en a cure. Temptation was now strong upon
him to seek his companions and dull his faculties with strong drink.
But he could not yield to that. Not now, with Lucy's face like a
wraith floating in the starlight! He was conscious of a larger growth.
He had accepted responsibilities that long ago he should have taken up.
He now dreamed of love, home, children. Yet beautiful as was that
dream it could not be realized in these days without the deadly spirit
and violence to which he had just answered. That was the bitter
anomaly.

Next morning, in the sweet cedar-tanged air and the rosy-gold of the
sunrise, Pan was himself again, keen for the day.

"Pard, you get first pick of the wild hosses," announced Blinky.

"No, we'll share even," declared Pan.

"Say, boy, reckon we'd not had any hosses this mawnin' but fer you,"
rejoined his comrade. "An' some of us might not hev been so lively an'
full of joy. Look at your dad! Shore you'd never think thet yestiddy
he had his haid broke an' his heart, too. Now just would you?"

"Well, Blink, now you call my attention to it, Dad does look quite
chipper," observed Pan calmly. But he felt a deep gladness for this
fact he so lightly mentioned.

Blinky bent to his ear: "Pard, it was the money thet perked him up,"
whispered the cowboy.

Pan reflected that his father's loss and continued poverty had
certainly weakened him, dragged him down.

"Listen, Blink," said Pan earnestly. "I don't want to be a kill-joy.
Things do look wonderful for us. But I haven't dared yet to let myself
go. You're a happy-go-lucky devil and Dad is past the age of fight.
It won't stay before his mind. But I feel fight. And I can't be gay
because something tells me the fight isn't over."

"Wal, pard," drawled Blinky, with his rare grin, "the way I feel aboot
fight is thet I ain't worryin' none if you're around.... All the same,
old pard, I'll take your hunch, an' you can bet your life I'll be
watchin' like a hawk till we shake the dirty dust of Marco."

"Good, Blinky, that will help me. We'll both keep our eyes open today
so we can't be surprised by anybody."

Pan's father approached briskly, his face shining. He was indeed a
different man. "Boys, are we goin' to loaf round camp all day?"

"No, Dad, we're going to rope the best of the broomtails. I'll get a
chance to see you sling a lasso."

"Say, I'd tackle it at that," laughed his father.

"Blinky, trapping these wild horses and h