?

"By mighty! I wish Lon could have been here to see this, I certainly
do!"

For the last time the curtain was lowered and then rose again. On the
screen was pictured Amarillo as it is to-day.

First a panorama of the town and its outskirts. Then "stills" of its
principal buildings, and its principal citizens.

Then the main streets, full of business life, autos chugging, electric
cars clanging back and forth, all of the bustle of a modern town that is
growing rich and growing rapidly.

The contrast between what the spectators had seen early in the spectacle
and this final scene made them thoughtful. There had been plenty of
applause all through the show; but when "Good-night" was shown upon the
screen, nobody moved, and Pratt raised the shout for:

"Miss Rugley!"

She would not appear before the curtain save with the other members of
the committee. But the cheering was for her and she had to run away to
hide her blushes and her tears of happiness.

"Wake up, Sue, it's over!" exclaimed one of the other girls, shaking the
young lady from Boston.

Sue Latrop came to herself slowly. She had never realized the Spirit of
the West before, nor appreciated what it meant to have battled for and
grown up with a frontier community.

"Is--is that all true?" she whispered to Pratt.

"Is what all true?" he asked, rather blankly.

"That there have been such improvements and changes here in so few
years?"

"You bet!" exclaimed Pratt, with emphasis.

"Well--re'lly--it's quite wonderful," admitted Sue, slowly. "I had no
idea it was like that!"

"So you think better of our 'crude civilization,' do you?" laughed one
of her girl friends.

"Why--why, it is quite surprising," said Sue, again, and still quite
breathless.

"And what do you think of our Frances?" demanded Mrs. Bill Edwards,
proudly. "There's nobody in Boston's Back Bay, even, who could do better
than she?"

And Sue Latrop was--for the time being, at least--completely silenced.

CHAPTER XXX

A REUNION

There had been a delay on the railroad caused by a washout; therefore
Jonas Lonergan and Mr. Decimus Tooley, the chaplain of the Bylittle
Soldiers' Home, did not arrive at Jackleg in time for the night of the
spectacle of the Pageant of the Panhandle.

But the party from the Bar-T Ranch, after the show was over and Frances
and the Captain had both been congratulated, rode down to the station to
meet the belated train to which was attached the