ghed in the slow, indolent way she had, taking the straw hat from
her dark head to catch better the faint breath of wind that was soughing
across the plains.

"I didn't know I was so terrible. I don't think you ever had any awe of
anybody, Mr. Leroy." Her soft cheek flushed in unexpected memory of that
moment when he had brushed aside all her maiden reserves and ravished
mad kisses from her. "And Mr. Collins is big enough to take care of
himself," she added hastily, to banish the unwelcome recollection.

Collins, with his eyes on the light-shot waves that crowned her vivid
face, wondered whether he was or not. If she had been a woman to desire
in the queenly, half-insolent indifference of manner with which she had
first met him, how much more of charm lay in this piquant gaiety, in the
warm sweetness of her softer and more pliant mood! It seemed to him she
had the gift of comradeship to perfection.

They unsaddled and ate lunch in the shade of the live-oaks at El Dorado
Springs, which used to be a much-frequented watering-hole in the days
when Camp Grant thrived and mule-skinners freighted supplies in to feed
Uncle Sam's pets. Two hours later they stopped again at the edge of the
Santa Cruz wash, two miles from the Rocking Chair Ranch.

It was while they were resaddling that Collins caught sight of a cloud
of dust a mile or two away. He unslung his field-glasses, and looked
long at the approaching dust-swirl. Presently he handed the binoculars
to Leroy.

"Five of them; and that round-bellied Papago pony in front belongs to
Sheriff Forbes, or I'm away wrong."

Leroy lowered the glasses, after a long, unflurried inspection. "Looks
that way to me. Expect I'd better be burning the wind."

In a few sentences he and Collins arranged a meeting for next day up in
the hills. He trailed his spurs through the dust toward Alice Mackenzie,
and offered her his brown hand and wistful smile irresistible. "Good-by.
This is where you get quit of me for good."

"Oh, I hope not," she told him impulsively. "We must always be friends."

He laughed ruefully. "Your father wouldn't indorse those unwise
sentiments, I reckon--and I'd hate to bet your husband would," he added
audaciously, with a glance at Collins. "But I love to hear you say
it, even though we never could be. You're a right game, stanch little
pardner. I'll back that opinion with the lid off."

"You should be a good judge of those qualities. I'm only sorry you don't
alw