initial commit of ebook 10374HEADmain

12 files changed, 47271 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/10374-0.txt b/10374-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..634bd93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/10374-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9113 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10374 ***
+
+THE RAMBLIN' KID
+
+
+BY EARL WAYLAND BOWMAN
+
+
+FRONTISPIECE BY W.H.D. KOERNER
+
+
+
+
+1920
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I A NIGHT LETTER
+
+II A BLUFF CALLED
+
+III WHICH ONE'S WHICH
+
+IV THE UNUSED PLATE
+
+V A DUEL OF ENDURANCE
+
+VI YOU'RE A BRUTE
+
+VII THE GREEDY SANDS
+
+VIII QUICK WITH A VENGEANCE
+
+IX OLD HECK'S STRATEGY
+
+X FIXING FIXERS
+
+XI A DANCE AND A RIDE
+
+XII YOU'LL GET YOUR WISH
+
+XIII THE ELITE AMUSEMENT PARLOR
+
+XIV THE GRAND PARADE
+
+XV MOCHA AND JAVA
+
+XVI THE SWEEPSTAKES
+
+XVII OLD HECK GOES TO TOWN
+
+XVIII A SHAME TO WASTE IT
+
+XIX THE GREEK GETS HIS
+
+XX MOSTLY SKINNY
+
+XXI A GIRL LIKE YOU
+
+
+
+
+THE RAMBLIN' KID
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+A NIGHT LETTER
+
+Sand and gravel slithered and slid under the heels of Old Pie Face as
+Skinny Rawlins whirled the broncho into the open space in front of the
+low-built, sprawling, adobe ranch house of the Quarter Circle KT and
+reined the pinto to a sudden stop. Skinny had been to Eagle Butte and
+with other things brought back the mail. It was hot, late June, the time
+between cutting the first crop of alfalfa and gathering, from the open
+range, the beef steers ready for the summer market. Regardless of the
+heat Skinny had ridden hard and his horse was a lather of sweat. A
+number of cowboys lounged, indolently, in the shade of the bunk-house,
+smoking cigarettes and contentedly enjoying the hour of rest after the
+noon-day dinner. Another, lean-built, slender, boyish in appearance and
+with strangely black, inscrutable eyes, stepped from around the corner
+of the house as Skinny jerked Old Pie Face to a standstill.
+
+"Where's Old Heck?" Skinny asked excitedly. "I brought the mail--here,
+take it to him!"
+
+The other, known on the Kiowa and the range of western Texas and Mexico
+only as "the Ramblin' Kid," strolled leisurely out through the sagging,
+weight-swung gate and up to the panting horse from which Skinny had not
+yet dismounted.
+
+"Asleep, I reckon," he replied in a voice peculiarly low and deliberate,
+"--what's your spontaneousness about? You act like a special d'livery or
+somethin'."
+
+"Old Heck's got a letter," Skinny said, jerkily; "maybe's it's bad news
+an' he ought to have it quick," as the Ramblin' Kid reached for a yellow
+envelope held in the outstretched hand.
+
+At that instant Old Heck, owner and boss of the Quarter Circle KT cow
+outfit, stepped from the shadow of the open ranch-house door. He was
+short and stocky, red-faced, somewhere near the fifties, and a
+yellowish-gray mustache hung over tobacco blackened lips. Overalls, a
+checked blue and white shirt, open at the throat, boots into which the
+trousers legs were loosely jammed comprised his attire. He was
+bareheaded and the sun glistened on a wrinkly forehead, topped by a thin
+sprinkling of hair.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked drowsily, his small, gray-blue eyes
+blinking in the yellow sun-glare and still sluggish from the nap
+disturbed by the noise of Skinny's arrival.
+
+"Nothin'. Skinny's just got a letter an' is excited about it," the
+Ramblin' Kid said, handing the envelope to him. "It's for you."
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck exclaimed, "it's a telegram!"
+
+The cowboys resting in the shade of the bunk-house rose to their feet,
+sauntered over and surrounded Old Heck and the Ramblin' Kid, commenting
+meanwhile, frankly and caustically, on the fagged condition of the
+broncho Skinny was on:
+
+"Must 'a' been scared, the way you run that horse," Parker, range
+foreman of the Quarter Circle KT, a heavy-built, sandy-complexioned man
+in the forties, remarked witheringly to Skinny as the cow-puncher
+climbed from the saddle and slid to the ground.
+
+"He's mine, I reckon," Skinny retorted, "an' I figure it's nobody's
+darn' business how I ride him--anyhow I brought Old Heck a telegram!" he
+added triumphantly.
+
+"Blamed if he didn't!" Charley Saunders, with a trifle of awe, pretended
+or real, in his tone, said. "It sure is!"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck repeated, slowly turning the envelope over in his
+hand, "it's a telegram! Wonder what it's about?"
+
+"Why don't you open it and see?" Parker suggested.
+
+"Yes, open th' blamed thing and find out," Skinny encouraged.
+
+"I--I've a notion to," Old Heck whispered.
+
+"Go on and do it, it won't take but a minute," Charley Saunders
+entreated.
+
+"Maybe he's one of these mind-readers and can read it through the
+envelope," Bert Lilly volunteered.
+
+"Aw, shut up and give him a chance!"
+
+Trembling, Old Heck tore open the envelope and silently read the
+message.
+
+"My Gawd!" he groaned again. "The worst has come to the worst!"
+
+"That ought to make it middlin' bad," Charley remarked soberly.
+
+"Ought to," Bert added sententiously.
+
+Parker crowded forward on sympathy bent.
+
+"Tell us what's in it," he said; "if it's sorrowful we'll be plumb glad
+to condole!"
+
+"It's worse than sorrowful--"
+
+"Melancholical?" Skinny inquired.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck said again, his weatherworn features working
+convulsively, "it's more than a mortal man can endure and stand!"
+
+"Bet somebody's dead!" Bert whispered to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Probably. Most everybody gets to be sooner or later," was the answer
+without emotion.
+
+Sing Pete, Chinese cook for the outfit, dish-rag over his shoulder,
+edged out of the kitchen door and shuffled around to the group.
+Glimpsing the yellow slip of paper held in the shaking hand of Old Heck
+and the awed interest of the cowboys gathered about the boss, he
+queried:
+
+"Teleglam?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Teleglam? Maybe alle samee somebody sickee?" he continued, cheerfully
+confident that questions enough would ultimately bring a reply. He was
+rewarded:
+
+"What do you know about 'teleglams'? You slant-eyed burner of
+beef-steaks!"
+
+"Who's it from?" Charley asked. "Anybody we know--"
+
+"My Gawd," Old Heck mourned once more, "she's comin'!"
+
+"Who's she?" Parker coaxed.
+
+"A female," Old Heck replied, "she's a female!"
+
+"The darned old cuss has had a wife sometime and run off from her and
+deserted her and she's pursuing him and trailing him down to earth!"
+Chuck Slithers, doubting Thomas of the outfit and student of Sherlock
+Holmes, cunningly suggested. "I always imagined he was a varmint with a
+past--a' ex-heart breaker of innocent women or a train-robber or--"
+
+"Aw, hell," the Ramblin' Kid rebuked, "him have a wife? Don't insult th'
+female population!"
+
+"_Carramba!_" exclaimed Pedro Valencia, Mexican line-rider for the
+Quarter Circle KT, "perhaps she will stick him with the dagger, or shoot
+him with the gun when she arrive! The ladies with love kill quick when
+the love is--what you call him?--the jilt?"
+
+"And I'd almost forgot I ever had one!" Old Heck continued talking as if
+to himself.
+
+"What'd I tell you?" Chuck exulted.
+
+"Shut up! He's confessin'--let him alone an' he'll get it out of his
+conscience sooner or later!"
+
+"Had a what?" Parker urged sympathetically. "Maybe you didn't have
+one--maybe you only imagined you did!"
+
+"Had a brother--anyhow a half a one--our mothers was the same but
+different fathers on account of mine dyin' when I was little and his
+marrying our mother again; we was playmates together in our innocent
+childhood and infancy until I run away and went to sea and finally
+anchored on the Kiowa and got to raisin' cattle--"
+
+"Where does he come in at?" Parker questioned.
+
+"He said it was a female, to start with," Skinny added.
+
+"--and his name is Simeon Dixon on account of his father's being the
+same thing, and he went in the street railroad business in a place named
+Hartville in Connecticut, and he got married and had a wife--she was
+Zithia Forbes, and she's dead, and I knowed that, and he's rich I reckon
+and--"
+
+"An' Amrak begat Meshak an' Meshak begat Zimri an' Zimri was th' founder
+of th' House of Old Heck," the Ramblin' Kid chanted. "What in thunder
+does details amount to, anyhow?"
+
+"But you was mournin' about a she!" Parker insisted.
+
+"Well, I reckon it ain't a wife--at least not the one I was thinking
+about," Chuck murmured disappointedly, "but I bet he's had one somewhere
+in his vari'gated career and is hiding out from her in fear an'
+tremblin'--"
+
+"And there will not be the grand, the beautiful murder?" Pedro sighed,
+questioningly.
+
+"Wait a minute," Skinny pleaded, "--give him air!"
+
+"--and he's got a female daughter--and I didn't know that--and he's--oh,
+Gawd!--he's sending her out to the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"How big is she?" Parker whispered.
+
+"She's--she's twenty-two--"
+
+"Inches around or what?" Charley gasped.
+
+"--and Ophelia is coming with her--Ophelia Cobb--C-o-double-b it is--is
+coming with her for a chaperon--"
+
+"Great guns!" Skinny breathed,"--two females!"
+
+"Hold still and I'll read it--no, you do it, Parker--I'm too full of
+emotion--my voice'd quiver--"
+
+Parker read:
+
+    "Josiah Heck, Eagle Butte, Texas:
+
+    "Am sending my daughter, Carolyn June, out to your ranch
+    for a while. She needs a change. She has broke all the
+    he-human hearts in Hartville--that is all of them old
+    enough or young enough to be broke--and is what's called
+    a love-stimulator and won't settle. She is twenty-two
+    and it's time she was calmed. Hoping six months on the
+    Kiowa range will gentle her quite a lot, I am
+    sympathetically your 1/2 brother, Simeon.
+
+    "P.S.--Mrs. Ophelia Cobb, a lady widow, is coming with
+    her for a chaperon. Beware of both of them. They will
+    arrive at Eagle Butte the 21st.--S."
+
+"Gee, it's a long one!" Chuck said admiringly.
+
+"It's one of these 'Night Letters,'" Parker explained.
+
+"I knowed it was bad news," Skinny exclaimed, "--poor old Heck!"
+
+"Better say, 'Poor we all!'" Bert declared. "Farewell peace and joy on
+the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"The Lord have mercy on Old Heck!" Charley cried with dramatic fervor.
+
+"Holy smoke," Parker murmured desperately, "_two of them on the
+twenty-first--and that's to-morrow!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+A BLUFF CALLED
+
+The Quarter Circle KT was a womanless ranch. Came now, like a bolt from
+the clear sky or the sudden clang of a fire-alarm bell, the threat of
+violation of this Eveless Eden by the intrusion of a pair of strange and
+unknown females. The arrival of the telegram telling of the coming of
+Carolyn June Dixon, Old Heck's niece, and Ophelia Cobb, her chaperon,
+filled with varying emotions the hearts of Old Heck, Parker and the
+cowboys.
+
+To Old Heck their presence meant nothing less than calamity. Long years
+of he-man association had made him dread the petty restraints he
+imagined would be imposed by intimate contact with womankind. Good lord,
+a man wouldn't be able even to cuss freely, and without embarrassment,
+with a couple of women in the house and prowling around the ranch!
+
+Skinny, Bert, Chuck, Pedro, Charley, the Ramblin' Kid, even the Chink
+cook and Parker, quivered with excitement and curiosity behind thinly
+veiled pretense of fear and horror. Secretly they rejoiced. It was
+marvelous news borne by the telegram Skinny brought. Here would be
+diversion ample, unusual, wholly worth while and filled with
+possibilities of romance as luring as the first glimpse of a strange new
+land shadowed with mystery and promise of thrilling adventure.
+
+Sing Pete paddled back to the unfinished business of the kitchen,
+chattering excitedly. The cowboys stood mutely and stared at Old Heck
+and the fatal slip of yellow paper.
+
+"What'll I do?" Old Heck asked the group despairingly. "They'll ruin
+everything."
+
+"Can't you head 'em off, somehow?" Parker suggested.
+
+"Can't be done. They're already on their way and probably somewhere this
+side of Kansas City by now."
+
+"Find out which train they're on and let the Ramblin' Kid and me cut
+across to the Purgatory River bridge and wreck it," Skinny Rawlins,
+always tragic, darkly advised.
+
+"I ain't particular about killin' females," the Ramblin' Kid objected,
+"besides, we ain't got no dynamite."
+
+"Send them a telegram and say Old Heck's dead and not to come," Bert
+Lilly volunteered.
+
+"Aw, you blamed idiot, they'd come anyhow then, just to attend the
+funeral--"
+
+"I got an idea," Chuck Slithers exclaimed; it's a telegram too. Send
+them one C.O.D. in care of the train that will get to Eagle Butte the
+twenty-first and tell them we've all got the smallpox and we're sorry
+but everybody's dangerously sick and to please answer!"
+
+"That might work," Parker said; "they'd be mighty near sure not to want
+to catch it."
+
+"We'll try it," Old Heck agreed. "Chuck wants to ride over to Eagle
+Butte anyway and he can have the depot agent send it and wait for a
+reply."
+
+"Go get your horse ready, Chuck," Parker said, "we'll write it while
+you're saddlin' up!"
+
+Chuck hurried to the corral while Old Heck went into the house for
+pencil and writing-paper. Parker and the cowboys moved in a group to the
+shade of the porch in front of the house.
+
+"What'll we tell them?" Old Heck asked, reappearing with writing
+materials. "Here, Parker, you write it."
+
+"Dear niece Carolyn June Dixon and Chaperon: Sorry, but there's an
+epidemic of smallpox at the Quarter Circle KT and you can't come. Chuck
+is dying with it. Old Heck's plumb prostrated, Bert is already broke
+out, Pedro is starting to and Skinny Rawlins and the Ramblin' Kid are
+just barely able to be up. I love you too much to want you to catch it.
+Please go back to Hartville and give my regards to your pa and don't
+expose yourself. Answer by return telegram so I'll know your intentions.
+Affectionately and absolutely your Uncle Josiah Heck," Parker read after
+writing a few moments. "How's that?"
+
+"Sounds all right."
+
+"Got it ready?" Chuck called from the fence, while Silver Tip, the
+trim-built half-blood Hambletonian colt he was riding, reared and
+pranced, eager for the road and a run.
+
+"For lord's sake hurry up, Chuck," Old Heck yelled as the Ramblin' Kid
+handed the paper to Chuck and the cowboy whirled his horse into a gallop
+toward Eagle Butte. "Have the agent send it in care of whatever train
+they might be on and get an answer, then come back as quick as possible
+--waiting is agony!"
+
+It was a long afternoon for Old Heck and the cowboys of the Quarter
+Circle KT. A band of colts were in the circular corral to be gentled to
+rope, saddle and hackamore. Old Heck sat on the top pole of the corral
+and moodily watched the struggle of the men and horses in the dry, dusty
+enclosure as one by one each young broncho was roped, saddled and
+ridden. Frequently he turned longing eyes toward Eagle Butte, anxious
+for sight of the cloud of dust from which Chuck would emerge bringing,
+he hoped, word that Carolyn June and Ophelia Cobb had heeded the
+misleading message.
+
+The sun crept across the western sky and dropped lower and lower until
+it hung at last, a blazing disk of fire, close above the highest peaks
+of the Costejo mountain range. The poplars in front of the house flung
+slim black shadows across the low adobe buildings and splashed the tip
+of their shade in the dust-cloud that filled with haze the corral a
+hundred yards away. Sing Pete stepped from the door and beat a tattoo on
+the iron triangle suspended by a piece of wire from the lowest branch of
+a mesquit tree at the corner of the house, announcing by the metallic
+clamor that the work of the day was finished and supper was ready and
+waiting. Parker swung back the heavy gate at the corral entrance and the
+dozen colts, sweat streaks on heads and backs and bellies where
+hackamore, saddle and cinches told of the lessons of the afternoon,
+pushing and jamming and with a clatter of hoofs, whirled out to freedom,
+around the stable and down a lane into an open meadow.
+
+Kicking off their chaps the cowboys tossed them on the riding gear,
+piled already against the fence of the corral, and straggled stiffly
+toward the house. On the wire enclosing the back yard Sing Pete had hung
+a couple of heavy towels, coarse and long. Some basins and several
+chunks of yellow laundry soap were on a bench beside an irrigation ditch
+that ran along the fence just inside the gate. Old Heck, Parker and the
+cowboys stopped at the ditch, pitched their hats on the grass and
+dipping water from the ditch scoured the dust and sweat from their faces
+and hands.
+
+All were silent as if each was troubled with thoughts too solemn to be
+spoken aloud.
+
+At last, Skinny, handing a towel to Bert after drying his own
+sun-tanned face and hands, remarked inanely:
+
+"Chuck ain't come, has he?"
+
+"Slupper!" Sing Pete called.
+
+They filed into the kitchen and each took his regular place at the long,
+oilcloth covered table. The food, wholesome, plain and abundant, was
+already served.
+
+Silently each heaped his plate with the viands before him while Sing
+Pete circled the table pouring coffee into the white porcelain cups. The
+Quarter Circle KT was famous for the excellence of its grub and the
+Chink was an expert cook.
+
+"Lordy, oh, lordy," Old Heck groaned, "it don't seem possible them women
+are coming!"
+
+"Maybe they won't," Parker sympathized. "When they get that telegram
+they ought to turn around and go back--"
+
+"Chuck's coming!" Bert Lilly exclaimed at that moment and the sound of a
+horse stopping suddenly at the front of the house reached the ears of
+the group at the table.
+
+"Go ask him if he got an answer, somebody, quick!" Old Heck cried.
+
+As Charley Saunders sprang to his feet Chuck yelled, "They got it and
+sent an answer! I got one--" and rushed excitedly through the house and
+into the kitchen waving an envelope, twin to the one Skinny had brought
+earlier in the day. "They're on Train Number Seventeen, the agent
+said--"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck gasped, "what does it say? Give it here!" reaching
+for the message the cowboy held in his hand.
+
+"Good lord, it didn't work!" he groaned as he read the telegram and
+handed it across the table to Parker.
+
+"Read it out loud," several spoke at once.
+
+"'We've both had it,'" Parker read, "'and are not afraid. Anyhow we
+think you are a darned old lovable liar. Will arrive according to
+schedule. If you are not a liar we'll nurse you back to health and
+happiness. If you are, watch out! Your affectionate but suspicious
+little niece Carolyn June Dixon. Postscript: Are there any nice wild,
+untamed, young cowboys out there?--Carolyn J.'"
+
+"Hell-fire!" Skinny said, "what'll we do?"
+
+No answer. Chuck went moodily out to attend to his horse, and the meal
+was finished in silence. Even Sing Pete seemed deeply depressed. After
+supper Old Heck straightened up and in a do-or-die tone said:
+
+"We'll all go out where it's cool and hold a caucus and figure what
+ought to be done."
+
+"There ain't nothing we can do but surrender, as far as I can see,"
+Parker observed gloomily as they gathered on the porch in front of the
+house. "They seem plumb determined to arrive--"
+
+"I've already give up hope," Old Heck answered, "but what will we do
+with them when they get here? We can't just brand 'em and turn them
+loose on the range."
+
+"I make a motion we elect Skinny to ride herd on 'em!" Bert Lilly
+suggested.
+
+"Damned if I do!" Skinny exclaimed uneasily.
+
+"It's a good idea," Parker said. "From all accounts the young one
+expects to be made love to and if she ain't she'll probably be weeping
+around all the time--"
+
+"Well, I can't stand sobbin'!" Old Heck declared. "Any female is hard
+enough to endure and one that gets to mourning is plumb distasteful!
+
+"That's probably the best thing to do," he continued, "just appoint
+Skinny to be official love-maker to Carolyn June while she's at the
+Quarter Circle KT. It will probably save confusion--"
+
+"I brought the telegram telling about them coming and I've done my
+share," Skinny protested; "somebody else can be delegated to do the
+love-making!"
+
+"That's just the reason it ought to be your job," Old Heck argued; "you
+went and got the telegram in the first place and are sort of responsible
+for them being here."
+
+"Aw, let th' Ramblin' Kid do it," Skinny pleaded, "he's an easy talker
+and everything--"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid straightened up and started for the gate.
+
+"Where you going?"
+
+"To catch Capt'n Jack," he drawled; "after that for a little ride down
+to th' Pecos or over in Chihuahua somewhere a couple hundred miles. I
+decline with enthusiasm to fall in love on th' spur of th' moment for
+any damned outfit!"
+
+"You come on back," Parker called, "Skinny'll have to do it. He can have
+all his time for it and just pretend he's in love and sort of entertain
+her. He don't need to go and do it in earnest. Come on back, you darned
+chump, I need you on the beef hunt!"
+
+"What'll I have to do?" Skinny asked cautiously.
+
+"Just set on the front porch with her at night and make your eyes roll
+up like a calf's that's being branded and kind of sigh heart-broken once
+in a while," Bert volunteered. "It'll be easy when you get used to it--"
+
+"If you know so much about it why don't you enlist yourself?" Skinny
+asked irritably. "Some of you fellows go on and volunteer," he pleaded
+dolefully.
+
+"I would in a minute," Chuck chipped in, "if I was good-looking like
+Skinny and had a white shirt--"
+
+"What's a white shirt got to do with it?"
+
+"Listen to the innocent child," Chuck laughed, "as if any darned fool
+didn't know that the first thing a professional love-maker has to have
+is a white shirt!"
+
+"That settles it," Skinny declared with emphasis, "I won't wear a white
+shirt to make love to no blamed woman--"
+
+"Chuck's locoed," the Ramblin' Kid interposed; "you don't need to have
+no white shirt--of course it would be better but it ain't downright
+necessary--women don't fall in love with shirts, it's what's inside of
+them."
+
+"Where did you find out so much about women?" Bert queried.
+
+"I didn't find out--I'm just guessin'--"
+
+"There ain't no use arguing," Old Heck broke in. "Skinny will have to be
+expert love-maker for that Carolyn June niece of mine--I'll allow him
+ten dollars a month more wages while he's doing it. I ain't going to
+have her writing letters to her pa and telling him she didn't have no
+conveniences or nothing. Anyhow, she's young and I reckon it's sort of
+necessary."
+
+"What about th' other one--Ophelia Cobb or whoever she is?" Bert Lilly
+asked.
+
+"She's past the age for it, probably," Parker said uneasily.
+
+"They don't pass it," the Ramblin' Kid interrupted laconically; "when
+females get too old to want to be made love to they die--"
+
+"I'd like to know where in hell a juvenile like you got your education
+about women!" Bert insisted to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"I ain't got none--I'm just guessing I told you," the other replied,
+"but it's the truth, anyhow."
+
+"Well, if I've got to make love to the young one Old Heck or Parker or
+somebody's got to do it for the other one," Skinny declared positively.
+
+"Ophelia don't need it," Old Heck said hastily, "she's a widow and has
+done been--"
+
+"Widows are th' worst," the Ramblin' Kid drawled; "they've had
+experience an' don't like to give it up."
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's right," Chuck broke in. "I read a book once that
+said that's the way they are. It's up to Old Heck or Parker to represent
+Cupid to the widow--"
+
+"Who the hell's Cupid?" Skinny asked curiously.
+
+"He's a dangerous little outlaw that ain't got no reg'lar range," the
+Ramblin' Kid answered for Chuck.
+
+"I'll not do it--" Old Heck and Parker spoke at once.
+
+"Then I won't either," Skinny declared flatly, "I'll quit the dog-goned
+Quarter Circle KT first!"
+
+"Let Sing Pete make love to the widow," Bert suggested.
+
+"No, no! Me busy cookee," Sing Pete, who had been listening from the
+open doorway, jabbered and darted, frightened, back into the house.
+
+"Anyhow I'd kill him if he did," the Ramblin' Kid said softly; "no
+darned Chink can make love to a white woman, old, young or indifferent,
+in my presence an' live!"
+
+"Well, Old Heck'll have to do it, then," Skinny said; "hanged if I'm
+going to be the only he-love-maker on this ranch!"
+
+"Let Parker and Old Heck divide up on Ophelia," Chuck advised, "one of
+them can love her one day and the other the next--"
+
+"That's reasonable," Bert declared, "she'd probably enjoy a change
+herself."
+
+"I tell you I ain't got time," Parker protested.
+
+"Neither have I," Old Heck added.
+
+"All right then, I ain't either!" Skinny declared. "If you two ain't
+willing to take turn about with the widow and love her off and on
+between you I'll be everlastingly hell-tooted if I'm going to stand for
+a whole one by myself all of the time! I'll go on strike first and start
+right now!"
+
+"We'll stay with you, Skinny," the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed with a laugh,
+"th' whole bunch will quit till Parker an' Old Heck grants our demands."
+
+"We'll all quit!" the cowboys chorused.
+
+"Oh, well, Parker," Old Heck grumbled, "I reckon we'll have to do it!"
+
+"It won't be hard work," the Ramblin' Kid said consolingly, "all you got
+to do is set still an' leave it to Ophelia. Widows are expert
+love-makers themselves an' know how to keep things goin'!"
+
+It was settled. Skinny Rawlins, at an increase of ten dollars a month on
+his wage, protestingly, was elected official love-maker to Carolyn June
+Dixon, Old Heck's niece, speeding unsuspectingly toward the Quarter
+Circle KT, and Old Heck and Parker between them were to divide the
+affections of Ophelia Cobb, widow and chaperon.
+
+In the mind of every cowboy on the ranch there was one thought
+unexpressed but very insistent that night, "Wonder what She looks like?"
+thinking, of course, of Carolyn June.
+
+Old Heck and Parker also were disturbed by a common worry. As each sank
+into fitful sleep, thinking of Ophelia Cobb, the widow, and his own
+predestinated affinity he murmured:
+
+"What if she insists on getting married?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+WHICH ONE'S WHICH
+
+Eagle Butte sprawled hot and thirsty under the melting sunshine of
+mid-forenoon. It was not a prepossessing town. All told, no more than
+two hundred buildings were within its corporate limits. A giant mound,
+capped by a crown of crumbling, weather-tinted rock, rose abruptly at
+the northern edge of the village and gave the place its name. Cimarron
+River, sluggish and yellow, bounded the town on the south. The dominant
+note of Eagle Butte was a pathetic mixture of regret for glories of
+other days and clumsy ambition to assume the ways of a city. Striving
+hard to be modern it succeeded only in being grotesque.
+
+The western plains are sprinkled with towns like that. Towns that once,
+in the time of the long-horn steer and the forty-four and the nerve to
+handle both, were frankly unconventional. Touched later by the black
+magic of development, bringing brick buildings, prohibition, picture
+shows, real-estate boosters, speculation and attendant evils or benefits
+as one chooses to classify them, they became neither elemental nor
+ethical--mere gawky mimics of both.
+
+When western Texas was cow-country and nothing else Eagle Butte at
+least was picturesque. Flickering lights, gay laughter--sometimes curses
+and the sounds of revolver shots, of battles fought close and quick and
+to a finish--wheezy music, click of ivory chips, the clink of glasses,
+from old Bonanza's and similar rendezvous of hilarity lured to the
+dance, faro, roulette, the poker table or the hardwood polished bar.
+
+The Mecca it was in those days for cowboys weary with months on the
+wide-flung range.
+
+To-day Eagle Butte is modest, mild and super-subdued.
+
+A garage, cement built, squatty and low and painfully new, its
+wide-mouthed entrance guarded by a gasoline pump freshly painted and
+exceedingly red, stands at the eastern end of the single, broad,
+un-paved business street. All of the stores face one way--north--and
+look sleepily across at the railroad track, the low-eaved, yellow, Santa
+Fe station and the sunburnt sides of the butte beyond. Opposite the
+station the old Occidental Hotel with its high porch, wide steps, narrow
+windows, dingy weather-board sides and blackened roof, still stands to
+remind old-timers of the days of long ago.
+
+A city marshal, Tom Poole, a long, slim, Sandy-mustached Missourian,
+completes the picture of Eagle Butte. Regularly he meets the arriving
+trains and by the glistening three-inch nickel star pinned to his left
+suspender announces to the traveling world that here, on the one time
+woolly Kiowa, law and order at last prevail. Odd times the marshal farms
+a ten-acre truck patch close to the river at the southern edge of the
+town. Pending the arrival of trains he divides his time between the
+front steps of the old hotel and the Elite Amusement Parlor, Eagle
+Butte's single den of iniquity where pocket pool, billiards,
+solo--devilish dissipations these!--along with root beer, ginger ale,
+nut sundaes, soda-pop, milk shakes and similar enticements are served to
+those, of reckless and untamed temperaments.
+
+From the open door of the pool hall the marshal saw a thin, black streak
+of smoke curling far out on the horizon--a dozen miles--northeast of
+Eagle Butte.
+
+"Seventeen's comin'," he remarked to the trio of idlers leaning against
+the side of the building; "guess I'd better go over an' see who's on
+her," moving as he spoke out into the sizzling glare of the almost
+deserted street. Glancing toward the east his eyes fastened on a cloud
+of dust whirling rapidly along the road that came from the direction of
+the lower Cimarron.
+
+"Gosh, lookey yonder," he muttered, "that must be Old Heck drivin' his
+new automobile--th' darn fool is goin' to bust something some day,
+runnin' that car the way he does!"
+
+Walking quickly, to escape the heat, he crossed the street to the
+station.
+
+Two minutes later the cloud of dust trailed a rakish, trim-lined,
+high-powered, purring Clagstone "Six" to a stop in front of the
+Occidental Hotel and Old Heck and Skinny Rawlins climbed glumly and
+stiffly from the front seat, after the thirty-minute, twenty-mile run
+from the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Old Heck had his peculiarities. One of them was insistence for the
+best--absolutely or nothing. The first pure-bred, hot-blood stallions
+turned on the Kiowa range carried the Quarter Circle KT brand on their
+left shoulders. He wanted quality in his stock and spent thousands of
+dollars importing bulls and stallions to get it. When the automobile
+came it was the same. No jit for the erratic owner of the last big
+genuine cow-ranch on the Cimarron. Consequently the beautiful car--a car
+fit for Fifth Avenue--standing now in front of the old hotel in Eagle
+Butte.
+
+The smoke on the northeastern sky-line was yet some miles away.
+
+The lanky marshal had reached the station.
+
+"It's a good thing there's prohibition in this town," Skinny muttered as
+he stepped from the car and started brushing the dust from his coat;
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause I'd go get drunk if there wasn't--. Wonder if a feller could get
+any boot-leg liquor?"
+
+"Better leave it alone," Old Heck warned, "that kind's worse than none.
+It don't make you drunk--just gives you the hysterical hydrophobia!'
+
+"Well, I'd drink anything in an emergency like this if I had it,"
+Skinny declared doggedly.
+
+"Train's comin'," Old Heck said shortly; "reckon we'd better go over to
+the depot--"
+
+"Let's wait here till they get off first," Skinny said. "We can see them
+from where we are and kind of size 'em up and it won't be so sudden."
+
+"Maybe that would be better," Old Heck answered.
+
+A moment later Number Seventeen, west-bound Santa Fe passenger train,
+stopped at the yellow station. The rear cars were obscured from the view
+of Skinny and Old Heck by freight sheds along the track. With the
+exception of the engine, baggage, mail and express cars, which were
+hidden by the depot, the rest of the train was in plain sight.
+
+A couple of men got off the day coach. These were followed by a gawky,
+weirdly dressed girl of uncertain age carrying an old-fashioned
+telescope traveling bag. At sight of the girl Skinny caught his breath
+with a gasp. Immediately following her was the tallest, homeliest woman
+he had ever seen. Thin to the point of emaciation, a wide striped,
+ill-fitting dress of some cheap material accentuated the angular lines
+of her body. A tiny narrow-brimmed hat, bright green, with a white
+feather, dingy and soiled, sticking straight up at the back made her
+more than ever a caricature. The woman also carried a bag. The two
+stepped up to the marshal, standing at the cornet: of the station,
+apparently asking him a question. He answered, pointing as he did to
+Old Heck and Skinny leaning silently against the side of their car. The
+woman and girl started toward them.
+
+Fascinated, the cow-men watched them approach.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck hoarsely whispered, "that's them!"
+
+"Let's go!" Skinny exclaimed, sweat starting in unheeded beads on his
+forehead. "Good lord, let's get in the car and go while we got a
+chance!"
+
+Old Heck made a move as if to comply, then stopped. "Can't now," he said
+gloomily, "it's too late!"
+
+As Old Heck turned the woman shrieked in a rasping voice:
+
+"Hey--hey you! Wait a minute!"
+
+The cow-men looked around and stared dumbly, dazedly, at her.
+
+"Can I get you to take me an' my daughter out to that construction camp
+where they're buildin' a ditch or something?" she asked; "that policeman
+said maybe we could get you to--" she continued. "I got a job cookin'
+out there an' Lize here is goin' to wait on table."
+
+Old Heck, still looking up in her eyes, with horror written on every
+line of his face, his lips twitching till he could scarcely speak,
+finally managed to say:
+
+"Ain't--ain't you Ophelia?"
+
+"Ophelia? Ophelia who?" she asked, then before he could speak she
+answered his question: "Ophelia--huh! No, I ain't Ophelia! I'm Missus
+Jasamine Swope an' a married woman an' you'd better not try to get fresh
+or--"
+
+Simultaneous with Old Heck's question, Skinny, his eyes riveted on the
+dowdy girl, asked in a voice barely audible:
+
+"Are you--are you Carolyn June?"
+
+"No, I ain't Carolyn June," she snorted. "Come on, ma; let's go! Them
+two's crazy or white slavers or somethin'!"
+
+Expressing their scorn and disdain by the angry flirt of their skirts,
+the woman and girl whirled and walked briskly away toward the garage at
+the end of the street.
+
+"Praise th' heavens," Old Heck breathed fervently as he gazed
+spell-bound after the retreating pair, "it wasn't them!"
+
+"Carolyn June and the widow probably went back after all," Skinny said
+without, looking around and with the barest trace of disappointment, now
+that the danger seemed past, in his voice. "Maybe they got to thinking
+about that telegram and decided not to come at last."
+
+"More than likely that was it," Old Heck answered.
+
+Steps sounded behind them. Skinny and Old Heck turned and again they
+almost fainted at what they saw. The marshal, a leather traveling bag
+in each hand, accompanied by two smartly dressed women, approached.
+
+"These ladies are huntin' for you," he said to Old Heck, dropping the
+bags and mopping his face with the sleeve of his shirt. "Guess they're
+some kind of kin folks," he added.
+
+Concealed by the freight sheds Carolyn June Dixon and Ophelia Cobb had
+stepped from the Pullman at the rear of the train, unseen by Old Heck
+and Skinny. Nor had either noticed, being engrossed with the couple that
+had left than a moment before, the trio coming across from the station.
+
+As the cook and her daughter by their very homeliness had appalled and
+overwhelmed them, these two, Ophelia and Carolyn June, by their exactly
+opposite appearance stunned Old Heck and Skinny and rendered them
+speechless with embarrassment. Both were silently thankful they had
+shaved that morning and Skinny wondered if his face, like Old Heck's,
+was streaked with sweat and dust.
+
+For a moment the group studied one another.
+
+Carolyn June held the eyes of Skinny in mute and helpless admiration.
+Despite the heat of the blazing sun she looked fresh and dean and
+pleasant--wholly unsoiled by the marks of travel. A snow-white Panama
+hat, the brim sensibly wide, drooped over cheeks that were touched with
+a splash of tan that suggested much time in the open. An abundance of
+hair, wonderfully soft and brown, showing the slightest glint of coppery
+red running it in vagrant strands, fluffed from under the hat. The
+skirt of her traveling suit, some light substantial material, reached
+the span of a hand above the ankle. White shoes, silk stockings that
+matched and through which glowed the faint pink of firm, healthy, young
+flesh, lent charm to the costume she wore. Her lips were red and moist
+and parted over teeth that were strong and white. A saucy upward tilt to
+the nose, hinting that Carolyn June was a flirt; brown eyes that were
+level almost with Skinny's and that held in them a laugh and yet deep
+below the mirth something thoughtful, honest and unafraid, finished the
+wreck of the cowboy's susceptible heart. Trim and smooth was Carolyn
+June, suggesting to Skinny Rawlins a clean-bred filly of saddle strain
+that has developed true to form.
+
+Old Heck gazed in equal awe at the more mature Ophelia.
+
+Somewhere near forty she may have been, cozily plump and solid. She had
+gray-blue eyes that were steady and frank yet clearly accustomed to
+being obeyed. Her hair was a trifle darker in shade than the silky brown
+on the head of Carolyn June. She was dressed with immaculate neatness
+and taste and carried that well-preserved assurance no woman in the
+world save the American of mature development acquires.
+
+There was energy in every line of her body and Ophelia gave Old Heck,
+the embarrassed owner of the Quarter Circle KT, more thrills in that one
+moment of silent scrutiny than he ever before had felt in the presence
+of any woman.
+
+As they looked, Skinny and Old Heck instinctively, a bit awkwardly
+perhaps, removed the Stetsons they wore on their heads.
+
+"Howdy-do!" Old Heck finally managed to say.
+
+Skinny gulped like an echo, another "Howdy-do!" in the direction of
+Carolyn June.
+
+"I reckon you are Carolyn June and Missus Ophelia Cobb," Old Heck
+stammered "Which one of you is which?" unconsciously paying tribute to
+the well preserved youthfulness of the widow.
+
+"Oh, Ophelia, beware!" Carolyn June laughed, not in the least offended;
+"the gay old rascal is at it already!"
+
+"He didn't mean nothing" Skinny interposed, sensing that Old Heck some
+way had made a blunder. "I guess you must be Carolyn June?" looking
+questioningly at the girl.
+
+"Excuse me," Old Heck said, "I'm your uncle, I suppose, and this is
+Skinny Rawlins--"
+
+"Howdy-do; I'm glad to meet you," Skinny muttered, reaching for the hand
+Carolyn June frankly extended.
+
+"I'm glad, too," she replied candidly; "and this is Mrs. Ophelia
+Cobb--just Ophelia--Uncle Josiah," Carolyn added, turning to Old Heck
+who clumsily shook hands with the widow while his weather-tanned face
+flushed a burning, uncomfortably red.
+
+"We was expecting you," he said, retaining life hold on her hand.
+
+"That was very kind," Ophelia murmured. "I am sure we are delighted to
+be here."
+
+"Now I guess we are all acquainted," Carolyn June said with a little
+laugh. "It's easy for folks to get acquainted, isn't it?" turning
+suddenly to Skinny.
+
+"Seems like it after they once get started," Skinny answered.
+
+"We'd better be heading for home I reckon," Old Heck said, releasing at
+last the widow's hand and lifting the bags in the car. "Sing Pete will
+have dinner ready by the time we get there."
+
+"We have some trunks," Carolyn June said, "can we take them with us?"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck replied, "get in, and we'll drive over to the depot and
+get them."
+
+With Carolyn June and Ophelia in the rear seat and Skinny and himself in
+the front Old Heck drove the car across to the station and the trunks
+were fastened with ropes on the hood of the engine and running-boards of
+the car.
+
+As they started away Carolyn June asked:
+
+"Which way now, Uncle Josiah?"
+
+"Out to the ranch."
+
+"Hadn't we better stop at the drug store," she asked soberly, "and get
+some medicine?"
+
+"Medicine? Who for?" Old Heck inquired innocently.
+
+"Why, the patients, of course," Carolyn June answered with a
+mischievous chuckle.
+
+"What patients?"
+
+"Out at the Quarter Circle KT where that epidemic of smallpox is
+raging!" she answered sweetly.
+
+"That's all a mistake," Old Heck said hastily; "we thought is was
+smallpox but it wasn't--"
+
+"No, everybody's got over it," Skinny added nervously; "they're all
+cured!"
+
+"Yes, they was just broke out with the heat and didn't have the smallpox
+at all--" Old Heck explained.
+
+"Liars, both of them," Carolyn June said laughingly to Ophelia; "they
+just didn't want us to come!"
+
+"Very likely," Ophelia answered.
+
+"No, honest, we thought we had it," Old Heck stammered.
+
+"We were plumb uneasy for fear you wouldn't arrive," Skinny declared.
+"After we found out it wasn't smallpox we were going to send a special
+delivery message and tell you it was all a misunderstanding and to come
+anyhow!"
+
+"Shall we forgive them?" Carolyn June asked the widow.
+
+"Perhaps, this time--their first offense!"
+
+"I'll tell you," Carolyn June said, "well suspend sentence pending good
+behavior!"
+
+Skinny leaned close to Old Heck.
+
+"Stop a minute at the Golden Rule," he whispered; "I want to do some
+personal trading."
+
+"If it ain't important," Old Heck answered, "we oughtn't to take the
+time. What do you want to buy?"
+
+"I want to get me a white shirt--"
+
+"Gosh," Old Heck exclaimed, "that bad already! What'll he be in week?"
+
+"Did you speak, Uncle Josiah?" Carolyn asked.
+
+"Huh--no, I--Skinny just thought I was going to hit a rock!" he
+answered, and giving the engine more gas, he headed the car, at a
+thirty-mile clip, toward the east and the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+The party rode in silence. The speed of the car and the fan of the warm
+wind against their faces made conversation difficult. A mile from Eagle
+Butte they crossed the long, low, iron-railed bridge over the Cimarron
+River and climbed out on to the bench away from the bottom lands. From
+that point on to the Quarter Circle KT the road followed the brow of the
+bench on the south side of the river. It was smooth and good.
+
+Carolyn June thrilled at the bigness of it all as they swept quickly
+past the irrigated district close to the town and sped out on the open
+unfenced range. For miles the country was level with here and there
+arroyos cross-sectioning into the river valley. Long stretches with the
+barest undulations made driving a joy and the winding road was a natural
+speedway. Scattered over the plain were dusters of mesquit and in the
+low sags where moisture was near the surface patches of thorns. Carolyn
+June loved the width and breadth of the great range, strange and new to
+her. Here was freedom sweeping as the winds of heaven. Dimly, on the
+southern horizon she could see the blue outline of Sentinel Mountain
+standing alone out on the plain. To the left green pasture-lands lay
+along the river. A narrow strip of cottonwood trees marked the curving
+path of the Cimarron. Beds of white quicksand, treacherous and fatal and
+dreaded by every rider of the open country could be seen, occasionally,
+through openings in the trees showing the bed of the river itself. In
+the distance behind them was Eagle Butte, towering above the town they
+had left a few brief moments before, and beyond that the Costejo
+Mountains, rugged and massive and covered in part on their lower slopes
+with blue-green thickets of pine. Across the river was a choppy sea of
+sand-dunes stretching away to the north as far as sight could reach.
+Here and there a high-flung mound, smooth and oval or capped with ledges
+of black, glistening rode broke the monotony of the view.
+
+Engrossed in the study of the almost primitive picture Carolyn June
+forgot the flight of time and the speed at which they were traveling.
+
+"Yonder's the ranch!" Skinny announced suddenly, turning half around in
+his seat and pointing ahead and to the left toward the river.
+
+The valley widened till it was a mile or more across. The Cimarron swung
+sharply to the north and hugged the foot of the bench as if unwilling
+to spoil the meadowlands past which it flowed. In a great
+half-crescent--"Quarter Circle," Old Heck called it--the green
+basin-like area lay spread out before them. It was a half dozen miles in
+length, reaching from the canyon gate at the upper end of the valley
+where the river turned abruptly northward, to the narrow gorge at the
+south through which it disappeared.
+
+A blue crane lazily flapped across the valley.
+
+"Seven thousand acres in the bottoms," Skinny volunteered.
+
+"Beautiful!" Carolyn breathed.
+
+"Splendid!" Ophelia exclaimed.
+
+Half-way down the valley, a quarter of a mile from the bench, the
+buildings of the Quarter Circle KT clustered together in a group--the
+low adobe house, bunk shack, stables, graineries. Out in the fields were
+hay yards with half-built stacks of alfalfa--over the tops of the stacks
+white tarpaulins. In a pasture beyond the house were horses and cattle,
+perhaps a hundred head in all. Climbing the hills north of the river
+were a number of moving figures, dimly seen through the haze.
+
+"Are those cattle," Carolyn June asked, "those things across the river?"
+
+"Where?" Skinny inquired.
+
+"Over there, on the hills," pointing toward the objects.
+
+Old Heck glancing in the direction she indicated answered for Skinny:
+
+"That's Parker and the boys, going over to the North Springs--they're
+checking up on some yearlings we just turned across from this side of
+the range." Then, speaking to Skinny: "They've already had their dinner
+and won't be in till supper-time--"
+
+"Are they cowboys?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"I reckon," Old Heck responded.
+
+"Is Skinny one?" she inquired naively.
+
+"Sort of, I suppose," Old Heck chuckled while Skinny felt his face
+coloring up with embarrassment, "but not a wild one."
+
+"Oh, who is that?" Carolyn June cried suddenly as a lone rider whirled
+out of the corral, around the stables, and his horse sprang into a
+gallop straight down the valley toward the harrows at its lower end.
+
+"That," Skinny said after a quick glance, "oh, that's th' Ramblin'
+Kid--Where in thunder do you reckon the darned fool's going now?" he
+added to Old Heck.
+
+"Can't tell nothing about where he's going," Old Heck said. "He's liable
+to be heading for anywhere. What's he riding?" he asked without looking
+up.
+
+"Captain Jack," Skinny replied. "Wonder if he ain't going over to Battle
+Ridge to find out if it's so about them sheep coming in over there?"
+
+"Maybe," Old Heck grunted, "either that or else he's took a notion to
+hunt that Gold Dust maverick again"--referring to a strange, wonderfully
+beautiful, outlaw filly that had appeared on the Kiowa range a year
+before and tormented the riders by her almost fiendish cunning in
+dodging corral or rope--"if he's riding Captain Jack that's probably
+what he's after."
+
+"Who is he, what's his real name?" Carolyn June asked with interest.
+
+"Just th' Ramblin' Kid, as far as I know," Old Heck answered.
+
+"Does he live at the Quarter Circle KT?" Carolyn June continued
+curiously as she studied the slender form rising and falling with the
+graceful rhythm of his horse's motion--as if man and animal were a
+single living, pulsing creature.
+
+"Off and on," Old Heck replied, "when he wants to he does and when he
+don't he don't. He's a witch with horses and knows he's always got a job
+if he wants it, and I reckon that makes him kind of undependable about
+staying in any one place long at a time. That's why they call him th'
+Ramblin' Kid--he's liable to ramble any minute."
+
+The car curled down the narrow dugway off of the bench and a moment
+later stopped at the gate in front of the ranch house of the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+"We're here," Skinny said, as Sing Pete, the Chinese cook, appeared at
+the open door.
+
+"They've come, Sing Pete," Old Heck called, climbing out of the car;
+"this is them! Is dinner ready?"
+
+"All leady--waitee!" the Oriental answered, shuffling out to the car to
+help with the luggage and twisting and squirming as he kept bowing in
+greeting.
+
+"This is great!" Carolyn June said, as she stepped on the long cool
+porch in front of the house and paused a moment before entering the open
+door, "--it's cool and pleasant, I'm going to like it," she added, as
+she went into the big low-ceilinged room.
+
+The floor was bare of carpet but spotlessly clean; shades, but no
+curtains, were over the windows; in the center stood a large flat-topped
+reading table; at one end of the table was a Morris chair upholstered in
+brown Spanish leather; a wolf-skin rug was thrown on the floor before an
+old-fashioned Mexican fire-place built into one corner of the room; in
+another corner was a smaller table on which was a graphophone; a rocker
+and several chairs were set about the room and against the north wall;
+between two doors, evidently opening into twin bedrooms, was an upright
+grand piano--.
+
+"Oh, a piano!" Carolyn June exclaimed delightedly noticing the
+instrument. "Who plays?"
+
+"Nobody," Old Heck answered foolishly, "I--I--well, what's the use of
+lying?--I bought it one day, before prohibition come, when I was drunk
+and just had it brought out because I didn't know what else to do with
+it--"
+
+"You funny old uncle!" Carolyn June laughed, "I love you
+already.--Ophelia plays," she added.
+
+"Not so well or so much as Carolyn June," Ophelia said.
+
+"Maybe we'll have some music then some day; that ain't canned," Skinny
+suggested eagerly.
+
+"You women can use them rooms," Old Heck said, referring to the doors on
+each side of the piano. "Parker and me did have them but we've arranged
+to sleep in the bunk-house while you are here."
+
+"Carolyn June and I need but one," Ophelia said, "it isn't fair to run
+you out--"
+
+"You ain't running us," Old Heck answered, "we've talked it over and
+would rather."
+
+After dinner Ophelia and Carolyn June spent their time in settling
+themselves in their rooms. A small bath closet connected the two--crude
+a bit and somewhat unfinished; but a hot tub, the water supplied from a
+tank at the kitchen range, was enjoyed by both.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny helped with the trunks and then withdrew to the
+bunk-house.
+
+Old Heck shaved and Skinny put on a clean shirt.
+
+Skinny was not sure but this official love-making job was going to be
+interesting work and Old Heck himself was uncertain whether to cuss or
+rejoice--sometimes he was almost sorry to-morrow would be Parker's day
+to love and entertain Ophelia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE UNUSED PLATE
+
+At sundown, when Parker and the cowboys rode in from the northern hills,
+the Quarter Circle KT lay under a mantle of sullen, torturing heat. Not
+a breath of air fanned the poplars, straight and motionless, in front of
+the house. The sun buried itself in a solid wall of black that rose
+above the Costejo peaks, hidden now in the shadow of the coming storm.
+The horses were dripping with sweat--their coats as glossy and wet as if
+they had swum the river. At the corral the animals wearily tossed their
+heads, low hung with exhaustion, seeking to shift the sticky clutch of
+head-stall or hackamore, while their riders dismounted and quickly
+removed saddle and riding gear. Freed from their burdens the bronchos
+dragged tired heels through the dust as they whirled and trotted
+unsteadily away to the pasture, eager to roll and relax their aching
+muscles.
+
+"Holy cats, but it's hot!" Bert Lilly exclaimed as he slipped off his
+chaps and started toward the house, leaving saddle and outfit lying
+beside the gate of the corral.
+
+"Better put them things in the shed," Parker advised, "looks like a
+whale of a storm is coming."
+
+"Reckon that's right," Bert answered, turning back and carrying his
+riding gear into the shelter where the other cowboys already had taken
+theirs.
+
+"Wonder if them women come?" Chuck Slithers queried as they moved toward
+the gate.
+
+"More than likely--Bet Skinny and Old Heck have had a hell of a time
+making love to 'em," Charley Saunders remarked.
+
+"You want to be careful about cussin'," Parker warned. "It ain't polite
+when women are around!"
+
+"Listen at him!" Bert said with a laugh, "practising already--Parker is
+getting polite--to-morrow is his day to be affectionate to the widow,
+Ophelia--"
+
+"Which is she, Parker," Charley asked soberly, "a grass or natural?"
+
+"Shut up, you blamed fools, they're liable to hear you," Parker growled
+angrily. "Anyhow, it ain't my fault they come!"
+
+"Parker oughtn't to kick," Chuck chimed in, "look at poor old
+Skinny--he's got a steady job lovin' the other one!"
+
+"Darned if I wouldn't rather love both of them at once," Charley
+observed, "than to take another ride like that was to-day. I'm kind of
+anxious to see what they look like," he continued.
+
+"Well, don't go and get excited at the supper table and eat your pie
+with a spoon!" Chuck laughed.
+
+"Aw, hell," Charley retorted, "I guess I know how to act--"
+
+"Old Heck's going to buy some finger-bowls for you to wash your hands
+in," Bert said scornfully, "him and Parker--"
+
+"Shut up, I told you, you darned idiots," Parker snapped. "They're out
+on the front porch and can hear you!"
+
+"Be careful about your cussin'--" Bert mimicked with a snicker.
+
+Notwithstanding their raillery every man in the group, including Pedro,
+gave unusual care to scrubbing his face and smoothing his hair
+preparatory to entering the kitchen for supper and where they would
+meet, for the first time, Ophelia and Carolyn June.
+
+Sing Pete glided out of the kitchen door and hammered the triangle
+announcing the evening meal.
+
+At the instant Parker and the cowboys filed into the kitchen from the
+rear, Ophelia and Carolyn June, followed by Old Heck and Skinny Rawlins,
+both looking sheepish and somewhat ashamed, stepped into the room from
+the front.
+
+All stood waiting and Old Heck, ill at ease and in a voice that
+trembled, gave the party formal introduction:
+
+"Missus Ophelia Cobb and Miss Carolyn June Dixon," motioning first at
+the widow and then the girl, "Mister Parker, Mister Bert Lilly, Mister
+Charley Saunders, Mister Chuck Slithers, Mister Pedro Valencia--"
+indicating each in turn with his hand as he called the names, "--I
+reckon you're already acquainted with Skinny!"
+
+The cowboys mumbled greetings which Carolyn June and Ophelia graciously
+acknowledged.
+
+Sing Pete had laid two extra covers.
+
+"You boys can take your regular places--all except you, Parker," Old
+Heck said, "--you set at that side on this end," pointing to the seat at
+the left next to the head of the table. "Carolyn June, you can set at
+that end and Ophelia at this end--I'll set here," taking the seat at the
+widow's right and directly across from Parker.
+
+This placed Old Heck, Bert Lilly, Pedro and Skinny Rawlins on the right
+of the table in the order named, Skinny sitting at the end on Carolyn's
+left. On the opposite side sat Parker, Chuck Slithers and Charley. Next
+to Charley, at the right of Carolyn June, and opposite Skinny, was a
+vacant chair.
+
+"Who is this for?" Carolyn June inquired, indicating the unoccupied
+seat.
+
+"That's th' Ramblin' Kid's place," Old Heck replied; "he may come in and
+again he mayn't--"
+
+"It was him you saw to-day," Skinny added, "riding down toward the
+Narrows when we was coming from Eagle Butte."
+
+"Do you know; where he went, Parker?" Old Heck asked.
+
+"No. When we started over to the Springs he was here. Said he reckoned
+we could get along without him and he wouldn't go--"
+
+"He's just got one of them lonesome spells," Bert said, "and wanted to
+get off by himself somewhere."
+
+"He knowed we was going to have company, too," Chuck observed.
+
+"More than likely that's why he went," Skinny suggested.
+
+"Is he afraid of women?" Carolyn June laughed.
+
+"Not particularly," Skinny replied; "he don't bother with them, that's
+all."
+
+"I think he went after that Gold Dust maverick," Charley said. "He'll
+probably come in when he sees how it's going to storm--"
+
+"He don't give a darn for storms," Bert declared. "--Pass them frijoles,
+Pedro.--Remember that time it blowed the hay derrick down and he
+wouldn't come to the house, just stayed out and watched the wind and
+lightning?"
+
+"He is funny that way," Charley admitted.
+
+"Well, he'll never catch that mare," Parker said, "she's too--"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," Chuck interrupted, "look how he has tamed Captain
+Jack," referring to the Ramblin' Kid's own horse, one time a famous
+renegade.
+
+"How was that?" Carolyn June inquired carelessly.
+
+"Captain Jack was an outlaw, too," Bert explained. "He run over on the
+East Mesa on the Una de Gata. Charley and me and th' Ramblin' Kid got
+him to going one day when there was some ranch mares in his bunch. One
+of them was a hand-raised filly, was a pet and she was--well, pretty
+hot! We worked them over the rim of the Mesa and into the canyon, it
+was a box-gorge from where they hit it to its head, and at the upper end
+there was a wing corral. The mare swung up the canyon towards the ranch
+and--Jack wouldn't quit her! We was pounding right on their heels and
+before he knowed it we had them penned--"
+
+"That shows what happens when a he-thing goes locoed over a female
+critter," Chuck whispered to Parker; "you and Old Heck want to watch
+out!"
+
+"Be careful, you danged fool!" Parker hissed as he kicked at Chuck's
+shins under the table. Excited, he made a mistake in the foot he should
+have used and viciously slammed his left toe against Ophelia's dainty
+ankle.
+
+The widow looked startled and suddenly sat up very straight in her
+chair.
+
+Parker realized his error, turned red, choked, leaned close to Chuck and
+breathed hoarsely, "I'll kill you some day for that!"
+
+"He sure went crazy when he found he was corraled," Charley said, "and
+forgot all about the mare."
+
+"He sure did," Bert continued, while Carolyn June listened intently,
+"and was plumb wild to bu'st down the pen and be free again. Charley nor
+me didn't want him and so th' Ramblin' Kid said he'd take him. Just then
+Tony Malush--we was punchin' for him--come riding up and was going to
+shoot Captain Jack on account of wanting to clean the range of the
+outlaw stallions. He yanked out his gun and started to pull a drop on
+old Jack's head. Th' Ramblin' Kid jerked his own forty-four and told
+Tony he'd kill him if he shot the renegade broncho. Tony backed up, but
+it made him sore and he fired th' Ramblin' Kid. The darned little cuss
+set there a minute thinking, then slid off his horse, stripped him of
+riding gear, flung saddle, blanket and bridle over the bars into the
+corral. Before we knowed what he was aiming to do he climbed up and
+dropped down inside, on foot, with just his rope, and faced that outlaw
+battin' around trying to get outside--"
+
+Carolyn June leaned forward on the table listening with breathless
+interest. The others stopped eating and gave all their attention to the
+story Bert was telling.
+
+"Captain Jack saw him, stopped for just a second, sort of surprised,
+then went right at th' Ramblin' Kid--head down, eyes blazin' like coals,
+mouth wide open, ears laid back and strikin' with both front feet--"
+
+"He was some wicked!" Charley ejaculated.
+
+"He sure was," Bert went on. "Tony and Charley and me just set on our
+horses stunned--thinkin' th' Kid had gone clean loco and was flirtin'
+with certain and pronto death. As Captain Jack rushed him th' Ramblin'
+Kid give a jump sideways, his rope went true, a quick run to the
+snubbin' post and he throwed him dead! The broncho hit his feet, give a
+squeal and come straight back! Th' Ramblin' Kid run once more, yankin'
+like blazes to get the slack! That time when he went down--well, before
+we realized it, th' Ramblin' Kid had him bridled and saddled and was
+safe on deck--"
+
+"I'm tellin' you too, Captain Jack went higher than a kite when he felt
+the rowels in his flanks!" Charley interrupted.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid yelled for us to let him out," Bert continued.
+"Charley and me flung down the bars to the corral and Captain Jack come
+out sun-fishin' and hittin' the breeze like a streak of twisted
+lightning! That was just before dinner in the forenoon. That afternoon
+and night th' Ramblin' Kid rode the outlaw to the Hundred and
+One--ninety miles away! We didn't see either of them any more for a
+month and when they hit the Kiowa again Captain Jack was a regular baby
+after th' Ramblin' Kid and would follow him around like a dog--"
+
+"That's the way he's been ever since," Charley said, "them two are just
+like sweethearts."
+
+"Nobody else ever rides him--" Bert added.
+
+"They can't," Chuck said. "He's a one-man horse and th' Ramblin' Kid is
+the man. Captain Jack would die for th' Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+"Yes, and kill any one else if he could!" Parker exclaimed.
+
+"Has no one but--but the Ramblin' Kid"--Carolyn June hesitated queerly
+over the name--"ever ridden him?"
+
+"Never that we know of," Bert said; "several have tried it--the last
+one was a fellow from down on the Chickasaw. Guess he was trying to
+steal him. Anyway, we was all up at Eagle Butte and had left our horses
+out in front of the Occidental Hotel while we was in the dining-room
+eating our dinners. We got outside just in time to see the stranger hit
+the ground and Captain Jack jump on him with all four feet doubled up in
+a bunch--he's buried in that little graveyard you might have noticed on
+the hill this side of the river bridge."
+
+"Killed him?" Carolyn June gasped.
+
+"Seemed like it." Bert answered, with a grin; "anyway, we buried him."
+
+"What did the--the Ramblin' Kid do?" she asked.
+
+"He just laughed kind of soft and scornful," Skinny said, "and got on
+Captain Jack and rode away while we was picking the fellow up!"
+
+During the rest of the meal Carolyn June's eyes looked frequently and
+curiously at the unused plate at her right. She felt, some way, that an
+affront had been shown her by the absence of the one for whom it was
+laid. The other cowboys, it was quite evident to her intuitive woman's
+mind, had looked forward with considerable eagerness to the arrival of
+herself and Ophelia. The Ramblin' Kid, at the very moment almost of
+their reaching the Quarter Circle KT, had deliberately mounted Captain
+Jack and ridden away. It seemed like little less than an intentional
+snub! In addition to the half-resentment she felt, there remained in
+her mind an insistent and tormenting picture of the slender, subtle,
+young rider swaying easily to the swing of Captain Jack as he galloped
+down the valley earlier in the day.
+
+Bert, Charley, Chuck, before the meal was finished cast frankly admiring
+glances at Carolyn June and Skinny plainly was gaining confidence at a
+rapid rate, while Pedro, silent throughout it all, kept, almost
+constantly, his half-closed eyes fixed in a sidelong look at the girl at
+the end of the table.
+
+Attention and admiration, Carolyn June expected from men. They had
+always been hers. She was beautiful and was conscious of it. Had the
+cowboys of the Quarter Circle KT not registered appreciation of her
+charms by their looks Carolyn June would have believed something was
+wrong with her dress or the arrangement of her hair. Her eyes--she was
+sure of them--without effort lured men to her feet.
+
+"It's hotter than blue blazes in here," Old Heck said when all had
+finished; "we'd better go out into the big room. Maybe Carolyn June will
+play some on the piano."
+
+"The boys and me will go on out on the porch," Parker said as they
+reached the front room, speaking significantly to Old Heck, but in a
+tone both Ophelia and Carolyn June heard. "We'll leave you and Skinny
+with the ladies and not intrude--"
+
+"You won't be intruding if you remain," Ophelia said brightly. "Carolyn
+June and I are not partial at all and want you to feel that we enjoy
+meeting you all."
+
+"Yes, stay," Carolyn June added, somewhat reluctant that of the entire
+group only one should be left to the wiles of her unconsciously
+intentional coquetry; "there is plenty of room in here and it's cool--"
+
+"We're much obliged," Bert said, "but we'd better do the way Parker
+mentioned. Anyhow that was the agreement."
+
+"Agreement?" Ophelia spoke with a questioning lift of her brows.
+
+"Yes," Chuck said, evidently trying to relieve the embarrassment of Old
+Heck, Parker and Skinny who looked daggers at Bert when he spoke of an
+agreement, "Parker and Old Heck was to take turn about--"
+
+"Bert meant," Parker interrupted hastily, "--he meant they--they had to
+agree not to loaf in this room before Old Heck would give them jobs on
+the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck added quickly, "that was the bargain on account
+of--of--getting it mussed up and everything and making too much work for
+Sing Pete to clean it up!"
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June looked curiously at each other as if they
+suspected some secret that had to do with their presence at the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+Outside, the cowboys lounged on the porch or lay spread full length on
+the grass smoking their cigarettes, and silent. Each was busy with
+thoughts of his own. Carolyn June had been very impartial during the
+evening meal, distributing her smiles and little attentions freely among
+them all. Now she was sitting at the piano playing snatches of random
+melodies as they came to her mind, while Skinny sat stiffly on a
+high-backed chair at the corner of the instrument.
+
+A drone of voices reached the ears of Parker and the cowboys as Old
+Heck, skilfully led on by Ophelia, told about the ranch, the Kiowa range
+and the traditions of western Texas.
+
+"Can you play _La Paloma?_" Skinny asked as Carolyn June paused after
+running over a dainty and vivacious one-step, memories of which made her
+think of Hartville and the fashionable ballrooms where she had reigned
+as princess at least if not as queen, and which seemed now very far
+away.
+
+"I'm afraid not--unless I have the music, but I'll try," she answered,
+and her fingers again sought the keys.
+
+The dreamy Mexican air drifted seductively out on the sultry motionless
+night.
