n horseback and pack
our outfit. If any of you are alive after those trips and want more we
shall go up into the mountains. I should like very much to know what you
each want particularly."

"I'll tell you," replied Helen, promptly. "Dot will be the same out here
as she was in the East. She wants to look bashfully down at her hand--a
hand imprisoned in another, by the way--and listen to a man talk poetry
about her eyes. If cowboys don't make love that way Dot's visit will
be a failure. Now Elsie Beck wants solely to be revenged upon us for
dragging her out here. She wants some dreadful thing to happen to us. I
don't know what's in Edith's head, but it isn't fun. Bobby wants to be
near Elsie, and no more. Boyd wants what he has always wanted--the
only thing he ever wanted that he didn't get. Castleton has a horrible
bloodthirsty desire to kill something."

"I declare now, I want to ride and camp out, also," protested Castleton.

"As for myself," went on Helen, "I want--Oh, if I only knew what it is
that I want! Well, I know I want to be outdoors, to get into the open,
to feel sun and wind, to burn some color into my white face. I want some
flesh and blood and life. I am tired out. Beyond all that I don't know
very well. I'll try to keep Dot from attaching all the cowboys to her
train."

"What a diversity of wants!" said Madeline.

"Above all, Majesty, we want something to happen," concluded Helen, with
passionate finality.

"My dear sister, maybe you will have your wish fulfilled," replied
Madeline, soberly. "Edith, Helen has made me curious about your especial
yearning."

"Majesty, it is only that I wanted to be with you for a while," replied
this old friend.

There was in the wistful reply, accompanied by a dark and eloquent
glance of eyes, what told Madeline of Edith's understanding, of her
sympathy, and perhaps a betrayal of her own unquiet soul. It saddened
Madeline. How many women might there not be who had the longing to break
down the bars of their cage, but had not the spirit!

XIII. Cowboy Golf

In the whirl of the succeeding days it was a mooted question whether
Madeline's guests or her cowboys or herself got the keenest enjoyment
out of the flying time. Considering the sameness of the cowboys'
ordinary life, she was inclined to think they made the most of the
present. Stillwell and Stewart, however, had found the situation trying.
The work of the ranch had to go on, and some of it got sadly