ran came into the
room.

"Oh, are you and father through at last?"

"Yes," he answered, smiling. "That is, we're through upstairs. I'm on my
way over to the office to straighten up a few loose ends before I turn
in. There's no rest for the weary, you know."

"Don't let me keep you, then," she said dryly, as he lingered. "I'm
going to bed."

"You're not keeping me. I'm keeping myself." He quite understood her
motive, but he was not thin-skinned, and he had learned that he had to
make his opportunities with her. "Your father told me you were getting
anxious."

"Not anxious, tired."

"Things are getting a little warm here, but before there's any real
danger we expect to have the soldiers here to take charge."

He rather ostentatiously displayed his bandaged wrist, hoping to win her
sympathy, but she professed none. Instead, she yawned and tapped her
lips with her fingers, and her indifference piqued him.

"I was talking with Dorothy Purnell this afternoon," Helen finally
remarked, eyeing him lazily, "and she seems to be of the opinion that
you'll have hard work arresting Gordon Wade. I rather hope that you do."

"Well--" He teetered a little on his feet and stroked his mustache. "We
may have, at that. Miss Purnell is popular and she can make a lot of
trouble for us if she wants to. Being very fond of Wade, she's likely to
do all that she can."

"Would she really have so much influence?" Helen asked, carefully
guarding her tongue.

He laughed softly as though amused at the thought.

"Influence? Evidently you don't realize what a good looking girl means
in a frontier town like this. She's part sister, part mother, sweetheart
and a breath from Heaven to every man in Crawling Water. On that
account, with one exception, I've had to import every last one of my
men. The exception is Tug Bailey, who's beyond hope where women are
concerned. To all the rest, Dorothy Purnell is 'Wade's girl,' and they
wouldn't fight against her, or him, for all the money in Wyoming."

He was watching her keenly as he spoke, and was gratified to see spots
of color spring to her cheeks.

"How interesting!" Helen could make her tone indifferent to the point of
languor, but she could not keep the gleam of jealousy out of her eyes.
"Gordon is a fortunate man to have such an able ally, isn't he?"

"The finish will decide that, I should say," Moran replied sneeringly.
"She may stir up more trouble than all her friends can take care of."