'm
sorta lookin' out for all of them, you know, actin' as Miss Helen's
foreman now."

Helen was unutterably tickled. The effect of his speech upon Bo was
stupendous. He had disarmed her. He had, with the finesse and tact
and suavity of a diplomat, removed himself from obligation, and the
detachment of self, the casual thing be apparently made out of his
magnificent championship, was bewildering and humiliating to Bo. She
sat silent for a moment or two while Helen tried to fit easily into
the conversation. It was not likely that Bo would long be at a loss
for words, and also it was immensely probable that with a flash of her
wonderful spirit she would turn the tables on her perverse lover in a
twinkling. Anyway, plain it was that a lesson had sunk deep. She looked
startled, hurt, wistful, and finally sweetly defiant.

"But--you told Riggs I was your girl!" Thus Bo unmasked her battery. And
Helen could not imagine how Carmichael would ever resist that and the
soft, arch glance which accompanied it.

Helen did not yet know the cowboy, any more than did Bo.

"Shore. I had to say thet. I had to make it strong before thet gang. I
reckon it was presumin' of me, an' I shore apologize."

Bo stared at him, and then, giving a little gasp, she drooped.

"Wal, I just run in to say howdy an' to inquire after you-all," said
Carmichael. "I'm goin' to the dance, an' as Flo lives out of town a ways
I'd shore better rustle.... Good night, Miss Bo; I hope you'll be ridin'
Sam soon. An' good night, Miss Helen."

Bo roused to a very friendly and laconic little speech, much overdone.
Carmichael strode out, and Helen, bidding him good-by, closed the door
after him.

The instant he had departed Bo's transformation was tragic.

"Flo! He meant Flo Stubbs--that ugly, cross-eyed, bold, little frump!"

"Bo!" expostulated Helen. "The young lady is not beautiful, I grant, but
she's very nice and pleasant. I liked her."

"Nell Rayner, men are no good! And cowboys are the worst!" declared Bo,
terribly.

"Why didn't you appreciate Tom when you had him?" asked Helen.

Bo had been growing furious, but now the allusion, in past tense, to
the conquest she had suddenly and amazingly found dear quite broke her
spirit. It was a very pale, unsteady, and miserable girl who avoided
Helen's gaze and left the room.

Next day Bo was not approachable from any direction. Helen found her
a victim to a multiplicity of moods, ranging from woe to dire, dar