d remarking that she also wished to drink, she followed
Knowles.

The cowman smiled at her reassuringly. "You're not afraid of any more
shooting, ma'am, are you?" he asked. "I've told your husband that Kid
is to come up to keep guard. He will stay right along, unless that
scoundrel is trailed down sooner."

"Then I shall have no fear, Mr. Knowles."

"You needn't, and you and Chuckie can come and go just the same as
ever. I don't want your visit spoiled. It's a great treat to all of us
to have you with us."

"And to my husband and myself to be your guests! I have quite fallen
in love with your daughter, Mr. Knowles. If you'll permit me to say
it, you are very fortunate to have so lovely and lovable a girl."

"Don't I know it, ma'am!"

"So beautiful--and her character as beautiful as her face. How you
must prize her!"

"Prize her!" repeated Knowles, his usual stolid face aglow with pride
and tenderness. "Why, ma'am, I couldn't hold her more in liking if she
was my own flesh and blood!"

Genevieve suddenly bent down to hide the intense emotion that had
struck the color from her face. Yet after a moment's pause, she spoke
in a composed, almost casual tone: "Then Chuckie is not your own
daughter?"

"Not in the way you mean. Hasn't she told you? I adopted her."

"I see," remarked Genevieve, with a show of polite interest. "But of
course, taking her when a young infant, she has always thought of you
as her own father."

"No--what I can't get over is that she feels that way, and I feel the
same to her, though I never saw or heard of her till she was going on
fourteen."

"Ah!" Genevieve could no longer suppress her agitation. "Then she
is--I'm sure that she must be--You said she came from the East, from
Chicago?"

"No, ma'am! I didn't say where she came from," curtly replied the
cowman.

The shock of his brusqueness restored the lady to her usual quiet
composure. Looking up into his face, she found it as blank and
impenetrable as a cement wall.

"You must pardon me," she murmured. "I myself am a Chicago girl, so
you must see how natural it is for me to hope that so sweet and
beautiful a girl as Chuckie came from my city."

"Chuckie is my daughter," stated Knowles in a flat tone.

"If you will kindly permit me to explain. My husband--"

"Chuckie is my daughter, legally adopted," repeated the cowman. "You
can see what she is like. If that is not enough, ma'am, I can't
prevent you from declining our hospit