ys are
good to me--but they're like strangers. They don't talk about things,
the way they used to do. They come and go."

Lance's big, well-kept hand went up to smooth her hair with a
comforting, caressing movement infinitely sweet to Belle. "I know," he
said quietly.

"And it isn't anything, of course. But the old boys have gone, and
these new ones--Lance, what is the matter with the Devil's Tooth
ranch? Tell me, for heaven's sake, if I'm getting to be an old woman
with notions!"

"You'll never be an old woman," said Lance in the tone Mary Hope built
her day-dreams around. "Age has nothing to do with you--you just
_are_. But as to notions--well, you may have. Women do have them, I
believe." He kissed her hair and added, "What do you think is the
matter with the ranch?"

"I don't _know_. When I try to pin it to one thing, there's nothing to
put a pin in. Not a thing. You remember Cheyenne? I was afraid Tom
would kill him, after the trial. You know it was practically proven
that he was a spy, and was working to get something on the outfit. I
was on the warpath myself, over that trial. I would a shot up a few in
that courtroom if Tom had been convicted. You know and I know that Tom
didn't have a thing to do with that darned, spotted yearling of
Scotty's.

"But Cheyenne just--just faded out of existence. Tom's never mentioned
him from the day of the trial to this. And I know he hates the whole
Rim, and won't have anything much to do with anybody--but he acts just
as if nothing had happened, as if nobody had ever tried to make him
out a cow thief. He won't talk about it. He won't talk about anything
much. When we're alone he just sits and _thinks_. And honey, the
Lorrigans have always been men that _did_ things.

"He and the boys woke up, and the ranch acted human about the
schoolhouse, but it's other times, when there's no excitement around,
that I feel as if--I don't know what. It's something underneath.
Something that never comes to the top. Something that's liable to
reach up and grab." She put a hand up and patted Lance's lean, hard
jaw. "I'd shoot any one that said Belle Lorrigan's _afraid_--but
that's about what it amounts to," she finished with a little mirthless
laugh.

"Belle Lorrigan's not afraid. There's nothing to be afraid of. You've
lived in the Rim too long, Belle, and you've been watching dad and the
boys chasing that million. I've seen other men working at it, and it
always gets hold of them unt