ame borne on the early breeze. She lay awake on her camp cot for a few minutes, stretching her fingers to the canvas ceiling and feeling that it was good to be ali

fy patterns gliding forward and back. A cheeky gopher, exploring about the door of her tent, ventured in, and, sitting bolt upright, s

e capable of very broad interpretations. She was not at all in love with Linder; of that Zen was very sure. She was equally sure that she was not at all in love with Transley. She admitted that she admired Transley for his calm assumptions, but they nettled her a little nevertheless. If this should develop into a love affair-IF it should-sh

ther Transley or Linder thinking he could gallop home with HER! For the moment she forgot to do Linder the justice of remembering that nothing was further from his thoughts. She w

t. The gang had long since gone to the fields, and friendly bushes sheltered her from view from the cook-car. She drew on her boots, shook out her hair, threw a towel across her shoulders, and, soap i

use me for happenin' to be here. I was jus'

if I had a gun that Pete-horse would be scheduled for his fastest travel in the next

a dozen yards away. "I jus' happened along. I guess the outside belongs to a

and if that isn't odds

to hitch up with

said anything

nterest in innercent gals away from home, so I kinda kep' my angel eye on you las' night. An' I see Linder stalkin'

I'll horse-whip you out of the camp at

I could tell a strange story if I would. But you don't need to b

e undoubtedly would have made good her threat. But she had none. Draz

but she promised herself that it would leave nothing to be desired. Then, because she was young and healthy and an optimist, and

d a few nights in Calgary or Edmonton saw the end of his season's earnings. Then came a precarious existence for Tompkins until the scrapers were back on the dump the following spring. A steady job, cooking on a ranch like the Y.D.; if Tompkins had written the Apocalypse that would have been his picture

her of our usual mornings. Hope you slep' well, Ma'am." He stood deferentia

with a sore heart Tompkins had realized that he could not cut down the big table-one end of the table was set with a clean l

you manage it

afterwards said, the smile on his face was as good as another breakfast. After the fruit came porri

.-M

m; Cyrus Tompki

and when there's a new cook to be enga

right, and nobody ever cooked for a better boss than Mr. Transley-savin' i

Mr. Tompkins? How many

from them-I haven't corresponded ver

was cut short by the arrival

window of his dining car to the driver. "Br

roduced an iron stake about eighteen inches l

ry do you call that,

in't brome grass, an' I don't figger it

rowin' right in a nice little clump of grass, and I run on to it and bust my cuttin'-ba

she said, with a smile

. Two days' lost time, when every hour

up with his fellow workman, "you in too? I had a bit of bad luck. I run smash on t

red, with a grin. "I

e for half a minute. Then the new-co

f war Mr. Landson makes. Well, we can fight back with

take, carefully hidden in a clump of grass, had been driven down into the ground until it was just high enough to intercept the cuttin

e was blac

on me," he was saying. "I'm plumb equal to ridin' down to Landso

father was concerned. She had a vision of a fight, with Landson pleading entire ignorance of th

rass my steers eat turns to hair on their backs," he retorted, "but

o shooting between you and Landson. If there is to be anything o

est, not as manager o' my affairs. I've taken care of those affairs for some considerable years, an' I reckon I still hav

ich had gathered about the rancher, his daughter, and Transley. "Th

peace yesterday. He wanted us to get started, and get a few swaths cut, so that he would know where to drive the stakes to catch us the next morning. Some of these machines can be repaired at once, and the others within a day or two. We will

I want to bore somebody. I guess it's the only kind o' procedure that comes easy to my hand. I guess you're right, but I hate to let anybody have the laugh on me." Y.D. looked down t

" Zen suggested, "but the winds in these valleys, even w

airs are needed and Drazk will ride to town with it at once. Some of them may have to come out from

nd appraising damages. Even in his anger Y.D. took approving note of the promptnes

, "If he'd blowed into this country thirty years ago, lik

irs was completed Lin

orse of yours, George," he said

leap into his saddle. "Bye, Y.D!; bye, Zen!" he shouted while he whirled his horse's head eastward and wa

pressible," she re

Every spring he hunts me up and fastens on. Still, I get a lot of good service out of him. Praise 'that Pete-horse,' and George wou

ss," Zen replied. "I have alrea

ed, whether with the summer sun or with her confes

"how would you take a serious proposal, made seriously by one who loves

ctor," she told him, "I'm sure you would long ago

importance of his mission was pleasantly heavy upon him. He pictured the impression he would make in town, galloping in with his horse wet over the back, and rushing to the implement agency with all the importance of a courier from Y.D. He would let two of the boys take Pete to the stable, and then, seated on a mower seat in the shade, he would tell the story. It woul

t, kept continually crumbling and falling into the stream. These cutbanks are a terror to inexperienced riders. The valleys are swallowed up in the tawny sameness of the ranges; the vision catc

shets. Pete had to pick his way over boulders and across stretches of sand and boggy patches of black mud formed by little springs leaking out under clumps of willow

brown hills, where the sunshine flooded about and a fresh breeze beat up against his fa

self. He took off his hat and scratched his tousled head in reflection. "Linder said to beat it," he rumina

of the mountains, soft and vague in their noonday mists, but touched with settings of ivory where the snow fields beat back the blazing sunshine; far down the valley was the gleam of Landson's whitewashed buildings, and nearer at hand the greenish-brown of the upland meadows which his haymakers had already cleared of their crop of prairie wool. This was now arising in enormous stacks; it must have been three miles to where they lay, but Drazk's keen eyes could distinguish ten completed stacks and two others in

look on such a scene unmoved. He recalled Y.D.'s half-spoken wish about a random cigar.

d justifies the means. And if the end would win the approval of Y.D.-and of Y.D.'s daughter-then any means was justified. Had not Linder said, "Burn the grass on

at as the lowland prairies grew hot with the afternoon sunshine a breeze would come down out of the mountains to occupy the area of great atmospheric expan

lltale shoe-prints. He elected the more difficult route down the stream itself. The South Y.D. ran mostly on a wide gravel bottom; it was possible to pick out a course which kept Pete in water seldom higher than his knees. A

stole quietly into the open. The br