wide reaches where man had left no mark. As it was--

She called a halt at four o'clock.

"Mr. Wagstaff!"

Bill stopped his horses and came back to her.

"Aren't we _ever_ going to get anywhere?" she asked soberly.

"Sure! But we've got to keep going. Got to make the best of a bad
job," he returned. "Getting pretty tired?"

"I am," she admitted. "I'm afraid I can't ride much longer. I could
walk if you wouldn't go so fast. Aren't there any ranches in this
country at all?"

He shook his head. "They're few and far between," he said. "Don't
worry, though. It isn't a life-and-death matter. If we were out here
without grub or horses it might be tough. You're in no danger from
exposure or hunger."

"You don't seem to realize the position it puts me in," Hazel answered.
A wave of despondency swept over her, and her eyes grew suddenly bright
with the tears she strove to keep back. "If we wander around in the
woods much longer, I'll simply be a sensation when I do get back to
Cariboo Meadows. I won't have a shred of reputation left. It will
probably result in my losing the school. You're a man, and it's
different with you. You can't know what a girl has to contend with
where no one knows her. I'm a stranger in this country, and what
little they do know of me--"

She stopped short, on the point of saying that what Cariboo Meadows
knew of her through the medium of Mr. Howard Perkins was not at all to
her credit.

Roaring Bill looked up at her impassively. "I know," he said, as if he
had read her thought. "Your friend Perkins talked a lot. But what's
the difference? Cariboo Meadows is only a fleabite. If you're right,
and you know you're right, you can look the world in the eye and tell
it collectively to go to the devil. Besides, you've got a perverted
idea. People aren't so ready to give you the bad eye on somebody
else's say-so. It would take a lot more than a flash drummer's word to
convince me that you're a naughty little girl. Pshaw--forget it!"

Hazel colored hotly at his mention of Perkins, but for the latter part
of his speech she could have hugged him. Bill Wagstaff went a long
way, in those brief sentences, toward demolishing her conviction that
no man ever overlooked an opportunity of taking advantage of a woman.
But Bill said nothing further. He stood a moment longer by her horse,
resting one hand on Silk's mane, and scraping absently in the soft
earth with the toe of his boo