les of green timber, the miles, and miles, and miles of absolute
emptiness, the smell of the sage--yes, and the very rattle of this bumpy
old stage!"

Endicott laughed: "I believe you do love it----"

"Love it! Of course I love it! And so do you love it! And you were just
as crazy about coming as I was--only you wouldn't admit it. It's just as
Tex said that day way up on top of Antelope Butte. He was speaking of
you and he said: 'He'll go back East and the refinement will cover him
up again--and that's a damned shame. But he won't be just the same,
because the prejudice is gone. He's chewed the meat of the cow country
and found it good.' I've always remembered that, and it's true--you are
not just the same, dear," she reached over and took his hand in both of
hers. "And, oh, Win--I'm glad--glad!"

Endicott smiled as he raised the slim hand to his lips: "Considerable of
a philosopher--Tex. And cowboy par excellence. I hope we can find him.
If we buy the ranch I've been counting on him to manage it."

"We've got to find him! And dear Old Bat, too! And, Win, won't it be
just _grand_? We'll live out here in the summer and in the winter we'll
go to New York and Florida, and we'll never, never go back to old
Half-Way Between. The place fairly reeks of soap and whisky--and I don't
care if their old soap does float!"

Again, Endicott laughed: "I suppose it will do us lots of good. I'll
probably spend my days in the saddle and come home smelling of horses,
and covered with alkali dust."

"Horses smell better than gas, anyway, and alkali dust is cleaner than
coal-soot. Look, Win, quick! A family of Indians camped beside the
trail--see the scrawny, sneaky-looking dogs and the ponies with their
feet tied together, and the conical tepee. And, oh, on that red
blanket--the darlingest little brown papoose! I can hardly wait to get
into my riding clothes and gallop for miles! And, Win, dear, you've just
got to promise me that if we do buy the ranch, you'll never bring a
motor out here--not even a roadster--it would spoil everything!"

"Don't set your heart too strongly on buying that ranch," cautioned her
husband.

"But the man said he'd sell at a reasonable figure."

"Yes, but you must remember that a 'reasonable figure', when you're
talking about an outfit that runs ten thousand head of cattle mounts up
into big money. It all depends upon the terms."

"Well, if he wants to sell his old ranch, he'd be foolish to haggle over