lder school boasted two
teachers!--and under her kindly, rather faded smile he felt a great
desire to stop and take her into his confidence; ask her what Betty Neal
had been doing all these months. Instead, he touched Grey Molly with the
spurs, and she answered like a watch-spring uncurling beneath him. The
rush of wind against his face raised his spirits to a singing pitch, and
when he flung from the saddle before the school he shouted: "Oh, Betty!"

Up the sharply angling steps in a bound, and at the door: "Oh, Betty!"

His voice filled the room with a thick, dull echo, and there was Betty
behind her desk looking up at him agape; and beside her stood Blondy
Hansen, big, good looking, and equally startled. Fear made the glance
of Vic Gregg swerve--to where little Tommy Aiken scribbled an arithmetic
problem on the blackboard--afterschool work for whispering in class, or
some equally heinous crime. The tingling voices of the other children
on their way home, floated in to Tommy, and the corners of his mouth
drooped.

To regain his poise, Vic tugged at his belt and felt the weight of the
holster slipping into a more convenient place, then he sauntered up
the aisle, sweeping off his sombrero. Every feeling in his body, every
nerve, disappeared in a crystalline hardness, for it seemed to him that
the air was surcharged by a secret something between Betty and young
Hansen. Betty was out from behind her desk and she ran to meet him and
took his hand in both of hers. The rush of her coming took his breath,
and at her touch something melted in her.

"Oh, Vic, are you all through?"

Gregg stiffened for the benefit of Hansen and Tommy Aiken.

"Pretty near through," he said carelessly. "Thought I'd drop down
to Alder for a day or two and get the kinks out. Hello, Blondy. Hey,
Tommy!"

Tommy Aiken flashed a grin at him, but Tommy was not quite sure that the
rules permitted speaking, even under such provocation as the return of
Vic Gregg, so he maintained a desperate silence. Blondy had picked up
his hat as he returned the greeting.

"I guess I'll be going," he said, and coughed to show that he was
perfectly at ease, but it seemed to Vic that it was hard for Blondy to
meet his eye when they shook hands. "See you later, Betty."

"All right." She smiled at Vic--a flash--and then gathered dignity of
both voice and manner. "You may go now, Tommy."

She lapsed into complete unconsciousness of manner as Tommy swooped on
his de