ll come."

"I always said you ought to have a telegraph line out here," Bill replied.
"Suppose that train should run off the track some day, what would they
do, hey?"

"Huh, that train never goes fast enough to run off of anything," retorted
the station agent. "She'd stop dead if she hit a coyote--by gosh! Here
she comes now! What do you think of that, eh? Half-an-hour ahead of time,
too! Must be trying to hit up a better average than she's had for the
last year. She's usually due three hours late," he added in bewilderment.
"She owes the world about a month--must have left the day before by
mistake."

"Johnny Sands says he raced her once for ten miles, and beat it a mile,"
replied Bill, crossing his legs and yawning. Then he began one of his
endless talks, and the agent hastily departed and left him to himself.

When the train finally stopped at its destination, after running past
the station and having to back to the platform, three women alighted and
looked around. Seeing the stage, they ordered their baggage transferred to
it and gave Bill a shock by their appearance.

"Is this the stage which runs to Ford's Station?" the eldest asked of Bill.

Bill fumbled at his sombrero and tore it from his head as he replied.

"Yes, sir, er--ma'am!" he said, confusedly. "Are you Sheriff's sister,
ma'am?"

"Yes," she answered. "Why do you ask? Has anything happened to him in this
awful country?" she asked in alarm.

"No, ma'am, not yet," responded Bill in confusion. "He just didn't expect
you 'til the next train, ma'am, that's all. He was going to meet you then."

"Now, _isn't_ that just like a man?" she asked her companions. "I
distinctly remember that I wrote him I would come on the twenty-fourth.
How stupid of him!"

"Yes, ma'am, you did," interposed Bill, eagerly. "But this is only the
twenty-first, ma'am."

She refused to notice the correction and waved her hand toward the coach.

"Get in, dears," she said. "I _do_ so hope it isn't dirty and
uncomfortable, and we have so far to go in it, too. Thirty miles--think
of it!"

Bill thought of it, but refrained from offering correction. If Shields
had said it was thirty miles when he knew it was eighty that was Shields'
affair, and he didn't care to have any unpleasantness. He had offered
correction about the date, and that was enough for him. Clambering down
heavily he opened the side door of the vehicle and then helped the
station agent put the trunks and valises