lad of yours has money. Then why is he workin' as a hired man
onless f'r love of ye, tell me that?"

"I can't help his feelings," Jean returned.

"No, but ye might soothe thim, instid iv playin' cat-an'-mouse--"

"I'm not!" Jean cried. "And I wish you wouldn't talk about him any
more."

The net result was that, feeling herself under Mrs. Foley's skeptical
eye, she treated the unfortunate Chetwood more distantly than ever.
Faith observed, but said nothing, waiting for an opportune moment which
was slow in coming.

Since her wedding Faith's ranch had been abandoned. She had removed some
of her personal belongings, but the furniture remained. She was aware,
now, of the worthlessness of the place. The reasons which had impelled
Godfrey French to purchase, whatever they were, were not operative with
his children. If Braden had been behind that offer it was improbable
that it would be renewed by him. The place was dead horse.

Nevertheless, Faith held a fondness for it, principally sentimental.
Occasionally she rode over to see that all was in order. She had an idea
that, if the Mackay ranch was cut up, they might live there, and she had
a wish, of which she had not yet spoken to her husband, to spend a week
or two there alone with him before the winter. And so one day she paid a
visit to her property.

Though the day was warm the interior struck chill. She threw the doors
open and raised the blinds, letting in the air and sun. Then, taking a
book, she moved a rocker to the front veranda, and basked in the sun.
For a time she admired the mountains sharply defined, gulch, shoulder
and summit, in the clear air, but speedily she became lost in her own
thoughts.

A sudden, thudding detonation broke her reverie and brought her upright
in her chair. It rumbled into the hills, caught by the rocks, flung
across gorges and back in a maze of echoes, diminishing and dying in the
far ranges. For a startled instant she wondered what it could be, and
then she knew that it was powder--a blast.

The shot seemed near, not more than a mile distant. It was either on her
land or very near it, in the vicinity of the foot of the round mountain
which projected from the foot of the range. While she puzzled, another
shot came. Yes, undoubtedly that was where it was. But who could be
using powder on her property?

She made up her mind to find out what was going on. She locked the
doors, and mounting her pony took as straight a line as she