nciliation. She had been irremediably
hurt, and, in her misery, actually hoped that she would never see him
again. She insisted upon returning home; and then consented to go on to
the ranch for a short, and, as she firmly resolved, a final visit!

Douglass, watching her as he thought unseen, the next morning at the
Union Depot, as she entered the west-bound train, was filled with a
great repentance and remorse. He did not know that she stood at the
proper angle to see his disconsolate face until the train pulled out. It
must be confessed, however, that it was a hard, unrelenting mouth that
scornfully curved as he strode away with depressed head as the train
glided out with accelerating speed.

"Like as not he will go straight back to that shameless creature as soon
as we are safely out of sight!" she thought, with stiffly-erected head.
And as a curious vindication of that strange quantity in women, which,
for lack of some better name, we term "intuition," we are truthfully
compelled to admit that is just exactly what he did!

CHAPTER XXI

A WIDENING CHASM

Ten days later Brevoort arrived in Denver and the deal was fully
consummated. As the possessor of a million, cowpunching lost its charms
for Douglass, who resigned his connection with the VN interests.

Brevoort, realizing his own inability to make a success of ranching
without expert assistance, made Douglass a very favorable proposition to
take over his ranch holdings, which was promptly accepted. Within thirty
days he had purchased a fine "bunch" of high-grade cattle, placing the
whole "outfit" under the efficient supervision of Punk Wilson, who,
reinforced by a trio of Lazy K boys, who transformed their allegiance to
Douglass, soon had matters running along swimmingly. The ranch was
thereafter known as the Circle D, that being Douglass's private brand.

Immediately upon taking possession of his new property he had made an
ineffectual overture towards Grace's conciliation; the girl, stung by
jealousy and smarting under a sense of his disloyalty, had scornfully
rejected his advances and the breach was wider than ever in consequence.
Yet her visit was prolonged far into the autumn, possibly because she
was determined not to give a clear field to Constance Brevoort, who had
also apparently become a fixture. All relations between the two women
had been severed irrevocably, each keeping to her own respective
bailiwick. Constance had, with a reluctant rega