seating himself again, looked away over the landscape.
+
+But the smiling cowboy did not move. For a moment as he regarded the
+stranger his shoulders shook with silent, contemptuous laughter; then
+his face became grave, and he looked a little ashamed. The minutes
+passed, and still he sat there, quietly waiting.
+
+Presently, as if yielding to the persistent, silent presence of the
+horseman, and submitting reluctantly to the intrusion, the other turned,
+and again the two who were so like and yet so unlike faced each other.
+
+It was the stranger now who smiled. But it was a smile that caused the
+cowboy to become on the instant kindly considerate. Perhaps he
+remembered one of the Dean's favorite sayings: "Keep your eye on the man
+who laughs when he's hurt."
+
+"Good evening!" said the stranger doubtfully, but with a hint of
+conscious superiority in his manner.
+
+"Howdy!" returned the cowboy heartily, and in his deep voice was the
+kindliness that made him so loved by all who knew him. "Been having some
+trouble?"
+
+"If I have, it is my own, sir," retorted the other coldly.
+
+"Sure," returned the horseman gently, "and you're welcome to it. Every
+man has all he needs of his own, I reckon. But I didn't mean it that
+way; I meant your horse."
+
+The stranger looked at him questioningly. "Beg pardon?" he said.
+
+"What?"
+
+"I do not understand."
+
+"Your horse--where is your horse?"
+
+"Oh, yes! Certainly--of course--my horse--how stupid of me!" The tone of
+the man's answer was one of half apology, and he was smiling whimsically
+now as if at his own predicament, as he continued. "I have no horse.
+Really, you know, I wouldn't know what to do with one if I had it."
+
+"You don't mean to say that you drifted all the way out here from
+Prescott on foot!" exclaimed the astonished cowboy.
+
+The man on the ground looked up at the horseman, and in a droll tone
+that made the rider his friend, said, while he stretched his long legs
+painfully: "I like to walk. You see I--ah--fancied it would be good for
+me, don't you know."
+
+The cowboy laughingly considered--trying, as he said afterward, to
+figure it out. It was clear that this tall stranger was not in search of
+health, nor did he show any of the distinguishing marks of the tourist.
+He certainly appeared to be a man of means. He could not be looking for
+work. He did not seem a suspicious character--quite the contrary--and
+yet--there was that significant hurried movement as if to escape when
+the horseman had surprised him. The etiquette of the country forbade a
+direct question, but--
+
+"Yes," he agreed thoughtfully, "walking comes in handy sometimes. I
+don't take to it much myself, though." Then he added shrewdly, "You were
+at the celebration, I reckon."
+
+The stranger's voice betrayed quick enthusiasm, but that odd wistfulness
+crept into his eyes again and he seemed to lose a little of his poise.
+
+"Indeed I was," he said. "I never saw anything to compare with it. I've
+seen all kinds of athletic sports and contests and exhibitions, with
+circus performances and riding, and that sort of thing, you know, and
+I've read about such things, of course, but"--and his voice grew
+thoughtful--"that men ever actually did them--and all in the day's
+work, as you may say--I--I never dreamed that there _were_ men like that
+in these days."
+
+The cowboy shifted his weight uneasily in the saddle, while he regarded
+the man on the ground curiously. "She was sure a humdinger of a
+celebration," he admitted, "but as for the show part I've seen things
+happen when nobody was thinking anything about it that would make those
+stunts at Prescott look funny. The horse racing was pretty good,
+though," he finished, with suggestive emphasis.
+
+The other did not miss the point of the suggestion. "I didn't bet on
+anything," he laughed.
+
+"It's funny nobody picked you up on the road out here," the cowboy next
+offered pointedly. "The folks started home early this morning--and Jim
+Reid and his family passed me about an hour ago--they were in an
+automobile. The Simmons stage must have caught up with you somewhere."
+
+The stranger's face flushed, and he seemed trying to find some answer.
+
+The cowboy watched him curiously; then in a musing tone added the
+suggestion, "Some lonesome up here on foot."
+
+"But there are times, you know," returned the other desperately, "when a
+man prefers to be alone."
+
+The cowboy straightened in his saddle and lifted his reins. "Thanks," he
+said dryly, "I reckon I'd better be moving."
+
+But the other spoke quickly. "I beg your pardon, Mr. Acton, I did not
+mean that for you."
+
+The horseman dropped his hands again to the saddle horn, and resumed his
+lounging posture, thus tacitly accepting the apology. "You have the
+advantage of me," he said.
+
+The stranger laughed. "Everyone knows that 'Wild Horse Phil' of the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch won the bronco-riding championship yesterday. I saw
+you ride."
+
+Philip Acton's face showed boyish embarrassment.
+
+The other continued, with his strange enthusiasm. "It was great
+work--wonderful! I never saw anything like it."
+
+There was no mistaking the genuineness of his admiration, nor could he
+hide that wistful look in his eyes.
+
+"Shucks!" said the cowboy uneasily. "I could pick a dozen of the boys in
+that outfit who can ride all around me. It was just my luck, that's
+all--I happened to draw an easy one."
+
+"Easy!" ejaculated the stranger, seeing again in his mind the fighting,
+plunging, maddened, outlawed brute that this boy-faced man had mastered.
+"And I suppose catching and throwing those steers was easy, too?"
+
+The cowboy was plainly wondering at the man's peculiar enthusiasm for
+these most commonplace things. "The roping? Why, that was no more than
+we're doing all the time."
+
+"I don't mean the roping," returned the other, "I mean when you rode up
+beside one of those steers that was running at full speed, and caught
+him by the horns with your bare hands, and jumped from your saddle, and
+threw the beast over you, and then lay there with his horns pinning you
+down! You aren't doing that all the time, are you? You don't mean to
+tell me that such things as that are a part of your everyday work!"
+
+"Oh, the bull doggin'! Why, no," admitted Phil, with an embarrassed
+laugh, "that was just fun, you know."
+
+The stranger stared at him, speechless. Fun! In the name of all that is
+most modern in civilization, what manner of men were these who did such
+things in fun! If this was their recreation, what must their work be!
+
+"Do you mind my asking," he said wistfully, "how you learned to do such
+things?"
+
+"Why, I don't know--we just do them, I reckon."
+
+"And could anyone learn to ride as you ride, do you think?" The question
+came with marked eagerness.
+
+"I don't see why not," answered the cowboy honestly.
+
+The stranger shook his head doubtfully and looked away over the wild
+land where the shadows of the late afternoon were lengthening.
+
+"Where are you going to stop to-night?" Phil Acton asked suddenly.
+
+The stranger did not take his eyes from the view that seemed to hold for
+him such peculiar interest. "Really," he answered indifferently, "I had
+not thought of that."
+
+"I should think you'd be thinking of it along about supper time, if
+you've walked from town since morning."
+
+The stranger looked up with sudden interest; but the cowboy fancied that
+there was a touch of bitterness under the droll tone of his reply. "Do
+you know, Mr. Acton, I have never been really hungry in my life. It
+might be interesting to try it once, don't you think?"
+
+Phil Acton laughed, as he returned, "It might be interesting, all right,
+but I think I better tell you, just the same, that there's a ranch down
+yonder in the timber. It's nothing but a goat ranch, but I reckon they
+would take you in. It's too far to the Cross-Triangle for me to ask you
+there. You can see the buildings, though, from here."
+
+The stranger sprang up in quick interest. "You can? The Cross-Triangle
+Ranch?"
+
+"Sure," the cowboy smiled and pointed into the distance. "Those red
+spots over there are the roofs. Jim Reid's place--the Pot-Hook-S--is
+just this side of the meadows, and a little to the south. The old Acton
+homestead--where I was born--is in that bunch of cottonwoods, across the
+wash from the Cross-Triangle."
+
+But strive as he might the stranger's eyes could discern no sign of
+human habitation in those vast reaches that lay before him.
+
+"If you are ever over that way, drop in," said Phil cordially. "Mr.
+Baldwin will be glad to meet you."
+
+"Do you really mean that?" questioned the other doubtfully.
+
+"We don't say such things in this country if we don't mean them,
+Stranger," was the cool retort.
+
+"Of course, I beg your pardon, Mr. Acton," came the confused reply. "I
+should like to see the ranch. I may--I will--That is, if I--" He stopped
+as if not knowing how to finish, and with a gesture of hopelessness
+turned away to stand silently looking back toward the town, while his
+face was dark with painful memories, and his lips curved in that
+mirthless, self-mocking smile.
+
+And Philip Acton, seeing, felt suddenly that he had rudely intruded upon
+the privacy of one who had sought the solitude of that lonely place to
+hide the hurt of some bitter experience. A certain native gentleness
+made the man of the ranges understand that this stranger was face to
+face with some crisis in his life--that he was passing through one of
+those trials through which a man must pass alone. Had it been possible
+the cowboy would have apologized. But that would have been an added
+unkindness. Lifting the reins and sitting erect in the saddle, he said
+indifferently, "Well, I must be moving. I take a short cut here. So
+long! Better make it on down to the goat ranch--it's not far."
+
+He touched his horse with the spur and the animal sprang away.
+
+"Good-bye!" called the stranger, and that wistful look was in his eyes
+as the rider swung his horse aside from the road, plunged down the
+mountain side, and dashed away through the brush and over the rocks with
+reckless speed. With a low exclamation of wondering admiration, the man
+climbed hastily to a higher point, and from there watched until horse
+and rider, taking a steeper declivity without checking their breakneck
+course, dropped from sight in a cloud of dust. The faint sound of the
+sliding rocks and gravel dislodged by the flying feet died away; the
+cloud of dust dissolved in the thin air. The stranger looked away into
+the blue distance in another vain attempt to see the red spots that
+marked the Cross-Triangle Ranch.
+
+Slowly the man returned to his seat on the rock. The long shadows of
+Granite Mountain crept out from the base of the cliffs farther and
+farther over the country below. The blue of the distant hills changed to
+mauve with deeper masses of purple in the shadows where the canyons are.
+The lonely figure on the summit of the Divide did not move.
+
+The sun hid itself behind the line of mountains, and the blue of the sky
+in the west changed slowly to gold against which the peaks and domes and
+points were silhouetted as if cut by a graver's tool, and the bold
+cliffs and battlements of old Granite grew coldly gray in the gloom. As
+the night came on and the details of its structure were lost, the
+mountain, to the watching man on the Divide, assumed the appearance of a
+mighty fortress--a fortress, he thought, to which a generation of men
+might retreat from a civilization that threatened them with destruction;
+and once more the man faced back the way he had come.
+
+The far-away cities were already in the blaze of their own artificial
+lights--lights valued not for their power to make men see, but for their
+power to dazzle, attract and intoxicate--lights that permitted no kindly
+dusk at eventide wherein a man might rest from his day's work--a quiet
+hour; lights that revealed squalid shame and tinsel show--lights that
+hid the stars. The man on the Divide lifted his face to the stars that
+now in the wide-arched sky were gathering in such unnumbered multitudes
+to keep their sentinel watch over the world below.
+
+The cool evening wind came whispering over the lonely land, and all the
+furred and winged creatures of the night stole from their dark hiding
+places into the gloom which is the beginning of their day. A coyote
+crept stealthily past in the dark and from the mountain side below came
+the weird, ghostly call of its mate. An owl drifted by on silent wings.
+Night birds chirped in the chaparral. A fox barked on the ridge above.
+The shadowy form of a bat flitted here and there. From somewhere in the
+distance a bull bellowed his deep-voiced challenge.
+
+Suddenly the man on the summit of the Divide sprang to his feet and,
+with a gesture that had he not been so alone might have seemed
+affectedly dramatic, stretched out his arms in an attitude of wistful
+longing while his lips moved as if, again and again, he whispered a
+name.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+IN THE BIG PASTURE.
+
+
+In the Williamson Valley country the spring round-up, or "rodeo," as it
+is called in Arizona, and the shipping are well over by the last of
+June. During the long summer weeks, until the beginning of the fall
+rodeo in September, there is little for the riders to do. The cattle
+roam free on the open ranges, while calves grow into yearlings,
+yearlings become two-year-olds, and two-year-olds mature for the market.
+On the Cross-Triangle and similar ranches, three or four of the steadier
+year-round hands only are held. These repair and build fences, visit the
+watering places, brand an occasional calf that somehow has managed to
+escape the dragnet of the rodeo, and with "dope bottle" ever at hand
+doctor such animals as are afflicted with screwworms. It is during these
+weeks, too, that the horses are broken; for, with the hard and dangerous
+work of the fall and spring months, there is always need for fresh
+mounts.
+
+The horses of the Cross-Triangle were never permitted to run on the open
+range. Because the leaders of the numerous bands of wild horses that
+roamed over the country about Granite Mountain were always ambitious to
+gain recruits for their harems from their civilized neighbors, the
+freedom of the ranch horses was limited by the fences of a
+four-thousand-acre pasture. But within these miles of barbed wire
+boundaries the brood mares with their growing progeny lived as free and
+untamed as their wild cousins on the unfenced lands about them. The
+colts, except for one painful experience, when they were roped and
+branded, from the day of their birth until they were ready to be broken
+were never handled.
+
+On the morning following his meeting with the stranger on the Divide
+Phil Acton, with two of his cowboy helpers, rode out to the big pasture
+to bring in the band.
+
+The owner of the Cross-Triangle always declared that Phil was intimately
+acquainted with every individual horse and head of stock between the
+Divide and Camp Wood Mountain, and from Skull Valley to the Big Chino.
+In moments of enthusiasm the Dean even maintained stoutly that his young
+foreman knew as well every coyote, fox, badger, deer, antelope, mountain
+lion, bobcat and wild horse that had home or hunting ground in the
+country over which the lad had ridden since his babyhood. Certain it is
+that "Wild Horse Phil," as he was called by admiring friends--for
+reasons which you shall hear--loved this work and life to which he was
+born. Every feature of that wild land, from lonely mountain peak to
+hidden canyon spring, was as familiar to him as the streets and
+buildings of a man's home city are well known to the one reared among
+them. And as he rode that morning with his comrades to the day's work
+the young man felt keenly the call of the primitive, unspoiled life that
+throbbed with such vital strength about him. He could not have put that
+which he felt into words; he was not even conscious of the forces that
+so moved him; he only knew that he was glad.
+
+The days of the celebration at Prescott had been enjoyable days. To meet
+old friends and comrades; to ride with them in the contests that all
+true men of his kind love; to compare experiences and exchange news and
+gossip with widely separated neighbors--had been a pleasure. But the
+curious crowds of strangers; the throngs of sightseers from the, to him,
+unknown world of cities, who had regarded him as they might have viewed
+some rare and little-known creature in a menagerie, and the brazen
+presence of those unclean parasites and harpies that prey always upon
+such occasions had oppressed and disgusted him until he was glad to
+escape again to the clean freedom, the pure vitality and the unspoiled
+spirit of his everyday life and environment. In an overflow of sheer
+physical and spiritual energy he lifted his horse into a run and with a
+shrill cowboy yell challenged his companions to a wild race to the
+pasture gate.
+
+It was some time after noon when Phil checked his horse near the ruins
+of an old Indian lookout on the top of Black Hill. Below, in the open
+land above Deep Wash, he could see his cowboy companions working the
+band of horses that had been gathered slowly toward the narrow pass that
+at the eastern end of Black Hill leads through to the flats at the upper
+end of the big meadows, and so to the gate and to the way they would
+follow to the corral. It was Phil's purpose to ride across Black Hill
+down the western and northern slope, through the cedar timber, and,
+picking up any horses that might be ranging there, join the others at
+the gate. In the meanwhile there was time for a few minutes rest.
+Dismounting, he loosed the girths and lifted saddle and blanket from
+Hobson's steaming back. Then, while the good horse, wearied with the
+hard riding and the steep climb up the mountain side, stood quietly in
+the shade of a cedar his master, stretched on the ground near by, idly
+scanned the world that lay below and about them.
+
+Very clearly in that light atmosphere Phil could see the trees and
+buildings of the home ranch, and, just across the sandy wash from the
+Cross-Triangle, the grove of cottonwoods and walnuts that hid the little
+old house where he was born. A mile away, on the eastern side of the
+great valley meadows, he could see the home buildings of the Reid
+ranch--the Pot-Hook-S--where Kitty Reid had lived all the days of her
+life except those three years which she had spent at school in the East.
+
+The young man on the top of Black Hill looked long at the Reid home. In
+his mind he could see Kitty dressed in some cool, simple gown, fresh and
+dainty after the morning's housework, sitting with book or sewing on the
+front porch. The porch was on the other side of the house, it is true,
+and the distance was too great for him to distinguish a person in any
+case, but all that made no difference to Phil's vision--he could see her
+just the same.
+
+Kitty had been very kind to Phil at the celebration. But Kitty was
+always kind--nearly always. But in spite of her kindness the cowboy felt
+that she had not, somehow, seemed to place a very high valuation upon
+the medal he had won in the bronco-riding contest. Phil himself did not
+greatly value the medal; but he had wanted greatly to win that
+championship because of the very substantial money prize that went with
+it. That money, in Phil's mind, was to play a very important part in a
+long cherished dream that was one of the things that Phil Acton did not
+talk about. He had not, in fact, ridden for the championship at all, but
+for his dream, and that was why it mattered so much when Kitty seemed so
+to lack interest in his success.
+
+As though his subconscious mind directed the movement, the young man
+looked away from Kitty's home to the distant mountain ridge where the
+night before on the summit of the Divide he had met the stranger. All
+the way home the cowboy had wondered about the man; evolving many
+theories, inventing many things to account for his presence, alone and
+on foot, so far from the surroundings to which he was so clearly
+accustomed. Of one thing Phil was sure--the man was in trouble--deep
+trouble. The more that the clean-minded, gentle-hearted lad of the great
+out-of-doors thought about it, the more strongly he felt that he had
+unwittingly intruded at a moment that was sacred to the stranger--sacred
+because the man was fighting one of those battles that every man must
+fight--and fight alone. It was this feeling that had kept the young man
+from speaking of the incident to anyone--even to the Dean, or to
+"Mother," as he called Mrs. Baldwin. Perhaps, too, this feeling was the
+real reason for Phil's sense of kinship with the stranger, for the
+cowboy himself had moments in his life that he could permit no man to
+look upon. But in his thinking of the man whose personality had so
+impressed him one thing stood out above all the rest--the stranger
+clearly belonged to that world of which, from experience, the young
+foreman of the Cross-Triangle knew nothing. Phil Acton had no desire for
+the world to which the stranger belonged, but in his heart there was a
+troublesome question. If--if he himself were more like the man whom he
+had met on the Divide; if--if he knew more of that other world; if he,
+in some degree, belonged to that other world, as Kitty, because of her
+three years in school belonged, would it make any difference?
+
+From the distant mountain ridge that marks the eastern limits of the
+Williamson Valley country, and thus, in a degree, marked the limit of
+Phil's world, the lad's gaze turned again to the scene immediately
+before him.
+
+The band of horses, followed by the cowboys, were trotting from the
+narrow pass out into the open flats. Some of the band--the mothers--went
+quietly, knowing from past experience that they would in a few hours be
+returned to their freedom. Others--the colts and yearlings--bewildered,
+curious and fearful, followed their mothers without protest. But those
+who in many a friendly race or primitive battle had proved their growing
+years seemed to sense a coming crisis in their lives, hitherto peaceful.
+And these, as though warned by that strange instinct which guards all
+wild things, and realizing that the open ground between the pass and the
+gate presented their last opportunity, made final desperate efforts to
+escape. With sudden dashes, dodging and doubling, they tried again and
+again for freedom. But always between them and the haunts they loved
+there was a persistent horseman. Running, leaping, whirling, in their
+efforts to be everywhere at once, the riders worked their charges toward
+the gate.
+
+The man on the hilltop sprang to his feet. Hobson threw up his head, and
+with sharp ears forward eagerly watched the game he knew so well. With a
+quickness incredible to the uninitiated, Phil threw blanket and saddle
+to place. As he drew the cinch tight, a shrill cowboy yell came up from
+the flat below.
+
+One of the band, a powerful bay, had broken past the guarding horsemen,
+and was running with every ounce of his strength for the timber on the
+western slope of Black Hill. For a hundred yards one of the riders had
+tried to overtake and turn the fugitive; but as he saw how the stride of
+the free horse was widening the distance between them, the cowboy turned
+back lest others follow the successful runaway's example. The yell was
+to inform Phil of the situation.
+
+Before the echoes of the signal could die away Phil was in the saddle,
+and with an answering shout sent Hobson down the rough mountain side in
+a wild, reckless, plunging run to head the, for the moment, victorious
+bay. An hour later the foreman rejoined his companions who were holding
+the band of horses at the gate. The big bay, reluctant, protesting,
+twisting and turning in vain attempts to outmaneuver Hobson, was a
+captive in the loop of "Wild Horse Phil's" riata.
+
+In the big corral that afternoon Phil and his helpers with the Dean and
+Little Billy looking on, cut out from the herd the horses selected to be
+broken. These, one by one, were forced through the gate into the
+adjoining corral, from which they watched with uneasy wonder and many
+excited and ineffectual attempts to follow, when their more fortunate
+companions were driven again to the big pasture. Then Phil opened
+another gate, and the little band dashed wildly through, to find
+themselves in the small meadow pasture where they would pass the last
+night before the one great battle of their lives--a battle that would be
+for them a dividing point between those years of ease and freedom which
+had been theirs from birth and the years of hard and useful service that
+were to come.
+
+Phil sat on his horse at the gate watching with critical eye as the
+unbroken animals raced away. "Some good ones in the bunch this year,
+Uncle Will," he commented to his employer, who, standing on the watering
+trough in the other corral, was looking over the fence.
+
+"There's bound to be some good ones in every bunch," returned Mr.
+Baldwin. "And some no account ones, too," he added, as his foreman
+dismounted beside him.
+
+Then, while the young man slipped the bridle from his horse and stood
+waiting for the animal to drink, the older man regarded him silently, as
+though in his own mind the Dean's observation bore somewhat upon Phil
+himself. That was always the way with the Dean. As Sheriff Fellows once
+remarked to Judge Powell in the old days of the cattle rustlers' glory,
+"Whatever Bill Baldwin says is mighty nigh always double-barreled."
+
+There are also two sides to the Dean. Or, rather, to be accurate, there
+is a front and a back. The back--flat and straight and broad--indicates
+one side of his character--the side that belongs with the square chin
+and the blue eyes that always look at you with such frank directness. It
+was this side of the man that brought him barefooted and penniless to
+Arizona in those days long gone when he was only a boy and Arizona a
+strong man's country. It was this side of him that brought him
+triumphantly through those hard years of the Indian troubles, and in
+those wild and lawless times made him respected and feared by the
+evildoers and trusted and followed by those of his kind who, out of the
+hardships and dangers of those turbulent days, made the Arizona of
+to-day. It was this side, too, that finally made the barefoot, penniless
+boy the owner of the Cross-Triangle Ranch.
+
+I do not know the exact number of the Dean's years--I only know that his
+hair is grey, and that he does not ride as much as he once did. I have
+heard him say, though, that for thirty-five years he lived in the
+saddle, and that the Cross-Triangle brand is one of the oldest irons in
+the State. And I know, too, that his back is still flat and broad and
+straight.
+
+The Dean's front, so well-rounded and hearty, indicates as clearly the
+other side of his character. And it is this side that belongs to the
+full red cheeks, the ever-ready chuckle or laugh; that puts the twinkle
+in the blue eyes, and the kindly tones in his deep voice. It is this
+side of the Dean's character that adds so large a measure of love to the
+respect and confidence accorded him by neighbors and friends, business
+associates and employees. It is this side of the Dean, too, that, in
+these days, sits in the shade of the big walnut trees--planted by his
+own hand--and talks to the youngsters of the days that are gone, and
+that makes the young riders of this generation seek him out for counsel
+and sympathy and help.
+
+Three things the Dean knows--cattle and horses and men. One thing the
+Dean will not, cannot tolerate--weakness in one who should be strong.
+Even bad men he admires, if they are strong--not for their badness, but
+for their strength. Mistaken men he loves in spite of their mistakes--if
+only they be not weaklings. There is no place anywhere in the Dean's
+philosophy of life for a weakling. I heard him tell a man once--nor
+shall I ever forget it--"You had better die like a man, sir, than live
+like a sneaking coyote."
+
+The Dean's sons, men grown, were gone from the home ranch to the fields
+and work of their choosing. Little Billy, a nephew of seven years,
+was--as Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin said laughingly--their second crop.
+
+When Phil's horse--satisfied--lifted his dripping muzzle from the
+watering trough, the Dean walked with his young foreman to the saddle
+shed. Neither of the men spoke, for between them there was that
+companionship which does not require a constant flow of talk to keep it
+alive. Not until the cowboy had turned his horse loose, and was hanging
+saddle and bridle on their accustomed peg did the older man speak.
+
+"Jim Reid's goin' to begin breakin' horses next week."
+
+"So I heard," returned Phil, carefully spreading his saddle blanket to
+dry.
+
+The Dean spoke again in a tone of indifference. "He wants you to help
+him."
+
+"Me! What's the matter with Jack?"
+
+"He's goin' to the D.1 to-morrow."
+
+Phil was examining the wrapping on his saddle horn with--the Dean
+noted--quite unnecessary care.
+
+"Kitty was over this mornin'," said the Dean gently.
+
+The young man turned, and, taking off his spurs, hung them on the saddle
+horn. Then as he kicked off his leather chaps he said shortly, "I'm not
+looking for a job as a professional bronco-buster."
+
+The Dean's eyes twinkled. "Thought you might like to help a neighbor
+out; just to be neighborly, you know."
+
+"Do you want me to ride for Reid?" demanded Phil.
+
+"Well, I suppose as long as there's broncs to bust somebody's got to
+bust 'em," the Dean returned, without committing himself. And then, when
+Phil made no reply, he added laughing, "I told Kitty to tell him,
+though, that I reckoned you had as big a string as you could handle
+here."
+
+As they moved away toward the house, Phil returned with significant
+emphasis, "When I have to ride for anybody besides you it won't be Kitty
+Reid's father."
+
+And the Dean commented in his reflective tone, "It does sometimes seem
+to make a difference who a man rides for, don't it?"
+
+In the pasture by the corrals, the horses that awaited the approaching
+trial that would mark for them the beginning of a new life passed a
+restless night. Some in meekness of spirit or, perhaps, with deeper
+wisdom fed quietly. Others wandered about aimlessly, snatching an
+occasional uneasy mouthful of grass, and looking about often in troubled
+doubt. The more rebellious ones followed the fence, searching for some
+place of weakness in the barbed barrier that imprisoned them. And one,
+who, had he not been by circumstance robbed of his birthright, would
+have been the strong leader of a wild band, stood often with wide
+nostrils and challenging eye, gazing toward the corrals and buildings as
+if questioning the right of those who had brought him there from the
+haunts he loved.
+
+And somewhere in the night of that land which was as unknown to him as
+the meadow pasture was strange to the unbroken horses, a man awaited the
+day which, for him too, was to stand through all his remaining years as
+a mark between the old life and the new.
+
+As Phil Acton lay in his bed, with doors and windows open wide to
+welcome the cool night air, he heard the restless horses in the near-by
+pasture, and smiled as he thought of the big bay and the morrow--smiled
+with the smile of a man who looks forward to a battle worthy of his best
+strength and skill.
+
+And then, strangely enough, as he was slipping into that dreamless sleep
+of those who live as he lived, his mind went back again to the stranger
+whom he had met on the summit of the Divide. If he were more like that
+man, would it make any difference--the cowboy wondered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AT THE CORRAL.
+
+
+In the beginning of the morning, when Granite Mountain's fortress-like
+battlements and towers loomed gray and bold and grim, the big bay horse
+trumpeted a warning to his less watchful mates. Instantly, with heads
+high and eyes wide, the band stood in frightened indecision. Two
+horsemen--shadowy and mysterious forms in the misty light--were riding
+from the corral into the pasture.
+
+As the riders approached, individuals in the band moved uneasily,
+starting as if to run, hesitating, turning for another look, maneuvering
+to put their mates between them and the enemy. But the bay went boldly a
+short distance toward the danger and stood still with wide nostrils and
+fierce eyes as though ready for the combat.
+
+For a few moments, as the horsemen seemed about to go past, hope beat
+high in the hearts of the timid prisoners. Then the riders circled to
+put the band between themselves and the corral gate, and the frightened
+animals knew. But always as they whirled and dodged in their attempts to
+avoid that big gate toward which they were forced to move, there was a
+silent, persistent horseman barring the way. The big bay alone, as
+though realizing the futility of such efforts and so conserving his
+strength for whatever was to follow, trotted proudly, boldly into the
+corral, where he stood, his eyes never leaving the riders, as his mates
+crowded and jostled about him.
+
+"There's one in that bunch that's sure aimin' to make you ride some,"
+said Curly Elson with a grin, to Phil, as the family sat at breakfast.
+
+On the Cross-Triangle the men who were held through the summer and
+winter seasons between the months of the rodeos were considered members
+of the family. Chosen for their character, as well as for their
+knowledge of the country and their skill in their work the Dean and
+"Stella," as Mrs. Baldwin is called throughout all that country, always
+spoke of them affectionately as "our boys." And this, better than
+anything that could be said, is an introduction to the mistress of the
+Cross-Triangle household.
+
+At the challenging laugh which followed Curly's observation, Phil
+returned quietly with his sunny smile, "Maybe I'll quit him before he
+gets good and started."
+
+"He's sure fixin' to make you back the decision of them contest judges,"
+offered Bob Colton.
+
+And Mrs. Baldwin, young in spirit as any of her boys, added, "Better not
+wear your medal, son. It might excite him to know that you are the
+champion buster of Arizona."
+
+"Shucks!" piped up Little Billy excitedly, "Phil can ride anything what
+wears hair, can't you, Phil?"
+
+Phil, embarrassed at the laughter which followed, said, with tactful
+seriousness, to his little champion, "That's right, kid. You stand up
+for your pardner every time, don't you? You'll be riding them yourself
+before long. There's a little sorrel in that bunch that I've picked out
+to gentle for you." He glanced at his employer meaningly, and the Dean's
+face glowed with appreciation of the young man's thoughtfulness. "That
+old horse, Sheep, of yours," continued Phil to Little Billy, "is getting
+too old and stiff for your work. I've noticed him stumbling a lot
+lately." Again he glanced inquiringly at the Dean, who answered the look
+with a slight nod of approval.
+
+"You'd better make him gentle your horse first, Billy," teased Curly.
+"He might not be in the business when that big one gets through with
+him."
+
+Little Billy's retort came in a flash. "Huh, 'Wild Horse Phil' will be
+a-ridin' 'em long after you've got your'n, Curly Elson."
+
+"Look out, son," cautioned the Dean, when the laugh had gone round
+again. "Curly will be slippin' a burr under your saddle, if you don't."
+Then to the men: "What horse is it that you boys think is goin' to be
+such a bad one? That big bay with the blazed face?"
+
+The cowboys nodded.
+
+"He's bad, all right," said Phil.
+
+"Well," commented the Dean, leaning back in his chair and speaking
+generally, "he's sure got a license to be bad. His mother was the
+wickedest piece of horse flesh I ever knew. Remember her, Stella?"
+
+"Indeed I do," returned Mrs. Baldwin. "She nearly ruined that Windy Jim
+who came from nobody knew where, and bragged that he could ride
+anything."
+
+The Dean chuckled reminiscently. "She sure sent Windy back where he came
+from. But I tell you, boys, that kind of a horse makes the best in the
+world once you get 'em broke right. Horses are just like men, anyhow. If
+they ain't got enough in 'em to fight when they're bein' broke, they
+ain't generally worth breakin'."
+
+"The man that rides that bay will sure be a-horseback," said Curly.
+
+"He's a man's horse, all right," agreed Bob.
+
+Breakfast over, the men left the house, not too quietly, and laughing,
+jesting and romping like school boys, went out to the corrals, with
+Little Billy tagging eagerly at their heels. The Dean and Phil remained
+for a few minutes at the table.
+
+"You really oughtn't to say such things to those boys, Will," reproved
+Mrs. Baldwin, as she watched them from the window. "It encourages them
+to be wild, and land knows they don't need any encouragement."
+
+"Shucks," returned the Dean, with that gentle note that was always in
+his voice when he spoke to her. "If such talk as that can hurt 'em,
+there ain't nothin' that could save 'em. You're always afraid somebody's
+goin' to go bad. Look at me and Phil here," he added, as they in turn
+pushed their chairs back from the table; "you've fussed enough over us
+to spoil a dozen men, and ain't we been a credit to you all the time?"
+
+At this they laughed together. But as Phil was leaving the house Mrs.
+Baldwin stopped him at the door to say earnestly, "You will be careful
+to-day, won't you, son? You know my other Phil--" She stopped and turned
+away.
+
+The young man knew that story--a story common to that land where the
+lives of men are not infrequently offered a sacrifice to the untamed
+strength of the life that in many forms they are daily called upon to
+meet and master.
+
+"Never mind, mother," he said gently. "I'll be all right." Then more
+lightly he added, with his sunny smile, "If that big bay starts anything
+with me, I'll climb the corral fence pronto."
+
+Quietly, as one who faces a hard day's work, Phil went to the saddle
+shed where he buckled on chaps and spurs. Then, after looking carefully
+to stirrup leathers, cinch and latigos, he went on to the corrals, the
+heavy saddle under his arm.
+
+Curly and Bob, their horses saddled and ready, were making animated
+targets of themselves for Little Billy, who, mounted on Sheep, a gentle
+old cow-horse, was whirling a miniature riata. As the foreman appeared,
+the cowboys dropped their fun, and, mounting, took the coils of their
+own rawhide ropes in hand.
+
+"Which one will you have first, Phil?" asked Curly, as he moved toward
+the gate between the big corral and the smaller enclosure that held the
+band of horses.
+
+"That black one with the white star will do," directed Phil quietly.
+Then to Little Billy: "You'd better get back there out of the way,
+pardner. That black is liable to jump clear over you and Sheep."
+
+"You better get outside, son," amended the Dean, who had come out to
+watch the beginning of the work.
+
+"No, no--please, Uncle Will," begged the lad. "They can't get me as long
+as I'm on Sheep."
+
+Phil and the Dean laughed.
+
+"I'll look out for him," said the young man. "Only," he added to the
+boy, "you must keep out of the way."
+
+"And see that you stick to Sheep, if you expect him to take care of
+you," finished the Dean, relenting.
+
+Meanwhile the gate between the corrals had been thrown open, and with
+Bob to guard the opening Curly rode in among the unbroken horses to cut
+out the animal indicated by Phil, and from within that circular
+enclosure, where the earth had been ground to fine powder by hundreds of
+thousands of frightened feet, came the rolling thunder of quick-beating
+hoofs as in a swirling cloud of yellow dust the horses rushed and leaped
+and whirled. Again and again the frightened animals threw themselves
+against the barrier that hemmed them in; but that fence, built of cedar
+posts set close in stockade fashion and laced on the outside with wire,
+was made to withstand the maddened rush of the heaviest steers. And
+always, amid the confusion of the frenzied animals, the figure of the
+mounted man in their midst could be seen calmly directing their wildest
+movements, and soon, out from the crowding, jostling, whirling mass of
+flying feet and tossing manes and tails, the black with the white star
+shot toward the gate. Bob's horse leaped aside from the way. Curly's
+horse was between the black and his mates, and before the animal could
+gather his confused senses he was in the larger corral. The day's work
+had begun.
+
+The black dodged skillfully, and the loop of Curly's riata missed the
+mark.
+
+"You better let somebody put eyes in that rope, Curly," remarked Phil,
+laconically, as he stepped aside to avoid a wild rush.
+
+The chagrined cowboy said something in a low tone, so that Little Billy
+could not hear.
+
+The Dean chuckled.
+
+Bob's riata whirled, shot out its snaky length, and his trained horse
+braced himself skillfully to the black's weight on the rope. For a few
+minutes the animal at the loop end of the riata struggled
+desperately--plunging, tugging, throwing himself this way and that; but
+always the experienced cow-horse turned with his victim and the rope was
+never slack. When his first wild efforts were over and the black stood
+with his wide braced feet, breathing heavily as that choking loop began
+to tell, the strain on the taut riata was lessened, and Phil went
+quietly toward the frightened captive.
+
+No one moved or spoke. This was not an exhibition the success of which
+depended on the vicious wildness of the horse to be conquered. This was
+work, and it was not Phil's business to provoke the black to extremes in
+order to exhibit his own prowess as a rider for the pleasure of
+spectators who had paid to see the show. The rider was employed to win
+the confidence of the unbroken horse entrusted to him; to force
+obedience, if necessary; to gentle and train, and so make of the wild
+creature a useful and valuable servant for the Dean.
+
+There are riders whose methods demand that they throw every unbroken
+horse given them to handle, and who gentle an animal by beating it about
+the head with loaded quirts, ripping its flanks open with sharp spurs
+and tearing its mouth with torturing bits and ropes. These turn over to
+their employers as their finished product horses that are broken,
+indeed--but broken only in spirit, with no heart or courage left to
+them, with dispositions ruined, and often with physical injuries from
+which they never recover. But riders of such methods have no place among
+the men employed by owners of the Dean's type. On the Cross-Triangle,
+and indeed on all ranches where conservative business principles are in
+force, the horses are handled with all the care and gentleness that the
+work and the individuality of the animal will permit.
+
+After a little Phil's hand gently touched the black's head. Instantly
+the struggle was resumed. The rider dodged a vicious blow from the
+strong fore hoofs and with a good natured laugh softly chided the
+desperate animal. And so, presently, the kind hand was again stretched
+forth; and then a broad band of leather was deftly slipped over the
+black's frightened eyes. Another thicker and softer rope was knotted so
+that it could not slip about the now sweating neck, and fashioned into a
+hackamore or halter about the animal's nose. Then the riata was loosed.
+Working deftly, silently, gently--ever wary of those dangerous
+hoofs--Phil next placed blanket and saddle on the trembling black and
+drew the cinch tight. Then the gate leading from the corral to the open
+range was swung back. Easily, but quickly and surely, the rider swung to
+his seat. He paused a moment to be sure that all was right, and then
+leaning forward he reached over and raised the leather blindfold. For an
+instant the wild, unbroken horse stood still, then reared until it
+seemed he must fall, and then, as his forefeet touched the ground again,
+the spurs went home, and with a mighty leap forward the frenzied animal
+dashed, bucking, plunging, pitching, through the gate and away toward
+the open country, followed by Curly and Bob, with Little Billy spurring
+old Sheep, in hot pursuit.
+
+For a little the Dean lingered in the suddenly emptied corral. Stepping
+up on the end of the long watering trough, close to the dividing fence,
+he studied with knowing eye the animals on the other side. Then
+leisurely he made his way out of the corral, visited the windmill pump,
+looked in on Stella from the kitchen porch, and then saddled Browny, his
+own particular horse that grazed always about the place at privileged
+ease, and rode off somewhere on some business of his own.
+
+When the black horse had spent his strength in a vain attempt to rid
+himself of the dreadful burden that had attached itself so securely to
+his back, he was herded back to the corral, where the burden set him
+free. Dripping with sweat, trembling in every limb and muscle,
+wild-eyed, with distended nostrils and heaving flanks, the black crowded
+in among his mates again, his first lesson over--his years of ease and
+freedom past forever.
+
+"And which will it be this time?" came Curly's question.
+
+"I'll have that buckskin this trip," answered Phil.
+
+And again that swirling cloud of dust raised by those thundering hoofs
+drifted over the stockade enclosure, and out of the mad confusion the
+buckskin dashed wildly through the gate to be initiated into his new
+life.
+
+And so, hour after hour, the work went on, as horse after horse at
+Phil's word was cut out of the band and ridden; and every horse,
+according to disposition and temper and strength, was different. While
+his helpers did their part the rider caught a few moments rest. Always
+he was good natured, soft spoken and gentle. When a frightened animal,
+not understanding, tried to kill him, he accepted it as evidence of a
+commendable spirit, and, with that sunny, boyish smile, informed his
+pupil kindly that he was a good horse and must not make a fool of
+himself.
+
+In so many ways, as the Dean had said at breakfast that morning, horses
+are just like men.
+
+It was mid-afternoon when the master of the Cross-Triangle again
+strolled leisurely out to the corrals. Phil and his helpers, including
+Little Billy, were just disappearing over the rise of ground beyond the
+gate on the farther side of the enclosure as the Dean reached the gate
+that opens toward the barn and house. He went on through the corral,
+and slowly, as one having nothing else to do, climbed the little knoll
+from which he could watch the riders in the distance. When the horsemen
+had disappeared among the scattered cedars on the ridge, a mile or so to
+the west, the Dean still stood looking in that direction. But the owner
+of the Cross-Triangle was not watching for the return of his men. He was
+not even thinking of them. He was looking beyond the cedar ridge to
+where, several miles away, a long, mesa-topped mountain showed black
+against the blue of the more distant hills. The edge of this high
+table-land broke abruptly in a long series of vertical cliffs, the
+formation known to Arizonians as rim rocks. The deep shadows of the
+towering black wall of cliffs and the gloom of the pines and cedars that
+hid the foot of the mountain gave the place a sinister and threatening
+appearance.
+
+As he looked, the Dean's kindly face grew somber and stern; his blue
+eyes were for the moment cold and accusing; under his grizzled mustache
+his mouth, usually so ready to smile or laugh, was set in lines of
+uncompromising firmness. In these quiet and well-earned restful years of
+the Dean's life the Tailholt Mountain outfit was the only disturbing
+element. But the Dean did not permit himself to be long annoyed by the
+thoughts provoked by Tailholt Mountain. Philosophically he turned his
+broad back to the intruding scene, and went back to the corral, and to
+the more pleasing occupation of looking at the horses.
+
+If the Dean had not so abruptly turned his back upon the landscape, he
+would have noticed the figure of a man moving slowly along the road
+that skirted the valley meadow leading from Simmons to the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch.
+
+Presently the riders returned, and Phil, when he had removed saddle,
+blanket and hackamore from his pupil, seated himself on the edge of the
+watering trough beside the Dean.
+
+"I see you ain't tackled the big bay yet," remarked the older man.
+
+"Thought if I'd let him look on for a while, he might figure it out that
+he'd better be good and not get himself hurt," smiled Phil. "He's sure
+some horse," he added admiringly. Then to his helpers: "I'll take that
+black with the white forefoot this time, Curly."
+
+Just as the fresh horse dashed into the larger corral a man on foot
+appeared, coming over the rise of ground to the west; and by the time
+that Curly's loop was over the black's head the man stood at the gate.
+One glance told Phil that it was the stranger whom he had met on the
+Divide.
+
+The man seemed to understand that it was no time for greetings and,
+without offering to enter the enclosure, climbed to the top of the big
+gate, where he sat, with one leg over the topmost bar, an interested
+spectator.
+
+The maneuvers of the black brought Phil to that side of the corral, and,
+as he coolly dodged the fighting horse, he glanced up with his boyish
+smile and a quick nod of welcome to the man perched above him. The
+stranger smiled in return, but did not speak. He must have thought,
+though, that this cowboy appeared quite different from the picturesque
+rider he had seen at the celebration and on the summit of the Divide.
+_That_ Phil Acton had been--as the cowboy himself would have said--"all
+togged out in his glad rags." This man wore chaps that were old and
+patched from hard service; his shirt, unbuttoned at the throat, was the
+color of the corral dirt, and a generous tear revealed one muscular
+shoulder; his hat was greasy and battered; his face grimed and streaked
+with dust and sweat, but his sunny, boyish smile would have identified
+Phil in any garb.
+
+When the rider was ready to mount, and Bob went to open the gate, the
+stranger climbed down and drew a little aside. And when Phil, passing
+where he stood, looked laughingly down at him from the back of the
+bucking, plunging horse, he made as if to applaud, but checked himself
+and went quickly to the top of the knoll to watch the riders until they
+disappeared over the ridge.
+
+"Howdy! Fine weather we're havin'." It was the Dean's hearty voice. He
+had gone forward courteously to greet the stranger while the latter was
+watching the riders.
+
+The man turned impulsively, his face lighted with enthusiasm. "By Jove!"
+he exclaimed, "but that man can ride!"
+
+"Yes, Phil does pretty well," returned the Dean indifferently. "Won the
+championship at Prescott the other day." Then, more heartily: "He's a
+mighty good boy, too--take him any way you like."
+
+As he spoke the cattleman looked the stranger over critically, much as
+he would have looked at a steer or horse, noting the long limbs, the
+well-made body, the strong face and clear, dark eyes. The man's dress
+told the Dean simply that the stranger was from the city. His bearing
+commanded the older man's respect. The stranger's next statement, as he
+looked thoughtfully over the wide Land of valley and hill and mesa and
+mountain, convinced the Dean that he was a man of judgment.
+
+"Arizona is a wonderful country, sir--wonderful!"
+
+"Finest in the world, sir," agreed the Dean promptly. "There just
+naturally can't be any better. We've got the climate; we've got the
+land; and we've got the men."
+
+The stranger looked at the Dean quickly when he said "men." It was worth
+much to hear the Dean speak that word.
+
+"Indeed you have," he returned heartily. "I never saw such men."
+
+"Of course you haven't," said the Dean. "I tell you, sir, they just
+don't make 'em outside of Arizona. It takes a country like this to
+produce real men. A man's got to be a man out here. Of course, though,"
+he admitted kindly, "we don't know much except to ride, an' throw a
+rope, an' shoot, mebby, once in a while."
+
+The riders were returning and the Dean and the stranger walked back down
+the little hill to the corral.
+
+"You have a fine ranch here, Mr. Baldwin," again observed the stranger.
+
+The Dean glanced at him sharply. Many men had tried to buy the
+Cross-Triangle. This man certainly appeared prosperous even though he
+was walking. But there was no accounting for the queer things that city
+men would do.
+
+"It does pretty well," the cattleman admitted. "I manage to make a
+livin'."
+
+The other smiled as though slightly embarrassed. Then: "Do you need any
+help?"
+
+"Help!" The Dean looked at him amazed.
+
+"I mean--I would like a position--to work for you, you know."
+
+The Dean was speechless. Again he surveyed the stranger with his
+measuring, critical look. "You've never done any work," he said gently.
+
+The man stood very straight before him and spoke almost defiantly. "No,
+I haven't, but is that any reason why I should not?"
+
+The Dean's eyes twinkled, as they have a way of doing when you say
+something that he likes. "I'd say it's a better reason why you should,"
+he returned quietly.
+
+Then he said to Phil, who, having dismissed his four-footed pupil, was
+coming toward them:
+
+"Phil, this man wants a job. Think we can use him?"
+
+The young man looked at the stranger with unfeigned surprise and with a
+hint of amusement, but gave no sign that he had ever seen him before.
+The same natural delicacy of feeling that had prevented the cowboy from
+discussing the man upon whose privacy he felt he had intruded that
+evening of their meeting on the Divide led him now to ignore the
+incident--a consideration which could not but command the strange man's
+respect, and for which he looked his gratitude.
+
+There was something about the stranger, too, that to Phil seemed
+different. This tall, well-built fellow who stood before them so
+self-possessed, and ready for anything, was not altogether like the
+uncertain, embarrassed, half-frightened and troubled gentleman at whom
+Phil had first laughed with thinly veiled contempt, and then had pitied.
+It was as though the man who sat that night alone on the Divide had, out
+of the very bitterness of his experience, called forth from within
+himself a strength of which, until then, he had been only dimly
+conscious. There was now, in his face and bearing, courage and decision
+and purpose, and with it all a glint of that same humor that had made
+him so bitterly mock himself. The Dean's philosophy touching the
+possibilities of the man who laughs when he is hurt seemed in this
+stranger about to be justified. Phil felt oddly, too, that the man was
+in a way experimenting with himself--testing himself as it were--and
+being altogether a normal human, the cowboy felt strongly inclined to
+help the experimenter. In this spirit he answered the Dean, while
+looking mischievously at the stranger.
+
+"We can use him if he can ride."
+
+The stranger smiled understandingly. "I don't see why I couldn't," he
+returned in that droll tone. "I seem to have the legs." He looked down
+at his long lower limbs reflectively, as though quaintly considering
+them quite apart from himself.
+
+Phil laughed.
+
+"Huh," said the Dean, slightly mystified at the apparent understanding
+between the young men. Then to the stranger: "What do you want to work
+for? You don't look as though you needed to. A sort of vacation, heh?"
+
+There was spirit in the man's answer. "I want to work for the reason
+that all men want work. If you do not employ me, I must try somewhere
+else."
+
+"Come from Prescott to Simmons on the stage, did you?"
+
+"No, sir, I walked."
+
+"Walked! Huh! Tried anywhere else for a job?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Who sent you out here?"
+
+The stranger smiled. "I saw Mr. Acton ride in the contest. I learned
+that he was foreman of the Cross-Triangle Ranch. I thought I would
+rather work where he worked, if I could."
+
+The Dean looked at Phil. Phil looked at the Dean. Together they looked
+at the stranger. The two cowboys who were sitting on their horses
+near-by grinned at each other.
+
+"And what is your name, sir?" the Dean asked courteously.
+
+For the first time the man hesitated and seemed embarrassed. He looked
+uneasily about with a helpless inquiring glance, as though appealing for
+some suggestion.
+
+"Oh, never mind your name, if you have forgotten it," said the Dean
+dryly.
+
+The stranger's roaming eyes fell upon Phil's old chaps, that in every
+wrinkle and scar and rip and tear gave such eloquent testimony as to the
+wearer's life, and that curious, self-mocking smile touched his lips.
+Then, throwing up his head and looking the Dean straight in the eye, he
+said boldly, but with that note of droll humor in his voice, "My name is
+Patches, sir, Honorable Patches."
+
+The Dean's eyes twinkled, but his face was grave. Phil's face flushed;
+he had not failed to identify the source of the stranger's inspiration.
+But before either the Dean or Phil could speak a shout of laughter came
+from Curly Elson, and the stranger had turned to face the cowboy.
+
+"Something seems to amuse you," he said quietly to the man on the horse;
+and at the tone of his voice Phil and the Dean exchanged significant
+glances.
+
+The grinning cowboy looked down at the stranger in evident contempt.
+"Patches," he drawled. "Honorable Patches! That's a hell of a name, now,
+ain't it?"
+
+The man went two long steps toward the mocking rider, and spoke quietly,
+but with unmistakable meaning.
+
+"I'll endeavor to make it all of that for you, if you will get off your
+horse."
+
+The grinning cowboy, with a wink at his companion, dismounted
+cheerfully. Curly Elson was held to be the best man with his hands in
+Yavapai County. He could not refuse so tempting an opportunity to add to
+his well-earned reputation.
+
+Five minutes later Curly lifted himself on one elbow in the corral dust,
+and looked up with respectful admiration to the quiet man who stood
+waiting for him to rise. Curly's lip was bleeding generously; the side
+of his face seemed to have slipped out of place, and his left eye was
+closing surely and rapidly.
+
+"Get up," said the tall man calmly. "There is more where that came from,
+if you want it."
+
+The cowboy grinned painfully. "I ain't hankerin' after any more," he
+mumbled, feeling his face tenderly.
+
+"It said that my name was Patches," suggested the stranger.
+
+"Sure, Mr. Patches, I reckon nobody'll question that."
+
+"Honorable Patches," again prompted the stranger.
+
+"Yes, sir. You bet; Honorable Patches," agreed Curly with emphasis.
+Then, as he painfully regained his feet, he held out his hand with as
+nearly a smile as his battered features would permit. "Do you mind
+shaking on it, Mr. Honorable Patches? Just to show that there's no hard
+feelin's?"
+
+Patches responded instantly with a manner that won Curly's heart.
+"Good!" he said. "I knew you would do that when you understood, or I
+wouldn't have bothered to show you my credentials."
+
+"My mistake," returned Curly. "It's them there credentials of yourn, not
+your name, that's hell."
+
+He gingerly mounted his horse again, and Patches turned back to the Dean
+as though apologizing for the interruption.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir, but--about work?"
+
+The Dean never told anyone just what his thoughts were at that
+particular moment; probably because they were so many and so
+contradictory and confusing. Whether from this uncertainty of mind; from
+a habit of depending upon his young foreman, or because of that
+something, which Phil and the stranger seemed to have in common, he
+shifted the whole matter by saying, "It's up to Phil here. He's foreman
+of the Cross-Triangle. If he wants to hire you, it's all right with me."
+
+At this the two young men faced each other; and on the face of each was
+a half questioning, half challenging smile. The stranger seemed to say,
+"I know I am at your mercy; I don't expect you to believe in me after
+our meeting on the Divide, but I dare you to put me to the test."
+
+And Phil, if he had spoken, might have said, "I felt when I met you
+first that there was a man around somewhere. I know you are curious to
+see what you would do if put to the test. I am curious, too. I'll give
+you a chance." Aloud he reminded the stranger pointedly, "I said we
+might use you if you could ride."
+
+Patches smiled his self-mocking smile, evidently appreciating his
+predicament. "And I said," he retorted, "that I didn't see why I
+couldn't."
+
+Phil turned to his grinning but respectful helpers. "Bring out that bay
+with the blazed face."
+
+"Great Snakes!" ejaculated Curly to Bob, as they reached the gate
+leading to the adjoining corral. "His name is Patches, all right, but
+he'll be pieces when that bay devil gets through with him, if he can't
+ride. Do you reckon he can?"
+
+"Dunno," returned Bob, as he unlatched the gate without dismounting. "I
+thought he couldn't fight."
+
+"So did I," returned Curly, grimly nursing his battered face. "You cut
+out the horse; I can't more'n half see."
+
+It was no trouble to cut out the bay. The big horse seemed to understand
+that his time had come. All day he had seen his mates go forth to their
+testing, had watched them as they fought with all their strength the
+skill and endurance of that smiling, boy-faced man, and then had seen
+them as they returned, sweating, trembling, conquered and subdued. As
+Bob rode toward him, he stood for one defiant moment as motionless as a
+horse of bronze; then, with a suddenness that gave Curly at the gate
+barely time to dodge his rush, he leaped forward into the larger arena.
+
+Phil was watching the stranger as the big horse came through the gate.
+The man did not move, but his eyes were glowing darkly, his face was
+flushed, and he was smiling to himself mockingly--as though amused at
+the thought of what was about to happen to him. The Dean also was
+watching Patches, and again the young foreman and his employer exchanged
+significant glances as Phil turned and went quickly to Little Billy.
+Lifting the lad from his saddle and seating him on the fence above the
+long watering trough, he said, "There's a grandstand seat for you,
+pardner; don't get down unless you have to, and then get down outside.
+See?"
+
+At that moment yells of warning, with a "Look out, Phil!" came from
+Curly, Bob and the Dean.
+
+A quick look over his shoulder, and Phil saw the big horse with ears
+wickedly flat, eyes gleaming, and teeth bared, making straight in his
+direction. The animal had apparently singled him out as the author of
+his misfortunes, and proposed to dispose of his arch-enemy at the very
+outset of the battle. There was only one sane thing to do, and Phil did
+it. A vigorous, scrambling leap placed him beside Little Billy on the
+top of the fence above the watering trough.
+
+"Good thing I reserved a seat in your grandstand for myself, wasn't it,
+pardner?" he smiled down at the boy by his side.
+
+Then Bob's riata fell true, and as the powerful horse plunged and fought
+that strangling noose Phil came leisurely down from the fence.
+
+"Where was you goin', Phil?" chuckled the Dean.
+
+"You sure warn't losin' any time," laughed Curly.
+
+And Bob, without taking his eyes from the vicious animal at the end of
+his taut riata, and working skillfully with his trained cow-horse to
+foil every wicked plunge and wild leap, grinned with appreciation, as he
+added, "I'll bet four bits you can't do it again, Phil, without a
+runnin' start."
+
+"I just thought I'd keep Little Billy company for a spell," smiled Phil.
+"He looked so sort of lonesome up there."
+
+The stranger, at first amazed that they could turn into jest an incident
+which might so easily have been a tragedy, suddenly laughed aloud--a
+joyous, ringing laugh that made Phil look at him sharply.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Acton," said Patches meekly, but with that droll
+voice which brought a glint of laughter into the foreman's eyes and
+called forth another chuckle from the Dean.
+
+"You can take my saddle," said Phil pointedly. "It's over there at the
+end of the watering trough. You'll find the stirrups about right, I
+reckon--I ride with them rather long."
+
+For a moment the stranger looked him straight in the eyes, then without
+a word started for the saddle. He was half way to the end of the
+watering trough when Phil overtook him.
+
+"I believe I'd rather saddle him myself," the cowboy explained quietly,
+with his sunny smile. "You see, I've got to teach these horses some cow
+sense before the fall rodeo, and I'm rather particular about the way
+they're handled at the start."
+
+"Exactly," returned Patches, "I don't blame you. That fellow seems
+rather to demand careful treatment, doesn't he?"
+
+Phil laughed. "Oh, you don't need to be too particular about his
+feelings once you're up in the middle of him," he retorted.
+
+The big bay, instead of acquiring sense from his observations, as Phil
+had expressed to the Dean a hope that he would, seemed to have gained
+courage and determination. Phil's approach was the signal for a mad
+plunge in the young man's direction, which was checked by the skill and
+weight of Bob's trained cow-horse on the rope. Several times Phil went
+toward the bay, and every time his advance was met by one of those
+vicious rushes. Then Phil mounted Curly's horse, and from his hand the
+loop of another riata fell over the bay's head. Shortening his rope by
+coiling it in his rein hand, he maneuvered the trained horse closer and
+closer to his struggling captive, until, with Bob's co-operation on the
+other side of the fighting animal, he could with safety fix the leather
+blindfold over those wicked eyes.
+
+When at last hackamore and saddle were in place, and the bay stood
+trembling and sweating, Phil wiped the perspiration from his own
+forehead and turned to the stranger.
+
+"Your horse is ready, sir."
+
+The man's face was perhaps a shade whiter than its usual color, but his
+eyes were glowing, and there was a grim set look about his smiling lips
+that made the hearts of those men go out to him. He seemed to realize so
+that the joke was on himself, and with it all exhibited such reckless
+indifference to consequences. Without an instant's hesitation he started
+toward the horse.
+
+"Great Snakes!" muttered Curly to Bob, "talk about nerve!"
+
+The Dean started forward. "Wait a minute, Mr. Patches," he said.
+
+The stranger faced him.
+
+"Can you ride that horse?" asked the Dean, pointedly.
+
+"I'm going to," returned Patches. "But," he added with his droll humor,
+"I can't say how far."
+
+"Don't you know that he'll kill you if he can?" questioned the Dean
+curiously, while his eyes twinkled approval.
+
+"He does seem to have some such notion," admitted Patches.
+
+"You better let him alone," said the Dean. "You don't need to kill
+yourself to get a job with this outfit."
+
+"That's very kind of you, sir," returned the stranger gratefully. "I'm
+rather glad you said that. But I'm going to ride him just the same."
+
+They looked at him in amazement, for it was clear to them now that the
+man really could not ride.
+
+The Dean spoke kindly. "Why?"
+
+"Because," said Patches slowly, "I am curious to see what I will do
+under such circumstances, and if I don't try the experiment now I'll
+never know whether I have the nerve to do it or not." As he finished he
+turned and walked deliberately toward the horse.
+
+Phil ran to Curly's side, and the cowboy at his foreman's gesture leaped
+from his saddle. The young man mounted his helper's horse, and with a
+quick movement caught the riata from the saddle horn and flipped open a
+ready loop.
+
+The stranger was close to the bay's off, or right, side.
+
+"The other side, Patches," called Phil genially. "You want to start in
+right, you know."
+
+Not a man laughed--except the stranger.
+
+"Thanks," he said, and came around to the proper side.
+
+"Take your time," called Phil again. "Stand by his shoulder and watch
+his heels. Take the stirrup with your right hand and turn it to catch
+your foot. Stay back by his shoulder until you are ready to swing up.
+Take your time."
+
+"I won't be long," returned Patches, as he awkwardly gained his seat in
+the saddle.
+
+Phil moved his horse nearer the center of the corral, and shook out his
+loop a little.
+
+"When you're ready, lean over and pull up the blindfold," he called.
+
+The man on the horse did not hesitate. With every angry nerve and muscle
+strained to the utmost, the powerful bay leaped into the air, coming
+down with legs stiff and head between his knees. For an instant the man
+miraculously kept his place. With another vicious plunge and a
+cork-screw twist the maddened brute went up again, and this time the man
+was flung from the saddle as from a gigantic catapult, to fall upon his
+shoulders and back in the corral dust, where he lay still. The horse,
+rid of his enemy, leaped again; then with catlike quickness and devilish
+cunning whirled, and with wicked teeth bared and vicious, blazing eyes,
+rushed for the helpless man on the ground.
+
+With a yell Bob spurred to put himself between the bay and his victim,
+but had there been time the move would have been useless, for no horse
+could have withstood that mad charge. The vicious brute was within a
+bound of his victim, and had reared to crush him with the weight of
+heavy hoofs, when a rawhide rope tightened about those uplifted forefeet
+and the bay himself crashed to earth. Leaving the cow-horse to hold the
+riata tight, Phil sprang from his saddle and ran to the fallen man. The
+Dean came with water in his felt hat from the trough, and presently the
+stranger opened his eyes. For a moment he lay looking up into their
+faces as though wondering where he was, and how he happened there.
+
+"Are you hurt bad?" asked the Dean.
+
+That brought him to his senses, and he got to his feet somewhat
+unsteadily, and began brushing the dust from his clothes. Then he looked
+curiously toward the horse that Curly was holding down by the simple
+means of sitting on the animal's head. "I certainly thought my legs were
+long enough to reach around him," he said reflectively. "How in the
+world did he manage it? I seemed to be falling for a week."
+
+Phil yelled and the Dean laughed until the tears ran down his red
+cheeks, while Bob and Curly went wild.
+
+Patches went to the horse, and gravely walked around him. Then, "Let him
+up," he said to Curly.
+
+The cowboy looked at Phil, who nodded.
+
+As the bay regained his feet, Patches started toward him.
+
+"Here," said the Dean peremptorily. "You come away from there."
+
+"I'm going to see if he can do it again," declared Patches grimly.
+
+"Not to-day, you ain't," returned the Dean. "You're workin' for me now,
+an' you're too good a man to be killed tryin' any more crazy
+experiments."
+
+At the Dean's words the look of gratitude in the man's eyes was almost
+pathetic.
+
+"I wonder if I am," he said, so low that only the Dean and Phil heard.
+
+"If you are what?" asked the Dean, puzzled by his manner.
+
+"Worth anything--as a man--you know," came the strange reply.
+
+The Dean chuckled. "You'll be all right when you get your growth. Come
+on over here now, out of the way, while Phil takes some of the
+cussedness out of that fool horse."
+
+Together they watched Phil ride the bay and return him to his mates a
+very tired and a much wiser pupil. Then, while Patches remained to watch
+further operations in the corral, the Dean went to the house to tell
+Stella all about it.
+
+"And what do you think he really is?" she asked, as the last of a long
+list of questions and comments.
+
+The Dean shook his head. "There's no tellin'. A man like that is liable
+to be anything." Then he added, with his usual philosophy: "He acts,
+though, like a genuine thoroughbred that's been badly mishandled an' has
+just found it out."
+
+When the day's work was finished and supper was over Little Billy found
+Patches where he stood looking across the valley toward Granite Mountain
+that loomed so boldly against the soft light of the evening sky. The man
+greeted the boy awkwardly, as though unaccustomed to children. But
+Little Billy, very much at ease, signified his readiness to help the
+stranger to an intimate acquaintance with the world of which he knew so
+much more than this big man.
+
+He began with no waste of time on mere preliminaries.
+
+"See that mountain over there? That's Granite Mountain. There's wild
+horses live around there, an' sometimes we catch 'em. Bet you don't know
+that Phil's name is 'Wild Horse Phil'."
+
+Patches smiled. "That's a good name for him, isn't it?"
+
+"You bet." He turned and pointed eagerly to the west. "There's another
+mountain over there I bet you don't know the name of."
+
+"Which one do you mean? I see several."
+
+"That long, black lookin' one. Do you know about it?"
+
+"I'm really afraid that I don't."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you," said Billy, proud of his superior knowledge.
+"That there's Tailholt Mountain."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, and Nick Cambert and Yavapai Joe lives over there. Do you know
+about them?"
+
+The tall man shook his head. "No, I don't believe that I do."
+
+Little Billy lowered his voice to a mysterious whisper. "Well, I'll tell
+you. Only you mus'n't ever say anything 'bout it out loud. Nick and
+Yavapai is cattle thieves. They been a-brandin' our calves, an' Phil,
+he's goin' to catch 'em at it some day, an' then they'll wish they
+hadn't. Phil, he's my pardner, you know."
+
+"And a fine pardner, too, I'll bet," returned the stranger, as if not
+wishing to acquire further information about the men of Tailholt
+Mountain.
+
+"You bet he is," came the instant response. "Only Jim Reid, he don't
+like him very well."
+
+"That's too bad, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes. You see, Jim Reid is Kitty's daddy. They live over there." He
+pointed across the meadow to where, a mile away, a light twinkled in the
+window of the Pot-Hook-S ranch house. "Kitty Reid's a mighty nice girl,
+I tell you, but Jim, he says that there needn't no cow-puncher come
+around tryin' to get her, 'cause she's been away to school, you know,
+an' I think Phil--"
+
+"Whoa! Hold on a minute, sonny," interrupted Patches hastily.
+
+"What's the matter?" questioned Little Billy.
+
+"Why, it strikes me that a boy with a pardner like 'Wild Horse Phil'
+ought to be mighty careful about how he talked over that pardner's
+private affairs with a stranger. Don't you think so?"
+
+"Mebby so," agreed Billy. "But you see, I know that Phil wants Kitty
+'cause--"
+
+"Sh! What in the world is that?" whispered Patches in great fear,
+catching his small companion by the arm.
+
+"That! Don't you know an owl when you hear one? Gee! but you're a
+tenderfoot, ain't you?" Catching sight of the Dean who was coming toward
+them, he shouted gleefully. "Uncle Will, Mr. Patches is scared of an
+owl. What do you know about that; Patches is scared of an owl!"
+
+"Your Aunt Stella wants you," laughed the Dean.
+
+And Billy ran off to the house to share his joke on the tenderfoot with
+his Aunt Stella and his "pardner," Phil.
+
+"I've got to go to town to-morrow," said the Dean. "I expect you better
+go along and get your trunk, or whatever you have and some sort of an
+outfit. You can't work in them clothes."
+
+Patches answered hesitatingly. "Why, I think I can get along all right,
+Mr. Baldwin."
+
+"But you'll want your stuff--your trunk or grip--or whatever you've
+got," returned the Dean.
+
+"But I have nothing in Prescott," said the stranger slowly.
+
+"You haven't? Well, you'll need an outfit anyway," persisted the
+cattleman.
+
+"Really, I think I can get along for a while," Patches returned
+diffidently.
+
+The Dean considered for a little; then he said with straightforward
+bluntness, but not at all unkindly, "Look here, young man, you ain't
+afraid to go to Prescott, are you?"
+
+The other laughed. "Not at all, sir. It's not that. I suppose I must
+tell you now, though. All the clothes I have are on my back, and I
+haven't a cent in the world with which to buy an outfit, as you call
+it."
+
+The Dean chuckled. "So that's it? I thought mebby you was dodgin' the
+sheriff. If it's just plain broke that's the matter, why you'll go to
+town with me in the mornin', an' we'll get what you need. I'll hold it
+out of your wages until it's paid." As though the matter were settled,
+he turned back toward the house, adding, "Phil will show you where
+you're to sleep."
+
+When the foreman had shown the new man to his room, the cowboy asked
+casually, "Found the goat ranch, all right, night before last, did you?"
+
+The other hesitated; then he said gravely, "I didn't look for it, Mr.
+Acton."
+
+"You didn't look for it?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you spent the night up there on the Divide
+without blankets or anything?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I did."
+
+"And where did you stop last night?"
+
+"At Simmons."
+
+"Walked, I suppose?"
+
+The stranger smiled. "Yes."
+
+"But, look here," said the puzzled cowboy, "I don't mean to be asking
+questions about what is none of my business, but I can't figure it out.
+If you were coming out here to get a job on the Cross-Triangle, why
+didn't you go to Mr. Baldwin in town? Anybody could have pointed him out
+to you. Or, why didn't you say something to me, when we were talking
+back there on the Divide?"
+
+"Why, you see," explained the other lamely, "I didn't exactly want to
+work on the Cross-Triangle, or anywhere."
+
+"But you told Uncle Will that you wanted to work here, and you were on
+your way when I met you."
+
+"Yes, I know, but you see--oh, hang it all, Mr. Acton, haven't you ever
+wanted to do something that you didn't want to do? Haven't you ever been
+caught in a corner that you were simply forced to get out of when you
+didn't like the only way that would get you out? I don't mean anything
+criminal," he added, with a short laugh.
+
+"Yes, I have," returned the other seriously, "and if you don't mind
+there's no handle to my name. Around here I'm just plain Phil, Mr.
+Patches."
+
+"Thanks. Neither does Patches need decorating."
+
+"And now, one more," said Phil, with his winning smile. "Why in the
+name of all the obstinate fools that roam at large did you walk out here
+when you must have had plenty of chances to ride?"
+
+"Well, you see," said Patches slowly, "I fear I can't explain, but it
+was just a part of my job."
+
+"Your job! But you didn't have any job until this afternoon."
+
+"Oh, yes, I did. I had the biggest kind of a job. You see, that's what I
+was doing on the Divide all night; trying to find some other way to do
+it."
+
+"And do you mind telling me what that job is?" asked Phil curiously.
+
+Patches laughed as though at himself. "I don't know that I can,
+exactly," he said. "I think, perhaps, it's just to ride that big bay
+horse out there."
+
+Phil laughed aloud--a hearty laugh of good-fellowship. "You'll do that
+all right."
+
+"Do you think so, really," asked Patches, eagerly.
+
+"Sure; I know it."
+
+"I wish I could be sure," returned the strange man doubtfully--and the
+cowboy, wondering, saw that wistful look in his eyes.
+
+"That big devil is a man's horse, all right," mused Phil.
+
+"Why, of course--and that's just it--don't you see?" cried the other
+impulsively. Then, as if he regretted his words, he asked quickly, "Do
+you name your horses?"
+
+"Sure," answered the cowboy; "we generally find something to call them."
+
+"And have you named the big bay yet?"
+
+Phil laughed. "I named him yesterday, when he broke away as we were
+bringing the bunch in, and I had to rope him to get him back."
+
+"And what did you name him?"
+
+"Stranger."
+
+"Stranger! And why Stranger?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. Just one of my fool notions," returned Phil.
+"Good-night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A BIT OF THE PAST.
+
+
+The next morning Mr. Baldwin and Patches set out for town.
+
+"I suppose," said the Dean, and a slightly curious tone colored the
+remark, "that mebby you've been used to automobiles. Buck and Prince
+here, an' this old buckboard will seem sort of slow to you."
+
+Patches was stepping into the rig as the Dean spoke. As the young man
+took his seat by the cattleman's side, the Dean nodded to Phil who was
+holding the team. At the signal Phil released the horses' heads and
+stepped aside, whereupon Buck and Prince, of one mind, looked back over
+their shoulders, made a few playful attempts to twist themselves out of
+the harness, lunged forward their length, stood straight up on their
+hind feet, then sprang away as if they were fully determined to land
+that buckboard in Prescott within the next fifteen minutes.
+
+"Did you say slow?" questioned Patches, as he clung to his seat.
+
+The Dean chuckled and favored his new man with a twinkling glance of
+approval.
+
+A few seconds later, on the other side of the sandy wash, the Dean
+skillfully checked their headlong career, with a narrow margin of safety
+between the team and the gate.
+
+"I reckon we'll get through with less fuss if you'll open it," he said
+to Patches. Then to Buck and Prince: "Whoa! you blamed fools. Can't you
+stand a minute?"
+
+"Stella's been devilin' me to get a machine ever since Jim Reid got
+his," he continued, while the horses were repeating their preliminary
+contortions, and Patches was regaining his seat. "But I told her I'd be
+scared to death to ride in the fool contraption."
+
+At this Buck and Prince, in a wild riot of animal strength and spirit,
+leaped a slight depression in the road with such vigor that the front
+wheels of the buckboard left the ground. Patches glanced sidewise at his
+employer, with a smile of delighted appreciation, but said nothing.
+
+The Dean liked him for that. The Dean always insists that the hardest
+man in the world to talk to is the one who always has something to say
+for himself.
+
+"Why," he continued, with a burst of honest feeling, "if I was ever to
+bring one of them things home to the Cross-Triangle, I'd be ashamed to
+look a horse or steer in the face."
+
+They dashed through a patch of wild sunflowers that in the bottom lands
+grow thick and rank; whirled past the tumble-down corner of an old fence
+that enclosed a long neglected garden; and dashed recklessly through a
+deserted and weed-grown yard. On one side of the road was the ancient
+barn and stable, with sagging, weather-beaten roof, leaning walls and
+battered doors that hung dejectedly on their rusty and broken hinges.
+The corral stockade was breached in many places by the years that had
+rotted the posts. The old-time windlass pump that, operated by a blind
+burro, once lifted water for the long vanished herds, was a pathetic old
+wreck, incapable now of offering drink to a thirsty sparrow. On their
+other hand, beneath the wide branches of giant sycamores and walnuts,
+and backed by a tangled orchard wilderness, stood an old house, empty
+and neglected, as if in the shadowy gloom of the untrimmed trees it
+awaited, lonely and forlorn, the kindly hand of oblivion.
+
+"This is the old Acton homestead," said the Dean quietly, as one might
+speak beside an ancient grave.
+
+Then as they were driving through the narrow lane that crosses the great
+meadow, he indicated with a nod of his head group of buildings on the
+other side of the green fields, and something less than a mile to the
+south.
+
+"That's Jim Reid's place. His iron is the Pot-Hook-S. Jim's stock runs
+on the old Acton range, but the homestead belongs to Phil yet. Jim
+Reid's a fine man." The Dean spoke stoutly, almost as though he were
+making the assertion to convince himself. "Yes, sir, Jim's all right.
+Good neighbor; good cowman; square as they make 'em. Some folks seem to
+think he's a mite over-bearin' an' rough-spoken sometimes, and he's kind
+of quick at suspicionin' everybody; but Jim and me have always got along
+the best kind."
+
+Again the Dean was silent, as though he had forgotten the man beside him
+in his occupation with thoughts that he could not share.
+
+When they had crossed the valley meadows and, climbing the hill on the
+other side, could see the road for several miles ahead, the Dean pointed
+to a black object on the next ridge.
+
+"There's Jim's automobile now. They're headin' for Prescott, too.
+Kitty's drivin', I reckon. I tell Stella that that machine and Kitty's
+learnin' to run the thing is about all the returns that Jim can show for
+the money he's spent in educatin' her. I don't mean," he added, with a
+quick look at Patches, as though he feared to be misunderstood, "that
+Kitty's one of them good-for-nothin' butterfly girls. She ain't that by
+a good deal. Why, she was raised right here in this neighborhood, an' we
+love her the same as if she was our own. She can cook a meal or make a
+dress 'bout as well as her mother, an' does it, too; an' she can ride a
+horse or throw a rope better'n some punchers I've seen, but--" The Dean
+stopped, seemingly for want of words to express exactly his thought.
+
+"It seems to me," offered Patches abstractedly, "that education, as we
+call it, is a benefit only when it adds to one's life. If schooling or
+culture, or whatever you choose to term it, is permitted to rob one of
+the fundamental and essential elements of life, it is most certainly an
+evil."
+
+"That's the idea," exclaimed the Dean, with frank admiration for his
+companion's ability to say that which he himself thought. "You say it
+like a book. But that's it. It ain't the learnin' an' all the stuff that
+Kitty got while she was at school that's worryin' us. It's what
+she's likely to lose through gettin' 'em. This here modern,
+down-to-the-minute, higher livin', loftier sphere, intellectual
+supremacy idea is all right if folks'll just keep their feet on the
+ground.
+
+"You take Stella an' me now. I know we're old fashioned an' slow an' all
+that, an' we've seen a lot of hardships since we was married over in
+Skull Valley where she was born an' raised. She was just a girl then,
+an' I was only a kid, punchin' steers for a livin'. I suppose we've seen
+about as hard times as anybody. At least that's what they would be
+called now. But, hell, _we_ didn't think nothin' of it then; we was
+happy, sir, and we've been happy for over forty year. I tell you, sir,
+we've lived--just lived every minute, and that's a blamed sight more
+than a lot of these higher-cultured, top-lofty, half-dead couples that
+marry and separate, and separate and marry again now-a-days can say.
+
+"No, sir, 'tain't what a man gets that makes him rich; it's what he
+keeps. And these folks that are swoppin' the old-fashioned sort of love
+that builds homes and raises families and lets man and wife work
+together, an' meet trouble together, an' be happy together, an' grow old
+bein' happy together--if they're swoppin' all that for these here new,
+down-to-date ideas of such things, they're makin' a damned poor bargain,
+accordin' to my way of thinkin'. There is such a thing, sir, as
+educatin' a man or woman plumb out of reach of happiness.
+
+"Look at our Phil," the Dean continued, for the man beside him was a
+wonderful listener. "There just naturally couldn't be a better all round
+man than Phil Acton. He's healthy; don't know what it is to have an
+hour's sickness; strong as a young bull; clean, honest, square, no bad
+habits, a fine worker, an' a fine thinker, too--even if he ain't had
+much schoolin', he's read a lot. Take him any way you like--just as a
+man, I mean--an' that's the way you got to take 'em--there ain't a
+better man that Phil livin'. Yet a lot of these folks would say he's
+nothin' but a cow-puncher. As for that, Jim Reid ain't much more than a
+cow-puncher himself. I tell you, I've seen cow-punchers that was mighty
+good men, an' I've seen graduates from them there universities that was
+plumb good for nothin'--with no more real man about 'em than there is
+about one of these here wax dummies that they hang clothes on in the
+store windows. What any self-respectin' woman can see in one of them
+that would make her want to marry him is more than I've ever been able
+to figger out."
+
+If the Dean had not been so engrossed in his own thoughts, he would have
+wondered at the strange effect of his words upon his companion. The
+young man's face flushed scarlet, then paled as though with sudden
+illness, and he looked sidewise at the older man with an expression of
+shame and humiliation, while his eyes, wistful and pleading, were filled
+with pain. Honorable Patches who had won the admiration of those men in
+the Cross-Triangle corrals was again the troubled, shamefaced,
+half-frightened creature whom Phil met on the Divide.
+
+But the good Dean did not see, and so, encouraged by the other's
+silence, he continued his dissertation. "Of course, I don't mean to say
+that education and that sort of thing spoils every man. Now, there's
+young Stanford Manning--"
+
+If the Dean had suddenly fired a gun at Patches, the young man could not
+have shown greater surprise and consternation. "Stanford Manning!" he
+gasped.
+
+At his tone the Dean turned to look at him curiously. "I mean Stanford
+Manning, the mining engineer," he explained. "Do you know him?"
+
+"I have heard of him," Patches managed to reply.
+
+"Well," continued the Dean, "he came out to this country about three
+years ago--straight from college--and he has sure made good. He's got
+the education an' culture an' polish an' all that, an' with it he can
+hold his own among any kind or sort of men livin'. There ain't a
+man--cow-puncher, miner or anything else--in Yavapai County that don't
+take off his hat to Stanford Manning."
+
+"Is he in this country now?" asked Patches, with an effort at
+self-control that the Dean did not notice.
+
+"No, I understand his Company called him back East about a month ago.
+Goin' to send him to some of their properties up in Montana, I heard."
+
+When his companion made no comment, the Dean said reflectively, as Buck
+and Prince climbed slowly up the grade to the summit of the Divide,
+"I'll tell you, son, I've seen a good many changes in this country. I
+can remember when there wasn't a fence in all Yavapai County--hardly in
+the Territory. And now--why the last time I drove over to Skull Valley I
+got so tangled up in 'em that I plumb lost myself. When Phil's daddy an'
+me was youngsters we used to ride from Camp Verde and Flagstaff clean to
+Date Creek without ever openin' a gate. But I can't see that men change
+much, though. They're good and bad, just like they've always been--an' I
+reckon always will be. There's been leaders and weaklin's and just
+betwixt and betweens in every herd of cattle or band of horses that ever
+I owned. You take Phil, now. He's exactly like his daddy was before
+him."
+
+"His father must have been a fine man," said Patches, with quiet
+earnestness.
+
+The Dean looked at him with an approving twinkle. "Fine?" For a few
+minutes, as they were rounding the turn of the road on the summit of the
+Divide where Phil and the stranger had met, the Dean looked away toward
+Granite Mountain. Then, as if thinking aloud, rather than purposely
+addressing his companion, he said, "John Acton--Honest John, as
+everybody called him--and I came to this country together when we were
+boys. Walked in, sir, with some pioneers from Kansas. We kept in touch
+with each other all the while we was growin' to be men; punched cattle
+for the same outfits most of the time; even did most of our courtin'
+together, for Phil's mother an' Stella were neighbors an' great friends
+over in Skull Valley. When we'd finally saved enough to get started we
+located homesteads close together back there in the Valley, an' as soon
+as we could get some sort of shacks built we married the girls and set
+up housekeepin'. Our stock ranged together, of course, but John sort of
+took care of the east side of the meadows an' I kept more to the west.
+When the children came along--John an' Mary had three before Phil, but
+only Phil lived--an' the stock had increased an' we'd built some decent
+houses, things seemed to be about as fine as possible. Then John went on
+a note for a man in Prescott. I tried my best to keep him out of it,
+but, shucks! he just laughed at me. You see, he was one of the best
+hearted men that ever lived--one of those men, you know, that just
+naturally believes in everybody.
+
+"Well, it wound up after a-while by John losin' mighty nigh everything.
+We managed to save the homestead, but practically all the stock had to
+go. An' it wasn't more than a year after that till Mary died. We never
+did know just what was the matter with her--an' after that it seemed
+like John never was the same. He got killed in the rodeo that same
+fall--just wasn't himself somehow. I was with him when he died.
+
+"Stella and me raised Phil--we don't know any difference between him and
+one of our own boys. The old homestead is his, of course, but Jim Reid's
+stock runs on the old range. Phil's got a few head that he works with
+mine--a pretty good bunch by now--for he's kept addin' to what his
+father left, an' I've paid him wages ever since he was big enough. Phil
+don't say much, even to Stella an' me, but I know he's figurin' on
+fixin' up the old home place some day."
+
+After a long silence the Dean said again, as if voicing some conclusion
+of his unspoken thoughts: "Jim Reid is pretty well fixed, you see, an'
+Kitty bein' the only girl, it's natural, I reckon, that they should have
+ideas about her future, an' all that. I reckon it's natural, too, that
+the girl should find ranch life away out here so far from anywhere, a
+little slow after her three years at school in the East. She never says
+it, but somehow you can most always tell what Kitty's thinkin' without
+her speakin' a word."
+
+"I have known people like that," said Patches, probably because there
+was so little that he could say.
+
+"Yes, an' when you know Kitty, you'll say, like I always have, that if
+there's a man in Yavapai County that wouldn't ride the hoofs off the
+best horse in his outfit, night or day, to win a smile from her, he
+ought to be lynched."
+
+That afternoon in Prescott they purchased an outfit for Patches, and the
+following day set out for the long return drive to the ranch.
+
+They had reached the top of the hill at the western end of the meadow
+lane, when they saw a young woman, on a black horse, riding away from
+the gate that opens from the lane into the Pot-Hook-S meadow pasture,
+toward the ranch buildings on the farther side of the field.
+
+As they drove into the yard at home, it was nearly supper time, and the
+men were coming from the corrals.
+
+"Kitty's been over all the afternoon," Little Billy informed them
+promptly. "I told her all about you, Patches. She says she's just dyin'
+to see you."
+
+Phil joined in the laugh, but Patches fancied that there was a shadow in
+the cowboy's usually sunny eyes as the young man looked at him to say,
+"That big horse of yours sure made me ride some to-day."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE DRIFT FENCE.
+
+
+The education of Honorable Patches was begun without further delay.
+Because Phil's time was so fully occupied with his four-footed pupils,
+the Dean himself became the stranger's teacher, and all sorts of odd
+jobs about the ranch, from cleaning the pig pen to weeding the garden,
+were the text books. The man balked at nothing. Indeed, he seemed to
+find a curious, grim satisfaction in accomplishing the most menial and
+disagreeable tasks; and when he made mistakes, as he often did, he
+laughed at himself with such bitter, mocking humor that the Dean
+wondered.
+
+"He's got me beat," the Dean confided to Stella. "There ain't nothin'
+that he won't tackle, an' I'm satisfied that the man never did a stroke
+of work before in his life. But he seems to be always tryin' experiments
+with himself, like he expected himself to play the fool one way or
+another, an' wanted to see if he would, an' then when he don't he's as
+surprised and tickled as a kid."
+
+The Dean himself was not at all above assisting his new man in those
+experiments, and so it happened that day when Patches had been set to
+repairing the meadow pasture fence near the lower corrals.
+
+The Dean, riding out that way to see how his pupil was progressing,
+noticed a particularly cross-tempered shorthorn bull that had wandered
+in from the near-by range to water at the house corral. But Phil and his
+helpers were in possession of the premises near the watering trough, and
+his shorthorn majesty was therefore even more than usual out of patience
+with the whole world. The corrals were between the bull and Patches, so
+that the animal had not noticed the man, and the Dean, chuckling to
+himself, and without attracting Patches' attention, quietly drove the
+ill-tempered beast into the enclosure and shut the gate.
+
+Then, riding around the corral, the Dean called to the young man. When
+Patches stood beside his employer, the cattleman said, "Here's a blamed
+old bull that don't seem to be feelin' very well. I got him into the
+corral all right, but I'm so fat I can't reach him from the saddle. I
+wish you'd just halter him with this rope, so I can lead him up to the
+house and let Phil and the boys see what's wrong with him."
+
+Patches took the rope and started toward the corral gate. "Shall I put
+it around his neck and make a hitch over his nose, like you do a horse?"
+he asked, glad for the opportunity to exhibit his newly acquired
+knowledge of ropes and horses and things.
+
+"No, just tie it around his horns," the Dean answered. "He'll come, all
+right."
+
+The bull, seeing a man on foot at the entrance to his prison, rumbled a
+deep-voiced threat, and pawed the earth with angry strength.
+
+For an instant, Patches, with his hand on the latch of the gate, paused
+to glance from the dangerous-looking animal, that awaited his coming, to
+the Dean who sat on his horse just outside the fence. Then he slipped
+inside the corral and closed the gate behind him. The bull gazed at him
+a moment as if amazed at the audacity of this mere human, then lowered
+his head for the charge.
+
+"Climb that gate, quick," yelled the Dean at the critical moment.
+
+And Patches climbed--not a second too soon.
+
+From his position of safety he smiled cheerfully at the Dean. "He came
+all right, didn't he?"
+
+The Dean's full rounded front and thick shoulders shook with laughter,
+while Señor Bull dared the man on the gate to come down.
+
+"You crazy fool," said the Dean admiringly, when he could speak. "Didn't
+you know any better than to go in there on foot?"
+
+"But you said you wanted him," returned the chagrined Patches.
+
+"What I wanted," chuckled the Dean, "was to see if you had nerve enough
+to tackle him."
+
+"To tell the truth," returned Patches, with a happy laugh, "that's
+exactly what interested me."
+
+But, while the work assigned to Patches during those first days of his
+stay on the Cross-Triangle was chiefly those odd jobs which called for
+little or no experience, his higher education was by no means neglected.
+A wise and gentle old cow-horse was assigned to him, and the Dean taught
+him the various parts of his equipment, their proper use, and how to
+care for them. And every day, sometimes in the morning, sometimes late
+in the afternoon, the master found some errand or business that would
+necessitate his pupil riding with him. When Phil or Mrs. Baldwin would
+inquire about the Dean's kindergarten, as they called it, the Dean would
+laugh with them, but always he would say stoutly, "Just you wait. He'll
+be as near ready for the rodeo this fall as them pupils in that
+kindergarten of Phil's. He takes to ridin' like the good Lord had made
+him specially for that particular job. He's just a natural-born
+horseman, or I don't know men. He's got the sense, he's got the nerve,
+an' he's got the disposition. He's goin' to make a top hand in a few
+months, if"--he always added with twinkling eyes--"he don't get himself
+killed tryin' some fool experiment on himself."
+
+"I notice just the same that he always has plenty of help in his
+experimentin'," Mrs. Baldwin would return dryly, which saying indicted
+not only the Dean but Phil and every man on the Cross-Triangle,
+including Little Billy.
+
+Then came that day when Patches was given a task that--the Dean assured
+him--is one of the duties of even the oldest and best qualified cowboys.
+Patches was assigned to the work of fenceriding. But when the Dean rode
+out with his pupil early that morning to where the drift fence begins at
+the corner of the big pasture, and explained that "riding a fence"
+meant, in ranch language, looking for breaks and repairing any such when
+found, he did not explain the peculiarities of that particular kind of
+fence.
+
+"I told him to be sure and be back by night," he chuckled, as he
+explained Patches' absence at dinner to the other members of the
+household.
+
+"That was downright mean of you, Will Baldwin," chided Stella, with her
+usual motherly interest in the comfort of her boys. "You know the poor
+fellow will lose himself, sure, out in that wild Tailholt Mountain
+country."
+
+The boys laughed.
+
+"We'll find him in the morning, all right, mother," reassured Phil.
+
+"He can follow the fence back, can't he?" retorted the Dean. "Or, as far
+as that goes, old Snip will bring him home."
+
+"If he knows enough to figger it out, or to let Snip have his head,"
+said Curly.
+
+"At any rate," the Dean maintained, "he'll learn somethin' about the
+country, an' he'll learn somethin' about fences, an' mebby he'll learn
+somethin' about horses. An' we'll see whether he can use his own head or
+not. There's nothin' like givin' a man a chance to find out things for
+himself sometimes. Besides, think what a chance he'll have for some of
+his experiments! I'll bet a yearling steer that when we do see him
+again, he'll be tickled to death at himself an' wonderin' how he had the
+nerve to do it."
+
+"To do what?" asked Mrs. Baldwin.
+
+"I don't know what," chuckled the Dean; "but he's bound to do some fool
+thing or other just to see if he can, and it'll be somethin' that nobody
+but him would ever think of doin', too."
+
+But Honorable Patches did not get lost that day--that is, not too badly
+lost. There was a time, though--but that does not belong just here.
+
+Patches was very well pleased with the task assigned to him that
+morning. For the first time he found himself trusted alone with a horse,
+on a mission that would keep him the full day in the saddle, and would
+take him beyond sight of the ranch house. Very bravely he set out,
+equipped with his cowboy regalia--except the riata, which the Dean,
+fearing experiments, had, at the last moment, thoughtfully borrowed--and
+armed with a fencing tool and staples. He was armed, too, with a
+brand-new "six-gun" in a spick and span holster, on a shiny belt of
+bright cartridges. The Dean had insisted on this, alleging that the
+embryo cowboy might want it to kill a sick cow or something.
+
+Patches wondered if he would know a sick cow if he should meet one, or
+how he was to diagnose the case to ascertain if she were sick enough to
+kill.
+
+The first thing he did, when the Dean was safely out of sight, was to
+dismount and examine his saddle girth. Always your real king of the
+cattle range is careful for the foundation of his throne. But there was
+no awkwardness, now, when he again swung to his seat. The young man was
+in reality a natural athlete. His work had already taken the soreness
+and stiffness out of his unaccustomed muscles, and he seemed, as the
+Dean had said, a born horseman. And as he rode, he looked about over the
+surrounding country with an expression on independence, freedom and
+fearlessness very different from the manner of the troubled man who had
+faced Phil Acton that night on the Divide. It was as though the spirit
+of the land was already working its magic within this man, too. He
+patted the holster at his side, felt the handle of the gun, lovingly
+fingered the bright cartridges in his shiny belt, leaned sidewise to
+look admiringly down at his fringed, leather chaps and spur ornamented
+boot heels, and wished for his riata--not forgetting, meanwhile, to scan
+the fence for places that might need his attention.
+
+The guardian angel who cares for the "tenderfoot" was good to Patches
+that day, and favored him with many sagging wires and leaning or broken
+posts, so that he could not ride far. Being painstaking and
+conscientious in his work, he had made not more than four miles by the
+beginning of the afternoon. Then he found a break that would occupy him
+for two hours at least. With rueful eyes he surveyed the long stretch of
+dilapidated fence. It was time, he reflected, that the Dean sent someone
+to look after his property, and dismounting, he went to work,
+forgetting, in his interest in the fencing problem, to insure his
+horse's near-by attendance. Now, the best of cow-horses are not above
+taking advantage of their opportunities. Perhaps Snip felt that
+fenceriding with a tenderfoot was a little beneath the dignity of his
+cattle-punching years. Perhaps he reasoned that this man who was always
+doing such strange things was purposely dismissing him. Perhaps he was
+thinking of the long watering trough and the rich meadow grass at home.
+Or, perhaps again, the wise old Snip, feeling the responsibility of his
+part in training the Dean's pupil, merely thought to give his
+inexperienced master a lesson. However it happened, Patches looked up
+from his work some time later to find himself alone. In consternation,
+he stood looking about, striving to catch a glimpse of the vanished
+Snip. Save a lone buzzard that wheeled in curious circles above his head
+there was no living thing in sight.
+
+As fast as his heavy, leather chaps and high-heeled, spur-ornamented
+boots would permit, he ran to the top of a knoll a hundred yards or so
+away. The wider range of country that came thus within the circle of his
+vision was as empty as it was silent. The buzzard wheeled nearer--the
+strange looking creature beneath it seemed so helpless that there might
+be in the situation something of vital interest to the tribe. Even
+buzzards must be about their business.
+
+There are few things more humiliating to professional riders of the
+range than to be left afoot; and while Patches was far too much a novice
+to have acquired the peculiar and traditional tastes and habits of the
+clan of which he had that morning felt himself a member, he was, in
+this, the equal of the best of them. He thought of himself walking
+shamefaced into the presence of the Dean and reporting the loss of the
+horse. The animal might be recovered, he supposed, for he was still,
+Patches thought, inside the pasture which that fence enclosed. Still
+there was a chance that the runaway would escape through some break and
+never be found. In any case the vision of the grinning cowboys was not
+an attractive one. But at least, thought the amateur cowboy, he would
+finish the work entrusted to him. He might lose a horse for the Dean,
+but the Dean's fence should be repaired. So he set to work with a will,
+and, finishing that particular break, set out on foot to follow the
+fence around the field and so back to the lane that would lead him to
+the buildings and corrals of the home ranch.
+
+For an hour he trudged along, making hard work of it in his chaps,
+boots, and spurs, stopping now and then to drive a staple or brace a
+post. The country was growing wilder and more broken, with cedar timber
+on the ridges and here and there a pine. Occasionally he could catch a
+glimpse of the black, forbidding walls of Tailholt Mountain. But Patches
+did not know that it was Tailholt. He only thought that he knew in which
+direction the home ranch lay. It seemed to him that it was a long, long
+way to the corner of the field--it must be a big pasture, indeed. The
+afternoon was well on when he paused on the summit of another ridge to
+rest. It, seemed to him that he had never in all his life been quite so
+warm. His legs ached. He was tired and thirsty and hungry. It was so
+still that the silence hurt, and that fence corner was nowhere in sight.
+He could not, now reach home before dark, even should he turn back;
+which, he decided grimly, he would not do. He would ride that fence if
+he camped three nights on the journey.
+
+Suddenly he sprang to his feet, waving his hat, hallooing and yelling
+like a madman. Two horsemen were riding on the other side of the fence,
+along the slope of the next ridge, at the edge of the timber. In vain
+Patches strove to attract their attention. If they heard him, they gave
+no sign, and presently he saw them turn, ride in among the cedars, and
+disappear. In desperation he ran along the fence, down the hill, across
+the narrow little valley, and up the ridge over which the riders had
+gone. On the top of the ridge he stopped again, to spend the last of his
+breath in another series of wild shouts. But there was no answer. Nor
+could he be sure, even, which way the horsemen had gone.
+
+Dropping down in the shade of a cedar, exhausted by his strenuous
+exertion, and wet with honest perspiration, he struggled for breath and
+fanned his hot face with his hat. Perhaps he even used some of the
+cowboy words that he had heard Curly and Bob employ when Little Billy
+was not around After the noise of his frantic efforts, the silence was
+more oppressive than ever. The Cross-Triangle ranch house was,
+somewhere, endless miles away.
+
+Then a faint sound in the narrow valley below him caught his ear.
+Turning quickly, he looked back the way he had come. Was he dreaming, or
+was it all just a part of the magic of that wonderful land? A young
+woman was riding toward him--coming at an easy swinging lope--and,
+following, at the end of a riata, was the cheerfully wise and
+philosophic Snip.
+
+Patches' first thought--when he had sufficiently recovered I from his
+amazement to think at all--was that the woman rode as he had never seen
+a woman ride before. Dressed in the divided skirt of corduroy, the
+loose, soft, gray shirt, gauntleted gloves, mannish felt hat, and boots,
+usual to Arizona horsewomen, she seemed as much at ease in the saddle as
+any cowboy in the land; and, indeed, she was.
+
+As she came up the slope, the man in the shade of the cedar saw that she
+was young. Her lithe, beautifully developed body yielded to the movement
+of the spirited horse she rode with the unspoiled grace of health and
+youth. Still nearer, and he saw her clear cheeks glowing with the
+exercise and excitement, her soft, brown hair under the wide brim of the
+gray sombrero, and her dark eyes, shining with the fun of her adventure.
+Then she saw him, and smiled; and Patches remembered what the Dean had
+said: "If there's a man in Yavapai County who wouldn't ride the hoofs
+off the best horse in his outfit to win a smile from Kitty Reid, he
+ought to be lynched."
+
+As the man stood, hat in hand, she checked her horse, and, in a voice
+that matched the smile so full of fun and the clean joy of living
+greeted him.
+
+"You are Mr. Honorable Patches, are you not?"
+
+Patches bowed. "Miss Reid, I believe?"
+
+She frankly looked her surprise. "Why, how did you know me?"
+
+"Your good friend, Mr. Baldwin, described you," he smiled.
+
+She colored and laughed to hide her slight embarrassment. "The dear old
+Dean is prejudiced, I fear."
+
+"Prejudiced he may be," Patches admitted, "but his judgement is
+unquestionable. And," he added gently, as her face grew grave and her
+chin lifted slightly, "his confidence in any man might be considered an
+endorsement, don't you think?"
+
+"Indeed, yes," she agreed heartily, her slight coldness vanishing
+instantly. "The Dean and Stella told me all about you this afternoon, or
+I should not have ventured to introduce myself. I am very pleased to
+meet you, Mr. Patches," she finished with a mock formality that was
+delightful.
+
+"And I am delighted to meet you, Miss Reid, for so many reasons that I
+can't begin to tell you of them," he responded laughing. "And now, may I
+ask what good magic brings you like a fairy in the story book to the
+rescue of a poor stranger in the hour of his despair? Where did you find
+my faithless Snip? How did you know where to find me? Where is the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch? How many miles is it to the nearest water? Is it
+possible for me to get home in time for supper?" Looking down at him she
+laughed as only Kitty Reid could laugh.
+
+"You're making fun of me," he charged; "they all do. And I don't blame
+them in the least; I have been laughing at myself all day."
+
+"I'll answer your last question first," she returned. "Yes, you can
+easily reach the Cross-Triangle in time for supper, if you start at
+once. I will explain the magic as we ride."
+
+"You are going to show me the way?" he cried eagerly, starting toward
+his horse.
+
+"I really think it would be best," she said demurely.
+
+"Now I know you are a good fairy, or a guardian angel, or something like
+that," he returned, setting his foot in the stirrup to mount. Then
+suddenly he paused, with, "Wait a minute, please. I nearly forgot." And
+very carefully he examined the saddle girth to see that it was tight.
+
+"If you had remembered to throw your bridle rein over Snip's head when
+you left him, you wouldn't have needed a guardian angel this time," she
+said.
+
+He looked at her blankly over the patient Snip's back.
+
+"And so that was what made him go away? I knew I had done some silly
+thing that I ought not. That's the only thing about myself that I am
+always perfectly sure of," he added as he mounted. "You see I can always
+depend upon myself to make a fool of myself. It was that bad place in
+the fence that did it." He pulled up his horse suddenly as they were
+starting. "And that reminds me; there is one thing you positively must
+tell me before I can go a foot, even toward supper. How much farther is
+it to the corner of this field?"
+
+She looked at him in pretty amazement. "To the corner of this field?"
+
+"Yes, I knew, of course, that if I followed the fence it was bound to
+lead me around the field and so back to where I started. That's why I
+kept on; I thought I could finish the job and get home, even if Snip did
+compel me to ride the fence on foot."
+
+"But don't you know that this is a drift fence?" she asked, her eyes
+dancing with fun.
+
+"That's what the Dean called it," he admitted. "But if it's drifting
+anywhere, it's going end on. Perhaps that's why I couldn't catch the
+corner."
+
+"But there is no corner to a drift fence," she cried.
+
+"No corner?"
+
+She shook her head as if not trusting herself to speak.
+
+"And it doesn't go around anything--there is no field?" Again she shook
+her head.
+
+"Just runs away out in the country somewhere and stops?"
+
+She nodded. "It must be eighteen or twenty miles from here to the end."
+
+"Well, of all the silly fences!" he exclaimed, looking away to the
+mountain peaks toward which he had been so laboriously making his way.
+"Honestly, now, do you think that is any way for a respectable fence to
+act? And the Dean told me to be sure and get home before dark!"
+
+Then they laughed together--laughed until their horses must have
+wondered.
+
+As they rode on, she explained the purpose of the drift fence, and how
+it came to an end so many miles away and so far from water that the
+cattle do not usually find their way around it.
+
+"And now the magic!" he said. "You have made a most unreasonable,
+unconventional and altogether foolish fence appear reasonable, proper
+and perfectly sane. Please explain your coming with Snip to my relief."
+
+"Which was also unreasonable, unconventional and altogether foolish?"
+she questioned.
+
+"Which was altogether wonderful, unexpected and delightful," he
+retorted.
+
+"It is all perfectly simple," she explained. "Being rather--" She
+hesitated. "Well, rather sick of too much of nothing at all, you know, I
+went over to the Cross-Triangle right after dinner to visit a little
+with Stella--professionally."
+
+"Professionally?" he asked.
+
+She nodded brightly. "For the good of my soul. Stella's a famous soul
+doctor. The best ever except one, and she lives far away--away back east
+in Cleveland, Ohio."
+
+"Yes, I know her, too," he said gravely.
+
+And while they laughed at the absurdity of his assertion, they did not
+know until long afterward how literally true it was.
+
+"Of course, I knew about you," she continued. "Phil told me how you
+tried to ride that unbroken horse, the last time he was at our house.
+Phil thinks you are quite a wonderful man."
+
+"No doubt," said Patches mockingly. "I must have given a remarkable
+exhibition on that occasion." He was wondering just how much Phil had
+told her.
+
+"And so, you see," she continued, "I couldn't very well help being
+interested in the welfare of the stranger who had come among us.
+Besides, our traditional western hospitality demanded it; don't you
+think?"
+
+"Oh, certainly, certainly. You could really do nothing less than inquire
+about me," he agreed politely.
+
+"And so, you see, Stella quite restored my soul health; or at least
+afforded me temporary relief."
+
+He met the quizzing, teasing, laughing look in her eyes blankly. "You
+are making fun of me again," he said humbly. "I know I ought to laugh at
+myself, but--"
+
+"Why, don't you understand?" she cried. "Dr. Stella administered a
+generous dose of talk about the only new thing that has happened in this
+neighborhood for months and months and months."
+
+"Meaning me?" he asked.
+
+"Well, are you not?" she retorted.
+
+"I guess I am," he smiled. "Well, and then what?"
+
+"Why, then I came away, feeling much better, of course."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"I was feeling so much better I decided I would go home a roundabout
+way; perhaps to the top of Black Hill; perhaps up Horse Wash, where I
+might meet father, who would be on his way home from Fair Oaks where he
+went this morning."
+
+"I see."
+
+"Well, so I met Snip, who was on his way to the Cross-Triangle. I knew,
+of course, that old Snip would be your horse." She smiled, as though to
+rob her words of any implied criticism of his horsemanship.
+
+"Exactly," he agreed understandingly.
+
+"And I was afraid that something might have happened; though I couldn't
+see how that could be, either, with Snip. And so I caught him--"
+
+He interrupted eagerly. "How?"
+
+"Why, with my riata," she returned, in a matter-of-fact tone, wondering
+at his question.
+
+"You caught my horse with your riata?" he repeated slowly.
+
+"And pray how should I have caught him?" she asked.
+
+"But--but, didn't he _run_?"
+
+She laughed. "Of course he ran. They all do that once they get away from
+you. But Snip never could outrun my Midnight," she retorted.
+
+He shook his head slowly, looking at her with frank admiration, as
+though, for the first time, he understood what a rare and wonderful
+creature she was.
+
+"And you can ride and rope like that?" he said doubtfully.
+
+She flushed hotly, and there was a spark of fire in the brown eyes. "I
+suppose you are thinking that I am coarse and mannish and all that," she
+said with spirit. "By your standards, Mr. Patches, I should have ridden
+back to the house, screaming, ladylike, for help."
+
+"No, no," he protested. "That's not fair. I was thinking how wonderful
+you are. Why, I would give--what wouldn't I give to be able to do a
+thing like that!"
+
+There was no mistaking his earnestness, and Kitty was all sunshine
+again, pardoning him with a smile.
+
+"You see," she explained, "I have always lived here, except my three
+years at school. Father taught me to use a riata, as he taught me to
+ride and shoot, because--well--because it's all a part of this life, and
+very useful sometimes; just as it is useful to know about hotels and
+time-tables and taxicabs, in that other part of the world."
+
+"I understand," he said gently. "It was stupid of me to notice it. I beg
+your pardon for interrupting the story of my rescue. You had just roped
+Snip while he was doing his best to outrun Midnight--simple and easy as
+calling a taxi--'Number Two Thousand Euclid Avenue, please'--and there
+you are."
+
+"Oh, do you know Cleveland?" she cried.
+
+For an instant he was confused. Then he said easily, "Everybody has
+heard of the famous Euclid Avenue. But how did you guess where Snip had
+left me?"
+
+"Why, Stella had told me that you were riding the drift fence," she
+answered, tactfully ignoring the evasion of her question. "I just
+followed the fence. So there was no magic about it at all, you see."
+
+"I'm not so sure about the magic," he returned slowly.
+
+"This is such a wonderful country--to me--that one can never be quite
+sure about anything. At least, I can't. But perhaps that's because I am
+such a new thing."
+
+"And do you like it?" she asked, frankly curious about him.
+
+"Like being a new thing?" he parried. "Yes and No."
+
+"I mean do you like this wonderful country, as you call it?"
+
+"I admire the people who belong to it tremendously," he returned. "I
+never met such men before--or such women," he finished with a smile.
+
+"But, do you like it?" she persisted. "Do you like the life--your
+work--would you be satisfied to live here always?"
+
+"Yes and No," he answered again, hesitatingly.
+
+"Oh, well," she said, with, he thought, a little bitterness and
+rebellion, "it doesn't really matter to you whether you like it or not,
+because _you_ are a man. If you are not satisfied with your environment,
+you can leave it--go away somewhere else--make yourself a part of some
+other life."
+
+He shook his head, wondering a little at her earnestness. "That does not
+always follow. Can a man, just because he is a man, always have or do
+just what he likes?"
+
+"If he's strong enough," she insisted. "But a woman must always do what
+other people like."
+
+He was sure now that she was speaking rebelliously.
+
+She continued, "Can't you, if you are not satisfied with this life here,
+go away?"
+
+"Yes, but not necessarily to any life I might desire. Perhaps some
+sheriff wants me. Perhaps I am an escaped convict. Perhaps--oh, a
+thousand things."
+
+She laughed aloud in spite of her serious mood. "What nonsense!"
+
+"But, why nonsense? What do you and your friends know of me?"
+
+"We know that you are not that kind of a man," she retorted warmly,
+"because"--she hesitated--"well, because you are _not_ that sort of a
+man."
+
+"Are you sure you don't mean because I am not man enough to make myself
+wanted very badly, even by the sheriff?" he asked, and Kitty could not
+mistake the bitterness in his voice.
+
+"Why, Mr. Patches!" she cried. "How could you think I meant such a
+thing? Forgive me! I was only wondering foolishly what you, a man of
+education and culture, could find in this rough life that would appeal
+to you in any way. My curiosity is unpardonable, I suppose, but you must
+know that we are all wondering why you are here."
+
+"I do not blame you," he returned, with that self-mocking smile, as
+though he were laughing at himself. "I told you I could always be
+depended upon to make a fool of myself. You see I am doing it now. I
+don't mind telling you this much--that I am here for the same reason
+that you went to visit Mrs. Baldwin this afternoon."
+
+"For the good of your soul?" she asked gently.
+
+"Exactly," he returned gravely. "For the good of my soul."
+
+"Well, then, Mr. Honorable Patches, here's to your soul's good health!"
+she cried brightly, checking her horse and holding out her hand. "We
+part here. You can see the Cross-Triangle buildings yonder. I go this
+way."
+
+He looked his pleasure, as he clasped her hand in hearty understanding
+of the friendship offered.
+
+"Thank you, Miss Reid. I still maintain that the Dean's judgment is
+unquestionable."
+
+She was not at all displeased with his reply.
+
+"By the way," she said, as if to prove her friendship. "I suppose you
+know what to expect from Uncle Will and the boys when they learn of your
+little adventure?"
+
+"I do," he answered, as if resigned to anything.
+
+"And do you enjoy making fun for them?"
+
+"I assure you, Miss Reid, I am very human."
+
+"Well, then, why don't you turn the laugh on them?"
+
+"But how?"
+
+"They are expecting you to get into some sort of a scrape, don't you
+think?"
+
+"They are always expecting that. And," he added, with that droll touch
+in his voice, "I must say I rarely disappoint them."
+
+"I suspect," she continued, thoughtfully, "that the Dean purposely did
+not explain that drift fence to you."
+
+"He has established precedents that would justify my thinking so, I'll
+admit."
+
+"Well, then, why don't you ride cheerfully home and report the progress
+of your work as though nothing had happened?"
+
+"You mean that you won't tell?" he cried.
+
+She nodded gaily. "I told them this afternoon that it wasn't fair for
+you to have no one but Stella on your side."
+
+"What a good Samaritan you are! You put me under an everlasting
+obligation to you."
+
+"All right," she laughed. "I'm glad you feel that way about it. I shall
+hold that debt against you until some day when I am in dreadful need,
+and then I shall demand payment in full. Good-by!"
+
+And once again Kitty had spoken, in jest, words that held for them both,
+had they but known, great significance.
+
+Patches watched until she was out of sight. Then he made his way
+happily to the house to receive, with a guilty conscience but with a
+light heart, congratulations and compliments upon his safe return.
+
+That evening Phil disappeared somewhere, in the twilight. And a little
+later Jim Reid rode into the Cross-Triangle dooryard.
+
+The owner of the Pot-Hook-S was a big man, tall and heavy, outspoken and
+somewhat gruff, with a manner that to strangers often seemed near to
+overbearing. When Patches was introduced, the big cattleman looked him
+over suspiciously, spoke a short word in response to Patches'
+commonplace, and abruptly turned his back to converse with the
+better-known members of the household.
+
+For an hour, perhaps, they chatted about matters of general interest, as
+neighbors will; then the caller arose to go, and the Dean walked with
+him to his horse. When the two men were out of hearing of the people on
+the porch Reid asked in a low voice, "Noticed any stock that didn't look
+right lately, Will?"
+
+"No. You see, we haven't been ridin' scarcely any since the Fourth. Phil
+and the boys have been busy with the horses every day, an' this new man
+don't count, you know."
+
+"Who is he, anyway?" asked Reid bluntly.
+
+"I don't know any more than that he says his name is Patches."
+
+"Funny name," grunted Jim.
+
+"Yes, but there's a lot of funny names, Jim," the Dean answered quietly.
+"I don't know as Patches is any funnier than Skinner or Foote or Hogg,
+or a hundred other names, when you come to think about it. We ain't
+just never happened to hear it before, that's all."
+
+"Where did you pick him up?"
+
+"He just came along an' wanted work. He's green as they make 'em, but
+willin', an' he's got good sense, too."
+
+"I'd go slow 'bout takin' strangers in," said the big man bluntly.
+
+"Shucks!" retorted the Dean. "Some of the best men I ever had was
+strangers when I hired 'em. Bein' a stranger ain't nothin' against a
+man. You and me would be strangers if we was to go many miles from
+Williamson Valley. Patches is a good man, I tell you. I'll stand for
+him, all right. Why, he's been out all day, alone, ridin' the drift
+fence, just as good any old-timer."
+
+"The drift fence!"
+
+"Yes, it's in pretty bad shape in places."
+
+"Yes, an' I ran onto a calf over in Horse Wash, this afternoon, not four
+hundred yards from the fence on the Tailholt side, fresh-branded with
+the Tailholt iron, an' I'll bet a thousand dollars it belongs to a
+Cross-Triangle cow."
+
+"What makes you think it was mine?" asked the Dean calmly.
+
+"Because it looked mighty like some of your Hereford stock, an' because
+I came on through the Horse Wash gate, an' about a half mile on this
+side, I found one of your cows that had just lost her calf."
+
+"They know we're busy an' ain't ridin' much, I reckon," mused the Dean.
+
+"If I was you, I'd put some hand that I knew to ridin' that drift
+fence," returned Jim significantly, as he mounted his horse to go.
+
+"You're plumb wrong, Jim," returned the Dean earnestly. "Why, the man
+don't know a Cross-Triangle from a Five-Bar, or a Pot-Hook-S."
+
+"It's your business, Will; I just thought I'd tell you," growled Reid.
+"Good-night!"
+
+"Good-night, Jim! I'm much obliged to you for ridin' over."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THINGS THAT ENDURE.
+
+
+When Kitty Reid told Patches that it was her soul sickness, from too
+much of nothing at all, that had sent her to visit Mrs. Baldwin that
+afternoon, she had spoken more in earnest than in jest. More than this,
+she had gone to the Cross-Triangle hoping to meet the stranger, of whom
+she had heard so much. Phil had told Kitty that she would like Patches.
+As Phil had put it, the man spoke her language; he could talk to her of
+people and books and those things of which the Williamson Valley folk
+knew so little.
+
+But as she rode slowly homeward after leaving Patches, she found herself
+of two minds regarding the incident. She had enjoyed meeting the man; he
+had interested and amused her; had taken her out of herself, for she was
+not slow to recognize that the man really did belong to that world which
+was so far from the world of her childhood. And she was glad for the
+little adventure that, for one afternoon, at least, had broken the dull,
+wearying monotony of her daily life. But the stranger, by the very fact
+of his belonging to that other world, had stimulated her desire for
+those things which in her home life and environment she so greatly
+missed. He had somehow seemed to magnify the almost unbearable
+commonplace narrowness of her daily routine. He had made her even more
+restless, disturbed and dissatisfied. It had been to her as when one in
+some foreign country meets a citizen from one's old home town. And for
+this Kitty was genuinely sorry. She did not wish to feel as she did
+about her home and the things that made the world of those she loved.
+She had tried honestly to still the unrest and to deny the longing. She
+had wished many times, since her return from the East, that she had
+never left her home for those three years in school. And yet, those
+years had meant much to her; they had been wonderful years; but they
+seemed, somehow--now that they were past and she was home again--to have
+brought her only that unrest and longing.
+
+From the beginning of her years until that first great crisis in her
+life--her going away to school--this world into which she was born had
+been to Kitty an all-sufficient world. The days of her childhood had
+been as carefree and joyous, almost, as the days of the young things of
+her father's roaming herds. As her girlhood years advanced, under her
+mother's wise companionship and careful teaching, she had grown into her
+share of the household duties and into a knowledge of woman's part in
+the life to which she belonged, as naturally as her girlish form had put
+on the graces of young womanhood. The things that filled the days of her
+father and mother, and the days of her neighbors and friends, had filled
+her days. The things that were all in all to those she loved had been
+all in all to her. And always, through those years, from her earliest
+childhood to her young womanhood, there was Phil, her playmate,
+schoolmate, protector, hero, slave. That Phil should be her boy
+sweetheart and young man lover had seemed as natural to Kitty as her
+relation to her parents. There had never been anyone else but Phil.
+There never could be--she was sure, in those days--anyone else.
+
+In Kitty's heart that afternoon, as she rode, so indifferent to the life
+that called from every bush and tree and grassy hill and distant
+mountain, there was sweet regret, deep and sincere, for those years that
+were now, to her, so irrevocably gone. Kitty did not know how impossible
+it was for her to ever wholly escape the things that belonged to her
+childhood and youth. Those things of her girlhood, out of which her
+heart and soul had been fashioned, were as interwoven in the fabric of
+her being as the vitality, strength and purity of the clean, wholesome,
+outdoor life of those same years were wrought into the glowing health
+and vigor and beauty of her physical womanhood.
+
+And then had come those other years--the maturing, ripening years--when,
+from the simple, primitive and enduring elements of life, she had gone
+to live amid complex, cultivated and largely fanciful standards and
+values. In that land of Kitty's birth a man is measured by the measure
+of his manhood; a woman is ranked by the quality of her womanhood.
+Strength and courage, sincerity, honesty, usefulness--these were the
+prime essentials of the man life that Kitty had, in those years of her
+girlhood, known; and these, too, in their feminine expressions, were the
+essentials of the woman life. But from these the young woman had gone
+to be educated in a world where other things are of first importance.
+She had gone to be taught that these are not the essential elements of
+manhood and womanhood. Or, at least, if she was not to be deliberately
+so taught, these things would be so ignored and neglected and overlooked
+in her training, that the effect on her character would be the same. In
+that new world she was to learn that men and women are not to be
+measured by the standards of manhood and womanhood--that they were to be
+rated, not for strength, but for culture; not for courage, but for
+intellectual cleverness; not for sincerity, but for manners; not for
+honesty, but for success; not for usefulness, but for social position,
+which is most often determined by the degree of uselessness. It was as
+though the handler of gems were to attach no value whatever to the
+weight of the diamond itself, but to fix the worth of the stone wholly
+by the cutting and polish that the crystal might receive.
+
+At first, Kitty had been excited, bewildered and fascinated by the
+glittering, sparkling, ever-changing, many-faceted life. Then she had
+grown weary and homesick. And then, as the months had passed, and she
+had been drawn more and more by association and environment into the
+world of down-to-dateism she, too, began to regard the sparkle of the
+diamond as the determining factor in the value of the gem. And when the
+young woman had achieved this, they called her education finished, and
+sent her back to the land over which Granite Mountain, gray and grim and
+fortress-like, with its ranks of sentinel bills? keeps enduring and
+unchanging watch.
+
+During those first glad days of Kitty's homecoming she had been eagerly
+interested in everything. The trivial bits of news about the small
+doings of her old friends had been delightful. The home life, with its
+simple routine and its sweet companionship, had been restful and
+satisfying. The very scenes of her girlhood had seemed to welcome her
+with a spirit of genuineness and steadfastness that had made her feel as
+one entering a safe home harbor after a long and adventurous voyage to
+far-away and little-known lands. And Phil, in the virile strength of his
+manhood, in the simple bigness of his character, and in his enduring and
+unchanging love, had made her feel his likeness to the primitive land of
+his birth.
+
+But when the glad excitement of those first days of her return were
+past, when the meetings with old friends were over and the tales of
+their doings exhausted, then Kitty began to realize what her education,
+as they called it, really meant. The lessons of those three years were
+not to be erased from her life as one would erase a mistake in a problem
+or a misspelled word. The tastes, habits of thought and standards of
+life, the acquirement of which constituted her culture, would not be
+denied. It was inevitable that there should be a clash between the
+claims of her home life and the claims of that life to which she now
+felt that she also belonged.
+
+However odious comparisons may be, they are many times inevitable.
+Loyally, Kitty tried to magnify the worth of those things that in her
+girlhood had been the supreme things in her life, but, try as she might,
+they were now, in comparison with those things which her culture placed
+first, of trivial importance. The virile strength and glowing health of
+Phil's unspoiled manhood--beautiful as the vigorous life of one of the
+wild horses from which he had his nickname--were overshadowed, now, by
+the young man's inability to clothe his splendid body in that fashion
+which her culture demanded. His simple and primitive views of life--as
+natural as the instinct which governs all creatures in his
+God-cultivated world--were now unrefined, ignoble, inelegant. His fine
+nature and unembarrassed intelligence, which found in the wealth of
+realities amid which he lived abundant food for his intellectual life,
+and which enabled him to see clearly, observe closely and think with
+such clean-cut directness, beside the intellectuality of those schooled
+in the thoughts of others, appeared as ignorance and illiteracy. The
+very fineness and gentleness of his nature were now the distinguishing
+marks of an uncouth and awkward rustic.
+
+With all her woman heart Kitty had fought against these comparisons--and
+continued to make them. Everything in her nature that belonged to
+Granite Mountain--that was, in short, the product of that land--answered
+to Phil's call, as instinctively as the life of that land calls and
+answers Its mating calls. Everything that she had acquired in those
+three years of a more advanced civilization denied and repulsed him. And
+now her meeting with Patches had stirred the warring forces to renewed
+activity, and in the distracting turmoil of her thoughts she found
+herself hating the land she loved, loathing the life that appealed to
+her with such insistent power, despising those whom she so dearly
+esteemed and honored, and denying the affection of which she was proud
+with a true woman's tender pride.
+
+Kitty was aroused from her absorption by the shrill boyish yells of her
+two younger brothers, who, catching sight of their sister from the top
+of one of the low hills that edge the meadow bottom lands, were charging
+recklessly down upon her.
+
+As the clatter and rumble of those eight flying hoofs drew nearer and
+nearer, Midnight, too, "came alive," as the cowboys say, and tossed his
+head and pranced with eager impatience.
+
+"Where in the world have you been all the afternoon?" demanded Jimmy,
+with twelve-year-old authority, as his pony slid to a halt within a foot
+or two of his sister's horse.
+
+And, "We wanted you to go with us, to see our coyote traps," reproved
+Conny--two years younger than his brother--as his pinto executed a like
+maneuver on the other side of the excited Midnight.
+
+"And where is Jack?" asked the young woman mischievously, as she
+smilingly welcomed the vigorous lads.
+
+"Couldn't he help?"
+
+Jack was the other member of the Reid trio of boys--a lusty
+four-year-old who felt himself equal to any venture that interested his
+brothers.
+
+Jimmy grinned. "Aw, mama coaxed him into the kitchen with something to
+eat while me and Conny sneaked down to the corral and saddled up and
+beat it."
+
+Big sister's dark eyebrows arched in shocked inquiry, "_Me_ and Conny?"
+
+"That is, Conny and I," amended Jimmy, with good-natured tolerance of
+his sister's whims.
+
+"You see, Kitty," put in Conny, "this hero coyote traps pin' ain't just
+fun. It's business. Dad's promised us three dollars for every scalp, an'
+we're aimin' to make a stake. We didn't git a blamed thing, to-day,
+though."
+
+Sister's painful and despairing expression was blissfully ignored as
+Jimmy stealthily flicked the long romal at the end of his bridle reins
+against Midnight's flank.
+
+"Gee!" observed the tickled youngster, as Kitty gave all her attention
+to restraining the fretting and indignant horse, "ol' Midnight is sure
+some festive, ain't he?"
+
+"I'll race you both to the big gate," challenged Kitty.
+
+"For how much?" demanded Jimmy quickly.
+
+"You got to give us fifty yards start," declared Conny, leaning forward
+in his saddle and shortening his reins.
+
+"If I win, you boys go straight to bed to-night, when it's time, without
+fussing," said Kitty, "and I'll give you to that oak bush yonder."
+
+"Good enough! You're on!" they shouted in chorus, and loped away.
+
+As they passed the handicap mark, another shrill, defiant yell came
+floating back to where Kitty sat reining in her impatient Midnight. At
+the signal, the two ponies leaped from a lope into a full run, while
+Kitty loosed the restraining rein and the black horse stretched away in
+pursuit. Spurs ring, shouting, entreating, the two lads urged their
+sturdy mounts toward the goal, and the pintos answered gamely with all
+that they had. Over knolls and washes, across arroyos and gullies they
+flew, sure-footed and eager, neck and neck, while behind them, drawing
+nearer and nearer, came the black, with body low, head outstretched and
+limbs that moved apparently with the timed regularity and driving power
+of a locomotive's piston rod. As she passed them, Kitty shouted a merry
+"Come on!" which they answered with redoubled exertion and another yell
+of hearty boyish admiration for the victorious Midnight and his
+beautiful rider.
+
+"Doggone that black streak!" exclaimed Jimmy, his eyes dancing with fun
+as they pulled up at the corral gate.
+
+"He opens and shuts like a blamed ol' jack rabbit," commented Conny.
+"Seemed like we was just a-sittin' still watchin' you go by."
+
+Kitty laughed, teasingly, and unconsciously slipped into the vernacular
+as she returned, "Did you kids think you were a-horseback?"
+
+"You just wait, Miss," retorted the grinning Jimmy, as he opened the big
+gate. "I'll get a horse some day that'll run circles around that ol'
+black scound'el."
+
+And then, as they dismounted at the door of the saddle room in the big
+barn, he added generously, "You scoot on up to the house, Kitty; I'll
+take care of Midnight. It must be gettin' near supper time, an' I'm
+hungry enough to eat a raw dog."
+
+At which alarming statement Kitty promptly scooted, stopping only long
+enough at the windmill pump for a cool, refreshing drink.
+
+Mrs. Reid, with sturdy little Jack helping, was already busy in the
+kitchen. She was a motherly woman, rather below Kitty's height, and
+inclined somewhat to a comfortable stoutness. In her face was the gentle
+strength and patience of those whose years have been spent in
+home-making, without the hardness that is sometimes seen in the faces of
+those whose love is not great enough to soften their tail. One knew by
+the light in her eyes whenever she spoke of Kitty, or, indeed, whenever
+the girl's name was mentioned, how large a place her only daughter held
+in her mother heart.
+
+While the two worked together at their homely task, the girl related in
+trivial detail the news of the neighborhood, and repeated faithfully the
+talk she had had with the mistress of the Cross-Triangle, answering all
+her mother's questions, replying with careful interest to the older
+woman's comments, relating all that was known or guessed, or observed
+regarding the stranger. But of her meeting with Patches, Kitty said
+little; only that she had met him as she was coming home. All during the
+evening meal, too, Patches was the principal topic of the conversation,
+though Mr. Reid, who had arrived home just in time for supper, said
+little.
+
+When supper was over, and the evening work finished, Kitty sat on the
+porch in the twilight, looking away across the wide valley meadows,
+toward the light that shone where the walnut trees about the
+Cross-Triangle ranch house made a darker mass in the gathering gloom.
+Her father had gone to call upon the Dean. The men were at the
+bunk-house, from which their voices came low and indistinct. Within the
+house the mother was coaxing little Jack to bed. Jimmy and Conny, at the
+farther end of the porch, were planning an extensive campaign against
+coyotes, and investing the unearned profits of their proposed industry.
+
+Kitty's thoughts were many miles away. In that bright and stirring
+life--so far from the gloomy stillness of her home land, where she sat
+so alone--what gay pleasures held her friends? Amid what brilliant
+scenes were they spending the evening, while she sat in her dark and
+silent world alone? As her memory pictured the lights, the stirring
+movement, the music, the merry-voiced talk, the laughter, the gaiety,
+the excitement, the companionship of those whose lives were so full of
+interest, her heart rebelled at the dull emptiness of her days. As she
+watched the evening dusk deepen into the darkness of the night, and the
+outlines of the familiar landscape fade and vanish in the thickening
+gloom, she felt the dreary monotony of the days and years that were to
+come, blotting out of her life all tone and color and forms of
+brightness and beauty.
+
+Then she saw, slowly emerging from the shadows of the meadow below, a
+darker shadow--mysterious, formless--that seemed, as it approached, to
+shape itself out of the very darkness through which it came, until,
+still dim and indistinct, a horseman was opening the meadow gate. Before
+the cowboy answered Jimmy's boyish "Hello!" Kitty knew that it was Phil.
+
+The young woman's first impulse was to retreat to the safe seclusion of
+her own room. But, even as she arose to her feet, she knew how that
+would hurt the man who had always been so good to her; and so she went
+generously down the walk to meet him where he would dismount and leave
+his horse.
+
+"Did you see father?" she asked, thinking as she spoke how little there
+was for them to talk about.
+
+"Why, no. What's the matter?" he returned quickly, pausing as if ready
+to ride again at her word.
+
+She laughed a little at his manner. "There is nothing the matter. He
+just went over to see the Dean, that's all."
+
+"I must have missed him crossing the meadow," returned Phil. "He always
+goes around by the road."
+
+Then, when he stood beside her, he added gently, "But there is something
+the matter, Kitty. What is it? Lonesome for the bright lights?"
+
+That was always Phil's way, she thought. He seemed always to know
+instinctively her every mood and wish.
+
+"Perhaps I was a little lonely," she admitted. "I am glad that you
+came."
+
+Then they were at the porch, and her ambitious brothers were telling
+Phil in detail their all-absorbing designs against the peace of the
+coyote tribe, and asking his advice. Mrs. Reid came to sit with them
+a-while, and again the talk followed around the narrow circle of their
+lives, until Kitty felt that she could bear no more. Then Mrs. Reid,
+more merciful than she knew, sent the boys to bed and retired to her own
+room.
+
+"And so you are tired of us all, and want to go back," mused Phil,
+breaking one of the long, silent periods that in these days seemed so
+often to fall upon them when they found themselves alone.
+
+"That's not quite fair, Phil," she returned gently. "You know it's not
+that."
+
+"Well, then, tired of this"--his gesture indicated the sweep of the
+wide land--"tired of what we are and what we do?"
+
+The girl stirred uneasily, but did not speak.
+
+"I don't blame you," he continued, as if thinking aloud. "It must seem
+mighty empty to those who don't really know it."
+
+"And don't I know it?" challenged Kitty. "You seem to forget that I was
+born here--that I have lived here almost as many years as you."
+
+"But just the same you don't know," returned Phil gently. "You see,
+dear, you knew it as a girl, the same as I did when I was a boy. But
+now--well, I know it as a man, and you as a woman know something that
+you think is very different."
+
+Again that long silence lay a barrier between them. Then Kitty made the
+effort, hesitatingly. "Do you love the life so very, very much, Phil?"
+
+He answered quickly. "Yes, but I could love any life that suited you."
+
+"No--no," she returned hurriedly, "that's not--I mean--Phil, why are you
+so satisfied here? There is so little for a man like you."
+
+"So little!" His voice told her that her words had stung. "I told you
+that you did not know. Why, everything that a man has a right to want is
+here. All that life can give anywhere is here--I mean all of life that
+is worth having. But I suppose," he finished lamely, "that it's hard for
+you to see it that way--now. It's like trying to make a city man
+understand why a fellow is never lonesome just because there's no crowd
+around. I guess I love this life and am satisfied with it just as the
+wild horses over there at the foot of old Granite love it and are
+satisfied."
+
+"But don't you feel, sometimes, that if you had greater
+opportunities--don't you sometimes wish that you could live where--" She
+paused at a loss for words. Phil somehow always made the things she
+craved seem so trivial.
+
+"I know what you mean," he answered. "You mean, don't the wild horses
+wish that they could live in a fine stable, and have a lot of men to
+feed and take care of them, and rig them out with fancy, gold-mounted
+harness, and let them prance down the streets for the crowds to see? No;
+horses have more sense than that. It takes a human to make that kind of
+a fool of himself. There's only one thing in the world that would make
+me want to try it, and I guess you know what that is."
+
+His last words robbed his answer of its sting, and she said gently, "You
+are bitter to-night, Phil. It is not like you."
+
+He did not answer.
+
+"Did something go wrong to-day?" she persisted.
+
+He turned suddenly to face her, and spoke with a passion unusual to him.
+"I saw you at the ranch this afternoon--as you were riding away. You did
+not even look toward the corral where you knew I was at work; and it
+seemed like all the heart went clear out of me. Oh, Kitty, girl, can't
+we bring back the old days as they were before you went away?"
+
+"Hush, Phil," she said, almost as she would have spoken to one of her
+boy brothers.
+
+But he went on recklessly. "No, I'm going to speak to-night. Ever since
+you came home you have refused to listen to me--you have put me
+off--made me keep still. I want you to tell me, Kitty, if I were like
+Honorable Patches, would it make any difference?"
+
+"I do not know Mr. Patches," she answered.
+
+"You met him to-day; and you know what I mean. Would it make any
+difference if I were like him?"
+
+"Why, Phil, dear, how can I answer such a question? I do not know."
+
+"Then it's not because I belong here in this country instead of back
+East in some city that has made you change?"
+
+"I have changed, I suppose, because I have become a woman, Phil, as you
+have become a man."
+
+"Yes, I have become a man," he returned, "but I have not changed, except
+that the boy's love has become a man's love. Would it make any
+difference, Kitty, if you cared more for the life here--I mean if you
+were contented here--if these things that mean so much to us all,
+satisfied you?"
+
+Again she answered, "I do not know, Phil. How can I know?"
+
+"Will you try, Kitty--I mean try to like your old home as you used to
+like it?"
+
+"Oh, Phil, I have tried. I do try," she cried. "But I don't think it's
+the life that I like or do not like that makes the difference. I am
+sure, Phil, that if I could"--she hesitated, then went on bravely--"if I
+could give you the love you want, nothing else would matter. You said
+you could like any life that suited me. Don't you think that I could be
+satisfied with any life that suited the man I loved?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "you could; and that's the answer."
+
+"What is the answer?" she asked.
+
+"Love, just love, Kitty--any place with love is a good place, and
+without love no life can satisfy. I am glad you said that. It was what I
+wanted you to say. I know now what I have to do. I am like Patches. I
+have found my job." There was no bitterness in his voice now.
+
+The girl was deeply moved, but--"I don't think I quite understand,
+Phil," she said.
+
+"Why, don't you see?" he returned. "My job is to win your love--to make
+you love me--for myself--for just what I am--as a man--and not to try to
+be something or to live some way that I think you would like. It's the
+man that you must love, and not what he does or where he lives. Isn't
+that it?"
+
+"Yes," she answered slowly. "I am sure that is so. It must be so, Phil."
+
+He rose to his feet abruptly. "All right," he said, almost roughly.
+"I'll go now. But don't make any mistake, Kitty. You're mine, girl,
+mine, by laws that are higher than the things they taught you at school.
+And you are going to find it out. I am going to win you--just as the
+wild things out there win their mates. You are going to come to me,
+girl, because you are mine--because you are my mate."
+
+And then, as she, too, arose, and they stood for a silent moment facing
+each other, the woman felt his strength, and in her woman heart was
+glad--glad and proud, though she could not give all that he asked.
+
+As she watched him ride away into the night, and the soft mystery of the
+darkness out of which he had come seemed to take his shadowy form again
+to itself, she wondered--wondered with regret in the thought--would he,
+perhaps, go thus out of her life? Would he?
+
+When Phil turned his horse into the meadow pasture at home the big bay,
+from somewhere in the darkness, trumpeted his challenge. A low laugh
+came from near by, and in the light of the stars Phil saw a man standing
+by the pasture fence. As he went toward the shadowy figure the voice of
+Patches followed the laugh.
+
+"I'll bet that was Stranger."
+
+"I know it was," answered Phil. "What's the matter that you're not in
+bed?"
+
+"Oh, I was just listening to the horses out there, and thinking,"
+returned Patches.
+
+"Thinking about your job?" asked Phil quietly.
+
+"Perhaps," admitted the other.
+
+"Well, you have no reason to worry; you'll ride him all right," said the
+cowboy.
+
+"I wish I could be as sure," the other returned doubt fully.
+
+And they both knew that they were using the big bay horse as a symbol.
+
+"And I wish I was as sure of making good at my job, as I am that you
+will win out with yours," returned Phil.
+
+Patches' voice was very kind as he said reflectively, "So, you have a
+job, too. I am glad for that."
+
+"Glad?"
+
+"Yes," the tall man placed a hand on the other's shoulder as they turned
+to walk toward the house, "because, Phil, I have come to the conclusion
+that this old world is a mighty empty place for the man who has nothing
+to do."
+
+"But there seems to be a lot of fellows who manage to keep fairly busy
+doing nothing, just the same, don't you think?" replied Phil with a low
+laugh.
+
+"I said _man_'," retorted Patches, with emphasis.
+
+"That's right," agreed Phil. "A man just naturally requires a man's
+job."
+
+"And," mused Patches, "when it's all said and done, I suppose there's
+only one genuine, simon-pure, full-sized man's job in the world."
+
+"And I reckon that's right, too," returned the cowboy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CONCERNING BRANDS.
+
+
+A few days after Jim Reid's evening visit to the Dean two cowboys from
+the Diamond-and-a-Half outfit, on their way to Cherry Creek, stopped at
+the ranch for dinner.
+
+The well-known, open-handed Baldwin hospitality led many a passing rider
+thus aside from the main valley road and through the long meadow lane to
+the Cross-Triangle table. Always there was good food for man and horse,
+with a bed for those who came late in the day; and always there was a
+hearty welcome and talk under the walnut trees with the Dean. And in all
+that broad land there was scarce a cowboy who, when riding the range,
+would not look out for the Dean's cattle with almost the same interest
+and care that he gave to the animals bearing the brand of his own
+employer.
+
+So it was that these riders from the Tonto Flats country told the Dean
+that in looking over the Cross-Triangle cattle watering at Toohey they
+had seen several cases of screwworms.
+
+"We doped a couple of the worst, and branded a calf for you," said
+"Shorty" Myers.
+
+And his companion, Bert Wilson, added, as though apologizing, "We
+couldn't stop any longer because we got to make it over to Wheeler's
+before mornin'."
+
+"Much obliged, boys," returned the Dean. Then, with his ever-ready jest,
+"Sure you put the right brand on that calf?"
+
+"We-all ain't ridin' for no Tailholt Mountain outfit this season,"
+retorted Bert dryly, as they all laughed at the Dean's question.
+
+And at the cowboy's words Patches, wondering, saw the laughing faces
+change and looks of grim significance flash from man to man.
+
+"Anybody seen anything over your way lately?" asked the Dean quietly.
+
+In the moment of silence that followed the visitors looked questioningly
+from the face of Patches to the Dean and then to Phil. Phil smiled his
+endorsement of the stranger, and "Shorty" said, "We found a couple of
+fresh-branded calves what didn't seem to have no mothers last week, and
+Bud Stillwell says some things look kind o' funny over in the D.1
+neighborhood."
+
+Another significant silence followed. To Patches, it seemed as the
+brooding hush that often precedes a storm. He had not missed those
+questioning looks of the visitors, and had seen Phil's smiling
+endorsement, but he could not, of course, understand. He could only
+wonder and wait, for he felt intuitively that he must not speak. It was
+as though these strong men who had received him so generously into
+their lives put him, now, outside their circle, while they considered
+business of grave moment to themselves.
+
+"Well, boys," said the Dean, as if to dismiss the subject, "I've been in
+this cow business a good many years, now, an' I've seen all kinds of men
+come an' go, but I ain't never seen the man yet that could get ahead
+very far without payin' for what he got. Some time, one way or another,
+whether he's so minded or not, a man's just naturally got to pay."
+
+"That law is not peculiar to the cattle business, either, is it, Mr.
+Baldwin?" The words came from Patches, and as they saw his face, it was
+their turn to wonder.
+
+The Dean looked straight into the dark eyes that were so filled with
+painful memories, and wistful desire. "Sir?"
+
+"I mean," said Patches, embarrassed, as though he had spoken
+involuntarily, "that what you say applies to those who live idly--doing
+no useful work whatever--as well as to those who are dishonest in
+business of any kind, or who deliberately steal outright. Don't you
+think so?"
+
+The Dean--his eyes still fixed on the face of the new man--answered
+slowly, "I reckon that's so, Patches. When you come to think about it,
+it _must_ be so. One way or another every man that takes what he ain't
+earned has to pay for it."
+
+"Who is he?" asked the visitors of Curly and Bob, as they went for their
+horses, when the meal was over.
+
+The Cross-Triangle men shook their heads.
+
+"Just blew in one day, and the Dean hired him," said Bob.
+
+"But he's the handiest man with his fists that's ever been in this neck
+of the woods. If you don't believe it, just you start something," added
+Curly with enthusiasm.
+
+"Found it out, did you?" laughed Bert.
+
+"In something less than a minute," admitted Curly.
+
+"Funny name!" mused "Shorty."
+
+Bob grinned. "That's what Curly thought--at first."
+
+"And then he took another think, huh?"
+
+"Yep," agreed Curly, "he sure carries the proper credentials to make any
+name that he wants to wear good enough for me."
+
+The visitors mounted their horses, and sat looking appraisingly at the
+tall figure of Honorable Patches, as that gentleman passed them at a
+little distance, on his way to the barn.
+
+"Mebby you're right," admitted "Shorty," "but he sure talks like a
+schoolmarm, don't he?"
+
+"He sure ain't no puncher," commented Bert.
+
+"No, but I'm gamblin' that he's goin' to be," retorted Curly, ignoring
+the reference to Patches' culture.
+
+"Me, too," agreed Bob.
+
+"Well, we'll all try him out this fall rodeo"; and "better not let him
+drift far from the home ranch for a while," laughed the visitors. "So
+long!" and they were away.
+
+Before breakfast the next morning Phil said to Patches, "Catch up Snip,
+and give him a feed of grain. You'll ride with me to-day."
+
+At Patches' look of surprise he explained laughingly, "I'm going to give
+my school a little vacation, and Uncle Will thinks it's time you were
+out of the kindergarten."
+
+Later, as they were crossing the big pasture toward the country that
+lies to the south, the foreman volunteered the further information that
+for the next few weeks they would ride the range.
+
+"May I ask what for?" said Patches, encouraged by the cowboy's manner.
+
+It was one of the man's peculiarities that he rarely entered into the
+talk of his new friends when their work was the topic of conversation.
+And he never asked questions except when alone with Phil or the Dean,
+and then only when led on by them. It was not that he sought to hide his
+ignorance, for he made no pretenses whatever, but his reticence seemed,
+rather, the result of a curious feeling of shame that he had so little
+in common with these men whose lives were so filled with useful labor.
+And this, if he had known, was one of the things that made them like
+him. Men who live in such close daily touch with the primitive realities
+of life, and who thereby acquire a simple directness, with a certain
+native modesty, have no place in their hearts for--to use their own
+picturesque vernacular--a "four-flusher."
+
+Phil tactfully did not even smile at the question, but answered in a
+matter-of-fact tone. "To look out for screw-worms, brand a calf here
+and there, keep the water holes open, and look out for the stock
+generally."
+
+"And you mean," questioned Patches doubtfully, "that _I_ am to ride with
+you?"
+
+"Sure. You see, Uncle Will thinks you are too good a man to waste on the
+odd jobs around the place, and so I'm going to get you in shape for the
+rodeo this fall."
+
+The effect of his words was peculiar. A deep red colored Patches' face,
+and his eyes shone with a glad light, as he faced his companion. "And
+you--what do you think about it, Phil?" he demanded.
+
+The cowboy laughed at the man's eagerness. "Me? Oh, I think just as I
+have thought all the time--ever since you asked for a job that day in
+the corral."
+
+Patches drew a long breath, and, sitting very straight in the saddle,
+looked away toward Granite Mountain; while Phil, watching him curiously,
+felt something like kindly pity in his heart for this man who seemed to
+hunger so for a man's work, and a place among men.
+
+Just outside the Deep Wash gate of the big pasture, a few cattle were
+grazing in the open flat. As the men rode toward them, Phil took down
+his riata while Patches watched him questioningly.
+
+"We may as well begin right here," said the cowboy. "Do you see anything
+peculiar about anything in that bunch?"
+
+Patches studied the cattle in vain.
+
+"What about that calf yonder?" suggested Phil, leisurely opening the
+loop of his rope. "I mean that six-months youngster with the white
+face."
+
+Still Patches hesitated.
+
+Phil helped him again. "Look at his ears."
+
+"They're not marked," exclaimed Patches.
+
+"And what should they be marked?" asked the teacher.
+
+"Under-bit right and a split left, if he belongs to the
+Cross-Triangle," returned the pupil proudly, and in the same breath he
+exclaimed, "He is not branded either."
+
+Phil smiled approval. "That's right, and we'll just fix him now, before
+somebody else beats us to him." He moved his horse slowly toward the
+cattle as he spoke.
+
+"But," exclaimed Patches, "how do you know that he belongs to the
+Cross-Triangle?"
+
+"He doesn't," returned Phil, laughing. "He belongs to me."
+
+"But I don't see how you can tell."
+
+"I know because I know the stock," Phil explained, "and because I happen
+to remember that particular calf, in the rodeo last spring. He got away
+from us, with his mother, in the cedars and brush over near the head of
+Mint Wash. That's one of the things that you have to learn in this
+business, you see. But, to be sure we're right, you watch him a minute,
+and you'll see him go to a Five-Bar cow. The Five-Bar is my iron, you
+know--I have a few head running with Uncle Will's."
+
+Even as he spoke, the calf, frightened at their closer approach, ran to
+a cow that was branded as Phil had said, and the cow, with unmistakable
+maternal interest in her offspring, proved the ownership of the calf.
+
+"You see?" said Phil. "We'll get that fellow now, because before the
+next rodeo he'll be big enough to leave his mother, and then; if he
+isn't branded, he'll be a maverick, and will belong to anybody that puts
+an iron on him."
+
+"But couldn't someone brand him now, with their brand, and drive him
+away from his mother?" asked Patches.
+
+"Such things have been known to happen, and that not a thousand miles
+from here, either," returned Phil dryly. "But, really, you know, Mr.
+Patches, it isn't done among the best people."
+
+Patches laughed aloud at his companion's attempt at a simpering
+affectation. Then he watched with admiration while the cowboy sent his
+horse after the calf and, too quickly for an inexperienced eye to see
+just how it was done, the deft riata stretched the animal by the heels.
+With a short "hogging" rope, which he carried looped through a hole cut
+in the edge of his chaps near the belt, Phil tied the feet of his
+victim, before the animal had recovered from the shock of the fall; and
+then, with Patches helping, proceeded to build a small fire of dry grass
+and leaves and sticks from a near-by bush. From his saddle, Phil took a
+small iron rod, flattened at one end, and only long enough to permit its
+being held in the gloved hand when the flattened end was hot--a running
+iron, he called it, and explained to his interested pupil, as he thrust
+it into the fire, how some of the boys used an iron ring for range
+branding.
+
+"And is there no way to change or erase a brand?" asked Patches, while
+the iron was heating.
+
+"Sure there is," replied Phil. And sitting on his heels, cowboy fashion,
+he marked on the ground with a stick.
+
+"Look! This is the Cross-Triangle brand: [Illustration]; and this:
+[Illustration], the Four-Bar-M, happens to be Nick Cambert's iron, over
+at Tailholt Mountain. Now, can't you see how, supposing I were Nick, and
+this calf were branded with the Cross-Triangle, I could work the iron
+over into my brand?"
+
+Patches nodded. "But is there no way to detect such a fraud?"
+
+"It's a mighty hard thing to prove that an iron has bees worked over,"
+Phil answered slowly. "About the only sure way is to catch the thief in
+the act."
+
+"But there are the earmarks," said Patches, a few moments later, when
+Phil had released the branded and marked calf--"the earmarks and the
+brand wouldn't agree."
+
+"They would if I were Nick," said the cowboy. Then he added quickly, as
+if regretting his remark, "Our earmark is an under-bit right and a split
+left, you said. Well, the Four-Bar-M earmark is a crop and an under-bit
+right and a swallow-fork left." With the point of his iron now he again
+marked in the dirt. "Here's your Cross-Triangle: [Illustration]; and
+here's your Pour-Bar-M: [Illustration]."
+
+"And if a calf branded with a Tailholt iron were to be found following a
+Cross-Triangle cow, then what?" came Patches' very natural question.
+
+"Then," returned the foreman of the Cross-Triangle grimly, "there would
+be a mighty good chance for trouble."
+
+"But it seems to me," said Patches, as they rode on, "that it would be
+easily possible for a man to brand another man's calf by mistake."
+
+"A man always makes a mistake when he puts his iron on another man's
+property," returned the cowboy shortly.
+
+"But might it not be done innocently, just the same!" persisted Patches.
+
+"Yes, it might," admitted Phil.
+
+"Well, then, what would you do if you found a calf, that you knew
+belonged to the Dean, branded with some other man's brand? I mean, how
+would you proceed?"
+
+"Oh, I see what you are driving at," said Phil in quite a different
+tone. "If you ever run on to a case, the first thing for you to do is to
+be dead sure that the misbranded calf belongs to one of our cows. Then,
+if you are right, and it's not too far, drive the cow and calf into the
+nearest corral and report it. If you can't get them to a corral without
+too much trouble, just put the Cross-Triangle on the calf's ribs. When
+he shows up in the next rodeo, with the right brand on his ribs, and
+some other brand where the right brand ought to be--you'll take pains to
+remember his natural markings, of course--you will explain the
+circumstances, and the owner of the iron that was put on him by mistake
+will be asked to vent his brand. A brand is vented by putting the same
+brand on the animal's shoulder. Look! There's one now." He pointed to an
+animal a short distance away. "See, that steer is branded
+Diamond-and-a-Half on hip and shoulder, and Cross-Triangle on his ribs.
+Well, when he was a yearling he belonged to the Diamond-and-a-Half
+outfit. We picked him up in the rodeo, away over toward Mud Tanks. He
+was running with our stock, and Stillwell didn't want to go to the
+trouble of taking him home--about thirty miles it is--so he sold him to
+Uncle Will, and vented his brand, as you see."
+
+"I see," said Patches, "but that's different from finding a calf
+misbranded."
+
+"Sure. There was no question of ownership there," agreed Phil.
+
+"But in the case of the calf," the cowboy's pupil persisted, "if it had
+left its mother when the man owning the iron was asked to vent it, there
+would be no way of proving the real ownership."
+
+"Nothing but the word of the man who found the calf with its mother,
+and, perhaps, the knowledge of the men who knew the stock."
+
+"What I am getting at," smiled Patches, "is this: it would come down at
+last to a question of men, wouldn't it?"
+
+"That's where most things come to in, the end in this country, Patches.
+But you're right. With owners like Uncle Will, and Jim Reid, and
+Stillwell, and dozens of others; and with cowboys like Curly and Bob and
+Bert and 'Shorty,' there would be no trouble at all about the matter."
+
+"But with others," suggested Patches.
+
+"Well," said Phil slowly, "there are men in this country, who, if they
+refused to vent a brand under such circumstances, would be seeing
+trouble, and mighty quick, too."
+
+"There's another thing that we've got to watch out for, just now," Phil
+continued, a few minutes later, "and that is, 'sleepers'. We'll
+suppose," he explained, "that I want to build up my, bunch of Five-Bars,
+and that I am not too particular about how I do it. Well, I run on to an
+unbranded Pot-Hook-S calf that looks good to me, but I don't dare put my
+iron on him because he's too young to leave his mother. If I let him go
+until he is older, some of Jim Reid's riders will brand him, and, you
+see, I never could work over the Pot-Hook-S iron into my Five-Bar. So I
+earmark the calf with the owner's marks, and don't brand him at all.
+Then he's a sleeper. If the Pot-Hook-S boys see him, they'll notice that
+he's earmarked all right, and very likely they'll take it for granted
+that he's branded, or, perhaps let him go anyway. Before the next rodeo
+I run on to my sleeper again, and he's big enough now to take away from
+the cow, so all I have to do is to change the earmarks and brand him
+with my iron. Of course, I wouldn't get all my sleepers, but--the
+percentage would be in my favor. If too many sleepers show up in the
+rodeo, though, folks would get mighty suspicious that someone was too
+handy with his knife. We got a lot of sleepers in the last rodeo," he
+concluded quietly.
+
+And Patches, remembering what Little Billy had said about Nick Cambert
+and Yavapai Joe, and with the talk of the visiting cowboys still fresh
+in his mind, realized that he was making progress in his education.
+
+Riding leisurely, and turning frequently aside for a nearer view of the
+cattle they sighted here and there, they reached Toohey a little before
+noon. Here, in a rocky hollow of the hills, a small stream wells from
+under the granite walls, only to lose itself a few hundred yards away in
+the sands and gravel of the wash. But, short as its run in the daylight
+is, the water never fails. And many cattle come from the open range that
+lies on every side, to drink, and, in summer time, to spend the heat of
+the day, standing in the cool, wet sands or lying in the shade of the
+giant sycamores that line the bank opposite the bluff. There are corrals
+near-by and a rude cook-shack under the wide-spreading branches of an
+old walnut tree; and the ground of the flat open space, a little back
+from the water, is beaten bare and hard by the thousands upon thousands
+of cattle that have at many a past rodeo-time been gathered there.
+
+The two men found, as the Diamond-and-a-Half riders had said, several
+animals suffering from those pests of the Arizona ranges, the
+screwworms. As Phil explained to Patches while they watered their
+horses, the screwworm is the larva of a blowfly bred in sores on living
+animals. The unhealed wounds of the branding iron made the calves by far
+the most numerous among the sufferers, and were the afflicted animals
+not treated the loss during the season would amount to considerable.
+
+"Look here, Patches," said the cowboy, as his practiced eyes noted the
+number needing attention. "I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll just run
+this hospital bunch into the corral, and you can limber up that riata of
+yours."
+
+And so Patches learned not only the unpleasant work of cleaning the
+worm-infested sores with chloroform, but received his first lesson in
+the use of the cowboy's indispensable tool, the riata.
+
+"What next?" asked Patches, as the last calf escaped through the gate
+which he had just opened, and ran to find the waiting and anxious
+mother.
+
+Phil looked at his companion, and laughed. Honorable Patches showed the
+effect of his strenuous and bungling efforts to learn the rudiments of
+the apparently simple trick of roping a calf. His face was streaked with
+sweat and dust, his hair disheveled, and his clothing soiled and
+stained. But his eyes were bright, and his bearing eager and ready.
+
+"What's the matter?" he demanded, grinning happily at his teacher. "What
+fool thing have I done now?"
+
+"You're doing fine," Phil returned. "I was only thinking that you don't
+look much like the man I met up on the Divide that evening."
+
+"I don't feel much like him, either, as far as that goes," returned
+Patches.
+
+Phil glanced up at the sun. "What do you say to dinner? It must be about
+that time."
+
+"Dinner?"
+
+"Sure. I brought some jerky--there on my saddle--and some coffee. There
+ought to be an old pot in the shack yonder. Some of the boys don't
+bother, but I never like to miss a feed unless it's necessary." He did
+not explain that the dinner was really a thoughtful concession to his
+companion.
+
+"Ugh!" ejaculated Patches, with a shrug of disgust, the work they had
+been doing still fresh in his mind. "I couldn't eat a bite."
+
+"You think that now," retorted Phil, "but you just go down to the creek,
+drink all you can hold, wash up, and see how quick you'll change your
+mind when you smell the coffee."
+
+And thus Patches received yet another lesson--a lesson in the art of
+forgetting promptly the most disagreeable features of his work--an art
+very necessary to those who aspire to master real work of any sort
+whatever.
+
+When they had finished their simple meal, and lay stretched full length
+beneath the overhanging limbs of the age-old tree that had witnessed so
+many stirring scenes, and listened to so many camp-fire tales of ranch
+and range, they talked of things other than their work. In low tones, as
+men who feel a mystic and not-to-be-explained bond of fellowship--with
+half-closed eyes looking out into the untamed world that lay before
+them--they spoke of life, of its mystery and meaning. And Phil, usually
+so silent when any conversation touched himself, and so timid always in
+expressing his own self thoughts, was strangely moved to permit this man
+to look upon the carefully hidden and deeper things of his life. But
+upon his cherished dream--upon his great ambition--he kept the door fast
+closed. The time for that revelation of himself was not yet.
+
+"By the way, Phil," said Patches, when at last his companion signified
+that it was time for them to go. "Where were you educated? I don't think
+that I have heard you say."
+
+"I have no education," returned the young man, with a laugh that, to
+Patches, sounded a bitter note. "I'm just a common cow-puncher, that's
+all."
+
+"I beg your pardon," returned the other, "but I thought from the books
+you mentioned--"
+
+"Oh, the books! Why, you see, some four years ago a real,
+honest-to-goodness book man came out to this country for his health, and
+brought his disease along with him."
+
+"His disease?" questioned Patches.
+
+Phil smiled. "His books, I mean. They killed him, and I fell heir to
+his trouble. He was a good fellow, all right--we all liked him--might
+have been a man if he hadn't been so much of a scholar. I was curious,
+at first, just to see what it was that had got such a grip on him; and
+then I got interested myself. About that time, too, there was a reason
+why I thought it might be a good thing for me; so I sent for more, and
+have made a fairly good job of it in the past three years. I don't think
+that there's any danger, though, of the habit getting the grip on me
+that it had on him," he reflected with a whimsical grin. "It was our
+book friend who first called Uncle Will the Dean."
+
+"The title certainly fits him well," remarked Patches. "I don't wonder
+that it stuck. I suppose you received yours for your riding?"
+
+"Mine?"
+
+"'Wild Horse Phil,' I mean," smiled the other.
+
+Phil laughed. "Haven't you heard that yarn yet? I reckon I may as well
+tell you. No, wait!" he exclaimed eagerly. "We have lots of time. We'll
+ride south a little way and perhaps I can show you."
+
+As they rode away up the creek, Patches wondered much at his companion's
+words and at his manner, but the cowboy shook his head at every
+question, answering, simply, "Wait."
+
+Soon they had left the creek bed--passing through a rock gateway at the
+beginning of the little stream--and were riding up a long, gently
+sloping hollow between two low but rugged ridges. The crest of the rocky
+wall on their left was somewhat higher than the ridge on their right,
+but, as the floor of the long, narrow hollow ascended, the sides of the
+little valley became correspondingly lower. Patches noticed that his
+companion was now keenly alert and watchful. He sat his horse easily,
+but there was a certain air of readiness in his poise, as though he
+anticipated sudden action, while his eyes searched the mountain sides
+with eager expectancy.
+
+They had nearly reached the upper end of the long slope when Phil
+abruptly reined his horse to the left and rode straight up that rugged,
+rock-strewn mountain wall. To Patches it seemed impossible that a horse
+could climb such a place; but he said nothing, and wisely gave Snip his
+head. They were nearly at the top--so near, in fact, that Phil could see
+over the narrow crest--when the cowboy suddenly checked his horse and
+slipped from the saddle. With a gesture he bade his companion follow his
+example, and in a moment Patches stood beside him. Leaving their horses,
+they crept the few remaining feet to the summit. Crouching low, then
+lying prone, they worked their way to the top of a huge rounded rock,
+from which they could look over and down upon the country that lies
+beyond.
+
+Patches uttered a low exclamation, but Phil's instant grip on his arm
+checked further speech.
+
+From where they lay, they looked down upon a great mountain basin of
+gently rolling, native grass land. From the foot of that rocky ridge,
+the beautiful pasture stretches away, several miles, to the bold, gray
+cliffs and mighty, towering battlements of Granite Mountain. On the
+south, a range of dark hills, and to the north, a series of sharp
+peaks, form the natural boundaries.
+
+"Do you see them?" whispered Phil.
+
+Patches looked at him inquiringly. The stranger's interest in that
+wonderful scene had led him to overlook that which held his companion's
+attention.
+
+"There," whispered Phil impatiently, "on the side of that hill
+there--they're not more than four hundred yards away, and they're
+working toward us."
+
+"Do you mean those horses?" whispered Patches, amazed at his companion's
+manner.
+
+Phil nodded.
+
+"Do they belong to the Cross-Triangle?" asked Patches, still mystified.
+
+"The Cross-Triangle!" Phil chuckled. Then, with a note of genuine
+reverence in his voice, he added softly, "They belong to God, Mr.
+Honorable Patches."
+
+Then Patches understood. "Wild horses!" he ejaculated softly.
+
+There are few men, I think, who can look without admiration upon a
+beautifully formed, noble spirited horse. The glorious pride and
+strength and courage of these most kingly of God's creatures--even when
+they are in harness and subject to their often inferior masters--compel
+respect and a degree of appreciation. But seen as they roam free in
+those pastures that, since the creation, have never been marred by plow
+or fence--pastures that are theirs by divine right, and the sunny slopes
+and shady groves and rocky nooks of which constitute their
+kingdom--where, in their lordly strength, they are subject only to the
+dictates of their own being, and, unmutilated by human cruelty, rule by
+the power and authority of Nature's laws--they stir the blood of the
+coldest heart to a quicker flow, and thrill the mind of the dullest with
+admiring awe.
+
+"There's twenty-eight in that bunch," whispered Phil. "Do you see that
+big black stallion on guard--the one that throws up his head every
+minute or two for a look around?"
+
+Patches nodded. There was no mistaking the watchful leader of the band.
+
+"He's the chap that gave me my title, as you call it," chuckled Phil.
+"Come on, now, and we'll see them in action; then I'll tell you about
+it."
+
+He slipped from the rock and led the way back to the saddle horses.
+
+Riding along the ridge, just under the crest, they soon reached the
+point where the chain of low peaks merges into the hills that form the
+southern boundary of the basin, and so came suddenly into full view of
+the wild horses that were feeding on the slopes a little below.
+
+As the two horsemen appeared, the leader of the band threw up his head
+with a warning call to his fellows.
+
+Phil reined in his horse and motioned for Patches to do the same.
+
+For several minutes, the black stallion held his place, as motionless as
+the very rocks of the mountain side, gazing straight at the mounted men
+as though challenging their right to cross the boundary of his kingdom,
+while his retainers stood as still, waiting his leadership. With his
+long, black mane and tail rippling and waving in the breeze that swept
+down from Blair Pass and across the Basin, with his raven-black coat
+glistening in the sunlight with the sheen of richest satin where the
+swelling muscles curved and rounded from shadow to high light, and with
+his poise of perfect strength and freedom, he looked, as indeed he was,
+a prince of his kind--a lord of the untamed life that homes in those
+God-cultivated fields.
+
+Patches glanced at his companion, as if to speak, but struck by the
+expression on the cowboy's face, remained silent. Phil was leaning a
+little forward in his saddle, his body as perfect in its poise of alert
+and graceful strength as the body of the wild horse at which he was
+gazing with such fixed interest. The clear, deeply tanned skin of his
+cheeks glowed warmly with the red of his clean, rich blood, his eyes
+shone with suppressed excitement, his lips, slightly parted, curved in a
+smile of appreciation, love and reverence for the unspoiled beauty of
+the wild creature that he himself, in so many ways, unconsciously
+resembled.
+
+And Patches--bred and schooled in a world so far from this world of
+primitive things--looking from Phil to the wild horse, and back again
+from the stallion to the man, felt the spirit and the power that made
+them kin--felt it with a, to him, strange new feeling of reverence, as
+though in the perfect, unspoiled life-strength of man and horse he came
+in closer touch with the divine than he had ever known before.
+
+Then, without taking his eyes from the object of his almost worship,
+Phil said, "Now, watch him, Patches, watch him!"
+
+As he spoke, he moved slowly toward the band, while Patches rode close
+by his side.
+
+At their movement, the wild stallion called another warning to his
+followers, and went a few graceful paces toward the slowly approaching
+men. And then, as they continued their slow advance, he wheeled with the
+smooth grace of a swallow, and, with a movement so light and free that
+he seemed rather to skim over the surface of the ground than to tread
+upon it, circled here and there about his band, assembling them in
+closer order, flying, with ears flat and teeth bared and mane and tail
+tossing, in lordly fury at the laggards, driving them before him, but
+keeping always between his charges and the danger until they were at
+what he evidently judged to be, for their inferior strength, a distance
+of safety. Then again he halted his company and, moving alone a short
+way toward the horsemen, stood motionless, watching their slow approach.
+
+Again Phil checked his horse. "God!" he exclaimed under his breath.
+"What a sight! Oh, you beauty! You beauty!"
+
+But Patches was moved less by the royal beauty of the wild stallion than
+by the passionate reverence that vibrated in his companion's voice.
+
+Again the two horsemen moved forward; and again the stallion drove his
+band to a safe distance, and stood waiting between them and their
+enemies.
+
+Then the cowboy laughed aloud--a hearty laugh of clean enjoyment. "All
+right, old fellow, I'll just give you a whirl for luck," he said aloud
+to the wild horse, apparently forgetting his human companion.
+
+And Patches saw him shorten his reins, and rise a little in his
+stirrups, while his horse, as though understanding, gathered himself for
+a spring. In a flash Patches was alone, watching as Phil, riding with
+every ounce of strength that his mount could command, dashed straight
+toward the band.
+
+For a moment, the black stallion stood watching the now rapidly
+approaching rider. Then, wheeling, he started his band, driving them
+imperiously, now, to their utmost speed, and then, as though he
+understood this new maneuver of the cowboy, he swept past his running
+companions, with the clean, easy flight of an arrow, and taking his
+place at the head of his charges led them away toward Granite Mountain.
+
+Phil stopped, and Patches could see him watching, as the wild horses,
+with streaming manes and tails, following their leader, who seemed to
+run with less than half his strength, swept away across the rolling
+hillsides, growing smaller and smaller in the distance, until, as dark,
+swiftly moving dots, they vanished over the sky line.
+
+"Wasn't that great?" cried Phil, when he had loped back to his
+companion. "Did you see him go by the bunch like they were standing
+still?"
+
+"There didn't seem to be much show for you to catch him," said Patches.
+
+"Catch him!" exclaimed Phil. "Did you think I was trying to catch him? I
+just wanted to see him go. The horse doesn't live that could put a man
+within roping distance of any one in that bunch on a straightaway run,
+and the black can run circles around the whole outfit. I had him once,
+though."
