er eyes that
made Linton gulp with jealous thoughts that came to him.

"He don't deserve it, the durned scalawag!"

"Deserve what?" questioned Barbara.

"You," muttered Linton, with an embarrassed grin. "Shucks, I wasn't
thinkin' I was talkin' out loud. I'm sure gettin' locoed."

"Who doesn't deserve me?" asked Barbara.

"Harlan!" declared Linton, with a subtle glance at the girl. "He ain't in
no ways fit to be thinkin' serious thoughts about a girl like you."

"Has he been thinking serious thoughts?" Her eyes dropped from Linton's
and the latter grinned widely.

"Thinkin' them! He's been talkin' them. Talked them all the time him an'
me was stretched out in the big room, gettin' over our scratches. That
man is plumb locoed. I couldn't get him to talk nothin' else. When I told
him about the governor sendin' him congratulations, an' offerin' to do
somethin' handsome for him, he says: 'You say she ain't worryin' none
about things? Red, do you think she'd hook up with a guy like me--that's
got a bad reputation?'"

Linton shot a side glance at Barbara and saw a flush steal into her
cheeks. He concealed a broad grin with the palm of his hand and then
said, gruffly:

"I answers him as such a impertinent question ought to be answered. Says
I--'Harlan, you're a damned fool!'--askin' your pardon, ma'am. A girl
like Barbara Morgan ain't goin' to throw herself away on a no-good
outlaw. Not none! Why, ma'am, he's an outlaw at heart as well as by
reputation. He's clean bad--there ain't a bit of good in him. Didn't he
go to Haydon deliberate? An' didn't he keep you in suspense about what
was goin' on--not tellin' you anything until he had to? Shucks!"

"But there was a method in that, Linton," said Barbara; "he told me he
was afraid I'd unconsciously betray him, and then he could not have done
what he did."

Linton grinned again--again concealing the grin.

"You don't mean to say that you believe the cuss done the best he could?"

"I think I do, Linton."

"Shucks. Women is odd that way, ain't they? You ain't tellin' me that you
think he's on the level--that his reputation ain't as bad as some folks
make believe it is, an' that he's _square_?"

"I believe he's square, Linton!" the girl answered, firmly.

Linton was silent for an instant, during which he stood on one foot,
looking westward where the sun was swimming low above the big valley.

"Ma'am," he said lowly, breaking the silence: "I'm damned if I ain't
begi