to bolt. We'll make the others pull up and take you
in."

They went back to the trail together, and reached it just as Hastings
reined in his team. Hastings got down and walked back with Hawtrey to
the stalled wagon. It was a minute or two before they reappeared again,
and Mrs. Hastings, who had alighted, drew Hawtrey aside.

"I almost think it would be better if you didn't come any further
to-night," she said.

"Why?" Gregory asked sharply.

"I can't help thinking that Agatha would prefer it. For one thing, she's
rather jaded, and wants quiet."

"You feel sure of that?"

There was something in the man's voice which suggested that he was not
quite satisfied, and Mrs. Hastings was silent a moment.

"It's good advice, Gregory," she said. "She'll be better able to face
the situation after a night's rest."

"Does it require much facing?" Hawtrey asked dryly.

Mrs. Hastings turned from him with a sign of impatience. "Of course it
does. Anyway, if you're wise you'll do what I suggest, and ask no more
questions."

Then she got into the wagon, and Hawtrey stood still beside the trail,
feeling unusually thoughtful as they drove away.

CHAPTER XI

AGATHA'S DECISION

It was with an expectancy which was toned down by misgivings that
Hawtrey drove over to the homestead where Agatha was staying the next
afternoon. The misgivings were not unnatural, for he had been chilled by
the girl's reception of him on the previous day, and her manner
afterwards had, he felt, left something to be desired. Indeed, when she
drove away with Mrs. Hastings, he had considered himself an injured man.

His efforts to mend the harness, and extricate the wagon in the dark,
which occupied him for an hour, had helped partly to drive the matter
from his mind, and when he reached his homestead rather late that night
he went to sleep, and slept soundly until sunrise. Hawtrey was a man who
never brooded over his troubles beforehand, and this was one reason why
he did not always cope with them successfully when they could no longer
be avoided.

When he had eaten his breakfast, however, he became sensible of a
certain pique against both Mrs. Hastings and Agatha. In planning for the
day he was forced to remember that he had no hired man, and that there
was a good deal to be done. He decided that it might be well to wait
until the afternoon before he called on Agatha, and for several hours he
drove his team through the crackling stubble. H