t quiet because she wanted to hold
her job awhile," Cole explained to his friend. "Onct I get her back
there in God's hills she'll sure enough forget all about this trouble.
The way I look at it she was jus' like a li'l' kid that takes a
mis-step in the dark an' falls an' hurts itself. You know how a
wounded deer can look at a fellow so sorrowful an' hurt. Well, that's
how her brown eyes looked at me when I come round the corner o' the
house up Platte Canon an' seen her sittin' there starin' at hell."

Kirby shook hands with him in a sudden stress of emotion. "You'll do
to take along, old alkali, you sure enough will."

"Oh, shucks!" retorted Cole, between disgust and embarrassment. "I
always claimed to be a white man, didn't I? You can't give a fellow
credit for doin' the thing he'd rather do than anything else. But prod
a peg in this. I'm gonna make that li'l' girl plumb happy. She thinks
she won't be, that she's lost the right to be. She's 'way off, I can
see her perkin' up already. I got a real honest-to-God laugh outa her
this mo'nin'."

Kirby knew the patience, the steadiness, and the kindliness of his
friend. Esther had fallen into the best of hands. She would find
again the joy of life. He had no doubt of that. Gayety and laughter
were of her heritage.

He said as much to Rose on the way home. She agreed. For the first
time since she left Cheyenne the girl was her old self. Esther's
problem had been solved far more happily than she had dared to hope.

"I'm goin' to have a gay time apologizin' to Jack," said Kirby, his
eyes dancing. "It's not so blamed funny at that, but I can't help
laughin' every time I think of how he must 'a' been grinnin' up his
sleeve at me for my fool mistake. I'll say he brought it on himself,
though. He was feelin' guilty on his brother's account, an' I didn't
get his embarrassment right. James is a pretty cool customer. From
first to last he never turned a hair when the subject was mentioned."

"What about him?" Rose asked.

The cattleman pretended alarm. "Now, don't you," he remonstrated.
"Don't you expect me to manhandle James, too. I'm like Napoleon.
Another victory like the battle of last night would sure put me in the
hospital. I'm a peaceable citizen, a poor, lone cowboy far away from
home. Where I come from it's as quiet as a peace conference. This
wildest-Denver stuff gets my nerve."

She smiled into his battered face. A dimple nestled in he