he city, and that everything about it told
of great wealth.

The next day Fred and Terry accompanied Mr. Elon downtown to visit
certain friends, and the Creole gentleman soon learned that his guests
had many other friends there, too.

But for the fact that they were in a hurry to reach Crabtree, they would
have remained in the city as their guests for at least a week.

As it was, they spent another day there, and had a royal good time.

Then they took leave of their newfound friends, boarded the train for
Texas, and were soon whirling westward. It was a long ride from the
Crescent City to Crabtree, for that place was way down on the western
side of the State, and it was late in the night when they reached there;
in fact, long past midnight.

Fred had wired to the clerk of the hotel for him to reserve comfortable
quarters for them, and when he arrived he found that the best rooms in
the house had been assigned to them.

When they appeared in the breakfast room the next morning at quite a
late hour for that meal, all the ladies stopping at the hotel were on
the lookout for them. Those of them who knew Evelyn rushed into her
arms.

"Great Scott, Fred!" said Terry. "Here we are with our arms ready to
receive them, and not one will even put up a pucker at us."

"Well, what show can we expect to get with such a rival as Evelyn?"

Many of the ladies had already had their breakfast, but they went in and
sat with Evelyn, and their tongues rattled like those of so many
magpies.

Of course, they all shook hands with Fred and Terry, and talked freely
with them. They wanted to know when Miss Hamilton was going to come
down.

"Oh, she'll come down some time," laughed Evelyn, "probably on her
bridal tour."

"Oh, she wouldn't come down as you did, eh?"

"No, we begged hard for her to do so, but she wouldn't. Brother will
have to go up some time and bring her down. Then, too, we will have two
brides down at the ranch, for young Mr. Cameron has a sweetheart up in
New York, and she is waiting for him to build and furnish a big house,
for her."

"Well," said one of the ladies, "work on that house is going on fast;
but, look here, Miss Olcott, are you going to stay down there on that
ranch, or are you going to stop here at the hotel?"

"Oh, she'll do both," put in Fred. "She is very fond of the actual life
of a ranch. She often came down to our ranch in Colorado with four or
five other girls, and she delighted in nothing