and of great
distances. It was very different with Alec. The day of their picnic in
Woodford came back to her, and again she saw the boy, worn out by a
much shorter ride, lying white and unconscious before the fire in the
hunter's cabin. She grew almost provoked with her grandmother for
having insisted upon her practising instead of riding to Jonah as she
had wished. If she had gone along, she at least would have known what
to do for Alec in an emergency.

At eleven the moon came up, and rising out of the prairie
simultaneously with the golden disk, came Shady, riding alone. A rapid
fire of questions greeted him as he came up with the mail.

"Left the young fella at Kooch's," he explained briefly.

"What was the matter?" asked Blue Bonnet anxiously.

"Well, ye see--it was this way,--" Shady paused and then stood
awkwardly shifting his sombrero from hand to hand. Blue Bonnet guessed
instantly that Alec had sworn the cowboy to secrecy concerning the
real reason for his non-appearance, and she refrained from further
questioning. But her grandmother took alarm.

"Is he hurt--or ill?" Mrs. Clyde asked quickly.

For a moment Shady avoided her eyes, then resolutely squaring his
shoulders he lied boldly: "No, Senora,--the mare went lame on him.
He'll be over in the morning."

Mrs. Clyde drew a quick breath of relief; but Blue Bonnet was not so
easily reassured. That Kooch had a dozen horses which Alec might have
ridden if Strawberry was really disabled, was something her
grandmother did not know; but the little Texan, used all her life to
the easy give and take of ranch life, understood at once that Alec's
real reason for staying at the Dutchman's was quite different from the
one Shady had so glibly given. She knew better, however, than to press
the cowboy, and let him go off to the cook-house without attempting to
get at the truth.

"Grammy Kooch will take good care of him," said Uncle Joe; and with
her fears thus set at rest, Mrs. Clyde proposed an adjournment to the
house to read their letters.

The next morning Blue Bonnet was up before any one else in the house
was stirring, and, dressing without arousing any of the other
occupants of the nursery, she stole out of the house and made her way
to the stable. Some of the Mexicans were already up, feeding the stock
and doing the "chores," and one of them saddled Firefly. None of them
wondered at Blue Bonnet's early appearance, for since her infancy she
had ridden wh