went to her wash-stand, arranged
her hair swiftly, saw that the flush had gone out of her cheeks, that
her eyes were cool and told nothing, and went down to join the three men
who had already taken their places at the dinner table.

As she came through the door, her head up, her lips a little hard,
Broderick was the first to see her and was upon his feet in a flash, as
graceful as a cavalier, as debonair in his big boots and soft white silk
shirt as though he had been a courtly gentleman dressed for the ball,
his eyes frankly filled with the appreciation of her dainty beauty.
Pollard, remembering, rose too, and last of all Cole Dalton, his shrewd
eyes intense and keen upon her. Winifred's gaze passed by Broderick as
though she had not seen him and travelled to her uncle while she waited
for the introductions.

Dalton, who was first to be presented, put out a big, hard, square hand,
capturing and releasing Winifred's suddenly as though it were a part of
the day's work to be done and over with. He had stepped forward and now
stepped back to his chair, his keen, watchful eyes never leaving her
face.

Then Broderick took the hand which she did not like to refuse to her
uncle's friend and guest and yet which she disliked giving him, saw the
little flush which his gaze drove into her cheeks, and with a hint of
laughter in his eyes bowed over it gallantly, murmuring his happiness in
knowing her. And it was Broderick who stepped quickly to her chair,
drawing it out for her to be seated. She found herself wondering where
this man had learned to do these little things which are no part of the
training of the far out cattle men.

During the first half of the meal there was no reference to the
happening at Harte's Camp. Broderick, with a mood contagiously care free
and sparkling, did the greater part of the talking, and though he
elicited from the girl rare words beyond a brief "yes" or "no," he
seemed content. And he interested her. He talked well, with little slurs
of grammar that seemed rather due to the man's carelessness of nature
than to ignorance, his vocabularly not without picturesque force. It
seemed natural that he should do the talking, that he should address
himself largely to her, and that Pollard and Cole Dalton should listen
and watch him.

Within ten minutes she gleaned that Broderick was a miner, that he had a
claim of some sort in the mountains back of Hill's Corners, to the
eastward, that a couple of year