get one after the wedding." Then he asked: "Is the
minister here yet?"

Polly laughingly replied: "You're feelin' pretty spry now, but you'll
be as meek as a baby calf in a little while. In this section a
bridegroom is treated worse than a tenderfoot."

Payson smiled. He knew he was in for a thorough hazing by the boys.
"That's all right. I'll get back at you some day--when you and Bud--"

Polly interrupted him with a remark about minding his own business.

Bud avoided entering into the conversation. He had walked toward the
door and was standing on the steps when he answered for Polly.

"Looks as if you're chances of gettin' even with us is a long way off,"
he said. Turning, he entered the house, to join the other guests who,
by the noise, were enjoying Allen's importations from Tucson to the
bottom of every glass.

Polly looked after Bud, smiling quizzically. "Bud's mighty hopeful,
ain't he? Ain't you happy?"

"You bet! Don't I look it?" cried Jack, rubbing his hands. "Never
thought I could be so happy. A fellow doesn't get married every day in
the week."

"Not unless he lives in Chicago; I hear it's the habit there," answered
Polly.

"The sweetest girl in the Territory--" began Jack.

"You bet she is," Polly broke in. "If you just want to keep her lovin'
and lovin' you--all you've got to do is to treat her white and play
square with her."

"Play square with her," thought Payson. Was he playing square with
her? He knew that he was not, but the chance of losing her was too
great for him to risk.

"For if you ain't on the level with Echo Allen, well--you might as well
crawl out of camp, that's the kind of girl she is," Polly exclaimed
loyally.

CHAPTER VII

Josephine Opens the Sluices

Entering the living-room, Bud found Echo surrounded by several girls
from Florence and the neighboring ranches, who were driving her almost
distracted with their admiring attentions, for she was greatly
disturbed about her lover's inexplicable absence. Had she been free
from the duties of hospitality, she would have leaped on her horse and
gone in search of him.

Echo's wedding-attire would seem as incongruous as Jack's to the eyes
of an Easterner, yet it was entirely suited to the circumstances, for
the couple intended, as soon as they were married, to ride to a little
hunting-cabin of Jack's in the Tortilla Mountains, where they would
spend their honeymoon.

She was dressed in an olive-green r