ght. You'll--"

"I know the lady," Ford cut in dryly. "I met her yesterday, and we
commenced hating each other as soon as we got in talking distance. She
sent me to catch her horse, and then she pulled out before I got back.
She's a peach, all right!"

"Oh. You're the fellow!" Mason regarded him attentively. "Now, I don't
believe she said a word to Kate about that, and she must have known who
it was packed her out of the house. I wonder why she didn't say anything
about it to Kate! But she wasn't to blame for leaving you out there,
honest she wasn't. I went out to hunt her up--Kate got kinda worried
about her--and she told me about you, and we did wait a little while.
But it was getting cold, and she was hurt pretty bad and getting kinda
wobbly, so I put her on my horse and brought her home. But she left a
note for you, and I sent a man back after you with a horse. He come back
and said he couldn't locate you. So we thought you'd gone to some other
ranch." He stopped and looked quizzically at Ford. "So you're the man!
And you're both here for the winter--at least, Kate says she's going to
keep her all winter. Gosh! This is getting romantic!"

"Don't you believe it!" Ford urged emphatically. "I don't want to bump
into her again; a little of her company will last me a long while!"

"Oh, you won't meet Jo to-night; Josephine, her name is. She's in bed,
and will be for a week or so, most likely. You've just got to come,
Ford. Kate'll be down here after you herself, if I go back without
you--and she'll give me the dickens into the bargain. I want you to get
acquainted with my kid--Buddy. He's down in the river field with the
boys, but he'll be back directly. Greatest kid you ever saw, Ford! Only
seven, and he can ride like a son-of-a-gun, and wears chaps and spurs,
and can sling a loop pretty good, for a little kid! Come on!"

"Wel-ll, all right--but Lordy me! I do hate to, Ches, and that's a fact.
Women I'm plumb scared of. I never met one in my life that didn't hand
me a package of trouble so big I couldn't see around it. Why--" He shut
his teeth upon the impulse to confide to Mason his matrimonial
mischance.

"These two won't. My wife's the real goods, once you get to know her; a
little fussy, maybe, over some things--most all women are. But she's all
right, you bet. And Josephine's the proper stuff too. A little abrupt,
maybe--"

"Abrupt!" Ford echoed, and laughed over the word. "Yes, she is what you
might call a