nd, could not tell if they were
doing well or ill, so loudly did her heart pound out her fears--so
stoutly did her heart proclaim her trust.

And thus, without a flaw or mistake in the execution of the work she had
struggled so hard to teach them, the first scene of the first act drew
to its close, and Margaret struck the final chords of the music and felt
that in another minute she must reel and fall from that piano-stool. And
yet she sat and watched the curtain fall with a face as controlled as if
nothing at all were the matter.

A second later she suddenly knew that to sit in that place calmly
another second was a physical impossibility. She must get somewhere to
the air at once or her senses would desert her.

With a movement so quick that no one could have anticipated it, she
slipped from her piano-stool, under the curtain to the stage, and was
gone before the rest of the orchestra had noticed her intention.

CHAPTER XXIV

Since the day that he had given Margaret his promise to make good,
Gardley had been regularly employed by Mr. Rogers, looking after
important matters of his ranch. Before that he had lived a free and easy
life, working a little now and then when it seemed desirable to him,
having no set interest in life, and only endeavoring from day to day to
put as far as possible from his mind the life he had left behind him.
Now, however, all things became different. He brought to his service the
keen mind and ready ability that had made him easily a winner at any
game, a brave rider, and a never-failing shot. Within a few days Rogers
saw what material was in him, and as the weeks went by grew to depend
more and more upon his advice in matters.

There had been much trouble with cattle thieves, and so far no method of
stopping the loss or catching the thieves had been successful. Rogers
finally put the matter into Gardley's hands to carry out his own ideas,
with the men of the camp at his command to help him, the camp itself
being only a part of Rogers's outlying possessions, one of several such
centers from which he worked his growing interests.

Gardley had formulated a scheme by which he hoped eventually to get
hold of the thieves and put a stop to the trouble, and he was pretty
sure he was on the right track; but his plan required slow and cautious
work, that the enemy might not suspect and take to cover. He had for
several weeks suspected that the thieves made their headquarters in the
reg