e a fuller
appreciation of our worthy foreman; a fair knowledge of the horse,
most accurately termed 'outlaw', as the bruised condition of my body
can testify; and, as for barbed-wire fencing, I really believe I have
discovered every point in its construction worthy of consideration."

He raised a pair of lacerated hands for the girl's inspection, and
rose, smiling, to his feet.

"I apologize." Diane was smiling again now as she noted the network of
scratches upon his outstretched palms. "You certainly have not been
idle," she added, significantly.

Then she became serious with a suddenness that showed how very near
the surface, how strongly marked was that quiet, thoughtful nature her
companion had first realized in her.

"But I saw you on that mare, and I thought you would surely be killed.
Do you know they've tried to break her for two seasons, and failed
hopelessly. What happened after she bolted?"

"Oh, nothing much. I rode her to Forks and back twice."

"Forty miles! Good gracious! What is she like now?"

"Done up, of course. Jake assures me I've broken her heart; but I
haven't. My Lady Jezebel has a heart of stone that would take
something in the nature of a sledge-hammer to break. She'll buck like
the mischief again to-morrow."

"Yes."

The girl nodded. She had witnessed the battle between the "tenderfoot"
and the mare; and, now that it was all over, she felt pleased that he
had won. And there was no mistaking the approval in the glance she
gave him. She understood the spirit that had moved him to drive the
mare that forty miles; nor, in spite of a certain sympathy for the
jaded creature, did she condemn him for it. She was too much a child
of the prairie to morbidly sentimentalize over the matter. The mare
was a savage of the worst type, and she knew that prairie horses in
their breaking often require drastic treatment. It was the stubborn,
purposeful character of the man that she admired, and thought most
of. He had carried out a task that the best horse-breaker in the
country might reasonably have shrunk from, and all to please the
brutal nature of Jake Harnach.

"And you've christened her 'Lady Jezebel'?" she asked.

Tresler laughed. "Why, yes, it seems to suit her," he said
indifferently.

Then a slight pause followed which amounted almost to awkwardness. The
girl had come to find him. Her visit was not a matter of chance. She
wanted to talk to this man from the East. And, somehow, Tresler