all have to go
down to the bottom."

"Go down to the bottom of Deep Canyon?" cried the girl.

"Yes," he answered in a matter-of-course tone. "A big ravine runs
clear down to the bottom, up beyond where your father said you first
met Ashton. I think it is possible to get down that gulch.--Suppose we
hitch up? We'll make the ranch just about supper-time."

Ashton hastened to bring in the picketed horses. When they were
harnessed Isobel fetched the sleeping baby and handed him to his
mother; but she did not take the seat beside her.

"You drive, Lafe," she ordered. "I'm going to ride behind with Mr.
Blake. It's such fun bouncing."

All protested in vain against this odd whim. The girl plumped herself
in on the rear end of the buckboard and dangled her slender feet with
the gleefulness of a child.

"Mr. Blake will catch me if I go to jolt off," she declared.

The engineer nodded with responsive gayety and seated himself beside
her. As the buckboard rattled away over the rough sod, they made as
merry over their jolts and bounces as a pair of school-children on a
hayrack party.

Mrs. Blake sought to divert Ashton from his disappointment, but he
had ears only for the laughing, chatting couple behind him. The fact
that Blake was a married man did not prevent the lover from giving way
to jealous envy. Chancing to look around as he warned the hilarious
pair of a gully, he saw the girl grasp Blake's shoulder. Natural as
was the act, his envy flared up in hot resentment. Except on their
drive to Stockchute, she had always avoided even touching his hand
with her finger tips; yet now she clung to the engineer with a grasp
as familiar as that of an affectionate child. Nor did she release her
clasp until they were some yards beyond the gully.

Mrs. Blake had seen not only the expression that betrayed Ashton's
anger but also the action that caused it. She raised her fine
eyebrows; but meeting Ashton's significant glance, she sought to pass
over the incident with a smile. He refused to respond. All during the
remainder of the drive he sat in sullen silence. Genevieve bent over
her baby. Behind them the unconscious couple continued in their
mirthful enjoyment of each other and the ride.

When the party reached the ranch, the girl must have perceived
Ashton's moroseness had she not first caught sight of her father. He
was standing outside the front porch, his eyes fixed upon the corner
post in a perplexed stare.

"Why, Daddy