'm glad of that."

"This man, my friend, he was a brother deputy o' mine, came to be
twenty-six without ever falling in love."

"My! He must have been hard-hearted--your friend."

"Mebbee. Well, one fine day he met his mate----"

"What was she like?"

"Like? Why, she was the sweetest thing on earth. I'd as lief try to
describe a day such as this----"

"Oh! I know what's coming. You fell in love with your friend's
sweetheart. Poor Mr. Wells!"

Jeff ignored this interruption.

"I was saying that my friend met _his_ mate, nobody's else's, and
though he'd never met her before, by Jing! he knew right off she was
his mate."

"Love at first sight."

"That's right. Love at first sight."

Sadie's face and figure perceptibly relaxed. Her eyes softened
delightfully. With parted lips she seemed to hang upon Jeff's next
words.

"Unfortunately, she was the daughter of a thief."

"A thief!"

"That ain't the right word. Embezzler, I reckon, would fit better.
Leastwise, he'd made away with other folks' money, meanin' to put it
back, no doubt, if he happened to strike the right lead. Luck was dead
against him. Mind ye, he was a good citizen enough, as Westerners go.
I don't deny that he'd average up as well as most. I remember the case
well, because I read about it in the papers. The dry years had bust
him, and the most of his friends too. Some o' these friends he'd
helped. He was on their notes of hand, ye understand?"

He glanced at her sharply. Would she understand? Would she guess? No.
In the pure, clear eyes upturned to his he read pity, sympathy
interest--nothing more. She nodded.

"When times mended in Southern California he thought he saw his chance
to get back all he'd lost: just one o' those dead sure shots which
will miss fire. He'd not a cent of his own, so he borrowed, without
askin' leave, a few hundreds, that was all, jest a few hundreds from
somebody else."

"He was a--thief," said Sadie calmly.

"It's too hard a word that. Now then, I'm getting to the point. My
friend, deputy-sheriff like me, found himself in this hell of--I mean
in this terrible tight place. He was sent to arrest the father of the
girl he loved."

"Oh-h-h!"

This prolonged exclamation sadly puzzled Jeff, whose claim to
consideration at the hands of many friends was a guileless
transparency of purpose, a candour and simplicity unhappily too rare.
Now, his climax, so artfully introduced, provoked nothing more
satisfactory tha