orted gaily.

"Better not," came the warning. "You'll only make trouble for yourself.
He ain't marryin'. Many a girl's found that out. They just throw
themselves at his head, too."

"I'm not going to throw myself at him, or any other man."

"Just thought I'd tell you," Mary concluded. "A word to the wise."

Saxon had become grave.

"He's not... not..." she began, than looked the significance of the
question she could not complete.

"Oh, nothin' like that--though there's nothin' to stop him. He's
straight, all right, all right. But he just won't fall for anything
in skirts. He dances, an' runs around, an' has a good time, an' beyond
that--nitsky. A lot of 'em's got fooled on him. I bet you there's a
dozen girls in love with him right now. An' he just goes on turnin'
'em down. There was Lily Sanderson--you know her. You seen her at that
Slavonic picnic last summer at Shellmound--that tall, nice-lookin'
blonde that was with Butch Willows?"

"Yes, I remember her," Saxon sald. "What about her?"

"Well, she'd been runnin' with Butch Willows pretty steady, an' just
because she could dance, Billy dances a lot with her. Butch ain't afraid
of nothin'. He wades right in for a showdown, an' nails Billy outside,
before everybody, an' reads the riot act. An' Billy listens in that
slow, sleepy way of his, an' Butch gets hotter an' hotter, an' everybody
expects a scrap.

"An' then Billy says to Butch, 'Are you done?' 'Yes,' Butch says; 'I've
said my say, an' what are you goin' to do about it?' An' Billy says--an'
what d'ye think he said, with everybody lookin' on an' Butch with blood
in his eye? Well, he said, 'I guess nothin', Butch.' Just like that.
Butch was that surprised you could knocked him over with a feather. 'An'
never dance with her no more?' he says. 'Not if you say I can't, Butch,'
Billy says. Just like that.

"Well, you know, any other man to take water the way he did from
Butch--why, everybody'd despise him. But not Billy. You see, he can
afford to. He's got a rep as a fighter, an' when he just stood back
'an' let Butch have his way, everybody knew he wasn't scared, or backin'
down, or anything. He didn't care a rap for Lily Sanderson, that was
all, an' anybody could see she was just crazy after him."

The telling of this episode caused Saxon no little worry. Hers was the
average woman's pride, but in the matter of man-conquering prowess
she was not unduly conceited. Billy had enjoyed her dancing, and she
w