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+Project Gutenberg's Her Prairie Knight, by B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
+
+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: Her Prairie Knight
+
+Author: B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
+
+Posting Date: October 10, 2008 [EBook #1908]
+Release Date: September, 1999
+Last Updated: March 9, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Starr
+
+
+
+
+
+HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT
+
+By B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     1. Stranded on the Prairie
+     2. Handsome Cowboy to the Rescue
+     3. Tilt With Sir Redmond
+     4. Beatrice Learns a New Language
+     5. The Search for Dorman
+     6. Mrs. Lansell's Lecture
+     7. Beatrice's Wild Ride
+     8. Dorman Plays Cupid
+     9. What It Meant to Keith
+     10. Pine Ridge Range Ablaze
+     11. Sir Redmond Waits His Answer
+     12. Held Up by Mr. Kelly
+     13. Keith's Masterful Wooing
+     14. Sir Redmond Gets His Answer
+
+
+
+
+
+HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1. Stranded on the Prairie.
+
+
+“By George, look behind us! I fancy we are going to have a storm.” Four
+heads turned as if governed by one brain; four pairs of eyes, of varied
+color and character, swept the wind-blown wilderness of tender green,
+and gazed questioningly at the high-piled thunderheads above. A
+small boy, with an abundance of yellow curls and white collar, almost
+precipitated himself into the prim lap of a lady on the rear seat.
+
+“Auntie, will God have fireworks? Say, auntie, will He? Can I say
+prayers widout kneelin' down'? Uncle Redmon' crowds so. I want to pray
+for fireworks, auntie. Can I?”
+
+“Do sit down, Dorman. You'll fall under the wheel, and then auntie would
+not have any dear little boy. Dorman, do you hear me? Redmond, do
+take that child down! How I wish Parks were here. I shall have nervous
+prostration within a fortnight.”
+
+Sir Redmond Hayes plucked at the white collar, and the small boy retired
+between two masculine forms of no mean proportions. His voice, however,
+rose higher.
+
+“You'll get all the fireworks you want, young man, without all that
+hullabaloo,” remarked the driver, whom Dorman had been told, at the
+depot twenty miles back, he must call his Uncle Richard.
+
+“I love storms,” came cheerfully from the rear seat--but the voice was
+not the prim voice of “auntie.” “Do you have thunder and lightning out
+here, Dick?”
+
+“We do,” assented Dick. “We don't ship it from the East in refrigerator
+cars, either. It grows wild.”
+
+The cheerful voice was heard to giggle.
+
+“Richard,” came in tired, reproachful accents from a third voice behind
+him, “you were reared in the East. I trust you have not formed the
+pernicious habit of speaking slightingly of your birthplace.”
+
+That, Dick knew, was his mother. She had not changed appreciably since
+she had nagged him through his teens. Not having seen her since, he was
+certainly in a position to judge.
+
+“Trix asked about the lightning,” he said placatingly, just as he was
+accustomed to do, during the nagging period. “I was telling her.”
+
+“Beatrice has a naturally inquiring mind,” said the tired voice, laying
+reproving stress upon the name.
+
+“Are you afraid of lightning, Sir Redmond?” asked the cheerful
+girl-voice.
+
+Sir Redmond twisted his neck to smile back at her. “No, so long as it
+doesn't actually chuck me over.”
+
+After that there was silence, so far as human voices went, for a time.
+
+“How much farther is it, Dick?” came presently from the girl.
+
+“Not more than ten--well, maybe twelve--miles. You'll think it's twenty,
+though, if the rain strikes 'Dobe Flat before we do. That's just what
+it's going to do, or I'm badly mistaken. Hawk! Get along, there!”
+
+“We haven't an umbrella with us,” complained the tired one. “Beatrice,
+where did you put my raglan?”
+
+“In the big wagon, mama, along with the trunks and guns and saddles, and
+Martha and Katherine and James.”
+
+“Dear me! I certainly told you, Beatrice--”
+
+“But, mama, you gave it to me the last thing, after the maids were in
+the wagon, and said you wouldn't wear it. There isn't room here for
+another thing. I feel like a slice of pressed chicken.”
+
+“Auntie, I want some p'essed chicken. I'm hungry, auntie! I want some
+chicken and a cookie--and I want some ice-cream.”
+
+“You won't get any,” said the young woman, with the tone of finality.
+“You can't eat me, Dorman, and I'm the only thing that looks good enough
+to eat.”
+
+“Beatrice!” This, of course, from her mother, whose life seemed
+principally made up of a succession of mental shocks, brought on by her
+youngest, dearest, and most irrepressible.
+
+“I have Dick's word for it, mama; he said so, at the depot.”
+
+“I want some chicken, auntie.”
+
+“There is no chicken, dear,” said the prim one. “You must be a patient
+little man.”
+
+“I won't. I'm hungry. Mens aren't patient when dey're hungry.” A small,
+red face rose, like a tiny harvest moon, between the broad, masculine
+backs on the front seat.
+
+“Dorman, sit down! Redmond!”
+
+A large, gloved hand appeared against the small moon and it set
+ignominiously and prematurely, in the place where it had risen. Sir
+Redmond further extinguished it with the lap robe, for the storm,
+whooping malicious joy, was upon them.
+
+First a blinding glare and a deafening crash. Then rain--sheets of it,
+that drenched where it struck. The women huddled together under the
+doubtful protection of the light robe and shivered. After that, wind
+that threatened to overturn the light spring wagon; then hail that
+bounced and hopped like tiny, white rubber balls upon the ground.
+
+The storm passed as suddenly as it came, but the effect remained. The
+road was sodden with the water which had fallen, and as they went down
+the hill to 'Dobe Flat the horses strained at the collar and plodded
+like a plow team. The wheels collected masses of adobe, which stuck like
+glue and packed the spaces between the spokes. Twice Dick got out and
+poked the heavy mess from the wheels with Sir Redmond's stick--which
+was not good for the stick, but which eased the drag upon the horses
+wonderfully--until the wheels accumulated another load.
+
+“Sorry to dirty your cane,” Dick apologized, after the second halt. “You
+can rinse it off, though, in the creek a few miles ahead.”
+
+“Don't mention it!” said Sir Redmond, somewhat dubiously. It was his
+favorite stick, and he had taken excellent care of it. It was finely
+polished, and it had his name and regiment engraved upon the silver
+knob--and a date which the Boers will not soon forget, nor the English,
+for that matter.
+
+“We'll soon be over the worst,” Dick told them, after a time. “When we
+climb that hill we'll have a hard, gravelly trail straight to the ranch.
+I'm sorry it had to storm; I wanted you to enjoy this trip.”
+
+“I am enjoying it,” Beatrice assured him. “It's something new, at any
+rate, and anything is better than the deadly monotony of Newport.”
+
+“Beatrice!” cried her mother “I'm ashamed of you!”
+
+“You needn't be, mama. Why won't you just be sorry for yourself, and
+let it end there? I know you hated to come, poor dear; but you wouldn't
+think of letting me come alone, though I'm sure I shouldn't have minded.
+This is going to be a delicious summer--I feel it in my bones.”
+
+“Be-atrice!”
+
+“Why, mama? Aren't young ladies supposed to have bones?”
+
+“Young ladies are not supposed to make use of unrefined expressions.
+Your poor sister.”
+
+“There, mama. Dear Dolly didn't live upon stilts, I'm sure. Even when
+she married.”
+
+“Be-atrice!”
+
+“Dear me, mama! I hope you are not growing peevish. Peevish elderly
+people--”
+
+“Auntie! I want to go home!” the small boy wailed.
+
+“You cannot go home now, dear,” sighed his guardian angel. “Look at the
+pretty--” She hesitated, groping vaguely for some object to which she
+might conscientiously apply the adjective.
+
+“Mud,” suggested Beatrice promptly “Look at the wheels, Dorman; they're
+playing patty-cake. See, now they say, 'Roll 'em, and roll 'em,' and
+now, 'Toss in the oven to bake!' And now--”
+
+“Auntie, I want to get out an' play patty-cake, like de wheels. I want
+to awf'lly!”
+
+“Beatrice, why did you put that into his head?” her mother demanded,
+fretfully.
+
+“Never mind, honey,” called Beatrice cheeringly. “You and I will make
+hundreds of mud pies when we get to Uncle Dick's ranch. Just think, hon,
+oodles of beautiful, yellow mud just beside the door!”
+
+“Look here, Trix! Seems to me you're promising a whole lot you can't
+make good. I don't live in a 'dobe patch.”
+
+“Hush, Dick; don't spoil everything. You don't know Dorman.'
+
+“Beatrice! What must Miss Hayes and Sir Redmond think of you? I'm sure
+Dorman is a sweet child, the image of poor, dear Dorothea, at his age.”
+
+“We all think Dorman bears a strong resemblance to his father,” said his
+Aunt Mary.
+
+Beatrice, scenting trouble, hurried to change the subject. “What's this,
+Dick--the Missouri River?”
+
+“Hardly. This is the water that didn't fall in the buggy. It isn't deep;
+it makes bad going worse, that's all.”
+
+Thinking to expedite matters, he struck Hawk sharply across the flank.
+It was a foolish thing to do, and Dick knew it when he did it; ten
+seconds later he knew it better.
+
+Hawk reared, tired as he was, and lunged viciously.
+
+The double-trees snapped and splintered; there was a brief interval
+of plunging, a shower of muddy water in that vicinity, and then two
+draggled, disgusted brown horses splashed indignantly to shore and took
+to the hills with straps flying.
+
+“By George!” ejaculated Sir Redmond, gazing helplessly after them. “But
+this is a beastly bit of luck, don't you know!”
+
+“Oh, you Hawk--” Dick, in consideration of his companions, finished the
+remark in the recesses of his troubled soul, where the ladies could not
+overhear.
+
+“What comes next, Dick?” The voice of Beatrice was frankly curious.
+
+“Next, I'll have to wade out and take after those--” This sentence,
+also, was rounded out mentally.
+
+“In the meantime, what shall we do?”
+
+“You'll stay where you are--and thank the good Lord you were not
+upset. I'm sorry,”--turning so that he could look deprecatingly at Miss
+Hayes--“your welcome to the West has been so--er--strenuous. I'll try
+and make it up to you, once you get to the ranch. I hope you won't let
+this give you a dislike of the country.”
+
+“Oh, no,” said the spinster politely. “I'm sure it is a--a very nice
+country, Mr. Lansell.”
+
+“Well, there's nothing to be done sitting here.” Dick climbed down over
+the dashboard into the mud and water.
+
+Sir Redmond was not the man to shirk duty because it happened to be
+disagreeable, as the regiment whose name was engraved upon his cane
+could testify. He glanced regretfully at his immaculate leggings and
+followed.
+
+“I fancy you ladies won't need any bodyguard,” he said. Looking back, he
+caught the light of approval shining in the eyes of Beatrice, and after
+that he did not mind the mud, but waded to shore and joined in the
+chase quite contentedly. The light of approval, shining in the eyes of
+Beatrice, meant much to Sir Redmond.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2. A Handsome Cowboy to the Rescue.
+
+
+Beatrice took immediate possession of the front seat, that she might
+comfort her heartbroken young nephew.
+
+“Never mind, honey. They'll bring the horses back in a minute, and we'll
+make them run every step. And when you get to Uncle Dick's ranch you'll
+see the nicest things--bossy calves, and chickens, and, maybe, some
+little pigs with curly tails.”
+
+All this, though alluring, failed of its purpose; the small boy
+continued to weep, and his weeping was ear-splitting.
+
+“Be still, Dorman, or you'll certainly scare all the coyotes to death.”
+
+“Where are dey?”
+
+“Oh, all around. You keep watch, hon, and maybe you'll see one put the
+tip of his nose over a hill.”
+
+“What hill?” Dorman skipped a sob, and scoured his eyes industriously
+with both fists.
+
+“M-m--that hill. That little one over there. Watch close, or you'll miss
+him.”
+
+The dove of peace hovered over them, and seemed actually about to
+alight. Beatrice leaned back with a relieved breath.
+
+“It is good of you, my dear, to take so much trouble,” sighed his Aunt
+Mary. “How I am to manage without Parks I'm sure I cannot tell.”
+
+“You are tired, and you miss your tea.” soothed Beatrice, optimistic as
+to tone. “When we all have a good rest we will be all right. Dorman will
+find plenty to amuse him. We are none of us exactly comfortable now.”
+
+“Comfortable!” sniffed her mother. “I am half dead. Richard wrote such
+glowing letters home that I was misled. If I had dreamed of the true
+conditions, Miss Hayes, I should never have sanctioned this wild idea of
+Beatrice's to come out and spend the summer with Richard.”
+
+“It's coming, Be'trice! There it is! Will it bite, auntie? Say, will it
+bite?”
+
+Beatrice looked. A horseman came over the hill and was galloping down
+the long slope toward them. His elbows were lifted contrary to the
+mandates of the riding-school, his long legs were encased in something
+brown and fringed down the sides. His gray hat was tilted rakishly up
+at the back and down in front, and a handkerchief was knotted loosely
+around his throat. Even at that distance he struck her as different from
+any one she had ever seen.
+
+“It's a highwayman!” whispered Mrs. Lansell “Hide your purse, my dear!”
+
+“I--I--where?” Miss Hayes was all a-flutter with fear.
+
+“Drop it down beside the wheel, into the water. Quick! I shall drop my
+watch.”
+
+“He--he is coming on this side! He can see!” Her whisper was full of
+entreaty and despair.
+
+“Give them here. He can't see on both sides of the buggy at once.” Mrs.
+Lansell, being an American--a Yankee at that--was a woman of resource.
+
+“Beatrice, hand me your watch quick!”
+
+Beatrice paid no attention, and there was no time to insist upon
+obedience. The horseman had slowed at the water's edge, and was
+regarding them with some curiosity. Possibly he was not accustomed to
+such a sight as the one that met his eyes. He came splashing toward
+them, however, as though he intended to investigate the cause of their
+presence, alone upon the prairie, in a vehicle which had no horses
+attached in the place obviously intended for such attachment. When he
+was close upon them he stopped and lifted the rakishly tilted gray hat.
+
+“You seem to be in trouble. Is there anything I can do for you?” His
+manner was grave and respectful, but his eyes, Beatrice observed, were
+having a quiet laugh of their own.
+
+“You can't get auntie's watch, nor gran'mama's. Gran'mama frowed 'em all
+down in the mud. She frowed her money down in the mud, too,” announced
+Dorman, with much complacency. “Be'trice says you is a coyote. Is you?”
+
+There was a stunned interval, during which nothing was heard but the
+wind whispering things to the grass. The man's eyes stopped laughing;
+his jaw set squarely; also, his brows drew perceptibly closer together.
+It was Mrs. Lansell's opinion that he looked murderous.
+
+Then Beatrice put her head down upon the little, blue velvet cap of
+Dorman and laughed. There was a rollicking note in her laughter that was
+irresistible, and the eyes of the man relented and joined in her mirth.
+His lips forgot they were angry and insulted, and uncovered some very
+nice teeth.
+
+“We aren't really crazy,” Beatrice told him, sitting up straight and
+drying her eyes daintily with her handkerchief. “We were on our way to
+Mr. Lansell's ranch, and the horses broke something and ran away, and
+Dick--Mr. Lansell--has gone to catch them. We're waiting until he does.”
+
+“I see.” From the look in his eyes one might guess that what he saw
+pleased him. “Which direction did they take?”
+
+Beatrice waved a gloved hand vaguely to the left, and, without another
+word, the fellow touched his hat, turned and waded to shore and galloped
+over the ridge she indicated; and the clucketycluck of his horse's hoofs
+came sharply across to them until he dipped out of sight.
+
+“You see, he wasn't a robber,” Beatrice remarked, staring after him
+speculatively. “How well he rides! One can see at a glance that he
+almost lives in the saddle. I wonder who he is.”
+
+“For all you know, Beatrice, he may be going now to murder Richard and
+Sir Redmond in cold blood. He looks perfectly hardened.”
+
+“Oh, do you think it possible?” cried Miss Hayes, much alarmed.
+
+“No!” cried Beatrice hotly. “One who did not know your horror of
+novels, mama, might suspect you of feeding your imagination upon 'penny
+dreadfuls.' I'm sure he is only a cowboy, and won't harm anybody.”
+
+“Cowboys are as bad as highwaymen,” contended her mother, “or worse. I
+have read how they shoot men for a pastime, and without even the excuse
+of robbery.”
+
+“Is it possible?” quavered Miss Hayes faintly.
+
+“No, it isn't!” Beatrice assured her indignantly.
+
+“He has the look of a criminal,” declared Mrs. Lansell, in the positive
+tone of one who speaks from intimate knowledge of the subject under
+discussion. “I only hope he isn't going to murder--”
+
+“They're coming back, mama,” interrupted Beatrice, who had been watching
+closely the hilltop. “No, it's that man, and he is driving the horses.”
+
+“He's chasing them,” corrected her mother testily. “A horse thief, no
+doubt. He's going to catch them with his snare--”
+
+“Lasso, mama.”
+
+“Well, lasso. Where can Richard be? To think the fellow should be
+so bold! But out here, with miles upon miles of open, and no police
+protection anything is possible. We might all be murdered, and no one
+be the wiser for days--perhaps weeks. There, he has caught them.” She
+leaned back and clasped her hands, ready to meet with fortitude whatever
+fate might have in store.
+
+“He's bringing them out to us, mama. Can't you see the man is only
+trying to help us?”
+
+Mrs. Lansell, beginning herself to suspect him of honest intentions,
+sniffed dissentingly and let it go at that. The fellow was certainly
+leading the horses toward them, and Sir Redmond and Dick, appearing over
+the hill just then, proved beyond doubt that neither had been murdered
+in cold blood, or in any other unpleasant manner.
+
+“We're all right now, mother,” Dick called, the minute he was near
+enough.
+
+His mother remarked skeptically that she hoped possibly she had been in
+too great haste to conceal her valuables--that Miss Hayes might not feel
+grateful for her presence of mind, and was probably wondering if mud
+baths were not injurious to fine, jeweled time-pieces. Mrs. Lansell
+was uncomfortable, mentally and physically, and her manner was frankly
+chilly when her son presented the stranger as his good friend and
+neighbor, Keith Cameron. She was still privately convinced that he
+looked a criminal--though, if pressed, she must surely have admitted
+that he was an uncommonly good-looking young outlaw. It would seem
+almost as if she regarded his being a decent, law-abiding citizen as
+pure effrontery.
+
+Miss Hayes greeted him with a smile of apprehension which plainly amused
+him. Beatrice was frankly impersonal in her attitude; he represented a
+new species of the genus man, and she, too, evidently regarded him in
+the light of a strange animal, viewed unexpectedly at close range.
+
+While he was helping Dick mend the double-tree with a piece of rope, she
+studied him curiously. He was tall--taller even than Sir Redmond, and
+more slender. Sir Redmond had the straight, sturdy look of the soldier
+who had borne the brunt of hard marches and desperate fighting; Mr.
+Cameron, the lithe, unconscious grace and alertness of the man whose
+work demands quick movement and quicker eye and brain. His face was
+tanned to a clear bronze which showed the blood darkly beneath; Sir
+Redmond's year of peace had gone far toward lightening his complexion.
+Beatrice glanced briefly at him and admired his healthy color, and was
+glad he did not have the look of an Indian. At the same time, she caught
+herself wishing that Sir Redmond's eyes were hazel, fringed with very
+long, dark lashes and topped with very straight, dark brows--eyes which
+seemed always to have some secret cause for mirth, and to laugh quite
+independent of the rest of the face. Still, Sir Redmond had very nice
+eyes--blue, and kind, and steadfast, and altogether dependable--and his
+lashes were quite nice enough for any one. In just four seconds Beatrice
+decided that, after all, she did not like hazel eyes that twinkle
+continually; they make one feel that one is being laughed at, which is
+not comfortable. In six seconds she was quite sure that this Mr. Cameron
+thought himself handsome, and Beatrice detested a man who was proud of
+his face or his figure; such a man always tempted her to “make faces,”
+ as she used to do over the back fence when she was little.
+
+She mentally accused him of trying to show off his skill with his rope
+when he leaned and fastened it to the rig, rode out ahead and helped
+drag the vehicle to shore; and it was with some resentment that she
+observed the ease with which he did it, and how horse and rope seemed to
+know instinctively their master's will, and to obey of their own accord.
+
+In all that he had done--and it really seemed as if he did everything
+that needed to be done, while Dick pottered around in the way--he had
+not found it necessary to descend into the mud and water, to the ruin of
+his picturesque, fringed chaps and high-heeled boots. He had worked at
+ease, carelessly leaning from his leathern throne upon the big, roan
+horse he addressed occasionally as Redcloud. Beatrice wondered where he
+got the outlandish name. But, with all his imperfections, she was glad
+she had met him. He really was handsome, whether he knew it or not; and
+if he had a good opinion of himself, and overrated his actions--all the
+more fun for herself! Beatrice, I regret to say, was not above amusing
+herself with handsome young men who overrate their own charms; in fact,
+she had the reputation among her women acquaintances of being a most
+outrageous flirt.
+
+In the very middle of these trouble-breeding meditations, Mr. Cameron
+looked up unexpectedly and met keenly her eyes; and for some reason--let
+us hope because of a guilty conscience--Beatrice grew hot and confused;
+an unusual experience, surely, for a girl who had been out three
+seasons, and has met calmly the eyes of many young men. Until now it had
+been the young men who grew hot and confused; it had never been herself.
+
+Beatrice turned her shoulder toward him, and looked at Sir Redmond, who
+was surreptitiously fishing for certain articles beside the rear wheel,
+at the whispered behest of Mrs. Lansell, and was certainly a sight to
+behold. He was mud to his knees and to his elbows, and he had managed to
+plaster his hat against the wheel and to dirty his face. Altogether, he
+looked an abnormally large child who has been having a beautiful day of
+it in somebody's duck-pond; but Beatrice was nearer, at that moment,
+to loving him than she had been at any time during her six weeks'
+acquaintance with him--and that is saying much, for she had liked him
+from the start.
+
+Mr. Cameron followed her glance, and his eyes did not have the laugh all
+to themselves; his voice joined them, and Beatrice turned upon him and
+frowned. It was not kind of him to laugh at a man who is proving his
+heart to be much larger than his vanity; Beatrice was aware of Sir
+Redmond's immaculateness of attire on most occasions.
+
+“Well,” said Dick, gathering up the reins, “you've helped us out of a
+bad scrape, Keith. Come over and take dinner with us to-morrow night.
+I expect we'll be kept riding the rim-rocks, over at the Pool, this
+summer. Unless this sister of mine has changed a lot, she won't rest
+till she's been over every foot of country for forty miles around. It
+will just about keep our strings rode down to a whisper keeping her in
+sight.”
+
+“Dear me, Richard!” said his mother. “What Jargon is this you speak?”
+
+“That's good old Montana English, mother. You'll learn it yourself
+before you leave here. I've clean forgot how they used the English
+language at Yale, haven't you, Keith?”
+
+“Just about,” Keith agreed. “I'm afraid we'll shock the ladies terribly,
+Dick. We ought to get out on a pinnacle with a good grammar and
+practice.”
+
+“Well, maybe. We'll look for you to-morrow, sure. I want you to help map
+out a circle or two for Trix. About next week she'll want to get out and
+scour the range.”
+
+“Dear me, Richard! Beatrice is not a charwoman!” This, you will
+understand, was from his mother; perhaps you will also understand that
+she spoke with the rising inflection which conveys a reproof.
+
+When Keith Cameron left them he was laughing quietly to himself, and
+Beatrice's chin was set rather more than usual.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3. A Tilt With Sir Redmond.
+
+
+Beatrice, standing on the top of a steep, grassy slope, was engaged in
+the conventional pastime of enjoying the view. It was a fine view, but
+it was not half as good to look upon as was Beatrice herself, in her
+fresh white waist and brown skirt, with her brown hair fluffing softly
+in the breeze which would grow to a respectable wind later in the day,
+and with her cheeks pink from climbing.
+
+She was up where she could see the river, a broad band of blue in the
+surrounding green, winding away for miles through the hills. The far
+bank stood a straight two hundred feet of gay-colored rock, chiseled, by
+time and stress of changeful weather, into fanciful turrets and towers.
+Above and beyond, where the green began, hundreds of moving dots told
+where the cattle were feeding quietly. Far away to the south, heaps of
+hazy blue and purple slept in the sunshine; Dick had told her those
+were the Highwoods. And away to the west, a jagged line of blue-white
+glimmered and stood upon tip-toes to touch the swimming clouds--touched
+them and pushed above proudly; those were the Rockies. The Bear Paws
+stood behind her; nearer they were--so near they lost the glamour of
+mysterious blue shadows, and became merely a sprawling group of huge,
+pine-covered hills, with ranches dotted here and there in sheltered
+places, with squares of fresh, dark green that spoke of growing crops.
+
+Ten days, and the metropolitan East had faded and become as hazy and
+vague as the Highwoods. Ten days, and the witchery of the West leaped in
+her blood and held her fast in its thralldom.
+
+A sound of scrambling behind her was immediately followed by a smothered
+epithet. Beatrice turned in time to see Sir Redmond pick himself up.
+
+“These grass slopes are confounded slippery, don't you know,” he
+explained apologetically. “How did you manage that climb?”
+
+“I didn't.” Beatrice smiled. “I came around the end, where the ascent is
+gradual; there's a good path.”
+
+“Oh!” Sir Redmond sat down upon a rock and puffed. “I saw you up
+here--and a fellow doesn't think about taking a roundabout course to
+reach his heart's--”
+
+“Isn't it lovely?” Beatrice made haste to inquire.
+
+“Lovely isn't half expressive enough,” he told her. “You look--”
+
+“The river is so very blue and dignified. I've been wondering if it has
+forgotten how it must have danced through those hills, away off there.
+When it gets down to the cities--this blue water--it will be muddy and
+nasty looking. The 'muddy Missouri' certainly doesn't apply here. And
+that farther shore is simply magnificent. I wish I might stay here
+forever.”
+
+“The Lord forbid!” cried he, with considerable fervor. “There's a dear
+nook in old England where I hope--”
+
+“You did get that mud off your leggings, I see,” Beatrice remarked
+inconsequentially. “James must have worked half the time we've been
+here. They certainly were in a mess the last time I saw them.”
+
+“Bother the leggings! But I take it that's a good sign, Miss
+Lansell--your taking notice of such things.”
+
+Beatrice returned to the landscape. “I wonder who originated that
+phrase, 'The cattle grazing on a thousand hills'? He must have stood
+just here when he said it.”
+
+“Wasn't it one of your American poets? Longfellow, or--er--”
+
+Beatrice simply looked at him a minute and said “Pshaw!”
+
+“Well,” he retorted, “you don't know yourself who it was.”
+
+“And to think,” Beatrice went on, ignoring the subject, “some of those
+grazing cows and bossy calves are mine--my very own. I never cared
+before, or thought much about it, till I came out and saw where they
+live, and Dick pointed to a cow and the sweetest little red and white
+calf, and said: 'That's your cow and calf, Trix.' They were dreadfully
+afraid of me, though--I'm afraid they didn't recognize me as their
+mistress. I wanted to get down and pet the calf--it had the dearest
+little snub nose but they bolted, and wouldn't let me near them.”
+
+“I fancy they were not accustomed to meeting angels unawares.”
+
+“Sir Redmond, I wish you wouldn't. You are so much nicer when you're not
+trying to be nice.”
+
+“I'll act a perfect brute,” he offered eagerly, “if that will make you
+love me.”
+
+“It's hardly worth trying. I think you would make a very poor sort of
+villain, Sir Redmond. You wouldn't even be picturesque.”
+
+Sir Redmond looked rather floored. He was a good fighter, was Sir
+Redmond, but he was clumsy at repartee--or, perhaps, he was too much in
+earnest to fence gracefully. Just now he looked particularly foolish.
+
+“Don't you think my brand is pretty? You know what it is, don't you?”
+
+“I'm afraid not,” he owned. “I fancy I need a good bit of coaching in
+the matter of brands.”
+
+“Yes,” agreed Beatrice, “I fancy you do. My brand is a Triangle
+Bar--like this.” With a sharp pointed bit of rock she drew a more or
+less exact diagram in the yellow soil. “There are ever so many different
+brands belonging to the Northern Pool; Dick pointed them out to me, but
+I can't remember them. But whenever you see a Triangle Bar you'll be
+looking at my individual property. I think it was nice of Dick to give
+me a brand all my own. Mr. Cameron has a pretty brand, too--a Maltese
+Cross. The Maltese Cross was owned at one time by President Roosevelt.
+Mr. Cameron bought it when he left college and went into the cattle
+business. He 'plays a lone hand,' as he calls it; but his cattle range
+with the Northern Pool, and he and Dick work together a great deal. I
+think he has lovely eyes, don't you?” The eyes of Beatrice were intent
+upon the Bear Paws when she said it--which brought her shoulder toward
+Sir Redmond and hid her face from him.
+
+“I can't say I ever observed Mr. Cameron's eyes,” said Sir Redmond
+stiffly.
+
+Beatrice turned back to him, and smiled demurely. When Beatrice smiled
+that very demure smile, of which she was capable, the weather-wise
+generally edged toward their cyclone-cellars. Sir Redmond was not
+weather-wise--he was too much in love with her--and he did not possess a
+cyclone cellar; he therefore suffered much at the hands of Beatrice.
+
+“But surely you must have noticed that deep, deep dimple in his chin?”
+ she questioned innocently. Keith Cameron, I may say, did not have a
+dimple in his chin at all; there was, however, a deep crease in it.
+
+“I did not.” Sir Redmond rubbed his own chin, which was so far from
+dimpling that is was rounded like half an apricot.
+
+“Dear me! And you sat opposite to him at dinner yesterday, too! I
+suppose, then, you did not observe that his teeth are the whitest,
+evenest.”
+
+“They make them cheaply over here, I'm told,” he retorted, setting his
+heel emphatically down and annihilating a red and black caterpillar.
+
+“Now, why did you do that? I must say you English are rather brutal?”
+
+“I can't abide worms.”
+
+“Well, neither can I. And I think it would be foolish to quarrel about a
+man's good looks,” Beatrice said, with surprising sweetness.
+
+Sir Redmond hunched his shoulders and retreated to the comfort of
+his pipe. “A bally lot of good looks!” he sneered. “A woman is never
+convinced, though.”
+
+“I am.” Beatrice sat down upon a rock and rested her elbows on her knees
+and her chin in her hands--and an adorable picture she made, I assure
+you. “I'm thoroughly convinced of several things. One is Mr. Cameron's
+good looks; another is that you're cross.”
+
+“Oh, come, now!” protested Sir Redmond feebly, and sucked furiously at
+his pipe.
+
+“Yes,” reiterated Beatrice, examining his perturbed face judicially;
+“you are downright ugly.”
+
+The face of Sir Redmond grew redder and more perturbed; just as Beatrice
+meant that it should; she seemed to derive a keen pleasure from goading
+this big, good-looking Englishman to the verge of apoplexy.
+
+“I'm sure I never meant to be rude; but a fellow can't fall down and
+worship every young farmer, don't you know--not even to please you!”
+
+Beatrice smiled and threw a pebble down the slope, watching it bound and
+skip to the bottom, where it rolled away and hid in the grass.
+
+“I love this wide country,” she observed, abandoning her torture with
+a suddenness that was a characteristic of her nature. When Beatrice had
+made a man look and act the fool she was ready to stop; one cannot say
+that of every woman. “One can draw long, deep breaths without robbing
+one's neighbor of oxygen. Everything is so big, and broad, and generous,
+out here. One can ride for miles and miles through the grandest, wildest
+places,--and--there aren't any cigar and baking-powder and liver-pill
+signs plastered over the rocks, thank goodness! If man has traveled that
+way before, you do not have the evidence of his passing staring you
+in the face. You can make believe it is all your own--by right of
+discovery. I'm afraid your England would seem rather little and crowded
+after a month or two of this.” She swept her hand toward the river, and
+the grass-land beyond, and the mountains rimming the world.
+
+“You should see the moors!” cried Sir Redmond, brightening under this
+peaceful mood of hers. “I fancy you would not find trouble in drawing
+long breaths there. Moor Cottage, where your sister and Wiltmar lived,
+is surrounded by wide stretches of open--not like this, to be sure, but
+not half-bad in its way, either.”
+
+“Dolly grew to love that place, though she did write homesick letters at
+first. I was going over, after my coming out--and then came that awful
+accident, when she and Wiltmar were both drowned--and, of course, there
+was nothing to go for. I should have hated the place then, I think. But
+I should like--” Her voice trailed off dreamily, her eyes on the hazy
+Highwoods.
+
+Sir Redmond watched her, his eyes a-shine; Beatrice in this mood was
+something to worship. He was almost afraid to speak, for fear she would
+snuff out the tiny flame of hope which her half-finished sentence had
+kindled. He leaned forward, his face eager.
+
+“Beatrice, only say you will go--with me, dear!”
+
+Beatrice started; for the moment she had forgotten him. Her eyes kept to
+the hills. “Go--to England? One trip at a time, Sir Redmond. I have
+been here only ten days, and we came for three months. Three months of
+freedom in this big, glorious place.”
+
+“And then?” His voice was husky.
+
+“And then--freckle lotions by the quart, I expect.”
+
+Sir Redmond got upon his feet, and he was rather white around the mouth.
+
+“We Englishmen are a stubborn lot, Miss Beatrice. We won't stop fighting
+until we win.”
+
+“We Yankees,” retorted she airily, “value our freedom above everything
+else. We won't surrender it without fighting for it first.”
+
+He caught eagerly at the lack of finality in her tones. “I don't want to
+take your freedom, Beatrice. I only want the right to love you.”
+
+“Oh, as for that, I suppose you may love me as much as you please--only
+so you don't torment me to death talking about it.”
+
+Beatrice, not looking particularly tormented, waved answer to Dick, who
+was shouting something up at her, and went blithely down the hill, with
+Sir Redmond following gloomily, several paces behind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4. Beatrice Learns a New Language.
+
+
+“D'you want to see the boys work a bunch of cattle, Trix?” Dick said
+to her, when she came down to where he was leaning against a high board
+fence, waiting for her.
+
+“'Deed I do, Dicky--only I've no idea what you mean.”
+
+“The boys are going to cut out some cattle we've contracted to the
+government--for the Indians, you know. They're holding the bunch over in
+Dry Coulee; it's only three or four miles. I've got to go over and see
+the foreman, and I thought maybe you'd like to go along.”
+
+“There's nothing I can think of that I would like better. Won't it be
+fine, Sir Redmond?”
+
+Sir Redmond did not say whether he thought it would be fine or not. He
+still had the white streak around his mouth, and he went through the
+gate and on to the house without a word--which was undoubtedly a
+rude thing to do. Sir Redmond was not often rude. Dick watched him
+speculatively until he was beyond hearing them. Then, “What have you
+done to milord, Trix?” he wanted to know.
+
+“Nothing,” said Beatrice.
+
+“Well,” Dick said, with decision, “he looks to me like a man that has
+been turned down--hard. I can tell by the back of his neck.”
+
+This struck Beatrice, and she began to study the retreating neck of
+her suitor. “I can't see any difference,” she announced, after a brief
+scrutiny.
+
+“It's rather sunburned and thick.”
+
+“I'll gamble his mind is a jumble of good English oaths--with maybe a
+sprinkling of Boer maledictions. What did you do?”
+
+“Nothing--unless, perhaps, he objects to being disciplined a bit. But I
+also object to being badgered into matrimony--even with Sir Redmond.”
+
+“Even with Sir Redmond!” Dick whistled. “He's 'It,' then, is he?”
+
+Beatrice had nothing to say. She walked beside Dick and looked at the
+ground before her.
+
+“He doesn't seem a bad sort, sis, and the title will be nice to have
+in the family, if one cares for such things. Mother does. She was
+disappointed, I take it, that Wiltmar was a younger son.”
+
+“Yes, she was. She used to think that Sir Redmond might get killed down
+there fighting the Boers, and then Wiltmar would be next in line. But he
+didn't, and it was Wiltmar who went first. And now oh, it's humiliating,
+Dick! To be thrown at a man's head--” Tears were not far from her voice
+just then.
+
+“I can see she wants you to nab the title. Well, sis, if you don't care
+for the man--”
+
+“I never said I didn't care for him. But I just can't treat him
+decently, with mama dinning that title in my ears day and night. I wish
+there wasn't any title. Oh, it's abominable! Things have come to that
+point where an American girl with money is not supposed to care for
+an Englishman, no matter how nice he may be, if he has a title, or the
+prospect of one. Every one laughs and thinks it's the title she wants;
+they'd think it of me, and they'd say it. They would say Beatrice
+Lansell took her half-million and bought her a lord. And, after a while,
+perhaps Sir Redmond himself would half-believe it--and I couldn't bear
+that! And so I am--unbearably flippant and--I should think he'd hate
+me!”
+
+“So you reversed the natural order of things, and refused him on account
+of the title?” Dick grinned surreptitiously.
+
+“No, I didn't--not quite. I'm afraid he's dreadfully angry with me,
+though. I do wish he wasn't such a dear.”
+
+“You're the same old Trix. You've got to be held back from the trail
+you're supposed to take, or you won't travel it; you'll bolt the other
+way. If everybody got together and fought the notion, you would probably
+elope with milord inside a week. Mother means well, but she isn't on to
+her job a little bit. She ought to turn up her nose at the title.”
+
+“No fear of that! I've had it before my eyes till I hate the very
+thought of it. I--I wish I could hate him.” Beatrice sighed deeply, and
+gave her hand to Dorman, who scurried up to her.
+
+“I'll have the horses saddled right away,” said Dick, and left them.
+
+“Where you going, Be'trice? You going to ride a horse? I want to,
+awf'lly.”
+
+“I'm afraid you can't, honey; it's too far.” Beatrice pushed a yellow
+curl away from his eyes with tender, womanly solicitude.
+
+“Auntie won't care, 'cause I'm a bother. Auntie says she's goin' to send
+for Parks. I don't want Parks; 'sides, Parks is sick. I want a pony, and
+some ledder towsers wis fringes down 'em, and I want some little wheels
+on my feet. Mr. Cam'ron says I do need some little wheels, Be'trice.”
+
+“Did he, honey?”
+
+“Yes, he did. I like Mr. Cam'ron, Be'trice; he let me ride his big, high
+pony. He's a berry good pony. He shaked hands wis me, Be'trice--he truly
+did.”
+
+“Did he, hon?” Beatrice, I am sorry to say, was not listening. She
+was wondering if Sir Redmond was really angry with her--too angry, for
+instance, to go over where the cattle were. He really ought to go, for
+he had come West in the interest of the Eastern stockholders in the
+Northern Pool, to investigate the actual details of the work. He surely
+would not miss this opportunity, Beatrice thought. And she hoped he was
+not angry.
+
+“Yes, he truly did. Mr. Cam'ron interduced us, Be'trice. He said,
+'Redcloud, dis is Master Dorman Hayes. Shake hands wis my frien'
+Dorman.' And he put up his front hand, Be'trice, and nod his head, and
+I shaked his hand. I dess love that big, high pony, Be'trice. Can I buy
+him, Be'trice?”
+
+“Maybe, kiddie.”
+
+“Can I buy him wis my six shiny pennies, Be'trice?”
+
+“Maybe.”
+
+“Mr. Cam'ron lives right over that hill, Be'trice. He told me.”
+
+“Did he, hon?”
+
+“Yes, he did. He 'vited me over, Be'trice. He's my friend, and I've got
+to buy my big, high pony. I'll let you shake hands wis him, Be'trice.
+I'll interduce him to you. And I'll let you ride on his back, Be'trice.
+Do you want to ride on his back?”
+
+“Yes, honey.”
+
+Before Beatrice had time to commit herself they reached the house, and
+she let go Dorman's hand and hurried away to get into her riding-habit.
+
+Dorman straightway went to find his six precious, shiny pennies, which
+Beatrice had painstakingly scoured with silver polish one day to please
+the little tyrant, and which increased their value many times--so many
+times, in fact, that he hid them every night in fear of burglars. Since
+he concealed them each time in a different place, he was obliged to
+ransack his auntie's room every morning, to the great disturbance of
+Martha, the maid, who was an order-loving person.
+
+Martha appeared just when he had triumphantly pounced upon his treasure
+rolled up in the strings of his aunt's chiffon opera-bonnet.
+
+“Mercy upon us, Master Dorman! Whatever have you been doing?”
+
+“I want my shiny pennies,” said the young gentleman, composedly
+unwinding the roll, “to buy my big, high pony.”
+
+“Naughty, naughty boy, to muss my lady's fine bonnet like that! Look at
+things scattered over the floor, and my lady's fine handkerchiefs and
+gloves--” Martha stopped and meditated whether she might dare to shake
+him.
+
+Dorman was laboriously counting his wealth, with much wrinkling of
+stubby nose and lifting of eyebrows. Having satisfied himself that they
+were really all there, he deigned to look around, with a fine masculine
+disdain of woman's finery.
+
+“Oh, dose old things!” he sniffed. “I always fordet where I put my shiny
+pennies. Robbers might find them if I put them easy places. I'm going to
+buy my big, high pony, and you can't shake his hand a bit, Martha.”
+
+“Well, I'm sure I don't want to!” Martha snapped back at him, and went
+down on all fours to gather up the things he had thrown down. “Whatever
+Parks was thinking of, to go and get fever, when she was the only one
+that could manage you, I don't know! And me picking up after you till
+I'm fair sick!”
+
+“I'm glad you is sick,” he retorted unfeelingly, and backed to the door.
+“I hopes you get sicker so your stummit makes you hurt. You can't ride
+on my big, high pony.”
+
+“Get along with you and your high pony!” cried the exasperated Martha,
+threatening with a hairbrush. Dorman, his six shiny pennies held fast in
+his damp little fist, fled down the stairs and out into the sunlight.
+
+Dick and Beatrice were just ready to ride away from the porch. “I want
+to go wis you, Uncle Dick.” Dorman had followed the lead of Beatrice,
+his divinity; he refused to say Richard, though grandmama did object to
+nicknames.
+
+“Up you go, son. You'll be a cow-puncher yourself one of these days.
+I'll not let him fall, and this horse is gentle.” This last to satisfy
+Dorman's aunt, who wavered between anxiety and relief.
+
+“You may ride to the gate, Dorman, and then you'll have to hop down
+and run back to your auntie and grandma. We're going too far for you
+to-day.” Dick gave him the reins to hold, and let the horse walk to
+prolong the joy of it.
+
+Dorman held to the horn with one hand, to the reins with the other, and
+let his small body swing forward and back with the motion of the horse,
+in exaggerated imitation of his friend, Mr. Cameron. At the gate he
+allowed himself to be set down without protest, smiled importantly
+through the bars, and thrust his arm through as far as it would reach,
+that he might wave good-by. And his divinity smiled back at him, and
+threw him a kiss, which pleased him mightily.
+
+“You must have hurt milord's feelings pretty bad,” Dick remarked. “I
+couldn't get him to come. He had to write a letter first, he said.”
+
+“I wish, Dick,” Beatrice answered, a bit petulantly, “you would stop
+calling him milord.”
+
+“Milord's a good name,” Dick contended. “It's bad enough to 'Sir' him to
+his face; I can't do it behind his back, Trix. We're not used to fancy
+titles out here, and they don't fit the country, anyhow. I'm like
+you--I'd think a lot more of him if he was just a plain, everyday
+American, so I could get acquainted enough to call him 'Red Hayes.' I'd
+like him a whole lot better.”
+
+Beatrice was in no mood for an argument--on that subject, at least.
+She let Rex out and raced over the prairie at a gait which would have
+greatly shocked her mother, who could not understand why Beatrice was
+not content to drive sedately about in the carriage with the rest of
+them.
+
+When they reached the round-up Keith Cameron left the bunch and rode out
+to meet them, and Dick promptly shuffled responsibility for his sister's
+entertainment to the square shoulders of his neighbor.
+
+“Trix wants to wise up on the cattle business, Keith. I'll just turn her
+over to you for a-while, and let you answer her questions; I can't, half
+the time. I want to look through the bunch a little.”
+
+Keith's face spoke gratitude, and spoke it plainly. The face of Beatrice
+was frankly inattentive. She was watching the restless, moving mass of
+red backs and glistening horns, with horsemen weaving in and out among
+them in what looked to her a perfectly aimless fashion--until one would
+wheel and dart out into the open, always with a fleeing animal lumbering
+before. Other horsemen would meet him and take up the chase, and he
+would turn and ride leisurely back into the haze and confusion. It was
+like a kaleidoscope, for the scene shifted constantly and was never
+quite the same.
+
+Keith, secure in her absorption, slid sidewise in the saddle and studied
+her face, knowing all the while that he was simply storing up trouble
+for himself. But it is not given a man to flee human nature, and the
+fellow who could sit calmly beside Beatrice and not stare at her if
+the opportunity offered must certainly have the blood of a fish in his
+veins. I will tell you why.
+
+Beatrice was tall, and she was slim, and round, and tempting, with the
+most tantalizing curves ever built to torment a man. Her hair was soft
+and brown, and it waved up from the nape of her neck without those
+short, straggling locks and thin growth at the edge which mar so many
+feminine heads; and the sharp contrast of shimmery brown against ivory
+white was simply irresistible. Had her face been less full of charm,
+Keith might have been content to gaze and gaze at that lovely hair line.
+As it was, his eyes wandered to her brows, also distinctly marked, as
+though outlined first with a pencil in the fingers of an artist who
+understood. And there were her lashes, dark and long, and curled up at
+the ends; and her cheek, with its changing, come-and-go coloring; her
+mouth, with its upper lip creased deeply in the middle--so deeply that a
+bit more would have been a defect--and with an odd little dimple at one
+corner; luckily, it was on the side toward him, so that he might look
+at it all he wanted to for once; for it was always there, only growing
+deeper and wickeder when she spoke or laughed. He could not see her
+eyes, for they were turned away, but he knew quite well the color; he
+had settled that point when he looked up from coiling his rope the day
+she came. They were big, baffling, blue-brown eyes, the like of which he
+had never seen before in his life--and he had thought he had seen
+every color and every shade under the sun. Thinking of them and their
+wonderful deeps and shadows, he got hungry for a sight of them. And
+suddenly she turned to ask a question, and found him staring at her, and
+surprised a look in his eyes he did not know was there.
+
+For ten pulse-beats they stared, and the cheeks of Beatrice grew red as
+healthy young blood could paint them; Keith's were the same, only that
+his blood showed darkly through the tan. What question had been on her
+tongue she forgot to ask. Indeed, for the time, I think she forgot
+the whole English language, and every other--but the strange, wordless
+language of Keith's clear eyes.
+
+And then it was gone, and Keith was looking away, and chewing a
+corner of his lip till it hurt. His horse backed restlessly from the
+tight-gripped rein, and Keith was guilty of kicking him with his spur,
+which did not better matters. Redcloud snorted and shook his outraged
+head, and Keith came to himself and eased the rein, and spoke
+remorseful, soothing words that somehow clung long in the memory of
+Beatrice.
+
+Just after that Dick galloped up, his elbows flapping like the wings of
+a frightened hen.
+
+“Well, I suppose you could run a cow outfit all by yourself, with the
+knowledge you've got from Keith,” he greeted, and two people became even
+more embarrassed than before. If Dick noticed anything, he must have
+been a wise young man, for he gave no sign.
+
+But Beatrice had not queened it in her set, three seasons, for nothing,
+even if she was capable of being confused by a sweet, new language in a
+man's eyes. She answered Dick quietly.
+
+“I've been so busy watching it all that I haven't had time to ask many
+questions, as Mr. Cameron can testify. It's like a game, and it's very
+fascinating--and dusty. I wonder if I might ride in among them, Dick?”
+
+“Better not, sis. It isn't as much fun as it looks, and you can see more
+out here. There comes milord; he must have changed his mind about the
+letter.”
+
+Beatrice did not look around. To see her, you would swear she had set
+herself the task of making an accurate count of noses in that seething
+mass of raw beef below her. After a minute she ventured to glance
+furtively at Keith, and, finding his eyes turned her way, blushed again
+and called herself an idiot. After that, she straightened in the saddle,
+and became the self-poised Miss Lansell, of New York.
+
+Keith rode away to the far side of the herd, out of temptation; queer
+a man never runs from a woman until it is too late to be a particle of
+use. Keith simply changed his point of view, and watched his Heart's
+Desire from afar.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5. The Search for Dorman.
+
+
+“Oh, I say,” began Sir Redmond, an hour after, when he happened to stand
+close to Beatrice for a few minutes, “where is Dorman? I fancied you
+brought him along.”
+
+“We didn't,” Beatrice told him. “He only rode as far as the gate, where
+Dick left him, and started him back to the house.”
+
+“Mary told me he came along. She and your mother were congratulating
+each other upon a quiet half-day, with you and Dorman off the place
+together. I'll wager their felicitations fell rather flat.”
+
+Beatrice laughed. “Very likely. I know they were mourning because their
+lace-making had been neglected lately. What with that trip to Lost
+Canyon to-morrow, and to the mountains Friday, I'm afraid the lace will
+continue to suffer. What do you think of a round-up, Sir Redmond?”
+
+“It's deuced nasty,” said he. “Such a lot of dust and noise. I fancy the
+workmen don't find it pleasant.”
+
+“Yes, they do; they like it,” she declared. “Dick says a cowboy is never
+satisfied off the range. And you mustn't call them workmen, Sir Redmond.
+They'd resent it, if they knew. They're cowboys, and proud of it. They
+seem rather a pleasant lot of fellows, on the whole. I have been talking
+to one or two.”
+
+“Well, we're all through here,” Dick announced, riding up. “I'm going
+to ride around by Keith's place, to see a horse I'm thinking of buying.
+Want to go along, Trix? Or are you tired?”
+
+“I'm never tired,” averred his sister, readjusting a hat-pin and
+gathering up her reins. “I always want to go everywhere that you'll take
+me, Dick. Consider that point settled for the summer. Are you coming,
+Sir Redmond?”
+
+“I think not, thank you,” he said, not quite risen above his rebuff of
+the morning. “I told Mary I would be back for lunch.”
+
+“I was wiser; I refused even to venture an opinion as to when I should
+be back. Well, 'so-long'!”
+
+“You're learning the lingo pretty fast, Trix,” Dick chuckled, when they
+were well away from Sir Redmond. “Milord almost fell out of the saddle
+when you fired that at him. Where did you pick it up?”
+
+“I've heard you say it a dozen times since I came. And I don't care if
+he is shocked--I wanted him to be. He needn't be such a perfect bear;
+and I know mama and Miss Hayes don't expect him to lunch, without us. He
+just did it to be spiteful.”
+
+“Jerusalem, Trix! A little while ago you said he was a dear! You
+shouldn't snub him, if you want him to be nice to you.”
+
+“I don't want him to be nice,” flared Beatrice. “I don't care how
+he acts. Only, I must say, ill humor doesn't become him. Not that it
+matters, however.”
+
+“Well, I guess we can get along without him, if he won't honor us with
+his company. Here comes Keith. Brace up, sis, and be pleasant.”
+
+Beatrice glanced casually at the galloping figure of Dick's neighbor,
+and frowned.
+
+“You mustn't flirt with Keith,” Dick admonished gravely. “He's a good
+fellow, and as square a man as I know; but you ought to know he's got
+the reputation of being a hard man to know. Lots of girls have tried
+to flirt and make a fool of him, and wound up with their feelings hurt
+worse than his were.”
+
+“Is that a dare?” Beatrice threw up her chin with a motion Dick knew of
+old.
+
+“Not on your life! You better leave him alone; one or the other of you
+would get the worst of it, and I'd hate to see either of you feeling
+bad. As I said before, he's a bad man to fool with.”
+
+“I don't consider him particularly dangerous--or interesting. He's not
+half as nice as Sir Redmond.” Beatrice spoke as though she meant what
+she said, and Dick had no chance to argue the point, for Keith pulled up
+beside them at that moment.
+
+Beatrice seemed inclined to silence, and paid more attention to the
+landscape than she did to the conversation, which was mostly about range
+conditions, and the scanty water supply, and the drought.
+
+She was politely interested in Keith's ranch, and if she clung
+persistently to her society manner, why, her society manner was very
+pleasing, if somewhat unsatisfying to a fellow fairly drunk with her
+winsomeness. Keith showed her where she might look straight up the
+coulee to her brother's ranch, two miles away, and when she wished
+she might see what they were doing up there, he went in and got his
+field-glass. She thanked him prettily, and impersonally, and focused the
+glass upon Dick's house--which gave Keith another chance to look at her
+without being caught in the act.
+
+“How plain everything is! I can see mama, out on the porch, and Miss
+Hayes.” She could also see Sir Redmond, who had just ridden up, and was
+talking to the ladies, but she did not think it necessary to mention
+him, for some reason; she kept her eyes to the glass, however, and
+appeared much absorbed. Dick rolled himself a cigarette and watched the
+two, and there was a twinkle in his eyes.
+
+“I wonder--Dick, I do think--I'm afraid--” Beatrice hadn't her society
+manner now; she was her unaffected, girlish self; and she was growing
+excited.
+
+“What's the matter?” Dick got up, and came and stood at her elbow.
+
+“They're acting queerly. The maids are running about, and the cook is
+out, waving a large spoon, and mama has her arm around Miss Hayes, and
+Sir Redmond.”
+
+“Let's see.” Dick took the glass and raised it to his eyes for a minute.
+“That's right,” he said. “They're making medicine over something. See
+what you make of it, Keith.”
+
+Keith took the glass and looked through it. It was like a moving
+picture; one could see, but one wanted the interpretation of sound.
+
+“We'd better ride over,” he said quietly. “Don't worry, Miss Lansell;
+it probably isn't anything serious. We can take the short cut up the
+coulee, and find out.” He put the glass into its leathern case and
+started to the gate, where the horses were standing. He did not tell
+Beatrice that Miss Hayes had just been carried into the house in
+a faint, or that her mother was behaving in an undignified fashion
+strongly suggesting hysterics. But Dick knew, from the look on his face,
+that it was serious. He hurried before them with long strides, leaving
+Beatrice, for the second time that morning, to the care of his neighbor.
+
+So it was Keith who held his hand down for the delicious pressure of
+her foot, and arranged her habit with painstaking care, considering the
+hurry they were in. Dick was in the saddle, and gone, before Keith had
+finished, and Keith was not a slow young man, as a rule. They ran the
+two miles without a break, except twice, where there were gates to
+close. Dick, speeding a furlong before, had obligingly left them open;
+and a stockman is hard pressed indeed--or very drunk--when he fails to
+close his gates behind him. It is an unwritten law which becomes second
+nature.
+
+Almost within sound of the place, Dick raced back and met them, and his
+face was white.
+
+“It's Dorman!” he cried. “He's lost. They haven't seen him since we
+left. You know, Trix, he was standing at the gate.”
+
+Beatrice went white as Dick; whiter, for she was untanned. An
+overwhelming sense of blame squeezed her heart tight. Keith, seeing her
+shoulders droop limply, reined close, to catch her in his arms if there
+was the slightest excuse. However, Beatrice was a healthy young woman,
+with splendid command of her nerves, and she had no intention of
+fainting. The sickening weakness passed in a moment.
+
+“It's my fault,” she said, speaking rapidly, her eyes seeking Dick's for
+comfort. “I said 'yes' to everything he asked me, because I was thinking
+of something else, and not paying attention. He was going to buy your
+horse, Mr. Cameron, and now he's lost!”
+
+This, though effective, was not particularly illuminating. Dick wanted
+details, and he got them--for Beatrice, having remorse to stir the dregs
+of memory, repeated nearly everything Dorman had said, even telling
+how the big, high pony put up his front hand, and he shaked it, and how
+Dorman truly needed some little wheels on his feet.
+
+“Poor little devil,” Keith muttered, with wet eyes.
+
+“He--he said you lived over there,” Beatrice finished, pointing, as
+Dorman had pointed--which was not toward the “Cross” ranch at all, but
+straight toward the river.
+
+Keith wheeled Redcloud; there was no need to hear more. He took the hill
+at a pace which would have killed any horse but one bred to race over
+this rough country. Near the top, the forced breathing of another horse
+at his heels made him look behind. It was Beatrice following, her eyes
+like black stars. I do not know if Keith was astonished, but I do know
+that he was pleased.
+
+“Where's Dick?” was all he said then.
+
+“Dick's going to meet the men--the cowboys. Sir Redmond went after them,
+when they found Dorman wasn't anywhere about the place.”
+
+Keith nodded understandingly, and slowed to let her come alongside.
+
+“It's no use riding in bunches,” he remarked, after a little. “On circle
+we always go in pairs. We'll find him, all right.”
+
+“We must,” said Beatrice, simply, and shaded her eyes with her hand. For
+they had reached the top, and the prairie land lay all about them and
+below, lazily asleep in the sunshine.
+
+Keith halted and reached for his glass. “It's lucky I brought it along,”
+ he said. “I wasn't thinking, at the time; I just slung it over my
+shoulder from habit.”
+
+“It's a good habit, I think,” she answered, trying to smile; but her
+lips would only quiver, for the thought of her blame tortured her. “Can
+you see--anything?” she ventured wistfully.
+
+Keith shook his head, and continued his search. “There are so many
+little washouts and coulees, down there, you know. That's the trouble
+with a glass--it looks only on a level. But we'll find him. Don't you
+worry about that. He couldn't go far.”
+
+“There isn't any real danger, is there?”
+
+“Oh, no,” Keith said. “Except--” He bit his lip angrily.
+
+“Except what?” she demanded. “I'm not silly, Mr. Cameron--tell me.”
+
+Keith took the glass from his eyes, looked at her, and paid her the
+compliment of deciding to tell her, just as if she were a man.
+
+“Nothing, only--he might run across a snake,” he said. “Rattlers.”
+
+Beatrice drew her breath hard, but she was plucky. Keith thought he
+had never seen a pluckier girl, and the West can rightfully boast brave
+women.
+
+She touched Rex with the whip. “Come,” she commanded. “We must not stand
+here. It has been more than three hours.”
+
+Keith put away the glass, and shot ahead to guide her.
+
+“We must have missed him, somewhere.” The eyes of Beatrice were heavy
+with the weariness born of anxiety and suspense. They stood at the very
+edge of the steep bluff which rimmed the river. “You don't think he
+could have--” Her eyes, shuddering down at the mocking, blue-gray
+ripples, finished the thought.
+
+“He couldn't have got this far,” said Keith. “His legs would give out,
+climbing up and down. We'll go back by a little different way, and
+look.”
+
+“There's something moving, off there.” Beatrice pointed with her whip.
+
+“That's a coyote,” Keith told her; and then, seeing the look on her
+face: “They won't hurt any one. They're the rankest cowards on the
+range.”
+
+“But the snakes--”
+
+“Oh, well, he might wander around for a week, and not run across one. We
+won't borrow trouble, anyway.”
+
+“No,” she agreed languidly. The sun was hot, and she had not had
+anything to eat since early breakfast, and the river mocked her parched
+throat with its cool glimmer below. She looked down at it wistfully,
+and Keith, watchful of every passing change in her face, led her back
+to where a cold, little spring crept from beneath a rock; there, lifting
+her down, he taught her how to drink from her hand.
+
+For himself, he threw himself down, pushed back his hat, and drank
+long and leisurely. A brown lock of hair, clinging softly together with
+moisture, fell from his forehead and trailed in the clear water, and
+Beatrice felt oddly tempted to push it back where it belonged. Standing
+quietly watching his picturesque figure, she forgot, for the moment,
+that a little boy was lost among these peaceful, sunbathed hills; she
+remembered only the man at her feet, drinking long, satisfying drafts,
+while the lock of hair floated in the spring.
+
+“Now we'll go on.” He stood up and pushed back the wet lock, which
+trickled a tiny stream down his cheek, and settled his gray hat in
+place.
+
+Again that day he felt her foot in his palm, and the touch went over him
+in thrills. She was tired, he knew; her foot pressed heavier than it had
+before. He would have liked to take her in his arms and lift her
+bodily into the saddle, but he hardly dared think of such a blissful
+proceeding.
+
+He set the pace slower, however, and avoided the steepest places, and he
+halted often on the higher ground, to scan sharply the coulees. And so
+they searched, these two, together, and grew to know each other better
+than in a month of casual meetings. And the grass nodded, and the winds
+laughed, and the stern hills looked on, quizzically silent. If they knew
+aught of a small boy with a wealth of yellow curls and white collar,
+they gave no sign, and the two rode on, always seeking hopefully.
+
+A snake buzzed sharply on a gravelly slope, and Keith, sending Beatrice
+back a safe distance, took down his rope and gave battle, beating the
+sinister, gray-spotted coil with the loop until it straightened and
+was still. He dismounted then, and pinched off the rattles--nine,
+there were, and a “button”--and gave them to Beatrice, who handled them
+gingerly, and begged Keith to carry them for her. He slipped them into
+his pocket, and they went on, saying little.
+
+Back near the ranch they met Dick and Sir Redmond. They exchanged sharp
+looks, and Dick shook his head.
+
+“We haven't found him--yet. The boys are riding circle around the ranch;
+they're bound to find him, some of them, if we don't.”
+
+“You had better go home,” Sir Redmond told her, with a note of authority
+in his voice which set Keith's teeth on edge. “You look done to death;
+this is men's work.”
+
+Beatrice bit her lip, and barely glanced at him. “I'll go--when Dorman
+is found. What shall we do now, Dick?”
+
+“Go down to the house and get some hot coffee, you two. We all snatched
+a bite to eat, and you need it. After that, you can look along the south
+side of the coulee, if you like.”
+
+Beatrice obediently turned Rex toward home, and Keith followed. The
+ranch seemed very still and lonesome. Some chickens were rolling in the
+dust by the gate, and scattered, cackling indignantly, when they rode
+up. Off to the left a colt whinnied wistfully in a corral. Beatrice,
+riding listlessly to the house, stopped her horse with a jerk.
+
+“I heard--where is he?”
+
+Keith stopped Redcloud, and listened. Came a thumping noise, and a wail,
+not loud, but unmistakable.
+
+“Aunt-ie!”
+
+Beatrice was on the ground as soon as Keith, and together they ran to
+the place--the bunk-house. The thumping continued vigorously; evidently
+a small boy was kicking, with all his might, upon a closed door; it was
+not a new sound to the ears of Beatrice, since the arrival in America
+of her young nephew. Keith flung the door wide open, upsetting the small
+boy, who howled.
+
+Beatrice swooped down upon him and gathered him so close she came near
+choking him. “You darling. Oh, Dorman!”
+
+Dorman squirmed away from her. “I los' one shiny penny, Be'trice--and I
+couldn't open de door. Help me find my shiny penny.”
+
+Keith picked him up and set him upon one square shoulder. “We'll take
+you up to your auntie, first thing, young man.”
+
+“I want my one shiny penny. I want it!” Dorman showed symptoms of
+howling again.
+
+“We'll come back and find it. Your auntie wants you now, and grandmama.”
+
+Beatrice, following after, was treated to a rather unusual spectacle;
+that of a tall, sun-browned fellow, with fringed chaps and brightly
+gleaming spurs, racing down the path; upon his shoulder, the wriggling
+form of an extremely disreputable small boy, with cobwebs in his curls,
+and his once white collar a dirty rag streaming out behind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6. Mrs. Lansell's Lecture.
+
+
+When the excitement had somewhat abated, and Miss Hayes was convinced
+that her idol was really there, safe, and with his usual healthy
+appetite, and when a messenger had been started out to recall the
+searchers, Dorman was placed upon a chair before a select and attentive
+audience, and invited to explain, which he did.
+
+He had decided to borrow some little wheels from the bunkhouse, so he
+could ride his big, high pony home. Mr. Cameron had little wheels on
+his feet, and so did Uncle Dick, and all the mens. (The audience gravely
+nodded assent.) Well, and the knob wasn't too high when he went in, but
+when he tried to open the door to go out, it was away up there! (Dorman
+measured with his arm.) And he fell down, and all his shiny pennies
+rolled and rolled. And he looked and looked where they rolled, and when
+he counted, one was gone. So he looked and looked for the one shiny
+penny till he was tired to death. And so he climbed up high, into a
+funny bed on a shelf, and rested. And when he was rested he couldn't
+open the door, and he kicked and kicked, and then Be'trice came, and Mr.
+Cam'ron.
+
+“And you said you'd help me find my one penny,” he reminded Keith,
+blinking solemnly at him from the chair. “And I want to shake hands wis
+your big, high pony. I'm going to buy him wis my six pennies. Be'trice
+said I could.”
+
+Beatrice blushed, and Keith forgot where he was, for a minute, looking
+at her.
+
+“Come and find my one shiny penny,” Dorman commanded, climbing down.
+“And I want Be'trice to come. Be'trice can always find things.”
+
+“Beatrice cannot go,” said his grandmother, who didn't much like the
+way Keith hovered near Beatrice, nor the look in his eyes. “Beatrice is
+tired.”
+
+“I want Be'trice!” Dorman set up his everyday howl, which started the
+dogs barking outside. His guardian angel attempted to soothe him, but he
+would have none of her; he only howled the louder, and kicked.
+
+“There, there, honey, I'll go. Where's your hat?”
+
+“Beatrice, you had better stay in the house; you have done quite enough
+for one day.” The tone of the mother suggested things.
+
+“It is imperative,” said Beatrice, “for the peace and the well-being of
+this household, that Dorman find his penny without delay.” When
+Beatrice adopted that lofty tone her mother was in the habit of saying
+nothing--and biding her time. Beatrice was so apt, if mere loftiness did
+not carry the day, to go a step further and flatly refuse to obey. Mrs.
+Lansell preferred to yield, rather than be openly defied.
+
+So the three went off to find the shiny penny--and in exactly
+thirty-five minutes they found it. I will not say that they could not
+have found it sooner, but, at any rate, they didn't, and they reached
+the house about two minutes behind Dick and Sir Redmond, which did not
+improve Sir Redmond's temper to speak of.
+
+After that, Keith did not need much urging from Dick to spend the rest
+of the afternoon at the “Pool” ranch. When he wanted to, Keith could be
+very nice indeed to people; he went a long way, that afternoon, toward
+making a friend of Miss Hayes; but Mrs. Lansell, who was one of those
+women who adhere to the theory of First Impressions, in capitals,
+continued to regard him as an incipient outlaw, who would, in time and
+under favorable conditions, reveal his true character, and vindicate her
+keen insight into human nature. There was one thing which Mrs. Lansell
+never forgave Keith Cameron, and that was the ruin of her watch, which
+refused to run while she was in Montana.
+
+That night, when Beatrice was just snuggling down into the delicious
+coolness of her pillow, she heard someone rap softly, but none the less
+imperatively, on her door. She opened one eye stealthily, to see her
+mother's pudgy form outlined in the feeble moonlight.
+
+“Beatrice, are you asleep?”
+
+Beatrice did not say yes, but she let her breath out carefully in a
+slumbrous sigh. It certainly sounded as if she were asleep.
+
+“Be-atrice!” The tone, though guarded, was insistent.
+
+The head of Beatrice moved slightly, and settled back into its little
+nest, for all the world like a dreaming, innocent baby.
+
+If she had not been the mother of Beatrice, Mrs. Lansell would probably
+have gone back to her room, and continued to bide her time; but the
+mother of Beatrice had learned a few things about the ways of a wilful
+girl. She went in, and closed the door carefully behind her. She did not
+wish to keep the whole house awake. Then she went straight to the bed,
+laid hand upon a white shoulder that gleamed in the moonlight, and gave
+a shake.
+
+“Beatrice, I want you to answer me when I speak.”
+
+“M-m--did you--m-m--speak, mama?” Beatrice opened her eyes and closed
+them, opened them again for a minute longer, yawned daintily, and by
+these signs and tokens wandered back from dreamland obediently.
+
+Her mother sat down upon the edge of the bed, and the bed creaked. Also,
+Beatrice groaned inwardly; the time of reckoning was verily drawing
+near. She promptly closed her eyes again, and gave a sleepy sigh.
+
+“Beatrice, did you refuse Sir Redmond again?”
+
+“M-m--were you speaking--mama?”
+
+Mrs. Lansell, endeavoring to keep her temper, repeated the question.
+
+Beatrice began to feel that she was an abused girl. She lifted herself
+to her elbow, and thumped the pillow spitefully.
+
+“Again? Dear me, mama! I've never refused him once!”
+
+“You haven't accepted him once, either,” her mother retorted; and
+Beatrice lay down again.
+
+“I do wish, Beatrice, you would look at the matter in a sensible light
+I'm sure I never would ask you to marry a man you could not care for.
+But Sir Redmond is young, and good-looking, and has birth and breeding,
+and money--no one can accuse him of being a fortune-hunter, I'm sure.
+I was asking Richard to-day, and he says Sir Redmond holds a large
+interest in the Northern Pool, and other English investors pay him a
+salary, besides, to look after their interests. I wouldn't be surprised
+if the holdings of both of you would be sufficient to control the
+business.”
+
+Beatrice, not caring anything for business anyway, said nothing.
+
+“Any one can see the man's crazy for you. His sister says he never cared
+for a woman before in his life.”
+
+“Of course,” put in Beatrice sarcastically. “His sister followed him
+down to South Africa, and all around, and is in a position to know.”
+
+“Any one can see he isn't a lady's man.”
+
+“No--” Beatrice smiled reminiscently; “he certainly isn't.”
+
+“And so he's in deadly earnest. And I'm positive he will make you a
+model husband.”
+
+“Only think of having to live, all one's life, with a model husband!”
+ shuddered Beatrice hypocritically.
+
+“Be-atrice! And then, it's something to marry a title.”
+
+“That's the worst of it,” remarked Beatrice.
+
+“Any other girl in America would jump at the chance. I do believe,
+Beatrice, you are hanging back just to be aggravating. And there's
+another thing, Beatrice. I don't approve of the way this Keith Cameron
+hangs around you.”
+
+“He doesn't!” denied Beatrice, in an altogether different tone. “Why,
+mama!”
+
+“I don't approve of flirting, Beatrice, and you know it. The way
+you gadded around over the hills with him--a perfect stranger--was
+disgraceful; perfectly disgraceful. You don't know any thing about the
+fellow, whether he's a fit companion or not--a wild, uncouth cowboy--”
+
+“He graduated from Yale, a year after Dick. And he was halfback, too.”
+
+“That doesn't signify,” said her mother, “a particle. I know Miss Hayes
+was dreadfully shocked to see you come riding up with him, and Sir
+Redmond forced to go with Richard, or ride alone.”
+
+“Dick is good company,” said Beatrice. “And it was his own fault.
+I asked him to go with us, when Dick and I left the cattle, and he
+wouldn't. Dick will tell you the same. And after that I did not see
+him until just before we--I came home, Really, mama, I can't have a
+leading-string on Sir Redmond. If he refuses to come with me, I can
+hardly insist.”
+
+“Well, you must have done something. You said something, or did
+something, to make him very angry. He has not been himself all day. What
+did you say?”
+
+“Dear me, mama, I am not responsible for all Sir Redmond's ill-humor.”
+
+“I did not ask you that, Beatrice.”
+
+Beatrice thumped her pillow again. “I don't remember anything very
+dreadful, mama. I--I think he has indigestion.”
+
+“Be-atrice! I do wish you would try to conquer that habit of flippancy.
+It is not ladylike. And I warn you, Sir Redmond is not the man to dangle
+after you forever. He will lose patience, and go back to England without
+you--and serve you right! I am only talking for your own good, Beatrice.
+I am not at all sure that you want him to leave you alone.”
+
+Beatrice was not at all sure, either. She lay still, and wished her
+mother would stop talking for her good. Talking for her good had meant,
+as far back as Beatrice could remember, saying disagreeable things in a
+disagreeable manner.
+
+“And remember, Beatrice, I want this flirting stopped.”
+
+“Flirting, mama?” To hear the girl, you would think she had never heard
+the word before.
+
+“That's what I said, Beatrice. I shall speak to Richard in the morning
+about this fellow Cameron. He must put a stop to his being here
+two-thirds of the time. It is unendurable.”
+
+“He and Dick are chums, mama, and have been for years. And to-morrow we
+are going to Lost Canyon, you know, and Mr. Cameron is to go along. And
+there are several other trips, mama, to which he is already invited.
+Dick cannot recall those invitations.”
+
+“Well, it must end there. Richard must do something. I cannot see
+what he finds about the fellow to like--or you, either, Beatrice. Just
+because he rides like a--a wild Indian, and has a certain daredevil
+way--”
+
+“I never said I liked him, mama,” Beatrice protested, somewhat hastily.
+“I--of course, I try to treat him well--”
+
+“I should say you did!” exploded her mother angrily. “You would be
+much better employed in trying to treat Sir Redmond half as well. It is
+positively disgraceful, the way you behave toward him--as fine a man as
+I ever met in my life. I warn you, Beatrice, you must have more regard
+for propriety, or I shall take you back to New York at once. I certainly
+shall.”
+
+With that threat, which she shrewdly guessed would go far toward
+bringing this wayward girl to time, Mrs. Lansell got up off the bed,
+which creaked its relief, and groped her way to her own room.
+
+The pillow of Beatrice received considerable thumping during the next
+hour--a great deal more, in fact, than it needed. Two thoughts troubled
+her more than she liked. What if her mother was right, and Sir Redmond
+lost patience with her and went home? That possibility was unpleasant,
+to say the least. Again, would he give her up altogether if she showed
+Dick she was not afraid of Keith Cameron, for all his good looks, and at
+the same time taught that young man a much-needed lesson? The way he had
+stared at her was nothing less than a challenge and Beatrice was sorely
+tempted.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7. Beatrice's Wild Ride.
+
+
+“Well, are we all ready?” Dick gathered up his reins, and took critical
+inventory of the load. His mother peered under the front seat to be
+doubly sure that there were at least four umbrellas and her waterproof
+raglan in the rig; Mrs. Lansell did not propose to be caught unawares in
+a storm another time. Miss Hayes straightened Dorman's cap, and told
+him to sit down, dear, and then called upon Sir Redmond to enforce the
+command. Sir Redmond repeated her command, minus the dear, and then rode
+on ahead to overtake Beatrice and Keith, who had started. Dick climbed
+up over the front wheel, released the brake, chirped at the horses, and
+they were off for Lost Canyon.
+
+Beatrice was behaving beautifully, and her mother only hoped to heaven
+it would last the day out; perhaps Sir Redmond would be able to extract
+some sort of a promise from her in that mood, Mrs. Lansell reflected,
+as she watched Beatrice chatting to her two cavaliers, with the most
+decorous impartiality. Sir Redmond seemed in high spirits, which argued
+well; Mrs. Lansell gave herself up to the pleasure of the drive with
+a heart free from anxiety. Not only was Beatrice at her best; Dorman's
+mood was nothing short of angelic, and as the weather was simply
+perfect, the day surely promised well.
+
+For a mile Keith had showed signs of a mind not at ease, and at last he
+made bold to speak.
+
+“I thought Rex was to be your saddle-horse?” he said abruptly to
+Beatrice.
+
+“He was; but when Dick brought Goldie home, last night, I fell in love
+with him on sight, and just teased Dick till he told me I might have him
+to ride.”
+
+“I thought Dick had some sense,” Keith said gloomily.
+
+“He has. He knew there would be no peace till he surrendered.”
+
+“I didn't know you were going to ride him, when I sold him to Dick. He's
+not safe for a woman.”
+
+“Does he buck, Mr. Cameron? Dick said he was gentle.” Beatrice had seen
+a horse buck, one day, and had a wholesome fear of that form of equine
+amusement.
+
+“Oh, no. I never knew him to.”
+
+“Then I don't mind anything else. I'm accustomed to horses,” said
+Beatrice, and smiled welcome to Sir Redmond, who came up with them at
+that moment.
+
+“You want to ride him with a light rein,” Keith cautioned, clinging to
+the subject. “He's tenderbitted, and nervous. He won't stand for any
+jerking, you see.”
+
+“I never jerk, Mr. Cameron.” Keith discovered that big, baffling,
+blue-brown eyes can, if they wish, rival liquid air for coldness. “I
+rode horses before I came to Montana.”
+
+Of course, when a man gets frozen with a girl's eyes, and scorched
+with a girl's sarcasm, the thing for him to do is to retreat until the
+atmosphere becomes normal. Keith fell behind just as soon as he could
+do so with some show of dignity, and for several miles tried to convince
+himself that he would rather talk to Dick and “the old maid” than not.
+
+“Don't you know,” Sir Redmond remarked sympathetically, “some of these
+Western fellows are inclined to be deuced officious and impertinent.”
+
+Sir Redmond got a taste of the freezing process that made him change the
+subject abruptly.
+
+The way was rough and lonely; the trail wound over sharp-nosed hills and
+through deep, narrow coulees, with occasional, tantalizing glimpses of
+the river and the open land beyond, that kept Beatrice in a fever of
+enthusiasm. From riding blithely ahead, she took to lagging far behind
+with her kodak, getting snap-shots of the choicest bits of scenery.
+
+“Another cartridge, please, Sir Redmond,” she said, and wound
+industriously on the finished roll.
+
+“It's a jolly good thing I brought my pockets full.” Sir Redmond fished
+one out for her. “Was that a dozen?”
+
+“No; that had only six films. I want a larger one this time. It is a
+perfect nuisance to stop and change. Be still, Goldie!”
+
+“We're getting rather a long way behind--but I fancy the road is plain.”
+
+“We'll hurry and overtake them. I won't take any more pictures.”
+
+“Until you chance upon something you can't resist. I understand all
+that, you know.” Sir Redmond, while he teased, was pondering whether
+this was an auspicious time and place to ask Beatrice to marry him. He
+had tried so many times and places that seemed auspicious, that the man
+was growing fearful. It is not pleasant to have a girl smile indulgently
+upon you and deftly turn your avowals aside, so that they fall flat.
+
+“I'm ready,” she announced, blind to what his eyes were saying.
+
+“Shall we trek?” Sir Redmond sighed a bit. He was not anxious to
+overtake the others.
+
+“We will. Only, out here people never 'trek,' Sir Redmond. They 'hit the
+trail'.”
+
+“So they do. And the way these cowboys do it, one would think they were
+couriers, by Jove! with the lives of a whole army at stake. So I fancy
+we had better hit the trail, eh?”
+
+“You're learning,” Beatrice assured him, as they started on. “A year out
+here, and you would be a real American, Sir Redmond.”
+
+Sir Redmond came near saying, “The Lord forbid!” but he thought better
+of it. Beatrice was intensely loyal to her countrymen, unfortunately,
+and would certainly resent such a remark; but, for all that, he thought
+it.
+
+For a mile or two she held to her resolve, and then, at the top of a
+long hill overlooking the canyon where they were to eat their lunch, out
+came her kodak again.
+
+“This must be Lost Canyon, for Dick has stopped by those trees. I want
+to get just one view from here. Steady, Goldie! Dear me, this horse does
+detest standing still!”
+
+“I fancy he is anxious to get down with the others. Let me hold him for
+you. Whoa, there!” He put a hand upon the bridle, a familiarity Goldie
+resented. He snorted and dodged backward, to the ruin of the picture
+Beatrice was endeavoring to get.
+
+“Now you've frightened him. Whoa, pet! It's of no use to try; he won't
+stand.”
+
+“Let me have your camera. He's getting rather an ugly temper, I think.”
+ Sir Redmond put out his hand again, and again Goldie dodged backward.
+
+“I can do better alone, Sir Redmond.” The cheeks of Beatrice were red.
+She managed to hold the horse in until her kodak was put safely in its
+case, but her temper, as well as Goldie's, was roughened. She hated
+spoiling a film, which she was perfectly sure she had done.
+
+Goldie felt the sting of her whip when she brought him back into the
+road, and, from merely fretting, he took to plunging angrily. Then, when
+Beatrice pulled him up sharply, he thrust out his nose, grabbed the bit
+in his teeth, and bolted down the hill, past all control.
+
+“Good God, hold him!” shouted Sir Redmond, putting his horse to a run.
+
+The advice was good, and Beatrice heard it plainly enough, but she
+neither answered nor looked back. How, she thought, resentfully, was one
+to hold a yellow streak of rage, with legs like wire springs and a neck
+of iron? Besides, she was angrily alive to the fact that Keith Cameron,
+watching down below, was having his revenge. She wondered if he was
+enjoying it.
+
+He was not. Goldie, when he ran, ran blindly in a straight line, and
+Keith knew it. He also knew that the Englishman couldn't keep within
+gunshot of Goldie, with the mount he had, and half a mile away--Keith
+shut his teeth hard together, and went out to meet her. Redcloud lay
+along the ground in great leaps, but Keith, bending low over his neck,
+urged him faster and faster, until the horse, his ears laid close
+against his neck, did the best there was in him. From the tail of his
+eye, Keith saw Sir Redmond's horse go down upon his knees, and get up
+limping--and the sight filled him with ungenerous gladness; Sir Redmond
+was out of the race. It was Keith and Redcloud--they two; and Keith
+could smile over it.
+
+He saw Beatrice's hat loosen and lift in front, flop uncertainly, and
+then go sailing away into the sage-brush, and he noted where it fell,
+that he might find it, later. Then he was close enough to see her face,
+and wondered that there was so little fear written there. Beatrice was
+plucky, and she rode well, her weight upon the bit; but her weight was
+nothing to the clinched teeth of the horse; and, though she had known
+it from the start, she was scarcely frightened. There was a good deal of
+the daredevil in Beatrice; she trusted a great deal to blind luck.
+
+Just there the land was level, and she hoped to check him on the slope
+of the hill before them. She did not know it was moated like a castle,
+with a washout ten feet deep and twice that in width, and that what
+looked to her quite easy was utterly impossible.
+
+Keith gained, every leap. In a moment he was close behind.
+
+“Take your foot out of the stirrup,” he commanded, harshly, and though
+Beatrice wondered why, something in his voice made her obey.
+
+Now Redcloud's nose was even with her elbow; the breath from his
+wide-flaring nostrils rose hotly in her face. Another bound, and he had
+forged ahead, neck and neck with Goldie, and it was Keith by her side,
+keen-eyed and calm.
+
+“Let go all hold,” he said. Reaching suddenly, he caught her around the
+waist and pulled her from the saddle, just as Redcloud, scenting danger,
+plowed his front feet deeply into the loose soil and stopped dead still.
+
+It was neatly done, and quickly; so quickly that before Beatrice had
+more than gasped her surprise, Keith lowered her to the ground and slid
+out of the saddle. Beatrice looked at him, and wondered at his face, and
+at the way he was shaking. He leaned weakly against the horse and hid
+his face on his arm, and trembled at what had come so close to the
+girl--the girl, who stood there panting a little, with her wonderful,
+waving hair cloaking her almost to her knees, and her blue-brown eyes
+wide and bright, and full of a deep amazement. She forgot Goldie, and
+did not even look to see what had become of him; she forgot nearly
+everything, just then, in wonder at this tall, clean-built young fellow,
+who never had seemed to care what happened, leaning there with his face
+hidden, his hat far hack on his head and little drops standing thickly
+upon his forehead. She waited a moment, and when he did not move, her
+thoughts drifted to other things.
+
+“I wonder,” she said abstractedly, “if I broke my kodak.”
+
+Keith lifted his head and looked at her. “Your kodak--good Lord!” He
+looked hard into her eyes, and she returned the stare.
+
+“Come here,” he commanded, hoarsely, catching her arm. “Your kodak! Look
+down there!” He led her to the brink, which was close enough to set him
+shuddering anew. “Look! There's Goldie, damn him! It's a wonder he's
+on his feet; I thought he'd be dead--and serve him right. And you--you
+wonder if you broke your kodak!”
+
+Beatrice drew back from him, and from the sight below, and if she were
+frightened, she tried not to let him see. “Should I have fainted?”
+ She was proud of the steadiness of her voice. “Really, I am very much
+obliged to you, Mr. Cameron, for saving me from an ugly fall. You did it
+very neatly, I imagine, and I am grateful. Still, I really hope I didn't
+break my kodak. Are you very disappointed because I can't faint away?
+There doesn't seem to be any brook close by, you see--and I haven't my
+er--lover's arms to fall into. Those are the regulation stage settings,
+I believe, and--”
+
+“Don't worry, Miss Lansell. I didn't expect you to faint, or to show any
+human feelings whatever. I do pity your horse, though.”
+
+“You didn't a minute ago,” she reminded him. “You indulged in a bit of
+profanity, if I remember.”
+
+“For which I beg Goldie's pardon,” he retorted, his eyes unsmiling.
+
+“And mine, I hope.”
+
+“Certainly.”
+
+“I think it's rather absurd to stand here sparring, Mr. Cameron. You'll
+begin to accuse me of ingratitude, and I'm as grateful as possible for
+what you did. Sir Redmond's horse was too slow to keep up, or he would
+have been at hand, no doubt.”
+
+“And could have supplied part of the stage setting. Too bad he was
+behind.” Keith turned and readjusted the cinch on his saddle, though it
+was not loose enough to matter, and before he had finished Sir Redmond
+rode up.
+
+“Are you hurt, Beatrice?” His face was pale, and his eyes anxious.
+
+“Not at all. Mr. Cameron kindly helped me from the saddle in time to
+prevent an accident. I wish you'd thank him, Sir Redmond. I haven't the
+words.”
+
+“You needn't trouble,” said Keith hastily, getting into the saddle.
+“I'll go down after Goldie. You can easily find the camp, I guess,
+without a pilot.” Then he galloped away and left them, and would
+not look back; if he had done so, he would have seen Beatrice's eyes
+following him remorsefully. Also, he would have seen Sir Redmond glare
+after him jealously; for Sir Redmond was not in a position to know that
+their tete-a-tete had not been a pleasant one, and no man likes to have
+another fellow save the life of a woman he loves, while he himself is
+limping painfully up from the rear.
+
+However, the woman he loved was very gracious to him that day, and for
+many days, and Keith Cameron held himself aloof during the rest of the
+trip, which should have contented Sir Redmond.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8. Dorman Plays Cupid.
+
+
+Dorman toiled up the steps, his straw hat perilously near to slipping
+down his back, his face like a large, red beet, and his hands vainly
+trying to reach around a baking-powder can which the Chinaman cook had
+given him.
+
+He marched straight to where Beatrice was lying in the hammock. If she
+had been older, or younger, or a plain young woman, one might say that
+Beatrice was sulking in the hammock, for she had not spoken anything but
+“yes” and “no” to her mother for an hour, and she had only spoken
+those two words occasionally, when duty demanded it. For one thing,
+Sir Redmond was absent, and had been for two weeks, and Beatrice was
+beginning to miss him dreadfully. To beguile the time, she had ridden,
+every day, long miles into the hills. Three times she had met Keith
+Cameron, also riding alone in the hills, and she had endeavored to amuse
+herself with him, after her own inimitable fashion, and with more or
+less success. The trouble was, that sometimes Keith seemed to be amusing
+himself with her, which was not pleasing to a girl like Beatrice. At any
+rate, he proved himself quite able to play the game of Give and Take,
+so that the conscience of Beatrice was at ease; no one could call her
+pastime a slaughter of the innocents, surely, when the fellow stood his
+ground like that. It was more a fencing-bout, and Beatrice enjoyed it
+very much; she told herself that the reason she enjoyed talking with
+Keith was because he was not always getting hurt, like Sir Redmond--or,
+if he did, he kept his feelings to himself, and went boldly on with
+the game. Item: Beatrice had reversed her decision that Keith was
+vain, though she still felt tempted, at times, to resort to “making
+faces”--when she was worsted, that was.
+
+To return to this particular day of sulking; Rex had cast a shoe, and
+lamed himself just enough to prevent her riding, and so Beatrice was
+having a dull day of it in the house. Besides, her mother had just
+finished talking to her for her good, which was enough to send an angel
+into the sulks--and Beatrice lacked a good deal of being an angel.
+
+Dorman laid his baking-powder can confidingly in his divinity's lap.
+“Be'trice, I did get some grasshoppers; you said I couldn't. And
+you wouldn't go fishin', 'cause you didn't like to take Uncle Dick's
+make-m'lieve flies, so I got some really ones, Be'trice, that'll wiggle
+dere own self.”
