forebodings were realized.
It was the face he had caught sight of in that particular buggy which he
did not like to think about, and the hand that rested on his shoulder
was the one which had swung the whip to such good purpose.

A very hearty and pleasant voice was saying; "Do you know, I never did
anything in all my life I was so sorry for!" but the boy strode on as
stolidly as if he had been stone-deaf.

The other, though a man of heavy build, kept pace with him easily.

"You see," he remarked, after waiting a reasonable time for a reply; "I
never knew what it was to owe any one so much as I owe you!"

Not being, in fact, stone-deaf, Waldo found himself obliged to make some
response. As much from embarrassment as from anger, he spoke gruffly.

"That's nothing," he said. "I'd have done as much for a stray dog,--and
like as not I'd have got bit all the same!"

His companion was making a study of him rather than of his words;--of
the defiant pose of the head above the shabby, uncouth figure,--of the
stormy eyes set in the fiery crimson of the face. He could not resent
the rough words, but neither could he help being amused at the tragic
exaggeration of the figure.

"Do you know, you _do_ look like a brigand!" he said, in an easy tone,
that had a curious effect upon the excited boy. "I don't so much wonder
that I took you for a footpad!"

No one but Dick Dayton,--for it was the Springtown "Mascot" himself who
was trying to make friends with the ranch boy,--could have "hit off" the
situation so easily. The "brigand's" face had already relaxed somewhat,
though his tongue was not to be so lightly loosed.

"The fact is," Dayton went on, following up his advantage; "The fact is,
there was a hold-up here in the pass last week, and my wife and I were
just saying what a jolly good place it was for that kind of thing, when
you flung yourself at the horses' heads. I don't know what you would
have done under the circumstances, but I know you'd have been either a
fool or a prophet if you hadn't let fly for all you were worth!"

The boy looked up at the friendly, humorous face, and pleasant
relentings stole upon him.

"Well, then," he said, with a sudden, flashing smile, which illuminated
his harsh countenance, very much as the gold of the aspens lit up the
wall of frowning rock over there. "That's all right, and I'm glad I did
it."

"All right!" cried Dayton, with a sudden rising emotion in his
voice,--"I should think