AT WAS BENT WADE'S SECRET." (Fancy
sketch of a secret.)

And as we already know that Columbine is almost nineteen (I think she
told herself this fact aloud once when she was out riding alone, just to
convince herself), the shock is not so great as it might have been to
hear Wade murmur aloud (doubtless to convince himself too), "Baby would
have been--let's see--'most nineteen years old now--if she'd lived."

Any bets on who Columbine really is?

* * * * *

Let us digress from the scenario a minute to cite a scintillating
passage, one of many in the book. Wade is speaking:

"'You can never tell what a dog is until you know him. Dogs are like
men. Some of 'em look good, but they're really bad. An' that works the
other way round.'"

Oscar Wilde stuff, that is. How often have you felt the truth of what
Mr. Grey says here, and yet have never been able to put it into words!
It is this ability to put thoughts into words that makes him one of our
most popular authors today.

* * * * *

But enough of this. "Hell-Bent" Wade determines that his little gel
shall not know him as her father, and, furthermore, that she shall not
marry Jack Belllounds. So he goes to the cabin of Wils Moore and tells
him that Columbine is unhappy at the thought of her approaching--you
guessed it--nuptials.

"PARD! SHE LOVES ME--STILL?"

"WILS, HERS IS THE KIND THAT GROWS STRONGER WITH TIME, I KNOW." (Heart
and an hour-glass intertwined.)

* * * * *

Let it be said right here, however, that Jack Belllounds, rough and
villainous as he is, is the kind of cow-puncher who says to his father:
"I still love you, dad, despite the cruel thing you did to me." No
cow-puncher who says "despite" can be entirely bad. Neither can he be a
cow-puncher.

It is later, after a thrilling series of physical encounters, that
Columbine tells Jack Belllounds in so many words that she loves Wils
Moore. "Then Wade saw the glory of her--saw her mother again in that
proud, fierce uplift of face that flamed red and then blazed white--saw
hate and passion and love in all their primal nakedness.

"LOVE HIM! LOVE WILSON MOORE? YES, YOU FOOL! I LOVE HIM! YES! YES! YES!"
(Decorative heart, in which a little door slowly opens, showing the face
of Columbine.)

* * * * *

But time is short and there is a Semon comedy to follow immediately
after th