was quicker.

"He's gone to Spruce Crossing--to Sikkem?" she cried, her eyes hot as
they dwelt on the shaking woman before her. "Don't wait talking. It
don't matter the right of things. You, Daddy, get our horses fixed and
round up a bunch of boys from the bunkroom. Jeff's in danger, an' it's
up to us. Maybe Evie'll tell me while you go."

Something of the great Bud's feelings was displayed in the celerity of
his movements. He was gone before Nan had finished speaking.

The two women were left facing each other.

Seconds passed without a word. The gentle Nan no longer looked out of
the brown eyes. They were hot, resentful. Nor would any one have
recognized in the anxious-eyed woman before her the beautiful creature
who had first stirred Jeffrey Masters out of his years of celibate
thought.

Without a word Nan turned back to the parlor. When she reappeared she
was buckling a revolver belt about her slim waist. The two heavy
holsters it supported were almost incongruous on so slight a figure.

Elvine watched her. The girl's deliberation was in deep contrast to
her own emotions. Then, too, the sympathy which had fled from Nan's
brown eyes left them full of hard resolve.

"You--are not going?" Elvine said, pointing at the weapons.

Nan's surprise was genuine.

"Jeff's in danger."

"But you--a woman? You can't help. You might even----"

"Jeff's in danger."

Nan repeated the words with an emphasis there could be no mistaking.
And as the final syllable escaped her pretty lips became firmly
compressed.

Elvine regarded her for a silent moment or two. A strange new
sensation was stirring within her. Nan's attitude had brought it into
being. Her earlier emotions receded before this new feeling. And,
strangely enough, she remembered some words her mother had once spoken
to her. It was at a time before she had engaged herself to her husband.

"But Jeff--is nothing to you," she said abruptly.

There was a new ring in the voice in which she spoke.

"Is he?"

Nan's eyes looked straight into the wife's. There was no smile in
them. There was no emotion lying behind them that Elvine could read.
They were steady, unflinching. That was all.

Sounds came up from the ranch buildings. Voices reached them plainly.
And among them Bud's dominating tones were raised above all.

Nan's eyes were drawn in the direction, but her gaze only encountered
the moonless night.

"What is he--to you?" Elvine'