+
+Bert looked through the window and saw Skinny lean back in his chair,
+his eyes closed and an expression of supreme content stealing over his
+face.
+
+"Skinny's gone--he's surrendered," he said to Chuck, lying full length
+on the porch at his side; "look at the poor cuss with his eyes shut and
+grinning as if he was seeing visions of Paradise!"
+
+"That combination would capture most anybody," Chuck answered. "I'm
+starting to feel affectionate myself."
+
+Bert didn't reply, Chuck having expressed too nearly his own swelling
+emotions.
+
+"Uncle Josiah!" Carolyn June called, suddenly whirling around on the
+piano stool as she finished the last bars of _La Paloma_, "may I have a
+horse?"
+
+Old Heck, grown silent under the spell of the music, and, like Skinny,
+sitting dreaming dreams that almost frightened him, started quickly.
+
+"A--a what?" he asked.
+
+"A horse--" she answered, "a broncho to ride!"
+
+"Oh, uh--sure! Skinny, go get her one!" he replied confusedly.
+
+"Not now," Carolyn June laughed, "to-morrow--any time, whenever I want
+to use it!"
+
+"Can you ride?" Skinny asked eagerly.
+
+"Ever since I can remember," Carolyn June said, "daddy has kept
+horses--I love 'em! Ophelia rides, too," she added.
+
+"In automobiles--" Ophelia corrected.
+
+"That's a good arrangement," Skinny said; "it will make everything work
+out all right."
+
+"I don't understand," Carolyn June said; "what arrangement?"
+
+"We'd better be going to bed, Skinny," Old Heck interposed anxiously,
+"it's getting late!"
+
+"Guess we had," Skinny said reluctantly. "Gosh, it's warm to-night!"
+
+"You can leave the door and windows open," Old Heck said to Ophelia and
+Carolyn June as he and Skinny moved toward the door; "we don't have
+burglars out here."
+
+Parker and the cowboys straightened up when they heard Skinny and Old
+Heck preparing to leave and went around the corner of the building
+toward the bunk-house.
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June stepped out on the porch with Old Heck and
+Skinny.
+
+The air was oppressively still and hot. The black cloud bank that had
+hung over the Costejo Mountains earlier in the evening now covered the
+whole western half of the sky. Night sounds seemed almost stifled by the
+suffocating heat. From the pasture below the stables the faint call of a
+kill-deer suddenly shrilled out, followed by intense silence. No
+lightning flash filled the wall-like blackness slowly creeping over the
+earth from the west. A pale glow on the rim of the rolling hills across
+the valley, herald of the moon not yet above the horizon, intensified
+the pall beneath the approaching cloud. A sullen roar, throbbing
+angrily, rising and falling in volume, could be heard coming out of the
+depths of the storm.
+
+"Acts like it's going to be a bad one," Old Heck observed, studying the
+cloud they all were watching.
+
+"Wicked," Skinny said, "one of them mutterin' kind until it breaks and
+then all hell tears loose."
+
+"If th' Ramblin' Kid is out in the sand-hills to-night he'll--"
+
+A withering stream of fire poured from the cloud almost over their
+heads; it was accompanied by a crashing peal of thunder that rocked the
+earth under their feet and stopped the words on Old Heck's lips. The
+flame lighted the whole valley. They had an instant's glimpse of a
+writhing, overhanging curtain of dust and rain sweeping toward them. In
+the glare they saw a giant cottonwood that stood alone in the meadow
+west of the house reel and sway like a drunken thing and pitch to the
+earth.
+
+"It's here! It struck that tree!" Old Heck yelled. "Run for the
+bunk-house, Skinny, maybe we can make it! You women go inside and shut
+the door!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia sprang--were blown almost--inside the house and
+slammed the door as another bolt fell, flooding the room with a blaze
+that made the light from the lamp on the reading table seem faint and
+dim. Old Heck and Skinny darted around the corner as the tempest pulled
+and tugged at the buildings of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For an hour Ophelia and Carolyn June sat and listened to the storm and
+while it still raged went to bed.
+
+Carolyn June fell asleep watching the incessant glare of the lightning
+as flash after flash filled the room with light and illumined the world
+outside, while the rain and wind lashed the trees in the garden near
+her window. Above the tumult the words of Old Heck: "If the Ramblin' Kid
+is out in the sand-hills to-night"--kept repeating themselves over and
+over in her mind. Try as she would, she could not shut out the picture
+of a slender young rider, alone, far out on the range in the storm-mad
+night, unsheltered from the fury and wrath of the elements.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+A DUEL OF ENDURANCE
+
+When the storm broke over the Quarter Circle KT the Ramblin' Kid was
+twenty miles away following the Gold Dust maverick. Old Heck's surmise
+that he had gone in search of the outlaw filly was but half correct. It
+was not with the definite purpose of trying for the renegade mare that
+he had mounted Captain Jack and headed him toward the Narrows at the
+moment Carolyn June Dixon and Ophelia Cobb arrived at the ranch. Nor was
+it to escape meeting the women. Their coming meant nothing to the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He simply wanted to be alone.
+
+The ride with Parker and the boys to the North Springs meant talk. The
+Ramblin' Kid did not want to talk. He wanted to be with his thoughts,
+his horse and silence.
+
+Should he happen on to the maverick he might give her a run. Since her
+first appearance on the Kiowa, the Ramblin' Kid had seen her many times.
+More than once, from a distance, he had watched the mare, getting a line
+on her habits. Sooner or later he expected to test Captain Jack's
+endurance and skill against the filly's speed and cunning. Without
+success other riders of the Kiowa had tried to corral the outlaw or get
+within roping throw of her shapely head. So far she had proved herself
+faster and more clever than any horse ridden against her. The Ramblin'
+Kid believed Captain Jack was master of the beautiful mare, that in a
+battle of nerve and muscle and wind the roan stallion could run her
+down. Some day he would prove it.
+
+At the Narrows the trail forked. One branch turned sharply to the right
+and followed a coulée out on to the divide between the Cimarron and the
+lower Una de Gata; the other swung toward the river, slipped into it,
+crossed the stream, and was lost in the sand-hills beyond.
+
+The broncho, of his own will, at the prongs of the road wheeled up the
+coulée and climbed out on the level bench south of the Cimarron. A
+half-dozen miles away Sentinel Mountain rose abruptly out of the plain.
+Toward the lone butte Captain Jack turned. He knew the place. On the
+north slope there was a tiny spring, fenced with wire to keep the stock
+from trampling it into a bog; near by was a duster of piñon trees; below
+the seep in the narrow gorge was a thin strip of willows. It was a
+favorite rendezvous sought by the Ramblin' Kid when in moods such as now
+possessed him. Silently he rode to the group of piñons and dismounted.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid stretched himself under the trees while Captain Jack
+drank at the little water course. Then, with his bridle off, the
+broncho fed contentedly on the bunch grass along the hillside. After a
+time Captain Jack quit feeding and came into the shade of the piñons.
+The Ramblin' Kid, flat on his back, stared through the scant foliage of
+the trees into the sky--overcast now with a dim haze, forerunner of the
+storm gathering above the Costejo peaks. Thousands of feet in the air a
+buzzard, merely a black speck, without motion of wings, wheeled in
+great, lazy, ever-widening circles.
+
+As the sun dropped into the cloud bank in the west a band of mares and
+colts came from that direction and rounded a spur of Sentinel Mountain.
+At their heads was the most beautiful horse ever seen on the Kiowa
+range.
+
+In color a coppery, almost golden, chestnut sorrel; flaxen mane and
+tail, verging on creamy white; short-coupled in the back and with
+withers that marked the runner; belly smooth and round; legs trim and
+neat as an antelope's and muscled like a panther's; head small, carried
+proudly erect and eyes full and wonderfully clear and brown.
+
+"Th' filly!" the Ramblin' Kid breathed, "with a bunch of Tony Malush's
+Anchor Bar mares and colts!"
+
+Captain Jack saw the range horses and lifted his head.
+
+"Psst!" the Ramblin' Kid hissed and the neigh was stopped.
+
+The rangers moved toward the east and over the crest of a ridge a
+quarter of a mile away. On the flat beyond the rise they stopped, the
+colts immediately teasing the mares to suck. The filly withdrew a short
+distance from the herd and stood alert and watchful.
+
+For half an hour the Ramblin' Kid studied the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+He looked at the clouds climbing higher and higher in the west, then
+long and thoughtfully at Captain Jack.
+
+"Let's get her, Boy!" he murmured; "let's go an' get her!"
+
+His mind made up, the Ramblin' Kid slipped the bridle again on Captain
+Jack, removed the saddle and with the blanket wiped the sweat from the
+broncho's back, smoothed the blanket, reset the saddle, carefully
+tightened front and rear cinches and mounting the little stallion guided
+him slowly down the ravine in the direction of the horses on the flat. A
+hundred yards away the mares and colts, alarmed by the sudden
+half-whinny, half-snort, from the filly, discovered the approaching
+horse and rider.
+
+Instantly the wild horses crowded closely together and galloped toward
+the Una de Gata. Captain Jack leaped into a run, rushing them. The
+maverick wheeled quickly and dashed away to the south alone.
+
+"Her pet trick!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered as he headed Captain Jack
+after the nimble creature. "She absodamnedlutely will not bunch--seems
+to know a crowd means a corral, a rope and at last a rider on her
+shapely back!"
+
+For two miles it was a race. The Ramblin' Kid held Captain Jack to a
+steady run a couple of hundred yards in the rear of the speeding mare.
+At last he pulled the stallion down to a trot. The Gold Dust maverick
+answered by running another fifty yards and then herself settling into
+the slower stride. "Like I thought," the Ramblin' Kid said to himself,
+"it's a case of wear her out--a case of seasoned old muscle against
+speedy young heels!"
+
+It became a duel of endurance between Captain Jack, wiry, toughened and
+fully matured, with heavier muscles, and the nimble, lighter-footed Gold
+Dust mare.
+
+At dark they were on the edge of the Arroyo Grande and Captain Jack had
+closed the distance between them until less than a hundred yards was
+between the heels of the filly and the head of the stallion behind her.
+She turned east along the arroyo, followed it a mile, seeking a
+crossing, then doubled straight north toward the Cimarron. Captain Jack
+hung to her trail like a hound. In the blackness that preceded the storm
+she could not lose him. With almost uncanny sureness he picked her
+out--following, following, never giving the maverick a moment's rest.
+Yet it seemed that the distance she kept ahead was measured, so alert
+and watchful was she always. Both were dripping with sweat. Try as he
+would, it seemed impossible for Captain Jack to win those few yards
+that would put the filly in reach of the rope the Ramblin' Kid held
+ready to cast until the inky darkness made it impossible to risk a
+throw.
+
+The mare splashed into the Cimarron.
+
+A dazzling zigzag flash of lightning, the first of the storm, and the
+Ramblin' Kid saw the filly struggling in the yellow wind-whipped
+current. A moment later and Captain Jack was swimming close behind her.
+On the north side of the river the mare yielded to the drive of the
+tempest and turned east down the stream. A rocky gorge running at right
+angles toward the north offered shelter from the lashing wind and rain.
+Up the ravine the maverick headed. A rush of muddy water down the canyon
+sent pursued and pursuer slipping and sliding and climbing for safety
+high up on the brush-covered, torrent-swept hillside. The constant blaze
+and tremble of lightning illumined the whole range. A wolf, terrified by
+the storm, seeking cover, crouched in the shelter of a black rock-cliff.
+The Ramblin' Kid saw the creature. His hand instinctively slipped under
+his slicker and gripped the gun at his hip.
+
+"Hell! what's th' use of killin' just to kill?" he murmured. His hold on
+the gun relaxed. A bolt of lightning slivered the rock above the wolf;
+there was an acrid odor of burning hair. The next flash showed the wolf
+stretched dead twenty feet below the cliff. "Well, I'll be damned!" the
+Ramblin' Kid whispered as he bowed his head before the gale, "that was
+funny! Guess God himself figured it was time for that poor cuss to die!"
+
+In the last quarter of the night, at the North Springs, when the storm
+had spent itself and the white moon looked down on a drenched and
+flood-washed earth, the 'Ramblin' Kid dropped his rope over the head of
+the Gold Dust maverick--barely twenty feet ahead of the horse he
+rode--conquered by the superior nerve, muscle and endurance of Captain
+Jack, still the greatest outlaw the Kiowa range had ever known!
+
+The touch of the rope fired the filly to a supreme effort; she lunged
+forward; Captain Jack set himself for the shock--he threw her cold, full
+length, in the soft mud; instantly the little stallion sprang forward to
+give the mare slack, she came to her feet, squealing piteously, and
+plunged desperately ahead--again Captain Jack braced himself for the jar
+and put her down, "It's hell, Little Girl," the Ramblin' Kid said with a
+catch in his throat; "but you've got to learn!" The third time the
+maverick tested the rope and the third time Captain Jack threw her in a
+helpless heap. That time when she got to her feet she stood trembling in
+every muscle until Captain Jack came up to her side and the Ramblin' Kid
+reached out and laid his hand on the beautiful mane. She had learned.
+Never again would the wonderful creature tighten a rope on her neck.
+
+Trailing the filly, the Ramblin' Kid forced her back toward the
+Cimarron, into its raging flood, multiplied a hundredfold by the
+torrential rain of the night; side by side she and Captain Jack swam the
+stream, and in the gray dawn, while the Quarter Circle KT still slept,
+he turned the mare and Captain Jack into the circular corral. He removed
+the saddle from Captain Jack, took the rope from the filly's neck, threw
+the horses some hay and on the dry ground under the shed by the corral,
+lay down and went to sleep.
+
+For fourteen hours, without rest, the Ramblin' Kid had ridden.
+
+The sun was up when Sing Pete electrified the Quarter Circle KT into
+life and action by the jangle of the iron triangle sending out the
+breakfast call.
+
+Old Heck stepped to the door of the bunk-house and looked out across the
+valley. The Cimarron roared sullenly beyond the meadow. The lower field
+was a lake of muddy water, backed up from the gorge below. He glanced
+toward the circular corral.
+
+"What th'--Who left horses up last night?" he asked of the cowboys
+dressing sleepily inside the bunk-house.
+
+"Nobody," Parker answered for the group.
+
+Skinny Rawlins came to the door. "It's Captain Jack," he said, "and--and
+darned if th' Ramblin' Kid ain't got the filly!"
+
+"Aw, he couldn't have caught her last night," Bert Lilly said.
+
+"Well, she's there," Skinny retorted, "somebody's corraled her--that's
+certain!"
+
+Hurriedly dressing, the cowboys crowded out of the bunk-house and down
+to the circular corral. The Gold Dust maverick leaped to the center of
+the enclosure as the group drew near and stood with head up, eyes
+flashing and nostrils quivering, a perfect picture of defiance and fear.
+The swim across the river had washed the mud from her mane and sides and
+she was as clean as if she had been brushed.
+
+"Lord, she's a beauty!" Chuck Slithers exclaimed.
+
+"Sure is--be hell to ride, though!" Bert commented. "Wonder where the
+Ramblin' Kid is--"
+
+"S-h-hh! Yonder he is," Charley Saunders said, observing the figure
+under the shed, "--asleep. Come on away and let him rest!"
+
+"Breakfast's ready anyhow," Old Heck added.
+
+"And Skinny ain't shaved or powdered his face yet--" Chuck laughed;
+"these lovers ought to fix themselves up better!"
+
+"Shut up, you blamed idiot, ain't you got no respect?" Parker said as
+they turned toward the house.
+
+"Listen at Parker, he's one of them, too," Chuck continued; "this is his
+day to be a sweetheart to the widow!"
+
+"I'd rather have Skinny's job," Bert said with a snicker, "I'd be afraid
+of Ophelia--"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She acts too gentle to start with"--"
+
+"Give her time," Charley suggested, "she'll bu'st loose when she gets
+better acquainted!"
+
+"Her and Old Heck got pretty well introduced last night, holding hands
+the way they did, and--"
+
+"Dry up," Old Heck interposed with a foolish grin, "and come on to
+breakfast!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia were charmingly fresh and interesting in dainty
+blue and lavender morning gowns. A bowl of roses, plucked by Ophelia
+from the crimson rambler by the south window, rested in the center of
+the table. The cowboys saw the flowers and exchanged glances. Old Heck
+and Skinny blushed.
+
+Carolyn June noticed the vacant place at her right.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid ain't up yet," Skinny volunteered.
+
+"Then the storm did drive him to shelter, after all?" Carolyn June asked
+with the barest trace of contempt in her voice.
+
+"I wouldn't hardly say that," Bert Lilly remarked, holding his cup for
+Sing Pete to fill with coffee; "--he brought in the Gold Dust maverick."
+
+"Yes," Chuck said with mock gravity, "it was quite an undertaking--he
+sprinkled salt on her tail--"
+
+"How clever!" Ophelia exclaimed, looking interested, "and is that the
+way they catch--mavericks?" stumbling over the unusual word.
+
+"Chuck's joking," Parker said; "he always was foolish--"
+
+"Uncle Josiah," Carolyn June asked suddenly, "can you take Ophelia to
+Eagle Butte to-day?"
+
+"I--Parker can," Old Heck answered, "if he can drive the car. Still
+there are probably some pretty bad washouts--"
+
+Ophelia looked quickly at Old Heck, interested by the note she detected
+in his voice.
+
+"I--I--got some work to do," he continued, "if you could wait till
+to-morrow"--addressing the widow--"I could more than likely go myself--"
+
+"I guess I can handle the car all right," Parker said, looking
+significantly at Old Heck; "the roads will be dried up in a little
+while."
+
+"It's Parker's day anyhow and he don't want to miss--" Chuck started to
+say.
+
+"After breakfast," Old Heck interrupted, scowling at the cowboy, "Chuck
+and Pedro had better both ride-line on the upper pasture. The cattle
+probably went against the fence in the storm last night and knocked off
+a lot of wire. Of course, Skinny will have to stay here," he added, "and
+the rest of us, except Parker, ought to look after the fences in the
+east bottoms--from the looks of the river this morning a lot of posts
+and wire must be washed out."
+
+"Whoever gets up the saddle horses had better catch them in the pasture
+corral," Parker declared, "it won't do to turn them in with that wild
+filly and Captain Jack."
+
+"I think I shall go see that wonderful filly," Carolyn June said as
+they left the table, "she may be the particular broncho I will want to
+ride--"
+
+"Not much," Old Heck objected, "these outlaws ain't exactly the kind of
+horses for women to fool with. You can use Old Blue. He's gentle."
+
+"Did I tell you I wanted a 'gentle horse'?" Carolyn June asked with a
+bit of impatience.
+
+"No, but I figured that was the kind you'd need on account of being
+raised back east--"
+
+"Well, I am going to see the Gold Dust maverick," Carolyn June said with
+emphasis, "and if she suits me I'll--I'll ride her!"
+
+"I'll go with you," Skinny offered as Carolyn June stepped from the
+kitchen door and started toward the circular corral.
+
+"Never mind!" she spoke shortly, "--you can go catch 'Old Blue'
+and"--with scorn in her voice--"if he's able to walk, maybe it will be
+safe for me to ride him to the end of the lane and back--Ugh! 'Old
+Blue!' The very name sounds as if he was dead!"
+
+"Old Blue's a good horse," Skinny protested, "--we work him on the hay
+derrick--"
+
+But Carolyn June was gone, walking rapidly across the open ground in the
+direction of the corral in which the Ramblin' Kid had turned Captain
+Jack and the Gold Dust filly.
+
+"Jumpin' eats!" Bert exclaimed as the cowboys started toward the stable,
+"didn't the young one show her teeth sudden?"
+
+"Skinny's going to have his hands full if he don't look out," Charley
+Saunders remarked sagely. "Still that kind ain't as dangerous as the
+ones that act plumb gentle like the widow has acted so far."
+
+"Any female is treacherous," Chuck observed grimly. "They're just like
+cinch-binders--you can't tell when they're going to rare up and fall
+over backwards!"
+
+"I'll bet Ophelia turns out to be a W.C.T.U. or something," Bert
+predicted solemnly.
+
+"If she does it's all off with the Quarter Circle KT, because Parker and
+Old Heck are both in love already," Charley said as they rounded the
+corner of the barn.
+
+Carolyn June gave a gasp of admiration as she stepped up to the circular
+corral and saw the Gold Dust maverick closely.
+
+"Oh, you beauty! You adorable beauty!" she breathed.
+
+Captain Jack and the filly were near the fence next to the shed. Carolyn
+June passed in between the low building and the corral to be closer to
+the horses. The sky was cloudless and a wonderful liquid blue; the sun
+glistened on the rich, golden, brown sides of the mare and made her coat
+shine like delicate satin. When Captain Jack and the filly saw Carolyn
+June they stood for a moment as rigid as though cast in bronze, heads
+held high, eyes fixed curiously yet without fear on the slender girlish
+figure.
+
+Captain Jack took a step forward in a half-challenging way. The
+maverick stood perfectly still.
+
+"You beauty," the girl repeated, "you wonderful golden beauty! You are
+going to be my horse--I'm going to ride you--_just you_--"
+
+"You'll get you're neck broke if you do!" a voice, deliberate and of
+peculiar softness, said behind her.
+
+Carolyn June turned, startled, toward the shed from where the voice had
+come. She knew, even before she looked, that the speaker was the
+Ramblin' Kid. Evidently he had just awakened. He had not risen and still
+lay stretched on the ground, his head resting on the saddle he had used
+for a pillow. Carolyn June could not help wondering how long he had been
+lying there studying her back. The thought confused her. In spite of her
+efforts at self-control a slow flush crept over her cheeks. The Ramblin'
+Kid saw it and the faintest hint of a smile showed on his lips--or was
+the suggestion of amusement in the twinkling glance of his eyes? Carolyn
+June could not tell. The subtlety and queerly humble impudence of it
+filled her with anger.
+
+While she looked into his eyes Carolyn June appraised the physical
+appearance of the Ramblin' Kid. Certainly he was not handsome, sprawling
+there in his rough clothing. She knew his age was somewhere near her
+own, perhaps he was a year, surely no more than that, older than
+herself. Yet there was an expression about the face that suggested much
+experience, a sort of settled maturity and seriousness. His mouth,
+Carolyn June thought, showed a trace of cruelty--or was it only
+firmness? The teeth were good. If he stood up her own eyes would have to
+angle upward a trifle to look into his and if hers were brown the
+Ramblin' Kid's were positively black--yes, she would say, a brutal,
+unfathomable black, penetrating and hard. His cheeks were smooth and
+almost sallow they were so dark, and she could tell there was not an
+ounce of flesh save tough sinewy muscle on his body. He was fully
+dressed except for the white weather-beaten Stetson lying beside the
+saddle and the chaps and spurs kicked off and tossed with the bridle and
+rope near by on the ground. A dark woolen shirt open at the throat, blue
+overalls faded and somewhat dingy, black calfskin boots on a pair of
+feet that could not have been larger than sixes, comprised his attire.
+
+So this was the Ramblin' Kid, Carolyn June thought. Someway she had
+pictured him a blue-eyed, yellow-haired sort of composite Skinny
+Rawlins, Chuck, Bert Lilly, Charley Saunders all in one and with the
+face of a boy in the teens!
+
+He was different. She wondered, and almost laughed at the absurd
+thought, if he was bow-legged. A glance at the straight limbs stretched
+in repose on the ground dispelled the doubt.
+
+The suddenness with which the Ramblin' Kid had spoken and the tone he
+used, Carolyn June thought, was utterly unfair. She felt as if she had
+been ambushed. How could she know he was sleeping under the shed? Why
+wasn't he in the bunk-house where he belonged? Her own embarrassment
+made her cross. She wanted to say "damn!" and stamp her foot or throw
+something at him, lying there so completely self-possessed! Instead, she
+looked steadily into the eyes of the Ramblin' Kid. Someway as she looked
+they seemed not so unkind, more sorrowful they were, on closer scrutiny,
+than cruel. She started to speak, her cheeks began to burn--
+
+Without a word she turned and walked rapidly toward the house.
+
+As she moved away Carolyn June felt something snap at her knee. She did
+not stop. Reaching down she gathered the soft folds of the loose gown
+about her and hurried away from the corral.
+
+"God!" the Ramblin' Kid whispered as he straightened up, "she's built
+like th' Gold Dust maverick--an' just as game! They was made for each
+other."
+
+He went to the corral and leaned against the fence, studying the filly
+thoughtfully, while Captain Jack with a friendly whinny came and nosed
+at the fingers thrust through the bars. After a time the mare cautiously
+moved up beside the roan stallion and stretched her own velvety muzzle
+toward the hand the Ramblin' Kid held out.
+
+"You want to be loved, too, you little devil!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed
+gently, "--you thought I was mean last night, didn't you?"
+
+For a while he fooled with the horses, then started toward the kitchen.
+A few steps from where Carolyn June had been standing he glanced down at
+a broad pink satin elastic band lying on the ground. It had been
+fastened with a silver butterfly clasp. The clasp was broken. The
+Ramblin' Kid stooped and picked it up.
+
+"I'll be--!" he chuckled as he fingered, almost reverently, the dainty
+thing, "it's a--a--darned pretty little jigger!"
+
+Smiling whimsically the Ramblin' Kid slipped his find in his pocket and
+sought Sing Pete to tease him for a bite of breakfast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+YOU'RE A BRUTE
+
+Carolyn June went directly to her room when she reached the house. She
+wished to investigate the feeling of looseness at her knee. The satin
+band that belonged there was gone. She felt her cheeks grow hot.
+Doubtless she had lost it at the corral--the Ramblin' Kid would pick it
+up! The thought tormented her. Once more she wanted to swear vigorously
+and with extreme earnestness. Instead she--laughed! It was all so
+absurd. The strange interest this rough cowboy inspired in her; the
+confusion she felt when he had spoken to her--no man among all the
+clever, carefully groomed, ultra-sophisticated suitors she had left in
+Hartville ever stirred her emotions as had the Ramblin' Kid with a few
+drawling words and one long look from his black, inscrutable eyes. That
+look! She had the feeling, someway, that her whole soul was naked before
+it. She was almost afraid of him. It was silly! She detested
+him--or--anyway, he needed punishment! No, he wasn't worth it! He was
+only an ignorant rider of the range--why trouble at all about him?
+
+Quickly changing her dress for a riding suit of khaki--the skirt
+sensibly divided--and the morning slippers for stout, tan, laced boots,
+she stepped into the front room. Ophelia was in her own room dressing to
+go to town. Carolyn June heard voices in the kitchen. Sing Pete's shrill
+chatter mingled with an occasional slow word from the Ramblin' Kid.
+Thought of the garter she had lost flashed into her mind. Perhaps the
+cowboy had not found it. She would run out to the corral and see.
+Passing quickly out the front way Carolyn June hastened again toward the
+circular corral. Old Heck and Parker were at the garage getting the car
+ready for the drive to Eagle Butte; Pedro and Chuck were riding across
+the valley toward the upper pasture. The other cowboys saddled their
+horses near the barn.
+
+As she walked, Carolyn June scanned the ground. At the corral she looked
+carefully where she had been standing. Her search was fruitless. She
+smiled queerly. Again she glanced at the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+"You darling," she whispered, "I am going to have you--I am--I
+absolutely am!"
+
+Turning, her eyes rested on the saddle, chaps and riding gear lying in
+the shed where the Ramblin' Kid had slept. Carolyn June stepped close to
+the outfit.
+
+"I have a notion to--to spit on you!" she said vehemently, "or kick--"
+but she didn't finish the sentence. One tan shoe had been drawn back as
+if to be swung viciously at the inoffensive pile of riding gear; it
+paused, suspended, then gently, almost caressingly, pushed the leather
+chaps which suddenly seemed to Carolyn June to look limp and worn and
+pathetically tired.
+
+As Carolyn June returned to the house Parker drove the car around to the
+front; Old Heck joined the cowboys, already mounting their bronchos, and
+with them rode down the lane in the direction of the lower field. Skinny
+came out of the barn, leading Pie Face and Old Blue. He left the horses
+standing and at the back-yard gate overtook Carolyn June. As they
+stepped inside the yard the Ramblin' Kid appeared at the kitchen door.
+
+"There's the Ramblin' Kid now," Skinny said as they approached. "Hello,
+Kid," he continued, "I see you got the filly--Excuse me, I guess you
+folks ain't acquainted."
+
+Haltingly he introduced them.
+
+Without the flicker of an eyelid the Ramblin' Kid looked into the eyes
+of Carolyn June. He had seen her coming from the corral and guessed
+correctly the reason for her second visit to the enclosure. Indeed at
+that moment his hand was in his pocket toying with the delicate souvenir
+for which she had gone to search. Yet his face was utterly without
+emotion as he lifted his hat and stood aside, acknowledging with formal
+words the introduction. "It's sure a surprisin' day an' pleasant--" he
+finished, emphasizing "surprisin'" and "pleasant" till Carolyn June
+could have sworn there was a veiled taunt in the words he spoke.
+
+She was equally calm. Smiling sweetly and with not a hint of a previous
+meeting she said: "I think I have heard of the Ramblin' Kid." Pausing a
+moment: "It's always peaceful after a storm!" she added enigmatically.
+And the Ramblin' Kid, as Skinny and the girl passed around to the front
+of the house, knew that Carolyn June had hurled a lance!
+
+"A natural born heart-breaker," he said to himself as he went toward the
+bunk-house, "a genuine, full-grown vampire, part intentional an' part
+because it's in her--but she's a pure-bred--" He grew pensive and
+silent, a look of gentleness came to his face, followed quickly by an
+expression of extreme humility. "Oh, hell," he exclaimed aloud, "what's
+th' use!" Entering the building the Ramblin' Kid seated himself at the
+table at the end of the room. He pulled the pink satin elastic from his
+pocket and gazed at it, rubbing the soft fabric tenderly with the end of
+his thumb. His eyes lighted suddenly with anger and contempt. He threw
+the band violently across the room into a corner. "I wasn't raised to
+associate with luxuries like that!" he exclaimed with mingled bitterness
+and scorn, "--a damned ign'rant cow-puncher dreamin' dreams about an
+angel!" he finished with a harsh laugh. For a while he sat silent,
+gazing down at the table. Then he got up, went over and lifted the
+garter from where it had fallen and replaced it in his pocket. "Oh,
+well," he chuckled less bitterly and whimsically added, "--any idiot can
+smile at th' mornin' star even if th' darned thing is beyond his reach!
+Besides, she don't need to ever know--" Leaving the bunk-house he went
+toward the circular corral.
+
+Parker climbed from the car and entered the house, asking if Ophelia was
+ready.
+
+"In just a moment!" the widow called from her room.
+
+"What are you and me going to do?" Skinny asked Carolyn June as they
+stepped on to the porch, "take a ride?"
+
+"On 'Old Blue'?" Carolyn June questioned scornfully, then, with
+resignation, as they went inside the house: "Oh, well--I suppose, after
+a while. I have some letters to write now," and she entered her room
+leaving Skinny standing perplexed by her varying moods. He looked
+foolishly at Parker a moment. Going to the graphophone he put on a
+record--
+
+  "_I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air_!"
+
+wailed disconsolately through the house.
+
+"Good heavens," Carolyn June called, "do you blow bubbles this early in
+the morning?"
+
+"Don't you like it?" Skinny asked soberly. "I thought that was a pretty
+good tune."
+
+"I'm crazy about it!" Carolyn June answered sarcastically. "There and
+then, but not here and now--"
+
+"Where and when?" Skinny queried innocently.
+
+"In the valley of the moon at the end of a perfect day!" she laughed
+back. "--Forgive me, I couldn't help it!"
+
+"What does she mean?" Skinny asked Parker in a whisper. "Is she making
+fun of me?"
+
+"No, you blamed fool," Parker replied, "she feels good and is just
+joking--"
+
+Skinny brightened up immediately.
+
+"That's a good one," he called to Carolyn June with a snicker; "I never
+thought of it before!"
+
+A ripple of laughter came from Carolyn June's room.
+
+"Really, I don't mind," she said; "play _Bubbles_ as much as you like--I
+think it's rather soothing, but truly I must write my letters now so
+Ophelia can take them to town."
+
+Half an hour later Ophelia appeared dressed for the drive to Eagle
+Butte. Carolyn June and Skinny went out on the front porch and watched
+the widow and Parker climb into the Clagstone "Six." As Parker started
+the engine Skinny suddenly called to him. Parker sat with his foot on
+the clutch while Skinny hurried out to the car.
+
+"What do you want?" he asked impatiently, "We've got to be going!"
+
+"Lean over here," Skinny said, his face flushing scarlet, "I want to
+tell you something."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Stop at the Golden Rule and get me a white shirt size number fifteen
+and--a purple necktie if they've got any!" Skinny whispered.
+
+Ophelia heard and choked back a laugh.
+
+"Thunderation, he's plumb locoed!" Parker exclaimed, as he jammed the
+clutch into gear and the car sprang forward.
+
+"Don't forget it, Parker," Skinny called earnestly, "I actually need
+it!"
+
+Carolyn June and Skinny stood on the porch and watched the car climb the
+grade and out on to the bench. The storm of the night before had washed
+the earth clean and cooled the air. A faint after-breeze fanned the
+tree-tops. The Costejo peaks stood out, with stereoscopical clearness,
+against a cloudless sky. The day was a challenge to one who loved the
+open.
+
+"You may saddle 'Old Blue,'" Carolyn June said to Skinny. "--I'll see if
+I can 'stick on him' long enough to ride as far as the river!"
+
+"He's already saddled," Skinny replied, "him and Old Pie Face both."
+
+"Man, dear," she cried in mock misunderstanding, "you surely are not
+expecting me to ride the two of them at once!"
+
+"No," he answered meekly, "Old Pie Face is my horse, I'm going to ride
+him and go with you."
+
+"Indeed!" she exclaimed, then laughing mischievously. "Oh,
+certainly--that's a good one--I hadn't thought of it before!"
+
+"Don't you want me to go?" Skinny asked doubtfully.
+
+"Surely. I should be utterly unhappy if you didn't--I'll get my hat."
+
+"Blamed if I can figure her out," Skinny said to himself as Carolyn June
+ran lightly into the house. "She keeps a feller freezing to death and
+burning up all at once--sort of in heaven and hell both mixed together."
+
+A white, medium-brimmed felt hat was set jauntily on the fluffy brown
+hair when she reappeared. Skinny's heart leaped hungrily. Carolyn June
+was a picture of perfect physical fitness. The cowboy silently wondered
+how long he could keep from making "a complete, triple-expansion, darned
+fool of himself!"
+
+"I'm glad you want me to go," he said, renewing the conversation as they
+started around the house, "because I wanted to and, well, anyhow it's my
+job--"
+
+"What do you mean 'your job'?" Carblyn June asked quickly.
+
+Skinny was stricken silent. He realized he was on dangerous ground. He
+wasn't sure it would be wise to tell her what he meant. Someway he felt
+Carolyn June would resent it if she knew he was drawing wages for
+acting the lover to her. It seemed wholly impossible for him, just at
+that moment, to explain that, although Old Heck was paying him ten
+dollars a month extra salary to court, temporarily, his attractive
+niece, he, Skinny Rawlins, would personally be overjoyed to reverse the
+order and give his entire income, adding a bonus as well, for the
+privilege of continuing indefinitely and of his own choice the more than
+pleasant employment. Yet this was the literal truth, so quickly had his
+susceptible heart yielded to the charms of the girl. But he dared not
+try to tell her. He knew the words would not come and if they did he
+would probably choke on them and she, not believing the truth, would
+detest him. Skinny had heard of men who courted girls of wealth to win
+their money and with sincere contempt he despised these degenerates of
+his sex. Now, suddenly, he felt that he himself was in their class. The
+thought made him sick, actually caused his stomach to quiver with a sort
+of nausea.
+
+"Skinny Rawlins," Carolyn June said sternly, stopping and looking
+straight at the confused and mentally tortured cowboy, "tell me--and
+don't lie--what you meant when you said to go with me was 'your job!'"
+
+Skinny raised his eyes; in them was piteous appeal.
+
+"I meant--I--" he hesitated.
+
+"Tell me the truth," she ordered relentlessly, "or I'll--I'll--do
+something awful!"
+
+"I meant it was my job--" suddenly inspired, he blurted out, "to ride
+Old Pie Face. He's--he's dangerous and has to be rode every so often to
+keep him from getting worse and to-day's the day to ride him!"
+
+"Skinny," Carolyn June spoke gently, "I feel sorry for you. I want to
+like you and I'm disappointed. It breaks my heart to say it but you are
+a liar--you're just a common double dashed liar--like Uncle Josiah was
+when he sent that telegram saying there was smallpox at the Quarter
+Circle KT--"
+
+"Am I?" Skinny asked humbly.
+
+"You are," she retorted impatiently, "and you know it--"
+
+"Do I?" as if dazed.
+
+"You do, and did all the time--"
+
+"Did I?" he felt like a parrot.
+
+"You did!" Carolyn June snapped. "Good heavens," she continued, "why do
+men think they have to lie to women? Common sense and experience ought
+to teach them they can never fool them long--I hoped out here in the big
+West I would find one man who wouldn't lie--"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid won't," Skinny said as if suddenly struck by a bright
+thought, "--he wouldn't lie to you!"
+
+Carolyn June laughed scornfully.
+
+"Oh, yes he would," she declared, "all of them do--every last one of
+the poor frail"--contemptuously--"turtles!"
+
+"But th' Ramblin' Kid wouldn't," Skinny persisted; "he won't lie to
+anybody."
+
+"Not even to a woman?" she questioned incredulously.
+
+"No," he answered positively, "I'm sure he wouldn't."
+
+"And why wouldn't he?" she asked.
+
+"Well," Skinny replied, "for one thing he don't give a darn. Th'
+Ramblin' Kid don't care what anybody, man, woman or anything else thinks
+about him or whether they like what he says or not so there ain't any
+use of him lying. Maybe he wouldn't tell what was in his mind unless you
+asked him, but if you did ask him he'd say what it was whether he
+thought it satisfied you or not. He's funny that way. He just naturally
+don't seem to be built for telling lies and he wouldn't do it--"
+
+"Oh, Skinny, poor simple Skinny!" Carolyn June laughed. "You don't know
+men--men when they're dealing with women! Through all the unnamed years
+of my life I've never found one man who was absolutely truthful when
+talking with a 'female.' They think they have to lie to women. They do
+it either to keep from hurting them--or else they do it intentionally
+for the purpose of hurting them, one or the other! And they are so
+stupid! No man can hide anything long from a woman--"
+
+Reaching over she jerked a spray of tiny roses from the rambler at the
+window near which they were standing; tapping the blossoms against her
+lips, beginning to smile whimsically, she continued: "Why, I can almost
+read your own thoughts right now! If I wanted to I could tell you more
+about what is in your mind than you yourself could tell--"
+
+"Could you?" Skinny said, a guilty look coming in his eyes.
+
+"For one thing," Carolyn June went on, ignoring the inane question, "you
+are in love--"
+
+"I ain't!" the over-hasty denial slipped from his lips unintentionally.
+
+"Lie!" she laughed, "you can't help telling 'em, can you? And you are
+thinking--" She paused while her eyes rested demurely on the roses in
+her hand.
+
+"What am I thinking?" Skinny asked breathlessly.
+
+Before she could reply an agonized spitting, yowling and hissing,
+accompanied by the rattle of tin, came from behind the kitchen. "What's
+that?" Carolyn June cried half frightened at the instant a yellow house
+cat, his head fastened in an old tomato can, came bouncing backward,
+clawing and scratching, from around the corner.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Skinny exclaimed, "it's that darned cat again--Sing Pete
+goes and dabs butter in the bottoms of the cans and the fool cat sticks
+his head in trying to lick it out and gets fastened. It looks like the
+blamed idiot would learn sometime. It's what I call a rotten joke
+anyhow!"
+
+Sing Pete appeared at the kitchen door cackling with fiendish joy at the
+success of his ruse.
+
+Carolyn June stared, apparently stricken dumb by the antics of the
+struggling animal.
+
+"Sun-fish! Go to it--you poor deluded son-of-sorrow!" The Ramblin' Kid,
+who, unnoticed by Carolyn June and Skinny, at that moment had come from
+the corral and stood leaning against the fence, chuckled half pityingly,
+yet making no move toward the creature.
+
+"Catch him and take it off," Carolyn June cried, "it's hurting him!"
+
+Skinny started toward the rapidly gyrating jumble of claws, can and cat.
+
+"I will if the darn' thing'll hold still a minute!" he said.
+
+Carolyn June looked at the Ramblin' Kid, still leaning against the fence
+watching the cat's contortions.
+
+"Why don't you help him?" she asked impatiently. "Skinny can't do it
+alone--can't you see it's choking?"
+
+"No, he's not choking," the Ramblin' Kid replied without moving from
+where he stood, "--he's sufferin' some, but he ain't chokin'. He's got
+quite a lot of wind yet an' is gettin' some valuable experience. That
+cat's what I call a genuine acrobat!" he mused as the terrified
+creature leaped frantically in the air and somersaulted backward,
+striking and clawing desperately to free itself of the can tightly
+wedged on its head.
+
+Carolyn June was accustomed to obedience from men creatures. The
+Ramblin' Kid's indifference to her request, together with his apparent
+cruelty in refusing to aid in relieving the cat from its torturing
+dilemma, angered and piqued the girl.
+
+"Help Skinny take it off, I tell you!" she repeated, "haven't you a
+spark of sympathy--"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid resented her tone and detected as well the note of
+wounded pride. Instinctively he felt that at that instant the cat, with
+Carolyn June, had become a secondary consideration.
+
+"Well, some, I reckon," he answered, speaking deliberately, "generally a
+little, but right now darned little for that old yaller cat. I figure
+he's a plumb free moral agent," he continued as if speaking to himself;
+"he got his head in that can on his own hook an' it's up to him to get
+it out or let it stay in _this time_, just as he pleases--"
+
+"But Sing Pete put butter in the can!" Carolyn June said, arguing.
+
+"He's done it before," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a glance at the
+Chinese cook still gleefully enjoying the results of his cruel joke. "He
+won't no more. But that don't make no difference," he laughed, "th'
+darn' cat hadn't ought to have yielded to temptation!"
+
+"You're a brute!" she exclaimed passionately, "--an ignorant, savage,
+stupid brute--" The harsh words sprang from the lips of Carolyn June
+before she thought. The Ramblin' Kid flinched involuntarily as if he had
+been struck full in the face. A look came in his eyes that almost made
+her regret what she had said.
+
+"I reckon I am," he replied, gazing steadily at her without feeling or
+resentment and speaking slowly, "yes, I'm an 'ign'rant, savage, stupid
+brute,'" deliberately accenting each word as he repeated the stinging
+phrase, "--but--what's the use?" he finished with a mirthless laugh.
+"Anyhow," he added, glancing again at the cat and Skinny's futile
+efforts to catch it, "I ain't interferin' this time, at least, with that
+damned cat!"
+
+Carolyn June knew she had hurt with her unintentionally cruel words. For
+an instant there was a humane impulse to temper their severity.
+
+"I--I--didn't--" she started to say, but the Ramblin' Kid had turned
+and, ignoring the cat, Skinny and herself, was leaning on the fence with
+his back to her, looking off across the valley, apparently lost in
+thought. She did not finish the sentence.
+
+The cat bucked its way to the fence. As it went under the wire the can
+caught on a barb of the lower strand. Jerking furiously, the animal
+freed itself from the can, leaving splotches of hair and hide on the
+ragged edges of tin. Still spitting and clawing, with its tail standing
+out like an enormous yellow plume, it dashed toward the barn, eager to
+put distance between itself and the thing that had been torturing it.
+
+"Gosh a'mighty," Skinny said, sweating with the exertion and the
+excitement of trying to catch the cat, "it'll be noon before we get
+started for that ride!"
+
+"We'll go now," Carolyn June answered, "--before some other horrible
+thing occurs."
+
+"We're going over to the river and maybe out on the sand-hills a ways,"
+Skinny casually remarked to the Ramblin' Kid as Carolyn June and he
+passed through the gate. "Oh, yes," he added, "Chuck said tell you he
+took your rope--there was a weak spot in his and he didn't get it fixed
+yesterday!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid did not answer.
+
+Skinny had been wrong about the Ramblin' Kid not caring what any one
+thought of him. He was supersensitive of his roughness, his lack of
+education and conscious crudeness, and the words of Carolyn June were
+still in his mind. When Skinny and the girl were going toward their
+horses the Ramblin' Kid turned and entered the gate. Sing Pete was still
+at the kitchen door.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid stepped up to him.
+
+"You damned yellow heathen," he said in a level voice, "if you ever play
+that trick on that cat again th' Quarter Circle KT will be shy a cook
+an' your ghost'll be headin' pronto for China!"
+
+Without waiting for a reply he went back to the gate and watched Skinny
+and Carolyn June ride down the lane. The deftness and skill with which
+the girl handled the horse she rode forced a smile of admiration to the
+lips of the Ramblin' Kid. She sat close in the saddle and a glance
+showed she was a born master of horses. "She's a wonder," he said to
+himself, "a teetotal wonder--" A shade of melancholy passed over his
+face. "An ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" he murmured bitterly, "well,
+I reckon she was right--Hell!" he exclaimed aloud, "I wonder if
+Skinny'll remember about that upper crossin' bein' dang'rous with
+quicksand after the rain--Guess he did," he finished as the two riders
+turned to the right toward the lower and more distant river ford and
+disappeared among the willows and cottonwood trees that fringed the
+Cimarron.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+THE GREEDY SANDS
+
+When the Ramblin' Kid, working the rope-conquered and leg-weary Gold
+Dust maverick from the North Springs back to the Quarter Circle KT,
+crossed the Cimarron at dawn Captain Jack and the filly swam a raging,
+drift-burdened river. Less than twelve hours later Carolyn June and
+Skinny, at the lower ford, rode into a stream that again was normal. Old
+Blue and Pie Face splashed through water barely reaching the stirrup
+leathers. Only the fresh rubbish flung out on the meadows by the flood's
+quick anger or lodged in the willows, still bent by the pressure of the
+torrent that had rushed over them and slimy with yellow sediment left on
+their branches and leaves, told the story of the swift rise and fall of
+the Cimarron the night before.
+
+On the bluff north of the river Carolyn June and Skinny checked their
+horses while the girl gazed down on the panorama of green fields, narrow
+lanes, corrals and low buildings of the Quarter Circle KT. The sight
+thrilled her. On all the Kiowa range there was no more entrancing view.
+
+"It's kind of pretty, ain't it?" Skinny ventured.
+
+"Beautiful!" she breathed.
+
+"I'd--I'd like to stand here and look at it always--if you--if you'd
+enjoy it!" he said and was instantly appalled by his own audacity.
+
+Carolyn June flashed a quick look at him.
+
+"We had better go on," she said, then added lightly: "Does it always
+affect you so when you get this view of the valley?"
+
+"No. But, well, somehow it's different this morning--maybe it's because
+you are here!" he blurted out hurriedly.
+
+"Please," she said, starting Old Blue toward the west along the crest of
+the ridge, "don't be sentimental. I'm afraid--" she added, intending to
+say it would spoil their ride.
+
+"You needn't be, with me along!" Skinny interrupted hastily,
+misinterpreting her meaning.
+
+She laughed and without explaining urged her horse forward.
+
+Skinny followed pensively on Old Pie Face.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid, while going from barn to corral, glanced across the
+valley and saw Carolyn June and Skinny as they rode along the ridge. It
+was two miles from the ranch to the bluff on which they were riding, but
+so clear was the rain-washed air that the horses and riders were easily
+recognized. He watched them until they reached the corner of the upland
+pasture. There the roads from the lower and upper fords came together.
+The couple turned north along the fence and disappeared beyond the
+ridge.
+
+For a mile Carolyn June and Skinny rode without speaking. He felt
+already a reaction from his over-boldness of a while ago and silently
+swore at himself for his rashness. She was not eager to resume a
+conversation that had threatened a painfully emotional turn. She was
+quite content to enjoy the fresh air of the morning, the changing scenes
+through which they passed and the easy motion of the horse on which she
+was mounted.
+
+The bronchos pricked forward their ears at the sound of galloping hoofs.
+
+"Somebody's coming," Skinny spoke as Pedro, riding rapidly toward them,
+rounded the point of a low hill a little distance ahead.
+
+"What's wrong?" Skinny questioned, when the three met and stopped their
+horses.
+
+"The pasture fence is bu'sted," Pedro answered; "at the northeast corner
+it is broke. The cattle are out. Ten--fifteen maybe--are dead--the
+lightning strike them perhaps. The others all of them are gone. They go
+pronto, stampede I think, toward the Purgatory. Chuck and me can not get
+them alone--I go to tell Old Heck so the boys will come and help!"
+
+It was plain to Skinny what had occurred. The cattle had drifted before
+the storm until stopped by the wire. While crowded against it a bolt of
+lightning had struck the fence, followed the metal strands, and killed
+the animals touching or nearest to it. In the fright the others plunged
+madly forward and had broken their way to freedom. Five hundred Diamond
+Bar steers, recently bought by Old Heck and brought from the Purgatory
+forty-five miles north of the Quarter Circle KT were out and rushing
+back to their former range.
+
+"You go help Chuck," Skinny said to Pedro. "Carolyn June and me will
+turn around and take the news to Old Heck and send some of the boys to
+help you. If them cattle ain't bunched before they hit the Purgatory and
+get scattered over their old range it will take a month to gather them
+and get them back again!"
+
+"Why don't you yourself go with Pedro and Chuck?" Carolyn June asked
+Skinny. "I can ride to the ranch alone and tell the others about it."
+
+"I'm supposed to stay with--" he begun.
+
+"With me, I presume," she interrupted. "Well, this is one time you
+don't. Go on with the boys. You are needed after those steers a lot more
+than you are to 'herd' me back to the ranch!"
+
+Without waiting to argue she wheeled Old Blue toward the Quarter Circle
+KT. Skinny watched her a moment, then started with Pedro in the other
+direction. Suddenly checking his horse he swung around in the saddle.
+
+"Go back the way we came!" he called after the girl. "Don't try the
+upper ford!"
+
+Carolyn June looked around and threw up her hand, motioning toward the
+north. Thinking that she understood, Skinny touched Old Pie Face with
+the spurs and soon overtook the Mexican.
+
+He was mistaken. Carolyn June had not understood the warning. The
+distance was too great for his words to reach her distinctly. She
+thought he was merely protesting against her going alone. At the fork of
+the road she saw that the trail that led to the upper ford was much the
+nearer way to the ranch. Reining Old Blue into it she rode swiftly along
+the ridge and down the slope toward the dangerous crossing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Ramblin' Kid spent the morning at the circular corral. He was
+studying the moods and working to win the confidence of the Gold Dust
+maverick. He was watching her and thinking always a little ahead of the
+thought that was in the mind of the mare. His love for a horse and
+understanding of the wonderfully intelligent animals was as natural as
+were the brown eyes, the soft low voice, the gentle but strong touch, by
+which it was expressed. He wooed the outlaw filly thoughtfully,
+carefully, as a lover courts a sweetheart. The beautiful creature
+reminded him of Carolyn June. "They was made for each other!" he
+repeated softly as he worked with the mare. From the corral he could see
+the road across the river where Skinny and the girl had gone. Often he
+turned his eyes in that direction.
+
+He was fingering the garter in his pocket and looking toward the river
+when Carolyn June appeared on the ridge as she returned alone to the
+ranch. He stood and watched her. The ugly words she had spoken at the
+gate came into his mind and a bitter smile curled his lips. Still he
+watched the girl, expecting Skinny would ride into view. She turned down
+the ridge toward the upper ford.
+
+"That's funny," he thought, "wonder where Skinny's at?" Then it flashed
+through his mind that something must be wrong for the girl was riding
+alone. "Hell!" he exclaimed aloud, "she's by herself an' headin'
+straight for th' upper ford!" Only an instant he paused. "Jack!" he
+cried sharply, running to the corral gate and swinging it partly open.
+"Come--_quick_!"
+
+The roan stallion started at a trot toward the gate, then, trained to
+obey instantly the word of the master he loved better than life, leaped
+nimbly through the opening. Slamming and fastening the gate the Ramblin'
+Kid ran to the shed, the broncho at his side. He threw the blanket and
+saddle on the little roan, cinched quickly but carefully the double
+gear, slipped the bit into the waiting mouth of the horse and without
+stopping to put on his chaps sprang on Captain Jack's back and whirled
+him in a dead run around the corner of the shed and down the lane toward
+the north. At the pasture corral below the barn he guided the broncho
+close to the fence and scarcely checking him leaned over and lifted a
+rope, coiled and hung on a post near the gate, from its place--the one
+Chuck that morning had left because of the flaw.
+
+"God!" he groaned, "--an' a bad rope!"
+
+He glanced toward the ridge across the river. Carolyn June had
+disappeared down the trail that led to the upper ford.
+
+"Go, Little Man, go--for th' love of God, go!" the Ramblin' Kid
+whispered as he leaned forward over the neck of the horse. Captain Jack
+answered the agonized appeal as he would never have responded to the
+cruel cut of spurs and leaped ahead in a desperate race to beat Old Blue
+and his precious burden to the greedy sands of the Cimarron.
+
+As he rode, the Ramblin' Kid slipped his hand around the coils of the
+rope till his fingers found the broken strands that told of the weakness
+that caused Chuck to leave it behind that morning. Bending over it,
+while his horse ran, he worked frantically to weave a rawhide saddle
+string into the fiber and so strengthen the dangerous spot.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thinking only to reach the ranch as quickly as possible Carolyn June
+guided Old Blue down the trail and through the thin patches of willows
+and cottonwood trees that grew along the river. The stream looked
+innocent enough and the crossing perfectly safe. Swift but apparently
+shallow water flowed close to the northern bank. Beyond that was a
+clean, pebble strewn bar and then a smaller, narrower prong of the
+river. On the south side stretched a white, unbroken expanse of sand a
+hundred feet or more wide and ending against the low slope of the meadow
+land.
+
+At the brink of the stream Old Blue stopped short and refused to go on.
+
+"What's the matter," Carolyn June laughed lightly, "--afraid of getting
+your 'little tootsies' wet?"
+
+The horse reared backward when she tried to urge him ahead and wheeled
+half around in an effort to get away from the water.
+
+"Look here, Old Fellow," she spoke sharply, tightening the reins as she
+touched his flank with her spur, "we haven't time for foolishness!
+Generally, in fact always," accenting the last word, "horses--and
+men--go in the direction I want them to go! Why, you're as
+stubborn--as--as the Ramblin' Kid!" she finished with another laugh as
+Old Blue, with a snort of fear, yet not daring to resist further the
+firm hand and firmer will of his rider, stepped into the water.
+
+"Gee, when you do start you go in a hurry, don't you?" Carolyn June said
+as the broncho went rapidly forward as if eager to negotiate the
+crossing, seeming to know that safety lay in the quickness and lightness
+of his tread. As he lunged ahead the girl had the sensation that the
+saddle was sinking from under her. Reaching the firmer footing of the
+gravel bar in the center of the stream Old Blue tried again to turn
+about.
+
+"Go on!" Carolyn June cried impatiently yet with a feeling somehow of
+impending danger she could not wholly define, "--you've got to do it, so
+you had as well quit your nonsense and go ahead!" at the same time
+raking the horse's sides sharply again with the spurs.
+
+Crossing the shallow branch of the river the broncho reached the smooth,
+firm appearing beach of sand.
+
+With his head down, his muzzle almost touching the ground, as if
+scenting, feeling, his way, he went forward stepping rapidly, easily, as
+possible. At each step his foot slipped lower into the yielding,
+quivering mass. Carolyn June felt him tremble and the sensation that the
+horse was being pulled from under her grew more and more pronounced. She
+noticed how he sank into the sand and observed also the sweat beginning
+to darken the hair on the neck of her mount.
+
+"Pretty soft, isn't it?" she said, speaking to the broncho kindly as
+though to encourage him and perhaps at the same time to allay a bit the
+queer sense of uneasiness she felt, for even yet she did not realize the
+danger into which she had unknowingly ridden.
+
+Half-way to the firm black soil of the southern bank of the stream Old
+Blue's front feet seemed suddenly to give way beneath him. He began to
+plunge desperately. Then it was the truth came to Carolyn June. Her
+cheeks grew white.
+
+"The quicksand!" she exclaimed aloud, at the same time trying to help
+the horse with a lift of the reins. It was too late to turn back. Her
+only salvation lay in reaching the solid ground such a few yards
+ahead--and yet so fearfully far away. Old Blue struggled madly to go
+forward, gaining a little but at each effort sinking deeper into the
+sand. Carolyn June tried to encourage him with words:
+
+"Come on, come on! Good Little Horse--you can make it! Keep
+trying--that's it--now!--you're doing it! Brave Old Blue--don't give
+up--don't give up, Boy!" she pleaded, pity for the horse causing her
+almost to forget her own terrible peril.
+
+It was useless.
+
+Twenty-five feet from safety Old Blue's front quarters went down until
+his breast was against the sand. The hind legs were buried to the
+stifles. He wallowed and floundered helplessly. His hoofs touched
+nothing solid on which to stand. He stretched his head forward,
+straining-to lift himself away from that horrible, clinging suction. His
+efforts only forced him down--down--always down!
+
+Carolyn June's own feet were in the sand. She threw herself from the
+saddle--as far to one side and ahead of the horse as she could. With her
+weight removed perhaps Old Blue could get out. Anyway it was death to
+stay on the horse. Perhaps alone she could escape--she was lighter--the
+sand might hold her up--by moving rapidly surely she could go that short
+twenty-five feet to the firm ground ahead of her. At the first step she
+sank half-way to her thigh. She fell forward thinking to crawl on her
+hands and knees. Her arms went into the mass to the shoulder.
+Silently--without a word--but with horrible fear gripping her heart she
+fought the sand. She sank deeper--slowly--steadily--surely. The hellish
+stuff closed about her body to the waist. If she only had
+something--anything--solid to hold to! She took off her hat, grasped the
+edges of the brim, reached her arms out and tried to use the frail disk
+of felt for a buoy. It held a moment then gradually settled below the
+surface of the shifting, elusive substance. Again and again she lifted
+the hat free from the sand and sought to place it so it would bear a
+part at least of her weight. Her efforts were vain. The insidious mass
+crept higher and higher on her body. She remembered reading that one
+caught in the quicksand by his struggles only hastened his own
+destruction. She tried to be perfectly still. In spite of all she was
+sinking--sinking--the sand was engulfing her.
+
+During all her struggles Carolyn June remained silent. She had not
+thought to cry out. Somehow she could not realize that she was to die.
+The sun was bright, the sky cloudless, the trees along the river-bank
+barely swayed in a little breeze! How beautiful the world! How queer
+that such a little distance away was the green grass of the meadow and
+the firm black earth in which it was rooted and she--she was held fast
+and helpless in the embrace of the deadly sand! Strange thoughts rushed
+through her mind. She wondered what they would think at the ranch when
+night came and she did not return. Would they know? Would they guess the
+thing that had happened? Would the sand draw her down--down--until it
+covered her so none would ever know where or how she died? She looked at
+Old Blue. "Poor old fellow!" she whispered, "I am sorry--I didn't
+know--it looked so white and firm and safe!" The sand was half-way up
+the sides of the horse and he swayed his body in pathetic, futile
+efforts to free himself.
+
+A strange calm came over Carolyn June. So this was the end? She was to
+die alone, horribly, in the treacherous sands of the Cimarron? Surely it
+could not be--God would not let her die! She was so young! She had just
+begun to live--She thought of Hartville, her father, the old friends.
+How far away they seemed! How queer it was--she could not image in her
+mind any of the familiar scenes, the face of her father or any of the
+friends she had known so well! She tried to think of her Uncle Josiah,
+Ophelia, Skinny Rawlins--poor fellow, how susceptible was his big,
+innocent, boyish heart! She called each one up in a mental effort to
+remember how they had looked, the sound of their voices--they were only
+names--dim shadowy names! There was nothing in the whole world but Old
+Blue--herself--and the sand--the sand--an eternity of sand pulling,
+dragging, sucking her down! She closed her eyes tightly, thinking to
+shut out the impression of utter loneliness. The face of the Ramblin'
+Kid flashed into her mind! She could see him! She saw him lying under
+the shed, as he had looked that morning, his head resting on the saddle,
+his eyes gazing steadily into her own; she saw him again as he had
+looked when she stung him with her harsh words at the gate. She seemed
+to see the agonized humility in his expression and hear the low
+tenseness of his voice as he repeated aloud the words she had used--"An
+ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" She laughed almost hysterically. "Why
+can I see him--just him--and not the others? Has he come to--to--haunt
+me?" she finished with a gasp.
+
+The sand had reached her breast. How long before it clutched at her
+throat? Her mouth? Her eyes? Ah, would she hold up her arm as she went
+down--down--and reach out her hand as if to wave the world a last, long
+farewell? "I will--I will!" she cried, the pressure around her body
+almost stopping her breath, "I--I--will--and--wiggle my fingers to the
+end!" she added with a choking half-hysterical laugh, so tightly did she
+cling to life. Her mood changed. "I--guess--I ought to pray!" she said,
+"but--I--God--God knows anyhow!" her voice trailing away to a whisper as
+if she had grown suddenly, utterly, tired. She stretched out her hands
+once more with the hat, trying to use it to buoy her up. Under the
+weight of her arms it sank in the sand. She tossed it to one side. "It
+will--stay--on top by itself," she choked. "I--I--will leave it--maybe
+they will find it--and know--" She felt her senses were leaving her.
+Even yet she had not called for help. It had not occurred to her that
+rescue was possible. As if it were an echo to her thoughts there came
+the throbbing tattoo of hoofs pounding the earth. She listened intently.
+Some one was riding down the lane toward the river from the ranch! The
+horse was evidently running--running madly, desperately. Would he cross
+at the upper or lower ford? Her heart pulsed with heavy dull throbs. The
+sand was crushing her chest. A wave of weakness swept over her. She
+almost fainted. At that instant Captain Jack, carrying the Ramblin' Kid,
+leaped through an opening in the willows and stopped--his front feet
+plowing the firm ground at the edge of the quivering beach of sand.
+
+"Pure luck!" the Ramblin' Kid breathed fervently, his eye quickly
+measuring the distance to the nearly exhausted girl; "she's close enough
+I can reach her with th' rope! God, if it'll only hold!" Already the
+coils were in his hand. With a single backward fling of the noose and
+forward toss he dropped the loop over the head of Carolyn June.
+
+"Pull it up--close--under your arms!" he commanded shortly, "an' hang on
+with your hands to take th' strain off your body!"
+
+The girt obeyed without a word.
+
+He double half-hitched the rope to the horn of the saddle, swung
+Captain Jack around. "Look out!" he called to the girl as he started
+away from the brink of the sand. "Steady, Boy, be careful--" to the
+broncho. The slack gradually tightened. The strain drew on Carolyn
+June's arms till it seemed they would be pulled from the sockets. The
+rope cut cruelly into her body under her shoulders. She wanted to
+cry--to scream--to laugh. She did neither. She threw back her head and
+clung with all her strength to the rough lariat, stretched taut as a
+cable of steel.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid leaned forward in the saddle, his body half turned,
+eyes looking back along the straight line of the severely tested rope.
+He swore softly, steadily, under his breath. "God--if it will only
+hold--if it only don't break!"
+
+Slowly, surely, the little stallion leaned his weight against the
+tensely drawn riata and Carolyn June felt herself lifted, inch by inch,
+out of the sand that engulfed her. At last she fell forward--her body
+free. Without stopping the horse the Ramblin' Kid continued away from
+the river-bank and dragged the girl across the yielding surface to the
+solid earth and safety. The instant she was where he could reach her he
+whirled Captain Jack and rode quickly back. Carolyn June was trying to
+get to her feet when he sprang from the broncho and helped her to the
+firm ground on which he stood. She was panting and exhausted.
+
+"Get--get--Old Blue out!" she gasped and dropped limply down on the
+grass, fingering at the rope to remove it from around her body.
+
+"Danged if she ain't got more heart than I thought she had!" the
+Ramblin' Kid said to himself as he lifted the loop from over her head.
+"I'm goin' to," he said aloud, "if I can--but--I'm afraid he's gone.
