at the first sound of jangling horse-bells, and now he kept
resolutely away from the house, busying himself with the manifold
duties of his position. To the leading questions of Bill Lightfoot and
the "fly bunch" which followed his lead he turned a deaf ear or
replied in unsatisfying monosyllables; and at last, as the fire lit up
the trees and flickered upon their guns and silver-mounted trappings
and no fair maids sallied forth to admire them, the overwrought
emotions of the cowboys sought expression in song.

"Oh my little girl she lives in the town,"

chanted Lightfoot, and the fly bunch, catching the contagion, joined
promptly in on the refrain:

_"A toodle link, a toodle link, a too--oo-dle a day!"_

At this sudden and suggestive outbreak Jeff Creede surveyed Bill
Lightfoot coldly and puffed on his cigarette. Bill was always trying
to make trouble.

"And every time I see 'er, she asts me f'r a gown,"

carolled the leading cowboy; and the bunch, not to seem faint-hearted,
chimed in again:

_"Reladin to reladin, and reladin to relate!"_

Now they were verging toward the sensational part of the ballad, the
place where a real gentleman would quit, but Lightfoot only tossed his
head defiantly.

"O-Oh--" he began, and then he stopped with his mouth open. The
_rodeo_ boss had suddenly risen to an upright position and fixed him
with his eye.

"I like to see you boys enjoyin' yourselves," he observed, quietly,
"but please don't discuss _politics_ or _religion_ while them ladies
is over at the house. You better switch off onto 'My Bonnie Lies over
the Ocean,' Bill." And Bill switched.

"What's the matter?" he demanded aggrieved, "ain't anybody but you got
any rights and privileges around here? You go sportin' around and
havin' a good time all day, but as soon as one of us punchers opens
his mouth you want to jump down his throat. What do _we_ know about
ladies--_I_ ain't seen none!"

The discussion of the moral code which followed was becoming
acrimonious and personal to a degree when a peal of girlish laughter
echoed from the ranch house and the cowboys beheld Judge Ware and
Hardy, accompanied by Miss Lucy and Kitty Bonnair, coming towards
their fire. A less tactful man might have taken advantage of the hush
to utter a final word of warning to his rebellious subjects, but
Creede knew Kitty Bonnair and the human heart too well. As the party
came into camp he rose qui