ve done, had he attempted to carry
out his threat to "get" the man who had so humiliated him.

But Patches' strange interest in Yavapai Joe in no way lessened. Always
he had a kindly word for the poor unfortunate, and sought persistently
to win the weakling's friendship. And Phil seeing this wondered, but
held his peace.

Frequently Kitty Reid, sometimes alone, often with the other members of
the Reid household, came across the big meadow to spend an evening at
the neighboring ranch. Sometimes Phil and Patches, stopping at the
Pot-Hook-S home ranch, at the close of the day, for a drink at the
windmill pump, would linger a while for a chat with Kitty, who would
come from the house to greet them. And now and then Kitty, out for a
ride on Midnight, would chance to meet the two Cross-Triangle men on the
range, and so would accompany them for an hour or more.

And thus the acquaintance between Patches and the girl grew into
friendship; for Kitty loved to talk with this man of the things that
play so large a part in that life which so appealed to her; and, with
Phil's ever-ready and hearty endorsement of Patches, she felt safe in
permitting the friendship to develop. And Patches, quietly observing,
with now and then a conversational experiment--at which game he was an
adepts--came to understand, almost as well as if he had been told,
Phil's love for Kitty and her attitude toward the cowboy--her one-time
schoolmate and sweetheart. Many times when the three were together, and
the talk, guided by Kitty, led far from Phil's world, the cowboy would
sit a silent listener, until Patches would skillfully turn the current
back to the land of Granite Mountain and the life in which Phil had so
vital a part.

In the home-life at the Cross-Triangle, too, Patches gradually came to
hold his own peculiar place. His cheerful helpfulness, and gentle,
never-failing courtesy, no less than the secret pain and sadness that
sometimes, at some chance remark, drove the light from his face and
brought that wistful look into his eyes, won Mrs. Baldwin's heart. Many
an evening under his walnut trees, with Stella and Phil and Curly and
Bob and Little Billy near, the Dean was led by the rare skill and ready
wit of Patches to open the book of his kindly philosophy, as he talked
of the years that were past. And sometimes Patches himself, yielding to
temptation offered by the Dean, would speak in such vein that the older
man came to understand that this