ternly.

"You keep still!" Billy Louise shouted back at him. "We're going to
find out right now who's boss."

Whether she referred to Rattler or to his master she did not stipulate;
perhaps she meant both of them. At any rate, she caught the horse
again and mounted, a great deal more cautiously than she had at first,
in spite of Ward's threats and entreaties. She got fairly into the
saddle and stayed there--with the help of the horn and the luck that
had thus far carried her through almost anything she undertook. She
was not a bit ashamed of "pulling leather."

"Now we're all right and comfy," she announced breathlessly, when the
first fight was over and Rattler, like his master, had yielded to the
inevitable. "And we know who's boss, and we're all of us
squindiciously happy, because we're headed for home. Aren't we,
buckaroo?"

"I suppose so," Ward mumbled doubtingly, for a moment eyeing her
sidelong. He was not quite over his scare yet.

"And say, buckaroo!" Billy Louise reined close, so that she could
reach out and pinch his arm a little bit. "Soon as your leg is all
well, and you're every speck over the hookin'-cough, why--you can be
the boss!"

"Can I?"

"Honest, you can. I've"--Billy Louise had the grace to blush a
little--"I've always thought I'd love to have somebody bully me and
boss me and 'buse me. And I--" Her lips twitched a little. "I think
you can qualify. What was that you said just as I was getting on the
second time? I was too busy to listen, but--"

"But what? I don't remember that I said anything." Ward got hold of
her free hand and held it tight.

"Oh, yes, you did! It was sweary, too."

"Was it?"

"Yes, it was. You sweared at Flower of the Ranch-oh."

Billy Louise stopped at that, since Ward refused to be baited. She
sensed that there were bigger things than a "sweary" sentence in the
forefront of her buckaroo's mind. She waited.

They came to the gate, and Billy Louise freed her hand from his clasp
and dismounted, since it was a wire gate and could not be opened on
horseback. She closed it after him, looked to her cinch, tightened it
a little, patted Rattler forgivingly on the neck, caught the horn with
one hand and the stirrup with the other, and went up quite like a man,
while Ward watched her intently.

"'In sooth, I know not why you are so sa-ad,'" murmured Billy Louise,
when she swung alongside in the trail.

Ward caught her hand again and did not le