us out here.

I started out from Ida Mary's. Out across the plain I turned and looked
back. She was still standing in the doorway, shading her eyes so as to
see me longer. We waved and waved, and I left her watching as the
distance swallowed me up.

* * * * *

At the shack I found Judge Bartine waiting for me. He observed the
traces of tears on my cheeks, but made no comment on them.

"You know," he said, "I'm glad you and your sister stuck through all
this."

I hesitated, on the verge of telling him how near I had come to giving
up and starting a back-trek.

"When the cattle-rustling gang I convicted burned the courthouse and my
office over my head," he went on after a little pause, "I made a narrow
escape. I didn't have a penny in the world left with which to fight, and
I knew perfectly well that I was in danger of being shot down every time
I went out of the door.

"But I had to stay. Men could go through Hades out here for years to get
a foothold and raise a herd of cattle and wake up one morning to find it
gone. Something had to be done with those cattle thieves."

"It seems to me," I told him, "the stockmen should have paid you awfully
well."

"I got my pay," he said quietly, "just as you have done; I got my pay in
the doing. So, Edith, I am glad you girls did not run away. I didn't
come before because I didn't want to influence you. I wanted to see you
do it alone."

When he had gone, I closed the door of the shack behind me. A man was
riding up the trail to meet me, bringing two messages. One from the
House of Representatives in Washington was signed F. W. Mondell. "I am
delighted," it read, "to know of your faith and confidence in the
country farther west, particularly the region to which you are going. I
trust the settlers whom you are instrumental in bringing into the
country will be successful, and I have no doubt that they will, if they
are the right sort. I wish you Godspeed and success." The other letter
was from Mr. West, who was awaiting me on the road to Wyoming with a
group of landseekers.

On top of the ridge I stopped and gazed at the cabin with no sign of
life around it, took my last look at the Land of the Burnt Thigh. A
wilderness I had found it, a thriving community I left it. But the sun
was getting low and I had new trails to break.

I gave Lakota the rein.

+------------------------------------------------+
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