o me. He promised. I wanted to wait till after the
race--till after I had found courage to confess to you. He broke his
word.... Today when he put me up on Wildfire he--he suddenly lost his
head."

The slow scarlet welled into Lucy's face and her eyes grew shamed, but
bravely she kept facing her father.

"He--he pulled me off--he hugged me--he k-kissed me.... Oh, it was
dreadful--shameful! ... Then I gave him back--some--something he had
given me. And I told him I--I hated him--and I told him, 'No!'"

"But you rode his hoss in the race," said Bostil.

Lucy bowed her head at that. "I--I couldn't resist!"

Bostil stroked the bright head. What a quandary for a thick-skulled old
horseman! "Wal, it seems to me Slone didn't act so bad, considerin'.
You'd told him you cared for him. If it wasn't for thet! ... I remember
I did much the same to your mother. She raised the devil, but I never
seen as she cared any less for me."

"I'll never forgive him," Lucy cried, passionately. "I hate him. A man
who breaks his word in one thing will do it in another."

Bostil sadly realized that his little girl had reached womanhood and
love, and with them the sweet, bitter pangs of life. He realized also
that here was a crisis when a word--an unjust or lying word from him
would forever ruin any hope that might still exist for Slone. Bostil
realized this acutely, but the realization was not even a temptation.

"Wal, listen. I'm bound to confess your new rider is sure swift. An',
Lucy, to-day if he hadn't been as swift with a rope as he is in
love--wal, your old daddy might be dead!"

She grew as white as her dress. "Oh, Dad! I KNEW something had
happened," she cried, reaching for him.

Then Bostil told her how Dick Sears had menaced him--how Slone had
foiled the horse-thief. He told the story bluntly, but eloquently, with
all a rider's praise. Lucy rose with hands pressed against her breast.
When had Bostil seen eyes like those--dark, shining, wonderful? Ah! he
remembered her mother's once--only once, as a girl.

Then Lucy kissed him and without a word fled from the room.

Bostil stared after her. "D--n me!" he swore, as he threw a boot
against the wall. "I reckon I'll never let her marry Slone, but I just
had to tell her what I think of him!"

CHAPTER XIV

Slone lay wide awake under an open window, watching the stars glimmer
through the rustling foliage of the cottonwoods. Somewhere a lonesome
hound bayed. Very faintly cam