to--Ramblin' Kid!"

It was the first time she had used his name in speaking directly to him
and the tone in which it was spoken made him tremble in spite of
himself. For a moment he returned her gaze. Her words and manner were so
different that by their very difference they reminded him of what she
had called him yesterday--"an ignorant, savage, stupid brute"--when he
had refused to interfere with the cat when its head was caught in the
can. He started to make a cynical reply. Then he remembered her sympathy
for Old Blue, her apology later for the harsh words--anyhow he knew or
felt in his heart they were true--and suddenly he seemed to see the
pink satin garter he still carried in his pocket. The look that came
into his eyes made Carolyn June lower her own. He smiled a whimsical but
hopeless smile, as, replying apparently to the pleading of Charley and
Skinny, he said, softly, the single word:

"Maybe!"

Old Heck had forgotten the annual Rodeo held in Eagle Butte, for some
days each summer, around the Fourth of July. His sudden determination
and eagerness to have the beef round-up begin earlier than usual in
order to get Parker away from the widow had driven all else but that one
idea from his mind. The protests reminded him of his oversight. He had
not intended to deprive the cowboys of the opportunity to enjoy the one
big event happening yearly in the Kiowa country and which temporarily
turned Eagle Butte, for a few days each summer, into a seething
metropolis of care-free humanity.

"I think it's a darned shame to spring the beef hunt so it will
interfere with the Rodeo," Bert grumbled, "--and us have to be out on
the hills wrangling steers while the celebration is going on!"

"I'm not-goin! to be out on th' hills then," the Ramblin' Kid said
quietly but with unchangeable finality.

"You can all go to the Rodeo," Old Heck interposed, not feeling just
right in his conscience about sending Parker away in advance of the time
expected, and wishing to make amends,"--Parker and all of you. You can
'break' the round-up for a few days during the Rodeo and what cattle
you've got gathered by then can be turned into the big pasture and held
there till it's over. That'll let you all get into Eagle Butte for the
Fourth--I'd like to see that blamed Thunderbolt horse beat myself! But
we'll start the beef hunt Monday the way I said in the first place--"

"Who's going to cook, this year, on the round-up?" Charley queried. "Yo