eply. I wish I could advise you to stay, but
this is a rough town for a girl like you. Why don't you talk the problem
over with the Supervisor?" His voice became firmer. "Mrs. Redfield is the
very one to help you."

"Where does she live?"

"Their ranch lies just above Sulphur, at the mouth of the Canon. May I
tell him what you've told me? He's a good sort, is Redfield--much better
able to advise than I am."

Cavanagh found himself enjoying the confidence of this girl so strangely
thrown into his care, and the curious comment of the people in the street
did not disturb him, except as it bore upon his companion's position in
the town.

At the door of the hotel some half-a-dozen men were clustered. As the
young couple approached they gave way, but a short, powerful man, whom Lee
Virginia recognized as Gregg the sheepman, called to the ranger:

"I want to see you before you leave town, Mr. Ranger."

"Very well. I shall be here all the forenoon," answered Cavanagh, in the
tone of a man accepting a challenge; then, turning to the girl, he said,
earnestly: "I want to help you. I shall be here for lunch, and meanwhile I
wish you would take Redfield into your confidence. He's a wise old boy,
and everybody knows him. No one doubts his motives; besides, he has a
family, and is rich and unhurried. Would you like me to talk with him?"

"If you will. I want to do right--indeed I do."

"I'm sure of that," he said, with eyes upon her flushed and quivering
face. "There's a way out, believe me."

They parted on the little porch of the hotel, and her eyes followed his
upright figure till he entered one of the shops. He had precisely the look
and bearing of a young lieutenant in the regular army, and she wondered
what Gregg's demand meant. In his voice was both menace and contempt.

She returned to her own room, strangely heartened by her talk with the
ranger. "If I stay here another night this room must be cleaned," she
decided, and approached the bed as though it harbored venomous reptiles.
"This is one of the things that must be reformed," she decided, harking
back to the ranger's quiet remark.

She was still pondering ways and means of making the room habitable when
her mother came in.

"How'd you sleep last night?"

Lee Virginia could not bring herself to lie. "Not very well," she
admitted.

"Neither did I. Fact of the matter is your coming fairly upset me. I've
been kind o' used up for three months. I don't know what