n_ he gets back," resumed Tom, "some of us
fellers may perhaps take it up with him, and tell him what Miss
Constance wants to have done."

This was too much. The girl sprang to her feet. "You'll tell him
nothing!" she cried.

Ellsworth turned to Tom Osby with a sober face. "Young Anderson rode
away from us the other morning," said he, "and he hardly troubled
himself to say good-by. We used to know him back East; and he needn't
have taken that affair of the railroad meeting so much to heart."

"Come!" called Constance, "get ready and let's be going. I'm sick of
this country!" She walked rapidly away from the others.

"A woman can change some sudden, can't she, Mr. Ellsworth?" remarked
Tom Osby, slowly.

"Look here, Miss Constance," said he, presently, when he came nearer to
her, standing apart from the wagon, "there's been mistakes and busted
plans enough in here already. Now don't get on no high horse and break
up my scheme."

"Don't talk to me!" She stamped her foot.

"Ma'am! ain't you ashamed to say them words?" She did not answer, and
Tom Osby took the step for which he had been preparing throughout the
entire morning.

"Ma'am," said he, "one word from you would bring that feller to you on
the keen lope. He'd fix the railroad all right mighty soon. Then
besides--"

She turned away. "The question of the railroad is a business one, and
nothing else; talk to my father about it."

Tom went silently about his preparations for resuming the journey.
When he came to put the horses to the wagon tongue, he found Constance
sitting there, staring with misty eyes at the distant hills beyond
which lay Heart's Desire. Tom Osby paused at the shelter of the wagon
cover and backed away.

"Something has got to be did," he muttered to himself, "and did mighty
blame quick. If we don't get some kind of hobbles on that girl,
_she's_ goin' to jump the fence and go back home."

[Illustration: "'Something has got to be did, and did mighty blame
quick.'"]

CHAPTER XXIV

THE CONSPIRACY AT HEART'S DESIRE

_This being the Story of a Sheepherder, Two Warm Personal Friends, and
their Love-letter to a Beautiful Queen_

When Tom Osby came back to Heart's Desire, he drew Curly to one side,
and the two walked over to a shady spot at the side of Whiteman's
corral, seating themselves for what was evidently to be an executive
session.

Tom Osby continued to stuff tobacco into his pipe with a stubby
forefinger,