l, torn from his beloved broncho, on
whose back he had passed so many happy hours, was forced to accompany the
others back to civilization.

"I shall see you very soon," said Clarence, tucking the lap-robe round
Clover. "There's the mail to fetch, and other things. I shall be riding in
every day or two."

"I shall see you very soon," said Geoff, on the other side. "Clarence is
not coming without me, I can assure you."

Then the carriage drove away; and the two partners went back into the
house, which looked suddenly empty and deserted.

"I'll tell you what!" began Clarence.

"And I'll tell _you_ what!" rejoined Geoff.

"A house isn't worth a red cent which hasn't a woman in it."

"You might ride down and ask Miss Perkins to step up and adorn our lives,"
said his friend, grimly. Miss Perkins was a particularly rigid spinster
who taught a school six miles distant, and for whom Clarence entertained a
particular distaste.

"You be hanged! I don't mean that kind. I mean--"

"The nice kind, like Mrs. Hope and your cousin. Well, I'm agreed."

"I shall go down after the mail to-morrow," remarked Clarence, between the
puffs of his pipe.

"So shall I."

"All right; come along!" But though the words sounded hearty, the tone
rather belied them. Clarence was a little puzzled by and did not quite
like this newborn enthusiasm on the part of his comrade.

CHAPTER IX.

OVER A PASS.

True to their resolve, the young heads of the High Valley Ranch rode
together to St. Helen's next day,--ostensibly to get their letters; in
reality to call on their late departed guests. They talked amicably as
they went; but unconsciously each was watching the other's mood and
speech. To like the same girl makes young men curiously observant of each
other.

A disappointment was in store for them. They had taken it for granted that
Clover would be as disengaged and as much at their service as she had been
in the valley; and lo! she sat on the piazza with a knot of girls about
her, and a young man in an extremely "fetching" costume of snow-white
duck, with a flower in his button-hole, was bending over her chair, and
talking in a low voice of something which seemed of interest. He looked
provokingly cool and comfortable to the dusty horsemen, and very much at
home. Phil, who lounged against the piazza-rail opposite, dispensed an
enormous and meaning wink at his two friends as they came up the steps.

Clover jumped up from her chai