oon as Hegan was gone, and took her by the hand.

"And now, little woman, you needn't come to the office any more.
Consider yourself discharged. And remember I was your employer, so
you've got to come to me for recommendation, and if you're not real
good, I won't give you one. In the meantime, you just rest up and
think about what things you want to pack, because we'll just about have
to set up housekeeping on your stuff--leastways, the front part of the
house."

"But, Elam, I won't, I won't! If you do this mad thing I never will
marry you."

She attempted to take her hand away, but he closed on it with a
protecting, fatherly clasp.

"Will you be straight and honest? All right, here goes. Which would
you sooner have--me and the money, or me and the ranch?"

"But--" she began.

"No buts. Me and the money?"

She did not answer.

"Me and the ranch?"

Still she did not answer, and still he was undisturbed.

"You see, I know your answer, Dede, and there's nothing more to say.
Here's where you and I quit and hit the high places for Sonoma. You
make up your mind what you want to pack, and I'll have some men out
here in a couple of days to do it for you. It will be about the last
work anybody else ever does for us. You and I will do the unpacking
and the arranging ourselves."

She made a last attempt.

"Elam, won't you be reasonable? There is time to reconsider. I can
telephone down and catch Mr. Hegan as soon as he reaches the office--"

"Why, I'm the only reasonable man in the bunch right now," he rejoined.
"Look at me--as calm as you please, and as happy as a king, while
they're fluttering around like a lot of cranky hens whose heads are
liable to be cut off."

"I'd cry, if I thought it would do any good," she threatened.

"In which case I reckon I'd have to hold you in my arms some more and
sort of soothe you down," he threatened back. "And now I'm going to
go. It's too bad you got rid of Mab. You could have sent her up to
the ranch. But see you've got a mare to ride of some sort or other."

As he stood at the top of the steps, leaving, she said:--

"You needn't send those men. There will be no packing, because I am
not going to marry you."

"I'm not a bit scared," he answered, and went down the steps.

CHAPTER XXIV

Three days later, Daylight rode to Berkeley in his red car. It was for
the last time, for on the morrow the big machine passed into another's
possession. It had b