ith her.

"Why don't you invite me to go along?" Evadna challenged from the gate,
when he was ready to start. She laughed when she said it, but there was
something beneath the laughter, if he had only been close enough to read
it.

"I didn't think you'd want to ride through all that dust and heat again
to-day," he called back. "You're better off in the shade."

"Going to call on 'Squaw-talk-far-off'--AGAIN?" She was still laughing,
with something else beneath the laugh.

He glanced at her quickly, wondering where she had gotten the name, and
in his wonder neglected to make audible reply. Also he passed over the
change to ride back to the gate and tell her good-by--with a hasty kiss,
perhaps, from the saddle--as a lover should have done.

He was not used to love-making. For him, it was settled that they loved
each other, and would marry some day--he hoped the day would be soon. It
did not occur to him that a girl wants to be told over and over that she
is the only woman in the whole world worth a second thought or glance;
nor that he should stop and say just where he was going, and what he
meant to do, and how reluctant he was to be away from her. Trouble sat
upon his mind like a dead weight, and dulled his perception, perhaps.
He waved his hand to her from the stable, and galloped down the trail to
the Point o' Rocks, and his mind, so far as Evadna was concerned, was at
ease.

Evadna, however, was crying, with her arms folded upon the top of the
gate, before the cloud which marked his passing had begun to sprinkle
the gaunt, gray sagebushes along the trail with a fresh layer of choking
dust. Jack and Wally came up, scowling at the world and finding no
words to match their gloom. Wally gave her a glance, and went on to
the blacksmith shop, but Jack went straight up to her, for he liked her
well.

"What's the matter?" he asked dully. "Mad because you can't smoke up the
ranch?"

Evadna fumbled blindly for her handkerchief, scoured her eyes well when
she found it, and put up the other hand to further shield her face.

"Oh, the whole place is like a GRAVEYARD," she complained. "Nobody will
talk, or do anything but just wander around! I just can't STAND it!"
Which was not frank of her.

"It's too hot to do much of anything," he said apologetically. "We might
take a ride, if you don't mind the heat."

"You don't want to ride," she objected petulantly. "Why didn't you go
with Good Indian?" he countered.

"Becaus