lately I heerd of some big wild-hoss deals on."

"Well," exclaimed Pan, in profound amaze and sorrow at this news.

"It's a wide-open frontier place, all right," declared Campbell. "Some
cowpuncher rode through here an' talked about Marco. He said they
stepped high, wide an' handsome up there."

"Why did Dad go?" asked Pan in wonder.

"Reckon I couldn't say fer sure. But he was sore at Hardman, an' the
funny thing is he wasn't sore till some time after Hardman left these
parts. Mebbe he learned somethin'. An' you can learn whatever it was
if you hunt up them ranchers who once got stung by Hardman."

"Ah-uh!" muttered Pan, thoughtfully. "Don't know as I care to learn.
Dad will tell me.... Jim Blake, now, what become of him?"

"Jim, a while back, I reckon some years though after you left home, was
foreman for Hardman's outfit. An' he went to Marco first. Reckon
Hardman sent him up there to scout around."

"Did Jim take his family along?" inquired Pan, pondering.

"No. But they left soon after. In fact, now I tax myself, several
homesteaders from hereabouts went. There's a boom over west, Pan, an'
this here country is gettin' crowded."

"Marco. How do you get there?"

"Wal, it's on the old road to Californy."

Pan went to the seclusion of his room, and there in the dark,
sleepless, he knew the pangs of remorse. Without realizing the flight
of years, always meaning to return home, to help father, mother, little
sister, to take up again with his never-forgotten Lucy--he had allowed
the wild life of the range to hold him too long. Excuses were futile.
Suppose he had failed to save money--suppose he had become numbered
among those whom his old schoolteacher had called "bad cowboys"!
Pride, neglect, love of the range and new country, new adventure had
kept him from doing his duty by his parents. That hour was indeed dark
and shameful for Panhandle Smith. Instead of drowning his grief in
drink, as would have been natural for a cowboy, he let it work its will
upon him. He deserved the pangs of self-reproach, the futile
wondering, the revived memories that roused longings stronger than that
which had turned him on the homeward trail.

Next day Pan sold his outfit except the few belongings he cherished,
and boarded a west-bound stage. Once on the way he recovered from his
brooding mood and gradually awakened to the fact that he was riding to
a new country, a new adventure--the biggest of his life--in