mining?"

"Not a thing."

She looked at him with a musing, admiring glance. "I've got a big cattle
ranch--will you superintend it for me?"

"Where is it?"

She laughed and stammered a little. "Well--I mean I've been thinking of
buying one. I'm kind o' tired of these mining towns; I believe I'd like
to live on a ranch, with you to superintend it."

His face darkened again, and she hastened to say, "The cattle business
is going to boom again soon. They're all dropping out of it fast, but
_now_ is the time to get in and buy."

The beer came and interrupted her. "Here's to good luck," she said. They
drank, and as she daintily touched her lips with her handkerchief she
lifted her eyes to him again--strange eyes with lovely green and yellow
and pink lights in them not unlike some semi-precious stones.

"You don't like me," she said. "Why won't you let me help you?"

"You want a square-toed answer?" he asked grimly, looking her steadily
in the eyes.

She paled a little. "Yes."

"There is a girl in Iowa--I make it my business to work for her."

Her eyes fell and her right hand slowly turned the mug around and
around. When she looked up she seemed older and her eyes were sadder.
"That need make no difference."

"But it does," he said slowly. "It makes all the difference there is."

She became suddenly very humble. "You misunderstand me--I mean, I'll
help you both. How do you expect to live?"

His eyes fell now. He flushed and shifted uneasily in his chair. "I
don't know." Then he unbent a little in saying, "That's what's bothering
me right now."

She pursued her advantage. "If you marry you've got to quit all this
trail business."

"Dead sure thing! And that scares me too. I don't know how I'd stand
being tied down to a stake."

She laid a hand on his arm. "Now see here, Mose, you let me help you.
You know all about cattle and the trail, you can shoot and throw a
rope, but you're a babe at lots of other things. You've got to get to
work at something, settle right down, and dig up some dust. Now isn't
that so?"

"I reckon that's the size of it."

It was singular how friendly she now seemed in his eyes. There was
something so frank and gentle in her voice (though her eyes remained
sinister) that he began almost to trust her.

"Well, now, I tell you what you can do. You take the job I got for you
with the Express Company and I'll look around and corral something else
for you."

He could not refuse to t