Cullen, we had 218 and 97 attached to
No. 1 when it arrived, and started for Ash Forks. He wanted to be
on the ground a day in advance, and I could easily be back in
Flagstaff before the arrival of the special agent.

I took dinner in 218, and they toasted me, as if I had done
something heroic instead of merely having sent a telegram. Later
four sat down to poker, while Miss Cullen, Fred, and I went out
and sat on the platform of the car while Madge played on her
guitar and sang to us. She had a very sweet voice, and before she
had been singing long we had the crew of a "dust express"--as we
jokingly call a gravel train--standing about, and they were
speedily reinforced by many cowboys, who deserted the medley of
cracked pianos or accordions of the Western saloons to listen to
her, and who, not being over-careful in the terms with which they
expressed their approval, finally by their riotous admiration
drove us inside. At Miss Cullen's suggestion we three had a
second game of poker, but with chips and not money. She was an
awfully reckless player, and the luck was dead in my favor, so
Madge kept borrowing my chips, till she was so deep in that we
both lost account. Finally, when we parted for the night she held
out her hand, and, in the prettiest of ways, said,--

"I am so deeply in your debt, Mr. Gordon, that I don't see how I
can ever repay you."

I tried to think of something worth saying, but the words
wouldn't come, and I could only shake her hand. But, duffer as I
was, the way she had said those words, and the double meaning she
had given them, would have made me the happiest fellow alive if I
could only have forgotten the existence of Lord Ralles.

CHAPTER VIII

HOW DID THE SECRET LEAK OUT?

I made up for my three nights' lack of sleep by not waking the
next morning till after ten. When I went to 218, I found only the
_chef_, and he told me the party had gone for a ride. Since I
couldn't talk to Madge, I went to work at my desk, for I had been
rather neglecting my routine work. While I still wrote, I heard
horses' hoofs, and, looking up, saw the Cullens returning. I went
out on the platform to wish them good-morning, arriving just in
time to see Lord Ralles help Miss Cullen out of her saddle; and
the way he did it, and the way he continued to hold her hand
after she was down, while he said something to her, made me grit
my teeth and look the other way. None of the riders had seen me,
so I slippe