+
+"You caught that black!" exclaimed Patches--incredulously.
+
+Phil grinned. "I sure had him for a little while."
+
+"But what is he doing out here running loose, then?" demanded the other.
+"Got away, did he?"
+
+"Got away, nothing. Fact is, he belongs to me right now, in a way, and I
+wouldn't swap him for any string of cow-horses that I ever saw."
+
+Then, as they rode toward the home ranch, Phil told the story that is
+known throughout all that country.
+
+"It was when the black was a yearling," he said. "I'd had my eye on him
+all the year, and so had some of the other boys who had sighted the
+band, for you could see, even when he was a colt, what he was going to
+be. The wild horses were getting rather too numerous that season, and we
+planned a chase to thin them out a little, as we do every two or three
+years. Of course, everybody was after the black; and one day, along
+toward the end of the chase, when the different bands had been broken up
+and scattered pretty much, I ran onto him. I was trailing an old gray up
+that draw--the way we went to-day, you know, and all at once I met him
+as he was coming over the top of the hill, right where you and I rode
+onto him. It was all so sudden that for a minute he was rattled as bad
+as I was; and, believe me, I was shaking like a leaf. I managed to come
+to, first, though, and hung my rope on him before he could get started.
+I don't know to this day where the old gray that I was after went. Well,
+sir; he fought like a devil, and for a spell we had it around and around
+until I wasn't dead sure whether I had him or he had me. But he was only
+a yearling then, you see, and I finally got him down."
+
+Phil paused, a peculiar expression on his face. Patches waited silently.
+
+"Do you know," said the cowboy, at last, hesitatingly, "I can't explain
+it--and I don't talk about it much, for it was the strangest thing that
+ever happened to me--but when I looked into that black stallion's eyes,
+and he looked me straight in the face, I never felt so sorry for
+anything in my life. I was sort of ashamed like--like--well, like I'd
+been caught holding up a church, you know, or something like that. We
+were all alone up there, just him and me, and while I was getting my
+wind, and we were sizing each other up, and I was feeling that way, I
+got to thinking what it all meant to him--to be broken and
+educated--and--well--civilized, you know; and I thought what a horse he
+would be if he was left alone to live as God made him, and so--well--"
+He paused again with an embarrassed laugh.
+
+"You let him go?" cried Patches.
+
+"It's God's truth, Patches. I couldn't do anything else--I just
+couldn't. One of the boys came up just in time to catch me turning him
+loose, and, of course, the whole outfit just naturally raised hell about
+it. You see, in a chase like that, we always bunch all we get and sell
+them off to the highest bidder, and every man in the outfit shares
+alike. The boys figured that the black was worth more than any five
+others that were caught, and so you couldn't blame them for feeling
+sore. But I fixed it with them by turning all my share into the pot, so
+they couldn't kick. That, you see, makes the black belong to me, in a
+way, and it's pretty generally understood that I propose to take care of
+him. There was a fellow, riding in the rodeo last fall, that took a shot
+at him one day, and--well--he left the country right after it happened
+and hasn't been seen around here since."
+
+The cowboy grinned as his companion's laugh rang out.
+
+"Do you know," Phil continued in a low tone, a few minutes later, "I
+believe that horse knows me yet. Whenever I am over in this part of the
+country I always have a look at him, if he happens to be around, and we
+visit a little, as we did to-day. I've got a funny notion that he likes
+it as much as I do, and, I can't tell how it is, but it sort of makes me
+feel good all over just to see him. I reckon you think I'm some fool,"
+he finished with another short laugh of embarrassment, "but that's the
+way I feel--and that's why they call me 'Wild Horse Phil'."
+
+For a little they rode in silence; then Patches spoke, gravely, "I don't
+know how to tell you what I think, Phil, but I understand, and from the
+bottom of my heart I envy you."
+
+And the cowboy, looking at his companion, saw in the man's eyes
+something that reminded him of that which he had seen in the wild
+horse's eyes, that day when he had set him free. Had Patches, too, at
+some time in those days that were gone, been caught by the riata of
+circumstance or environment, and in some degree robbed of his
+God-inheritance? Phil smiled at the fancy, but, smiling, felt its truth;
+and with genuine sympathy felt this also to be true, that the man might
+yet, by the strength that was deepest within him, regain that which he
+had lost.
+
+And so that day, as the man from the ranges and the man from the cities
+rode together, the feeling of kinship that each had instinctively
+recognized at their first meeting on the Divide was strengthened. They
+knew that a mutual understanding which could not have been put into
+words of any tongue or land was drawing them closer together.
+
+A few days later the incident occurred that fixed their friendship--as
+they thought--for all time to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE TAILHOLT MOUNTAIN OUTFIT.
+
+
+Phil and Patches were riding that day in the country about Old Camp.
+Early in the afternoon, they heard the persistent bawling of a calf, and
+upon riding toward the sound, found the animal deep in the cedar timber,
+which in that section thickly covers the ridges. The calf was freshly
+branded with the Tailholt iron. It was done, Phil said, the day before,
+probably in the late afternoon. The youngster was calling for his
+mother.
+
+"It's strange, she is not around somewhere," said Patches.
+
+"It would be more strange if she was," retorted the cowboy shortly, and
+he looked from the calf to the distant Tailholt Mountain, as though he
+were considering some problem which he did not, for some reason, care to
+share with his companion.
+
+"There's not much use to look for her," he added, with grim
+disappointment. "That's always the way. If we had ridden this range
+yesterday, instead of away over there in the Mint Wash country--I am
+always about a day behind."
+
+There was something in the manner and in the quiet speech of the usually
+sunny-tempered foreman that made his companion hesitate to ask
+questions, or to offer comment with the freedom that he had learned to
+feel that first day of their riding together. During the hours that
+followed Phil said very little, and when he did speak his words were
+brief and often curt, while, to Patches, he seemed to study the country
+over which they rode with unusual care. When they had eaten their rather
+gloomy lunch, he was in the saddle again almost before Patches had
+finished, with seemingly no inclination for their usual talk.
+
+The afternoon, was nearly gone, and they were making their way homeward
+when they saw a Cross-Triangle bull that had evidently been hurt in a
+fight. The animal was one of the Dean's much-prized Herefords, and the
+wound needed attention.
+
+"We've got to dope that," said Phil, "or the screwworms will be working
+in it sure." He was taking down his riata and watching the bull, who was
+rumbling a sullen, deep-voiced challenge, as he spoke.
+
+"Can I help?" asked Patches anxiously, as he viewed the powerful beast,
+for this was the first full-grown animal needing attention that he had
+seen in his few days' experience.
+
+"No," returned Phil. "Just keep in the clear, that's all. This chap is
+no calf, and he's sore over his scrap. He's on the prod right now."
+
+It all happened in a few seconds.
+
+The cowboy's horse, understanding from long experience that this
+threatening mark for his master's riata was in no gentle frame of mind,
+fretted uneasily as though dreading his part in the task before them.
+Patches saw the whirling rope leave Phil's hand, and saw it tighten, as
+the cowboy threw the weight of his horse against it; and then he caught
+a confused vision--a fallen, struggling horse with a man pinned to the
+ground beneath him, and a wickedly lowered head, with sharp horns and
+angry eyes, charging straight at them.
+
+Patches did not think--there was no time to think. With a yell of
+horror, he struck deep with both spurs, and his startled, pain-maddened
+horse leaped forward. Again he spurred cruelly with all his strength,
+and the next bound of his frenzied mount carried him upon those deadly
+horns. Patches remembered hearing a sickening rip, and a scream of fear
+and pain, as he felt the horse under him rise in the air. He never knew
+how he managed to free himself, as he fell backward with his struggling
+mount, but he distinctly saw Phil regain his saddle while his horse was
+in the very act of struggling to its feet, and he watched with anxious
+interest as the cowboy forced his excited mount in front of the bull to
+attract the beast's wicked attention. The bull, accepting the
+tantalizing challenge, charged again, and Patches, with a thrill of
+admiration for the man's coolness and skill, saw that Phil was coiling
+his riata, even while his frightened horse, with terrific leaps, avoided
+those menacing horns. The bull stopped, shook his head in anger over his
+failure, and looked back toward the man on foot. But again that horse
+and rider danced temptingly before him, so close that it seemed he
+could not fail, and again he charged, only to find that his mad rush
+carried him still further from the helpless Patches. And by now, Phil
+had recovered his riata, and the loop was whirling in easy circles about
+his head. The cow-horse, as though feeling the security that was in that
+familiar motion of his master's arm, steadied himself, and, in the few
+active moments that followed, obedient to every signal of his rider, did
+his part with almost human intelligence.
+
+When the bull was safely tied, Phil went to the frightfully injured
+horse, and with a merciful bullet ended the animal's suffering. Then he
+looked thoughtfully at Patches, who stood gazing ruefully at the dead
+animal, as though he felt himself to blame for the loss of his
+employer's property. A slight smile lightened the cowboy's face, as he
+noticed his companion's troubled thought.
+
+"I suppose I've done it now," said Patches, as though expecting
+well-merited censure.
+
+Phil's smile broadened. "You sure have," he returned, as he wiped the
+sweat from his face. "I'm much obliged to you."
+
+Patches looked at him in confused embarrassment.
+
+"Don't you know that you saved my life?" asked Phil dryly.
+
+"But--but, I killed a good horse for the Dean," stammered Patches.
+
+To which the Dean's foreman returned with a grin, "I reckon Uncle Will
+can stand the loss--considering."
+
+This relieved the tension, and they laughed together.
+
+"But tell me something, Patches," said Phil, curiously. "Why didn't you
+shoot the bull when he charged me?"
+
+"I didn't think of it," admitted Patches. "I didn't really think of
+anything."
+
+The cowboy nodded with understanding approval. "I've noticed that the
+man to tie to, in sudden trouble, is the man who doesn't have to think;
+the man, I mean, who just does the right thing instinctively, and waits
+to think about it afterwards when there's time."
+
+Patches was pleased. "I did the right thing, then?"
+
+"It was the only thing you _could_ do to save my life," returned Phil
+seriously. "If you had tried to use your gun--even if you could have
+managed to hit him--you wouldn't have stopped him in time. If you had
+been where you could have put a bullet between his eyes, it might have
+worked, but"--he smiled again--"I'm mighty glad you didn't think to try
+any experiments. Tell me something else," he added. "Did you realize the
+chance you were taking for yourself?"
+
+Patches shook his head. "I can't say that I realized anything except
+that you were in a bad fix, and that it was up to me to do something
+quick. How did it happen, anyway?" He seemed anxious to turn the
+conversation.
+
+"Diamond stepped in that hole there," explained Phil. "When he turned
+over I sure thought it was all day for me. Believe me, I won't forget
+this, Patches."
+
+For another moment there was an embarrassed silence; then Patches said,
+"What puzzles me is, why you didn't take a shot at him, after you were
+up, instead of risking your neck again trying to rope him."
+
+"Why, there was no use killing a good bull, as long as there was any
+other way. It's my business to keep him alive; that's what I started in
+to do, wasn't it?" And thus the cowboy, in a simple word or two, stated
+the creed of his profession, a creed that permits no consideration of
+personal danger or discomfort when the welfare of the employer's
+property is at stake.
+
+When they had removed saddle and bridle from the dead horse and had
+cleaned the ugly wound in the bull's side, Phil said, "Now, Mr.
+Honorable Patches, you'd better move on down the wash a piece, and get
+out of sight behind one of those cedars. This fellow is going to get
+busy again when I let him up. I'll come along when I've got rid of him."
+
+A little later, as Phil rode out of the cedars toward Patches, a deep,
+bellowing challenge came from up the wash.
+
+"He's just telling us what he'll do to us the next chance he gets,"
+chuckled Phil. "Hop up behind me now and we'll go home."
+
+The gloom, that all day had seemed to overshadow Phil, was effectually
+banished by the excitement of the incident, and he was again his sunny,
+cheerful self. As they rode, they chatted and laughed merrily. Then,
+suddenly, as it had happened that morning, the cowboy was again grim and
+silent.
+
+Patches was wondering what had so quickly changed his companion's mood,
+when he caught sight of two horsemen, riding along the top of the ridge
+that forms the western side of the wash, their course paralleling that
+of the Cross-Triangle men, who were following the bed of the wash.
+
+When Patches directed Phil's attention to the riders, the cowboy said
+shortly, "I've been watching them for the last ten minutes." Then, as if
+regretting the manner of his reply, he added more kindly, "If they keep
+on the way they're going, we'll likely meet them about a mile down the
+wash where the ridge breaks."
+
+"Do you know them?" asked Patches curiously.
+
+"It's Nick Cambert and that poor, lost dog of a Yavapai Joe," Phil
+answered.
+
+"The Tailholt Mountain outfit," murmured Patches, watching the riders on
+the ridge with quickened interest. "Do you know, Phil, I believe I have
+seen those fellows before."
+
+"You have!" exclaimed Phil. "Where? When?"
+
+"I don't know how to tell you where," Patches replied, "but it was the
+day I rode the drift fence. They were on a ridge, across a little valley
+from me."
+
+"That must have been this same Horse Wash that we're following now,"
+replied Phil; "it widens out a bit below here. What makes you think it
+was Nick and Joe?"
+
+"Why, those fellows up there look like the two that I saw, one big one
+and one rather lightweight. They were the same distance from me, you
+know, and--yes--I am sure those are the same horses."
+
+"Pretty good, Patches, but you ought to have reported it when you got
+home."
+
+"Why, I didn't think it of any importance."
+
+"There are two rules that you must follow, always," said the cowboy, "if
+you are going to learn to be a top hand in this business. The first is:
+to see everything that there is to see, and to see everything about
+everything that you see. And the second is: to remember it all. I don't
+mind telling you, now, that Jim Reid found a calf, fresh-branded with
+the Tailholt iron, that same afternoon, in that same neighborhood; and
+that, on our side of the drift fence, he ran onto a Cross-Triangle cow
+that had lost her calf. There come our friends now."
+
+The two horsemen were riding down the side of the hill at an angle that
+would bring about the meeting which Phil had foreseen. And Patches
+immediately broke the first of the two rules, for, while watching the
+riders, he did not notice that his companion loosened his gun in its
+holster.
+
+Nick Cambert was a large man, big-bodied and heavy, with sandy hair, and
+those peculiar light blue eyes which do not beget confidence. But, as
+the Tailholt Mountain men halted to greet Phil, Patches gave to Nick
+little more than a passing glance, so interested was he in the big man's
+companion.
+
+It is doubtful if blood, training, environment, circumstances, the
+fates, or whatever it is that gives to men individuality, ever marked a
+man with less manhood than was given to poor Yavapai Joe. Standing
+erect, he would have been, perhaps, a little above medium height, but
+thin and stooped, with a half-starved look, as he slouched listlessly in
+the saddle, it was almost impossible to think of him as a matured man.
+The receding chin, and coarse, loosely opened mouth, the pale, lifeless
+eyes set too closely together under a low forehead, with a ragged thatch
+of dead, mouse-colored hair, and a furtive, sneaking, lost-dog
+expression, proclaimed him the outcast that he was.
+
+The big man eyed Patches as he greeted the Cross-Triangle's foreman.
+"Howdy, Phil!"
+
+"Hello, Nick!" returned Phil coldly. "Howdy, Joe!"
+
+The younger man, who was gazing stupidly at Patches, returned the
+salutation with an unintelligible mumble, and proceeded to roll a
+cigarette.
+
+"You folks at the Cross-Triangle short of horses?" asked Nick, with an
+evident attempt at jocularity, alluding to the situation of the two men,
+who were riding one horse.
+
+"We got mixed up with a bull back yonder," Phil explained briefly.
+
+"They can sure put a horse out o' the game mighty quick sometimes,"
+commented the other. "I've lost a few that way myself. It's about as far
+from here to my place as it is to Baldwin's, or I'd help you out. You're
+welcome, you know."
+
+"Much obliged," returned Phil, "but we'll make it home all right. I
+reckon we'd better be moving, though. So long!"
+
+"Adios!"
+
+Throughout this brief exchange of courtesies, Yavapai Joe had not moved,
+except to puff at his cigarette; nor had he ceased to regard Patches
+with a stupid curiosity. As Phil and Patches moved away, he still sat
+gazing after the stranger, until he was aroused by a sharp word from
+Nick, as the latter turned his horse toward Tailholt Mountain. Without
+changing his slouching position in the saddle, and with a final
+slinking, sidewise look toward Patches, the poor fellow obediently
+trailed after his master.
+
+Patches could not resist the impulse to turn for another look at the
+wretched shadow of manhood that so interested him.
+
+"Well, what do you think of that pair?" asked Phil, breaking in upon his
+companion's preoccupation.
+
+Patches shrugged his shoulders much as he had done that day of his first
+experience with the screwworms; then he said quietly, "Do you mind
+telling me about them, Phil?"
+
+"Why, there's not much to tell," returned the cowboy. "That is, there's
+not much that anybody knows for certain. Nick was born in Yavapai
+County. His father, old George Cambert, was one of the kind that seems
+honest enough, and industrious, too, but somehow always just misses it.
+They moved away to some place in Southern California when Nick was about
+grown. He came back six years ago, and located over there at the foot of
+Tailholt Mountain, and started his Four-Bar-M iron; and, one way or
+another, he's managed to get together quite a bunch of stock. You see,
+his expenses don't amount to anything, scarcely. He and Joe bach in an
+old shack that somebody built years ago, and they do all the riding
+themselves. Joe's not much force, but he's handier than you'd think, as
+long as there's somebody around to tell him what to do, and sort of back
+him up. Nick, though, can do two men's work any day in the year."
+
+"But it's strange that a man like Nick would have anything to do with
+such a creature as that poor specimen," mused Patches. "Are they related
+in any way?"
+
+"Nobody knows," answered Phil. "Joe first showed up at Prescott about
+four years ago with a man by the name of Dryden, who claimed that Joe
+was his son. They camped just outside of town, in some dirty old tents,
+and lived by picking up whatever was lying around loose. Dryden wouldn't
+work, and, naturally, no one would have Joe. Finally Dryden was sent up
+for robbing a store, and Joe nearly went with him. They let him off, I
+believe, because it was proved pretty well that he was only Dryden's
+tool, and didn't have nerve enough to do any real harm by himself. He
+drifted around for several months, living like a stray cur, until Nick
+took him in tow. Nick treats him shamefully, abuses him like a beast,
+and works him like a slave. The poor devil stays on with him because he
+doesn't know what else to do, I suppose."
+
+"Is he always like we saw him to-day?" asked Patches, who seemed
+strangely interested in this bit of human drift. "Doesn't he ever talk?"
+
+"Oh, yes, he'll talk all right, when Nick isn't around, or when there
+are not too many present. Get off somewhere alone with him, after he
+gets acquainted a little, and he's not half such bad company as he
+looks. I reckon that's the main reason why Nick keeps him. You see, no
+decent cow-puncher would dare work at Tailholt Mountain, and a man gets
+mighty lonesome living so much alone. But Joe never talks about where he
+came from, or who he is; shuts up like a clam if you so much as mention
+anything that looks like you were trying to find out about him. He's not
+such a fool as he looks, either, so far as that goes, but he's always
+got that sneaking, coyote sort of look, and whatever he does he does in
+that same way."
+
+"In other words," commented Patches thoughtfully, "poor Joe must have
+someone to depend on; taken alone he counts no more than a cipher."
+
+"That's it," said Phil. "With somebody to feed him, and think for him,
+and take care of him, and be responsible for him, in some sort of a way,
+he makes almost one."
+
+"After all, Phil," said Patches, with bitter sarcasm, "poor Yavapai Joe
+is not so much different from hundreds of men that I know. By their
+standards he should be envied."
+
+Phil was amazed at his companion's words, for they seemed to hint at
+something in the man's past, and Patches, so far as his reticence upon
+any subject that approached his own history, was always as silent as
+Yavapai Joe himself.
+
+"What do you mean by that?" Phil demanded. "What sort of men do you
+mean?"
+
+"I mean the sort that never do anything of their own free wills; the
+sort that have someone else to think for them, and feed them, and take
+care of them and take all the responsibility for what they do or do not
+do. I mean those who are dependents, and those who aspire to be
+dependent. I can't see that it makes any essential difference whether
+they have inherited wealth and what we call culture, or whether they are
+poverty-stricken semi-imbeciles like Joe; the principle is the same."
+
+As they dismounted at the home corral gate, Phil looked at his companion
+curiously. "You seem mighty interested in Joe," he said, with a smile.
+
+"I am," retorted Patches. "He reminds me of--of some one I know," he
+finished, with his old, self-mocking smile. "I have a fellow feeling
+for him, the same as you have for that wild horse, you know. I'd like to
+take him away from Nick, and see if it would be possible to make a real
+man of him," he mused, more to himself than to his companion.
+
+"I don't believe I'd try any experiments along that line, Patches,"
+cautioned Phil. "You've got to have something to build on when you start
+to make a man. The raw material is not in Joe, and, besides," he added
+significantly, "folks might not understand."
+
+Patches laughed bitterly. "I have my hands full now."
+
+The next morning the foreman said that he would give that day to the
+horses he was training, and sent Patches, alone, after the saddle and
+bridle which they had left near the scene of the accident.
+
+"You can't miss finding the place again," he said to Patches; "just
+follow up the wash. You'll be back by noon--if you don't try any
+experiments," he added laughing.
+
+Patches had ridden as far as the spot where he and Phil had met the
+Tailholt Mountain men, and was thirsty. He thought of the distance he
+had yet to go, and then of the return back to the ranch, in the heat of
+the day. He remembered that Phil had told him, as they were riding out
+the morning before, of a spring a little way up the small side canyon
+that opens into the main wash through that break in the ridge. For a
+moment he hesitated; then he turned aside, determined to find the
+water.
+
+Riding perhaps two hundred yards into that narrow gap In the ridge, he
+found the way suddenly becoming steep and roughly strewn with boulders,
+and, thinking to make better time, left his horse tied to a bush in the
+shadow of the rocky wall, while he climbed up the dry watercourse on
+foot. He found, as Phil had said, that it was not far. Another hundred
+yards up the boulder-strewn break in the ridge, and he came out into a
+beautiful glade, where he found the spring, clear and cold, under a
+moss-grown rock, in the deep shade of an old gnarled and twisted cedar.
+Gratefully he threw himself down and drank long and deep; then sat for a
+few moments' rest, before making his way back to his horse. The moist,
+black earth of the cuplike hollow was roughly trampled by the cattle
+that knew the spot, and there were well-marked trails leading down
+through the heavy growth of brush and trees that clothed the hillsides.
+So dense was this forest growth, and so narrow the glade, that the
+sunlight only reached the cool retreat through a network of leaves and
+branches, in ever-shifting spots and bars of brightness. Nor could one
+see very far through the living screens.
+
+Patches was on the point of going, when he heard voices and the sound of
+horses' feet somewhere above. For a moment he sat silently listening.
+Then he realized that the riders were approaching, down one of the
+cattle trails. A moment more, and he thought he recognized one of the
+voices. There was a low, murmuring, whining tone, and then a rough,
+heavy voice, raised seemingly in anger. Patches felt sure, now, that he
+knew the speakers; and, obeying one of those impulses that so often
+prompted his actions, he slipped quietly into the dense growth on the
+side of the glade opposite the approaching riders. He was scarcely
+hidden--a hundred feet or so from the spring--when Nick Cambert and
+Yavapai Joe rode into the glade.
+
+If Patches had paused to think, he likely would have disdained to play
+the part of a hidden spy; but he had acted without thinking, and no
+sooner was he concealed than he realized that it was too late. So he
+smiled mockingly at himself, and awaited developments. He had heard and
+seen enough, since he had been in the Dean's employ, to understand the
+suspicion in which the owner of the Four-Bar-M iron was held; and from
+even his few days' work on the range in company with Phil, he had come
+to understand how difficult it was for the cattlemen to prove anything
+against the man who they had every reason to believe was stealing their
+stock. It was the possibility of getting some positive evidence, and of
+thus protecting his employer's property, that had really prompted him to
+take advantage of the chance situation.
+
+As the two men appeared, it was clear to the hidden observer that the
+weakling had in some way incurred his master's displeasure. The big
+man's face was red with anger, and his eyes were hard and cruel, while
+Joe had more than aver the look of a lost dog that expects nothing less
+than a curse and a kick.
+
+Nick drank at the spring, then turned back to his companion, who had not
+dismounted, but sat on his horse cringing and frightened, trying, with
+fluttering fingers, to roll a cigarette. A moment the big man surveyed
+his trembling follower; then, taking a heavy quirt from his saddle, he
+said with a contemptuous sneer, "Well, why don't you get your drink?"
+
+"I ain't thirsty, Nick," faltered the other.
+
+"You ain't thirsty?" mocked the man with a jeering laugh. "You're lying,
+an' you know it. Get down!"
+
+"Hones' to God, Nick, I don't want no drink," whimpered Joe, as his
+master toyed with the quirt suggestively.
+
+"Get down, I tell you!" commanded the big man.
+
+Joe obeyed, his thin form shaking with fear, and stood shrinking against
+his horse's side, his fearful eyes fixed on the man.
+
+"Now, come here."
+
+"Don't, Nick; for God's sake! don't hit me. I didn't mean no harm. Let
+me off this time, won't you, Nick?"
+
+"Come here. You got it comin', damn you, an' you know it. Come here, I
+say!"
+
+As if it were beyond his power to refuse, the wretched creature took a
+halting step or two toward the man whose brutal will dominated him; then
+he paused and half turned, as if to attempt escape. But that menacing
+voice stopped him.
+
+"Come here!"
+
+Whimpering and begging, with disconnected, unintelligible words, the
+poor fellow again started toward the man with the quirt.
+
+At the critical moment a quiet, well-schooled voice interrupted the
+scene.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Cambert!"
+
+Nick whirled with an oath of surprise and astonishment, to face Patches,
+who was coming leisurely toward him from the bushes above the spring.
+
+"What are you doin' here?" demanded Nick, while his victim slunk back to
+his horse, his eyes fixed upon the intruder with dumb amazement.
+
+"I came for a drink," returned Patches coolly. "Excellent water, isn't
+it? And the day is really quite warm--makes one appreciate such a
+delightfully cool retreat, don't you think?"
+
+"Heard us comin' an' thought you'd play the spy, did you?" growled the
+Tailholt Mountain man.
+
+Patches smiled. "Really, you know, I am afraid I didn't think much about
+it," he said gently. "I'm troubled that way, you see," he explained,
+with elaborate politeness. "Often do things upon impulse, don't you
+know--beastly embarrassing sometimes."
+
+Nick glared at this polite, soft-spoken gentleman, with half-amused
+anger. "I heard there was a dude tenderfoot hangin' 'round the
+Cross-Triangle," he said, at last. "You're sure a hell of a fine
+specimen. You've had your drink; now s'pose you get a-goin'."
+
+"I beg pardon?" drawled Patches, looking at him with innocent inquiry.
+
+"Vamoose! Get out! Go on about your business."
+
+"Really, Mr. Cambert, I understood that this was open range--" Patches
+looked about, as though carefully assuring himself that he was not
+mistaken in the spot.
+
+The big man's eyes narrowed wickedly. "It's closed to you, all right."
+Then, as Patches did not move, "Well, are you goin', or have I got to
+start you?" He took a threatening step toward the intruder.
+
+"No," returned Patches easily, "I am certainly not going--not just at
+present--and," he added thoughtfully, "if I were you, I wouldn't try to
+start _anything_."
+
+Something in the extraordinary self-possession of this soft-spoken
+stranger made the big man hesitate. "Oh, you wouldn't, heh?" he
+returned. "You mean, I s'pose, that you propose to interfere with my
+business."
+
+"If, by your business, you mean beating a man who is so unable to
+protect himself, I certainly propose to interfere."
+
+For a moment Nick glared at Patches as though doubting his own ears.
+Then rage at the tenderfoot's insolence mastered him. With a vile
+epithet, he caught the loaded quirt in his hand by its small end, and
+strode toward the intruder.
+
+But even as the big man swung his wicked weapon aloft, a hard fist, with
+the weight of a well-trained and well-developed shoulder back of it,
+found the point of his chin with scientific accuracy. The force of the
+blow, augmented as it was by Nick's weight as he was rushing to meet it,
+was terrific. The man's head snapped back, and he spun half around as he
+fell, so that the uplifted arm with its threatening weapon was twisted
+under the heavy bulk that lay quivering and harmless.
+
+Patches coolly bent over the unconscious man and extracted his gun from
+the holster. Then, stepping back a few paces, he quietly waited.
+
+Yavapai Joe, who had viewed the proceedings thus far with gaping mouth
+and frightened wonder, scrambled into his saddle and reined his horse
+about, as if to ride for his life.
+
+"Wait, Joe!" called Patches sharply.
+
+The weakling paused in pitiful indecision.
+
+"Nick will be all right in a few minutes," continued the stranger,
+reassuringly. "Stay where you are."
+
+Even as he spoke, the man on the ground opened his eyes. For a moment he
+gazed about, collecting his shocked and scattered senses. Then, with a
+mad roar, he got to his feet and reached for his gun, but when his hand
+touched the empty holster a look of dismay swept over his heavy face,
+and he looked doubtfully toward Patches, with a degree of respect and a
+somewhat humbled air.
+
+"Yes, I have your gun," said Patches soothingly. "You see, I thought it
+would be best to remove the temptation. You don't really want to shoot
+me, anyway, you know. You only think you do. When you have had time to
+consider it all, calmly, you'll thank me; because, don't you see, I
+would make you a lot more trouble dead than I could possibly, alive. I
+don't think that Mr. Baldwin would like to have me all shot to pieces,
+particularly if the shooting were done by someone from Tailholt
+Mountain. And I am quite sure that 'Wild Horse Phil' would be very much
+put out about it."
+
+"Well, what do you want?" growled Nick. "You've got the drop on me. What
+are you after, anyway?"
+
+"What peculiar expressions you western people use!" murmured Patches
+sweetly. "You say that I have got the drop on you; when, to be exact,
+you should have said that you got the drop _from_ me--do you see? Good,
+isn't it?"
+
+Nick's effort at self-control was heroic.
+
+Patches watched him with an insolent, taunting smile that goaded the man
+to reckless speech.
+
+"If you didn't have that gun, I'd--" the big man began, then stopped,
+for, as he spoke, Patches placed the weapon carefully on a rock and went
+toward him barehanded.
+
+"You would do what?"
+
+At the crisp, eager question that came in such sharp contrast to
+Patches' former speech, Nick hesitated and drew back a step.
+
+Patches promptly moved a step nearer; and his words came, now, in answer
+to the unfinished threat with cutting force. "What would you do, you
+big, hulking swine? You can bully a weakling not half your size; you can
+beat a helpless incompetent like a dog; you can bluster, and threaten a
+tenderfoot when you think he fears you; you can attack a man with a
+loaded quirt when you think him unable to defend himself;--show me what
+you can do _now_."
+
+The Tailholt Mountain man drew back another step.
+
+Patches continued his remarks. "You are a healthy specimen, you are. You
+have the frame of a bull with the spirit of a coyote and the courage of
+a sucking dove. Now--in your own vernacular--get a-goin'. Vamoose! Get
+out! I want to talk to your superior over there."
+
+Sullenly Nick Cambert mounted his horse and turned away toward one of
+the trails leading out from the little arena.
+
+"Come along, Joe!" he called to his follower.
+
+"No, you don't," Patches cut in with decisive force. "Joe, stay where
+you are!"
+
+Nick paused. "What do you mean by that?" he growled.
+
+"I mean," returned Patches, "that Joe is free to go with you, or not, as
+he chooses. Joe," he continued, addressing the cause of the controversy,
+"you need not go with this man. If you wish, you can come with me. I'll
+take care of you; and I'll give you a chance to make a man of yourself."
+
+Nick laughed coarsely. "So, that's your game, is it? Well, it won't
+work. I know now why Bill Baldwin's got you hangin' 'round, pretendin'
+you're a tenderfoot, you damned spy. Come on, Joe." He turned to ride
+on; and Joe, with a slinking, sidewise look at Patches, started to
+follow.
+
+Again Patches called, "Wait, Joe!" and his voice was almost pleading.
+"Can't you understand, Joe? Come with me. Don't be a dog for any man.
+Let me give you a chance. Be a man, Joe--for God's sake, be a man! Come
+with me."
+
+"Well," growled Nick to his follower, as Patches finished, "are you
+comin' or have I got to go and get you?"
+
+With a sickening, hangdog look Joe mumbled something and rode after his
+master.
+
+As they disappeared up the trail, Nick called back, "I'll get you yet,
+you sneakin' spy."
+
+"Not after you've had time to think it over," answered Patches
+cheerfully. "It would interfere too much with your _real_ business. I'll
+leave your gun at the gate of that old corral up the wash. Good-by,
+Joe!"
+
+For a few moments longer the strange man stood in the glade, listening
+to the vanishing sounds of their going, while that mirthless,
+self-mocking smile curved his lips.
+
+"Poor devil!" he muttered sadly, as he turned at last to make his way
+back to his horse. "Poor Joe! I know just how he feels. It's hard--it's
+beastly hard to break away."
+
+"I'm afraid I have made trouble for you, sir," Patches said ruefully to
+the Dean, as he briefly related the incident to his employer and to Phil
+that afternoon. "I'm sorry; I really didn't stop to think."
+
+"Trouble!" retorted the Dean, his eyes twinkling approval, while Phil
+laughed joyously. "Why, man, we've been prayin' for trouble with that
+blamed Tailholt Mountain outfit. You're a plumb wonder, young man. But
+what in thunder was you aimin' to do with that ornery Yavapai Joe, if
+he'd a' took you up on your fool proposition?"
+
+"Really, to tell the truth," murmured Patches, "I don't exactly know. I
+fancied the experiment would be interesting; and I was so sorry for the
+poor chap that I--" he stopped, shamefaced, to join in the laugh.
+
+But, later, the Dean and Phil talked together privately, with the result
+that during the days that followed, as Patches and his teacher rode the
+range together, the pupil found revolver practice added to his studies.
+
+The art of drawing and shooting a "six-gun" with quickness and certainty
+was often a useful part of the cowboy's training, Phil explained
+cheerfully. "In the case, for instance, of a mixup with a bad steer,
+when your horse falls, or something like that, you know."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Saddles]
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE RODEO.
+
+
+As the remaining weeks of the summer passed, Patches spent the days
+riding the range with Phil, and, under the careful eye of that
+experienced teacher, made rapid progress in the work he had chosen to
+master. The man's intense desire to succeed, his quick intelligence,
+with his instinct for acting without hesitation, and his reckless
+disregard for personal injury, together with his splendid physical
+strength, led him to a mastery of the details of a cowboy's work with
+remarkable readiness.
+
+Occasionally the two Cross-Triangle riders saw the men from Tailholt
+Mountain, sometimes merely sighting them in the distance, and, again,
+meeting them face to face at some watering place or on the range. When
+it happened that Nick Cambert was thus forced to keep up a show of
+friendly relations with the Cross-Triangle, the few commonplaces of the
+country were exchanged, but always the Tailholt Mountain man addressed
+his words to Phil, and, save for surly looks, ignored the foreman's
+companion. He had evidently--as Patches had said that he would--come to
+realize that he could not afford to arouse the cattlemen to action
+against him, as he would certainly have done, had he attempted to carry
+out his threat to "get" the man who had so humiliated him.
+
+But Patches' strange interest in Yavapai Joe in no way lessened. Always
+he had a kindly word for the poor unfortunate, and sought persistently
+to win the weakling's friendship. And Phil seeing this wondered, but
+held his peace.
+
+Frequently Kitty Reid, sometimes alone, often with the other members of
+the Reid household, came across the big meadow to spend an evening at
+the neighboring ranch. Sometimes Phil and Patches, stopping at the
+Pot-Hook-S home ranch, at the close of the day, for a drink at the
+windmill pump, would linger a while for a chat with Kitty, who would
+come from the house to greet them. And now and then Kitty, out for a
+ride on Midnight, would chance to meet the two Cross-Triangle men on the
+range, and so would accompany them for an hour or more.
+
+And thus the acquaintance between Patches and the girl grew into
+friendship; for Kitty loved to talk with this man of the things that
+play so large a part in that life which so appealed to her; and, with
+Phil's ever-ready and hearty endorsement of Patches, she felt safe in
+permitting the friendship to develop. And Patches, quietly observing,
+with now and then a conversational experiment--at which game he was an
+adepts--came to understand, almost as well as if he had been told,
+Phil's love for Kitty and her attitude toward the cowboy--her one-time
+schoolmate and sweetheart. Many times when the three were together, and
+the talk, guided by Kitty, led far from Phil's world, the cowboy would
+sit a silent listener, until Patches would skillfully turn the current
+back to the land of Granite Mountain and the life in which Phil had so
+vital a part.
+
+In the home-life at the Cross-Triangle, too, Patches gradually came to
+hold his own peculiar place. His cheerful helpfulness, and gentle,
+never-failing courtesy, no less than the secret pain and sadness that
+sometimes, at some chance remark, drove the light from his face and
+brought that wistful look into his eyes, won Mrs. Baldwin's heart. Many
+an evening under his walnut trees, with Stella and Phil and Curly and
+Bob and Little Billy near, the Dean was led by the rare skill and ready
+wit of Patches to open the book of his kindly philosophy, as he talked
+of the years that were past. And sometimes Patches himself, yielding to
+temptation offered by the Dean, would speak in such vein that the older
+man came to understand that this boy, as he so often called him, had
+somewhere, somehow, already experienced that Gethsemane which soon or
+late--the Dean maintains--leaves its shadow upon us all. The cowboys,
+for his quick and genuine appreciation of their skill and knowledge, as
+well as for his unassuming courage, hearty good nature and ready laugh,
+took him into their fellowship without question or reserve, while Little
+Billy, loyal ever to his ideal, "Wild Horse Phil," found a large place
+in his boyish heart for the tenderfoot who was so ready always to
+recognize superior wisdom and authority.
+
+So the stranger found his place among them, and in finding it, found
+also, perhaps, that which he most sorely needed.
+
+[Illustration:]
+
+When rodeo time came Patches was given a "string" of horses and, through
+the hard, grilling work that followed, took his place among the riders.
+There was no leisurely roaming over the range now, with only an
+occasional short dash after some animal that needed the "iron" or the
+"dope can;" but systematically and thoroughly the thirty or forty
+cowboys covered the country--mountain and mesa and flat, and wash and
+timbered ridge and rocky pass--for many miles in every direction.
+
+In this section of the great western cattle country, at the time of my
+story, the round-ups were cooperative. Each of the several ranchers
+whose cattle, marked by the owner's legally recorded brand, ranged over
+a common district that was defined only by natural boundaries, was
+represented in the rodeo by one or two or more of his cowboys, the
+number of his riders being relative to the number of cattle marked with
+his iron. This company of riders, each with from three to five saddle
+horses in his string, would assemble at one of the ranches participating
+in the rodeo. From this center they would work until a circle of country
+within riding distance was covered, the cattle gathered and
+"worked"--or, in other words, sorted--and the animals belonging to the
+various owners disposed of as the representatives were instructed by
+their employers. Then the rodeo would move to another ranch, and would
+so continue until the entire district of many miles was covered. The
+owner or the foreman of each ranch was in charge of the rodeo as long as
+the riders worked in his territory. When the company moved to the next
+point, this loader took his place in the ranks, and cheerfully received
+his orders from some comrade, who, the day before, had been as willingly
+obedient to him. There was little place in the rodeo for weak,
+incompetent or untrustworthy men. Each owner, from his long experience
+and knowledge of men, sent as his representatives the most skillful and
+conscientious riders that he could secure. To make a top hand at a rodeo
+a man needed to be, in the truest sense, a man.
+
+Before daylight, the horse wrangler had driven in the saddle band, and
+the men, with nose bags fashioned from grain sacks, were out in the
+corral to give the hard-working animals their feed of barley. The gray
+quiet of the early dawn was rudely broken by the sounds of the crowding,
+jostling, kicking, squealing band, mingled with the merry voices of the
+men, with now and then a shout of anger or warning as the cowboys moved
+here and there among their restless four-footed companions; and always,
+like a deep undertone, came the sound of trampling, iron-shod hoofs.
+
+Before the sky had changed to crimson and gold the call sounded from the
+ranch house, "Come and get it!" and laughing and joking in friendly
+rivalry, the boys rushed to breakfast. It was no dainty meal of toast
+and light cereals that these hardy ones demanded. But huge cuts of
+fresh-killed beef, with slabs of bread, and piles of potatoes, and
+stacks of hot cakes, and buckets of coffee, and whatever else the
+hard-working Chinaman could lay his hands on to satisfy their needs. As
+soon as each man reached the utmost limit of his capacity, he left the
+table without formality, and returned to the corral, where, with riata
+or persuasion, as the case demanded, he selected from his individual
+string of horses his first mount for the day.
+
+By the time the sun was beginning to gild the summit of old Granite
+Mountain's castle-like walls, and touch with glorious color the peaks of
+the neighboring sentinel hills, the last rider had saddled, and the
+company was mounted and ready for their foreman's word. Then to the
+music of jingling spurs, tinkling bridle chains, squeaking saddle
+leather, and the softer swish and rustle and flap of chaps, romals and
+riatas, they rode forth, laughing and joking, still, with now and then a
+roaring chorus of shouting comment or wild yells, as some half-broken
+horse gave an exhibition of his prowess in a mad effort to unseat his
+grinning rider.
+
+Soon the leader would call the name of a cowboy, known to be
+particularly familiar with the country which was to be the scene of that
+day's work, and telling him to take two or three or more men, as the
+case might be, would direct him to ride over a certain section,
+indicating the assigned territory by its natural marks of valley or flat
+or wash or ridge, and designating the point where the cattle would first
+be brought together. The cowboy named would rein his horse aside from
+the main company, calling the men of his choice as he did so, and a
+moment later with his companions would be lost to sight. A little
+farther, and again the foreman would name a rider, and, telling him to
+pick his men, would assign to him another section of the district to be
+covered, and this cowboy, with his chosen mates, would ride away. These
+smaller groups would, in their turn, separate, and thus the entire
+company of riders would open out like a huge fan to sweep the
+countryside.
+
+It was no mere pleasure canter along smoothly graded bridle paths or
+well-kept country highways that these men rode. From roughest
+rock-strewn mountain side and tree-clad slope, from boulder-piled
+watercourse and tangled brush, they must drive in the scattered cattle.
+At reckless speed, as their quarry ran and turned and dodged, they must
+hesitate at nothing. Climbing to the tops of the hills, scrambling
+catlike to the ragged crests of the ridges, sliding down the bluffs,
+jumping deep arroyos, leaping brush and boulders, twisting, dodging
+through the timber, they must go as fast as the strength and endurance
+of their mounts would permit. And so, gradually, as the sun climbed
+higher above the peaks and crags of Old Granite, the great living fan of
+men and horses closed, the courses of the widely scattered riders
+leading them, with the cattle they had found, to the given point.
+
+And now, the cattle, urged by the active horsemen, came streaming from
+the different sections to form the herd, and the quiet of the great
+range was broken by the bawling of confused and frightened calves, the
+lowing of anxious mothers, the shrill, long-drawn call of the steers,
+and the deep bellowing of the bulls, as the animals, so rudely driven
+from their peaceful feeding grounds, moved restlessly within the circle
+of guarding cowboys, while cows found their calves, and the monarchs of
+the range met in fierce combat.
+
+A number of the men--those whose mounts most needed the rest--were now
+left to hold the herd, or, perhaps, to move it quietly on to some other
+point, while the others were again sent out to cover another section of
+the territory included in that day's riding. As the hours passed, and
+the great fan of horsemen opened and closed, sweeping the cattle
+scattered over the range into the steadily growing herd, the rodeo moved
+gradually toward some chosen open flat or valley that afforded a space
+large enough for the operations that followed the work of gathering. At
+this "rodeo ground" a man would be waiting with fresh mounts for the
+riders, and, sometimes, with lunch. Quickly, those whose names were
+called by the foreman would change their saddles from dripping,
+exhausted horses to fresh animals from their individual strings, snatch
+a hasty lunch--often to be eaten in the saddle--and then, in their turn,
+would hold the cattle while their companions followed their example.
+
+Then came the fast, hot work of "parting" the cattle. The
+representatives from one of the ranches interested would ride in among
+the cattle held by the circle of cowboys, and, following their
+instructions, would select such animals bearing their employer's brand
+as were wanted, cutting them out and passing them through the line of
+guarding riders, to be held in a separate group. When the
+representatives of one owner had finished, they were followed by the men
+who rode for some other outfit; and so on, until the task of "parting"
+was finished.
+
+As the afternoon sun moved steadily toward the skyline of the western
+hills, the tireless activity of men and horses continued. The cattle,
+as the mounted men moved among them, drifted about, crowding and
+jostling, in uneasy discontent, with sometimes an indignant protest, and
+many attempts at escape by the more restless and venturesome. When an
+animal was singled out, the parting horses, chosen and prized for their
+quickness, dashed here and there through the herd with fierce leaps and
+furious rushes, stopping short in a terrific sprint to whirl, flashlike,
+and charge in another direction, as the quarry dodged and doubled. And
+now and then an animal would succeed for the moment in passing the guard
+line, only to be brought back after a short, sharp chase by the nearest
+cowboy. From the rodeo ground, where for long years the grass had been
+trampled out, the dust, lifted by the trampling thousands of hoofs in a
+dense, choking cloud, and heavy with the pungent odor of warm cattle and
+the smell of sweating horses, rising high into the clear air, could be
+seen from miles away, while the mingled voices of the bellowing, bawling
+herd, with now and then the shrill, piercing yells of the cowboys, could
+be heard almost as far.
+
+When this part of the work was over, some of the riders set out to drive
+the cattle selected to the distant home ranch corrals, while others of
+the company remained to brand the calves and to start the animals that
+were to have their freedom until the next rodeo time back to the open
+range. And so, at last--often not until the stars were out--the riders
+would dismount at the home corrals of the ranch that, at the time, was
+the center of their operations, or, perhaps, at some rodeo camping
+ground.
+
+At supper the day's work was reviewed with many a laugh and jest of
+pointed comment, and then, those whose horses needed attention because
+of saddle sores or, it might be, because of injuries from some fall on
+the rocks, busied themselves at the corral, while others met for a
+friendly game of cards, or talked and yarned over restful pipe or
+cigarette. And then, bed and blankets, and, all too soon, the reveille
+sounded by the beating hoofs of the saddle band as the wrangler drove
+them in, announced the beginning of another day.
+
+Not infrequently there were accidents--from falling horses--from angry
+bulls--from ill-tempered steers, or excited cows--or, perhaps, from a
+carelessly handled rope in some critical moment. Horses were killed; men
+with broken limbs, or with bodies bruised and crushed, were forced to
+drop out; and many a strong horseman who rode forth in the morning to
+the day's work, laughing and jesting with his mates, had been borne by
+his grave and silent comrades to some quiet resting place, to await, in
+long and dreamless sleep, the morning of that last great rodeo which, we
+are told, shall gather us all.
+
+Day after day, as Patches rode with these hardy men, Phil watched him
+finding himself and winning his place among the cowboys. They did not
+fail, as they said, to "try him out." Nor did Phil, in these trials,
+attempt in any way to assist his pupil. But the men learned very
+quickly, as Curly had learned at the time of Patches' introduction,
+that, while the new man was always ready to laugh with them when a joke
+was turned against himself, there was a line beyond which it was not
+well to go. In the work he was, of course, assigned only to such parts
+as did not require the skill and knowledge of long training and
+experience. But he did all that was given him to do with such readiness
+and skill, thanks to Phil's teaching, that the men wondered. And this,
+together with his evident ability in the art of defending himself, and
+the story of his strange coming to the Cross-Triangle, caused not a
+little talk, with many and varied opinions as to who he was, and what it
+was that had brought him among them. Strangely enough, very few believed
+that Patches' purpose in working as a cowboy for the Dean was simply to
+earn an honest livelihood. They felt instinctively--as, in fact, did
+Phil and the Dean--that there was something more beneath it all than
+such a commonplace.
+
+Nick Cambert, who, with Yavapai Joe, rode in the rodeo, carefully
+avoided the stranger. But Patches, by his persistent friendly interest
+in the Tailholt Mountain man's follower, added greatly to the warmth of
+the discussions and conjectures regarding himself. The rodeo had reached
+the Pot-Hook-S Ranch, with Jim Reid in charge, when the incident
+occurred which still further stimulated the various opinions and
+suggestions as to the new man's real character and mission.
+
+They were working the cattle that day on the rodeo ground just outside
+the home ranch corral. Phil and Curly were cutting out some
+Cross-Triangle steers, when the riders, who were holding the cattle, saw
+them separate a nine-months-old calf from the herd, and start it, not
+toward the cattle they had already cut out, but toward the corral.
+
+Instantly everybody knew what had happened.
+
+The cowboy nearest the gate did not need Phil's word to open it for his
+neighbor next in line to drive the calf inside.
+
+Not a word was said until the calves to be branded were also driven into
+the corral. Then Phil, after a moment's talk with Jim Reid, rode up to
+Nick Cambert, who was sitting on his horse a little apart from the group
+of intensely interested cowboys. The Cross-Triangle foreman's tone was
+curt. "I reckon I'll have to trouble you to vent your brand on that
+Cross-Triangle calf, Nick."
+
+The Tailholt Mountain man made no shallow pretense that he did not
+understand. "Not by a damn sight," he returned roughly. "I ain't raisin'
+calves for Bill Baldwin, an' I happen to know what I'm talkin' about
+this trip. That's a Four-Bar-M calf, an' I branded him myself over in
+Horse Wash before he left the cow. Some of your punchers are too damned
+handy with their runnin' irons, Mr. Wild Horse Phil."
+
+For a moment Phil looked at the man, while Jim Reid moved his horse
+nearer, and the cowboys waited, breathlessly. Then, without taking his
+eyes from the Tailholt Mountain man's face, Phil called sharply:
+
+"Patches, come here!"
+
+There was a sudden movement among the riders, and a subdued murmur, as
+Patches rode forward.
+
+"Is that calf you told me about in the corral, Patches?" asked Phil,
+when the man was beside him.
+
+"Yes, sir; that's him over there by that brindle cow." Patches indicated
+the animal in question.
+
+"And you put our iron on him?" asked Phil, still watching Nick.
+
+"I did," returned Patches, coolly.
+
+"Tell us about it," directed the Dean's foreman.
+
+And Patches obeyed, briefly. "It was that day you sent me to fix the
+fence on the southwest corner of the big pasture. I saw a bunch of
+cattle a little way outside the fence, and went to look them over. This
+calf was following a Cross-Triangle cow."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I watched them for half an hour."
+
+"What was in the bunch?"
+
+"Four steers, a Pot-Hook-S bull, five cows and this calf. There were
+three Five-Bar cows, one Diamond-and-a-Half and one Cross-Triangle. The
+calf went to the Cross-Triangle cow every time. And, besides, he is
+marked just like his mother. I saw her again this afternoon while we
+were working the cattle."
+
+Phil nodded. "I know her."
+
+Jim Reid was watching Patches keenly, with a quiet look now and then at
+Nick.
+
+The cowboys were murmuring among themselves.
+
+"Pretty good work for a tenderfoot!"
+
+"Tenderfoot, hell!"
+
+"They've got Nick this trip."
+
+"Got nothin'! Can't you see it's a frame-up?"
+
+Phil spoke to Nick. "Well, are satisfied? Will you vent your brand?"
+
+The big man's face was distorted with passion. "Vent nothin'," he
+roared. "On the word of a damned sneakin' tenderfoot! I--"
+
+He stopped, as Patches, before Phil could check the movement, pushed
+close to his side.
+
+In the sudden stillness the new man's cool, deliberate voice sounded
+clearly. "I am positive that you made a mistake when you put your iron
+on that calf, Mr. Cambert. And," he added slowly, as though with the
+kindest possible intention, "I am sure that you can safely take my word
+for it without further question."
+
+For a moment Nick glared at Patches, speechless. Then, to the amazement
+of every cowboy in the corral, the big man mumbled a surly something,
+and took down his riata to rope the calf and disclaim his ownership of
+the animal.
+
+Jim Reid shook his head in puzzled doubt.
+
+The cowboys were clearly divided.
+
+"He's too good a hand for a tenderfoot," argued one; "carried that off
+like an old-timer."
+
+"'Tain't like Nick to lay down so easy for anybody," added another.
+
+"Nick's on to something about Mr. Patches that we ain't next to,"
+insisted a third.
+
+"Or else we're all bein' strung for a bunch of suckers," offered still
+another.
+
+"You boys just hold your horses, an' ride easy," said Curly. "My money's
+still on Honorable Patches."
+
+And Bob added his loyal support with his cheerful "Me, too!"
+
+"It all looked straight enough," Jim Reid admitted to the Dean that
+evening, "but I can't get away from the notion that there was some sort
+of an understanding between your man an' that damned Tailholt Mountain
+thief. It looked like it was all too quiet an' easy somehow; like it had
+been planned beforehand."
+
+The Dean laughingly told his neighbor that he was right; that there was
+an understanding between Patches and Nick, and then explained by
+relating how Patches had met the Tailholt Mountain men that day at the
+spring.
+
+When the Dean had finished the big cowman asked several very suggestive
+questions. How did the Dean know that Patches' story was anything more
+than a cleverly arranged tale, invented for the express purpose of
+allaying any suspicion as to his true relationship with Nick? If
+Patches' character was so far above suspicion, why did he always dodge
+any talk that might touch his past? Was it necessary or usual for men to
+keep so close-mouthed about themselves? What did the Dean, or anyone
+else, for that matter, really know about this man who had appeared so
+strangely from nowhere, and had given a name even that was so plainly a
+ridiculous invention? The Dean must remember that the suspicion as to
+the source of Nick's too rapidly increasing herds had, so far, been
+directed wholly against Nick himself, and that the owner of the
+Four-Bar-M iron was not altogether a fool. It was quite time, Reid
+argued, for Nick to cease his personal activities, and to trust the
+actual work of branding to some confederate whose movements would not be
+so closely questioned. In short, Reid had been expecting some stranger
+to seek a job with some of the ranches that were in a position to
+contribute to the Tailholt Mountain outfit, and, for his part, he would
+await developments before becoming too enthusiastic over Honorable
+Patches.
+
+All of which the good Dean found very hard to answer.
+
+"But look here, Jim," he protested, "don't you go makin' it unpleasant
+for the boy. Whatever you think, you don't know any more than the rest
+of us. If we're guessin' on one side, you're guessin' on the other. I
+admit that what you say sounds reasonable; but, hang it, I like Patches.
+As for his name--well--we didn't use to go so much on names, in this
+country, you know. The boy may have some good reason for not talkin'
+about himself. Just give him a square chance; don't put no burrs under
+his saddle blanket--that's all I'm askin'."
+
+Jim laughed. The speech was so characteristic of the Dean, and Jim Reid
+loved his old friend and neighbor, as all men did, for being, as was
+commonly said, "so easy."
+
+"Don't worry, Will," he answered. "I'm not goin' to start anything. If I
+should happen to be right about Mr. Honorable Patches, he's exactly
+where we want him. I propose to keep my eye on him, that's all. And I
+think you an' Phil had better do the same."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+AFTER THE RODEO.
+
+
+As the fall rodeo swept on its way over the wide ranges, the last
+reluctant bits of summer passed, and hints of the coming winter began to
+appear The yellow glory of the goldenrod, and the gorgeous banks of
+color on sunflower flats faded to earthy russet and brown; the white
+cups of the Jimson weed were broken and lost; the dainty pepper-grass,
+the thin-leafed grama-grass, and the heavier bladed bear-grass of the
+great pasture lands were dry and tawny; and the broom-weed that had
+tufted the rolling hills with brighter green, at the touch of the first
+frost, turned a dull and somber gray; while the varied beauties of the
+valley meadows became even as the dead and withered leaves of the Dean's
+walnut trees that, in falling, left the widespread limbs and branches so
+bare.
+
+Then the rodeo and the shipping were over; the weeks of the late fall
+range riding were past--and it was winter.
+
+From skyline to skyline the world was white, save for the dark pines
+upon the mountain sides, the brighter cedars and junipers upon the hills
+and ridges, and the living green of the oak brush, that, when all else
+was covered with snow, gave the cattle their winter feed.
+
+More than ever, now, with the passing of the summer and fall, Kitty
+longed for the stirring life that, in some measure, had won her from the
+scenes of her home and from her homeland friends. The young woman's
+friendship with Patches--made easy by the fact that the Baldwins had
+taken him so wholly into their hearts--served to keep alive her memories
+of that world to which she was sure he belonged, and such memories did
+not tend to make Kitty more contented and happy in Williamson Valley.
+
+Toward Phil, Kitty was unchanged. Many times her heart called for him so
+insistently that she wished she had never learned to know any life other
+than that life to which they had both been born. If only she had not
+spent those years away from home--she often told herself--it would all
+have been so different. She could have been happy with Phil--very
+happy--if only she had remained in his world. But now--now she was
+afraid--afraid for him as well as for herself. Her friendship with
+Patches had, in so many ways, emphasized the things that stood between
+her and the man whom, had it not been for her education, she would have
+accepted so gladly as her mate.
+
+Many times when the three were together, and Kitty had led the talk far
+from the life with which the cowboy was familiar, the young woman was
+forced, against the wish of her heart, to make comparisons. Kitty did
+not understand that Phil--unaccustomed to speaking of things outside his
+work and the life interests of his associates, and timid always in
+expressing his own thoughts--found it very hard to reveal the real
+wealth of his mind to her when she assumed so readily that he knew
+nothing beyond his horses and cattle. But Patches, to whom Phil had
+learned to speak with little reserve, understood. And, knowing that the
+wall which the girl felt separated her from the cowboy was built almost
+wholly of her own assumptions, Patches never lost an opportunity to help
+the young woman to a fuller acquaintance with the man whom she thought
+she had known since childhood.
+
+During the long winter months, many an evening at the Cross-Triangle, at
+the Reid home, or, perhaps, at some neighborhood party or dance,
+afforded Kitty opportunities for a fuller understanding of Phil, but
+resulted only in establishing a closer friendship with Patches.
+
+Then came the spring.
+
+The snow melted; the rains fell; the washes and creek channels were
+filled with roaring floods; hill and ridge and mountain slope and mesa
+awoke to the new life that was swelling in every branch and leaf and
+blade; the beauties of the valley meadow appeared again in fresh and
+fragrant loveliness; while from fence-post and bush and grassy bank and
+new-leaved tree the larks and mocking birds and doves voiced their glad
+return.
+
+And, with the spring, came a guest to the Cross-Triangle Ranch--another
+stranger.
+
+Patches had been riding the drift fence, and, as he made his way toward
+the home ranch, in the late afternoon, he looked a very different man
+from the Patches who, several months before, had been rescued by Kitty
+from a humiliating experience with that same fence.
+
+The fact that he was now riding Stranger, the big bay with the blazed
+face, more than anything else, perhaps, marked the change that had come
+to the man whom the horse had so viciously tested, on that day when they
+began together their education and work on the Cross-Triangle Ranch.
+
+No one meeting the cowboy, who handled his powerful and wild spirited
+mount with such easy confidence and skill, would have identified him
+with the white-faced, well-tailored gentleman whom Phil had met on the
+Divide. The months of active outdoor life had given his tall body a
+lithe and supple strength that was revealed in his every movement, while
+wind and sun had stained his skin that deep tan which marks those who
+must face the elements every waking hour. Prom tinkling bridle chain and
+jingling spur, to the coiled riata, his equipment showed the
+unmistakable marks of use. His fringed chaps, shaped, by many a day in
+the saddle, to his long legs, expressed experience, while his broad hat,
+soiled by sweat and dust, had acquired individuality, and his very
+jumper--once blue but now faded and patched--disclaimed the tenderfoot.
+
+Riding for a little way along the top of the ridge that forms the
+western edge of the valley, Patches looked down upon the red roofs of
+the buildings of the home ranch, and smiled as he thought of the welcome
+that awaited him there at the close of his day's work. The Dean and
+Stella, with Little Billy, and Phil, and the others of the home circle,
+had grown very dear to this strong man of whom they still knew nothing;
+and great as was the change in his outward appearance and manner, the
+man himself knew that there were other changes as great. Honorable
+Patches had not only acquired a name and a profession, but in acquiring
+them he had gained something of much greater worth to himself. And so he
+was grateful to those who, taking him on trust, had helped him more than
+they knew.
+
+He had left the ridge, and was half way across the flat toward the
+corrals, when Little Billy, spurring old Sheep in desperate energy, rode
+wildly out to meet him.
+
+As the lad approached, he greeted his big friend with shrill, boyish
+shouts, and Patches answered with a cowboy yell which did credit to his
+training, while Stranger, with a wild, preliminary bound into the air,
+proceeded, with many weird contortions, to give an exhibition which
+fairly expressed his sentiments.
+
+Little Billy grinned with delight. "Yip! Yip! Yee-e-e!" he shrilled, for
+Stranger's benefit. And then, as the big horse continued his
+manifestations, the lad added the cowboy's encouraging admonition to the
+rider. "Stay with him, Patches! Stay with him!"
+
+Patches laughingly stayed with him. "What you aimin' to do, pardner"--he
+asked good-naturedly, when Stranger at last consented to keep two feet
+on the ground at the same time--"tryin' to get me piled?"
+
+"Shucks!" retorted the youngster admiringly. "I don't reckon anything
+could pile you, _now_. I come out to tell you that we got company," he
+added, as, side by side, they rode on toward the corrals.
+
+Patches was properly surprised. "Company!" he exclaimed.
+
+Little Billy grinned proudly. "Yep. He's a man--from way back East
+somewhere. Uncle Will brought him out from town. They got here just
+after dinner. I don't guess he's ever seen a ranch before. Gee! but
+won't we have fun with him!"
+
+Patches face was grave as he listened. "How do you know he is from the
+East, Billy?" he asked, concealing his anxious interest with a smile at
+his little comrade.
+
+"Heard Uncle Will tell Phil and Kitty."
+
+"Oh, Kitty is at the house, too, is she?"
+
+Billy giggled. "She an' Phil's been off somewheres ridin' together most
+all day; they just got back a while ago. They was talkin' with the
+company when I left. Phil saw you when you was back there on the ridge,
+an' I come on out to tell you."
+
+Phil and Kitty were walking toward their horses, which were standing
+near the corral fence, as Patches and Little Billy came through the
+gate.
+
+The boy dropped from his saddle, and ran on into the house to tell his
+Aunt Stella that Patches had come, leaving Sheep to be looked after by
+whoever volunteered for the service. It was one of Little Billy's
+humiliations that he was not yet tall enough to saddle or bridle his own
+horse, and the men tactfully saw to it that his mount was always ready
+in the morning, and properly released at night, without any embarrassing
+comments on the subject.
+
+Patches checked his horse, and without dismounting greeted his friends.
+"You're not going?" he said to Kitty, with a note of protest in his
+voice. "I haven't seen you for a week. It's not fair for Phil to take
+advantage of his position and send me off somewhere alone while he
+spends his time riding over the country with you."
+
+They laughed up at him as he sat there on the big bay, hat in hand,
+looking down into their upturned faces with the intimate, friendly
+interest of an older brother.
+
+Patches noticed that Kitty's eyes were bright with excitement, and that
+Phil's were twinkling with suppressed merriment.
+
+"I must go, Patches," said the young woman. "I ought to have gone two
+hours ago; but I was so interested that the time slipped away before I
+realized."
+
+"We have company," explained Phil, looking at Patches and deliberately
+closing one eye--the one that Kitty could not see. "A distinguished
+guest, if you please. I'll loan you a clean shirt for supper; that is,
+if mother lets you eat at the same table with him."
+
+"Phil, how can you!" protested Kitty.
+
+The two men laughed, but Phil fancied that there was a hint of anxiety
+in Patches' face, as the man on the horse said, "Little Billy broke the
+news to me. Who is he?"
+
+"A friend of Judge Morris in Prescott," answered Phil. "The Judge asked
+Uncle Will to take him on the ranch for a while. He and the Judge
+were--"
+
+Kitty interrupted with enthusiasm. "It is Professor Parkhill, Patches,
+the famous professor of aesthetics, you know: Everard Charles Parkhill.
+And he's going to spend the summer in Williamson Valley! Isn't it
+wonderful!"
+
+Phil saw a look of relief in his friend's face as Patches answered Kitty
+with sympathetic interest. "It certainly will be a great pleasure, Miss
+Reid, especially for you, to have one so distinguished for his
+scholarship in the neighborhood. Is Professor Parkhill visiting Arizona
+for his health?"
+
+Something in Patches' voice caused Phil to turn hastily aside.
+
+But Kitty, who was thinking how perfectly Patches understood her,
+noticed nothing in his grave tones save his usual courteous deference.
+
+"Partly because of his health," she answered, "but he is going to
+prepare a series of lectures, I understand. He says that in the crude
+and uncultivated mentalities of our--"
+
+"Here he is now," interrupted Phil, as the distinguished guest of the
+Cross-Triangle appeared, coming slowly toward them.
+
+Professor Everard Charles Parkhill looked the part to which, from his
+birth, he had been assigned by his over-cultured parents. His slender
+body, with its narrow shoulders and sunken chest, frail as it was,
+seemed almost too heavy for his feeble legs. His thin face, bloodless
+and sallow, with a sparse, daintily trimmed beard and weak watery eyes,
+was characterized by a solemn and portentous gravity, as though,
+realizing fully the profound importance of his mission in life, he could
+permit no trivial thought to enter his bald, domelike head. One knew
+instinctively that in all the forty-five or fifty years of his little
+life no happiness or joy that had not been scientifically sterilized and
+certified had ever been permitted to stain his super-aesthetic soul.
+
+As he came forward, he gazed at the long-limbed man on the big bay horse
+with a curious eagerness, as though he were considering a strange and
+interesting creature that could scarcely be held to belong to the human
+race.
+
+"Professor Parkhill," said Phil coolly, "you were saying that you had
+never seen a genuine cowboy in his native haunt. Permit me to introduce
+a typical specimen, Mr. Honorable Patches. Patches, this is Professor
+Parkhill."
+
+"Phil," murmured Kitty, "how can you?"
+
+The Professor was gazing at Patches as though fascinated. And Patches,
+his weather-beaten face as grave as the face of a wooden Indian, stared
+back at the Professor with a blank, open-mouthed and wild-eyed
+expression of rustic wonder that convulsed Phil and made Kitty turn away
+to hide a smile.
+
+"Howdy! Proud to meet up with you, mister," drawled the typical specimen
+of the genus cowboy. And then, as though suddenly remembering his
+manners, he leaped to the ground and strode awkwardly forward, one hand
+outstretched in greeting, the other holding fast to Stranger's bridle
+rein, while the horse danced and plunged about with reckless
+indifference to the polite intentions of his master.
+
+The Professor backed fearfully away from the dangerous looking horse and
+the equally formidable-appearing cowboy. Whereat Patches addressed
+Stranger with a roar of savage wrath.
+
+"Whoa! You consarned, square-headed, stiff-legged, squint-eyed,
+lop-eared, four-flusher, you. Whoa, I tell you! Cain't you see I'm
+a-wantin' to shake hands with this here man what the boss has interduced
+me to?"
+
+Phil nearly choked. Kitty was looking unutterable things. They did not
+know that Patches was suffering from a reaction caused by the discovery
+that he had never before met Professor Parkhill.
+
+"You see, mister," he explained gravely, advancing again with Stranger
+following nervously, "this here fool horse ain't used to strangers, no
+how, 'specially them as don't look, as you might say, just natural
+like." He finished with a sheepish grin, as he grasped the visitor's
+soft little hand and pumped it up and down with virile energy. Then,
+staring with bucolic wonder at the distinguished representative of the
+highest culture, he asked, "Be you an honest-to-God professor? I've
+heard about such, but I ain't never seen one before."
+
+The little man replied hurriedly, but with timid pride, "Certainly, sir;
+yes, certainly."
+
+"You be!" exclaimed the cowboy, as though overcome by his nearness to
+such dignity. "Excuse me askin', but if you don't mind, now--what be you
+professor of?"
+
+The other answered with more courage, as though his soul found strength
+in the very word: "Aesthetics."
+
+The cowboy's jaw dropped, his mouth opened in gaping awe, and he looked
+from the professor to Phil and Kitty, as if silently appealing to them
+to verify this startling thing which he had heard. "You don't say!" he
+murmured at last in innocent admiration. "Well, now, to think of a
+little feller like you a-bein' all that! But jest what be them there
+esteticks what you're professor of--if you don't mind my askin'?"
+
+The distinguished scholar answered promptly, in his best platform voice,
+"The science or doctrine of the nature of beauty and of judgments of
+tastes."
+
+At this, Stranger, with a snort of fear, stood straight up on his hind
+legs, and Professor Parkhill scuttled to a position of safety behind
+Phil.
+
+"Excuse me, folks," said Patches. "I'm just naturally obliged to 'tend
+to this here thing what thinks he's a hoss. Come along, you ornery,
+pigeon-toed, knock-kneed, sway-backed, wooly-haired excuse, you. You
+ain't got no more manners 'n a measly coyote."
+
+The famous professor of aesthetics stood with Phil and Kitty watching
+Patches as that gentleman relieved the dancing bay of the saddle, and
+led him away through the corrals to the gate leading into the meadow
+pasture.
+
+"I beg pardon," murmured the visitor in his thin, little voice, "but
+what did I understand you to say is the fellow's name?"
+
+"Patches; Honorable Patches," answered Phil.
+
+"How strange! how extraordinarily strange! I should be very interested
+to know something of his ancestry, and, if possible, to trace the
+origin of such a peculiar name."
+
+Phil replied with exaggerated concern. "For heaven's sake, sir, don't
+say anything about the man's name in his hearing."
+
+"He--he is dangerous, you mean?"
+
+"He is, if he thinks anyone is making light of his name. You should ask
+some of the boys who have tried it."
+
+"But I--I assure you, Mr. Acton, I had no thought of ridicule--far from
+it. Oh, very far from it."
+
+Kitty was obliged to turn away. She arrived at the corral in time to
+meet Patches, who was returning.
+
+"You ought to be ashamed," she scolded. But in spite of herself her eyes
+were laughing.
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Patches meekly, hat in hand.
+
+"How could you do such a thing?" she demanded.
+
+"How could I help doing it?"
+
+"How could you help it?"
+
+"Yes. You saw how he looked at me. Really, Miss Reid, I couldn't bear to
+disappoint him so cruelly. Honestly, now, wasn't I exactly what he
+expected me to be? I think you should compliment me. Didn't I do it very
+well?"
+
+"But, he'll think you're nothing but a cowboy," she protested.
+
+"Fine!" retorted Patches, quickly. "I thank you, Miss Reid; that is
+really the most satisfactory compliment I have ever received."
+
+"You're mocking me now," said Kitty, puzzled by his manner.
+
+"Indeed, I am not. I am very serious," he returned. "But here he comes
+again. With your gracious permission, I'll make my exit. Please don't
+explain to the professor. It would humiliate me, and think how it would
+shock and disappoint him!"
+
+Lifting his saddle from the ground and starting toward the shed, he said
+in a louder tone, "Sure, I won't ferget, Miss Kitty; an' you kin tell
+your paw that there baldfaced steer o' his'n, what give us the slip last
+rodeo time, is over in our big pasture. I sure seen him thar to-day."
+
+During the days immediately following that first meeting, Kitty passed
+many hours with Professor Parkhill. Phil and his cowboys were busy
+preparing for the spring rodeo. Mrs. Baldwin was wholly occupied with
+ministering to the animal comforts of her earthly household. And the
+Dean, always courteous and kind to his guest, managed, nevertheless, to
+think of some pressing business that demanded his immediate and personal
+attention whenever the visitor sought to engage him in conversation. The
+professor, quite naturally holding the cattleman to be but a rude,
+illiterate and wholly materialistic creature, but little superior in
+intellectual and spiritual powers to his own beasts, sought merely to
+investigate the Dean's mental works, with as little regard for the
+Dean's feelings as a biologist would show toward a hug. The Dean
+confided to Phil and Patches, one day when he had escaped to the
+blacksmith shop where the men were shoeing their horses, that the
+professor was harmlessly insane. "Just think," he exploded, "of the
+poor, little fool livin' in Chicago for three years, an' never once
+goin' out to the stockyards even!"
+
+It remained, therefore, for Kitty--the only worshiper of the professor's
+gods in Williamson Valley--to supply that companionship which seems so
+necessary even to those whose souls are so far removed from material
+wants. In short, as Little Billy put it, with a boy's irreverence,
+"Kitty rode herd on the professor." And, strangely enough to them all,
+Kitty seemed to like the job.
+
+Either because her friendship with Patches--which had some to mean a
+great deal to Kitty--outweighed her respect and admiration for the
+distinguished object of his fun, or because she waited for some
+opportunity to make the revelation a punishment to the offender, the
+young woman did not betray the real character of the cowboy to the
+stranger. And the professor, thanks to Phil's warning, not only
+refrained from investigating the name of Patches, but carefully avoided
+Patches himself. In the meantime, the "typical specimen" was forced to
+take a small part in the table talk lest he betray himself. So marked
+was this that Mrs. Baldwin one day, not understanding, openly chided him
+for being so "glum." Whereupon the Dean--to whom Phil had thoughtfully
+explained--teased the deceiver unmercifully, with many laughingly
+alleged reasons for his "grouch," while Curly and Bob, attributing their
+comrade's manner to the embarrassing presence of the stranger, grinned
+sympathetically; and the professor himself--unconsciously agreeing with
+the cowboys--with kindly condescension tried to make the victim of his
+august superiority as much at ease as possible; which naturally, for
+the Dean and Phil, added not a little to the situation.
+
+Then the spring rodeo took the men far from the home ranch, and for
+several weeks the distinguished guest of the Cross-Triangle was left
+almost wholly to the guardianship of the young woman who lived on the
+other side of the big meadows.
+
+It was the last day of the rodeo, when Phil rode to the home ranch, late
+in the afternoon, to consult with the Dean about the shipping. Patches
+and the cowboys who were to help in the long drive to the railroad were
+at Toohey with the cattle. While the cowboys were finishing their early
+breakfast the next morning, the foreman returned, and Patches knew,
+almost before Phil spoke, that something had happened. They shouted
+their greetings as he approached, but he had no smile for their cheery
+reception, nor did he answer, even, until he had ridden close to the
+group about the camp fire. Then, with a short "mornin', boys," he
+dismounted and stood with the bridle reins in his hand.
+
+At his manner a hush fell over the little company, and they watched him
+curiously.
+
+"No breakfast, Sam," he said, shortly, to the Chinaman. "Just a cup of
+coffee." Then to the cowboys, "You fellows saddle up and get that bunch
+of cattle to moving. We'll load at Skull Valley."
+
+Sam brought his coffee and he drank it as he stood, while the men
+hurriedly departed for their horses. Patches, the last to go, paused a
+moment, as though to speak, but Phil prevented him with a gruff order.
+"Get a move on you, Patches. Those cars will be there long before we
+are."
+
+And Patches, seeing the man's face dark and drawn with pain, moved away
+without a word.
+
+"Great snakes," softly ejaculated Curly a few moments later, as Patches
+stooped to take his saddle from where it lay on the ground beside
+Curly's. "What do you reckon's eatin' the boss? Him an' the Dean
+couldn't 'a' mixed it last night, could they? Do you reckon the Dean
+crawled him about somethin'?"
+
+Patches shook his head with a "Search me, pardner," as he turned to his
+horse.
+
+"Somethin's happened sure," muttered the other, busy with his saddle
+blanket. "Sufferin' cats! but I felt like he'd poured a bucket of ice
+water down my neck!" He drew the cinch tight with a vigorous jerk that
+brought a grunt of protest from his mount. "That's right," he continued,
+addressing the horse, "hump yourself, an' swell up and grunt, damn you;
+you ought to be thankin' God that you ain't nothin' but a hoss, nohow,
+with no feelin' 'cept what's in your belly." He dropped the heavy
+stirrup with a vicious slap, and swung to his seat. "If Phil's a-goin'
+to keep up the way he's startin', we'll sure have a pleasant little ol'
+ride to Skull Valley. Oh, Lord! but I wisht I was a professor of them
+there exteticks, or somethin' nice and gentle like, jest for to-day,
+anyhow."
+
+Patches laughed. "Think you could qualify, Curly?"
+
+The cowboy grinned as they rode off together. "So far as I've noticed
+the main part of the work, I could. The shade of them walnut trees at
+the home ranch, or the Pot-Hook-S front porch, an' a nice easy rockin'
+chair with fat cushions, or mebby the buckboard onct in a while, with
+Kitty to do the drivin'--Say, this has sure been some little ol' rodeo,
+ain't it? I ain't got a hoss in my string that can more'n stand up, an'
+honest to God, Patches, I'm jest corns all over. How's your saddle feel,
+this mornin'?"
+
+"It's got corns, too," admitted Patches. "But there's Phil; we'd better
+be riding."
+
+All that day Phil kept to himself, speaking to his companions only when
+speech could not be avoided, and then with the fewest possible words.
+That night, he left the company as soon as he had finished his supper,
+and went off somewhere alone, and Patches heard him finding his bed,
+long after the other members of the outfit were sound asleep. And the
+following day, through the trying work of loading the cattle, the young
+foreman was so little like himself that, had it not been that his men
+were nearly all old-time, boyhood friends who had known him all his
+life, there would surely have been a mutiny.
+
+It was late in the afternoon, when the last reluctant steer was prodded
+and pushed up the timbered runway from the pens, and crowded into the
+car. Curly and Bob were going with the cattle train. The others would
+remain at Skull Valley until morning, when they would start for their
+widely separated homes. Phil announced that he was going to the home
+ranch that night.
+
+"You can make it home sometime to-morrow, Patches," he finished, when
+he had said good-by to the little group of men with whom he had lived
+and worked in closest intimacy through the long weeks of the rodeo. He
+reined his horse about, even as he spoke, to set out on his long ride.
+
+The Cross-Triangle foreman was beyond hearing of the cowboys when
+Patches overtook him. "Do you mind if I go back to the Cross-Triangle
+with you to-night, Phil?" the cowboy asked quietly.
+
+Phil checked his horse and looked at his friend a moment without
+answering. Then, in a kindlier tone than he had used the past two days,
+he said, "You better stay here with the boys, and get your night's rest,
+Patches. You have had a long hard spell of it in this rodeo, and
+yesterday and to-day have not been exactly easy. Shipping is always
+hell, even when everybody is in a good humor," he smiled grimly.
+
+"If you do not object, I would really like to go," said Patches simply.
+
+"But your horse is as tired as you ought to be," protested Phil.
+
+"I'm riding Stranger, you know," the other answered.
+
+To which Phil replied tersely, "Let's be riding, then."
+
+The cowboys, who had been watching the two men, looked at each other in
+amazement as Phil and Patches rode away together.
+
+"Well, what do you make of that?" exclaimed one.
+
+"Looks like Honorable Patches was next," commented another.
+
+"Us old-timers ain't in it when it comes to associatin' with the boss,"
+offered a third.
+
+"You shut up on that line," came sharply from Curly. "Phil ain't turnin'
+us down for nobody. I reckon if Patches is fool enough to want to ride
+to the Cross-Triangle to-night Phil ain't got no reason for stoppin'
+him. If any of you punchers wants to make the ride, the way's open,
+ain't it?"
+
+"Now, don't you go on the prod, too," soothed the other. "We wasn't
+meanin' nothin' agin Phil."
+
+"Well, what's the matter with Patches?" demanded the Cross-Triangle man,
+whose heart was sorely troubled by the mystery of his foreman's mood.
+
+"Ain't nobody _said_ as there was anything the matter. Fact is, don't
+nobody _know_ that there is."
+
+And for some reason Curly had no answer.
+
+"Don't it jest naturally beat thunder the way he's cottoned up to that
+yellow dog of a Yavapai Joe?" mused another, encouraged by Curly's
+silence. "Three or four of the boys told how they'd seen 'em together
+off an' on, but I didn't think nothin' of it until I seen 'em myself
+when we was workin' over at Tailholt. It was one evenin' after supper. I
+went down to the corral to fix up that Pedro horse's back, when I heard
+voices kind o' low like. I stopped a minute, an' then sort o' eased
+along in the dark, an' run right onto 'em where they was a-settin' in
+the door o' the saddle room, cozy as you please. Yavapai sneaked away
+while I was gettin' the lantern an' lightin' it, but Patches, he jest
+stayed an' held the light for me while I fixed ol' Pedro, jest as if
+nothin' had happened."
+
+"Well," said Curly sarcastically, "what _had_ happened?"
+
+"I don't know-nothin'--mebby."
+
+"If Patches was what some o' you boys seem to think, do you reckon he'd
+be a-ridin' for the Cross-Triangle?" demanded Curly.
+
+"He might, an' he mightn't," retorted two or three at once.
+
+"Nobody can't say nothin' in a case like that until the show-down,"
+added one. "I don't reckon the Dean knows any more than the rest of us."
+
+"Unless Patches is what some of the other boys are guessin'," said
+another.
+
+"Which means," finished Curly, in a tone of disgust, "that we've got to
+millin' 'round the same old ring again. Come on, Bob; let's see what
+they've got for supper. That engine'll happen along directly, an' we'll
+be startin' hungry."
+
+Phil Acton was not ignorant of the different opinions that were held by
+the cattlemen regarding Honorable Patches. Nor, as the responsible
+foreman of the Cross-Triangle, could he remain indifferent to them.
+During those first months of Patches' life on the ranch, when the
+cowboy's heart had so often been moved to pity for the stranger who had
+come to them apparently from some painful crisis in his life, he had
+laughed at the suspicions of his old friends and associates. But as the
+months had passed, and Patches had so rapidly developed into a strong,
+self-reliant man, with a spirit of bold recklessness that was marked
+even among those hardy riders of the range, Phil forgot, in a measure,
+those characteristics that the stranger had shown at the beginning of
+their acquaintance. At the same time, the persistent suspicions of the
+cattlemen, together with Patches' curious, and, in a way, secret
+interest in Yavapai Joe, could not but have a decided influence upon the
+young man who was responsible for the Dean's property.
+
+It was inevitable, under the circumstances, that Phil's attitude toward
+Patches should change, even as the character of Patches himself had
+changed. While the foreman's manner of friendship and kindly regard
+remained, so far, unaltered, and while Phil still, in his heart,
+believed in his friend, and--as he would have said--"would continue to
+back his judgment until the show-down," nevertheless that spirit of
+intimacy which had so marked those first days of their work together had
+gradually been lost to them. The cowboy no longer talked to his
+companion, as he had talked that day when they lay in the shade of the
+walnut tree at Toohey, and during the following days of their range
+riding. He no longer admitted his friend into his inner life, as he had
+done that day when he told Patches the story of the wild stallion. And
+Patches, feeling the change, and unable to understand the reason for it,
+waited patiently for the time when the cloud that had fallen between
+them should lift.
+
+So they rode together that night, homeward bound, at the end of the
+long, hard weeks of the rodeo, in the deepening gloom of the day's
+passing, in the hushed stillness of the wild land, under the wide sky
+where the starry sentinel hosts were gathering for their ever-faithful
+watch. And as they rode, their stirrups often touching, each was alone
+with his own thoughts. Phil, still in the depth of his somber mood,
+brooded over his bitter trouble. Patches, sympathetically wondering,
+silently questioning, wished that he could help.
+
+There are times when a man's very soul forces him to seek companionship.
+Alone in the night with this man for whom, even at that first moment of
+their meeting on the Divide, he had felt a strange sense of kinship,
+Phil found himself drifting far from the questions that had risen to mar
+the closeness of their intimacy. The work of the rodeo was over; his
+cowboy associates, with their suggestive talk, were far away. Under the
+influence of the long, dark miles of that night, and the silent presence
+of his companion, the young man, for the time being, was no longer the
+responsible foreman of the Cross-Triangle Ranch. In all that vast and
+silent world there was, for Phil Acton, only himself, his trouble, and
+his friend.
+
+And so it came about that, little by little, the young man told Patches
+the story of his dream, and of how it was now shattered and broken.
+
+Sometimes bitterly, as though he felt injustice; sometimes harshly, as
+though in contempt for some weakness of his own; with sentences broken
+by the pain he strove to subdue, with halting words and long silences,
+Phil told of his plans for rebuilding the home of his boyhood, and of
+restoring the business that, through the generosity of his father, had
+been lost; of how, since his childhood almost, he had worked and saved
+to that end; and of his love for Kitty, which had been the very light of
+his dream, and without which for him there was no purpose in dreaming.
+And the man who rode so close beside him listened with a fuller
+understanding and a deeper sympathy than Phil knew.
+
+"And now," said Phil hopelessly, "it's all over. I've sure come to the
+end of my string. Reid has put the outfit on the market. He's going to
+sell out and quit. Uncle Will told me night before last when I went home
+to see about the shipping."
+
+"Reid is going to sell!" exclaimed Patches; and there was a curious note
+of exultation in his voice which Phil did not hear. Neither did Phil see
+that his companion was smiling to himself under cover of the darkness.
+
+"It's that damned Professor Parkhill that's brought it about," continued
+the cowboy bitterly. "Ever since Kitty came home from the East she has
+been discontented and dissatisfied with ranch life. I was all right when
+she went away, but when she came back she discovered that I was nothing
+but a cow-puncher. She has been fair, though. She has tried to get back
+where she was before she left and I thought I would win her again in
+time. I was so sure of it that it never troubled me. You have seen how
+it was. And you have seen how she was always wanting the life that she
+had learned to want while she was away--the life that you came from,
+Patches. I have been mighty glad for your friendship with her, too,
+because I thought she would learn from you that a man could have all
+that is worth having in _that_ life, and still be happy and contented
+_here_. And she would have learned, I am sure. She couldn't help seeing
+it. But now that damned fool who knows no more of real manhood than I
+do of his profession has spoiled it all."
+
+"But Phil, I don't understand. What has Parkhill to do with Reid's
+selling out?"
+
+"Why, don't you see?" Phil returned savagely. "He's the supreme
+representative of the highest highbrowed culture, isn't he? He's a lord
+high admiral, duke, or potentate of some sort, in the world of loftiest
+thought, isn't he? He lives, moves and has his being in the lofty realms
+of the purely spiritual, doesn't he? He's cultured, and cultivated, and
+spiritualized, until he vibrates nothing but pure soul--whatever that
+means--and he's refined himself, and mental-disciplined himself, and
+soul-dominated himself, until there's not an ounce of red blood left in
+his carcass. Get him between you and the sun, after what he calls a
+dinner, and you can see every material mouthful that he, has disgraced
+himself by swallowing. He's not human, I tell you; he's only a kind of a
+he-ghost, and ought to be fed on sterilized moonbeams and pasteurized
+starlight."
+
+"Amen!" said Patches solemnly, when Phil paused for lack of breath.
+"But, Phil, your eloquent characterization does not explain what the
+he-ghost has to do with the sale of the Pot-Hook-S outfit."
+
+Phil's voice again dropped into its hopeless key as he answered. "You
+remember how, from the very first, Kitty--well--sort of worshiped him,
+don't you?"
+
+"You mean how she worshiped his aesthetic cult, don't you?" corrected
+Patches quietly.
+
+"I suppose that's it," responded Phil gloomily. "Well, Uncle Will says
+that they have been together mighty near every day for the past three
+months, and that about half of the time they have been over at Kitty's
+home. He has discovered, he says, that Kitty possesses a rare and
+wonderful capacity for absorbing the higher truths of the more purely
+intellectual and spiritual planes of life, and that she has a
+marvelously developed appreciation of those ideals of life which are so
+far removed from the base and material interests and passions which
+belong to the mere animal existence of the common herd."
+
+"Oh, hell!" groaned Patches.
+
+"Well, that's what he told Uncle Will," returned Phil stoutly. "And he
+has harped on that string so long, and yammered so much to Jim and to
+Kitty's mother about the girl's wonderful intellectuality, and what a
+record-breaking career she would have if only she had the opportunity,
+and what a shame, and a loss to the world it is for her to remain buried
+in these soul-dwarfing surroundings, that they have got to believing it
+themselves. You see, Kitty herself has in a way been getting them used
+to the idea that Williamson Valley isn't much of a place, and that the
+cow business doesn't rank very high among the best people. So Jim is
+going to sell out, and move away somewhere, where Kitty can have her
+career, and the boys can grow up to be something better than low-down
+cow-punchers like you and me. Jim is able to retire anyway."
+
+"Thanks, Phil," said Patches quietly.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Why, for including me in your class. I consider it a compliment,
+and"--he added, with a touch of his old self-mocking humor--"I think I
+know what I am saying--better, perhaps, than the he-ghost knows what he
+talks about."
+
+"It may be that you do," returned Phil wearily, "but you can see where
+it all puts me. The professor has sure got me down and hog-tied so tight
+that I can't even think."
+
+"Perhaps, and again, perhaps not," returned Patches. "Reid hasn't found
+a buyer for the outfit yet, has he?"
+
+"Not yet, but they'll come along fast enough. The Pot-Hook-S Ranch is
+too well known for the sale to hang fire long."
+
+The next day Phil seemed to slip back again, in his attitude toward
+Patches, to the temper of those last weeks of the rodeo. It was as
+though the young man--with his return to the home ranch and to the Dean
+and their talks and plans for the work--again put himself, his personal
+convictions and his peculiar regard for Patches, aside, and became the
+unprejudiced foreman, careful for his employer's interests.
+
+Patches very quickly, but without offense, found that the door, which
+his friend had opened in the long dark hours of that lonely night ride,
+had closed again; and, thinking that he understood, he made no attempt
+to force his way. But, for some reason, Patches appeared to be in an
+unusually happy frame of mind, and went singing and whistling about the
+corrals and buildings as though exceedingly well pleased with himself
+and with the world.
+
+The following day was Sunday. In the afternoon, Patches was roaming
+about the premises, keeping at a safe distance from the walnut trees in
+front of the house, where the professor had cornered the Dean, thus
+punishing both Patches and his employer by preventing one of their long
+Sunday talks which they both so much enjoyed. Phil had gone off
+somewhere to be alone, and Mrs. Baldwin was reading aloud to Little
+Billy. Honorable Patches was left very much to himself.
+
+From the top of the little hill near the corrals, he looked across the
+meadow at exactly the right moment to see someone riding away from the
+neighboring ranch. He watched until he was certain that whoever it was
+was not coming to the Cross-Triangle--at least, not by way of the meadow
+lane. Then, smiling to himself, he went to the big barn and saddled a
+horse--there are always two or three that are not turned out in the
+pasture--and in a few minutes was riding leisurely away on the Simmons
+road, along the western edge of the valley. An hour later he met Kitty
+Reid, who was on her way from Simmons to the Cross-Triangle.
+
+The young woman was sincerely glad to meet him.
+
+"But you were going to Simmons, were you not?" she asked, as he reined
+his horse about to ride with her.
+
+"To be truthful, I was going to Simmons if I met anyone else, or if I
+had not met you," he answered. Then, at her puzzled look, he explained,
+"I saw someone leave your house, and guessed that it was you. I guessed,
+too, that you would be coming this way."
+
+"And you actually rode out to meet me?"
+
+"Actually," he smiled.
+
+They chatted about the rodeo, and the news of the countryside--for it
+had been several weeks since they had met--and so reached the point of
+the last ridge before you come to the ranch. Then Patches asked, "May we
+ride over there on the ridge, and sit for a while in the shade of that
+old cedar, for a little talk? It's early yet, and it's been ages since
+we had a pow-wow."
+
+Reaching the point which Patches had chosen, they left their horses and
+made themselves comfortable on the brow of the hill, overlooking the
+wide valley meadow and the ranches.
+
+"And now," said Kitty, looking at him curiously, "what's the talk, Mr.
+Honorable Patches?"
+
+"Just you," said Patches, gravely.
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Your own charming self," he returned.
+
+"But, please, good sir, what have I done?" she asked. "Or, perhaps, it's
+what have I not done?"
+
+"Or perhaps," he retorted, "it's what you are going to do."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Miss Reid, I am going to ask you a favor--a great favor."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"You have known me now almost a year."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And, yet, to be exact, you do not know me at all."
+
+She did not answer, but looked at him steadily.
+
+"And that, in a way," he continued, "makes it easy for me to ask the
+favor; that is, if you feel that you can trust me ever so little--trust
+me, I mean, to the extent of believing me sincere."
+
+"I know that you are sincere, Patches," she answered, gravely.
+
+"Thank you," he returned. Then he said gently, "I want you to let me
+talk to you about what is most emphatically none of my business. I want
+you to let me ask you impertinent questions. I want you to talk to me
+about"--he hesitated; then finished with meaning--"about your career."
+
+She felt his earnestness, and was big enough to understand, and be
+grateful for the spirit that prompted his words.
+
+"Why, Patches," she cried, "after all that your friendship has meant to
+me, these past months, I could not think any question that you would ask
+impertinent Surely you know that, don't you?"
+
+"I hoped that you would feel that way. And I know that I would give five
+years of my life if I knew how to convince you of the truth which I have
+learned from my own bitter experience, and save you from--from
+yourself."
+
+She could not mistake his earnestness and in spite of herself the man's
+intense feeling moved her deeply.
+
+"Save me from myself?" she questioned. "What in the world do you mean,
+Patches?"
+
+"Is it true," he asked, "that your father is offering the ranch for
+sale, and that you are going out of the Williamson Valley life?"
+
+"Yes, but it is not such a sudden move as it seems. We have often talked
+about it at home--father and mother and I."
+
+"But the move is to be made chiefly on your account, is it not?"
+
+She flushed a little at this, but answered stoutly. "Yes. I suppose that
+is true. You see, being the only one in our family to have the
+advantages of--well--the advantages that I have had, it was natural that
+I should--Surely you have seen, Patches, how discontented and
+dissatisfied I have been with the life here! Why, until you came there
+was no one to whom I could talk, even--no one, I mean, who could
+understand."
+
+"But what is it that you want, or expect to find, that you may not have
+right here?"
+
+Then she told him all that he had expected to hear. Told him earnestly,
+passionately, of the life she craved, and of the sordid, commonplace
+narrowness and emptiness--as she saw it--of the life from which she
+sought to escape. And as she talked the man's good heart was heavy with
+sadness and pity for her.
+
+"Oh, girl, girl," he cried, when she had finished. "Can't you--won't
+you--understand? All that you seek is right here--everywhere about
+you--waiting for you to make it your own, and with it you may have here
+those greater things without which no life can be abundant and joyous.
+The culture and the intellectual life that is dependent upon mere
+environment is a crippled culture and a sickly life. The mind that
+cannot find its food for thought wherever it may be planed will never
+hobble very far on crutches of superficial cults and societies. You are
+leaving the substance, child, for the shadow. You are seeking the fads
+and fancies of shallow idlers, and turning your back upon eternal facts.
+You are following after silly fools who are chasing bubbles over the
+edge of God's good world. Believe me, girl, I know--God! but I do know
+what that life, stripped of its tinseled and spangled show, means. Take
+the good grain, child, and let the husks go."
+
+As the man spoke, Kitty watched him as though she were intently
+interested; but, in truth, her thoughts were more on the speaker than on
+what he said.
+
+"You are in earnest, aren't you, Patches?" she murmured softly.
+
+"I am," he returned sharply, for he saw that she was not even
+considering what he had said. "I know how mistaken you are; I know what
+it will mean to you when you find how much you have lost and how little
+you have gained."
+
+"And how am I mistaken? Do I not know what I want? Am I not better able
+than anyone else to say what satisfies me and what does not?"
+
+"No," he retorted, almost harshly, "you are not. You _think_ it is the
+culture, as you call it, that you want; but if that were really it, you
+would not go. You would find it here. The greatest minds that the world
+has ever known you may have right here in your home, on your library
+table. And you may listen to their thoughts without being disturbed by
+the magpie chatterings of vain and shallow pretenders. You are attracted
+by the pretentious forms and manners of that life; you think that
+because a certain class of people, who have nothing else to do, talk a
+certain jargon, and profess to follow certain teachers--who, nine times
+out of ten, are charlatans or fools--that they are the intellectual and
+spiritual leaders of the race. You are mistaking the very things that
+prevent intellectual and spiritual development for the things you think
+you want."
+
+She did not answer his thought, but replied to his words. "And supposing
+I am mistaken, as you say. Still, I do not see why it should matter so
+to you."
+
+He made a gesture of hopelessness and sat for a moment in silence. Then
+he said slowly, "I fear you will not understand, but did you ever hear
+the story of how 'Wild Horse Phil' earned his title?"
+
+She laughed. "Why, of course. Everybody knows about that. Dear, foolish
+old Phil--I shall miss him dreadfully." "Yes," he said significantly,
+"you will miss him. The life you are going to does not produce Phil
+Actons."
+
+"It produced an Honorable Patches," she retorted slyly.
+
+"Indeed it did _not_," he answered quickly. "It produced--" He checked
+himself, as though fearing that he would say too much.
+
+"But what have Phil and his wild horse to do with the question?" she
+asked.
+
+"Nothing, I fear. Only I feel about your going away as Phil felt when he
+gave the wild horse its freedom."
+
+"I don't think I understand," she said, genuinely puzzled.
+
+"I said you would not," he retorted bluntly, "and that's why you are
+leaving all this." His gesture indicated the vast sweep of country with
+old Granite Mountain in the distance.
+
+Then, with a nod and a look he indicated Professor Parkhill, who was
+walking toward them along the side of the ridge skirting the scattered
+cedar timber. "Here comes a product of the sort of culture to which you
+aspire. Behold the ideal manhood of your higher life! When the
+intellectual and spiritual life you so desire succeeds in producing
+racial fruit of that superior quality, it will have justified its
+existence--and will perish from the earth."
+
+Even as Patches spoke, he saw something just beyond the approaching man
+that made him start as if to rise to his feet.
+
+It was the unmistakable face of Yavapai Joe, who, from behind an oak
+bush, was watching the professor.
+
+Patches, glancing at Kitty, saw that she had not noticed.
+
+Before the young woman could reply to her companion's derisive remarks,
+the object which had prompted his comments arrived within speaking
+distance.
+
+"I trust I am not intruding," began the professor, in his small, thin
+voice. Then as Patches, his eyes still on that oak bush, stood up, the
+little man added, with hasty condescension, "Keep your seat, my man;
+keep your seat. I assure you it is not my purpose to deprive you of Miss
+Reid's company."
+
+Patches grinned. By that "my man" he knew that Kitty had not enlightened
+her teacher as to the "typical cowboy's" real character.
+
+"That's all right, perfessor," he said awkwardly. "I just seen a
+maverick over yonder a-piece. I reckon I'd better mosey along an' have a
+closer look at him. Me an' Kitty here warn't talkin' nothin' important,
+nohow. Just a gassin' like. I reckon she'd ruther go on home with you,
+anyhow, an' it's all right with me."
+
+"Maverick!" questioned the professor. "And what, may I ask, is a
+maverick?"
+
+"Hit's a critter what don't belong to nobody," answered Patches, moving
+toward his horse.
+
+At the same moment Kitty, who had risen, and was looking in the
+direction from which the professor had come, exclaimed, "Why, there's
+Yavapai Joe, Patches. What is he doing here?"
+
+She pointed, and the professor, looking, caught a glimpse of Joe's back
+as the fellow was slinking over the ridge.
+
+"I reckon mebby he wants to see me 'bout somethin' or other," Patches
+returned, as he mounted his horse. "Anyway, I'm a-goin' over that-a-way
+an' see. So long!"
+
+Patches rode up to Joe just as the Tailholt Mountain man regained his
+horse on the other side of the ridge.
+
+"Hello, Joe!" said the Cross-Triangle rider, easily.
+
+The wretched outcast was so shaken and confused that he could scarcely
+find the stirrup with his foot, and his face was pale and twitching with
+excitement. He looked at Patches, wildly, but spoke in a sullen tone.
+"What's he doin' here? What does he want? How did he get to this
+country, anyhow?"
+
+Patches was amazed, but spoke calmly. "Whom do you mean, Joe?"
+
+"I mean that man back there, Parkhill--Professor Parkhill. What's he
+a-lookin' for hangin' 'round here? You can tell him it ain't no
+use--I--" He stopped suddenly, and with a characteristic look of
+cunning, turned away.
+
+Patches rode beside him for some distance, but nothing that he could say
+would persuade the wretched creature to explain.
+
+"Yes, I know you're my friend, all right, Patches," he answered. "You
+sure been mighty friendly ter me, an' I ain't fergettin' it. But I ain't
+a-tellin' nothin' to nobody, an' it ain't a-goin' to do you no good to
+go askin' him 'bout me, neither."
+
+"I'm not going to ask Professor Parkhill anything, Joe," said Patches
+shortly.
+
+"You ain't?"
+
+"Certainly not; if you don't want me to know. I'm not trying to find out
+about anything that's none of my business."
+
+Joe looked at him with a cunning leer. "Oh, you ain't, ain't you? Nick
+'lows that you're sure--" Again he caught himself. "But I ain't
+a-tellin' nothin' to nobody."
+
+"Well, have _I_ ever asked you to tell me anything?" demanded Patches.
+
+"No, you ain't--that's right--you sure been square with me, Patches,
+an' I ain't fergettin' it. Be you sure 'nuf my friend, Patches?
+Honest-to-God, now, be you?"
+
+His question was pitiful, and Patches assured the poor fellow that he
+had no wish to be anything but his friend, if only Yavapai Joe would
+accept his help.
+
+"Then," said Joe pleadingly, "if you mean all that you been sayin' about
+wantin' to help me, you'll do somethin' fer me right now."
+
+"What can I do, Joe?"
+
+"You kin promise me that you won't say nothin' to nobody 'bout me an'
+him back there."
+
+Patches, to demonstrate his friendliness, answered without thought,
+"Certainly, I'll promise that, Joe."
+
+"You won't tell nobody?"
+
+"No, I won't say a word."
+
+The poor fellow's face revealed his gratitude. "I'm obliged to you,
+Patches, I sure am, an' I ain't fergettin' nothin', either. You're my
+friend, all right, an' I'm your'n. I got to be a-hittin' it up now.
+Nick'll jest nachally gimme hell for bein' gone so long."
+
+"Good-by, Joe!"
+
+"So long, Patches! An' don't you get to thinkin' that I'm fergettin' how
+me an' you is friends."
+
+When Patches reviewed the incident, as he rode back to the ranch, he
+questioned if he had done right in promising Joe. But, after all, he
+reassured himself, he was under no obligation to interfere with what was
+clearly none of his business. He could not see that the matter in any
+possible way touched his employer's interests. And, he reflected, he
+had already tried the useless experiment of meddling with other people's
+affairs, and he did not care to repeat the experience.
+
+That evening Patches asked Phil's permission to go to Prescott the next
+day. It would be the first time that he had been to town since his
+coming to the ranch and the foreman readily granted his request.
+
+A few minutes later as Phil passed through the kitchen, Mrs. Baldwin
+remarked, "I wonder what Patches is feeling so gay about. Ever since he
+got home from the rodeo he's been singin' an' whistlin' an' grinnin' to
+himself all the time. He went out to the corral just now as merry as a
+lark."
+
+Phil laughed. "Anybody would be glad to get through with that rodeo,
+mother; besides, he is going to town to-morrow."
+
+"He is? Well, you mark my words, son, there's somethin' up to make him
+feel as good as he does."
+
+And then, when Phil had gone on out into the yard, Professor Parkhill
+found him.
+
+"Mr. Acton," began the guest timidly, "there is a little matter about
+which I feel I should speak to you."
+
+"Very well, sir," returned the cowboy.
+
+"I feel that it would be better for me to speak to you rather than to
+Mr. Baldwin, because, well, you are younger, and will, I am sure,
+understand more readily."
+
+"All right; what is it, Professor?" asked Phil encouragingly, wondering
+at the man's manner.
+
+"Do you mind--ah--walking a little way down the road?"
+
+As they strolled out toward the gate to the meadow road, the professor
+continued:
+
+"I think I should tell you about your man Patches."
+
+Phil looked at his companion sharply. "Well, what about him?"
+
+"I trust you will not misunderstand my interest, Mr. Acton, when I say
+that it also includes Miss Reid."
+
+Phil stopped short. Instantly Mrs. Baldwin's remark about Patches'
+happiness, his own confession that he had given up all hope of winning
+Kitty, and the thought of the friendship which he had seen developing
+during the past months, with the realization that Patches belonged to
+that world to which Kitty aspired--all swept through his mind. He was
+looking at the man beside him so intently that the professor said again
+uneasily:
+
+"I trust, Mr. Acton, that you will understand."
+
+Phil laughed shortly. "I think I do. But just the same you'd better
+explain. What about Patches and Miss Reid, sir?"
+
+The professor told how he had found them together that afternoon.
+
+"Oh, is that all?" laughed Phil.
+
+"But surely, Mr. Acton, you do not think that a man of that fellow's
+evident brutal instincts is a fit associate for a young woman of Miss
+Reid's character and refinement."
+
+"Perhaps not," admitted Phil, still laughing, "but I guess Kitty can
+take care of herself."
+
+"I do not agree with you, sir," said the other authoritatively. "A young
+woman of Miss Reid's--ah--spirituality and worldly inexperience must
+always be, to a certain extent, injured by contact with such illiterate,
+unrefined, and, I have no doubt, morally deficient characters."
+
+"But, look here, Professor," returned Phil, still grinning, "what do you
+expect me to do about it? I am not Kitty Reid's guardian. Why don't you
+talk to her yourself?"
+
+"Really," returned the little man, "I--there are reasons why I do not
+see my way clear to such a course. I had hoped that you might keep an
+eye on the fellow, and, if necessary, use your authority over him to
+prevent any such incidents in the future."
+
+"I'll see what I can do," answered Phil, thinking how the Dean would
+enjoy the joke. "But, look here; Kitty was with you when you got to the
+ranch. What became of Patches? Run, did he, when you appeared on the
+scene?"
+
+"Oh, no; he went away with a--with a maverick."
+
+"Went away with a maverick? What, in heaven's name, do you mean by
+that?"
+
+"That's what your man Patches said the fellow was. Miss Reid told me his
+name was Joe--Joe something."
+
+Phil was not laughing now. The fun of the situation had vanished.
+
+"Was it Yavapai Joe?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes, that was it. I am quite sure that was the name. He belongs at
+Tailend Mountain, I think Miss Reid said; you have such curious names in
+this country."
+
+"And Patches went away with him, you say?"
+
+"Yes, the fellow seemed to have been hiding in the bushes when we
+discovered him, and when Miss Reid asked what he was doing there your
+man said that he had come to see him about something. They went away
+together, I believe."
+
+As soon as he could escape from the professor, Phil went straight to
+Patches, who was in his room, reading. The man looked up with a
+welcoming smile as Phil entered, but as he saw the foreman's face his
+smile vanished quickly, and he laid aside his book.
+
+"Patches," said Phil abruptly, "what's this talk of the professor's
+about you and Yavapai Joe?"
+
+"I don't know what the professor is talking," Patches replied coldly, as
+though he did not exactly like the tone of Phil's question.
+
+"He says that Joe was sneaking about in the brush over on the ridge
+wanting to see you about something," returned Phil.
+
+"Joe was certainly over there on the ridge, and he may have wanted to
+see me; at any rate, I saw him."
+
+"Well, I've got to ask you what sort of business you have with that
+Tailholt Mountain thief that makes it necessary for him to sneak around
+in the brush for a meeting with you. If he wants to see you, why doesn't
+he come to the ranch, like a man?"
+
+Honorable Patches looked the Dean's foreman straight in the eyes, as he
+answered in a tone that he had never used before in speaking to Phil:
+"And I have to answer, sir, that my business with Yavapai Joe is
+entirely personal; that it has no relation whatever to your business as
+the foreman of this ranch. As to why Joe didn't come to the house, you
+must ask him; I don't know."
+
+"You refuse to explain?" demanded Phil.
+
+"I certainly refuse to discuss Joe Dryden's private affairs--that, so
+far as I can see, are of no importance to anyone but himself--with you
+or anyone else. Just as I should refuse to discuss any of your private
+affairs, with which I happened, by some chance, to be, in a way,
+familiar. I have made all the explanation necessary when I say that my
+business with him has nothing to do with your business. You have no
+right to ask me anything further."
+
+"I have the right to fire you," retorted Phil, angrily.
+
+Patches smiled, as he answered gently, "You have the right, Phil, but
+you won't use it."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Because you are not that kind of a man, Phil Acton," answered Patches
+slowly. "You know perfectly well that if you discharged me because of my
+friendship with poor Yavapai Joe, no ranch in this part of the country
+would give me a job. You are too honest yourself to condemn any man on
+mere suspicion, and you are too much of a gentleman to damn another
+simply because he, too, aspires to that distinction."
+
+"Very well, Patches," Phil returned, with less heat, "but I want you to
+understand one thing; I am responsible for the Cross-Triangle property
+and there is no friendship in the world strong enough to influence me in
+the slightest degree when it comes to a question of Uncle Will's
+interests. Do you get that?"
+
+"I got that months ago, Phil."
+
+Without another word, the Dean's foreman left the room.
+
+Patches sat for some time considering the situation. And now and then
+his lips curled in that old, self-mocking smile; realizing that he was
+caught in the trap of circumstance, he found a curious humor in his
+predicament.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+FRONTIER DAY.
+
+
+Again it was July. And, with the time of the cattlemen's celebration of
+the Fourth at hand, riders from every part of the great western cow
+country assembled in Prescott for their annual contests. From Texas and
+Montana, from Oklahoma and New Mexico and Wyoming, the cowboys came with
+their saddles and riatas to meet each other and the men of Arizona in
+friendly trials of strength and skill. From many a wild pasture, outlaw
+horses famous for their vicious, unsubdued spirits, and their fierce,
+untamed strength, were brought to match their wicked, unbroken wills
+against the cool, determined courage of the riders. From the wide
+ranges, the steers that were to participate in the roping and
+bull-dogging contests were gathered and driven in. From many a ranch the
+fastest and best of the trained cow-horses were sent for the various
+cowboy races. And the little city, in its rocky, mile-high basin, upon
+which the higher surrounding mountains look so steadfastly down, again
+decked itself in gala colors, and opened wide its doors to welcome all
+who chose to come.
+
+From the Cross-Triangle and the neighboring ranches the cowboys, dressed
+in the best of their picturesque regalia, rode into the town, to witness
+and take part in the sports. With them rode Honorable Patches.
+
+And this was not the carefully groomed and immaculately attired
+gentleman who, in troubled spirit, had walked alone over that long,
+unfenced way a year before. This was not the timid, hesitating,
+shamefaced man at whom Phil Acton had laughed on the summit of the
+Divide. This was a man among men--a cowboy of the cowboys--bronzed, and
+lean, and rugged; vitally alive in every inch of his long body; with
+self-reliant courage and daring hardihood written all over him,
+expressed in every tone of his voice, and ringing in every note of his
+laughter.
+
+The Dean and Mrs. Baldwin and Little Billy drove in the buckboard, but
+the distinguished guest of the Cross-Triangle went with the Reid family
+in the automobile. The professor was not at all interested in the
+celebration, but he could not well remain at the ranch alone, and, it
+may be supposed, the invitation from Kitty helped to make the occasion
+endurable.
+
+The celebration this year--the posters and circulars declared--was to be
+the biggest and best that Prescott had ever offered. In proof of the
+bold assertion, the program promised, in addition to the usual events,
+an automobile race. Shades of all those mighty heroes of the saddle,
+whose names may not be erased from the history of the great West, think
+of it! An automobile race offered as the chief event in a Frontier Day
+Celebration!
+
+No wonder that Mrs. Manning said to her husband that day, "But Stan,
+where are the cowboys?"
+
+Stanford Manning answered laughingly, "Oh, they are here, all right,
+Helen; just wait a little and you will see."
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Manning had arrived from Cleveland, Ohio, the evening
+before, and Helen was eager and excited with the prospect of meeting the
+people, and witnessing the scenes of which her husband had told her with
+so much enthusiasm.
+
+As the Dean had told Patches that day when the cattleman had advanced
+the money for the stranger's outfit, the young mining engineer had won a
+place for himself amid the scenes and among the people of that western
+country. He had first come to the land of this story, fresh from his
+technical training in the East. His employers, quick to recognize not
+only his ability in his profession but his character and manhood, as
+well, had advanced him rapidly and, less than a month before Patches
+asked for work at the Cross-Triangle, had sent him on an important
+mission to their mines in the North. They were sending him, now, again
+to Arizona, this time as the resident manager of their properties in the
+Prescott district. This new advance in his profession, together with the
+substantial increase in salary which it brought, meant much to the
+engineer. Most of all, it meant his marriage to Helen Wakefield. A
+stop-over of two weeks at Cleveland, on way West, from the main offices
+of his Company in New York, had changed his return to Prescott from a
+simple business trip to a wedding journey.
+
+At the home of the Yavapai Club, on top of the hill, a clock above the
+plaza, a number of Prescott's citizens, with their guests, had gathered
+to watch the beginning of the automobile race. The course, from the
+corner in front of the St. Michael hotel, followed the street along one
+side of the plaza, climbed straight up the hill, passed the clubhouse,
+and so away into the open country. From the clubhouse veranda, from the
+lawn and walks in front, or from their seats in convenient automobiles
+standing near, the company enjoyed, thus, an unobstructed view of the
+starting point of the race, and could look down as well upon the crowds
+that pressed against the ropes which were stretched along either side of
+the street. Prom a friendly automobile, Helen Manning, with her
+husband's field glasses, was an eager and excited observer of the
+interesting scene, while Stanford near by was busy greeting old friends,
+presenting them to his wife and receiving their congratulations. And
+often, he turned with a fond look and a merry word to the young woman,
+as though reassuring himself that she was really there. There was no
+doubt about it, Stamford Manning, strong and steady and forceful, was
+very much in love with this girl who looked down into his face with such
+an air of sweet confidence and companionship. And Helen, as she turned
+from the scene that so interested her, to greet her husband's friends,
+to ask him some question, or to answer some laughing remark, could not
+hide the love light in her soft brown eyes. One could not fail to see
+that her woman heart was glad--glad and proud that this stalwart,
+broad-shouldered leader of men had chosen her for his mate.
+
+"But, Stan," she said, with a pretty air of disappointment, "I thought
+it was all going to be so different. Why, except for the mountains, and
+those poor Indians over there, this might all be in some little town
+back home. I thought there would be cowboys riding about everywhere,
+with long hair and big hats, and guns and things."
+
+Stanford and his friends who were standing near laughed.
+
+"I fear, Mrs. Manning," remarked Mr. Richards, one of Prescott's bank
+presidents, "that Stanford has been telling you wild west stories. The
+West moves as well as the East, you know. We are becoming civilized."
+
+"Indeed you are, Mr. Richards," Helen returned. "And I don't think I
+like it a bit. It's not fair to your poor eastern sight-seers, like
+myself."
+
+"If you are really so anxious to see a sure enough cowboy, look over
+there," said Stanford, and pointed across the street.
+
+"Where?" demanded Helen eagerly.
+
+"There," smiled Stanford, "the dark-faced chap near that automobile
+standing by the curb; the machine with the pretty girl at the wheel.
+See! he is stopping to talk with the girl."
+
+"What! That nice looking man, dressed just like thousands of men that we
+might see any day on the streets of Cleveland?" cried Helen.
+
+"Exactly," chuckled her husband, while the others laughed at her
+incredulous surprise. "But, just the same, that's Phil Acton; 'Wild
+Horse Phil,' if you please. He is the cowboy foreman of the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch, and won the championship in the bronco riding last
+year."
+
+"I don't believe it--you are making fun of me, Stanford Manning."
+
+Then, before he could answer, she cried, with quick excitement, "But,
+Stan, look! Look at the girl in the automobile! She looks like--it is,
+Stan, it is!" And to the amazement of her husband and her friends Mrs.
+Manning sprang to her feet and, waving her handkerchief, called, "Kitty!
+Oh, Kitty--Kitty Reid!"
+
+As her clear call rang out, many people turned to look, and then to
+smile at the picture, as she stood there in the bright Arizona day, so
+animated and wholesomely alive in the grace and charm of her beautiful
+young womanhood, above the little group of men who were looking up at
+her with laughing admiration.
+
+On the other side of the street, where she sat with her parents and
+Professor Parkhill, talking to Phil, Kitty heard the call, and looked. A
+moment later she was across the street, and the two young women were
+greeting each other with old-time schoolgirl enthusiasm. Introductions
+and explanations followed, with frequent feminine exclamations of
+surprise and delight. Then the men drew a little away, talking,
+laughing, as men will on such occasions, leaving the two women to
+themselves.
+
+In that eastern school, which, for those three years, had been Kitty's
+home, Helen Wakefield and the girl from Arizona had been close and
+intimate friends. Indeed, Helen, with her strong womanly character and
+that rare gift of helpful sympathy and understanding, had been to the
+girl fresh from the cattle ranges more than a friend; she had been
+counsellor and companion, and, in many ways, a wise guardian and
+teacher.
+
+"But why in the world didn't you write me about it?" demanded Kitty a
+little later. "Why didn't you tell me that you had become Mrs. Stanford
+Manning, and that you were coming to Prescott?"
+
+Helen laughed and blushed happily. "Why, you see, Kitty, it all happened
+so quickly that there was no time to write. You remember when I wrote
+you about Stan, I told you how poor he was, and how we didn't expect to
+be married for several years?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, then, you see, Stan's company, all unexpectedly to him, called
+him to New York and gave him this position out here. He had to start at
+once, and wired me from New York. Just think, I had only a week for the
+wedding and everything! I knew, of course, that I could find you after I
+got here."
+
+"And now that you are here," said Kitty decisively, "you and Mr. Manning
+are coming right out to Williamson Valley to spend your honeymoon on the
+ranch."
+
+But Helen shook her head. "Stan has it all planned, Kitty, and he won't
+listen to anything else. There is a place around here somewhere that he
+calls Granite Basin, and he has it all arranged that we are to camp out
+there for three weeks. His company has given him that much time, and we
+are going just as soon as this celebration is over. After that, while
+Stan gets started with his work, and fixes some place for us to live, I
+will make you a little visit."
+
+"I suppose there is no use trying to contend against the rights of a
+brand-new husband," returned Kitty, "but it's a promise, that you will
+come to me as soon as your camping trip is over?"
+
+"It's a promise," agreed Helen. "You see, that's really part of
+Stanford's plan; I was so sure you would want me, you know."
+
+"Want you? I should say I do want you," cried Kitty, "and I need you,
+too."
+
+Something in her voice made Helen look at her questioningly, but Kitty
+only smiled.
+
+"I'll tell you all about it when there is more time."
+
+"Let me see," said Helen. "There used to be--why, of course, that nice
+looking man you were talking to when I recognized you--Phil Acton." She
+looked across the street as she spoke, but Phil had gone.
+
+"Please don't, Helen dear," said Kitty, "that was only my schoolgirl
+nonsense. When I came back home I found how impossible it all was. But I
+must run back to the folks now. Won't you come and meet them?"
+
+Before Helen could answer someone shouted, "They're getting ready for
+the start," and everybody looked down the hill toward the place where
+the racing machines were sputtering and roaring in their clouds of blue
+smoke.
+
+Helen caught up the field glasses to look, saying, "We can't go now,
+Kitty. You stay here with us until after the race is started; then we'll
+go."
+
+As Helen lowered the glasses Stanford, who had come to stand beside the
+automobile, reached out his hand. "Let me have a look, Helen. They say
+my old friend, Judge Morris, is the official starter." He put the field
+glasses to his eyes. "There he is all right, as big as life; finest man
+that ever lived. Look, Helen." He returned the glasses to his wife "If
+you want to see a genuine western lawyer, a scholar and a gentleman,
+take a look at that six-foot-three or four down there in the gray
+clothes."
+
+"I see him," said Helen, "but there seems to be some thing the matter;
+there he goes back to the machines. Now he's laying down the law to the
+drivers."
+
+"They won't put over anything on Morris," said Stanford admiringly.
+
+Then a deep, kindly voice at his elbow said, "Howdy, Manning! Ain't you
+got time to speak to your old friends?"
+
+Stanford whirled and, with a glad exclamation, grasped the Dean's
+outstretched hand. Still holding fast to the cattleman, he again turned
+to his wife, who was looking down at them with smiling interest. "Helen,
+this is Mr. Baldwin--the Dean, you know."
+
+"Indeed, I ought to know the Dean," she cried, giving him her hand.
+"Stanford has told me so much about you that I am in love with you
+already."
+
+"And I"--retorted the Dean, looking up at her with his blue eyes
+twinkling approval--"I reckon I've always been in love with you. I'm
+sure glad to see that this young man has justified his reputation for
+good judgment. Have they got any more girls like you back East? 'Cause
+if they have, I'll sure be obliged to take a trip to that part of the
+world before I get too old."
+
+"You are just as Stan said you were," retorted Helen.
+
+"Uncle Will!" cried Kitty. "I am ashamed of you! I didn't think you
+would turn down your own home folks like that!"
+
+The Dean lifted his hat and rumpled his grizzly hair as though fairly
+caught. Then: "Why, Kitty, you know that I couldn't love any girl more
+than I do you. Why, you belong to me most as much as you belong to your
+own father and mother. But, you see--honey--well, you see, we've just
+naturally got to be nice to strangers, you know." When they had laughed
+at this, Kitty explained to that Dean how Mrs. Manning was the Helen
+Wakefield with whom she had been such friends at school, and that, after
+the Mannings' outing in Granite Basin, Helen was to visit Williamson
+Valley.
+
+"Campin' out in Granite Basin, heh?" said the Dean to Stanford. "I
+reckon you'll be seein' some o' my boys. They're goin' up into that
+country after outlaw steers next week."
+
+"I hope so," returned Stanford. "Helen has been complaining that there
+are no cowboys to be seen. I pointed out Phil Acton, but he didn't seem
+to fill the bill; she doesn't believe that he is a cowboy at all."
+
+The Dean chuckled. "He's never been anything else. They don't make 'em
+any better anywhere." Then he added soberly, "Phil's not ridin' in the
+contest this year, though."
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"I don't know. He's got some sort of a fool notion in his head that he
+don't want to make an exhibition of himself--that's what he said. I've
+got another man on the ranch now," he added, as though to change the
+subject, "that'll be mighty near as good as Phil in another year. His
+name is Patches. He's a good one, all right."
+
+Kitty, who, had been looking away down the street while the Dean was
+talking, put her hand on Helen's arm. "Look down there, Helen. I believe
+that is Patches now--that man sitting on his horse at the cross street,
+at the foot of the hill, just outside the ropes."
+
+Helen was looking through the field glasses. "I see him," she cried.
+"Now, that's more like it. He looks like what I expected to see. What a
+fine, big chap he is, isn't he?" Then, as she studied the distant
+horseman, a puzzled expression came over her face. "Why, Kitty!" she
+said in a low tone, so that the men who were talking did not hear. "Do
+you know, that man somehow reminds me"--she hesitated and lowered the
+glasses to look at her companion with half-amused, half-embarrassed
+eyes--"he reminds me of Lawrence Knight."
+
+Kitty's brown, fun-loving eyes glowed with mischief. "Really, Mrs.
+Manning, I am ashamed of you. Before the honeymoon has waned, your
+thoughts, with no better excuse than the appearance of a poor
+cow-puncher, go back to the captivating charms of your old millionaire
+lover. I--"
+
+"Kitty! Do hush," pleaded Helen.
+
+She lifted her glasses for another look at the cowboy.
+
+"I don't wonder that your conscience reproves you," teased Kitty, in a
+low tone. "But tell me, poor child, how did it happen that you lost your
+millionaire?"
+
+"I didn't lose him," retorted Helen, still watching Patches. "He lost
+me."
+
+Kitty persisted with a playful mockery. "What! the great, the wonderful
+Knight of so many millions, failed, with all his glittering charms, to
+captivate the fair but simple Helen! Really, I can't believe it."
+
+"Look at that man right there," flashed Helen proudly, indicating her
+husband, "and you can believe it."
+
+Kitty laughed so gaily that Stanford turned to look at them with smiling
+inquiry.
+
+"Never mind, Mr. Manning," said Kitty, "we are just reminiscing, that's
+all."
+
+"Don't miss the race," he answered; "they're getting ready again to
+start. It looks like a go this time."
+
+"And to think," murmured Kitty, "that I never so much as saw your
+Knight's picture! But you used to like Lawrence Knight, didn't you,
+Helen?" she added, as Helen lifted her field glasses again. And now,
+Mrs. Manning caught a note of earnest inquiry in her companion's voice.
+It was as though the girl were seeking confirmation of some purpose or
+decision of her own.
+
+"Why, yes, Kitty, I liked Larry Knight very much," she answered frankly.
+"He was a fine fellow in many ways--a dear, good friend. Stanford and I
+are both very fond of him; they were college mates, you know. But, my
+dear girl, no one could ever consider poor old Larry seriously--as a
+man, you know--he is so--so utterly and hopelessly worthless."
+
+"Worthless! With--how many millions is it?"
+
+"Oh, Kitty, you know what I mean. But, really dear, we have talked
+enough about Mr. Lawrence Knight. I'm going to have another look at the
+cowboy. _He_ looks like a real man, doesn't he? What is it the Dean
+called him?"
+
+"Patches."
+
+"Oh, yes; what a funny name--Patches."
+
+"Honorable Patches," said Kitty.
+
+"How odd!" mused Helen. "Oh, Stan, come here a minute. Take the glasses
+and look at that cowboy down there."
+
+Stanford trained the field glasses as she directed.
+
+"Doesn't he remind you of Larry Knight?"
+
+"Larry Knight!" Stanford looked at her in amazement. "That cow-puncher?
+Larry Knight? I should say _not_. Lord! but wouldn't fastidious,
+cultured and correct old Larry feel complimented to know that you found
+anything in a common cow-puncher to remind you of him!"
+
+"But, here, take your glasses, quick; they are going to start at last."
+
+Even as Helen looked, Judge Morris gave the signal and the first racing
+car, with a mighty roar, leaped away from the starting point, and
+thundered up the street between the lines of the crowding, cheering
+people. An instant more, and Helen Manning witnessed a scene that
+thrilled the hearts of every man, woman and child in that great crowd.
+
+As the big racing car, gathering speed at every throb of its powerful
+motor, swept toward the hill, a small boy, but little more than a
+toddling baby, escaped from his mother, who, with the excited throng,
+was crowding against the rope barrier, and before those whose eyes were
+fixed on the automobile noticed, the child was in the street, fairly in
+the path of the approaching machine. A sudden hush fell on the shouting
+multitude. Helen, through the field glasses, could see even the child's
+face, as, laughing gleefully, he looked back when his mother screamed.
+Stricken with horror, the young woman could not lower her glasses.
+Fascinated, she watched. The people seemed, for an instant, paralyzed.
+Not a soul moved or uttered a sound. Would the driver of the racing car
+swerve aside from his course in time? If he did, would the baby, in
+sudden fright, dodge in front of the machine? Then Helen saw the cowboy
+who had so interested her lean forward in his saddle and strike his
+spurs deep in the flanks of his already restless horse. With a
+tremendous bound the animal cleared the rope barrier, and in an instant
+was leaping toward the child and the approaching car. The people gasped
+at the daring of the man who had not waited to think. It was over in a
+second. As Patches swept by the child, he leaned low from the saddle;
+and, as the next leap of his horse carried him barely clear of the
+machine, they saw his tall, lithe body straighten, as he swung the baby
+up into his arms.
+
+Then, indeed, the crowd went wild. Men yelled and cheered; women laughed
+and cried; and, as the cowboy returned the frightened baby to the
+distressed mother, a hundred eager hands were stretched forth to greet
+him. But the excited horse backed away; someone raised the rope barrier,
+and Patches disappeared down the side street.
+
+Helen's eyes were wet, but she was smiling. "No," she said softly to
+Kitty and Stanford, "that was _not_ Lawrence Knight. Poor old Larry
+never could have done that."
+
+It was a little after the noon hour when Kitty, who, with her father,
+mother and brothers, had been for dinner at the home of one of their
+Prescott friends, was crossing the plaza on her way to join Mr. and Mrs.
+Manning, with whom she was to spend the afternoon. In a less frequented
+corner of the little park, back of the courthouse, she saw Patches. The
+cowboy, who had changed from his ranch costume to a less picturesque
+business garb, was seated alone on one of the benches that are placed
+along the walks, reading a letter. With his attention fixed upon the
+letter, he did not notice Kitty as she approached. And the girl, when
+she first caught sight of him, paused for an instant; then she went
+toward him slowly, studying him with a new interest.
+
+She was quite near when, looking up, he saw her. Instantly he rose to
+his feet, slipped the letter into his pocket, and stood before her, hat
+in hand, to greet her with genuine pleasure and with that gentle
+courtesy which always marked his bearing. And Kitty, as she looked up
+at him, felt, more convincingly than ever, that this man would be
+perfectly at ease in the most exacting social company.
+
+"I fear I interrupted you," said the young woman. "I was just passing."
+
+"Not at all," he protested. "Surely you can give me a moment of your
+busy gala day. I know you have a host of friends, of course, but--well,
+I am lonely. Curly and Bob and the boys are all having the time of their
+lives; the Dean and mother are lunching with friends; and I don't know
+where Phil has hidden himself."
+
+It was like him to mention Phil in almost his first words to her. And
+Kitty, as Patches spoke Phil's name, instantly, as she had so often done
+during the past few months, mentally placed the two men side by side.
+
+"I just wanted to tell you"--she hesitated--"Mr. Patches--"
+
+"I beg your pardon," he interrupted smiling.
+
+"Well, Patches then; but you seem so different somehow, dressed like
+this. I just wanted to tell you that I saw what happened this morning.
+It was splendid!"
+
+"Why, Miss Reid, you know that was nothing. The driver of the car would
+probably have dodged the youngster anyway. I acted on the impulse of the
+moment, without thinking. I'm always doing something unnecessarily
+foolish, you know."
+
+"The driver of the car would more likely have dodged into the child,"
+she returned warmly. "And it was fortunate that some one in all that
+stupid crowd could act without taking time to think. Everybody says so.
+The dear old Dean is as pleased and proud as though you were one of his
+own sons."
+
+"Really, you make too much of it," he returned, clearly embarrassed by
+her praise. "Tell me, you are enjoying the celebration? And what's the
+matter with Phil? Can't you persuade him to ride in the contest? We
+don't want the championship to go out of Yavapai County, do we?"
+
+Why must he always bring Phil into their talk? Kitty asked herself.
+
+"I am sure that Phil knows how all his friends feel about his riding,"
+she said coolly. "If he does not wish to gratify them, it is really a
+small matter, is it not?"
+
+Patches saw that he had made a mistake and changed easily to a safer
+topic.
+
+"You saw the beginning of the automobile race, of course? I suppose you
+will be on hand this afternoon for the finish?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I'm on my way now to join my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Stanford
+Manning. We are going to see the finish of the race together."
+
+She watched his face closely, as she spoke of her friends, but he gave
+no sign that he had ever heard the name before.
+
+"It will be worth seeing, I fancy," he returned. "At least everybody
+seems to feel that way."
+
+"I am sure to have a good time, anyway," she returned, "because, you
+see, Mrs. Manning is one of my very dearest girl friends, whom I have
+not seen for a long time."
+
+"Indeed! You _will_ enjoy the afternoon, then."
+
+Was there a shade too much enthusiasm in the tone of his reply? Kitty
+wondered. Could it be that his plea of loneliness was merely a
+conventional courtesy and that he was really relieved to find that she
+was engaged for the afternoon?
+
+"Yes, and I must hurry on to them, or they will think I am not coming,"
+she said. "Have a good time, Patches; you surely have earned it.
+Good-by!"
+
+He stood for a moment watching her cross the park. Then, with a quick
+look around, as though he did not wish to be observed, he hurried across
+the street to the Western Union office. A few moments later he made his
+way, by little-frequented side streets, to the stable where he had left
+his horse; and while Kitty and her friends were watching the first of
+the racing cars cross the line, Patches was several miles away, riding
+as though pursued by the sheriff, straight for the Cross-Triangle Ranch.
+
+Several times that day, while she was with her eastern friends, Kitty
+saw Phil near by. But she gave him no signal to join them, and the
+cowboy, shy always, and hurt by Kitty's indifference, would not approach
+the little party without her invitation. But that evening, while Kitty
+was waiting in the hotel lobby for Mr. and Mrs. Manning, Phil, finding
+her alone, went to her.
+
+"I have been trying to speak to you all day," he said reproachfully.
+"Haven't you any time for me at all, Kitty?"
+
+"Don't be foolish, Phil," she returned; "you have seen me a dozen
+times."
+
+"I have _seen_ you, yes," he answered bitterly.
+
+"But, Phil, you could have come to me, if you had wanted to."
+
+"I have no desire to go where I am not wanted," he answered.
+
+"Phil!"
+
+"Well, you gave no sign that you wanted me."
+
+"There was no reason why I should," she retorted. "You are not a child.
+I was with my friends from the East. You could have joined us if you had
+cared to. I should be very glad, indeed, to present you to Mr. and Mrs.
+Manning."
+
+"Thank you, but I don't care to be exhibited as an interesting specimen
+to people who have no use for me except when I do a few fool stunts to
+amuse them."
+
+"Very well, Phil," she returned coldly. "If that is your feeling, I do
+not care to present you to my friends. They are every bit as sincere and
+genuine as you are; and I certainly shall not trouble them with anyone
+who cannot appreciate them."
+
+Kitty was angry, as she had good reason for being. But beneath her anger
+she was sorry for the man whose bitterness, she knew, was born of his
+love for her. And Phil saw only that Kitty was lost to him--saw in the
+girl's eastern friends those who, he felt, had robbed him of his dream.
+
+"I suppose," he said, after a moment's painful silence, "that I had
+better go back to the range where I belong. I'm out of place here."
+
+The girl was touched by the hopelessness in his voice, but she felt that
+it would be no kindness to offer him the relief of an encouraging word.
+Her day with her eastern friends, and the memories that her meeting with
+Mrs. Manning had aroused, convinced her more than ever that her old love
+for Phil, and the life of which he was a part, were for her impossible.
+
+When she did not speak, the cowboy said bitterly, "I noticed that your
+fine friends did not take quite all your time. You found an opportunity
+for a quiet little visit with Honorable Patches."
+
+Kitty was angry now in earnest. "You are forgetting yourself, Phil," she
+answered with cold dignity. "And I think that as long as you feel as you
+do toward my friends, and can speak to me like this about Mr. Patches,
+you are right in saying that you belong on the range. Mr. and Mrs.
+Manning are here, I see. I am going to dine with them. Good-by!" She
+turned away, leaving him standing there.
+
+A moment he waited, as though stunned; then he turned to make his way
+blindly out of the hotel.
+
+It was nearly morning when Patches was awakened by the sound of someone
+moving about the kitchen. A moment he listened, then, rising, went
+quickly to the kitchen door, thinking to surprise some chance night
+visitor.
+
+When Phil saw him standing there the foreman for a moment said nothing,
+but, with the bread knife in one hand and one of Stella's good loaves in
+the other, stared at him in blank surprise. Then the look of surprise
+changed to an expression of questioning suspicion, and he demanded
+harshly, "What in hell are _you_ doing here?"
+
+Patches saw that the man was laboring under some great trouble. Indeed,
+Phil's voice and manner were not unlike one under the influence of
+strong drink. But Patches knew that Phil never drank.
+
+"I was sleeping," he answered calmly. "You woke me, I suppose. I heard
+you, and came to see who was prowling around the kitchen at this time of
+the night; that is all."
+
+"Oh, that's all, is it? But what are you here for? Why aren't you in
+Prescott where you are supposed to be?"
+
+Patches, because he saw Phil's painful state of mind, exercised
+admirable self-control. "I supposed I had a perfect right to come here
+if I wished. I did not dream that my presence in this house would be
+questioned."
+
+"That depends," Phil retorted. "Why did you leave Prescott?"
+
+Patches, still calm, answered gently. "My reasons for not staying in
+Prescott are entirely personal, Phil; I do not care to explain just
+now."
+
+"Oh, you don't? Well, it seems to me, sir, that you have a devil of a
+lot of personal business that you can't explain."
+
+"I am afraid I have," returned Patches, with his old self-mocking smile.
+"But, look here, Phil, you are disturbed and all wrought up about
+something, or you wouldn't attack me like this. You don't really think
+me a suspicious character, and you know you don't. You are not yourself,
+old man, and I'll be hanged if I'll take anything you say as an insult,
+until I know that you say it, deliberately, in cold blood. I'm sorry for
+your trouble, Phil--damned sorry--I would give anything if I could help
+you. Perhaps I may be able to prove that later, but just now I think the
+kindest and wisest thing that I can do for us both is to say
+good-night."
+
+He turned at the last word, without waiting for Phil to speak, and went
+back to his room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+IN GRANITE BASIN.
+
+
+On the other side of Granite Mountain from where Phil and Patches
+watched the wild horses that day, there is a rocky hollow, set high in
+the hills, but surrounded on every side by still higher peaks and
+ridges. Lying close under the sheer, towering cliffs of the mountain,
+those fortress-like walls so gray and grim and old seem to overshadow
+the place with a somber quiet, as though the memories of the many ages
+that had wrought their countless years into those mighty battlements
+gave to the very atmosphere a feeling of solemn and sacred seclusion. It
+was as though nature had thrown about this spot a strong protecting
+guard, that here, in her very heart, she might keep unprofaned the
+sweetness and strength and beauty of her primitive and everlasting
+treasures.
+
+In its wild and rugged setting, Granite Basin has, for the few who have
+the hardihood to find them, many beautiful glades and shady nooks, where
+the grass and wild flowers weave their lovely patterns for the earth
+floor, and tall pines spread their soft carpets of brown, while giant
+oaks and sycamores lift their cathedral arches to support the ceilings
+of green, and dark rock fountains set in banks of moss and fern hold
+water clear and cold. It was to one of these that Stanford Manning
+brought his bride for their honeymoon. Stanford himself pitched their
+tent and made their simple camp, for it was not in his plan that the
+sweet intimacy of these, the first weeks of their mated life, should be
+marred, even by servants. And Helen, wise in her love, permitted him to
+realize his dream in the fullness of its every detail.
+
+As she lay in the hammock which he had hung for her under the canopy of
+living green, and watched him while he brought wood for their camp fire,
+and made all ready for the night which was drawing near, she was glad
+that he had planned it so. But more than that, she was glad that he was
+the kind of a man who would care to plan it so. Then, when all was
+finished, he came to sit beside her, and together they watched the light
+of the setting sun fade from the summit of Old Granite, and saw the
+flaming cloud-banner that hung above the mountain's castle towers furled
+by the hand of night. In silence they watched those mighty towering
+battlements grow cold and grim, until against the sky the shadowy bulk
+stood mysterious and awful, as though to evidence in its grandeur and
+strength the omnipotent might and power of the Master Builder of the
+world and Giver of all life.
+
+And when the soft darkness was fully come, and the low murmuring voices
+of the night whispered from forest depth and mountain side, while the
+stars peered through the weaving of leaf and branch, and the ruddy light
+of their camp fire rose and fell, the man talked of the things that had
+gone into the making of his life. As though he wished his mate to know
+him more fully than anyone else could know, he spoke of those personal
+trials and struggles, those disappointments and failures, those plans
+and triumphs of which men so rarely speak; of his boyhood and his
+boyhood home life, of his father and mother, of those hard years of his
+youth, and his struggle for an education that would equip him for his
+chosen life work; he told her many things that she had known only in a
+general way.
+
+But most of all he talked of those days when he had first met her, and
+of how quickly and surely the acquaintance had grown into friendship,
+and then into a love which he dared not yet confess. Smilingly he told
+how he had tried to convince himself that she was not for him. And how,
+believing that she loved and would wed his friend, Lawrence Knight, he
+had come to the far West, to his work, and, if he could, to forget.
+
+"But I could not forget, dear girl," he said. "I could not escape the
+conviction that you belonged to me, as I felt that I belonged to you. I
+could not banish the feeling that some mysterious higher law--the law
+that governs the mating of the beautifully free creatures that live in
+these hills--had mated you and me. And so, as I worked and tried to
+forget, I went on dreaming just the same. It was that way when I first
+saw this place. I was crossing the country on my way to examine some
+prospects for the company, and camped at this very spot. And that
+evening I planned it all, just as it is to-night. I put the tent there,
+and built our fire, and stretched your hammock under the tree, and sat
+with you in the twilight; but even as I dreamed it I laughed at myself
+for a fool, for I could not believe that the dream would ever come true.
+And then, when I got back to Prescott, there was a letter from a
+Cleveland friend, telling me that Larry had gone abroad to be away a
+year or more, and another letter from the company, calling me East
+again. And so I stopped at Cleveland and--" He laughed happily. "I know
+now that dreams do come true."
+
+"You foolish boy," said Helen softly. "To think that I did not know.
+Why, when you went away, I was so sure that you would come for me again,
+that I never even thought that it could be any other way. I thought you
+did not speak because you felt that you were too poor, because you felt
+that you had so little to offer, and because you wished to prove
+yourself and your work before asking me to share your life. I did not
+dream that you could doubt my love for you, or think for a moment that
+there could ever be anyone else. I felt that you _must_ know; and so,
+you see, while I waited I had my dreams, too."
+
+"But don't you see, girl," he answered, as though for a moment he found
+it hard to believe his own happiness, "don't you see? Larry is such a
+splendid fellow, and you two were such friends, and you always seemed so
+fond of him, and with his wealth he could give you so much that I knew I
+never could give--"
+
+"Of course, I am fond of Larry; everyone is. He has absolutely nothing
+to do in the world but to make himself charming and pleasant and
+entertaining and amusing. Why, Stan, I don't suppose that in all his
+life he ever did one single thing that was necessary or useful. He even
+had a man to help him dress. He is cultured and intellectual, and bright
+and witty, and clean and good-natured, possessing, in fact, all the
+qualifications of a desirable lap dog, and you can't help liking him,
+just as you would like a pretty, useless pet."
+
+Stanford chuckled. She had described Lawrence Knight so accurately.
+
+"Poor old Larry," he said. "What a man he might have been if he had not
+been so pampered and petted and envied and spoiled, all because of his
+father's money. His heart is right, and at the bottom he has the right
+sort of stuff in him. His athletic record at school showed us that. I
+think that was why we all liked him so in spite of his uselessness."
+
+"I wish you could have known my father, Stan," said Helen thoughtfully,
+as though she, too, were moved to speak by the wish that her mate might
+know more of the things that had touched her deeper life.
+
+"I wish so, too," he answered. "I know that he must have been fine."
+
+"He was my ideal," she answered softly. "My other ideal, I mean. From
+the time I was a slip of a girl he made me his chum. Until he died we
+were always together. Mother died when I was a baby, you know. Many,
+many times he would take me with him when he made his professional
+visits to his patients, leaving me in the buggy to wait at each
+house--'to be his hitching post'--he used to say. And on those long
+rides, sometimes out into the country, he talked to me as I suppose not
+many fathers talk to their daughters. And because he was my father and a
+physician, and because we were so much alone in our companionship, I
+believed him the wisest and best man in all the world, and felt that
+nothing he said or did could be wrong. And so, you see, dear, my ideal
+man, the man to whom I could give myself, came to be the kind of a man
+that my father placed in the highest rank among men--a man like you,
+Stan. And almost the last talk we had before he died father said to
+me--I remember his very words--'My daughter, it will not be long now
+until men will seek you, until someone will ask you to share his life.
+Keep your ideal man safe in your heart of hearts, daughter, and remember
+that no matter what a suitor may have to offer of wealth or social rank,
+if he is not your ideal--if you cannot respect and admire him for his
+character and manhood alone--say no; say no, child, at any cost. But
+when your ideal man comes--the one who compels your respect and
+admiration for his strength of character, and for the usefulness of his
+life, the one whom you cannot help loving for his manhood alone--mate
+with him--no matter how light his purse or how lowly his rank in the
+world.' And so you see, as soon as I learned to know you, I realized
+what you were to me. But I wish--oh, how I wish--that father could have
+lived to know you, too."
+
+For some time they watched the dancing camp fire flames in silence, as
+though they had found in their love that true oneness that needs no
+spoken word.
+
+Then Stanford said, "And to think that we expected to wait two years or
+more, and now--thanks to a soulless corporation--we are here in a little
+less than a year!"
+
+"Thanks to no soulless corporation for that, sir," retorted Helen with
+spirit. "But thanks to the brains and strength and character of my
+husband."
+
+Two of the three weeks' vacation granted the engineer had passed when
+Mrs. Manning, one afternoon, informed her husband that as the ordained
+provider for the household it was imperative that he provide some game
+for their evening meal.
+
+"And what does Her Majesty, the cook, desire?" he asked. "Venison,
+perhaps?"
+
+She shook her head with decision. "You will be obliged to go too far,
+and be gone too long, to get a deer."
+
+"But you're going with me, of course."
+
+Again she shook her head. "I have something else to do. I can't always
+be tagging around after you while you are providing, you know; and we
+may as well begin to be civilized again. Just go a little way--not so
+far that you can't hear me call--and bring me some nice fat quail like
+those we had day before yesterday."
+
+She watched him disappear in the brush and then busied herself about the
+camp. Presently she heard the gun, and smiled as she pictured him
+hunting for their supper, much as though they were two primitive
+children of nature, instead of the two cultured members of a highly
+civilized race, that they really were. Then, presently she must go to
+the spring for water, that he might have a cool drink when he returned.
+
+She was half way to the spring, singing softly to herself, when a sound
+on the low ridge above the camp attracted her attention. Pausing, she
+looked and listened. The song died on her lips. It could not be Staford
+coming so noisily through the brush and from that direction. Even as
+the thought came, she heard the gun again, a little farther away down
+the narrow valley below the camp, and, in the same moment, the noise on
+the ridge grew louder, as though some heavy animal were crashing through
+the bushes. And then suddenly, as she stood there in frightened
+indecision, a long-horned, wild-eyed steer broke through the brush on
+the crest of the ridge and plunged down the steep slope toward the camp.
+
+Weak and helpless with fear, Helen could neither scream nor run, but
+stood fascinated by the very danger that menaced her--powerless, even,
+to turn her eyes away from the frightful creature that had so rudely
+broken the quiet seclusion of the little glade. Behind the steer, even
+as the frenzied animal leaped from the brow of the hill, she saw a
+horseman, as wild in his appearance and in his reckless rushing haste as
+the creature he pursued. Curiously, as in a dream, she saw the horse's
+neck and shoulders dripping wet with sweat, as with ears flat, nose
+outstretched, and nostrils wide the animal strained every nerve in an
+effort to put his rider a few feet closer to the escaping quarry. She
+even noted the fringed leather chaps, the faded blue jumper, the broad
+hat of the rider, and that in his rein hand he held the coil of a riata
+high above the saddle horn, while in his right was the half-opened loop.
+The bridle reins were loose, as though he gave the horse no thought; and
+they took the steep, downward plunge from the summit of the ridge
+without an instant's pause, and apparently with all the ease and
+confidence that they would have felt on smooth and level ground.
+
+The steer, catching sight of the woman, and seeing in her, perhaps,
+another enemy, swerved a little in his plunging course, and, with
+lowered head, charged straight at her.
+
+The loop of that rawhide rope was whirling now above the cowboy's head,
+and his spurs drew blood from the heaving flanks of the straining horse,
+as every mad leap of the steer brought death a few feet nearer the
+helpless woman.
+
+The situation must have broken with frightful suddenness upon the man,
+but he gave no sign--no startled shout, no excited movement. He even
+appeared, to Helen, to be as coolly deliberate as though no thought of
+her danger disturbed him; and she recognized, even in that awful moment,
+the cowboy whom she had watched through the field glasses, that day of
+the celebration at Prescott. She could not know that, in the same
+instant, as his horse plunged down from the summit of the ridge, Patches
+had recognized her; and that as his hand swung the riata with such cool
+and deliberate precision, the man was praying--praying as only a man who
+sees the woman he loves facing a dreadful death, with no hand but his to
+save her, could pray.
+
+God help him if his training of nerve and hand should fail now! Christ
+pity him, if that whirling loop should miss its mark, or fall short!
+
+His eye told him that the distance was still too great. He must--he
+_must_--lessen it; and again his spurs drew blood. He must be cool--cool
+and steady and sure--and he must act now--NOW!
+
+Helen saw the racing horse make a desperate leap as the spurs tore his
+heaving sides; she saw that swiftly whirling loop leave the rider's
+hand, as the man leaned forward in his saddle. Curiously she watched the
+loop open with beautiful precision, as the coils were loosed and the
+long, thin line lengthened through the air. It seemed to move so
+slowly--those wickedly lowered horns were so near! Then she saw the
+rider's right hand move with flashlike quickness to the saddle horn, as
+he threw his weight back, and the horse, with legs braced and hoofs
+plowing the ground, stopped in half his own length, and set his weight
+against the weight of the steer. The flexible riata straightened as a
+rod of iron, the steer's head jerked sideways; his horns buried
+themselves in the ground; he fell, almost at her feet. And then, as the
+cowboy leaped from his horse, Helen felt herself sinking into a soft,
+thick darkness that, try as she might, she could not escape.
+
+Still master of himself, but with a kind of fierce coolness, Patches ran
+to the fallen steer and securely tied the animal down. But when he
+turned to the woman who lay unconscious on the ground, a sob burst from
+his lips, and tears were streaming down his dust-grimed cheeks. And as
+he knelt beside her he called again and again that name which, a year
+before, he had whispered as he stood with empty, outstretched arms,
+alone, on the summit of the Divide.
+
+Lifting her in his arms, he carried her to the hammock, and finding
+water and a towel, wet her brow and face; and all the while, in an agony
+of fear, he talked to her with words of love.
+
+Overwrought by the unexpected, and, to him, almost miraculous meeting
+with Helen--weak and shaken by the strain of those moments of her
+danger, when her life depended so wholly upon his coolness and
+skill--unnerved by the sight of her lying so still and white, and beside
+himself with the strength of his passion--the man made no effort to
+account for her presence in that wild and lonely spot, so far from the
+scenes amid which he had learned to know and love her. He was conscious
+only that she was there--that she had been very near to death--that he
+had held her in his arms--and that he loved her with all the strength of
+his manhood.
+
+Presently, with a low cry of joy, he saw the blood creep back into her
+white cheeks. Slowly her eyes opened and she looked wonderingly up into
+his face.
+
+"Helen!" he breathed. "Helen!"
+
+"Why, Larry!" she murmured, still confused and wondering. "So it _was_
+you, after all! But what in the world are you doing here like this? They
+told me your name was Patches--Honorable Patches."
+
+Then the man spoke--impetuously, almost fiercely, his words came without
+thought.
+
+"I am here because I would be anything, do anything that a man could be
+and do to win your love. A year ago, when I told you of my love, and
+asked you to be my wife, and, like the silly, pampered, petted fool that
+I was, thought that my wealth and the life that I offered could count
+for anything with a woman like you, you laughed at me. You told me that
+if ever you married, you would wed a man, not a fortune nor a social
+position. You made me see myself as I was--a useless idler, a dummy for
+the tailors, a superficial chatterer of pretty nothings to vain and
+shallow women; you told me that I possessed not one manly trait of
+character that could compel the genuine love of an honest woman. You let
+me see the truth, that my proposal to you was almost an insult. You made
+me understand that your very friendship for me was such a friendship as
+you might have with an amusing and irresponsible boy, or a spoiled
+child. You could not even consider my love for you seriously, as a woman
+like you must consider the love of a strong man. And you were right,
+Helen. But, dear, it was for me a bitter, bitter lesson. I went from
+you, ashamed to look men in the face. I felt myself guilty--a pitifully
+weak and cowardly thing, with no right to exist. In my humiliation, I
+ran from all who knew me--I came out here to escape from the life that
+had made me what I was--that had robbed me of my manhood. And here, by
+chance, in the contests at the celebration in Prescott, I saw a man--a
+cowboy--who possessed everything that I lacked, and for the lack of
+which you had laughed at me. And then alone one night I faced myself and
+fought it out. I knew that you were right, Helen, but it was not easy to
+give up the habits and luxury to which all my life I had been
+accustomed. It was not easy, I say, but my love for you made it a
+glorious thing to do; and I hoped and believed that if I proved myself a
+man, I could go back to you, in the strength of my manhood, and you
+would listen to me. And so, penniless and a stranger, under an assumed
+name, I sought useful, necessary work that called for the highest
+quality of manhood. And I have won, Helen; I know that I have won.
+To-day Patches, the cowboy, can look any man in the face. He can take
+his place and hold his own among men of any class anywhere. I have
+regained that of which the circumstances of birth and inheritance and
+training robbed me. I have won the right of a man to come to you again.
+I claim that right now, Helen. I tell you again that I love you. I love
+you as--"
+
+"Larry! Larry!" she cried, springing to her feet, and drawing away from
+him, as though suddenly awakened from some strange spell. "Larry, you
+must not! What do you mean? How can you say such things to me?"
+
+He answered her with reckless passion. "I say such things because I am a
+man, and because you are the woman I love and want; because--"
+
+She cried out again in protest. "Oh, stop, stop! Please stop! Don't you
+know?"
+
+"Know what?" he demanded.
+
+"My--my husband!" she gasped. "Stanford Manning--we are here on our
+honeymoon."
+
+She saw him flinch as though from a heavy blow, and put out his hand to
+the trunk of a tree near which they stood, to steady himself. He did not
+speak, but his lips moved as though he repeated her words to himself,
+over and over again; and he gazed at her with a strange bewildered,
+doubting look, as though he could not believe his own suffering.
+
+Impulsively Helen went a step toward him. "Larry!" she said. "Larry!"
+
+Her voice seemed to arouse him and he stood erect as though by a
+conscious effort of will. Then that old self-mocking smile was on his
+lips. He was laughing at his hurt--making sport of himself and his cruel
+predicament.
+
+But to Helen there was that in his smile which wrung her woman heart.
+"Oh, Larry," she said gently. "Forgive me; I am so sorry; I--"
+
+He put out his hand with a gesture of protest, and his voice was calm
+and courteous. "I beg your pardon, Helen. It was stupid of me not to
+have understood. I forgot myself for the moment. It was all so
+unexpected--meeting you like this. I did not think." He looked away
+toward his waiting horse and to the steer lying on the ground. "So you
+and Stanford Manning--Good old Stan! I am glad for him. And for you,
+too, Helen. Why, it was I who introduced him to you; do you remember?"
+
+He smiled again that mirthless, self-mocking smile, as he added without
+giving her time to speak, "If you will excuse me for a moment, I will
+rid your camp of the unwelcome presence of that beast yonder." Then he
+went toward his horse, as though turning for relief to the work that had
+become so familiar to him.
+
+She watched him while he released the steer, and drove the animal away
+over the ridge, where he permitted it to escape into the wild haunts
+where it lived with its outlaw companions.
+
+When he rode back to the little camp Stanford had returned.
+
+For an hour they talked together as old friends. But Helen, while she
+offered now and then a word or a remark, or asked a question, and
+laughed or smiled with them, left the talk mostly to the two men.
+Stanford, when the first shock of learning of Helen's narrow escape was
+over, was gaily enthusiastic and warm in his admiration for his old
+friend, who had, for no apparent reason but the wish to assert his own
+manhood, turned his back upon the ease and luxury of his wealth to live
+a life of adventurous hardship. And Patches, as he insisted they should
+call him, with many a laughing jest and droll comment told them of his
+new life and work. He was only serious when he made them promise to keep
+his identity a secret until he himself was ready to reveal his real
+name.
+
+"And what do you propose to do when your game of Patches is played out?"
+Stanford asked curiously.
+
+For an instant they saw him smiling mockingly at himself; then he
+answered lightly, "Try some other fool experiment, I reckon."
+
+Stanford chuckled; the reply was so like the cowboy Patches, and so
+unlike his old friend Larry Knight.
+
+"As for that, Stan," Patches continued, "I don't see that the game will
+ever be played out, as you say. Certainly I can never now go back
+altogether to what I was. The fellow you used to know in Cleveland is
+not really I, you see. Fact is, I think that fellow is quite dead--peace
+be to his ashes! The world is wide and there is always work for a man to
+do."
+
+The appearance of Phil Acton on the ridge, at the spot where the steer,
+followed by Patches, had first appeared, put an end to their further
+conversation with Lawrence Knight.
+
+"My boss!" said that gentleman, in his character of Patches the cowboy,
+as the Cross-Triangle foreman halted his horse on the brow of the hill,
+and sat looking down upon the camp.
+
+"Be careful, please, and don't let him suspect that you ever saw me
+before. I'll sure catch it now for loafing so long."
+
+"I know him," said Stanford. Then he called to the man above, "Come on
+down, Acton, and be sociable."
+
+Phil rode into camp, shook hands with Stanford cordially, and was
+presented to Mrs. Manning, to whom he spoke with a touch of
+embarrassment. Then he said, with a significant look at Patches, "I'm
+glad to meet you people, Mr. Manning, but we really haven't much time
+for sociability just now. Mr. Baldwin sent me with an outfit into this
+Granite Basin country to gather some of these outlaw steers. He expects
+us to be on the job." Turning to Patches, he continued, "When you didn't
+come back I thought you must have met with some serious trouble, and so
+trailed you. We've managed to lose a good deal of time, altogether. That
+steer you were after got away from you, did he?"
+
+Helen spoke quickly. "Oh, Mr. Acton, you must not blame Mr. Patches for
+what happened. Really, you must not. No one was to blame; it just
+happened--" She stopped, unable to finish the explanation, for she was
+thinking of that part of the incident which was known only to herself
+and Patches.
+
+Stanford told in a few words of his wife's danger and how the cowboy had
+saved her.
+
+"That was mighty good work, Patches," said Phil heartily, "mighty good
+work. I'm sorry, Mr. Manning, that our coming up here after these
+outlaws happened at just this time. It is too bad to so disturb you and
+Mrs. Manning. We are going home Friday, however, and I'll tell the boys
+to keep clear of your neighborhood in the meantime."
+
+As the two Cross-Triangle men walked toward their horses, Helen and
+Stanford heard Phil ask, "But where is that steer, Patches?"
+
+"I let him go," returned Patches.
+
+"You let him go!" exclaimed the foreman. "After you had him roped and
+tied? What did you do that for?"
+
+Patches was confused. "Really, I don't know."
+
+"I'd like to know what you figure we're up here for," said Phil,
+sharply. "You not only waste two or three hours visiting with these
+people, but you take my time trailing you up; and then you turn loose a
+steer after you get him. It looks like you'd lost your head mighty bad,
+after all."
+
+"I'm afraid you're right, Phil," Patches answered quietly.
+
+Helen looked at her husband indignantly but Stanford was grinning with
+delight.
+
+"To think," he murmured, "of Larry Knight taking a dressing-down like
+that from a mere cowboy foreman!"
+
+But Patches was by no means so meek in spirit as he appeared in his
+outward manner. He had been driven almost to the verge of desperation by
+the trying situation, and was fighting for self-control. To take his
+foreman's rebuke in the presence of his friends was not easy.
+
+"I reckon I'd better send you to the home ranch to-night, instead of
+Bob," continued Phil, as the two men mounted their horses and sat for a
+moment facing each other. "It looks like we could spare you best. Tell
+Uncle Will to send the chuck wagon and three more punchers, and that
+we'll start for the home ranch Friday. And be sure that you get back
+here to-morrow."
+
+"Shall I go now?"
+
+"Yes, you can go now."
+
+Patches wheeled his horse and rode away, while Phil disappeared over the
+ridge in the direction from which he had come.
+
+When the two cowboys were out of sight, Helen went straight to her
+husband, and to Stanford's consternation, when he took her in his arms,
+she was crying.
+
+"Why, girl, what is it?" he asked, holding her close.
+
+But she only answered between sobs as she clung to him, "It--it's
+nothing--never mind, Stan. I'm just upset."
+
+And Stanford quite naturally thought it was only a case of nerves caused
+by the danger through which she had passed.
+
+For nearly an hour, Patches rode toward the home ranch, taking only such
+notice of his surroundings as was necessary in order for him to keep his
+direction. Through the brush and timber, over the ridges down into
+valleys and washes, and along the rock-strewn mountain sides he allowed
+his horse to pick the way, and take his own gait, with scarcely a touch
+of rein or spur.
+
+The twilight hour was beginning when he reached a point from which he
+could see, in the distance, the red roofs of the Cross-Triangle
+buildings. Checking his horse, he sat for a long time, motionless,
+looking away over the broad land that had come to mean so much to him,
+as though watching the passing of the day.
+
+But the man did not note the changing colors in the western sky; he did
+not see the shadows deepening; he was not thinking of the coming of the
+night. The sight of the distant spot that, a year before, had held such
+possibilities for him, when, on the summit of the Divide, he had chosen
+between two widely separated ways of life, brought to him, now, a keener
+realization of the fact that he was again placed where he must choose.
+The sun was down upon those hopes and dreams that in the first hard
+weeks of his testing had inspired and strengthened him. The night of
+despairing, reckless abandonment of the very ideals of manhood for which
+he had so bravely struggled was upon him; while the spirit and strength
+of that manhood which he had so hardly attained fought against its
+surrender.
+
+When Stanford Manning had asked, "What will you do when your game of
+Patches is played out?" he had said that the man whom they had known in
+the old days was dead. Would this new man also die? Deliberately the man
+turned about and started back the way he had come.
+
+In their honeymoon camp, that evening, when the only light in the sky
+was the light of the stars, and the camp fire's ruddy flames made weird
+shadows come and go in the little glade, Helen, lying in the hammock,
+and Stanford, sitting near, talked of their old friend Lawrence Knight.
+But as they talked they did not know that a lonely horseman had stopped
+on the other side of the low ridge, and leaving his horse, had crept
+carefully through the brush, to a point on the brow of the hill, from
+which he could look down into the camp.
+
+From where he lay in the darkness, the man could see against the camp
+fire's light the two, where the hammock was swung under the trees. He
+could hear the low murmur of their voices, with now and then a laugh.
+But it was always the man who laughed, for there was little mirth in
+Helen's heart that night. Then he saw Stanford go into the tent and
+return again to the hammock; and soon there came floating up to him the
+sweet, plaintive music of Helen's guitar, and then her voice, full and
+low, with a wealth of womanhood in every tone, as she sang a love song
+to her mate. Later, when the dancing flames of the camp fire had fallen
+to a dull red glow, he saw them go arm in arm into their tent. Then all
+was still. The red glow of the fire dimmed to a spark, and darkness drew
+close about the scene. But even in the darkness the man could still see,
+under the wide, sheltering arms of the trees, a lighter spot--the white
+tent.
+
+"Gethsemane," said the Dean to me once, when our talk had ranged wide
+and touched upon many things, "Gethsemane ain't no place; it's somethin'
+that happens. Whenever a man goes up against himself, right there is
+where Gethsemane is. And right there, too, is sure to be a fight. A man
+may not always know about it at the time; he may be too busy fightin' to
+understand just what it all means; but he'll know about it
+afterwards--No matter which side of him wins, he'll know afterwards that
+it was the one big fight of his life."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+AT MINT SPRING.
+
+
+When those days at Prescott were over, and Mr. and Mrs. Manning had left
+for their camp in Granite Basin, Kitty Reid returned to Williamson
+Valley reluctantly. She felt that with Phil definitely out of her life
+the last interest that bound her to the scenes of her girlhood was
+broken. Before many weeks the ranch would be sold. A Prescott agent had
+opened negotiations for an eastern client who would soon be out to look
+over the property; and Mr. Reid felt, from all that the agent had said,
+that the sale was assured. In the meantime Kitty would wait as patiently
+as she could. To help her, there would be Helen's visit, and there was
+her friendship with Professor Parkhill. It was not strange, considering
+all the circumstances, that the young woman should give her time more
+generously than ever to the only person in the neighborhood, except
+Patches, perhaps, who she felt could understand and appreciate her
+desires for that higher life of which even her own parents were
+ignorant.
+
+And the professor did understand her fully. He told her so many times
+each day. Had he not given all the years of his little life to the study
+of those refining and spiritualizing truths that are so far above the
+comprehension of the base and ignoble common herd? Indeed, he understood
+her language; he understood fully, why the sordid, brutal materialism of
+her crude and uncultured environment so repulsed and disgusted her. He
+understood, more fully than Kitty herself, in fact, and explained to her
+clearly, that her desires for the higher intellectual and spiritual life
+were born of her own rare gifts, and evidenced beyond all question the
+fineness and delicacy of her nature. He rejoiced with her--with a pure
+and holy joy--that she was so soon to be set free to live amid the
+surroundings that would afford her those opportunities for the higher
+development of her intellectual and spiritual powers which her soul
+craved. All this he told her from day to day; and then, one afternoon,
+he told her more.
+
+It was the same afternoon that Patches had so unexpectedly found Helen
+and Stanford in their Granite Basin camp. Kitty and the professor had
+driven in the buckboard to Simmons for the mail, and were coming back by
+the road to the Cross-Triangle, when the man asked, "Must we return to
+the ranch so soon? It is so delightful out here where there is no one to
+intrude with vulgar commonplaces, to mar our companionship."
+
+"Why, no," returned Kitty. "There is no need for us to hurry home." She
+glanced around. "We might sit over there, under those cedars on the
+hill, where you found me with Mr. Patches that day--the day we saw
+Yavapai Joe, you remember."
+
+"If you think it quite safe to leave the vehicle," he said, "I should be
+delighted."
+
+Kitty tied the horses to a convenient bush at the foot of the low hill,
+and soon they were in the welcome shade of the cedars.
+
+"Miss Reid," the professor began, with portentous gravity, "I must
+confess that I have been rather puzzled to account for your presence
+here that day with such a man as that fellow Patches. You will pardon my
+saying so, I am sure, but you must have observed my very deep interest
+in you. I also chanced to see you with him one day in Prescott, in the
+park. You don't mind my speaking of it?"
