he girl's reproachful eyes. "I only
meant . . ."

"Wanda," said her father sharply, "you should be ashamed of yourself!
Garth has not been ungenerous and you have. And he is right. It would
be the best thing for Wayne himself as well as for the range if he
doesn't come back for a long time. Garth is working hard for the
interests of both. And if any one should be grateful to the man who is
running his range for him it is that young spendthrift. You are not
thinking, Wanda."

The girl bit her lip and turned away. And she did not make the apology
her father expected. Dimly it seemed to her that they were all over
ready, over eager to condemn the man whose one crime had been mere
heedlessness, who was surely hurting no one but himself, but who
offended their ideas in refusing to take life seriously and bear the
common burden of responsibility.

"After all," said Mrs. Leland a little hurriedly, "Wayne is only a boy.
Oh, he's a man in years, of course, but then some people are fortunate
enough to carry their youth with them a long time before it drops off.
And," with a smile, "he says he won't do it again!"

Martin Leland smoked his two pipefuls of strong tobacco and then
departed to attend to some correspondence. Mrs. Leland soon slipped
away to her book and easy chair and cushions in a corner. Until ten
o'clock Wanda and Garth bent together over a big scrap book containing
the latest additions to the home life of the wild.

Soon afterward even Garth Conway's visits to the Leland home stopped.
November came with many dark days and an occasional flurry of snow.
The ground might at any time now be covered, the passes choked with the
soft drifts, the valleys hidden. The cattle must be moved down the
mountains to the foothills where each year they wintered. The Bar L-M
buildings were closed, the heavy wooden shutters put up, the corrals
deserted until thaw time. Conway with his men and cattle would not
come again until springtime came with them.

And over the Echo Creek ranch the silence of the summer passed into the
deeper silence of winter. Leland's cattle and men had gone already to
his winter range; there was no one at home excepting Mrs. Leland,
Wanda, Julia, and Jim who remained to do what little work there was to
be done during the term of "hibernating." Martin's interests were too
big for him to stay here had he desired to do so; his family would not
see him again for the two months or so during wh