ay moon was
just peeping over the horizon as he dismounted before the door of the
ranch house to assist her to alight.

As she released her foot from the stirrup and held out her hands, from
somewhere far out on the prairie came the call of a wolf. Telepathically
both turned toward the moonlit plain awaiting the answering cry; as it
rang out in not unmusical cadence through the stilly night she shivered
slightly and her hands trembled in his warm grasp. He leaned toward her,
his eyes gleaming.

"Come," he said, masterfully. Shifting her left hand to his shoulder he
threw his arm about her waist and lifted her from the saddle. But before
her feet touched the ground he had gathered her up in his arms and was
striding towards the house. Taken by surprise, she clung to him
breathlessly, one arm still tightly clasped about his neck as he placed
her feet upon the threshold. Very gently she disengaged herself from his
embrace but made no effort to enter the house. He looked hungrily at her
full red lips for a second, then stooped and laid his own upon the hand
which he still retained.

"Welcome, oh, Queen, to your lair!" he said softly. "May you have good
hunting."

Then, sombrero in hand, he bowed again and turning abruptly left her
standing there silent in the white moonlight. Not until the shadows of
the corral had swallowed him up did she so much as move a muscle.

Unto him a half hour later came old 'Rastus with her invitation to dine.
When he finally joined her she was secretly relieved at the very
presentable appearance he made in the modest suit of gray negligee
which, he apologetically stated with engaging candor, was the nearest
approximation he could make to full dress. All other cowboys of her
acquaintance, while delightfully picturesque in their range costume, had
looked disappointingly commonplace and uninteresting when clothed in
civilized habiliments; but there was neither _gaucherie_ nor
self-consciousness about this exceedingly self-possessed young fellow,
whose evident familiarity with the niceties of etiquette came as an
agreeable surprise. Every slave to Convention is more or less a snob,
and she had been under the yoke a whole lifetime. Her relief at his
perfect deportment changed to an irritating sense of chagrin as she
realized her own obtuseness in not recognizing from the first that this
man had assuredly been bred, if not born, a gentleman. How was she to
know if he were not even mentally amuse