st and bravest and best there is in you,
Larry. I am so glad! Don't go out of my life again. Let me hear from you
when you get over."

"I was sore, Pen, when you handed me such a lecture, though it was coming
to me all right. But it stuck, and the time came when I was grateful. When
I found I could make good, I couldn't find you. I wrote every one of the
crowd or went to see them, but you had mysteriously disappeared. Hebby
said you must have been run in."

"Was; but luck was with me again. I will give you an address that will
always reach me."

"I shall never go up, Pen, without thinking of you and to-day. But you
have told me very little of yourself. Are you still--"

"The thief? Not at present. I am enjoying an interlude; but there are
times when virtue palls, but I mean to keep out of Hebler's clutches.
Larry, I believe I will let you out here--on the edge of the town--the
main street. I have a long ride before me. It's lonesome to say
good-bye."

"I expect to be in two or three days yet--waiting for some mail."

"I wish I might see you again, Larry, but I don't know how I can manage
it. If anyone knew I were in town to-day, it might lead to--developments.
Send me your address at the port you are to sail from, and I'll have
things there for you."

"Good-bye, Pen. You're the best little scout I ever knew."

He kissed her and got out of the car. There were tears in her eyes as she
motored on up through the hills land. The air grew cold and brisk; she
felt the sense of silence and strength. She recalled her first ride up
these hills in the early morning, and that turned her thoughts to Kurt.
She wondered if he were of the stuff that bird men are made of. How much
more sphinx-like he was, and how different from the keen, alert,
business-like flier Larry had shown himself to be! They were types as
remote as the eagle and the lark. Larry, of course, was the lark. She had
a feeling of loneliness in her knowledge of his going so far away. He knew
more about her than any one else. She never had to play a part with him.

Soon, all too soon, she found herself at the ranch. Dinner was over and
the children had gone upstairs with Mrs. Merlin.

Kurt returned a few moments later and came into the library where she sat
alone by the open fire, pensive and distrait, still thinking of Larry and
of his going into service.

He looked at her oddly. This was not the pert, saucy, little girl he had
taken from Bender, nor the l