d admiration of herself. She was
quite satisfied, was Jolly Molly.

"Now, if we are to 'inspect' the 'Barracks,' isn't it time? So that we
can get back to the house by the time James Barlow is ready to see us. I
suppose the doctor won't keep him in bed all day; do you, Mrs. Ford?"
said Helena Montaigne.

She had already learned that the Gray Lady was bitterly opposed to
Leslie's plans for the future and wanted to put aside the unfortunate
subject of West Point. To her surprise, instead of lightening, the
lady's face grew still more troubled, as she turned to scan the
landscape behind her with a piercing gaze.

"That story was just rippin'! When I get to the Point the first place I
shall go to see will be that church! Hear me, Dorothy Doodles?" demanded
Leslie, catching her hand and swinging it lightly as he led her forward
into the first room Lemuel had opened. "Will you come over there and
bring me just another such a luncheon, girlie?"

"Well, yes. I don't like to promise things but I guess this is safe
enough. When you get there--_when you get there_--I'll come, and you
shall have the finest dinner Alfy and I can cook. We'll do it all by
ourselves--_when you get there to eat it_!"

"Oh! I'll be there, never fear. My! isn't this rippin'? How does the old
soldier make the men keep such order, I wonder! Lem Hunt must be as
great a martinet as he is talker. Look at him."

The ranchman was in his element. He had long before marshalled the
entire working force of San Leon into a "regiment." Any newcomer who
declined to join it was promptly "left out in the cold." The "soldiers"
were jolly company for themselves and none at all for any outsider who
refused to obey the unwritten laws which honest old Lem had laid down
for their benefit. "Captain Lem" was the neatest man of all, but he
required the rest to come as near his standard as the disadvantages of
previous bad training permitted.

Now, in imitation of that West Point discipline he admired, he had
pulled from his pocket a white linen handkerchief and was passing
it gently but firmly over the few simple furnishings of this first
apartment in the long row. It belonged to Silent Pete, just then engaged
breaking to harness a spirited colt, exercising it around and around the
smooth driveways of the "home piece." He was not so far away that he
could not perfectly see what was going on at the "Barracks," and even at
that distance his grizzled cheek flushed. He had ri