Peters believed him, and lent
him three hundred dollars to start a lawsuit over his English property
with. Dessay Peters thought red-haired Sally would look well trailing
round as a countess in a gold-hemmed dress. The baronet took the
money, but wanted some more, and lit out the same night with Lou of the
Sapin Rouge saloon."

"I should hardly expect all that from our acquaintance of this morning,
but I am disappointed, though I'm sure I don't know why I should be,"
said Helen Savine.

The sunlight had faded from the valley, though the peaks still
shimmered orange and red, and the broken edge of a glacier flashed like
a great rose diamond, when the two girls sat on the veranda encircling
Graham's ranch-house. The rancher and his stalwart sons were away
rounding up his cattle, but Jean was expecting both them and her mother
and the delayed supper was ready. The evening was very still and cool.
The life-giving air was heavy with the breath of dew-touched cedars,
while the hoarse clamor of the river accentuated the hush of the
mountain solitude. Strange to say, both of the girls were thinking
about the vagrant, and Helen Savine, who considered herself a judge of
character, had been more impressed by him than she would have cared to
admit. There was no doubt, she reflected, that the man was tolerably
good-looking and had enjoyed some training, though perhaps not the
best, in England. He had also known adversity, she deduced from the
gauntness of his face and a certain grimness of expression. She had
noticed that his chin indicated a masterful expression and she was,
therefore, the more surprised that he had allowed himself to be
vanquished by the boulder.

Suddenly a heavy crash broke through the musical jangle of cow bells
that drew nearer up the valley, and a cloud of yellow smoke curling
above the dark branches spread itself across the fir tops in filmy
folds.

"I guess that's our hobo blowing the rock up!" cried Jean. "I wonder
where he stole the giant powder from. Well, daddy's found his cattle,
and the swearing will have made him hungry. I'll start Kate on to the
supper, and we'll bring the man in when he comes round for his dollar."

Presently Thurston knocked at the door, and strode in at a summons to
enter. Slightly abashed, he halted inside the threshold. Jean,
looking ruddy and winsome in light print dress, with sleeves rolled
clear of each plump fore-arm, was spreading great platefuls of hot