his own creation.

"Oh, I guess it would have been wonderful with any other feller for a
partner than Bud Tristram," Jeff responded promptly. "As an
enterprise, why, I guess it's my thought. As a success, it's Bud's
genius for setting cattle prospering. Say, you can't handle a wide
proposition right by reckoning up figures and fixing deeds of sale and
partnership. I allow you need to do some thinking that way. But when
it's all figgered right, why, the real practical man needs to get busy
or the figgers aren't worth the ink an' paper you've used to make 'em.
Bud's the feller of the Obars. I just sit around and talk wise when he
needs talk, which I don't guess is frequent."

Jeff's smile was genuine. There was no false modesty that made him
place the credit of the Obar's success at Bud's door. The credit was
Bud's. He knew it. And, with frank honesty, was only too ready to
admit it, and even advertise it.

Elvine nodded. Her dark eyes were warmly returning his smile.

"I like that," she said simply. And she meant it.

The blood mounted to the man's brow. He felt that he had forced her to
make the admission, and regarded his act with some shame.

"Say, don't feel you've got to say that," he said earnestly. "You
mustn't just think I'm asking your applause. These are simple facts
which I can't deny. I'd like to feel the sun just rises and sets
around my work, but if I did I'd be the same sort of fool as those
Pharisee fellers in the Bible. Bud's a bully feller, and I'll owe him
more than I can ever hand him back just as long as I live."

Elvine was comparing this man's big generosity with her understanding
of most of the men she had ever known. She was thinking, too, of days
long since passed, and events which even a wide distance of time had
not succeeded in rendering mellow.

She sighed. Somehow "Honest Jeff" was hurting her in a way she would
never have believed any man could hurt her--now.

"This Bud Tristram's daughter--Nan. She's a pretty creature," Elvine
went on, feeling their topic needed changing.

Jeff's smile deepened.

"She's pretty--right through to her soul," came his prompt and earnest
response.

Elvine's eyes observed him closely. She laughed in a challenging
fashion.

"And she is still her father's daughter?"

Jeff flushed. Her meaning could not be mistaken. His impulse was to
speak out of the depth of a strong abiding regard for his friend's
"little gal." But he