ht, then. I didn't think you'd go back on a fellow. And I tell
you straight up, Sir Redmond Hayes, I'm not out touching matches to
range land--not if it belonged to the devil himself. I've got some
feeling for the dumb brutes that would have to suffer. You can get right
to work hunting evidence, and be damned! You're dead welcome to all you
can find; and in this part of the country you won't be able to buy much!
You know very well you deserve to get your rope crossed, or you wouldn't
be on the lookout for trouble. Come, boys; let's hit the trail. So long,
Dick!"

Beatrice watched them troop off to their horses, heard them mount and
go tearing off across the burned coulee bottom toward home. Dick came
slowly over to her.

"I expect you're good and tired, sis. You've made a hand, all right, and
helped us a whole lot, I can tell you. I'll drive now, and we'll hit the
high places."

Beatrice smiled wanly. Not one of her Eastern acquaintances would
have recognized Beatrice Lansell, the society beauty, in this
remarkable-looking young woman, attired in a most haphazard fashion,
with a face grimed like a chimney sweep, red eyelids drooping over
tired, smarting eyes, and disheveled, ash-filled hair topped by a
man's gray felt hat. When she smiled her teeth shone dead white, like a
negro's.

Dick regarded her critically, one foot on the wheel hub. "Where did you
get hold of Keith Cameron's hat?" he inquired.

Beatrice snatched the hat from her head with childish petulance, and
looked as if she were going to throw it viciously upon the ground. If
her face had been clean Dick might have seen how the blood had rushed
into her cheeks; as it was, she was safe behind a mask of soot. She
placed the hat back upon her head, feeling, privately, a bit foolish.

"I supposed it was yours. I took it off the halltree." The dignity of
her tone was superb, but, unfortunately, it did not match her appearance
of rakish vagabondage.

Dick grinned through a deep layer of soot "Well, it happens to be
Keith's. He lost it in the wind the other day, and I found it and took
it home. It's too bad you've worn his hat all night and didn't know it.
You ought to see yourself. Your own mother won't know you, Trix."

"I can't look any worse than you do. A negro would be white by
comparison. Do get in, so we can start! I'm tired to death, and
half-starved." After these unamiable remarks, she refused to open her
lips.

They drove silently in the gray