w, with smiling eyes that mocked.

"Of course he had. He couldn't ride a mile--not half a mile. The idea is
utterly preposterous."

The sheepman got to his feet unsteadily. "I'll do famously."

"I won't have it. Why are you so foolish about going? He said you didn't
need to go. You can't ride any more than a baby could chop down that
pine in the yard."

"I'm a heap stronger than y'u think."

"Yes, you are!" she derided. "It's nothing but obstinacy. Make him
stay," she appealed to the outlaw.

"Am I my cousin's keeper?" he drawled. "I can advise him to stay, but I
can't make him."

"Well, I can. I'm his nurse, and I say he sha'n't stir a foot out of
this house--not a foot."

The wounded man smiled quietly, admiring the splendid energy of her.
"I'm right sorry to leave y'u so unceremoniously."

"You're not going." She wheeled on the outlaw "I don't understand this
at all. But if you want him you can find him here when you come again.
Put him on parole and leave him here. I'll not be a party to murder by
letting him go."

"Y'u think I'm going to murder him?" he smiled.

"I think he cannot stand the riding. It would kill him."

"A haidstrong man is bound to have his way. He seems hell-bent on
riding. All the docs say the outside of a hawss is good for the inside
of a man. Mebbe it'll be the making of him."

"I won't have it. I'll rouse the whole countryside against you. Why
don't you parole him till he is better?"

"All right. We'll leave it that way," announced the man. "I'd hate to
hurt your tender feelings after such a pleasant evening. Let him give
his parole to come to me whenever I send for him, no matter where he
may be, to quit whatever he is doing right that instant, and come on the
jump. If he wants to leave it that way, we'll call it a bargain."

Again the rapier-thrust of their eyes crossed. The sheepman was
satisfied with what he saw in the face of his foe.

"All right. It's a deal," he agreed, and sank weakly back to the couch.

There are men whose looks are a profanation to any good woman. Ned
Bannister, of the Shoshones, was one of them. He looked at his cousin,
and his ribald eyes coasted back to bold scrutiny of this young woman's
charming, buoyant youth. There was Something in his face that sent a
flush of shame coursing through her rich blood. No man had ever looked
at her like that before.

"Take awful good care of him," he sneered, with so plain an implication
of evil that her cl