im, squeezing his hand to call attention to every sunburned
picturesque son of the plains that galloped down that way. But Connie,
with the lustful eyes of a fortune-hunter walked up and down the
corridors, peering here and peeking there, listening avidly to every
unaccustomed word that was spoken,--getting material.

Quickly the hotels were filled to capacity, and overflowed to cots in
the hall, rugs on the porches, and piles of straw in the stables. The
street so quietly peaceful on Sunday, by Wednesday was a throbbing
thoroughfare, with autos, wagons and horses whirling by in clouds of
dust The main street, a block away, was a noisy, active, flourishing,
carnival city, with fortune-tellers, two-headed dogs, snake-charmers,
minstrels and all the other street-fair habitues in full possession. A
dance platform was erected on a prominent corner, and bands were
brought in from all the neighboring towns on the plains.

Connie was convinced she could get enough material to last a lifetime.
No detective was hotter on the scent of a trail than she. Never two
cowboys met in a secluded corner in the lobby to divide their hardly
earned coins, but Connie sauntered slowly by, catching every word,
noting the size of every coin that changed possession. No gaily garbed
horseman could signal to a girl of his admiration, but Connie caught
the motion first, and was taking mental notes for future coinage. They
were not people to her, just material. She loved them, she reveled in
them, she dreamed of them, just as a collector of curios gloats over
the treasures he amasses. She classified them in a literary note-book
for her own use, and kept them on file for instant reference.

When they went to the fair-grounds, early, in order to secure a
comfortable seat for David where he should not miss one twist of a
rider's supple body, they were as delighted as children truanting from
school. It was the most exhilarating thing in the world,--this clever
little trick on the sleeping porch and the white cot, on egg-nogs and
beef juice and buttermilk. No wonder their faces tingled with
excitement and their eyes sparkled with delight.

Connie was surprised that the girls were pretty, really pretty, with
pink and white skin and polished finger nails, those girls in the silk
blouses and khaki shirts, those girls with the wide sombrero and the
iron muscles, who rode the bucking horses, and raced around the track,
and did a thousand other app