lay the horses were dismissed with an
excellent start. Bijou jumped immediately to the front, and Nal threw
his hat high into the air.

"Ain't she a cyclone?" he shouted, standing upon the wagon seat and
waving his stop-watch.

"Look at her, I say, look at her!"

The people in his vicinity stared, smiled, and finally cheered. Most
of them knew Nal and liked him well.

"Yer mare is winnin'," yelled a granger.

"You bet she is," retorted Mr. Roberts. "See her! Ain't she takin' the
kinks out of her speed? Ain't that a clip? Sit still, ye fool," he
cried lustily, apostrophising the boy who was riding; "if ye git a
move on ye I'll kill ye. Oh, my lord! if she ain't a-goin' to distance
them! Yes, sir, she's a shuttin' 'em out. Damn it--I ain't a swearin',
Mis' Root--damn it, I say, _she's a shuttin' 'em out!_ She's done
it!! The race is won!!!"

He jumped from the wagon and plunged into the crowd, which
respectfully made way for him.

* * * * *

"I've somethin' to tell ye, Mandy," said Mr. Roberts, some ten months
later. I feel kind o' mean, too. But I done it for you; for love o'
you, Mandy."

"Yes, Nal; what is it?"

They had been married a fortnight.

"Ye remember when the old man had the fit in the timer's box? Well,
that knocked me galley-west. I felt a reg'ler murderer. But when he'd
braced up, an began makin' himself hateful over our weddin', I felt
glad that I'd done what I done."

"And what had you done, Nal, dear?"

"Hold on, Mandy, I'm tellin' this. Ye see, he promised to sell ye to
me for two thousand dollars cash. But when I tendered him the coin, he
went back on me. He was the meanest, the ornariest----"

"Hush, Nal, he's dead now."

"You bet he is, or we wouldn't be sittin' here."

They were comfortably installed upon the porch of the old adobe. A
smell of paint tainted the air, and some shavings and odds and ends of
lumber betrayed a recent visit from the carpenter. The house, in
short, had been placed in thorough repair. A young woman with fifty
thousand dollars in her own right can afford to spend a little money
upon her home.

"He wouldn't take the coin," continued Nal, "he said I'd robbed him of
it, an' so I had."

"Oh, Nal!"

"It was this way, Mandy. Ye remember the trial, an' how you give the
snap away. Well I studied over it, an' finally I concluded to jest dig
up the half-mile post, an' put it one hundred feet nearer home. I took
considerable chances