he was going to send the strawberry roan back hitched behind the supply
wagon. Her riding dress she would change in the station agent's parlor for
the new dress which was in the tray of her small trunk.

"Keep yer eyes peeled, Snuggy," advised the old foreman, with gravity,
"when ye come up against that New York town. 'Tain't like Elberon--no,
sir! 'Tain't even like Helena.

"Them folks in New York is rubbing up against each other so close, that it
makes 'em moughty sharp--yessir! Jumping Jehosaphat! I knowed a feller
that went there onct and he lost ten dollars and his watch before he'd
been off the train an hour. They can do ye that quick!"

"I believe that fellow must have been _you_, Hen," declared Helen,
laughing.

The foreman looked shamefaced. "Wal, it were," he admitted. "But they
never got nothin' more out o' me. It was the hottest kind o' summer
weather--an' lemme tell yuh, it can be some hot in that man's town.

"Wal, I had a sheepskin coat with me. I put it on, and I buttoned it from
my throat-latch down to my boot-tops. They'd had to pry a dollar out o' my
pocket with a crowbar, and I wouldn't have had a drink with the mayor of
the city if he'd invited me. No, sirree, sir!"

Helen laughed again. "Don't you fear for me, Hen. I shall be in the best
of hands, and shall have plenty of friends around me. I'll never feel
lonely in New York, I am sure."

"I hope not. But, Snuggy, you know what to do if anything goes wrong. Just
telegraph me. If you want me to come on, say the word----"

"Why, Hen! How ridiculous you talk," she cried. "I'll be with relatives."

"Ya-as. I know," said the giant, shaking his head. "But relatives ain't
like them that's knowed and loved yuh all yuh life. Don't forgit us out
yere, Snuggy--and if ye want anything----" His heart was evidently too
full for further utterance. He jerked his pony's head around, waved his
hand to the girl who likewise was all but in tears, and dashed back over
the trail toward Sunset Ranch.

Helen pulled the Rose pony's head around and jogged on, headed east.

CHAPTER V

AT BOTH ENDS OF THE ROUTE

As Helen walked up and down the platform at Elberon, waiting for the
east-bound Transcontinental, she looked to be a very plain country girl
with nothing in her dress to denote that she was one of the wealthiest
young women in the State of Montana.

Sunset Ranch was one of the few remaining great cattle ranches of the
West. Her father could jus