s another
heart-ballum girl of yours," Lone grinned unabashed. "I don't know
such a hell of a lot about heart-balm ladies, Bob. I ain't a
millionaire. I'm just making a guess at their brand--and it ain't the
brand this little lady carries."

Bob removed one hand from his pocket and cuddled the bowl of his pipe.
"If she's a woman, she's a heart-balmer if she gets the chance. They
all are, down deep in their tricky hearts. There isn't a woman on
earth that won't sell a man's soul out of his body if she happens to
think it's worth her while--and she can get away with it. But don't
for any sake call her _my_ heart-balmer."

"That was Pop," drawled Lone. "It don't strike me as being any subject
for you fellows to make remarks about, anyway," he advised Pop firmly.
"She's a right nice little girl, and she's pretty darn sick." He
touched John Doe with the spurs and rode away, stopping at the
foreman's gate to finish his business with Hawkins. He was a
conscientious young man, and since he had charge of Elk Spring camp, he
set its interests above his own, which was more than some of the
Sawtooth men would have done in his place.

Having reported the damage to the bridge and made his suggestions about
the repairs, he touched up John Doe again and loped away on a purely
personal matter, which had to do with finding the bag which the girl
had told him was under a bush where a rabbit had been sitting.

If she had not been so very sick, Lone would have laughed at her naive
method of identifying the spot. But he was too sorry for her to be
amused at the vagaries of her sick brain. He did not believe anything
she had said, except that she had been coming to the ranch and had left
her bag under a bush beside the road. It should not be difficult to
find it, if he followed the road and watched closely the bushes on
either side.

Until he reached the place where he had first sighted her, Lone rode
swiftly, anxious to be through with the business and go his way. But
when he came upon her footprints again, he pulled up and held John Doe
to a walk, scanning each bush and boulder as he passed.

It seemed probable that she had left the grip at Rock City where she
must have spent the night. She had spoken of being deceived into
thinking the place was the Sawtooth ranch until she had come into it
and found it "just rocks." Then, he reasoned, the storm had broken,
and her fright had held her there. When daylight came she ha