u
can't take the Chink from here this time, can you?"

"I reckon Sing Pete'll have to go along as usual," Old Heck answered;
"it'll make it a little unhandy at the ranch, but--"

"Ophelia and I can 'batch' while you are gone," Carolyn June suggested.
"We won't mind being alone and it will be fun to cook our own meals."

"We will enjoy it," Ophelia added agreeably.

"You ain't going to be alone," Old Heck said; "Skinny and me will be
here. When it comes to the cooking maybe between the four of us we can
get along some way!"

"Well, if the round-up's got to start Monday," Parker declared sullenly
as they left the table, "I'll have to go down to town again to-day and
get me a new saddle. Mine was on Old Blue."

"I'll go with you," Old Heck said in a conciliatory way. "Charley and
the other boys can be working on them dead steers till we get back.
We'll go in the car and ought to make the round-trip by noon."

CHAPTER X

FIXING FIXERS

The widow and Carolyn June were alone at the house. Old Heck and Parker
went immediately from the breakfast table to the garage to get the car
out to go to Eagle Butte. The cowboys were at the barn preparing to
begin the day's work. Skinny had excused himself, ostensibly to attend
to some ranch chores, but in reality to get away to the bunk-house and
"fix up" for the day's courtship of Carolyn June. He planned, when the
cowboys were gone, to put on the white shirt Parker brought, yesterday,
from Eagle Butte.

"Ophelia," Carolyn June said mysteriously as they stepped out on the
front porch and filled their lungs with the clean air of the morning,
"you made a 'discovery' yesterday, I believe?" pausing questioningly.

"Yes," the widow smiled, recalling their conversation relative to
Parker's abrupt proposal of marriage.

"To-day," Carolyn June continued impressively, "it is my turn--I have
made one!"

"And it is?"

"You and I have been 'framed!'" was the answer spoken solemnly yet
scarcely louder than a whisper, while the brown eyes of Carolyn June
sparkled with a mixture of suppressed anger, merriment and indignation.

"Framed?" the widow repeated inquiringly, "just what does 'framed' mean,
my dear?"

"Framed means," Carolyn June replied wisely, "'tricked,' 'jobbed,'
'jinxed,' 'fixed,' or whatever it is people do to people when they
scheme to do something to them without the ones to whom they are doing
it knowing how it is done!"

"Exceedingly lucid, my love," the