h blood in
his eye."

Of course the eager gossip did not know that the ranger and this
handsome girl were something more than acquaintances, hence she felt
free to enlarge upon and embroider each scrap of rumor, after the
fashion of her kind, and Helen had great difficulty in concealing her
increasing anxiety and self-accusation.

"Don't say any of these things in my father's hearing," she sharply
urged. "He must be kept free from excitement."

It was a singular, a most revealing experience for Helen to find that
her deepening care for her stepfather and a grave sense of
responsibility toward Hanscom were bringing out decision and
determination in her own character. She increased in vigor and
perception. "They shall not persecute this man because he is poor and
alone," she declared, recalling with keen sense of pity his frank
statement that all his property consisted of a couple of ponies, a
saddle, and a typewriter.

She could not leave her father till a nurse came, and, as there was no
telephone in her room, she could only wait--wait and think, and in this
thinking she gave large space to the forester. Her apathy, her
bitterness were both gone. She was no longer the recluse. The mood which
had made her a hermit now seemed both futile and morbid--and yet she was
not ready to return to her friends and relatives in the East. That life
she had also put away. "What if I were to make a new home--somewhere in
the West?" she said, and in this speculation the worshipful face of the
ranger came clear before her eyes.

She was restless and aching with inaction when a hall-boy announced the
return of Mr. Willing, and, stepping into the hall, she discovered an
entirely different Mr. Willing. He was no longer gallant; he was quietly
respectful. With congratulatory word he handed to her two telegrams,
one addressed to her, the other to the bank. One was from the president
of the Walnut Hills Trust Company. It read: "Place five thousand dollars
to Miss McLaren's credit. See that she wants for nothing. Report if she
needs help. Her family is greatly alarmed. Any information concerning
her will be deeply appreciated. Ask her to report at once."

The other was to Helen from Mr. Lyford, whom she had known for many
years. As she read her face flushed and her eyes misted; then a glowing
tide of power, a sense of security, swept over her.

"After all, I am alive and young and rightful owner of this money," she
said to herself. "I w