f these crazy cowboys who blows in all his
wad on faro and drink--not on your life! I've got some ready chink
stacked away in a Claywall bank. Want to see my bank-book?"

She answered, curtly: "Please take that kettle of slop out and empty it.
And what time did you say the express was due?"

Roy was absorbed, ecstatic. He virtually forgot all the rest of the
world. His herders could ride to the north pole, his pony might starve,
the Cannonball Express go over the cliff, the postmaster die, so long as
he was left in service to this princess.

"Lord A'mighty! wasn't I in luck?" he repeated to himself. "Suppose I'd
'a' roped _her_ instead of the old man!"

When he returned from listening for the train he found her washing her
hands at the end of her task, and the room in such order as it had never
known before. The sight of her standing there, flushed and very womanly,
rolling down her sleeves, was more than the young fellow could silently
observe.

"I hope the old man'll be a long time getting well," he said, abruptly.

"That's a nice thing to say! What do you mean by such a cruel wish?"

"I see my finish when you go away. No more lonely ranch-life for me."

"If you start in on that talk again I will not speak to you," she
declared, and she meant it.

"All right, I'll shut up; but I want to tell you I'm a trailer for
keeps, and you can't lose me, no matter where you go. From this time on
I forget everything in the world but you."

With a look of resolute reproof she rose and joined Mrs. James in the
inner room, leaving Roy cowed and a good deal alarmed.

"I reckon I'm a little _too_ swift," he admitted; "but, oh, my soul!
she's a peach!"

When the train whistled, Lida came out again. "Will you please go to
meet the doctor?" she asked, with no trace of resentment in her manner.

"Sure thing; I was just about starting," he replied, instantly.

While he was gone she asked Mrs. James if she knew the young man, and
was much pleased to find that the sharp-tongued landlady had only good
words to say of Roy Pierce.

"He's no ordinary cowboy," she explained. "If he makes up to you you
needn't shy."

"Who said he was making up to me? I never saw him before."

"I want to know! Well, anybody could see with half an eye that he was
naturally rustlin' round you. _I_ thought you'd known each other for
years."

This brought tears of mortification to the girl's eyes. "I didn't mean
to be taken that way. Of course I co