e rocky cut. When the call sounded a third time,
it brought an answer from the silk special, far off in the direction of
Ellensburg. She lifted her coat and turned again to watch Tisdale. He had
quickened his pace, but a shade of suspense subdued the light in her face.

Since the whistle of the special, the telegraph instrument had remained
silent, and presently she heard the station master's step behind her.
"Well," he said, "it's Nip and Tuck, sure. But say, he can sprint some.
Does it easy, too, like one of those cross-country fellows out of a
college team. I'd back him against the freight."

"If he misses it," and the suspense crept into her voice, "I must go
without him, and I suppose I can be sure of a hotel at Ellensburg?"

"You'll find fair accommodations at Kittitas. But he isn't going to miss
the freight, and it will be hours saved to you if Lighter lets you have
the colts."

She lifted her coat, and he held it while she slipped her arms in the
sleeves. "I've 'most forgotten how to do this," he said; "it's so long
since I've seen a girl--or a lady. I'm afraid I've bored you a lot, but
you don't know how I've enjoyed it. It's been an epoch seeing you in this
wilderness."

"It's been very interesting to me, I'm sure," she replied gravely. "I've
learned so much. I wonder if, should I come this way again, I would find
all this desert blossoming?"

"I shouldn't be surprised; settlement's bound to follow a new railroad.
But say, look into Hesperides Vale while you are at Wenatchee, and if my
proposition seems good to you at one hundred dollars an acre, and that is
what I'm paying, drop me a line. My name is Bailey. Henderson Bailey,
Post-Office, Wenatchee, after the end of the month."

He waited with expectation in his frank brown eyes, but the girl stood
obliviously watching Tisdale. He reached the platform and stopped,
breathing deep and full, while he shook the dust from his hat. "I am
sorry, madam," he said, "but their only saddle-horse pulled his rope-stake
this morning and went off with the wild herd. You will have to take this
freight back to Kittitas."

"How disappointing!" she exclaimed. "And you were forced to tramp back
directly through this heat and dust."

"This is the lightest soil I ever stepped on"--he glanced down over his
powdered leggings and shoes; the humor broke gently in his face--"and
there's just one kind deeper,--the Alaska tundra."

With this he hurried by her to the office. Pre