he things I notice," returned that youth jauntily, meeting the
other's anger without the flicker of an eyelid.

"It ain't healthy to be so noticin'," insinuated the other.

"Y'u don't say," came the prompt, sarcastic retort. "If you're such a
darned good judge of health, y'u better be attending to some of your
patients." He jerked a casual thumb over his shoulder toward the bunks
on which lay the wounded men.

"I shouldn't wonder but what there might be another patient for me to
attend to," snarled the foreman.

"That so? Well, turn your wolf loose when y'u get to feelin' real
devilish," jeered the undismayed one, strolling forward to assist Miss
Messiter to alight.

The mistress of the Lazy D had been aware of the byplay, but she had
caught neither the words nor their import. She took the offered brown
hand smilingly, for here again she looked into the frank eyes of the
West, unafraid and steady. She judged him not more than twenty-two,
but the school where he had learned of life had held open and strenuous
session every day since he could remember.

"Glad to meet y'u, ma'am," he assured her, in the current phrase of the
semi-arid lands.

"I'm sure I am glad to meet YOU," she answered, heartily. "Can you tell
me where is the foreman of the Lazy D?"

He introduced with a smile the swarthy man in the doorway. "This is him
ma'am--Mr. Judd Morgan."

Now it happened that Mr. Judd Morgan was simmering with suppressed
spleen.

"All I've got to say is that you had no business mixing up in that
shootin' affair back there. Perhaps you don't know that the man you
saved is Ned Bannister, the outlaw," was his surly greeting.

"Oh, yes, I know that."

"Then what d'ye mean--Who are you, anyway?" His insolent eyes coasted
malevolently over her.

"Helen Messiter is my name."

It was ludicrous to see the change that came over the man. He had been
prepared to bully her; and with a word she had pricked the bubble of his
arrogance. He swallowed his anger and got a mechanical smile in working
order.

"Glad to see you here, Miss Messiter," he said, his sinister gaze
attempting to meet hers frankly "I been looking for you every day."

"But y'u managed to surprise him, after all ma'am," chuckled Mac.

"Where's yo' hawss, Reddy?" inquired a tall young man, who had appeared
silently in the doorway of the bunkhouse.

Reddy pinked violently. "I had an accident, Denver," he explained. "This
lady yere she--"

"Scooped y'u r