n, John,' said Alan, a trifle uncertainly, 'that you are
sorry you let go? That you are not satisfied----'

Carr appeared to be considering the matter as though it were enwrapped
in his cigar. He took ample time in replying, so much time, in fact,
that Helen found herself growing impatient for his reply.

'Suppose I were sorry?' he said finally. 'Suppose I were not
satisfied? Then what? The deal is made, and a bargain, old-timer, is
a bargain.'

Now it was Howard's turn for silence and sober eyes. He looked
intently into his friend's face; then with a lingering affection across
his broad lands.

'Not between friends,' he said. 'Not between friends like you and me,
John. I've hardly got my hooks into it; you had it long enough for it
to get to be a part of you. If you made a mistake in selling, if you
know it now----' He shrugged and smiled. 'Why, of course it doesn't
mean as much to me as to you, and anyway, it's yours until I get all my
payments made, and if you say the word----'

'Well?' asked Carr steadily.

'Why,' cried Howard, 'we'll frame a new deal this very minute and you
can take it over again!'

'You'd do that for me, Al?'

'You're damned well right, I would!' cried Howard heartily. And Helen
understood that for the moment at least he had forgotten that she was
present.

A slow smile came into Carr's eyes.

'That's square shooting, Long Boy.'--he spoke more impetuously than
Helen had thought the man could--'but I never went back on a play yet,
did I? I'm just sort of homesick for the old place, that's all.
Forget it.' He slapped Howard upon the shoulder, the two friends' eyes
met for a moment of utter understanding and he went on down to the
stable, calling back, 'I'm going to take the best horse you've
got--that would be Bel and no other--and ride. So long.'

'So long,' answered Howard.

Carr gone from sight, Howard stood musing a moment, unconscious of
Helen's wondering eyes upon him. Then he turned to her and began
speaking of his friend: big and generous and manly was Carr; a man to
tie to, and, though he did not say it in so many words, a man to die
for. He explained how Carr had taken the old Diaz ranch that had been
Spanish and then Mexican in its time and had made it over into what it
was, the greatest stock run north of the Rio Grande and west of the
Mississippi. Helen's interest was ready and sympathetic, and Howard
passed from one point to another until he had sketc