+I'll try anyhow--you lay there an' rest--" at the same time remounting
+his horse.
+
+The sand covered the rump of Old Blue. The saddle, Parker's it was, was
+nearly submerged, only the horn and cantle showing above the slimy mass.
+His head, neck and the top of his withers were yet exposed. He still
+struggled, wallowing feebly, vainly resisting the downward pull of the
+sand. Crouching, as if fascinated by the terrible scene, Carolyn June
+watched as the Ramblin' Kid, waiting his opportunity, at the instant the
+horse in the sand lifted his head deftly flung the rope over his neck.
+With a short jerk of the wrist he tightened the noose till it closed
+snugly about the throat of the broncho. Again turning Captain Jack away
+from the bank he urged him slowly forward. The rope stiffened. The
+little stallion bunched himself and desperately strained against the
+dead weight of Old Blue, multiplied many times by the suction of the
+sand. The Ramblin' Kid leaned far over the neck of Captain Jack to give
+the horse the advantage of his own weight and looked back, watching the
+supreme efforts of the mired broncho as he fought to climb out of the
+sand. A moment it looked as if the little roan would drag him out.
+Slowly he seemed to be raising and moving forward. There was a sharp
+snap. Half-way down its length the lariat parted. At the weak spot the
+strain was too great. Captain Jack plunged forward to his knees, his
+nose rooting the earth, and the Ramblin' Kid barely saved himself from
+pitching over the horse's head.
+
+"That's what I was dreadin'--" he said as he turned and rode back to the
+edge of the sand.
+
+Carolyn June gazed, wide-eyed, speechless with horror, at the horse in
+the sand. When the rope broke, Old Blue, with a groan almost human, sank
+back and quickly settled down until only his head and part of his neck
+were exposed to view. The Ramblin' Kid looked at the broken rope--the
+end fastened around the throat of Old Blue had whipped back and was
+lying far beyond the cowboy's reach. The piece half-hitched to the
+saddle horn was too short for another throw. Old Blue was doomed.
+Carolyn June saw him sinking gradually, surely, into the sand. It seemed
+ages. His eyes appealed with dumb pathos to the group on the bank. They
+could hear his breath coming in harsh, terrible gasps. The sand seemed
+to be deliberately torturing him as though it were some hellish thing,
+alive and of fiendish cunning, that grasped its victim and then paused
+in his destruction to gloat over his hopeless agony.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid sat Captain Jack and watched.
+
+"Why did God ever want to make that stuff anyhow!" sprang hoarsely from
+his lips. He was torn between blind unreasoning anger at the quicksand
+and pity for the struggling horse. Suddenly he jerked the forty-four,
+always on his saddle, from its holster. As the gun swung back and then
+forward there was a crashing report and Old Blue's head dropped, with a
+convulsive shudder, limp on the sand.
+
+Carolyn June screamed and buried her face in her hands.
+
+At the sound of the shot Captain Jack stiffened and stood rigid. The
+Ramblin' Kid, his face white and drawn, sat and looked dry-eyed at the
+red stream oozing from the round hole just below the brow-band of the
+bridle on the head of the horse he had killed.
+
+"I--I--would have wanted somebody to do it to me!" he said softly and
+rode to the side of the girl huddled on the ground. He dismounted and
+stood, without speaking, looking down at her shaking form. After a time
+she looked up, through eyes drenched with tears, into his face. Then as
+if drawn by an irresistible impulse--one she could not deny--she turned
+her head and looked at the spot where Old Blue had fought his last
+battle with the quicksands of the Cimarron. A crimson stain, already
+darkening, on the white surface; a few square feet of disturbed and
+broken sand, even now settling into the smooth, innocent-looking
+tranquillity that hid the death lurking in its depths; a short length
+of rope, one end drawn beneath the sand, the other lying in a sprawling
+coil; her hat resting a little distance to one side, were all that
+remained to tell the story of the grim tragedy of the morning. She
+shuddered and looked once more into the pain-filled eyes of the Ramblin'
+Kid.
+
+"We'd better be goin'," he said quietly, "you're wet an' them clothes
+must be uncomfortable. You can ride Captain Jack!"
+
+She stood up weak and trembling.
+
+"I--I--thought Captain Jack was an outlaw," she said with a faint
+smile. "He won't let me ride him, will he?"
+
+"He'll let you," the Ramblin' Kid answered dully, "no woman ever has
+rode him--or any other man only me--but he'll let you!"
+
+As she approached the stallion he raised his head and looked at her with
+a queer mixture of curiosity and antagonism, curving his neck in a
+challenging way.
+
+"Jack!" the Ramblin' Kid spoke sharply but kindly to the horse, "be
+careful! It's all right, Boy--you're goin' to carry double this one
+time!"
+
+The broncho stood passive while the Ramblin' Kid helped Carolyn June to
+his back.
+
+"You set behind," he said, "it'll be easier to hold on an' I can handle
+th' horse better!"
+
+She slipped back of the saddle and he swung up on to the little roan.
+With one hand Carolyn June grasped the cantle of the saddle, the other
+she reached up and laid on the arm of the Ramblin' Kid--the touch sent a
+thrill through her body and the cowboy felt a response that made his
+heart quiver as they turned and rode toward the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For a mile neither spoke.
+
+"I--I--am sorry for what--I said this morning," Carolyn June whispered
+at last haltingly, feeling intuitively that the cruel words--"an
+ignorant, savage, stupid brute"--were repeating themselves in her
+companion's mind.
+
+"It's all right," he answered without looking around and in a voice
+without emotion, "it was th' truth--" with a hopeless laugh. "I'm a
+damn' fool besides!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+QUICK WITH A VENGEANCE
+
+Old Heck rode in advance of Charley and Bert as the trio returned from
+repairing the fences wrecked by the flood that had swept over the east
+bottom-lands of the Quarter Circle KT. All morning he had been silent
+and morose. Only when necessary had he spoken while he directed the
+cowboys at their labor, helped them reset posts, or untangle twisted
+wires and build up again that which the rush of water had torn down. The
+damage had not been great and by noon the fence was as good as new. As
+soon as the breaks were mended the moody owner of the Quarter Circle KT
+mounted his horse and started for the house.
+
+"Them women coming or something has got Old Heck's goat," Bert remarked
+to Charley as they climbed on their horses and followed a moment later.
+
+"Something's got it," Charley answered, "he ain't acted natural all
+day--do you reckon he's sore because Parker took the widow to town?"
+
+"Darned if I know," Bert said doubtfully, "that might be it."
+
+"Well, he's feverish and disagreeable for some reason or other and
+that's the way people generally get when they're jealous," Charley
+observed sagely.
+
+"He hadn't ought to be," Bert argued, "it's Parker's day to keep company
+with Ophelia, and Old Heck and him agreed to split."
+
+"If he's in love he won't split," Charley retorted with conviction, "I
+never saw two men take turn about loving the same woman yet. It can't be
+done!"
+
+"The woman wouldn't object, would she?" Bert queried.
+
+"Probably not," Charley replied, "at least not as long as double doses
+of affection was coming her way. From what I've heard most of 'em sort
+of enjoy having as many men make love to 'em as possible, but--" he
+paused.
+
+"But what?"
+
+"They kick if a man loves several women at once!" was the sophisticated
+reply. "But as far as that's concerned," he continued, speaking as a man
+wise in the ways of the world, "men and women ain't much different in
+that respect. When it comes to loving, both sides are plumb willing to
+divide up 'a-going' but want it to be clean exclusive when it comes to
+'coming!'"
+
+"It's funny, ain't it?" Bert commented.
+
+"No, it ain't funny," Charley declared. "It's just natural--"
+
+"Maybe Parker and Old Heck will have a fight about Ophelia," Bert
+suggested hopefully. "Which do you suppose would lick?"
+
+"It's hard telling," Charley said thoughtfully. "Old Heck's the
+heaviest, but Parker's pretty active."
+
+"Well, it sure does seem like wherever women are trouble is, don't it?"
+Bert observed meditatively.
+
+"Blamed if it don't," Charley agreed; "there's something about them
+that's plum agitating!"
+
+Old Heck, riding a short distance ahead of the cowboys, was troubled
+with similar thoughts. He was trying to analyze his own feelings. Years
+without association with womankind had made him come to regard them with
+a measure of indifference and suspicion. He had developed the idea that
+women existed chiefly for the purpose of disorganizing the morale of the
+masculine members of the race. He was very sincere in this belief. Yet
+he was forced, now, to confess that he found something interesting in
+having a couple of attractive females at the Quarter Circle KT. The
+situation was not so disagreeable as he had expected. Already he was
+proud of his kinship to Carolyn June. She was a niece worth while.
+Ophelia also had proved herself a pleasant surprise. He had pictured her
+as a strong-minded, assertive, modernized creature who would probably
+discourse continuously and raspingly about the evils of smoking,
+profanity, poker, drinking and other natural masculine impulses.
+Instead, she had proved herself, so far, a perfect lady. Without doubt
+she was the most sensible widow he had ever met. The thought of Parker's
+long, intimate ride with her to Eagle Butte made him uncomfortable. It
+was a darned fool arrangement--that agreement that he and his foreman
+were to divide time in the entertainment of Ophelia. He could have done
+it alone just as well as not. Anyway the dual plan was liable to cause
+confusion. Oh, well, Parker would be out on the beef hunt next week. By
+rights it ought not start for ten days yet, but--well, it wouldn't hurt
+to move it up a little. He would do that. Then he remembered the frank
+admiration the cowboys had shown toward Carolyn June. This suggested
+complications in that direction.
+
+"Thunderation!" he said aloud, "it's a good thing we fixed it up for
+just Skinny to make love to her--if we hadn't there'd have been a
+regular epidemic of bu'sted hearts on this blamed ranch! There wouldn't
+have been a buckaroo on the place that could have kept from mooning
+around sentimental--unless it was th' Ramblin' Kid," he added; "that
+blamed cuss is too independent and indifferent to fall in love with any
+female!"
+
+At the barn Charley and Bert overtook Old Heck. The three unsaddled and
+fed their horses and started toward the house for dinner. Sing Pete had
+seen them coming and immediately pounded the triangle.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's gone somewhere again," Bert observed as he noticed
+the Gold Dust maverick alone in the circular corral. "Captain Jack's not
+with the filly--"
+
+"Yonder th' Ramblin' Kid comes now," Charley said, looking toward the
+north; "he's been over to the river--what the devil kind of a
+combination is that?" he exclaimed as he got a better view of the horse
+coming up the lane. "Him and that girl both are riding Captain Jack."
+
+"Blamed if they ain't," Bert said curiously; "it's a wonder Captain
+Jack'll let them. But how does that come, anyhow? Where's Skinny? I
+thought it was his job to ride herd on Carolyn June--"
+
+"It is his job," Old Heck interrupted, "I don't understand--something
+must have gone wrong," he added excitedly as the stallion with his
+double burden drew near. "Carolyn June's all wet and she's lost her
+hat."
+
+Turning his horse toward the house, when he reached the end of the lane
+and with but a glance at the trio standing at the barn, the Ramblin' Kid
+rode straight to the back-yard gate. Old Heck and the cowboys hurried
+across the open space and reached the gate just as Carolyn June rather
+stiffly dismounted from the little roan. Her hair was disarranged, her
+riding suit soiled and wet from the sand and water, but her eyes were
+bright, cheeks flushed, and she showed only a trace of nervousness.
+
+"What's the matter?" Old Heck asked uneasily, "what's happened? Where's
+Skinny?"
+
+In a few words, while the Ramblin' Kid sat silently on the back of
+Captain Jack, Carolyn June told of the ride across the river; the
+meeting with Pedro and the message he brought that the cattle were out
+and some had been killed by lightning; of sending Skinny with the
+Mexican to help with the steers; of her return alone toward the ranch,
+the struggle in the quicksand and the death of the horse she had been
+riding.
+
+"Poor Old Blue--poor old fellow!" she finished with a little catch in
+her voice.
+
+Old Heck's cheeks whitened as he listened.
+
+"Good lord," he half-groaned, "you had a close call! It's lucky th'
+Ramblin' Kid saw you coming toward the upper ford--if he hadn't--you'd
+never got out! But go on into the house and get some dry clothes on.
+Boys, we'll have to hurry up and eat dinner and then go help get them
+steers back. I wish Parker was here--we'll need all the help we can get.
+You'd better catch up another horse," he continued, speaking to the
+Ramblin' Kid, "Captain Jack is probably worn out from chasing that Gold
+Dust maverick last night, and if you ain't too tired yourself, go with
+us--"
+
+"I ain't too tired," the Ramblin' Kid replied quietly, "I'll go--an'
+ride Captain Jack--he ain't done up." He took the broncho to the corral,
+removed the saddle and turned him in with the outlaw mare. After giving
+the horses fresh hay--there was water in the corral, supplied by a small
+ditch that was fed from the larger irrigation canal and which ran under
+one side of the fence--he joined the others at dinner.
+
+An hour later Old Heck, Bert, Charley and the Ramblin' Kid rode away
+from the ranch to help Chuck, Skinny and Pedro round up and return to
+the big pasture the cattle that had broken out and were rushing toward
+their old range on the Purgatory.
+
+Carolyn June was left alone with Sing Pete, the Chinese cook at the
+Quarter Circle KT. She still felt somewhat shaken from her experience of
+the morning, although a bath, clean dry clothing and the meal had
+refreshed her considerably. She carried a chair to the front porch,
+thinking to spend the afternoon resting. The events of the day raced in
+review through her mind. It did not seem possible so much could have
+happened in so short a time. Only yesterday had Ophelia and she arrived
+at the ranch. Already she had the feeling that they both were fixtures,
+and had been indefinitely, at the Quarter Circle KT. The elemental
+atmosphere of the range country had completely enveloped her, seemed to
+have absorbed her, and made her a part of it. Some way she rather
+delighted in this sensation of permanency. Her rescue by the Ramblin'
+Kid and the close view she had been able to get of his impulses made her
+thrill with a queer mixture of admiration and pity for him even while
+his brutal answer when she had apologized for her harsh words still
+echoed in her mind.
+
+"Gracious," she thought with a whimsical smile, "things move fast in
+this western country!"
+
+She had seen, already, that both her Uncle Josiah and Parker were
+yielding to the charms of Ophelia. The fancy made her chuckle. She
+remembered Skinny's too rapidly developing tenderness toward herself.
+"Poor fellow," she murmured, slowly shaking her head, "I wish he
+wouldn't! But I suppose he can't help it--I wonder why men are always
+falling in love with me, anyhow? I'm sure I don't try to make them! I
+never saw one yet I really wanted to care--" she stopped suddenly while
+a warm flush spread over her body as the Ramblin' Kid was imaged rather
+vividly in her mind. "Nonsense!" she said aloud with a soft, throaty
+laugh. "Carolyn June, you are getting silly!"
+
+She sprang up and went into the house.
+
+"Sing Pete," she said, stepping into the kitchen, "may I have some
+sugar--I'd like the lumpy kind if you have it?"
+
+"Sure! You have him sugal--how muchee you want?" as he held out to her a
+tin containing squares of the desired article.
+
+"Oh, enough to win a heart!" Carolyn June answered laughing, at the same
+time taking a handful from the can.
+
+"You eat him?" Sing Pete asked with a grin.
+
+"No," she replied, "I feed it to broncho--to Gold Dust maverick. Some
+folks sprinkle salt on bird's tail to catch him--I put sugar on horse's
+tongue to make him love me--"
+
+"Lamblin' Kid, he do that. Allee time him gettee sugal for Clap'n Jack!"
+
+"Feeds 'Clap'n Jack' sugar, does he?" Carolyn June said pensively.
+"Captain Jack's a nice little broncho," she added, "he deserves sugar."
+She paused a moment. "'Lamblin' Kid's' a funny fellow, don't you think
+so, Sing Pete?" she finished idly.
+
+"Not funny--him dangelous!" the Chinaman replied earnestly. "He gettee
+velly mad 'cause I puttee butter in can so cat catchee his head in an'
+go lound an' lound--buckee like a bloncho--havee lots a good time! He
+not talkee much, Lamblin' Kid don't--just dangelous--that's all!"
+
+Carolyn June felt sudden interest.
+
+"When did he get mad about the cat?" she asked quietly.
+
+"Allee same to-day--when you an' Skinny go 'way. Lamblin' Kid cussee me
+lot--tellee me not do him any more. Him dangelous! I not do him next
+time!" Sing Pete explained seriously.
+
+"You are wise, Sing Pete," Carolyn June laughed as she left the kitchen
+by the back door and started toward the corral where the Gold Dust
+maverick was restlessly pacing about. "Don't do it any more! 'Lamblin'
+Kid' is 'dangelous'--dangerous in ways that you don't understand!" she
+finished softly, her eyes lit with a strange light and her heart elated
+and beating quickly because of what the Chinese cook had told her.
+
+The outlaw filly leaped to the far side of the corral and stood
+trembling, her head up and breath coming in whistling snorts of
+defiance and fear, as Carolyn June opened the gate and stepped boldly
+inside. Apparently paying no attention to the frightened horse, the girl
+walked to the center of the corral and facing the mare leaned her back
+against the snubbing post. Both stood perfectly still while the eyes of
+each appraised the other.
+
+After a time the filly seemed to relax and she slowly lowered her head,
+yet watching, alertly, the motionless figure of Carolyn June. The girl
+talked to the horse, her words gentle, her voice soothing and low. The
+Gold Dust maverick became quieter still. Presently she circled the
+corral, trotting swiftly and crowding closely against the fence. Carolyn
+June turned, keeping her eyes always on the broncho, and continued the
+quiet pleading of her voice. It was an hour before the filly shyly and
+cautiously came up to the girl--before curiosity mastered her fear.
+Carolyn June held out her hand and the outlaw nosed it timidly, ready
+instantly to spring away. A lump of sugar was pressed into the Gold Dust
+maverick's mouth--she drew back, working the morsel about with her
+tongue and lips and finally spitting it out. Several times this was
+repeated. At last the beautiful creature tasted the sugar and greedily
+ate the lumps, permitting Carolyn June gently to stroke the velvety
+muzzle. Then the girl's hand crept higher and higher on the horse's neck
+and after a little an arm was slipped over the filly's neck.
+
+"You darling!" Carolyn June breathed softly, "I love you! I wonder what
+the Ramblin' Kid would say if he knew I was stealing your heart?" she
+added demurely as she laid her face against the silky mane of the mare.
+
+She remained at the corral until the afternoon was nearly gone. The
+poplars along the front-yard fence were beginning to throw their shadows
+across the corral. When at last Carolyn June started to return to the
+house the filly followed her to the gate of the corral and whinnied a
+little protest against her going.
+
+"I don't believe you are a bit mean," the girl said as she looked back
+affectionately at the nervous, high-strung animal; "you are just lonely
+and want to be loved--and understood--that is all, and I doubt if you'd
+buck a single buck if I rode you right this minute!"
+
+As she reached the gate the Clagstone "Six" glided quietly down the
+grade from the bench and a moment later Ophelia and Parker joined
+Carolyn June on the porch. The widow's cheeks were glowing and Parker
+looked embarrassed and rather upset. His arms were full of bundles.
+
+"Have a good time?" Carolyn June greeted them.
+
+"Fine," Ophelia replied, "spent oodles of money shopping, saw the
+minister's wife, talked with the editor of the paper and we are going to
+organize a Chapter--I think we shall call it 'The Amazons of Eagle
+Butte.'"
+
+"Great," Carolyn June laughed, "you are a hustler, Ophelia! Uncle
+Josiah will have a fit. Does Parker know?"
+
+"Yes," the widow answered, her eyes twinkling, as she looked at the
+sweating foreman of the Quarter Circle KT. "I told him all about it and
+he is going to give us his moral support."
+
+"Where is Skinny?" Parker interrupted hastily, looking more uneasy and
+foolish than ever; "why ain't he here?"
+
+Carolyn June told of the happenings of the morning.
+
+"My dear, my dear!" Ophelia cried, shuddering when she heard of Carolyn
+June's narrow escape from the quicksand. "You must never cross that
+terrible river again! It's too horrible to think about!"
+
+"It was just 'experience,'" Carolyn June said lightly. "I don't mind it
+a bit now that it is over. Of course," she added seriously, "I feel
+badly about Old Blue--and losing Parker's saddle."
+
+"Don't worry about the saddle, I can get new riding gear lots easier
+than Old Heck could have got another niece!"
+
+"Carolyn June needs a saddle of her own," Ophelia suggested.
+
+"I am going to get one; and then I'll ride the Gold Dust maverick!"
+
+"I doubt if th' Ramblin' Kid will let you ride the filly," Parker said,
+"he's funny that way--"
+
+"I think he will," Carolyn June interposed. "I'll steal her if no other
+way!"
+
+"Maybe he will, but it's doubtful," Parker continued, "but Old Heck is
+aiming to get you a saddle. He spoke about it this morning when we were
+getting the car out to go to town--"
+
+"Dear old uncle," Carolyn June said warmly, "I love him already--don't
+you, Ophelia?"
+
+Parker colored and looked quickly, with a worried expression on his
+face, at the widow. She flushed also.
+
+"That's personal, my dear," she answered, "and rather abrupt!"
+
+Parker went out to put the Clagstone "Six" in the garage.
+
+"Carolyn June," Ophelia said when they were alone, "I have made a
+discovery--"
+
+"It is?" questioningly.
+
+"That western Texas is the 'quickest' country in the world!" the widow
+answered.
+
+"Please explain," Carolyn June said, "although," demurely, with certain
+memories fresh in her mind, "I fancy I can almost guess--"
+
+"Yesterday," Ophelia continued rather breathlessly, "we arrived at the
+Quarter Circle KT; last night at the supper table I met Mr. Parker for
+the first time; ten minutes later he kicked me--accidentally, I
+think--on the shins; I saw him again at breakfast this morning; to-day
+we drove to Eagle Butte and this afternoon"--she paused and then with a
+quick, nervous laugh finished--"he asked me to marry him!"
+
+"Good lord," Carolyn June gasped, "that is--'pronto'--as these cowboys
+say! 'Quick' with a vengeance! There must be something in this western
+air that makes them do it!"
+
+"It was all I could do this morning to keep Skinny from--" she started
+to say, then shifted again to the subject of Parker. "Did he know that
+you are--"
+
+"National Organizer for the 'Movement,'" Ophelia filled in. "Yes, I had
+already confessed. I told him as we were driving to town--and the
+other--the shock--came just after we crossed the bridge when we were
+returning home!"
+
+"He is a bold, dangerous man!" Carolyn June exclaimed, in mock
+seriousness, "trying to get ahead of Uncle Josiah!"
+
+"I inferred as much," the widow explained; "he told me that to-morrow
+would be your uncle's 'day'--whatever he meant by that; the next he, Mr.
+Parker himself, would be 'around' again. 'Unless Old Heck took some fool
+notion or other;' before long he would be away on the beef hunt and one
+can never tell what might happen while one is gone and, well, that's the
+way he felt about it, so he just said it--"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Naturally was completely surprised, entirely non-committal, and made no
+definite agreement!" Ophelia laughed softly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+OLD HECK'S STRATEGY
+
+It was late when Old Heck and the cowboys returned to the ranch. The
+runaway cattle had been overtaken on the sand-hills beyond the North
+Springs and it took the entire afternoon to bunch them and work the
+restless animals back to the Quarter Circle KT, into the big pasture,
+and repair the fence so it was safe to leave them for the night.
+
+Ophelia, Carolyn June and Parker were in the front room when Old Heck
+and the hungry cowboys clattered, long after dark, into the kitchen for
+the supper Sing Pete had kept warm for them.
+
+After the meal Skinny went into the room where Parker and the women
+were. Old Heck followed and talked for a few moments with Parker about
+the affairs of the ranch, then joined the cowboys at the bunk-house
+where they had gone directly after leaving the table. On Skinny's bed
+Parker had tossed a bundle.
+
+"What in thunder do you reckon Skinny's been buying, now?" Chuck
+questioned as he picked up the package and examined it curiously.
+"Blamed if it don't feel like a shirt."
+
+"I'll bet that's what it is," Bert said with a laugh as Old Heck
+stepped inside the door, "the darn fool has gone and got him a white
+shirt--"
+
+"Who has?" Old Heck asked, hearing only the latter part of Bert's
+remark.
+
+"Skinny," Charley answered for Bert, "he's fixing up to make love in
+style--"
+
+"Aw, the blamed idiot," Old Heck grunted, then glancing over toward
+Parker's bed: "--Did you notice whether Parker got him one, too, or
+not?"
+
+Before the question was answered Parker and Skinny appeared at the
+bunk-house door.
+
+"What's the matter?" Chuck said, still holding the bundle in his hand,
+"--ain't it too early for lovers to bu'st up for the night? Or did the
+widow and Carolyn June blow out the lights on you--"
+
+"Forget it, you danged fool!" Skinny said crossly. "Can't you ever get
+over your dog-goned craziness? They was just tired and went to bed. Give
+me that package, it's mine and private!" reaching for the bundle.
+
+Chuck, with a laugh, threw it at him. It landed on the Ramblin' Kid's
+bunk where the latter was lying, his clothing still on, his eyes staring
+straight up while he smoked a cigarette.
+
+"When are you going to ride the Gold Dust maverick?" Skinny asked as he
+picked up the package.
+
+For a moment the Ramblin' Kid did not answer. Then, without changing his
+position, replied:
+
+"I don't know as I'll ever ride her. Maybe I'll turn her loose again on
+th' range."
+
+"What did you catch her for?" Bert queried. "Don't you want her?"
+
+"I caught her, 'cause I wanted to," the Ramblin' Kid answered, "but that
+ain't no sign I intend to keep her. Hell, what's the use?" he finished
+indifferently.
+
+"If you want to sell her," Old Heck said, "I'll buy her."
+
+"She ain't for sale," the Ramblin' Kid answered shortly, "not to
+anybody."
+
+"She would be a thunderin' sight better off if she was used."
+
+"Would she?" the Ramblin' Kid questioned dully. "I ain't so sure about
+that."
+
+"Of course she would," Old Heck insisted, "she'd be fed regular and--"
+
+"An' be mauled around by some darned human!" the Ramblin' Kid
+interrupted with sudden vehemence. "If I was a horse," he continued,
+speaking passionately while his black eyes burned with the spirit of
+rebellion, "I'd rather be a short-grass cay-use nippin' th' scatterin'
+feed on th' north hills an' be free to snort an' raise hell when I
+blamed please than have my belly stuffed with alfalfa hay three times a
+day an' have to gnaw th' iron of some damned man's bit in my mouth or
+carry his saddle on my back!"
+
+Silence followed the outburst.
+
+Old Heck and the cowboys knew the Ramblin' Kid was in one of his
+"moods," and experience had taught them that at such times argument was
+neither discreet nor safe. The thing they did not know was that his
+heart was torn by memory of the agony of Old Blue in the quicksand and
+his mind tortured by the picture of dumb suffering a bullet from his own
+gun had, that morning, mercifully ended.
+
+After a time he spoke again, more quietly and with a note of weariness
+in his voice:
+
+"Oh, well, I reckon I'll keep th' filly. In a day of two, when she gets
+rested up a little, I'll ride her,"
+
+"You ought to break her for Carolyn June," Skinny suggested.
+
+"Had I?" the Ramblin' Kid said with a queer laugh--it was just the
+thought that was in his mind and against which he was struggling.
+"That's a bright idea! Maybe I'll study about it an' take a notion to do
+it. If I do she can ride th' maverick When you an' her go on your
+honeymoon--"
+
+"What's a honeymoon?" Skinny queried innocently.
+
+"It's what two people take when they first get married; go off somewhere
+by themselves--like they was locoed--to find out how bad they got
+stung!" the Ramblin' Kid laughingly answered.
+
+"We'd better all go to bed," Old Heck said; "it's late and we have to
+get up early in the morning. Parker, you and some of the boys will have
+to go skin them dead steers--we've got to save the hides at least."
+
+"Old Heck wants to go to sleep so he can dream about the widow," Chuck
+snickered, "it's his turn again to-morrow to love her--"
+
+"How did she act to-day, Parker?" Bert broke in; "was she pretty
+affectionate?"
+
+"Aw, shut up! Ain't you got any respect for anything--"
+
+"I'll bet he proposed to her and she throwed him down," Chuck hazarded,
+not realizing how nearly he had come to guessing the truth.
+
+Parker looked angrily at Chuck, then his cheeks grew red, he bent over
+and began tugging at his boots in an effort to hide the tell-tale
+confusion in his eyes.
+
+Old Heck furtively studied the face of his foreman.
+
+"Or else she confessed to being a Bolshevik or local-optionist or
+something and the news broke his heart," Charley volunteered, joining in
+the baiting of the range-boss.
+
+"She didn't neither confess," Parker denied hastily, aggravated into a
+reply, "she ain't either one of them! She's an 'Organizer--'"
+
+Dead silence greeted this sudden announcement. Every eye was turned in
+astonishment on Parker while Old Heck and the boys awaited further
+explanation. Parker offered no additional information.
+
+"She's a what?" Old Heck finally managed to whisper, leaning toward
+Parker, while a look of fear and incredulity spread over his face.
+
+Parker noticed the anguish in Old Heck's eyes and a sudden new look of
+cunning came into his own.
+
+"An 'Organizer' I said," he repeated impressively, "she's an 'Organizer'
+for some kind of 'Movement' or other--"
+
+"A dis-organizer, you'd better say!" Chuck laughed uncertainly, "judging
+from the way she's got you and Old Heck stampeding already!"
+
+"Great guns!" Old Heck half groaned, "what--what sort of
+a--a--'Movement' did she say it was, anyhow?"
+
+"Swiss, probably!" came in a chuckling undertone from the direction of
+the Ramblin' Kid's bed. "Hell, what's the difference?"
+
+"She said it was connected someway with 'feminine obligations and
+woman's opportunity,'" Parker answered, ignoring the frivolous
+interruptions.
+
+"I know what she is!" Charley exclaimed, "--it's just what I expected!
+She's one of these self-starting female suffragettes! That's what she
+is. I knowed she was too gentle acting to be harmless!"
+
+"She just had to break loose sooner or later," Bert said in an awed
+voice.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck murmured hopelessly. "Holy gosh a'mighty!"
+
+The owner of the Quarter Circle KT was really shocked and worried. He
+had surrendered quickly to his first impression concerning the widow.
+The original meeting at Eagle Butte, when she and Carolyn June appeared
+as visions of feminine loveliness, as contrasted with the homely cook
+and her daughter whom he and Skinny had mistaken for, and feared were,
+the Quarter Circle KT's prospective guests, had caused a psychic effect
+on his feelings toward Ophelia. The sense of relief that came when he
+found that the cook was not Ophelia, together with the widow's
+unexpected graciousness, had instantly disarmed his suspicions and,
+metaphorically speaking, hurled his heart into her lap. He had found the
+widow charming, interesting, very feminine, and already dreams had
+shaped themselves in his mind. The sudden revelation that Parker had
+made brought tremendous disappointment. Ophelia had not shown the least
+indication of obnoxious strong-mindedness or that disagreeable
+intellectuality which Old Heck firmly believed was a necessary attribute
+of all women who participated in politics or "movements."
+
+Ophelia was an "Organizer"! It was unbelievable! The thought gave him a
+sickening feeling at the pit of his stomach and actually made his head
+ache.
+
+Old Heck's first impulse, when Parker made the startling announcement,
+was to assert his authority as boss of the outfit and annul the
+every-other-day arrangement whereby he and his foreman were to share and
+share alike in the widow's society. He would let Parker do it all--have
+her all of the time! He wouldn't take any chances! On second thought he
+decided to wait at least another day. Besides, it was against his
+principles, contrary to the ethics of the range, to back up on a bargain
+and he never asked an employee to do a thing he hadn't the courage to do
+himself. He would stick it out, come what may, and see the thing through
+to a finish. However, there was still a means of escape. If Ophelia
+developed any really serious suffragette tendencies during the next day
+or two he would go on the beef hunt himself and let Parker remain at the
+ranch!
+
+When finally he went to sleep Ophelia was still on his mind. The first
+thought that came to him when he awakened the next morning was the
+sickening news Parker had brought.
+
+Old Heck and the cowboys were silent and had about them an air of
+depression when they filed into the kitchen for breakfast.
+
+Each cast furtive, curious glances at Ophelia. The information that she
+was an "Organizer"--presumably for a "Movement" involving woman's
+political rights--caused them to view her with a kind of reverential awe
+and fear. The widow and Carolyn June, apparently, were wholly
+unconscious of the thoughts in the minds of the men. Both women were as
+innocent-looking and attractive as ever--matching with their early
+morning freshness the bowl of roses Carolyn June, before the call to
+breakfast, had gathered and placed on the table.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid sat at the right of Carolyn June. It was the first
+time they had met at the table. He said nothing and seemingly was lost
+in thought. When they had entered the kitchen Carolyn June and he had
+spoken and for a moment he looked into her eyes with an expression that
+caused her own to drop and the warm blood to rush over her throat and
+face. She had felt that same sensation of "soul-nakedness" she
+experienced when she looked into his eyes that first time when she was
+at the circular corral and he was lying under the shed. Neither spoke of
+the incidents of the previous day.
+
+The other cowboys and Old Heck studied Ophelia with a sort of
+fascination, casting shy upward glances at her from over their plates.
+
+Parker and the Ramblin' Kid only, were at ease and undisturbed.
+
+"You wouldn't think she was one by looking at her, would you?" Chuck
+said in an undertone to Charley.
+
+"Some of them's so blamed slick they can't hide it."
+
+"I reckon that's right," Chuck whispered back, "it's an awful jolt to
+Old Heck, ain't it?"
+
+"Yes, he's taking it pretty hard," Charley mumbled.
+
+"Her forehead does bulge out a good deal in front, when you come to look
+at it, don't it?" Chuck observed under his breath.
+
+"Quite a lot," Charley answered in the same tone; "that's one
+indication!"
+
+Parker gazed at the widow with an expression undeniably adoring. Old
+Heck saw it and straightened up with a look of sudden resolution on his
+face. If Parker wasn't afraid of Ophelia, by golly, he wouldn't be! The
+widow had returned the foreman's look with understanding, while more
+than a trace of tenderness and sympathy was registered in her eyes.
+
+"To-morrow is Sunday," Old Heck announced suddenly with startling
+distinctness, "and we'll get things in shape to begin the beef round-up
+on Monday!"
+
+There was immediate interest.
+
+"I'll be darned," the Ramblin' Kid murmured half audibly, "Old Heck is
+goin' to 'Uriah' Parker!"
+
+"Huh?" Skinny queried across the table.
+
+"Nothin'," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a laugh, "I was just reminded
+of somethin' I read in a book one time--"
+
+Carolyn June caught the subtle reference to the Bible story of King
+David's unfortunate romance with another man's "woman" and chuckled.
+
+"Ain't you starting the beef hunt too early?" Charley asked.
+
+"I don't know as I am," Old Heck answered doggedly.
+
+"Aw, that'll put us right in the middle of it on the Fourth of July when
+the Rodeo is going on in Eagle Butte--" Bert began.
+
+"And I ain't going to miss that, either," Chuck interrupted, "that
+Y-Bar outfit over on the Vermejo took everything in the two-mile
+sweepstakes last year and they've been bragging about it ever since.
+They think that Thunderbolt horse of theirs can't be beat. I was going
+to put Silver Tip in this year. He can put that black in second place--"
+
+"No, he can't," the Ramblin' Kid remarked quietly, "--you'd lose your
+money. There's only one animal on th' Kiowa range that can outrun that
+Vermejo horse."
+
+"What animal is that?" Charley asked.
+
+"She's in th' circular corral," the Ramblin' Kid answered laconically.
+
+"The Gold Dust maverick?" Bert questioned.
+
+"That's the one I mean," the Ramblin' Kid replied in a low voice, "for
+two miles--or five--there ain't nothin' in western Texas, or Mexico
+either, that can catch her."
+
+"Why don't you take her in when the Rodeo is on and run her in the
+sweepstakes then?" Chuck asked eagerly. "I ain't caring what Kiowa horse
+gets the money just so that Y-Bar outfit is taken down a notch or two.
+Ever since they got that Thunderbolt horse and beat Old Heck's
+Quicksilver with him they've been crowing over the Quarter Circle KT and
+I'm getting plumb sick of it--"
+
+"Old Heck lost three thousand dollars on that race!" Bert interrupted
+rather triumphantly.
+
+"I didn't neither," Old Heck corrected sullenly, "it was only
+twenty-five hundred!"
+
+"Well, that Vermejo crowd has got a hundred of mine," Chuck said
+vindictively, "but I don't give a darn for that--I'd be willing to lose
+twice that much again just to set that Thunderbolt horse of theirs back
+in second place!"
+
+"Why don't you run the outlaw filly?" Charley asked coaxingly of the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Yes, go on and put her in," Skinny urged, "--you ought to!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid remained silent, seemingly indifferent to the teasing
+of the others.
+
+Carolyn June leaned over and said, in a voice audible only to him, while
+her eyes grew mellow with a look that tested his composure to the
+uttermost but which wrung no sign from him:
+
+"Please, race the maverick--I--want you to--Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+It was the first time she had used his name in speaking directly to him
+and the tone in which it was spoken made him tremble in spite of
+himself. For a moment he returned her gaze. Her words and manner were so
+different that by their very difference they reminded him of what she
+had called him yesterday--"an ignorant, savage, stupid brute"--when he
+had refused to interfere with the cat when its head was caught in the
+can. He started to make a cynical reply. Then he remembered her sympathy
+for Old Blue, her apology later for the harsh words--anyhow he knew or
+felt in his heart they were true--and suddenly he seemed to see the
+pink satin garter he still carried in his pocket. The look that came
+into his eyes made Carolyn June lower her own. He smiled a whimsical but
+hopeless smile, as, replying apparently to the pleading of Charley and
+Skinny, he said, softly, the single word:
+
+"Maybe!"
+
+Old Heck had forgotten the annual Rodeo held in Eagle Butte, for some
+days each summer, around the Fourth of July. His sudden determination
+and eagerness to have the beef round-up begin earlier than usual in
+order to get Parker away from the widow had driven all else but that one
+idea from his mind. The protests reminded him of his oversight. He had
+not intended to deprive the cowboys of the opportunity to enjoy the one
+big event happening yearly in the Kiowa country and which temporarily
+turned Eagle Butte, for a few days each summer, into a seething
+metropolis of care-free humanity.
+
+"I think it's a darned shame to spring the beef hunt so it will
+interfere with the Rodeo," Bert grumbled, "--and us have to be out on
+the hills wrangling steers while the celebration is going on!"
+
+"I'm not-goin! to be out on th' hills then," the Ramblin' Kid said
+quietly but with unchangeable finality.
+
+"You can all go to the Rodeo," Old Heck interposed, not feeling just
+right in his conscience about sending Parker away in advance of the time
+expected, and wishing to make amends,"--Parker and all of you. You can
+'break' the round-up for a few days during the Rodeo and what cattle
+you've got gathered by then can be turned into the big pasture and held
+there till it's over. That'll let you all get into Eagle Butte for the
+Fourth--I'd like to see that blamed Thunderbolt horse beat myself! But
+we'll start the beef hunt Monday the way I said in the first place--"
+
+"Who's going to cook, this year, on the round-up?" Charley queried. "You
+can't take the Chink from here this time, can you?"
+
+"I reckon Sing Pete'll have to go along as usual," Old Heck answered;
+"it'll make it a little unhandy at the ranch, but--"
+
+"Ophelia and I can 'batch' while you are gone," Carolyn June suggested.
+"We won't mind being alone and it will be fun to cook our own meals."
+
+"We will enjoy it," Ophelia added agreeably.
+
+"You ain't going to be alone," Old Heck said; "Skinny and me will be
+here. When it comes to the cooking maybe between the four of us we can
+get along some way!"
+
+"Well, if the round-up's got to start Monday," Parker declared sullenly
+as they left the table, "I'll have to go down to town again to-day and
+get me a new saddle. Mine was on Old Blue."
+
+"I'll go with you," Old Heck said in a conciliatory way. "Charley and
+the other boys can be working on them dead steers till we get back.
+We'll go in the car and ought to make the round-trip by noon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+FIXING FIXERS
+
+The widow and Carolyn June were alone at the house. Old Heck and Parker
+went immediately from the breakfast table to the garage to get the car
+out to go to Eagle Butte. The cowboys were at the barn preparing to
+begin the day's work. Skinny had excused himself, ostensibly to attend
+to some ranch chores, but in reality to get away to the bunk-house and
+"fix up" for the day's courtship of Carolyn June. He planned, when the
+cowboys were gone, to put on the white shirt Parker brought, yesterday,
+from Eagle Butte.
+
+"Ophelia," Carolyn June said mysteriously as they stepped out on the
+front porch and filled their lungs with the clean air of the morning,
+"you made a 'discovery' yesterday, I believe?" pausing questioningly.
+
+"Yes," the widow smiled, recalling their conversation relative to
+Parker's abrupt proposal of marriage.
+
+"To-day," Carolyn June continued impressively, "it is my turn--I have
+made one!"
+
+"And it is?"
+
+"You and I have been 'framed!'" was the answer spoken solemnly yet
+scarcely louder than a whisper, while the brown eyes of Carolyn June
+sparkled with a mixture of suppressed anger, merriment and indignation.
+
+"Framed?" the widow repeated inquiringly, "just what does 'framed' mean,
+my dear?"
+
+"Framed means," Carolyn June replied wisely, "'tricked,' 'jobbed,'
+'jinxed,' 'fixed,' or whatever it is people do to people when they
+scheme to do something to them without the ones to whom they are doing
+it knowing how it is done!"
+
+"Exceedingly lucid, my love," the widow laughed, "but you are so
+agonizingly fond of suspense--"
+
+"Come inside," Carolyn June said as she led the way into the house, "and
+in a dark corner--no, that would be too near to the walls and their
+proverbial 'ears,' in the center of the room is better--I will expose
+the whole diabolical plot!"
+
+At the end of the reading table they stopped and faced each other.
+
+"And now?" Ophelia said, expectantly.
+
+"And now," Carolyn June repeated, her voice low and carefully guarded.
+"Listen: Before Ophelia Cobb and Carolyn June Dixon ever arrived at this
+Quarter Circle KT their 'lovers' were already picked out for
+them--officially chosen, delegated, appointed, foreordained and
+everything! The 'arrangements' had all been made--"
+
+"I don't understand," the widow said, bewildered by the rapid flow of
+legal-sounding words.
+
+"Nor did I at first," Carolyn June went on, "but I have figured it all
+out! I have 'discovered' what all this mysterious hinting about
+'arrangements,' 'the agreement,' 'Old Heck's day,' 'Parker's time,'
+'Skinny's job,' and so forth means! I have studied it out. Why is Skinny
+Rawlins thrown into my lap as my 'regular' lover? It's his 'job'--that
+is why! And why the day-and-day-about courting of yourself by Uncle
+Josiah and Parker? It is the 'agreement'--the one is to have you one day
+and the other the next! Before we came some such arrangement was fixed
+up. I am sure of it--"
+
+"Impossible," Ophelia protested, "preposterous!"
+
+"Outrageous!" Carolyn June added vehemently, "but truth just the same!
+To start with they didn't want us to come. That telegram lying about
+them all having the smallpox proved as much. We were, for some reason or
+other, considered 'afflictions,' Why, I don't know. I guess they thought
+we were a pair of female vampires or something and had to be disposed of
+in advance to prevent our stirring things up and causing a lot of
+murders or suicides or duels on the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"I can't believe it," Ophelia muttered as if stunned. "Why, that would
+be 'dealing' with us just as though we were cattle!"
+
+"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed vindictively, her anger for the
+moment getting the better of her sense of the ridiculous, "they 'dealt'
+in us! More than likely they played poker to decide how to divide us
+up--to see who should love you and which should love me! As if the heart
+of a woman can be made to run in a groove cut to order by the hand of
+any masculine--insect!" she finished, thoughtless of the incongruous
+metaphor.
+
+"Then Skinny and your Uncle Josiah," the widow murmured, "and
+Parker--are--are--pretending?"
+
+"No," Carolyn June answered, "they started out 'pretending,' but they've
+stepped into their own trap! They are painfully serious now--they are
+'intending!'"
+
+"What shall we do about it?" Ophelia asked helplessly.
+
+"We ought to assassinate them!" Carolyn June snapped, then laughed as
+the absurdity of the situation dawned upon her and her sense of humor
+overcame the moment of anger and indignation. "I have it--I've got it!
+We will Vamp' them in dead earnest! We'll fix the 'fixers,' we'll frame
+the 'framers'!"
+
+"But how?" doubtfully.
+
+"From now on," Carolyn June replied decisively, "I am going to flirt,
+individually and collectively--desperately and wickedly--with the whole
+male population of this ranch! We'll show them what premeditated
+love-making really is! When it comes to Uncle Josiah and, well, possibly
+Parker, you will have to take care of that giddy pair yourself and,
+incidentally, you might work some on Charley Saunders," mentioning the
+oldest of the cowboys. "I'll just flicker an eyelid occasionally at
+Parker, unless you object?"
+
+"Not in the least," Ophelia answered, blushing a trifle.
+
+"Well, then, we will make it a free-for-all," Carolyn June said, "and--"
+
+"How about the Ramblin' Kid?" the widow interrupted, "do you think he is
+one of the conspirators--is in on the--the--'frame-up?' Is he also to be
+a 'Victim'?"
+
+Carolyn June colored the least bit, paused a moment before she replied,
+then said rather stiffly:
+
+"He--yes, he is probably having more fun watching us being 'officially'
+made love to than any other one of the entire bunch. The Ramblin' Kid
+will have to take his medicine along with the rest! Every man-thing on
+the Quarter Circle KT--eliminating Sing Pete from that classification
+--is my meat!"
+
+"When does the slaughter begin?" Ophelia laughed.
+
+"Right now!" Carolyn June answered. "War is declared--"
+
+She stopped suddenly as a step sounded on the porch and a moment later
+Skinny entered the room. He was painfully "dressed up." The instant Old
+Heck and Parker, in the Clagstone "Six," started for Eagle Butte and the
+cowboys disappeared down the lane in the direction of the big pasture,
+Skinny struggled into the white shirt. He planned to try its effect on
+Carolyn June while the others were away. If it did not produce results
+he would slip back to the bunk-house before they returned and change
+again to his normal dress.
+
+When Skinny stepped into the room he was fully conscious of his unusual
+appearance. The morning was warm and he had not put on a coat. The shirt
+billowed over his shoulders, arms and chest in a snowy cloud. It seemed
+impossible to Skinny that anything in all the world could be so vividly,
+persistently white as the cloth that literally enveloped the upper half
+of his body. It actually gleamed. The sleeves of the shirt were too
+long. A pair of sky-blue, rosette-fastened, satin ribbon sleeve-holders
+above his elbows kept the cuffs from slipping over his hands. Parker had
+been unable to get the purple necktie and had brought, instead, one that
+was a solid Shamrock green. Skinny swore when he saw the tie, but
+decided to wear it anyhow. Parker had explained by saying he had
+forgotten the errand until he was starting from town and then stepped
+into Old Leon's--a cheap general store in Eagle Butte--and purchased the
+outfit from the Jew. That accounted also for the surplus length of
+sleeve--the shirt was a size and a half larger than Skinny had ordered
+and for which Parker declared positively he had asked. Eternal hatred
+for all Hebrews was born in Skinny's heart the moment he saw the layout.
+But, well, it was there; he was anxious to see if a white shirt would
+have any effect, and he would wear it anyway.
+
+Skinny knew instantly that he made an impression on Carolyn June.
+
+She looked at him once and was speechless!
+
+"By gosh," he said to himself, "Chuck was right! It sure does beat hell
+how clothes affect a woman!"
+
+Carolyn June, unquestionably, was overcome. The surprise had been too
+much for her. He had knocked her cold! The shirt had done the work! She
+bit nervously at the nail of her thumb, pressed desperately against her
+teeth. Her whole body trembled. Her face flamed scarlet. Skinny saw her
+agitation and resolved at that moment that he would never again be
+without a white shirt!
+
+Ophelia also was visibly affected. The widow gave one look at Skinny,
+glanced quickly at Carolyn June, then, with her hands clasped tightly
+against her breast, she leaned weakly against the table and chewed at
+her underlip. She started to speak and stopped.
+
+"Well, I--I--got back!" Skinny said, breaking the spell while he grinned
+somewhat sheepishly and yet with an air of complete satisfaction.
+
+"I--I--see you--did!" Carolyn June choked hysterically.
+
+"I was gone longer than I aimed to be," Skinny continued, rapidly
+gaining confidence as he saw the confusion of the women; "after I got
+the chores done I concluded to fix up a little. This is the first time I
+ever wore this shirt," he went on, feeling that a bit of explanation was
+entirely proper and would probably help in restoring the composure of
+Carolyn June and the widow. "Parker just brought it out yesterday and it
+was a good deal of trouble to make the collar work right. It seemed like
+it was pretty stiff or something. Generally speaking the whole outfit's
+bigger than it really ought to be, but maybe it'll shrink up some when
+it's washed," he finished in a casual matter-of-fact way.
+
+"It--it--is wonderful!" Carolyn June stammered, "it is--I don't think I
+ever saw one that was--was--whiter--"
+
+"It looked that way to me," Skinny interrupted as if glad some one else
+had noticed a peculiarity of the garment that already had troubled him
+somewhat, "I thought it was uncommonly white!"
+
+"Perhaps it just seems that way because we are not used to it," Ophelia
+suggested sympathetically.
+
+"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed feverishly, "it is because we are
+not used to it--it will be perfectly all right when we have looked at it
+a little more!"
+
+Skinny decided he would risk the gauntlet of comment from Parker, Old
+Heck and the cowboys and wear the shirt the rest of the day.
+
+Carolyn June was really sorry for Skinny, but--she needed air--she felt
+she must have it.
+
+"Please," she cried suddenly and with, an effort, "excuse me! I--I--have
+something I wish to do! You," speaking to Skinny, "and Ophelia stay here
+and visit each other a while!"
+
+Without waiting for an answer she stepped quickly into the kitchen,
+asked Sing Pete for a handful of sugar and hurried out to the circular
+corral.
+
+"Oh, Skinny, Skinny, you are so funny," she laughed aloud as she went
+through the back-yard gate. "It breaks my heart to break your heart--but
+you are one of the 'fixers' and you've got to be 'fixed.'"
+
+The Gold Dust maverick at first was shy when Carolyn June opened the
+gate and entered the corral. After a few moments she recognized the girl
+and was soon eating the sugar from the hand of Carolyn June. Before the
+supply was exhausted the friendship and confidence of the two, begun
+yesterday, was firmly reestablished. The maverick allowed Carolyn June
+to swing her weight from the glossy withers, to clasp her arms tightly
+about the trim, clean-built neck, and when, after an hour, the girl
+started toward the house, the outlaw mare protested so eagerly against
+being left alone that she turned back to the corral and leaning against
+the fence stroked the soft muzzle thrust between the bars.
+
+Carolyn June was cooing endearing terms to the filly and playing with
+the quivering underlip when she heard a horse galloping swiftly up the
+lane and past the barn. Instinctively she stepped back and turned just
+as the Ramblin' Kid, riding Captain Jack, wheeled around the end of the
+shed near the corral.
+
+His sudden appearance surprised her. She had thought he was with the
+cowboys over at the upland pasture helping skin the steers killed by the
+lightning.
+
+When they left the ranch the Ramblin' Kid had ridden away with Charley
+and the others, but not with any intention of going to the big pasture.
+Where the road turned toward the lower ford he held Captain Jack to the
+left.
+
+"Ain't you going with us," Charley Saunders asked, "and help skin them
+steers?"
+
+"No," the Ramblin' Kid replied quietly. "I ain't. I've got something
+else to do. Anyhow, I ain't a butcher--I work with live cattle, not dead
+ones!" he concluded as Captain Jack continued in the direction of the
+upper crossing.
+
+"He's the independentest darn' cuss I ever saw!" Charley remarked to his
+companions as the Ramblin' Kid disappeared. "It's a wonder Old Heck
+don't fire him."
+
+"He can't," Bert laughed. "Th' Ramblin' Kid don't stay at the Quarter
+Circle KT by the grace of Old Heck, but by the choice of th' Ramblin'
+Kid! Anyhow, he's too good with horses--" His voice trailed away to a
+low mutter as they turned in among the willows and cottonwood trees
+along the bank of the Cimarron.
+
+At the upper crossing on almost the same spot where he had lifted
+Carolyn June from the quicksand to the solid ground of the meadow land,
+the Ramblin' Kid stopped Captain Jack. He looked out over the placid,
+unbroken surface of the sand-bar and saw the end of the broken rope
+coiled loosely where Old Blue had been drawn under. A few yards away the
+white felt hat Carolyn June had tossed to one side, to be a mute and
+pathetic messenger of her fate, when she thought death was certain,
+still rested on the smooth surface of the sand. It was to get the hat
+the Ramblin' Kid had come again to the scene of yesterday's tragedy. He
+had seen it lying there when Carolyn June and he rode away on Captain
+Jack and thought then of trying to get it, but the part of the broken
+rope attached to his saddle was too short to reach it and it was
+impossible to secure it in any other way. Chuck had returned the
+Ramblin' Kid's rope to him yesterday when they were after the runaway
+steers and it was now on his saddle. He lightly tossed the noose so that
+it fell circling the object he sought. Gently flicking the rope toward
+him he tightened the loop about the crown of the hat and drew it to the
+edge of the quicksand. He picked up the hat, looked curiously at it,
+remounted Captain Jack, paused a moment and gazed at the treacherous
+surface beneath which the body of Old Blue was hidden and with a
+savagely muttered something about "th' damned stuff!" whirled the little
+stallion and rode rapidly in the direction from which he came.
+
+As Captain Jack galloped along the lane the Ramblin' Kid looked at the
+hat curiously, turning it first one way and then the other. With a
+laugh he reached into his pocket and drew out the pink satin garter. An
+expression of tenderness, followed by a look of deep humility that
+quickly changed into savage anger, came into his eyes as he looked first
+at the hat, soiled and dirty, and then at the dainty bit of elastic he
+held in his hand.
+
+"A swell pair of souvenirs," he said bitterly, "for an 'ign'rant,
+savage, stupid brute' of a cow-puncher to be packin' around!"
+
+Before reaching the barn the Ramblin' Kid dropped the garter again into
+his pocket. Rounding the end of the shed he rode Captain Jack directly
+up to Carolyn June. Dismounting, he left the little roan standing, not
+troubling to drop the reins over the broncho's head, stepped toward the
+girl and extended the hat, saying simply and without emotion.
+
+"Here's your hat!"
+
+There was no embarrassment now or humility in his eyes as he looked
+steadily at Carolyn June. His expression was as cold as if the one to
+whom he spoke was an utter stranger.
+
+"I--" Carolyn June hesitated, "oh, I thank you! It was kind of you to
+think about it and ride back--back--there," she involuntarily
+shuddered when she thought of the upper crossing, "and get it!"
+
+The simple, unexpected thoughtfulness of the deed touched her. It was
+the natural, instinctive act of a gentleman. She had forgotten the hat.
+He had not. As she looked at him she felt that, someway, she might have
+known such a thing was exactly what he would do.
+
+"You're welcome," he said quietly, starting to turn away.
+
+A spirit of mischief suddenly flared up in her heart. She thought of the
+pink elastic she had lost and which she believed he was carrying now in
+his pocket.
+
+"Is the hat all--didn't you--" she intended to say "find something
+else?" but quickly stopped. The Ramblin' Kid paused and turned again
+toward Carolyn June. She hesitated in confusion. It had flashed to her
+mind that if he had the garter he would not lie about it. He would say
+as much and offer to return it to her. Someway, she did not wish
+that--she wanted him to keep it, but she did not want him to know that
+she wanted her garter to be carried by him!
+
+His black eyes looked keenly at her, as if they would force from her
+lips the thing she evidently dared not say.
+
+"I--I was just getting acquainted with the Gold Dust maverick!" Carolyn
+June finished lamely with a nervous laugh.
+
+"You want to be careful," the Ramblin' Kid said with the slightest curl
+of his lips at her obvious shifting of meanings, "she ain't exactly a
+'lady's animal' yet. She'll fight. Skinny started to go in th' corral
+this morning an' had to back up. Th' maverick went at him to kill.
+She's goin' to be a 'one-man' horse th' same as Captain Jack."
+
+"Perhaps it was because she was afraid of him," Carolyn June suggested.
+
+"Maybe it was because Skinny was afraid of her," the Ramblin' Kid
+chuckled.
+
+"Aren't you going to ride the filly in that race at Eagle Butte?" she
+asked suddenly with a hint of coquetry in her eyes and voice.
+
+"Why?" he shot back at her, observing the changed inflection and look.
+
+"I--I--would like you to," Carolyn June murmured demurely as she
+followed up the feminine method of mastering a man, "it would be fun to
+see her run!"
+
+"Is that all?" the Ramblin' Kid asked gently and with a peculiar
+emphasis.
+
+"Isn't that enough?" the girl countered in a tone bordering close to the
+tender.
+
+The answer was slow in coming.
+
+"Th' Gold Dust maverick will be in th' sweepstakes," the Ramblin' Kid
+finally said, a note of contempt in his voice. "I'll ride her"--as he
+jerked the saddle from Captain Jack, turned the stallion into the
+corral, then started toward the bunk-house, while Carolyn June moved
+away in the direction of the back-yard gate--"I'll ride her," he
+repeated, emphasizing strongly the last ten words, "_to beat that
+Thunderbolt horse from over on th' Vermejo_".
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+A DANCE AND A RIDE
+
+Old Heck and Parker returned from Eagle Butte before noon. Parker
+climbed silently from the Clagstone "Six" and lifting out a new saddle
+went toward the stable. Old Heck carried another--a beautiful thing,
+artistically scrolled, the horn and stirrups silver trimmed--and laid it
+on the front porch as Carolyn June, Ophelia and Skinny stepped out of
+the big room.
+
+"It's yours," he said to Carolyn June.
+
+"Oh, you darling old uncle!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around his
+neck and giving a tight squeeze while she kissed him full on the mouth.
+
+He reddened. "I ain't so darned old!" he laughed as he withdrew from her
+embrace and, glancing up, caught sight of Skinny in the immaculate
+shirt. "My Gawd!" he whispered under his breath.
+
+Parker immediately saddled a horse and rode away to join the cowboys at
+their work. Lunches for the party had been taken with them when they
+left the ranch in the morning. During the trip to Eagle Butte Old Heck
+and his foreman had talked but little. There was a feeling of restraint
+between Parker and him that made each hesitate to start a conversation
+that would be almost certain to work around to a discussion of
+Ophelia--a subject uppermost in the minds of both.
+
+At noon the Ramblin' Kid came to the house for dinner.
+
+He and Skinny occupied their usual places. He looked once at Skinny's
+shirt, murmured softly and in a tone of infinite disgust and pity,
+"Hell!" then ate his food in silence. During the meal Carolyn June
+ignored him, but smiled tenderly and often at Skinny. Old Heck and the
+widow, at the far end of the table, carried on a low-voiced dialogue.
+
+During the afternoon the Ramblin' Kid remained away from the house. A
+couple of times, glancing out of the window, Carolyn June saw him at the
+circular corral petting and caressing Captain Jack or the Gold Dust
+maverick.
+
+When Sing Pete hammered the iron triangle announcing supper Parker and
+the cowboys had returned, the hides from the dead steers had been
+unloaded and the men were ready for the meal.
+
+As Carolyn June and Ophelia went into the kitchen they exchanged a look
+of understanding. Skinny lagged behind Old Heck. He dreaded the shock of
+the white shirt on the other cowboys. When he stepped into the room his
+face flamed scarlet and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. He
+expected merciless, sarcastic chiding--thinly veiled but cruel. He was
+disappointed. The cowboys looked at him for a moment, exchanged winks,
+then sat silently and solemnly down to the table. The presence of the
+women had saved, for the time being, the suffering Skinny.
+
+Carolyn June distributed tender words and velvety looks impartially
+among the younger cowboys, while Ophelia alternated sweet nothings
+between Parker and Old Heck, with an occasional sidelong glance at
+Charley that brought a heightened color to his sun-browned cheeks.
+
+Chuck sighed dolefully.
+
+"Why so sad?" Carolyn June asked gently, looking with melting sympathy
+at the pensive cowboy.
+
+"I--I--was just thinking of a--a--funeral I saw once!" he answered,
+gazing steadily and with pretended awe at Skinny's white shirt. "Some
+colors always remind me of funerals or--or--weddings!" he explained.
+
+A suppressed snicker circled the table.
+
+"Don't be down-hearted," Carolyn June laughed, "it may not go that far.
+
+"Uncle Josiah," she added suddenly, "Ophelia and I have a wonderful
+surprise for you and the boys."
+
+Old Heck looked at her without replying while he awaited an explanation.
+
+"We are going to give a dance!" Carolyn June went on.
+
+"A dance?" he repeated incredulously, "when--"
+
+"To-night--in the front room," she hastened to explain, "not a big
+dance--just a little one for you and the boys. The graphophone will
+furnish music, there are some good one-step and waltz records--Skinny
+and I were playing them this afternoon--and every blessed cowboy on the
+Quarter Circle KT must be there!"
+
+A short silence followed her words, then a chorus of "We'll be there!"
+greeted her.
+
+"In an hour," Carolyn June said, smiling sweetly at the cowboys, as they
+left the kitchen, "everybody be back at the house. We'll fix the room
+and have it ready--don't any one bother to 'dress up,'" she added as an
+afterthought.
+
+"Old Heck's niece acts kind of stampedish, don't she?" Bert remarked as
+Parker and the cowboys filed out of the back-yard gate toward the
+bunk-house.
+
+"Yes," Charley answered. "I'm going to shave."
+
+"So am I," said Chuck, as they hurried in the direction of their
+sleeping quarters.
+
+"Me, too," laughed Bert. "Gee, didn't Skinny shine in that shirt?" as
+they disappeared inside the building and there was a rush to hunt out
+razors, brushes and other toilet necessities or clean handkerchiefs and
+ties.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid alone seemed uninterested. He dropped down on his bed
+and idly watched the others prepare for the evening's diversion.
+
+"Ain't you going?" Chuck asked him, noticing his indifference.
+
+A short, half-cynical laugh with "Oh, maybe I'll go set on the porch
+an' listen to th' music!" was the answer.
+
+When Parker and the cowboys reappeared at the house it was plain that
+all had disobeyed Carolyn June's injunction not to "dress up." Each had
+paid tribute in some way, by a smooth-scraped face, a dean shirt, a tie
+or something, to the vanity of his own heart and the desire for the good
+opinion of either Carolyn June or the widow.
+
+Both women noticed it. They exchanged glances while Carolyn June softly
+whispered to Ophelia: "Stir them up--it's coming to them!"
+
+The widow smiled understandingly.
+
+Old Heck fidgeted uncomfortably. The situation was entirely beyond his
+control. By right he and Ophelia ought to be sitting there quietly
+making love, while Skinny and Carolyn June, in another corner of the
+room or out on the porch, were doing the same thing. He would just have
+to await developments.
+
+Parker was elated. Carolyn June's proposal had broken up Old Heck's
+evening alone with the widow. Perhaps--the thought thrilled the foreman
+--Ophelia herself had planned it!
+
+"Skinny can keep the graphophone working," Carolyn June laughed. "Put on
+a one-step first," she said as he rather grudgingly went to the corner
+and started the music. "Come on, Bert, we'll dance this one," she cried
+merrily, as she stepped up to the blushing cowboy and put her hand, with
+a tender little pressure, on his arm. "It's 'ladies' night,' you
+know--Ophelia, pick your pardner!"
+
+"Aw--don't you reckon you ought to choose one of the others first?"
+Bert, considerably embarrassed by the sudden attention, mumbled as he
+moved with pretended reluctance but secret eagerness out on to the
+floor.
+
+"I know who I want to dance with!" Carolyn June whispered significantly
+with another squeeze of his arm while her warm breath fanned his cheek.
+
+For a moment Ophelia stood as if undecided while Old Heck and Parker
+each tried by their looks to register unconcern, their hearts meanwhile
+leaping with uncertain expectancy and hope. Suddenly turning from both
+and going up to Charley, she said softly and with well-feigned shyness:
+
+"I--I--please, won't you dance this one with me?"
