that before!"

"So you did," he returned, unruffled. "When is he coming out here?"

"In a month--a month from to-day." She regarded him with a sudden, new
interest. "You are betraying a great deal of curiosity," she accused.
"Why?"

"Why," he answered slowly, "I reckon that isn't odd, is it? He's going to
be my neighbor, isn't he?"

"Oh!" she said with emphasis of mockery which equalled his. "And you are
gossiping about your neighbor even before he comes."

"Like a woman," he said with a smile.

"An impertinent one," she retorted.

"Your father," he said in accents of sarcasm, ignoring the jibe, "seems to
think a heap of you--sending you all the way out here alone."

"I came against his wish; he wanted me to wait and come with him."

Her defense of her parent seemed to amuse him. He smiled mysteriously.
"Then he likes you?"

"Is that strange? He hasn't any one else--no relative. I am the only
one."

"You're the only one." He repeated her words slowly, regarding her
narrowly. "And he likes you. I reckon he'd be hurt quite a little if you
had fallen in with the sort of man I was going to tell you about."

"Naturally." Sheila was tapping with her booted foot on his shadow on the
floor and did not look at him.

"It's a curious thing," he said slowly, after an interval, "that a man who
has got a treasure grows careless of it in time. It's natural, too. But I
reckon fate has something to do with it. Ten chances to one if nothing
happens to you your father will consider himself lucky. But suppose you
had happened to fall in with a different man than me--we'll say, for
instance, a man who had a grudge against your father--and that man didn't
have that uncommon quality called 'mercy.' What then? Ten chances to one
your father would say it was fate that had led you to him."

"I think," she said scornfully, "that you are talking silly! In the first
place, I don't believe my father thinks that I am a treasure, though he
likes me very much. In the second place, if he does think that I am a
treasure, he is very much mistaken, for I am not--I am a woman and quite
able to take care of myself. You have exhibited a wonderful curiosity over
my father and me, and though it has all been mystifying and entertaining,
I don't purpose to talk to you all night."

"I didn't waken you," he mocked.

Sheila swung around on the bunk, her back to him. "You are keeping me
awake," she retorted.

"Well, good night then," he laughed,