+
+“Oh, dear me! It's too hot, Dorman.”
+
+“'Tisn't, Be'trice It's dest as cool--and by de brook it's awf-lly
+cold. Come, Be'trice!” He pulled at the smart little pink ruffles on her
+skirt.
+
+“I'm too sleepy, hon.”
+
+“You can sleep by de brook, Be'trice. I'll let you,” he promised
+generously, “'cept when I need anudder grasshopper; nen I'll wake you
+up.”
+
+“Wait till to-morrow. I don't believe the fish are hungry to-day. Don't
+tear my skirt to pieces, Dorman!”
+
+Dorman began to whine. He had never found his divinity in so unlovely
+a mood. “I want to go now! Dey are too hungry, Be'trice! Looey Sam is
+goin' to fry my fishes for dinner, to s'prise auntie. Come, Be'trice!”
+
+“Why don't you go with the child, Beatrice? You grow more selfish every
+day.” Mrs. Lansell could not endure selfishness--in others. “You know he
+will not give us any peace until you do.”
+
+Dorman instantly proceeded to make good his grandmother's prophecy, and
+wept so that one could hear him a mile.
+
+“Oh, dear me! Be still, Dorman--your auntie has a headache. Well, get
+your rod, if you know where it is--which I doubt.” Beatrice flounced
+out of the hammock and got her hat, one of those floppy white things,
+fluffed with thin, white stuff, till they look like nothing so much as
+a wisp of cloud, with ribbons to moor it to her head and keep it from
+sailing off to join its brothers in the sky.
+
+Down by the creek, where the willows nodded to their own reflections in
+the still places, it was cool and sweet scented, and Beatrice forgot her
+grievances, and was not sorry she had come.
+
+(It was at about this time that a tall young fellow, two miles down the
+coulee, put away his field glass and went off to saddle his horse.)
+
+“Don't run ahead so, Dorman,” Beatrice cautioned. To her had been given
+the doubtful honor of carrying the baking-powder can of grasshoppers.
+Even divinities must make themselves useful to man.
+
+“Why, Be'trice?” Dorman swished his rod in unpleasant proximity to his
+divinity's head.
+
+“Because, honey”--Beatrice dodged--“you might step on a snake, a
+rattlesnake, that would bite you.”
+
+“How would it bite, Be'trice?”
+
+“With its teeth, of course; long, wicked teeth, with poison on them.”
+
+“I saw one when I was ridin' on a horse wis Uncle Dick. It kept windin'
+up till it was round, and it growled wis its tail, Be'trice. And Uncle
+Dick chased it, and nen it unwinded itself and creeped under a big rock.
+It didn't bite once--and I didn't see any teeth to it.”
+
+“Carry your rod still, Dorman. Are you trying to knock my hat off my
+head? Rattlesnakes have teeth, hon, whether you saw them or not. I saw a
+great, long one that day we thought you were lost. Mr. Cameron killed it
+with his rope. I'm sure it had teeth.”
+
+“Did it growl, Be'trice? Tell me how it went.”
+
+“Like this, hon.” Beatrice parted her lips ever so little, and a
+snake buzzed at Dorman's feet. He gave a yell of terror, and backed
+ingloriously.
+
+“You see, honey, if that had been really a snake, it would have bitten
+you. Never mind, dear--it was only I.”
+
+Dorman was some time believing this astonishing statement. “How did you
+growl by my feet, Be'trice? Show me again.”
+
+Beatrice, who had learned some things at school which were not included
+in the curriculum, repeated the performance, while Dorman watched her
+with eyes and mouth at their widest. Like some older members of his sex,
+he was discovering new witcheries about his divinity every day.
+
+“Well, Be'trice!” He gave a long gasp of ecstasy. “I don't see how can
+you do it? Can't I do it, Be'trice?”
+
+“I'm afraid not, honey--you'd have to learn. There was a queer French
+girl at school, who could do the strangest things, Dorman--like fairy
+tales, almost. And she taught me to throw my voice different places, and
+mimic sounds, when we should have been at our lessons. Listen, hon.
+This is how a little lamb cries, when he is lost.... And this is what a
+hungry kittie says, when she is away up in a tree, and is afraid to come
+down.”
+
+Dorman danced all around his divinity, and forgot about the fish--until
+Beatrice found it in her heart to regret her rash revelation of hitherto
+undreamed-of powers of entertainment.
+
+“Not another sound, Dorman,” she declared at length, with the firmness
+of despair. “No, I will not be a lost lamb another once. No, nor a
+hungry kittie, either--nor a snake, or anything. If you are not going to
+fish, I shall go straight back to the house.”
+
+Dorman sighed heavily, and permitted his divinity to fasten a small
+grasshopper to his hook.
+
+“We'll go a bit farther, dear, down under those great trees. And you
+must not speak a word, remember, or the fish will all run away.”
+
+When she had settled him in a likely place, and the rapt patience of the
+born angler had folded him close, she disposed herself comfortably in
+the thick grass, her back against a tree, and took up the shuttle of
+fancy to weave a wonderful daydream, as beautiful, intangible as the
+lacy, summer clouds over her head.
+
+A man rode quietly over the grass and stopped two rods away, that he
+might fill his hungry eyes with the delicious loveliness of his Heart's
+Desire.
+
+“Got a bite yet?”
+
+Dorman turned and wrinkled his nose, by way of welcome, and shook his
+head vaguely, as though he might tell of several unimportant nibbles, if
+it were worth the effort.
+
+Beatrice sat a bit straighter, and dexterously whisked some pink ruffles
+down over two distracting ankles, and hoped Keith had not taken notice
+of them. He had, though; trust a man for that!
+
+Keith dismounted, dropped the reins to the ground, and came and laid
+himself down in the grass beside his Heart's Desire, and Beatrice
+noticed how tall he was, and slim and strong.
+
+“How did you know we were here?” she wanted to know, with lifted
+eyebrows.
+
+Keith wondered if there was a welcome behind that sweet, indifferent
+face. He never could be sure of anything in Beatrice's face, because it
+never was alike twice, it seemed to him--and if it spoke welcome for
+a second, the next there was only raillery, or something equally
+unsatisfying.
+
+“I saw you from the trail,” he answered promptly, evidently not thinking
+it wise to mention the fieldglass. And then: “Is Dick at home?” Not
+that he wanted Dick--but a fellow, even when he is in the last stages of
+love, feels need of an excuse sometimes.
+
+“No--we women are alone to-day. There isn't a man on the place, except
+Looey Sam, and he doesn't count.”
+
+Dorman squirmed around till he could look at the two, and his eyebrows
+were tied in a knot. “I wish, Be'trice, you wouldn't talk, 'less you
+whisper. De fishes won't bite a bit.”
+
+“All right, honey--we won't.”
+
+Dorman turned back to his fishing with a long breath of relief. His
+divinity never broke a promise, if she could help it.
+
+If Dorman Hayes had been Cupid himself, he could not have hit upon a
+more impish arrangement than that. To place a girl like Beatrice beside
+a fellow like Keith--a fellow who is tall, and browned, and extremely
+good-looking, and who has hazel eyes with a laugh in them always--a
+fellow, moreover, who is very much in love and very much in earnest
+about it--and condemn him to silence, or to whispers!
+
+Keith took advantage of the edict, and moved closer, so that he could
+whisper in comfort--and be nearer his Heart's Desire. He lay with his
+head propped upon his hand, and his elbow digging into the sod and
+getting grass-stains on his shirt sleeve, for the day was too warm for a
+coat. Beatrice, looking down at him, observed that his forearm, between
+his glove and wrist-band, was as white and smooth as her own. It is
+characteristic of a cowboy to have a face brown as an Indian, and hands
+girlishly white and soft.
+
+“I haven't had a glimpse of you for a week--not since I met you down by
+the river. Where have you been?” he whispered.
+
+“Here. Rex went lame, and Dick wouldn't let me ride any other horse,
+since that day Goldie bolted--and so the hills have called in vain. I've
+stayed at home and made quantities of Duchesse lace--I almost finished
+a love of a center piece--and mama thinks I have reformed. But Rex is
+better, and tomorrow I'm going somewhere.”
+
+“Better help me hunt some horses that have been running down Lost Canyon
+way. I'm going to look for them to-morrow,” Keith suggested, as calmly
+as was compatible with his eagerness and his method of speech. I doubt
+if any man can whisper things to a girl he loves, and do it calmly. I
+know Keith's heart was pounding.
+
+“I shall probably ride in the opposite direction,” Beatrice told him
+wickedly. She wondered if he thought she would run at his beck.
+
+“I never saw you in this dress before,” Keith murmured, his eyes
+caressing.
+
+“No? You may never again,” she said. “I have so many things to wear out,
+you know.”
+
+“I like it,” he declared, as emphatically as he could, and whisper. “It
+is just the color of your cheeks, after the wind has been kissing them a
+while.”
+
+“Fancy a cowboy saying pretty things like that!”
+
+Beatrice's cheeks did not wait for the wind to kiss them pink.
+
+“Ya-as, only fawncy, ye knaw.” His eyes were daringly mocking.
+
+“For shame, Mr. Cameron! Sir Redmond would not mimic your speech.”
+
+“Good reason why; he couldn't, not if he tried a thousand years.”
+
+Beatrice knew this was the truth, so she fell back upon dignity.
+
+“We will not discuss that subject, I think.”
+
+“I don't want to, anyway. I know another subject a million times more
+interesting than Sir Redmond.”
+
+“Indeed!” Beatrice's eyebrows were at their highest. “And what is it,
+then?”
+
+“You!” Keith caught her hand; his eyes compelled her.
+
+“I think,” said Beatrice, drawing her hand away, “we will not discuss
+that subject, either.”
+
+“Why?” Keith's eyes continued to woo.
+
+“Because.”
+
+It occurred to Beatrice that an unsophisticated girl might easily think
+Keith in earnest, with that look in his eyes.
+
+Dorman, scowling at them over his shoulder, unconsciously did his
+divinity a service. Beatrice pursed her lips in a way that drove Keith
+nearly wild, and took up the weapon of silence.
+
+“You said you women are alone--where is milord?” Keith began again,
+after two minutes of lying there watching her.
+
+“Sir Redmond is in Helena, on business. He's been making arrangements to
+lease a lot of land.”
+
+“Ah-h!” Keith snapped a twig off a dead willow.
+
+“We look for him home to-day, and Dick drove in to meet the train.”
+
+“So the Pool has gone to leasing land?” The laugh had gone out of
+Keith's eyes; they were clear and keen.
+
+“Yes--the plan is to lease the Pine Ridge country, and fence it. I
+suppose you know where that is.”
+
+“I ought to,” Keith said quietly. “It's funny Dick never mentioned it.”
+
+“It isn't Dick's idea,” Beatrice told him. “It was Sir Redmond's. Dick
+is rather angry, I think, and came near quarreling with Sir Redmond
+about it. But English capital controls the Pool, you know, and Sir
+Redmond controls the English capital, so he can adopt whatever policy
+he chooses. The way he explained the thing to me, it seems a splendid
+plan--don't you think so?”
+
+“Yes.” Keith's tone was not quite what he meant it to be; he did not
+intend it to be ironical, as it was. “It's a snap for the Pool, all
+right. It gives them a cinch on the best of the range, and all the
+water. I didn't give milord credit for such business sagacity.”
+
+Beatrice leaned over that she might read his eyes, but Keith turned
+his face away. In the shock of what he had just learned, he was, at the
+moment, not the lover; he was the small cattleman who is being forced
+out of the business by the octopus of combined capital. It was not less
+bitter that the woman he loved was one of the tentacles reaching out to
+crush him. And they could do it; they--the whole affair resolved itself
+into a very simple scheme, to Keith. The gauntlet had been thrown
+down--because of this girl beside him. It was not so much business
+acumen as it was the antagonism of a rival that had prompted the move.
+Keith squared his shoulders, and mentally took up the gauntlet. He might
+lose in the range fight, but he would win the girl, if it were in the
+power of love to do it.
+
+“Why that tone? I hope it isn't--will it inconvenience you?”
+
+“Oh, no. No, not at all. No--” Keith seemed to forget that a
+superabundance of negatives breeds suspicion of sincerity.
+
+“I'm afraid that means that it will. And I'm sure Sir Redmond never
+meant--”
+
+“I believe that kid has got a bite at last,” Keith interrupted, getting
+up. “Let me take hold, there, Dorman; you'll be in the creek yourself in
+a second.” He landed a four-inch fish, carefully rebaited the hook, cast
+the line into a promising eddy, gave the rod over to Dorman, and went
+back to Beatrice, who had been watching him with troubled eyes.
+
+“Mr. Cameron, if I had known--” Beatrice was good-hearted, if she was
+fond of playing with a man's heart.
+
+“I hope you're not letting that business worry you, Miss Lansell. You
+remind me of a painting I saw once in Boston. It was called June.”
+
+“But this is August, so I don't apply. Isn't there some way you--”
+
+“Did you hear about that train-robbery up the line last week?” Keith
+settled himself luxuriously upon his back, with his hands clasped under
+his head, and his hat tipped down over his eyes--but not enough
+to prevent him from watching his Heart's Desire. And in his eyes
+laughter--and something sweeter--lurked. If Sir Redmond had wealth to
+fight with, Keith's weapon was far and away more dangerous, for it was
+the irresistible love of a masterful man--the love that sweeps obstacles
+away like straws.
+
+“I am not interested in train-robberies,” Beatrice told him, her eyes
+still clouded with trouble. “I want to talk about this lease.”
+
+“They got one fellow the next day, and another got rattled and gave
+himself up; but the leader of the gang, one of Montana's pet outlaws,
+is still ranging somewhere in the hills. You want to be careful about
+riding off alone; you ought to let some one--me, for instance--go along
+to look after you.”
+
+“Pshaw!” said his Heart's Desire, smiling reluctantly. “I'm not afraid.
+Do you suppose, if Sir Redmond had known--”
+
+“Those fellows made quite a haul--almost enough to lease the whole
+country, if they wanted to. Something over fifty thousand dollars--and a
+strong box full of sand, that the messenger was going to fool them with.
+He did, all right; but they weren't so slow. They hustled around and got
+the money, and he lost his sand into the bargain.”
+
+“Was that meant for a pun?” Beatrice blinked her big eyes at him. “If
+you're quite through with the train-robbers, perhaps you will tell me
+how--”
+
+“I'm glad old Mother Nature didn't give every woman an odd dimple beside
+the mouth,” Keith observed, reaching for her hat, and running a ribbon
+caressingly through his fingers.
+
+“Why?” Beatrice smoothed the dimple complacently with her finger-tips.
+
+“Why? Oh, it would get kind of monotonous, wouldn't it?”
+
+“This from a man known chiefly for his pretty speeches!” Beatrice's
+laugh had a faint tinge of chagrin.
+
+“Wouldn't pretty speeches get monotonous, too?” Keith's eyes were
+laughing at her.
+
+“Yours wouldn't,” she retorted, spitefully, and immediately bit her lip
+and hoped he would not consider that a bid for more pretty speeches.
+
+“Be'trice, dis hopper is awf-lly wilted!” came a sepulchral whisper from
+Dorman.
+
+Keith sighed, and went and baited the hook again. When he returned to
+Beatrice, his mood had changed.
+
+“I want you to promise--”
+
+“I never make promises of any sort, Mr. Cameron.” Beatrice had
+fallen back upon her airy tone, which was her strongest weapon of
+defense--unless one except her liquid-air smile.
+
+“I wasn't thinking of asking much,” Keith went on coolly. “I only wanted
+to ask you not to worry about that leasing business.”
+
+“Are you worrying about it, Mr. Cameron?”
+
+“That isn't the point. No, I can't say I expect to lose sleep over it. I
+hope you will dismiss anything I may have said from your mind.”
+
+“But I don't understand. I feel that you blame Sir Redmond, when I'm
+sure he--”
+
+“I did not say I blamed anybody. I think we'll not discuss it.”
+
+“Yes, I think we shall. You'll tell me all about it, if I want to know.”
+ Beatrice adopted her coaxing tone, which never had failed her.
+
+“Oh, no!” Keith laughed a little. “A girl can't always have her own way
+just because she wants it, even if she--”
+
+“I've got a fish, Mr. Cam'ron!” Dorman squealed, and Keith was obliged
+to devote another five minutes to diplomacy.
+
+“I think you have fished long enough, honey,” Beatrice told Dorman
+decidedly. “It's nearly dinner time, and Looey Sam won't have time to
+fry your fish if you don't hurry home. Shall I tell Dick you wished to
+see him, Mr. Cameron?”
+
+“It's nothing important, so I won't trouble you,” Keith replied, in
+a tone that matched hers for cool courtesy. “I'll see him to-morrow,
+probably.” He helped Dorman reel in his line, cut a willow-wand and
+strung the three fish upon it by the gills, washed his hands leisurely
+in the creek, and dried them on his handkerchief, just as if nothing
+bothered him in the slightest degree. Then he went over and smoothed
+Redcloud's mane and pulled a wisp of forelock from under the brow-band,
+and commanded him to shake hands, which the horse did promptly.
+
+“I want to shake hands wis your pony, too,” Dorman cried, and dropped
+pole and fish heedlessly into the grass.
+
+“All right, kid.”
+
+Dorman went up gravely and clasped Redcloud's raised fetlock solemnly,
+while the tall cow-puncher smiled down at him.
+
+“Kiss him, Redcloud,” he said softly; and then, when the horse's nose
+was thrust in his face: “No, not me--kiss the kid.” He lifted the child
+up in his arms, and when Redcloud touched his soft nose to Dorman's
+cheek and lifted his lip for a dainty, toothless nibble, Dorman was
+speechless with fright and rapture thrillingly combined.
+
+“Now run home with your fish; it lacks only two hours and forty minutes
+to dinner time, and it will take at least twenty minutes for the fish to
+fry--so you see you'll have to hike.”
+
+Beatrice flushed and looked at him sharply, but Keith was getting into
+the saddle and did not appear to remember she was there. The fingers
+that were tying her hat-ribbons under her chin fumbled awkwardly and
+trembled. Beatrice would have given a good deal at that moment to know
+just what Keith Cameron was thinking; and she was in a blind rage with
+herself to think that it mattered to her what he thought.
+
+When he lifted his hat she only nodded curtly. She mimicked every beast
+and bird she could think of on the way home, to wipe him and his horse
+from the memory of Dorman, whose capacity for telling things best left
+untold was simply marvelous.
+
+It is saying much for Beatrice's powers of entertainment that Dorman
+quite forgot to say anything about Mr. Cameron and his pony, and
+chattered to his auntie and grandmama about kitties up in a tree, and
+lost lambs and sleepy birds, until he was tucked into bed that night.
+It was not until then that Beatrice felt justified in drawing a long
+breath. Not that she cared whether any one knew of her meeting Keith
+Cameron, only that her mother would instantly take alarm and preach to
+her about the wickedness of flirting; and Beatrice was not in the mood
+for sermons.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9. What It Meant to Keith.
+
+
+“Dick, I wish you'd tell me about this leasing business. There are
+points which I don't understand.” Beatrice leaned over and smoothed
+Rex's sleek shoulder with her hand.
+
+“What do you want to understand it for? The thing is done now. We've got
+the fence-posts strung, and a crew hired to set them.”
+
+“You needn't snap your words like that, Dick. It doesn't matter--only I
+was wondering why Mr. Cameron acted so queer yesterday when I told him
+about it.”
+
+“You told Keith? What did he say?”
+
+“He didn't say anything. He just looked things.”
+
+“Where did you see him?” Dick wanted to know.
+
+“Well, dear me! I don't see that it matters where I saw him. You're
+getting as inquisitive as mama. If you think it concerns you, why, I met
+him accidentally when I was fishing with Dorman. He was coming to see
+you, but you were gone, so he stopped and talked for a few minutes. Was
+there anything so strange about that? And I told him you were leasing
+the Pine Ridge country, and he looked--well, peculiar. But he wouldn't
+say anything.”
+
+“Well, he had good reason for looking peculiar. But you needn't have
+told him I did it, Trix. Lay that at milord's door, where it belongs. I
+don't want Keith to blame me.”
+
+“But why should he blame anybody? It isn't his land, is it?”
+
+“No, it isn't. But--you see, Trix, it's this way: A man goes somewhere
+and buys a ranch--or locates on a claim--and starts into the cattle
+business. He may not own more than a few hundred acres of land, but if
+he has much stock he needs miles of prairie country, with water, for
+them to range on. It's an absolute necessity, you see. He takes care to
+locate where there is plenty of public land that is free to anybody's
+cattle.
+
+“Take the Pool outfit, for instance. We don't own land enough to feed
+one-third of our cattle. We depend on government land for range for
+them. The Cross outfit is the same, only Keith's is on a smaller scale.
+He's got to have range outside his own land, which is mostly hay land.
+This part of the State is getting pretty well settled up with small
+ranchers, and then the sheep men keep crowding in wherever they can get
+a show--and sheep will starve cattle to death; they leave a range as
+bare as a prairie-dog town. So there's only one good bit of range left
+around here, and that's the Pine Ridge country, as it's called. That's
+our main dependence for winter range; and now when this drought has
+struck us, and everything is drying up, we've had to turn all our cattle
+down there on account of water.
+
+“Ever since I took charge of the Pool, Keith and I threw in together and
+used the same range, worked our crews together, and fought the sheepmen
+together. There was a time when they tried to gobble the Pine Ridge
+range, but it didn't go. Keith and I made up our minds that we needed it
+worse than they did--and we got it. Our punchers had every sheep herder
+bluffed out till there wasn't a mutton-chewer could keep a bunch of
+sheep on that range over-night.
+
+“Now, this lease law was made by stockmen, for stockmen. They can lease
+land from the government, fence it--and they've got a cinch on it as
+long as the lease lasts. A cow outfit can corral a heap of range that
+way. There's the trick of leasing every other section or so, and then
+running a fence around the whole chunk; and that's what the Pool has
+done to the Pine Ridge. But you mustn't repeat that, Trix.
+
+“Milord wasn't long getting on to the leasing graft; in fact, it turns
+out the company got wind of it over in England, and sent him over here
+to see what could be done in that line. He's done it, all right enough!
+
+“And there's the Cross outfit, frozen out completely. The Lord only
+knows what Keith will do with his cattle now, for we'll have every drop
+of water under fence inside of a month. He's in a hole, for sure. I
+expect he feels pretty sore with me, too, but I couldn't help it. I
+explained how it was to milord, but--you can't persuade an Englishman,
+any more than you can a--”
+
+“I think,” put in Beatrice firmly, “Sir Redmond did quite right. It
+isn't his fault that Mr. Cameron owns more cattle than he can feed.
+If he was sent over here to lease the land, it was his duty to do so.
+Still, I really am sorry for Mr. Cameron.”
+
+“Keith won't sit down and take his medicine if he can help it,” Dick
+said moodily. “He could sell out, but I don't believe he will. He's more
+apt to fight.”
+
+“I can't see how fighting will help him,” Beatrice returned spiritedly.
+
+“Well, there's one thing,” retorted Dick. “If milord wants that fence to
+stand he'd better stay and watch it. I'll bet money he won't more than
+strike Liverpool till about forty miles, more or less, of Pool fence
+will need repairs mighty bad--which it won't get, so far as I'm
+concerned.”
+
+“Do you mean that Keith Cameron would destroy our fencing?”
+
+Dick grinned. “He'll be a fool if he don't, Trix. You can tell milord
+he'd better send for all his traps, and camp right here till that lease
+runs out. My punchers will have something to do beside ride fence.”
+
+“I shall certainly tell Sir Redmond,” Beatrice threatened. “You and
+Mr. Cameron hate him just because he's English. You won't see what a
+splendid fellow he is. It's your duty to stand by him in this business,
+instead of taking sides with Keith Cameron. Why didn't he lease that
+land himself, if he wanted to?”
+
+“Because he plays fair.”
+
+“Meaning, I suppose, that Sir Redmond doesn't. I didn't think you would
+be so unjust. Sir Redmond is a perfect gentleman.”
+
+“Well, you've got a chance to marry your 'perfect gentleman,” Dick
+retorted, savagely. “It's a wonder you don't take him if you think so
+highly of him.”
+
+“I probably shall. At any rate, he isn't a male flirt.”
+
+“You don't seem to fancy a fellow that can give you as good as you
+send,” Dick rejoined. “I thought you wouldn't find Keith such easy game,
+even if he does live on a cattle ranch. You can't rope him into making a
+fool of himself for your amusement, and I'm glad of it.”
+
+“Don't do your shouting too soon. If you could overhear some of the
+things he says you wouldn't be so sure--”
+
+“I suppose you take them all for their face value,” grinned Dick
+ironically.
+
+“No, I don't! I'm not a simple country girl, let me remind you. Since
+you are so sure of him, I'll have the pleasure of saying, 'No, thank
+you, sir,' to your Keith Cameron--just to convince you I can.”
+
+“Oh, you will! Well, you just tell me when you do, Trix, and I'll give
+you your pick of all the saddle horses on the ranch.”
+
+“I'll take Rex, and you may as well consider him mine. Oh, you men!
+A few smiles, judiciously dispensed, and--” Beatrice smiled most
+exasperatingly at her brother, and Dick went moody and was very poor
+company the rest of the way home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10. Pine Ridge Range Ablaze.
+
+
+At dusk that night a glow was in the southern sky, and the wind carried
+the pungent odor of burning grass. Dick went out on the porch after
+dinner, and sniffed the air uneasily.
+
+“I don't much like the look of it,” he admitted to Sir Redmond. “It
+smells pretty strong, to be across the river. I sent a couple of the
+boys out to look a while ago. If it's this side of the river we'll have
+to get a move on.”
+
+“It will be the range land, I take it, if it's on this side,” Sir
+Redmond remarked.
+
+Just then a man thundered through the lane and up to the very steps of
+the porch, and when he stopped the horse he was riding leaned forward
+and his legs shook with exhaustion.
+
+“The Pine Ridge Range is afire, Mr. Lansell,” the man announced quietly.
+
+Dick took a long pull at his cigar and threw it away. “Have the boys
+throw some barrels and sacks into a wagon--and git!” He went inside and
+grabbed his hat, and when he turned Sir Redmond was at his elbow.
+
+“I'm going, too, Dick,” cried Beatrice, who always seemed to hear
+anything that promised excitement. “I never saw a prairie-fire in my
+life.”
+
+“It's ten miles off,” said Dick shortly, taking the steps at a jump.
+
+“I don't care if it's twenty--I'm going. Sir Redmond, wait for me!”
+
+“Be-atrice!” cried her mother detainingly; but Beatrice was gone to get
+ready. A quick job she made of it; she threw a dark skirt over her
+thin, white one, slipped into the nearest jacket, snatched her
+riding-gauntlets off a chair where she had thrown them, and then
+couldn't find her hat. That, however, did not trouble her. Down in the
+hall she appropriated one of Dick's, off the hall tree, and announced
+herself ready. Sir Redmond laughed, caught her hand, and they raced
+together down to the stables before her mother had fully grasped the
+situation.
+
+“Isn't Rex saddled, Dick?”
+
+Dick, his foot in the stirrup, stopped long enough to glance over his
+shoulder at her. “You ready so soon? Jim, saddle Rex for Miss Lansell.”
+ He swung up into the saddle.
+
+“Aren't you going to wait, Dick?”
+
+“Can't. Milord can bring you.” And Dick was away on the run.
+
+Men were hurrying here and there, every move counting something done.
+While she stood there a wagon rattled out from the shadow of a haystack,
+with empty water-barrels dancing a mad jig behind the high seat, where
+the driver perched with feet braced and a whip in his hand. After him
+dashed four or five riders, silent and businesslike. In a moment they
+were mere fantastic shadows galloping up the hill through the smothery
+gloom.
+
+Then came Jim, leading Rex and a horse for himself; Sir Redmond had
+saddled his gray and was waiting. Beatrice sprang into the saddle and
+took the lead, with nerves a-tingle. The wind that rushed against her
+face was hot and reeking with smoke. Her nostrils drank greedily the
+tang it carried.
+
+“You gipsy!” cried Sir Redmond, peering at her through the murky gloom.
+
+“This--is living!” she laughed, and urged Rex faster.
+
+So they raced recklessly over the hills, toward where the night was
+aglow. Before them the wagon pounded over untrailed prairie sod, with
+shadowy figures fleeing always before.
+
+Here, wild cattle rushed off at either side, to stop and eye them
+curiously as they whirled past. There, a coyote, squatting unseen upon
+a distant pinnacle, howled, long-drawn and quavering, his weird protest
+against the solitudes in which he wandered.
+
+The dusk deepened to dark, and they could no longer see the racing
+shadows. The rattle of the wagon came mysteriously back to them through
+the black.
+
+Once Rex stumbled over a rock and came near falling, but Beatrice only
+laughed and urged him on, unheeding Sir Redmond's call to ride slower.
+
+They splashed through a shallow creek, and came upon the wagon, halted
+that the cowboys might fill the barrels with water. Then they passed by,
+and when they heard them following the wagon no longer rattled glibly
+along, but chuckled heavily under its load.
+
+The dull, red glow brightened to orange. Then, breasting at last a long
+hill, they came to the top, and Beatrice caught her breath at what lay
+below.
+
+A jagged line of leaping flame cut clean through the dark of the coulee.
+The smoke piled rosily above and before, and the sullen roar of it
+clutched the senses--challenging, sinister. Creeping stealthily,
+relentlessly, here a thin gash of yellow hugging close to the earth,
+there a bold, bright wall of fire, it swept the coulee from rim to rim.
+
+“The wind is carrying it from us,” Sir Redmond was saying in her ear.
+“Are you afraid to stop here alone? I ought to go down and lend a hand.”
+
+Beatrice drew a long gasp. “Oh, no, I'm not afraid. Go; there is Dick,
+down there.”
+
+“You're sure you won't mind?” He hesitated, dreading to leave her.
+
+“No, no! Go on--they need you.”
+
+Sir Redmond turned and rode down the ridge toward the flames. His
+straight figure was silhouetted sharply against the glow.
+
+Beatrice slipped off her horse and sat down upon a rock, dead to
+everything but the fiendish beauty of the scene spread out below her.
+Millions of sparks danced in and out among the smoke wreaths which
+curled upward--now black, now red, now a dainty rose. Off to the left a
+coyote yapped shrilly, ending with his mournful howl.
+
+Beatrice shivered from sheer ecstasy. This was a world she had never
+before seen--a world of hot, smoke-sodden wind, of dead-black shadows
+and flame-bright light; of roar and hoarse bellowing and sharp crackles;
+of calm, star-sprinkled sky above--and in the distance the uncanny
+howling of a coyote.
+
+Time had no reckoning there. She saw men running to and fro in the
+glare, disappearing in a downward swirl of smoke, coming to view again
+in the open beyond. Always their arms waved rhythmically downward,
+beating the ragged line of yellow with water-soaked sacks. The trail
+they left was a wavering, smoke-traced rim of sullen black, where before
+had been gay, dancing, orange light. In places the smolder fanned to new
+life behind them and licked greedily at the ripe grass like hungry, red
+tongues. One of these Beatrice watched curiously. It crept slyly into an
+unburned hollow, and the wind, veering suddenly, pushed it out of sight
+from the fighters and sent it racing merrily to the south. The main line
+of fire beat doggedly up against the wind that a minute before had been
+friendly, and fought bravely two foes instead of one. It dodged, ducked,
+and leaped high, and the men beat upon it mercilessly.
+
+But the little, new flame broadened and stood on tiptoes defiantly,
+proud of the wide, black trail that kept stretching away behind it; and
+Beatrice watched it, fascinated by its miraculous growth. It began
+to crackle and send up smoke wreaths of its own, with sparks dancing
+through; then its voice deepened and coarsened, till it roared quite
+like its mother around the hill.
+
+The smoke from the larger fire rolled back with the wind, and Beatrice
+felt her eyes sting. Flakes of blackened grass and ashes rained upon
+the hilltop, and Rex moved uneasily and pawed at the dry sod. To him a
+prairie-fire was not beautiful--it was an enemy to run from. He twitched
+his reins from Beatrice's heedless fingers and decamped toward home,
+paying no attention whatever to the command of his mistress to stop.
+
+Still Beatrice sat and watched the new fire, and was glad she chanced to
+be upon the south end of a sharp-nosed hill, so that she could see
+both ways. The blaze dove into a deep hollow, climbed the slope beyond,
+leaped exultantly and bellowed its challenge. And, of a sudden, dark
+forms sprang upon it and beat it cruelly, and it went black where they
+struck, and only thin streamers of smoke told where it had been. Still
+they beat, and struck, and struck again, till the fire died ingloriously
+and the hillside to the south lay dark and still, as it had been at the
+beginning.
+
+Beatrice wondered who had done it. Then she came back to her
+surroundings and realized that Rex had left her, and she was alone. She
+shivered--this time not in ecstasy, but partly from loneliness--and
+went down the hill toward where Dick and Sir Redmond and the others were
+fighting steadily the larger fire, unconscious of the younger, new one
+that had stolen away from them and was beaten to death around the hill.
+
+Once in the coulee, she was compelled to take to the burnt ground, which
+crisped hotly under her feet and sent up a rank, suffocating smell of
+burned grass into her nostrils. The whole country was alight, and down
+there the world seemed on fire. At times the smoke swooped blindingly,
+and half strangled her. Her skirts, in passing, swept the black ashes
+from grass roots which showed red in the night.
+
+Picking her way carefully around the spots that glowed warningly,
+shielding her face as well as she could from the smoke, she kept on
+until she was close upon the fighters. Dick and Sir Redmond were working
+side by side, the sacks they held rising and falling with the regularity
+of a machine for minutes at a time. A group of strange horsemen galloped
+up from the way she had come, followed by a wagon of water-barrels,
+careering recklessly over the uneven ground. The horsemen stopped just
+inside the burned rim, the horses sidestepping gingerly upon the hot
+turf.
+
+“I guess you want some help here. Where shall we start in?” Beatrice
+recognized the voice. It was Keith Cameron.
+
+“Sure, we do!” Dick answered, gratefully. “Start in any old place.”
+
+“I'm not sure we want your help,” spoke the angry voice of Sir Redmond.
+“I take it you've already done a devilish sight too much.”
+
+“What do you mean by that?” Keith demanded; and then, by the silence, it
+seemed that every one knew. Beatrice caught her breath. Was this one of
+the ways Dick meant that Keith could fight?
+
+“Climb down, boys, and get busy,” Keith called to his men, after a few
+breaths. “This is for Dick. Wait a minute! Pete, drive the wagon ahead,
+there. I guess we'd better begin on the other end and work this way.
+Come on--there's too much hot air here.” They clattered on across the
+coulee, kicking hot ashes up for the wind to seize upon. Beatrice went
+slowly up to Dick, feeling all at once very tired and out of heart with
+it all.
+
+“Dick,” she called, in an anxious little voice, “Rex has run away from
+me. What shall I do?”
+
+Dick straightened stiffly, his hands upon his aching loins, and peered
+through the smoke at her.
+
+“I guess the only thing to do, then, is to get into the wagon over
+there. You can drive, Trix, if you want to, and that will give us
+another man here. I was just going to have some one take you home;
+now--the Lord only knows!--you're liable to have to stay till morning.
+Rex will go home, all right; you needn't worry about him.”
+
+He bent to the work again, and she could hear the wet sack thud, thud
+upon the ground. Other sacks and blankets went thud, thud, and down here
+at close range the fire was not so beautiful as it had been from the
+hilltop. Down here the glamour was gone. She climbed up to the high
+wagon seat and took the reins from the man, who immediately seized upon
+a sack and went off to the fight. She felt that she was out of touch.
+She was out on the prairie at night, miles away from any house, driving
+a water-wagon for the men to put out a prairie fire. She had driven a
+coaching-party once on a wager; but she had never driven a lumber-wagon
+with barrels of water before. She could not think of any girl she knew
+who had.
+
+It was a new experience, certainly, but she found no pleasure in it; she
+was tired and sleepy, and her eyes and throat smarted cruelly with the
+smoke. She looked back to the hill she had just left, and it seemed
+a long, long time since she sat upon a rock up there and watched the
+little, new fire grow and grow, and the strange shadows spring up from
+nowhere and beat it vindictively till it died.
+
+Again she wondered vaguely who had done it; not Keith Cameron, surely,
+for Sir Redmond had all but accused him openly of setting the range
+afire. Would he stamp out a blaze that was just reaching a size to do
+mischief, if left a little longer? No one would have seen it for hours,
+probably. He would undoubtedly have let it run, unless--But who else
+could have set the fire? Who else would want to see the Pine Ridge
+country black and barren? Dick said Keith Cameron would not sit down and
+take his medicine--perhaps Dick knew he would do this thing.
+
+As the fighters moved on across the coulee she drove the wagon to keep
+pace with them. Often a man would run up to the wagon, climb upon a
+wheel and dip a frayed gunny sack into a barrel, lift it out and run
+with it, all dripping, to the nearest point of the fire. Her part was
+to keep the wagon at the most convenient place. She began to feel the
+importance of her position, and to take pride in being always at the
+right spot. From the calm appreciation of the picturesque side, she
+drifted to the keen interest of the one who battles against heavy odds.
+The wind had veered again, and the flames rushed up the long coulee
+like an express train. But the path it left was growing narrower every
+moment. Keith Cameron was doing grand work with his crew upon the other
+side, and the space between them was shortening perceptibly.
+
+Beatrice found herself watching the work of the Cross men. If they were
+doing it for effect, they certainly were acting well their part. She
+wondered what would happen when the two crews met, and the danger was
+over. Would Sir Redmond call Keith Cameron to account for what he had
+done? If he did, what would Keith say? And which side would Dick take?
+Very likely, she thought, he would defend Keith Cameron, and shield him
+if he could.
+
+Beatrice found herself crying quietly, and shivering, though the air was
+sultry with the fire. For the life of her, she could not tell why she
+cried, but she tried to believe it was the smoke in her eyes. Perhaps it
+was.
+
+The sky was growing gray when the two crews met. The orange lights were
+gone, and Dick, with a spiteful flop of the black rag which had been a
+good, new sack, stamped out the last tiny red tongue of the fire. The
+men stood about in awkward silence, panting with heat and weariness. Sir
+Redmond was ostentatiously filling his pipe. Beatrice knew him by his
+straight, soldierly pose. In the drab half-light they were all mere
+black outlines of men, and, for the most part, she could not distinguish
+one from another. Keith Cameron she knew; instinctively by his slim
+height, and by the way he carried his head. Unconsciously, she leaned
+down from the high seat and listened for what would come next.
+
+Keith seemed to be making a cigarette. A match flared and lighted his
+face for an instant, then was pinched out, and he was again only a black
+shape in the half-darkness.
+
+“Well, I'm waiting for what you've got to say, Sir Redmond.” His voice
+cut sharply through the silence. If he had known Beatrice was out there
+in the wagon he would have spoken lower, perhaps.
+
+“I fancy I said all that is necessary just now,” Sir Redmond answered
+calmly. “You know what I think. From now on I shall act.”
+
+“And what are you going to do, then?” Keith's voice was clear and
+unperturbed, as though he asked for the sake of being polite.
+
+“That,” retorted Sir Redmond, “is my own affair. However, since the
+matter concerns you rather closely, I will say that when I have the
+evidence I am confident I shall find, I shall seek the proper channels
+for retribution. There are laws in this country, aimed to protect
+a man's property, I take it. I warn you that I shall not spare--the
+guilty.”
+
+“Dick, it's up to you next. I want to know where you stand.”
+
+“At your back, Keith, right up to the finish. I know you; you fight
+fair.”
+
+“All right, then. I didn't think you'd go back on a fellow. And I tell
+you straight up, Sir Redmond Hayes, I'm not out touching matches to
+range land--not if it belonged to the devil himself. I've got some
+feeling for the dumb brutes that would have to suffer. You can get right
+to work hunting evidence, and be damned! You're dead welcome to all you
+can find; and in this part of the country you won't be able to buy much!
+You know very well you deserve to get your rope crossed, or you wouldn't
+be on the lookout for trouble. Come, boys; let's hit the trail. So long,
+Dick!”
+
+Beatrice watched them troop off to their horses, heard them mount and
+go tearing off across the burned coulee bottom toward home. Dick came
+slowly over to her.
+
+“I expect you're good and tired, sis. You've made a hand, all right, and
+helped us a whole lot, I can tell you. I'll drive now, and we'll hit the
+high places.”
+
+Beatrice smiled wanly. Not one of her Eastern acquaintances would
+have recognized Beatrice Lansell, the society beauty, in this
+remarkable-looking young woman, attired in a most haphazard fashion,
+with a face grimed like a chimney sweep, red eyelids drooping over
+tired, smarting eyes, and disheveled, ash-filled hair topped by a
+man's gray felt hat. When she smiled her teeth shone dead white, like a
+negro's.
+
+Dick regarded her critically, one foot on the wheel hub. “Where did you
+get hold of Keith Cameron's hat?” he inquired.
+
+Beatrice snatched the hat from her head with childish petulance, and
+looked as if she were going to throw it viciously upon the ground. If
+her face had been clean Dick might have seen how the blood had rushed
+into her cheeks; as it was, she was safe behind a mask of soot. She
+placed the hat back upon her head, feeling, privately, a bit foolish.
+
+“I supposed it was yours. I took it off the halltree.” The dignity of
+her tone was superb, but, unfortunately, it did not match her appearance
+of rakish vagabondage.
+
+Dick grinned through a deep layer of soot “Well, it happens to be
+Keith's. He lost it in the wind the other day, and I found it and took
+it home. It's too bad you've worn his hat all night and didn't know it.
+You ought to see yourself. Your own mother won't know you, Trix.”
+
+“I can't look any worse than you do. A negro would be white by
+comparison. Do get in, so we can start! I'm tired to death, and
+half-starved.” After these unamiable remarks, she refused to open her
+lips.
+
+They drove silently in the gray of early morning, and the empty barrels
+danced monotonously their fantastic jig in the back of the wagon.
+Sootyfaced cowboys galloped wearily over the prairie before them, and
+Sir Redmond rode moodily alongside.
+
+Of a truth, the glamour was gone.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11. Sir Redmond Waits His Answer.
+
+
+Beatrice felt distinctly out of sorts the next day, and chose an hour
+for her ride when she felt reasonably secure from unwelcome company. But
+when she went out into the sunshine there was Sir Redmond waiting with
+Rex and his big gray. Beatrice was not exactly elated at the sight, but
+she saw nothing to do but smile and make the best of it. She wanted
+to be alone, so that she could dream along through the hills she had
+learned to love, and think out some things which troubled her, and
+decide just how she had best go about winning Rex for herself; it had
+become quite necessary to her peace of mind that she should teach Dick
+and Keith Cameron a much-needed lesson.
+
+“It has been so long since we rode together,” he apologized. “I hope you
+don't mind my coming along.”
+
+“Oh, no! Why should I mind?” Beatrice smiled upon him in friendly
+fashion. She liked Sir Redmond very much--only she hoped he was
+not going to make love. Somehow, she did not feel in the mood for
+love-making just then.
+
+“I don't know why, I'm sure. But you seem rather fond of riding about
+these hills by yourself. One should never ask why women do things, I
+fancy. It seems always to invite disaster.”
+
+“Does it?” Beatrice was not half-listening. They were passing, just
+then, the suburbs of a “dog town,” and she was never tired of watching
+the prairie-dogs stand upon their burrows, chip-chip defiance until fear
+overtook their impertinence, and then dive headlong deep into the earth.
+“I do think a prairie-dog is the most impudent creature alive and the
+most shrewish. I never pass but I am scolded by these little scoundrels
+till my ears burn. What do you think they say?”
+
+“They're probably inviting you to stop with them and be their queen, and
+are scolding because your heart is hard and you only laugh and ride on.”
+
+“Queen of a prairie-dog town! Dear me! Why this plaintive mood?”
+
+“Am I plaintive? I do not mean to be, I'm sure.”
+
+“You don't appear exactly hilarious,” she told him. “I can't see what is
+getting the matter with us all. Mama and your sister are poor company,
+even for each other, and Dick is like a bear. One can't get a civil word
+out of him. I'm not exactly amiable, myself, either; but I relied upon
+you to keep the mental temperature up to normal, Sir Redmond.”
+
+“Perhaps it's a good thing we shall not stop here much longer. I must
+confess I don't fancy the country--and Mary is downright homesick. She
+wants to get back to her parish affairs; she's afraid some rheumatic old
+woman needs coddling with jelly and wine, and that sort of thing. I've
+promised to hurry through the business here, and take her home. But I
+mean to see that Pine Ridge fence in place before I go; or, at least,
+see it well under way.”
+
+“I'm sure Dick will attend to it properly,” Beatrice remarked, with pink
+cheeks. If she remembered what she had threatened to tell Sir Redmond,
+she certainly could not have asked for a better opportunity. She was
+reminding herself at that moment that she always detested a tale bearer.
+
+“Your brother Dick is a fine fellow, and I have every confidence in
+him; but you must see yourself that he is swayed, more or less, by
+his friendship for--his neighbors. It is only a kindness to take the
+responsibility off his shoulders till the thing is done. I'm sure he
+will feel better to have it so.”
+
+“Yes,” she agreed; “I think you're right. Dick always was very
+soft-hearted, and, right or wrong, he clings to his friends.”
+ Then, rather hastily, as though anxious to change the trend of the
+conversation: “Of course, your sister will insist on keeping Dorman with
+her. I shall miss that little scamp dreadfully, I'm afraid.” The next
+minute she saw that she had only opened a subject she dreaded even more.
+
+“It is something to know that there is even one of us that you will
+miss,” Sir Redmond observed. Something in his tone hurt.
+
+“I shall miss you all,” she said hastily. “It has been a delightful
+summer.”
+
+“I wish I might know just what element made it delightful. I wish--”
+
+“I scarcely think it has been any particular element,” she broke in,
+trying desperately to stave off what she felt in his tone. “I love the
+wild, where I can ride, and ride, and never meet a human being--where
+I can dream and dally and feast my eyes on a landscape man has not
+touched. I have lived most of my life in New York, and I love nature
+so well that I'm inclined to be jealous of her. I want her left free to
+work out all her whims in her own way. She has a keen sense of humor, I
+think. The way she modeled some of these hills proves that she loves
+her little jokes. I have seen where she cut deep, fearsome gashes, with
+sides precipitous, as though she had some priceless treasure hidden away
+in the deep, where man cannot despoil it. And if you plot and plan,
+and try very hard, you may reach the bottom at last and find the
+treasure--nothing. Or, perhaps, a tiny little stream, as jealously
+guarded as though each drop were priceless.”
+
+Sir Richmond rode for a few minutes in silence. When he spoke, it was
+abruptly.
+
+“And is that all? Is there nothing to this delightful summer, after all,
+but your hills?”
+
+“Oh, of course, I--it has all been delightful. I shall hate to go back
+home, I think.” Beatrice was a bit startled to find just how much she
+would hate to go back and wrap herself once more in the conventions of
+society life. For the first time since she could remember, she wanted
+her world to stand still.
+
+Sir Redmond went doggedly to the point he had in mind and heart.
+
+“I hoped, Beatrice, you would count me, too. I've tried to be patient.
+You know, don't you, that I love you?”
+
+“You've certainly told me often enough,” she retorted, in a miserable
+attempt at her old manner.
+
+“And you've put me off, and laughed at me, and did everything under
+heaven but answer me fairly. And I've acted the fool, no doubt. I know
+it. I've no courage before a woman. A curl of your lip, and I was ready
+to cut and run. But I can't go on this way forever--I've got to know.
+I wish I could talk as easy as I can fight; I'd have settled the thing
+long ago. Where other men can plead their cause, I can say just the one
+thing--I love you, Beatrice. When I saw you first, in the carriage I
+loved you then. You had some fur--brown fur--snuggled under your chin,
+and the pink of your cheeks, and your dear, brown eyes shining and
+smiling above--Good God! I've always loved you! From the beginning of
+the world, I think! I'd be good to you, Beatrice, and I believe I could
+make you happy--if you give me the chance.”
+
+Something in Beatrice's throat ached cruelly. It was the truth, and she
+knew it. He did love her, and the love of a brave man is not a thing
+to be thrust lightly aside. But it demanded such a lot in return!
+More, perhaps, than she could give. A love like that--a love that gives
+everything--demands everything in return. Anything less insults it.
+
+She stole a glance at him. Sir Redmond was looking straight before him,
+with the fixed gaze that sees nothing. There was the white line around
+his mouth which Beatrice had seen once before. Again that griping ache
+was in her throat, till she could have cried out with the pain of it.
+She wanted to speak, to say something--anything--which would drive that
+look from his face.
+
+While her mind groped among the jumble of words that danced upon her
+tongue, and that seemed, all of them, so pitifully weak and inadequate,
+she heard the galloping hoofs of a horse pounding close behind. A
+choking cloud of dust swept down upon them, and Keith, riding in the
+midst, reined out to pass. He lifted his hat. His eyes challenged
+Beatrice, swept coldly the face of her companion, and turned again to
+the trail. He swung his heels backward, and Redcloud broke again into
+the tireless lope that carried him far ahead, until there was only a
+brown dot speeding over the prairie.
+
+Sir Redmond waited until Keith was far beyond hearing, then he filled
+his lungs deeply and looked at Beatrice. “Don't you feel you could trust
+me--and love me a little?”
+
+Beatrice was deadly afraid she was going to cry, and she hated weeping
+women above all things. “A little wouldn't do,” she said, with what
+firmness she could muster. “I should want to love you as much--quite as
+much as you deserve, Sir Redmond, or not at all. I'm afraid I can't. I
+wish I could, though. I--I think I should like to love you; but perhaps
+I haven't much heart. I like you very much--better than I ever liked
+any one before; but oh, I wish you wouldn't insist on an answer! I don't
+know, myself, how I feel. I wish you had not asked me--yet. I tried not
+to let you.”
+
+“A man can keep his heart still for a certain time, Beatrice, but not
+for always. Some time he will say what his heart commands, if the
+chance is given him; the woman can't hold him back. I did wait and wait,
+because I thought you weren't ready for me to speak. And--you don't care
+for anybody else?”
+
+“Of course I don't. But I hate to give up my freedom to any one, Sir
+Redmond. I want to be free--free as the wind that blows here always,
+and changes and changes, and blows from any point that suits its whim,
+without being bound to any rule.”
+
+“Do you think I'm an ogre, that will lock you in a dungeon, Beatrice?
+Can't you see that I am not threatening your freedom? I only want the
+right to love you, and make you happy. I should not ask you to go or
+stay where you did not please, and I'd be good to you, Beatrice!”
+
+“I don't think it would matter,” cried Beatrice, “if you weren't. I
+should love you because I couldn't help myself. I hate doing things by
+rule, I tell you. I couldn't care for you because you were good to me,
+and I ought to care; it must be because I can't help myself. And I--”
+ She stopped and shut her teeth hard together; she felt sure she should
+cry in another minute if this went on.
+
+“I believe you do love me, Beatrice, and your rebellious young American
+nature dreads surrender.” He tried to look into her eyes and smile,
+but she kept her eyes looking straight ahead. Then Sir Redmond made
+the biggest blunder of his life, out of the goodness of his heart, and
+because he hated to tease her into promising anything.
+
+“I won't ask you to tell me now, Beatrice,” he said gently. “I want you
+to be sure; I never could forgive myself if you ever felt you had made a
+mistake. A week from to-night I shall ask you once more--and it will be
+for the last time. After that--But I won't think--I daren't think what
+it would be like if you say no. Will you tell me then, Beatrice?”
+
+The heart of Beatrice jumped into her throat. At that minute she was
+very near to saying yes, and having done with it. She was quite sure she
+knew, then, what her answer would be in a week. The smile she gave him
+started Sir Redmond's blood to racing exultantly. Her lips parted a
+little, as if a word were there, ready to be spoken; but she caught
+herself back from the decision. Sir Redmond had voluntarily given her a
+week; well, then, she would take it, to the last minute.
+
+“Yes, I'll tell you a week from to-night, after dinner. I'll race you
+home, Sir Redmond--the first one through the big gate by the stable
+wins!” She struck Rex a blow that made him jump, and darted off down
+the trail that led home, and her teasing laugh was the last Sir Redmond
+heard of her that day; for she whipped into a narrow gulch when the
+first turn hid her from him, and waited until he had thundered by. After
+that she rode complacently, deep into the hills, wickedly pleased at the
+trick she had played him.
+
+Every day during the week that followed she slipped away from him and
+rode away by herself, resolved to enjoy her freedom to the full while
+she had it; for after that, she felt, things would never be quite the
+same.
+
+Every day, when Dick had chance for a quiet word with her, he wanted
+to know who owned Rex--till at last she lost her temper and told him
+plainly that, in her opinion, Keith Cameron had left the country for
+two reasons, instead of one. (For Keith, be it known, had not been seen
+since the day he passed her and Sir Redmond on the trail.) Beatrice
+averred that she had a poor opinion of a man who would not stay and face
+whatever was coming.
+
+There was just one day left in her week of freedom, and Dick still owned
+Rex, with the chances all in his favor for continuing to do so. Still,
+Beatrice was vindictively determined upon one point. Let Keith Cameron
+cross her path, and she would do something she had never done before;
+she would deliberately lead him on to propose--if the fellow had nerve
+enough to do so, which, she told Dick, she doubted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12. Held Up by Mr. Kelly.
+
+
+“'Traveler, what lies over the hill?'” questioned a mischievous voice.
+
+Keith, dreaming along a winding, rock-strewn trail in the canyon, looked
+up quickly and beheld his Heart's Desire sitting calmly upon her horse,
+ten feet before Redcloud's nose, watching him amusedly. Redcloud must
+have been dreaming also, or he would have whinnied warning and welcome,
+with the same breath.
+
+“'Traveler, tell to me,'” she went on, seeing Keith only stared.
+
+Keith, not to be outdone, searched his memory hurriedly for the reply
+which should rightly follow; secretly he was amazed at her sudden
+friendliness.
+
+“'Child, there's a valley over there'--but it isn't 'pretty and wooded
+and shy'--not what you can notice. And there isn't any 'little town,'
+either, unless you go a long way. Why?” Keith rested his gloved hands,
+one above the other, on the saddle horn, and let his eyes riot with the
+love that was in him. He had not seen his Heart's Desire for a week. A
+week? It seemed a thousand years! And here she was before him, unusually
+gracious.
+
+“Why? I discovered that hill two hours ago, it seems to me, and it
+wasn't more than a mile off. I want to see what lies on the other side.
+I feel sure no man ever stood upon the top and looked down. It is my
+hill--mine by the right of discovery. But I've been going, and going,
+and I think it's rather farther away, if anything, than it was before.”
+
+“Good thing I met you'” Keith declared, and he looked as if he meant it.
+“You're probably lost, right now, and don't know it. Which way is home?”
+
+Beatrice smiled a superior smile, and pointed.
+
+“I thought so,” grinned Keith joyously. “You're pointing straight toward
+Claggett.”
+
+“It doesn't matter,” said Beatrice, “since you know, and you're here.
+The important thing is to get to the top of that hill.”
+
+“What for?” Keith questioned.
+
+“Why, to be there!” Beatrice opened her big eyes at him. “That,” she
+declared whimsically, “is the top of the world, and it is mine. I found
+it. I want to go up there and look down.”
+
+“It's an unmerciful climb,” Keith demurred hypocritically, to strengthen
+her resolution.
+
+“All the better. I don't value what comes easily.”
+
+“You won't see anything, except more hills.”
+
+“I love hills--and more hills.”
+
+“You're a long way from home, and it's after one o'clock.”
+
+“I have a lunch with me, and I often stay out until dinner time.”
+
+Keith gave a sigh that shook the saddle, making up, in volume, what
+it lacked in sincerity. The blood in him was a-jump at the prospect of
+leading his Heart's Desire up next the clouds--up where the world was
+yet young. A man in love is fond of self-torture.
+
+“I have not said you must go.” Beatrice answered with the sigh.
+
+“You don't have to,” he retorted. “It is a self evident fact. Who wants
+to go prowling around these hills by night, with a lantern that smokes
+an' has an evil smell, losing sleep and yowling like a bunch of coyotes,
+hunting a misguided young woman who thinks north is south, and can't
+point straight up?”
+
+“You draw a flattering picture, Mr. Cameron.”
+
+“It's realistic. Do you still insist upon getting up there, for the
+doubtful pleasure of looking down?” Secretly, he hoped so.
+
+“Certainly.”
+
+“Then I shall go with you.”
+
+“You need not. I can go very well by myself, Mr. Cameron.”
+
+Beatrice was something of a hypocrite herself.
+
+“I shall go where duty points the way.”
+
+“I hope it points toward home, then.”
+
+“It doesn't, though. It takes the trail you take.”
+
+“I never yet allowed my wishes to masquerade as Disagreeable Duty, with
+two big D's,” she told him tartly, and started off.
+
+“Say! If you're going up that hill, this is the trail. You'll bump up
+against a straight cliff if you follow that path.”
+
+Beatrice turned with seeming reluctance and allowed him to guide her,
+just as she had intended he should do.
+
+“Dick tells me you have been away,” she began suavely.
+
+“Yes. I've just got back from Fort Belknap,” he explained quietly,
+though he must have known his absence had been construed differently.
+“I've rented pasturage on the reservation for every hoof I own. Great
+grass over there--the whole prairie like a hay meadow, almost, and
+little streams everywhere.”
+
+“You are very fortunate,” Beatrice remarked politely.
+
+“Luck ought to come my way once in a while. I don't seem to get more
+than my share, though.”
+
+“Dick will be glad to know you have a good range for your cattle, Mr.
+Cameron.”
+
+“I expect he will. You may tell him, for me, that Jim Worthington--he's
+the agent over there, and was in college with us--says I can have my
+cattle there as long as he's running the place.”
+
+“Why not tell him yourself?” Beatrice asked.
+
+“I don't expect to be over to the Pool ranch for a while.” Keith's tone
+was significant, and Beatrice dropped the subject.
+
+“Been fishing lately?” he asked easily, as though he had not left her
+that day in a miff. “No. Dorman is fickle, like all male creatures.
+Dick brought him two little brown puppies the other day, and now he can
+hardly be dragged from the woodshed to his meals. I believe he would eat
+and sleep with them if his auntie would allow him to.”
+
+The trail narrowed there, and they were obliged to ride single file,
+which was not favorable to conversation. Thus far, Beatrice thought, she
+was a long way from winning her wager; but she did not worry--she looked
+up to where the hill towered above them, and smiled.
+
+“We'll have to get off and lead our horses over this spur,” he told her,
+at last. “Once on the other side, we can begin to climb. Still in the
+humor to tackle it?”
+
+“To be sure I am. After all this trouble I shall not turn back.”
+
+“All right,” said Keith, inwardly shouting. If his Heart's Desire wished
+to take a climb that would last a good two hours, he was not there to
+object. He led her up a steep, rock-strewn ridge and into a hollow. From
+there the hill sloped smoothly upward.
+
+“I'll just anchor these cayuses to a rock, to make dead-sure of them,”
+ Keith remarked. “It wouldn't be fun to be set afoot out here; now, would
+it? How would you like the job of walking home, eh?”
+
+“I don't think I'd enjoy it much,” Beatrice said, showing her one dimple
+conspicuously. “I'd rather ride.”
+
+“Throw up your hands!” growled a voice from somewhere.
+
+Keith wheeled toward the sound, and a bullet spatted into the yellow
+clay, two inches from the toe of his boot. Also, a rifle cracked
+sharply. He took the hint, and put his hands immediately on a level with
+his hat crown.
+
+“No use,” he called out ruefully. “I haven't anything to return the
+compliment with.”
+
+“Well, I've got t' have the papers fur that, mister,” retorted the
+voice, and a man appeared from the shelter of a rock and came slowly
+down to them--a man, long-legged and lank, with haggard, unshaven face
+and eyes that had hunger and dogged endurance looking out. He picked his
+way carefully with his feet, his eyes and the rifle fixed unswervingly
+at the two. Beatrice was too astonished to make a sound.
+
+“What sort of a hold-up do you call this?” demanded Keith hotly, his
+hands itching to be down and busy. “We don't carry rolls of money around
+in the hills, you fool!”
+
+“Oh, damn your money!” the man said roughly. “I've got money t' burn.
+I want t' trade horses with yuh. That roan, there, looks like a stayer.
+I'll take him.”
+
+“Well, seeing you seem to be head push here, I guess it's a trade,”
+ Keith answered. “But I'll thank you for my own saddle.”
+
+Beatrice, whose hands were up beside her ears, and not an inch higher,
+changed from amazed curiosity to concern. “Oh, you mustn't take Redcloud
+away from Mr. Cameron!” she protested. “You don't know--he's so fond
+of that horse! You may take mine; he's a good horse--he's a perfectly
+splendid horse, but I--I'm not so attached to him.”
+
+The fellow stopped and looked at her--not, however, forgetting Keith,
+who was growing restive. Beatrice's cheeks were very pink, and her eyes
+were bright and big and earnest. He could not look into them without
+letting some of the sternness drop out of his own.
+
+“I wish you'd please take Rex--I'd rather trade than not,” she coaxed.
+When Beatrice coaxed, mere man must yield or run. The fellow was but
+human, and he was not in a position to run, so he grinned and wavered.
+
+“It's fair to say you'll get done,” he remarked, his eyes upon the
+odd little dimple at the corner of her mouth, as if he had never seen
+anything quite so fetching.
+
+“Your horse won't cr--buck, will he?” she ventured doubtfully. This was
+her first horse trade, and it behooved her to be cautious, even at the
+point of a rifle.
+
+“Well, no,” said the man laconically; “he won't. He's dead.”
+
+“Oh!” Beatrice gasped and blushed. She might have known, she thought,
+that the fellow would not take all this trouble if his horse was in a
+condition to buck. Then: “My elbows hurt. I--I think I should like to
+sit down.”
+
+“Sure,” said the man politely. “Make yourself comfortable. I ain't used
+t' dealin' with ladies. But you got t' set still, yuh know, and not try
+any tricks. I can put up a mighty swift gun play when I need to--and
+your bein' a lady wouldn't cut no ice in a case uh that kind.”
+
+“Thank you.” Beatrice sat down upon the nearest rock, folded her hands
+meekly and looked from him to Keith, who seethed to claim a good deal of
+the man's attention. She observed that, at a long breath from Keith, his
+captor was instantly alert.
+
+“Maybe your elbows ache, too,” he remarked dryly. “They'll git over it,
+though; I've knowed a man t' grab at the clouds upwards of an hour, an'
+no harm done.”
+
+“That's encouraging, I'm sure.” Keith shifted to the other foot.
+
+“How's that sorrel?” demanded the man. “Can he go?”
+
+Keith hesitated a second.
+
+“Indeed he can go!” put in Beatrice eagerly. “He's every bit as good as
+Redcloud.”
+
+“Is that sorrel yours?” The man's eyes shifted briefly to her face.
+
+“No-o.” Beatrice, thinking how she had meant to own him, blushed.
+
+“That accounts for it.” He laughed unpleasantly. “I wondered why you was
+so dead anxious t' have me take him.”
+
+The eyes of Beatrice snapped sparks at him, but her manner was demure,
+not to say meek. “He belongs to my brother,” she explained, “and my
+brother has dozens of good saddle-horses. Mr. Cameron's horse is a pet.
+It's different when a horse follows you all over the place and fairly
+talks to you. He'll shake hands, and--”
+
+“Uh-huh, I see the point, I guess. What d'yuh say, kid?”
+
+Keith might seem boyish, but he did not enjoy being addressed as “kid.”
+ He was twenty-eight years old, whether he looked it or not.
+
+“I say this: If you take my horse, I'll kill you. I'll have twenty-five
+cow-punchers camping on your trail before sundown. If you take this
+girl's horse, I'll do the same.”
+
+The man shut his lips in a thin line.
+
+“No, he won't!” cried Beatrice, leaning forward. “Don't mind a thing he
+says! You can't expect a man to keep his temper with his hands up in the
+air like that. You take Rex, and I'll promise for Mr. Cameron.”
+
+“Trix--Miss Lansell!”--sternly.
+
+“I promise you he won't do a thing,” she went on firmly. “He--he isn't
+half as fierce, really, as--as he looks.”
+
+Keith's face got red.
+
+The man laughed a little. Evidently the situation amused him, whether
+the others could see the humor of it or not. “So I'm to have your
+cayuse, eh?”
+
+Keith saw two big tears tipping over her lower lids, and gritted his
+teeth.
+
+“Well, it ain't often I git a chance t' please a lady,” the fellow
+decided. “I guess Rex'll do, all right. Go over and change saddles,
+youngster--and don't git gay. I've got the drop, and yuh notice I'm
+keeping it.”
+
+“Are you going to take his saddle?” Beatrice stood up and clenched her
+hands, looking very much as if she would like to pull his hair. Keith in
+trouble appealed to her strangely.
+
+“Sure thing. It's a peach, from the look of it. Mine's over the hill a
+piece. Step along there, kid! I want t' be movin'.”
+
+“You'll need to go some!” flared Keith, over his shoulder.
+
+“I expect t' go some,” retorted the man. “A fellow with three sheriff's
+posses campin' on his trail ain't apt t' loiter none.”
+
+“Oh!” Beatrice sat down and stared. “Then you must be--”
+
+“Yep,” the fellow laughed recklessly. “You ca, tell your maw yuh met up
+with Kelly, the darin' train-robber. I wouldn't be s'prised if she close
+herded yuh fer a spell till her scare wears off. Bu I've hung around
+these parts long enough. I fooled them sheriffs a-plenty, stayin' here.
+Gee! you'r' swift--I don't think!” This last sentence was directed at
+Keith, who was putting a snail to shame, and making it appear he was in
+a hurry.
+
+“Git a move on!” commanded Kelly, threatening with his eyes.
+
+Keith wisely made no reply--nor did he show any symptoms of haste,
+despite the menacing tone Slowly he pulled his saddle off Redcloud,
+and carefully he placed it upon the ground. When a fellow lives in
+his saddle, almost, he comes to think a great deal of it, and he is
+reluctant under any circumstances, to surrender it to another; to have
+a man deliberately confiscate it with the authority which lies in a lump
+of lead the size of a child thumb is not pleasant.
+
+Through Keith's brain flashed a dozen impracticable plans, and one that
+offered a slender--very slender--chance of success. If he could get
+a little closer! He moved over beside Rex an unbuckling the cinch of
+Beatrice's saddle, pulled it sullenly off.
+
+“Now, put your saddle on that there Rex horse, and cinch it tight!”
+
+Keith picked up the saddle--his saddle, and threw it across Rex's back,
+raging inwardly at his helplessness. To lose his saddle worse, to let
+Beatrice lose her horse. Lord! a pretty figure he must cut in her eyes!
+
+“Dry weather we're havin',” Kelly remarked politely to Beatrice;
+without, however, looking in her direction. “Prairie fires are gittin'
+t' be the regular thing, I notice.”
+
+Beatrice studied his face, and found no ulterior purpose for the words.
+
+“Yes,” she agreed, as pleasantly as she could, in view of the
+disquieting circumstances. “I helped fight a prairie-fire last week over
+this way. We were out all night.”
+
+“Prairie-fires is mean things t' handle, oncet they git started. I
+always hate t' see 'em git hold of the grass. What fire was that you
+mention?”
+
+Beatrice glanced toward Keith, and was thankful his back was turned to
+her. But a quick suspicion had come to her, and she went steadily on
+with the subject.
+
+“It was the Pine Ridge country. It started very mysteriously.”
+
+“It wasn't no mystery t' me.” Kelly laughed grimly. “I started that
+there blaze myself accidentally. I throwed a cigarette down, thinkin'
+it had gone out. After a while I seen a blaze where I'd jest left, but
+I didn't have no license t' go back an' put it out--my orders was to git
+out uh that. I seen the sky all lit up that night. Kid, are yuh goin' t'
+sleep?”
+
+Keith started. He had been listening, and thanking his lucky star that
+Beatrice was listening also. If she had suspected him of setting the
+range afire, she knew better now. A weight lifted off Keith's shoulders,
+and he stood a bit straighter; those chance words meant a great deal
+to him, and he felt that he would not grudge his saddle in payment. But
+Rex--that was another matter. Beatrice should not lose him if he could
+prevent it; still, what could he do?
+
+He might turn and spring upon Kelly, but in the meantime Kelly would
+not be idle; he would probably be pumping bullets out of the rifle into
+Keith's body--and he would still have the horse. He stole a glance at
+Beatrice, and went hot all over at what he thought he read in her eyes.
+For once he was not glad to be near his Heart's Desire; he wished her
+elsewhere--anywhere but sitting on that rock, over there, with her
+little, gloved hands folded quietly in her lap, and that adorable,
+demure look on her face--the look which would have put her mother
+instantly upon the defensive--and a gleam in her eyes Keith read for
+scorn.
+
+Surely he might do something! Barely six feet now separated him from
+Kelly. If one of those lumps of rock that strewed the ground was in
+his hand--he stooped to reach under Rex's body for the cinch, and could
+almost feel Kelly's eyes boring into his back. A false move--well, Keith
+had heard of Kelly a good many times; if this fellow was really the
+man he claimed to be, Keith did not need to guess what would follow a
+suspicious move; he knew. He looked stealthily toward him, and Kelly's
+eyes met his with a gleam sinister.
+
+Kelly grinned. “I wouldn't, kid,” he said softly.
+
+Keith swore in a whisper, and his fingers closed upon the cinch. It was
+no use to fight the devil with cunning, he thought, bitterly.
+
+Just then Beatrice gave an unearthly screech, that made the horses'
+knees bend under them. When Keith whirled to see what it was, she was
+standing upon the rock, with her skirts held tightly around her, like
+the pictures of women when a mouse gets into the room.
+
+“Oh, Mr. Cameron! A sn-a-a-ke!”
+
+Came a metallic br-r-r, the unmistakable war cry of the rattler. Into
+Kelly's eyes came a look of fear, and he sidled gingerly. The buzz had
+sounded unpleasantly close to his heels. For one brief instant the cold
+eye of his rifle regarded harmlessly the hillside. During that instant a
+goodly piece of sandstone whinged under his jaw, and he went down, with
+Keith upon him like a mountain lion. The latter snatched the rifle
+and got up hurriedly, for he had not forgotten the rattler. Kelly lay
+looking up at him in a dazed way that might have been funny at any other
+time.
+
+“I wondered if you were good at grasping opportunities,” said Beatrice.
+When he looked, there she was, sitting down on the rock, with her
+little, gloved hands folded in her lap, and that adorable demure look on
+her face; and a gleam in her eyes he knew was not scorn, though he could
+not rightly tell what it really did mean.
+
+Keith wondered at her vaguely, but a man can't have his mind on a dozen
+things at once. It was important that he keep a sharp watch on Kelly,
+and his eyes were searching for a gleaming, gray spotted coil which he
+felt to be near.
+
+“You needn't look, Mr. Cameron. There isn't any snake. It--it was I.”
+
+“You!” Keith's jaw dropped.
+
+“Look out, Mr. Cameron. It wouldn't work a second time, I'm afraid.”
+
+Keith turned back before Kelly had more than got to his elbow; plainly
+Kelly was not feeling well just then. He looked unhappy, and rather
+sick.
+
+“If you'll hand me the gun, Mr. Cameron, I think I can hold it steady
+while you fix the saddles. And then we'll go home. I--I don't think I
+really care to climb the hill.”
+
+What Keith wanted to do was to take her in his arms and kiss her till
+he was tired. What he did do was back toward her, and let her take the
+rifle quickly and deftly from his hands. She rested the gun upon
+her knee, and brought it to bear upon Mr. Kelly with a composure not
+assuring to that gentleman, and she tried to look as if she really and
+truly would shoot a man--and managed to look only the more kissable.
+
+“Don't squirm, Mr. Kelly. I won't bite, if I do buzz sometimes.”
+
+Kelly stared at her meditatively a minute, and said: “Well, I'll be
+damned!”
+
+Keith looked at her also, but he did not say anything.
+
+The way he slapped his saddle back upon Redcloud and cinched it, and
+saddled Rex, was a pretty exhibition of precision and speed, learned in
+roundup camps. Kelly watched him grimly.
+
+“I knowed you wasn't as swift as yuh knew how 't be, a while back,”
+ he commented. “I've got this t' say fur you two: You're a little the
+toughest proposition I ever run up ag'inst--and I've been up ag'inst it
+good and plenty.”
+
+“Thanks,” Keith said cheerfully. “You'd better take Rex now and go
+ahead, Miss Lansell. I'll take that gun and look after this fellow. Get
+up, Kelly.”
+
+“What are you going to do with him?”
+
+Kelly got unsteadily upon his feet. Beatrice looked at him, and then at
+Keith. She asked a question.
+
+“March him home, and send him in to the nearest sheriff.” Keith was
+businesslike, and his tone was crisp.
+
+Beatrice's eyes turned again to Kelly. He did not whine, or beg, or
+even curse. He stood looking straight before him, at something only his
+memory could see, and in his face was weariness, and a deep loneliness,
+and a certain, grim despair. There was an ugly bruise where the rock had
+struck, but the rest of his face was drawn and white.
+
+“If you do that,” cried Beatrice, in a voice hardly more than a fierce
+whisper, “I shall hate you always. You are not a man-hunter. Let him
+stay here, and take his chance in the hills.”
+
+Keith was not a hard man to persuade into being merciful. “It's easy
+enough to say yes, Miss Lansell. I always was chicken-hearted when a
+fellow seemed down on his luck. You can stay here, Kelly--I don't want
+you, anyway.” He laughed boyishly and irresponsibly, for he felt that
+Kelly had done him a service that day.
+
+Beatrice flashed him a smile that went to his head and made him dizzy,
+and took up Rex's bridle rein. She hesitated, looked doubtfully at
+Kelly, who stood waiting stoically, and turned to her saddle. She untied
+a bundle and went quickly over to him.
+
+“You--I don't want my lunch, after all. I'm going home now. I--I want
+you to take it, please. There are some sandwiches--with veal loaf, that
+Looey Sam makes deliciously--and some cake. I--I wish it was more. I
+know you'll like the veal loaf.”
+
+Kelly looked down at her, and God knows what thoughts were in his mind.
+He did not answer her with words; he just swallowed hard.
+
+“Poor devil!” was what Keith said to himself, and the gun he was holding
+threatened, for a minute, to wing a cloud.
+
+Beatrice laid the package in Kelly's unresisting hand, looked up into
+his averted face and said simply: “Good-by, Mr. Kelly.”
+
+After that she hurried Rex up the steep ridge much faster than she
+had gone down it, endangering his bones and putting herself very empty
+lunged.
+
+At the top of the ridge Keith stopped and looked down.
+
+“Hi, Kelly!”
+
+Kelly showed that he heard.
+
+“Here's your gun, on this rock. You can come up and get it, if you want
+to. And--say! I've got a few broke horses ranging down here somewhere.
+VN brand, on left shoulder. I won't scour the hills, very bad, if I
+should happen to miss a cayuse. So long!”
+
+Kelly waved his hand for farewell.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13. Keith's Masterful Wooing.
+
+
+Keith faced toward home, with Redcloud following at his heels like a pet
+dog. For some reason, which he did not try to analyze, he was feeling
+light of heart--as though something very nice had happened to him.
+It might have been the unexpected clearing up of the mystery of the
+prairie-fire, though he was not dwelling particularly upon that. He
+was thinking a great deal more of Beatrice's blue-brown eyes, which had
+never been more baffling, so far as he knew. And his blood was still
+dancing with the smile she had given him; it hardly seemed possible that
+a girl could smile just like that and not mean anything.
+
+When he reached the level, where she was waiting for him, he saw that
+she had her arms around the neck of her horse, and that she was crying
+dismally, heart-brokenly, with an abandon that took no thought of his
+presence. Keith had never seen a girl cry like that before. He had
+seen them dab at their eyes with their handkerchief, and smile the next
+breath--but this was different. For a minute he didn't quite know what
+to do; he could hear the blood hammering against his temples while he
+stood dumbly watching her. He went hesitatingly up, and laid a gloved
+hand deprecatingly upon her shoulder.
+
+“Don't do that, Miss Lansell! The fellow isn't worth it. He's only
+living the life he chose for himself, and he doesn't mind, not half
+as much as you imagine. I know how you feel--I felt sorry for him
+myself--but he doesn't deserve it, you know.” He stopped; not being
+able, just at the moment, to think of anything more to say about Kelly.
+Beatrice, who had not been thinking of Kelly at all, but remorsefully of
+a fellow she had persisted in misjudging, only cried the harder.
+
+“Don't--don't cry like that! I--Miss Lansell--Trix--darling!” Keith's
+self-control snapped suddenly, like a rope when the strain becomes too
+great. He caught her fiercely in his arms, and crushed her close against
+him.
+
+Beatrice stopped crying, and gasped.
+
+“Trixie, if you must cry, I wish you'd cry for me. I'm about as
+miserable a man--I want you so! God made you for me, and I'm starving
+for the feel of your lips on mine.” Then Keith, who was nothing if not
+daring, once he was roused, bent and kissed her without waiting to see
+if he might--and not only once, but several times.
+
+Beatrice made a half-hearted attempt to get free of his arms, but Keith
+was not a fool--he held her closer, and laughed from pure, primitive
+joy.
+
+“Mr. Cameron!” It was Beatrice's voice, but it had never been like that
+before.
+
+“I think you might call me Keith,” he cut in. “You've got to begin some
+time, and now is as good a time as any.”
+
+“You--you're taking a good deal for granted,” she said, wriggling
+unavailingly in his arms.
+
+“A man's got to, with a girl like you. You're so used to turning a
+fellow down I believe you'd do it just from habit.”
+
+“Indeed?” She was trying to be sarcastic and got kissed for her pains.
+
+“Yes, 'indeed.'” He mimicked her tone. “I want you. I want you! I wanted
+you long before I ever saw you. And so I'm not taking any chances--I
+didn't dare, you see. I just had to take you first, and ask you
+afterward.”
+
+Beatrice laughed a little, with tears very close to her lashes, and
+gave up. What was the use of trying to resist this masterful fellow, who
+would not even give her a chance to refuse him? She did not know quite
+how to say no to a man who did not ask her to say yes. But the queer
+part, to her, was the feeling that she would have hated to say no,
+anyway. It never occurred to her, till afterward, that she might
+have stood upon a pedestal of offended dignity and cried, “Unhand me,
+villain!”--and that, if she had, Keith would undoubtedly have complied
+instantly. As it was, she just laughed softly, and blushed a good deal.
+
+“I believe mama is right about you, after all,” she said wickedly. “At
+heart, you're a bold highwayman.”
+
+“Maybe. I know I'd not stand and see some other fellow walk off with my
+Heart's Desire, without putting up a fight. It did look pretty blue
+for me, though, and I was afraid--but it's all right now, isn't it?
+Possession is nine points in law, they say, and I've got you now! I'm
+going to keep you, too. When are you going to come over and take charge
+of the Cross ranch?”
+
+“Dear me!” said Beatrice, snuggling against his shoulder, and finding
+it the best place in the world to be. “I never said I was going to take
+charge at all!” Then the impulse of confession seized her. “Will you
+hate me, if I tell you something?”
+
+“I expect I will,” Keith assented, his eyes positively idolatrous. “What
+is it, girlie?”
+
+“Well, I--it was Dick's fault; I never would have thought of such a
+thing if he hadn't goaded me into it--but--well, I was going to make
+you propose, on a wager--” The brown head of Beatrice went down out of
+sight, on his arm. “I was going to refuse you--and get Rex--”
+
+“I know.” Keith held her closer than ever. “Dick rode over and told me
+that day. And I wasn't going to give you a chance, missy. If you hadn't
+started to cry, here-- Oh! what's the use? You didn't refuse me--and
+you're not going to, either, are you, girlie?”
+
+Beatrice intimated that there was no immediate danger of such a thing
+happening.
+
+“You see, Dick and I felt that you belonged to me, by rights. I fell in
+love with a picture of you, that you sent him--that one taken in your
+graduation gown--and I told Dick I was going to take the next train
+East, and carry you off by force, if I couldn't get you any other way.
+But Dick thought I'd stand a better show to wait till he'd coaxed you
+out here. We had it all fixed, that you'd come and find a prairie knight
+that was ready to fight for you, and he'd make you like him, whether
+you wanted to or not; and then he'd keep you here, and we'd all be happy
+ever after. And Dick would pull out of the Northern Pool--and of course
+you would--and we'd have a company of our own. Oh! we had some great
+castles built out here on the prairie, let me tell you! And then, when
+you finally came here, you had milord tagging along--and you thinking
+you were in love with him! Maybe you think I wasn't shaky, girlie! The
+air castles got awfully wobbly, and it looked like they were going to
+cave in on us. But I was bound to stay in the game if I could, and Dick
+did all he could to get you to looking my way--and it's all right, isn't
+it, Trixie?” Keith kept recurring to the ecstatic realization that it
+was all right.
+
+Beatrice meditated for a minute.
+
+“I never dreamed--Dick never even mentioned you in any of his letters,”
+ she said, in a rather dazed tone. “And when I came he made me believe
+you were a horrible flirt, and I never can resist the temptation to
+measure lances.”
+
+“And take a fall out of a male flirt,” Keith supplemented. “Dick,” he
+went on sententiously and slangily, “was dead onto his job.” After that
+he helped her into the saddle, and they rode blissfully homeward.
+
+Near the ranch they met Dick, who pulled up and eyed them anxiously at
+first, and then with a broad smile.
+
+“Say, Trix,” he queried slyly, “who does Rex belong to?”
+
+Keith came to the rescue promptly, just as a brave knight should. “You,”
+ he retorted. “But I tell you right now, he won't very long. You're going
+to do the decent thing and give him to Trixie--for a wedding present.”
+
+Dick looked as though Trix was welcome to any thing he possessed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14. Sir Redmond Gets His answer.
+
+
+“Before long, dear, we shall get on the great ship, and ride across the
+large, large ocean, and be at home. You will be delighted to see Peggy,
+and Rupert, and the dogs, won't you, dear?” Miss Hayes, her cheeks
+actually getting some color into them at the thought of going home,
+buttered a fluffy biscuit for her idol.
+
+Dorman took two bites while he considered. “Rupert'll want my little
+wheels, for my feet, what Mr. Cam'ron gave me--but he can't have 'em,
+dough. I 'spect he'll be mad. I wonder what'll Peggy say bout my two
+puppies. I've got to take my two puppies wis me. Will dey get sick
+riding on de water, auntie? Say, will dey?”
+
+“I--I think not, dear,” ventured his auntie cautiously. His auntie was a
+conscientious woman, and she knew very little about puppies.
+
+“Be'trice will help me take care of dem if dey're sick,” he remarked
+comfortably.
+
+Then something in his divinity's face startled his assurance. “You's
+going wis us, isn't you, Be'trice? I want you to help take care of my
+two puppies. Martha can't, 'cause she slaps dere ears. Is you going wis
+us, Be'trice?”
+
+This, at the dinner table, was, to say the least,
+embarrassing--especially on this especial evening, when Beatrice was
+trying to muster courage to give Sir Redmond the only answer it was
+possible to give him now. It was an open secret that, in case she had
+accepted him, the home-going of Miss Hayes would be delayed a bit, when
+they would all go together. Beatrice had overheard her mother and Miss
+Hayes discussing this possibility only the day before. She undertook the
+impossible, and attempted to head Dorman off.
+
+“Perhaps you'll see a whale, honey. The puppies never saw a whale, I'm
+sure. What do you suppose they'd think?”
+
+“Is you going?”
+
+“You'd have to hold them up high, you know, so they could see, and show
+them just where to look, and--”
+
+“Is you going, Be'trice?”
+
+Beatrice sent a quick, despairing glance around the table. Four pairs of
+eyes were fixed upon her with varying degrees of interest and anxiety.
+The fifth pair--Dick's--were trying to hide their unrighteous glee by
+glaring down at the chicken wing on his plate. Beatrice felt a strong
+impulse to throw something at him. She gulped and faced the inevitable.
+It must come some time, she thought, and it might as well be now--though
+it did seem a pity to spoil a good dinner for every one but Dick, who
+was eating his with relish.
+
+“No, honey”--her voice was clear and had the note of finality--“I'm not
+going--ever.”
+
+Sir Redmond's teeth went together with a click, and he picked up the
+pepper shaker mechanically and peppered his salad until it was perfectly
+black, and Beatrice wondered how he ever expected to eat it. Mrs.
+Lansell dropped her fork on the floor, and had to have a clean one
+brought. Miss Hayes sent a frightened glance at her brother. Dick sat
+and ate fried chicken.
+
+“Why, Be'trice? I wants you to--and de puppies'll need you--and auntie,
+and--” Dorman gathered himself for the last, crushing argument--“and
+Uncle Redmon' wants you awf'lly!”
+
+Beatrice took a sip of ice water, for she needed it.
+
+“Why, Be'trice? Gran-mama'll let you go, guess. Can't she go,
+gran'mama?”
+
+It was Mrs. Lansell's turn to test the exquisite torture of that prickly
+chill along the spine. Like Beatrice, she dodged.
+
+“Little boys,” she announced weakly, “should not speak until they're
+spoken to.”
+
+Dick came near strangling on a shred of chicken.
+
+“Can't she go, gran'mama? Say, can't she? Tell Be'trice to go home wis
+us, gran'mama!”
+
+“Beatrice”--Mrs. Lansell swallowed--“is not a little child any longer,
+Dorman. She is a woman and can do as she likes. I”--she was speaking to
+the whole group--“I can only advise her.”
+
+Dorman gave a squeal of triumph. “See? You can go, Be'trice! Gran'mama
+says you can go. You will go, won't you, Be'trice? Say yes!”
+
+“No!” said Beatrice, with desperate emphasis. “I won't.”
+
+“I want--Be'trice--to go-o!” Dorman slid down upon his shoulder blades,
+gave a squeal which was not triumph, but temper, and kicked the table
+till every dish on it danced.
+
+“Dorman sit up!” commanded his auntie. “Dorman, stop, this instant! I'm
+ashamed of you; where is my good little man? Redmond.”
+
+Sir Redmond seemed glad of the chance to do something besides sit
+quietly in his place and look calm. He got up deliberately, and in two
+minutes, or less, Dorman was in the woodshed with him, making sounds
+that frightened his puppies dreadfully and put the coyotes to shame.
+
+Beatrice left the table hurriedly to escape the angry eyes of her
+mother. The sounds in the woodshed had died to a subdued sniffling, and
+she retreated to the front porch, hoping to escape observation. There
+she nearly ran against Sir Redmond, who was staring off into the dusk to
+where the moon was peering redly over a black pinnacle of the Bear Paws.
+
+She would have slipped back into the house, but he did not give her the
+chance. He turned and faced her steadily, as he had more than once faced
+the Boers, when he knew that before him was nothing but defeat.
+
+“So you're not going to England ever?”
+
+Pride had squeezed every shade of emotion from his voice.
+
+“No.” Beatrice gripped her fingers together tightly.
+
+“Are you sure you won't be sorry--afterward?”
+
+“Yes, I'm sure.” Beatrice had never done anything she hated more.
+
+Sir Redmond, looking into her eyes, wondered why those much-vaunted
+sharpshooters, the Boers, had blundered and passed him by.
+
+“I don't suppose it matters much now--but will you tell me why? I
+believed you would decide differently.” He was holding his voice down to
+a dead level, and it was not easy.
+
+“Because--” Beatrice faced the moon, which threw a soft glow upon her
+face, and into her wonderful, deep eyes a golden light. “Oh, I'm sorry,
+Sir Redmond! But you see, I didn't know. I--I just learned to-day what
+it means to--to love. I--I am going to stay here. A new company--is
+about to be formed, Sir Redmond. The Maltese Cross and the--Triangle
+Bar--are going to cast their lot together.” The golden glow deepened and
+darkened, and blended with the red blood which flushed cheek and brow
+and throat.
