n' him?" he demanded.

"Some people would have tumbled to that long ago," jeered Calumet.
"But kids--kids take longer to _sabe_ a thing. I'm glad you're over
it," he added. He sheathed his pistol. "I reckon we'll be goin'," he
said. "Betty'll begin to believe I'm lost."

Dade followed him to the wagon, meekly enough now that he had received
unmistakable proof that Taggart was Calumet's "game," and shortly
afterward the wagon pulled out of Lazette and struck the trail toward
the Lazy Y.

CHAPTER XI

PROGRESS

Calumet had some thoughts on the subject but they were all inchoate and
unsatisfying. He got only one conclusion out of them--that for some
mysterious reason he had surrendered to Betty and was going to work to
repair the ranchhouse.

On the morning following his visit to Lazette he sat on a piece of
heavy timber which he and Dade had lifted a few minutes before to some
saw-horses preparatory to framing. Armed with a scratch awl and a
square Dade was at the other end of the timber, his hat shoved back
from his forehead while he ran his fingers through his hair as though
pondering some weighty problem. Watching him, Calumet suffered a
recurrence of that vague disquiet which had moved him the night before
when he had listened to the cordial greeting which Betty had given the
young man. Old friendship had been between the two and somehow it had
disturbed Calumet. He did not know why. He didn't like Betty, but at
the same time every smile that she had given Dade the night before had
caused some strange emotion to grip him. And he liked Dade, too. He
couldn't understand that, either.

He had never been friendly with any man. But something about Dade
appealed to him; he felt tolerant toward him, was mildly interested in
him. He thought it was because Dade was boyish and impulsive.
Whatever it was, he knew of its existence. It was not a deep feeling;
it was like the emotion that moves a large animal to permit a smaller
one to remain near it--a grudging tolerance which may develop into
sincere friendship or at a flash turn into a furious hatred. And so
Dade's security depended entirely upon how he conducted himself. If he
kept out of Calumet's way, all well and good. But if he interfered
with him, if, for instance, he became too friendly with Betty, there
would come an end to Calumet's tolerance.

And so there was a glint of speculative distrust in Calumet's eyes as
he sat and watched Dade