e backed into a fire," said he uneasily, "and burned off most of his
tail. He's no sight for a lady in his present shape."

She laughed, looking at him shrewdly, as if she believed it to be a joke
to cover something that he didn't want her to know.

"But you promised to give him to me, Duke, when he rested up a little."

"I will," he declared earnestly, getting hold of her hand where it lay
in the grass between them. "I'll give you anything I've got, Grace, from
the breath in my body to the blood in my heart!"

She bent her head, her face rosy with her mounting blood.

"Would you, Duke?" said she, so softly that it was not much more than
the flutter of the wings of words.

He leaned a little nearer, his heart climbing, as if it meant to smother
him and cut him short in that crowning moment of his dream.

"I'd have gone to the end of the world to find you, Grace," he said, his
voice shaking as if he had a chill, his hands cold, his face hot, a
tingling in his body, a sound in his ears like bells. "I want to tell
you how----"

"Wait, Duke--I want to hear it all--but wait a minute. There's something
I want to ask you to do for me. Will you do me a favor, Duke, a simple
favor, but one that means the world and all to me?"

"Try me," said he, with boundless confidence.

"It's more than giving me your horse, Duke; a whole lot more than that,
but it'll not hurt you--you can do it, if you will."

"I know you wouldn't ask me to do anything that would reflect on my
honesty or honor," he said, beginning to do a little thinking as his
nervous chill passed.

"A man doesn't--when a man _cares_--" She stopped, looking away, a
little constriction in her throat.

"What is it, Grace?" pressing her hand encouragingly, master of the
situation now, as he believed.

"Duke"--she turned to him suddenly, her eyes wide and luminous, her
heart going so he could see the tremor of its vibrations in the lace at
her throat--"I want you to lend me tomorrow morning, for one day, just
one day, Duke--five hundred head of Vesta Philbrook's cattle."

"That's a funny thing to ask, Grace," said he uneasily.

"I want you to meet me over there where I cut the fence before sunup in
the morning, and have everybody out of the way, so we can cut them out
and drive them over here. You can manage it, if you want to, Duke. You
will, if you--if you _care_."

"If they were my cattle, Grace, I wouldn't hesitate a second."

"You'll do it, anyhow, won'