+
+It took Sir Redmond a full minute to comprehend. When he did, he
+breathed deep, shut his lips upon words that would have frightened her,
+and went down the steps into the gloom.
+
+Beatrice watched him stride away into the dusky silence, and her heart
+ached with sympathy for him. Then she looked beyond, to where the lights
+of the Cross ranch twinkled joyously, far down the coulee, and the sweet
+egotism of happiness enfolded her, shutting him out. After that she
+forgot him utterly. She looked up at the moon, sailing off to meet the
+stars, smiled good-fellowship and then went in to face her mother.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Her Prairie Knight, by
+B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT ***
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diff --git a/1908-0.zip b/1908-0.zip
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!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" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Her Prairie Knight, by B.M. Sinclair, Aka B. M. Bower
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+Project Gutenberg's Her Prairie Knight, by B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
+
+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: Her Prairie Knight
+
+Author: B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
+
+Release Date: October 10, 2008 [EBook #1908]
+Last Updated: March 9, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Starr, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT </a>
+    </h3>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER 1. Stranded on the Prairie. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER 2. A Handsome Cowboy to the Rescue.
+            </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER 3. A Tilt With Sir Redmond. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER 4. Beatrice Learns a New Language.
+            </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER 5. The Search for Dorman. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER 6. Mrs. Lansell's Lecture. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER 7. Beatrice's Wild Ride. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER 8. Dorman Plays Cupid. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER 9. What It Meant to Keith. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER 10. Pine Ridge Range Ablaze. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER 11. Sir Redmond Waits His Answer.
+            </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER 12. Held Up by Mr. Kelly. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER 13. Keith's Masterful Wooing. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER 14. Sir Redmond Gets His answer.
+            </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 1. Stranded on the Prairie.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By George, look behind us! I fancy we are going to have a storm.&rdquo; Four
+      heads turned as if governed by one brain; four pairs of eyes, of varied
+      color and character, swept the wind-blown wilderness of tender green, and
+      gazed questioningly at the high-piled thunderheads above. A small boy,
+      with an abundance of yellow curls and white collar, almost precipitated
+      himself into the prim lap of a lady on the rear seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Auntie, will God have fireworks? Say, auntie, will He? Can I say prayers
+      widout kneelin' down'? Uncle Redmon' crowds so. I want to pray for
+      fireworks, auntie. Can I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do sit down, Dorman. You'll fall under the wheel, and then auntie would
+      not have any dear little boy. Dorman, do you hear me? Redmond, do take
+      that child down! How I wish Parks were here. I shall have nervous
+      prostration within a fortnight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond Hayes plucked at the white collar, and the small boy retired
+      between two masculine forms of no mean proportions. His voice, however,
+      rose higher.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll get all the fireworks you want, young man, without all that
+      hullabaloo,&rdquo; remarked the driver, whom Dorman had been told, at the depot
+      twenty miles back, he must call his Uncle Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love storms,&rdquo; came cheerfully from the rear seat&mdash;but the voice
+      was not the prim voice of &ldquo;auntie.&rdquo; &ldquo;Do you have thunder and lightning out
+      here, Dick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We do,&rdquo; assented Dick. &ldquo;We don't ship it from the East in refrigerator
+      cars, either. It grows wild.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cheerful voice was heard to giggle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Richard,&rdquo; came in tired, reproachful accents from a third voice behind
+      him, &ldquo;you were reared in the East. I trust you have not formed the
+      pernicious habit of speaking slightingly of your birthplace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That, Dick knew, was his mother. She had not changed appreciably since she
+      had nagged him through his teens. Not having seen her since, he was
+      certainly in a position to judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trix asked about the lightning,&rdquo; he said placatingly, just as he was
+      accustomed to do, during the nagging period. &ldquo;I was telling her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice has a naturally inquiring mind,&rdquo; said the tired voice, laying
+      reproving stress upon the name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you afraid of lightning, Sir Redmond?&rdquo; asked the cheerful girl-voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond twisted his neck to smile back at her. &ldquo;No, so long as it
+      doesn't actually chuck me over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After that there was silence, so far as human voices went, for a time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much farther is it, Dick?&rdquo; came presently from the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not more than ten&mdash;well, maybe twelve&mdash;miles. You'll think it's
+      twenty, though, if the rain strikes 'Dobe Flat before we do. That's just
+      what it's going to do, or I'm badly mistaken. Hawk! Get along, there!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We haven't an umbrella with us,&rdquo; complained the tired one. &ldquo;Beatrice,
+      where did you put my raglan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the big wagon, mama, along with the trunks and guns and saddles, and
+      Martha and Katherine and James.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me! I certainly told you, Beatrice&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, mama, you gave it to me the last thing, after the maids were in the
+      wagon, and said you wouldn't wear it. There isn't room here for another
+      thing. I feel like a slice of pressed chicken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Auntie, I want some p'essed chicken. I'm hungry, auntie! I want some
+      chicken and a cookie&mdash;and I want some ice-cream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won't get any,&rdquo; said the young woman, with the tone of finality. &ldquo;You
+      can't eat me, Dorman, and I'm the only thing that looks good enough to
+      eat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice!&rdquo; This, of course, from her mother, whose life seemed
+      principally made up of a succession of mental shocks, brought on by her
+      youngest, dearest, and most irrepressible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have Dick's word for it, mama; he said so, at the depot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want some chicken, auntie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no chicken, dear,&rdquo; said the prim one. &ldquo;You must be a patient
+      little man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won't. I'm hungry. Mens aren't patient when dey're hungry.&rdquo; A small,
+      red face rose, like a tiny harvest moon, between the broad, masculine
+      backs on the front seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dorman, sit down! Redmond!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A large, gloved hand appeared against the small moon and it set
+      ignominiously and prematurely, in the place where it had risen. Sir
+      Redmond further extinguished it with the lap robe, for the storm, whooping
+      malicious joy, was upon them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First a blinding glare and a deafening crash. Then rain&mdash;sheets of
+      it, that drenched where it struck. The women huddled together under the
+      doubtful protection of the light robe and shivered. After that, wind that
+      threatened to overturn the light spring wagon; then hail that bounced and
+      hopped like tiny, white rubber balls upon the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The storm passed as suddenly as it came, but the effect remained. The road
+      was sodden with the water which had fallen, and as they went down the hill
+      to 'Dobe Flat the horses strained at the collar and plodded like a plow
+      team. The wheels collected masses of adobe, which stuck like glue and
+      packed the spaces between the spokes. Twice Dick got out and poked the
+      heavy mess from the wheels with Sir Redmond's stick&mdash;which was not
+      good for the stick, but which eased the drag upon the horses wonderfully&mdash;until
+      the wheels accumulated another load.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sorry to dirty your cane,&rdquo; Dick apologized, after the second halt. &ldquo;You
+      can rinse it off, though, in the creek a few miles ahead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't mention it!&rdquo; said Sir Redmond, somewhat dubiously. It was his
+      favorite stick, and he had taken excellent care of it. It was finely
+      polished, and it had his name and regiment engraved upon the silver knob&mdash;and
+      a date which the Boers will not soon forget, nor the English, for that
+      matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll soon be over the worst,&rdquo; Dick told them, after a time. &ldquo;When we
+      climb that hill we'll have a hard, gravelly trail straight to the ranch.
+      I'm sorry it had to storm; I wanted you to enjoy this trip.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am enjoying it,&rdquo; Beatrice assured him. &ldquo;It's something new, at any
+      rate, and anything is better than the deadly monotony of Newport.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice!&rdquo; cried her mother &ldquo;I'm ashamed of you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't be, mama. Why won't you just be sorry for yourself, and let
+      it end there? I know you hated to come, poor dear; but you wouldn't think
+      of letting me come alone, though I'm sure I shouldn't have minded. This is
+      going to be a delicious summer&mdash;I feel it in my bones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be-atrice!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, mama? Aren't young ladies supposed to have bones?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Young ladies are not supposed to make use of unrefined expressions. Your
+      poor sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, mama. Dear Dolly didn't live upon stilts, I'm sure. Even when she
+      married.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be-atrice!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me, mama! I hope you are not growing peevish. Peevish elderly people&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Auntie! I want to go home!&rdquo; the small boy wailed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You cannot go home now, dear,&rdquo; sighed his guardian angel. &ldquo;Look at the
+      pretty&mdash;&rdquo; She hesitated, groping vaguely for some object to which she
+      might conscientiously apply the adjective.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mud,&rdquo; suggested Beatrice promptly &ldquo;Look at the wheels, Dorman; they're
+      playing patty-cake. See, now they say, 'Roll 'em, and roll 'em,' and now,
+      'Toss in the oven to bake!' And now&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Auntie, I want to get out an' play patty-cake, like de wheels. I want to
+      awf'lly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice, why did you put that into his head?&rdquo; her mother demanded,
+      fretfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind, honey,&rdquo; called Beatrice cheeringly. &ldquo;You and I will make
+      hundreds of mud pies when we get to Uncle Dick's ranch. Just think, hon,
+      oodles of beautiful, yellow mud just beside the door!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here, Trix! Seems to me you're promising a whole lot you can't make
+      good. I don't live in a 'dobe patch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, Dick; don't spoil everything. You don't know Dorman.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice! What must Miss Hayes and Sir Redmond think of you? I'm sure
+      Dorman is a sweet child, the image of poor, dear Dorothea, at his age.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We all think Dorman bears a strong resemblance to his father,&rdquo; said his
+      Aunt Mary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice, scenting trouble, hurried to change the subject. &ldquo;What's this,
+      Dick&mdash;the Missouri River?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hardly. This is the water that didn't fall in the buggy. It isn't deep;
+      it makes bad going worse, that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thinking to expedite matters, he struck Hawk sharply across the flank. It
+      was a foolish thing to do, and Dick knew it when he did it; ten seconds
+      later he knew it better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hawk reared, tired as he was, and lunged viciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The double-trees snapped and splintered; there was a brief interval of
+      plunging, a shower of muddy water in that vicinity, and then two draggled,
+      disgusted brown horses splashed indignantly to shore and took to the hills
+      with straps flying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By George!&rdquo; ejaculated Sir Redmond, gazing helplessly after them. &ldquo;But
+      this is a beastly bit of luck, don't you know!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you Hawk&mdash;&rdquo; Dick, in consideration of his companions, finished
+      the remark in the recesses of his troubled soul, where the ladies could
+      not overhear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What comes next, Dick?&rdquo; The voice of Beatrice was frankly curious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Next, I'll have to wade out and take after those&mdash;&rdquo; This sentence,
+      also, was rounded out mentally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the meantime, what shall we do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll stay where you are&mdash;and thank the good Lord you were not
+      upset. I'm sorry,&rdquo;&mdash;turning so that he could look deprecatingly at
+      Miss Hayes&mdash;&ldquo;your welcome to the West has been so&mdash;er&mdash;strenuous.
+      I'll try and make it up to you, once you get to the ranch. I hope you
+      won't let this give you a dislike of the country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no,&rdquo; said the spinster politely. &ldquo;I'm sure it is a&mdash;a very nice
+      country, Mr. Lansell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there's nothing to be done sitting here.&rdquo; Dick climbed down over
+      the dashboard into the mud and water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond was not the man to shirk duty because it happened to be
+      disagreeable, as the regiment whose name was engraved upon his cane could
+      testify. He glanced regretfully at his immaculate leggings and followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy you ladies won't need any bodyguard,&rdquo; he said. Looking back, he
+      caught the light of approval shining in the eyes of Beatrice, and after
+      that he did not mind the mud, but waded to shore and joined in the chase
+      quite contentedly. The light of approval, shining in the eyes of Beatrice,
+      meant much to Sir Redmond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 2. A Handsome Cowboy to the Rescue.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice took immediate possession of the front seat, that she might
+      comfort her heartbroken young nephew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind, honey. They'll bring the horses back in a minute, and we'll
+      make them run every step. And when you get to Uncle Dick's ranch you'll
+      see the nicest things&mdash;bossy calves, and chickens, and, maybe, some
+      little pigs with curly tails.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All this, though alluring, failed of its purpose; the small boy continued
+      to weep, and his weeping was ear-splitting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be still, Dorman, or you'll certainly scare all the coyotes to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are dey?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, all around. You keep watch, hon, and maybe you'll see one put the tip
+      of his nose over a hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What hill?&rdquo; Dorman skipped a sob, and scoured his eyes industriously with
+      both fists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;M-m&mdash;that hill. That little one over there. Watch close, or you'll
+      miss him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dove of peace hovered over them, and seemed actually about to alight.
+      Beatrice leaned back with a relieved breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is good of you, my dear, to take so much trouble,&rdquo; sighed his Aunt
+      Mary. &ldquo;How I am to manage without Parks I'm sure I cannot tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are tired, and you miss your tea.&rdquo; soothed Beatrice, optimistic as to
+      tone. &ldquo;When we all have a good rest we will be all right. Dorman will find
+      plenty to amuse him. We are none of us exactly comfortable now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Comfortable!&rdquo; sniffed her mother. &ldquo;I am half dead. Richard wrote such
+      glowing letters home that I was misled. If I had dreamed of the true
+      conditions, Miss Hayes, I should never have sanctioned this wild idea of
+      Beatrice's to come out and spend the summer with Richard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's coming, Be'trice! There it is! Will it bite, auntie? Say, will it
+      bite?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice looked. A horseman came over the hill and was galloping down the
+      long slope toward them. His elbows were lifted contrary to the mandates of
+      the riding-school, his long legs were encased in something brown and
+      fringed down the sides. His gray hat was tilted rakishly up at the back
+      and down in front, and a handkerchief was knotted loosely around his
+      throat. Even at that distance he struck her as different from any one she
+      had ever seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a highwayman!&rdquo; whispered Mrs. Lansell &ldquo;Hide your purse, my dear!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&mdash;I&mdash;where?&rdquo; Miss Hayes was all a-flutter with fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drop it down beside the wheel, into the water. Quick! I shall drop my
+      watch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&mdash;he is coming on this side! He can see!&rdquo; Her whisper was full of
+      entreaty and despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give them here. He can't see on both sides of the buggy at once.&rdquo; Mrs.
+      Lansell, being an American&mdash;a Yankee at that&mdash;was a woman of
+      resource.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice, hand me your watch quick!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice paid no attention, and there was no time to insist upon
+      obedience. The horseman had slowed at the water's edge, and was regarding
+      them with some curiosity. Possibly he was not accustomed to such a sight
+      as the one that met his eyes. He came splashing toward them, however, as
+      though he intended to investigate the cause of their presence, alone upon
+      the prairie, in a vehicle which had no horses attached in the place
+      obviously intended for such attachment. When he was close upon them he
+      stopped and lifted the rakishly tilted gray hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You seem to be in trouble. Is there anything I can do for you?&rdquo; His
+      manner was grave and respectful, but his eyes, Beatrice observed, were
+      having a quiet laugh of their own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can't get auntie's watch, nor gran'mama's. Gran'mama frowed 'em all
+      down in the mud. She frowed her money down in the mud, too,&rdquo; announced
+      Dorman, with much complacency. &ldquo;Be'trice says you is a coyote. Is you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a stunned interval, during which nothing was heard but the wind
+      whispering things to the grass. The man's eyes stopped laughing; his jaw
+      set squarely; also, his brows drew perceptibly closer together. It was
+      Mrs. Lansell's opinion that he looked murderous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Beatrice put her head down upon the little, blue velvet cap of Dorman
+      and laughed. There was a rollicking note in her laughter that was
+      irresistible, and the eyes of the man relented and joined in her mirth.
+      His lips forgot they were angry and insulted, and uncovered some very nice
+      teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We aren't really crazy,&rdquo; Beatrice told him, sitting up straight and
+      drying her eyes daintily with her handkerchief. &ldquo;We were on our way to Mr.
+      Lansell's ranch, and the horses broke something and ran away, and Dick&mdash;Mr.
+      Lansell&mdash;has gone to catch them. We're waiting until he does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see.&rdquo; From the look in his eyes one might guess that what he saw
+      pleased him. &ldquo;Which direction did they take?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice waved a gloved hand vaguely to the left, and, without another
+      word, the fellow touched his hat, turned and waded to shore and galloped
+      over the ridge she indicated; and the clucketycluck of his horse's hoofs
+      came sharply across to them until he dipped out of sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, he wasn't a robber,&rdquo; Beatrice remarked, staring after him
+      speculatively. &ldquo;How well he rides! One can see at a glance that he almost
+      lives in the saddle. I wonder who he is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For all you know, Beatrice, he may be going now to murder Richard and Sir
+      Redmond in cold blood. He looks perfectly hardened.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, do you think it possible?&rdquo; cried Miss Hayes, much alarmed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; cried Beatrice hotly. &ldquo;One who did not know your horror of novels,
+      mama, might suspect you of feeding your imagination upon 'penny
+      dreadfuls.' I'm sure he is only a cowboy, and won't harm anybody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cowboys are as bad as highwaymen,&rdquo; contended her mother, &ldquo;or worse. I
+      have read how they shoot men for a pastime, and without even the excuse of
+      robbery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it possible?&rdquo; quavered Miss Hayes faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it isn't!&rdquo; Beatrice assured her indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has the look of a criminal,&rdquo; declared Mrs. Lansell, in the positive
+      tone of one who speaks from intimate knowledge of the subject under
+      discussion. &ldquo;I only hope he isn't going to murder&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They're coming back, mama,&rdquo; interrupted Beatrice, who had been watching
+      closely the hilltop. &ldquo;No, it's that man, and he is driving the horses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's chasing them,&rdquo; corrected her mother testily. &ldquo;A horse thief, no
+      doubt. He's going to catch them with his snare&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lasso, mama.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, lasso. Where can Richard be? To think the fellow should be so bold!
+      But out here, with miles upon miles of open, and no police protection
+      anything is possible. We might all be murdered, and no one be the wiser
+      for days&mdash;perhaps weeks. There, he has caught them.&rdquo; She leaned back
+      and clasped her hands, ready to meet with fortitude whatever fate might
+      have in store.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's bringing them out to us, mama. Can't you see the man is only trying
+      to help us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Lansell, beginning herself to suspect him of honest intentions,
+      sniffed dissentingly and let it go at that. The fellow was certainly
+      leading the horses toward them, and Sir Redmond and Dick, appearing over
+      the hill just then, proved beyond doubt that neither had been murdered in
+      cold blood, or in any other unpleasant manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We're all right now, mother,&rdquo; Dick called, the minute he was near enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His mother remarked skeptically that she hoped possibly she had been in
+      too great haste to conceal her valuables&mdash;that Miss Hayes might not
+      feel grateful for her presence of mind, and was probably wondering if mud
+      baths were not injurious to fine, jeweled time-pieces. Mrs. Lansell was
+      uncomfortable, mentally and physically, and her manner was frankly chilly
+      when her son presented the stranger as his good friend and neighbor, Keith
+      Cameron. She was still privately convinced that he looked a criminal&mdash;though,
+      if pressed, she must surely have admitted that he was an uncommonly
+      good-looking young outlaw. It would seem almost as if she regarded his
+      being a decent, law-abiding citizen as pure effrontery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Hayes greeted him with a smile of apprehension which plainly amused
+      him. Beatrice was frankly impersonal in her attitude; he represented a new
+      species of the genus man, and she, too, evidently regarded him in the
+      light of a strange animal, viewed unexpectedly at close range.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was helping Dick mend the double-tree with a piece of rope, she
+      studied him curiously. He was tall&mdash;taller even than Sir Redmond, and
+      more slender. Sir Redmond had the straight, sturdy look of the soldier who
+      had borne the brunt of hard marches and desperate fighting; Mr. Cameron,
+      the lithe, unconscious grace and alertness of the man whose work demands
+      quick movement and quicker eye and brain. His face was tanned to a clear
+      bronze which showed the blood darkly beneath; Sir Redmond's year of peace
+      had gone far toward lightening his complexion. Beatrice glanced briefly at
+      him and admired his healthy color, and was glad he did not have the look
+      of an Indian. At the same time, she caught herself wishing that Sir
+      Redmond's eyes were hazel, fringed with very long, dark lashes and topped
+      with very straight, dark brows&mdash;eyes which seemed always to have some
+      secret cause for mirth, and to laugh quite independent of the rest of the
+      face. Still, Sir Redmond had very nice eyes&mdash;blue, and kind, and
+      steadfast, and altogether dependable&mdash;and his lashes were quite nice
+      enough for any one. In just four seconds Beatrice decided that, after all,
+      she did not like hazel eyes that twinkle continually; they make one feel
+      that one is being laughed at, which is not comfortable. In six seconds she
+      was quite sure that this Mr. Cameron thought himself handsome, and
+      Beatrice detested a man who was proud of his face or his figure; such a
+      man always tempted her to &ldquo;make faces,&rdquo; as she used to do over the back
+      fence when she was little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She mentally accused him of trying to show off his skill with his rope
+      when he leaned and fastened it to the rig, rode out ahead and helped drag
+      the vehicle to shore; and it was with some resentment that she observed
+      the ease with which he did it, and how horse and rope seemed to know
+      instinctively their master's will, and to obey of their own accord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In all that he had done&mdash;and it really seemed as if he did everything
+      that needed to be done, while Dick pottered around in the way&mdash;he had
+      not found it necessary to descend into the mud and water, to the ruin of
+      his picturesque, fringed chaps and high-heeled boots. He had worked at
+      ease, carelessly leaning from his leathern throne upon the big, roan horse
+      he addressed occasionally as Redcloud. Beatrice wondered where he got the
+      outlandish name. But, with all his imperfections, she was glad she had met
+      him. He really was handsome, whether he knew it or not; and if he had a
+      good opinion of himself, and overrated his actions&mdash;all the more fun
+      for herself! Beatrice, I regret to say, was not above amusing herself with
+      handsome young men who overrate their own charms; in fact, she had the
+      reputation among her women acquaintances of being a most outrageous flirt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the very middle of these trouble-breeding meditations, Mr. Cameron
+      looked up unexpectedly and met keenly her eyes; and for some reason&mdash;let
+      us hope because of a guilty conscience&mdash;Beatrice grew hot and
+      confused; an unusual experience, surely, for a girl who had been out three
+      seasons, and has met calmly the eyes of many young men. Until now it had
+      been the young men who grew hot and confused; it had never been herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice turned her shoulder toward him, and looked at Sir Redmond, who
+      was surreptitiously fishing for certain articles beside the rear wheel, at
+      the whispered behest of Mrs. Lansell, and was certainly a sight to behold.
+      He was mud to his knees and to his elbows, and he had managed to plaster
+      his hat against the wheel and to dirty his face. Altogether, he looked an
+      abnormally large child who has been having a beautiful day of it in
+      somebody's duck-pond; but Beatrice was nearer, at that moment, to loving
+      him than she had been at any time during her six weeks' acquaintance with
+      him&mdash;and that is saying much, for she had liked him from the start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Cameron followed her glance, and his eyes did not have the laugh all
+      to themselves; his voice joined them, and Beatrice turned upon him and
+      frowned. It was not kind of him to laugh at a man who is proving his heart
+      to be much larger than his vanity; Beatrice was aware of Sir Redmond's
+      immaculateness of attire on most occasions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Dick, gathering up the reins, &ldquo;you've helped us out of a bad
+      scrape, Keith. Come over and take dinner with us to-morrow night. I expect
+      we'll be kept riding the rim-rocks, over at the Pool, this summer. Unless
+      this sister of mine has changed a lot, she won't rest till she's been over
+      every foot of country for forty miles around. It will just about keep our
+      strings rode down to a whisper keeping her in sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me, Richard!&rdquo; said his mother. &ldquo;What Jargon is this you speak?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's good old Montana English, mother. You'll learn it yourself before
+      you leave here. I've clean forgot how they used the English language at
+      Yale, haven't you, Keith?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just about,&rdquo; Keith agreed. &ldquo;I'm afraid we'll shock the ladies terribly,
+      Dick. We ought to get out on a pinnacle with a good grammar and practice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, maybe. We'll look for you to-morrow, sure. I want you to help map
+      out a circle or two for Trix. About next week she'll want to get out and
+      scour the range.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me, Richard! Beatrice is not a charwoman!&rdquo; This, you will
+      understand, was from his mother; perhaps you will also understand that she
+      spoke with the rising inflection which conveys a reproof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Keith Cameron left them he was laughing quietly to himself, and
+      Beatrice's chin was set rather more than usual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 3. A Tilt With Sir Redmond.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice, standing on the top of a steep, grassy slope, was engaged in the
+      conventional pastime of enjoying the view. It was a fine view, but it was
+      not half as good to look upon as was Beatrice herself, in her fresh white
+      waist and brown skirt, with her brown hair fluffing softly in the breeze
+      which would grow to a respectable wind later in the day, and with her
+      cheeks pink from climbing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was up where she could see the river, a broad band of blue in the
+      surrounding green, winding away for miles through the hills. The far bank
+      stood a straight two hundred feet of gay-colored rock, chiseled, by time
+      and stress of changeful weather, into fanciful turrets and towers. Above
+      and beyond, where the green began, hundreds of moving dots told where the
+      cattle were feeding quietly. Far away to the south, heaps of hazy blue and
+      purple slept in the sunshine; Dick had told her those were the Highwoods.
+      And away to the west, a jagged line of blue-white glimmered and stood upon
+      tip-toes to touch the swimming clouds&mdash;touched them and pushed above
+      proudly; those were the Rockies. The Bear Paws stood behind her; nearer
+      they were&mdash;so near they lost the glamour of mysterious blue shadows,
+      and became merely a sprawling group of huge, pine-covered hills, with
+      ranches dotted here and there in sheltered places, with squares of fresh,
+      dark green that spoke of growing crops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten days, and the metropolitan East had faded and become as hazy and vague
+      as the Highwoods. Ten days, and the witchery of the West leaped in her
+      blood and held her fast in its thralldom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sound of scrambling behind her was immediately followed by a smothered
+      epithet. Beatrice turned in time to see Sir Redmond pick himself up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These grass slopes are confounded slippery, don't you know,&rdquo; he explained
+      apologetically. &ldquo;How did you manage that climb?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't.&rdquo; Beatrice smiled. &ldquo;I came around the end, where the ascent is
+      gradual; there's a good path.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; Sir Redmond sat down upon a rock and puffed. &ldquo;I saw you up here&mdash;and
+      a fellow doesn't think about taking a roundabout course to reach his
+      heart's&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't it lovely?&rdquo; Beatrice made haste to inquire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lovely isn't half expressive enough,&rdquo; he told her. &ldquo;You look&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The river is so very blue and dignified. I've been wondering if it has
+      forgotten how it must have danced through those hills, away off there.
+      When it gets down to the cities&mdash;this blue water&mdash;it will be
+      muddy and nasty looking. The 'muddy Missouri' certainly doesn't apply
+      here. And that farther shore is simply magnificent. I wish I might stay
+      here forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord forbid!&rdquo; cried he, with considerable fervor. &ldquo;There's a dear
+      nook in old England where I hope&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You did get that mud off your leggings, I see,&rdquo; Beatrice remarked
+      inconsequentially. &ldquo;James must have worked half the time we've been here.
+      They certainly were in a mess the last time I saw them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bother the leggings! But I take it that's a good sign, Miss Lansell&mdash;your
+      taking notice of such things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice returned to the landscape. &ldquo;I wonder who originated that phrase,
+      'The cattle grazing on a thousand hills'? He must have stood just here
+      when he said it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wasn't it one of your American poets? Longfellow, or&mdash;er&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice simply looked at him a minute and said &ldquo;Pshaw!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; he retorted, &ldquo;you don't know yourself who it was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And to think,&rdquo; Beatrice went on, ignoring the subject, &ldquo;some of those
+      grazing cows and bossy calves are mine&mdash;my very own. I never cared
+      before, or thought much about it, till I came out and saw where they live,
+      and Dick pointed to a cow and the sweetest little red and white calf, and
+      said: 'That's your cow and calf, Trix.' They were dreadfully afraid of me,
+      though&mdash;I'm afraid they didn't recognize me as their mistress. I
+      wanted to get down and pet the calf&mdash;it had the dearest little snub
+      nose but they bolted, and wouldn't let me near them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy they were not accustomed to meeting angels unawares.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Redmond, I wish you wouldn't. You are so much nicer when you're not
+      trying to be nice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll act a perfect brute,&rdquo; he offered eagerly, &ldquo;if that will make you
+      love me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's hardly worth trying. I think you would make a very poor sort of
+      villain, Sir Redmond. You wouldn't even be picturesque.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond looked rather floored. He was a good fighter, was Sir Redmond,
+      but he was clumsy at repartee&mdash;or, perhaps, he was too much in
+      earnest to fence gracefully. Just now he looked particularly foolish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you think my brand is pretty? You know what it is, don't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm afraid not,&rdquo; he owned. &ldquo;I fancy I need a good bit of coaching in the
+      matter of brands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; agreed Beatrice, &ldquo;I fancy you do. My brand is a Triangle Bar&mdash;like
+      this.&rdquo; With a sharp pointed bit of rock she drew a more or less exact
+      diagram in the yellow soil. &ldquo;There are ever so many different brands
+      belonging to the Northern Pool; Dick pointed them out to me, but I can't
+      remember them. But whenever you see a Triangle Bar you'll be looking at my
+      individual property. I think it was nice of Dick to give me a brand all my
+      own. Mr. Cameron has a pretty brand, too&mdash;a Maltese Cross. The
+      Maltese Cross was owned at one time by President Roosevelt. Mr. Cameron
+      bought it when he left college and went into the cattle business. He
+      'plays a lone hand,' as he calls it; but his cattle range with the
+      Northern Pool, and he and Dick work together a great deal. I think he has
+      lovely eyes, don't you?&rdquo; The eyes of Beatrice were intent upon the Bear
+      Paws when she said it&mdash;which brought her shoulder toward Sir Redmond
+      and hid her face from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't say I ever observed Mr. Cameron's eyes,&rdquo; said Sir Redmond
+      stiffly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice turned back to him, and smiled demurely. When Beatrice smiled
+      that very demure smile, of which she was capable, the weather-wise
+      generally edged toward their cyclone-cellars. Sir Redmond was not
+      weather-wise&mdash;he was too much in love with her&mdash;and he did not
+      possess a cyclone cellar; he therefore suffered much at the hands of
+      Beatrice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But surely you must have noticed that deep, deep dimple in his chin?&rdquo; she
+      questioned innocently. Keith Cameron, I may say, did not have a dimple in
+      his chin at all; there was, however, a deep crease in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not.&rdquo; Sir Redmond rubbed his own chin, which was so far from
+      dimpling that is was rounded like half an apricot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me! And you sat opposite to him at dinner yesterday, too! I suppose,
+      then, you did not observe that his teeth are the whitest, evenest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They make them cheaply over here, I'm told,&rdquo; he retorted, setting his
+      heel emphatically down and annihilating a red and black caterpillar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, why did you do that? I must say you English are rather brutal?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't abide worms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, neither can I. And I think it would be foolish to quarrel about a
+      man's good looks,&rdquo; Beatrice said, with surprising sweetness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond hunched his shoulders and retreated to the comfort of his
+      pipe. &ldquo;A bally lot of good looks!&rdquo; he sneered. &ldquo;A woman is never
+      convinced, though.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am.&rdquo; Beatrice sat down upon a rock and rested her elbows on her knees
+      and her chin in her hands&mdash;and an adorable picture she made, I assure
+      you. &ldquo;I'm thoroughly convinced of several things. One is Mr. Cameron's
+      good looks; another is that you're cross.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, come, now!&rdquo; protested Sir Redmond feebly, and sucked furiously at his
+      pipe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; reiterated Beatrice, examining his perturbed face judicially; &ldquo;you
+      are downright ugly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The face of Sir Redmond grew redder and more perturbed; just as Beatrice
+      meant that it should; she seemed to derive a keen pleasure from goading
+      this big, good-looking Englishman to the verge of apoplexy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sure I never meant to be rude; but a fellow can't fall down and
+      worship every young farmer, don't you know&mdash;not even to please you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice smiled and threw a pebble down the slope, watching it bound and
+      skip to the bottom, where it rolled away and hid in the grass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love this wide country,&rdquo; she observed, abandoning her torture with a
+      suddenness that was a characteristic of her nature. When Beatrice had made
+      a man look and act the fool she was ready to stop; one cannot say that of
+      every woman. &ldquo;One can draw long, deep breaths without robbing one's
+      neighbor of oxygen. Everything is so big, and broad, and generous, out
+      here. One can ride for miles and miles through the grandest, wildest
+      places,&mdash;and&mdash;there aren't any cigar and baking-powder and
+      liver-pill signs plastered over the rocks, thank goodness! If man has
+      traveled that way before, you do not have the evidence of his passing
+      staring you in the face. You can make believe it is all your own&mdash;by
+      right of discovery. I'm afraid your England would seem rather little and
+      crowded after a month or two of this.&rdquo; She swept her hand toward the
+      river, and the grass-land beyond, and the mountains rimming the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should see the moors!&rdquo; cried Sir Redmond, brightening under this
+      peaceful mood of hers. &ldquo;I fancy you would not find trouble in drawing long
+      breaths there. Moor Cottage, where your sister and Wiltmar lived, is
+      surrounded by wide stretches of open&mdash;not like this, to be sure, but
+      not half-bad in its way, either.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dolly grew to love that place, though she did write homesick letters at
+      first. I was going over, after my coming out&mdash;and then came that
+      awful accident, when she and Wiltmar were both drowned&mdash;and, of
+      course, there was nothing to go for. I should have hated the place then, I
+      think. But I should like&mdash;&rdquo; Her voice trailed off dreamily, her eyes
+      on the hazy Highwoods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond watched her, his eyes a-shine; Beatrice in this mood was
+      something to worship. He was almost afraid to speak, for fear she would
+      snuff out the tiny flame of hope which her half-finished sentence had
+      kindled. He leaned forward, his face eager.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice, only say you will go&mdash;with me, dear!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice started; for the moment she had forgotten him. Her eyes kept to
+      the hills. &ldquo;Go&mdash;to England? One trip at a time, Sir Redmond. I have
+      been here only ten days, and we came for three months. Three months of
+      freedom in this big, glorious place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then?&rdquo; His voice was husky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then&mdash;freckle lotions by the quart, I expect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond got upon his feet, and he was rather white around the mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We Englishmen are a stubborn lot, Miss Beatrice. We won't stop fighting
+      until we win.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We Yankees,&rdquo; retorted she airily, &ldquo;value our freedom above everything
+      else. We won't surrender it without fighting for it first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He caught eagerly at the lack of finality in her tones. &ldquo;I don't want to
+      take your freedom, Beatrice. I only want the right to love you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, as for that, I suppose you may love me as much as you please&mdash;only
+      so you don't torment me to death talking about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice, not looking particularly tormented, waved answer to Dick, who
+      was shouting something up at her, and went blithely down the hill, with
+      Sir Redmond following gloomily, several paces behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 4. Beatrice Learns a New Language.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;D'you want to see the boys work a bunch of cattle, Trix?&rdquo; Dick said to
+      her, when she came down to where he was leaning against a high board
+      fence, waiting for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Deed I do, Dicky&mdash;only I've no idea what you mean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The boys are going to cut out some cattle we've contracted to the
+      government&mdash;for the Indians, you know. They're holding the bunch over
+      in Dry Coulee; it's only three or four miles. I've got to go over and see
+      the foreman, and I thought maybe you'd like to go along.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's nothing I can think of that I would like better. Won't it be
+      fine, Sir Redmond?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond did not say whether he thought it would be fine or not. He
+      still had the white streak around his mouth, and he went through the gate
+      and on to the house without a word&mdash;which was undoubtedly a rude
+      thing to do. Sir Redmond was not often rude. Dick watched him
+      speculatively until he was beyond hearing them. Then, &ldquo;What have you done
+      to milord, Trix?&rdquo; he wanted to know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; said Beatrice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; Dick said, with decision, &ldquo;he looks to me like a man that has been
+      turned down&mdash;hard. I can tell by the back of his neck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This struck Beatrice, and she began to study the retreating neck of her
+      suitor. &ldquo;I can't see any difference,&rdquo; she announced, after a brief
+      scrutiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's rather sunburned and thick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll gamble his mind is a jumble of good English oaths&mdash;with maybe a
+      sprinkling of Boer maledictions. What did you do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing&mdash;unless, perhaps, he objects to being disciplined a bit. But
+      I also object to being badgered into matrimony&mdash;even with Sir
+      Redmond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even with Sir Redmond!&rdquo; Dick whistled. &ldquo;He's 'It,' then, is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice had nothing to say. She walked beside Dick and looked at the
+      ground before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He doesn't seem a bad sort, sis, and the title will be nice to have in
+      the family, if one cares for such things. Mother does. She was
+      disappointed, I take it, that Wiltmar was a younger son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, she was. She used to think that Sir Redmond might get killed down
+      there fighting the Boers, and then Wiltmar would be next in line. But he
+      didn't, and it was Wiltmar who went first. And now oh, it's humiliating,
+      Dick! To be thrown at a man's head&mdash;&rdquo; Tears were not far from her
+      voice just then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can see she wants you to nab the title. Well, sis, if you don't care
+      for the man&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never said I didn't care for him. But I just can't treat him decently,
+      with mama dinning that title in my ears day and night. I wish there wasn't
+      any title. Oh, it's abominable! Things have come to that point where an
+      American girl with money is not supposed to care for an Englishman, no
+      matter how nice he may be, if he has a title, or the prospect of one.
+      Every one laughs and thinks it's the title she wants; they'd think it of
+      me, and they'd say it. They would say Beatrice Lansell took her
+      half-million and bought her a lord. And, after a while, perhaps Sir
+      Redmond himself would half-believe it&mdash;and I couldn't bear that! And
+      so I am&mdash;unbearably flippant and&mdash;I should think he'd hate me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you reversed the natural order of things, and refused him on account
+      of the title?&rdquo; Dick grinned surreptitiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I didn't&mdash;not quite. I'm afraid he's dreadfully angry with me,
+      though. I do wish he wasn't such a dear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're the same old Trix. You've got to be held back from the trail
+      you're supposed to take, or you won't travel it; you'll bolt the other
+      way. If everybody got together and fought the notion, you would probably
+      elope with milord inside a week. Mother means well, but she isn't on to
+      her job a little bit. She ought to turn up her nose at the title.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No fear of that! I've had it before my eyes till I hate the very thought
+      of it. I&mdash;I wish I could hate him.&rdquo; Beatrice sighed deeply, and gave
+      her hand to Dorman, who scurried up to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll have the horses saddled right away,&rdquo; said Dick, and left them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where you going, Be'trice? You going to ride a horse? I want to,
+      awf'lly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm afraid you can't, honey; it's too far.&rdquo; Beatrice pushed a yellow curl
+      away from his eyes with tender, womanly solicitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Auntie won't care, 'cause I'm a bother. Auntie says she's goin' to send
+      for Parks. I don't want Parks; 'sides, Parks is sick. I want a pony, and
+      some ledder towsers wis fringes down 'em, and I want some little wheels on
+      my feet. Mr. Cam'ron says I do need some little wheels, Be'trice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he, honey?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he did. I like Mr. Cam'ron, Be'trice; he let me ride his big, high
+      pony. He's a berry good pony. He shaked hands wis me, Be'trice&mdash;he
+      truly did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he, hon?&rdquo; Beatrice, I am sorry to say, was not listening. She was
+      wondering if Sir Redmond was really angry with her&mdash;too angry, for
+      instance, to go over where the cattle were. He really ought to go, for he
+      had come West in the interest of the Eastern stockholders in the Northern
+      Pool, to investigate the actual details of the work. He surely would not
+      miss this opportunity, Beatrice thought. And she hoped he was not angry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he truly did. Mr. Cam'ron interduced us, Be'trice. He said,
+      'Redcloud, dis is Master Dorman Hayes. Shake hands wis my frien' Dorman.'
+      And he put up his front hand, Be'trice, and nod his head, and I shaked his
+      hand. I dess love that big, high pony, Be'trice. Can I buy him, Be'trice?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe, kiddie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can I buy him wis my six shiny pennies, Be'trice?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Cam'ron lives right over that hill, Be'trice. He told me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he, hon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he did. He 'vited me over, Be'trice. He's my friend, and I've got to
+      buy my big, high pony. I'll let you shake hands wis him, Be'trice. I'll
+      interduce him to you. And I'll let you ride on his back, Be'trice. Do you
+      want to ride on his back?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, honey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before Beatrice had time to commit herself they reached the house, and she
+      let go Dorman's hand and hurried away to get into her riding-habit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman straightway went to find his six precious, shiny pennies, which
+      Beatrice had painstakingly scoured with silver polish one day to please
+      the little tyrant, and which increased their value many times&mdash;so
+      many times, in fact, that he hid them every night in fear of burglars.
+      Since he concealed them each time in a different place, he was obliged to
+      ransack his auntie's room every morning, to the great disturbance of
+      Martha, the maid, who was an order-loving person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Martha appeared just when he had triumphantly pounced upon his treasure
+      rolled up in the strings of his aunt's chiffon opera-bonnet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mercy upon us, Master Dorman! Whatever have you been doing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want my shiny pennies,&rdquo; said the young gentleman, composedly unwinding
+      the roll, &ldquo;to buy my big, high pony.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Naughty, naughty boy, to muss my lady's fine bonnet like that! Look at
+      things scattered over the floor, and my lady's fine handkerchiefs and
+      gloves&mdash;&rdquo; Martha stopped and meditated whether she might dare to
+      shake him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman was laboriously counting his wealth, with much wrinkling of stubby
+      nose and lifting of eyebrows. Having satisfied himself that they were
+      really all there, he deigned to look around, with a fine masculine disdain
+      of woman's finery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dose old things!&rdquo; he sniffed. &ldquo;I always fordet where I put my shiny
+      pennies. Robbers might find them if I put them easy places. I'm going to
+      buy my big, high pony, and you can't shake his hand a bit, Martha.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'm sure I don't want to!&rdquo; Martha snapped back at him, and went
+      down on all fours to gather up the things he had thrown down. &ldquo;Whatever
+      Parks was thinking of, to go and get fever, when she was the only one that
+      could manage you, I don't know! And me picking up after you till I'm fair
+      sick!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad you is sick,&rdquo; he retorted unfeelingly, and backed to the door.
+      &ldquo;I hopes you get sicker so your stummit makes you hurt. You can't ride on
+      my big, high pony.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get along with you and your high pony!&rdquo; cried the exasperated Martha,
+      threatening with a hairbrush. Dorman, his six shiny pennies held fast in
+      his damp little fist, fled down the stairs and out into the sunlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick and Beatrice were just ready to ride away from the porch. &ldquo;I want to
+      go wis you, Uncle Dick.&rdquo; Dorman had followed the lead of Beatrice, his
+      divinity; he refused to say Richard, though grandmama did object to
+      nicknames.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Up you go, son. You'll be a cow-puncher yourself one of these days. I'll
+      not let him fall, and this horse is gentle.&rdquo; This last to satisfy Dorman's
+      aunt, who wavered between anxiety and relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may ride to the gate, Dorman, and then you'll have to hop down and
+      run back to your auntie and grandma. We're going too far for you to-day.&rdquo;
+       Dick gave him the reins to hold, and let the horse walk to prolong the joy
+      of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman held to the horn with one hand, to the reins with the other, and
+      let his small body swing forward and back with the motion of the horse, in
+      exaggerated imitation of his friend, Mr. Cameron. At the gate he allowed
+      himself to be set down without protest, smiled importantly through the
+      bars, and thrust his arm through as far as it would reach, that he might
+      wave good-by. And his divinity smiled back at him, and threw him a kiss,
+      which pleased him mightily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must have hurt milord's feelings pretty bad,&rdquo; Dick remarked. &ldquo;I
+      couldn't get him to come. He had to write a letter first, he said.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish, Dick,&rdquo; Beatrice answered, a bit petulantly, &ldquo;you would stop
+      calling him milord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Milord's a good name,&rdquo; Dick contended. &ldquo;It's bad enough to 'Sir' him to
+      his face; I can't do it behind his back, Trix. We're not used to fancy
+      titles out here, and they don't fit the country, anyhow. I'm like you&mdash;I'd
+      think a lot more of him if he was just a plain, everyday American, so I
+      could get acquainted enough to call him 'Red Hayes.' I'd like him a whole
+      lot better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice was in no mood for an argument&mdash;on that subject, at least.
+      She let Rex out and raced over the prairie at a gait which would have
+      greatly shocked her mother, who could not understand why Beatrice was not
+      content to drive sedately about in the carriage with the rest of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they reached the round-up Keith Cameron left the bunch and rode out
+      to meet them, and Dick promptly shuffled responsibility for his sister's
+      entertainment to the square shoulders of his neighbor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trix wants to wise up on the cattle business, Keith. I'll just turn her
+      over to you for a-while, and let you answer her questions; I can't, half
+      the time. I want to look through the bunch a little.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith's face spoke gratitude, and spoke it plainly. The face of Beatrice
+      was frankly inattentive. She was watching the restless, moving mass of red
+      backs and glistening horns, with horsemen weaving in and out among them in
+      what looked to her a perfectly aimless fashion&mdash;until one would wheel
+      and dart out into the open, always with a fleeing animal lumbering before.
+      Other horsemen would meet him and take up the chase, and he would turn and
+      ride leisurely back into the haze and confusion. It was like a
+      kaleidoscope, for the scene shifted constantly and was never quite the
+      same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith, secure in her absorption, slid sidewise in the saddle and studied
+      her face, knowing all the while that he was simply storing up trouble for
+      himself. But it is not given a man to flee human nature, and the fellow
+      who could sit calmly beside Beatrice and not stare at her if the
+      opportunity offered must certainly have the blood of a fish in his veins.
+      I will tell you why.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice was tall, and she was slim, and round, and tempting, with the
+      most tantalizing curves ever built to torment a man. Her hair was soft and
+      brown, and it waved up from the nape of her neck without those short,
+      straggling locks and thin growth at the edge which mar so many feminine
+      heads; and the sharp contrast of shimmery brown against ivory white was
+      simply irresistible. Had her face been less full of charm, Keith might
+      have been content to gaze and gaze at that lovely hair line. As it was,
+      his eyes wandered to her brows, also distinctly marked, as though outlined
+      first with a pencil in the fingers of an artist who understood. And there
+      were her lashes, dark and long, and curled up at the ends; and her cheek,
+      with its changing, come-and-go coloring; her mouth, with its upper lip
+      creased deeply in the middle&mdash;so deeply that a bit more would have
+      been a defect&mdash;and with an odd little dimple at one corner; luckily,
+      it was on the side toward him, so that he might look at it all he wanted
+      to for once; for it was always there, only growing deeper and wickeder
+      when she spoke or laughed. He could not see her eyes, for they were turned
+      away, but he knew quite well the color; he had settled that point when he
+      looked up from coiling his rope the day she came. They were big, baffling,
+      blue-brown eyes, the like of which he had never seen before in his life&mdash;and
+      he had thought he had seen every color and every shade under the sun.
+      Thinking of them and their wonderful deeps and shadows, he got hungry for
+      a sight of them. And suddenly she turned to ask a question, and found him
+      staring at her, and surprised a look in his eyes he did not know was
+      there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For ten pulse-beats they stared, and the cheeks of Beatrice grew red as
+      healthy young blood could paint them; Keith's were the same, only that his
+      blood showed darkly through the tan. What question had been on her tongue
+      she forgot to ask. Indeed, for the time, I think she forgot the whole
+      English language, and every other&mdash;but the strange, wordless language
+      of Keith's clear eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then it was gone, and Keith was looking away, and chewing a corner of
+      his lip till it hurt. His horse backed restlessly from the tight-gripped
+      rein, and Keith was guilty of kicking him with his spur, which did not
+      better matters. Redcloud snorted and shook his outraged head, and Keith
+      came to himself and eased the rein, and spoke remorseful, soothing words
+      that somehow clung long in the memory of Beatrice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just after that Dick galloped up, his elbows flapping like the wings of a
+      frightened hen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I suppose you could run a cow outfit all by yourself, with the
+      knowledge you've got from Keith,&rdquo; he greeted, and two people became even
+      more embarrassed than before. If Dick noticed anything, he must have been
+      a wise young man, for he gave no sign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Beatrice had not queened it in her set, three seasons, for nothing,
+      even if she was capable of being confused by a sweet, new language in a
+      man's eyes. She answered Dick quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've been so busy watching it all that I haven't had time to ask many
+      questions, as Mr. Cameron can testify. It's like a game, and it's very
+      fascinating&mdash;and dusty. I wonder if I might ride in among them,
+      Dick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better not, sis. It isn't as much fun as it looks, and you can see more
+      out here. There comes milord; he must have changed his mind about the
+      letter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice did not look around. To see her, you would swear she had set
+      herself the task of making an accurate count of noses in that seething
+      mass of raw beef below her. After a minute she ventured to glance
+      furtively at Keith, and, finding his eyes turned her way, blushed again
+      and called herself an idiot. After that, she straightened in the saddle,
+      and became the self-poised Miss Lansell, of New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith rode away to the far side of the herd, out of temptation; queer a
+      man never runs from a woman until it is too late to be a particle of use.
+      Keith simply changed his point of view, and watched his Heart's Desire
+      from afar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 5. The Search for Dorman.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I say,&rdquo; began Sir Redmond, an hour after, when he happened to stand
+      close to Beatrice for a few minutes, &ldquo;where is Dorman? I fancied you
+      brought him along.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We didn't,&rdquo; Beatrice told him. &ldquo;He only rode as far as the gate, where
+      Dick left him, and started him back to the house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mary told me he came along. She and your mother were congratulating each
+      other upon a quiet half-day, with you and Dorman off the place together.
+      I'll wager their felicitations fell rather flat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice laughed. &ldquo;Very likely. I know they were mourning because their
+      lace-making had been neglected lately. What with that trip to Lost Canyon
+      to-morrow, and to the mountains Friday, I'm afraid the lace will continue
+      to suffer. What do you think of a round-up, Sir Redmond?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's deuced nasty,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Such a lot of dust and noise. I fancy the
+      workmen don't find it pleasant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, they do; they like it,&rdquo; she declared. &ldquo;Dick says a cowboy is never
+      satisfied off the range. And you mustn't call them workmen, Sir Redmond.
+      They'd resent it, if they knew. They're cowboys, and proud of it. They
+      seem rather a pleasant lot of fellows, on the whole. I have been talking
+      to one or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we're all through here,&rdquo; Dick announced, riding up. &ldquo;I'm going to
+      ride around by Keith's place, to see a horse I'm thinking of buying. Want
+      to go along, Trix? Or are you tired?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm never tired,&rdquo; averred his sister, readjusting a hat-pin and gathering
+      up her reins. &ldquo;I always want to go everywhere that you'll take me, Dick.
+      Consider that point settled for the summer. Are you coming, Sir Redmond?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think not, thank you,&rdquo; he said, not quite risen above his rebuff of the
+      morning. &ldquo;I told Mary I would be back for lunch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was wiser; I refused even to venture an opinion as to when I should be
+      back. Well, 'so-long'!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're learning the lingo pretty fast, Trix,&rdquo; Dick chuckled, when they
+      were well away from Sir Redmond. &ldquo;Milord almost fell out of the saddle
+      when you fired that at him. Where did you pick it up?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've heard you say it a dozen times since I came. And I don't care if he
+      is shocked&mdash;I wanted him to be. He needn't be such a perfect bear;
+      and I know mama and Miss Hayes don't expect him to lunch, without us. He
+      just did it to be spiteful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jerusalem, Trix! A little while ago you said he was a dear! You shouldn't
+      snub him, if you want him to be nice to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want him to be nice,&rdquo; flared Beatrice. &ldquo;I don't care how he acts.
+      Only, I must say, ill humor doesn't become him. Not that it matters,
+      however.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I guess we can get along without him, if he won't honor us with his
+      company. Here comes Keith. Brace up, sis, and be pleasant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice glanced casually at the galloping figure of Dick's neighbor, and
+      frowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mustn't flirt with Keith,&rdquo; Dick admonished gravely. &ldquo;He's a good
+      fellow, and as square a man as I know; but you ought to know he's got the
+      reputation of being a hard man to know. Lots of girls have tried to flirt
+      and make a fool of him, and wound up with their feelings hurt worse than
+      his were.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that a dare?&rdquo; Beatrice threw up her chin with a motion Dick knew of
+      old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not on your life! You better leave him alone; one or the other of you
+      would get the worst of it, and I'd hate to see either of you feeling bad.
+      As I said before, he's a bad man to fool with.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't consider him particularly dangerous&mdash;or interesting. He's
+      not half as nice as Sir Redmond.&rdquo; Beatrice spoke as though she meant what
+      she said, and Dick had no chance to argue the point, for Keith pulled up
+      beside them at that moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice seemed inclined to silence, and paid more attention to the
+      landscape than she did to the conversation, which was mostly about range
+      conditions, and the scanty water supply, and the drought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was politely interested in Keith's ranch, and if she clung
+      persistently to her society manner, why, her society manner was very
+      pleasing, if somewhat unsatisfying to a fellow fairly drunk with her
+      winsomeness. Keith showed her where she might look straight up the coulee
+      to her brother's ranch, two miles away, and when she wished she might see
+      what they were doing up there, he went in and got his field-glass. She
+      thanked him prettily, and impersonally, and focused the glass upon Dick's
+      house&mdash;which gave Keith another chance to look at her without being
+      caught in the act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How plain everything is! I can see mama, out on the porch, and Miss
+      Hayes.&rdquo; She could also see Sir Redmond, who had just ridden up, and was
+      talking to the ladies, but she did not think it necessary to mention him,
+      for some reason; she kept her eyes to the glass, however, and appeared
+      much absorbed. Dick rolled himself a cigarette and watched the two, and
+      there was a twinkle in his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder&mdash;Dick, I do think&mdash;I'm afraid&mdash;&rdquo; Beatrice hadn't
+      her society manner now; she was her unaffected, girlish self; and she was
+      growing excited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter?&rdquo; Dick got up, and came and stood at her elbow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They're acting queerly. The maids are running about, and the cook is out,
+      waving a large spoon, and mama has her arm around Miss Hayes, and Sir
+      Redmond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let's see.&rdquo; Dick took the glass and raised it to his eyes for a minute.
+      &ldquo;That's right,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They're making medicine over something. See what
+      you make of it, Keith.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith took the glass and looked through it. It was like a moving picture;
+      one could see, but one wanted the interpretation of sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'd better ride over,&rdquo; he said quietly. &ldquo;Don't worry, Miss Lansell; it
+      probably isn't anything serious. We can take the short cut up the coulee,
+      and find out.&rdquo; He put the glass into its leathern case and started to the
+      gate, where the horses were standing. He did not tell Beatrice that Miss
+      Hayes had just been carried into the house in a faint, or that her mother
+      was behaving in an undignified fashion strongly suggesting hysterics. But
+      Dick knew, from the look on his face, that it was serious. He hurried
+      before them with long strides, leaving Beatrice, for the second time that
+      morning, to the care of his neighbor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So it was Keith who held his hand down for the delicious pressure of her
+      foot, and arranged her habit with painstaking care, considering the hurry
+      they were in. Dick was in the saddle, and gone, before Keith had finished,
+      and Keith was not a slow young man, as a rule. They ran the two miles
+      without a break, except twice, where there were gates to close. Dick,
+      speeding a furlong before, had obligingly left them open; and a stockman
+      is hard pressed indeed&mdash;or very drunk&mdash;when he fails to close
+      his gates behind him. It is an unwritten law which becomes second nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost within sound of the place, Dick raced back and met them, and his
+      face was white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's Dorman!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;He's lost. They haven't seen him since we left.
+      You know, Trix, he was standing at the gate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice went white as Dick; whiter, for she was untanned. An overwhelming
+      sense of blame squeezed her heart tight. Keith, seeing her shoulders droop
+      limply, reined close, to catch her in his arms if there was the slightest
+      excuse. However, Beatrice was a healthy young woman, with splendid command
+      of her nerves, and she had no intention of fainting. The sickening
+      weakness passed in a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's my fault,&rdquo; she said, speaking rapidly, her eyes seeking Dick's for
+      comfort. &ldquo;I said 'yes' to everything he asked me, because I was thinking
+      of something else, and not paying attention. He was going to buy your
+      horse, Mr. Cameron, and now he's lost!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This, though effective, was not particularly illuminating. Dick wanted
+      details, and he got them&mdash;for Beatrice, having remorse to stir the
+      dregs of memory, repeated nearly everything Dorman had said, even telling
+      how the big, high pony put up his front hand, and he shaked it, and how
+      Dorman truly needed some little wheels on his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor little devil,&rdquo; Keith muttered, with wet eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&mdash;he said you lived over there,&rdquo; Beatrice finished, pointing, as
+      Dorman had pointed&mdash;which was not toward the &ldquo;Cross&rdquo; ranch at all,
+      but straight toward the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith wheeled Redcloud; there was no need to hear more. He took the hill
+      at a pace which would have killed any horse but one bred to race over this
+      rough country. Near the top, the forced breathing of another horse at his
+      heels made him look behind. It was Beatrice following, her eyes like black
+      stars. I do not know if Keith was astonished, but I do know that he was
+      pleased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where's Dick?&rdquo; was all he said then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dick's going to meet the men&mdash;the cowboys. Sir Redmond went after
+      them, when they found Dorman wasn't anywhere about the place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith nodded understandingly, and slowed to let her come alongside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's no use riding in bunches,&rdquo; he remarked, after a little. &ldquo;On circle
+      we always go in pairs. We'll find him, all right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must,&rdquo; said Beatrice, simply, and shaded her eyes with her hand. For
+      they had reached the top, and the prairie land lay all about them and
+      below, lazily asleep in the sunshine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith halted and reached for his glass. &ldquo;It's lucky I brought it along,&rdquo;
+       he said. &ldquo;I wasn't thinking, at the time; I just slung it over my shoulder
+      from habit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a good habit, I think,&rdquo; she answered, trying to smile; but her lips
+      would only quiver, for the thought of her blame tortured her. &ldquo;Can you see&mdash;anything?&rdquo;
+       she ventured wistfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith shook his head, and continued his search. &ldquo;There are so many little
+      washouts and coulees, down there, you know. That's the trouble with a
+      glass&mdash;it looks only on a level. But we'll find him. Don't you worry
+      about that. He couldn't go far.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There isn't any real danger, is there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no,&rdquo; Keith said. &ldquo;Except&mdash;&rdquo; He bit his lip angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Except what?&rdquo; she demanded. &ldquo;I'm not silly, Mr. Cameron&mdash;tell me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith took the glass from his eyes, looked at her, and paid her the
+      compliment of deciding to tell her, just as if she were a man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing, only&mdash;he might run across a snake,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Rattlers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice drew her breath hard, but she was plucky. Keith thought he had
+      never seen a pluckier girl, and the West can rightfully boast brave women.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She touched Rex with the whip. &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; she commanded. &ldquo;We must not stand
+      here. It has been more than three hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith put away the glass, and shot ahead to guide her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must have missed him, somewhere.&rdquo; The eyes of Beatrice were heavy with
+      the weariness born of anxiety and suspense. They stood at the very edge of
+      the steep bluff which rimmed the river. &ldquo;You don't think he could have&mdash;&rdquo;
+       Her eyes, shuddering down at the mocking, blue-gray ripples, finished the
+      thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He couldn't have got this far,&rdquo; said Keith. &ldquo;His legs would give out,
+      climbing up and down. We'll go back by a little different way, and look.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's something moving, off there.&rdquo; Beatrice pointed with her whip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a coyote,&rdquo; Keith told her; and then, seeing the look on her face:
+      &ldquo;They won't hurt any one. They're the rankest cowards on the range.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the snakes&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, well, he might wander around for a week, and not run across one. We
+      won't borrow trouble, anyway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she agreed languidly. The sun was hot, and she had not had anything
+      to eat since early breakfast, and the river mocked her parched throat with
+      its cool glimmer below. She looked down at it wistfully, and Keith,
+      watchful of every passing change in her face, led her back to where a
+      cold, little spring crept from beneath a rock; there, lifting her down, he
+      taught her how to drink from her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For himself, he threw himself down, pushed back his hat, and drank long
+      and leisurely. A brown lock of hair, clinging softly together with
+      moisture, fell from his forehead and trailed in the clear water, and
+      Beatrice felt oddly tempted to push it back where it belonged. Standing
+      quietly watching his picturesque figure, she forgot, for the moment, that
+      a little boy was lost among these peaceful, sunbathed hills; she
+      remembered only the man at her feet, drinking long, satisfying drafts,
+      while the lock of hair floated in the spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we'll go on.&rdquo; He stood up and pushed back the wet lock, which
+      trickled a tiny stream down his cheek, and settled his gray hat in place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again that day he felt her foot in his palm, and the touch went over him
+      in thrills. She was tired, he knew; her foot pressed heavier than it had
+      before. He would have liked to take her in his arms and lift her bodily
+      into the saddle, but he hardly dared think of such a blissful proceeding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He set the pace slower, however, and avoided the steepest places, and he
+      halted often on the higher ground, to scan sharply the coulees. And so
+      they searched, these two, together, and grew to know each other better
+      than in a month of casual meetings. And the grass nodded, and the winds
+      laughed, and the stern hills looked on, quizzically silent. If they knew
+      aught of a small boy with a wealth of yellow curls and white collar, they
+      gave no sign, and the two rode on, always seeking hopefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A snake buzzed sharply on a gravelly slope, and Keith, sending Beatrice
+      back a safe distance, took down his rope and gave battle, beating the
+      sinister, gray-spotted coil with the loop until it straightened and was
+      still. He dismounted then, and pinched off the rattles&mdash;nine, there
+      were, and a &ldquo;button&rdquo;&mdash;and gave them to Beatrice, who handled them
+      gingerly, and begged Keith to carry them for her. He slipped them into his
+      pocket, and they went on, saying little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Back near the ranch they met Dick and Sir Redmond. They exchanged sharp
+      looks, and Dick shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We haven't found him&mdash;yet. The boys are riding circle around the
+      ranch; they're bound to find him, some of them, if we don't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had better go home,&rdquo; Sir Redmond told her, with a note of authority
+      in his voice which set Keith's teeth on edge. &ldquo;You look done to death;
+      this is men's work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice bit her lip, and barely glanced at him. &ldquo;I'll go&mdash;when
+      Dorman is found. What shall we do now, Dick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go down to the house and get some hot coffee, you two. We all snatched a
+      bite to eat, and you need it. After that, you can look along the south
+      side of the coulee, if you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice obediently turned Rex toward home, and Keith followed. The ranch
+      seemed very still and lonesome. Some chickens were rolling in the dust by
+      the gate, and scattered, cackling indignantly, when they rode up. Off to
+      the left a colt whinnied wistfully in a corral. Beatrice, riding
+      listlessly to the house, stopped her horse with a jerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard&mdash;where is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith stopped Redcloud, and listened. Came a thumping noise, and a wail,
+      not loud, but unmistakable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aunt-ie!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice was on the ground as soon as Keith, and together they ran to the
+      place&mdash;the bunk-house. The thumping continued vigorously; evidently a
+      small boy was kicking, with all his might, upon a closed door; it was not
+      a new sound to the ears of Beatrice, since the arrival in America of her
+      young nephew. Keith flung the door wide open, upsetting the small boy, who
+      howled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice swooped down upon him and gathered him so close she came near
+      choking him. &ldquo;You darling. Oh, Dorman!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman squirmed away from her. &ldquo;I los' one shiny penny, Be'trice&mdash;and
+      I couldn't open de door. Help me find my shiny penny.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith picked him up and set him upon one square shoulder. &ldquo;We'll take you
+      up to your auntie, first thing, young man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want my one shiny penny. I want it!&rdquo; Dorman showed symptoms of howling
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll come back and find it. Your auntie wants you now, and grandmama.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice, following after, was treated to a rather unusual spectacle; that
+      of a tall, sun-browned fellow, with fringed chaps and brightly gleaming
+      spurs, racing down the path; upon his shoulder, the wriggling form of an
+      extremely disreputable small boy, with cobwebs in his curls, and his once
+      white collar a dirty rag streaming out behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 6. Mrs. Lansell's Lecture.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When the excitement had somewhat abated, and Miss Hayes was convinced that
+      her idol was really there, safe, and with his usual healthy appetite, and
+      when a messenger had been started out to recall the searchers, Dorman was
+      placed upon a chair before a select and attentive audience, and invited to
+      explain, which he did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had decided to borrow some little wheels from the bunkhouse, so he
+      could ride his big, high pony home. Mr. Cameron had little wheels on his
+      feet, and so did Uncle Dick, and all the mens. (The audience gravely
+      nodded assent.) Well, and the knob wasn't too high when he went in, but
+      when he tried to open the door to go out, it was away up there! (Dorman
+      measured with his arm.) And he fell down, and all his shiny pennies rolled
+      and rolled. And he looked and looked where they rolled, and when he
+      counted, one was gone. So he looked and looked for the one shiny penny
+      till he was tired to death. And so he climbed up high, into a funny bed on
+      a shelf, and rested. And when he was rested he couldn't open the door, and
+      he kicked and kicked, and then Be'trice came, and Mr. Cam'ron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you said you'd help me find my one penny,&rdquo; he reminded Keith,
+      blinking solemnly at him from the chair. &ldquo;And I want to shake hands wis
+      your big, high pony. I'm going to buy him wis my six pennies. Be'trice
+      said I could.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice blushed, and Keith forgot where he was, for a minute, looking at
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come and find my one shiny penny,&rdquo; Dorman commanded, climbing down. &ldquo;And
+      I want Be'trice to come. Be'trice can always find things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice cannot go,&rdquo; said his grandmother, who didn't much like the way
+      Keith hovered near Beatrice, nor the look in his eyes. &ldquo;Beatrice is
+      tired.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want Be'trice!&rdquo; Dorman set up his everyday howl, which started the dogs
+      barking outside. His guardian angel attempted to soothe him, but he would
+      have none of her; he only howled the louder, and kicked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, there, honey, I'll go. Where's your hat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice, you had better stay in the house; you have done quite enough
+      for one day.&rdquo; The tone of the mother suggested things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is imperative,&rdquo; said Beatrice, &ldquo;for the peace and the well-being of
+      this household, that Dorman find his penny without delay.&rdquo; When Beatrice
+      adopted that lofty tone her mother was in the habit of saying nothing&mdash;and
+      biding her time. Beatrice was so apt, if mere loftiness did not carry the
+      day, to go a step further and flatly refuse to obey. Mrs. Lansell
+      preferred to yield, rather than be openly defied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the three went off to find the shiny penny&mdash;and in exactly
+      thirty-five minutes they found it. I will not say that they could not have
+      found it sooner, but, at any rate, they didn't, and they reached the house
+      about two minutes behind Dick and Sir Redmond, which did not improve Sir
+      Redmond's temper to speak of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that, Keith did not need much urging from Dick to spend the rest of
+      the afternoon at the &ldquo;Pool&rdquo; ranch. When he wanted to, Keith could be very
+      nice indeed to people; he went a long way, that afternoon, toward making a
+      friend of Miss Hayes; but Mrs. Lansell, who was one of those women who
+      adhere to the theory of First Impressions, in capitals, continued to
+      regard him as an incipient outlaw, who would, in time and under favorable
+      conditions, reveal his true character, and vindicate her keen insight into
+      human nature. There was one thing which Mrs. Lansell never forgave Keith
+      Cameron, and that was the ruin of her watch, which refused to run while
+      she was in Montana.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, when Beatrice was just snuggling down into the delicious
+      coolness of her pillow, she heard someone rap softly, but none the less
+      imperatively, on her door. She opened one eye stealthily, to see her
+      mother's pudgy form outlined in the feeble moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice, are you asleep?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice did not say yes, but she let her breath out carefully in a
+      slumbrous sigh. It certainly sounded as if she were asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be-atrice!&rdquo; The tone, though guarded, was insistent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The head of Beatrice moved slightly, and settled back into its little
+      nest, for all the world like a dreaming, innocent baby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If she had not been the mother of Beatrice, Mrs. Lansell would probably
+      have gone back to her room, and continued to bide her time; but the mother
+      of Beatrice had learned a few things about the ways of a wilful girl. She
+      went in, and closed the door carefully behind her. She did not wish to
+      keep the whole house awake. Then she went straight to the bed, laid hand
+      upon a white shoulder that gleamed in the moonlight, and gave a shake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice, I want you to answer me when I speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;M-m&mdash;did you&mdash;m-m&mdash;speak, mama?&rdquo; Beatrice opened her eyes
+      and closed them, opened them again for a minute longer, yawned daintily,
+      and by these signs and tokens wandered back from dreamland obediently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her mother sat down upon the edge of the bed, and the bed creaked. Also,
+      Beatrice groaned inwardly; the time of reckoning was verily drawing near.
+      She promptly closed her eyes again, and gave a sleepy sigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice, did you refuse Sir Redmond again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;M-m&mdash;were you speaking&mdash;mama?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Lansell, endeavoring to keep her temper, repeated the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice began to feel that she was an abused girl. She lifted herself to
+      her elbow, and thumped the pillow spitefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Again? Dear me, mama! I've never refused him once!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You haven't accepted him once, either,&rdquo; her mother retorted; and Beatrice
+      lay down again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do wish, Beatrice, you would look at the matter in a sensible light I'm
+      sure I never would ask you to marry a man you could not care for. But Sir
+      Redmond is young, and good-looking, and has birth and breeding, and money&mdash;no
+      one can accuse him of being a fortune-hunter, I'm sure. I was asking
+      Richard to-day, and he says Sir Redmond holds a large interest in the
+      Northern Pool, and other English investors pay him a salary, besides, to
+      look after their interests. I wouldn't be surprised if the holdings of
+      both of you would be sufficient to control the business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice, not caring anything for business anyway, said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Any one can see the man's crazy for you. His sister says he never cared
+      for a woman before in his life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; put in Beatrice sarcastically. &ldquo;His sister followed him down
+      to South Africa, and all around, and is in a position to know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Any one can see he isn't a lady's man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;&rdquo; Beatrice smiled reminiscently; &ldquo;he certainly isn't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so he's in deadly earnest. And I'm positive he will make you a model
+      husband.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only think of having to live, all one's life, with a model husband!&rdquo;
+       shuddered Beatrice hypocritically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be-atrice! And then, it's something to marry a title.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the worst of it,&rdquo; remarked Beatrice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Any other girl in America would jump at the chance. I do believe,
+      Beatrice, you are hanging back just to be aggravating. And there's another
+      thing, Beatrice. I don't approve of the way this Keith Cameron hangs
+      around you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He doesn't!&rdquo; denied Beatrice, in an altogether different tone. &ldquo;Why,
+      mama!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't approve of flirting, Beatrice, and you know it. The way you
+      gadded around over the hills with him&mdash;a perfect stranger&mdash;was
+      disgraceful; perfectly disgraceful. You don't know any thing about the
+      fellow, whether he's a fit companion or not&mdash;a wild, uncouth cowboy&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He graduated from Yale, a year after Dick. And he was halfback, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That doesn't signify,&rdquo; said her mother, &ldquo;a particle. I know Miss Hayes
+      was dreadfully shocked to see you come riding up with him, and Sir Redmond
+      forced to go with Richard, or ride alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dick is good company,&rdquo; said Beatrice. &ldquo;And it was his own fault. I asked
+      him to go with us, when Dick and I left the cattle, and he wouldn't. Dick
+      will tell you the same. And after that I did not see him until just before
+      we&mdash;I came home, Really, mama, I can't have a leading-string on Sir
+      Redmond. If he refuses to come with me, I can hardly insist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you must have done something. You said something, or did something,
+      to make him very angry. He has not been himself all day. What did you
+      say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me, mama, I am not responsible for all Sir Redmond's ill-humor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not ask you that, Beatrice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice thumped her pillow again. &ldquo;I don't remember anything very
+      dreadful, mama. I&mdash;I think he has indigestion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be-atrice! I do wish you would try to conquer that habit of flippancy. It
+      is not ladylike. And I warn you, Sir Redmond is not the man to dangle
+      after you forever. He will lose patience, and go back to England without
+      you&mdash;and serve you right! I am only talking for your own good,
+      Beatrice. I am not at all sure that you want him to leave you alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice was not at all sure, either. She lay still, and wished her mother
+      would stop talking for her good. Talking for her good had meant, as far
+      back as Beatrice could remember, saying disagreeable things in a
+      disagreeable manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And remember, Beatrice, I want this flirting stopped.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Flirting, mama?&rdquo; To hear the girl, you would think she had never heard
+      the word before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what I said, Beatrice. I shall speak to Richard in the morning
+      about this fellow Cameron. He must put a stop to his being here two-thirds
+      of the time. It is unendurable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He and Dick are chums, mama, and have been for years. And to-morrow we
+      are going to Lost Canyon, you know, and Mr. Cameron is to go along. And
+      there are several other trips, mama, to which he is already invited. Dick
+      cannot recall those invitations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it must end there. Richard must do something. I cannot see what he
+      finds about the fellow to like&mdash;or you, either, Beatrice. Just
+      because he rides like a&mdash;a wild Indian, and has a certain daredevil
+      way&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never said I liked him, mama,&rdquo; Beatrice protested, somewhat hastily. &ldquo;I&mdash;of
+      course, I try to treat him well&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should say you did!&rdquo; exploded her mother angrily. &ldquo;You would be much
+      better employed in trying to treat Sir Redmond half as well. It is
+      positively disgraceful, the way you behave toward him&mdash;as fine a man
+      as I ever met in my life. I warn you, Beatrice, you must have more regard
+      for propriety, or I shall take you back to New York at once. I certainly
+      shall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that threat, which she shrewdly guessed would go far toward bringing
+      this wayward girl to time, Mrs. Lansell got up off the bed, which creaked
+      its relief, and groped her way to her own room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pillow of Beatrice received considerable thumping during the next hour&mdash;a
+      great deal more, in fact, than it needed. Two thoughts troubled her more
+      than she liked. What if her mother was right, and Sir Redmond lost
+      patience with her and went home? That possibility was unpleasant, to say
+      the least. Again, would he give her up altogether if she showed Dick she
+      was not afraid of Keith Cameron, for all his good looks, and at the same
+      time taught that young man a much-needed lesson? The way he had stared at
+      her was nothing less than a challenge and Beatrice was sorely tempted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 7. Beatrice's Wild Ride.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, are we all ready?&rdquo; Dick gathered up his reins, and took critical
+      inventory of the load. His mother peered under the front seat to be doubly
+      sure that there were at least four umbrellas and her waterproof raglan in
+      the rig; Mrs. Lansell did not propose to be caught unawares in a storm
+      another time. Miss Hayes straightened Dorman's cap, and told him to sit
+      down, dear, and then called upon Sir Redmond to enforce the command. Sir
+      Redmond repeated her command, minus the dear, and then rode on ahead to
+      overtake Beatrice and Keith, who had started. Dick climbed up over the
+      front wheel, released the brake, chirped at the horses, and they were off
+      for Lost Canyon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice was behaving beautifully, and her mother only hoped to heaven it
+      would last the day out; perhaps Sir Redmond would be able to extract some
+      sort of a promise from her in that mood, Mrs. Lansell reflected, as she
+      watched Beatrice chatting to her two cavaliers, with the most decorous
+      impartiality. Sir Redmond seemed in high spirits, which argued well; Mrs.
+      Lansell gave herself up to the pleasure of the drive with a heart free
+      from anxiety. Not only was Beatrice at her best; Dorman's mood was nothing
+      short of angelic, and as the weather was simply perfect, the day surely
+      promised well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a mile Keith had showed signs of a mind not at ease, and at last he
+      made bold to speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought Rex was to be your saddle-horse?&rdquo; he said abruptly to Beatrice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was; but when Dick brought Goldie home, last night, I fell in love
+      with him on sight, and just teased Dick till he told me I might have him
+      to ride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought Dick had some sense,&rdquo; Keith said gloomily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has. He knew there would be no peace till he surrendered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't know you were going to ride him, when I sold him to Dick. He's
+      not safe for a woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does he buck, Mr. Cameron? Dick said he was gentle.&rdquo; Beatrice had seen a
+      horse buck, one day, and had a wholesome fear of that form of equine
+      amusement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no. I never knew him to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I don't mind anything else. I'm accustomed to horses,&rdquo; said
+      Beatrice, and smiled welcome to Sir Redmond, who came up with them at that
+      moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You want to ride him with a light rein,&rdquo; Keith cautioned, clinging to the
+      subject. &ldquo;He's tenderbitted, and nervous. He won't stand for any jerking,
+      you see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never jerk, Mr. Cameron.&rdquo; Keith discovered that big, baffling,
+      blue-brown eyes can, if they wish, rival liquid air for coldness. &ldquo;I rode
+      horses before I came to Montana.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, when a man gets frozen with a girl's eyes, and scorched with a
+      girl's sarcasm, the thing for him to do is to retreat until the atmosphere
+      becomes normal. Keith fell behind just as soon as he could do so with some
+      show of dignity, and for several miles tried to convince himself that he
+      would rather talk to Dick and &ldquo;the old maid&rdquo; than not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you know,&rdquo; Sir Redmond remarked sympathetically, &ldquo;some of these
+      Western fellows are inclined to be deuced officious and impertinent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond got a taste of the freezing process that made him change the
+      subject abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The way was rough and lonely; the trail wound over sharp-nosed hills and
+      through deep, narrow coulees, with occasional, tantalizing glimpses of the
+      river and the open land beyond, that kept Beatrice in a fever of
+      enthusiasm. From riding blithely ahead, she took to lagging far behind
+      with her kodak, getting snap-shots of the choicest bits of scenery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another cartridge, please, Sir Redmond,&rdquo; she said, and wound
+      industriously on the finished roll.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a jolly good thing I brought my pockets full.&rdquo; Sir Redmond fished
+      one out for her. &ldquo;Was that a dozen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; that had only six films. I want a larger one this time. It is a
+      perfect nuisance to stop and change. Be still, Goldie!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We're getting rather a long way behind&mdash;but I fancy the road is
+      plain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll hurry and overtake them. I won't take any more pictures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Until you chance upon something you can't resist. I understand all that,
+      you know.&rdquo; Sir Redmond, while he teased, was pondering whether this was an
+      auspicious time and place to ask Beatrice to marry him. He had tried so
+      many times and places that seemed auspicious, that the man was growing
+      fearful. It is not pleasant to have a girl smile indulgently upon you and
+      deftly turn your avowals aside, so that they fall flat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm ready,&rdquo; she announced, blind to what his eyes were saying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we trek?&rdquo; Sir Redmond sighed a bit. He was not anxious to overtake
+      the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will. Only, out here people never 'trek,' Sir Redmond. They 'hit the
+      trail'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So they do. And the way these cowboys do it, one would think they were
+      couriers, by Jove! with the lives of a whole army at stake. So I fancy we
+      had better hit the trail, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're learning,&rdquo; Beatrice assured him, as they started on. &ldquo;A year out
+      here, and you would be a real American, Sir Redmond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond came near saying, &ldquo;The Lord forbid!&rdquo; but he thought better of
+      it. Beatrice was intensely loyal to her countrymen, unfortunately, and
+      would certainly resent such a remark; but, for all that, he thought it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a mile or two she held to her resolve, and then, at the top of a long
+      hill overlooking the canyon where they were to eat their lunch, out came
+      her kodak again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This must be Lost Canyon, for Dick has stopped by those trees. I want to
+      get just one view from here. Steady, Goldie! Dear me, this horse does
+      detest standing still!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy he is anxious to get down with the others. Let me hold him for
+      you. Whoa, there!&rdquo; He put a hand upon the bridle, a familiarity Goldie
+      resented. He snorted and dodged backward, to the ruin of the picture
+      Beatrice was endeavoring to get.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you've frightened him. Whoa, pet! It's of no use to try; he won't
+      stand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me have your camera. He's getting rather an ugly temper, I think.&rdquo;
+       Sir Redmond put out his hand again, and again Goldie dodged backward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can do better alone, Sir Redmond.&rdquo; The cheeks of Beatrice were red. She
+      managed to hold the horse in until her kodak was put safely in its case,
+      but her temper, as well as Goldie's, was roughened. She hated spoiling a
+      film, which she was perfectly sure she had done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Goldie felt the sting of her whip when she brought him back into the road,
+      and, from merely fretting, he took to plunging angrily. Then, when
+      Beatrice pulled him up sharply, he thrust out his nose, grabbed the bit in
+      his teeth, and bolted down the hill, past all control.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good God, hold him!&rdquo; shouted Sir Redmond, putting his horse to a run.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The advice was good, and Beatrice heard it plainly enough, but she neither
+      answered nor looked back. How, she thought, resentfully, was one to hold a
+      yellow streak of rage, with legs like wire springs and a neck of iron?
+      Besides, she was angrily alive to the fact that Keith Cameron, watching
+      down below, was having his revenge. She wondered if he was enjoying it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not. Goldie, when he ran, ran blindly in a straight line, and Keith
+      knew it. He also knew that the Englishman couldn't keep within gunshot of
+      Goldie, with the mount he had, and half a mile away&mdash;Keith shut his
+      teeth hard together, and went out to meet her. Redcloud lay along the
+      ground in great leaps, but Keith, bending low over his neck, urged him
+      faster and faster, until the horse, his ears laid close against his neck,
+      did the best there was in him. From the tail of his eye, Keith saw Sir
+      Redmond's horse go down upon his knees, and get up limping&mdash;and the
+      sight filled him with ungenerous gladness; Sir Redmond was out of the
+      race. It was Keith and Redcloud&mdash;they two; and Keith could smile over
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saw Beatrice's hat loosen and lift in front, flop uncertainly, and then
+      go sailing away into the sage-brush, and he noted where it fell, that he
+      might find it, later. Then he was close enough to see her face, and
+      wondered that there was so little fear written there. Beatrice was plucky,
+      and she rode well, her weight upon the bit; but her weight was nothing to
+      the clinched teeth of the horse; and, though she had known it from the
+      start, she was scarcely frightened. There was a good deal of the daredevil
+      in Beatrice; she trusted a great deal to blind luck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just there the land was level, and she hoped to check him on the slope of
+      the hill before them. She did not know it was moated like a castle, with a
+      washout ten feet deep and twice that in width, and that what looked to her
+      quite easy was utterly impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith gained, every leap. In a moment he was close behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take your foot out of the stirrup,&rdquo; he commanded, harshly, and though
+      Beatrice wondered why, something in his voice made her obey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Redcloud's nose was even with her elbow; the breath from his
+      wide-flaring nostrils rose hotly in her face. Another bound, and he had
+      forged ahead, neck and neck with Goldie, and it was Keith by her side,
+      keen-eyed and calm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let go all hold,&rdquo; he said. Reaching suddenly, he caught her around the
+      waist and pulled her from the saddle, just as Redcloud, scenting danger,
+      plowed his front feet deeply into the loose soil and stopped dead still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was neatly done, and quickly; so quickly that before Beatrice had more
+      than gasped her surprise, Keith lowered her to the ground and slid out of
+      the saddle. Beatrice looked at him, and wondered at his face, and at the
+      way he was shaking. He leaned weakly against the horse and hid his face on
+      his arm, and trembled at what had come so close to the girl&mdash;the
+      girl, who stood there panting a little, with her wonderful, waving hair
+      cloaking her almost to her knees, and her blue-brown eyes wide and bright,
+      and full of a deep amazement. She forgot Goldie, and did not even look to
+      see what had become of him; she forgot nearly everything, just then, in
+      wonder at this tall, clean-built young fellow, who never had seemed to
+      care what happened, leaning there with his face hidden, his hat far hack
+      on his head and little drops standing thickly upon his forehead. She
+      waited a moment, and when he did not move, her thoughts drifted to other
+      things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder,&rdquo; she said abstractedly, &ldquo;if I broke my kodak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith lifted his head and looked at her. &ldquo;Your kodak&mdash;good Lord!&rdquo; He
+      looked hard into her eyes, and she returned the stare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come here,&rdquo; he commanded, hoarsely, catching her arm. &ldquo;Your kodak! Look
+      down there!&rdquo; He led her to the brink, which was close enough to set him
+      shuddering anew. &ldquo;Look! There's Goldie, damn him! It's a wonder he's on
+      his feet; I thought he'd be dead&mdash;and serve him right. And you&mdash;you
+      wonder if you broke your kodak!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice drew back from him, and from the sight below, and if she were
+      frightened, she tried not to let him see. &ldquo;Should I have fainted?&rdquo; She was
+      proud of the steadiness of her voice. &ldquo;Really, I am very much obliged to
+      you, Mr. Cameron, for saving me from an ugly fall. You did it very neatly,
+      I imagine, and I am grateful. Still, I really hope I didn't break my
+      kodak. Are you very disappointed because I can't faint away? There doesn't
+      seem to be any brook close by, you see&mdash;and I haven't my er&mdash;lover's
+      arms to fall into. Those are the regulation stage settings, I believe, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't worry, Miss Lansell. I didn't expect you to faint, or to show any
+      human feelings whatever. I do pity your horse, though.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You didn't a minute ago,&rdquo; she reminded him. &ldquo;You indulged in a bit of
+      profanity, if I remember.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For which I beg Goldie's pardon,&rdquo; he retorted, his eyes unsmiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And mine, I hope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think it's rather absurd to stand here sparring, Mr. Cameron. You'll
+      begin to accuse me of ingratitude, and I'm as grateful as possible for
+      what you did. Sir Redmond's horse was too slow to keep up, or he would
+      have been at hand, no doubt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And could have supplied part of the stage setting. Too bad he was
+      behind.&rdquo; Keith turned and readjusted the cinch on his saddle, though it
+      was not loose enough to matter, and before he had finished Sir Redmond
+      rode up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you hurt, Beatrice?&rdquo; His face was pale, and his eyes anxious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all. Mr. Cameron kindly helped me from the saddle in time to
+      prevent an accident. I wish you'd thank him, Sir Redmond. I haven't the
+      words.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't trouble,&rdquo; said Keith hastily, getting into the saddle. &ldquo;I'll
+      go down after Goldie. You can easily find the camp, I guess, without a
+      pilot.&rdquo; Then he galloped away and left them, and would not look back; if
+      he had done so, he would have seen Beatrice's eyes following him
+      remorsefully. Also, he would have seen Sir Redmond glare after him
+      jealously; for Sir Redmond was not in a position to know that their
+      tete-a-tete had not been a pleasant one, and no man likes to have another
+      fellow save the life of a woman he loves, while he himself is limping
+      painfully up from the rear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, the woman he loved was very gracious to him that day, and for
+      many days, and Keith Cameron held himself aloof during the rest of the
+      trip, which should have contented Sir Redmond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 8. Dorman Plays Cupid.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Dorman toiled up the steps, his straw hat perilously near to slipping down
+      his back, his face like a large, red beet, and his hands vainly trying to
+      reach around a baking-powder can which the Chinaman cook had given him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He marched straight to where Beatrice was lying in the hammock. If she had
+      been older, or younger, or a plain young woman, one might say that
+      Beatrice was sulking in the hammock, for she had not spoken anything but
+      &ldquo;yes&rdquo; and &ldquo;no&rdquo; to her mother for an hour, and she had only spoken those
+      two words occasionally, when duty demanded it. For one thing, Sir Redmond
+      was absent, and had been for two weeks, and Beatrice was beginning to miss
+      him dreadfully. To beguile the time, she had ridden, every day, long miles
+      into the hills. Three times she had met Keith Cameron, also riding alone
+      in the hills, and she had endeavored to amuse herself with him, after her
+      own inimitable fashion, and with more or less success. The trouble was,
+      that sometimes Keith seemed to be amusing himself with her, which was not
+      pleasing to a girl like Beatrice. At any rate, he proved himself quite
+      able to play the game of Give and Take, so that the conscience of Beatrice
+      was at ease; no one could call her pastime a slaughter of the innocents,
+      surely, when the fellow stood his ground like that. It was more a
+      fencing-bout, and Beatrice enjoyed it very much; she told herself that the
+      reason she enjoyed talking with Keith was because he was not always
+      getting hurt, like Sir Redmond&mdash;or, if he did, he kept his feelings
+      to himself, and went boldly on with the game. Item: Beatrice had reversed
+      her decision that Keith was vain, though she still felt tempted, at times,
+      to resort to &ldquo;making faces&rdquo;&mdash;when she was worsted, that was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To return to this particular day of sulking; Rex had cast a shoe, and
+      lamed himself just enough to prevent her riding, and so Beatrice was
+      having a dull day of it in the house. Besides, her mother had just
+      finished talking to her for her good, which was enough to send an angel
+      into the sulks&mdash;and Beatrice lacked a good deal of being an angel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman laid his baking-powder can confidingly in his divinity's lap.