+
+"With the most exceeding pleasure!" Charley replied gallantly, arising
+and reaching out his hands.
+
+Parker and Old Heck gulped their astonishment and disappointment--each
+swallowing as if he had something in his throat that would not go
+down--and glared savagely at each other.
+
+Skinny next put on a waltz record. Carolyn June and Chuck swung through
+its dreamy rhythm while her hair brushed the cowboy's neck and her eyes,
+half closed, looked alluringly into his. "I--I--could do this
+forever--with you!" she breathed, accenting the last word and making
+Chuck want to yell for joy.
+
+At the beginning of the waltz Ophelia paused a moment before Old Heck,
+glanced demurely at Parker, took a step toward the latter, turned
+quickly to the first and flooding him with a look of tenderness held out
+her hands while she spoke the simple entreaty:
+
+"Please!"
+
+Old Heck leaped to his feet, hitched nervously at the belt of his
+trousers, ran his fingers around the inside of his collar, and, with a
+look of triumph at Parker, led the widow through the dance. She
+permitted her body to relax and lean against her partner, dancing with
+an abandon that not only fired the emotions of Old Heck to fever heat,
+but was as well like dippers of oil on the flame of the foreman's
+jealousy.
+
+Parker gritted his teeth and followed Old Heck with a look that meant
+nothing less than the desire to kill!
+
+As Ophelia and Old Heck, and Carolyn June with Chuck circled the room
+Skinny leaned weakly against the graphophone. He was tortured
+agonizingly by the strange action of Carolyn June. He was her lover, her
+official, absolute lover! Why did she want to go and get things all
+mixed up like this? It wasn't fair. The other boys were not supposed to
+make love to her! They had elected him to do it and he was getting
+along all right till she thought of having this blamed fool dance. He
+began to doubt the efficacy of the white shirt and frequently drew one
+of the loose, baggy sleeves--rapidly losing their snowy
+spotlessness--across his face to rid himself of beads of perspiration.
+
+The waltz was followed by another one-step and Ophelia granted this
+favor to Parker while Old Heck sat and swore steadily under his
+breath--regretful that he had not sent the foreman and the cowboys out
+on the beef hunt a week ago!
+
+Outside, the Ramblin' Kid half-reclined on the edge of the porch. With a
+cigarette between his teeth, a sneering smile on his lips, he watched,
+through the open door, the group within. He was convinced now that
+Carolyn June was utterly frivolous. She danced and flirted with Bert,
+Chuck, Charley--and even Pedro--one after the other and occasionally
+Parker. Poor Skinny alone was neglected. She seemed to have forgotten
+that he existed save when, from time to time, she suggested that he put
+this or that record on the graphophone. To each of the cowboys she
+whispered tender little sentiments, gave soulful looks and insinuating
+smiles--all but caressed them openly. Ophelia did like things to Old
+Heck, Parker and Charley.
+
+In very truth it was a "slaughter."
+
+It was hot. After an hour Carolyn June stepped out on the porch for a
+breath of air while Skinny sought in the cabinet for a record she had
+asked him to play. The Ramblin' Kid straightened up as she came out of
+the door. He was disgusted, angry, heart-sickened. He had seen enough
+and was starting to leave.
+
+Carolyn June had noticed the absence of the Ramblin' Kid. She had
+believed, all evening, he was on the porch and that was the real reason
+she had come outside. She saw him. "Oh, is--is--that you, Ramblin'
+Kid?" she exclaimed as if surprised, and went quickly to where, at the
+sound of her voice, he had paused.
+
+He did not answer. The light shone full on his face and he knew that she
+knew--and had known before she spoke--that he was there. His eyes were
+filled with a look queerly blending scorn, loathing, pity and pain.
+
+"Why--why--don't you come in and dance?" she asked lightly, not certain
+of his mood.
+
+"I don't want to," he replied coldly: "anyhow--" he added with a sneer
+and a brutal laugh as he slowly moved away in the darkness, "when I
+decide to _hug_ I'll hug in private!"
+
+Carolyn June started almost as though he had struck her. The taunt was
+an insult! A flood of anger swept over her. "The brute!" she whispered
+passionately and with utter contempt in her voice. She stood a moment.
+Suddenly she remembered the reckless abandon with which she had been
+dancing and flirting with the cowboys inside the house. Her face flamed
+scarlet. She looked out into the blackness toward the circular corral.
+Her expression changed and a pitying smile crossed her lips: "Poor
+Ramblin' Kid--he just--does not understand!" she murmured and stepped
+back into the house.
+
+As the Ramblin' Kid passed through the back-yard gate he muttered
+savagely under his breath: "Playin' with their hearts like marbles--th'
+damned fools!" He paused a moment and added, as though tired, "Oh, well,
+I reckon she thinks she has to do it--it's her breed--she was raised
+that way I guess!"
+
+The snuffling sound of a horse blowing hay-powder or other dust from its
+nostrils came from the direction of the circular corral. The Ramblin'
+Kid stopped in his walk and turning went thoughtfully through the
+darkness toward where Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were
+quietly feeding. He leaned against the bars of the corral and looked at
+the shadowy forms of the two horses standing a little distance away.
+Captain Jack quit eating and came to the fence.
+
+"God! Little Horse"--the Ramblin' Kid spoke tensely and without
+repression--"why can't humans be as decent an' honest as you?"
+
+The black dome of night was studded with innumerable stars that gleamed
+like points of silver sprinkled over a canopy of somber velvet some
+infinite hand had flung, in a great arch, from rim to rim of a sleeping
+world. The call of a night bird shrilled softly from the cottonwood
+trees along the Cimarron. A hint of a breeze swung idly from the west
+and rustled the leaves in the tops of the poplars in front of the house.
+Faintly as a distant echo came the wailing strains of a waltz, drifting
+out from the lighted windows and the open door of the room where Carolyn
+June and Ophelia, in a spirit of sport and for revenge, juggled the
+hearts of men afraid of nothing in all the world but the look in a
+Woman's eyes.
+
+The music tortured the soul of the Ramblin' Kid. It breathed the
+unfathomable strife of life--of love, longing, hope, despair--almost,
+yet subtly, elusively, would not tell the eternal "Why?" of all things.
+
+Not heeding time, he stood and listened. The crunching sound made by the
+Gold Dust maverick, munching at the pile of hay on the ground in the
+corral, blended with and seemed a queer accompaniment to the melody that
+came from the scene of revelry up at the house.
+
+The orange disk of a late-rising moon showed above the rim of the
+sand-hills at the lower end of the valley. The Ramblin' Kid watched
+it--until it grew into a rounded plate of burnished, glistening silver.
+The Gold Dust maverick was suddenly flooded with a glare of light as the
+moonbeams poured over the top of the shed and streamed through the bars
+of the circular corral. The filly lifted her head.
+
+An impulse to ride--ride--ride, to get away from it all--far out on the
+wide unpeopled plains where there was nothing above but God, and the
+unmeasured depths of His heavens, and nothing beneath but the earth and
+the rhythmic beat of his horse's feet, came over the Ramblin' Kid. Men,
+and the works of men--their passions, their strifes, their
+foolishness--and women--women who played with love--he wanted to forget,
+to leave miles and miles behind.
+
+He started to open the gate, thinking to saddle Captain Jack and obey
+the impulse of the moment. Carolyn June's words, spoken of the Gold Dust
+maverick: "It would be fun to see her run!" and uttered lightly and in a
+spirit of coquetry that morning when she teased him to enter the outlaw
+filly in the race against the Thunderbolt horse from the Vermejo, came
+to his mind. The selfishness of the plea maddened him. She cared nothing
+for the price in effort--the straining muscles, the panting breath--the
+agony the beautiful mare must pay to defeat the black wonder from the
+other part of the range. She wanted only to see the maverick run--to
+coax him to yield and run the filly merely to please the cheap vanity of
+her sex! No doubt also she counted on entertainment when, to-morrow, he
+would ride the outlaw for the first time. It would be a kind of
+show--the battle for mastery between himself and the high-bred untamed
+mare. The whole bunch--Old Heck, Parker, Ophelia, Carolyn June, the
+cowboys--yes, even that damned Chink--unquestionably would be crowded
+about the corral to watch the fear and pain of the maverick as she
+learned her first hard lesson of servitude to man! They would laugh at
+her frenzied efforts to throw him.
+
+He would fool them. He would ride the filly to-night!
+
+He went to the shed, slipped his legs into the worn leather chaps, took
+saddle, bridle, blanket and rope and returned to the corral.
+
+Stepping inside he closed the gate behind him.
+
+Captain Jack came to him and nosed at his shoulder.
+
+"No, Little Man," the Ramblin' Kid said gently, "this ain't your turn.
+You can go with us though, if you want to!" he laughed.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick stood, half-afraid, at the other side of the
+corral. She had not yet wholly conquered her dread of him. She did not,
+however, offer to fight as she had done that morning when Skinny entered
+the enclosure.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid spoke to the filly and, as she began to move shyly
+away, with one toss threw the loop over her head. The instant the mare
+felt the rope she stopped and stood trembling a moment, then came
+straight up to him. She was "rope-wise." The experience at the North
+Springs the night he caught her, and when she had, three separate times,
+been cruelly thrown by this same rope; had taught the Gold Dust maverick
+the power that lay in those pliant strands.
+
+She flinched from the touch of the blanket. The Ramblin' Kid worked
+easily, carefully, but in absolute confidence, with her. As he
+cautiously saddled the mare he talked in a low, drawling monotone,
+uttering endearing phrases and occasionally slipping a lump of sugar--a
+supply of which he had got that night from the kitchen--into her mouth.
+She ate it ravenously.
+
+"Darn, Little One," he laughed, "you sure have got a sweet tooth--you
+gobble that sugar like an Indian squaw eatin' choc'late candy!"
+
+At last the mare was saddled. Still holding to the rope, the Ramblin'
+Kid, without trying to get the filly to follow, moved over and opened
+the gate, giving it a push and swinging it wide. During the performance
+the Gold Dust maverick stood perfectly still, save for a constant
+chewing at the iron bit between her teeth.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid went quietly up to her, coiling the slack of the rope
+as he advanced. Without bothering to tighten the reins, but watching
+closely the look in the maverick's big brown eyes and the nervous
+twitching of her ears, he laid one hand on the withers of the outlaw,
+with the other he grasped the horn of the saddle and slipping his foot
+in the stirrup swung quickly and lightly on to her back.
+
+For the space of a deep breath the maverick crouched, grew tense in
+every muscle, slowly arched her back, gathered herself together for a
+great effort.
+
+A quiet smile curled the lips of the Ramblin' Kid as he looked down on
+the curving neck of the beautiful creature.
+
+With a tremendous leap the Gold Dust maverick sprang high into the air,
+lunging forward while all her hoofs were off the ground. Her forefeet
+came down across the back of Captain Jack--she had all but cleared the
+little roan. The shock almost threw the stallion to the ground. As he
+surged from under her the filly slid and sprawled on her shoulder and
+side. Instantly she was on her feet, the Ramblin' Kid still in the
+saddle. His spurs had not touched the mare--instead he had been careful
+not to let their steel points so much as ruffle the golden-chestnut hair
+of her belly or flank. Only when the outlaw fell had he thrown forward
+his right leg and hooked the sharp rowels into the strong fiber of the
+forward cinch. With the left hand he loosely held the reins, giving the
+maverick her head--the other hand he brushed with a caressing upward
+movement along her glossy neck.
+
+Twice the Gold Dust maverick circled the corral, plunging, bucking
+"side-winding," desperately--her nose between her knees, squealing
+pitifully--as she tried vainly to rid herself of the weight of the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Go to it, Baby Girl, go to it!" he chuckled; "you've got to learn!
+Sooner or later you'll find out it can't be done!" He rode limply,
+loosely, low in the saddle, and while he made no effort to urge the
+filly into greater frenzy he did not try in any way to prevent her
+bucking her hardest in, the futile attempts to hurl him off her back.
+
+The second time the outlaw mare came to the gate she whirled and dashed
+through the opening, out of the corral, across the open space, past the
+corner of the front-yard fence and along the road that led up to the
+bench and toward Eagle Butte. Captain Jack trotted around the corral
+once, then followed at a long, swinging gallop.
+
+The noise of the filly bucking inside the corral reached the ears of the
+dancers in the big room at the house.
+
+"What in thunderation's that commotion?" Old Heck exclaimed, starting
+up--he and Ophelia had just finished a two-step and Skinny was winding
+the graphophone to play his favorite, the alluring _La Paloma_.
+
+There was an instant's pause, then a rush for the door.
+
+Carolyn June reached the porch just in time to see the Gold Dust
+maverick "hitting the breeze"--careering madly, wildly pitching as she
+ran past the opening in front of the house and up the road out on the
+bench. It was almost as though a phantom horse and rider had passed
+before her sight.
+
+"Lord! Look at them go!" Charley cried admiringly.
+
+At first the girl had not recognized the outlaw mare or her rider.
+
+"Who--what--is it?" she asked Chuck, who was standing beside her.
+
+Bert answered for Chuck. "It's that darn-fool Ramblin' Kid--he's riding
+the Gold Dust maverick!" he said. "Ain't that just like the blamed
+idiot--to go and ride that filly to-night?"
+
+"Aw, he's liable to do anything," Charley commented, "he's--"
+
+Before the sentence was finished the beautiful mare and her apparently
+careless rider, with Captain Jack a hundred yards behind, disappeared
+over the brink of the bench and in the silence that followed the group
+on the porch heard only the distant thudding of hoofs beating an ever
+fainter tattoo through the calm, moonlit night.
+
+Carolyn June went back into the house with conflicting emotions surging
+through her heart. She believed she knew why the Ramblin' Kid had
+elected to ride the outlaw filly to-night. But her thoughts she kept to
+herself.
+
+For an hour longer the dance continued. But not with the spirit of
+earlier in the evening. The interruption took something of the eagerness
+to punish Old Heck, Parker and the cowboys, out of the heart of Carolyn
+June. A bit of doubt that the role she and Ophelia were playing was
+worthy of true womanhood crept into her mind.
+
+When the widow and Carolyn June were alone Ophelia laughed.
+
+"Whew!" she exclaimed, "that was a strenuous party! I've danced till my
+feet ache! Do you think our little 'counterplot' was a success?"
+
+"Entirely!" Carolyn June replied with an uncertain chuckle. "Uncle
+Josiah, Parker and Charley will dream dreams about you and fight duels
+in their sleep to-night!"
+
+"I think the others--" the widow started to say, then pausing, finished:
+"Wasn't it queer the Ramblin' Kid decided to ride that outlaw horse
+to-night instead of coming to the house to dance?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," Carolyn June answered indifferently.
+
+"I guess it's as Charley says," Ophelia remarked: "'You can't tell what
+th' Ramblin' Kid's liable to do'--"
+
+"I suppose not," Carolyn June replied wearily as she went into her room.
+"Good night!"
+
+"Good night!" Ophelia echoed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+YOU'LL GET YOUR WISH
+
+It was a silent group that gathered in the bunk-house after the dance.
+Old Heck, Parker, Charley and the other cowboys had been unduly
+stimulated by the music, the laughter and the bright smiles of Carolyn
+June and Ophelia. When they stepped out of the house into the cool night
+these all were left behind. The cow-men quickly sobered down and by the
+time they reached their sleeping quarters on the faces of all were
+half-ashamed looks as if they had been playing at a game not quite
+dignified enough or proper for men of maturity and seriousness.
+
+All were thoughtful and none seemed eager to start conversation.
+
+Skinny was dejected and utterly miserable.
+
+He felt that he had been cruelty treated. Carolyn June had acted all
+evening as though his only object in living was to stand in the corner
+and wind up that blamed graphophone, while she openly flirted with the
+other cowboys. Skinny was grateful to the Ramblin' Kid who, alone of all
+the cow-punchers, had decency enough to stay away and not interfere with
+the original agreement. The Ramblin' Kid had some sense and was square.
+He had realized that any fellow officially elected to make
+love--especially when he didn't want to do it in the first place--ought
+to be allowed to go ahead and make it without having a lot of darned
+buckaroos butting in on the job.
+
+The way the others had acted was a regular disgrace!
+
+Chuck, Bert, Charley and Pedro were nervously happy. In the heart of
+each was a thrill, caused by the memory of some secret--or what he
+thought was a secret--manifestation of Carolyn June's interest. Perhaps
+it was no more than the brushing of a stray whiff of odorous brown hair
+against a weather-tanned cheek, the pulsing of a warm breath on the side
+of a muscular neck, a melting look from a pair of luminous eyes, some
+low-spoken word or the pressure of a hand, but whatever it was, each of
+the cowboys was reasonably certain he had been singled out for special
+favors. Charley was doubly blessed. In addition to Carolyn June's
+seductive advances he had the memory, also, of Ophelia's attentions. His
+mind was awhirl with the effort to figure out which one, by rights, he
+ought to consider as a permanent possibility.
+
+Old Heck and Parker were in a quandary.
+
+Neither was sure of his standing with Ophelia although each had reason
+to believe that he was her favorite. Her interest in Charley added an
+unexpected and perplexing equation to their problem.
+
+"Gosh," Chuck finally exclaimed, "that dance sure was some blow out!"
+
+"I should say it was!" Bert agreed emphatically and with a satisfied
+grin. "But didn't that widow act funny for an 'anti-he' suffragette?"
+
+Old Heck looked up, startled, as if he had been reminded of a
+disagreeable subject and one he wished to forget.
+
+"Are you plumb positive that she is one, Parker?" Chuck asked.
+
+"I told you what she was," Parker growled, "she's an 'Organizer' for
+some sort of 'Movement' or other."
+
+"Well, I'll be blamed if her 'movements' to-night showed any 'anti-he'
+inclinations," Charley interrupted. "She carried on more like a female
+vampire than one of these advocaters of woman's rights!"
+
+"Aw, shut up and go to bed," Old Heck grunted. "It's too late to start
+any argument!"
+
+The moon crept across the heavens and was hanging above the shadowy
+peaks of the Costejo Mountains when the Ramblin' Kid returned to the
+sleeping Quarter Circle KT, slipped the saddle from the back of the Gold
+Dust maverick and turned the filly and Captain Jack into the circular
+corral.
+
+He had ridden the outlaw mare almost to Eagle Butte.
+
+She had learned her lesson. She knew, when he caressed her muzzle and
+pressed the last lump of sugar into her mouth, before he turned away to
+the bunk-house, that the Ramblin' Kid was not only her master but her
+friend as well--understanding and sympathetic. Never again would she
+doubt his will or resist the gentle yet firm strength of his hand. From
+that moment the Gold Dust maverick, like Captain Jack, was a one-man
+horse, ready to serve, to trust and obey only the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"You little beauty," he laughed tenderly as he playfully shook the
+underlip of the filly and started toward the gate, "--you're a
+runner--gee!--but you're a runner!"
+
+The others were fast asleep when the Ramblin' Kid noiselessly opened the
+door of the bunk-house, went in, and without undressing, stretched
+himself on his bed.
+
+Old Heck awakened the cowboys as the sun poured its first slanting rays
+through the open un-draped window.
+
+The stir aroused the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He made no move to arise.
+
+"Ain't you going to get up?" Old Heck said garrulously.
+
+"When I damn please!" was the independent reply. "Skinny, tell th' Chink
+to keep me a cup of hot coffee!"
+
+Old Heck snorted but said no more.
+
+Parker and the cowboys dressed silently, half-moodily. They hardly knew
+yet how they felt after the excitement of the night before. Skinny
+started to put on the white shirt, looked at it contemptuously a
+moment, and with a muttered oath threw it viciously on the bed.
+
+In a few moments the Ramblin' Kid was left alone in the bunk-house. He
+lay, hands clasped at the back of his head, studying. His eyes were
+closed, but he was not asleep. Presently he smiled and opened his eyes.
+He drew the pink satin elastic from his pocket and looked at it. "That's
+a hell of a thing to be packin'--wonder why I keep it?" he muttered. It
+suddenly occurred to him that if he was not at breakfast Carolyn June
+would think he was afraid or ashamed to meet her. He got up,
+straightened his disarranged clothes, went to the house and after
+stopping at the ditch by the fence and washing his face, walked
+indifferently into the kitchen and sat down at his regular place. The
+others already were eating. Carolyn June glanced at him with a
+meaningless smile and acknowledged, without feeling, his quiet "Good
+morning!"
+
+The cowboys were nervous. Memory of last night was fresh in their minds.
+It made them cautious in their talk.
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June, also, were a bit restrained.
+
+They were not sure but they had started more than it would be easy to
+stop. The expressions in the eyes of the cowboys paid tribute to the
+success of the two women's efforts at wholesale heart-wrecking. The
+child-like acceptance of a simple flirtation as the real thing, by
+these husky riders of the range, was little less than appalling.
+
+It all but frightened Carolyn June and the widow.
+
+Old Heck saw the worship in the eyes of the cowboys.
+
+"Things sure are in a devil of a mix-up!" he growled to himself.
+
+Skinny was so dejected Carolyn June felt half-guilty and tried to cheer
+him up. She began talking, in a low voice, directly to the
+melancholy-looking cowboy.
+
+"To-day--or some time--when the others are away," she said caressingly,
+"you and I will dance all the dances by ourselves!"
+
+His heart leaped joyously. He was sorry, now, that he had not put on the
+white shirt. He resolved, after a while, to sneak out to the bunk-house
+and change.
+
+The confidential talk between Carolyn June and Skinny galled Chuck. He
+decided to break it up.
+
+"What was your idea in riding the Gold Dust maverick last night?" he
+said abruptly to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+There was a general pause for the answer. Carolyn June stopped in the
+middle of a sentence and looked curiously at the Ramblin' Kid. He took
+his time to reply.
+
+"Because I wanted to!" was the slow unsatisfactory retort.
+
+"Why didn't you wait till to-day, so the rest of us could see how she
+acted?" Charley asked.
+
+"What do you think you are"--he started to say--"a bunch of lawyers
+cross-examinin' a witness?" thought better of it and with a careless
+laugh answered: "If you're huntin' entertainment, why don't you go up to
+Eagle Butte to th' picture show? Th' maverick an' me ain't no
+exhibition!"
+
+"Did she buck?" Charley continued, ignoring the sarcastic remark.
+
+"Some," the Ramblin' Kid drawled.
+
+"What you going to do with the filly while we're out on the beef hunt?"
+Chuck queried, wishing to keep the conversation general.
+
+"Ride her!" was the laconic reply.
+
+"Ain't you afraid she'll break away from the _caballero_ and you'll lose
+her again?" Charley asked.
+
+"When I ain't usin' her I'll 'neck' her to Captain Jack," the Ramblin'
+Kid answered patiently, referring to the method of fastening a wild
+horse to one that is gentle and prevent its running away, by attaching a
+short length of rope to the neck of each. "I don't believe she'd leave
+th' stallion anyhow!"
+
+"By golly," Chuck said earnestly and half-pleadingly, "I wish you'd put
+her against that Y-Bar outfit's Thunderbolt horse in the two-mile
+sweepstakes this year! It would be--"
+
+"Fun to see her run!" the Ramblin' Kid interrupted, looking up quickly
+and straight into the eyes of Carolyn June as he finished the
+contemptuous quotation of her words, spoken the day before at the
+corral. She flushed, but gazed back at him without flinching. "Well," he
+continued, "I reckon you'll get your wish--th' maverick is goin' to run
+against th' Vermejo horse!"
+
+"The Fourth of July is a week from next Wednesday," Charley said
+calculatingly. "The Rodeo starts on Tuesday, the roping and bucking
+finals come on Thursday. That makes the big race come Friday--a week
+from next Friday, ain't it?"
+
+"That's right," Bert concurred. "Th' Ramblin' Kid's got nearly two weeks
+to get the maverick in shape."
+
+"Nothing will be in shape for anything," Old Heck broke in, getting up
+from the table, "unless we move around and get things ready to begin the
+beef round-up to-morrow morning. Some of you boys will have to bring in
+those saddle horses from across the river. Each one of you can ride your
+regular 'string' this year"--alluding to the term used to designate the
+group of several horses used exclusively by each individual rider
+working on a round-up. "Skinny won't be with you, but you'd better take
+his horses along for extras. Parker can be getting the grub-wagon in
+shape--I reckon you'll have to work Old Tom and Baldy on it. Sing Pete
+ought to be able to handle them."
+
+"Where do we start in?" Charley asked as they went toward the barn.
+
+"Over in the Battle Ridge country," Old Heck answered, "and work
+everything east of the big pasture first. It'll take just about a week
+to clean up that side--it's pretty rough riding over there. Then you can
+finish the west end after the Rodeo is over."
+
+"What all you aiming to gather?" Bert queried.
+
+"Everything above a three-year-old," Old Heck replied in a businesslike
+way; "pick up the dry cows, too, if they're fat enough. Prices are
+better than usual and I want to sell pretty close on account of that
+storm knocking the hay the way it did the other night. There'll be three
+hundred and fifty or four hundred good beef critters on the east range.
+You ought to have them bunched and in the big pasture by Saturday night.
+Then, until the Rodeo is over you can all do what you darn' please--"
+
+"I know what I'm going to do," Chuck laughed.
+
+"What?" Bert asked.
+
+"Draw all my wages, borrow all I can, and make a clean-up on that Y-Bar
+outfit on the race between the Gold Dust maverick and Thunderbolt!" he
+exclaimed vindictively.
+
+"Probably there will be some of the rest of us have a little Quarter
+Circle KT money up on that race, too," Charley insinuated.
+
+"I know blamed well there will be!" Old Heck added earnestly as they
+scattered to go about their respective employments.
+
+It was a busy Sunday at the Quarter Circle KT. Chuck, Charley and Pedro
+spent the morning and most of the afternoon getting the saddle horses
+from across the river. Bert helped Parker and Old Heck about the ranch.
+Sing Pete baked a supply of light-bread and stocked the grub-wagon with
+provisions. The Ramblin' Kid volunteered to "ride-line" on the big
+pasture and see that the Diamond Bar steers had not broken out again. He
+rode a sorrel colt--one that had had its "first-riding" in the circular
+corral the day before Carolyn June and Ophelia arrived at the Quarter
+Circle KT. When he came to the corner of the pasture where the bodies of
+the cattle, killed by lightning, lay, a flock of buzzards were tearing
+at the carcasses. As the gorged creatures flapped heavily into the air
+the young broncho wheeled, and bucking frantically, jolted away from the
+gruesome scene. The Ramblin' Kid forced the animal to turn about and
+made him pass, rearing and plunging, among the skinless and already
+decaying forms. Before sundown the Ramblin' Kid was back at the ranch.
+
+In the afternoon Skinny and Carolyn June went for a ride down the
+valley. It was her first opportunity to try the new saddle. Skinny was
+mounted on Old Pie Face and Carolyn June rode Browny, a dependable old
+cow-horse.
+
+"Gee," Carolyn June remarked as they passed the circular corral. "I'd
+like to ride the Gold Dust maverick with this outfit!"
+
+"It would be a dandy combination," Skinny said admiringly, "but I doubt
+if anybody but th' Ramblin' Kid will ever be able to ride the filly. So
+far, she acts like she's going to be a worse one-man horse than Captain
+Jack is. She tried to kill me yesterday when I went into the corral!"
+
+"What makes her that way?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"Blamed if I know," Skinny replied, "some horses are naturally like
+that. Th' Ramblin' Kid says it ain't in the horse--it's in the human. If
+the human don't understand the horse the horse won't trust the human and
+where there ain't trust there's fear and where there's fear there's
+hate. He's got some funny ideas!"
+
+"Sounds sort of sensible, though, doesn't it?" Carolyn June said
+musingly.
+
+"Maybe it does," Skinny retorted, "but he goes a little too far with his
+fool notions sometimes, it seems to me."
+
+"How is that?" Carolyn June questioned.
+
+"Well, for one thing," Skinny replied, "he says any man or woman a horse
+don't trust ain't a good man or woman for a human to depend on--says
+they ain't right inside! It looks to me like that's a pretty hard slam
+on people just because some darned idiot of a broncho won't make up with
+them!"
+
+Carolyn June leaned back in the saddle and laughed.
+
+"Some 'range philosopher'--this Ramblin' Kid person!" she exclaimed
+lightly. "Where did he come from and who is he, anyway?"
+
+"Nobody knows," Skinny answered; "he just kind of growed up, here in
+the Southwest. I've heard that his mother died when he was born and his
+father was a preacher or something doing missionary work--I reckon
+that's what you'd call it--among the Mexicans and Indians and got the
+smallpox while he was nursing them through an epidemic and it killed
+him, which left th' Ramblin' Kid an orphan when he wasn't much more than
+a baby. The Mexicans or Indians took care of him till he was old enough
+to ride and then he began to ramble around and has always kept it up
+just as if he was hunting for something--"
+
+"How interesting!" Carolyn June exclaimed, "almost like a story!"
+
+"It is kind of unusual," Skinny continued, "of course it may not all be
+true, but one thing is sure--th' Ramblin' Kid seems to have some sort of
+fascination for the Greasers and the Indians; they all worship him, and
+he's a witch when it comes to handling horses!"
+
+"He seems to be," Carolyn June commented thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes," Skinny answered, "look how that Gold Dust maverick has made right
+up with him--I don't believe she ever will have anything to do with
+anybody else!"
+
+Carolyn June laughed softly to herself. She did not tell Skinny of her
+visits to the circular corral and that the outlaw mare already had
+accepted her as a good friend.
+
+She and Skinny loafed idly as far down the valley as the Narrows, and
+when Sing Pete sounded the supper gong they were again back at the
+house.
+
+After the evening meal the cowboys hung around the house for a while
+until a suggestive look from Old Heck caused them reluctantly to follow
+him to the bunk-house, leaving Parker and Skinny with Ophelia and
+Carolyn June.
+
+It was the foreman's last evening with the widow before the beef
+round-up. She was rather diffident and held him in safe channels of
+conversation. Skinny and Carolyn June sat on the porch until it was
+quite dark, then went into the house. She drummed carelessly and lightly
+on the keys of the piano--her thoughts evidently far away. Parker and
+Skinny left the house early. At the door the foreman whispered to the
+widow:
+
+"Don't forget what I spoke about coming out from town!"
+
+Ophelia flushed and murmured, "No, indeed, but--" she did not finish the
+sentence. She was about to say, "don't build false hopes!"
+
+When Parker and Skinny entered the bunk-house Old Heck and all the
+cowboys except the Ramblin' Kid were asleep. He was half-reclining on
+his bed, smoking. At the entrance of Skinny and Parker be got up and
+without speaking strolled outside and through the darkness toward the
+circular corral. The night was warm and the stuffy air of the
+bunk-house, together with the noisy snoring of Old Heck, made him
+restless. He stood a few moments looking at Captain Jack and the Gold
+Dust maverick. Then, moving back into the shed, dropped down and laid
+with his shoulders and head on his saddle, which was thrown on the
+ground under the shelter. The side of the building, next to the corral,
+was open and the Ramblin' Kid could see, from where he was lying, the
+dark bulks of the two horses at the farther side of the corral.
+
+Ophelia went directly to bed after Skinny and Parker left.
+
+Carolyn June sat for a while in the Morris chair in the large room. She
+seemed abstracted and in a mood for meditation. The vague history Skinny
+had given her of the life of the Ramblin' Kid interested her. She
+thought it explained a good many of his elemental impulses and
+idiosyncrasies. He was a creature of the plains. In his life among the
+Indians and Mexicans he had absorbed their stoical ways and almost
+brutal directness, yet, sometimes he showed a sensitiveness that was
+utterly impossible for Carolyn June to understand. Her thoughts turned
+to the Gold Dust maverick. To-morrow Ramblin' Kid would take the filly
+away for the round-up. She truly loved the beautiful mare. She would
+slip out, while the others slept, and have one more visit with the
+splendid creature. Rising, Carolyn June passed out through the kitchen,
+stopped for a handful of sugar--she had learned where Sing Pete kept the
+can--and bareheaded and without a wrap walked swiftly out to the
+circular corral.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard Carolyn June step up to the gate of the corral
+and from the heavy shadow in which he lay saw the light dress and
+instinctively recognized this late visitor to Captain Jack and the Gold
+Dust maverick His first impulse was to call out and warn her to keep
+away from the horses--that both were dangerous for men to fool with,
+much less was it safe for a woman to undertake familiarities with them.
+His next thought was that his sudden appearance would only startle the
+girl and--well, cause a lot of useless talk. He remained quiet.
+
+A low trill came from the throat of Carolyn June. The two horses stopped
+feeding and looked around toward the gate. The bird-like call was
+repeated. The Ramblin' Kid was astonished to see Captain Jack and the
+outlaw mare move eagerly in the direction from whence the sound had
+come. He heard Carolyn June talking to the bronchos in soft endearing
+tones. After a moment she opened the gate and stepped inside the corral.
+
+"Well, I'll be--!" he breathed inaudibly.
+
+For half an hour Carolyn June petted the little stallion and the Gold
+Dust maverick. Both animals seemed hungry for her caresses.
+
+"Oh, you darling--you wonder!" the Ramblin' Kid Heard Carolyn June
+say, as she gave the maverick's head a tight squeeze just before running
+lightly back to the house. "I hope you beat that old Y-Bar horse so bad
+he'll never want to run again! Even if that Ramblin' Kid lover of
+yours," she added softly, "does think I'm nothing but a silly
+woman-thing and hates me with all his queer, lonesome heart!"
+
+"Well, I'll be damned!" the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed when she was gone.
+
+He raised himself on one elbow and lay thus for a long time silently
+thinking.
+
+At last he got up, went to the corral gate, and he himself stepped
+inside with the horses. He gave Captain Jack's ear a loving twitch, then
+turned to the Gold Dust maverick. She permitted him, without protest, to
+fondle her head and neck. His hand lingered long on the silky mane in
+which, a little while before, Carolyn June had twined her fingers.
+
+"Oh, Queen of th' Range!" he said with a low laugh, unconsciously using
+the poetical phrase, as he gave the warm cheek of the filly a tender
+parting pinch before turning away to go to the bunk-house, "we'll whip
+that devil-horse of th' Vermejo--we'll show that Thunderbolt runner what
+hearts that ain't afraid an' nimble hoofs can do!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+THE ELITE AMUSEMENT PARLOR
+
+An hour after breakfast, on Monday morning, Old Heck, Ophelia, Skinny
+and Carolyn June Were alone at the Quarter Circle KT. Parker and the
+cowboys were climbing out on the sand-hills north of the Cimarron,
+traveling in the direction of Battle Ridge, where the beef hunt was to
+begin.
+
+The circular corral was empty.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was riding the Gold Dust maverick. Captain Jack was
+with the saddle horses which Pedro, the Mexican, had wrangled on ahead
+of the other riders an hour before.
+
+The filly made no effort to throw the Ramblin' Kid on this her second
+riding. She seemed perfectly willing to carry the burden on her back.
+Carolyn June watched the beautiful mare as she stepped lightly and
+daintily along beside the other horses, and when the group disappeared
+among the rolling ridges across the river the ranch someway seemed
+deserted and she felt strangely alone, although Ophelia, Old Heck and
+Skinny were standing at her side.
+
+Sing Pete followed the riders, jolting along in the grub-wagon,
+awkwardly driving, with much clucking and pidgin-English, Old Tom and
+Baldy hitched to the heavy, canvas-covered vehicle with its
+"box-kitchen" and mess-board protruding gawkily out from the rear.
+
+Old Heck heaved a sigh of relief. There was a feeling of serene peace in
+his heart, now that Parker and the cowboys were safely away on the
+round-up. In Skinny's heart the feeling was echoed.
+
+For a week or more they would be able to love Ophelia and Carolyn June
+without the constant fear of interruption.
+
+Only one thing troubled Old Heck. The widow had not yet exposed her hand
+in that suffragette movement or whatever it was. He dreaded the form in
+which it might, sooner or later, break out. But at that he would be glad
+to have it over. At present he felt as though he were sitting on the
+edge of a volcano, or above an unexplored blast of dynamite at the
+bottom of a well. Meanwhile he would have to wait and watch--and hope
+for the best.
+
+The week that followed was heaven and hell, mixed together, for Old Heck
+and Skinny.
+
+The women were lovely and lovable to the last degree, but cautious and
+tormentingly self-restrained when it came to loving. At the first
+intimation of dangerous sentimentality on the part of Old Heck the widow
+would suddenly and without an instant's warning change the subject. When
+Skinny had been pensive and silent for half an hour or so and would then
+start, in a halting and quivering voice, to say something, Carolyn June
+invariably interrupted with a remark about the weather, the Gold Dust
+maverick, the Ramblin' Kid, Old Heck, Sing Pete, the yellow cat, the
+coming Rodeo, Ophelia or something else.
+
+They paired on the work of preparing the meals, Carolyn June and Skinny
+and Ophelia and Old Heck taking shift and shift about in the kitchen. In
+this way the work was made a joke, with friendly rivalry between the
+couples in the preparation of tasty dishes.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny surprised the women with their knowledge of cooking.
+Nor was there the least embarrassment on the part of either when, with
+one of Sing Pete's aprons tied about his waist, he worked at the range
+or kitchen table. As a matter of course every cow-man must know
+something of how to cook a meal and, also, naturally and as a matter of
+course, Old Heck and Skinny, without the slightest thought that it was
+"womanish" or beneath the "dignity" of men, peeled potatoes, fried meat,
+washed dishes or did whatever there was to do.
+
+Indeed each was proud of his skill.
+
+Ophelia herself was clever, particularly at making biscuits and dainty
+salads.
+
+Carolyn June's sole accomplishment in the art of preparing food was the
+making of coffee-jelly. This she had learned at college--taught,
+perhaps, by the other girls during stolen midnight frolics. Probably
+this, also, was the reason she usually made it the last thing at night
+before Skinny and Old Heck left to go to the bunk-house. Coffee-jelly
+was the regular, inevitable, evening meal dessert for the entire week.
+
+"It ain't so very filling," Skinny remarked the first time he tasted the
+delicate dish, "but it's tender and has a dandy flavor!"
+
+Carolyn June blushed at the compliment.
+
+"It is pretty good," Old Heck agreed, "but these biscuits Ophelia made
+are just what was needed to set it off!"
+
+The widow smilingly showed her pleasure.
+
+Twice during the week Skinny rode "line" on the big pasture to look
+after the Diamond Bar steers. Carolyn June accompanied him. Each time
+she rode Browny, the old cow-horse. On these days Old Heck and Ophelia,
+in the Clagstone "Six," drove to Eagle Butte. The second trip to town
+Ophelia asked to be left at the minister's house. Old Heck was to call
+in an hour and get her. During the hour he slipped into the dentist's
+and had his teeth cleaned. When the tobacco-blackened tartar was scraped
+away they were surprisingly white and even. He stopped at the drug store
+and bought a tooth-brush and a tube of paste.
+
+Ophelia noticed the wonderful improvement in his appearance, guessed the
+reason, and the thought sent a warm thrill through her body.
+
+"Like a big boy," she laughed to herself, "when he begins to wash his
+neck and ears!"
+
+"It ain't healthy to have your teeth so dirty," Old Heck explained,
+coloring and in an apologizing manner, when Skinny discovered him, after
+supper that evening, carefully scrubbing his molars.
+
+Skinny watched the performance, saw the result, and murmured:
+
+"Guess I'll get me one of them layouts!"
+
+On Friday the quartette went to Eagle Butte, Old Heck driving, with
+Ophelia beside him, and Carolyn June and Skinny in the rear seat of the
+Clagstone "Six."
+
+It was on this trip, while Ophelia and Carolyn June were in the Golden
+Rule doing some shopping, that Old Heck and Skinny strolled into the
+Elite Amusement Parlor. Lafe Dorsey, owner of the Y-Bar outfit and to
+whom belonged the black Thunderbolt horse; Newt Johnson, Dave Stover and
+"Flip" Williams--the latter three cowboys on the big Vermejo ranch--were
+playing a four-handed game of billiards at one of the tables near the
+front of the place.
+
+Dorsey noticed the entrance of the pair from the Quarter Circle KT. All
+were range men and were well known to one another. The Y-Bar owner had
+been drinking. Boot-leg liquor was obtainable, if one knew how and
+where, in Eagle Butte.
+
+"Hello, there, Old Heck!" Dorsey greeted them hilariously and with a
+half-leer. "Howdy, Skinny! How's the Cimarron? Don't reckon you've
+taught Old Quicksilver to run yet, have you?" with a boisterous laugh
+as he referred to the race in which Thunderbolt had defeated Old Heck's
+crack stallion.
+
+The taunt stung Old Heck while it called out a suppressed snicker from
+the cowboys who were with Dorsey and the loafers in the pool-room. The
+bull-like guffaw of Mike Sabota, the gorilla-built, half-Greek
+proprietor of the Amusement Parlor roared out above the ripple of
+laughter from the others. The racing feud between the Y-Bar and the
+Quarter Circle KT was well known to all and Sabota himself had cleaned
+up a neat sum when the black horse from the Vermejo had outstepped the
+runner from the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Old Heck reddened at Dorsey's words but replied quietly:
+
+"The Cimarron is middling--just middlin'. No, we ain't been paying much
+attention to teaching horses how to run lately. Old Quicksilver's pretty
+fair. Of course he ain't the best horse in the world but he'll do for
+cows and general knocking around. Horses are a good deal like men, you
+know, Dorsey--there's always one that's a little bit better!"
+
+The Vermejo cow-man colored at the thrust.
+
+"Any of you Quarter Circle KT fellers going in on anything at the Rodeo,
+this year?" one of the Y-Bar riders asked Skinny before Dorsey could
+reply.
+
+"Charley said he might go in on the 'bull-dogging' and Bert is figuring
+some on the bucking events--but I don't reckon they'll either one
+enter," Skinny carelessly; "both of them got first money in them
+entries last year and they ain't caring much. The Mexican," referring to
+Pedro, "will probably do some roping--"
+
+"What about you and the Ramblin' Kid?" Flip Williams interrupted, "ain't
+neither of you going to take part?"
+
+"Probably not," Skinny drawled. "I ain't aiming to, and I don't know
+what th' Ramblin? Kid is figuring on. He ain't much for showing off. He
+only rode in the bucking contest last year because after that Cyclone
+horse killed Dick Stanley everybody said there wasn't any one that could
+ride him and the blamed little fool just wanted to demonstrate that
+there was. You never can tell what he'll do, though. He may be intending
+to go in on something or other."
+
+"Guess you people ain't got anything out there for the two-mile
+sweepstakes this year, have you?" Dorsey broke in with a sneer. "Old
+Thunderbolt's too much for them sand-hill jumpers from the Cimarron."
+
+"Oh, I don't know as he is," Old Heck said in a voice emotionless as an
+Indian's. "The Quarter Circle KT will probably be represented in the big
+event. It seems to me I heard Chuck mention entering that Silver Tip
+colt of his and, let's see, I believe th' Ramblin' Kid said something
+about running a new filly he's been riding some, didn't he, Skinny?"
+
+"Since I come to think of it I believe he did," Skinny answered as if
+it were a matter without especial interest; "if I remember right he did
+speak something of it a day or two ago."
+
+"Well, bring 'em on!" Dorsey exclaimed boastfully, "the Y-Bar will take
+all the money you Kiowa fellers feel like contributing! Old
+Thunderbolt's as fit as a new rawhide rope and is just aching to rake in
+another three or four thousand of Quarter Circle KT _dinero_ if you
+people have got the nerve to back your judgment!"
+
+There was a dead hush as the crowd in the pool-room waited for Old
+Heck's reply to Dorsey's drunken challenge.
+
+"We'll kind of remember that invitation, Dorsey," Old Heck said in tones
+as hard and smooth and cold as ice, while his gray eyes narrowed and
+bored the boastful cow-man like points of steel, "we'll sort of bear in
+mind that suggestion of yours. The Quarter Circle KT will send a horse
+into the big race that will beat that Thunderbolt critter of yours just
+three times as bad as he set old Quicksilver back--and we'll give you
+action on any amount of money, cattle or anything else you want to name!
+You can put your friends here in on it too, if you want to--" with a
+scornful glance around the pool-room at the loafers in the place. "Come
+on, Skinny," he added as he started toward the door, "more than likely
+Ophelia and Carolyn June are through with their trading and ready to go
+home."
+
+All stood silent until Skinny and Old Heck stepped out of the door,
+then Mike Sabota broke into a coarse, taunting laugh. As they turned up
+the street Old Heck and Skinny heard Dorsey and the crowd inside join in
+the merriment.
+
+"Damn that fool, Dorsey!" Old Heck exclaimed viciously, as he heard the
+shouts of derisive laughter. "I'm going to wipe him out on that race--if
+he's got the guts to come across and back up that Thunderbolt horse as
+hard as he blows about him!"
+
+"I think I'll hook Sabota for a few hundred on the sweepstakes, myself,"
+Skinny replied with a good deal of feeling, "I don't like the way that
+dirty cuss acts any better than I like Dorsey's bragging!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia were waiting when Old Heck and Skinny arrived
+at the Golden Rule.
+
+When the Clagstone "Six" whirled past the Amusement Parlor a few moments
+later Dorsey and Sabota were standing in the door.
+
+Carolyn June glanced at them.
+
+"Heavens," she said as her eyes rested an instant on the burly,
+low-browed, Greek proprietor of the place, "what a big brute of a
+looking fellow that is!"
+
+The two men stared insolently at the occupants of the car and as it
+passed Sabota made some remark, evidently vulgar, that caused Dorsey to
+burst into another round of coarse laughter.
+
+Old Heck was moody during the drive home.
+
+For nearly two years Dorsey had been crowing because of the defeat of
+Quicksilver by the black racer from the Vermejo. It was becoming more
+than idle jesting. It looked as if, for some reason, he was trying to
+torment Old Heck until something serious was started. Old Heck was a
+good loser but he was growing tired of the persistent nagging. He had
+not whimpered at the loss of the twenty-five hundred dollars Dorsey won
+from him on the race. Even the humiliation of seeing his best horse put
+in second place by the Y-Bar animal had been endured philosophically and
+without malice because he believed the thing had been run square and the
+faster horse had won. But Dorsey on every occasion since had, drunk or
+sober, boasted of Thunderbolt's victory and taken a devilish delight in
+rubbing it in on the owner of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+To-day the Vermejo cattleman had been worse than usual, due, no doubt,
+to the rotten boot-leg whisky the brute-like proprietor of Eagle Butte's
+rather disreputable Amusement Parlor was supposed secretly to dispense
+to those who had the price and the "honor" to keep sacred the source of
+supply.
+
+Old Heck was sore and he was ready to go the limit in backing the Gold
+Dust maverick. Both he and Skinny had purposely refrained from
+mentioning the horse the Ramblin' Kid would enter. The fame of the
+outlaw filly extended throughout all of southwestern Texas and if the
+Vermejo crowd had learned that the Ramblin' Kid had finally caught her
+and was intending to put her against Thunderbolt it was doubtful if the
+black horse would be entered at all in the sweepstakes. Even if he was,
+Dorsey and his crowd would be shy of the betting.
+
+This was one reason Old Heck had so played the conversation that Dorsey
+definitely threw down the challenge and which was so coldly accepted.
+
+The Vermejo cow-man would have to come in heavy on the betting or be
+placed in the role of a bluffer.
+
+By the time they reached the ranch Old Heck's good humor was restored.
+He thoroughly enjoyed the supper Skinny and Carolyn June prepared and
+joked the girl about her coffee-jelly.
+
+"She's learning how to make French toast, now," Skinny said proudly; "it
+won't be long till she's a darned good cook!"
+
+"Why not?" Carolyn June laughed. "See who I have to teach me!" and
+Skinny flushed while his heart hammered joyously.
+
+"Well, I reckon anybody could live on fried bread and coffee-jelly in a
+pinch," Old Heck joked back, "but for my part I'd be a good deal happier
+to mix a biscuit or two like Ophelia makes once in a while in with
+it"--giving the widow a worshipful look.
+
+It was Ophelia's turn to register pleasurable confusion.
+
+After supper Old Heck and the widow washed the dishes. When they were
+finished Ophelia went into the front room. Old Heck took a glass of
+water, stepped out of the kitchen door, and diligently scrubbed his
+teeth. While he was still at it Skinny came out with a dipper in his
+hand and sheepishly drawing a tooth-brush from his hip pocket faithfully
+imitated the actions of the other.
+
+"I figure a man's taking a lot of chances if he don't keep his teeth
+clean and everything," Skinny spluttered as the water splashed down his
+chin.
+
+"Yes, that's right," Old Heck agreed, "there's germs and so on in them!"
+as he flipped the water from his own brush, dried his lips on his
+shirtsleeve and turned back into the kitchen.
+
+The next morning, Saturday, Old Heck came to the breakfast table again
+in a pensive mood.
+
+"I was thinking about that man Dorsey," Skinny remarked, observing Old
+Heck's mental depression and attributing it to the meeting the day
+before in the pool-room at Eagle Butte. "Do you reckon the filly can
+really beat that Thunderbolt horse?"
+
+"Of course she can," Old Heck answered. "Th' Ramblin' Kid knows. All I'm
+afraid is that when Dorsey finds out it's the Gold Dust maverick
+Thunderbolt has got to go up against he won't bet much on it."
+
+"The boys ought to be in to-day," Skinny said, abruptly switching the
+subject; "they figured on getting the Battle Ridge cattle gathered and
+in the big pasture by to-night, didn't they?"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck replied, "that was what was in my mind. Parker will
+be--" he stopped suddenly, "butting in again" he had started to say but
+caught himself and finished lamely, "--probably pretty anxious to hurry
+through as soon as possible and get the beef animals in the upland
+pasture!"
+
+"How are you going to work things when he gets back?" Skinny asked with,
+a significant look at Old Heck.
+
+"Blamed if I know--" Old Heck said uncertainly, stopping before he
+finished the sentence. He understood what Skinny meant and just that had
+been worrying him. He had reached the point where he could not endure
+the thought of going back to the old arrangement of day and day about
+with Parker in the enjoyment of the widow's society. Yet if Parker, on
+his return, insisted on dividing Ophelia's time with him in conformity
+with their original agreement, Old Heck knew he would have to yield. He
+thought for a moment he would get the widow away from Skinny and Carolyn
+June after breakfast and make a full confession of the whole thing, ask
+her to marry him, and have it done with. But he had not yet been able to
+get at the bottom of Ophelia's suffragette activities. What if she
+married him and then suddenly broke loose as a speech-maker or something
+for woman's rights? It wouldn't pay to take the risk. "It sure does keep
+a man guessing!" he murmured under his breath, the sweat starting to
+bead his forehead from the mental effort to solve the problem before
+him.
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia exchanged sly winks as they guessed the thing
+that was in Old Heck's mind.
+
+Skinny, himself, was a bit worried as the time drew near for the return
+of the cowboys. He hoped Carolyn June wouldn't spring another dance or
+similar opportunity for indiscriminate love-making.
+
+Nor had Carolyn June forgotten that to-day was Saturday and Parker and
+the cowboys were expected back from the first half of the beef round-up.
+The week had been pleasant enough but she had missed the Ramblin' Kid
+and the Gold Dust maverick more than she cared to confess. She wondered
+if the outlaw filly would remember her.
+
+Saturday was a day of considerable tension for all at the Quarter Circle
+KT. Night came and Parker and the cowboys had not returned. Nor did they
+come on Sunday. Evidently the beef round-up had gone more slowly than
+was expected.
+
+It was late Monday afternoon when the grub-wagon grumbled and creaked
+its way up the lane and stopped near the back-yard gate. Sing Pete
+climbed clumsily down from the high seat. Old Heck and Skinny unhitched
+Old Tom and Baldy while the Chinese cook chattered information about
+Parker, the cowboys and the round-up. He had left the North Springs
+early that morning. Two nights before the herd had run--it was a
+stampede--some sheep had been where the cattle were bedded. Maybe that
+was it. Chuck and Bert were on night guard and could not hold them. The
+steers mixed badly with the rangers. Nearly two days it took to gather
+them again. That was why they were late. Now everything was all right
+The cattle were being driven to the big pasture. Pedro would be along
+soon with the saddle cavallard. By dark maybe the others would be at the
+ranch.
+
+It was midnight before Parker and the cowboys came in.
+
+When Carolyn June stepped out on the porch Tuesday morning she glanced
+toward the circular corral, which for more than a week had been empty.
+Her heart gave a leap of delight.
+
+Captain Jack was standing at the bars of the corral and behind him the
+early sunlight glinted on the chestnut sides of the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+THE GRAND PARADE
+
+Eagle Butte was a jam of humanity. It was Tuesday noon. At one o'clock
+the Grand Parade would circle the mile track at the "Grounds"--a hundred
+level acres enclosed by a high board fence lying at the west edge of
+Eagle Butte, between the Cimarron River and the road that led out to the
+Vermejo--swing down the main street of the town, return again to the
+enclosed area, flow once more past the grandstand, salute the judges of
+the coming events, and the Fifth Annual Independence Rodeo of Eagle
+Butte would be officially opened.
+
+Special excursion rates had brought thousands from all parts of western
+Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. Hundreds of tourists, sight-seeing the
+West, had so arranged their itineraries that they might be present at
+the big exhibition of riding, roping, racing, bull-dogging and other
+cow-country arts,--arts rapidly becoming mere memories of a day too
+quickly passing.
+
+Moving-picture machine operators were seeking advantageous locations for
+their outfits; pedestrians dodged, indiscriminately, high-powered
+automobiles and plunging bronchos; the old and the new were slapped
+together in an incongruous jumble in the streets of Eagle Butte.
+
+The best range men and women of the West were gathered in the western
+Texas town.
+
+New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Texas
+herself, were represented by their most famous riders, ropers,
+bull-doggers, cow-experts, and noted outlaw horses.
+
+There were many masqueraders.
+
+Imitation cow-people, they were, made up in fancy wild-west costumes,
+long-haired chaps, mammoth black sombreros, gaudy neck-cloths,
+silver-spangled saddles, spurs and bridles--typical moving-picture
+cowboys, cowgirls and rough riders. But there were, as well, hundreds of
+real range people. People whose business it is to work every day at the
+"stunts" they were, for the next five days, to play at for the pleasure
+of proving their skill and winning the applause of the multitude of
+spectators packed each day in the grandstand behind the judges' box at
+the Eagle Butte Rodeo.
+
+Every outfit in western Texas sent its most clever riders.
+
+Indians and Mexicans, in picturesque attire, sprinkled the milling mass
+of humanity with a dash of rainbow color.
+
+Dance-halls were running, fare layouts were operating, roulette wheels
+were spinning. For the time, with the consent of the sheriff and other
+reformed authorities, Eagle Butte tried hard to be as Eagle Butte was
+twenty--thirty--years ago.
+
+The entire Quarter Circle KT crowd left the ranch early Tuesday
+morning'. Parker had surprised Old Heck, and filled his mind with
+misgivings, by calling him to one side after breakfast and stammering:
+
+"I--I--reckon you'd just as well go ahead the rest of this week
+and--and--look after the widow by yourself--"
+
+"What's the matter?" Old Heck asked suspiciously; "have you found out
+anything dangerous about that 'Movement' or whatever it is Ophelia's
+mixed up in?"
+
+"No, it ain't that," Parker assured him, "I just thought I'd kind
+of--well, like to be free, to knock around at the Rodeo without being
+bothered with a woman or anything."
+
+The truth was Parker was trying to hedge. When he had got away on the
+beef hunt and began to figure things out he had come to doubt the wisdom
+of his sudden infatuation for the widow. Thinking it over, out on the
+open range, he was appalled by his rash, headlong falling in love. He
+had never married, nor had he, until Ophelia came, been even near it.
+Someway, the moment Carolyn June and the widow arrived at the Quarter
+Circle KT some sort of devil seemed to possess him. He couldn't explain
+it. Maybe it had been just an impulse to get ahead of Old Heck. Whatever
+it was, Parker was worried. What would he do with a wife if he had one?
+All he wanted now was to let the thing blow over. Perhaps the widow
+would forget his impetuous proposal or fall in love with Old Heck.
+
+Old Heck, his heart filled with a queer mixture of elation and
+uncertainty--with a sort of joy and sinking sensation all at
+once--agreed to Parker's suggestion.
+
+Parker rode into Eagle Butte with the cowboys. Old Heck, Ophelia, Skinny
+and Carolyn June went in the Clagstone "Six." Chuck led Old Pie Face for
+Skinny to ride in the parade and Bert took Red John, Old Heck's most
+showy saddle horse--a long-legged, high-stepping, proud-headed, bay
+gelding--for Carolyn June to use, for she, too, had declared her
+intention of joining in the grand promenade with which the Rodeo would
+open.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid left the Gold Dust maverick in the circular corral and
+rode Captain Jack to Eagle Butte. It would be necessary for him to
+register the filly, with the entry judges, on the first day of the Rodeo
+if she was to run in the two-mile sweepstakes.
+
+The rules of the Rodeo required, also, that all who expected to
+participate in any of the events of the coming week must "show" in the
+grand march or parade. The animals that were to be used might also be
+paraded, but this was not compulsory.
+
+Accompanied by Chuck, the Ramblin' Kid went directly to the entry
+offices of the Rodeo, which were roughly boxed-up compartments under
+the rear of the grandstand.
+
+A group of "hot-dog" vendors and "concession spielers" looked curiously
+at the two as they left Captain Jack and Silver Tip, with bridle reins
+dropped over their heads, standing in front of the office and stepped
+inside.
+
+Lafe Dorsey and Flip Williams were at the clerk's desk.
+
+The Vermejo cattleman had just registered Thunderbolt, with Flip as
+rider, for the big race.
+
+They looked around as the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck came in.
+
+"Well, is the Quarter Circle KT getting up sand enough to go against old
+Thunderbolt again?" Dorsey asked with a curl of his lip and an ugly
+sneer.
+
+"Oh, I reckon we've got a little nerve left," Chuck answered with mock
+humility, "not much, but a little, maybe. I was going to put Silver Tip
+in the sweepstakes," he went on, "but I guess I won't. Th' Ramblin'
+Kid's got an entry and it looks like a darned shame for one outfit to
+want to hog it all and grab first and second money both, so I'll stay
+out this time."
+
+"You talk pretty loud," Dorsey snarled, catching instantly, as Chuck
+intended he should, the covert slur at the black Y-Bar stallion. "Maybe
+your money won't make so damned much noise!"
+
+"Here's a couple hundred," Chuck said, pulling a roll of bills from his
+shirt pocket. "I'll invest that much on my judgment that Thunderbolt
+ain't as good as you think he is."
+
+"I'll take it!" Dorsey snapped, jerking a wad of money from his own
+pocket and counting out the amount which he handed to the clerk as
+stake-holder. "And here's another hundred--or a thousand if you want
+it!"
+
+"That two hundred is about all I can handle this morning," Chuck
+laughed. "But I understand Old Heck's aiming to bet a little," he
+drawled suggestively; "probably you'd like to see him?"
+
+"I'll see him--and raise him till he squeals!" Dorsey sneered.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid ignored the tilt between Dorsey and Chuck and leaned
+indifferently against the counter waiting for the clerk to fill out the
+entry blank.
+
+"Event?" the clerk questioned.
+
+"Two-mile run," was the quiet answer.
+
+"Rider--and horse?" glancing up.
+
+Dorsey and Flip paused and turned their heads to catch the names the
+Ramblin' Kid gave.
+
+"I'm the rider, I reckon," the Ramblin' Kid replied, "I guess you know
+who I am. Th' name of th' horse? Well, now ain't that funny?" he said
+with a little laugh, "I never have bothered to name that critter yet!
+But--oh, hell, what's the difference? We'll just call her 'Ophelia' for
+th' time bein'--in honor of a lady-widow that's visitin' out at th'
+ranch!"
+
+"The Quarter Circle KT's getting to be quite a female institution,
+ain't it?" Dorsey said contemptuously. "I suppose this wonder horse of
+yours is one of the ranch fillies and regular lightning!"
+
+For a second the Ramblin' Kid's eyes narrowed, then he replied coldly to
+the last half of Dorsey's sentence:
+
+"Well, th' filly's been runnin' in that neighborhood an'"--with a laugh
+that had in it just the hint of a sneer--"she's pretty fair--good
+enough, I figure, to beat hell out of old Thunderbolt!"
+
+"Are you backing that with money?" Dorsey and Flip spoke together.
+
+"No," the Ramblin' Kid answered slowly, "money ain't no object with me
+in a horse-race. I don't run 'em for that purpose. Anyhow, poker is my
+favorite method of gamblin'!"
+
+Dorsey and Flip whirled angrily out of the office and walked rapidly
+toward the stables where they had left their horses.
+
+After reserving a box stall, which was to be occupied by Captain Jack
+and the Gold Dust maverick, the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck left the entry
+office and mounting their bronchos rode toward the section of the
+grounds, over by the stables, where the parade was already forming.
+
+As they passed through the entrance to the track and the inside field
+which lay beyond Chuck and the Ramblin' Kid rode within a few feet of
+the Clagstone "Six," which was parked near the east end of the
+grandstand. Old Heck and Ophelia were in the front seat of the car
+watching the riders assemble for the parade. Carolyn June was standing
+on the running-board waiting for Skinny to come with Old Pie Face and
+Red John, the boys having left the horses at the stables.
+
+Carolyn June looked up with a bright smile at Chuck. As her eyes met the
+Ramblin' Kid's there was a question in them. She was not sure yet that
+she had forgiven him for the brutal rebuff the night of the dance. If
+there was any feeling in his heart, either of resentment or otherwise,
+toward the girl the Ramblin' Kid hid it. The look he gave her was one of
+unfathomable humility and indifference.
+
+Chuck wheeled Silver Tip to the side of the car and stopped. His eyes
+were filled with frank admiration as he gazed at the girl. Her cheeks
+were flushed with excitement, her white felt hat sat jauntily on the
+crown of brown hair, her eyes were sparkling and in the close-fitting
+riding suit she was the picture of youthful charm and grace. The
+Ramblin' Kid nodded to Old Heck, glanced at Ophelia with a smile, looked
+steadily an instant at Carolyn June and raising his hat to the two women
+passed on with the remark: "I reckon I'll go on over an' see what
+they're doin'."
+
+"Has he entered the outlaw filly for the sweepstakes, yet?" Old Heck
+asked Chuck as the Ramblin' Kid reined Captain Jack down the race track.
+
+"Yes," Chuck answered, "he signed her up."
+
+"Did he name her as the Gold Dust maverick?" Old Heck inquired
+anxiously.
+
+"No," Chuck grinned, "he called her 'Ophelia!'"
+
+Old Heck leaned back in the seat and roared with laughter in which
+Carolyn June and the widow joined.
+
+"Dorsey was there," Chuck said with another grin, "he'd just finished
+entering Thunderbolt for the big race when th' Ramblin' Kid and me got
+to the registering office. I bet him two hundred dollars. He was
+bragging a good deal--"
+
+Old Heck's eyes flashed and the mirth left them.
+
+"He was blowing, was he?" he said with a hard laugh, "the damn--darned
+fool!" he corrected, remembering Ophelia at his side. "Well, 'egg' him
+on--the higher he flies the worse he'll flop when he bu'sts a wing!"
+
+In the parade Skinny rode with Carolyn June. Parker and the Quarter
+Circle KT cowboys were in a group directly behind them. The Vermejo
+crowd, with Dorsey himself mounted on Thunderbolt, had a place just
+ahead of Skinny and Carolyn June. The beautiful black Y-Bar stallion was
+really a wonderful horse. Speed, strength and endurance radiated with
+every movement of the glossy, subtle body. Without doubt he was the most
+handsome animal on the grounds. Dorsey was a splendid rider and a
+man--he was in the early forties--of striking appearance. He was fully
+conscious of the magnificent showing he made on Thunderbolt. The racer
+danced proudly, prancing forward in short, graceful leaps as the column
+swept past the grandstand and the consolidated Eagle Butte and Vegas
+bands crashed out the strains of a stirring march. A ripple of applause
+ran over the crowd in the grandstand as Dorsey, at the head of the
+Vermejo cowboys, rode by the judges' box. He lifted his sombrero and
+waved it in pleased acknowledgment.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was in line a little distance behind Carolyn June,
+Skinny and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys. He rode alone just back of a
+quartette of Indians from down on the Chickasaw.
