sudden illness and idleness?" asked Madeline.

"Wal, you see, the truth is every blamed cowboy on the range except
Stewart thinks it's his bounden duty to entertain the ladies."

"I think that is just fine!" exclaimed Dorothy Coombs; and she joined in
the general laugh.

"Stewart, then, doesn't care to help entertain us?" inquired Helen, in
curious interest. "Wal, Miss Helen, Stewart is sure different from the
other cowboys," replied Stillwell. "Yet he used to be like them. There
never was a cowboy fuller of the devil than Gene. But he's changed. He's
foreman here, an' that must be it. All the responsibility rests on him.
He sure has no time for amusin' the ladies."

"I imagine that is our loss," said Edith Wayne, in her earnest way. "I
admire him."

"Stillwell, you need not be so distressed with what is only gallantry in
the boys, even if it does make a temporary confusion in the work," said
Madeline.

"Miss Majesty, all I said is not the half, nor the quarter, nor nuthin'
of what's troublin' me," answered he, sadly.

"Very well; unburden yourself."

"Wal, the cowboys, exceptin' Gene, have gone plumb batty, jest plain
crazy over this heah game of gol-lof."

A merry peal of mirth greeted Stillwell's solemn assertion.

"Oh, Stillwell, you are in fun," replied Madeline.

"I hope to die if I'm not in daid earnest," declared the cattleman.
"It's an amazin' strange fact. Ask Flo. She'll tell you. She knows
cowboys, an' how if they ever start on somethin' they ride it as they
ride a hoss."

Florence being appealed to, and evidently feeling all eyes upon her,
modestly replied that Stillwell had scarcely misstated the situation.

"Cowboys play like they work or fight," she added. "They give their
whole souls to it. They are great big simple boys."

"Indeed they are," said Madeline. "Oh, I'm glad if they like the game of
golf. They have so little play."

"Wal, somethin's got to be did if we're to go on raisin' cattle at Her
Majesty's Rancho," replied Stillwell. He appeared both deliberate and
resigned.

Madeline remembered that despite Stillwell's simplicity he was as deep
as any of his cowboys, and there was absolutely no gaging him where
possibilities of fun were concerned. Madeline fancied that his
exaggerated talk about the cowboys' sudden craze for golf was in line
with certain other remarkable tales that had lately emanated from him.
Some very strange things had occurred of late, and it was impossible t