+
+"Not at all, Professor Parkhill," Kitty returned, smiling as she thought
+how ignorant the professor was of the cowboy's real character. "I like
+Patches. He interests me very much; and there is really no reason why I
+should not be friendly with him. Don't you think that I should be kind
+to our cowboys?"
+
+"I suppose so," the professor sighed. "But it hurts me to see you have
+anything whatever in common with such a man. It shocks me to know that
+you must, in any degree, come in touch with such fellows. I shall be
+very glad, indeed, when you are free from any such kindly obligations,
+and safe among those of your own class."
+
+Kitty found it very hard to reply. She did not wish to be disloyal to
+Patches and her many Williamson Valley friends; nor did she like to
+explain how Patches had played a part for the professor's benefit, for
+she felt that by not exposing the deception she had, in a way, been a
+party to it. So she said nothing, but seemed to be silently weighing
+the value of her learned companion's observations. At least, it so
+appeared to the professor, and in her ready acceptance of his implied
+criticism of her conduct he found the encouragement he needed for that
+which followed.
+
+"You must understand, Miss Reid, that I have become exceedingly zealous
+for your welfare. In these months that we have been so much together
+your companionship--your spiritual and intellectual companionship, I
+should say--has come to be very dear to me. As our souls have communed,
+I have felt myself uplifted and inspired. I have been strengthened and
+encouraged, as never before, to climb on toward the mountain peaks of
+pure intellectuality. If I am not mistaken, you, too, have felt a degree
+of uplift as a result of our fellowship, have you not?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Professor Parkhill," Kitty answered sincerely. "Our talks
+together have meant much more to me than I can tell. I shall never
+forget this summer. Your friendship has been a wonderful influence in my
+life."
+
+The little man moved uneasily and glanced timidly around. "I am truly
+glad to know that our companionship has not been altogether distasteful
+to you; I felt sure that it was not, but I--ahem!--I am glad to hear
+your confirmation of my opinion. It--ah--it enables me to say that which
+for several weeks past has been weighing heavily on my mind."
+
+Kitty looked at him with the manner of a trusting disciple waiting for
+the gems of truth that were about to fall from the lips of a venerable
+teacher.
+
+"Miss Reid--ah--why need our beautiful and mutually profitable
+companionship cease?"
+
+"I fear that I do not understand, Professor Parkhill," she answered,
+puzzled by his question.
+
+He looked at her with just a shade of mild--very mild--rebuke, as he
+returned, "Why, I think that I have stated my thought clearly. I mean
+that I am very desirous that our relation--the relation which we both
+have found so helpful--should continue. I am sure that we have, in these
+months which we have spent together, sufficient evidence that our souls
+vibrate in perfect harmony. I need you, dear friend; your understanding
+of my soul's desires is so sympathetic; I feel that you so complement
+and fill out, as it were, my spiritual self. I need you to encourage, to
+inspire, to assist me in the noble work to which I am devoting all my
+strength."
+
+She looked at him, now, with an expression of amazement. "Do you mean--"
+she faltered in confusion while the red blood colored her cheeks.
+
+"Yes," he answered, confidently. "I am asking you to be my wife. Not,
+however," he added hastily, "in the common, vulgar understanding of that
+relation. I am offering you, dear friend, that which is vastly higher
+than the union of the merely animal, which is based wholly upon the
+purely physical and material attraction. I am proposing marriage of our
+souls--a union, if you please, of our higher intellectual and spiritual
+selves. I feel, indeed, that by those higher laws which the vulgar,
+beastlike minds are incapable of recognizing, we are already one. I
+sense, as it were, that oneness which can exist only when two souls are
+mated by the great over-soul; I feel that you are already mine--that, I
+am--that we are already united in a spiritual union that is--"
+
+The young woman checked him with a gesture, which, had he interpreted it
+rightly, was one of repulsion. "Please stop, Professor Parkhill," she
+gasped in a tone of disgust.
+
+He was surprised, and not a little chagrined. "Am I to understand that
+you do not reciprocate my sentiment, Miss Reid? Is it possible that I
+have been so mistaken?"
+
+Kitty turned her head, as though she could not bear even to look at him.
+"What you ask is so impossible," she said in a low tone. "Impossible!"
+
+Strive as she might, the young woman could not altogether hide her
+feeling of abhorrence. And yet, she asked herself, why should this man's
+proposal arouse in her such antagonism and repugnance? He was a scholar,
+famed for his attainments in the world of the highest culture. As his
+wife, she would be admitted at once into the very inner circle of that
+life to which she aspired, and for which she was leaving her old home
+and friends. He had couched his proposal in the very terms of the
+spiritually and intellectually elect; he had declared himself in that
+language which she had so proudly thought she understood, and in which
+she had so often talked with him; and yet she was humiliated and
+ashamed. It was, to her, as though, in placing his offer of marriage
+upon the high, pure ground of a spiritual union, he had insulted her
+womanhood. Kitty realized wonderingly that she had not felt like this
+when Phil had confessed his love for her. In her woman heart, she was
+proud and glad to have won the love of such a man as Phil, even though
+she could not accept the cowboy as her mate. On that very spot which the
+professor had chosen for his declaration, Patches had told her that she
+was leaving the glorious and enduring realities of life for vain and
+foolish bubbles--that she was throwing aside the good grain and choosing
+the husks. Was this what Patches meant? she wondered.
+
+"I regret exceedingly, Miss Reid," the professor was saying, "that the
+pure and lofty sentiments which I have voiced do not seem to find a like
+response in your soul. I--"
+
+Again she interrupted him with that gesture of repulsion. "Please do not
+say any more, Professor Parkhill. I--I fear that I am very human, after
+all. Come, it is time that we were returning to the house."
+
+All through the remaining hours of that afternoon and evening Kitty was
+disturbed and troubled. At times she wanted to laugh at the professor's
+ridiculous proposal; and again, her cheeks burned with anger; and she
+could have cried in her shame and humiliation. And with it all her mind
+was distraught by the persistent question: Was not the professor's
+conception of an ideal mating the legitimate and logical conclusion of
+those very advanced ideas of culture which he represented, and which she
+had so much admired? If she sincerely believed the life represented by
+the professor and his kind so superior--so far above the life
+represented by Phil Acton--why should she not feel honored instead of
+being so humiliated and shamed by the professor's--she could not call it
+love? If the life which Phil had asked her to share was so low in the
+scale of civilization; if it were so far beneath the intellectual and
+spiritual ideals which she had formed, why did she feel so honored by
+the strong man's love? Why had she not felt humiliated and ashamed that
+Phil should want her to mate with him? Could it be, she asked herself
+again and again, that there was something, after all, superior to that
+culture which she had so truly thought stood for the highest ideals of
+the race? Could it be that, in the land of Granite Mountain, there was
+something, after all, that was as superior to the things she had been
+taught as Granite Mountain itself was superior in its primeval strength
+and enduring grandeur to the man-made buildings of her school?
+
+It was not strange that Kitty's troubled thoughts should turn to Helen
+Manning. Clearly, Helen's education had led to no confusion. On the
+contrary, she had found an ideal love, and a happiness such as every
+true, womanly woman must, in her heart of hearts, desire.
+
+It was far into the night when Kitty, wakeful and restless, heard the
+sound of a horse's feet. She could not know that it was Honorable
+Patches riding past on his way to the ranch on the other side of the
+broad valley meadows.
+
+Weary in body, and with mind and spirit exhausted by the trials through
+which he had passed, Patches crept to his bed. In the morning, when he
+delivered his message, the Dean, seeing the man's face, urged him to
+stay for the day at the ranch. But Patches said no; Phil was expecting
+him, and he must return to the outfit in Granite Basin. As soon as
+breakfast was over he set out.
+
+He had ridden as far as the head of Mint Wash, and had stopped to water
+his horse, and to refresh himself with a cool drink and a brief rest
+beside the fragrant mint-bordered spring, when he heard someone riding
+rapidly up the wash the way he had come. A moment later, Kitty, riding
+her favorite Midnight, rounded a jutting corner of the rocky wall of the
+bluff.
+
+As the girl caught sight of him, there beside the spring, she waved her
+hand in greeting. And the man, as he waved his answer, and watched her
+riding toward him, felt a thrill of gladness that she had come. The
+strong, true friendship that began with their very first meeting, when
+she had been so frankly interested in the tenderfoot, and so kindly
+helpful, and which had developed so steadily through the year, gave him,
+now, a feeling of comfort and relief. Wearied and worn by his
+disappointment and by his struggle with himself, with the cherished hope
+that had enabled him to choose and endure the hard life of the range
+brought to a sudden end, with his life itself made so empty and futile,
+he welcomed his woman friend with a warmth and gladness that brought a
+flush of pleasure to Kitty's cheek.
+
+For Kitty, too, had just passed through a humiliating and disappointing
+experience. In her troubled frame of mind, and in her perplexed and
+confused questioning, the young woman was as glad for the companionship
+of Patches as he was glad to welcome her. She felt a curious sense of
+relief and safety in his presence--somewhat as one, who, walking over
+uncertain bogs or treacherous quicksands, finds, all at once, the solid
+ground.
+
+"I saw you go past the house," she said, when she reached the spring
+where he stood awaiting her, "and I decided right then that I would go
+along with you to Granite Basin and visit my friends the Mannings. They
+told me that I might come this week, and I think they have had quite
+enough honeymooning, anyway. You know where they are camped, do you?"
+
+"Yes," he answered. "I saw them yesterday. But, come! Get down and cool
+off a bit. You've been riding some, haven't you?"
+
+"I wanted to catch you as soon as I could," she laughed, as she sprang
+lightly to the ground. "And you see you gained a good start while I was
+getting Midnight saddled. What a pretty spot! I must have a drink of
+that water this minute."
+
+"Sorry I have no cup," he said, and then he laughed with the pleasure of
+good comradeship as she answered:
+
+"You forget that I was born to the customs of this country." And,
+throwing aside her broad hat, she went down on the ground to drink from
+the spring, even as he had done.
+
+As the man watched her, a sudden thought flashed into his mind--a
+thought so startling, so unexpected, that he was for the moment
+bewildered.
+
+"Talk about the nectar of the gods!" cried Kitty with a deep breath of
+satisfaction, as she lifted her smiling face from the bright water to
+look up at him. And then she drank again.
+
+"And now, if you please, sir, you may bring me some of that
+water-cress; we'll sit over there in the shade, and who cares whether
+Granite Basin, the Mannings, and your fellow cow-punchers, are fifteen
+or fifty miles away?"
+
+He brought a generous bunch of the water-cress, and stretched himself
+full length beside her, as she sat on the ground under a tall sycamore.
+
+"Selah!" he laughed contentedly. "We seem to lack only the book of
+verses, the loaf and the jug; the wilderness is here, all right, and
+that's a perfectly good bough up there, and, of course, you could
+furnish the song; I might recite 'The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck,'
+but, alas! we haven't even a flask and biscuit."
+
+"What a pity that you should be so near and yet so far from paradise!"
+she retorted quickly. Then she added, with a mischievous smile, "It just
+happens that I have a sandwich in my saddle pocket."
+
+"Won't you sing? Please do," he returned, with an eagerness that amused
+her.
+
+But she shook her head reprovingly. "We would still lack the jug of
+wine, you know, and, really, I don't think that paradise is for
+cow-punchers, anyway, do you?"
+
+"Evidently not," he answered. And at her jesting words a queer feeling
+of rebellion possessed him. Why should he be condemned to years of
+loneliness? Why must he face a life without the companionship of a mate?
+If the paradise he had sought so hard to attain were denied him, why
+should he not still take what happiness he might?
+
+He was lying flat on his back, his hands clasped beneath his head,
+watching an eagle that wheeled, a tiny black speck, high under the blue
+arch of the sky. He seemed to have forgotten his companion.
+
+Kitty leaned toward him, and held a sprig of water-cress over his
+upturned face. "I haven't a penny," she said, "but I'll give you this."
+
+He sat up quickly. "Even at that price, my thoughts might cost you too
+much. But you haven't told me what you have done with our dear friend
+the professor? Haven't you a guilty conscience, deserting him like
+this?"
+
+Kitty held up both hands in a gesture of dismay. "Don't, Patches, please
+don't. Ugh! if you only knew how good it is to be with a _man_ again!"
+
+He laughed aloud in a spirit of reckless defiance. "And Phil is over in
+Granite Basin. I neglected to tell you that he knows the location of the
+Mannings' camp, as well as I."
+
+Kitty was a little puzzled by the tone of his laughter, and by his
+words. She spoke gravely. "Perhaps I should tell you, Patches--we have
+been such good friends, you and I--Phil--"
+
+"Yes!" he said.
+
+"Phil is nothing to me, Patches. I mean--"
+
+"You mean in the way he wanted to be?" He helped her with a touch of
+eager readiness.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And have you told him, Kitty?" Patches asked gently.
+
+"Yes--I have told him," she replied.
+
+Patches was silent for a moment. Then, "Poor Phil!" he said softly. "I
+understand now; I thought that was it. He is a man among thousands,
+Kitty."
+
+"I know--I know," she returned, as though to dismiss the subject. "But
+it simply couldn't be."
+
+Patches was looking at her intently, with an expression in his dark eyes
+that Kitty had never before seen. The man's mind was in a whirl of quick
+excitement. As they had talked and laughed together, the thought that
+had so startled him, when her manner of familiar comradeship had brought
+such a feeling of comfort to his troubled spirit, had not left him. From
+that first moment of their meeting a year before there had been that
+feeling between them, of companionship, a feeling which had grown as
+their acquaintance had developed into the intimate friendship that had
+allowed him to speak to her as he had spoken that day under the cedars
+on the ridge. What might that friendship not grow into! He thought of
+her desire for the life that he knew so well, and how he could, while
+granting every wish of her heart, yet protect her from the shams and
+falseness. And with these thoughts was that feeling of rebellion against
+the loneliness of his life.
+
+Kitty's words regarding Phil removed the barrier, as it were, and the
+man's nature, which prompted him so often to act without pausing to
+consider, betrayed him into saying, "Would you be greatly shocked,
+Kitty, if I were to tell you that I am glad? That, while I am sorry for
+Phil, I am glad that you have said no to him?"
+
+"You are glad?" she said wonderingly. "Why?"
+
+"Because, now, _I_ am free to say what I could not have said had you not
+told me what you have. I want you, Kitty. I want to fill your life with
+beauty and happiness and contentment. I want you to go with me to see
+and know the natural wonders of the world, and the wonders that men have
+wrought. I want to surround you with the beauties of art and literature,
+with everything that your heart craves. I want you to know the people
+whose friendship would be a delight to you. Come with me, girl--be my
+wife, and together we will find--if not paradise, at least a full and
+useful and contented and happy life. Will you come, Kitty? Will you come
+with me?"
+
+As she listened her eyes grew big with wonder and delight. It was as
+though some good genie had suddenly opened wide the way to an enchanted
+laud. Then the gladness went swiftly from her face, and she said
+doubtingly, "You are jesting with me, Patches."
+
+As she spoke his cowboy name, the man laughed aloud. "I forgot that you
+do not even know me--I mean, that you do not know my name."
+
+"Are you some fairy prince in disguise, Sir Patches?"
+
+"Not a fairy, dear, and certainly not a prince; just a man, that's all.
+But a man, dear girl, who can offer you a clean life, an honored name,
+and all of which I have spoken. But I must tell you--I always knew that
+I would tell you some day, but I did not dream that it would be to-day.
+My name is Lawrence Knight. My home is in Cleveland, Ohio. Your father
+can easily satisfy himself as to my family and my own personal life and
+standing. It is enough for me to assure you now, dear, that I am
+abundantly able to give you all that I have promised."
+
+At the mention of his name, Kitty's eyes grew bright again. Thanks to
+her intimate friend and schoolmate, Helen Manning, she knew much more of
+Lawrence Knight than that gentleman supposed.
+
+"But, tell me," she asked curiously, trembling with suppressed
+excitement, "why is Mr. Lawrence Knight masquerading here as the cowboy
+Honorable Patches?"
+
+He answered earnestly. "I know it must seem strange to you, dear, but
+the simple truth is that I became ashamed of myself and my life of idle
+uselessness. I determined to see if I could take my place among men,
+simply as a man. I wanted to be accepted by men for myself, for my
+manhood, if you like, and not because of my--" he hesitated, then said
+frankly--"my money and social position. I wanted to depend upon
+myself--to live as other men live, by my own strength and courage and
+work. If I had given my real name, when I asked for work at the
+Cross-Triangle--someone would have found me out before very long, and my
+little experiment would have failed, don't you see?"
+
+While he spoke, Kitty's excited mind had caught at many thoughts. She
+believed sincerely that her girlhood love for Phil was dead. This man,
+even as Patches the cowboy, with a questionable shadow on his life, had
+compelled her respect and confidence, while in his evident education and
+social culture he had won her deepest admiration. She felt that he was
+all that Phil was, and more. There was in her feeling toward him, as he
+offered himself to her now, no hint of that instinctive repulsion and
+abhorrence with which she had received Professor Parkhill's declaration
+of spiritual affinity. Her recent experience with the Master of
+Aesthetics had so outraged her womanly instincts that the inevitable
+reaction from her perplexed and troubled mind led her to feel more
+deeply, and to be drawn more strongly, toward this man with whom any
+woman might be proud to mate. At the same time, the attractions of the
+life which she knew he could give her, and for which she longed so
+passionately, with the relief of the thought that her parents would not
+need to sacrifice themselves for her, were potent factors in the power
+of Lawrence Knight's appeal.
+
+"It would be wonderful," she said musingly. "I have dreamed and dreamed
+about such things."
+
+"You will come with me, dear? You will let me give you your heart's
+wish--you will go with me into the life for which you are so fitted?"
+
+"Do you really want me, Patches?" she asked timidly, as though in her
+mind there was still a shadow of doubt.
+
+"More than anything in the world," he urged. "Say yes. Kitty. Say that
+you will be my wife."
+
+The answer came softly, with a hint of questioning, still.
+
+"Yes."
+
+Kitty did not notice that the man had not spoken of his love for her.
+There were so many other things for her to consider, so many other
+things to distract her mind. Nor did the man notice that Kitty herself
+had failed to speak in any way that little word, which, rightly
+understood, holds in its fullest, deepest meaning, all of life's
+happiness--of labor and accomplishment--of success and triumph--of
+sacrifice and sorrow; holds, in its fullest, deepest meaning, indeed,
+all of life itself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+ON CEDAR RIDGE.
+
+
+Kitty's friends were very glad to welcome her at their camp in Granite
+Basin. The incident which had so rudely broken the seclusion of their
+honeymoon had been too nearly a tragedy to be easily forgotten. The
+charm of the place was, in some degree, for them, lost, and Kitty's
+coming helped to dispel the cloud that had a little overshadowed those
+last days of their outing.
+
+It was not at all difficult for them to persuade Kitty to remain longer
+than the one night that she had planned, and to accompany them to
+Prescott. Prom Prescott, Stanford must go to the mines, to take up his
+work, and to arrange for Helen's coming later, and Helen would go home
+with Kitty for the visit she had promised. The cowboys, who were
+returning to the Cross-Triangle Ranch, would take Kitty's horse to her
+home, and would carry a message explaining the young woman's absence,
+and asking that someone be sent to Prescott with the clothing she would
+need in town, and that the Reid automobile might be in Prescott in
+readiness to take the two young women back to the ranch on the
+appointed day.
+
+Kitty could not bring herself to tell even Helen about her engagement to
+Lawrence Knight, or Patches, as she would continue to call him until the
+time came for the cowboy himself to make his true name and character
+known. It had all happened so suddenly; the promises of the future were
+so wonderful--so far beyond the young woman's fondest dreams--that she
+herself could scarcely realize the truth. There would be time enough to
+tell Helen when they were together at the ranch. And she was insistent,
+too, that Patches must not interview her father until she herself had
+returned home.
+
+Phil and his cowboys with the cattle reached the Cross-Triangle corrals
+the evening before the day set for Kitty and Helen to arrive at the
+ranch on the other side of the valley meadows. The Cross-Triangle men
+were greeted by the news that Professor Parkhill had said good-by to
+Williamson Valley, and that the Pot-Hook-S Ranch had been sold. The
+eastern purchaser expected by Reid had arrived on the day that Kitty had
+gone to Granite Basin, and the deal had been closed without delay. But
+Reid was not to give possession of the property until after the fall
+rodeo.
+
+As the men sat under the walnut trees with the Dean that evening,
+discussing the incidents of the Granite Basin work, and speculating
+about the new owner of the neighboring ranch, Phil sat with Little Billy
+apart from the circle, and contributed to the conversation only now and
+then a word or a brief answer to some question. When Mrs. Baldwin
+persuaded the child that it was bedtime, Phil slipped quietly away in
+the darkness, and they did not see him again until breakfast the next
+morning. When breakfast was over, the foreman gave a few directions to
+his men, and rode away alone.
+
+The Dean, understanding the lad, whom he loved as one of his own sons,
+watched him go without a word or a question. To Mrs. Baldwin he said,
+"Just let him alone, Stella. The boy is all right. He's only gone off
+somewhere on the range to fight it out alone. Most likely he'll put in
+the day watching those wild horses over beyond Toohey. He generally goes
+to them when he's bothered about anything or in trouble of any sort."
+
+Patches, who had been sent on an errand of some kind to Fair Oaks, was
+returning home early in the afternoon, and had reached the neighborhood
+of that spring where he had first encountered Nick Cambert, when he
+heard a calf bawling lustily somewhere in the cedar timber not far away.
+Familiar as he now was with the voices of the range, the cowboy knew
+that the calf was in trouble. The call was one of fright and pain.
+
+Turning aside from his course, he rode, rapidly at first, then more
+cautiously, toward the sound. Presently he caught a whiff of smoke that
+came with the light breeze from somewhere ahead on the ridge along which
+he was riding. Instantly he rode into a thick clump of cedars, and,
+dismounting, tied his horse. Then he went on, carefully and silently, on
+foot. Soon he heard voices. Again the calf bawled in fright and pain,
+and the familiar odor of burning hair was carried to him on the breeze.
+Someone was branding a calf.
+
+It might be all right--it might not. Patches was unarmed, but, with
+characteristic disregard of consequences, he crept softly forward,
+toward a dense growth of trees and brush, from beyond which the noise
+and the smoke seemed to come.
+
+He had barely gained the cover when he heard someone on the other side
+ride rapidly away down the ridge. Hastily parting the bushes, he looked
+through to catch a glimpse of the horseman, but he was a moment too
+late; the rider had disappeared from sight in the timber. But, in a
+little open space among the cedars, the cowboy saw Yavapai Joe, standing
+beside a calf, fresh-branded with the Four-Bar-M iron, and earmarked
+with the Tailholt marks.
+
+Patches knew instantly, as well as though he had witnessed the actual
+branding, what, had happened. That part of the range was seldom visited
+except by the Dean's cowboys, and the Tailholt Mountain men, knowing
+that the Cross-Triangle riders were all at Granite Basin, were making
+good use of their opportunities. The man who had ridden away so
+hurriedly, a moment too soon for Patches to see him, was, without doubt,
+driving the mother of the calf to a distance that would effectually
+separate her from her offspring.
+
+But while he was so sure in his own mind, the Cross-Triangle man--as it
+had so often happened before--had arrived on the scene too late. He had
+no positive evidence that the animal just branded was not the lawful
+property of Nick Cambert.
+
+As Patches stepped from the bushes, Yavapai Joe faced him for a moment
+in guilty astonishment and fear; then he ran toward his horse.
+
+"Wait a minute, Joe!" called Patches. "What good will it do for you to
+run now? I'm not going to harm you."
+
+Joe stopped, and stood hesitating in indecision, watching the intruder
+with that sneaking, sidewise look.
+
+"Come on, Joe; let's have a little talk about this business," the
+Cross-Triangle man said in a matter-of-fact tone, as he seated himself
+on a large, flat-topped stone near the little fire. "You know you can't
+get away, so you might as well."
+
+"I ain't tellin' nothin' to nobody," said Joe sullenly, as he came
+slowly toward the Dean's cowboy.
+
+"No?" said Patches.
+
+"No, I ain't," asserted the Tailholt Mountain man stoutly. "That there
+calf is a Four-Bar-M calf, all right."
+
+"I see it is," returned the Cross-Triangle rider calmly. "But I'll just
+wait until Nick gets back, and ask him what it was before he worked over
+the iron."
+
+Joe, excited and confused by the cool nerve of this man, fell readily
+into the verbal trap.
+
+"You better go now, an' not wait to ask Nick no fool questions like
+that. If he finds you here talkin' with me when he gets back, hell'll be
+a-poppin' fer sure. Me an' you are friends, Patches, an' that's why I'm
+a-tellin' you you better pull your freight while the goin's good."
+
+"Much obliged, Joe, but there's no hurry. You don't need to be so
+rushed. It will be an hour before Nick gets back, if he drives that cow
+as far as he ought."
+
+Again poor Yavapai Joe told more than he intended. "You don't need to
+worry none 'bout Nick; he'll sure drive her far enough. He ain't takin'
+no chances, Nick ain't."
+
+With his convictions so readily confirmed, Patches had good ground upon
+which to base his following remarks. He had made a long shot when he
+spoke so confidently of the brand on the calf being worked over. For, of
+course, the calf might not have been branded at all when the Tailholt
+Mountain men caught it. But Joe's manner, as well as his warning answer,
+told that the shot had gone home. The fact that the brand had been
+worked over established also the fact that it was the Cross-Triangle
+brand that had been changed, because the Cross-Triangle was the only
+brand in that part of the country that could be changed into the
+Four-Bar-M.
+
+Patches, dropping his easy manner, and speaking straight to the point,
+said, "Look here, Joe, you and I might as well get down to cases. You
+know I am your friend, and I don't want to see you in trouble, but you
+can take it from me that you are in mighty serious trouble right now. I
+was hiding right there in those bushes, close enough to see all that
+happened, and I know that this is a Cross-Triangle calf, and that Nick
+and you worked the brand over. You know that it means the penitentiary
+for you, as well as for Nick, if the boys don't string you both up
+without any ceremony."
+
+Patches paused to let his words sink in.
+
+Joe's face was ashy white, and he was shaking with fright, as he stole a
+sneaking look toward his horse.
+
+Patches added sharply, "You can't give me the slip, either; I can kill
+you before you get half way to your horse."
+
+Trapped and helpless, Joe looked pleadingly at his captor. "You wouldn't
+send me up, would you, now, Patches?" he whined. "You an' me's good
+friends, ain't we? Anyway he wouldn't let me go to the pen, an' the boys
+wouldn't dast do nothin' to me when they knew."
+
+"Whom are you talking about?" demanded Patches. "Nick? Don't be a fool,
+Joe; Nick will be there right alongside of you."
+
+"I ain't meanin' Nick; I mean _him_ over there at the
+Cross-Triangle--Professor Parkhill. I'm a-tellin' you that _he_ wouldn't
+let you do nothin' to me."
+
+"Forget it, Joe," came the reply, without an instant's hesitation. "You
+know as well as I do how much chance Professor Parkhill, or anyone else,
+would have, trying to keep the boys from making you and Nick dance on
+nothing, once they hear of this. Besides, the professor is not in the
+valley now."
+
+The poor outcast's fright was pitiful. "You ain't meanin' that he--that
+he's gone?" he gasped.
+
+"Listen, Joe," said Patches quickly. "I can do more for you than he
+could, even if he were here. You know I am your friend, and I don't want
+to see a good fellow like you sent to prison for fifteen or twenty
+years, or, perhaps, hanged. But there's only one way that I can see for
+me to save you. You must go with me to the Cross-Triangle, and tell Mr.
+Baldwin all about it, how you were just working for Nick, and how he
+made you help him do this, and all that you know. If you do that, we can
+get you off."
+
+"I--I reckon you're right, Patches," returned the frightened weakling
+sullenly. "Nick has sure treated me like a dog, anyway. You won't let
+Nick get at me, will you, if I go?"
+
+"Nobody can get at you, Joe, if you go with me, and do the square thing.
+I'm going to take care of you myself, and help you to get out of this,
+and brace up and be a man. Come on; let's be moving. I'll turn this calf
+loose first, though."
+
+He was bending over the calf when a noise in the brush caused him to
+stand suddenly erect.
+
+Joe was whimpering with terror.
+
+Patches said fiercely, but in a low tone, "Shut up, and follow my lead.
+Be a man, and I'll get you out of this yet."
+
+"Nick will kill us sure," whined Joe.
+
+"Not if I get my hands on him first, he won't," retorted Patches.
+
+But it was with a feeling of relief that the cowboy saw Phil Acton ride
+toward them from the shelter of the timber.
+
+Before Patches could speak, Phil's gun covered him, and the foreman's
+voice rang out sharply.
+
+"Hands up!"
+
+Joe's hands shot above his head. Patches hesitated.
+
+"Quick!" said Phil.
+
+And as Patches saw the man's eyes over the black barrel of the weapon he
+obeyed. But as he raised his hands, a dull flush of anger colored his
+tanned face a deeper red, and his eyes grew dark with passion. He
+realized his situation instantly. The mystery that surrounded his first
+appearance when he had sought employment at the Cross-Triangle; the
+persistent suspicion of many of the cowboys because of his friendship
+for Yavapai Joe; his meeting with Joe which the professor had reported;
+his refusal to explain to Phil; his return to the ranch when everyone
+was away and he himself was supposed to be in Prescott--all these and
+many other incidents had come to their legitimate climax in his presence
+on that spot with Yavapai Joe, the smouldering fire and the freshly
+branded calf. He was unarmed, but Phil could not be sure of that, for
+many a cowboy carries his gun inside the leg of his leather chaps, where
+it does not so easily catch in the brush.
+
+But while Patches saw it all so clearly, he was enraged that this man
+with whom he had lived so intimately should believe him capable of such
+a crime, and treat him without question as a common cattle thief. Phil's
+coldness toward him, which had grown so gradually during the past three
+months, in this peremptory humiliation reached a point beyond which
+Patches' patient and considerate endurance could not go. The man's sense
+of justice was outraged; his fine feeling of honor was insulted. Trapped
+and helpless as he was under that menacing gun, he was possessed by a
+determination to defend himself against the accusation, and to teach
+Phil Acton that there was a limit to the insult he would endure, even in
+the name of friendship. To this end his only hope was to trap his
+foreman with words, as he had caught Yavapai Joe. At a game of words
+Honorable Patches was no unskilled novice. Controlling his anger, he
+said coolly, with biting sarcasm, while he looked at the cowboy with a
+mocking sneer, "You don't propose to take any chances, do you--holding
+up an unarmed man?"
+
+Patches saw by the flush that swept over Phil's cheeks how his words
+bit.
+
+"It doesn't pay to take chances with your kind," retorted the foreman
+hotly.
+
+"No," mocked Patches, "but it will pay big, I suppose, for the great
+'Wild Horse Phil' to be branded as a sneak and a coward who is afraid to
+face an unarmed man unless he can get the drop on him?"
+
+Phil was goaded to madness by the cool, mocking words. With a reckless
+laugh, he slipped his weapon into the holster and sprang to the ground.
+At the same moment Patches and Joe lowered their hands, and Joe,
+unnoticed by either of the angry men, took a few stealthy steps toward
+his horse.
+
+Phil, deliberately folding his arms, stood looking at Patches.
+
+"I'll just call that bluff, you sneakin' calf stealer," he said coolly.
+"Now, unlimber that gun of yours, and get busy."
+
+Angry as he was, Patches felt a thrill of admiration for the man, and
+beneath his determination to force Phil Acton to treat him with respect,
+he was proud of his friend who had answered his sneering insinuation
+with such fearlessness. But he could not now hesitate in his plan of
+provoking Phil into disarming himself.
+
+"You're something of a four-flusher yourself, aren't you?" he mocked.
+"You know I have no gun. Your brave pose is very effective. I would
+congratulate you, only, you see, it doesn't impress me in the least."
+
+With an oath Phil snatched his gun from the holster, and threw it aside.
+
+"Have it any way you like," he retorted, and started toward Patches.
+
+Then a curious thing happened to Honorable Patches. Angry as he was, he
+became suddenly dominated by something that was more potent than his
+rage.
+
+"Stop!" he cried sharply, and with such ringing force that Phil
+involuntarily obeyed. "I can't fight you this way, Phil," he said; and
+the other, wondering, saw that whimsical, self-mocking smile on his
+lips. "You know as well as I do that you are no match for me barehanded.
+You couldn't even touch me; you have seen Curly and the others try it
+often enough. You are as helpless in my power, now, as I was in yours a
+moment ago. I am armed now and you are not. I can't fight you this way,
+Phil."
+
+In spite of himself Phil Acton was impressed by the truth and fairness
+of Patches' words. He recognized that an unequal contest could satisfy
+neither of them, and that it made no difference which of the contestants
+had the advantage.
+
+"Well," he said sarcastically, "what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"First," returned Patches calmly, "I am going to tell you how I happened
+to be here with Yavapai Joe."
+
+"I don't need any explanations from you. It's some more of your personal
+business, I suppose," retorted Phil.
+
+Patches controlled himself. "You are going to hear the explanation, just
+the same," he returned. "You can believe it or not, just as you please."
+
+"And what then?" demanded Phil.
+
+"Then I'm going to get a gun, and we'll settle the rest of it, man to
+man, on equal terms, just as soon as you like," answered Patches
+deliberately.
+
+Phil replied shortly. "Go ahead with your palaver. I'll have to hand it
+to you when it comes to talk. I am not educated that way myself."
+
+For a moment Patches hesitated, as though on the point of changing his
+mind about the explanation. Then his sense of justice--justice both for
+Phil and himself--conquered.
+
+But in telling Phil how he had come upon the scene too late for positive
+proof that the freshly branded calf was the Dean's property, and in
+explaining how, when the foreman arrived, he had just persuaded Joe to
+go with him and give the necessary evidence against Nick, Patches forgot
+the possible effect of his words upon Joe himself. The two
+Cross-Triangle men were so absorbed in their own affair that they had
+paid no attention to the Tailholt Mountain outcast. And Joe, taking
+advantage of the opportunity, had by this time gained a position beside
+his horse. As he heard Patches tell how he had no actual evidence that
+the calf was not Nick Cambert's property, a look of anger and cunning
+darkened the face of Nick's follower. He was angry at the way Patches
+had tricked him into betraying both himself and his evil master, and he
+saw a way to defeat the two cowboys and at the same time win Nick's
+approval. Quickly the fellow mounted his horse, and, before they could
+stop him, was out of sight in the timber.
+
+"I've done it now," exclaimed Patches in dismay. "I forgot all about
+Joe."
+
+"I don't think he counts for much in this game anyway," returned Phil,
+gruffly.
+
+As he spoke, the foreman turned his back to Patches and walked toward
+his gun. He had reached the spot where the weapon lay on the ground,
+when, from the bushes to the right, and a little back of Patches, who
+stood watching his companion, a shot rang out with startling suddenness.
+
+Patches saw Phil stumble forward, straighten for an instant, as though
+by sheer power of his will, and, turning, look back at him. Then, as
+Phil fell, the unarmed cowboy leaped forward toward that gun on the
+ground. Even as he moved, a second shot rang out and he felt the wind of
+the bullet on his cheek. With Phil's gun in his hand, he ran toward a
+cedar tree on the side of the open space opposite the point from which
+the shots came, and as he ran another bullet whistled past.
+
+A man moving as Patches moved is not an easy mark. The same man armed,
+and protected by the trunk of a tree, is still more difficult. A moment
+after he had gained cover, the cowboy heard the clatter of a horse's
+feet, near the spot from which the shots had come, and by the sound knew
+that the unseen marksman had chosen to retire with only half his evident
+purpose accomplished, rather than take the risk that had arisen with
+Patches' success in turning the ambush into an open fight.
+
+As the sound of the horse's swift rush down the side of the ridge grew
+fainter and fainter, Patches ran to Phil.
+
+A quick examination told him that the bullet had entered just under the
+right shoulder, and that the man, though unconscious and, no doubt,
+seriously wounded, was living.
+
+With rude bandages made by tearing his shirt into strips Patches checked
+the flow of blood, and bound up the wound as best he could. Then for a
+moment he considered. It was between three and four miles to the ranch.
+He could ride there and back in a few minutes. Someone must start for a
+doctor without an instant's loss of time. With water, proper bandages
+and stimulants, the wounded man could be cared for and moved in the
+buckboard with much greater safety than he could be carried in his
+present condition on a horse. The risk of leaving him for a few minutes
+was small, compared to the risk of taking him to the house under the
+only conditions possible. The next instant Patches was in Phil's saddle
+and riding as he had never ridden before.
+
+Jim Reid, with Kitty and Helen, was on the way back from Prescott as
+Kitty had planned. They were within ten miles of the ranch when the
+cattleman, who sat at the wheel of the automobile, saw a horseman coming
+toward them. A moment he watched the approaching figure, then, over his
+shoulder, he said to the girls, "Look at that fellow ride. There's
+something doin', sure." As he spoke he turned the machine well out of
+the road.
+
+A moment later he added, "It's Curly Elson from the Cross-Triangle.
+Somethin's happened in the valley." As he spoke, he stopped the machine,
+and sprang out so that the cowboy could see and recognize him.
+
+Curly did not draw rein until he was within a few feet of Reid; then he
+brought his running horse up with a suddenness that threw the animal on
+its haunches.
+
+Curly spoke tersely. "Phil Acton is shot. We need a doctor quick."
+
+Without a word Jim Reid leaped into the automobile. The car backed to
+turn around. As it paused an instant before starting forward again,
+Kitty put her hand on her father's shoulder.
+
+"Wait!" she cried. "I'm going to Phil. Curly, I want your horse; you can
+go with father."
+
+The cowboy was on the ground before she had finished speaking. And
+before the automobile was under way Kitty was riding back the way Curly
+had come.
+
+Kitty was scarcely conscious of what she had said. The cowboy's first
+words had struck her with the force of a physical blow, and in that
+first moment, she had been weak and helpless. She had felt as though a
+heavy weight pressed her down; a gray mist was before her eyes, and she
+could not see clearly. "Phil Acton is shot--Phil Acton is shot!" The
+cowboy's words had repeated themselves over and over. Then, with a
+sudden rush, her strength came again--the mist cleared; she must go to
+Phil; she must go fast, fast. Oh, why was this horse so slow! If only
+she were riding her own Midnight! She did not think as she rode. She did
+not wonder, nor question, nor analyze her emotions. She only felt. It
+was Phil who was hurt--Phil, the boy with whom she had played when she
+was a little girl--the lad with whom she had gone to school--the young
+man who had won the first love of her young woman heart. It was Phil,
+her Phil, who was hurt, and she must go to him--she must go fast, fast!
+
+It seemed to Kitty that hours passed before she reached the meadow lane.
+She was glad that Curly had left the gates open. As she crossed the
+familiar ground between the old Acton home and the ranch house on the
+other side of the sandy wash, she saw them. They were carrying him into
+the house as she rode into the yard, and at sight of that still form the
+gray mist came again, and she caught the saddle horn to save herself
+from falling. But it was only a moment until she was strong again, and
+ready to do all that Mrs. Baldwin asked.
+
+Phil had regained consciousness before they started home with him, but
+he was very weak from the loss of blood and the journey in the
+buckboard, though Bob drove ever so carefully, was almost more than he
+could bear. But with the relief that came when he was at last lying
+quietly in his own bed, and with the help of the stimulant, the splendid
+physical strength and vitality that was his because of his natural and
+unspoiled life again brought him back from the shadows into the light of
+full consciousness.
+
+It was then that the Dean, while Mrs. Baldwin and Kitty were occupied
+for a few moments in another part of the house, listened to all that his
+foreman could tell him about the affair up to the time that he had
+fallen unconscious. The Dean asked but few questions. But when the
+details were all clearly fixed in his mind, the older man bent over Phil
+and looked straight into the lad's clear and steady eyes, while he asked
+in a low tone, "Phil, did Patches do this?"
+
+And the young man answered, "Uncle Will, I don't know."
+
+With this he closed his eyes wearily, as though to sleep, and the Dean,
+seeing Kitty in the doorway, beckoned her to come and sit beside the
+bed. Then he stole quietly from the room.
+
+As in a dream Phil had seen Kitty when she rode into the yard. And he
+had been conscious of her presence as she moved about the house and the
+room where he lay. But he had given no sign that he knew she was there.
+As she seated herself, at the Dean's bidding, the cowboy opened his eyes
+for a moment, and looked up into her face. Then again the weary lids
+closed, and he gave no hint that he recognized her, save that the white
+lips set in firmer lines as though at another stab of pain.
+
+As she watched alone beside this man who had, since she could remember,
+been a part of her life, and as she realized that he was on the very
+border line of that land from which, if he entered, he could never
+return to her, Kitty Reid knew the truth that is greater than any
+knowledge that the schools of man can give. She knew the one great truth
+of her womanhood; knew it not from text book or class room; not from
+learned professor or cultured associates; but knew it from that good
+Master of Life who, with infinite wisdom, teaches his many pupils who
+are free to learn in the school of schools, the School of Nature. In
+that hour when the near presence of death so overshadowed all the
+trivial and non-essential things of life--when the little standards and
+petty values of poor human endeavor were as nothing--this woman knew
+that by the unwritten edict of God, who decreed that in all life two
+should be as one, this man was her only lawful mate. Environment,
+circumstance, that which we call culture and education, even death,
+might separate them; but nothing could nullify the fact that was
+attested by the instinct of her womanhood. Bending over the man who lay
+so still, she whispered the imperative will of her heart.
+
+"Come back to me, Phil--I want you--I need you, dear--come back to me!"
+
+Slowly he came out of the mists of weakness and pain to look up at
+her--doubtfully--wonderingly. But there was a light in Kitty's face that
+dispelled the doubt, and changed the look of wondering uncertainty to
+glad conviction. He did not speak. No word was necessary. Nor did he
+move, for he must be very still, and hold fast with all his strength to
+the life that was now so good. But the woman knew without words all that
+he would have said, and as his eyes closed again she bowed her head in
+thankfulness.
+
+Then rising she stole softly to the window. She felt that she must look
+out for a moment into the world that was so suddenly new and beautiful.
+
+Under the walnut trees she saw the Dean talking with the man whom she
+had promised to marry.
+
+Later Mr. Reid, with Helen and Curly, brought the doctor, and the noise
+of the automobile summoned every soul on the place to wait for the
+physician's verdict of life or death.
+
+While the Dean was in Phil's room with the physician, and the anxious
+ones were gathered in a little group in front of the house, Jim Reid
+stood apart from the others talking in low tones with the cowboy Bob.
+Patches, who was standing behind the automobile, heard Bob, who had
+raised his voice a little, say distinctly, "I tell you, sir, there ain't
+a bit of doubt in the world about it. There was the calf a layin' right
+there fresh-branded and marked. He'd plumb forgot to turn it loose, I
+reckon, bein' naturally rattled; or else he figgered that it warn't no
+use, if Phil should be able to tell what happened. The way I make it out
+is that Phil jumped him right in the act, so sudden that he shot without
+thinkin'; you know how he acts quick that-a-way. An' then he seen what
+he had done, an' that it was more than an even break that Phil wouldn't
+live, an' so figgered that his chance was better to stay an' run a bluff
+by comin' for help, an' all that. If he'd tried to make his get-away,
+there wouldn't 'a' been no question about it; an' he's got just nerve
+enough to take the chance he's a-takin' by stayin' right with the game."
+
+Patches started as though to go toward the men, but at that moment the
+doctor came from the house. As the physician approached the waiting
+group, that odd, mirthless, self-mocking smile touched Patches' lips;
+then he stepped forward to listen with the others to the doctor's words.
+
+Phil had a chance, the doctor said, but he told them frankly that it was
+only a chance. The injured man's wonderful vitality, his clean blood and
+unimpaired physical strength, together with his unshaken nerve and an
+indomitable will, were all greatly in his favor. With careful nursing
+they might with reason hope for his recovery.
+
+With expressions of relief, the group separated. Patches walked away
+alone. Mr. Reid, who would return to Prescott with the doctor, said to
+his daughter when the physician was ready, "Come, Kitty, I'll go by the
+house, so as to take you and Mrs. Manning home."
+
+But Kitty shook her head. "No, father. I'm not going home. Stella needs
+me here. Helen understands, don't you, Helen?"
+
+And wise Mrs. Manning, seeing in Kitty's face something that the man had
+not observed, answered, "Yes, dear, I do understand. You must stay, of
+course. I'll run over again in the morning."
+
+"Very well," answered Mr. Reid, who seemed in somewhat of a hurry. "I
+know you ought to stay. Tell Stella that mother will be over for a
+little while this evening." And the automobile moved away.
+
+That night, while Mrs. Baldwin and Kitty watched by Phil's bedside, and
+Patches, in his room, waited, sleepless, alone with his thoughts, men
+from the ranch on the other side of the quiet meadow were riding swiftly
+through the darkness. Before the new day had driven the stars from the
+wide sky, a little company of silent, grim-faced horsemen gathered in
+the Pot-Hook-S corral. In the dim, gray light of the early morning they
+followed Jim Reid out of the corral, and, riding fast, crossed the
+valley above the meadows and approached the Cross-Triangle corrals from
+the west. One man in the company led a horse with an empty saddle. Just
+beyond the little rise of ground outside the big gate they halted, while
+Jim Reid with two others, leaving their horses with the silent riders
+behind the hill, went on into the corral, where they seated themselves
+on the edge of the long watering trough near the tank, which hid them
+from the house.
+
+Fifteen minutes later, when the Dean stepped from the kitchen porch, he
+saw Curly running toward the house. As the older man hurried toward him,
+the cowboy, pale with excitement and anger, cried, "They've got him,
+sir--grabbed him when he went out to the corral."
+
+The Dean understood instantly. "My horse, quick, Curly," he said, and
+hurried on toward the saddle shed. "Which way did they go?" he asked, as
+he mounted.
+
+"Toward the cedars on the ridge where it happened," came the answer. "Do
+you want me?"
+
+"No. Don't let them know in the house," came the reply. And the Dean was
+gone.
+
+The little company of horsemen, with Patches in their midst, had reached
+the scene of the shooting, and had made their simple preparations. From
+that moment when they had covered him with their guns as he stepped
+through the corral gate, he had not spoken.
+
+"Well, sir," said the spokesman, "have you anything to say before we
+proceed?"
+
+Patches shook his head, and wonderingly they saw that curious mocking
+smile on his lips.
+
+"I don't suppose that any remarks I might make would impress you
+gentlemen in the least," he said coolly. "It would be useless and unkind
+for me to detain you longer than is necessary."
+
+An involuntary murmur of admiration came from the circle. They were men
+who could appreciate such unflinching courage.
+
+In the short pause that followed, the Dean, riding as he had not ridden
+for years, was in their midst. Before they could check him the veteran
+cowman was beside Patches. With a quick motion he snatched the riata
+from the cowboy's neck. An instant more, and he had cut the rope that
+bound Patches' hands.
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Patches calmly.
+
+"Don't do that, Will," called Jim Reid peremptorily. "This is our
+business." In the same breath he shouted to his companions, "Take him
+again, boys," and started forward.
+
+"Stand where you are," roared the Dean, and as they looked upon the
+stern countenance of the man who was so respected and loved throughout
+all that country, not a man moved. Reid himself involuntarily halted at
+the command.
+
+"I'll do this and more, Jim Reid," said the Dean firmly, and there was
+that in his voice which, in the wild days of the past, had compelled
+many a man to fear and obey him. "It's my business enough that you can
+call this meetin' off right here. I'll be responsible for this man. You
+boys mean well, but you're a little mite too previous this trip."
+
+"We aim to put a stop to that thievin' Tailholt Mountain outfit, Will,"
+returned Reid, "an' we're goin' to do it right now."
+
+A murmur of agreement came from the group.
+
+The Dean did not give an inch. "You'll put a stop to nothin' this way;
+an' you'll sure start somethin' that'll be more than stealin' a few
+calves. The time for stringin' men up promiscuous like, on mere
+suspicion, is past in Arizona. I reckon there's more Cross-Triangle
+stock branded with the Tailholt Mountain iron than all the rest of you
+put together have lost, which sure entitles me to a front seat when it
+comes, to the show-down."
+
+"He's right, boys," said one of the older men.
+
+"You know I'm right, Tom," returned the Dean quickly. "You an' me have
+lived neighbors for pretty near thirty years, without ever a hard word
+passed between us, an' we've been through some mighty serious troubles
+together; an' you, too, George, an' Henry an' Bill. The rest of you boys
+I have known since you was little kids; an' me and your daddies worked
+an' fought side by side for decent livin' an' law-abidin' times before
+you was born. We did it 'cause we didn't want our children to go through
+with what we had to go through, or do some of the things that we had to
+do. An' now you're all thinkin' that you can cut me out of this. You
+think you can sneak out here before I'm out of my bed in the mornin',
+an' hang one of my own cowboys--as good a man as ever throwed a rope,
+too. Without sayin' a word to me, you come crawlin' right into my own
+corral, an' start to raisin' hell. I'm here to tell you that you can't
+do it. You can't do it because I won't let you."
+
+The men, with downcast eyes, sat on their horses, ashamed. Two or three
+muttered approval. Jim Reid said earnestly, "That's all right, Will. We
+knew how you would feel, an' we were just aimin' to save you any more
+trouble. Them Tailholt Mountain thieves have gone too far this time. We
+can't let you turn that man loose."
+
+"I ain't goin' to try to turn him loose," retorted the Dean.
+
+The men looked at each other.
+
+"What are you goin' to do, then?" asked the spokesman.
+
+"I'm goin' to make you turn him loose," came the startling answer. "You
+fellows took him; you've got to let him go."
+
+In spite of the grave situation several of the men grinned at the Dean's
+answer--it was so like him.
+
+"I'll bet a steer he does it, too," whispered one.
+
+The Dean turned to the man by his side. "Patches, tell these men all
+that you told me about this business."
+
+When the cowboy had told his story in detail, up to the point where Phil
+came upon the scene, the Dean interrupted him, "Now, get down there an'
+show us exactly how it happened after Phil rode on to you an' Yavapai
+Joe."
+
+Patches obeyed. As he was showing them where Phil stood when the shot
+was fired the Dean again interrupted with, "Wait a minute. Tom, you get
+down there an' stand just as Phil was standin'."
+
+The cattleman obeyed.
+
+When he had taken the position, the Dean continued, "Now, Patches,
+stand like you was when Phil was hit."
+
+Patches obeyed.
+
+"Now, then, where did that shot come from?" asked the Dean.
+
+Patches pointed.
+
+The Dean did not need to direct the next step in his demonstration.
+Three of the men were already off their horses, and moving around the
+bushes indicated by Patches.
+
+"Here's the tracks, all right," called one. "An' here," added another,
+from a few feet further away, "was where he left his horse."
+
+"An' now," continued the Dean, when the three men had come back from
+behind the bushes, and with Patches had remounted their horses, "I'll
+tell you somethin' else. I had a talk with Phil himself, an' the boy's
+story agrees with what Patches has just told you in every point. An',
+furthermore, Phil told me straight when I asked him that he didn't know
+himself who fired that shot."
+
+He paused for a moment for them to grasp the full import of his words.
+Then he summed up the case.
+
+"As the thing stands, we've got no evidence against anybody. It can't be
+proved that the calf wasn't Nick's property in the first place. It can't
+be proved that Nick was anywhere in the neighborhood. It can't be proved
+who fired that shot. It could have been Yavapai Joe, or anybody else,
+just as well as Nick. Phil himself, by bein' too quick to jump at
+conclusions, blocked this man's game, just when he was playin' the only
+hand that could have won out against Nick. If Phil hadn't 'a' happened
+on to Patches and Joe when he did, or if he had been a little slower
+about findin' a man guilty just because appearances were against him,
+we'd 'a' had the evidence from Yavapai Joe that we've been wantin', an'
+could 'a' called the turn on that Tailholt outfit proper. As it stands
+now, we're right where we was before. Now, what are you all goin' to do
+about it?"
+
+The men grinned shamefacedly, but were glad that the tragedy had been
+averted. They were by no means convinced that Patches was not guilty,
+but they were quick to see the possibilities of a mistake in the
+situation.
+
+"I reckon the Dean has adjourned the meetin', boys," said one.
+
+"Come on," called another. "Let's be ridin'."
+
+When the last man had disappeared in the timber, the Dean wiped the
+perspiration from his flushed face, and looked at Patches thoughtfully.
+Then that twinkle of approval came into the blue eyes, that a few
+moments before had been so cold and uncompromising.
+
+"Come, son," he said gently, "let's go to breakfast. Stella'll be
+wonderin' what's keepin' us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE SKY LINE.
+
+
+Before their late breakfast was over at the Cross-Triangle Ranch, Helen
+Manning came across the valley meadows to help with the work of the
+household. Jimmy brought her, but when she saw that she was really
+needed, and that Mrs. Baldwin would be glad of her help, she told Jimmy
+that she would stay for the day. Someone from the Cross-Triangle, the
+Dean said, would take her home when she was ready to go.
+
+The afternoon was nearly gone when Curly returned from the lower end of
+the valley with a woman who would relieve Mrs. Baldwin of the housework,
+and, as her presence was no longer needed, Helen told the Dean that she
+would return to the Reid home.
+
+"I'll just tell Patches to take you over in the buckboard," said the
+Dean. "It was mighty kind of you to give us a hand to-day; it's been a
+big help to Stella and Kitty."
+
+"Please don't bother about the buckboard, Mr. Baldwin. I would enjoy the
+walk so much. But I would be glad if Mr. Patches could go with me--I
+would really feel safer, you know," she smiled.
+
+Mrs. Baldwin was sleeping and Kitty was watching beside Phil, so the
+Dean himself went as far as the wash with Helen and Patches, as the two
+set out for their walk across the meadows. When Helen had said good-by
+to the Dean, with a promise to come again on the morrow, and he had
+turned back toward the house, she said to her companion, "Oh, Larry, I
+am so glad for this opportunity; I wanted to see you alone, and I
+couldn't think how it was to be managed. I have something to tell you,
+Larry, something that I _must_ tell you, and you must promise to be very
+patient with me."
+
+"You know what happened this morning, do you?" he asked gravely, for he
+thought from her words that she had, perhaps, chanced to hear of some
+further action to be taken by the suspicious cattlemen.
+
+"It was terrible--terrible, Larry. Why didn't you tell them who you are?
+Why did you let them--" she could not finish.
+
+He laughed shortly. "It would have been such a sinful waste of words.
+Can't you imagine me trying to make those men believe such a fairy
+story--under such circumstances?"
+
+For a little they walked in silence; then he asked, "Is it about Jim
+Reid's suspicion that you wanted to see me, Helen?"
+
+"No, Larry, it isn't. It's about Kitty," she answered.
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Kitty told me all about it, to-day," Helen continued. "The poor child
+is almost beside herself."
+
+The man did not speak. Helen looked up at him almost as a mother might
+have done.
+
+"Do you love her so very much, Larry? Tell me truly, do you?"
+
+Patches could not--dared not--look at her.
+
+"Tell me, Larry," she insisted gently. "I must know. Do you love Kitty
+as a man ought to love his wife?"
+
+The man answered in a voice that was low and shaking with emotion. "Why
+should you ask me such a question? You know the answer. What right have
+you to force me to tell you that which you already know--that I love
+you--another man's wife?"
+
+Helen's face went white. In her anxiety for Kitty she, had not foreseen
+this situation in which, by her question, she had placed herself.
+
+"Larry!" she said sharply.
+
+"Well," he retorted passionately, "you insisted that I tell you the
+truth."
+
+"I insisted that you tell me the truth about Kitty," she returned.
+
+"Well, you have it," he answered quickly.
+
+"Oh, Larry," she cried, "how could you--how could you ask a woman you do
+not love to be your wife? How could you do it, Larry? And just when I
+was so proud of you; so glad for you that you had found yourself; that
+you were such a splendid man!"
+
+"Kitty and I are the best of friends," he answered in a dull, spiritless
+tone, "the best of companions. In the past year I have grown very fond
+of her--we have much in common. I can give her the life she desires--the
+life she is fitted for. I will make her happy; I will be true to her; I
+will be to her everything that a man should be to his wife."
+
+"No, Larry," she said gently, touched by the hopelessness in his voice,
+for he had spoken as though he already knew that his attempt to justify
+his engagement to Kitty was vain. "No, Larry, you cannot be to Kitty
+everything that a man should be to his wife. You cannot, without love,
+be a husband to her."
+
+Again they walked in silence for a little way. Then Helen asked: "And
+are you sure, Larry, that Kitty cares for you--as a woman ought to care,
+I mean?"
+
+"I could not have asked her to be my wife if I had not thought so," he
+answered, with more spirit.
+
+"Of course," returned his companion gently, "and Kitty could not have
+answered, 'yes,' if she had not believed that you loved her."
+
+"Do you mean that you think Kitty does not care for me, Helen?"
+
+"I _know_ that she loves Phil Acton, Larry. I saw it in her face when we
+first learned that he was hurt. And to-day the poor girl confessed it.
+She loved him all the time, Larry--has loved him ever since they were
+boy and girl together. She has tried to deny her heart--she has tried to
+put other things above her love, but she knows now that she cannot. It
+is fortunate for you both that she realized her love for Mr. Acton
+before she had spoiled not only her own life but yours as well."
+
+"But, how could she promise to be my wife when she loved Phil?" he
+demanded.
+
+"But, how could you ask her when you--" Helen retorted quickly, without
+thinking of herself. Then she continued bravely, putting herself aside
+in her effort to make him understand. "You tempted her, Larry. You did
+not mean it so, perhaps, but you did. You tempted her with your
+wealth--with all that you could give her of material luxuries and ease
+and refinement. You tempted her to substitute those things for love. I
+know, Larry--I know, because you see, dear man, I was once tempted,
+too."
+
+He made a gesture of protest, but she went on, "You did not know, but I
+can tell you now that nothing but the memory of my dear father's
+teaching saved me from a terrible mistake. You are a man now, Larry. You
+are more to me than any man in the world, save one; and more than any
+man in the world, save that one, I respect and admire you for the
+manhood you have gained. But oh, Larry, Larry, don't you see? _'When a
+man's a man'_ there is one thing above all others that he cannot do. He
+cannot take advantage of a woman's weakness; he cannot tempt her beyond
+her strength; he must be strong both for himself and her; he must save
+her always from herself."
+
+The man lifted his head and looked away toward Granite Mountain. As once
+before this woman had aroused him to assert his manhood's strength, she
+called now to all that was finest and truest in the depth of his being.
+
+"You are always right, Helen," he said, almost reverently.
+
+"No, Larry," she answered quickly, "but you know that I am right in
+this."
+
+"I will free Kitty from her promise at once," he said, as though to end
+the matter.
+
+Helen answered quickly. "But that is exactly what you must not do."
+
+The man was bewildered. "Why, I thought--what in the world do you mean?"
+
+She laughed happily as she said, "Stupid Larry, don't you understand?
+You must make Kitty send you about your business. You must save her
+self-respect. Can't you see how ashamed and humiliated she would be if
+she imagined for a moment that you did not love her? Think what she
+would suffer if she knew that you had merely tried to buy her with your
+wealth and the things you possess!"
+
+She disregarded his protest.
+
+"That's exactly what your proposal meant, Larry. A girl like Kitty, if
+she knew the truth of what she had done, might even fancy herself
+unworthy to accept her happiness now that it has come. You must make her
+dismiss you, and all that you could give her. You must make her proud
+and happy to give herself to the man she loves."
+
+"But--what can I do?" he asked in desperation.
+
+"I don't know, Larry. But you must manage somehow--for Kitty's sake you
+_must_."
+
+"If only the Dean had not interrupted the proceedings this morning, how
+it would have simplified everything!" he mused, and she saw that as
+always he was laughing at himself.
+
+"Don't, Larry; please don't," she cried earnestly.
+
+He looked at her curiously. "Would you have me lie to her,
+Helen--deliberately lie?"
+
+She answered quietly. "I don't think that I would raise that question,
+if I were you, Larry--considering all the circumstances."
+
+On his way back to the Cross-Triangle, Patches walked as a man who,
+having determined upon a difficult and distasteful task, is of a mind to
+undertake it without delay.
+
+After supper that evening he managed to speak to Kitty when no one was
+near.
+
+"I must see you alone for a few minutes to-night," he whispered
+hurriedly. "As soon as possible. I will be under the trees near the bank
+of the wash. Come to me as soon as it is dark, and you can slip away."
+
+The young woman wondered at his manner. He was so hurried, and appeared
+so nervous and unlike himself.
+
+"But, Patches, I--"
+
+"You must!" he interrupted with a quick look toward the Dean, who was
+approaching them. "I have something to tell you--something that I must
+tell you to-night."
+
+He turned to speak to the Dean, and Kitty presently left them. An hour
+later, when the night had come, she found him waiting as he had said.
+
+"Listen, Kitty!" he began abruptly, and she thought from his manner and
+the tone of his voice that he was in a state of nervous fear. "I must
+go; I dare not stay here another day; I am going to-night."
+
+"Why, Patches," she said, forcing herself to speak quietly in order to
+calm him. "What is the matter?"
+
+"Matter?" he returned hurriedly. "You know what they tried to do to me
+this morning."
+
+Kitty was shocked. It was true that she did not--could not--care for
+this man as she loved Phil, but she had thought him her dearest friend,
+and she respected and admired him. It was not good to find him now like
+this--shaken and afraid. She could not understand. For the moment her
+own trouble was put aside by her honest concern for him.
+
+"But, Patches," she said earnestly, "that is all past now; it cannot
+happen again."
+
+"You do not know," he returned, "or you would not feel so sure. Phil
+might--" He checked himself as if he feared to finish the sentence.
+
+Kitty thought now that there must be more cause for his manner than she
+had guessed.
+
+"But you are not a cattle thief," she protested. "You have only to
+explain who you are; no one would for a moment believe that Lawrence
+Knight could be guilty of stealing; it's ridiculous on the face of it!"
+
+"You do not understand," he returned desperately. "There is more in this
+than stealing."
+
+Kitty started. "You don't mean, Patches--you can't mean--Phil--" she
+gasped.
+
+"Yes, I mean Phil," he whispered. "I--we were quarreling--I was angry.
+My God! girl, don't you see why I must go? I dare not stay. Listen,
+Kitty! It will be all right. Once I am out of this country and living
+under my own name I will be safe. Later you can come to me. You will
+come, won't you, dear? You know how I want you; this need make no change
+in our plans. If you love me you--"
+
+She stopped him with a low cry. "And you--it was you who did that?"
+
+"But I tell you we were quarreling, Kitty," he protested weakly.
+
+"And you think that I could go to you now?" She was trembling with
+indignation. "Oh, you are so mistaken. It seems that I was mistaken,
+too. I never dreamed that you--nothing--nothing, that you could ever do
+would make me forget what you have told me. You are right to go."
+
+"You mean that you will not come to me?" he faltered.
+
+"Could you really think that I would?" she retorted.
+
+"But, Kitty, you will let me go? You will not betray me? You will give
+me a chance?"
+
+"It is the only thing that I can do," she answered coldly. "I should die
+of shame, if it were ever known that I had thought of being more to you
+than I have been; but you must go to-night."
+
+And with this she left him, fairly running toward the house.
+
+Alone in the darkness, Honorable Patches smiled mockingly to himself.
+
+When morning came there was great excitement at the Cross-Triangle
+Ranch. Patches was missing. And more, the best horse in the Dean's
+outfit--the big bay with the blazed face, had also disappeared.
+
+Quickly the news spread throughout the valley, and to the distant
+ranches. And many were the wise heads that nodded understandingly; and
+many were the "I told you so's." The man who had appeared among them so
+mysteriously, and who, for a year, had been a never-failing topic of
+conversation, had finally established his character beyond all question.
+But the cattlemen felt with reason, because of the Dean's vigorous
+defense of the man when they would have administered justice, that the
+matter was now in his hands. They offered their services, and much
+advice; they quietly joked about the price of horses; but the Dean
+laughed at their jokes, listened to their advice, and said that he
+thought the sheriff of Yavapai County could be trusted to handle the
+case.
+
+To Helen only Kitty told of her last interview with Patches. And Helen,
+shocked and surprised at the thoroughness with which the man had brought
+about Kitty's freedom and peace of mind, bade the girl forget and be
+happy.
+
+When the crisis was passed, and Phil was out of danger, Kitty returned
+to her home, but every day she and Helen drove across the meadows to see
+how the patient was progressing. Then one day Helen said good-by to her
+Williamson Valley friends, and went with Stanford to the home he had
+prepared for her. And after that Kitty spent still more of her time at
+the house across the wash from the old Acton homestead.
+
+It was during those weeks of Phil's recovery, while he was slowly
+regaining his full measure of health and strength, that Kitty learned to
+know the cowboy in a way that she had never permitted herself to know
+him before. Little by little, as they sat together under the walnut
+trees, or walked slowly about the place, the young woman came to
+understand the mind of the man. As Phil shyly at first, then more
+freely, opened the doors of his inner self and talked to her as he had
+talked to Patches of the books he had read; of his observations and
+thoughts of nature, and of the great world movements and activities that
+by magazines and books and papers were brought to his hand, she learned
+to her surprise that even as he lived amid the scenes that called for
+the highest type of physical strength and courage, he lived an
+intellectual life that was as marked for its strength and manly vigor.
+
+But while they came thus daily into more intimate and closer
+companionship they spoke to no one of their love. Kitty, knowing how her
+father would look upon her engagement to the cowboy, put off the
+announcement from time to time, not wishing their happy companionship to
+be marred during those days of Phil's recovery.
+
+When he was strong enough to ride again, Kitty would come with Midnight,
+and together they would roam about the ranch and the country near by. So
+it happened that Sunday afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Reid, with the three
+boys, were making a neighborly call on the Baldwins, and Phil and Kitty
+were riding in the vicinity of the spot where Kitty had first met
+Patches.
+
+They were seated in the shade of a cedar on the ridge not far from the
+drift fence gate, when Phil saw three horsemen approaching from the
+further side of the fence. By the time the horsemen had reached the
+gate, Phil knew them to be Yavapai Joe, Nick Cambert and Honorable
+Patches. Kitty, too, had, by this time, recognized the riders, and with
+an exclamation started to rise to her feet.
+
+But Phil said quietly, "Wait, Kitty; there's something about that outfit
+that looks mighty queer to me."
+
+The men were riding in single file, with Yavapai Joe in the lead and
+Patches last, and their positions were not changed when they halted
+while Joe, without dismounting, unlatched the gate. They came through
+the opening, still in the same order, and as they halted again, while
+Patches closed the gate, Phil saw what it was that caused them to move
+with such apparent lack of freedom in their relative positions, and why
+Nick Cambert's attitude in the saddle was so stiff and unnatural. Nick's
+hands were secured behind his back, and his feet were tied under the
+horse from stirrup to stirrup, while his horse was controlled by a lead
+rope, one end of which was made fast to Yavapai Joe's saddle horn.
+
+Patches caught sight of the two under the tree as he came through the
+gate, but he gave no sign that he had noticed them. As the little
+procession moved slowly nearer, Phil and Kitty looked at each other
+without a word, but as they turned again to watch the approaching
+horsemen, Kitty impulsively grasped Phil's arm. And sitting so, in such
+unconscious intimacy, they must have made a pleasing picture; at least
+the man who rode behind Nick Cambert seemed to think so, for he was
+trying to smile.
+
+When the riders were almost within speaking distance of the pair under
+the tree, they stopped; and the watchers saw Joe turn his face toward
+Patches for a moment, then look in their direction. Nick Cambert did not
+raise his head. Patches came on toward them alone.
+
+As they saw that it was the man's purpose to speak to them, Phil and
+Kitty rose and stood waiting, Kitty with her hand still on her
+companion's arm. And now, as they were given a closer and less
+obstructed view of the man who had been their friend, Kitty and Phil
+again exchanged wondering glances. This was not the Honorable Patches
+whom they had known so intimately. The man's clothing was soiled with
+dirt, and old from rough usage, with here and there a ragged tear. His
+tall form drooped with weariness, and his unshaven face, dark and deeply
+tanned, and grimed with sweat and dirt, was thin and drawn and old, and
+his tired eyes, deep set in their dark hollows, were bloodshot as though
+from sleepless nights. His dry lips parted in a painful smile, as he
+dismounted stiffly and limped courteously forward to greet them.
+
+"I know that I am scarcely presentable," he said in a voice that was as
+worn and old as his face, "but I could not resist the temptation to say
+'Howdy'. Perhaps I should introduce myself though," he added, as if to
+save them from embarrassment. "My name is Lawrence Knight; I am a deputy
+sheriff of this county." A slight movement as he spoke threw back his
+unbuttoned jumper, and they saw the badge of his office. "In my official
+capacity I am taking a prisoner to Prescott."
+
+Phil recovered first, and caught the officer's hand in a grip that told
+more than words.
+
+Kitty nearly betrayed her secret when she gasped, "But you--you said
+that you--"
+
+With his ready skill he saved her, "That my name was Patches? I know it
+was wrong to deceive you as I did, and I regret that it was necessary
+for me to lie so deliberately, but the situation seemed to demand it.
+And I hoped that when you understood you would forgive the part I was
+forced to play for the good of everyone interested."
+
+Kitty understood the meaning in his words that was unknown to Phil, and
+her eyes expressed the gratitude that she could not speak.
+
+"By the way," Patches continued, "I am not mistaken in offering my
+congratulations and best wishes, am I?"
+
+They laughed happily.
+
+"We have made no announcement yet," Phil answered, "but you seem to know
+everything."
+
+"I feel like saying from the bottom of my heart 'God bless you, my
+children.' You make me feel strangely old," he returned, with a touch of
+his old wistfulness. Then he added in his droll way, "Perhaps, though,
+it's from living in the open and sleeping in my clothes so long. Talk
+about horses, I'd give my kingdom for a bath, a shave and a clean shirt.
+I had begun to think that our old friend Nick never would brand another
+calf; that he had reformed, just to get even with me, you know. By the
+way, Phil, you will be interested to know that Nick is the man who is
+really responsible for your happiness."
+
+"How?" demanded Phil.
+
+"Why, it was Nick who fired the shot that brought Kitty to her senses.
+My partner there, Yavapai Joe, saw him do it. If you people would like
+to thank my prisoner, I will permit it."
+
+When they had decided that they would deny themselves that pleasure,
+Patches said, "I don't blame you; he's a surly, ill-tempered beast,
+anyway. Which reminds me that I must be about my official business, and
+land him in Prescott to-night. I am going to stop at the ranch and ask
+the Dean for the team and buckboard, though," he added, as he climbed
+painfully into the saddle. "Adios! my children. Don't stay out too
+late."
+
+Hand in hand they watched him rejoin his companions and ride away behind
+the two Tailholt Mountain men.
+
+The Dean and Mrs. Baldwin, with their friends from the neighboring
+ranch, were enjoying their Sunday afternoon together as old friends
+will, when the three Reid boys and Little Billy came running from the
+corral where they had been holding an amateur bronco riding contest with
+a calf for the wild and wicked outlaw. As they ran toward the group
+under the walnut trees, the lads disturbed the peaceful conversation of
+their elders with wild shouts of "Patches has come back! Patches has
+come back! Nick Cambert is with him--so's Yavapai Joe!"
+
+Jim Reid sprang to his feet. But the Dean calmly kept his seat, and
+glancing up at his big friend with twinkling eyes, said to the boys,
+with pretended gruffness, "Aw, what's the matter with you kids? Don't
+you know that horse thief Patches wouldn't dare show himself in
+Williamson Valley again? You're havin' bad dreams--that's what's the
+matter with you. Or else you're tryin' to scare us."
+
+"Honest, it's Patches, Uncle Will," cried Littly Billy.
+
+"We seen him comin' from over beyond the corral," said Jimmy.
+
+"I saw him first," shouted Conny. "I was up in the grand stand--I mean
+on the fence."
+
+"Me, too," chirped Jack.
+
+Jim Reid stood looking toward the corral. "The boys are right, Will," he
+said in a low tone. "There they come now."
+
+As the three horsemen rode into the yard, and the watchers noted the
+peculiarity of their companionship, Jim Reid muttered something under
+his breath. But the Dean, as he rose leisurely to his feet, was smiling
+broadly.
+
+The little procession halted when the horses evidenced their dislike of
+the automobile, and Patches came stiffly forward on foot. Lifting his
+battered hat courteously to the company, he said to the Dean, "I have
+returned your horse, sir. I'm very much obliged to you. I think you will
+find him in fairly good condition."
+
+Jim Reid repeated whatever it was that he had muttered to himself.
+
+The Dean chuckled. "Jim," he said to the big cattleman, "I want to
+introduce my friend, Mr. Lawrence Knight, one of Sheriff Gordon's
+deputies. It looks like he had been busy over in the Tailholt Mountain
+neighborhood."
+
+The two men shook hands silently. Mrs. Reid greeted the officer
+cordially, while Mrs. Baldwin, to the Dean's great delight, demonstrated
+her welcome in the good old-fashioned mother way.
+
+"Will Baldwin, I could shake you," she cried, as Patches stood, a little
+confused by her impulsive greeting. "Here you knew all the time; and you
+kept pesterin' me by trying to make me believe that you thought he had
+run away because he was a thief!"
+
+It was, perhaps, the proudest moment of the Dean's life when he admitted
+that Patches had confided in him that morning when they were so late to
+breakfast. And how he had understood that the man's disappearance and
+the pretense of stealing a horse had been only a blind. The good Dean
+never dreamed that there was so much more in Honorable Patches' strategy
+than he knew!
+
+"Mr. Baldwin," said Patches presently, "could you let me have the team
+and buckboard? I want to get my prisoners to Prescott to-night, and"--he
+laughed shortly--"well, I certainly would appreciate those cushions."
+
+"Sure, son, you can have the whole Cross-Triangle outfit, if you want
+it," answered the Dean. "But hold on a minute." He turned with twinkling
+eyes to his neighbor. "Here's Jim with a perfectly good automobile that
+don't seem to be busy."
+
+The big man responded cordially. "Why, of course; I'll be glad to take
+you in."
+
+"Thank you," returned Patches. "I'll be ready in a minute."
+
+"But you're goin' to have something to eat first," cried Mrs. Baldwin.
+"I'll bet you're half starved; you sure look it."
+
+Patches shook his head. "Don't tempt me, mother; I can't stop now."
+
+"But you'll come back home to-night, won't you?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"I would like to," he said. "And may I bring a friend?"
+
+"Your friends are our friends, son," she answered.
+
+"Of course he's comin' back," said the Dean. "Where else would he go,
+I'd like to know?"
+
+They watched him as he went to his prisoner, and as, unlocking the
+handcuff that held Nick's right wrist, he re-locked it on his own left
+arm, thus linking his prisoner securely to himself. Then he spoke to
+Joe, and the young man, dismounting, unfastened the rope that bound
+Nick's feet. When Nick was on the ground the three came toward the
+machine.
+
+"I am afraid I must ask you to let someone take care of the horses,"
+called Patches to the Dean.
+
+"I'll look after them," the Dean returned. "Don't forget now that you're
+comin' back to-night; Jim will bring you."
+
+Jim Reid, as the three men reached the automobile, said to Patches,
+"Will you take both of your prisoners in the back seat with you, or
+shall I take one of them in front with me?"
+
+Patches looked the big man straight in the eyes, and they heard him
+answer with significant emphasis, as he placed his free hand on Yavapai
+Joe's shoulder, "I have only one prisoner, Mr. Reid. This man is my
+friend. He will take whatever seat he prefers."
+
+Yavapai Joe climbed into the rear seat with the officer and his
+prisoner.
+
+It was after dark when Mr. Reid returned to the ranch with Patches and
+Joe.
+
+"You will find your room all ready, son," said Mrs. Baldwin, "and
+there's plenty of hot water in the bathroom tank for you both. Joe can
+take the extra bed in Curly's room. You show him. I'll have your supper
+as soon as you are ready."
+
+Patches almost fell asleep at the table. As soon as they had finished he
+went to his bed, where he remained, as Phil reported at intervals during
+the next forenoon, "dead to the world," until dinner time. In the
+afternoon they gathered under the walnut trees--the Cross-Triangle
+household and the friends from the neighboring ranch--and Patches told
+them his story; how, when he had left the ranch that night, he had
+ridden straight to his old friend Stanford Manning; and how Stanford had
+gone with him to the sheriff, where, through Manning's influence,
+together with the letter which Patches had brought from the Dean, he had
+been made an officer of the law. As he told them briefly of his days and
+nights alone, they needed no minute details to understand what it had
+meant to him.
+
+"It wasn't the work of catching Nick in a way to ensure his conviction
+that I minded," he said, "but the trouble was, that while I was watching
+Nick day and night, and dodging him all the time, I was afraid some
+enthusiastic cow-puncher would run on to me and treat himself to a shot
+just for luck. Not that I would have minded that so much, either, after
+the first week," he added in his droll way, "but considering all the
+circumstances it would have been rather a poor sort of finish."
+
+"And what about Yavapai Joe?" asked Phil.
+
+Patches smiled. "Where is Joe? What's he been doing all day?"
+
+The Dean answered. "He's just been moseyin' around. I tried to get him
+to talk, but all he would say was that he'd rather let Mr. Knight tell
+it."
+
+"Billy," said Patches, "will you find Yavapai Joe, and tell him that I
+would like to see him here?"
+
+When Little Billy, with the assistance of Jimmy and Conny and Jack, had
+gone proudly on his mission, Patches said to the others, "Technically,
+of course, Joe is my prisoner until after the trial, but please don't
+let him feel it. He will be the principal witness for the state."
+
+When Yavapai Joe appeared, embarrassed and ashamed in their presence,
+Patches said, as courteously as he would have introduced an equal, "Joe,
+I want my friends to know your real name. There is no better place in
+the world than right here to start that job of man-making that we have
+talked about. You remember that I told you how I started here."
+
+Yavapai Joe lifted his head and stood straighter by his tall friend's
+side, and there was a new note in his voice as he answered, "Whatever
+you say goes, Mr. Knight."
+
+Patches smiled. "Friends, this is Mr. Joseph Parkhill, the only son of
+the distinguished Professor Parkhill, whom you all know so well."
+
+If Patches had planned to enjoy the surprise his words caused, he could
+not have been disappointed.
+
+Presently, when Joe had slipped away again, Patches told them how,
+because of his interest in the young man, and because of the lad's
+strange knowledge of Professor Parkhill, he had written east for the
+distinguished scholar's history.
+
+"The professor himself was not really so much to blame," said Patches.
+"It seems that he was born to an intellectual life. The poor fellow
+never had a chance. Even as a child he was exhibited as a prodigy--a
+shining example of the possibilities of the race, you know. His father,
+who was also a professor of some sort, died when he was a baby. His
+mother, unfortunately, possessed an income sufficient to make it
+unnecessary that Everard Charles should ever do a day's real work. At
+the age of twenty, he was graduated from college; at the age of
+twenty-one he was married to--or perhaps it would be more accurate to
+say--he was married _by_--his landlady's daughter. Quite likely the
+woman was ambitious to break into that higher life to which the
+professor aspired, and caught her cultured opportunity in an unguarded
+moment. The details are not clear. But when their only child, Joe, was
+six years old, the mother ran away with a carpenter who had been at work
+on the house for some six weeks. A maiden aunt of some fifty years, who
+was a worshiper of the professor's cult, came to keep his house and to
+train Joe in the way that good boys should go.
+
+"But the lad proved rather too great a burden, and when he was thirteen
+they sent him to a school out here in the West, ostensibly for the
+benefit of the climate. The boy, it was said, being of abnormal
+mentality, needed to pursue his studies under the most favorable
+physical conditions. The professor, unhampered by his offspring,
+continued to climb his aesthetic ladder to intellectual and cultured
+glory. The boy in due time escaped from the school, and was educated by
+the man Dryden and Nick Cambert."
+
+"And what will become of him now?" asked the Dean.
+
+Patches smiled. "Why, the lad is twenty-one now, and we have agreed that
+it is about time that he began to make a man of himself--I can help him
+a little, perhaps--I have been trying occasionally the past year. But
+you see the conditions have not been altogether favorable to the
+experiment. It should be easy from now on."
+
+During the time that intervened before the trial of the Tailholt
+Mountain man, Phil and Patches re-established that intimate friendship
+of those first months of their work together. Then came the evening when
+Phil went across the meadow to ask Jim Reid for his daughter.
+
+The big cattleman looked at his young neighbor with frowning
+disapproval.
+
+"It won't do, Phil," he said at last. "I'm Kitty's father, and it's up
+to me to look out for her interests. You know how I've educated her for
+something better than this life. She may think now that she is willin'
+to throw it all away, but I know better. The time would come when she
+would be miserable. It's got to be somethin' more than a common
+cow-puncher for Kitty, Phil, and that's the truth."
+
+The cowboy did not argue. "Do I understand that your only objection is
+based upon the business in which I am engaged?" he asked coolly.
+
+Jim laughed. "The _business_ in which you are engaged? Why, boy, you
+sound like a first national bank. If you had any business of your
+own--if you was the owner of an outfit, an' could give Kitty
+the--well--the things her education has taught her to need, it would be
+different. I know you're a fine man, all right, but you're only a poor
+cow-puncher just the same. I'm speakin' for your own good, Phil, as well
+as for Kitty's," he added, with an effort at kindliness.
+
+"Then, if I had a good business, it would be different?"
+
+"Yes, son, it would sure make all the difference in the world."
+
+"Thank you," said the cowboy quietly, as he handed Mr. Reid a very legal
+looking envelope. "I happen to be half owner of this ranch and outfit.
+With my own property, it makes a fairly good start for a man of my age.
+My partner, Mr. Lawrence Knight, leaves the active management wholly in
+my hands; and he has abundant capital to increase our holdings and
+enlarge our operations just as fast as we can handle the business."
+
+The big man looked from the papers to the lad, then back to the papers.
+Then a broad smile lighted his heavy face, as he said, "I give it
+up--you win. You young fellers are too swift for me. I've been wantin'
+to retire anyway." He raised his voice and called, "Kitty--oh, Kitty!"
+
+The girl appeared in the doorway.
+
+"Come and get him," said Reid. "I guess he's yours."
+
+Helen Manning was sitting on the front porch of that little cottage on
+the mountain side where she and Stanford began their years of
+home-building. A half mile below she could see the mining buildings that
+were grouped about the shaft in picturesque disorder. Above, the
+tree-clad ridge rose against the sky. It was too far from the great
+world of cities, some would have said, but Helen did not find it so.
+With her books and her music, and the great out-of-doors; and with the
+companionship of her mate and the dreams they dreamed together, her
+woman heart was never lonely.
+
+She lowered the book she was reading, and looked through the open window
+to the clock in the living-room. A little while, and she would go down
+the hill to Stanford, for they loved to walk home together. Then, before
+lifting the printed page again, she looked over the wide view of rugged
+mountain sides and towering peaks that every day held for her some new
+beauty. She had resumed her reading when the sound of horses' feet
+attracted her attention.
+
+Patches and Yavapai Joe were riding up the hill.
+
+They stopped at the gate, and while Joe held Stranger's bridle rein,
+Patches came to Helen as she stood on the porch waiting to receive him.
+
+"Surely you will stay for the night," she urged when they had exchanged
+greetings, and had talked for a little while.
+
+"No," he answered quietly. "I just came this way to say good-by; I
+stopped for a few minutes with Stan at the office. He said I would find
+you here."
+
+"But where are you going?" she asked.
+
+Smiling he waved his hand toward the mountain ridge above. "Just over
+the sky line, Helen."
+
+"But, Larry, you will come again? You won't let us lose you altogether?"
+
+"Perhaps--some day," he said.
+
+"And who is that with you?"
+
+"Just a friend who cares to go with me. Stan will tell you."
+
+"Oh, Larry, Larry! What a man you are!" she cried proudly, as he stood
+before her holding out his hand.
+
+"If you think so, Helen, I am glad," he answered, and turned away.
+
+So she watched him go. Sitting there at home, she watched him ride up
+the winding road. Now he was in full view on some rocky shoulder of the
+mountain--now some turn carried him behind a rocky point--again she
+glimpsed him through the trees--again he was lost to her in the shadows.
+At last, for a moment, he stood out boldly against the wide-arched
+sky--and then he had passed from sight--over the sky line, as he had
+said.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's When A Man's A Man, by Harold Bell Wright
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN'S A MAN ***
+
+***** This file should be named 14367-8.txt or 14367-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/6/14367/
+
+Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/14367-8.zip b/old/14367-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dde34ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-8.zip
diff --git a/old/14367-h.zip b/old/14367-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce65588
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h.zip
diff --git a/old/14367-h/14367-h.htm b/old/14367-h/14367-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..510b874
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/14367-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,9422 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta name="generator" content=
+"HTML Tidy for Windows (vers 1st February 2004), see www.w3.org" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of When A Man's A Man, by Harold
+Bell Wright.</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+         }
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+         margin-top: 2em;
+         margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    .linenum  {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */
+    .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .pagenum  {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */
+    .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em;
+               padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em;
+               float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em;
+               font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;}
+
+    .bb       {border-bottom: solid 2px;}
+    .bl       {border-left: solid 2px;}
+    .bt       {border-top: solid 2px;}
+    .br       {border-right: solid 2px;}
+    .bbox     {border: solid 2px;}
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+    .figcenter   {margin: auto; text-align: center;}
+
+    .figleft     {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top:
+                 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;}
+
+    .figright    {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;
+                 margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;}
+
+    .footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+    .footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+    .footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+    .fnanchor         {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;}
+
+    .poem             {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem br          {display: none;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem span        {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i2     {display: block; margin-left: 2em;}
+    .poem span.i4     {display: block; margin-left: 4em;}
+    .par { float: left;
+             margin-top: 1em;
+             margin-bottom: 0em;
+             margin-left: -6%;
+             margin-right: -12%;
+             TEXT-ALIGN: center }
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+</style>
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of When A Man's A Man, by Harold Bell Wright
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: When A Man's A Man
+
+Author: Harold Bell Wright
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2004 [EBook #14367]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN'S A MAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/001.png" width="70%" alt=""
+title="" />
+<br /></div>
+<div>
+<h1>WHEN A MAN'S<br />
+A MAN</h1>
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<h2>HAROLD BELL WRIGHT</h2>
+<h4>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP<br />
+PUBLISHERS -- NEW YORK</h4>
+<h5>By arrangement with D. Appleton-Century Co.</h5>
+<h5>1916</h5>
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>TO MY SONS</h3>
+<h4>GILBERT AND PAUL NORMAN</h4>
+<h5>THIS STORY OF MANHOOD<br />
+IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED<br />
+BY THEIR FATHER</h5>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><i>Acknowledgment</i></h2>
+<p>It is fitting that I should here express my indebtedness to
+those Williamson Valley friends who in the kindness of their hearts
+made this story possible.</p>
+<p>To Mr. George A. Carter, who so generously introduced me to the
+scenes described in these pages, and who, on the Pot-Hook-S ranch,
+gave to my family one of the most delightful summers we have ever
+enjoyed; to Mr. J.H. Stephens and his family, who so cordially
+welcomed me at rodeo time; to Mr. and Mrs. Joe Contreras, for their
+kindly hospitality; to Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Stewart, who, while this
+story was first in the making, made me so much at home in the
+Cross-Triangle home-ranch; to Mr. J.W. Cook, my constant companion,
+helpful guide, patient teacher and tactful sponsor, who, with his
+charming wife, made his home mine; to Mr. and Mrs. Herbert N. Cook,
+and to the many other cattlemen and cowboys, with whom, on the
+range, in the rodeos, in the wild horse chase about Toohey, after
+outlaw cattle in Granite Basin, in the corrals and pastures, I rode
+and worked and lived, my gratitude is more than I can put in words.
+Truer friends or better companions than these great-hearted,
+outspoken, hardy riders, no man could have. If my story in any
+degree wins the approval of these, my comrades of ranch and range.
+I shall be proud and happy. H.B.W.</p>
+<div class="blockquot">"CAMP HOLE-IN-THE-MOUNTAIN"<br />
+NEAR TUCSON, ARIZONA<br />
+APRIL 29, 1916</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/006.png" width="60%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<div class="center">
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>CHAPTER</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_I">AFTER THE CELEBRATION</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">11</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_II">ON THE DIVIDE</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">23</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_III">IN THE BIG PASTURE</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">35</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">AT THE CORRAL</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">47</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_V">A BIT OF THE PAST</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">81</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">THE DRIFT FENCE</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">91</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">THINGS THAT ENDURE</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">115</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CONCERNING BRANDS</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">133</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">THE TAILHOLT MOUNTAIN
+OUTFIT</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">159</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_X">THE RODEO</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">181</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">AFTER THE RODEO</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">197</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">FRONTIER DAY</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">239</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">IN GRANITE BASIN</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">261</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">AT MINT SPRING</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">281</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">ON CEDAR RIDGE</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">297</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">THE SKY LINE</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">323</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/007.png" width="10%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_01.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/008.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>here is a land where a man, to live, must be a man. It is a land
+of granite and marble and porphyry and gold&mdash;and a man's
+strength must be as the strength of the primeval hills. It is a
+land of oaks and cedars and pines&mdash;and a man's mental grace
+must be as the grace of the untamed trees. It is a land of
+far-arched and unstained skies, where the wind sweeps free and
+untainted, and the atmosphere is the atmosphere of those places
+that remain as God made them&mdash;and a man's soul must be as the
+unstained skies, the unburdened wind, and the untainted atmosphere.
+It is a land of wide mesas, of wild, rolling pastures and broad,
+untilled, valley meadows&mdash;and a man's freedom must be that
+freedom which is not bounded by the fences of a too weak and timid
+conventionalism.</p>
+<p>In this land every man is&mdash;by divine right&mdash;his own
+king; he is his own jury, his own counsel, his own judge,
+and&mdash;if it must be&mdash;his own executioner. And in this land
+where a man, to live, must be a man, a woman, if she be not a
+woman, must surely perish.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/009.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p>This is the story of a man who regained that which in his youth
+had been lost to him; and of how, even when he had recovered that
+which had been taken from him, he still paid the price of his loss.
+It is the story of a woman who was saved from herself; and of how
+she was led to hold fast to those things, the loss of which cost
+the man so great a price.</p>
+<p>The story, as I have put it down here, begins at Prescott,
+Arizona, on the day following the annual Fourth-of-July celebration
+in one of those far-western years that saw the passing of the
+Indian and the coming of the automobile.</p>
+<p>The man was walking along one of the few roads that lead out
+from the little city, through the mountain gaps and passes, to the
+wide, unfenced ranges, and to the lonely scattered ranches on the
+creeks and flats and valleys of the great open country that lies
+beyond.</p>
+<p>From the fact that he was walking in that land where the
+distances are such that men most commonly ride, and from the many
+marks that environment and training leave upon us all, it was
+evident that the pedestrian was a stranger. He was a man in the
+prime of young manhood&mdash;tall and exceedingly well
+proportioned&mdash;and as he went forward along the dusty road he
+bore himself with the unconscious air of one more accustomed to
+crowded streets than to that rude and unpaved highway. His clothing
+bore the unmistakable stamp of a tailor of rank. His person was
+groomed with that nicety of detail that is permitted only to those
+who possess both means and leisure, as well as taste. It was
+evident, too, from his movement and bearing, that he had not sought
+the mile-high atmosphere of Prescott with the hope that it holds
+out to those in need of health. But, still, there was a something
+about him that suggested a lack of the manly vigor and strength
+that should have been his.</p>
+<p>A student of men would have said that Nature made this man to be
+in physical strength and spiritual prowess, a comrade and leader of
+men&mdash;a man's man&mdash;a man among men. The same student,
+looking more closely, might have added that in some
+way&mdash;through some cruel trick of fortune&mdash;this man had
+been cheated of his birthright.</p>
+<p>The day was still young when the stranger gained the top of the
+first hill where the road turns to make its steep and winding way
+down through scattered pines and scrub oak to the Burnt Ranch.</p>
+<p>Behind him the little city&mdash;so picturesque in its mountain
+basin, with the wild, unfenced land coming down to its very
+dooryards&mdash;was slowly awakening after the last mad night of
+its celebration. The tents of the tawdry shows that had tempted the
+crowds with vulgar indecencies, and the booths that had sheltered
+the petty games of chance where loud-voiced criers had persuaded
+the multitude with the hope of winning a worthless bauble or a
+tinsel toy, were being cleared away from the borders of the plaza,
+the beauty of which their presence had marred. In the plaza
+itself&mdash;which is the heart of the town, and is usually kept
+with much pride and care&mdash;the bronze statue of the vigorous
+Rough Rider Bucky O'Neil and his spirited charger seemed
+pathetically out of place among the litter of colored confetti and
+exploded fireworks, and the refuse from various "treats" and
+lunches left by the celebrating citizens and their guests. The
+flags and bunting that from window and roof and pole and doorway
+had given the day its gay note of color hung faded and listless, as
+though, spent with their gaiety, and mutely conscious that the
+spirit and purpose of their gladness was past, they waited the hand
+that would remove them to the ash barrel and the rubbish heap.</p>
+<p>Pausing, the man turned to look back.</p>
+<p>For some minutes he stood as one who, while determined upon a
+certain course, yet hesitates&mdash;reluctant and
+regretful&mdash;at the beginning of his venture. Then he went on;
+walking with a certain reckless swing, as though, in ignorance of
+that land toward which he had set his face, he still resolutely
+turned his back upon that which lay behind. It was as though, for
+this man, too, the gala day, with its tinseled bravery and its
+confetti spirit, was of the past.</p>
+<p>A short way down the hill the man stopped again. This time to
+stand half turned, with his head in a listening attitude. The sound
+of a vehicle approaching from the way whence he had come had
+reached his ear.</p>
+<p>As the noise of wheels and hoofs grew louder a strange
+expression of mingled uncertainty, determination, and something
+very like fear came over his face. He started forward, hesitated,
+looked back, then turned doubtfully toward the thinly wooded
+mountain side. Then, with tardy decision he left the road and
+disappeared behind a clump of oak bushes, an instant before a team
+and buckboard rounded the turn and appeared in full view.</p>
+<p>An unmistakable cattleman&mdash;grizzly-haired,
+square-shouldered and substantial&mdash;was driving the wild
+looking team. Beside him sat a motherly woman and a little boy.</p>
+<p>As they passed the clump of bushes the near horse of the
+half-broken pair gave a catlike bound to the right against his
+tracemate. A second jump followed the first with flash-like
+quickness; and this time the frightened animal was accompanied by
+his companion, who, not knowing what it was all about, jumped on
+general principles. But, quick as they were, the strength of the
+driver's skillful arms met their weight on the reins and forced
+them to keep the road.</p>
+<p>"You blamed fools"&mdash;the driver chided good-naturedly, as
+they plunged ahead&mdash;"been raised on a cow ranch to get scared
+at a calf in the brush!"</p>
+<p>Very slowly the stranger came from behind the bushes. Cautiously
+he returned to the road. His fine lips curled in a curious mocking
+smile. But it was himself that he mocked, for there was a look in
+his dark eyes that gave to his naturally strong face an almost
+pathetic expression of self-depreciation and shame.</p>
+<p>As the pedestrian crossed the creek at the Burnt Ranch, Joe
+Conley, leading a horse by a riata which was looped as it had
+fallen about the animal's neck, came through the big corral gate
+across the road from the house. At the barn Joe disappeared through
+the small door of the saddle room, the coil of the riata still in
+his hand, thus compelling his mount to await his return.</p>
+<p>At sight of the cowboy the stranger again paused and stood
+hesitating in indecision. But as Joe reappeared from the barn with
+bridle, saddle blanket and saddle in hand, the man went reluctantly
+forward as though prompted by some necessity.</p>
+<p>"Good morning!" said the stranger, courteously, and his voice
+was the voice that fitted his dress and bearing, while his face was
+now the carefully schooled countenance of a man world-trained and
+well-poised.</p>
+<p>With a quick estimating glance Joe returned the stranger's
+greeting and, dropping the saddle and blanket on the ground,
+approached his horse's head. Instantly the animal sprang back, with
+head high and eyes defiant; but there was no escape, for the
+rawhide riata was still securely held by his master. There was a
+short, sharp scuffle that sent the gravel by the roadside
+flying&mdash;the controlling bit was between the reluctant
+teeth&mdash;and the cowboy, who had silently taken the horse's
+objection as a matter of course, adjusted the blanket, and with the
+easy skill of long practice swung the heavy saddle to its
+place.</p>
+<p>As the cowboy caught the dangling cinch, and with a deft hand
+tucked the latigo strap through the ring and drew it tight, there
+was a look of almost pathetic wistfulness on the watching
+stranger's face&mdash;a look of wistfulness and admiration and
+envy.</p>
+<p>Dropping the stirrup, Joe again faced the stranger, this time
+inquiringly, with that bold, straightforward look so characteristic
+of his kind.</p>
+<p>And now, when the man spoke, his voice had a curious note, as if
+the speaker had lost a little of his poise. It was almost a note of
+apology, and again in his eyes there was that pitiful look of
+self-depreciation and shame.</p>
+<p>"Pardon me," he said, "but will you tell me, please, am I right
+that this is the road to the Williamson Valley?"</p>
+<p>The stranger's manner and voice were in such contrast to his
+general appearance that the cowboy frankly looked his wonder as he
+answered courteously, "Yes, sir."</p>
+<p>"And it will take me direct to the Cross-Triangle Ranch?"</p>
+<p>"If you keep straight ahead across the valley, it will. If you
+take the right-hand fork on the ridge above the goat ranch, it will
+take you to Simmons. There's a road from Simmons to the
+Cross-Triangle on the far side of the valley, though. You can see
+the valley and the Cross-Triangle home ranch from the top of the
+Divide."</p>
+<p>"Thank you."</p>
+<p>The stranger was turning to go when the man in the blue jumper
+and fringed leather chaps spoke again, curiously.</p>
+<p>"The Dean with Stella and Little Billy passed in the buckboard
+less than an hour ago, on their way home from the celebration.
+Funny they didn't pick you up, if you're goin' there!"</p>
+<p>The other paused questioningly. "The Dean?"</p>
+<p>The cowboy smiled. "Mr. Baldwin, the owner of the
+Cross-Triangle, you know."</p>
+<p>"Oh!" The stranger was clearly embarrassed. Perhaps he was
+thinking of that clump of bushes on the mountain side.</p>
+<p>Joe, loosing his riata from the horse's neck, and coiling it
+carefully, considered a moment. Then: "You ain't goin' to walk to
+the Cross-Triangle, be you?"</p>
+<p>That self-mocking smile touched the man's lips; but there was a
+hint of decisive purpose in his voice as he answered, "Oh,
+yes."</p>
+<p>Again the cowboy frankly measured the stranger. Then he moved
+toward the corral gate, the coiled riata in one hand, the bridle
+rein in the other. "I'll catch up a horse for you," he said in a
+matter-of-fact tone, as if reaching a decision.</p>
+<p>The other spoke hastily. "No, no, please don't trouble."</p>
+<p>Joe paused curiously. "Any friend of Mr. Baldwin's is welcome to
+anything on the Burnt Ranch, Stranger."</p>
+<p>"But I&mdash;ah&mdash;I&mdash;have never met Mr. Baldwin,"
+explained the other lamely.</p>
+<p>"Oh, that's all right," returned the cowboy heartily. "You're
+a-goin' to, an' that's the same thing." Again he started toward the
+gate.</p>
+<p>"But I&mdash;pardon me&mdash;you are very kind&mdash;but
+I&mdash;I prefer to walk."</p>
+<p>Once more Joe halted, a puzzled expression on his tanned and
+weather-beaten face. "I suppose you know it's some walk," he
+suggested doubtfully, as if the man's ignorance were the only
+possible solution of his unheard-of assertion.</p>
+<p>"So I understand. But it will be good for me. Really, I prefer
+to walk."</p>
+<p>Without a word the cowboy turned back to his horse, and
+proceeded methodically to tie the coiled riata in its place on the
+saddle. Then, without a glance toward the stranger who stood
+watching him in embarrassed silence, he threw the bridle reins over
+his horse's head, gripped the saddle horn and swung to his seat,
+reining his horse away from the man beside the road.</p>
+<p>The stranger, thus abruptly dismissed, moved hurriedly away.</p>
+<p>Half way to the creek the cowboy checked his horse and looked
+back at the pedestrian as the latter was making his way under the
+pines and up the hill. When the man had disappeared over the crest
+of the hill, the cowboy muttered a bewildered something, and,
+touching his horse with the spurs, loped away, as if dismissing a
+problem too complex for his simple mind.</p>
+<p>All that day the stranger followed the dusty, unfenced road.
+Over his head the wide, bright sky was without a cloud to break its
+vast expanse. On the great, open range of mountain, flat and valley
+the cattle lay quietly in the shade of oak or walnut or cedar, or,
+with slow, listless movement, sought the watering places to slake
+their thirst. The wild things retreated to their secret hiding
+places in rocky den and leafy thicket to await the cool of the
+evening hunting hour. The very air was motionless, as if the
+never-tired wind itself drowsed indolently.</p>
+<p>And alone in the hushed bigness of that land the man walked with
+his thoughts&mdash;brooding, perhaps, over whatever it was that had
+so strangely placed him there&mdash;dreaming, it may be, over that
+which might have been, or that which yet might be&mdash;viewing
+with questioning, wondering, half-fearful eyes the mighty, untamed
+scenes that met his eye on every hand. Nor did anyone see him, for
+at every sound of approaching horse or vehicle he went aside from
+the highway to hide in the bushes or behind convenient rocks. And
+always when he came from his hiding place to resume his journey
+that odd smile of self-mockery was on his face.</p>
+<p>At noon he rested for a little beside the road while he ate a
+meager sandwich that he took from the pocket of his coat. Then he
+pushed on again, with grim determination, deeper and deeper into
+the heart and life of that world which was, to him, so evidently
+new and strange. The afternoon was well spent when he made his
+way&mdash;wearily now, with drooping shoulders and dragging
+step&mdash;up the long slope of the Divide that marks the eastern
+boundary of the range about Williamson Valley.</p>
+<p>At the summit, where the road turns sharply around a shoulder of
+the mountain and begins the steep descent on the other side of the
+ridge, he stopped. His tired form straightened. His face lighted
+with a look of wondering awe, and an involuntary exclamation came
+from his lips as his unaccustomed eyes swept the wide view that lay
+from his feet unrolled before him.</p>
+<p>Under that sky, so unmatched in its clearness and depth of
+color, the land lay in all its variety of valley and forest and
+mesa and mountain&mdash;a scene unrivaled in the magnificence and
+grandeur of its beauty. Miles upon miles in the distance, across
+those primeval reaches, the faint blue peaks and domes and ridges
+of the mountains ranked&mdash;an uncounted sentinel host. The
+darker masses of the timbered hillsides, with the varying shades of
+pine and cedar, the lighter tints of oak brush and chaparral, the
+dun tones of the open grass lands, and the brighter note of the
+valley meadows' green were defined, blended and harmonized by the
+overlying haze with a delicacy exquisite beyond all human power to
+picture. And in the nearer distances, chief of that army of
+mountain peaks, and master of the many miles that lie within their
+circle, Granite Mountain, gray and grim, reared its mighty bulk of
+cliff and crag as if in supreme defiance of the changing years or
+the hand of humankind.</p>
+<p>In the heart of that beautiful land upon which, from the summit
+of the Divide, the stranger looked with such rapt appreciation,
+lies Williamson Valley, a natural meadow of lush, dark green,
+native grass. And, had the man's eyes been trained to such
+distances, he might have distinguished in the blue haze the red
+roofs of the buildings of the Cross-Triangle Ranch.</p>
+<p>For some time the man stood there, a lonely figure against the
+sky, peculiarly out of place in his careful garb of the cities. The
+schooled indifference of his face was broken. His self-depreciation
+and mockery were forgotten. His dark eyes glowed with the fire of
+excited anticipation&mdash;with hope and determined purpose. Then,
+with a quick movement, as though some ghost of the past had touched
+him on the shoulder, he looked back on the way he had come. And the
+light in his eyes went out in the gloom of painful memories. His
+countenance, unguarded because of his day of loneliness, grew dark
+with sadness and shame. It was as though he looked beyond the town
+he had left that morning, with its litter and refuse of yesterday's
+pleasure, to a life and a world of tawdry shams, wherein men give
+themselves to win by means fair or foul the tinsel baubles that are
+offered in the world's petty games of chance.</p>
+<p>And yet, even as he looked back, there was in the man's face as
+much of longing as of regret. He seemed as one who, realizing that
+he had reached a point in his life journey&mdash;a divide, as it
+were&mdash;from which he could see two ways, was resolved to turn
+from the path he longed to follow and to take the road that
+appealed to him the least. As one enlisting to fight in a just and
+worthy cause might pause a moment, before taking the oath of
+service, to regret the ease and freedom he was about to surrender,
+so this man paused on the summit of the Divide.</p>
+<p>Slowly, at last, in weariness of body and spirit, he stumbled a
+few feet aside from the road, and, sinking down upon a convenient
+rock, gave himself again to the contemplation of that scene which
+lay before him. And there was that in his movement now that seemed
+to tell of one who, in the grip of some bitter and disappointing
+experience, was yet being forced by something deep in his being to
+reach out in the strength of his manhood to take that which he had
+been denied.</p>
+<p>Again the man's untrained eyes had failed to note that which
+would have first attracted the attention of one schooled in the
+land that lay about him. He had not seen a tiny moving speck on the
+road over which he had passed. A horseman was riding toward
+him.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_02.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/020.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>ad the man on the Divide noticed the approaching horseman it
+would have been evident, even to one so unacquainted with the
+country as the stranger, that the rider belonged to that land of
+riders. While still at a distance too great for the eye to
+distinguish the details of fringed leather chaps, soft shirt, short
+jumper, sombrero, spurs and riata, no one could have mistaken the
+ease and grace of the cowboy who seemed so literally a part of his
+horse. His seat in the saddle was so secure, so easy, and his
+bearing so unaffected and natural, that every movement of the
+powerful animal he rode expressed itself rhythmically in his own
+lithe and sinewy body.</p>
+<p>While the stranger sat wrapped in meditative thought, unheeding
+the approach of the rider, the horseman, coming on with a long,
+swinging lope, watched the motionless figure on the summit of the
+Divide with careful interest. As he drew nearer the cowboy pulled
+his horse down to a walk, and from under his broad hat brim
+regarded the stranger intently. He was within a few yards of the
+point where the man sat when the latter caught the sound of the
+horse's feet, and, with a quick, startled look over his shoulder,
+sprang up and started as if to escape. But it was too late, and, as
+though on second thought, he whirled about with a half defiant air
+to face the intruder.</p>
+<p>The horseman stopped. He had not missed the significance of that
+hurried movement, and his right hand rested carelessly on his
+leather clad thigh, while his grey eyes were fixed boldly,
+inquiringly, almost challengingly, on the man he had so
+unintentionally surprised.</p>
+<p>As he sat there on his horse, so alert, so ready, in his cowboy
+garb and trappings, against the background of Granite Mountain,
+with all its rugged, primeval strength, the rider made a striking
+picture of virile manhood. Of some years less than thirty, he was,
+perhaps, neither as tall nor as heavy as the stranger; but in spite
+of a certain boyish look on his smooth-shaven, deeply-bronzed face,
+he bore himself with the unmistakable air of a matured and
+self-reliant man. Every nerve and fiber of him seemed alive with
+that vital energy which is the true beauty and the glory of
+life.</p>
+<p>The two men presented a striking contrast. Without question one
+was the proud and finished product of our most advanced
+civilization. It was as evident that the splendid manhood of the
+other had never been dwarfed by the weakening atmosphere of an
+over-cultured, too conventional and too complex environment. The
+stranger with his carefully tailored clothing and his
+man-of-the-world face and bearing was as unlike this rider of the
+unfenced lands as a daintily groomed thoroughbred from the
+sheltered and guarded stables of fashion is unlike a wild, untamed
+stallion from the hills and ranges about Granite Mountain. Yet,
+unlike as they were, there was a something that marked them as kin.
+The man of the ranges and the man of the cities were, deep beneath
+the surface of their beings, as like as the spirited thoroughbred
+and the unbroken wild horse. The cowboy was all that the stranger
+might have been. The stranger was all that the cowboy, under like
+conditions, would have been.</p>
+<p>As they silently faced each other it seemed for a moment that
+each instinctively recognized this kinship. Then into the dark eyes
+of the stranger&mdash;as when he had watched the cowboy at the
+Burnt Ranch&mdash;there came that look of wistful admiration and
+envy.</p>
+<p>And at this, as if the man had somehow made himself known, the
+horseman relaxed his attitude of tense readiness. The hand that had
+held the bridle rein to command instant action of his horse, and
+the hand that had rested so near the rider's hip, came together on
+the saddle horn in careless ease, while a boyish smile of amusement
+broke over the young man's face.</p>
+<p>That smile brought a flash of resentment into the eyes of the
+other and a flush of red darkened his untanned cheeks. A moment he
+stood; then with an air of haughty rebuke he deliberately turned
+his back, and, seating himself again, looked away over the
+landscape.</p>
+<p>But the smiling cowboy did not move. For a moment as he regarded
+the stranger his shoulders shook with silent, contemptuous
+laughter; then his face became grave, and he looked a little
+ashamed. The minutes passed, and still he sat there, quietly
+waiting.</p>
+<p>Presently, as if yielding to the persistent, silent presence of
+the horseman, and submitting reluctantly to the intrusion, the
+other turned, and again the two who were so like and yet so unlike
+faced each other.</p>
+<p>It was the stranger now who smiled. But it was a smile that
+caused the cowboy to become on the instant kindly considerate.
+Perhaps he remembered one of the Dean's favorite sayings: "Keep
+your eye on the man who laughs when he's hurt."</p>
+<p>"Good evening!" said the stranger doubtfully, but with a hint of
+conscious superiority in his manner.</p>
+<p>"Howdy!" returned the cowboy heartily, and in his deep voice was
+the kindliness that made him so loved by all who knew him. "Been
+having some trouble?"</p>
+<p>"If I have, it is my own, sir," retorted the other coldly.</p>
+<p>"Sure," returned the horseman gently, "and you're welcome to it.
+Every man has all he needs of his own, I reckon. But I didn't mean
+it that way; I meant your horse."</p>
+<p>The stranger looked at him questioningly. "Beg pardon?" he
+said.</p>
+<p>"What?"</p>
+<p>"I do not understand."</p>
+<p>"Your horse&mdash;where is your horse?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes! Certainly&mdash;of course&mdash;my horse&mdash;how
+stupid of me!" The tone of the man's answer was one of half
+apology, and he was smiling whimsically now as if at his own
+predicament, as he continued. "I have no horse. Really, you know, I
+wouldn't know what to do with one if I had it."</p>
+<p>"You don't mean to say that you drifted all the way out here
+from Prescott on foot!" exclaimed the astonished cowboy.</p>
+<p>The man on the ground looked up at the horseman, and in a droll
+tone that made the rider his friend, said, while he stretched his
+long legs painfully: "I like to walk. You see
+I&mdash;ah&mdash;fancied it would be good for me, don't you
+know."</p>
+<p>The cowboy laughingly considered&mdash;trying, as he said
+afterward, to figure it out. It was clear that this tall stranger
+was not in search of health, nor did he show any of the
+distinguishing marks of the tourist. He certainly appeared to be a
+man of means. He could not be looking for work. He did not seem a
+suspicious character&mdash;quite the contrary&mdash;and
+yet&mdash;there was that significant hurried movement as if to
+escape when the horseman had surprised him. The etiquette of the
+country forbade a direct question, but&mdash;</p>
+<p>"Yes," he agreed thoughtfully, "walking comes in handy
+sometimes. I don't take to it much myself, though." Then he added
+shrewdly, "You were at the celebration, I reckon."</p>
+<p>The stranger's voice betrayed quick enthusiasm, but that odd
+wistfulness crept into his eyes again and he seemed to lose a
+little of his poise.</p>
+<p>"Indeed I was," he said. "I never saw anything to compare with
+it. I've seen all kinds of athletic sports and contests and
+exhibitions, with circus performances and riding, and that sort of
+thing, you know, and I've read about such things, of course,
+but"&mdash;and his voice grew thoughtful&mdash;"that men ever
+actually did them&mdash;and all in the day's work, as you may
+say&mdash;I&mdash;I never dreamed that there <i>were</i> men like
+that in these days."</p>
+<p>The cowboy shifted his weight uneasily in the saddle, while he
+regarded the man on the ground curiously. "She was sure a humdinger
+of a celebration," he admitted, "but as for the show part I've seen
+things happen when nobody was thinking anything about it that would
+make those stunts at Prescott look funny. The horse racing was
+pretty good, though," he finished, with suggestive emphasis.</p>
+<p>The other did not miss the point of the suggestion. "I didn't
+bet on anything," he laughed.</p>
+<p>"It's funny nobody picked you up on the road out here," the
+cowboy next offered pointedly. "The folks started home early this
+morning&mdash;and Jim Reid and his family passed me about an hour
+ago&mdash;they were in an automobile. The Simmons stage must have
+caught up with you somewhere."</p>
+<p>The stranger's face flushed, and he seemed trying to find some
+answer.</p>
+<p>The cowboy watched him curiously; then in a musing tone added
+the suggestion, "Some lonesome up here on foot."</p>
+<p>"But there are times, you know," returned the other desperately,
+"when a man prefers to be alone."</p>
+<p>The cowboy straightened in his saddle and lifted his reins.
+"Thanks," he said dryly, "I reckon I'd better be moving."</p>
+<p>But the other spoke quickly. "I beg your pardon, Mr. Acton, I
+did not mean that for you."</p>
+<p>The horseman dropped his hands again to the saddle horn, and
+resumed his lounging posture, thus tacitly accepting the apology.
+"You have the advantage of me," he said.</p>
+<p>The stranger laughed. "Everyone knows that 'Wild Horse Phil' of
+the Cross-Triangle Ranch won the bronco-riding championship
+yesterday. I saw you ride."</p>
+<p>Philip Acton's face showed boyish embarrassment.</p>
+<p>The other continued, with his strange enthusiasm. "It was great
+work&mdash;wonderful! I never saw anything like it."</p>
+<p>There was no mistaking the genuineness of his admiration, nor
+could he hide that wistful look in his eyes.</p>
+<p>"Shucks!" said the cowboy uneasily. "I could pick a dozen of the
+boys in that outfit who can ride all around me. It was just my
+luck, that's all&mdash;I happened to draw an easy one."</p>
+<p>"Easy!" ejaculated the stranger, seeing again in his mind the
+fighting, plunging, maddened, outlawed brute that this boy-faced
+man had mastered. "And I suppose catching and throwing those steers
+was easy, too?"</p>
+<p>The cowboy was plainly wondering at the man's peculiar
+enthusiasm for these most commonplace things. "The roping? Why,
+that was no more than we're doing all the time."</p>
+<p>"I don't mean the roping," returned the other, "I mean when you
+rode up beside one of those steers that was running at full speed,
+and caught him by the horns with your bare hands, and jumped from
+your saddle, and threw the beast over you, and then lay there with
+his horns pinning you down! You aren't doing that all the time, are
+you? You don't mean to tell me that such things as that are a part
+of your everyday work!"</p>
+<p>"Oh, the bull doggin'! Why, no," admitted Phil, with an
+embarrassed laugh, "that was just fun, you know."</p>
+<p>The stranger stared at him, speechless. Fun! In the name of all
+that is most modern in civilization, what manner of men were these
+who did such things in fun! If this was their recreation, what must
+their work be!</p>
+<p>"Do you mind my asking," he said wistfully, "how you learned to
+do such things?"</p>
+<p>"Why, I don't know&mdash;we just do them, I reckon."</p>
+<p>"And could anyone learn to ride as you ride, do you think?" The
+question came with marked eagerness.</p>
+<p>"I don't see why not," answered the cowboy honestly.</p>
+<p>The stranger shook his head doubtfully and looked away over the
+wild land where the shadows of the late afternoon were
+lengthening.</p>
+<p>"Where are you going to stop to-night?" Phil Acton asked
+suddenly.</p>
+<p>The stranger did not take his eyes from the view that seemed to
+hold for him such peculiar interest. "Really," he answered
+indifferently, "I had not thought of that."</p>
+<p>"I should think you'd be thinking of it along about supper time,
+if you've walked from town since morning."</p>
+<p>The stranger looked up with sudden interest; but the cowboy
+fancied that there was a touch of bitterness under the droll tone
+of his reply. "Do you know, Mr. Acton, I have never been really
+hungry in my life. It might be interesting to try it once, don't
+you think?"</p>
+<p>Phil Acton laughed, as he returned, "It might be interesting,
+all right, but I think I better tell you, just the same, that
+there's a ranch down yonder in the timber. It's nothing but a goat
+ranch, but I reckon they would take you in. It's too far to the
+Cross-Triangle for me to ask you there. You can see the buildings,
+though, from here."</p>
+<p>The stranger sprang up in quick interest. "You can? The
+Cross-Triangle Ranch?"</p>
+<p>"Sure," the cowboy smiled and pointed into the distance. "Those
+red spots over there are the roofs. Jim Reid's place&mdash;the
+Pot-Hook-S&mdash;is just this side of the meadows, and a little to
+the south. The old Acton homestead&mdash;where I was born&mdash;is
+in that bunch of cottonwoods, across the wash from the
+Cross-Triangle."</p>
+<p>But strive as he might the stranger's eyes could discern no sign
+of human habitation in those vast reaches that lay before him.</p>
+<p>"If you are ever over that way, drop in," said Phil cordially.
+"Mr. Baldwin will be glad to meet you."</p>
+<p>"Do you really mean that?" questioned the other doubtfully.</p>
+<p>"We don't say such things in this country if we don't mean them,
+Stranger," was the cool retort.</p>
+<p>"Of course, I beg your pardon, Mr. Acton," came the confused
+reply. "I should like to see the ranch. I may&mdash;I
+will&mdash;That is, if I&mdash;" He stopped as if not knowing how
+to finish, and with a gesture of hopelessness turned away to stand
+silently looking back toward the town, while his face was dark with
+painful memories, and his lips curved in that mirthless,
+self-mocking smile.</p>
+<p>And Philip Acton, seeing, felt suddenly that he had rudely
+intruded upon the privacy of one who had sought the solitude of
+that lonely place to hide the hurt of some bitter experience. A
+certain native gentleness made the man of the ranges understand
+that this stranger was face to face with some crisis in his
+life&mdash;that he was passing through one of those trials through
+which a man must pass alone. Had it been possible the cowboy would
+have apologized. But that would have been an added unkindness.
+Lifting the reins and sitting erect in the saddle, he said
+indifferently, "Well, I must be moving. I take a short cut here. So
+long! Better make it on down to the goat ranch&mdash;it's not
+far."</p>
+<p>He touched his horse with the spur and the animal sprang
+away.</p>
+<p>"Good-bye!" called the stranger, and that wistful look was in
+his eyes as the rider swung his horse aside from the road, plunged
+down the mountain side, and dashed away through the brush and over
+the rocks with reckless speed. With a low exclamation of wondering
+admiration, the man climbed hastily to a higher point, and from
+there watched until horse and rider, taking a steeper declivity
+without checking their breakneck course, dropped from sight in a
+cloud of dust. The faint sound of the sliding rocks and gravel
+dislodged by the flying feet died away; the cloud of dust dissolved
+in the thin air. The stranger looked away into the blue distance in
+another vain attempt to see the red spots that marked the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch.</p>
+<p>Slowly the man returned to his seat on the rock. The long
+shadows of Granite Mountain crept out from the base of the cliffs
+farther and farther over the country below. The blue of the distant
+hills changed to mauve with deeper masses of purple in the shadows
+where the canyons are. The lonely figure on the summit of the
+Divide did not move.</p>
+<p>The sun hid itself behind the line of mountains, and the blue of
+the sky in the west changed slowly to gold against which the peaks
+and domes and points were silhouetted as if cut by a graver's tool,
+and the bold cliffs and battlements of old Granite grew coldly gray
+in the gloom. As the night came on and the details of its structure
+were lost, the mountain, to the watching man on the Divide, assumed
+the appearance of a mighty fortress&mdash;a fortress, he thought,
+to which a generation of men might retreat from a civilization that
+threatened them with destruction; and once more the man faced back
+the way he had come.</p>
+<p>The far-away cities were already in the blaze of their own
+artificial lights&mdash;lights valued not for their power to make
+men see, but for their power to dazzle, attract and
+intoxicate&mdash;lights that permitted no kindly dusk at eventide
+wherein a man might rest from his day's work&mdash;a quiet hour;
+lights that revealed squalid shame and tinsel show&mdash;lights
+that hid the stars. The man on the Divide lifted his face to the
+stars that now in the wide-arched sky were gathering in such
+unnumbered multitudes to keep their sentinel watch over the world
+below.</p>
+<p>The cool evening wind came whispering over the lonely land, and
+all the furred and winged creatures of the night stole from their
+dark hiding places into the gloom which is the beginning of their
+day. A coyote crept stealthily past in the dark and from the
+mountain side below came the weird, ghostly call of its mate. An
+owl drifted by on silent wings. Night birds chirped in the
+chaparral. A fox barked on the ridge above. The shadowy form of a
+bat flitted here and there. From somewhere in the distance a bull
+bellowed his deep-voiced challenge.</p>
+<p>Suddenly the man on the summit of the Divide sprang to his feet
+and, with a gesture that had he not been so alone might have seemed
+affectedly dramatic, stretched out his arms in an attitude of
+wistful longing while his lips moved as if, again and again, he
+whispered a name.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/031.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_03.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/032.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>n the Williamson Valley country the spring round-up, or "rodeo,"
+as it is called in Arizona, and the shipping are well over by the
+last of June. During the long summer weeks, until the beginning of
+the fall rodeo in September, there is little for the riders to do.
+The cattle roam free on the open ranges, while calves grow into
+yearlings, yearlings become two-year-olds, and two-year-olds mature
+for the market. On the Cross-Triangle and similar ranches, three or
+four of the steadier year-round hands only are held. These repair
+and build fences, visit the watering places, brand an occasional
+calf that somehow has managed to escape the dragnet of the rodeo,
+and with "dope bottle" ever at hand doctor such animals as are
+afflicted with screwworms. It is during these weeks, too, that the
+horses are broken; for, with the hard and dangerous work of the
+fall and spring months, there is always need for fresh mounts.</p>
+<p>The horses of the Cross-Triangle were never permitted to run on
+the open range. Because the leaders of the numerous bands of wild
+horses that roamed over the country about Granite Mountain were
+always ambitious to gain recruits for their harems from their
+civilized neighbors, the freedom of the ranch horses was limited by
+the fences of a four-thousand-acre pasture. But within these miles
+of barbed wire boundaries the brood mares with their growing
+progeny lived as free and untamed as their wild cousins on the
+unfenced lands about them. The colts, except for one painful
+experience, when they were roped and branded, from the day of their
+birth until they were ready to be broken were never handled.</p>
+<p>On the morning following his meeting with the stranger on the
+Divide Phil Acton, with two of his cowboy helpers, rode out to the
+big pasture to bring in the band.</p>
+<p>The owner of the Cross-Triangle always declared that Phil was
+intimately acquainted with every individual horse and head of stock
+between the Divide and Camp Wood Mountain, and from Skull Valley to
+the Big Chino. In moments of enthusiasm the Dean even maintained
+stoutly that his young foreman knew as well every coyote, fox,
+badger, deer, antelope, mountain lion, bobcat and wild horse that
+had home or hunting ground in the country over which the lad had
+ridden since his babyhood. Certain it is that "Wild Horse Phil," as
+he was called by admiring friends&mdash;for reasons which you shall
+hear&mdash;loved this work and life to which he was born. Every
+feature of that wild land, from lonely mountain peak to hidden
+canyon spring, was as familiar to him as the streets and buildings
+of a man's home city are well known to the one reared among them.
+And as he rode that morning with his comrades to the day's work the
+young man felt keenly the call of the primitive, unspoiled life
+that throbbed with such vital strength about him. He could not have
+put that which he felt into words; he was not even conscious of the
+forces that so moved him; he only knew that he was glad.</p>
+<p>The days of the celebration at Prescott had been enjoyable days.
+To meet old friends and comrades; to ride with them in the contests
+that all true men of his kind love; to compare experiences and
+exchange news and gossip with widely separated neighbors&mdash;had
+been a pleasure. But the curious crowds of strangers; the throngs
+of sightseers from the, to him, unknown world of cities, who had
+regarded him as they might have viewed some rare and little-known
+creature in a menagerie, and the brazen presence of those unclean
+parasites and harpies that prey always upon such occasions had
+oppressed and disgusted him until he was glad to escape again to
+the clean freedom, the pure vitality and the unspoiled spirit of
+his everyday life and environment. In an overflow of sheer physical
+and spiritual energy he lifted his horse into a run and with a
+shrill cowboy yell challenged his companions to a wild race to the
+pasture gate.</p>
+<p>It was some time after noon when Phil checked his horse near the
+ruins of an old Indian lookout on the top of Black Hill. Below, in
+the open land above Deep Wash, he could see his cowboy companions
+working the band of horses that had been gathered slowly toward the
+narrow pass that at the eastern end of Black Hill leads through to
+the flats at the upper end of the big meadows, and so to the gate
+and to the way they would follow to the corral. It was Phil's
+purpose to ride across Black Hill down the western and northern
+slope, through the cedar timber, and, picking up any horses that
+might be ranging there, join the others at the gate. In the
+meanwhile there was time for a few minutes rest. Dismounting, he
+loosed the girths and lifted saddle and blanket from Hobson's
+steaming back. Then, while the good horse, wearied with the hard
+riding and the steep climb up the mountain side, stood quietly in
+the shade of a cedar his master, stretched on the ground near by,
+idly scanned the world that lay below and about them.</p>
+<p>Very clearly in that light atmosphere Phil could see the trees
+and buildings of the home ranch, and, just across the sandy wash
+from the Cross-Triangle, the grove of cottonwoods and walnuts that
+hid the little old house where he was born. A mile away, on the
+eastern side of the great valley meadows, he could see the home
+buildings of the Reid ranch&mdash;the Pot-Hook-S&mdash;where Kitty
+Reid had lived all the days of her life except those three years
+which she had spent at school in the East.</p>
+<p>The young man on the top of Black Hill looked long at the Reid
+home. In his mind he could see Kitty dressed in some cool, simple
+gown, fresh and dainty after the morning's housework, sitting with
+book or sewing on the front porch. The porch was on the other side
+of the house, it is true, and the distance was too great for him to
+distinguish a person in any case, but all that made no difference
+to Phil's vision&mdash;he could see her just the same.</p>
+<p>Kitty had been very kind to Phil at the celebration. But Kitty
+was always kind&mdash;nearly always. But in spite of her kindness
+the cowboy felt that she had not, somehow, seemed to place a very
+high valuation upon the medal he had won in the bronco-riding
+contest. Phil himself did not greatly value the medal; but he had
+wanted greatly to win that championship because of the very
+substantial money prize that went with it. That money, in Phil's
+mind, was to play a very important part in a long cherished dream
+that was one of the things that Phil Acton did not talk about. He
+had not, in fact, ridden for the championship at all, but for his
+dream, and that was why it mattered so much when Kitty seemed so to
+lack interest in his success.</p>
+<p>As though his subconscious mind directed the movement, the young
+man looked away from Kitty's home to the distant mountain ridge
+where the night before on the summit of the Divide he had met the
+stranger. All the way home the cowboy had wondered about the man;
+evolving many theories, inventing many things to account for his
+presence, alone and on foot, so far from the surroundings to which
+he was so clearly accustomed. Of one thing Phil was sure&mdash;the
+man was in trouble&mdash;deep trouble. The more that the
+clean-minded, gentle-hearted lad of the great out-of-doors thought
+about it, the more strongly he felt that he had unwittingly
+intruded at a moment that was sacred to the stranger&mdash;sacred
+because the man was fighting one of those battles that every man
+must fight&mdash;and fight alone. It was this feeling that had kept
+the young man from speaking of the incident to anyone&mdash;even to
+the Dean, or to "Mother," as he called Mrs. Baldwin. Perhaps, too,
+this feeling was the real reason for Phil's sense of kinship with
+the stranger, for the cowboy himself had moments in his life that
+he could permit no man to look upon. But in his thinking of the man
+whose personality had so impressed him one thing stood out above
+all the rest&mdash;the stranger clearly belonged to that world of
+which, from experience, the young foreman of the Cross-Triangle
+knew nothing. Phil Acton had no desire for the world to which the
+stranger belonged, but in his heart there was a troublesome
+question. If&mdash;if he himself were more like the man whom he had
+met on the Divide; if&mdash;if he knew more of that other world; if
+he, in some degree, belonged to that other world, as Kitty, because
+of her three years in school belonged, would it make any
+difference?</p>
+<p>From the distant mountain ridge that marks the eastern limits of
+the Williamson Valley country, and thus, in a degree, marked the
+limit of Phil's world, the lad's gaze turned again to the scene
+immediately before him.</p>
+<p>The band of horses, followed by the cowboys, were trotting from
+the narrow pass out into the open flats. Some of the band&mdash;the
+mothers&mdash;went quietly, knowing from past experience that they
+would in a few hours be returned to their freedom. Others&mdash;the
+colts and yearlings&mdash;bewildered, curious and fearful, followed
+their mothers without protest. But those who in many a friendly
+race or primitive battle had proved their growing years seemed to
+sense a coming crisis in their lives, hitherto peaceful. And these,
+as though warned by that strange instinct which guards all wild
+things, and realizing that the open ground between the pass and the
+gate presented their last opportunity, made final desperate efforts
+to escape. With sudden dashes, dodging and doubling, they tried
+again and again for freedom. But always between them and the haunts
+they loved there was a persistent horseman. Running, leaping,
+whirling, in their efforts to be everywhere at once, the riders
+worked their charges toward the gate.</p>
+<p>The man on the hilltop sprang to his feet. Hobson threw up his
+head, and with sharp ears forward eagerly watched the game he knew
+so well. With a quickness incredible to the uninitiated, Phil threw
+blanket and saddle to place. As he drew the cinch tight, a shrill
+cowboy yell came up from the flat below.</p>
+<p>One of the band, a powerful bay, had broken past the guarding
+horsemen, and was running with every ounce of his strength for the
+timber on the western slope of Black Hill. For a hundred yards one
+of the riders had tried to overtake and turn the fugitive; but as
+he saw how the stride of the free horse was widening the distance
+between them, the cowboy turned back lest others follow the
+successful runaway's example. The yell was to inform Phil of the
+situation.</p>
+<p>Before the echoes of the signal could die away Phil was in the
+saddle, and with an answering shout sent Hobson down the rough
+mountain side in a wild, reckless, plunging run to head the, for
+the moment, victorious bay. An hour later the foreman rejoined his
+companions who were holding the band of horses at the gate. The big
+bay, reluctant, protesting, twisting and turning in vain attempts
+to outmaneuver Hobson, was a captive in the loop of "Wild Horse
+Phil's" riata.</p>
+<p>In the big corral that afternoon Phil and his helpers with the
+Dean and Little Billy looking on, cut out from the herd the horses
+selected to be broken. These, one by one, were forced through the
+gate into the adjoining corral, from which they watched with uneasy
+wonder and many excited and ineffectual attempts to follow, when
+their more fortunate companions were driven again to the big
+pasture. Then Phil opened another gate, and the little band dashed
+wildly through, to find themselves in the small meadow pasture
+where they would pass the last night before the one great battle of
+their lives&mdash;a battle that would be for them a dividing point
+between those years of ease and freedom which had been theirs from
+birth and the years of hard and useful service that were to
+come.</p>
+<p>Phil sat on his horse at the gate watching with critical eye as
+the unbroken animals raced away. "Some good ones in the bunch this
+year, Uncle Will," he commented to his employer, who, standing on
+the watering trough in the other corral, was looking over the
+fence.</p>
+<p>"There's bound to be some good ones in every bunch," returned
+Mr. Baldwin. "And some no account ones, too," he added, as his
+foreman dismounted beside him.</p>
+<p>Then, while the young man slipped the bridle from his horse and
+stood waiting for the animal to drink, the older man regarded him
+silently, as though in his own mind the Dean's observation bore
+somewhat upon Phil himself. That was always the way with the Dean.
+As Sheriff Fellows once remarked to Judge Powell in the old days of
+the cattle rustlers' glory, "Whatever Bill Baldwin says is mighty
+nigh always double-barreled."</p>
+<p>There are also two sides to the Dean. Or, rather, to be
+accurate, there is a front and a back. The back&mdash;flat and
+straight and broad&mdash;indicates one side of his
+character&mdash;the side that belongs with the square chin and the
+blue eyes that always look at you with such frank directness. It
+was this side of the man that brought him barefooted and penniless
+to Arizona in those days long gone when he was only a boy and
+Arizona a strong man's country. It was this side of him that
+brought him triumphantly through those hard years of the Indian
+troubles, and in those wild and lawless times made him respected
+and feared by the evildoers and trusted and followed by those of
+his kind who, out of the hardships and dangers of those turbulent
+days, made the Arizona of to-day. It was this side, too, that
+finally made the barefoot, penniless boy the owner of the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch.</p>
+<p>I do not know the exact number of the Dean's years&mdash;I only
+know that his hair is grey, and that he does not ride as much as he
+once did. I have heard him say, though, that for thirty-five years
+he lived in the saddle, and that the Cross-Triangle brand is one of
+the oldest irons in the State. And I know, too, that his back is
+still flat and broad and straight.</p>
+<p>The Dean's front, so well-rounded and hearty, indicates as
+clearly the other side of his character. And it is this side that
+belongs to the full red cheeks, the ever-ready chuckle or laugh;
+that puts the twinkle in the blue eyes, and the kindly tones in his
+deep voice. It is this side of the Dean's character that adds so
+large a measure of love to the respect and confidence accorded him
+by neighbors and friends, business associates and employees. It is
+this side of the Dean, too, that, in these days, sits in the shade
+of the big walnut trees&mdash;planted by his own hand&mdash;and
+talks to the youngsters of the days that are gone, and that makes
+the young riders of this generation seek him out for counsel and
+sympathy and help.</p>
+<p>Three things the Dean knows&mdash;cattle and horses and men. One
+thing the Dean will not, cannot tolerate&mdash;weakness in one who
+should be strong. Even bad men he admires, if they are
+strong&mdash;not for their badness, but for their strength.
+Mistaken men he loves in spite of their mistakes&mdash;if only they
+be not weaklings. There is no place anywhere in the Dean's
+philosophy of life for a weakling. I heard him tell a man
+once&mdash;nor shall I ever forget it&mdash;"You had better die
+like a man, sir, than live like a sneaking coyote."</p>
+<p>The Dean's sons, men grown, were gone from the home ranch to the
+fields and work of their choosing. Little Billy, a nephew of seven
+years, was&mdash;as Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin said
+laughingly&mdash;their second crop.</p>
+<p>When Phil's horse&mdash;satisfied&mdash;lifted his dripping
+muzzle from the watering trough, the Dean walked with his young
+foreman to the saddle shed. Neither of the men spoke, for between
+them there was that companionship which does not require a constant
+flow of talk to keep it alive. Not until the cowboy had turned his
+horse loose, and was hanging saddle and bridle on their accustomed
+peg did the older man speak.</p>
+<p>"Jim Reid's goin' to begin breakin' horses next week."</p>
+<p>"So I heard," returned Phil, carefully spreading his saddle
+blanket to dry.</p>
+<p>The Dean spoke again in a tone of indifference. "He wants you to
+help him."</p>
+<p>"Me! What's the matter with Jack?"</p>
+<p>"He's goin' to the D.1 to-morrow."</p>
+<p>Phil was examining the wrapping on his saddle horn
+with&mdash;the Dean noted&mdash;quite unnecessary care.</p>
+<p>"Kitty was over this mornin'," said the Dean gently.</p>
+<p>The young man turned, and, taking off his spurs, hung them on
+the saddle horn. Then as he kicked off his leather chaps he said
+shortly, "I'm not looking for a job as a professional
+bronco-buster."</p>
+<p>The Dean's eyes twinkled. "Thought you might like to help a
+neighbor out; just to be neighborly, you know."</p>
+<p>"Do you want me to ride for Reid?" demanded Phil.</p>
+<p>"Well, I suppose as long as there's broncs to bust somebody's
+got to bust 'em," the Dean returned, without committing himself.
+And then, when Phil made no reply, he added laughing, "I told Kitty
+to tell him, though, that I reckoned you had as big a string as you
+could handle here."</p>
+<p>As they moved away toward the house, Phil returned with
+significant emphasis, "When I have to ride for anybody besides you
+it won't be Kitty Reid's father."</p>
+<p>And the Dean commented in his reflective tone, "It does
+sometimes seem to make a difference who a man rides for, don't
+it?"</p>
+<p>In the pasture by the corrals, the horses that awaited the
+approaching trial that would mark for them the beginning of a new
+life passed a restless night. Some in meekness of spirit or,
+perhaps, with deeper wisdom fed quietly. Others wandered about
+aimlessly, snatching an occasional uneasy mouthful of grass, and
+looking about often in troubled doubt. The more rebellious ones
+followed the fence, searching for some place of weakness in the
+barbed barrier that imprisoned them. And one, who, had he not been
+by circumstance robbed of his birthright, would have been the
+strong leader of a wild band, stood often with wide nostrils and
+challenging eye, gazing toward the corrals and buildings as if
+questioning the right of those who had brought him there from the
+haunts he loved.</p>
+<p>And somewhere in the night of that land which was as unknown to
+him as the meadow pasture was strange to the unbroken horses, a man
+awaited the day which, for him too, was to stand through all his
+remaining years as a mark between the old life and the new.</p>
+<p>As Phil Acton lay in his bed, with doors and windows open wide
+to welcome the cool night air, he heard the restless horses in the
+near-by pasture, and smiled as he thought of the big bay and the
+morrow&mdash;smiled with the smile of a man who looks forward to a
+battle worthy of his best strength and skill.</p>
+<p>And then, strangely enough, as he was slipping into that
+dreamless sleep of those who live as he lived, his mind went back
+again to the stranger whom he had met on the summit of the Divide.
+If he were more like that man, would it make any
+difference&mdash;the cowboy wondered.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/043.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_04.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/044.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>n the beginning of the morning, when Granite Mountain's
+fortress-like battlements and towers loomed gray and bold and grim,
+the big bay horse trumpeted a warning to his less watchful mates.
+Instantly, with heads high and eyes wide, the band stood in
+frightened indecision. Two horsemen&mdash;shadowy and mysterious
+forms in the misty light&mdash;were riding from the corral into the
+pasture.</p>
+<p>As the riders approached, individuals in the band moved
+uneasily, starting as if to run, hesitating, turning for another
+look, maneuvering to put their mates between them and the enemy.
+But the bay went boldly a short distance toward the danger and
+stood still with wide nostrils and fierce eyes as though ready for
+the combat.</p>
+<p>For a few moments, as the horsemen seemed about to go past, hope
+beat high in the hearts of the timid prisoners. Then the riders
+circled to put the band between themselves and the corral gate, and
+the frightened animals knew. But always as they whirled and dodged
+in their attempts to avoid that big gate toward which they were
+forced to move, there was a silent, persistent horseman barring the
+way. The big bay alone, as though realizing the futility of such
+efforts and so conserving his strength for whatever was to follow,
+trotted proudly, boldly into the corral, where he stood, his eyes
+never leaving the riders, as his mates crowded and jostled about
+him.</p>
+<p>"There's one in that bunch that's sure aimin' to make you ride
+some," said Curly Elson with a grin, to Phil, as the family sat at
+breakfast.</p>
+<p>On the Cross-Triangle the men who were held through the summer
+and winter seasons between the months of the rodeos were considered
+members of the family. Chosen for their character, as well as for
+their knowledge of the country and their skill in their work the
+Dean and "Stella," as Mrs. Baldwin is called throughout all that
+country, always spoke of them affectionately as "our boys." And
+this, better than anything that could be said, is an introduction
+to the mistress of the Cross-Triangle household.</p>
+<p>At the challenging laugh which followed Curly's observation,
+Phil returned quietly with his sunny smile, "Maybe I'll quit him
+before he gets good and started."</p>
+<p>"He's sure fixin' to make you back the decision of them contest
+judges," offered Bob Colton.</p>
+<p>And Mrs. Baldwin, young in spirit as any of her boys, added,
+"Better not wear your medal, son. It might excite him to know that
+you are the champion buster of Arizona."</p>
+<p>"Shucks!" piped up Little Billy excitedly, "Phil can ride
+anything what wears hair, can't you, Phil?"</p>
+<p>Phil, embarrassed at the laughter which followed, said, with
+tactful seriousness, to his little champion, "That's right, kid.
+You stand up for your pardner every time, don't you? You'll be
+riding them yourself before long. There's a little sorrel in that
+bunch that I've picked out to gentle for you." He glanced at his
+employer meaningly, and the Dean's face glowed with appreciation of
+the young man's thoughtfulness. "That old horse, Sheep, of yours,"
+continued Phil to Little Billy, "is getting too old and stiff for
+your work. I've noticed him stumbling a lot lately." Again he
+glanced inquiringly at the Dean, who answered the look with a
+slight nod of approval.</p>
+<p>"You'd better make him gentle your horse first, Billy," teased
+Curly. "He might not be in the business when that big one gets
+through with him."</p>
+<p>Little Billy's retort came in a flash. "Huh, 'Wild Horse Phil'
+will be a-ridin' 'em long after you've got your'n, Curly
+Elson."</p>
+<p>"Look out, son," cautioned the Dean, when the laugh had gone
+round again. "Curly will be slippin' a burr under your saddle, if
+you don't." Then to the men: "What horse is it that you boys think
+is goin' to be such a bad one? That big bay with the blazed
+face?"</p>
+<p>The cowboys nodded.</p>
+<p>"He's bad, all right," said Phil.</p>
+<p>"Well," commented the Dean, leaning back in his chair and
+speaking generally, "he's sure got a license to be bad. His mother
+was the wickedest piece of horse flesh I ever knew. Remember her,
+Stella?"</p>
+<p>"Indeed I do," returned Mrs. Baldwin. "She nearly ruined that
+Windy Jim who came from nobody knew where, and bragged that he
+could ride anything."</p>
+<p>The Dean chuckled reminiscently. "She sure sent Windy back where
+he came from. But I tell you, boys, that kind of a horse makes the
+best in the world once you get 'em broke right. Horses are just
+like men, anyhow. If they ain't got enough in 'em to fight when
+they're bein' broke, they ain't generally worth breakin'."</p>
+<p>"The man that rides that bay will sure be a-horseback," said
+Curly.</p>
+<p>"He's a man's horse, all right," agreed Bob.</p>
+<p>Breakfast over, the men left the house, not too quietly, and
+laughing, jesting and romping like school boys, went out to the
+corrals, with Little Billy tagging eagerly at their heels. The Dean
+and Phil remained for a few minutes at the table.</p>
+<p>"You really oughtn't to say such things to those boys, Will,"
+reproved Mrs. Baldwin, as she watched them from the window. "It
+encourages them to be wild, and land knows they don't need any
+encouragement."</p>
+<p>"Shucks," returned the Dean, with that gentle note that was
+always in his voice when he spoke to her. "If such talk as that can
+hurt 'em, there ain't nothin' that could save 'em. You're always
+afraid somebody's goin' to go bad. Look at me and Phil here," he
+added, as they in turn pushed their chairs back from the table;
+"you've fussed enough over us to spoil a dozen men, and ain't we
+been a credit to you all the time?"</p>
+<p>At this they laughed together. But as Phil was leaving the house
+Mrs. Baldwin stopped him at the door to say earnestly, "You will be
+careful to-day, won't you, son? You know my other Phil&mdash;" She
+stopped and turned away.</p>
+<p>The young man knew that story&mdash;a story common to that land
+where the lives of men are not infrequently offered a sacrifice to
+the untamed strength of the life that in many forms they are daily
+called upon to meet and master.</p>
+<p>"Never mind, mother," he said gently. "I'll be all right." Then
+more lightly he added, with his sunny smile, "If that big bay
+starts anything with me, I'll climb the corral fence pronto."</p>
+<p>Quietly, as one who faces a hard day's work, Phil went to the
+saddle shed where he buckled on chaps and spurs. Then, after
+looking carefully to stirrup leathers, cinch and latigos, he went
+on to the corrals, the heavy saddle under his arm.</p>
+<p>Curly and Bob, their horses saddled and ready, were making
+animated targets of themselves for Little Billy, who, mounted on
+Sheep, a gentle old cow-horse, was whirling a miniature riata. As
+the foreman appeared, the cowboys dropped their fun, and, mounting,
+took the coils of their own rawhide ropes in hand.</p>
+<p>"Which one will you have first, Phil?" asked Curly, as he moved
+toward the gate between the big corral and the smaller enclosure
+that held the band of horses.</p>
+<p>"That black one with the white star will do," directed Phil
+quietly. Then to Little Billy: "You'd better get back there out of
+the way, pardner. That black is liable to jump clear over you and
+Sheep."</p>
+<p>"You better get outside, son," amended the Dean, who had come
+out to watch the beginning of the work.</p>
+<p>"No, no&mdash;please, Uncle Will," begged the lad. "They can't
+get me as long as I'm on Sheep."</p>
+<p>Phil and the Dean laughed.</p>
+<p>"I'll look out for him," said the young man. "Only," he added to
+the boy, "you must keep out of the way."</p>
+<p>"And see that you stick to Sheep, if you expect him to take care
+of you," finished the Dean, relenting.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the gate between the corrals had been thrown open, and
+with Bob to guard the opening Curly rode in among the unbroken
+horses to cut out the animal indicated by Phil, and from within
+that circular enclosure, where the earth had been ground to fine
+powder by hundreds of thousands of frightened feet, came the
+rolling thunder of quick-beating hoofs as in a swirling cloud of
+yellow dust the horses rushed and leaped and whirled. Again and
+again the frightened animals threw themselves against the barrier
+that hemmed them in; but that fence, built of cedar posts set close
+in stockade fashion and laced on the outside with wire, was made to
+withstand the maddened rush of the heaviest steers. And always,
+amid the confusion of the frenzied animals, the figure of the
+mounted man in their midst could be seen calmly directing their
+wildest movements, and soon, out from the crowding, jostling,
+whirling mass of flying feet and tossing manes and tails, the black
+with the white star shot toward the gate. Bob's horse leaped aside
+from the way. Curly's horse was between the black and his mates,
+and before the animal could gather his confused senses he was in
+the larger corral. The day's work had begun.</p>
+<p>The black dodged skillfully, and the loop of Curly's riata
+missed the mark.</p>
+<p>"You better let somebody put eyes in that rope, Curly," remarked
+Phil, laconically, as he stepped aside to avoid a wild rush.</p>
+<p>The chagrined cowboy said something in a low tone, so that
+Little Billy could not hear.</p>
+<p>The Dean chuckled.</p>
+<p>Bob's riata whirled, shot out its snaky length, and his trained
+horse braced himself skillfully to the black's weight on the rope.
+For a few minutes the animal at the loop end of the riata struggled
+desperately&mdash;plunging, tugging, throwing himself this way and
+that; but always the experienced cow-horse turned with his victim
+and the rope was never slack. When his first wild efforts were over
+and the black stood with his wide braced feet, breathing heavily as
+that choking loop began to tell, the strain on the taut riata was
+lessened, and Phil went quietly toward the frightened captive.</p>
+<p>No one moved or spoke. This was not an exhibition the success of
+which depended on the vicious wildness of the horse to be
+conquered. This was work, and it was not Phil's business to provoke
+the black to extremes in order to exhibit his own prowess as a
+rider for the pleasure of spectators who had paid to see the show.
+The rider was employed to win the confidence of the unbroken horse
+entrusted to him; to force obedience, if necessary; to gentle and
+train, and so make of the wild creature a useful and valuable
+servant for the Dean.</p>
+<p>There are riders whose methods demand that they throw every
+unbroken horse given them to handle, and who gentle an animal by
+beating it about the head with loaded quirts, ripping its flanks
+open with sharp spurs and tearing its mouth with torturing bits and
+ropes. These turn over to their employers as their finished product
+horses that are broken, indeed&mdash;but broken only in spirit,
+with no heart or courage left to them, with dispositions ruined,
+and often with physical injuries from which they never recover. But
+riders of such methods have no place among the men employed by
+owners of the Dean's type. On the Cross-Triangle, and indeed on all
+ranches where conservative business principles are in force, the
+horses are handled with all the care and gentleness that the work
+and the individuality of the animal will permit.</p>
+<p>After a little Phil's hand gently touched the black's head.
+Instantly the struggle was resumed. The rider dodged a vicious blow
+from the strong fore hoofs and with a good natured laugh softly
+chided the desperate animal. And so, presently, the kind hand was
+again stretched forth; and then a broad band of leather was deftly
+slipped over the black's frightened eyes. Another thicker and
+softer rope was knotted so that it could not slip about the now
+sweating neck, and fashioned into a hackamore or halter about the
+animal's nose. Then the riata was loosed. Working deftly, silently,
+gently&mdash;ever wary of those dangerous hoofs&mdash;Phil next
+placed blanket and saddle on the trembling black and drew the cinch
+tight. Then the gate leading from the corral to the open range was
+swung back. Easily, but quickly and surely, the rider swung to his
+seat. He paused a moment to be sure that all was right, and then
+leaning forward he reached over and raised the leather blindfold.
+For an instant the wild, unbroken horse stood still, then reared
+until it seemed he must fall, and then, as his forefeet touched the
+ground again, the spurs went home, and with a mighty leap forward
+the frenzied animal dashed, bucking, plunging, pitching, through
+the gate and away toward the open country, followed by Curly and
+Bob, with Little Billy spurring old Sheep, in hot pursuit.</p>
+<p>For a little the Dean lingered in the suddenly emptied corral.
+Stepping up on the end of the long watering trough, close to the
+dividing fence, he studied with knowing eye the animals on the
+other side. Then leisurely he made his way out of the corral,
+visited the windmill pump, looked in on Stella from the kitchen
+porch, and then saddled Browny, his own particular horse that
+grazed always about the place at privileged ease, and rode off
+somewhere on some business of his own.</p>
+<p>When the black horse had spent his strength in a vain attempt to
+rid himself of the dreadful burden that had attached itself so
+securely to his back, he was herded back to the corral, where the
+burden set him free. Dripping with sweat, trembling in every limb
+and muscle, wild-eyed, with distended nostrils and heaving flanks,
+the black crowded in among his mates again, his first lesson
+over&mdash;his years of ease and freedom past forever.</p>
+<p>"And which will it be this time?" came Curly's question.</p>
+<p>"I'll have that buckskin this trip," answered Phil.</p>
+<p>And again that swirling cloud of dust raised by those thundering
+hoofs drifted over the stockade enclosure, and out of the mad
+confusion the buckskin dashed wildly through the gate to be
+initiated into his new life.</p>
+<p>And so, hour after hour, the work went on, as horse after horse
+at Phil's word was cut out of the band and ridden; and every horse,
+according to disposition and temper and strength, was different.
+While his helpers did their part the rider caught a few moments
+rest. Always he was good natured, soft spoken and gentle. When a
+frightened animal, not understanding, tried to kill him, he
+accepted it as evidence of a commendable spirit, and, with that
+sunny, boyish smile, informed his pupil kindly that he was a good
+horse and must not make a fool of himself.</p>
+<p>In so many ways, as the Dean had said at breakfast that morning,
+horses are just like men.</p>
+<p>It was mid-afternoon when the master of the Cross-Triangle again
+strolled leisurely out to the corrals. Phil and his helpers,
+including Little Billy, were just disappearing over the rise of
+ground beyond the gate on the farther side of the enclosure as the
+Dean reached the gate that opens toward the barn and house. He went
+on through the corral, and slowly, as one having nothing else to
+do, climbed the little knoll from which he could watch the riders
+in the distance. When the horsemen had disappeared among the
+scattered cedars on the ridge, a mile or so to the west, the Dean
+still stood looking in that direction. But the owner of the
+Cross-Triangle was not watching for the return of his men. He was
+not even thinking of them. He was looking beyond the cedar ridge to
+where, several miles away, a long, mesa-topped mountain showed
+black against the blue of the more distant hills. The edge of this
+high table-land broke abruptly in a long series of vertical cliffs,
+the formation known to Arizonians as rim rocks. The deep shadows of
+the towering black wall of cliffs and the gloom of the pines and
+cedars that hid the foot of the mountain gave the place a sinister
+and threatening appearance.</p>
+<p>As he looked, the Dean's kindly face grew somber and stern; his
+blue eyes were for the moment cold and accusing; under his grizzled
+mustache his mouth, usually so ready to smile or laugh, was set in
+lines of uncompromising firmness. In these quiet and well-earned
+restful years of the Dean's life the Tailholt Mountain outfit was
+the only disturbing element. But the Dean did not permit himself to
+be long annoyed by the thoughts provoked by Tailholt Mountain.
+Philosophically he turned his broad back to the intruding scene,
+and went back to the corral, and to the more pleasing occupation of
+looking at the horses.</p>
+<p>If the Dean had not so abruptly turned his back upon the
+landscape, he would have noticed the figure of a man moving slowly
+along the road that skirted the valley meadow leading from Simmons
+to the Cross-Triangle Ranch.</p>
+<p>Presently the riders returned, and Phil, when he had removed
+saddle, blanket and hackamore from his pupil, seated himself on the
+edge of the watering trough beside the Dean.</p>
+<p>"I see you ain't tackled the big bay yet," remarked the older
+man.</p>
+<p>"Thought if I'd let him look on for a while, he might figure it
+out that he'd better be good and not get himself hurt," smiled
+Phil. "He's sure some horse," he added admiringly. Then to his
+helpers: "I'll take that black with the white forefoot this time,
+Curly."</p>
+<p>Just as the fresh horse dashed into the larger corral a man on
+foot appeared, coming over the rise of ground to the west; and by
+the time that Curly's loop was over the black's head the man stood
+at the gate. One glance told Phil that it was the stranger whom he
+had met on the Divide.</p>
+<p>The man seemed to understand that it was no time for greetings
+and, without offering to enter the enclosure, climbed to the top of
+the big gate, where he sat, with one leg over the topmost bar, an
+interested spectator.</p>
+<p>The maneuvers of the black brought Phil to that side of the
+corral, and, as he coolly dodged the fighting horse, he glanced up
+with his boyish smile and a quick nod of welcome to the man perched
+above him. The stranger smiled in return, but did not speak. He
+must have thought, though, that this cowboy appeared quite
+different from the picturesque rider he had seen at the celebration
+and on the summit of the Divide. <i>That</i> Phil Acton had
+been&mdash;as the cowboy himself would have said&mdash;"all togged
+out in his glad rags." This man wore chaps that were old and
+patched from hard service; his shirt, unbuttoned at the throat, was
+the color of the corral dirt, and a generous tear revealed one
+muscular shoulder; his hat was greasy and battered; his face grimed
+and streaked with dust and sweat, but his sunny, boyish smile would
+have identified Phil in any garb.</p>
+<p>When the rider was ready to mount, and Bob went to open the
+gate, the stranger climbed down and drew a little aside. And when
+Phil, passing where he stood, looked laughingly down at him from
+the back of the bucking, plunging horse, he made as if to applaud,
+but checked himself and went quickly to the top of the knoll to
+watch the riders until they disappeared over the ridge.</p>
+<p>"Howdy! Fine weather we're havin'." It was the Dean's hearty
+voice. He had gone forward courteously to greet the stranger while
+the latter was watching the riders.</p>
+<p>The man turned impulsively, his face lighted with enthusiasm.
+"By Jove!" he exclaimed, "but that man can ride!"</p>
+<p>"Yes, Phil does pretty well," returned the Dean indifferently.
+"Won the championship at Prescott the other day." Then, more
+heartily: "He's a mighty good boy, too&mdash;take him any way you
+like."</p>
+<p>As he spoke the cattleman looked the stranger over critically,
+much as he would have looked at a steer or horse, noting the long
+limbs, the well-made body, the strong face and clear, dark eyes.
+The man's dress told the Dean simply that the stranger was from the
+city. His bearing commanded the older man's respect. The stranger's
+next statement, as he looked thoughtfully over the wide Land of
+valley and hill and mesa and mountain, convinced the Dean that he
+was a man of judgment.</p>
+<p>"Arizona is a wonderful country, sir&mdash;wonderful!"</p>
+<p>"Finest in the world, sir," agreed the Dean promptly. "There
+just naturally can't be any better. We've got the climate; we've
+got the land; and we've got the men."</p>
+<p>The stranger looked at the Dean quickly when he said "men." It
+was worth much to hear the Dean speak that word.</p>
+<p>"Indeed you have," he returned heartily. "I never saw such
+men."</p>
+<p>"Of course you haven't," said the Dean. "I tell you, sir, they
+just don't make 'em outside of Arizona. It takes a country like
+this to produce real men. A man's got to be a man out here. Of
+course, though," he admitted kindly, "we don't know much except to
+ride, an' throw a rope, an' shoot, mebby, once in a while."</p>
+<p>The riders were returning and the Dean and the stranger walked
+back down the little hill to the corral.</p>
+<p>"You have a fine ranch here, Mr. Baldwin," again observed the
+stranger.</p>
+<p>The Dean glanced at him sharply. Many men had tried to buy the
+Cross-Triangle. This man certainly appeared prosperous even though
+he was walking. But there was no accounting for the queer things
+that city men would do.</p>
+<p>"It does pretty well," the cattleman admitted. "I manage to make
+a livin'."</p>
+<p>The other smiled as though slightly embarrassed. Then: "Do you
+need any help?"</p>
+<p>"Help!" The Dean looked at him amazed.</p>
+<p>"I mean&mdash;I would like a position&mdash;to work for you, you
+know."</p>
+<p>The Dean was speechless. Again he surveyed the stranger with his
+measuring, critical look. "You've never done any work," he said
+gently.</p>
+<p>The man stood very straight before him and spoke almost
+defiantly. "No, I haven't, but is that any reason why I should
+not?"</p>
+<p>The Dean's eyes twinkled, as they have a way of doing when you
+say something that he likes. "I'd say it's a better reason why you
+should," he returned quietly.</p>
+<p>Then he said to Phil, who, having dismissed his four-footed
+pupil, was coming toward them:</p>
+<p>"Phil, this man wants a job. Think we can use him?"</p>
+<p>The young man looked at the stranger with unfeigned surprise and
+with a hint of amusement, but gave no sign that he had ever seen
+him before. The same natural delicacy of feeling that had prevented
+the cowboy from discussing the man upon whose privacy he felt he
+had intruded that evening of their meeting on the Divide led him
+now to ignore the incident&mdash;a consideration which could not
+but command the strange man's respect, and for which he looked his
+gratitude.</p>
+<p>There was something about the stranger, too, that to Phil seemed
+different. This tall, well-built fellow who stood before them so
+self-possessed, and ready for anything, was not altogether like the
+uncertain, embarrassed, half-frightened and troubled gentleman at
+whom Phil had first laughed with thinly veiled contempt, and then
+had pitied. It was as though the man who sat that night alone on
+the Divide had, out of the very bitterness of his experience,
+called forth from within himself a strength of which, until then,
+he had been only dimly conscious. There was now, in his face and
+bearing, courage and decision and purpose, and with it all a glint
+of that same humor that had made him so bitterly mock himself. The
+Dean's philosophy touching the possibilities of the man who laughs
+when he is hurt seemed in this stranger about to be justified. Phil
+felt oddly, too, that the man was in a way experimenting with
+himself&mdash;testing himself as it were&mdash;and being altogether
+a normal human, the cowboy felt strongly inclined to help the
+experimenter. In this spirit he answered the Dean, while looking
+mischievously at the stranger.</p>
+<p>"We can use him if he can ride."</p>
+<p>The stranger smiled understandingly. "I don't see why I
+couldn't," he returned in that droll tone. "I seem to have the
+legs." He looked down at his long lower limbs reflectively, as
+though quaintly considering them quite apart from himself.</p>
+<p>Phil laughed.</p>
+<p>"Huh," said the Dean, slightly mystified at the apparent
+understanding between the young men. Then to the stranger: "What do
+you want to work for? You don't look as though you needed to. A
+sort of vacation, heh?"</p>
+<p>There was spirit in the man's answer. "I want to work for the
+reason that all men want work. If you do not employ me, I must try
+somewhere else."</p>
+<p>"Come from Prescott to Simmons on the stage, did you?"</p>
+<p>"No, sir, I walked."</p>
+<p>"Walked! Huh! Tried anywhere else for a job?"</p>
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+<p>"Who sent you out here?"</p>
+<p>The stranger smiled. "I saw Mr. Acton ride in the contest. I
+learned that he was foreman of the Cross-Triangle Ranch. I thought
+I would rather work where he worked, if I could."</p>
+<p>The Dean looked at Phil. Phil looked at the Dean. Together they
+looked at the stranger. The two cowboys who were sitting on their
+horses near-by grinned at each other.</p>
+<p>"And what is your name, sir?" the Dean asked courteously.</p>
+<p>For the first time the man hesitated and seemed embarrassed. He
+looked uneasily about with a helpless inquiring glance, as though
+appealing for some suggestion.</p>
+<p>"Oh, never mind your name, if you have forgotten it," said the
+Dean dryly.</p>
+<p>The stranger's roaming eyes fell upon Phil's old chaps, that in
+every wrinkle and scar and rip and tear gave such eloquent
+testimony as to the wearer's life, and that curious, self-mocking
+smile touched his lips. Then, throwing up his head and looking the
+Dean straight in the eye, he said boldly, but with that note of
+droll humor in his voice, "My name is Patches, sir, Honorable
+Patches."</p>
+<p>The Dean's eyes twinkled, but his face was grave. Phil's face
+flushed; he had not failed to identify the source of the stranger's
+inspiration. But before either the Dean or Phil could speak a shout
+of laughter came from Curly Elson, and the stranger had turned to
+face the cowboy.</p>
+<p>"Something seems to amuse you," he said quietly to the man on
+the horse; and at the tone of his voice Phil and the Dean exchanged
+significant glances.</p>
+<p>The grinning cowboy looked down at the stranger in evident
+contempt. "Patches," he drawled. "Honorable Patches! That's a hell
+of a name, now, ain't it?"</p>
+<p>The man went two long steps toward the mocking rider, and spoke
+quietly, but with unmistakable meaning.</p>
+<p>"I'll endeavor to make it all of that for you, if you will get
+off your horse."</p>
+<p>The grinning cowboy, with a wink at his companion, dismounted
+cheerfully. Curly Elson was held to be the best man with his hands
+in Yavapai County. He could not refuse so tempting an opportunity
+to add to his well-earned reputation.</p>
+<p>Five minutes later Curly lifted himself on one elbow in the
+corral dust, and looked up with respectful admiration to the quiet
+man who stood waiting for him to rise. Curly's lip was bleeding
+generously; the side of his face seemed to have slipped out of
+place, and his left eye was closing surely and rapidly.</p>
+<p>"Get up," said the tall man calmly. "There is more where that
+came from, if you want it."</p>
+<p>The cowboy grinned painfully. "I ain't hankerin' after any
+more," he mumbled, feeling his face tenderly.</p>
+<p>"It said that my name was Patches," suggested the stranger.</p>
+<p>"Sure, Mr. Patches, I reckon nobody'll question that."</p>
+<p>"Honorable Patches," again prompted the stranger.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir. You bet; Honorable Patches," agreed Curly with
+emphasis. Then, as he painfully regained his feet, he held out his
+hand with as nearly a smile as his battered features would permit.
+"Do you mind shaking on it, Mr. Honorable Patches? Just to show
+that there's no hard feelin's?"</p>
+<p>Patches responded instantly with a manner that won Curly's
+heart. "Good!" he said. "I knew you would do that when you
+understood, or I wouldn't have bothered to show you my
+credentials."</p>
+<p>"My mistake," returned Curly. "It's them there credentials of
+yourn, not your name, that's hell."</p>
+<p>He gingerly mounted his horse again, and Patches turned back to
+the Dean as though apologizing for the interruption.</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon, sir, but&mdash;about work?"</p>
+<p>The Dean never told anyone just what his thoughts were at that
+particular moment; probably because they were so many and so
+contradictory and confusing. Whether from this uncertainty of mind;
+from a habit of depending upon his young foreman, or because of
+that something, which Phil and the stranger seemed to have in
+common, he shifted the whole matter by saying, "It's up to Phil
+here. He's foreman of the Cross-Triangle. If he wants to hire you,
+it's all right with me."</p>
+<p>At this the two young men faced each other; and on the face of
+each was a half questioning, half challenging smile. The stranger
+seemed to say, "I know I am at your mercy; I don't expect you to
+believe in me after our meeting on the Divide, but I dare you to
+put me to the test."</p>
+<p>And Phil, if he had spoken, might have said, "I felt when I met
+you first that there was a man around somewhere. I know you are
+curious to see what you would do if put to the test. I am curious,
+too. I'll give you a chance." Aloud he reminded the stranger
+pointedly, "I said we might use you if you could ride."</p>
+<p>Patches smiled his self-mocking smile, evidently appreciating
+his predicament. "And I said," he retorted, "that I didn't see why
+I couldn't."</p>
+<p>Phil turned to his grinning but respectful helpers. "Bring out
+that bay with the blazed face."</p>
+<p>"Great Snakes!" ejaculated Curly to Bob, as they reached the
+gate leading to the adjoining corral. "His name is Patches, all
+right, but he'll be pieces when that bay devil gets through with
+him, if he can't ride. Do you reckon he can?"</p>
+<p>"Dunno," returned Bob, as he unlatched the gate without
+dismounting. "I thought he couldn't fight."</p>
+<p>"So did I," returned Curly, grimly nursing his battered face.
