had once been kicked in the
face by a horse.

Creech came up hurriedly, in an eager, wild way that made Lucy suddenly
pity him. He did not seem to remember that the stallion had an
antipathy for him. But Lucy, if she had forgotten, would have been
reminded by Sarchedon's action.

"Look out, Joel!" she called, and she gave the black's head a jerk.
Sarchedon went up with a snort and came down pounding the sand. Quick
as an Indian Lucy was out of the saddle.

"Lemme your quirt," said Joel, showing his teeth like a wolf.

"No. I wouldn't let you hit Sarch. You beat him once, and he's never
forgotten," replied Lucy.

The eye of the horse and the man met and clashed, and there was a
hostile tension in their attitudes. Then Lucy dropped the bridle and
drew Joel over to a huge drift-log, half buried in the sand. Here she
sat down, but Joel remained standing. His gaze was now all the stranger
for its wistfulness. Lucy was quick to catch a subtle difference in
him, but she could not tell wherein it lay.

"What'd you want?" asked Joel.

"I've heard a lot of things, Joel," replied Lucy, trying to think of
just what she wanted to say.

"Reckon you have," said Joel, dejectedly, and then he sat down on the
log and dug holes in the sand with his bare feet.

Lucy had never before seen him look tired, and it seemed that some of
the healthy brown of his cheeks had thinned out. Then Lucy told him,
guardedly, a few of the rumors she had heard.

"All thet you say is nothin' to what's happened," he replied, bitterly.
"Them riders mocked the life an' soul out of me."

"But, Joel, you shouldn't be so--so touchy," said Lucy, earnestly.
"After all, the joke WAS on you. Why didn't you take it like a man?"

"But they knew you stole my clothes," he protested.

"Suppose they did. That wasn't much to care about. If you hadn't taken
it so hard they'd have let up on you."

"Mebbe I might have stood that. But they taunted me with bein'--loony
about you."

Joel spoke huskily. There was no doubt that he had been deeply hurt.
Lucy saw tears in his eyes, and her first impulse was to put a hand on
his and tell him how sorry she was. But she desisted. She did not feel
at her ease with Joel.

"What'd you and Van fight about?" she asked, presently. Joel hung his
head. "I reckon I ain't a-goin' to tell you."

"You're ashamed of it?"

Joel's silence answered that.

"You said something about me?" Lucy could not resist her curiosity,
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