ngs turn out--for folks," he
said, gravely. "Things turn out to show it. Everything is fixed." He
smiled as she looked at him. "Take me," he went on. "I saw your picture.
If I'd only seen it once, mebbe I wouldn't have fell in love with it.
But--"

"Why, Rex!" she reproved with an injured air, "how can you say that? Why,
I believe I loved you from the minute I saw you!"

"You didn't have anything on me there!" he told her. "For I was a gone
coon the first time I set eyes on _you!_ But is it the same with
pictures? A picture, now, has to be studied; it ain't like the real
article," he apologized. "Anyway, if I hadn't kept lookin' at your
picture, mebbe things would have been different. But I got it, an' I
looked at it a lot. That shows that it was all fixed for you an' me."

She looked mirthfully at him. "Was it all fixed for you to take the
picture from Vickers, by force--as you told me you did?" she demanded.

He grinned brazenly. "I reckon that was part of the plan," he contended.
"Anyway, I got it. Vickers wouldn't speak to me for a month, but I reckon
I didn't lose any sleep over that. What sleep I lost was lost lookin' at
the picture." The confession did not embarrass him, for he continued
quietly:

"An' there's Masten." He watched the smile go out of her face with regret
in his eyes. But he went on. "I intended to kill him, one night. But he
had no gun, an' I couldn't. That would have spoiled the plan that's fixed
for all of us. I let him live, an' the plan works out." He took hold of
the hand nearest him and pressed it tightly.

"Have you seen Hagar since?" he asked.

"No," she told him, looking quickly at him, for she caught an odd note in
his voice. "I just couldn't bear to think of going back there."

"Well," he said, "Hagar's happy. I was over there this mornin'. Masten's
there." He felt her hand grip his suddenly, and he smiled. He had talked
with Catherson; the nester had told him the story, but it had been agreed
between them the real story was not to be told. "They're married--Hagar
an' Masten. Masten come to Catherson's shack the day after I--after I
brought you home from there. An' they rode over to Lazette an' got hooked
up. An' Catherson had been lookin' for Masten, figurin' to kill him. I
reckon it was planned for Masten to have a change of heart. Or mebbe it
was gettin' married changed him. For he's a lot different, since. He's
quiet, an' a heap considerate of other folks' feelin's. He's got