+"You cut out the horse; I can't more'n half see."</p>
+<p>It was no trouble to cut out the bay. The big horse seemed to
+understand that his time had come. All day he had seen his mates go
+forth to their testing, had watched them as they fought with all
+their strength the skill and endurance of that smiling, boy-faced
+man, and then had seen them as they returned, sweating, trembling,
+conquered and subdued. As Bob rode toward him, he stood for one
+defiant moment as motionless as a horse of bronze; then, with a
+suddenness that gave Curly at the gate barely time to dodge his
+rush, he leaped forward into the larger arena.</p>
+<p>Phil was watching the stranger as the big horse came through the
+gate. The man did not move, but his eyes were glowing darkly, his
+face was flushed, and he was smiling to himself mockingly&mdash;as
+though amused at the thought of what was about to happen to him.
+The Dean also was watching Patches, and again the young foreman and
+his employer exchanged significant glances as Phil turned and went
+quickly to Little Billy. Lifting the lad from his saddle and
+seating him on the fence above the long watering trough, he said,
+"There's a grandstand seat for you, pardner; don't get down unless
+you have to, and then get down outside. See?"</p>
+<p>At that moment yells of warning, with a "Look out, Phil!" came
+from Curly, Bob and the Dean.</p>
+<p>A quick look over his shoulder, and Phil saw the big horse with
+ears wickedly flat, eyes gleaming, and teeth bared, making straight
+in his direction. The animal had apparently singled him out as the
+author of his misfortunes, and proposed to dispose of his
+arch-enemy at the very outset of the battle. There was only one
+sane thing to do, and Phil did it. A vigorous, scrambling leap
+placed him beside Little Billy on the top of the fence above the
+watering trough.</p>
+<p>"Good thing I reserved a seat in your grandstand for myself,
+wasn't it, pardner?" he smiled down at the boy by his side.</p>
+<p>Then Bob's riata fell true, and as the powerful horse plunged
+and fought that strangling noose Phil came leisurely down from the
+fence.</p>
+<p>"Where was you goin', Phil?" chuckled the Dean.</p>
+<p>"You sure warn't losin' any time," laughed Curly.</p>
+<p>And Bob, without taking his eyes from the vicious animal at the
+end of his taut riata, and working skillfully with his trained
+cow-horse to foil every wicked plunge and wild leap, grinned with
+appreciation, as he added, "I'll bet four bits you can't do it
+again, Phil, without a runnin' start."</p>
+<p>"I just thought I'd keep Little Billy company for a spell,"
+smiled Phil. "He looked so sort of lonesome up there."</p>
+<p>The stranger, at first amazed that they could turn into jest an
+incident which might so easily have been a tragedy, suddenly
+laughed aloud&mdash;a joyous, ringing laugh that made Phil look at
+him sharply.</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Mr. Acton," said Patches meekly, but with
+that droll voice which brought a glint of laughter into the
+foreman's eyes and called forth another chuckle from the Dean.</p>
+<p>"You can take my saddle," said Phil pointedly. "It's over there
+at the end of the watering trough. You'll find the stirrups about
+right, I reckon&mdash;I ride with them rather long."</p>
+<p>For a moment the stranger looked him straight in the eyes, then
+without a word started for the saddle. He was half way to the end
+of the watering trough when Phil overtook him.</p>
+<p>"I believe I'd rather saddle him myself," the cowboy explained
+quietly, with his sunny smile. "You see, I've got to teach these
+horses some cow sense before the fall rodeo, and I'm rather
+particular about the way they're handled at the start."</p>
+<p>"Exactly," returned Patches, "I don't blame you. That fellow
+seems rather to demand careful treatment, doesn't he?"</p>
+<p>Phil laughed. "Oh, you don't need to be too particular about his
+feelings once you're up in the middle of him," he retorted.</p>
+<p>The big bay, instead of acquiring sense from his observations,
+as Phil had expressed to the Dean a hope that he would, seemed to
+have gained courage and determination. Phil's approach was the
+signal for a mad plunge in the young man's direction, which was
+checked by the skill and weight of Bob's trained cow-horse on the
+rope. Several times Phil went toward the bay, and every time his
+advance was met by one of those vicious rushes. Then Phil mounted
+Curly's horse, and from his hand the loop of another riata fell
+over the bay's head. Shortening his rope by coiling it in his rein
+hand, he maneuvered the trained horse closer and closer to his
+struggling captive, until, with Bob's co-operation on the other
+side of the fighting animal, he could with safety fix the leather
+blindfold over those wicked eyes.</p>
+<p>When at last hackamore and saddle were in place, and the bay
+stood trembling and sweating, Phil wiped the perspiration from his
+own forehead and turned to the stranger.</p>
+<p>"Your horse is ready, sir."</p>
+<p>The man's face was perhaps a shade whiter than its usual color,
+but his eyes were glowing, and there was a grim set look about his
+smiling lips that made the hearts of those men go out to him. He
+seemed to realize so that the joke was on himself, and with it all
+exhibited such reckless indifference to consequences. Without an
+instant's hesitation he started toward the horse.</p>
+<p>"Great Snakes!" muttered Curly to Bob, "talk about nerve!"</p>
+<p>The Dean started forward. "Wait a minute, Mr. Patches," he
+said.</p>
+<p>The stranger faced him.</p>
+<p>"Can you ride that horse?" asked the Dean, pointedly.</p>
+<p>"I'm going to," returned Patches. "But," he added with his droll
+humor, "I can't say how far."</p>
+<p>"Don't you know that he'll kill you if he can?" questioned the
+Dean curiously, while his eyes twinkled approval.</p>
+<p>"He does seem to have some such notion," admitted Patches.</p>
+<p>"You better let him alone," said the Dean. "You don't need to
+kill yourself to get a job with this outfit."</p>
+<p>"That's very kind of you, sir," returned the stranger
+gratefully. "I'm rather glad you said that. But I'm going to ride
+him just the same."</p>
+<p>They looked at him in amazement, for it was clear to them now
+that the man really could not ride.</p>
+<p>The Dean spoke kindly. "Why?"</p>
+<p>"Because," said Patches slowly, "I am curious to see what I will
+do under such circumstances, and if I don't try the experiment now
+I'll never know whether I have the nerve to do it or not." As he
+finished he turned and walked deliberately toward the horse.</p>
+<p>Phil ran to Curly's side, and the cowboy at his foreman's
+gesture leaped from his saddle. The young man mounted his helper's
+horse, and with a quick movement caught the riata from the saddle
+horn and flipped open a ready loop.</p>
+<p>The stranger was close to the bay's off, or right, side.</p>
+<p>"The other side, Patches," called Phil genially. "You want to
+start in right, you know."</p>
+<p>Not a man laughed&mdash;except the stranger.</p>
+<p>"Thanks," he said, and came around to the proper side.</p>
+<p>"Take your time," called Phil again. "Stand by his shoulder and
+watch his heels. Take the stirrup with your right hand and turn it
+to catch your foot. Stay back by his shoulder until you are ready
+to swing up. Take your time."</p>
+<p>"I won't be long," returned Patches, as he awkwardly gained his
+seat in the saddle.</p>
+<p>Phil moved his horse nearer the center of the corral, and shook
+out his loop a little.</p>
+<p>"When you're ready, lean over and pull up the blindfold," he
+called.</p>
+<p>The man on the horse did not hesitate. With every angry nerve
+and muscle strained to the utmost, the powerful bay leaped into the
+air, coming down with legs stiff and head between his knees. For an
+instant the man miraculously kept his place. With another vicious
+plunge and a cork-screw twist the maddened brute went up again, and
+this time the man was flung from the saddle as from a gigantic
+catapult, to fall upon his shoulders and back in the corral dust,
+where he lay still. The horse, rid of his enemy, leaped again; then
+with catlike quickness and devilish cunning whirled, and with
+wicked teeth bared and vicious, blazing eyes, rushed for the
+helpless man on the ground.</p>
+<p>With a yell Bob spurred to put himself between the bay and his
+victim, but had there been time the move would have been useless,
+for no horse could have withstood that mad charge. The vicious
+brute was within a bound of his victim, and had reared to crush him
+with the weight of heavy hoofs, when a rawhide rope tightened about
+those uplifted forefeet and the bay himself crashed to earth.
+Leaving the cow-horse to hold the riata tight, Phil sprang from his
+saddle and ran to the fallen man. The Dean came with water in his
+felt hat from the trough, and presently the stranger opened his
+eyes. For a moment he lay looking up into their faces as though
+wondering where he was, and how he happened there.</p>
+<p>"Are you hurt bad?" asked the Dean.</p>
+<p>That brought him to his senses, and he got to his feet somewhat
+unsteadily, and began brushing the dust from his clothes. Then he
+looked curiously toward the horse that Curly was holding down by
+the simple means of sitting on the animal's head. "I certainly
+thought my legs were long enough to reach around him," he said
+reflectively. "How in the world did he manage it? I seemed to be
+falling for a week."</p>
+<p>Phil yelled and the Dean laughed until the tears ran down his
+red cheeks, while Bob and Curly went wild.</p>
+<p>Patches went to the horse, and gravely walked around him. Then,
+"Let him up," he said to Curly.</p>
+<p>The cowboy looked at Phil, who nodded.</p>
+<p>As the bay regained his feet, Patches started toward him.</p>
+<p>"Here," said the Dean peremptorily. "You come away from
+there."</p>
+<p>"I'm going to see if he can do it again," declared Patches
+grimly.</p>
+<p>"Not to-day, you ain't," returned the Dean. "You're workin' for
+me now, an' you're too good a man to be killed tryin' any more
+crazy experiments."</p>
+<p>At the Dean's words the look of gratitude in the man's eyes was
+almost pathetic.</p>
+<p>"I wonder if I am," he said, so low that only the Dean and Phil
+heard.</p>
+<p>"If you are what?" asked the Dean, puzzled by his manner.</p>
+<p>"Worth anything&mdash;as a man&mdash;you know," came the strange
+reply.</p>
+<p>The Dean chuckled. "You'll be all right when you get your
+growth. Come on over here now, out of the way, while Phil takes
+some of the cussedness out of that fool horse."</p>
+<p>Together they watched Phil ride the bay and return him to his
+mates a very tired and a much wiser pupil. Then, while Patches
+remained to watch further operations in the corral, the Dean went
+to the house to tell Stella all about it.</p>
+<p>"And what do you think he really is?" she asked, as the last of
+a long list of questions and comments.</p>
+<p>The Dean shook his head. "There's no tellin'. A man like that is
+liable to be anything." Then he added, with his usual philosophy:
+"He acts, though, like a genuine thoroughbred that's been badly
+mishandled an' has just found it out."</p>
+<p>When the day's work was finished and supper was over Little
+Billy found Patches where he stood looking across the valley toward
+Granite Mountain that loomed so boldly against the soft light of
+the evening sky. The man greeted the boy awkwardly, as though
+unaccustomed to children. But Little Billy, very much at ease,
+signified his readiness to help the stranger to an intimate
+acquaintance with the world of which he knew so much more than this
+big man.</p>
+<p>He began with no waste of time on mere preliminaries.</p>
+<p>"See that mountain over there? That's Granite Mountain. There's
+wild horses live around there, an' sometimes we catch 'em. Bet you
+don't know that Phil's name is 'Wild Horse Phil'."</p>
+<p>Patches smiled. "That's a good name for him, isn't it?"</p>
+<p>"You bet." He turned and pointed eagerly to the west. "There's
+another mountain over there I bet you don't know the name of."</p>
+<p>"Which one do you mean? I see several."</p>
+<p>"That long, black lookin' one. Do you know about it?"</p>
+<p>"I'm really afraid that I don't."</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll tell you," said Billy, proud of his superior
+knowledge. "That there's Tailholt Mountain."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!"</p>
+<p>"Yes, and Nick Cambert and Yavapai Joe lives over there. Do you
+know about them?"</p>
+<p>The tall man shook his head. "No, I don't believe that I
+do."</p>
+<p>Little Billy lowered his voice to a mysterious whisper. "Well,
+I'll tell you. Only you mus'n't ever say anything 'bout it out
+loud. Nick and Yavapai is cattle thieves. They been a-brandin' our
+calves, an' Phil, he's goin' to catch 'em at it some day, an' then
+they'll wish they hadn't. Phil, he's my pardner, you know."</p>
+<p>"And a fine pardner, too, I'll bet," returned the stranger, as
+if not wishing to acquire further information about the men of
+Tailholt Mountain.</p>
+<p>"You bet he is," came the instant response. "Only Jim Reid, he
+don't like him very well."</p>
+<p>"That's too bad, isn't it?"</p>
+<p>"Yes. You see, Jim Reid is Kitty's daddy. They live over there."
+He pointed across the meadow to where, a mile away, a light
+twinkled in the window of the Pot-Hook-S ranch house. "Kitty Reid's
+a mighty nice girl, I tell you, but Jim, he says that there needn't
+no cow-puncher come around tryin' to get her, 'cause she's been
+away to school, you know, an' I think Phil&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Whoa! Hold on a minute, sonny," interrupted Patches
+hastily.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter?" questioned Little Billy.</p>
+<p>"Why, it strikes me that a boy with a pardner like 'Wild Horse
+Phil' ought to be mighty careful about how he talked over that
+pardner's private affairs with a stranger. Don't you think so?"</p>
+<p>"Mebby so," agreed Billy. "But you see, I know that Phil wants
+Kitty 'cause&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Sh! What in the world is that?" whispered Patches in great
+fear, catching his small companion by the arm.</p>
+<p>"That! Don't you know an owl when you hear one? Gee! but you're
+a tenderfoot, ain't you?" Catching sight of the Dean who was coming
+toward them, he shouted gleefully. "Uncle Will, Mr. Patches is
+scared of an owl. What do you know about that; Patches is scared of
+an owl!"</p>
+<p>"Your Aunt Stella wants you," laughed the Dean.</p>
+<p>And Billy ran off to the house to share his joke on the
+tenderfoot with his Aunt Stella and his "pardner," Phil.</p>
+<p>"I've got to go to town to-morrow," said the Dean. "I expect you
+better go along and get your trunk, or whatever you have and some
+sort of an outfit. You can't work in them clothes."</p>
+<p>Patches answered hesitatingly. "Why, I think I can get along all
+right, Mr. Baldwin."</p>
+<p>"But you'll want your stuff&mdash;your trunk or grip&mdash;or
+whatever you've got," returned the Dean.</p>
+<p>"But I have nothing in Prescott," said the stranger slowly.</p>
+<p>"You haven't? Well, you'll need an outfit anyway," persisted the
+cattleman.</p>
+<p>"Really, I think I can get along for a while," Patches returned
+diffidently.</p>
+<p>The Dean considered for a little; then he said with
+straightforward bluntness, but not at all unkindly, "Look here,
+young man, you ain't afraid to go to Prescott, are you?"</p>
+<p>The other laughed. "Not at all, sir. It's not that. I suppose I
+must tell you now, though. All the clothes I have are on my back,
+and I haven't a cent in the world with which to buy an outfit, as
+you call it."</p>
+<p>The Dean chuckled. "So that's it? I thought mebby you was
+dodgin' the sheriff. If it's just plain broke that's the matter,
+why you'll go to town with me in the mornin', an' we'll get what
+you need. I'll hold it out of your wages until it's paid." As
+though the matter were settled, he turned back toward the house,
+adding, "Phil will show you where you're to sleep."</p>
+<p>When the foreman had shown the new man to his room, the cowboy
+asked casually, "Found the goat ranch, all right, night before
+last, did you?"</p>
+<p>The other hesitated; then he said gravely, "I didn't look for
+it, Mr. Acton."</p>
+<p>"You didn't look for it?"</p>
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+<p>"Do you mean to say that you spent the night up there on the
+Divide without blankets or anything?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir, I did."</p>
+<p>"And where did you stop last night?"</p>
+<p>"At Simmons."</p>
+<p>"Walked, I suppose?"</p>
+<p>The stranger smiled. "Yes."</p>
+<p>"But, look here," said the puzzled cowboy, "I don't mean to be
+asking questions about what is none of my business, but I can't
+figure it out. If you were coming out here to get a job on the
+Cross-Triangle, why didn't you go to Mr. Baldwin in town? Anybody
+could have pointed him out to you. Or, why didn't you say something
+to me, when we were talking back there on the Divide?"</p>
+<p>"Why, you see," explained the other lamely, "I didn't exactly
+want to work on the Cross-Triangle, or anywhere."</p>
+<p>"But you told Uncle Will that you wanted to work here, and you
+were on your way when I met you."</p>
+<p>"Yes, I know, but you see&mdash;oh, hang it all, Mr. Acton,
+haven't you ever wanted to do something that you didn't want to do?
+Haven't you ever been caught in a corner that you were simply
+forced to get out of when you didn't like the only way that would
+get you out? I don't mean anything criminal," he added, with a
+short laugh.</p>
+<p>"Yes, I have," returned the other seriously, "and if you don't
+mind there's no handle to my name. Around here I'm just plain Phil,
+Mr. Patches."</p>
+<p>"Thanks. Neither does Patches need decorating."</p>
+<p>"And now, one more," said Phil, with his winning smile. "Why in
+the name of all the obstinate fools that roam at large did you walk
+out here when you must have had plenty of chances to ride?"</p>
+<p>"Well, you see," said Patches slowly, "I fear I can't explain,
+but it was just a part of my job."</p>
+<p>"Your job! But you didn't have any job until this
+afternoon."</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes, I did. I had the biggest kind of a job. You see,
+that's what I was doing on the Divide all night; trying to find
+some other way to do it."</p>
+<p>"And do you mind telling me what that job is?" asked Phil
+curiously.</p>
+<p>Patches laughed as though at himself. "I don't know that I can,
+exactly," he said. "I think, perhaps, it's just to ride that big
+bay horse out there."</p>
+<p>Phil laughed aloud&mdash;a hearty laugh of good-fellowship.
+"You'll do that all right."</p>
+<p>"Do you think so, really," asked Patches, eagerly.</p>
+<p>"Sure; I know it."</p>
+<p>"I wish I could be sure," returned the strange man
+doubtfully&mdash;and the cowboy, wondering, saw that wistful look
+in his eyes.</p>
+<p>"That big devil is a man's horse, all right," mused Phil.</p>
+<p>"Why, of course&mdash;and that's just it&mdash;don't you see?"
+cried the other impulsively. Then, as if he regretted his words, he
+asked quickly, "Do you name your horses?"</p>
+<p>"Sure," answered the cowboy; "we generally find something to
+call them."</p>
+<p>"And have you named the big bay yet?"</p>
+<p>Phil laughed. "I named him yesterday, when he broke away as we
+were bringing the bunch in, and I had to rope him to get him
+back."</p>
+<p>"And what did you name him?"</p>
+<p>"Stranger."</p>
+<p>"Stranger! And why Stranger?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I don't know. Just one of my fool notions," returned Phil.
+"Good-night!"</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/077.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_05.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/078.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>he next morning Mr. Baldwin and Patches set out for town.</p>
+<p>"I suppose," said the Dean, and a slightly curious tone colored
+the remark, "that mebby you've been used to automobiles. Buck and
+Prince here, an' this old buckboard will seem sort of slow to
+you."</p>
+<p>Patches was stepping into the rig as the Dean spoke. As the
+young man took his seat by the cattleman's side, the Dean nodded to
+Phil who was holding the team. At the signal Phil released the
+horses' heads and stepped aside, whereupon Buck and Prince, of one
+mind, looked back over their shoulders, made a few playful attempts
+to twist themselves out of the harness, lunged forward their
+length, stood straight up on their hind feet, then sprang away as
+if they were fully determined to land that buckboard in Prescott
+within the next fifteen minutes.</p>
+<p>"Did you say slow?" questioned Patches, as he clung to his
+seat.</p>
+<p>The Dean chuckled and favored his new man with a twinkling
+glance of approval.</p>
+<p>A few seconds later, on the other side of the sandy wash, the
+Dean skillfully checked their headlong career, with a narrow margin
+of safety between the team and the gate.</p>
+<p>"I reckon we'll get through with less fuss if you'll open it,"
+he said to Patches. Then to Buck and Prince: "Whoa! you blamed
+fools. Can't you stand a minute?"</p>
+<p>"Stella's been devilin' me to get a machine ever since Jim Reid
+got his," he continued, while the horses were repeating their
+preliminary contortions, and Patches was regaining his seat. "But I
+told her I'd be scared to death to ride in the fool
+contraption."</p>
+<p>At this Buck and Prince, in a wild riot of animal strength and
+spirit, leaped a slight depression in the road with such vigor that
+the front wheels of the buckboard left the ground. Patches glanced
+sidewise at his employer, with a smile of delighted appreciation,
+but said nothing.</p>
+<p>The Dean liked him for that. The Dean always insists that the
+hardest man in the world to talk to is the one who always has
+something to say for himself.</p>
+<p>"Why," he continued, with a burst of honest feeling, "if I was
+ever to bring one of them things home to the Cross-Triangle, I'd be
+ashamed to look a horse or steer in the face."</p>
+<p>They dashed through a patch of wild sunflowers that in the
+bottom lands grow thick and rank; whirled past the tumble-down
+corner of an old fence that enclosed a long neglected garden; and
+dashed recklessly through a deserted and weed-grown yard. On one
+side of the road was the ancient barn and stable, with sagging,
+weather-beaten roof, leaning walls and battered doors that hung
+dejectedly on their rusty and broken hinges. The corral stockade
+was breached in many places by the years that had rotted the posts.
+The old-time windlass pump that, operated by a blind burro, once
+lifted water for the long vanished herds, was a pathetic old wreck,
+incapable now of offering drink to a thirsty sparrow. On their
+other hand, beneath the wide branches of giant sycamores and
+walnuts, and backed by a tangled orchard wilderness, stood an old
+house, empty and neglected, as if in the shadowy gloom of the
+untrimmed trees it awaited, lonely and forlorn, the kindly hand of
+oblivion.</p>
+<p>"This is the old Acton homestead," said the Dean quietly, as one
+might speak beside an ancient grave.</p>
+<p>Then as they were driving through the narrow lane that crosses
+the great meadow, he indicated with a nod of his head group of
+buildings on the other side of the green fields, and something less
+than a mile to the south.</p>
+<p>"That's Jim Reid's place. His iron is the Pot-Hook-S. Jim's
+stock runs on the old Acton range, but the homestead belongs to
+Phil yet. Jim Reid's a fine man." The Dean spoke stoutly, almost as
+though he were making the assertion to convince himself. "Yes, sir,
+Jim's all right. Good neighbor; good cowman; square as they make
+'em. Some folks seem to think he's a mite over-bearin' an'
+rough-spoken sometimes, and he's kind of quick at suspicionin'
+everybody; but Jim and me have always got along the best kind."</p>
+<p>Again the Dean was silent, as though he had forgotten the man
+beside him in his occupation with thoughts that he could not
+share.</p>
+<p>When they had crossed the valley meadows and, climbing the hill
+on the other side, could see the road for several miles ahead, the
+Dean pointed to a black object on the next ridge.</p>
+<p>"There's Jim's automobile now. They're headin' for Prescott,
+too. Kitty's drivin', I reckon. I tell Stella that that machine and
+Kitty's learnin' to run the thing is about all the returns that Jim
+can show for the money he's spent in educatin' her. I don't mean,"
+he added, with a quick look at Patches, as though he feared to be
+misunderstood, "that Kitty's one of them good-for-nothin' butterfly
+girls. She ain't that by a good deal. Why, she was raised right
+here in this neighborhood, an' we love her the same as if she was
+our own. She can cook a meal or make a dress 'bout as well as her
+mother, an' does it, too; an' she can ride a horse or throw a rope
+better'n some punchers I've seen, but&mdash;" The Dean stopped,
+seemingly for want of words to express exactly his thought.</p>
+<p>"It seems to me," offered Patches abstractedly, "that education,
+as we call it, is a benefit only when it adds to one's life. If
+schooling or culture, or whatever you choose to term it, is
+permitted to rob one of the fundamental and essential elements of
+life, it is most certainly an evil."</p>
+<p>"That's the idea," exclaimed the Dean, with frank admiration for
+his companion's ability to say that which he himself thought. "You
+say it like a book. But that's it. It ain't the learnin' an' all
+the stuff that Kitty got while she was at school that's worryin'
+us. It's what she's likely to lose through gettin' 'em. This here
+modern, down-to-the-minute, higher livin', loftier sphere,
+intellectual supremacy idea is all right if folks'll just keep
+their feet on the ground.</p>
+<p>"You take Stella an' me now. I know we're old fashioned an' slow
+an' all that, an' we've seen a lot of hardships since we was
+married over in Skull Valley where she was born an' raised. She was
+just a girl then, an' I was only a kid, punchin' steers for a
+livin'. I suppose we've seen about as hard times as anybody. At
+least that's what they would be called now. But, hell, <i>we</i>
+didn't think nothin' of it then; we was happy, sir, and we've been
+happy for over forty year. I tell you, sir, we've lived&mdash;just
+lived every minute, and that's a blamed sight more than a lot of
+these higher-cultured, top-lofty, half-dead couples that marry and
+separate, and separate and marry again now-a-days can say.</p>
+<p>"No, sir, 'tain't what a man gets that makes him rich; it's what
+he keeps. And these folks that are swoppin' the old-fashioned sort
+of love that builds homes and raises families and lets man and wife
+work together, an' meet trouble together, an' be happy together,
+an' grow old bein' happy together&mdash;if they're swoppin' all
+that for these here new, down-to-date ideas of such things, they're
+makin' a damned poor bargain, accordin' to my way of thinkin'.
+There is such a thing, sir, as educatin' a man or woman plumb out
+of reach of happiness.</p>
+<p>"Look at our Phil," the Dean continued, for the man beside him
+was a wonderful listener. "There just naturally couldn't be a
+better all round man than Phil Acton. He's healthy; don't know what
+it is to have an hour's sickness; strong as a young bull; clean,
+honest, square, no bad habits, a fine worker, an' a fine thinker,
+too&mdash;even if he ain't had much schoolin', he's read a lot.
+Take him any way you like&mdash;just as a man, I mean&mdash;an'
+that's the way you got to take 'em&mdash;there ain't a better man
+that Phil livin'. Yet a lot of these folks would say he's nothin'
+but a cow-puncher. As for that, Jim Reid ain't much more than a
+cow-puncher himself. I tell you, I've seen cow-punchers that was
+mighty good men, an' I've seen graduates from them there
+universities that was plumb good for nothin'&mdash;with no more
+real man about 'em than there is about one of these here wax
+dummies that they hang clothes on in the store windows. What any
+self-respectin' woman can see in one of them that would make her
+want to marry him is more than I've ever been able to figger
+out."</p>
+<p>If the Dean had not been so engrossed in his own thoughts, he
+would have wondered at the strange effect of his words upon his
+companion. The young man's face flushed scarlet, then paled as
+though with sudden illness, and he looked sidewise at the older man
+with an expression of shame and humiliation, while his eyes,
+wistful and pleading, were filled with pain. Honorable Patches who
+had won the admiration of those men in the Cross-Triangle corrals
+was again the troubled, shamefaced, half-frightened creature whom
+Phil met on the Divide.</p>
+<p>But the good Dean did not see, and so, encouraged by the other's
+silence, he continued his dissertation. "Of course, I don't mean to
+say that education and that sort of thing spoils every man. Now,
+there's young Stanford Manning&mdash;"</p>
+<p>If the Dean had suddenly fired a gun at Patches, the young man
+could not have shown greater surprise and consternation. "Stanford
+Manning!" he gasped.</p>
+<p>At his tone the Dean turned to look at him curiously. "I mean
+Stanford Manning, the mining engineer," he explained. "Do you know
+him?"</p>
+<p>"I have heard of him," Patches managed to reply.</p>
+<p>"Well," continued the Dean, "he came out to this country about
+three years ago&mdash;straight from college&mdash;and he has sure
+made good. He's got the education an' culture an' polish an' all
+that, an' with it he can hold his own among any kind or sort of men
+livin'. There ain't a man&mdash;cow-puncher, miner or anything
+else&mdash;in Yavapai County that don't take off his hat to
+Stanford Manning."</p>
+<p>"Is he in this country now?" asked Patches, with an effort at
+self-control that the Dean did not notice.</p>
+<p>"No, I understand his Company called him back East about a month
+ago. Goin' to send him to some of their properties up in Montana, I
+heard."</p>
+<p>When his companion made no comment, the Dean said reflectively,
+as Buck and Prince climbed slowly up the grade to the summit of the
+Divide, "I'll tell you, son, I've seen a good many changes in this
+country. I can remember when there wasn't a fence in all Yavapai
+County&mdash;hardly in the Territory. And now&mdash;why the last
+time I drove over to Skull Valley I got so tangled up in 'em that I
+plumb lost myself. When Phil's daddy an' me was youngsters we used
+to ride from Camp Verde and Flagstaff clean to Date Creek without
+ever openin' a gate. But I can't see that men change much, though.
+They're good and bad, just like they've always been&mdash;an' I
+reckon always will be. There's been leaders and weaklin's and just
+betwixt and betweens in every herd of cattle or band of horses that
+ever I owned. You take Phil, now. He's exactly like his daddy was
+before him."</p>
+<p>"His father must have been a fine man," said Patches, with quiet
+earnestness.</p>
+<p>The Dean looked at him with an approving twinkle. "Fine?" For a
+few minutes, as they were rounding the turn of the road on the
+summit of the Divide where Phil and the stranger had met, the Dean
+looked away toward Granite Mountain. Then, as if thinking aloud,
+rather than purposely addressing his companion, he said, "John
+Acton&mdash;Honest John, as everybody called him&mdash;and I came
+to this country together when we were boys. Walked in, sir, with
+some pioneers from Kansas. We kept in touch with each other all the
+while we was growin' to be men; punched cattle for the same outfits
+most of the time; even did most of our courtin' together, for
+Phil's mother an' Stella were neighbors an' great friends over in
+Skull Valley. When we'd finally saved enough to get started we
+located homesteads close together back there in the Valley, an' as
+soon as we could get some sort of shacks built we married the girls
+and set up housekeepin'. Our stock ranged together, of course, but
+John sort of took care of the east side of the meadows an' I kept
+more to the west. When the children came along&mdash;John an' Mary
+had three before Phil, but only Phil lived&mdash;an' the stock had
+increased an' we'd built some decent houses, things seemed to be
+about as fine as possible. Then John went on a note for a man in
+Prescott. I tried my best to keep him out of it, but, shucks! he
+just laughed at me. You see, he was one of the best hearted men
+that ever lived&mdash;one of those men, you know, that just
+naturally believes in everybody.</p>
+<p>"Well, it wound up after a-while by John losin' mighty nigh
+everything. We managed to save the homestead, but practically all
+the stock had to go. An' it wasn't more than a year after that till
+Mary died. We never did know just what was the matter with
+her&mdash;an' after that it seemed like John never was the same. He
+got killed in the rodeo that same fall&mdash;just wasn't himself
+somehow. I was with him when he died.</p>
+<p>"Stella and me raised Phil&mdash;we don't know any difference
+between him and one of our own boys. The old homestead is his, of
+course, but Jim Reid's stock runs on the old range. Phil's got a
+few head that he works with mine&mdash;a pretty good bunch by
+now&mdash;for he's kept addin' to what his father left, an' I've
+paid him wages ever since he was big enough. Phil don't say much,
+even to Stella an' me, but I know he's figurin' on fixin' up the
+old home place some day."</p>
+<p>After a long silence the Dean said again, as if voicing some
+conclusion of his unspoken thoughts: "Jim Reid is pretty well
+fixed, you see, an' Kitty bein' the only girl, it's natural, I
+reckon, that they should have ideas about her future, an' all that.
+I reckon it's natural, too, that the girl should find ranch life
+away out here so far from anywhere, a little slow after her three
+years at school in the East. She never says it, but somehow you can
+most always tell what Kitty's thinkin' without her speakin' a
+word."</p>
+<p>"I have known people like that," said Patches, probably because
+there was so little that he could say.</p>
+<p>"Yes, an' when you know Kitty, you'll say, like I always have,
+that if there's a man in Yavapai County that wouldn't ride the
+hoofs off the best horse in his outfit, night or day, to win a
+smile from her, he ought to be lynched."</p>
+<p>That afternoon in Prescott they purchased an outfit for Patches,
+and the following day set out for the long return drive to the
+ranch.</p>
+<p>They had reached the top of the hill at the western end of the
+meadow lane, when they saw a young woman, on a black horse, riding
+away from the gate that opens from the lane into the Pot-Hook-S
+meadow pasture, toward the ranch buildings on the farther side of
+the field.</p>
+<p>As they drove into the yard at home, it was nearly supper time,
+and the men were coming from the corrals.</p>
+<p>"Kitty's been over all the afternoon," Little Billy informed
+them promptly. "I told her all about you, Patches. She says she's
+just dyin' to see you."</p>
+<p>Phil joined in the laugh, but Patches fancied that there was a
+shadow in the cowboy's usually sunny eyes as the young man looked
+at him to say, "That big horse of yours sure made me ride some
+to-day."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/087.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_06.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/088.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>he education of Honorable Patches was begun without further
+delay. Because Phil's time was so fully occupied with his
+four-footed pupils, the Dean himself became the stranger's teacher,
+and all sorts of odd jobs about the ranch, from cleaning the pig
+pen to weeding the garden, were the text books. The man balked at
+nothing. Indeed, he seemed to find a curious, grim satisfaction in
+accomplishing the most menial and disagreeable tasks; and when he
+made mistakes, as he often did, he laughed at himself with such
+bitter, mocking humor that the Dean wondered.</p>
+<p>"He's got me beat," the Dean confided to Stella. "There ain't
+nothin' that he won't tackle, an' I'm satisfied that the man never
+did a stroke of work before in his life. But he seems to be always
+tryin' experiments with himself, like he expected himself to play
+the fool one way or another, an' wanted to see if he would, an'
+then when he don't he's as surprised and tickled as a kid."</p>
+<p>The Dean himself was not at all above assisting his new man in
+those experiments, and so it happened that day when Patches had
+been set to repairing the meadow pasture fence near the lower
+corrals.</p>
+<p>The Dean, riding out that way to see how his pupil was
+progressing, noticed a particularly cross-tempered shorthorn bull
+that had wandered in from the near-by range to water at the house
+corral. But Phil and his helpers were in possession of the premises
+near the watering trough, and his shorthorn majesty was therefore
+even more than usual out of patience with the whole world. The
+corrals were between the bull and Patches, so that the animal had
+not noticed the man, and the Dean, chuckling to himself, and
+without attracting Patches' attention, quietly drove the
+ill-tempered beast into the enclosure and shut the gate.</p>
+<p>Then, riding around the corral, the Dean called to the young
+man. When Patches stood beside his employer, the cattleman said,
+"Here's a blamed old bull that don't seem to be feelin' very well.
+I got him into the corral all right, but I'm so fat I can't reach
+him from the saddle. I wish you'd just halter him with this rope,
+so I can lead him up to the house and let Phil and the boys see
+what's wrong with him."</p>
+<p>Patches took the rope and started toward the corral gate. "Shall
+I put it around his neck and make a hitch over his nose, like you
+do a horse?" he asked, glad for the opportunity to exhibit his
+newly acquired knowledge of ropes and horses and things.</p>
+<p>"No, just tie it around his horns," the Dean answered. "He'll
+come, all right."</p>
+<p>The bull, seeing a man on foot at the entrance to his prison,
+rumbled a deep-voiced threat, and pawed the earth with angry
+strength.</p>
+<p>For an instant, Patches, with his hand on the latch of the gate,
+paused to glance from the dangerous-looking animal, that awaited
+his coming, to the Dean who sat on his horse just outside the
+fence. Then he slipped inside the corral and closed the gate behind
+him. The bull gazed at him a moment as if amazed at the audacity of
+this mere human, then lowered his head for the charge.</p>
+<p>"Climb that gate, quick," yelled the Dean at the critical
+moment.</p>
+<p>And Patches climbed&mdash;not a second too soon.</p>
+<p>From his position of safety he smiled cheerfully at the Dean.
+"He came all right, didn't he?"</p>
+<p>The Dean's full rounded front and thick shoulders shook with
+laughter, while Se&ntilde;or Bull dared the man on the gate to come
+down.</p>
+<p>"You crazy fool," said the Dean admiringly, when he could speak.
+"Didn't you know any better than to go in there on foot?"</p>
+<p>"But you said you wanted him," returned the chagrined
+Patches.</p>
+<p>"What I wanted," chuckled the Dean, "was to see if you had nerve
+enough to tackle him."</p>
+<p>"To tell the truth," returned Patches, with a happy laugh,
+"that's exactly what interested me."</p>
+<p>But, while the work assigned to Patches during those first days
+of his stay on the Cross-Triangle was chiefly those odd jobs which
+called for little or no experience, his higher education was by no
+means neglected. A wise and gentle old cow-horse was assigned to
+him, and the Dean taught him the various parts of his equipment,
+their proper use, and how to care for them. And every day,
+sometimes in the morning, sometimes late in the afternoon, the
+master found some errand or business that would necessitate his
+pupil riding with him. When Phil or Mrs. Baldwin would inquire
+about the Dean's kindergarten, as they called it, the Dean would
+laugh with them, but always he would say stoutly, "Just you wait.
+He'll be as near ready for the rodeo this fall as them pupils in
+that kindergarten of Phil's. He takes to ridin' like the good Lord
+had made him specially for that particular job. He's just a
+natural-born horseman, or I don't know men. He's got the sense,
+he's got the nerve, an' he's got the disposition. He's goin' to
+make a top hand in a few months, if"&mdash;he always added with
+twinkling eyes&mdash;"he don't get himself killed tryin' some fool
+experiment on himself."</p>
+<p>"I notice just the same that he always has plenty of help in his
+experimentin'," Mrs. Baldwin would return dryly, which saying
+indicted not only the Dean but Phil and every man on the
+Cross-Triangle, including Little Billy.</p>
+<p>Then came that day when Patches was given a task that&mdash;the
+Dean assured him&mdash;is one of the duties of even the oldest and
+best qualified cowboys. Patches was assigned to the work of
+fenceriding. But when the Dean rode out with his pupil early that
+morning to where the drift fence begins at the corner of the big
+pasture, and explained that "riding a fence" meant, in ranch
+language, looking for breaks and repairing any such when found, he
+did not explain the peculiarities of that particular kind of
+fence.</p>
+<p>"I told him to be sure and be back by night," he chuckled, as he
+explained Patches' absence at dinner to the other members of the
+household.</p>
+<p>"That was downright mean of you, Will Baldwin," chided Stella,
+with her usual motherly interest in the comfort of her boys. "You
+know the poor fellow will lose himself, sure, out in that wild
+Tailholt Mountain country."</p>
+<p>The boys laughed.</p>
+<p>"We'll find him in the morning, all right, mother," reassured
+Phil.</p>
+<p>"He can follow the fence back, can't he?" retorted the Dean.
+"Or, as far as that goes, old Snip will bring him home."</p>
+<p>"If he knows enough to figger it out, or to let Snip have his
+head," said Curly.</p>
+<p>"At any rate," the Dean maintained, "he'll learn somethin' about
+the country, an' he'll learn somethin' about fences, an' mebby
+he'll learn somethin' about horses. An' we'll see whether he can
+use his own head or not. There's nothin' like givin' a man a chance
+to find out things for himself sometimes. Besides, think what a
+chance he'll have for some of his experiments! I'll bet a yearling
+steer that when we do see him again, he'll be tickled to death at
+himself an' wonderin' how he had the nerve to do it."</p>
+<p>"To do what?" asked Mrs. Baldwin.</p>
+<p>"I don't know what," chuckled the Dean; "but he's bound to do
+some fool thing or other just to see if he can, and it'll be
+somethin' that nobody but him would ever think of doin', too."</p>
+<p>But Honorable Patches did not get lost that day&mdash;that is,
+not too badly lost. There was a time, though&mdash;but that does
+not belong just here.</p>
+<p>Patches was very well pleased with the task assigned to him that
+morning. For the first time he found himself trusted alone with a
+horse, on a mission that would keep him the full day in the saddle,
+and would take him beyond sight of the ranch house. Very bravely he
+set out, equipped with his cowboy regalia&mdash;except the riata,
+which the Dean, fearing experiments, had, at the last moment,
+thoughtfully borrowed&mdash;and armed with a fencing tool and
+staples. He was armed, too, with a brand-new "six-gun" in a spick
+and span holster, on a shiny belt of bright cartridges. The Dean
+had insisted on this, alleging that the embryo cowboy might want it
+to kill a sick cow or something.</p>
+<p>Patches wondered if he would know a sick cow if he should meet
+one, or how he was to diagnose the case to ascertain if she were
+sick enough to kill.</p>
+<p>The first thing he did, when the Dean was safely out of sight,
+was to dismount and examine his saddle girth. Always your real king
+of the cattle range is careful for the foundation of his throne.
+But there was no awkwardness, now, when he again swung to his seat.
+The young man was in reality a natural athlete. His work had
+already taken the soreness and stiffness out of his unaccustomed
+muscles, and he seemed, as the Dean had said, a born horseman. And
+as he rode, he looked about over the surrounding country with an
+expression on independence, freedom and fearlessness very different
+from the manner of the troubled man who had faced Phil Acton that
+night on the Divide. It was as though the spirit of the land was
+already working its magic within this man, too. He patted the
+holster at his side, felt the handle of the gun, lovingly fingered
+the bright cartridges in his shiny belt, leaned sidewise to look
+admiringly down at his fringed, leather chaps and spur ornamented
+boot heels, and wished for his riata&mdash;not forgetting,
+meanwhile, to scan the fence for places that might need his
+attention.</p>
+<p>The guardian angel who cares for the "tenderfoot" was good to
+Patches that day, and favored him with many sagging wires and
+leaning or broken posts, so that he could not ride far. Being
+painstaking and conscientious in his work, he had made not more
+than four miles by the beginning of the afternoon. Then he found a
+break that would occupy him for two hours at least. With rueful
+eyes he surveyed the long stretch of dilapidated fence. It was
+time, he reflected, that the Dean sent someone to look after his
+property, and dismounting, he went to work, forgetting, in his
+interest in the fencing problem, to insure his horse's near-by
+attendance. Now, the best of cow-horses are not above taking
+advantage of their opportunities. Perhaps Snip felt that
+fenceriding with a tenderfoot was a little beneath the dignity of
+his cattle-punching years. Perhaps he reasoned that this man who
+was always doing such strange things was purposely dismissing him.
+Perhaps he was thinking of the long watering trough and the rich
+meadow grass at home. Or, perhaps again, the wise old Snip, feeling
+the responsibility of his part in training the Dean's pupil, merely
+thought to give his inexperienced master a lesson. However it
+happened, Patches looked up from his work some time later to find
+himself alone. In consternation, he stood looking about, striving
+to catch a glimpse of the vanished Snip. Save a lone buzzard that
+wheeled in curious circles above his head there was no living thing
+in sight.</p>
+<p>As fast as his heavy, leather chaps and high-heeled,
+spur-ornamented boots would permit, he ran to the top of a knoll a
+hundred yards or so away. The wider range of country that came thus
+within the circle of his vision was as empty as it was silent. The
+buzzard wheeled nearer&mdash;the strange looking creature beneath
+it seemed so helpless that there might be in the situation
+something of vital interest to the tribe. Even buzzards must be
+about their business.</p>
+<p>There are few things more humiliating to professional riders of
+the range than to be left afoot; and while Patches was far too much
+a novice to have acquired the peculiar and traditional tastes and
+habits of the clan of which he had that morning felt himself a
+member, he was, in this, the equal of the best of them. He thought
+of himself walking shamefaced into the presence of the Dean and
+reporting the loss of the horse. The animal might be recovered, he
+supposed, for he was still, Patches thought, inside the pasture
+which that fence enclosed. Still there was a chance that the
+runaway would escape through some break and never be found. In any
+case the vision of the grinning cowboys was not an attractive one.
+But at least, thought the amateur cowboy, he would finish the work
+entrusted to him. He might lose a horse for the Dean, but the
+Dean's fence should be repaired. So he set to work with a will,
+and, finishing that particular break, set out on foot to follow the
+fence around the field and so back to the lane that would lead him
+to the buildings and corrals of the home ranch.</p>
+<p>For an hour he trudged along, making hard work of it in his
+chaps, boots, and spurs, stopping now and then to drive a staple or
+brace a post. The country was growing wilder and more broken, with
+cedar timber on the ridges and here and there a pine. Occasionally
+he could catch a glimpse of the black, forbidding walls of Tailholt
+Mountain. But Patches did not know that it was Tailholt. He only
+thought that he knew in which direction the home ranch lay. It
+seemed to him that it was a long, long way to the corner of the
+field&mdash;it must be a big pasture, indeed. The afternoon was
+well on when he paused on the summit of another ridge to rest. It,
+seemed to him that he had never in all his life been quite so warm.
+His legs ached. He was tired and thirsty and hungry. It was so
+still that the silence hurt, and that fence corner was nowhere in
+sight. He could not, now reach home before dark, even should he
+turn back; which, he decided grimly, he would not do. He would ride
+that fence if he camped three nights on the journey.</p>
+<p>Suddenly he sprang to his feet, waving his hat, hallooing and
+yelling like a madman. Two horsemen were riding on the other side
+of the fence, along the slope of the next ridge, at the edge of the
+timber. In vain Patches strove to attract their attention. If they
+heard him, they gave no sign, and presently he saw them turn, ride
+in among the cedars, and disappear. In desperation he ran along the
+fence, down the hill, across the narrow little valley, and up the
+ridge over which the riders had gone. On the top of the ridge he
+stopped again, to spend the last of his breath in another series of
+wild shouts. But there was no answer. Nor could he be sure, even,
+which way the horsemen had gone.</p>
+<p>Dropping down in the shade of a cedar, exhausted by his
+strenuous exertion, and wet with honest perspiration, he struggled
+for breath and fanned his hot face with his hat. Perhaps he even
+used some of the cowboy words that he had heard Curly and Bob
+employ when Little Billy was not around After the noise of his
+frantic efforts, the silence was more oppressive than ever. The
+Cross-Triangle ranch house was, somewhere, endless miles away.</p>
+<p>Then a faint sound in the narrow valley below him caught his
+ear. Turning quickly, he looked back the way he had come. Was he
+dreaming, or was it all just a part of the magic of that wonderful
+land? A young woman was riding toward him&mdash;coming at an easy
+swinging lope&mdash;and, following, at the end of a riata, was the
+cheerfully wise and philosophic Snip.</p>
+<p>Patches' first thought&mdash;when he had sufficiently recovered
+I from his amazement to think at all&mdash;was that the woman rode
+as he had never seen a woman ride before. Dressed in the divided
+skirt of corduroy, the loose, soft, gray shirt, gauntleted gloves,
+mannish felt hat, and boots, usual to Arizona horsewomen, she
+seemed as much at ease in the saddle as any cowboy in the land;
+and, indeed, she was.</p>
+<p>As she came up the slope, the man in the shade of the cedar saw
+that she was young. Her lithe, beautifully developed body yielded
+to the movement of the spirited horse she rode with the unspoiled
+grace of health and youth. Still nearer, and he saw her clear
+cheeks glowing with the exercise and excitement, her soft, brown
+hair under the wide brim of the gray sombrero, and her dark eyes,
+shining with the fun of her adventure. Then she saw him, and
+smiled; and Patches remembered what the Dean had said: "If there's
+a man in Yavapai County who wouldn't ride the hoofs off the best
+horse in his outfit to win a smile from Kitty Reid, he ought to be
+lynched."</p>
+<p>As the man stood, hat in hand, she checked her horse, and, in a
+voice that matched the smile so full of fun and the clean joy of
+living greeted him.</p>
+<p>"You are Mr. Honorable Patches, are you not?"</p>
+<p>Patches bowed. "Miss Reid, I believe?"</p>
+<p>She frankly looked her surprise. "Why, how did you know me?"</p>
+<p>"Your good friend, Mr. Baldwin, described you," he smiled.</p>
+<p>She colored and laughed to hide her slight embarrassment. "The
+dear old Dean is prejudiced, I fear."</p>
+<p>"Prejudiced he may be," Patches admitted, "but his judgement is
+unquestionable. And," he added gently, as her face grew grave and
+her chin lifted slightly, "his confidence in any man might be
+considered an endorsement, don't you think?"</p>
+<p>"Indeed, yes," she agreed heartily, her slight coldness
+vanishing instantly. "The Dean and Stella told me all about you
+this afternoon, or I should not have ventured to introduce myself.
+I am very pleased to meet you, Mr. Patches," she finished with a
+mock formality that was delightful.</p>
+<p>"And I am delighted to meet you, Miss Reid, for so many reasons
+that I can't begin to tell you of them," he responded laughing.
+"And now, may I ask what good magic brings you like a fairy in the
+story book to the rescue of a poor stranger in the hour of his
+despair? Where did you find my faithless Snip? How did you know
+where to find me? Where is the Cross-Triangle Ranch? How many miles
+is it to the nearest water? Is it possible for me to get home in
+time for supper?" Looking down at him she laughed as only Kitty
+Reid could laugh.</p>
+<p>"You're making fun of me," he charged; "they all do. And I don't
+blame them in the least; I have been laughing at myself all
+day."</p>
+<p>"I'll answer your last question first," she returned. "Yes, you
+can easily reach the Cross-Triangle in time for supper, if you
+start at once. I will explain the magic as we ride."</p>
+<p>"You are going to show me the way?" he cried eagerly, starting
+toward his horse.</p>
+<p>"I really think it would be best," she said demurely.</p>
+<p>"Now I know you are a good fairy, or a guardian angel, or
+something like that," he returned, setting his foot in the stirrup
+to mount. Then suddenly he paused, with, "Wait a minute, please. I
+nearly forgot." And very carefully he examined the saddle girth to
+see that it was tight.</p>
+<p>"If you had remembered to throw your bridle rein over Snip's
+head when you left him, you wouldn't have needed a guardian angel
+this time," she said.</p>
+<p>He looked at her blankly over the patient Snip's back.</p>
+<p>"And so that was what made him go away? I knew I had done some
+silly thing that I ought not. That's the only thing about myself
+that I am always perfectly sure of," he added as he mounted. "You
+see I can always depend upon myself to make a fool of myself. It
+was that bad place in the fence that did it." He pulled up his
+horse suddenly as they were starting. "And that reminds me; there
+is one thing you positively must tell me before I can go a foot,
+even toward supper. How much farther is it to the corner of this
+field?"</p>
+<p>She looked at him in pretty amazement. "To the corner of this
+field?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I knew, of course, that if I followed the fence it was
+bound to lead me around the field and so back to where I started.
+That's why I kept on; I thought I could finish the job and get
+home, even if Snip did compel me to ride the fence on foot."</p>
+<p>"But don't you know that this is a drift fence?" she asked, her
+eyes dancing with fun.</p>
+<p>"That's what the Dean called it," he admitted. "But if it's
+drifting anywhere, it's going end on. Perhaps that's why I couldn't
+catch the corner."</p>
+<p>"But there is no corner to a drift fence," she cried.</p>
+<p>"No corner?"</p>
+<p>She shook her head as if not trusting herself to speak.</p>
+<p>"And it doesn't go around anything&mdash;there is no field?"
+Again she shook her head.</p>
+<p>"Just runs away out in the country somewhere and stops?"</p>
+<p>She nodded. "It must be eighteen or twenty miles from here to
+the end."</p>
+<p>"Well, of all the silly fences!" he exclaimed, looking away to
+the mountain peaks toward which he had been so laboriously making
+his way. "Honestly, now, do you think that is any way for a
+respectable fence to act? And the Dean told me to be sure and get
+home before dark!"</p>
+<p>Then they laughed together&mdash;laughed until their horses must
+have wondered.</p>
+<p>As they rode on, she explained the purpose of the drift fence,
+and how it came to an end so many miles away and so far from water
+that the cattle do not usually find their way around it.</p>
+<p>"And now the magic!" he said. "You have made a most
+unreasonable, unconventional and altogether foolish fence appear
+reasonable, proper and perfectly sane. Please explain your coming
+with Snip to my relief."</p>
+<p>"Which was also unreasonable, unconventional and altogether
+foolish?" she questioned.</p>
+<p>"Which was altogether wonderful, unexpected and delightful," he
+retorted.</p>
+<p>"It is all perfectly simple," she explained. "Being
+rather&mdash;" She hesitated. "Well, rather sick of too much of
+nothing at all, you know, I went over to the Cross-Triangle right
+after dinner to visit a little with
+Stella&mdash;professionally."</p>
+<p>"Professionally?" he asked.</p>
+<p>She nodded brightly. "For the good of my soul. Stella's a famous
+soul doctor. The best ever except one, and she lives far
+away&mdash;away back east in Cleveland, Ohio."</p>
+<p>"Yes, I know her, too," he said gravely.</p>
+<p>And while they laughed at the absurdity of his assertion, they
+did not know until long afterward how literally true it was.</p>
+<p>"Of course, I knew about you," she continued. "Phil told me how
+you tried to ride that unbroken horse, the last time he was at our
+house. Phil thinks you are quite a wonderful man."</p>
+<p>"No doubt," said Patches mockingly. "I must have given a
+remarkable exhibition on that occasion." He was wondering just how
+much Phil had told her.</p>
+<p>"And so, you see," she continued, "I couldn't very well help
+being interested in the welfare of the stranger who had come among
+us. Besides, our traditional western hospitality demanded it; don't
+you think?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, certainly, certainly. You could really do nothing less than
+inquire about me," he agreed politely.</p>
+<p>"And so, you see, Stella quite restored my soul health; or at
+least afforded me temporary relief."</p>
+<p>He met the quizzing, teasing, laughing look in her eyes blankly.
+"You are making fun of me again," he said humbly. "I know I ought
+to laugh at myself, but&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Why, don't you understand?" she cried. "Dr. Stella administered
+a generous dose of talk about the only new thing that has happened
+in this neighborhood for months and months and months."</p>
+<p>"Meaning me?" he asked.</p>
+<p>"Well, are you not?" she retorted.</p>
+<p>"I guess I am," he smiled. "Well, and then what?"</p>
+<p>"Why, then I came away, feeling much better, of course."</p>
+<p>"Yes?"</p>
+<p>"I was feeling so much better I decided I would go home a
+roundabout way; perhaps to the top of Black Hill; perhaps up Horse
+Wash, where I might meet father, who would be on his way home from
+Fair Oaks where he went this morning."</p>
+<p>"I see."</p>
+<p>"Well, so I met Snip, who was on his way to the Cross-Triangle.
+I knew, of course, that old Snip would be your horse." She smiled,
+as though to rob her words of any implied criticism of his
+horsemanship.</p>
+<p>"Exactly," he agreed understandingly.</p>
+<p>"And I was afraid that something might have happened; though I
+couldn't see how that could be, either, with Snip. And so I caught
+him&mdash;"</p>
+<p>He interrupted eagerly. "How?"</p>
+<p>"Why, with my riata," she returned, in a matter-of-fact tone,
+wondering at his question.</p>
+<p>"You caught my horse with your riata?" he repeated slowly.</p>
+<p>"And pray how should I have caught him?" she asked.</p>
+<p>"But&mdash;but, didn't he <i>run</i>?"</p>
+<p>She laughed. "Of course he ran. They all do that once they get
+away from you. But Snip never could outrun my Midnight," she
+retorted.</p>
+<p>He shook his head slowly, looking at her with frank admiration,
+as though, for the first time, he understood what a rare and
+wonderful creature she was.</p>
+<p>"And you can ride and rope like that?" he said doubtfully.</p>
+<p>She flushed hotly, and there was a spark of fire in the brown
+eyes. "I suppose you are thinking that I am coarse and mannish and
+all that," she said with spirit. "By your standards, Mr. Patches, I
+should have ridden back to the house, screaming, ladylike, for
+help."</p>
+<p>"No, no," he protested. "That's not fair. I was thinking how
+wonderful you are. Why, I would give&mdash;what wouldn't I give to
+be able to do a thing like that!"</p>
+<p>There was no mistaking his earnestness, and Kitty was all
+sunshine again, pardoning him with a smile.</p>
+<p>"You see," she explained, "I have always lived here, except my
+three years at school. Father taught me to use a riata, as he
+taught me to ride and shoot, because&mdash;well&mdash;because it's
+all a part of this life, and very useful sometimes; just as it is
+useful to know about hotels and time-tables and taxicabs, in that
+other part of the world."</p>
+<p>"I understand," he said gently. "It was stupid of me to notice
+it. I beg your pardon for interrupting the story of my rescue. You
+had just roped Snip while he was doing his best to outrun
+Midnight&mdash;simple and easy as calling a taxi&mdash;'Number Two
+Thousand Euclid Avenue, please'&mdash;and there you are."</p>
+<p>"Oh, do you know Cleveland?" she cried.</p>
+<p>For an instant he was confused. Then he said easily, "Everybody
+has heard of the famous Euclid Avenue. But how did you guess where
+Snip had left me?"</p>
+<p>"Why, Stella had told me that you were riding the drift fence,"
+she answered, tactfully ignoring the evasion of her question. "I
+just followed the fence. So there was no magic about it at all, you
+see."</p>
+<p>"I'm not so sure about the magic," he returned slowly.</p>
+<p>"This is such a wonderful country&mdash;to me&mdash;that one can
+never be quite sure about anything. At least, I can't. But perhaps
+that's because I am such a new thing."</p>
+<p>"And do you like it?" she asked, frankly curious about him.</p>
+<p>"Like being a new thing?" he parried. "Yes and No."</p>
+<p>"I mean do you like this wonderful country, as you call it?"</p>
+<p>"I admire the people who belong to it tremendously," he
+returned. "I never met such men before&mdash;or such women," he
+finished with a smile.</p>
+<p>"But, do you like it?" she persisted. "Do you like the
+life&mdash;your work&mdash;would you be satisfied to live here
+always?"</p>
+<p>"Yes and No," he answered again, hesitatingly.</p>
+<p>"Oh, well," she said, with, he thought, a little bitterness and
+rebellion, "it doesn't really matter to you whether you like it or
+not, because <i>you</i> are a man. If you are not satisfied with
+your environment, you can leave it&mdash;go away somewhere
+else&mdash;make yourself a part of some other life."</p>
+<p>He shook his head, wondering a little at her earnestness. "That
+does not always follow. Can a man, just because he is a man, always
+have or do just what he likes?"</p>
+<p>"If he's strong enough," she insisted. "But a woman must always
+do what other people like."</p>
+<p>He was sure now that she was speaking rebelliously.</p>
+<p>She continued, "Can't you, if you are not satisfied with this
+life here, go away?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, but not necessarily to any life I might desire. Perhaps
+some sheriff wants me. Perhaps I am an escaped convict.
+Perhaps&mdash;oh, a thousand things."</p>
+<p>She laughed aloud in spite of her serious mood. "What
+nonsense!"</p>
+<p>"But, why nonsense? What do you and your friends know of
+me?"</p>
+<p>"We know that you are not that kind of a man," she retorted
+warmly, "because"&mdash;she hesitated&mdash;"well, because you are
+<i>not</i> that sort of a man."</p>
+<p>"Are you sure you don't mean because I am not man enough to make
+myself wanted very badly, even by the sheriff?" he asked, and Kitty
+could not mistake the bitterness in his voice.</p>
+<p>"Why, Mr. Patches!" she cried. "How could you think I meant such
+a thing? Forgive me! I was only wondering foolishly what you, a man
+of education and culture, could find in this rough life that would
+appeal to you in any way. My curiosity is unpardonable, I suppose,
+but you must know that we are all wondering why you are here."</p>
+<p>"I do not blame you," he returned, with that self-mocking smile,
+as though he were laughing at himself. "I told you I could always
+be depended upon to make a fool of myself. You see I am doing it
+now. I don't mind telling you this much&mdash;that I am here for
+the same reason that you went to visit Mrs. Baldwin this
+afternoon."</p>
+<p>"For the good of your soul?" she asked gently.</p>
+<p>"Exactly," he returned gravely. "For the good of my soul."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, Mr. Honorable Patches, here's to your soul's good
+health!" she cried brightly, checking her horse and holding out her
+hand. "We part here. You can see the Cross-Triangle buildings
+yonder. I go this way."</p>
+<p>He looked his pleasure, as he clasped her hand in hearty
+understanding of the friendship offered.</p>
+<p>"Thank you, Miss Reid. I still maintain that the Dean's judgment
+is unquestionable."</p>
+<p>She was not at all displeased with his reply.</p>
+<p>"By the way," she said, as if to prove her friendship. "I
+suppose you know what to expect from Uncle Will and the boys when
+they learn of your little adventure?"</p>
+<p>"I do," he answered, as if resigned to anything.</p>
+<p>"And do you enjoy making fun for them?"</p>
+<p>"I assure you, Miss Reid, I am very human."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, why don't you turn the laugh on them?"</p>
+<p>"But how?"</p>
+<p>"They are expecting you to get into some sort of a scrape, don't
+you think?"</p>
+<p>"They are always expecting that. And," he added, with that droll
+touch in his voice, "I must say I rarely disappoint them."</p>
+<p>"I suspect," she continued, thoughtfully, "that the Dean
+purposely did not explain that drift fence to you."</p>
+<p>"He has established precedents that would justify my thinking
+so, I'll admit."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, why don't you ride cheerfully home and report the
+progress of your work as though nothing had happened?"</p>
+<p>"You mean that you won't tell?" he cried.</p>
+<p>She nodded gaily. "I told them this afternoon that it wasn't
+fair for you to have no one but Stella on your side."</p>
+<p>"What a good Samaritan you are! You put me under an everlasting
+obligation to you."</p>
+<p>"All right," she laughed. "I'm glad you feel that way about it.
+I shall hold that debt against you until some day when I am in
+dreadful need, and then I shall demand payment in full.
+Good-by!"</p>
+<p>And once again Kitty had spoken, in jest, words that held for
+them both, had they but known, great significance.</p>
+<p>Patches watched until she was out of sight. Then he made his way
+happily to the house to receive, with a guilty conscience but with
+a light heart, congratulations and compliments upon his safe
+return.</p>
+<p>That evening Phil disappeared somewhere, in the twilight. And a
+little later Jim Reid rode into the Cross-Triangle dooryard.</p>
+<p>The owner of the Pot-Hook-S was a big man, tall and heavy,
+outspoken and somewhat gruff, with a manner that to strangers often
+seemed near to overbearing. When Patches was introduced, the big
+cattleman looked him over suspiciously, spoke a short word in
+response to Patches' commonplace, and abruptly turned his back to
+converse with the better-known members of the household.</p>
+<p>For an hour, perhaps, they chatted about matters of general
+interest, as neighbors will; then the caller arose to go, and the
+Dean walked with him to his horse. When the two men were out of
+hearing of the people on the porch Reid asked in a low voice,
+"Noticed any stock that didn't look right lately, Will?"</p>
+<p>"No. You see, we haven't been ridin' scarcely any since the
+Fourth. Phil and the boys have been busy with the horses every day,
+an' this new man don't count, you know."</p>
+<p>"Who is he, anyway?" asked Reid bluntly.</p>
+<p>"I don't know any more than that he says his name is
+Patches."</p>
+<p>"Funny name," grunted Jim.</p>
+<p>"Yes, but there's a lot of funny names, Jim," the Dean answered
+quietly. "I don't know as Patches is any funnier than Skinner or
+Foote or Hogg, or a hundred other names, when you come to think
+about it. We ain't just never happened to hear it before, that's
+all."</p>
+<p>"Where did you pick him up?"</p>
+<p>"He just came along an' wanted work. He's green as they make
+'em, but willin', an' he's got good sense, too."</p>
+<p>"I'd go slow 'bout takin' strangers in," said the big man
+bluntly.</p>
+<p>"Shucks!" retorted the Dean. "Some of the best men I ever had
+was strangers when I hired 'em. Bein' a stranger ain't nothin'
+against a man. You and me would be strangers if we was to go many
+miles from Williamson Valley. Patches is a good man, I tell you.
+I'll stand for him, all right. Why, he's been out all day, alone,
+ridin' the drift fence, just as good any old-timer."</p>
+<p>"The drift fence!"</p>
+<p>"Yes, it's in pretty bad shape in places."</p>
+<p>"Yes, an' I ran onto a calf over in Horse Wash, this afternoon,
+not four hundred yards from the fence on the Tailholt side,
+fresh-branded with the Tailholt iron, an' I'll bet a thousand
+dollars it belongs to a Cross-Triangle cow."</p>
+<p>"What makes you think it was mine?" asked the Dean calmly.</p>
+<p>"Because it looked mighty like some of your Hereford stock, an'
+because I came on through the Horse Wash gate, an' about a half
+mile on this side, I found one of your cows that had just lost her
+calf."</p>
+<p>"They know we're busy an' ain't ridin' much, I reckon," mused
+the Dean.</p>
+<p>"If I was you, I'd put some hand that I knew to ridin' that
+drift fence," returned Jim significantly, as he mounted his horse
+to go.</p>
+<p>"You're plumb wrong, Jim," returned the Dean earnestly. "Why,
+the man don't know a Cross-Triangle from a Five-Bar, or a
+Pot-Hook-S."</p>
+<p>"It's your business, Will; I just thought I'd tell you," growled
+Reid. "Good-night!"</p>
+<p>"Good-night, Jim! I'm much obliged to you for ridin' over."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/111.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_07.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/112.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>hen Kitty Reid told Patches that it was her soul sickness, from
+too much of nothing at all, that had sent her to visit Mrs. Baldwin
+that afternoon, she had spoken more in earnest than in jest. More
+than this, she had gone to the Cross-Triangle hoping to meet the
+stranger, of whom she had heard so much. Phil had told Kitty that
+she would like Patches. As Phil had put it, the man spoke her
+language; he could talk to her of people and books and those things
+of which the Williamson Valley folk knew so little.</p>
+<p>But as she rode slowly homeward after leaving Patches, she found
+herself of two minds regarding the incident. She had enjoyed
+meeting the man; he had interested and amused her; had taken her
+out of herself, for she was not slow to recognize that the man
+really did belong to that world which was so far from the world of
+her childhood. And she was glad for the little adventure that, for
+one afternoon, at least, had broken the dull, wearying monotony of
+her daily life. But the stranger, by the very fact of his belonging
+to that other world, had stimulated her desire for those things
+which in her home life and environment she so greatly missed. He
+had somehow seemed to magnify the almost unbearable commonplace
+narrowness of her daily routine. He had made her even more
+restless, disturbed and dissatisfied. It had been to her as when
+one in some foreign country meets a citizen from one's old home
+town. And for this Kitty was genuinely sorry. She did not wish to
+feel as she did about her home and the things that made the world
+of those she loved. She had tried honestly to still the unrest and
+to deny the longing. She had wished many times, since her return
+from the East, that she had never left her home for those three
+years in school. And yet, those years had meant much to her; they
+had been wonderful years; but they seemed, somehow&mdash;now that
+they were past and she was home again&mdash;to have brought her
+only that unrest and longing.</p>
+<p>From the beginning of her years until that first great crisis in
+her life&mdash;her going away to school&mdash;this world into which
+she was born had been to Kitty an all-sufficient world. The days of
+her childhood had been as carefree and joyous, almost, as the days
+of the young things of her father's roaming herds. As her girlhood
+years advanced, under her mother's wise companionship and careful
+teaching, she had grown into her share of the household duties and
+into a knowledge of woman's part in the life to which she belonged,
+as naturally as her girlish form had put on the graces of young
+womanhood. The things that filled the days of her father and
+mother, and the days of her neighbors and friends, had filled her
+days. The things that were all in all to those she loved had been
+all in all to her. And always, through those years, from her
+earliest childhood to her young womanhood, there was Phil, her
+playmate, schoolmate, protector, hero, slave. That Phil should be
+her boy sweetheart and young man lover had seemed as natural to
+Kitty as her relation to her parents. There had never been anyone
+else but Phil. There never could be&mdash;she was sure, in those
+days&mdash;anyone else.</p>
+<p>In Kitty's heart that afternoon, as she rode, so indifferent to
+the life that called from every bush and tree and grassy hill and
+distant mountain, there was sweet regret, deep and sincere, for
+those years that were now, to her, so irrevocably gone. Kitty did
+not know how impossible it was for her to ever wholly escape the
+things that belonged to her childhood and youth. Those things of
+her girlhood, out of which her heart and soul had been fashioned,
+were as interwoven in the fabric of her being as the vitality,
+strength and purity of the clean, wholesome, outdoor life of those
+same years were wrought into the glowing health and vigor and
+beauty of her physical womanhood.</p>
+<p>And then had come those other years&mdash;the maturing, ripening
+years&mdash;when, from the simple, primitive and enduring elements
+of life, she had gone to live amid complex, cultivated and largely
+fanciful standards and values. In that land of Kitty's birth a man
+is measured by the measure of his manhood; a woman is ranked by the
+quality of her womanhood. Strength and courage, sincerity, honesty,
+usefulness&mdash;these were the prime essentials of the man life
+that Kitty had, in those years of her girlhood, known; and these,
+too, in their feminine expressions, were the essentials of the
+woman life. But from these the young woman had gone to be educated
+in a world where other things are of first importance. She had gone
+to be taught that these are not the essential elements of manhood
+and womanhood. Or, at least, if she was not to be deliberately so
+taught, these things would be so ignored and neglected and
+overlooked in her training, that the effect on her character would
+be the same. In that new world she was to learn that men and women
+are not to be measured by the standards of manhood and
+womanhood&mdash;that they were to be rated, not for strength, but
+for culture; not for courage, but for intellectual cleverness; not
+for sincerity, but for manners; not for honesty, but for success;
+not for usefulness, but for social position, which is most often
+determined by the degree of uselessness. It was as though the
+handler of gems were to attach no value whatever to the weight of
+the diamond itself, but to fix the worth of the stone wholly by the
+cutting and polish that the crystal might receive.</p>
+<p>At first, Kitty had been excited, bewildered and fascinated by
+the glittering, sparkling, ever-changing, many-faceted life. Then
+she had grown weary and homesick. And then, as the months had
+passed, and she had been drawn more and more by association and
+environment into the world of down-to-dateism she, too, began to
+regard the sparkle of the diamond as the determining factor in the
+value of the gem. And when the young woman had achieved this, they
+called her education finished, and sent her back to the land over
+which Granite Mountain, gray and grim and fortress-like, with its
+ranks of sentinel bills? keeps enduring and unchanging watch.</p>
+<p>During those first glad days of Kitty's homecoming she had been
+eagerly interested in everything. The trivial bits of news about
+the small doings of her old friends had been delightful. The home
+life, with its simple routine and its sweet companionship, had been
+restful and satisfying. The very scenes of her girlhood had seemed
+to welcome her with a spirit of genuineness and steadfastness that
+had made her feel as one entering a safe home harbor after a long
+and adventurous voyage to far-away and little-known lands. And
+Phil, in the virile strength of his manhood, in the simple bigness
+of his character, and in his enduring and unchanging love, had made
+her feel his likeness to the primitive land of his birth.</p>
+<p>But when the glad excitement of those first days of her return
+were past, when the meetings with old friends were over and the
+tales of their doings exhausted, then Kitty began to realize what
+her education, as they called it, really meant. The lessons of
+those three years were not to be erased from her life as one would
+erase a mistake in a problem or a misspelled word. The tastes,
+habits of thought and standards of life, the acquirement of which
+constituted her culture, would not be denied. It was inevitable
+that there should be a clash between the claims of her home life
+and the claims of that life to which she now felt that she also
+belonged.</p>
+<p>However odious comparisons may be, they are many times
+inevitable. Loyally, Kitty tried to magnify the worth of those
+things that in her girlhood had been the supreme things in her
+life, but, try as she might, they were now, in comparison with
+those things which her culture placed first, of trivial importance.
+The virile strength and glowing health of Phil's unspoiled
+manhood&mdash;beautiful as the vigorous life of one of the wild
+horses from which he had his nickname&mdash;were overshadowed, now,
+by the young man's inability to clothe his splendid body in that
+fashion which her culture demanded. His simple and primitive views
+of life&mdash;as natural as the instinct which governs all
+creatures in his God-cultivated world&mdash;were now unrefined,
+ignoble, inelegant. His fine nature and unembarrassed intelligence,
+which found in the wealth of realities amid which he lived abundant
+food for his intellectual life, and which enabled him to see
+clearly, observe closely and think with such clean-cut directness,
+beside the intellectuality of those schooled in the thoughts of
+others, appeared as ignorance and illiteracy. The very fineness and
+gentleness of his nature were now the distinguishing marks of an
+uncouth and awkward rustic.</p>
+<p>With all her woman heart Kitty had fought against these
+comparisons&mdash;and continued to make them. Everything in her
+nature that belonged to Granite Mountain&mdash;that was, in short,
+the product of that land&mdash;answered to Phil's call, as
+instinctively as the life of that land calls and answers Its mating
+calls. Everything that she had acquired in those three years of a
+more advanced civilization denied and repulsed him. And now her
+meeting with Patches had stirred the warring forces to renewed
+activity, and in the distracting turmoil of her thoughts she found
+herself hating the land she loved, loathing the life that appealed
+to her with such insistent power, despising those whom she so
+dearly esteemed and honored, and denying the affection of which she
+was proud with a true woman's tender pride.</p>
+<p>Kitty was aroused from her absorption by the shrill boyish yells
+of her two younger brothers, who, catching sight of their sister
+from the top of one of the low hills that edge the meadow bottom
+lands, were charging recklessly down upon her.</p>
+<p>As the clatter and rumble of those eight flying hoofs drew
+nearer and nearer, Midnight, too, "came alive," as the cowboys say,
+and tossed his head and pranced with eager impatience.</p>
+<p>"Where in the world have you been all the afternoon?" demanded
+Jimmy, with twelve-year-old authority, as his pony slid to a halt
+within a foot or two of his sister's horse.</p>
+<p>And, "We wanted you to go with us, to see our coyote traps,"
+reproved Conny&mdash;two years younger than his brother&mdash;as
+his pinto executed a like maneuver on the other side of the excited
+Midnight.</p>
+<p>"And where is Jack?" asked the young woman mischievously, as she
+smilingly welcomed the vigorous lads.</p>
+<p>"Couldn't he help?"</p>
+<p>Jack was the other member of the Reid trio of boys&mdash;a lusty
+four-year-old who felt himself equal to any venture that interested
+his brothers.</p>
+<p>Jimmy grinned. "Aw, mama coaxed him into the kitchen with
+something to eat while me and Conny sneaked down to the corral and
+saddled up and beat it."</p>
+<p>Big sister's dark eyebrows arched in shocked inquiry, "<i>Me</i>
+and Conny?"</p>
+<p>"That is, Conny and I," amended Jimmy, with good-natured
+tolerance of his sister's whims.</p>
+<p>"You see, Kitty," put in Conny, "this hero coyote traps pin'
+ain't just fun. It's business. Dad's promised us three dollars for
+every scalp, an' we're aimin' to make a stake. We didn't git a
+blamed thing, to-day, though."</p>
+<p>Sister's painful and despairing expression was blissfully
+ignored as Jimmy stealthily flicked the long romal at the end of
+his bridle reins against Midnight's flank.</p>
+<p>"Gee!" observed the tickled youngster, as Kitty gave all her
+attention to restraining the fretting and indignant horse, "ol'
+Midnight is sure some festive, ain't he?"</p>
+<p>"I'll race you both to the big gate," challenged Kitty.</p>
+<p>"For how much?" demanded Jimmy quickly.</p>
+<p>"You got to give us fifty yards start," declared Conny, leaning
+forward in his saddle and shortening his reins.</p>
+<p>"If I win, you boys go straight to bed to-night, when it's time,
+without fussing," said Kitty, "and I'll give you to that oak bush
+yonder."</p>
+<p>"Good enough! You're on!" they shouted in chorus, and loped
+away.</p>
+<p>As they passed the handicap mark, another shrill, defiant yell
+came floating back to where Kitty sat reining in her impatient
+Midnight. At the signal, the two ponies leaped from a lope into a
+full run, while Kitty loosed the restraining rein and the black
+horse stretched away in pursuit. Spurs ring, shouting, entreating,
+the two lads urged their sturdy mounts toward the goal, and the
+pintos answered gamely with all that they had. Over knolls and
+washes, across arroyos and gullies they flew, sure-footed and
+eager, neck and neck, while behind them, drawing nearer and nearer,
+came the black, with body low, head outstretched and limbs that
+moved apparently with the timed regularity and driving power of a
+locomotive's piston rod. As she passed them, Kitty shouted a merry
+"Come on!" which they answered with redoubled exertion and another
+yell of hearty boyish admiration for the victorious Midnight and
+his beautiful rider.</p>
+<p>"Doggone that black streak!" exclaimed Jimmy, his eyes dancing
+with fun as they pulled up at the corral gate.</p>
+<p>"He opens and shuts like a blamed ol' jack rabbit," commented
+Conny. "Seemed like we was just a-sittin' still watchin' you go
+by."</p>
+<p>Kitty laughed, teasingly, and unconsciously slipped into the
+vernacular as she returned, "Did you kids think you were
+a-horseback?"</p>
+<p>"You just wait, Miss," retorted the grinning Jimmy, as he opened
+the big gate. "I'll get a horse some day that'll run circles around
+that ol' black scound'el."</p>
+<p>And then, as they dismounted at the door of the saddle room in
+the big barn, he added generously, "You scoot on up to the house,
+Kitty; I'll take care of Midnight. It must be gettin' near supper
+time, an' I'm hungry enough to eat a raw dog."</p>
+<p>At which alarming statement Kitty promptly scooted, stopping
+only long enough at the windmill pump for a cool, refreshing
+drink.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Reid, with sturdy little Jack helping, was already busy in
+the kitchen. She was a motherly woman, rather below Kitty's height,
+and inclined somewhat to a comfortable stoutness. In her face was
+the gentle strength and patience of those whose years have been
+spent in home-making, without the hardness that is sometimes seen
+in the faces of those whose love is not great enough to soften
+their tail. One knew by the light in her eyes whenever she spoke of
+Kitty, or, indeed, whenever the girl's name was mentioned, how
+large a place her only daughter held in her mother heart.</p>
+<p>While the two worked together at their homely task, the girl
+related in trivial detail the news of the neighborhood, and
+repeated faithfully the talk she had had with the mistress of the
+Cross-Triangle, answering all her mother's questions, replying with
+careful interest to the older woman's comments, relating all that
+was known or guessed, or observed regarding the stranger. But of
+her meeting with Patches, Kitty said little; only that she had met
+him as she was coming home. All during the evening meal, too,
+Patches was the principal topic of the conversation, though Mr.
+Reid, who had arrived home just in time for supper, said
+little.</p>
+<p>When supper was over, and the evening work finished, Kitty sat
+on the porch in the twilight, looking away across the wide valley
+meadows, toward the light that shone where the walnut trees about
+the Cross-Triangle ranch house made a darker mass in the gathering
+gloom. Her father had gone to call upon the Dean. The men were at
+the bunk-house, from which their voices came low and indistinct.
+Within the house the mother was coaxing little Jack to bed. Jimmy
+and Conny, at the farther end of the porch, were planning an
+extensive campaign against coyotes, and investing the unearned
+profits of their proposed industry.</p>
+<p>Kitty's thoughts were many miles away. In that bright and
+stirring life&mdash;so far from the gloomy stillness of her home
+land, where she sat so alone&mdash;what gay pleasures held her
+friends? Amid what brilliant scenes were they spending the evening,
+while she sat in her dark and silent world alone? As her memory
+pictured the lights, the stirring movement, the music, the
+merry-voiced talk, the laughter, the gaiety, the excitement, the
+companionship of those whose lives were so full of interest, her
+heart rebelled at the dull emptiness of her days. As she watched
+the evening dusk deepen into the darkness of the night, and the
+outlines of the familiar landscape fade and vanish in the
+thickening gloom, she felt the dreary monotony of the days and
+years that were to come, blotting out of her life all tone and
+color and forms of brightness and beauty.</p>
+<p>Then she saw, slowly emerging from the shadows of the meadow
+below, a darker shadow&mdash;mysterious, formless&mdash;that
+seemed, as it approached, to shape itself out of the very darkness
+through which it came, until, still dim and indistinct, a horseman
+was opening the meadow gate. Before the cowboy answered Jimmy's
+boyish "Hello!" Kitty knew that it was Phil.</p>
+<p>The young woman's first impulse was to retreat to the safe
+seclusion of her own room. But, even as she arose to her feet, she
+knew how that would hurt the man who had always been so good to
+her; and so she went generously down the walk to meet him where he
+would dismount and leave his horse.</p>
+<p>"Did you see father?" she asked, thinking as she spoke how
+little there was for them to talk about.</p>
+<p>"Why, no. What's the matter?" he returned quickly, pausing as if
+ready to ride again at her word.</p>
+<p>She laughed a little at his manner. "There is nothing the
+matter. He just went over to see the Dean, that's all."</p>
+<p>"I must have missed him crossing the meadow," returned Phil. "He
+always goes around by the road."</p>
+<p>Then, when he stood beside her, he added gently, "But there is
+something the matter, Kitty. What is it? Lonesome for the bright
+lights?"</p>
+<p>That was always Phil's way, she thought. He seemed always to
+know instinctively her every mood and wish.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps I was a little lonely," she admitted. "I am glad that
+you came."</p>
+<p>Then they were at the porch, and her ambitious brothers were
+telling Phil in detail their all-absorbing designs against the
+peace of the coyote tribe, and asking his advice. Mrs. Reid came to
+sit with them a-while, and again the talk followed around the
+narrow circle of their lives, until Kitty felt that she could bear
+no more. Then Mrs. Reid, more merciful than she knew, sent the boys
+to bed and retired to her own room.</p>
+<p>"And so you are tired of us all, and want to go back," mused
+Phil, breaking one of the long, silent periods that in these days
+seemed so often to fall upon them when they found themselves
+alone.</p>
+<p>"That's not quite fair, Phil," she returned gently. "You know
+it's not that."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, tired of this"&mdash;his gesture indicated the
+sweep of the wide land&mdash;"tired of what we are and what we
+do?"</p>
+<p>The girl stirred uneasily, but did not speak.</p>
+<p>"I don't blame you," he continued, as if thinking aloud. "It
+must seem mighty empty to those who don't really know it."</p>
+<p>"And don't I know it?" challenged Kitty. "You seem to forget
+that I was born here&mdash;that I have lived here almost as many
+years as you."</p>
+<p>"But just the same you don't know," returned Phil gently. "You
+see, dear, you knew it as a girl, the same as I did when I was a
+boy. But now&mdash;well, I know it as a man, and you as a woman
+know something that you think is very different."</p>
+<p>Again that long silence lay a barrier between them. Then Kitty
+made the effort, hesitatingly. "Do you love the life so very, very
+much, Phil?"</p>
+<p>He answered quickly. "Yes, but I could love any life that suited
+you."</p>
+<p>"No&mdash;no," she returned hurriedly, "that's not&mdash;I
+mean&mdash;Phil, why are you so satisfied here? There is so little
+for a man like you."</p>
+<p>"So little!" His voice told her that her words had stung. "I
+told you that you did not know. Why, everything that a man has a
+right to want is here. All that life can give anywhere is
+here&mdash;I mean all of life that is worth having. But I suppose,"
+he finished lamely, "that it's hard for you to see it that
+way&mdash;now. It's like trying to make a city man understand why a
+fellow is never lonesome just because there's no crowd around. I
+guess I love this life and am satisfied with it just as the wild
+horses over there at the foot of old Granite love it and are
+satisfied."</p>
+<p>"But don't you feel, sometimes, that if you had greater
+opportunities&mdash;don't you sometimes wish that you could live
+where&mdash;" She paused at a loss for words. Phil somehow always
+made the things she craved seem so trivial.</p>
+<p>"I know what you mean," he answered. "You mean, don't the wild
+horses wish that they could live in a fine stable, and have a lot
+of men to feed and take care of them, and rig them out with fancy,
+gold-mounted harness, and let them prance down the streets for the
+crowds to see? No; horses have more sense than that. It takes a
+human to make that kind of a fool of himself. There's only one
+thing in the world that would make me want to try it, and I guess
+you know what that is."</p>
+<p>His last words robbed his answer of its sting, and she said
+gently, "You are bitter to-night, Phil. It is not like you."</p>
+<p>He did not answer.</p>
+<p>"Did something go wrong to-day?" she persisted.</p>
+<p>He turned suddenly to face her, and spoke with a passion unusual
+to him. "I saw you at the ranch this afternoon&mdash;as you were
+riding away. You did not even look toward the corral where you knew
+I was at work; and it seemed like all the heart went clear out of
+me. Oh, Kitty, girl, can't we bring back the old days as they were
+before you went away?"</p>
+<p>"Hush, Phil," she said, almost as she would have spoken to one
+of her boy brothers.</p>
+<p>But he went on recklessly. "No, I'm going to speak to-night.
+Ever since you came home you have refused to listen to me&mdash;you
+have put me off&mdash;made me keep still. I want you to tell me,
+Kitty, if I were like Honorable Patches, would it make any
+difference?"</p>
+<p>"I do not know Mr. Patches," she answered.</p>
+<p>"You met him to-day; and you know what I mean. Would it make any
+difference if I were like him?"</p>
+<p>"Why, Phil, dear, how can I answer such a question? I do not
+know."</p>
+<p>"Then it's not because I belong here in this country instead of
+back East in some city that has made you change?"</p>
+<p>"I have changed, I suppose, because I have become a woman, Phil,
+as you have become a man."</p>
+<p>"Yes, I have become a man," he returned, "but I have not
+changed, except that the boy's love has become a man's love. Would
+it make any difference, Kitty, if you cared more for the life
+here&mdash;I mean if you were contented here&mdash;if these things
+that mean so much to us all, satisfied you?"</p>
+<p>Again she answered, "I do not know, Phil. How can I know?"</p>
+<p>"Will you try, Kitty&mdash;I mean try to like your old home as
+you used to like it?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, Phil, I have tried. I do try," she cried. "But I don't
+think it's the life that I like or do not like that makes the
+difference. I am sure, Phil, that if I could"&mdash;she hesitated,
+then went on bravely&mdash;"if I could give you the love you want,
+nothing else would matter. You said you could like any life that
+suited me. Don't you think that I could be satisfied with any life
+that suited the man I loved?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," he said, "you could; and that's the answer."</p>
+<p>"What is the answer?" she asked.</p>
+<p>"Love, just love, Kitty&mdash;any place with love is a good
+place, and without love no life can satisfy. I am glad you said
+that. It was what I wanted you to say. I know now what I have to
+do. I am like Patches. I have found my job." There was no
+bitterness in his voice now.</p>
+<p>The girl was deeply moved, but&mdash;"I don't think I quite
+understand, Phil," she said.</p>
+<p>"Why, don't you see?" he returned. "My job is to win your
+love&mdash;to make you love me&mdash;for myself&mdash;for just what
+I am&mdash;as a man&mdash;and not to try to be something or to live
+some way that I think you would like. It's the man that you must
+love, and not what he does or where he lives. Isn't that it?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," she answered slowly. "I am sure that is so. It must be
+so, Phil."</p>
+<p>He rose to his feet abruptly. "All right," he said, almost
+roughly. "I'll go now. But don't make any mistake, Kitty. You're
+mine, girl, mine, by laws that are higher than the things they
+taught you at school. And you are going to find it out. I am going
+to win you&mdash;just as the wild things out there win their mates.
+You are going to come to me, girl, because you are
+mine&mdash;because you are my mate."</p>
+<p>And then, as she, too, arose, and they stood for a silent moment
+facing each other, the woman felt his strength, and in her woman
+heart was glad&mdash;glad and proud, though she could not give all
+that he asked.</p>
+<p>As she watched him ride away into the night, and the soft
+mystery of the darkness out of which he had come seemed to take his
+shadowy form again to itself, she wondered&mdash;wondered with
+regret in the thought&mdash;would he, perhaps, go thus out of her
+life? Would he?</p>
+<p>When Phil turned his horse into the meadow pasture at home the
+big bay, from somewhere in the darkness, trumpeted his challenge. A
+low laugh came from near by, and in the light of the stars Phil saw
+a man standing by the pasture fence. As he went toward the shadowy
+figure the voice of Patches followed the laugh.</p>
+<p>"I'll bet that was Stranger."</p>
+<p>"I know it was," answered Phil. "What's the matter that you're
+not in bed?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I was just listening to the horses out there, and
+thinking," returned Patches.</p>
+<p>"Thinking about your job?" asked Phil quietly.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps," admitted the other.</p>
+<p>"Well, you have no reason to worry; you'll ride him all right,"
+said the cowboy.</p>
+<p>"I wish I could be as sure," the other returned doubt fully.</p>
+<p>And they both knew that they were using the big bay horse as a
+symbol.</p>
+<p>"And I wish I was as sure of making good at my job, as I am that
+you will win out with yours," returned Phil.</p>
+<p>Patches' voice was very kind as he said reflectively, "So, you
+have a job, too. I am glad for that."</p>
+<p>"Glad?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," the tall man placed a hand on the other's shoulder as
+they turned to walk toward the house, "because, Phil, I have come
+to the conclusion that this old world is a mighty empty place for
+the man who has nothing to do."</p>
+<p>"But there seems to be a lot of fellows who manage to keep
+fairly busy doing nothing, just the same, don't you think?" replied
+Phil with a low laugh.</p>
+<p>"I said <i>man</i>'," retorted Patches, with emphasis.</p>
+<p>"That's right," agreed Phil. "A man just naturally requires a
+man's job."</p>
+<p>"And," mused Patches, "when it's all said and done, I suppose
+there's only one genuine, simon-pure, full-sized man's job in the
+world."</p>
+<p>"And I reckon that's right, too," returned the cowboy.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/129.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_08.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/130.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>few days after Jim Reid's evening visit to the Dean two cowboys
+from the Diamond-and-a-Half outfit, on their way to Cherry Creek,
+stopped at the ranch for dinner.</p>
+<p>The well-known, open-handed Baldwin hospitality led many a
+passing rider thus aside from the main valley road and through the
+long meadow lane to the Cross-Triangle table. Always there was good
+food for man and horse, with a bed for those who came late in the
+day; and always there was a hearty welcome and talk under the
+walnut trees with the Dean. And in all that broad land there was
+scarce a cowboy who, when riding the range, would not look out for
+the Dean's cattle with almost the same interest and care that he
+gave to the animals bearing the brand of his own employer.</p>
+<p>So it was that these riders from the Tonto Flats country told
+the Dean that in looking over the Cross-Triangle cattle watering at
+Toohey they had seen several cases of screwworms.</p>
+<p>"We doped a couple of the worst, and branded a calf for you,"
+said "Shorty" Myers.</p>
+<p>And his companion, Bert Wilson, added, as though apologizing,
+"We couldn't stop any longer because we got to make it over to
+Wheeler's before mornin'."</p>
+<p>"Much obliged, boys," returned the Dean. Then, with his
+ever-ready jest, "Sure you put the right brand on that calf?"</p>
+<p>"We-all ain't ridin' for no Tailholt Mountain outfit this
+season," retorted Bert dryly, as they all laughed at the Dean's
+question.</p>
+<p>And at the cowboy's words Patches, wondering, saw the laughing
+faces change and looks of grim significance flash from man to
+man.</p>
+<p>"Anybody seen anything over your way lately?" asked the Dean
+quietly.</p>
+<p>In the moment of silence that followed the visitors looked
+questioningly from the face of Patches to the Dean and then to
+Phil. Phil smiled his endorsement of the stranger, and "Shorty"
+said, "We found a couple of fresh-branded calves what didn't seem
+to have no mothers last week, and Bud Stillwell says some things
+look kind o' funny over in the D.1 neighborhood."</p>
+<p>Another significant silence followed. To Patches, it seemed as
+the brooding hush that often precedes a storm. He had not missed
+those questioning looks of the visitors, and had seen Phil's
+smiling endorsement, but he could not, of course, understand. He
+could only wonder and wait, for he felt intuitively that he must
+not speak. It was as though these strong men who had received him
+so generously into their lives put him, now, outside their circle,
+while they considered business of grave moment to themselves.</p>
+<p>"Well, boys," said the Dean, as if to dismiss the subject, "I've
+been in this cow business a good many years, now, an' I've seen all
+kinds of men come an' go, but I ain't never seen the man yet that
+could get ahead very far without payin' for what he got. Some time,
+one way or another, whether he's so minded or not, a man's just
+naturally got to pay."</p>
+<p>"That law is not peculiar to the cattle business, either, is it,
+Mr. Baldwin?" The words came from Patches, and as they saw his
+face, it was their turn to wonder.</p>
+<p>The Dean looked straight into the dark eyes that were so filled
+with painful memories, and wistful desire. "Sir?"</p>
+<p>"I mean," said Patches, embarrassed, as though he had spoken
+involuntarily, "that what you say applies to those who live
+idly&mdash;doing no useful work whatever&mdash;as well as to those
+who are dishonest in business of any kind, or who deliberately
+steal outright. Don't you think so?"</p>
+<p>The Dean&mdash;his eyes still fixed on the face of the new
+man&mdash;answered slowly, "I reckon that's so, Patches. When you
+come to think about it, it <i>must</i> be so. One way or another
+every man that takes what he ain't earned has to pay for it."</p>
+<p>"Who is he?" asked the visitors of Curly and Bob, as they went
+for their horses, when the meal was over.</p>
+<p>The Cross-Triangle men shook their heads.</p>
+<p>"Just blew in one day, and the Dean hired him," said Bob.</p>
+<p>"But he's the handiest man with his fists that's ever been in
+this neck of the woods. If you don't believe it, just you start
+something," added Curly with enthusiasm.</p>
+<p>"Found it out, did you?" laughed Bert.</p>
+<p>"In something less than a minute," admitted Curly.</p>
+<p>"Funny name!" mused "Shorty."</p>
+<p>Bob grinned. "That's what Curly thought&mdash;at first."</p>
+<p>"And then he took another think, huh?"</p>
+<p>"Yep," agreed Curly, "he sure carries the proper credentials to
+make any name that he wants to wear good enough for me."</p>
+<p>The visitors mounted their horses, and sat looking appraisingly
+at the tall figure of Honorable Patches, as that gentleman passed
+them at a little distance, on his way to the barn.</p>
+<p>"Mebby you're right," admitted "Shorty," "but he sure talks like
+a schoolmarm, don't he?"</p>
+<p>"He sure ain't no puncher," commented Bert.</p>
+<p>"No, but I'm gamblin' that he's goin' to be," retorted Curly,
+ignoring the reference to Patches' culture.</p>
+<p>"Me, too," agreed Bob.</p>
+<p>"Well, we'll all try him out this fall rodeo"; and "better not
+let him drift far from the home ranch for a while," laughed the
+visitors. "So long!" and they were away.</p>
+<p>Before breakfast the next morning Phil said to Patches, "Catch
+up Snip, and give him a feed of grain. You'll ride with me
+to-day."</p>
+<p>At Patches' look of surprise he explained laughingly, "I'm going
+to give my school a little vacation, and Uncle Will thinks it's
+time you were out of the kindergarten."</p>
+<p>Later, as they were crossing the big pasture toward the country
+that lies to the south, the foreman volunteered the further
+information that for the next few weeks they would ride the
+range.</p>
+<p>"May I ask what for?" said Patches, encouraged by the cowboy's
+manner.</p>
+<p>It was one of the man's peculiarities that he rarely entered
+into the talk of his new friends when their work was the topic of
+conversation. And he never asked questions except when alone with
+Phil or the Dean, and then only when led on by them. It was not
+that he sought to hide his ignorance, for he made no pretenses
+whatever, but his reticence seemed, rather, the result of a curious
+feeling of shame that he had so little in common with these men
+whose lives were so filled with useful labor. And this, if he had
+known, was one of the things that made them like him. Men who live
+in such close daily touch with the primitive realities of life, and
+who thereby acquire a simple directness, with a certain native
+modesty, have no place in their hearts for&mdash;to use their own
+picturesque vernacular&mdash;a "four-flusher."</p>
+<p>Phil tactfully did not even smile at the question, but answered
+in a matter-of-fact tone. "To look out for screw-*worms, brand a
+calf here and there, keep the water holes open, and look out for
+the stock generally."</p>
+<p>"And you mean," questioned Patches doubtfully, "that <i>I</i> am
+to ride with you?"</p>
+<p>"Sure. You see, Uncle Will thinks you are too good a man to
+waste on the odd jobs around the place, and so I'm going to get you
+in shape for the rodeo this fall."</p>
+<p>The effect of his words was peculiar. A deep red colored
+Patches' face, and his eyes shone with a glad light, as he faced
+his companion. "And you&mdash;what do you think about it, Phil?" he
+demanded.</p>
+<p>The cowboy laughed at the man's eagerness. "Me? Oh, I think just
+as I have thought all the time&mdash;ever since you asked for a job
+that day in the corral."</p>
+<p>Patches drew a long breath, and, sitting very straight in the
+saddle, looked away toward Granite Mountain; while Phil, watching
+him curiously, felt something like kindly pity in his heart for
+this man who seemed to hunger so for a man's work, and a place
+among men.</p>
+<p>Just outside the Deep Wash gate of the big pasture, a few cattle
+were grazing in the open flat. As the men rode toward them, Phil
+took down his riata while Patches watched him questioningly.</p>
+<p>"We may as well begin right here," said the cowboy. "Do you see
+anything peculiar about anything in that bunch?"</p>
+<p>Patches studied the cattle in vain.</p>
+<p>"What about that calf yonder?" suggested Phil, leisurely opening
+the loop of his rope. "I mean that six-months youngster with the
+white face."</p>
+<p>Still Patches hesitated.</p>
+<p>Phil helped him again. "Look at his ears."</p>
+<p>"They're not marked," exclaimed Patches.</p>
+<p>"And what should they be marked?" asked the teacher.</p>
+<p>"Under-bit right and a split left, if he belongs to the
+Cross-Triangle," returned the pupil proudly, and in the same breath
+he exclaimed, "He is not branded either."</p>
+<p>Phil smiled approval. "That's right, and we'll just fix him now,
+before somebody else beats us to him." He moved his horse slowly
+toward the cattle as he spoke.</p>
+<p>"But," exclaimed Patches, "how do you know that he belongs to
+the Cross-Triangle?"</p>
+<p>"He doesn't," returned Phil, laughing. "He belongs to me."</p>
+<p>"But I don't see how you can tell."</p>
+<p>"I know because I know the stock," Phil explained, "and because
+I happen to remember that particular calf, in the rodeo last
+spring. He got away from us, with his mother, in the cedars and
+brush over near the head of Mint Wash. That's one of the things
+that you have to learn in this business, you see. But, to be sure
+we're right, you watch him a minute, and you'll see him go to a
+Five-Bar cow. The Five-Bar is my iron, you know&mdash;I have a few
+head running with Uncle Will's."</p>
+<p>Even as he spoke, the calf, frightened at their closer approach,
+ran to a cow that was branded as Phil had said, and the cow, with
+unmistakable maternal interest in her offspring, proved the
+ownership of the calf.</p>
+<p>"You see?" said Phil. "We'll get that fellow now, because before
+the next rodeo he'll be big enough to leave his mother, and then;
+if he isn't branded, he'll be a maverick, and will belong to
+anybody that puts an iron on him."</p>
+<p>"But couldn't someone brand him now, with their brand, and drive
+him away from his mother?" asked Patches.</p>
+<p>"Such things have been known to happen, and that not a thousand
+miles from here, either," returned Phil dryly. "But, really, you
+know, Mr. Patches, it isn't done among the best people."</p>
+<p>Patches laughed aloud at his companion's attempt at a simpering
+affectation. Then he watched with admiration while the cowboy sent
+his horse after the calf and, too quickly for an inexperienced eye
+to see just how it was done, the deft riata stretched the animal by
+the heels. With a short "hogging" rope, which he carried looped
+through a hole cut in the edge of his chaps near the belt, Phil
+tied the feet of his victim, before the animal had recovered from
+the shock of the fall; and then, with Patches helping, proceeded to
+build a small fire of dry grass and leaves and sticks from a
+near-by bush. From his saddle, Phil took a small iron rod,
+flattened at one end, and only long enough to permit its being held
+in the gloved hand when the flattened end was hot&mdash;a running
+iron, he called it, and explained to his interested pupil, as he
+thrust it into the fire, how some of the boys used an iron ring for
+range branding.</p>
+<p>"And is there no way to change or erase a brand?" asked Patches,
+while the iron was heating.</p>
+<p>"Sure there is," replied Phil. And sitting on his heels, cowboy
+fashion, he marked on the ground with a stick.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/137a.png" width="20%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<div class="figleft"><br />
+<img src="images/137b.png" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p>"Look! This is the Cross-Triangle brand:--; and this:--, the
+Four-Bar-M, happens to be Nick Cambert's iron, over at Tailholt
+Mountain. Now, can't you see how, supposing I were Nick, and this
+calf were branded with the Cross-Triangle, I could work the iron
+over into my brand?"</p>
+<p>Patches nodded. "But is there no way to detect such a
+fraud?"</p>
+<p>"It's a mighty hard thing to prove that an iron has bees worked
+over," Phil answered slowly. "About the only sure way is to catch
+the thief in the act."</p>
+<p>"But there are the earmarks," said Patches, a few moments later,
+when Phil had released the branded and marked calf&mdash;"the
+earmarks and the brand wouldn't agree."</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/138a.png" width="30%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/138b.png" width="40%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"They would if I were Nick," said the cowboy. Then he added
+quickly, as if regretting his remark, "Our earmark is an under-bit
+right and a split left, you said. Well, the Four-Bar-M earmark is a
+crop and an under-bit right and a swallow-fork left." With the
+point of his iron now he again marked in the dirt. "Here's your
+Cross-Triangle:--; and here's your Pour-Bar-M:--."</p>
+<p>"And if a calf branded with a Tailholt iron were to be found
+following a Cross-Triangle cow, then what?" came Patches' very
+natural question.</p>
+<p>"Then," returned the foreman of the Cross-Triangle grimly,
+"there would be a mighty good chance for trouble."</p>
+<p>"But it seems to me," said Patches, as they rode on, "that it
+would be easily possible for a man to brand another man's calf by
+mistake."</p>
+<p>"A man always makes a mistake when he puts his iron on another
+man's property," returned the cowboy shortly.</p>
+<p>"But might it not be done innocently, just the same!" persisted
+Patches.</p>
+<p>"Yes, it might," admitted Phil.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, what would you do if you found a calf, that you
+knew belonged to the Dean, branded with some other man's brand? I
+mean, how would you proceed?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I see what you are driving at," said Phil in quite a
+different tone. "If you ever run on to a case, the first thing for
+you to do is to be dead sure that the misbranded calf belongs to
+one of our cows. Then, if you are right, and it's not too far,
+drive the cow and calf into the nearest corral and report it. If
+you can't get them to a corral without too much trouble, just put
+the Cross-Triangle on the calf's ribs. When he shows up in the next
+rodeo, with the right brand on his ribs, and some other brand where
+the right brand ought to be&mdash;you'll take pains to remember his
+natural markings, of course&mdash;you will explain the
+circumstances, and the owner of the iron that was put on him by
+mistake will be asked to vent his brand. A brand is vented by
+putting the same brand on the animal's shoulder. Look! There's one
+now." He pointed to an animal a short distance away. "See, that
+steer is branded Diamond-and-a-Half on hip and shoulder, and
+Cross-Triangle on his ribs. Well, when he was a yearling he
+belonged to the Diamond-and-a-Half outfit. We picked him up in the
+rodeo, away over toward Mud Tanks. He was running with our stock,
+and Stillwell didn't want to go to the trouble of taking him
+home&mdash;about thirty miles it is&mdash;so he sold him to Uncle
+Will, and vented his brand, as you see."</p>
+<p>"I see," said Patches, "but that's different from finding a calf
+misbranded."</p>
+<p>"Sure. There was no question of ownership there," agreed
+Phil.</p>
+<p>"But in the case of the calf," the cowboy's pupil persisted, "if
+it had left its mother when the man owning the iron was asked to
+vent it, there would be no way of proving the real ownership."</p>
+<p>"Nothing but the word of the man who found the calf with its
+mother, and, perhaps, the knowledge of the men who knew the
+stock."</p>
+<p>"What I am getting at," smiled Patches, "is this: it would come
+down at last to a question of men, wouldn't it?"</p>
+<p>"That's where most things come to in, the end in this country,
+Patches. But you're right. With owners like Uncle Will, and Jim
+Reid, and Stillwell, and dozens of others; and with cowboys like
+Curly and Bob and Bert and 'Shorty,' there would be no trouble at
+all about the matter."</p>
+<p>"But with others," suggested Patches.</p>
+<p>"Well," said Phil slowly, "there are men in this country, who,
+if they refused to vent a brand under such circumstances, would be
+seeing trouble, and mighty quick, too."</p>
+<p>"There's another thing that we've got to watch out for, just
+now," Phil continued, a few minutes later, "and that is,
+'sleepers'. We'll suppose," he explained, "that I want to build up
+my, bunch of Five-Bars, and that I am not too particular about how
+I do it. Well, I run on to an unbranded Pot-Hook-S calf that looks
+good to me, but I don't dare put my iron on him because he's too
+young to leave his mother. If I let him go until he is older, some
+of Jim Reid's riders will brand him, and, you see, I never could
+work over the Pot-Hook-S iron into my Five-Bar. So I earmark the
+calf with the owner's marks, and don't brand him at all. Then he's
+a sleeper. If the Pot-Hook-S boys see him, they'll notice that he's
+earmarked all right, and very likely they'll take it for granted
+that he's branded, or, perhaps let him go anyway. Before the next
+rodeo I run on to my sleeper again, and he's big enough now to take
+away from the cow, so all I have to do is to change the earmarks
+and brand him with my iron. Of course, I wouldn't get all my
+sleepers, but&mdash;the percentage would be in my favor. If too
+many sleepers show up in the rodeo, though, folks would get mighty
+suspicious that someone was too handy with his knife. We got a lot
+of sleepers in the last rodeo," he concluded quietly.</p>
+<p>And Patches, remembering what Little Billy had said about Nick
+Cambert and Yavapai Joe, and with the talk of the visiting cowboys
+still fresh in his mind, realized that he was making progress in
+his education.</p>
+<p>Riding leisurely, and turning frequently aside for a nearer view
+of the cattle they sighted here and there, they reached Toohey a
+little before noon. Here, in a rocky hollow of the hills, a small
+stream wells from under the granite walls, only to lose itself a
+few hundred yards away in the sands and gravel of the wash. But,
+short as its run in the daylight is, the water never fails. And
+many cattle come from the open range that lies on every side, to
+drink, and, in summer time, to spend the heat of the day, standing
+in the cool, wet sands or lying in the shade of the giant sycamores
+that line the bank opposite the bluff. There are corrals near-by
+and a rude cook-shack under the wide-spreading branches of an old
+walnut tree; and the ground of the flat open space, a little back
+from the water, is beaten bare and hard by the thousands upon
+thousands of cattle that have at many a past rodeo-time been
+gathered there.</p>
+<p>The two men found, as the Diamond-and-a-Half riders had said,
+several animals suffering from those pests of the Arizona ranges,
+the screwworms. As Phil explained to Patches while they watered
+their horses, the screwworm is the larva of a blowfly bred in sores
+on living animals. The unhealed wounds of the branding iron made
+the calves by far the most numerous among the sufferers, and were
+the afflicted animals not treated the loss during the season would
+amount to considerable.</p>
+<p>"Look here, Patches," said the cowboy, as his practiced eyes
+noted the number needing attention. "I'll tell you what we'll do.
+We'll just run this hospital bunch into the corral, and you can
+limber up that riata of yours."</p>
+<p>And so Patches learned not only the unpleasant work of cleaning
+the worm-infested sores with chloroform, but received his first
+lesson in the use of the cowboy's indispensable tool, the
+riata.</p>
+<p>"What next?" asked Patches, as the last calf escaped through the
+gate which he had just opened, and ran to find the waiting and
+anxious mother.</p>
+<p>Phil looked at his companion, and laughed. Honorable Patches
+showed the effect of his strenuous and bungling efforts to learn
+the rudiments of the apparently simple trick of roping a calf. His
+face was streaked with sweat and dust, his hair disheveled, and his
+clothing soiled and stained. But his eyes were bright, and his
+bearing eager and ready.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter?" he demanded, grinning happily at his
+teacher. "What fool thing have I done now?"</p>
+<p>"You're doing fine," Phil returned. "I was only thinking that
+you don't look much like the man I met up on the Divide that
+evening."</p>
+<p>"I don't feel much like him, either, as far as that goes,"
+returned Patches.</p>
+<p>Phil glanced up at the sun. "What do you say to dinner? It must
+be about that time."</p>
+<p>"Dinner?"</p>
+<p>"Sure. I brought some jerky&mdash;there on my saddle&mdash;and
+some coffee. There ought to be an old pot in the shack yonder. Some
+of the boys don't bother, but I never like to miss a feed unless
+it's necessary." He did not explain that the dinner was really a
+thoughtful concession to his companion.</p>
+<p>"Ugh!" ejaculated Patches, with a shrug of disgust, the work
+they had been doing still fresh in his mind. "I couldn't eat a
+bite."</p>
+<p>"You think that now," retorted Phil, "but you just go down to
+the creek, drink all you can hold, wash up, and see how quick
+you'll change your mind when you smell the coffee."</p>
+<p>And thus Patches received yet another lesson&mdash;a lesson in
+the art of forgetting promptly the most disagreeable features of
+his work&mdash;an art very necessary to those who aspire to master
+real work of any sort whatever.</p>
+<p>When they had finished their simple meal, and lay stretched full
+length beneath the overhanging limbs of the age-old tree that had
+witnessed so many stirring scenes, and listened to so many
+camp-fire tales of ranch and range, they talked of things other
+than their work. In low tones, as men who feel a mystic and
+not-to-be-explained bond of fellowship&mdash;with half-closed eyes
+looking out into the untamed world that lay before them&mdash;they
+spoke of life, of its mystery and meaning. And Phil, usually so
+silent when any conversation touched himself, and so timid always
+in expressing his own self thoughts, was strangely moved to permit
+this man to look upon the carefully hidden and deeper things of his
+life. But upon his cherished dream&mdash;upon his great
+ambition&mdash;he kept the door fast closed. The time for that
+revelation of himself was not yet.</p>
+<p>"By the way, Phil," said Patches, when at last his companion
+signified that it was time for them to go. "Where were you
+educated? I don't think that I have heard you say."</p>
+<p>"I have no education," returned the young man, with a laugh
+that, to Patches, sounded a bitter note. "I'm just a common
+cow-puncher, that's all."</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon," returned the other, "but I thought from the
+books you mentioned&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Oh, the books! Why, you see, some four years ago a real,
+honest-to-goodness book man came out to this country for his
+health, and brought his disease along with him."</p>
+<p>"His disease?" questioned Patches.</p>
+<p>Phil smiled. "His books, I mean. They killed him, and I fell
+heir to his trouble. He was a good fellow, all right&mdash;we all
+liked him&mdash;might have been a man if he hadn't been so much of
+a scholar. I was curious, at first, just to see what it was that
+had got such a grip on him; and then I got interested myself. About
+that time, too, there was a reason why I thought it might be a good
+thing for me; so I sent for more, and have made a fairly good job
+of it in the past three years. I don't think that there's any
+danger, though, of the habit getting the grip on me that it had on
+him," he reflected with a whimsical grin. "It was our book friend
+who first called Uncle Will the Dean."</p>
+<p>"The title certainly fits him well," remarked Patches. "I don't
+wonder that it stuck. I suppose you received yours for your
+riding?"</p>
+<p>"Mine?"</p>
+<p>"'Wild Horse Phil,' I mean," smiled the other.</p>
+<p>Phil laughed. "Haven't you heard that yarn yet? I reckon I may
+as well tell you. No, wait!" he exclaimed eagerly. "We have lots of
+time. We'll ride south a little way and perhaps I can show
+you."</p>
+<p>As they rode away up the creek, Patches wondered much at his
+companion's words and at his manner, but the cowboy shook his head
+at every question, answering, simply, "Wait."</p>
+<p>Soon they had left the creek bed&mdash;passing through a rock
+gateway at the beginning of the little stream&mdash;and were riding
+up a long, gently sloping hollow between two low but rugged ridges.
+The crest of the rocky wall on their left was somewhat higher than
+the ridge on their right, but, as the floor of the long, narrow
+hollow ascended, the sides of the little valley became
+correspondingly lower. Patches noticed that his companion was now
+keenly alert and watchful. He sat his horse easily, but there was a
+certain air of readiness in his poise, as though he anticipated
+sudden action, while his eyes searched the mountain sides with
+eager expectancy.</p>
+<p>They had nearly reached the upper end of the long slope when
+Phil abruptly reined his horse to the left and rode straight up
+that rugged, rock-strewn mountain wall. To Patches it seemed
+impossible that a horse could climb such a place; but he said
+nothing, and wisely gave Snip his head. They were nearly at the
+top&mdash;so near, in fact, that Phil could see over the narrow
+crest&mdash;when the cowboy suddenly checked his horse and slipped
+from the saddle. With a gesture he bade his companion follow his
+example, and in a moment Patches stood beside him. Leaving their
+horses, they crept the few remaining feet to the summit. Crouching
+low, then lying prone, they worked their way to the top of a huge
+rounded rock, from which they could look over and down upon the
+country that lies beyond.</p>
+<p>Patches uttered a low exclamation, but Phil's instant grip on
+his arm checked further speech.</p>
+<p>From where they lay, they looked down upon a great mountain
+basin of gently rolling, native grass land. From the foot of that
+rocky ridge, the beautiful pasture stretches away, several miles,
+to the bold, gray cliffs and mighty, towering battlements of
+Granite Mountain. On the south, a range of dark hills, and to the
+north, a series of sharp peaks, form the natural boundaries.</p>
+<p>"Do you see them?" whispered Phil.</p>
+<p>Patches looked at him inquiringly. The stranger's interest in
+that wonderful scene had led him to overlook that which held his
+companion's attention.</p>
+<p>"There," whispered Phil impatiently, "on the side of that hill
+there&mdash;they're not more than four hundred yards away, and
+they're working toward us."</p>
+<p>"Do you mean those horses?" whispered Patches, amazed at his
+companion's manner.</p>
+<p>Phil nodded.</p>
+<p>"Do they belong to the Cross-Triangle?" asked Patches, still
+mystified.</p>
+<p>"The Cross-Triangle!" Phil chuckled. Then, with a note of
+genuine reverence in his voice, he added softly, "They belong to
+God, Mr. Honorable Patches."</p>
+<p>Then Patches understood. "Wild horses!" he ejaculated
+softly.</p>
+<p>There are few men, I think, who can look without admiration upon
+a beautifully formed, noble spirited horse. The glorious pride and
+strength and courage of these most kingly of God's
+creatures&mdash;even when they are in harness and subject to their
+often inferior masters&mdash;compel respect and a degree of
+appreciation. But seen as they roam free in those pastures that,
+since the creation, have never been marred by plow or
+fence&mdash;pastures that are theirs by divine right, and the sunny
+slopes and shady groves and rocky nooks of which constitute their
+kingdom&mdash;where, in their lordly strength, they are subject
+only to the dictates of their own being, and, unmutilated by human
+cruelty, rule by the power and authority of Nature's
+laws&mdash;they stir the blood of the coldest heart to a quicker
+flow, and thrill the mind of the dullest with admiring awe.</p>
+<p>"There's twenty-eight in that bunch," whispered Phil. "Do you
+see that big black stallion on guard&mdash;the one that throws up
+his head every minute or two for a look around?"</p>
+<p>Patches nodded. There was no mistaking the watchful leader of
+the band.</p>
+<p>"He's the chap that gave me my title, as you call it," chuckled
+Phil. "Come on, now, and we'll see them in action; then I'll tell
+you about it."</p>
+<p>He slipped from the rock and led the way back to the saddle
+horses.</p>
+<p>Riding along the ridge, just under the crest, they soon reached
+the point where the chain of low peaks merges into the hills that
+form the southern boundary of the basin, and so came suddenly into
+full view of the wild horses that were feeding on the slopes a
+little below.</p>
+<p>As the two horsemen appeared, the leader of the band threw up
+his head with a warning call to his fellows.</p>
+<p>Phil reined in his horse and motioned for Patches to do the
+same.</p>
+<p>For several minutes, the black stallion held his place, as
+motionless as the very rocks of the mountain side, gazing straight
+at the mounted men as though challenging their right to cross the
+boundary of his kingdom, while his retainers stood as still,
+waiting his leadership. With his long, black mane and tail rippling
+and waving in the breeze that swept down from Blair Pass and across
+the Basin, with his raven-black coat glistening in the sunlight
+with the sheen of richest satin where the swelling muscles curved
+and rounded from shadow to high light, and with his poise of
+perfect strength and freedom, he looked, as indeed he was, a prince
+of his kind&mdash;a lord of the untamed life that homes in those
+God-cultivated fields.</p>
+<p>Patches glanced at his companion, as if to speak, but struck by
+the expression on the cowboy's face, remained silent. Phil was
+leaning a little forward in his saddle, his body as perfect in its
+poise of alert and graceful strength as the body of the wild horse
+at which he was gazing with such fixed interest. The clear, deeply
+tanned skin of his cheeks glowed warmly with the red of his clean,
+rich blood, his eyes shone with suppressed excitement, his lips,
+slightly parted, curved in a smile of appreciation, love and
+reverence for the unspoiled beauty of the wild creature that he
+himself, in so many ways, unconsciously resembled.</p>
+<p>And Patches&mdash;bred and schooled in a world so far from this
+world of primitive things&mdash;looking from Phil to the wild
+horse, and back again from the stallion to the man, felt the spirit
+and the power that made them kin&mdash;felt it with a, to him,
+strange new feeling of reverence, as though in the perfect,
+unspoiled life-strength of man and horse he came in closer touch
+with the divine than he had ever known before.</p>
+<p>Then, without taking his eyes from the object of his almost
+worship, Phil said, "Now, watch him, Patches, watch him!"</p>
+<p>As he spoke, he moved slowly toward the band, while Patches rode
+close by his side.</p>
+<p>At their movement, the wild stallion called another warning to
+his followers, and went a few graceful paces toward the slowly
+approaching men. And then, as they continued their slow advance, he
+wheeled with the smooth grace of a swallow, and, with a movement so
+light and free that he seemed rather to skim over the surface of
+the ground than to tread upon it, circled here and there about his
+band, assembling them in closer order, flying, with ears flat and
+teeth bared and mane and tail tossing, in lordly fury at the
+laggards, driving them before him, but keeping always between his
+charges and the danger until they were at what he evidently judged
+to be, for their inferior strength, a distance of safety. Then
+again he halted his company and, moving alone a short way toward
+the horsemen, stood motionless, watching their slow approach.</p>
+<p>Again Phil checked his horse. "God!" he exclaimed under his
+breath. "What a sight! Oh, you beauty! You beauty!"</p>
+<p>But Patches was moved less by the royal beauty of the wild
+stallion than by the passionate reverence that vibrated in his
+companion's voice.</p>
+<p>Again the two horsemen moved forward; and again the stallion
+drove his band to a safe distance, and stood waiting between them
+and their enemies.</p>
+<p>Then the cowboy laughed aloud&mdash;a hearty laugh of clean
+enjoyment. "All right, old fellow, I'll just give you a whirl for
+luck," he said aloud to the wild horse, apparently forgetting his
+human companion.</p>
+<p>And Patches saw him shorten his reins, and rise a little in his
+stirrups, while his horse, as though understanding, gathered
+himself for a spring. In a flash Patches was alone, watching as
+Phil, riding with every ounce of strength that his mount could
+command, dashed straight toward the band.</p>
+<p>For a moment, the black stallion stood watching the now rapidly
+approaching rider. Then, wheeling, he started his band, driving
+them imperiously, now, to their utmost speed, and then, as though
+he understood this new maneuver of the cowboy, he swept past his
+running companions, with the clean, easy flight of an arrow, and
+taking his place at the head of his charges led them away toward
+Granite Mountain.</p>
+<p>Phil stopped, and Patches could see him watching, as the wild
+horses, with streaming manes and tails, following their leader, who
+seemed to run with less than half his strength, swept away across
+the rolling hillsides, growing smaller and smaller in the distance,
+until, as dark, swiftly moving dots, they vanished over the sky
+line.</p>
+<p>"Wasn't that great?" cried Phil, when he had loped back to his
+companion. "Did you see him go by the bunch like they were standing
+still?"</p>
+<p>"There didn't seem to be much show for you to catch him," said
+Patches.</p>
+<p>"Catch him!" exclaimed Phil. "Did you think I was trying to
+catch him? I just wanted to see him go. The horse doesn't live that
+could put a man within roping distance of any one in that bunch on
+a straightaway run, and the black can run circles around the whole
+outfit. I had him once, though."</p>
+<p>"You caught that black!" exclaimed
+Patches&mdash;incredulously.</p>
+<p>Phil grinned. "I sure had him for a little while."</p>
+<p>"But what is he doing out here running loose, then?" demanded
+the other. "Got away, did he?"</p>
+<p>"Got away, nothing. Fact is, he belongs to me right now, in a
+way, and I wouldn't swap him for any string of cow-horses that I
+ever saw."</p>
+<p>Then, as they rode toward the home ranch, Phil told the story
+that is known throughout all that country.</p>
+<p>"It was when the black was a yearling," he said. "I'd had my eye
+on him all the year, and so had some of the other boys who had
+sighted the band, for you could see, even when he was a colt, what
+he was going to be. The wild horses were getting rather too
+numerous that season, and we planned a chase to thin them out a
+little, as we do every two or three years. Of course, everybody was
+after the black; and one day, along toward the end of the chase,
+when the different bands had been broken up and scattered pretty
+much, I ran onto him. I was trailing an old gray up that
+draw&mdash;the way we went to-day, you know, and all at once I met
+him as he was coming over the top of the hill, right where you and
+I rode onto him. It was all so sudden that for a minute he was
+rattled as bad as I was; and, believe me, I was shaking like a
+leaf. I managed to come to, first, though, and hung my rope on him
+before he could get started. I don't know to this day where the old
+gray that I was after went. Well, sir; he fought like a devil, and
+for a spell we had it around and around until I wasn't dead sure
+whether I had him or he had me. But he was only a yearling then,
+you see, and I finally got him down."</p>
+<p>Phil paused, a peculiar expression on his face. Patches waited
+silently.</p>
+<p>"Do you know," said the cowboy, at last, hesitatingly, "I can't
+explain it&mdash;and I don't talk about it much, for it was the
+strangest thing that ever happened to me&mdash;but when I looked
+into that black stallion's eyes, and he looked me straight in the
+face, I never felt so sorry for anything in my life. I was sort of
+ashamed like&mdash;like&mdash;well, like I'd been caught holding up
+a church, you know, or something like that. We were all alone up
+there, just him and me, and while I was getting my wind, and we
+were sizing each other up, and I was feeling that way, I got to
+thinking what it all meant to him&mdash;to be broken and
+educated&mdash;and&mdash;well&mdash;civilized, you know; and I
+thought what a horse he would be if he was left alone to live as
+God made him, and so&mdash;well&mdash;" He paused again with an
+embarrassed laugh.</p>
+<p>"You let him go?" cried Patches.</p>
+<p>"It's God's truth, Patches. I couldn't do anything else&mdash;I
+just couldn't. One of the boys came up just in time to catch me
+turning him loose, and, of course, the whole outfit just naturally
+raised hell about it. You see, in a chase like that, we always
+bunch all we get and sell them off to the highest bidder, and every
+man in the outfit shares alike. The boys figured that the black was
+worth more than any five others that were caught, and so you
+couldn't blame them for feeling sore. But I fixed it with them by
+turning all my share into the pot, so they couldn't kick. That, you
+see, makes the black belong to me, in a way, and it's pretty
+generally understood that I propose to take care of him. There was
+a fellow, riding in the rodeo last fall, that took a shot at him
+one day, and&mdash;well&mdash;he left the country right after it
+happened and hasn't been seen around here since."</p>
+<p>The cowboy grinned as his companion's laugh rang out.</p>
+<p>"Do you know," Phil continued in a low tone, a few minutes
+later, "I believe that horse knows me yet. Whenever I am over in
+this part of the country I always have a look at him, if he happens
+to be around, and we visit a little, as we did to-day. I've got a
+funny notion that he likes it as much as I do, and, I can't tell
+how it is, but it sort of makes me feel good all over just to see
+him. I reckon you think I'm some fool," he finished with another
+short laugh of embarrassment, "but that's the way I feel&mdash;and
+that's why they call me 'Wild Horse Phil'."</p>
+<p>For a little they rode in silence; then Patches spoke, gravely,
+"I don't know how to tell you what I think, Phil, but I understand,
+and from the bottom of my heart I envy you."</p>
+<p>And the cowboy, looking at his companion, saw in the man's eyes
+something that reminded him of that which he had seen in the wild
+horse's eyes, that day when he had set him free. Had Patches, too,
+at some time in those days that were gone, been caught by the riata
+of circumstance or environment, and in some degree robbed of his
+God-inheritance? Phil smiled at the fancy, but, smiling, felt its
+truth; and with genuine sympathy felt this also to be true, that
+the man might yet, by the strength that was deepest within him,
+regain that which he had lost.</p>
+<p>And so that day, as the man from the ranges and the man from the
+cities rode together, the feeling of kinship that each had
+instinctively recognized at their first meeting on the Divide was
+strengthened. They knew that a mutual understanding which could not
+have been put into words of any tongue or land was drawing them
+closer together.</p>
+<p>A few days later the incident occurred that fixed their
+friendship&mdash;as they thought&mdash;for all time to come.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/155.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_09.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/156.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>hil and Patches were riding that day in the country about Old
+Camp. Early in the afternoon, they heard the persistent bawling of
+a calf, and upon riding toward the sound, found the animal deep in
+the cedar timber, which in that section thickly covers the ridges.
+The calf was freshly branded with the Tailholt iron. It was done,
+Phil said, the day before, probably in the late afternoon. The
+youngster was calling for his mother.</p>
+<p>"It's strange, she is not around somewhere," said Patches.</p>
+<p>"It would be more strange if she was," retorted the cowboy
+shortly, and he looked from the calf to the distant Tailholt
+Mountain, as though he were considering some problem which he did
+not, for some reason, care to share with his companion.</p>
+<p>"There's not much use to look for her," he added, with grim
+disappointment. "That's always the way. If we had ridden this range
+yesterday, instead of away over there in the Mint Wash
+country&mdash;I am always about a day behind."</p>
+<p>There was something in the manner and in the quiet speech of the
+usually sunny-tempered foreman that made his companion hesitate to
+ask questions, or to offer comment with the freedom that he had
+learned to feel that first day of their riding together. During the
+hours that followed Phil said very little, and when he did speak
+his words were brief and often curt, while, to Patches, he seemed
+to study the country over which they rode with unusual care. When
+they had eaten their rather gloomy lunch, he was in the saddle
+again almost before Patches had finished, with seemingly no
+inclination for their usual talk.</p>
+<p>The afternoon, was nearly gone, and they were making their way
+homeward when they saw a Cross-Triangle bull that had evidently
+been hurt in a fight. The animal was one of the Dean's much-prized
+Herefords, and the wound needed attention.</p>
+<p>"We've got to dope that," said Phil, "or the screwworms will be
+working in it sure." He was taking down his riata and watching the
+bull, who was rumbling a sullen, deep-voiced challenge, as he
+spoke.</p>
+<p>"Can I help?" asked Patches anxiously, as he viewed the powerful
+beast, for this was the first full-grown animal needing attention
+that he had seen in his few days' experience.</p>
+<p>"No," returned Phil. "Just keep in the clear, that's all. This
+chap is no calf, and he's sore over his scrap. He's on the prod
+right now."</p>
+<p>It all happened in a few seconds.</p>
+<p>The cowboy's horse, understanding from long experience that this
+threatening mark for his master's riata was in no gentle frame of
+mind, fretted uneasily as though dreading his part in the task
+before them. Patches saw the whirling rope leave Phil's hand, and
+saw it tighten, as the cowboy threw the weight of his horse against
+it; and then he caught a confused vision&mdash;a fallen, struggling
+horse with a man pinned to the ground beneath him, and a wickedly
+lowered head, with sharp horns and angry eyes, charging straight at
+them.</p>
+<p>Patches did not think&mdash;there was no time to think. With a
+yell of horror, he struck deep with both spurs, and his startled,
+pain-maddened horse leaped forward. Again he spurred cruelly with
+all his strength, and the next bound of his frenzied mount carried
+him upon those deadly horns. Patches remembered hearing a sickening
+rip, and a scream of fear and pain, as he felt the horse under him
+rise in the air. He never knew how he managed to free himself, as
+he fell backward with his struggling mount, but he distinctly saw
+Phil regain his saddle while his horse was in the very act of
+struggling to its feet, and he watched with anxious interest as the
+cowboy forced his excited mount in front of the bull to attract the
+beast's wicked attention. The bull, accepting the tantalizing
+challenge, charged again, and Patches, with a thrill of admiration
+for the man's coolness and skill, saw that Phil was coiling his
+riata, even while his frightened horse, with terrific leaps,
+avoided those menacing horns. The bull stopped, shook his head in
+anger over his failure, and looked back toward the man on foot. But
+again that horse and rider danced temptingly before him, so close
+that it seemed he could not fail, and again he charged, only to
+find that his mad rush carried him still further from the helpless
+Patches. And by now, Phil had recovered his riata, and the loop was
+whirling in easy circles about his head. The cow-horse, as though
+feeling the security that was in that familiar motion of his
+master's arm, steadied himself, and, in the few active moments that
+followed, obedient to every signal of his rider, did his part with
+almost human intelligence.</p>
+<p>When the bull was safely tied, Phil went to the frightfully
+injured horse, and with a merciful bullet ended the animal's
+suffering. Then he looked thoughtfully at Patches, who stood gazing
+ruefully at the dead animal, as though he felt himself to blame for
+the loss of his employer's property. A slight smile lightened the
+cowboy's face, as he noticed his companion's troubled thought.</p>
+<p>"I suppose I've done it now," said Patches, as though expecting
+well-merited censure.</p>
+<p>Phil's smile broadened. "You sure have," he returned, as he
+wiped the sweat from his face. "I'm much obliged to you."</p>
+<p>Patches looked at him in confused embarrassment.</p>
+<p>"Don't you know that you saved my life?" asked Phil dryly.</p>
+<p>"But&mdash;but, I killed a good horse for the Dean," stammered
+Patches.</p>
+<p>To which the Dean's foreman returned with a grin, "I reckon
+Uncle Will can stand the loss&mdash;considering."</p>
+<p>This relieved the tension, and they laughed together.</p>
+<p>"But tell me something, Patches," said Phil, curiously. "Why
+didn't you shoot the bull when he charged me?"</p>
+<p>"I didn't think of it," admitted Patches. "I didn't really think
+of anything."</p>
+<p>The cowboy nodded with understanding approval. "I've noticed
+that the man to tie to, in sudden trouble, is the man who doesn't
+have to think; the man, I mean, who just does the right thing
+instinctively, and waits to think about it afterwards when there's
+time."</p>
+<p>Patches was pleased. "I did the right thing, then?"</p>
+<p>"It was the only thing you <i>could</i> do to save my life,"
+returned Phil seriously. "If you had tried to use your
+gun&mdash;even if you could have managed to hit him&mdash;you
+wouldn't have stopped him in time. If you had been where you could
+have put a bullet between his eyes, it might have worked,
+but"&mdash;he smiled again&mdash;"I'm mighty glad you didn't think
+to try any experiments. Tell me something else," he added. "Did you
+realize the chance you were taking for yourself?"</p>
+<p>Patches shook his head. "I can't say that I realized anything
+except that you were in a bad fix, and that it was up to me to do
+something quick. How did it happen, anyway?" He seemed anxious to
+turn the conversation.</p>
+<p>"Diamond stepped in that hole there," explained Phil. "When he
+turned over I sure thought it was all day for me. Believe me, I
+won't forget this, Patches."</p>
+<p>For another moment there was an embarrassed silence; then
+Patches said, "What puzzles me is, why you didn't take a shot at
+him, after you were up, instead of risking your neck again trying
+to rope him."</p>
+<p>"Why, there was no use killing a good bull, as long as there was
+any other way. It's my business to keep him alive; that's what I
+started in to do, wasn't it?" And thus the cowboy, in a simple word
+or two, stated the creed of his profession, a creed that permits no
+consideration of personal danger or discomfort when the welfare of
+the employer's property is at stake.</p>
+<p>When they had removed saddle and bridle from the dead horse and
+had cleaned the ugly wound in the bull's side, Phil said, "Now, Mr.
+Honorable Patches, you'd better move on down the wash a piece, and
+get out of sight behind one of those cedars. This fellow is going
+to get busy again when I let him up. I'll come along when I've got
+rid of him."</p>
+<p>A little later, as Phil rode out of the cedars toward Patches, a
+deep, bellowing challenge came from up the wash.</p>
+<p>"He's just telling us what he'll do to us the next chance he
+gets," chuckled Phil. "Hop up behind me now and we'll go home."</p>
+<p>The gloom, that all day had seemed to overshadow Phil, was
+effectually banished by the excitement of the incident, and he was
+again his sunny, cheerful self. As they rode, they chatted and
+laughed merrily. Then, suddenly, as it had happened that morning,
+the cowboy was again grim and silent.</p>
+<p>Patches was wondering what had so quickly changed his
+companion's mood, when he caught sight of two horsemen, riding
+along the top of the ridge that forms the western side of the wash,
+their course paralleling that of the Cross-Triangle men, who were
+following the bed of the wash.</p>
+<p>When Patches directed Phil's attention to the riders, the cowboy
+said shortly, "I've been watching them for the last ten minutes."
+Then, as if regretting the manner of his reply, he added more
+kindly, "If they keep on the way they're going, we'll likely meet
+them about a mile down the wash where the ridge breaks."</p>
+<p>"Do you know them?" asked Patches curiously.</p>
+<p>"It's Nick Cambert and that poor, lost dog of a Yavapai Joe,"
+Phil answered.</p>
+<p>"The Tailholt Mountain outfit," murmured Patches, watching the
+riders on the ridge with quickened interest. "Do you know, Phil, I
+believe I have seen those fellows before."</p>
+<p>"You have!" exclaimed Phil. "Where? When?"</p>
+<p>"I don't know how to tell you where," Patches replied, "but it
+was the day I rode the drift fence. They were on a ridge, across a
+little valley from me."</p>
+<p>"That must have been this same Horse Wash that we're following
+now," replied Phil; "it widens out a bit below here. What makes you
+think it was Nick and Joe?"</p>
+<p>"Why, those fellows up there look like the two that I saw, one
+big one and one rather lightweight. They were the same distance
+from me, you know, and&mdash;yes&mdash;I am sure those are the same
+horses."</p>
+<p>"Pretty good, Patches, but you ought to have reported it when
+you got home."</p>
+<p>"Why, I didn't think it of any importance."</p>
+<p>"There are two rules that you must follow, always," said the
+cowboy, "if you are going to learn to be a top hand in this
+business. The first is: to see everything that there is to see, and
+to see everything about everything that you see. And the second is:
+to remember it all. I don't mind telling you, now, that Jim Reid
+found a calf, fresh-branded with the Tailholt iron, that same
+afternoon, in that same neighborhood; and that, on our side of the
+drift fence, he ran onto a Cross-Triangle cow that had lost her
+calf. There come our friends now."</p>
+<p>The two horsemen were riding down the side of the hill at an
+angle that would bring about the meeting which Phil had foreseen.
+And Patches immediately broke the first of the two rules, for,
+while watching the riders, he did not notice that his companion
+loosened his gun in its holster.</p>
+<p>Nick Cambert was a large man, big-bodied and heavy, with sandy
+hair, and those peculiar light blue eyes which do not beget
+confidence. But, as the Tailholt Mountain men halted to greet Phil,
+Patches gave to Nick little more than a passing glance, so
+interested was he in the big man's companion.</p>
+<p>It is doubtful if blood, training, environment, circumstances,
+the fates, or whatever it is that gives to men individuality, ever
+marked a man with less manhood than was given to poor Yavapai Joe.
+Standing erect, he would have been, perhaps, a little above medium
+height, but thin and stooped, with a half-starved look, as he
+slouched listlessly in the saddle, it was almost impossible to
+think of him as a matured man. The receding chin, and coarse,
+loosely opened mouth, the pale, lifeless eyes set too closely
+together under a low forehead, with a ragged thatch of dead,
+mouse-colored hair, and a furtive, sneaking, lost-dog expression,
+proclaimed him the outcast that he was.</p>
+<p>The big man eyed Patches as he greeted the Cross-Triangle's
+foreman. "Howdy, Phil!"</p>
+<p>"Hello, Nick!" returned Phil coldly. "Howdy, Joe!"</p>
+<p>The younger man, who was gazing stupidly at Patches, returned
+the salutation with an unintelligible mumble, and proceeded to roll
+a cigarette.</p>
+<p>"You folks at the Cross-Triangle short of horses?" asked Nick,
+with an evident attempt at jocularity, alluding to the situation of
+the two men, who were riding one horse.</p>
+<p>"We got mixed up with a bull back yonder," Phil explained
+briefly.</p>
+<p>"They can sure put a horse out o' the game mighty quick
+sometimes," commented the other. "I've lost a few that way myself.
+It's about as far from here to my place as it is to Baldwin's, or
+I'd help you out. You're welcome, you know."</p>
+<p>"Much obliged," returned Phil, "but we'll make it home all
+right. I reckon we'd better be moving, though. So long!"</p>
+<p>"Adios!"</p>
+<p>Throughout this brief exchange of courtesies, Yavapai Joe had
+not moved, except to puff at his cigarette; nor had he ceased to
+regard Patches with a stupid curiosity. As Phil and Patches moved
+away, he still sat gazing after the stranger, until he was aroused
+by a sharp word from Nick, as the latter turned his horse toward
+Tailholt Mountain. Without changing his slouching position in the
+saddle, and with a final slinking, sidewise look toward Patches,
+the poor fellow obediently trailed after his master.</p>
+<p>Patches could not resist the impulse to turn for another look at
+the wretched shadow of manhood that so interested him.</p>
+<p>"Well, what do you think of that pair?" asked Phil, breaking in
+upon his companion's preoccupation.</p>
+<p>Patches shrugged his shoulders much as he had done that day of
+his first experience with the screwworms; then he said quietly, "Do
+you mind telling me about them, Phil?"</p>
+<p>"Why, there's not much to tell," returned the cowboy. "That is,
+there's not much that anybody knows for certain. Nick was born in
+Yavapai County. His father, old George Cambert, was one of the kind
+that seems honest enough, and industrious, too, but somehow always
+just misses it. They moved away to some place in Southern
+California when Nick was about grown. He came back six years ago,
+and located over there at the foot of Tailholt Mountain, and
+started his Four-Bar-M iron; and, one way or another, he's managed
+to get together quite a bunch of stock. You see, his expenses don't
+amount to anything, scarcely. He and Joe bach in an old shack that
+somebody built years ago, and they do all the riding themselves.
+Joe's not much force, but he's handier than you'd think, as long as
+there's somebody around to tell him what to do, and sort of back
+him up. Nick, though, can do two men's work any day in the
+year."</p>
+<p>"But it's strange that a man like Nick would have anything to do
+with such a creature as that poor specimen," mused Patches. "Are
+they related in any way?"</p>
+<p>"Nobody knows," answered Phil. "Joe first showed up at Prescott
+about four years ago with a man by the name of Dryden, who claimed
+that Joe was his son. They camped just outside of town, in some
+dirty old tents, and lived by picking up whatever was lying around
+loose. Dryden wouldn't work, and, naturally, no one would have Joe.
+Finally Dryden was sent up for robbing a store, and Joe nearly went
+with him. They let him off, I believe, because it was proved pretty
+well that he was only Dryden's tool, and didn't have nerve enough
+to do any real harm by himself. He drifted around for several
+months, living like a stray cur, until Nick took him in tow. Nick
+treats him shamefully, abuses him like a beast, and works him like
+a slave. The poor devil stays on with him because he doesn't know
+what else to do, I suppose."</p>
+<p>"Is he always like we saw him to-day?" asked Patches, who seemed
+strangely interested in this bit of human drift. "Doesn't he ever
+talk?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes, he'll talk all right, when Nick isn't around, or when
+there are not too many present. Get off somewhere alone with him,
+after he gets acquainted a little, and he's not half such bad
+company as he looks. I reckon that's the main reason why Nick keeps
+him. You see, no decent cow-puncher would dare work at Tailholt
+Mountain, and a man gets mighty lonesome living so much alone. But
+Joe never talks about where he came from, or who he is; shuts up
+like a clam if you so much as mention anything that looks like you
+were trying to find out about him. He's not such a fool as he
+looks, either, so far as that goes, but he's always got that
+sneaking, coyote sort of look, and whatever he does he does in that
+same way."</p>
+<p>"In other words," commented Patches thoughtfully, "poor Joe must
+have someone to depend on; taken alone he counts no more than a
+cipher."</p>
+<p>"That's it," said Phil. "With somebody to feed him, and think
+for him, and take care of him, and be responsible for him, in some
+sort of a way, he makes almost one."</p>
+<p>"After all, Phil," said Patches, with bitter sarcasm, "poor
+Yavapai Joe is not so much different from hundreds of men that I
+know. By their standards he should be envied."</p>
+<p>Phil was amazed at his companion's words, for they seemed to
+hint at something in the man's past, and Patches, so far as his
+reticence upon any subject that approached his own history, was
+always as silent as Yavapai Joe himself.</p>
+<p>"What do you mean by that?" Phil demanded. "What sort of men do
+you mean?"</p>
+<p>"I mean the sort that never do anything of their own free wills;
+the sort that have someone else to think for them, and feed them,
+and take care of them and take all the responsibility for what they
+do or do not do. I mean those who are dependents, and those who
+aspire to be dependent. I can't see that it makes any essential
+difference whether they have inherited wealth and what we call
+culture, or whether they are poverty-stricken semi-imbeciles like
+Joe; the principle is the same."</p>
+<p>As they dismounted at the home corral gate, Phil looked at his
+companion curiously. "You seem mighty interested in Joe," he said,
+with a smile.</p>
+<p>"I am," retorted Patches. "He reminds me of&mdash;of some one I
+know," he finished, with his old, self-mocking smile. "I have a
+fellow feeling for him, the same as you have for that wild horse,
+you know. I'd like to take him away from Nick, and see if it would
+be possible to make a real man of him," he mused, more to himself
+than to his companion.</p>
+<p>"I don't believe I'd try any experiments along that line,
+Patches," cautioned Phil. "You've got to have something to build on
+when you start to make a man. The raw material is not in Joe, and,
+besides," he added significantly, "folks might not understand."</p>
+<p>Patches laughed bitterly. "I have my hands full now."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/168.png" width="50%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p>The next morning the foreman said that he would give that day to
+the horses he was training, and sent Patches, alone, after the
+saddle and bridle which they had left near the scene of the
+accident.</p>
+<p>"You can't miss finding the place again," he said to Patches;
+"just follow up the wash. You'll be back by noon&mdash;if you don't
+try any experiments," he added laughing.</p>
+<p>Patches had ridden as far as the spot where he and Phil had met
+the Tailholt Mountain men, and was thirsty. He thought of the
+distance he had yet to go, and then of the return back to the
+ranch, in the heat of the day. He remembered that Phil had told
+him, as they were riding out the morning before, of a spring a
+little way up the small side canyon that opens into the main wash
+through that break in the ridge. For a moment he hesitated; then he
+turned aside, determined to find the water.</p>
+<p>Riding perhaps two hundred yards into that narrow gap In the
+ridge, he found the way suddenly becoming steep and roughly strewn
+with boulders, and, thinking to make better time, left his horse
+tied to a bush in the shadow of the rocky wall, while he climbed up
+the dry watercourse on foot. He found, as Phil had said, that it
+was not far. Another hundred yards up the boulder-strewn break in
+the ridge, and he came out into a beautiful glade, where he found
+the spring, clear and cold, under a moss-grown rock, in the deep
+shade of an old gnarled and twisted cedar. Gratefully he threw
+himself down and drank long and deep; then sat for a few moments'
+rest, before making his way back to his horse. The moist, black
+earth of the cuplike hollow was roughly trampled by the cattle that
+knew the spot, and there were well-marked trails leading down
+through the heavy growth of brush and trees that clothed the
+hillsides. So dense was this forest growth, and so narrow the
+glade, that the sunlight only reached the cool retreat through a
+network of leaves and branches, in ever-shifting spots and bars of
+brightness. Nor could one see very far through the living
+screens.</p>
+<p>Patches was on the point of going, when he heard voices and the
+sound of horses' feet somewhere above. For a moment he sat silently
+listening. Then he realized that the riders were approaching, down
+one of the cattle trails. A moment more, and he thought he
+recognized one of the voices. There was a low, murmuring, whining
+tone, and then a rough, heavy voice, raised seemingly in anger.
+Patches felt sure, now, that he knew the speakers; and, obeying one
+of those impulses that so often prompted his actions, he slipped
+quietly into the dense growth on the side of the glade opposite the
+approaching riders. He was scarcely hidden&mdash;a hundred feet or
+so from the spring&mdash;when Nick Cambert and Yavapai Joe rode
+into the glade.</p>
+<p>If Patches had paused to think, he likely would have disdained
+to play the part of a hidden spy; but he had acted without
+thinking, and no sooner was he concealed than he realized that it
+was too late. So he smiled mockingly at himself, and awaited
+developments. He had heard and seen enough, since he had been in
+the Dean's employ, to understand the suspicion in which the owner
+of the Four-Bar-M iron was held; and from even his few days' work
+on the range in company with Phil, he had come to understand how
+difficult it was for the cattlemen to prove anything against the
+man who they had every reason to believe was stealing their stock.
+It was the possibility of getting some positive evidence, and of
+thus protecting his employer's property, that had really prompted
+him to take advantage of the chance situation.</p>
+<p>As the two men appeared, it was clear to the hidden observer
+that the weakling had in some way incurred his master's
+displeasure. The big man's face was red with anger, and his eyes
+were hard and cruel, while Joe had more than aver the look of a
+lost dog that expects nothing less than a curse and a kick.</p>
+<p>Nick drank at the spring, then turned back to his companion, who
+had not dismounted, but sat on his horse cringing and frightened,
+trying, with fluttering fingers, to roll a cigarette. A moment the
+big man surveyed his trembling follower; then, taking a heavy quirt
+from his saddle, he said with a contemptuous sneer, "Well, why
+don't you get your drink?"</p>
+<p>"I ain't thirsty, Nick," faltered the other.</p>
+<p>"You ain't thirsty?" mocked the man with a jeering laugh.
+"You're lying, an' you know it. Get down!"</p>
+<p>"Hones' to God, Nick, I don't want no drink," whimpered Joe, as
+his master toyed with the quirt suggestively.</p>
+<p>"Get down, I tell you!" commanded the big man.</p>
+<p>Joe obeyed, his thin form shaking with fear, and stood shrinking
+against his horse's side, his fearful eyes fixed on the man.</p>
+<p>"Now, come here."</p>
+<p>"Don't, Nick; for God's sake! don't hit me. I didn't mean no
+harm. Let me off this time, won't you, Nick?"</p>
+<p>"Come here. You got it comin', damn you, an' you know it. Come
+here, I say!"</p>
+<p>As if it were beyond his power to refuse, the wretched creature
+took a halting step or two toward the man whose brutal will
+dominated him; then he paused and half turned, as if to attempt
+escape. But that menacing voice stopped him.</p>
+<p>"Come here!"</p>
+<p>Whimpering and begging, with disconnected, unintelligible words,
+the poor fellow again started toward the man with the quirt.</p>
+<p>At the critical moment a quiet, well-schooled voice interrupted
+the scene.</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Mr. Cambert!"</p>
+<p>Nick whirled with an oath of surprise and astonishment, to face
+Patches, who was coming leisurely toward him from the bushes above
+the spring.</p>
+<p>"What are you doin' here?" demanded Nick, while his victim slunk
+back to his horse, his eyes fixed upon the intruder with dumb
+amazement.</p>
+<p>"I came for a drink," returned Patches coolly. "Excellent water,
+isn't it? And the day is really quite warm&mdash;makes one
+appreciate such a delightfully cool retreat, don't you think?"</p>
+<p>"Heard us comin' an' thought you'd play the spy, did you?"
+growled the Tailholt Mountain man.</p>
+<p>Patches smiled. "Really, you know, I am afraid I didn't think
+much about it," he said gently. "I'm troubled that way, you see,"
+he explained, with elaborate politeness. "Often do things upon
+impulse, don't you know&mdash;beastly embarrassing sometimes."</p>
+<p>Nick glared at this polite, soft-spoken gentleman, with
+half-amused anger. "I heard there was a dude tenderfoot hangin'
+'round the Cross-Triangle," he said, at last. "You're sure a hell
+of a fine specimen. You've had your drink; now s'pose you get
+a-goin'."</p>
+<p>"I beg pardon?" drawled Patches, looking at him with innocent
+inquiry.</p>
+<p>"Vamoose! Get out! Go on about your business."</p>
+<p>"Really, Mr. Cambert, I understood that this was open
+range&mdash;" Patches looked about, as though carefully assuring
+himself that he was not mistaken in the spot.</p>
+<p>The big man's eyes narrowed wickedly. "It's closed to you, all
+right." Then, as Patches did not move, "Well, are you goin', or
+have I got to start you?" He took a threatening step toward the
+intruder.</p>
+<p>"No," returned Patches easily, "I am certainly not
+going&mdash;not just at present&mdash;and," he added thoughtfully,
+"if I were you, I wouldn't try to start <i>anything</i>."</p>
+<p>Something in the extraordinary self-possession of this
+soft-spoken stranger made the big man hesitate. "Oh, you wouldn't,
+heh?" he returned. "You mean, I s'pose, that you propose to
+interfere with my business."</p>
+<p>"If, by your business, you mean beating a man who is so unable
+to protect himself, I certainly propose to interfere."</p>
+<p>For a moment Nick glared at Patches as though doubting his own
+ears. Then rage at the tenderfoot's insolence mastered him. With a
+vile epithet, he caught the loaded quirt in his hand by its small
+end, and strode toward the intruder.</p>
+<p>But even as the big man swung his wicked weapon aloft, a hard
+fist, with the weight of a well-trained and well-developed shoulder
+back of it, found the point of his chin with scientific accuracy.
+The force of the blow, augmented as it was by Nick's weight as he
+was rushing to meet it, was terrific. The man's head snapped back,
+and he spun half around as he fell, so that the uplifted arm with
+its threatening weapon was twisted under the heavy bulk that lay
+quivering and harmless.</p>
+<p>Patches coolly bent over the unconscious man and extracted his
+gun from the holster. Then, stepping back a few paces, he quietly
+waited.</p>
+<p>Yavapai Joe, who had viewed the proceedings thus far with gaping
+mouth and frightened wonder, scrambled into his saddle and reined
+his horse about, as if to ride for his life.</p>
+<p>"Wait, Joe!" called Patches sharply.</p>
+<p>The weakling paused in pitiful indecision.</p>
+<p>"Nick will be all right in a few minutes," continued the
+stranger, reassuringly. "Stay where you are."</p>
+<p>Even as he spoke, the man on the ground opened his eyes. For a
+moment he gazed about, collecting his shocked and scattered senses.
+Then, with a mad roar, he got to his feet and reached for his gun,
+but when his hand touched the empty holster a look of dismay swept
+over his heavy face, and he looked doubtfully toward Patches, with
+a degree of respect and a somewhat humbled air.</p>
+<p>"Yes, I have your gun," said Patches soothingly. "You see, I
+thought it would be best to remove the temptation. You don't really
+want to shoot me, anyway, you know. You only think you do. When you
+have had time to consider it all, calmly, you'll thank me; because,
+don't you see, I would make you a lot more trouble dead than I
+could possibly, alive. I don't think that Mr. Baldwin would like to
+have me all shot to pieces, particularly if the shooting were done
+by someone from Tailholt Mountain. And I am quite sure that 'Wild
+Horse Phil' would be very much put out about it."</p>
+<p>"Well, what do you want?" growled Nick. "You've got the drop on
+me. What are you after, anyway?"</p>
+<p>"What peculiar expressions you western people use!" murmured
+Patches sweetly. "You say that I have got the drop on you; when, to
+be exact, you should have said that you got the drop <i>from</i>
+me&mdash;do you see? Good, isn't it?"</p>
+<p>Nick's effort at self-control was heroic.</p>
+<p>Patches watched him with an insolent, taunting smile that goaded
+the man to reckless speech.</p>
+<p>"If you didn't have that gun, I'd&mdash;" the big man began,
+then stopped, for, as he spoke, Patches placed the weapon carefully
+on a rock and went toward him barehanded.</p>
+<p>"You would do what?"</p>
+<p>At the crisp, eager question that came in such sharp contrast to
+Patches' former speech, Nick hesitated and drew back a step.</p>
+<p>Patches promptly moved a step nearer; and his words came, now,
+in answer to the unfinished threat with cutting force. "What would
+you do, you big, hulking swine? You can bully a weakling not half
+your size; you can beat a helpless incompetent like a dog; you can
+bluster, and threaten a tenderfoot when you think he fears you; you
+can attack a man with a loaded quirt when you think him unable to
+defend himself;&mdash;show me what you can do <i>now</i>."</p>
+<p>The Tailholt Mountain man drew back another step.</p>
+<p>Patches continued his remarks. "You are a healthy specimen, you
+are. You have the frame of a bull with the spirit of a coyote and
+the courage of a sucking dove. Now&mdash;in your own
+vernacular&mdash;get a-goin'. Vamoose! Get out! I want to talk to
+your superior over there."</p>
+<p>Sullenly Nick Cambert mounted his horse and turned away toward
+one of the trails leading out from the little arena.</p>
+<p>"Come along, Joe!" he called to his follower.</p>
+<p>"No, you don't," Patches cut in with decisive force. "Joe, stay
+where you are!"</p>
+<p>Nick paused. "What do you mean by that?" he growled.</p>
+<p>"I mean," returned Patches, "that Joe is free to go with you, or
+not, as he chooses. Joe," he continued, addressing the cause of the
+controversy, "you need not go with this man. If you wish, you can
+come with me. I'll take care of you; and I'll give you a chance to
+make a man of yourself."</p>
+<p>Nick laughed coarsely. "So, that's your game, is it? Well, it
+won't work. I know now why Bill Baldwin's got you hangin' 'round,
+pretendin' you're a tenderfoot, you damned spy. Come on, Joe." He
+turned to ride on; and Joe, with a slinking, sidewise look at
+Patches, started to follow.</p>
+<p>Again Patches called, "Wait, Joe!" and his voice was almost
+pleading. "Can't you understand, Joe? Come with me. Don't be a dog
+for any man. Let me give you a chance. Be a man, Joe&mdash;for
+God's sake, be a man! Come with me."</p>
+<p>"Well," growled Nick to his follower, as Patches finished, "are
+you comin' or have I got to go and get you?"</p>
+<p>With a sickening, hangdog look Joe mumbled something and rode
+after his master.</p>
+<p>As they disappeared up the trail, Nick called back, "I'll get
+you yet, you sneakin' spy."</p>
+<p>"Not after you've had time to think it over," answered Patches
+cheerfully. "It would interfere too much with your <i>real</i>
+business. I'll leave your gun at the gate of that old corral up the
+wash. Good-by, Joe!"</p>
+<p>For a few moments longer the strange man stood in the glade,
+listening to the vanishing sounds of their going, while that
+mirthless, self-mocking smile curved his lips.</p>
+<p>"Poor devil!" he muttered sadly, as he turned at last to make
+his way back to his horse. "Poor Joe! I know just how he feels.
+It's hard&mdash;it's beastly hard to break away."</p>
+<p>"I'm afraid I have made trouble for you, sir," Patches said
+ruefully to the Dean, as he briefly related the incident to his
+employer and to Phil that afternoon. "I'm sorry; I really didn't
+stop to think."</p>
+<p>"Trouble!" retorted the Dean, his eyes twinkling approval, while
+Phil laughed joyously. "Why, man, we've been prayin' for trouble
+with that blamed Tailholt Mountain outfit. You're a plumb wonder,
+young man. But what in thunder was you aimin' to do with that
+ornery Yavapai Joe, if he'd a' took you up on your fool
+proposition?"</p>
+<p>"Really, to tell the truth," murmured Patches, "I don't exactly
+know. I fancied the experiment would be interesting; and I was so
+sorry for the poor chap that I&mdash;" he stopped, shamefaced, to
+join in the laugh.</p>
+<p>But, later, the Dean and Phil talked together privately, with
+the result that during the days that followed, as Patches and his
+teacher rode the range together, the pupil found revolver practice
+added to his studies.</p>
+<p>The art of drawing and shooting a "six-gun" with quickness and
+certainty was often a useful part of the cowboy's training, Phil
+explained cheerfully. "In the case, for instance, of a mixup with a
+bad steer, when your horse falls, or something like that, you
+know."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/177.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_10.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/178.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>s the remaining weeks of the summer passed, Patches spent the
+days riding the range with Phil, and, under the careful eye of that
+experienced teacher, made rapid progress in the work he had chosen
+to master. The man's intense desire to succeed, his quick
+intelligence, with his instinct for acting without hesitation, and
+his reckless disregard for personal injury, together with his
+splendid physical strength, led him to a mastery of the details of
+a cowboy's work with remarkable readiness.</p>
+<p>Occasionally the two Cross-Triangle riders saw the men from
+Tailholt Mountain, sometimes merely sighting them in the distance,
+and, again, meeting them face to face at some watering place or on
+the range. When it happened that Nick Cambert was thus forced to
+keep up a show of friendly relations with the Cross-Triangle, the
+few commonplaces of the country were exchanged, but always the
+Tailholt Mountain man addressed his words to Phil, and, save for
+surly looks, ignored the foreman's companion. He had
+evidently&mdash;as Patches had said that he would&mdash;come to
+realize that he could not afford to arouse the cattlemen to action
+against him, as he would certainly have done, had he attempted to
+carry out his threat to "get" the man who had so humiliated
+him.</p>
+<p>But Patches' strange interest in Yavapai Joe in no way lessened.
+Always he had a kindly word for the poor unfortunate, and sought
+persistently to win the weakling's friendship. And Phil seeing this
+wondered, but held his peace.</p>
+<p>Frequently Kitty Reid, sometimes alone, often with the other
+members of the Reid household, came across the big meadow to spend
+an evening at the neighboring ranch. Sometimes Phil and Patches,
+stopping at the Pot-Hook-S home ranch, at the close of the day, for
+a drink at the windmill pump, would linger a while for a chat with
+Kitty, who would come from the house to greet them. And now and
+then Kitty, out for a ride on Midnight, would chance to meet the
+two Cross-Triangle men on the range, and so would accompany them
+for an hour or more.</p>
+<p>And thus the acquaintance between Patches and the girl grew into
+friendship; for Kitty loved to talk with this man of the things
+that play so large a part in that life which so appealed to her;
+and, with Phil's ever-ready and hearty endorsement of Patches, she
+felt safe in permitting the friendship to develop. And Patches,
+quietly observing, with now and then a conversational
+experiment&mdash;at which game he was an adepts&mdash;came to
+understand, almost as well as if he had been told, Phil's love for
+Kitty and her attitude toward the cowboy&mdash;her one-time
+schoolmate and sweetheart. Many times when the three were together,
+and the talk, guided by Kitty, led far from Phil's world, the
+cowboy would sit a silent listener, until Patches would skillfully
+turn the current back to the land of Granite Mountain and the life
+in which Phil had so vital a part.</p>
+<p>In the home-life at the Cross-Triangle, too, Patches gradually
+came to hold his own peculiar place. His cheerful helpfulness, and
+gentle, never-failing courtesy, no less than the secret pain and
+sadness that sometimes, at some chance remark, drove the light from
+his face and brought that wistful look into his eyes, won Mrs.
+Baldwin's heart. Many an evening under his walnut trees, with
+Stella and Phil and Curly and Bob and Little Billy near, the Dean
+was led by the rare skill and ready wit of Patches to open the book
+of his kindly philosophy, as he talked of the years that were past.
+And sometimes Patches himself, yielding to temptation offered by
+the Dean, would speak in such vein that the older man came to
+understand that this boy, as he so often called him, had somewhere,
+somehow, already experienced that Gethsemane which soon or
+late&mdash;the Dean maintains&mdash;leaves its shadow upon us all.
+The cowboys, for his quick and genuine appreciation of their skill
+and knowledge, as well as for his unassuming courage, hearty good
+nature and ready laugh, took him into their fellowship without
+question or reserve, while Little Billy, loyal ever to his ideal,
+"Wild Horse Phil," found a large place in his boyish heart for the
+tenderfoot who was so ready always to recognize superior wisdom and
+authority.</p>
+<p>So the stranger found his place among them, and in finding it,
+found also, perhaps, that which he most sorely needed.</p>
+<p>[Illustration:]</p>
+<p>When rodeo time came Patches was given a "string" of horses and,
+through the hard, grilling work that followed, took his place among
+the riders. There was no leisurely roaming over the range now, with
+only an occasional short dash after some animal that needed the
+"iron" or the "dope can;" but systematically and thoroughly the
+thirty or forty cowboys covered the country&mdash;mountain and mesa
+and flat, and wash and timbered ridge and rocky pass&mdash;for many
+miles in every direction.</p>
+<p>In this section of the great western cattle country, at the time
+of my story, the round-ups were cooperative. Each of the several
+ranchers whose cattle, marked by the owner's legally recorded
+brand, ranged over a common district that was defined only by
+natural boundaries, was represented in the rodeo by one or two or
+more of his cowboys, the number of his riders being relative to the
+number of cattle marked with his iron. This company of riders, each
+with from three to five saddle horses in his string, would assemble
+at one of the ranches participating in the rodeo. From this center
+they would work until a circle of country within riding distance
+was covered, the cattle gathered and "worked"&mdash;or, in other
+words, sorted&mdash;and the animals belonging to the various owners
+disposed of as the representatives were instructed by their
+employers. Then the rodeo would move to another ranch, and would so
+continue until the entire district of many miles was covered. The
+owner or the foreman of each ranch was in charge of the rodeo as
+long as the riders worked in his territory. When the company moved
+to the next point, this loader took his place in the ranks, and
+cheerfully received his orders from some comrade, who, the day
+before, had been as willingly obedient to him. There was little
+place in the rodeo for weak, incompetent or untrustworthy men. Each
+owner, from his long experience and knowledge of men, sent as his
+representatives the most skillful and conscientious riders that he
+could secure. To make a top hand at a rodeo a man needed to be, in
+the truest sense, a man.</p>
+<p>Before daylight, the horse wrangler had driven in the saddle
+band, and the men, with nose bags fashioned from grain sacks, were
+out in the corral to give the hard-working animals their feed of
+barley. The gray quiet of the early dawn was rudely broken by the
+sounds of the crowding, jostling, kicking, squealing band, mingled
+with the merry voices of the men, with now and then a shout of
+anger or warning as the cowboys moved here and there among their
+restless four-footed companions; and always, like a deep undertone,
+came the sound of trampling, iron-shod hoofs.</p>
+<p>Before the sky had changed to crimson and gold the call sounded
+from the ranch house, "Come and get it!" and laughing and joking in
+friendly rivalry, the boys rushed to breakfast. It was no dainty
+meal of toast and light cereals that these hardy ones demanded. But
+huge cuts of fresh-killed beef, with slabs of bread, and piles of
+potatoes, and stacks of hot cakes, and buckets of coffee, and
+whatever else the hard-working Chinaman could lay his hands on to
+satisfy their needs. As soon as each man reached the utmost limit
+of his capacity, he left the table without formality, and returned
+to the corral, where, with riata or persuasion, as the case
+demanded, he selected from his individual string of horses his
+first mount for the day.</p>
+<p>By the time the sun was beginning to gild the summit of old
+Granite Mountain's castle-like walls, and touch with glorious color
+the peaks of the neighboring sentinel hills, the last rider had
+saddled, and the company was mounted and ready for their foreman's
+word. Then to the music of jingling spurs, tinkling bridle chains,
+squeaking saddle leather, and the softer swish and rustle and flap
+of chaps, romals and riatas, they rode forth, laughing and joking,
+still, with now and then a roaring chorus of shouting comment or
+wild yells, as some half-broken horse gave an exhibition of his
+prowess in a mad effort to unseat his grinning rider.</p>
+<p>Soon the leader would call the name of a cowboy, known to be
+particularly familiar with the country which was to be the scene of
+that day's work, and telling him to take two or three or more men,
+as the case might be, would direct him to ride over a certain
+section, indicating the assigned territory by its natural marks of
+valley or flat or wash or ridge, and designating the point where
+the cattle would first be brought together. The cowboy named would
+rein his horse aside from the main company, calling the men of his
+choice as he did so, and a moment later with his companions would
+be lost to sight. A little farther, and again the foreman would
+name a rider, and, telling him to pick his men, would assign to him
+another section of the district to be covered, and this cowboy,
+with his chosen mates, would ride away. These smaller groups would,
+in their turn, separate, and thus the entire company of riders
+would open out like a huge fan to sweep the countryside.</p>
+<p>It was no mere pleasure canter along smoothly graded bridle
+paths or well-kept country highways that these men rode. From
+roughest rock-strewn mountain side and tree-clad slope, from
+boulder-piled watercourse and tangled brush, they must drive in the
+scattered cattle. At reckless speed, as their quarry ran and turned
+and dodged, they must hesitate at nothing. Climbing to the tops of
+the hills, scrambling catlike to the ragged crests of the ridges,
+sliding down the bluffs, jumping deep arroyos, leaping brush and
+boulders, twisting, dodging through the timber, they must go as
+fast as the strength and endurance of their mounts would permit.