+
+His plain rigging, the slick, smoothly worn, leather chaps, the
+undecorated saddle, bridle and spurs, his entire work-a-day outfit
+contrasted vividly with the gaudy get-up of most of the other riders.
+Captain Jack moved along easily and freely, but quietly, and with an air
+of utter boredom with all the show and confusion about him. The Ramblin'
+Kid's attitude, whole appearance, matched perfectly the mood of his
+horse. He sat loosely in the saddle and carelessly smoked a cigarette.
+The truth was his mind was far from the pageant of which he and the
+little stallion were a part. He scarcely heard the music nor did he seem
+to see the thousands of human beings, packed tier above tier, under the
+mammoth roof of the grandstand. His thoughts were at the upper crossing
+of the treacherous Cimarron, out at the Quarter Circle KT; he was seeing
+again, Carolyn June, as she looked up into his eyes when he dragged her
+out of the quicksand--he was hearing, once more, her cry of agony as the
+bullet from his gun buried itself in the brain of Old Blue.
+
+Louder hand-clapping, stamping of feet, and calling voices, than any
+that had sounded before, rolled out from the grandstand as the lone
+rider, on the quiet, unexcited little roan, came down the stretch in
+front of the great crowd.
+
+Carolyn June looked back, saw the waving hats and handkerchiefs, heard
+hundreds of voices shouting:
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid! Th' good old Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+The crowd had recognized him as the slender rider who, a year ago, after
+the untamable Cyclone horse had killed Dick Stanley before their eyes
+and in front of where they sat, had ridden, straight-up and scotching
+him at every jump, that vicious, murderous-hearted outlaw.
+
+Carolyn June's eyes moistened and she felt a thrill of pride.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid barely glanced at the sea of faces, a faint smile hung
+for an instant on his lips, as he jerked his hand, the one in which he
+held the cigarette, to the brim of his hat when he came opposite the
+judges' stand.
+
+When the parade swung down the wide, one-sided, main street of Eagle
+Butte, Mike Sabota, from the door of the Elite Amusement Parlor,
+watched it pass. He was standing there, by the side of the lanky
+marshal and surrounded by a group of pool-room loafers and "carnival
+sharks" when Carolyn June and Skinny came by. She looked around in time
+to see him staring, with a vulgar leer, straight into her eyes.
+
+"There is that big, dirty, animal-looking fellow we saw the other day!"
+she said, with a frown of disgust, to Skinny. "He's horrible--"
+
+Skinny glanced at Sabota.
+
+"Yes, he is ornery," he said. "He runs that joint and boot-legs on the
+side. He's got a reputation as a slugger and keeps the crowd around him
+buffaloed. They say he killed a feller--beat him to death--in a fight
+over at Sapulpa before he came to Eagle Butte. I don't like the filthy
+cuss. He's mean!"
+
+"He looks it!" Carolyn June exclaimed, with the uncomfortable feeling
+that the big Greek's look had touched her with something vile and
+unclean.
+
+After the parade disbanded Carolyn June and Skinny rode back to the car
+where Old Heck and Ophelia had remained.
+
+"You made a darned good-looking cowgirl!" Old Heck said proudly to her
+as she stopped Red John by the side of the Clagstone "Six."
+
+"She and Skinny both presented a very fine appearance!" the widow added,
+while Carolyn June playfully blew a kiss at each in acknowledgment of
+the compliment. Skinny sat on Old Pie Face and felt a warm glow of
+satisfaction at the words of Old Heck and Ophelia. He had known all the
+time that Carolyn June and he had shown up well, but he was glad to find
+that others besides himself had noticed it.
+
+Dorsey, on a black stallion, cantered past.
+
+A moment later the Ramblin' Kid came jogging off the race course on
+Captain Jack. He threw up his hand in greeting and passed on out of the
+grounds.
+
+Parked next to the Clagstone "Six" was a handsome touring car, occupied
+by a party consisting of a girl about Carolyn June's own age, a woman a
+few years older and a couple of immaculately dressed young men who wore
+flaring brimmed black felt hats that contrasted absurdly with their
+expensively tailored suits. Evidently all were "big town" people from a
+distance--very "superior" and patronizing in their attitude toward the
+"natives." They had been free and voluble in their comments on the
+various riders. Dorsey, on the magnificent Thunderbolt, drew a murmur of
+admiration from the lips of the girl. As the Ramblin' Kid, the next
+moment, rode by on Captain Jack one of the young fellows said loudly and
+with a laugh of ridicule:
+
+"Look at that one, Bess," addressing the girl; "there's the 'wild and
+woolly' West for you! I'll bet if that horse sneezed he'd fall down and
+the lonesome-looking little runt that's riding him would tumble off and
+root his nose in the dust!"
+
+A cackle of derisive laughter greeted the cheap witticism.
+
+Before any of the others could speak Carolyn June's eyes blazed with
+sudden wrath. She turned her body in the saddle and faced the speaker,
+her hands tightly clenched, her cheeks white with passion and her lip
+curling wickedly.
+
+"Which shows," she said slowly, every word stinging like the bite of a
+whip-lash, "that you are running, true to form and there is one fool, at
+least, still unslaughtered! That"--she continued with a proud toss of
+her head--"'lonesome-looking little runt' is the Ramblin' Kid! Not
+another man in Texas can ride the horse he is on--and there is not a
+horse in Texas that he can't ride!"
+
+She turned again toward the Quarter Circle KT group and a shamed silence
+settled over the swell "out-of-town" car.
+
+Old Heck chuckled with delight at Carolyn June's show of temper.
+
+A whirlwind program of racing, roping, bull-dogging--this event is that
+in which a rider springs from a running horse, grasps by the horns a
+wild steer running at his side, twists the animal's head up and backward
+and so throws it down and then holds the creature on the
+ground--rough-riding and other Rodeo sports followed immediately after
+the parade.
+
+Pedro and Charley Saunders were the only Quarter Circle KT cowboys
+participating in the events of the first day of the Rodeo. The Mexican
+did a fancy roping stunt in front of the grandstand and finished his
+exhibition directly before the Clagstone "Six" in which Carolyn June,
+Ophelia, Old Heck and Skinny were sitting. At the conclusion of his
+performance Pedro bowed to the little audience in the car and swept his
+sombrero before him with all the courtly grace of a great matador.
+Carolyn June generously applauded the dark-skinned rider from the
+Cimarron and waved a daintily gloved hand in acknowledgment of his skill
+with the rope. Skinny gritted his teeth while a pang of jealousy shot
+through his heart.
+
+Charley took part in the bull-dogging event. He drew a black steer,
+rangey built, heavy and wicked. When he lunged from his horse on to the
+horns of the brute it dragged him for a hundred feet before he could
+check its mad flight. At last he slowly forced its nose in the air and
+with a quick wrench of the head to one side threw its feet from under
+it. Man and beast went down in a heap--the neck of the steer across the
+cowboy's body. A groan went up from the crowd in the grandstand and
+Carolyn June's cheeks paled with horror--it looked as if one horn of the
+creature had pierced Charley's breast. But it had missed by the fraction
+of an inch. Straightening himself up to a sitting posture the cowboy
+bent forward and sunk his teeth in the upper lip of the prostrate animal
+and threw up both hands as a signal to the judges that the brute was
+"bulldogged." But the fight had been too hard for him to win first
+place. Buck Wade, a lanky cow-puncher from Montana, in three seconds
+less time, had thrown a brindle Anchor-O steer and taken first money.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Before the sun dipped into the Costejo peaks the Ramblin' Kid left the
+Rodeo and returned alone to the Quarter Circle KT. He told Parker and
+the cowboys, all of whom intended to remain in Eagle Butte every night
+during the Rodeo, that he would be back in town the next afternoon and
+bring with him the Gold Dust maverick. Word had been passed among the
+Quarter Circle KT crowd to keep Dorsey and his bunch in the dark as long
+as possible regarding the fact that the filly, Ophelia, was the famous
+outlaw mare of the lower Cimarron.
+
+After supper Parker, Chuck, Bert and Charley drifted into the Elite
+Amusement Parlor. The place was crowded. Mike Sabota immediately singled
+out the Quarter Circle KT group and began jollying them about the coming
+two-mile sweepstakes. Dorsey and Flip Williams had been in the pool-room
+earlier in the evening and told him of the Ramblin' Kid's entry of the
+filly against the Thunderbolt horse.
+
+Within ten minutes Bert and Charley had placed two hundred and fifty
+dollars each against five hundred of Sabota's money that the Vermejo
+stallion would not finish in first place in the big race.
+
+Old Judge Ivory, who happened to be present, was agreed upon as
+stake-holder.
+
+"That Thunderbolt horse, he is the devil," Sabota laughed evilly as the
+money was handed over to the gray-haired judge. "And Satan, he takes
+care of his own!"
+
+"Well!" Parker drawled, "if you feel inclined to send any more money to
+hell I might help you--" pulling a wad of bills from his pocket and
+throwing the certificates on the soft-drink bar at which they were
+standing.
+
+Sabota's eyes gleamed greedily.
+
+"I think there's two thousand in this roll," Parker continued, "and I'm
+willing to bet it all that the Ramblin' Kid's filly not only goes under
+the wire first in the two-mile run, but that she'll be kicking dirt in
+old Thunderbolt's face--if he ain't too damned far behind--when she does
+it!"
+
+The Greek covered the wager eagerly.
+
+As Judge Ivory pocketed the money Dorsey and Flip Williams stepped into
+the pool-room. Sabota glanced up.
+
+"These Quarter Circle KT _hombres_ are getting bad," he laughed
+sneeringly to Dorsey; "they think th' Ramblin' Kid's got a colt that can
+beat Thunderbolt!"
+
+"The Ramblin' Kid must have a hell of a fast horse!" Dorsey snarled
+contemptuously, "a hell of a fast horse!" he repeated, "when the Ramblin'
+Kid himself declines to risk a dollar of his own money on the running
+qualities of the critter!" referring to the conversation a few hours
+before in the entry judges' office.
+
+As he finished speaking he turned and looked squarely into the cold gray
+eyes of Old Heck who, with Skinny, had entered the Amusement Parlor
+while Dorsey was talking and heard the Vermejo cattleman's sneering
+insinuation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+MOCHA AND JAVA
+
+Old Heck and Skinny had left Ophelia and Carolyn June at the Occidental
+Hotel, where a room was reserved by Old Heck for the use of the two
+women during the Rodeo. They had then gone direct to Mike Sabota's place
+for the express purpose of running into Dorsey and his crowd. Old Heck
+knew that if any large bets were to be laid on the two-mile sweepstakes
+the only chance would be to place them before the Ramblin' Kid brought
+the Gold Dust maverick to Eagle Butte and the Vermejo bunch discovered
+the identity of the horse Thunderbolt was up against.
+
+The Quarter Circle KT cow-men stepped into the pool-room at exactly the
+instant most favorable for their purpose.
+
+Dorsey had made his boast in the presence of a crowd.
+
+He would hardly dare back up without covering, at least to some
+worth-while extent, his words with his money.
+
+For a full minute Old Heck drilled Dorsey with a look such, as a hound
+dog might have in his eyes after he has cornered a coyote and pauses
+before he springs.
+
+Instinctively the crowd stepped back from the two cattlemen while a
+death-like hush fell over the place.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid don't need to back the filly with his money, Dorsey,"
+Old Heck said slowly and in a voice audible in every part of the room;
+"I'm here to back her with mine! You've done a lot of talking--now,
+damn you, cover your chatter with coin or shut up!" the end of the
+sentence coming like the crack of a whip.
+
+With a nervous laugh the Vermejo cattleman jerked a wallet from his
+pocket.
+
+"Here's a thousand that says Thunderbolt does the same thing to the
+Ramblin' Kid's filly that he done to Quicksilver!" Dorsey snapped.
+
+Old Heck threw back his head and laughed scornfully.
+
+"A thousand? I thought you were a sport, Dorsey!" he sneered. "Match
+this," he continued, reaching for his check-book and fountain pen and
+quickly filling out a check payable to "Cash" for ten thousand dollars,
+which he laid on the hardwood bar. "Match that, or admit you're a cheap,
+loud-howlin' bluffer!"
+
+Dorsey paused just an instant as he noted the amount of the check.
+
+"I'll match it!" he exclaimed, flushing angrily, drawing his own
+check-book from his pocket, and then, carried away by his passion
+added, throwing down the bars completely as Old Heck had hoped he would,
+"and go with you to the end of the trail!"
+
+"Good!" Old Heck laughed, "now you are talking like a sport! Let's see,"
+he added calculatingly, "how many Y-Bar cattle do you figure you've got
+running on the Vermejo range--five thousand?"
+
+"There's that many," Dorsey started to say.
+
+"Call it fifty-five hundred!" Old Heck flung at him. "Steer for steer,
+cow for cow, hoof for hoof--I'll put Quarter Circle KT critters against
+every brute you own that th' Ramblin' Kid lands his horse tinder the
+wire ahead of Thunderbolt!"
+
+Dorsey paled, then a purple-red of fury spread over his neck and face,
+and with an oath he cried:
+
+"I'll call you!"
+
+Bills of sale were drawn and turned over to Judge Ivory, to be
+delivered, after the race, to the winner.
+
+"Now," Old Heck said with a hard laugh, "maybe you'd like to own the
+Quarter Circle KT ranch, Dorsey? It's worth twice as much as your
+Vermejo holdings but I'll just give you that percentage of odds and call
+it an even bet that your black stallion don't outrun the little animal
+th' Ramblin' Kid has entered in the sweepstakes!"
+
+But Dorsey did not answer except with a muttered: "Hell, a man's crazy
+that--" He had gone his limit. He had suddenly come to his senses and
+grown suspicious.
+
+Before Skinny and Old Heck left the pool-room the former managed to get
+a bet of five hundred dollars with Sabota.
+
+The next afternoon the Ramblin' Kid rode into Eagle Butte on Captain
+Jack. By his side he led the Gold Dust maverick. The noise and confusion
+in the streets filled the mare with nervousness and she crowded closely
+against the little roan stallion. Before he got the outlaw filly to the
+stables a half dozen cowboys had recognized the Cimarron maverick.
+Within an hour Dorsey and Sabota knew the identity of the Ramblin' Kid's
+entry in the big race that was to be run Friday afternoon and which was
+the big and closing event of the Rodeo.
+
+The Greek was furious.
+
+Wednesday night he called "Gyp" Streetor, a carnival tout, who had one
+time been a jockey but was ruled off the track for crooked work and was
+now picking up "easies" at the Eagle Butte Rodeo, into a side room of
+the Amusement Parlor.
+
+For half an hour the two talked earnestly and furtively.
+
+"Nothin' doin'--absolutely nothin'!" the tout finally said in reply to
+some suggestion of Sabota's. "That Captain Jack horse would murder any
+man but th' Ramblin' Kid that tried to get in the stall--"
+
+"Well, by hell!" the Greek exclaimed, clenching his hairy fists, while
+his mouth twitched with passion, "that filly's got to be kept out of the
+sweepstakes someway or other--"
+
+"You can't get to her, I tell you," Gyp said sullenly, then with a look
+of cunning suddenly coming into his eyes: "They say she's a one-man
+brute like the stallion--nobody can ride her but th' Ramblin' Kid,"
+significantly looking at Sabota. "If you could--but he don't drink!"
+
+The Greek laughed.
+
+"There are other ways!" he said. "He eats, don't he? Listen: To-morrow
+and Friday you take that 'sandwich and coffee' run at the stables--"
+referring to the concession to peddle lunch stuff among the horsemen who
+seldom left their charges, a concession which Sabota, with other
+privileges, had purchased the right to operate. "Th' Ramblin' Kid eats
+off the trays--it will be your business to see that he ain't feeling
+well when the sweepstakes is called! I'll get the 'pills' for you
+to-night--"
+
+"No killin', Sabota!" Gyp warned.
+
+"Just enough to put him out for an hour or two!" the Greek answered.
+
+Wednesday night the Ramblin' Kid slept in the stall with the Gold Dust
+maverick and Captain Jack. Thursday he remained close to the horses.
+Thursday night he again slept on a pile of hay in one corner of the
+box-compartment. Under no circumstances would he leave the animals.
+Occasionally Parker or some of the Quarter Circle KT cowboys came down
+to the stables.
+
+Each night Old Heck and Skinny, with Carolyn June and Ophelia, after the
+evening program was concluded, drove out to the ranch in the Clagstone
+"Six," returning early the following day.
+
+Friday forenoon Old Heck drove the car down to the stall in which
+Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were confined. The two horses
+were standing, side by side, with their heads out of the door, the upper
+half of which was swung back. The Ramblin' Kid leaned against the door
+at the side of the horses.
+
+To Carolyn June he looked tired and worn.
+
+"How's the filly?" Old Heck asked, as the outlaw mare sprang back away
+from the door when the car stopped.
+
+"She's all right."
+
+"Hadn't you ought to exercise her?" Skinny asked.
+
+"She don't need it," the Ramblin' Kid replied with a note of weariness
+in his voice. "She'll get enough exercise this afternoon!"
+
+"You're all right, yourself, are you?" Old Heck asked a bit anxiously.
+
+"Of course I'm all right," was the rather impatient reply. "Don't be
+uneasy," he added with a laugh; "--th' filly'll be in th' race an' beat
+old Thunderbolt!"
+
+"Good luck!" Carolyn June cried, as Old Heck turned the car about and
+started back toward the grandstand.
+
+"Good luck!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered to himself, watching the car as
+it whirled away. "Ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" he repeated bitterly,
+then with a queer smile in which was a world of tenderness he pulled the
+pink satin elastic garter he had picked up at the circular corral, from
+his pocket and looked at it long and wistfully. "Good luck?" he
+exclaimed again questioningly. "Well, maybe that little jigger'll bring
+it!" and he slipped the band back in his pocket.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid acts like he's got the blues this morning," Skinny
+said as the Clagstone "Six" rolled away from the stables. "He looks to
+me like a feller that's in just the right humor to get on a whale of a
+drunk--"
+
+"That's one thing about him you can depend on," Old Heck broke in, "--he
+never poisons himself with liquor. That's why when he says he'll do
+anything you can bet all you've got he'll do it!"
+
+"Well, if he ever does break loose," Skinny retorted, "it'll be sudden
+and wild!"
+
+"Probably," Old Heck replied as though there wasn't the slightest danger
+of such an eventuality.
+
+That morning Gyp purposely avoided going as far, with his stock of
+provisions, as the stall in which were Captain Jack and the Gold Dust
+maverick. Nor did he come with his lunch tray and tin pot of coffee
+until nearly one o'clock.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid had no breakfast. To secure it he would have been
+required to leave the horses. That he would not do. Of course he might
+have told Old Heck or Skinny to bring or send him something, but he did
+not feel inclined to mention, in the presence of Carolyn June and
+Ophelia, that he was hungry. Anyhow, well, they were having a good time
+and what was the use of bothering them?
+
+When Gyp finally came with the lunch the Ramblin' Kid was outside the
+stall and had walked a little way up the stable street. Captain Jack and
+the filly were in a compartment at the end of the string of stalls. The
+one next to it, back toward the grandstand, was unoccupied, and
+adjoining that was a hay room. Gyp stopped opposite the open door of the
+compartment in which the bales of hay and straw were piled. He paused a
+moment and turned as if to go back.
+
+"Hold on there!" the Ramblin' Kid called to him. "What you tryin' to do?
+Starve me to death?"
+
+"D' last thing I'd want to do, Bo!" Gyp laughed good-naturedly. "Did I
+miss you this mornin'? Here, come inside where I can set this bloomin'
+junk down on a bale of hay for a minute an' I'll fix you up!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid followed Gyp into the stall.
+
+The tout stooped over, with his back to the other, and slipped a capsule
+containing a white powder into a coffee cup which he filled quickly with
+the black liquid from the tin pot he carried. He handed the cup to the
+Ramblin' Kid. The latter took it and sat down on a bale of hay lying
+opposite. The coffee was just hot enough to melt, instantly, the capsule
+and not too warm to drink at once. The Ramblin' Kid was thirsty as well
+as hungry. Lifting the cup to his lips, while Gyp, fumbling for a
+sandwich, watched him furtively, he drained it without stopping.
+
+"That's--what was in that?'" he asked, eying the tout keenly. "It tastes
+like--!"
+
+"Just good old Mocha an' Java!" Gyp interrupted lightly. "Maybe it's a
+little strong. Here, take another one!" reaching for the cup.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid started to hand the cup to Gyp to be refilled--a queer
+numbness swept over him--the cup fell from his hand--he swayed--tensed
+his body in an effort to get up--mumbled thickly:
+
+"What th'--what th'--?"
+
+The tout backed away toward the door, crouching like a cat ready to
+spring, his beady eyes half-frightened, watching the poison deaden the
+faculties of the other. He leaped through the door, glanced up and down
+the stable street--deserted at that hour except for a few drowsy
+attendants lounging in front of their stalls--jerked the door shut,
+hooked the open padlock through the iron fastenings, snapped its jaws
+together and muttered, as he hurried away:
+
+"I guess that guy won't ride the Gold Dust maverick in any two-mile
+sweepstakes to-day!"
+
+As the door slammed shut the Ramblin' Kid pitched forward, unconscious,
+on the bale of hay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE SWEEPSTAKES
+
+The Clagstone "Six" was parked, Friday afternoon, in its usual place
+near the east end of the grandstand and close to the entrance to the
+track. Old Heck and Ophelia were alone in the car. Carolyn June and
+Skinny, on Pie Face and Red John, watched the afternoon program from the
+"inside field" across the race track. Parker and the Quarter Circle KT
+cowboys were also mounted on their horses and in the field opposite the
+grandstand.
+
+Never had there been such a jam at a Rodeo held in Eagle Butte.
+
+The two-mile sweepstakes, itself the "cow-man's classic" and the great
+derby event of western Texas, always drew record crowds the day on which
+it was run.
+
+This Friday the grandstand creaked under its load of humanity.
+
+The racing feud between the Quarter Circle KT and the Y-Bar and the
+thousands of dollars Old Heck and Dorsey were known to have bet on their
+respective favorites acted as tinder on the flame of public interest in
+the big event.
+
+Thunderbolt had a great reputation. Last year, and the year before, he
+had mastered the field of runners put against him.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick--named in the race "Ophelia"--was a wonder horse
+in the minds of the people of western Texas who had heard of the
+beautiful, almost super-creature, that had tormented, with her speed and
+endurance, the riders of the Cimarron and now at last was caught, and to
+be ridden in the sweepstakes, by the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+At two-forty a special exhibition of "Cossack Riding"--participated in
+by Lute Larsen, of Idaho; Jack Haines, from Texas, and Curly Piper, a
+Colorado cowboy, finished in front of the grandstand.
+
+The announcer trained his megaphone on the vast crowd:
+
+"The next event," he bellowed, "two-mile sweepstakes! Purse one thousand
+dollars! Five entries! Naming them in their order from the pole:
+Thunderbolt, black Y-Bar stallion, Flip Williams, rider; Say-So, roan
+gelding, from the Pecos River, Box-V outfit, Jess Curtis, rider;
+Ophelia, Gold Dust filly, the Cimarron outlaw from the Quarter Circle
+KT, th' Ramblin' Kid, rider; Prince John, sorrel gelding, from Dallas,
+Texas, 'Snow' Johnson, rider; Dash-Away, bay mare, from Jackson Hole,
+Wyoming, Slim Tucker, rider. Race called at three o'clock sharp! Horse
+failing to score on the dot will be ruled out! Range saddles to be used.
+Entries for the two-mile sweepstakes will show at once on the track!"
+
+Dead silence ensued during the announcer's drawling oration.
+
+It was followed by the hum of five thousand voices as they chattered in
+eager expectancy.
+
+The band crashed out _Dixie_ and a medley of southern melodies.
+
+Chuck and Bert reined their bronchos up to Parker.
+
+"We're going over and see how th' Ramblin' Kid is making it," Chuck
+said. "He might need that filly herded a little to get her through this
+jam." And they galloped their horses across the track toward the
+stables.
+
+Carolyn June and Skinny decided to watch the sweepstakes from the car,
+with Old Heck and Ophelia. They rode Pie Face and Red John over to the
+Clagstone "Six." Carolyn June dismounted and stepped up on the
+running-board of the car, holding Red John loosely by the bridle rein.
+
+"Gee," she laughed, "but I'm nervous!"
+
+Old Heck reached over and patted her hand.
+
+"Wait till they start to run before you get hysterical," he chuckled.
+"There'll be time enough then for excitement!" One could never have
+told, by his actions, that within the next few moments he would lose or
+win fifty thousand dollars.
+
+Chuck pulled Silver Tip to a stop in front of the stall where Captain
+Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were standing.
+
+"They're getting ready for the sweepstakes!" he called, thinking the
+Ramblin' Kid was in the compartment with the horses. "You'd better be
+putting your rigging on the filly," as he slid from his broncho and
+stepped to the door of the stall.
+
+There was no answer. He peered into the half-gloom of the place.
+
+It was empty save for the two horses.
+
+"That's funny as thunder," he said, puzzled, to Bert. "Where'd you
+reckon th' Ramblin' Kid is?"
+
+"Darned if I know--ain't he there?" Bert answered, riding up so he could
+look into the door.
+
+"Look around a little," Chuck said anxiously. "Maybe he's just stepped
+away for a minute--Hey!" he called to an attendant of a stall a short
+distance down the stable street, "have you seen anything of th' Ramblin'
+Kid--the feller that has these horses?"
+
+"Naw," was the careless answer, "I ain't seen him for two hours."
+
+"Something must be wrong!" Chuck exclaimed. "You stay here and watch!
+I'll go see Old Heck--maybe he knows where he is."
+
+"Hell, yes!" Bert said as the other started Silver Tip in a run toward
+where the Clagstone "Six" was parked. "He's got to be found! Nobody else
+but him can ride the maverick!"
+
+At the car, before his horse was fairly stopped, Chuck leaned over and
+asked, tensely:
+
+"Have any of you people seen th' Ramblin' Kid?"
+
+Old Heck straightened up.
+
+"Ain't he at the stables?" he inquired uneasily. "He was there this
+morning--"
+
+"No," Chuck replied hurriedly, "he's been gone two hours!"
+
+"Good lord," Old Heck exclaimed, "he's got to be found! The race starts
+in ten minutes."
+
+"And nobody but him can ride the filly!" Skinny interrupted. "I wonder
+if he's--" he started to say "drunk," but stopped as Carolyn June looked
+quickly at him. The word was in both their minds.
+
+"It ain't natural!" Old Heck cried; "there must be something dirty! You
+boys go look for him; I'll, keep my eyes open here!"
+
+As Old Heck said "dirty" the picture of Mike Sabota flashed into Carolyn
+June's mind. Some intuition seemed to couple, in her inner
+consciousness, the big Greek with the Ramblin' Kid's disappearance.
+
+The horses for the two-mile sweepstakes were already beginning to come
+on to the track. Flip Williams was walking Thunderbolt up and down in
+front of the grandstand, trying to keep the high-spirited stallion quiet
+until time came to mount; the rider of Say-So was doing the same thing
+with his entry; Slim Tucker was already sitting on Dash-Away, the trim
+Wyoming mare standing unruffled near the starting line, while Snow
+Johnson, like Tucker, already on his mount, was circling Prince John in
+wide loops behind the others.
+
+Carolyn June was stunned for a moment by the thought that had come into
+her mind when the picture of the burly Greek flashed before her. She
+clenched her hands and her cheeks whitened.
+
+"Come on, Skinny!" she said suddenly, stepping off the running-board of
+the car and swinging on to Red John, "we'll go help look for the
+Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+She whirled the big bay around the end of the grandstand and rode in a
+fast gallop straight for the box stall, Skinny and Chuck following close
+behind her. A quick resolution formed in her mind: "Nobody but the
+Ramblin' Kid could ride the filly?"
+
+_She could ride the mare_!
+
+Even if the Ramblin' Kid was not found Sabota and his crowd should not
+be allowed to win by dirty work--if dirty work had been done!
+
+At the stall Carolyn June sprang from Red John.
+
+Bert was nervously walking about, calling occasionally the name of the
+missing Quarter Circle KT cowboy.
+
+"Have you found him?" Carolyn June asked as Skinny and Chuck came up
+behind her.
+
+"No," Bert answered glumly, "he ain't showed up yet! There ain't no
+signs of him around here."
+
+"What'll we do?" Skinny asked excitedly. "The race is almost ready to
+start and--do you reckon you could ride the filly, Bert?" he finished
+with a gleam of hope.
+
+"I doubt it, but, well, I'll try her--if Captain Jack'll let me get her
+out."
+
+"You boys keep back!" Carolyn June interrupted, stepping to the door of
+the stall and opening it, "Captain Jack knows me and--I--I--think the
+filly does, too--I can handle her--" as she stepped boldly inside the
+compartment with the horses.
+
+"Don't go in there!" Skinny cried, "Car--Carolyn June, they'll kill
+you!"
+
+"You boys keep away!" she laughed. "And don't get the horses nervous!
+They won't hurt me!" she answered, going ahead toward the animals.
+
+Captain Jack looked at her suspiciously an instant
+
+"Jack-Boy--Jack-Boy!" she called with a caress in her voice. "Careful!
+We're friends!" The attitude of the stallion changed instantly and the
+menace was gone from his eyes.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick heard the voice and with a friendly little nicker
+rubbed her head against the outstretched hand.
+
+In a corner was the Ramblin' Kid's saddle, bridle, blanket and worn
+leather chaps.
+
+With a light pat of the outlaw filly's cheek Carolyn June turned and
+began quickly and deftly putting the riding gear on the beautiful mare.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For an hour and a half the Ramblin' Kid lay as he had fallen when he
+started to hand the coffee cup back to Gyp. Breathing heavily, his face
+flushed, he was as one in the deep stupor of complete intoxication. At
+last he stirred uneasily. An unconscious groan came from his lips. His
+eyes opened. In them was a dazed, puzzled look. Where was he? He tried
+vainly to remember--the clean life, the iron constitution and
+youth--aided perhaps by an indomitable subconscious will protesting
+against this something that had happened to him--were throwing off the
+effects of the drug hours before an ordinary man would have regained
+even a hint of sensibility.
+
+He stood up--reeling unsteadily. He was deathly sick. Lightning flashes
+of pain throbbed through his head. Waves of blackness rolled before his
+eyes. Surges of numbness swept over his legs and arms. He tried hard to
+remember. There was something--what was it? Th'--th'--what th'
+hell?--_th' race_! That was it--th'--th'--th' sweepstakes! In an instant
+the thought was gone. It kept beating back: _Th' sweepstakes--th'
+race_--What time was it? Had it been run? He staggered to the door. It
+was locked! His head was bursting. If he could only get over the nausea.
+He felt his knees start to give way. No! No! My God, he wouldn't give
+up! He--oh, yes. _Th' race! Captain Jack--no--th'--th'--maverick--he had
+to ride_--He must get out! There was a--a--window--sometimes they had
+them--in the back of the stalls. Maybe the hay was over it. He climbed
+on the bales. Behind them he could see the opening. God, he was weak!
+With the sweat of terrible nausea bursting from every pore of his body
+he pulled the bales back. He fell over the bale on which he had been
+lying. One hand brushed his hat which had fallen from his head.
+Mechanically, with stiff fingers, he picked it up and jammed it on
+again. Then he climbed--crawled--over the hay and pitched forward
+through the opening, in a limp heap, on the ground outside.
+
+For a moment he lost consciousness completely again: _Th'--th' race--th'
+maverick! he mustn't forget_--
+
+He fought his way to his feet and groped along back of the building--the
+stall--which way was it? Down there? No--the other way--
+
+As Carolyn June tightened the rear cinch on the Gold Dust maverick and
+turned toward the door of the stall with: "Look out, boys--I'm coming
+out!" the Ramblin' Kid, clutching at the side of the building, reeled
+around the corner of the stall. The cowboys saw him. He himself saw only
+black shapes where their horses were.
+
+"Good God!" Skinny cried, "he's drunk!"
+
+Carolyn June heard Skinny's exclamation at the instant the Ramblin' Kid,
+catching at the half-open door, almost fell into the stall. His eyes
+stared with a dull, puzzled, unrecognizing vacancy first at Carolyn June
+and then the Gold Dust maverick. "_Who th' hell_--" he mumbled stiffly.
+"What--th'--oh, yes--there's th' filly--_th'--th'--race_. It
+must--be--time. Th' mare's saddled! That's--that's--funny! I can't
+remember. Th' race--th' sweepstakes--that's it--"
+
+Reaching over he jerked the reins from the hand of Carolyn June.
+
+"Who--who--get the--" came like the thick growl of a beast from his
+throat. "You--you--can't ride--she'll--_she'll--kill--_"
+
+Carolyn June shrank back as if she had been struck. She pressed her
+hands against her cheeks and stepped away with a look of horror and
+disgust as the Ramblin' Kid backed out of the stall with the Gold Dust
+maverick. Outside he fumbled grotesquely at the silky mane and climbed
+weakly into the saddle.
+
+Chuck and Bert started toward him.
+
+"Get--the--hell--" he snarled as he saw their horses--mere shadow shapes
+they were to him--approach.
+
+"Let him alone!" Skinny said. "He's drunk! You'll just scare the filly
+and make her hurt him!"
+
+The boys let him go.
+
+With blanched cheeks Carolyn June mounted Red John and with Skinny, Bert
+and Chuck, rode back to the Clagstone "Six." Her heart was utterly sick.
+So this was it? It had come out--the brute--the beast that was in him!
+
+They reached the car as the Ramblin' Kid, at the horse entrance, at the
+other end of the grandstand, came on the track with the Gold Dust
+maverick.
+
+Old Heck looked up when the group approached. He saw the agony in
+Carolyn June's eyes and started to speak.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's drunk," Skinny said dully. "He showed up--yonder he
+is--" as the beautiful copper-tinted, chestnut filly appeared behind the
+other horses entered for the two-mile sweepstakes.
+
+"Drunk?" Old Heck cried incredulously. "Are you sure?"
+
+"Watch him!" Chuck said miserably.
+
+The starter was standing with arm outstretched and flag ready to fall.
+The filly came down the track jumping nervously from side to side in
+short springing leaps. The starter paused, watch in hand. A shout of
+admiration and wonder went up from the crowd as the splendid creature
+dancing down the track was recognized. The next instant it was succeeded
+by a cry of horror that rolled in a great wave from a thousand throats.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid is drunk! He's drunk--the mare will kill him!" as they
+saw the slim rider weaving limply in the saddle, his head dropped
+forward as if he were utterly helpless.
+
+"Rule that horse off the track!" Dorsey, who was standing with Mike
+Sabota, in a box-seat just below the judges' stand, shouted as he saw
+the Ramblin' Kid, even in his half-conscious condition, reining the Gold
+Dust maverick with consummate skill into position, "her rider's drunk!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard the voice and--by some miracle of the
+mind--recognized it, although his eyes, set and glassy, could not see
+the speaker.
+
+He turned his head in the direction from which the cry came and
+answered, slowly measuring each word:
+
+"Go--go--t' hell--you--you--_coyote_!"
+
+The next instant the starter dropped the flag. As it went down the filly
+crouched and reared straight into the air.
+
+That one second gave the other horses the start.
+
+Then the outlaw mare leaped forward directly behind Thunderbolt, running
+against the inside rail. Say-So, the Pecos horse, jammed close to the
+side of the black stallion; Snow Johnson, rider of Prince John, pushed
+the big sorrel ahead with his nose at the roan's tail; Dash-Away hugged
+against the heels of Prince John. The Gold Dust maverick was "pocketed!"
+
+A breathless hush fell over the crowd in the grandstand after the first
+mighty roar:
+
+"They're off!"
+
+Black devils of torture clutched the throat, the mind, the body of the
+Ramblin' Kid. Streams of fire seemed to be flowing through his veins. He
+couldn't see--he was blind. "What th'--what th'--hell!" he muttered over
+and over. He was vaguely conscious of the thunder of hoofs around
+him--under him. Dimly, black shadows were rushing along at his side. He
+fought with all his will to master his faculties. Where was he? What was
+it? Was it a--a--stampede? What? _Oh, yes, th' race--th'--th'--
+sweepstakes--that--that was it_--Over and over the fleeting flashes of
+consciousness kept throwing this one supreme idea on the mirror of his
+mind!
+
+Not a word was spoken by any of the party at the Clagstone "Six" as the
+five fastest horses ever on the Eagle Butte track swept past the car
+toward the first quarter-turn of the course.
+
+Carolyn June's face was as white as marble. Her breast heaved and fell
+as if it would burst. Dry-eyed, every nerve tense, she stared at the
+straining racers. Unconsciously she gripped into hard knots of flesh and
+bone, both hands, while she bit at her underlip until a red drop of
+blood started from the gash made in the tender skin by her teeth.
+
+"_Drunk_!" she thought, "_drunk!_ Beastly drunk--and throwing away the
+greatest race ever run on a Texas track!"
+
+Old Heck sat impassive as though carved from stone and said nothing.
+
+Ophelia nervously chewed at the finger of her glove while her eyes
+moistened with sympathy and pity.
+
+Skinny, Chuck and Bert sat gloomily, moodily, on their bronchos and
+watched Thunderbolt lead the quintette of running horses.
+
+For the life of him Skinny could not keep from thinking of the five
+hundred dollars he had bet with Sabota, on the race, and the number of
+white shirts and purple ties he might have bought with the money!
+
+Over in the track-field Parker, Charley and Pedro saw the start of the
+race and each swore softly and silently to himself.
+
+Sing Pete, alone of the Quarter Circle KT crowd, in the jam of the
+grandstand, stretched his neck and followed with inscrutable eyes the
+close-bunched racers. The start had puzzled him, yet he murmured
+hopefully:
+
+"Maybe all samee Lamblin' Kid he beatee hell out of 'em yet!"
+
+The loyal Chinese cook had wagered the savings of a dozen years on the
+speed of the Gold Dust maverick's nimble legs and his faith in the
+"Lamblin' Kid."
+
+A blanket might have covered the five horses as they swung around the
+first mile.
+
+The speed-mad animals roared down the homestretch, finishing the first
+half of the race in the almost identical position each had taken in the
+getaway.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid rode the mile more as an automaton than as a living,
+conscious human being. He had no memory of time, place, events--save for
+the instants of rationality he forced his will to bring.
+
+Gradually, though, his mind was clearing.
+
+But which was it--the first half?--the last half? How long had they been
+running? How many times had they gone around the track? He could not
+remember!
+
+Down the straight stretch the racers came in a mighty whirlwind of
+speed.
+
+"Thunderbolt is taking it!"
+
+"The Y-Bar horse leads!"
+
+"Th' black's got 'em!" roared from the throats of the crowd in the
+grandstand and the mass of humanity crushing the railing along the
+track.
+
+Dorsey and Sabota leaped to the edge of the box as the horses thundered
+past the judges' stand. The voice of the owner of Thunderbolt shrieked
+out in a hoarse bellow:
+
+"Hold him to it, Flip! Keep your lead--you've got the filly!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard again--or thought he heard again--the voice of
+the Vermejo cattleman. He caught, as an echo, a note of triumph in it.
+It was like a tonic to his drug-numbed faculties.
+
+Suddenly he saw clearly. He had just a glimpse of Sabota standing by the
+side of Dorsey. He understood. In a flash it all came to him. The first
+half of the great sweepstakes race was behind them! Once more they were
+to circle the track. The glistening black rump of Thunderbolt rose and
+fell just ahead of the Gold Dust maverick's nose--at her side, crowding
+her against the rail, was another horse. Which one? It didn't matter!
+Back of it was another. He was "_pocketed_!" Hell, no wonder Thunderbolt
+was ahead of the outlaw mare!
+
+Half-way around the quarter-turn he pulled the filly down.
+
+She slackened ever so little. Thunderbolt--the horse at her side--all of
+them--shot ahead.
+
+He was behind the bunch--clear of the field!
+
+The crowd saw the filly dart to the right. It looked as though she would
+go over the outside rail before the Ramblin' Kid swung her, in a great
+arch, to the left clear of, but far behind, the other horses.
+
+He was crazy! The Gold Dust maverick was getting the better of the
+Ramblin' Kid. He had lost control of the wonderful mare!
+
+So thought the thousands watching the drama on the track before them.
+
+Away over, next to the outside fence, on the far side of the track, open
+now before him for the long outfield stretch, the Rambling Kid
+straightened the Gold Dust maverick out. The other racers were still
+bunched against the inner rail--lengths ahead of the filly.
+
+Leaning low on the neck of the maverick, the Ramblin' Kid began talking,
+for the first time, to the horse he rode.
+
+"_Baby--Baby! Girl_!" he whispered incoherently almost. "_Go--go_--damn
+'em! _'Ophelia'_"--he laughed thickly, reeling in the saddle.
+"_Hell_--_no--'Little--Little--Pink Garter!--that's--that's--_what y'
+are! Little--Pink--Garter_--" he repeated irrationally. "_That's
+it--show 'em--damn 'em--show 'em what--what runnin'--what real runnin'
+is!_" fumbling caressingly at the mare's neck with hands numb and stiff
+and chuckling pitifully, insanely, while his face was drawn with agony
+nearly unendurable.
+
+Then the Gold Dust maverick ran!
+
+Never had ground flowed with such swiftness under the belly of a horse
+on a Texas track.
+
+"Good God!" Skinny yelled, "looky yonder! He's passin' them! Th'
+Ramblin' Kid is passin' 'em!"
+
+No one answered him.
+
+His voice was drowned in the mighty roar that surged from five thousand
+throats and rolled in waves of echoing and re-echoing sound across the
+field.
+
+"He's ridin' round 'em!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid is goin' around them!"
+
+"Great heavens! Look at that horse go!"
+
+"She's a-flyin'! _She's a-flyin_'!"
+
+The Gold Dust maverick closed the gap--she caught Dash-Away--she
+evened up with Prince John--she left the big sorrel behind--she passed
+Say-So--nose to nose for a few rods she ran opposite the black
+wonder--the Thunderbolt horse from the Vermejo.
+
+Flip Williams, spurs raking the flanks of Dorsey's stallion, looked
+around.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid leaned toward him:
+
+"Hell--why--don't you--_make that--thing run_!" he sneered at the Y-Bar
+rider.
+
+The next instant the Gold Dust maverick's neck and shoulders showed in
+the lead of the Y-Bar stallion.
+
+At the turn for the home stretch the outlaw filly shot ahead of the
+wonderful black horse from the Vermejo, swung close to the inside rail,
+and like a flash of gold-brown darted down the track toward the wire.
+
+The grandstand was turned into a madhouse of seething humanity. The
+immense crowd came to its feet roaring and shrieking with frenzy. Men
+smashed their neighbors with clenched fists--not knowing or caring how
+hard or whom they struck--or that they themselves were being hit. Women
+screamed frantically, hysterically, tears streaming from thousands of
+eyes because of sheer joy at the wonderful thing the Gold Dust maverick
+was doing. Even the stolid Sing Pete was jumping up and down, shouting:
+
+"_Come on--come on--Lamblin' Kid! Beat 'em--beatee hell out of 'em_!"
+
+Full three lengths in the lead of the "unbeatable" Thunderbolt the Gold
+Dust maverick flashed under the wire in front of the judges!
+
+Dorsey, shaken in every nerve, lips blue as though he were stricken with
+a chill, reeled out of the box from which he had watched his whole
+fortune swept away by the speed of the Cimarron mare. At his side,
+profaning horrible, obscene oaths staggered Mike Sabota.
+
+Old Heck, white-faced, but his lips drawn in a smile of satisfaction,
+stood up in the Clagstone "Six" and watched the Ramblin' Kid--his eyes
+set and staring, his body twitching convulsively, check the filly, swing
+her around, ride back to the judges' stand, weakly fling up a hand in
+salute and then, barely able to sit in the saddle, rein the Gold Dust
+maverick off the track and ride toward the box stall.
+
+Skinny drew a hand across his eyes and looked at Carolyn June.
+
+Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+OLD HECK GOES TO TOWN
+
+It was Monday morning, clear and cloudless, with a whiff of a breeze
+kissing the poplars along the front-yard fence at the Quarter Circle KT.
+On the sand-hills north of the Cimarron, Pedro was pushing the saddle
+cavallard toward Rock Creek, where the last half of the beef round-up
+was to begin. Parker and the cowboys were just splashing their bronchos
+into the water at the lower ford. Sing Pete, on the high seat of the
+grub-wagon, was once more clucking and cawing at Old Tom and Baldy as
+they drew the outfit along the lane and followed the others to the open
+range.
+
+Old Heck, Skinny, Ophelia and Carolyn June again were alone at the
+Quarter Circle KT.
+
+The Eagle Butte Rodeo had closed, with one last riotous carnival of
+wildness at midnight Saturday night.
+
+Once more the straggling town, its pulse gradually beating back to
+normal, lay half-asleep at the foot of the sun-baked butte that stood
+silent and drowsy beyond the Sante Fe tracks.
+
+Tom Poole, the lank marshal, loafed as usual about the Elite Amusement
+Parlor, over which hung a sullen quiet reflecting the morbid emotions of
+Mike Sabota, its brutish-built proprietor, resulting from his heavy
+losses on Thunderbolt in the two-mile sweepstakes when the Gold Dust
+maverick, ridden by the drug-crazed Ramblin' Kid, darted under the wire
+lengths ahead of the black Vermejo stallion.
+
+Friday evening Old Heck had met Dorsey in the pool-room.
+
+Judge Ivory handed over to the owner of the Quarter Circle KT the Y-Bar
+cattleman's check for ten thousand dollars and the bill of sale he had
+recklessly given and which transferred to Old Heck all the cattle the
+Vermejo rancher owned.
+
+Dorsey was game.
+
+"You put it on me," he said to Old Heck "but the Ramblin' Kid won square
+and I'm not squealing!"
+
+Old Heck turned the check slowly over in his hand and looked at it with
+a quizzical frown on his face:
+
+"I reckon this is good?"
+
+"It's my exact balance," Dorsey replied; "I saw to that this morning."
+
+For a long minute Old Heck studied the bill of sale that made him owner
+of every cow-brute burnt with the Y-Bar brand.
+
+"My men will gather the cattle within fifteen days," Dorsey said dully,
+noting the half-questioning look on Old Heck's face, "or you can send
+your own crew, just as you please. I suppose you'll meet me half-way and
+receive the stock in Eagle Butte?"
+
+"Can Thunderbolt run?" Old Heck asked irrelevantly.
+
+"Not as fast as that imp of hell of the Ramblin' Kid's!" Dorsey answered
+instantly and with a short laugh.
+
+Old Heck chuckled.
+
+"You say you'll turn the Y-Bar cattle over to me within fifteen days?"
+he asked again, reverting to a study of the paper he held in his hand.
+
+"Yes," Dorsey replied; "is that satisfactory?"
+
+"You're a pretty good sport, after all, Dorsey," Old Heck said quietly.
+"I'll cash this check"--glancing at the yellow slip of paper--"and this
+thing, here--we'll just tear it up!" as he reduced the bill of sale to
+fragments. "Keep your cattle, Dorsey," he added, "ten thousand dollars
+is enough for you to pay for your lesson!"
+
+Dorsey flushed a dull red.
+
+"I ain't asking--"
+
+"I know you're not," Old Heck interrupted, "and that's the reason I tore
+up that bill of sale!"
+
+"Old Heck," Dorsey said, his voice trembling, "you're white! I'd like to
+shake--"
+
+The rival cattlemen gripped hands and the racing feud between the
+Quarter Circle KT and the Y-Bar was ended.
+
+A week later Dorsey sent Flip Williams to the Quarter Circle KT. The
+Vermejo cowboy led the beautiful black stallion that had mastered
+Quicksilver and had in turn been whipped by the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+"Dorsey said, Tell Old Heck Thunderbolt's a pretty good saddle horse,'"
+Flip explained, "'and he'd do to change off with Quicksilver once in a
+while! So he sent him over as a sort of keepsake!'"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid did not return to the Quarter Circle KT until late
+Sunday night. After the two-mile sweepstakes he was horribly ill. All
+Friday night he laid, in a semi-conscious condition, in the stall with
+Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+Parker and some of the cowboys visited the stall after the race, but
+they thought the Ramblin' Kid was drunk and the best thing was to allow
+him to sleep it off.
+
+"I can't figure it out," Chuck said as they turned away, "he never did
+get drunk before that I knew of--"
+
+"You can't tell what he's liable to do," Charley interrupted, "he sure
+took an awful chance getting on a tear at the time he did!"
+
+"Well, he won the race," Parker said admiringly, "drunk or sober, you've
+got to give him credit for that!"
+
+Saturday the Ramblin' Kid got Pedro to stay with the horses while he
+went over to the Elite Amusement Parlor. He had nothing to say to Sabota
+or any of the loafers in the place.
+
+He was looking for Gyp Streetor.
+
+Until Sunday afternoon he searched Eagle Butte, trying to find the tout.
+All he wanted was to locate the man who had sold him that cup of
+coffee--he could remember drinking the coffee; after that until the
+following morning all was hazy.
+
+But Gyp was gone.
+
+When the Gold Dust maverick, with the Ramblin' Kid swaying uncertainly
+on her back, had appeared on the track for the two-mile run, the tout,
+his eyes like those of a harried rat, sneaked out of the crowd in front
+of the book-makers' booths and hurried toward the Santa Fe railroad
+yards. An hour later he slipped into an empty freight car--part of a
+train headed for the West--and Eagle Butte saw him no more.
+
+It was midnight Sunday when the Ramblin' Kid reached the Quarter Circle
+KT, turned Captain Jack and the outlaw filly into the circular corral,
+and without disturbing Old Heck, Parker, or the cowboys, already asleep
+in the bunk-house, sought his bed.
+
+Monday morning he was at breakfast with the others.
+
+Throughout the meal the Ramblin' Kid was silent. Carolyn June, still
+shocked by what she thought was his intoxication the day of the race,
+and believing he had remained in Eagle Butte over Saturday night and
+Sunday to continue the debauch, ignored him.
+
+None of the others cared to question him and the Ramblin' Kid himself
+volunteered no information.
+
+Once only, Old Heck mentioned the race.
+
+"That was a pretty good ride you made in the two-mile event," he said,
+addressing the Ramblin' Kid; "it looked at first like the filly--"
+
+"You won your money, didn't you?" the Ramblin' Kid interrupted in a tone
+that plainly meant there was nothing further to be said.
+
+That was the only reference to the incidents of Friday afternoon.
+
+After breakfast the Ramblin' Kid saddled the Gold Dust maverick, turned
+Captain Jack with the cavallard, and with Parker and the other Quarter
+Circle KT cowboys rode away to help gather the beef cattle from the west
+half of the Cimarron range.
+
+The week that followed passed quickly.
+
+During the entire period the Kiowa lay under a mantle of sunshine by day
+and starlit skies by night.
+
+Carolyn June once more provided the evening dessert of coffee-jelly and
+Skinny finished teaching her the art of dipping bread in milk and egg
+batter, frying it in hot butter, and calling the result "French toast"
+
+Skinny again put on the white shirt and the shamrock tinted tie. He had
+not dared to wear what Chuck called his "love-making rigging" during the
+week of the Rodeo. It would have made him entirely too conspicuous among
+the hundreds of other cowboys gathered at Eagle Butte for the big
+celebration. Situations filled with embarrassment would have been almost
+certain to develop.
+
+"It's getting so it needs a washing a little," Skinny remarked to
+Carolyn June the first time he reappeared in the once snowy garment.
+
+He was quite right.
+
+Carolyn June herself had noticed that the shirt had lost some of its
+immaculateness.
+
+"It doesn't look hardly as white as it did at first!"
+
+"No, it don't," Skinny answered seriously. "I guess I'll wash it
+to-morrow. I never did wash one but I reckon it ain't so awful hard to
+do--"
+
+"I'll help you," Carolyn June volunteered. "I've never washed one
+either, but it will be fun to learn how!"
+
+The next day they washed the shirt.
+
+The ceremony was performed in the kitchen after they had finished doing
+the breakfast dishes. Ophelia, after water for a vase of roses, came
+into the room while Skinny was rinsing the shirt in the large tin
+dishpan.
+
+The garment was a sickly yellow.
+
+"Darned if I know what's wrong with it," Skinny said, a trifle
+discouraged, while Carolyn June, her sleeves rolled above dimpled
+elbows, stood by and watched the slushy operation. "Carolyn June and me
+both have blamed near rubbed our fingers off trying to get it to look
+right again but somehow or other it don't seem to work."
+
+"Did you put bluing in your rinse water?" Ophelia asked with a laugh.
+
+"Bluing?" Carolyn June and Skinny questioned together. "What does that
+do to it?"
+
+"Bleaches it--makes it white," the widow replied with another laugh as
+she returned to the front room.
+
+"By golly, maybe that's what it needs!" Skinny exclaimed hopefully.
+
+"Of course," Carolyn June cried gaily. "How silly we were not to think
+of it! Any one ought to know you put bluing in the water when you wash
+things. Wonder if Sing Pete has any around anywhere?"
+
+They searched the kitchen shelves and found a pint bottle, nearly full,
+of the liquid indigo compound.
+
+"How much do you suppose we ought to put in?" Carolyn June asked,
+pulling the cork from the bottle and holding it poised over the pan of
+water in which the shirt, a slimy, dingy mass, floated drunkenly.
+
+"Darned if I know," Skinny said, scratching his head. "She said it would
+make it white--I reckon the more you put in the whiter the blamed
+thing'll be. Try about half of it at first and see how 'it works!"
+
+"Gee, isn't it pretty?" Carolyn June gurgled as she tipped the bottle
+and the waves of indigo spread through the water, covering the shirt
+with a deep crystalline blue.
+
+"You bet!" Skinny exclaimed. "That ought to fix it!"
+
+It did.
+
+The shirt, when finally dried, was a wonderful thing--done in a sort of
+mottled, streaky, marbled sky and cloud effect.
+
+But Skinny wore it, declaring he liked it better--that it more nearly
+matched the shamrock tie--than when it was "too darned white and
+everything!"
+
+To Parker and the boys on the beef hunt everything was business.
+
+The days were filled with hard riding as they gathered the cattle,
+bunched the fat animals, cut out and turned back those unfit for the
+market, stood guard at night over the herd, steadily and rapidly cleaned
+the west half of the Kiowa range of the stuff that was ready to sell.
+
+It was supper-time on one of the last days of the round-up.
+
+The outfit was camped at Dry Buck. Bed rolls, wrapped in dingy gray
+tarpaulins or black rubber ponchos, were scattered about marking the
+places where each cowboy that night would sleep. The herd was bunched a
+quarter of a mile away in a little cove backed by the rim of sand-hills.
+Captain Jack and Silver Tip, riderless but with their saddles still on,
+were nipping the grass near the camp--the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck were to
+take the first watch, until midnight, at "guard mount." Parker and the
+cowboys were squatted, legs doubled under them, their knees forming a
+table on which to hold the white porcelain plate of "mulligan," in a
+circle at the back of the grub-wagon. Sing Pete trotted around the group
+and poured black, blistering-hot coffee into the unbreakable cups on the
+ground at the side of the hungry, dusty riders.
+
+The sun had just dipped into the ragged peaks of the Costejo range and a
+reddish-purple crown lay on the crest of Sentinel Mountain forty miles
+to the southeast.
+
+"It looks to me like Parker's sort of losing out," Chuck suddenly
+remarked, as he wiped his lips on the back of his hand after washing
+down a mouthful of the savory stew with gulps of steaming coffee.
+"Ophelia stuck closer than thunder to Old Heck all through the Rodeo."
+
+Parker reddened and growled: "Aw, hell--don't start that up again!"
+
+"By criminy, she didn't stick any closer to Old Heck than Skinny stuck
+to Carolyn June," Bert complained. "Nobody else had a look-in!"
+
+"Skinny's sure earning his money," Charley muttered half enviously.
+
+"Bet he's got on that white shirt and having a high old time right now!
+They're probably in the front room and she's playing _La Paloma_ on the
+piano while Old Skinny's setting back rolling his eyes up like a bloated
+yearling!" Chuck laughed.
+
+"And Old Heck and Ophelia are out on the porch holding hands and looking
+affectionate while the mosquitos are chewing their necks and ankles!"
+Bert added with a snicker.
+
+"Her and Old Heck'll probably be married before we get back," Chuck said
+solemnly, with a wink at the Ramblin' Kid and a sly glance in the
+direction of Parker.
+
+"Do you reckon there's any danger of it?" Parker asked in a voice that
+showed anxiety, but not of the sort the cowboys thought.
+
+"They're darned near sure to," Chuck replied seriously, heaving what he
+tried to make resemble a sigh of sympathy.
+
+"What makes you think so?" Parker questioned, seeking confirmation from
+the lips of other, of a hope that had been rising in his heart since the
+first moment he had begun to regret his rash proposal of marriage to the
+widow.
+
+"Well, for one thing"--Chuck began soberly--"the way they'd look at each
+other--"
+
+"I saw her squeeze Old Heck's arm once!" Bert interrupted.
+
+"Aw, she's done that lots of times," Chuck said airily; "that ain't
+nothing special! But the worst indication was them flowers she wore on
+her bosom every day--_Old Heck bought 'em_!" he finished dramatically,
+leaning over and speaking tensely as though it pained him immeasurably
+to break the news to Parker while he fixed on Old Heck's rival a look he
+imagined was one of supreme pity.
+
+"Yeah, he had them sent up from Las Vegas," Bert added, picking up the
+cue and lying glibly. "I saw the express agent deliver a box of them to
+him one day. There was four dollars and eighty cents charges on 'em!"
+
+A gleam, which the cowboys misunderstood, came into Parker's eyes.
+
+"Why don't you and Old Heck fight a duel about Ophelia?" Bert suggested
+tragically and in a voice that was aimed to convey sympathy to the
+Quarter Circle KT foreman. "You could probably kill him!"
+
+"Sure, that's the way they do in books," Chuck urged.
+
+"Yes," the Ramblin' Kid broke in with a slow drawl, "fight one with
+sour-dough biscuits at a hundred yards! That'd be sensible--then both of
+you'd be genuine heroes!"
+
+"Gosh, th' Ramblin' Kid's awake!" Bert laughed. "How does it happen you
+ain't fell in love with Carolyn June?" he asked, turning toward the
+slender, dark-eyed, young cowboy. "So far you're the only one that's
+escaped. The rest of us are breaking our hearts--"
+
+For an instant the Ramblin' Kid flashed on Bert a look of hot anger
+while a dull red glow spread over his sun-tanned cheeks.
+
+"There's enough damned fools loose on th' Kiowa range without me bein'
+one, too!" he retorted slowly, getting up and going toward Captain Jack.
+
+"Blamed if he'll stand a bit of joshing on that subject!" Bert
+muttered, his own face flushing from the look the Ramblin' Kid had
+given him.
+
+"Not a darned bit," Chuck added, "but it is funny; the way he shys off
+from Carolyn June!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid ain't interested in women," Charley said, as they
+pitched their plates to one side and the meal was finished. "He ain't
+the kind that bothers with females!"
+
+When Chuck had idly suggested that Old Heck and Ophelia might be married
+before Parker and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys returned to the ranch
+from the beef hunt, he did not know it, but the words he spoke in jest
+voiced the very thought at the same instant in the mind of Old
+Heck--miles away though he was. Perhaps it was mental telepathy, thought
+vibration, subconscious soul communication--or a mere coincident, that
+caused Chuck, far out on the open range, to speak the thing Old Heck,
+sitting at supper with Carolyn June, Ophelia and Skinny, at the Quarter
+Circle KT was thinking.
+
+Ever since Parker had voluntarily surrendered during the Rodeo, his
+right to alternate, day and day about, with Old Heck in the widow's
+society, the owner of the Quarter Circle KT had been watching Ophelia,
+covertly and carefully, for any sign of "Movements" or an outbreak as a
+dreaded suffragette.
+
+While he watched her the widow was becoming more and more a necessity in
+the life of Old Heck.
+
+The night of the conversation between Parker and the cowboys, away over
+at Rock Creek, Old Heck sat at the supper table in the kitchen at the
+ranch and debated in his mind the future relationships of Parker,
+Ophelia and himself. In a few days Parker would return. Almost certainly
+the foreman would again wish to share, fifty-fifty, in the courtship of
+the widow. Old Heck felt that if such were so those odd days, when
+Parker was with Ophelia, would be little less than hell. Yet, he dreaded
+that suffragette business. If she would only break loose and let him see
+how bad she was liable to be he could easily make up his mind. He was
+almost ready to take a chance, to ask Ophelia to marry him and settle it
+all at once.
+
+Throughout the meal he was moody. After supper he had little to say and
+the next few days he brooded constantly over the matter.
+
+Tuesday Parker and the cowboys were expected to return with the beef
+cattle. Monday morning, at breakfast, the widow asked Old Heck if he
+would take her to Eagle Butte that day.
+
+"I must see the minister's wife," she said, as Old Heck steered the
+Clagstone "Six" up the grade that led out to the bench and to Eagle
+Butte, "--it is very important"
+
+Old Heck murmured assent and drove silently on. Probably she was going
+to start a "Movement" or something to-day! To-morrow, Parker would be
+back. It sure did put a man in a dickens of a fix!
+
+Before they reached the long bridge across the Cimarron a mile from
+Eagle Butte Old Heck's mind was made up.
+
+"You want to stop at the preacher's house?" he asked.
+
+"If you please," Ophelia replied, "for some little time. There are
+things to discuss--"
+
+"Would you mind if I drove around to the court-house first?" Old Heck
+questioned again.
+
+"Not at all," she answered sweetly.
+
+A few moments later Old Heck stopped the Clagstone "Six" in front of the
+yellow sandstone county building. Leaving Ophelia in the car with the
+remark, "I'll be out in a minute!" he went inside and hurried along the
+dark corridor that led to the clerk's office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+A SHAME TO WASTE IT
+
+In Old Heck's eyes was a set, determined look when he came out of the
+court-house and stepped up to the Clagstone "Six" in which he had left
+Ophelia a few moments before. The end of a long yellow envelope
+protruded from the side pocket of his coat. His face was flushed and his
+hand trembled slightly as he opened the door of the car and climbed into
+the front seat beside the widow. He pressed his foot on the "starter,"
+threw the clutch into gear and turning the car about drove slowly toward
+the home of Reverend Hector R. Patterson, Eagle Butte's only resident
+clergyman.
+
+He did not speak until the car stopped at the gate of the little
+unpainted parsonage beside the white, weather-boarded church.
+
+"Wait a minute," he said as Ophelia started to get out of the Clagstone
+"Six," "maybe I'll go in with you!"
+
+"Splendid," the widow replied, settling again against the cushions. "I'd
+be delighted to have you come along and I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Patterson
+would be glad to see you!"
+
+"Well, it--it"--Old Heck stammered, not knowing how to begin what he
+wanted to say--"it--it all depends on you! Here"--he said abruptly as a
+bright thought came to him--"read that and--and--tell me what you think
+about it!" at the same time pulling the yellow envelope from his pocket
+and handing it to Ophelia.
+
+With a questioning lift of her eyebrows the widow drew the folded,
+official-looking document from the envelope.
+
+"Why, it's a--it's a--" she started to say and stopped confused, her
+cheeks blazing crimson.
+
+"It's a marriage license--" Old Heck said, coming to her rescue, "--made
+out for you and me. I--I--didn't know what to tell the clerk when he
+asked me how old you was--so I just guessed at it!"
+
+The widow looked shyly down at the names written on the document.
+
+The license granted "Ophelia Cobb, age _twenty-three_, of Hartville,
+Connecticut, and Josiah Alonzo Heck, age forty-eight, of Kiowa County,
+Texas," the right to marry.
+
+Ophelia's actual years were thirty-nine!
+
+From under drooping lashes she glanced up suspiciously into the earnest
+gray eyes beside her. She saw that Old Heck had been sincere in his
+"guess."
+
+"But--but--"
+
+"I know it's kind of unexpected," Old Heck interrupted nervously,
+"--perhaps I had ought to have said something about it first, but, well,
+I figured I'd go on and get the license and show that my intentions was
+good and--and--sort of risk the whole thing on one throw! It always
+seemed like there was something missing at the Quarter Circle KT," he
+went on, his voice grown softer and trembling a bit, "and--and when you
+came I--I--found out what it was--"
+
+Ophelia sat silently with downcast eyes, her pulse racing, the license
+unfolded on her lap, while she bit uncertainly at the tip of the finger
+of her glove.
