ecktie if they've got any!" Skinny whispered.

Ophelia heard and choked back a laugh.

"Thunderation, he's plumb locoed!" Parker exclaimed, as he jammed the
clutch into gear and the car sprang forward.

"Don't forget it, Parker," Skinny called earnestly, "I actually need
it!"

Carolyn June and Skinny stood on the porch and watched the car climb the
grade and out on to the bench. The storm of the night before had washed
the earth clean and cooled the air. A faint after-breeze fanned the
tree-tops. The Costejo peaks stood out, with stereoscopical clearness,
against a cloudless sky. The day was a challenge to one who loved the
open.

"You may saddle 'Old Blue,'" Carolyn June said to Skinny. "--I'll see if
I can 'stick on him' long enough to ride as far as the river!"

"He's already saddled," Skinny replied, "him and Old Pie Face both."

"Man, dear," she cried in mock misunderstanding, "you surely are not
expecting me to ride the two of them at once!"

"No," he answered meekly, "Old Pie Face is my horse, I'm going to ride
him and go with you."

"Indeed!" she exclaimed, then laughing mischievously. "Oh,
certainly--that's a good one--I hadn't thought of it before!"

"Don't you want me to go?" Skinny asked doubtfully.

"Surely. I should be utterly unhappy if you didn't--I'll get my hat."

"Blamed if I can figure her out," Skinny said to himself as Carolyn June
ran lightly into the house. "She keeps a feller freezing to death and
burning up all at once--sort of in heaven and hell both mixed together."

A white, medium-brimmed felt hat was set jauntily on the fluffy brown
hair when she reappeared. Skinny's heart leaped hungrily. Carolyn June
was a picture of perfect physical fitness. The cowboy silently wondered
how long he could keep from making "a complete, triple-expansion, darned
fool of himself!"

"I'm glad you want me to go," he said, renewing the conversation as they
started around the house, "because I wanted to and, well, anyhow it's my
job--"

"What do you mean 'your job'?" Carblyn June asked quickly.

Skinny was stricken silent. He realized he was on dangerous ground. He
wasn't sure it would be wise to tell her what he meant. Someway he felt
Carolyn June would resent it if she knew he was drawing wages for
acting the lover to her. It seemed wholly impossible for him, just at
that moment, to explain that, although Old Heck was paying him ten
dollars a month extra salary to court, temporarily, his att