+And so, gradually, as the sun climbed higher above the peaks and
+crags of Old Granite, the great living fan of men and horses
+closed, the courses of the widely scattered riders leading them,
+with the cattle they had found, to the given point.</p>
+<p>And now, the cattle, urged by the active horsemen, came
+streaming from the different sections to form the herd, and the
+quiet of the great range was broken by the bawling of confused and
+frightened calves, the lowing of anxious mothers, the shrill,
+long-drawn call of the steers, and the deep bellowing of the bulls,
+as the animals, so rudely driven from their peaceful feeding
+grounds, moved restlessly within the circle of guarding cowboys,
+while cows found their calves, and the monarchs of the range met in
+fierce combat.</p>
+<p>A number of the men&mdash;those whose mounts most needed the
+rest&mdash;were now left to hold the herd, or, perhaps, to move it
+quietly on to some other point, while the others were again sent
+out to cover another section of the territory included in that
+day's riding. As the hours passed, and the great fan of horsemen
+opened and closed, sweeping the cattle scattered over the range
+into the steadily growing herd, the rodeo moved gradually toward
+some chosen open flat or valley that afforded a space large enough
+for the operations that followed the work of gathering. At this
+"rodeo ground" a man would be waiting with fresh mounts for the
+riders, and, sometimes, with lunch. Quickly, those whose names were
+called by the foreman would change their saddles from dripping,
+exhausted horses to fresh animals from their individual strings,
+snatch a hasty lunch&mdash;often to be eaten in the
+saddle&mdash;and then, in their turn, would hold the cattle while
+their companions followed their example.</p>
+<p>Then came the fast, hot work of "parting" the cattle. The
+representatives from one of the ranches interested would ride in
+among the cattle held by the circle of cowboys, and, following
+their instructions, would select such animals bearing their
+employer's brand as were wanted, cutting them out and passing them
+through the line of guarding riders, to be held in a separate
+group. When the representatives of one owner had finished, they
+were followed by the men who rode for some other outfit; and so on,
+until the task of "parting" was finished.</p>
+<p>As the afternoon sun moved steadily toward the skyline of the
+western hills, the tireless activity of men and horses continued.
+The cattle, as the mounted men moved among them, drifted about,
+crowding and jostling, in uneasy discontent, with sometimes an
+indignant protest, and many attempts at escape by the more restless
+and venturesome. When an animal was singled out, the parting
+horses, chosen and prized for their quickness, dashed here and
+there through the herd with fierce leaps and furious rushes,
+stopping short in a terrific sprint to whirl, flashlike, and charge
+in another direction, as the quarry dodged and doubled. And now and
+then an animal would succeed for the moment in passing the guard
+line, only to be brought back after a short, sharp chase by the
+nearest cowboy. From the rodeo ground, where for long years the
+grass had been trampled out, the dust, lifted by the trampling
+thousands of hoofs in a dense, choking cloud, and heavy with the
+pungent odor of warm cattle and the smell of sweating horses,
+rising high into the clear air, could be seen from miles away,
+while the mingled voices of the bellowing, bawling herd, with now
+and then the shrill, piercing yells of the cowboys, could be heard
+almost as far.</p>
+<p>When this part of the work was over, some of the riders set out
+to drive the cattle selected to the distant home ranch corrals,
+while others of the company remained to brand the calves and to
+start the animals that were to have their freedom until the next
+rodeo time back to the open range. And so, at last&mdash;often not
+until the stars were out&mdash;the riders would dismount at the
+home corrals of the ranch that, at the time, was the center of
+their operations, or, perhaps, at some rodeo camping ground.</p>
+<p>At supper the day's work was reviewed with many a laugh and jest
+of pointed comment, and then, those whose horses needed attention
+because of saddle sores or, it might be, because of injuries from
+some fall on the rocks, busied themselves at the corral, while
+others met for a friendly game of cards, or talked and yarned over
+restful pipe or cigarette. And then, bed and blankets, and, all too
+soon, the reveille sounded by the beating hoofs of the saddle band
+as the wrangler drove them in, announced the beginning of another
+day.</p>
+<p>Not infrequently there were accidents&mdash;from falling
+horses&mdash;from angry bulls&mdash;from ill-tempered steers, or
+excited cows&mdash;or, perhaps, from a carelessly handled rope in
+some critical moment. Horses were killed; men with broken limbs, or
+with bodies bruised and crushed, were forced to drop out; and many
+a strong horseman who rode forth in the morning to the day's work,
+laughing and jesting with his mates, had been borne by his grave
+and silent comrades to some quiet resting place, to await, in long
+and dreamless sleep, the morning of that last great rodeo which, we
+are told, shall gather us all.</p>
+<p>Day after day, as Patches rode with these hardy men, Phil
+watched him finding himself and winning his place among the
+cowboys. They did not fail, as they said, to "try him out." Nor did
+Phil, in these trials, attempt in any way to assist his pupil. But
+the men learned very quickly, as Curly had learned at the time of
+Patches' introduction, that, while the new man was always ready to
+laugh with them when a joke was turned against himself, there was a
+line beyond which it was not well to go. In the work he was, of
+course, assigned only to such parts as did not require the skill
+and knowledge of long training and experience. But he did all that
+was given him to do with such readiness and skill, thanks to Phil's
+teaching, that the men wondered. And this, together with his
+evident ability in the art of defending himself, and the story of
+his strange coming to the Cross-Triangle, caused not a little talk,
+with many and varied opinions as to who he was, and what it was
+that had brought him among them. Strangely enough, very few
+believed that Patches' purpose in working as a cowboy for the Dean
+was simply to earn an honest livelihood. They felt
+instinctively&mdash;as, in fact, did Phil and the Dean&mdash;that
+there was something more beneath it all than such a
+commonplace.</p>
+<p>Nick Cambert, who, with Yavapai Joe, rode in the rodeo,
+carefully avoided the stranger. But Patches, by his persistent
+friendly interest in the Tailholt Mountain man's follower, added
+greatly to the warmth of the discussions and conjectures regarding
+himself. The rodeo had reached the Pot-Hook-S Ranch, with Jim Reid
+in charge, when the incident occurred which still further
+stimulated the various opinions and suggestions as to the new man's
+real character and mission.</p>
+<p>They were working the cattle that day on the rodeo ground just
+outside the home ranch corral. Phil and Curly were cutting out some
+Cross-Triangle steers, when the riders, who were holding the
+cattle, saw them separate a nine-months-old calf from the herd, and
+start it, not toward the cattle they had already cut out, but
+toward the corral.</p>
+<p>Instantly everybody knew what had happened.</p>
+<p>The cowboy nearest the gate did not need Phil's word to open it
+for his neighbor next in line to drive the calf inside.</p>
+<p>Not a word was said until the calves to be branded were also
+driven into the corral. Then Phil, after a moment's talk with Jim
+Reid, rode up to Nick Cambert, who was sitting on his horse a
+little apart from the group of intensely interested cowboys. The
+Cross-Triangle foreman's tone was curt. "I reckon I'll have to
+trouble you to vent your brand on that Cross-Triangle calf,
+Nick."</p>
+<p>The Tailholt Mountain man made no shallow pretense that he did
+not understand. "Not by a damn sight," he returned roughly. "I
+ain't raisin' calves for Bill Baldwin, an' I happen to know what
+I'm talkin' about this trip. That's a Four-Bar-M calf, an' I
+branded him myself over in Horse Wash before he left the cow. Some
+of your punchers are too damned handy with their runnin' irons, Mr.
+Wild Horse Phil."</p>
+<p>For a moment Phil looked at the man, while Jim Reid moved his
+horse nearer, and the cowboys waited, breathlessly. Then, without
+taking his eyes from the Tailholt Mountain man's face, Phil called
+sharply:</p>
+<p>"Patches, come here!"</p>
+<p>There was a sudden movement among the riders, and a subdued
+murmur, as Patches rode forward.</p>
+<p>"Is that calf you told me about in the corral, Patches?" asked
+Phil, when the man was beside him.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir; that's him over there by that brindle cow." Patches
+indicated the animal in question.</p>
+<p>"And you put our iron on him?" asked Phil, still watching
+Nick.</p>
+<p>"I did," returned Patches, coolly.</p>
+<p>"Tell us about it," directed the Dean's foreman.</p>
+<p>And Patches obeyed, briefly. "It was that day you sent me to fix
+the fence on the southwest corner of the big pasture. I saw a bunch
+of cattle a little way outside the fence, and went to look them
+over. This calf was following a Cross-Triangle cow."</p>
+<p>"Are you sure?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir. I watched them for half an hour."</p>
+<p>"What was in the bunch?"</p>
+<p>"Four steers, a Pot-Hook-S bull, five cows and this calf. There
+were three Five-Bar cows, one Diamond-and-a-Half and one
+Cross-Triangle. The calf went to the Cross-Triangle cow every time.
+And, besides, he is marked just like his mother. I saw her again
+this afternoon while we were working the cattle."</p>
+<p>Phil nodded. "I know her."</p>
+<p>Jim Reid was watching Patches keenly, with a quiet look now and
+then at Nick.</p>
+<p>The cowboys were murmuring among themselves.</p>
+<p>"Pretty good work for a tenderfoot!"</p>
+<p>"Tenderfoot, hell!"</p>
+<p>"They've got Nick this trip."</p>
+<p>"Got nothin'! Can't you see it's a frame-up?"</p>
+<p>Phil spoke to Nick. "Well, are satisfied? Will you vent your
+brand?"</p>
+<p>The big man's face was distorted with passion. "Vent nothin',"
+he roared. "On the word of a damned sneakin' tenderfoot!
+I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>He stopped, as Patches, before Phil could check the movement,
+pushed close to his side.</p>
+<p>In the sudden stillness the new man's cool, deliberate voice
+sounded clearly. "I am positive that you made a mistake when you
+put your iron on that calf, Mr. Cambert. And," he added slowly, as
+though with the kindest possible intention, "I am sure that you can
+safely take my word for it without further question."</p>
+<p>For a moment Nick glared at Patches, speechless. Then, to the
+amazement of every cowboy in the corral, the big man mumbled a
+surly something, and took down his riata to rope the calf and
+disclaim his ownership of the animal.</p>
+<p>Jim Reid shook his head in puzzled doubt.</p>
+<p>The cowboys were clearly divided.</p>
+<p>"He's too good a hand for a tenderfoot," argued one; "carried
+that off like an old-timer."</p>
+<p>"'Tain't like Nick to lay down so easy for anybody," added
+another.</p>
+<p>"Nick's on to something about Mr. Patches that we ain't next
+to," insisted a third.</p>
+<p>"Or else we're all bein' strung for a bunch of suckers," offered
+still another.</p>
+<p>"You boys just hold your horses, an' ride easy," said Curly. "My
+money's still on Honorable Patches."</p>
+<p>And Bob added his loyal support with his cheerful "Me, too!"</p>
+<p>"It all looked straight enough," Jim Reid admitted to the Dean
+that evening, "but I can't get away from the notion that there was
+some sort of an understanding between your man an' that damned
+Tailholt Mountain thief. It looked like it was all too quiet an'
+easy somehow; like it had been planned beforehand."</p>
+<p>The Dean laughingly told his neighbor that he was right; that
+there was an understanding between Patches and Nick, and then
+explained by relating how Patches had met the Tailholt Mountain men
+that day at the spring.</p>
+<p>When the Dean had finished the big cowman asked several very
+suggestive questions. How did the Dean know that Patches' story was
+anything more than a cleverly arranged tale, invented for the
+express purpose of allaying any suspicion as to his true
+relationship with Nick? If Patches' character was so far above
+suspicion, why did he always dodge any talk that might touch his
+past? Was it necessary or usual for men to keep so close-mouthed
+about themselves? What did the Dean, or anyone else, for that
+matter, really know about this man who had appeared so strangely
+from nowhere, and had given a name even that was so plainly a
+ridiculous invention? The Dean must remember that the suspicion as
+to the source of Nick's too rapidly increasing herds had, so far,
+been directed wholly against Nick himself, and that the owner of
+the Four-Bar-M iron was not altogether a fool. It was quite time,
+Reid argued, for Nick to cease his personal activities, and to
+trust the actual work of branding to some confederate whose
+movements would not be so closely questioned. In short, Reid had
+been expecting some stranger to seek a job with some of the ranches
+that were in a position to contribute to the Tailholt Mountain
+outfit, and, for his part, he would await developments before
+becoming too enthusiastic over Honorable Patches.</p>
+<p>All of which the good Dean found very hard to answer.</p>
+<p>"But look here, Jim," he protested, "don't you go makin' it
+unpleasant for the boy. Whatever you think, you don't know any more
+than the rest of us. If we're guessin' on one side, you're guessin'
+on the other. I admit that what you say sounds reasonable; but,
+hang it, I like Patches. As for his name&mdash;well&mdash;we didn't
+use to go so much on names, in this country, you know. The boy may
+have some good reason for not talkin' about himself. Just give him
+a square chance; don't put no burrs under his saddle
+blanket&mdash;that's all I'm askin'."</p>
+<p>Jim laughed. The speech was so characteristic of the Dean, and
+Jim Reid loved his old friend and neighbor, as all men did, for
+being, as was commonly said, "so easy."</p>
+<p>"Don't worry, Will," he answered. "I'm not goin' to start
+anything. If I should happen to be right about Mr. Honorable
+Patches, he's exactly where we want him. I propose to keep my eye
+on him, that's all. And I think you an' Phil had better do the
+same."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/193.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_11.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/194.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>s the fall rodeo swept on its way over the wide ranges, the last
+reluctant bits of summer passed, and hints of the coming winter
+began to appear The yellow glory of the goldenrod, and the gorgeous
+banks of color on sunflower flats faded to earthy russet and brown;
+the white cups of the Jimson weed were broken and lost; the dainty
+pepper-grass, the thin-leafed grama-grass, and the heavier bladed
+bear-grass of the great pasture lands were dry and tawny; and the
+broom-weed that had tufted the rolling hills with brighter green,
+at the touch of the first frost, turned a dull and somber gray;
+while the varied beauties of the valley meadows became even as the
+dead and withered leaves of the Dean's walnut trees that, in
+falling, left the widespread limbs and branches so bare.</p>
+<p>Then the rodeo and the shipping were over; the weeks of the late
+fall range riding were past&mdash;and it was winter.</p>
+<p>From skyline to skyline the world was white, save for the dark
+pines upon the mountain sides, the brighter cedars and junipers
+upon the hills and ridges, and the living green of the oak brush,
+that, when all else was covered with snow, gave the cattle their
+winter feed.</p>
+<p>More than ever, now, with the passing of the summer and fall,
+Kitty longed for the stirring life that, in some measure, had won
+her from the scenes of her home and from her homeland friends. The
+young woman's friendship with Patches&mdash;made easy by the fact
+that the Baldwins had taken him so wholly into their
+hearts&mdash;served to keep alive her memories of that world to
+which she was sure he belonged, and such memories did not tend to
+make Kitty more contented and happy in Williamson Valley.</p>
+<p>Toward Phil, Kitty was unchanged. Many times her heart called
+for him so insistently that she wished she had never learned to
+know any life other than that life to which they had both been
+born. If only she had not spent those years away from
+home&mdash;she often told herself&mdash;it would all have been so
+different. She could have been happy with Phil&mdash;very
+happy&mdash;if only she had remained in his world. But
+now&mdash;now she was afraid&mdash;afraid for him as well as for
+herself. Her friendship with Patches had, in so many ways,
+emphasized the things that stood between her and the man whom, had
+it not been for her education, she would have accepted so gladly as
+her mate.</p>
+<p>Many times when the three were together, and Kitty had led the
+talk far from the life with which the cowboy was familiar, the
+young woman was forced, against the wish of her heart, to make
+comparisons. Kitty did not understand that Phil&mdash;unaccustomed
+to speaking of things outside his work and the life interests of
+his associates, and timid always in expressing his own
+thoughts&mdash;found it very hard to reveal the real wealth of his
+mind to her when she assumed so readily that he knew nothing beyond
+his horses and cattle. But Patches, to whom Phil had learned to
+speak with little reserve, understood. And, knowing that the wall
+which the girl felt separated her from the cowboy was built almost
+wholly of her own assumptions, Patches never lost an opportunity to
+help the young woman to a fuller acquaintance with the man whom she
+thought she had known since childhood.</p>
+<p>During the long winter months, many an evening at the
+Cross-Triangle, at the Reid home, or, perhaps, at some neighborhood
+party or dance, afforded Kitty opportunities for a fuller
+understanding of Phil, but resulted only in establishing a closer
+friendship with Patches.</p>
+<p>Then came the spring.</p>
+<p>The snow melted; the rains fell; the washes and creek channels
+were filled with roaring floods; hill and ridge and mountain slope
+and mesa awoke to the new life that was swelling in every branch
+and leaf and blade; the beauties of the valley meadow appeared
+again in fresh and fragrant loveliness; while from fence-post and
+bush and grassy bank and new-leaved tree the larks and mocking
+birds and doves voiced their glad return.</p>
+<p>And, with the spring, came a guest to the Cross-Triangle
+Ranch&mdash;another stranger.</p>
+<p>Patches had been riding the drift fence, and, as he made his way
+toward the home ranch, in the late afternoon, he looked a very
+different man from the Patches who, several months before, had been
+rescued by Kitty from a humiliating experience with that same
+fence.</p>
+<p>The fact that he was now riding Stranger, the big bay with the
+blazed face, more than anything else, perhaps, marked the change
+that had come to the man whom the horse had so viciously tested, on
+that day when they began together their education and work on the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch.</p>
+<p>No one meeting the cowboy, who handled his powerful and wild
+spirited mount with such easy confidence and skill, would have
+identified him with the white-faced, well-tailored gentleman whom
+Phil had met on the Divide. The months of active outdoor life had
+given his tall body a lithe and supple strength that was revealed
+in his every movement, while wind and sun had stained his skin that
+deep tan which marks those who must face the elements every waking
+hour. Prom tinkling bridle chain and jingling spur, to the coiled
+riata, his equipment showed the unmistakable marks of use. His
+fringed chaps, shaped, by many a day in the saddle, to his long
+legs, expressed experience, while his broad hat, soiled by sweat
+and dust, had acquired individuality, and his very
+jumper&mdash;once blue but now faded and patched&mdash;disclaimed
+the tenderfoot.</p>
+<p>Riding for a little way along the top of the ridge that forms
+the western edge of the valley, Patches looked down upon the red
+roofs of the buildings of the home ranch, and smiled as he thought
+of the welcome that awaited him there at the close of his day's
+work. The Dean and Stella, with Little Billy, and Phil, and the
+others of the home circle, had grown very dear to this strong man
+of whom they still knew nothing; and great as was the change in his
+outward appearance and manner, the man himself knew that there were
+other changes as great. Honorable Patches had not only acquired a
+name and a profession, but in acquiring them he had gained
+something of much greater worth to himself. And so he was grateful
+to those who, taking him on trust, had helped him more than they
+knew.</p>
+<p>He had left the ridge, and was half way across the flat toward
+the corrals, when Little Billy, spurring old Sheep in desperate
+energy, rode wildly out to meet him.</p>
+<p>As the lad approached, he greeted his big friend with shrill,
+boyish shouts, and Patches answered with a cowboy yell which did
+credit to his training, while Stranger, with a wild, preliminary
+bound into the air, proceeded, with many weird contortions, to give
+an exhibition which fairly expressed his sentiments.</p>
+<p>Little Billy grinned with delight. "Yip! Yip! Yee-e-e!" he
+shrilled, for Stranger's benefit. And then, as the big horse
+continued his manifestations, the lad added the cowboy's
+encouraging admonition to the rider. "Stay with him, Patches! Stay
+with him!"</p>
+<p>Patches laughingly stayed with him. "What you aimin' to do,
+pardner"&mdash;he asked good-naturedly, when Stranger at last
+consented to keep two feet on the ground at the same
+time&mdash;"tryin' to get me piled?"</p>
+<p>"Shucks!" retorted the youngster admiringly. "I don't reckon
+anything could pile you, <i>now</i>. I come out to tell you that we
+got company," he added, as, side by side, they rode on toward the
+corrals.</p>
+<p>Patches was properly surprised. "Company!" he exclaimed.</p>
+<p>Little Billy grinned proudly. "Yep. He's a man&mdash;from way
+back East somewhere. Uncle Will brought him out from town. They got
+here just after dinner. I don't guess he's ever seen a ranch
+before. Gee! but won't we have fun with him!"</p>
+<p>Patches face was grave as he listened. "How do you know he is
+from the East, Billy?" he asked, concealing his anxious interest
+with a smile at his little comrade.</p>
+<p>"Heard Uncle Will tell Phil and Kitty."</p>
+<p>"Oh, Kitty is at the house, too, is she?"</p>
+<p>Billy giggled. "She an' Phil's been off somewheres ridin'
+together most all day; they just got back a while ago. They was
+talkin' with the company when I left. Phil saw you when you was
+back there on the ridge, an' I come on out to tell you."</p>
+<p>Phil and Kitty were walking toward their horses, which were
+standing near the corral fence, as Patches and Little Billy came
+through the gate.</p>
+<p>The boy dropped from his saddle, and ran on into the house to
+tell his Aunt Stella that Patches had come, leaving Sheep to be
+looked after by whoever volunteered for the service. It was one of
+Little Billy's humiliations that he was not yet tall enough to
+saddle or bridle his own horse, and the men tactfully saw to it
+that his mount was always ready in the morning, and properly
+released at night, without any embarrassing comments on the
+subject.</p>
+<p>Patches checked his horse, and without dismounting greeted his
+friends. "You're not going?" he said to Kitty, with a note of
+protest in his voice. "I haven't seen you for a week. It's not fair
+for Phil to take advantage of his position and send me off
+somewhere alone while he spends his time riding over the country
+with you."</p>
+<p>They laughed up at him as he sat there on the big bay, hat in
+hand, looking down into their upturned faces with the intimate,
+friendly interest of an older brother.</p>
+<p>Patches noticed that Kitty's eyes were bright with excitement,
+and that Phil's were twinkling with suppressed merriment.</p>
+<p>"I must go, Patches," said the young woman. "I ought to have
+gone two hours ago; but I was so interested that the time slipped
+away before I realized."</p>
+<p>"We have company," explained Phil, looking at Patches and
+deliberately closing one eye&mdash;the one that Kitty could not
+see. "A distinguished guest, if you please. I'll loan you a clean
+shirt for supper; that is, if mother lets you eat at the same table
+with him."</p>
+<p>"Phil, how can you!" protested Kitty.</p>
+<p>The two men laughed, but Phil fancied that there was a hint of
+anxiety in Patches' face, as the man on the horse said, "Little
+Billy broke the news to me. Who is he?"</p>
+<p>"A friend of Judge Morris in Prescott," answered Phil. "The
+Judge asked Uncle Will to take him on the ranch for a while. He and
+the Judge were&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Kitty interrupted with enthusiasm. "It is Professor Parkhill,
+Patches, the famous professor of aesthetics, you know: Everard
+Charles Parkhill. And he's going to spend the summer in Williamson
+Valley! Isn't it wonderful!"</p>
+<p>Phil saw a look of relief in his friend's face as Patches
+answered Kitty with sympathetic interest. "It certainly will be a
+great pleasure, Miss Reid, especially for you, to have one so
+distinguished for his scholarship in the neighborhood. Is Professor
+Parkhill visiting Arizona for his health?"</p>
+<p>Something in Patches' voice caused Phil to turn hastily
+aside.</p>
+<p>But Kitty, who was thinking how perfectly Patches understood
+her, noticed nothing in his grave tones save his usual courteous
+deference.</p>
+<p>"Partly because of his health," she answered, "but he is going
+to prepare a series of lectures, I understand. He says that in the
+crude and uncultivated mentalities of our&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Here he is now," interrupted Phil, as the distinguished guest
+of the Cross-Triangle appeared, coming slowly toward them.</p>
+<p>Professor Everard Charles Parkhill looked the part to which,
+from his birth, he had been assigned by his over-cultured parents.
+His slender body, with its narrow shoulders and sunken chest, frail
+as it was, seemed almost too heavy for his feeble legs. His thin
+face, bloodless and sallow, with a sparse, daintily trimmed beard
+and weak watery eyes, was characterized by a solemn and portentous
+gravity, as though, realizing fully the profound importance of his
+mission in life, he could permit no trivial thought to enter his
+bald, domelike head. One knew instinctively that in all the
+forty-five or fifty years of his little life no happiness or joy
+that had not been scientifically sterilized and certified had ever
+been permitted to stain his super-aesthetic soul.</p>
+<p>As he came forward, he gazed at the long-limbed man on the big
+bay horse with a curious eagerness, as though he were considering a
+strange and interesting creature that could scarcely be held to
+belong to the human race.</p>
+<p>"Professor Parkhill," said Phil coolly, "you were saying that
+you had never seen a genuine cowboy in his native haunt. Permit me
+to introduce a typical specimen, Mr. Honorable Patches. Patches,
+this is Professor Parkhill."</p>
+<p>"Phil," murmured Kitty, "how can you?"</p>
+<p>The Professor was gazing at Patches as though fascinated. And
+Patches, his weather-beaten face as grave as the face of a wooden
+Indian, stared back at the Professor with a blank, open-mouthed and
+wild-eyed expression of rustic wonder that convulsed Phil and made
+Kitty turn away to hide a smile.</p>
+<p>"Howdy! Proud to meet up with you, mister," drawled the typical
+specimen of the genus cowboy. And then, as though suddenly
+remembering his manners, he leaped to the ground and strode
+awkwardly forward, one hand outstretched in greeting, the other
+holding fast to Stranger's bridle rein, while the horse danced and
+plunged about with reckless indifference to the polite intentions
+of his master.</p>
+<p>The Professor backed fearfully away from the dangerous looking
+horse and the equally formidable-appearing cowboy. Whereat Patches
+addressed Stranger with a roar of savage wrath.</p>
+<p>"Whoa! You consarned, square-headed, stiff-legged, squint-eyed,
+lop-eared, four-flusher, you. Whoa, I tell you! Cain't you see I'm
+a-wantin' to shake hands with this here man what the boss has
+interduced me to?"</p>
+<p>Phil nearly choked. Kitty was looking unutterable things. They
+did not know that Patches was suffering from a reaction caused by
+the discovery that he had never before met Professor Parkhill.</p>
+<p>"You see, mister," he explained gravely, advancing again with
+Stranger following nervously, "this here fool horse ain't used to
+strangers, no how, 'specially them as don't look, as you might say,
+just natural like." He finished with a sheepish grin, as he grasped
+the visitor's soft little hand and pumped it up and down with
+virile energy. Then, staring with bucolic wonder at the
+distinguished representative of the highest culture, he asked, "Be
+you an honest-to-God professor? I've heard about such, but I ain't
+never seen one before."</p>
+<p>The little man replied hurriedly, but with timid pride,
+"Certainly, sir; yes, certainly."</p>
+<p>"You be!" exclaimed the cowboy, as though overcome by his
+nearness to such dignity. "Excuse me askin', but if you don't mind,
+now&mdash;what be you professor of?"</p>
+<p>The other answered with more courage, as though his soul found
+strength in the very word: "Aesthetics."</p>
+<p>The cowboy's jaw dropped, his mouth opened in gaping awe, and he
+looked from the professor to Phil and Kitty, as if silently
+appealing to them to verify this startling thing which he had
+heard. "You don't say!" he murmured at last in innocent admiration.
+"Well, now, to think of a little feller like you a-bein' all that!
+But jest what be them there esteticks what you're professor
+of&mdash;if you don't mind my askin'?"</p>
+<p>The distinguished scholar answered promptly, in his best
+platform voice, "The science or doctrine of the nature of beauty
+and of judgments of tastes."</p>
+<p>At this, Stranger, with a snort of fear, stood straight up on
+his hind legs, and Professor Parkhill scuttled to a position of
+safety behind Phil.</p>
+<p>"Excuse me, folks," said Patches. "I'm just naturally obliged to
+'tend to this here thing what thinks he's a hoss. Come along, you
+ornery, pigeon-toed, knock-kneed, sway-backed, wooly-haired excuse,
+you. You ain't got no more manners 'n a measly coyote."</p>
+<p>The famous professor of aesthetics stood with Phil and Kitty
+watching Patches as that gentleman relieved the dancing bay of the
+saddle, and led him away through the corrals to the gate leading
+into the meadow pasture.</p>
+<p>"I beg pardon," murmured the visitor in his thin, little voice,
+"but what did I understand you to say is the fellow's name?"</p>
+<p>"Patches; Honorable Patches," answered Phil.</p>
+<p>"How strange! how extraordinarily strange! I should be very
+interested to know something of his ancestry, and, if possible, to
+trace the origin of such a peculiar name."</p>
+<p>Phil replied with exaggerated concern. "For heaven's sake, sir,
+don't say anything about the man's name in his hearing."</p>
+<p>"He&mdash;he is dangerous, you mean?"</p>
+<p>"He is, if he thinks anyone is making light of his name. You
+should ask some of the boys who have tried it."</p>
+<p>"But I&mdash;I assure you, Mr. Acton, I had no thought of
+ridicule&mdash;far from it. Oh, very far from it."</p>
+<p>Kitty was obliged to turn away. She arrived at the corral in
+time to meet Patches, who was returning.</p>
+<p>"You ought to be ashamed," she scolded. But in spite of herself
+her eyes were laughing.</p>
+<p>"Yes, ma'am," said Patches meekly, hat in hand.</p>
+<p>"How could you do such a thing?" she demanded.</p>
+<p>"How could I help doing it?"</p>
+<p>"How could you help it?"</p>
+<p>"Yes. You saw how he looked at me. Really, Miss Reid, I couldn't
+bear to disappoint him so cruelly. Honestly, now, wasn't I exactly
+what he expected me to be? I think you should compliment me. Didn't
+I do it very well?"</p>
+<p>"But, he'll think you're nothing but a cowboy," she
+protested.</p>
+<p>"Fine!" retorted Patches, quickly. "I thank you, Miss Reid; that
+is really the most satisfactory compliment I have ever
+received."</p>
+<p>"You're mocking me now," said Kitty, puzzled by his manner.</p>
+<p>"Indeed, I am not. I am very serious," he returned. "But here he
+comes again. With your gracious permission, I'll make my exit.
+Please don't explain to the professor. It would humiliate me, and
+think how it would shock and disappoint him!"</p>
+<p>Lifting his saddle from the ground and starting toward the shed,
+he said in a louder tone, "Sure, I won't ferget, Miss Kitty; an'
+you kin tell your paw that there baldfaced steer o' his'n, what
+give us the slip last rodeo time, is over in our big pasture. I
+sure seen him thar to-day."</p>
+<p>During the days immediately following that first meeting, Kitty
+passed many hours with Professor Parkhill. Phil and his cowboys
+were busy preparing for the spring rodeo. Mrs. Baldwin was wholly
+occupied with ministering to the animal comforts of her earthly
+household. And the Dean, always courteous and kind to his guest,
+managed, nevertheless, to think of some pressing business that
+demanded his immediate and personal attention whenever the visitor
+sought to engage him in conversation. The professor, quite
+naturally holding the cattleman to be but a rude, illiterate and
+wholly materialistic creature, but little superior in intellectual
+and spiritual powers to his own beasts, sought merely to
+investigate the Dean's mental works, with as little regard for the
+Dean's feelings as a biologist would show toward a hug. The Dean
+confided to Phil and Patches, one day when he had escaped to the
+blacksmith shop where the men were shoeing their horses, that the
+professor was harmlessly insane. "Just think," he exploded, "of the
+poor, little fool livin' in Chicago for three years, an' never once
+goin' out to the stockyards even!"</p>
+<p>It remained, therefore, for Kitty&mdash;the only worshiper of
+the professor's gods in Williamson Valley&mdash;to supply that
+companionship which seems so necessary even to those whose souls
+are so far removed from material wants. In short, as Little Billy
+put it, with a boy's irreverence, "Kitty rode herd on the
+professor." And, strangely enough to them all, Kitty seemed to like
+the job.</p>
+<p>Either because her friendship with Patches&mdash;which had some
+to mean a great deal to Kitty&mdash;outweighed her respect and
+admiration for the distinguished object of his fun, or because she
+waited for some opportunity to make the revelation a punishment to
+the offender, the young woman did not betray the real character of
+the cowboy to the stranger. And the professor, thanks to Phil's
+warning, not only refrained from investigating the name of Patches,
+but carefully avoided Patches himself. In the meantime, the
+"typical specimen" was forced to take a small part in the table
+talk lest he betray himself. So marked was this that Mrs. Baldwin
+one day, not understanding, openly chided him for being so "glum."
+Whereupon the Dean&mdash;to whom Phil had thoughtfully
+explained&mdash;teased the deceiver unmercifully, with many
+laughingly alleged reasons for his "grouch," while Curly and Bob,
+attributing their comrade's manner to the embarrassing presence of
+the stranger, grinned sympathetically; and the professor
+himself&mdash;unconsciously agreeing with the cowboys&mdash;with
+kindly condescension tried to make the victim of his august
+superiority as much at ease as possible; which naturally, for the
+Dean and Phil, added not a little to the situation.</p>
+<p>Then the spring rodeo took the men far from the home ranch, and
+for several weeks the distinguished guest of the Cross-Triangle was
+left almost wholly to the guardianship of the young woman who lived
+on the other side of the big meadows.</p>
+<p>It was the last day of the rodeo, when Phil rode to the home
+ranch, late in the afternoon, to consult with the Dean about the
+shipping. Patches and the cowboys who were to help in the long
+drive to the railroad were at Toohey with the cattle. While the
+cowboys were finishing their early breakfast the next morning, the
+foreman returned, and Patches knew, almost before Phil spoke, that
+something had happened. They shouted their greetings as he
+approached, but he had no smile for their cheery reception, nor did
+he answer, even, until he had ridden close to the group about the
+camp fire. Then, with a short "mornin', boys," he dismounted and
+stood with the bridle reins in his hand.</p>
+<p>At his manner a hush fell over the little company, and they
+watched him curiously.</p>
+<p>"No breakfast, Sam," he said, shortly, to the Chinaman. "Just a
+cup of coffee." Then to the cowboys, "You fellows saddle up and get
+that bunch of cattle to moving. We'll load at Skull Valley."</p>
+<p>Sam brought his coffee and he drank it as he stood, while the
+men hurriedly departed for their horses. Patches, the last to go,
+paused a moment, as though to speak, but Phil prevented him with a
+gruff order. "Get a move on you, Patches. Those cars will be there
+long before we are."</p>
+<p>And Patches, seeing the man's face dark and drawn with pain,
+moved away without a word.</p>
+<p>"Great snakes," softly ejaculated Curly a few moments later, as
+Patches stooped to take his saddle from where it lay on the ground
+beside Curly's. "What do you reckon's eatin' the boss? Him an' the
+Dean couldn't 'a' mixed it last night, could they? Do you reckon
+the Dean crawled him about somethin'?"</p>
+<p>Patches shook his head with a "Search me, pardner," as he turned
+to his horse.</p>
+<p>"Somethin's happened sure," muttered the other, busy with his
+saddle blanket. "Sufferin' cats! but I felt like he'd poured a
+bucket of ice water down my neck!" He drew the cinch tight with a
+vigorous jerk that brought a grunt of protest from his mount.
+"That's right," he continued, addressing the horse, "hump yourself,
+an' swell up and grunt, damn you; you ought to be thankin' God that
+you ain't nothin' but a hoss, nohow, with no feelin' 'cept what's
+in your belly." He dropped the heavy stirrup with a vicious slap,
+and swung to his seat. "If Phil's a-goin' to keep up the way he's
+startin', we'll sure have a pleasant little ol' ride to Skull
+Valley. Oh, Lord! but I wisht I was a professor of them there
+exteticks, or somethin' nice and gentle like, jest for to-day,
+anyhow."</p>
+<p>Patches laughed. "Think you could qualify, Curly?"</p>
+<p>The cowboy grinned as they rode off together. "So far as I've
+noticed the main part of the work, I could. The shade of them
+walnut trees at the home ranch, or the Pot-Hook-S front porch, an'
+a nice easy rockin' chair with fat cushions, or mebby the buckboard
+onct in a while, with Kitty to do the drivin'&mdash;Say, this has
+sure been some little ol' rodeo, ain't it? I ain't got a hoss in my
+string that can more'n stand up, an' honest to God, Patches, I'm
+jest corns all over. How's your saddle feel, this mornin'?"</p>
+<p>"It's got corns, too," admitted Patches. "But there's Phil; we'd
+better be riding."</p>
+<p>All that day Phil kept to himself, speaking to his companions
+only when speech could not be avoided, and then with the fewest
+possible words. That night, he left the company as soon as he had
+finished his supper, and went off somewhere alone, and Patches
+heard him finding his bed, long after the other members of the
+outfit were sound asleep. And the following day, through the trying
+work of loading the cattle, the young foreman was so little like
+himself that, had it not been that his men were nearly all
+old-time, boyhood friends who had known him all his life, there
+would surely have been a mutiny.</p>
+<p>It was late in the afternoon, when the last reluctant steer was
+prodded and pushed up the timbered runway from the pens, and
+crowded into the car. Curly and Bob were going with the cattle
+train. The others would remain at Skull Valley until morning, when
+they would start for their widely separated homes. Phil announced
+that he was going to the home ranch that night.</p>
+<p>"You can make it home sometime to-morrow, Patches," he finished,
+when he had said good-by to the little group of men with whom he
+had lived and worked in closest intimacy through the long weeks of
+the rodeo. He reined his horse about, even as he spoke, to set out
+on his long ride.</p>
+<p>The Cross-Triangle foreman was beyond hearing of the cowboys
+when Patches overtook him. "Do you mind if I go back to the
+Cross-Triangle with you to-night, Phil?" the cowboy asked
+quietly.</p>
+<p>Phil checked his horse and looked at his friend a moment without
+answering. Then, in a kindlier tone than he had used the past two
+days, he said, "You better stay here with the boys, and get your
+night's rest, Patches. You have had a long hard spell of it in this
+rodeo, and yesterday and to-day have not been exactly easy.
+Shipping is always hell, even when everybody is in a good humor,"
+he smiled grimly.</p>
+<p>"If you do not object, I would really like to go," said Patches
+simply.</p>
+<p>"But your horse is as tired as you ought to be," protested
+Phil.</p>
+<p>"I'm riding Stranger, you know," the other answered.</p>
+<p>To which Phil replied tersely, "Let's be riding, then."</p>
+<p>The cowboys, who had been watching the two men, looked at each
+other in amazement as Phil and Patches rode away together.</p>
+<p>"Well, what do you make of that?" exclaimed one.</p>
+<p>"Looks like Honorable Patches was next," commented another.</p>
+<p>"Us old-timers ain't in it when it comes to associatin' with the
+boss," offered a third.</p>
+<p>"You shut up on that line," came sharply from Curly. "Phil ain't
+turnin' us down for nobody. I reckon if Patches is fool enough to
+want to ride to the Cross-Triangle to-night Phil ain't got no
+reason for stoppin' him. If any of you punchers wants to make the
+ride, the way's open, ain't it?"</p>
+<p>"Now, don't you go on the prod, too," soothed the other. "We
+wasn't meanin' nothin' agin Phil."</p>
+<p>"Well, what's the matter with Patches?" demanded the
+Cross-Triangle man, whose heart was sorely troubled by the mystery
+of his foreman's mood.</p>
+<p>"Ain't nobody <i>said</i> as there was anything the matter. Fact
+is, don't nobody <i>know</i> that there is."</p>
+<p>And for some reason Curly had no answer.</p>
+<p>"Don't it jest naturally beat thunder the way he's cottoned up
+to that yellow dog of a Yavapai Joe?" mused another, encouraged by
+Curly's silence. "Three or four of the boys told how they'd seen
+'em together off an' on, but I didn't think nothin' of it until I
+seen 'em myself when we was workin' over at Tailholt. It was one
+evenin' after supper. I went down to the corral to fix up that
+Pedro horse's back, when I heard voices kind o' low like. I stopped
+a minute, an' then sort o' eased along in the dark, an' run right
+onto 'em where they was a-settin' in the door o' the saddle room,
+cozy as you please. Yavapai sneaked away while I was gettin' the
+lantern an' lightin' it, but Patches, he jest stayed an' held the
+light for me while I fixed ol' Pedro, jest as if nothin' had
+happened."</p>
+<p>"Well," said Curly sarcastically, "what <i>had</i>
+happened?"</p>
+<p>"I don't know-nothin'&mdash;mebby."</p>
+<p>"If Patches was what some o' you boys seem to think, do you
+reckon he'd be a-ridin' for the Cross-Triangle?" demanded
+Curly.</p>
+<p>"He might, an' he mightn't," retorted two or three at once.</p>
+<p>"Nobody can't say nothin' in a case like that until the
+show-down," added one. "I don't reckon the Dean knows any more than
+the rest of us."</p>
+<p>"Unless Patches is what some of the other boys are guessin',"
+said another.</p>
+<p>"Which means," finished Curly, in a tone of disgust, "that we've
+got to millin' 'round the same old ring again. Come on, Bob; let's
+see what they've got for supper. That engine'll happen along
+directly, an' we'll be startin' hungry."</p>
+<p>Phil Acton was not ignorant of the different opinions that were
+held by the cattlemen regarding Honorable Patches. Nor, as the
+responsible foreman of the Cross-Triangle, could he remain
+indifferent to them. During those first months of Patches' life on
+the ranch, when the cowboy's heart had so often been moved to pity
+for the stranger who had come to them apparently from some painful
+crisis in his life, he had laughed at the suspicions of his old
+friends and associates. But as the months had passed, and Patches
+had so rapidly developed into a strong, self-reliant man, with a
+spirit of bold recklessness that was marked even among those hardy
+riders of the range, Phil forgot, in a measure, those
+characteristics that the stranger had shown at the beginning of
+their acquaintance. At the same time, the persistent suspicions of
+the cattlemen, together with Patches' curious, and, in a way,
+secret interest in Yavapai Joe, could not but have a decided
+influence upon the young man who was responsible for the Dean's
+property.</p>
+<p>It was inevitable, under the circumstances, that Phil's attitude
+toward Patches should change, even as the character of Patches
+himself had changed. While the foreman's manner of friendship and
+kindly regard remained, so far, unaltered, and while Phil still, in
+his heart, believed in his friend, and&mdash;as he would have
+said&mdash;"would continue to back his judgment until the
+show-down," nevertheless that spirit of intimacy which had so
+marked those first days of their work together had gradually been
+lost to them. The cowboy no longer talked to his companion, as he
+had talked that day when they lay in the shade of the walnut tree
+at Toohey, and during the following days of their range riding. He
+no longer admitted his friend into his inner life, as he had done
+that day when he told Patches the story of the wild stallion. And
+Patches, feeling the change, and unable to understand the reason
+for it, waited patiently for the time when the cloud that had
+fallen between them should lift.</p>
+<p>So they rode together that night, homeward bound, at the end of
+the long, hard weeks of the rodeo, in the deepening gloom of the
+day's passing, in the hushed stillness of the wild land, under the
+wide sky where the starry sentinel hosts were gathering for their
+ever-faithful watch. And as they rode, their stirrups often
+touching, each was alone with his own thoughts. Phil, still in the
+depth of his somber mood, brooded over his bitter trouble. Patches,
+sympathetically wondering, silently questioning, wished that he
+could help.</p>
+<p>There are times when a man's very soul forces him to seek
+companionship. Alone in the night with this man for whom, even at
+that first moment of their meeting on the Divide, he had felt a
+strange sense of kinship, Phil found himself drifting far from the
+questions that had risen to mar the closeness of their intimacy.
+The work of the rodeo was over; his cowboy associates, with their
+suggestive talk, were far away. Under the influence of the long,
+dark miles of that night, and the silent presence of his companion,
+the young man, for the time being, was no longer the responsible
+foreman of the Cross-Triangle Ranch. In all that vast and silent
+world there was, for Phil Acton, only himself, his trouble, and his
+friend.</p>
+<p>And so it came about that, little by little, the young man told
+Patches the story of his dream, and of how it was now shattered and
+broken.</p>
+<p>Sometimes bitterly, as though he felt injustice; sometimes
+harshly, as though in contempt for some weakness of his own; with
+sentences broken by the pain he strove to subdue, with halting
+words and long silences, Phil told of his plans for rebuilding the
+home of his boyhood, and of restoring the business that, through
+the generosity of his father, had been lost; of how, since his
+childhood almost, he had worked and saved to that end; and of his
+love for Kitty, which had been the very light of his dream, and
+without which for him there was no purpose in dreaming. And the man
+who rode so close beside him listened with a fuller understanding
+and a deeper sympathy than Phil knew.</p>
+<p>"And now," said Phil hopelessly, "it's all over. I've sure come
+to the end of my string. Reid has put the outfit on the market.
+He's going to sell out and quit. Uncle Will told me night before
+last when I went home to see about the shipping."</p>
+<p>"Reid is going to sell!" exclaimed Patches; and there was a
+curious note of exultation in his voice which Phil did not hear.
+Neither did Phil see that his companion was smiling to himself
+under cover of the darkness.</p>
+<p>"It's that damned Professor Parkhill that's brought it about,"
+continued the cowboy bitterly. "Ever since Kitty came home from the
+East she has been discontented and dissatisfied with ranch life. I
+was all right when she went away, but when she came back she
+discovered that I was nothing but a cow-puncher. She has been fair,
+though. She has tried to get back where she was before she left and
+I thought I would win her again in time. I was so sure of it that
+it never troubled me. You have seen how it was. And you have seen
+how she was always wanting the life that she had learned to want
+while she was away&mdash;the life that you came from, Patches. I
+have been mighty glad for your friendship with her, too, because I
+thought she would learn from you that a man could have all that is
+worth having in <i>that</i> life, and still be happy and contented
+<i>here</i>. And she would have learned, I am sure. She couldn't
+help seeing it. But now that damned fool who knows no more of real
+manhood than I do of his profession has spoiled it all."</p>
+<p>"But Phil, I don't understand. What has Parkhill to do with
+Reid's selling out?"</p>
+<p>"Why, don't you see?" Phil returned savagely. "He's the supreme
+representative of the highest highbrowed culture, isn't he? He's a
+lord high admiral, duke, or potentate of some sort, in the world of
+loftiest thought, isn't he? He lives, moves and has his being in
+the lofty realms of the purely spiritual, doesn't he? He's
+cultured, and cultivated, and spiritualized, until he vibrates
+nothing but pure soul&mdash;whatever that means&mdash;and he's
+refined himself, and mental-disciplined himself, and soul-dominated
+himself, until there's not an ounce of red blood left in his
+carcass. Get him between you and the sun, after what he calls a
+dinner, and you can see every material mouthful that he, has
+disgraced himself by swallowing. He's not human, I tell you; he's
+only a kind of a he-ghost, and ought to be fed on sterilized
+moonbeams and pasteurized starlight."</p>
+<p>"Amen!" said Patches solemnly, when Phil paused for lack of
+breath. "But, Phil, your eloquent characterization does not explain
+what the he-ghost has to do with the sale of the Pot-Hook-S
+outfit."</p>
+<p>Phil's voice again dropped into its hopeless key as he answered.
+"You remember how, from the very first, Kitty&mdash;well&mdash;sort
+of worshiped him, don't you?"</p>
+<p>"You mean how she worshiped his aesthetic cult, don't you?"
+corrected Patches quietly.</p>
+<p>"I suppose that's it," responded Phil gloomily. "Well, Uncle
+Will says that they have been together mighty near every day for
+the past three months, and that about half of the time they have
+been over at Kitty's home. He has discovered, he says, that Kitty
+possesses a rare and wonderful capacity for absorbing the higher
+truths of the more purely intellectual and spiritual planes of
+life, and that she has a marvelously developed appreciation of
+those ideals of life which are so far removed from the base and
+material interests and passions which belong to the mere animal
+existence of the common herd."</p>
+<p>"Oh, hell!" groaned Patches.</p>
+<p>"Well, that's what he told Uncle Will," returned Phil stoutly.
+"And he has harped on that string so long, and yammered so much to
+Jim and to Kitty's mother about the girl's wonderful
+intellectuality, and what a record-breaking career she would have
+if only she had the opportunity, and what a shame, and a loss to
+the world it is for her to remain buried in these soul-dwarfing
+surroundings, that they have got to believing it themselves. You
+see, Kitty herself has in a way been getting them used to the idea
+that Williamson Valley isn't much of a place, and that the cow
+business doesn't rank very high among the best people. So Jim is
+going to sell out, and move away somewhere, where Kitty can have
+her career, and the boys can grow up to be something better than
+low-down cow-punchers like you and me. Jim is able to retire
+anyway."</p>
+<p>"Thanks, Phil," said Patches quietly.</p>
+<p>"What for?"</p>
+<p>"Why, for including me in your class. I consider it a
+compliment, and"&mdash;he added, with a touch of his old
+self-mocking humor&mdash;"I think I know what I am
+saying&mdash;better, perhaps, than the he-ghost knows what he talks
+about."</p>
+<p>"It may be that you do," returned Phil wearily, "but you can see
+where it all puts me. The professor has sure got me down and
+hog-tied so tight that I can't even think."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps, and again, perhaps not," returned Patches. "Reid
+hasn't found a buyer for the outfit yet, has he?"</p>
+<p>"Not yet, but they'll come along fast enough. The Pot-Hook-S
+Ranch is too well known for the sale to hang fire long."</p>
+<p>The next day Phil seemed to slip back again, in his attitude
+toward Patches, to the temper of those last weeks of the rodeo. It
+was as though the young man&mdash;with his return to the home ranch
+and to the Dean and their talks and plans for the work&mdash;again
+put himself, his personal convictions and his peculiar regard for
+Patches, aside, and became the unprejudiced foreman, careful for
+his employer's interests.</p>
+<p>Patches very quickly, but without offense, found that the door,
+which his friend had opened in the long dark hours of that lonely
+night ride, had closed again; and, thinking that he understood, he
+made no attempt to force his way. But, for some reason, Patches
+appeared to be in an unusually happy frame of mind, and went
+singing and whistling about the corrals and buildings as though
+exceedingly well pleased with himself and with the world.</p>
+<p>The following day was Sunday. In the afternoon, Patches was
+roaming about the premises, keeping at a safe distance from the
+walnut trees in front of the house, where the professor had
+cornered the Dean, thus punishing both Patches and his employer by
+preventing one of their long Sunday talks which they both so much
+enjoyed. Phil had gone off somewhere to be alone, and Mrs. Baldwin
+was reading aloud to Little Billy. Honorable Patches was left very
+much to himself.</p>
+<p>From the top of the little hill near the corrals, he looked
+across the meadow at exactly the right moment to see someone riding
+away from the neighboring ranch. He watched until he was certain
+that whoever it was was not coming to the Cross-Triangle&mdash;at
+least, not by way of the meadow lane. Then, smiling to himself, he
+went to the big barn and saddled a horse&mdash;there are always two
+or three that are not turned out in the pasture&mdash;and in a few
+minutes was riding leisurely away on the Simmons road, along the
+western edge of the valley. An hour later he met Kitty Reid, who
+was on her way from Simmons to the Cross-Triangle.</p>
+<p>The young woman was sincerely glad to meet him.</p>
+<p>"But you were going to Simmons, were you not?" she asked, as he
+reined his horse about to ride with her.</p>
+<p>"To be truthful, I was going to Simmons if I met anyone else, or
+if I had not met you," he answered. Then, at her puzzled look, he
+explained, "I saw someone leave your house, and guessed that it was
+you. I guessed, too, that you would be coming this way."</p>
+<p>"And you actually rode out to meet me?"</p>
+<p>"Actually," he smiled.</p>
+<p>They chatted about the rodeo, and the news of the
+countryside&mdash;for it had been several weeks since they had
+met&mdash;and so reached the point of the last ridge before you
+come to the ranch. Then Patches asked, "May we ride over there on
+the ridge, and sit for a while in the shade of that old cedar, for
+a little talk? It's early yet, and it's been ages since we had a
+pow-wow."</p>
+<p>Reaching the point which Patches had chosen, they left their
+horses and made themselves comfortable on the brow of the hill,
+overlooking the wide valley meadow and the ranches.</p>
+<p>"And now," said Kitty, looking at him curiously, "what's the
+talk, Mr. Honorable Patches?"</p>
+<p>"Just you," said Patches, gravely.</p>
+<p>"Me?"</p>
+<p>"Your own charming self," he returned.</p>
+<p>"But, please, good sir, what have I done?" she asked. "Or,
+perhaps, it's what have I not done?"</p>
+<p>"Or perhaps," he retorted, "it's what you are going to do."</p>
+<p>"Oh!"</p>
+<p>"Miss Reid, I am going to ask you a favor&mdash;a great
+favor."</p>
+<p>"Yes?"</p>
+<p>"You have known me now almost a year."</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"And, yet, to be exact, you do not know me at all."</p>
+<p>She did not answer, but looked at him steadily.</p>
+<p>"And that, in a way," he continued, "makes it easy for me to ask
+the favor; that is, if you feel that you can trust me ever so
+little&mdash;trust me, I mean, to the extent of believing me
+sincere."</p>
+<p>"I know that you are sincere, Patches," she answered,
+gravely.</p>
+<p>"Thank you," he returned. Then he said gently, "I want you to
+let me talk to you about what is most emphatically none of my
+business. I want you to let me ask you impertinent questions. I
+want you to talk to me about"&mdash;he hesitated; then finished
+with meaning&mdash;"about your career."</p>
+<p>She felt his earnestness, and was big enough to understand, and
+be grateful for the spirit that prompted his words.</p>
+<p>"Why, Patches," she cried, "after all that your friendship has
+meant to me, these past months, I could not think any question that
+you would ask impertinent Surely you know that, don't you?"</p>
+<p>"I hoped that you would feel that way. And I know that I would
+give five years of my life if I knew how to convince you of the
+truth which I have learned from my own bitter experience, and save
+you from&mdash;from yourself."</p>
+<p>She could not mistake his earnestness and in spite of herself
+the man's intense feeling moved her deeply.</p>
+<p>"Save me from myself?" she questioned. "What in the world do you
+mean, Patches?"</p>
+<p>"Is it true," he asked, "that your father is offering the ranch
+for sale, and that you are going out of the Williamson Valley
+life?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, but it is not such a sudden move as it seems. We have
+often talked about it at home&mdash;father and mother and I."</p>
+<p>"But the move is to be made chiefly on your account, is it
+not?"</p>
+<p>She flushed a little at this, but answered stoutly. "Yes. I
+suppose that is true. You see, being the only one in our family to
+have the advantages of&mdash;well&mdash;the advantages that I have
+had, it was natural that I should&mdash;Surely you have seen,
+Patches, how discontented and dissatisfied I have been with the
+life here! Why, until you came there was no one to whom I could
+talk, even&mdash;no one, I mean, who could understand."</p>
+<p>"But what is it that you want, or expect to find, that you may
+not have right here?"</p>
+<p>Then she told him all that he had expected to hear. Told him
+earnestly, passionately, of the life she craved, and of the sordid,
+commonplace narrowness and emptiness&mdash;as she saw it&mdash;of
+the life from which she sought to escape. And as she talked the
+man's good heart was heavy with sadness and pity for her.</p>
+<p>"Oh, girl, girl," he cried, when she had finished. "Can't
+you&mdash;won't you&mdash;understand? All that you seek is right
+here&mdash;everywhere about you&mdash;waiting for you to make it
+your own, and with it you may have here those greater things
+without which no life can be abundant and joyous. The culture and
+the intellectual life that is dependent upon mere environment is a
+crippled culture and a sickly life. The mind that cannot find its
+food for thought wherever it may be planed will never hobble very
+far on crutches of superficial cults and societies. You are leaving
+the substance, child, for the shadow. You are seeking the fads and
+fancies of shallow idlers, and turning your back upon eternal
+facts. You are following after silly fools who are chasing bubbles
+over the edge of God's good world. Believe me, girl, I
+know&mdash;God! but I do know what that life, stripped of its
+tinseled and spangled show, means. Take the good grain, child, and
+let the husks go."</p>
+<p>As the man spoke, Kitty watched him as though she were intently
+interested; but, in truth, her thoughts were more on the speaker
+than on what he said.</p>
+<p>"You are in earnest, aren't you, Patches?" she murmured
+softly.</p>
+<p>"I am," he returned sharply, for he saw that she was not even
+considering what he had said. "I know how mistaken you are; I know
+what it will mean to you when you find how much you have lost and
+how little you have gained."</p>
+<p>"And how am I mistaken? Do I not know what I want? Am I not
+better able than anyone else to say what satisfies me and what does
+not?"</p>
+<p>"No," he retorted, almost harshly, "you are not. You
+<i>think</i> it is the culture, as you call it, that you want; but
+if that were really it, you would not go. You would find it here.
+The greatest minds that the world has ever known you may have right
+here in your home, on your library table. And you may listen to
+their thoughts without being disturbed by the magpie chatterings of
+vain and shallow pretenders. You are attracted by the pretentious
+forms and manners of that life; you think that because a certain
+class of people, who have nothing else to do, talk a certain
+jargon, and profess to follow certain teachers&mdash;who, nine
+times out of ten, are charlatans or fools&mdash;that they are the
+intellectual and spiritual leaders of the race. You are mistaking
+the very things that prevent intellectual and spiritual development
+for the things you think you want."</p>
+<p>She did not answer his thought, but replied to his words. "And
+supposing I am mistaken, as you say. Still, I do not see why it
+should matter so to you."</p>
+<p>He made a gesture of hopelessness and sat for a moment in
+silence. Then he said slowly, "I fear you will not understand, but
+did you ever hear the story of how 'Wild Horse Phil' earned his
+title?"</p>
+<p>She laughed. "Why, of course. Everybody knows about that. Dear,
+foolish old Phil&mdash;I shall miss him dreadfully." "Yes," he said
+significantly, "you will miss him. The life you are going to does
+not produce Phil Actons."</p>
+<p>"It produced an Honorable Patches," she retorted slyly.</p>
+<p>"Indeed it did <i>not</i>," he answered quickly. "It
+produced&mdash;" He checked himself, as though fearing that he
+would say too much.</p>
+<p>"But what have Phil and his wild horse to do with the question?"
+she asked.</p>
+<p>"Nothing, I fear. Only I feel about your going away as Phil felt
+when he gave the wild horse its freedom."</p>
+<p>"I don't think I understand," she said, genuinely puzzled.</p>
+<p>"I said you would not," he retorted bluntly, "and that's why you
+are leaving all this." His gesture indicated the vast sweep of
+country with old Granite Mountain in the distance.</p>
+<p>Then, with a nod and a look he indicated Professor Parkhill, who
+was walking toward them along the side of the ridge skirting the
+scattered cedar timber. "Here comes a product of the sort of
+culture to which you aspire. Behold the ideal manhood of your
+higher life! When the intellectual and spiritual life you so desire
+succeeds in producing racial fruit of that superior quality, it
+will have justified its existence&mdash;and will perish from the
+earth."</p>
+<p>Even as Patches spoke, he saw something just beyond the
+approaching man that made him start as if to rise to his feet.</p>
+<p>It was the unmistakable face of Yavapai Joe, who, from behind an
+oak bush, was watching the professor.</p>
+<p>Patches, glancing at Kitty, saw that she had not noticed.</p>
+<p>Before the young woman could reply to her companion's derisive
+remarks, the object which had prompted his comments arrived within
+speaking distance.</p>
+<p>"I trust I am not intruding," began the professor, in his small,
+thin voice. Then as Patches, his eyes still on that oak bush, stood
+up, the little man added, with hasty condescension, "Keep your
+seat, my man; keep your seat. I assure you it is not my purpose to
+deprive you of Miss Reid's company."</p>
+<p>Patches grinned. By that "my man" he knew that Kitty had not
+enlightened her teacher as to the "typical cowboy's" real
+character.</p>
+<p>"That's all right, perfessor," he said awkwardly. "I just seen a
+maverick over yonder a-piece. I reckon I'd better mosey along an'
+have a closer look at him. Me an' Kitty here warn't talkin' nothin'
+important, nohow. Just a gassin' like. I reckon she'd ruther go on
+home with you, anyhow, an' it's all right with me."</p>
+<p>"Maverick!" questioned the professor. "And what, may I ask, is a
+maverick?"</p>
+<p>"Hit's a critter what don't belong to nobody," answered Patches,
+moving toward his horse.</p>
+<p>At the same moment Kitty, who had risen, and was looking in the
+direction from which the professor had come, exclaimed, "Why,
+there's Yavapai Joe, Patches. What is he doing here?"</p>
+<p>She pointed, and the professor, looking, caught a glimpse of
+Joe's back as the fellow was slinking over the ridge.</p>
+<p>"I reckon mebby he wants to see me 'bout somethin' or other,"
+Patches returned, as he mounted his horse. "Anyway, I'm a-goin'
+over that-a-way an' see. So long!"</p>
+<p>Patches rode up to Joe just as the Tailholt Mountain man
+regained his horse on the other side of the ridge.</p>
+<p>"Hello, Joe!" said the Cross-Triangle rider, easily.</p>
+<p>The wretched outcast was so shaken and confused that he could
+scarcely find the stirrup with his foot, and his face was pale and
+twitching with excitement. He looked at Patches, wildly, but spoke
+in a sullen tone. "What's he doin' here? What does he want? How did
+he get to this country, anyhow?"</p>
+<p>Patches was amazed, but spoke calmly. "Whom do you mean,
+Joe?"</p>
+<p>"I mean that man back there, Parkhill&mdash;Professor Parkhill.
+What's he a-lookin' for hangin' 'round here? You can tell him it
+ain't no use&mdash;I&mdash;" He stopped suddenly, and with a
+characteristic look of cunning, turned away.</p>
+<p>Patches rode beside him for some distance, but nothing that he
+could say would persuade the wretched creature to explain.</p>
+<p>"Yes, I know you're my friend, all right, Patches," he answered.
+"You sure been mighty friendly ter me, an' I ain't fergettin' it.
+But I ain't a-tellin' nothin' to nobody, an' it ain't a-goin' to do
+you no good to go askin' him 'bout me, neither."</p>
+<p>"I'm not going to ask Professor Parkhill anything, Joe," said
+Patches shortly.</p>
+<p>"You ain't?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly not; if you don't want me to know. I'm not trying to
+find out about anything that's none of my business."</p>
+<p>Joe looked at him with a cunning leer. "Oh, you ain't, ain't
+you? Nick 'lows that you're sure&mdash;" Again he caught himself.
+"But I ain't a-tellin' nothin' to nobody."</p>
+<p>"Well, have <i>I</i> ever asked you to tell me anything?"
+demanded Patches.</p>
+<p>"No, you ain't&mdash;that's right&mdash;you sure been square
+with me, Patches, an' I ain't fergettin' it. Be you sure 'nuf my
+friend, Patches? Honest-to-God, now, be you?"</p>
+<p>His question was pitiful, and Patches assured the poor fellow
+that he had no wish to be anything but his friend, if only Yavapai
+Joe would accept his help.</p>
+<p>"Then," said Joe pleadingly, "if you mean all that you been
+sayin' about wantin' to help me, you'll do somethin' fer me right
+now."</p>
+<p>"What can I do, Joe?"</p>
+<p>"You kin promise me that you won't say nothin' to nobody 'bout
+me an' him back there."</p>
+<p>Patches, to demonstrate his friendliness, answered without
+thought, "Certainly, I'll promise that, Joe."</p>
+<p>"You won't tell nobody?"</p>
+<p>"No, I won't say a word."</p>
+<p>The poor fellow's face revealed his gratitude. "I'm obliged to
+you, Patches, I sure am, an' I ain't fergettin' nothin', either.
+You're my friend, all right, an' I'm your'n. I got to be a-hittin'
+it up now. Nick'll jest nachally gimme hell for bein' gone so
+long."</p>
+<p>"Good-by, Joe!"</p>
+<p>"So long, Patches! An' don't you get to thinkin' that I'm
+fergettin' how me an' you is friends."</p>
+<p>When Patches reviewed the incident, as he rode back to the
+ranch, he questioned if he had done right in promising Joe. But,
+after all, he reassured himself, he was under no obligation to
+interfere with what was clearly none of his business. He could not
+see that the matter in any possible way touched his employer's
+interests. And, he reflected, he had already tried the useless
+experiment of meddling with other people's affairs, and he did not
+care to repeat the experience.</p>
+<p>That evening Patches asked Phil's permission to go to Prescott
+the next day. It would be the first time that he had been to town
+since his coming to the ranch and the foreman readily granted his
+request.</p>
+<p>A few minutes later as Phil passed through the kitchen, Mrs.
+Baldwin remarked, "I wonder what Patches is feeling so gay about.
+Ever since he got home from the rodeo he's been singin' an'
+whistlin' an' grinnin' to himself all the time. He went out to the
+corral just now as merry as a lark."</p>
+<p>Phil laughed. "Anybody would be glad to get through with that
+rodeo, mother; besides, he is going to town to-morrow."</p>
+<p>"He is? Well, you mark my words, son, there's somethin' up to
+make him feel as good as he does."</p>
+<p>And then, when Phil had gone on out into the yard, Professor
+Parkhill found him.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Acton," began the guest timidly, "there is a little matter
+about which I feel I should speak to you."</p>
+<p>"Very well, sir," returned the cowboy.</p>
+<p>"I feel that it would be better for me to speak to you rather
+than to Mr. Baldwin, because, well, you are younger, and will, I am
+sure, understand more readily."</p>
+<p>"All right; what is it, Professor?" asked Phil encouragingly,
+wondering at the man's manner.</p>
+<p>"Do you mind&mdash;ah&mdash;walking a little way down the
+road?"</p>
+<p>As they strolled out toward the gate to the meadow road, the
+professor continued:</p>
+<p>"I think I should tell you about your man Patches."</p>
+<p>Phil looked at his companion sharply. "Well, what about
+him?"</p>
+<p>"I trust you will not misunderstand my interest, Mr. Acton, when
+I say that it also includes Miss Reid."</p>
+<p>Phil stopped short. Instantly Mrs. Baldwin's remark about
+Patches' happiness, his own confession that he had given up all
+hope of winning Kitty, and the thought of the friendship which he
+had seen developing during the past months, with the realization
+that Patches belonged to that world to which Kitty
+aspired&mdash;all swept through his mind. He was looking at the man
+beside him so intently that the professor said again uneasily:</p>
+<p>"I trust, Mr. Acton, that you will understand."</p>
+<p>Phil laughed shortly. "I think I do. But just the same you'd
+better explain. What about Patches and Miss Reid, sir?"</p>
+<p>The professor told how he had found them together that
+afternoon.</p>
+<p>"Oh, is that all?" laughed Phil.</p>
+<p>"But surely, Mr. Acton, you do not think that a man of that
+fellow's evident brutal instincts is a fit associate for a young
+woman of Miss Reid's character and refinement."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps not," admitted Phil, still laughing, "but I guess Kitty
+can take care of herself."</p>
+<p>"I do not agree with you, sir," said the other authoritatively.
+"A young woman of Miss Reid's&mdash;ah&mdash;spirituality and
+worldly inexperience must always be, to a certain extent, injured
+by contact with such illiterate, unrefined, and, I have no doubt,
+morally deficient characters."</p>
+<p>"But, look here, Professor," returned Phil, still grinning,
+"what do you expect me to do about it? I am not Kitty Reid's
+guardian. Why don't you talk to her yourself?"</p>
+<p>"Really," returned the little man, "I&mdash;there are reasons
+why I do not see my way clear to such a course. I had hoped that
+you might keep an eye on the fellow, and, if necessary, use your
+authority over him to prevent any such incidents in the
+future."</p>
+<p>"I'll see what I can do," answered Phil, thinking how the Dean
+would enjoy the joke. "But, look here; Kitty was with you when you
+got to the ranch. What became of Patches? Run, did he, when you
+appeared on the scene?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, no; he went away with a&mdash;with a maverick."</p>
+<p>"Went away with a maverick? What, in heaven's name, do you mean
+by that?"</p>
+<p>"That's what your man Patches said the fellow was. Miss Reid
+told me his name was Joe&mdash;Joe something."</p>
+<p>Phil was not laughing now. The fun of the situation had
+vanished.</p>
+<p>"Was it Yavapai Joe?" he demanded.</p>
+<p>"Yes, that was it. I am quite sure that was the name. He belongs
+at Tailend Mountain, I think Miss Reid said; you have such curious
+names in this country."</p>
+<p>"And Patches went away with him, you say?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, the fellow seemed to have been hiding in the bushes when
+we discovered him, and when Miss Reid asked what he was doing there
+your man said that he had come to see him about something. They
+went away together, I believe."</p>
+<p>As soon as he could escape from the professor, Phil went
+straight to Patches, who was in his room, reading. The man looked
+up with a welcoming smile as Phil entered, but as he saw the
+foreman's face his smile vanished quickly, and he laid aside his
+book.</p>
+<p>"Patches," said Phil abruptly, "what's this talk of the
+professor's about you and Yavapai Joe?"</p>
+<p>"I don't know what the professor is talking," Patches replied
+coldly, as though he did not exactly like the tone of Phil's
+question.</p>
+<p>"He says that Joe was sneaking about in the brush over on the
+ridge wanting to see you about something," returned Phil.</p>
+<p>"Joe was certainly over there on the ridge, and he may have
+wanted to see me; at any rate, I saw him."</p>
+<p>"Well, I've got to ask you what sort of business you have with
+that Tailholt Mountain thief that makes it necessary for him to
+sneak around in the brush for a meeting with you. If he wants to
+see you, why doesn't he come to the ranch, like a man?"</p>
+<p>Honorable Patches looked the Dean's foreman straight in the
+eyes, as he answered in a tone that he had never used before in
+speaking to Phil: "And I have to answer, sir, that my business with
+Yavapai Joe is entirely personal; that it has no relation whatever
+to your business as the foreman of this ranch. As to why Joe didn't
+come to the house, you must ask him; I don't know."</p>
+<p>"You refuse to explain?" demanded Phil.</p>
+<p>"I certainly refuse to discuss Joe Dryden's private
+affairs&mdash;that, so far as I can see, are of no importance to
+anyone but himself&mdash;with you or anyone else. Just as I should
+refuse to discuss any of your private affairs, with which I
+happened, by some chance, to be, in a way, familiar. I have made
+all the explanation necessary when I say that my business with him
+has nothing to do with your business. You have no right to ask me
+anything further."</p>
+<p>"I have the right to fire you," retorted Phil, angrily.</p>
+<p>Patches smiled, as he answered gently, "You have the right,
+Phil, but you won't use it."</p>
+<p>"And why not?"</p>
+<p>"Because you are not that kind of a man, Phil Acton," answered
+Patches slowly. "You know perfectly well that if you discharged me
+because of my friendship with poor Yavapai Joe, no ranch in this
+part of the country would give me a job. You are too honest
+yourself to condemn any man on mere suspicion, and you are too much
+of a gentleman to damn another simply because he, too, aspires to
+that distinction."</p>
+<p>"Very well, Patches," Phil returned, with less heat, "but I want
+you to understand one thing; I am responsible for the
+Cross-Triangle property and there is no friendship in the world
+strong enough to influence me in the slightest degree when it comes
+to a question of Uncle Will's interests. Do you get that?"</p>
+<p>"I got that months ago, Phil."</p>
+<p>Without another word, the Dean's foreman left the room.</p>
+<p>Patches sat for some time considering the situation. And now and
+then his lips curled in that old, self-mocking smile; realizing
+that he was caught in the trap of circumstance, he found a curious
+humor in his predicament.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/235.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_12.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/236.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>gain it was July. And, with the time of the cattlemen's
+celebration of the Fourth at hand, riders from every part of the
+great western cow country assembled in Prescott for their annual
+contests. From Texas and Montana, from Oklahoma and New Mexico and
+Wyoming, the cowboys came with their saddles and riatas to meet
+each other and the men of Arizona in friendly trials of strength
+and skill. From many a wild pasture, outlaw horses famous for their
+vicious, unsubdued spirits, and their fierce, untamed strength,
+were brought to match their wicked, unbroken wills against the
+cool, determined courage of the riders. From the wide ranges, the
+steers that were to participate in the roping and bull-dogging
+contests were gathered and driven in. From many a ranch the fastest
+and best of the trained cow-horses were sent for the various cowboy
+races. And the little city, in its rocky, mile-high basin, upon
+which the higher surrounding mountains look so steadfastly down,
+again decked itself in gala colors, and opened wide its doors to
+welcome all who chose to come.</p>
+<p>From the Cross-Triangle and the neighboring ranches the cowboys,
+dressed in the best of their picturesque regalia, rode into the
+town, to witness and take part in the sports. With them rode
+Honorable Patches.</p>
+<p>And this was not the carefully groomed and immaculately attired
+gentleman who, in troubled spirit, had walked alone over that long,
+unfenced way a year before. This was not the timid, hesitating,
+shamefaced man at whom Phil Acton had laughed on the summit of the
+Divide. This was a man among men&mdash;a cowboy of the
+cowboys&mdash;bronzed, and lean, and rugged; vitally alive in every
+inch of his long body; with self-reliant courage and daring
+hardihood written all over him, expressed in every tone of his
+voice, and ringing in every note of his laughter.</p>
+<p>The Dean and Mrs. Baldwin and Little Billy drove in the
+buckboard, but the distinguished guest of the Cross-Triangle went
+with the Reid family in the automobile. The professor was not at
+all interested in the celebration, but he could not well remain at
+the ranch alone, and, it may be supposed, the invitation from Kitty
+helped to make the occasion endurable.</p>
+<p>The celebration this year&mdash;the posters and circulars
+declared&mdash;was to be the biggest and best that Prescott had
+ever offered. In proof of the bold assertion, the program promised,
+in addition to the usual events, an automobile race. Shades of all
+those mighty heroes of the saddle, whose names may not be erased
+from the history of the great West, think of it! An automobile race
+offered as the chief event in a Frontier Day Celebration!</p>
+<p>No wonder that Mrs. Manning said to her husband that day, "But
+Stan, where are the cowboys?"</p>
+<p>Stanford Manning answered laughingly, "Oh, they are here, all
+right, Helen; just wait a little and you will see."</p>
+<p>Mr. and Mrs. Manning had arrived from Cleveland, Ohio, the
+evening before, and Helen was eager and excited with the prospect
+of meeting the people, and witnessing the scenes of which her
+husband had told her with so much enthusiasm.</p>
+<p>As the Dean had told Patches that day when the cattleman had
+advanced the money for the stranger's outfit, the young mining
+engineer had won a place for himself amid the scenes and among the
+people of that western country. He had first come to the land of
+this story, fresh from his technical training in the East. His
+employers, quick to recognize not only his ability in his
+profession but his character and manhood, as well, had advanced him
+rapidly and, less than a month before Patches asked for work at the
+Cross-Triangle, had sent him on an important mission to their mines
+in the North. They were sending him, now, again to Arizona, this
+time as the resident manager of their properties in the Prescott
+district. This new advance in his profession, together with the
+substantial increase in salary which it brought, meant much to the
+engineer. Most of all, it meant his marriage to Helen Wakefield. A
+stop-over of two weeks at Cleveland, on way West, from the main
+offices of his Company in New York, had changed his return to
+Prescott from a simple business trip to a wedding journey.</p>
+<p>At the home of the Yavapai Club, on top of the hill, a clock
+above the plaza, a number of Prescott's citizens, with their
+guests, had gathered to watch the beginning of the automobile race.
+The course, from the corner in front of the St. Michael hotel,
+followed the street along one side of the plaza, climbed straight
+up the hill, passed the clubhouse, and so away into the open
+country. From the clubhouse veranda, from the lawn and walks in
+front, or from their seats in convenient automobiles standing near,
+the company enjoyed, thus, an unobstructed view of the starting
+point of the race, and could look down as well upon the crowds that
+pressed against the ropes which were stretched along either side of
+the street. Prom a friendly automobile, Helen Manning, with her
+husband's field glasses, was an eager and excited observer of the
+interesting scene, while Stanford near by was busy greeting old
+friends, presenting them to his wife and receiving their
+congratulations. And often, he turned with a fond look and a merry
+word to the young woman, as though reassuring himself that she was
+really there. There was no doubt about it, Stamford Manning, strong
+and steady and forceful, was very much in love with this girl who
+looked down into his face with such an air of sweet confidence and
+companionship. And Helen, as she turned from the scene that so
+interested her, to greet her husband's friends, to ask him some
+question, or to answer some laughing remark, could not hide the
+love light in her soft brown eyes. One could not fail to see that
+her woman heart was glad&mdash;glad and proud that this stalwart,
+broad-shouldered leader of men had chosen her for his mate.</p>
+<p>"But, Stan," she said, with a pretty air of disappointment, "I
+thought it was all going to be so different. Why, except for the
+mountains, and those poor Indians over there, this might all be in
+some little town back home. I thought there would be cowboys riding
+about everywhere, with long hair and big hats, and guns and
+things."</p>
+<p>Stanford and his friends who were standing near laughed.</p>
+<p>"I fear, Mrs. Manning," remarked Mr. Richards, one of Prescott's
+bank presidents, "that Stanford has been telling you wild west
+stories. The West moves as well as the East, you know. We are
+becoming civilized."</p>
+<p>"Indeed you are, Mr. Richards," Helen returned. "And I don't
+think I like it a bit. It's not fair to your poor eastern
+sight-seers, like myself."</p>
+<p>"If you are really so anxious to see a sure enough cowboy, look
+over there," said Stanford, and pointed across the street.</p>
+<p>"Where?" demanded Helen eagerly.</p>
+<p>"There," smiled Stanford, "the dark-faced chap near that
+automobile standing by the curb; the machine with the pretty girl
+at the wheel. See! he is stopping to talk with the girl."</p>
+<p>"What! That nice looking man, dressed just like thousands of men
+that we might see any day on the streets of Cleveland?" cried
+Helen.</p>
+<p>"Exactly," chuckled her husband, while the others laughed at her
+incredulous surprise. "But, just the same, that's Phil Acton; 'Wild
+Horse Phil,' if you please. He is the cowboy foreman of the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch, and won the championship in the bronco riding
+last year."</p>
+<p>"I don't believe it&mdash;you are making fun of me, Stanford
+Manning."</p>
+<p>Then, before he could answer, she cried, with quick excitement,
+"But, Stan, look! Look at the girl in the automobile! She looks
+like&mdash;it is, Stan, it is!" And to the amazement of her husband
+and her friends Mrs. Manning sprang to her feet and, waving her
+handkerchief, called, "Kitty! Oh, Kitty&mdash;Kitty Reid!"</p>
+<p>As her clear call rang out, many people turned to look, and then
+to smile at the picture, as she stood there in the bright Arizona
+day, so animated and wholesomely alive in the grace and charm of
+her beautiful young womanhood, above the little group of men who
+were looking up at her with laughing admiration.</p>
+<p>On the other side of the street, where she sat with her parents
+and Professor Parkhill, talking to Phil, Kitty heard the call, and
+looked. A moment later she was across the street, and the two young
+women were greeting each other with old-time schoolgirl enthusiasm.
+Introductions and explanations followed, with frequent feminine
+exclamations of surprise and delight. Then the men drew a little
+away, talking, laughing, as men will on such occasions, leaving the
+two women to themselves.</p>
+<p>In that eastern school, which, for those three years, had been
+Kitty's home, Helen Wakefield and the girl from Arizona had been
+close and intimate friends. Indeed, Helen, with her strong womanly
+character and that rare gift of helpful sympathy and understanding,
+had been to the girl fresh from the cattle ranges more than a
+friend; she had been counsellor and companion, and, in many ways, a
+wise guardian and teacher.</p>
+<p>"But why in the world didn't you write me about it?" demanded
+Kitty a little later. "Why didn't you tell me that you had become
+Mrs. Stanford Manning, and that you were coming to Prescott?"</p>
+<p>Helen laughed and blushed happily. "Why, you see, Kitty, it all
+happened so quickly that there was no time to write. You remember
+when I wrote you about Stan, I told you how poor he was, and how we
+didn't expect to be married for several years?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, you see, Stan's company, all unexpectedly to him,
+called him to New York and gave him this position out here. He had
+to start at once, and wired me from New York. Just think, I had
+only a week for the wedding and everything! I knew, of course, that
+I could find you after I got here."</p>
+<p>"And now that you are here," said Kitty decisively, "you and Mr.
+Manning are coming right out to Williamson Valley to spend your
+honeymoon on the ranch."</p>
+<p>But Helen shook her head. "Stan has it all planned, Kitty, and
+he won't listen to anything else. There is a place around here
+somewhere that he calls Granite Basin, and he has it all arranged
+that we are to camp out there for three weeks. His company has
+given him that much time, and we are going just as soon as this
+celebration is over. After that, while Stan gets started with his
+work, and fixes some place for us to live, I will make you a little
+visit."</p>
+<p>"I suppose there is no use trying to contend against the rights
+of a brand-new husband," returned Kitty, "but it's a promise, that
+you will come to me as soon as your camping trip is over?"</p>
+<p>"It's a promise," agreed Helen. "You see, that's really part of
+Stanford's plan; I was so sure you would want me, you know."</p>
+<p>"Want you? I should say I do want you," cried Kitty, "and I need
+you, too."</p>
+<p>Something in her voice made Helen look at her questioningly, but
+Kitty only smiled.</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you all about it when there is more time."</p>
+<p>"Let me see," said Helen. "There used to be&mdash;why, of
+course, that nice looking man you were talking to when I recognized
+you&mdash;Phil Acton." She looked across the street as she spoke,
+but Phil had gone.</p>
+<p>"Please don't, Helen dear," said Kitty, "that was only my
+schoolgirl nonsense. When I came back home I found how impossible
+it all was. But I must run back to the folks now. Won't you come
+and meet them?"</p>
+<p>Before Helen could answer someone shouted, "They're getting
+ready for the start," and everybody looked down the hill toward the
+place where the racing machines were sputtering and roaring in
+their clouds of blue smoke.</p>
+<p>Helen caught up the field glasses to look, saying, "We can't go
+now, Kitty. You stay here with us until after the race is started;
+then we'll go."</p>
+<p>As Helen lowered the glasses Stanford, who had come to stand
+beside the automobile, reached out his hand. "Let me have a look,
+Helen. They say my old friend, Judge Morris, is the official
+starter." He put the field glasses to his eyes. "There he is all
+right, as big as life; finest man that ever lived. Look, Helen." He
+returned the glasses to his wife "If you want to see a genuine
+western lawyer, a scholar and a gentleman, take a look at that
+six-foot-three or four down there in the gray clothes."</p>
+<p>"I see him," said Helen, "but there seems to be some thing the
+matter; there he goes back to the machines. Now he's laying down
+the law to the drivers."</p>
+<p>"They won't put over anything on Morris," said Stanford
+admiringly.</p>
+<p>Then a deep, kindly voice at his elbow said, "Howdy, Manning!
+Ain't you got time to speak to your old friends?"</p>
+<p>Stanford whirled and, with a glad exclamation, grasped the
+Dean's outstretched hand. Still holding fast to the cattleman, he
+again turned to his wife, who was looking down at them with smiling
+interest. "Helen, this is Mr. Baldwin&mdash;the Dean, you
+know."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, I ought to know the Dean," she cried, giving him her
+hand. "Stanford has told me so much about you that I am in love
+with you already."</p>
+<p>"And I"&mdash;retorted the Dean, looking up at her with his blue
+eyes twinkling approval&mdash;"I reckon I've always been in love
+with you. I'm sure glad to see that this young man has justified
+his reputation for good judgment. Have they got any more girls like
+you back East? 'Cause if they have, I'll sure be obliged to take a
+trip to that part of the world before I get too old."</p>
+<p>"You are just as Stan said you were," retorted Helen.</p>
+<p>"Uncle Will!" cried Kitty. "I am ashamed of you! I didn't think
+you would turn down your own home folks like that!"</p>
+<p>The Dean lifted his hat and rumpled his grizzly hair as though
+fairly caught. Then: "Why, Kitty, you know that I couldn't love any
+girl more than I do you. Why, you belong to me most as much as you
+belong to your own father and mother. But, you
+see&mdash;honey&mdash;well, you see, we've just naturally got to be
+nice to strangers, you know." When they had laughed at this, Kitty
+explained to that Dean how Mrs. Manning was the Helen Wakefield
+with whom she had been such friends at school, and that, after the
+Mannings' outing in Granite Basin, Helen was to visit Williamson
+Valley.</p>
+<p>"Campin' out in Granite Basin, heh?" said the Dean to Stanford.
+"I reckon you'll be seein' some o' my boys. They're goin' up into
+that country after outlaw steers next week."</p>
+<p>"I hope so," returned Stanford. "Helen has been complaining that
+there are no cowboys to be seen. I pointed out Phil Acton, but he
+didn't seem to fill the bill; she doesn't believe that he is a
+cowboy at all."</p>
+<p>The Dean chuckled. "He's never been anything else. They don't
+make 'em any better anywhere." Then he added soberly, "Phil's not
+ridin' in the contest this year, though."</p>
+<p>"What's the matter?"</p>
+<p>"I don't know. He's got some sort of a fool notion in his head
+that he don't want to make an exhibition of himself&mdash;that's
+what he said. I've got another man on the ranch now," he added, as
+though to change the subject, "that'll be mighty near as good as
+Phil in another year. His name is Patches. He's a good one, all
+right."</p>
+<p>Kitty, who, had been looking away down the street while the Dean
+was talking, put her hand on Helen's arm. "Look down there, Helen.
+I believe that is Patches now&mdash;that man sitting on his horse
+at the cross street, at the foot of the hill, just outside the
+ropes."</p>
+<p>Helen was looking through the field glasses. "I see him," she
+cried. "Now, that's more like it. He looks like what I expected to
+see. What a fine, big chap he is, isn't he?" Then, as she studied
+the distant horseman, a puzzled expression came over her face.
+"Why, Kitty!" she said in a low tone, so that the men who were
+talking did not hear. "Do you know, that man somehow reminds
+me"&mdash;she hesitated and lowered the glasses to look at her
+companion with half-amused, half-embarrassed eyes&mdash;"he reminds
+me of Lawrence Knight."</p>
+<p>Kitty's brown, fun-loving eyes glowed with mischief. "Really,
+Mrs. Manning, I am ashamed of you. Before the honeymoon has waned,
+your thoughts, with no better excuse than the appearance of a poor
+cow-puncher, go back to the captivating charms of your old
+millionaire lover. I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Kitty! Do hush," pleaded Helen.</p>
+<p>She lifted her glasses for another look at the cowboy.</p>
+<p>"I don't wonder that your conscience reproves you," teased
+Kitty, in a low tone. "But tell me, poor child, how did it happen
+that you lost your millionaire?"</p>
+<p>"I didn't lose him," retorted Helen, still watching Patches. "He
+lost me."</p>
+<p>Kitty persisted with a playful mockery. "What! the great, the
+wonderful Knight of so many millions, failed, with all his
+glittering charms, to captivate the fair but simple Helen! Really,
+I can't believe it."</p>
+<p>"Look at that man right there," flashed Helen proudly,
+indicating her husband, "and you can believe it."</p>
+<p>Kitty laughed so gaily that Stanford turned to look at them with
+smiling inquiry.</p>
+<p>"Never mind, Mr. Manning," said Kitty, "we are just reminiscing,
+that's all."</p>
+<p>"Don't miss the race," he answered; "they're getting ready again
+to start. It looks like a go this time."</p>
+<p>"And to think," murmured Kitty, "that I never so much as saw
+your Knight's picture! But you used to like Lawrence Knight, didn't
+you, Helen?" she added, as Helen lifted her field glasses again.
+And now, Mrs. Manning caught a note of earnest inquiry in her
+companion's voice. It was as though the girl were seeking
+confirmation of some purpose or decision of her own.</p>
+<p>"Why, yes, Kitty, I liked Larry Knight very much," she answered
+frankly. "He was a fine fellow in many ways&mdash;a dear, good
+friend. Stanford and I are both very fond of him; they were college
+mates, you know. But, my dear girl, no one could ever consider poor
+old Larry seriously&mdash;as a man, you know&mdash;he is
+so&mdash;so utterly and hopelessly worthless."</p>
+<p>"Worthless! With&mdash;how many millions is it?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, Kitty, you know what I mean. But, really dear, we have
+talked enough about Mr. Lawrence Knight. I'm going to have another
+look at the cowboy. <i>He</i> looks like a real man, doesn't he?
+What is it the Dean called him?"</p>
+<p>"Patches."</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes; what a funny name&mdash;Patches."</p>
+<p>"Honorable Patches," said Kitty.</p>
+<p>"How odd!" mused Helen. "Oh, Stan, come here a minute. Take the
+glasses and look at that cowboy down there."</p>
+<p>Stanford trained the field glasses as she directed.</p>
+<p>"Doesn't he remind you of Larry Knight?"</p>
+<p>"Larry Knight!" Stanford looked at her in amazement. "That
+cow-puncher? Larry Knight? I should say <i>not</i>. Lord! but
+wouldn't fastidious, cultured and correct old Larry feel
+complimented to know that you found anything in a common
+cow-puncher to remind you of him!"</p>
+<p>"But, here, take your glasses, quick; they are going to start at
+last."</p>
+<p>Even as Helen looked, Judge Morris gave the signal and the first
+racing car, with a mighty roar, leaped away from the starting
+point, and thundered up the street between the lines of the
+crowding, cheering people. An instant more, and Helen Manning
+witnessed a scene that thrilled the hearts of every man, woman and
+child in that great crowd.</p>
+<p>As the big racing car, gathering speed at every throb of its
+powerful motor, swept toward the hill, a small boy, but little more
+than a toddling baby, escaped from his mother, who, with the
+excited throng, was crowding against the rope barrier, and before
+those whose eyes were fixed on the automobile noticed, the child
+was in the street, fairly in the path of the approaching machine. A
+sudden hush fell on the shouting multitude. Helen, through the
+field glasses, could see even the child's face, as, laughing
+gleefully, he looked back when his mother screamed. Stricken with
+horror, the young woman could not lower her glasses. Fascinated,
+she watched. The people seemed, for an instant, paralyzed. Not a
+soul moved or uttered a sound. Would the driver of the racing car
+swerve aside from his course in time? If he did, would the baby, in
+sudden fright, dodge in front of the machine? Then Helen saw the
+cowboy who had so interested her lean forward in his saddle and
+strike his spurs deep in the flanks of his already restless horse.
+With a tremendous bound the animal cleared the rope barrier, and in
+an instant was leaping toward the child and the approaching car.
+The people gasped at the daring of the man who had not waited to
+think. It was over in a second. As Patches swept by the child, he
+leaned low from the saddle; and, as the next leap of his horse
+carried him barely clear of the machine, they saw his tall, lithe
+body straighten, as he swung the baby up into his arms.</p>
+<p>Then, indeed, the crowd went wild. Men yelled and cheered; women
+laughed and cried; and, as the cowboy returned the frightened baby
+to the distressed mother, a hundred eager hands were stretched
+forth to greet him. But the excited horse backed away; someone
+raised the rope barrier, and Patches disappeared down the side
+street.</p>
+<p>Helen's eyes were wet, but she was smiling. "No," she said
+softly to Kitty and Stanford, "that was <i>not</i> Lawrence Knight.
+Poor old Larry never could have done that."</p>
+<p>It was a little after the noon hour when Kitty, who, with her
+father, mother and brothers, had been for dinner at the home of one
+of their Prescott friends, was crossing the plaza on her way to
+join Mr. and Mrs. Manning, with whom she was to spend the
+afternoon. In a less frequented corner of the little park, back of
+the courthouse, she saw Patches. The cowboy, who had changed from
+his ranch costume to a less picturesque business garb, was seated
+alone on one of the benches that are placed along the walks,
+reading a letter. With his attention fixed upon the letter, he did
+not notice Kitty as she approached. And the girl, when she first
+caught sight of him, paused for an instant; then she went toward
+him slowly, studying him with a new interest.</p>
+<p>She was quite near when, looking up, he saw her. Instantly he
+rose to his feet, slipped the letter into his pocket, and stood
+before her, hat in hand, to greet her with genuine pleasure and
+with that gentle courtesy which always marked his bearing. And
+Kitty, as she looked up at him, felt, more convincingly than ever,
+that this man would be perfectly at ease in the most exacting
+social company.</p>
+<p>"I fear I interrupted you," said the young woman. "I was just
+passing."</p>
+<p>"Not at all," he protested. "Surely you can give me a moment of
+your busy gala day. I know you have a host of friends, of course,
+but&mdash;well, I am lonely. Curly and Bob and the boys are all
+having the time of their lives; the Dean and mother are lunching
+with friends; and I don't know where Phil has hidden himself."</p>
+<p>It was like him to mention Phil in almost his first words to
+her. And Kitty, as Patches spoke Phil's name, instantly, as she had
+so often done during the past few months, mentally placed the two
+men side by side.</p>
+<p>"I just wanted to tell you"&mdash;she hesitated&mdash;"Mr.
+Patches&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon," he interrupted smiling.</p>
+<p>"Well, Patches then; but you seem so different somehow, dressed
+like this. I just wanted to tell you that I saw what happened this
+morning. It was splendid!"</p>
+<p>"Why, Miss Reid, you know that was nothing. The driver of the
+car would probably have dodged the youngster anyway. I acted on the
+impulse of the moment, without thinking. I'm always doing something
+unnecessarily foolish, you know."</p>
+<p>"The driver of the car would more likely have dodged into the
+child," she returned warmly. "And it was fortunate that some one in
+all that stupid crowd could act without taking time to think.
+Everybody says so. The dear old Dean is as pleased and proud as
+though you were one of his own sons."</p>
+<p>"Really, you make too much of it," he returned, clearly
+embarrassed by her praise. "Tell me, you are enjoying the
+celebration? And what's the matter with Phil? Can't you persuade
+him to ride in the contest? We don't want the championship to go
+out of Yavapai County, do we?"</p>
+<p>Why must he always bring Phil into their talk? Kitty asked
+herself.</p>
+<p>"I am sure that Phil knows how all his friends feel about his
+riding," she said coolly. "If he does not wish to gratify them, it
+is really a small matter, is it not?"</p>
+<p>Patches saw that he had made a mistake and changed easily to a
+safer topic.</p>
+<p>"You saw the beginning of the automobile race, of course? I
+suppose you will be on hand this afternoon for the finish?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes, I'm on my way now to join my friends, Mr. and Mrs.
+Stanford Manning. We are going to see the finish of the race
+together."</p>
+<p>She watched his face closely, as she spoke of her friends, but
+he gave no sign that he had ever heard the name before.</p>
+<p>"It will be worth seeing, I fancy," he returned. "At least
+everybody seems to feel that way."</p>
+<p>"I am sure to have a good time, anyway," she returned, "because,
+you see, Mrs. Manning is one of my very dearest girl friends, whom
+I have not seen for a long time."</p>
+<p>"Indeed! You <i>will</i> enjoy the afternoon, then."</p>
+<p>Was there a shade too much enthusiasm in the tone of his reply?
+Kitty wondered. Could it be that his plea of loneliness was merely
+a conventional courtesy and that he was really relieved to find
+that she was engaged for the afternoon?</p>
+<p>"Yes, and I must hurry on to them, or they will think I am not
+coming," she said. "Have a good time, Patches; you surely have
+earned it. Good-by!"</p>
+<p>He stood for a moment watching her cross the park. Then, with a
+quick look around, as though he did not wish to be observed, he
+hurried across the street to the Western Union office. A few
+moments later he made his way, by little-frequented side streets,
+to the stable where he had left his horse; and while Kitty and her
+friends were watching the first of the racing cars cross the line,
+Patches was several miles away, riding as though pursued by the
+sheriff, straight for the Cross-Triangle Ranch.</p>
+<p>Several times that day, while she was with her eastern friends,
+Kitty saw Phil near by. But she gave him no signal to join them,
+and the cowboy, shy always, and hurt by Kitty's indifference, would
+not approach the little party without her invitation. But that
+evening, while Kitty was waiting in the hotel lobby for Mr. and
+Mrs. Manning, Phil, finding her alone, went to her.</p>
+<p>"I have been trying to speak to you all day," he said
+reproachfully. "Haven't you any time for me at all, Kitty?"</p>
+<p>"Don't be foolish, Phil," she returned; "you have seen me a
+dozen times."</p>
+<p>"I have <i>seen</i> you, yes," he answered bitterly.</p>
+<p>"But, Phil, you could have come to me, if you had wanted
+to."</p>
+<p>"I have no desire to go where I am not wanted," he answered.</p>
+<p>"Phil!"</p>
+<p>"Well, you gave no sign that you wanted me."</p>
+<p>"There was no reason why I should," she retorted. "You are not a
+child. I was with my friends from the East. You could have joined
+us if you had cared to. I should be very glad, indeed, to present
+you to Mr. and Mrs. Manning."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, but I don't care to be exhibited as an interesting
+specimen to people who have no use for me except when I do a few
+fool stunts to amuse them."</p>
+<p>"Very well, Phil," she returned coldly. "If that is your
+feeling, I do not care to present you to my friends. They are every
+bit as sincere and genuine as you are; and I certainly shall not
+trouble them with anyone who cannot appreciate them."</p>
+<p>Kitty was angry, as she had good reason for being. But beneath
+her anger she was sorry for the man whose bitterness, she knew, was
+born of his love for her. And Phil saw only that Kitty was lost to
+him&mdash;saw in the girl's eastern friends those who, he felt, had
+robbed him of his dream.</p>
+<p>"I suppose," he said, after a moment's painful silence, "that I
+had better go back to the range where I belong. I'm out of place
+here."</p>
+<p>The girl was touched by the hopelessness in his voice, but she
+felt that it would be no kindness to offer him the relief of an
+encouraging word. Her day with her eastern friends, and the
+memories that her meeting with Mrs. Manning had aroused, convinced
+her more than ever that her old love for Phil, and the life of
+which he was a part, were for her impossible.</p>
+<p>When she did not speak, the cowboy said bitterly, "I noticed
+that your fine friends did not take quite all your time. You found
+an opportunity for a quiet little visit with Honorable
+Patches."</p>
+<p>Kitty was angry now in earnest. "You are forgetting yourself,
+Phil," she answered with cold dignity. "And I think that as long as
+you feel as you do toward my friends, and can speak to me like this
+about Mr. Patches, you are right in saying that you belong on the
+range. Mr. and Mrs. Manning are here, I see. I am going to dine
+with them. Good-by!" She turned away, leaving him standing
+there.</p>
+<p>A moment he waited, as though stunned; then he turned to make
+his way blindly out of the hotel.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/255.png" width="50%" alt="" title="" />
+<br /></div>
+<p>It was nearly morning when Patches was awakened by the sound of
+someone moving about the kitchen. A moment he listened, then,
+rising, went quickly to the kitchen door, thinking to surprise some
+chance night visitor.</p>
+<p>When Phil saw him standing there the foreman for a moment said
+nothing, but, with the bread knife in one hand and one of Stella's
+good loaves in the other, stared at him in blank surprise. Then the
+look of surprise changed to an expression of questioning suspicion,
+and he demanded harshly, "What in hell are <i>you</i> doing
+here?"</p>
+<p>Patches saw that the man was laboring under some great trouble.
+Indeed, Phil's voice and manner were not unlike one under the
+influence of strong drink. But Patches knew that Phil never
+drank.</p>
+<p>"I was sleeping," he answered calmly. "You woke me, I suppose. I
+heard you, and came to see who was prowling around the kitchen at
+this time of the night; that is all."</p>
+<p>"Oh, that's all, is it? But what are you here for? Why aren't
+you in Prescott where you are supposed to be?"</p>
+<p>Patches, because he saw Phil's painful state of mind, exercised
+admirable self-control. "I supposed I had a perfect right to come
+here if I wished. I did not dream that my presence in this house
+would be questioned."</p>
+<p>"That depends," Phil retorted. "Why did you leave Prescott?"</p>
+<p>Patches, still calm, answered gently. "My reasons for not
+staying in Prescott are entirely personal, Phil; I do not care to
+explain just now."</p>
+<p>"Oh, you don't? Well, it seems to me, sir, that you have a devil
+of a lot of personal business that you can't explain."</p>
+<p>"I am afraid I have," returned Patches, with his old
+self-mocking smile. "But, look here, Phil, you are disturbed and
+all wrought up about something, or you wouldn't attack me like
+this. You don't really think me a suspicious character, and you
+know you don't. You are not yourself, old man, and I'll be hanged
+if I'll take anything you say as an insult, until I know that you
+say it, deliberately, in cold blood. I'm sorry for your trouble,
+Phil&mdash;damned sorry&mdash;I would give anything if I could help
+you. Perhaps I may be able to prove that later, but just now I
+think the kindest and wisest thing that I can do for us both is to
+say good-night."</p>
+<p>He turned at the last word, without waiting for Phil to speak,
+and went back to his room.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/257.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_13.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/258.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>n the other side of Granite Mountain from where Phil and Patches
+watched the wild horses that day, there is a rocky hollow, set high
+in the hills, but surrounded on every side by still higher peaks
+and ridges. Lying close under the sheer, towering cliffs of the
+mountain, those fortress-like walls so gray and grim and old seem
+to overshadow the place with a somber quiet, as though the memories
+of the many ages that had wrought their countless years into those
+mighty battlements gave to the very atmosphere a feeling of solemn
+and sacred seclusion. It was as though nature had thrown about this
+spot a strong protecting guard, that here, in her very heart, she
+might keep unprofaned the sweetness and strength and beauty of her
+primitive and everlasting treasures.</p>
+<p>In its wild and rugged setting, Granite Basin has, for the few
+who have the hardihood to find them, many beautiful glades and
+shady nooks, where the grass and wild flowers weave their lovely
+patterns for the earth floor, and tall pines spread their soft
+carpets of brown, while giant oaks and sycamores lift their
+cathedral arches to support the ceilings of green, and dark rock
+fountains set in banks of moss and fern hold water clear and cold.
+It was to one of these that Stanford Manning brought his bride for
+their honeymoon. Stanford himself pitched their tent and made their
+simple camp, for it was not in his plan that the sweet intimacy of
+these, the first weeks of their mated life, should be marred, even
+by servants. And Helen, wise in her love, permitted him to realize
+his dream in the fullness of its every detail.</p>
+<p>As she lay in the hammock which he had hung for her under the
+canopy of living green, and watched him while he brought wood for
+their camp fire, and made all ready for the night which was drawing
+near, she was glad that he had planned it so. But more than that,
+she was glad that he was the kind of a man who would care to plan
+it so. Then, when all was finished, he came to sit beside her, and
+together they watched the light of the setting sun fade from the
+summit of Old Granite, and saw the flaming cloud-banner that hung
+above the mountain's castle towers furled by the hand of night. In
+silence they watched those mighty towering battlements grow cold
+and grim, until against the sky the shadowy bulk stood mysterious
+and awful, as though to evidence in its grandeur and strength the
+omnipotent might and power of the Master Builder of the world and
+Giver of all life.</p>
+<p>And when the soft darkness was fully come, and the low murmuring
+voices of the night whispered from forest depth and mountain side,
+while the stars peered through the weaving of leaf and branch, and
+the ruddy light of their camp fire rose and fell, the man talked of
+the things that had gone into the making of his life. As though he
+wished his mate to know him more fully than anyone else could know,
+he spoke of those personal trials and struggles, those
+disappointments and failures, those plans and triumphs of which men
+so rarely speak; of his boyhood and his boyhood home life, of his
+father and mother, of those hard years of his youth, and his
+struggle for an education that would equip him for his chosen life
+work; he told her many things that she had known only in a general
+way.</p>
+<p>But most of all he talked of those days when he had first met
+her, and of how quickly and surely the acquaintance had grown into
+friendship, and then into a love which he dared not yet confess.
+Smilingly he told how he had tried to convince himself that she was
+not for him. And how, believing that she loved and would wed his
+friend, Lawrence Knight, he had come to the far West, to his work,
+and, if he could, to forget.</p>
+<p>"But I could not forget, dear girl," he said. "I could not
+escape the conviction that you belonged to me, as I felt that I
+belonged to you. I could not banish the feeling that some
+mysterious higher law&mdash;the law that governs the mating of the
+beautifully free creatures that live in these hills&mdash;had mated
+you and me. And so, as I worked and tried to forget, I went on
+dreaming just the same. It was that way when I first saw this
+place. I was crossing the country on my way to examine some
+prospects for the company, and camped at this very spot. And that
+evening I planned it all, just as it is to-night. I put the tent
+there, and built our fire, and stretched your hammock under the
+tree, and sat with you in the twilight; but even as I dreamed it I
+laughed at myself for a fool, for I could not believe that the
+dream would ever come true. And then, when I got back to Prescott,
+there was a letter from a Cleveland friend, telling me that Larry
+had gone abroad to be away a year or more, and another letter from
+the company, calling me East again. And so I stopped at Cleveland
+and&mdash;" He laughed happily. "I know now that dreams do come
+true."</p>
+<p>"You foolish boy," said Helen softly. "To think that I did not
+know. Why, when you went away, I was so sure that you would come
+for me again, that I never even thought that it could be any other
+way. I thought you did not speak because you felt that you were too
+poor, because you felt that you had so little to offer, and because
+you wished to prove yourself and your work before asking me to
+share your life. I did not dream that you could doubt my love for
+you, or think for a moment that there could ever be anyone else. I
+felt that you <i>must</i> know; and so, you see, while I waited I
+had my dreams, too."</p>
+<p>"But don't you see, girl," he answered, as though for a moment
+he found it hard to believe his own happiness, "don't you see?
+Larry is such a splendid fellow, and you two were such friends, and
+you always seemed so fond of him, and with his wealth he could give
+you so much that I knew I never could give&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Of course, I am fond of Larry; everyone is. He has absolutely
+nothing to do in the world but to make himself charming and
+pleasant and entertaining and amusing. Why, Stan, I don't suppose
+that in all his life he ever did one single thing that was
+necessary or useful. He even had a man to help him dress. He is
+cultured and intellectual, and bright and witty, and clean and
+good-natured, possessing, in fact, all the qualifications of a
+desirable lap dog, and you can't help liking him, just as you would
+like a pretty, useless pet."</p>
+<p>Stanford chuckled. She had described Lawrence Knight so
+accurately.</p>
+<p>"Poor old Larry," he said. "What a man he might have been if he
+had not been so pampered and petted and envied and spoiled, all
+because of his father's money. His heart is right, and at the
+bottom he has the right sort of stuff in him. His athletic record
+at school showed us that. I think that was why we all liked him so
+in spite of his uselessness."</p>
+<p>"I wish you could have known my father, Stan," said Helen
+thoughtfully, as though she, too, were moved to speak by the wish
+that her mate might know more of the things that had touched her
+deeper life.</p>
+<p>"I wish so, too," he answered. "I know that he must have been
+fine."</p>
+<p>"He was my ideal," she answered softly. "My other ideal, I mean.
+From the time I was a slip of a girl he made me his chum. Until he
+died we were always together. Mother died when I was a baby, you
+know. Many, many times he would take me with him when he made his
+professional visits to his patients, leaving me in the buggy to
+wait at each house&mdash;'to be his hitching post'&mdash;he used to
+say. And on those long rides, sometimes out into the country, he
+talked to me as I suppose not many fathers talk to their daughters.
+And because he was my father and a physician, and because we were
+so much alone in our companionship, I believed him the wisest and
+best man in all the world, and felt that nothing he said or did
+could be wrong. And so, you see, dear, my ideal man, the man to
+whom I could give myself, came to be the kind of a man that my
+father placed in the highest rank among men&mdash;a man like you,
+Stan. And almost the last talk we had before he died father said to
+me&mdash;I remember his very words&mdash;'My daughter, it will not
+be long now until men will seek you, until someone will ask you to
+share his life. Keep your ideal man safe in your heart of hearts,
+daughter, and remember that no matter what a suitor may have to
+offer of wealth or social rank, if he is not your ideal&mdash;if
+you cannot respect and admire him for his character and manhood
+alone&mdash;say no; say no, child, at any cost. But when your ideal
+man comes&mdash;the one who compels your respect and admiration for
+his strength of character, and for the usefulness of his life, the
+one whom you cannot help loving for his manhood alone&mdash;mate
+with him&mdash;no matter how light his purse or how lowly his rank
+in the world.' And so you see, as soon as I learned to know you, I
+realized what you were to me. But I wish&mdash;oh, how I
+wish&mdash;that father could have lived to know you, too."</p>
+<p>For some time they watched the dancing camp fire flames in
+silence, as though they had found in their love that true oneness
+that needs no spoken word.</p>
+<p>Then Stanford said, "And to think that we expected to wait two
+years or more, and now&mdash;thanks to a soulless
+corporation&mdash;we are here in a little less than a year!"</p>
+<p>"Thanks to no soulless corporation for that, sir," retorted
+Helen with spirit. "But thanks to the brains and strength and
+character of my husband."</p>
+<p>Two of the three weeks' vacation granted the engineer had passed
+when Mrs. Manning, one afternoon, informed her husband that as the
+ordained provider for the household it was imperative that he
+provide some game for their evening meal.</p>
+<p>"And what does Her Majesty, the cook, desire?" he asked.
+"Venison, perhaps?"</p>
+<p>She shook her head with decision. "You will be obliged to go too
+far, and be gone too long, to get a deer."</p>
+<p>"But you're going with me, of course."</p>
+<p>Again she shook her head. "I have something else to do. I can't
+always be tagging around after you while you are providing, you
+know; and we may as well begin to be civilized again. Just go a
+little way&mdash;not so far that you can't hear me call&mdash;and
+bring me some nice fat quail like those we had day before
+yesterday."</p>
+<p>She watched him disappear in the brush and then busied herself
+about the camp. Presently she heard the gun, and smiled as she
+pictured him hunting for their supper, much as though they were two
+primitive children of nature, instead of the two cultured members
+of a highly civilized race, that they really were. Then, presently
+she must go to the spring for water, that he might have a cool
+drink when he returned.</p>
+<p>She was half way to the spring, singing softly to herself, when
+a sound on the low ridge above the camp attracted her attention.
+Pausing, she looked and listened. The song died on her lips. It
+could not be Staford coming so noisily through the brush and from
+that direction. Even as the thought came, she heard the gun again,
+a little farther away down the narrow valley below the camp, and,
+in the same moment, the noise on the ridge grew louder, as though
+some heavy animal were crashing through the bushes. And then
+suddenly, as she stood there in frightened indecision, a
+long-horned, wild-eyed steer broke through the brush on the crest
+of the ridge and plunged down the steep slope toward the camp.</p>
+<p>Weak and helpless with fear, Helen could neither scream nor run,
+but stood fascinated by the very danger that menaced
+her&mdash;powerless, even, to turn her eyes away from the frightful
+creature that had so rudely broken the quiet seclusion of the
+little glade. Behind the steer, even as the frenzied animal leaped
+from the brow of the hill, she saw a horseman, as wild in his
+appearance and in his reckless rushing haste as the creature he
+pursued. Curiously, as in a dream, she saw the horse's neck and
+shoulders dripping wet with sweat, as with ears flat, nose
+outstretched, and nostrils wide the animal strained every nerve in
+an effort to put his rider a few feet closer to the escaping
+quarry. She even noted the fringed leather chaps, the faded blue
+jumper, the broad hat of the rider, and that in his rein hand he
+held the coil of a riata high above the saddle horn, while in his
+right was the half-opened loop. The bridle reins were loose, as
+though he gave the horse no thought; and they took the steep,
+downward plunge from the summit of the ridge without an instant's
+pause, and apparently with all the ease and confidence that they
+would have felt on smooth and level ground.</p>
+<p>The steer, catching sight of the woman, and seeing in her,
+perhaps, another enemy, swerved a little in his plunging course,
+and, with lowered head, charged straight at her.</p>
+<p>The loop of that rawhide rope was whirling now above the
+cowboy's head, and his spurs drew blood from the heaving flanks of
+the straining horse, as every mad leap of the steer brought death a
+few feet nearer the helpless woman.</p>
+<p>The situation must have broken with frightful suddenness upon
+the man, but he gave no sign&mdash;no startled shout, no excited
+movement. He even appeared, to Helen, to be as coolly deliberate as
+though no thought of her danger disturbed him; and she recognized,
+even in that awful moment, the cowboy whom she had watched through
+the field glasses, that day of the celebration at Prescott. She
+could not know that, in the same instant, as his horse plunged down
+from the summit of the ridge, Patches had recognized her; and that
+as his hand swung the riata with such cool and deliberate
+precision, the man was praying&mdash;praying as only a man who sees
+the woman he loves facing a dreadful death, with no hand but his to
+save her, could pray.</p>
+<p>God help him if his training of nerve and hand should fail now!
+Christ pity him, if that whirling loop should miss its mark, or
+fall short!</p>
+<p>His eye told him that the distance was still too great. He
+must&mdash;he <i>must</i>&mdash;lessen it; and again his spurs drew
+blood. He must be cool&mdash;cool and steady and sure&mdash;and he
+must act now&mdash;NOW!</p>
+<p>Helen saw the racing horse make a desperate leap as the spurs
+tore his heaving sides; she saw that swiftly whirling loop leave
+the rider's hand, as the man leaned forward in his saddle.
+Curiously she watched the loop open with beautiful precision, as
+the coils were loosed and the long, thin line lengthened through
+the air. It seemed to move so slowly&mdash;those wickedly lowered
+horns were so near! Then she saw the rider's right hand move with
+flashlike quickness to the saddle horn, as he threw his weight
+back, and the horse, with legs braced and hoofs plowing the ground,
+stopped in half his own length, and set his weight against the
+weight of the steer. The flexible riata straightened as a rod of
+iron, the steer's head jerked sideways; his horns buried themselves
+in the ground; he fell, almost at her feet. And then, as the cowboy
+leaped from his horse, Helen felt herself sinking into a soft,
+thick darkness that, try as she might, she could not escape.</p>
+<p>Still master of himself, but with a kind of fierce coolness,
+Patches ran to the fallen steer and securely tied the animal down.
+But when he turned to the woman who lay unconscious on the ground,
+a sob burst from his lips, and tears were streaming down his
+dust-grimed cheeks. And as he knelt beside her he called again and
+again that name which, a year before, he had whispered as he stood
+with empty, outstretched arms, alone, on the summit of the
+Divide.</p>
+<p>Lifting her in his arms, he carried her to the hammock, and
+finding water and a towel, wet her brow and face; and all the
+while, in an agony of fear, he talked to her with words of
+love.</p>
+<p>Overwrought by the unexpected, and, to him, almost miraculous
+meeting with Helen&mdash;weak and shaken by the strain of those
+moments of her danger, when her life depended so wholly upon his
+coolness and skill&mdash;unnerved by the sight of her lying so
+still and white, and beside himself with the strength of his
+passion&mdash;the man made no effort to account for her presence in
+that wild and lonely spot, so far from the scenes amid which he had
+learned to know and love her. He was conscious only that she was
+there&mdash;that she had been very near to death&mdash;that he had
+held her in his arms&mdash;and that he loved her with all the
+strength of his manhood.</p>
+<p>Presently, with a low cry of joy, he saw the blood creep back
+into her white cheeks. Slowly her eyes opened and she looked
+wonderingly up into his face.</p>
+<p>"Helen!" he breathed. "Helen!"</p>
+<p>"Why, Larry!" she murmured, still confused and wondering. "So it
+<i>was</i> you, after all! But what in the world are you doing here
+like this? They told me your name was Patches&mdash;Honorable
+Patches."</p>
+<p>Then the man spoke&mdash;impetuously, almost fiercely, his words
+came without thought.</p>
+<p>"I am here because I would be anything, do anything that a man
+could be and do to win your love. A year ago, when I told you of my
+love, and asked you to be my wife, and, like the silly, pampered,
+petted fool that I was, thought that my wealth and the life that I
+offered could count for anything with a woman like you, you laughed
+at me. You told me that if ever you married, you would wed a man,
+not a fortune nor a social position. You made me see myself as I
+was&mdash;a useless idler, a dummy for the tailors, a superficial
+chatterer of pretty nothings to vain and shallow women; you told me
+that I possessed not one manly trait of character that could compel
+the genuine love of an honest woman. You let me see the truth, that
+my proposal to you was almost an insult. You made me understand
+that your very friendship for me was such a friendship as you might
+have with an amusing and irresponsible boy, or a spoiled child. You
+could not even consider my love for you seriously, as a woman like
+you must consider the love of a strong man. And you were right,
+Helen. But, dear, it was for me a bitter, bitter lesson. I went
+from you, ashamed to look men in the face. I felt myself
+guilty&mdash;a pitifully weak and cowardly thing, with no right to
+exist. In my humiliation, I ran from all who knew me&mdash;I came
+out here to escape from the life that had made me what I
+was&mdash;that had robbed me of my manhood. And here, by chance, in
+the contests at the celebration in Prescott, I saw a man&mdash;a
+cowboy&mdash;who possessed everything that I lacked, and for the
+lack of which you had laughed at me. And then alone one night I
+faced myself and fought it out. I knew that you were right, Helen,
+but it was not easy to give up the habits and luxury to which all
+my life I had been accustomed. It was not easy, I say, but my love
+for you made it a glorious thing to do; and I hoped and believed
+that if I proved myself a man, I could go back to you, in the
+strength of my manhood, and you would listen to me. And so,
+penniless and a stranger, under an assumed name, I sought useful,
+necessary work that called for the highest quality of manhood. And
+I have won, Helen; I know that I have won. To-day Patches, the
+cowboy, can look any man in the face. He can take his place and
+hold his own among men of any class anywhere. I have regained that
+of which the circumstances of birth and inheritance and training
+robbed me. I have won the right of a man to come to you again. I
+claim that right now, Helen. I tell you again that I love you. I
+love you as&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Larry! Larry!" she cried, springing to her feet, and drawing
+away from him, as though suddenly awakened from some strange spell.
+"Larry, you must not! What do you mean? How can you say such things
+to me?"</p>
+<p>He answered her with reckless passion. "I say such things
+because I am a man, and because you are the woman I love and want;
+because&mdash;"</p>
+<p>She cried out again in protest. "Oh, stop, stop! Please stop!
+Don't you know?"</p>
+<p>"Know what?" he demanded.</p>
+<p>"My&mdash;my husband!" she gasped. "Stanford Manning&mdash;we
+are here on our honeymoon."</p>
+<p>She saw him flinch as though from a heavy blow, and put out his
+hand to the trunk of a tree near which they stood, to steady
+himself. He did not speak, but his lips moved as though he repeated
+her words to himself, over and over again; and he gazed at her with
+a strange bewildered, doubting look, as though he could not believe
+his own suffering.</p>
+<p>Impulsively Helen went a step toward him. "Larry!" she said.
+"Larry!"</p>
+<p>Her voice seemed to arouse him and he stood erect as though by a
+conscious effort of will. Then that old self-mocking smile was on
+his lips. He was laughing at his hurt&mdash;making sport of himself
+and his cruel predicament.</p>
+<p>But to Helen there was that in his smile which wrung her woman
+heart. "Oh, Larry," she said gently. "Forgive me; I am so sorry;
+I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>He put out his hand with a gesture of protest, and his voice was
+calm and courteous. "I beg your pardon, Helen. It was stupid of me
+not to have understood. I forgot myself for the moment. It was all
+so unexpected&mdash;meeting you like this. I did not think." He
+looked away toward his waiting horse and to the steer lying on the
+ground. "So you and Stanford Manning&mdash;Good old Stan! I am glad
+for him. And for you, too, Helen. Why, it was I who introduced him
+to you; do you remember?"</p>
+<p>He smiled again that mirthless, self-mocking smile, as he added
+without giving her time to speak, "If you will excuse me for a
+moment, I will rid your camp of the unwelcome presence of that
+beast yonder." Then he went toward his horse, as though turning for
+relief to the work that had become so familiar to him.</p>
+<p>She watched him while he released the steer, and drove the
+animal away over the ridge, where he permitted it to escape into
+the wild haunts where it lived with its outlaw companions.</p>
+<p>When he rode back to the little camp Stanford had returned.</p>
+<p>For an hour they talked together as old friends. But Helen,
+while she offered now and then a word or a remark, or asked a
+question, and laughed or smiled with them, left the talk mostly to
+the two men. Stanford, when the first shock of learning of Helen's
+narrow escape was over, was gaily enthusiastic and warm in his
+admiration for his old friend, who had, for no apparent reason but
+the wish to assert his own manhood, turned his back upon the ease
+and luxury of his wealth to live a life of adventurous hardship.
+And Patches, as he insisted they should call him, with many a
+laughing jest and droll comment told them of his new life and work.
+He was only serious when he made them promise to keep his identity
+a secret until he himself was ready to reveal his real name.</p>
+<p>"And what do you propose to do when your game of Patches is
+played out?" Stanford asked curiously.</p>
+<p>For an instant they saw him smiling mockingly at himself; then
+he answered lightly, "Try some other fool experiment, I
+reckon."</p>
+<p>Stanford chuckled; the reply was so like the cowboy Patches, and
+so unlike his old friend Larry Knight.</p>
+<p>"As for that, Stan," Patches continued, "I don't see that the
+game will ever be played out, as you say. Certainly I can never now
+go back altogether to what I was. The fellow you used to know in
+Cleveland is not really I, you see. Fact is, I think that fellow is
+quite dead&mdash;peace be to his ashes! The world is wide and there
+is always work for a man to do."</p>
+<p>The appearance of Phil Acton on the ridge, at the spot where the
+steer, followed by Patches, had first appeared, put an end to their
+further conversation with Lawrence Knight.</p>
+<p>"My boss!" said that gentleman, in his character of Patches the
+cowboy, as the Cross-Triangle foreman halted his horse on the brow
+of the hill, and sat looking down upon the camp.</p>
+<p>"Be careful, please, and don't let him suspect that you ever saw
+me before. I'll sure catch it now for loafing so long."</p>
+<p>"I know him," said Stanford. Then he called to the man above,
+"Come on down, Acton, and be sociable."</p>
+<p>Phil rode into camp, shook hands with Stanford cordially, and
+was presented to Mrs. Manning, to whom he spoke with a touch of
+embarrassment. Then he said, with a significant look at Patches,
+"I'm glad to meet you people, Mr. Manning, but we really haven't
+much time for sociability just now. Mr. Baldwin sent me with an
+outfit into this Granite Basin country to gather some of these
+outlaw steers. He expects us to be on the job." Turning to Patches,
+he continued, "When you didn't come back I thought you must have
+met with some serious trouble, and so trailed you. We've managed to
+lose a good deal of time, altogether. That steer you were after got
+away from you, did he?"</p>
+<p>Helen spoke quickly. "Oh, Mr. Acton, you must not blame Mr.
+Patches for what happened. Really, you must not. No one was to
+blame; it just happened&mdash;" She stopped, unable to finish the
+explanation, for she was thinking of that part of the incident
+which was known only to herself and Patches.</p>
+<p>Stanford told in a few words of his wife's danger and how the
+cowboy had saved her.</p>
+<p>"That was mighty good work, Patches," said Phil heartily,
+"mighty good work. I'm sorry, Mr. Manning, that our coming up here
+after these outlaws happened at just this time. It is too bad to so
+disturb you and Mrs. Manning. We are going home Friday, however,
+and I'll tell the boys to keep clear of your neighborhood in the
+meantime."</p>
+<p>As the two Cross-Triangle men walked toward their horses, Helen
+and Stanford heard Phil ask, "But where is that steer,
+Patches?"</p>
+<p>"I let him go," returned Patches.</p>
+<p>"You let him go!" exclaimed the foreman. "After you had him
+roped and tied? What did you do that for?"</p>
+<p>Patches was confused. "Really, I don't know."</p>
+<p>"I'd like to know what you figure we're up here for," said Phil,
+sharply. "You not only waste two or three hours visiting with these
+people, but you take my time trailing you up; and then you turn
+loose a steer after you get him. It looks like you'd lost your head
+mighty bad, after all."</p>
+<p>"I'm afraid you're right, Phil," Patches answered quietly.</p>
+<p>Helen looked at her husband indignantly but Stanford was
+grinning with delight.</p>
+<p>"To think," he murmured, "of Larry Knight taking a dressing-down
+like that from a mere cowboy foreman!"</p>
+<p>But Patches was by no means so meek in spirit as he appeared in
+his outward manner. He had been driven almost to the verge of
+desperation by the trying situation, and was fighting for
+self-control. To take his foreman's rebuke in the presence of his
+friends was not easy.</p>
+<p>"I reckon I'd better send you to the home ranch to-night,
+instead of Bob," continued Phil, as the two men mounted their
+horses and sat for a moment facing each other. "It looks like we
+could spare you best. Tell Uncle Will to send the chuck wagon and
+three more punchers, and that we'll start for the home ranch
+Friday. And be sure that you get back here to-morrow."</p>
+<p>"Shall I go now?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, you can go now."</p>
+<p>Patches wheeled his horse and rode away, while Phil disappeared
+over the ridge in the direction from which he had come.</p>
+<p>When the two cowboys were out of sight, Helen went straight to
+her husband, and to Stanford's consternation, when he took her in
+his arms, she was crying.</p>
+<p>"Why, girl, what is it?" he asked, holding her close.</p>
+<p>But she only answered between sobs as she clung to him,
+"It&mdash;it's nothing&mdash;never mind, Stan. I'm just upset."</p>
+<p>And Stanford quite naturally thought it was only a case of
+nerves caused by the danger through which she had passed.</p>
+<p>For nearly an hour, Patches rode toward the home ranch, taking
+only such notice of his surroundings as was necessary in order for
+him to keep his direction. Through the brush and timber, over the
+ridges down into valleys and washes, and along the rock-strewn
+mountain sides he allowed his horse to pick the way, and take his
+own gait, with scarcely a touch of rein or spur.</p>
+<p>The twilight hour was beginning when he reached a point from
+which he could see, in the distance, the red roofs of the
+Cross-Triangle buildings. Checking his horse, he sat for a long
+time, motionless, looking away over the broad land that had come to
+mean so much to him, as though watching the passing of the day.</p>
+<p>But the man did not note the changing colors in the western sky;
+he did not see the shadows deepening; he was not thinking of the
+coming of the night. The sight of the distant spot that, a year
+before, had held such possibilities for him, when, on the summit of
+the Divide, he had chosen between two widely separated ways of
+life, brought to him, now, a keener realization of the fact that he
+was again placed where he must choose. The sun was down upon those
+hopes and dreams that in the first hard weeks of his testing had
+inspired and strengthened him. The night of despairing, reckless
+abandonment of the very ideals of manhood for which he had so
+bravely struggled was upon him; while the spirit and strength of
+that manhood which he had so hardly attained fought against its
+surrender.</p>
+<p>When Stanford Manning had asked, "What will you do when your
+game of Patches is played out?" he had said that the man whom they
+had known in the old days was dead. Would this new man also die?
+Deliberately the man turned about and started back the way he had
+come.</p>
+<p>In their honeymoon camp, that evening, when the only light in
+the sky was the light of the stars, and the camp fire's ruddy
+flames made weird shadows come and go in the little glade, Helen,
+lying in the hammock, and Stanford, sitting near, talked of their
+old friend Lawrence Knight. But as they talked they did not know
+that a lonely horseman had stopped on the other side of the low
+ridge, and leaving his horse, had crept carefully through the
+brush, to a point on the brow of the hill, from which he could look
+down into the camp.</p>
+<p>From where he lay in the darkness, the man could see against the
+camp fire's light the two, where the hammock was swung under the
+trees. He could hear the low murmur of their voices, with now and
+then a laugh. But it was always the man who laughed, for there was
+little mirth in Helen's heart that night. Then he saw Stanford go
+into the tent and return again to the hammock; and soon there came
+floating up to him the sweet, plaintive music of Helen's guitar,
+and then her voice, full and low, with a wealth of womanhood in
+every tone, as she sang a love song to her mate. Later, when the
+dancing flames of the camp fire had fallen to a dull red glow, he
+saw them go arm in arm into their tent. Then all was still. The red
+glow of the fire dimmed to a spark, and darkness drew close about
+the scene. But even in the darkness the man could still see, under
+the wide, sheltering arms of the trees, a lighter spot&mdash;the
+white tent.</p>
+<p>"Gethsemane," said the Dean to me once, when our talk had ranged
+wide and touched upon many things, "Gethsemane ain't no place; it's
+somethin' that happens. Whenever a man goes up against himself,
+right there is where Gethsemane is. And right there, too, is sure
+to be a fight. A man may not always know about it at the time; he
+may be too busy fightin' to understand just what it all means; but
+he'll know about it afterwards&mdash;No matter which side of him
+wins, he'll know afterwards that it was the one big fight of his
+life."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/277.png" width="50%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_14.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/278.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>hen those days at Prescott were over, and Mr. and Mrs. Manning
+had left for their camp in Granite Basin, Kitty Reid returned to
+Williamson Valley reluctantly. She felt that with Phil definitely
+out of her life the last interest that bound her to the scenes of
+her girlhood was broken. Before many weeks the ranch would be sold.
+A Prescott agent had opened negotiations for an eastern client who
+would soon be out to look over the property; and Mr. Reid felt,
+from all that the agent had said, that the sale was assured. In the
+meantime Kitty would wait as patiently as she could. To help her,
+there would be Helen's visit, and there was her friendship with
+Professor Parkhill. It was not strange, considering all the
+circumstances, that the young woman should give her time more
+generously than ever to the only person in the neighborhood, except
+Patches, perhaps, who she felt could understand and appreciate her
+desires for that higher life of which even her own parents were
+ignorant.</p>
+<p>And the professor did understand her fully. He told her so many
+times each day. Had he not given all the years of his little life
+to the study of those refining and spiritualizing truths that are
+so far above the comprehension of the base and ignoble common herd?
+Indeed, he understood her language; he understood fully, why the
+sordid, brutal materialism of her crude and uncultured environment
+so repulsed and disgusted her. He understood, more fully than Kitty
+herself, in fact, and explained to her clearly, that her desires
+for the higher intellectual and spiritual life were born of her own
+rare gifts, and evidenced beyond all question the fineness and
+delicacy of her nature. He rejoiced with her&mdash;with a pure and
+holy joy&mdash;that she was so soon to be set free to live amid the
+surroundings that would afford her those opportunities for the
+higher development of her intellectual and spiritual powers which
+her soul craved. All this he told her from day to day; and then,
+one afternoon, he told her more.</p>
+<p>It was the same afternoon that Patches had so unexpectedly found
+Helen and Stanford in their Granite Basin camp. Kitty and the
+professor had driven in the buckboard to Simmons for the mail, and
+were coming back by the road to the Cross-Triangle, when the man
+asked, "Must we return to the ranch so soon? It is so delightful
+out here where there is no one to intrude with vulgar commonplaces,
+to mar our companionship."</p>
+<p>"Why, no," returned Kitty. "There is no need for us to hurry
+home." She glanced around. "We might sit over there, under those
+cedars on the hill, where you found me with Mr. Patches that
+day&mdash;the day we saw Yavapai Joe, you remember."</p>
+<p>"If you think it quite safe to leave the vehicle," he said, "I
+should be delighted."</p>
+<p>Kitty tied the horses to a convenient bush at the foot of the
+low hill, and soon they were in the welcome shade of the
+cedars.</p>
+<p>"Miss Reid," the professor began, with portentous gravity, "I
+must confess that I have been rather puzzled to account for your
+presence here that day with such a man as that fellow Patches. You
+will pardon my saying so, I am sure, but you must have observed my
+very deep interest in you. I also chanced to see you with him one
+day in Prescott, in the park. You don't mind my speaking of
+it?"</p>
+<p>"Not at all, Professor Parkhill," Kitty returned, smiling as she
+thought how ignorant the professor was of the cowboy's real
+character. "I like Patches. He interests me very much; and there is
+really no reason why I should not be friendly with him. Don't you
+think that I should be kind to our cowboys?"</p>
+<p>"I suppose so," the professor sighed. "But it hurts me to see
+you have anything whatever in common with such a man. It shocks me
+to know that you must, in any degree, come in touch with such
+fellows. I shall be very glad, indeed, when you are free from any
+such kindly obligations, and safe among those of your own
+class."</p>
+<p>Kitty found it very hard to reply. She did not wish to be
+disloyal to Patches and her many Williamson Valley friends; nor did
+she like to explain how Patches had played a part for the
+professor's benefit, for she felt that by not exposing the
+deception she had, in a way, been a party to it. So she said
+nothing, but seemed to be silently weighing the value of her
+learned companion's observations. At least, it so appeared to the
+professor, and in her ready acceptance of his implied criticism of
+her conduct he found the encouragement he needed for that which
+followed.</p>
+<p>"You must understand, Miss Reid, that I have become exceedingly
+zealous for your welfare. In these months that we have been so much
+together your companionship&mdash;your spiritual and intellectual
+companionship, I should say&mdash;has come to be very dear to me.
+As our souls have communed, I have felt myself uplifted and
+inspired. I have been strengthened and encouraged, as never before,
+to climb on toward the mountain peaks of pure intellectuality. If I
+am not mistaken, you, too, have felt a degree of uplift as a result
+of our fellowship, have you not?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, indeed, Professor Parkhill," Kitty answered sincerely.
+"Our talks together have meant much more to me than I can tell. I
+shall never forget this summer. Your friendship has been a
+wonderful influence in my life."</p>
+<p>The little man moved uneasily and glanced timidly around. "I am
+truly glad to know that our companionship has not been altogether
+distasteful to you; I felt sure that it was not, but
+I&mdash;ahem!&mdash;I am glad to hear your confirmation of my
+opinion. It&mdash;ah&mdash;it enables me to say that which for
+several weeks past has been weighing heavily on my mind."</p>
+<p>Kitty looked at him with the manner of a trusting disciple
+waiting for the gems of truth that were about to fall from the lips
+of a venerable teacher.</p>
+<p>"Miss Reid&mdash;ah&mdash;why need our beautiful and mutually
+profitable companionship cease?"</p>
+<p>"I fear that I do not understand, Professor Parkhill," she
+answered, puzzled by his question.</p>
+<p>He looked at her with just a shade of mild&mdash;very
+mild&mdash;rebuke, as he returned, "Why, I think that I have stated
+my thought clearly. I mean that I am very desirous that our
+relation&mdash;the relation which we both have found so
+helpful&mdash;should continue. I am sure that we have, in these
+months which we have spent together, sufficient evidence that our
+souls vibrate in perfect harmony. I need you, dear friend; your
+understanding of my soul's desires is so sympathetic; I feel that
+you so complement and fill out, as it were, my spiritual self. I
+need you to encourage, to inspire, to assist me in the noble work
+to which I am devoting all my strength."</p>
+<p>She looked at him, now, with an expression of amazement. "Do you
+mean&mdash;" she faltered in confusion while the red blood colored
+her cheeks.</p>
+<p>"Yes," he answered, confidently. "I am asking you to be my wife.
+Not, however," he added hastily, "in the common, vulgar
+understanding of that relation. I am offering you, dear friend,
+that which is vastly higher than the union of the merely animal,
+which is based wholly upon the purely physical and material
+attraction. I am proposing marriage of our souls&mdash;a union, if
+you please, of our higher intellectual and spiritual selves. I
+feel, indeed, that by those higher laws which the vulgar, beastlike
+minds are incapable of recognizing, we are already one. I sense, as
+it were, that oneness which can exist only when two souls are mated
+by the great over-soul; I feel that you are already
+mine&mdash;that, I am&mdash;that we are already united in a
+spiritual union that is&mdash;"</p>
+<p>The young woman checked him with a gesture, which, had he
+interpreted it rightly, was one of repulsion. "Please stop,
+Professor Parkhill," she gasped in a tone of disgust.</p>
+<p>He was surprised, and not a little chagrined. "Am I to
+understand that you do not reciprocate my sentiment, Miss Reid? Is
+it possible that I have been so mistaken?"</p>
+<p>Kitty turned her head, as though she could not bear even to look
+at him. "What you ask is so impossible," she said in a low tone.
+"Impossible!"</p>
+<p>Strive as she might, the young woman could not altogether hide
+her feeling of abhorrence. And yet, she asked herself, why should
+this man's proposal arouse in her such antagonism and repugnance?
+He was a scholar, famed for his attainments in the world of the
+highest culture. As his wife, she would be admitted at once into
+the very inner circle of that life to which she aspired, and for
+which she was leaving her old home and friends. He had couched his
+proposal in the very terms of the spiritually and intellectually
+elect; he had declared himself in that language which she had so
+proudly thought she understood, and in which she had so often
+talked with him; and yet she was humiliated and ashamed. It was, to
+her, as though, in placing his offer of marriage upon the high,
+pure ground of a spiritual union, he had insulted her womanhood.
+Kitty realized wonderingly that she had not felt like this when
+Phil had confessed his love for her. In her woman heart, she was
+proud and glad to have won the love of such a man as Phil, even
+though she could not accept the cowboy as her mate. On that very
+spot which the professor had chosen for his declaration, Patches
+had told her that she was leaving the glorious and enduring
+realities of life for vain and foolish bubbles&mdash;that she was
+throwing aside the good grain and choosing the husks. Was this what
+Patches meant? she wondered.</p>
+<p>"I regret exceedingly, Miss Reid," the professor was saying,
+"that the pure and lofty sentiments which I have voiced do not seem
+to find a like response in your soul. I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Again she interrupted him with that gesture of repulsion.
+"Please do not say any more, Professor Parkhill. I&mdash;I fear
+that I am very human, after all. Come, it is time that we were
+returning to the house."</p>
+<p>All through the remaining hours of that afternoon and evening
+Kitty was disturbed and troubled. At times she wanted to laugh at
+the professor's ridiculous proposal; and again, her cheeks burned
+with anger; and she could have cried in her shame and humiliation.
+And with it all her mind was distraught by the persistent question:
+Was not the professor's conception of an ideal mating the
+legitimate and logical conclusion of those very advanced ideas of
+culture which he represented, and which she had so much admired? If
+she sincerely believed the life represented by the professor and
+his kind so superior&mdash;so far above the life represented by
+Phil Acton&mdash;why should she not feel honored instead of being
+so humiliated and shamed by the professor's&mdash;she could not
+call it love? If the life which Phil had asked her to share was so
+low in the scale of civilization; if it were so far beneath the
+intellectual and spiritual ideals which she had formed, why did she
+feel so honored by the strong man's love? Why had she not felt
+humiliated and ashamed that Phil should want her to mate with him?
+Could it be, she asked herself again and again, that there was
+something, after all, superior to that culture which she had so
+truly thought stood for the highest ideals of the race? Could it be
+that, in the land of Granite Mountain, there was something, after
+all, that was as superior to the things she had been taught as
+Granite Mountain itself was superior in its primeval strength and
+enduring grandeur to the man-made buildings of her school?</p>
+<p>It was not strange that Kitty's troubled thoughts should turn to
+Helen Manning. Clearly, Helen's education had led to no confusion.
+On the contrary, she had found an ideal love, and a happiness such
+as every true, womanly woman must, in her heart of hearts,
+desire.</p>
+<p>It was far into the night when Kitty, wakeful and restless,
+heard the sound of a horse's feet. She could not know that it was
+Honorable Patches riding past on his way to the ranch on the other
+side of the broad valley meadows.</p>
+<p>Weary in body, and with mind and spirit exhausted by the trials
+through which he had passed, Patches crept to his bed. In the
+morning, when he delivered his message, the Dean, seeing the man's
+face, urged him to stay for the day at the ranch. But Patches said
+no; Phil was expecting him, and he must return to the outfit in
+Granite Basin. As soon as breakfast was over he set out.</p>
+<p>He had ridden as far as the head of Mint Wash, and had stopped
+to water his horse, and to refresh himself with a cool drink and a
+brief rest beside the fragrant mint-bordered spring, when he heard
+someone riding rapidly up the wash the way he had come. A moment
+later, Kitty, riding her favorite Midnight, rounded a jutting
+corner of the rocky wall of the bluff.</p>
+<p>As the girl caught sight of him, there beside the spring, she
+waved her hand in greeting. And the man, as he waved his answer,
+and watched her riding toward him, felt a thrill of gladness that
+she had come. The strong, true friendship that began with their
+very first meeting, when she had been so frankly interested in the
+tenderfoot, and so kindly helpful, and which had developed so
+steadily through the year, gave him, now, a feeling of comfort and
+relief. Wearied and worn by his disappointment and by his struggle
+with himself, with the cherished hope that had enabled him to
+choose and endure the hard life of the range brought to a sudden
+end, with his life itself made so empty and futile, he welcomed his
+woman friend with a warmth and gladness that brought a flush of
+pleasure to Kitty's cheek.</p>
+<p>For Kitty, too, had just passed through a humiliating and
+disappointing experience. In her troubled frame of mind, and in her
+perplexed and confused questioning, the young woman was as glad for
+the companionship of Patches as he was glad to welcome her. She
+felt a curious sense of relief and safety in his
+presence&mdash;somewhat as one, who, walking over uncertain bogs or
+treacherous quicksands, finds, all at once, the solid ground.</p>
+<p>"I saw you go past the house," she said, when she reached the
+spring where he stood awaiting her, "and I decided right then that
+I would go along with you to Granite Basin and visit my friends the
+Mannings. They told me that I might come this week, and I think
+they have had quite enough honeymooning, anyway. You know where
+they are camped, do you?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," he answered. "I saw them yesterday. But, come! Get down
+and cool off a bit. You've been riding some, haven't you?"</p>
+<p>"I wanted to catch you as soon as I could," she laughed, as she
+sprang lightly to the ground. "And you see you gained a good start
+while I was getting Midnight saddled. What a pretty spot! I must
+have a drink of that water this minute."</p>
+<p>"Sorry I have no cup," he said, and then he laughed with the
+pleasure of good comradeship as she answered:</p>
+<p>"You forget that I was born to the customs of this country."
+And, throwing aside her broad hat, she went down on the ground to
+drink from the spring, even as he had done.</p>
+<p>As the man watched her, a sudden thought flashed into his
+mind&mdash;a thought so startling, so unexpected, that he was for
+the moment bewildered.</p>
+<p>"Talk about the nectar of the gods!" cried Kitty with a deep
+breath of satisfaction, as she lifted her smiling face from the
+bright water to look up at him. And then she drank again.</p>
+<p>"And now, if you please, sir, you may bring me some of that
+water-cress; we'll sit over there in the shade, and who cares
+whether Granite Basin, the Mannings, and your fellow cow-punchers,
+are fifteen or fifty miles away?"</p>
+<p>He brought a generous bunch of the water-cress, and stretched
+himself full length beside her, as she sat on the ground under a
+tall sycamore.</p>
+<p>"Selah!" he laughed contentedly. "We seem to lack only the book
+of verses, the loaf and the jug; the wilderness is here, all right,
+and that's a perfectly good bough up there, and, of course, you
+could furnish the song; I might recite 'The Boy Stood on the
+Burning Deck,' but, alas! we haven't even a flask and biscuit."</p>
+<p>"What a pity that you should be so near and yet so far from
+paradise!" she retorted quickly. Then she added, with a mischievous
+smile, "It just happens that I have a sandwich in my saddle
+pocket."</p>
+<p>"Won't you sing? Please do," he returned, with an eagerness that
+amused her.</p>
+<p>But she shook her head reprovingly. "We would still lack the jug
+of wine, you know, and, really, I don't think that paradise is for
+cow-punchers, anyway, do you?"</p>
+<p>"Evidently not," he answered. And at her jesting words a queer
+feeling of rebellion possessed him. Why should he be condemned to
+years of loneliness? Why must he face a life without the
+companionship of a mate? If the paradise he had sought so hard to
+attain were denied him, why should he not still take what happiness
+he might?</p>
+<p>He was lying flat on his back, his hands clasped beneath his
+head, watching an eagle that wheeled, a tiny black speck, high
+under the blue arch of the sky. He seemed to have forgotten his
+companion.</p>
+<p>Kitty leaned toward him, and held a sprig of water-cress over
+his upturned face. "I haven't a penny," she said, "but I'll give
+you this."</p>
+<p>He sat up quickly. "Even at that price, my thoughts might cost
+you too much. But you haven't told me what you have done with our
+dear friend the professor? Haven't you a guilty conscience,
+deserting him like this?"</p>
+<p>Kitty held up both hands in a gesture of dismay. "Don't,
+Patches, please don't. Ugh! if you only knew how good it is to be
+with a <i>man</i> again!"</p>
+<p>He laughed aloud in a spirit of reckless defiance. "And Phil is
+over in Granite Basin. I neglected to tell you that he knows the
+location of the Mannings' camp, as well as I."</p>
+<p>Kitty was a little puzzled by the tone of his laughter, and by
+his words. She spoke gravely. "Perhaps I should tell you,
+Patches&mdash;we have been such good friends, you and
+I&mdash;Phil&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Yes!" he said.</p>
+<p>"Phil is nothing to me, Patches. I mean&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"You mean in the way he wanted to be?" He helped her with a
+touch of eager readiness.</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"And have you told him, Kitty?" Patches asked gently.</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;I have told him," she replied.</p>
+<p>Patches was silent for a moment. Then, "Poor Phil!" he said
+softly. "I understand now; I thought that was it. He is a man among
+thousands, Kitty."</p>
+<p>"I know&mdash;I know," she returned, as though to dismiss the
+subject. "But it simply couldn't be."</p>
+<p>Patches was looking at her intently, with an expression in his
+dark eyes that Kitty had never before seen. The man's mind was in a
+whirl of quick excitement. As they had talked and laughed together,
+the thought that had so startled him, when her manner of familiar
+comradeship had brought such a feeling of comfort to his troubled
+spirit, had not left him. From that first moment of their meeting a
+year before there had been that feeling between them, of
+companionship, a feeling which had grown as their acquaintance had
+developed into the intimate friendship that had allowed him to
+speak to her as he had spoken that day under the cedars on the
+ridge. What might that friendship not grow into! He thought of her
+desire for the life that he knew so well, and how he could, while
+granting every wish of her heart, yet protect her from the shams
+and falseness. And with these thoughts was that feeling of
+rebellion against the loneliness of his life.</p>
+<p>Kitty's words regarding Phil removed the barrier, as it were,
+and the man's nature, which prompted him so often to act without
+pausing to consider, betrayed him into saying, "Would you be
+greatly shocked, Kitty, if I were to tell you that I am glad? That,
+while I am sorry for Phil, I am glad that you have said no to
+him?"</p>
+<p>"You are glad?" she said wonderingly. "Why?"</p>
+<p>"Because, now, <i>I</i> am free to say what I could not have
+said had you not told me what you have. I want you, Kitty. I want
+to fill your life with beauty and happiness and contentment. I want
+you to go with me to see and know the natural wonders of the world,
+and the wonders that men have wrought. I want to surround you with
+the beauties of art and literature, with everything that your heart
+craves. I want you to know the people whose friendship would be a
+delight to you. Come with me, girl&mdash;be my wife, and together
+we will find&mdash;if not paradise, at least a full and useful and
+contented and happy life. Will you come, Kitty? Will you come with
+me?"</p>
+<p>As she listened her eyes grew big with wonder and delight. It
+was as though some good genie had suddenly opened wide the way to
+an enchanted laud. Then the gladness went swiftly from her face,
+and she said doubtingly, "You are jesting with me, Patches."</p>
+<p>As she spoke his cowboy name, the man laughed aloud. "I forgot
+that you do not even know me&mdash;I mean, that you do not know my
+name."</p>
+<p>"Are you some fairy prince in disguise, Sir Patches?"</p>
+<p>"Not a fairy, dear, and certainly not a prince; just a man,
+that's all. But a man, dear girl, who can offer you a clean life,
+an honored name, and all of which I have spoken. But I must tell
+you&mdash;I always knew that I would tell you some day, but I did
+not dream that it would be to-day. My name is Lawrence Knight. My
+home is in Cleveland, Ohio. Your father can easily satisfy himself
+as to my family and my own personal life and standing. It is enough
+for me to assure you now, dear, that I am abundantly able to give
+you all that I have promised."</p>
+<p>At the mention of his name, Kitty's eyes grew bright again.
+Thanks to her intimate friend and schoolmate, Helen Manning, she
+knew much more of Lawrence Knight than that gentleman supposed.</p>
+<p>"But, tell me," she asked curiously, trembling with suppressed
+excitement, "why is Mr. Lawrence Knight masquerading here as the
+cowboy Honorable Patches?"</p>
+<p>He answered earnestly. "I know it must seem strange to you,
+dear, but the simple truth is that I became ashamed of myself and
+my life of idle uselessness. I determined to see if I could take my
+place among men, simply as a man. I wanted to be accepted by men
+for myself, for my manhood, if you like, and not because of
+my&mdash;" he hesitated, then said frankly&mdash;"my money and
+social position. I wanted to depend upon myself&mdash;to live as
+other men live, by my own strength and courage and work. If I had
+given my real name, when I asked for work at the
+Cross-Triangle&mdash;someone would have found me out before very
+long, and my little experiment would have failed, don't you
+see?"</p>
+<p>While he spoke, Kitty's excited mind had caught at many
+thoughts. She believed sincerely that her girlhood love for Phil
+was dead. This man, even as Patches the cowboy, with a questionable
+shadow on his life, had compelled her respect and confidence, while
+in his evident education and social culture he had won her deepest
+admiration. She felt that he was all that Phil was, and more. There
+was in her feeling toward him, as he offered himself to her now, no
+hint of that instinctive repulsion and abhorrence with which she
+had received Professor Parkhill's declaration of spiritual
+affinity. Her recent experience with the Master of Aesthetics had
+so outraged her womanly instincts that the inevitable reaction from
+her perplexed and troubled mind led her to feel more deeply, and to
+be drawn more strongly, toward this man with whom any woman might
+be proud to mate. At the same time, the attractions of the life
+which she knew he could give her, and for which she longed so
+passionately, with the relief of the thought that her parents would
+not need to sacrifice themselves for her, were potent factors in
+the power of Lawrence Knight's appeal.</p>
+<p>"It would be wonderful," she said musingly. "I have dreamed and
+dreamed about such things."</p>
+<p>"You will come with me, dear? You will let me give you your
+heart's wish&mdash;you will go with me into the life for which you
+are so fitted?"</p>
+<p>"Do you really want me, Patches?" she asked timidly, as though
+in her mind there was still a shadow of doubt.</p>
+<p>"More than anything in the world," he urged. "Say yes. Kitty.
+Say that you will be my wife."</p>
+<p>The answer came softly, with a hint of questioning, still.</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>Kitty did not notice that the man had not spoken of his love for
+her. There were so many other things for her to consider, so many
+other things to distract her mind. Nor did the man notice that
+Kitty herself had failed to speak in any way that little word,
+which, rightly understood, holds in its fullest, deepest meaning,
+all of life's happiness&mdash;of labor and accomplishment&mdash;of
+success and triumph&mdash;of sacrifice and sorrow; holds, in its
+fullest, deepest meaning, indeed, all of life itself.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_15.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/294.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>itty's friends were very glad to welcome her at their camp in
+Granite Basin. The incident which had so rudely broken the
+seclusion of their honeymoon had been too nearly a tragedy to be
+easily forgotten. The charm of the place was, in some degree, for
+them, lost, and Kitty's coming helped to dispel the cloud that had
+a little overshadowed those last days of their outing.</p>
+<p>It was not at all difficult for them to persuade Kitty to remain
+longer than the one night that she had planned, and to accompany
+them to Prescott. Prom Prescott, Stanford must go to the mines, to
+take up his work, and to arrange for Helen's coming later, and
+Helen would go home with Kitty for the visit she had promised. The
+cowboys, who were returning to the Cross-Triangle Ranch, would take
+Kitty's horse to her home, and would carry a message explaining the
+young woman's absence, and asking that someone be sent to Prescott
+with the clothing she would need in town, and that the Reid
+automobile might be in Prescott in readiness to take the two young
+women back to the ranch on the appointed day.</p>
+<p>Kitty could not bring herself to tell even Helen about her
+engagement to Lawrence Knight, or Patches, as she would continue to
+call him until the time came for the cowboy himself to make his
+true name and character known. It had all happened so suddenly; the
+promises of the future were so wonderful&mdash;so far beyond the
+young woman's fondest dreams&mdash;that she herself could scarcely
+realize the truth. There would be time enough to tell Helen when
+they were together at the ranch. And she was insistent, too, that
+Patches must not interview her father until she herself had
+returned home.</p>
+<p>Phil and his cowboys with the cattle reached the Cross-Triangle
+corrals the evening before the day set for Kitty and Helen to
+arrive at the ranch on the other side of the valley meadows. The
+Cross-Triangle men were greeted by the news that Professor Parkhill
+had said good-by to Williamson Valley, and that the Pot-Hook-S
+Ranch had been sold. The eastern purchaser expected by Reid had
+arrived on the day that Kitty had gone to Granite Basin, and the
+deal had been closed without delay. But Reid was not to give
+possession of the property until after the fall rodeo.</p>
+<p>As the men sat under the walnut trees with the Dean that
+evening, discussing the incidents of the Granite Basin work, and
+speculating about the new owner of the neighboring ranch, Phil sat
+with Little Billy apart from the circle, and contributed to the
+conversation only now and then a word or a brief answer to some
+question. When Mrs. Baldwin persuaded the child that it was
+bedtime, Phil slipped quietly away in the darkness, and they did
+not see him again until breakfast the next morning. When breakfast
+was over, the foreman gave a few directions to his men, and rode
+away alone.</p>
+<p>The Dean, understanding the lad, whom he loved as one of his own
+sons, watched him go without a word or a question. To Mrs. Baldwin
+he said, "Just let him alone, Stella. The boy is all right. He's
+only gone off somewhere on the range to fight it out alone. Most
+likely he'll put in the day watching those wild horses over beyond
+Toohey. He generally goes to them when he's bothered about anything
+or in trouble of any sort."</p>
+<p>Patches, who had been sent on an errand of some kind to Fair
+Oaks, was returning home early in the afternoon, and had reached
+the neighborhood of that spring where he had first encountered Nick
+Cambert, when he heard a calf bawling lustily somewhere in the
+cedar timber not far away. Familiar as he now was with the voices
+of the range, the cowboy knew that the calf was in trouble. The
+call was one of fright and pain.</p>
+<p>Turning aside from his course, he rode, rapidly at first, then
+more cautiously, toward the sound. Presently he caught a whiff of
+smoke that came with the light breeze from somewhere ahead on the
+ridge along which he was riding. Instantly he rode into a thick
+clump of cedars, and, dismounting, tied his horse. Then he went on,
+carefully and silently, on foot. Soon he heard voices. Again the
+calf bawled in fright and pain, and the familiar odor of burning
+hair was carried to him on the breeze. Someone was branding a
+calf.</p>
+<p>It might be all right&mdash;it might not. Patches was unarmed,
+but, with characteristic disregard of consequences, he crept softly
+forward, toward a dense growth of trees and brush, from beyond
+which the noise and the smoke seemed to come.</p>
+<p>He had barely gained the cover when he heard someone on the
+other side ride rapidly away down the ridge. Hastily parting the
+bushes, he looked through to catch a glimpse of the horseman, but
+he was a moment too late; the rider had disappeared from sight in
+the timber. But, in a little open space among the cedars, the
+cowboy saw Yavapai Joe, standing beside a calf, fresh-branded with
+the Four-Bar-M iron, and earmarked with the Tailholt marks.</p>
+<p>Patches knew instantly, as well as though he had witnessed the
+actual branding, what, had happened. That part of the range was
+seldom visited except by the Dean's cowboys, and the Tailholt
+Mountain men, knowing that the Cross-Triangle riders were all at
+Granite Basin, were making good use of their opportunities. The man
+who had ridden away so hurriedly, a moment too soon for Patches to
+see him, was, without doubt, driving the mother of the calf to a
+distance that would effectually separate her from her
+offspring.</p>
+<p>But while he was so sure in his own mind, the Cross-Triangle
+man&mdash;as it had so often happened before&mdash;had arrived on
+the scene too late. He had no positive evidence that the animal
+just branded was not the lawful property of Nick Cambert.</p>
+<p>As Patches stepped from the bushes, Yavapai Joe faced him for a
+moment in guilty astonishment and fear; then he ran toward his
+horse.</p>
+<p>"Wait a minute, Joe!" called Patches. "What good will it do for
+you to run now? I'm not going to harm you."</p>
+<p>Joe stopped, and stood hesitating in indecision, watching the
+intruder with that sneaking, sidewise look.</p>
+<p>"Come on, Joe; let's have a little talk about this business,"
+the Cross-Triangle man said in a matter-of-fact tone, as he seated
+himself on a large, flat-topped stone near the little fire. "You
+know you can't get away, so you might as well."</p>
+<p>"I ain't tellin' nothin' to nobody," said Joe sullenly, as he
+came slowly toward the Dean's cowboy.</p>
+<p>"No?" said Patches.</p>
+<p>"No, I ain't," asserted the Tailholt Mountain man stoutly. "That
+there calf is a Four-Bar-M calf, all right."</p>
+<p>"I see it is," returned the Cross-Triangle rider calmly. "But
+I'll just wait until Nick gets back, and ask him what it was before
+he worked over the iron."</p>
+<p>Joe, excited and confused by the cool nerve of this man, fell
+readily into the verbal trap.</p>
+<p>"You better go now, an' not wait to ask Nick no fool questions
+like that. If he finds you here talkin' with me when he gets back,
+hell'll be a-poppin' fer sure. Me an' you are friends, Patches, an'
+that's why I'm a-tellin' you you better pull your freight while the
+goin's good."</p>
+<p>"Much obliged, Joe, but there's no hurry. You don't need to be
+so rushed. It will be an hour before Nick gets back, if he drives
+that cow as far as he ought."</p>
+<p>Again poor Yavapai Joe told more than he intended. "You don't
+need to worry none 'bout Nick; he'll sure drive her far enough. He
+ain't takin' no chances, Nick ain't."</p>
+<p>With his convictions so readily confirmed, Patches had good
+ground upon which to base his following remarks. He had made a long
+shot when he spoke so confidently of the brand on the calf being
+worked over. For, of course, the calf might not have been branded
+at all when the Tailholt Mountain men caught it. But Joe's manner,
+as well as his warning answer, told that the shot had gone home.
+The fact that the brand had been worked over established also the
+fact that it was the Cross-Triangle brand that had been changed,
+because the Cross-Triangle was the only brand in that part of the
+country that could be changed into the Four-Bar-M.</p>
+<p>Patches, dropping his easy manner, and speaking straight to the
+point, said, "Look here, Joe, you and I might as well get down to
+cases. You know I am your friend, and I don't want to see you in
+trouble, but you can take it from me that you are in mighty serious
+trouble right now. I was hiding right there in those bushes, close
+enough to see all that happened, and I know that this is a
+Cross-Triangle calf, and that Nick and you worked the brand over.
+You know that it means the penitentiary for you, as well as for
+Nick, if the boys don't string you both up without any
+ceremony."</p>
+<p>Patches paused to let his words sink in.</p>
+<p>Joe's face was ashy white, and he was shaking with fright, as he
+stole a sneaking look toward his horse.</p>
+<p>Patches added sharply, "You can't give me the slip, either; I
+can kill you before you get half way to your horse."</p>
+<p>Trapped and helpless, Joe looked pleadingly at his captor. "You
+wouldn't send me up, would you, now, Patches?" he whined. "You an'
+me's good friends, ain't we? Anyway he wouldn't let me go to the
+pen, an' the boys wouldn't dast do nothin' to me when they
+knew."</p>
+<p>"Whom are you talking about?" demanded Patches. "Nick? Don't be
+a fool, Joe; Nick will be there right alongside of you."</p>
+<p>"I ain't meanin' Nick; I mean <i>him</i> over there at the
+Cross-Triangle&mdash;Professor Parkhill. I'm a-tellin' you that
+<i>he</i> wouldn't let you do nothin' to me."</p>
+<p>"Forget it, Joe," came the reply, without an instant's
+hesitation. "You know as well as I do how much chance Professor
+Parkhill, or anyone else, would have, trying to keep the boys from
+making you and Nick dance on nothing, once they hear of this.
+Besides, the professor is not in the valley now."</p>
+<p>The poor outcast's fright was pitiful. "You ain't meanin' that
+he&mdash;that he's gone?" he gasped.</p>
+<p>"Listen, Joe," said Patches quickly. "I can do more for you than
+he could, even if he were here. You know I am your friend, and I
+don't want to see a good fellow like you sent to prison for fifteen
+or twenty years, or, perhaps, hanged. But there's only one way that
+I can see for me to save you. You must go with me to the
+Cross-Triangle, and tell Mr. Baldwin all about it, how you were
+just working for Nick, and how he made you help him do this, and
+all that you know. If you do that, we can get you off."</p>
+<p>"I&mdash;I reckon you're right, Patches," returned the
+frightened weakling sullenly. "Nick has sure treated me like a dog,
+anyway. You won't let Nick get at me, will you, if I go?"</p>
+<p>"Nobody can get at you, Joe, if you go with me, and do the
+square thing. I'm going to take care of you myself, and help you to
+get out of this, and brace up and be a man. Come on; let's be
+moving. I'll turn this calf loose first, though."</p>
+<p>He was bending over the calf when a noise in the brush caused
+him to stand suddenly erect.</p>
+<p>Joe was whimpering with terror.</p>
+<p>Patches said fiercely, but in a low tone, "Shut up, and follow
+my lead. Be a man, and I'll get you out of this yet."</p>
+<p>"Nick will kill us sure," whined Joe.</p>
+<p>"Not if I get my hands on him first, he won't," retorted
+Patches.</p>
+<p>But it was with a feeling of relief that the cowboy saw Phil
+Acton ride toward them from the shelter of the timber.</p>
+<p>Before Patches could speak, Phil's gun covered him, and the
+foreman's voice rang out sharply.</p>
+<p>"Hands up!"</p>
+<p>Joe's hands shot above his head. Patches hesitated.</p>
+<p>"Quick!" said Phil.</p>
+<p>And as Patches saw the man's eyes over the black barrel of the
+weapon he obeyed. But as he raised his hands, a dull flush of anger
+colored his tanned face a deeper red, and his eyes grew dark with
+passion. He realized his situation instantly. The mystery that
+surrounded his first appearance when he had sought employment at
+the Cross-Triangle; the persistent suspicion of many of the cowboys
+because of his friendship for Yavapai Joe; his meeting with Joe
+which the professor had reported; his refusal to explain to Phil;
+his return to the ranch when everyone was away and he himself was
+supposed to be in Prescott&mdash;all these and many other incidents
+had come to their legitimate climax in his presence on that spot
+with Yavapai Joe, the smouldering fire and the freshly branded
+calf. He was unarmed, but Phil could not be sure of that, for many
+a cowboy carries his gun inside the leg of his leather chaps, where
+it does not so easily catch in the brush.</p>
+<p>But while Patches saw it all so clearly, he was enraged that
+this man with whom he had lived so intimately should believe him
+capable of such a crime, and treat him without question as a common
+cattle thief. Phil's coldness toward him, which had grown so
+gradually during the past three months, in this peremptory
+humiliation reached a point beyond which Patches' patient and
+considerate endurance could not go. The man's sense of justice was
+outraged; his fine feeling of honor was insulted. Trapped and
+helpless as he was under that menacing gun, he was possessed by a
+determination to defend himself against the accusation, and to
+teach Phil Acton that there was a limit to the insult he would
+endure, even in the name of friendship. To this end his only hope
+was to trap his foreman with words, as he had caught Yavapai Joe.
+At a game of words Honorable Patches was no unskilled novice.
+Controlling his anger, he said coolly, with biting sarcasm, while
+he looked at the cowboy with a mocking sneer, "You don't propose to
+take any chances, do you&mdash;holding up an unarmed man?"</p>
+<p>Patches saw by the flush that swept over Phil's cheeks how his
+words bit.</p>
+<p>"It doesn't pay to take chances with your kind," retorted the
+foreman hotly.</p>
+<p>"No," mocked Patches, "but it will pay big, I suppose, for the
+great 'Wild Horse Phil' to be branded as a sneak and a coward who
+is afraid to face an unarmed man unless he can get the drop on
+him?"</p>
+<p>Phil was goaded to madness by the cool, mocking words. With a
+reckless laugh, he slipped his weapon into the holster and sprang
+to the ground. At the same moment Patches and Joe lowered their
+hands, and Joe, unnoticed by either of the angry men, took a few
+stealthy steps toward his horse.</p>
+<p>Phil, deliberately folding his arms, stood looking at
+Patches.</p>
+<p>"I'll just call that bluff, you sneakin' calf stealer," he said
+coolly. "Now, unlimber that gun of yours, and get busy."</p>
+<p>Angry as he was, Patches felt a thrill of admiration for the
+man, and beneath his determination to force Phil Acton to treat him
+with respect, he was proud of his friend who had answered his
+sneering insinuation with such fearlessness. But he could not now
+hesitate in his plan of provoking Phil into disarming himself.</p>
+<p>"You're something of a four-flusher yourself, aren't you?" he
+mocked. "You know I have no gun. Your brave pose is very effective.
