d he was considering another contrast--that afforded by
his glimpse of the strange woman and Ruth Hamlin. And presently he found
himself smiling with pleasure, with a mental picture of Ruth's face
before him--her clear, direct-looking, honest eyes, with no guile in
them like that which had glowed in the eyes that had gazed into his at
the foot of the stairs.

Over in Corwin's store, where "Aunt Hannah," had gone to make some small
purchases, the woman who had encountered Lawler in the hall was talking
with the proprietor. Aunt Hannah was watching a clerk.

"Della," she called; "do you want anything?"

"Nothing, Aunty," returned the woman. Then she lowered her voice,
speaking to Corwin:

"So he owns the Circle L? Is that a large ranch?"

"One of the biggest in the Wolf River section," declared Corwin.

"Then Lawler must be wealthy."

"I reckon he's got wads of dust, ma'am."

The woman's eyes glowed with satisfaction.

"Well," she said; "I was just curious about him. He is a remarkably
striking-looking man, isn't he?"

"You've hit it, ma'am," grinned Corwin. "I've been years tryin' to think
up a word that would fit him. You've hit it. He's different. Looks like
one of them statesmen with cowpuncher duds on--like a governor or
somethin', which is out of place here."

The woman smiled affirmation. "So he does," she said, reflectively. "He
is big, and imposing, and strikingly handsome. And he is educated, too,
isn't he?"

"I reckon he is," said Corwin. "Privately, that is. His maw was a
scholar of some kind back East, before she married Luke Lawler an' come
out here to live with him. Luke's dead, now--died five years ago. Luke
was a wolf, ma'am, with a gun. He could shoot the buttons off your coat
with his eyes shut. An' he was so allfired fast with his gun that he'd
make a streak of lightnin' look like it was loafin'. Luke had a heap of
man in him, ma'am, an' Kane is just as much of a man as his dad was, I
reckon. Luke was----"

"About Kane Lawler," interrupted the woman. "You say he is well
educated?"

"That's about the only thing I've got ag'in' him, ma'am. I hold that no
cattleman has got a right to know so durned much. It's mighty
dangerous--to his folks--if he ever gets any. Now take Kane Lawler. If
he was to marry a girl that wasn't educated like him, an' he'd begin to
get fool notions about hisself--why, it'd make it pretty hard for the
girl to get along with him." He grinned. "But accordin' to what