was telling me about, but judging
by your looks y'u're only the prettiest and sassiest twenty-year-old in
Wyoming."

And with this shot he fled, to see what transformation he could effect
with the aid of a whiskbroom, a tin pan of alkali water and a roller
towel.

When she met him at the supper table her first question was, "Did Miss
Messiter say I was an old maid?"

"Sho! I wouldn't let that trouble me if I was y'u. A woman ain't any
older than she looks. Your age don't show to speak of."

"But did she?"

"I reckon she laid a trap for me and I shoved my paw in. She wanted to
give me a pleasant surprise."

"Oh!"

"Don't y'u grow anxious about being an old maid. There ain't any in
Wyoming to speak of. If y'u like I'll tell the boys you're worried
and some of them will be Johnnie-on-the-Spot. They're awful gallant,
cowpunchers are."

"Some of them may be," she differed. "If you want to know I'm just
twenty-one."

He sawed industriously at his steak. "Y'u don't say! Just old enough to
vote--like this steer was before they massacreed him."

She gave him one look, and thereafter punished him with silence.

They left Gimlet Butte early next morning and reached the Lazy D shortly
after noon on the succeeding day. McWilliams understood perfectly that
strenuous competition would inevitably ensue as soon as the Lazy D
beheld the attraction he had brought into their midst. Nor did he need
a phrenologist to tell him that Nora was a born flirt and that her shy
slant glances were meant to penetrate tough hides to tender hearts.
But this did not discourage him, and he set about making his individual
impression while he had her all to himself. He wasn't at all sure how
deep this went, but he had the satisfaction of hearing his first name,
the one she had told him she had no need of, fall tentatively from her
pretty lips before the other boys caught a glimpse of her.

Shortly after his arrival at the ranch Mac went to make his report to
his mistress of some business matters connected with the trip.

"I see you got back safely with the old lady," she laughed when she
caught sight of him.

His look reproached her. "Y'u said a spinster."

"But it was you that insisted on the rheumatism. By the way, did you ask
her about it?"

"We didn't get that far," he parried.

"Oh! How far did you get?" She perched herself on the porch railing and
mocked him with her friendly eyes. Her heart was light within her and
she was read