e reflection of
the moral coward, Jack Payson marked the lowest depths of his
degradation.

That afternoon Payson rode to Allen Hacienda to see Echo, and to sound
her upon her feelings to Dick Lane. He wished thoroughly to convince
himself that he, Jack Payson, held complete sway over her heart.
Perhaps he might dare to put her love to the test, and fulfil the trust
his friend had imposed on him, by giving her Dick's letter.

Payson overtook Polly riding slowly on her way home from Florence. She
barely greeted him. "Has she met Bud, and has he been slurring me?" he
thought. He checked his pacing horse to the half-trot, half-walk, of
Polly's mount, and, ignoring her incivility, began talking to her.

"'D'yeh see Bud in Florence?"

"Yep. Couldn't help it. Him an' Buck McKee are about the whole of
Florence these days."

"Too bad about Bud consorting with that rustler. I've had to fire him
for it."

"Fire him? Well you ARE a good friend. Talk about men's loyalty! If
women threw men down that easy you all would go to the bowwows too fast
for us to bake dog-biscuit. Now, I've settled Buck McKee's hash by
putting Slim Hoover wise to that tongue-slittin'. Oh, I'll bring Bud
around, all right, all right, even if men that ought to be his friends
go back on him."

"But, Pollykins--"

"Don't you girlie me, Jack Payson. I'm a woman, and I'm goin' to be a
married one, too, in spite of all you do to Bud. Yes, sirree, bob.
I've set out to make a man of him, and I'll marry him to do it if he
ain't a dollar to his name. But money'd make it lots quicker an'
easier. He was savin' up till he run in with Buck McKee."

A sudden thought struck Payson. Here was a way to dispose of Dick
Lane's money when it came.

"All right, Mrs. Bud Lane to be. Promise not tell Bud, and through you
I'll soon make good to him many times over for the foreman's wages he's
lost. It's money that's coming from an enterprise that his brother and
I were partners in, and Bud shall Dick's share. He's sore on me now,
and I can't tell him. Besides, he'd gamble it away before he got it to
Buck McKee. Bud isn't strictly ethical in regard to money matters,
Polly, and you must manage the exchequer."

"Gee, what funny big words you use, Jack! But I know what you mean;
he's too free-handed. Well, he'll be savin' as a trade rat until we
get our home paid for. And I'll manage the checker business when we're
married. No more poker and keno f