+      &ldquo;Be'trice, I did get some grasshoppers; you said I couldn't. And you
+      wouldn't go fishin', 'cause you didn't like to take Uncle Dick's
+      make-m'lieve flies, so I got some really ones, Be'trice, that'll wiggle
+      dere own self.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear me! It's too hot, Dorman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tisn't, Be'trice It's dest as cool&mdash;and by de brook it's awf-lly
+      cold. Come, Be'trice!&rdquo; He pulled at the smart little pink ruffles on her
+      skirt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm too sleepy, hon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can sleep by de brook, Be'trice. I'll let you,&rdquo; he promised
+      generously, &ldquo;'cept when I need anudder grasshopper; nen I'll wake you up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait till to-morrow. I don't believe the fish are hungry to-day. Don't
+      tear my skirt to pieces, Dorman!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman began to whine. He had never found his divinity in so unlovely a
+      mood. &ldquo;I want to go now! Dey are too hungry, Be'trice! Looey Sam is goin'
+      to fry my fishes for dinner, to s'prise auntie. Come, Be'trice!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't you go with the child, Beatrice? You grow more selfish every
+      day.&rdquo; Mrs. Lansell could not endure selfishness&mdash;in others. &ldquo;You know
+      he will not give us any peace until you do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman instantly proceeded to make good his grandmother's prophecy, and
+      wept so that one could hear him a mile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear me! Be still, Dorman&mdash;your auntie has a headache. Well, get
+      your rod, if you know where it is&mdash;which I doubt.&rdquo; Beatrice flounced
+      out of the hammock and got her hat, one of those floppy white things,
+      fluffed with thin, white stuff, till they look like nothing so much as a
+      wisp of cloud, with ribbons to moor it to her head and keep it from
+      sailing off to join its brothers in the sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Down by the creek, where the willows nodded to their own reflections in
+      the still places, it was cool and sweet scented, and Beatrice forgot her
+      grievances, and was not sorry she had come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (It was at about this time that a tall young fellow, two miles down the
+      coulee, put away his field glass and went off to saddle his horse.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't run ahead so, Dorman,&rdquo; Beatrice cautioned. To her had been given
+      the doubtful honor of carrying the baking-powder can of grasshoppers. Even
+      divinities must make themselves useful to man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Be'trice?&rdquo; Dorman swished his rod in unpleasant proximity to his
+      divinity's head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, honey&rdquo;&mdash;Beatrice dodged&mdash;&ldquo;you might step on a snake, a
+      rattlesnake, that would bite you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How would it bite, Be'trice?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With its teeth, of course; long, wicked teeth, with poison on them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw one when I was ridin' on a horse wis Uncle Dick. It kept windin' up
+      till it was round, and it growled wis its tail, Be'trice. And Uncle Dick
+      chased it, and nen it unwinded itself and creeped under a big rock. It
+      didn't bite once&mdash;and I didn't see any teeth to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Carry your rod still, Dorman. Are you trying to knock my hat off my head?
+      Rattlesnakes have teeth, hon, whether you saw them or not. I saw a great,
+      long one that day we thought you were lost. Mr. Cameron killed it with his
+      rope. I'm sure it had teeth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did it growl, Be'trice? Tell me how it went.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like this, hon.&rdquo; Beatrice parted her lips ever so little, and a snake
+      buzzed at Dorman's feet. He gave a yell of terror, and backed
+      ingloriously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, honey, if that had been really a snake, it would have bitten
+      you. Never mind, dear&mdash;it was only I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman was some time believing this astonishing statement. &ldquo;How did you
+      growl by my feet, Be'trice? Show me again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice, who had learned some things at school which were not included in
+      the curriculum, repeated the performance, while Dorman watched her with
+      eyes and mouth at their widest. Like some older members of his sex, he was
+      discovering new witcheries about his divinity every day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Be'trice!&rdquo; He gave a long gasp of ecstasy. &ldquo;I don't see how can you
+      do it? Can't I do it, Be'trice?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm afraid not, honey&mdash;you'd have to learn. There was a queer French
+      girl at school, who could do the strangest things, Dorman&mdash;like fairy
+      tales, almost. And she taught me to throw my voice different places, and
+      mimic sounds, when we should have been at our lessons. Listen, hon. This
+      is how a little lamb cries, when he is lost.... And this is what a hungry
+      kittie says, when she is away up in a tree, and is afraid to come down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman danced all around his divinity, and forgot about the fish&mdash;until
+      Beatrice found it in her heart to regret her rash revelation of hitherto
+      undreamed-of powers of entertainment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not another sound, Dorman,&rdquo; she declared at length, with the firmness of
+      despair. &ldquo;No, I will not be a lost lamb another once. No, nor a hungry
+      kittie, either&mdash;nor a snake, or anything. If you are not going to
+      fish, I shall go straight back to the house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman sighed heavily, and permitted his divinity to fasten a small
+      grasshopper to his hook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll go a bit farther, dear, down under those great trees. And you must
+      not speak a word, remember, or the fish will all run away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When she had settled him in a likely place, and the rapt patience of the
+      born angler had folded him close, she disposed herself comfortably in the
+      thick grass, her back against a tree, and took up the shuttle of fancy to
+      weave a wonderful daydream, as beautiful, intangible as the lacy, summer
+      clouds over her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man rode quietly over the grass and stopped two rods away, that he might
+      fill his hungry eyes with the delicious loveliness of his Heart's Desire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got a bite yet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman turned and wrinkled his nose, by way of welcome, and shook his head
+      vaguely, as though he might tell of several unimportant nibbles, if it
+      were worth the effort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice sat a bit straighter, and dexterously whisked some pink ruffles
+      down over two distracting ankles, and hoped Keith had not taken notice of
+      them. He had, though; trust a man for that!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith dismounted, dropped the reins to the ground, and came and laid
+      himself down in the grass beside his Heart's Desire, and Beatrice noticed
+      how tall he was, and slim and strong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did you know we were here?&rdquo; she wanted to know, with lifted eyebrows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith wondered if there was a welcome behind that sweet, indifferent face.
+      He never could be sure of anything in Beatrice's face, because it never
+      was alike twice, it seemed to him&mdash;and if it spoke welcome for a
+      second, the next there was only raillery, or something equally
+      unsatisfying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw you from the trail,&rdquo; he answered promptly, evidently not thinking
+      it wise to mention the fieldglass. And then: &ldquo;Is Dick at home?&rdquo; Not that
+      he wanted Dick&mdash;but a fellow, even when he is in the last stages of
+      love, feels need of an excuse sometimes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;we women are alone to-day. There isn't a man on the place,
+      except Looey Sam, and he doesn't count.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman squirmed around till he could look at the two, and his eyebrows
+      were tied in a knot. &ldquo;I wish, Be'trice, you wouldn't talk, 'less you
+      whisper. De fishes won't bite a bit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, honey&mdash;we won't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman turned back to his fishing with a long breath of relief. His
+      divinity never broke a promise, if she could help it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Dorman Hayes had been Cupid himself, he could not have hit upon a more
+      impish arrangement than that. To place a girl like Beatrice beside a
+      fellow like Keith&mdash;a fellow who is tall, and browned, and extremely
+      good-looking, and who has hazel eyes with a laugh in them always&mdash;a
+      fellow, moreover, who is very much in love and very much in earnest about
+      it&mdash;and condemn him to silence, or to whispers!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith took advantage of the edict, and moved closer, so that he could
+      whisper in comfort&mdash;and be nearer his Heart's Desire. He lay with his
+      head propped upon his hand, and his elbow digging into the sod and getting
+      grass-stains on his shirt sleeve, for the day was too warm for a coat.
+      Beatrice, looking down at him, observed that his forearm, between his
+      glove and wrist-band, was as white and smooth as her own. It is
+      characteristic of a cowboy to have a face brown as an Indian, and hands
+      girlishly white and soft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven't had a glimpse of you for a week&mdash;not since I met you down
+      by the river. Where have you been?&rdquo; he whispered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here. Rex went lame, and Dick wouldn't let me ride any other horse, since
+      that day Goldie bolted&mdash;and so the hills have called in vain. I've
+      stayed at home and made quantities of Duchesse lace&mdash;I almost
+      finished a love of a center piece&mdash;and mama thinks I have reformed.
+      But Rex is better, and tomorrow I'm going somewhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better help me hunt some horses that have been running down Lost Canyon
+      way. I'm going to look for them to-morrow,&rdquo; Keith suggested, as calmly as
+      was compatible with his eagerness and his method of speech. I doubt if any
+      man can whisper things to a girl he loves, and do it calmly. I know
+      Keith's heart was pounding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall probably ride in the opposite direction,&rdquo; Beatrice told him
+      wickedly. She wondered if he thought she would run at his beck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never saw you in this dress before,&rdquo; Keith murmured, his eyes
+      caressing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No? You may never again,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I have so many things to wear out,
+      you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like it,&rdquo; he declared, as emphatically as he could, and whisper. &ldquo;It is
+      just the color of your cheeks, after the wind has been kissing them a
+      while.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fancy a cowboy saying pretty things like that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice's cheeks did not wait for the wind to kiss them pink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ya-as, only fawncy, ye knaw.&rdquo; His eyes were daringly mocking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For shame, Mr. Cameron! Sir Redmond would not mimic your speech.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good reason why; he couldn't, not if he tried a thousand years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice knew this was the truth, so she fell back upon dignity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will not discuss that subject, I think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to, anyway. I know another subject a million times more
+      interesting than Sir Redmond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed!&rdquo; Beatrice's eyebrows were at their highest. &ldquo;And what is it,
+      then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You!&rdquo; Keith caught her hand; his eyes compelled her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think,&rdquo; said Beatrice, drawing her hand away, &ldquo;we will not discuss that
+      subject, either.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; Keith's eyes continued to woo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It occurred to Beatrice that an unsophisticated girl might easily think
+      Keith in earnest, with that look in his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman, scowling at them over his shoulder, unconsciously did his divinity
+      a service. Beatrice pursed her lips in a way that drove Keith nearly wild,
+      and took up the weapon of silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said you women are alone&mdash;where is milord?&rdquo; Keith began again,
+      after two minutes of lying there watching her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Redmond is in Helena, on business. He's been making arrangements to
+      lease a lot of land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah-h!&rdquo; Keith snapped a twig off a dead willow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We look for him home to-day, and Dick drove in to meet the train.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So the Pool has gone to leasing land?&rdquo; The laugh had gone out of Keith's
+      eyes; they were clear and keen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;the plan is to lease the Pine Ridge country, and fence it. I
+      suppose you know where that is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ought to,&rdquo; Keith said quietly. &ldquo;It's funny Dick never mentioned it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It isn't Dick's idea,&rdquo; Beatrice told him. &ldquo;It was Sir Redmond's. Dick is
+      rather angry, I think, and came near quarreling with Sir Redmond about it.
+      But English capital controls the Pool, you know, and Sir Redmond controls
+      the English capital, so he can adopt whatever policy he chooses. The way
+      he explained the thing to me, it seems a splendid plan&mdash;don't you
+      think so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo; Keith's tone was not quite what he meant it to be; he did not
+      intend it to be ironical, as it was. &ldquo;It's a snap for the Pool, all right.
+      It gives them a cinch on the best of the range, and all the water. I
+      didn't give milord credit for such business sagacity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice leaned over that she might read his eyes, but Keith turned his
+      face away. In the shock of what he had just learned, he was, at the
+      moment, not the lover; he was the small cattleman who is being forced out
+      of the business by the octopus of combined capital. It was not less bitter
+      that the woman he loved was one of the tentacles reaching out to crush
+      him. And they could do it; they&mdash;the whole affair resolved itself
+      into a very simple scheme, to Keith. The gauntlet had been thrown down&mdash;because
+      of this girl beside him. It was not so much business acumen as it was the
+      antagonism of a rival that had prompted the move. Keith squared his
+      shoulders, and mentally took up the gauntlet. He might lose in the range
+      fight, but he would win the girl, if it were in the power of love to do
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why that tone? I hope it isn't&mdash;will it inconvenience you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no. No, not at all. No&mdash;&rdquo; Keith seemed to forget that a
+      superabundance of negatives breeds suspicion of sincerity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm afraid that means that it will. And I'm sure Sir Redmond never meant&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe that kid has got a bite at last,&rdquo; Keith interrupted, getting
+      up. &ldquo;Let me take hold, there, Dorman; you'll be in the creek yourself in a
+      second.&rdquo; He landed a four-inch fish, carefully rebaited the hook, cast the
+      line into a promising eddy, gave the rod over to Dorman, and went back to
+      Beatrice, who had been watching him with troubled eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Cameron, if I had known&mdash;&rdquo; Beatrice was good-hearted, if she was
+      fond of playing with a man's heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you're not letting that business worry you, Miss Lansell. You
+      remind me of a painting I saw once in Boston. It was called June.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is August, so I don't apply. Isn't there some way you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you hear about that train-robbery up the line last week?&rdquo; Keith
+      settled himself luxuriously upon his back, with his hands clasped under
+      his head, and his hat tipped down over his eyes&mdash;but not enough to
+      prevent him from watching his Heart's Desire. And in his eyes laughter&mdash;and
+      something sweeter&mdash;lurked. If Sir Redmond had wealth to fight with,
+      Keith's weapon was far and away more dangerous, for it was the
+      irresistible love of a masterful man&mdash;the love that sweeps obstacles
+      away like straws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not interested in train-robberies,&rdquo; Beatrice told him, her eyes
+      still clouded with trouble. &ldquo;I want to talk about this lease.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They got one fellow the next day, and another got rattled and gave
+      himself up; but the leader of the gang, one of Montana's pet outlaws, is
+      still ranging somewhere in the hills. You want to be careful about riding
+      off alone; you ought to let some one&mdash;me, for instance&mdash;go along
+      to look after you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pshaw!&rdquo; said his Heart's Desire, smiling reluctantly. &ldquo;I'm not afraid. Do
+      you suppose, if Sir Redmond had known&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those fellows made quite a haul&mdash;almost enough to lease the whole
+      country, if they wanted to. Something over fifty thousand dollars&mdash;and
+      a strong box full of sand, that the messenger was going to fool them with.
+      He did, all right; but they weren't so slow. They hustled around and got
+      the money, and he lost his sand into the bargain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was that meant for a pun?&rdquo; Beatrice blinked her big eyes at him. &ldquo;If
+      you're quite through with the train-robbers, perhaps you will tell me how&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad old Mother Nature didn't give every woman an odd dimple beside
+      the mouth,&rdquo; Keith observed, reaching for her hat, and running a ribbon
+      caressingly through his fingers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; Beatrice smoothed the dimple complacently with her finger-tips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why? Oh, it would get kind of monotonous, wouldn't it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This from a man known chiefly for his pretty speeches!&rdquo; Beatrice's laugh
+      had a faint tinge of chagrin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wouldn't pretty speeches get monotonous, too?&rdquo; Keith's eyes were laughing
+      at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yours wouldn't,&rdquo; she retorted, spitefully, and immediately bit her lip
+      and hoped he would not consider that a bid for more pretty speeches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be'trice, dis hopper is awf-lly wilted!&rdquo; came a sepulchral whisper from
+      Dorman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith sighed, and went and baited the hook again. When he returned to
+      Beatrice, his mood had changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want you to promise&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never make promises of any sort, Mr. Cameron.&rdquo; Beatrice had fallen back
+      upon her airy tone, which was her strongest weapon of defense&mdash;unless
+      one except her liquid-air smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wasn't thinking of asking much,&rdquo; Keith went on coolly. &ldquo;I only wanted
+      to ask you not to worry about that leasing business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you worrying about it, Mr. Cameron?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That isn't the point. No, I can't say I expect to lose sleep over it. I
+      hope you will dismiss anything I may have said from your mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I don't understand. I feel that you blame Sir Redmond, when I'm sure
+      he&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not say I blamed anybody. I think we'll not discuss it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I think we shall. You'll tell me all about it, if I want to know.&rdquo;
+       Beatrice adopted her coaxing tone, which never had failed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no!&rdquo; Keith laughed a little. &ldquo;A girl can't always have her own way
+      just because she wants it, even if she&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've got a fish, Mr. Cam'ron!&rdquo; Dorman squealed, and Keith was obliged to
+      devote another five minutes to diplomacy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you have fished long enough, honey,&rdquo; Beatrice told Dorman
+      decidedly. &ldquo;It's nearly dinner time, and Looey Sam won't have time to fry
+      your fish if you don't hurry home. Shall I tell Dick you wished to see
+      him, Mr. Cameron?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's nothing important, so I won't trouble you,&rdquo; Keith replied, in a tone
+      that matched hers for cool courtesy. &ldquo;I'll see him to-morrow, probably.&rdquo;
+       He helped Dorman reel in his line, cut a willow-wand and strung the three
+      fish upon it by the gills, washed his hands leisurely in the creek, and
+      dried them on his handkerchief, just as if nothing bothered him in the
+      slightest degree. Then he went over and smoothed Redcloud's mane and
+      pulled a wisp of forelock from under the brow-band, and commanded him to
+      shake hands, which the horse did promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to shake hands wis your pony, too,&rdquo; Dorman cried, and dropped pole
+      and fish heedlessly into the grass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, kid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman went up gravely and clasped Redcloud's raised fetlock solemnly,
+      while the tall cow-puncher smiled down at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kiss him, Redcloud,&rdquo; he said softly; and then, when the horse's nose was
+      thrust in his face: &ldquo;No, not me&mdash;kiss the kid.&rdquo; He lifted the child
+      up in his arms, and when Redcloud touched his soft nose to Dorman's cheek
+      and lifted his lip for a dainty, toothless nibble, Dorman was speechless
+      with fright and rapture thrillingly combined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now run home with your fish; it lacks only two hours and forty minutes to
+      dinner time, and it will take at least twenty minutes for the fish to fry&mdash;so
+      you see you'll have to hike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice flushed and looked at him sharply, but Keith was getting into the
+      saddle and did not appear to remember she was there. The fingers that were
+      tying her hat-ribbons under her chin fumbled awkwardly and trembled.
+      Beatrice would have given a good deal at that moment to know just what
+      Keith Cameron was thinking; and she was in a blind rage with herself to
+      think that it mattered to her what he thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he lifted his hat she only nodded curtly. She mimicked every beast
+      and bird she could think of on the way home, to wipe him and his horse
+      from the memory of Dorman, whose capacity for telling things best left
+      untold was simply marvelous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is saying much for Beatrice's powers of entertainment that Dorman quite
+      forgot to say anything about Mr. Cameron and his pony, and chattered to
+      his auntie and grandmama about kitties up in a tree, and lost lambs and
+      sleepy birds, until he was tucked into bed that night. It was not until
+      then that Beatrice felt justified in drawing a long breath. Not that she
+      cared whether any one knew of her meeting Keith Cameron, only that her
+      mother would instantly take alarm and preach to her about the wickedness
+      of flirting; and Beatrice was not in the mood for sermons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 9. What It Meant to Keith.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dick, I wish you'd tell me about this leasing business. There are points
+      which I don't understand.&rdquo; Beatrice leaned over and smoothed Rex's sleek
+      shoulder with her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want to understand it for? The thing is done now. We've got
+      the fence-posts strung, and a crew hired to set them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't snap your words like that, Dick. It doesn't matter&mdash;only
+      I was wondering why Mr. Cameron acted so queer yesterday when I told him
+      about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You told Keith? What did he say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He didn't say anything. He just looked things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did you see him?&rdquo; Dick wanted to know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, dear me! I don't see that it matters where I saw him. You're
+      getting as inquisitive as mama. If you think it concerns you, why, I met
+      him accidentally when I was fishing with Dorman. He was coming to see you,
+      but you were gone, so he stopped and talked for a few minutes. Was there
+      anything so strange about that? And I told him you were leasing the Pine
+      Ridge country, and he looked&mdash;well, peculiar. But he wouldn't say
+      anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, he had good reason for looking peculiar. But you needn't have told
+      him I did it, Trix. Lay that at milord's door, where it belongs. I don't
+      want Keith to blame me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why should he blame anybody? It isn't his land, is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it isn't. But&mdash;you see, Trix, it's this way: A man goes
+      somewhere and buys a ranch&mdash;or locates on a claim&mdash;and starts
+      into the cattle business. He may not own more than a few hundred acres of
+      land, but if he has much stock he needs miles of prairie country, with
+      water, for them to range on. It's an absolute necessity, you see. He takes
+      care to locate where there is plenty of public land that is free to
+      anybody's cattle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take the Pool outfit, for instance. We don't own land enough to feed
+      one-third of our cattle. We depend on government land for range for them.
+      The Cross outfit is the same, only Keith's is on a smaller scale. He's got
+      to have range outside his own land, which is mostly hay land. This part of
+      the State is getting pretty well settled up with small ranchers, and then
+      the sheep men keep crowding in wherever they can get a show&mdash;and
+      sheep will starve cattle to death; they leave a range as bare as a
+      prairie-dog town. So there's only one good bit of range left around here,
+      and that's the Pine Ridge country, as it's called. That's our main
+      dependence for winter range; and now when this drought has struck us, and
+      everything is drying up, we've had to turn all our cattle down there on
+      account of water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ever since I took charge of the Pool, Keith and I threw in together and
+      used the same range, worked our crews together, and fought the sheepmen
+      together. There was a time when they tried to gobble the Pine Ridge range,
+      but it didn't go. Keith and I made up our minds that we needed it worse
+      than they did&mdash;and we got it. Our punchers had every sheep herder
+      bluffed out till there wasn't a mutton-chewer could keep a bunch of sheep
+      on that range over-night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, this lease law was made by stockmen, for stockmen. They can lease
+      land from the government, fence it&mdash;and they've got a cinch on it as
+      long as the lease lasts. A cow outfit can corral a heap of range that way.
+      There's the trick of leasing every other section or so, and then running a
+      fence around the whole chunk; and that's what the Pool has done to the
+      Pine Ridge. But you mustn't repeat that, Trix.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Milord wasn't long getting on to the leasing graft; in fact, it turns out
+      the company got wind of it over in England, and sent him over here to see
+      what could be done in that line. He's done it, all right enough!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And there's the Cross outfit, frozen out completely. The Lord only knows
+      what Keith will do with his cattle now, for we'll have every drop of water
+      under fence inside of a month. He's in a hole, for sure. I expect he feels
+      pretty sore with me, too, but I couldn't help it. I explained how it was
+      to milord, but&mdash;you can't persuade an Englishman, any more than you
+      can a&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think,&rdquo; put in Beatrice firmly, &ldquo;Sir Redmond did quite right. It isn't
+      his fault that Mr. Cameron owns more cattle than he can feed. If he was
+      sent over here to lease the land, it was his duty to do so. Still, I
+      really am sorry for Mr. Cameron.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keith won't sit down and take his medicine if he can help it,&rdquo; Dick said
+      moodily. &ldquo;He could sell out, but I don't believe he will. He's more apt to
+      fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't see how fighting will help him,&rdquo; Beatrice returned spiritedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there's one thing,&rdquo; retorted Dick. &ldquo;If milord wants that fence to
+      stand he'd better stay and watch it. I'll bet money he won't more than
+      strike Liverpool till about forty miles, more or less, of Pool fence will
+      need repairs mighty bad&mdash;which it won't get, so far as I'm
+      concerned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean that Keith Cameron would destroy our fencing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick grinned. &ldquo;He'll be a fool if he don't, Trix. You can tell milord he'd
+      better send for all his traps, and camp right here till that lease runs
+      out. My punchers will have something to do beside ride fence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall certainly tell Sir Redmond,&rdquo; Beatrice threatened. &ldquo;You and Mr.
+      Cameron hate him just because he's English. You won't see what a splendid
+      fellow he is. It's your duty to stand by him in this business, instead of
+      taking sides with Keith Cameron. Why didn't he lease that land himself, if
+      he wanted to?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because he plays fair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Meaning, I suppose, that Sir Redmond doesn't. I didn't think you would be
+      so unjust. Sir Redmond is a perfect gentleman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you've got a chance to marry your 'perfect gentleman,&rdquo; Dick
+      retorted, savagely. &ldquo;It's a wonder you don't take him if you think so
+      highly of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I probably shall. At any rate, he isn't a male flirt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't seem to fancy a fellow that can give you as good as you send,&rdquo;
+       Dick rejoined. &ldquo;I thought you wouldn't find Keith such easy game, even if
+      he does live on a cattle ranch. You can't rope him into making a fool of
+      himself for your amusement, and I'm glad of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't do your shouting too soon. If you could overhear some of the things
+      he says you wouldn't be so sure&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose you take them all for their face value,&rdquo; grinned Dick
+      ironically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don't! I'm not a simple country girl, let me remind you. Since you
+      are so sure of him, I'll have the pleasure of saying, 'No, thank you,
+      sir,' to your Keith Cameron&mdash;just to convince you I can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you will! Well, you just tell me when you do, Trix, and I'll give you
+      your pick of all the saddle horses on the ranch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll take Rex, and you may as well consider him mine. Oh, you men! A few
+      smiles, judiciously dispensed, and&mdash;&rdquo; Beatrice smiled most
+      exasperatingly at her brother, and Dick went moody and was very poor
+      company the rest of the way home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 10. Pine Ridge Range Ablaze.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      At dusk that night a glow was in the southern sky, and the wind carried
+      the pungent odor of burning grass. Dick went out on the porch after
+      dinner, and sniffed the air uneasily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't much like the look of it,&rdquo; he admitted to Sir Redmond. &ldquo;It smells
+      pretty strong, to be across the river. I sent a couple of the boys out to
+      look a while ago. If it's this side of the river we'll have to get a move
+      on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be the range land, I take it, if it's on this side,&rdquo; Sir Redmond
+      remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then a man thundered through the lane and up to the very steps of the
+      porch, and when he stopped the horse he was riding leaned forward and his
+      legs shook with exhaustion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Pine Ridge Range is afire, Mr. Lansell,&rdquo; the man announced quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick took a long pull at his cigar and threw it away. &ldquo;Have the boys throw
+      some barrels and sacks into a wagon&mdash;and git!&rdquo; He went inside and
+      grabbed his hat, and when he turned Sir Redmond was at his elbow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm going, too, Dick,&rdquo; cried Beatrice, who always seemed to hear anything
+      that promised excitement. &ldquo;I never saw a prairie-fire in my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's ten miles off,&rdquo; said Dick shortly, taking the steps at a jump.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't care if it's twenty&mdash;I'm going. Sir Redmond, wait for me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be-atrice!&rdquo; cried her mother detainingly; but Beatrice was gone to get
+      ready. A quick job she made of it; she threw a dark skirt over her thin,
+      white one, slipped into the nearest jacket, snatched her riding-gauntlets
+      off a chair where she had thrown them, and then couldn't find her hat.
+      That, however, did not trouble her. Down in the hall she appropriated one
+      of Dick's, off the hall tree, and announced herself ready. Sir Redmond
+      laughed, caught her hand, and they raced together down to the stables
+      before her mother had fully grasped the situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't Rex saddled, Dick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick, his foot in the stirrup, stopped long enough to glance over his
+      shoulder at her. &ldquo;You ready so soon? Jim, saddle Rex for Miss Lansell.&rdquo; He
+      swung up into the saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aren't you going to wait, Dick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't. Milord can bring you.&rdquo; And Dick was away on the run.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Men were hurrying here and there, every move counting something done.
+      While she stood there a wagon rattled out from the shadow of a haystack,
+      with empty water-barrels dancing a mad jig behind the high seat, where the
+      driver perched with feet braced and a whip in his hand. After him dashed
+      four or five riders, silent and businesslike. In a moment they were mere
+      fantastic shadows galloping up the hill through the smothery gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came Jim, leading Rex and a horse for himself; Sir Redmond had
+      saddled his gray and was waiting. Beatrice sprang into the saddle and took
+      the lead, with nerves a-tingle. The wind that rushed against her face was
+      hot and reeking with smoke. Her nostrils drank greedily the tang it
+      carried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You gipsy!&rdquo; cried Sir Redmond, peering at her through the murky gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This&mdash;is living!&rdquo; she laughed, and urged Rex faster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they raced recklessly over the hills, toward where the night was aglow.
+      Before them the wagon pounded over untrailed prairie sod, with shadowy
+      figures fleeing always before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, wild cattle rushed off at either side, to stop and eye them
+      curiously as they whirled past. There, a coyote, squatting unseen upon a
+      distant pinnacle, howled, long-drawn and quavering, his weird protest
+      against the solitudes in which he wandered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dusk deepened to dark, and they could no longer see the racing
+      shadows. The rattle of the wagon came mysteriously back to them through
+      the black.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once Rex stumbled over a rock and came near falling, but Beatrice only
+      laughed and urged him on, unheeding Sir Redmond's call to ride slower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They splashed through a shallow creek, and came upon the wagon, halted
+      that the cowboys might fill the barrels with water. Then they passed by,
+      and when they heard them following the wagon no longer rattled glibly
+      along, but chuckled heavily under its load.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dull, red glow brightened to orange. Then, breasting at last a long
+      hill, they came to the top, and Beatrice caught her breath at what lay
+      below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A jagged line of leaping flame cut clean through the dark of the coulee.
+      The smoke piled rosily above and before, and the sullen roar of it
+      clutched the senses&mdash;challenging, sinister. Creeping stealthily,
+      relentlessly, here a thin gash of yellow hugging close to the earth, there
+      a bold, bright wall of fire, it swept the coulee from rim to rim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The wind is carrying it from us,&rdquo; Sir Redmond was saying in her ear. &ldquo;Are
+      you afraid to stop here alone? I ought to go down and lend a hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice drew a long gasp. &ldquo;Oh, no, I'm not afraid. Go; there is Dick,
+      down there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're sure you won't mind?&rdquo; He hesitated, dreading to leave her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no! Go on&mdash;they need you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond turned and rode down the ridge toward the flames. His straight
+      figure was silhouetted sharply against the glow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice slipped off her horse and sat down upon a rock, dead to
+      everything but the fiendish beauty of the scene spread out below her.
+      Millions of sparks danced in and out among the smoke wreaths which curled
+      upward&mdash;now black, now red, now a dainty rose. Off to the left a
+      coyote yapped shrilly, ending with his mournful howl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice shivered from sheer ecstasy. This was a world she had never
+      before seen&mdash;a world of hot, smoke-sodden wind, of dead-black shadows
+      and flame-bright light; of roar and hoarse bellowing and sharp crackles;
+      of calm, star-sprinkled sky above&mdash;and in the distance the uncanny
+      howling of a coyote.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Time had no reckoning there. She saw men running to and fro in the glare,
+      disappearing in a downward swirl of smoke, coming to view again in the
+      open beyond. Always their arms waved rhythmically downward, beating the
+      ragged line of yellow with water-soaked sacks. The trail they left was a
+      wavering, smoke-traced rim of sullen black, where before had been gay,
+      dancing, orange light. In places the smolder fanned to new life behind
+      them and licked greedily at the ripe grass like hungry, red tongues. One
+      of these Beatrice watched curiously. It crept slyly into an unburned
+      hollow, and the wind, veering suddenly, pushed it out of sight from the
+      fighters and sent it racing merrily to the south. The main line of fire
+      beat doggedly up against the wind that a minute before had been friendly,
+      and fought bravely two foes instead of one. It dodged, ducked, and leaped
+      high, and the men beat upon it mercilessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the little, new flame broadened and stood on tiptoes defiantly, proud
+      of the wide, black trail that kept stretching away behind it; and Beatrice
+      watched it, fascinated by its miraculous growth. It began to crackle and
+      send up smoke wreaths of its own, with sparks dancing through; then its
+      voice deepened and coarsened, till it roared quite like its mother around
+      the hill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The smoke from the larger fire rolled back with the wind, and Beatrice
+      felt her eyes sting. Flakes of blackened grass and ashes rained upon the
+      hilltop, and Rex moved uneasily and pawed at the dry sod. To him a
+      prairie-fire was not beautiful&mdash;it was an enemy to run from. He
+      twitched his reins from Beatrice's heedless fingers and decamped toward
+      home, paying no attention whatever to the command of his mistress to stop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still Beatrice sat and watched the new fire, and was glad she chanced to
+      be upon the south end of a sharp-nosed hill, so that she could see both
+      ways. The blaze dove into a deep hollow, climbed the slope beyond, leaped
+      exultantly and bellowed its challenge. And, of a sudden, dark forms sprang
+      upon it and beat it cruelly, and it went black where they struck, and only
+      thin streamers of smoke told where it had been. Still they beat, and
+      struck, and struck again, till the fire died ingloriously and the hillside
+      to the south lay dark and still, as it had been at the beginning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice wondered who had done it. Then she came back to her surroundings
+      and realized that Rex had left her, and she was alone. She shivered&mdash;this
+      time not in ecstasy, but partly from loneliness&mdash;and went down the
+      hill toward where Dick and Sir Redmond and the others were fighting
+      steadily the larger fire, unconscious of the younger, new one that had
+      stolen away from them and was beaten to death around the hill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once in the coulee, she was compelled to take to the burnt ground, which
+      crisped hotly under her feet and sent up a rank, suffocating smell of
+      burned grass into her nostrils. The whole country was alight, and down
+      there the world seemed on fire. At times the smoke swooped blindingly, and
+      half strangled her. Her skirts, in passing, swept the black ashes from
+      grass roots which showed red in the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Picking her way carefully around the spots that glowed warningly,
+      shielding her face as well as she could from the smoke, she kept on until
+      she was close upon the fighters. Dick and Sir Redmond were working side by
+      side, the sacks they held rising and falling with the regularity of a
+      machine for minutes at a time. A group of strange horsemen galloped up
+      from the way she had come, followed by a wagon of water-barrels, careering
+      recklessly over the uneven ground. The horsemen stopped just inside the
+      burned rim, the horses sidestepping gingerly upon the hot turf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess you want some help here. Where shall we start in?&rdquo; Beatrice
+      recognized the voice. It was Keith Cameron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure, we do!&rdquo; Dick answered, gratefully. &ldquo;Start in any old place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm not sure we want your help,&rdquo; spoke the angry voice of Sir Redmond. &ldquo;I
+      take it you've already done a devilish sight too much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by that?&rdquo; Keith demanded; and then, by the silence, it
+      seemed that every one knew. Beatrice caught her breath. Was this one of
+      the ways Dick meant that Keith could fight?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Climb down, boys, and get busy,&rdquo; Keith called to his men, after a few
+      breaths. &ldquo;This is for Dick. Wait a minute! Pete, drive the wagon ahead,
+      there. I guess we'd better begin on the other end and work this way. Come
+      on&mdash;there's too much hot air here.&rdquo; They clattered on across the
+      coulee, kicking hot ashes up for the wind to seize upon. Beatrice went
+      slowly up to Dick, feeling all at once very tired and out of heart with it
+      all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dick,&rdquo; she called, in an anxious little voice, &ldquo;Rex has run away from me.
+      What shall I do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick straightened stiffly, his hands upon his aching loins, and peered
+      through the smoke at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess the only thing to do, then, is to get into the wagon over there.
+      You can drive, Trix, if you want to, and that will give us another man
+      here. I was just going to have some one take you home; now&mdash;the Lord
+      only knows!&mdash;you're liable to have to stay till morning. Rex will go
+      home, all right; you needn't worry about him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He bent to the work again, and she could hear the wet sack thud, thud upon
+      the ground. Other sacks and blankets went thud, thud, and down here at
+      close range the fire was not so beautiful as it had been from the hilltop.
+      Down here the glamour was gone. She climbed up to the high wagon seat and
+      took the reins from the man, who immediately seized upon a sack and went
+      off to the fight. She felt that she was out of touch. She was out on the
+      prairie at night, miles away from any house, driving a water-wagon for the
+      men to put out a prairie fire. She had driven a coaching-party once on a
+      wager; but she had never driven a lumber-wagon with barrels of water
+      before. She could not think of any girl she knew who had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a new experience, certainly, but she found no pleasure in it; she
+      was tired and sleepy, and her eyes and throat smarted cruelly with the
+      smoke. She looked back to the hill she had just left, and it seemed a
+      long, long time since she sat upon a rock up there and watched the little,
+      new fire grow and grow, and the strange shadows spring up from nowhere and
+      beat it vindictively till it died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again she wondered vaguely who had done it; not Keith Cameron, surely, for
+      Sir Redmond had all but accused him openly of setting the range afire.
+      Would he stamp out a blaze that was just reaching a size to do mischief,
+      if left a little longer? No one would have seen it for hours, probably. He
+      would undoubtedly have let it run, unless&mdash;But who else could have
+      set the fire? Who else would want to see the Pine Ridge country black and
+      barren? Dick said Keith Cameron would not sit down and take his medicine&mdash;perhaps
+      Dick knew he would do this thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the fighters moved on across the coulee she drove the wagon to keep
+      pace with them. Often a man would run up to the wagon, climb upon a wheel
+      and dip a frayed gunny sack into a barrel, lift it out and run with it,
+      all dripping, to the nearest point of the fire. Her part was to keep the
+      wagon at the most convenient place. She began to feel the importance of
+      her position, and to take pride in being always at the right spot. From
+      the calm appreciation of the picturesque side, she drifted to the keen
+      interest of the one who battles against heavy odds. The wind had veered
+      again, and the flames rushed up the long coulee like an express train. But
+      the path it left was growing narrower every moment. Keith Cameron was
+      doing grand work with his crew upon the other side, and the space between
+      them was shortening perceptibly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice found herself watching the work of the Cross men. If they were
+      doing it for effect, they certainly were acting well their part. She
+      wondered what would happen when the two crews met, and the danger was
+      over. Would Sir Redmond call Keith Cameron to account for what he had
+      done? If he did, what would Keith say? And which side would Dick take?
+      Very likely, she thought, he would defend Keith Cameron, and shield him if
+      he could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice found herself crying quietly, and shivering, though the air was
+      sultry with the fire. For the life of her, she could not tell why she
+      cried, but she tried to believe it was the smoke in her eyes. Perhaps it
+      was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sky was growing gray when the two crews met. The orange lights were
+      gone, and Dick, with a spiteful flop of the black rag which had been a
+      good, new sack, stamped out the last tiny red tongue of the fire. The men
+      stood about in awkward silence, panting with heat and weariness. Sir
+      Redmond was ostentatiously filling his pipe. Beatrice knew him by his
+      straight, soldierly pose. In the drab half-light they were all mere black
+      outlines of men, and, for the most part, she could not distinguish one
+      from another. Keith Cameron she knew; instinctively by his slim height,
+      and by the way he carried his head. Unconsciously, she leaned down from
+      the high seat and listened for what would come next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith seemed to be making a cigarette. A match flared and lighted his face
+      for an instant, then was pinched out, and he was again only a black shape
+      in the half-darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'm waiting for what you've got to say, Sir Redmond.&rdquo; His voice cut
+      sharply through the silence. If he had known Beatrice was out there in the
+      wagon he would have spoken lower, perhaps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy I said all that is necessary just now,&rdquo; Sir Redmond answered
+      calmly. &ldquo;You know what I think. From now on I shall act.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what are you going to do, then?&rdquo; Keith's voice was clear and
+      unperturbed, as though he asked for the sake of being polite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That,&rdquo; retorted Sir Redmond, &ldquo;is my own affair. However, since the matter
+      concerns you rather closely, I will say that when I have the evidence I am
+      confident I shall find, I shall seek the proper channels for retribution.
+      There are laws in this country, aimed to protect a man's property, I take
+      it. I warn you that I shall not spare&mdash;the guilty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dick, it's up to you next. I want to know where you stand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At your back, Keith, right up to the finish. I know you; you fight fair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, then. I didn't think you'd go back on a fellow. And I tell you
+      straight up, Sir Redmond Hayes, I'm not out touching matches to range land&mdash;not
+      if it belonged to the devil himself. I've got some feeling for the dumb
+      brutes that would have to suffer. You can get right to work hunting
+      evidence, and be damned! You're dead welcome to all you can find; and in
+      this part of the country you won't be able to buy much! You know very well
+      you deserve to get your rope crossed, or you wouldn't be on the lookout
+      for trouble. Come, boys; let's hit the trail. So long, Dick!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice watched them troop off to their horses, heard them mount and go
+      tearing off across the burned coulee bottom toward home. Dick came slowly
+      over to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect you're good and tired, sis. You've made a hand, all right, and
+      helped us a whole lot, I can tell you. I'll drive now, and we'll hit the
+      high places.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice smiled wanly. Not one of her Eastern acquaintances would have
+      recognized Beatrice Lansell, the society beauty, in this
+      remarkable-looking young woman, attired in a most haphazard fashion, with
+      a face grimed like a chimney sweep, red eyelids drooping over tired,
+      smarting eyes, and disheveled, ash-filled hair topped by a man's gray felt
+      hat. When she smiled her teeth shone dead white, like a negro's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick regarded her critically, one foot on the wheel hub. &ldquo;Where did you
+      get hold of Keith Cameron's hat?&rdquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice snatched the hat from her head with childish petulance, and
+      looked as if she were going to throw it viciously upon the ground. If her
+      face had been clean Dick might have seen how the blood had rushed into her
+      cheeks; as it was, she was safe behind a mask of soot. She placed the hat
+      back upon her head, feeling, privately, a bit foolish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I supposed it was yours. I took it off the halltree.&rdquo; The dignity of her
+      tone was superb, but, unfortunately, it did not match her appearance of
+      rakish vagabondage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick grinned through a deep layer of soot &ldquo;Well, it happens to be Keith's.
+      He lost it in the wind the other day, and I found it and took it home.
+      It's too bad you've worn his hat all night and didn't know it. You ought
+      to see yourself. Your own mother won't know you, Trix.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't look any worse than you do. A negro would be white by comparison.
+      Do get in, so we can start! I'm tired to death, and half-starved.&rdquo; After
+      these unamiable remarks, she refused to open her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They drove silently in the gray of early morning, and the empty barrels
+      danced monotonously their fantastic jig in the back of the wagon.
+      Sootyfaced cowboys galloped wearily over the prairie before them, and Sir
+      Redmond rode moodily alongside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of a truth, the glamour was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 11. Sir Redmond Waits His Answer.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice felt distinctly out of sorts the next day, and chose an hour for
+      her ride when she felt reasonably secure from unwelcome company. But when
+      she went out into the sunshine there was Sir Redmond waiting with Rex and
+      his big gray. Beatrice was not exactly elated at the sight, but she saw
+      nothing to do but smile and make the best of it. She wanted to be alone,
+      so that she could dream along through the hills she had learned to love,
+      and think out some things which troubled her, and decide just how she had
+      best go about winning Rex for herself; it had become quite necessary to
+      her peace of mind that she should teach Dick and Keith Cameron a
+      much-needed lesson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has been so long since we rode together,&rdquo; he apologized. &ldquo;I hope you
+      don't mind my coming along.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no! Why should I mind?&rdquo; Beatrice smiled upon him in friendly fashion.
+      She liked Sir Redmond very much&mdash;only she hoped he was not going to
+      make love. Somehow, she did not feel in the mood for love-making just
+      then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know why, I'm sure. But you seem rather fond of riding about
+      these hills by yourself. One should never ask why women do things, I
+      fancy. It seems always to invite disaster.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does it?&rdquo; Beatrice was not half-listening. They were passing, just then,
+      the suburbs of a &ldquo;dog town,&rdquo; and she was never tired of watching the
+      prairie-dogs stand upon their burrows, chip-chip defiance until fear
+      overtook their impertinence, and then dive headlong deep into the earth.
+      &ldquo;I do think a prairie-dog is the most impudent creature alive and the most
+      shrewish. I never pass but I am scolded by these little scoundrels till my
+      ears burn. What do you think they say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They're probably inviting you to stop with them and be their queen, and
+      are scolding because your heart is hard and you only laugh and ride on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Queen of a prairie-dog town! Dear me! Why this plaintive mood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Am I plaintive? I do not mean to be, I'm sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't appear exactly hilarious,&rdquo; she told him. &ldquo;I can't see what is
+      getting the matter with us all. Mama and your sister are poor company,
+      even for each other, and Dick is like a bear. One can't get a civil word
+      out of him. I'm not exactly amiable, myself, either; but I relied upon you
+      to keep the mental temperature up to normal, Sir Redmond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it's a good thing we shall not stop here much longer. I must
+      confess I don't fancy the country&mdash;and Mary is downright homesick.
+      She wants to get back to her parish affairs; she's afraid some rheumatic
+      old woman needs coddling with jelly and wine, and that sort of thing. I've
+      promised to hurry through the business here, and take her home. But I mean
+      to see that Pine Ridge fence in place before I go; or, at least, see it
+      well under way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sure Dick will attend to it properly,&rdquo; Beatrice remarked, with pink
+      cheeks. If she remembered what she had threatened to tell Sir Redmond, she
+      certainly could not have asked for a better opportunity. She was reminding
+      herself at that moment that she always detested a tale bearer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your brother Dick is a fine fellow, and I have every confidence in him;
+      but you must see yourself that he is swayed, more or less, by his
+      friendship for&mdash;his neighbors. It is only a kindness to take the
+      responsibility off his shoulders till the thing is done. I'm sure he will
+      feel better to have it so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she agreed; &ldquo;I think you're right. Dick always was very
+      soft-hearted, and, right or wrong, he clings to his friends.&rdquo; Then, rather
+      hastily, as though anxious to change the trend of the conversation: &ldquo;Of
+      course, your sister will insist on keeping Dorman with her. I shall miss
+      that little scamp dreadfully, I'm afraid.&rdquo; The next minute she saw that
+      she had only opened a subject she dreaded even more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is something to know that there is even one of us that you will miss,&rdquo;
+       Sir Redmond observed. Something in his tone hurt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall miss you all,&rdquo; she said hastily. &ldquo;It has been a delightful
+      summer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I might know just what element made it delightful. I wish&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I scarcely think it has been any particular element,&rdquo; she broke in,
+      trying desperately to stave off what she felt in his tone. &ldquo;I love the
+      wild, where I can ride, and ride, and never meet a human being&mdash;where
+      I can dream and dally and feast my eyes on a landscape man has not
+      touched. I have lived most of my life in New York, and I love nature so
+      well that I'm inclined to be jealous of her. I want her left free to work
+      out all her whims in her own way. She has a keen sense of humor, I think.
+      The way she modeled some of these hills proves that she loves her little
+      jokes. I have seen where she cut deep, fearsome gashes, with sides
+      precipitous, as though she had some priceless treasure hidden away in the
+      deep, where man cannot despoil it. And if you plot and plan, and try very
+      hard, you may reach the bottom at last and find the treasure&mdash;nothing.
+      Or, perhaps, a tiny little stream, as jealously guarded as though each
+      drop were priceless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richmond rode for a few minutes in silence. When he spoke, it was
+      abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is that all? Is there nothing to this delightful summer, after all,
+      but your hills?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, of course, I&mdash;it has all been delightful. I shall hate to go
+      back home, I think.&rdquo; Beatrice was a bit startled to find just how much she
+      would hate to go back and wrap herself once more in the conventions of
+      society life. For the first time since she could remember, she wanted her
+      world to stand still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond went doggedly to the point he had in mind and heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hoped, Beatrice, you would count me, too. I've tried to be patient. You
+      know, don't you, that I love you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've certainly told me often enough,&rdquo; she retorted, in a miserable
+      attempt at her old manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you've put me off, and laughed at me, and did everything under heaven
+      but answer me fairly. And I've acted the fool, no doubt. I know it. I've
+      no courage before a woman. A curl of your lip, and I was ready to cut and
+      run. But I can't go on this way forever&mdash;I've got to know. I wish I
+      could talk as easy as I can fight; I'd have settled the thing long ago.
+      Where other men can plead their cause, I can say just the one thing&mdash;I
+      love you, Beatrice. When I saw you first, in the carriage I loved you
+      then. You had some fur&mdash;brown fur&mdash;snuggled under your chin, and
+      the pink of your cheeks, and your dear, brown eyes shining and smiling
+      above&mdash;Good God! I've always loved you! From the beginning of the
+      world, I think! I'd be good to you, Beatrice, and I believe I could make
+      you happy&mdash;if you give me the chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Something in Beatrice's throat ached cruelly. It was the truth, and she
+      knew it. He did love her, and the love of a brave man is not a thing to be
+      thrust lightly aside. But it demanded such a lot in return! More, perhaps,
+      than she could give. A love like that&mdash;a love that gives everything&mdash;demands
+      everything in return. Anything less insults it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stole a glance at him. Sir Redmond was looking straight before him,
+      with the fixed gaze that sees nothing. There was the white line around his
+      mouth which Beatrice had seen once before. Again that griping ache was in
+      her throat, till she could have cried out with the pain of it. She wanted
+      to speak, to say something&mdash;anything&mdash;which would drive that
+      look from his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While her mind groped among the jumble of words that danced upon her
+      tongue, and that seemed, all of them, so pitifully weak and inadequate,
+      she heard the galloping hoofs of a horse pounding close behind. A choking
+      cloud of dust swept down upon them, and Keith, riding in the midst, reined
+      out to pass. He lifted his hat. His eyes challenged Beatrice, swept coldly
+      the face of her companion, and turned again to the trail. He swung his
+      heels backward, and Redcloud broke again into the tireless lope that
+      carried him far ahead, until there was only a brown dot speeding over the
+      prairie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond waited until Keith was far beyond hearing, then he filled his
+      lungs deeply and looked at Beatrice. &ldquo;Don't you feel you could trust me&mdash;and
+      love me a little?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice was deadly afraid she was going to cry, and she hated weeping
+      women above all things. &ldquo;A little wouldn't do,&rdquo; she said, with what
+      firmness she could muster. &ldquo;I should want to love you as much&mdash;quite
+      as much as you deserve, Sir Redmond, or not at all. I'm afraid I can't. I
+      wish I could, though. I&mdash;I think I should like to love you; but
+      perhaps I haven't much heart. I like you very much&mdash;better than I
+      ever liked any one before; but oh, I wish you wouldn't insist on an
+      answer! I don't know, myself, how I feel. I wish you had not asked me&mdash;yet.
+      I tried not to let you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man can keep his heart still for a certain time, Beatrice, but not for
+      always. Some time he will say what his heart commands, if the chance is
+      given him; the woman can't hold him back. I did wait and wait, because I
+      thought you weren't ready for me to speak. And&mdash;you don't care for
+      anybody else?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I don't. But I hate to give up my freedom to any one, Sir
+      Redmond. I want to be free&mdash;free as the wind that blows here always,
+      and changes and changes, and blows from any point that suits its whim,
+      without being bound to any rule.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think I'm an ogre, that will lock you in a dungeon, Beatrice?
+      Can't you see that I am not threatening your freedom? I only want the
+      right to love you, and make you happy. I should not ask you to go or stay
+      where you did not please, and I'd be good to you, Beatrice!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think it would matter,&rdquo; cried Beatrice, &ldquo;if you weren't. I should
+      love you because I couldn't help myself. I hate doing things by rule, I
+      tell you. I couldn't care for you because you were good to me, and I ought
+      to care; it must be because I can't help myself. And I&mdash;&rdquo; She stopped
+      and shut her teeth hard together; she felt sure she should cry in another
+      minute if this went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe you do love me, Beatrice, and your rebellious young American
+      nature dreads surrender.&rdquo; He tried to look into her eyes and smile, but
+      she kept her eyes looking straight ahead. Then Sir Redmond made the
+      biggest blunder of his life, out of the goodness of his heart, and because
+      he hated to tease her into promising anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won't ask you to tell me now, Beatrice,&rdquo; he said gently. &ldquo;I want you to
+      be sure; I never could forgive myself if you ever felt you had made a
+      mistake. A week from to-night I shall ask you once more&mdash;and it will
+      be for the last time. After that&mdash;But I won't think&mdash;I daren't
+      think what it would be like if you say no. Will you tell me then,
+      Beatrice?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The heart of Beatrice jumped into her throat. At that minute she was very
+      near to saying yes, and having done with it. She was quite sure she knew,
+      then, what her answer would be in a week. The smile she gave him started
+      Sir Redmond's blood to racing exultantly. Her lips parted a little, as if
+      a word were there, ready to be spoken; but she caught herself back from
+      the decision. Sir Redmond had voluntarily given her a week; well, then,
+      she would take it, to the last minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I'll tell you a week from to-night, after dinner. I'll race you
+      home, Sir Redmond&mdash;the first one through the big gate by the stable
+      wins!&rdquo; She struck Rex a blow that made him jump, and darted off down the
+      trail that led home, and her teasing laugh was the last Sir Redmond heard
+      of her that day; for she whipped into a narrow gulch when the first turn
+      hid her from him, and waited until he had thundered by. After that she
+      rode complacently, deep into the hills, wickedly pleased at the trick she
+      had played him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every day during the week that followed she slipped away from him and rode
+      away by herself, resolved to enjoy her freedom to the full while she had
+      it; for after that, she felt, things would never be quite the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every day, when Dick had chance for a quiet word with her, he wanted to
+      know who owned Rex&mdash;till at last she lost her temper and told him
+      plainly that, in her opinion, Keith Cameron had left the country for two
+      reasons, instead of one. (For Keith, be it known, had not been seen since
+      the day he passed her and Sir Redmond on the trail.) Beatrice averred that
+      she had a poor opinion of a man who would not stay and face whatever was
+      coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was just one day left in her week of freedom, and Dick still owned
+      Rex, with the chances all in his favor for continuing to do so. Still,
+      Beatrice was vindictively determined upon one point. Let Keith Cameron
+      cross her path, and she would do something she had never done before; she
+      would deliberately lead him on to propose&mdash;if the fellow had nerve
+      enough to do so, which, she told Dick, she doubted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 12. Held Up by Mr. Kelly.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Traveler, what lies over the hill?'&rdquo; questioned a mischievous voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith, dreaming along a winding, rock-strewn trail in the canyon, looked
+      up quickly and beheld his Heart's Desire sitting calmly upon her horse,
+      ten feet before Redcloud's nose, watching him amusedly. Redcloud must have
+      been dreaming also, or he would have whinnied warning and welcome, with
+      the same breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Traveler, tell to me,'&rdquo; she went on, seeing Keith only stared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith, not to be outdone, searched his memory hurriedly for the reply
+      which should rightly follow; secretly he was amazed at her sudden
+      friendliness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Child, there's a valley over there'&mdash;but it isn't 'pretty and
+      wooded and shy'&mdash;not what you can notice. And there isn't any 'little
+      town,' either, unless you go a long way. Why?&rdquo; Keith rested his gloved
+      hands, one above the other, on the saddle horn, and let his eyes riot with
+      the love that was in him. He had not seen his Heart's Desire for a week. A
+      week? It seemed a thousand years! And here she was before him, unusually
+      gracious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why? I discovered that hill two hours ago, it seems to me, and it wasn't
+      more than a mile off. I want to see what lies on the other side. I feel
+      sure no man ever stood upon the top and looked down. It is my hill&mdash;mine
+      by the right of discovery. But I've been going, and going, and I think
+      it's rather farther away, if anything, than it was before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good thing I met you'&rdquo; Keith declared, and he looked as if he meant it.
+      &ldquo;You're probably lost, right now, and don't know it. Which way is home?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice smiled a superior smile, and pointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought so,&rdquo; grinned Keith joyously. &ldquo;You're pointing straight toward
+      Claggett.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn't matter,&rdquo; said Beatrice, &ldquo;since you know, and you're here. The
+      important thing is to get to the top of that hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for?&rdquo; Keith questioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, to be there!&rdquo; Beatrice opened her big eyes at him. &ldquo;That,&rdquo; she
+      declared whimsically, &ldquo;is the top of the world, and it is mine. I found
+      it. I want to go up there and look down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's an unmerciful climb,&rdquo; Keith demurred hypocritically, to strengthen
+      her resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the better. I don't value what comes easily.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won't see anything, except more hills.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love hills&mdash;and more hills.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're a long way from home, and it's after one o'clock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have a lunch with me, and I often stay out until dinner time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith gave a sigh that shook the saddle, making up, in volume, what it
+      lacked in sincerity. The blood in him was a-jump at the prospect of
+      leading his Heart's Desire up next the clouds&mdash;up where the world was
+      yet young. A man in love is fond of self-torture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not said you must go.&rdquo; Beatrice answered with the sigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't have to,&rdquo; he retorted. &ldquo;It is a self evident fact. Who wants to
+      go prowling around these hills by night, with a lantern that smokes an'
+      has an evil smell, losing sleep and yowling like a bunch of coyotes,
+      hunting a misguided young woman who thinks north is south, and can't point
+      straight up?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You draw a flattering picture, Mr. Cameron.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's realistic. Do you still insist upon getting up there, for the
+      doubtful pleasure of looking down?&rdquo; Secretly, he hoped so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I shall go with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not. I can go very well by myself, Mr. Cameron.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice was something of a hypocrite herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall go where duty points the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope it points toward home, then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn't, though. It takes the trail you take.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never yet allowed my wishes to masquerade as Disagreeable Duty, with
+      two big D's,&rdquo; she told him tartly, and started off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say! If you're going up that hill, this is the trail. You'll bump up
+      against a straight cliff if you follow that path.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice turned with seeming reluctance and allowed him to guide her, just
+      as she had intended he should do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dick tells me you have been away,&rdquo; she began suavely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I've just got back from Fort Belknap,&rdquo; he explained quietly, though
+      he must have known his absence had been construed differently. &ldquo;I've
+      rented pasturage on the reservation for every hoof I own. Great grass over
+      there&mdash;the whole prairie like a hay meadow, almost, and little
+      streams everywhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very fortunate,&rdquo; Beatrice remarked politely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Luck ought to come my way once in a while. I don't seem to get more than
+      my share, though.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dick will be glad to know you have a good range for your cattle, Mr.
+      Cameron.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect he will. You may tell him, for me, that Jim Worthington&mdash;he's
+      the agent over there, and was in college with us&mdash;says I can have my
+      cattle there as long as he's running the place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not tell him yourself?&rdquo; Beatrice asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't expect to be over to the Pool ranch for a while.&rdquo; Keith's tone
+      was significant, and Beatrice dropped the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Been fishing lately?&rdquo; he asked easily, as though he had not left her that
+      day in a miff. &ldquo;No. Dorman is fickle, like all male creatures. Dick
+      brought him two little brown puppies the other day, and now he can hardly
+      be dragged from the woodshed to his meals. I believe he would eat and
+      sleep with them if his auntie would allow him to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The trail narrowed there, and they were obliged to ride single file, which
+      was not favorable to conversation. Thus far, Beatrice thought, she was a
+      long way from winning her wager; but she did not worry&mdash;she looked up
+      to where the hill towered above them, and smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll have to get off and lead our horses over this spur,&rdquo; he told her,
+      at last. &ldquo;Once on the other side, we can begin to climb. Still in the
+      humor to tackle it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure I am. After all this trouble I shall not turn back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said Keith, inwardly shouting. If his Heart's Desire wished
+      to take a climb that would last a good two hours, he was not there to
+      object. He led her up a steep, rock-strewn ridge and into a hollow. From
+      there the hill sloped smoothly upward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll just anchor these cayuses to a rock, to make dead-sure of them,&rdquo;
+       Keith remarked. &ldquo;It wouldn't be fun to be set afoot out here; now, would
+      it? How would you like the job of walking home, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think I'd enjoy it much,&rdquo; Beatrice said, showing her one dimple
+      conspicuously. &ldquo;I'd rather ride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Throw up your hands!&rdquo; growled a voice from somewhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith wheeled toward the sound, and a bullet spatted into the yellow clay,
+      two inches from the toe of his boot. Also, a rifle cracked sharply. He
+      took the hint, and put his hands immediately on a level with his hat
+      crown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No use,&rdquo; he called out ruefully. &ldquo;I haven't anything to return the
+      compliment with.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I've got t' have the papers fur that, mister,&rdquo; retorted the voice,
+      and a man appeared from the shelter of a rock and came slowly down to them&mdash;a
+      man, long-legged and lank, with haggard, unshaven face and eyes that had
+      hunger and dogged endurance looking out. He picked his way carefully with
+      his feet, his eyes and the rifle fixed unswervingly at the two. Beatrice
+      was too astonished to make a sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What sort of a hold-up do you call this?&rdquo; demanded Keith hotly, his hands
+      itching to be down and busy. &ldquo;We don't carry rolls of money around in the
+      hills, you fool!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, damn your money!&rdquo; the man said roughly. &ldquo;I've got money t' burn. I
+      want t' trade horses with yuh. That roan, there, looks like a stayer. I'll
+      take him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, seeing you seem to be head push here, I guess it's a trade,&rdquo; Keith
+      answered. &ldquo;But I'll thank you for my own saddle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice, whose hands were up beside her ears, and not an inch higher,
+      changed from amazed curiosity to concern. &ldquo;Oh, you mustn't take Redcloud
+      away from Mr. Cameron!&rdquo; she protested. &ldquo;You don't know&mdash;he's so fond
+      of that horse! You may take mine; he's a good horse&mdash;he's a perfectly
+      splendid horse, but I&mdash;I'm not so attached to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fellow stopped and looked at her&mdash;not, however, forgetting Keith,
+      who was growing restive. Beatrice's cheeks were very pink, and her eyes
+      were bright and big and earnest. He could not look into them without
+      letting some of the sternness drop out of his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you'd please take Rex&mdash;I'd rather trade than not,&rdquo; she
+      coaxed. When Beatrice coaxed, mere man must yield or run. The fellow was
+      but human, and he was not in a position to run, so he grinned and wavered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's fair to say you'll get done,&rdquo; he remarked, his eyes upon the odd
+      little dimple at the corner of her mouth, as if he had never seen anything
+      quite so fetching.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your horse won't cr&mdash;buck, will he?&rdquo; she ventured doubtfully. This
+      was her first horse trade, and it behooved her to be cautious, even at the
+      point of a rifle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, no,&rdquo; said the man laconically; &ldquo;he won't. He's dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; Beatrice gasped and blushed. She might have known, she thought, that
+      the fellow would not take all this trouble if his horse was in a condition
+      to buck. Then: &ldquo;My elbows hurt. I&mdash;I think I should like to sit
+      down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure,&rdquo; said the man politely. &ldquo;Make yourself comfortable. I ain't used t'
+      dealin' with ladies. But you got t' set still, yuh know, and not try any
+      tricks. I can put up a mighty swift gun play when I need to&mdash;and your
+      bein' a lady wouldn't cut no ice in a case uh that kind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you.&rdquo; Beatrice sat down upon the nearest rock, folded her hands
+      meekly and looked from him to Keith, who seethed to claim a good deal of
+      the man's attention. She observed that, at a long breath from Keith, his
+      captor was instantly alert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe your elbows ache, too,&rdquo; he remarked dryly. &ldquo;They'll git over it,
+      though; I've knowed a man t' grab at the clouds upwards of an hour, an' no
+      harm done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's encouraging, I'm sure.&rdquo; Keith shifted to the other foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How's that sorrel?&rdquo; demanded the man. &ldquo;Can he go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith hesitated a second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed he can go!&rdquo; put in Beatrice eagerly. &ldquo;He's every bit as good as
+      Redcloud.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that sorrel yours?&rdquo; The man's eyes shifted briefly to her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No-o.&rdquo; Beatrice, thinking how she had meant to own him, blushed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That accounts for it.&rdquo; He laughed unpleasantly. &ldquo;I wondered why you was
+      so dead anxious t' have me take him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The eyes of Beatrice snapped sparks at him, but her manner was demure, not
+      to say meek. &ldquo;He belongs to my brother,&rdquo; she explained, &ldquo;and my brother
+      has dozens of good saddle-horses. Mr. Cameron's horse is a pet. It's
+      different when a horse follows you all over the place and fairly talks to
+      you. He'll shake hands, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Uh-huh, I see the point, I guess. What d'yuh say, kid?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith might seem boyish, but he did not enjoy being addressed as &ldquo;kid.&rdquo; He
+      was twenty-eight years old, whether he looked it or not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say this: If you take my horse, I'll kill you. I'll have twenty-five
+      cow-punchers camping on your trail before sundown. If you take this girl's
+      horse, I'll do the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man shut his lips in a thin line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, he won't!&rdquo; cried Beatrice, leaning forward. &ldquo;Don't mind a thing he
+      says! You can't expect a man to keep his temper with his hands up in the
+      air like that. You take Rex, and I'll promise for Mr. Cameron.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trix&mdash;Miss Lansell!&rdquo;&mdash;sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I promise you he won't do a thing,&rdquo; she went on firmly. &ldquo;He&mdash;he
+      isn't half as fierce, really, as&mdash;as he looks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith's face got red.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man laughed a little. Evidently the situation amused him, whether the
+      others could see the humor of it or not. &ldquo;So I'm to have your cayuse, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith saw two big tears tipping over her lower lids, and gritted his
+      teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it ain't often I git a chance t' please a lady,&rdquo; the fellow
+      decided. &ldquo;I guess Rex'll do, all right. Go over and change saddles,
+      youngster&mdash;and don't git gay. I've got the drop, and yuh notice I'm
+      keeping it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you going to take his saddle?&rdquo; Beatrice stood up and clenched her
+      hands, looking very much as if she would like to pull his hair. Keith in
+      trouble appealed to her strangely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure thing. It's a peach, from the look of it. Mine's over the hill a
+      piece. Step along there, kid! I want t' be movin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll need to go some!&rdquo; flared Keith, over his shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect t' go some,&rdquo; retorted the man. &ldquo;A fellow with three sheriff's
+      posses campin' on his trail ain't apt t' loiter none.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; Beatrice sat down and stared. &ldquo;Then you must be&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yep,&rdquo; the fellow laughed recklessly. &ldquo;You ca, tell your maw yuh met up
+      with Kelly, the darin' train-robber. I wouldn't be s'prised if she close
+      herded yuh fer a spell till her scare wears off. Bu I've hung around these
+      parts long enough. I fooled them sheriffs a-plenty, stayin' here. Gee!
+      you'r' swift&mdash;I don't think!&rdquo; This last sentence was directed at
+      Keith, who was putting a snail to shame, and making it appear he was in a
+      hurry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Git a move on!&rdquo; commanded Kelly, threatening with his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith wisely made no reply&mdash;nor did he show any symptoms of haste,
+      despite the menacing tone Slowly he pulled his saddle off Redcloud, and
+      carefully he placed it upon the ground. When a fellow lives in his saddle,
+      almost, he comes to think a great deal of it, and he is reluctant under
+      any circumstances, to surrender it to another; to have a man deliberately
+      confiscate it with the authority which lies in a lump of lead the size of
+      a child thumb is not pleasant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through Keith's brain flashed a dozen impracticable plans, and one that
+      offered a slender&mdash;very slender&mdash;chance of success. If he could
+      get a little closer! He moved over beside Rex an unbuckling the cinch of
+      Beatrice's saddle, pulled it sullenly off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, put your saddle on that there Rex horse, and cinch it tight!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith picked up the saddle&mdash;his saddle, and threw it across Rex's
+      back, raging inwardly at his helplessness. To lose his saddle worse, to
+      let Beatrice lose her horse. Lord! a pretty figure he must cut in her
+      eyes!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dry weather we're havin',&rdquo; Kelly remarked politely to Beatrice; without,
+      however, looking in her direction. &ldquo;Prairie fires are gittin' t' be the
+      regular thing, I notice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice studied his face, and found no ulterior purpose for the words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she agreed, as pleasantly as she could, in view of the disquieting
+      circumstances. &ldquo;I helped fight a prairie-fire last week over this way. We
+      were out all night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prairie-fires is mean things t' handle, oncet they git started. I always
+      hate t' see 'em git hold of the grass. What fire was that you mention?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice glanced toward Keith, and was thankful his back was turned to
+      her. But a quick suspicion had come to her, and she went steadily on with
+      the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was the Pine Ridge country. It started very mysteriously.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It wasn't no mystery t' me.&rdquo; Kelly laughed grimly. &ldquo;I started that there
+      blaze myself accidentally. I throwed a cigarette down, thinkin' it had
+      gone out. After a while I seen a blaze where I'd jest left, but I didn't
+      have no license t' go back an' put it out&mdash;my orders was to git out
+      uh that. I seen the sky all lit up that night. Kid, are yuh goin' t'
+      sleep?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith started. He had been listening, and thanking his lucky star that
+      Beatrice was listening also. If she had suspected him of setting the range
+      afire, she knew better now. A weight lifted off Keith's shoulders, and he
+      stood a bit straighter; those chance words meant a great deal to him, and
+      he felt that he would not grudge his saddle in payment. But Rex&mdash;that
+      was another matter. Beatrice should not lose him if he could prevent it;
+      still, what could he do?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He might turn and spring upon Kelly, but in the meantime Kelly would not
+      be idle; he would probably be pumping bullets out of the rifle into
+      Keith's body&mdash;and he would still have the horse. He stole a glance at
+      Beatrice, and went hot all over at what he thought he read in her eyes.
+      For once he was not glad to be near his Heart's Desire; he wished her
+      elsewhere&mdash;anywhere but sitting on that rock, over there, with her
+      little, gloved hands folded quietly in her lap, and that adorable, demure
+      look on her face&mdash;the look which would have put her mother instantly
+      upon the defensive&mdash;and a gleam in her eyes Keith read for scorn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Surely he might do something! Barely six feet now separated him from
+      Kelly. If one of those lumps of rock that strewed the ground was in his
+      hand&mdash;he stooped to reach under Rex's body for the cinch, and could
+      almost feel Kelly's eyes boring into his back. A false move&mdash;well,
+      Keith had heard of Kelly a good many times; if this fellow was really the
+      man he claimed to be, Keith did not need to guess what would follow a
+      suspicious move; he knew. He looked stealthily toward him, and Kelly's
+      eyes met his with a gleam sinister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kelly grinned. &ldquo;I wouldn't, kid,&rdquo; he said softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith swore in a whisper, and his fingers closed upon the cinch. It was no
+      use to fight the devil with cunning, he thought, bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then Beatrice gave an unearthly screech, that made the horses' knees
+      bend under them. When Keith whirled to see what it was, she was standing
+      upon the rock, with her skirts held tightly around her, like the pictures
+      of women when a mouse gets into the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Cameron! A sn-a-a-ke!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Came a metallic br-r-r, the unmistakable war cry of the rattler. Into
+      Kelly's eyes came a look of fear, and he sidled gingerly. The buzz had
+      sounded unpleasantly close to his heels. For one brief instant the cold
+      eye of his rifle regarded harmlessly the hillside. During that instant a
+      goodly piece of sandstone whinged under his jaw, and he went down, with
+      Keith upon him like a mountain lion. The latter snatched the rifle and got
+      up hurriedly, for he had not forgotten the rattler. Kelly lay looking up
+      at him in a dazed way that might have been funny at any other time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wondered if you were good at grasping opportunities,&rdquo; said Beatrice.
+      When he looked, there she was, sitting down on the rock, with her little,
+      gloved hands folded in her lap, and that adorable demure look on her face;
+      and a gleam in her eyes he knew was not scorn, though he could not rightly
+      tell what it really did mean.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith wondered at her vaguely, but a man can't have his mind on a dozen
+      things at once. It was important that he keep a sharp watch on Kelly, and
+      his eyes were searching for a gleaming, gray spotted coil which he felt to
+      be near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't look, Mr. Cameron. There isn't any snake. It&mdash;it was I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You!&rdquo; Keith's jaw dropped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look out, Mr. Cameron. It wouldn't work a second time, I'm afraid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith turned back before Kelly had more than got to his elbow; plainly
+      Kelly was not feeling well just then. He looked unhappy, and rather sick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you'll hand me the gun, Mr. Cameron, I think I can hold it steady
+      while you fix the saddles. And then we'll go home. I&mdash;I don't think I
+      really care to climb the hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What Keith wanted to do was to take her in his arms and kiss her till he
+      was tired. What he did do was back toward her, and let her take the rifle
+      quickly and deftly from his hands. She rested the gun upon her knee, and
+      brought it to bear upon Mr. Kelly with a composure not assuring to that
+      gentleman, and she tried to look as if she really and truly would shoot a
+      man&mdash;and managed to look only the more kissable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't squirm, Mr. Kelly. I won't bite, if I do buzz sometimes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kelly stared at her meditatively a minute, and said: &ldquo;Well, I'll be
+      damned!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith looked at her also, but he did not say anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The way he slapped his saddle back upon Redcloud and cinched it, and
+      saddled Rex, was a pretty exhibition of precision and speed, learned in
+      roundup camps. Kelly watched him grimly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knowed you wasn't as swift as yuh knew how 't be, a while back,&rdquo; he
+      commented. &ldquo;I've got this t' say fur you two: You're a little the toughest
+      proposition I ever run up ag'inst&mdash;and I've been up ag'inst it good
+      and plenty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks,&rdquo; Keith said cheerfully. &ldquo;You'd better take Rex now and go ahead,
+      Miss Lansell. I'll take that gun and look after this fellow. Get up,
+      Kelly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do with him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kelly got unsteadily upon his feet. Beatrice looked at him, and then at
+      Keith. She asked a question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;March him home, and send him in to the nearest sheriff.&rdquo; Keith was
+      businesslike, and his tone was crisp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice's eyes turned again to Kelly. He did not whine, or beg, or even
+      curse. He stood looking straight before him, at something only his memory
+      could see, and in his face was weariness, and a deep loneliness, and a
+      certain, grim despair. There was an ugly bruise where the rock had struck,
+      but the rest of his face was drawn and white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you do that,&rdquo; cried Beatrice, in a voice hardly more than a fierce
+      whisper, &ldquo;I shall hate you always. You are not a man-hunter. Let him stay
+      here, and take his chance in the hills.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith was not a hard man to persuade into being merciful. &ldquo;It's easy
+      enough to say yes, Miss Lansell. I always was chicken-hearted when a
+      fellow seemed down on his luck. You can stay here, Kelly&mdash;I don't
+      want you, anyway.&rdquo; He laughed boyishly and irresponsibly, for he felt that
+      Kelly had done him a service that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice flashed him a smile that went to his head and made him dizzy, and
+      took up Rex's bridle rein. She hesitated, looked doubtfully at Kelly, who
+      stood waiting stoically, and turned to her saddle. She untied a bundle and
+      went quickly over to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&mdash;I don't want my lunch, after all. I'm going home now. I&mdash;I
+      want you to take it, please. There are some sandwiches&mdash;with veal
+      loaf, that Looey Sam makes deliciously&mdash;and some cake. I&mdash;I wish
+      it was more. I know you'll like the veal loaf.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kelly looked down at her, and God knows what thoughts were in his mind. He
+      did not answer her with words; he just swallowed hard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor devil!&rdquo; was what Keith said to himself, and the gun he was holding
+      threatened, for a minute, to wing a cloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice laid the package in Kelly's unresisting hand, looked up into his
+      averted face and said simply: &ldquo;Good-by, Mr. Kelly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After that she hurried Rex up the steep ridge much faster than she had
+      gone down it, endangering his bones and putting herself very empty lunged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the top of the ridge Keith stopped and looked down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hi, Kelly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kelly showed that he heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here's your gun, on this rock. You can come up and get it, if you want
+      to. And&mdash;say! I've got a few broke horses ranging down here
+      somewhere. VN brand, on left shoulder. I won't scour the hills, very bad,
+      if I should happen to miss a cayuse. So long!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kelly waved his hand for farewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 13. Keith's Masterful Wooing.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Keith faced toward home, with Redcloud following at his heels like a pet
+      dog. For some reason, which he did not try to analyze, he was feeling
+      light of heart&mdash;as though something very nice had happened to him. It
+      might have been the unexpected clearing up of the mystery of the
+      prairie-fire, though he was not dwelling particularly upon that. He was
+      thinking a great deal more of Beatrice's blue-brown eyes, which had never
+      been more baffling, so far as he knew. And his blood was still dancing
+      with the smile she had given him; it hardly seemed possible that a girl
+      could smile just like that and not mean anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he reached the level, where she was waiting for him, he saw that she
+      had her arms around the neck of her horse, and that she was crying
+      dismally, heart-brokenly, with an abandon that took no thought of his
+      presence. Keith had never seen a girl cry like that before. He had seen
+      them dab at their eyes with their handkerchief, and smile the next breath&mdash;but
+      this was different. For a minute he didn't quite know what to do; he could
+      hear the blood hammering against his temples while he stood dumbly
+      watching her. He went hesitatingly up, and laid a gloved hand
+      deprecatingly upon her shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't do that, Miss Lansell! The fellow isn't worth it. He's only living
+      the life he chose for himself, and he doesn't mind, not half as much as
+      you imagine. I know how you feel&mdash;I felt sorry for him myself&mdash;but
+      he doesn't deserve it, you know.&rdquo; He stopped; not being able, just at the
+      moment, to think of anything more to say about Kelly. Beatrice, who had
+      not been thinking of Kelly at all, but remorsefully of a fellow she had
+      persisted in misjudging, only cried the harder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't&mdash;don't cry like that! I&mdash;Miss Lansell&mdash;Trix&mdash;darling!&rdquo;
+       Keith's self-control snapped suddenly, like a rope when the strain becomes
+      too great. He caught her fiercely in his arms, and crushed her close
+      against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice stopped crying, and gasped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trixie, if you must cry, I wish you'd cry for me. I'm about as miserable
+      a man&mdash;I want you so! God made you for me, and I'm starving for the
+      feel of your lips on mine.&rdquo; Then Keith, who was nothing if not daring,
+      once he was roused, bent and kissed her without waiting to see if he might&mdash;and
+      not only once, but several times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice made a half-hearted attempt to get free of his arms, but Keith
+      was not a fool&mdash;he held her closer, and laughed from pure, primitive
+      joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Cameron!&rdquo; It was Beatrice's voice, but it had never been like that
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you might call me Keith,&rdquo; he cut in. &ldquo;You've got to begin some
+      time, and now is as good a time as any.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&mdash;you're taking a good deal for granted,&rdquo; she said, wriggling
+      unavailingly in his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man's got to, with a girl like you. You're so used to turning a fellow
+      down I believe you'd do it just from habit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed?&rdquo; She was trying to be sarcastic and got kissed for her pains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, 'indeed.'&rdquo; He mimicked her tone. &ldquo;I want you. I want you! I wanted
+      you long before I ever saw you. And so I'm not taking any chances&mdash;I
+      didn't dare, you see. I just had to take you first, and ask you
+      afterward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice laughed a little, with tears very close to her lashes, and gave
+      up. What was the use of trying to resist this masterful fellow, who would
+      not even give her a chance to refuse him? She did not know quite how to
+      say no to a man who did not ask her to say yes. But the queer part, to
+      her, was the feeling that she would have hated to say no, anyway. It never
+      occurred to her, till afterward, that she might have stood upon a pedestal
+      of offended dignity and cried, &ldquo;Unhand me, villain!&rdquo;&mdash;and that, if
+      she had, Keith would undoubtedly have complied instantly. As it was, she
+      just laughed softly, and blushed a good deal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe mama is right about you, after all,&rdquo; she said wickedly. &ldquo;At
+      heart, you're a bold highwayman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe. I know I'd not stand and see some other fellow walk off with my
+      Heart's Desire, without putting up a fight. It did look pretty blue for
+      me, though, and I was afraid&mdash;but it's all right now, isn't it?
+      Possession is nine points in law, they say, and I've got you now! I'm
+      going to keep you, too. When are you going to come over and take charge of
+      the Cross ranch?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me!&rdquo; said Beatrice, snuggling against his shoulder, and finding it
+      the best place in the world to be. &ldquo;I never said I was going to take
+      charge at all!&rdquo; Then the impulse of confession seized her. &ldquo;Will you hate
+      me, if I tell you something?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect I will,&rdquo; Keith assented, his eyes positively idolatrous. &ldquo;What
+      is it, girlie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I&mdash;it was Dick's fault; I never would have thought of such a
+      thing if he hadn't goaded me into it&mdash;but&mdash;well, I was going to
+      make you propose, on a wager&mdash;&rdquo; The brown head of Beatrice went down
+      out of sight, on his arm. &ldquo;I was going to refuse you&mdash;and get Rex&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know.&rdquo; Keith held her closer than ever. &ldquo;Dick rode over and told me
+      that day. And I wasn't going to give you a chance, missy. If you hadn't
+      started to cry, here&mdash; Oh! what's the use? You didn't refuse me&mdash;and
+      you're not going to, either, are you, girlie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice intimated that there was no immediate danger of such a thing
+      happening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, Dick and I felt that you belonged to me, by rights. I fell in
+      love with a picture of you, that you sent him&mdash;that one taken in your
+      graduation gown&mdash;and I told Dick I was going to take the next train
+      East, and carry you off by force, if I couldn't get you any other way. But
+      Dick thought I'd stand a better show to wait till he'd coaxed you out
+      here. We had it all fixed, that you'd come and find a prairie knight that
+      was ready to fight for you, and he'd make you like him, whether you wanted
+      to or not; and then he'd keep you here, and we'd all be happy ever after.
+      And Dick would pull out of the Northern Pool&mdash;and of course you would&mdash;and
+      we'd have a company of our own. Oh! we had some great castles built out
+      here on the prairie, let me tell you! And then, when you finally came
+      here, you had milord tagging along&mdash;and you thinking you were in love
+      with him! Maybe you think I wasn't shaky, girlie! The air castles got
+      awfully wobbly, and it looked like they were going to cave in on us. But I
+      was bound to stay in the game if I could, and Dick did all he could to get
+      you to looking my way&mdash;and it's all right, isn't it, Trixie?&rdquo; Keith
+      kept recurring to the ecstatic realization that it was all right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice meditated for a minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never dreamed&mdash;Dick never even mentioned you in any of his
+      letters,&rdquo; she said, in a rather dazed tone. &ldquo;And when I came he made me
+      believe you were a horrible flirt, and I never can resist the temptation
+      to measure lances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And take a fall out of a male flirt,&rdquo; Keith supplemented. &ldquo;Dick,&rdquo; he went
+      on sententiously and slangily, &ldquo;was dead onto his job.&rdquo; After that he
+      helped her into the saddle, and they rode blissfully homeward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Near the ranch they met Dick, who pulled up and eyed them anxiously at
+      first, and then with a broad smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, Trix,&rdquo; he queried slyly, &ldquo;who does Rex belong to?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Keith came to the rescue promptly, just as a brave knight should. &ldquo;You,&rdquo;
+       he retorted. &ldquo;But I tell you right now, he won't very long. You're going
+      to do the decent thing and give him to Trixie&mdash;for a wedding
+      present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick looked as though Trix was welcome to any thing he possessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER 14. Sir Redmond Gets His answer.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Before long, dear, we shall get on the great ship, and ride across the
+      large, large ocean, and be at home. You will be delighted to see Peggy,
+      and Rupert, and the dogs, won't you, dear?&rdquo; Miss Hayes, her cheeks
+      actually getting some color into them at the thought of going home,
+      buttered a fluffy biscuit for her idol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman took two bites while he considered. &ldquo;Rupert'll want my little
+      wheels, for my feet, what Mr. Cam'ron gave me&mdash;but he can't have 'em,
+      dough. I 'spect he'll be mad. I wonder what'll Peggy say bout my two
+      puppies. I've got to take my two puppies wis me. Will dey get sick riding
+      on de water, auntie? Say, will dey?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&mdash;I think not, dear,&rdquo; ventured his auntie cautiously. His auntie
+      was a conscientious woman, and she knew very little about puppies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be'trice will help me take care of dem if dey're sick,&rdquo; he remarked
+      comfortably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then something in his divinity's face startled his assurance. &ldquo;You's going
+      wis us, isn't you, Be'trice? I want you to help take care of my two
+      puppies. Martha can't, 'cause she slaps dere ears. Is you going wis us,
+      Be'trice?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This, at the dinner table, was, to say the least, embarrassing&mdash;especially
+      on this especial evening, when Beatrice was trying to muster courage to
+      give Sir Redmond the only answer it was possible to give him now. It was
+      an open secret that, in case she had accepted him, the home-going of Miss
+      Hayes would be delayed a bit, when they would all go together. Beatrice
+      had overheard her mother and Miss Hayes discussing this possibility only
+      the day before. She undertook the impossible, and attempted to head Dorman
+      off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you'll see a whale, honey. The puppies never saw a whale, I'm
+      sure. What do you suppose they'd think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is you going?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'd have to hold them up high, you know, so they could see, and show
+      them just where to look, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is you going, Be'trice?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice sent a quick, despairing glance around the table. Four pairs of
+      eyes were fixed upon her with varying degrees of interest and anxiety. The
+      fifth pair&mdash;Dick's&mdash;were trying to hide their unrighteous glee
+      by glaring down at the chicken wing on his plate. Beatrice felt a strong
+      impulse to throw something at him. She gulped and faced the inevitable. It
+      must come some time, she thought, and it might as well be now&mdash;though
+      it did seem a pity to spoil a good dinner for every one but Dick, who was
+      eating his with relish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, honey&rdquo;&mdash;her voice was clear and had the note of finality&mdash;&ldquo;I'm
+      not going&mdash;ever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond's teeth went together with a click, and he picked up the
+      pepper shaker mechanically and peppered his salad until it was perfectly
+      black, and Beatrice wondered how he ever expected to eat it. Mrs. Lansell
+      dropped her fork on the floor, and had to have a clean one brought. Miss
+      Hayes sent a frightened glance at her brother. Dick sat and ate fried
+      chicken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Be'trice? I wants you to&mdash;and de puppies'll need you&mdash;and
+      auntie, and&mdash;&rdquo; Dorman gathered himself for the last, crushing
+      argument&mdash;&ldquo;and Uncle Redmon' wants you awf'lly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice took a sip of ice water, for she needed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Be'trice? Gran-mama'll let you go, guess. Can't she go, gran'mama?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Mrs. Lansell's turn to test the exquisite torture of that prickly
+      chill along the spine. Like Beatrice, she dodged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Little boys,&rdquo; she announced weakly, &ldquo;should not speak until they're
+      spoken to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick came near strangling on a shred of chicken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't she go, gran'mama? Say, can't she? Tell Be'trice to go home wis us,
+      gran'mama!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beatrice&rdquo;&mdash;Mrs. Lansell swallowed&mdash;&ldquo;is not a little child any
+      longer, Dorman. She is a woman and can do as she likes. I&rdquo;&mdash;she was
+      speaking to the whole group&mdash;&ldquo;I can only advise her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dorman gave a squeal of triumph. &ldquo;See? You can go, Be'trice! Gran'mama
+      says you can go. You will go, won't you, Be'trice? Say yes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; said Beatrice, with desperate emphasis. &ldquo;I won't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want&mdash;Be'trice&mdash;to go-o!&rdquo; Dorman slid down upon his shoulder
+      blades, gave a squeal which was not triumph, but temper, and kicked the
+      table till every dish on it danced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dorman sit up!&rdquo; commanded his auntie. &ldquo;Dorman, stop, this instant! I'm
+      ashamed of you; where is my good little man? Redmond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond seemed glad of the chance to do something besides sit quietly
+      in his place and look calm. He got up deliberately, and in two minutes, or
+      less, Dorman was in the woodshed with him, making sounds that frightened
+      his puppies dreadfully and put the coyotes to shame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice left the table hurriedly to escape the angry eyes of her mother.
