inging her foot occasionally
with the sheer active joy of life, the while she munched sandwiches and
pickles. The young men bantered her and each other, and she flashed back
retorts which gave them alternately deep delight at the discomfiture of
some other. Toward the close of luncheon, she turned her tilted chin from
Flatray, as punishment for some audacity of his, and beamed upon the
railroad magnate.

"It's very good of you to notice me at last," he said, with his dry
smile.

"I was afraid of you," she confided cheerfully.

"Am I so awesome?"

"It's your reputation, you know. You're quite a dragon. I'm told you
gobble a new railroad every morning for breakfast."

"'Lissie," her father warned.

"Let her alone," the great man laughed. "Miss Lee is going to give me the
privilege of hearing the truth about myself."

"But I'm asking. I don't know what the truth is," she protested.

"Well, what you think is the truth."

"It doesn't matter what we think about you. The important thing to know is
what you think about us."

"Am I to tell you what I think of you--with all these young men here?" he
countered.

She was excited by her own impudence. The pink had spilled over her creamy
cheeks. She flashed a look of pretended disdain at her young men.
Nevertheless, she made laughing protest.

"It's not me, but Mesa, that counts," she answered ungrammatically. "Tell
me that you're going to help us set orchards blossoming in these deserts,
and we'll all love you."

"You offer an inducement, Miss Lee. Come--let us walk up to the Point and
see this wonderful country of yours."

She clapped her hands. "Oh, let's! I'm tired of boys, anyhow. They know
nothing but nonsense." She made a laughing moue at Flatray, and turned to
join the railroad builder.

The young sheriff arose and trailed to his pony. "My marching orders, I
reckon."

They walked up the hill together, the great man and the untutored girl. He
still carried himself with the lightness of the spare, wiry man who has
never felt his age. As for her, she moved as one on springs, her slender,
willowy figure beautiful in motion.

"You're loyal to Mesa. Born and brought up there?" West asked Melissy.

"No. I was brought up on the Bar Double G ranch. Father sold it not long
since. We're interested in the Monte Cristo mine, and it has done so well
that we moved to town," she explained.

At the first bend in the mountain road Jack had turned in his saddle to
loo