s
misgivings as to how he should meet the women folks. It turned out that
Mrs. Wilson had been at a neighboring ranch for some days, and the girl
was in charge of the home. The flash in her eyes did not conceal a glint
of triumph--or was it humor?

"Jessie," her father said, with conspicuous matter-of-factness, "Y.D.
has just dropped in for dinner."

Y.D. stood with his hat in his hand. This was harder than meeting
Wilson. He felt that he could manage better if Wilson would get out.

"Miss Wilson," he managed to say at length, "I just thought I'd run in
an' thank you for what you did yesterday."

"You're very welcome," she answered, and he could not tell whether
the note in her voice was of fun or sarcasm. "Any time I can be of
service--"

"That's what I wanted to talk about," he broke in. There was something
bewitching about the girl. She more than realized his fantastic visions
of the night. She had mastered him. Perhaps it was a subtle masculine
desire to turn her mastery into ultimate surrender that led him on.

"That's just what I want to talk about. You started breakin' in an
outlaw yesterday, so to speak. How'd you like to finish the job?"

Y.D. was very red when this speech was finished. He had not known that a
wisp of a girl could so discomfit a man.

"Is that a proposal?" she asked, and this time he was sure the note in
her voice was one of banter. "I never had one, so I don't know."

"Well, yes, we'll call it that," he said, with returning courage.

"Well we won't, either," she flared back. "Just because I sat on a post
and superintended the--the ceremonies, is no reason that you should want
to marry me,--or I, you. You'll find water and a basin on the bench at
the end of the house, and dinner will be ready in twenty minutes."

Y.D. had a feeling of a little boy being sent to wash himself.

But the next spring he built a larger cabin down the valley from The
Forks, and to that cabin one day in June came Jessie Wilson to "finish
the job."

CHAPTER III

Transley and Linder were so early about on the morning after their
conversation with Y.D. that there was no opportunity of another meeting
with the rancher's wife or daughter. They were slipping quietly out of
the house to take breakfast with the men when Y.D. intercepted them.

"Breakfast is waitin', boys," he said, and led them back into the room
where they had had supper the previous evening. Y.D. ate with them, but
the meal was served