d of a new pair, maybe." He forced
a laugh and stepped outside the shed. "Just shows you, Swan, that
imagination and being alone all the time can raise Cain with a fellow.
You want to watch yourself."

Swan followed him out, closing the door carefully behind him. "By
golly, I'm watching out now," he assented thoughtfully. "You don't
tell anybody, Lone."

"No, I won't tell anybody--and I'd advise you not to," Lone repeated
grimly. "Just keep those thoughts outa your head, Swan. They're bad
medicine."

He mounted John Doe and rode away, his eyes downcast, his quirt
slapping absently the weeds along the trail. It was not his business,
and yet---- Lone shook himself together and put John Doe into a lope.
He had warned Swan, and he could do no more.

Halfway to the Quirt he met Lorraine riding along the trail. She would
have passed him with no sign of recognition, but Lone lifted his hat
and stopped. Lorraine looked at him, rode on a few steps and turned.
"Did you wish to speak about something?" she asked impersonally.

Lone felt the flush in his cheeks, which angered him to the point of
speaking curtly. "Yes. I found your purse where you dropped it that
night you were lost. I was bringing it over to you. My name's Morgan.
I'm the man that found you and took you in to the ranch."

"Oh." Lorraine looked at him steadily. "You're the one they call
Loney?"

"When they're feeling good toward me. I'm Lone Morgan. I went back to
find your grip--you said you left it under a bush, but the world's
plumb full of bushes. I found your purse, though."

"Thank you so much. I must have been an awful nuisance, but I was so
scared--and things were terribly mixed in my mind. I didn't even have
sense enough to tell you what ranch I was trying to find, did I? So
you took me to the wrong one, and I was a week there before I found it
out. And then they were perfectly lovely about it and brought
me--home." She turned the purse over and over in her hands, looking at
it without much interest. She seemed in no hurry to ride on, which
gave Lone courage.

"There's something I'd like to say," he began, groping for words that
would make his meaning plain without telling too much. "I hope you
won't mind my telling you. You were kinda out of your head when I
found you, and you said something about seeing a man shot and----"

"Oh!" Lorraine looked up at him, looked through him, he thought, with
those brilliant eyes of