lin' boneyard for a couple of hundred or less, an' I kept
addin' to 'em until I got into raisin' nothin' but thoroughbreds,"
answered Cal.

"Let me tell you something, Cal. I'll put you onto the right track and
if you can't manage to do the right thing at the right time, you'll have
to live in that red house by yourself, see?"

"I savvey."

Hazel commenced to smile. She had joined in the general conversation
until Cal got sentimental, but when Jack joined forces with the honest
man of the plains who acknowledged to picking up "mavericks," although
she did not know what they were, still she felt that it was some "get
something for nothing" scheme and she was afraid Jack might acquire bad
habits; then she was inclined to resent any effort on the part of Mr.
Jack to become a promoter of some matrimonial enterprise, so she smiled
and sententiously remarked: "I guess you need not bind yourself to
deliver any foreign goods for domestic purposes, free of charge, Mr.
Jack."

"Now listen, my dear," said Jack. "Wait until you learn what's trumps
before you tip your hand. I'm going to invite Cal to go with us to Estes
Park. He can be so useful to me, you know, if I want to go out for a
deer hunt; then he can pilot Miss Asquith over the big rocks when I have
my arms full attending to you," said Jack, with a merry twinkle.

"Oh, ho! so it is Miss Asquith you seek to waylay, is it? Well, that is
different. Say, I guess I'll have to throw up my hand. I have no trumps!
success to you."

Cal laughed, Jack made merry over the prospect, and Hazel could not help
being amused at the deliberate plot to kidnap a woman's heart who had
for twenty-five years earned her own living.

"Cal, there is a Miss Asquith going to meet us in Denver and join us on
a trip to Estes Park. Just you come along and help me take care of the
ladies. You have nothing on hand and you will enjoy the trip anyway. Now
that is all I want. If you get tangled up in any foolishness"--

"Now mind, if I do go, and get half a chance I'll stake a claim sure as
gun's made of iron," jokingly remarked Cal. "I will have to go to the
ranch first: I'll stop off at Hugo and be in Estes in a few days. I'll
find you all right," so Jack and Hazel continued alone on their journey.

"Say, Jack," said Hazel, after Cal left them, "what a joke it would be
if Mr. Wagner should marry Miss Asquith."

"Why shouldn't he? Of course she is much better educated; he has the
gruff ways of t