+I would congratulate you, only, you see, it doesn't impress me in
+the least."</p>
+<p>With an oath Phil snatched his gun from the holster, and threw
+it aside.</p>
+<p>"Have it any way you like," he retorted, and started toward
+Patches.</p>
+<p>Then a curious thing happened to Honorable Patches. Angry as he
+was, he became suddenly dominated by something that was more potent
+than his rage.</p>
+<p>"Stop!" he cried sharply, and with such ringing force that Phil
+involuntarily obeyed. "I can't fight you this way, Phil," he said;
+and the other, wondering, saw that whimsical, self-mocking smile on
+his lips. "You know as well as I do that you are no match for me
+barehanded. You couldn't even touch me; you have seen Curly and the
+others try it often enough. You are as helpless in my power, now,
+as I was in yours a moment ago. I am armed now and you are not. I
+can't fight you this way, Phil."</p>
+<p>In spite of himself Phil Acton was impressed by the truth and
+fairness of Patches' words. He recognized that an unequal contest
+could satisfy neither of them, and that it made no difference which
+of the contestants had the advantage.</p>
+<p>"Well," he said sarcastically, "what are you going to do about
+it?"</p>
+<p>"First," returned Patches calmly, "I am going to tell you how I
+happened to be here with Yavapai Joe."</p>
+<p>"I don't need any explanations from you. It's some more of your
+personal business, I suppose," retorted Phil.</p>
+<p>Patches controlled himself. "You are going to hear the
+explanation, just the same," he returned. "You can believe it or
+not, just as you please."</p>
+<p>"And what then?" demanded Phil.</p>
+<p>"Then I'm going to get a gun, and we'll settle the rest of it,
+man to man, on equal terms, just as soon as you like," answered
+Patches deliberately.</p>
+<p>Phil replied shortly. "Go ahead with your palaver. I'll have to
+hand it to you when it comes to talk. I am not educated that way
+myself."</p>
+<p>For a moment Patches hesitated, as though on the point of
+changing his mind about the explanation. Then his sense of
+justice&mdash;justice both for Phil and
+himself&mdash;conquered.</p>
+<p>But in telling Phil how he had come upon the scene too late for
+positive proof that the freshly branded calf was the Dean's
+property, and in explaining how, when the foreman arrived, he had
+just persuaded Joe to go with him and give the necessary evidence
+against Nick, Patches forgot the possible effect of his words upon
+Joe himself. The two Cross-Triangle men were so absorbed in their
+own affair that they had paid no attention to the Tailholt Mountain
+outcast. And Joe, taking advantage of the opportunity, had by this
+time gained a position beside his horse. As he heard Patches tell
+how he had no actual evidence that the calf was not Nick Cambert's
+property, a look of anger and cunning darkened the face of Nick's
+follower. He was angry at the way Patches had tricked him into
+betraying both himself and his evil master, and he saw a way to
+defeat the two cowboys and at the same time win Nick's approval.
+Quickly the fellow mounted his horse, and, before they could stop
+him, was out of sight in the timber.</p>
+<p>"I've done it now," exclaimed Patches in dismay. "I forgot all
+about Joe."</p>
+<p>"I don't think he counts for much in this game anyway," returned
+Phil, gruffly.</p>
+<p>As he spoke, the foreman turned his back to Patches and walked
+toward his gun. He had reached the spot where the weapon lay on the
+ground, when, from the bushes to the right, and a little back of
+Patches, who stood watching his companion, a shot rang out with
+startling suddenness.</p>
+<p>Patches saw Phil stumble forward, straighten for an instant, as
+though by sheer power of his will, and, turning, look back at him.
+Then, as Phil fell, the unarmed cowboy leaped forward toward that
+gun on the ground. Even as he moved, a second shot rang out and he
+felt the wind of the bullet on his cheek. With Phil's gun in his
+hand, he ran toward a cedar tree on the side of the open space
+opposite the point from which the shots came, and as he ran another
+bullet whistled past.</p>
+<p>A man moving as Patches moved is not an easy mark. The same man
+armed, and protected by the trunk of a tree, is still more
+difficult. A moment after he had gained cover, the cowboy heard the
+clatter of a horse's feet, near the spot from which the shots had
+come, and by the sound knew that the unseen marksman had chosen to
+retire with only half his evident purpose accomplished, rather than
+take the risk that had arisen with Patches' success in turning the
+ambush into an open fight.</p>
+<p>As the sound of the horse's swift rush down the side of the
+ridge grew fainter and fainter, Patches ran to Phil.</p>
+<p>A quick examination told him that the bullet had entered just
+under the right shoulder, and that the man, though unconscious and,
+no doubt, seriously wounded, was living.</p>
+<p>With rude bandages made by tearing his shirt into strips Patches
+checked the flow of blood, and bound up the wound as best he could.
+Then for a moment he considered. It was between three and four
+miles to the ranch. He could ride there and back in a few minutes.
+Someone must start for a doctor without an instant's loss of time.
+With water, proper bandages and stimulants, the wounded man could
+be cared for and moved in the buckboard with much greater safety
+than he could be carried in his present condition on a horse. The
+risk of leaving him for a few minutes was small, compared to the
+risk of taking him to the house under the only conditions possible.
+The next instant Patches was in Phil's saddle and riding as he had
+never ridden before.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/307.png" width="50%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p>Jim Reid, with Kitty and Helen, was on the way back from
+Prescott as Kitty had planned. They were within ten miles of the
+ranch when the cattleman, who sat at the wheel of the automobile,
+saw a horseman coming toward them. A moment he watched the
+approaching figure, then, over his shoulder, he said to the girls,
+"Look at that fellow ride. There's something doin', sure." As he
+spoke he turned the machine well out of the road.</p>
+<p>A moment later he added, "It's Curly Elson from the
+Cross-Triangle. Somethin's happened in the valley." As he spoke, he
+stopped the machine, and sprang out so that the cowboy could see
+and recognize him.</p>
+<p>Curly did not draw rein until he was within a few feet of Reid;
+then he brought his running horse up with a suddenness that threw
+the animal on its haunches.</p>
+<p>Curly spoke tersely. "Phil Acton is shot. We need a doctor
+quick."</p>
+<p>Without a word Jim Reid leaped into the automobile. The car
+backed to turn around. As it paused an instant before starting
+forward again, Kitty put her hand on her father's shoulder.</p>
+<p>"Wait!" she cried. "I'm going to Phil. Curly, I want your horse;
+you can go with father."</p>
+<p>The cowboy was on the ground before she had finished speaking.
+And before the automobile was under way Kitty was riding back the
+way Curly had come.</p>
+<p>Kitty was scarcely conscious of what she had said. The cowboy's
+first words had struck her with the force of a physical blow, and
+in that first moment, she had been weak and helpless. She had felt
+as though a heavy weight pressed her down; a gray mist was before
+her eyes, and she could not see clearly. "Phil Acton is
+shot&mdash;Phil Acton is shot!" The cowboy's words had repeated
+themselves over and over. Then, with a sudden rush, her strength
+came again&mdash;the mist cleared; she must go to Phil; she must go
+fast, fast. Oh, why was this horse so slow! If only she were riding
+her own Midnight! She did not think as she rode. She did not
+wonder, nor question, nor analyze her emotions. She only felt. It
+was Phil who was hurt&mdash;Phil, the boy with whom she had played
+when she was a little girl&mdash;the lad with whom she had gone to
+school&mdash;the young man who had won the first love of her young
+woman heart. It was Phil, her Phil, who was hurt, and she must go
+to him&mdash;she must go fast, fast!</p>
+<p>It seemed to Kitty that hours passed before she reached the
+meadow lane. She was glad that Curly had left the gates open. As
+she crossed the familiar ground between the old Acton home and the
+ranch house on the other side of the sandy wash, she saw them. They
+were carrying him into the house as she rode into the yard, and at
+sight of that still form the gray mist came again, and she caught
+the saddle horn to save herself from falling. But it was only a
+moment until she was strong again, and ready to do all that Mrs.
+Baldwin asked.</p>
+<p>Phil had regained consciousness before they started home with
+him, but he was very weak from the loss of blood and the journey in
+the buckboard, though Bob drove ever so carefully, was almost more
+than he could bear. But with the relief that came when he was at
+last lying quietly in his own bed, and with the help of the
+stimulant, the splendid physical strength and vitality that was his
+because of his natural and unspoiled life again brought him back
+from the shadows into the light of full consciousness.</p>
+<p>It was then that the Dean, while Mrs. Baldwin and Kitty were
+occupied for a few moments in another part of the house, listened
+to all that his foreman could tell him about the affair up to the
+time that he had fallen unconscious. The Dean asked but few
+questions. But when the details were all clearly fixed in his mind,
+the older man bent over Phil and looked straight into the lad's
+clear and steady eyes, while he asked in a low tone, "Phil, did
+Patches do this?"</p>
+<p>And the young man answered, "Uncle Will, I don't know."</p>
+<p>With this he closed his eyes wearily, as though to sleep, and
+the Dean, seeing Kitty in the doorway, beckoned her to come and sit
+beside the bed. Then he stole quietly from the room.</p>
+<p>As in a dream Phil had seen Kitty when she rode into the yard.
+And he had been conscious of her presence as she moved about the
+house and the room where he lay. But he had given no sign that he
+knew she was there. As she seated herself, at the Dean's bidding,
+the cowboy opened his eyes for a moment, and looked up into her
+face. Then again the weary lids closed, and he gave no hint that he
+recognized her, save that the white lips set in firmer lines as
+though at another stab of pain.</p>
+<p>As she watched alone beside this man who had, since she could
+remember, been a part of her life, and as she realized that he was
+on the very border line of that land from which, if he entered, he
+could never return to her, Kitty Reid knew the truth that is
+greater than any knowledge that the schools of man can give. She
+knew the one great truth of her womanhood; knew it not from text
+book or class room; not from learned professor or cultured
+associates; but knew it from that good Master of Life who, with
+infinite wisdom, teaches his many pupils who are free to learn in
+the school of schools, the School of Nature. In that hour when the
+near presence of death so overshadowed all the trivial and
+non-essential things of life&mdash;when the little standards and
+petty values of poor human endeavor were as nothing&mdash;this
+woman knew that by the unwritten edict of God, who decreed that in
+all life two should be as one, this man was her only lawful mate.
+Environment, circumstance, that which we call culture and
+education, even death, might separate them; but nothing could
+nullify the fact that was attested by the instinct of her
+womanhood. Bending over the man who lay so still, she whispered the
+imperative will of her heart.</p>
+<p>"Come back to me, Phil&mdash;I want you&mdash;I need you,
+dear&mdash;come back to me!"</p>
+<p>Slowly he came out of the mists of weakness and pain to look up
+at her&mdash;doubtfully&mdash;wonderingly. But there was a light in
+Kitty's face that dispelled the doubt, and changed the look of
+wondering uncertainty to glad conviction. He did not speak. No word
+was necessary. Nor did he move, for he must be very still, and hold
+fast with all his strength to the life that was now so good. But
+the woman knew without words all that he would have said, and as
+his eyes closed again she bowed her head in thankfulness.</p>
+<p>Then rising she stole softly to the window. She felt that she
+must look out for a moment into the world that was so suddenly new
+and beautiful.</p>
+<p>Under the walnut trees she saw the Dean talking with the man
+whom she had promised to marry.</p>
+<p>Later Mr. Reid, with Helen and Curly, brought the doctor, and
+the noise of the automobile summoned every soul on the place to
+wait for the physician's verdict of life or death.</p>
+<p>While the Dean was in Phil's room with the physician, and the
+anxious ones were gathered in a little group in front of the house,
+Jim Reid stood apart from the others talking in low tones with the
+cowboy Bob. Patches, who was standing behind the automobile, heard
+Bob, who had raised his voice a little, say distinctly, "I tell
+you, sir, there ain't a bit of doubt in the world about it. There
+was the calf a layin' right there fresh-branded and marked. He'd
+plumb forgot to turn it loose, I reckon, bein' naturally rattled;
+or else he figgered that it warn't no use, if Phil should be able
+to tell what happened. The way I make it out is that Phil jumped
+him right in the act, so sudden that he shot without thinkin'; you
+know how he acts quick that-a-way. An' then he seen what he had
+done, an' that it was more than an even break that Phil wouldn't
+live, an' so figgered that his chance was better to stay an' run a
+bluff by comin' for help, an' all that. If he'd tried to make his
+get-away, there wouldn't 'a' been no question about it; an' he's
+got just nerve enough to take the chance he's a-takin' by stayin'
+right with the game."</p>
+<p>Patches started as though to go toward the men, but at that
+moment the doctor came from the house. As the physician approached
+the waiting group, that odd, mirthless, self-mocking smile touched
+Patches' lips; then he stepped forward to listen with the others to
+the doctor's words.</p>
+<p>Phil had a chance, the doctor said, but he told them frankly
+that it was only a chance. The injured man's wonderful vitality,
+his clean blood and unimpaired physical strength, together with his
+unshaken nerve and an indomitable will, were all greatly in his
+favor. With careful nursing they might with reason hope for his
+recovery.</p>
+<p>With expressions of relief, the group separated. Patches walked
+away alone. Mr. Reid, who would return to Prescott with the doctor,
+said to his daughter when the physician was ready, "Come, Kitty,
+I'll go by the house, so as to take you and Mrs. Manning home."</p>
+<p>But Kitty shook her head. "No, father. I'm not going home.
+Stella needs me here. Helen understands, don't you, Helen?"</p>
+<p>And wise Mrs. Manning, seeing in Kitty's face something that the
+man had not observed, answered, "Yes, dear, I do understand. You
+must stay, of course. I'll run over again in the morning."</p>
+<p>"Very well," answered Mr. Reid, who seemed in somewhat of a
+hurry. "I know you ought to stay. Tell Stella that mother will be
+over for a little while this evening." And the automobile moved
+away.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/313.png" width="50%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p>That night, while Mrs. Baldwin and Kitty watched by Phil's
+bedside, and Patches, in his room, waited, sleepless, alone with
+his thoughts, men from the ranch on the other side of the quiet
+meadow were riding swiftly through the darkness. Before the new day
+had driven the stars from the wide sky, a little company of silent,
+grim-faced horsemen gathered in the Pot-Hook-S corral. In the dim,
+gray light of the early morning they followed Jim Reid out of the
+corral, and, riding fast, crossed the valley above the meadows and
+approached the Cross-Triangle corrals from the west. One man in the
+company led a horse with an empty saddle. Just beyond the little
+rise of ground outside the big gate they halted, while Jim Reid
+with two others, leaving their horses with the silent riders behind
+the hill, went on into the corral, where they seated themselves on
+the edge of the long watering trough near the tank, which hid them
+from the house.</p>
+<p>Fifteen minutes later, when the Dean stepped from the kitchen
+porch, he saw Curly running toward the house. As the older man
+hurried toward him, the cowboy, pale with excitement and anger,
+cried, "They've got him, sir&mdash;grabbed him when he went out to
+the corral."</p>
+<p>The Dean understood instantly. "My horse, quick, Curly," he
+said, and hurried on toward the saddle shed. "Which way did they
+go?" he asked, as he mounted.</p>
+<p>"Toward the cedars on the ridge where it happened," came the
+answer. "Do you want me?"</p>
+<p>"No. Don't let them know in the house," came the reply. And the
+Dean was gone.</p>
+<p>The little company of horsemen, with Patches in their midst, had
+reached the scene of the shooting, and had made their simple
+preparations. From that moment when they had covered him with their
+guns as he stepped through the corral gate, he had not spoken.</p>
+<p>"Well, sir," said the spokesman, "have you anything to say
+before we proceed?"</p>
+<p>Patches shook his head, and wonderingly they saw that curious
+mocking smile on his lips.</p>
+<p>"I don't suppose that any remarks I might make would impress you
+gentlemen in the least," he said coolly. "It would be useless and
+unkind for me to detain you longer than is necessary."</p>
+<p>An involuntary murmur of admiration came from the circle. They
+were men who could appreciate such unflinching courage.</p>
+<p>In the short pause that followed, the Dean, riding as he had not
+ridden for years, was in their midst. Before they could check him
+the veteran cowman was beside Patches. With a quick motion he
+snatched the riata from the cowboy's neck. An instant more, and he
+had cut the rope that bound Patches' hands.</p>
+<p>"Thank you, sir," said Patches calmly.</p>
+<p>"Don't do that, Will," called Jim Reid peremptorily. "This is
+our business." In the same breath he shouted to his companions,
+"Take him again, boys," and started forward.</p>
+<p>"Stand where you are," roared the Dean, and as they looked upon
+the stern countenance of the man who was so respected and loved
+throughout all that country, not a man moved. Reid himself
+involuntarily halted at the command.</p>
+<p>"I'll do this and more, Jim Reid," said the Dean firmly, and
+there was that in his voice which, in the wild days of the past,
+had compelled many a man to fear and obey him. "It's my business
+enough that you can call this meetin' off right here. I'll be
+responsible for this man. You boys mean well, but you're a little
+mite too previous this trip."</p>
+<p>"We aim to put a stop to that thievin' Tailholt Mountain outfit,
+Will," returned Reid, "an' we're goin' to do it right now."</p>
+<p>A murmur of agreement came from the group.</p>
+<p>The Dean did not give an inch. "You'll put a stop to nothin'
+this way; an' you'll sure start somethin' that'll be more than
+stealin' a few calves. The time for stringin' men up promiscuous
+like, on mere suspicion, is past in Arizona. I reckon there's more
+Cross-Triangle stock branded with the Tailholt Mountain iron than
+all the rest of you put together have lost, which sure entitles me
+to a front seat when it comes, to the show-down."</p>
+<p>"He's right, boys," said one of the older men.</p>
+<p>"You know I'm right, Tom," returned the Dean quickly. "You an'
+me have lived neighbors for pretty near thirty years, without ever
+a hard word passed between us, an' we've been through some mighty
+serious troubles together; an' you, too, George, an' Henry an'
+Bill. The rest of you boys I have known since you was little kids;
+an' me and your daddies worked an' fought side by side for decent
+livin' an' law-abidin' times before you was born. We did it 'cause
+we didn't want our children to go through with what we had to go
+through, or do some of the things that we had to do. An' now you're
+all thinkin' that you can cut me out of this. You think you can
+sneak out here before I'm out of my bed in the mornin', an' hang
+one of my own cowboys&mdash;as good a man as ever throwed a rope,
+too. Without sayin' a word to me, you come crawlin' right into my
+own corral, an' start to raisin' hell. I'm here to tell you that
+you can't do it. You can't do it because I won't let you."</p>
+<p>The men, with downcast eyes, sat on their horses, ashamed. Two
+or three muttered approval. Jim Reid said earnestly, "That's all
+right, Will. We knew how you would feel, an' we were just aimin' to
+save you any more trouble. Them Tailholt Mountain thieves have gone
+too far this time. We can't let you turn that man loose."</p>
+<p>"I ain't goin' to try to turn him loose," retorted the Dean.</p>
+<p>The men looked at each other.</p>
+<p>"What are you goin' to do, then?" asked the spokesman.</p>
+<p>"I'm goin' to make you turn him loose," came the startling
+answer. "You fellows took him; you've got to let him go."</p>
+<p>In spite of the grave situation several of the men grinned at
+the Dean's answer&mdash;it was so like him.</p>
+<p>"I'll bet a steer he does it, too," whispered one.</p>
+<p>The Dean turned to the man by his side. "Patches, tell these men
+all that you told me about this business."</p>
+<p>When the cowboy had told his story in detail, up to the point
+where Phil came upon the scene, the Dean interrupted him, "Now, get
+down there an' show us exactly how it happened after Phil rode on
+to you an' Yavapai Joe."</p>
+<p>Patches obeyed. As he was showing them where Phil stood when the
+shot was fired the Dean again interrupted with, "Wait a minute.
+Tom, you get down there an' stand just as Phil was standin'."</p>
+<p>The cattleman obeyed.</p>
+<p>When he had taken the position, the Dean continued, "Now,
+Patches, stand like you was when Phil was hit."</p>
+<p>Patches obeyed.</p>
+<p>"Now, then, where did that shot come from?" asked the Dean.</p>
+<p>Patches pointed.</p>
+<p>The Dean did not need to direct the next step in his
+demonstration. Three of the men were already off their horses, and
+moving around the bushes indicated by Patches.</p>
+<p>"Here's the tracks, all right," called one. "An' here," added
+another, from a few feet further away, "was where he left his
+horse."</p>
+<p>"An' now," continued the Dean, when the three men had come back
+from behind the bushes, and with Patches had remounted their
+horses, "I'll tell you somethin' else. I had a talk with Phil
+himself, an' the boy's story agrees with what Patches has just told
+you in every point. An', furthermore, Phil told me straight when I
+asked him that he didn't know himself who fired that shot."</p>
+<p>He paused for a moment for them to grasp the full import of his
+words. Then he summed up the case.</p>
+<p>"As the thing stands, we've got no evidence against anybody. It
+can't be proved that the calf wasn't Nick's property in the first
+place. It can't be proved that Nick was anywhere in the
+neighborhood. It can't be proved who fired that shot. It could have
+been Yavapai Joe, or anybody else, just as well as Nick. Phil
+himself, by bein' too quick to jump at conclusions, blocked this
+man's game, just when he was playin' the only hand that could have
+won out against Nick. If Phil hadn't 'a' happened on to Patches and
+Joe when he did, or if he had been a little slower about findin' a
+man guilty just because appearances were against him, we'd 'a' had
+the evidence from Yavapai Joe that we've been wantin', an' could
+'a' called the turn on that Tailholt outfit proper. As it stands
+now, we're right where we was before. Now, what are you all goin'
+to do about it?"</p>
+<p>The men grinned shamefacedly, but were glad that the tragedy had
+been averted. They were by no means convinced that Patches was not
+guilty, but they were quick to see the possibilities of a mistake
+in the situation.</p>
+<p>"I reckon the Dean has adjourned the meetin', boys," said
+one.</p>
+<p>"Come on," called another. "Let's be ridin'."</p>
+<p>When the last man had disappeared in the timber, the Dean wiped
+the perspiration from his flushed face, and looked at Patches
+thoughtfully. Then that twinkle of approval came into the blue
+eyes, that a few moments before had been so cold and
+uncompromising.</p>
+<p>"Come, son," he said gently, "let's go to breakfast. Stella'll
+be wonderin' what's keepin' us."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/319.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/chapter_16.png" width=
+"100%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p class="par"><img src="images/320.png" width="30%" alt="" /></p>
+<p>efore their late breakfast was over at the Cross-Triangle Ranch,
+Helen Manning came across the valley meadows to help with the work
+of the household. Jimmy brought her, but when she saw that she was
+really needed, and that Mrs. Baldwin would be glad of her help, she
+told Jimmy that she would stay for the day. Someone from the
+Cross-Triangle, the Dean said, would take her home when she was
+ready to go.</p>
+<p>The afternoon was nearly gone when Curly returned from the lower
+end of the valley with a woman who would relieve Mrs. Baldwin of
+the housework, and, as her presence was no longer needed, Helen
+told the Dean that she would return to the Reid home.</p>
+<p>"I'll just tell Patches to take you over in the buckboard," said
+the Dean. "It was mighty kind of you to give us a hand to-day; it's
+been a big help to Stella and Kitty."</p>
+<p>"Please don't bother about the buckboard, Mr. Baldwin. I would
+enjoy the walk so much. But I would be glad if Mr. Patches could go
+with me&mdash;I would really feel safer, you know," she smiled.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Baldwin was sleeping and Kitty was watching beside Phil, so
+the Dean himself went as far as the wash with Helen and Patches, as
+the two set out for their walk across the meadows. When Helen had
+said good-by to the Dean, with a promise to come again on the
+morrow, and he had turned back toward the house, she said to her
+companion, "Oh, Larry, I am so glad for this opportunity; I wanted
+to see you alone, and I couldn't think how it was to be managed. I
+have something to tell you, Larry, something that I <i>must</i>
+tell you, and you must promise to be very patient with me."</p>
+<p>"You know what happened this morning, do you?" he asked gravely,
+for he thought from her words that she had, perhaps, chanced to
+hear of some further action to be taken by the suspicious
+cattlemen.</p>
+<p>"It was terrible&mdash;terrible, Larry. Why didn't you tell them
+who you are? Why did you let them&mdash;" she could not finish.</p>
+<p>He laughed shortly. "It would have been such a sinful waste of
+words. Can't you imagine me trying to make those men believe such a
+fairy story&mdash;under such circumstances?"</p>
+<p>For a little they walked in silence; then he asked, "Is it about
+Jim Reid's suspicion that you wanted to see me, Helen?"</p>
+<p>"No, Larry, it isn't. It's about Kitty," she answered.</p>
+<p>"Oh!"</p>
+<p>"Kitty told me all about it, to-day," Helen continued. "The poor
+child is almost beside herself."</p>
+<p>The man did not speak. Helen looked up at him almost as a mother
+might have done.</p>
+<p>"Do you love her so very much, Larry? Tell me truly, do
+you?"</p>
+<p>Patches could not&mdash;dared not&mdash;look at her.</p>
+<p>"Tell me, Larry," she insisted gently. "I must know. Do you love
+Kitty as a man ought to love his wife?"</p>
+<p>The man answered in a voice that was low and shaking with
+emotion. "Why should you ask me such a question? You know the
+answer. What right have you to force me to tell you that which you
+already know&mdash;that I love you&mdash;another man's wife?"</p>
+<p>Helen's face went white. In her anxiety for Kitty she, had not
+foreseen this situation in which, by her question, she had placed
+herself.</p>
+<p>"Larry!" she said sharply.</p>
+<p>"Well," he retorted passionately, "you insisted that I tell you
+the truth."</p>
+<p>"I insisted that you tell me the truth about Kitty," she
+returned.</p>
+<p>"Well, you have it," he answered quickly.</p>
+<p>"Oh, Larry," she cried, "how could you&mdash;how could you ask a
+woman you do not love to be your wife? How could you do it, Larry?
+And just when I was so proud of you; so glad for you that you had
+found yourself; that you were such a splendid man!"</p>
+<p>"Kitty and I are the best of friends," he answered in a dull,
+spiritless tone, "the best of companions. In the past year I have
+grown very fond of her&mdash;we have much in common. I can give her
+the life she desires&mdash;the life she is fitted for. I will make
+her happy; I will be true to her; I will be to her everything that
+a man should be to his wife."</p>
+<p>"No, Larry," she said gently, touched by the hopelessness in his
+voice, for he had spoken as though he already knew that his attempt
+to justify his engagement to Kitty was vain. "No, Larry, you cannot
+be to Kitty everything that a man should be to his wife. You
+cannot, without love, be a husband to her."</p>
+<p>Again they walked in silence for a little way. Then Helen asked:
+"And are you sure, Larry, that Kitty cares for you&mdash;as a woman
+ought to care, I mean?"</p>
+<p>"I could not have asked her to be my wife if I had not thought
+so," he answered, with more spirit.</p>
+<p>"Of course," returned his companion gently, "and Kitty could not
+have answered, 'yes,' if she had not believed that you loved
+her."</p>
+<p>"Do you mean that you think Kitty does not care for me,
+Helen?"</p>
+<p>"I <i>know</i> that she loves Phil Acton, Larry. I saw it in her
+face when we first learned that he was hurt. And to-day the poor
+girl confessed it. She loved him all the time, Larry&mdash;has
+loved him ever since they were boy and girl together. She has tried
+to deny her heart&mdash;she has tried to put other things above her
+love, but she knows now that she cannot. It is fortunate for you
+both that she realized her love for Mr. Acton before she had
+spoiled not only her own life but yours as well."</p>
+<p>"But, how could she promise to be my wife when she loved Phil?"
+he demanded.</p>
+<p>"But, how could you ask her when you&mdash;" Helen retorted
+quickly, without thinking of herself. Then she continued bravely,
+putting herself aside in her effort to make him understand. "You
+tempted her, Larry. You did not mean it so, perhaps, but you did.
+You tempted her with your wealth&mdash;with all that you could give
+her of material luxuries and ease and refinement. You tempted her
+to substitute those things for love. I know, Larry&mdash;I know,
+because you see, dear man, I was once tempted, too."</p>
+<p>He made a gesture of protest, but she went on, "You did not
+know, but I can tell you now that nothing but the memory of my dear
+father's teaching saved me from a terrible mistake. You are a man
+now, Larry. You are more to me than any man in the world, save one;
+and more than any man in the world, save that one, I respect and
+admire you for the manhood you have gained. But oh, Larry, Larry,
+don't you see? <i>'When a man's a man'</i> there is one thing above
+all others that he cannot do. He cannot take advantage of a woman's
+weakness; he cannot tempt her beyond her strength; he must be
+strong both for himself and her; he must save her always from
+herself."</p>
+<p>The man lifted his head and looked away toward Granite Mountain.
+As once before this woman had aroused him to assert his manhood's
+strength, she called now to all that was finest and truest in the
+depth of his being.</p>
+<p>"You are always right, Helen," he said, almost reverently.</p>
+<p>"No, Larry," she answered quickly, "but you know that I am right
+in this."</p>
+<p>"I will free Kitty from her promise at once," he said, as though
+to end the matter.</p>
+<p>Helen answered quickly. "But that is exactly what you must not
+do."</p>
+<p>The man was bewildered. "Why, I thought&mdash;what in the world
+do you mean?"</p>
+<p>She laughed happily as she said, "Stupid Larry, don't you
+understand? You must make Kitty send you about your business. You
+must save her self-respect. Can't you see how ashamed and
+humiliated she would be if she imagined for a moment that you did
+not love her? Think what she would suffer if she knew that you had
+merely tried to buy her with your wealth and the things you
+possess!"</p>
+<p>She disregarded his protest.</p>
+<p>"That's exactly what your proposal meant, Larry. A girl like
+Kitty, if she knew the truth of what she had done, might even fancy
+herself unworthy to accept her happiness now that it has come. You
+must make her dismiss you, and all that you could give her. You
+must make her proud and happy to give herself to the man she
+loves."</p>
+<p>"But&mdash;what can I do?" he asked in desperation.</p>
+<p>"I don't know, Larry. But you must manage somehow&mdash;for
+Kitty's sake you <i>must</i>."</p>
+<p>"If only the Dean had not interrupted the proceedings this
+morning, how it would have simplified everything!" he mused, and
+she saw that as always he was laughing at himself.</p>
+<p>"Don't, Larry; please don't," she cried earnestly.</p>
+<p>He looked at her curiously. "Would you have me lie to her,
+Helen&mdash;deliberately lie?"</p>
+<p>She answered quietly. "I don't think that I would raise that
+question, if I were you, Larry&mdash;considering all the
+circumstances."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/326.png" width="50%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p>On his way back to the Cross-Triangle, Patches walked as a man
+who, having determined upon a difficult and distasteful task, is of
+a mind to undertake it without delay.</p>
+<p>After supper that evening he managed to speak to Kitty when no
+one was near.</p>
+<p>"I must see you alone for a few minutes to-night," he whispered
+hurriedly. "As soon as possible. I will be under the trees near the
+bank of the wash. Come to me as soon as it is dark, and you can
+slip away."</p>
+<p>The young woman wondered at his manner. He was so hurried, and
+appeared so nervous and unlike himself.</p>
+<p>"But, Patches, I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"You must!" he interrupted with a quick look toward the Dean,
+who was approaching them. "I have something to tell
+you&mdash;something that I must tell you to-night."</p>
+<p>He turned to speak to the Dean, and Kitty presently left them.
+An hour later, when the night had come, she found him waiting as he
+had said.</p>
+<p>"Listen, Kitty!" he began abruptly, and she thought from his
+manner and the tone of his voice that he was in a state of nervous
+fear. "I must go; I dare not stay here another day; I am going
+to-night."</p>
+<p>"Why, Patches," she said, forcing herself to speak quietly in
+order to calm him. "What is the matter?"</p>
+<p>"Matter?" he returned hurriedly. "You know what they tried to do
+to me this morning."</p>
+<p>Kitty was shocked. It was true that she did not&mdash;could
+not&mdash;care for this man as she loved Phil, but she had thought
+him her dearest friend, and she respected and admired him. It was
+not good to find him now like this&mdash;shaken and afraid. She
+could not understand. For the moment her own trouble was put aside
+by her honest concern for him.</p>
+<p>"But, Patches," she said earnestly, "that is all past now; it
+cannot happen again."</p>
+<p>"You do not know," he returned, "or you would not feel so sure.
+Phil might&mdash;" He checked himself as if he feared to finish the
+sentence.</p>
+<p>Kitty thought now that there must be more cause for his manner
+than she had guessed.</p>
+<p>"But you are not a cattle thief," she protested. "You have only
+to explain who you are; no one would for a moment believe that
+Lawrence Knight could be guilty of stealing; it's ridiculous on the
+face of it!"</p>
+<p>"You do not understand," he returned desperately. "There is more
+in this than stealing."</p>
+<p>Kitty started. "You don't mean, Patches&mdash;you can't
+mean&mdash;Phil&mdash;" she gasped.</p>
+<p>"Yes, I mean Phil," he whispered. "I&mdash;we were
+quarreling&mdash;I was angry. My God! girl, don't you see why I
+must go? I dare not stay. Listen, Kitty! It will be all right. Once
+I am out of this country and living under my own name I will be
+safe. Later you can come to me. You will come, won't you, dear? You
+know how I want you; this need make no change in our plans. If you
+love me you&mdash;"</p>
+<p>She stopped him with a low cry. "And you&mdash;it was you who
+did that?"</p>
+<p>"But I tell you we were quarreling, Kitty," he protested
+weakly.</p>
+<p>"And you think that I could go to you now?" She was trembling
+with indignation. "Oh, you are so mistaken. It seems that I was
+mistaken, too. I never dreamed that
+you&mdash;nothing&mdash;nothing, that you could ever do would make
+me forget what you have told me. You are right to go."</p>
+<p>"You mean that you will not come to me?" he faltered.</p>
+<p>"Could you really think that I would?" she retorted.</p>
+<p>"But, Kitty, you will let me go? You will not betray me? You
+will give me a chance?"</p>
+<p>"It is the only thing that I can do," she answered coldly. "I
+should die of shame, if it were ever known that I had thought of
+being more to you than I have been; but you must go to-night."</p>
+<p>And with this she left him, fairly running toward the house.</p>
+<p>Alone in the darkness, Honorable Patches smiled mockingly to
+himself.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/329.png" width="50%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p>When morning came there was great excitement at the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch. Patches was missing. And more, the best horse
+in the Dean's outfit&mdash;the big bay with the blazed face, had
+also disappeared.</p>
+<p>Quickly the news spread throughout the valley, and to the
+distant ranches. And many were the wise heads that nodded
+understandingly; and many were the "I told you so's." The man who
+had appeared among them so mysteriously, and who, for a year, had
+been a never-failing topic of conversation, had finally established
+his character beyond all question. But the cattlemen felt with
+reason, because of the Dean's vigorous defense of the man when they
+would have administered justice, that the matter was now in his
+hands. They offered their services, and much advice; they quietly
+joked about the price of horses; but the Dean laughed at their
+jokes, listened to their advice, and said that he thought the
+sheriff of Yavapai County could be trusted to handle the case.</p>
+<p>To Helen only Kitty told of her last interview with Patches. And
+Helen, shocked and surprised at the thoroughness with which the man
+had brought about Kitty's freedom and peace of mind, bade the girl
+forget and be happy.</p>
+<p>When the crisis was passed, and Phil was out of danger, Kitty
+returned to her home, but every day she and Helen drove across the
+meadows to see how the patient was progressing. Then one day Helen
+said good-by to her Williamson Valley friends, and went with
+Stanford to the home he had prepared for her. And after that Kitty
+spent still more of her time at the house across the wash from the
+old Acton homestead.</p>
+<p>It was during those weeks of Phil's recovery, while he was
+slowly regaining his full measure of health and strength, that
+Kitty learned to know the cowboy in a way that she had never
+permitted herself to know him before. Little by little, as they sat
+together under the walnut trees, or walked slowly about the place,
+the young woman came to understand the mind of the man. As Phil
+shyly at first, then more freely, opened the doors of his inner
+self and talked to her as he had talked to Patches of the books he
+had read; of his observations and thoughts of nature, and of the
+great world movements and activities that by magazines and books
+and papers were brought to his hand, she learned to her surprise
+that even as he lived amid the scenes that called for the highest
+type of physical strength and courage, he lived an intellectual
+life that was as marked for its strength and manly vigor.</p>
+<p>But while they came thus daily into more intimate and closer
+companionship they spoke to no one of their love. Kitty, knowing
+how her father would look upon her engagement to the cowboy, put
+off the announcement from time to time, not wishing their happy
+companionship to be marred during those days of Phil's
+recovery.</p>
+<p>When he was strong enough to ride again, Kitty would come with
+Midnight, and together they would roam about the ranch and the
+country near by. So it happened that Sunday afternoon. Mr. and Mrs.
+Reid, with the three boys, were making a neighborly call on the
+Baldwins, and Phil and Kitty were riding in the vicinity of the
+spot where Kitty had first met Patches.</p>
+<p>They were seated in the shade of a cedar on the ridge not far
+from the drift fence gate, when Phil saw three horsemen approaching
+from the further side of the fence. By the time the horsemen had
+reached the gate, Phil knew them to be Yavapai Joe, Nick Cambert
+and Honorable Patches. Kitty, too, had, by this time, recognized
+the riders, and with an exclamation started to rise to her
+feet.</p>
+<p>But Phil said quietly, "Wait, Kitty; there's something about
+that outfit that looks mighty queer to me."</p>
+<p>The men were riding in single file, with Yavapai Joe in the lead
+and Patches last, and their positions were not changed when they
+halted while Joe, without dismounting, unlatched the gate. They
+came through the opening, still in the same order, and as they
+halted again, while Patches closed the gate, Phil saw what it was
+that caused them to move with such apparent lack of freedom in
+their relative positions, and why Nick Cambert's attitude in the
+saddle was so stiff and unnatural. Nick's hands were secured behind
+his back, and his feet were tied under the horse from stirrup to
+stirrup, while his horse was controlled by a lead rope, one end of
+which was made fast to Yavapai Joe's saddle horn.</p>
+<p>Patches caught sight of the two under the tree as he came
+through the gate, but he gave no sign that he had noticed them. As
+the little procession moved slowly nearer, Phil and Kitty looked at
+each other without a word, but as they turned again to watch the
+approaching horsemen, Kitty impulsively grasped Phil's arm. And
+sitting so, in such unconscious intimacy, they must have made a
+pleasing picture; at least the man who rode behind Nick Cambert
+seemed to think so, for he was trying to smile.</p>
+<p>When the riders were almost within speaking distance of the pair
+under the tree, they stopped; and the watchers saw Joe turn his
+face toward Patches for a moment, then look in their direction.
+Nick Cambert did not raise his head. Patches came on toward them
+alone.</p>
+<p>As they saw that it was the man's purpose to speak to them, Phil
+and Kitty rose and stood waiting, Kitty with her hand still on her
+companion's arm. And now, as they were given a closer and less
+obstructed view of the man who had been their friend, Kitty and
+Phil again exchanged wondering glances. This was not the Honorable
+Patches whom they had known so intimately. The man's clothing was
+soiled with dirt, and old from rough usage, with here and there a
+ragged tear. His tall form drooped with weariness, and his unshaven
+face, dark and deeply tanned, and grimed with sweat and dirt, was
+thin and drawn and old, and his tired eyes, deep set in their dark
+hollows, were bloodshot as though from sleepless nights. His dry
+lips parted in a painful smile, as he dismounted stiffly and limped
+courteously forward to greet them.</p>
+<p>"I know that I am scarcely presentable," he said in a voice that
+was as worn and old as his face, "but I could not resist the
+temptation to say 'Howdy'. Perhaps I should introduce myself
+though," he added, as if to save them from embarrassment. "My name
+is Lawrence Knight; I am a deputy sheriff of this county." A slight
+movement as he spoke threw back his unbuttoned jumper, and they saw
+the badge of his office. "In my official capacity I am taking a
+prisoner to Prescott."</p>
+<p>Phil recovered first, and caught the officer's hand in a grip
+that told more than words.</p>
+<p>Kitty nearly betrayed her secret when she gasped, "But
+you&mdash;you said that you&mdash;"</p>
+<p>With his ready skill he saved her, "That my name was Patches? I
+know it was wrong to deceive you as I did, and I regret that it was
+necessary for me to lie so deliberately, but the situation seemed
+to demand it. And I hoped that when you understood you would
+forgive the part I was forced to play for the good of everyone
+interested."</p>
+<p>Kitty understood the meaning in his words that was unknown to
+Phil, and her eyes expressed the gratitude that she could not
+speak.</p>
+<p>"By the way," Patches continued, "I am not mistaken in offering
+my congratulations and best wishes, am I?"</p>
+<p>They laughed happily.</p>
+<p>"We have made no announcement yet," Phil answered, "but you seem
+to know everything."</p>
+<p>"I feel like saying from the bottom of my heart 'God bless you,
+my children.' You make me feel strangely old," he returned, with a
+touch of his old wistfulness. Then he added in his droll way,
+"Perhaps, though, it's from living in the open and sleeping in my
+clothes so long. Talk about horses, I'd give my kingdom for a bath,
+a shave and a clean shirt. I had begun to think that our old friend
+Nick never would brand another calf; that he had reformed, just to
+get even with me, you know. By the way, Phil, you will be
+interested to know that Nick is the man who is really responsible
+for your happiness."</p>
+<p>"How?" demanded Phil.</p>
+<p>"Why, it was Nick who fired the shot that brought Kitty to her
+senses. My partner there, Yavapai Joe, saw him do it. If you people
+would like to thank my prisoner, I will permit it."</p>
+<p>When they had decided that they would deny themselves that
+pleasure, Patches said, "I don't blame you; he's a surly,
+ill-tempered beast, anyway. Which reminds me that I must be about
+my official business, and land him in Prescott to-night. I am going
+to stop at the ranch and ask the Dean for the team and buckboard,
+though," he added, as he climbed painfully into the saddle. "Adios!
+my children. Don't stay out too late."</p>
+<p>Hand in hand they watched him rejoin his companions and ride
+away behind the two Tailholt Mountain men.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/334.png" width="20%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p>The Dean and Mrs. Baldwin, with their friends from the
+neighboring ranch, were enjoying their Sunday afternoon together as
+old friends will, when the three Reid boys and Little Billy came
+running from the corral where they had been holding an amateur
+bronco riding contest with a calf for the wild and wicked outlaw.
+As they ran toward the group under the walnut trees, the lads
+disturbed the peaceful conversation of their elders with wild
+shouts of "Patches has come back! Patches has come back! Nick
+Cambert is with him&mdash;so's Yavapai Joe!"</p>
+<p>Jim Reid sprang to his feet. But the Dean calmly kept his seat,
+and glancing up at his big friend with twinkling eyes, said to the
+boys, with pretended gruffness, "Aw, what's the matter with you
+kids? Don't you know that horse thief Patches wouldn't dare show
+himself in Williamson Valley again? You're havin' bad
+dreams&mdash;that's what's the matter with you. Or else you're
+tryin' to scare us."</p>
+<p>"Honest, it's Patches, Uncle Will," cried Littly Billy.</p>
+<p>"We seen him comin' from over beyond the corral," said
+Jimmy.</p>
+<p>"I saw him first," shouted Conny. "I was up in the grand
+stand&mdash;I mean on the fence."</p>
+<p>"Me, too," chirped Jack.</p>
+<p>Jim Reid stood looking toward the corral. "The boys are right,
+Will," he said in a low tone. "There they come now."</p>
+<p>As the three horsemen rode into the yard, and the watchers noted
+the peculiarity of their companionship, Jim Reid muttered something
+under his breath. But the Dean, as he rose leisurely to his feet,
+was smiling broadly.</p>
+<p>The little procession halted when the horses evidenced their
+dislike of the automobile, and Patches came stiffly forward on
+foot. Lifting his battered hat courteously to the company, he said
+to the Dean, "I have returned your horse, sir. I'm very much
+obliged to you. I think you will find him in fairly good
+condition."</p>
+<p>Jim Reid repeated whatever it was that he had muttered to
+himself.</p>
+<p>The Dean chuckled. "Jim," he said to the big cattleman, "I want
+to introduce my friend, Mr. Lawrence Knight, one of Sheriff
+Gordon's deputies. It looks like he had been busy over in the
+Tailholt Mountain neighborhood."</p>
+<p>The two men shook hands silently. Mrs. Reid greeted the officer
+cordially, while Mrs. Baldwin, to the Dean's great delight,
+demonstrated her welcome in the good old-fashioned mother way.</p>
+<p>"Will Baldwin, I could shake you," she cried, as Patches stood,
+a little confused by her impulsive greeting. "Here you knew all the
+time; and you kept pesterin' me by trying to make me believe that
+you thought he had run away because he was a thief!"</p>
+<p>It was, perhaps, the proudest moment of the Dean's life when he
+admitted that Patches had confided in him that morning when they
+were so late to breakfast. And how he had understood that the man's
+disappearance and the pretense of stealing a horse had been only a
+blind. The good Dean never dreamed that there was so much more in
+Honorable Patches' strategy than he knew!</p>
+<p>"Mr. Baldwin," said Patches presently, "could you let me have
+the team and buckboard? I want to get my prisoners to Prescott
+to-night, and"&mdash;he laughed shortly&mdash;"well, I certainly
+would appreciate those cushions."</p>
+<p>"Sure, son, you can have the whole Cross-Triangle outfit, if you
+want it," answered the Dean. "But hold on a minute." He turned with
+twinkling eyes to his neighbor. "Here's Jim with a perfectly good
+automobile that don't seem to be busy."</p>
+<p>The big man responded cordially. "Why, of course; I'll be glad
+to take you in."</p>
+<p>"Thank you," returned Patches. "I'll be ready in a minute."</p>
+<p>"But you're goin' to have something to eat first," cried Mrs.
+Baldwin. "I'll bet you're half starved; you sure look it."</p>
+<p>Patches shook his head. "Don't tempt me, mother; I can't stop
+now."</p>
+<p>"But you'll come back home to-night, won't you?" she asked
+anxiously.</p>
+<p>"I would like to," he said. "And may I bring a friend?"</p>
+<p>"Your friends are our friends, son," she answered.</p>
+<p>"Of course he's comin' back," said the Dean. "Where else would
+he go, I'd like to know?"</p>
+<p>They watched him as he went to his prisoner, and as, unlocking
+the handcuff that held Nick's right wrist, he re-locked it on his
+own left arm, thus linking his prisoner securely to himself. Then
+he spoke to Joe, and the young man, dismounting, unfastened the
+rope that bound Nick's feet. When Nick was on the ground the three
+came toward the machine.</p>
+<p>"I am afraid I must ask you to let someone take care of the
+horses," called Patches to the Dean.</p>
+<p>"I'll look after them," the Dean returned. "Don't forget now
+that you're comin' back to-night; Jim will bring you."</p>
+<p>Jim Reid, as the three men reached the automobile, said to
+Patches, "Will you take both of your prisoners in the back seat
+with you, or shall I take one of them in front with me?"</p>
+<p>Patches looked the big man straight in the eyes, and they heard
+him answer with significant emphasis, as he placed his free hand on
+Yavapai Joe's shoulder, "I have only one prisoner, Mr. Reid. This
+man is my friend. He will take whatever seat he prefers."</p>
+<p>Yavapai Joe climbed into the rear seat with the officer and his
+prisoner.</p>
+<p>It was after dark when Mr. Reid returned to the ranch with
+Patches and Joe.</p>
+<p>"You will find your room all ready, son," said Mrs. Baldwin,
+"and there's plenty of hot water in the bathroom tank for you both.
+Joe can take the extra bed in Curly's room. You show him. I'll have
+your supper as soon as you are ready."</p>
+<p>Patches almost fell asleep at the table. As soon as they had
+finished he went to his bed, where he remained, as Phil reported at
+intervals during the next forenoon, "dead to the world," until
+dinner time. In the afternoon they gathered under the walnut
+trees&mdash;the Cross-Triangle household and the friends from the
+neighboring ranch&mdash;and Patches told them his story; how, when
+he had left the ranch that night, he had ridden straight to his old
+friend Stanford Manning; and how Stanford had gone with him to the
+sheriff, where, through Manning's influence, together with the
+letter which Patches had brought from the Dean, he had been made an
+officer of the law. As he told them briefly of his days and nights
+alone, they needed no minute details to understand what it had
+meant to him.</p>
+<p>"It wasn't the work of catching Nick in a way to ensure his
+conviction that I minded," he said, "but the trouble was, that
+while I was watching Nick day and night, and dodging him all the
+time, I was afraid some enthusiastic cow-puncher would run on to me
+and treat himself to a shot just for luck. Not that I would have
+minded that so much, either, after the first week," he added in his
+droll way, "but considering all the circumstances it would have
+been rather a poor sort of finish."</p>
+<p>"And what about Yavapai Joe?" asked Phil.</p>
+<p>Patches smiled. "Where is Joe? What's he been doing all
+day?"</p>
+<p>The Dean answered. "He's just been moseyin' around. I tried to
+get him to talk, but all he would say was that he'd rather let Mr.
+Knight tell it."</p>
+<p>"Billy," said Patches, "will you find Yavapai Joe, and tell him
+that I would like to see him here?"</p>
+<p>When Little Billy, with the assistance of Jimmy and Conny and
+Jack, had gone proudly on his mission, Patches said to the others,
+"Technically, of course, Joe is my prisoner until after the trial,
+but please don't let him feel it. He will be the principal witness
+for the state."</p>
+<p>When Yavapai Joe appeared, embarrassed and ashamed in their
+presence, Patches said, as courteously as he would have introduced
+an equal, "Joe, I want my friends to know your real name. There is
+no better place in the world than right here to start that job of
+man-making that we have talked about. You remember that I told you
+how I started here."</p>
+<p>Yavapai Joe lifted his head and stood straighter by his tall
+friend's side, and there was a new note in his voice as he
+answered, "Whatever you say goes, Mr. Knight."</p>
+<p>Patches smiled. "Friends, this is Mr. Joseph Parkhill, the only
+son of the distinguished Professor Parkhill, whom you all know so
+well."</p>
+<p>If Patches had planned to enjoy the surprise his words caused,
+he could not have been disappointed.</p>
+<p>Presently, when Joe had slipped away again, Patches told them
+how, because of his interest in the young man, and because of the
+lad's strange knowledge of Professor Parkhill, he had written east
+for the distinguished scholar's history.</p>
+<p>"The professor himself was not really so much to blame," said
+Patches. "It seems that he was born to an intellectual life. The
+poor fellow never had a chance. Even as a child he was exhibited as
+a prodigy&mdash;a shining example of the possibilities of the race,
+you know. His father, who was also a professor of some sort, died
+when he was a baby. His mother, unfortunately, possessed an income
+sufficient to make it unnecessary that Everard Charles should ever
+do a day's real work. At the age of twenty, he was graduated from
+college; at the age of twenty-one he was married to&mdash;or
+perhaps it would be more accurate to say&mdash;he was married
+<i>by</i>&mdash;his landlady's daughter. Quite likely the woman was
+ambitious to break into that higher life to which the professor
+aspired, and caught her cultured opportunity in an unguarded
+moment. The details are not clear. But when their only child, Joe,
+was six years old, the mother ran away with a carpenter who had
+been at work on the house for some six weeks. A maiden aunt of some
+fifty years, who was a worshiper of the professor's cult, came to
+keep his house and to train Joe in the way that good boys should
+go.</p>
+<p>"But the lad proved rather too great a burden, and when he was
+thirteen they sent him to a school out here in the West, ostensibly
+for the benefit of the climate. The boy, it was said, being of
+abnormal mentality, needed to pursue his studies under the most
+favorable physical conditions. The professor, unhampered by his
+offspring, continued to climb his aesthetic ladder to intellectual
+and cultured glory. The boy in due time escaped from the school,
+and was educated by the man Dryden and Nick Cambert."</p>
+<p>"And what will become of him now?" asked the Dean.</p>
+<p>Patches smiled. "Why, the lad is twenty-one now, and we have
+agreed that it is about time that he began to make a man of
+himself&mdash;I can help him a little, perhaps&mdash;I have been
+trying occasionally the past year. But you see the conditions have
+not been altogether favorable to the experiment. It should be easy
+from now on."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/342.png" width="20%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p>During the time that intervened before the trial of the Tailholt
+Mountain man, Phil and Patches re-established that intimate
+friendship of those first months of their work together. Then came
+the evening when Phil went across the meadow to ask Jim Reid for
+his daughter.</p>
+<p>The big cattleman looked at his young neighbor with frowning
+disapproval.</p>
+<p>"It won't do, Phil," he said at last. "I'm Kitty's father, and
+it's up to me to look out for her interests. You know how I've
+educated her for something better than this life. She may think now
+that she is willin' to throw it all away, but I know better. The
+time would come when she would be miserable. It's got to be
+somethin' more than a common cow-puncher for Kitty, Phil, and
+that's the truth."</p>
+<p>The cowboy did not argue. "Do I understand that your only
+objection is based upon the business in which I am engaged?" he
+asked coolly.</p>
+<p>Jim laughed. "The <i>business</i> in which you are engaged? Why,
+boy, you sound like a first national bank. If you had any business
+of your own&mdash;if you was the owner of an outfit, an' could give
+Kitty the&mdash;well&mdash;the things her education has taught her
+to need, it would be different. I know you're a fine man, all
+right, but you're only a poor cow-puncher just the same. I'm
+speakin' for your own good, Phil, as well as for Kitty's," he
+added, with an effort at kindliness.</p>
+<p>"Then, if I had a good business, it would be different?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, son, it would sure make all the difference in the
+world."</p>
+<p>"Thank you," said the cowboy quietly, as he handed Mr. Reid a
+very legal looking envelope. "I happen to be half owner of this
+ranch and outfit. With my own property, it makes a fairly good
+start for a man of my age. My partner, Mr. Lawrence Knight, leaves
+the active management wholly in my hands; and he has abundant
+capital to increase our holdings and enlarge our operations just as
+fast as we can handle the business."</p>
+<p>The big man looked from the papers to the lad, then back to the
+papers. Then a broad smile lighted his heavy face, as he said, "I
+give it up&mdash;you win. You young fellers are too swift for me.
+I've been wantin' to retire anyway." He raised his voice and
+called, "Kitty&mdash;oh, Kitty!"</p>
+<p>The girl appeared in the doorway.</p>
+<p>"Come and get him," said Reid. "I guess he's yours."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/343.png" width="20%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<p>Helen Manning was sitting on the front porch of that little
+cottage on the mountain side where she and Stanford began their
+years of home-building. A half mile below she could see the mining
+buildings that were grouped about the shaft in picturesque
+disorder. Above, the tree-clad ridge rose against the sky. It was
+too far from the great world of cities, some would have said, but
+Helen did not find it so. With her books and her music, and the
+great out-of-doors; and with the companionship of her mate and the
+dreams they dreamed together, her woman heart was never lonely.</p>
+<p>She lowered the book she was reading, and looked through the
+open window to the clock in the living-room. A little while, and
+she would go down the hill to Stanford, for they loved to walk home
+together. Then, before lifting the printed page again, she looked
+over the wide view of rugged mountain sides and towering peaks that
+every day held for her some new beauty. She had resumed her reading
+when the sound of horses' feet attracted her attention.</p>
+<p>Patches and Yavapai Joe were riding up the hill.</p>
+<p>They stopped at the gate, and while Joe held Stranger's bridle
+rein, Patches came to Helen as she stood on the porch waiting to
+receive him.</p>
+<p>"Surely you will stay for the night," she urged when they had
+exchanged greetings, and had talked for a little while.</p>
+<p>"No," he answered quietly. "I just came this way to say good-by;
+I stopped for a few minutes with Stan at the office. He said I
+would find you here."</p>
+<p>"But where are you going?" she asked.</p>
+<p>Smiling he waved his hand toward the mountain ridge above. "Just
+over the sky line, Helen."</p>
+<p>"But, Larry, you will come again? You won't let us lose you
+altogether?"</p>
+<p>"Perhaps&mdash;some day," he said.</p>
+<p>"And who is that with you?"</p>
+<p>"Just a friend who cares to go with me. Stan will tell you."</p>
+<p>"Oh, Larry, Larry! What a man you are!" she cried proudly, as he
+stood before her holding out his hand.</p>
+<p>"If you think so, Helen, I am glad," he answered, and turned
+away.</p>
+<p>So she watched him go. Sitting there at home, she watched him
+ride up the winding road. Now he was in full view on some rocky
+shoulder of the mountain&mdash;now some turn carried him behind a
+rocky point&mdash;again she glimpsed him through the
+trees&mdash;again he was lost to her in the shadows. At last, for a
+moment, he stood out boldly against the wide-arched sky&mdash;and
+then he had passed from sight&mdash;over the sky line, as he had
+said.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/345.png" width="60%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's When A Man's A Man, by Harold Bell Wright
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN'S A MAN ***
+
+***** This file should be named 14367-h.htm or 14367-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/6/14367/
+
+Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/001.png b/old/14367-h/images/001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ebc8fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/001.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/006.png b/old/14367-h/images/006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2c3dcb0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/006.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/007.png b/old/14367-h/images/007.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee72415
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/007.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/008.png b/old/14367-h/images/008.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e67cd31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/008.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/009.png b/old/14367-h/images/009.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8713d7e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/009.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/020.png b/old/14367-h/images/020.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6d34a98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/020.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/031.png b/old/14367-h/images/031.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9ca7561
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/031.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/032.png b/old/14367-h/images/032.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7f39b75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/032.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/043.png b/old/14367-h/images/043.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fdae124
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/043.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/044.png b/old/14367-h/images/044.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b91105
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/044.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/077.png b/old/14367-h/images/077.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05795bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/077.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/078.png b/old/14367-h/images/078.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3c1e87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/078.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/087.png b/old/14367-h/images/087.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..948fa6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/087.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/088.png b/old/14367-h/images/088.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1b014fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/088.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/111.png b/old/14367-h/images/111.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e492a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/111.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/112.png b/old/14367-h/images/112.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..988fbca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/112.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/129.png b/old/14367-h/images/129.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..21e8736
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/129.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/130.png b/old/14367-h/images/130.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2e6caef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/130.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/137a.png b/old/14367-h/images/137a.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..81ce969
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/137a.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/137b.png b/old/14367-h/images/137b.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f45516a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/137b.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/138a.png b/old/14367-h/images/138a.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d6c87f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/138a.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/138b.png b/old/14367-h/images/138b.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f9fc6d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/138b.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/155.png b/old/14367-h/images/155.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6454017
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/155.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/156.png b/old/14367-h/images/156.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..105990f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/156.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/168.png b/old/14367-h/images/168.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..13c1a08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/168.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/177.png b/old/14367-h/images/177.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c3cf2ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/177.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/178.png b/old/14367-h/images/178.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cb7c8f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/178.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/181.png b/old/14367-h/images/181.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7a18b0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/181.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/193.png b/old/14367-h/images/193.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..609008a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/193.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/194.png b/old/14367-h/images/194.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71fbeb5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/194.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/235.png b/old/14367-h/images/235.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a1ac0fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/235.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/236.png b/old/14367-h/images/236.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7788c50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/236.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/255.png b/old/14367-h/images/255.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fa57315
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/255.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/257.png b/old/14367-h/images/257.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e2e1702
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/257.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/258.png b/old/14367-h/images/258.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..99edf44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/258.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/277.png b/old/14367-h/images/277.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9830014
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/277.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/278.png b/old/14367-h/images/278.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..105badb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/278.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/294.png b/old/14367-h/images/294.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad38056
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/294.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/307.png b/old/14367-h/images/307.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cee9280
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/307.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/313.png b/old/14367-h/images/313.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f8b6be6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/313.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/319.png b/old/14367-h/images/319.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6dba029
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/319.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/320.png b/old/14367-h/images/320.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8c76027
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/320.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/326.png b/old/14367-h/images/326.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7698982
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/326.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/329.png b/old/14367-h/images/329.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e5984b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/329.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/334.png b/old/14367-h/images/334.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..84a8645
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/334.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/342.png b/old/14367-h/images/342.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b27faaa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/342.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/343.png b/old/14367-h/images/343.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af295ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/343.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/345.png b/old/14367-h/images/345.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..459a2a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/345.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_01.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_01.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c936690
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_01.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_02.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_02.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6c69b41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_02.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_03.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_03.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5715917
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_03.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_04.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_04.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..11f8f7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_04.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_05.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_05.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c5e6714
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_05.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_06.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_06.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..748e122
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_06.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_07.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_07.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fd57b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_07.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_08.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_08.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..51e64be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_08.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_09.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_09.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0cabefd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_09.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_10.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_10.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b37f82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_10.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_11.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_11.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85a1e53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_11.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_12.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_12.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52651b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_12.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_13.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_13.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..75d9199
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_13.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_14.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_14.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..50698ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_14.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_15.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_15.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3442b51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_15.png
diff --git a/old/14367-h/images/chapter_16.png b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_16.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..48b8bbc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367-h/images/chapter_16.png
diff --git a/old/14367.txt b/old/14367.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5138258
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10544 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of When A Man's A Man, by Harold Bell Wright
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: When A Man's A Man
+
+Author: Harold Bell Wright
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2004 [EBook #14367]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN'S A MAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+WHEN A MAN'S
+A MAN
+
+BY
+HAROLD BELL WRIGHT
+
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
+By arrangement with D. Appleton-Century Co.
+
+1916
+
+
+
+
+TO MY SONS
+GILBERT AND PAUL NORMAN
+THIS STORY OF MANHOOD
+IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
+BY THEIR FATHER
+
+
+
+
+_Acknowledgment_
+
+
+It is fitting that I should here express my indebtedness to those
+Williamson Valley friends who in the kindness of their hearts made this
+story possible.
+
+To Mr. George A. Carter, who so generously introduced me to the scenes
+described in these pages, and who, on the Pot-Hook-S ranch, gave to my
+family one of the most delightful summers we have ever enjoyed; to Mr.
+J.H. Stephens and his family, who so cordially welcomed me at rodeo
+time; to Mr. and Mrs. Joe Contreras, for their kindly hospitality; to
+Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Stewart, who, while this story was first in the
+making, made me so much at home in the Cross-Triangle home-ranch; to Mr.
+J.W. Cook, my constant companion, helpful guide, patient teacher and
+tactful sponsor, who, with his charming wife, made his home mine; to Mr.
+and Mrs. Herbert N. Cook, and to the many other cattlemen and cowboys,
+with whom, on the range, in the rodeos, in the wild horse chase about
+Toohey, after outlaw cattle in Granite Basin, in the corrals and
+pastures, I rode and worked and lived, my gratitude is more than I can
+put in words. Truer friends or better companions than these
+great-hearted, outspoken, hardy riders, no man could have. If my story
+in any degree wins the approval of these, my comrades of ranch and
+range. I shall be proud and happy. H.B.W.
+
+     "CAMP HOLE-IN-THE-MOUNTAIN"
+     NEAR TUCSON, ARIZONA
+     APRIL 29, 1916
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                               PAGE
+   I. AFTER THE CELEBRATION             11
+  II. ON THE DIVIDE                     23
+ III. IN THE BIG PASTURE                35
+  IV. AT THE CORRAL                     47
+   V. A BIT OF THE PAST                 81
+  VI. THE DRIFT FENCE                   91
+ VII. THINGS THAT ENDURE               115
+VIII. CONCERNING BRANDS                133
+  IX. THE TAILHOLT MOUNTAIN OUTFIT     159
+   X. THE RODEO                        181
+  XI. AFTER THE RODEO                  197
+ XII. FRONTIER DAY                     239
+XIII. IN GRANITE BASIN                 261
+ XIV. AT MINT SPRING                   281
+  XV. ON CEDAR RIDGE                   297
+ XVI. THE SKY LINE                     323
+
+[Illustration: WHEN A MAN'S A MAN]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+AFTER THE CELEBRATION.
+
+
+There is a land where a man, to live, must be a man. It is a land of
+granite and marble and porphyry and gold--and a man's strength must be
+as the strength of the primeval hills. It is a land of oaks and cedars
+and pines--and a man's mental grace must be as the grace of the untamed
+trees. It is a land of far-arched and unstained skies, where the wind
+sweeps free and untainted, and the atmosphere is the atmosphere of those
+places that remain as God made them--and a man's soul must be as the
+unstained skies, the unburdened wind, and the untainted atmosphere. It
+is a land of wide mesas, of wild, rolling pastures and broad, untilled,
+valley meadows--and a man's freedom must be that freedom which is not
+bounded by the fences of a too weak and timid conventionalism.
+
+In this land every man is--by divine right--his own king; he is his own
+jury, his own counsel, his own judge, and--if it must be--his own
+executioner. And in this land where a man, to live, must be a man, a
+woman, if she be not a woman, must surely perish.
+
+This is the story of a man who regained that which in his youth had been
+lost to him; and of how, even when he had recovered that which had been
+taken from him, he still paid the price of his loss. It is the story of
+a woman who was saved from herself; and of how she was led to hold fast
+to those things, the loss of which cost the man so great a price.
+
+The story, as I have put it down here, begins at Prescott, Arizona, on
+the day following the annual Fourth-of-July celebration in one of those
+far-western years that saw the passing of the Indian and the coming of
+the automobile.
+
+The man was walking along one of the few roads that lead out from the
+little city, through the mountain gaps and passes, to the wide, unfenced
+ranges, and to the lonely scattered ranches on the creeks and flats and
+valleys of the great open country that lies beyond.
+
+From the fact that he was walking in that land where the distances are
+such that men most commonly ride, and from the many marks that
+environment and training leave upon us all, it was evident that the
+pedestrian was a stranger. He was a man in the prime of young
+manhood--tall and exceedingly well proportioned--and as he went forward
+along the dusty road he bore himself with the unconscious air of one
+more accustomed to crowded streets than to that rude and unpaved
+highway. His clothing bore the unmistakable stamp of a tailor of rank.
+His person was groomed with that nicety of detail that is permitted only
+to those who possess both means and leisure, as well as taste. It was
+evident, too, from his movement and bearing, that he had not sought the
+mile-high atmosphere of Prescott with the hope that it holds out to
+those in need of health. But, still, there was a something about him
+that suggested a lack of the manly vigor and strength that should have
+been his.
+
+A student of men would have said that Nature made this man to be in
+physical strength and spiritual prowess, a comrade and leader of men--a
+man's man--a man among men. The same student, looking more closely,
+might have added that in some way--through some cruel trick of
+fortune--this man had been cheated of his birthright.
+
+The day was still young when the stranger gained the top of the first
+hill where the road turns to make its steep and winding way down through
+scattered pines and scrub oak to the Burnt Ranch.
+
+Behind him the little city--so picturesque in its mountain basin, with
+the wild, unfenced land coming down to its very dooryards--was slowly
+awakening after the last mad night of its celebration. The tents of the
+tawdry shows that had tempted the crowds with vulgar indecencies, and
+the booths that had sheltered the petty games of chance where
+loud-voiced criers had persuaded the multitude with the hope of winning
+a worthless bauble or a tinsel toy, were being cleared away from the
+borders of the plaza, the beauty of which their presence had marred. In
+the plaza itself--which is the heart of the town, and is usually kept
+with much pride and care--the bronze statue of the vigorous Rough Rider
+Bucky O'Neil and his spirited charger seemed pathetically out of place
+among the litter of colored confetti and exploded fireworks, and the
+refuse from various "treats" and lunches left by the celebrating
+citizens and their guests. The flags and bunting that from window and
+roof and pole and doorway had given the day its gay note of color hung
+faded and listless, as though, spent with their gaiety, and mutely
+conscious that the spirit and purpose of their gladness was past, they
+waited the hand that would remove them to the ash barrel and the rubbish
+heap.
+
+Pausing, the man turned to look back.
+
+For some minutes he stood as one who, while determined upon a certain
+course, yet hesitates--reluctant and regretful--at the beginning of his
+venture. Then he went on; walking with a certain reckless swing, as
+though, in ignorance of that land toward which he had set his face, he
+still resolutely turned his back upon that which lay behind. It was as
+though, for this man, too, the gala day, with its tinseled bravery and
+its confetti spirit, was of the past.
+
+A short way down the hill the man stopped again. This time to stand half
+turned, with his head in a listening attitude. The sound of a vehicle
+approaching from the way whence he had come had reached his ear.
+
+As the noise of wheels and hoofs grew louder a strange expression of
+mingled uncertainty, determination, and something very like fear came
+over his face. He started forward, hesitated, looked back, then turned
+doubtfully toward the thinly wooded mountain side. Then, with tardy
+decision he left the road and disappeared behind a clump of oak bushes,
+an instant before a team and buckboard rounded the turn and appeared in
+full view.
+
+An unmistakable cattleman--grizzly-haired, square-shouldered and
+substantial--was driving the wild looking team. Beside him sat a
+motherly woman and a little boy.
+
+As they passed the clump of bushes the near horse of the half-broken
+pair gave a catlike bound to the right against his tracemate. A second
+jump followed the first with flash-like quickness; and this time the
+frightened animal was accompanied by his companion, who, not knowing
+what it was all about, jumped on general principles. But, quick as they
+were, the strength of the driver's skillful arms met their weight on the
+reins and forced them to keep the road.
+
+"You blamed fools"--the driver chided good-naturedly, as they plunged
+ahead--"been raised on a cow ranch to get scared at a calf in the
+brush!"
+
+Very slowly the stranger came from behind the bushes. Cautiously he
+returned to the road. His fine lips curled in a curious mocking smile.
+But it was himself that he mocked, for there was a look in his dark eyes
+that gave to his naturally strong face an almost pathetic expression of
+self-depreciation and shame.
+
+As the pedestrian crossed the creek at the Burnt Ranch, Joe Conley,
+leading a horse by a riata which was looped as it had fallen about the
+animal's neck, came through the big corral gate across the road from
+the house. At the barn Joe disappeared through the small door of the
+saddle room, the coil of the riata still in his hand, thus compelling
+his mount to await his return.
+
+At sight of the cowboy the stranger again paused and stood hesitating in
+indecision. But as Joe reappeared from the barn with bridle, saddle
+blanket and saddle in hand, the man went reluctantly forward as though
+prompted by some necessity.
+
+"Good morning!" said the stranger, courteously, and his voice was the
+voice that fitted his dress and bearing, while his face was now the
+carefully schooled countenance of a man world-trained and well-poised.
+
+With a quick estimating glance Joe returned the stranger's greeting and,
+dropping the saddle and blanket on the ground, approached his horse's
+head. Instantly the animal sprang back, with head high and eyes defiant;
+but there was no escape, for the rawhide riata was still securely held
+by his master. There was a short, sharp scuffle that sent the gravel by
+the roadside flying--the controlling bit was between the reluctant
+teeth--and the cowboy, who had silently taken the horse's objection as a
+matter of course, adjusted the blanket, and with the easy skill of long
+practice swung the heavy saddle to its place.
+
+As the cowboy caught the dangling cinch, and with a deft hand tucked the
+latigo strap through the ring and drew it tight, there was a look of
+almost pathetic wistfulness on the watching stranger's face--a look of
+wistfulness and admiration and envy.
+
+Dropping the stirrup, Joe again faced the stranger, this time
+inquiringly, with that bold, straightforward look so characteristic of
+his kind.
+
+And now, when the man spoke, his voice had a curious note, as if the
+speaker had lost a little of his poise. It was almost a note of apology,
+and again in his eyes there was that pitiful look of self-depreciation
+and shame.
+
+"Pardon me," he said, "but will you tell me, please, am I right that
+this is the road to the Williamson Valley?"
+
+The stranger's manner and voice were in such contrast to his general
+appearance that the cowboy frankly looked his wonder as he answered
+courteously, "Yes, sir."
+
+"And it will take me direct to the Cross-Triangle Ranch?"
+
+"If you keep straight ahead across the valley, it will. If you take the
+right-hand fork on the ridge above the goat ranch, it will take you to
+Simmons. There's a road from Simmons to the Cross-Triangle on the far
+side of the valley, though. You can see the valley and the
+Cross-Triangle home ranch from the top of the Divide."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+The stranger was turning to go when the man in the blue jumper and
+fringed leather chaps spoke again, curiously.
+
+"The Dean with Stella and Little Billy passed in the buckboard less than
+an hour ago, on their way home from the celebration. Funny they didn't
+pick you up, if you're goin' there!"
+
+The other paused questioningly. "The Dean?"
+
+The cowboy smiled. "Mr. Baldwin, the owner of the Cross-Triangle, you
+know."
+
+"Oh!" The stranger was clearly embarrassed. Perhaps he was thinking of
+that clump of bushes on the mountain side.
+
+Joe, loosing his riata from the horse's neck, and coiling it carefully,
+considered a moment. Then: "You ain't goin' to walk to the
+Cross-Triangle, be you?"
+
+That self-mocking smile touched the man's lips; but there was a hint of
+decisive purpose in his voice as he answered, "Oh, yes."
+
+Again the cowboy frankly measured the stranger. Then he moved toward the
+corral gate, the coiled riata in one hand, the bridle rein in the other.
+"I'll catch up a horse for you," he said in a matter-of-fact tone, as if
+reaching a decision.
+
+The other spoke hastily. "No, no, please don't trouble."
+
+Joe paused curiously. "Any friend of Mr. Baldwin's is welcome to
+anything on the Burnt Ranch, Stranger."
+
+"But I--ah--I--have never met Mr. Baldwin," explained the other lamely.
+
+"Oh, that's all right," returned the cowboy heartily. "You're a-goin'
+to, an' that's the same thing." Again he started toward the gate.
+
+"But I--pardon me--you are very kind--but I--I prefer to walk."
+
+Once more Joe halted, a puzzled expression on his tanned and
+weather-beaten face. "I suppose you know it's some walk," he suggested
+doubtfully, as if the man's ignorance were the only possible solution of
+his unheard-of assertion.
+
+"So I understand. But it will be good for me. Really, I prefer to walk."
+
+Without a word the cowboy turned back to his horse, and proceeded
+methodically to tie the coiled riata in its place on the saddle. Then,
+without a glance toward the stranger who stood watching him in
+embarrassed silence, he threw the bridle reins over his horse's head,
+gripped the saddle horn and swung to his seat, reining his horse away
+from the man beside the road.
+
+The stranger, thus abruptly dismissed, moved hurriedly away.
+
+Half way to the creek the cowboy checked his horse and looked back at
+the pedestrian as the latter was making his way under the pines and up
+the hill. When the man had disappeared over the crest of the hill, the
+cowboy muttered a bewildered something, and, touching his horse with the
+spurs, loped away, as if dismissing a problem too complex for his simple
+mind.
+
+All that day the stranger followed the dusty, unfenced road. Over his
+head the wide, bright sky was without a cloud to break its vast expanse.
+On the great, open range of mountain, flat and valley the cattle lay
+quietly in the shade of oak or walnut or cedar, or, with slow, listless
+movement, sought the watering places to slake their thirst. The wild
+things retreated to their secret hiding places in rocky den and leafy
+thicket to await the cool of the evening hunting hour. The very air was
+motionless, as if the never-tired wind itself drowsed indolently.
+
+And alone in the hushed bigness of that land the man walked with his
+thoughts--brooding, perhaps, over whatever it was that had so strangely
+placed him there--dreaming, it may be, over that which might have been,
+or that which yet might be--viewing with questioning, wondering,
+half-fearful eyes the mighty, untamed scenes that met his eye on every
+hand. Nor did anyone see him, for at every sound of approaching horse or
+vehicle he went aside from the highway to hide in the bushes or behind
+convenient rocks. And always when he came from his hiding place to
+resume his journey that odd smile of self-mockery was on his face.
+
+At noon he rested for a little beside the road while he ate a meager
+sandwich that he took from the pocket of his coat. Then he pushed on
+again, with grim determination, deeper and deeper into the heart and
+life of that world which was, to him, so evidently new and strange. The
+afternoon was well spent when he made his way--wearily now, with
+drooping shoulders and dragging step--up the long slope of the Divide
+that marks the eastern boundary of the range about Williamson Valley.
+
+At the summit, where the road turns sharply around a shoulder of the
+mountain and begins the steep descent on the other side of the ridge, he
+stopped. His tired form straightened. His face lighted with a look of
+wondering awe, and an involuntary exclamation came from his lips as his
+unaccustomed eyes swept the wide view that lay from his feet unrolled
+before him.
+
+Under that sky, so unmatched in its clearness and depth of color, the
+land lay in all its variety of valley and forest and mesa and
+mountain--a scene unrivaled in the magnificence and grandeur of its
+beauty. Miles upon miles in the distance, across those primeval reaches,
+the faint blue peaks and domes and ridges of the mountains ranked--an
+uncounted sentinel host. The darker masses of the timbered hillsides,
+with the varying shades of pine and cedar, the lighter tints of oak
+brush and chaparral, the dun tones of the open grass lands, and the
+brighter note of the valley meadows' green were defined, blended and
+harmonized by the overlying haze with a delicacy exquisite beyond all
+human power to picture. And in the nearer distances, chief of that army
+of mountain peaks, and master of the many miles that lie within their
+circle, Granite Mountain, gray and grim, reared its mighty bulk of cliff
+and crag as if in supreme defiance of the changing years or the hand of
+humankind.
+
+In the heart of that beautiful land upon which, from the summit of the
+Divide, the stranger looked with such rapt appreciation, lies Williamson
+Valley, a natural meadow of lush, dark green, native grass. And, had the
+man's eyes been trained to such distances, he might have distinguished
+in the blue haze the red roofs of the buildings of the Cross-Triangle
+Ranch.
+
+For some time the man stood there, a lonely figure against the sky,
+peculiarly out of place in his careful garb of the cities. The schooled
+indifference of his face was broken. His self-depreciation and mockery
+were forgotten. His dark eyes glowed with the fire of excited
+anticipation--with hope and determined purpose. Then, with a quick
+movement, as though some ghost of the past had touched him on the
+shoulder, he looked back on the way he had come. And the light in his
+eyes went out in the gloom of painful memories. His countenance,
+unguarded because of his day of loneliness, grew dark with sadness and
+shame. It was as though he looked beyond the town he had left that
+morning, with its litter and refuse of yesterday's pleasure, to a life
+and a world of tawdry shams, wherein men give themselves to win by means
+fair or foul the tinsel baubles that are offered in the world's petty
+games of chance.
+
+And yet, even as he looked back, there was in the man's face as much of
+longing as of regret. He seemed as one who, realizing that he had
+reached a point in his life journey--a divide, as it were--from which he
+could see two ways, was resolved to turn from the path he longed to
+follow and to take the road that appealed to him the least. As one
+enlisting to fight in a just and worthy cause might pause a moment,
+before taking the oath of service, to regret the ease and freedom he was
+about to surrender, so this man paused on the summit of the Divide.
+
+Slowly, at last, in weariness of body and spirit, he stumbled a few feet
+aside from the road, and, sinking down upon a convenient rock, gave
+himself again to the contemplation of that scene which lay before him.
+And there was that in his movement now that seemed to tell of one who,
+in the grip of some bitter and disappointing experience, was yet being
+forced by something deep in his being to reach out in the strength of
+his manhood to take that which he had been denied.
+
+Again the man's untrained eyes had failed to note that which would have
+first attracted the attention of one schooled in the land that lay about
+him. He had not seen a tiny moving speck on the road over which he had
+passed. A horseman was riding toward him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ON THE DIVIDE.
+
+
+Had the man on the Divide noticed the approaching horseman it would have
+been evident, even to one so unacquainted with the country as the
+stranger, that the rider belonged to that land of riders. While still at
+a distance too great for the eye to distinguish the details of fringed
+leather chaps, soft shirt, short jumper, sombrero, spurs and riata, no
+one could have mistaken the ease and grace of the cowboy who seemed so
+literally a part of his horse. His seat in the saddle was so secure, so
+easy, and his bearing so unaffected and natural, that every movement of
+the powerful animal he rode expressed itself rhythmically in his own
+lithe and sinewy body.
+
+While the stranger sat wrapped in meditative thought, unheeding the
+approach of the rider, the horseman, coming on with a long, swinging
+lope, watched the motionless figure on the summit of the Divide with
+careful interest. As he drew nearer the cowboy pulled his horse down to
+a walk, and from under his broad hat brim regarded the stranger
+intently. He was within a few yards of the point where the man sat when
+the latter caught the sound of the horse's feet, and, with a quick,
+startled look over his shoulder, sprang up and started as if to escape.
+But it was too late, and, as though on second thought, he whirled about
+with a half defiant air to face the intruder.
+
+The horseman stopped. He had not missed the significance of that hurried
+movement, and his right hand rested carelessly on his leather clad
+thigh, while his grey eyes were fixed boldly, inquiringly, almost
+challengingly, on the man he had so unintentionally surprised.
+
+As he sat there on his horse, so alert, so ready, in his cowboy garb and
+trappings, against the background of Granite Mountain, with all its
+rugged, primeval strength, the rider made a striking picture of virile
+manhood. Of some years less than thirty, he was, perhaps, neither as
+tall nor as heavy as the stranger; but in spite of a certain boyish look
+on his smooth-shaven, deeply-bronzed face, he bore himself with the
+unmistakable air of a matured and self-reliant man. Every nerve and
+fiber of him seemed alive with that vital energy which is the true
+beauty and the glory of life.
+
+The two men presented a striking contrast. Without question one was the
+proud and finished product of our most advanced civilization. It was as
+evident that the splendid manhood of the other had never been dwarfed by
+the weakening atmosphere of an over-cultured, too conventional and too
+complex environment. The stranger with his carefully tailored clothing
+and his man-of-the-world face and bearing was as unlike this rider of
+the unfenced lands as a daintily groomed thoroughbred from the
+sheltered and guarded stables of fashion is unlike a wild, untamed
+stallion from the hills and ranges about Granite Mountain. Yet, unlike
+as they were, there was a something that marked them as kin. The man of
+the ranges and the man of the cities were, deep beneath the surface of
+their beings, as like as the spirited thoroughbred and the unbroken wild
+horse. The cowboy was all that the stranger might have been. The
+stranger was all that the cowboy, under like conditions, would have
+been.
+
+As they silently faced each other it seemed for a moment that each
+instinctively recognized this kinship. Then into the dark eyes of the
+stranger--as when he had watched the cowboy at the Burnt Ranch--there
+came that look of wistful admiration and envy.
+
+And at this, as if the man had somehow made himself known, the horseman
+relaxed his attitude of tense readiness. The hand that had held the
+bridle rein to command instant action of his horse, and the hand that
+had rested so near the rider's hip, came together on the saddle horn in
+careless ease, while a boyish smile of amusement broke over the young
+man's face.
+
+That smile brought a flash of resentment into the eyes of the other and
+a flush of red darkened his untanned cheeks. A moment he stood; then
+with an air of haughty rebuke he deliberately turned his back, and,
+seating himself again, looked away over the landscape.
+
+But the smiling cowboy did not move. For a moment as he regarded the
+stranger his shoulders shook with silent, contemptuous laughter; then
+his face became grave, and he looked a little ashamed. The minutes
+passed, and still he sat there, quietly waiting.
+
+Presently, as if yielding to the persistent, silent presence of the
+horseman, and submitting reluctantly to the intrusion, the other turned,
+and again the two who were so like and yet so unlike faced each other.
+
+It was the stranger now who smiled. But it was a smile that caused the
+cowboy to become on the instant kindly considerate. Perhaps he
+remembered one of the Dean's favorite sayings: "Keep your eye on the man
+who laughs when he's hurt."
+
+"Good evening!" said the stranger doubtfully, but with a hint of
+conscious superiority in his manner.
+
+"Howdy!" returned the cowboy heartily, and in his deep voice was the
+kindliness that made him so loved by all who knew him. "Been having some
+trouble?"
+
+"If I have, it is my own, sir," retorted the other coldly.
+
+"Sure," returned the horseman gently, "and you're welcome to it. Every
+man has all he needs of his own, I reckon. But I didn't mean it that
+way; I meant your horse."
+
+The stranger looked at him questioningly. "Beg pardon?" he said.
+
+"What?"
+
+"I do not understand."
+
+"Your horse--where is your horse?"
+
+"Oh, yes! Certainly--of course--my horse--how stupid of me!" The tone of
+the man's answer was one of half apology, and he was smiling whimsically
+now as if at his own predicament, as he continued. "I have no horse.
+Really, you know, I wouldn't know what to do with one if I had it."
+
+"You don't mean to say that you drifted all the way out here from
+Prescott on foot!" exclaimed the astonished cowboy.
+
+The man on the ground looked up at the horseman, and in a droll tone
+that made the rider his friend, said, while he stretched his long legs
+painfully: "I like to walk. You see I--ah--fancied it would be good for
+me, don't you know."
+
+The cowboy laughingly considered--trying, as he said afterward, to
+figure it out. It was clear that this tall stranger was not in search of
+health, nor did he show any of the distinguishing marks of the tourist.
+He certainly appeared to be a man of means. He could not be looking for
+work. He did not seem a suspicious character--quite the contrary--and
+yet--there was that significant hurried movement as if to escape when
+the horseman had surprised him. The etiquette of the country forbade a
+direct question, but--
+
+"Yes," he agreed thoughtfully, "walking comes in handy sometimes. I
+don't take to it much myself, though." Then he added shrewdly, "You were
+at the celebration, I reckon."
+
+The stranger's voice betrayed quick enthusiasm, but that odd wistfulness
+crept into his eyes again and he seemed to lose a little of his poise.
+
+"Indeed I was," he said. "I never saw anything to compare with it. I've
+seen all kinds of athletic sports and contests and exhibitions, with
+circus performances and riding, and that sort of thing, you know, and
+I've read about such things, of course, but"--and his voice grew
+thoughtful--"that men ever actually did them--and all in the day's
+work, as you may say--I--I never dreamed that there _were_ men like that
+in these days."
+
+The cowboy shifted his weight uneasily in the saddle, while he regarded
+the man on the ground curiously. "She was sure a humdinger of a
+celebration," he admitted, "but as for the show part I've seen things
+happen when nobody was thinking anything about it that would make those
+stunts at Prescott look funny. The horse racing was pretty good,
+though," he finished, with suggestive emphasis.
+
+The other did not miss the point of the suggestion. "I didn't bet on
+anything," he laughed.
+
+"It's funny nobody picked you up on the road out here," the cowboy next
+offered pointedly. "The folks started home early this morning--and Jim
+Reid and his family passed me about an hour ago--they were in an
+automobile. The Simmons stage must have caught up with you somewhere."
+
+The stranger's face flushed, and he seemed trying to find some answer.
+
+The cowboy watched him curiously; then in a musing tone added the
+suggestion, "Some lonesome up here on foot."
+
+"But there are times, you know," returned the other desperately, "when a
+man prefers to be alone."
+
+The cowboy straightened in his saddle and lifted his reins. "Thanks," he
+said dryly, "I reckon I'd better be moving."
+
+But the other spoke quickly. "I beg your pardon, Mr. Acton, I did not
+mean that for you."
+
+The horseman dropped his hands again to the saddle horn, and resumed his
+lounging posture, thus tacitly accepting the apology. "You have the
+advantage of me," he said.
+
+The stranger laughed. "Everyone knows that 'Wild Horse Phil' of the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch won the bronco-riding championship yesterday. I saw
+you ride."
+
+Philip Acton's face showed boyish embarrassment.
+
+The other continued, with his strange enthusiasm. "It was great
+work--wonderful! I never saw anything like it."
+
+There was no mistaking the genuineness of his admiration, nor could he
+hide that wistful look in his eyes.
+
+"Shucks!" said the cowboy uneasily. "I could pick a dozen of the boys in
+that outfit who can ride all around me. It was just my luck, that's
+all--I happened to draw an easy one."
+
+"Easy!" ejaculated the stranger, seeing again in his mind the fighting,
+plunging, maddened, outlawed brute that this boy-faced man had mastered.
+"And I suppose catching and throwing those steers was easy, too?"
+
+The cowboy was plainly wondering at the man's peculiar enthusiasm for
+these most commonplace things. "The roping? Why, that was no more than
+we're doing all the time."
+
+"I don't mean the roping," returned the other, "I mean when you rode up
+beside one of those steers that was running at full speed, and caught
+him by the horns with your bare hands, and jumped from your saddle, and
+threw the beast over you, and then lay there with his horns pinning you
+down! You aren't doing that all the time, are you? You don't mean to
+tell me that such things as that are a part of your everyday work!"
+
+"Oh, the bull doggin'! Why, no," admitted Phil, with an embarrassed
+laugh, "that was just fun, you know."
+
+The stranger stared at him, speechless. Fun! In the name of all that is
+most modern in civilization, what manner of men were these who did such
+things in fun! If this was their recreation, what must their work be!
+
+"Do you mind my asking," he said wistfully, "how you learned to do such
+things?"
+
+"Why, I don't know--we just do them, I reckon."
+
+"And could anyone learn to ride as you ride, do you think?" The question
+came with marked eagerness.
+
+"I don't see why not," answered the cowboy honestly.
+
+The stranger shook his head doubtfully and looked away over the wild
+land where the shadows of the late afternoon were lengthening.
+
+"Where are you going to stop to-night?" Phil Acton asked suddenly.
+
+The stranger did not take his eyes from the view that seemed to hold for
+him such peculiar interest. "Really," he answered indifferently, "I had
+not thought of that."
+
+"I should think you'd be thinking of it along about supper time, if
+you've walked from town since morning."
+
+The stranger looked up with sudden interest; but the cowboy fancied that
+there was a touch of bitterness under the droll tone of his reply. "Do
+you know, Mr. Acton, I have never been really hungry in my life. It
+might be interesting to try it once, don't you think?"
+
+Phil Acton laughed, as he returned, "It might be interesting, all right,
+but I think I better tell you, just the same, that there's a ranch down
+yonder in the timber. It's nothing but a goat ranch, but I reckon they
+would take you in. It's too far to the Cross-Triangle for me to ask you
+there. You can see the buildings, though, from here."
+
+The stranger sprang up in quick interest. "You can? The Cross-Triangle
+Ranch?"
+
+"Sure," the cowboy smiled and pointed into the distance. "Those red
+spots over there are the roofs. Jim Reid's place--the Pot-Hook-S--is
+just this side of the meadows, and a little to the south. The old Acton
+homestead--where I was born--is in that bunch of cottonwoods, across the
+wash from the Cross-Triangle."
+
+But strive as he might the stranger's eyes could discern no sign of
+human habitation in those vast reaches that lay before him.
+
+"If you are ever over that way, drop in," said Phil cordially. "Mr.
+Baldwin will be glad to meet you."
+
+"Do you really mean that?" questioned the other doubtfully.
+
+"We don't say such things in this country if we don't mean them,
+Stranger," was the cool retort.
+
+"Of course, I beg your pardon, Mr. Acton," came the confused reply. "I
+should like to see the ranch. I may--I will--That is, if I--" He stopped
+as if not knowing how to finish, and with a gesture of hopelessness
+turned away to stand silently looking back toward the town, while his
+face was dark with painful memories, and his lips curved in that
+mirthless, self-mocking smile.
+
+And Philip Acton, seeing, felt suddenly that he had rudely intruded upon
+the privacy of one who had sought the solitude of that lonely place to
+hide the hurt of some bitter experience. A certain native gentleness
+made the man of the ranges understand that this stranger was face to
+face with some crisis in his life--that he was passing through one of
+those trials through which a man must pass alone. Had it been possible
+the cowboy would have apologized. But that would have been an added
+unkindness. Lifting the reins and sitting erect in the saddle, he said
+indifferently, "Well, I must be moving. I take a short cut here. So
+long! Better make it on down to the goat ranch--it's not far."
+
+He touched his horse with the spur and the animal sprang away.
+
+"Good-bye!" called the stranger, and that wistful look was in his eyes
+as the rider swung his horse aside from the road, plunged down the
+mountain side, and dashed away through the brush and over the rocks with
+reckless speed. With a low exclamation of wondering admiration, the man
+climbed hastily to a higher point, and from there watched until horse
+and rider, taking a steeper declivity without checking their breakneck
+course, dropped from sight in a cloud of dust. The faint sound of the
+sliding rocks and gravel dislodged by the flying feet died away; the
+cloud of dust dissolved in the thin air. The stranger looked away into
+the blue distance in another vain attempt to see the red spots that
+marked the Cross-Triangle Ranch.
+
+Slowly the man returned to his seat on the rock. The long shadows of
+Granite Mountain crept out from the base of the cliffs farther and
+farther over the country below. The blue of the distant hills changed to
+mauve with deeper masses of purple in the shadows where the canyons are.
+The lonely figure on the summit of the Divide did not move.
+
+The sun hid itself behind the line of mountains, and the blue of the sky
+in the west changed slowly to gold against which the peaks and domes and
+points were silhouetted as if cut by a graver's tool, and the bold
+cliffs and battlements of old Granite grew coldly gray in the gloom. As
+the night came on and the details of its structure were lost, the
+mountain, to the watching man on the Divide, assumed the appearance of a
+mighty fortress--a fortress, he thought, to which a generation of men
+might retreat from a civilization that threatened them with destruction;
+and once more the man faced back the way he had come.
+
+The far-away cities were already in the blaze of their own artificial
+lights--lights valued not for their power to make men see, but for their
+power to dazzle, attract and intoxicate--lights that permitted no kindly
+dusk at eventide wherein a man might rest from his day's work--a quiet
+hour; lights that revealed squalid shame and tinsel show--lights that
+hid the stars. The man on the Divide lifted his face to the stars that
+now in the wide-arched sky were gathering in such unnumbered multitudes
+to keep their sentinel watch over the world below.
+
+The cool evening wind came whispering over the lonely land, and all the
+furred and winged creatures of the night stole from their dark hiding
+places into the gloom which is the beginning of their day. A coyote
+crept stealthily past in the dark and from the mountain side below came
+the weird, ghostly call of its mate. An owl drifted by on silent wings.
+Night birds chirped in the chaparral. A fox barked on the ridge above.
+The shadowy form of a bat flitted here and there. From somewhere in the
+distance a bull bellowed his deep-voiced challenge.
+
+Suddenly the man on the summit of the Divide sprang to his feet and,
+with a gesture that had he not been so alone might have seemed
+affectedly dramatic, stretched out his arms in an attitude of wistful
+longing while his lips moved as if, again and again, he whispered a
+name.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+IN THE BIG PASTURE.
+
+
+In the Williamson Valley country the spring round-up, or "rodeo," as it
+is called in Arizona, and the shipping are well over by the last of
+June. During the long summer weeks, until the beginning of the fall
+rodeo in September, there is little for the riders to do. The cattle
+roam free on the open ranges, while calves grow into yearlings,
+yearlings become two-year-olds, and two-year-olds mature for the market.
+On the Cross-Triangle and similar ranches, three or four of the steadier
+year-round hands only are held. These repair and build fences, visit the
+watering places, brand an occasional calf that somehow has managed to
+escape the dragnet of the rodeo, and with "dope bottle" ever at hand
+doctor such animals as are afflicted with screwworms. It is during these
+weeks, too, that the horses are broken; for, with the hard and dangerous
+work of the fall and spring months, there is always need for fresh
+mounts.
+
+The horses of the Cross-Triangle were never permitted to run on the open
+range. Because the leaders of the numerous bands of wild horses that
+roamed over the country about Granite Mountain were always ambitious to
+gain recruits for their harems from their civilized neighbors, the
+freedom of the ranch horses was limited by the fences of a
+four-thousand-acre pasture. But within these miles of barbed wire
+boundaries the brood mares with their growing progeny lived as free and
+untamed as their wild cousins on the unfenced lands about them. The
+colts, except for one painful experience, when they were roped and
+branded, from the day of their birth until they were ready to be broken
+were never handled.
+
+On the morning following his meeting with the stranger on the Divide
+Phil Acton, with two of his cowboy helpers, rode out to the big pasture
+to bring in the band.
+
+The owner of the Cross-Triangle always declared that Phil was intimately
+acquainted with every individual horse and head of stock between the
+Divide and Camp Wood Mountain, and from Skull Valley to the Big Chino.
+In moments of enthusiasm the Dean even maintained stoutly that his young
+foreman knew as well every coyote, fox, badger, deer, antelope, mountain
+lion, bobcat and wild horse that had home or hunting ground in the
+country over which the lad had ridden since his babyhood. Certain it is
+that "Wild Horse Phil," as he was called by admiring friends--for
+reasons which you shall hear--loved this work and life to which he was
+born. Every feature of that wild land, from lonely mountain peak to
+hidden canyon spring, was as familiar to him as the streets and
+buildings of a man's home city are well known to the one reared among
+them. And as he rode that morning with his comrades to the day's work
+the young man felt keenly the call of the primitive, unspoiled life that
+throbbed with such vital strength about him. He could not have put that
+which he felt into words; he was not even conscious of the forces that
+so moved him; he only knew that he was glad.
+
+The days of the celebration at Prescott had been enjoyable days. To meet
+old friends and comrades; to ride with them in the contests that all
+true men of his kind love; to compare experiences and exchange news and
+gossip with widely separated neighbors--had been a pleasure. But the
+curious crowds of strangers; the throngs of sightseers from the, to him,
+unknown world of cities, who had regarded him as they might have viewed
+some rare and little-known creature in a menagerie, and the brazen
+presence of those unclean parasites and harpies that prey always upon
+such occasions had oppressed and disgusted him until he was glad to
+escape again to the clean freedom, the pure vitality and the unspoiled
+spirit of his everyday life and environment. In an overflow of sheer
+physical and spiritual energy he lifted his horse into a run and with a
+shrill cowboy yell challenged his companions to a wild race to the
+pasture gate.
+
+It was some time after noon when Phil checked his horse near the ruins
+of an old Indian lookout on the top of Black Hill. Below, in the open
+land above Deep Wash, he could see his cowboy companions working the
+band of horses that had been gathered slowly toward the narrow pass that
+at the eastern end of Black Hill leads through to the flats at the upper
+end of the big meadows, and so to the gate and to the way they would
+follow to the corral. It was Phil's purpose to ride across Black Hill
+down the western and northern slope, through the cedar timber, and,
+picking up any horses that might be ranging there, join the others at
+the gate. In the meanwhile there was time for a few minutes rest.
+Dismounting, he loosed the girths and lifted saddle and blanket from
+Hobson's steaming back. Then, while the good horse, wearied with the
+hard riding and the steep climb up the mountain side, stood quietly in
+the shade of a cedar his master, stretched on the ground near by, idly
+scanned the world that lay below and about them.
+
+Very clearly in that light atmosphere Phil could see the trees and
+buildings of the home ranch, and, just across the sandy wash from the
+Cross-Triangle, the grove of cottonwoods and walnuts that hid the little
+old house where he was born. A mile away, on the eastern side of the
+great valley meadows, he could see the home buildings of the Reid
+ranch--the Pot-Hook-S--where Kitty Reid had lived all the days of her
+life except those three years which she had spent at school in the East.
+
+The young man on the top of Black Hill looked long at the Reid home. In
+his mind he could see Kitty dressed in some cool, simple gown, fresh and
+dainty after the morning's housework, sitting with book or sewing on the
+front porch. The porch was on the other side of the house, it is true,
+and the distance was too great for him to distinguish a person in any
+case, but all that made no difference to Phil's vision--he could see her
+just the same.
+
+Kitty had been very kind to Phil at the celebration. But Kitty was
+always kind--nearly always. But in spite of her kindness the cowboy felt
+that she had not, somehow, seemed to place a very high valuation upon
+the medal he had won in the bronco-riding contest. Phil himself did not
+greatly value the medal; but he had wanted greatly to win that
+championship because of the very substantial money prize that went with
+it. That money, in Phil's mind, was to play a very important part in a
+long cherished dream that was one of the things that Phil Acton did not
+talk about. He had not, in fact, ridden for the championship at all, but
+for his dream, and that was why it mattered so much when Kitty seemed so
+to lack interest in his success.
+
+As though his subconscious mind directed the movement, the young man
+looked away from Kitty's home to the distant mountain ridge where the
+night before on the summit of the Divide he had met the stranger. All
+the way home the cowboy had wondered about the man; evolving many
+theories, inventing many things to account for his presence, alone and
+on foot, so far from the surroundings to which he was so clearly
+accustomed. Of one thing Phil was sure--the man was in trouble--deep
+trouble. The more that the clean-minded, gentle-hearted lad of the great
+out-of-doors thought about it, the more strongly he felt that he had
+unwittingly intruded at a moment that was sacred to the stranger--sacred
+because the man was fighting one of those battles that every man must
+fight--and fight alone. It was this feeling that had kept the young man
+from speaking of the incident to anyone--even to the Dean, or to
+"Mother," as he called Mrs. Baldwin. Perhaps, too, this feeling was the
+real reason for Phil's sense of kinship with the stranger, for the
+cowboy himself had moments in his life that he could permit no man to
+look upon. But in his thinking of the man whose personality had so
+impressed him one thing stood out above all the rest--the stranger
+clearly belonged to that world of which, from experience, the young
+foreman of the Cross-Triangle knew nothing. Phil Acton had no desire for
+the world to which the stranger belonged, but in his heart there was a
+troublesome question. If--if he himself were more like the man whom he
+had met on the Divide; if--if he knew more of that other world; if he,
+in some degree, belonged to that other world, as Kitty, because of her
+three years in school belonged, would it make any difference?
+
+From the distant mountain ridge that marks the eastern limits of the
+Williamson Valley country, and thus, in a degree, marked the limit of
+Phil's world, the lad's gaze turned again to the scene immediately
+before him.
+
+The band of horses, followed by the cowboys, were trotting from the
+narrow pass out into the open flats. Some of the band--the mothers--went
+quietly, knowing from past experience that they would in a few hours be
+returned to their freedom. Others--the colts and yearlings--bewildered,
+curious and fearful, followed their mothers without protest. But those
+who in many a friendly race or primitive battle had proved their growing
+years seemed to sense a coming crisis in their lives, hitherto peaceful.
+And these, as though warned by that strange instinct which guards all
+wild things, and realizing that the open ground between the pass and the
+gate presented their last opportunity, made final desperate efforts to
+escape. With sudden dashes, dodging and doubling, they tried again and
+again for freedom. But always between them and the haunts they loved
+there was a persistent horseman. Running, leaping, whirling, in their
+efforts to be everywhere at once, the riders worked their charges toward
+the gate.
+
+The man on the hilltop sprang to his feet. Hobson threw up his head, and
+with sharp ears forward eagerly watched the game he knew so well. With a
+quickness incredible to the uninitiated, Phil threw blanket and saddle
+to place. As he drew the cinch tight, a shrill cowboy yell came up from
+the flat below.
+
+One of the band, a powerful bay, had broken past the guarding horsemen,
+and was running with every ounce of his strength for the timber on the
+western slope of Black Hill. For a hundred yards one of the riders had
+tried to overtake and turn the fugitive; but as he saw how the stride of
+the free horse was widening the distance between them, the cowboy turned
+back lest others follow the successful runaway's example. The yell was
+to inform Phil of the situation.
+
+Before the echoes of the signal could die away Phil was in the saddle,
+and with an answering shout sent Hobson down the rough mountain side in
+a wild, reckless, plunging run to head the, for the moment, victorious
+bay. An hour later the foreman rejoined his companions who were holding
+the band of horses at the gate. The big bay, reluctant, protesting,
+twisting and turning in vain attempts to outmaneuver Hobson, was a
+captive in the loop of "Wild Horse Phil's" riata.
+
+In the big corral that afternoon Phil and his helpers with the Dean and
+Little Billy looking on, cut out from the herd the horses selected to be
+broken. These, one by one, were forced through the gate into the
+adjoining corral, from which they watched with uneasy wonder and many
+excited and ineffectual attempts to follow, when their more fortunate
+companions were driven again to the big pasture. Then Phil opened
+another gate, and the little band dashed wildly through, to find
+themselves in the small meadow pasture where they would pass the last
+night before the one great battle of their lives--a battle that would be
+for them a dividing point between those years of ease and freedom which
+had been theirs from birth and the years of hard and useful service that
+were to come.
+
+Phil sat on his horse at the gate watching with critical eye as the
+unbroken animals raced away. "Some good ones in the bunch this year,
+Uncle Will," he commented to his employer, who, standing on the watering
+trough in the other corral, was looking over the fence.
+
+"There's bound to be some good ones in every bunch," returned Mr.
+Baldwin. "And some no account ones, too," he added, as his foreman
+dismounted beside him.
+
+Then, while the young man slipped the bridle from his horse and stood
+waiting for the animal to drink, the older man regarded him silently, as
+though in his own mind the Dean's observation bore somewhat upon Phil
+himself. That was always the way with the Dean. As Sheriff Fellows once
+remarked to Judge Powell in the old days of the cattle rustlers' glory,
+"Whatever Bill Baldwin says is mighty nigh always double-barreled."
+
+There are also two sides to the Dean. Or, rather, to be accurate, there
+is a front and a back. The back--flat and straight and broad--indicates
+one side of his character--the side that belongs with the square chin
+and the blue eyes that always look at you with such frank directness. It
+was this side of the man that brought him barefooted and penniless to
+Arizona in those days long gone when he was only a boy and Arizona a
+strong man's country. It was this side of him that brought him
+triumphantly through those hard years of the Indian troubles, and in
+those wild and lawless times made him respected and feared by the
+evildoers and trusted and followed by those of his kind who, out of the
+hardships and dangers of those turbulent days, made the Arizona of
+to-day. It was this side, too, that finally made the barefoot, penniless
+boy the owner of the Cross-Triangle Ranch.
+
+I do not know the exact number of the Dean's years--I only know that his
+hair is grey, and that he does not ride as much as he once did. I have
+heard him say, though, that for thirty-five years he lived in the
+saddle, and that the Cross-Triangle brand is one of the oldest irons in
+the State. And I know, too, that his back is still flat and broad and
+straight.
+
+The Dean's front, so well-rounded and hearty, indicates as clearly the
+other side of his character. And it is this side that belongs to the
+full red cheeks, the ever-ready chuckle or laugh; that puts the twinkle
+in the blue eyes, and the kindly tones in his deep voice. It is this
+side of the Dean's character that adds so large a measure of love to the
+respect and confidence accorded him by neighbors and friends, business
+associates and employees. It is this side of the Dean, too, that, in
+these days, sits in the shade of the big walnut trees--planted by his
+own hand--and talks to the youngsters of the days that are gone, and
+that makes the young riders of this generation seek him out for counsel
+and sympathy and help.
+
+Three things the Dean knows--cattle and horses and men. One thing the
+Dean will not, cannot tolerate--weakness in one who should be strong.
+Even bad men he admires, if they are strong--not for their badness, but
+for their strength. Mistaken men he loves in spite of their mistakes--if
+only they be not weaklings. There is no place anywhere in the Dean's
+philosophy of life for a weakling. I heard him tell a man once--nor
+shall I ever forget it--"You had better die like a man, sir, than live
+like a sneaking coyote."
+
+The Dean's sons, men grown, were gone from the home ranch to the fields
+and work of their choosing. Little Billy, a nephew of seven years,
+was--as Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin said laughingly--their second crop.
+
+When Phil's horse--satisfied--lifted his dripping muzzle from the
+watering trough, the Dean walked with his young foreman to the saddle
+shed. Neither of the men spoke, for between them there was that
+companionship which does not require a constant flow of talk to keep it
+alive. Not until the cowboy had turned his horse loose, and was hanging
+saddle and bridle on their accustomed peg did the older man speak.
+
+"Jim Reid's goin' to begin breakin' horses next week."
+
+"So I heard," returned Phil, carefully spreading his saddle blanket to
+dry.
+
+The Dean spoke again in a tone of indifference. "He wants you to help
+him."
+
+"Me! What's the matter with Jack?"
+
+"He's goin' to the D.1 to-morrow."
+
+Phil was examining the wrapping on his saddle horn with--the Dean
+noted--quite unnecessary care.
+
+"Kitty was over this mornin'," said the Dean gently.
+
+The young man turned, and, taking off his spurs, hung them on the saddle
+horn. Then as he kicked off his leather chaps he said shortly, "I'm not
+looking for a job as a professional bronco-buster."
+
+The Dean's eyes twinkled. "Thought you might like to help a neighbor
+out; just to be neighborly, you know."
+
+"Do you want me to ride for Reid?" demanded Phil.
+
+"Well, I suppose as long as there's broncs to bust somebody's got to
+bust 'em," the Dean returned, without committing himself. And then, when
+Phil made no reply, he added laughing, "I told Kitty to tell him,
+though, that I reckoned you had as big a string as you could handle
+here."
+
+As they moved away toward the house, Phil returned with significant
+emphasis, "When I have to ride for anybody besides you it won't be Kitty
+Reid's father."
+
+And the Dean commented in his reflective tone, "It does sometimes seem
+to make a difference who a man rides for, don't it?"
+
+In the pasture by the corrals, the horses that awaited the approaching
+trial that would mark for them the beginning of a new life passed a
+restless night. Some in meekness of spirit or, perhaps, with deeper
+wisdom fed quietly. Others wandered about aimlessly, snatching an
+occasional uneasy mouthful of grass, and looking about often in troubled
+doubt. The more rebellious ones followed the fence, searching for some
+place of weakness in the barbed barrier that imprisoned them. And one,
+who, had he not been by circumstance robbed of his birthright, would
+have been the strong leader of a wild band, stood often with wide
+nostrils and challenging eye, gazing toward the corrals and buildings as
+if questioning the right of those who had brought him there from the
+haunts he loved.
+
+And somewhere in the night of that land which was as unknown to him as
+the meadow pasture was strange to the unbroken horses, a man awaited the
+day which, for him too, was to stand through all his remaining years as
+a mark between the old life and the new.
+
+As Phil Acton lay in his bed, with doors and windows open wide to
+welcome the cool night air, he heard the restless horses in the near-by
+pasture, and smiled as he thought of the big bay and the morrow--smiled
+with the smile of a man who looks forward to a battle worthy of his best
+strength and skill.
+
+And then, strangely enough, as he was slipping into that dreamless sleep
+of those who live as he lived, his mind went back again to the stranger
+whom he had met on the summit of the Divide. If he were more like that
+man, would it make any difference--the cowboy wondered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AT THE CORRAL.
+
+
+In the beginning of the morning, when Granite Mountain's fortress-like
+battlements and towers loomed gray and bold and grim, the big bay horse
+trumpeted a warning to his less watchful mates. Instantly, with heads
+high and eyes wide, the band stood in frightened indecision. Two
+horsemen--shadowy and mysterious forms in the misty light--were riding
+from the corral into the pasture.
+
+As the riders approached, individuals in the band moved uneasily,
+starting as if to run, hesitating, turning for another look, maneuvering
+to put their mates between them and the enemy. But the bay went boldly a
+short distance toward the danger and stood still with wide nostrils and
+fierce eyes as though ready for the combat.
+
+For a few moments, as the horsemen seemed about to go past, hope beat
+high in the hearts of the timid prisoners. Then the riders circled to
+put the band between themselves and the corral gate, and the frightened
+animals knew. But always as they whirled and dodged in their attempts to
+avoid that big gate toward which they were forced to move, there was a
+silent, persistent horseman barring the way. The big bay alone, as
+though realizing the futility of such efforts and so conserving his
+strength for whatever was to follow, trotted proudly, boldly into the
+corral, where he stood, his eyes never leaving the riders, as his mates
+crowded and jostled about him.
+
+"There's one in that bunch that's sure aimin' to make you ride some,"
+said Curly Elson with a grin, to Phil, as the family sat at breakfast.
+
+On the Cross-Triangle the men who were held through the summer and
+winter seasons between the months of the rodeos were considered members
+of the family. Chosen for their character, as well as for their
+knowledge of the country and their skill in their work the Dean and
+"Stella," as Mrs. Baldwin is called throughout all that country, always
+spoke of them affectionately as "our boys." And this, better than
+anything that could be said, is an introduction to the mistress of the
+Cross-Triangle household.
+
+At the challenging laugh which followed Curly's observation, Phil
+returned quietly with his sunny smile, "Maybe I'll quit him before he
+gets good and started."
+
+"He's sure fixin' to make you back the decision of them contest judges,"
+offered Bob Colton.
+
+And Mrs. Baldwin, young in spirit as any of her boys, added, "Better not
+wear your medal, son. It might excite him to know that you are the
+champion buster of Arizona."
+
+"Shucks!" piped up Little Billy excitedly, "Phil can ride anything what
+wears hair, can't you, Phil?"
+
+Phil, embarrassed at the laughter which followed, said, with tactful
+seriousness, to his little champion, "That's right, kid. You stand up
+for your pardner every time, don't you? You'll be riding them yourself
+before long. There's a little sorrel in that bunch that I've picked out
+to gentle for you." He glanced at his employer meaningly, and the Dean's
+face glowed with appreciation of the young man's thoughtfulness. "That
+old horse, Sheep, of yours," continued Phil to Little Billy, "is getting
+too old and stiff for your work. I've noticed him stumbling a lot
+lately." Again he glanced inquiringly at the Dean, who answered the look
+with a slight nod of approval.
+
+"You'd better make him gentle your horse first, Billy," teased Curly.
+"He might not be in the business when that big one gets through with
+him."
+
+Little Billy's retort came in a flash. "Huh, 'Wild Horse Phil' will be
+a-ridin' 'em long after you've got your'n, Curly Elson."
+
+"Look out, son," cautioned the Dean, when the laugh had gone round
+again. "Curly will be slippin' a burr under your saddle, if you don't."
+Then to the men: "What horse is it that you boys think is goin' to be
+such a bad one? That big bay with the blazed face?"
+
+The cowboys nodded.
+
+"He's bad, all right," said Phil.
+
+"Well," commented the Dean, leaning back in his chair and speaking
+generally, "he's sure got a license to be bad. His mother was the
+wickedest piece of horse flesh I ever knew. Remember her, Stella?"
+
+"Indeed I do," returned Mrs. Baldwin. "She nearly ruined that Windy Jim
+who came from nobody knew where, and bragged that he could ride
+anything."
+
+The Dean chuckled reminiscently. "She sure sent Windy back where he came
+from. But I tell you, boys, that kind of a horse makes the best in the
+world once you get 'em broke right. Horses are just like men, anyhow. If
+they ain't got enough in 'em to fight when they're bein' broke, they
+ain't generally worth breakin'."
+
+"The man that rides that bay will sure be a-horseback," said Curly.
+
+"He's a man's horse, all right," agreed Bob.
+
+Breakfast over, the men left the house, not too quietly, and laughing,
+jesting and romping like school boys, went out to the corrals, with
+Little Billy tagging eagerly at their heels. The Dean and Phil remained
+for a few minutes at the table.
+
+"You really oughtn't to say such things to those boys, Will," reproved
+Mrs. Baldwin, as she watched them from the window. "It encourages them
+to be wild, and land knows they don't need any encouragement."
+
+"Shucks," returned the Dean, with that gentle note that was always in
+his voice when he spoke to her. "If such talk as that can hurt 'em,
+there ain't nothin' that could save 'em. You're always afraid somebody's
+goin' to go bad. Look at me and Phil here," he added, as they in turn
+pushed their chairs back from the table; "you've fussed enough over us
+to spoil a dozen men, and ain't we been a credit to you all the time?"
+
+At this they laughed together. But as Phil was leaving the house Mrs.
+Baldwin stopped him at the door to say earnestly, "You will be careful
+to-day, won't you, son? You know my other Phil--" She stopped and turned
+away.
+
+The young man knew that story--a story common to that land where the
+lives of men are not infrequently offered a sacrifice to the untamed
+strength of the life that in many forms they are daily called upon to
+meet and master.
+
+"Never mind, mother," he said gently. "I'll be all right." Then more
+lightly he added, with his sunny smile, "If that big bay starts anything
+with me, I'll climb the corral fence pronto."
+
+Quietly, as one who faces a hard day's work, Phil went to the saddle
+shed where he buckled on chaps and spurs. Then, after looking carefully
+to stirrup leathers, cinch and latigos, he went on to the corrals, the
+heavy saddle under his arm.
+
+Curly and Bob, their horses saddled and ready, were making animated
+targets of themselves for Little Billy, who, mounted on Sheep, a gentle
+old cow-horse, was whirling a miniature riata. As the foreman appeared,
+the cowboys dropped their fun, and, mounting, took the coils of their
+own rawhide ropes in hand.
+
+"Which one will you have first, Phil?" asked Curly, as he moved toward
+the gate between the big corral and the smaller enclosure that held the
+band of horses.
+
+"That black one with the white star will do," directed Phil quietly.
+Then to Little Billy: "You'd better get back there out of the way,
+pardner. That black is liable to jump clear over you and Sheep."
+
+"You better get outside, son," amended the Dean, who had come out to
+watch the beginning of the work.
+
+"No, no--please, Uncle Will," begged the lad. "They can't get me as long
+as I'm on Sheep."
+
+Phil and the Dean laughed.
+
+"I'll look out for him," said the young man. "Only," he added to the
+boy, "you must keep out of the way."
+
+"And see that you stick to Sheep, if you expect him to take care of
+you," finished the Dean, relenting.
+
+Meanwhile the gate between the corrals had been thrown open, and with
+Bob to guard the opening Curly rode in among the unbroken horses to cut
+out the animal indicated by Phil, and from within that circular
+enclosure, where the earth had been ground to fine powder by hundreds of
+thousands of frightened feet, came the rolling thunder of quick-beating
+hoofs as in a swirling cloud of yellow dust the horses rushed and leaped
+and whirled. Again and again the frightened animals threw themselves
+against the barrier that hemmed them in; but that fence, built of cedar
+posts set close in stockade fashion and laced on the outside with wire,
+was made to withstand the maddened rush of the heaviest steers. And
+always, amid the confusion of the frenzied animals, the figure of the
+mounted man in their midst could be seen calmly directing their wildest
+movements, and soon, out from the crowding, jostling, whirling mass of
+flying feet and tossing manes and tails, the black with the white star
+shot toward the gate. Bob's horse leaped aside from the way. Curly's
+horse was between the black and his mates, and before the animal could
+gather his confused senses he was in the larger corral. The day's work
+had begun.
+
+The black dodged skillfully, and the loop of Curly's riata missed the
+mark.
+
+"You better let somebody put eyes in that rope, Curly," remarked Phil,
+laconically, as he stepped aside to avoid a wild rush.
+
+The chagrined cowboy said something in a low tone, so that Little Billy
+could not hear.
+
+The Dean chuckled.
+
+Bob's riata whirled, shot out its snaky length, and his trained horse
+braced himself skillfully to the black's weight on the rope. For a few
+minutes the animal at the loop end of the riata struggled
+desperately--plunging, tugging, throwing himself this way and that; but
+always the experienced cow-horse turned with his victim and the rope was
+never slack. When his first wild efforts were over and the black stood
+with his wide braced feet, breathing heavily as that choking loop began
+to tell, the strain on the taut riata was lessened, and Phil went
+quietly toward the frightened captive.
+
+No one moved or spoke. This was not an exhibition the success of which
+depended on the vicious wildness of the horse to be conquered. This was
+work, and it was not Phil's business to provoke the black to extremes in
+order to exhibit his own prowess as a rider for the pleasure of
+spectators who had paid to see the show. The rider was employed to win
+the confidence of the unbroken horse entrusted to him; to force
+obedience, if necessary; to gentle and train, and so make of the wild
+creature a useful and valuable servant for the Dean.
+
+There are riders whose methods demand that they throw every unbroken
+horse given them to handle, and who gentle an animal by beating it about
+the head with loaded quirts, ripping its flanks open with sharp spurs
+and tearing its mouth with torturing bits and ropes. These turn over to
+their employers as their finished product horses that are broken,
+indeed--but broken only in spirit, with no heart or courage left to
+them, with dispositions ruined, and often with physical injuries from
+which they never recover. But riders of such methods have no place among
+the men employed by owners of the Dean's type. On the Cross-Triangle,
+and indeed on all ranches where conservative business principles are in
+force, the horses are handled with all the care and gentleness that the
+work and the individuality of the animal will permit.
+
+After a little Phil's hand gently touched the black's head. Instantly
+the struggle was resumed. The rider dodged a vicious blow from the
+strong fore hoofs and with a good natured laugh softly chided the
+desperate animal. And so, presently, the kind hand was again stretched
+forth; and then a broad band of leather was deftly slipped over the
+black's frightened eyes. Another thicker and softer rope was knotted so
+that it could not slip about the now sweating neck, and fashioned into a
+hackamore or halter about the animal's nose. Then the riata was loosed.
+Working deftly, silently, gently--ever wary of those dangerous
+hoofs--Phil next placed blanket and saddle on the trembling black and
+drew the cinch tight. Then the gate leading from the corral to the open
+range was swung back. Easily, but quickly and surely, the rider swung to
+his seat. He paused a moment to be sure that all was right, and then
+leaning forward he reached over and raised the leather blindfold. For an
+instant the wild, unbroken horse stood still, then reared until it
+seemed he must fall, and then, as his forefeet touched the ground again,
+the spurs went home, and with a mighty leap forward the frenzied animal
+dashed, bucking, plunging, pitching, through the gate and away toward
+the open country, followed by Curly and Bob, with Little Billy spurring
+old Sheep, in hot pursuit.
+
+For a little the Dean lingered in the suddenly emptied corral. Stepping
+up on the end of the long watering trough, close to the dividing fence,
+he studied with knowing eye the animals on the other side. Then
+leisurely he made his way out of the corral, visited the windmill pump,
+looked in on Stella from the kitchen porch, and then saddled Browny, his
+own particular horse that grazed always about the place at privileged
+ease, and rode off somewhere on some business of his own.
+
+When the black horse had spent his strength in a vain attempt to rid
+himself of the dreadful burden that had attached itself so securely to
+his back, he was herded back to the corral, where the burden set him
+free. Dripping with sweat, trembling in every limb and muscle,
+wild-eyed, with distended nostrils and heaving flanks, the black crowded
+in among his mates again, his first lesson over--his years of ease and
+freedom past forever.
+
+"And which will it be this time?" came Curly's question.
+
+"I'll have that buckskin this trip," answered Phil.
+
+And again that swirling cloud of dust raised by those thundering hoofs
+drifted over the stockade enclosure, and out of the mad confusion the
+buckskin dashed wildly through the gate to be initiated into his new
+life.
+
+And so, hour after hour, the work went on, as horse after horse at
+Phil's word was cut out of the band and ridden; and every horse,
+according to disposition and temper and strength, was different. While
+his helpers did their part the rider caught a few moments rest. Always
+he was good natured, soft spoken and gentle. When a frightened animal,
+not understanding, tried to kill him, he accepted it as evidence of a
+commendable spirit, and, with that sunny, boyish smile, informed his
+pupil kindly that he was a good horse and must not make a fool of
+himself.
+
+In so many ways, as the Dean had said at breakfast that morning, horses
+are just like men.
+
+It was mid-afternoon when the master of the Cross-Triangle again
+strolled leisurely out to the corrals. Phil and his helpers, including
+Little Billy, were just disappearing over the rise of ground beyond the
+gate on the farther side of the enclosure as the Dean reached the gate
+that opens toward the barn and house. He went on through the corral,
+and slowly, as one having nothing else to do, climbed the little knoll
+from which he could watch the riders in the distance. When the horsemen
+had disappeared among the scattered cedars on the ridge, a mile or so to
+the west, the Dean still stood looking in that direction. But the owner
+of the Cross-Triangle was not watching for the return of his men. He was
+not even thinking of them. He was looking beyond the cedar ridge to
+where, several miles away, a long, mesa-topped mountain showed black
+against the blue of the more distant hills. The edge of this high
+table-land broke abruptly in a long series of vertical cliffs, the
+formation known to Arizonians as rim rocks. The deep shadows of the
+towering black wall of cliffs and the gloom of the pines and cedars that
+hid the foot of the mountain gave the place a sinister and threatening
+appearance.
+
+As he looked, the Dean's kindly face grew somber and stern; his blue
+eyes were for the moment cold and accusing; under his grizzled mustache
+his mouth, usually so ready to smile or laugh, was set in lines of
+uncompromising firmness. In these quiet and well-earned restful years of
+the Dean's life the Tailholt Mountain outfit was the only disturbing
+element. But the Dean did not permit himself to be long annoyed by the
+thoughts provoked by Tailholt Mountain. Philosophically he turned his
+broad back to the intruding scene, and went back to the corral, and to
+the more pleasing occupation of looking at the horses.
+
+If the Dean had not so abruptly turned his back upon the landscape, he
+would have noticed the figure of a man moving slowly along the road
+that skirted the valley meadow leading from Simmons to the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch.
+
+Presently the riders returned, and Phil, when he had removed saddle,
+blanket and hackamore from his pupil, seated himself on the edge of the
+watering trough beside the Dean.
+
+"I see you ain't tackled the big bay yet," remarked the older man.
+
+"Thought if I'd let him look on for a while, he might figure it out that
+he'd better be good and not get himself hurt," smiled Phil. "He's sure
+some horse," he added admiringly. Then to his helpers: "I'll take that
+black with the white forefoot this time, Curly."
+
+Just as the fresh horse dashed into the larger corral a man on foot
+appeared, coming over the rise of ground to the west; and by the time
+that Curly's loop was over the black's head the man stood at the gate.
+One glance told Phil that it was the stranger whom he had met on the
+Divide.
+
+The man seemed to understand that it was no time for greetings and,
+without offering to enter the enclosure, climbed to the top of the big
+gate, where he sat, with one leg over the topmost bar, an interested
+spectator.
+
+The maneuvers of the black brought Phil to that side of the corral, and,
+as he coolly dodged the fighting horse, he glanced up with his boyish
+smile and a quick nod of welcome to the man perched above him. The
+stranger smiled in return, but did not speak. He must have thought,
+though, that this cowboy appeared quite different from the picturesque
+rider he had seen at the celebration and on the summit of the Divide.
+_That_ Phil Acton had been--as the cowboy himself would have said--"all
+togged out in his glad rags." This man wore chaps that were old and
+patched from hard service; his shirt, unbuttoned at the throat, was the
+color of the corral dirt, and a generous tear revealed one muscular
+shoulder; his hat was greasy and battered; his face grimed and streaked
+with dust and sweat, but his sunny, boyish smile would have identified
+Phil in any garb.
+
+When the rider was ready to mount, and Bob went to open the gate, the
+stranger climbed down and drew a little aside. And when Phil, passing
+where he stood, looked laughingly down at him from the back of the
+bucking, plunging horse, he made as if to applaud, but checked himself
+and went quickly to the top of the knoll to watch the riders until they
+disappeared over the ridge.
+
+"Howdy! Fine weather we're havin'." It was the Dean's hearty voice. He
+had gone forward courteously to greet the stranger while the latter was
+watching the riders.
+
+The man turned impulsively, his face lighted with enthusiasm. "By Jove!"
+he exclaimed, "but that man can ride!"
+
+"Yes, Phil does pretty well," returned the Dean indifferently. "Won the
+championship at Prescott the other day." Then, more heartily: "He's a
+mighty good boy, too--take him any way you like."
+
+As he spoke the cattleman looked the stranger over critically, much as
+he would have looked at a steer or horse, noting the long limbs, the
+well-made body, the strong face and clear, dark eyes. The man's dress
+told the Dean simply that the stranger was from the city. His bearing
+commanded the older man's respect. The stranger's next statement, as he
+looked thoughtfully over the wide Land of valley and hill and mesa and
+mountain, convinced the Dean that he was a man of judgment.
+
+"Arizona is a wonderful country, sir--wonderful!"
+
+"Finest in the world, sir," agreed the Dean promptly. "There just
+naturally can't be any better. We've got the climate; we've got the
+land; and we've got the men."
+
+The stranger looked at the Dean quickly when he said "men." It was worth
+much to hear the Dean speak that word.
+
+"Indeed you have," he returned heartily. "I never saw such men."
+
+"Of course you haven't," said the Dean. "I tell you, sir, they just
+don't make 'em outside of Arizona. It takes a country like this to
+produce real men. A man's got to be a man out here. Of course, though,"
+he admitted kindly, "we don't know much except to ride, an' throw a
+rope, an' shoot, mebby, once in a while."
+
+The riders were returning and the Dean and the stranger walked back down
+the little hill to the corral.
+
+"You have a fine ranch here, Mr. Baldwin," again observed the stranger.
+
+The Dean glanced at him sharply. Many men had tried to buy the
+Cross-Triangle. This man certainly appeared prosperous even though he
+was walking. But there was no accounting for the queer things that city
+men would do.
+
+"It does pretty well," the cattleman admitted. "I manage to make a
+livin'."
+
+The other smiled as though slightly embarrassed. Then: "Do you need any
+help?"
+
+"Help!" The Dean looked at him amazed.
+
+"I mean--I would like a position--to work for you, you know."
+
+The Dean was speechless. Again he surveyed the stranger with his
+measuring, critical look. "You've never done any work," he said gently.
+
+The man stood very straight before him and spoke almost defiantly. "No,
+I haven't, but is that any reason why I should not?"
+
+The Dean's eyes twinkled, as they have a way of doing when you say
+something that he likes. "I'd say it's a better reason why you should,"
+he returned quietly.
+
+Then he said to Phil, who, having dismissed his four-footed pupil, was
+coming toward them:
+
+"Phil, this man wants a job. Think we can use him?"
+
+The young man looked at the stranger with unfeigned surprise and with a
+hint of amusement, but gave no sign that he had ever seen him before.
+The same natural delicacy of feeling that had prevented the cowboy from
+discussing the man upon whose privacy he felt he had intruded that
+evening of their meeting on the Divide led him now to ignore the
+incident--a consideration which could not but command the strange man's
+respect, and for which he looked his gratitude.
+
+There was something about the stranger, too, that to Phil seemed
+different. This tall, well-built fellow who stood before them so
+self-possessed, and ready for anything, was not altogether like the
+uncertain, embarrassed, half-frightened and troubled gentleman at whom
+Phil had first laughed with thinly veiled contempt, and then had pitied.
+It was as though the man who sat that night alone on the Divide had, out
+of the very bitterness of his experience, called forth from within
+himself a strength of which, until then, he had been only dimly
+conscious. There was now, in his face and bearing, courage and decision
+and purpose, and with it all a glint of that same humor that had made
+him so bitterly mock himself. The Dean's philosophy touching the
+possibilities of the man who laughs when he is hurt seemed in this
+stranger about to be justified. Phil felt oddly, too, that the man was
+in a way experimenting with himself--testing himself as it were--and
+being altogether a normal human, the cowboy felt strongly inclined to
+help the experimenter. In this spirit he answered the Dean, while
+looking mischievously at the stranger.
+
+"We can use him if he can ride."
+
+The stranger smiled understandingly. "I don't see why I couldn't," he
+returned in that droll tone. "I seem to have the legs." He looked down
+at his long lower limbs reflectively, as though quaintly considering
+them quite apart from himself.
+
+Phil laughed.
+
+"Huh," said the Dean, slightly mystified at the apparent understanding
+between the young men. Then to the stranger: "What do you want to work
+for? You don't look as though you needed to. A sort of vacation, heh?"
+
+There was spirit in the man's answer. "I want to work for the reason
+that all men want work. If you do not employ me, I must try somewhere
+else."
+
+"Come from Prescott to Simmons on the stage, did you?"
+
+"No, sir, I walked."
+
+"Walked! Huh! Tried anywhere else for a job?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Who sent you out here?"
+
+The stranger smiled. "I saw Mr. Acton ride in the contest. I learned
+that he was foreman of the Cross-Triangle Ranch. I thought I would
+rather work where he worked, if I could."
+
+The Dean looked at Phil. Phil looked at the Dean. Together they looked
+at the stranger. The two cowboys who were sitting on their horses
+near-by grinned at each other.
+
+"And what is your name, sir?" the Dean asked courteously.
+
+For the first time the man hesitated and seemed embarrassed. He looked
+uneasily about with a helpless inquiring glance, as though appealing for
+some suggestion.
+
+"Oh, never mind your name, if you have forgotten it," said the Dean
+dryly.
+
+The stranger's roaming eyes fell upon Phil's old chaps, that in every
+wrinkle and scar and rip and tear gave such eloquent testimony as to the
+wearer's life, and that curious, self-mocking smile touched his lips.
+Then, throwing up his head and looking the Dean straight in the eye, he
+said boldly, but with that note of droll humor in his voice, "My name is
+Patches, sir, Honorable Patches."
+
+The Dean's eyes twinkled, but his face was grave. Phil's face flushed;
+he had not failed to identify the source of the stranger's inspiration.
+But before either the Dean or Phil could speak a shout of laughter came
+from Curly Elson, and the stranger had turned to face the cowboy.
+
+"Something seems to amuse you," he said quietly to the man on the horse;
+and at the tone of his voice Phil and the Dean exchanged significant
+glances.
+
+The grinning cowboy looked down at the stranger in evident contempt.
+"Patches," he drawled. "Honorable Patches! That's a hell of a name, now,
+ain't it?"
+
+The man went two long steps toward the mocking rider, and spoke quietly,
+but with unmistakable meaning.
+
+"I'll endeavor to make it all of that for you, if you will get off your
+horse."
+
+The grinning cowboy, with a wink at his companion, dismounted
+cheerfully. Curly Elson was held to be the best man with his hands in
+Yavapai County. He could not refuse so tempting an opportunity to add to
+his well-earned reputation.
+
+Five minutes later Curly lifted himself on one elbow in the corral dust,
+and looked up with respectful admiration to the quiet man who stood
+waiting for him to rise. Curly's lip was bleeding generously; the side
+of his face seemed to have slipped out of place, and his left eye was
+closing surely and rapidly.
+
+"Get up," said the tall man calmly. "There is more where that came from,
+if you want it."
+
+The cowboy grinned painfully. "I ain't hankerin' after any more," he
+mumbled, feeling his face tenderly.
+
+"It said that my name was Patches," suggested the stranger.
+
+"Sure, Mr. Patches, I reckon nobody'll question that."
+
+"Honorable Patches," again prompted the stranger.
+
+"Yes, sir. You bet; Honorable Patches," agreed Curly with emphasis.
+Then, as he painfully regained his feet, he held out his hand with as
+nearly a smile as his battered features would permit. "Do you mind
+shaking on it, Mr. Honorable Patches? Just to show that there's no hard
+feelin's?"
+
+Patches responded instantly with a manner that won Curly's heart.
+"Good!" he said. "I knew you would do that when you understood, or I
+wouldn't have bothered to show you my credentials."
+
+"My mistake," returned Curly. "It's them there credentials of yourn, not
+your name, that's hell."
+
+He gingerly mounted his horse again, and Patches turned back to the Dean
+as though apologizing for the interruption.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir, but--about work?"
+
+The Dean never told anyone just what his thoughts were at that
+particular moment; probably because they were so many and so
+contradictory and confusing. Whether from this uncertainty of mind; from
+a habit of depending upon his young foreman, or because of that
+something, which Phil and the stranger seemed to have in common, he
+shifted the whole matter by saying, "It's up to Phil here. He's foreman
+of the Cross-Triangle. If he wants to hire you, it's all right with me."
+
+At this the two young men faced each other; and on the face of each was
+a half questioning, half challenging smile. The stranger seemed to say,
+"I know I am at your mercy; I don't expect you to believe in me after
+our meeting on the Divide, but I dare you to put me to the test."
+
+And Phil, if he had spoken, might have said, "I felt when I met you
+first that there was a man around somewhere. I know you are curious to
+see what you would do if put to the test. I am curious, too. I'll give
+you a chance." Aloud he reminded the stranger pointedly, "I said we
+might use you if you could ride."
+
+Patches smiled his self-mocking smile, evidently appreciating his
+predicament. "And I said," he retorted, "that I didn't see why I
+couldn't."
+
+Phil turned to his grinning but respectful helpers. "Bring out that bay
+with the blazed face."
+
+"Great Snakes!" ejaculated Curly to Bob, as they reached the gate
+leading to the adjoining corral. "His name is Patches, all right, but
+he'll be pieces when that bay devil gets through with him, if he can't
+ride. Do you reckon he can?"
+
+"Dunno," returned Bob, as he unlatched the gate without dismounting. "I
+thought he couldn't fight."
+
+"So did I," returned Curly, grimly nursing his battered face. "You cut
+out the horse; I can't more'n half see."
+
+It was no trouble to cut out the bay. The big horse seemed to understand
+that his time had come. All day he had seen his mates go forth to their
+testing, had watched them as they fought with all their strength the
+skill and endurance of that smiling, boy-faced man, and then had seen
+them as they returned, sweating, trembling, conquered and subdued. As
+Bob rode toward him, he stood for one defiant moment as motionless as a
+horse of bronze; then, with a suddenness that gave Curly at the gate
+barely time to dodge his rush, he leaped forward into the larger arena.
+
+Phil was watching the stranger as the big horse came through the gate.
+The man did not move, but his eyes were glowing darkly, his face was
+flushed, and he was smiling to himself mockingly--as though amused at
+the thought of what was about to happen to him. The Dean also was
+watching Patches, and again the young foreman and his employer exchanged
+significant glances as Phil turned and went quickly to Little Billy.
+Lifting the lad from his saddle and seating him on the fence above the
+long watering trough, he said, "There's a grandstand seat for you,
+pardner; don't get down unless you have to, and then get down outside.
+See?"
+
+At that moment yells of warning, with a "Look out, Phil!" came from
+Curly, Bob and the Dean.
+
+A quick look over his shoulder, and Phil saw the big horse with ears
+wickedly flat, eyes gleaming, and teeth bared, making straight in his
+direction. The animal had apparently singled him out as the author of
+his misfortunes, and proposed to dispose of his arch-enemy at the very
+outset of the battle. There was only one sane thing to do, and Phil did
+it. A vigorous, scrambling leap placed him beside Little Billy on the
+top of the fence above the watering trough.
+
+"Good thing I reserved a seat in your grandstand for myself, wasn't it,
+pardner?" he smiled down at the boy by his side.
+
+Then Bob's riata fell true, and as the powerful horse plunged and fought
+that strangling noose Phil came leisurely down from the fence.
+
+"Where was you goin', Phil?" chuckled the Dean.
+
+"You sure warn't losin' any time," laughed Curly.
+
+And Bob, without taking his eyes from the vicious animal at the end of
+his taut riata, and working skillfully with his trained cow-horse to
+foil every wicked plunge and wild leap, grinned with appreciation, as he
+added, "I'll bet four bits you can't do it again, Phil, without a
+runnin' start."
+
+"I just thought I'd keep Little Billy company for a spell," smiled Phil.
+"He looked so sort of lonesome up there."
+
+The stranger, at first amazed that they could turn into jest an incident
+which might so easily have been a tragedy, suddenly laughed aloud--a
+joyous, ringing laugh that made Phil look at him sharply.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Acton," said Patches meekly, but with that droll
+voice which brought a glint of laughter into the foreman's eyes and
+called forth another chuckle from the Dean.
+
+"You can take my saddle," said Phil pointedly. "It's over there at the
+end of the watering trough. You'll find the stirrups about right, I
+reckon--I ride with them rather long."
+
+For a moment the stranger looked him straight in the eyes, then without
+a word started for the saddle. He was half way to the end of the
+watering trough when Phil overtook him.
+
+"I believe I'd rather saddle him myself," the cowboy explained quietly,
+with his sunny smile. "You see, I've got to teach these horses some cow
+sense before the fall rodeo, and I'm rather particular about the way
+they're handled at the start."
+
+"Exactly," returned Patches, "I don't blame you. That fellow seems
+rather to demand careful treatment, doesn't he?"
+
+Phil laughed. "Oh, you don't need to be too particular about his
+feelings once you're up in the middle of him," he retorted.
+
+The big bay, instead of acquiring sense from his observations, as Phil
+had expressed to the Dean a hope that he would, seemed to have gained
+courage and determination. Phil's approach was the signal for a mad
+plunge in the young man's direction, which was checked by the skill and
+weight of Bob's trained cow-horse on the rope. Several times Phil went
+toward the bay, and every time his advance was met by one of those
+vicious rushes. Then Phil mounted Curly's horse, and from his hand the
+loop of another riata fell over the bay's head. Shortening his rope by
+coiling it in his rein hand, he maneuvered the trained horse closer and
+closer to his struggling captive, until, with Bob's co-operation on the
+other side of the fighting animal, he could with safety fix the leather
+blindfold over those wicked eyes.
+
+When at last hackamore and saddle were in place, and the bay stood
+trembling and sweating, Phil wiped the perspiration from his own
+forehead and turned to the stranger.
+
+"Your horse is ready, sir."
+
+The man's face was perhaps a shade whiter than its usual color, but his
+eyes were glowing, and there was a grim set look about his smiling lips
+that made the hearts of those men go out to him. He seemed to realize so
+that the joke was on himself, and with it all exhibited such reckless
+indifference to consequences. Without an instant's hesitation he started
+toward the horse.
+
+"Great Snakes!" muttered Curly to Bob, "talk about nerve!"
+
+The Dean started forward. "Wait a minute, Mr. Patches," he said.
+
+The stranger faced him.
+
+"Can you ride that horse?" asked the Dean, pointedly.
+
+"I'm going to," returned Patches. "But," he added with his droll humor,
+"I can't say how far."
+
+"Don't you know that he'll kill you if he can?" questioned the Dean
+curiously, while his eyes twinkled approval.
+
+"He does seem to have some such notion," admitted Patches.
+
+"You better let him alone," said the Dean. "You don't need to kill
+yourself to get a job with this outfit."
+
+"That's very kind of you, sir," returned the stranger gratefully. "I'm
+rather glad you said that. But I'm going to ride him just the same."
+
+They looked at him in amazement, for it was clear to them now that the
+man really could not ride.
+
+The Dean spoke kindly. "Why?"
+
+"Because," said Patches slowly, "I am curious to see what I will do
+under such circumstances, and if I don't try the experiment now I'll
+never know whether I have the nerve to do it or not." As he finished he
+turned and walked deliberately toward the horse.
+
+Phil ran to Curly's side, and the cowboy at his foreman's gesture leaped
+from his saddle. The young man mounted his helper's horse, and with a
+quick movement caught the riata from the saddle horn and flipped open a
+ready loop.
+
+The stranger was close to the bay's off, or right, side.
+
+"The other side, Patches," called Phil genially. "You want to start in
+right, you know."
+
+Not a man laughed--except the stranger.
+
+"Thanks," he said, and came around to the proper side.
+
+"Take your time," called Phil again. "Stand by his shoulder and watch
+his heels. Take the stirrup with your right hand and turn it to catch
+your foot. Stay back by his shoulder until you are ready to swing up.
+Take your time."
+
+"I won't be long," returned Patches, as he awkwardly gained his seat in
+the saddle.
+
+Phil moved his horse nearer the center of the corral, and shook out his
+loop a little.
+
+"When you're ready, lean over and pull up the blindfold," he called.
+
+The man on the horse did not hesitate. With every angry nerve and muscle
+strained to the utmost, the powerful bay leaped into the air, coming
+down with legs stiff and head between his knees. For an instant the man
+miraculously kept his place. With another vicious plunge and a
+cork-screw twist the maddened brute went up again, and this time the man
+was flung from the saddle as from a gigantic catapult, to fall upon his
+shoulders and back in the corral dust, where he lay still. The horse,
+rid of his enemy, leaped again; then with catlike quickness and devilish
+cunning whirled, and with wicked teeth bared and vicious, blazing eyes,
+rushed for the helpless man on the ground.
+
+With a yell Bob spurred to put himself between the bay and his victim,
+but had there been time the move would have been useless, for no horse
+could have withstood that mad charge. The vicious brute was within a
+bound of his victim, and had reared to crush him with the weight of
+heavy hoofs, when a rawhide rope tightened about those uplifted forefeet
+and the bay himself crashed to earth. Leaving the cow-horse to hold the
+riata tight, Phil sprang from his saddle and ran to the fallen man. The
+Dean came with water in his felt hat from the trough, and presently the
+stranger opened his eyes. For a moment he lay looking up into their
+faces as though wondering where he was, and how he happened there.
+
+"Are you hurt bad?" asked the Dean.
+
+That brought him to his senses, and he got to his feet somewhat
+unsteadily, and began brushing the dust from his clothes. Then he looked
+curiously toward the horse that Curly was holding down by the simple
+means of sitting on the animal's head. "I certainly thought my legs were
+long enough to reach around him," he said reflectively. "How in the
+world did he manage it? I seemed to be falling for a week."
+
+Phil yelled and the Dean laughed until the tears ran down his red
+cheeks, while Bob and Curly went wild.
+
+Patches went to the horse, and gravely walked around him. Then, "Let him
+up," he said to Curly.
+
+The cowboy looked at Phil, who nodded.
+
+As the bay regained his feet, Patches started toward him.
+
+"Here," said the Dean peremptorily. "You come away from there."
+
+"I'm going to see if he can do it again," declared Patches grimly.
+
+"Not to-day, you ain't," returned the Dean. "You're workin' for me now,
+an' you're too good a man to be killed tryin' any more crazy
+experiments."
+
+At the Dean's words the look of gratitude in the man's eyes was almost
+pathetic.
+
+"I wonder if I am," he said, so low that only the Dean and Phil heard.
+
+"If you are what?" asked the Dean, puzzled by his manner.
+
+"Worth anything--as a man--you know," came the strange reply.
+
+The Dean chuckled. "You'll be all right when you get your growth. Come
+on over here now, out of the way, while Phil takes some of the
+cussedness out of that fool horse."
+
+Together they watched Phil ride the bay and return him to his mates a
+very tired and a much wiser pupil. Then, while Patches remained to watch
+further operations in the corral, the Dean went to the house to tell
+Stella all about it.
+
+"And what do you think he really is?" she asked, as the last of a long
+list of questions and comments.
+
+The Dean shook his head. "There's no tellin'. A man like that is liable
+to be anything." Then he added, with his usual philosophy: "He acts,
+though, like a genuine thoroughbred that's been badly mishandled an' has
+just found it out."
+
+When the day's work was finished and supper was over Little Billy found
+Patches where he stood looking across the valley toward Granite Mountain
+that loomed so boldly against the soft light of the evening sky. The man
+greeted the boy awkwardly, as though unaccustomed to children. But
+Little Billy, very much at ease, signified his readiness to help the
+stranger to an intimate acquaintance with the world of which he knew so
+much more than this big man.
+
+He began with no waste of time on mere preliminaries.
+
+"See that mountain over there? That's Granite Mountain. There's wild
+horses live around there, an' sometimes we catch 'em. Bet you don't know
+that Phil's name is 'Wild Horse Phil'."
+
+Patches smiled. "That's a good name for him, isn't it?"
+
+"You bet." He turned and pointed eagerly to the west. "There's another
+mountain over there I bet you don't know the name of."
+
+"Which one do you mean? I see several."
+
+"That long, black lookin' one. Do you know about it?"
+
+"I'm really afraid that I don't."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you," said Billy, proud of his superior knowledge.
+"That there's Tailholt Mountain."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, and Nick Cambert and Yavapai Joe lives over there. Do you know
+about them?"
+
+The tall man shook his head. "No, I don't believe that I do."
+
+Little Billy lowered his voice to a mysterious whisper. "Well, I'll tell
+you. Only you mus'n't ever say anything 'bout it out loud. Nick and
+Yavapai is cattle thieves. They been a-brandin' our calves, an' Phil,
+he's goin' to catch 'em at it some day, an' then they'll wish they
+hadn't. Phil, he's my pardner, you know."
+
+"And a fine pardner, too, I'll bet," returned the stranger, as if not
+wishing to acquire further information about the men of Tailholt
+Mountain.
+
+"You bet he is," came the instant response. "Only Jim Reid, he don't
+like him very well."
+
+"That's too bad, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes. You see, Jim Reid is Kitty's daddy. They live over there." He
+pointed across the meadow to where, a mile away, a light twinkled in the
+window of the Pot-Hook-S ranch house. "Kitty Reid's a mighty nice girl,
+I tell you, but Jim, he says that there needn't no cow-puncher come
+around tryin' to get her, 'cause she's been away to school, you know,
+an' I think Phil--"
+
+"Whoa! Hold on a minute, sonny," interrupted Patches hastily.
+
+"What's the matter?" questioned Little Billy.
+
+"Why, it strikes me that a boy with a pardner like 'Wild Horse Phil'
+ought to be mighty careful about how he talked over that pardner's
+private affairs with a stranger. Don't you think so?"
+
+"Mebby so," agreed Billy. "But you see, I know that Phil wants Kitty
+'cause--"
+
+"Sh! What in the world is that?" whispered Patches in great fear,
+catching his small companion by the arm.
+
+"That! Don't you know an owl when you hear one? Gee! but you're a
+tenderfoot, ain't you?" Catching sight of the Dean who was coming toward
+them, he shouted gleefully. "Uncle Will, Mr. Patches is scared of an
+owl. What do you know about that; Patches is scared of an owl!"
+
+"Your Aunt Stella wants you," laughed the Dean.
+
+And Billy ran off to the house to share his joke on the tenderfoot with
+his Aunt Stella and his "pardner," Phil.
+
+"I've got to go to town to-morrow," said the Dean. "I expect you better
+go along and get your trunk, or whatever you have and some sort of an
+outfit. You can't work in them clothes."
+
+Patches answered hesitatingly. "Why, I think I can get along all right,
+Mr. Baldwin."
+
+"But you'll want your stuff--your trunk or grip--or whatever you've
+got," returned the Dean.
+
+"But I have nothing in Prescott," said the stranger slowly.
+
+"You haven't? Well, you'll need an outfit anyway," persisted the
+cattleman.
+
+"Really, I think I can get along for a while," Patches returned
+diffidently.
+
+The Dean considered for a little; then he said with straightforward
+bluntness, but not at all unkindly, "Look here, young man, you ain't
+afraid to go to Prescott, are you?"
+
+The other laughed. "Not at all, sir. It's not that. I suppose I must
+tell you now, though. All the clothes I have are on my back, and I
+haven't a cent in the world with which to buy an outfit, as you call
+it."
+
+The Dean chuckled. "So that's it? I thought mebby you was dodgin' the
+sheriff. If it's just plain broke that's the matter, why you'll go to
+town with me in the mornin', an' we'll get what you need. I'll hold it
+out of your wages until it's paid." As though the matter were settled,
+he turned back toward the house, adding, "Phil will show you where
+you're to sleep."
+
+When the foreman had shown the new man to his room, the cowboy asked
+casually, "Found the goat ranch, all right, night before last, did you?"
+
+The other hesitated; then he said gravely, "I didn't look for it, Mr.
+Acton."
+
+"You didn't look for it?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you spent the night up there on the Divide
+without blankets or anything?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I did."
+
+"And where did you stop last night?"
+
+"At Simmons."
+
+"Walked, I suppose?"
+
+The stranger smiled. "Yes."
+
+"But, look here," said the puzzled cowboy, "I don't mean to be asking
+questions about what is none of my business, but I can't figure it out.
+If you were coming out here to get a job on the Cross-Triangle, why
+didn't you go to Mr. Baldwin in town? Anybody could have pointed him out
+to you. Or, why didn't you say something to me, when we were talking
+back there on the Divide?"
+
+"Why, you see," explained the other lamely, "I didn't exactly want to
+work on the Cross-Triangle, or anywhere."
+
+"But you told Uncle Will that you wanted to work here, and you were on
+your way when I met you."
+
+"Yes, I know, but you see--oh, hang it all, Mr. Acton, haven't you ever
+wanted to do something that you didn't want to do? Haven't you ever been
+caught in a corner that you were simply forced to get out of when you
+didn't like the only way that would get you out? I don't mean anything
+criminal," he added, with a short laugh.
+
+"Yes, I have," returned the other seriously, "and if you don't mind
+there's no handle to my name. Around here I'm just plain Phil, Mr.
+Patches."
+
+"Thanks. Neither does Patches need decorating."
+
+"And now, one more," said Phil, with his winning smile. "Why in the
+name of all the obstinate fools that roam at large did you walk out here
+when you must have had plenty of chances to ride?"
+
+"Well, you see," said Patches slowly, "I fear I can't explain, but it
+was just a part of my job."
+
+"Your job! But you didn't have any job until this afternoon."
+
+"Oh, yes, I did. I had the biggest kind of a job. You see, that's what I
+was doing on the Divide all night; trying to find some other way to do
+it."
+
+"And do you mind telling me what that job is?" asked Phil curiously.
+
+Patches laughed as though at himself. "I don't know that I can,
+exactly," he said. "I think, perhaps, it's just to ride that big bay
+horse out there."
+
+Phil laughed aloud--a hearty laugh of good-fellowship. "You'll do that
+all right."
+
+"Do you think so, really," asked Patches, eagerly.
+
+"Sure; I know it."
+
+"I wish I could be sure," returned the strange man doubtfully--and the
+cowboy, wondering, saw that wistful look in his eyes.
+
+"That big devil is a man's horse, all right," mused Phil.
+
+"Why, of course--and that's just it--don't you see?" cried the other
+impulsively. Then, as if he regretted his words, he asked quickly, "Do
+you name your horses?"
+
+"Sure," answered the cowboy; "we generally find something to call them."
+
+"And have you named the big bay yet?"
+
+Phil laughed. "I named him yesterday, when he broke away as we were
+bringing the bunch in, and I had to rope him to get him back."
+
+"And what did you name him?"
+
+"Stranger."
+
+"Stranger! And why Stranger?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. Just one of my fool notions," returned Phil.
+"Good-night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A BIT OF THE PAST.
+
+
+The next morning Mr. Baldwin and Patches set out for town.
+
+"I suppose," said the Dean, and a slightly curious tone colored the
+remark, "that mebby you've been used to automobiles. Buck and Prince
+here, an' this old buckboard will seem sort of slow to you."
+
+Patches was stepping into the rig as the Dean spoke. As the young man
+took his seat by the cattleman's side, the Dean nodded to Phil who was
+holding the team. At the signal Phil released the horses' heads and
+stepped aside, whereupon Buck and Prince, of one mind, looked back over
+their shoulders, made a few playful attempts to twist themselves out of
+the harness, lunged forward their length, stood straight up on their
+hind feet, then sprang away as if they were fully determined to land
+that buckboard in Prescott within the next fifteen minutes.
+
+"Did you say slow?" questioned Patches, as he clung to his seat.
+
+The Dean chuckled and favored his new man with a twinkling glance of
+approval.
+
+A few seconds later, on the other side of the sandy wash, the Dean
+skillfully checked their headlong career, with a narrow margin of safety
+between the team and the gate.
+
+"I reckon we'll get through with less fuss if you'll open it," he said
+to Patches. Then to Buck and Prince: "Whoa! you blamed fools. Can't you
+stand a minute?"
+
+"Stella's been devilin' me to get a machine ever since Jim Reid got
+his," he continued, while the horses were repeating their preliminary
+contortions, and Patches was regaining his seat. "But I told her I'd be
+scared to death to ride in the fool contraption."
+
+At this Buck and Prince, in a wild riot of animal strength and spirit,
+leaped a slight depression in the road with such vigor that the front
+wheels of the buckboard left the ground. Patches glanced sidewise at his
+employer, with a smile of delighted appreciation, but said nothing.
+
+The Dean liked him for that. The Dean always insists that the hardest
+man in the world to talk to is the one who always has something to say
+for himself.
+
+"Why," he continued, with a burst of honest feeling, "if I was ever to
+bring one of them things home to the Cross-Triangle, I'd be ashamed to
+look a horse or steer in the face."
+
+They dashed through a patch of wild sunflowers that in the bottom lands
+grow thick and rank; whirled past the tumble-down corner of an old fence
+that enclosed a long neglected garden; and dashed recklessly through a
+deserted and weed-grown yard. On one side of the road was the ancient
+barn and stable, with sagging, weather-beaten roof, leaning walls and
+battered doors that hung dejectedly on their rusty and broken hinges.
+The corral stockade was breached in many places by the years that had
+rotted the posts. The old-time windlass pump that, operated by a blind
+burro, once lifted water for the long vanished herds, was a pathetic old
+wreck, incapable now of offering drink to a thirsty sparrow. On their
+other hand, beneath the wide branches of giant sycamores and walnuts,
+and backed by a tangled orchard wilderness, stood an old house, empty
+and neglected, as if in the shadowy gloom of the untrimmed trees it
+awaited, lonely and forlorn, the kindly hand of oblivion.
+
+"This is the old Acton homestead," said the Dean quietly, as one might
+speak beside an ancient grave.
+
+Then as they were driving through the narrow lane that crosses the great
+meadow, he indicated with a nod of his head group of buildings on the
+other side of the green fields, and something less than a mile to the
+south.
+
+"That's Jim Reid's place. His iron is the Pot-Hook-S. Jim's stock runs
+on the old Acton range, but the homestead belongs to Phil yet. Jim
+Reid's a fine man." The Dean spoke stoutly, almost as though he were
+making the assertion to convince himself. "Yes, sir, Jim's all right.
+Good neighbor; good cowman; square as they make 'em. Some folks seem to
+think he's a mite over-bearin' an' rough-spoken sometimes, and he's kind
+of quick at suspicionin' everybody; but Jim and me have always got along
+the best kind."
+
+Again the Dean was silent, as though he had forgotten the man beside him
+in his occupation with thoughts that he could not share.
+
+When they had crossed the valley meadows and, climbing the hill on the
+other side, could see the road for several miles ahead, the Dean pointed
+to a black object on the next ridge.
+
+"There's Jim's automobile now. They're headin' for Prescott, too.
+Kitty's drivin', I reckon. I tell Stella that that machine and Kitty's
+learnin' to run the thing is about all the returns that Jim can show for
+the money he's spent in educatin' her. I don't mean," he added, with a
+quick look at Patches, as though he feared to be misunderstood, "that
+Kitty's one of them good-for-nothin' butterfly girls. She ain't that by
+a good deal. Why, she was raised right here in this neighborhood, an' we
+love her the same as if she was our own. She can cook a meal or make a
+dress 'bout as well as her mother, an' does it, too; an' she can ride a
+horse or throw a rope better'n some punchers I've seen, but--" The Dean
+stopped, seemingly for want of words to express exactly his thought.
+
+"It seems to me," offered Patches abstractedly, "that education, as we
+call it, is a benefit only when it adds to one's life. If schooling or
+culture, or whatever you choose to term it, is permitted to rob one of
+the fundamental and essential elements of life, it is most certainly an
+evil."
+
+"That's the idea," exclaimed the Dean, with frank admiration for his
+companion's ability to say that which he himself thought. "You say it
+like a book. But that's it. It ain't the learnin' an' all the stuff that
+Kitty got while she was at school that's worryin' us. It's what
+she's likely to lose through gettin' 'em. This here modern,
+down-to-the-minute, higher livin', loftier sphere, intellectual
+supremacy idea is all right if folks'll just keep their feet on the
+ground.
+
+"You take Stella an' me now. I know we're old fashioned an' slow an' all
+that, an' we've seen a lot of hardships since we was married over in
+Skull Valley where she was born an' raised. She was just a girl then,
+an' I was only a kid, punchin' steers for a livin'. I suppose we've seen
+about as hard times as anybody. At least that's what they would be
+called now. But, hell, _we_ didn't think nothin' of it then; we was
+happy, sir, and we've been happy for over forty year. I tell you, sir,
+we've lived--just lived every minute, and that's a blamed sight more
+than a lot of these higher-cultured, top-lofty, half-dead couples that
+marry and separate, and separate and marry again now-a-days can say.
+
+"No, sir, 'tain't what a man gets that makes him rich; it's what he
+keeps. And these folks that are swoppin' the old-fashioned sort of love
+that builds homes and raises families and lets man and wife work
+together, an' meet trouble together, an' be happy together, an' grow old
+bein' happy together--if they're swoppin' all that for these here new,
+down-to-date ideas of such things, they're makin' a damned poor bargain,
+accordin' to my way of thinkin'. There is such a thing, sir, as
+educatin' a man or woman plumb out of reach of happiness.
+
+"Look at our Phil," the Dean continued, for the man beside him was a
+wonderful listener. "There just naturally couldn't be a better all round
+man than Phil Acton. He's healthy; don't know what it is to have an
+hour's sickness; strong as a young bull; clean, honest, square, no bad
+habits, a fine worker, an' a fine thinker, too--even if he ain't had
+much schoolin', he's read a lot. Take him any way you like--just as a
+man, I mean--an' that's the way you got to take 'em--there ain't a
+better man that Phil livin'. Yet a lot of these folks would say he's
+nothin' but a cow-puncher. As for that, Jim Reid ain't much more than a
+cow-puncher himself. I tell you, I've seen cow-punchers that was mighty
+good men, an' I've seen graduates from them there universities that was
+plumb good for nothin'--with no more real man about 'em than there is
+about one of these here wax dummies that they hang clothes on in the
+store windows. What any self-respectin' woman can see in one of them
+that would make her want to marry him is more than I've ever been able
+to figger out."
+
+If the Dean had not been so engrossed in his own thoughts, he would have
+wondered at the strange effect of his words upon his companion. The
+young man's face flushed scarlet, then paled as though with sudden
+illness, and he looked sidewise at the older man with an expression of
+shame and humiliation, while his eyes, wistful and pleading, were filled
+with pain. Honorable Patches who had won the admiration of those men in
+the Cross-Triangle corrals was again the troubled, shamefaced,
+half-frightened creature whom Phil met on the Divide.
+
+But the good Dean did not see, and so, encouraged by the other's
+silence, he continued his dissertation. "Of course, I don't mean to say
+that education and that sort of thing spoils every man. Now, there's
+young Stanford Manning--"
+
+If the Dean had suddenly fired a gun at Patches, the young man could not
+have shown greater surprise and consternation. "Stanford Manning!" he
+gasped.
+
+At his tone the Dean turned to look at him curiously. "I mean Stanford
+Manning, the mining engineer," he explained. "Do you know him?"
+
+"I have heard of him," Patches managed to reply.
+
+"Well," continued the Dean, "he came out to this country about three
+years ago--straight from college--and he has sure made good. He's got
+the education an' culture an' polish an' all that, an' with it he can
+hold his own among any kind or sort of men livin'. There ain't a
+man--cow-puncher, miner or anything else--in Yavapai County that don't
+take off his hat to Stanford Manning."
+
+"Is he in this country now?" asked Patches, with an effort at
+self-control that the Dean did not notice.
+
+"No, I understand his Company called him back East about a month ago.
+Goin' to send him to some of their properties up in Montana, I heard."
+
+When his companion made no comment, the Dean said reflectively, as Buck
+and Prince climbed slowly up the grade to the summit of the Divide,
+"I'll tell you, son, I've seen a good many changes in this country. I
+can remember when there wasn't a fence in all Yavapai County--hardly in
+the Territory. And now--why the last time I drove over to Skull Valley I
+got so tangled up in 'em that I plumb lost myself. When Phil's daddy an'
+me was youngsters we used to ride from Camp Verde and Flagstaff clean to
+Date Creek without ever openin' a gate. But I can't see that men change
+much, though. They're good and bad, just like they've always been--an' I
+reckon always will be. There's been leaders and weaklin's and just
+betwixt and betweens in every herd of cattle or band of horses that ever
+I owned. You take Phil, now. He's exactly like his daddy was before
+him."
+
+"His father must have been a fine man," said Patches, with quiet
+earnestness.
+
+The Dean looked at him with an approving twinkle. "Fine?" For a few
+minutes, as they were rounding the turn of the road on the summit of the
+Divide where Phil and the stranger had met, the Dean looked away toward
+Granite Mountain. Then, as if thinking aloud, rather than purposely
+addressing his companion, he said, "John Acton--Honest John, as
+everybody called him--and I came to this country together when we were
+boys. Walked in, sir, with some pioneers from Kansas. We kept in touch
+with each other all the while we was growin' to be men; punched cattle
+for the same outfits most of the time; even did most of our courtin'
+together, for Phil's mother an' Stella were neighbors an' great friends
+over in Skull Valley. When we'd finally saved enough to get started we
+located homesteads close together back there in the Valley, an' as soon
+as we could get some sort of shacks built we married the girls and set
+up housekeepin'. Our stock ranged together, of course, but John sort of
+took care of the east side of the meadows an' I kept more to the west.
+When the children came along--John an' Mary had three before Phil, but
+only Phil lived--an' the stock had increased an' we'd built some decent
+houses, things seemed to be about as fine as possible. Then John went on
+a note for a man in Prescott. I tried my best to keep him out of it,
+but, shucks! he just laughed at me. You see, he was one of the best
+hearted men that ever lived--one of those men, you know, that just
+naturally believes in everybody.
+
+"Well, it wound up after a-while by John losin' mighty nigh everything.
+We managed to save the homestead, but practically all the stock had to
+go. An' it wasn't more than a year after that till Mary died. We never
+did know just what was the matter with her--an' after that it seemed
+like John never was the same. He got killed in the rodeo that same
+fall--just wasn't himself somehow. I was with him when he died.
+
+"Stella and me raised Phil--we don't know any difference between him and
+one of our own boys. The old homestead is his, of course, but Jim Reid's
+stock runs on the old range. Phil's got a few head that he works with
+mine--a pretty good bunch by now--for he's kept addin' to what his
+father left, an' I've paid him wages ever since he was big enough. Phil
+don't say much, even to Stella an' me, but I know he's figurin' on
+fixin' up the old home place some day."
+
+After a long silence the Dean said again, as if voicing some conclusion
+of his unspoken thoughts: "Jim Reid is pretty well fixed, you see, an'
+Kitty bein' the only girl, it's natural, I reckon, that they should have
+ideas about her future, an' all that. I reckon it's natural, too, that
+the girl should find ranch life away out here so far from anywhere, a
+little slow after her three years at school in the East. She never says
+it, but somehow you can most always tell what Kitty's thinkin' without
+her speakin' a word."
+
+"I have known people like that," said Patches, probably because there
+was so little that he could say.
+
+"Yes, an' when you know Kitty, you'll say, like I always have, that if
+there's a man in Yavapai County that wouldn't ride the hoofs off the
+best horse in his outfit, night or day, to win a smile from her, he
+ought to be lynched."
+
+That afternoon in Prescott they purchased an outfit for Patches, and the
+following day set out for the long return drive to the ranch.
+
+They had reached the top of the hill at the western end of the meadow
+lane, when they saw a young woman, on a black horse, riding away from
+the gate that opens from the lane into the Pot-Hook-S meadow pasture,
+toward the ranch buildings on the farther side of the field.
+
+As they drove into the yard at home, it was nearly supper time, and the
+men were coming from the corrals.
+
+"Kitty's been over all the afternoon," Little Billy informed them
+promptly. "I told her all about you, Patches. She says she's just dyin'
+to see you."
+
+Phil joined in the laugh, but Patches fancied that there was a shadow in
+the cowboy's usually sunny eyes as the young man looked at him to say,
+"That big horse of yours sure made me ride some to-day."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE DRIFT FENCE.
+
+
+The education of Honorable Patches was begun without further delay.
+Because Phil's time was so fully occupied with his four-footed pupils,
+the Dean himself became the stranger's teacher, and all sorts of odd
+jobs about the ranch, from cleaning the pig pen to weeding the garden,
+were the text books. The man balked at nothing. Indeed, he seemed to
+find a curious, grim satisfaction in accomplishing the most menial and
+disagreeable tasks; and when he made mistakes, as he often did, he
+laughed at himself with such bitter, mocking humor that the Dean
+wondered.