+      The sounds in the woodshed had died to a subdued sniffling, and she
+      retreated to the front porch, hoping to escape observation. There she
+      nearly ran against Sir Redmond, who was staring off into the dusk to where
+      the moon was peering redly over a black pinnacle of the Bear Paws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She would have slipped back into the house, but he did not give her the
+      chance. He turned and faced her steadily, as he had more than once faced
+      the Boers, when he knew that before him was nothing but defeat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you're not going to England ever?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pride had squeezed every shade of emotion from his voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo; Beatrice gripped her fingers together tightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you sure you won't be sorry&mdash;afterward?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I'm sure.&rdquo; Beatrice had never done anything she hated more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Redmond, looking into her eyes, wondered why those much-vaunted
+      sharpshooters, the Boers, had blundered and passed him by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't suppose it matters much now&mdash;but will you tell me why? I
+      believed you would decide differently.&rdquo; He was holding his voice down to a
+      dead level, and it was not easy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because&mdash;&rdquo; Beatrice faced the moon, which threw a soft glow upon her
+      face, and into her wonderful, deep eyes a golden light. &ldquo;Oh, I'm sorry,
+      Sir Redmond! But you see, I didn't know. I&mdash;I just learned to-day
+      what it means to&mdash;to love. I&mdash;I am going to stay here. A new
+      company&mdash;is about to be formed, Sir Redmond. The Maltese Cross and
+      the&mdash;Triangle Bar&mdash;are going to cast their lot together.&rdquo; The
+      golden glow deepened and darkened, and blended with the red blood which
+      flushed cheek and brow and throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It took Sir Redmond a full minute to comprehend. When he did, he breathed
+      deep, shut his lips upon words that would have frightened her, and went
+      down the steps into the gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beatrice watched him stride away into the dusky silence, and her heart
+      ached with sympathy for him. Then she looked beyond, to where the lights
+      of the Cross ranch twinkled joyously, far down the coulee, and the sweet
+      egotism of happiness enfolded her, shutting him out. After that she forgot
+      him utterly. She looked up at the moon, sailing off to meet the stars,
+      smiled good-fellowship and then went in to face her mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Her Prairie Knight, by
+B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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+++ b/1908.txt
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+Project Gutenberg's Her Prairie Knight, by B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
+
+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: Her Prairie Knight
+
+Author: B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
+
+Posting Date: October 10, 2008 [EBook #1908]
+Release Date: September, 1999
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Starr
+
+
+
+
+
+HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT
+
+By B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     1. Stranded on the Prairie
+     2. Handsome Cowboy to the Rescue
+     3. Tilt With Sir Redmond
+     4. Beatrice Learns a New Language
+     5. The Search for Dorman
+     6. Mrs. Lansell's Lecture
+     7. Beatrice's Wild Ride
+     8. Dorman Plays Cupid
+     9. What It Meant to Keith
+     10. Pine Ridge Range Ablaze
+     11. Sir Redmond Waits His Answer
+     12. Held Up by Mr. Kelly
+     13. Keith's Masterful Wooing
+     14. Sir Redmond Gets His Answer
+
+
+
+
+
+HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1. Stranded on the Prairie.
+
+
+"By George, look behind us! I fancy we are going to have a storm." Four
+heads turned as if governed by one brain; four pairs of eyes, of varied
+color and character, swept the wind-blown wilderness of tender green,
+and gazed questioningly at the high-piled thunderheads above. A
+small boy, with an abundance of yellow curls and white collar, almost
+precipitated himself into the prim lap of a lady on the rear seat.
+
+"Auntie, will God have fireworks? Say, auntie, will He? Can I say
+prayers widout kneelin' down'? Uncle Redmon' crowds so. I want to pray
+for fireworks, auntie. Can I?"
+
+"Do sit down, Dorman. You'll fall under the wheel, and then auntie would
+not have any dear little boy. Dorman, do you hear me? Redmond, do
+take that child down! How I wish Parks were here. I shall have nervous
+prostration within a fortnight."
+
+Sir Redmond Hayes plucked at the white collar, and the small boy retired
+between two masculine forms of no mean proportions. His voice, however,
+rose higher.
+
+"You'll get all the fireworks you want, young man, without all that
+hullabaloo," remarked the driver, whom Dorman had been told, at the
+depot twenty miles back, he must call his Uncle Richard.
+
+"I love storms," came cheerfully from the rear seat--but the voice was
+not the prim voice of "auntie." "Do you have thunder and lightning out
+here, Dick?"
+
+"We do," assented Dick. "We don't ship it from the East in refrigerator
+cars, either. It grows wild."
+
+The cheerful voice was heard to giggle.
+
+"Richard," came in tired, reproachful accents from a third voice behind
+him, "you were reared in the East. I trust you have not formed the
+pernicious habit of speaking slightingly of your birthplace."
+
+That, Dick knew, was his mother. She had not changed appreciably since
+she had nagged him through his teens. Not having seen her since, he was
+certainly in a position to judge.
+
+"Trix asked about the lightning," he said placatingly, just as he was
+accustomed to do, during the nagging period. "I was telling her."
+
+"Beatrice has a naturally inquiring mind," said the tired voice, laying
+reproving stress upon the name.
+
+"Are you afraid of lightning, Sir Redmond?" asked the cheerful
+girl-voice.
+
+Sir Redmond twisted his neck to smile back at her. "No, so long as it
+doesn't actually chuck me over."
+
+After that there was silence, so far as human voices went, for a time.
+
+"How much farther is it, Dick?" came presently from the girl.
+
+"Not more than ten--well, maybe twelve--miles. You'll think it's twenty,
+though, if the rain strikes 'Dobe Flat before we do. That's just what
+it's going to do, or I'm badly mistaken. Hawk! Get along, there!"
+
+"We haven't an umbrella with us," complained the tired one. "Beatrice,
+where did you put my raglan?"
+
+"In the big wagon, mama, along with the trunks and guns and saddles, and
+Martha and Katherine and James."
+
+"Dear me! I certainly told you, Beatrice--"
+
+"But, mama, you gave it to me the last thing, after the maids were in
+the wagon, and said you wouldn't wear it. There isn't room here for
+another thing. I feel like a slice of pressed chicken."
+
+"Auntie, I want some p'essed chicken. I'm hungry, auntie! I want some
+chicken and a cookie--and I want some ice-cream."
+
+"You won't get any," said the young woman, with the tone of finality.
+"You can't eat me, Dorman, and I'm the only thing that looks good enough
+to eat."
+
+"Beatrice!" This, of course, from her mother, whose life seemed
+principally made up of a succession of mental shocks, brought on by her
+youngest, dearest, and most irrepressible.
+
+"I have Dick's word for it, mama; he said so, at the depot."
+
+"I want some chicken, auntie."
+
+"There is no chicken, dear," said the prim one. "You must be a patient
+little man."
+
+"I won't. I'm hungry. Mens aren't patient when dey're hungry." A small,
+red face rose, like a tiny harvest moon, between the broad, masculine
+backs on the front seat.
+
+"Dorman, sit down! Redmond!"
+
+A large, gloved hand appeared against the small moon and it set
+ignominiously and prematurely, in the place where it had risen. Sir
+Redmond further extinguished it with the lap robe, for the storm,
+whooping malicious joy, was upon them.
+
+First a blinding glare and a deafening crash. Then rain--sheets of it,
+that drenched where it struck. The women huddled together under the
+doubtful protection of the light robe and shivered. After that, wind
+that threatened to overturn the light spring wagon; then hail that
+bounced and hopped like tiny, white rubber balls upon the ground.
+
+The storm passed as suddenly as it came, but the effect remained. The
+road was sodden with the water which had fallen, and as they went down
+the hill to 'Dobe Flat the horses strained at the collar and plodded
+like a plow team. The wheels collected masses of adobe, which stuck like
+glue and packed the spaces between the spokes. Twice Dick got out and
+poked the heavy mess from the wheels with Sir Redmond's stick--which
+was not good for the stick, but which eased the drag upon the horses
+wonderfully--until the wheels accumulated another load.
+
+"Sorry to dirty your cane," Dick apologized, after the second halt. "You
+can rinse it off, though, in the creek a few miles ahead."
+
+"Don't mention it!" said Sir Redmond, somewhat dubiously. It was his
+favorite stick, and he had taken excellent care of it. It was finely
+polished, and it had his name and regiment engraved upon the silver
+knob--and a date which the Boers will not soon forget, nor the English,
+for that matter.
+
+"We'll soon be over the worst," Dick told them, after a time. "When we
+climb that hill we'll have a hard, gravelly trail straight to the ranch.
+I'm sorry it had to storm; I wanted you to enjoy this trip."
+
+"I am enjoying it," Beatrice assured him. "It's something new, at any
+rate, and anything is better than the deadly monotony of Newport."
+
+"Beatrice!" cried her mother "I'm ashamed of you!"
+
+"You needn't be, mama. Why won't you just be sorry for yourself, and
+let it end there? I know you hated to come, poor dear; but you wouldn't
+think of letting me come alone, though I'm sure I shouldn't have minded.
+This is going to be a delicious summer--I feel it in my bones."
+
+"Be-atrice!"
+
+"Why, mama? Aren't young ladies supposed to have bones?"
+
+"Young ladies are not supposed to make use of unrefined expressions.
+Your poor sister."
+
+"There, mama. Dear Dolly didn't live upon stilts, I'm sure. Even when
+she married."
+
+"Be-atrice!"
+
+"Dear me, mama! I hope you are not growing peevish. Peevish elderly
+people--"
+
+"Auntie! I want to go home!" the small boy wailed.
+
+"You cannot go home now, dear," sighed his guardian angel. "Look at the
+pretty--" She hesitated, groping vaguely for some object to which she
+might conscientiously apply the adjective.
+
+"Mud," suggested Beatrice promptly "Look at the wheels, Dorman; they're
+playing patty-cake. See, now they say, 'Roll 'em, and roll 'em,' and
+now, 'Toss in the oven to bake!' And now--"
+
+"Auntie, I want to get out an' play patty-cake, like de wheels. I want
+to awf'lly!"
+
+"Beatrice, why did you put that into his head?" her mother demanded,
+fretfully.
+
+"Never mind, honey," called Beatrice cheeringly. "You and I will make
+hundreds of mud pies when we get to Uncle Dick's ranch. Just think, hon,
+oodles of beautiful, yellow mud just beside the door!"
+
+"Look here, Trix! Seems to me you're promising a whole lot you can't
+make good. I don't live in a 'dobe patch."
+
+"Hush, Dick; don't spoil everything. You don't know Dorman.'
+
+"Beatrice! What must Miss Hayes and Sir Redmond think of you? I'm sure
+Dorman is a sweet child, the image of poor, dear Dorothea, at his age."
+
+"We all think Dorman bears a strong resemblance to his father," said his
+Aunt Mary.
+
+Beatrice, scenting trouble, hurried to change the subject. "What's this,
+Dick--the Missouri River?"
+
+"Hardly. This is the water that didn't fall in the buggy. It isn't deep;
+it makes bad going worse, that's all."
+
+Thinking to expedite matters, he struck Hawk sharply across the flank.
+It was a foolish thing to do, and Dick knew it when he did it; ten
+seconds later he knew it better.
+
+Hawk reared, tired as he was, and lunged viciously.
+
+The double-trees snapped and splintered; there was a brief interval
+of plunging, a shower of muddy water in that vicinity, and then two
+draggled, disgusted brown horses splashed indignantly to shore and took
+to the hills with straps flying.
+
+"By George!" ejaculated Sir Redmond, gazing helplessly after them. "But
+this is a beastly bit of luck, don't you know!"
+
+"Oh, you Hawk--" Dick, in consideration of his companions, finished the
+remark in the recesses of his troubled soul, where the ladies could not
+overhear.
+
+"What comes next, Dick?" The voice of Beatrice was frankly curious.
+
+"Next, I'll have to wade out and take after those--" This sentence,
+also, was rounded out mentally.
+
+"In the meantime, what shall we do?"
+
+"You'll stay where you are--and thank the good Lord you were not
+upset. I'm sorry,"--turning so that he could look deprecatingly at Miss
+Hayes--"your welcome to the West has been so--er--strenuous. I'll try
+and make it up to you, once you get to the ranch. I hope you won't let
+this give you a dislike of the country."
+
+"Oh, no," said the spinster politely. "I'm sure it is a--a very nice
+country, Mr. Lansell."
+
+"Well, there's nothing to be done sitting here." Dick climbed down over
+the dashboard into the mud and water.
+
+Sir Redmond was not the man to shirk duty because it happened to be
+disagreeable, as the regiment whose name was engraved upon his cane
+could testify. He glanced regretfully at his immaculate leggings and
+followed.
+
+"I fancy you ladies won't need any bodyguard," he said. Looking back, he
+caught the light of approval shining in the eyes of Beatrice, and after
+that he did not mind the mud, but waded to shore and joined in the
+chase quite contentedly. The light of approval, shining in the eyes of
+Beatrice, meant much to Sir Redmond.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2. A Handsome Cowboy to the Rescue.
+
+
+Beatrice took immediate possession of the front seat, that she might
+comfort her heartbroken young nephew.
+
+"Never mind, honey. They'll bring the horses back in a minute, and we'll
+make them run every step. And when you get to Uncle Dick's ranch you'll
+see the nicest things--bossy calves, and chickens, and, maybe, some
+little pigs with curly tails."
+
+All this, though alluring, failed of its purpose; the small boy
+continued to weep, and his weeping was ear-splitting.
+
+"Be still, Dorman, or you'll certainly scare all the coyotes to death."
+
+"Where are dey?"
+
+"Oh, all around. You keep watch, hon, and maybe you'll see one put the
+tip of his nose over a hill."
+
+"What hill?" Dorman skipped a sob, and scoured his eyes industriously
+with both fists.
+
+"M-m--that hill. That little one over there. Watch close, or you'll miss
+him."
+
+The dove of peace hovered over them, and seemed actually about to
+alight. Beatrice leaned back with a relieved breath.
+
+"It is good of you, my dear, to take so much trouble," sighed his Aunt
+Mary. "How I am to manage without Parks I'm sure I cannot tell."
+
+"You are tired, and you miss your tea." soothed Beatrice, optimistic as
+to tone. "When we all have a good rest we will be all right. Dorman will
+find plenty to amuse him. We are none of us exactly comfortable now."
+
+"Comfortable!" sniffed her mother. "I am half dead. Richard wrote such
+glowing letters home that I was misled. If I had dreamed of the true
+conditions, Miss Hayes, I should never have sanctioned this wild idea of
+Beatrice's to come out and spend the summer with Richard."
+
+"It's coming, Be'trice! There it is! Will it bite, auntie? Say, will it
+bite?"
+
+Beatrice looked. A horseman came over the hill and was galloping down
+the long slope toward them. His elbows were lifted contrary to the
+mandates of the riding-school, his long legs were encased in something
+brown and fringed down the sides. His gray hat was tilted rakishly up
+at the back and down in front, and a handkerchief was knotted loosely
+around his throat. Even at that distance he struck her as different from
+any one she had ever seen.
+
+"It's a highwayman!" whispered Mrs. Lansell "Hide your purse, my dear!"
+
+"I--I--where?" Miss Hayes was all a-flutter with fear.
+
+"Drop it down beside the wheel, into the water. Quick! I shall drop my
+watch."
+
+"He--he is coming on this side! He can see!" Her whisper was full of
+entreaty and despair.
+
+"Give them here. He can't see on both sides of the buggy at once." Mrs.
+Lansell, being an American--a Yankee at that--was a woman of resource.
+
+"Beatrice, hand me your watch quick!"
+
+Beatrice paid no attention, and there was no time to insist upon
+obedience. The horseman had slowed at the water's edge, and was
+regarding them with some curiosity. Possibly he was not accustomed to
+such a sight as the one that met his eyes. He came splashing toward
+them, however, as though he intended to investigate the cause of their
+presence, alone upon the prairie, in a vehicle which had no horses
+attached in the place obviously intended for such attachment. When he
+was close upon them he stopped and lifted the rakishly tilted gray hat.
+
+"You seem to be in trouble. Is there anything I can do for you?" His
+manner was grave and respectful, but his eyes, Beatrice observed, were
+having a quiet laugh of their own.
+
+"You can't get auntie's watch, nor gran'mama's. Gran'mama frowed 'em all
+down in the mud. She frowed her money down in the mud, too," announced
+Dorman, with much complacency. "Be'trice says you is a coyote. Is you?"
+
+There was a stunned interval, during which nothing was heard but the
+wind whispering things to the grass. The man's eyes stopped laughing;
+his jaw set squarely; also, his brows drew perceptibly closer together.
+It was Mrs. Lansell's opinion that he looked murderous.
+
+Then Beatrice put her head down upon the little, blue velvet cap of
+Dorman and laughed. There was a rollicking note in her laughter that was
+irresistible, and the eyes of the man relented and joined in her mirth.
+His lips forgot they were angry and insulted, and uncovered some very
+nice teeth.
+
+"We aren't really crazy," Beatrice told him, sitting up straight and
+drying her eyes daintily with her handkerchief. "We were on our way to
+Mr. Lansell's ranch, and the horses broke something and ran away, and
+Dick--Mr. Lansell--has gone to catch them. We're waiting until he does."
+
+"I see." From the look in his eyes one might guess that what he saw
+pleased him. "Which direction did they take?"
+
+Beatrice waved a gloved hand vaguely to the left, and, without another
+word, the fellow touched his hat, turned and waded to shore and galloped
+over the ridge she indicated; and the clucketycluck of his horse's hoofs
+came sharply across to them until he dipped out of sight.
+
+"You see, he wasn't a robber," Beatrice remarked, staring after him
+speculatively. "How well he rides! One can see at a glance that he
+almost lives in the saddle. I wonder who he is."
+
+"For all you know, Beatrice, he may be going now to murder Richard and
+Sir Redmond in cold blood. He looks perfectly hardened."
+
+"Oh, do you think it possible?" cried Miss Hayes, much alarmed.
+
+"No!" cried Beatrice hotly. "One who did not know your horror of
+novels, mama, might suspect you of feeding your imagination upon 'penny
+dreadfuls.' I'm sure he is only a cowboy, and won't harm anybody."
+
+"Cowboys are as bad as highwaymen," contended her mother, "or worse. I
+have read how they shoot men for a pastime, and without even the excuse
+of robbery."
+
+"Is it possible?" quavered Miss Hayes faintly.
+
+"No, it isn't!" Beatrice assured her indignantly.
+
+"He has the look of a criminal," declared Mrs. Lansell, in the positive
+tone of one who speaks from intimate knowledge of the subject under
+discussion. "I only hope he isn't going to murder--"
+
+"They're coming back, mama," interrupted Beatrice, who had been watching
+closely the hilltop. "No, it's that man, and he is driving the horses."
+
+"He's chasing them," corrected her mother testily. "A horse thief, no
+doubt. He's going to catch them with his snare--"
+
+"Lasso, mama."
+
+"Well, lasso. Where can Richard be? To think the fellow should be
+so bold! But out here, with miles upon miles of open, and no police
+protection anything is possible. We might all be murdered, and no one
+be the wiser for days--perhaps weeks. There, he has caught them." She
+leaned back and clasped her hands, ready to meet with fortitude whatever
+fate might have in store.
+
+"He's bringing them out to us, mama. Can't you see the man is only
+trying to help us?"
+
+Mrs. Lansell, beginning herself to suspect him of honest intentions,
+sniffed dissentingly and let it go at that. The fellow was certainly
+leading the horses toward them, and Sir Redmond and Dick, appearing over
+the hill just then, proved beyond doubt that neither had been murdered
+in cold blood, or in any other unpleasant manner.
+
+"We're all right now, mother," Dick called, the minute he was near
+enough.
+
+His mother remarked skeptically that she hoped possibly she had been in
+too great haste to conceal her valuables--that Miss Hayes might not feel
+grateful for her presence of mind, and was probably wondering if mud
+baths were not injurious to fine, jeweled time-pieces. Mrs. Lansell
+was uncomfortable, mentally and physically, and her manner was frankly
+chilly when her son presented the stranger as his good friend and
+neighbor, Keith Cameron. She was still privately convinced that he
+looked a criminal--though, if pressed, she must surely have admitted
+that he was an uncommonly good-looking young outlaw. It would seem
+almost as if she regarded his being a decent, law-abiding citizen as
+pure effrontery.
+
+Miss Hayes greeted him with a smile of apprehension which plainly amused
+him. Beatrice was frankly impersonal in her attitude; he represented a
+new species of the genus man, and she, too, evidently regarded him in
+the light of a strange animal, viewed unexpectedly at close range.
+
+While he was helping Dick mend the double-tree with a piece of rope, she
+studied him curiously. He was tall--taller even than Sir Redmond, and
+more slender. Sir Redmond had the straight, sturdy look of the soldier
+who had borne the brunt of hard marches and desperate fighting; Mr.
+Cameron, the lithe, unconscious grace and alertness of the man whose
+work demands quick movement and quicker eye and brain. His face was
+tanned to a clear bronze which showed the blood darkly beneath; Sir
+Redmond's year of peace had gone far toward lightening his complexion.
+Beatrice glanced briefly at him and admired his healthy color, and was
+glad he did not have the look of an Indian. At the same time, she caught
+herself wishing that Sir Redmond's eyes were hazel, fringed with very
+long, dark lashes and topped with very straight, dark brows--eyes which
+seemed always to have some secret cause for mirth, and to laugh quite
+independent of the rest of the face. Still, Sir Redmond had very nice
+eyes--blue, and kind, and steadfast, and altogether dependable--and his
+lashes were quite nice enough for any one. In just four seconds Beatrice
+decided that, after all, she did not like hazel eyes that twinkle
+continually; they make one feel that one is being laughed at, which is
+not comfortable. In six seconds she was quite sure that this Mr. Cameron
+thought himself handsome, and Beatrice detested a man who was proud of
+his face or his figure; such a man always tempted her to "make faces,"
+as she used to do over the back fence when she was little.
+
+She mentally accused him of trying to show off his skill with his rope
+when he leaned and fastened it to the rig, rode out ahead and helped
+drag the vehicle to shore; and it was with some resentment that she
+observed the ease with which he did it, and how horse and rope seemed to
+know instinctively their master's will, and to obey of their own accord.
+
+In all that he had done--and it really seemed as if he did everything
+that needed to be done, while Dick pottered around in the way--he had
+not found it necessary to descend into the mud and water, to the ruin of
+his picturesque, fringed chaps and high-heeled boots. He had worked at
+ease, carelessly leaning from his leathern throne upon the big, roan
+horse he addressed occasionally as Redcloud. Beatrice wondered where he
+got the outlandish name. But, with all his imperfections, she was glad
+she had met him. He really was handsome, whether he knew it or not; and
+if he had a good opinion of himself, and overrated his actions--all the
+more fun for herself! Beatrice, I regret to say, was not above amusing
+herself with handsome young men who overrate their own charms; in fact,
+she had the reputation among her women acquaintances of being a most
+outrageous flirt.
+
+In the very middle of these trouble-breeding meditations, Mr. Cameron
+looked up unexpectedly and met keenly her eyes; and for some reason--let
+us hope because of a guilty conscience--Beatrice grew hot and confused;
+an unusual experience, surely, for a girl who had been out three
+seasons, and has met calmly the eyes of many young men. Until now it had
+been the young men who grew hot and confused; it had never been herself.
+
+Beatrice turned her shoulder toward him, and looked at Sir Redmond, who
+was surreptitiously fishing for certain articles beside the rear wheel,
+at the whispered behest of Mrs. Lansell, and was certainly a sight to
+behold. He was mud to his knees and to his elbows, and he had managed to
+plaster his hat against the wheel and to dirty his face. Altogether, he
+looked an abnormally large child who has been having a beautiful day of
+it in somebody's duck-pond; but Beatrice was nearer, at that moment,
+to loving him than she had been at any time during her six weeks'
+acquaintance with him--and that is saying much, for she had liked him
+from the start.
+
+Mr. Cameron followed her glance, and his eyes did not have the laugh all
+to themselves; his voice joined them, and Beatrice turned upon him and
+frowned. It was not kind of him to laugh at a man who is proving his
+heart to be much larger than his vanity; Beatrice was aware of Sir
+Redmond's immaculateness of attire on most occasions.
+
+"Well," said Dick, gathering up the reins, "you've helped us out of a
+bad scrape, Keith. Come over and take dinner with us to-morrow night.
+I expect we'll be kept riding the rim-rocks, over at the Pool, this
+summer. Unless this sister of mine has changed a lot, she won't rest
+till she's been over every foot of country for forty miles around. It
+will just about keep our strings rode down to a whisper keeping her in
+sight."
+
+"Dear me, Richard!" said his mother. "What Jargon is this you speak?"
+
+"That's good old Montana English, mother. You'll learn it yourself
+before you leave here. I've clean forgot how they used the English
+language at Yale, haven't you, Keith?"
+
+"Just about," Keith agreed. "I'm afraid we'll shock the ladies terribly,
+Dick. We ought to get out on a pinnacle with a good grammar and
+practice."
+
+"Well, maybe. We'll look for you to-morrow, sure. I want you to help map
+out a circle or two for Trix. About next week she'll want to get out and
+scour the range."
+
+"Dear me, Richard! Beatrice is not a charwoman!" This, you will
+understand, was from his mother; perhaps you will also understand that
+she spoke with the rising inflection which conveys a reproof.
+
+When Keith Cameron left them he was laughing quietly to himself, and
+Beatrice's chin was set rather more than usual.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3. A Tilt With Sir Redmond.
+
+
+Beatrice, standing on the top of a steep, grassy slope, was engaged in
+the conventional pastime of enjoying the view. It was a fine view, but
+it was not half as good to look upon as was Beatrice herself, in her
+fresh white waist and brown skirt, with her brown hair fluffing softly
+in the breeze which would grow to a respectable wind later in the day,
+and with her cheeks pink from climbing.
+
+She was up where she could see the river, a broad band of blue in the
+surrounding green, winding away for miles through the hills. The far
+bank stood a straight two hundred feet of gay-colored rock, chiseled, by
+time and stress of changeful weather, into fanciful turrets and towers.
+Above and beyond, where the green began, hundreds of moving dots told
+where the cattle were feeding quietly. Far away to the south, heaps of
+hazy blue and purple slept in the sunshine; Dick had told her those
+were the Highwoods. And away to the west, a jagged line of blue-white
+glimmered and stood upon tip-toes to touch the swimming clouds--touched
+them and pushed above proudly; those were the Rockies. The Bear Paws
+stood behind her; nearer they were--so near they lost the glamour of
+mysterious blue shadows, and became merely a sprawling group of huge,
+pine-covered hills, with ranches dotted here and there in sheltered
+places, with squares of fresh, dark green that spoke of growing crops.
+
+Ten days, and the metropolitan East had faded and become as hazy and
+vague as the Highwoods. Ten days, and the witchery of the West leaped in
+her blood and held her fast in its thralldom.
+
+A sound of scrambling behind her was immediately followed by a smothered
+epithet. Beatrice turned in time to see Sir Redmond pick himself up.
+
+"These grass slopes are confounded slippery, don't you know," he
+explained apologetically. "How did you manage that climb?"
+
+"I didn't." Beatrice smiled. "I came around the end, where the ascent is
+gradual; there's a good path."
+
+"Oh!" Sir Redmond sat down upon a rock and puffed. "I saw you up
+here--and a fellow doesn't think about taking a roundabout course to
+reach his heart's--"
+
+"Isn't it lovely?" Beatrice made haste to inquire.
+
+"Lovely isn't half expressive enough," he told her. "You look--"
+
+"The river is so very blue and dignified. I've been wondering if it has
+forgotten how it must have danced through those hills, away off there.
+When it gets down to the cities--this blue water--it will be muddy and
+nasty looking. The 'muddy Missouri' certainly doesn't apply here. And
+that farther shore is simply magnificent. I wish I might stay here
+forever."
+
+"The Lord forbid!" cried he, with considerable fervor. "There's a dear
+nook in old England where I hope--"
+
+"You did get that mud off your leggings, I see," Beatrice remarked
+inconsequentially. "James must have worked half the time we've been
+here. They certainly were in a mess the last time I saw them."
+
+"Bother the leggings! But I take it that's a good sign, Miss
+Lansell--your taking notice of such things."
+
+Beatrice returned to the landscape. "I wonder who originated that
+phrase, 'The cattle grazing on a thousand hills'? He must have stood
+just here when he said it."
+
+"Wasn't it one of your American poets? Longfellow, or--er--"
+
+Beatrice simply looked at him a minute and said "Pshaw!"
+
+"Well," he retorted, "you don't know yourself who it was."
+
+"And to think," Beatrice went on, ignoring the subject, "some of those
+grazing cows and bossy calves are mine--my very own. I never cared
+before, or thought much about it, till I came out and saw where they
+live, and Dick pointed to a cow and the sweetest little red and white
+calf, and said: 'That's your cow and calf, Trix.' They were dreadfully
+afraid of me, though--I'm afraid they didn't recognize me as their
+mistress. I wanted to get down and pet the calf--it had the dearest
+little snub nose but they bolted, and wouldn't let me near them."
+
+"I fancy they were not accustomed to meeting angels unawares."
+
+"Sir Redmond, I wish you wouldn't. You are so much nicer when you're not
+trying to be nice."
+
+"I'll act a perfect brute," he offered eagerly, "if that will make you
+love me."
+
+"It's hardly worth trying. I think you would make a very poor sort of
+villain, Sir Redmond. You wouldn't even be picturesque."
+
+Sir Redmond looked rather floored. He was a good fighter, was Sir
+Redmond, but he was clumsy at repartee--or, perhaps, he was too much in
+earnest to fence gracefully. Just now he looked particularly foolish.
+
+"Don't you think my brand is pretty? You know what it is, don't you?"
+
+"I'm afraid not," he owned. "I fancy I need a good bit of coaching in
+the matter of brands."
+
+"Yes," agreed Beatrice, "I fancy you do. My brand is a Triangle
+Bar--like this." With a sharp pointed bit of rock she drew a more or
+less exact diagram in the yellow soil. "There are ever so many different
+brands belonging to the Northern Pool; Dick pointed them out to me, but
+I can't remember them. But whenever you see a Triangle Bar you'll be
+looking at my individual property. I think it was nice of Dick to give
+me a brand all my own. Mr. Cameron has a pretty brand, too--a Maltese
+Cross. The Maltese Cross was owned at one time by President Roosevelt.
+Mr. Cameron bought it when he left college and went into the cattle
+business. He 'plays a lone hand,' as he calls it; but his cattle range
+with the Northern Pool, and he and Dick work together a great deal. I
+think he has lovely eyes, don't you?" The eyes of Beatrice were intent
+upon the Bear Paws when she said it--which brought her shoulder toward
+Sir Redmond and hid her face from him.
+
+"I can't say I ever observed Mr. Cameron's eyes," said Sir Redmond
+stiffly.
+
+Beatrice turned back to him, and smiled demurely. When Beatrice smiled
+that very demure smile, of which she was capable, the weather-wise
+generally edged toward their cyclone-cellars. Sir Redmond was not
+weather-wise--he was too much in love with her--and he did not possess a
+cyclone cellar; he therefore suffered much at the hands of Beatrice.
+
+"But surely you must have noticed that deep, deep dimple in his chin?"
+she questioned innocently. Keith Cameron, I may say, did not have a
+dimple in his chin at all; there was, however, a deep crease in it.
+
+"I did not." Sir Redmond rubbed his own chin, which was so far from
+dimpling that is was rounded like half an apricot.
+
+"Dear me! And you sat opposite to him at dinner yesterday, too! I
+suppose, then, you did not observe that his teeth are the whitest,
+evenest."
+
+"They make them cheaply over here, I'm told," he retorted, setting his
+heel emphatically down and annihilating a red and black caterpillar.
+
+"Now, why did you do that? I must say you English are rather brutal?"
+
+"I can't abide worms."
+
+"Well, neither can I. And I think it would be foolish to quarrel about a
+man's good looks," Beatrice said, with surprising sweetness.
+
+Sir Redmond hunched his shoulders and retreated to the comfort of
+his pipe. "A bally lot of good looks!" he sneered. "A woman is never
+convinced, though."
+
+"I am." Beatrice sat down upon a rock and rested her elbows on her knees
+and her chin in her hands--and an adorable picture she made, I assure
+you. "I'm thoroughly convinced of several things. One is Mr. Cameron's
+good looks; another is that you're cross."
+
+"Oh, come, now!" protested Sir Redmond feebly, and sucked furiously at
+his pipe.
+
+"Yes," reiterated Beatrice, examining his perturbed face judicially;
+"you are downright ugly."
+
+The face of Sir Redmond grew redder and more perturbed; just as Beatrice
+meant that it should; she seemed to derive a keen pleasure from goading
+this big, good-looking Englishman to the verge of apoplexy.
+
+"I'm sure I never meant to be rude; but a fellow can't fall down and
+worship every young farmer, don't you know--not even to please you!"
+
+Beatrice smiled and threw a pebble down the slope, watching it bound and
+skip to the bottom, where it rolled away and hid in the grass.
+
+"I love this wide country," she observed, abandoning her torture with
+a suddenness that was a characteristic of her nature. When Beatrice had
+made a man look and act the fool she was ready to stop; one cannot say
+that of every woman. "One can draw long, deep breaths without robbing
+one's neighbor of oxygen. Everything is so big, and broad, and generous,
+out here. One can ride for miles and miles through the grandest, wildest
+places,--and--there aren't any cigar and baking-powder and liver-pill
+signs plastered over the rocks, thank goodness! If man has traveled that
+way before, you do not have the evidence of his passing staring you
+in the face. You can make believe it is all your own--by right of
+discovery. I'm afraid your England would seem rather little and crowded
+after a month or two of this." She swept her hand toward the river, and
+the grass-land beyond, and the mountains rimming the world.
+
+"You should see the moors!" cried Sir Redmond, brightening under this
+peaceful mood of hers. "I fancy you would not find trouble in drawing
+long breaths there. Moor Cottage, where your sister and Wiltmar lived,
+is surrounded by wide stretches of open--not like this, to be sure, but
+not half-bad in its way, either."
+
+"Dolly grew to love that place, though she did write homesick letters at
+first. I was going over, after my coming out--and then came that awful
+accident, when she and Wiltmar were both drowned--and, of course, there
+was nothing to go for. I should have hated the place then, I think. But
+I should like--" Her voice trailed off dreamily, her eyes on the hazy
+Highwoods.
+
+Sir Redmond watched her, his eyes a-shine; Beatrice in this mood was
+something to worship. He was almost afraid to speak, for fear she would
+snuff out the tiny flame of hope which her half-finished sentence had
+kindled. He leaned forward, his face eager.
+
+"Beatrice, only say you will go--with me, dear!"
+
+Beatrice started; for the moment she had forgotten him. Her eyes kept to
+the hills. "Go--to England? One trip at a time, Sir Redmond. I have
+been here only ten days, and we came for three months. Three months of
+freedom in this big, glorious place."
+
+"And then?" His voice was husky.
+
+"And then--freckle lotions by the quart, I expect."
+
+Sir Redmond got upon his feet, and he was rather white around the mouth.
+
+"We Englishmen are a stubborn lot, Miss Beatrice. We won't stop fighting
+until we win."
+
+"We Yankees," retorted she airily, "value our freedom above everything
+else. We won't surrender it without fighting for it first."
+
+He caught eagerly at the lack of finality in her tones. "I don't want to
+take your freedom, Beatrice. I only want the right to love you."
+
+"Oh, as for that, I suppose you may love me as much as you please--only
+so you don't torment me to death talking about it."
+
+Beatrice, not looking particularly tormented, waved answer to Dick, who
+was shouting something up at her, and went blithely down the hill, with
+Sir Redmond following gloomily, several paces behind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4. Beatrice Learns a New Language.
+
+
+"D'you want to see the boys work a bunch of cattle, Trix?" Dick said
+to her, when she came down to where he was leaning against a high board
+fence, waiting for her.
+
+"'Deed I do, Dicky--only I've no idea what you mean."
+
+"The boys are going to cut out some cattle we've contracted to the
+government--for the Indians, you know. They're holding the bunch over in
+Dry Coulee; it's only three or four miles. I've got to go over and see
+the foreman, and I thought maybe you'd like to go along."
+
+"There's nothing I can think of that I would like better. Won't it be
+fine, Sir Redmond?"
+
+Sir Redmond did not say whether he thought it would be fine or not. He
+still had the white streak around his mouth, and he went through the
+gate and on to the house without a word--which was undoubtedly a
+rude thing to do. Sir Redmond was not often rude. Dick watched him
+speculatively until he was beyond hearing them. Then, "What have you
+done to milord, Trix?" he wanted to know.
+
+"Nothing," said Beatrice.
+
+"Well," Dick said, with decision, "he looks to me like a man that has
+been turned down--hard. I can tell by the back of his neck."
+
+This struck Beatrice, and she began to study the retreating neck of
+her suitor. "I can't see any difference," she announced, after a brief
+scrutiny.
+
+"It's rather sunburned and thick."
+
+"I'll gamble his mind is a jumble of good English oaths--with maybe a
+sprinkling of Boer maledictions. What did you do?"
+
+"Nothing--unless, perhaps, he objects to being disciplined a bit. But I
+also object to being badgered into matrimony--even with Sir Redmond."
+
+"Even with Sir Redmond!" Dick whistled. "He's 'It,' then, is he?"
+
+Beatrice had nothing to say. She walked beside Dick and looked at the
+ground before her.
+
+"He doesn't seem a bad sort, sis, and the title will be nice to have
+in the family, if one cares for such things. Mother does. She was
+disappointed, I take it, that Wiltmar was a younger son."
+
+"Yes, she was. She used to think that Sir Redmond might get killed down
+there fighting the Boers, and then Wiltmar would be next in line. But he
+didn't, and it was Wiltmar who went first. And now oh, it's humiliating,
+Dick! To be thrown at a man's head--" Tears were not far from her voice
+just then.
+
+"I can see she wants you to nab the title. Well, sis, if you don't care
+for the man--"
+
+"I never said I didn't care for him. But I just can't treat him
+decently, with mama dinning that title in my ears day and night. I wish
+there wasn't any title. Oh, it's abominable! Things have come to that
+point where an American girl with money is not supposed to care for
+an Englishman, no matter how nice he may be, if he has a title, or the
+prospect of one. Every one laughs and thinks it's the title she wants;
+they'd think it of me, and they'd say it. They would say Beatrice
+Lansell took her half-million and bought her a lord. And, after a while,
+perhaps Sir Redmond himself would half-believe it--and I couldn't bear
+that! And so I am--unbearably flippant and--I should think he'd hate
+me!"
+
+"So you reversed the natural order of things, and refused him on account
+of the title?" Dick grinned surreptitiously.
+
+"No, I didn't--not quite. I'm afraid he's dreadfully angry with me,
+though. I do wish he wasn't such a dear."
+
+"You're the same old Trix. You've got to be held back from the trail
+you're supposed to take, or you won't travel it; you'll bolt the other
+way. If everybody got together and fought the notion, you would probably
+elope with milord inside a week. Mother means well, but she isn't on to
+her job a little bit. She ought to turn up her nose at the title."
+
+"No fear of that! I've had it before my eyes till I hate the very
+thought of it. I--I wish I could hate him." Beatrice sighed deeply, and
+gave her hand to Dorman, who scurried up to her.
+
+"I'll have the horses saddled right away," said Dick, and left them.
+
+"Where you going, Be'trice? You going to ride a horse? I want to,
+awf'lly."
+
+"I'm afraid you can't, honey; it's too far." Beatrice pushed a yellow
+curl away from his eyes with tender, womanly solicitude.
+
+"Auntie won't care, 'cause I'm a bother. Auntie says she's goin' to send
+for Parks. I don't want Parks; 'sides, Parks is sick. I want a pony, and
+some ledder towsers wis fringes down 'em, and I want some little wheels
+on my feet. Mr. Cam'ron says I do need some little wheels, Be'trice."
+
+"Did he, honey?"
+
+"Yes, he did. I like Mr. Cam'ron, Be'trice; he let me ride his big, high
+pony. He's a berry good pony. He shaked hands wis me, Be'trice--he truly
+did."
+
+"Did he, hon?" Beatrice, I am sorry to say, was not listening. She
+was wondering if Sir Redmond was really angry with her--too angry, for
+instance, to go over where the cattle were. He really ought to go, for
+he had come West in the interest of the Eastern stockholders in the
+Northern Pool, to investigate the actual details of the work. He surely
+would not miss this opportunity, Beatrice thought. And she hoped he was
+not angry.
+
+"Yes, he truly did. Mr. Cam'ron interduced us, Be'trice. He said,
+'Redcloud, dis is Master Dorman Hayes. Shake hands wis my frien'
+Dorman.' And he put up his front hand, Be'trice, and nod his head, and
+I shaked his hand. I dess love that big, high pony, Be'trice. Can I buy
+him, Be'trice?"
+
+"Maybe, kiddie."
+
+"Can I buy him wis my six shiny pennies, Be'trice?"
+
+"Maybe."
+
+"Mr. Cam'ron lives right over that hill, Be'trice. He told me."
+
+"Did he, hon?"
+
+"Yes, he did. He 'vited me over, Be'trice. He's my friend, and I've got
+to buy my big, high pony. I'll let you shake hands wis him, Be'trice.
+I'll interduce him to you. And I'll let you ride on his back, Be'trice.
+Do you want to ride on his back?"
+
+"Yes, honey."
+
+Before Beatrice had time to commit herself they reached the house, and
+she let go Dorman's hand and hurried away to get into her riding-habit.
+
+Dorman straightway went to find his six precious, shiny pennies, which
+Beatrice had painstakingly scoured with silver polish one day to please
+the little tyrant, and which increased their value many times--so many
+times, in fact, that he hid them every night in fear of burglars. Since
+he concealed them each time in a different place, he was obliged to
+ransack his auntie's room every morning, to the great disturbance of
+Martha, the maid, who was an order-loving person.
+
+Martha appeared just when he had triumphantly pounced upon his treasure
+rolled up in the strings of his aunt's chiffon opera-bonnet.
+
+"Mercy upon us, Master Dorman! Whatever have you been doing?"
+
+"I want my shiny pennies," said the young gentleman, composedly
+unwinding the roll, "to buy my big, high pony."
+
+"Naughty, naughty boy, to muss my lady's fine bonnet like that! Look at
+things scattered over the floor, and my lady's fine handkerchiefs and
+gloves--" Martha stopped and meditated whether she might dare to shake
+him.
+
+Dorman was laboriously counting his wealth, with much wrinkling of
+stubby nose and lifting of eyebrows. Having satisfied himself that they
+were really all there, he deigned to look around, with a fine masculine
+disdain of woman's finery.
+
+"Oh, dose old things!" he sniffed. "I always fordet where I put my shiny
+pennies. Robbers might find them if I put them easy places. I'm going to
+buy my big, high pony, and you can't shake his hand a bit, Martha."
+
+"Well, I'm sure I don't want to!" Martha snapped back at him, and went
+down on all fours to gather up the things he had thrown down. "Whatever
+Parks was thinking of, to go and get fever, when she was the only one
+that could manage you, I don't know! And me picking up after you till
+I'm fair sick!"
+
+"I'm glad you is sick," he retorted unfeelingly, and backed to the door.
+"I hopes you get sicker so your stummit makes you hurt. You can't ride
+on my big, high pony."
+
+"Get along with you and your high pony!" cried the exasperated Martha,
+threatening with a hairbrush. Dorman, his six shiny pennies held fast in
+his damp little fist, fled down the stairs and out into the sunlight.
+
+Dick and Beatrice were just ready to ride away from the porch. "I want
+to go wis you, Uncle Dick." Dorman had followed the lead of Beatrice,
+his divinity; he refused to say Richard, though grandmama did object to
+nicknames.
+
+"Up you go, son. You'll be a cow-puncher yourself one of these days.
+I'll not let him fall, and this horse is gentle." This last to satisfy
+Dorman's aunt, who wavered between anxiety and relief.
+
+"You may ride to the gate, Dorman, and then you'll have to hop down
+and run back to your auntie and grandma. We're going too far for you
+to-day." Dick gave him the reins to hold, and let the horse walk to
+prolong the joy of it.
+
+Dorman held to the horn with one hand, to the reins with the other, and
+let his small body swing forward and back with the motion of the horse,
+in exaggerated imitation of his friend, Mr. Cameron. At the gate he
+allowed himself to be set down without protest, smiled importantly
+through the bars, and thrust his arm through as far as it would reach,
+that he might wave good-by. And his divinity smiled back at him, and
+threw him a kiss, which pleased him mightily.
+
+"You must have hurt milord's feelings pretty bad," Dick remarked. "I
+couldn't get him to come. He had to write a letter first, he said."
+
+"I wish, Dick," Beatrice answered, a bit petulantly, "you would stop
+calling him milord."
+
+"Milord's a good name," Dick contended. "It's bad enough to 'Sir' him to
+his face; I can't do it behind his back, Trix. We're not used to fancy
+titles out here, and they don't fit the country, anyhow. I'm like
+you--I'd think a lot more of him if he was just a plain, everyday
+American, so I could get acquainted enough to call him 'Red Hayes.' I'd
+like him a whole lot better."
+
+Beatrice was in no mood for an argument--on that subject, at least.
+She let Rex out and raced over the prairie at a gait which would have
+greatly shocked her mother, who could not understand why Beatrice was
+not content to drive sedately about in the carriage with the rest of
+them.
+
+When they reached the round-up Keith Cameron left the bunch and rode out
+to meet them, and Dick promptly shuffled responsibility for his sister's
+entertainment to the square shoulders of his neighbor.
+
+"Trix wants to wise up on the cattle business, Keith. I'll just turn her
+over to you for a-while, and let you answer her questions; I can't, half
+the time. I want to look through the bunch a little."
+
+Keith's face spoke gratitude, and spoke it plainly. The face of Beatrice
+was frankly inattentive. She was watching the restless, moving mass of
+red backs and glistening horns, with horsemen weaving in and out among
+them in what looked to her a perfectly aimless fashion--until one would
+wheel and dart out into the open, always with a fleeing animal lumbering
+before. Other horsemen would meet him and take up the chase, and he
+would turn and ride leisurely back into the haze and confusion. It was
+like a kaleidoscope, for the scene shifted constantly and was never
+quite the same.
+
+Keith, secure in her absorption, slid sidewise in the saddle and studied
+her face, knowing all the while that he was simply storing up trouble
+for himself. But it is not given a man to flee human nature, and the
+fellow who could sit calmly beside Beatrice and not stare at her if
+the opportunity offered must certainly have the blood of a fish in his
+veins. I will tell you why.
+
+Beatrice was tall, and she was slim, and round, and tempting, with the
+most tantalizing curves ever built to torment a man. Her hair was soft
+and brown, and it waved up from the nape of her neck without those
+short, straggling locks and thin growth at the edge which mar so many
+feminine heads; and the sharp contrast of shimmery brown against ivory
+white was simply irresistible. Had her face been less full of charm,
+Keith might have been content to gaze and gaze at that lovely hair line.
+As it was, his eyes wandered to her brows, also distinctly marked, as
+though outlined first with a pencil in the fingers of an artist who
+understood. And there were her lashes, dark and long, and curled up at
+the ends; and her cheek, with its changing, come-and-go coloring; her
+mouth, with its upper lip creased deeply in the middle--so deeply that a
+bit more would have been a defect--and with an odd little dimple at one
+corner; luckily, it was on the side toward him, so that he might look
+at it all he wanted to for once; for it was always there, only growing
+deeper and wickeder when she spoke or laughed. He could not see her
+eyes, for they were turned away, but he knew quite well the color; he
+had settled that point when he looked up from coiling his rope the day
+she came. They were big, baffling, blue-brown eyes, the like of which he
+had never seen before in his life--and he had thought he had seen
+every color and every shade under the sun. Thinking of them and their
+wonderful deeps and shadows, he got hungry for a sight of them. And
+suddenly she turned to ask a question, and found him staring at her, and
+surprised a look in his eyes he did not know was there.
+
+For ten pulse-beats they stared, and the cheeks of Beatrice grew red as
+healthy young blood could paint them; Keith's were the same, only that
+his blood showed darkly through the tan. What question had been on her
+tongue she forgot to ask. Indeed, for the time, I think she forgot
+the whole English language, and every other--but the strange, wordless
+language of Keith's clear eyes.
+
+And then it was gone, and Keith was looking away, and chewing a
+corner of his lip till it hurt. His horse backed restlessly from the
+tight-gripped rein, and Keith was guilty of kicking him with his spur,
+which did not better matters. Redcloud snorted and shook his outraged
+head, and Keith came to himself and eased the rein, and spoke
+remorseful, soothing words that somehow clung long in the memory of
+Beatrice.
+
+Just after that Dick galloped up, his elbows flapping like the wings of
+a frightened hen.
+
+"Well, I suppose you could run a cow outfit all by yourself, with the
+knowledge you've got from Keith," he greeted, and two people became even
+more embarrassed than before. If Dick noticed anything, he must have
+been a wise young man, for he gave no sign.
+
+But Beatrice had not queened it in her set, three seasons, for nothing,
+even if she was capable of being confused by a sweet, new language in a
+man's eyes. She answered Dick quietly.
+
+"I've been so busy watching it all that I haven't had time to ask many
+questions, as Mr. Cameron can testify. It's like a game, and it's very
+fascinating--and dusty. I wonder if I might ride in among them, Dick?"
+
+"Better not, sis. It isn't as much fun as it looks, and you can see more
+out here. There comes milord; he must have changed his mind about the
+letter."
+
+Beatrice did not look around. To see her, you would swear she had set
+herself the task of making an accurate count of noses in that seething
+mass of raw beef below her. After a minute she ventured to glance
+furtively at Keith, and, finding his eyes turned her way, blushed again
+and called herself an idiot. After that, she straightened in the saddle,
+and became the self-poised Miss Lansell, of New York.
+
+Keith rode away to the far side of the herd, out of temptation; queer
+a man never runs from a woman until it is too late to be a particle of
+use. Keith simply changed his point of view, and watched his Heart's
+Desire from afar.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5. The Search for Dorman.
+
+
+"Oh, I say," began Sir Redmond, an hour after, when he happened to stand
+close to Beatrice for a few minutes, "where is Dorman? I fancied you
+brought him along."
+
+"We didn't," Beatrice told him. "He only rode as far as the gate, where
+Dick left him, and started him back to the house."
+
+"Mary told me he came along. She and your mother were congratulating
+each other upon a quiet half-day, with you and Dorman off the place
+together. I'll wager their felicitations fell rather flat."
+
+Beatrice laughed. "Very likely. I know they were mourning because their
+lace-making had been neglected lately. What with that trip to Lost
+Canyon to-morrow, and to the mountains Friday, I'm afraid the lace will
+continue to suffer. What do you think of a round-up, Sir Redmond?"
+
+"It's deuced nasty," said he. "Such a lot of dust and noise. I fancy the
+workmen don't find it pleasant."
+
+"Yes, they do; they like it," she declared. "Dick says a cowboy is never
+satisfied off the range. And you mustn't call them workmen, Sir Redmond.
+They'd resent it, if they knew. They're cowboys, and proud of it. They
+seem rather a pleasant lot of fellows, on the whole. I have been talking
+to one or two."
+
+"Well, we're all through here," Dick announced, riding up. "I'm going
+to ride around by Keith's place, to see a horse I'm thinking of buying.
+Want to go along, Trix? Or are you tired?"
+
+"I'm never tired," averred his sister, readjusting a hat-pin and
+gathering up her reins. "I always want to go everywhere that you'll take
+me, Dick. Consider that point settled for the summer. Are you coming,
+Sir Redmond?"
+
+"I think not, thank you," he said, not quite risen above his rebuff of
+the morning. "I told Mary I would be back for lunch."
+
+"I was wiser; I refused even to venture an opinion as to when I should
+be back. Well, 'so-long'!"
+
+"You're learning the lingo pretty fast, Trix," Dick chuckled, when they
+were well away from Sir Redmond. "Milord almost fell out of the saddle
+when you fired that at him. Where did you pick it up?"
+
+"I've heard you say it a dozen times since I came. And I don't care if
+he is shocked--I wanted him to be. He needn't be such a perfect bear;
+and I know mama and Miss Hayes don't expect him to lunch, without us. He
+just did it to be spiteful."
+
+"Jerusalem, Trix! A little while ago you said he was a dear! You
+shouldn't snub him, if you want him to be nice to you."
+
+"I don't want him to be nice," flared Beatrice. "I don't care how
+he acts. Only, I must say, ill humor doesn't become him. Not that it
+matters, however."
+
+"Well, I guess we can get along without him, if he won't honor us with
+his company. Here comes Keith. Brace up, sis, and be pleasant."
+
+Beatrice glanced casually at the galloping figure of Dick's neighbor,
+and frowned.
+
+"You mustn't flirt with Keith," Dick admonished gravely. "He's a good
+fellow, and as square a man as I know; but you ought to know he's got
+the reputation of being a hard man to know. Lots of girls have tried
+to flirt and make a fool of him, and wound up with their feelings hurt
+worse than his were."
+
+"Is that a dare?" Beatrice threw up her chin with a motion Dick knew of
+old.
+
+"Not on your life! You better leave him alone; one or the other of you
+would get the worst of it, and I'd hate to see either of you feeling
+bad. As I said before, he's a bad man to fool with."
+
+"I don't consider him particularly dangerous--or interesting. He's not
+half as nice as Sir Redmond." Beatrice spoke as though she meant what
+she said, and Dick had no chance to argue the point, for Keith pulled up
+beside them at that moment.
+
+Beatrice seemed inclined to silence, and paid more attention to the
+landscape than she did to the conversation, which was mostly about range
+conditions, and the scanty water supply, and the drought.
+
+She was politely interested in Keith's ranch, and if she clung
+persistently to her society manner, why, her society manner was very
+pleasing, if somewhat unsatisfying to a fellow fairly drunk with her
+winsomeness. Keith showed her where she might look straight up the
+coulee to her brother's ranch, two miles away, and when she wished
+she might see what they were doing up there, he went in and got his
+field-glass. She thanked him prettily, and impersonally, and focused the
+glass upon Dick's house--which gave Keith another chance to look at her
+without being caught in the act.
+
+"How plain everything is! I can see mama, out on the porch, and Miss
+Hayes." She could also see Sir Redmond, who had just ridden up, and was
+talking to the ladies, but she did not think it necessary to mention
+him, for some reason; she kept her eyes to the glass, however, and
+appeared much absorbed. Dick rolled himself a cigarette and watched the
+two, and there was a twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"I wonder--Dick, I do think--I'm afraid--" Beatrice hadn't her society
+manner now; she was her unaffected, girlish self; and she was growing
+excited.
+
+"What's the matter?" Dick got up, and came and stood at her elbow.
+
+"They're acting queerly. The maids are running about, and the cook is
+out, waving a large spoon, and mama has her arm around Miss Hayes, and
+Sir Redmond."
+
+"Let's see." Dick took the glass and raised it to his eyes for a minute.
+"That's right," he said. "They're making medicine over something. See
+what you make of it, Keith."
+
+Keith took the glass and looked through it. It was like a moving
+picture; one could see, but one wanted the interpretation of sound.
+
+"We'd better ride over," he said quietly. "Don't worry, Miss Lansell;
+it probably isn't anything serious. We can take the short cut up the
+coulee, and find out." He put the glass into its leathern case and
+started to the gate, where the horses were standing. He did not tell
+Beatrice that Miss Hayes had just been carried into the house in
+a faint, or that her mother was behaving in an undignified fashion
+strongly suggesting hysterics. But Dick knew, from the look on his face,
+that it was serious. He hurried before them with long strides, leaving
+Beatrice, for the second time that morning, to the care of his neighbor.
+
+So it was Keith who held his hand down for the delicious pressure of
+her foot, and arranged her habit with painstaking care, considering the
+hurry they were in. Dick was in the saddle, and gone, before Keith had
+finished, and Keith was not a slow young man, as a rule. They ran the
+two miles without a break, except twice, where there were gates to
+close. Dick, speeding a furlong before, had obligingly left them open;
+and a stockman is hard pressed indeed--or very drunk--when he fails to
+close his gates behind him. It is an unwritten law which becomes second
+nature.
+
+Almost within sound of the place, Dick raced back and met them, and his
+face was white.
+
+"It's Dorman!" he cried. "He's lost. They haven't seen him since we
+left. You know, Trix, he was standing at the gate."
+
+Beatrice went white as Dick; whiter, for she was untanned. An
+overwhelming sense of blame squeezed her heart tight. Keith, seeing her
+shoulders droop limply, reined close, to catch her in his arms if there
+was the slightest excuse. However, Beatrice was a healthy young woman,
+with splendid command of her nerves, and she had no intention of
+fainting. The sickening weakness passed in a moment.
+
+"It's my fault," she said, speaking rapidly, her eyes seeking Dick's for
+comfort. "I said 'yes' to everything he asked me, because I was thinking
+of something else, and not paying attention. He was going to buy your
+horse, Mr. Cameron, and now he's lost!"
+
+This, though effective, was not particularly illuminating. Dick wanted
+details, and he got them--for Beatrice, having remorse to stir the dregs
+of memory, repeated nearly everything Dorman had said, even telling
+how the big, high pony put up his front hand, and he shaked it, and how
+Dorman truly needed some little wheels on his feet.
+
+"Poor little devil," Keith muttered, with wet eyes.
+
+"He--he said you lived over there," Beatrice finished, pointing, as
+Dorman had pointed--which was not toward the "Cross" ranch at all, but
+straight toward the river.
+
+Keith wheeled Redcloud; there was no need to hear more. He took the hill
+at a pace which would have killed any horse but one bred to race over
+this rough country. Near the top, the forced breathing of another horse
+at his heels made him look behind. It was Beatrice following, her eyes
+like black stars. I do not know if Keith was astonished, but I do know
+that he was pleased.
+
+"Where's Dick?" was all he said then.
+
+"Dick's going to meet the men--the cowboys. Sir Redmond went after them,
+when they found Dorman wasn't anywhere about the place."
+
+Keith nodded understandingly, and slowed to let her come alongside.
+
+"It's no use riding in bunches," he remarked, after a little. "On circle
+we always go in pairs. We'll find him, all right."
+
+"We must," said Beatrice, simply, and shaded her eyes with her hand. For
+they had reached the top, and the prairie land lay all about them and
+below, lazily asleep in the sunshine.
+
+Keith halted and reached for his glass. "It's lucky I brought it along,"
+he said. "I wasn't thinking, at the time; I just slung it over my
+shoulder from habit."
+
+"It's a good habit, I think," she answered, trying to smile; but her
+lips would only quiver, for the thought of her blame tortured her. "Can
+you see--anything?" she ventured wistfully.
+
+Keith shook his head, and continued his search. "There are so many
+little washouts and coulees, down there, you know. That's the trouble
+with a glass--it looks only on a level. But we'll find him. Don't you
+worry about that. He couldn't go far."
+
+"There isn't any real danger, is there?"
+
+"Oh, no," Keith said. "Except--" He bit his lip angrily.
+
+"Except what?" she demanded. "I'm not silly, Mr. Cameron--tell me."
+
+Keith took the glass from his eyes, looked at her, and paid her the
+compliment of deciding to tell her, just as if she were a man.
+
+"Nothing, only--he might run across a snake," he said. "Rattlers."
+
+Beatrice drew her breath hard, but she was plucky. Keith thought he
+had never seen a pluckier girl, and the West can rightfully boast brave
+women.
+
+She touched Rex with the whip. "Come," she commanded. "We must not stand
+here. It has been more than three hours."
+
+Keith put away the glass, and shot ahead to guide her.
+
+"We must have missed him, somewhere." The eyes of Beatrice were heavy
+with the weariness born of anxiety and suspense. They stood at the very
+edge of the steep bluff which rimmed the river. "You don't think he
+could have--" Her eyes, shuddering down at the mocking, blue-gray
+ripples, finished the thought.
+
+"He couldn't have got this far," said Keith. "His legs would give out,
+climbing up and down. We'll go back by a little different way, and
+look."
+
+"There's something moving, off there." Beatrice pointed with her whip.
+
+"That's a coyote," Keith told her; and then, seeing the look on her
+face: "They won't hurt any one. They're the rankest cowards on the
+range."
+
+"But the snakes--"
+
+"Oh, well, he might wander around for a week, and not run across one. We
+won't borrow trouble, anyway."
+
+"No," she agreed languidly. The sun was hot, and she had not had
+anything to eat since early breakfast, and the river mocked her parched
+throat with its cool glimmer below. She looked down at it wistfully,
+and Keith, watchful of every passing change in her face, led her back
+to where a cold, little spring crept from beneath a rock; there, lifting
+her down, he taught her how to drink from her hand.
+
+For himself, he threw himself down, pushed back his hat, and drank
+long and leisurely. A brown lock of hair, clinging softly together with
+moisture, fell from his forehead and trailed in the clear water, and
+Beatrice felt oddly tempted to push it back where it belonged. Standing
+quietly watching his picturesque figure, she forgot, for the moment,
+that a little boy was lost among these peaceful, sunbathed hills; she
+remembered only the man at her feet, drinking long, satisfying drafts,
+while the lock of hair floated in the spring.
+
+"Now we'll go on." He stood up and pushed back the wet lock, which
+trickled a tiny stream down his cheek, and settled his gray hat in
+place.
+
+Again that day he felt her foot in his palm, and the touch went over him
+in thrills. She was tired, he knew; her foot pressed heavier than it had
+before. He would have liked to take her in his arms and lift her
+bodily into the saddle, but he hardly dared think of such a blissful
+proceeding.
+
+He set the pace slower, however, and avoided the steepest places, and he
+halted often on the higher ground, to scan sharply the coulees. And so
+they searched, these two, together, and grew to know each other better
+than in a month of casual meetings. And the grass nodded, and the winds
+laughed, and the stern hills looked on, quizzically silent. If they knew
+aught of a small boy with a wealth of yellow curls and white collar,
+they gave no sign, and the two rode on, always seeking hopefully.
+
+A snake buzzed sharply on a gravelly slope, and Keith, sending Beatrice
+back a safe distance, took down his rope and gave battle, beating the
+sinister, gray-spotted coil with the loop until it straightened and
+was still. He dismounted then, and pinched off the rattles--nine,
+there were, and a "button"--and gave them to Beatrice, who handled them
+gingerly, and begged Keith to carry them for her. He slipped them into
+his pocket, and they went on, saying little.
+
+Back near the ranch they met Dick and Sir Redmond. They exchanged sharp
+looks, and Dick shook his head.
+
+"We haven't found him--yet. The boys are riding circle around the ranch;
+they're bound to find him, some of them, if we don't."
+
+"You had better go home," Sir Redmond told her, with a note of authority
+in his voice which set Keith's teeth on edge. "You look done to death;
+this is men's work."
+
+Beatrice bit her lip, and barely glanced at him. "I'll go--when Dorman
+is found. What shall we do now, Dick?"
+
+"Go down to the house and get some hot coffee, you two. We all snatched
+a bite to eat, and you need it. After that, you can look along the south
+side of the coulee, if you like."
+
+Beatrice obediently turned Rex toward home, and Keith followed. The
+ranch seemed very still and lonesome. Some chickens were rolling in the
+dust by the gate, and scattered, cackling indignantly, when they rode
+up. Off to the left a colt whinnied wistfully in a corral. Beatrice,
+riding listlessly to the house, stopped her horse with a jerk.
+
+"I heard--where is he?"
+
+Keith stopped Redcloud, and listened. Came a thumping noise, and a wail,
+not loud, but unmistakable.
+
+"Aunt-ie!"
+
+Beatrice was on the ground as soon as Keith, and together they ran to
+the place--the bunk-house. The thumping continued vigorously; evidently
+a small boy was kicking, with all his might, upon a closed door; it was
+not a new sound to the ears of Beatrice, since the arrival in America
+of her young nephew. Keith flung the door wide open, upsetting the small
+boy, who howled.
+
+Beatrice swooped down upon him and gathered him so close she came near
+choking him. "You darling. Oh, Dorman!"
+
+Dorman squirmed away from her. "I los' one shiny penny, Be'trice--and I
+couldn't open de door. Help me find my shiny penny."
+
+Keith picked him up and set him upon one square shoulder. "We'll take
+you up to your auntie, first thing, young man."
+
+"I want my one shiny penny. I want it!" Dorman showed symptoms of
+howling again.
+
+"We'll come back and find it. Your auntie wants you now, and grandmama."
+
+Beatrice, following after, was treated to a rather unusual spectacle;
+that of a tall, sun-browned fellow, with fringed chaps and brightly
+gleaming spurs, racing down the path; upon his shoulder, the wriggling
+form of an extremely disreputable small boy, with cobwebs in his curls,
+and his once white collar a dirty rag streaming out behind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6. Mrs. Lansell's Lecture.
+
+
+When the excitement had somewhat abated, and Miss Hayes was convinced
+that her idol was really there, safe, and with his usual healthy
+appetite, and when a messenger had been started out to recall the
+searchers, Dorman was placed upon a chair before a select and attentive
+audience, and invited to explain, which he did.
+
+He had decided to borrow some little wheels from the bunkhouse, so he
+could ride his big, high pony home. Mr. Cameron had little wheels on
+his feet, and so did Uncle Dick, and all the mens. (The audience gravely
+nodded assent.) Well, and the knob wasn't too high when he went in, but
+when he tried to open the door to go out, it was away up there! (Dorman
+measured with his arm.) And he fell down, and all his shiny pennies
+rolled and rolled. And he looked and looked where they rolled, and when
+he counted, one was gone. So he looked and looked for the one shiny
+penny till he was tired to death. And so he climbed up high, into a
+funny bed on a shelf, and rested. And when he was rested he couldn't
+open the door, and he kicked and kicked, and then Be'trice came, and Mr.
+Cam'ron.
+
+"And you said you'd help me find my one penny," he reminded Keith,
+blinking solemnly at him from the chair. "And I want to shake hands wis
+your big, high pony. I'm going to buy him wis my six pennies. Be'trice
+said I could."
+
+Beatrice blushed, and Keith forgot where he was, for a minute, looking
+at her.
+
+"Come and find my one shiny penny," Dorman commanded, climbing down.
+"And I want Be'trice to come. Be'trice can always find things."
+
+"Beatrice cannot go," said his grandmother, who didn't much like the
+way Keith hovered near Beatrice, nor the look in his eyes. "Beatrice is
+tired."
+
+"I want Be'trice!" Dorman set up his everyday howl, which started the
+dogs barking outside. His guardian angel attempted to soothe him, but he
+would have none of her; he only howled the louder, and kicked.
+
+"There, there, honey, I'll go. Where's your hat?"
+
+"Beatrice, you had better stay in the house; you have done quite enough
+for one day." The tone of the mother suggested things.
+
+"It is imperative," said Beatrice, "for the peace and the well-being of
+this household, that Dorman find his penny without delay." When
+Beatrice adopted that lofty tone her mother was in the habit of saying
+nothing--and biding her time. Beatrice was so apt, if mere loftiness did
+not carry the day, to go a step further and flatly refuse to obey. Mrs.
+Lansell preferred to yield, rather than be openly defied.
+
+So the three went off to find the shiny penny--and in exactly
+thirty-five minutes they found it. I will not say that they could not
+have found it sooner, but, at any rate, they didn't, and they reached
+the house about two minutes behind Dick and Sir Redmond, which did not
+improve Sir Redmond's temper to speak of.
+
+After that, Keith did not need much urging from Dick to spend the rest
+of the afternoon at the "Pool" ranch. When he wanted to, Keith could be
+very nice indeed to people; he went a long way, that afternoon, toward
+making a friend of Miss Hayes; but Mrs. Lansell, who was one of those
+women who adhere to the theory of First Impressions, in capitals,
+continued to regard him as an incipient outlaw, who would, in time and
+under favorable conditions, reveal his true character, and vindicate her
+keen insight into human nature. There was one thing which Mrs. Lansell
+never forgave Keith Cameron, and that was the ruin of her watch, which
+refused to run while she was in Montana.
+
+That night, when Beatrice was just snuggling down into the delicious
+coolness of her pillow, she heard someone rap softly, but none the less
+imperatively, on her door. She opened one eye stealthily, to see her
+mother's pudgy form outlined in the feeble moonlight.
+
+"Beatrice, are you asleep?"
+
+Beatrice did not say yes, but she let her breath out carefully in a
+slumbrous sigh. It certainly sounded as if she were asleep.
+
+"Be-atrice!" The tone, though guarded, was insistent.
+
+The head of Beatrice moved slightly, and settled back into its little
+nest, for all the world like a dreaming, innocent baby.
+
+If she had not been the mother of Beatrice, Mrs. Lansell would probably
+have gone back to her room, and continued to bide her time; but the
+mother of Beatrice had learned a few things about the ways of a wilful
+girl. She went in, and closed the door carefully behind her. She did not
+wish to keep the whole house awake. Then she went straight to the bed,
+laid hand upon a white shoulder that gleamed in the moonlight, and gave
+a shake.
+
+"Beatrice, I want you to answer me when I speak."
+
+"M-m--did you--m-m--speak, mama?" Beatrice opened her eyes and closed
+them, opened them again for a minute longer, yawned daintily, and by
+these signs and tokens wandered back from dreamland obediently.
+
+Her mother sat down upon the edge of the bed, and the bed creaked. Also,
+Beatrice groaned inwardly; the time of reckoning was verily drawing
+near. She promptly closed her eyes again, and gave a sleepy sigh.
+
+"Beatrice, did you refuse Sir Redmond again?"
+
+"M-m--were you speaking--mama?"
+
+Mrs. Lansell, endeavoring to keep her temper, repeated the question.
+
+Beatrice began to feel that she was an abused girl. She lifted herself
+to her elbow, and thumped the pillow spitefully.
+
+"Again? Dear me, mama! I've never refused him once!"
+
+"You haven't accepted him once, either," her mother retorted; and
+Beatrice lay down again.
+
+"I do wish, Beatrice, you would look at the matter in a sensible light
+I'm sure I never would ask you to marry a man you could not care for.
+But Sir Redmond is young, and good-looking, and has birth and breeding,
+and money--no one can accuse him of being a fortune-hunter, I'm sure.
+I was asking Richard to-day, and he says Sir Redmond holds a large
+interest in the Northern Pool, and other English investors pay him a
+salary, besides, to look after their interests. I wouldn't be surprised
+if the holdings of both of you would be sufficient to control the
+business."
+
+Beatrice, not caring anything for business anyway, said nothing.
+
+"Any one can see the man's crazy for you. His sister says he never cared
+for a woman before in his life."
+
+"Of course," put in Beatrice sarcastically. "His sister followed him
+down to South Africa, and all around, and is in a position to know."
+
+"Any one can see he isn't a lady's man."
+
+"No--" Beatrice smiled reminiscently; "he certainly isn't."
+
+"And so he's in deadly earnest. And I'm positive he will make you a
+model husband."
+
+"Only think of having to live, all one's life, with a model husband!"
+shuddered Beatrice hypocritically.
+
+"Be-atrice! And then, it's something to marry a title."
+
+"That's the worst of it," remarked Beatrice.
+
+"Any other girl in America would jump at the chance. I do believe,
+Beatrice, you are hanging back just to be aggravating. And there's
+another thing, Beatrice. I don't approve of the way this Keith Cameron
+hangs around you."
+
+"He doesn't!" denied Beatrice, in an altogether different tone. "Why,
+mama!"
+
+"I don't approve of flirting, Beatrice, and you know it. The way
+you gadded around over the hills with him--a perfect stranger--was
+disgraceful; perfectly disgraceful. You don't know any thing about the
+fellow, whether he's a fit companion or not--a wild, uncouth cowboy--"
+
+"He graduated from Yale, a year after Dick. And he was halfback, too."
+
+"That doesn't signify," said her mother, "a particle. I know Miss Hayes
+was dreadfully shocked to see you come riding up with him, and Sir
+Redmond forced to go with Richard, or ride alone."
+
+"Dick is good company," said Beatrice. "And it was his own fault.
+I asked him to go with us, when Dick and I left the cattle, and he
+wouldn't. Dick will tell you the same. And after that I did not see
+him until just before we--I came home, Really, mama, I can't have a
+leading-string on Sir Redmond. If he refuses to come with me, I can
+hardly insist."
+
+"Well, you must have done something. You said something, or did
+something, to make him very angry. He has not been himself all day. What
+did you say?"
+
+"Dear me, mama, I am not responsible for all Sir Redmond's ill-humor."
+
+"I did not ask you that, Beatrice."
+
+Beatrice thumped her pillow again. "I don't remember anything very
+dreadful, mama. I--I think he has indigestion."
+
+"Be-atrice! I do wish you would try to conquer that habit of flippancy.
+It is not ladylike. And I warn you, Sir Redmond is not the man to dangle
+after you forever. He will lose patience, and go back to England without
+you--and serve you right! I am only talking for your own good, Beatrice.
+I am not at all sure that you want him to leave you alone."
+
+Beatrice was not at all sure, either. She lay still, and wished her
+mother would stop talking for her good. Talking for her good had meant,
+as far back as Beatrice could remember, saying disagreeable things in a
+disagreeable manner.
+
+"And remember, Beatrice, I want this flirting stopped."
+
+"Flirting, mama?" To hear the girl, you would think she had never heard
+the word before.
+
+"That's what I said, Beatrice. I shall speak to Richard in the morning
+about this fellow Cameron. He must put a stop to his being here
+two-thirds of the time. It is unendurable."
+
+"He and Dick are chums, mama, and have been for years. And to-morrow we
+are going to Lost Canyon, you know, and Mr. Cameron is to go along. And
+there are several other trips, mama, to which he is already invited.
+Dick cannot recall those invitations."
+
+"Well, it must end there. Richard must do something. I cannot see
+what he finds about the fellow to like--or you, either, Beatrice. Just
+because he rides like a--a wild Indian, and has a certain daredevil
+way--"
+
+"I never said I liked him, mama," Beatrice protested, somewhat hastily.
+"I--of course, I try to treat him well--"
+
+"I should say you did!" exploded her mother angrily. "You would be
+much better employed in trying to treat Sir Redmond half as well. It is
+positively disgraceful, the way you behave toward him--as fine a man as
+I ever met in my life. I warn you, Beatrice, you must have more regard
+for propriety, or I shall take you back to New York at once. I certainly
+shall."
+
+With that threat, which she shrewdly guessed would go far toward
+bringing this wayward girl to time, Mrs. Lansell got up off the bed,
+which creaked its relief, and groped her way to her own room.
+
+The pillow of Beatrice received considerable thumping during the next
+hour--a great deal more, in fact, than it needed. Two thoughts troubled
+her more than she liked. What if her mother was right, and Sir Redmond
+lost patience with her and went home? That possibility was unpleasant,
+to say the least. Again, would he give her up altogether if she showed
+Dick she was not afraid of Keith Cameron, for all his good looks, and at
+the same time taught that young man a much-needed lesson? The way he had
+stared at her was nothing less than a challenge and Beatrice was sorely
+tempted.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7. Beatrice's Wild Ride.
+
+
+"Well, are we all ready?" Dick gathered up his reins, and took critical
+inventory of the load. His mother peered under the front seat to be
+doubly sure that there were at least four umbrellas and her waterproof
+raglan in the rig; Mrs. Lansell did not propose to be caught unawares in
+a storm another time. Miss Hayes straightened Dorman's cap, and told
+him to sit down, dear, and then called upon Sir Redmond to enforce the
+command. Sir Redmond repeated her command, minus the dear, and then rode
+on ahead to overtake Beatrice and Keith, who had started. Dick climbed
+up over the front wheel, released the brake, chirped at the horses, and
+they were off for Lost Canyon.
+
+Beatrice was behaving beautifully, and her mother only hoped to heaven
+it would last the day out; perhaps Sir Redmond would be able to extract
+some sort of a promise from her in that mood, Mrs. Lansell reflected,
+as she watched Beatrice chatting to her two cavaliers, with the most
+decorous impartiality. Sir Redmond seemed in high spirits, which argued
+well; Mrs. Lansell gave herself up to the pleasure of the drive with
+a heart free from anxiety. Not only was Beatrice at her best; Dorman's
+mood was nothing short of angelic, and as the weather was simply
+perfect, the day surely promised well.
+
+For a mile Keith had showed signs of a mind not at ease, and at last he
+made bold to speak.
+
+"I thought Rex was to be your saddle-horse?" he said abruptly to
+Beatrice.
+
+"He was; but when Dick brought Goldie home, last night, I fell in love
+with him on sight, and just teased Dick till he told me I might have him
+to ride."
+
+"I thought Dick had some sense," Keith said gloomily.
+
+"He has. He knew there would be no peace till he surrendered."
+
+"I didn't know you were going to ride him, when I sold him to Dick. He's
+not safe for a woman."
+
+"Does he buck, Mr. Cameron? Dick said he was gentle." Beatrice had seen
+a horse buck, one day, and had a wholesome fear of that form of equine
+amusement.
+
+"Oh, no. I never knew him to."
+
+"Then I don't mind anything else. I'm accustomed to horses," said
+Beatrice, and smiled welcome to Sir Redmond, who came up with them at
+that moment.
+
+"You want to ride him with a light rein," Keith cautioned, clinging to
+the subject. "He's tenderbitted, and nervous. He won't stand for any
+jerking, you see."
+
+"I never jerk, Mr. Cameron." Keith discovered that big, baffling,
+blue-brown eyes can, if they wish, rival liquid air for coldness. "I
+rode horses before I came to Montana."
+
+Of course, when a man gets frozen with a girl's eyes, and scorched
+with a girl's sarcasm, the thing for him to do is to retreat until the
+atmosphere becomes normal. Keith fell behind just as soon as he could
+do so with some show of dignity, and for several miles tried to convince
+himself that he would rather talk to Dick and "the old maid" than not.
+
+"Don't you know," Sir Redmond remarked sympathetically, "some of these
+Western fellows are inclined to be deuced officious and impertinent."
+
+Sir Redmond got a taste of the freezing process that made him change the
+subject abruptly.
+
+The way was rough and lonely; the trail wound over sharp-nosed hills and
+through deep, narrow coulees, with occasional, tantalizing glimpses of
+the river and the open land beyond, that kept Beatrice in a fever of
+enthusiasm. From riding blithely ahead, she took to lagging far behind
+with her kodak, getting snap-shots of the choicest bits of scenery.
+
+"Another cartridge, please, Sir Redmond," she said, and wound
+industriously on the finished roll.
+
+"It's a jolly good thing I brought my pockets full." Sir Redmond fished
+one out for her. "Was that a dozen?"
+
+"No; that had only six films. I want a larger one this time. It is a
+perfect nuisance to stop and change. Be still, Goldie!"
+
+"We're getting rather a long way behind--but I fancy the road is plain."
+
+"We'll hurry and overtake them. I won't take any more pictures."
+
+"Until you chance upon something you can't resist. I understand all
+that, you know." Sir Redmond, while he teased, was pondering whether
+this was an auspicious time and place to ask Beatrice to marry him. He
+had tried so many times and places that seemed auspicious, that the man
+was growing fearful. It is not pleasant to have a girl smile indulgently
+upon you and deftly turn your avowals aside, so that they fall flat.
+
+"I'm ready," she announced, blind to what his eyes were saying.
+
+"Shall we trek?" Sir Redmond sighed a bit. He was not anxious to
+overtake the others.
+
+"We will. Only, out here people never 'trek,' Sir Redmond. They 'hit the
+trail'."
+
+"So they do. And the way these cowboys do it, one would think they were
+couriers, by Jove! with the lives of a whole army at stake. So I fancy
+we had better hit the trail, eh?"
+
+"You're learning," Beatrice assured him, as they started on. "A year out
+here, and you would be a real American, Sir Redmond."
+
+Sir Redmond came near saying, "The Lord forbid!" but he thought better
+of it. Beatrice was intensely loyal to her countrymen, unfortunately,
+and would certainly resent such a remark; but, for all that, he thought
+it.
+
+For a mile or two she held to her resolve, and then, at the top of a
+long hill overlooking the canyon where they were to eat their lunch, out
+came her kodak again.
+
+"This must be Lost Canyon, for Dick has stopped by those trees. I want
+to get just one view from here. Steady, Goldie! Dear me, this horse does
+detest standing still!"
+
+"I fancy he is anxious to get down with the others. Let me hold him for
+you. Whoa, there!" He put a hand upon the bridle, a familiarity Goldie
+resented. He snorted and dodged backward, to the ruin of the picture
+Beatrice was endeavoring to get.
+
+"Now you've frightened him. Whoa, pet! It's of no use to try; he won't
+stand."
+
+"Let me have your camera. He's getting rather an ugly temper, I think."
+Sir Redmond put out his hand again, and again Goldie dodged backward.
+
+"I can do better alone, Sir Redmond." The cheeks of Beatrice were red.
+She managed to hold the horse in until her kodak was put safely in its
+case, but her temper, as well as Goldie's, was roughened. She hated
+spoiling a film, which she was perfectly sure she had done.
+
+Goldie felt the sting of her whip when she brought him back into the
+road, and, from merely fretting, he took to plunging angrily. Then, when
+Beatrice pulled him up sharply, he thrust out his nose, grabbed the bit
+in his teeth, and bolted down the hill, past all control.
+
+"Good God, hold him!" shouted Sir Redmond, putting his horse to a run.
+
+The advice was good, and Beatrice heard it plainly enough, but she
+neither answered nor looked back. How, she thought, resentfully, was one
+to hold a yellow streak of rage, with legs like wire springs and a neck
+of iron? Besides, she was angrily alive to the fact that Keith Cameron,
+watching down below, was having his revenge. She wondered if he was
+enjoying it.
+
+He was not. Goldie, when he ran, ran blindly in a straight line, and
+Keith knew it. He also knew that the Englishman couldn't keep within
+gunshot of Goldie, with the mount he had, and half a mile away--Keith
+shut his teeth hard together, and went out to meet her. Redcloud lay
+along the ground in great leaps, but Keith, bending low over his neck,
+urged him faster and faster, until the horse, his ears laid close
+against his neck, did the best there was in him. From the tail of his
+eye, Keith saw Sir Redmond's horse go down upon his knees, and get up
+limping--and the sight filled him with ungenerous gladness; Sir Redmond
+was out of the race. It was Keith and Redcloud--they two; and Keith
+could smile over it.
+
+He saw Beatrice's hat loosen and lift in front, flop uncertainly, and
+then go sailing away into the sage-brush, and he noted where it fell,
+that he might find it, later. Then he was close enough to see her face,
+and wondered that there was so little fear written there. Beatrice was
+plucky, and she rode well, her weight upon the bit; but her weight was
+nothing to the clinched teeth of the horse; and, though she had known
+it from the start, she was scarcely frightened. There was a good deal of
+the daredevil in Beatrice; she trusted a great deal to blind luck.
+
+Just there the land was level, and she hoped to check him on the slope
+of the hill before them. She did not know it was moated like a castle,
+with a washout ten feet deep and twice that in width, and that what
+looked to her quite easy was utterly impossible.
+
+Keith gained, every leap. In a moment he was close behind.
+
+"Take your foot out of the stirrup," he commanded, harshly, and though
+Beatrice wondered why, something in his voice made her obey.
+
+Now Redcloud's nose was even with her elbow; the breath from his
+wide-flaring nostrils rose hotly in her face. Another bound, and he had
+forged ahead, neck and neck with Goldie, and it was Keith by her side,
+keen-eyed and calm.
+
+"Let go all hold," he said. Reaching suddenly, he caught her around the
+waist and pulled her from the saddle, just as Redcloud, scenting danger,
+plowed his front feet deeply into the loose soil and stopped dead still.
+
+It was neatly done, and quickly; so quickly that before Beatrice had
+more than gasped her surprise, Keith lowered her to the ground and slid
+out of the saddle. Beatrice looked at him, and wondered at his face, and
+at the way he was shaking. He leaned weakly against the horse and hid
+his face on his arm, and trembled at what had come so close to the
+girl--the girl, who stood there panting a little, with her wonderful,
+waving hair cloaking her almost to her knees, and her blue-brown eyes
+wide and bright, and full of a deep amazement. She forgot Goldie, and
+did not even look to see what had become of him; she forgot nearly
+everything, just then, in wonder at this tall, clean-built young fellow,
+who never had seemed to care what happened, leaning there with his face
+hidden, his hat far hack on his head and little drops standing thickly
+upon his forehead. She waited a moment, and when he did not move, her
+thoughts drifted to other things.
+
+"I wonder," she said abstractedly, "if I broke my kodak."
+
+Keith lifted his head and looked at her. "Your kodak--good Lord!" He
+looked hard into her eyes, and she returned the stare.
+
+"Come here," he commanded, hoarsely, catching her arm. "Your kodak! Look
+down there!" He led her to the brink, which was close enough to set him
+shuddering anew. "Look! There's Goldie, damn him! It's a wonder he's
+on his feet; I thought he'd be dead--and serve him right. And you--you
+wonder if you broke your kodak!"
+
+Beatrice drew back from him, and from the sight below, and if she were
+frightened, she tried not to let him see. "Should I have fainted?"
+She was proud of the steadiness of her voice. "Really, I am very much
+obliged to you, Mr. Cameron, for saving me from an ugly fall. You did it
+very neatly, I imagine, and I am grateful. Still, I really hope I didn't
+break my kodak. Are you very disappointed because I can't faint away?
+There doesn't seem to be any brook close by, you see--and I haven't my
+er--lover's arms to fall into. Those are the regulation stage settings,
+I believe, and--"
+
+"Don't worry, Miss Lansell. I didn't expect you to faint, or to show any
+human feelings whatever. I do pity your horse, though."
+
+"You didn't a minute ago," she reminded him. "You indulged in a bit of
+profanity, if I remember."
+
+"For which I beg Goldie's pardon," he retorted, his eyes unsmiling.
+
+"And mine, I hope."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"I think it's rather absurd to stand here sparring, Mr. Cameron. You'll
+begin to accuse me of ingratitude, and I'm as grateful as possible for
+what you did. Sir Redmond's horse was too slow to keep up, or he would
+have been at hand, no doubt."
+
+"And could have supplied part of the stage setting. Too bad he was
+behind." Keith turned and readjusted the cinch on his saddle, though it
+was not loose enough to matter, and before he had finished Sir Redmond
+rode up.
+
+"Are you hurt, Beatrice?" His face was pale, and his eyes anxious.
+
+"Not at all. Mr. Cameron kindly helped me from the saddle in time to
+prevent an accident. I wish you'd thank him, Sir Redmond. I haven't the
+words."
+
+"You needn't trouble," said Keith hastily, getting into the saddle.
+"I'll go down after Goldie. You can easily find the camp, I guess,
+without a pilot." Then he galloped away and left them, and would
+not look back; if he had done so, he would have seen Beatrice's eyes
+following him remorsefully. Also, he would have seen Sir Redmond glare
+after him jealously; for Sir Redmond was not in a position to know that
+their tete-a-tete had not been a pleasant one, and no man likes to have
+another fellow save the life of a woman he loves, while he himself is
+limping painfully up from the rear.
+
+However, the woman he loved was very gracious to him that day, and for
+many days, and Keith Cameron held himself aloof during the rest of the
+trip, which should have contented Sir Redmond.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8. Dorman Plays Cupid.
+
+
+Dorman toiled up the steps, his straw hat perilously near to slipping
+down his back, his face like a large, red beet, and his hands vainly
+trying to reach around a baking-powder can which the Chinaman cook had
+given him.
