hostelry, and Ninian Sharp slept dreamlessly till
joyous voices outside his window roused him to the fact that morning
and hunger had arrived together. Remembering, too, the long ride
that lay before him and the necessity of finding a horse for it, he rose
and hastily dressed. He had lost his neuralgic pains and his spirits
were again such as Jessica had always seen him show. She, too, was
up and waiting, and it looked as if her ovation had begun; for she was
already the center of an admiring group yet held closest to the side of
a big ranchman, grizzled and rugged, but beaming upon her and all the
rest like an incarnate joy.

"Samson, Samson, here he is! Mr. Sharp, dear Mr. Sharp, this is my
biggest 'boy'!"

"Huh! Glad to see you, little one. 'Looks like you'd be quite a man
when you get growed up,'" quoted the joker, giving Samson's hand a
cordial grasp.

"Come on! Come on! You're the lad for us! Well, sir, you do me proud.
You do Sobrante proud. You do all the world proud, and that's my
sentiment to a t-i-o-n, sir! Breakfast's ready."

"Oh, Mr. Ninian, he's brought--my mother has sent you the horse that
nobody else has ridden since my father did. Nimrod, the swiftest,
gentlest thoroughbred that anybody ever rode."

"Sent him for me? Why, how could she know that we were coming?"

"Why shouldn't she?" asked Samson. "Him and John Benton was over
yesterday, but to-day it was my turn. One of us has been every day
since the captain left Sobrante; and since the good news arrived there's
always been a led horse for you, sir. Would have been till the day
of judgment, too, if you hadn't struck us afore. Reckon you aren't
acquainted with our little settlement, sir."

"Reckon I wasn't, but I'm beginning to be. My! What a magnificent
animal. And it solves the difficulty of finding a mount out to the ranch.
I'm not much of a horseman, though. I don't know but I'd better stick
to Scruff and leave Nimrod to Lady Jess."

Samson wheeled around and eyed the stranger, curiously. Then he advanced
and held out his hand again.

"Shake, Sharp. You're a man, even if you do live in a city, and the
first one I ever met who hailed from such a place and didn't think he
knew it all. You'll do. And you can ride. A baby could, that creatur'.
If you can't stick I'll hold you on. Now, breakfast, I say."

This was Jessica's chance, and before they sat down to the bounteous
meal which Janet had been hours in preparing she managed to draw N