is face. Then he laughed mirthlessly.

"Tom Chavis is a valuable man here, Ruth," he said. "If the insult was
one that can be overlooked, you would do well to let the matter rest. But
be assured that I shall have a talk with Chavis, and you may believe that
he will not repeat the offense." He patted her shoulder. "In the
meantime," he said, with a hurt expression in his eyes, "do have some
faith in me."

Reassured, convinced that she had done him an injustice in believing Chavis,
she passed the remainder of the day in comparative light-heartedness.
But when the awesome darkness of the West settled over the country, and
deep, stirring thoughts came to her on her pillow, she found herself
thinking of the rider of the river. He grew very vivid in her thoughts,
and she found herself wondering,--remembering the stern manliness of his
face,--whether he, listening to the story of Chavis' insult from her lips,
would have sought to find excuses for her insulter.

CHAPTER V

LOVE VS. BUSINESS

On Sunday afternoon Ruth, Masten, Aunt Martha, and Uncle Jepson were
sitting on the front porch of the Flying W ranchhouse. Ruth was reading
and thinking--thinking most of the time, the book lying open in her lap.
Masten was smoking a cigar--one of the many that he had brought with
him--and which he selfishly kept exclusively for his own use. Masten
seemed to be doing a great deal of thinking, too, for he was silent
during long periods, reclining easily in a big rocker, well-groomed and
immaculate as usual, looking decidedly out of place in this country,
where extravagant personal adornment was considered an indication of
effeminacy.

Yet it was this immaculateness that had attracted Ruth to Masten in the
first place when a year and a half before she had met him at a party in
Poughkeepsie. Fresh from a big city near by, he had outshone the country
gallants at the party as he had outshone the cowboys that Ruth had seen
since coming to the Flying W. His courtship had been gallant, too; he had
quite captivated her, and after their engagement--which had been a rather
matter-of-fact affair--she had not found it possible to refuse him
permission to accompany her to the West.

"Have you visited your neighbor yet, Ruth?" Masten inquired at last.

"Neighbor!" Ruth showed astonishment by letting her book close and losing
her place. "Why, I didn't know we had a neighbor nearer