hint? I've been answering the 'phone pretty regularly,
seems to me. And can't I have a cold and get over it if I want to? And
can't I fool you with my voice? You'd pine away if you didn't have some
mystery to mill over. You ought to be glad--"

"You weren't at Sinkhole camp that night I 'phoned." Mary V looked at him
accusingly.

"Oh, _weren't_ I?" Johnny took refuge in mockery. "How do you know?"

Naturally, Mary V disliked to tell him how she knew. She shied from the
subject. "You're the most _secretive_ thing; you are doing something dad
doesn't know about, but you ought to know better than to think you can
fool _me_. Really, I should not like to see you get into trouble with my
father, even though--"

"Even though I am merely your father's hired man. I get you, perfectly.
Why not let papa's hired man take care of himself?"

Mary V flushed angrily. Johnny was reminding her of the very beginning of
their serial quarrel, when he had overheard her telling a girl guest at
the ranch that Johnny Jewel was "only one of my father's hired men." Mary
V had not been able to explain to Johnny that the girl guest had
exhibited altogether too great an interest in his youth and his good
looks, and had frankly threatened a flirtation. The girl guest was
something of the snob, and Mary V had taken the simplest, surest way of
squelching her romantic interest. She had done that effectually, but she
had also given Johnny Jewel a mortal wound in the very vitals of his
young egotism.

"We are so short-handed this season!" Mary V explained sweetly. "And dad
is so stubborn, he'd fire the last man on the ranch if he caught him
doing things he didn't like. And if he doesn't get all the horses broken
and sold that he has set his heart on selling, he says he won't be able
to buy me a new car this fall. There's the _dearest_ little sport Norman
that I want--"

"Hope you get it, I'm sure. I'll take an airplane for mine. In the
meantime, you're holding up a hired hand when he's in a hurry to get on
the job again. That won't get you any sport Normans, nor buy gas for the
one you've got."

"That man--" Mary V lowered her voice worriedly. "I know something nasty
and unpleasant about him. I can't remember what it is, but I shall. I've
seen him somewhere. What is he doing here? You might tell me that much."

"Why, he's going to stay over night with me. Maybe a little longer. I'm
willing to pay for all he eats, if that--"

"Shame on you! Wh