+
+"I--I--know I ain't very good-looking or--or--anything," Old Heck
+continued, "but I thought maybe you--you--liked me a little--enough
+anyhow to get married--that is if you--. Oh-h--thunder, Ophelia!" he
+exclaimed in despair, feeling that he was hopelessly floundering,
+"I--I--love you! Please let's use that license! Let's use it right away
+--to-day--and get it over with!" he urged as the widow still hesitated.
+
+"But--I--I'm not suitably dressed--" she stammered.
+
+"I think that dress you've got on is the prettiest goods I ever saw in
+my life," he interrupted, looking adoringly at the clinging summer
+fabric caressing Ophelia's shapely form, "I always did think it would be
+awful appropriate for us to--to--get married in!" he finished
+pleadingly.
+
+"But--Carolyn June and--and--Parker--" Ophelia murmured.
+
+At the mention of Parker, Old Heck started while a look of anguish came
+into his eyes. So she loved Parker! That was why she was so backward, he
+thought. Well, the Quarter Circle KT foreman was a little
+better-looking, maybe, and some younger! He couldn't blame her.
+
+His head dropped. For a moment Old Heck was silent, a dull, sickening
+hurt gripping his heart. A deep sigh escaped from his lips. He reached
+over and picked up the license.
+
+"I--I--guess I made a mistake," he said numbly. "We'll just--just--tear
+this thing up and forget about it!"
+
+Ophelia looked demurely up at him, her mouth twitching. One small gloved
+hand slipped over and rested on the strong brown fingers that held the
+license. Roses flamed over the full round throat and spread their blush
+to her cheeks. Her eyes were like pools of liquid blue:
+
+"Don't tear it--it--up!" she whispered with a little laugh--a laugh that
+sent the blood leaping, like fire, through Old Heck's veins, "it--it
+would be a shame to waste it!"
+
+For an instant Old Heck was dazed. He looked at her as if he could not
+believe he had heard aright. Suddenly a wave of undiluted happiness
+swept over him.
+
+"Ophelia!" he cried huskily. "Oh, Ophelia!" and the minister's three
+small sons, pausing in their play in the grassless yard at the side of
+the house, while they watched the beautiful car standing in front of
+the parsonage gate, saw the owner of the Quarter Circle KT, in broad
+daylight, on the principal residence street of Eagle Butte, before the
+eyes of the whole world--if the whole world cared to look--throw his
+arms around the plump lady sitting beside him and press one long,
+rapturous kiss on her moist, unresisting lips!
+
+A moment later Ophelia and Old Heck, both much embarrassed but
+tremulously happy, stepped inside the door of the parsonage.
+
+They were driving away from the minister's house--going to the
+Occidental Hotel for a little all-by-their-ownselves "wedding
+luncheon"--before either thought of the matter concerning which Ophelia
+had desired to see the clergyman's wife.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Old Heck exclaimed, "you forgot that consultation or
+whatever it was with Mrs. Patterson to start your woman's suffrage
+'movement'--"
+
+"To start my what?"
+
+"Your 'woman's rights,' 'female voter's organization'--or whatever it
+is!" Old Heck explained, a new-born tolerance in his voice. "I didn't
+mean to interfere with your political activities--"
+
+Ophelia threw back! her head, while a ripple of laughter trilled out
+above the purr of the Clagstone "Six."
+
+"Why, my dear--dear--Old Boy!" she cried, "I am not engaged in
+'political activities,' or 'suffragette movements!' Of course," she
+continued archly, "I believe women ought to be allowed to vote--if they
+haven't intelligence enough for that they haven't brains enough to be
+good 'pardners' with their husbands--"
+
+"By gosh, you're right!" Old Heck agreed, "I never thought of it that
+way before!"
+
+"And," she continued, "naturally I shall vote whenever the opportunity
+comes, but I'm not an 'Organizer' for anything of that kind. Mrs.
+Patterson and I are going to organize the wives, sisters and
+sweethearts, in Eagle Butte, into a club for the study of 'Scientific
+and Efficient Management of the Home!' We think we should be as
+proficient in those arts--and which we believe are peculiarly womanly
+functions--as the men are in the direction of the more strenuous
+business affairs in which they themselves are engaged."
+
+"So that's what you're an 'Organizer' for?" Old Heck queried while a
+radiant contentment spread over his face.
+
+"That is it," Ophelia said simply, adding with a most becoming
+heightening of color, "it is so we will be--will be--better wives!"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck breathed fervently. "My Gawd! The Lord has been good
+to me to-day!"
+
+While Old Heck and Ophelia were in Eagle Butte getting married, Skinny
+and Carolyn June had been riding line on the upland pasture fence. They
+had just returned to the Quarter Circle KT, unsaddled their horses,
+turned them into the pasture, gone to the house and stopped a moment on
+the front porch to watch the glow in the west--the sun was dipping into
+a thundercap over the Costejo Mountains--when the Clagstone "Six" rolled
+down the grade and up to the string of poplars before the house.
+
+"Gee, we thought you two had eloped!" Carolyn June laughed as the couple
+climbed out of the car and came, rather bashfully, in at the gate. Old
+Heck and Ophelia looked at each other guiltily.
+
+"We did come darn near it!" Old Heck chuckled, plunging at once into the
+task of breaking the news. "We got married--I reckon you'd call that the
+next thing to eloping!"
+
+"Got married?" Skinny and Carolyn June cried together.
+
+"Who--who--got married?" Skinny repeated incredulously.
+
+"Ophelia and me," Old Heck answered with a sheepish grin but proudly.
+"Who else did you think we meant? We just thought," he continued by way
+of explanation, "we'd go ahead and do it kind of private and save a lot
+of excitement and everything!"
+
+Carolyn June threw her arms around Ophelia and kissed her.
+
+"Good-by, chaperon," she laughed With a half-sob in her throat,
+"h--hello, 'Aunt.'" Then she strangled Old Heck with a hug that made him
+gasp.
+
+"What the devil--are you trying to do--choke me?"
+
+"Well, by thunder, Old Heck!" Skinny finally managed to ejaculate, "it
+was the sensiblest thing you ever done! I--I've--been"--with a sidelong
+look at Carolyn June--"kind of figuring on doing it myself!"
+
+Carolyn June saw the expression in Skinny's eyes. A pained look came
+into her own. She had known, for a long while, that sooner or later
+there would have to come an understanding between this big, overgrown,
+juvenile-hearted cowboy and herself. She resolved then that it should
+come quickly. Further delay would be cruel to him. Besides, she was sick
+of flirtations. Her disappointment in the character of the Ramblin' Kid,
+her realization of his weakness, when he had gotten, as she believed,
+beastly drunk at the moment so much depended on him the day of the
+two-mile sweepstakes, had hurt deeply. Somehow, even his magnificent
+ride and the fact that, in spite of his condition, he won the race, had
+not taken the sting away. She had thought the Ramblin' Kid was
+real--rough and crude, perhaps, but all man, rugged-hearted and honest.
+Sometimes she wondered if the queer unexplainable antagonism between
+herself and the sensitive young cowboy had not, in a measure, been
+responsible for his sudden moral breaking down. The thought caused her
+to lose some of that frivolity that inspired the dance and the wild
+flirtations she carried on that night with all the cowboys of the
+Quarter Circle KT. After all, these plain, simple-acting men of the
+range were just boys grown big in God's great out-of-doors where things
+are taken for what they seem to be. No wonder an artless look from
+sophisticated brown eyes swept them off their feet!
+
+She made up her mind to disillusion Skinny at once.
+
+After supper the quartette gathered in the front room.
+
+"Come on, Skinny," Carolyn June said with forced gaiety, "let us take a
+walk. That pair of cooing doves"--with a playfully tender glance at
+Ophelia and Old Heck--"wish nothing so much as to be permitted to
+'goo-goo' at each other all by their little lonelies!"
+
+Bareheaded she and Skinny strolled out the front gate and along the road
+that led up to the bench. At the top of the grade they sat down, side by
+side, on a large boulder that hung on the brink of the bench. The
+Quarter Circle KT lay before them--restful and calm in the shadows of
+early evening. The poplars along the front-yard fence stood limp in the
+silent air. Across the valley the sand-hills were mellowing with the
+coming softness of twilight. Up the river, to the west, beyond Eagle
+Butte, a summer thunder-cloud was climbing higher and higher into the
+sky. In the direction of Dry Buck, far toward the northwest, a fog of
+dust was creeping along the horizon, gradually approaching the upland
+pasture. Skinny saw it.
+
+"By golly," he cried, "that's either Parker and the boys coming in with
+the cattle--or else it's a band of sheep! It surely can't be
+'woollys'--they never get over in there! If it's our outfit, though,
+they've got through quicker than they figured!"
+
+A few moments later the dim bulk of the "grub-wagon" appeared, miles
+away, slowly crawling toward the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For a time Skinny and Carolyn June were silent.
+
+Skinny's hand crept slyly across the rock and found the pink fingers of
+Carolyn June. She did not draw away.
+
+"Carolyn June," he whispered haltingly, "Carolyn June--I--Old Heck and
+Ophelia have got married--let's you and--and--"
+
+"Please, Skinny, don't say it!" she interrupted, her voice trembling.
+"I--I know what you mean! It hurts me. Listen, Skinny"--she hurried on,
+determined to end it quickly--"maybe you will despise me, but--I like
+you, truly I do--but not _that_ way! I don't want to grieve you--I wish
+us to be just good friends--that's why I'm telling you! Let's be
+friends, Skinny--just friends--we can't be any more than that--"
+
+Skinny understood. A dull, throbbing pain tightened about his throat.
+His fingers gripped Carolyn June's hand an instant and then relaxed. The
+whole world seemed suddenly blank.
+
+"Can't you--won't you--ever--ca--care?" he asked in a voice filled with
+despair.
+
+"I do care, boy," she replied softly, "I do care--but not that way! Oh,
+Skinny," she exclaimed, wishing to make it as easy as possible for the
+sentimental cowboy at her side, "maybe I have done wrong to let you go
+ahead, but, well, I found out--I guessed the 'arrangements'--how you had
+been chosen to make 'love' to me and how Parker and Uncle Josiah were to
+divide Ophelia between them. Perhaps that is why I have flirted so--just
+to punish you all! Truly, Skinny, I'm sorry. Please don't hate me
+like--like--the Ramblin' Kid does!" she finished with a shaky little
+laugh.
+
+"He--don't hate you," Skinny answered dully, "at least I don't think th'
+Ramblin' Kid hates you--or anybody. And you knowed all the time that I
+was getting paid to make love to you? Well, I was," he added chokingly,
+"but I'd have done it for nothing if I'd had the chance!"
+
+"Yes, Skinny," she replied, "I knew--I know--and I don't blame you!"
+
+"I don't blame you, either," he said humbly, "it was a--a--excuse me,
+Carolyn June--a damned mean trick to frame up on you and Ophelia that
+way--but we didn't know what to do with you! I reckon," he continued in
+the same despairing tone, "I was a blamed fool!"
+
+For a long moment they sat silent.
+
+"Carolyn June," Skinny finally said, a sigh of resignation breaking from
+his lips, "I'll be what you said--just a good friend--I always will be
+that to you! But before we start in, do you mind if I--if I--go up to
+Eagle Butte and get--drunk!"
+
+In spite of herself she laughed. But in it was a tenderness almost
+mother-like.
+
+"Poor disappointed, big boy," she answered and her eyes filled, "if it
+will make you happy, go ahead and get--get--drunk, 'soused,' all
+over--just this once!"
+
+With only a passing pang Carolyn June was willing for Skinny to get
+drunk--to do the thing she had been scarcely able to forgive in the
+Ramblin' Kid!
+
+For an instant she wondered why.
+
+A half-hour later Skinny and Carolyn June went silently down the grade
+to the ranch house. They had gone up the hill--lovers; they
+returned--"good friends"--and such they would always be.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was nearly ten o'clock when Sing Pete stopped the grub-wagon at the
+bunk-house; Pedro wrangled the saddle cavallard into the pasture below
+the barn; Parker and the cowboys jogged their bronchos to the stable
+door and the Ramblin' Kid, riding the Gold Dust maverick--Captain Jack
+at her heels--rode to the circular corral, jerked the saddle from the
+filly's back and turned the little roan stallion and the outlaw mare
+inside the corral.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny heard the commotion and went out to where Parker and
+the cowboys were unsaddling their horses.
+
+"Well, you got through, did you?" Old Hack questioned casually.
+
+"Yes," Parker replied, "we've got the beef critters in I guess--they're
+in the upland pasture. There are seven hundred and ninety, I think it
+is, that'll do for the market."
+
+"That's pretty good," Old Heck answered with satisfaction. "We'll push
+them right on into Eagle Butte to-morrow or next day and ship them. The
+cars will be in to-night, the agent said. I'm sending them to Chicago
+this time. I'd like to see you, private, a minute, Parker!" he finished
+abruptly.
+
+"What do you want?" Parker asked suspiciously, as he followed Old Heck
+around the corner of the barn.
+
+"It's about Ophelia--" Old Heck began.
+
+Parker's heart leaped and then dropped with a sickening foreboding of
+something disagreeable. The widow, he thought instantly, had told Old
+Heck about that darned fool proposal of marriage and was going to insist
+on him coming across and making good! There was no way out.
+
+"I--I--reckon I'll have to do it if she's determined," Parker stuttered;
+"but--aw, hell--I must have been crazy--"
+
+"Who's determined on what?" Old Heck asked, puzzled by the queer jumble
+coming from the lips of the Quarter Circle KT foreman, "and how crazy?"
+
+"Ophelia determined on marrying me!" Parker blurted out.
+
+"Ophelia marry _you_?" Old Heck exclaimed. "Marry you! She can't! Her
+and me have already done it. We got married to-day--that was what I
+wanted to tell you!"
+
+Momentarily a pang of regret shot through Parker's heart. It was quickly
+followed by a sense of relief.
+
+"You--you--and Ophelia married?" he stammered.
+
+"We sure are," Old Heck answered positively. "We done it to-day!"
+
+Suddenly Parker determined to "cover up."
+
+"My, lord!" he half-groaned, pretending terrible grief, "this is awful!
+It--it--come so sudden--but there ain't no hard feelings, Old Heck!
+I--I--wish you both joy and happiness!"
+
+"Darned if that ain't white of you, Parker!" Old Heck exclaimed,
+immensely relieved. "I won't forget it! When you and the boys take them
+steers to Chicago, stay over a week or so and have a good time and count
+it in on expenses!"
+
+Parker turned his head and in the darkness winked solemnly at a yellow
+star above the peak of Sentinel Mountain.
+
+He and Old Heck started toward the house.
+
+"Hey, you fellows!" Old Heck called, pausing and turning toward the barn
+where the cowboys were putting away their saddles, "when you get through
+all of you come on up to the house! Ophelia and me's married and the
+bride is waiting to be congratulated!"
+
+"Good lord," Charley gasped, "hear that, fellers? Old Heck said him and
+the widow's married!"
+
+"Gosh!" Chuck laughed, "it must have been a jolt to Parker! I bet his
+heart's plumb bu'sted!"
+
+As soon as their saddles were put away the cowboys hurried toward the
+house. They met the Ramblin' Kid, crossing from the circular corral to
+the bunk-house.
+
+"Come on," Bert called to him, "Old Heck and Ophelia's gone and got
+married! We're going up to the house to sympathize with the widow!"
+
+"I ain't needed," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a careless laugh. "You
+fellers can take my 'love' to th' afflicted couple!"
+
+After the cowboys had gone to the house Skinny went and got Old Pie
+Face. Stopping at the stable, he saddled the pinto and strolled over to
+the bunk-house. The Ramblin' Kid was lying stretched on his bed. Skinny
+rolled the white shirt carefully into a bundle and wrapped a newspaper
+around it.
+
+"What you goin' to do?" the Ramblin' Kid asked.
+
+"I'm goin' to town!" Skinny answered shortly. "I'm going up to Eagle
+Butte and get on a hell of a drunk--if I can get hold of any boot-leg
+whisky--Carolyn June and me have bu'sted up on our love-making!"
+
+"Going to get drunk, are you?" the Ramblin' Kid queried with a note of
+scorn in his voice, "an' forget your sorrows?"
+
+"Yes," Skinny retorted, "I'm going to get drunk as you was the day of
+the race!"
+
+"Drunk as I was th' day of th' race?" the Ramblin' Kid repeated
+quizzically. "Oh, hell, yes--now I understand--" pausing, while a smile
+curled his lips.
+
+"Yes," Skinny retorted again. "Where'd you get yours that day?"
+
+"Never mind," was the answer. "I guess I'll go to Eagle Butte with you!
+You'll need somebody to ride herd on you while you're snortin' around.
+Anyhow, I feel like goin' on a tear myself--not a drunk--a man's a
+darned fool that'll let any woman make a whisky barrel out of him! But I
+got an itchin' for a little poker game or somethin'. Wait till I get
+Captain Jack!"
+
+"Where's Skinny and th' Ramblin' Kid?" Old Heck asked after he and
+Parker and the cowboys were at the house and the first flush of
+embarrassment had passed.
+
+Carolyn June thought she knew where Skinny was, but did not answer.
+
+"I don't know what's become of Skinny," Parker said. "Th' Ramblin' Kid's
+probably out mopin' somewhere. I think he's getting ready to 'ramble'
+again--he's been acting plumb despondent ever since the Rodeo in Eagle
+Butte!"
+
+Carolyn June stepped to the door. Dimly through the darkness she saw
+two riders pass up the grade that led to the bench and turn their horses
+to the west, toward Eagle Butte, and ride straight into the outflung
+shadow of the thunder-storm--from which now and then leaped jagged
+flashes of lightning--and which was rolling from the Costejo Mountains
+across the Kiowa range in the direction of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Silent and with a heavy heart she turned away from the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+THE GREEK GETS HIS
+
+It was long after midnight when the Ramblin' Kid and Skinny rode into
+Eagle Butte and the heels of Captain Jack and Old Pie Face echoed
+noisily on the board floor of the livery stable as the bronchos turned
+into the wide, open doorway of the barn. A drowsy voice from the
+cubby-hole of an office called:
+
+"In just a minute--I'll be out!"
+
+"Aw, thunder," Skinny answered, "go on back to sleep, we'll find stalls
+and put 'em up!"
+
+Captain Jack and Old Pie Face cared for, Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid
+stepped out into the deserted street.
+
+Eagle Butte was sleeping.
+
+Here and there a blaze of light from a store window invited belated
+passers to covet the bargains offered within; a half-dozen incandescent
+bulbs, swung on cross-wires at intervals along the street, glowed feebly
+as if weary with the effort to beat back the darkness clutching at the
+throat of the town; over the sidewalk in front of the Elite Amusement
+Parlor an illuminated red and green sign told that Mike Sabota's place
+was still open; across the porch of the Occidental Hotel and spilling
+itself on the ground out in the street a stream of light guided weary
+travelers to the portals of that ancient, though hospitable,
+institution; from the sides of the Butte beyond the railroad tracks a
+coyote yelped shrilly a jerky, wailing challenge--a dozen dogs, suddenly
+aroused in different parts of the town, answered.
+
+"Pretty dead-lookin'," the Ramblin' Kid remarked. "Let's go down to
+Sabota's."
+
+"All right," Skinny replied, and they moved down the street.
+
+The pool-room offered nothing of interest. A couple of traveling men,
+waiting for the early morning train, were playing a listless game of
+billiards at one of the tables; a pair of Jap sugar-beet workers and a
+negro section hand sat half-asleep and leaned against the wall; "Red"
+Jackson, Sabota's chief lieutenant, with an air of utter boredom,
+lounged behind the soft-drink bar. Sabota was not there.
+
+"What's happened to everybody?" Skinny asked; "where's Mike?"
+
+"Everybody's got religion, I guess," Red yawned, "and gone to bed. What
+do you want with Sabota?" looking suspiciously at the Ramblin' Kid;
+"he's over at Vegas; won't be back till to-morrow--or to-day it is now,
+I reckon--evening sometime!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid and me have been out in the rain," Skinny said
+suggestively, "and thought we might take cold--"
+
+"Nothing doing!" Red laughed, "ain't a drop around! When Mike gets back
+he'll fix you up, maybe--that's what he's gone after!"
+
+"We'd just as well go to bed!" Skinny grumbled disgustedly to the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"I reckon," was the laconic answer.
+
+They returned to the hotel, roused the clerk from his doze, secured a
+room and retired.
+
+It was eight o'clock when they got up.
+
+Both went directly to the livery stable and saw that Captain Jack and
+Old Pie Face were properly attended to. While at the barn Skinny took
+the bundle he had wrapped in the bunk-house at the ranch from the saddle
+where he had tied it.
+
+"What's that?" the Ramblin' Kid queried.
+
+"It's that darned shirt!" Skinny retorted. "I'm going to make Old Leon
+eat it--it wasn't the size Parker asked for!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid laughed, but said nothing.
+
+They returned to the hotel and had breakfast. Manilla Endora waited on
+them. Before Carolyn June and Ophelia came to the Quarter Circle KT
+Manilla's yellow hair and blue eyes were the flames that fanned the
+affections of Skinny. He felt guilty as, sweetly as ever and without a
+hint of reproach, Manilla took their orders and served them with their
+ham and eggs and coffee.
+
+After breakfast Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid explored the town.
+
+Eagle Butte had come to life. The stores were open. Business was brisk.
+The "dray" was delivering the express accumulated the night before at
+the depot. Here and there a morning shopper was passing along the
+street. At the post-office there was quite a crowd.
+
+Skinny carried the shirt, wrapped in the soggy, rain-soaked newspaper.
+As he and the Ramblin' Kid came near the dingy, general merchandise
+establishment kept by the squint-eyed Jew from whom Parker had bought
+the unfortunate garment a sudden look of cunning gleamed in the eyes of
+Skinny. He laughed aloud. A box of eggs, ten or twelve dozen it
+contained, was set, with other farm produce, in a display on the
+sidewalk at the side of the door of the store.
+
+"Hold on a minute," Skinny said to the Ramblin' Kid, stopping in front
+of the Jew's place of business, "I got an idea--By golly," he continued
+argumentatively and with apparent irrelevancy, in a loud voice, "I tell
+you I'm the lightest man on my feet in Texas!" and he winked knowingly
+at the Ramblin' Kid. "I can walk on eggs and never bu'st a one! I've
+done it and"--as Leon came to the door--"I'll bet four-bits I can jump
+in that box of eggs right there and never crack a shell!" The Ramblin'
+Kid understood.
+
+"Aw, you're crazy," he laughed. "I don't want to win your money!"
+
+"What's the matter?" Leon asked curiously, having heard only part of
+Skinny's boast.
+
+"This locoed darn' fool thinks he can walk on them eggs an' not mash
+'em!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed again. "He wants to bet me four-bits he
+can--"
+
+"Walk on them eggs and not preak them?" Leon exclaimed disdainfully.
+"You ought to lock him up! He iss crazy!"
+
+"By gosh," Skinny argued, "you don't realize how light-footed I am--I
+can jump on them, I tell you, and I got money to back it up!" And he
+pulled a half-dollar from his pocket.
+
+"Put away your money, you blamed idiot--" the Ramblin' Kid began.
+
+"I'll bet him four-bits he can't!" Leon cried, jerking a coin from his
+own pocket.
+
+Skinny and Leon each handed the Ramblin' Kid fifty cents.
+
+"By thunder, I can," Skinny said, pausing, "that is, I'm willing to bet
+my money on it--"
+
+"Vhy don't you go ahead and do it, then?" Leon exclaimed. "Vat you
+standing there for? Vhy don't you do it if you're so light on your
+feet?"
+
+"Well, I can!" Skinny argued, still hesitating.
+
+"Den go ahead and chump--chump I told you--into the box!" Leon shouted
+excitedly.
+
+Skinny jumped. The eggs crushed under the heels of his riding boots. In
+an instant the box was filled with a squashy mass of whites, yolks and
+broken shells. Skinny pawed around until there wasn't a whole egg left
+in the box.
+
+At the first crunch Leon laughed hilariously.
+
+"I knowed you'd lose!" he cackled. "Giff me the money!"
+
+"You win, Leon!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed, handing over the wager.
+"Skinny wasn't as delicate on his feet as he thought he was!"
+
+"Thunderation, that's funny!" Skinny said soberly as he stepped out of
+the box; "it wouldn't work that time! Something must have slipped!"
+
+With a grin he calmly unwrapped the one-time white shirt and with it
+began to wipe the slimy mess from his boots.
+
+"The next time you won't be so smart!" Leon cried, then paused in
+consternation, his eyes riveted on the scrambled mixture in the box.
+"But mine eggs!" he exclaimed, suddenly suspicious. "Who pays for the
+eggs? There vas twelve dozen--they are worth seventy cents a dozen--that
+is more as eight dollars. Pay me for the eggs!"
+
+"Pay, hell!" Skinny said. "I didn't agree to furnish no eggs! You won my
+fifty cents and th' Ramblin' Kid gave it to you--"
+
+"That's right, Leon," the Ramblin' Kid chuckled, "you got th'
+four-bits--that's all you won!"
+
+"But pay me--" Leon whined.
+
+"I'll pay you, you dirty crook!" Skinny snapped as he slapped the
+soppy, egg-splattered shirt in Leon's face. "I'll pay you with that! The
+next time," he added as he and the Ramblin' Kid started down the
+street--"anybody asks for a size fifteen shirt don't give them a sixteen
+and a half!"
+
+The day was spent idling about town waiting for Sabota to return so
+Skinny could get some whisky and drown his disappointment in love in
+intoxicated forgetfulness.
+
+After supper Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid went to the picture
+show--Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were "movie nights" in Eagle
+Butte--and saw a thrilling "wild-west" drama in which a band of Holstein
+milk cows raced madly through an alfalfa field in a frenzied,
+hair-raising stampede! When the show was over the Ramblin' Kid started
+toward the livery barn.
+
+"What you going to do?" Skinny queried.
+
+"I was just goin' to get Captain Jack," the Ramblin' Kid replied.
+
+"What for?" Skinny asked as they moved toward the barn. "There ain't no
+hurry about getting back to the ranch. We won't be going out till
+to-morrow or next day--there ain't no use getting the horses out
+to-night."
+
+"I don't know," the Ramblin' Kid answered, without stopping, "I just got
+a hunch to get him in case I need him. Anyhow, it won't hurt him to
+stand out a while--they've been eatin' all day."
+
+"Then I'll get Old Pie Face, too," Skinny replied.
+
+They saddled the bronchos and rode out of the barn.
+
+"Where'll we go?" Skinny asked.
+
+"Reckon we'd better go back down to Sabota's," the Ramblin' Kid said as
+they turned their horses in the direction of the pool-room, "if you
+still insist on makin' a blamed fool of yourself an' gettin' drunk.
+Maybe Mike's back by now. Anyhow, there might be a little poker game
+goin' on--I saw a couple of the fellers from over on th' Purgatory come
+in a while ago!"
+
+They left Captain Jack and Pie Face standing, with bridle reins dropped,
+across the street and in the broad shaft of light streaming from the
+open door of the pool-room, and went into the resort.
+
+The place was well filled. Sabota had returned, evidently with an ample
+supply of the fiery stuff he called "whisky." Like vultures that
+unerringly seek and find the spot where a carcass has fallen the thirsty
+of Eagle Butte had gathered at the Elite Amusement Parlor.
+
+Inside the door of the pool-room and at the left, as one entered, was a
+hardwood bar eighteen or twenty feet long and over which at one time, in
+the days before Eagle Butte "reformed," had been dispensed real
+"tarantula juice." The back bar, with its big mirrors and other
+fixtures, was as it had been when the place was a regular saloon. At the
+right of the room, opposite the bar, were several round, green-topped
+card tables. In the rear was the billiard and pool equipment, which
+entitled the place to the name "pool-room." Just across from the farther
+end of the bar and near the last card table a half-dozen hard-looking,
+small-town "toughs"--creatures who loafed about Sabota's and aided him,
+as occasion required, in his boot-legging operations or other
+questionable enterprises--were lounging, some standing, some sitting,
+watching a slow poker game going on at the last table. Cards, under the
+laws of Texas, are taboo, but for some reason Sabota managed to get by
+and games were allowed in his place.
+
+The two cowboys the Ramblin' Kid had mentioned, a rancher from the
+irrigated section near Eagle Butte and "Jeff" Henderson, one of Sabota's
+henchmen, who was playing for the house, were sitting in at the game.
+
+Half-way down the room at one side against the wall a mechanical player
+piano was grinding out garish, hurdy-gurdy music.
+
+"Red" Jackson was dispensing soft drinks from behind the bar.
+
+Sabota himself, with one heel caught on the brass foot-rail, was leaning
+indolently but with a lordly air against the front of the polished,
+imitation mahogany counter.
+
+He had been drinking and was in his shirt-sleeves.
+
+As Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid stepped into the pool-room Sabota glanced
+around. For an instant he eyed the Ramblin' Kid keenly while a nasty
+sneer curled his lips. As they approached he turned the grin into a
+hypocritical smile of welcome. The Ramblin' Kid barely noticed the Greek
+and passed on to where the card game was in progress. Skinny paused and
+said something in a low tone to Sabota. The two walked to the rear end
+of the bar where the proprietor of the place in turn spoke to Red and
+the latter furtively handed a pint bottle to the cowboy and which he
+dropped into the bosom of his flannel shirt.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was recognized by the cowboys from the Purgatory.
+
+"Come on and get into the game!" one of them invited, moving over.
+
+"Yes," Henderson added, hitching his own chair to one side to make room
+for another, "the cards are running like"--he paused--"like the Gold
+Dust maverick for everybody but the house!" There was a laugh at the
+subtle reference to the outlaw filly that had cost Sabota so much in
+losses on the sweepstakes at the Rodeo.
+
+The Greek scowled.
+
+"In that case," the Ramblin' Kid drawled, "I reckon I'll ride 'em a few
+rounds!" dropping into the chair he had dragged forward and which placed
+him with his back toward the bar.
+
+"What they costin' a stack?" he questioned, reaching to the left breast
+pocket of his shirt for a roll of bills.
+
+In the same pocket was the pink satin garter Carolyn June had lost the
+morning of his first meeting with her at the circular corral.
+
+"Five bones!" Jeff answered languidly.
+
+"Well, give me a couple of piles," the Ramblin' Kid replied, glancing
+around at the cowboy sitting at his right, who had invited him into the
+game. "How's the Purgatory?"
+
+As the bills came from the Ramblin' Kid's pocket the silver butterfly
+clasp of the garter caught in the paper currency and the elastic band
+was drawn out and dropped, at the side of his chair, on the floor next
+to Sabota.
+
+The Greek and Skinny saw, at the same time, the dainty satin ribbon.
+
+Sabota stepped quickly forward and with the toe of his shoe kicked the
+garter toward the bar, where all could see it.
+
+"Look what th' Ramblin' Kid's been carrying!" he exclaimed with a coarse
+laugh. "Some size garter, that!" And guessing at random that it had
+belonged to Carolyn June, he added: "Old Heck's niece must be--damned
+convenient and accommodating!"
+
+A laugh started from the lips of the crowd. It was instantly checked and
+a dead silence followed as the Ramblin' Kid looked around, saw Sabota
+leering down at the trinket and heard his vulgar insinuation. He slowly
+pushed his chair back from the table and with eyes half-closed--the lids
+tightening until there were but narrow slits through which the black
+pupils burned like drops of jet--he began slowly to straighten up. Not a
+sound came from his lips save the deep, regular breathing those sitting
+near could hear and which was like a bellows fanning embers into a white
+heat. His mouth was drawn back in a smile, almost caressing in its
+softness, but a thousand times more menacing than the black scowl on the
+face of the Greek.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid's gun was at his hip, but he made no move to draw it.
+
+Sabota watched the slender young cowboy. A look of contempt and derision
+was in his eyes. The Greek was no taller, but full eighty pounds heavier
+than the other. But he forgot that the other's lithe body moving with
+the calm, undulating grace of a panther preparing to spring was all
+clean youth, muscle and courage, unbroken by any debauchery!
+
+"That's a hell of a thing for a _man_ to pack," the giant bully cried
+nastily, "and it's a hell of a _lady_ that gives it to a man to pack!"
+
+With a sneering laugh he raised his foot and brought it down on the
+garter, grinding the silver clasp and the satin ribbon under the sole of
+his shoe.
+
+"You damned black cur!" The Rambling' Kid spoke scarcely louder than a
+whisper, yet his voice echoed throughout the tense silence of the room.
+"_I'll put my heel in your face for that_!"
+
+Sabota threw back his head to laugh.
+
+For a second of time the Ramblin' Kid crouched, then shot through the
+air like a wire spring drawn far back and suddenly released, and with
+an his hundred and forty pounds of nerve and sinew behind it his right
+fist smashed the big Greek squarely on the half-open mouth, splitting
+the thick lip wide and causing a red stream to spurt from the gash.
+Sabota staggered back and, would have fallen had he not crashed against
+the hardwood bar.
+
+As the Greek reeled away from the garter the Ramblin' Kid stooped
+quickly forward, picked up the elastic and dropped it again into his
+pocket.
+
+With a roar like a mad bull Sabota rushed his slight antagonist. Lunging
+forward, blind with rage, he aimed a murderous blow at the head of the
+Ramblin' Kid. The cowboy ducked, but not in time to escape the wide
+swing of the massive, hairy fist. The Greek's knuckles raked the side of
+the Kid's face and the blood rained down his cheek from a cruel cut
+under the eye. The Ramblin' Kid spun around like a top and for the
+fraction of a second stood swaying uncertainly.
+
+For a moment they faced each other, crouching, watching for an opening.
+Sabota's great hands worked convulsively, eager to grasp and crush his
+wiry opponent; the Ramblin' Kid, with lips curled back from white teeth,
+like a pure-bred terrier circling a mastiff, bent forward, every muscle
+tense as drawn copper, his eyes cold as a rattler's as he searched for a
+place to strike!
+
+The crowd in the pool-room instinctively kept far back and gave the
+unequal combatants ample room.
+
+From Sabota's lips poured a steady torrent of blasphemy. The Ramblin'
+Kid made no sound as, with body swaying slowly from side to side, his
+shoulders heaved with the full, heavy breaths that reached to the bottom
+of his lungs.
+
+Suddenly, like some wild beast, Sabota sprang forward. The Ramblin' Kid
+met him--in mid-air--right and left jolting, almost at the same
+instant, into the beefy jaws of the Greek. At the impact a claw-like
+hand shot out and the gorilla fingers of the left hand of the brute-man
+the Ramblin' Kid fought, closed over the throat of the cowboy. Sabota
+threw his right arm around the back of his antagonist, gripping the
+shoulder on the far side of his body and drew the slender form toward
+him--pinning the Ramblin' Kid's left arm and hand to his side.
+
+Skinny's hand dropped to the butt of his gun and rested there.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid struggled desperately in the strangling grasp of the
+crazed Greek. The two reeled back and forth, crashing chairs and tables
+to the floor, and lunged against the bar. The Ramblin' Kid's gun fell
+from its scabbard at the side of the brass foot-rail. Sabota's eyes
+glared down into the face of the man he was choking to death--gleaming
+with the ferocity of an animal gone mad--Awhile bloody foam spewed from
+his bleeding lips. The cowboy's face was beginning to flush a terrible
+purple as the breath was gradually crushed from his body.
+
+As the Greek forced him back, bending him down and over, the Ramblin'
+Kid, his eyes burning like fire while a million flashes of light seemed
+to stab the darkness before them and needles darted through every fiber
+of his flesh, wrenched his right arm free and gripping the back of
+Sabota's shirt with his left hand to give purchase to the blow, with all
+the strength left in his body, drove the knuckles of his right fist into
+the left temple of the Greek.
+
+The blow went home.
+
+A film, like a veil drawn across the fiendish glare in them, spread over
+the eyes of Sabota, his grip on the throat of the cowboy relaxed and as
+a bull, struck by the hammer of the butcher, he dropped to the floor.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid crouched, panting, over the massive bulk.
+
+Sabota slowly opened his eyes and started to raise his battered head.
+With a laugh the cowboy swung terrible right and left blows into the
+Greek's face. The head dropped back.
+
+Again the Ramblin' Kid stooped low, waiting for another sign of life
+from the prostrate form.
+
+Red Jackson slipped from behind the bar, half bent forward, moved
+stealthily up behind the Ramblin' Kid; one hand drawn partly back held,
+by the neck, a heavy beer bottle. Skinny saw his intention. Instantly
+the Quarter Circle KT cowboy's forty-four was jerked from its holster
+and the blue-steel barrel swung against the side of the bartender's
+head. He pitched over in a limp heap and the bottle crushed against the
+brass foot-rail, breaking into a thousand fragments. A half-dozen of
+Sabota's crowd started forward. Skinny's gun whipped around in front of
+him.
+
+"Keep back, y' sons-of-hell!" he snarled, "Sabota's gettin' what's
+coming to him!"
+
+The Greek's eyes opened. His fingers touched the butt of the Ramblin'
+Kid's revolver and began to close slowly over the handle of the weapon.
+
+"Make him quit," one of the pool-room loafers whined; "he's killed him!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid saw Sabota reach for the gun. He answered the speaker
+and the Greek's effort to get the forty-four at the same time:
+
+"Not yet--_but now_!" he cried with a low laugh and leaped with both
+heels squarely on the bloody face of Sabota! There was a horrible
+crunching sound as of bones and flesh being ground into pulp. The
+fingers about to close on the handle of the revolver grew limp, the
+Greek's head, a hideous, scarcely recognizable mass, slumped to one side
+and lay perfectly still.
+
+An instant longer the Ramblin' Kid looked at him, then reached over,
+picked up his gun and slipped it into the holster at his hip.
+
+As he straightened up, Tom Poole, the marshal, rushed into the
+pool-room. He covered the Ramblin' Kid with his revolver and placed him
+under arrest.
+
+"You don't need to get excited, Tom!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed. "I
+didn't do nothin' but kill that damned black cur layin' there! Come
+on--I want to get out in th' air--I never like to stay around where dead
+skunks are!"
+
+They moved toward the door.
+
+Poole dropped his gun back in its scabbard and walked at the side of the
+now apparently peaceful young cowboy.
+
+At the door the marshal looked around:
+
+"Some of you fellers get the doctor or undertaker--whichever he
+needs--and take care of Sabota!" he called to the group around the body
+of the Greek.
+
+Like a flash the muzzle of the Ramblin' Kid's gun was pressed against
+the side of Poole.
+
+"Put 'em up, Tom!" he snapped, "_I_ don't want to kill you, but I will
+if I have to--I ain't goin' to rot in no jail just for stampin' a dirty
+snake-to death!"
+
+The marshal's hands shot into the air as if operated by springs.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid, with his left hand, jerked Poole's revolver from its
+holster. He backed into the street toward where Captain Jack and Old Pie
+Face were standing, still with his own gun covering the officer.
+
+"Jack!" he cried sharply, "meet me!"
+
+The little stallion moved toward him.
+
+With the thumb of the hand in which he held the marshal's gun the
+Ramblin' Kid threw open the breech and flipped the shells on the ground.
+He tossed the empty forty-four to one side, threw the reins over
+Captain Jack's head and the next instant was in the saddle. The broncho
+wheeled and was gone, in a dead run, toward the west.
+
+The marshal rushed into the street and picked up his gun, jerked some
+cartridges from his belt, slipped them into the cylinder and fired
+quickly at the fleeing horse and rider.
+
+The bullets whistled past the ear of the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He raised his own weapon, half-turned in the saddle, dropped the muzzle
+of the gun forward until it pointed at the flashes spitting from the
+officer's revolver. His finger started to tighten on the trigger.
+
+"Hell," he muttered, "what's the use? Tom's just doin' what he thinks he
+has to do!" and the Ramblin' Kid slipped the gun, unfired, back into its
+holster.
+
+A moment later Captain Jack whirled to the right across the Santa Fe
+tracks and bearing a little to the east, in the direction of Capaline,
+the dead volcano that rises out of the lavas northwest of the Quarter
+Circle KT, between the Purgatory and the Cimarron, disappeared in the
+black starlit night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+MOSTLY SKINNY
+
+It is a week to the day since the fight in the Elite Amusement Parlor in
+Eagle Butte. Since the Ramblin' Kid, followed by the wicked sing of the
+bullets from the marshal's gun, disappeared in the darkness no word has
+come from the fugitive cowboy, who beat to a pulp the burly Greek.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick paces uneasily about in the circular corral and
+the Quarter Circle KT has settled into the hum-drum routine of ranch
+life.
+
+Parker, Charley, Chuck and Bert are gone to Chicago with the train-load
+of beef cattle. Skinny bosses a gang of "picked-up" hay hands Old Heck
+brought out from Eagle Butte to harvest the second cutting of alfalfa.
+Pedro rides line daily on the upland pasture and Sing Pete hammers the
+iron triangle morning, noon and night, announcing the regular arrival of
+meal-time. The Chinaman is careful when he throws out empty
+tomato-cans--turning back the tin to make it impossible for the yellow
+cat again to fasten his head in one of the inviting traps, and the cook
+would imperil the hope of the return of his soul to the flowery Orient
+before he would put butter in the bottom of a can to entice the animal
+into trouble.
+
+Old Heck and Ophelia are like a pair of nesting doves and there is a new
+vigor to the step of the owner of the Quarter Circle KT, a revived
+interest in affairs generally; years seem to have fallen from his
+shoulders.
+
+Carolyn June smiles sweetly as ever at Skinny, spends much time riding
+alone over the valley and hills; in her eyes there has come a more
+thoughtful--often a wistful--expression.
+
+Sabota did not die.
+
+After the escape of the Ramblin' Kid the marshal reentered the pool-room
+and had the big Greek removed to the hotel. A doctor was called and set
+as well as possible the broken jaws, the crushed nose, picked out the
+fragments of bone and the loosened teeth, sewed up the terrible gashes
+on Sabota's face and left the bully groaning and profaning in
+half-conscious agony.
+
+The night of the fight Skinny took Old Pie Face back to the barn.
+
+The cowboy's heart was heavy with remorse. He blamed himself for all the
+trouble. Had he not wanted to make a fool of himself and get drunk the
+Ramblin' Kid would not have come to Eagle Butte, the fight would not
+have occurred, the friend he had ridden with through storm and
+sunshine--whom he had stood "night guard" and fought mad stampedes into
+"the mill"--would not now be an outcast sought by the hand of the law.
+
+News of the beating the Ramblin' Kid gave Sabota traveled fast.
+
+It was flashed over Eagle Butte that the Greek was dead.
+
+"So th' Ramblin' Kid killed old Sabota, did he?" the hostler at the
+livery barn asked Skinny as he stepped out to care for the cowboy's
+horse. "What was it over? Sabota having th' Ramblin' Kid 'doped' the day
+of the sweepstakes?"
+
+Skinny looked keenly, searchingly, at the stableman.
+
+"What do you mean--'Sabota having th' Ramblin' Kid doped?'" he asked
+sharply.
+
+"Why, didn't you know?" the hostler replied. "I thought everybody
+knowed. Gyp Streetor told me about it the day of the race--I used to
+know Gyp when he was a kid back east. I saw him as he was beating it to
+get out of town. He borrowed five dollars from me. Said Sabota hired him
+to put 'knock-out' in some coffee for th' Ramblin' Kid and he reckoned
+the dose wasn't big enough or something. Anyhow, it didn't hold him
+under long as they thought it would and when he saw the Gold Dust
+maverick show up on the track he got scared--was afraid it would leak
+out or th' Ramblin' Kid would suspect him and try to 'get' him after the
+race, so he ducked out of town--"
+
+"You ain't lying about that?" Skinny asked.
+
+"What would I want to lie about it for?" the other replied. "Wasn't
+that what made th' Ramblin' Kid kill the Greek?"
+
+"No, it was something else," Skinny answered; "but Sabota ain't dead.
+He's just crunched up pretty bad--th' Ramblin' Kid jumped on him, like
+Captain Jack did on that feller from the Chickasaw that tried to steal
+him!"
+
+Skinny's mind was in a whirl.
+
+So the Ramblin' Kid was not drunk the day of the race! He was drugged--
+sick--yet, in spite of everything, rode the Gold Dust maverick and beat
+the black wonder-horse from the Vermejo! Lord! and they had all thought
+he was on a tear!
+
+The bottle of whisky was still in the bosom of Skinny's shirt.
+
+He had not touched it. He felt a sudden revulsion for the vile stuff.
+
+"Here," he said, jerking the flask from its hiding-place and handing it
+to the hostler, "maybe you'd like that bottle of 'rot-gut'--I've swore
+off!"
+
+"I ain't," the stableman laughed and took it eagerly.
+
+Skinny remained in town that night and the next day, waiting for Parker
+and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys to come in with the beef cattle. They
+arrived about noon. Old Heck drove in with the Clagstone "Six." Ophelia
+and Carolyn June came with him. Skinny met them when Old Heck stopped
+the in front of the Occidental Hotel. He told them, while they still
+sat in the automobile, of the fight and the escape of the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"A drunken brawl!" Carolyn June thought, a wave of disgust sweeping over
+her.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid hadn't touched a drop," Skinny said, explaining the
+fight and almost as if he were answering her unspoken thought. "If he'd
+been drinking, I reckon Sabota would have killed him instead of his
+beating the Greek blamed near to death. I know now what he used to mean
+when he'd say, 'A man's a fool to put whisky in him when he's facin' a
+tight squeeze!' The little devil sure needed everything he had--nerve
+and head and muscle and all--for the job he tackled last night!"
+
+Skinny didn't tell them that his hand had rested on the handle of his
+own gun--determined that he, himself, would kill Sabota if the brute
+succeeded in choking the Ramblin' Kid to death.
+
+"What was the fight about?" Old Heck asked.
+
+"A pink ribbon or something with a little silver do-funny on it--it
+looked like a sleeve-holder or a garter--dropped out of th' Ramblin'
+Kid's pocket and Sabota made a nasty remark about it," Skinny said.
+
+Carolyn June caught her breath and her face flushed.
+
+"The Greek said something about Carolyn June, I didn't just hear what,"
+Skinny continued, "and then he smashed the ribbon under his foot. The
+next instant th' Ramblin' Kid was trying to kill him!
+
+"It's a pity he didn't succeed!" Old Heck exclaimed. "The damned filthy
+whelp--excuse me, Ophelia, for cussing, but I just had to say It!"
+
+"It's all right," was the laughing rejoinder, "I--I--wanted to say it
+myself!"
+
+Carolyn June's eyes glowed. Her heart felt as if a weight had been
+lifted from it So, the Ramblin' Kid had kept the odd souvenir, and he
+cared--he cared!
+
+"Go ahead," she whispered to Skinny; "what then?"
+
+"I reckon that's about all," Skinny answered. "Th' Ramblin' Kid smashed
+Sabota and as he staggered back, picked up the ribbon--then he didn't
+quit till he thought the Greek was dead. Tom Poole arrested him, but th'
+Ramblin' Kid got the drop on him and got away. He was justified in
+beating Sabota up anyhow," he added, "on account of the dirty cuss
+hiring a feller to 'dope' him so he couldn't ride the maverick the day
+of the big race--"
+
+"'Dope' him?" Old Heck interrupted, puzzled.
+
+"Yes," Skinny explained, "the Greek had a feller named Gyp Streetor put
+some stuff in th' Ramblin? Kid's coffee. He wasn't drunk at all--he was
+just poisoned with 'knock-out!'"
+
+"Good lord!" Old Heck exclaimed. "And he rode that race when he was
+drugged! While we all thought he'd gone to pieces and was drunk!"
+
+Carolyn June's cheeks suddenly turned pale. He cared, but he was gone!
+Perhaps never to come back! It seemed as if an iron hand was clutching
+at her throat!
+
+She and Ophelia went into the hotel and Old Heck and Skinny drove the
+car over to the stock-yards where the cattle were being loaded.
+
+After Parker and the cowboys were on their way east with the steers and
+before he returned to the ranch Old Heck went into the room in which
+Sabota lay. The Greek's head was a mass of white bandages. His eyes
+battered and swollen shut, he could not see the face of his visitor.
+
+For a moment Old Heck looked at him, his lips parted in a smile of
+contempt lightened with satisfaction.
+
+"Well, Sabota," he said at last, "th' Ramblin' Kid didn't quite do his
+duty, did he? If he had gone as far as he ought to you wouldn't be
+laying there--they'd just about now be hiding your dirty carcass under
+six feet of 'dobe!'"
+
+Sabota mumbled some guttural, unintelligible reply.
+
+"Listen, you infernal skunk," Old Heck went on coldly, "as quick as
+you're able to travel you'll find Eagle Butte's a right good place to
+get away from! You understand what I mean. If I catch you around, well,
+I won't use no fists!" And without waiting for an answer he turned and
+left the room.
+
+The owner of the Quarter Circle KT then hunted lip the marshal of Eagle
+Butte.
+
+"Tom," he said, "I reckon you'll be looking some for th' Ramblin' Kid,
+after what happened last night, won't you?"
+
+The marshal had heard of Sabota's effort to have the young cowboy
+drugged the day of the race and also the immediate cause for the fight.
+
+"Oh, I don't know as I will," he said, "unless the Greek makes some
+charge or other. I don't imagine he'll do that"
+
+"I know blamed well he won't!" Old Heck interrupted. "But how about th'
+Ramblin' Kid putting his gun in your ribs--resisting an officer and so
+on?"
+
+"Putting his gun in my ribs? Resisting an officer?" the lanky Missourian
+answered with a sly grin; "who said he put a gun on me--or resisted an
+officer or anything? I ain't heard nothing about it!"
+
+Two days later Sabota, with the help of "Red" Jackson, managed to get to
+the Santa Fe station. He was able to travel and he did travel. Jackson
+said he went to the "Border." Eagle Butte did not know or care--the
+Cimarron town was through with him.
+
+When Old Heck, Carolyn June and Ophelia returned to the Quarter Circle
+KT the evening of the day following the fight, the Gold Dust maverick
+whinnied lonesomely from the circular corral as the Clagstone "Six"
+stopped in front of the house.
+
+"What are we going to do with that filly?" Old Heck asked, looking at
+the beautiful creature with her head above the bars of the corral gate.
+
+"I am going to ride her!" Carolyn June said softly. "Until the Ramblin'
+Kid comes back and claims her she is mine! She loves me and I can handle
+her!"
+
+"I'm afraid--" Old Heck started to protest.
+
+"You need not be," Carolyn June interrupted, "the Gold Dust maverick and
+I know each other--she understands me and I understand her--she will be
+perfectly gentle with me!"
+
+The next day Carolyn June rode the wonderful outlaw mare. It was as she
+said. The filly was perfectly gentle with her. After that, every day,
+the girl saddled the Gold Dust maverick and, unafraid, took long rides
+alone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night the cattle were shipped Skinny had supper in Eagle Butte. He
+sat alone at a small table at one side of the dining-room in the
+Occidental Hotel. The cowboy was the picture of utter misery. Parker,
+Charley, Chuck, Bert were gone to Chicago with steers; the Ramblin' Kid
+was gone--nobody knew where; Skinny's dream about Carolyn June was
+gone--she didn't love him, she just liked him; even his whisky was gone,
+he had given it to the hostler at the barn; he didn't have any friends
+or anything.
+
+"What's the matter, Skinny?" Manilla Endora, the yellow-haired waitress,
+asked softly, as she stepped up to the table and looked down a moment at
+the dejected cowboy. There was something in her voice that made Skinny
+pity himself more than ever. It made him want to cry. "What's wrong?'
+Manilla repeated almost tenderly.
+
+"Everything!" Skinny blurted out, dropping his head on his arms. "The
+whole blamed works is shot to pieces!"
+
+A little smile stole over Manilla's rosy lips.
+
+"I know what it is," she said gently, unreproachfully; "it's that girl,
+Carolyn June. Yes, it is," as Skinny started to interrupt. "Oh, I don't
+blame you for falling for her!" she went on. "She is nice--but, well,
+Skinny-boy," her voice was a caress, "Old Heck's niece is not the sort
+for you. You and her wouldn't fit at all--the way you wanted--and
+anyhow, there--there--are others," coloring warmly.
+
+Skinny looked up into the honest blue eyes.
+
+"You ain't sore at me or anything are you, Manilla?" he asked.
+
+"Sore?" she answered. "Of course not!"
+
+Hope sprung again into his heart. "I--I--thought maybe you would be," he
+stammered.
+
+"Forget it!" she laughed. "The old world still wobbles!"
+
+"Manilla, you--you're a peach!" he cried.
+
+She chuckled. "Did you hear about that dance next Saturday night after
+the picture show?" she asked archly.
+
+"No. Is there one?" with new interest in life.
+
+"Yes," she replied, her lashes drooping demurely; "they say the music is
+going to be swell."
+
+"If I come in will you--will we--go, Manilla?" he asked eagerly.
+
+They would.
+
+"Poor Skinny," Manilla murmured to herself as she went to the kitchen to
+get his order, "poor cuss--he can't keep from breaking his heart over
+every skirt that brushes against him, but"--and she laughed
+softly--"darn his ugly picture, I like him anyhow!"
+
+After supper Skinny hurried to the Golden Rule store. It was still open.
+
+"Give me a white shirt--number fifteen," he said to the clerk; "and be
+blamed sure it's the right size--they ain't worth a cuss if they're too
+big!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+A GIRL LIKE YOU
+
+A lone rider guided his horse in the early night, among the black lavas,
+on the desolate desert near Capaline, the dead volcano. He rode to the
+south, in the direction of the Cimarron. Silently, steadily, like a dark
+shadow, the broncho picked his way among the fields of fire-blistered
+rock and held his course, unerringly, through the starlit gloom hanging
+over the earth before the late moon should flash its silver disk above
+the sand-hills miles to the east.
+
+The rider was the Ramblin' Kid; the little horse--Captain Jack.
+
+For a week, following the fight in Eagle Butte, the Ramblin' Kid had
+found shelter in the hut of "Indian Jake"--a hermit Navajo who, long
+ago, turned his face toward the flood of white civilization rolling over
+the last pitiful remnants of his tribe and drifted far toward the land
+of the rising sun. Among the scenes of desolation around the grimly cold
+volcano, alone, the old Indian made his last stand, and in a rude cabin,
+beside a tiny spring that seeped from under the black rock on the
+mountain-side, lived in splendid isolation--silent, brooding, desiring
+only to be left in peace with his few ponies, his small herd of cattle
+and the memories and traditions of his people.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid and the lonely Navajo were friends since the Ramblin'
+Kid could remember.
+
+The aged Indian's face was pitted with horrible scars--marks of the same
+disease that had cost the wandering cowboy his father and left him,
+years ago, an orphan, almost worshiped, because of the sacrifice his
+parent had made fighting the epidemic among the tribes of the Southwest.
+
+Often the "Young Whirlwind"--the name by which the Indians knew the
+Ramblin' Kid and which old Jake himself always called the cowboy--spent
+a night, sometimes days, with his stoical friend among the lavas.
+
+To him the cabin door was always open.
+
+As Captain Jack, followed by the bullets from the marshal's revolver,
+dashed madly down the street of Eagle Butte, instinctively the Ramblin'
+Kid had turned the stallion toward the hut of the old Navajo.
+
+The fugitive cowboy believed Sabota was dead.
+
+Naturally the law would demand vengeance, even though the brutal Greek
+had deserved to die. Posses, undoubtedly, would scour the country,
+searching for his slayer. The Quarter Circle KT would be watched.
+
+There was no regret in the heart of the Ramblin' Kid. Instead he felt a
+strange elation. With his fists and heels he had beaten the giant Greek
+into a lifeless mass!
+
+"'Ign'rant--savage--stupid--brute!" he muttered as Captain Jack sped
+from the scene of fight; "I reckon she _was pretty near right!_"
+
+At gray dawn he swung down from the back of the little stallion at the
+door of the Indian's hut.
+
+Old Jake asked no questions.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid himself volunteered:
+
+"Killed a man--Sabota--got to lay low, Jake--some three, four, five
+days! Then I go--south--Mexico!"
+
+"The Young Whirlwind had cause?" the Navajo grunted sententiously.
+
+"Sure--plenty!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed, slipping his hand to his
+breast pocket and caressing the pink satin garter.
+
+"It is good," the Indian said. "The Navajo will watch!"
+
+For seven days the Ramblin' Kid rested, securely, in the lonely hut
+among the lavas and "pot-holes" of the desert. Then he saddled Captain
+Jack and when the full shadow of night had settled over the desolation
+about him mounted the little broncho and turned him to the south, in the
+direction of the Cimarron, toward the Quarter Circle KT, where the Gold
+Dust maverick waited, alone, in the corral.
+
+Carolyn June could not sleep. The night was more than half gone and
+still she sat on the front porch and watched the gradual spread of a
+misty, silvery sheen over the brow of the bench and the distant peaks of
+the shadowy Costejo range as the pale moon, in its last half, lifted
+itself above the sand-hills at the gap through which the Cimarron
+tumbled out of the valley.
+
+Old Heck and Ophelia had retired hours ago.
+
+The Quarter Circle KT was sleeping. From the meadows the heavy odor of
+wilted alfalfa hung on the night air as the dew sprinkled the windrows
+of new-cut hay.
+
+A strange restlessness filled the heart of the girl.
+
+Something seemed to be holding her in a tense, relentless grip. She had
+no desire to seek her room. Indeed, she felt that the air of the house
+would stifle her. She arose and strolled idly through the gate, past the
+bunk-house where Skinny, Pedro and the hay hands snored peacefully, as
+she wandered aimlessly through the slanting moonlight down to the
+circular corral.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick seemed to reflect the girl's own uneasy mood.
+
+The filly moved with quick nervous strides about the corral. As Carolyn
+June leaned against the bars and stretched out her hand the mare
+whinnied softly, tossed her head, nosed an instant the white fingers and
+trotted in a circle around the enclosure.
+
+"What's the matter, Heart o' Gold?" Carolyn June laughed
+sympathetically, "can't you either?"
+
+In the shed at the side of the corral, on the spot where, that first
+morning, the Ramblin' Kid's saddle had rested and the cowboy slept,
+Carolyn June's own riding gear was lying. She glanced at the outfit For
+a second she fancied she saw again the slender form stretched in the
+shadow upon the ground while a pair of black inscrutable eyes looked
+with unfathomable melancholy up into her own.
+
+"Seein' things!" she laughed jerkily, with a little catch in her throat.
+"I'll ride it off!"
+
+Quickly she stepped over, picked up the saddle, bridle and blanket,
+returned to the corral gate, swung it open and entered.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick came to her, as if eager, herself, to get out
+into the night.
+
+A moment later Carolyn June was in the saddle and the mare, dancing
+lightly, pranced out of the gate. She turned swiftly toward the grade
+that led out to the bench and to Eagle Butte. They had almost reached
+the foot of the grade, when some impulse caused Carolyn June to whirl
+the filly about and gallop back past the barn and down the lane toward
+the Cimarron.
+
+As the feet of the outlaw mare splashed into the water at the lower ford
+the Ramblin' Kid rode past the corner of the upland pasture fence and
+stopped Captain Jack on the brink of the ridge looking down at the
+crossing. Below him the river whirled in dark eddies under the
+overhanging curtains of cottonwoods and willows; the Quarter Circle KT
+lay in the hollow of the valley, like a faint etching of silent
+restfulness; through the tops of the trees a white splash of moonlight
+struck on the smooth level surface of the treacherous quicksand bar that
+had drawn Old Blue down to an agonizing death and from which, scarcely a
+month ago, the Ramblin' Kid had dragged Carolyn June.
+
+This, the Ramblin' Kid believed, was his last long look at the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+He would ride down to the circular corral, turn out the Gold Dust
+maverick--give her again to the range and freedom--and while the
+unconscious sleepers at the ranch dreamed he would pass on, silently,
+toward the south and Mexico should throw about him her black arms of
+mystery!
+
+For a while he sat and gazed down on the shadowy scene while his mind
+throbbed with memory of the incidents of the last few weeks. He drew the
+pink satin garter from his pocket, looked at it a long moment--suddenly
+crushed it tightly in his hand while his eyes closed as if renouncing a
+vision that had come before them--then carefully, that the dainty thing
+might not be lost, replaced it in the pocket that was over his heart.
+
+At last he swung to the ground and tightened the front cinch of his
+saddle.
+
+As he pulled the leather into place the sound of nervous hoofs kicking
+the gravel on the grade that led to the ridge on which he stood
+shattered the silence around him. The Ramblin' Kid whirled and faced the
+direction in which the approaching horse, would appear. His hand dropped
+to his gun and without raising the weapon from his hip he leveled it to
+cover the turn in the road a few feet away.
+
+The waxy mane of the outlaw filly rocked into view as she sprang up and
+around the turn on to the ridge.
+
+On the maverick's back, bareheaded, her brown hair tumbled about her
+neck, was Carolyn June.
+
+Captain Jack pricked forward his ears at the sound of hoofs and as the
+beautiful mare leaped around the turn and appeared above the bank of the
+grade the little roan squealed a nicker of recognition. The filly sprang
+forward, swerved to the side of the stallion, and with an answering
+whinny stopped.
+
+"Oh!" Carolyn June gasped, as the horses met and she saw the Ramblin'
+Kid, his gun still in his hand, standing beside Captain Jack.
+
+There was a brief, questioning silence.
+
+"What th' hell!" he breathed.
+
+"What the--'_hell_--yourself!" she laughed nervously. "Is--this--is this
+a hold-up?"
+
+"What are _you_ doin' here--this time of night--an' on that filly?" he
+asked without heeding her question.
+
+"I'm riding that--this--filly!" Carolyn June shot back independently.
+"And what are _you_ doing here--at this time of--Oh," she added,
+before he could answer, "I--I--believe my saddle's slipping!" and she
+swung lightly from the back of the outlaw mare.
+
+"That filly'll kill you," he began.
+
+"She will not!" Carolyn June interrupted with a pout. "I--I--guess
+you're not the only one, Mister 'Nighthawk,' that knows the way to the
+heart of a horse! If you were just as wise about--" but she stopped, her
+blush hidden as she turned her back to the rising moon.
+
+"They was made for each other!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered to himself.
+Then he spoke aloud: "I reckon you know," he said slowly, "why I'm
+ridin' at night--about me killin' Sabota--I'm leavin'--"
+
+"But Sabota isn't dead," she interrupted again. "You don't need to go
+away!"
+
+"Sabota ain't dead!" the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed. "Then I'll go back to
+Eagle Butte instead of--Mexico!"
+
+"Why?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"To finish th' job!" and his voice was dangerously soft.
+
+"You can't finish it," she laughed. "He isn't in Eagle Butte! The Greek
+has gone away and--well, it--it--was a good 'job'--good enough the way
+you did it! I--I--don't want you 'teetotally' to kill him--clear, all
+the way dead," she stammered. "The way it is you--you--won't have
+to--leave!"
+
+"What's th' difference?" he said dully. "It's time I was ramblin'
+anyhow!"
+
+"Is it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Listen, Ramblin' Kid," she broke in, "I--I--know all about
+everything--about what started the fight--"
+
+"You do?" looking quickly and keenly at her. "Who told you?"
+
+"Skinny," she answered; "he saw it. Said it was a pale pink ribbon or
+something with a little silver 'do-funny' on it!" she finished with a
+laugh.
+
+"I--I--reckon you want it back, then?" the Ramblin' Kid said, reaching
+to his left breast. "You wouldn't want--"
+
+"Did I say I wanted it?" Carolyn June questioned naively.
+
+"And I know," she hurried on, "about you being drugged the day of the
+race! Why didn't you say you were sick? We--we--thought you were drunk!"
+
+"Nobody asked me," he answered without interest.
+
+"Does everybody have to--to--ask you everything?" she questioned
+suggestively. "Don't you ever--ever--'ask' anybody anything yourself?"
+
+"What are you tryin' to do?" he said almost brutally, "play with me like
+you played with them other blamed idiots th' night of th' dance?"
+
+"You're mean--" she started to say.
