beautiful
asking help from him?"

Marion rocked with perfect composure. "No, dear, you would not look
beautiful asking help, but you would look sensible. It is so easy to
be beautiful and so hard to be sensible."

"You are just as horrid as you can be, Marion Sinclair!"

"I know that, too, dear. All I wanted to say is that you would look
very sensible just now in asking help from Mr. McCloud."

"I don't care--I won't do it. I will never do it, not if every foot of
the ranch tumbles into the river. I hope it will! Nobody cares
anything about me. I have no friends but thieves and outlaws."

"Dicksie!" Marion rose.

"That is what you said."

"I did not. I am your friend. How dare you call me names?" demanded
Marion, taking the petulant girl in her arms. "Don't you think I care
anything about you? There are people in this country that you have
never seen who know you and love you almost as much as I do. Don't
let any silly pride prevent your being sensible, dear." Dicksie burst
into tears. Marion drew her over to the settee, and she had her cry
out. When it was over they changed the subject. Dicksie went to her
room. It was a long time before she came down again, but Marion rocked
in patience: she was resolved to let Dicksie fight it out herself.

When Dicksie came down, Marion stood at the foot of the stairs. The
young mistress of Crawling Stone Ranch descended step by step very
slowly. "Marion," she said simply, "I will go with you."

CHAPTER XX

AT THE DIKE

Marion caught her closely to her heart. "I knew you would go if I got
you angry, dear. But you are so slow to anger. Mr. McCloud is just the
same way. Mr. Smith says when he does get angry he can do anything. He
is very like you in so many ways."

Dicksie was wiping her eyes. "Is he, Marion? Well, what shall I
wear?"

"Just your riding-clothes, dear, and a smile. He won't know what you
have on. It is you he will want to see. But I've been thinking of
something else. What will your Cousin Lance say? Suppose he should
object?"

"Object! I should like to see _him_ object after losing the fight
himself." Marion laughed. "Well, do you think you can find the way
down there for us?"

"I can find any way anywhere within a hundred miles of here."

On the 20th of June McCloud did have something of an army of men in
the Crawling Stone Valley. Of these, two hundred and fifty were in
the vicinity of the bridge, the abutments and piers of which were