t. Don't you go up
against my daddy with any little bank-book. It's got to be a fat wad,
and, mind you, no cloves on your breath, either. He's crabbed on the
drink question; that's why he settled in Colorado Springs. No saloons
there, you know."

He considered a moment. "Much obliged. Now here's something for you.
You're not obliged to hand out soft words and a sweet smile to every
doggone Injun that happens to call for mail. Stop it. Why, you'll have
all the cow-punchers for fifty miles around calling for letters. That
bunch that was in here just now was from Steamboat Springs. Their mail
don't come here; it comes by way of Wyoming. They were runnin' a bluff.
It makes me hot to have such barefaced swindling going on. I won't stand
for it."

"Well, you see, I'm not really deputized to handle the mail, so I must
be careful not to make anybody mad--"

"Anybody but me. I don't count."

"Oh, _you_ wouldn't complain, I know that."

"I wouldn't, hey? Sure of that? Well, I'm going to start a petition to
have myself made postmaster--"

"Better get Uncle Dan out first," she answered, with a sly smile. "The
office won't hold you both."

* * * * *

At the end of a week the old postmaster was able to hobble to the window
and sort the mail, but the doctor would not consent to his cooking his
own meals.

"If you _can_ stay another week," he said to Lida, "I think you'd better
do it. He isn't really fit to live alone."

Thereupon she meekly submitted, and continued to keep house in the
little kitchen for herself, her uncle, and for Roy, who still came
regularly to her table, bringing more than his share of provisions,
however. She was a good deal puzzled by the change which had come over
him of late. He was less gay, less confident of manner, and he often
fell into fits of abstraction.

He was, in fact, under conviction of sin, and felt the need of
confessing to Lida his share in the zealous assault of the cowboys that
night. "It's sure to leak out," he decided, "and I'd better be the first
to break the news." But each day found it harder to begin, and only the
announcement of her intended departure one morning brought him to the
hazard. He was beginning to feel less secure of her, and less
indifferent to the gibes of the town jokers, who found in his
enslavement much material for caustic remark. They called him the "tired
cowboy" and the "trusty."

They were all sitting at supper in the