om here to the hill
is half under water right now; the river's got over the bank above, and
is flooding down through the horse pasture. By the time the water got up
here the river'd be as wide and deep one side uh yuh as the other. Then
where'd yuh be at?"

"It won't get up here, though," Mona asserted coolly. "It never has."

"No, and the Lazy Eight never had to work the Yellowstone range on
spring roundup before either," Park told her meaningly.

Whereupon Mona got upon her pedestal and smiled her unpleasant smile,
against which even Park had no argument ready.

They lingered till long after all good cowpunchers are supposed to be
in their beds--unless they are standing night-guard--but Jack failed to
appear. The rain drummed upon the roof and the river swished and gurgled
against the crumbling banks, and grumbled audibly to itself because the
hills stood immovably in their places and set bounds which it could not
pass, however much it might rage against their base.

When the clock struck a wheezy nine Mona glanced at it significantly
and smothered a yawn more than half affected. It was a hint which no man
with an atom of self-respect could overlook. With mutual understanding
the two rose.

"I guess we'll have to be going," Park said with some ceremony. "I kept
think ing maybe Jack would show up; it ain't right to leave yuh here
alone like this."

"I don't see why not; I'm not the least bit afraid," Mona said. Her tone
was impersonal and had in it a note of dismissal.

So, there being nothing else that they could do, they said good-night
and took themselves off.

"This is sure fierce," Park grumbled when they struck the lower ground.
"Darn a man like Jack Stevens! He'll hang out there in town and bowl up
on other men's money till plumb daylight. It's a wonder Mona didn't go
with her mother. But no--it'd be awful if Jack had to cook his own grub
for a week. Say, the water has come up a lot, don't yuh think, Bud?
If it raises much more Mona'll sure have a chance to 'cope with the
situation. It'd just about serve her right, too."

Thurston did not think so, but he was in too dispirited a mood to argue
the point. It had not been good for his peace of mind to sit and
watch the color come and go in Mona's cheeks, and the laughter spring
unheralded into her dear, big eyes, and the light tangle itself in the
waves of her hair.

He guided his horse carefully through the deep places, and noted
uneasily how much de