e'd lay down the law right,
so this girl at Morgan's 'd know who her next boss was going to be. If
Willis Morgan tried to interfere, Bill Talpers 'd crush him just the way
he'd crushed many a rattler!

As a preliminary to his courting trip, Bill took a drink from a bottle
that he kept handy in his corner. Then he walked out to his
sleeping-quarters in the rear of the store and "slicked up a bit,"
during which process he took several drinks from another bottle which
was stowed conveniently there.

Leaving his store in charge of his clerk, Bill rode over the Dollar Sign
highway toward Morgan's ranch. The trader was dressed in black. A white
shirt and white collar fairly hurt the eye, being in such sharp contrast
with Bill's dark skin and darker beard. A black hat, wide of brim and
carefully creased, replaced the nondescript felt affair which Bill
usually wore. He donned the best pair of new boots that he could select
from his stock. They hurt his feet so that he swung first one and then
the other from the stirrups to get relief. There was none to tell Bill
that his broad, powerful frame looked better in its everyday
habiliments, and he would not have believed, even if he had been told.
He had created a sensation as he had creaked through the store after his
dressing-up operations had been completed, and he intended to repeat the
thrill when he burst upon the vision of the girl at Morgan's.

* * * * *

Wong had cleared away the supper dishes at the Greek Letter Ranch, and
had silently taken his way to the little bunkhouse which formed his
sleeping-quarters.

In the library a lamp glowed. A gray-haired man sat at the table, bowed
in thought. A girl, sitting across from him, was writing. Outside was
the silence of the prairie night, broken by an occasional bird call near
by.

"It is all so lonely here, I wonder how you can stand it," said the man.
There was deep concern in his voice. All sharpness had gone from it.

"It is all different, of course, from the country in which I have been
living, and it _is_ lonely, but I could get used to it soon if it were
not for this pall--"

Here the girl rose and went to the open window. She leaned on the sill
and looked out.

The man's gaze followed her. She was even more attractive than usual, in
a house dress of light color, her arms bare to the elbows, and her pale,
expressive face limned against the black background of the night.

"I know w