d only be a matter of how soon Dale or Carmichael--or I--got
to Beasley."

"Roy! I feared just that. It haunts me. Carmichael asked me to let him
go pick a fight with Beasley. Asked me, just as he would ask me about
his work! I was shocked. And now you say Dale--and you--"

Helen choked in her agitation.

"Miss Helen, what else could you look for? Las Vegas is in love with
Miss Bo. Shore he told me so. An' Dale's in love with you!... Why, you
couldn't stop them any more 'n you could stop the wind from blowin' down
a pine, when it got ready.... Now, it's some different with me. I'm a
Mormon an' I'm married. But I'm Dale's pard, these many years. An'
I care a powerful sight for you an' Miss Bo. So I reckon I'd draw on
Beasley the first chance I got."

Helen strove for utterance, but it was denied her. Roy's simple
statement of Dale's love had magnified her emotion by completely
changing its direction. She forgot what she had felt wretched about. She
could not look at Roy.

"Miss Helen, don't feel bad," he said, kindly. "Shore you're not to
blame. Your comin' West hasn't made any difference in Beasley's fate,
except mebbe to hurry it a little. My dad is old, an' when he talks
it's like history. He looks back on happenin's. Wal, it's the nature of
happenin's that Beasley passes away before his prime. Them of his breed
don't live old in the West.... So I reckon you needn't feel bad or
worry. You've got friends."

Helen incoherently thanked him, and, forgetting her usual round of
corrals and stables, she hurried back toward the house, deeply stirred,
throbbing and dim-eyed, with a feeling she could not control. Roy Beeman
had made a statement that had upset her equilibrium. It seemed simple
and natural, yet momentous and staggering. To hear that Dale loved
her--to hear it spoken frankly, earnestly, by Dale's best friend, was
strange, sweet, terrifying. But was it true? Her own consciousness had
admitted it. Yet that was vastly different from a man's open statement.
No longer was it a dear dream, a secret that seemed hers alone. How she
had lived on that secret hidden deep in her breast!

Something burned the dimness from her eyes as she looked toward the
mountains and her sight became clear, telescopic with its intensity.
Magnificently the mountains loomed. Black inroads and patches on the
slopes showed where a few days back all bad been white. The snow was
melting fast. Dale would soon be free to ride down to Pine. A