the bigger it gets."

The doctor was the only one present who understood fully how much she
had built around that chance. Their eyes met as he looked across at her;
he remembered what she had said of planting trees, and having roses
beside her door.

"It's almost there!" cried June, looking at her stake.

"Twenty minutes yet," announced Horace, who sat with his watch in his
palm.

They were all bonneted and booted, ready for an expedition, although
they had none in sight. It was as if they expected Number One to come
flying through the town, to be caught and held by the swiftest of foot,
the one alert and ready to spring up and dash after it.

"Shall we go over to the newspaper office?" asked the doctor, looking
across again and catching Agnes' eyes.

June jumped up and accepted the proposal for all.

"Oh, let's do!" she exclaimed. "Let's be there to get the very first
word!"

On the part of the ladies there was a dash into the tent to adjust their
headgear before glasses and to renew the powder on their noses. While
they were gone Horace Bentley, the lawyer, stood with his watch exposed
to his impatient eye.

"In five minutes," he announced as the ladies rejoined them, "they will
draw the first name from the wheel at Meander. I hope that it may be the
name of someone in this party."

"I hope it will be yours," said Dr. Slavens' eyes as he looked earnestly
at Agnes; and: "Number Two would do very well for me in case your name
came first," her eyes seemed to answer him.

But there was none by who knew what had passed between them of their
hopes, so none could read the messages, even if there had been any so
curious as to try.

Mrs. Mann was humming a little song as they started away toward the
newspaper office, for she was tiring of Wyoming, where she had not seen
a single cowboy yet; and the prospect of returning to the miller was
growing dear to her heart. There was a quiet over Comanche that morning
which seemed different from the usual comparative peace of that portion
of the day--a strained and fevered quiet, as of hushed winds before a
gale. It took hold of even June as the party passed through the main
street, joining the stream of traffic which pressed in one direction
only.

They could not arrive within a square of the newspaper-tent, for the
crowd around it was packed and dense; so they stopped where there was
breathing-space among groups of men who stood with their gripsacks
between their fee