+
+"He's got me beat," the Dean confided to Stella. "There ain't nothin'
+that he won't tackle, an' I'm satisfied that the man never did a stroke
+of work before in his life. But he seems to be always tryin' experiments
+with himself, like he expected himself to play the fool one way or
+another, an' wanted to see if he would, an' then when he don't he's as
+surprised and tickled as a kid."
+
+The Dean himself was not at all above assisting his new man in those
+experiments, and so it happened that day when Patches had been set to
+repairing the meadow pasture fence near the lower corrals.
+
+The Dean, riding out that way to see how his pupil was progressing,
+noticed a particularly cross-tempered shorthorn bull that had wandered
+in from the near-by range to water at the house corral. But Phil and his
+helpers were in possession of the premises near the watering trough, and
+his shorthorn majesty was therefore even more than usual out of patience
+with the whole world. The corrals were between the bull and Patches, so
+that the animal had not noticed the man, and the Dean, chuckling to
+himself, and without attracting Patches' attention, quietly drove the
+ill-tempered beast into the enclosure and shut the gate.
+
+Then, riding around the corral, the Dean called to the young man. When
+Patches stood beside his employer, the cattleman said, "Here's a blamed
+old bull that don't seem to be feelin' very well. I got him into the
+corral all right, but I'm so fat I can't reach him from the saddle. I
+wish you'd just halter him with this rope, so I can lead him up to the
+house and let Phil and the boys see what's wrong with him."
+
+Patches took the rope and started toward the corral gate. "Shall I put
+it around his neck and make a hitch over his nose, like you do a horse?"
+he asked, glad for the opportunity to exhibit his newly acquired
+knowledge of ropes and horses and things.
+
+"No, just tie it around his horns," the Dean answered. "He'll come, all
+right."
+
+The bull, seeing a man on foot at the entrance to his prison, rumbled a
+deep-voiced threat, and pawed the earth with angry strength.
+
+For an instant, Patches, with his hand on the latch of the gate, paused
+to glance from the dangerous-looking animal, that awaited his coming, to
+the Dean who sat on his horse just outside the fence. Then he slipped
+inside the corral and closed the gate behind him. The bull gazed at him
+a moment as if amazed at the audacity of this mere human, then lowered
+his head for the charge.
+
+"Climb that gate, quick," yelled the Dean at the critical moment.
+
+And Patches climbed--not a second too soon.
+
+From his position of safety he smiled cheerfully at the Dean. "He came
+all right, didn't he?"
+
+The Dean's full rounded front and thick shoulders shook with laughter,
+while Senor Bull dared the man on the gate to come down.
+
+"You crazy fool," said the Dean admiringly, when he could speak. "Didn't
+you know any better than to go in there on foot?"
+
+"But you said you wanted him," returned the chagrined Patches.
+
+"What I wanted," chuckled the Dean, "was to see if you had nerve enough
+to tackle him."
+
+"To tell the truth," returned Patches, with a happy laugh, "that's
+exactly what interested me."
+
+But, while the work assigned to Patches during those first days of his
+stay on the Cross-Triangle was chiefly those odd jobs which called for
+little or no experience, his higher education was by no means neglected.
+A wise and gentle old cow-horse was assigned to him, and the Dean taught
+him the various parts of his equipment, their proper use, and how to
+care for them. And every day, sometimes in the morning, sometimes late
+in the afternoon, the master found some errand or business that would
+necessitate his pupil riding with him. When Phil or Mrs. Baldwin would
+inquire about the Dean's kindergarten, as they called it, the Dean would
+laugh with them, but always he would say stoutly, "Just you wait. He'll
+be as near ready for the rodeo this fall as them pupils in that
+kindergarten of Phil's. He takes to ridin' like the good Lord had made
+him specially for that particular job. He's just a natural-born
+horseman, or I don't know men. He's got the sense, he's got the nerve,
+an' he's got the disposition. He's goin' to make a top hand in a few
+months, if"--he always added with twinkling eyes--"he don't get himself
+killed tryin' some fool experiment on himself."
+
+"I notice just the same that he always has plenty of help in his
+experimentin'," Mrs. Baldwin would return dryly, which saying indicted
+not only the Dean but Phil and every man on the Cross-Triangle,
+including Little Billy.
+
+Then came that day when Patches was given a task that--the Dean assured
+him--is one of the duties of even the oldest and best qualified cowboys.
+Patches was assigned to the work of fenceriding. But when the Dean rode
+out with his pupil early that morning to where the drift fence begins at
+the corner of the big pasture, and explained that "riding a fence"
+meant, in ranch language, looking for breaks and repairing any such when
+found, he did not explain the peculiarities of that particular kind of
+fence.
+
+"I told him to be sure and be back by night," he chuckled, as he
+explained Patches' absence at dinner to the other members of the
+household.
+
+"That was downright mean of you, Will Baldwin," chided Stella, with her
+usual motherly interest in the comfort of her boys. "You know the poor
+fellow will lose himself, sure, out in that wild Tailholt Mountain
+country."
+
+The boys laughed.
+
+"We'll find him in the morning, all right, mother," reassured Phil.
+
+"He can follow the fence back, can't he?" retorted the Dean. "Or, as far
+as that goes, old Snip will bring him home."
+
+"If he knows enough to figger it out, or to let Snip have his head,"
+said Curly.
+
+"At any rate," the Dean maintained, "he'll learn somethin' about the
+country, an' he'll learn somethin' about fences, an' mebby he'll learn
+somethin' about horses. An' we'll see whether he can use his own head or
+not. There's nothin' like givin' a man a chance to find out things for
+himself sometimes. Besides, think what a chance he'll have for some of
+his experiments! I'll bet a yearling steer that when we do see him
+again, he'll be tickled to death at himself an' wonderin' how he had the
+nerve to do it."
+
+"To do what?" asked Mrs. Baldwin.
+
+"I don't know what," chuckled the Dean; "but he's bound to do some fool
+thing or other just to see if he can, and it'll be somethin' that nobody
+but him would ever think of doin', too."
+
+But Honorable Patches did not get lost that day--that is, not too badly
+lost. There was a time, though--but that does not belong just here.
+
+Patches was very well pleased with the task assigned to him that
+morning. For the first time he found himself trusted alone with a horse,
+on a mission that would keep him the full day in the saddle, and would
+take him beyond sight of the ranch house. Very bravely he set out,
+equipped with his cowboy regalia--except the riata, which the Dean,
+fearing experiments, had, at the last moment, thoughtfully borrowed--and
+armed with a fencing tool and staples. He was armed, too, with a
+brand-new "six-gun" in a spick and span holster, on a shiny belt of
+bright cartridges. The Dean had insisted on this, alleging that the
+embryo cowboy might want it to kill a sick cow or something.
+
+Patches wondered if he would know a sick cow if he should meet one, or
+how he was to diagnose the case to ascertain if she were sick enough to
+kill.
+
+The first thing he did, when the Dean was safely out of sight, was to
+dismount and examine his saddle girth. Always your real king of the
+cattle range is careful for the foundation of his throne. But there was
+no awkwardness, now, when he again swung to his seat. The young man was
+in reality a natural athlete. His work had already taken the soreness
+and stiffness out of his unaccustomed muscles, and he seemed, as the
+Dean had said, a born horseman. And as he rode, he looked about over the
+surrounding country with an expression on independence, freedom and
+fearlessness very different from the manner of the troubled man who had
+faced Phil Acton that night on the Divide. It was as though the spirit
+of the land was already working its magic within this man, too. He
+patted the holster at his side, felt the handle of the gun, lovingly
+fingered the bright cartridges in his shiny belt, leaned sidewise to
+look admiringly down at his fringed, leather chaps and spur ornamented
+boot heels, and wished for his riata--not forgetting, meanwhile, to scan
+the fence for places that might need his attention.
+
+The guardian angel who cares for the "tenderfoot" was good to Patches
+that day, and favored him with many sagging wires and leaning or broken
+posts, so that he could not ride far. Being painstaking and
+conscientious in his work, he had made not more than four miles by the
+beginning of the afternoon. Then he found a break that would occupy him
+for two hours at least. With rueful eyes he surveyed the long stretch of
+dilapidated fence. It was time, he reflected, that the Dean sent someone
+to look after his property, and dismounting, he went to work,
+forgetting, in his interest in the fencing problem, to insure his
+horse's near-by attendance. Now, the best of cow-horses are not above
+taking advantage of their opportunities. Perhaps Snip felt that
+fenceriding with a tenderfoot was a little beneath the dignity of his
+cattle-punching years. Perhaps he reasoned that this man who was always
+doing such strange things was purposely dismissing him. Perhaps he was
+thinking of the long watering trough and the rich meadow grass at home.
+Or, perhaps again, the wise old Snip, feeling the responsibility of his
+part in training the Dean's pupil, merely thought to give his
+inexperienced master a lesson. However it happened, Patches looked up
+from his work some time later to find himself alone. In consternation,
+he stood looking about, striving to catch a glimpse of the vanished
+Snip. Save a lone buzzard that wheeled in curious circles above his head
+there was no living thing in sight.
+
+As fast as his heavy, leather chaps and high-heeled, spur-ornamented
+boots would permit, he ran to the top of a knoll a hundred yards or so
+away. The wider range of country that came thus within the circle of his
+vision was as empty as it was silent. The buzzard wheeled nearer--the
+strange looking creature beneath it seemed so helpless that there might
+be in the situation something of vital interest to the tribe. Even
+buzzards must be about their business.
+
+There are few things more humiliating to professional riders of the
+range than to be left afoot; and while Patches was far too much a novice
+to have acquired the peculiar and traditional tastes and habits of the
+clan of which he had that morning felt himself a member, he was, in
+this, the equal of the best of them. He thought of himself walking
+shamefaced into the presence of the Dean and reporting the loss of the
+horse. The animal might be recovered, he supposed, for he was still,
+Patches thought, inside the pasture which that fence enclosed. Still
+there was a chance that the runaway would escape through some break and
+never be found. In any case the vision of the grinning cowboys was not
+an attractive one. But at least, thought the amateur cowboy, he would
+finish the work entrusted to him. He might lose a horse for the Dean,
+but the Dean's fence should be repaired. So he set to work with a will,
+and, finishing that particular break, set out on foot to follow the
+fence around the field and so back to the lane that would lead him to
+the buildings and corrals of the home ranch.
+
+For an hour he trudged along, making hard work of it in his chaps,
+boots, and spurs, stopping now and then to drive a staple or brace a
+post. The country was growing wilder and more broken, with cedar timber
+on the ridges and here and there a pine. Occasionally he could catch a
+glimpse of the black, forbidding walls of Tailholt Mountain. But Patches
+did not know that it was Tailholt. He only thought that he knew in which
+direction the home ranch lay. It seemed to him that it was a long, long
+way to the corner of the field--it must be a big pasture, indeed. The
+afternoon was well on when he paused on the summit of another ridge to
+rest. It, seemed to him that he had never in all his life been quite so
+warm. His legs ached. He was tired and thirsty and hungry. It was so
+still that the silence hurt, and that fence corner was nowhere in sight.
+He could not, now reach home before dark, even should he turn back;
+which, he decided grimly, he would not do. He would ride that fence if
+he camped three nights on the journey.
+
+Suddenly he sprang to his feet, waving his hat, hallooing and yelling
+like a madman. Two horsemen were riding on the other side of the fence,
+along the slope of the next ridge, at the edge of the timber. In vain
+Patches strove to attract their attention. If they heard him, they gave
+no sign, and presently he saw them turn, ride in among the cedars, and
+disappear. In desperation he ran along the fence, down the hill, across
+the narrow little valley, and up the ridge over which the riders had
+gone. On the top of the ridge he stopped again, to spend the last of his
+breath in another series of wild shouts. But there was no answer. Nor
+could he be sure, even, which way the horsemen had gone.
+
+Dropping down in the shade of a cedar, exhausted by his strenuous
+exertion, and wet with honest perspiration, he struggled for breath and
+fanned his hot face with his hat. Perhaps he even used some of the
+cowboy words that he had heard Curly and Bob employ when Little Billy
+was not around After the noise of his frantic efforts, the silence was
+more oppressive than ever. The Cross-Triangle ranch house was,
+somewhere, endless miles away.
+
+Then a faint sound in the narrow valley below him caught his ear.
+Turning quickly, he looked back the way he had come. Was he dreaming, or
+was it all just a part of the magic of that wonderful land? A young
+woman was riding toward him--coming at an easy swinging lope--and,
+following, at the end of a riata, was the cheerfully wise and
+philosophic Snip.
+
+Patches' first thought--when he had sufficiently recovered I from his
+amazement to think at all--was that the woman rode as he had never seen
+a woman ride before. Dressed in the divided skirt of corduroy, the
+loose, soft, gray shirt, gauntleted gloves, mannish felt hat, and boots,
+usual to Arizona horsewomen, she seemed as much at ease in the saddle as
+any cowboy in the land; and, indeed, she was.
+
+As she came up the slope, the man in the shade of the cedar saw that she
+was young. Her lithe, beautifully developed body yielded to the movement
+of the spirited horse she rode with the unspoiled grace of health and
+youth. Still nearer, and he saw her clear cheeks glowing with the
+exercise and excitement, her soft, brown hair under the wide brim of the
+gray sombrero, and her dark eyes, shining with the fun of her adventure.
+Then she saw him, and smiled; and Patches remembered what the Dean had
+said: "If there's a man in Yavapai County who wouldn't ride the hoofs
+off the best horse in his outfit to win a smile from Kitty Reid, he
+ought to be lynched."
+
+As the man stood, hat in hand, she checked her horse, and, in a voice
+that matched the smile so full of fun and the clean joy of living
+greeted him.
+
+"You are Mr. Honorable Patches, are you not?"
+
+Patches bowed. "Miss Reid, I believe?"
+
+She frankly looked her surprise. "Why, how did you know me?"
+
+"Your good friend, Mr. Baldwin, described you," he smiled.
+
+She colored and laughed to hide her slight embarrassment. "The dear old
+Dean is prejudiced, I fear."
+
+"Prejudiced he may be," Patches admitted, "but his judgement is
+unquestionable. And," he added gently, as her face grew grave and her
+chin lifted slightly, "his confidence in any man might be considered an
+endorsement, don't you think?"
+
+"Indeed, yes," she agreed heartily, her slight coldness vanishing
+instantly. "The Dean and Stella told me all about you this afternoon, or
+I should not have ventured to introduce myself. I am very pleased to
+meet you, Mr. Patches," she finished with a mock formality that was
+delightful.
+
+"And I am delighted to meet you, Miss Reid, for so many reasons that I
+can't begin to tell you of them," he responded laughing. "And now, may I
+ask what good magic brings you like a fairy in the story book to the
+rescue of a poor stranger in the hour of his despair? Where did you find
+my faithless Snip? How did you know where to find me? Where is the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch? How many miles is it to the nearest water? Is it
+possible for me to get home in time for supper?" Looking down at him she
+laughed as only Kitty Reid could laugh.
+
+"You're making fun of me," he charged; "they all do. And I don't blame
+them in the least; I have been laughing at myself all day."
+
+"I'll answer your last question first," she returned. "Yes, you can
+easily reach the Cross-Triangle in time for supper, if you start at
+once. I will explain the magic as we ride."
+
+"You are going to show me the way?" he cried eagerly, starting toward
+his horse.
+
+"I really think it would be best," she said demurely.
+
+"Now I know you are a good fairy, or a guardian angel, or something like
+that," he returned, setting his foot in the stirrup to mount. Then
+suddenly he paused, with, "Wait a minute, please. I nearly forgot." And
+very carefully he examined the saddle girth to see that it was tight.
+
+"If you had remembered to throw your bridle rein over Snip's head when
+you left him, you wouldn't have needed a guardian angel this time," she
+said.
+
+He looked at her blankly over the patient Snip's back.
+
+"And so that was what made him go away? I knew I had done some silly
+thing that I ought not. That's the only thing about myself that I am
+always perfectly sure of," he added as he mounted. "You see I can always
+depend upon myself to make a fool of myself. It was that bad place in
+the fence that did it." He pulled up his horse suddenly as they were
+starting. "And that reminds me; there is one thing you positively must
+tell me before I can go a foot, even toward supper. How much farther is
+it to the corner of this field?"
+
+She looked at him in pretty amazement. "To the corner of this field?"
+
+"Yes, I knew, of course, that if I followed the fence it was bound to
+lead me around the field and so back to where I started. That's why I
+kept on; I thought I could finish the job and get home, even if Snip did
+compel me to ride the fence on foot."
+
+"But don't you know that this is a drift fence?" she asked, her eyes
+dancing with fun.
+
+"That's what the Dean called it," he admitted. "But if it's drifting
+anywhere, it's going end on. Perhaps that's why I couldn't catch the
+corner."
+
+"But there is no corner to a drift fence," she cried.
+
+"No corner?"
+
+She shook her head as if not trusting herself to speak.
+
+"And it doesn't go around anything--there is no field?" Again she shook
+her head.
+
+"Just runs away out in the country somewhere and stops?"
+
+She nodded. "It must be eighteen or twenty miles from here to the end."
+
+"Well, of all the silly fences!" he exclaimed, looking away to the
+mountain peaks toward which he had been so laboriously making his way.
+"Honestly, now, do you think that is any way for a respectable fence to
+act? And the Dean told me to be sure and get home before dark!"
+
+Then they laughed together--laughed until their horses must have
+wondered.
+
+As they rode on, she explained the purpose of the drift fence, and how
+it came to an end so many miles away and so far from water that the
+cattle do not usually find their way around it.
+
+"And now the magic!" he said. "You have made a most unreasonable,
+unconventional and altogether foolish fence appear reasonable, proper
+and perfectly sane. Please explain your coming with Snip to my relief."
+
+"Which was also unreasonable, unconventional and altogether foolish?"
+she questioned.
+
+"Which was altogether wonderful, unexpected and delightful," he
+retorted.
+
+"It is all perfectly simple," she explained. "Being rather--" She
+hesitated. "Well, rather sick of too much of nothing at all, you know, I
+went over to the Cross-Triangle right after dinner to visit a little
+with Stella--professionally."
+
+"Professionally?" he asked.
+
+She nodded brightly. "For the good of my soul. Stella's a famous soul
+doctor. The best ever except one, and she lives far away--away back east
+in Cleveland, Ohio."
+
+"Yes, I know her, too," he said gravely.
+
+And while they laughed at the absurdity of his assertion, they did not
+know until long afterward how literally true it was.
+
+"Of course, I knew about you," she continued. "Phil told me how you
+tried to ride that unbroken horse, the last time he was at our house.
+Phil thinks you are quite a wonderful man."
+
+"No doubt," said Patches mockingly. "I must have given a remarkable
+exhibition on that occasion." He was wondering just how much Phil had
+told her.
+
+"And so, you see," she continued, "I couldn't very well help being
+interested in the welfare of the stranger who had come among us.
+Besides, our traditional western hospitality demanded it; don't you
+think?"
+
+"Oh, certainly, certainly. You could really do nothing less than inquire
+about me," he agreed politely.
+
+"And so, you see, Stella quite restored my soul health; or at least
+afforded me temporary relief."
+
+He met the quizzing, teasing, laughing look in her eyes blankly. "You
+are making fun of me again," he said humbly. "I know I ought to laugh at
+myself, but--"
+
+"Why, don't you understand?" she cried. "Dr. Stella administered a
+generous dose of talk about the only new thing that has happened in this
+neighborhood for months and months and months."
+
+"Meaning me?" he asked.
+
+"Well, are you not?" she retorted.
+
+"I guess I am," he smiled. "Well, and then what?"
+
+"Why, then I came away, feeling much better, of course."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"I was feeling so much better I decided I would go home a roundabout
+way; perhaps to the top of Black Hill; perhaps up Horse Wash, where I
+might meet father, who would be on his way home from Fair Oaks where he
+went this morning."
+
+"I see."
+
+"Well, so I met Snip, who was on his way to the Cross-Triangle. I knew,
+of course, that old Snip would be your horse." She smiled, as though to
+rob her words of any implied criticism of his horsemanship.
+
+"Exactly," he agreed understandingly.
+
+"And I was afraid that something might have happened; though I couldn't
+see how that could be, either, with Snip. And so I caught him--"
+
+He interrupted eagerly. "How?"
+
+"Why, with my riata," she returned, in a matter-of-fact tone, wondering
+at his question.
+
+"You caught my horse with your riata?" he repeated slowly.
+
+"And pray how should I have caught him?" she asked.
+
+"But--but, didn't he _run_?"
+
+She laughed. "Of course he ran. They all do that once they get away from
+you. But Snip never could outrun my Midnight," she retorted.
+
+He shook his head slowly, looking at her with frank admiration, as
+though, for the first time, he understood what a rare and wonderful
+creature she was.
+
+"And you can ride and rope like that?" he said doubtfully.
+
+She flushed hotly, and there was a spark of fire in the brown eyes. "I
+suppose you are thinking that I am coarse and mannish and all that," she
+said with spirit. "By your standards, Mr. Patches, I should have ridden
+back to the house, screaming, ladylike, for help."
+
+"No, no," he protested. "That's not fair. I was thinking how wonderful
+you are. Why, I would give--what wouldn't I give to be able to do a
+thing like that!"
+
+There was no mistaking his earnestness, and Kitty was all sunshine
+again, pardoning him with a smile.
+
+"You see," she explained, "I have always lived here, except my three
+years at school. Father taught me to use a riata, as he taught me to
+ride and shoot, because--well--because it's all a part of this life, and
+very useful sometimes; just as it is useful to know about hotels and
+time-tables and taxicabs, in that other part of the world."
+
+"I understand," he said gently. "It was stupid of me to notice it. I beg
+your pardon for interrupting the story of my rescue. You had just roped
+Snip while he was doing his best to outrun Midnight--simple and easy as
+calling a taxi--'Number Two Thousand Euclid Avenue, please'--and there
+you are."
+
+"Oh, do you know Cleveland?" she cried.
+
+For an instant he was confused. Then he said easily, "Everybody has
+heard of the famous Euclid Avenue. But how did you guess where Snip had
+left me?"
+
+"Why, Stella had told me that you were riding the drift fence," she
+answered, tactfully ignoring the evasion of her question. "I just
+followed the fence. So there was no magic about it at all, you see."
+
+"I'm not so sure about the magic," he returned slowly.
+
+"This is such a wonderful country--to me--that one can never be quite
+sure about anything. At least, I can't. But perhaps that's because I am
+such a new thing."
+
+"And do you like it?" she asked, frankly curious about him.
+
+"Like being a new thing?" he parried. "Yes and No."
+
+"I mean do you like this wonderful country, as you call it?"
+
+"I admire the people who belong to it tremendously," he returned. "I
+never met such men before--or such women," he finished with a smile.
+
+"But, do you like it?" she persisted. "Do you like the life--your
+work--would you be satisfied to live here always?"
+
+"Yes and No," he answered again, hesitatingly.
+
+"Oh, well," she said, with, he thought, a little bitterness and
+rebellion, "it doesn't really matter to you whether you like it or not,
+because _you_ are a man. If you are not satisfied with your environment,
+you can leave it--go away somewhere else--make yourself a part of some
+other life."
+
+He shook his head, wondering a little at her earnestness. "That does not
+always follow. Can a man, just because he is a man, always have or do
+just what he likes?"
+
+"If he's strong enough," she insisted. "But a woman must always do what
+other people like."
+
+He was sure now that she was speaking rebelliously.
+
+She continued, "Can't you, if you are not satisfied with this life here,
+go away?"
+
+"Yes, but not necessarily to any life I might desire. Perhaps some
+sheriff wants me. Perhaps I am an escaped convict. Perhaps--oh, a
+thousand things."
+
+She laughed aloud in spite of her serious mood. "What nonsense!"
+
+"But, why nonsense? What do you and your friends know of me?"
+
+"We know that you are not that kind of a man," she retorted warmly,
+"because"--she hesitated--"well, because you are _not_ that sort of a
+man."
+
+"Are you sure you don't mean because I am not man enough to make myself
+wanted very badly, even by the sheriff?" he asked, and Kitty could not
+mistake the bitterness in his voice.
+
+"Why, Mr. Patches!" she cried. "How could you think I meant such a
+thing? Forgive me! I was only wondering foolishly what you, a man of
+education and culture, could find in this rough life that would appeal
+to you in any way. My curiosity is unpardonable, I suppose, but you must
+know that we are all wondering why you are here."
+
+"I do not blame you," he returned, with that self-mocking smile, as
+though he were laughing at himself. "I told you I could always be
+depended upon to make a fool of myself. You see I am doing it now. I
+don't mind telling you this much--that I am here for the same reason
+that you went to visit Mrs. Baldwin this afternoon."
+
+"For the good of your soul?" she asked gently.
+
+"Exactly," he returned gravely. "For the good of my soul."
+
+"Well, then, Mr. Honorable Patches, here's to your soul's good health!"
+she cried brightly, checking her horse and holding out her hand. "We
+part here. You can see the Cross-Triangle buildings yonder. I go this
+way."
+
+He looked his pleasure, as he clasped her hand in hearty understanding
+of the friendship offered.
+
+"Thank you, Miss Reid. I still maintain that the Dean's judgment is
+unquestionable."
+
+She was not at all displeased with his reply.
+
+"By the way," she said, as if to prove her friendship. "I suppose you
+know what to expect from Uncle Will and the boys when they learn of your
+little adventure?"
+
+"I do," he answered, as if resigned to anything.
+
+"And do you enjoy making fun for them?"
+
+"I assure you, Miss Reid, I am very human."
+
+"Well, then, why don't you turn the laugh on them?"
+
+"But how?"
+
+"They are expecting you to get into some sort of a scrape, don't you
+think?"
+
+"They are always expecting that. And," he added, with that droll touch
+in his voice, "I must say I rarely disappoint them."
+
+"I suspect," she continued, thoughtfully, "that the Dean purposely did
+not explain that drift fence to you."
+
+"He has established precedents that would justify my thinking so, I'll
+admit."
+
+"Well, then, why don't you ride cheerfully home and report the progress
+of your work as though nothing had happened?"
+
+"You mean that you won't tell?" he cried.
+
+She nodded gaily. "I told them this afternoon that it wasn't fair for
+you to have no one but Stella on your side."
+
+"What a good Samaritan you are! You put me under an everlasting
+obligation to you."
+
+"All right," she laughed. "I'm glad you feel that way about it. I shall
+hold that debt against you until some day when I am in dreadful need,
+and then I shall demand payment in full. Good-by!"
+
+And once again Kitty had spoken, in jest, words that held for them both,
+had they but known, great significance.
+
+Patches watched until she was out of sight. Then he made his way
+happily to the house to receive, with a guilty conscience but with a
+light heart, congratulations and compliments upon his safe return.
+
+That evening Phil disappeared somewhere, in the twilight. And a little
+later Jim Reid rode into the Cross-Triangle dooryard.
+
+The owner of the Pot-Hook-S was a big man, tall and heavy, outspoken and
+somewhat gruff, with a manner that to strangers often seemed near to
+overbearing. When Patches was introduced, the big cattleman looked him
+over suspiciously, spoke a short word in response to Patches'
+commonplace, and abruptly turned his back to converse with the
+better-known members of the household.
+
+For an hour, perhaps, they chatted about matters of general interest, as
+neighbors will; then the caller arose to go, and the Dean walked with
+him to his horse. When the two men were out of hearing of the people on
+the porch Reid asked in a low voice, "Noticed any stock that didn't look
+right lately, Will?"
+
+"No. You see, we haven't been ridin' scarcely any since the Fourth. Phil
+and the boys have been busy with the horses every day, an' this new man
+don't count, you know."
+
+"Who is he, anyway?" asked Reid bluntly.
+
+"I don't know any more than that he says his name is Patches."
+
+"Funny name," grunted Jim.
+
+"Yes, but there's a lot of funny names, Jim," the Dean answered quietly.
+"I don't know as Patches is any funnier than Skinner or Foote or Hogg,
+or a hundred other names, when you come to think about it. We ain't
+just never happened to hear it before, that's all."
+
+"Where did you pick him up?"
+
+"He just came along an' wanted work. He's green as they make 'em, but
+willin', an' he's got good sense, too."
+
+"I'd go slow 'bout takin' strangers in," said the big man bluntly.
+
+"Shucks!" retorted the Dean. "Some of the best men I ever had was
+strangers when I hired 'em. Bein' a stranger ain't nothin' against a
+man. You and me would be strangers if we was to go many miles from
+Williamson Valley. Patches is a good man, I tell you. I'll stand for
+him, all right. Why, he's been out all day, alone, ridin' the drift
+fence, just as good any old-timer."
+
+"The drift fence!"
+
+"Yes, it's in pretty bad shape in places."
+
+"Yes, an' I ran onto a calf over in Horse Wash, this afternoon, not four
+hundred yards from the fence on the Tailholt side, fresh-branded with
+the Tailholt iron, an' I'll bet a thousand dollars it belongs to a
+Cross-Triangle cow."
+
+"What makes you think it was mine?" asked the Dean calmly.
+
+"Because it looked mighty like some of your Hereford stock, an' because
+I came on through the Horse Wash gate, an' about a half mile on this
+side, I found one of your cows that had just lost her calf."
+
+"They know we're busy an' ain't ridin' much, I reckon," mused the Dean.
+
+"If I was you, I'd put some hand that I knew to ridin' that drift
+fence," returned Jim significantly, as he mounted his horse to go.
+
+"You're plumb wrong, Jim," returned the Dean earnestly. "Why, the man
+don't know a Cross-Triangle from a Five-Bar, or a Pot-Hook-S."
+
+"It's your business, Will; I just thought I'd tell you," growled Reid.
+"Good-night!"
+
+"Good-night, Jim! I'm much obliged to you for ridin' over."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THINGS THAT ENDURE.
+
+
+When Kitty Reid told Patches that it was her soul sickness, from too
+much of nothing at all, that had sent her to visit Mrs. Baldwin that
+afternoon, she had spoken more in earnest than in jest. More than this,
+she had gone to the Cross-Triangle hoping to meet the stranger, of whom
+she had heard so much. Phil had told Kitty that she would like Patches.
+As Phil had put it, the man spoke her language; he could talk to her of
+people and books and those things of which the Williamson Valley folk
+knew so little.
+
+But as she rode slowly homeward after leaving Patches, she found herself
+of two minds regarding the incident. She had enjoyed meeting the man; he
+had interested and amused her; had taken her out of herself, for she was
+not slow to recognize that the man really did belong to that world which
+was so far from the world of her childhood. And she was glad for the
+little adventure that, for one afternoon, at least, had broken the dull,
+wearying monotony of her daily life. But the stranger, by the very fact
+of his belonging to that other world, had stimulated her desire for
+those things which in her home life and environment she so greatly
+missed. He had somehow seemed to magnify the almost unbearable
+commonplace narrowness of her daily routine. He had made her even more
+restless, disturbed and dissatisfied. It had been to her as when one in
+some foreign country meets a citizen from one's old home town. And for
+this Kitty was genuinely sorry. She did not wish to feel as she did
+about her home and the things that made the world of those she loved.
+She had tried honestly to still the unrest and to deny the longing. She
+had wished many times, since her return from the East, that she had
+never left her home for those three years in school. And yet, those
+years had meant much to her; they had been wonderful years; but they
+seemed, somehow--now that they were past and she was home again--to have
+brought her only that unrest and longing.
+
+From the beginning of her years until that first great crisis in her
+life--her going away to school--this world into which she was born had
+been to Kitty an all-sufficient world. The days of her childhood had
+been as carefree and joyous, almost, as the days of the young things of
+her father's roaming herds. As her girlhood years advanced, under her
+mother's wise companionship and careful teaching, she had grown into her
+share of the household duties and into a knowledge of woman's part in
+the life to which she belonged, as naturally as her girlish form had put
+on the graces of young womanhood. The things that filled the days of her
+father and mother, and the days of her neighbors and friends, had filled
+her days. The things that were all in all to those she loved had been
+all in all to her. And always, through those years, from her earliest
+childhood to her young womanhood, there was Phil, her playmate,
+schoolmate, protector, hero, slave. That Phil should be her boy
+sweetheart and young man lover had seemed as natural to Kitty as her
+relation to her parents. There had never been anyone else but Phil.
+There never could be--she was sure, in those days--anyone else.
+
+In Kitty's heart that afternoon, as she rode, so indifferent to the life
+that called from every bush and tree and grassy hill and distant
+mountain, there was sweet regret, deep and sincere, for those years that
+were now, to her, so irrevocably gone. Kitty did not know how impossible
+it was for her to ever wholly escape the things that belonged to her
+childhood and youth. Those things of her girlhood, out of which her
+heart and soul had been fashioned, were as interwoven in the fabric of
+her being as the vitality, strength and purity of the clean, wholesome,
+outdoor life of those same years were wrought into the glowing health
+and vigor and beauty of her physical womanhood.
+
+And then had come those other years--the maturing, ripening years--when,
+from the simple, primitive and enduring elements of life, she had gone
+to live amid complex, cultivated and largely fanciful standards and
+values. In that land of Kitty's birth a man is measured by the measure
+of his manhood; a woman is ranked by the quality of her womanhood.
+Strength and courage, sincerity, honesty, usefulness--these were the
+prime essentials of the man life that Kitty had, in those years of her
+girlhood, known; and these, too, in their feminine expressions, were the
+essentials of the woman life. But from these the young woman had gone
+to be educated in a world where other things are of first importance.
+She had gone to be taught that these are not the essential elements of
+manhood and womanhood. Or, at least, if she was not to be deliberately
+so taught, these things would be so ignored and neglected and overlooked
+in her training, that the effect on her character would be the same. In
+that new world she was to learn that men and women are not to be
+measured by the standards of manhood and womanhood--that they were to be
+rated, not for strength, but for culture; not for courage, but for
+intellectual cleverness; not for sincerity, but for manners; not for
+honesty, but for success; not for usefulness, but for social position,
+which is most often determined by the degree of uselessness. It was as
+though the handler of gems were to attach no value whatever to the
+weight of the diamond itself, but to fix the worth of the stone wholly
+by the cutting and polish that the crystal might receive.
+
+At first, Kitty had been excited, bewildered and fascinated by the
+glittering, sparkling, ever-changing, many-faceted life. Then she had
+grown weary and homesick. And then, as the months had passed, and she
+had been drawn more and more by association and environment into the
+world of down-to-dateism she, too, began to regard the sparkle of the
+diamond as the determining factor in the value of the gem. And when the
+young woman had achieved this, they called her education finished, and
+sent her back to the land over which Granite Mountain, gray and grim and
+fortress-like, with its ranks of sentinel bills? keeps enduring and
+unchanging watch.
+
+During those first glad days of Kitty's homecoming she had been eagerly
+interested in everything. The trivial bits of news about the small
+doings of her old friends had been delightful. The home life, with its
+simple routine and its sweet companionship, had been restful and
+satisfying. The very scenes of her girlhood had seemed to welcome her
+with a spirit of genuineness and steadfastness that had made her feel as
+one entering a safe home harbor after a long and adventurous voyage to
+far-away and little-known lands. And Phil, in the virile strength of his
+manhood, in the simple bigness of his character, and in his enduring and
+unchanging love, had made her feel his likeness to the primitive land of
+his birth.
+
+But when the glad excitement of those first days of her return were
+past, when the meetings with old friends were over and the tales of
+their doings exhausted, then Kitty began to realize what her education,
+as they called it, really meant. The lessons of those three years were
+not to be erased from her life as one would erase a mistake in a problem
+or a misspelled word. The tastes, habits of thought and standards of
+life, the acquirement of which constituted her culture, would not be
+denied. It was inevitable that there should be a clash between the
+claims of her home life and the claims of that life to which she now
+felt that she also belonged.
+
+However odious comparisons may be, they are many times inevitable.
+Loyally, Kitty tried to magnify the worth of those things that in her
+girlhood had been the supreme things in her life, but, try as she might,
+they were now, in comparison with those things which her culture placed
+first, of trivial importance. The virile strength and glowing health of
+Phil's unspoiled manhood--beautiful as the vigorous life of one of the
+wild horses from which he had his nickname--were overshadowed, now, by
+the young man's inability to clothe his splendid body in that fashion
+which her culture demanded. His simple and primitive views of life--as
+natural as the instinct which governs all creatures in his
+God-cultivated world--were now unrefined, ignoble, inelegant. His fine
+nature and unembarrassed intelligence, which found in the wealth of
+realities amid which he lived abundant food for his intellectual life,
+and which enabled him to see clearly, observe closely and think with
+such clean-cut directness, beside the intellectuality of those schooled
+in the thoughts of others, appeared as ignorance and illiteracy. The
+very fineness and gentleness of his nature were now the distinguishing
+marks of an uncouth and awkward rustic.
+
+With all her woman heart Kitty had fought against these comparisons--and
+continued to make them. Everything in her nature that belonged to
+Granite Mountain--that was, in short, the product of that land--answered
+to Phil's call, as instinctively as the life of that land calls and
+answers Its mating calls. Everything that she had acquired in those
+three years of a more advanced civilization denied and repulsed him. And
+now her meeting with Patches had stirred the warring forces to renewed
+activity, and in the distracting turmoil of her thoughts she found
+herself hating the land she loved, loathing the life that appealed to
+her with such insistent power, despising those whom she so dearly
+esteemed and honored, and denying the affection of which she was proud
+with a true woman's tender pride.
+
+Kitty was aroused from her absorption by the shrill boyish yells of her
+two younger brothers, who, catching sight of their sister from the top
+of one of the low hills that edge the meadow bottom lands, were charging
+recklessly down upon her.
+
+As the clatter and rumble of those eight flying hoofs drew nearer and
+nearer, Midnight, too, "came alive," as the cowboys say, and tossed his
+head and pranced with eager impatience.
+
+"Where in the world have you been all the afternoon?" demanded Jimmy,
+with twelve-year-old authority, as his pony slid to a halt within a foot
+or two of his sister's horse.
+
+And, "We wanted you to go with us, to see our coyote traps," reproved
+Conny--two years younger than his brother--as his pinto executed a like
+maneuver on the other side of the excited Midnight.
+
+"And where is Jack?" asked the young woman mischievously, as she
+smilingly welcomed the vigorous lads.
+
+"Couldn't he help?"
+
+Jack was the other member of the Reid trio of boys--a lusty
+four-year-old who felt himself equal to any venture that interested his
+brothers.
+
+Jimmy grinned. "Aw, mama coaxed him into the kitchen with something to
+eat while me and Conny sneaked down to the corral and saddled up and
+beat it."
+
+Big sister's dark eyebrows arched in shocked inquiry, "_Me_ and Conny?"
+
+"That is, Conny and I," amended Jimmy, with good-natured tolerance of
+his sister's whims.
+
+"You see, Kitty," put in Conny, "this hero coyote traps pin' ain't just
+fun. It's business. Dad's promised us three dollars for every scalp, an'
+we're aimin' to make a stake. We didn't git a blamed thing, to-day,
+though."
+
+Sister's painful and despairing expression was blissfully ignored as
+Jimmy stealthily flicked the long romal at the end of his bridle reins
+against Midnight's flank.
+
+"Gee!" observed the tickled youngster, as Kitty gave all her attention
+to restraining the fretting and indignant horse, "ol' Midnight is sure
+some festive, ain't he?"
+
+"I'll race you both to the big gate," challenged Kitty.
+
+"For how much?" demanded Jimmy quickly.
+
+"You got to give us fifty yards start," declared Conny, leaning forward
+in his saddle and shortening his reins.
+
+"If I win, you boys go straight to bed to-night, when it's time, without
+fussing," said Kitty, "and I'll give you to that oak bush yonder."
+
+"Good enough! You're on!" they shouted in chorus, and loped away.
+
+As they passed the handicap mark, another shrill, defiant yell came
+floating back to where Kitty sat reining in her impatient Midnight. At
+the signal, the two ponies leaped from a lope into a full run, while
+Kitty loosed the restraining rein and the black horse stretched away in
+pursuit. Spurs ring, shouting, entreating, the two lads urged their
+sturdy mounts toward the goal, and the pintos answered gamely with all
+that they had. Over knolls and washes, across arroyos and gullies they
+flew, sure-footed and eager, neck and neck, while behind them, drawing
+nearer and nearer, came the black, with body low, head outstretched and
+limbs that moved apparently with the timed regularity and driving power
+of a locomotive's piston rod. As she passed them, Kitty shouted a merry
+"Come on!" which they answered with redoubled exertion and another yell
+of hearty boyish admiration for the victorious Midnight and his
+beautiful rider.
+
+"Doggone that black streak!" exclaimed Jimmy, his eyes dancing with fun
+as they pulled up at the corral gate.
+
+"He opens and shuts like a blamed ol' jack rabbit," commented Conny.
+"Seemed like we was just a-sittin' still watchin' you go by."
+
+Kitty laughed, teasingly, and unconsciously slipped into the vernacular
+as she returned, "Did you kids think you were a-horseback?"
+
+"You just wait, Miss," retorted the grinning Jimmy, as he opened the big
+gate. "I'll get a horse some day that'll run circles around that ol'
+black scound'el."
+
+And then, as they dismounted at the door of the saddle room in the big
+barn, he added generously, "You scoot on up to the house, Kitty; I'll
+take care of Midnight. It must be gettin' near supper time, an' I'm
+hungry enough to eat a raw dog."
+
+At which alarming statement Kitty promptly scooted, stopping only long
+enough at the windmill pump for a cool, refreshing drink.
+
+Mrs. Reid, with sturdy little Jack helping, was already busy in the
+kitchen. She was a motherly woman, rather below Kitty's height, and
+inclined somewhat to a comfortable stoutness. In her face was the gentle
+strength and patience of those whose years have been spent in
+home-making, without the hardness that is sometimes seen in the faces of
+those whose love is not great enough to soften their tail. One knew by
+the light in her eyes whenever she spoke of Kitty, or, indeed, whenever
+the girl's name was mentioned, how large a place her only daughter held
+in her mother heart.
+
+While the two worked together at their homely task, the girl related in
+trivial detail the news of the neighborhood, and repeated faithfully the
+talk she had had with the mistress of the Cross-Triangle, answering all
+her mother's questions, replying with careful interest to the older
+woman's comments, relating all that was known or guessed, or observed
+regarding the stranger. But of her meeting with Patches, Kitty said
+little; only that she had met him as she was coming home. All during the
+evening meal, too, Patches was the principal topic of the conversation,
+though Mr. Reid, who had arrived home just in time for supper, said
+little.
+
+When supper was over, and the evening work finished, Kitty sat on the
+porch in the twilight, looking away across the wide valley meadows,
+toward the light that shone where the walnut trees about the
+Cross-Triangle ranch house made a darker mass in the gathering gloom.
+Her father had gone to call upon the Dean. The men were at the
+bunk-house, from which their voices came low and indistinct. Within the
+house the mother was coaxing little Jack to bed. Jimmy and Conny, at the
+farther end of the porch, were planning an extensive campaign against
+coyotes, and investing the unearned profits of their proposed industry.
+
+Kitty's thoughts were many miles away. In that bright and stirring
+life--so far from the gloomy stillness of her home land, where she sat
+so alone--what gay pleasures held her friends? Amid what brilliant
+scenes were they spending the evening, while she sat in her dark and
+silent world alone? As her memory pictured the lights, the stirring
+movement, the music, the merry-voiced talk, the laughter, the gaiety,
+the excitement, the companionship of those whose lives were so full of
+interest, her heart rebelled at the dull emptiness of her days. As she
+watched the evening dusk deepen into the darkness of the night, and the
+outlines of the familiar landscape fade and vanish in the thickening
+gloom, she felt the dreary monotony of the days and years that were to
+come, blotting out of her life all tone and color and forms of
+brightness and beauty.
+
+Then she saw, slowly emerging from the shadows of the meadow below, a
+darker shadow--mysterious, formless--that seemed, as it approached, to
+shape itself out of the very darkness through which it came, until,
+still dim and indistinct, a horseman was opening the meadow gate. Before
+the cowboy answered Jimmy's boyish "Hello!" Kitty knew that it was Phil.
+
+The young woman's first impulse was to retreat to the safe seclusion of
+her own room. But, even as she arose to her feet, she knew how that
+would hurt the man who had always been so good to her; and so she went
+generously down the walk to meet him where he would dismount and leave
+his horse.
+
+"Did you see father?" she asked, thinking as she spoke how little there
+was for them to talk about.
+
+"Why, no. What's the matter?" he returned quickly, pausing as if ready
+to ride again at her word.
+
+She laughed a little at his manner. "There is nothing the matter. He
+just went over to see the Dean, that's all."
+
+"I must have missed him crossing the meadow," returned Phil. "He always
+goes around by the road."
+
+Then, when he stood beside her, he added gently, "But there is something
+the matter, Kitty. What is it? Lonesome for the bright lights?"
+
+That was always Phil's way, she thought. He seemed always to know
+instinctively her every mood and wish.
+
+"Perhaps I was a little lonely," she admitted. "I am glad that you
+came."
+
+Then they were at the porch, and her ambitious brothers were telling
+Phil in detail their all-absorbing designs against the peace of the
+coyote tribe, and asking his advice. Mrs. Reid came to sit with them
+a-while, and again the talk followed around the narrow circle of their
+lives, until Kitty felt that she could bear no more. Then Mrs. Reid,
+more merciful than she knew, sent the boys to bed and retired to her own
+room.
+
+"And so you are tired of us all, and want to go back," mused Phil,
+breaking one of the long, silent periods that in these days seemed so
+often to fall upon them when they found themselves alone.
+
+"That's not quite fair, Phil," she returned gently. "You know it's not
+that."
+
+"Well, then, tired of this"--his gesture indicated the sweep of the
+wide land--"tired of what we are and what we do?"
+
+The girl stirred uneasily, but did not speak.
+
+"I don't blame you," he continued, as if thinking aloud. "It must seem
+mighty empty to those who don't really know it."
+
+"And don't I know it?" challenged Kitty. "You seem to forget that I was
+born here--that I have lived here almost as many years as you."
+
+"But just the same you don't know," returned Phil gently. "You see,
+dear, you knew it as a girl, the same as I did when I was a boy. But
+now--well, I know it as a man, and you as a woman know something that
+you think is very different."
+
+Again that long silence lay a barrier between them. Then Kitty made the
+effort, hesitatingly. "Do you love the life so very, very much, Phil?"
+
+He answered quickly. "Yes, but I could love any life that suited you."
+
+"No--no," she returned hurriedly, "that's not--I mean--Phil, why are you
+so satisfied here? There is so little for a man like you."
+
+"So little!" His voice told her that her words had stung. "I told you
+that you did not know. Why, everything that a man has a right to want is
+here. All that life can give anywhere is here--I mean all of life that
+is worth having. But I suppose," he finished lamely, "that it's hard for
+you to see it that way--now. It's like trying to make a city man
+understand why a fellow is never lonesome just because there's no crowd
+around. I guess I love this life and am satisfied with it just as the
+wild horses over there at the foot of old Granite love it and are
+satisfied."
+
+"But don't you feel, sometimes, that if you had greater
+opportunities--don't you sometimes wish that you could live where--" She
+paused at a loss for words. Phil somehow always made the things she
+craved seem so trivial.
+
+"I know what you mean," he answered. "You mean, don't the wild horses
+wish that they could live in a fine stable, and have a lot of men to
+feed and take care of them, and rig them out with fancy, gold-mounted
+harness, and let them prance down the streets for the crowds to see? No;
+horses have more sense than that. It takes a human to make that kind of
+a fool of himself. There's only one thing in the world that would make
+me want to try it, and I guess you know what that is."
+
+His last words robbed his answer of its sting, and she said gently, "You
+are bitter to-night, Phil. It is not like you."
+
+He did not answer.
+
+"Did something go wrong to-day?" she persisted.
+
+He turned suddenly to face her, and spoke with a passion unusual to him.
+"I saw you at the ranch this afternoon--as you were riding away. You did
+not even look toward the corral where you knew I was at work; and it
+seemed like all the heart went clear out of me. Oh, Kitty, girl, can't
+we bring back the old days as they were before you went away?"
+
+"Hush, Phil," she said, almost as she would have spoken to one of her
+boy brothers.
+
+But he went on recklessly. "No, I'm going to speak to-night. Ever since
+you came home you have refused to listen to me--you have put me
+off--made me keep still. I want you to tell me, Kitty, if I were like
+Honorable Patches, would it make any difference?"
+
+"I do not know Mr. Patches," she answered.
+
+"You met him to-day; and you know what I mean. Would it make any
+difference if I were like him?"
+
+"Why, Phil, dear, how can I answer such a question? I do not know."
+
+"Then it's not because I belong here in this country instead of back
+East in some city that has made you change?"
+
+"I have changed, I suppose, because I have become a woman, Phil, as you
+have become a man."
+
+"Yes, I have become a man," he returned, "but I have not changed, except
+that the boy's love has become a man's love. Would it make any
+difference, Kitty, if you cared more for the life here--I mean if you
+were contented here--if these things that mean so much to us all,
+satisfied you?"
+
+Again she answered, "I do not know, Phil. How can I know?"
+
+"Will you try, Kitty--I mean try to like your old home as you used to
+like it?"
+
+"Oh, Phil, I have tried. I do try," she cried. "But I don't think it's
+the life that I like or do not like that makes the difference. I am
+sure, Phil, that if I could"--she hesitated, then went on bravely--"if I
+could give you the love you want, nothing else would matter. You said
+you could like any life that suited me. Don't you think that I could be
+satisfied with any life that suited the man I loved?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "you could; and that's the answer."
+
+"What is the answer?" she asked.
+
+"Love, just love, Kitty--any place with love is a good place, and
+without love no life can satisfy. I am glad you said that. It was what I
+wanted you to say. I know now what I have to do. I am like Patches. I
+have found my job." There was no bitterness in his voice now.
+
+The girl was deeply moved, but--"I don't think I quite understand,
+Phil," she said.
+
+"Why, don't you see?" he returned. "My job is to win your love--to make
+you love me--for myself--for just what I am--as a man--and not to try to
+be something or to live some way that I think you would like. It's the
+man that you must love, and not what he does or where he lives. Isn't
+that it?"
+
+"Yes," she answered slowly. "I am sure that is so. It must be so, Phil."
+
+He rose to his feet abruptly. "All right," he said, almost roughly.
+"I'll go now. But don't make any mistake, Kitty. You're mine, girl,
+mine, by laws that are higher than the things they taught you at school.
+And you are going to find it out. I am going to win you--just as the
+wild things out there win their mates. You are going to come to me,
+girl, because you are mine--because you are my mate."
+
+And then, as she, too, arose, and they stood for a silent moment facing
+each other, the woman felt his strength, and in her woman heart was
+glad--glad and proud, though she could not give all that he asked.
+
+As she watched him ride away into the night, and the soft mystery of the
+darkness out of which he had come seemed to take his shadowy form again
+to itself, she wondered--wondered with regret in the thought--would he,
+perhaps, go thus out of her life? Would he?
+
+When Phil turned his horse into the meadow pasture at home the big bay,
+from somewhere in the darkness, trumpeted his challenge. A low laugh
+came from near by, and in the light of the stars Phil saw a man standing
+by the pasture fence. As he went toward the shadowy figure the voice of
+Patches followed the laugh.
+
+"I'll bet that was Stranger."
+
+"I know it was," answered Phil. "What's the matter that you're not in
+bed?"
+
+"Oh, I was just listening to the horses out there, and thinking,"
+returned Patches.
+
+"Thinking about your job?" asked Phil quietly.
+
+"Perhaps," admitted the other.
+
+"Well, you have no reason to worry; you'll ride him all right," said the
+cowboy.
+
+"I wish I could be as sure," the other returned doubt fully.
+
+And they both knew that they were using the big bay horse as a symbol.
+
+"And I wish I was as sure of making good at my job, as I am that you
+will win out with yours," returned Phil.
+
+Patches' voice was very kind as he said reflectively, "So, you have a
+job, too. I am glad for that."
+
+"Glad?"
+
+"Yes," the tall man placed a hand on the other's shoulder as they turned
+to walk toward the house, "because, Phil, I have come to the conclusion
+that this old world is a mighty empty place for the man who has nothing
+to do."
+
+"But there seems to be a lot of fellows who manage to keep fairly busy
+doing nothing, just the same, don't you think?" replied Phil with a low
+laugh.
+
+"I said _man_'," retorted Patches, with emphasis.
+
+"That's right," agreed Phil. "A man just naturally requires a man's
+job."
+
+"And," mused Patches, "when it's all said and done, I suppose there's
+only one genuine, simon-pure, full-sized man's job in the world."
+
+"And I reckon that's right, too," returned the cowboy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CONCERNING BRANDS.
+
+
+A few days after Jim Reid's evening visit to the Dean two cowboys from
+the Diamond-and-a-Half outfit, on their way to Cherry Creek, stopped at
+the ranch for dinner.
+
+The well-known, open-handed Baldwin hospitality led many a passing rider
+thus aside from the main valley road and through the long meadow lane to
+the Cross-Triangle table. Always there was good food for man and horse,
+with a bed for those who came late in the day; and always there was a
+hearty welcome and talk under the walnut trees with the Dean. And in all
+that broad land there was scarce a cowboy who, when riding the range,
+would not look out for the Dean's cattle with almost the same interest
+and care that he gave to the animals bearing the brand of his own
+employer.
+
+So it was that these riders from the Tonto Flats country told the Dean
+that in looking over the Cross-Triangle cattle watering at Toohey they
+had seen several cases of screwworms.
+
+"We doped a couple of the worst, and branded a calf for you," said
+"Shorty" Myers.
+
+And his companion, Bert Wilson, added, as though apologizing, "We
+couldn't stop any longer because we got to make it over to Wheeler's
+before mornin'."
+
+"Much obliged, boys," returned the Dean. Then, with his ever-ready jest,
+"Sure you put the right brand on that calf?"
+
+"We-all ain't ridin' for no Tailholt Mountain outfit this season,"
+retorted Bert dryly, as they all laughed at the Dean's question.
+
+And at the cowboy's words Patches, wondering, saw the laughing faces
+change and looks of grim significance flash from man to man.
+
+"Anybody seen anything over your way lately?" asked the Dean quietly.
+
+In the moment of silence that followed the visitors looked questioningly
+from the face of Patches to the Dean and then to Phil. Phil smiled his
+endorsement of the stranger, and "Shorty" said, "We found a couple of
+fresh-branded calves what didn't seem to have no mothers last week, and
+Bud Stillwell says some things look kind o' funny over in the D.1
+neighborhood."
+
+Another significant silence followed. To Patches, it seemed as the
+brooding hush that often precedes a storm. He had not missed those
+questioning looks of the visitors, and had seen Phil's smiling
+endorsement, but he could not, of course, understand. He could only
+wonder and wait, for he felt intuitively that he must not speak. It was
+as though these strong men who had received him so generously into
+their lives put him, now, outside their circle, while they considered
+business of grave moment to themselves.
+
+"Well, boys," said the Dean, as if to dismiss the subject, "I've been in
+this cow business a good many years, now, an' I've seen all kinds of men
+come an' go, but I ain't never seen the man yet that could get ahead
+very far without payin' for what he got. Some time, one way or another,
+whether he's so minded or not, a man's just naturally got to pay."
+
+"That law is not peculiar to the cattle business, either, is it, Mr.
+Baldwin?" The words came from Patches, and as they saw his face, it was
+their turn to wonder.
+
+The Dean looked straight into the dark eyes that were so filled with
+painful memories, and wistful desire. "Sir?"
+
+"I mean," said Patches, embarrassed, as though he had spoken
+involuntarily, "that what you say applies to those who live idly--doing
+no useful work whatever--as well as to those who are dishonest in
+business of any kind, or who deliberately steal outright. Don't you
+think so?"
+
+The Dean--his eyes still fixed on the face of the new man--answered
+slowly, "I reckon that's so, Patches. When you come to think about it,
+it _must_ be so. One way or another every man that takes what he ain't
+earned has to pay for it."
+
+"Who is he?" asked the visitors of Curly and Bob, as they went for their
+horses, when the meal was over.
+
+The Cross-Triangle men shook their heads.
+
+"Just blew in one day, and the Dean hired him," said Bob.
+
+"But he's the handiest man with his fists that's ever been in this neck
+of the woods. If you don't believe it, just you start something," added
+Curly with enthusiasm.
+
+"Found it out, did you?" laughed Bert.
+
+"In something less than a minute," admitted Curly.
+
+"Funny name!" mused "Shorty."
+
+Bob grinned. "That's what Curly thought--at first."
+
+"And then he took another think, huh?"
+
+"Yep," agreed Curly, "he sure carries the proper credentials to make any
+name that he wants to wear good enough for me."
+
+The visitors mounted their horses, and sat looking appraisingly at the
+tall figure of Honorable Patches, as that gentleman passed them at a
+little distance, on his way to the barn.
+
+"Mebby you're right," admitted "Shorty," "but he sure talks like a
+schoolmarm, don't he?"
+
+"He sure ain't no puncher," commented Bert.
+
+"No, but I'm gamblin' that he's goin' to be," retorted Curly, ignoring
+the reference to Patches' culture.
+
+"Me, too," agreed Bob.
+
+"Well, we'll all try him out this fall rodeo"; and "better not let him
+drift far from the home ranch for a while," laughed the visitors. "So
+long!" and they were away.
+
+Before breakfast the next morning Phil said to Patches, "Catch up Snip,
+and give him a feed of grain. You'll ride with me to-day."
+
+At Patches' look of surprise he explained laughingly, "I'm going to give
+my school a little vacation, and Uncle Will thinks it's time you were
+out of the kindergarten."
+
+Later, as they were crossing the big pasture toward the country that
+lies to the south, the foreman volunteered the further information that
+for the next few weeks they would ride the range.
+
+"May I ask what for?" said Patches, encouraged by the cowboy's manner.
+
+It was one of the man's peculiarities that he rarely entered into the
+talk of his new friends when their work was the topic of conversation.
+And he never asked questions except when alone with Phil or the Dean,
+and then only when led on by them. It was not that he sought to hide his
+ignorance, for he made no pretenses whatever, but his reticence seemed,
+rather, the result of a curious feeling of shame that he had so little
+in common with these men whose lives were so filled with useful labor.
+And this, if he had known, was one of the things that made them like
+him. Men who live in such close daily touch with the primitive realities
+of life, and who thereby acquire a simple directness, with a certain
+native modesty, have no place in their hearts for--to use their own
+picturesque vernacular--a "four-flusher."
+
+Phil tactfully did not even smile at the question, but answered in a
+matter-of-fact tone. "To look out for screw-worms, brand a calf here
+and there, keep the water holes open, and look out for the stock
+generally."
+
+"And you mean," questioned Patches doubtfully, "that _I_ am to ride with
+you?"
+
+"Sure. You see, Uncle Will thinks you are too good a man to waste on the
+odd jobs around the place, and so I'm going to get you in shape for the
+rodeo this fall."
+
+The effect of his words was peculiar. A deep red colored Patches' face,
+and his eyes shone with a glad light, as he faced his companion. "And
+you--what do you think about it, Phil?" he demanded.
+
+The cowboy laughed at the man's eagerness. "Me? Oh, I think just as I
+have thought all the time--ever since you asked for a job that day in
+the corral."
+
+Patches drew a long breath, and, sitting very straight in the saddle,
+looked away toward Granite Mountain; while Phil, watching him curiously,
+felt something like kindly pity in his heart for this man who seemed to
+hunger so for a man's work, and a place among men.
+
+Just outside the Deep Wash gate of the big pasture, a few cattle were
+grazing in the open flat. As the men rode toward them, Phil took down
+his riata while Patches watched him questioningly.
+
+"We may as well begin right here," said the cowboy. "Do you see anything
+peculiar about anything in that bunch?"
+
+Patches studied the cattle in vain.
+
+"What about that calf yonder?" suggested Phil, leisurely opening the
+loop of his rope. "I mean that six-months youngster with the white
+face."
+
+Still Patches hesitated.
+
+Phil helped him again. "Look at his ears."
+
+"They're not marked," exclaimed Patches.
+
+"And what should they be marked?" asked the teacher.
+
+"Under-bit right and a split left, if he belongs to the
+Cross-Triangle," returned the pupil proudly, and in the same breath he
+exclaimed, "He is not branded either."
+
+Phil smiled approval. "That's right, and we'll just fix him now, before
+somebody else beats us to him." He moved his horse slowly toward the
+cattle as he spoke.
+
+"But," exclaimed Patches, "how do you know that he belongs to the
+Cross-Triangle?"
+
+"He doesn't," returned Phil, laughing. "He belongs to me."
+
+"But I don't see how you can tell."
+
+"I know because I know the stock," Phil explained, "and because I happen
+to remember that particular calf, in the rodeo last spring. He got away
+from us, with his mother, in the cedars and brush over near the head of
+Mint Wash. That's one of the things that you have to learn in this
+business, you see. But, to be sure we're right, you watch him a minute,
+and you'll see him go to a Five-Bar cow. The Five-Bar is my iron, you
+know--I have a few head running with Uncle Will's."
+
+Even as he spoke, the calf, frightened at their closer approach, ran to
+a cow that was branded as Phil had said, and the cow, with unmistakable
+maternal interest in her offspring, proved the ownership of the calf.
+
+"You see?" said Phil. "We'll get that fellow now, because before the
+next rodeo he'll be big enough to leave his mother, and then; if he
+isn't branded, he'll be a maverick, and will belong to anybody that puts
+an iron on him."
+
+"But couldn't someone brand him now, with their brand, and drive him
+away from his mother?" asked Patches.
+
+"Such things have been known to happen, and that not a thousand miles
+from here, either," returned Phil dryly. "But, really, you know, Mr.
+Patches, it isn't done among the best people."
+
+Patches laughed aloud at his companion's attempt at a simpering
+affectation. Then he watched with admiration while the cowboy sent his
+horse after the calf and, too quickly for an inexperienced eye to see
+just how it was done, the deft riata stretched the animal by the heels.
+With a short "hogging" rope, which he carried looped through a hole cut
+in the edge of his chaps near the belt, Phil tied the feet of his
+victim, before the animal had recovered from the shock of the fall; and
+then, with Patches helping, proceeded to build a small fire of dry grass
+and leaves and sticks from a near-by bush. From his saddle, Phil took a
+small iron rod, flattened at one end, and only long enough to permit its
+being held in the gloved hand when the flattened end was hot--a running
+iron, he called it, and explained to his interested pupil, as he thrust
+it into the fire, how some of the boys used an iron ring for range
+branding.
+
+"And is there no way to change or erase a brand?" asked Patches, while
+the iron was heating.
+
+"Sure there is," replied Phil. And sitting on his heels, cowboy fashion,
+he marked on the ground with a stick.
+
+"Look! This is the Cross-Triangle brand: [Illustration]; and this:
+[Illustration], the Four-Bar-M, happens to be Nick Cambert's iron, over
+at Tailholt Mountain. Now, can't you see how, supposing I were Nick, and
+this calf were branded with the Cross-Triangle, I could work the iron
+over into my brand?"
+
+Patches nodded. "But is there no way to detect such a fraud?"
+
+"It's a mighty hard thing to prove that an iron has bees worked over,"
+Phil answered slowly. "About the only sure way is to catch the thief in
+the act."
+
+"But there are the earmarks," said Patches, a few moments later, when
+Phil had released the branded and marked calf--"the earmarks and the
+brand wouldn't agree."
+
+"They would if I were Nick," said the cowboy. Then he added quickly, as
+if regretting his remark, "Our earmark is an under-bit right and a split
+left, you said. Well, the Four-Bar-M earmark is a crop and an under-bit
+right and a swallow-fork left." With the point of his iron now he again
+marked in the dirt. "Here's your Cross-Triangle: [Illustration]; and
+here's your Pour-Bar-M: [Illustration]."
+
+"And if a calf branded with a Tailholt iron were to be found following a
+Cross-Triangle cow, then what?" came Patches' very natural question.
+
+"Then," returned the foreman of the Cross-Triangle grimly, "there would
+be a mighty good chance for trouble."
+
+"But it seems to me," said Patches, as they rode on, "that it would be
+easily possible for a man to brand another man's calf by mistake."
+
+"A man always makes a mistake when he puts his iron on another man's
+property," returned the cowboy shortly.
+
+"But might it not be done innocently, just the same!" persisted Patches.
+
+"Yes, it might," admitted Phil.
+
+"Well, then, what would you do if you found a calf, that you knew
+belonged to the Dean, branded with some other man's brand? I mean, how
+would you proceed?"
+
+"Oh, I see what you are driving at," said Phil in quite a different
+tone. "If you ever run on to a case, the first thing for you to do is to
+be dead sure that the misbranded calf belongs to one of our cows. Then,
+if you are right, and it's not too far, drive the cow and calf into the
+nearest corral and report it. If you can't get them to a corral without
+too much trouble, just put the Cross-Triangle on the calf's ribs. When
+he shows up in the next rodeo, with the right brand on his ribs, and
+some other brand where the right brand ought to be--you'll take pains to
+remember his natural markings, of course--you will explain the
+circumstances, and the owner of the iron that was put on him by mistake
+will be asked to vent his brand. A brand is vented by putting the same
+brand on the animal's shoulder. Look! There's one now." He pointed to an
+animal a short distance away. "See, that steer is branded
+Diamond-and-a-Half on hip and shoulder, and Cross-Triangle on his ribs.
+Well, when he was a yearling he belonged to the Diamond-and-a-Half
+outfit. We picked him up in the rodeo, away over toward Mud Tanks. He
+was running with our stock, and Stillwell didn't want to go to the
+trouble of taking him home--about thirty miles it is--so he sold him to
+Uncle Will, and vented his brand, as you see."
+
+"I see," said Patches, "but that's different from finding a calf
+misbranded."
+
+"Sure. There was no question of ownership there," agreed Phil.
+
+"But in the case of the calf," the cowboy's pupil persisted, "if it had
+left its mother when the man owning the iron was asked to vent it, there
+would be no way of proving the real ownership."
+
+"Nothing but the word of the man who found the calf with its mother,
+and, perhaps, the knowledge of the men who knew the stock."
+
+"What I am getting at," smiled Patches, "is this: it would come down at
+last to a question of men, wouldn't it?"
+
+"That's where most things come to in, the end in this country, Patches.
+But you're right. With owners like Uncle Will, and Jim Reid, and
+Stillwell, and dozens of others; and with cowboys like Curly and Bob and
+Bert and 'Shorty,' there would be no trouble at all about the matter."
+
+"But with others," suggested Patches.
+
+"Well," said Phil slowly, "there are men in this country, who, if they
+refused to vent a brand under such circumstances, would be seeing
+trouble, and mighty quick, too."
+
+"There's another thing that we've got to watch out for, just now," Phil
+continued, a few minutes later, "and that is, 'sleepers'. We'll
+suppose," he explained, "that I want to build up my, bunch of Five-Bars,
+and that I am not too particular about how I do it. Well, I run on to an
+unbranded Pot-Hook-S calf that looks good to me, but I don't dare put my
+iron on him because he's too young to leave his mother. If I let him go
+until he is older, some of Jim Reid's riders will brand him, and, you
+see, I never could work over the Pot-Hook-S iron into my Five-Bar. So I
+earmark the calf with the owner's marks, and don't brand him at all.
+Then he's a sleeper. If the Pot-Hook-S boys see him, they'll notice that
+he's earmarked all right, and very likely they'll take it for granted
+that he's branded, or, perhaps let him go anyway. Before the next rodeo
+I run on to my sleeper again, and he's big enough now to take away from
+the cow, so all I have to do is to change the earmarks and brand him
+with my iron. Of course, I wouldn't get all my sleepers, but--the
+percentage would be in my favor. If too many sleepers show up in the
+rodeo, though, folks would get mighty suspicious that someone was too
+handy with his knife. We got a lot of sleepers in the last rodeo," he
+concluded quietly.
+
+And Patches, remembering what Little Billy had said about Nick Cambert
+and Yavapai Joe, and with the talk of the visiting cowboys still fresh
+in his mind, realized that he was making progress in his education.
+
+Riding leisurely, and turning frequently aside for a nearer view of the
+cattle they sighted here and there, they reached Toohey a little before
+noon. Here, in a rocky hollow of the hills, a small stream wells from
+under the granite walls, only to lose itself a few hundred yards away in
+the sands and gravel of the wash. But, short as its run in the daylight
+is, the water never fails. And many cattle come from the open range that
+lies on every side, to drink, and, in summer time, to spend the heat of
+the day, standing in the cool, wet sands or lying in the shade of the
+giant sycamores that line the bank opposite the bluff. There are corrals
+near-by and a rude cook-shack under the wide-spreading branches of an
+old walnut tree; and the ground of the flat open space, a little back
+from the water, is beaten bare and hard by the thousands upon thousands
+of cattle that have at many a past rodeo-time been gathered there.
+
+The two men found, as the Diamond-and-a-Half riders had said, several
+animals suffering from those pests of the Arizona ranges, the
+screwworms. As Phil explained to Patches while they watered their
+horses, the screwworm is the larva of a blowfly bred in sores on living
+animals. The unhealed wounds of the branding iron made the calves by far
+the most numerous among the sufferers, and were the afflicted animals
+not treated the loss during the season would amount to considerable.
+
+"Look here, Patches," said the cowboy, as his practiced eyes noted the
+number needing attention. "I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll just run
+this hospital bunch into the corral, and you can limber up that riata of
+yours."
+
+And so Patches learned not only the unpleasant work of cleaning the
+worm-infested sores with chloroform, but received his first lesson in
+the use of the cowboy's indispensable tool, the riata.
+
+"What next?" asked Patches, as the last calf escaped through the gate
+which he had just opened, and ran to find the waiting and anxious
+mother.
+
+Phil looked at his companion, and laughed. Honorable Patches showed the
+effect of his strenuous and bungling efforts to learn the rudiments of
+the apparently simple trick of roping a calf. His face was streaked with
+sweat and dust, his hair disheveled, and his clothing soiled and
+stained. But his eyes were bright, and his bearing eager and ready.
+
+"What's the matter?" he demanded, grinning happily at his teacher. "What
+fool thing have I done now?"
+
+"You're doing fine," Phil returned. "I was only thinking that you don't
+look much like the man I met up on the Divide that evening."
+
+"I don't feel much like him, either, as far as that goes," returned
+Patches.
+
+Phil glanced up at the sun. "What do you say to dinner? It must be about
+that time."
+
+"Dinner?"
+
+"Sure. I brought some jerky--there on my saddle--and some coffee. There
+ought to be an old pot in the shack yonder. Some of the boys don't
+bother, but I never like to miss a feed unless it's necessary." He did
+not explain that the dinner was really a thoughtful concession to his
+companion.
+
+"Ugh!" ejaculated Patches, with a shrug of disgust, the work they had
+been doing still fresh in his mind. "I couldn't eat a bite."
+
+"You think that now," retorted Phil, "but you just go down to the creek,
+drink all you can hold, wash up, and see how quick you'll change your
+mind when you smell the coffee."
+
+And thus Patches received yet another lesson--a lesson in the art of
+forgetting promptly the most disagreeable features of his work--an art
+very necessary to those who aspire to master real work of any sort
+whatever.
+
+When they had finished their simple meal, and lay stretched full length
+beneath the overhanging limbs of the age-old tree that had witnessed so
+many stirring scenes, and listened to so many camp-fire tales of ranch
+and range, they talked of things other than their work. In low tones, as
+men who feel a mystic and not-to-be-explained bond of fellowship--with
+half-closed eyes looking out into the untamed world that lay before
+them--they spoke of life, of its mystery and meaning. And Phil, usually
+so silent when any conversation touched himself, and so timid always in
+expressing his own self thoughts, was strangely moved to permit this man
+to look upon the carefully hidden and deeper things of his life. But
+upon his cherished dream--upon his great ambition--he kept the door fast
+closed. The time for that revelation of himself was not yet.
+
+"By the way, Phil," said Patches, when at last his companion signified
+that it was time for them to go. "Where were you educated? I don't think
+that I have heard you say."
+
+"I have no education," returned the young man, with a laugh that, to
+Patches, sounded a bitter note. "I'm just a common cow-puncher, that's
+all."
+
+"I beg your pardon," returned the other, "but I thought from the books
+you mentioned--"
+
+"Oh, the books! Why, you see, some four years ago a real,
+honest-to-goodness book man came out to this country for his health, and
+brought his disease along with him."
+
+"His disease?" questioned Patches.
+
+Phil smiled. "His books, I mean. They killed him, and I fell heir to
+his trouble. He was a good fellow, all right--we all liked him--might
+have been a man if he hadn't been so much of a scholar. I was curious,
+at first, just to see what it was that had got such a grip on him; and
+then I got interested myself. About that time, too, there was a reason
+why I thought it might be a good thing for me; so I sent for more, and
+have made a fairly good job of it in the past three years. I don't think
+that there's any danger, though, of the habit getting the grip on me
+that it had on him," he reflected with a whimsical grin. "It was our
+book friend who first called Uncle Will the Dean."
+
+"The title certainly fits him well," remarked Patches. "I don't wonder
+that it stuck. I suppose you received yours for your riding?"
+
+"Mine?"
+
+"'Wild Horse Phil,' I mean," smiled the other.
+
+Phil laughed. "Haven't you heard that yarn yet? I reckon I may as well
+tell you. No, wait!" he exclaimed eagerly. "We have lots of time. We'll
+ride south a little way and perhaps I can show you."
+
+As they rode away up the creek, Patches wondered much at his companion's
+words and at his manner, but the cowboy shook his head at every
+question, answering, simply, "Wait."
+
+Soon they had left the creek bed--passing through a rock gateway at the
+beginning of the little stream--and were riding up a long, gently
+sloping hollow between two low but rugged ridges. The crest of the rocky
+wall on their left was somewhat higher than the ridge on their right,
+but, as the floor of the long, narrow hollow ascended, the sides of the
+little valley became correspondingly lower. Patches noticed that his
+companion was now keenly alert and watchful. He sat his horse easily,
+but there was a certain air of readiness in his poise, as though he
+anticipated sudden action, while his eyes searched the mountain sides
+with eager expectancy.
+
+They had nearly reached the upper end of the long slope when Phil
+abruptly reined his horse to the left and rode straight up that rugged,
+rock-strewn mountain wall. To Patches it seemed impossible that a horse
+could climb such a place; but he said nothing, and wisely gave Snip his
+head. They were nearly at the top--so near, in fact, that Phil could see
+over the narrow crest--when the cowboy suddenly checked his horse and
+slipped from the saddle. With a gesture he bade his companion follow his
+example, and in a moment Patches stood beside him. Leaving their horses,
+they crept the few remaining feet to the summit. Crouching low, then
+lying prone, they worked their way to the top of a huge rounded rock,
+from which they could look over and down upon the country that lies
+beyond.
+
+Patches uttered a low exclamation, but Phil's instant grip on his arm
+checked further speech.
+
+From where they lay, they looked down upon a great mountain basin of
+gently rolling, native grass land. From the foot of that rocky ridge,
+the beautiful pasture stretches away, several miles, to the bold, gray
+cliffs and mighty, towering battlements of Granite Mountain. On the
+south, a range of dark hills, and to the north, a series of sharp
+peaks, form the natural boundaries.
+
+"Do you see them?" whispered Phil.
+
+Patches looked at him inquiringly. The stranger's interest in that
+wonderful scene had led him to overlook that which held his companion's
+attention.
+
+"There," whispered Phil impatiently, "on the side of that hill
+there--they're not more than four hundred yards away, and they're
+working toward us."
+
+"Do you mean those horses?" whispered Patches, amazed at his companion's
+manner.
+
+Phil nodded.
+
+"Do they belong to the Cross-Triangle?" asked Patches, still mystified.
+
+"The Cross-Triangle!" Phil chuckled. Then, with a note of genuine
+reverence in his voice, he added softly, "They belong to God, Mr.
+Honorable Patches."
+
+Then Patches understood. "Wild horses!" he ejaculated softly.
+
+There are few men, I think, who can look without admiration upon a
+beautifully formed, noble spirited horse. The glorious pride and
+strength and courage of these most kingly of God's creatures--even when
+they are in harness and subject to their often inferior masters--compel
+respect and a degree of appreciation. But seen as they roam free in
+those pastures that, since the creation, have never been marred by plow
+or fence--pastures that are theirs by divine right, and the sunny slopes
+and shady groves and rocky nooks of which constitute their
+kingdom--where, in their lordly strength, they are subject only to the
+dictates of their own being, and, unmutilated by human cruelty, rule by
+the power and authority of Nature's laws--they stir the blood of the
+coldest heart to a quicker flow, and thrill the mind of the dullest with
+admiring awe.
+
+"There's twenty-eight in that bunch," whispered Phil. "Do you see that
+big black stallion on guard--the one that throws up his head every
+minute or two for a look around?"
+
+Patches nodded. There was no mistaking the watchful leader of the band.
+
+"He's the chap that gave me my title, as you call it," chuckled Phil.
+"Come on, now, and we'll see them in action; then I'll tell you about
+it."
+
+He slipped from the rock and led the way back to the saddle horses.
+
+Riding along the ridge, just under the crest, they soon reached the
+point where the chain of low peaks merges into the hills that form the
+southern boundary of the basin, and so came suddenly into full view of
+the wild horses that were feeding on the slopes a little below.
+
+As the two horsemen appeared, the leader of the band threw up his head
+with a warning call to his fellows.
+
+Phil reined in his horse and motioned for Patches to do the same.
+
+For several minutes, the black stallion held his place, as motionless as
+the very rocks of the mountain side, gazing straight at the mounted men
+as though challenging their right to cross the boundary of his kingdom,
+while his retainers stood as still, waiting his leadership. With his
+long, black mane and tail rippling and waving in the breeze that swept
+down from Blair Pass and across the Basin, with his raven-black coat
+glistening in the sunlight with the sheen of richest satin where the
+swelling muscles curved and rounded from shadow to high light, and with
+his poise of perfect strength and freedom, he looked, as indeed he was,
+a prince of his kind--a lord of the untamed life that homes in those
+God-cultivated fields.
+
+Patches glanced at his companion, as if to speak, but struck by the
+expression on the cowboy's face, remained silent. Phil was leaning a
+little forward in his saddle, his body as perfect in its poise of alert
+and graceful strength as the body of the wild horse at which he was
+gazing with such fixed interest. The clear, deeply tanned skin of his
+cheeks glowed warmly with the red of his clean, rich blood, his eyes
+shone with suppressed excitement, his lips, slightly parted, curved in a
+smile of appreciation, love and reverence for the unspoiled beauty of
+the wild creature that he himself, in so many ways, unconsciously
+resembled.
+
+And Patches--bred and schooled in a world so far from this world of
+primitive things--looking from Phil to the wild horse, and back again
+from the stallion to the man, felt the spirit and the power that made
+them kin--felt it with a, to him, strange new feeling of reverence, as
+though in the perfect, unspoiled life-strength of man and horse he came
+in closer touch with the divine than he had ever known before.
+
+Then, without taking his eyes from the object of his almost worship,
+Phil said, "Now, watch him, Patches, watch him!"
+
+As he spoke, he moved slowly toward the band, while Patches rode close
+by his side.
+
+At their movement, the wild stallion called another warning to his
+followers, and went a few graceful paces toward the slowly approaching
+men. And then, as they continued their slow advance, he wheeled with the
+smooth grace of a swallow, and, with a movement so light and free that
+he seemed rather to skim over the surface of the ground than to tread
+upon it, circled here and there about his band, assembling them in
+closer order, flying, with ears flat and teeth bared and mane and tail
+tossing, in lordly fury at the laggards, driving them before him, but
+keeping always between his charges and the danger until they were at
+what he evidently judged to be, for their inferior strength, a distance
+of safety. Then again he halted his company and, moving alone a short
+way toward the horsemen, stood motionless, watching their slow approach.
+
+Again Phil checked his horse. "God!" he exclaimed under his breath.
+"What a sight! Oh, you beauty! You beauty!"
+
+But Patches was moved less by the royal beauty of the wild stallion than
+by the passionate reverence that vibrated in his companion's voice.
+
+Again the two horsemen moved forward; and again the stallion drove his
+band to a safe distance, and stood waiting between them and their
+enemies.
+
+Then the cowboy laughed aloud--a hearty laugh of clean enjoyment. "All
+right, old fellow, I'll just give you a whirl for luck," he said aloud
+to the wild horse, apparently forgetting his human companion.
+
+And Patches saw him shorten his reins, and rise a little in his
+stirrups, while his horse, as though understanding, gathered himself for
+a spring. In a flash Patches was alone, watching as Phil, riding with
+every ounce of strength that his mount could command, dashed straight
+toward the band.
+
+For a moment, the black stallion stood watching the now rapidly
+approaching rider. Then, wheeling, he started his band, driving them
+imperiously, now, to their utmost speed, and then, as though he
+understood this new maneuver of the cowboy, he swept past his running
+companions, with the clean, easy flight of an arrow, and taking his
+place at the head of his charges led them away toward Granite Mountain.
+
+Phil stopped, and Patches could see him watching, as the wild horses,
+with streaming manes and tails, following their leader, who seemed to
+run with less than half his strength, swept away across the rolling
+hillsides, growing smaller and smaller in the distance, until, as dark,
+swiftly moving dots, they vanished over the sky line.
+
+"Wasn't that great?" cried Phil, when he had loped back to his
+companion. "Did you see him go by the bunch like they were standing
+still?"
+
+"There didn't seem to be much show for you to catch him," said Patches.
+
+"Catch him!" exclaimed Phil. "Did you think I was trying to catch him? I
+just wanted to see him go. The horse doesn't live that could put a man
+within roping distance of any one in that bunch on a straightaway run,
+and the black can run circles around the whole outfit. I had him once,
+though."
+
+"You caught that black!" exclaimed Patches--incredulously.
+
+Phil grinned. "I sure had him for a little while."
+
+"But what is he doing out here running loose, then?" demanded the other.
+"Got away, did he?"
+
+"Got away, nothing. Fact is, he belongs to me right now, in a way, and I
+wouldn't swap him for any string of cow-horses that I ever saw."
+
+Then, as they rode toward the home ranch, Phil told the story that is
+known throughout all that country.
+
+"It was when the black was a yearling," he said. "I'd had my eye on him
+all the year, and so had some of the other boys who had sighted the
+band, for you could see, even when he was a colt, what he was going to
+be. The wild horses were getting rather too numerous that season, and we
+planned a chase to thin them out a little, as we do every two or three
+years. Of course, everybody was after the black; and one day, along
+toward the end of the chase, when the different bands had been broken up
+and scattered pretty much, I ran onto him. I was trailing an old gray up
+that draw--the way we went to-day, you know, and all at once I met him
+as he was coming over the top of the hill, right where you and I rode
+onto him. It was all so sudden that for a minute he was rattled as bad
+as I was; and, believe me, I was shaking like a leaf. I managed to come
+to, first, though, and hung my rope on him before he could get started.
+I don't know to this day where the old gray that I was after went. Well,
+sir; he fought like a devil, and for a spell we had it around and around
+until I wasn't dead sure whether I had him or he had me. But he was only
+a yearling then, you see, and I finally got him down."
+
+Phil paused, a peculiar expression on his face. Patches waited silently.
+
+"Do you know," said the cowboy, at last, hesitatingly, "I can't explain
+it--and I don't talk about it much, for it was the strangest thing that
+ever happened to me--but when I looked into that black stallion's eyes,
+and he looked me straight in the face, I never felt so sorry for
+anything in my life. I was sort of ashamed like--like--well, like I'd
+been caught holding up a church, you know, or something like that. We
+were all alone up there, just him and me, and while I was getting my
+wind, and we were sizing each other up, and I was feeling that way, I
+got to thinking what it all meant to him--to be broken and
+educated--and--well--civilized, you know; and I thought what a horse he
+would be if he was left alone to live as God made him, and so--well--"
+He paused again with an embarrassed laugh.
+
+"You let him go?" cried Patches.
+
+"It's God's truth, Patches. I couldn't do anything else--I just
+couldn't. One of the boys came up just in time to catch me turning him
+loose, and, of course, the whole outfit just naturally raised hell about
+it. You see, in a chase like that, we always bunch all we get and sell
+them off to the highest bidder, and every man in the outfit shares
+alike. The boys figured that the black was worth more than any five
+others that were caught, and so you couldn't blame them for feeling
+sore. But I fixed it with them by turning all my share into the pot, so
+they couldn't kick. That, you see, makes the black belong to me, in a
+way, and it's pretty generally understood that I propose to take care of
+him. There was a fellow, riding in the rodeo last fall, that took a shot
+at him one day, and--well--he left the country right after it happened
+and hasn't been seen around here since."
+
+The cowboy grinned as his companion's laugh rang out.
+
+"Do you know," Phil continued in a low tone, a few minutes later, "I
+believe that horse knows me yet. Whenever I am over in this part of the
+country I always have a look at him, if he happens to be around, and we
+visit a little, as we did to-day. I've got a funny notion that he likes
+it as much as I do, and, I can't tell how it is, but it sort of makes me
+feel good all over just to see him. I reckon you think I'm some fool,"
+he finished with another short laugh of embarrassment, "but that's the
+way I feel--and that's why they call me 'Wild Horse Phil'."
+
+For a little they rode in silence; then Patches spoke, gravely, "I don't
+know how to tell you what I think, Phil, but I understand, and from the
+bottom of my heart I envy you."
+
+And the cowboy, looking at his companion, saw in the man's eyes
+something that reminded him of that which he had seen in the wild
+horse's eyes, that day when he had set him free. Had Patches, too, at
+some time in those days that were gone, been caught by the riata of
+circumstance or environment, and in some degree robbed of his
+God-inheritance? Phil smiled at the fancy, but, smiling, felt its truth;
+and with genuine sympathy felt this also to be true, that the man might
+yet, by the strength that was deepest within him, regain that which he
+had lost.
+
+And so that day, as the man from the ranges and the man from the cities
+rode together, the feeling of kinship that each had instinctively
+recognized at their first meeting on the Divide was strengthened. They
+knew that a mutual understanding which could not have been put into
+words of any tongue or land was drawing them closer together.
+
+A few days later the incident occurred that fixed their friendship--as
+they thought--for all time to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE TAILHOLT MOUNTAIN OUTFIT.
+
+
+Phil and Patches were riding that day in the country about Old Camp.
+Early in the afternoon, they heard the persistent bawling of a calf, and
+upon riding toward the sound, found the animal deep in the cedar timber,
+which in that section thickly covers the ridges. The calf was freshly
+branded with the Tailholt iron. It was done, Phil said, the day before,
+probably in the late afternoon. The youngster was calling for his
+mother.
+
+"It's strange, she is not around somewhere," said Patches.
+
+"It would be more strange if she was," retorted the cowboy shortly, and
+he looked from the calf to the distant Tailholt Mountain, as though he
+were considering some problem which he did not, for some reason, care to
+share with his companion.
+
+"There's not much use to look for her," he added, with grim
+disappointment. "That's always the way. If we had ridden this range
+yesterday, instead of away over there in the Mint Wash country--I am
+always about a day behind."
+
+There was something in the manner and in the quiet speech of the usually
+sunny-tempered foreman that made his companion hesitate to ask
+questions, or to offer comment with the freedom that he had learned to
+feel that first day of their riding together. During the hours that
+followed Phil said very little, and when he did speak his words were
+brief and often curt, while, to Patches, he seemed to study the country
+over which they rode with unusual care. When they had eaten their rather
+gloomy lunch, he was in the saddle again almost before Patches had
+finished, with seemingly no inclination for their usual talk.
+
+The afternoon, was nearly gone, and they were making their way homeward
+when they saw a Cross-Triangle bull that had evidently been hurt in a
+fight. The animal was one of the Dean's much-prized Herefords, and the
+wound needed attention.
+
+"We've got to dope that," said Phil, "or the screwworms will be working
+in it sure." He was taking down his riata and watching the bull, who was
+rumbling a sullen, deep-voiced challenge, as he spoke.
+
+"Can I help?" asked Patches anxiously, as he viewed the powerful beast,
+for this was the first full-grown animal needing attention that he had
+seen in his few days' experience.
+
+"No," returned Phil. "Just keep in the clear, that's all. This chap is
+no calf, and he's sore over his scrap. He's on the prod right now."
+
+It all happened in a few seconds.
+
+The cowboy's horse, understanding from long experience that this
+threatening mark for his master's riata was in no gentle frame of mind,
+fretted uneasily as though dreading his part in the task before them.
+Patches saw the whirling rope leave Phil's hand, and saw it tighten, as
+the cowboy threw the weight of his horse against it; and then he caught
+a confused vision--a fallen, struggling horse with a man pinned to the
+ground beneath him, and a wickedly lowered head, with sharp horns and
+angry eyes, charging straight at them.
+
+Patches did not think--there was no time to think. With a yell of
+horror, he struck deep with both spurs, and his startled, pain-maddened
+horse leaped forward. Again he spurred cruelly with all his strength,
+and the next bound of his frenzied mount carried him upon those deadly
+horns. Patches remembered hearing a sickening rip, and a scream of fear
+and pain, as he felt the horse under him rise in the air. He never knew
+how he managed to free himself, as he fell backward with his struggling
+mount, but he distinctly saw Phil regain his saddle while his horse was
+in the very act of struggling to its feet, and he watched with anxious
+interest as the cowboy forced his excited mount in front of the bull to
+attract the beast's wicked attention. The bull, accepting the
+tantalizing challenge, charged again, and Patches, with a thrill of
+admiration for the man's coolness and skill, saw that Phil was coiling
+his riata, even while his frightened horse, with terrific leaps, avoided
+those menacing horns. The bull stopped, shook his head in anger over his
+failure, and looked back toward the man on foot. But again that horse
+and rider danced temptingly before him, so close that it seemed he
+could not fail, and again he charged, only to find that his mad rush
+carried him still further from the helpless Patches. And by now, Phil
+had recovered his riata, and the loop was whirling in easy circles about
+his head. The cow-horse, as though feeling the security that was in that
+familiar motion of his master's arm, steadied himself, and, in the few
+active moments that followed, obedient to every signal of his rider, did
+his part with almost human intelligence.
+
+When the bull was safely tied, Phil went to the frightfully injured
+horse, and with a merciful bullet ended the animal's suffering. Then he
+looked thoughtfully at Patches, who stood gazing ruefully at the dead
+animal, as though he felt himself to blame for the loss of his
+employer's property. A slight smile lightened the cowboy's face, as he
+noticed his companion's troubled thought.
+
+"I suppose I've done it now," said Patches, as though expecting
+well-merited censure.
+
+Phil's smile broadened. "You sure have," he returned, as he wiped the
+sweat from his face. "I'm much obliged to you."
+
+Patches looked at him in confused embarrassment.
+
+"Don't you know that you saved my life?" asked Phil dryly.
+
+"But--but, I killed a good horse for the Dean," stammered Patches.
+
+To which the Dean's foreman returned with a grin, "I reckon Uncle Will
+can stand the loss--considering."
+
+This relieved the tension, and they laughed together.
+
+"But tell me something, Patches," said Phil, curiously. "Why didn't you
+shoot the bull when he charged me?"
+
+"I didn't think of it," admitted Patches. "I didn't really think of
+anything."
+
+The cowboy nodded with understanding approval. "I've noticed that the
+man to tie to, in sudden trouble, is the man who doesn't have to think;
+the man, I mean, who just does the right thing instinctively, and waits
+to think about it afterwards when there's time."
+
+Patches was pleased. "I did the right thing, then?"
+
+"It was the only thing you _could_ do to save my life," returned Phil
+seriously. "If you had tried to use your gun--even if you could have
+managed to hit him--you wouldn't have stopped him in time. If you had
+been where you could have put a bullet between his eyes, it might have
+worked, but"--he smiled again--"I'm mighty glad you didn't think to try
+any experiments. Tell me something else," he added. "Did you realize the
+chance you were taking for yourself?"
+
+Patches shook his head. "I can't say that I realized anything except
+that you were in a bad fix, and that it was up to me to do something
+quick. How did it happen, anyway?" He seemed anxious to turn the
+conversation.
+
+"Diamond stepped in that hole there," explained Phil. "When he turned
+over I sure thought it was all day for me. Believe me, I won't forget
+this, Patches."
+
+For another moment there was an embarrassed silence; then Patches said,
+"What puzzles me is, why you didn't take a shot at him, after you were
+up, instead of risking your neck again trying to rope him."
+
+"Why, there was no use killing a good bull, as long as there was any
+other way. It's my business to keep him alive; that's what I started in
+to do, wasn't it?" And thus the cowboy, in a simple word or two, stated
+the creed of his profession, a creed that permits no consideration of
+personal danger or discomfort when the welfare of the employer's
+property is at stake.
+
+When they had removed saddle and bridle from the dead horse and had
+cleaned the ugly wound in the bull's side, Phil said, "Now, Mr.
+Honorable Patches, you'd better move on down the wash a piece, and get
+out of sight behind one of those cedars. This fellow is going to get
+busy again when I let him up. I'll come along when I've got rid of him."
+
+A little later, as Phil rode out of the cedars toward Patches, a deep,
+bellowing challenge came from up the wash.
+
+"He's just telling us what he'll do to us the next chance he gets,"
+chuckled Phil. "Hop up behind me now and we'll go home."
+
+The gloom, that all day had seemed to overshadow Phil, was effectually
+banished by the excitement of the incident, and he was again his sunny,
+cheerful self. As they rode, they chatted and laughed merrily. Then,
+suddenly, as it had happened that morning, the cowboy was again grim and
+silent.
+
+Patches was wondering what had so quickly changed his companion's mood,
+when he caught sight of two horsemen, riding along the top of the ridge
+that forms the western side of the wash, their course paralleling that
+of the Cross-Triangle men, who were following the bed of the wash.
+
+When Patches directed Phil's attention to the riders, the cowboy said
+shortly, "I've been watching them for the last ten minutes." Then, as if
+regretting the manner of his reply, he added more kindly, "If they keep
+on the way they're going, we'll likely meet them about a mile down the
+wash where the ridge breaks."
+
+"Do you know them?" asked Patches curiously.
+
+"It's Nick Cambert and that poor, lost dog of a Yavapai Joe," Phil
+answered.
+
+"The Tailholt Mountain outfit," murmured Patches, watching the riders on
+the ridge with quickened interest. "Do you know, Phil, I believe I have
+seen those fellows before."
+
+"You have!" exclaimed Phil. "Where? When?"
+
+"I don't know how to tell you where," Patches replied, "but it was the
+day I rode the drift fence. They were on a ridge, across a little valley
+from me."
+
+"That must have been this same Horse Wash that we're following now,"
+replied Phil; "it widens out a bit below here. What makes you think it
+was Nick and Joe?"
+
+"Why, those fellows up there look like the two that I saw, one big one
+and one rather lightweight. They were the same distance from me, you
+know, and--yes--I am sure those are the same horses."
+
+"Pretty good, Patches, but you ought to have reported it when you got
+home."
+
+"Why, I didn't think it of any importance."
+
+"There are two rules that you must follow, always," said the cowboy, "if
+you are going to learn to be a top hand in this business. The first is:
+to see everything that there is to see, and to see everything about
+everything that you see. And the second is: to remember it all. I don't
+mind telling you, now, that Jim Reid found a calf, fresh-branded with
+the Tailholt iron, that same afternoon, in that same neighborhood; and
+that, on our side of the drift fence, he ran onto a Cross-Triangle cow
+that had lost her calf. There come our friends now."
+
+The two horsemen were riding down the side of the hill at an angle that
+would bring about the meeting which Phil had foreseen. And Patches
+immediately broke the first of the two rules, for, while watching the
+riders, he did not notice that his companion loosened his gun in its
+holster.
+
+Nick Cambert was a large man, big-bodied and heavy, with sandy hair, and
+those peculiar light blue eyes which do not beget confidence. But, as
+the Tailholt Mountain men halted to greet Phil, Patches gave to Nick
+little more than a passing glance, so interested was he in the big man's
+companion.
+
+It is doubtful if blood, training, environment, circumstances, the
+fates, or whatever it is that gives to men individuality, ever marked a
+man with less manhood than was given to poor Yavapai Joe. Standing
+erect, he would have been, perhaps, a little above medium height, but
+thin and stooped, with a half-starved look, as he slouched listlessly in
+the saddle, it was almost impossible to think of him as a matured man.
+The receding chin, and coarse, loosely opened mouth, the pale, lifeless
+eyes set too closely together under a low forehead, with a ragged thatch
+of dead, mouse-colored hair, and a furtive, sneaking, lost-dog
+expression, proclaimed him the outcast that he was.
+
+The big man eyed Patches as he greeted the Cross-Triangle's foreman.
+"Howdy, Phil!"
+
+"Hello, Nick!" returned Phil coldly. "Howdy, Joe!"
+
+The younger man, who was gazing stupidly at Patches, returned the
+salutation with an unintelligible mumble, and proceeded to roll a
+cigarette.
+
+"You folks at the Cross-Triangle short of horses?" asked Nick, with an
+evident attempt at jocularity, alluding to the situation of the two men,
+who were riding one horse.
+
+"We got mixed up with a bull back yonder," Phil explained briefly.
+
+"They can sure put a horse out o' the game mighty quick sometimes,"
+commented the other. "I've lost a few that way myself. It's about as far
+from here to my place as it is to Baldwin's, or I'd help you out. You're
+welcome, you know."
+
+"Much obliged," returned Phil, "but we'll make it home all right. I
+reckon we'd better be moving, though. So long!"
+
+"Adios!"
+
+Throughout this brief exchange of courtesies, Yavapai Joe had not moved,
+except to puff at his cigarette; nor had he ceased to regard Patches
+with a stupid curiosity. As Phil and Patches moved away, he still sat
+gazing after the stranger, until he was aroused by a sharp word from
+Nick, as the latter turned his horse toward Tailholt Mountain. Without
+changing his slouching position in the saddle, and with a final
+slinking, sidewise look toward Patches, the poor fellow obediently
+trailed after his master.
+
+Patches could not resist the impulse to turn for another look at the
+wretched shadow of manhood that so interested him.
+
+"Well, what do you think of that pair?" asked Phil, breaking in upon his
+companion's preoccupation.
+
+Patches shrugged his shoulders much as he had done that day of his first
+experience with the screwworms; then he said quietly, "Do you mind
+telling me about them, Phil?"
+
+"Why, there's not much to tell," returned the cowboy. "That is, there's
+not much that anybody knows for certain. Nick was born in Yavapai
+County. His father, old George Cambert, was one of the kind that seems
+honest enough, and industrious, too, but somehow always just misses it.
+They moved away to some place in Southern California when Nick was about
+grown. He came back six years ago, and located over there at the foot of
+Tailholt Mountain, and started his Four-Bar-M iron; and, one way or
+another, he's managed to get together quite a bunch of stock. You see,
+his expenses don't amount to anything, scarcely. He and Joe bach in an
+old shack that somebody built years ago, and they do all the riding
+themselves. Joe's not much force, but he's handier than you'd think, as
+long as there's somebody around to tell him what to do, and sort of back
+him up. Nick, though, can do two men's work any day in the year."
+
+"But it's strange that a man like Nick would have anything to do with
+such a creature as that poor specimen," mused Patches. "Are they related
+in any way?"
+
+"Nobody knows," answered Phil. "Joe first showed up at Prescott about
+four years ago with a man by the name of Dryden, who claimed that Joe
+was his son. They camped just outside of town, in some dirty old tents,
+and lived by picking up whatever was lying around loose. Dryden wouldn't
+work, and, naturally, no one would have Joe. Finally Dryden was sent up
+for robbing a store, and Joe nearly went with him. They let him off, I
+believe, because it was proved pretty well that he was only Dryden's
+tool, and didn't have nerve enough to do any real harm by himself. He
+drifted around for several months, living like a stray cur, until Nick
+took him in tow. Nick treats him shamefully, abuses him like a beast,
+and works him like a slave. The poor devil stays on with him because he
+doesn't know what else to do, I suppose."
+
+"Is he always like we saw him to-day?" asked Patches, who seemed
+strangely interested in this bit of human drift. "Doesn't he ever talk?"
+
+"Oh, yes, he'll talk all right, when Nick isn't around, or when there
+are not too many present. Get off somewhere alone with him, after he
+gets acquainted a little, and he's not half such bad company as he
+looks. I reckon that's the main reason why Nick keeps him. You see, no
+decent cow-puncher would dare work at Tailholt Mountain, and a man gets
+mighty lonesome living so much alone. But Joe never talks about where he
+came from, or who he is; shuts up like a clam if you so much as mention
+anything that looks like you were trying to find out about him. He's not
+such a fool as he looks, either, so far as that goes, but he's always
+got that sneaking, coyote sort of look, and whatever he does he does in
+that same way."
+
+"In other words," commented Patches thoughtfully, "poor Joe must have
+someone to depend on; taken alone he counts no more than a cipher."
+
+"That's it," said Phil. "With somebody to feed him, and think for him,
+and take care of him, and be responsible for him, in some sort of a way,
+he makes almost one."
+
+"After all, Phil," said Patches, with bitter sarcasm, "poor Yavapai Joe
+is not so much different from hundreds of men that I know. By their
+standards he should be envied."
+
+Phil was amazed at his companion's words, for they seemed to hint at
+something in the man's past, and Patches, so far as his reticence upon
+any subject that approached his own history, was always as silent as
+Yavapai Joe himself.
+
+"What do you mean by that?" Phil demanded. "What sort of men do you
+mean?"
+
+"I mean the sort that never do anything of their own free wills; the
+sort that have someone else to think for them, and feed them, and take
+care of them and take all the responsibility for what they do or do not
+do. I mean those who are dependents, and those who aspire to be
+dependent. I can't see that it makes any essential difference whether
+they have inherited wealth and what we call culture, or whether they are
+poverty-stricken semi-imbeciles like Joe; the principle is the same."
+
+As they dismounted at the home corral gate, Phil looked at his companion
+curiously. "You seem mighty interested in Joe," he said, with a smile.
+
+"I am," retorted Patches. "He reminds me of--of some one I know," he
+finished, with his old, self-mocking smile. "I have a fellow feeling
+for him, the same as you have for that wild horse, you know. I'd like to
+take him away from Nick, and see if it would be possible to make a real
+man of him," he mused, more to himself than to his companion.
+
+"I don't believe I'd try any experiments along that line, Patches,"
+cautioned Phil. "You've got to have something to build on when you start
+to make a man. The raw material is not in Joe, and, besides," he added
+significantly, "folks might not understand."
+
+Patches laughed bitterly. "I have my hands full now."
+
+The next morning the foreman said that he would give that day to the
+horses he was training, and sent Patches, alone, after the saddle and
+bridle which they had left near the scene of the accident.
+
+"You can't miss finding the place again," he said to Patches; "just
+follow up the wash. You'll be back by noon--if you don't try any
+experiments," he added laughing.
+
+Patches had ridden as far as the spot where he and Phil had met the
+Tailholt Mountain men, and was thirsty. He thought of the distance he
+had yet to go, and then of the return back to the ranch, in the heat of
+the day. He remembered that Phil had told him, as they were riding out
+the morning before, of a spring a little way up the small side canyon
+that opens into the main wash through that break in the ridge. For a
+moment he hesitated; then he turned aside, determined to find the
+water.
+
+Riding perhaps two hundred yards into that narrow gap In the ridge, he
+found the way suddenly becoming steep and roughly strewn with boulders,
+and, thinking to make better time, left his horse tied to a bush in the
+shadow of the rocky wall, while he climbed up the dry watercourse on
+foot. He found, as Phil had said, that it was not far. Another hundred
+yards up the boulder-strewn break in the ridge, and he came out into a
+beautiful glade, where he found the spring, clear and cold, under a
+moss-grown rock, in the deep shade of an old gnarled and twisted cedar.
+Gratefully he threw himself down and drank long and deep; then sat for a
+few moments' rest, before making his way back to his horse. The moist,
+black earth of the cuplike hollow was roughly trampled by the cattle
+that knew the spot, and there were well-marked trails leading down
+through the heavy growth of brush and trees that clothed the hillsides.
+So dense was this forest growth, and so narrow the glade, that the
+sunlight only reached the cool retreat through a network of leaves and
+branches, in ever-shifting spots and bars of brightness. Nor could one
+see very far through the living screens.
+
+Patches was on the point of going, when he heard voices and the sound of
+horses' feet somewhere above. For a moment he sat silently listening.
+Then he realized that the riders were approaching, down one of the
+cattle trails. A moment more, and he thought he recognized one of the
+voices. There was a low, murmuring, whining tone, and then a rough,
+heavy voice, raised seemingly in anger. Patches felt sure, now, that he
+knew the speakers; and, obeying one of those impulses that so often
+prompted his actions, he slipped quietly into the dense growth on the
+side of the glade opposite the approaching riders. He was scarcely
+hidden--a hundred feet or so from the spring--when Nick Cambert and
+Yavapai Joe rode into the glade.
+
+If Patches had paused to think, he likely would have disdained to play
+the part of a hidden spy; but he had acted without thinking, and no
+sooner was he concealed than he realized that it was too late. So he
+smiled mockingly at himself, and awaited developments. He had heard and
+seen enough, since he had been in the Dean's employ, to understand the
+suspicion in which the owner of the Four-Bar-M iron was held; and from
+even his few days' work on the range in company with Phil, he had come
+to understand how difficult it was for the cattlemen to prove anything
+against the man who they had every reason to believe was stealing their
+stock. It was the possibility of getting some positive evidence, and of
+thus protecting his employer's property, that had really prompted him to
+take advantage of the chance situation.
+
+As the two men appeared, it was clear to the hidden observer that the
+weakling had in some way incurred his master's displeasure. The big
+man's face was red with anger, and his eyes were hard and cruel, while
+Joe had more than aver the look of a lost dog that expects nothing less
+than a curse and a kick.
+
+Nick drank at the spring, then turned back to his companion, who had not
+dismounted, but sat on his horse cringing and frightened, trying, with
+fluttering fingers, to roll a cigarette. A moment the big man surveyed
+his trembling follower; then, taking a heavy quirt from his saddle, he
+said with a contemptuous sneer, "Well, why don't you get your drink?"
+
+"I ain't thirsty, Nick," faltered the other.
+
+"You ain't thirsty?" mocked the man with a jeering laugh. "You're lying,
+an' you know it. Get down!"
+
+"Hones' to God, Nick, I don't want no drink," whimpered Joe, as his
+master toyed with the quirt suggestively.
+
+"Get down, I tell you!" commanded the big man.
+
+Joe obeyed, his thin form shaking with fear, and stood shrinking against
+his horse's side, his fearful eyes fixed on the man.
+
+"Now, come here."
+
+"Don't, Nick; for God's sake! don't hit me. I didn't mean no harm. Let
+me off this time, won't you, Nick?"
+
+"Come here. You got it comin', damn you, an' you know it. Come here, I
+say!"
+
+As if it were beyond his power to refuse, the wretched creature took a
+halting step or two toward the man whose brutal will dominated him; then
+he paused and half turned, as if to attempt escape. But that menacing
+voice stopped him.
+
+"Come here!"
+
+Whimpering and begging, with disconnected, unintelligible words, the
+poor fellow again started toward the man with the quirt.
+
+At the critical moment a quiet, well-schooled voice interrupted the
+scene.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Cambert!"
+
+Nick whirled with an oath of surprise and astonishment, to face Patches,
+who was coming leisurely toward him from the bushes above the spring.
+
+"What are you doin' here?" demanded Nick, while his victim slunk back to
+his horse, his eyes fixed upon the intruder with dumb amazement.
+
+"I came for a drink," returned Patches coolly. "Excellent water, isn't
+it? And the day is really quite warm--makes one appreciate such a
+delightfully cool retreat, don't you think?"
+
+"Heard us comin' an' thought you'd play the spy, did you?" growled the
+Tailholt Mountain man.
+
+Patches smiled. "Really, you know, I am afraid I didn't think much about
+it," he said gently. "I'm troubled that way, you see," he explained,
+with elaborate politeness. "Often do things upon impulse, don't you
+know--beastly embarrassing sometimes."
+
+Nick glared at this polite, soft-spoken gentleman, with half-amused
+anger. "I heard there was a dude tenderfoot hangin' 'round the
+Cross-Triangle," he said, at last. "You're sure a hell of a fine
+specimen. You've had your drink; now s'pose you get a-goin'."
+
+"I beg pardon?" drawled Patches, looking at him with innocent inquiry.
+
+"Vamoose! Get out! Go on about your business."
+
+"Really, Mr. Cambert, I understood that this was open range--" Patches
+looked about, as though carefully assuring himself that he was not
+mistaken in the spot.
+
+The big man's eyes narrowed wickedly. "It's closed to you, all right."
+Then, as Patches did not move, "Well, are you goin', or have I got to
+start you?" He took a threatening step toward the intruder.
+
+"No," returned Patches easily, "I am certainly not going--not just at
+present--and," he added thoughtfully, "if I were you, I wouldn't try to
+start _anything_."
+
+Something in the extraordinary self-possession of this soft-spoken
+stranger made the big man hesitate. "Oh, you wouldn't, heh?" he
+returned. "You mean, I s'pose, that you propose to interfere with my
+business."
+
+"If, by your business, you mean beating a man who is so unable to
+protect himself, I certainly propose to interfere."
+
+For a moment Nick glared at Patches as though doubting his own ears.
+Then rage at the tenderfoot's insolence mastered him. With a vile
+epithet, he caught the loaded quirt in his hand by its small end, and
+strode toward the intruder.
+
+But even as the big man swung his wicked weapon aloft, a hard fist, with
+the weight of a well-trained and well-developed shoulder back of it,
+found the point of his chin with scientific accuracy. The force of the
+blow, augmented as it was by Nick's weight as he was rushing to meet it,
+was terrific. The man's head snapped back, and he spun half around as he
+fell, so that the uplifted arm with its threatening weapon was twisted
+under the heavy bulk that lay quivering and harmless.
+
+Patches coolly bent over the unconscious man and extracted his gun from
+the holster. Then, stepping back a few paces, he quietly waited.
+
+Yavapai Joe, who had viewed the proceedings thus far with gaping mouth
+and frightened wonder, scrambled into his saddle and reined his horse
+about, as if to ride for his life.
+
+"Wait, Joe!" called Patches sharply.
+
+The weakling paused in pitiful indecision.
+
+"Nick will be all right in a few minutes," continued the stranger,
+reassuringly. "Stay where you are."
+
+Even as he spoke, the man on the ground opened his eyes. For a moment he
+gazed about, collecting his shocked and scattered senses. Then, with a
+mad roar, he got to his feet and reached for his gun, but when his hand
+touched the empty holster a look of dismay swept over his heavy face,
+and he looked doubtfully toward Patches, with a degree of respect and a
+somewhat humbled air.
+
+"Yes, I have your gun," said Patches soothingly. "You see, I thought it
+would be best to remove the temptation. You don't really want to shoot
+me, anyway, you know. You only think you do. When you have had time to
+consider it all, calmly, you'll thank me; because, don't you see, I
+would make you a lot more trouble dead than I could possibly, alive. I
+don't think that Mr. Baldwin would like to have me all shot to pieces,
+particularly if the shooting were done by someone from Tailholt
+Mountain. And I am quite sure that 'Wild Horse Phil' would be very much
+put out about it."
+
+"Well, what do you want?" growled Nick. "You've got the drop on me. What
+are you after, anyway?"
+
+"What peculiar expressions you western people use!" murmured Patches
+sweetly. "You say that I have got the drop on you; when, to be exact,
+you should have said that you got the drop _from_ me--do you see? Good,
+isn't it?"
+
+Nick's effort at self-control was heroic.
+
+Patches watched him with an insolent, taunting smile that goaded the man
+to reckless speech.
+
+"If you didn't have that gun, I'd--" the big man began, then stopped,
+for, as he spoke, Patches placed the weapon carefully on a rock and went
+toward him barehanded.
+
+"You would do what?"
+
+At the crisp, eager question that came in such sharp contrast to
+Patches' former speech, Nick hesitated and drew back a step.
+
+Patches promptly moved a step nearer; and his words came, now, in answer
+to the unfinished threat with cutting force. "What would you do, you
+big, hulking swine? You can bully a weakling not half your size; you can
+beat a helpless incompetent like a dog; you can bluster, and threaten a
+tenderfoot when you think he fears you; you can attack a man with a
+loaded quirt when you think him unable to defend himself;--show me what
+you can do _now_."
+
+The Tailholt Mountain man drew back another step.
+
+Patches continued his remarks. "You are a healthy specimen, you are. You
+have the frame of a bull with the spirit of a coyote and the courage of
+a sucking dove. Now--in your own vernacular--get a-goin'. Vamoose! Get
+out! I want to talk to your superior over there."
+
+Sullenly Nick Cambert mounted his horse and turned away toward one of
+the trails leading out from the little arena.
+
+"Come along, Joe!" he called to his follower.
+
+"No, you don't," Patches cut in with decisive force. "Joe, stay where
+you are!"
+
+Nick paused. "What do you mean by that?" he growled.
+
+"I mean," returned Patches, "that Joe is free to go with you, or not, as
+he chooses. Joe," he continued, addressing the cause of the controversy,
+"you need not go with this man. If you wish, you can come with me. I'll
+take care of you; and I'll give you a chance to make a man of yourself."
+
+Nick laughed coarsely. "So, that's your game, is it? Well, it won't
+work. I know now why Bill Baldwin's got you hangin' 'round, pretendin'
+you're a tenderfoot, you damned spy. Come on, Joe." He turned to ride
+on; and Joe, with a slinking, sidewise look at Patches, started to
+follow.
+
+Again Patches called, "Wait, Joe!" and his voice was almost pleading.
+"Can't you understand, Joe? Come with me. Don't be a dog for any man.
+Let me give you a chance. Be a man, Joe--for God's sake, be a man! Come
+with me."
+
+"Well," growled Nick to his follower, as Patches finished, "are you
+comin' or have I got to go and get you?"
+
+With a sickening, hangdog look Joe mumbled something and rode after his
+master.
+
+As they disappeared up the trail, Nick called back, "I'll get you yet,
+you sneakin' spy."
+
+"Not after you've had time to think it over," answered Patches
+cheerfully. "It would interfere too much with your _real_ business. I'll
+leave your gun at the gate of that old corral up the wash. Good-by,
+Joe!"
+
+For a few moments longer the strange man stood in the glade, listening
+to the vanishing sounds of their going, while that mirthless,
+self-mocking smile curved his lips.
+
+"Poor devil!" he muttered sadly, as he turned at last to make his way
+back to his horse. "Poor Joe! I know just how he feels. It's hard--it's
+beastly hard to break away."
+
+"I'm afraid I have made trouble for you, sir," Patches said ruefully to
+the Dean, as he briefly related the incident to his employer and to Phil
+that afternoon. "I'm sorry; I really didn't stop to think."
+
+"Trouble!" retorted the Dean, his eyes twinkling approval, while Phil
+laughed joyously. "Why, man, we've been prayin' for trouble with that
+blamed Tailholt Mountain outfit. You're a plumb wonder, young man. But
+what in thunder was you aimin' to do with that ornery Yavapai Joe, if
+he'd a' took you up on your fool proposition?"
+
+"Really, to tell the truth," murmured Patches, "I don't exactly know. I
+fancied the experiment would be interesting; and I was so sorry for the
+poor chap that I--" he stopped, shamefaced, to join in the laugh.
+
+But, later, the Dean and Phil talked together privately, with the result
+that during the days that followed, as Patches and his teacher rode the
+range together, the pupil found revolver practice added to his studies.
+
+The art of drawing and shooting a "six-gun" with quickness and certainty
+was often a useful part of the cowboy's training, Phil explained
+cheerfully. "In the case, for instance, of a mixup with a bad steer,
+when your horse falls, or something like that, you know."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Saddles]
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE RODEO.
+
+
+As the remaining weeks of the summer passed, Patches spent the days
+riding the range with Phil, and, under the careful eye of that
+experienced teacher, made rapid progress in the work he had chosen to
+master. The man's intense desire to succeed, his quick intelligence,
+with his instinct for acting without hesitation, and his reckless
+disregard for personal injury, together with his splendid physical
+strength, led him to a mastery of the details of a cowboy's work with
+remarkable readiness.
+
+Occasionally the two Cross-Triangle riders saw the men from Tailholt
+Mountain, sometimes merely sighting them in the distance, and, again,
+meeting them face to face at some watering place or on the range. When
+it happened that Nick Cambert was thus forced to keep up a show of
+friendly relations with the Cross-Triangle, the few commonplaces of the
+country were exchanged, but always the Tailholt Mountain man addressed
+his words to Phil, and, save for surly looks, ignored the foreman's
+companion. He had evidently--as Patches had said that he would--come to
+realize that he could not afford to arouse the cattlemen to action
+against him, as he would certainly have done, had he attempted to carry
+out his threat to "get" the man who had so humiliated him.
+
+But Patches' strange interest in Yavapai Joe in no way lessened. Always
+he had a kindly word for the poor unfortunate, and sought persistently
+to win the weakling's friendship. And Phil seeing this wondered, but
+held his peace.
+
+Frequently Kitty Reid, sometimes alone, often with the other members of
+the Reid household, came across the big meadow to spend an evening at
+the neighboring ranch. Sometimes Phil and Patches, stopping at the
+Pot-Hook-S home ranch, at the close of the day, for a drink at the
+windmill pump, would linger a while for a chat with Kitty, who would
+come from the house to greet them. And now and then Kitty, out for a
+ride on Midnight, would chance to meet the two Cross-Triangle men on the
+range, and so would accompany them for an hour or more.
+
+And thus the acquaintance between Patches and the girl grew into
+friendship; for Kitty loved to talk with this man of the things that
+play so large a part in that life which so appealed to her; and, with
+Phil's ever-ready and hearty endorsement of Patches, she felt safe in
+permitting the friendship to develop. And Patches, quietly observing,
+with now and then a conversational experiment--at which game he was an
+adepts--came to understand, almost as well as if he had been told,
+Phil's love for Kitty and her attitude toward the cowboy--her one-time
+schoolmate and sweetheart. Many times when the three were together, and
+the talk, guided by Kitty, led far from Phil's world, the cowboy would
+sit a silent listener, until Patches would skillfully turn the current
+back to the land of Granite Mountain and the life in which Phil had so
+vital a part.
+
+In the home-life at the Cross-Triangle, too, Patches gradually came to
+hold his own peculiar place. His cheerful helpfulness, and gentle,
+never-failing courtesy, no less than the secret pain and sadness that
+sometimes, at some chance remark, drove the light from his face and
+brought that wistful look into his eyes, won Mrs. Baldwin's heart. Many
+an evening under his walnut trees, with Stella and Phil and Curly and
+Bob and Little Billy near, the Dean was led by the rare skill and ready
+wit of Patches to open the book of his kindly philosophy, as he talked
+of the years that were past. And sometimes Patches himself, yielding to
+temptation offered by the Dean, would speak in such vein that the older
+man came to understand that this boy, as he so often called him, had
+somewhere, somehow, already experienced that Gethsemane which soon or
+late--the Dean maintains--leaves its shadow upon us all. The cowboys,
+for his quick and genuine appreciation of their skill and knowledge, as
+well as for his unassuming courage, hearty good nature and ready laugh,
+took him into their fellowship without question or reserve, while Little
+Billy, loyal ever to his ideal, "Wild Horse Phil," found a large place
+in his boyish heart for the tenderfoot who was so ready always to
+recognize superior wisdom and authority.
+
+So the stranger found his place among them, and in finding it, found
+also, perhaps, that which he most sorely needed.
+
+[Illustration:]
+
+When rodeo time came Patches was given a "string" of horses and, through
+the hard, grilling work that followed, took his place among the riders.
+There was no leisurely roaming over the range now, with only an
+occasional short dash after some animal that needed the "iron" or the
+"dope can;" but systematically and thoroughly the thirty or forty
+cowboys covered the country--mountain and mesa and flat, and wash and
+timbered ridge and rocky pass--for many miles in every direction.
+
+In this section of the great western cattle country, at the time of my
+story, the round-ups were cooperative. Each of the several ranchers
+whose cattle, marked by the owner's legally recorded brand, ranged over
+a common district that was defined only by natural boundaries, was
+represented in the rodeo by one or two or more of his cowboys, the
+number of his riders being relative to the number of cattle marked with
+his iron. This company of riders, each with from three to five saddle
+horses in his string, would assemble at one of the ranches participating
+in the rodeo. From this center they would work until a circle of country
+within riding distance was covered, the cattle gathered and
+"worked"--or, in other words, sorted--and the animals belonging to the
+various owners disposed of as the representatives were instructed by
+their employers. Then the rodeo would move to another ranch, and would
+so continue until the entire district of many miles was covered. The
+owner or the foreman of each ranch was in charge of the rodeo as long as
+the riders worked in his territory. When the company moved to the next
+point, this loader took his place in the ranks, and cheerfully received
+his orders from some comrade, who, the day before, had been as willingly
+obedient to him. There was little place in the rodeo for weak,
+incompetent or untrustworthy men. Each owner, from his long experience
+and knowledge of men, sent as his representatives the most skillful and
+conscientious riders that he could secure. To make a top hand at a rodeo
+a man needed to be, in the truest sense, a man.
+
+Before daylight, the horse wrangler had driven in the saddle band, and
+the men, with nose bags fashioned from grain sacks, were out in the
+corral to give the hard-working animals their feed of barley. The gray
+quiet of the early dawn was rudely broken by the sounds of the crowding,
+jostling, kicking, squealing band, mingled with the merry voices of the
+men, with now and then a shout of anger or warning as the cowboys moved
+here and there among their restless four-footed companions; and always,
+like a deep undertone, came the sound of trampling, iron-shod hoofs.
+
+Before the sky had changed to crimson and gold the call sounded from the
+ranch house, "Come and get it!" and laughing and joking in friendly
+rivalry, the boys rushed to breakfast. It was no dainty meal of toast
+and light cereals that these hardy ones demanded. But huge cuts of
+fresh-killed beef, with slabs of bread, and piles of potatoes, and
+stacks of hot cakes, and buckets of coffee, and whatever else the
+hard-working Chinaman could lay his hands on to satisfy their needs. As
+soon as each man reached the utmost limit of his capacity, he left the
+table without formality, and returned to the corral, where, with riata
+or persuasion, as the case demanded, he selected from his individual
+string of horses his first mount for the day.
+
+By the time the sun was beginning to gild the summit of old Granite
+Mountain's castle-like walls, and touch with glorious color the peaks of
+the neighboring sentinel hills, the last rider had saddled, and the
+company was mounted and ready for their foreman's word. Then to the
+music of jingling spurs, tinkling bridle chains, squeaking saddle
+leather, and the softer swish and rustle and flap of chaps, romals and
+riatas, they rode forth, laughing and joking, still, with now and then a
+roaring chorus of shouting comment or wild yells, as some half-broken
+horse gave an exhibition of his prowess in a mad effort to unseat his
+grinning rider.
+
+Soon the leader would call the name of a cowboy, known to be
+particularly familiar with the country which was to be the scene of that
+day's work, and telling him to take two or three or more men, as the
+case might be, would direct him to ride over a certain section,
+indicating the assigned territory by its natural marks of valley or flat
+or wash or ridge, and designating the point where the cattle would first
+be brought together. The cowboy named would rein his horse aside from
+the main company, calling the men of his choice as he did so, and a
+moment later with his companions would be lost to sight. A little
+farther, and again the foreman would name a rider, and, telling him to
+pick his men, would assign to him another section of the district to be
+covered, and this cowboy, with his chosen mates, would ride away. These
+smaller groups would, in their turn, separate, and thus the entire
+company of riders would open out like a huge fan to sweep the
+countryside.
+
+It was no mere pleasure canter along smoothly graded bridle paths or
+well-kept country highways that these men rode. From roughest
+rock-strewn mountain side and tree-clad slope, from boulder-piled
+watercourse and tangled brush, they must drive in the scattered cattle.
+At reckless speed, as their quarry ran and turned and dodged, they must
+hesitate at nothing. Climbing to the tops of the hills, scrambling
+catlike to the ragged crests of the ridges, sliding down the bluffs,
+jumping deep arroyos, leaping brush and boulders, twisting, dodging
+through the timber, they must go as fast as the strength and endurance
+of their mounts would permit. And so, gradually, as the sun climbed
+higher above the peaks and crags of Old Granite, the great living fan of
+men and horses closed, the courses of the widely scattered riders
+leading them, with the cattle they had found, to the given point.
+
+And now, the cattle, urged by the active horsemen, came streaming from
+the different sections to form the herd, and the quiet of the great
+range was broken by the bawling of confused and frightened calves, the
+lowing of anxious mothers, the shrill, long-drawn call of the steers,
+and the deep bellowing of the bulls, as the animals, so rudely driven
+from their peaceful feeding grounds, moved restlessly within the circle
+of guarding cowboys, while cows found their calves, and the monarchs of
+the range met in fierce combat.
+
+A number of the men--those whose mounts most needed the rest--were now
+left to hold the herd, or, perhaps, to move it quietly on to some other
+point, while the others were again sent out to cover another section of
+the territory included in that day's riding. As the hours passed, and
+the great fan of horsemen opened and closed, sweeping the cattle
+scattered over the range into the steadily growing herd, the rodeo moved
+gradually toward some chosen open flat or valley that afforded a space
+large enough for the operations that followed the work of gathering. At
+this "rodeo ground" a man would be waiting with fresh mounts for the
+riders, and, sometimes, with lunch. Quickly, those whose names were
+called by the foreman would change their saddles from dripping,
+exhausted horses to fresh animals from their individual strings, snatch
+a hasty lunch--often to be eaten in the saddle--and then, in their turn,
+would hold the cattle while their companions followed their example.
+
+Then came the fast, hot work of "parting" the cattle. The
+representatives from one of the ranches interested would ride in among
+the cattle held by the circle of cowboys, and, following their
+instructions, would select such animals bearing their employer's brand
+as were wanted, cutting them out and passing them through the line of
+guarding riders, to be held in a separate group. When the
+representatives of one owner had finished, they were followed by the men
+who rode for some other outfit; and so on, until the task of "parting"
+was finished.
+
+As the afternoon sun moved steadily toward the skyline of the western
+hills, the tireless activity of men and horses continued. The cattle,
+as the mounted men moved among them, drifted about, crowding and
+jostling, in uneasy discontent, with sometimes an indignant protest, and
+many attempts at escape by the more restless and venturesome. When an
+animal was singled out, the parting horses, chosen and prized for their
+quickness, dashed here and there through the herd with fierce leaps and
+furious rushes, stopping short in a terrific sprint to whirl, flashlike,
+and charge in another direction, as the quarry dodged and doubled. And
+now and then an animal would succeed for the moment in passing the guard
+line, only to be brought back after a short, sharp chase by the nearest
+cowboy. From the rodeo ground, where for long years the grass had been
+trampled out, the dust, lifted by the trampling thousands of hoofs in a
+dense, choking cloud, and heavy with the pungent odor of warm cattle and
+the smell of sweating horses, rising high into the clear air, could be
+seen from miles away, while the mingled voices of the bellowing, bawling
+herd, with now and then the shrill, piercing yells of the cowboys, could
+be heard almost as far.
+
+When this part of the work was over, some of the riders set out to drive
+the cattle selected to the distant home ranch corrals, while others of
+the company remained to brand the calves and to start the animals that
+were to have their freedom until the next rodeo time back to the open
+range. And so, at last--often not until the stars were out--the riders
+would dismount at the home corrals of the ranch that, at the time, was
+the center of their operations, or, perhaps, at some rodeo camping
+ground.
+
+At supper the day's work was reviewed with many a laugh and jest of
+pointed comment, and then, those whose horses needed attention because
+of saddle sores or, it might be, because of injuries from some fall on
+the rocks, busied themselves at the corral, while others met for a
+friendly game of cards, or talked and yarned over restful pipe or
+cigarette. And then, bed and blankets, and, all too soon, the reveille
+sounded by the beating hoofs of the saddle band as the wrangler drove
+them in, announced the beginning of another day.
+
+Not infrequently there were accidents--from falling horses--from angry
+bulls--from ill-tempered steers, or excited cows--or, perhaps, from a
+carelessly handled rope in some critical moment. Horses were killed; men
+with broken limbs, or with bodies bruised and crushed, were forced to
+drop out; and many a strong horseman who rode forth in the morning to
+the day's work, laughing and jesting with his mates, had been borne by
+his grave and silent comrades to some quiet resting place, to await, in
+long and dreamless sleep, the morning of that last great rodeo which, we
+are told, shall gather us all.
+
+Day after day, as Patches rode with these hardy men, Phil watched him
+finding himself and winning his place among the cowboys. They did not
+fail, as they said, to "try him out." Nor did Phil, in these trials,
+attempt in any way to assist his pupil. But the men learned very
+quickly, as Curly had learned at the time of Patches' introduction,
+that, while the new man was always ready to laugh with them when a joke
+was turned against himself, there was a line beyond which it was not
+well to go. In the work he was, of course, assigned only to such parts
+as did not require the skill and knowledge of long training and
+experience. But he did all that was given him to do with such readiness
+and skill, thanks to Phil's teaching, that the men wondered. And this,
+together with his evident ability in the art of defending himself, and
+the story of his strange coming to the Cross-Triangle, caused not a
+little talk, with many and varied opinions as to who he was, and what it
+was that had brought him among them. Strangely enough, very few believed
+that Patches' purpose in working as a cowboy for the Dean was simply to
+earn an honest livelihood. They felt instinctively--as, in fact, did
+Phil and the Dean--that there was something more beneath it all than
+such a commonplace.
+
+Nick Cambert, who, with Yavapai Joe, rode in the rodeo, carefully
+avoided the stranger. But Patches, by his persistent friendly interest
+in the Tailholt Mountain man's follower, added greatly to the warmth of
+the discussions and conjectures regarding himself. The rodeo had reached
+the Pot-Hook-S Ranch, with Jim Reid in charge, when the incident
+occurred which still further stimulated the various opinions and
+suggestions as to the new man's real character and mission.
+
+They were working the cattle that day on the rodeo ground just outside
+the home ranch corral. Phil and Curly were cutting out some
+Cross-Triangle steers, when the riders, who were holding the cattle, saw
+them separate a nine-months-old calf from the herd, and start it, not
+toward the cattle they had already cut out, but toward the corral.
+
+Instantly everybody knew what had happened.
+
+The cowboy nearest the gate did not need Phil's word to open it for his
+neighbor next in line to drive the calf inside.
+
+Not a word was said until the calves to be branded were also driven into
+the corral. Then Phil, after a moment's talk with Jim Reid, rode up to
+Nick Cambert, who was sitting on his horse a little apart from the group
+of intensely interested cowboys. The Cross-Triangle foreman's tone was
+curt. "I reckon I'll have to trouble you to vent your brand on that
+Cross-Triangle calf, Nick."
+
+The Tailholt Mountain man made no shallow pretense that he did not
+understand. "Not by a damn sight," he returned roughly. "I ain't raisin'
+calves for Bill Baldwin, an' I happen to know what I'm talkin' about
+this trip. That's a Four-Bar-M calf, an' I branded him myself over in
+Horse Wash before he left the cow. Some of your punchers are too damned
+handy with their runnin' irons, Mr. Wild Horse Phil."
+
+For a moment Phil looked at the man, while Jim Reid moved his horse
+nearer, and the cowboys waited, breathlessly. Then, without taking his
+eyes from the Tailholt Mountain man's face, Phil called sharply:
+
+"Patches, come here!"
+
+There was a sudden movement among the riders, and a subdued murmur, as
+Patches rode forward.
+
+"Is that calf you told me about in the corral, Patches?" asked Phil,
+when the man was beside him.
+
+"Yes, sir; that's him over there by that brindle cow." Patches indicated
+the animal in question.
+
+"And you put our iron on him?" asked Phil, still watching Nick.
+
+"I did," returned Patches, coolly.
+
+"Tell us about it," directed the Dean's foreman.
+
+And Patches obeyed, briefly. "It was that day you sent me to fix the
+fence on the southwest corner of the big pasture. I saw a bunch of
+cattle a little way outside the fence, and went to look them over. This
+calf was following a Cross-Triangle cow."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I watched them for half an hour."
+
+"What was in the bunch?"
+
+"Four steers, a Pot-Hook-S bull, five cows and this calf. There were
+three Five-Bar cows, one Diamond-and-a-Half and one Cross-Triangle. The
+calf went to the Cross-Triangle cow every time. And, besides, he is
+marked just like his mother. I saw her again this afternoon while we
+were working the cattle."
+
+Phil nodded. "I know her."
+
+Jim Reid was watching Patches keenly, with a quiet look now and then at
+Nick.
+
+The cowboys were murmuring among themselves.
+
+"Pretty good work for a tenderfoot!"
+
+"Tenderfoot, hell!"
+
+"They've got Nick this trip."
+
+"Got nothin'! Can't you see it's a frame-up?"
+
+Phil spoke to Nick. "Well, are satisfied? Will you vent your brand?"
+
+The big man's face was distorted with passion. "Vent nothin'," he
+roared. "On the word of a damned sneakin' tenderfoot! I--"
+
+He stopped, as Patches, before Phil could check the movement, pushed
+close to his side.
+
+In the sudden stillness the new man's cool, deliberate voice sounded
+clearly. "I am positive that you made a mistake when you put your iron
+on that calf, Mr. Cambert. And," he added slowly, as though with the
+kindest possible intention, "I am sure that you can safely take my word
+for it without further question."
+
+For a moment Nick glared at Patches, speechless. Then, to the amazement
+of every cowboy in the corral, the big man mumbled a surly something,
+and took down his riata to rope the calf and disclaim his ownership of
+the animal.
+
+Jim Reid shook his head in puzzled doubt.
+
+The cowboys were clearly divided.
+
+"He's too good a hand for a tenderfoot," argued one; "carried that off
+like an old-timer."
+
+"'Tain't like Nick to lay down so easy for anybody," added another.
+
+"Nick's on to something about Mr. Patches that we ain't next to,"
+insisted a third.
+
+"Or else we're all bein' strung for a bunch of suckers," offered still
+another.
+
+"You boys just hold your horses, an' ride easy," said Curly. "My money's
+still on Honorable Patches."
+
+And Bob added his loyal support with his cheerful "Me, too!"
+
+"It all looked straight enough," Jim Reid admitted to the Dean that
+evening, "but I can't get away from the notion that there was some sort
+of an understanding between your man an' that damned Tailholt Mountain
+thief. It looked like it was all too quiet an' easy somehow; like it had
+been planned beforehand."
+
+The Dean laughingly told his neighbor that he was right; that there was
+an understanding between Patches and Nick, and then explained by
+relating how Patches had met the Tailholt Mountain men that day at the
+spring.
+
+When the Dean had finished the big cowman asked several very suggestive
+questions. How did the Dean know that Patches' story was anything more
+than a cleverly arranged tale, invented for the express purpose of
+allaying any suspicion as to his true relationship with Nick? If
+Patches' character was so far above suspicion, why did he always dodge
+any talk that might touch his past? Was it necessary or usual for men to
+keep so close-mouthed about themselves? What did the Dean, or anyone
+else, for that matter, really know about this man who had appeared so
+strangely from nowhere, and had given a name even that was so plainly a
+ridiculous invention? The Dean must remember that the suspicion as to
+the source of Nick's too rapidly increasing herds had, so far, been
+directed wholly against Nick himself, and that the owner of the
+Four-Bar-M iron was not altogether a fool. It was quite time, Reid
+argued, for Nick to cease his personal activities, and to trust the
+actual work of branding to some confederate whose movements would not be
+so closely questioned. In short, Reid had been expecting some stranger
+to seek a job with some of the ranches that were in a position to
+contribute to the Tailholt Mountain outfit, and, for his part, he would
+await developments before becoming too enthusiastic over Honorable
+Patches.
+
+All of which the good Dean found very hard to answer.
+
+"But look here, Jim," he protested, "don't you go makin' it unpleasant
+for the boy. Whatever you think, you don't know any more than the rest
+of us. If we're guessin' on one side, you're guessin' on the other. I
+admit that what you say sounds reasonable; but, hang it, I like Patches.
+As for his name--well--we didn't use to go so much on names, in this
+country, you know. The boy may have some good reason for not talkin'
+about himself. Just give him a square chance; don't put no burrs under
+his saddle blanket--that's all I'm askin'."
+
+Jim laughed. The speech was so characteristic of the Dean, and Jim Reid
+loved his old friend and neighbor, as all men did, for being, as was
+commonly said, "so easy."
+
+"Don't worry, Will," he answered. "I'm not goin' to start anything. If I
+should happen to be right about Mr. Honorable Patches, he's exactly
+where we want him. I propose to keep my eye on him, that's all. And I
+think you an' Phil had better do the same."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+AFTER THE RODEO.
+
+
+As the fall rodeo swept on its way over the wide ranges, the last
+reluctant bits of summer passed, and hints of the coming winter began to
+appear The yellow glory of the goldenrod, and the gorgeous banks of
+color on sunflower flats faded to earthy russet and brown; the white
+cups of the Jimson weed were broken and lost; the dainty pepper-grass,
+the thin-leafed grama-grass, and the heavier bladed bear-grass of the
+great pasture lands were dry and tawny; and the broom-weed that had
+tufted the rolling hills with brighter green, at the touch of the first
+frost, turned a dull and somber gray; while the varied beauties of the
+valley meadows became even as the dead and withered leaves of the Dean's
+walnut trees that, in falling, left the widespread limbs and branches so
+bare.
+
+Then the rodeo and the shipping were over; the weeks of the late fall
+range riding were past--and it was winter.
+
+From skyline to skyline the world was white, save for the dark pines
+upon the mountain sides, the brighter cedars and junipers upon the hills
+and ridges, and the living green of the oak brush, that, when all else
+was covered with snow, gave the cattle their winter feed.
+
+More than ever, now, with the passing of the summer and fall, Kitty
+longed for the stirring life that, in some measure, had won her from the
+scenes of her home and from her homeland friends. The young woman's
+friendship with Patches--made easy by the fact that the Baldwins had
+taken him so wholly into their hearts--served to keep alive her memories
+of that world to which she was sure he belonged, and such memories did
+not tend to make Kitty more contented and happy in Williamson Valley.
+
+Toward Phil, Kitty was unchanged. Many times her heart called for him so
+insistently that she wished she had never learned to know any life other
+than that life to which they had both been born. If only she had not
+spent those years away from home--she often told herself--it would all
+have been so different. She could have been happy with Phil--very
+happy--if only she had remained in his world. But now--now she was
+afraid--afraid for him as well as for herself. Her friendship with
+Patches had, in so many ways, emphasized the things that stood between
+her and the man whom, had it not been for her education, she would have
+accepted so gladly as her mate.
+
+Many times when the three were together, and Kitty had led the talk far
+from the life with which the cowboy was familiar, the young woman was
+forced, against the wish of her heart, to make comparisons. Kitty did
+not understand that Phil--unaccustomed to speaking of things outside his
+work and the life interests of his associates, and timid always in
+expressing his own thoughts--found it very hard to reveal the real
+wealth of his mind to her when she assumed so readily that he knew
+nothing beyond his horses and cattle. But Patches, to whom Phil had
+learned to speak with little reserve, understood. And, knowing that the
+wall which the girl felt separated her from the cowboy was built almost
+wholly of her own assumptions, Patches never lost an opportunity to help
+the young woman to a fuller acquaintance with the man whom she thought
+she had known since childhood.
+
+During the long winter months, many an evening at the Cross-Triangle, at
+the Reid home, or, perhaps, at some neighborhood party or dance,
+afforded Kitty opportunities for a fuller understanding of Phil, but
+resulted only in establishing a closer friendship with Patches.
+
+Then came the spring.
+
+The snow melted; the rains fell; the washes and creek channels were
+filled with roaring floods; hill and ridge and mountain slope and mesa
+awoke to the new life that was swelling in every branch and leaf and
+blade; the beauties of the valley meadow appeared again in fresh and
+fragrant loveliness; while from fence-post and bush and grassy bank and
+new-leaved tree the larks and mocking birds and doves voiced their glad
+return.
+
+And, with the spring, came a guest to the Cross-Triangle Ranch--another
+stranger.
+
+Patches had been riding the drift fence, and, as he made his way toward
+the home ranch, in the late afternoon, he looked a very different man
+from the Patches who, several months before, had been rescued by Kitty
+from a humiliating experience with that same fence.
+
+The fact that he was now riding Stranger, the big bay with the blazed
+face, more than anything else, perhaps, marked the change that had come
+to the man whom the horse had so viciously tested, on that day when they
+began together their education and work on the Cross-Triangle Ranch.
+
+No one meeting the cowboy, who handled his powerful and wild spirited
+mount with such easy confidence and skill, would have identified him
+with the white-faced, well-tailored gentleman whom Phil had met on the
+Divide. The months of active outdoor life had given his tall body a
+lithe and supple strength that was revealed in his every movement, while
+wind and sun had stained his skin that deep tan which marks those who
+must face the elements every waking hour. Prom tinkling bridle chain and
+jingling spur, to the coiled riata, his equipment showed the
+unmistakable marks of use. His fringed chaps, shaped, by many a day in
+the saddle, to his long legs, expressed experience, while his broad hat,
+soiled by sweat and dust, had acquired individuality, and his very
+jumper--once blue but now faded and patched--disclaimed the tenderfoot.
+
+Riding for a little way along the top of the ridge that forms the
+western edge of the valley, Patches looked down upon the red roofs of
+the buildings of the home ranch, and smiled as he thought of the welcome
+that awaited him there at the close of his day's work. The Dean and
+Stella, with Little Billy, and Phil, and the others of the home circle,
+had grown very dear to this strong man of whom they still knew nothing;
+and great as was the change in his outward appearance and manner, the
+man himself knew that there were other changes as great. Honorable
+Patches had not only acquired a name and a profession, but in acquiring
+them he had gained something of much greater worth to himself. And so he
+was grateful to those who, taking him on trust, had helped him more than
+they knew.
+
+He had left the ridge, and was half way across the flat toward the
+corrals, when Little Billy, spurring old Sheep in desperate energy, rode
+wildly out to meet him.
+
+As the lad approached, he greeted his big friend with shrill, boyish
+shouts, and Patches answered with a cowboy yell which did credit to his
+training, while Stranger, with a wild, preliminary bound into the air,
+proceeded, with many weird contortions, to give an exhibition which
+fairly expressed his sentiments.
+
+Little Billy grinned with delight. "Yip! Yip! Yee-e-e!" he shrilled, for
+Stranger's benefit. And then, as the big horse continued his
+manifestations, the lad added the cowboy's encouraging admonition to the
+rider. "Stay with him, Patches! Stay with him!"
+
+Patches laughingly stayed with him. "What you aimin' to do, pardner"--he
+asked good-naturedly, when Stranger at last consented to keep two feet
+on the ground at the same time--"tryin' to get me piled?"
+
+"Shucks!" retorted the youngster admiringly. "I don't reckon anything
+could pile you, _now_. I come out to tell you that we got company," he
+added, as, side by side, they rode on toward the corrals.
+
+Patches was properly surprised. "Company!" he exclaimed.
+
+Little Billy grinned proudly. "Yep. He's a man--from way back East
+somewhere. Uncle Will brought him out from town. They got here just
+after dinner. I don't guess he's ever seen a ranch before. Gee! but
+won't we have fun with him!"
+
+Patches face was grave as he listened. "How do you know he is from the
+East, Billy?" he asked, concealing his anxious interest with a smile at
+his little comrade.
+
+"Heard Uncle Will tell Phil and Kitty."
+
+"Oh, Kitty is at the house, too, is she?"
+
+Billy giggled. "She an' Phil's been off somewheres ridin' together most
+all day; they just got back a while ago. They was talkin' with the
+company when I left. Phil saw you when you was back there on the ridge,
+an' I come on out to tell you."
+
+Phil and Kitty were walking toward their horses, which were standing
+near the corral fence, as Patches and Little Billy came through the
+gate.
+
+The boy dropped from his saddle, and ran on into the house to tell his
+Aunt Stella that Patches had come, leaving Sheep to be looked after by
+whoever volunteered for the service. It was one of Little Billy's
+humiliations that he was not yet tall enough to saddle or bridle his own
+horse, and the men tactfully saw to it that his mount was always ready
+in the morning, and properly released at night, without any embarrassing
+comments on the subject.
+
+Patches checked his horse, and without dismounting greeted his friends.
+"You're not going?" he said to Kitty, with a note of protest in his
+voice. "I haven't seen you for a week. It's not fair for Phil to take
+advantage of his position and send me off somewhere alone while he
+spends his time riding over the country with you."
+
+They laughed up at him as he sat there on the big bay, hat in hand,
+looking down into their upturned faces with the intimate, friendly
+interest of an older brother.
+
+Patches noticed that Kitty's eyes were bright with excitement, and that
+Phil's were twinkling with suppressed merriment.
+
+"I must go, Patches," said the young woman. "I ought to have gone two
+hours ago; but I was so interested that the time slipped away before I
+realized."
+
+"We have company," explained Phil, looking at Patches and deliberately
+closing one eye--the one that Kitty could not see. "A distinguished
+guest, if you please. I'll loan you a clean shirt for supper; that is,
+if mother lets you eat at the same table with him."
+
+"Phil, how can you!" protested Kitty.
+
+The two men laughed, but Phil fancied that there was a hint of anxiety
+in Patches' face, as the man on the horse said, "Little Billy broke the
+news to me. Who is he?"
+
+"A friend of Judge Morris in Prescott," answered Phil. "The Judge asked
+Uncle Will to take him on the ranch for a while. He and the Judge
+were--"
+
+Kitty interrupted with enthusiasm. "It is Professor Parkhill, Patches,
+the famous professor of aesthetics, you know: Everard Charles Parkhill.
+And he's going to spend the summer in Williamson Valley! Isn't it
+wonderful!"
+
+Phil saw a look of relief in his friend's face as Patches answered Kitty
+with sympathetic interest. "It certainly will be a great pleasure, Miss
+Reid, especially for you, to have one so distinguished for his
+scholarship in the neighborhood. Is Professor Parkhill visiting Arizona
+for his health?"
+
+Something in Patches' voice caused Phil to turn hastily aside.
+
+But Kitty, who was thinking how perfectly Patches understood her,
+noticed nothing in his grave tones save his usual courteous deference.
+
+"Partly because of his health," she answered, "but he is going to
+prepare a series of lectures, I understand. He says that in the crude
+and uncultivated mentalities of our--"
+
+"Here he is now," interrupted Phil, as the distinguished guest of the
+Cross-Triangle appeared, coming slowly toward them.
+
+Professor Everard Charles Parkhill looked the part to which, from his
+birth, he had been assigned by his over-cultured parents. His slender
+body, with its narrow shoulders and sunken chest, frail as it was,
+seemed almost too heavy for his feeble legs. His thin face, bloodless
+and sallow, with a sparse, daintily trimmed beard and weak watery eyes,
+was characterized by a solemn and portentous gravity, as though,
+realizing fully the profound importance of his mission in life, he could
+permit no trivial thought to enter his bald, domelike head. One knew
+instinctively that in all the forty-five or fifty years of his little
+life no happiness or joy that had not been scientifically sterilized and
+certified had ever been permitted to stain his super-aesthetic soul.
+
+As he came forward, he gazed at the long-limbed man on the big bay horse
+with a curious eagerness, as though he were considering a strange and
+interesting creature that could scarcely be held to belong to the human
+race.
+
+"Professor Parkhill," said Phil coolly, "you were saying that you had
+never seen a genuine cowboy in his native haunt. Permit me to introduce
+a typical specimen, Mr. Honorable Patches. Patches, this is Professor
+Parkhill."
+
+"Phil," murmured Kitty, "how can you?"
+
+The Professor was gazing at Patches as though fascinated. And Patches,
+his weather-beaten face as grave as the face of a wooden Indian, stared
+back at the Professor with a blank, open-mouthed and wild-eyed
+expression of rustic wonder that convulsed Phil and made Kitty turn away
+to hide a smile.
+
+"Howdy! Proud to meet up with you, mister," drawled the typical specimen
+of the genus cowboy. And then, as though suddenly remembering his
+manners, he leaped to the ground and strode awkwardly forward, one hand
+outstretched in greeting, the other holding fast to Stranger's bridle
+rein, while the horse danced and plunged about with reckless
+indifference to the polite intentions of his master.
+
+The Professor backed fearfully away from the dangerous looking horse and
+the equally formidable-appearing cowboy. Whereat Patches addressed
+Stranger with a roar of savage wrath.
+
+"Whoa! You consarned, square-headed, stiff-legged, squint-eyed,
+lop-eared, four-flusher, you. Whoa, I tell you! Cain't you see I'm
+a-wantin' to shake hands with this here man what the boss has interduced
+me to?"
+
+Phil nearly choked. Kitty was looking unutterable things. They did not
+know that Patches was suffering from a reaction caused by the discovery
+that he had never before met Professor Parkhill.
+
+"You see, mister," he explained gravely, advancing again with Stranger
+following nervously, "this here fool horse ain't used to strangers, no
+how, 'specially them as don't look, as you might say, just natural
+like." He finished with a sheepish grin, as he grasped the visitor's
+soft little hand and pumped it up and down with virile energy. Then,
+staring with bucolic wonder at the distinguished representative of the
+highest culture, he asked, "Be you an honest-to-God professor? I've
+heard about such, but I ain't never seen one before."
+
+The little man replied hurriedly, but with timid pride, "Certainly, sir;
+yes, certainly."
+
+"You be!" exclaimed the cowboy, as though overcome by his nearness to
+such dignity. "Excuse me askin', but if you don't mind, now--what be you
+professor of?"
+
+The other answered with more courage, as though his soul found strength
+in the very word: "Aesthetics."
+
+The cowboy's jaw dropped, his mouth opened in gaping awe, and he looked
+from the professor to Phil and Kitty, as if silently appealing to them
+to verify this startling thing which he had heard. "You don't say!" he
+murmured at last in innocent admiration. "Well, now, to think of a
+little feller like you a-bein' all that! But jest what be them there
+esteticks what you're professor of--if you don't mind my askin'?"
+
+The distinguished scholar answered promptly, in his best platform voice,
+"The science or doctrine of the nature of beauty and of judgments of
+tastes."
+
+At this, Stranger, with a snort of fear, stood straight up on his hind
+legs, and Professor Parkhill scuttled to a position of safety behind
+Phil.
+
+"Excuse me, folks," said Patches. "I'm just naturally obliged to 'tend
+to this here thing what thinks he's a hoss. Come along, you ornery,
+pigeon-toed, knock-kneed, sway-backed, wooly-haired excuse, you. You
+ain't got no more manners 'n a measly coyote."
+
+The famous professor of aesthetics stood with Phil and Kitty watching
+Patches as that gentleman relieved the dancing bay of the saddle, and
+led him away through the corrals to the gate leading into the meadow
+pasture.
+
+"I beg pardon," murmured the visitor in his thin, little voice, "but
+what did I understand you to say is the fellow's name?"
+
+"Patches; Honorable Patches," answered Phil.
+
+"How strange! how extraordinarily strange! I should be very interested
+to know something of his ancestry, and, if possible, to trace the
+origin of such a peculiar name."
+
+Phil replied with exaggerated concern. "For heaven's sake, sir, don't
+say anything about the man's name in his hearing."
+
+"He--he is dangerous, you mean?"
+
+"He is, if he thinks anyone is making light of his name. You should ask
+some of the boys who have tried it."
+
+"But I--I assure you, Mr. Acton, I had no thought of ridicule--far from
+it. Oh, very far from it."
+
+Kitty was obliged to turn away. She arrived at the corral in time to
+meet Patches, who was returning.
+
+"You ought to be ashamed," she scolded. But in spite of herself her eyes
+were laughing.
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Patches meekly, hat in hand.
+
+"How could you do such a thing?" she demanded.
+
+"How could I help doing it?"
+
+"How could you help it?"
+
+"Yes. You saw how he looked at me. Really, Miss Reid, I couldn't bear to
+disappoint him so cruelly. Honestly, now, wasn't I exactly what he
+expected me to be? I think you should compliment me. Didn't I do it very
+well?"
+
+"But, he'll think you're nothing but a cowboy," she protested.
+
+"Fine!" retorted Patches, quickly. "I thank you, Miss Reid; that is
+really the most satisfactory compliment I have ever received."
+
+"You're mocking me now," said Kitty, puzzled by his manner.
+
+"Indeed, I am not. I am very serious," he returned. "But here he comes
+again. With your gracious permission, I'll make my exit. Please don't
+explain to the professor. It would humiliate me, and think how it would
+shock and disappoint him!"
+
+Lifting his saddle from the ground and starting toward the shed, he said
+in a louder tone, "Sure, I won't ferget, Miss Kitty; an' you kin tell
+your paw that there baldfaced steer o' his'n, what give us the slip last
+rodeo time, is over in our big pasture. I sure seen him thar to-day."
+
+During the days immediately following that first meeting, Kitty passed
+many hours with Professor Parkhill. Phil and his cowboys were busy
+preparing for the spring rodeo. Mrs. Baldwin was wholly occupied with
+ministering to the animal comforts of her earthly household. And the
+Dean, always courteous and kind to his guest, managed, nevertheless, to
+think of some pressing business that demanded his immediate and personal
+attention whenever the visitor sought to engage him in conversation. The
+professor, quite naturally holding the cattleman to be but a rude,
+illiterate and wholly materialistic creature, but little superior in
+intellectual and spiritual powers to his own beasts, sought merely to
+investigate the Dean's mental works, with as little regard for the
+Dean's feelings as a biologist would show toward a hug. The Dean
+confided to Phil and Patches, one day when he had escaped to the
+blacksmith shop where the men were shoeing their horses, that the
+professor was harmlessly insane. "Just think," he exploded, "of the
+poor, little fool livin' in Chicago for three years, an' never once
+goin' out to the stockyards even!"
+
+It remained, therefore, for Kitty--the only worshiper of the professor's
+gods in Williamson Valley--to supply that companionship which seems so
+necessary even to those whose souls are so far removed from material
+wants. In short, as Little Billy put it, with a boy's irreverence,
+"Kitty rode herd on the professor." And, strangely enough to them all,
+Kitty seemed to like the job.
+
+Either because her friendship with Patches--which had some to mean a
+great deal to Kitty--outweighed her respect and admiration for the
+distinguished object of his fun, or because she waited for some
+opportunity to make the revelation a punishment to the offender, the
+young woman did not betray the real character of the cowboy to the
+stranger. And the professor, thanks to Phil's warning, not only
+refrained from investigating the name of Patches, but carefully avoided
+Patches himself. In the meantime, the "typical specimen" was forced to
+take a small part in the table talk lest he betray himself. So marked
+was this that Mrs. Baldwin one day, not understanding, openly chided him
+for being so "glum." Whereupon the Dean--to whom Phil had thoughtfully
+explained--teased the deceiver unmercifully, with many laughingly
+alleged reasons for his "grouch," while Curly and Bob, attributing their
+comrade's manner to the embarrassing presence of the stranger, grinned
+sympathetically; and the professor himself--unconsciously agreeing with
+the cowboys--with kindly condescension tried to make the victim of his
+august superiority as much at ease as possible; which naturally, for
+the Dean and Phil, added not a little to the situation.
+
+Then the spring rodeo took the men far from the home ranch, and for
+several weeks the distinguished guest of the Cross-Triangle was left
+almost wholly to the guardianship of the young woman who lived on the
+other side of the big meadows.
+
+It was the last day of the rodeo, when Phil rode to the home ranch, late
+in the afternoon, to consult with the Dean about the shipping. Patches
+and the cowboys who were to help in the long drive to the railroad were
+at Toohey with the cattle. While the cowboys were finishing their early
+breakfast the next morning, the foreman returned, and Patches knew,
+almost before Phil spoke, that something had happened. They shouted
+their greetings as he approached, but he had no smile for their cheery
+reception, nor did he answer, even, until he had ridden close to the
+group about the camp fire. Then, with a short "mornin', boys," he
+dismounted and stood with the bridle reins in his hand.
+
+At his manner a hush fell over the little company, and they watched him
+curiously.
+
+"No breakfast, Sam," he said, shortly, to the Chinaman. "Just a cup of
+coffee." Then to the cowboys, "You fellows saddle up and get that bunch
+of cattle to moving. We'll load at Skull Valley."
+
+Sam brought his coffee and he drank it as he stood, while the men
+hurriedly departed for their horses. Patches, the last to go, paused a
+moment, as though to speak, but Phil prevented him with a gruff order.
+"Get a move on you, Patches. Those cars will be there long before we
+are."
+
+And Patches, seeing the man's face dark and drawn with pain, moved away
+without a word.
+
+"Great snakes," softly ejaculated Curly a few moments later, as Patches
+stooped to take his saddle from where it lay on the ground beside
+Curly's. "What do you reckon's eatin' the boss? Him an' the Dean
+couldn't 'a' mixed it last night, could they? Do you reckon the Dean
+crawled him about somethin'?"
+
+Patches shook his head with a "Search me, pardner," as he turned to his
+horse.
+
+"Somethin's happened sure," muttered the other, busy with his saddle
+blanket. "Sufferin' cats! but I felt like he'd poured a bucket of ice
+water down my neck!" He drew the cinch tight with a vigorous jerk that
+brought a grunt of protest from his mount. "That's right," he continued,
+addressing the horse, "hump yourself, an' swell up and grunt, damn you;
+you ought to be thankin' God that you ain't nothin' but a hoss, nohow,
+with no feelin' 'cept what's in your belly." He dropped the heavy
+stirrup with a vicious slap, and swung to his seat. "If Phil's a-goin'
+to keep up the way he's startin', we'll sure have a pleasant little ol'
+ride to Skull Valley. Oh, Lord! but I wisht I was a professor of them
+there exteticks, or somethin' nice and gentle like, jest for to-day,
+anyhow."
+
+Patches laughed. "Think you could qualify, Curly?"
+
+The cowboy grinned as they rode off together. "So far as I've noticed
+the main part of the work, I could. The shade of them walnut trees at
+the home ranch, or the Pot-Hook-S front porch, an' a nice easy rockin'
+chair with fat cushions, or mebby the buckboard onct in a while, with
+Kitty to do the drivin'--Say, this has sure been some little ol' rodeo,
+ain't it? I ain't got a hoss in my string that can more'n stand up, an'
+honest to God, Patches, I'm jest corns all over. How's your saddle feel,
+this mornin'?"
+
+"It's got corns, too," admitted Patches. "But there's Phil; we'd better
+be riding."
+
+All that day Phil kept to himself, speaking to his companions only when
+speech could not be avoided, and then with the fewest possible words.
+That night, he left the company as soon as he had finished his supper,
+and went off somewhere alone, and Patches heard him finding his bed,
+long after the other members of the outfit were sound asleep. And the
+following day, through the trying work of loading the cattle, the young
+foreman was so little like himself that, had it not been that his men
+were nearly all old-time, boyhood friends who had known him all his
+life, there would surely have been a mutiny.
+
+It was late in the afternoon, when the last reluctant steer was prodded
+and pushed up the timbered runway from the pens, and crowded into the
+car. Curly and Bob were going with the cattle train. The others would
+remain at Skull Valley until morning, when they would start for their
+widely separated homes. Phil announced that he was going to the home
+ranch that night.
+
+"You can make it home sometime to-morrow, Patches," he finished, when
+he had said good-by to the little group of men with whom he had lived
+and worked in closest intimacy through the long weeks of the rodeo. He
+reined his horse about, even as he spoke, to set out on his long ride.
+
+The Cross-Triangle foreman was beyond hearing of the cowboys when
+Patches overtook him. "Do you mind if I go back to the Cross-Triangle
+with you to-night, Phil?" the cowboy asked quietly.
+
+Phil checked his horse and looked at his friend a moment without
+answering. Then, in a kindlier tone than he had used the past two days,
+he said, "You better stay here with the boys, and get your night's rest,
+Patches. You have had a long hard spell of it in this rodeo, and
+yesterday and to-day have not been exactly easy. Shipping is always
+hell, even when everybody is in a good humor," he smiled grimly.
+
+"If you do not object, I would really like to go," said Patches simply.
+
+"But your horse is as tired as you ought to be," protested Phil.
+
+"I'm riding Stranger, you know," the other answered.
+
+To which Phil replied tersely, "Let's be riding, then."
+
+The cowboys, who had been watching the two men, looked at each other in
+amazement as Phil and Patches rode away together.
+
+"Well, what do you make of that?" exclaimed one.
+
+"Looks like Honorable Patches was next," commented another.
+
+"Us old-timers ain't in it when it comes to associatin' with the boss,"
+offered a third.
+
+"You shut up on that line," came sharply from Curly. "Phil ain't turnin'
+us down for nobody. I reckon if Patches is fool enough to want to ride
+to the Cross-Triangle to-night Phil ain't got no reason for stoppin'
+him. If any of you punchers wants to make the ride, the way's open,
+ain't it?"
+
+"Now, don't you go on the prod, too," soothed the other. "We wasn't
+meanin' nothin' agin Phil."
+
+"Well, what's the matter with Patches?" demanded the Cross-Triangle man,
+whose heart was sorely troubled by the mystery of his foreman's mood.
+
+"Ain't nobody _said_ as there was anything the matter. Fact is, don't
+nobody _know_ that there is."
+
+And for some reason Curly had no answer.
+
+"Don't it jest naturally beat thunder the way he's cottoned up to that
+yellow dog of a Yavapai Joe?" mused another, encouraged by Curly's
+silence. "Three or four of the boys told how they'd seen 'em together
+off an' on, but I didn't think nothin' of it until I seen 'em myself
+when we was workin' over at Tailholt. It was one evenin' after supper. I
+went down to the corral to fix up that Pedro horse's back, when I heard
+voices kind o' low like. I stopped a minute, an' then sort o' eased
+along in the dark, an' run right onto 'em where they was a-settin' in
+the door o' the saddle room, cozy as you please. Yavapai sneaked away
+while I was gettin' the lantern an' lightin' it, but Patches, he jest
+stayed an' held the light for me while I fixed ol' Pedro, jest as if
+nothin' had happened."
+
+"Well," said Curly sarcastically, "what _had_ happened?"
+
+"I don't know-nothin'--mebby."
+
+"If Patches was what some o' you boys seem to think, do you reckon he'd
+be a-ridin' for the Cross-Triangle?" demanded Curly.
+
+"He might, an' he mightn't," retorted two or three at once.
+
+"Nobody can't say nothin' in a case like that until the show-down,"
+added one. "I don't reckon the Dean knows any more than the rest of us."
+
+"Unless Patches is what some of the other boys are guessin'," said
+another.
+
+"Which means," finished Curly, in a tone of disgust, "that we've got to
+millin' 'round the same old ring again. Come on, Bob; let's see what
+they've got for supper. That engine'll happen along directly, an' we'll
+be startin' hungry."
+
+Phil Acton was not ignorant of the different opinions that were held by
+the cattlemen regarding Honorable Patches. Nor, as the responsible
+foreman of the Cross-Triangle, could he remain indifferent to them.
+During those first months of Patches' life on the ranch, when the
+cowboy's heart had so often been moved to pity for the stranger who had
+come to them apparently from some painful crisis in his life, he had
+laughed at the suspicions of his old friends and associates. But as the
+months had passed, and Patches had so rapidly developed into a strong,
+self-reliant man, with a spirit of bold recklessness that was marked
+even among those hardy riders of the range, Phil forgot, in a measure,
+those characteristics that the stranger had shown at the beginning of
+their acquaintance. At the same time, the persistent suspicions of the
+cattlemen, together with Patches' curious, and, in a way, secret
+interest in Yavapai Joe, could not but have a decided influence upon the
+young man who was responsible for the Dean's property.
+
+It was inevitable, under the circumstances, that Phil's attitude toward
+Patches should change, even as the character of Patches himself had
+changed. While the foreman's manner of friendship and kindly regard
+remained, so far, unaltered, and while Phil still, in his heart,
+believed in his friend, and--as he would have said--"would continue to
+back his judgment until the show-down," nevertheless that spirit of
+intimacy which had so marked those first days of their work together had
+gradually been lost to them. The cowboy no longer talked to his
+companion, as he had talked that day when they lay in the shade of the
+walnut tree at Toohey, and during the following days of their range
+riding. He no longer admitted his friend into his inner life, as he had
+done that day when he told Patches the story of the wild stallion. And
+Patches, feeling the change, and unable to understand the reason for it,
+waited patiently for the time when the cloud that had fallen between
+them should lift.
+
+So they rode together that night, homeward bound, at the end of the
+long, hard weeks of the rodeo, in the deepening gloom of the day's
+passing, in the hushed stillness of the wild land, under the wide sky
+where the starry sentinel hosts were gathering for their ever-faithful
+watch. And as they rode, their stirrups often touching, each was alone
+with his own thoughts. Phil, still in the depth of his somber mood,
+brooded over his bitter trouble. Patches, sympathetically wondering,
+silently questioning, wished that he could help.
+
+There are times when a man's very soul forces him to seek companionship.
+Alone in the night with this man for whom, even at that first moment of
+their meeting on the Divide, he had felt a strange sense of kinship,
+Phil found himself drifting far from the questions that had risen to mar
+the closeness of their intimacy. The work of the rodeo was over; his
+cowboy associates, with their suggestive talk, were far away. Under the
+influence of the long, dark miles of that night, and the silent presence
+of his companion, the young man, for the time being, was no longer the
+responsible foreman of the Cross-Triangle Ranch. In all that vast and
+silent world there was, for Phil Acton, only himself, his trouble, and
+his friend.
+
+And so it came about that, little by little, the young man told Patches
+the story of his dream, and of how it was now shattered and broken.
+
+Sometimes bitterly, as though he felt injustice; sometimes harshly, as
+though in contempt for some weakness of his own; with sentences broken
+by the pain he strove to subdue, with halting words and long silences,
+Phil told of his plans for rebuilding the home of his boyhood, and of
+restoring the business that, through the generosity of his father, had
+been lost; of how, since his childhood almost, he had worked and saved
+to that end; and of his love for Kitty, which had been the very light of
+his dream, and without which for him there was no purpose in dreaming.