+
+He marched straight to where Beatrice was lying in the hammock. If she
+had been older, or younger, or a plain young woman, one might say that
+Beatrice was sulking in the hammock, for she had not spoken anything but
+"yes" and "no" to her mother for an hour, and she had only spoken
+those two words occasionally, when duty demanded it. For one thing,
+Sir Redmond was absent, and had been for two weeks, and Beatrice was
+beginning to miss him dreadfully. To beguile the time, she had ridden,
+every day, long miles into the hills. Three times she had met Keith
+Cameron, also riding alone in the hills, and she had endeavored to amuse
+herself with him, after her own inimitable fashion, and with more or
+less success. The trouble was, that sometimes Keith seemed to be amusing
+himself with her, which was not pleasing to a girl like Beatrice. At any
+rate, he proved himself quite able to play the game of Give and Take,
+so that the conscience of Beatrice was at ease; no one could call her
+pastime a slaughter of the innocents, surely, when the fellow stood his
+ground like that. It was more a fencing-bout, and Beatrice enjoyed it
+very much; she told herself that the reason she enjoyed talking with
+Keith was because he was not always getting hurt, like Sir Redmond--or,
+if he did, he kept his feelings to himself, and went boldly on with
+the game. Item: Beatrice had reversed her decision that Keith was
+vain, though she still felt tempted, at times, to resort to "making
+faces"--when she was worsted, that was.
+
+To return to this particular day of sulking; Rex had cast a shoe, and
+lamed himself just enough to prevent her riding, and so Beatrice was
+having a dull day of it in the house. Besides, her mother had just
+finished talking to her for her good, which was enough to send an angel
+into the sulks--and Beatrice lacked a good deal of being an angel.
+
+Dorman laid his baking-powder can confidingly in his divinity's lap.
+"Be'trice, I did get some grasshoppers; you said I couldn't. And
+you wouldn't go fishin', 'cause you didn't like to take Uncle Dick's
+make-m'lieve flies, so I got some really ones, Be'trice, that'll wiggle
+dere own self."
+
+"Oh, dear me! It's too hot, Dorman."
+
+"'Tisn't, Be'trice It's dest as cool--and by de brook it's awf-lly
+cold. Come, Be'trice!" He pulled at the smart little pink ruffles on her
+skirt.
+
+"I'm too sleepy, hon."
+
+"You can sleep by de brook, Be'trice. I'll let you," he promised
+generously, "'cept when I need anudder grasshopper; nen I'll wake you
+up."
+
+"Wait till to-morrow. I don't believe the fish are hungry to-day. Don't
+tear my skirt to pieces, Dorman!"
+
+Dorman began to whine. He had never found his divinity in so unlovely
+a mood. "I want to go now! Dey are too hungry, Be'trice! Looey Sam is
+goin' to fry my fishes for dinner, to s'prise auntie. Come, Be'trice!"
+
+"Why don't you go with the child, Beatrice? You grow more selfish every
+day." Mrs. Lansell could not endure selfishness--in others. "You know he
+will not give us any peace until you do."
+
+Dorman instantly proceeded to make good his grandmother's prophecy, and
+wept so that one could hear him a mile.
+
+"Oh, dear me! Be still, Dorman--your auntie has a headache. Well, get
+your rod, if you know where it is--which I doubt." Beatrice flounced
+out of the hammock and got her hat, one of those floppy white things,
+fluffed with thin, white stuff, till they look like nothing so much as
+a wisp of cloud, with ribbons to moor it to her head and keep it from
+sailing off to join its brothers in the sky.
+
+Down by the creek, where the willows nodded to their own reflections in
+the still places, it was cool and sweet scented, and Beatrice forgot her
+grievances, and was not sorry she had come.
+
+(It was at about this time that a tall young fellow, two miles down the
+coulee, put away his field glass and went off to saddle his horse.)
+
+"Don't run ahead so, Dorman," Beatrice cautioned. To her had been given
+the doubtful honor of carrying the baking-powder can of grasshoppers.
+Even divinities must make themselves useful to man.
+
+"Why, Be'trice?" Dorman swished his rod in unpleasant proximity to his
+divinity's head.
+
+"Because, honey"--Beatrice dodged--"you might step on a snake, a
+rattlesnake, that would bite you."
+
+"How would it bite, Be'trice?"
+
+"With its teeth, of course; long, wicked teeth, with poison on them."
+
+"I saw one when I was ridin' on a horse wis Uncle Dick. It kept windin'
+up till it was round, and it growled wis its tail, Be'trice. And Uncle
+Dick chased it, and nen it unwinded itself and creeped under a big rock.
+It didn't bite once--and I didn't see any teeth to it."
+
+"Carry your rod still, Dorman. Are you trying to knock my hat off my
+head? Rattlesnakes have teeth, hon, whether you saw them or not. I saw a
+great, long one that day we thought you were lost. Mr. Cameron killed it
+with his rope. I'm sure it had teeth."
+
+"Did it growl, Be'trice? Tell me how it went."
+
+"Like this, hon." Beatrice parted her lips ever so little, and a
+snake buzzed at Dorman's feet. He gave a yell of terror, and backed
+ingloriously.
+
+"You see, honey, if that had been really a snake, it would have bitten
+you. Never mind, dear--it was only I."
+
+Dorman was some time believing this astonishing statement. "How did you
+growl by my feet, Be'trice? Show me again."
+
+Beatrice, who had learned some things at school which were not included
+in the curriculum, repeated the performance, while Dorman watched her
+with eyes and mouth at their widest. Like some older members of his sex,
+he was discovering new witcheries about his divinity every day.
+
+"Well, Be'trice!" He gave a long gasp of ecstasy. "I don't see how can
+you do it? Can't I do it, Be'trice?"
+
+"I'm afraid not, honey--you'd have to learn. There was a queer French
+girl at school, who could do the strangest things, Dorman--like fairy
+tales, almost. And she taught me to throw my voice different places, and
+mimic sounds, when we should have been at our lessons. Listen, hon.
+This is how a little lamb cries, when he is lost.... And this is what a
+hungry kittie says, when she is away up in a tree, and is afraid to come
+down."
+
+Dorman danced all around his divinity, and forgot about the fish--until
+Beatrice found it in her heart to regret her rash revelation of hitherto
+undreamed-of powers of entertainment.
+
+"Not another sound, Dorman," she declared at length, with the firmness
+of despair. "No, I will not be a lost lamb another once. No, nor a
+hungry kittie, either--nor a snake, or anything. If you are not going to
+fish, I shall go straight back to the house."
+
+Dorman sighed heavily, and permitted his divinity to fasten a small
+grasshopper to his hook.
+
+"We'll go a bit farther, dear, down under those great trees. And you
+must not speak a word, remember, or the fish will all run away."
+
+When she had settled him in a likely place, and the rapt patience of the
+born angler had folded him close, she disposed herself comfortably in
+the thick grass, her back against a tree, and took up the shuttle of
+fancy to weave a wonderful daydream, as beautiful, intangible as the
+lacy, summer clouds over her head.
+
+A man rode quietly over the grass and stopped two rods away, that he
+might fill his hungry eyes with the delicious loveliness of his Heart's
+Desire.
+
+"Got a bite yet?"
+
+Dorman turned and wrinkled his nose, by way of welcome, and shook his
+head vaguely, as though he might tell of several unimportant nibbles, if
+it were worth the effort.
+
+Beatrice sat a bit straighter, and dexterously whisked some pink ruffles
+down over two distracting ankles, and hoped Keith had not taken notice
+of them. He had, though; trust a man for that!
+
+Keith dismounted, dropped the reins to the ground, and came and laid
+himself down in the grass beside his Heart's Desire, and Beatrice
+noticed how tall he was, and slim and strong.
+
+"How did you know we were here?" she wanted to know, with lifted
+eyebrows.
+
+Keith wondered if there was a welcome behind that sweet, indifferent
+face. He never could be sure of anything in Beatrice's face, because it
+never was alike twice, it seemed to him--and if it spoke welcome for
+a second, the next there was only raillery, or something equally
+unsatisfying.
+
+"I saw you from the trail," he answered promptly, evidently not thinking
+it wise to mention the fieldglass. And then: "Is Dick at home?" Not
+that he wanted Dick--but a fellow, even when he is in the last stages of
+love, feels need of an excuse sometimes.
+
+"No--we women are alone to-day. There isn't a man on the place, except
+Looey Sam, and he doesn't count."
+
+Dorman squirmed around till he could look at the two, and his eyebrows
+were tied in a knot. "I wish, Be'trice, you wouldn't talk, 'less you
+whisper. De fishes won't bite a bit."
+
+"All right, honey--we won't."
+
+Dorman turned back to his fishing with a long breath of relief. His
+divinity never broke a promise, if she could help it.
+
+If Dorman Hayes had been Cupid himself, he could not have hit upon a
+more impish arrangement than that. To place a girl like Beatrice beside
+a fellow like Keith--a fellow who is tall, and browned, and extremely
+good-looking, and who has hazel eyes with a laugh in them always--a
+fellow, moreover, who is very much in love and very much in earnest
+about it--and condemn him to silence, or to whispers!
+
+Keith took advantage of the edict, and moved closer, so that he could
+whisper in comfort--and be nearer his Heart's Desire. He lay with his
+head propped upon his hand, and his elbow digging into the sod and
+getting grass-stains on his shirt sleeve, for the day was too warm for a
+coat. Beatrice, looking down at him, observed that his forearm, between
+his glove and wrist-band, was as white and smooth as her own. It is
+characteristic of a cowboy to have a face brown as an Indian, and hands
+girlishly white and soft.
+
+"I haven't had a glimpse of you for a week--not since I met you down by
+the river. Where have you been?" he whispered.
+
+"Here. Rex went lame, and Dick wouldn't let me ride any other horse,
+since that day Goldie bolted--and so the hills have called in vain. I've
+stayed at home and made quantities of Duchesse lace--I almost finished
+a love of a center piece--and mama thinks I have reformed. But Rex is
+better, and tomorrow I'm going somewhere."
+
+"Better help me hunt some horses that have been running down Lost Canyon
+way. I'm going to look for them to-morrow," Keith suggested, as calmly
+as was compatible with his eagerness and his method of speech. I doubt
+if any man can whisper things to a girl he loves, and do it calmly. I
+know Keith's heart was pounding.
+
+"I shall probably ride in the opposite direction," Beatrice told him
+wickedly. She wondered if he thought she would run at his beck.
+
+"I never saw you in this dress before," Keith murmured, his eyes
+caressing.
+
+"No? You may never again," she said. "I have so many things to wear out,
+you know."
+
+"I like it," he declared, as emphatically as he could, and whisper. "It
+is just the color of your cheeks, after the wind has been kissing them a
+while."
+
+"Fancy a cowboy saying pretty things like that!"
+
+Beatrice's cheeks did not wait for the wind to kiss them pink.
+
+"Ya-as, only fawncy, ye knaw." His eyes were daringly mocking.
+
+"For shame, Mr. Cameron! Sir Redmond would not mimic your speech."
+
+"Good reason why; he couldn't, not if he tried a thousand years."
+
+Beatrice knew this was the truth, so she fell back upon dignity.
+
+"We will not discuss that subject, I think."
+
+"I don't want to, anyway. I know another subject a million times more
+interesting than Sir Redmond."
+
+"Indeed!" Beatrice's eyebrows were at their highest. "And what is it,
+then?"
+
+"You!" Keith caught her hand; his eyes compelled her.
+
+"I think," said Beatrice, drawing her hand away, "we will not discuss
+that subject, either."
+
+"Why?" Keith's eyes continued to woo.
+
+"Because."
+
+It occurred to Beatrice that an unsophisticated girl might easily think
+Keith in earnest, with that look in his eyes.
+
+Dorman, scowling at them over his shoulder, unconsciously did his
+divinity a service. Beatrice pursed her lips in a way that drove Keith
+nearly wild, and took up the weapon of silence.
+
+"You said you women are alone--where is milord?" Keith began again,
+after two minutes of lying there watching her.
+
+"Sir Redmond is in Helena, on business. He's been making arrangements to
+lease a lot of land."
+
+"Ah-h!" Keith snapped a twig off a dead willow.
+
+"We look for him home to-day, and Dick drove in to meet the train."
+
+"So the Pool has gone to leasing land?" The laugh had gone out of
+Keith's eyes; they were clear and keen.
+
+"Yes--the plan is to lease the Pine Ridge country, and fence it. I
+suppose you know where that is."
+
+"I ought to," Keith said quietly. "It's funny Dick never mentioned it."
+
+"It isn't Dick's idea," Beatrice told him. "It was Sir Redmond's. Dick
+is rather angry, I think, and came near quarreling with Sir Redmond
+about it. But English capital controls the Pool, you know, and Sir
+Redmond controls the English capital, so he can adopt whatever policy
+he chooses. The way he explained the thing to me, it seems a splendid
+plan--don't you think so?"
+
+"Yes." Keith's tone was not quite what he meant it to be; he did not
+intend it to be ironical, as it was. "It's a snap for the Pool, all
+right. It gives them a cinch on the best of the range, and all the
+water. I didn't give milord credit for such business sagacity."
+
+Beatrice leaned over that she might read his eyes, but Keith turned
+his face away. In the shock of what he had just learned, he was, at the
+moment, not the lover; he was the small cattleman who is being forced
+out of the business by the octopus of combined capital. It was not less
+bitter that the woman he loved was one of the tentacles reaching out to
+crush him. And they could do it; they--the whole affair resolved itself
+into a very simple scheme, to Keith. The gauntlet had been thrown
+down--because of this girl beside him. It was not so much business
+acumen as it was the antagonism of a rival that had prompted the move.
+Keith squared his shoulders, and mentally took up the gauntlet. He might
+lose in the range fight, but he would win the girl, if it were in the
+power of love to do it.
+
+"Why that tone? I hope it isn't--will it inconvenience you?"
+
+"Oh, no. No, not at all. No--" Keith seemed to forget that a
+superabundance of negatives breeds suspicion of sincerity.
+
+"I'm afraid that means that it will. And I'm sure Sir Redmond never
+meant--"
+
+"I believe that kid has got a bite at last," Keith interrupted, getting
+up. "Let me take hold, there, Dorman; you'll be in the creek yourself in
+a second." He landed a four-inch fish, carefully rebaited the hook, cast
+the line into a promising eddy, gave the rod over to Dorman, and went
+back to Beatrice, who had been watching him with troubled eyes.
+
+"Mr. Cameron, if I had known--" Beatrice was good-hearted, if she was
+fond of playing with a man's heart.
+
+"I hope you're not letting that business worry you, Miss Lansell. You
+remind me of a painting I saw once in Boston. It was called June."
+
+"But this is August, so I don't apply. Isn't there some way you--"
+
+"Did you hear about that train-robbery up the line last week?" Keith
+settled himself luxuriously upon his back, with his hands clasped under
+his head, and his hat tipped down over his eyes--but not enough
+to prevent him from watching his Heart's Desire. And in his eyes
+laughter--and something sweeter--lurked. If Sir Redmond had wealth to
+fight with, Keith's weapon was far and away more dangerous, for it was
+the irresistible love of a masterful man--the love that sweeps obstacles
+away like straws.
+
+"I am not interested in train-robberies," Beatrice told him, her eyes
+still clouded with trouble. "I want to talk about this lease."
+
+"They got one fellow the next day, and another got rattled and gave
+himself up; but the leader of the gang, one of Montana's pet outlaws,
+is still ranging somewhere in the hills. You want to be careful about
+riding off alone; you ought to let some one--me, for instance--go along
+to look after you."
+
+"Pshaw!" said his Heart's Desire, smiling reluctantly. "I'm not afraid.
+Do you suppose, if Sir Redmond had known--"
+
+"Those fellows made quite a haul--almost enough to lease the whole
+country, if they wanted to. Something over fifty thousand dollars--and a
+strong box full of sand, that the messenger was going to fool them with.
+He did, all right; but they weren't so slow. They hustled around and got
+the money, and he lost his sand into the bargain."
+
+"Was that meant for a pun?" Beatrice blinked her big eyes at him. "If
+you're quite through with the train-robbers, perhaps you will tell me
+how--"
+
+"I'm glad old Mother Nature didn't give every woman an odd dimple beside
+the mouth," Keith observed, reaching for her hat, and running a ribbon
+caressingly through his fingers.
+
+"Why?" Beatrice smoothed the dimple complacently with her finger-tips.
+
+"Why? Oh, it would get kind of monotonous, wouldn't it?"
+
+"This from a man known chiefly for his pretty speeches!" Beatrice's
+laugh had a faint tinge of chagrin.
+
+"Wouldn't pretty speeches get monotonous, too?" Keith's eyes were
+laughing at her.
+
+"Yours wouldn't," she retorted, spitefully, and immediately bit her lip
+and hoped he would not consider that a bid for more pretty speeches.
+
+"Be'trice, dis hopper is awf-lly wilted!" came a sepulchral whisper from
+Dorman.
+
+Keith sighed, and went and baited the hook again. When he returned to
+Beatrice, his mood had changed.
+
+"I want you to promise--"
+
+"I never make promises of any sort, Mr. Cameron." Beatrice had
+fallen back upon her airy tone, which was her strongest weapon of
+defense--unless one except her liquid-air smile.
+
+"I wasn't thinking of asking much," Keith went on coolly. "I only wanted
+to ask you not to worry about that leasing business."
+
+"Are you worrying about it, Mr. Cameron?"
+
+"That isn't the point. No, I can't say I expect to lose sleep over it. I
+hope you will dismiss anything I may have said from your mind."
+
+"But I don't understand. I feel that you blame Sir Redmond, when I'm
+sure he--"
+
+"I did not say I blamed anybody. I think we'll not discuss it."
+
+"Yes, I think we shall. You'll tell me all about it, if I want to know."
+Beatrice adopted her coaxing tone, which never had failed her.
+
+"Oh, no!" Keith laughed a little. "A girl can't always have her own way
+just because she wants it, even if she--"
+
+"I've got a fish, Mr. Cam'ron!" Dorman squealed, and Keith was obliged
+to devote another five minutes to diplomacy.
+
+"I think you have fished long enough, honey," Beatrice told Dorman
+decidedly. "It's nearly dinner time, and Looey Sam won't have time to
+fry your fish if you don't hurry home. Shall I tell Dick you wished to
+see him, Mr. Cameron?"
+
+"It's nothing important, so I won't trouble you," Keith replied, in
+a tone that matched hers for cool courtesy. "I'll see him to-morrow,
+probably." He helped Dorman reel in his line, cut a willow-wand and
+strung the three fish upon it by the gills, washed his hands leisurely
+in the creek, and dried them on his handkerchief, just as if nothing
+bothered him in the slightest degree. Then he went over and smoothed
+Redcloud's mane and pulled a wisp of forelock from under the brow-band,
+and commanded him to shake hands, which the horse did promptly.
+
+"I want to shake hands wis your pony, too," Dorman cried, and dropped
+pole and fish heedlessly into the grass.
+
+"All right, kid."
+
+Dorman went up gravely and clasped Redcloud's raised fetlock solemnly,
+while the tall cow-puncher smiled down at him.
+
+"Kiss him, Redcloud," he said softly; and then, when the horse's nose
+was thrust in his face: "No, not me--kiss the kid." He lifted the child
+up in his arms, and when Redcloud touched his soft nose to Dorman's
+cheek and lifted his lip for a dainty, toothless nibble, Dorman was
+speechless with fright and rapture thrillingly combined.
+
+"Now run home with your fish; it lacks only two hours and forty minutes
+to dinner time, and it will take at least twenty minutes for the fish to
+fry--so you see you'll have to hike."
+
+Beatrice flushed and looked at him sharply, but Keith was getting into
+the saddle and did not appear to remember she was there. The fingers
+that were tying her hat-ribbons under her chin fumbled awkwardly and
+trembled. Beatrice would have given a good deal at that moment to know
+just what Keith Cameron was thinking; and she was in a blind rage with
+herself to think that it mattered to her what he thought.
+
+When he lifted his hat she only nodded curtly. She mimicked every beast
+and bird she could think of on the way home, to wipe him and his horse
+from the memory of Dorman, whose capacity for telling things best left
+untold was simply marvelous.
+
+It is saying much for Beatrice's powers of entertainment that Dorman
+quite forgot to say anything about Mr. Cameron and his pony, and
+chattered to his auntie and grandmama about kitties up in a tree, and
+lost lambs and sleepy birds, until he was tucked into bed that night.
+It was not until then that Beatrice felt justified in drawing a long
+breath. Not that she cared whether any one knew of her meeting Keith
+Cameron, only that her mother would instantly take alarm and preach to
+her about the wickedness of flirting; and Beatrice was not in the mood
+for sermons.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9. What It Meant to Keith.
+
+
+"Dick, I wish you'd tell me about this leasing business. There are
+points which I don't understand." Beatrice leaned over and smoothed
+Rex's sleek shoulder with her hand.
+
+"What do you want to understand it for? The thing is done now. We've got
+the fence-posts strung, and a crew hired to set them."
+
+"You needn't snap your words like that, Dick. It doesn't matter--only I
+was wondering why Mr. Cameron acted so queer yesterday when I told him
+about it."
+
+"You told Keith? What did he say?"
+
+"He didn't say anything. He just looked things."
+
+"Where did you see him?" Dick wanted to know.
+
+"Well, dear me! I don't see that it matters where I saw him. You're
+getting as inquisitive as mama. If you think it concerns you, why, I met
+him accidentally when I was fishing with Dorman. He was coming to see
+you, but you were gone, so he stopped and talked for a few minutes. Was
+there anything so strange about that? And I told him you were leasing
+the Pine Ridge country, and he looked--well, peculiar. But he wouldn't
+say anything."
+
+"Well, he had good reason for looking peculiar. But you needn't have
+told him I did it, Trix. Lay that at milord's door, where it belongs. I
+don't want Keith to blame me."
+
+"But why should he blame anybody? It isn't his land, is it?"
+
+"No, it isn't. But--you see, Trix, it's this way: A man goes somewhere
+and buys a ranch--or locates on a claim--and starts into the cattle
+business. He may not own more than a few hundred acres of land, but if
+he has much stock he needs miles of prairie country, with water, for
+them to range on. It's an absolute necessity, you see. He takes care to
+locate where there is plenty of public land that is free to anybody's
+cattle.
+
+"Take the Pool outfit, for instance. We don't own land enough to feed
+one-third of our cattle. We depend on government land for range for
+them. The Cross outfit is the same, only Keith's is on a smaller scale.
+He's got to have range outside his own land, which is mostly hay land.
+This part of the State is getting pretty well settled up with small
+ranchers, and then the sheep men keep crowding in wherever they can get
+a show--and sheep will starve cattle to death; they leave a range as
+bare as a prairie-dog town. So there's only one good bit of range left
+around here, and that's the Pine Ridge country, as it's called. That's
+our main dependence for winter range; and now when this drought has
+struck us, and everything is drying up, we've had to turn all our cattle
+down there on account of water.
+
+"Ever since I took charge of the Pool, Keith and I threw in together and
+used the same range, worked our crews together, and fought the sheepmen
+together. There was a time when they tried to gobble the Pine Ridge
+range, but it didn't go. Keith and I made up our minds that we needed it
+worse than they did--and we got it. Our punchers had every sheep herder
+bluffed out till there wasn't a mutton-chewer could keep a bunch of
+sheep on that range over-night.
+
+"Now, this lease law was made by stockmen, for stockmen. They can lease
+land from the government, fence it--and they've got a cinch on it as
+long as the lease lasts. A cow outfit can corral a heap of range that
+way. There's the trick of leasing every other section or so, and then
+running a fence around the whole chunk; and that's what the Pool has
+done to the Pine Ridge. But you mustn't repeat that, Trix.
+
+"Milord wasn't long getting on to the leasing graft; in fact, it turns
+out the company got wind of it over in England, and sent him over here
+to see what could be done in that line. He's done it, all right enough!
+
+"And there's the Cross outfit, frozen out completely. The Lord only
+knows what Keith will do with his cattle now, for we'll have every drop
+of water under fence inside of a month. He's in a hole, for sure. I
+expect he feels pretty sore with me, too, but I couldn't help it. I
+explained how it was to milord, but--you can't persuade an Englishman,
+any more than you can a--"
+
+"I think," put in Beatrice firmly, "Sir Redmond did quite right. It
+isn't his fault that Mr. Cameron owns more cattle than he can feed.
+If he was sent over here to lease the land, it was his duty to do so.
+Still, I really am sorry for Mr. Cameron."
+
+"Keith won't sit down and take his medicine if he can help it," Dick
+said moodily. "He could sell out, but I don't believe he will. He's more
+apt to fight."
+
+"I can't see how fighting will help him," Beatrice returned spiritedly.
+
+"Well, there's one thing," retorted Dick. "If milord wants that fence to
+stand he'd better stay and watch it. I'll bet money he won't more than
+strike Liverpool till about forty miles, more or less, of Pool fence
+will need repairs mighty bad--which it won't get, so far as I'm
+concerned."
+
+"Do you mean that Keith Cameron would destroy our fencing?"
+
+Dick grinned. "He'll be a fool if he don't, Trix. You can tell milord
+he'd better send for all his traps, and camp right here till that lease
+runs out. My punchers will have something to do beside ride fence."
+
+"I shall certainly tell Sir Redmond," Beatrice threatened. "You and
+Mr. Cameron hate him just because he's English. You won't see what a
+splendid fellow he is. It's your duty to stand by him in this business,
+instead of taking sides with Keith Cameron. Why didn't he lease that
+land himself, if he wanted to?"
+
+"Because he plays fair."
+
+"Meaning, I suppose, that Sir Redmond doesn't. I didn't think you would
+be so unjust. Sir Redmond is a perfect gentleman."
+
+"Well, you've got a chance to marry your 'perfect gentleman," Dick
+retorted, savagely. "It's a wonder you don't take him if you think so
+highly of him."
+
+"I probably shall. At any rate, he isn't a male flirt."
+
+"You don't seem to fancy a fellow that can give you as good as you
+send," Dick rejoined. "I thought you wouldn't find Keith such easy game,
+even if he does live on a cattle ranch. You can't rope him into making a
+fool of himself for your amusement, and I'm glad of it."
+
+"Don't do your shouting too soon. If you could overhear some of the
+things he says you wouldn't be so sure--"
+
+"I suppose you take them all for their face value," grinned Dick
+ironically.
+
+"No, I don't! I'm not a simple country girl, let me remind you. Since
+you are so sure of him, I'll have the pleasure of saying, 'No, thank
+you, sir,' to your Keith Cameron--just to convince you I can."
+
+"Oh, you will! Well, you just tell me when you do, Trix, and I'll give
+you your pick of all the saddle horses on the ranch."
+
+"I'll take Rex, and you may as well consider him mine. Oh, you men!
+A few smiles, judiciously dispensed, and--" Beatrice smiled most
+exasperatingly at her brother, and Dick went moody and was very poor
+company the rest of the way home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10. Pine Ridge Range Ablaze.
+
+
+At dusk that night a glow was in the southern sky, and the wind carried
+the pungent odor of burning grass. Dick went out on the porch after
+dinner, and sniffed the air uneasily.
+
+"I don't much like the look of it," he admitted to Sir Redmond. "It
+smells pretty strong, to be across the river. I sent a couple of the
+boys out to look a while ago. If it's this side of the river we'll have
+to get a move on."
+
+"It will be the range land, I take it, if it's on this side," Sir
+Redmond remarked.
+
+Just then a man thundered through the lane and up to the very steps of
+the porch, and when he stopped the horse he was riding leaned forward
+and his legs shook with exhaustion.
+
+"The Pine Ridge Range is afire, Mr. Lansell," the man announced quietly.
+
+Dick took a long pull at his cigar and threw it away. "Have the boys
+throw some barrels and sacks into a wagon--and git!" He went inside and
+grabbed his hat, and when he turned Sir Redmond was at his elbow.
+
+"I'm going, too, Dick," cried Beatrice, who always seemed to hear
+anything that promised excitement. "I never saw a prairie-fire in my
+life."
+
+"It's ten miles off," said Dick shortly, taking the steps at a jump.
+
+"I don't care if it's twenty--I'm going. Sir Redmond, wait for me!"
+
+"Be-atrice!" cried her mother detainingly; but Beatrice was gone to get
+ready. A quick job she made of it; she threw a dark skirt over her
+thin, white one, slipped into the nearest jacket, snatched her
+riding-gauntlets off a chair where she had thrown them, and then
+couldn't find her hat. That, however, did not trouble her. Down in the
+hall she appropriated one of Dick's, off the hall tree, and announced
+herself ready. Sir Redmond laughed, caught her hand, and they raced
+together down to the stables before her mother had fully grasped the
+situation.
+
+"Isn't Rex saddled, Dick?"
+
+Dick, his foot in the stirrup, stopped long enough to glance over his
+shoulder at her. "You ready so soon? Jim, saddle Rex for Miss Lansell."
+He swung up into the saddle.
+
+"Aren't you going to wait, Dick?"
+
+"Can't. Milord can bring you." And Dick was away on the run.
+
+Men were hurrying here and there, every move counting something done.
+While she stood there a wagon rattled out from the shadow of a haystack,
+with empty water-barrels dancing a mad jig behind the high seat, where
+the driver perched with feet braced and a whip in his hand. After him
+dashed four or five riders, silent and businesslike. In a moment they
+were mere fantastic shadows galloping up the hill through the smothery
+gloom.
+
+Then came Jim, leading Rex and a horse for himself; Sir Redmond had
+saddled his gray and was waiting. Beatrice sprang into the saddle and
+took the lead, with nerves a-tingle. The wind that rushed against her
+face was hot and reeking with smoke. Her nostrils drank greedily the
+tang it carried.
+
+"You gipsy!" cried Sir Redmond, peering at her through the murky gloom.
+
+"This--is living!" she laughed, and urged Rex faster.
+
+So they raced recklessly over the hills, toward where the night was
+aglow. Before them the wagon pounded over untrailed prairie sod, with
+shadowy figures fleeing always before.
+
+Here, wild cattle rushed off at either side, to stop and eye them
+curiously as they whirled past. There, a coyote, squatting unseen upon
+a distant pinnacle, howled, long-drawn and quavering, his weird protest
+against the solitudes in which he wandered.
+
+The dusk deepened to dark, and they could no longer see the racing
+shadows. The rattle of the wagon came mysteriously back to them through
+the black.
+
+Once Rex stumbled over a rock and came near falling, but Beatrice only
+laughed and urged him on, unheeding Sir Redmond's call to ride slower.
+
+They splashed through a shallow creek, and came upon the wagon, halted
+that the cowboys might fill the barrels with water. Then they passed by,
+and when they heard them following the wagon no longer rattled glibly
+along, but chuckled heavily under its load.
+
+The dull, red glow brightened to orange. Then, breasting at last a long
+hill, they came to the top, and Beatrice caught her breath at what lay
+below.
+
+A jagged line of leaping flame cut clean through the dark of the coulee.
+The smoke piled rosily above and before, and the sullen roar of it
+clutched the senses--challenging, sinister. Creeping stealthily,
+relentlessly, here a thin gash of yellow hugging close to the earth,
+there a bold, bright wall of fire, it swept the coulee from rim to rim.
+
+"The wind is carrying it from us," Sir Redmond was saying in her ear.
+"Are you afraid to stop here alone? I ought to go down and lend a hand."
+
+Beatrice drew a long gasp. "Oh, no, I'm not afraid. Go; there is Dick,
+down there."
+
+"You're sure you won't mind?" He hesitated, dreading to leave her.
+
+"No, no! Go on--they need you."
+
+Sir Redmond turned and rode down the ridge toward the flames. His
+straight figure was silhouetted sharply against the glow.
+
+Beatrice slipped off her horse and sat down upon a rock, dead to
+everything but the fiendish beauty of the scene spread out below her.
+Millions of sparks danced in and out among the smoke wreaths which
+curled upward--now black, now red, now a dainty rose. Off to the left a
+coyote yapped shrilly, ending with his mournful howl.
+
+Beatrice shivered from sheer ecstasy. This was a world she had never
+before seen--a world of hot, smoke-sodden wind, of dead-black shadows
+and flame-bright light; of roar and hoarse bellowing and sharp crackles;
+of calm, star-sprinkled sky above--and in the distance the uncanny
+howling of a coyote.
+
+Time had no reckoning there. She saw men running to and fro in the
+glare, disappearing in a downward swirl of smoke, coming to view again
+in the open beyond. Always their arms waved rhythmically downward,
+beating the ragged line of yellow with water-soaked sacks. The trail
+they left was a wavering, smoke-traced rim of sullen black, where before
+had been gay, dancing, orange light. In places the smolder fanned to new
+life behind them and licked greedily at the ripe grass like hungry, red
+tongues. One of these Beatrice watched curiously. It crept slyly into an
+unburned hollow, and the wind, veering suddenly, pushed it out of sight
+from the fighters and sent it racing merrily to the south. The main line
+of fire beat doggedly up against the wind that a minute before had been
+friendly, and fought bravely two foes instead of one. It dodged, ducked,
+and leaped high, and the men beat upon it mercilessly.
+
+But the little, new flame broadened and stood on tiptoes defiantly,
+proud of the wide, black trail that kept stretching away behind it; and
+Beatrice watched it, fascinated by its miraculous growth. It began
+to crackle and send up smoke wreaths of its own, with sparks dancing
+through; then its voice deepened and coarsened, till it roared quite
+like its mother around the hill.
+
+The smoke from the larger fire rolled back with the wind, and Beatrice
+felt her eyes sting. Flakes of blackened grass and ashes rained upon
+the hilltop, and Rex moved uneasily and pawed at the dry sod. To him a
+prairie-fire was not beautiful--it was an enemy to run from. He twitched
+his reins from Beatrice's heedless fingers and decamped toward home,
+paying no attention whatever to the command of his mistress to stop.
+
+Still Beatrice sat and watched the new fire, and was glad she chanced to
+be upon the south end of a sharp-nosed hill, so that she could see
+both ways. The blaze dove into a deep hollow, climbed the slope beyond,
+leaped exultantly and bellowed its challenge. And, of a sudden, dark
+forms sprang upon it and beat it cruelly, and it went black where they
+struck, and only thin streamers of smoke told where it had been. Still
+they beat, and struck, and struck again, till the fire died ingloriously
+and the hillside to the south lay dark and still, as it had been at the
+beginning.
+
+Beatrice wondered who had done it. Then she came back to her
+surroundings and realized that Rex had left her, and she was alone. She
+shivered--this time not in ecstasy, but partly from loneliness--and
+went down the hill toward where Dick and Sir Redmond and the others were
+fighting steadily the larger fire, unconscious of the younger, new one
+that had stolen away from them and was beaten to death around the hill.
+
+Once in the coulee, she was compelled to take to the burnt ground, which
+crisped hotly under her feet and sent up a rank, suffocating smell of
+burned grass into her nostrils. The whole country was alight, and down
+there the world seemed on fire. At times the smoke swooped blindingly,
+and half strangled her. Her skirts, in passing, swept the black ashes
+from grass roots which showed red in the night.
+
+Picking her way carefully around the spots that glowed warningly,
+shielding her face as well as she could from the smoke, she kept on
+until she was close upon the fighters. Dick and Sir Redmond were working
+side by side, the sacks they held rising and falling with the regularity
+of a machine for minutes at a time. A group of strange horsemen galloped
+up from the way she had come, followed by a wagon of water-barrels,
+careering recklessly over the uneven ground. The horsemen stopped just
+inside the burned rim, the horses sidestepping gingerly upon the hot
+turf.
+
+"I guess you want some help here. Where shall we start in?" Beatrice
+recognized the voice. It was Keith Cameron.
+
+"Sure, we do!" Dick answered, gratefully. "Start in any old place."
+
+"I'm not sure we want your help," spoke the angry voice of Sir Redmond.
+"I take it you've already done a devilish sight too much."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" Keith demanded; and then, by the silence, it
+seemed that every one knew. Beatrice caught her breath. Was this one of
+the ways Dick meant that Keith could fight?
+
+"Climb down, boys, and get busy," Keith called to his men, after a few
+breaths. "This is for Dick. Wait a minute! Pete, drive the wagon ahead,
+there. I guess we'd better begin on the other end and work this way.
+Come on--there's too much hot air here." They clattered on across the
+coulee, kicking hot ashes up for the wind to seize upon. Beatrice went
+slowly up to Dick, feeling all at once very tired and out of heart with
+it all.
+
+"Dick," she called, in an anxious little voice, "Rex has run away from
+me. What shall I do?"
+
+Dick straightened stiffly, his hands upon his aching loins, and peered
+through the smoke at her.
+
+"I guess the only thing to do, then, is to get into the wagon over
+there. You can drive, Trix, if you want to, and that will give us
+another man here. I was just going to have some one take you home;
+now--the Lord only knows!--you're liable to have to stay till morning.
+Rex will go home, all right; you needn't worry about him."
+
+He bent to the work again, and she could hear the wet sack thud, thud
+upon the ground. Other sacks and blankets went thud, thud, and down here
+at close range the fire was not so beautiful as it had been from the
+hilltop. Down here the glamour was gone. She climbed up to the high
+wagon seat and took the reins from the man, who immediately seized upon
+a sack and went off to the fight. She felt that she was out of touch.
+She was out on the prairie at night, miles away from any house, driving
+a water-wagon for the men to put out a prairie fire. She had driven a
+coaching-party once on a wager; but she had never driven a lumber-wagon
+with barrels of water before. She could not think of any girl she knew
+who had.
+
+It was a new experience, certainly, but she found no pleasure in it; she
+was tired and sleepy, and her eyes and throat smarted cruelly with the
+smoke. She looked back to the hill she had just left, and it seemed
+a long, long time since she sat upon a rock up there and watched the
+little, new fire grow and grow, and the strange shadows spring up from
+nowhere and beat it vindictively till it died.
+
+Again she wondered vaguely who had done it; not Keith Cameron, surely,
+for Sir Redmond had all but accused him openly of setting the range
+afire. Would he stamp out a blaze that was just reaching a size to do
+mischief, if left a little longer? No one would have seen it for hours,
+probably. He would undoubtedly have let it run, unless--But who else
+could have set the fire? Who else would want to see the Pine Ridge
+country black and barren? Dick said Keith Cameron would not sit down and
+take his medicine--perhaps Dick knew he would do this thing.
+
+As the fighters moved on across the coulee she drove the wagon to keep
+pace with them. Often a man would run up to the wagon, climb upon a
+wheel and dip a frayed gunny sack into a barrel, lift it out and run
+with it, all dripping, to the nearest point of the fire. Her part was
+to keep the wagon at the most convenient place. She began to feel the
+importance of her position, and to take pride in being always at the
+right spot. From the calm appreciation of the picturesque side, she
+drifted to the keen interest of the one who battles against heavy odds.
+The wind had veered again, and the flames rushed up the long coulee
+like an express train. But the path it left was growing narrower every
+moment. Keith Cameron was doing grand work with his crew upon the other
+side, and the space between them was shortening perceptibly.
+
+Beatrice found herself watching the work of the Cross men. If they were
+doing it for effect, they certainly were acting well their part. She
+wondered what would happen when the two crews met, and the danger was
+over. Would Sir Redmond call Keith Cameron to account for what he had
+done? If he did, what would Keith say? And which side would Dick take?
+Very likely, she thought, he would defend Keith Cameron, and shield him
+if he could.
+
+Beatrice found herself crying quietly, and shivering, though the air was
+sultry with the fire. For the life of her, she could not tell why she
+cried, but she tried to believe it was the smoke in her eyes. Perhaps it
+was.
+
+The sky was growing gray when the two crews met. The orange lights were
+gone, and Dick, with a spiteful flop of the black rag which had been a
+good, new sack, stamped out the last tiny red tongue of the fire. The
+men stood about in awkward silence, panting with heat and weariness. Sir
+Redmond was ostentatiously filling his pipe. Beatrice knew him by his
+straight, soldierly pose. In the drab half-light they were all mere
+black outlines of men, and, for the most part, she could not distinguish
+one from another. Keith Cameron she knew; instinctively by his slim
+height, and by the way he carried his head. Unconsciously, she leaned
+down from the high seat and listened for what would come next.
+
+Keith seemed to be making a cigarette. A match flared and lighted his
+face for an instant, then was pinched out, and he was again only a black
+shape in the half-darkness.
+
+"Well, I'm waiting for what you've got to say, Sir Redmond." His voice
+cut sharply through the silence. If he had known Beatrice was out there
+in the wagon he would have spoken lower, perhaps.
+
+"I fancy I said all that is necessary just now," Sir Redmond answered
+calmly. "You know what I think. From now on I shall act."
+
+"And what are you going to do, then?" Keith's voice was clear and
+unperturbed, as though he asked for the sake of being polite.
+
+"That," retorted Sir Redmond, "is my own affair. However, since the
+matter concerns you rather closely, I will say that when I have the
+evidence I am confident I shall find, I shall seek the proper channels
+for retribution. There are laws in this country, aimed to protect
+a man's property, I take it. I warn you that I shall not spare--the
+guilty."
+
+"Dick, it's up to you next. I want to know where you stand."
+
+"At your back, Keith, right up to the finish. I know you; you fight
+fair."
+
+"All right, then. I didn't think you'd go back on a fellow. And I tell
+you straight up, Sir Redmond Hayes, I'm not out touching matches to
+range land--not if it belonged to the devil himself. I've got some
+feeling for the dumb brutes that would have to suffer. You can get right
+to work hunting evidence, and be damned! You're dead welcome to all you
+can find; and in this part of the country you won't be able to buy much!
+You know very well you deserve to get your rope crossed, or you wouldn't
+be on the lookout for trouble. Come, boys; let's hit the trail. So long,
+Dick!"
+
+Beatrice watched them troop off to their horses, heard them mount and
+go tearing off across the burned coulee bottom toward home. Dick came
+slowly over to her.
+
+"I expect you're good and tired, sis. You've made a hand, all right, and
+helped us a whole lot, I can tell you. I'll drive now, and we'll hit the
+high places."
+
+Beatrice smiled wanly. Not one of her Eastern acquaintances would
+have recognized Beatrice Lansell, the society beauty, in this
+remarkable-looking young woman, attired in a most haphazard fashion,
+with a face grimed like a chimney sweep, red eyelids drooping over
+tired, smarting eyes, and disheveled, ash-filled hair topped by a
+man's gray felt hat. When she smiled her teeth shone dead white, like a
+negro's.
+
+Dick regarded her critically, one foot on the wheel hub. "Where did you
+get hold of Keith Cameron's hat?" he inquired.
+
+Beatrice snatched the hat from her head with childish petulance, and
+looked as if she were going to throw it viciously upon the ground. If
+her face had been clean Dick might have seen how the blood had rushed
+into her cheeks; as it was, she was safe behind a mask of soot. She
+placed the hat back upon her head, feeling, privately, a bit foolish.
+
+"I supposed it was yours. I took it off the halltree." The dignity of
+her tone was superb, but, unfortunately, it did not match her appearance
+of rakish vagabondage.
+
+Dick grinned through a deep layer of soot "Well, it happens to be
+Keith's. He lost it in the wind the other day, and I found it and took
+it home. It's too bad you've worn his hat all night and didn't know it.
+You ought to see yourself. Your own mother won't know you, Trix."
+
+"I can't look any worse than you do. A negro would be white by
+comparison. Do get in, so we can start! I'm tired to death, and
+half-starved." After these unamiable remarks, she refused to open her
+lips.
+
+They drove silently in the gray of early morning, and the empty barrels
+danced monotonously their fantastic jig in the back of the wagon.
+Sootyfaced cowboys galloped wearily over the prairie before them, and
+Sir Redmond rode moodily alongside.
+
+Of a truth, the glamour was gone.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11. Sir Redmond Waits His Answer.
+
+
+Beatrice felt distinctly out of sorts the next day, and chose an hour
+for her ride when she felt reasonably secure from unwelcome company. But
+when she went out into the sunshine there was Sir Redmond waiting with
+Rex and his big gray. Beatrice was not exactly elated at the sight, but
+she saw nothing to do but smile and make the best of it. She wanted
+to be alone, so that she could dream along through the hills she had
+learned to love, and think out some things which troubled her, and
+decide just how she had best go about winning Rex for herself; it had
+become quite necessary to her peace of mind that she should teach Dick
+and Keith Cameron a much-needed lesson.
+
+"It has been so long since we rode together," he apologized. "I hope you
+don't mind my coming along."
+
+"Oh, no! Why should I mind?" Beatrice smiled upon him in friendly
+fashion. She liked Sir Redmond very much--only she hoped he was
+not going to make love. Somehow, she did not feel in the mood for
+love-making just then.
+
+"I don't know why, I'm sure. But you seem rather fond of riding about
+these hills by yourself. One should never ask why women do things, I
+fancy. It seems always to invite disaster."
+
+"Does it?" Beatrice was not half-listening. They were passing, just
+then, the suburbs of a "dog town," and she was never tired of watching
+the prairie-dogs stand upon their burrows, chip-chip defiance until fear
+overtook their impertinence, and then dive headlong deep into the earth.
+"I do think a prairie-dog is the most impudent creature alive and the
+most shrewish. I never pass but I am scolded by these little scoundrels
+till my ears burn. What do you think they say?"
+
+"They're probably inviting you to stop with them and be their queen, and
+are scolding because your heart is hard and you only laugh and ride on."
+
+"Queen of a prairie-dog town! Dear me! Why this plaintive mood?"
+
+"Am I plaintive? I do not mean to be, I'm sure."
+
+"You don't appear exactly hilarious," she told him. "I can't see what is
+getting the matter with us all. Mama and your sister are poor company,
+even for each other, and Dick is like a bear. One can't get a civil word
+out of him. I'm not exactly amiable, myself, either; but I relied upon
+you to keep the mental temperature up to normal, Sir Redmond."
+
+"Perhaps it's a good thing we shall not stop here much longer. I must
+confess I don't fancy the country--and Mary is downright homesick. She
+wants to get back to her parish affairs; she's afraid some rheumatic old
+woman needs coddling with jelly and wine, and that sort of thing. I've
+promised to hurry through the business here, and take her home. But I
+mean to see that Pine Ridge fence in place before I go; or, at least,
+see it well under way."
+
+"I'm sure Dick will attend to it properly," Beatrice remarked, with pink
+cheeks. If she remembered what she had threatened to tell Sir Redmond,
+she certainly could not have asked for a better opportunity. She was
+reminding herself at that moment that she always detested a tale bearer.
+
+"Your brother Dick is a fine fellow, and I have every confidence in
+him; but you must see yourself that he is swayed, more or less, by
+his friendship for--his neighbors. It is only a kindness to take the
+responsibility off his shoulders till the thing is done. I'm sure he
+will feel better to have it so."
+
+"Yes," she agreed; "I think you're right. Dick always was very
+soft-hearted, and, right or wrong, he clings to his friends."
+Then, rather hastily, as though anxious to change the trend of the
+conversation: "Of course, your sister will insist on keeping Dorman with
+her. I shall miss that little scamp dreadfully, I'm afraid." The next
+minute she saw that she had only opened a subject she dreaded even more.
+
+"It is something to know that there is even one of us that you will
+miss," Sir Redmond observed. Something in his tone hurt.
+
+"I shall miss you all," she said hastily. "It has been a delightful
+summer."
+
+"I wish I might know just what element made it delightful. I wish--"
+
+"I scarcely think it has been any particular element," she broke in,
+trying desperately to stave off what she felt in his tone. "I love the
+wild, where I can ride, and ride, and never meet a human being--where
+I can dream and dally and feast my eyes on a landscape man has not
+touched. I have lived most of my life in New York, and I love nature
+so well that I'm inclined to be jealous of her. I want her left free to
+work out all her whims in her own way. She has a keen sense of humor, I
+think. The way she modeled some of these hills proves that she loves
+her little jokes. I have seen where she cut deep, fearsome gashes, with
+sides precipitous, as though she had some priceless treasure hidden away
+in the deep, where man cannot despoil it. And if you plot and plan,
+and try very hard, you may reach the bottom at last and find the
+treasure--nothing. Or, perhaps, a tiny little stream, as jealously
+guarded as though each drop were priceless."
+
+Sir Richmond rode for a few minutes in silence. When he spoke, it was
+abruptly.
+
+"And is that all? Is there nothing to this delightful summer, after all,
+but your hills?"
+
+"Oh, of course, I--it has all been delightful. I shall hate to go back
+home, I think." Beatrice was a bit startled to find just how much she
+would hate to go back and wrap herself once more in the conventions of
+society life. For the first time since she could remember, she wanted
+her world to stand still.
+
+Sir Redmond went doggedly to the point he had in mind and heart.
+
+"I hoped, Beatrice, you would count me, too. I've tried to be patient.
+You know, don't you, that I love you?"
+
+"You've certainly told me often enough," she retorted, in a miserable
+attempt at her old manner.
+
+"And you've put me off, and laughed at me, and did everything under
+heaven but answer me fairly. And I've acted the fool, no doubt. I know
+it. I've no courage before a woman. A curl of your lip, and I was ready
+to cut and run. But I can't go on this way forever--I've got to know.
+I wish I could talk as easy as I can fight; I'd have settled the thing
+long ago. Where other men can plead their cause, I can say just the one
+thing--I love you, Beatrice. When I saw you first, in the carriage I
+loved you then. You had some fur--brown fur--snuggled under your chin,
+and the pink of your cheeks, and your dear, brown eyes shining and
+smiling above--Good God! I've always loved you! From the beginning of
+the world, I think! I'd be good to you, Beatrice, and I believe I could
+make you happy--if you give me the chance."
+
+Something in Beatrice's throat ached cruelly. It was the truth, and she
+knew it. He did love her, and the love of a brave man is not a thing
+to be thrust lightly aside. But it demanded such a lot in return!
+More, perhaps, than she could give. A love like that--a love that gives
+everything--demands everything in return. Anything less insults it.
+
+She stole a glance at him. Sir Redmond was looking straight before him,
+with the fixed gaze that sees nothing. There was the white line around
+his mouth which Beatrice had seen once before. Again that griping ache
+was in her throat, till she could have cried out with the pain of it.
+She wanted to speak, to say something--anything--which would drive that
+look from his face.
+
+While her mind groped among the jumble of words that danced upon her
+tongue, and that seemed, all of them, so pitifully weak and inadequate,
+she heard the galloping hoofs of a horse pounding close behind. A
+choking cloud of dust swept down upon them, and Keith, riding in the
+midst, reined out to pass. He lifted his hat. His eyes challenged
+Beatrice, swept coldly the face of her companion, and turned again to
+the trail. He swung his heels backward, and Redcloud broke again into
+the tireless lope that carried him far ahead, until there was only a
+brown dot speeding over the prairie.
+
+Sir Redmond waited until Keith was far beyond hearing, then he filled
+his lungs deeply and looked at Beatrice. "Don't you feel you could trust
+me--and love me a little?"
+
+Beatrice was deadly afraid she was going to cry, and she hated weeping
+women above all things. "A little wouldn't do," she said, with what
+firmness she could muster. "I should want to love you as much--quite as
+much as you deserve, Sir Redmond, or not at all. I'm afraid I can't. I
+wish I could, though. I--I think I should like to love you; but perhaps
+I haven't much heart. I like you very much--better than I ever liked
+any one before; but oh, I wish you wouldn't insist on an answer! I don't
+know, myself, how I feel. I wish you had not asked me--yet. I tried not
+to let you."
+
+"A man can keep his heart still for a certain time, Beatrice, but not
+for always. Some time he will say what his heart commands, if the
+chance is given him; the woman can't hold him back. I did wait and wait,
+because I thought you weren't ready for me to speak. And--you don't care
+for anybody else?"
+
+"Of course I don't. But I hate to give up my freedom to any one, Sir
+Redmond. I want to be free--free as the wind that blows here always,
+and changes and changes, and blows from any point that suits its whim,
+without being bound to any rule."
+
+"Do you think I'm an ogre, that will lock you in a dungeon, Beatrice?
+Can't you see that I am not threatening your freedom? I only want the
+right to love you, and make you happy. I should not ask you to go or
+stay where you did not please, and I'd be good to you, Beatrice!"
+
+"I don't think it would matter," cried Beatrice, "if you weren't. I
+should love you because I couldn't help myself. I hate doing things by
+rule, I tell you. I couldn't care for you because you were good to me,
+and I ought to care; it must be because I can't help myself. And I--"
+She stopped and shut her teeth hard together; she felt sure she should
+cry in another minute if this went on.
+
+"I believe you do love me, Beatrice, and your rebellious young American
+nature dreads surrender." He tried to look into her eyes and smile,
+but she kept her eyes looking straight ahead. Then Sir Redmond made
+the biggest blunder of his life, out of the goodness of his heart, and
+because he hated to tease her into promising anything.
+
+"I won't ask you to tell me now, Beatrice," he said gently. "I want you
+to be sure; I never could forgive myself if you ever felt you had made a
+mistake. A week from to-night I shall ask you once more--and it will be
+for the last time. After that--But I won't think--I daren't think what
+it would be like if you say no. Will you tell me then, Beatrice?"
+
+The heart of Beatrice jumped into her throat. At that minute she was
+very near to saying yes, and having done with it. She was quite sure she
+knew, then, what her answer would be in a week. The smile she gave him
+started Sir Redmond's blood to racing exultantly. Her lips parted a
+little, as if a word were there, ready to be spoken; but she caught
+herself back from the decision. Sir Redmond had voluntarily given her a
+week; well, then, she would take it, to the last minute.
+
+"Yes, I'll tell you a week from to-night, after dinner. I'll race you
+home, Sir Redmond--the first one through the big gate by the stable
+wins!" She struck Rex a blow that made him jump, and darted off down
+the trail that led home, and her teasing laugh was the last Sir Redmond
+heard of her that day; for she whipped into a narrow gulch when the
+first turn hid her from him, and waited until he had thundered by. After
+that she rode complacently, deep into the hills, wickedly pleased at the
+trick she had played him.
+
+Every day during the week that followed she slipped away from him and
+rode away by herself, resolved to enjoy her freedom to the full while
+she had it; for after that, she felt, things would never be quite the
+same.
+
+Every day, when Dick had chance for a quiet word with her, he wanted
+to know who owned Rex--till at last she lost her temper and told him
+plainly that, in her opinion, Keith Cameron had left the country for
+two reasons, instead of one. (For Keith, be it known, had not been seen
+since the day he passed her and Sir Redmond on the trail.) Beatrice
+averred that she had a poor opinion of a man who would not stay and face
+whatever was coming.
+
+There was just one day left in her week of freedom, and Dick still owned
+Rex, with the chances all in his favor for continuing to do so. Still,
+Beatrice was vindictively determined upon one point. Let Keith Cameron
+cross her path, and she would do something she had never done before;
+she would deliberately lead him on to propose--if the fellow had nerve
+enough to do so, which, she told Dick, she doubted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12. Held Up by Mr. Kelly.
+
+
+"'Traveler, what lies over the hill?'" questioned a mischievous voice.
+
+Keith, dreaming along a winding, rock-strewn trail in the canyon, looked
+up quickly and beheld his Heart's Desire sitting calmly upon her horse,
+ten feet before Redcloud's nose, watching him amusedly. Redcloud must
+have been dreaming also, or he would have whinnied warning and welcome,
+with the same breath.
+
+"'Traveler, tell to me,'" she went on, seeing Keith only stared.
+
+Keith, not to be outdone, searched his memory hurriedly for the reply
+which should rightly follow; secretly he was amazed at her sudden
+friendliness.
+
+"'Child, there's a valley over there'--but it isn't 'pretty and wooded
+and shy'--not what you can notice. And there isn't any 'little town,'
+either, unless you go a long way. Why?" Keith rested his gloved hands,
+one above the other, on the saddle horn, and let his eyes riot with the
+love that was in him. He had not seen his Heart's Desire for a week. A
+week? It seemed a thousand years! And here she was before him, unusually
+gracious.
+
+"Why? I discovered that hill two hours ago, it seems to me, and it
+wasn't more than a mile off. I want to see what lies on the other side.
+I feel sure no man ever stood upon the top and looked down. It is my
+hill--mine by the right of discovery. But I've been going, and going,
+and I think it's rather farther away, if anything, than it was before."
+
+"Good thing I met you'" Keith declared, and he looked as if he meant it.
+"You're probably lost, right now, and don't know it. Which way is home?"
+
+Beatrice smiled a superior smile, and pointed.
+
+"I thought so," grinned Keith joyously. "You're pointing straight toward
+Claggett."
+
+"It doesn't matter," said Beatrice, "since you know, and you're here.
+The important thing is to get to the top of that hill."
+
+"What for?" Keith questioned.
+
+"Why, to be there!" Beatrice opened her big eyes at him. "That," she
+declared whimsically, "is the top of the world, and it is mine. I found
+it. I want to go up there and look down."
+
+"It's an unmerciful climb," Keith demurred hypocritically, to strengthen
+her resolution.
+
+"All the better. I don't value what comes easily."
+
+"You won't see anything, except more hills."
+
+"I love hills--and more hills."
+
+"You're a long way from home, and it's after one o'clock."
+
+"I have a lunch with me, and I often stay out until dinner time."
+
+Keith gave a sigh that shook the saddle, making up, in volume, what
+it lacked in sincerity. The blood in him was a-jump at the prospect of
+leading his Heart's Desire up next the clouds--up where the world was
+yet young. A man in love is fond of self-torture.
+
+"I have not said you must go." Beatrice answered with the sigh.
+
+"You don't have to," he retorted. "It is a self evident fact. Who wants
+to go prowling around these hills by night, with a lantern that smokes
+an' has an evil smell, losing sleep and yowling like a bunch of coyotes,
+hunting a misguided young woman who thinks north is south, and can't
+point straight up?"
+
+"You draw a flattering picture, Mr. Cameron."
+
+"It's realistic. Do you still insist upon getting up there, for the
+doubtful pleasure of looking down?" Secretly, he hoped so.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then I shall go with you."
+
+"You need not. I can go very well by myself, Mr. Cameron."
+
+Beatrice was something of a hypocrite herself.
+
+"I shall go where duty points the way."
+
+"I hope it points toward home, then."
+
+"It doesn't, though. It takes the trail you take."
+
+"I never yet allowed my wishes to masquerade as Disagreeable Duty, with
+two big D's," she told him tartly, and started off.
+
+"Say! If you're going up that hill, this is the trail. You'll bump up
+against a straight cliff if you follow that path."
+
+Beatrice turned with seeming reluctance and allowed him to guide her,
+just as she had intended he should do.
+
+"Dick tells me you have been away," she began suavely.
+
+"Yes. I've just got back from Fort Belknap," he explained quietly,
+though he must have known his absence had been construed differently.
+"I've rented pasturage on the reservation for every hoof I own. Great
+grass over there--the whole prairie like a hay meadow, almost, and
+little streams everywhere."
+
+"You are very fortunate," Beatrice remarked politely.
+
+"Luck ought to come my way once in a while. I don't seem to get more
+than my share, though."
+
+"Dick will be glad to know you have a good range for your cattle, Mr.
+Cameron."
+
+"I expect he will. You may tell him, for me, that Jim Worthington--he's
+the agent over there, and was in college with us--says I can have my
+cattle there as long as he's running the place."
+
+"Why not tell him yourself?" Beatrice asked.
+
+"I don't expect to be over to the Pool ranch for a while." Keith's tone
+was significant, and Beatrice dropped the subject.
+
+"Been fishing lately?" he asked easily, as though he had not left her
+that day in a miff. "No. Dorman is fickle, like all male creatures.
+Dick brought him two little brown puppies the other day, and now he can
+hardly be dragged from the woodshed to his meals. I believe he would eat
+and sleep with them if his auntie would allow him to."
+
+The trail narrowed there, and they were obliged to ride single file,
+which was not favorable to conversation. Thus far, Beatrice thought, she
+was a long way from winning her wager; but she did not worry--she looked
+up to where the hill towered above them, and smiled.
+
+"We'll have to get off and lead our horses over this spur," he told her,
+at last. "Once on the other side, we can begin to climb. Still in the
+humor to tackle it?"
+
+"To be sure I am. After all this trouble I shall not turn back."
+
+"All right," said Keith, inwardly shouting. If his Heart's Desire wished
+to take a climb that would last a good two hours, he was not there to
+object. He led her up a steep, rock-strewn ridge and into a hollow. From
+there the hill sloped smoothly upward.
+
+"I'll just anchor these cayuses to a rock, to make dead-sure of them,"
+Keith remarked. "It wouldn't be fun to be set afoot out here; now, would
+it? How would you like the job of walking home, eh?"
+
+"I don't think I'd enjoy it much," Beatrice said, showing her one dimple
+conspicuously. "I'd rather ride."
+
+"Throw up your hands!" growled a voice from somewhere.
+
+Keith wheeled toward the sound, and a bullet spatted into the yellow
+clay, two inches from the toe of his boot. Also, a rifle cracked
+sharply. He took the hint, and put his hands immediately on a level with
+his hat crown.
+
+"No use," he called out ruefully. "I haven't anything to return the
+compliment with."
+
+"Well, I've got t' have the papers fur that, mister," retorted the
+voice, and a man appeared from the shelter of a rock and came slowly
+down to them--a man, long-legged and lank, with haggard, unshaven face
+and eyes that had hunger and dogged endurance looking out. He picked his
+way carefully with his feet, his eyes and the rifle fixed unswervingly
+at the two. Beatrice was too astonished to make a sound.
+
+"What sort of a hold-up do you call this?" demanded Keith hotly, his
+hands itching to be down and busy. "We don't carry rolls of money around
+in the hills, you fool!"
+
+"Oh, damn your money!" the man said roughly. "I've got money t' burn.
+I want t' trade horses with yuh. That roan, there, looks like a stayer.
+I'll take him."
+
+"Well, seeing you seem to be head push here, I guess it's a trade,"
+Keith answered. "But I'll thank you for my own saddle."
+
+Beatrice, whose hands were up beside her ears, and not an inch higher,
+changed from amazed curiosity to concern. "Oh, you mustn't take Redcloud
+away from Mr. Cameron!" she protested. "You don't know--he's so fond
+of that horse! You may take mine; he's a good horse--he's a perfectly
+splendid horse, but I--I'm not so attached to him."
+
+The fellow stopped and looked at her--not, however, forgetting Keith,
+who was growing restive. Beatrice's cheeks were very pink, and her eyes
+were bright and big and earnest. He could not look into them without
+letting some of the sternness drop out of his own.
+
+"I wish you'd please take Rex--I'd rather trade than not," she coaxed.
+When Beatrice coaxed, mere man must yield or run. The fellow was but
+human, and he was not in a position to run, so he grinned and wavered.
+
+"It's fair to say you'll get done," he remarked, his eyes upon the
+odd little dimple at the corner of her mouth, as if he had never seen
+anything quite so fetching.
+
+"Your horse won't cr--buck, will he?" she ventured doubtfully. This was
+her first horse trade, and it behooved her to be cautious, even at the
+point of a rifle.
+
+"Well, no," said the man laconically; "he won't. He's dead."
+
+"Oh!" Beatrice gasped and blushed. She might have known, she thought,
+that the fellow would not take all this trouble if his horse was in a
+condition to buck. Then: "My elbows hurt. I--I think I should like to
+sit down."
+
+"Sure," said the man politely. "Make yourself comfortable. I ain't used
+t' dealin' with ladies. But you got t' set still, yuh know, and not try
+any tricks. I can put up a mighty swift gun play when I need to--and
+your bein' a lady wouldn't cut no ice in a case uh that kind."
+
+"Thank you." Beatrice sat down upon the nearest rock, folded her hands
+meekly and looked from him to Keith, who seethed to claim a good deal of
+the man's attention. She observed that, at a long breath from Keith, his
+captor was instantly alert.
+
+"Maybe your elbows ache, too," he remarked dryly. "They'll git over it,
+though; I've knowed a man t' grab at the clouds upwards of an hour, an'
+no harm done."
+
+"That's encouraging, I'm sure." Keith shifted to the other foot.
+
+"How's that sorrel?" demanded the man. "Can he go?"
+
+Keith hesitated a second.
+
+"Indeed he can go!" put in Beatrice eagerly. "He's every bit as good as
+Redcloud."
+
+"Is that sorrel yours?" The man's eyes shifted briefly to her face.
+
+"No-o." Beatrice, thinking how she had meant to own him, blushed.
+
+"That accounts for it." He laughed unpleasantly. "I wondered why you was
+so dead anxious t' have me take him."
+
+The eyes of Beatrice snapped sparks at him, but her manner was demure,
+not to say meek. "He belongs to my brother," she explained, "and my
+brother has dozens of good saddle-horses. Mr. Cameron's horse is a pet.
+It's different when a horse follows you all over the place and fairly
+talks to you. He'll shake hands, and--"
+
+"Uh-huh, I see the point, I guess. What d'yuh say, kid?"
+
+Keith might seem boyish, but he did not enjoy being addressed as "kid."
+He was twenty-eight years old, whether he looked it or not.
+
+"I say this: If you take my horse, I'll kill you. I'll have twenty-five
+cow-punchers camping on your trail before sundown. If you take this
+girl's horse, I'll do the same."
+
+The man shut his lips in a thin line.
+
+"No, he won't!" cried Beatrice, leaning forward. "Don't mind a thing he
+says! You can't expect a man to keep his temper with his hands up in the
+air like that. You take Rex, and I'll promise for Mr. Cameron."
+
+"Trix--Miss Lansell!"--sternly.
+
+"I promise you he won't do a thing," she went on firmly. "He--he isn't
+half as fierce, really, as--as he looks."
+
+Keith's face got red.
+
+The man laughed a little. Evidently the situation amused him, whether
+the others could see the humor of it or not. "So I'm to have your
+cayuse, eh?"
+
+Keith saw two big tears tipping over her lower lids, and gritted his
+teeth.
+
+"Well, it ain't often I git a chance t' please a lady," the fellow
+decided. "I guess Rex'll do, all right. Go over and change saddles,
+youngster--and don't git gay. I've got the drop, and yuh notice I'm
+keeping it."
+
+"Are you going to take his saddle?" Beatrice stood up and clenched her
+hands, looking very much as if she would like to pull his hair. Keith in
+trouble appealed to her strangely.
+
+"Sure thing. It's a peach, from the look of it. Mine's over the hill a
+piece. Step along there, kid! I want t' be movin'."
+
+"You'll need to go some!" flared Keith, over his shoulder.
+
+"I expect t' go some," retorted the man. "A fellow with three sheriff's
+posses campin' on his trail ain't apt t' loiter none."
+
+"Oh!" Beatrice sat down and stared. "Then you must be--"
+
+"Yep," the fellow laughed recklessly. "You ca, tell your maw yuh met up
+with Kelly, the darin' train-robber. I wouldn't be s'prised if she close
+herded yuh fer a spell till her scare wears off. Bu I've hung around
+these parts long enough. I fooled them sheriffs a-plenty, stayin' here.
+Gee! you'r' swift--I don't think!" This last sentence was directed at
+Keith, who was putting a snail to shame, and making it appear he was in
+a hurry.
+
+"Git a move on!" commanded Kelly, threatening with his eyes.
+
+Keith wisely made no reply--nor did he show any symptoms of haste,
+despite the menacing tone Slowly he pulled his saddle off Redcloud,
+and carefully he placed it upon the ground. When a fellow lives in
+his saddle, almost, he comes to think a great deal of it, and he is
+reluctant under any circumstances, to surrender it to another; to have
+a man deliberately confiscate it with the authority which lies in a lump
+of lead the size of a child thumb is not pleasant.
+
+Through Keith's brain flashed a dozen impracticable plans, and one that
+offered a slender--very slender--chance of success. If he could get
+a little closer! He moved over beside Rex an unbuckling the cinch of
+Beatrice's saddle, pulled it sullenly off.
+
+"Now, put your saddle on that there Rex horse, and cinch it tight!"
+
+Keith picked up the saddle--his saddle, and threw it across Rex's back,
+raging inwardly at his helplessness. To lose his saddle worse, to let
+Beatrice lose her horse. Lord! a pretty figure he must cut in her eyes!
+
+"Dry weather we're havin'," Kelly remarked politely to Beatrice;
+without, however, looking in her direction. "Prairie fires are gittin'
+t' be the regular thing, I notice."
+
+Beatrice studied his face, and found no ulterior purpose for the words.
+
+"Yes," she agreed, as pleasantly as she could, in view of the
+disquieting circumstances. "I helped fight a prairie-fire last week over
+this way. We were out all night."
+
+"Prairie-fires is mean things t' handle, oncet they git started. I
+always hate t' see 'em git hold of the grass. What fire was that you
+mention?"
+
+Beatrice glanced toward Keith, and was thankful his back was turned to
+her. But a quick suspicion had come to her, and she went steadily on
+with the subject.
+
+"It was the Pine Ridge country. It started very mysteriously."
+
+"It wasn't no mystery t' me." Kelly laughed grimly. "I started that
+there blaze myself accidentally. I throwed a cigarette down, thinkin'
+it had gone out. After a while I seen a blaze where I'd jest left, but
+I didn't have no license t' go back an' put it out--my orders was to git
+out uh that. I seen the sky all lit up that night. Kid, are yuh goin' t'
+sleep?"
+
+Keith started. He had been listening, and thanking his lucky star that
+Beatrice was listening also. If she had suspected him of setting the
+range afire, she knew better now. A weight lifted off Keith's shoulders,
+and he stood a bit straighter; those chance words meant a great deal
+to him, and he felt that he would not grudge his saddle in payment. But
+Rex--that was another matter. Beatrice should not lose him if he could
+prevent it; still, what could he do?
+
+He might turn and spring upon Kelly, but in the meantime Kelly would
+not be idle; he would probably be pumping bullets out of the rifle into
+Keith's body--and he would still have the horse. He stole a glance at
+Beatrice, and went hot all over at what he thought he read in her eyes.
+For once he was not glad to be near his Heart's Desire; he wished her
+elsewhere--anywhere but sitting on that rock, over there, with her
+little, gloved hands folded quietly in her lap, and that adorable,
+demure look on her face--the look which would have put her mother
+instantly upon the defensive--and a gleam in her eyes Keith read for
+scorn.
+
+Surely he might do something! Barely six feet now separated him from
+Kelly. If one of those lumps of rock that strewed the ground was in
+his hand--he stooped to reach under Rex's body for the cinch, and could
+almost feel Kelly's eyes boring into his back. A false move--well, Keith
+had heard of Kelly a good many times; if this fellow was really the
+man he claimed to be, Keith did not need to guess what would follow a
+suspicious move; he knew. He looked stealthily toward him, and Kelly's
+eyes met his with a gleam sinister.
+
+Kelly grinned. "I wouldn't, kid," he said softly.
+
+Keith swore in a whisper, and his fingers closed upon the cinch. It was
+no use to fight the devil with cunning, he thought, bitterly.
+
+Just then Beatrice gave an unearthly screech, that made the horses'
+knees bend under them. When Keith whirled to see what it was, she was
+standing upon the rock, with her skirts held tightly around her, like
+the pictures of women when a mouse gets into the room.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cameron! A sn-a-a-ke!"
+
+Came a metallic br-r-r, the unmistakable war cry of the rattler. Into
+Kelly's eyes came a look of fear, and he sidled gingerly. The buzz had
+sounded unpleasantly close to his heels. For one brief instant the cold
+eye of his rifle regarded harmlessly the hillside. During that instant a
+goodly piece of sandstone whinged under his jaw, and he went down, with
+Keith upon him like a mountain lion. The latter snatched the rifle
+and got up hurriedly, for he had not forgotten the rattler. Kelly lay
+looking up at him in a dazed way that might have been funny at any other
+time.
+
+"I wondered if you were good at grasping opportunities," said Beatrice.
+When he looked, there she was, sitting down on the rock, with her
+little, gloved hands folded in her lap, and that adorable demure look on
+her face; and a gleam in her eyes he knew was not scorn, though he could
+not rightly tell what it really did mean.
+
+Keith wondered at her vaguely, but a man can't have his mind on a dozen
+things at once. It was important that he keep a sharp watch on Kelly,
+and his eyes were searching for a gleaming, gray spotted coil which he
+felt to be near.
+
+"You needn't look, Mr. Cameron. There isn't any snake. It--it was I."
+
+"You!" Keith's jaw dropped.
+
+"Look out, Mr. Cameron. It wouldn't work a second time, I'm afraid."
+
+Keith turned back before Kelly had more than got to his elbow; plainly
+Kelly was not feeling well just then. He looked unhappy, and rather
+sick.
+
+"If you'll hand me the gun, Mr. Cameron, I think I can hold it steady
+while you fix the saddles. And then we'll go home. I--I don't think I
+really care to climb the hill."
+
+What Keith wanted to do was to take her in his arms and kiss her till
+he was tired. What he did do was back toward her, and let her take the
+rifle quickly and deftly from his hands. She rested the gun upon
+her knee, and brought it to bear upon Mr. Kelly with a composure not
+assuring to that gentleman, and she tried to look as if she really and
+truly would shoot a man--and managed to look only the more kissable.
+
+"Don't squirm, Mr. Kelly. I won't bite, if I do buzz sometimes."
+
+Kelly stared at her meditatively a minute, and said: "Well, I'll be
+damned!"
+
+Keith looked at her also, but he did not say anything.
+
+The way he slapped his saddle back upon Redcloud and cinched it, and
+saddled Rex, was a pretty exhibition of precision and speed, learned in
+roundup camps. Kelly watched him grimly.
+
+"I knowed you wasn't as swift as yuh knew how 't be, a while back,"
+he commented. "I've got this t' say fur you two: You're a little the
+toughest proposition I ever run up ag'inst--and I've been up ag'inst it
+good and plenty."
+
+"Thanks," Keith said cheerfully. "You'd better take Rex now and go
+ahead, Miss Lansell. I'll take that gun and look after this fellow. Get
+up, Kelly."
+
+"What are you going to do with him?"
+
+Kelly got unsteadily upon his feet. Beatrice looked at him, and then at
+Keith. She asked a question.
+
+"March him home, and send him in to the nearest sheriff." Keith was
+businesslike, and his tone was crisp.
+
+Beatrice's eyes turned again to Kelly. He did not whine, or beg, or
+even curse. He stood looking straight before him, at something only his
+memory could see, and in his face was weariness, and a deep loneliness,
+and a certain, grim despair. There was an ugly bruise where the rock had
+struck, but the rest of his face was drawn and white.
+
+"If you do that," cried Beatrice, in a voice hardly more than a fierce
+whisper, "I shall hate you always. You are not a man-hunter. Let him
+stay here, and take his chance in the hills."
+
+Keith was not a hard man to persuade into being merciful. "It's easy
+enough to say yes, Miss Lansell. I always was chicken-hearted when a
+fellow seemed down on his luck. You can stay here, Kelly--I don't want
+you, anyway." He laughed boyishly and irresponsibly, for he felt that
+Kelly had done him a service that day.
+
+Beatrice flashed him a smile that went to his head and made him dizzy,
+and took up Rex's bridle rein. She hesitated, looked doubtfully at
+Kelly, who stood waiting stoically, and turned to her saddle. She untied
+a bundle and went quickly over to him.
+
+"You--I don't want my lunch, after all. I'm going home now. I--I want
+you to take it, please. There are some sandwiches--with veal loaf, that
+Looey Sam makes deliciously--and some cake. I--I wish it was more. I
+know you'll like the veal loaf."
+
+Kelly looked down at her, and God knows what thoughts were in his mind.
+He did not answer her with words; he just swallowed hard.
+
+"Poor devil!" was what Keith said to himself, and the gun he was holding
+threatened, for a minute, to wing a cloud.
+
+Beatrice laid the package in Kelly's unresisting hand, looked up into
+his averted face and said simply: "Good-by, Mr. Kelly."
+
+After that she hurried Rex up the steep ridge much faster than she
+had gone down it, endangering his bones and putting herself very empty
+lunged.
+
+At the top of the ridge Keith stopped and looked down.
+
+"Hi, Kelly!"
+
+Kelly showed that he heard.
+
+"Here's your gun, on this rock. You can come up and get it, if you want
+to. And--say! I've got a few broke horses ranging down here somewhere.
+VN brand, on left shoulder. I won't scour the hills, very bad, if I
+should happen to miss a cayuse. So long!"
+
+Kelly waved his hand for farewell.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13. Keith's Masterful Wooing.
+
+
+Keith faced toward home, with Redcloud following at his heels like a pet
+dog. For some reason, which he did not try to analyze, he was feeling
+light of heart--as though something very nice had happened to him.
+It might have been the unexpected clearing up of the mystery of the
+prairie-fire, though he was not dwelling particularly upon that. He
+was thinking a great deal more of Beatrice's blue-brown eyes, which had
+never been more baffling, so far as he knew. And his blood was still
+dancing with the smile she had given him; it hardly seemed possible that
+a girl could smile just like that and not mean anything.
+
+When he reached the level, where she was waiting for him, he saw that
+she had her arms around the neck of her horse, and that she was crying
+dismally, heart-brokenly, with an abandon that took no thought of his
+presence. Keith had never seen a girl cry like that before. He had
+seen them dab at their eyes with their handkerchief, and smile the next
+breath--but this was different. For a minute he didn't quite know what
+to do; he could hear the blood hammering against his temples while he
+stood dumbly watching her. He went hesitatingly up, and laid a gloved
+hand deprecatingly upon her shoulder.
+
+"Don't do that, Miss Lansell! The fellow isn't worth it. He's only
+living the life he chose for himself, and he doesn't mind, not half
+as much as you imagine. I know how you feel--I felt sorry for him
+myself--but he doesn't deserve it, you know." He stopped; not being
+able, just at the moment, to think of anything more to say about Kelly.
+Beatrice, who had not been thinking of Kelly at all, but remorsefully of
+a fellow she had persisted in misjudging, only cried the harder.
+
+"Don't--don't cry like that! I--Miss Lansell--Trix--darling!" Keith's
+self-control snapped suddenly, like a rope when the strain becomes too
+great. He caught her fiercely in his arms, and crushed her close against
+him.
+
+Beatrice stopped crying, and gasped.
+
+"Trixie, if you must cry, I wish you'd cry for me. I'm about as
+miserable a man--I want you so! God made you for me, and I'm starving
+for the feel of your lips on mine." Then Keith, who was nothing if not
+daring, once he was roused, bent and kissed her without waiting to see
+if he might--and not only once, but several times.
+
+Beatrice made a half-hearted attempt to get free of his arms, but Keith
+was not a fool--he held her closer, and laughed from pure, primitive
+joy.
+
+"Mr. Cameron!" It was Beatrice's voice, but it had never been like that
+before.
+
+"I think you might call me Keith," he cut in. "You've got to begin some
+time, and now is as good a time as any."
+
+"You--you're taking a good deal for granted," she said, wriggling
+unavailingly in his arms.
+
+"A man's got to, with a girl like you. You're so used to turning a
+fellow down I believe you'd do it just from habit."
+
+"Indeed?" She was trying to be sarcastic and got kissed for her pains.
+
+"Yes, 'indeed.'" He mimicked her tone. "I want you. I want you! I wanted
+you long before I ever saw you. And so I'm not taking any chances--I
+didn't dare, you see. I just had to take you first, and ask you
+afterward."
+
+Beatrice laughed a little, with tears very close to her lashes, and
+gave up. What was the use of trying to resist this masterful fellow, who
+would not even give her a chance to refuse him? She did not know quite
+how to say no to a man who did not ask her to say yes. But the queer
+part, to her, was the feeling that she would have hated to say no,
+anyway. It never occurred to her, till afterward, that she might
+have stood upon a pedestal of offended dignity and cried, "Unhand me,
+villain!"--and that, if she had, Keith would undoubtedly have complied
+instantly. As it was, she just laughed softly, and blushed a good deal.
+
+"I believe mama is right about you, after all," she said wickedly. "At
+heart, you're a bold highwayman."
+
+"Maybe. I know I'd not stand and see some other fellow walk off with my
+Heart's Desire, without putting up a fight. It did look pretty blue
+for me, though, and I was afraid--but it's all right now, isn't it?
+Possession is nine points in law, they say, and I've got you now! I'm
+going to keep you, too. When are you going to come over and take charge
+of the Cross ranch?"
+
+"Dear me!" said Beatrice, snuggling against his shoulder, and finding
+it the best place in the world to be. "I never said I was going to take
+charge at all!" Then the impulse of confession seized her. "Will you
+hate me, if I tell you something?"
+
+"I expect I will," Keith assented, his eyes positively idolatrous. "What
+is it, girlie?"
+
+"Well, I--it was Dick's fault; I never would have thought of such a
+thing if he hadn't goaded me into it--but--well, I was going to make
+you propose, on a wager--" The brown head of Beatrice went down out of
+sight, on his arm. "I was going to refuse you--and get Rex--"
+
+"I know." Keith held her closer than ever. "Dick rode over and told me
+that day. And I wasn't going to give you a chance, missy. If you hadn't
+started to cry, here-- Oh! what's the use? You didn't refuse me--and
+you're not going to, either, are you, girlie?"
+
+Beatrice intimated that there was no immediate danger of such a thing
+happening.
+
+"You see, Dick and I felt that you belonged to me, by rights. I fell in
+love with a picture of you, that you sent him--that one taken in your
+graduation gown--and I told Dick I was going to take the next train
+East, and carry you off by force, if I couldn't get you any other way.
+But Dick thought I'd stand a better show to wait till he'd coaxed you
+out here. We had it all fixed, that you'd come and find a prairie knight
+that was ready to fight for you, and he'd make you like him, whether
+you wanted to or not; and then he'd keep you here, and we'd all be happy
+ever after. And Dick would pull out of the Northern Pool--and of course
+you would--and we'd have a company of our own. Oh! we had some great
+castles built out here on the prairie, let me tell you! And then, when
+you finally came here, you had milord tagging along--and you thinking
+you were in love with him! Maybe you think I wasn't shaky, girlie! The
+air castles got awfully wobbly, and it looked like they were going to
+cave in on us. But I was bound to stay in the game if I could, and Dick
+did all he could to get you to looking my way--and it's all right, isn't
+it, Trixie?" Keith kept recurring to the ecstatic realization that it
+was all right.
+
+Beatrice meditated for a minute.
+
+"I never dreamed--Dick never even mentioned you in any of his letters,"
+she said, in a rather dazed tone. "And when I came he made me believe
+you were a horrible flirt, and I never can resist the temptation to
+measure lances."
+
+"And take a fall out of a male flirt," Keith supplemented. "Dick," he
+went on sententiously and slangily, "was dead onto his job." After that
+he helped her into the saddle, and they rode blissfully homeward.
+
+Near the ranch they met Dick, who pulled up and eyed them anxiously at
+first, and then with a broad smile.
+
+"Say, Trix," he queried slyly, "who does Rex belong to?"
+
+Keith came to the rescue promptly, just as a brave knight should. "You,"
+he retorted. "But I tell you right now, he won't very long. You're going
+to do the decent thing and give him to Trixie--for a wedding present."
+
+Dick looked as though Trix was welcome to any thing he possessed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14. Sir Redmond Gets His answer.
+
+
+"Before long, dear, we shall get on the great ship, and ride across the
+large, large ocean, and be at home. You will be delighted to see Peggy,
+and Rupert, and the dogs, won't you, dear?" Miss Hayes, her cheeks
+actually getting some color into them at the thought of going home,
+buttered a fluffy biscuit for her idol.
+
+Dorman took two bites while he considered. "Rupert'll want my little
+wheels, for my feet, what Mr. Cam'ron gave me--but he can't have 'em,
+dough. I 'spect he'll be mad. I wonder what'll Peggy say bout my two
+puppies. I've got to take my two puppies wis me. Will dey get sick
+riding on de water, auntie? Say, will dey?"
+
+"I--I think not, dear," ventured his auntie cautiously. His auntie was a
+conscientious woman, and she knew very little about puppies.
+
+"Be'trice will help me take care of dem if dey're sick," he remarked
+comfortably.
+
+Then something in his divinity's face startled his assurance. "You's
+going wis us, isn't you, Be'trice? I want you to help take care of my
+two puppies. Martha can't, 'cause she slaps dere ears. Is you going wis
+us, Be'trice?"
+
+This, at the dinner table, was, to say the least,
+embarrassing--especially on this especial evening, when Beatrice was
+trying to muster courage to give Sir Redmond the only answer it was
+possible to give him now. It was an open secret that, in case she had
+accepted him, the home-going of Miss Hayes would be delayed a bit, when
+they would all go together. Beatrice had overheard her mother and Miss
+Hayes discussing this possibility only the day before. She undertook the
+impossible, and attempted to head Dorman off.
+
+"Perhaps you'll see a whale, honey. The puppies never saw a whale, I'm
+sure. What do you suppose they'd think?"
+
+"Is you going?"
+
+"You'd have to hold them up high, you know, so they could see, and show
+them just where to look, and--"
+
+"Is you going, Be'trice?"
+
+Beatrice sent a quick, despairing glance around the table. Four pairs of
+eyes were fixed upon her with varying degrees of interest and anxiety.
+The fifth pair--Dick's--were trying to hide their unrighteous glee by
+glaring down at the chicken wing on his plate. Beatrice felt a strong
+impulse to throw something at him. She gulped and faced the inevitable.
+It must come some time, she thought, and it might as well be now--though
+it did seem a pity to spoil a good dinner for every one but Dick, who
+was eating his with relish.
+
+"No, honey"--her voice was clear and had the note of finality--"I'm not
+going--ever."
+
+Sir Redmond's teeth went together with a click, and he picked up the
+pepper shaker mechanically and peppered his salad until it was perfectly
+black, and Beatrice wondered how he ever expected to eat it. Mrs.
+Lansell dropped her fork on the floor, and had to have a clean one
+brought. Miss Hayes sent a frightened glance at her brother. Dick sat
+and ate fried chicken.
+
+"Why, Be'trice? I wants you to--and de puppies'll need you--and auntie,
+and--" Dorman gathered himself for the last, crushing argument--"and
+Uncle Redmon' wants you awf'lly!"
+
+Beatrice took a sip of ice water, for she needed it.
+
+"Why, Be'trice? Gran-mama'll let you go, guess. Can't she go,
+gran'mama?"
+
+It was Mrs. Lansell's turn to test the exquisite torture of that prickly
+chill along the spine. Like Beatrice, she dodged.
+
+"Little boys," she announced weakly, "should not speak until they're
+spoken to."
+
+Dick came near strangling on a shred of chicken.
+
+"Can't she go, gran'mama? Say, can't she? Tell Be'trice to go home wis
+us, gran'mama!"
+
+"Beatrice"--Mrs. Lansell swallowed--"is not a little child any longer,
+Dorman. She is a woman and can do as she likes. I"--she was speaking to
+the whole group--"I can only advise her."
+
+Dorman gave a squeal of triumph. "See? You can go, Be'trice! Gran'mama
+says you can go. You will go, won't you, Be'trice? Say yes!"
+
+"No!" said Beatrice, with desperate emphasis. "I won't."
+
+"I want--Be'trice--to go-o!" Dorman slid down upon his shoulder blades,
+gave a squeal which was not triumph, but temper, and kicked the table
+till every dish on it danced.
+
+"Dorman sit up!" commanded his auntie. "Dorman, stop, this instant! I'm
+ashamed of you; where is my good little man? Redmond."
+
+Sir Redmond seemed glad of the chance to do something besides sit
+quietly in his place and look calm. He got up deliberately, and in two
+minutes, or less, Dorman was in the woodshed with him, making sounds
+that frightened his puppies dreadfully and put the coyotes to shame.
+
+Beatrice left the table hurriedly to escape the angry eyes of her
+mother. The sounds in the woodshed had died to a subdued sniffling, and
+she retreated to the front porch, hoping to escape observation. There
+she nearly ran against Sir Redmond, who was staring off into the dusk to
+where the moon was peering redly over a black pinnacle of the Bear Paws.
+
+She would have slipped back into the house, but he did not give her the
+chance. He turned and faced her steadily, as he had more than once faced
+the Boers, when he knew that before him was nothing but defeat.
+
+"So you're not going to England ever?"
+
+Pride had squeezed every shade of emotion from his voice.
+
+"No." Beatrice gripped her fingers together tightly.
+
+"Are you sure you won't be sorry--afterward?"
+
+"Yes, I'm sure." Beatrice had never done anything she hated more.
+
+Sir Redmond, looking into her eyes, wondered why those much-vaunted
+sharpshooters, the Boers, had blundered and passed him by.
+
+"I don't suppose it matters much now--but will you tell me why? I
+believed you would decide differently." He was holding his voice down to
+a dead level, and it was not easy.
