She flushed with pleasure. "I have done something, but not as I'd like to
do. I really think if mother wishes to sell she could do so now to much
better advantage."

"I've no doubt of it. Really, I'm not being funny, Miss Wetherford, when I
say you've done something heroic. It's no easy thing to come into a place
like that and make it habitable. It shows immense courage and
self-reliance on your part. It's precisely the kind of work this whole
country needs."

His praise, sincere and generous, repaid her for all she had gone through.
It was a great pleasure to hear her small self praised for courage and
self-reliance by one whose daily work was heroic. All things conspired to
make a conquest of her heart, for the ranger bore himself with grace, and
dealt with his silver deftly. His face, seen from the side, was older and
sterner than she had thought it, but it was very attractive in line.

She said: "Mr. Redfield and I were talking of 'the war' to-day--I mean our
'cattle-man's invasion'--and I learned that you were the sergeant who came
for the prisoners."

He smiled. "Yes; I was serving in the regular army at that time."

"You must have been very young?"

"I was--a kid."

"That was a brave thing to do."

"Not at all. I was a soldier under orders of the commander of the post. I
dared not disobey."

She would not have it so. "But you knew that you were going into danger?"

"To be honest about it, I did; but I relied on my blue coat to protect
me."

"It was a terrible time. I was only a child, but I can remember how wild
the men all seemed when you drove up and leaped out of the wagon. I didn't
realize that my father's life depended on your coming, but we all knew it
was brave of you."

"I think I was born a soldier. What I like about my present job is its
definiteness. I have my written instructions, and there's no need to argue
anything. I carry out my orders. But I beg pardon, I'm not going to talk
'shop' to you. I want you to tell me about yourself. I hope you are not to
return to the East, for if you do not I shall be able to see you
occasionally."

Here Redfield appealed to the ranger. "Ross, you're all sorts of a
reactionary. What do you say to this? Senator Bridges is opposed to all
Federal interference with State forests and State game."

The forester's eyes lit up. "But are they State forests and State game?
What makes them so? They are lands which the whole people purchased and
which the wh