e house. She drummed carelessly and lightly
on the keys of the piano--her thoughts evidently far away. Parker and
Skinny left the house early. At the door the foreman whispered to the
widow:

"Don't forget what I spoke about coming out from town!"

Ophelia flushed and murmured, "No, indeed, but--" she did not finish the
sentence. She was about to say, "don't build false hopes!"

When Parker and Skinny entered the bunk-house Old Heck and all the
cowboys except the Ramblin' Kid were asleep. He was half-reclining on
his bed, smoking. At the entrance of Skinny and Parker be got up and
without speaking strolled outside and through the darkness toward the
circular corral. The night was warm and the stuffy air of the
bunk-house, together with the noisy snoring of Old Heck, made him
restless. He stood a few moments looking at Captain Jack and the Gold
Dust maverick. Then, moving back into the shed, dropped down and laid
with his shoulders and head on his saddle, which was thrown on the
ground under the shelter. The side of the building, next to the corral,
was open and the Ramblin' Kid could see, from where he was lying, the
dark bulks of the two horses at the farther side of the corral.

Ophelia went directly to bed after Skinny and Parker left.

Carolyn June sat for a while in the Morris chair in the large room. She
seemed abstracted and in a mood for meditation. The vague history Skinny
had given her of the life of the Ramblin' Kid interested her. She
thought it explained a good many of his elemental impulses and
idiosyncrasies. He was a creature of the plains. In his life among the
Indians and Mexicans he had absorbed their stoical ways and almost
brutal directness, yet, sometimes he showed a sensitiveness that was
utterly impossible for Carolyn June to understand. Her thoughts turned
to the Gold Dust maverick. To-morrow Ramblin' Kid would take the filly
away for the round-up. She truly loved the beautiful mare. She would
slip out, while the others slept, and have one more visit with the
splendid creature. Rising, Carolyn June passed out through the kitchen,
stopped for a handful of sugar--she had learned where Sing Pete kept the
can--and bareheaded and without a wrap walked swiftly out to the
circular corral.

The Ramblin' Kid heard Carolyn June step up to the gate of the corral
and from the heavy shadow in which he lay saw the light dress and
instinctively recognized this late visitor to Captain Jack and the Gold
D