e, boy, that's right up to me," Bill cried, with a
buoyant laugh. "I'm out here to ranch. That's what I've come for,
that's what I've worn my skin to the bone for on the most outrageously
uncomfortable saddle I've ever thrown a leg over. That's why I took
the trouble to keep on chasing up this place when my brain got plumb
addled at the sight of so much grass. That's why I didn't go back to
find the feller--and shoot him--for advising me to get off at Moosemin
instead of hitting back on my tracks for the right place to change
trains. You see, maybe I haven't all the horse sense in some things
you have, but I've got my back teeth into the idea of this ranching
racket, and my dollars are going to talk all they know. I tell you,
when my mind's made up, I can't be budged an inch. It's no use your
trying. I know you, Charlie. You're scared to death I'll lose my
money--well, I'm ready to lose it, if things go that way. Meanwhile,
I've a commercial proposition. I'm out to make good, and I'm looking
for you to help me."

Charlie looked into the earnest, good-natured face with eyes that read
deep down into the open heart beneath. A great regret lay behind them,
a regret which made him hate and despise himself in a way he had never
felt before. He was thinking whither his own follies had driven him;
he was thinking of his own utter failure as a man, a strong,
big-principled man. He was wondering, too, what this kindly soul would
think and feel when he realized how little he was changed from the
contemptible creature his father had turned out of doors, and when he
finally learned of the horrors of degradation his life really
concealed.

He had no alternative but to acquiesce before the strong determination
of his brother, and though his words were cordial, his fears, his
qualms of conscience underlying them, were none the less.

So they came back to the house, and finally foregathered on two
uncomfortable, rawhide-seated, home-made chairs, while Bill enlarged
upon his plans. It was not until these were completely exhausted that
their talk drifted to more personal matters. Then it was that Charlie
himself opened up the way, with a bitter reference to the reasons
that saved him from completely going under when their father shipped
him out to this forlorn spot to regenerate.

He talked earnestly, leaning forward in his chair. His delicate hands
were tightly clasped, as his eyes gazed out across the valley at a
spot where Kate Se