fine, broad-shouldered girl
you are! An', Nell, you're the handsomest Auchincloss I ever seen!"

Helen found herself blushing, and withdrew her hands from his as Roy
stepped forward to pay his respects. He stood bareheaded, lean and tall,
with neither his clear eyes nor his still face, nor the proffered hand
expressing anything of the proven quality of fidelity, of achievement,
that Helen sensed in him.

"Howdy, Miss Helen? Howdy, Bo?" he said. "You all both look fine an'
brown.... I reckon I was shore slow rustlin' your uncle Al up here. But
I was figgerin' you'd like Milt's camp for a while."

"We sure did," replied Bo, archly.

"Aw!" breathed Auchincloss, heavily. "Lemme set down."

He drew the girls to the rustic seat Dale had built for them under the
big pine.

"Oh, you must be tired! How--how are you?" asked Helen, anxiously.

"Tired! Wal, if I am it's jest this here minit. When Joe Beeman rode
in on me with thet news of you--wal, I jest fergot I was a worn-out old
hoss. Haven't felt so good in years. Mebbe two such young an' pretty
nieces will make a new man of me."

"Uncle Al, you look strong and well to me," said Bo. "And young, too,
and--"

"Haw! Haw! Thet 'll do," interrupted Al. "I see through you. What you'll
do to Uncle Al will be aplenty.... Yes, girls, I'm feelin' fine. But
strange--strange! Mebbe thet's my joy at seein' you safe--safe when I
feared so thet damned greaser Beasley--"

In Helen's grave gaze his face changed swiftly--and all the serried
years of toil and battle and privation showed, with something that was
not age, nor resignation, yet as tragic as both.

"Wal, never mind him--now," he added, slowly, and the warmer light
returned to his face. "Dale--come here."

The hunter stepped closer.

"I reckon I owe you more 'n I can ever pay," said Auchincloss, with an
arm around each niece.

"No, Al, you don't owe me anythin'," returned Dale, thoughtfully, as he
looked away.

"A-huh!" grunted Al. "You hear him, girls.... Now listen, you wild
hunter. An' you girls listen.... Milt, I never thought you much good,
'cept for the wilds. But I reckon I'll have to swallow thet. I do.
Comin' to me as you did--an' after bein' druv off--keepin' your council
an' savin' my girls from thet hold-up, wal, it's the biggest deal any
man ever did for me.... An' I'm ashamed of my hard feelin's, an' here's
my hand."

"Thanks, Al," replied Dale, with his fleeting smile, and he met the
proffered han