emory--the sting and the sorrow of them removed. So
does the heart of youth respond to the nearness of romance.

They had been talking for half an hour when Barbara remembered that
Haydon had not expressed a desire to meet Harlan.

Haydon's face lost a little of its color as he replied to her suggestion
that they find the man.

But he laughed, rather mirthlessly, she thought.

"I intend to see him, Barbara--but alone. There are several things of
importance that I want to say to him--chiefly concerning his conduct
toward you."

He got up. Barbara rose also, and walked with him, outside the gate,
where he got on his horse, smiling down at her.

"Harlan was right about your riding out alone. I'd stay as close to the
ranchhouse as possible. There's no telling what Deveny might try to do.
But don't worry. If it wasn't so soon after--after what has happened--I
would--" He smiled, and Barbara knew he meant what he had said to her
many times--about there being a parson in Lazette, a hundred miles or so
northeastward--and of his eagerness to be present with her while the
parson "tied the knot." His manner had always been jocose, and yet she
knew of the earnestness behind it.

Still, she had not yielded to his importunities, because she had not been
quite sure that she wanted him. Nor was she certain now, though she liked
him better at this moment than she had ever liked him before.

She shook her head negatively, answering his smile; and watched him as he
rode around a corner of the ranchhouse toward the corral where, no doubt,
he would find Harlan.

* * * * *

Harlan had ridden directly to the bunkhouse door and dismounted. Red
Linton said nothing until Harlan seated himself on a bench just outside
the bunkhouse door. Then Linton grinned at him.

"There's a geezer come a-wooin'," he said.

Harlan glared at the red-haired man--a truculent, savage glare that made
Linton stretch his lips until the corners threatened to retreat to his
ears. Then Linton assumed a deprecatory manner.

"They ain't no chance for _him_, I reckon. He's been burnin' up the
breeze between here an' the Star for more'n a year--an' she ain't as much
as kissed him, I'd swear!"

Harlan did not answer.

"You saw him?" questioned Linton.

"Shut your rank mouth."

Linton chuckled. "I didn't know you'd been hit that bad. Howsomever, if
you _have_ been, why, there's no sense of me wastin' time gassin'