+
+"Am I?" he interrupted, and spoke with sudden intenseness. "Maybe you
+think I am. Maybe you think a lot of things. Maybe you think God put
+them brown eyes in your face just so you could coax men, with a look out
+of them, to love you an' then laugh because th' damned fools do it!"
+
+"You're unfair!" she replied. "I was just paying the boys back the night
+of the dance for--for--'framing' up on Ophelia and me the way they did!"
+
+For a moment they looked squarely into each other's eyes. Captain Jack
+and the Gold Dust maverick nosed each other over the shoulders of their
+dismounted riders.
+
+"Oh, well, it don't matter," the Ramblin' Kid finally said, wearily; "it
+don't matter, you're what you are an' I reckon you can't help it!"
+
+Carolyn June said nothing.
+
+"I--I--was goin' to turn th' filly back to th' range," he continued in
+the same emotionless voice, "but--well, you can have her--I'll trade her
+to you for--for--th' thing that started th' fight. You can ride th'
+maverick till you go back east--"
+
+"I'm not going back east," she said in a hurt tone, "at least not for a
+long time. Dad is going to--to--get me a stepmother! He's going to marry
+some female person and he doesn't need me so I'm going to live--most of
+the time--with Uncle Josiah and Ophelia! Anyhow I--I--like it out
+west--or that is--I did like it--"
+
+There was another little period of silence between them.
+
+"Ramblin' Kid," Carolyn June spoke suddenly very softly, "Ramblin'
+Kid--why--why do you hate me?"
+
+"Me hate you?" he answered slowly. "I don't hate _you_--I hate myself!"
+
+"Yourself?" with a questioning lift of her voice.
+
+"Yes, myself!" he replied with a short, bitter laugh. "Why shouldn't
+I--bein' an 'ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!'"
+
+Carolyn June flinched as he repeated the cruel words she herself had
+spoken, it seemed, now so long ago.
+
+"You are right!" she said, after a pause, while a ripple of quivering,
+mischievous laughter leaped from her lips and she laid her hand lightly
+on his arm. "Oh, Ramblin' Kid, you are indeed an 'ign'rant, savage,
+stupid brute!' You are 'ign'rant,'" she continued while he looked at her
+with a puzzled expression in his eyes, "of the ways of a woman's heart;
+you are 'savage'--in the defense of a woman's honor; you are
+'stupid'--not to see that it is the _man_ a woman wants and not the thin
+social veneer; you are a 'brute'--an utter brute, Ramblin' Kid--
+to--to--make a girl almost tell you--tell you--that she--she--"
+
+The sentence was not finished.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid caught her by both shoulders. He pushed her back--arm's
+length--and held her while the clean moonlight poured down on her
+upturned face and his black eyes searched her own as though to read her
+very soul.
+
+An instant she was almost frightened by the agony that was in his face.
+
+Then she opened her mouth and laughed--such a laugh as comes only from
+the throat of a woman when love is having its way!
+
+"By God!" he whispered, his voice hoarse with passion, his hot breath
+fanning the brown hair on her forehead; "this has gone far enough! I'll
+tell you what you want me to say--I'll say it! And it's the truth--I
+love you--love you--_love you_! Yes!" And he shook her toward him. "Do
+you hear me? I love you--love you--so much it hurts! Now laugh! Now make
+fun of me! I know I'm a fool. I know where I stand! I know I don't
+belong in your crowd--I ain't fit to mix with 'em! I ain't been raised
+like you was raised. You don't need to tell me that! I know it already!
+I know there's somethin' a man has to have besides what he gets on th'
+open range among th' cattle--an' th' bronchos--an' th' 
+rattlesnakes--he's got to be ground in th' mill of schoolin'--of books;
+he's got to be hammered into shape under th' heels of 'civilization';
+he's got to be trained to jump through and roll over an' know which fork
+to eat with before a girl like you--"
+
+His hands relaxed, but before his fingers loosened their grip on her
+shoulders Carolyn June's own soft palms reached up and caught the man's
+sun-tanned cheeks between them. Her eyes burned back into its own. Once
+more the laugh rippled from the full pulsing throat.
+
+"Ramblin' Kid, oh, Ramblin' Kid," she murmured, while the long lashes
+lifted over brown pools tenderness, "a man--my man--does not need to be
+or to know all of those things, any of those things, before a girl like
+me--"
+
+He crushed her to him and stopped the words on her lips.
+
+"My God--don't fool me--be sure you know!" he cried, his whole body
+quivering with the intensity of his feelings; "don't tell me you love
+me--unless you mean it! I can stand to love you--without hope--in
+silence--alone! But I can't--an' I swear I wont, be lifted up to Paradise
+just to be dropped again into the depths of hell! Don't say you love me
+unless you know it is _all_ love! Half love ain't love--it's a lie! An'
+love ain't to play with! Don't insult God by makin' a joke of th' thing
+He made an' planted in th' hearts of all Creation to hold th' Universe
+together."
+
+"Ramblin' Kid," she whispered softly, "God himself is looking down into
+my heart!"
+
+He smothered her mouth with his own--they drank each other in, their
+souls mingled in a mad-sense-reeling, time-defying pressure of lips!
+
+It was their hour, as was the next and yet the one that followed that.
+
+When the old-rose of dawn melted the gray above the sand-hills behind
+them and the white moon was fading in the zenith above the Kiowa; when
+the cottonwoods beside the Cimarron began to shake their leaves in the
+morning breeze that tripped across the valley; when the low buildings of
+the Quarter Circle KT silhouetted against the bench beyond the meadows;
+when the smooth surface of the beach of quicksand under which the body
+of Old Blue was hidden began to look smoother yet and still more firm,
+the Ramblin' Kid and Carolyn June parted.
+
+"I'm goin' away," he said; "I'm goin' away, Carolyn June, but I'm goin'
+for another reason now. I'm goin' away an' make myself so you'll never
+have a chance to be ashamed of me! I'm goin' away an' learn how to talk
+without cussin' 'most every other word--I'm goin' away an' get that
+polish I know; women love in men th' same as they love their own shoes
+to be shiny an' their own dresses to be soft an' dainty! When I've got
+that I'll come back! I ain't goin' to Mexico. I'm going to ride into
+that world that you come out of an' when I'm so you'll be proud to walk
+in that world with me--when I'm so you won't need to apologize for me in
+Hartville or any other place, I'm comin' back an' a preacher can O.K.
+th' bargain you an' me have made! Will you keep faith an' be true,
+Carolyn June? Will you keep faith an' be true--? Will you be waitin'?"
+
+"I'll be waiting," she whispered, "--and keep faith and be true!"
+
+And he rode away into the face of the red glow rising above the
+sand-hills. He rode away--to meet the morning sun--hidden yet behind the
+eastern horizon--to conquer himself, to master the ways of men, in the
+world that lay beyond!
+
+Carolyn June watched him go.
+
+Then she guided the outlaw filly down the grade, across the Cimarron and
+along the lane, in the gently stirring dawn, back to the still sleeping
+Quarter Circle KT. In her heart was a song; in her eyes a new light; in
+her soul a great peace--on her lips, a smile. She carried in her bosom
+their secret--hers and the Ramblin' Kid's--and she knew he would return,
+for he would not lie.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ramblin' Kid, by Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10374 ***
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..62909b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #10374 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10374)
diff --git a/old/10374-8.txt b/old/10374-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82f2633
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10374-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9536 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ramblin' Kid, by Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Ramblin' Kid
+
+Author: Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+Posting Date: December 22, 2009 [EBook #10374]
+Release Date: December 3, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLIN' KID ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RAMBLIN' KID
+
+
+BY EARL WAYLAND BOWMAN
+
+
+FRONTISPIECE BY W.H.D. KOERNER
+
+
+
+
+1920
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I A NIGHT LETTER
+
+II A BLUFF CALLED
+
+III WHICH ONE'S WHICH
+
+IV THE UNUSED PLATE
+
+V A DUEL OF ENDURANCE
+
+VI YOU'RE A BRUTE
+
+VII THE GREEDY SANDS
+
+VIII QUICK WITH A VENGEANCE
+
+IX OLD HECK'S STRATEGY
+
+X FIXING FIXERS
+
+XI A DANCE AND A RIDE
+
+XII YOU'LL GET YOUR WISH
+
+XIII THE ELITE AMUSEMENT PARLOR
+
+XIV THE GRAND PARADE
+
+XV MOCHA AND JAVA
+
+XVI THE SWEEPSTAKES
+
+XVII OLD HECK GOES TO TOWN
+
+XVIII A SHAME TO WASTE IT
+
+XIX THE GREEK GETS HIS
+
+XX MOSTLY SKINNY
+
+XXI A GIRL LIKE YOU
+
+
+
+
+THE RAMBLIN' KID
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+A NIGHT LETTER
+
+Sand and gravel slithered and slid under the heels of Old Pie Face as
+Skinny Rawlins whirled the broncho into the open space in front of the
+low-built, sprawling, adobe ranch house of the Quarter Circle KT and
+reined the pinto to a sudden stop. Skinny had been to Eagle Butte and
+with other things brought back the mail. It was hot, late June, the time
+between cutting the first crop of alfalfa and gathering, from the open
+range, the beef steers ready for the summer market. Regardless of the
+heat Skinny had ridden hard and his horse was a lather of sweat. A
+number of cowboys lounged, indolently, in the shade of the bunk-house,
+smoking cigarettes and contentedly enjoying the hour of rest after the
+noon-day dinner. Another, lean-built, slender, boyish in appearance and
+with strangely black, inscrutable eyes, stepped from around the corner
+of the house as Skinny jerked Old Pie Face to a standstill.
+
+"Where's Old Heck?" Skinny asked excitedly. "I brought the mail--here,
+take it to him!"
+
+The other, known on the Kiowa and the range of western Texas and Mexico
+only as "the Ramblin' Kid," strolled leisurely out through the sagging,
+weight-swung gate and up to the panting horse from which Skinny had not
+yet dismounted.
+
+"Asleep, I reckon," he replied in a voice peculiarly low and deliberate,
+"--what's your spontaneousness about? You act like a special d'livery or
+somethin'."
+
+"Old Heck's got a letter," Skinny said, jerkily; "maybe's it's bad news
+an' he ought to have it quick," as the Ramblin' Kid reached for a yellow
+envelope held in the outstretched hand.
+
+At that instant Old Heck, owner and boss of the Quarter Circle KT cow
+outfit, stepped from the shadow of the open ranch-house door. He was
+short and stocky, red-faced, somewhere near the fifties, and a
+yellowish-gray mustache hung over tobacco blackened lips. Overalls, a
+checked blue and white shirt, open at the throat, boots into which the
+trousers legs were loosely jammed comprised his attire. He was
+bareheaded and the sun glistened on a wrinkly forehead, topped by a thin
+sprinkling of hair.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked drowsily, his small, gray-blue eyes
+blinking in the yellow sun-glare and still sluggish from the nap
+disturbed by the noise of Skinny's arrival.
+
+"Nothin'. Skinny's just got a letter an' is excited about it," the
+Ramblin' Kid said, handing the envelope to him. "It's for you."
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck exclaimed, "it's a telegram!"
+
+The cowboys resting in the shade of the bunk-house rose to their feet,
+sauntered over and surrounded Old Heck and the Ramblin' Kid, commenting
+meanwhile, frankly and caustically, on the fagged condition of the
+broncho Skinny was on:
+
+"Must 'a' been scared, the way you run that horse," Parker, range
+foreman of the Quarter Circle KT, a heavy-built, sandy-complexioned man
+in the forties, remarked witheringly to Skinny as the cow-puncher
+climbed from the saddle and slid to the ground.
+
+"He's mine, I reckon," Skinny retorted, "an' I figure it's nobody's
+darn' business how I ride him--anyhow I brought Old Heck a telegram!" he
+added triumphantly.
+
+"Blamed if he didn't!" Charley Saunders, with a trifle of awe, pretended
+or real, in his tone, said. "It sure is!"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck repeated, slowly turning the envelope over in his
+hand, "it's a telegram! Wonder what it's about?"
+
+"Why don't you open it and see?" Parker suggested.
+
+"Yes, open th' blamed thing and find out," Skinny encouraged.
+
+"I--I've a notion to," Old Heck whispered.
+
+"Go on and do it, it won't take but a minute," Charley Saunders
+entreated.
+
+"Maybe he's one of these mind-readers and can read it through the
+envelope," Bert Lilly volunteered.
+
+"Aw, shut up and give him a chance!"
+
+Trembling, Old Heck tore open the envelope and silently read the
+message.
+
+"My Gawd!" he groaned again. "The worst has come to the worst!"
+
+"That ought to make it middlin' bad," Charley remarked soberly.
+
+"Ought to," Bert added sententiously.
+
+Parker crowded forward on sympathy bent.
+
+"Tell us what's in it," he said; "if it's sorrowful we'll be plumb glad
+to condole!"
+
+"It's worse than sorrowful--"
+
+"Melancholical?" Skinny inquired.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck said again, his weatherworn features working
+convulsively, "it's more than a mortal man can endure and stand!"
+
+"Bet somebody's dead!" Bert whispered to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Probably. Most everybody gets to be sooner or later," was the answer
+without emotion.
+
+Sing Pete, Chinese cook for the outfit, dish-rag over his shoulder,
+edged out of the kitchen door and shuffled around to the group.
+Glimpsing the yellow slip of paper held in the shaking hand of Old Heck
+and the awed interest of the cowboys gathered about the boss, he
+queried:
+
+"Teleglam?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Teleglam? Maybe alle samee somebody sickee?" he continued, cheerfully
+confident that questions enough would ultimately bring a reply. He was
+rewarded:
+
+"What do you know about 'teleglams'? You slant-eyed burner of
+beef-steaks!"
+
+"Who's it from?" Charley asked. "Anybody we know--"
+
+"My Gawd," Old Heck mourned once more, "she's comin'!"
+
+"Who's she?" Parker coaxed.
+
+"A female," Old Heck replied, "she's a female!"
+
+"The darned old cuss has had a wife sometime and run off from her and
+deserted her and she's pursuing him and trailing him down to earth!"
+Chuck Slithers, doubting Thomas of the outfit and student of Sherlock
+Holmes, cunningly suggested. "I always imagined he was a varmint with a
+past--a' ex-heart breaker of innocent women or a train-robber or--"
+
+"Aw, hell," the Ramblin' Kid rebuked, "him have a wife? Don't insult th'
+female population!"
+
+"_Carramba!_" exclaimed Pedro Valencia, Mexican line-rider for the
+Quarter Circle KT, "perhaps she will stick him with the dagger, or shoot
+him with the gun when she arrive! The ladies with love kill quick when
+the love is--what you call him?--the jilt?"
+
+"And I'd almost forgot I ever had one!" Old Heck continued talking as if
+to himself.
+
+"What'd I tell you?" Chuck exulted.
+
+"Shut up! He's confessin'--let him alone an' he'll get it out of his
+conscience sooner or later!"
+
+"Had a what?" Parker urged sympathetically. "Maybe you didn't have
+one--maybe you only imagined you did!"
+
+"Had a brother--anyhow a half a one--our mothers was the same but
+different fathers on account of mine dyin' when I was little and his
+marrying our mother again; we was playmates together in our innocent
+childhood and infancy until I run away and went to sea and finally
+anchored on the Kiowa and got to raisin' cattle--"
+
+"Where does he come in at?" Parker questioned.
+
+"He said it was a female, to start with," Skinny added.
+
+"--and his name is Simeon Dixon on account of his father's being the
+same thing, and he went in the street railroad business in a place named
+Hartville in Connecticut, and he got married and had a wife--she was
+Zithia Forbes, and she's dead, and I knowed that, and he's rich I reckon
+and--"
+
+"An' Amrak begat Meshak an' Meshak begat Zimri an' Zimri was th' founder
+of th' House of Old Heck," the Ramblin' Kid chanted. "What in thunder
+does details amount to, anyhow?"
+
+"But you was mournin' about a she!" Parker insisted.
+
+"Well, I reckon it ain't a wife--at least not the one I was thinking
+about," Chuck murmured disappointedly, "but I bet he's had one somewhere
+in his vari'gated career and is hiding out from her in fear an'
+tremblin'--"
+
+"And there will not be the grand, the beautiful murder?" Pedro sighed,
+questioningly.
+
+"Wait a minute," Skinny pleaded, "--give him air!"
+
+"--and he's got a female daughter--and I didn't know that--and he's--oh,
+Gawd!--he's sending her out to the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"How big is she?" Parker whispered.
+
+"She's--she's twenty-two--"
+
+"Inches around or what?" Charley gasped.
+
+"--and Ophelia is coming with her--Ophelia Cobb--C-o-double-b it is--is
+coming with her for a chaperon--"
+
+"Great guns!" Skinny breathed,"--two females!"
+
+"Hold still and I'll read it--no, you do it, Parker--I'm too full of
+emotion--my voice'd quiver--"
+
+Parker read:
+
+    "Josiah Heck, Eagle Butte, Texas:
+
+    "Am sending my daughter, Carolyn June, out to your ranch
+    for a while. She needs a change. She has broke all the
+    he-human hearts in Hartville--that is all of them old
+    enough or young enough to be broke--and is what's called
+    a love-stimulator and won't settle. She is twenty-two
+    and it's time she was calmed. Hoping six months on the
+    Kiowa range will gentle her quite a lot, I am
+    sympathetically your 1/2 brother, Simeon.
+
+    "P.S.--Mrs. Ophelia Cobb, a lady widow, is coming with
+    her for a chaperon. Beware of both of them. They will
+    arrive at Eagle Butte the 21st.--S."
+
+"Gee, it's a long one!" Chuck said admiringly.
+
+"It's one of these 'Night Letters,'" Parker explained.
+
+"I knowed it was bad news," Skinny exclaimed, "--poor old Heck!"
+
+"Better say, 'Poor we all!'" Bert declared. "Farewell peace and joy on
+the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"The Lord have mercy on Old Heck!" Charley cried with dramatic fervor.
+
+"Holy smoke," Parker murmured desperately, "_two of them on the
+twenty-first--and that's to-morrow!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+A BLUFF CALLED
+
+The Quarter Circle KT was a womanless ranch. Came now, like a bolt from
+the clear sky or the sudden clang of a fire-alarm bell, the threat of
+violation of this Eveless Eden by the intrusion of a pair of strange and
+unknown females. The arrival of the telegram telling of the coming of
+Carolyn June Dixon, Old Heck's niece, and Ophelia Cobb, her chaperon,
+filled with varying emotions the hearts of Old Heck, Parker and the
+cowboys.
+
+To Old Heck their presence meant nothing less than calamity. Long years
+of he-man association had made him dread the petty restraints he
+imagined would be imposed by intimate contact with womankind. Good lord,
+a man wouldn't be able even to cuss freely, and without embarrassment,
+with a couple of women in the house and prowling around the ranch!
+
+Skinny, Bert, Chuck, Pedro, Charley, the Ramblin' Kid, even the Chink
+cook and Parker, quivered with excitement and curiosity behind thinly
+veiled pretense of fear and horror. Secretly they rejoiced. It was
+marvelous news borne by the telegram Skinny brought. Here would be
+diversion ample, unusual, wholly worth while and filled with
+possibilities of romance as luring as the first glimpse of a strange new
+land shadowed with mystery and promise of thrilling adventure.
+
+Sing Pete paddled back to the unfinished business of the kitchen,
+chattering excitedly. The cowboys stood mutely and stared at Old Heck
+and the fatal slip of yellow paper.
+
+"What'll I do?" Old Heck asked the group despairingly. "They'll ruin
+everything."
+
+"Can't you head 'em off, somehow?" Parker suggested.
+
+"Can't be done. They're already on their way and probably somewhere this
+side of Kansas City by now."
+
+"Find out which train they're on and let the Ramblin' Kid and me cut
+across to the Purgatory River bridge and wreck it," Skinny Rawlins,
+always tragic, darkly advised.
+
+"I ain't particular about killin' females," the Ramblin' Kid objected,
+"besides, we ain't got no dynamite."
+
+"Send them a telegram and say Old Heck's dead and not to come," Bert
+Lilly volunteered.
+
+"Aw, you blamed idiot, they'd come anyhow then, just to attend the
+funeral--"
+
+"I got an idea," Chuck Slithers exclaimed; it's a telegram too. Send
+them one C.O.D. in care of the train that will get to Eagle Butte the
+twenty-first and tell them we've all got the smallpox and we're sorry
+but everybody's dangerously sick and to please answer!"
+
+"That might work," Parker said; "they'd be mighty near sure not to want
+to catch it."
+
+"We'll try it," Old Heck agreed. "Chuck wants to ride over to Eagle
+Butte anyway and he can have the depot agent send it and wait for a
+reply."
+
+"Go get your horse ready, Chuck," Parker said, "we'll write it while
+you're saddlin' up!"
+
+Chuck hurried to the corral while Old Heck went into the house for
+pencil and writing-paper. Parker and the cowboys moved in a group to the
+shade of the porch in front of the house.
+
+"What'll we tell them?" Old Heck asked, reappearing with writing
+materials. "Here, Parker, you write it."
+
+"Dear niece Carolyn June Dixon and Chaperon: Sorry, but there's an
+epidemic of smallpox at the Quarter Circle KT and you can't come. Chuck
+is dying with it. Old Heck's plumb prostrated, Bert is already broke
+out, Pedro is starting to and Skinny Rawlins and the Ramblin' Kid are
+just barely able to be up. I love you too much to want you to catch it.
+Please go back to Hartville and give my regards to your pa and don't
+expose yourself. Answer by return telegram so I'll know your intentions.
+Affectionately and absolutely your Uncle Josiah Heck," Parker read after
+writing a few moments. "How's that?"
+
+"Sounds all right."
+
+"Got it ready?" Chuck called from the fence, while Silver Tip, the
+trim-built half-blood Hambletonian colt he was riding, reared and
+pranced, eager for the road and a run.
+
+"For lord's sake hurry up, Chuck," Old Heck yelled as the Ramblin' Kid
+handed the paper to Chuck and the cowboy whirled his horse into a gallop
+toward Eagle Butte. "Have the agent send it in care of whatever train
+they might be on and get an answer, then come back as quick as possible
+--waiting is agony!"
+
+It was a long afternoon for Old Heck and the cowboys of the Quarter
+Circle KT. A band of colts were in the circular corral to be gentled to
+rope, saddle and hackamore. Old Heck sat on the top pole of the corral
+and moodily watched the struggle of the men and horses in the dry, dusty
+enclosure as one by one each young broncho was roped, saddled and
+ridden. Frequently he turned longing eyes toward Eagle Butte, anxious
+for sight of the cloud of dust from which Chuck would emerge bringing,
+he hoped, word that Carolyn June and Ophelia Cobb had heeded the
+misleading message.
+
+The sun crept across the western sky and dropped lower and lower until
+it hung at last, a blazing disk of fire, close above the highest peaks
+of the Costejo mountain range. The poplars in front of the house flung
+slim black shadows across the low adobe buildings and splashed the tip
+of their shade in the dust-cloud that filled with haze the corral a
+hundred yards away. Sing Pete stepped from the door and beat a tattoo on
+the iron triangle suspended by a piece of wire from the lowest branch of
+a mesquit tree at the corner of the house, announcing by the metallic
+clamor that the work of the day was finished and supper was ready and
+waiting. Parker swung back the heavy gate at the corral entrance and the
+dozen colts, sweat streaks on heads and backs and bellies where
+hackamore, saddle and cinches told of the lessons of the afternoon,
+pushing and jamming and with a clatter of hoofs, whirled out to freedom,
+around the stable and down a lane into an open meadow.
+
+Kicking off their chaps the cowboys tossed them on the riding gear,
+piled already against the fence of the corral, and straggled stiffly
+toward the house. On the wire enclosing the back yard Sing Pete had hung
+a couple of heavy towels, coarse and long. Some basins and several
+chunks of yellow laundry soap were on a bench beside an irrigation ditch
+that ran along the fence just inside the gate. Old Heck, Parker and the
+cowboys stopped at the ditch, pitched their hats on the grass and
+dipping water from the ditch scoured the dust and sweat from their faces
+and hands.
+
+All were silent as if each was troubled with thoughts too solemn to be
+spoken aloud.
+
+At last, Skinny, handing a towel to Bert after drying his own
+sun-tanned face and hands, remarked inanely:
+
+"Chuck ain't come, has he?"
+
+"Slupper!" Sing Pete called.
+
+They filed into the kitchen and each took his regular place at the long,
+oilcloth covered table. The food, wholesome, plain and abundant, was
+already served.
+
+Silently each heaped his plate with the viands before him while Sing
+Pete circled the table pouring coffee into the white porcelain cups. The
+Quarter Circle KT was famous for the excellence of its grub and the
+Chink was an expert cook.
+
+"Lordy, oh, lordy," Old Heck groaned, "it don't seem possible them women
+are coming!"
+
+"Maybe they won't," Parker sympathized. "When they get that telegram
+they ought to turn around and go back--"
+
+"Chuck's coming!" Bert Lilly exclaimed at that moment and the sound of a
+horse stopping suddenly at the front of the house reached the ears of
+the group at the table.
+
+"Go ask him if he got an answer, somebody, quick!" Old Heck cried.
+
+As Charley Saunders sprang to his feet Chuck yelled, "They got it and
+sent an answer! I got one--" and rushed excitedly through the house and
+into the kitchen waving an envelope, twin to the one Skinny had brought
+earlier in the day. "They're on Train Number Seventeen, the agent
+said--"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck gasped, "what does it say? Give it here!" reaching
+for the message the cowboy held in his hand.
+
+"Good lord, it didn't work!" he groaned as he read the telegram and
+handed it across the table to Parker.
+
+"Read it out loud," several spoke at once.
+
+"'We've both had it,'" Parker read, "'and are not afraid. Anyhow we
+think you are a darned old lovable liar. Will arrive according to
+schedule. If you are not a liar we'll nurse you back to health and
+happiness. If you are, watch out! Your affectionate but suspicious
+little niece Carolyn June Dixon. Postscript: Are there any nice wild,
+untamed, young cowboys out there?--Carolyn J.'"
+
+"Hell-fire!" Skinny said, "what'll we do?"
+
+No answer. Chuck went moodily out to attend to his horse, and the meal
+was finished in silence. Even Sing Pete seemed deeply depressed. After
+supper Old Heck straightened up and in a do-or-die tone said:
+
+"We'll all go out where it's cool and hold a caucus and figure what
+ought to be done."
+
+"There ain't nothing we can do but surrender, as far as I can see,"
+Parker observed gloomily as they gathered on the porch in front of the
+house. "They seem plumb determined to arrive--"
+
+"I've already give up hope," Old Heck answered, "but what will we do
+with them when they get here? We can't just brand 'em and turn them
+loose on the range."
+
+"I make a motion we elect Skinny to ride herd on 'em!" Bert Lilly
+suggested.
+
+"Damned if I do!" Skinny exclaimed uneasily.
+
+"It's a good idea," Parker said. "From all accounts the young one
+expects to be made love to and if she ain't she'll probably be weeping
+around all the time--"
+
+"Well, I can't stand sobbin'!" Old Heck declared. "Any female is hard
+enough to endure and one that gets to mourning is plumb distasteful!
+
+"That's probably the best thing to do," he continued, "just appoint
+Skinny to be official love-maker to Carolyn June while she's at the
+Quarter Circle KT. It will probably save confusion--"
+
+"I brought the telegram telling about them coming and I've done my
+share," Skinny protested; "somebody else can be delegated to do the
+love-making!"
+
+"That's just the reason it ought to be your job," Old Heck argued; "you
+went and got the telegram in the first place and are sort of responsible
+for them being here."
+
+"Aw, let th' Ramblin' Kid do it," Skinny pleaded, "he's an easy talker
+and everything--"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid straightened up and started for the gate.
+
+"Where you going?"
+
+"To catch Capt'n Jack," he drawled; "after that for a little ride down
+to th' Pecos or over in Chihuahua somewhere a couple hundred miles. I
+decline with enthusiasm to fall in love on th' spur of th' moment for
+any damned outfit!"
+
+"You come on back," Parker called, "Skinny'll have to do it. He can have
+all his time for it and just pretend he's in love and sort of entertain
+her. He don't need to go and do it in earnest. Come on back, you darned
+chump, I need you on the beef hunt!"
+
+"What'll I have to do?" Skinny asked cautiously.
+
+"Just set on the front porch with her at night and make your eyes roll
+up like a calf's that's being branded and kind of sigh heart-broken once
+in a while," Bert volunteered. "It'll be easy when you get used to it--"
+
+"If you know so much about it why don't you enlist yourself?" Skinny
+asked irritably. "Some of you fellows go on and volunteer," he pleaded
+dolefully.
+
+"I would in a minute," Chuck chipped in, "if I was good-looking like
+Skinny and had a white shirt--"
+
+"What's a white shirt got to do with it?"
+
+"Listen to the innocent child," Chuck laughed, "as if any darned fool
+didn't know that the first thing a professional love-maker has to have
+is a white shirt!"
+
+"That settles it," Skinny declared with emphasis, "I won't wear a white
+shirt to make love to no blamed woman--"
+
+"Chuck's locoed," the Ramblin' Kid interposed; "you don't need to have
+no white shirt--of course it would be better but it ain't downright
+necessary--women don't fall in love with shirts, it's what's inside of
+them."
+
+"Where did you find out so much about women?" Bert queried.
+
+"I didn't find out--I'm just guessin'--"
+
+"There ain't no use arguing," Old Heck broke in. "Skinny will have to be
+expert love-maker for that Carolyn June niece of mine--I'll allow him
+ten dollars a month more wages while he's doing it. I ain't going to
+have her writing letters to her pa and telling him she didn't have no
+conveniences or nothing. Anyhow, she's young and I reckon it's sort of
+necessary."
+
+"What about th' other one--Ophelia Cobb or whoever she is?" Bert Lilly
+asked.
+
+"She's past the age for it, probably," Parker said uneasily.
+
+"They don't pass it," the Ramblin' Kid interrupted laconically; "when
+females get too old to want to be made love to they die--"
+
+"I'd like to know where in hell a juvenile like you got your education
+about women!" Bert insisted to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"I ain't got none--I'm just guessing I told you," the other replied,
+"but it's the truth, anyhow."
+
+"Well, if I've got to make love to the young one Old Heck or Parker or
+somebody's got to do it for the other one," Skinny declared positively.
+
+"Ophelia don't need it," Old Heck said hastily, "she's a widow and has
+done been--"
+
+"Widows are th' worst," the Ramblin' Kid drawled; "they've had
+experience an' don't like to give it up."
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's right," Chuck broke in. "I read a book once that
+said that's the way they are. It's up to Old Heck or Parker to represent
+Cupid to the widow--"
+
+"Who the hell's Cupid?" Skinny asked curiously.
+
+"He's a dangerous little outlaw that ain't got no reg'lar range," the
+Ramblin' Kid answered for Chuck.
+
+"I'll not do it--" Old Heck and Parker spoke at once.
+
+"Then I won't either," Skinny declared flatly, "I'll quit the dog-goned
+Quarter Circle KT first!"
+
+"Let Sing Pete make love to the widow," Bert suggested.
+
+"No, no! Me busy cookee," Sing Pete, who had been listening from the
+open doorway, jabbered and darted, frightened, back into the house.
+
+"Anyhow I'd kill him if he did," the Ramblin' Kid said softly; "no
+darned Chink can make love to a white woman, old, young or indifferent,
+in my presence an' live!"
+
+"Well, Old Heck'll have to do it, then," Skinny said; "hanged if I'm
+going to be the only he-love-maker on this ranch!"
+
+"Let Parker and Old Heck divide up on Ophelia," Chuck advised, "one of
+them can love her one day and the other the next--"
+
+"That's reasonable," Bert declared, "she'd probably enjoy a change
+herself."
+
+"I tell you I ain't got time," Parker protested.
+
+"Neither have I," Old Heck added.
+
+"All right then, I ain't either!" Skinny declared. "If you two ain't
+willing to take turn about with the widow and love her off and on
+between you I'll be everlastingly hell-tooted if I'm going to stand for
+a whole one by myself all of the time! I'll go on strike first and start
+right now!"
+
+"We'll stay with you, Skinny," the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed with a laugh,
+"th' whole bunch will quit till Parker an' Old Heck grants our demands."
+
+"We'll all quit!" the cowboys chorused.
+
+"Oh, well, Parker," Old Heck grumbled, "I reckon we'll have to do it!"
+
+"It won't be hard work," the Ramblin' Kid said consolingly, "all you got
+to do is set still an' leave it to Ophelia. Widows are expert
+love-makers themselves an' know how to keep things goin'!"
+
+It was settled. Skinny Rawlins, at an increase of ten dollars a month on
+his wage, protestingly, was elected official love-maker to Carolyn June
+Dixon, Old Heck's niece, speeding unsuspectingly toward the Quarter
+Circle KT, and Old Heck and Parker between them were to divide the
+affections of Ophelia Cobb, widow and chaperon.
+
+In the mind of every cowboy on the ranch there was one thought
+unexpressed but very insistent that night, "Wonder what She looks like?"
+thinking, of course, of Carolyn June.
+
+Old Heck and Parker also were disturbed by a common worry. As each sank
+into fitful sleep, thinking of Ophelia Cobb, the widow, and his own
+predestinated affinity he murmured:
+
+"What if she insists on getting married?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+WHICH ONE'S WHICH
+
+Eagle Butte sprawled hot and thirsty under the melting sunshine of
+mid-forenoon. It was not a prepossessing town. All told, no more than
+two hundred buildings were within its corporate limits. A giant mound,
+capped by a crown of crumbling, weather-tinted rock, rose abruptly at
+the northern edge of the village and gave the place its name. Cimarron
+River, sluggish and yellow, bounded the town on the south. The dominant
+note of Eagle Butte was a pathetic mixture of regret for glories of
+other days and clumsy ambition to assume the ways of a city. Striving
+hard to be modern it succeeded only in being grotesque.
+
+The western plains are sprinkled with towns like that. Towns that once,
+in the time of the long-horn steer and the forty-four and the nerve to
+handle both, were frankly unconventional. Touched later by the black
+magic of development, bringing brick buildings, prohibition, picture
+shows, real-estate boosters, speculation and attendant evils or benefits
+as one chooses to classify them, they became neither elemental nor
+ethical--mere gawky mimics of both.
+
+When western Texas was cow-country and nothing else Eagle Butte at
+least was picturesque. Flickering lights, gay laughter--sometimes curses
+and the sounds of revolver shots, of battles fought close and quick and
+to a finish--wheezy music, click of ivory chips, the clink of glasses,
+from old Bonanza's and similar rendezvous of hilarity lured to the
+dance, faro, roulette, the poker table or the hardwood polished bar.
+
+The Mecca it was in those days for cowboys weary with months on the
+wide-flung range.
+
+To-day Eagle Butte is modest, mild and super-subdued.
+
+A garage, cement built, squatty and low and painfully new, its
+wide-mouthed entrance guarded by a gasoline pump freshly painted and
+exceedingly red, stands at the eastern end of the single, broad,
+un-paved business street. All of the stores face one way--north--and
+look sleepily across at the railroad track, the low-eaved, yellow, Santa
+Fe station and the sunburnt sides of the butte beyond. Opposite the
+station the old Occidental Hotel with its high porch, wide steps, narrow
+windows, dingy weather-board sides and blackened roof, still stands to
+remind old-timers of the days of long ago.
+
+A city marshal, Tom Poole, a long, slim, Sandy-mustached Missourian,
+completes the picture of Eagle Butte. Regularly he meets the arriving
+trains and by the glistening three-inch nickel star pinned to his left
+suspender announces to the traveling world that here, on the one time
+woolly Kiowa, law and order at last prevail. Odd times the marshal farms
+a ten-acre truck patch close to the river at the southern edge of the
+town. Pending the arrival of trains he divides his time between the
+front steps of the old hotel and the Elite Amusement Parlor, Eagle
+Butte's single den of iniquity where pocket pool, billiards,
+solo--devilish dissipations these!--along with root beer, ginger ale,
+nut sundaes, soda-pop, milk shakes and similar enticements are served to
+those, of reckless and untamed temperaments.
+
+From the open door of the pool hall the marshal saw a thin, black streak
+of smoke curling far out on the horizon--a dozen miles--northeast of
+Eagle Butte.
+
+"Seventeen's comin'," he remarked to the trio of idlers leaning against
+the side of the building; "guess I'd better go over an' see who's on
+her," moving as he spoke out into the sizzling glare of the almost
+deserted street. Glancing toward the east his eyes fastened on a cloud
+of dust whirling rapidly along the road that came from the direction of
+the lower Cimarron.
+
+"Gosh, lookey yonder," he muttered, "that must be Old Heck drivin' his
+new automobile--th' darn fool is goin' to bust something some day,
+runnin' that car the way he does!"
+
+Walking quickly, to escape the heat, he crossed the street to the
+station.
+
+Two minutes later the cloud of dust trailed a rakish, trim-lined,
+high-powered, purring Clagstone "Six" to a stop in front of the
+Occidental Hotel and Old Heck and Skinny Rawlins climbed glumly and
+stiffly from the front seat, after the thirty-minute, twenty-mile run
+from the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Old Heck had his peculiarities. One of them was insistence for the
+best--absolutely or nothing. The first pure-bred, hot-blood stallions
+turned on the Kiowa range carried the Quarter Circle KT brand on their
+left shoulders. He wanted quality in his stock and spent thousands of
+dollars importing bulls and stallions to get it. When the automobile
+came it was the same. No jit for the erratic owner of the last big
+genuine cow-ranch on the Cimarron. Consequently the beautiful car--a car
+fit for Fifth Avenue--standing now in front of the old hotel in Eagle
+Butte.
+
+The smoke on the northeastern sky-line was yet some miles away.
+
+The lanky marshal had reached the station.
+
+"It's a good thing there's prohibition in this town," Skinny muttered as
+he stepped from the car and started brushing the dust from his coat;
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause I'd go get drunk if there wasn't--. Wonder if a feller could get
+any boot-leg liquor?"
+
+"Better leave it alone," Old Heck warned, "that kind's worse than none.
+It don't make you drunk--just gives you the hysterical hydrophobia!'
+
+"Well, I'd drink anything in an emergency like this if I had it,"
+Skinny declared doggedly.
+
+"Train's comin'," Old Heck said shortly; "reckon we'd better go over to
+the depot--"
+
+"Let's wait here till they get off first," Skinny said. "We can see them
+from where we are and kind of size 'em up and it won't be so sudden."
+
+"Maybe that would be better," Old Heck answered.
+
+A moment later Number Seventeen, west-bound Santa Fe passenger train,
+stopped at the yellow station. The rear cars were obscured from the view
+of Skinny and Old Heck by freight sheds along the track. With the
+exception of the engine, baggage, mail and express cars, which were
+hidden by the depot, the rest of the train was in plain sight.
+
+A couple of men got off the day coach. These were followed by a gawky,
+weirdly dressed girl of uncertain age carrying an old-fashioned
+telescope traveling bag. At sight of the girl Skinny caught his breath
+with a gasp. Immediately following her was the tallest, homeliest woman
+he had ever seen. Thin to the point of emaciation, a wide striped,
+ill-fitting dress of some cheap material accentuated the angular lines
+of her body. A tiny narrow-brimmed hat, bright green, with a white
+feather, dingy and soiled, sticking straight up at the back made her
+more than ever a caricature. The woman also carried a bag. The two
+stepped up to the marshal, standing at the cornet: of the station,
+apparently asking him a question. He answered, pointing as he did to
+Old Heck and Skinny leaning silently against the side of their car. The
+woman and girl started toward them.
+
+Fascinated, the cow-men watched them approach.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck hoarsely whispered, "that's them!"
+
+"Let's go!" Skinny exclaimed, sweat starting in unheeded beads on his
+forehead. "Good lord, let's get in the car and go while we got a
+chance!"
+
+Old Heck made a move as if to comply, then stopped. "Can't now," he said
+gloomily, "it's too late!"
+
+As Old Heck turned the woman shrieked in a rasping voice:
+
+"Hey--hey you! Wait a minute!"
+
+The cow-men looked around and stared dumbly, dazedly, at her.
+
+"Can I get you to take me an' my daughter out to that construction camp
+where they're buildin' a ditch or something?" she asked; "that policeman
+said maybe we could get you to--" she continued. "I got a job cookin'
+out there an' Lize here is goin' to wait on table."
+
+Old Heck, still looking up in her eyes, with horror written on every
+line of his face, his lips twitching till he could scarcely speak,
+finally managed to say:
+
+"Ain't--ain't you Ophelia?"
+
+"Ophelia? Ophelia who?" she asked, then before he could speak she
+answered his question: "Ophelia--huh! No, I ain't Ophelia! I'm Missus
+Jasamine Swope an' a married woman an' you'd better not try to get fresh
+or--"
+
+Simultaneous with Old Heck's question, Skinny, his eyes riveted on the
+dowdy girl, asked in a voice barely audible:
+
+"Are you--are you Carolyn June?"
+
+"No, I ain't Carolyn June," she snorted. "Come on, ma; let's go! Them
+two's crazy or white slavers or somethin'!"
+
+Expressing their scorn and disdain by the angry flirt of their skirts,
+the woman and girl whirled and walked briskly away toward the garage at
+the end of the street.
+
+"Praise th' heavens," Old Heck breathed fervently as he gazed
+spell-bound after the retreating pair, "it wasn't them!"
+
+"Carolyn June and the widow probably went back after all," Skinny said
+without, looking around and with the barest trace of disappointment, now
+that the danger seemed past, in his voice. "Maybe they got to thinking
+about that telegram and decided not to come at last."
+
+"More than likely that was it," Old Heck answered.
+
+Steps sounded behind them. Skinny and Old Heck turned and again they
+almost fainted at what they saw. The marshal, a leather traveling bag
+in each hand, accompanied by two smartly dressed women, approached.
+
+"These ladies are huntin' for you," he said to Old Heck, dropping the
+bags and mopping his face with the sleeve of his shirt. "Guess they're
+some kind of kin folks," he added.
+
+Concealed by the freight sheds Carolyn June Dixon and Ophelia Cobb had
+stepped from the Pullman at the rear of the train, unseen by Old Heck
+and Skinny. Nor had either noticed, being engrossed with the couple that
+had left than a moment before, the trio coming across from the station.
+
+As the cook and her daughter by their very homeliness had appalled and
+overwhelmed them, these two, Ophelia and Carolyn June, by their exactly
+opposite appearance stunned Old Heck and Skinny and rendered them
+speechless with embarrassment. Both were silently thankful they had
+shaved that morning and Skinny wondered if his face, like Old Heck's,
+was streaked with sweat and dust.
+
+For a moment the group studied one another.
+
+Carolyn June held the eyes of Skinny in mute and helpless admiration.
+Despite the heat of the blazing sun she looked fresh and dean and
+pleasant--wholly unsoiled by the marks of travel. A snow-white Panama
+hat, the brim sensibly wide, drooped over cheeks that were touched with
+a splash of tan that suggested much time in the open. An abundance of
+hair, wonderfully soft and brown, showing the slightest glint of coppery
+red running it in vagrant strands, fluffed from under the hat. The
+skirt of her traveling suit, some light substantial material, reached
+the span of a hand above the ankle. White shoes, silk stockings that
+matched and through which glowed the faint pink of firm, healthy, young
+flesh, lent charm to the costume she wore. Her lips were red and moist
+and parted over teeth that were strong and white. A saucy upward tilt to
+the nose, hinting that Carolyn June was a flirt; brown eyes that were
+level almost with Skinny's and that held in them a laugh and yet deep
+below the mirth something thoughtful, honest and unafraid, finished the
+wreck of the cowboy's susceptible heart. Trim and smooth was Carolyn
+June, suggesting to Skinny Rawlins a clean-bred filly of saddle strain
+that has developed true to form.
+
+Old Heck gazed in equal awe at the more mature Ophelia.
+
+Somewhere near forty she may have been, cozily plump and solid. She had
+gray-blue eyes that were steady and frank yet clearly accustomed to
+being obeyed. Her hair was a trifle darker in shade than the silky brown
+on the head of Carolyn June. She was dressed with immaculate neatness
+and taste and carried that well-preserved assurance no woman in the
+world save the American of mature development acquires.
+
+There was energy in every line of her body and Ophelia gave Old Heck,
+the embarrassed owner of the Quarter Circle KT, more thrills in that one
+moment of silent scrutiny than he ever before had felt in the presence
+of any woman.
+
+As they looked, Skinny and Old Heck instinctively, a bit awkwardly
+perhaps, removed the Stetsons they wore on their heads.
+
+"Howdy-do!" Old Heck finally managed to say.
+
+Skinny gulped like an echo, another "Howdy-do!" in the direction of
+Carolyn June.
+
+"I reckon you are Carolyn June and Missus Ophelia Cobb," Old Heck
+stammered "Which one of you is which?" unconsciously paying tribute to
+the well preserved youthfulness of the widow.
+
+"Oh, Ophelia, beware!" Carolyn June laughed, not in the least offended;
+"the gay old rascal is at it already!"
+
+"He didn't mean nothing" Skinny interposed, sensing that Old Heck some
+way had made a blunder. "I guess you must be Carolyn June?" looking
+questioningly at the girl.
+
+"Excuse me," Old Heck said, "I'm your uncle, I suppose, and this is
+Skinny Rawlins--"
+
+"Howdy-do; I'm glad to meet you," Skinny muttered, reaching for the hand
+Carolyn June frankly extended.
+
+"I'm glad, too," she replied candidly; "and this is Mrs. Ophelia
+Cobb--just Ophelia--Uncle Josiah," Carolyn added, turning to Old Heck
+who clumsily shook hands with the widow while his weather-tanned face
+flushed a burning, uncomfortably red.
+
+"We was expecting you," he said, retaining life hold on her hand.
+
+"That was very kind," Ophelia murmured. "I am sure we are delighted to
+be here."
+
+"Now I guess we are all acquainted," Carolyn June said with a little
+laugh. "It's easy for folks to get acquainted, isn't it?" turning
+suddenly to Skinny.
+
+"Seems like it after they once get started," Skinny answered.
+
+"We'd better be heading for home I reckon," Old Heck said, releasing at
+last the widow's hand and lifting the bags in the car. "Sing Pete will
+have dinner ready by the time we get there."
+
+"We have some trunks," Carolyn June said, "can we take them with us?"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck replied, "get in, and we'll drive over to the depot and
+get them."
+
+With Carolyn June and Ophelia in the rear seat and Skinny and himself in
+the front Old Heck drove the car across to the station and the trunks
+were fastened with ropes on the hood of the engine and running-boards of
+the car.
+
+As they started away Carolyn June asked:
+
+"Which way now, Uncle Josiah?"
+
+"Out to the ranch."
+
+"Hadn't we better stop at the drug store," she asked soberly, "and get
+some medicine?"
+
+"Medicine? Who for?" Old Heck inquired innocently.
+
+"Why, the patients, of course," Carolyn June answered with a
+mischievous chuckle.
+
+"What patients?"
+
+"Out at the Quarter Circle KT where that epidemic of smallpox is
+raging!" she answered sweetly.
+
+"That's all a mistake," Old Heck said hastily; "we thought is was
+smallpox but it wasn't--"
+
+"No, everybody's got over it," Skinny added nervously; "they're all
+cured!"
+
+"Yes, they was just broke out with the heat and didn't have the smallpox
+at all--" Old Heck explained.
+
+"Liars, both of them," Carolyn June said laughingly to Ophelia; "they
+just didn't want us to come!"
+
+"Very likely," Ophelia answered.
+
+"No, honest, we thought we had it," Old Heck stammered.
+
+"We were plumb uneasy for fear you wouldn't arrive," Skinny declared.
+"After we found out it wasn't smallpox we were going to send a special
+delivery message and tell you it was all a misunderstanding and to come
+anyhow!"
+
+"Shall we forgive them?" Carolyn June asked the widow.
+
+"Perhaps, this time--their first offense!"
+
+"I'll tell you," Carolyn June said, "well suspend sentence pending good
+behavior!"
+
+Skinny leaned close to Old Heck.
+
+"Stop a minute at the Golden Rule," he whispered; "I want to do some
+personal trading."
+
+"If it ain't important," Old Heck answered, "we oughtn't to take the
+time. What do you want to buy?"
+
+"I want to get me a white shirt--"
+
+"Gosh," Old Heck exclaimed, "that bad already! What'll he be in week?"
+
+"Did you speak, Uncle Josiah?" Carolyn asked.
+
+"Huh--no, I--Skinny just thought I was going to hit a rock!" he
+answered, and giving the engine more gas, he headed the car, at a
+thirty-mile clip, toward the east and the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+The party rode in silence. The speed of the car and the fan of the warm
+wind against their faces made conversation difficult. A mile from Eagle
+Butte they crossed the long, low, iron-railed bridge over the Cimarron
+River and climbed out on to the bench away from the bottom lands. From
+that point on to the Quarter Circle KT the road followed the brow of the
+bench on the south side of the river. It was smooth and good.
+
+Carolyn June thrilled at the bigness of it all as they swept quickly
+past the irrigated district close to the town and sped out on the open
+unfenced range. For miles the country was level with here and there
+arroyos cross-sectioning into the river valley. Long stretches with the
+barest undulations made driving a joy and the winding road was a natural
+speedway. Scattered over the plain were dusters of mesquit and in the
+low sags where moisture was near the surface patches of thorns. Carolyn
+June loved the width and breadth of the great range, strange and new to
+her. Here was freedom sweeping as the winds of heaven. Dimly, on the
+southern horizon she could see the blue outline of Sentinel Mountain
+standing alone out on the plain. To the left green pasture-lands lay
+along the river. A narrow strip of cottonwood trees marked the curving
+path of the Cimarron. Beds of white quicksand, treacherous and fatal and
+dreaded by every rider of the open country could be seen, occasionally,
+through openings in the trees showing the bed of the river itself. In
+the distance behind them was Eagle Butte, towering above the town they
+had left a few brief moments before, and beyond that the Costejo
+Mountains, rugged and massive and covered in part on their lower slopes
+with blue-green thickets of pine. Across the river was a choppy sea of
+sand-dunes stretching away to the north as far as sight could reach.
+Here and there a high-flung mound, smooth and oval or capped with ledges
+of black, glistening rode broke the monotony of the view.
+
+Engrossed in the study of the almost primitive picture Carolyn June
+forgot the flight of time and the speed at which they were traveling.
+
+"Yonder's the ranch!" Skinny announced suddenly, turning half around in
+his seat and pointing ahead and to the left toward the river.
+
+The valley widened till it was a mile or more across. The Cimarron swung
+sharply to the north and hugged the foot of the bench as if unwilling
+to spoil the meadowlands past which it flowed. In a great
+half-crescent--"Quarter Circle," Old Heck called it--the green
+basin-like area lay spread out before them. It was a half dozen miles in
+length, reaching from the canyon gate at the upper end of the valley
+where the river turned abruptly northward, to the narrow gorge at the
+south through which it disappeared.
+
+A blue crane lazily flapped across the valley.
+
+"Seven thousand acres in the bottoms," Skinny volunteered.
+
+"Beautiful!" Carolyn breathed.
+
+"Splendid!" Ophelia exclaimed.
+
+Half-way down the valley, a quarter of a mile from the bench, the
+buildings of the Quarter Circle KT clustered together in a group--the
+low adobe house, bunk shack, stables, graineries. Out in the fields were
+hay yards with half-built stacks of alfalfa--over the tops of the stacks
+white tarpaulins. In a pasture beyond the house were horses and cattle,
+perhaps a hundred head in all. Climbing the hills north of the river
+were a number of moving figures, dimly seen through the haze.
+
+"Are those cattle," Carolyn June asked, "those things across the river?"
+
+"Where?" Skinny inquired.
+
+"Over there, on the hills," pointing toward the objects.
+
+Old Heck glancing in the direction she indicated answered for Skinny:
+
+"That's Parker and the boys, going over to the North Springs--they're
+checking up on some yearlings we just turned across from this side of
+the range." Then, speaking to Skinny: "They've already had their dinner
+and won't be in till supper-time--"
+
+"Are they cowboys?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"I reckon," Old Heck responded.
+
+"Is Skinny one?" she inquired naively.
+
+"Sort of, I suppose," Old Heck chuckled while Skinny felt his face
+coloring up with embarrassment, "but not a wild one."
+
+"Oh, who is that?" Carolyn June cried suddenly as a lone rider whirled
+out of the corral, around the stables, and his horse sprang into a
+gallop straight down the valley toward the harrows at its lower end.
+
+"That," Skinny said after a quick glance, "oh, that's th' Ramblin'
+Kid--Where in thunder do you reckon the darned fool's going now?" he
+added to Old Heck.
+
+"Can't tell nothing about where he's going," Old Heck said. "He's liable
+to be heading for anywhere. What's he riding?" he asked without looking
+up.
+
+"Captain Jack," Skinny replied. "Wonder if he ain't going over to Battle
+Ridge to find out if it's so about them sheep coming in over there?"
+
+"Maybe," Old Heck grunted, "either that or else he's took a notion to
+hunt that Gold Dust maverick again"--referring to a strange, wonderfully
+beautiful, outlaw filly that had appeared on the Kiowa range a year
+before and tormented the riders by her almost fiendish cunning in
+dodging corral or rope--"if he's riding Captain Jack that's probably
+what he's after."
+
+"Who is he, what's his real name?" Carolyn June asked with interest.
+
+"Just th' Ramblin' Kid, as far as I know," Old Heck answered.
+
+"Does he live at the Quarter Circle KT?" Carolyn June continued
+curiously as she studied the slender form rising and falling with the
+graceful rhythm of his horse's motion--as if man and animal were a
+single living, pulsing creature.
+
+"Off and on," Old Heck replied, "when he wants to he does and when he
+don't he don't. He's a witch with horses and knows he's always got a job
+if he wants it, and I reckon that makes him kind of undependable about
+staying in any one place long at a time. That's why they call him th'
+Ramblin' Kid--he's liable to ramble any minute."
+
+The car curled down the narrow dugway off of the bench and a moment
+later stopped at the gate in front of the ranch house of the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+"We're here," Skinny said, as Sing Pete, the Chinese cook, appeared at
+the open door.
+
+"They've come, Sing Pete," Old Heck called, climbing out of the car;
+"this is them! Is dinner ready?"
+
+"All leady--waitee!" the Oriental answered, shuffling out to the car to
+help with the luggage and twisting and squirming as he kept bowing in
+greeting.
+
+"This is great!" Carolyn June said, as she stepped on the long cool
+porch in front of the house and paused a moment before entering the open
+door, "--it's cool and pleasant, I'm going to like it," she added, as
+she went into the big low-ceilinged room.
+
+The floor was bare of carpet but spotlessly clean; shades, but no
+curtains, were over the windows; in the center stood a large flat-topped
+reading table; at one end of the table was a Morris chair upholstered in
+brown Spanish leather; a wolf-skin rug was thrown on the floor before an
+old-fashioned Mexican fire-place built into one corner of the room; in
+another corner was a smaller table on which was a graphophone; a rocker
+and several chairs were set about the room and against the north wall;
+between two doors, evidently opening into twin bedrooms, was an upright
+grand piano--.
+
+"Oh, a piano!" Carolyn June exclaimed delightedly noticing the
+instrument. "Who plays?"
+
+"Nobody," Old Heck answered foolishly, "I--I--well, what's the use of
+lying?--I bought it one day, before prohibition come, when I was drunk
+and just had it brought out because I didn't know what else to do with
+it--"
+
+"You funny old uncle!" Carolyn June laughed, "I love you
+already.--Ophelia plays," she added.
+
+"Not so well or so much as Carolyn June," Ophelia said.
+
+"Maybe we'll have some music then some day; that ain't canned," Skinny
+suggested eagerly.
+
+"You women can use them rooms," Old Heck said, referring to the doors on
+each side of the piano. "Parker and me did have them but we've arranged
+to sleep in the bunk-house while you are here."
+
+"Carolyn June and I need but one," Ophelia said, "it isn't fair to run
+you out--"
+
+"You ain't running us," Old Heck answered, "we've talked it over and
+would rather."
+
+After dinner Ophelia and Carolyn June spent their time in settling
+themselves in their rooms. A small bath closet connected the two--crude
+a bit and somewhat unfinished; but a hot tub, the water supplied from a
+tank at the kitchen range, was enjoyed by both.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny helped with the trunks and then withdrew to the
+bunk-house.
+
+Old Heck shaved and Skinny put on a clean shirt.
+
+Skinny was not sure but this official love-making job was going to be
+interesting work and Old Heck himself was uncertain whether to cuss or
+rejoice--sometimes he was almost sorry to-morrow would be Parker's day
+to love and entertain Ophelia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE UNUSED PLATE
+
+At sundown, when Parker and the cowboys rode in from the northern hills,
+the Quarter Circle KT lay under a mantle of sullen, torturing heat. Not
+a breath of air fanned the poplars, straight and motionless, in front of
+the house. The sun buried itself in a solid wall of black that rose
+above the Costejo peaks, hidden now in the shadow of the coming storm.
+The horses were dripping with sweat--their coats as glossy and wet as if
+they had swum the river. At the corral the animals wearily tossed their
+heads, low hung with exhaustion, seeking to shift the sticky clutch of
+head-stall or hackamore, while their riders dismounted and quickly
+removed saddle and riding gear. Freed from their burdens the bronchos
+dragged tired heels through the dust as they whirled and trotted
+unsteadily away to the pasture, eager to roll and relax their aching
+muscles.
+
+"Holy cats, but it's hot!" Bert Lilly exclaimed as he slipped off his
+chaps and started toward the house, leaving saddle and outfit lying
+beside the gate of the corral.
+
+"Better put them things in the shed," Parker advised, "looks like a
+whale of a storm is coming."
+
+"Reckon that's right," Bert answered, turning back and carrying his
+riding gear into the shelter where the other cowboys already had taken
+theirs.
+
+"Wonder if them women come?" Chuck Slithers queried as they moved toward
+the gate.
+
+"More than likely--Bet Skinny and Old Heck have had a hell of a time
+making love to 'em," Charley Saunders remarked.
+
+"You want to be careful about cussin'," Parker warned. "It ain't polite
+when women are around!"
+
+"Listen at him!" Bert said with a laugh, "practising already--Parker is
+getting polite--to-morrow is his day to be affectionate to the widow,
+Ophelia--"
+
+"Which is she, Parker," Charley asked soberly, "a grass or natural?"
+
+"Shut up, you blamed fools, they're liable to hear you," Parker growled
+angrily. "Anyhow, it ain't my fault they come!"
+
+"Parker oughtn't to kick," Chuck chimed in, "look at poor old
+Skinny--he's got a steady job lovin' the other one!"
+
+"Darned if I wouldn't rather love both of them at once," Charley
+observed, "than to take another ride like that was to-day. I'm kind of
+anxious to see what they look like," he continued.
+
+"Well, don't go and get excited at the supper table and eat your pie
+with a spoon!" Chuck laughed.
+
+"Aw, hell," Charley retorted, "I guess I know how to act--"
+
+"Old Heck's going to buy some finger-bowls for you to wash your hands
+in," Bert said scornfully, "him and Parker--"
+
+"Shut up, I told you, you darned idiots," Parker snapped. "They're out
+on the front porch and can hear you!"
+
+"Be careful about your cussin'--" Bert mimicked with a snicker.
+
+Notwithstanding their raillery every man in the group, including Pedro,
+gave unusual care to scrubbing his face and smoothing his hair
+preparatory to entering the kitchen for supper and where they would
+meet, for the first time, Ophelia and Carolyn June.
+
+Sing Pete glided out of the kitchen door and hammered the triangle
+announcing the evening meal.
+
+At the instant Parker and the cowboys filed into the kitchen from the
+rear, Ophelia and Carolyn June, followed by Old Heck and Skinny Rawlins,
+both looking sheepish and somewhat ashamed, stepped into the room from
+the front.
+
+All stood waiting and Old Heck, ill at ease and in a voice that
+trembled, gave the party formal introduction:
+
+"Missus Ophelia Cobb and Miss Carolyn June Dixon," motioning first at
+the widow and then the girl, "Mister Parker, Mister Bert Lilly, Mister
+Charley Saunders, Mister Chuck Slithers, Mister Pedro Valencia--"
+indicating each in turn with his hand as he called the names, "--I
+reckon you're already acquainted with Skinny!"
+
+The cowboys mumbled greetings which Carolyn June and Ophelia graciously
+acknowledged.
+
+Sing Pete had laid two extra covers.
+
+"You boys can take your regular places--all except you, Parker," Old
+Heck said, "--you set at that side on this end," pointing to the seat at
+the left next to the head of the table. "Carolyn June, you can set at
+that end and Ophelia at this end--I'll set here," taking the seat at the
+widow's right and directly across from Parker.
+
+This placed Old Heck, Bert Lilly, Pedro and Skinny Rawlins on the right
+of the table in the order named, Skinny sitting at the end on Carolyn's
+left. On the opposite side sat Parker, Chuck Slithers and Charley. Next
+to Charley, at the right of Carolyn June, and opposite Skinny, was a
+vacant chair.
+
+"Who is this for?" Carolyn June inquired, indicating the unoccupied
+seat.
+
+"That's th' Ramblin' Kid's place," Old Heck replied; "he may come in and
+again he mayn't--"
+
+"It was him you saw to-day," Skinny added, "riding down toward the
+Narrows when we was coming from Eagle Butte."
+
+"Do you know; where he went, Parker?" Old Heck asked.
+
+"No. When we started over to the Springs he was here. Said he reckoned
+we could get along without him and he wouldn't go--"
+
+"He's just got one of them lonesome spells," Bert said, "and wanted to
+get off by himself somewhere."
+
+"He knowed we was going to have company, too," Chuck observed.
+
+"More than likely that's why he went," Skinny suggested.
+
+"Is he afraid of women?" Carolyn June laughed.
+
+"Not particularly," Skinny replied; "he don't bother with them, that's
+all."
+
+"I think he went after that Gold Dust maverick," Charley said. "He'll
+probably come in when he sees how it's going to storm--"
+
+"He don't give a darn for storms," Bert declared. "--Pass them frijoles,
+Pedro.--Remember that time it blowed the hay derrick down and he
+wouldn't come to the house, just stayed out and watched the wind and
+lightning?"
+
+"He is funny that way," Charley admitted.
+
+"Well, he'll never catch that mare," Parker said, "she's too--"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," Chuck interrupted, "look how he has tamed Captain
+Jack," referring to the Ramblin' Kid's own horse, one time a famous
+renegade.
+
+"How was that?" Carolyn June inquired carelessly.
+
+"Captain Jack was an outlaw, too," Bert explained. "He run over on the
+East Mesa on the Una de Gata. Charley and me and th' Ramblin' Kid got
+him to going one day when there was some ranch mares in his bunch. One
+of them was a hand-raised filly, was a pet and she was--well, pretty
+hot! We worked them over the rim of the Mesa and into the canyon, it
+was a box-gorge from where they hit it to its head, and at the upper end
+there was a wing corral. The mare swung up the canyon towards the ranch
+and--Jack wouldn't quit her! We was pounding right on their heels and
+before he knowed it we had them penned--"
+
+"That shows what happens when a he-thing goes locoed over a female
+critter," Chuck whispered to Parker; "you and Old Heck want to watch
+out!"
+
+"Be careful, you danged fool!" Parker hissed as he kicked at Chuck's
+shins under the table. Excited, he made a mistake in the foot he should
+have used and viciously slammed his left toe against Ophelia's dainty
+ankle.
+
+The widow looked startled and suddenly sat up very straight in her
+chair.
+
+Parker realized his error, turned red, choked, leaned close to Chuck and
+breathed hoarsely, "I'll kill you some day for that!"
+
+"He sure went crazy when he found he was corraled," Charley said, "and
+forgot all about the mare."
