I'll close the door there so we won't wake him."

There were slow, soft steps, then the door softly closed. But the fact
scarcely made a perceptible difference in the sound of the voices
outside.

"Laddy and Jim are going to stay," went on Belding. "It'll be like the
old Panhandle days a little. I'm powerful glad to have the boys,
Nellie. You know I meant to sent to Casita to ask them. We'll see some
trouble before the revolution is ended. I think I'll make this young
man Gale an offer."

"He isn't a cowboy?" asked Mrs. Belding, quickly.

"No."

"Shore he'd make a darn good one," put in Laddy.

"What is he? Who is he? Where did he come from? Surely you must be--"

"Laddy swears he's all right," interrupted the husband. "That's enough
reference for me. Isn't it enough for you?"

"Humph! Laddy knows a lot about young men, now doesn't he, especially
strangers from the East?... Tom, you must be careful!"

"Wife, I'm only too glad to have a nervy young chap come along. What
sense is there in your objection, if Jim and Laddy stick up for him?"

"But, Tom--he'll fall in love with Nell!" protested Mrs. Belding.

"Well, wouldn't that be regular? Doesn't every man who comes along
fall in love with Nell? Hasn't it always happened? When she was a
schoolgirl in Kansas didn't it happen? Didn't she have a hundred
moon-eyed ninnies after her in Texas? I've had some peace out here in
the desert, except when a Greaser or a prospector or a Yaqui would come
along. Then same old story--in love with Nell!"

"But, Tom, Nell might fall in love with this young man!" exclaimed the
wife, in distress.

"Laddy, Jim, didn't I tell you?" cried Belding. "I knew she'd say
that.... My dear wife, I would be simply overcome with joy if Nell did
fall in love once. Real good and hard! She's wilder than any antelope
out there on the desert. Nell's nearly twenty now, and so far as we
know she's never cared a rap for any fellow. And she's just as gay and
full of the devil as she was at fourteen. Nell's as good and lovable as
she is pretty, but I'm afraid she'll never grow into a woman while we
live out in this lonely land. And you've always hated towns where there
was a chance for the girl--just because you were afraid she'd fall in
love. You've always been strange, even silly, about that. I've done
my best for Nell--loved her as if she were my own daughter. I've
changed many business plans to suit your whims. There ar