e again."

"You'll have to ride to the house."

"You don't know me, Miss. I'm Mr. Willie Dart, and when I make up my
mind like I done just now it's final. I'll walk those three miles on
foot, and when I can't walk no further I'll crawl, and when I can't
crawl I'll lay down and die. But I'm through being a cowboy."

Thereupon he arose rheumatically, carefully dusted his gay checkered
suit, gave much attention to the crease in his jaunty little hat,
adjusted his bright blue tie, daintily tapped his cuffs back into his
coat sleeves and bestowed a beaming, cherubic smile upon Wanda.

"Let's eat," he suggested.

She dismounted and spread out her luncheon upon the paper in which it
had been wrapped, kneeling down on a grassy plot near the creek. Mr.
Dart hovered over her in frank eagerness, giving vent to various
chuckling sounds bespeaking deep satisfaction as he saw that there was
cold chicken and ham, cheese and buttered bread. Then they ate, Wanda
sparingly, pretending to have little appetite, Mr. Dart swiftly and
joyously and noisily. And, with his mouth crammed full and his cheeks
puffed out gopher-wise, he talked. He demanded her name and her
father's business; he wanted to know what she was doing so far from
home and if she wasn't afraid; he ascertained that buffaloes were
extinct in this part of the West if they had ever been here which was
to be doubted; he thrilled and drew closer to the girl upon learning
that a bear had been shot near this spot; and, abruptly, he asked if
she knew a guy named Shandon?

"Wayne Shandon?" she asked curiously.

"That's him. Red Head for sure, ain't he?"

She admitted that he was, hesitated a moment at his next question, and
then answered it by saying that Mr. Shandon was a friend of her family.

"Good kid, ain't he?" he went on, a little flushed from his eating.
"Friend of mine, too. We're great chums, me and Red. Ain't he ever
told you about me, Willie Dart?"

"I don't think so. You have known him long?"

He poked into his mouth the last quarter of the sandwich in his left
hand, secured a bit of cheese with his right, and answered:

"Long? Say, Wanda, I've known that boy since he was a kid! Me and him
worked together and slept together and et together up in the Klondike
all year back in ninety-six."

"Ninety-six?" she frowned. "Mr. Shandon wasn't in the Klondike in
ninety-six! He was right here."

"Oh," admitted Mr. Dart easily, "I ain't sure it was n