"With Love,
"PEN."

"Some girl!" exclaimed Jo. "But she isn't as keen as I thought, or she'd
have known you didn't take the ring."

"Jo, do you believe--"

"Shucks, honey! I know you didn't. I wouldn't believe you did if I saw you
take it. Here, little girl--"

He stopped, put his arm around her, lifted the little face and kissed the
tears from it.

"What's matter with you?"

"Jo, I didn't take it!"

"Don't I know you didn't, honey!"

"It's nice in you to know it, Jo. But--suppose, I had taken it--"

"I'd have given it back and rustled around till I could have bought you
the biggest diamond in Chicago."

"Who do you suppose did take it, Jo?"

"I don't know. Maybe he never lost it."

"Wasn't it grand in her to take the blame?"

"Yes," he admitted grudgingly, "but I don't like her thinking you took
it."

"But, Jo. Of course she would think it was I, and--I remember now--when I
saw that diamond I thought how easy it would be for anyone to lift it, and
then when I was in her room, I hardly heard a word she said because I was
thinking, 'It's Jo! It's Jo's love that's made me different,' and then I
got scared thinking that I might want to take it, and how awful it would
have been if I had never met you and loved you. I got up and walked right
out of the room so I could be alone and think about you. It must have
looked queer to her the way I acted--till she found the ring had been
taken."

"I'll see Kurt," said Jo, "and tell him about it, and he will find her."

"What's that sound?" interrupted Marta, looking about her in a puzzled
way. "I've heard it before somewhere. Oh, I know! It's an airship."

They looked up and, for the moment, lost all interest in things below.

"Holy Smoke!" exclaimed Jo. "First one I ever saw! Gene said there was one
in town a few days ago. Look! It's coming down corkscrew style! It's going
to land there by Westcott's!"

CHAPTER XIV

Down the road from the corral, Kurt chugged homeward in his crude little
car. He had the manner of one whose heart is heavy, but whose resolution
was still invincible.

A strange unaccustomed sound, a faint, far-away buzzing made him glance
upward. Two sharp winged points were skimming through the air. He felt a
thrill--the thrill of the unknown. He knew it must be one of the craft,
foreign as yet to the hill country. In the distance he saw it s