for a brief half
minute.

"Yes. That's Hermit Joe's voice. He _is_ talking to some one."

"Then there must be somebody there with him."

"Yes. Genevieve, I--I _guess_ I won't tell him to-day," faltered
Cordelia. "Let's go back. I'll come again to-morrow."

"Nonsense! Go back, and have you worrying about this thing another
twenty-four hours? No, indeed! Come, Cordelia, we must tell him now. I
think we ought to do it, really."

"All right," sighed the other despairingly. "Come, then." The next
minute she gave a sharp cry. "Why, Mr. _Edwards_!" she breathed.

They had come to the turn which brought the cabin into plain sight; and
on the stone step with Hermit Joe sat the man Cordelia had last seen
driving away from the Six Star Ranch in Texas.

Both men rose abruptly. The younger stepped forward. There was a
whimsical smile on his lips, but his eyes were wonderfully tender.

"Yes, 'Mr. Edwards,' Miss Cordelia--but Mr. 'Jonathan Edwards
_Sanborn_.' You see, you didn't know all my name, perhaps."

To every one's surprise and consternation Cordelia sat down exactly
where she was, and began to cry softly.

"Why, Cordelia!"

Genevieve was at her friend's side at once. Hermit Joe looked plainly
distressed. Mr. Jonathan Edwards Sanborn hurried forward in frightened
dismay.

"Oh, but Miss Cordelia, don't, please don't--I beg of you! Don't you
understand? I am John Sanborn, Hermit Joe's son; and 'twas all through
you that I came home again."

Cordelia only sobbed the harder.

Genevieve dropped on her knees at the girl's side, and put her arms
about her.

"Cordelia, Cordelia, dear--don't you see?--it's all come out right. You
did find him, after all! Why are you crying so?"

"T-that's why," stuttered Cordelia, smiling through tear-wet eyes. "It's
because I d-did find him, and I'm so glad, and everything!"

"But, if you're glad, why cry?" began Hermit Joe's son, in puzzled
wonder, but Genevieve patted Cordelia's back, and smiled cheerily.

"That's all right, Cordelia," she declared. "I know just how you feel.
_Now_ you know what was the matter with me when you girls gave me the
Texas yell at the station. Just cry all you like!"

As if permission, only, were all she wanted, Cordelia wiped her eyes and
smiled shyly into Mr. Jonathan Edwards Sanborn's face.

"It is really you, isn't it?" she murmured.

"It certainly is, Miss Cordelia."

"And you wouldn't have come if it hadn't been for what I said?"

"No.