+
+"Because--" Beatrice faced the moon, which threw a soft glow upon her
+face, and into her wonderful, deep eyes a golden light. "Oh, I'm sorry,
+Sir Redmond! But you see, I didn't know. I--I just learned to-day what
+it means to--to love. I--I am going to stay here. A new company--is
+about to be formed, Sir Redmond. The Maltese Cross and the--Triangle
+Bar--are going to cast their lot together." The golden glow deepened and
+darkened, and blended with the red blood which flushed cheek and brow
+and throat.
+
+It took Sir Redmond a full minute to comprehend. When he did, he
+breathed deep, shut his lips upon words that would have frightened her,
+and went down the steps into the gloom.
+
+Beatrice watched him stride away into the dusky silence, and her heart
+ached with sympathy for him. Then she looked beyond, to where the lights
+of the Cross ranch twinkled joyously, far down the coulee, and the sweet
+egotism of happiness enfolded her, shutting him out. After that she
+forgot him utterly. She looked up at the moon, sailing off to meet the
+stars, smiled good-fellowship and then went in to face her mother.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Her Prairie Knight, by 
+B.M. Sinclair, AKA B. M. Bower
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT ***
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Her Prairie Knight, by B.M. Bower
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+
+HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT
+
+by B. M. Bower (B.M. Sinclair)
+
+
+HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT 
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+1. Stranded on the Prairie 
+2. Handsome Cowboy to the Rescue 
+3. Tilt With Sir Redmond
+4. Beatrice Learns a New Language
+5. The Search for Dorman
+6. Mrs. Lansell's Lecture
+7. Beatrice's Wild Ride
+8. Dorman Plays Cupid
+9. What It Meant to Keith
+10. Pine Ridge Range Ablaze 
+11. Sir Redmond Waits His Answer
+12. Held Up by Mr. Kelly
+13. Keith's Masterful Wooing
+14. Sir Redmond Gets His Answer  
+
+
+
+
+HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+Stranded on the Prairie.
+
+
+"By George, look behind us! I fancy we are going to have a storm." Four
+heads turned as if governed by one brain; four pairs of eyes, of varied
+color and character, swept the wind-blown wilderness of tender green,
+and gazed questioningly at the high-piled thunderheads above. A small
+boy, with an abundance of yellow curls and white collar, almost
+precipitated himself into the prim lap of a lady on the rear seat.
+
+"Auntie, will God have fireworks? Say, auntie, will He? Can I say
+prayers widout kneelin' down'? Uncle Redmon' crowds so. I want to pray
+for fireworks, auntie. Can I?"
+
+"Do sit down, Dorman. You'll fall under the wheel, and then auntie would
+not have any dear little boy. Dorman, do you hear me? Redmond, do take
+that child down! How I wish Parks were here. I shall have nervous
+prostration within a fortnight."
+
+Sir Redmond Hayes plucked at the white collar, and the small boy
+retired between two masculine forms of no mean proportions. His voice,
+however, rose higher.
+
+"You'll get all the fireworks you want, young man, without all that
+hullabaloo," remarked the driver, whom Dorman had been told, at the
+depot twenty miles back, he must call his Uncle Richard.
+
+"I love storms," came cheerfully from the rear seat--but the voice was
+not the prim voice of "auntie." "Do you have thunder and lightning out
+here, Dick?"
+
+"We do," assented Dick. "We don't ship it from the East in refrigerator
+cars, either. It grows wild."
+
+The cheerful voice was heard to giggle.
+
+"Richard," came in tired, reproachful accents from a third voice behind
+him, "you were reared in the East. I trust you have not formed the
+pernicious habit of speaking slightingly of your birthplace."
+
+That, Dick knew, was his mother. She had not changed appreciably since
+she had nagged him through his teens. Not having seen her since, he was
+certainly in a position to judge.
+
+"Trix asked about the lightning," he said placatingly, just as he was
+accustomed to do, during the nagging period. "I was telling her."
+
+"Beatrice has a naturally inquiring mind," said the tired voice, laying
+reproving stress upon the name.
+
+"Are you afraid of lightning, Sir Redmond?" asked the cheerful
+girl-voice.
+
+Sir Redmond twisted his neck to smile back at her. "No, so long as it
+doesn't actually chuck me over."
+
+After that there was silence, so far as human voices went, for a time.
+
+"How much farther is it, Dick?" came presently from the girl.
+
+"Not more than ten--well, maybe twelve--miles. You'll think it's
+twenty, though, if the rain strikes 'Dobe Flat before we do. That's just
+what it's going to do, or I'm badly mistaken. Hawk! Get along, there!"
+
+"We haven't an umbrella with us," complained the tired one. "Beatrice,
+where did you put my raglan?"
+
+"In the big wagon, mama, along with the trunks and guns and saddles, and
+Martha and Katherine and James."
+
+"Dear me! I certainly told you, Beatrice--"
+
+"But, mama, you gave it to me the last thing, after the maids were in
+the wagon, and said you wouldn't wear it. There isn't room here for
+another thing. I feel like a slice of pressed chicken."
+
+"Auntie, I want some p'essed chicken. I'm hungry, auntie! I want some
+chicken and a cookie--and I want some ice-cream."
+
+"You won't get any," said the young woman, with the tone of finality.
+"You can't eat me, Dorman, and I'm the only thing that looks good enough
+to eat."
+
+"Beatrice!" This, of course, from her mother, whose life seemed
+principally made up of a succession of mental shocks, brought on by her
+youngest, dearest, and most irrepressible.
+
+"I have Dick's word for it, mama; he said so, at the depot."
+
+"I want some chicken, auntie."
+
+"There is no chicken, dear," said the prim one. "You must be a patient
+little man."
+
+"I won't. I'm hungry. Mens aren't patient when dey're hungry." A small,
+red face rose, like a tiny harvest moon, between the broad, masculine
+backs on the front seat.
+
+"Dorman, sit down! Redmond!"
+
+A large, gloved hand appeared against the small moon and it set
+ignominiously and prematurely, in the place where it had risen. Sir
+Redmond further extinguished it with the lap robe, for the storm,
+whooping malicious joy, was upon them.
+
+First a blinding glare and a deafening crash. Then rain--sheets of it,
+that drenched where it struck. The women huddled together under the
+doubtful protection of the light robe and shivered. After that, wind
+that threatened to overturn the light spring wagon; then hail that
+bounced and hopped like tiny, white rubber balls upon the ground.
+
+The storm passed as suddenly as it came, but the effect remained. The
+road was sodden with the water which had fallen, and as they went down
+the hill to 'Dobe Flat the horses strained at the collar and plodded
+like a plow team. The wheels collected masses of adobe, which stuck like
+glue and packed the spaces between the spokes. Twice Dick got out and
+poked the heavy mess from the wheels with Sir Redmond's stick--which was
+not good for the stick, but which eased the drag upon the horses
+wonderfully--until the wheels accumulated another load.
+
+"Sorry to dirty your cane," Dick apologized, after the second halt. "You
+can rinse it off, though, in the creek a few miles ahead."
+
+"Don't mention it!" said Sir Redmond, somewhat dubiously. It was his
+favorite stick, and he had taken excellent care of it. It was finely
+polished, and it had his name and regiment engraved upon the silver
+knob--and a date which the Boers will not soon forget, nor the English,
+for that matter.
+
+"We'll soon be over the worst," Dick told them, after a time. "When we
+climb that hill we'll have a hard, gravelly trail straight to the ranch.
+I'm sorry it had to storm; I wanted you to enjoy this trip."
+
+"I am enjoying it," Beatrice assured him. "It's something new, at any
+rate, and anything is better than the deadly monotony of Newport."
+
+"Beatrice!" cried her mother "I'm ashamed of you!"
+
+"You needn't be, mama. Why won't you just be sorry for yourself, and let
+it end there? I know you hated to come, poor dear; but you wouldn't
+think of letting me come alone, though I'm sure I shouldn't have minded.
+This is going to be a delicious summer--I feel it in my bones."
+
+"Be-atrice!"
+
+"Why, mama? Aren't young ladies supposed to have bones?"
+
+"Young ladies are not supposed to make use of unrefined expressions.
+Your poor sister."
+
+"There, mama. Dear Dolly didn't live upon stilts, I'm sure. Even when
+she married."
+
+"Be-atrice!"
+
+"Dear me, mama! I hope you are not growing peevish. Peevish elderly
+people--"
+
+"Auntie! I want to go home!" the small boy wailed.
+
+"You cannot go home now, dear," sighed his guardian angel. "Look at the
+pretty--" She hesitated, groping vaguely for some object to which she
+might conscientiously apply the adjective.
+
+"Mud," suggested Beatrice promptly "Look at the wheels, Dorman; they're
+playing patty-cake. See, now they say, 'Roll 'em, and roll 'em,' and
+now, 'Toss in the oven to bake!" And now--"
+
+"Auntie, I want to get out an' play patty-cake, like de wheels. I want
+to awf'lly!"
+
+"Beatrice, why did you put that into his head?" her mother demanded,
+fretfully.
+
+"Never mind, honey," called Beatrice cheeringly. "You and I will make
+hundreds of mud pies when we get to Uncle Dick's ranch. Just think, hon,
+oodles of beautiful, yellow mud just beside the door!"
+
+"Look here, Trix! Seems to me you're promising a whole lot you can't
+make good. I don't live in a 'dobe patch."
+
+"Hush, Dick; don't spoil everything. You don't know Dorman.'
+
+"Beatrice! What must Miss Hayes and Sir Redmond think of you? I'm sure
+Dorman is a sweet child, the image of poor, dear Dorothea, at his age."
+
+"We all think Dorman bears a strong resemblance to his father," said his
+Aunt Mary.
+
+Beatrice, scenting trouble, hurried to change the subject. "What's this,
+Dick--the Missouri River?"
+
+"Hardly. This is the water that didn't fall in the buggy. It isn't deep;
+it makes bad going worse, that's all."
+
+Thinking to expedite matters, he struck Hawk sharply across the flank.
+It was a foolish thing to do, and Dick knew it when he did it; ten
+seconds later he knew it better.
+
+Hawk reared, tired as he was, and lunged viciously.
+
+The double-trees snapped and splintered; there was a brief interval of
+plunging, a shower of muddy water in that vicinity, and then two
+draggled, disgusted brown horses splashed indignantly to shore and took
+to the hills with straps flying.
+
+"By George!," ejaculated Sir Redmond, gazing helplessly after them. "But
+this is a beastly bit of luck, don't you know!"
+
+"Oh, you Hawk--" Dick, in consideration of his companions, finished the
+remark in the recesses of his troubled soul, where the ladies could not
+overhear.
+
+"What comes next, Dick?" The voice of Beatrice was frankly curious.
+
+"Next, I'll have to wade out and take after those--" This sentence,
+also, was rounded out mentally.
+
+"In the meantime, what shall we do?"
+
+"You'll stay where you are--and thank the good Lord you were not upset.
+I'm sorry,"--turning so that he could look deprecatingly at Miss
+Hayes--"your welcome to the West has been so--er--strenuous. I'll try
+and make it up to you, once you get to the ranch. I hope you won't let
+this give you a dislike of the country."
+
+"Oh, no," said the spinster politely. "I'm sure it is a--a very nice
+country, Mr. Lansell."
+
+"Well, there's nothing to be done sitting here." Dick climbed down over
+the dashboard into the mud and water.
+
+Sir Redmond was not the man to shirk duty because it happened to be
+disagreeable, as the regiment whose name was engraved upon his cane
+could testify. He glanced regretfully at his immaculate leggings and
+followed.
+
+"I fancy you ladies won't need any bodyguard," he said. Looking back, he
+caught the light of approval shining in the eyes of Beatrice, and after
+that he did not mind the mud, but waded to shore and joined in the chase
+quite contentedly. The light of approval, shining in the eyes of
+Beatrice, meant much to Sir Redmond.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+A Handsome Cowboy to the Rescue.
+
+
+Beatrice took immediate possession of the front seat, that she might
+comfort her heartbroken young nephew.
+
+"Never mind, honey. They'll bring the horses back in a minute, and we'll
+make them run every step. And when you get to Uncle Dick's ranch you'll
+see the nicest things--bossy calves, and chickens, and, maybe, some
+little pigs with curly tails."
+
+All this, though alluring, failed of its purpose; the small boy
+continued to weep, and his weeping was ear-splitting.
+
+"Be still, Dorman, or you'll certainly scare all the coyotes to death."
+
+"Where are dey?"
+
+"Oh, all around. You keep watch, hon, and maybe you'll see one put the
+tip of his nose over a hill."
+
+"What hill?" Dorman skipped a sob, and scoured his eyes industriously
+with both fists.
+
+"M-m--that hill. That little one over there. Watch close, or you'll miss
+him."
+
+The dove of peace hovered over them, and seemed actually about to
+alight. Beatrice leaned back with a relieved breath.
+
+"It is good of you, my dear, to take so much trouble," sighed his Aunt
+Mary. "How I am to manage without Parks I'm sure I cannot tell."
+
+"You are tired, and you miss your tea." soothed Beatrice, optimistic as
+to tone. "When we all have a good rest we will be all right. Dorman will
+find plenty to amuse him. We are none of us exactly comfortable now."
+
+"Comfortable!" sniffed her mother. "I am half dead. Richard wrote such
+glowing letters home that I was misled. If I had dreamed of the true
+conditions, Miss Hayes, I should never have sanctioned this wild idea of
+Beatrice's to come out and spend the summer with Richard."
+
+"It's coming, Be'trice! There it is! Will it bite, auntie? Say, will it
+bite?"
+
+Beatrice looked. A horseman came over the hill and was galloping down
+the long slope toward them. His elbows were lifted contrary to the
+mandates of the riding-school, his long legs were encased in something
+brown and fringed down the sides. His gray hat was tilted rakishly up at
+the back and down in front, and a handkerchief was knotted loosely
+around his throat. Even at that distance he struck her as different from
+any one she had ever seen.
+
+"It's a highwayman!" whispered Mrs. Lansell "Hide your purse, my dear!"
+
+"I--I--where?" Miss Hayes was all a-flutter with fear.
+
+"Drop it down beside the wheel, into the water. Quick! I shall drop my
+watch."
+
+"He--he is coming on this side! He can see!" Her whisper was full of
+entreaty and despair.
+
+"Give them here. He can't see on both sides of the buggy at once." Mrs.
+Lansell, being an American--a Yankee at that--was a woman of resource.
+
+"Beatrice, hand me your watch quick!"
+
+Beatrice paid no attention, and there was no time to insist upon
+obedience. The horseman had slowed at the water's edge, and was
+regarding them with some curiosity. Possibly he was not accustomed to
+such a sight as the one that met his eyes. He came splashing toward
+them, however, as though he intended to investigate the cause of their
+presence, alone upon the prairie, in a vehicle which had no horses
+attached in the place obviously intended for such attachment. When he
+was close upon them he stopped and lifted the rakishly tilted gray hat.
+
+"You seem to be in trouble. Is there anything I can do for you?" His
+manner was grave and respectful, but his eyes, Beatrice observed, were
+having a quiet laugh of their own.
+
+"You can't get auntie's watch, nor gran'mama's. Gran'mama frowed 'em all
+down in the mud. She frowed her money down in the mud, too," announced
+Dorman, with much complacency. "Be'trice says you is a coyote. Is you?"
+
+There was a stunned interval, during which nothing was heard but the
+wind whispering things to the grass. The man's eyes stopped laughing;
+his jaw set squarely; also, his brows drew perceptibly closer together.
+It was Mrs. Lansell's opinion that he looked murderous.
+
+Then Beatrice put her head down upon the little, blue velvet cap of
+Dorman and laughed. There was a rollicking note in her laughter that was
+irresistible, and the eyes of the man relented and joined in her mirth.
+His lips forgot they were angry and insulted, and uncovered some very
+nice teeth.
+
+"We aren't really crazy," Beatrice told him, sitting up straight and
+drying her eyes daintily with her handkerchief. "We were on our way to
+Mr. Lansell's ranch, and the horses broke something and ran away, and
+Dick--Mr. Lansell--has gone to catch them. We're waiting until he does."
+
+"I see." From the look in his eyes one might guess that what he saw
+pleased him. "Which direction did they take?"
+
+Beatrice waved a gloved hand vaguely to the left, and, without another
+word, the fellow touched his hat, turned and waded to shore and galloped
+over the ridge she indicated; and the clucketycluck of his horse's hoofs
+came sharply across to them until he dipped out of sight.
+
+"You see, he wasn't a robber," Beatrice remarked, staring after him
+speculatively. "How well he rides! One can see at a glance that he
+almost lives in the saddle. I wonder who he is."
+
+"For all you know, Beatrice, he may be going now to murder Richard and
+Sir Redmond in cold blood. He looks perfectly hardened."
+
+"Oh, do you think it possible?" cried Miss Hayes, much alarmed.
+
+"No!" cried Beatrice hotly. "One who did not know your horror of
+novels, mama, might suspect you of feeding your imagination upon 'penny
+dreadfuls.' I'm sure he is only a cowboy, and won't harm anybody."
+
+"Cowboys are as bad as highwaymen," contended her mother, "or worse. I
+have read how they shoot men for a pastime, and without even the excuse
+of robbery."
+
+"Is it possible?" quavered Miss Hayes faintly.
+
+"No, it isn't!" Beatrice assured her indignantly.
+
+"He has the look of a criminal," declared Mrs. Lansell, in the positive
+tone of one who speaks from intimate knowledge of the subject under
+discussion. "I only hope he isn't going to murder--"
+
+"They're coming back, mama," interrupted Beatrice, who had been
+watching closely the hilltop. "No, it's that man, and he is driving the
+horses."
+
+"He's chasing them," corrected her mother testily. "A horse thief, no
+doubt. He's going to catch them with his snare--"
+
+"Lasso, mama."
+
+"Well, lasso. Where can Richard be? To think the fellow should be so
+bold! But out here, with miles upon miles of open, and no police
+protection anything is possible. We might all be murdered, and no one be
+the wiser for days--perhaps weeks. There, he has caught them." She
+leaned back and clasped her hands, ready to meet with fortitude whatever
+fate might have in store.
+
+"He's bringing them out to us, mama. Can't you see the man is only
+trying to help us?"
+
+Mrs. Lansell, beginning herself to suspect him of honest intentions,
+sniffed dissentingly and let it go at that. The fellow was certainly
+leading the horses toward them, and Sir Redmond and Dick, appearing over
+the hill just then, proved beyond doubt that neither had been murdered
+in cold blood, or in any other unpleasant manner.
+
+"We're all right now, mother," Dick called, the minute he was near
+enough.
+
+His mother remarked skeptically that she hoped possibly she had been in
+too great haste to conceal her valuables--that Miss Hayes might not feel
+grateful for her presence of mind, and was probably wondering if mud
+baths were not injurious to fine, jeweled time-pieces. Mrs. Lansell was
+uncomfortable, mentally and physically, and her manner was frankly
+chilly when her son presented the stranger as his good friend and
+neighbor, Keith Cameron. She was still privately convinced that he
+looked a criminal--though, if pressed, she must surely have admitted
+that he was an uncommonly good-looking young outlaw. It would seem
+almost as if she regarded his being a decent, law-abiding citizen as
+pure effrontery.
+
+Miss Hayes greeted him with a smile of apprehension which plainly
+amused him. Beatrice was frankly impersonal in her attitude; he
+represented a new species of the genus man, and she, too, evidently
+regarded him in the light of a strange animal, viewed unexpectedly at
+close range.
+
+While he was helping Dick mend the double-tree with a piece of rope, she
+studied him curiously. He was tall--taller even than Sir Redmond, and
+more slender. Sir Redmond had the straight, sturdy look of the soldier
+who had borne the brunt of hard marches and desperate fighting; Mr.
+Cameron, the lithe, unconscious grace and alertness of the man whose
+work demands quick movement and quicker eye and brain. His face was
+tanned to a clear bronze which showed the blood darkly beneath; Sir
+Redmond's year of peace had gone far toward lightening his complexion.
+Beatrice glanced briefly at him and admired his healthy color, and was
+glad he did not have the look of an Indian. At the same time, she caught
+herself wishing that Sir Redmond's eyes were hazel, fringed with very
+long, dark lashes and topped with very straight, dark brows--eyes which
+seemed always to have some secret cause for mirth, and to laugh quite
+independent of the rest of the face. Still, Sir Redmond had very nice
+eyes--blue, and kind, and steadfast, and altogether dependable--and his
+lashes were quite nice enough for any one. In just four seconds Beatrice
+decided that, after all, she did not like hazel eyes that twinkle
+continually; they make one feel that one is being laughed at, which is
+not comfortable. In six seconds she was quite sure that this Mr. Cameron
+thought himself handsome, and Beatrice detested a man who was proud of
+his face or his figure; such a man always tempted her to "make faces,"
+as she used to do over the back fence when she was little.
+
+She mentally accused him of trying to show off his skill with his rope
+when he leaned and fastened it to the rig, rode out ahead and helped
+drag the vehicle to shore; and it was with some resentment that she
+observed the ease with which he did it, and how horse and rope seemed to
+know instinctively their master's will, and to obey of their own accord.
+
+In all that he had done--and it really seemed as if he did everything
+that needed to be done, while Dick pottered around in the way--he had
+not found it necessary to descend into the mud and water, to the ruin of
+his picturesque, fringed chaps and high-heeled boots. He had worked at
+ease, carelessly leaning from his leathern throne upon the big, roan
+horse he addressed occasionally as Redcloud. Beatrice wondered where he
+got the outlandish name. But, with all his imperfections, she was glad
+she had met him. He really was handsome, whether he knew it or not; and
+if he had a good opinion of himself, and overrated his actions--all the
+more fun for herself! Beatrice, I regret to say, was not above amusing
+herself with handsome young men who overrate their own charms; in fact,
+she had the reputation among her women acquaintances of being a most
+outrageous flirt.
+
+In the very middle of these trouble-breeding meditations, Mr. Cameron
+looked up unexpectedly and met keenly her eyes; and for some reason--let
+us hope because of a guilty conscience--Beatrice grew hot and confused;
+an unusual experience, surely, for a girl who had been out three
+seasons, and has met calmly the eyes of many young men. Until now it had
+been the young men who grew hot and confused; it had never been herself.
+
+Beatrice turned her shoulder toward him, and looked at Sir Redmond, who
+was surreptitiously fishing for certain articles beside the rear wheel,
+at the whispered behest of Mrs. Lansell, and was certainly a sight to
+behold. He was mud to his knees and to his elbows, and he had managed to
+plaster his hat against the wheel and to dirty his face. Altogether, he
+looked an abnormally large child who has been having a beautiful day of
+it in somebody's duck-pond; but Beatrice was nearer, at that moment, to
+loving him than she had been at any time during her six weeks'
+acquaintance with him--and that is saying much, for she had liked him
+from the start.
+
+Mr. Cameron followed her glance, and his eyes did not have the laugh all
+to themselves; his voice joined them, and Beatrice turned upon him and
+frowned. It was not kind of him to laugh at a man who is proving his
+heart to be much larger than his vanity; Beatrice was aware of Sir
+Redmond's immaculateness of attire on most occasions.
+
+"Well," said Dick, gathering up the reins, "you've helped us out of a
+bad scrape, Keith. Come over and take dinner with us to-morrow night. I
+expect we'll be kept riding the rim-rocks, over at the Pool, this
+summer. Unless this sister of mine has changed a lot, she won't rest
+till she's been over every foot of country for forty miles around. It
+will just about keep our strings rode down to a whisper keeping her in
+sight."
+
+"Dear me, Richard!" said his mother. "What Jargon is this you speak?"
+
+"That's good old Montana English, mother. You'll learn it yourself
+before you leave here. I've clean forgot how they used the English
+language at Yale, haven't you, Keith?"
+
+"Just about," Keith agreed. "I'm afraid we'll shock the ladies
+terribly, Dick. We ought to get out on a pinnacle with a good grammar
+and practice."
+
+"Well, maybe. We'll look for you to-morrow, sure. I want you to help map
+out a circle or two for Trix. About next week she'll want to get out and
+scour the range."
+
+"Dear me, Richard! Beatrice is not a charwoman!" This, you will
+understand, was from his mother; perhaps you will also understand that
+she spoke with the rising inflection which conveys a reproof.
+
+When Keith Cameron left them he was laughing quietly to himself, and
+Beatrice's chin was set rather more than usual.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+A Tilt With Sir Redmond.
+
+
+Beatrice, standing on the top of a steep, grassy slope, was engaged in
+the conventional pastime of enjoying the view. It was a fine view, but
+it was not half as good to look upon as was Beatrice herself, in her
+fresh white waist and brown skirt, with her brown hair fluffing softly
+in the breeze which would grow to a respectable wind later in the day,
+and with her cheeks pink from climbing.
+
+She was up where she could see the river, a broad band of blue in the
+surrounding green, winding away for miles through the hills. The far
+bank stood a straight two hundred feet of gay-colored rock, chiseled, by
+time and stress of changeful weather, into fanciful turrets and towers.
+Above and beyond, where the green began, hundreds of moving dots told
+where the cattle were feeding quietly. Far away to the south, heaps of
+hazy blue and purple slept in the sunshine; Dick had told her those were
+the Highwoods. And away to the west, a jagged line of blue-white
+glimmered and stood upon tip-toes to touch the swimming clouds--touched
+them and pushed above proudly; those were the Rockies. The Bear Paws
+stood behind her; nearer they were--so near they lost the glamour of
+mysterious blue shadows, and became merely a sprawling group of huge,
+pine-covered hills, with ranches dotted here and there in sheltered
+places, with squares of fresh, dark green that spoke of growing crops.
+
+Ten days, and the metropolitan East had faded and become as hazy and
+vague as the Highwoods. Ten days, and the witchery of the West leaped in
+her blood and held her fast in its thralldom.
+
+A sound of scrambling behind her was immediately followed by a
+smothered epithet. Beatrice turned in time to see Sir Redmond pick
+himself up.
+
+"These grass slopes are confounded slippery, don't you know," he
+explained apologetically. "How did you manage that climb?"
+
+"I didn't." Beatrice smiled. "I came around the end, where the ascent is
+gradual; there's a good path."
+
+"Oh!" Sir Redmond sat down upon a rock and puffed. "I saw you up
+here--and a fellow doesn't think about taking a roundabout course to
+reach his heart's--"
+
+"Isn't it lovely?" Beatrice made haste to inquire.
+
+"Lovely isn't half expressive enough," he told her. "You look--"
+
+"The river is so very blue and dignified. I've been wondering if it has
+forgotten how it must have danced through those hills, away off there.
+When it gets down to the cities--this blue water--it will be muddy and
+nasty looking. The 'muddy Missouri' certainly doesn't apply here. And
+that farther shore is simply magnificent. I wish I might stay here
+forever."
+
+"The Lord forbid!" cried he, with considerable fervor. "There's a dear
+nook in old England where I hope--"
+
+"You did get that mud off your leggings, I see," Beatrice remarked
+inconsequentially. "James must have worked half the time we've been
+here. They certainly were in a mess the last time I saw them."
+
+"Bother the leggings! But I take it that's a good sign, Miss
+Lansell--your taking notice of such things."
+
+Beatrice returned to the landscape. "I wonder who originated that
+phrase, 'The cattle grazing on a thousand hills'? He must have stood
+just here when he said it."
+
+"Wasn't it one of your American poets? Longfellow, or--er--"
+
+Beatrice simply looked at him a minute and said "Pshaw!"
+
+"Well," he retorted, "you don't know yourself who it was."
+
+"And to think," Beatrice went on, ignoring the subject, "some of those
+grazing cows and bossy calves are mine--my very own. I never cared
+before, or thought much about it, till I came out and saw where they
+live, and Dick pointed to a cow and the sweetest little red and white
+calf, and said: 'That's your cow and calf, Trix.' They were dreadfully
+afraid of me, though--I'm afraid they didn't recognize me as their
+mistress. I wanted to get down and pet the calf--it had the dearest
+little snub nose but they bolted, and wouldn't let me near them."
+
+"I fancy they were not accustomed to meeting angels unawares."
+
+"Sir Redmond, I wish you wouldn't. You are so much nicer when you're not
+trying to be nice."
+
+"I'll act a perfect brute," he offered eagerly, "if that will make you
+love me."
+
+"It's hardly worth trying. I think you would make a very poor sort of
+villain, Sir Redmond. You wouldn't even be picturesque."
+
+Sir Redmond looked rather floored. He was a good fighter, was Sir
+Redmond, but he was clumsy at repartee--or, perhaps, he was too much in
+earnest to fence gracefully. Just now he looked particularly foolish.
+
+"Don't you think my brand is pretty? You know what it is, don't you?"
+
+"I'm afraid not," he owned. "I fancy I need a good bit of coaching in
+the matter of brands."
+
+"Yes," agreed Beatrice, "I fancy you do. My brand is a Triangle
+Bar--like this." With a sharp pointed bit of rock she drew a more or
+less exact diagram in the yellow soil. "There are ever so many different
+brands belonging to the Northern Pool; Dick pointed them out to me, but
+I can't remember them. But whenever you see a Triangle Bar you'll be
+looking at my individual property. I think it was nice of Dick to give
+me a brand all my own. Mr. Cameron has a pretty brand, too--a Maltese
+Cross. The Maltese Cross was owned at one time by President Roosevelt.
+Mr. Cameron bought it when he left college and went into the cattle
+business. He 'plays a lone hand,' as he calls it; but his cattle range
+with the Northern Pool, and he and Dick work together a great deal. I
+think he has lovely eyes, don't you?" The eyes of Beatrice were intent
+upon the Bear Paws when she said it--which brought her shoulder toward
+Sir Redmond and hid her face from him.
+
+"I can't say I ever observed Mr. Cameron's eyes," said Sir Redmond
+stiffly.
+
+Beatrice turned back to him, and smiled demurely. When Beatrice smiled
+that very demure smile, of which she was capable, the weather-wise
+generally edged toward their cyclone-cellars. Sir Redmond was not
+weather-wise--he was too much in love with her--and he did not possess a
+cyclone cellar; he therefore suffered much at the hands of Beatrice.
+
+"But surely you must have noticed that deep, deep dimple in his chin?"
+she questioned innocently. Keith Cameron, I may say, did not have a
+dimple in his chin at all; there was, however, a deep crease in it.
+
+"I did not." Sir Redmond rubbed his own chin, which was so far from
+dimpling that is was rounded like half an apricot.
+
+"Dear me! And you sat opposite to him at dinner yesterday, too! I
+suppose, then, you did not observe that his teeth are the whitest,
+evenest."
+
+"They make them cheaply over here, I'm told," he retorted, setting his
+heel emphatically down and annihilating a red and black caterpillar.
+
+"Now, why did you do that? I must say you English are rather brutal?"
+
+"I can't abide worms."
+
+"Well, neither can I. And I think it would be foolish to quarrel about a
+man's good looks," Beatrice said, with surprising sweetness.
+
+Sir Redmond hunched his shoulders and retreated to the comfort of his
+pipe. "A bally lot of good looks!" he sneered. "A woman is never
+convinced, though."
+
+"I am." Beatrice sat down upon a rock and rested her elbows on her knees
+and her chin in her hands--and an adorable picture she made, I assure
+you. "I'm thoroughly convinced of several things. One is Mr. Cameron's
+good looks; another is that you're cross."
+
+Oh, come, now!" protested Sir Redmond feebly, and sucked furiously at
+his pipe.
+
+"Yes," reiterated Beatrice, examining his perturbed face judicially;
+"you are downright ugly."
+
+The face of Sir Redmond grew redder and more perturbed; just as
+Beatrice meant that it should; she seemed to derive a keen pleasure from
+goading this big, good-looking Englishman to the verge of apoplexy.
+
+"I'm sure I never meant to be rude; but a fellow can't fall down and
+worship every young farmer, don't you know--not even to please you!"
+
+Beatrice smiled and threw a pebble down the slope, watching it bound and
+skip to the bottom, where it rolled away and hid in the grass.
+
+"I love this wide country," she observed, abandoning her torture with a
+suddenness that was a characteristic of her nature. When Beatrice had
+made a man look and act the fool she was ready to stop; one cannot say
+that of every woman. "One can draw long, deep breaths without robbing
+one's neighbor of oxygen. Everything is so big, and broad, and generous,
+out here. One can ride for miles and miles through the grandest, wildest
+places,--and--there aren't any cigar and baking-powder and liver-pill
+signs plastered over the rocks, thank goodness! If man has traveled that
+way before, you do not have the evidence of his passing staring you in
+the face. You can make believe it is all your own--by right of
+discovery. I'm afraid your England would seem rather little and crowded
+after a month or two of this." She swept her hand toward the river, and
+the grass-land beyond, and the mountains rimming the world.
+
+"You should see the moors!" cried Sir Redmond, brightening under this
+peaceful mood of hers. "I fancy you would not find trouble in drawing
+long breaths there. Moor Cottage, where your sister and Wiltmar lived,
+is surrounded by wide stretches of open--not like this, to be sure, but
+not half-bad in its way, either."
+
+"Dolly grew to love that place, though she did write homesick letters at
+first. I was going over, after my coming out--and then came that awful
+accident, when she and Wiltmar were both drowned--and, of course, there
+was nothing to go for. I should have hated the place then, I think. But
+I should like--" Her voice trailed off dreamily, her eyes on the hazy
+Highwoods.
+
+Sir Redmond watched her, his eyes a-shine; Beatrice in this mood was
+something to worship. He was almost afraid to speak, for fear she would
+snuff out the tiny flame of hope which her half-finished sentence had
+kindled. He leaned forward, his face eager.
+
+"Beatrice, only say you will go--with me, dear!"
+
+Beatrice started; for the moment she had forgotten him. Her eyes kept to
+the hills. "Go--to England? One trip at a time, Sir Redmond. I have been
+here only ten days, and we came for three months. Three months of
+freedom in this big, glorious place."
+
+"And then?" His voice was husky.
+
+"And then--freckle lotions by the quart, I expect."
+
+Sir Redmond got upon his feet, and he was rather white around the
+mouth.
+
+"We Englishmen are a stubborn lot, Miss Beatrice. We won't stop
+fighting until we win."
+
+"We Yankees," retorted she airily, "value our freedom above everything
+else. We won't surrender it without fighting for it first."
+
+He caught eagerly at the lack of finality in her tones. "I don't want to
+take your freedom, Beatrice. I only want the right to love you."
+
+"Oh, as for that, I suppose you may love me as much as you please--only
+so you don't torment me to death talking about it."
+
+Beatrice, not looking particularly tormented, waved answer to Dick, who
+was shouting something up at her, and went blithely down the hill, with
+Sir Redmond following gloomily, several paces behind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+Beatrice Learns a New Language.
+
+
+"D'you want to see the boys work a bunch of cattle, Trix?" Dick said to
+her, when she came down to where he was leaning against a high board
+fence, waiting for her.
+
+"'Deed I do, Dicky--only I've no idea what you mean."
+
+"The boys are going to cut out some cattle we've contracted to the
+government--for the Indians, you know. They're holding the bunch over in
+Dry Coulee; it's only three or four miles. I've got to go over and see
+the foreman, and I thought maybe you'd like to go along."
+
+"There's nothing I can think of that I would like better. Won't it be
+fine, Sir Redmond?"
+
+Sir Redmond did not say whether he thought it would be fine or not. He
+still had the white streak around his mouth, and he went through the
+gate and on to the house without a word--which was undoubtedly a rude
+thing to do. Sir Redmond was not often rude. Dick watched him
+speculatively until he was beyond hearing them. Then, "What have you
+done to milord, Trix?" he wanted to know.
+
+"Nothing," said Beatrice.
+
+"Well," Dick said, with decision, "he looks to me like a man that has
+been turned down--hard. I can tell by the back of his neck."
+
+This struck Beatrice, and she began to study the retreating neck of her
+suitor. "I can't see any difference," she announced, after a brief
+scrutiny.
+
+"It's rather sunburned and thick."
+
+"I'll gamble his mind is a jumble of good English oaths--with maybe a
+sprinkling of Boer maledictions. What did you do?"
+
+"Nothing--unless, perhaps, he objects to being disciplined a bit. But I
+also object to being badgered into matrimony--even with Sir Redmond."
+
+"Even with Sir Redmond!" Dick whistled. "He's 'It,' then, is he?"
+
+Beatrice had nothing to say. She walked beside Dick and looked at the
+ground before her.
+
+"He doesn't seem a bad sort, sis, and the title will be nice to have in
+the family, if one cares for such things. Mother does. She was
+disappointed, I take it, that Wiltmar was a younger son."
+
+"Yes, she was. She used to think that Sir Redmond might get killed down
+there fighting the Boers, and then Wiltmar would be next in line. But he
+didn't, and it was Wiltmar who went first. And now oh, it's humiliating,
+Dick! To be thrown at a man's head--" Tears were not far from her voice
+just then.
+
+"I can see she wants you to nab the title. Well, sis, if you don't care
+for the man--"
+
+"I never said I didn't care for him. But I just can't treat him
+decently, with mama dinning that title in my ears day and night. I wish
+there wasn't any title. Oh, it's abominable! Things have come to that
+point where an American girl with money is not supposed to care for an
+Englishman, no matter how nice he may be, if he has a title, or the
+prospect of one. Every one laughs and thinks it's the title she wants;
+they'd think it of me, and they'd say it. They would say Beatrice
+Lansell took her half-million and bought her a lord. And, after a while,
+perhaps Sir Redmond himself would half-believe it--and I couldn't bear
+that! And so I am--unbearably flippant and--I should think he'd hate
+me!"
+
+"So you reversed the natural order of things, and refused him on
+account of the title?" Dick grinned surreptitiously.
+
+"No, I didn't--not quite. I'm afraid he's dreadfully angry with me,
+though. I do wish he wasn't such a dear."
+
+"You're the same old Trix. You've got to be held back from the trail
+you're supposed to take, or you won't travel it; you'll bolt the other
+way. If everybody got together and fought the notion, you would probably
+elope with milord inside a week. Mother means well, but she isn't on to
+her job a little bit. She ought to turn up her nose at the title."
+
+"No fear of that! I've had it before my eyes till I hate the very
+thought of it. I--I wish I could hate him." Beatrice sighed deeply, and
+gave her hand to Dorman, who scurried up to her.
+
+"I'll have the horses saddled right away," said Dick, and left them.
+
+"Where you going, Be'trice? You going to ride a horse? I want to,
+awf'lly."
+
+"I'm afraid you can't, honey; it's too far." Beatrice pushed a yellow
+curl away from his eyes with tender, womanly solicitude.
+
+"Auntie won't care, 'cause I'm a bother. Auntie says she's goin' to send
+for Parks. I don't want Parks; 'sides, Parks is sick. I want a pony, and
+some ledder towsers wis fringes down 'em, and I want some little wheels
+on my feet. Mr. Cam'ron says I do need some little wheels, Be'trice."
+
+"Did he, honey?"
+
+"Yes, he did. I like Mr. Cam'ron, Be'trice; he let me ride his big, high
+pony. He's a berry good pony. He shaked hands wis me, Be'trice--he truly
+did."
+
+"Did he, hon?" Beatrice, I am sorry to say, was not listening. She was
+wondering if Sir Redmond was really angry with her--too angry, for
+instance, to go over where the cattle were. He really ought to go, for
+he had come West in the interest of the Eastern stockholders in the
+Northern Pool, to investigate the actual details of the work. He surely
+would not miss this opportunity, Beatrice thought. And she hoped he was
+not angry.
+
+"Yes, he truly did. Mr. Cam'ron interduced us, Be'trice. He said,
+'Redcloud, dis is Master Dorman Hayes. Shake hands wis my frien'
+Dorman.' And he put up his front hand, Be'trice, and nod his head, and I
+shaked his hand. I dess love that big, high pony, Be'trice. Can I buy
+him, Be'trice?"
+
+"Maybe, kiddie."
+
+"Can I buy him wis my six shiny pennies, Be'trice?"
+
+"Maybe."
+
+"Mr. Cam'ron lives right over that hill, Be'trice. He told me."
+
+"Did he, hon?"
+
+"Yes, he did. He 'vited me over, Be'trice. He's my friend, and I've got
+to buy my big, high pony. I'll let you shake hands wis him, Be'trice.
+I'll interduce him to you. And I'll let you ride on his back, Be'trice.
+Do you want to ride on his back?"
+
+"Yes, honey."
+
+Before Beatrice had time to commit herself they reached the house, and
+she let go Dorman's hand and hurried away to get into her riding-habit.
+
+Dorman straightway went to find his six precious, shiny pennies, which
+Beatrice had painstakingly scoured with silver polish one day to please
+the little tyrant, and which increased their value many times--so many
+times, in fact, that he hid them every night in fear of burglars. Since
+he concealed them each time in a different place, he was obliged to
+ransack his auntie's room every morning, to the great disturbance of
+Martha, the maid, who was an order-loving person.
+
+Martha appeared just when he had triumphantly pounced upon his treasure
+rolled up in the strings of his aunt's chiffon opera-bonnet.
+
+"Mercy upon us, Master Dorman! Whatever have you been doing?"
+
+"I want my shiny pennies," said the young gentleman, composedly
+unwinding the roll, "to buy my big, high pony."
+
+"Naughty, naughty boy, to muss my lady's fine bonnet like that! Look at
+things scattered over the floor, and my lady's fine handkerchiefs and
+gloves " Martha stopped and meditated whether she might dare to shake
+him.
+
+Dorman was laboriously counting his wealth, with much wrinkling of
+stubby nose and lifting of eyebrows. Having satisfied himself that they
+were really all there, he deigned to look around, with a fine masculine
+disdain of woman's finery.
+
+"Oh, dose old things!" he sniffed. "I always fordet where I put my shiny
+pennies. Robbers might find them if I put them easy places. I'm going to
+buy my big, high pony, and you can't shake his hand a bit, Martha."
+
+"Well, I'm sure I don't want to!" Martha snapped back at him, and went
+down on all fours to gather up the things he had thrown down. "Whatever
+Parks was thinking of, to go and get fever, when she was the only one
+that could manage you, I don't know! And me picking up after you till
+I'm fair sick!"
+
+"I'm glad you is sick," he retorted unfeelingly, and backed to the door.
+"I hopes you get sicker so your stummit makes you hurt. You can't ride
+on my big, high pony."
+
+"Get along with you and your high pony!" cried the exasperated Martha,
+threatening with a hairbrush. Dorman, his six shiny pennies held fast in
+his damp little fist, fled down the stairs and out into the sunlight.
+
+Dick and Beatrice were just ready to ride away from the porch. "I want
+to go wis you, Uncle Dick." Dorman had followed the lead of Beatrice,
+his divinity; he refused to say Richard, though grandmama did object to
+nicknames.
+
+"Up you go, son. You'll be a cow-puncher yourself one of these days.
+I'll not let him fall, and this horse is gentle." This last to satisfy
+Dorman's aunt, who wavered between anxiety and relief.
+
+"You may ride to the gate, Dorman, and then you'll have to hop down and
+run back to your auntie and grandma. We're going too far for you
+to-day." Dick gave him the reins to hold, and let the horse walk to
+prolong the joy of it.
+
+Dorman held to the horn with one hand, to the reins with the other, and
+let his small body swing forward and back with the motion of the horse,
+in exaggerated imitation of his friend, Mr. Cameron. At the gate he
+allowed himself to be set down without protest, smiled importantly
+through the bars, and thrust his arm through as far as it would reach,
+that he might wave good-by. And his divinity smiled back at him, and
+threw him a kiss, which pleased him mightily.
+
+"You must have hurt milord's feelings pretty bad," Dick remarked. "I
+couldn't get him to come. He had to write a letter first, he said."
+
+"I wish, Dick," Beatrice answered, a bit petulantly, "you would stop
+calling him milord."
+
+"Milord's a good name," Dick contended. "It's bad enough to 'Sir' him to
+his face; I can't do it behind his back, Trix. We're not used to fancy
+titles out here, and they don't fit the country, anyhow. I'm like
+you--I'd think a lot more of him if he was just a plain, everyday
+American, so I could get acquainted enough to call him 'Red Hayes.' I'd
+like him a whole lot better."
+
+Beatrice was in no mood for an argument--on that subject, at least. She
+let Rex out and raced over the prairie at a gait which would have
+greatly shocked her mother, who could not understand why Beatrice was
+not content to drive sedately about in the carriage with the rest of
+them.
+
+When they reached the round-up Keith Cameron left the bunch and rode out
+to meet them, and Dick promptly shuffled responsibility for his sister's
+entertainment to the square shoulders of his neighbor.
+
+"Trix wants to wise up on the cattle business, Keith. I'll just turn her
+over to you for a-while, and let you answer her questions; I can't, half
+the time. I want to look through the bunch a little."
+
+Keith's face spoke gratitude, and spoke it plainly. The face of
+Beatrice was frankly inattentive. She was watching the restless, moving
+mass of red backs and glistening horns, with horsemen weaving in and out
+among them in what looked to her a perfectly aimless fashion--until one
+would wheel and dart out into the open, always with a fleeing animal
+lumbering before. Other horsemen would meet him and take up the chase,
+and he would turn and ride leisurely back into the haze and confusion.
+It was like a kaleidoscope, for the scene shifted constantly and was
+never quite the same.
+
+Keith, secure in her absorption, slid sidewise in the saddle and
+studied her face, knowing all the while that he was simply storing up
+trouble for himself. But it is not given a man to flee human nature, and
+the fellow who could sit calmly beside Beatrice and not stare at her if
+the opportunity offered must certainly have the blood of a fish in his
+veins. I will tell you why.
+
+Beatrice was tall, and she was slim, and round, and tempting, with the
+most tantalizing curves ever built to torment a man. Her hair was soft
+and brown, and it waved up from the nape of her neck without those
+short, straggling locks and thin growth at the edge which mar so many
+feminine heads; and the sharp contrast of shimmery brown against ivory
+white was simply irresistible. Had her face been less full of charm,
+Keith might have been content to gaze and gaze at that lovely hair line.
+As it was, his eyes wandered to her brows. also distinctly marked, as
+though outlined first with a pencil in the fingers of an artist who
+understood. And there were her lashes, dark and long, and curled up at
+the ends; and her cheek, with its changing, come-and-go coloring; her
+mouth, with its upper lip creased deeply in the middle--so deeply that a
+bit more would have been a defect--and with an odd little dimple at one
+corner; luckily, it was on the side toward him, so that he might look at
+it all he wanted to for once; for it was always there, only growing
+deeper and wickeder when she spoke or laughed. He could not see her
+eyes, for they were turned away, but he knew quite well the color; he
+had settled that point when he looked up from coiling his rope the day
+she came. They were big, baffling, blue-brown eyes, the like of which he
+had never seen before in his life--and he had thought he had seen every
+color and every shade under the sun. Thinking of them and their
+wonderful deeps and shadows, he got hungry for a sight of them. And
+suddenly she turned to ask a question, and found him staring at her, and
+surprised a look in his eyes he did not know was there.
+
+For ten pulse-beats they stared, and the cheeks of Beatrice grew red as
+healthy young blood could paint them; Keith's were the same, only that
+his blood showed darkly through the tan. What question had been on her
+tongue she forgot to ask. Indeed, for the time, I think she forgot the
+whole English language, and every other--but the strange, wordless
+language of Keith's clear eyes.
+
+And then it was gone, and Keith was looking away, and chewing a corner
+of his lip till it hurt. His horse backed restlessly from the
+tight-gripped rein, and Keith was guilty of kicking him with his spur,
+which did not better matters. Redcloud snorted and shook his outraged
+head, and Keith came to himself and eased the rein, and spoke
+remorseful, soothing words that somehow clung long in the memory of
+Beatrice.
+
+Just after that Dick galloped up, his elbows flapping like the wings of
+a frightened hen.
+
+"Well, I suppose you could run a cow outfit all by yourself, with the
+knowledge you've got from Keith," he greeted, and two people became even
+more embarrassed than before. If Dick noticed anything, he must have
+been a wise young man, for he gave no sign.
+
+But Beatrice had not queened it in her set, three seasons, for nothing,
+even if she was capable of being confused by a sweet, new language in a
+man's eyes. She answered Dick quietly.
+
+"I've been so busy watching it all that I haven't had time to ask many
+questions, as Mr. Cameron can testify. It's like a game, and it's very
+fascinating--and dusty. I wonder if I might ride in among them, Dick?"
+
+"Better not, sis. It isn't as much fun as it looks, and you can see more
+out here. There comes milord; he must have changed his mind about the
+letter."
+
+Beatrice did not look around. To see her, you would swear she had set
+herself the task of making an accurate count of noses in that seething
+mass of raw beef below her. After a minute she ventured to glance
+furtively at Keith, and, finding his eyes turned her way, blushed again
+and called herself an idiot. After that, she straightened in the saddle,
+and became the self-poised Miss Lansell, of New York.
+
+Keith rode away to the far side of the herd, out of temptation; queer a
+man never runs from a woman until it is too late to be a particle of
+use. Keith simply changed his point of view, and watched his Heart's
+Desire from afar.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+The Search for Dorman.
+
+
+"Oh, I say," began Sir Redmond, an hour after, when he happened to stand
+close to Beatrice for a few minutes, "where is Dorman? I fancied you
+brought him along."
+
+"We didn't," Beatrice told him. "He only rode as far as the gate, where
+Dick left him, and started him back to the house."
+
+"Mary told me he came along. She and your mother were congratulating
+each other upon a quiet half-day, with you and Dorman off the place
+together. I'll wager their felicitations fell rather flat."
+
+Beatrice laughed. "Very likely. I know they were mourning because their
+lace-making had been neglected lately. What with that trip to Lost
+Canyon to-morrow, and to the mountains Friday, I'm afraid the lace will
+continue to suffer. What do you think of a round-up, Sir Redmond?"
+
+"It's deuced nasty," said he. "Such a lot of dust and noise. I fancy the
+workmen don't find it pleasant."
+
+"Yes, they do; they like it," she declared. "Dick says a cowboy is never
+satisfied off the range. And you mustn't call them workmen, Sir Redmond.
+They'd resent it, if they knew. They're cowboys, and proud of it. They
+seem rather a pleasant lot of fellows, on the whole. I have been talking
+to one or two."
+
+"Well, we're all through here," Dick announced, riding up. "I'm going to
+ride around by Keith's place, to see a horse I'm thinking of buying.
+Want to go along, Trix? Or are you tired?"
+
+"I'm never tired," averred his sister, readjusting a hat-pin and
+gathering up her reins. "I always want to go everywhere that you'll take
+me, Dick. Consider that point settled for the summer. Are you coming,
+Sir Redmond?"
+
+"I think not, thank you," he said, not quite risen above his rebuff of
+the morning. "I told Mary I would be back for lunch."
+
+"I was wiser; I refused even to venture an opinion as to when I should
+be back. Well, 'so-long'!"
+
+"You're learning the lingo pretty fast, Trix," Dick chuckled, when they
+were well away from Sir Redmond. "Milord almost fell out of the saddle
+when you fired that at him. Where did you pick it up?"
+
+"I've heard you say it a dozen times since I came. And I don't care if
+he is shocked--I wanted him to be. He needn't be such a perfect bear;
+and I know mama and Miss Hayes don't expect him to lunch, without us. He
+just did it to be spiteful."
+
+"Jerusalem, Trix! A little while ago you said he was a dear! You
+shouldn't snub him, if you want him to be nice to you."
+
+"I don't want him to be nice," flared Beatrice. "I don't care how he
+acts. Only, I must say, ill humor doesn't become him. Not that it
+matters, however."
+
+"Well, I guess we can get along without him, if he won't honor us with
+his company. Here comes Keith. Brace up, sis, and be pleasant."
+
+Beatrice glanced casually at the galloping figure of Dick's neighbor,
+and frowned.
+
+"You mustn't flirt with Keith," Dick admonished gravely. "He's a good
+fellow, and as square a man as I know; but you ought to know he's got
+the reputation of being a hard man to know. Lots of girls have tried to
+flirt and make a fool of him, and wound up with their feelings hurt
+worse than his were."
+
+"Is that a dare?" Beatrice threw up her chin with a motion Dick knew of
+old.
+
+"Not on your life! You better leave him alone; one or the other of you
+would get the worst of it, and I'd hate to see either of you feeling
+bad. As I said before, he's a bad man to fool with."
+
+"I don't consider him particularly dangerous--or interesting. He's not
+half as nice as Sir Redmond." Beatrice spoke as though she meant what
+she said, and Dick had no chance to argue the point, for Keith pulled up
+beside them at that moment.
+
+Beatrice seemed inclined to silence, and paid more attention to the
+landscape than she did to the conversation, which was mostly about range
+conditions, and the scanty water supply, and the drought.
+
+She was politely interested in Keith's ranch, and if she clung
+persistently to her society manner, why, her society manner was very
+pleasing, if somewhat unsatisfying to a fellow fairly drunk with her
+winsomeness. Keith showed her where she might look straight up the
+coulee to her brother's ranch, two miles away, and when she wished she
+might see what they were doing up there, he went in and got his
+field-glass. She thanked him prettily, and impersonally, and focused the
+glass upon Dick's house--which gave Keith another chance to look at her
+without being caught in the act.
+
+"How plain everything is! I can see mama, out on the porch, and Miss
+Hayes." She could also see Sir Redmond, who had just ridden up, and was
+talking to the ladies, but she did not think it necessary to mention
+him, for some reason; she kept her eyes to the glass, however, and
+appeared much absorbed. Dick rolled himself a cigarette and watched the
+two, and there was a twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"I wonder--Dick, I do think--I'm afraid--" Beatrice hadn't her society
+manner now; she was her unaffected, girlish self; and she was growing
+excited.
+
+"What's the matter?" Dick got up, and came and stood at her elbow.
+
+"They're acting queerly. The maids are running about, and the cook is
+out, waving a large spoon, and mama has her arm around Miss Hayes, and
+Sir Redmond."
+
+"Let's see." Dick took the glass and raised it to his eyes for a
+minute. "That's right," he said. "They're making medicine over
+something. See what you make of it, Keith."
+
+Keith took the glass and looked through it. It was like a moving
+picture; one could see, but one wanted the interpretation of sound.
+
+"We'd better ride over," he said quietly. "Don't worry, Miss Lansell; it
+probably isn't anything serious. We can take the short cut up the
+coulee, and find out." He put the glass into its leathern case and
+started to the gate, where the horses were standing. He did not tell
+Beatrice that Miss Hayes had just been carried into the house in a
+faint, or that her mother was behaving in an undignified fashion
+strongly suggesting hysterics. But Dick knew, from the look on his face,
+that it was serious. He hurried before them with long strides, leaving
+Beatrice, for the second time that morning, to the care of his neighbor.
+
+So it was Keith who held his hand down for the delicious pressure of her
+foot, and arranged her habit with painstaking care, considering the
+hurry they were in. Dick was in the saddle, and gone, before Keith had
+finished, and Keith was not a slow young man, as a rule. They ran the
+two miles without a break, except twice, where there were gates to
+close. Dick, speeding a furlong before, had obligingly left them open;
+and a stockman is hard pressed indeed--or very drunk--when he fails to
+close his gates behind him. It is an unwritten law which becomes second
+nature.
+
+Almost within sound of the place, Dick raced back and met them, and his
+face was white.
+
+"It's Dorman!" he cried. "He's lost. They haven't seen him since we
+left. You know, Trix, he was standing at the gate "
+
+Beatrice went white as Dick; whiter, for she was untanned. An
+overwhelming sense of blame squeezed her heart tight. Keith, seeing her
+shoulders droop limply, reined close, to catch her in his arms if there
+was the slightest excuse. However, Beatrice was a healthy young woman,
+with splendid command of her nerves, and she had no intention of
+fainting. The sickening weakness passed in a moment.
+
+"It's my fault," she said, speaking rapidly, her eyes seeking Dick's for
+comfort. "I said 'yes' to everything he asked me, because I was thinking
+of something else, and not paying attention. He was going to buy your
+horse, Mr. Cameron, and now he's lost!"
+
+This, though effective, was not particularly illuminating. Dick wanted
+details, and he got them--for Beatrice, having remorse to stir the dregs
+of memory, repeated nearly everything Dorman had said, even telling how
+the big, high pony put up his front hand, and he shaked it, and how
+Dorman truly needed some little wheels on his feet.
+
+"Poor little devil," Keith muttered, with wet eyes.
+
+"He--he said you lived over there," Beatrice finished, pointing, as
+Dorman had pointed--which was not toward the "Cross" ranch at all, but
+straight toward the river.
+
+Keith wheeled Redcloud; there was no need to hear more. He took the hill
+at a pace which would have killed any horse but one bred to race over
+this rough country. Near the top, the forced breathing of another horse
+at his heels made him look behind. It was Beatrice following, her eyes
+like black stars. I do not know if Keith was astonished, but I do know
+that he was pleased.
+
+"Where's Dick?" was all he said then.
+
+"Dick's going to meet the men--the cowboys. Sir Redmond went after them,
+when they found Dorman wasn't anywhere about the place."
+
+Keith nodded understandingly, and slowed to let her come alongside.
+
+"It's no use riding in bunches," he remarked, after a little. "On
+circle we always go in pairs. We'll find him, all right."
+
+"We must," said Beatrice, simply, and shaded her eyes with her hand. For
+they had reached the top, and the prairie land lay all about them and
+below, lazily asleep in the sunshine.
+
+Keith halted and reached for his glass. "It's lucky I brought it
+along," he said. "I wasn't thinking, at the time; I just slung it over
+my shoulder from habit."
+
+"It's a good habit, I think," she answered, trying to smile; but her
+lips would only quiver, for the thought of her blame tortured her. "Can
+you see--anything?" she ventured wistfully.
+
+Keith shook his head, and continued his search. "There are so many
+little washouts and coulees, down there, you know. That's the trouble
+with a glass--it looks only on a level. But we'll find him. Don't you
+worry about that. He couldn't go far."
+
+"There isn't any real danger, is there?"
+
+"Oh, no," Keith said. "Except--" He bit his lip angrily.
+
+"Except what?" she demanded. "I'm not silly, Mr. Cameron--tell me."
+
+Keith took the glass from his eyes, looked at her, and paid her the
+compliment of deciding to tell her, just as if she were a man.
+
+"Nothing, only--he might run across a snake," he said. "Rattlers."
+
+Beatrice drew her breath hard, but she was plucky. Keith thought he had
+never seen a pluckier girl, and the West can rightfully boast brave
+women.
+
+She touched Rex with the whip. "Come," she commanded. "We must not stand
+here. It has been more than three hours "
+
+Keith put away the glass, and shot ahead to guide her.
+
+"We must have missed him, somewhere." The eyes of Beatrice were heavy
+with the weariness born of anxiety and suspense. They stood at the very
+edge of the steep bluff which rimmed the river. "You don't think he
+could have--" Her eyes, shuddering down at the mocking, blue-gray
+ripples, finished the thought.
+
+"He couldn't have got this far," said Keith. "His legs would give out,
+climbing up and down. We'll go back by a little different way, and
+look."
+
+"There's something moving, off there." Beatrice pointed with her whip.
+
+"That's a coyote," Keith told her; and then, seeing the look on her
+face: "They won't hurt any one. They're the rankest cowards on the
+range."
+
+"But the snakes "
+
+"Oh, well, he might wander around for a week, and not run across one. We
+won't borrow trouble, anyway."
+
+"No," she agreed languidly. The sun was hot, and she had not had
+anything to eat since early breakfast, and the river mocked her parched
+throat with its cool glimmer below. She looked down at it wistfully, and
+Keith, watchful of every passing change in her face, led her back to
+where a cold, little spring crept from beneath a rock; there, lifting
+her down, he taught her how to drink from her hand.
+
+For himself, he threw himself down, pushed back his hat, and drank long
+and leisurely. A brown lock of hair, clinging softly together with
+moisture, fell from his forehead and trailed in the clear water, and
+Beatrice felt oddly tempted to push it back where it belonged. Standing
+quietly watching his picturesque figure, she forgot, for the moment,
+that a little boy was lost among these peaceful, sunbathed hills; she
+remembered only the man at her feet, drinking long, satisfying drafts,
+while the lock of hair floated in the spring.
+
+"Now we'll go on." He stood up and pushed back the wet lock, which
+trickled a tiny stream down his cheek, and settled his gray hat in
+place.
+
+Again that day he felt her foot in his palm, and the touch went over him
+in thrills. She was tired, he knew; her foot pressed heavier than it had
+before. He would have liked to take her in his arms and lift her bodily
+into the saddle, but he hardly dared think of such a blissful
+proceeding.
+
+He set the pace slower, however, and avoided the steepest places, and he
+halted often on the higher ground, to scan sharply the coulees. And so
+they searched, these two, together, and grew to know each other better
+than in a month of casual meetings. And the grass nodded, and the winds
+laughed, and the stern hills looked on, quizzically silent. If they knew
+aught of a small boy with a wealth of yellow curls and white collar,
+they gave no sign, and the two rode on, always seeking hopefully.
+
+A snake buzzed sharply on a gravelly slope, and Keith, sending Beatrice
+back a safe distance, took down his rope and gave battle, beating the
+sinister, gray-spotted coil with the loop until it straightened and was
+still. He dismounted then, and pinched off the rattles--nine, there
+were, and a "button"--and gave them to Beatrice, who handled them
+gingerly, and begged Keith to carry them for her. He slipped them into
+his pocket, and they went on, saying little.
+
+Back near the ranch they met Dick and Sir Redmond. They exchanged sharp
+looks, and Dick shook his head.
+
+"We haven't found him--yet. The boys are riding circle around the
+ranch; they're bound to find him, some of them, if we don't."
+
+"You had better go home," Sir Redmond told her, with a note of
+authority in his voice which set Keith's teeth on edge. "You look done
+to death; this is men's work."
+
+Beatrice bit her lip, and barely glanced at him. "I'll go--when Dorman
+is found. What shall we do now, Dick?"
+
+"Go down to the house and get some hot coffee, you two. We all snatched
+a bite to eat, and you need it. After that, you can look along the south
+side of the coulee, if you like."
+
+Beatrice obediently turned Rex toward home, and Keith followed. The
+ranch seemed very still and lonesome. Some chickens were rolling in the
+dust by the gate, and scattered, cackling indignantly, when they rode
+up. Off to the left a colt whinnied wistfully in a corral. Beatrice,
+riding listlessly to the house, stopped her horse with a jerk.
+
+"I heard--where is he?"
+
+Keith stopped Redcloud, and listened. Came a thumping noise, and a wail,
+not loud, but unmistakable.
+
+"Aunt-ie!"
+
+Beatrice was on the ground as soon as Keith, and together they ran to
+the place--the bunk-house. The thumping continued vigorously; evidently
+a small boy was kicking, with all his might, upon a closed door; it was
+not a new sound to the ears of Beatrice, since the arrival in America of
+her young nephew. Keith flung the door wide open, upsetting the small
+boy, who howled.
+
+Beatrice swooped down upon him and gathered him so close she came near
+choking him. "You darling. Oh, Dorman!"
+
+Dorman squirmed away from her. "I los' one shiny penny, Be'trice--and I
+couldn't open de door. Help me find my shiny penny."
+
+Keith picked him up and set him upon one square shoulder. "We'll take
+you up to your auntie, first thing, young man."
+
+"I want my one shiny penny. I want it!" Dorman showed symptoms of
+howling again.
+
+"We'll come back and find it. Your auntie wants you now, and
+grandmama."
+
+Beatrice, following after, was treated to a rather unusual spectacle;
+that of a tall, sun-browned fellow, with fringed chaps and brightly
+gleaming spurs, racing down the path; upon his shoulder, the wriggling
+form of an extremely disreputable small boy, with cobwebs in his curls,
+and his once white collar a dirty rag streaming out behind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6
+
+Mrs. Lansell's Lecture.
+
+
+When the excitement had somewhat abated, and Miss Hayes was convinced
+that her idol was really there, safe, and with his usual healthy
+appetite, and when a messenger had been started out to recall the
+searchers, Dorman was placed upon a chair before a select and attentive
+audience, and invited to explain, which he did.
+
+He had decided to borrow some little wheels from the bunkhouse, so he
+could ride his big, high pony home. Mr. Cameron had little wheels on his
+feet, and so did Uncle Dick, and all the mens. (The audience gravely
+nodded assent.) Well, and the knob wasn't too high when he went in, but
+when he tried to open the door to go out, it was away up there! (Dorman
+measured with his arm.) And he fell down, and all his shiny pennies
+rolled and rolled. And he looked and looked where they rolled, and when
+he counted, one was gone. So he looked and looked for the one shiny
+penny till he was tired to death. And so he climbed up high, into a
+funny bed on a shelf, and rested. And when he was rested he couldn't
+open the door, and he kicked and kicked, and then Be'trice came, and Mr.
+Cam'ron.
+
+"And you said you'd help me find my one penny," he reminded Keith,
+blinking solemnly at him from the chair. "And I want to shake hands wis
+your big, high pony. I'm going to buy him wis my six pennies. Be'trice
+said I could."
+
+Beatrice blushed, and Keith forgot where he was, for a minute, looking
+at her.
+
+"Come and find my one shiny penny," Dorman commanded, climbing down.
+"And I want Be'trice to come. Be'trice can always find things."
+
+"Beatrice cannot go," said his grandmother, who didn't much like the way
+Keith hovered near Beatrice, nor the look in his eyes. "Beatrice is
+tired."
+
+"I want Be'trice!" Dorman set up his everyday howl, which started the
+dogs barking outside. His guardian angel attempted to soothe him, but he
+would have none of her; he only howled the louder, and kicked.
+
+"There, there, honey, I'll go. Where's your hat?"
+
+"Beatrice, you had better stay in the house; you have done quite enough
+for one day." The tone of the mother suggested things.
+
+"It is imperative," said Beatrice, "for the peace and the well-being of
+this household, that Dorman find his penny without delay." When Beatrice
+adopted that lofty tone her mother was in the habit of saying
+nothing--and biding her time. Beatrice was so apt, if mere loftiness did
+not carry the day, to go a step further and flatly refuse to obey. Mrs.
+Lansell preferred to yield, rather than be openly defied.
+
+So the three went off to find the shiny penny--and in exactly
+thirty-five minutes they found it. I will not say that they could not
+have found it sooner, but, at any rate, they didn't, and they reached
+the house about two minutes behind Dick and Sir Redmond, which did not
+improve Sir Redmond's temper to speak of.
+
+After that, Keith did not need much urging from Dick to spend the rest
+of the afternoon at the "Pool" ranch. When he wanted to, Keith could be
+very nice indeed to people; he went a long way, that afternoon, toward
+making a friend of Miss Hayes; but Mrs. Lansell, who was one of those
+women who adhere to the theory of First Impressions, in capitals,
+continued to regard him as an incipient outlaw, who would, in time and
+under favorable conditions, reveal his true character, and vindicate her
+keen insight into human nature. There was one thing which Mrs. Lansell
+never forgave Keith Cameron, and that was the ruin of her watch, which
+refused to run while she was in Montana.
+
+That night, when Beatrice was just snuggling down into the delicious
+coolness of her pillow, she heard someone rap softly, but none the less
+imperatively, on her door. She opened one eye stealthily, to see her
+mother's pudgy form outlined in the feeble moonlight.
+
+"Beatrice, are you asleep?"
+
+Beatrice did not say yes, but she let her breath out carefully in a
+slumbrous sigh. It certainly sounded as if she were asleep.
+
+"Be-atrice!" The tone, though guarded, was insistent.
+
+The head of Beatrice moved slightly, and settled back into its little
+nest, for all the world like a dreaming, innocent baby.
+
+If she had not been the mother of Beatrice, Mrs. Lansell would probably
+have gone back to her room, and continued to bide her time; but the
+mother of Beatrice had learned a few things about the ways of a wilful
+girl. She went in, and closed the door carefully behind her. She did not
+wish to keep the whole house awake. Then she went straight to the bed,
+laid hand upon a white shoulder that gleamed in the moonlight, and gave
+a shake.
+
+"Beatrice, I want you to answer me when I speak."
+
+"M-m--did you--m-m--speak, mama?" Beatrice opened her eyes and closed
+them, opened them again for a minute longer, yawned daintily, and by
+these signs and tokens wandered back from dreamland obediently.
+
+Her mother sat down upon the edge of the bed, and the bed creaked. Also,
+Beatrice groaned inwardly; the time of reckoning was verily drawing
+near. She promptly closed her eyes again, and gave a sleepy sigh.
+
+"Beatrice, did you refuse Sir Redmond again?"
+
+"M-m--were you speaking--mama?"
+
+Mrs. Lansell, endeavoring to keep her temper, repeated the question.
+
+Beatrice began to feel that she was an abused girl. She lifted herself
+to her elbow, and thumped the pillow spitefully.
+
+"Again? Dear me, mama! I've never refused him once!"
+
+"You haven't accepted him once, either," her mother retorted; and
+Beatrice lay down again.
+
+"I do wish, Beatrice, you would look at the matter in a sensible light
+I'm sure I never would ask you to marry a man you could not care for.
+But Sir Redmond is young, and good-looking, and has birth and breeding,
+and money--no one can accuse him of being a fortune-hunter, I'm sure. I
+was asking Richard to-day, and he says Sir Redmond holds a large
+interest in the Northern Pool, and other English investors pay him a
+salary, besides, to look after their interests. I wouldn't be surprised
+if the holdings of both of you would be sufficient to control the
+business."
+
+Beatrice, not caring anything for business anyway, said nothing.
+
+"Any one can see the man's crazy for you. His sister says he never cared
+for a woman before in his life."
+
+"Of course," put in Beatrice sarcastically. "His sister followed him
+down to South Africa, and all around, and is in a position to know."
+
+"Any one can see he isn't a lady's man."
+
+"No--" Beatrice smiled reminiscently; "he certainly isn't."
+
+"And so he's in deadly earnest. And I'm positive he will make you a
+model husband."
+
+"Only think of having to live, all one's life, with a model husband!"
+shuddered Beatrice hypocritically.
+
+"Be-atrice! And then, it's something to marry a title."
+
+"That's the worst of it," remarked Beatrice.
+
+"Any other girl in America would jump at the chance. I do believe,
+Beatrice, you are hanging back just to be aggravating. And there's
+another thing, Beatrice. I don't approve of the way this Keith Cameron
+hangs around you."
+
+"He doesn't!" denied Beatrice, in an altogether different tone. "Why,
+mama!"
+
+"I don't approve of flirting, Beatrice, and you know it. The way you
+gadded around over the hills with him--a perfect stranger--was
+disgraceful; perfectly disgraceful. You don't know any thing about the
+fellow, whether he's a fit companion or not--a wild, uncouth cowboy--"
+
+"He graduated from Yale, a year after Dick. And he was halfback, too."
+
+"That doesn't signify," said her mother, "a particle. I know Miss Hayes
+was dreadfully shocked to see you come riding up with him, and Sir
+Redmond forced to go with Richard, or ride alone."
+
+"Dick is good company," said Beatrice. "And it was his own fault. I
+asked him to go with us, when Dick and I left the cattle, and he
+wouldn't. Dick will tell you the same. And after that I did not see him
+until just before we--I came home, Really, mama, I can't have a
+leading-string on Sir Redmond. If he refuses to come with me, I can
+hardly insist."
+
+"Well, you must have done something. You said something, or did
+something, to make him very angry. He has not been himself all day. What
+did you say?"
+
+"Dear me, mama, I am not responsible for all Sir Redmond's ill-humor."
+
+"I did not ask you that, Beatrice."
+
+Beatrice thumped her pillow again. "I don't remember anything very
+dreadful, mama. I--I think he has indigestion."
+
+"Be-atrice! I do wish you would try to conquer that habit of flippancy.
+It is not ladylike. And I warn you, Sir Redmond is not the man to dangle
+after you forever. He will lose patience, and go back to England without
+you--and serve you right! I am only talking for your own good, Beatrice.
+I am not at all sure that you want him to leave you alone."
+
+Beatrice was not at all sure, either. She lay still, and wished her
+mother would stop talking for her good. Talking for her good had meant,
+as far back as Beatrice could remember, saying disagreeable things in a
+disagreeable manner.
+
+"And remember, Beatrice, I want this flirting stopped."
+
+"Flirting, mama?" To hear the girl, you would think she had never heard
+the word before.
+
+"That's what I said, Beatrice. I shall speak to Richard in the morning
+about this fellow Cameron. He must put a stop to his being here
+two-thirds of the time. It is unendurable."
+
+"He and Dick are chums, mama, and have been for years. And to-morrow we
+are going to Lost Canyon, you know, and Mr. Cameron is to go along. And
+there are several other trips, mama, to which he is already invited.
+Dick cannot recall those invitations."
+
+"Well, it must end there. Richard must do something. I cannot see what
+he finds about the fellow to like--or you, either, Beatrice. Just
+because he rides like a--a wild Indian, and has a certain daredevil
+way--"
+
+"I never said I liked him, mama," Beatrice protested, somewhat hastily.
+"I--of course, I try to treat him well--"
+
+"I should say you did!" exploded her mother angrily. "You would be much
+better employed in trying to treat Sir Redmond half as well. It is
+positively disgraceful, the way you behave toward him--as fine a man as
+I ever met in my life.  I warn you, Beatrice, you must have more regard
+for propriety, or I shall take you back to New York at once. I certainly
+shall."
+
+With that threat, which she shrewdly guessed would go far toward
+bringing this wayward girl to time, Mrs. Lansell got up off the bed,
+which creaked its relief, and groped her way to her own room.
+
+The pillow of Beatrice received considerable thumping during the next
+hour--a great deal more, in fact, than it needed. Two thoughts troubled
+her more than she liked. What if her mother was right, and Sir Redmond
+lost patience with her and went home? That possibility was unpleasant,
+to say the least. Again, would he give her up altogether if she showed
+Dick she was not afraid of Keith Cameron, for all his good looks, and at
+the same time taught that young man a much-needed lesson? The way he had
+stared at her was nothing less than a challenge and Beatrice was sorely
+tempted.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7
+
+Beatrice's Wild Ride.
+
+
+"Well, are we all ready?" Dick gathered up his reins, and took critical
+inventory of the load. His mother peered under the front seat to be
+doubly sure that there were at least four umbrellas and her waterproof
+raglan in the rig; Mrs. Lansell did not propose to be caught unawares in
+a storm another time. Miss Hayes straightened Dorman's cap, and told him
+to sit down, dear, and then called upon Sir Redmond to enforce the
+command. Sir Redmond repeated her command, minus the dear, and then rode
+on ahead to overtake Beatrice and Keith, who had started. Dick climbed
+up over the front wheel, released the brake, chirped at the horses, and
+they were off for Lost Canyon.
+
+Beatrice was behaving beautifully, and her mother only hoped to heaven
+it would last the day out; perhaps Sir Redmond would be able to extract
+some sort of a promise from her in that mood, Mrs. Lansell reflected, as
+she watched Beatrice chatting to her two cavaliers, with the most
+decorous impartiality. Sir Redmond seemed in high spirits, which argued
+well; Mrs. Lansell gave herself up to the pleasure of the drive with a
+heart free from anxiety. Not only was Beatrice at her best; Dorman's
+mood was nothing short of angelic, and as the weather was simply
+perfect, the day surely promised well.
+
+For a mile Keith had showed signs of a mind not at ease, and at last he
+made bold to speak.
+
+"I thought Rex was to be your saddle-horse?" he said abruptly to
+Beatrice.
+
+"He was; but when Dick brought Goldie home, last night, I fell in love
+with him on sight, and just teased Dick till he told me I might have him
+to ride."
+
+"I thought Dick had some sense," Keith said gloomily.
+
+"He has. He knew there would be no peace till he surrendered."
+
+"I didn't know you were going to ride him, when I sold him to Dick. He's
+not safe for a woman."
+
+"Does he buck, Mr. Cameron? Dick said he was gentle." Beatrice had seen
+a horse buck, one day, and had a wholesome fear of that form of equine
+amusement.
+
+"Oh, no. I never knew him to."
+
+"Then I don't mind anything else. I'm accustomed to horses," said
+Beatrice, and smiled welcome to Sir Redmond, who came up with them at
+that moment.
+
+"You want to ride him with a light rein," Keith cautioned, clinging to
+the subject. "He's tenderbitted, and nervous. He won't stand for any
+jerking, you see."
+
+"I never jerk, Mr. Cameron." Keith discovered that big, baffling,
+blue-brown eyes can, if they wish, rival liquid air for coldness. "I
+rode horses before I came to Montana."
+
+Of course, when a man gets frozen with a girl's eyes, and scorched with
+a girl's sarcasm, the thing for him to do is to retreat until the
+atmosphere becomes normal. Keith fell behind just as soon as he could do
+so with some show of dignity, and for several miles tried to convince
+himself that he would rather talk to Dick and "the old maid" than not.
+
+"Don't you know," Sir Redmond remarked sympathetically, "some of these
+Western fellows are inclined to be deuced officious and impertinent."
+
+Sir Redmond got a taste of the freezing process that made him change the
+subject abruptly.
+
+The way was rough and lonely; the trail wound over sharp-nosed hills and
+through deep, narrow coulees, with occasional, tantalizing glimpses of
+the river and the open land beyond, that kept Beatrice in a fever of
+enthusiasm. From riding blithely ahead, she took to lagging far behind
+with her kodak, getting snap-shots of the choicest bits of scenery.
+
+"Another cartridge, please, Sir Redmond," she said, and wound
+industriously on the finished roll.
+
+"It's a jolly good thing I brought my pockets full." Sir Redmond fished
+one out for her. "Was that a dozen?"
+
+"No; that had only six films. I want a larger one this time. It is a
+perfect nuisance to stop and change. Be still, Goldie!"
+
+"We're getting rather a long way behind--but I fancy the road is
+plain."
+
+"We'll hurry and overtake them. I won't take any more pictures."
+
+"Until you chance upon something you can't resist. I understand all
+that, you know." Sir Redmond, while he teased, was pondering whether
+this was an auspicious time and place to ask Beatrice to marry him. He
+had tried so many times and places that seemed auspicious, that the man
+was growing fearful. It is not pleasant to have a girl smile indulgently
+upon you and deftly turn your avowals aside, so that they fall flat.
+
+"I'm ready," she announced, blind to what his eyes were saying.
+
+"Shall we trek?" Sir Redmond sighed a bit. He was not anxious to
+overtake the others.
+
+"We will. Only, out here people never 'trek,' Sir Redmond. They 'hit the
+trail'."
+
+"So they do. And the way these cowboys do it, one would think they were
+couriers, by Jove! with the lives of a whole army at stake. So I fancy
+we had better hit the trail, eh?"
+
+"You're learning," Beatrice assured him, as they started on. "A year out
+here, and you would be a real American, Sir Redmond."
+
+Sir Redmond came near saying, "The Lord forbid!" but he thought better
+of it. Beatrice was intensely loyal to her countrymen, unfortunately,
+and would certainly resent such a remark; but, for all that, he thought
+it.
+
+For a mile or two she held to her resolve, and then, at the top of a
+long hill overlooking the canyon where they were to eat their lunch, out
+came her kodak again.
+
+"This must be Lost Canyon, for Dick has stopped by those trees. I want
+to get just one view from here. Steady, Goldie! Dear me, this horse does
+detest standing still!"
+
+"I fancy he is anxious to get down with the others. Let me hold him for
+you. Whoa, there!" He put a hand upon the bridle, a familiarity Goldie
+resented. He snorted and dodged backward, to the ruin of the picture
+Beatrice was endeavoring to get.
+
+"Now you've frightened him. Whoa, pet! It's of no use to try; he won't
+stand."
+
+"Let me have your camera. He's getting rather an ugly temper, I think."
+Sir Redmond put out his hand again, and again Goldie dodged backward.
+
+"I can do better alone, Sir Redmond." The cheeks of Beatrice were red.
+She managed to hold the horse in until her kodak was put safely in its
+case, but her temper, as well as Goldie's, was roughened. She hated
+spoiling a film, which she was perfectly sure she had done.
+
+Goldie felt the sting of her whip when she brought him back into the
+road, and, from merely fretting, he took to plunging angrily. Then, when
+Beatrice pulled him up sharply, he thrust out his nose, grabbed the bit
+in his teeth, and bolted down the hill, past all control.
+
+"Good God, hold him!" shouted Sir Redmond, putting his horse to a run.
+
+The advice was good, and Beatrice heard it plainly enough, but she
+neither answered nor looked back. How, she thought, resentfully, was one
+to hold a yellow streak of rage, with legs like wire springs and a neck
+of iron? Besides, she was angrily alive to the fact that Keith Cameron,
+watching down below, was having his revenge. She wondered if he was
+enjoying it.
+
+He was not. Goldie, when he ran, ran blindly in a straight line, and
+Keith knew it. He also knew that the Englishman couldn't keep within
+gunshot of Goldie, with the mount he had, and half a mile away--Keith
+shut his teeth hard together, and went out to meet her. Redcloud lay
+along the ground in great leaps, but Keith, bending low over his neck,
+urged him faster and faster, until the horse, his ears laid close
+against his neck, did the best there was in him. From the tail of his
+eye, Keith saw Sir Redmond's horse go down upon his knees, and get up
+limping--and the sight filled him with ungenerous gladness; Sir Redmond
+was out of the race. It was Keith and Redcloud--they two; and Keith
+could smile over it.
+
+He saw Beatrice's hat loosen and lift in front, flop uncertainly, and
+then go sailing away into the sage-brush, and he noted where it fell,
+that he might find it, later. Then he was close enough to see her face,
+and wondered that there was so little fear written there. Beatrice was
+plucky, and she rode well, her weight upon the bit; but her weight was
+nothing to the clinched teeth of the horse; and, though she had known it
+from the start, she was scarcely frightened. There was a good deal of
+the daredevil in Beatrice; she trusted a great deal to blind luck.
+
+Just there the land was level, and she hoped to check him on the slope
+of the hill before them. She did not know it was moated like a castle,
+with a washout ten feet deep and twice that in width, and that what
+looked to her quite easy was utterly impossible.
+
+Keith gained, every leap. In a moment he was close behind.
+
+"Take your foot out of the stirrup," he commanded, harshly, and though
+Beatrice wondered why, something in his voice made her obey.
+
+Now Redcloud's nose was even with her elbow; the breath from his
+wide-flaring nostrils rose hotly in her face. Another bound, and he had
+forged ahead, neck and neck with Goldie, and it was Keith by her side,
+keen-eyed and calm.
+
+"Let go all hold," he said. Reaching suddenly, he caught her around the
+waist and pulled her from the saddle, just as Redcloud, scenting danger,
+plowed his front feet deeply into the loose soil and stopped dead still.
+
+It was neatly done, and quickly; so quickly that before Beatrice had
+more than gasped her surprise, Keith lowered her to the ground and slid
+out of the saddle. Beatrice looked at him, and wondered at his face, and
+at the way he was shaking. He leaned weakly against the horse and hid
+his face on his arm, and trembled at what had come so close to the
+girl--the girl, who stood there panting a little, with her wonderful,
+waving hair cloaking her almost to her knees, and her blue-brown eyes
+wide and bright, and full of a deep amazement. She forgot Goldie, and
+did not even look to see what had become of him; she forgot nearly
+everything, just then, in wonder at this tall, clean-built young fellow,
+who never had seemed to care what happened, leaning there with his face
+hidden, his hat far hack on his head and little drops standing thickly
+upon his forehead. She waited a moment, and when he did not move, her
+thoughts drifted to other things.
+
+"I wonder," she said abstractedly, "if I broke my kodak."
+
+Keith lifted his head and looked at her. "Your kodak--good Lord!" He
+looked hard into her eyes, and she returned the stare.
+
+"Come here," he commanded, hoarsely, catching her arm. "Your kodak! Look
+down there!" He led her to the brink, which was close enough to set him
+shuddering anew. "Look! There's Goldie, damn him! It's a wonder he's on
+his feet; I thought he'd be dead--and serve him right. And you--you
+wonder if you broke your kodak !"
+
+Beatrice drew back from him, and from the sight below, and if she were
+frightened, she tried not to let him see. "Should I have fainted?" She
+was proud of the steadiness of her voice. "Really, I am very much
+obliged to you, Mr. Cameron, for saving me from an ugly fall. You did it
+very neatly, I imagine, and I am grateful. Still, I really hope I didn't
+break my kodak. Are you very disappointed because I can't faint away?
+There doesn't seem to be any brook close by, you see--and I haven't my
+er--lover's arms to fall into. Those are the regulation stage settings,
+I believe, and--"
+
+"Don't worry, Miss Lansell. I didn't expect you to faint, or to show any
+human feelings whatever. I do pity your horse, though."
+
+"You didn't a minute ago," she reminded him. "You indulged in a bit of
+profanity, if I remember."
+
+"For which I beg Goldie's pardon," he retorted, his eyes unsmiling.
+
+"And mine, I hope."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"I think it's rather absurd to stand here sparring, Mr. Cameron. You'll
+begin to accuse me of ingratitude, and I'm as grateful as possible for
+what you did. Sir Redmond's horse was too slow to keep up, or he would
+have been at hand, no doubt."
+
+"And could have supplied part of the stage setting. Too bad he was
+behind." Keith turned and readjusted the cinch on his saddle, though it
+was not loose enough to matter, and before he had finished Sir Redmond
+rode up.
+
+"Are you hurt, Beatrice?" His face was pale, and his eyes anxious.
+
+"Not at all. Mr. Cameron kindly helped me from the saddle in time to
+prevent an accident. I wish you'd thank him, Sir Redmond. I haven't the
+words."
+
+"You needn't trouble," said Keith hastily, getting into the saddle.
+"I'll go down after Goldie. You can easily find the camp, I guess,
+without a pilot." Then he galloped away and left them, and would not
+look back; if he had done so, he would have seen Beatrice's eyes
+following him remorsefully. Also, he would have seen Sir Redmond glare
+after him jealously; for Sir Redmond was not in a position to know that
+their tete-a-tete had not been a pleasant one, and no man likes to have
+another fellow save the life of a woman he loves, while he himself is
+limping painfully up from the rear.
+
+However, the woman he loved was very gracious to him that day, and for
+many days, and Keith Cameron held himself aloof during the rest of the
+trip, which should have contented Sir Redmond.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8
+
+Dorman Plays Cupid.
+
+
+Dorman toiled up the steps, his straw hat perilously near to slipping
+down his back, his face like a large, red beet, and his hands vainly
+trying to reach around a baking-powder can which the Chinaman cook had
+given him.
+
+He marched straight to where Beatrice was lying in the hammock. If she
+had been older, or younger, or a plain young woman, one might say that
+Beatrice was sulking in the hammock, for she had not spoken anything but
+"yes" and "no" to her mother for an hour, and she had only spoken those
+two words occasionally, when duty demanded it. For one thing, Sir
+Redmond was absent, and had been for two weeks, and Beatrice was
+beginning to miss him dreadfully. To beguile the time, she had ridden,
+every day, long miles into the hills. Three times she had met Keith
+Cameron, also riding alone in the hills, and she had endeavored to amuse
+herself with him, after her own inimitable fashion, and with more or
+less success. The trouble was, that sometimes Keith seemed to be
+amusing himself with her, which was not pleasing to a girl like
+Beatrice. At any rate, he proved himself quite able to play the game of
+Give and Take, so that the conscience of Beatrice was at ease; no one
+could call her pastime a slaughter of the innocents, surely, when the
+fellow stood his ground like that. It was more a fencing-bout, and
+Beatrice enjoyed it very much; she told herself that the reason she
+enjoyed talking with Keith was because he was not always getting hurt,
+like Sir Redmond--or, if he did, he kept his feelings to himself, and
+went boldly on with the game. Item: Beatrice had reversed her decision
+that Keith was vain, though she still felt tempted, at times, to resort
+to "making faces"--when she was worsted, that was.
+
+To return to this particular day of sulking; Rex had cast a shoe, and
+lamed himself just enough to prevent her riding, and so Beatrice was
+having a dull day of it in the house. Besides, her mother had just
+finished talking to her for her good, which was enough to send an angel
+into the sulks--and Beatrice lacked a good deal of being an angel.
