eal for
mercy had its effect, for the tendrils yielded graciously to coaxing. He
would have given a year of his life to kiss one of those curls; a
comparatively worthless year it would be, since, in all probability, it
would be empty of Angela May! Yet no--now that he had touched her like
this, now that he had come so near to her, he felt with all his soul that
he could never let her go. He would have to keep her somehow.

"She may think there's a dead line between us," he told himself; "but
before we leave the Yosemite Valley together I'm going to do my best to
cross that line, if I get shot for my cheek. It's better to dare the dash
and die, than not to dare, and lose her."

Never, perhaps, was so desperate a resolve cemented while fastening a
woman's blouse; but there was a hint of triumph in Nick's voice as he
announced, "I've done it!" His signal success in two operations of extreme
difficulty seemed to him like two separate good omens.

Angela lightly thanked her knight for his services and bade him wait on
the veranda while she put on her jacket and hat. A minute later she came
out again, ready for breakfast; and now, having a mind released from
buttons, she saw that Nick was good to look upon in his khaki
riding-clothes.

"Am I all right?" she inquired modestly.

"Better than all right," he allowed himself to answer.

"I do think this hat of Hawaiian straw is a success. And you--well, I'm
rather proud of my trail guide. Used you to dress like that in your cowboy
days?"

Nick laughed. "Great Scot, no! I'd have been in rags in no time. Didn't
you ever see a cowpuncher's 'shaps'?"

"No; I don't even know what they are. Have you kept your cowboy things?"

"Oh, yes. They're knocking around somewhere. I have to put them on once in
a while."

"If I accept your invitation to come and see your place, will you 'dress
up' in them?"

"Of course, if it'd please you. But I'd feel a fool rigging myself out
just to show off, like an actor."

"Yet, that's the bribe you'll have to offer if you want me to pay you a
visit."

"It's settled then. I hope the moths haven't got my 'shaps' since I had
'em on last."

They both laughed and went to breakfast. What a good world it was! Angela
told Nick the tale of the mysterious apparition of a beauteous "nighty,"
and wondered how she could ever have felt unhappy, or depressingly grown
up.

The others who were going to Mirror Lake were almost ready to start, and
the "buc