ello, Bud. Got back quicker than you expected, didn't yuh? It's lucky
I happened to be in town--yuh can ride out with me. Say, yuh got quite
a bunch uh local color for a story, didn't yuh? You'll be writing
blood-and-thunder for a month on the strength of this little episode, I
reckon." his twinkling eyes teased, though his face was quite serious,
as was his voice.

She of the blue-gray eyes turned and measured Thurston with a
deliberate, leisurely glance, and her mouth still had that unpleasant
expression. Thurston colored guiltily, but Hank Graves lifted his hat
and called her Mona, and asked her if she wasn't scared stiff, and if
she were home to stay. Then he beckoned to the tawny-haired fellow with
his finger, and winked at Mona--a proceeding which shocked Thurston
considerably.

"Mona--here, hold on a minute, can't yuh? Mona, this is a friend uh
mine; Bud Thurston's his name. He's come out to study us up and round up
a hunch uh real Western atmosphere. He's a story-writer. I used to whack
bulls all over the country with his father. Bud, this is Mona Stevens;
she ranges down close to the Lazy Eight, so the sooner yuh git
acquainted, the quicker." He did not explain what would be the quicker,
and Thurston's embarrassment was only aggravated by the introduction.

Miss Stevens gave him a chilly smile, the kind that is worse than none
at all and turned her back, thinly pretending that she heard her brother
calling her, which she did not. Her brother was loudly explaining what
would have happened if he had been on that train and had got a whack at
the robbers, and his sister was far from his mind.

Graves slapped the shoulder of the fellow they had called Park.
"You young devil, next time I leave the place for a week--yes, or
overnight--I'll lock yuh up in the blacksmith shop. Have yuh got to be
Mona's special escort, these days?"

"Wish I was," Park retorted, unmoved.

"Different here--yuh ain't much account, as it is. Bud, this here's my
wagon-boss, Park Holloway; one of 'em, that is. I'm going to turn yuh
over to him and let him wise yuh up. Say, you young bucks ought to get
along together pretty smooth. Your dads run buffalo together before
either of yuh was born. Well, let's be moving--we ain't home yet. Got a
war-bag, Bud?"

Late that night Thurston lay upon a home-made bed and listened to the
frogs croaking monotonously in the hollow behind the house, and to
the lone coyote which harped upon the subject o