+
+Dorman laid his baking-powder can confidingly in his divinity's lap.
+"Be'trice, I did get some grasshoppers; you said I couldn't. And you
+wouldn't go fishin', 'cause you didn't like to take Uncle Dick's
+make-m'lieve flies, so I got some really ones, Be'trice, that'll wiggle
+dere own self."
+
+"Oh, dear me! It's too hot, Dorman."
+
+"'Tisn't, Be'trice It's dest as cool--and by de brook it's awf-lly cold.
+Come, Be'trice!" He pulled at the smart little pink ruffles on her
+skirt.
+
+"I'm too sleepy, hon."
+
+"You can sleep by de brook, Be'trice. I'll let you," he promised
+generously, "'cept when I need anudder grasshopper; nen I'll wake you
+up."
+
+"Wait till to-morrow. I don't believe the fish are hungry to-day. Don't
+tear my skirt to pieces, Dorman!"
+
+Dorman began to whine. He had never found his divinity in so unlovely a
+mood. "I want to go now! Dey are too hungry, Be'trice! Looey Sam is
+goin' to fry my fishes for dinner, to s'prise auntie. Come, Be'trice!"
+
+"Why don't you go with the child, Beatrice? You grow more selfish every
+day." Mrs. Lansell could not endure selfishness--in others. "You know he
+will not give us any peace until you do."
+
+Dorman instantly proceeded to make good his grandmother's prophecy, and
+wept so that one could hear him a mile.
+
+"Oh, dear me! Be still, Dorman--your auntie has a headache. Well, get
+your rod, if you know where it is--which I doubt." Beatrice flounced out
+of the hammock and got her hat, one of those floppy white things,
+fluffed with thin, white stuff, till they look like nothing so much as a
+wisp of cloud, with ribbons to moor it to her head and keep it from
+sailing off to join its brothers in the sky.
+
+Down by the creek, where the willows nodded to their own reflections in
+the still places, it was cool and sweet scented, and Beatrice forgot her
+grievances, and was not sorry she had come.
+
+(It was at about this time that a tall young fellow, two miles down the
+coulee, put away his field glass and went off to saddle his horse.)
+
+"Don't run ahead so, Dorman," Beatrice cautioned. To her had been given
+the doubtful honor of carrying the baking-powder can of grasshoppers.
+Even divinities must make themselves useful to man.
+
+"Why, Be'trice?" Dorman swished his rod in unpleasant proximity to his
+divinity's head.
+
+"Because, honey"--Beatrice dodged--"you might step on a snake, a
+rattlesnake, that would bite you."
+
+"How would it bite, Be'trice?"
+
+"With its teeth, of course; long, wicked teeth, with poison on them."
+
+"I saw one when I was ridin' on a horse wis Uncle Dick. It kept windin'
+up till it was round, and it growled wis its tail, Be'trice. And Uncle
+Dick chased it, and nen it unwinded itself and creeped under a big rock.
+It didn't bite once--and I didn't see any teeth to it."
+
+"Carry your rod still, Dorman. Are you trying to knock my hat off my
+head? Rattlesnakes have teeth, hon, whether you saw them or not. I saw a
+great, long one that day we thought you were lost. Mr. Cameron killed it
+with his rope. I'm sure it had teeth."
+
+"Did it growl, Be'trice? Tell me how it went."
+
+"Like this, hon." Beatrice parted her lips ever so little, and a snake
+buzzed at Dorman's feet. He gave a yell of terror, and backed
+ingloriously.
+
+"You see, honey, if that had been really a snake, it would have bitten
+you. Never mind, dear--it was only I."
+
+Dorman was some time believing this astonishing statement. "How did you
+growl by my feet, Be'trice? Show me again."
+
+Beatrice, who had learned some things at school which were not included
+in the curriculum, repeated the performance, while Dorman watched her
+with eyes and mouth at their widest. Like some older members of his sex,
+he was discovering new witcheries about his divinity every day.
+
+"Well, Be'trice!" He gave a long gasp of ecstasy. "I don't see how can
+you do it? Can't I do it, Be'trice?"
+
+"I'm afraid not, honey--you'd have to learn. There was a queer French
+girl at school, who could do the strangest things, Dorman--like fairy
+tales, almost. And she taught me to throw my voice different places, and
+mimic sounds, when we should have been at our lessons. Listen, hon. This
+is how a little lamb cries, when he is lost. . . . And this is what a
+hungry kittie says, when she is away up in a tree, and is afraid to come
+down.
+
+Dorman danced all around his divinity, and forgot about the fish--until
+Beatrice found it in her heart to regret her rash revelation of hitherto
+undreamed-of powers of entertainment.
+
+"Not another sound, Dorman," she declared at length, with the firmness
+of despair. "No, I will not be a lost lamb another once. No, nor a
+hungry kittie, either--nor a snake, or anything. If you are not going to
+fish, I shall go straight back to the house."
+
+Dorman sighed heavily, and permitted his divinity to fasten a small
+grasshopper to his hook.
+
+"We'll go a bit farther, dear, down under those great trees. And you
+must not speak a word, remember, or the fish will all run away."
+
+When she had settled him in a likely place, and the rapt patience of the
+born angler had folded him close, she disposed herself comfortably in
+the thick grass, her back against a tree, and took up the shuttle of
+fancy to weave a wonderful daydream, as beautiful, intangible as the
+lacy, summer clouds over her head.
+
+A man rode quietly over the grass and stopped two rods away, that he
+might fill his hungry eyes with the delicious loveliness of his Heart's
+Desire.
+
+"Got a bite yet?"
+
+Dorman turned and wrinkled his nose, by way of welcome, and shook his
+head vaguely, as though he might tell of several unimportant nibbles, if
+it were worth the effort.
+
+Beatrice sat a bit straighter, and dexterously whisked some pink
+ruffles down over two distracting ankles, and hoped Keith had not taken
+notice of them. He had, though; trust a man for that!
+
+Keith dismounted, dropped the reins to the ground, and came and laid
+himself down in the grass beside his Heart's Desire, and Beatrice
+noticed how tall he was, and slim and strong.
+
+"How did you know we were here?" she wanted to know, with lifted
+eyebrows.
+
+Keith wondered if there was a welcome behind that sweet, indifferent
+face. He never could be sure of anything in Beatrice's face, because it
+never was alike twice, it seemed to him--and if it spoke welcome for a
+second, the next there was only raillery, or something equally
+unsatisfying.
+
+"I saw you from the trail," he answered promptly, evidently not
+thinking it wise to mention the fieldglass. And then: "Is Dick at
+home?" Not that he wanted Dick--but a fellow, even when he is in the
+last stages of love, feels need of an excuse sometimes.
+
+"No--we women are alone to-day. There isn't a man on the place, except
+Looey Sam, and he doesn't count."
+
+Dorman squirmed around till he could look at the two, and his eyebrows
+were tied in a knot. "I wish, Be'trice, you wouldn't talk, 'less you
+whisper. De fishes won't bite a bit."
+
+"All right, honey--we won't."
+
+Dorman turned back to his fishing with a long breath of relief. His
+divinity never broke a promise, if she could help it.
+
+If Dorman Hayes had been Cupid himself, he could not have hit upon a
+more impish arrangement than that. To place a girl like Beatrice beside
+a fellow like Keith--a fellow who is tall, and browned, and extremely
+good-looking, and who has hazel eyes with a laugh in them always--a
+fellow, moreover, who is very much in love and very much in earnest
+about it--and condemn him to silence, or to whispers!
+
+Keith took advantage of the edict, and moved closer, so that he could
+whisper in comfort--and be nearer his Heart's Desire. He lay with his
+head propped upon his hand, and his elbow digging into the sod and
+getting grass-stains on his shirt sleeve, for the day was too warm for a
+coat. Beatrice, looking down at him, observed that his forearm, between
+his glove and wrist-band, was as white and smooth as her own. It is
+characteristic of a cowboy to have a face brown as an Indian, and hands
+girlishly white and soft.
+
+"I haven't had a glimpse of you for a week--not since I met you down by
+the river. Where have you been?" he whispered.
+
+"Here. Rex went lame, and Dick wouldn't let me ride any other horse,
+since that day Goldie bolted--and so the hills have called in vain. I've
+stayed at home and made quantities of Duchesse lace--I almost finished a
+love of a center piece--and mama thinks I have reformed. But Rex is
+better, and tomorrow I'm going somewhere."
+
+"Better help me hunt some horses that have been running down Lost
+Canyon way. I'm going to look for them to-morrow," Keith suggested, as
+calmly as was compatible with his eagerness and his method of speech. I
+doubt if any man can whisper things to a girl he loves, and do it
+calmly. I know Keith's heart was pounding.
+
+"I shall probably ride in the opposite direction," Beatrice told him
+wickedly. She wondered if he thought she would run at his beck.
+
+"I never saw you in this dress before," Keith murmured, his eyes
+caressing.
+
+"No? You may never again," she said. "I have so many things to wear out,
+you know."
+
+"I like it," he declared, as emphatically as he could, and whisper. "It
+is just the color of your cheeks, after the wind has been kissing them a
+while."
+
+"Fancy a cowboy saying pretty things like that!"
+
+Beatrice's cheeks did not wait for the wind to kiss them pink.
+
+"Ya-as, only fawncy, ye knaw." His eyes were daringly mocking.
+
+"For shame, Mr. Cameron! Sir Redmond would not mimic your speech."
+
+"Good reason why; he couldn't, not if he tried a thousand years."
+
+Beatrice knew this was the truth, so she fell back upon dignity.
+
+"We will not discuss that subject, I think."
+
+"I don't want to, anyway. I know another subject a million times more
+interesting than Sir Redmond."
+
+"Indeed!" Beatrice's eyebrows were at their highest. "And what is it,
+then?"
+
+"You!" Keith caught her hand; his eyes compelled her.
+
+"I think," said Beatrice, drawing her hand away, "we will not discuss
+that subject, either."
+
+"Why?" Keith's eyes continued to woo.
+
+"Because."
+
+It occurred to Beatrice that an unsophisticated girl might easily think
+Keith in earnest, with that look in his eyes.
+
+Dorman, scowling at them over his shoulder, unconsciously did his
+divinity a service. Beatrice pursed her lips in a way that drove Keith
+nearly wild, and took up the weapon of silence.
+
+"You said you women are alone--where is milord?" Keith began again,
+after two minutes of lying there watching her.
+
+"Sir Redmond is in Helena, on business. He's been making arrangements to
+lease a lot of land."
+
+"Ah-h!" Keith snapped a twig off a dead willow,
+
+"We look for him home to-day, and Dick drove in to meet the train."
+
+"So the Pool has gone to leasing land?" The laugh had gone out of
+Keith's eyes; they were clear and keen.
+
+"Yes--the plan is to lease the Pine Ridge country, and fence it. I
+suppose you know where that is."
+
+"I ought to," Keith said quietly. "It's funny Dick never mentioned it."
+
+"It isn't Dick's idea," Beatrice told him. "It was Sir Redmond's. Dick
+is rather angry, I think, and came near quarreling with Sir Redmond
+about it. But English capital controls the Pool, you know, and Sir
+Redmond controls the English capital, so he can adopt whatever policy he
+chooses. The way he explained the thing to me, it seems a splendid
+plan--don't you think so?"
+
+"Yes." Keith's tone was not quite what he meant it to be; he did not
+intend it to be ironical, as it was. "It's a snap for the Pool, all
+right. It gives them a cinch on the best of the range, and all the
+water. I didn't give milord credit for such business sagacity."
+
+Beatrice leaned over that she might read his eyes, but Keith turned his
+face away. In the shock of what he had just learned, he was, at the
+moment, not the lover; he was the small cattleman who is being forced
+out of the business by the octopus of combined capital. It was not less
+bitter that the woman he loved was one of the tentacles reaching out to
+crush him. And they could do it; they--the whole affair resolved itself
+into a very simple scheme, to Keith. The gauntlet had been thrown
+down--because of this girl beside him. It was not so much business
+acumen as it was the antagonism of a rival that had prompted the move.
+Keith squared his shoulders, and mentally took up the gauntlet. He might
+lose in the range fight, but he would win the girl, if it were in the
+power of love to do it.
+
+"Why that tone? I hope it isn't--will it inconvenience you?"
+
+"Oh, no. No, not at all. No--" Keith seemed to forget that a
+superabundance of negatives breeds suspicion of sincerity.
+
+"I'm afraid that means that it will. And I'm sure Sir Redmond never
+meant--"
+
+"I believe that kid has got a bite at last," Keith interrupted, getting
+up. "Let me take hold, there, Dorman; you'll be in the creek yourself in
+a second." He landed a four-inch fish, carefully rebaited the hook, cast
+the line into a promising eddy, gave the rod over to Dorman, and went
+back to Beatrice, who had been watching him with troubled eyes.
+
+"Mr. Cameron, if I had known--" Beatrice was good-hearted, if she was
+fond of playing with a man's heart.
+
+"I hope you're not letting that business worry you, Miss Lansell. You
+remind me of a painting I saw once in Boston. It was called June."
+
+"But this is August, so I don't apply. Isn't there some way you--"
+
+"Did you hear about that train-robbery up the line last week?" Keith
+settled himself luxuriously upon his back, with his hands clasped under
+his head, and his hat tipped down over his eyes--but not enough to
+prevent him from watching his Heart's Desire. And in his eyes
+laughter--and something sweeter--lurked. If Sir Redmond had wealth to
+fight with, Keith's weapon was far and away more dangerous, for it was
+the irresistible love of a masterful man--the love that sweeps obstacles
+away like straws.
+
+"I am not interested in train-robberies," Beatrice told him, her eyes
+still clouded with trouble. "I want to talk about this lease."
+
+"They got one fellow the next day, and another got rattled and gave
+himself up; but the leader of the gang, one of Montana's pet outlaws, is
+still ranging somewhere in the hills. You want to be careful about
+riding off alone; you ought to let some one--me, for instance--go along
+to look after you."
+
+"Pshaw!" said his Heart's Desire, smiling reluctantly. "I'm not afraid.
+Do you suppose, if Sir Redmond had known--"
+
+"Those fellows made quite a haul--almost enough to lease the whole
+country, if they wanted to. Something over fifty thousand dollars--and a
+strong box full of sand, that the messenger was going to fool them with.
+He did, all right; but they weren't so slow. They hustled around and got
+the money, and he lost his sand into the bargain."
+
+"Was that meant for a pun?" Beatrice blinked her big eyes at him. "If
+you're quite through with the train-robbers, perhaps you will tell me
+how--"
+
+"I'm glad old Mother Nature didn't give every woman an odd dimple
+beside the mouth," Keith observed, reaching for her hat, and running a
+ribbon caressingly through his fingers.
+
+"Why?" Beatrice smoothed the dimple complacently with her finger-tips.
+
+"Why? Oh, it would get kind of monotonous ,wouldn't it?"
+
+"This from a man known chiefly for his pretty speeches!" Beatrice's
+laugh had a faint tinge of chagrin.
+
+"Wouldn't pretty speeches get monotonous, too?" Keith's eyes were
+laughing at her.
+
+"Yours wouldn't," she retorted, spitefully, and immediately bit her lip
+and hoped he would not consider that a bid for more pretty speeches.
+
+"Be'trice, dis hopper is awf-lly wilted!" came a sepulchral whisper from
+Dorman.
+
+Keith sighed, and went and baited the hook again. When he returned to
+Beatrice, his mood had changed.
+
+"I want you to promise--"
+
+"I never make promises of any sort, Mr. Cameron." Beatrice had fallen
+back upon her airy tone, which was her strongest weapon of
+defense--unless one except her liquid-air smile.
+
+"I wasn't thinking of asking much," Keith went on coolly. "I only
+wanted to ask you not to worry about that leasing business."
+
+"Are you worrying about it, Mr. Cameron?"
+
+"That isn't the point. No, I can't say I expect to lose sleep over it. I
+hope you will dismiss anything I may have said from your mind."
+
+"But I don't understand. I feel that you blame Sir Redmond, when I'm
+sure he--"
+
+"I did not say I blamed anybody. I think we'll not discuss it."
+
+"Yes, I think we shall. You'll tell me all about it, if I want to
+know." Beatrice adopted her coaxing tone, which never had failed her.
+
+"Oh, no!" Keith laughed a little. "A girl can't always have her own way
+just because she wants it, even if she--"
+
+"I've got a fish, Mr. Cam'ron!" Dorman squealed, and Keith was obliged
+to devote another five minutes to diplomacy.
+
+"I think you have fished long enough, honey," Beatrice told Dorman
+decidedly. "It's nearly dinner time, and Looey Sam won't have time to
+fry your fish if you don't hurry home. Shall I tell Dick you wished to
+see him, Mr. Cameron?"
+
+"It's nothing important, so I won't trouble you," Keith replied, in a
+tone that matched hers for cool courtesy. "I'll see him to-morrow,
+probably." He helped Dorman reel in his line, cut a willow-wand and
+strung the three fish upon it by the gills, washed his hands leisurely
+in the creek, and dried them on his handkerchief, just as if nothing
+bothered him in the slightest degree. Then he went over and smoothed
+Redcloud's mane and pulled a wisp of forelock from under the brow-band,
+and commanded him to shake hands, which the horse did promptly.
+
+"I want to shake hands wis your pony, too," Dorman cried, and dropped
+pole and fish heedlessly into the grass.
+
+"All right, kid."
+
+Dorman went up gravely and clasped Redcloud's raised fetlock solemnly,
+while the tall cow-puncher smiled down at him.
+
+"Kiss him, Redcloud," he said softly; and then, when the horse's nose
+was thrust in his face: "No, not me--kiss the kid." He lifted the child
+up in his arms, and when Redcloud touched his soft nose to Dorman's
+cheek and lifted his lip for a dainty, toothless nibble, Dorman was
+speechless with fright and rapture thrillingly combined.
+
+"Now run home with your fish; it lacks only two hours and forty minutes
+to dinner time, and it will take at least twenty minutes for the fish to
+fry--so you see you'll have to hike."
+
+Beatrice flushed and looked at him sharply, but Keith was getting into
+the saddle and did not appear to remember she was there. The fingers
+that were tying her hat-ribbons under her chin fumbled awkwardly and
+trembled. Beatrice would have given a good deal at that moment to know
+just what Keith Cameron was thinking; and she was in a blind rage with
+herself to think that it mattered to her what he thought.
+
+When he lifted his hat she only nodded curtly. She mimicked every beast
+and bird she could think of on the way home, to wipe him and his horse
+from the memory of Dorman, whose capacity for telling things best left
+untold was simply marvelous.
+
+It is saying much for Beatrice's powers of entertainment that Dorman
+quite forgot to say anything about Mr. Cameron and his pony, and
+chattered to his auntie and grandmama about kitties up in a tree, and
+lost lambs and sleepy birds, until he was tucked into bed that night. It
+was not until then that Beatrice felt justified in drawing a long
+breath. Not that she cared whether any one knew of her meeting Keith
+Cameron, only that her mother would instantly take alarm and preach to
+her about the wickedness of flirting; and Beatrice was not in the mood
+for sermons.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9
+
+What It Meant to Keith.
+
+
+"Dick, I wish you'd tell me about this leasing business. There are
+points which I don't understand." Beatrice leaned over and smoothed
+Rex's sleek shoulder with her hand.
+
+"What do you want to understand it for? The thing is done now. We've got
+the fence-posts strung, and a crew hired to set them."
+
+"You needn't snap your words like that, Dick. It doesn't matter--only I
+was wondering why Mr. Cameron acted so queer yesterday when I told him
+about it."
+
+"You told Keith? What did he say?"
+
+"He didn't say anything. He just looked things."
+
+"Where did you see him?" Dick wanted to know.
+
+"Well, dear me! I don't see that it matters where I saw him. You're
+getting as inquisitive as mama. If you think it concerns you, why, I met
+him accidentally when I was fishing with Dorman. He was coming to see
+you, but you were gone, so he stopped and talked for a few minutes. Was
+there anything so strange about that? And I told him you were leasing
+the Pine Ridge country, and he looked--well, peculiar. But he wouldn't
+say anything."
+
+"Well, he had good reason for looking peculiar. But you needn't have
+told him I did it, Trix. Lay that at milord's door, where it belongs. I
+don't want Keith to blame me."
+
+"But why should he blame anybody? It isn't his land, is it?"
+
+"No, it isn't. But--you see, Trix, it's this way: A man goes somewhere
+and buys a ranch--or locates on a claim--and starts into the cattle
+business. He may not own more than a few hundred acres of land, but if
+he has much stock he needs miles of prairie country, with water, for
+them to range on. It's an absolute necessity, you see. He takes care to
+locate where there is plenty of public land that is free to anybody's
+cattle.
+
+"Take the Pool outfit, for instance. We don't own land enough to feed
+one-third of our cattle. We depend on government land for range for
+them. The Cross outfit is the same, only Keith's is on a smaller scale.
+He's got to have range outside his own land, which is mostly hay land.
+This part of the State is getting pretty well settled up with small
+ranchers, and then the sheep men keep crowding in wherever they can get
+a show--and sheep will starve cattle to death; they leave a range as
+bare as a prairie-dog town. So there's only one good bit of range left
+around here, and that's the Pine Ridge country, as it's called. That's
+our main dependence for winter range; and now when this drought has
+struck us, and everything is drying up, we've had to turn all our cattle
+down there on account of water.
+
+"Ever since I took charge of the Pool, Keith and I threw in together and
+used the same range, worked our crews together, and fought the sheepmen
+together. There was a time when they tried to gobble the Pine Ridge
+range, but it didn't go. Keith and I made up our minds that we needed it
+worse than they did--and we got it. Our punchers had every sheep herder
+bluffed out till there wasn't a mutton-chewer could keep a bunch of
+sheep on that range over-night.
+
+"Now, this lease law was made by stockmen, for stockmen. They can lease
+land from the government, fence it--and they've got a cinch on it as
+long as the lease lasts. A cow outfit can corral a heap of range that
+way. There's the trick of leasing every other section or so, and then
+running a fence around the whole chunk; and that's what the Pool has
+done to the Pine Ridge. But you mustn't repeat that, Trix.
+
+"Milord wasn't long getting on to the leasing graft; in fact, it turns
+out the company got wind of it over in England, and sent him over here
+to see what could be done in that line. He's done it, all right enough!
+
+"And there's the Cross outfit, frozen out completely. The Lord only
+knows what Keith will do with his cattle now, for we'll have every drop
+of water under fence inside of a month. He's in a hole, for sure. I
+expect he feels pretty sore with me, too, but I couldn't help it. I
+explained how it was to milord, but--you can't persuade an Englishman,
+any more than you can a--"
+
+"I think," put in Beatrice firmly, "Sir Redmond did quite right. It
+isn't his fault that Mr. Cameron owns more cattle than he can feed. If
+he was sent over here to lease the land, it was his duty to do so.
+Still, I really am sorry for Mr. Cameron."
+
+"Keith won't sit down and take his medicine if he can help it," Dick
+said moodily. "He could sell out, but I don't believe he will. He's more
+apt to fight."
+
+"I can't see how fighting will help him," Beatrice returned spiritedly.
+
+"Well, there's one thing," retorted Dick. "If milord wants that fence to
+stand he'd better stay and watch it. I'll bet money he won't more than
+strike Liverpool till about forty miles, more or less, of Pool fence
+will need repairs mighty bad--which it won't get, so far as I'm
+concerned."
+
+"Do you mean that Keith Cameron would destroy our fencing?"
+
+Dick grinned. "He'll be a fool if he don't, Trix. You can tell milord
+he'd better send for all his traps, and camp right here till that lease
+runs out. My punchers will have something to do beside ride fence."
+
+"I shall certainly tell Sir Redmond," Beatrice threatened. "You and Mr.
+Cameron hate him just because he's English. You won't see what a
+splendid fellow he is. It's your duty to stand by him in this business,
+instead of taking sides with Keith Cameron. Why didn't he lease that
+land himself, if he wanted to?"
+
+"Because he plays fair."
+
+"Meaning, I suppose, that Sir Redmond doesn't. I didn't think you would
+be so unjust. Sir Redmond is a perfect gentleman."
+
+"Well, you've got a chance to marry your 'perfect gentleman," Dick
+retorted, savagely. "It's a wonder you don't take him if you think so
+highly of him."
+
+"I probably shall. At any rate, he isn't a male flirt."
+
+"You don't seem to fancy a fellow that can give you as good as you
+send," Dick rejoined. "I thought you wouldn't find Keith such easy game,
+even if he does live on a cattle ranch. You can't rope him into making a
+fool of himself for your amusement, and I'm glad of it."
+
+"Don't do your shouting too soon. If you could overhear some of the
+things he says you wouldn't be so sure--"
+
+"I suppose you take them all for their face value," grinned Dick
+ironically.
+
+"No, I don't! I'm not a simple country girl, let me remind you. Since
+you are so sure of him, I'll have the pleasure of saying, 'No, thank
+you, sir,' to your Keith Cameron--just to convince you I can."
+
+"Oh, you will! Well, you just tell me when you do, Trix, and I'll give
+you your pick of all the saddle horses on the ranch."
+
+"I'll take Rex, and you may as well consider him mine. Oh, you men! A
+few smiles, judiciously dispensed, and--" Beatrice smiled most
+exasperatingly at her brother, and Dick went moody and was very poor
+company the rest of the way home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10
+
+Pine Ridge Range Ablaze.
+
+
+At dusk that night a glow was in the southern sky, and the wind carried
+the pungent odor of burning grass. Dick went out on the porch after
+dinner, and sniffed the air uneasily.
+
+"I don't much like the look of it," he admitted to Sir Redmond. "It
+smells pretty strong, to be across the river. I sent a couple of the
+boys out to look a while ago. If it's this side of the river we'll have
+to get a move on."
+
+"It will be the range land, I take it, if it's on this side," Sir
+Redmond remarked.
+
+Just then a man thundered through the lane and up to the very steps of
+the porch, and when he stopped the horse he was riding leaned forward
+and his legs shook with exhaustion.
+
+"The Pine Ridge Range is afire, Mr. Lansell," the man announced
+quietly.
+
+Dick took a long pull at his cigar and threw it away. "Have the boys
+throw some barrels and sacks into a wagon--and git!" He went inside and
+grabbed his hat, and when he turned Sir Redmond was at his elbow.
+
+"I'm going, too, Dick," cried Beatrice, who always seemed to hear
+anything that promised excitement. "I never saw a prairie-fire in my
+life."
+
+"It's ten miles off," said Dick shortly, taking the steps at a jump.
+
+"I don't care if it's twenty--I'm going. Sir Redmond, wait for me!"
+
+"Be-atrice!" cried her mother detainingly; but Beatrice was gone to get
+ready. A quick job she made of it; she threw a dark skirt over her thin,
+white one, slipped into the nearest jacket, snatched her
+riding-gauntlets off a chair where she had thrown them, and then
+couldn't find her hat. That, however, did not trouble her. Down in the
+hall she appropriated one of Dick's, off the hall tree, and announced
+herself ready. Sir Redmond laughed, caught her hand, and they raced
+together down to the stables before her mother had fully grasped the
+situation.
+
+"Isn't Rex saddled, Dick?"
+
+Dick, his foot in the stirrup, stopped long enough to glance over his
+shoulder at her. "You ready so soon? Jim, saddle Rex for Miss Lansell."
+He swung up into the saddle.
+
+"Aren't you going to wait, Dick?"
+
+"Can't. Milord can bring you." And Dick was away on the run.
+
+Men were hurrying here and there, every move counting something done.
+While she stood there a wagon rattled out from the shadow of a haystack,
+with empty water-barrels dancing a mad jig behind the high seat, where
+the driver perched with feet braced and a whip in his hand. After him
+dashed four or five riders, silent and businesslike. In a moment they
+were mere fantastic shadows galloping up the hill through the smothery
+gloom.
+
+Then came Jim, leading Rex and a horse for himself; Sir Redmond had
+saddled his gray and was waiting. Beatrice sprang into the saddle and
+took the lead, with nerves a-tingle. The wind that rushed against her
+face was hot and reeking with smoke. Her nostrils drank greedily the
+tang it carried.
+
+"You gipsy!" cried Sir Redmond, peering at her through the murky gloom.
+
+"This--is living!" she laughed, and urged Rex faster.
+
+So they raced recklessly over the hills, toward where the night was
+aglow. Before them the wagon pounded over untrailed prairie sod, with
+shadowy figures fleeing always before.
+
+Here, wild cattle rushed off at either side, to stop and eye them
+curiously as they whirled past. There, a coyote, squatting unseen upon a
+distant pinnacle, howled, long-drawn and quavering, his weird protest
+against the solitudes in which he wandered.
+
+The dusk deepened to dark, and they could no longer see the racing
+shadows. The rattle of the wagon came mysteriously back to them through
+the black.
+
+Once Rex stumbled over a rock and came near falling, but Beatrice only
+laughed and urged him on, unheeding Sir Redmond's call to ride slower.
+
+They splashed through a shallow creek, and came upon the wagon, halted
+that the cowboys might fill the barrels with water. Then they passed by,
+and when they heard them following the wagon no longer rattled glibly
+along, but chuckled heavily under its load.
+
+The dull, red glow brightened to orange. Then, breasting at last a long
+hill, they came to the top, and Beatrice caught her breath at what lay
+below.
+
+A jagged line of leaping flame cut clean through the dark of the
+coulee. The smoke piled rosily above and before, and the sullen roar of
+it clutched the senses--challenging, sinister. Creeping stealthily,
+relentlessly, here a thin gash of yellow hugging close to the earth,
+there a bold, bright wall of fire, it swept the coulee from rim to rim.
+
+"The wind is carrying it from us," Sir Redmond was saying in her ear.
+"Are you afraid to stop here alone? I ought to go down and lend a hand."
+
+Beatrice drew a long gasp. "Oh, no, I'm not afraid. Go; there is Dick,
+down there."
+
+"You're sure you won't mind?" He hesitated, dreading to leave her.
+
+"No, no! Go on--they need you."
+
+Sir Redmond turned and rode down the ridge toward the flames. His
+straight figure was silhouetted sharply against the glow.
+
+Beatrice slipped off her horse and sat down upon a rock, dead to
+everything but the fiendish beauty of the scene spread out below her.
+Millions of sparks danced in and out among the smoke wreaths which
+curled upward--now black, now red, now a dainty rose. Off to the left a
+coyote yapped shrilly, ending with his mournful howl.
+
+Beatrice shivered from sheer ecstasy. This was a world she had never
+before seen--a world of hot, smoke-sodden wind, of dead-black shadows
+and flame-bright light; of roar and hoarse bellowing and sharp crackles;
+of calm, star-sprinkled sky above--and in the distance the uncanny
+howling of a coyote.
+
+Time had no reckoning there. She saw men running to and fro in the
+glare, disappearing in a downward swirl of smoke, coming to view again
+in the open beyond. Always their arms waved rhythmically downward,
+beating the ragged line of yellow with water-soaked sacks. The trail
+they left was a wavering, smoke-traced rim of sullen black, where before
+had been gay, dancing, orange light. In places the smolder fanned to new
+life behind them and licked greedily at the ripe grass like hungry, red
+tongues. One of these Beatrice watched curiously. It crept slyly into an
+unburned hollow, and the wind, veering suddenly, pushed it out of sight
+from the fighters and sent it racing merrily to the south. The main line
+of fire beat doggedly up against the wind that a minute before had been
+friendly, and fought bravely two foes instead of one. It dodged, ducked,
+and leaped high, and the men beat upon it mercilessly.
+
+But the little, new flame broadened and stood on tiptoes defiantly,
+proud of the wide, black trail that kept stretching away behind it; and
+Beatrice watched it, fascinated by its miraculous growth. It began to
+crackle and send up smoke wreaths of its own, with sparks dancing
+through; then its voice deepened and coarsened, till it roared quite
+like its mother around the hill.
+
+The smoke from the larger fire rolled back with the wind, and Beatrice
+felt her eyes sting. Flakes of blackened grass and ashes rained upon the
+hilltop, and Rex moved uneasily and pawed at the dry sod. To him a
+prairie-fire was not beautiful--it was an enemy to run from. He twitched
+his reins from Beatrice's heedless fingers and decamped toward home,
+paying no attention whatever to the command of his mistress to stop.
+
+Still Beatrice sat and watched the new fire, and was glad she chanced to
+be upon the south end of a sharp-nosed hill, so that she could see both
+ways. The blaze dove into a deep hollow, climbed the slope beyond,
+leaped exultantly and bellowed its challenge. And, of a sudden, dark
+forms sprang upon it and beat it cruelly, and it went black where they
+struck, and only thin streamers of smoke told where it had been. Still
+they beat, and struck, and struck again, till the fire died ingloriously
+and the hillside to the south lay dark and still, as it had been at the
+beginning.
+
+Beatrice wondered who had done it. Then she came back to her
+surroundings and realized that Rex had left her, and she was alone. She
+shivered--this time not in ecstasy, but partly from loneliness--and went
+down the hill toward where Dick and Sir Redmond and the others were
+fighting steadily the larger fire, unconscious of the younger, new one
+that had stolen away from them and was beaten to death around the hill.
+
+Once in the coulee, she was compelled to take to the burnt ground, which
+crisped hotly under her feet and sent up a rank, suffocating smell of
+burned grass into her nostrils. The whole country was alight, and down
+there the world seemed on fire. At times the smoke swooped blindingly,
+and half strangled her. Her skirts, in passing, swept the black ashes
+from grass roots which showed red in the night.
+
+Picking her way carefully around the spots that glowed warningly,
+shielding her face as well as she could from the smoke, she kept on
+until she was close upon the fighters. Dick and Sir Redmond were working
+side by side, the sacks they held rising and falling with the regularity
+of a machine for minutes at a time. A group of strange horsemen galloped
+up from the way she had come, followed by a wagon of water-barrels,
+careering recklessly over the uneven ground. The horsemen stopped just
+inside the burned rim, the horses sidestepping gingerly upon the hot
+turf.
+
+"I guess you want some help here. Where shall we start in?" Beatrice
+recognized the voice. It was Keith Cameron.
+
+"Sure, we do!" Dick answered, gratefully. "Start in any old place."
+
+"I'm not sure we want your help," spoke the angry voice of Sir Redmond.
+"I take it you've already done a devilish sight too much."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" Keith demanded; and then, by the silence, it
+seemed that every one knew. Beatrice caught her breath. Was this one of
+the ways Dick meant that Keith could fight?
+
+"Climb down, boys, and get busy," Keith called to his men, after a few
+breaths. "This is for Dick. Wait a minute! Pete, drive the wagon ahead,
+there. I guess we'd better begin on the other end and work this way.
+Come on--there's too much hot air here." They clattered on across the
+coulee, kicking hot ashes up for the wind to seize upon. Beatrice went
+slowly up to Dick, feeling all at once very tired and out of heart with
+it all.
+
+"Dick," she called, in an anxious little voice, "Rex has run away from
+me. What shall I do?"
+
+Dick straightened stiffly, his hands upon his aching loins, and peered
+through the smoke at her.
+
+"I guess the only thing to do, then, is to get into the wagon over
+there. You can drive, Trix, if you want to, and that will give us
+another man here. I was just going to have some one take you home;
+now--the Lord only knows!--you're liable to have to stay till morning.
+Rex will go home, all right; you needn't worry about him."
+
+He bent to the work again, and she could hear the wet sack thud, thud
+upon the ground. Other sacks and blankets went thud, thud, and down here
+at close range the fire was not so beautiful as it had been from the
+hilltop. Down here the glamour was gone. She climbed up to the high
+wagon seat and took the reins from the man, who immediately seized upon
+a sack and went off to the fight. She felt that she was out of touch.
+She was out on the prairie at night, miles away from any house, driving
+a water-wagon for the men to put out a prairie fire. She had driven a
+coaching-party once on a wager; but she had never driven a lumber-wagon
+with barrels of water before. She could not think of any girl she knew
+who had.
+
+It was a new experience, certainly, but she found no pleasure in it; she
+was tired and sleepy, and her eyes and throat smarted cruelly with the
+smoke. She looked back to the hill she had just left, and it seemed a
+long, long time since she sat upon a rock up there and watched the
+little, new fire grow and grow, and the strange shadows spring up from
+nowhere and beat it vindictively till it died.
+
+Again she wondered vaguely who had done it; not Keith Cameron, surely,
+for Sir Redmond had all but accused him openly of setting the range
+afire. Would he stamp out a blaze that was just reaching a size to do
+mischief, if left a little longer? No one would have seen it for hours,
+probably. He would undoubtedly have let it run, unless--But who else
+could have set the fire? Who else would ,want to see the Pine Ridge
+country black and barren? Dick said Keith Cameron would not sit down and
+take his medicine--perhaps Dick knew he would do this thing.
+
+As the fighters moved on across the coulee she drove the wagon to keep
+pace with them. Often a man would run up to the wagon, climb upon a
+wheel and dip a frayed gunny sack into a barrel, lift it out and run
+with it, all dripping, to the nearest point of the fire. Her part was to
+keep the wagon at the most convenient place. She began to feel the
+importance of her position, and to take pride in being always at the
+right spot. From the calm appreciation of the picturesque side, she
+drifted to the keen interest of the one who battles against heavy odds.
+The wind had veered again, and the flames rushed up the long coulee like
+an express train. But the path it left was growing narrower every
+moment. Keith Cameron was doing grand work with his crew upon the other
+side, and the space between them was shortening perceptibly.
+
+Beatrice found herself watching the work of the Cross men. If they were
+doing it for effect, they certainly were acting well their part. She
+wondered what would happen when the two crews met, and the danger was
+over. Would Sir Redmond call Keith Cameron to account for what he had
+done? If he did, what would Keith say? And which side would Dick take?
+Very likely, she thought, he would defend Keith Cameron, and shield him
+if he could.
+
+Beatrice found herself crying quietly, and shivering, though the air was
+sultry with the fire. For the life of her, she could not tell why she
+cried, but she tried to believe it was the smoke in her eyes. Perhaps it
+was.
+
+The sky was growing gray when the two crews met. The orange lights were
+gone, and Dick, with a spiteful flop of the black rag which had been a
+good, new sack, stamped out the last tiny red tongue of the fire. The
+men stood about in awkward silence, panting with heat and weariness. Sir
+Redmond was ostentatiously filling his pipe. Beatrice knew him by his
+straight, soldierly pose. In the drab half-light they were all mere
+black outlines of men, and, for the most part, she could not distinguish
+one from another. Keith Cameron she knew; instinctively by his slim
+height, and by the way he carried his head. Unconsciously, she leaned
+down from the high seat and listened for what would come next.
+
+Keith seemed to be making a cigarette. A match flared and lighted his
+face for an instant, then was pinched out, and he was again only a black
+shape in the half-darkness.
+
+"Well, I'm waiting for what you've got to say, Sir Redmond." His voice
+cut sharply through the silence. If he had known Beatrice was out there
+in the wagon he would have spoken lower, perhaps.
+
+"I fancy I said all that is necessary just now," Sir Redmond answered
+calmly. "You know what I think. From now on I shall act."
+
+"And what are you going to do, then?" Keith's voice was clear and
+unperturbed, as though he asked for the sake of being polite.
+
+"That," retorted Sir Redmond, "is my own affair. However, since the
+matter concerns you rather closely, I will say that when I have the
+evidence I am confident I shall find, I shall seek the proper channels
+for retribution. There are laws in this country, aimed to protect a
+man's property, I take it. I warn you that I shall not spare--the
+guilty."
+
+"Dick, it's up to you next. I want to know where you stand."
+
+"At your back, Keith, right up to the finish. I know you; you fight
+fair."
+
+"All right, then. I didn't think you'd go back on a fellow. And I tell
+you straight up, Sir Redmond Hayes, I'm not out touching matches to
+range land--not if it belonged to the devil himself. I've got some
+feeling for the dumb brutes that would have to suffer. You can get right
+to work hunting evidence, and be damned! You're dead welcome to all you
+can find; and in this part of the country you won't be able to buy much!
+You know very well you deserve to get your rope crossed, or you wouldn't
+be on the lookout for trouble. Come, boys; let's hit the trail. So long,
+Dick!"
+
+Beatrice watched them troop off to their horses, heard them mount and go
+tearing off across the burned coulee bottom toward home. Dick came
+slowly over to her.
+
+"I expect you're good and tired, sis. You've made a hand, all right, and
+helped us a whole lot, I can tell you. I'll drive now, and we'll hit the
+high places."
+
+Beatrice smiled wanly. Not one of her Eastern acquaintances would have
+recognized Beatrice Lansell, the society beauty, in this
+remarkable-looking young woman, attired in a most haphazard fashion,
+with a face grimed like a chimney sweep, red eyelids drooping over
+tired, smarting eyes, and disheveled, ash-filled hair topped by a man's
+gray felt hat. When she smiled her teeth shone dead white, like a
+negro's.
+
+Dick regarded her critically, one foot on the wheel hub. "Where did you
+get hold of Keith Cameron's hat?" he inquired.
+
+Beatrice snatched the hat from her head with childish petulance, and
+looked as if she were going to throw it viciously upon the ground. If
+her face had been clean Dick might have seen how the blood had rushed
+into her cheeks; as it was, she was safe behind a mask of soot. She
+placed the hat back upon her head, feeling, privately, a bit foolish.
+
+"I supposed it was yours. I took it off the halltree." The dignity of
+her tone was superb, but, unfortunately, it did not match her appearance
+of rakish vagabondage.
+
+Dick grinned through a deep layer of soot "Well, it happens to be
+Keith's. He lost it in the wind the other day, and I found it and took
+it home. It's too bad you've worn his hat all night and didn't know it.
+You ought to see yourself. Your own mother won't know you, Trix."
+
+"I can't look any worse than you do. A negro would be white by
+comparison. Do get in, so we can start! I'm tired to death, and
+half-starved." After these unamiable remarks, she refused to open her
+lips.
+
+They drove silently in the gray of early morning, and the empty barrels
+danced monotonously their fantastic jig in the back of the wagon.
+Sootyfaced cowboys galloped wearily over the prairie before them, and
+Sir Redmond rode moodily alongside.
+
+Of a truth, the glamour was gone.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11
+
+Sir Redmond Waits His Answer.
+
+
+Beatrice felt distinctly out of sorts the next day, and chose an hour
+for her ride when she felt reasonably secure from unwelcome company. But
+when she went out into the sunshine there was Sir Redmond waiting with
+Rex and his big gray. Beatrice was not exactly elated at the sight, but
+she saw nothing to do but smile and make the best of it. She wanted to
+be alone, so that she could dream along through the hills she had
+learned to love, and think out some things which troubled her, and
+decide just how she had best go about winning Rex for herself; it had
+become quite necessary to her peace of mind that she should teach Dick
+and Keith Cameron a much-needed lesson.
+
+"It has been so long since we rode together," he apologized. "I hope you
+don't mind my coming along."
+
+"Oh, no! Why should I mind?" Beatrice smiled upon him in friendly
+fashion. She liked Sir Redmond very much--only she hoped he was not
+going to make love. Somehow, she did not feel in the mood for
+love-making just then.
+
+"I don't know why, I'm sure. But you seem rather fond of riding about
+these hills by yourself. One should never ask why women do things, I
+fancy. It seems always to invite disaster."
+
+"Does it?" Beatrice was not half-listening. They were passing, just
+then, the suburbs of a "dog town," and she was never tired of watching
+the prairie-dogs stand upon their burrows, chip-chip defiance until fear
+overtook their impertinence, and then dive headlong deep into the earth.
+"I do think a prairie-dog is the most impudent creature alive and the
+most shrewish. I never pass but I am scolded by these little scoundrels
+till my ears burn. What do you think they say?"
+
+"They're probably inviting you to stop with them and be their queen, and
+are scolding because your heart is hard and you only laugh and ride on."
+
+"Queen of a prairie-dog town! Dear me! Why this plaintive mood?"
+
+"Am I plaintive? I do not mean to be, I'm sure."
+
+"You don't appear exactly hilarious," she told him. "I can't see what is
+getting the matter with us all. Mama and your sister are poor company,
+even for each other, and Dick is like a bear. One can't get a civil word
+out of him. I'm not exactly amiable, myself, either; but I relied upon
+you to keep the mental temperature up to normal, Sir Redmond."
+
+"Perhaps it's a good thing we shall not stop here much longer. I must
+confess I don't fancy the country--and Mary is downright homesick. She
+wants to get back to her parish affairs; she's afraid some rheumatic old
+woman needs coddling with jelly and wine, and that sort of thing. I've
+promised to hurry through the business here, and take her home. But I
+mean to see that Pine Ridge fence in place before I go; or, at least,
+see it well under way."
+
+"I'm sure Dick will attend to it properly," Beatrice remarked, with pink
+cheeks. If she remembered what she had threatened to tell Sir Redmond,
+she certainly could not have asked for a better opportunity. She was
+reminding herself at that moment that she always detested a tale bearer.
+
+"Your brother Dick is a fine fellow, and I have every confidence in him;
+but you must see yourself that he is swayed, more or less, by his
+friendship for--his neighbors. It is only a kindness to take the
+responsibility off his shoulders till the thing is done. I'm sure he
+will feel better to have it so."
+
+"Yes," she agreed; "I think you're right. Dick always was very
+soft-hearted, and, right or wrong, he clings to his friends." Then,
+rather hastily, as though anxious to change the trend of the
+conversation: "Of course, your sister will insist on keeping Dorman with
+her. I shall miss that little scamp dreadfully, I'm afraid." The next
+minute she saw that she had only opened a subject she dreaded even more.
+
+"It is something to know that there is even one of us that you will
+miss," Sir Redmond observed. Something in his tone hurt.
+
+"I shall miss you all," she said hastily. "It has been a delightful
+summer."
+
+"I wish I might know just what element made it delightful. I wish--"
+
+"I scarcely think it has been any particular element," she broke in,
+trying desperately to stave off what she felt in his tone. "I love the
+wild, where I can ride, and ride, and never meet a human being--where I
+can dream and dally and feast my eyes on a landscape man has not
+touched. I have lived most of my life in New York, and I love nature so
+well that I'm inclined to be jealous of her. I want her left free to
+work out all her whims in her own way. She has a keen sense of humor, I
+think. The way she modeled some of these hills proves that she loves her
+little jokes. I have seen where she cut deep, fearsome gashes, with
+sides precipitous, as though she had some priceless treasure hidden away
+in the deep, where man cannot despoil it. And if you plot and plan, and
+try very hard, you may reach the bottom at last and find the
+treasure--nothing. Or, perhaps, a tiny little stream, as jealously
+guarded as though each drop were priceless."
+
+Sir Richmond rode for a few minutes in silence. When he spoke, it was
+abruptly.
+
+"And is that all? Is there nothing to this delightful summer, after all,
+but your hills?"
+
+"Oh, of course, I--it has all been delightful. I shall hate to go back
+home, I think." Beatrice was a bit startled to find just how much she
+would hate to go back and wrap herself once more in the conventions of
+society life. For the first time since she could remember, she wanted
+her world to stand still.
+
+Sir Redmond went doggedly to the point he had in mind and heart.
+
+"I hoped, Beatrice, you would count me, too. I've tried to be patient.
+You know, don't you, that I love you?"
+
+"You've certainly told me often enough," she retorted, in a miserable
+attempt at her old manner.
+
+"And you've put me off, and laughed at me, and did everything under
+heaven but answer me fairly. And I've acted the fool, no doubt. I know
+it. I've no courage before a woman. A curl of your lip, and I was ready
+to cut and run. But I can't go on this way forever--I've got to know. I
+wish I could talk as easy as I can fight; I'd have settled the thing
+long ago. Where other men can plead their cause, I can say just the one
+thing--I love you, Beatrice. When I saw you first, in the carriage I
+loved you then. You had some fur--brown fur--snuggled under your chin,
+and the pink of your cheeks, and your dear, brown eyes shining and
+smiling above--Good God! I've always loved you! From the beginning of
+the world, I think! I'd be good to you, Beatrice, and I believe I could
+make you happy--if you give me the chance."
+
+Something in Beatrice's throat ached cruelly. It was the truth, and she
+knew it. He did love her, and the love of a brave man is not a thing to
+be thrust lightly aside. But it demanded such a lot in return! More,
+perhaps, than she could give. A love like that--a love that gives
+everything--demands everything in return. Anything less insults it.
+
+She stole a glance at him. Sir Redmond was looking straight before him,
+with the fixed gaze that sees nothing. There was the white line around
+his mouth which Beatrice had seen once before. Again that griping ache
+was in her throat, till she could have cried out with the pain of it.
+She wanted to speak, to say something--anything--which would drive that
+look from his face.
+
+While her mind groped among the jumble of words that danced upon her
+tongue, and that seemed, all of them, so pitifully weak and inadequate,
+she heard the galloping hoofs of a horse pounding close behind. A
+choking cloud of dust swept down upon them, and Keith, riding in the
+midst, reined out to pass. He lifted his hat. His eyes challenged
+Beatrice, swept coldly the face of her companion, and turned again to
+the trail. He swung his heels backward, and Redcloud broke again into
+the tireless lope that carried him far ahead, until there was only a
+brown dot speeding over the prairie.
+
+Sir Redmond waited until Keith was far beyond hearing, then he filled
+his lungs deeply and looked at Beatrice. "Don't you feel you could trust
+me--and love me a little?"
+
+Beatrice was deadly afraid she was going to cry, and she hated weeping
+women above all things. "A little wouldn't do," she said, with what
+firmness she could muster. "I should want to love you as much--quite as
+much as you deserve, Sir Redmond, or not at all. I'm afraid I can't. I
+wish I could, though. I--I think I should like to love you; but perhaps
+I haven't much heart. I like you very much--better than I ever liked any
+one before; but oh, I wish you wouldn't insist on an answer! I don't
+know, myself, how I feel. I wish you had not asked me--yet. I tried not
+to let you."
+
+"A man can keep his heart still for a certain time, Beatrice, but not
+for always. Some time he will say what his heart commands, if the chance
+is given him; the woman can't hold him back. I did wait and wait,
+because I thought you weren't ready for me to speak. And--you don't care
+for anybody else?"
+
+"Of course I don't. But I hate to give up my freedom to any one, Sir
+Redmond. I want to be free--free as the wind that blows here always, and
+changes and changes, and blows from any point that suits its whim,
+without being bound to any rule."
+
+"Do you think I'm an ogre, that will lock you in a dungeon, Beatrice?
+Can't you see that I am not threatening your freedom? I only want the
+right to love you, and make you happy. I should not ask you to go or
+stay where you did not please, and I'd be good to you, Beatrice!"
+
+"I don't think it would matter," cried Beatrice, "if you weren't. I
+should love you because I couldn't help myself. I hate doing things by
+rule, I tell you. I couldn't care for you because you were good to me,
+and I ought to care; it must be because I can't help myself. And I--"
+She stopped and shut her teeth hard together; she felt sure she should
+cry in another minute if this went on.
+
+"I believe you do love me, Beatrice, and your rebellious young American
+nature dreads surrender." He tried to look into her eyes and smile, but
+she kept her eyes looking straight ahead. Then Sir Redmond made the
+biggest blunder of his life, out of the goodness of his heart, and
+because he hated to tease her into promising anything.
+
+"I won't ask you to tell me now, Beatrice," he said gently. "I want you
+to be sure; I never could forgive myself if you ever felt you had made a
+mistake. A week from to-night I shall ask you once more--and it will be
+for the last time. After that--But I won't think--I daren't think what
+it would be like if you say no. Will you tell me then, Beatrice?"
+
+The heart of Beatrice jumped into her throat. At that minute she was
+very near to saying yes, and having done with it. She was quite sure she
+knew, then, what her answer would be in a week. The smile she gave him
+started Sir Redmond's blood to racing exultantly. Her lips parted a
+little, as if a word were there, ready to be spoken; but she caught
+herself back from the decision. Sir Redmond had voluntarily given her a
+week; well, then, she would take it, to the last minute.
+
+"Yes, I'll tell you a week from to-night, after dinner. I'll race you
+home, Sir Redmond--the first one through the big gate by the stable
+wins!" She struck Rex a blow that made him jump, and darted off down the
+trail that led home, and her teasing laugh was the last Sir Redmond
+heard of her that day; for she whipped into a narrow gulch when the
+first turn hid her from him, and waited until he had thundered by. After
+that she rode complacently, deep into the hills, wickedly pleased at the
+trick she had played him.
+
+Every day during the week that followed she slipped away from him and
+rode away by herself, resolved to enjoy her freedom to the full while
+she had it; for after that, she felt, things would never be quite the
+same.
+
+Every day, when Dick had chance for a quiet word with her, he wanted to
+know who owned Rex--till at last she lost her temper and told him
+plainly that, in her opinion, Keith Cameron had left the country for two
+reasons, instead of one. (For Keith, be it known, had not been seen
+since the day he passed her and Sir Redmond on the trail.) Beatrice
+averred that she had a poor opinion of a man who would not stay and face
+whatever was coming.
+
+There was just one day left in her week of freedom, and Dick still owned
+Rex, with the chances all in his favor for continuing to do so. Still,
+Beatrice was vindictively determined upon one point. Let Keith Cameron
+cross her path, and she would do something she had never done before;
+she would deliberately lead him on to propose--if the fellow had nerve
+enough to do so, which, she told Dick, she doubted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12
+
+Held Up by Mr. Kelly.
+
+
+"'Traveler, what lies over the hill?'" questioned a mischievous voice.
+
+Keith, dreaming along a winding, rock-strewn trail in the canyon,
+looked up quickly and beheld his Heart's Desire sitting calmly upon her
+horse, ten feet before Redcloud's nose, watching him amusedly. Redcloud
+must have been dreaming also, or he would have whinnied warning and
+welcome, with the same breath.
+
+"'Traveler, tell to me,'" she went on, seeing Keith only stared.
+
+Keith, not to be outdone, searched his memory hurriedly for the reply
+which should rightly follow; secretly he was amazed at her sudden
+friendliness.
+
+"'Child, there's a valley over there'--but it isn't 'pretty and wooded
+and shy'--not what you can notice. And there isn't any 'little town,'
+either, unless you go a long way. Why?" Keith rested his gloved hands,
+one above the other, on the saddle horn, and let his eyes riot with the
+love that was in him. He had not seen his Heart's Desire for a week. A
+week? It seemed a thousand years! And here she was before him, unusually
+gracious.
+
+"Why? I discovered that hill two hours ago, it seems to me, and it
+wasn't more than a mile off. I want to see what lies on the other side.
+I feel sure no man ever stood upon the top and looked down. It is my
+hill--mine by the right of discovery. But I've been going, and going,
+and I think it's rather farther away, if anything, than it was before."
+
+"Good thing I met you'" Keith declared, and he looked as if he meant it.
+"You're probably lost, right now, and don't know it. Which way is home?"
+
+Beatrice smiled a superior smile, and pointed.
+
+"I thought so," grinned Keith joyously. "You're pointing straight
+toward Claggett."
+
+"It doesn't matter," said Beatrice, "since you know, and you're here.
+The important thing is to get to the top of that hill."
+
+"What for?" Keith questioned.
+
+"Why, to be there!" Beatrice opened her big eyes at him. "That," she
+declared whimsically, "is the top of the world, and it is mine. I found
+it. I want to go up there and look down."
+
+"It's an unmerciful climb," Keith demurred hypocritically, to
+strengthen her resolution.
+
+"All the better. I don't value what comes easily."
+
+"You won't see anything, except more hills."
+
+"I love hills--and more hills."
+
+"You're a long way from home, and it's after one o'clock."
+
+"I have a lunch with me, and I often stay out until dinner time."
+
+Keith gave a sigh that shook the saddle, making up, in volume, what it
+lacked in sincerity. The blood in him was a-jump at the prospect of
+leading his Heart's Desire up next the clouds--up where the world was
+yet young. A man in love is fond of self-torture.
+
+"I have not said you must go." Beatrice answered with the sigh.
+
+"You don't have to," he retorted. "It is a self evident fact. Who wants
+to go prowling around these hills by night, with a lantern that smokes
+an' has an evil smell, losing sleep and yowling like a bunch of coyotes,
+hunting a misguided young woman who thinks north is south, and can't
+point straight up?"
+
+"You draw a flattering picture, Mr. Cameron."
+
+"It's realistic. Do you still insist upon getting up there, for the
+doubtful pleasure of looking down?" Secretly, he hoped so.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then I shall go with you."
+
+"You need not. I can go very well by myself, Mr. Cameron."
+
+Beatrice was something of a hypocrite herself.
+
+"I shall go where duty points the way."
+
+"I hope it points toward home, then."
+
+"It doesn't, though. It takes the trail you take."
+
+"I never yet allowed my wishes to masquerade as Disagreeable Duty, with
+two big D's," she told him tartly, and started off.
+
+"Say! If you're going up that hill, this is the trail. You'll bump up
+against a straight cliff if you follow that path."
+
+Beatrice turned with seeming reluctance and allowed him to guide her,
+just as she had intended he should do.
+
+"Dick tells me you have been away," she began suavely.
+
+"Yes. I've just got back from Fort Belknap," he explained quietly,
+though he must have known his absence had been construed differently.
+"I've rented pasturage on the reservation for every hoof I own. Great
+grass over there--the whole prairie like a hay meadow, almost, and
+little streams everywhere."
+
+"You are very fortunate," Beatrice remarked politely.
+
+"Luck ought to come my way once in a while. I don't seem to get more
+than my share, though."
+
+"Dick will be glad to know you have a good range for your cattle, Mr.
+Cameron."
+
+"I expect he will. You may tell him, for me, that Jim Worthington--he's
+the agent over there, and was in college with us--says I can have my
+cattle there as long as he's running the place."
+
+"Why not tell him yourself?" Beatrice asked.
+
+"I don't expect to be over to the Pool ranch for a while." Keith's tone
+was significant, and Beatrice dropped the subject.
+
+"Been fishing lately?" he asked easily, as though he had not left her
+that day in a miff.    "No. Dorman is fickle, like all male creatures.
+Dick brought him two little brown puppies the other day, and now he can
+hardly be dragged from the woodshed to his meals. I believe he would eat
+and sleep with them if his auntie would allow him to."
+
+The trail narrowed there, and they were obliged to ride single file,
+which was not favorable to conversation. Thus far, Beatrice thought, she
+was a long way from winning her wager; but she did not worry--she looked
+up to where the hill towered above them, and smiled.
+
+"We'll have to get off and lead our horses over this spur," he told her,
+at last. "Once on the other side, we can begin to climb. Still in the
+humor to tackle it?"
+
+"To be sure I am. After all this trouble I shall not turn back."
+
+"All right," said Keith, inwardly shouting. If his Heart's Desire
+wished to take a climb that would last a good two hours, he was not
+there to object. He led her up a steep, rock-strewn ridge and into a
+hollow. From there the hill sloped smoothly upward.
+
+"I'll just anchor these cayuses to a rock, to make dead-sure of them,"
+Keith remarked. "It wouldn't be fun to be set afoot out here; now, would
+it? How would you like the job of walking home, eh?"
+
+"I don't think I'd enjoy it much," Beatrice said, showing her one
+dimple conspicuously. "I'd rather ride."
+
+"Throw up your hands!" growled a voice from somewhere.
+
+Keith wheeled toward the sound, and a bullet spatted into the yellow
+clay, two inches from the toe of his boot. Also, a rifle cracked
+sharply. He took the hint, and put his hands immediately on a level with
+his hat crown.
+
+"No use," he called out ruefully. "I haven't anything to return the
+compliment with."
+
+"Well, I've got t' have the papers fur that, mister," retorted the
+voice, and a man appeared from the shelter of a rock and came slowly
+down to them--a man, long-legged and lank, with haggard, unshaven face
+and eyes that had hunger and dogged endurance looking out. He picked his
+way carefully with his feet, his eyes and the rifle fixed unswervingly
+at the two. Beatrice was too astonished to make a sound.
+
+"What sort of a hold-up do you call this?" demanded Keith hotly, his
+hands itching to be down and busy. "We don't carry rolls of money around
+in the hills, you fool!"
+
+"Oh, damn your money!" the man said roughly. "I've got money t' burn. I
+want t' trade horses with yuh. That roan, there, looks like a stayer.
+I'll take him."
+
+"Well, seeing you seem to be head push here, I guess it's a trade,"
+Keith answered. "But I'll thank you for my own saddle."
+
+Beatrice, whose hands were up beside her ears, and not an inch higher,
+changed from amazed curiosity to concern. "Oh, you mustn't take Redcloud
+away from Mr. Cameron!" she protested. "You don't know--he's so fond of
+that horse! You may take mine; he's a good horse--he's a perfectly
+splendid horse, but I--I'm not so attached to him."
+
+The fellow stopped and looked at her--not, however, forgetting Keith,
+who was growing restive. Beatrice's cheeks were very pink, and her eyes
+were bright and big and earnest. He could not look into them without
+letting some of the sternness drop out of his own.
+
+"I wish you'd please take Rex--I'd rather trade than not," she coaxed.
+When Beatrice coaxed, mere man must yield or run. The fellow was but
+human, and he was not in a position to run, so he grinned and wavered.
+
+"It's fair to say you'll get done," he remarked, his eyes upon the odd
+little dimple at the corner of her mouth, as if he had never seen
+anything quite so fetching.
+
+"Your horse won't cr--buck, will he?" she ventured doubtfully. This was
+her first horse trade, and it behooved her to be cautious, even at the
+point of a rifle.
+
+"Well, no," said the man laconically; "he won't. He's dead."
+
+"Oh!" Beatrice gasped and blushed. She might have known, she thought,
+that the fellow would not take all this trouble if his horse was in a
+condition to buck. Then: "My elbows hurt. I--I think I should like to
+sit down."
+
+"Sure," said the man politely. "Make yourself comfortable. I ain't used
+t' dealin' with ladies. But you got t' set still, yuh know, and not try
+any tricks. I can put up a mighty swift gun play when I need to--and
+your bein' a lady wouldn't cut no ice in a case uh that kind."
+
+"Thank you." Beatrice sat down upon the nearest rock, folded her hands
+meekly and looked from him to Keith, who seethed to claim a good deal of
+the man's attention. She observed that, at a long breath from Keith, his
+captor was instantly alert.
+
+"Maybe your elbows ache, too," he remarked dryly. "They'll git over it,
+though; I've knowed a man t' grab at the clouds upwards of an hour, an'
+no harm done."
+
+"That's encouraging, I'm sure." Keith shifted to the other foot.
+
+"How's that sorrel?" demanded the man. "Can he go?"
+
+Keith hesitated a second.
+
+"Indeed he can go!" put in Beatrice eagerly. "He's every bit as good as
+Redcloud."
+
+"Is that sorrel yours?" The man's eyes shifted briefly to her face.
+
+"No-o." Beatrice, thinking how she had meant to own him, blushed.
+
+"That accounts for it." He laughed unpleasantly. "I wondered why you was
+so dead anxious t' have me take him."
+
+The eyes of Beatrice snapped sparks at him, but her manner was demure,
+not to say meek. "He belongs to my brother," she explained, "and my
+brother has dozens of good saddle-horses. Mr. Cameron's horse is a pet.
+It's different when a horse follows you all over the place and fairly
+talks to you. He'll shake hands, and--"
+
+"Uh-huh, I see the point, I guess. What d'yuh say, kid?"
+
+Keith might seem boyish, but he did not enjoy being addressed as "kid."
+He was twenty-eight years old, whether he looked it or not.
+
+"I say this: If you take my horse, I'll kill you. I'll have twenty-five
+cow-punchers camping on your trail before sundown. If you take this
+girl's horse, I'll do the same."
+
+The man shut his lips in a thin line.
+
+"No, he won't!" cried Beatrice, leaning forward. "Don't mind a thing he
+says! You can't expect a man to keep his temper with his hands up in the
+air like that. You take Rex, and I'll promise for Mr. Cameron "
+
+"Trix--Miss Lansell!"--sternly.
+
+"I promise you he won't do a thing," she went on firmly. "He--he isn't
+half as fierce, really, as--as he looks."
+
+Keith's face got red.
+
+The man laughed a little. Evidently the situation amused him, whether
+the others could see the humor of it or not. "So I'm to have your
+cayuse, eh?"
+
+Keith saw two big tears tipping over her lower lids, and gritted his
+teeth.
+
+"Well, it ain't often I git a chance t' please a lady," the fellow
+decided. "I guess Rex'll do, all right. Go over and change saddles,
+youngster--and don't git gay. I've got the drop, and yuh notice I'm
+keeping it."
+
+"Are you going to take his saddle?" Beatrice stood up and clenched her
+hands, looking very much as if she would like to pull his hair. Keith in
+trouble appealed to her strangely.
+
+"Sure thing. It's a peach, from the look of it. Mine's over the hill a
+piece. Step along there, kid! I want t' be movin'."
+
+"You'll need to go some!" flared Keith, over his shoulder.
+
+"I expect t' go some," retorted the man. "A fellow with three sheriff's
+posses campin' on his trail ain't apt t' loiter none."
+
+"Oh!" Beatrice sat down and stared. "Then you must be--"
+
+"Yep," the fellow laughed recklessly. "You ca, tell your maw yuh met up
+with Kelly, the darin' train-robber. I wouldn't be s'prised if she close
+herded yuh fer a spell till her scare wears off. Bu I've hung around
+these parts long enough. I fooled them sheriffs a-plenty, stayin' here.
+Gee! you'r' swift--I don't think!" This last sentence was directed at
+Keith, who was putting a snail to shame, and making it appear he was in
+a hurry.
+
+"Git a move on!" commanded Kelly, threatening with his eyes.
+
+Keith wisely made no reply--nor did he show any symptoms of haste,
+despite the menacing tone Slowly he pulled his saddle off Redcloud, and
+carefully he placed it upon the ground. When a fellow lives in his
+saddle, almost, he comes to think  a great deal of it, and he is
+reluctant under any circumstances, to surrender it to another; to have a
+man deliberately confiscate it with the authority which lies in a lump
+of lead the size of a child thumb is not pleasant.
+
+Through Keith's brain flashed a dozen impracticable plans, and one that
+offered a slender--very slender--chance of success. If he could get a
+little closer! He moved over beside Rex an unbuckling the cinch of
+Beatrice's saddle, pulled it sullenly off.
+
+"Now, put your saddle on that there Rex horse, and cinch it tight!"
+
+Keith picked up the saddle--his saddle, and threw it across Rex's back,
+raging inwardly at his helplessness. To lose his saddle worse, to let
+Beatrice lose her horse. Lord! a pretty figure he must cut in her eyes!
+
+"Dry weather we're havin'," Kelly remarked politely to Beatrice;
+without, however, looking in her direction. "Prairie fires are gittin'
+t' be the regular thing, I notice."
+
+Beatrice studied his face, and found no ulterior purpose for the words.
+
+"Yes," she agreed, as pleasantly as she could, in view of the
+disquieting circumstances. "I helped fight a prairie-fire last week over
+this way. We were out all night."
+
+"Prairie-fires is mean things t' handle, oncet they git started. I
+always hate t' see 'em git hold of the grass. What fire was that you
+mention?"
+
+Beatrice glanced toward Keith, and was thankful his back was turned to
+her. But a quick suspicion had come to her, and she went steadily on
+with the subject.
+
+"It was the Pine Ridge country. It started very mysteriously"
+
+"It wasn't no mystery t' me." Kelly laughed grimly. "I started that
+there blaze myself accidentally. I throwed a cigarette down, thinkin' it
+had gone out. After a while I seen a blaze where I'd jest left, but I
+didn't have no license t' go back an' put it out--my orders was to git
+out uh that. I seen the sky all lit up that night. Kid, are yuh goin' t'
+sleep?"
+
+Keith started. He had been listening, and thanking his lucky star that
+Beatrice was listening also. If she had suspected him of setting the
+range afire, she knew better now. A weight lifted off Keith's shoulders,
+and he stood a bit straighter; those chance words meant a great deal to
+him, and he felt that he would not grudge his saddle in payment. But
+Rex--that was another matter. Beatrice should not lose him if he could
+prevent it; still, what could he do?
+
+He might turn and spring upon Kelly, but in the meantime Kelly would not
+be idle; he would probably be pumping bullets out of the rifle into
+Keith's body--and he would still have the horse. He stole a glance at
+Beatrice, and went hot all over at what he thought he read in her eyes.
+For once he was not glad to be near his Heart's Desire; he wished her
+elsewhere--anywhere but sitting on that rock, over there, with her
+little, gloved hands folded quietly in her lap, and that adorable,
+demure look on her face--the look which would have put her mother
+instantly upon the defensive--and a gleam in her eyes Keith read for
+scorn.
+
+Surely he might do something! Barely six feet now separated him from
+Kelly. If one of those lumps of rock that strewed the ground was in his
+hand--he stooped to reach under Rex's body for the cinch, and could
+almost feel Kelly's eyes boring into his back. A false move--well, Keith
+had heard of Kelly a good many times; if this fellow was really the man
+he claimed to be, Keith did not need to guess what would follow a
+suspicious move; he knew. He looked stealthily toward him, and Kelly's
+eyes met his with a gleam sinister.
+
+Kelly grinned. "I wouldn't, kid," he said softly.
+
+Keith swore in a whisper, and his fingers closed upon the cinch. It was
+no use to fight the devil with cunning, he thought, bitterly.
+
+Just then Beatrice gave an unearthly screech, that made the horses'
+knees bend under them. When Keith whirled to see what it was, she was
+standing upon the rock, with her skirts held tightly around her, like
+the pictures of women when a mouse gets into the room.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cameron! A sn-a-a-ke!"
+
+Came a metallic br-r-r, the unmistakable war cry of the rattler. Into
+Kelly's eyes came a look of fear, and he sidled gingerly. The buzz had
+sounded unpleasantly close to his heels. For one brief instant the cold
+eye of his rifle regarded harmlessly the hillside. During that instant a
+goodly piece of sandstone whinged under his jaw, and he went down, with
+Keith upon him like a mountain lion. The latter snatched the rifle and
+got up hurriedly, for he had not forgotten the rattler. Kelly lay
+looking up at him in a dazed way that might have been funny at any other
+time.
+
+"I wondered if you were good at grasping opportunities," said Beatrice.
+When he looked, there she was, sitting down on the rock, with her
+little, gloved hands folded in her lap, and that adorable demure look on
+her face; and a gleam in her eyes he knew was not scorn, though he could
+not rightly tell what it really did mean.
+
+Keith wondered at her vaguely, but a man can't have his mind on a dozen
+things at once. It was important that he keep a sharp watch on Kelly,
+and his eyes were searching for a gleaming, gray spotted coil which he
+felt to be near.
+
+"You needn't look, Mr. Cameron. There isn't any snake. It--it was I."
+
+"You!" Keith's jaw dropped.
+
+"Look out, Mr. Cameron. It wouldn't work a second time, I'm afraid."
+
+Keith turned back before Kelly had more than got to his elbow; plainly
+Kelly was not feeling well just then. He looked unhappy, and rather
+sick.
+
+"If you'll hand me the gun, Mr. Cameron, I think I can hold it steady
+while you fix the saddles. And then we'll go home. I--I don't think I
+really care to climb the hill."
+
+What Keith wanted to do was to take her in his arms and kiss her till he
+was tired. What he did do was back toward her, and let her take the
+rifle quickly and deftly from his hands. She rested the gun upon her
+knee, and brought it to bear upon Mr. Kelly with a composure not
+assuring to that gentleman, and she tried to look as if she really and
+truly would shoot a man--and managed to look only the more kissable.
+
+"Don't squirm, Mr. Kelly. I won't bite, if I do buzz sometimes."
+
+Kelly stared at her meditatively a minute, and said: "Well, I'll be
+damned!"
+
+Keith looked at her also, but he did not say anything.
+
+The way he slapped his saddle back upon Redcloud and cinched it, and
+saddled Rex, was a pretty exhibition of precision and speed, learned in
+roundup camps. Kelly watched him grimly.
+
+"I knowed you wasn't as swift as yuh knew how 't be, a while back," he
+commented. "I've got this t' say fur you two: You're a little the
+toughest proposition I ever run up ag'inst--and I've been up ag'inst it
+good and plenty."
+
+"Thanks," Keith said cheerfully. "You'd better take Rex now and go
+ahead, Miss Lansell. I'll take that gun and look after this fellow. Get
+up, Kelly."
+
+"What are you going to do with him?"
+
+Kelly got unsteadily upon his feet. Beatrice looked at him, and then at
+Keith. She asked a question.
+
+"March him home, and send him in to the nearest sheriff." Keith was
+businesslike, and his tone was crisp.
+
+Beatrice's eyes turned again to Kelly. He did not whine, or beg, or even
+curse. He stood looking straight before him, at something only his
+memory could see, and in his face was weariness, and a deep loneliness,
+and a certain, grim despair. There was an ugly bruise where the rock had
+struck, but the rest of his face was drawn and white.
+
+"If you do that," cried Beatrice, in a voice hardly more than a fierce
+whisper, "I shall hate you always. You are not a man-hunter. Let him
+stay here, and take his chance in the hills."
+
+Keith was not a hard man to persuade into being merciful. "It's easy
+enough to say yes, Miss Lansell. I always was chicken-hearted when a
+fellow seemed down on his luck. You can stay here, Kelly--I don't want
+you, anyway." He laughed boyishly and irresponsibly, for he felt that
+Kelly had done him a service that day.
+
+Beatrice flashed him a smile that went to his head and made him dizzy,
+and took up Rex's bridle rein. She hesitated, looked doubtfully at
+Kelly, who stood waiting stoically, and turned to her saddle. She untied
+a bundle and went quickly over to him.
+
+"You--I don't want my lunch, after all. I'm going home now. I--I want
+you to take it, please. There are some sandwiches--with veal loaf, that
+Looey Sam makes deliciously--and some cake. I--I wish it was more. I
+know you'll like the veal loaf."
+
+Kelly looked down at her, and God knows what thoughts were in his mind.
+He did not answer her with words; he just swallowed hard.
+
+"Poor devil!" was what Keith said to himself, and the gun he was
+holding threatened, for a minute, to wing a cloud.
+
+Beatrice laid the package in Kelly's unresisting hand, looked up into
+his averted face and said simply: "Good-by, Mr. Kelly."
+
+After that she hurried Rex up the steep ridge much faster than she had
+gone down it, endangering his bones and putting herself very empty
+lunged.
+
+At the top of the ridge Keith stopped and looked down.
+
+"Hi, Kelly!"
+
+Kelly showed that he heard.
+
+"Here's your gun, on this rock. You can come up and get it, if you want
+to. And--say! I've got a few broke horses ranging down here somewhere.
+VN brand, on left shoulder. I won't scour the hills, very bad, if I
+should happen to miss a cayuse. So long!"
+
+Kelly waved his hand for farewell.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13
+
+Keith's Masterful Wooing.
+
+
+Keith faced toward home, with Redcloud following at his heels like a pet
+dog. For some reason, which he did not try to analyze, he was feeling
+light of heart--as though something very nice had happened to him. It
+might have been the unexpected clearing up of the mystery of the
+prairie-fire, though he was not dwelling particularly upon that. He was
+thinking a great deal more of Beatrice's blue-brown eyes, which had
+never been more baffling, so far as he knew. And his blood was still
+dancing with the smile she had given him; it hardly seemed possible that
+a girl could smile just like that and not mean anything.
+
+When he reached the level, where she was waiting for him, he saw that
+she had her arms around the neck of her horse, and that she was crying
+dismally, heart-brokenly, with an abandon that took no thought of his
+presence. Keith had never seen a girl cry like that before. He had seen
+them dab at their eyes with their handkerchief, and smile the next
+breath--but this was different. For a minute he didn't quite know what
+to do; he could hear the blood hammering against his temples while he
+stood dumbly watching her. He went hesitatingly up, and laid a gloved
+hand deprecatingly upon her shoulder.
+
+"Don't do that, Miss Lansell! The fellow isn't worth it. He's only
+living the life he chose for himself, and he doesn't mind, not half as
+much as you imagine. I know how you feel--I felt sorry for him
+myself--but he doesn't deserve it, you know." He stopped; not being
+able, just at the moment, to think of anything more to say about Kelly.
+Beatrice, who had not been thinking of Kelly at all, but remorsefully of
+a fellow she had persisted in misjudging, only cried the harder.
+
+"Don't--don't cry like that! I--Miss Lansell--Trix--darling!" Keith's
+self-control snapped suddenly, like a rope when the strain becomes too
+great. He caught her fiercely in his arms, and crushed her close against
+him.
+
+Beatrice stopped crying, and gasped.
+
+"Trixie, if you must cry, I wish you'd cry for me. I'm about as
+miserable a man--I want you so! God made you for me, and I'm starving
+for the feel of your lips on mine." Then Keith, who was nothing if not
+daring, once he was roused, bent and kissed her without waiting to see
+if he might--and not only once, but several times.
+
+Beatrice made a half-hearted attempt to get free of his arms, but Keith
+was not a fool--he held her closer, and laughed from pure, primitive
+joy.
+
+"Mr. Cameron!" It was Beatrice's voice, but it had never been like that
+before.
+
+"I think you might call me Keith," he cut in. "You've got to begin some
+time, and now is as good a time as any."
+
+"You--you're taking a good deal for granted," she said, wriggling
+unavailingly in his arms.
+
+"A man's got to, with a girl like you. You're so used to turning a
+fellow down I believe you'd do it just from habit."
+
+"Indeed?" She was trying to be sarcastic and got kissed for her pains.
+
+"Yes, 'indeed.'" He mimicked her tone. "I want you. I want you! I
+wanted you long before I ever saw you. And so I'm not taking any
+chances--I didn't dare, you see. I just had to take you first, and ask
+you afterward."
+
+Beatrice laughed a little, with tears very close to her lashes, and gave
+up. What was the use of trying to resist this masterful fellow, who
+would not even give her a chance to refuse him? She did not know quite
+how to say no to a man who did not ask her to say yes. But the queer
+part, to her, was the feeling that she would have hated to say no,
+anyway. It never occurred to her, till afterward, that she might have
+stood upon a pedestal of offended dignity and cried, "Unhand me,
+villain!"--and that, if she had, Keith would undoubtedly have complied
+instantly. As it was, she just laughed softly, and blushed a good deal.
+
+"I believe mama is right about you, after all," she said wickedly. "At
+heart, you're a bold highwayman "
+
+"Maybe. I know I'd not stand and see some other fellow walk off with my
+Heart's Desire, without putting up a fight. It did look pretty blue for
+me, though, and I was afraid--but it's all right now, isn't it?
+Possession is nine points in law, they say, and I've got you now! I'm
+going to keep you, too. When are you going to come over and take charge
+of the Cross ranch?"
+
+"Dear me!" said Beatrice, snuggling against his shoulder, and finding it
+the best place in the world to be. "I never said I was going to take
+charge at all!" Then the impulse of confession seized her. "Will you
+hate me, if I tell you something?"
+
+"I expect I will," Keith assented, his eyes positively idolatrous. "What
+is it, girlie?"
+
+"Well, I--it was Dick's fault; I never would have thought of such a
+thing if he hadn't goaded me into it--but--well, I was going to make you
+propose, on a wager--" The brown head of Beatrice went down out of
+sight, on his arm. "I was going to refuse you--and get Rex--"
+
+"I know." Keith held her closer than ever. "Dick rode over and told me
+that day. And I wasn't going to give you a chance, missy. If you hadn't
+started to cry, here-- Oh! what's the use? You didn't refuse me--and
+you're not going to, either, are you, girlie?"
+
+Beatrice intimated that there was no immediate danger of such a thing
+happening.
+
+"You see, Dick and I felt that you belonged to me, by rights. I fell in
+love with a picture of you, that you sent him--that one taken in your
+graduation gown--and I told Dick I was going to take the next train
+East, and carry you off by force, if I couldn't get you any other way.
+But Dick thought I'd stand a better show to wait till he'd coaxed you
+out here. We had it all fixed, that you'd come and find a prairie knight
+that was ready to fight for you, and he'd make you like him, whether you
+wanted to or not; and then he'd keep you here, and we'd all be happy
+ever after. And Dick would pull out of the Northern Pool--and of course
+you would--and we'd have a company of our own. Oh! we had some great
+castles built out here on the prairie, let me tell you! And then, when
+you finally came here, you had milord tagging along--and you thinking
+you were in love with him! Maybe you think I wasn't shaky, girlie! The
+air castles got awfully wobbly, and it looked like they were going to
+cave in on us. But I was bound to stay in the game if I could, and Dick
+did all he could to get you to looking my way--and it's all right, isn't
+it, Trixie?" Keith kept recurring to the ecstatic realization that it
+was all right.
+
+Beatrice meditated for a minute.
+
+"I never dreamed--Dick never even mentioned you in any of his letters,"
+she said, in a rather dazed tone. "And when I came he made me believe
+you were a horrible flirt, and I never can resist the temptation to
+measure lances "
+
+"And take a fall out of a male flirt," Keith supplemented. "Dick," he
+went on sententiously and slangily, "was dead onto his job." After that
+he helped her into the saddle, and they rode blissfully homeward.
+
+Near the ranch they met Dick, who pulled up and eyed them anxiously at
+first, and then with a broad smile.
+
+"Say, Trix," he queried slyly, "who does Rex belong to?"
+
+Keith came to the rescue promptly, just as a brave knight should.
+"You," he retorted. "But I tell you right now, he won't very long.
+You're going to do the decent thing and give him to Trixie--for a
+wedding present."
+
+Dick looked as though Trix was welcome to any. thing he possessed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14
+
+Sir Redmond Gets His answer.
+
+
+"Before long, dear, we shall get on the great ship, and ride across the
+large, large ocean, and be at home. You will be delighted to see Peggy,
+and Rupert, and the dogs, won't you, dear?" Miss Hayes, her cheeks
+actually getting some color into them at the thought of going home,
+buttered a fluffy biscuit for her idol.
+
+Dorman took two bites while he considered. "Rupert'll want my little
+wheels, for my feet, what Mr. Cam'ron gave me--but he can't have 'em,
+dough. I 'spect he'll be mad. I wonder what'll Peggy say bout my two
+puppies. I've got to take my two puppies wis me. Will dey get sick
+riding on de water, auntie? Say, will dey?"
+
+"I--I think not, dear," ventured his auntie cautiously. His auntie was a
+conscientious woman, and she knew very little about puppies.
+
+"Be'trice will help me take care of dem if dey're sick," he remarked
+comfortably.
+
+Then something in his divinity's face startled his assurance. "You's
+going wis us, isn't you, Be'trice? I want you to help take care of my
+two puppies. Martha can't, 'cause she slaps dere ears. Is you going wis
+us, Be'trice?"
+
+This, at the dinner table, was, to say the least,
+embarrassing--especially on this especial evening, when Beatrice was
+trying to muster courage to give Sir Redmond the only answer it was
+possible to give him now. It was an open secret that, in case she had
+accepted him, the home-going of Miss Hayes would be delayed a bit, when
+they would all go together. Beatrice had overheard her mother and Miss
+Hayes discussing this possibility only the day before. She undertook the
+impossible, and attempted to head Dorman off.
+
+"Perhaps you'll see a whale, honey. The puppies never saw a whale, I'm
+sure. What do you suppose they'd think?"
+
+"Is you going?"
+
+"You'd have to hold them up high, you know, so they could see, and show
+them just where to look, and--"
+
+"Is you going, Be'trice?"
+
+Beatrice sent a quick, despairing glance around the table. Four pairs of
+eyes were fixed upon her with varying degrees of interest and anxiety.
+The fifth pair--Dick's--were trying to hide their unrighteous glee by
+glaring down at the chicken wing on his plate. Beatrice felt a strong
+impulse to throw something at him. She gulped and faced the inevitable.
+It must come some time, she thought, and it might as well be now--though
+it did seem a pity to spoil a good dinner for every one but Dick, who
+was eating his with relish.
+
+"No, honey"--her voice was clear and had the note of finality--"I'm not
+going--ever."
+
+Sir Redmond's teeth went together with a click, and he picked up the
+pepper shaker mechanically and peppered his salad until it was perfectly
+black, and Beatrice wondered how he ever expected to eat it. Mrs.
+Lansell dropped her fork on the floor, and had to have a clean one
+brought. Miss Hayes sent a frightened glance at her brother. Dick sat
+and ate fried chicken.
+
+"Why, Be'trice? I wants you to--and de puppies'll need you--and auntie,
+and--" Dorman gathered himself for the last, crushing argument--"and
+Uncle Redmon' wants you awf'lly!"
+
+Beatrice took a sip of ice water, for she needed it.
+
+"Why, Be'trice? Gran-mama'll let you go, guess. Can't she go,
+gran'mama?"
+
+It was Mrs. Lansell's turn to test the exquisite torture of that
+prickly chill along the spine. Like Beatrice, she dodged.
+
+"Little boys," she announced weakly, "should not speak until they're
+spoken to."
+
+Dick came near strangling on a shred of chicken.
+
+"Can't she go, gran'mama? Say, can't she? Tell Be'trice to go home wis
+us, gran'mama!"
+
+"Beatrice"--Mrs. Lansell swallowed--"is not a little child any longer,
+Dorman. She is a woman and can do as she likes. I"--she was speaking to
+the whole group--"I can only advise her."
+
+Dorman gave a squeal of triumph. "See? You can go, Be'trice! Gran'mama
+says you can go. You will go, won't you, Be'trice? Say yes!"
+
+"No!" said Beatrice, with desperate emphasis. "I won't."
+
+"I want--Be'trice--to go-o!" Dorman slid down upon his shoulder blades,
+gave a squeal which was not triumph, but temper, and kicked the table
+till every dish on it danced.
+
+"Dorman sit up!" commanded his auntie. "Dorman, stop, this instant! I'm
+ashamed of you; where is my good little man? Redmond."
+
+Sir Redmond seemed glad of the chance to do something besides sit
+quietly in his place and look calm. He got up deliberately, and in two
+minutes, or less, Dorman was in the woodshed with him, making sounds
+that frightened his puppies dreadfully and put the coyotes to shame.
+
+Beatrice left the table hurriedly to escape the angry eyes of her
+mother. The sounds in the woodshed had died to a subdued sniffling, and
+she retreated to the front porch, hoping to escape observation. There
+she nearly ran against Sir Redmond, who was staring off into the dusk to
+where the moon was peering redly over a black pinnacle of the Bear Paws.
+
+She would have slipped back into the house, but he did not give her the
+chance. He turned and faced her steadily, as he had more than once faced
+the Boers, when he knew that before him was nothing but defeat.
+
+"So you're not going to England ever?"
+
+Pride had squeezed every shade of emotion from his voice.
+
+"No." Beatrice gripped her fingers together tightly.
+
+"Are you sure you won't be sorry--afterward?"
+
+"Yes, I'm sure." Beatrice had never done anything she hated more.
+
+Sir Redmond, looking into her eyes, wondered why those much-vaunted
+sharpshooters, the Boers, had blundered and passed him by.
+
+"I don't suppose it matters much now--but will you tell me why? I
+believed you would decide differently." He was holding his voice down to
+a dead level, and it was not easy.
+
+"Because--" Beatrice faced the moon, which threw a soft glow upon her
+face, and into her wonderful, deep eyes a golden light. "Oh, I'm sorry,
+Sir Redmond! But you see, I didn't know. I--I just learned to-day what
+it means to--to love. I--I am going to stay here. A new company--is
+about to be formed, Sir Redmond. The Maltese Cross and the--Triangle
+Bar--are going to cast their lot together." The golden glow deepened and
+darkened, and blended with the red blood which flushed cheek and brow
+and throat.
+
+It took Sir Redmond a full minute to comprehend. When he did, he
+breathed deep, shut his lips upon words that would have frightened her,
+and went down the steps into the gloom.
+
+Beatrice watched him stride away into the dusky silence, and her heart
+ached with sympathy for him. Then she looked beyond, to where the lights
+of the Cross ranch twinkled joyously, far down the coulee, and the sweet
+egotism of happiness enfolded her, shutting him out. After that she
+forgot him utterly. She looked up at the moon, sailing off to meet the
+stars, smiled good-fellowship and then went in to face her mother.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Her Prairie Knight, by B.M. Bower
+
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