e for her comfort. All the men except Cleve paid
her some kind attention; and he, of course, neglected her because he was
afraid to go near her. Again she felt in Red Pearce a condemnation of
the bandit leader who was dragging a girl over hard trails, making her
sleep in the open, exposing her to danger and to men like himself and
Gulden. In his own estimate Pearce, like every one of his kind, was not
so slow as the others.

Joan watched and listened from her blankets, under a leafy tree, some
few yards from the camp-fire. Once Kells turned to see how far distant
she was, and then, lowering his voice, he told a story. The others
laughed. Pearce followed with another, and he, too, took care that Joan
could not hear. They grew closer for the mirth, and Smith, who evidently
was a jolly fellow, set them to roaring. Jim Cleve laughed with them.

"Say, Jim, you're getting over it," remarked Kells.

"Over what?"

Kells paused, rather embarrassed for a reply, as evidently in the humor
of the hour he had spoken a thought better left unsaid. But there was no
more forbidding atmosphere about Cleve. He appeared to have rounded to
good-fellowship after a moody and quarrelsome drinking spell.

"Why, over what drove you out here--and gave me a lucky chance at you,"
replied Kells, with a constrained laugh.

"Oh, you mean the girl?... Sure, I'm getting over that, except when I
drink."

"Tell us, Jim," said Kells, curiously.

"Aw, you'll give me the laugh!" retorted Cleve.

"No, we won't unless your story's funny."

"You can gamble it wasn't funny," put in Red Pearce.

They all coaxed him, yet none of them, except Kells, was particularly
curious; it was just that hour when men of their ilk were lazy and
comfortable and full fed and good-humored round the warm, blazing
camp-fire.

"All right," replied Cleve, and apparently, for all his complaisance, a
call upon memory had its pain. "I'm from Montana. Range-rider in winter
and in summer I prospected. Saved quite a little money, in spite of a
fling now and then at faro and whisky.... Yes, there was a girl, I guess
yes. She was pretty. I had a bad case over her. Not long ago I left all
I had--money and gold and things--in her keeping, and I went prospecting
again. We were to get married on my return. I stayed out six months, did
well, and got robbed of all my dust."

Cleve was telling this fabrication in a matter-of-fact way, growing a
little less frank as he proceeded, and h