l unflurried. "I've got a license ter say who crosses hit. Ye've
done sought ter make sport of me, an' now I commands ye ter cross ther
fence an' begone from hyar." She paused a moment because her breath
was coming fast with passion. "I warns ye nuver ter put foot on this
farm ergin--I aims ter see thet ye don't--an' when ye starts away don't
tarry ter look back, nuther."

Slowly Jerry O'Keefe nodded. One ordered from another's house must
obey, but the twinkle had not altogether faded from his eyes and there
was nothing precipitate in his movements, albeit the rifle was at ready
and the girl's deep breast was heaving with unfeigned fury.

"All right," he acceded, "I'm goin' now but es fer not lookin' back, I
wouldn't like ter mek no brash promises. You're hyar an' hit mout
prove right hard ter keep my eyes turned t'other way. I'm an
easy-goin' sort of feller anyhow, an' I likes ter let my glance kind of
rove hyar an' thar."

Her hands trembled on the gun and her voice shook into huskiness.
"Begone," she warned. "I kain't hold down my temper much longer."

"An' es fer comin' back," Jerry continued blandly, "some day you're
ergoin' ter _invite_ me back. Anyhow, I reckon I'd come, because
thar's somethin' hyar thet'll kinderly pulls me hither stronger then
guns kin skeer me off."

The girl sat there on her doorstep with her rifle across her knees and
halfway to the fence-line Jerry paused and looked back. The rifle came
up--and dropped back again as Alexander belatedly pretended that she
had not seen him. At the stile O'Keefe paused to turn his head again.
He even waved his hat, and this time she looked through him as through
a pane of glass.

But when she had been sitting broodingly for a long while, the cloud
slowly dissipated from her face. In her eyes a twinkle of merriment
battled with the fire of righteous indignation, and at last she even
laughed with a low pealing note like a silver bell.

"He's an impudent, no-count devil," she said, "but he's got right
unfalterin' nerve, an' thar's a mighty pleasin' twinkle in his eyes."

Not long after that Alexander made a journey to a nearby town, but
since it was one near the railroad she went in woman's attire, paying a
new deference to public opinion which she had heretofore scorned. She
was busily occupied there all day and her mission was one of mystery.

CHAPTER XV

The earliest manifestations of spring had ripened into a warmer
fullness.