ho she was. I made him see what it meant to me to find her, and he
promised to try his best and to forward at once any letter that came to
him. If I don't hear after a while, when work gets slack so you can spare
me, I'm going to Chicago and go through it with a fine tooth comb. Reilly
will help me follow every girl by the name of Marta that's ever lived
there."

Kurt's eyes, full of infinite pity and regret, turned to Jo as he broke
the little pause that followed.

"She is doubtless a poor little stray of a girl and luck has been against
her, but, Jo, put all thoughts of marrying her away, just as she has.
Wait--" he hurried on, seeing the anger kindling in the lad's eyes--"if it
were any other offense--But a thief! 'Once a thief, always a thief,' is
the truest saying I know. Your love couldn't--"

"It didn't make any change in my feelings when she told me," said Joe
staunchly. "She could steal anything I had."

"It might not change your feelings, but it should change your intentions.
Do you mean you'd marry--" Kurt had an incredulous expression on his
face.

"In a second, if she'd have me. I'd buy her everything she wanted so she
wouldn't have to steal."

"But after you were married and people found out what she was, you'd be
ashamed--"

"Ashamed! I'd put my little thief on a throne, and whoever dared to try to
take her off would get it in the neck."

The car speeded up again. The man at the wheel saw the utter futility of
further expostulation.

"I'll leave it to time and cow-punching," he thought sagely. "Time and
work are the best healers, especially for the young. Preaching is of no
avail."

Night came on. Jo looked up at a little lone star which was trying to make
its light shine without a properly darkened background.

"That's a poor little orphan star--like her. I'll look for it every night
now. I wish I hadn't blabbed to Kurt. He hasn't a nose for orange
blossoms."

In the fortnight that followed, Jo worked indefatigably, but his heart and
his thoughts were back in Chicago, except when now and then his eyes
turned to a fertile little beauty-spot valleyed between the hills. For
here he had located an imaginary cottage--his cottage and hers. This
mirage, of course, always showed a little slip of a girl standing in the
doorway. To the surprise and dismay of his associates Jo the spender
became Jo the saver that his dream might come true.

He offered no addendum to the revelation he had made to Ku