if he HAD made love to me I--I might have appreciated it more
than you."

Bo raised her face, flushed in part and also pale, with tear-wet cheeks
and the telltale blaze in the blue eyes.

"I've been wild about that fellow. But I hate him, too," she said, with
flashing spirit. "And I want to go on hating him. So don't tell me any
more."

Whereupon Helen briefly and graphically related how Carmichael had
offered to kill Beasley, as the only way to save her property, and how,
when she refused, that he threatened he would do it anyhow.

Bo fell over with a gasp and clung to Helen.

"Oh--Nell! Oh, now I love him more than--ever," she cried, in mingled
rage and despair.

Helen clasped her closely and tried to comfort her as in the old days,
not so very far back, when troubles were not so serious as now.

"Of course you love him," she concluded. "I guessed that long ago. And
I'm glad. But you've been wilful--foolish. You wouldn't surrender to it.
You wanted your fling with the other boys. You're--Oh, Bo, I fear you
have been a sad little flirt."

"I--I wasn't very bad till--till he got bossy. Why, Nell, he
acted--right off--just as if he OWNED me. But he didn't.... And to show
him--I--I really did flirt with that Turner fellow. Then he--he insulted
me.... Oh, I hate him!"

"Nonsense, Bo. You can't hate any one while you love him," protested
Helen.

"Much you know about that," flashed Bo. "You just can! Look here. Did
you ever see a cowboy rope and throw and tie up a mean horse?"

"Yes, I have."

"Do you have any idea how strong a cowboy is--how his hands and arms are
like iron?"

"Yes, I'm sure I know that, too."

"And how savage he is?"

"Yes."

"And how he goes at anything he wants to do?"

"I must admit cowboys are abrupt," responded Helen, with a smile.

"Well, Miss Rayner, did you ever--when you were standing quiet like a
lady--did you ever have a cowboy dive at you with a terrible lunge--grab
you and hold you so you couldn't move or breathe or scream--hug you
till all your bones cracked--and kiss you so fierce and so hard that you
wanted to kill him and die?"

Helen had gradually drawn back from this blazing-eyed, eloquent sister,
and when the end of that remarkable question came it was impossible to
reply.

"There! I see you never had that done to you," resumed Bo, with
satisfaction. "So don't ever talk to me."

"I've heard his side of the story," said Helen, constrainedly.

With a start