realized, and not
the first time, how very attractive she really was. If things had only
been different, if only the barrier of that hateful mental lapse of his
had not existed, he had a feeling that they might have been very good
friends indeed.

His lips had parted for a farewell word or two when suddenly he caught the
flutter of skirts over by the corner of the ranch-house. It was Mary
Thorne, and Buck wondered with an odd, unexpected little thrill, whether
by any chance she too might be coming to say good-by. Whatever may have
been her intention, however, it changed abruptly. Catching sight of the
group beside the corral fence, she stopped short, hesitated an instant,
and then, turning square about, disappeared in the direction she had come.
As he glanced back to Stella Manning, Buck's face was a little clouded.

"We'll have to be getting started, I reckon," he said briefly. "Thank you
very much for--for seeing me off."

"But where are you going?"

"Paloma for to-night; after that I'll be hunting another job."

The girl put out her hand and Stratton took it, hoping that she wouldn't
notice his raw, bruised knuckles. He might have spared himself the
momentary anxiety. She wasn't looking at his fingers.

"Well, it's good-by, then," she said, a note of regret underlying the
surface brightness of her tone. "But when you're settled you must send me
a line. We were such good pals aboard ship, and I haven't enough friends
to want to lose even one of them. Send a letter here to the ranch, and if
we're gone, Mary will forward it."

Buck promised, and swung himself stiffly into the saddle. As he and Bud
rode briskly down the slope, he turned and glanced back for an instant.
Miss Manning stood where they had left her, handkerchief fluttering from
her upraised hand, but Stratton scarcely saw her. His gaze swept the front
of the ranch-house, scrutinizing each gaping, empty window and the
deserted porch. Finally, with a faint sigh and a little shrug of his
shoulders, he mentally dismissed the past and fell to considering the
future.

There was a good deal yet to be talked over and decided, and when he had
briefly detailed to Bud the various happenings he was still ignorant of,
Buck went on to outline his plans.

"There are several things I want to look into, and to do it I've got to be
on the loose," he explained. "At the same time I don't want Lynch to get
the idea I'm snooping around. What sort of a fellow is this Te