are him! It was out of the question; she must find some other
way. She thought and thought, till for very weariness she closed her
eyes, and slept with her head against the door-post. The long level
beams of the setting sun made a golden glory of her hair and seemed to
be striving to smooth out the look of care and pain, which was already
marked on the fair young face. Ben Fisher passed and paused.

"Pretty, ain't she?" said the old woman; "a dainty mossel for any man."

"Ay," said Fisher quietly, "ay," and passed on, wondering to himself, as
many another man has done before him--why this girl was so priceless in
his eyes--and why, seeing that she was so, he might not have her rather
than this reckless outlaw, who would make her the toy of his idle hours,
and when she became a burden to him throw her aside, like a worn-out
horse or a dog he had no further use for.

He bit his lip and clenched his hands, and the men when he gave the
orders for the night, muttered to one another that the boss meant
business an' no mistake. "Ghost or no ghost. 'T wouldn't be much good
anybody meddlin' wi' the cattle now. He was mighty struck on the gal, he
was--but it didn't seem to be interfering wi' business nohow."

He was mighty struck on the girl, and his thoughts were so full of her
that sleep seemed out of the question, so he took the first watch with
Ned Kirton for his mate.

Out on the plains here, had they been quite certain of the honesty of
the Durhams, one man would have been quite sufficient to mount guard,
his duties being simply to ride round the cattle, and should any seem
restless or inclined to roam to head them back again. Even as it was,
two seemed an almost unnecessary waste of energy, more especially as
the other men were camped close by, ready to spring to their feet at a
moment's call.

It was a still, hot night; the moon, though not near full, still shed
a sufficient light to distinguish everything quite plainly; the men's
camp, the sleeping cattle, the hut and outbuildings a little to the
left, so calm and peaceful.

Fisher, as he sat on his motionless horse, began to think one guard
was more than enough, and to speculate as to whether he should not tell
Kirton to go to sleep and leave the cattle to him. Sleep was not likely
to come to him, he thought, with that haunting girl's face ever before
his eyes. He turned his horse so that he should not see the hut, and
then found himself riding round the camp, in