a superior way; but she presently failed to make good
at this.

When the kindly old ranchman considered her a wall-flower and came and
begged her to "give him a whirl," Sue had to break through her "icy
reserve."

Although they did not dance the more modern dances, she found that
Captain Rugley knew his steps and was as light on his feet as a man half
his age.

"I have given Mr. Rheumatism the time of his life to-night!" declared
the owner of the Bar-T brand. "That's what I told Frances I would do."

And Captain Rugley suffered no ill effects from the dance, as was shown
by his appearance here at the Jackleg schoolhouse to-night, when the
canvas curtain slowly rolled up to reveal first the painted curtain
behind it, on which was a picture of the meeting of Cortez and the Aztec
princes soon after the Conqueror's arrival in Mexico.

The school teacher read the prologue, and the spectators settled down to
listen and to see. His explanation of what was to follow was both
concise and well written, and the whisper went around:

"And she's only a girl! Yes, Miss Rugley wrote it all."

Sue sniffed. The teacher stepped back into the shadow and the painted
curtain rolled up.

There was a gasp of amazement when the audience saw what was revealed
behind the painted sheet. One of the moving picture machines was already
running, and on the great screen was thrown a representation of the
staked plains of the Panhandle as they were in the days before the white
man ever saw them.

Far, far away appeared a band of painted and feather-bedecked Indians,
riding their mustangs, and sweeping down toward the immediate foreground
of the picture with a vividness that was almost startling.

Into that foreground was drifting a herd of buffaloes. They started, the
bulls giving the signal as the enemy approached, and the end of that
section was the scampering of the great, hairy beasts, with the Indians
in full chase, brandishing their spears.

Immediately the scene changed and a train of a different kind broke into
view in the dim perspective. The moving figures grew clearer as the
moments passed. Over a similar part of the staked plain came the
exploring Spaniards, with their cattle and caparisoned horses, their
enslaved Aztecs, their priests bearing the Cross before.

The moving procession came closer and closer until suddenly the whirring
of the picture machine stopped, a great searchlight was turned upon the
dusky yard between th