+And the man who rode so close beside him listened with a fuller
+understanding and a deeper sympathy than Phil knew.
+
+"And now," said Phil hopelessly, "it's all over. I've sure come to the
+end of my string. Reid has put the outfit on the market. He's going to
+sell out and quit. Uncle Will told me night before last when I went home
+to see about the shipping."
+
+"Reid is going to sell!" exclaimed Patches; and there was a curious note
+of exultation in his voice which Phil did not hear. Neither did Phil see
+that his companion was smiling to himself under cover of the darkness.
+
+"It's that damned Professor Parkhill that's brought it about," continued
+the cowboy bitterly. "Ever since Kitty came home from the East she has
+been discontented and dissatisfied with ranch life. I was all right when
+she went away, but when she came back she discovered that I was nothing
+but a cow-puncher. She has been fair, though. She has tried to get back
+where she was before she left and I thought I would win her again in
+time. I was so sure of it that it never troubled me. You have seen how
+it was. And you have seen how she was always wanting the life that she
+had learned to want while she was away--the life that you came from,
+Patches. I have been mighty glad for your friendship with her, too,
+because I thought she would learn from you that a man could have all
+that is worth having in _that_ life, and still be happy and contented
+_here_. And she would have learned, I am sure. She couldn't help seeing
+it. But now that damned fool who knows no more of real manhood than I
+do of his profession has spoiled it all."
+
+"But Phil, I don't understand. What has Parkhill to do with Reid's
+selling out?"
+
+"Why, don't you see?" Phil returned savagely. "He's the supreme
+representative of the highest highbrowed culture, isn't he? He's a lord
+high admiral, duke, or potentate of some sort, in the world of loftiest
+thought, isn't he? He lives, moves and has his being in the lofty realms
+of the purely spiritual, doesn't he? He's cultured, and cultivated, and
+spiritualized, until he vibrates nothing but pure soul--whatever that
+means--and he's refined himself, and mental-disciplined himself, and
+soul-dominated himself, until there's not an ounce of red blood left in
+his carcass. Get him between you and the sun, after what he calls a
+dinner, and you can see every material mouthful that he, has disgraced
+himself by swallowing. He's not human, I tell you; he's only a kind of a
+he-ghost, and ought to be fed on sterilized moonbeams and pasteurized
+starlight."
+
+"Amen!" said Patches solemnly, when Phil paused for lack of breath.
+"But, Phil, your eloquent characterization does not explain what the
+he-ghost has to do with the sale of the Pot-Hook-S outfit."
+
+Phil's voice again dropped into its hopeless key as he answered. "You
+remember how, from the very first, Kitty--well--sort of worshiped him,
+don't you?"
+
+"You mean how she worshiped his aesthetic cult, don't you?" corrected
+Patches quietly.
+
+"I suppose that's it," responded Phil gloomily. "Well, Uncle Will says
+that they have been together mighty near every day for the past three
+months, and that about half of the time they have been over at Kitty's
+home. He has discovered, he says, that Kitty possesses a rare and
+wonderful capacity for absorbing the higher truths of the more purely
+intellectual and spiritual planes of life, and that she has a
+marvelously developed appreciation of those ideals of life which are so
+far removed from the base and material interests and passions which
+belong to the mere animal existence of the common herd."
+
+"Oh, hell!" groaned Patches.
+
+"Well, that's what he told Uncle Will," returned Phil stoutly. "And he
+has harped on that string so long, and yammered so much to Jim and to
+Kitty's mother about the girl's wonderful intellectuality, and what a
+record-breaking career she would have if only she had the opportunity,
+and what a shame, and a loss to the world it is for her to remain buried
+in these soul-dwarfing surroundings, that they have got to believing it
+themselves. You see, Kitty herself has in a way been getting them used
+to the idea that Williamson Valley isn't much of a place, and that the
+cow business doesn't rank very high among the best people. So Jim is
+going to sell out, and move away somewhere, where Kitty can have her
+career, and the boys can grow up to be something better than low-down
+cow-punchers like you and me. Jim is able to retire anyway."
+
+"Thanks, Phil," said Patches quietly.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Why, for including me in your class. I consider it a compliment,
+and"--he added, with a touch of his old self-mocking humor--"I think I
+know what I am saying--better, perhaps, than the he-ghost knows what he
+talks about."
+
+"It may be that you do," returned Phil wearily, "but you can see where
+it all puts me. The professor has sure got me down and hog-tied so tight
+that I can't even think."
+
+"Perhaps, and again, perhaps not," returned Patches. "Reid hasn't found
+a buyer for the outfit yet, has he?"
+
+"Not yet, but they'll come along fast enough. The Pot-Hook-S Ranch is
+too well known for the sale to hang fire long."
+
+The next day Phil seemed to slip back again, in his attitude toward
+Patches, to the temper of those last weeks of the rodeo. It was as
+though the young man--with his return to the home ranch and to the Dean
+and their talks and plans for the work--again put himself, his personal
+convictions and his peculiar regard for Patches, aside, and became the
+unprejudiced foreman, careful for his employer's interests.
+
+Patches very quickly, but without offense, found that the door, which
+his friend had opened in the long dark hours of that lonely night ride,
+had closed again; and, thinking that he understood, he made no attempt
+to force his way. But, for some reason, Patches appeared to be in an
+unusually happy frame of mind, and went singing and whistling about the
+corrals and buildings as though exceedingly well pleased with himself
+and with the world.
+
+The following day was Sunday. In the afternoon, Patches was roaming
+about the premises, keeping at a safe distance from the walnut trees in
+front of the house, where the professor had cornered the Dean, thus
+punishing both Patches and his employer by preventing one of their long
+Sunday talks which they both so much enjoyed. Phil had gone off
+somewhere to be alone, and Mrs. Baldwin was reading aloud to Little
+Billy. Honorable Patches was left very much to himself.
+
+From the top of the little hill near the corrals, he looked across the
+meadow at exactly the right moment to see someone riding away from the
+neighboring ranch. He watched until he was certain that whoever it was
+was not coming to the Cross-Triangle--at least, not by way of the meadow
+lane. Then, smiling to himself, he went to the big barn and saddled a
+horse--there are always two or three that are not turned out in the
+pasture--and in a few minutes was riding leisurely away on the Simmons
+road, along the western edge of the valley. An hour later he met Kitty
+Reid, who was on her way from Simmons to the Cross-Triangle.
+
+The young woman was sincerely glad to meet him.
+
+"But you were going to Simmons, were you not?" she asked, as he reined
+his horse about to ride with her.
+
+"To be truthful, I was going to Simmons if I met anyone else, or if I
+had not met you," he answered. Then, at her puzzled look, he explained,
+"I saw someone leave your house, and guessed that it was you. I guessed,
+too, that you would be coming this way."
+
+"And you actually rode out to meet me?"
+
+"Actually," he smiled.
+
+They chatted about the rodeo, and the news of the countryside--for it
+had been several weeks since they had met--and so reached the point of
+the last ridge before you come to the ranch. Then Patches asked, "May we
+ride over there on the ridge, and sit for a while in the shade of that
+old cedar, for a little talk? It's early yet, and it's been ages since
+we had a pow-wow."
+
+Reaching the point which Patches had chosen, they left their horses and
+made themselves comfortable on the brow of the hill, overlooking the
+wide valley meadow and the ranches.
+
+"And now," said Kitty, looking at him curiously, "what's the talk, Mr.
+Honorable Patches?"
+
+"Just you," said Patches, gravely.
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Your own charming self," he returned.
+
+"But, please, good sir, what have I done?" she asked. "Or, perhaps, it's
+what have I not done?"
+
+"Or perhaps," he retorted, "it's what you are going to do."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Miss Reid, I am going to ask you a favor--a great favor."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"You have known me now almost a year."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And, yet, to be exact, you do not know me at all."
+
+She did not answer, but looked at him steadily.
+
+"And that, in a way," he continued, "makes it easy for me to ask the
+favor; that is, if you feel that you can trust me ever so little--trust
+me, I mean, to the extent of believing me sincere."
+
+"I know that you are sincere, Patches," she answered, gravely.
+
+"Thank you," he returned. Then he said gently, "I want you to let me
+talk to you about what is most emphatically none of my business. I want
+you to let me ask you impertinent questions. I want you to talk to me
+about"--he hesitated; then finished with meaning--"about your career."
+
+She felt his earnestness, and was big enough to understand, and be
+grateful for the spirit that prompted his words.
+
+"Why, Patches," she cried, "after all that your friendship has meant to
+me, these past months, I could not think any question that you would ask
+impertinent Surely you know that, don't you?"
+
+"I hoped that you would feel that way. And I know that I would give five
+years of my life if I knew how to convince you of the truth which I have
+learned from my own bitter experience, and save you from--from
+yourself."
+
+She could not mistake his earnestness and in spite of herself the man's
+intense feeling moved her deeply.
+
+"Save me from myself?" she questioned. "What in the world do you mean,
+Patches?"
+
+"Is it true," he asked, "that your father is offering the ranch for
+sale, and that you are going out of the Williamson Valley life?"
+
+"Yes, but it is not such a sudden move as it seems. We have often talked
+about it at home--father and mother and I."
+
+"But the move is to be made chiefly on your account, is it not?"
+
+She flushed a little at this, but answered stoutly. "Yes. I suppose that
+is true. You see, being the only one in our family to have the
+advantages of--well--the advantages that I have had, it was natural that
+I should--Surely you have seen, Patches, how discontented and
+dissatisfied I have been with the life here! Why, until you came there
+was no one to whom I could talk, even--no one, I mean, who could
+understand."
+
+"But what is it that you want, or expect to find, that you may not have
+right here?"
+
+Then she told him all that he had expected to hear. Told him earnestly,
+passionately, of the life she craved, and of the sordid, commonplace
+narrowness and emptiness--as she saw it--of the life from which she
+sought to escape. And as she talked the man's good heart was heavy with
+sadness and pity for her.
+
+"Oh, girl, girl," he cried, when she had finished. "Can't you--won't
+you--understand? All that you seek is right here--everywhere about
+you--waiting for you to make it your own, and with it you may have here
+those greater things without which no life can be abundant and joyous.
+The culture and the intellectual life that is dependent upon mere
+environment is a crippled culture and a sickly life. The mind that
+cannot find its food for thought wherever it may be planed will never
+hobble very far on crutches of superficial cults and societies. You are
+leaving the substance, child, for the shadow. You are seeking the fads
+and fancies of shallow idlers, and turning your back upon eternal facts.
+You are following after silly fools who are chasing bubbles over the
+edge of God's good world. Believe me, girl, I know--God! but I do know
+what that life, stripped of its tinseled and spangled show, means. Take
+the good grain, child, and let the husks go."
+
+As the man spoke, Kitty watched him as though she were intently
+interested; but, in truth, her thoughts were more on the speaker than on
+what he said.
+
+"You are in earnest, aren't you, Patches?" she murmured softly.
+
+"I am," he returned sharply, for he saw that she was not even
+considering what he had said. "I know how mistaken you are; I know what
+it will mean to you when you find how much you have lost and how little
+you have gained."
+
+"And how am I mistaken? Do I not know what I want? Am I not better able
+than anyone else to say what satisfies me and what does not?"
+
+"No," he retorted, almost harshly, "you are not. You _think_ it is the
+culture, as you call it, that you want; but if that were really it, you
+would not go. You would find it here. The greatest minds that the world
+has ever known you may have right here in your home, on your library
+table. And you may listen to their thoughts without being disturbed by
+the magpie chatterings of vain and shallow pretenders. You are attracted
+by the pretentious forms and manners of that life; you think that
+because a certain class of people, who have nothing else to do, talk a
+certain jargon, and profess to follow certain teachers--who, nine times
+out of ten, are charlatans or fools--that they are the intellectual and
+spiritual leaders of the race. You are mistaking the very things that
+prevent intellectual and spiritual development for the things you think
+you want."
+
+She did not answer his thought, but replied to his words. "And supposing
+I am mistaken, as you say. Still, I do not see why it should matter so
+to you."
+
+He made a gesture of hopelessness and sat for a moment in silence. Then
+he said slowly, "I fear you will not understand, but did you ever hear
+the story of how 'Wild Horse Phil' earned his title?"
+
+She laughed. "Why, of course. Everybody knows about that. Dear, foolish
+old Phil--I shall miss him dreadfully." "Yes," he said significantly,
+"you will miss him. The life you are going to does not produce Phil
+Actons."
+
+"It produced an Honorable Patches," she retorted slyly.
+
+"Indeed it did _not_," he answered quickly. "It produced--" He checked
+himself, as though fearing that he would say too much.
+
+"But what have Phil and his wild horse to do with the question?" she
+asked.
+
+"Nothing, I fear. Only I feel about your going away as Phil felt when he
+gave the wild horse its freedom."
+
+"I don't think I understand," she said, genuinely puzzled.
+
+"I said you would not," he retorted bluntly, "and that's why you are
+leaving all this." His gesture indicated the vast sweep of country with
+old Granite Mountain in the distance.
+
+Then, with a nod and a look he indicated Professor Parkhill, who was
+walking toward them along the side of the ridge skirting the scattered
+cedar timber. "Here comes a product of the sort of culture to which you
+aspire. Behold the ideal manhood of your higher life! When the
+intellectual and spiritual life you so desire succeeds in producing
+racial fruit of that superior quality, it will have justified its
+existence--and will perish from the earth."
+
+Even as Patches spoke, he saw something just beyond the approaching man
+that made him start as if to rise to his feet.
+
+It was the unmistakable face of Yavapai Joe, who, from behind an oak
+bush, was watching the professor.
+
+Patches, glancing at Kitty, saw that she had not noticed.
+
+Before the young woman could reply to her companion's derisive remarks,
+the object which had prompted his comments arrived within speaking
+distance.
+
+"I trust I am not intruding," began the professor, in his small, thin
+voice. Then as Patches, his eyes still on that oak bush, stood up, the
+little man added, with hasty condescension, "Keep your seat, my man;
+keep your seat. I assure you it is not my purpose to deprive you of Miss
+Reid's company."
+
+Patches grinned. By that "my man" he knew that Kitty had not enlightened
+her teacher as to the "typical cowboy's" real character.
+
+"That's all right, perfessor," he said awkwardly. "I just seen a
+maverick over yonder a-piece. I reckon I'd better mosey along an' have a
+closer look at him. Me an' Kitty here warn't talkin' nothin' important,
+nohow. Just a gassin' like. I reckon she'd ruther go on home with you,
+anyhow, an' it's all right with me."
+
+"Maverick!" questioned the professor. "And what, may I ask, is a
+maverick?"
+
+"Hit's a critter what don't belong to nobody," answered Patches, moving
+toward his horse.
+
+At the same moment Kitty, who had risen, and was looking in the
+direction from which the professor had come, exclaimed, "Why, there's
+Yavapai Joe, Patches. What is he doing here?"
+
+She pointed, and the professor, looking, caught a glimpse of Joe's back
+as the fellow was slinking over the ridge.
+
+"I reckon mebby he wants to see me 'bout somethin' or other," Patches
+returned, as he mounted his horse. "Anyway, I'm a-goin' over that-a-way
+an' see. So long!"
+
+Patches rode up to Joe just as the Tailholt Mountain man regained his
+horse on the other side of the ridge.
+
+"Hello, Joe!" said the Cross-Triangle rider, easily.
+
+The wretched outcast was so shaken and confused that he could scarcely
+find the stirrup with his foot, and his face was pale and twitching with
+excitement. He looked at Patches, wildly, but spoke in a sullen tone.
+"What's he doin' here? What does he want? How did he get to this
+country, anyhow?"
+
+Patches was amazed, but spoke calmly. "Whom do you mean, Joe?"
+
+"I mean that man back there, Parkhill--Professor Parkhill. What's he
+a-lookin' for hangin' 'round here? You can tell him it ain't no
+use--I--" He stopped suddenly, and with a characteristic look of
+cunning, turned away.
+
+Patches rode beside him for some distance, but nothing that he could say
+would persuade the wretched creature to explain.
+
+"Yes, I know you're my friend, all right, Patches," he answered. "You
+sure been mighty friendly ter me, an' I ain't fergettin' it. But I ain't
+a-tellin' nothin' to nobody, an' it ain't a-goin' to do you no good to
+go askin' him 'bout me, neither."
+
+"I'm not going to ask Professor Parkhill anything, Joe," said Patches
+shortly.
+
+"You ain't?"
+
+"Certainly not; if you don't want me to know. I'm not trying to find out
+about anything that's none of my business."
+
+Joe looked at him with a cunning leer. "Oh, you ain't, ain't you? Nick
+'lows that you're sure--" Again he caught himself. "But I ain't
+a-tellin' nothin' to nobody."
+
+"Well, have _I_ ever asked you to tell me anything?" demanded Patches.
+
+"No, you ain't--that's right--you sure been square with me, Patches,
+an' I ain't fergettin' it. Be you sure 'nuf my friend, Patches?
+Honest-to-God, now, be you?"
+
+His question was pitiful, and Patches assured the poor fellow that he
+had no wish to be anything but his friend, if only Yavapai Joe would
+accept his help.
+
+"Then," said Joe pleadingly, "if you mean all that you been sayin' about
+wantin' to help me, you'll do somethin' fer me right now."
+
+"What can I do, Joe?"
+
+"You kin promise me that you won't say nothin' to nobody 'bout me an'
+him back there."
+
+Patches, to demonstrate his friendliness, answered without thought,
+"Certainly, I'll promise that, Joe."
+
+"You won't tell nobody?"
+
+"No, I won't say a word."
+
+The poor fellow's face revealed his gratitude. "I'm obliged to you,
+Patches, I sure am, an' I ain't fergettin' nothin', either. You're my
+friend, all right, an' I'm your'n. I got to be a-hittin' it up now.
+Nick'll jest nachally gimme hell for bein' gone so long."
+
+"Good-by, Joe!"
+
+"So long, Patches! An' don't you get to thinkin' that I'm fergettin' how
+me an' you is friends."
+
+When Patches reviewed the incident, as he rode back to the ranch, he
+questioned if he had done right in promising Joe. But, after all, he
+reassured himself, he was under no obligation to interfere with what was
+clearly none of his business. He could not see that the matter in any
+possible way touched his employer's interests. And, he reflected, he
+had already tried the useless experiment of meddling with other people's
+affairs, and he did not care to repeat the experience.
+
+That evening Patches asked Phil's permission to go to Prescott the next
+day. It would be the first time that he had been to town since his
+coming to the ranch and the foreman readily granted his request.
+
+A few minutes later as Phil passed through the kitchen, Mrs. Baldwin
+remarked, "I wonder what Patches is feeling so gay about. Ever since he
+got home from the rodeo he's been singin' an' whistlin' an' grinnin' to
+himself all the time. He went out to the corral just now as merry as a
+lark."
+
+Phil laughed. "Anybody would be glad to get through with that rodeo,
+mother; besides, he is going to town to-morrow."
+
+"He is? Well, you mark my words, son, there's somethin' up to make him
+feel as good as he does."
+
+And then, when Phil had gone on out into the yard, Professor Parkhill
+found him.
+
+"Mr. Acton," began the guest timidly, "there is a little matter about
+which I feel I should speak to you."
+
+"Very well, sir," returned the cowboy.
+
+"I feel that it would be better for me to speak to you rather than to
+Mr. Baldwin, because, well, you are younger, and will, I am sure,
+understand more readily."
+
+"All right; what is it, Professor?" asked Phil encouragingly, wondering
+at the man's manner.
+
+"Do you mind--ah--walking a little way down the road?"
+
+As they strolled out toward the gate to the meadow road, the professor
+continued:
+
+"I think I should tell you about your man Patches."
+
+Phil looked at his companion sharply. "Well, what about him?"
+
+"I trust you will not misunderstand my interest, Mr. Acton, when I say
+that it also includes Miss Reid."
+
+Phil stopped short. Instantly Mrs. Baldwin's remark about Patches'
+happiness, his own confession that he had given up all hope of winning
+Kitty, and the thought of the friendship which he had seen developing
+during the past months, with the realization that Patches belonged to
+that world to which Kitty aspired--all swept through his mind. He was
+looking at the man beside him so intently that the professor said again
+uneasily:
+
+"I trust, Mr. Acton, that you will understand."
+
+Phil laughed shortly. "I think I do. But just the same you'd better
+explain. What about Patches and Miss Reid, sir?"
+
+The professor told how he had found them together that afternoon.
+
+"Oh, is that all?" laughed Phil.
+
+"But surely, Mr. Acton, you do not think that a man of that fellow's
+evident brutal instincts is a fit associate for a young woman of Miss
+Reid's character and refinement."
+
+"Perhaps not," admitted Phil, still laughing, "but I guess Kitty can
+take care of herself."
+
+"I do not agree with you, sir," said the other authoritatively. "A young
+woman of Miss Reid's--ah--spirituality and worldly inexperience must
+always be, to a certain extent, injured by contact with such illiterate,
+unrefined, and, I have no doubt, morally deficient characters."
+
+"But, look here, Professor," returned Phil, still grinning, "what do you
+expect me to do about it? I am not Kitty Reid's guardian. Why don't you
+talk to her yourself?"
+
+"Really," returned the little man, "I--there are reasons why I do not
+see my way clear to such a course. I had hoped that you might keep an
+eye on the fellow, and, if necessary, use your authority over him to
+prevent any such incidents in the future."
+
+"I'll see what I can do," answered Phil, thinking how the Dean would
+enjoy the joke. "But, look here; Kitty was with you when you got to the
+ranch. What became of Patches? Run, did he, when you appeared on the
+scene?"
+
+"Oh, no; he went away with a--with a maverick."
+
+"Went away with a maverick? What, in heaven's name, do you mean by
+that?"
+
+"That's what your man Patches said the fellow was. Miss Reid told me his
+name was Joe--Joe something."
+
+Phil was not laughing now. The fun of the situation had vanished.
+
+"Was it Yavapai Joe?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes, that was it. I am quite sure that was the name. He belongs at
+Tailend Mountain, I think Miss Reid said; you have such curious names in
+this country."
+
+"And Patches went away with him, you say?"
+
+"Yes, the fellow seemed to have been hiding in the bushes when we
+discovered him, and when Miss Reid asked what he was doing there your
+man said that he had come to see him about something. They went away
+together, I believe."
+
+As soon as he could escape from the professor, Phil went straight to
+Patches, who was in his room, reading. The man looked up with a
+welcoming smile as Phil entered, but as he saw the foreman's face his
+smile vanished quickly, and he laid aside his book.
+
+"Patches," said Phil abruptly, "what's this talk of the professor's
+about you and Yavapai Joe?"
+
+"I don't know what the professor is talking," Patches replied coldly, as
+though he did not exactly like the tone of Phil's question.
+
+"He says that Joe was sneaking about in the brush over on the ridge
+wanting to see you about something," returned Phil.
+
+"Joe was certainly over there on the ridge, and he may have wanted to
+see me; at any rate, I saw him."
+
+"Well, I've got to ask you what sort of business you have with that
+Tailholt Mountain thief that makes it necessary for him to sneak around
+in the brush for a meeting with you. If he wants to see you, why doesn't
+he come to the ranch, like a man?"
+
+Honorable Patches looked the Dean's foreman straight in the eyes, as he
+answered in a tone that he had never used before in speaking to Phil:
+"And I have to answer, sir, that my business with Yavapai Joe is
+entirely personal; that it has no relation whatever to your business as
+the foreman of this ranch. As to why Joe didn't come to the house, you
+must ask him; I don't know."
+
+"You refuse to explain?" demanded Phil.
+
+"I certainly refuse to discuss Joe Dryden's private affairs--that, so
+far as I can see, are of no importance to anyone but himself--with you
+or anyone else. Just as I should refuse to discuss any of your private
+affairs, with which I happened, by some chance, to be, in a way,
+familiar. I have made all the explanation necessary when I say that my
+business with him has nothing to do with your business. You have no
+right to ask me anything further."
+
+"I have the right to fire you," retorted Phil, angrily.
+
+Patches smiled, as he answered gently, "You have the right, Phil, but
+you won't use it."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Because you are not that kind of a man, Phil Acton," answered Patches
+slowly. "You know perfectly well that if you discharged me because of my
+friendship with poor Yavapai Joe, no ranch in this part of the country
+would give me a job. You are too honest yourself to condemn any man on
+mere suspicion, and you are too much of a gentleman to damn another
+simply because he, too, aspires to that distinction."
+
+"Very well, Patches," Phil returned, with less heat, "but I want you to
+understand one thing; I am responsible for the Cross-Triangle property
+and there is no friendship in the world strong enough to influence me in
+the slightest degree when it comes to a question of Uncle Will's
+interests. Do you get that?"
+
+"I got that months ago, Phil."
+
+Without another word, the Dean's foreman left the room.
+
+Patches sat for some time considering the situation. And now and then
+his lips curled in that old, self-mocking smile; realizing that he was
+caught in the trap of circumstance, he found a curious humor in his
+predicament.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+FRONTIER DAY.
+
+
+Again it was July. And, with the time of the cattlemen's celebration of
+the Fourth at hand, riders from every part of the great western cow
+country assembled in Prescott for their annual contests. From Texas and
+Montana, from Oklahoma and New Mexico and Wyoming, the cowboys came with
+their saddles and riatas to meet each other and the men of Arizona in
+friendly trials of strength and skill. From many a wild pasture, outlaw
+horses famous for their vicious, unsubdued spirits, and their fierce,
+untamed strength, were brought to match their wicked, unbroken wills
+against the cool, determined courage of the riders. From the wide
+ranges, the steers that were to participate in the roping and
+bull-dogging contests were gathered and driven in. From many a ranch the
+fastest and best of the trained cow-horses were sent for the various
+cowboy races. And the little city, in its rocky, mile-high basin, upon
+which the higher surrounding mountains look so steadfastly down, again
+decked itself in gala colors, and opened wide its doors to welcome all
+who chose to come.
+
+From the Cross-Triangle and the neighboring ranches the cowboys, dressed
+in the best of their picturesque regalia, rode into the town, to witness
+and take part in the sports. With them rode Honorable Patches.
+
+And this was not the carefully groomed and immaculately attired
+gentleman who, in troubled spirit, had walked alone over that long,
+unfenced way a year before. This was not the timid, hesitating,
+shamefaced man at whom Phil Acton had laughed on the summit of the
+Divide. This was a man among men--a cowboy of the cowboys--bronzed, and
+lean, and rugged; vitally alive in every inch of his long body; with
+self-reliant courage and daring hardihood written all over him,
+expressed in every tone of his voice, and ringing in every note of his
+laughter.
+
+The Dean and Mrs. Baldwin and Little Billy drove in the buckboard, but
+the distinguished guest of the Cross-Triangle went with the Reid family
+in the automobile. The professor was not at all interested in the
+celebration, but he could not well remain at the ranch alone, and, it
+may be supposed, the invitation from Kitty helped to make the occasion
+endurable.
+
+The celebration this year--the posters and circulars declared--was to be
+the biggest and best that Prescott had ever offered. In proof of the
+bold assertion, the program promised, in addition to the usual events,
+an automobile race. Shades of all those mighty heroes of the saddle,
+whose names may not be erased from the history of the great West, think
+of it! An automobile race offered as the chief event in a Frontier Day
+Celebration!
+
+No wonder that Mrs. Manning said to her husband that day, "But Stan,
+where are the cowboys?"
+
+Stanford Manning answered laughingly, "Oh, they are here, all right,
+Helen; just wait a little and you will see."
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Manning had arrived from Cleveland, Ohio, the evening
+before, and Helen was eager and excited with the prospect of meeting the
+people, and witnessing the scenes of which her husband had told her with
+so much enthusiasm.
+
+As the Dean had told Patches that day when the cattleman had advanced
+the money for the stranger's outfit, the young mining engineer had won a
+place for himself amid the scenes and among the people of that western
+country. He had first come to the land of this story, fresh from his
+technical training in the East. His employers, quick to recognize not
+only his ability in his profession but his character and manhood, as
+well, had advanced him rapidly and, less than a month before Patches
+asked for work at the Cross-Triangle, had sent him on an important
+mission to their mines in the North. They were sending him, now, again
+to Arizona, this time as the resident manager of their properties in the
+Prescott district. This new advance in his profession, together with the
+substantial increase in salary which it brought, meant much to the
+engineer. Most of all, it meant his marriage to Helen Wakefield. A
+stop-over of two weeks at Cleveland, on way West, from the main offices
+of his Company in New York, had changed his return to Prescott from a
+simple business trip to a wedding journey.
+
+At the home of the Yavapai Club, on top of the hill, a clock above the
+plaza, a number of Prescott's citizens, with their guests, had gathered
+to watch the beginning of the automobile race. The course, from the
+corner in front of the St. Michael hotel, followed the street along one
+side of the plaza, climbed straight up the hill, passed the clubhouse,
+and so away into the open country. From the clubhouse veranda, from the
+lawn and walks in front, or from their seats in convenient automobiles
+standing near, the company enjoyed, thus, an unobstructed view of the
+starting point of the race, and could look down as well upon the crowds
+that pressed against the ropes which were stretched along either side of
+the street. Prom a friendly automobile, Helen Manning, with her
+husband's field glasses, was an eager and excited observer of the
+interesting scene, while Stanford near by was busy greeting old friends,
+presenting them to his wife and receiving their congratulations. And
+often, he turned with a fond look and a merry word to the young woman,
+as though reassuring himself that she was really there. There was no
+doubt about it, Stamford Manning, strong and steady and forceful, was
+very much in love with this girl who looked down into his face with such
+an air of sweet confidence and companionship. And Helen, as she turned
+from the scene that so interested her, to greet her husband's friends,
+to ask him some question, or to answer some laughing remark, could not
+hide the love light in her soft brown eyes. One could not fail to see
+that her woman heart was glad--glad and proud that this stalwart,
+broad-shouldered leader of men had chosen her for his mate.
+
+"But, Stan," she said, with a pretty air of disappointment, "I thought
+it was all going to be so different. Why, except for the mountains, and
+those poor Indians over there, this might all be in some little town
+back home. I thought there would be cowboys riding about everywhere,
+with long hair and big hats, and guns and things."
+
+Stanford and his friends who were standing near laughed.
+
+"I fear, Mrs. Manning," remarked Mr. Richards, one of Prescott's bank
+presidents, "that Stanford has been telling you wild west stories. The
+West moves as well as the East, you know. We are becoming civilized."
+
+"Indeed you are, Mr. Richards," Helen returned. "And I don't think I
+like it a bit. It's not fair to your poor eastern sight-seers, like
+myself."
+
+"If you are really so anxious to see a sure enough cowboy, look over
+there," said Stanford, and pointed across the street.
+
+"Where?" demanded Helen eagerly.
+
+"There," smiled Stanford, "the dark-faced chap near that automobile
+standing by the curb; the machine with the pretty girl at the wheel.
+See! he is stopping to talk with the girl."
+
+"What! That nice looking man, dressed just like thousands of men that we
+might see any day on the streets of Cleveland?" cried Helen.
+
+"Exactly," chuckled her husband, while the others laughed at her
+incredulous surprise. "But, just the same, that's Phil Acton; 'Wild
+Horse Phil,' if you please. He is the cowboy foreman of the
+Cross-Triangle Ranch, and won the championship in the bronco riding last
+year."
+
+"I don't believe it--you are making fun of me, Stanford Manning."
+
+Then, before he could answer, she cried, with quick excitement, "But,
+Stan, look! Look at the girl in the automobile! She looks like--it is,
+Stan, it is!" And to the amazement of her husband and her friends Mrs.
+Manning sprang to her feet and, waving her handkerchief, called, "Kitty!
+Oh, Kitty--Kitty Reid!"
+
+As her clear call rang out, many people turned to look, and then to
+smile at the picture, as she stood there in the bright Arizona day, so
+animated and wholesomely alive in the grace and charm of her beautiful
+young womanhood, above the little group of men who were looking up at
+her with laughing admiration.
+
+On the other side of the street, where she sat with her parents and
+Professor Parkhill, talking to Phil, Kitty heard the call, and looked. A
+moment later she was across the street, and the two young women were
+greeting each other with old-time schoolgirl enthusiasm. Introductions
+and explanations followed, with frequent feminine exclamations of
+surprise and delight. Then the men drew a little away, talking,
+laughing, as men will on such occasions, leaving the two women to
+themselves.
+
+In that eastern school, which, for those three years, had been Kitty's
+home, Helen Wakefield and the girl from Arizona had been close and
+intimate friends. Indeed, Helen, with her strong womanly character and
+that rare gift of helpful sympathy and understanding, had been to the
+girl fresh from the cattle ranges more than a friend; she had been
+counsellor and companion, and, in many ways, a wise guardian and
+teacher.
+
+"But why in the world didn't you write me about it?" demanded Kitty a
+little later. "Why didn't you tell me that you had become Mrs. Stanford
+Manning, and that you were coming to Prescott?"
+
+Helen laughed and blushed happily. "Why, you see, Kitty, it all happened
+so quickly that there was no time to write. You remember when I wrote
+you about Stan, I told you how poor he was, and how we didn't expect to
+be married for several years?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, then, you see, Stan's company, all unexpectedly to him, called
+him to New York and gave him this position out here. He had to start at
+once, and wired me from New York. Just think, I had only a week for the
+wedding and everything! I knew, of course, that I could find you after I
+got here."
+
+"And now that you are here," said Kitty decisively, "you and Mr. Manning
+are coming right out to Williamson Valley to spend your honeymoon on the
+ranch."
+
+But Helen shook her head. "Stan has it all planned, Kitty, and he won't
+listen to anything else. There is a place around here somewhere that he
+calls Granite Basin, and he has it all arranged that we are to camp out
+there for three weeks. His company has given him that much time, and we
+are going just as soon as this celebration is over. After that, while
+Stan gets started with his work, and fixes some place for us to live, I
+will make you a little visit."
+
+"I suppose there is no use trying to contend against the rights of a
+brand-new husband," returned Kitty, "but it's a promise, that you will
+come to me as soon as your camping trip is over?"
+
+"It's a promise," agreed Helen. "You see, that's really part of
+Stanford's plan; I was so sure you would want me, you know."
+
+"Want you? I should say I do want you," cried Kitty, "and I need you,
+too."
+
+Something in her voice made Helen look at her questioningly, but Kitty
+only smiled.
+
+"I'll tell you all about it when there is more time."
+
+"Let me see," said Helen. "There used to be--why, of course, that nice
+looking man you were talking to when I recognized you--Phil Acton." She
+looked across the street as she spoke, but Phil had gone.
+
+"Please don't, Helen dear," said Kitty, "that was only my schoolgirl
+nonsense. When I came back home I found how impossible it all was. But I
+must run back to the folks now. Won't you come and meet them?"
+
+Before Helen could answer someone shouted, "They're getting ready for
+the start," and everybody looked down the hill toward the place where
+the racing machines were sputtering and roaring in their clouds of blue
+smoke.
+
+Helen caught up the field glasses to look, saying, "We can't go now,
+Kitty. You stay here with us until after the race is started; then we'll
+go."
+
+As Helen lowered the glasses Stanford, who had come to stand beside the
+automobile, reached out his hand. "Let me have a look, Helen. They say
+my old friend, Judge Morris, is the official starter." He put the field
+glasses to his eyes. "There he is all right, as big as life; finest man
+that ever lived. Look, Helen." He returned the glasses to his wife "If
+you want to see a genuine western lawyer, a scholar and a gentleman,
+take a look at that six-foot-three or four down there in the gray
+clothes."
+
+"I see him," said Helen, "but there seems to be some thing the matter;
+there he goes back to the machines. Now he's laying down the law to the
+drivers."
+
+"They won't put over anything on Morris," said Stanford admiringly.
+
+Then a deep, kindly voice at his elbow said, "Howdy, Manning! Ain't you
+got time to speak to your old friends?"
+
+Stanford whirled and, with a glad exclamation, grasped the Dean's
+outstretched hand. Still holding fast to the cattleman, he again turned
+to his wife, who was looking down at them with smiling interest. "Helen,
+this is Mr. Baldwin--the Dean, you know."
+
+"Indeed, I ought to know the Dean," she cried, giving him her hand.
+"Stanford has told me so much about you that I am in love with you
+already."
+
+"And I"--retorted the Dean, looking up at her with his blue eyes
+twinkling approval--"I reckon I've always been in love with you. I'm
+sure glad to see that this young man has justified his reputation for
+good judgment. Have they got any more girls like you back East? 'Cause
+if they have, I'll sure be obliged to take a trip to that part of the
+world before I get too old."
+
+"You are just as Stan said you were," retorted Helen.
+
+"Uncle Will!" cried Kitty. "I am ashamed of you! I didn't think you
+would turn down your own home folks like that!"
+
+The Dean lifted his hat and rumpled his grizzly hair as though fairly
+caught. Then: "Why, Kitty, you know that I couldn't love any girl more
+than I do you. Why, you belong to me most as much as you belong to your
+own father and mother. But, you see--honey--well, you see, we've just
+naturally got to be nice to strangers, you know." When they had laughed
+at this, Kitty explained to that Dean how Mrs. Manning was the Helen
+Wakefield with whom she had been such friends at school, and that, after
+the Mannings' outing in Granite Basin, Helen was to visit Williamson
+Valley.
+
+"Campin' out in Granite Basin, heh?" said the Dean to Stanford. "I
+reckon you'll be seein' some o' my boys. They're goin' up into that
+country after outlaw steers next week."
+
+"I hope so," returned Stanford. "Helen has been complaining that there
+are no cowboys to be seen. I pointed out Phil Acton, but he didn't seem
+to fill the bill; she doesn't believe that he is a cowboy at all."
+
+The Dean chuckled. "He's never been anything else. They don't make 'em
+any better anywhere." Then he added soberly, "Phil's not ridin' in the
+contest this year, though."
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"I don't know. He's got some sort of a fool notion in his head that he
+don't want to make an exhibition of himself--that's what he said. I've
+got another man on the ranch now," he added, as though to change the
+subject, "that'll be mighty near as good as Phil in another year. His
+name is Patches. He's a good one, all right."
+
+Kitty, who, had been looking away down the street while the Dean was
+talking, put her hand on Helen's arm. "Look down there, Helen. I believe
+that is Patches now--that man sitting on his horse at the cross street,
+at the foot of the hill, just outside the ropes."
+
+Helen was looking through the field glasses. "I see him," she cried.
+"Now, that's more like it. He looks like what I expected to see. What a
+fine, big chap he is, isn't he?" Then, as she studied the distant
+horseman, a puzzled expression came over her face. "Why, Kitty!" she
+said in a low tone, so that the men who were talking did not hear. "Do
+you know, that man somehow reminds me"--she hesitated and lowered the
+glasses to look at her companion with half-amused, half-embarrassed
+eyes--"he reminds me of Lawrence Knight."
+
+Kitty's brown, fun-loving eyes glowed with mischief. "Really, Mrs.
+Manning, I am ashamed of you. Before the honeymoon has waned, your
+thoughts, with no better excuse than the appearance of a poor
+cow-puncher, go back to the captivating charms of your old millionaire
+lover. I--"
+
+"Kitty! Do hush," pleaded Helen.
+
+She lifted her glasses for another look at the cowboy.
+
+"I don't wonder that your conscience reproves you," teased Kitty, in a
+low tone. "But tell me, poor child, how did it happen that you lost your
+millionaire?"
+
+"I didn't lose him," retorted Helen, still watching Patches. "He lost
+me."
+
+Kitty persisted with a playful mockery. "What! the great, the wonderful
+Knight of so many millions, failed, with all his glittering charms, to
+captivate the fair but simple Helen! Really, I can't believe it."
+
+"Look at that man right there," flashed Helen proudly, indicating her
+husband, "and you can believe it."
+
+Kitty laughed so gaily that Stanford turned to look at them with smiling
+inquiry.
+
+"Never mind, Mr. Manning," said Kitty, "we are just reminiscing, that's
+all."
+
+"Don't miss the race," he answered; "they're getting ready again to
+start. It looks like a go this time."
+
+"And to think," murmured Kitty, "that I never so much as saw your
+Knight's picture! But you used to like Lawrence Knight, didn't you,
+Helen?" she added, as Helen lifted her field glasses again. And now,
+Mrs. Manning caught a note of earnest inquiry in her companion's voice.
+It was as though the girl were seeking confirmation of some purpose or
+decision of her own.
+
+"Why, yes, Kitty, I liked Larry Knight very much," she answered frankly.
+"He was a fine fellow in many ways--a dear, good friend. Stanford and I
+are both very fond of him; they were college mates, you know. But, my
+dear girl, no one could ever consider poor old Larry seriously--as a
+man, you know--he is so--so utterly and hopelessly worthless."
+
+"Worthless! With--how many millions is it?"
+
+"Oh, Kitty, you know what I mean. But, really dear, we have talked
+enough about Mr. Lawrence Knight. I'm going to have another look at the
+cowboy. _He_ looks like a real man, doesn't he? What is it the Dean
+called him?"
+
+"Patches."
+
+"Oh, yes; what a funny name--Patches."
+
+"Honorable Patches," said Kitty.
+
+"How odd!" mused Helen. "Oh, Stan, come here a minute. Take the glasses
+and look at that cowboy down there."
+
+Stanford trained the field glasses as she directed.
+
+"Doesn't he remind you of Larry Knight?"
+
+"Larry Knight!" Stanford looked at her in amazement. "That cow-puncher?
+Larry Knight? I should say _not_. Lord! but wouldn't fastidious,
+cultured and correct old Larry feel complimented to know that you found
+anything in a common cow-puncher to remind you of him!"
+
+"But, here, take your glasses, quick; they are going to start at last."
+
+Even as Helen looked, Judge Morris gave the signal and the first racing
+car, with a mighty roar, leaped away from the starting point, and
+thundered up the street between the lines of the crowding, cheering
+people. An instant more, and Helen Manning witnessed a scene that
+thrilled the hearts of every man, woman and child in that great crowd.
+
+As the big racing car, gathering speed at every throb of its powerful
+motor, swept toward the hill, a small boy, but little more than a
+toddling baby, escaped from his mother, who, with the excited throng,
+was crowding against the rope barrier, and before those whose eyes were
+fixed on the automobile noticed, the child was in the street, fairly in
+the path of the approaching machine. A sudden hush fell on the shouting
+multitude. Helen, through the field glasses, could see even the child's
+face, as, laughing gleefully, he looked back when his mother screamed.
+Stricken with horror, the young woman could not lower her glasses.
+Fascinated, she watched. The people seemed, for an instant, paralyzed.
+Not a soul moved or uttered a sound. Would the driver of the racing car
+swerve aside from his course in time? If he did, would the baby, in
+sudden fright, dodge in front of the machine? Then Helen saw the cowboy
+who had so interested her lean forward in his saddle and strike his
+spurs deep in the flanks of his already restless horse. With a
+tremendous bound the animal cleared the rope barrier, and in an instant
+was leaping toward the child and the approaching car. The people gasped
+at the daring of the man who had not waited to think. It was over in a
+second. As Patches swept by the child, he leaned low from the saddle;
+and, as the next leap of his horse carried him barely clear of the
+machine, they saw his tall, lithe body straighten, as he swung the baby
+up into his arms.
+
+Then, indeed, the crowd went wild. Men yelled and cheered; women laughed
+and cried; and, as the cowboy returned the frightened baby to the
+distressed mother, a hundred eager hands were stretched forth to greet
+him. But the excited horse backed away; someone raised the rope barrier,
+and Patches disappeared down the side street.
+
+Helen's eyes were wet, but she was smiling. "No," she said softly to
+Kitty and Stanford, "that was _not_ Lawrence Knight. Poor old Larry
+never could have done that."
+
+It was a little after the noon hour when Kitty, who, with her father,
+mother and brothers, had been for dinner at the home of one of their
+Prescott friends, was crossing the plaza on her way to join Mr. and Mrs.
+Manning, with whom she was to spend the afternoon. In a less frequented
+corner of the little park, back of the courthouse, she saw Patches. The
+cowboy, who had changed from his ranch costume to a less picturesque
+business garb, was seated alone on one of the benches that are placed
+along the walks, reading a letter. With his attention fixed upon the
+letter, he did not notice Kitty as she approached. And the girl, when
+she first caught sight of him, paused for an instant; then she went
+toward him slowly, studying him with a new interest.
+
+She was quite near when, looking up, he saw her. Instantly he rose to
+his feet, slipped the letter into his pocket, and stood before her, hat
+in hand, to greet her with genuine pleasure and with that gentle
+courtesy which always marked his bearing. And Kitty, as she looked up
+at him, felt, more convincingly than ever, that this man would be
+perfectly at ease in the most exacting social company.
+
+"I fear I interrupted you," said the young woman. "I was just passing."
+
+"Not at all," he protested. "Surely you can give me a moment of your
+busy gala day. I know you have a host of friends, of course, but--well,
+I am lonely. Curly and Bob and the boys are all having the time of their
+lives; the Dean and mother are lunching with friends; and I don't know
+where Phil has hidden himself."
+
+It was like him to mention Phil in almost his first words to her. And
+Kitty, as Patches spoke Phil's name, instantly, as she had so often done
+during the past few months, mentally placed the two men side by side.
+
+"I just wanted to tell you"--she hesitated--"Mr. Patches--"
+
+"I beg your pardon," he interrupted smiling.
+
+"Well, Patches then; but you seem so different somehow, dressed like
+this. I just wanted to tell you that I saw what happened this morning.
+It was splendid!"
+
+"Why, Miss Reid, you know that was nothing. The driver of the car would
+probably have dodged the youngster anyway. I acted on the impulse of the
+moment, without thinking. I'm always doing something unnecessarily
+foolish, you know."
+
+"The driver of the car would more likely have dodged into the child,"
+she returned warmly. "And it was fortunate that some one in all that
+stupid crowd could act without taking time to think. Everybody says so.
+The dear old Dean is as pleased and proud as though you were one of his
+own sons."
+
+"Really, you make too much of it," he returned, clearly embarrassed by
+her praise. "Tell me, you are enjoying the celebration? And what's the
+matter with Phil? Can't you persuade him to ride in the contest? We
+don't want the championship to go out of Yavapai County, do we?"
+
+Why must he always bring Phil into their talk? Kitty asked herself.
+
+"I am sure that Phil knows how all his friends feel about his riding,"
+she said coolly. "If he does not wish to gratify them, it is really a
+small matter, is it not?"
+
+Patches saw that he had made a mistake and changed easily to a safer
+topic.
+
+"You saw the beginning of the automobile race, of course? I suppose you
+will be on hand this afternoon for the finish?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I'm on my way now to join my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Stanford
+Manning. We are going to see the finish of the race together."
+
+She watched his face closely, as she spoke of her friends, but he gave
+no sign that he had ever heard the name before.
+
+"It will be worth seeing, I fancy," he returned. "At least everybody
+seems to feel that way."
+
+"I am sure to have a good time, anyway," she returned, "because, you
+see, Mrs. Manning is one of my very dearest girl friends, whom I have
+not seen for a long time."
+
+"Indeed! You _will_ enjoy the afternoon, then."
+
+Was there a shade too much enthusiasm in the tone of his reply? Kitty
+wondered. Could it be that his plea of loneliness was merely a
+conventional courtesy and that he was really relieved to find that she
+was engaged for the afternoon?
+
+"Yes, and I must hurry on to them, or they will think I am not coming,"
+she said. "Have a good time, Patches; you surely have earned it.
+Good-by!"
+
+He stood for a moment watching her cross the park. Then, with a quick
+look around, as though he did not wish to be observed, he hurried across
+the street to the Western Union office. A few moments later he made his
+way, by little-frequented side streets, to the stable where he had left
+his horse; and while Kitty and her friends were watching the first of
+the racing cars cross the line, Patches was several miles away, riding
+as though pursued by the sheriff, straight for the Cross-Triangle Ranch.
+
+Several times that day, while she was with her eastern friends, Kitty
+saw Phil near by. But she gave him no signal to join them, and the
+cowboy, shy always, and hurt by Kitty's indifference, would not approach
+the little party without her invitation. But that evening, while Kitty
+was waiting in the hotel lobby for Mr. and Mrs. Manning, Phil, finding
+her alone, went to her.
+
+"I have been trying to speak to you all day," he said reproachfully.
+"Haven't you any time for me at all, Kitty?"
+
+"Don't be foolish, Phil," she returned; "you have seen me a dozen
+times."
+
+"I have _seen_ you, yes," he answered bitterly.
+
+"But, Phil, you could have come to me, if you had wanted to."
+
+"I have no desire to go where I am not wanted," he answered.
+
+"Phil!"
+
+"Well, you gave no sign that you wanted me."
+
+"There was no reason why I should," she retorted. "You are not a child.
+I was with my friends from the East. You could have joined us if you had
+cared to. I should be very glad, indeed, to present you to Mr. and Mrs.
+Manning."
+
+"Thank you, but I don't care to be exhibited as an interesting specimen
+to people who have no use for me except when I do a few fool stunts to
+amuse them."
+
+"Very well, Phil," she returned coldly. "If that is your feeling, I do
+not care to present you to my friends. They are every bit as sincere and
+genuine as you are; and I certainly shall not trouble them with anyone
+who cannot appreciate them."
+
+Kitty was angry, as she had good reason for being. But beneath her anger
+she was sorry for the man whose bitterness, she knew, was born of his
+love for her. And Phil saw only that Kitty was lost to him--saw in the
+girl's eastern friends those who, he felt, had robbed him of his dream.
+
+"I suppose," he said, after a moment's painful silence, "that I had
+better go back to the range where I belong. I'm out of place here."
+
+The girl was touched by the hopelessness in his voice, but she felt that
+it would be no kindness to offer him the relief of an encouraging word.
+Her day with her eastern friends, and the memories that her meeting with
+Mrs. Manning had aroused, convinced her more than ever that her old love
+for Phil, and the life of which he was a part, were for her impossible.
+
+When she did not speak, the cowboy said bitterly, "I noticed that your
+fine friends did not take quite all your time. You found an opportunity
+for a quiet little visit with Honorable Patches."
+
+Kitty was angry now in earnest. "You are forgetting yourself, Phil," she
+answered with cold dignity. "And I think that as long as you feel as you
+do toward my friends, and can speak to me like this about Mr. Patches,
+you are right in saying that you belong on the range. Mr. and Mrs.
+Manning are here, I see. I am going to dine with them. Good-by!" She
+turned away, leaving him standing there.
+
+A moment he waited, as though stunned; then he turned to make his way
+blindly out of the hotel.
+
+It was nearly morning when Patches was awakened by the sound of someone
+moving about the kitchen. A moment he listened, then, rising, went
+quickly to the kitchen door, thinking to surprise some chance night
+visitor.
+
+When Phil saw him standing there the foreman for a moment said nothing,
+but, with the bread knife in one hand and one of Stella's good loaves in
+the other, stared at him in blank surprise. Then the look of surprise
+changed to an expression of questioning suspicion, and he demanded
+harshly, "What in hell are _you_ doing here?"
+
+Patches saw that the man was laboring under some great trouble. Indeed,
+Phil's voice and manner were not unlike one under the influence of
+strong drink. But Patches knew that Phil never drank.
+
+"I was sleeping," he answered calmly. "You woke me, I suppose. I heard
+you, and came to see who was prowling around the kitchen at this time of
+the night; that is all."
+
+"Oh, that's all, is it? But what are you here for? Why aren't you in
+Prescott where you are supposed to be?"
+
+Patches, because he saw Phil's painful state of mind, exercised
+admirable self-control. "I supposed I had a perfect right to come here
+if I wished. I did not dream that my presence in this house would be
+questioned."
+
+"That depends," Phil retorted. "Why did you leave Prescott?"
+
+Patches, still calm, answered gently. "My reasons for not staying in
+Prescott are entirely personal, Phil; I do not care to explain just
+now."
+
+"Oh, you don't? Well, it seems to me, sir, that you have a devil of a
+lot of personal business that you can't explain."
+
+"I am afraid I have," returned Patches, with his old self-mocking smile.
+"But, look here, Phil, you are disturbed and all wrought up about
+something, or you wouldn't attack me like this. You don't really think
+me a suspicious character, and you know you don't. You are not yourself,
+old man, and I'll be hanged if I'll take anything you say as an insult,
+until I know that you say it, deliberately, in cold blood. I'm sorry for
+your trouble, Phil--damned sorry--I would give anything if I could help
+you. Perhaps I may be able to prove that later, but just now I think the
+kindest and wisest thing that I can do for us both is to say
+good-night."
+
+He turned at the last word, without waiting for Phil to speak, and went
+back to his room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+IN GRANITE BASIN.
+
+
+On the other side of Granite Mountain from where Phil and Patches
+watched the wild horses that day, there is a rocky hollow, set high in
+the hills, but surrounded on every side by still higher peaks and
+ridges. Lying close under the sheer, towering cliffs of the mountain,
+those fortress-like walls so gray and grim and old seem to overshadow
+the place with a somber quiet, as though the memories of the many ages
+that had wrought their countless years into those mighty battlements
+gave to the very atmosphere a feeling of solemn and sacred seclusion. It
+was as though nature had thrown about this spot a strong protecting
+guard, that here, in her very heart, she might keep unprofaned the
+sweetness and strength and beauty of her primitive and everlasting
+treasures.
+
+In its wild and rugged setting, Granite Basin has, for the few who have
+the hardihood to find them, many beautiful glades and shady nooks, where
+the grass and wild flowers weave their lovely patterns for the earth
+floor, and tall pines spread their soft carpets of brown, while giant
+oaks and sycamores lift their cathedral arches to support the ceilings
+of green, and dark rock fountains set in banks of moss and fern hold
+water clear and cold. It was to one of these that Stanford Manning
+brought his bride for their honeymoon. Stanford himself pitched their
+tent and made their simple camp, for it was not in his plan that the
+sweet intimacy of these, the first weeks of their mated life, should be
+marred, even by servants. And Helen, wise in her love, permitted him to
+realize his dream in the fullness of its every detail.
+
+As she lay in the hammock which he had hung for her under the canopy of
+living green, and watched him while he brought wood for their camp fire,
+and made all ready for the night which was drawing near, she was glad
+that he had planned it so. But more than that, she was glad that he was
+the kind of a man who would care to plan it so. Then, when all was
+finished, he came to sit beside her, and together they watched the light
+of the setting sun fade from the summit of Old Granite, and saw the
+flaming cloud-banner that hung above the mountain's castle towers furled
+by the hand of night. In silence they watched those mighty towering
+battlements grow cold and grim, until against the sky the shadowy bulk
+stood mysterious and awful, as though to evidence in its grandeur and
+strength the omnipotent might and power of the Master Builder of the
+world and Giver of all life.
+
+And when the soft darkness was fully come, and the low murmuring voices
+of the night whispered from forest depth and mountain side, while the
+stars peered through the weaving of leaf and branch, and the ruddy light
+of their camp fire rose and fell, the man talked of the things that had
+gone into the making of his life. As though he wished his mate to know
+him more fully than anyone else could know, he spoke of those personal
+trials and struggles, those disappointments and failures, those plans
+and triumphs of which men so rarely speak; of his boyhood and his
+boyhood home life, of his father and mother, of those hard years of his
+youth, and his struggle for an education that would equip him for his
+chosen life work; he told her many things that she had known only in a
+general way.
+
+But most of all he talked of those days when he had first met her, and
+of how quickly and surely the acquaintance had grown into friendship,
+and then into a love which he dared not yet confess. Smilingly he told
+how he had tried to convince himself that she was not for him. And how,
+believing that she loved and would wed his friend, Lawrence Knight, he
+had come to the far West, to his work, and, if he could, to forget.
+
+"But I could not forget, dear girl," he said. "I could not escape the
+conviction that you belonged to me, as I felt that I belonged to you. I
+could not banish the feeling that some mysterious higher law--the law
+that governs the mating of the beautifully free creatures that live in
+these hills--had mated you and me. And so, as I worked and tried to
+forget, I went on dreaming just the same. It was that way when I first
+saw this place. I was crossing the country on my way to examine some
+prospects for the company, and camped at this very spot. And that
+evening I planned it all, just as it is to-night. I put the tent there,
+and built our fire, and stretched your hammock under the tree, and sat
+with you in the twilight; but even as I dreamed it I laughed at myself
+for a fool, for I could not believe that the dream would ever come true.
+And then, when I got back to Prescott, there was a letter from a
+Cleveland friend, telling me that Larry had gone abroad to be away a
+year or more, and another letter from the company, calling me East
+again. And so I stopped at Cleveland and--" He laughed happily. "I know
+now that dreams do come true."
+
+"You foolish boy," said Helen softly. "To think that I did not know.
+Why, when you went away, I was so sure that you would come for me again,
+that I never even thought that it could be any other way. I thought you
+did not speak because you felt that you were too poor, because you felt
+that you had so little to offer, and because you wished to prove
+yourself and your work before asking me to share your life. I did not
+dream that you could doubt my love for you, or think for a moment that
+there could ever be anyone else. I felt that you _must_ know; and so,
+you see, while I waited I had my dreams, too."
+
+"But don't you see, girl," he answered, as though for a moment he found
+it hard to believe his own happiness, "don't you see? Larry is such a
+splendid fellow, and you two were such friends, and you always seemed so
+fond of him, and with his wealth he could give you so much that I knew I
+never could give--"
+
+"Of course, I am fond of Larry; everyone is. He has absolutely nothing
+to do in the world but to make himself charming and pleasant and
+entertaining and amusing. Why, Stan, I don't suppose that in all his
+life he ever did one single thing that was necessary or useful. He even
+had a man to help him dress. He is cultured and intellectual, and bright
+and witty, and clean and good-natured, possessing, in fact, all the
+qualifications of a desirable lap dog, and you can't help liking him,
+just as you would like a pretty, useless pet."
+
+Stanford chuckled. She had described Lawrence Knight so accurately.
+
+"Poor old Larry," he said. "What a man he might have been if he had not
+been so pampered and petted and envied and spoiled, all because of his
+father's money. His heart is right, and at the bottom he has the right
+sort of stuff in him. His athletic record at school showed us that. I
+think that was why we all liked him so in spite of his uselessness."
+
+"I wish you could have known my father, Stan," said Helen thoughtfully,
+as though she, too, were moved to speak by the wish that her mate might
+know more of the things that had touched her deeper life.
+
+"I wish so, too," he answered. "I know that he must have been fine."
+
+"He was my ideal," she answered softly. "My other ideal, I mean. From
+the time I was a slip of a girl he made me his chum. Until he died we
+were always together. Mother died when I was a baby, you know. Many,
+many times he would take me with him when he made his professional
+visits to his patients, leaving me in the buggy to wait at each
+house--'to be his hitching post'--he used to say. And on those long
+rides, sometimes out into the country, he talked to me as I suppose not
+many fathers talk to their daughters. And because he was my father and a
+physician, and because we were so much alone in our companionship, I
+believed him the wisest and best man in all the world, and felt that
+nothing he said or did could be wrong. And so, you see, dear, my ideal
+man, the man to whom I could give myself, came to be the kind of a man
+that my father placed in the highest rank among men--a man like you,
+Stan. And almost the last talk we had before he died father said to
+me--I remember his very words--'My daughter, it will not be long now
+until men will seek you, until someone will ask you to share his life.
+Keep your ideal man safe in your heart of hearts, daughter, and remember
+that no matter what a suitor may have to offer of wealth or social rank,
+if he is not your ideal--if you cannot respect and admire him for his
+character and manhood alone--say no; say no, child, at any cost. But
+when your ideal man comes--the one who compels your respect and
+admiration for his strength of character, and for the usefulness of his
+life, the one whom you cannot help loving for his manhood alone--mate
+with him--no matter how light his purse or how lowly his rank in the
+world.' And so you see, as soon as I learned to know you, I realized
+what you were to me. But I wish--oh, how I wish--that father could have
+lived to know you, too."
+
+For some time they watched the dancing camp fire flames in silence, as
+though they had found in their love that true oneness that needs no
+spoken word.
+
+Then Stanford said, "And to think that we expected to wait two years or
+more, and now--thanks to a soulless corporation--we are here in a little
+less than a year!"
+
+"Thanks to no soulless corporation for that, sir," retorted Helen with
+spirit. "But thanks to the brains and strength and character of my
+husband."
+
+Two of the three weeks' vacation granted the engineer had passed when
+Mrs. Manning, one afternoon, informed her husband that as the ordained
+provider for the household it was imperative that he provide some game
+for their evening meal.
+
+"And what does Her Majesty, the cook, desire?" he asked. "Venison,
+perhaps?"
+
+She shook her head with decision. "You will be obliged to go too far,
+and be gone too long, to get a deer."
+
+"But you're going with me, of course."
+
+Again she shook her head. "I have something else to do. I can't always
+be tagging around after you while you are providing, you know; and we
+may as well begin to be civilized again. Just go a little way--not so
+far that you can't hear me call--and bring me some nice fat quail like
+those we had day before yesterday."
+
+She watched him disappear in the brush and then busied herself about the
+camp. Presently she heard the gun, and smiled as she pictured him
+hunting for their supper, much as though they were two primitive
+children of nature, instead of the two cultured members of a highly
+civilized race, that they really were. Then, presently she must go to
+the spring for water, that he might have a cool drink when he returned.
+
+She was half way to the spring, singing softly to herself, when a sound
+on the low ridge above the camp attracted her attention. Pausing, she
+looked and listened. The song died on her lips. It could not be Staford
+coming so noisily through the brush and from that direction. Even as
+the thought came, she heard the gun again, a little farther away down
+the narrow valley below the camp, and, in the same moment, the noise on
+the ridge grew louder, as though some heavy animal were crashing through
+the bushes. And then suddenly, as she stood there in frightened
+indecision, a long-horned, wild-eyed steer broke through the brush on
+the crest of the ridge and plunged down the steep slope toward the camp.
+
+Weak and helpless with fear, Helen could neither scream nor run, but
+stood fascinated by the very danger that menaced her--powerless, even,
+to turn her eyes away from the frightful creature that had so rudely
+broken the quiet seclusion of the little glade. Behind the steer, even
+as the frenzied animal leaped from the brow of the hill, she saw a
+horseman, as wild in his appearance and in his reckless rushing haste as
+the creature he pursued. Curiously, as in a dream, she saw the horse's
+neck and shoulders dripping wet with sweat, as with ears flat, nose
+outstretched, and nostrils wide the animal strained every nerve in an
+effort to put his rider a few feet closer to the escaping quarry. She
+even noted the fringed leather chaps, the faded blue jumper, the broad
+hat of the rider, and that in his rein hand he held the coil of a riata
+high above the saddle horn, while in his right was the half-opened loop.
+The bridle reins were loose, as though he gave the horse no thought; and
+they took the steep, downward plunge from the summit of the ridge
+without an instant's pause, and apparently with all the ease and
+confidence that they would have felt on smooth and level ground.
+
+The steer, catching sight of the woman, and seeing in her, perhaps,
+another enemy, swerved a little in his plunging course, and, with
+lowered head, charged straight at her.
+
+The loop of that rawhide rope was whirling now above the cowboy's head,
+and his spurs drew blood from the heaving flanks of the straining horse,
+as every mad leap of the steer brought death a few feet nearer the
+helpless woman.
+
+The situation must have broken with frightful suddenness upon the man,
+but he gave no sign--no startled shout, no excited movement. He even
+appeared, to Helen, to be as coolly deliberate as though no thought of
+her danger disturbed him; and she recognized, even in that awful moment,
+the cowboy whom she had watched through the field glasses, that day of
+the celebration at Prescott. She could not know that, in the same
+instant, as his horse plunged down from the summit of the ridge, Patches
+had recognized her; and that as his hand swung the riata with such cool
+and deliberate precision, the man was praying--praying as only a man who
+sees the woman he loves facing a dreadful death, with no hand but his to
+save her, could pray.
+
+God help him if his training of nerve and hand should fail now! Christ
+pity him, if that whirling loop should miss its mark, or fall short!
+
+His eye told him that the distance was still too great. He must--he
+_must_--lessen it; and again his spurs drew blood. He must be cool--cool
+and steady and sure--and he must act now--NOW!
+
+Helen saw the racing horse make a desperate leap as the spurs tore his
+heaving sides; she saw that swiftly whirling loop leave the rider's
+hand, as the man leaned forward in his saddle. Curiously she watched the
+loop open with beautiful precision, as the coils were loosed and the
+long, thin line lengthened through the air. It seemed to move so
+slowly--those wickedly lowered horns were so near! Then she saw the
+rider's right hand move with flashlike quickness to the saddle horn, as
+he threw his weight back, and the horse, with legs braced and hoofs
+plowing the ground, stopped in half his own length, and set his weight
+against the weight of the steer. The flexible riata straightened as a
+rod of iron, the steer's head jerked sideways; his horns buried
+themselves in the ground; he fell, almost at her feet. And then, as the
+cowboy leaped from his horse, Helen felt herself sinking into a soft,
+thick darkness that, try as she might, she could not escape.
+
+Still master of himself, but with a kind of fierce coolness, Patches ran
+to the fallen steer and securely tied the animal down. But when he
+turned to the woman who lay unconscious on the ground, a sob burst from
+his lips, and tears were streaming down his dust-grimed cheeks. And as
+he knelt beside her he called again and again that name which, a year
+before, he had whispered as he stood with empty, outstretched arms,
+alone, on the summit of the Divide.
+
+Lifting her in his arms, he carried her to the hammock, and finding
+water and a towel, wet her brow and face; and all the while, in an agony
+of fear, he talked to her with words of love.
+
+Overwrought by the unexpected, and, to him, almost miraculous meeting
+with Helen--weak and shaken by the strain of those moments of her
+danger, when her life depended so wholly upon his coolness and
+skill--unnerved by the sight of her lying so still and white, and beside
+himself with the strength of his passion--the man made no effort to
+account for her presence in that wild and lonely spot, so far from the
+scenes amid which he had learned to know and love her. He was conscious
+only that she was there--that she had been very near to death--that he
+had held her in his arms--and that he loved her with all the strength of
+his manhood.
+
+Presently, with a low cry of joy, he saw the blood creep back into her
+white cheeks. Slowly her eyes opened and she looked wonderingly up into
+his face.
+
+"Helen!" he breathed. "Helen!"
+
+"Why, Larry!" she murmured, still confused and wondering. "So it _was_
+you, after all! But what in the world are you doing here like this? They
+told me your name was Patches--Honorable Patches."
+
+Then the man spoke--impetuously, almost fiercely, his words came without
+thought.
+
+"I am here because I would be anything, do anything that a man could be
+and do to win your love. A year ago, when I told you of my love, and
+asked you to be my wife, and, like the silly, pampered, petted fool that
+I was, thought that my wealth and the life that I offered could count
+for anything with a woman like you, you laughed at me. You told me that
+if ever you married, you would wed a man, not a fortune nor a social
+position. You made me see myself as I was--a useless idler, a dummy for
+the tailors, a superficial chatterer of pretty nothings to vain and
+shallow women; you told me that I possessed not one manly trait of
+character that could compel the genuine love of an honest woman. You let
+me see the truth, that my proposal to you was almost an insult. You made
+me understand that your very friendship for me was such a friendship as
+you might have with an amusing and irresponsible boy, or a spoiled
+child. You could not even consider my love for you seriously, as a woman
+like you must consider the love of a strong man. And you were right,
+Helen. But, dear, it was for me a bitter, bitter lesson. I went from
+you, ashamed to look men in the face. I felt myself guilty--a pitifully
+weak and cowardly thing, with no right to exist. In my humiliation, I
+ran from all who knew me--I came out here to escape from the life that
+had made me what I was--that had robbed me of my manhood. And here, by
+chance, in the contests at the celebration in Prescott, I saw a man--a
+cowboy--who possessed everything that I lacked, and for the lack of
+which you had laughed at me. And then alone one night I faced myself and
+fought it out. I knew that you were right, Helen, but it was not easy to
+give up the habits and luxury to which all my life I had been
+accustomed. It was not easy, I say, but my love for you made it a
+glorious thing to do; and I hoped and believed that if I proved myself a
+man, I could go back to you, in the strength of my manhood, and you
+would listen to me. And so, penniless and a stranger, under an assumed
+name, I sought useful, necessary work that called for the highest
+quality of manhood. And I have won, Helen; I know that I have won.
+To-day Patches, the cowboy, can look any man in the face. He can take
+his place and hold his own among men of any class anywhere. I have
+regained that of which the circumstances of birth and inheritance and
+training robbed me. I have won the right of a man to come to you again.
+I claim that right now, Helen. I tell you again that I love you. I love
+you as--"
+
+"Larry! Larry!" she cried, springing to her feet, and drawing away from
+him, as though suddenly awakened from some strange spell. "Larry, you
+must not! What do you mean? How can you say such things to me?"
+
+He answered her with reckless passion. "I say such things because I am a
+man, and because you are the woman I love and want; because--"
+
+She cried out again in protest. "Oh, stop, stop! Please stop! Don't you
+know?"
+
+"Know what?" he demanded.
+
+"My--my husband!" she gasped. "Stanford Manning--we are here on our
+honeymoon."
+
+She saw him flinch as though from a heavy blow, and put out his hand to
+the trunk of a tree near which they stood, to steady himself. He did not
+speak, but his lips moved as though he repeated her words to himself,
+over and over again; and he gazed at her with a strange bewildered,
+doubting look, as though he could not believe his own suffering.
+
+Impulsively Helen went a step toward him. "Larry!" she said. "Larry!"
+
+Her voice seemed to arouse him and he stood erect as though by a
+conscious effort of will. Then that old self-mocking smile was on his
+lips. He was laughing at his hurt--making sport of himself and his cruel
+predicament.
+
+But to Helen there was that in his smile which wrung her woman heart.
+"Oh, Larry," she said gently. "Forgive me; I am so sorry; I--"
+
+He put out his hand with a gesture of protest, and his voice was calm
+and courteous. "I beg your pardon, Helen. It was stupid of me not to
+have understood. I forgot myself for the moment. It was all so
+unexpected--meeting you like this. I did not think." He looked away
+toward his waiting horse and to the steer lying on the ground. "So you
+and Stanford Manning--Good old Stan! I am glad for him. And for you,
+too, Helen. Why, it was I who introduced him to you; do you remember?"
+
+He smiled again that mirthless, self-mocking smile, as he added without
+giving her time to speak, "If you will excuse me for a moment, I will
+rid your camp of the unwelcome presence of that beast yonder." Then he
+went toward his horse, as though turning for relief to the work that had
+become so familiar to him.
+
+She watched him while he released the steer, and drove the animal away
+over the ridge, where he permitted it to escape into the wild haunts
+where it lived with its outlaw companions.
+
+When he rode back to the little camp Stanford had returned.
+
+For an hour they talked together as old friends. But Helen, while she
+offered now and then a word or a remark, or asked a question, and
+laughed or smiled with them, left the talk mostly to the two men.
+Stanford, when the first shock of learning of Helen's narrow escape was
+over, was gaily enthusiastic and warm in his admiration for his old
+friend, who had, for no apparent reason but the wish to assert his own
+manhood, turned his back upon the ease and luxury of his wealth to live
+a life of adventurous hardship. And Patches, as he insisted they should
+call him, with many a laughing jest and droll comment told them of his
+new life and work. He was only serious when he made them promise to keep
+his identity a secret until he himself was ready to reveal his real
+name.
+
+"And what do you propose to do when your game of Patches is played out?"
+Stanford asked curiously.
+
+For an instant they saw him smiling mockingly at himself; then he
+answered lightly, "Try some other fool experiment, I reckon."
+
+Stanford chuckled; the reply was so like the cowboy Patches, and so
+unlike his old friend Larry Knight.
+
+"As for that, Stan," Patches continued, "I don't see that the game will
+ever be played out, as you say. Certainly I can never now go back
+altogether to what I was. The fellow you used to know in Cleveland is
+not really I, you see. Fact is, I think that fellow is quite dead--peace
+be to his ashes! The world is wide and there is always work for a man to
+do."
+
+The appearance of Phil Acton on the ridge, at the spot where the steer,
+followed by Patches, had first appeared, put an end to their further
+conversation with Lawrence Knight.
+
+"My boss!" said that gentleman, in his character of Patches the cowboy,
+as the Cross-Triangle foreman halted his horse on the brow of the hill,
+and sat looking down upon the camp.
+
+"Be careful, please, and don't let him suspect that you ever saw me
+before. I'll sure catch it now for loafing so long."
+
+"I know him," said Stanford. Then he called to the man above, "Come on
+down, Acton, and be sociable."
+
+Phil rode into camp, shook hands with Stanford cordially, and was
+presented to Mrs. Manning, to whom he spoke with a touch of
+embarrassment. Then he said, with a significant look at Patches, "I'm
+glad to meet you people, Mr. Manning, but we really haven't much time
+for sociability just now. Mr. Baldwin sent me with an outfit into this
+Granite Basin country to gather some of these outlaw steers. He expects
+us to be on the job." Turning to Patches, he continued, "When you didn't
+come back I thought you must have met with some serious trouble, and so
+trailed you. We've managed to lose a good deal of time, altogether. That
+steer you were after got away from you, did he?"
+
+Helen spoke quickly. "Oh, Mr. Acton, you must not blame Mr. Patches for
+what happened. Really, you must not. No one was to blame; it just
+happened--" She stopped, unable to finish the explanation, for she was
+thinking of that part of the incident which was known only to herself
+and Patches.
+
+Stanford told in a few words of his wife's danger and how the cowboy had
+saved her.
+
+"That was mighty good work, Patches," said Phil heartily, "mighty good
+work. I'm sorry, Mr. Manning, that our coming up here after these
+outlaws happened at just this time. It is too bad to so disturb you and
+Mrs. Manning. We are going home Friday, however, and I'll tell the boys
+to keep clear of your neighborhood in the meantime."
+
+As the two Cross-Triangle men walked toward their horses, Helen and
+Stanford heard Phil ask, "But where is that steer, Patches?"
+
+"I let him go," returned Patches.
+
+"You let him go!" exclaimed the foreman. "After you had him roped and
+tied? What did you do that for?"
+
+Patches was confused. "Really, I don't know."
+
+"I'd like to know what you figure we're up here for," said Phil,
+sharply. "You not only waste two or three hours visiting with these
+people, but you take my time trailing you up; and then you turn loose a
+steer after you get him. It looks like you'd lost your head mighty bad,
+after all."
+
+"I'm afraid you're right, Phil," Patches answered quietly.
+
+Helen looked at her husband indignantly but Stanford was grinning with
+delight.
+
+"To think," he murmured, "of Larry Knight taking a dressing-down like
+that from a mere cowboy foreman!"
+
+But Patches was by no means so meek in spirit as he appeared in his
+outward manner. He had been driven almost to the verge of desperation by
+the trying situation, and was fighting for self-control. To take his
+foreman's rebuke in the presence of his friends was not easy.
+
+"I reckon I'd better send you to the home ranch to-night, instead of
+Bob," continued Phil, as the two men mounted their horses and sat for a
+moment facing each other. "It looks like we could spare you best. Tell
+Uncle Will to send the chuck wagon and three more punchers, and that
+we'll start for the home ranch Friday. And be sure that you get back
+here to-morrow."
+
+"Shall I go now?"
+
+"Yes, you can go now."
+
+Patches wheeled his horse and rode away, while Phil disappeared over the
+ridge in the direction from which he had come.
+
+When the two cowboys were out of sight, Helen went straight to her
+husband, and to Stanford's consternation, when he took her in his arms,
+she was crying.
+
+"Why, girl, what is it?" he asked, holding her close.
+
+But she only answered between sobs as she clung to him, "It--it's
+nothing--never mind, Stan. I'm just upset."
+
+And Stanford quite naturally thought it was only a case of nerves caused
+by the danger through which she had passed.
+
+For nearly an hour, Patches rode toward the home ranch, taking only such
+notice of his surroundings as was necessary in order for him to keep his
+direction. Through the brush and timber, over the ridges down into
+valleys and washes, and along the rock-strewn mountain sides he allowed
+his horse to pick the way, and take his own gait, with scarcely a touch
+of rein or spur.
+
+The twilight hour was beginning when he reached a point from which he
+could see, in the distance, the red roofs of the Cross-Triangle
+buildings. Checking his horse, he sat for a long time, motionless,
+looking away over the broad land that had come to mean so much to him,
+as though watching the passing of the day.
+
+But the man did not note the changing colors in the western sky; he did
+not see the shadows deepening; he was not thinking of the coming of the
+night. The sight of the distant spot that, a year before, had held such
+possibilities for him, when, on the summit of the Divide, he had chosen
+between two widely separated ways of life, brought to him, now, a keener
+realization of the fact that he was again placed where he must choose.
+The sun was down upon those hopes and dreams that in the first hard
+weeks of his testing had inspired and strengthened him. The night of
+despairing, reckless abandonment of the very ideals of manhood for which
+he had so bravely struggled was upon him; while the spirit and strength
+of that manhood which he had so hardly attained fought against its
+surrender.
+
+When Stanford Manning had asked, "What will you do when your game of
+Patches is played out?" he had said that the man whom they had known in
+the old days was dead. Would this new man also die? Deliberately the man
+turned about and started back the way he had come.
+
+In their honeymoon camp, that evening, when the only light in the sky
+was the light of the stars, and the camp fire's ruddy flames made weird
+shadows come and go in the little glade, Helen, lying in the hammock,
+and Stanford, sitting near, talked of their old friend Lawrence Knight.
+But as they talked they did not know that a lonely horseman had stopped
+on the other side of the low ridge, and leaving his horse, had crept
+carefully through the brush, to a point on the brow of the hill, from
+which he could look down into the camp.
+
+From where he lay in the darkness, the man could see against the camp
+fire's light the two, where the hammock was swung under the trees. He
+could hear the low murmur of their voices, with now and then a laugh.
+But it was always the man who laughed, for there was little mirth in
+Helen's heart that night. Then he saw Stanford go into the tent and
+return again to the hammock; and soon there came floating up to him the
+sweet, plaintive music of Helen's guitar, and then her voice, full and
+low, with a wealth of womanhood in every tone, as she sang a love song
+to her mate. Later, when the dancing flames of the camp fire had fallen
+to a dull red glow, he saw them go arm in arm into their tent. Then all
+was still. The red glow of the fire dimmed to a spark, and darkness drew
+close about the scene. But even in the darkness the man could still see,
+under the wide, sheltering arms of the trees, a lighter spot--the white
+tent.
+
+"Gethsemane," said the Dean to me once, when our talk had ranged wide
+and touched upon many things, "Gethsemane ain't no place; it's somethin'
+that happens. Whenever a man goes up against himself, right there is
+where Gethsemane is. And right there, too, is sure to be a fight. A man
+may not always know about it at the time; he may be too busy fightin' to
+understand just what it all means; but he'll know about it
+afterwards--No matter which side of him wins, he'll know afterwards that
+it was the one big fight of his life."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+AT MINT SPRING.
+
+
+When those days at Prescott were over, and Mr. and Mrs. Manning had left
+for their camp in Granite Basin, Kitty Reid returned to Williamson
+Valley reluctantly. She felt that with Phil definitely out of her life
+the last interest that bound her to the scenes of her girlhood was
+broken. Before many weeks the ranch would be sold. A Prescott agent had
+opened negotiations for an eastern client who would soon be out to look
+over the property; and Mr. Reid felt, from all that the agent had said,
+that the sale was assured. In the meantime Kitty would wait as patiently
+as she could. To help her, there would be Helen's visit, and there was
+her friendship with Professor Parkhill. It was not strange, considering
+all the circumstances, that the young woman should give her time more
+generously than ever to the only person in the neighborhood, except
+Patches, perhaps, who she felt could understand and appreciate her
+desires for that higher life of which even her own parents were
+ignorant.
+
+And the professor did understand her fully. He told her so many times
+each day. Had he not given all the years of his little life to the study
+of those refining and spiritualizing truths that are so far above the
+comprehension of the base and ignoble common herd? Indeed, he understood
+her language; he understood fully, why the sordid, brutal materialism of
+her crude and uncultured environment so repulsed and disgusted her. He
+understood, more fully than Kitty herself, in fact, and explained to her
+clearly, that her desires for the higher intellectual and spiritual life
+were born of her own rare gifts, and evidenced beyond all question the
+fineness and delicacy of her nature. He rejoiced with her--with a pure
+and holy joy--that she was so soon to be set free to live amid the
+surroundings that would afford her those opportunities for the higher
+development of her intellectual and spiritual powers which her soul
+craved. All this he told her from day to day; and then, one afternoon,
+he told her more.
+
+It was the same afternoon that Patches had so unexpectedly found Helen
+and Stanford in their Granite Basin camp. Kitty and the professor had
+driven in the buckboard to Simmons for the mail, and were coming back by
+the road to the Cross-Triangle, when the man asked, "Must we return to
+the ranch so soon? It is so delightful out here where there is no one to
+intrude with vulgar commonplaces, to mar our companionship."
+
+"Why, no," returned Kitty. "There is no need for us to hurry home." She
+glanced around. "We might sit over there, under those cedars on the
+hill, where you found me with Mr. Patches that day--the day we saw
+Yavapai Joe, you remember."
+
+"If you think it quite safe to leave the vehicle," he said, "I should be
+delighted."
+
+Kitty tied the horses to a convenient bush at the foot of the low hill,
+and soon they were in the welcome shade of the cedars.
+
+"Miss Reid," the professor began, with portentous gravity, "I must
+confess that I have been rather puzzled to account for your presence
+here that day with such a man as that fellow Patches. You will pardon my
+saying so, I am sure, but you must have observed my very deep interest
+in you. I also chanced to see you with him one day in Prescott, in the
+park. You don't mind my speaking of it?"
+
+"Not at all, Professor Parkhill," Kitty returned, smiling as she thought
+how ignorant the professor was of the cowboy's real character. "I like
+Patches. He interests me very much; and there is really no reason why I
+should not be friendly with him. Don't you think that I should be kind
+to our cowboys?"
+
+"I suppose so," the professor sighed. "But it hurts me to see you have
+anything whatever in common with such a man. It shocks me to know that
+you must, in any degree, come in touch with such fellows. I shall be
+very glad, indeed, when you are free from any such kindly obligations,
+and safe among those of your own class."
+
+Kitty found it very hard to reply. She did not wish to be disloyal to
+Patches and her many Williamson Valley friends; nor did she like to
+explain how Patches had played a part for the professor's benefit, for
+she felt that by not exposing the deception she had, in a way, been a
+party to it. So she said nothing, but seemed to be silently weighing
+the value of her learned companion's observations. At least, it so
+appeared to the professor, and in her ready acceptance of his implied
+criticism of her conduct he found the encouragement he needed for that
+which followed.
+
+"You must understand, Miss Reid, that I have become exceedingly zealous
+for your welfare. In these months that we have been so much together
+your companionship--your spiritual and intellectual companionship, I
+should say--has come to be very dear to me. As our souls have communed,
+I have felt myself uplifted and inspired. I have been strengthened and
+encouraged, as never before, to climb on toward the mountain peaks of
+pure intellectuality. If I am not mistaken, you, too, have felt a degree
+of uplift as a result of our fellowship, have you not?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Professor Parkhill," Kitty answered sincerely. "Our talks
+together have meant much more to me than I can tell. I shall never
+forget this summer. Your friendship has been a wonderful influence in my
+life."
+
+The little man moved uneasily and glanced timidly around. "I am truly
+glad to know that our companionship has not been altogether distasteful
+to you; I felt sure that it was not, but I--ahem!--I am glad to hear
+your confirmation of my opinion. It--ah--it enables me to say that which
+for several weeks past has been weighing heavily on my mind."
+
+Kitty looked at him with the manner of a trusting disciple waiting for
+the gems of truth that were about to fall from the lips of a venerable
+teacher.
+
+"Miss Reid--ah--why need our beautiful and mutually profitable
+companionship cease?"
+
+"I fear that I do not understand, Professor Parkhill," she answered,
+puzzled by his question.
+
+He looked at her with just a shade of mild--very mild--rebuke, as he
+returned, "Why, I think that I have stated my thought clearly. I mean
+that I am very desirous that our relation--the relation which we both
+have found so helpful--should continue. I am sure that we have, in these
+months which we have spent together, sufficient evidence that our souls
+vibrate in perfect harmony. I need you, dear friend; your understanding
+of my soul's desires is so sympathetic; I feel that you so complement
+and fill out, as it were, my spiritual self. I need you to encourage, to
+inspire, to assist me in the noble work to which I am devoting all my
+strength."
+
+She looked at him, now, with an expression of amazement. "Do you mean--"
+she faltered in confusion while the red blood colored her cheeks.
+
+"Yes," he answered, confidently. "I am asking you to be my wife. Not,
+however," he added hastily, "in the common, vulgar understanding of that
+relation. I am offering you, dear friend, that which is vastly higher
+than the union of the merely animal, which is based wholly upon the
+purely physical and material attraction. I am proposing marriage of our
+souls--a union, if you please, of our higher intellectual and spiritual
+selves. I feel, indeed, that by those higher laws which the vulgar,
+beastlike minds are incapable of recognizing, we are already one. I
+sense, as it were, that oneness which can exist only when two souls are
+mated by the great over-soul; I feel that you are already mine--that, I
+am--that we are already united in a spiritual union that is--"
+
+The young woman checked him with a gesture, which, had he interpreted it
+rightly, was one of repulsion. "Please stop, Professor Parkhill," she
+gasped in a tone of disgust.
+
+He was surprised, and not a little chagrined. "Am I to understand that
+you do not reciprocate my sentiment, Miss Reid? Is it possible that I
+have been so mistaken?"
+
+Kitty turned her head, as though she could not bear even to look at him.
+"What you ask is so impossible," she said in a low tone. "Impossible!"
+
+Strive as she might, the young woman could not altogether hide her
+feeling of abhorrence. And yet, she asked herself, why should this man's
+proposal arouse in her such antagonism and repugnance? He was a scholar,
+famed for his attainments in the world of the highest culture. As his
+wife, she would be admitted at once into the very inner circle of that
+life to which she aspired, and for which she was leaving her old home
+and friends. He had couched his proposal in the very terms of the
+spiritually and intellectually elect; he had declared himself in that
+language which she had so proudly thought she understood, and in which
+she had so often talked with him; and yet she was humiliated and
+ashamed. It was, to her, as though, in placing his offer of marriage
+upon the high, pure ground of a spiritual union, he had insulted her
+womanhood. Kitty realized wonderingly that she had not felt like this
+when Phil had confessed his love for her. In her woman heart, she was
+proud and glad to have won the love of such a man as Phil, even though
+she could not accept the cowboy as her mate. On that very spot which the
+professor had chosen for his declaration, Patches had told her that she
+was leaving the glorious and enduring realities of life for vain and
+foolish bubbles--that she was throwing aside the good grain and choosing
+the husks. Was this what Patches meant? she wondered.
+
+"I regret exceedingly, Miss Reid," the professor was saying, "that the
+pure and lofty sentiments which I have voiced do not seem to find a like
+response in your soul. I--"
+
+Again she interrupted him with that gesture of repulsion. "Please do not
+say any more, Professor Parkhill. I--I fear that I am very human, after
+all. Come, it is time that we were returning to the house."
+
+All through the remaining hours of that afternoon and evening Kitty was
+disturbed and troubled. At times she wanted to laugh at the professor's
+ridiculous proposal; and again, her cheeks burned with anger; and she
+could have cried in her shame and humiliation. And with it all her mind
+was distraught by the persistent question: Was not the professor's
+conception of an ideal mating the legitimate and logical conclusion of
+those very advanced ideas of culture which he represented, and which she
+had so much admired? If she sincerely believed the life represented by
+the professor and his kind so superior--so far above the life
+represented by Phil Acton--why should she not feel honored instead of
+being so humiliated and shamed by the professor's--she could not call it
+love? If the life which Phil had asked her to share was so low in the
+scale of civilization; if it were so far beneath the intellectual and
+spiritual ideals which she had formed, why did she feel so honored by
+the strong man's love? Why had she not felt humiliated and ashamed that
+Phil should want her to mate with him? Could it be, she asked herself
+again and again, that there was something, after all, superior to that
+culture which she had so truly thought stood for the highest ideals of
+the race? Could it be that, in the land of Granite Mountain, there was
+something, after all, that was as superior to the things she had been
+taught as Granite Mountain itself was superior in its primeval strength
+and enduring grandeur to the man-made buildings of her school?
+
+It was not strange that Kitty's troubled thoughts should turn to Helen
+Manning. Clearly, Helen's education had led to no confusion. On the
+contrary, she had found an ideal love, and a happiness such as every
+true, womanly woman must, in her heart of hearts, desire.
+
+It was far into the night when Kitty, wakeful and restless, heard the
+sound of a horse's feet. She could not know that it was Honorable
+Patches riding past on his way to the ranch on the other side of the
+broad valley meadows.
+
+Weary in body, and with mind and spirit exhausted by the trials through
+which he had passed, Patches crept to his bed. In the morning, when he
+delivered his message, the Dean, seeing the man's face, urged him to
+stay for the day at the ranch. But Patches said no; Phil was expecting
+him, and he must return to the outfit in Granite Basin. As soon as
+breakfast was over he set out.
+
+He had ridden as far as the head of Mint Wash, and had stopped to water
+his horse, and to refresh himself with a cool drink and a brief rest
+beside the fragrant mint-bordered spring, when he heard someone riding
+rapidly up the wash the way he had come. A moment later, Kitty, riding
+her favorite Midnight, rounded a jutting corner of the rocky wall of the
+bluff.
+
+As the girl caught sight of him, there beside the spring, she waved her
+hand in greeting. And the man, as he waved his answer, and watched her
+riding toward him, felt a thrill of gladness that she had come. The
+strong, true friendship that began with their very first meeting, when
+she had been so frankly interested in the tenderfoot, and so kindly
+helpful, and which had developed so steadily through the year, gave him,
+now, a feeling of comfort and relief. Wearied and worn by his
+disappointment and by his struggle with himself, with the cherished hope
+that had enabled him to choose and endure the hard life of the range
+brought to a sudden end, with his life itself made so empty and futile,
+he welcomed his woman friend with a warmth and gladness that brought a
+flush of pleasure to Kitty's cheek.
+
+For Kitty, too, had just passed through a humiliating and disappointing
+experience. In her troubled frame of mind, and in her perplexed and
+confused questioning, the young woman was as glad for the companionship
+of Patches as he was glad to welcome her. She felt a curious sense of
+relief and safety in his presence--somewhat as one, who, walking over
+uncertain bogs or treacherous quicksands, finds, all at once, the solid
+ground.
+
+"I saw you go past the house," she said, when she reached the spring
+where he stood awaiting her, "and I decided right then that I would go
+along with you to Granite Basin and visit my friends the Mannings. They
+told me that I might come this week, and I think they have had quite
+enough honeymooning, anyway. You know where they are camped, do you?"
+
+"Yes," he answered. "I saw them yesterday. But, come! Get down and cool
+off a bit. You've been riding some, haven't you?"
+
+"I wanted to catch you as soon as I could," she laughed, as she sprang
+lightly to the ground. "And you see you gained a good start while I was
+getting Midnight saddled. What a pretty spot! I must have a drink of
+that water this minute."
+
+"Sorry I have no cup," he said, and then he laughed with the pleasure of
+good comradeship as she answered:
+
+"You forget that I was born to the customs of this country." And,
+throwing aside her broad hat, she went down on the ground to drink from
+the spring, even as he had done.
+
+As the man watched her, a sudden thought flashed into his mind--a
+thought so startling, so unexpected, that he was for the moment
+bewildered.
+
+"Talk about the nectar of the gods!" cried Kitty with a deep breath of
+satisfaction, as she lifted her smiling face from the bright water to
+look up at him. And then she drank again.
+
+"And now, if you please, sir, you may bring me some of that
+water-cress; we'll sit over there in the shade, and who cares whether
+Granite Basin, the Mannings, and your fellow cow-punchers, are fifteen
+or fifty miles away?"
+
+He brought a generous bunch of the water-cress, and stretched himself
+full length beside her, as she sat on the ground under a tall sycamore.
+
+"Selah!" he laughed contentedly. "We seem to lack only the book of
+verses, the loaf and the jug; the wilderness is here, all right, and
+that's a perfectly good bough up there, and, of course, you could
+furnish the song; I might recite 'The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck,'
+but, alas! we haven't even a flask and biscuit."
+
+"What a pity that you should be so near and yet so far from paradise!"
+she retorted quickly. Then she added, with a mischievous smile, "It just
+happens that I have a sandwich in my saddle pocket."
+
+"Won't you sing? Please do," he returned, with an eagerness that amused
+her.
+
+But she shook her head reprovingly. "We would still lack the jug of
+wine, you know, and, really, I don't think that paradise is for
+cow-punchers, anyway, do you?"
+
+"Evidently not," he answered. And at her jesting words a queer feeling
+of rebellion possessed him. Why should he be condemned to years of
+loneliness? Why must he face a life without the companionship of a mate?
+If the paradise he had sought so hard to attain were denied him, why
+should he not still take what happiness he might?
+
+He was lying flat on his back, his hands clasped beneath his head,
+watching an eagle that wheeled, a tiny black speck, high under the blue
+arch of the sky. He seemed to have forgotten his companion.
+
+Kitty leaned toward him, and held a sprig of water-cress over his
+upturned face. "I haven't a penny," she said, "but I'll give you this."
+
+He sat up quickly. "Even at that price, my thoughts might cost you too
+much. But you haven't told me what you have done with our dear friend
+the professor? Haven't you a guilty conscience, deserting him like
+this?"
+
+Kitty held up both hands in a gesture of dismay. "Don't, Patches, please
+don't. Ugh! if you only knew how good it is to be with a _man_ again!"
+
+He laughed aloud in a spirit of reckless defiance. "And Phil is over in
+Granite Basin. I neglected to tell you that he knows the location of the
+Mannings' camp, as well as I."
+
+Kitty was a little puzzled by the tone of his laughter, and by his
+words. She spoke gravely. "Perhaps I should tell you, Patches--we have
+been such good friends, you and I--Phil--"
+
+"Yes!" he said.
+
+"Phil is nothing to me, Patches. I mean--"
+
+"You mean in the way he wanted to be?" He helped her with a touch of
+eager readiness.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And have you told him, Kitty?" Patches asked gently.
+
+"Yes--I have told him," she replied.
+
+Patches was silent for a moment. Then, "Poor Phil!" he said softly. "I
+understand now; I thought that was it. He is a man among thousands,
+Kitty."
+
+"I know--I know," she returned, as though to dismiss the subject. "But
+it simply couldn't be."
+
+Patches was looking at her intently, with an expression in his dark eyes
+that Kitty had never before seen. The man's mind was in a whirl of quick
+excitement. As they had talked and laughed together, the thought that
+had so startled him, when her manner of familiar comradeship had brought
+such a feeling of comfort to his troubled spirit, had not left him. From
+that first moment of their meeting a year before there had been that
+feeling between them, of companionship, a feeling which had grown as
+their acquaintance had developed into the intimate friendship that had
+allowed him to speak to her as he had spoken that day under the cedars
+on the ridge. What might that friendship not grow into! He thought of
+her desire for the life that he knew so well, and how he could, while
+granting every wish of her heart, yet protect her from the shams and
+falseness. And with these thoughts was that feeling of rebellion against
+the loneliness of his life.
+
+Kitty's words regarding Phil removed the barrier, as it were, and the
+man's nature, which prompted him so often to act without pausing to
+consider, betrayed him into saying, "Would you be greatly shocked,
+Kitty, if I were to tell you that I am glad? That, while I am sorry for
+Phil, I am glad that you have said no to him?"
+
+"You are glad?" she said wonderingly. "Why?"
+
+"Because, now, _I_ am free to say what I could not have said had you not
+told me what you have. I want you, Kitty. I want to fill your life with
+beauty and happiness and contentment. I want you to go with me to see
+and know the natural wonders of the world, and the wonders that men have
+wrought. I want to surround you with the beauties of art and literature,
+with everything that your heart craves. I want you to know the people
+whose friendship would be a delight to you. Come with me, girl--be my
+wife, and together we will find--if not paradise, at least a full and
+useful and contented and happy life. Will you come, Kitty? Will you come
+with me?"
+
+As she listened her eyes grew big with wonder and delight. It was as
+though some good genie had suddenly opened wide the way to an enchanted
+laud. Then the gladness went swiftly from her face, and she said
+doubtingly, "You are jesting with me, Patches."
+
+As she spoke his cowboy name, the man laughed aloud. "I forgot that you
+do not even know me--I mean, that you do not know my name."
+
+"Are you some fairy prince in disguise, Sir Patches?"
+
+"Not a fairy, dear, and certainly not a prince; just a man, that's all.
+But a man, dear girl, who can offer you a clean life, an honored name,
+and all of which I have spoken. But I must tell you--I always knew that
+I would tell you some day, but I did not dream that it would be to-day.
+My name is Lawrence Knight. My home is in Cleveland, Ohio. Your father
+can easily satisfy himself as to my family and my own personal life and
+standing. It is enough for me to assure you now, dear, that I am
+abundantly able to give you all that I have promised."
+
+At the mention of his name, Kitty's eyes grew bright again. Thanks to
+her intimate friend and schoolmate, Helen Manning, she knew much more of
+Lawrence Knight than that gentleman supposed.
+
+"But, tell me," she asked curiously, trembling with suppressed
+excitement, "why is Mr. Lawrence Knight masquerading here as the cowboy
+Honorable Patches?"
+
+He answered earnestly. "I know it must seem strange to you, dear, but
+the simple truth is that I became ashamed of myself and my life of idle
+uselessness. I determined to see if I could take my place among men,
+simply as a man. I wanted to be accepted by men for myself, for my
+manhood, if you like, and not because of my--" he hesitated, then said
+frankly--"my money and social position. I wanted to depend upon
+myself--to live as other men live, by my own strength and courage and
+work. If I had given my real name, when I asked for work at the
+Cross-Triangle--someone would have found me out before very long, and my
+little experiment would have failed, don't you see?"
+
+While he spoke, Kitty's excited mind had caught at many thoughts. She
+believed sincerely that her girlhood love for Phil was dead. This man,
+even as Patches the cowboy, with a questionable shadow on his life, had
+compelled her respect and confidence, while in his evident education and
+social culture he had won her deepest admiration. She felt that he was
+all that Phil was, and more. There was in her feeling toward him, as he
+offered himself to her now, no hint of that instinctive repulsion and
+abhorrence with which she had received Professor Parkhill's declaration
+of spiritual affinity. Her recent experience with the Master of
+Aesthetics had so outraged her womanly instincts that the inevitable
+reaction from her perplexed and troubled mind led her to feel more
+deeply, and to be drawn more strongly, toward this man with whom any
+woman might be proud to mate. At the same time, the attractions of the
+life which she knew he could give her, and for which she longed so
+passionately, with the relief of the thought that her parents would not
+need to sacrifice themselves for her, were potent factors in the power
+of Lawrence Knight's appeal.
+
+"It would be wonderful," she said musingly. "I have dreamed and dreamed
+about such things."
+
+"You will come with me, dear? You will let me give you your heart's
+wish--you will go with me into the life for which you are so fitted?"
+
+"Do you really want me, Patches?" she asked timidly, as though in her
+mind there was still a shadow of doubt.
+
+"More than anything in the world," he urged. "Say yes. Kitty. Say that
+you will be my wife."
+
+The answer came softly, with a hint of questioning, still.
+
+"Yes."
+
+Kitty did not notice that the man had not spoken of his love for her.
+There were so many other things for her to consider, so many other
+things to distract her mind. Nor did the man notice that Kitty herself
+had failed to speak in any way that little word, which, rightly
+understood, holds in its fullest, deepest meaning, all of life's
+happiness--of labor and accomplishment--of success and triumph--of
+sacrifice and sorrow; holds, in its fullest, deepest meaning, indeed,
+all of life itself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+ON CEDAR RIDGE.
+
+
+Kitty's friends were very glad to welcome her at their camp in Granite
+Basin. The incident which had so rudely broken the seclusion of their
+honeymoon had been too nearly a tragedy to be easily forgotten. The
+charm of the place was, in some degree, for them, lost, and Kitty's
+coming helped to dispel the cloud that had a little overshadowed those
+last days of their outing.
+
+It was not at all difficult for them to persuade Kitty to remain longer
+than the one night that she had planned, and to accompany them to
+Prescott. Prom Prescott, Stanford must go to the mines, to take up his
+work, and to arrange for Helen's coming later, and Helen would go home
+with Kitty for the visit she had promised. The cowboys, who were
+returning to the Cross-Triangle Ranch, would take Kitty's horse to her
+home, and would carry a message explaining the young woman's absence,
+and asking that someone be sent to Prescott with the clothing she would
+need in town, and that the Reid automobile might be in Prescott in
+readiness to take the two young women back to the ranch on the
+appointed day.
+
+Kitty could not bring herself to tell even Helen about her engagement to
+Lawrence Knight, or Patches, as she would continue to call him until the
+time came for the cowboy himself to make his true name and character
+known. It had all happened so suddenly; the promises of the future were
+so wonderful--so far beyond the young woman's fondest dreams--that she
+herself could scarcely realize the truth. There would be time enough to
+tell Helen when they were together at the ranch. And she was insistent,
+too, that Patches must not interview her father until she herself had
+returned home.
+
+Phil and his cowboys with the cattle reached the Cross-Triangle corrals
+the evening before the day set for Kitty and Helen to arrive at the
+ranch on the other side of the valley meadows. The Cross-Triangle men
+were greeted by the news that Professor Parkhill had said good-by to
+Williamson Valley, and that the Pot-Hook-S Ranch had been sold. The
+eastern purchaser expected by Reid had arrived on the day that Kitty had
+gone to Granite Basin, and the deal had been closed without delay. But
+Reid was not to give possession of the property until after the fall
+rodeo.
+
+As the men sat under the walnut trees with the Dean that evening,
+discussing the incidents of the Granite Basin work, and speculating
+about the new owner of the neighboring ranch, Phil sat with Little Billy
+apart from the circle, and contributed to the conversation only now and
+then a word or a brief answer to some question. When Mrs. Baldwin
+persuaded the child that it was bedtime, Phil slipped quietly away in
+the darkness, and they did not see him again until breakfast the next
+morning. When breakfast was over, the foreman gave a few directions to
+his men, and rode away alone.
+
+The Dean, understanding the lad, whom he loved as one of his own sons,
+watched him go without a word or a question. To Mrs. Baldwin he said,
+"Just let him alone, Stella. The boy is all right. He's only gone off
+somewhere on the range to fight it out alone. Most likely he'll put in
+the day watching those wild horses over beyond Toohey. He generally goes
+to them when he's bothered about anything or in trouble of any sort."
+
+Patches, who had been sent on an errand of some kind to Fair Oaks, was
+returning home early in the afternoon, and had reached the neighborhood
+of that spring where he had first encountered Nick Cambert, when he
+heard a calf bawling lustily somewhere in the cedar timber not far away.
+Familiar as he now was with the voices of the range, the cowboy knew
+that the calf was in trouble. The call was one of fright and pain.
+
+Turning aside from his course, he rode, rapidly at first, then more
+cautiously, toward the sound. Presently he caught a whiff of smoke that
+came with the light breeze from somewhere ahead on the ridge along which
+he was riding. Instantly he rode into a thick clump of cedars, and,
+dismounting, tied his horse. Then he went on, carefully and silently, on
+foot. Soon he heard voices. Again the calf bawled in fright and pain,
+and the familiar odor of burning hair was carried to him on the breeze.
+Someone was branding a calf.
+
+It might be all right--it might not. Patches was unarmed, but, with
+characteristic disregard of consequences, he crept softly forward,
+toward a dense growth of trees and brush, from beyond which the noise
+and the smoke seemed to come.
+
+He had barely gained the cover when he heard someone on the other side
+ride rapidly away down the ridge. Hastily parting the bushes, he looked
+through to catch a glimpse of the horseman, but he was a moment too
+late; the rider had disappeared from sight in the timber. But, in a
+little open space among the cedars, the cowboy saw Yavapai Joe, standing
+beside a calf, fresh-branded with the Four-Bar-M iron, and earmarked
+with the Tailholt marks.
+
+Patches knew instantly, as well as though he had witnessed the actual
+branding, what, had happened. That part of the range was seldom visited
+except by the Dean's cowboys, and the Tailholt Mountain men, knowing
+that the Cross-Triangle riders were all at Granite Basin, were making
+good use of their opportunities. The man who had ridden away so
+hurriedly, a moment too soon for Patches to see him, was, without doubt,
+driving the mother of the calf to a distance that would effectually
+separate her from her offspring.
+
+But while he was so sure in his own mind, the Cross-Triangle man--as it
+had so often happened before--had arrived on the scene too late. He had
+no positive evidence that the animal just branded was not the lawful
+property of Nick Cambert.
+
+As Patches stepped from the bushes, Yavapai Joe faced him for a moment
+in guilty astonishment and fear; then he ran toward his horse.
+
+"Wait a minute, Joe!" called Patches. "What good will it do for you to
+run now? I'm not going to harm you."
+
+Joe stopped, and stood hesitating in indecision, watching the intruder
+with that sneaking, sidewise look.
+
+"Come on, Joe; let's have a little talk about this business," the
+Cross-Triangle man said in a matter-of-fact tone, as he seated himself
+on a large, flat-topped stone near the little fire. "You know you can't
+get away, so you might as well."
+
+"I ain't tellin' nothin' to nobody," said Joe sullenly, as he came
+slowly toward the Dean's cowboy.
+
+"No?" said Patches.
+
+"No, I ain't," asserted the Tailholt Mountain man stoutly. "That there
+calf is a Four-Bar-M calf, all right."
+
+"I see it is," returned the Cross-Triangle rider calmly. "But I'll just
+wait until Nick gets back, and ask him what it was before he worked over
+the iron."
+
+Joe, excited and confused by the cool nerve of this man, fell readily
+into the verbal trap.
+
+"You better go now, an' not wait to ask Nick no fool questions like
+that. If he finds you here talkin' with me when he gets back, hell'll be
+a-poppin' fer sure. Me an' you are friends, Patches, an' that's why I'm
+a-tellin' you you better pull your freight while the goin's good."
+
+"Much obliged, Joe, but there's no hurry. You don't need to be so
+rushed. It will be an hour before Nick gets back, if he drives that cow
+as far as he ought."
+
+Again poor Yavapai Joe told more than he intended. "You don't need to
+worry none 'bout Nick; he'll sure drive her far enough. He ain't takin'
+no chances, Nick ain't."
+
+With his convictions so readily confirmed, Patches had good ground upon
+which to base his following remarks. He had made a long shot when he
+spoke so confidently of the brand on the calf being worked over. For, of
+course, the calf might not have been branded at all when the Tailholt
+Mountain men caught it. But Joe's manner, as well as his warning answer,
+told that the shot had gone home. The fact that the brand had been
+worked over established also the fact that it was the Cross-Triangle
+brand that had been changed, because the Cross-Triangle was the only
+brand in that part of the country that could be changed into the
+Four-Bar-M.
+
+Patches, dropping his easy manner, and speaking straight to the point,
+said, "Look here, Joe, you and I might as well get down to cases. You
+know I am your friend, and I don't want to see you in trouble, but you
+can take it from me that you are in mighty serious trouble right now. I
+was hiding right there in those bushes, close enough to see all that
+happened, and I know that this is a Cross-Triangle calf, and that Nick
+and you worked the brand over. You know that it means the penitentiary
+for you, as well as for Nick, if the boys don't string you both up
+without any ceremony."
+
+Patches paused to let his words sink in.
+
+Joe's face was ashy white, and he was shaking with fright, as he stole a
+sneaking look toward his horse.
+
+Patches added sharply, "You can't give me the slip, either; I can kill
+you before you get half way to your horse."
+
+Trapped and helpless, Joe looked pleadingly at his captor. "You wouldn't
+send me up, would you, now, Patches?" he whined. "You an' me's good
+friends, ain't we? Anyway he wouldn't let me go to the pen, an' the boys
+wouldn't dast do nothin' to me when they knew."
+
+"Whom are you talking about?" demanded Patches. "Nick? Don't be a fool,
+Joe; Nick will be there right alongside of you."
+
+"I ain't meanin' Nick; I mean _him_ over there at the
+Cross-Triangle--Professor Parkhill. I'm a-tellin' you that _he_ wouldn't
+let you do nothin' to me."
+
+"Forget it, Joe," came the reply, without an instant's hesitation. "You
+know as well as I do how much chance Professor Parkhill, or anyone else,
+would have, trying to keep the boys from making you and Nick dance on
+nothing, once they hear of this. Besides, the professor is not in the
+valley now."
+
+The poor outcast's fright was pitiful. "You ain't meanin' that he--that
+he's gone?" he gasped.
+
+"Listen, Joe," said Patches quickly. "I can do more for you than he
+could, even if he were here. You know I am your friend, and I don't want
+to see a good fellow like you sent to prison for fifteen or twenty
+years, or, perhaps, hanged. But there's only one way that I can see for
+me to save you. You must go with me to the Cross-Triangle, and tell Mr.
+Baldwin all about it, how you were just working for Nick, and how he
+made you help him do this, and all that you know. If you do that, we can
+get you off."
+
+"I--I reckon you're right, Patches," returned the frightened weakling
+sullenly. "Nick has sure treated me like a dog, anyway. You won't let
+Nick get at me, will you, if I go?"
+
+"Nobody can get at you, Joe, if you go with me, and do the square thing.
+I'm going to take care of you myself, and help you to get out of this,
+and brace up and be a man. Come on; let's be moving. I'll turn this calf
+loose first, though."
+
+He was bending over the calf when a noise in the brush caused him to
+stand suddenly erect.
+
+Joe was whimpering with terror.
+
+Patches said fiercely, but in a low tone, "Shut up, and follow my lead.
+Be a man, and I'll get you out of this yet."
+
+"Nick will kill us sure," whined Joe.
+
+"Not if I get my hands on him first, he won't," retorted Patches.
+
+But it was with a feeling of relief that the cowboy saw Phil Acton ride
+toward them from the shelter of the timber.
+
+Before Patches could speak, Phil's gun covered him, and the foreman's
+voice rang out sharply.
+
+"Hands up!"
+
+Joe's hands shot above his head. Patches hesitated.
+
+"Quick!" said Phil.
+
+And as Patches saw the man's eyes over the black barrel of the weapon he
+obeyed. But as he raised his hands, a dull flush of anger colored his
+tanned face a deeper red, and his eyes grew dark with passion. He
+realized his situation instantly. The mystery that surrounded his first
+appearance when he had sought employment at the Cross-Triangle; the
+persistent suspicion of many of the cowboys because of his friendship
+for Yavapai Joe; his meeting with Joe which the professor had reported;
+his refusal to explain to Phil; his return to the ranch when everyone
+was away and he himself was supposed to be in Prescott--all these and
+many other incidents had come to their legitimate climax in his presence
+on that spot with Yavapai Joe, the smouldering fire and the freshly
+branded calf. He was unarmed, but Phil could not be sure of that, for
+many a cowboy carries his gun inside the leg of his leather chaps, where
+it does not so easily catch in the brush.
+
+But while Patches saw it all so clearly, he was enraged that this man
+with whom he had lived so intimately should believe him capable of such
+a crime, and treat him without question as a common cattle thief. Phil's
+coldness toward him, which had grown so gradually during the past three
+months, in this peremptory humiliation reached a point beyond which
+Patches' patient and considerate endurance could not go. The man's sense
+of justice was outraged; his fine feeling of honor was insulted. Trapped
+and helpless as he was under that menacing gun, he was possessed by a
+determination to defend himself against the accusation, and to teach
+Phil Acton that there was a limit to the insult he would endure, even in
+the name of friendship. To this end his only hope was to trap his
+foreman with words, as he had caught Yavapai Joe. At a game of words
+Honorable Patches was no unskilled novice. Controlling his anger, he
+said coolly, with biting sarcasm, while he looked at the cowboy with a
+mocking sneer, "You don't propose to take any chances, do you--holding
+up an unarmed man?"
+
+Patches saw by the flush that swept over Phil's cheeks how his words
+bit.
+
+"It doesn't pay to take chances with your kind," retorted the foreman
+hotly.
+
+"No," mocked Patches, "but it will pay big, I suppose, for the great
+'Wild Horse Phil' to be branded as a sneak and a coward who is afraid to
+face an unarmed man unless he can get the drop on him?"
+
+Phil was goaded to madness by the cool, mocking words. With a reckless
+laugh, he slipped his weapon into the holster and sprang to the ground.
+At the same moment Patches and Joe lowered their hands, and Joe,
+unnoticed by either of the angry men, took a few stealthy steps toward
+his horse.
+
+Phil, deliberately folding his arms, stood looking at Patches.
+
+"I'll just call that bluff, you sneakin' calf stealer," he said coolly.
+"Now, unlimber that gun of yours, and get busy."
+
+Angry as he was, Patches felt a thrill of admiration for the man, and
+beneath his determination to force Phil Acton to treat him with respect,
+he was proud of his friend who had answered his sneering insinuation
+with such fearlessness. But he could not now hesitate in his plan of
+provoking Phil into disarming himself.
+
+"You're something of a four-flusher yourself, aren't you?" he mocked.
+"You know I have no gun. Your brave pose is very effective. I would
+congratulate you, only, you see, it doesn't impress me in the least."
+
+With an oath Phil snatched his gun from the holster, and threw it aside.
+
+"Have it any way you like," he retorted, and started toward Patches.
+
+Then a curious thing happened to Honorable Patches. Angry as he was, he
+became suddenly dominated by something that was more potent than his
+rage.
+
+"Stop!" he cried sharply, and with such ringing force that Phil
+involuntarily obeyed. "I can't fight you this way, Phil," he said; and
+the other, wondering, saw that whimsical, self-mocking smile on his
+lips. "You know as well as I do that you are no match for me barehanded.
+You couldn't even touch me; you have seen Curly and the others try it
+often enough. You are as helpless in my power, now, as I was in yours a
+moment ago. I am armed now and you are not. I can't fight you this way,
+Phil."
+
+In spite of himself Phil Acton was impressed by the truth and fairness
+of Patches' words. He recognized that an unequal contest could satisfy
+neither of them, and that it made no difference which of the contestants
+had the advantage.
+
+"Well," he said sarcastically, "what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"First," returned Patches calmly, "I am going to tell you how I happened
+to be here with Yavapai Joe."
+
+"I don't need any explanations from you. It's some more of your personal
+business, I suppose," retorted Phil.
+
+Patches controlled himself. "You are going to hear the explanation, just
+the same," he returned. "You can believe it or not, just as you please."
+
+"And what then?" demanded Phil.
+
+"Then I'm going to get a gun, and we'll settle the rest of it, man to
+man, on equal terms, just as soon as you like," answered Patches
+deliberately.
+
+Phil replied shortly. "Go ahead with your palaver. I'll have to hand it
+to you when it comes to talk. I am not educated that way myself."
+
+For a moment Patches hesitated, as though on the point of changing his
+mind about the explanation. Then his sense of justice--justice both for
+Phil and himself--conquered.
+
+But in telling Phil how he had come upon the scene too late for positive
+proof that the freshly branded calf was the Dean's property, and in
+explaining how, when the foreman arrived, he had just persuaded Joe to
+go with him and give the necessary evidence against Nick, Patches forgot
+the possible effect of his words upon Joe himself. The two
+Cross-Triangle men were so absorbed in their own affair that they had
+paid no attention to the Tailholt Mountain outcast. And Joe, taking
+advantage of the opportunity, had by this time gained a position beside
+his horse. As he heard Patches tell how he had no actual evidence that
+the calf was not Nick Cambert's property, a look of anger and cunning
+darkened the face of Nick's follower. He was angry at the way Patches
+had tricked him into betraying both himself and his evil master, and he
+saw a way to defeat the two cowboys and at the same time win Nick's
+approval. Quickly the fellow mounted his horse, and, before they could
+stop him, was out of sight in the timber.
+
+"I've done it now," exclaimed Patches in dismay. "I forgot all about
+Joe."
+
+"I don't think he counts for much in this game anyway," returned Phil,
+gruffly.
+
+As he spoke, the foreman turned his back to Patches and walked toward
+his gun. He had reached the spot where the weapon lay on the ground,
+when, from the bushes to the right, and a little back of Patches, who
+stood watching his companion, a shot rang out with startling suddenness.
+
+Patches saw Phil stumble forward, straighten for an instant, as though
+by sheer power of his will, and, turning, look back at him. Then, as
+Phil fell, the unarmed cowboy leaped forward toward that gun on the
+ground. Even as he moved, a second shot rang out and he felt the wind of
+the bullet on his cheek. With Phil's gun in his hand, he ran toward a
+cedar tree on the side of the open space opposite the point from which
+the shots came, and as he ran another bullet whistled past.
+
+A man moving as Patches moved is not an easy mark. The same man armed,
+and protected by the trunk of a tree, is still more difficult. A moment
+after he had gained cover, the cowboy heard the clatter of a horse's
+feet, near the spot from which the shots had come, and by the sound knew
+that the unseen marksman had chosen to retire with only half his evident
+purpose accomplished, rather than take the risk that had arisen with
+Patches' success in turning the ambush into an open fight.
+
+As the sound of the horse's swift rush down the side of the ridge grew
+fainter and fainter, Patches ran to Phil.
+
+A quick examination told him that the bullet had entered just under the
+right shoulder, and that the man, though unconscious and, no doubt,
+seriously wounded, was living.
+
+With rude bandages made by tearing his shirt into strips Patches checked
+the flow of blood, and bound up the wound as best he could. Then for a
+moment he considered. It was between three and four miles to the ranch.
+He could ride there and back in a few minutes. Someone must start for a
+doctor without an instant's loss of time. With water, proper bandages
+and stimulants, the wounded man could be cared for and moved in the
+buckboard with much greater safety than he could be carried in his
+present condition on a horse. The risk of leaving him for a few minutes
+was small, compared to the risk of taking him to the house under the
+only conditions possible. The next instant Patches was in Phil's saddle
+and riding as he had never ridden before.
+
+Jim Reid, with Kitty and Helen, was on the way back from Prescott as
+Kitty had planned. They were within ten miles of the ranch when the
+cattleman, who sat at the wheel of the automobile, saw a horseman coming
+toward them. A moment he watched the approaching figure, then, over his
+shoulder, he said to the girls, "Look at that fellow ride. There's
+something doin', sure." As he spoke he turned the machine well out of
+the road.
+
+A moment later he added, "It's Curly Elson from the Cross-Triangle.
+Somethin's happened in the valley." As he spoke, he stopped the machine,
+and sprang out so that the cowboy could see and recognize him.
+
+Curly did not draw rein until he was within a few feet of Reid; then he
+brought his running horse up with a suddenness that threw the animal on
+its haunches.
+
+Curly spoke tersely. "Phil Acton is shot. We need a doctor quick."
+
+Without a word Jim Reid leaped into the automobile. The car backed to
+turn around. As it paused an instant before starting forward again,
+Kitty put her hand on her father's shoulder.
+
+"Wait!" she cried. "I'm going to Phil. Curly, I want your horse; you can
+go with father."
+
+The cowboy was on the ground before she had finished speaking. And
+before the automobile was under way Kitty was riding back the way Curly
+had come.
+
+Kitty was scarcely conscious of what she had said. The cowboy's first
+words had struck her with the force of a physical blow, and in that
+first moment, she had been weak and helpless. She had felt as though a
+heavy weight pressed her down; a gray mist was before her eyes, and she
+could not see clearly. "Phil Acton is shot--Phil Acton is shot!" The
+cowboy's words had repeated themselves over and over. Then, with a
+sudden rush, her strength came again--the mist cleared; she must go to
+Phil; she must go fast, fast. Oh, why was this horse so slow! If only
+she were riding her own Midnight! She did not think as she rode. She did
+not wonder, nor question, nor analyze her emotions. She only felt. It
+was Phil who was hurt--Phil, the boy with whom she had played when she
+was a little girl--the lad with whom she had gone to school--the young
+man who had won the first love of her young woman heart. It was Phil,
+her Phil, who was hurt, and she must go to him--she must go fast, fast!
+
+It seemed to Kitty that hours passed before she reached the meadow lane.
+She was glad that Curly had left the gates open. As she crossed the
+familiar ground between the old Acton home and the ranch house on the
+other side of the sandy wash, she saw them. They were carrying him into
+the house as she rode into the yard, and at sight of that still form the
+gray mist came again, and she caught the saddle horn to save herself
+from falling. But it was only a moment until she was strong again, and
+ready to do all that Mrs. Baldwin asked.
+
+Phil had regained consciousness before they started home with him, but
+he was very weak from the loss of blood and the journey in the
+buckboard, though Bob drove ever so carefully, was almost more than he
+could bear. But with the relief that came when he was at last lying
+quietly in his own bed, and with the help of the stimulant, the splendid
+physical strength and vitality that was his because of his natural and
+unspoiled life again brought him back from the shadows into the light of
+full consciousness.
+
+It was then that the Dean, while Mrs. Baldwin and Kitty were occupied
+for a few moments in another part of the house, listened to all that his
+foreman could tell him about the affair up to the time that he had
+fallen unconscious. The Dean asked but few questions. But when the
+details were all clearly fixed in his mind, the older man bent over Phil
+and looked straight into the lad's clear and steady eyes, while he asked
+in a low tone, "Phil, did Patches do this?"
+
+And the young man answered, "Uncle Will, I don't know."
+
+With this he closed his eyes wearily, as though to sleep, and the Dean,
+seeing Kitty in the doorway, beckoned her to come and sit beside the
+bed. Then he stole quietly from the room.
+
+As in a dream Phil had seen Kitty when she rode into the yard. And he
+had been conscious of her presence as she moved about the house and the
+room where he lay. But he had given no sign that he knew she was there.
+As she seated herself, at the Dean's bidding, the cowboy opened his eyes
+for a moment, and looked up into her face. Then again the weary lids
+closed, and he gave no hint that he recognized her, save that the white
+lips set in firmer lines as though at another stab of pain.
+
+As she watched alone beside this man who had, since she could remember,
+been a part of her life, and as she realized that he was on the very
+border line of that land from which, if he entered, he could never
+return to her, Kitty Reid knew the truth that is greater than any
+knowledge that the schools of man can give. She knew the one great truth
+of her womanhood; knew it not from text book or class room; not from
+learned professor or cultured associates; but knew it from that good
+Master of Life who, with infinite wisdom, teaches his many pupils who
+are free to learn in the school of schools, the School of Nature. In
+that hour when the near presence of death so overshadowed all the
+trivial and non-essential things of life--when the little standards and
+petty values of poor human endeavor were as nothing--this woman knew
+that by the unwritten edict of God, who decreed that in all life two
+should be as one, this man was her only lawful mate. Environment,
+circumstance, that which we call culture and education, even death,
+might separate them; but nothing could nullify the fact that was
+attested by the instinct of her womanhood. Bending over the man who lay
+so still, she whispered the imperative will of her heart.
+
+"Come back to me, Phil--I want you--I need you, dear--come back to me!"
+
+Slowly he came out of the mists of weakness and pain to look up at
+her--doubtfully--wonderingly. But there was a light in Kitty's face that
+dispelled the doubt, and changed the look of wondering uncertainty to
+glad conviction. He did not speak. No word was necessary. Nor did he
+move, for he must be very still, and hold fast with all his strength to
+the life that was now so good. But the woman knew without words all that
+he would have said, and as his eyes closed again she bowed her head in
+thankfulness.
+
+Then rising she stole softly to the window. She felt that she must look
+out for a moment into the world that was so suddenly new and beautiful.
+
+Under the walnut trees she saw the Dean talking with the man whom she
+had promised to marry.
+
+Later Mr. Reid, with Helen and Curly, brought the doctor, and the noise
+of the automobile summoned every soul on the place to wait for the
+physician's verdict of life or death.
+
+While the Dean was in Phil's room with the physician, and the anxious
+ones were gathered in a little group in front of the house, Jim Reid
+stood apart from the others talking in low tones with the cowboy Bob.
+Patches, who was standing behind the automobile, heard Bob, who had
+raised his voice a little, say distinctly, "I tell you, sir, there ain't
+a bit of doubt in the world about it. There was the calf a layin' right
+there fresh-branded and marked. He'd plumb forgot to turn it loose, I
+reckon, bein' naturally rattled; or else he figgered that it warn't no
+use, if Phil should be able to tell what happened. The way I make it out
+is that Phil jumped him right in the act, so sudden that he shot without
+thinkin'; you know how he acts quick that-a-way. An' then he seen what
+he had done, an' that it was more than an even break that Phil wouldn't
+live, an' so figgered that his chance was better to stay an' run a bluff
+by comin' for help, an' all that. If he'd tried to make his get-away,
+there wouldn't 'a' been no question about it; an' he's got just nerve
+enough to take the chance he's a-takin' by stayin' right with the game."
+
+Patches started as though to go toward the men, but at that moment the
+doctor came from the house. As the physician approached the waiting
+group, that odd, mirthless, self-mocking smile touched Patches' lips;
+then he stepped forward to listen with the others to the doctor's words.
+
+Phil had a chance, the doctor said, but he told them frankly that it was
+only a chance. The injured man's wonderful vitality, his clean blood and
+unimpaired physical strength, together with his unshaken nerve and an
+indomitable will, were all greatly in his favor. With careful nursing
+they might with reason hope for his recovery.
+
+With expressions of relief, the group separated. Patches walked away
+alone. Mr. Reid, who would return to Prescott with the doctor, said to
+his daughter when the physician was ready, "Come, Kitty, I'll go by the
+house, so as to take you and Mrs. Manning home."
+
+But Kitty shook her head. "No, father. I'm not going home. Stella needs
+me here. Helen understands, don't you, Helen?"
+
+And wise Mrs. Manning, seeing in Kitty's face something that the man had
+not observed, answered, "Yes, dear, I do understand. You must stay, of
+course. I'll run over again in the morning."
+
+"Very well," answered Mr. Reid, who seemed in somewhat of a hurry. "I
+know you ought to stay. Tell Stella that mother will be over for a
+little while this evening." And the automobile moved away.
+
+That night, while Mrs. Baldwin and Kitty watched by Phil's bedside, and
+Patches, in his room, waited, sleepless, alone with his thoughts, men
+from the ranch on the other side of the quiet meadow were riding swiftly
+through the darkness. Before the new day had driven the stars from the
+wide sky, a little company of silent, grim-faced horsemen gathered in
+the Pot-Hook-S corral. In the dim, gray light of the early morning they
+followed Jim Reid out of the corral, and, riding fast, crossed the
+valley above the meadows and approached the Cross-Triangle corrals from
+the west. One man in the company led a horse with an empty saddle. Just
+beyond the little rise of ground outside the big gate they halted, while
+Jim Reid with two others, leaving their horses with the silent riders
+behind the hill, went on into the corral, where they seated themselves
+on the edge of the long watering trough near the tank, which hid them
+from the house.
+
+Fifteen minutes later, when the Dean stepped from the kitchen porch, he
+saw Curly running toward the house. As the older man hurried toward him,
+the cowboy, pale with excitement and anger, cried, "They've got him,
+sir--grabbed him when he went out to the corral."
+
+The Dean understood instantly. "My horse, quick, Curly," he said, and
+hurried on toward the saddle shed. "Which way did they go?" he asked, as
+he mounted.
+
+"Toward the cedars on the ridge where it happened," came the answer. "Do
+you want me?"
+
+"No. Don't let them know in the house," came the reply. And the Dean was
+gone.
+
+The little company of horsemen, with Patches in their midst, had reached
+the scene of the shooting, and had made their simple preparations. From
+that moment when they had covered him with their guns as he stepped
+through the corral gate, he had not spoken.
+
+"Well, sir," said the spokesman, "have you anything to say before we
+proceed?"
+
+Patches shook his head, and wonderingly they saw that curious mocking
+smile on his lips.
+
+"I don't suppose that any remarks I might make would impress you
+gentlemen in the least," he said coolly. "It would be useless and unkind
+for me to detain you longer than is necessary."
+
+An involuntary murmur of admiration came from the circle. They were men
+who could appreciate such unflinching courage.
+
+In the short pause that followed, the Dean, riding as he had not ridden
+for years, was in their midst. Before they could check him the veteran
+cowman was beside Patches. With a quick motion he snatched the riata
+from the cowboy's neck. An instant more, and he had cut the rope that
+bound Patches' hands.
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Patches calmly.
+
+"Don't do that, Will," called Jim Reid peremptorily. "This is our
+business." In the same breath he shouted to his companions, "Take him
+again, boys," and started forward.
+
+"Stand where you are," roared the Dean, and as they looked upon the
+stern countenance of the man who was so respected and loved throughout
+all that country, not a man moved. Reid himself involuntarily halted at
+the command.
+
+"I'll do this and more, Jim Reid," said the Dean firmly, and there was
+that in his voice which, in the wild days of the past, had compelled
+many a man to fear and obey him. "It's my business enough that you can
+call this meetin' off right here. I'll be responsible for this man. You
+boys mean well, but you're a little mite too previous this trip."
+
+"We aim to put a stop to that thievin' Tailholt Mountain outfit, Will,"
+returned Reid, "an' we're goin' to do it right now."
+
+A murmur of agreement came from the group.
+
+The Dean did not give an inch. "You'll put a stop to nothin' this way;
+an' you'll sure start somethin' that'll be more than stealin' a few
+calves. The time for stringin' men up promiscuous like, on mere
+suspicion, is past in Arizona. I reckon there's more Cross-Triangle
+stock branded with the Tailholt Mountain iron than all the rest of you
+put together have lost, which sure entitles me to a front seat when it
+comes, to the show-down."
+
+"He's right, boys," said one of the older men.
+
+"You know I'm right, Tom," returned the Dean quickly. "You an' me have
+lived neighbors for pretty near thirty years, without ever a hard word
+passed between us, an' we've been through some mighty serious troubles
+together; an' you, too, George, an' Henry an' Bill. The rest of you boys
+I have known since you was little kids; an' me and your daddies worked
+an' fought side by side for decent livin' an' law-abidin' times before
+you was born. We did it 'cause we didn't want our children to go through
+with what we had to go through, or do some of the things that we had to
+do. An' now you're all thinkin' that you can cut me out of this. You
+think you can sneak out here before I'm out of my bed in the mornin',
+an' hang one of my own cowboys--as good a man as ever throwed a rope,
+too. Without sayin' a word to me, you come crawlin' right into my own
+corral, an' start to raisin' hell. I'm here to tell you that you can't
+do it. You can't do it because I won't let you."
+
+The men, with downcast eyes, sat on their horses, ashamed. Two or three
+muttered approval. Jim Reid said earnestly, "That's all right, Will. We
+knew how you would feel, an' we were just aimin' to save you any more
+trouble. Them Tailholt Mountain thieves have gone too far this time. We
+can't let you turn that man loose."
+
+"I ain't goin' to try to turn him loose," retorted the Dean.
+
+The men looked at each other.
+
+"What are you goin' to do, then?" asked the spokesman.
+
+"I'm goin' to make you turn him loose," came the startling answer. "You
+fellows took him; you've got to let him go."
+
+In spite of the grave situation several of the men grinned at the Dean's
+answer--it was so like him.
+
+"I'll bet a steer he does it, too," whispered one.
+
+The Dean turned to the man by his side. "Patches, tell these men all
+that you told me about this business."
+
+When the cowboy had told his story in detail, up to the point where Phil
+came upon the scene, the Dean interrupted him, "Now, get down there an'
+show us exactly how it happened after Phil rode on to you an' Yavapai
+Joe."
+
+Patches obeyed. As he was showing them where Phil stood when the shot
+was fired the Dean again interrupted with, "Wait a minute. Tom, you get
+down there an' stand just as Phil was standin'."
+
+The cattleman obeyed.
+
+When he had taken the position, the Dean continued, "Now, Patches,
+stand like you was when Phil was hit."
+
+Patches obeyed.
+
+"Now, then, where did that shot come from?" asked the Dean.
+
+Patches pointed.
+
+The Dean did not need to direct the next step in his demonstration.
+Three of the men were already off their horses, and moving around the
+bushes indicated by Patches.
+
+"Here's the tracks, all right," called one. "An' here," added another,
+from a few feet further away, "was where he left his horse."
+
+"An' now," continued the Dean, when the three men had come back from
+behind the bushes, and with Patches had remounted their horses, "I'll
+tell you somethin' else. I had a talk with Phil himself, an' the boy's
+story agrees with what Patches has just told you in every point. An',
+furthermore, Phil told me straight when I asked him that he didn't know
+himself who fired that shot."
+
+He paused for a moment for them to grasp the full import of his words.
+Then he summed up the case.
+
+"As the thing stands, we've got no evidence against anybody. It can't be
+proved that the calf wasn't Nick's property in the first place. It can't
+be proved that Nick was anywhere in the neighborhood. It can't be proved
+who fired that shot. It could have been Yavapai Joe, or anybody else,
+just as well as Nick. Phil himself, by bein' too quick to jump at
+conclusions, blocked this man's game, just when he was playin' the only
+hand that could have won out against Nick. If Phil hadn't 'a' happened
+on to Patches and Joe when he did, or if he had been a little slower
+about findin' a man guilty just because appearances were against him,
+we'd 'a' had the evidence from Yavapai Joe that we've been wantin', an'
+could 'a' called the turn on that Tailholt outfit proper. As it stands
+now, we're right where we was before. Now, what are you all goin' to do
+about it?"
+
+The men grinned shamefacedly, but were glad that the tragedy had been
+averted. They were by no means convinced that Patches was not guilty,
+but they were quick to see the possibilities of a mistake in the
+situation.
+
+"I reckon the Dean has adjourned the meetin', boys," said one.
+
+"Come on," called another. "Let's be ridin'."
+
+When the last man had disappeared in the timber, the Dean wiped the
+perspiration from his flushed face, and looked at Patches thoughtfully.
+Then that twinkle of approval came into the blue eyes, that a few
+moments before had been so cold and uncompromising.
+
+"Come, son," he said gently, "let's go to breakfast. Stella'll be
+wonderin' what's keepin' us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE SKY LINE.
+
+
+Before their late breakfast was over at the Cross-Triangle Ranch, Helen
+Manning came across the valley meadows to help with the work of the
+household. Jimmy brought her, but when she saw that she was really
+needed, and that Mrs. Baldwin would be glad of her help, she told Jimmy
+that she would stay for the day. Someone from the Cross-Triangle, the
+Dean said, would take her home when she was ready to go.
+
+The afternoon was nearly gone when Curly returned from the lower end of
+the valley with a woman who would relieve Mrs. Baldwin of the housework,
+and, as her presence was no longer needed, Helen told the Dean that she
+would return to the Reid home.
+
+"I'll just tell Patches to take you over in the buckboard," said the
+Dean. "It was mighty kind of you to give us a hand to-day; it's been a
+big help to Stella and Kitty."
+
+"Please don't bother about the buckboard, Mr. Baldwin. I would enjoy the
+walk so much. But I would be glad if Mr. Patches could go with me--I
+would really feel safer, you know," she smiled.
+
+Mrs. Baldwin was sleeping and Kitty was watching beside Phil, so the
+Dean himself went as far as the wash with Helen and Patches, as the two
+set out for their walk across the meadows. When Helen had said good-by
+to the Dean, with a promise to come again on the morrow, and he had
+turned back toward the house, she said to her companion, "Oh, Larry, I
+am so glad for this opportunity; I wanted to see you alone, and I
+couldn't think how it was to be managed. I have something to tell you,
+Larry, something that I _must_ tell you, and you must promise to be very
+patient with me."
+
+"You know what happened this morning, do you?" he asked gravely, for he
+thought from her words that she had, perhaps, chanced to hear of some
+further action to be taken by the suspicious cattlemen.
+
+"It was terrible--terrible, Larry. Why didn't you tell them who you are?
+Why did you let them--" she could not finish.
+
+He laughed shortly. "It would have been such a sinful waste of words.
+Can't you imagine me trying to make those men believe such a fairy
+story--under such circumstances?"
+
+For a little they walked in silence; then he asked, "Is it about Jim
+Reid's suspicion that you wanted to see me, Helen?"
+
+"No, Larry, it isn't. It's about Kitty," she answered.
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Kitty told me all about it, to-day," Helen continued. "The poor child
+is almost beside herself."
+
+The man did not speak. Helen looked up at him almost as a mother might
+have done.
+
+"Do you love her so very much, Larry? Tell me truly, do you?"
+
+Patches could not--dared not--look at her.
+
+"Tell me, Larry," she insisted gently. "I must know. Do you love Kitty
+as a man ought to love his wife?"
+
+The man answered in a voice that was low and shaking with emotion. "Why
+should you ask me such a question? You know the answer. What right have
+you to force me to tell you that which you already know--that I love
+you--another man's wife?"
+
+Helen's face went white. In her anxiety for Kitty she, had not foreseen
+this situation in which, by her question, she had placed herself.
+
+"Larry!" she said sharply.
+
+"Well," he retorted passionately, "you insisted that I tell you the
+truth."
+
+"I insisted that you tell me the truth about Kitty," she returned.
+
+"Well, you have it," he answered quickly.
+
+"Oh, Larry," she cried, "how could you--how could you ask a woman you do
+not love to be your wife? How could you do it, Larry? And just when I
+was so proud of you; so glad for you that you had found yourself; that
+you were such a splendid man!"
+
+"Kitty and I are the best of friends," he answered in a dull, spiritless
+tone, "the best of companions. In the past year I have grown very fond
+of her--we have much in common. I can give her the life she desires--the
+life she is fitted for. I will make her happy; I will be true to her; I
+will be to her everything that a man should be to his wife."
+
+"No, Larry," she said gently, touched by the hopelessness in his voice,
+for he had spoken as though he already knew that his attempt to justify
+his engagement to Kitty was vain. "No, Larry, you cannot be to Kitty
+everything that a man should be to his wife. You cannot, without love,
+be a husband to her."
+
+Again they walked in silence for a little way. Then Helen asked: "And
+are you sure, Larry, that Kitty cares for you--as a woman ought to care,
+I mean?"
+
+"I could not have asked her to be my wife if I had not thought so," he
+answered, with more spirit.
+
+"Of course," returned his companion gently, "and Kitty could not have
+answered, 'yes,' if she had not believed that you loved her."
+
+"Do you mean that you think Kitty does not care for me, Helen?"
+
+"I _know_ that she loves Phil Acton, Larry. I saw it in her face when we
+first learned that he was hurt. And to-day the poor girl confessed it.
+She loved him all the time, Larry--has loved him ever since they were
+boy and girl together. She has tried to deny her heart--she has tried to
+put other things above her love, but she knows now that she cannot. It
+is fortunate for you both that she realized her love for Mr. Acton
+before she had spoiled not only her own life but yours as well."
+
+"But, how could she promise to be my wife when she loved Phil?" he
+demanded.
+
+"But, how could you ask her when you--" Helen retorted quickly, without
+thinking of herself. Then she continued bravely, putting herself aside
+in her effort to make him understand. "You tempted her, Larry. You did
+not mean it so, perhaps, but you did. You tempted her with your
+wealth--with all that you could give her of material luxuries and ease
+and refinement. You tempted her to substitute those things for love. I
+know, Larry--I know, because you see, dear man, I was once tempted,
+too."
+
+He made a gesture of protest, but she went on, "You did not know, but I
+can tell you now that nothing but the memory of my dear father's
+teaching saved me from a terrible mistake. You are a man now, Larry. You
+are more to me than any man in the world, save one; and more than any
+man in the world, save that one, I respect and admire you for the
+manhood you have gained. But oh, Larry, Larry, don't you see? _'When a
+man's a man'_ there is one thing above all others that he cannot do. He
+cannot take advantage of a woman's weakness; he cannot tempt her beyond
+her strength; he must be strong both for himself and her; he must save
+her always from herself."
+
+The man lifted his head and looked away toward Granite Mountain. As once
+before this woman had aroused him to assert his manhood's strength, she
+called now to all that was finest and truest in the depth of his being.
+
+"You are always right, Helen," he said, almost reverently.
+
+"No, Larry," she answered quickly, "but you know that I am right in
+this."
+
+"I will free Kitty from her promise at once," he said, as though to end
+the matter.
+
+Helen answered quickly. "But that is exactly what you must not do."
+
+The man was bewildered. "Why, I thought--what in the world do you mean?"
+
+She laughed happily as she said, "Stupid Larry, don't you understand?
+You must make Kitty send you about your business. You must save her
+self-respect. Can't you see how ashamed and humiliated she would be if
+she imagined for a moment that you did not love her? Think what she
+would suffer if she knew that you had merely tried to buy her with your
+wealth and the things you possess!"
+
+She disregarded his protest.
+
+"That's exactly what your proposal meant, Larry. A girl like Kitty, if
+she knew the truth of what she had done, might even fancy herself
+unworthy to accept her happiness now that it has come. You must make her
+dismiss you, and all that you could give her. You must make her proud
+and happy to give herself to the man she loves."
+
+"But--what can I do?" he asked in desperation.
+
+"I don't know, Larry. But you must manage somehow--for Kitty's sake you
+_must_."
+
+"If only the Dean had not interrupted the proceedings this morning, how
+it would have simplified everything!" he mused, and she saw that as
+always he was laughing at himself.
+
+"Don't, Larry; please don't," she cried earnestly.
+
+He looked at her curiously. "Would you have me lie to her,
+Helen--deliberately lie?"
+
+She answered quietly. "I don't think that I would raise that question,
+if I were you, Larry--considering all the circumstances."
+
+On his way back to the Cross-Triangle, Patches walked as a man who,
+having determined upon a difficult and distasteful task, is of a mind to
+undertake it without delay.
+
+After supper that evening he managed to speak to Kitty when no one was
+near.
+
+"I must see you alone for a few minutes to-night," he whispered
+hurriedly. "As soon as possible. I will be under the trees near the bank
+of the wash. Come to me as soon as it is dark, and you can slip away."
+
+The young woman wondered at his manner. He was so hurried, and appeared
+so nervous and unlike himself.
+
+"But, Patches, I--"
+
+"You must!" he interrupted with a quick look toward the Dean, who was
+approaching them. "I have something to tell you--something that I must
+tell you to-night."
+
+He turned to speak to the Dean, and Kitty presently left them. An hour
+later, when the night had come, she found him waiting as he had said.
+
+"Listen, Kitty!" he began abruptly, and she thought from his manner and
+the tone of his voice that he was in a state of nervous fear. "I must
+go; I dare not stay here another day; I am going to-night."
+
+"Why, Patches," she said, forcing herself to speak quietly in order to
+calm him. "What is the matter?"
+
+"Matter?" he returned hurriedly. "You know what they tried to do to me
+this morning."
+
+Kitty was shocked. It was true that she did not--could not--care for
+this man as she loved Phil, but she had thought him her dearest friend,
+and she respected and admired him. It was not good to find him now like
+this--shaken and afraid. She could not understand. For the moment her
+own trouble was put aside by her honest concern for him.
+
+"But, Patches," she said earnestly, "that is all past now; it cannot
+happen again."
+
+"You do not know," he returned, "or you would not feel so sure. Phil
+might--" He checked himself as if he feared to finish the sentence.
+
+Kitty thought now that there must be more cause for his manner than she
+had guessed.
+
+"But you are not a cattle thief," she protested. "You have only to
+explain who you are; no one would for a moment believe that Lawrence
+Knight could be guilty of stealing; it's ridiculous on the face of it!"
+
+"You do not understand," he returned desperately. "There is more in this
+than stealing."
+
+Kitty started. "You don't mean, Patches--you can't mean--Phil--" she
+gasped.
+
+"Yes, I mean Phil," he whispered. "I--we were quarreling--I was angry.
+My God! girl, don't you see why I must go? I dare not stay. Listen,
+Kitty! It will be all right. Once I am out of this country and living
+under my own name I will be safe. Later you can come to me. You will
+come, won't you, dear? You know how I want you; this need make no change
+in our plans. If you love me you--"
+
+She stopped him with a low cry. "And you--it was you who did that?"
+
+"But I tell you we were quarreling, Kitty," he protested weakly.
+
+"And you think that I could go to you now?" She was trembling with
+indignation. "Oh, you are so mistaken. It seems that I was mistaken,
+too. I never dreamed that you--nothing--nothing, that you could ever do
+would make me forget what you have told me. You are right to go."
+
+"You mean that you will not come to me?" he faltered.
+
+"Could you really think that I would?" she retorted.
+
+"But, Kitty, you will let me go? You will not betray me? You will give
+me a chance?"
+
+"It is the only thing that I can do," she answered coldly. "I should die
+of shame, if it were ever known that I had thought of being more to you
+than I have been; but you must go to-night."
+
+And with this she left him, fairly running toward the house.
+
+Alone in the darkness, Honorable Patches smiled mockingly to himself.
+
+When morning came there was great excitement at the Cross-Triangle
+Ranch. Patches was missing. And more, the best horse in the Dean's
+outfit--the big bay with the blazed face, had also disappeared.
+
+Quickly the news spread throughout the valley, and to the distant
+ranches. And many were the wise heads that nodded understandingly; and
+many were the "I told you so's." The man who had appeared among them so
+mysteriously, and who, for a year, had been a never-failing topic of
+conversation, had finally established his character beyond all question.
+But the cattlemen felt with reason, because of the Dean's vigorous
+defense of the man when they would have administered justice, that the
+matter was now in his hands. They offered their services, and much
+advice; they quietly joked about the price of horses; but the Dean
+laughed at their jokes, listened to their advice, and said that he
+thought the sheriff of Yavapai County could be trusted to handle the
+case.
+
+To Helen only Kitty told of her last interview with Patches. And Helen,
+shocked and surprised at the thoroughness with which the man had brought
+about Kitty's freedom and peace of mind, bade the girl forget and be
+happy.
+
+When the crisis was passed, and Phil was out of danger, Kitty returned
+to her home, but every day she and Helen drove across the meadows to see
+how the patient was progressing. Then one day Helen said good-by to her
+Williamson Valley friends, and went with Stanford to the home he had
+prepared for her. And after that Kitty spent still more of her time at
+the house across the wash from the old Acton homestead.
+
+It was during those weeks of Phil's recovery, while he was slowly
+regaining his full measure of health and strength, that Kitty learned to
+know the cowboy in a way that she had never permitted herself to know
+him before. Little by little, as they sat together under the walnut
+trees, or walked slowly about the place, the young woman came to
+understand the mind of the man. As Phil shyly at first, then more
+freely, opened the doors of his inner self and talked to her as he had
+talked to Patches of the books he had read; of his observations and
+thoughts of nature, and of the great world movements and activities that
+by magazines and books and papers were brought to his hand, she learned
+to her surprise that even as he lived amid the scenes that called for
+the highest type of physical strength and courage, he lived an
+intellectual life that was as marked for its strength and manly vigor.
+
+But while they came thus daily into more intimate and closer
+companionship they spoke to no one of their love. Kitty, knowing how her
+father would look upon her engagement to the cowboy, put off the
+announcement from time to time, not wishing their happy companionship to
+be marred during those days of Phil's recovery.
+
+When he was strong enough to ride again, Kitty would come with Midnight,
+and together they would roam about the ranch and the country near by. So
+it happened that Sunday afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Reid, with the three
+boys, were making a neighborly call on the Baldwins, and Phil and Kitty
+were riding in the vicinity of the spot where Kitty had first met
+Patches.
+
+They were seated in the shade of a cedar on the ridge not far from the
+drift fence gate, when Phil saw three horsemen approaching from the
+further side of the fence. By the time the horsemen had reached the
+gate, Phil knew them to be Yavapai Joe, Nick Cambert and Honorable
+Patches. Kitty, too, had, by this time, recognized the riders, and with
+an exclamation started to rise to her feet.
+
+But Phil said quietly, "Wait, Kitty; there's something about that outfit
+that looks mighty queer to me."
+
+The men were riding in single file, with Yavapai Joe in the lead and
+Patches last, and their positions were not changed when they halted
+while Joe, without dismounting, unlatched the gate. They came through
+the opening, still in the same order, and as they halted again, while
+Patches closed the gate, Phil saw what it was that caused them to move
+with such apparent lack of freedom in their relative positions, and why
+Nick Cambert's attitude in the saddle was so stiff and unnatural. Nick's
+hands were secured behind his back, and his feet were tied under the
+horse from stirrup to stirrup, while his horse was controlled by a lead
+rope, one end of which was made fast to Yavapai Joe's saddle horn.
+
+Patches caught sight of the two under the tree as he came through the
+gate, but he gave no sign that he had noticed them. As the little
+procession moved slowly nearer, Phil and Kitty looked at each other
+without a word, but as they turned again to watch the approaching
+horsemen, Kitty impulsively grasped Phil's arm. And sitting so, in such
+unconscious intimacy, they must have made a pleasing picture; at least
+the man who rode behind Nick Cambert seemed to think so, for he was
+trying to smile.
+
+When the riders were almost within speaking distance of the pair under
+the tree, they stopped; and the watchers saw Joe turn his face toward
+Patches for a moment, then look in their direction. Nick Cambert did not
+raise his head. Patches came on toward them alone.
+
+As they saw that it was the man's purpose to speak to them, Phil and
+Kitty rose and stood waiting, Kitty with her hand still on her
+companion's arm. And now, as they were given a closer and less
+obstructed view of the man who had been their friend, Kitty and Phil
+again exchanged wondering glances. This was not the Honorable Patches
+whom they had known so intimately. The man's clothing was soiled with
+dirt, and old from rough usage, with here and there a ragged tear. His
+tall form drooped with weariness, and his unshaven face, dark and deeply
+tanned, and grimed with sweat and dirt, was thin and drawn and old, and
+his tired eyes, deep set in their dark hollows, were bloodshot as though
+from sleepless nights. His dry lips parted in a painful smile, as he
+dismounted stiffly and limped courteously forward to greet them.
+
+"I know that I am scarcely presentable," he said in a voice that was as
+worn and old as his face, "but I could not resist the temptation to say
+'Howdy'. Perhaps I should introduce myself though," he added, as if to
+save them from embarrassment. "My name is Lawrence Knight; I am a deputy
+sheriff of this county." A slight movement as he spoke threw back his
+unbuttoned jumper, and they saw the badge of his office. "In my official
+capacity I am taking a prisoner to Prescott."
+
+Phil recovered first, and caught the officer's hand in a grip that told
+more than words.
+
+Kitty nearly betrayed her secret when she gasped, "But you--you said
+that you--"
+
+With his ready skill he saved her, "That my name was Patches? I know it
+was wrong to deceive you as I did, and I regret that it was necessary
+for me to lie so deliberately, but the situation seemed to demand it.
+And I hoped that when you understood you would forgive the part I was
+forced to play for the good of everyone interested."
+
+Kitty understood the meaning in his words that was unknown to Phil, and
+her eyes expressed the gratitude that she could not speak.
+
+"By the way," Patches continued, "I am not mistaken in offering my
+congratulations and best wishes, am I?"
+
+They laughed happily.
+
+"We have made no announcement yet," Phil answered, "but you seem to know
+everything."
+
+"I feel like saying from the bottom of my heart 'God bless you, my
+children.' You make me feel strangely old," he returned, with a touch of
+his old wistfulness. Then he added in his droll way, "Perhaps, though,
+it's from living in the open and sleeping in my clothes so long. Talk
+about horses, I'd give my kingdom for a bath, a shave and a clean shirt.
+I had begun to think that our old friend Nick never would brand another
+calf; that he had reformed, just to get even with me, you know. By the
+way, Phil, you will be interested to know that Nick is the man who is
+really responsible for your happiness."
+
+"How?" demanded Phil.
+
+"Why, it was Nick who fired the shot that brought Kitty to her senses.
+My partner there, Yavapai Joe, saw him do it. If you people would like
+to thank my prisoner, I will permit it."
+
+When they had decided that they would deny themselves that pleasure,
+Patches said, "I don't blame you; he's a surly, ill-tempered beast,
+anyway. Which reminds me that I must be about my official business, and
+land him in Prescott to-night. I am going to stop at the ranch and ask
+the Dean for the team and buckboard, though," he added, as he climbed
+painfully into the saddle. "Adios! my children. Don't stay out too
+late."
+
+Hand in hand they watched him rejoin his companions and ride away behind
+the two Tailholt Mountain men.
+
+The Dean and Mrs. Baldwin, with their friends from the neighboring
+ranch, were enjoying their Sunday afternoon together as old friends
+will, when the three Reid boys and Little Billy came running from the
+corral where they had been holding an amateur bronco riding contest with
+a calf for the wild and wicked outlaw. As they ran toward the group
+under the walnut trees, the lads disturbed the peaceful conversation of
+their elders with wild shouts of "Patches has come back! Patches has
+come back! Nick Cambert is with him--so's Yavapai Joe!"
+
+Jim Reid sprang to his feet. But the Dean calmly kept his seat, and
+glancing up at his big friend with twinkling eyes, said to the boys,
+with pretended gruffness, "Aw, what's the matter with you kids? Don't
+you know that horse thief Patches wouldn't dare show himself in
+Williamson Valley again? You're havin' bad dreams--that's what's the
+matter with you. Or else you're tryin' to scare us."
+
+"Honest, it's Patches, Uncle Will," cried Littly Billy.
+
+"We seen him comin' from over beyond the corral," said Jimmy.
+
+"I saw him first," shouted Conny. "I was up in the grand stand--I mean
+on the fence."
+
+"Me, too," chirped Jack.
+
+Jim Reid stood looking toward the corral. "The boys are right, Will," he
+said in a low tone. "There they come now."
+
+As the three horsemen rode into the yard, and the watchers noted the
+peculiarity of their companionship, Jim Reid muttered something under
+his breath. But the Dean, as he rose leisurely to his feet, was smiling
+broadly.
+
+The little procession halted when the horses evidenced their dislike of
+the automobile, and Patches came stiffly forward on foot. Lifting his
+battered hat courteously to the company, he said to the Dean, "I have
+returned your horse, sir. I'm very much obliged to you. I think you will
+find him in fairly good condition."
+
+Jim Reid repeated whatever it was that he had muttered to himself.
+
+The Dean chuckled. "Jim," he said to the big cattleman, "I want to
+introduce my friend, Mr. Lawrence Knight, one of Sheriff Gordon's
+deputies. It looks like he had been busy over in the Tailholt Mountain
+neighborhood."
+
+The two men shook hands silently. Mrs. Reid greeted the officer
+cordially, while Mrs. Baldwin, to the Dean's great delight, demonstrated
+her welcome in the good old-fashioned mother way.
+
+"Will Baldwin, I could shake you," she cried, as Patches stood, a little
+confused by her impulsive greeting. "Here you knew all the time; and you
+kept pesterin' me by trying to make me believe that you thought he had
+run away because he was a thief!"
+
+It was, perhaps, the proudest moment of the Dean's life when he admitted
+that Patches had confided in him that morning when they were so late to
+breakfast. And how he had understood that the man's disappearance and
+the pretense of stealing a horse had been only a blind. The good Dean
+never dreamed that there was so much more in Honorable Patches' strategy
+than he knew!
+
+"Mr. Baldwin," said Patches presently, "could you let me have the team
+and buckboard? I want to get my prisoners to Prescott to-night, and"--he
+laughed shortly--"well, I certainly would appreciate those cushions."
+
+"Sure, son, you can have the whole Cross-Triangle outfit, if you want
+it," answered the Dean. "But hold on a minute." He turned with twinkling
+eyes to his neighbor. "Here's Jim with a perfectly good automobile that
+don't seem to be busy."
+
+The big man responded cordially. "Why, of course; I'll be glad to take
+you in."
+
+"Thank you," returned Patches. "I'll be ready in a minute."
+
+"But you're goin' to have something to eat first," cried Mrs. Baldwin.
+"I'll bet you're half starved; you sure look it."
+
+Patches shook his head. "Don't tempt me, mother; I can't stop now."
+
+"But you'll come back home to-night, won't you?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"I would like to," he said. "And may I bring a friend?"
+
+"Your friends are our friends, son," she answered.
+
+"Of course he's comin' back," said the Dean. "Where else would he go,
+I'd like to know?"
+
+They watched him as he went to his prisoner, and as, unlocking the
+handcuff that held Nick's right wrist, he re-locked it on his own left
+arm, thus linking his prisoner securely to himself. Then he spoke to
+Joe, and the young man, dismounting, unfastened the rope that bound
+Nick's feet. When Nick was on the ground the three came toward the
+machine.
+
+"I am afraid I must ask you to let someone take care of the horses,"
+called Patches to the Dean.
+
+"I'll look after them," the Dean returned. "Don't forget now that you're
+comin' back to-night; Jim will bring you."
+
+Jim Reid, as the three men reached the automobile, said to Patches,
+"Will you take both of your prisoners in the back seat with you, or
+shall I take one of them in front with me?"
+
+Patches looked the big man straight in the eyes, and they heard him
+answer with significant emphasis, as he placed his free hand on Yavapai
+Joe's shoulder, "I have only one prisoner, Mr. Reid. This man is my
+friend. He will take whatever seat he prefers."
+
+Yavapai Joe climbed into the rear seat with the officer and his
+prisoner.
+
+It was after dark when Mr. Reid returned to the ranch with Patches and
+Joe.
+
+"You will find your room all ready, son," said Mrs. Baldwin, "and
+there's plenty of hot water in the bathroom tank for you both. Joe can
+take the extra bed in Curly's room. You show him. I'll have your supper
+as soon as you are ready."
+
+Patches almost fell asleep at the table. As soon as they had finished he
+went to his bed, where he remained, as Phil reported at intervals during
+the next forenoon, "dead to the world," until dinner time. In the
+afternoon they gathered under the walnut trees--the Cross-Triangle
+household and the friends from the neighboring ranch--and Patches told
+them his story; how, when he had left the ranch that night, he had
+ridden straight to his old friend Stanford Manning; and how Stanford had
+gone with him to the sheriff, where, through Manning's influence,
+together with the letter which Patches had brought from the Dean, he had
+been made an officer of the law. As he told them briefly of his days and
+nights alone, they needed no minute details to understand what it had
+meant to him.
+
+"It wasn't the work of catching Nick in a way to ensure his conviction
+that I minded," he said, "but the trouble was, that while I was watching
+Nick day and night, and dodging him all the time, I was afraid some
+enthusiastic cow-puncher would run on to me and treat himself to a shot
+just for luck. Not that I would have minded that so much, either, after
+the first week," he added in his droll way, "but considering all the
+circumstances it would have been rather a poor sort of finish."
+
+"And what about Yavapai Joe?" asked Phil.
+
+Patches smiled. "Where is Joe? What's he been doing all day?"
+
+The Dean answered. "He's just been moseyin' around. I tried to get him
+to talk, but all he would say was that he'd rather let Mr. Knight tell
+it."
+
+"Billy," said Patches, "will you find Yavapai Joe, and tell him that I
+would like to see him here?"
+
+When Little Billy, with the assistance of Jimmy and Conny and Jack, had
+gone proudly on his mission, Patches said to the others, "Technically,
+of course, Joe is my prisoner until after the trial, but please don't
+let him feel it. He will be the principal witness for the state."
+
+When Yavapai Joe appeared, embarrassed and ashamed in their presence,
+Patches said, as courteously as he would have introduced an equal, "Joe,
+I want my friends to know your real name. There is no better place in
+the world than right here to start that job of man-making that we have
+talked about. You remember that I told you how I started here."
+
+Yavapai Joe lifted his head and stood straighter by his tall friend's
+side, and there was a new note in his voice as he answered, "Whatever
+you say goes, Mr. Knight."
+
+Patches smiled. "Friends, this is Mr. Joseph Parkhill, the only son of
+the distinguished Professor Parkhill, whom you all know so well."
+
+If Patches had planned to enjoy the surprise his words caused, he could
+not have been disappointed.
+
+Presently, when Joe had slipped away again, Patches told them how,
+because of his interest in the young man, and because of the lad's
+strange knowledge of Professor Parkhill, he had written east for the
+distinguished scholar's history.
+
+"The professor himself was not really so much to blame," said Patches.
+"It seems that he was born to an intellectual life. The poor fellow
+never had a chance. Even as a child he was exhibited as a prodigy--a
+shining example of the possibilities of the race, you know. His father,
+who was also a professor of some sort, died when he was a baby. His
+mother, unfortunately, possessed an income sufficient to make it
+unnecessary that Everard Charles should ever do a day's real work. At
+the age of twenty, he was graduated from college; at the age of
+twenty-one he was married to--or perhaps it would be more accurate to
+say--he was married _by_--his landlady's daughter. Quite likely the
+woman was ambitious to break into that higher life to which the
+professor aspired, and caught her cultured opportunity in an unguarded
+moment. The details are not clear. But when their only child, Joe, was
+six years old, the mother ran away with a carpenter who had been at work
+on the house for some six weeks. A maiden aunt of some fifty years, who
+was a worshiper of the professor's cult, came to keep his house and to
+train Joe in the way that good boys should go.
+
+"But the lad proved rather too great a burden, and when he was thirteen
+they sent him to a school out here in the West, ostensibly for the
+benefit of the climate. The boy, it was said, being of abnormal
+mentality, needed to pursue his studies under the most favorable
+physical conditions. The professor, unhampered by his offspring,
+continued to climb his aesthetic ladder to intellectual and cultured
+glory. The boy in due time escaped from the school, and was educated by
+the man Dryden and Nick Cambert."
+
+"And what will become of him now?" asked the Dean.
+
+Patches smiled. "Why, the lad is twenty-one now, and we have agreed that
+it is about time that he began to make a man of himself--I can help him
+a little, perhaps--I have been trying occasionally the past year. But
+you see the conditions have not been altogether favorable to the
+experiment. It should be easy from now on."
+
+During the time that intervened before the trial of the Tailholt
+Mountain man, Phil and Patches re-established that intimate friendship
+of those first months of their work together. Then came the evening when
+Phil went across the meadow to ask Jim Reid for his daughter.
+
+The big cattleman looked at his young neighbor with frowning
+disapproval.
+
+"It won't do, Phil," he said at last. "I'm Kitty's father, and it's up
+to me to look out for her interests. You know how I've educated her for
+something better than this life. She may think now that she is willin'
+to throw it all away, but I know better. The time would come when she
+would be miserable. It's got to be somethin' more than a common
+cow-puncher for Kitty, Phil, and that's the truth."
+
+The cowboy did not argue. "Do I understand that your only objection is
+based upon the business in which I am engaged?" he asked coolly.
+
+Jim laughed. "The _business_ in which you are engaged? Why, boy, you
+sound like a first national bank. If you had any business of your
+own--if you was the owner of an outfit, an' could give Kitty
+the--well--the things her education has taught her to need, it would be
+different. I know you're a fine man, all right, but you're only a poor
+cow-puncher just the same. I'm speakin' for your own good, Phil, as well
+as for Kitty's," he added, with an effort at kindliness.
+
+"Then, if I had a good business, it would be different?"
+
+"Yes, son, it would sure make all the difference in the world."
+
+"Thank you," said the cowboy quietly, as he handed Mr. Reid a very legal
+looking envelope. "I happen to be half owner of this ranch and outfit.
+With my own property, it makes a fairly good start for a man of my age.
+My partner, Mr. Lawrence Knight, leaves the active management wholly in
+my hands; and he has abundant capital to increase our holdings and
+enlarge our operations just as fast as we can handle the business."
+
+The big man looked from the papers to the lad, then back to the papers.
+Then a broad smile lighted his heavy face, as he said, "I give it
+up--you win. You young fellers are too swift for me. I've been wantin'
+to retire anyway." He raised his voice and called, "Kitty--oh, Kitty!"
+
+The girl appeared in the doorway.
+
+"Come and get him," said Reid. "I guess he's yours."
+
+Helen Manning was sitting on the front porch of that little cottage on
+the mountain side where she and Stanford began their years of
+home-building. A half mile below she could see the mining buildings that
+were grouped about the shaft in picturesque disorder. Above, the
+tree-clad ridge rose against the sky. It was too far from the great
+world of cities, some would have said, but Helen did not find it so.
+With her books and her music, and the great out-of-doors; and with the
+companionship of her mate and the dreams they dreamed together, her
+woman heart was never lonely.
+
+She lowered the book she was reading, and looked through the open window
+to the clock in the living-room. A little while, and she would go down
+the hill to Stanford, for they loved to walk home together. Then, before
+lifting the printed page again, she looked over the wide view of rugged
+mountain sides and towering peaks that every day held for her some new
+beauty. She had resumed her reading when the sound of horses' feet
+attracted her attention.
+
+Patches and Yavapai Joe were riding up the hill.
+
+They stopped at the gate, and while Joe held Stranger's bridle rein,
+Patches came to Helen as she stood on the porch waiting to receive him.
+
+"Surely you will stay for the night," she urged when they had exchanged
+greetings, and had talked for a little while.
+
+"No," he answered quietly. "I just came this way to say good-by; I
+stopped for a few minutes with Stan at the office. He said I would find
+you here."
+
+"But where are you going?" she asked.
+
+Smiling he waved his hand toward the mountain ridge above. "Just over
+the sky line, Helen."
+
+"But, Larry, you will come again? You won't let us lose you altogether?"
+
+"Perhaps--some day," he said.
+
+"And who is that with you?"
+
+"Just a friend who cares to go with me. Stan will tell you."
+
+"Oh, Larry, Larry! What a man you are!" she cried proudly, as he stood
+before her holding out his hand.
+
+"If you think so, Helen, I am glad," he answered, and turned away.
+
+So she watched him go. Sitting there at home, she watched him ride up
+the winding road. Now he was in full view on some rocky shoulder of the
+mountain--now some turn carried him behind a rocky point--again she
+glimpsed him through the trees--again he was lost to her in the shadows.
+At last, for a moment, he stood out boldly against the wide-arched
+sky--and then he had passed from sight--over the sky line, as he had
+said.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's When A Man's A Man, by Harold Bell Wright
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN'S A MAN ***
+
+***** This file should be named 14367.txt or 14367.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/6/14367/
+
+Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/14367.zip b/old/14367.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c7ecf69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14367.zip