areful never to witness the branding, but she
had often seen the cowboys driving the herds across the plains.

But Olive did not feel so cheerful. The distant noise and the surging
crowd alarmed her. She wished that she and Jack were safe at home.

Coming at full speed down the trail toward them, the two girls spied two
cowboys wearing the full cowboy regalia, leather suits with fringed
trousers and immense sombrero hats, tied under their chins.

"Great Scott!" cried a familiar voice. "Here come Jack Ralston and her
Indian girl! What a place for a couple of girls to be alone!"

Jack's ears burned. She recognized Dan's tones but was not so much
abashed by meeting him, as she was by Frank Kent's astonished face. The
young English fellow's surprise was unmistakable.

"May I stay with you until your escort joins you, Miss Ralston?" Frank
asked immediately. "The men about here are pretty rough and if you
should happen to get too near the cattle it might be dangerous. I am
told they sometimes break out and start a stampede."

Jack kept her face turned away while Frank was speaking. She was
actually ashamed to return his friendly gaze. Frank had entirely
separated himself from Dan Norton, who was grinning scornfully at Olive
and Jack.

"Please don't worry about us, Mr. Kent," Jack said quietly. "We won't
get into danger. I don't exactly like to tell you, but we rode over to
the round-up by ourselves. You understand that we didn't mean to go near
the men or the cattle, but I thought we might find some one we knew near
the mess-wagons."

"Come on, Frank Kent," Dan Norton yelled impatiently. "Do you think I
have got time to waste while you talk to Jack Ralston all day? I told
Laura we would be back with them in half an hour. Hustle."

Frank Kent's face was no longer pale, as it had been when Jack had her
first meeting with him on the Ralston Ranch. It had been tanned and
reddened by his weeks in the sun and air of Wyoming, but that did not
account for the sudden color that flamed in it. "Be quiet, Dan, you
cad," he ordered sharply. "Go when you like, I shall stay with Miss
Ralston and her friend."

"I say, Miss Ralston," Frank suggested suddenly. "Mr. and Mrs. Simpson
are not very far away. They came over in their automobile, because Mrs.
Simpson thought maybe her sister and niece would like to see the cowboys
from the different ranches ride up to their work. Gee, they are
stunning-looking fellows, aren't they? I wish