rmer owner.

Determined to carry out this decision, she was this morning saddling her
pony at the corral gates when she observed Duncan standing near, watching
her.

"You might have let me throw that saddle on," he said.

She flushed, angered that he should have been watching her without making
his presence known. "I prefer to put the saddle on myself," she returned,
busying herself with it after taking a flashing glance at him.

He laughed, pulled out a package of tobacco and some paper, and proceeded
to roll a cigarette. When he had completed it he held a match to it and
puffed slowly.

"Cross this morning," he taunted.

There was no reply, though Duncan might have been warned by the dark red
in her cheeks. She continued to work with the saddle, lacing the latigo
strings and tightening the cinches.

"We're riding down to the box canyon on the other side of the basin this
morning," said Duncan. "We've got some strays penned up there. But your
dad won't be ready for half an hour yet. You're in something of a hurry,
it seems."

"You are going, I suppose?" questioned Sheila, pulling at the rear cinch,
the pony displaying a disinclination to allow it to be buckled.

"I reckon."

"I don't see," said Sheila, straightening and facing him, "why you have to
go with father everywhere."

Duncan flushed. "Your father's aiming to learn the business," he said.
"I'm showing him, telling him what I know about it. There's a chance that
I won't be with the Double R after the fall round-up, if a deal which I
have got on goes through."

"And I suppose you have a corner on all the knowledge of ranch life,"
suggested Sheila sarcastically.

He flushed darkly, but did not answer.

After Sheila had completed the tightening of the cinches she led the pony
beside the corral fence, mounted, and without looking at Duncan started to
ride away.

"Wait!" he shouted, and she drew the pony to a halt and sat in the saddle,
looking down at him with a contemptuous gaze as he stood in front of her.

"I thought you was going with your father?" he said.

"You are mistaken." She could not repress a smile over the expression of
disappointment on his face. But without giving him any further
satisfaction she urged her pony forward, leaving him standing beside the
corral gates watching her with a frown.

She smiled many times while riding toward the river, thinking of his
discomfiture, reveling in the thought that for once she had shown him