that in the first flashing look--he was no less
astounded than she. At the moment he made a picture to fill the eye
and remain in the memory of a girl fresh from an Eastern City. The
tall, rangy form was garbed in the picturesque way of the country; she
took him in from the heels of the black boots with their silver spurs
to the top of his head with its amazingly wide black hat. He stood
against a sky rapidly filling to the warm glow of the morning. His
horse, a rarely perfect creation even in the eyes of one who knew
little of fine breeding in animals, stood just at its master's heels,
with ears pricked forward curiously.

Helen wondered swiftly if he intended to stand there until the sun came
up, just looking at her. Though it was scarcely more than a moment
that he stood thus, in Helen's confusion the time seemed much longer.
She began to grow ill at ease; she felt a quick spurt of irritation.
No doubt she looked a perfect fright, taken all unawares like this, and
equally indisputably he was forming an extremely uncomplimentary
opinion of her. It required less than three seconds for Miss Helen to
decide emphatically that the man was a horrible creature.

But he did not look any such thing. He was healthy and brown and
boyish. He had had a shave and haircut no longer ago than yesterday
and looked neat and clean. His mouth was quite as large as a man's
should be and now was suddenly smiling. At the same instant his hat
came off in his big brown hand and a gleam of downright joyousness
shone in his eyes.

'Impudent beast!' was Helen's quick thought. She had given her mind
last night a great deal less to matters of toilet than to mystic
imaginings; it lay entirely in the field of absurd likelihood that
there was a smear of black across her face.

'My mistake,' grinned the stranger. 'Guess I'll step out while the
stepping's good and the road open. If there's one sure thing a man
ought to be shot for, it's stampeding in on another fellow's honeymoon.
_Adios, senora_.'

'Honeymoon!' gasped Helen. 'The big fool.'

Her father wakened abruptly, sat up, grasping his big revolver in both
hands, and blinked about him; he, too, had had his dreams. In the
night-cap which he had purchased in San Juan, his wide, grave eyes and
sun-blistered face turned up inquiringly; he was worthy of a second
glance as he sat prepared to defend himself and his daughter. The
stranger had just set the toe of his boot into the s