She waved her hand complacently, but her composure had already maddened
him. He jerked his horse up roughly, threw himself into the saddle, and
set out at a hard gallop along the trail to the South Y.D.

It was mid-afternoon when he overtook Transley's outfit, now winding
down the southern slope of the tongue of foothills which divided the
two valleys of the Y.D. Pete, wet over the flanks, pulled up of his own
accord beside Linder's wagon.

"'Lo, George," said Linder. "What's your hurry?" Then, glancing at his
saddle, "Where's your blanket?"

Drazk's jaw dropped, but he had a quick wit, although an unbalanced one.

"Well, Lin, I clean forgot all about it," he admitted, with a laugh,
"but when a fellow spends the morning chatting with old Y.D.'s daughter
I guess he's allowed to forget a few things."

"Oh!"

"Reckon you don't believe it, eh, Lin? Reckon you don't believe I stood
an' talked with her over the fence for so long I just had to pull myself
away?"

"You reckon right."

George was thinking fast. Here was an opportunity to present the
incident in a light which had not before occurred to him.

"Guess you wouldn't believe she told me her secret--told me somethin'
she had never told anybody else, an' made me swear not to mention. Guess
you don't believe that, neither?"

"You guess right again." Linder was quite unperturbed. He knew something
of Drazk's gift for romancing.

Drazk leaned over in the saddle until he could reach Linder's ear with a
loud whisper. "And she called me 'dear'; 'George dear,' she said, when I
came away."

"The hell she did!" said Linder, at last prodded into interest. He
considered the "George dear" idea a daring flight, even for Drazk.
"Better not let old Y.D. hear you spinning anything like that, George,
or he'll be likely to spoil your youthful beauty."

"Oh, Y.D.'s all right," said George, knowingly. "Y.D.'s all right. Well,
I guess I'll let Pete feed a bit here, and then we'll go back for his
blanket. You'll have to excuse me a bit these days, Lin; you know how it
is when a fellow's in love."

"Huh!" said Linder.

George dropped behind, and an amused smile played on the foreman's face.
He had known Drazk too long to be much surprised at anything he might
do. It was Drazk's idea of gallantry to make love to every girl on
sight. Possibly Drazk had managed to exchange a word with Zen, and his
imagination would readily expand that into a love scene. Zen! Even the
placid,