+
+"He sure did," Bert continued, while Carolyn June listened intently,
+"and was plumb wild to bu'st down the pen and be free again. Charley nor
+me didn't want him and so th' Ramblin' Kid said he'd take him. Just then
+Tony Malush--we was punchin' for him--come riding up and was going to
+shoot Captain Jack on account of wanting to clean the range of the
+outlaw stallions. He yanked out his gun and started to pull a drop on
+old Jack's head. Th' Ramblin' Kid jerked his own forty-four and told
+Tony he'd kill him if he shot the renegade broncho. Tony backed up, but
+it made him sore and he fired th' Ramblin' Kid. The darned little cuss
+set there a minute thinking, then slid off his horse, stripped him of
+riding gear, flung saddle, blanket and bridle over the bars into the
+corral. Before we knowed what he was aiming to do he climbed up and
+dropped down inside, on foot, with just his rope, and faced that outlaw
+battin' around trying to get outside--"
+
+Carolyn June leaned forward on the table listening with breathless
+interest. The others stopped eating and gave all their attention to the
+story Bert was telling.
+
+"Captain Jack saw him, stopped for just a second, sort of surprised,
+then went right at th' Ramblin' Kid--head down, eyes blazin' like coals,
+mouth wide open, ears laid back and strikin' with both front feet--"
+
+"He was some wicked!" Charley ejaculated.
+
+"He sure was," Bert went on. "Tony and Charley and me just set on our
+horses stunned--thinkin' th' Kid had gone clean loco and was flirtin'
+with certain and pronto death. As Captain Jack rushed him th' Ramblin'
+Kid give a jump sideways, his rope went true, a quick run to the
+snubbin' post and he throwed him dead! The broncho hit his feet, give a
+squeal and come straight back! Th' Ramblin' Kid run once more, yankin'
+like blazes to get the slack! That time when he went down--well, before
+we realized it, th' Ramblin' Kid had him bridled and saddled and was
+safe on deck--"
+
+"I'm tellin' you too, Captain Jack went higher than a kite when he felt
+the rowels in his flanks!" Charley interrupted.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid yelled for us to let him out," Bert continued.
+"Charley and me flung down the bars to the corral and Captain Jack come
+out sun-fishin' and hittin' the breeze like a streak of twisted
+lightning! That was just before dinner in the forenoon. That afternoon
+and night th' Ramblin' Kid rode the outlaw to the Hundred and
+One--ninety miles away! We didn't see either of them any more for a
+month and when they hit the Kiowa again Captain Jack was a regular baby
+after th' Ramblin' Kid and would follow him around like a dog--"
+
+"That's the way he's been ever since," Charley said, "them two are just
+like sweethearts."
+
+"Nobody else ever rides him--" Bert added.
+
+"They can't," Chuck said. "He's a one-man horse and th' Ramblin' Kid is
+the man. Captain Jack would die for th' Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+"Yes, and kill any one else if he could!" Parker exclaimed.
+
+"Has no one but--but the Ramblin' Kid"--Carolyn June hesitated queerly
+over the name--"ever ridden him?"
+
+"Never that we know of," Bert said; "several have tried it--the last
+one was a fellow from down on the Chickasaw. Guess he was trying to
+steal him. Anyway, we was all up at Eagle Butte and had left our horses
+out in front of the Occidental Hotel while we was in the dining-room
+eating our dinners. We got outside just in time to see the stranger hit
+the ground and Captain Jack jump on him with all four feet doubled up in
+a bunch--he's buried in that little graveyard you might have noticed on
+the hill this side of the river bridge."
+
+"Killed him?" Carolyn June gasped.
+
+"Seemed like it." Bert answered, with a grin; "anyway, we buried him."
+
+"What did the--the Ramblin' Kid do?" she asked.
+
+"He just laughed kind of soft and scornful," Skinny said, "and got on
+Captain Jack and rode away while we was picking the fellow up!"
+
+During the rest of the meal Carolyn June's eyes looked frequently and
+curiously at the unused plate at her right. She felt, some way, that an
+affront had been shown her by the absence of the one for whom it was
+laid. The other cowboys, it was quite evident to her intuitive woman's
+mind, had looked forward with considerable eagerness to the arrival of
+herself and Ophelia. The Ramblin' Kid, at the very moment almost of
+their reaching the Quarter Circle KT, had deliberately mounted Captain
+Jack and ridden away. It seemed like little less than an intentional
+snub! In addition to the half-resentment she felt, there remained in
+her mind an insistent and tormenting picture of the slender, subtle,
+young rider swaying easily to the swing of Captain Jack as he galloped
+down the valley earlier in the day.
+
+Bert, Charley, Chuck, before the meal was finished cast frankly admiring
+glances at Carolyn June and Skinny plainly was gaining confidence at a
+rapid rate, while Pedro, silent throughout it all, kept, almost
+constantly, his half-closed eyes fixed in a sidelong look at the girl at
+the end of the table.
+
+Attention and admiration, Carolyn June expected from men. They had
+always been hers. She was beautiful and was conscious of it. Had the
+cowboys of the Quarter Circle KT not registered appreciation of her
+charms by their looks Carolyn June would have believed something was
+wrong with her dress or the arrangement of her hair. Her eyes--she was
+sure of them--without effort lured men to her feet.
+
+"It's hotter than blue blazes in here," Old Heck said when all had
+finished; "we'd better go out into the big room. Maybe Carolyn June will
+play some on the piano."
+
+"The boys and me will go on out on the porch," Parker said as they
+reached the front room, speaking significantly to Old Heck, but in a
+tone both Ophelia and Carolyn June heard. "We'll leave you and Skinny
+with the ladies and not intrude--"
+
+"You won't be intruding if you remain," Ophelia said brightly. "Carolyn
+June and I are not partial at all and want you to feel that we enjoy
+meeting you all."
+
+"Yes, stay," Carolyn June added, somewhat reluctant that of the entire
+group only one should be left to the wiles of her unconsciously
+intentional coquetry; "there is plenty of room in here and it's cool--"
+
+"We're much obliged," Bert said, "but we'd better do the way Parker
+mentioned. Anyhow that was the agreement."
+
+"Agreement?" Ophelia spoke with a questioning lift of her brows.
+
+"Yes," Chuck said, evidently trying to relieve the embarrassment of Old
+Heck, Parker and Skinny who looked daggers at Bert when he spoke of an
+agreement, "Parker and Old Heck was to take turn about--"
+
+"Bert meant," Parker interrupted hastily, "--he meant they--they had to
+agree not to loaf in this room before Old Heck would give them jobs on
+the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck added quickly, "that was the bargain on account
+of--of--getting it mussed up and everything and making too much work for
+Sing Pete to clean it up!"
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June looked curiously at each other as if they
+suspected some secret that had to do with their presence at the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+Outside, the cowboys lounged on the porch or lay spread full length on
+the grass smoking their cigarettes, and silent. Each was busy with
+thoughts of his own. Carolyn June had been very impartial during the
+evening meal, distributing her smiles and little attentions freely among
+them all. Now she was sitting at the piano playing snatches of random
+melodies as they came to her mind, while Skinny sat stiffly on a
+high-backed chair at the corner of the instrument.
+
+A drone of voices reached the ears of Parker and the cowboys as Old
+Heck, skilfully led on by Ophelia, told about the ranch, the Kiowa range
+and the traditions of western Texas.
+
+"Can you play _La Paloma?_" Skinny asked as Carolyn June paused after
+running over a dainty and vivacious one-step, memories of which made her
+think of Hartville and the fashionable ballrooms where she had reigned
+as princess at least if not as queen, and which seemed now very far
+away.
+
+"I'm afraid not--unless I have the music, but I'll try," she answered,
+and her fingers again sought the keys.
+
+The dreamy Mexican air drifted seductively out on the sultry motionless
+night.
+
+Bert looked through the window and saw Skinny lean back in his chair,
+his eyes closed and an expression of supreme content stealing over his
+face.
+
+"Skinny's gone--he's surrendered," he said to Chuck, lying full length
+on the porch at his side; "look at the poor cuss with his eyes shut and
+grinning as if he was seeing visions of Paradise!"
+
+"That combination would capture most anybody," Chuck answered. "I'm
+starting to feel affectionate myself."
+
+Bert didn't reply, Chuck having expressed too nearly his own swelling
+emotions.
+
+"Uncle Josiah!" Carolyn June called, suddenly whirling around on the
+piano stool as she finished the last bars of _La Paloma_, "may I have a
+horse?"
+
+Old Heck, grown silent under the spell of the music, and, like Skinny,
+sitting dreaming dreams that almost frightened him, started quickly.
+
+"A--a what?" he asked.
+
+"A horse--" she answered, "a broncho to ride!"
+
+"Oh, uh--sure! Skinny, go get her one!" he replied confusedly.
+
+"Not now," Carolyn June laughed, "to-morrow--any time, whenever I want
+to use it!"
+
+"Can you ride?" Skinny asked eagerly.
+
+"Ever since I can remember," Carolyn June said, "daddy has kept
+horses--I love 'em! Ophelia rides, too," she added.
+
+"In automobiles--" Ophelia corrected.
+
+"That's a good arrangement," Skinny said; "it will make everything work
+out all right."
+
+"I don't understand," Carolyn June said; "what arrangement?"
+
+"We'd better be going to bed, Skinny," Old Heck interposed anxiously,
+"it's getting late!"
+
+"Guess we had," Skinny said reluctantly. "Gosh, it's warm to-night!"
+
+"You can leave the door and windows open," Old Heck said to Ophelia and
+Carolyn June as he and Skinny moved toward the door; "we don't have
+burglars out here."
+
+Parker and the cowboys straightened up when they heard Skinny and Old
+Heck preparing to leave and went around the corner of the building
+toward the bunk-house.
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June stepped out on the porch with Old Heck and
+Skinny.
+
+The air was oppressively still and hot. The black cloud bank that had
+hung over the Costejo Mountains earlier in the evening now covered the
+whole western half of the sky. Night sounds seemed almost stifled by the
+suffocating heat. From the pasture below the stables the faint call of a
+kill-deer suddenly shrilled out, followed by intense silence. No
+lightning flash filled the wall-like blackness slowly creeping over the
+earth from the west. A pale glow on the rim of the rolling hills across
+the valley, herald of the moon not yet above the horizon, intensified
+the pall beneath the approaching cloud. A sullen roar, throbbing
+angrily, rising and falling in volume, could be heard coming out of the
+depths of the storm.
+
+"Acts like it's going to be a bad one," Old Heck observed, studying the
+cloud they all were watching.
+
+"Wicked," Skinny said, "one of them mutterin' kind until it breaks and
+then all hell tears loose."
+
+"If th' Ramblin' Kid is out in the sand-hills to-night he'll--"
+
+A withering stream of fire poured from the cloud almost over their
+heads; it was accompanied by a crashing peal of thunder that rocked the
+earth under their feet and stopped the words on Old Heck's lips. The
+flame lighted the whole valley. They had an instant's glimpse of a
+writhing, overhanging curtain of dust and rain sweeping toward them. In
+the glare they saw a giant cottonwood that stood alone in the meadow
+west of the house reel and sway like a drunken thing and pitch to the
+earth.
+
+"It's here! It struck that tree!" Old Heck yelled. "Run for the
+bunk-house, Skinny, maybe we can make it! You women go inside and shut
+the door!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia sprang--were blown almost--inside the house and
+slammed the door as another bolt fell, flooding the room with a blaze
+that made the light from the lamp on the reading table seem faint and
+dim. Old Heck and Skinny darted around the corner as the tempest pulled
+and tugged at the buildings of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For an hour Ophelia and Carolyn June sat and listened to the storm and
+while it still raged went to bed.
+
+Carolyn June fell asleep watching the incessant glare of the lightning
+as flash after flash filled the room with light and illumined the world
+outside, while the rain and wind lashed the trees in the garden near
+her window. Above the tumult the words of Old Heck: "If the Ramblin' Kid
+is out in the sand-hills to-night"--kept repeating themselves over and
+over in her mind. Try as she would, she could not shut out the picture
+of a slender young rider, alone, far out on the range in the storm-mad
+night, unsheltered from the fury and wrath of the elements.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+A DUEL OF ENDURANCE
+
+When the storm broke over the Quarter Circle KT the Ramblin' Kid was
+twenty miles away following the Gold Dust maverick. Old Heck's surmise
+that he had gone in search of the outlaw filly was but half correct. It
+was not with the definite purpose of trying for the renegade mare that
+he had mounted Captain Jack and headed him toward the Narrows at the
+moment Carolyn June Dixon and Ophelia Cobb arrived at the ranch. Nor was
+it to escape meeting the women. Their coming meant nothing to the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He simply wanted to be alone.
+
+The ride with Parker and the boys to the North Springs meant talk. The
+Ramblin' Kid did not want to talk. He wanted to be with his thoughts,
+his horse and silence.
+
+Should he happen on to the maverick he might give her a run. Since her
+first appearance on the Kiowa, the Ramblin' Kid had seen her many times.
+More than once, from a distance, he had watched the mare, getting a line
+on her habits. Sooner or later he expected to test Captain Jack's
+endurance and skill against the filly's speed and cunning. Without
+success other riders of the Kiowa had tried to corral the outlaw or get
+within roping throw of her shapely head. So far she had proved herself
+faster and more clever than any horse ridden against her. The Ramblin'
+Kid believed Captain Jack was master of the beautiful mare, that in a
+battle of nerve and muscle and wind the roan stallion could run her
+down. Some day he would prove it.
+
+At the Narrows the trail forked. One branch turned sharply to the right
+and followed a coulée out on to the divide between the Cimarron and the
+lower Una de Gata; the other swung toward the river, slipped into it,
+crossed the stream, and was lost in the sand-hills beyond.
+
+The broncho, of his own will, at the prongs of the road wheeled up the
+coulée and climbed out on the level bench south of the Cimarron. A
+half-dozen miles away Sentinel Mountain rose abruptly out of the plain.
+Toward the lone butte Captain Jack turned. He knew the place. On the
+north slope there was a tiny spring, fenced with wire to keep the stock
+from trampling it into a bog; near by was a duster of piñon trees; below
+the seep in the narrow gorge was a thin strip of willows. It was a
+favorite rendezvous sought by the Ramblin' Kid when in moods such as now
+possessed him. Silently he rode to the group of piñons and dismounted.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid stretched himself under the trees while Captain Jack
+drank at the little water course. Then, with his bridle off, the
+broncho fed contentedly on the bunch grass along the hillside. After a
+time Captain Jack quit feeding and came into the shade of the piñons.
+The Ramblin' Kid, flat on his back, stared through the scant foliage of
+the trees into the sky--overcast now with a dim haze, forerunner of the
+storm gathering above the Costejo peaks. Thousands of feet in the air a
+buzzard, merely a black speck, without motion of wings, wheeled in
+great, lazy, ever-widening circles.
+
+As the sun dropped into the cloud bank in the west a band of mares and
+colts came from that direction and rounded a spur of Sentinel Mountain.
+At their heads was the most beautiful horse ever seen on the Kiowa
+range.
+
+In color a coppery, almost golden, chestnut sorrel; flaxen mane and
+tail, verging on creamy white; short-coupled in the back and with
+withers that marked the runner; belly smooth and round; legs trim and
+neat as an antelope's and muscled like a panther's; head small, carried
+proudly erect and eyes full and wonderfully clear and brown.
+
+"Th' filly!" the Ramblin' Kid breathed, "with a bunch of Tony Malush's
+Anchor Bar mares and colts!"
+
+Captain Jack saw the range horses and lifted his head.
+
+"Psst!" the Ramblin' Kid hissed and the neigh was stopped.
+
+The rangers moved toward the east and over the crest of a ridge a
+quarter of a mile away. On the flat beyond the rise they stopped, the
+colts immediately teasing the mares to suck. The filly withdrew a short
+distance from the herd and stood alert and watchful.
+
+For half an hour the Ramblin' Kid studied the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+He looked at the clouds climbing higher and higher in the west, then
+long and thoughtfully at Captain Jack.
+
+"Let's get her, Boy!" he murmured; "let's go an' get her!"
+
+His mind made up, the Ramblin' Kid slipped the bridle again on Captain
+Jack, removed the saddle and with the blanket wiped the sweat from the
+broncho's back, smoothed the blanket, reset the saddle, carefully
+tightened front and rear cinches and mounting the little stallion guided
+him slowly down the ravine in the direction of the horses on the flat. A
+hundred yards away the mares and colts, alarmed by the sudden
+half-whinny, half-snort, from the filly, discovered the approaching
+horse and rider.
+
+Instantly the wild horses crowded closely together and galloped toward
+the Una de Gata. Captain Jack leaped into a run, rushing them. The
+maverick wheeled quickly and dashed away to the south alone.
+
+"Her pet trick!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered as he headed Captain Jack
+after the nimble creature. "She absodamnedlutely will not bunch--seems
+to know a crowd means a corral, a rope and at last a rider on her
+shapely back!"
+
+For two miles it was a race. The Ramblin' Kid held Captain Jack to a
+steady run a couple of hundred yards in the rear of the speeding mare.
+At last he pulled the stallion down to a trot. The Gold Dust maverick
+answered by running another fifty yards and then herself settling into
+the slower stride. "Like I thought," the Ramblin' Kid said to himself,
+"it's a case of wear her out--a case of seasoned old muscle against
+speedy young heels!"
+
+It became a duel of endurance between Captain Jack, wiry, toughened and
+fully matured, with heavier muscles, and the nimble, lighter-footed Gold
+Dust mare.
+
+At dark they were on the edge of the Arroyo Grande and Captain Jack had
+closed the distance between them until less than a hundred yards was
+between the heels of the filly and the head of the stallion behind her.
+She turned east along the arroyo, followed it a mile, seeking a
+crossing, then doubled straight north toward the Cimarron. Captain Jack
+hung to her trail like a hound. In the blackness that preceded the storm
+she could not lose him. With almost uncanny sureness he picked her
+out--following, following, never giving the maverick a moment's rest.
+Yet it seemed that the distance she kept ahead was measured, so alert
+and watchful was she always. Both were dripping with sweat. Try as he
+would, it seemed impossible for Captain Jack to win those few yards
+that would put the filly in reach of the rope the Ramblin' Kid held
+ready to cast until the inky darkness made it impossible to risk a
+throw.
+
+The mare splashed into the Cimarron.
+
+A dazzling zigzag flash of lightning, the first of the storm, and the
+Ramblin' Kid saw the filly struggling in the yellow wind-whipped
+current. A moment later and Captain Jack was swimming close behind her.
+On the north side of the river the mare yielded to the drive of the
+tempest and turned east down the stream. A rocky gorge running at right
+angles toward the north offered shelter from the lashing wind and rain.
+Up the ravine the maverick headed. A rush of muddy water down the canyon
+sent pursued and pursuer slipping and sliding and climbing for safety
+high up on the brush-covered, torrent-swept hillside. The constant blaze
+and tremble of lightning illumined the whole range. A wolf, terrified by
+the storm, seeking cover, crouched in the shelter of a black rock-cliff.
+The Ramblin' Kid saw the creature. His hand instinctively slipped under
+his slicker and gripped the gun at his hip.
+
+"Hell! what's th' use of killin' just to kill?" he murmured. His hold on
+the gun relaxed. A bolt of lightning slivered the rock above the wolf;
+there was an acrid odor of burning hair. The next flash showed the wolf
+stretched dead twenty feet below the cliff. "Well, I'll be damned!" the
+Ramblin' Kid whispered as he bowed his head before the gale, "that was
+funny! Guess God himself figured it was time for that poor cuss to die!"
+
+In the last quarter of the night, at the North Springs, when the storm
+had spent itself and the white moon looked down on a drenched and
+flood-washed earth, the 'Ramblin' Kid dropped his rope over the head of
+the Gold Dust maverick--barely twenty feet ahead of the horse he
+rode--conquered by the superior nerve, muscle and endurance of Captain
+Jack, still the greatest outlaw the Kiowa range had ever known!
+
+The touch of the rope fired the filly to a supreme effort; she lunged
+forward; Captain Jack set himself for the shock--he threw her cold, full
+length, in the soft mud; instantly the little stallion sprang forward to
+give the mare slack, she came to her feet, squealing piteously, and
+plunged desperately ahead--again Captain Jack braced himself for the jar
+and put her down, "It's hell, Little Girl," the Ramblin' Kid said with a
+catch in his throat; "but you've got to learn!" The third time the
+maverick tested the rope and the third time Captain Jack threw her in a
+helpless heap. That time when she got to her feet she stood trembling in
+every muscle until Captain Jack came up to her side and the Ramblin' Kid
+reached out and laid his hand on the beautiful mane. She had learned.
+Never again would the wonderful creature tighten a rope on her neck.
+
+Trailing the filly, the Ramblin' Kid forced her back toward the
+Cimarron, into its raging flood, multiplied a hundredfold by the
+torrential rain of the night; side by side she and Captain Jack swam the
+stream, and in the gray dawn, while the Quarter Circle KT still slept,
+he turned the mare and Captain Jack into the circular corral. He removed
+the saddle from Captain Jack, took the rope from the filly's neck, threw
+the horses some hay and on the dry ground under the shed by the corral,
+lay down and went to sleep.
+
+For fourteen hours, without rest, the Ramblin' Kid had ridden.
+
+The sun was up when Sing Pete electrified the Quarter Circle KT into
+life and action by the jangle of the iron triangle sending out the
+breakfast call.
+
+Old Heck stepped to the door of the bunk-house and looked out across the
+valley. The Cimarron roared sullenly beyond the meadow. The lower field
+was a lake of muddy water, backed up from the gorge below. He glanced
+toward the circular corral.
+
+"What th'--Who left horses up last night?" he asked of the cowboys
+dressing sleepily inside the bunk-house.
+
+"Nobody," Parker answered for the group.
+
+Skinny Rawlins came to the door. "It's Captain Jack," he said, "and--and
+darned if th' Ramblin' Kid ain't got the filly!"
+
+"Aw, he couldn't have caught her last night," Bert Lilly said.
+
+"Well, she's there," Skinny retorted, "somebody's corraled her--that's
+certain!"
+
+Hurriedly dressing, the cowboys crowded out of the bunk-house and down
+to the circular corral. The Gold Dust maverick leaped to the center of
+the enclosure as the group drew near and stood with head up, eyes
+flashing and nostrils quivering, a perfect picture of defiance and fear.
+The swim across the river had washed the mud from her mane and sides and
+she was as clean as if she had been brushed.
+
+"Lord, she's a beauty!" Chuck Slithers exclaimed.
+
+"Sure is--be hell to ride, though!" Bert commented. "Wonder where the
+Ramblin' Kid is--"
+
+"S-h-hh! Yonder he is," Charley Saunders said, observing the figure
+under the shed, "--asleep. Come on away and let him rest!"
+
+"Breakfast's ready anyhow," Old Heck added.
+
+"And Skinny ain't shaved or powdered his face yet--" Chuck laughed;
+"these lovers ought to fix themselves up better!"
+
+"Shut up, you blamed idiot, ain't you got no respect?" Parker said as
+they turned toward the house.
+
+"Listen at Parker, he's one of them, too," Chuck continued; "this is his
+day to be a sweetheart to the widow!"
+
+"I'd rather have Skinny's job," Bert said with a snicker, "I'd be afraid
+of Ophelia--"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She acts too gentle to start with"--"
+
+"Give her time," Charley suggested, "she'll bu'st loose when she gets
+better acquainted!"
+
+"Her and Old Heck got pretty well introduced last night, holding hands
+the way they did, and--"
+
+"Dry up," Old Heck interposed with a foolish grin, "and come on to
+breakfast!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia were charmingly fresh and interesting in dainty
+blue and lavender morning gowns. A bowl of roses, plucked by Ophelia
+from the crimson rambler by the south window, rested in the center of
+the table. The cowboys saw the flowers and exchanged glances. Old Heck
+and Skinny blushed.
+
+Carolyn June noticed the vacant place at her right.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid ain't up yet," Skinny volunteered.
+
+"Then the storm did drive him to shelter, after all?" Carolyn June asked
+with the barest trace of contempt in her voice.
+
+"I wouldn't hardly say that," Bert Lilly remarked, holding his cup for
+Sing Pete to fill with coffee; "--he brought in the Gold Dust maverick."
+
+"Yes," Chuck said with mock gravity, "it was quite an undertaking--he
+sprinkled salt on her tail--"
+
+"How clever!" Ophelia exclaimed, looking interested, "and is that the
+way they catch--mavericks?" stumbling over the unusual word.
+
+"Chuck's joking," Parker said; "he always was foolish--"
+
+"Uncle Josiah," Carolyn June asked suddenly, "can you take Ophelia to
+Eagle Butte to-day?"
+
+"I--Parker can," Old Heck answered, "if he can drive the car. Still
+there are probably some pretty bad washouts--"
+
+Ophelia looked quickly at Old Heck, interested by the note she detected
+in his voice.
+
+"I--I--got some work to do," he continued, "if you could wait till
+to-morrow"--addressing the widow--"I could more than likely go myself--"
+
+"I guess I can handle the car all right," Parker said, looking
+significantly at Old Heck; "the roads will be dried up in a little
+while."
+
+"It's Parker's day anyhow and he don't want to miss--" Chuck started to
+say.
+
+"After breakfast," Old Heck interrupted, scowling at the cowboy, "Chuck
+and Pedro had better both ride-line on the upper pasture. The cattle
+probably went against the fence in the storm last night and knocked off
+a lot of wire. Of course, Skinny will have to stay here," he added, "and
+the rest of us, except Parker, ought to look after the fences in the
+east bottoms--from the looks of the river this morning a lot of posts
+and wire must be washed out."
+
+"Whoever gets up the saddle horses had better catch them in the pasture
+corral," Parker declared, "it won't do to turn them in with that wild
+filly and Captain Jack."
+
+"I think I shall go see that wonderful filly," Carolyn June said as
+they left the table, "she may be the particular broncho I will want to
+ride--"
+
+"Not much," Old Heck objected, "these outlaws ain't exactly the kind of
+horses for women to fool with. You can use Old Blue. He's gentle."
+
+"Did I tell you I wanted a 'gentle horse'?" Carolyn June asked with a
+bit of impatience.
+
+"No, but I figured that was the kind you'd need on account of being
+raised back east--"
+
+"Well, I am going to see the Gold Dust maverick," Carolyn June said with
+emphasis, "and if she suits me I'll--I'll ride her!"
+
+"I'll go with you," Skinny offered as Carolyn June stepped from the
+kitchen door and started toward the circular corral.
+
+"Never mind!" she spoke shortly, "--you can go catch 'Old Blue'
+and"--with scorn in her voice--"if he's able to walk, maybe it will be
+safe for me to ride him to the end of the lane and back--Ugh! 'Old
+Blue!' The very name sounds as if he was dead!"
+
+"Old Blue's a good horse," Skinny protested, "--we work him on the hay
+derrick--"
+
+But Carolyn June was gone, walking rapidly across the open ground in the
+direction of the corral in which the Ramblin' Kid had turned Captain
+Jack and the Gold Dust filly.
+
+"Jumpin' eats!" Bert exclaimed as the cowboys started toward the stable,
+"didn't the young one show her teeth sudden?"
+
+"Skinny's going to have his hands full if he don't look out," Charley
+Saunders remarked sagely. "Still that kind ain't as dangerous as the
+ones that act plumb gentle like the widow has acted so far."
+
+"Any female is treacherous," Chuck observed grimly. "They're just like
+cinch-binders--you can't tell when they're going to rare up and fall
+over backwards!"
+
+"I'll bet Ophelia turns out to be a W.C.T.U. or something," Bert
+predicted solemnly.
+
+"If she does it's all off with the Quarter Circle KT, because Parker and
+Old Heck are both in love already," Charley said as they rounded the
+corner of the barn.
+
+Carolyn June gave a gasp of admiration as she stepped up to the circular
+corral and saw the Gold Dust maverick closely.
+
+"Oh, you beauty! You adorable beauty!" she breathed.
+
+Captain Jack and the filly were near the fence next to the shed. Carolyn
+June passed in between the low building and the corral to be closer to
+the horses. The sky was cloudless and a wonderful liquid blue; the sun
+glistened on the rich, golden, brown sides of the mare and made her coat
+shine like delicate satin. When Captain Jack and the filly saw Carolyn
+June they stood for a moment as rigid as though cast in bronze, heads
+held high, eyes fixed curiously yet without fear on the slender girlish
+figure.
+
+Captain Jack took a step forward in a half-challenging way. The
+maverick stood perfectly still.
+
+"You beauty," the girl repeated, "you wonderful golden beauty! You are
+going to be my horse--I'm going to ride you--_just you_--"
+
+"You'll get you're neck broke if you do!" a voice, deliberate and of
+peculiar softness, said behind her.
+
+Carolyn June turned, startled, toward the shed from where the voice had
+come. She knew, even before she looked, that the speaker was the
+Ramblin' Kid. Evidently he had just awakened. He had not risen and still
+lay stretched on the ground, his head resting on the saddle he had used
+for a pillow. Carolyn June could not help wondering how long he had been
+lying there studying her back. The thought confused her. In spite of her
+efforts at self-control a slow flush crept over her cheeks. The Ramblin'
+Kid saw it and the faintest hint of a smile showed on his lips--or was
+the suggestion of amusement in the twinkling glance of his eyes? Carolyn
+June could not tell. The subtlety and queerly humble impudence of it
+filled her with anger.
+
+While she looked into his eyes Carolyn June appraised the physical
+appearance of the Ramblin' Kid. Certainly he was not handsome, sprawling
+there in his rough clothing. She knew his age was somewhere near her
+own, perhaps he was a year, surely no more than that, older than
+herself. Yet there was an expression about the face that suggested much
+experience, a sort of settled maturity and seriousness. His mouth,
+Carolyn June thought, showed a trace of cruelty--or was it only
+firmness? The teeth were good. If he stood up her own eyes would have to
+angle upward a trifle to look into his and if hers were brown the
+Ramblin' Kid's were positively black--yes, she would say, a brutal,
+unfathomable black, penetrating and hard. His cheeks were smooth and
+almost sallow they were so dark, and she could tell there was not an
+ounce of flesh save tough sinewy muscle on his body. He was fully
+dressed except for the white weather-beaten Stetson lying beside the
+saddle and the chaps and spurs kicked off and tossed with the bridle and
+rope near by on the ground. A dark woolen shirt open at the throat, blue
+overalls faded and somewhat dingy, black calfskin boots on a pair of
+feet that could not have been larger than sixes, comprised his attire.
+
+So this was the Ramblin' Kid, Carolyn June thought. Someway she had
+pictured him a blue-eyed, yellow-haired sort of composite Skinny
+Rawlins, Chuck, Bert Lilly, Charley Saunders all in one and with the
+face of a boy in the teens!
+
+He was different. She wondered, and almost laughed at the absurd
+thought, if he was bow-legged. A glance at the straight limbs stretched
+in repose on the ground dispelled the doubt.
+
+The suddenness with which the Ramblin' Kid had spoken and the tone he
+used, Carolyn June thought, was utterly unfair. She felt as if she had
+been ambushed. How could she know he was sleeping under the shed? Why
+wasn't he in the bunk-house where he belonged? Her own embarrassment
+made her cross. She wanted to say "damn!" and stamp her foot or throw
+something at him, lying there so completely self-possessed! Instead, she
+looked steadily into the eyes of the Ramblin' Kid. Someway as she looked
+they seemed not so unkind, more sorrowful they were, on closer scrutiny,
+than cruel. She started to speak, her cheeks began to burn--
+
+Without a word she turned and walked rapidly toward the house.
+
+As she moved away Carolyn June felt something snap at her knee. She did
+not stop. Reaching down she gathered the soft folds of the loose gown
+about her and hurried away from the corral.
+
+"God!" the Ramblin' Kid whispered as he straightened up, "she's built
+like th' Gold Dust maverick--an' just as game! They was made for each
+other."
+
+He went to the corral and leaned against the fence, studying the filly
+thoughtfully, while Captain Jack with a friendly whinny came and nosed
+at the fingers thrust through the bars. After a time the mare cautiously
+moved up beside the roan stallion and stretched her own velvety muzzle
+toward the hand the Ramblin' Kid held out.
+
+"You want to be loved, too, you little devil!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed
+gently, "--you thought I was mean last night, didn't you?"
+
+For a while he fooled with the horses, then started toward the kitchen.
+A few steps from where Carolyn June had been standing he glanced down at
+a broad pink satin elastic band lying on the ground. It had been
+fastened with a silver butterfly clasp. The clasp was broken. The
+Ramblin' Kid stooped and picked it up.
+
+"I'll be--!" he chuckled as he fingered, almost reverently, the dainty
+thing, "it's a--a--darned pretty little jigger!"
+
+Smiling whimsically the Ramblin' Kid slipped his find in his pocket and
+sought Sing Pete to tease him for a bite of breakfast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+YOU'RE A BRUTE
+
+Carolyn June went directly to her room when she reached the house. She
+wished to investigate the feeling of looseness at her knee. The satin
+band that belonged there was gone. She felt her cheeks grow hot.
+Doubtless she had lost it at the corral--the Ramblin' Kid would pick it
+up! The thought tormented her. Once more she wanted to swear vigorously
+and with extreme earnestness. Instead she--laughed! It was all so
+absurd. The strange interest this rough cowboy inspired in her; the
+confusion she felt when he had spoken to her--no man among all the
+clever, carefully groomed, ultra-sophisticated suitors she had left in
+Hartville ever stirred her emotions as had the Ramblin' Kid with a few
+drawling words and one long look from his black, inscrutable eyes. That
+look! She had the feeling, someway, that her whole soul was naked before
+it. She was almost afraid of him. It was silly! She detested
+him--or--anyway, he needed punishment! No, he wasn't worth it! He was
+only an ignorant rider of the range--why trouble at all about him?
+
+Quickly changing her dress for a riding suit of khaki--the skirt
+sensibly divided--and the morning slippers for stout, tan, laced boots,
+she stepped into the front room. Ophelia was in her own room dressing to
+go to town. Carolyn June heard voices in the kitchen. Sing Pete's shrill
+chatter mingled with an occasional slow word from the Ramblin' Kid.
+Thought of the garter she had lost flashed into her mind. Perhaps the
+cowboy had not found it. She would run out to the corral and see.
+Passing quickly out the front way Carolyn June hastened again toward the
+circular corral. Old Heck and Parker were at the garage getting the car
+ready for the drive to Eagle Butte; Pedro and Chuck were riding across
+the valley toward the upper pasture. The other cowboys saddled their
+horses near the barn.
+
+As she walked, Carolyn June scanned the ground. At the corral she looked
+carefully where she had been standing. Her search was fruitless. She
+smiled queerly. Again she glanced at the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+"You darling," she whispered, "I am going to have you--I am--I
+absolutely am!"
+
+Turning, her eyes rested on the saddle, chaps and riding gear lying in
+the shed where the Ramblin' Kid had slept. Carolyn June stepped close to
+the outfit.
+
+"I have a notion to--to spit on you!" she said vehemently, "or kick--"
+but she didn't finish the sentence. One tan shoe had been drawn back as
+if to be swung viciously at the inoffensive pile of riding gear; it
+paused, suspended, then gently, almost caressingly, pushed the leather
+chaps which suddenly seemed to Carolyn June to look limp and worn and
+pathetically tired.
+
+As Carolyn June returned to the house Parker drove the car around to the
+front; Old Heck joined the cowboys, already mounting their bronchos, and
+with them rode down the lane in the direction of the lower field. Skinny
+came out of the barn, leading Pie Face and Old Blue. He left the horses
+standing and at the back-yard gate overtook Carolyn June. As they
+stepped inside the yard the Ramblin' Kid appeared at the kitchen door.
+
+"There's the Ramblin' Kid now," Skinny said as they approached. "Hello,
+Kid," he continued, "I see you got the filly--Excuse me, I guess you
+folks ain't acquainted."
+
+Haltingly he introduced them.
+
+Without the flicker of an eyelid the Ramblin' Kid looked into the eyes
+of Carolyn June. He had seen her coming from the corral and guessed
+correctly the reason for her second visit to the enclosure. Indeed at
+that moment his hand was in his pocket toying with the delicate souvenir
+for which she had gone to search. Yet his face was utterly without
+emotion as he lifted his hat and stood aside, acknowledging with formal
+words the introduction. "It's sure a surprisin' day an' pleasant--" he
+finished, emphasizing "surprisin'" and "pleasant" till Carolyn June
+could have sworn there was a veiled taunt in the words he spoke.
+
+She was equally calm. Smiling sweetly and with not a hint of a previous
+meeting she said: "I think I have heard of the Ramblin' Kid." Pausing a
+moment: "It's always peaceful after a storm!" she added enigmatically.
+And the Ramblin' Kid, as Skinny and the girl passed around to the front
+of the house, knew that Carolyn June had hurled a lance!
+
+"A natural born heart-breaker," he said to himself as he went toward the
+bunk-house, "a genuine, full-grown vampire, part intentional an' part
+because it's in her--but she's a pure-bred--" He grew pensive and
+silent, a look of gentleness came to his face, followed quickly by an
+expression of extreme humility. "Oh, hell," he exclaimed aloud, "what's
+th' use!" Entering the building the Ramblin' Kid seated himself at the
+table at the end of the room. He pulled the pink satin elastic from his
+pocket and gazed at it, rubbing the soft fabric tenderly with the end of
+his thumb. His eyes lighted suddenly with anger and contempt. He threw
+the band violently across the room into a corner. "I wasn't raised to
+associate with luxuries like that!" he exclaimed with mingled bitterness
+and scorn, "--a damned ign'rant cow-puncher dreamin' dreams about an
+angel!" he finished with a harsh laugh. For a while he sat silent,
+gazing down at the table. Then he got up, went over and lifted the
+garter from where it had fallen and replaced it in his pocket. "Oh,
+well," he chuckled less bitterly and whimsically added, "--any idiot can
+smile at th' mornin' star even if th' darned thing is beyond his reach!
+Besides, she don't need to ever know--" Leaving the bunk-house he went
+toward the circular corral.
+
+Parker climbed from the car and entered the house, asking if Ophelia was
+ready.
+
+"In just a moment!" the widow called from her room.
+
+"What are you and me going to do?" Skinny asked Carolyn June as they
+stepped on to the porch, "take a ride?"
+
+"On 'Old Blue'?" Carolyn June questioned scornfully, then, with
+resignation, as they went inside the house: "Oh, well--I suppose, after
+a while. I have some letters to write now," and she entered her room
+leaving Skinny standing perplexed by her varying moods. He looked
+foolishly at Parker a moment. Going to the graphophone he put on a
+record--
+
+  "_I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air_!"
+
+wailed disconsolately through the house.
+
+"Good heavens," Carolyn June called, "do you blow bubbles this early in
+the morning?"
+
+"Don't you like it?" Skinny asked soberly. "I thought that was a pretty
+good tune."
+
+"I'm crazy about it!" Carolyn June answered sarcastically. "There and
+then, but not here and now--"
+
+"Where and when?" Skinny queried innocently.
+
+"In the valley of the moon at the end of a perfect day!" she laughed
+back. "--Forgive me, I couldn't help it!"
+
+"What does she mean?" Skinny asked Parker in a whisper. "Is she making
+fun of me?"
+
+"No, you blamed fool," Parker replied, "she feels good and is just
+joking--"
+
+Skinny brightened up immediately.
+
+"That's a good one," he called to Carolyn June with a snicker; "I never
+thought of it before!"
+
+A ripple of laughter came from Carolyn June's room.
+
+"Really, I don't mind," she said; "play _Bubbles_ as much as you like--I
+think it's rather soothing, but truly I must write my letters now so
+Ophelia can take them to town."
+
+Half an hour later Ophelia appeared dressed for the drive to Eagle
+Butte. Carolyn June and Skinny went out on the front porch and watched
+the widow and Parker climb into the Clagstone "Six." As Parker started
+the engine Skinny suddenly called to him. Parker sat with his foot on
+the clutch while Skinny hurried out to the car.
+
+"What do you want?" he asked impatiently, "We've got to be going!"
+
+"Lean over here," Skinny said, his face flushing scarlet, "I want to
+tell you something."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Stop at the Golden Rule and get me a white shirt size number fifteen
+and--a purple necktie if they've got any!" Skinny whispered.
+
+Ophelia heard and choked back a laugh.
+
+"Thunderation, he's plumb locoed!" Parker exclaimed, as he jammed the
+clutch into gear and the car sprang forward.
+
+"Don't forget it, Parker," Skinny called earnestly, "I actually need
+it!"
+
+Carolyn June and Skinny stood on the porch and watched the car climb the
+grade and out on to the bench. The storm of the night before had washed
+the earth clean and cooled the air. A faint after-breeze fanned the
+tree-tops. The Costejo peaks stood out, with stereoscopical clearness,
+against a cloudless sky. The day was a challenge to one who loved the
+open.
+
+"You may saddle 'Old Blue,'" Carolyn June said to Skinny. "--I'll see if
+I can 'stick on him' long enough to ride as far as the river!"
+
+"He's already saddled," Skinny replied, "him and Old Pie Face both."
+
+"Man, dear," she cried in mock misunderstanding, "you surely are not
+expecting me to ride the two of them at once!"
+
+"No," he answered meekly, "Old Pie Face is my horse, I'm going to ride
+him and go with you."
+
+"Indeed!" she exclaimed, then laughing mischievously. "Oh,
+certainly--that's a good one--I hadn't thought of it before!"
+
+"Don't you want me to go?" Skinny asked doubtfully.
+
+"Surely. I should be utterly unhappy if you didn't--I'll get my hat."
+
+"Blamed if I can figure her out," Skinny said to himself as Carolyn June
+ran lightly into the house. "She keeps a feller freezing to death and
+burning up all at once--sort of in heaven and hell both mixed together."
+
+A white, medium-brimmed felt hat was set jauntily on the fluffy brown
+hair when she reappeared. Skinny's heart leaped hungrily. Carolyn June
+was a picture of perfect physical fitness. The cowboy silently wondered
+how long he could keep from making "a complete, triple-expansion, darned
+fool of himself!"
+
+"I'm glad you want me to go," he said, renewing the conversation as they
+started around the house, "because I wanted to and, well, anyhow it's my
+job--"
+
+"What do you mean 'your job'?" Carblyn June asked quickly.
+
+Skinny was stricken silent. He realized he was on dangerous ground. He
+wasn't sure it would be wise to tell her what he meant. Someway he felt
+Carolyn June would resent it if she knew he was drawing wages for
+acting the lover to her. It seemed wholly impossible for him, just at
+that moment, to explain that, although Old Heck was paying him ten
+dollars a month extra salary to court, temporarily, his attractive
+niece, he, Skinny Rawlins, would personally be overjoyed to reverse the
+order and give his entire income, adding a bonus as well, for the
+privilege of continuing indefinitely and of his own choice the more than
+pleasant employment. Yet this was the literal truth, so quickly had his
+susceptible heart yielded to the charms of the girl. But he dared not
+try to tell her. He knew the words would not come and if they did he
+would probably choke on them and she, not believing the truth, would
+detest him. Skinny had heard of men who courted girls of wealth to win
+their money and with sincere contempt he despised these degenerates of
+his sex. Now, suddenly, he felt that he himself was in their class. The
+thought made him sick, actually caused his stomach to quiver with a sort
+of nausea.
+
+"Skinny Rawlins," Carolyn June said sternly, stopping and looking
+straight at the confused and mentally tortured cowboy, "tell me--and
+don't lie--what you meant when you said to go with me was 'your job!'"
+
+Skinny raised his eyes; in them was piteous appeal.
+
+"I meant--I--" he hesitated.
+
+"Tell me the truth," she ordered relentlessly, "or I'll--I'll--do
+something awful!"
+
+"I meant it was my job--" suddenly inspired, he blurted out, "to ride
+Old Pie Face. He's--he's dangerous and has to be rode every so often to
+keep him from getting worse and to-day's the day to ride him!"
+
+"Skinny," Carolyn June spoke gently, "I feel sorry for you. I want to
+like you and I'm disappointed. It breaks my heart to say it but you are
+a liar--you're just a common double dashed liar--like Uncle Josiah was
+when he sent that telegram saying there was smallpox at the Quarter
+Circle KT--"
+
+"Am I?" Skinny asked humbly.
+
+"You are," she retorted impatiently, "and you know it--"
+
+"Do I?" as if dazed.
+
+"You do, and did all the time--"
+
+"Did I?" he felt like a parrot.
+
+"You did!" Carolyn June snapped. "Good heavens," she continued, "why do
+men think they have to lie to women? Common sense and experience ought
+to teach them they can never fool them long--I hoped out here in the big
+West I would find one man who wouldn't lie--"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid won't," Skinny said as if suddenly struck by a bright
+thought, "--he wouldn't lie to you!"
+
+Carolyn June laughed scornfully.
+
+"Oh, yes he would," she declared, "all of them do--every last one of
+the poor frail"--contemptuously--"turtles!"
+
+"But th' Ramblin' Kid wouldn't," Skinny persisted; "he won't lie to
+anybody."
+
+"Not even to a woman?" she questioned incredulously.
+
+"No," he answered positively, "I'm sure he wouldn't."
+
+"And why wouldn't he?" she asked.
+
+"Well," Skinny replied, "for one thing he don't give a darn. Th'
+Ramblin' Kid don't care what anybody, man, woman or anything else thinks
+about him or whether they like what he says or not so there ain't any
+use of him lying. Maybe he wouldn't tell what was in his mind unless you
+asked him, but if you did ask him he'd say what it was whether he
+thought it satisfied you or not. He's funny that way. He just naturally
+don't seem to be built for telling lies and he wouldn't do it--"
+
+"Oh, Skinny, poor simple Skinny!" Carolyn June laughed. "You don't know
+men--men when they're dealing with women! Through all the unnamed years
+of my life I've never found one man who was absolutely truthful when
+talking with a 'female.' They think they have to lie to women. They do
+it either to keep from hurting them--or else they do it intentionally
+for the purpose of hurting them, one or the other! And they are so
+stupid! No man can hide anything long from a woman--"
+
+Reaching over she jerked a spray of tiny roses from the rambler at the
+window near which they were standing; tapping the blossoms against her
+lips, beginning to smile whimsically, she continued: "Why, I can almost
+read your own thoughts right now! If I wanted to I could tell you more
+about what is in your mind than you yourself could tell--"
+
+"Could you?" Skinny said, a guilty look coming in his eyes.
+
+"For one thing," Carolyn June went on, ignoring the inane question, "you
+are in love--"
+
+"I ain't!" the over-hasty denial slipped from his lips unintentionally.
+
+"Lie!" she laughed, "you can't help telling 'em, can you? And you are
+thinking--" She paused while her eyes rested demurely on the roses in
+her hand.
+
+"What am I thinking?" Skinny asked breathlessly.
+
+Before she could reply an agonized spitting, yowling and hissing,
+accompanied by the rattle of tin, came from behind the kitchen. "What's
+that?" Carolyn June cried half frightened at the instant a yellow house
+cat, his head fastened in an old tomato can, came bouncing backward,
+clawing and scratching, from around the corner.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Skinny exclaimed, "it's that darned cat again--Sing Pete
+goes and dabs butter in the bottoms of the cans and the fool cat sticks
+his head in trying to lick it out and gets fastened. It looks like the
+blamed idiot would learn sometime. It's what I call a rotten joke
+anyhow!"
+
+Sing Pete appeared at the kitchen door cackling with fiendish joy at the
+success of his ruse.
+
+Carolyn June stared, apparently stricken dumb by the antics of the
+struggling animal.
+
+"Sun-fish! Go to it--you poor deluded son-of-sorrow!" The Ramblin' Kid,
+who, unnoticed by Carolyn June and Skinny, at that moment had come from
+the corral and stood leaning against the fence, chuckled half pityingly,
+yet making no move toward the creature.
+
+"Catch him and take it off," Carolyn June cried, "it's hurting him!"
+
+Skinny started toward the rapidly gyrating jumble of claws, can and cat.
+
+"I will if the darn' thing'll hold still a minute!" he said.
+
+Carolyn June looked at the Ramblin' Kid, still leaning against the fence
+watching the cat's contortions.
+
+"Why don't you help him?" she asked impatiently. "Skinny can't do it
+alone--can't you see it's choking?"
+
+"No, he's not choking," the Ramblin' Kid replied without moving from
+where he stood, "--he's sufferin' some, but he ain't chokin'. He's got
+quite a lot of wind yet an' is gettin' some valuable experience. That
+cat's what I call a genuine acrobat!" he mused as the terrified
+creature leaped frantically in the air and somersaulted backward,
+striking and clawing desperately to free itself of the can tightly
+wedged on its head.
+
+Carolyn June was accustomed to obedience from men creatures. The
+Ramblin' Kid's indifference to her request, together with his apparent
+cruelty in refusing to aid in relieving the cat from its torturing
+dilemma, angered and piqued the girl.
+
+"Help Skinny take it off, I tell you!" she repeated, "haven't you a
+spark of sympathy--"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid resented her tone and detected as well the note of
+wounded pride. Instinctively he felt that at that instant the cat, with
+Carolyn June, had become a secondary consideration.
+
+"Well, some, I reckon," he answered, speaking deliberately, "generally a
+little, but right now darned little for that old yaller cat. I figure
+he's a plumb free moral agent," he continued as if speaking to himself;
+"he got his head in that can on his own hook an' it's up to him to get
+it out or let it stay in _this time_, just as he pleases--"
+
+"But Sing Pete put butter in the can!" Carolyn June said, arguing.
+
+"He's done it before," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a glance at the
+Chinese cook still gleefully enjoying the results of his cruel joke. "He
+won't no more. But that don't make no difference," he laughed, "th'
+darn' cat hadn't ought to have yielded to temptation!"
+
+"You're a brute!" she exclaimed passionately, "--an ignorant, savage,
+stupid brute--" The harsh words sprang from the lips of Carolyn June
+before she thought. The Ramblin' Kid flinched involuntarily as if he had
+been struck full in the face. A look came in his eyes that almost made
+her regret what she had said.
+
+"I reckon I am," he replied, gazing steadily at her without feeling or
+resentment and speaking slowly, "yes, I'm an 'ign'rant, savage, stupid
+brute,'" deliberately accenting each word as he repeated the stinging
+phrase, "--but--what's the use?" he finished with a mirthless laugh.
+"Anyhow," he added, glancing again at the cat and Skinny's futile
+efforts to catch it, "I ain't interferin' this time, at least, with that
+damned cat!"
+
+Carolyn June knew she had hurt with her unintentionally cruel words. For
+an instant there was a humane impulse to temper their severity.
+
+"I--I--didn't--" she started to say, but the Ramblin' Kid had turned
+and, ignoring the cat, Skinny and herself, was leaning on the fence with
+his back to her, looking off across the valley, apparently lost in
+thought. She did not finish the sentence.
+
+The cat bucked its way to the fence. As it went under the wire the can
+caught on a barb of the lower strand. Jerking furiously, the animal
+freed itself from the can, leaving splotches of hair and hide on the
+ragged edges of tin. Still spitting and clawing, with its tail standing
+out like an enormous yellow plume, it dashed toward the barn, eager to
+put distance between itself and the thing that had been torturing it.
+
+"Gosh a'mighty," Skinny said, sweating with the exertion and the
+excitement of trying to catch the cat, "it'll be noon before we get
+started for that ride!"
+
+"We'll go now," Carolyn June answered, "--before some other horrible
+thing occurs."
+
+"We're going over to the river and maybe out on the sand-hills a ways,"
+Skinny casually remarked to the Ramblin' Kid as Carolyn June and he
+passed through the gate. "Oh, yes," he added, "Chuck said tell you he
+took your rope--there was a weak spot in his and he didn't get it fixed
+yesterday!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid did not answer.
+
+Skinny had been wrong about the Ramblin' Kid not caring what any one
+thought of him. He was supersensitive of his roughness, his lack of
+education and conscious crudeness, and the words of Carolyn June were
+still in his mind. When Skinny and the girl were going toward their
+horses the Ramblin' Kid turned and entered the gate. Sing Pete was still
+at the kitchen door.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid stepped up to him.
+
+"You damned yellow heathen," he said in a level voice, "if you ever play
+that trick on that cat again th' Quarter Circle KT will be shy a cook
+an' your ghost'll be headin' pronto for China!"
+
+Without waiting for a reply he went back to the gate and watched Skinny
+and Carolyn June ride down the lane. The deftness and skill with which
+the girl handled the horse she rode forced a smile of admiration to the
+lips of the Ramblin' Kid. She sat close in the saddle and a glance
+showed she was a born master of horses. "She's a wonder," he said to
+himself, "a teetotal wonder--" A shade of melancholy passed over his
+face. "An ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" he murmured bitterly, "well,
+I reckon she was right--Hell!" he exclaimed aloud, "I wonder if
+Skinny'll remember about that upper crossin' bein' dang'rous with
+quicksand after the rain--Guess he did," he finished as the two riders
+turned to the right toward the lower and more distant river ford and
+disappeared among the willows and cottonwood trees that fringed the
+Cimarron.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+THE GREEDY SANDS
+
+When the Ramblin' Kid, working the rope-conquered and leg-weary Gold
+Dust maverick from the North Springs back to the Quarter Circle KT,
+crossed the Cimarron at dawn Captain Jack and the filly swam a raging,
+drift-burdened river. Less than twelve hours later Carolyn June and
+Skinny, at the lower ford, rode into a stream that again was normal. Old
+Blue and Pie Face splashed through water barely reaching the stirrup
+leathers. Only the fresh rubbish flung out on the meadows by the flood's
+quick anger or lodged in the willows, still bent by the pressure of the
+torrent that had rushed over them and slimy with yellow sediment left on
+their branches and leaves, told the story of the swift rise and fall of
+the Cimarron the night before.
+
+On the bluff north of the river Carolyn June and Skinny checked their
+horses while the girl gazed down on the panorama of green fields, narrow
+lanes, corrals and low buildings of the Quarter Circle KT. The sight
+thrilled her. On all the Kiowa range there was no more entrancing view.
+
+"It's kind of pretty, ain't it?" Skinny ventured.
+
+"Beautiful!" she breathed.
+
+"I'd--I'd like to stand here and look at it always--if you--if you'd
+enjoy it!" he said and was instantly appalled by his own audacity.
+
+Carolyn June flashed a quick look at him.
+
+"We had better go on," she said, then added lightly: "Does it always
+affect you so when you get this view of the valley?"
+
+"No. But, well, somehow it's different this morning--maybe it's because
+you are here!" he blurted out hurriedly.
+
+"Please," she said, starting Old Blue toward the west along the crest of
+the ridge, "don't be sentimental. I'm afraid--" she added, intending to
+say it would spoil their ride.
+
+"You needn't be, with me along!" Skinny interrupted hastily,
+misinterpreting her meaning.
+
+She laughed and without explaining urged her horse forward.
+
+Skinny followed pensively on Old Pie Face.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid, while going from barn to corral, glanced across the
+valley and saw Carolyn June and Skinny as they rode along the ridge. It
+was two miles from the ranch to the bluff on which they were riding, but
+so clear was the rain-washed air that the horses and riders were easily
+recognized. He watched them until they reached the corner of the upland
+pasture. There the roads from the lower and upper fords came together.
+The couple turned north along the fence and disappeared beyond the
+ridge.
+
+For a mile Carolyn June and Skinny rode without speaking. He felt
+already a reaction from his over-boldness of a while ago and silently
+swore at himself for his rashness. She was not eager to resume a
+conversation that had threatened a painfully emotional turn. She was
+quite content to enjoy the fresh air of the morning, the changing scenes
+through which they passed and the easy motion of the horse on which she
+was mounted.
+
+The bronchos pricked forward their ears at the sound of galloping hoofs.
+
+"Somebody's coming," Skinny spoke as Pedro, riding rapidly toward them,
+rounded the point of a low hill a little distance ahead.
+
+"What's wrong?" Skinny questioned, when the three met and stopped their
+horses.
+
+"The pasture fence is bu'sted," Pedro answered; "at the northeast corner
+it is broke. The cattle are out. Ten--fifteen maybe--are dead--the
+lightning strike them perhaps. The others all of them are gone. They go
+pronto, stampede I think, toward the Purgatory. Chuck and me can not get
+them alone--I go to tell Old Heck so the boys will come and help!"
+
+It was plain to Skinny what had occurred. The cattle had drifted before
+the storm until stopped by the wire. While crowded against it a bolt of
+lightning had struck the fence, followed the metal strands, and killed
+the animals touching or nearest to it. In the fright the others plunged
+madly forward and had broken their way to freedom. Five hundred Diamond
+Bar steers, recently bought by Old Heck and brought from the Purgatory
+forty-five miles north of the Quarter Circle KT were out and rushing
+back to their former range.
+
+"You go help Chuck," Skinny said to Pedro. "Carolyn June and me will
+turn around and take the news to Old Heck and send some of the boys to
+help you. If them cattle ain't bunched before they hit the Purgatory and
+get scattered over their old range it will take a month to gather them
+and get them back again!"
+
+"Why don't you yourself go with Pedro and Chuck?" Carolyn June asked
+Skinny. "I can ride to the ranch alone and tell the others about it."
+
+"I'm supposed to stay with--" he begun.
+
+"With me, I presume," she interrupted. "Well, this is one time you
+don't. Go on with the boys. You are needed after those steers a lot more
+than you are to 'herd' me back to the ranch!"
+
+Without waiting to argue she wheeled Old Blue toward the Quarter Circle
+KT. Skinny watched her a moment, then started with Pedro in the other
+direction. Suddenly checking his horse he swung around in the saddle.
+
+"Go back the way we came!" he called after the girl. "Don't try the
+upper ford!"
+
+Carolyn June looked around and threw up her hand, motioning toward the
+north. Thinking that she understood, Skinny touched Old Pie Face with
+the spurs and soon overtook the Mexican.
+
+He was mistaken. Carolyn June had not understood the warning. The
+distance was too great for his words to reach her distinctly. She
+thought he was merely protesting against her going alone. At the fork of
+the road she saw that the trail that led to the upper ford was much the
+nearer way to the ranch. Reining Old Blue into it she rode swiftly along
+the ridge and down the slope toward the dangerous crossing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Ramblin' Kid spent the morning at the circular corral. He was
+studying the moods and working to win the confidence of the Gold Dust
+maverick. He was watching her and thinking always a little ahead of the
+thought that was in the mind of the mare. His love for a horse and
+understanding of the wonderfully intelligent animals was as natural as
+were the brown eyes, the soft low voice, the gentle but strong touch, by
+which it was expressed. He wooed the outlaw filly thoughtfully,
+carefully, as a lover courts a sweetheart. The beautiful creature
+reminded him of Carolyn June. "They was made for each other!" he
+repeated softly as he worked with the mare. From the corral he could see
+the road across the river where Skinny and the girl had gone. Often he
+turned his eyes in that direction.
+
+He was fingering the garter in his pocket and looking toward the river
+when Carolyn June appeared on the ridge as she returned alone to the
+ranch. He stood and watched her. The ugly words she had spoken at the
+gate came into his mind and a bitter smile curled his lips. Still he
+watched the girl, expecting Skinny would ride into view. She turned down
+the ridge toward the upper ford.
+
+"That's funny," he thought, "wonder where Skinny's at?" Then it flashed
+through his mind that something must be wrong for the girl was riding
+alone. "Hell!" he exclaimed aloud, "she's by herself an' headin'
+straight for th' upper ford!" Only an instant he paused. "Jack!" he
+cried sharply, running to the corral gate and swinging it partly open.
+"Come--_quick_!"
+
+The roan stallion started at a trot toward the gate, then, trained to
+obey instantly the word of the master he loved better than life, leaped
+nimbly through the opening. Slamming and fastening the gate the Ramblin'
+Kid ran to the shed, the broncho at his side. He threw the blanket and
+saddle on the little roan, cinched quickly but carefully the double
+gear, slipped the bit into the waiting mouth of the horse and without
+stopping to put on his chaps sprang on Captain Jack's back and whirled
+him in a dead run around the corner of the shed and down the lane toward
+the north. At the pasture corral below the barn he guided the broncho
+close to the fence and scarcely checking him leaned over and lifted a
+rope, coiled and hung on a post near the gate, from its place--the one
+Chuck that morning had left because of the flaw.
+
+"God!" he groaned, "--an' a bad rope!"
+
+He glanced toward the ridge across the river. Carolyn June had
+disappeared down the trail that led to the upper ford.
+
+"Go, Little Man, go--for th' love of God, go!" the Ramblin' Kid
+whispered as he leaned forward over the neck of the horse. Captain Jack
+answered the agonized appeal as he would never have responded to the
+cruel cut of spurs and leaped ahead in a desperate race to beat Old Blue
+and his precious burden to the greedy sands of the Cimarron.
+
+As he rode, the Ramblin' Kid slipped his hand around the coils of the
+rope till his fingers found the broken strands that told of the weakness
+that caused Chuck to leave it behind that morning. Bending over it,
+while his horse ran, he worked frantically to weave a rawhide saddle
+string into the fiber and so strengthen the dangerous spot.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thinking only to reach the ranch as quickly as possible Carolyn June
+guided Old Blue down the trail and through the thin patches of willows
+and cottonwood trees that grew along the river. The stream looked
+innocent enough and the crossing perfectly safe. Swift but apparently
+shallow water flowed close to the northern bank. Beyond that was a
+clean, pebble strewn bar and then a smaller, narrower prong of the
+river. On the south side stretched a white, unbroken expanse of sand a
+hundred feet or more wide and ending against the low slope of the meadow
+land.
+
+At the brink of the stream Old Blue stopped short and refused to go on.
+
+"What's the matter," Carolyn June laughed lightly, "--afraid of getting
+your 'little tootsies' wet?"
+
+The horse reared backward when she tried to urge him ahead and wheeled
+half around in an effort to get away from the water.
+
+"Look here, Old Fellow," she spoke sharply, tightening the reins as she
+touched his flank with her spur, "we haven't time for foolishness!
+Generally, in fact always," accenting the last word, "horses--and
+men--go in the direction I want them to go! Why, you're as
+stubborn--as--as the Ramblin' Kid!" she finished with another laugh as
+Old Blue, with a snort of fear, yet not daring to resist further the
+firm hand and firmer will of his rider, stepped into the water.
+
+"Gee, when you do start you go in a hurry, don't you?" Carolyn June said
+as the broncho went rapidly forward as if eager to negotiate the
+crossing, seeming to know that safety lay in the quickness and lightness
+of his tread. As he lunged ahead the girl had the sensation that the
+saddle was sinking from under her. Reaching the firmer footing of the
+gravel bar in the center of the stream Old Blue tried again to turn
+about.
+
+"Go on!" Carolyn June cried impatiently yet with a feeling somehow of
+impending danger she could not wholly define, "--you've got to do it, so
+you had as well quit your nonsense and go ahead!" at the same time
+raking the horse's sides sharply again with the spurs.
+
+Crossing the shallow branch of the river the broncho reached the smooth,
+firm appearing beach of sand.
+
+With his head down, his muzzle almost touching the ground, as if
+scenting, feeling, his way, he went forward stepping rapidly, easily, as
+possible. At each step his foot slipped lower into the yielding,
+quivering mass. Carolyn June felt him tremble and the sensation that the
+horse was being pulled from under her grew more and more pronounced. She
+noticed how he sank into the sand and observed also the sweat beginning
+to darken the hair on the neck of her mount.
+
+"Pretty soft, isn't it?" she said, speaking to the broncho kindly as
+though to encourage him and perhaps at the same time to allay a bit the
+queer sense of uneasiness she felt, for even yet she did not realize the
+danger into which she had unknowingly ridden.
+
+Half-way to the firm black soil of the southern bank of the stream Old
+Blue's front feet seemed suddenly to give way beneath him. He began to
+plunge desperately. Then it was the truth came to Carolyn June. Her
+cheeks grew white.
+
+"The quicksand!" she exclaimed aloud, at the same time trying to help
+the horse with a lift of the reins. It was too late to turn back. Her
+only salvation lay in reaching the solid ground such a few yards
+ahead--and yet so fearfully far away. Old Blue struggled madly to go
+forward, gaining a little but at each effort sinking deeper into the
+sand. Carolyn June tried to encourage him with words:
+
+"Come on, come on! Good Little Horse--you can make it! Keep
+trying--that's it--now!--you're doing it! Brave Old Blue--don't give
+up--don't give up, Boy!" she pleaded, pity for the horse causing her
+almost to forget her own terrible peril.
+
+It was useless.
+
+Twenty-five feet from safety Old Blue's front quarters went down until
+his breast was against the sand. The hind legs were buried to the
+stifles. He wallowed and floundered helplessly. His hoofs touched
+nothing solid on which to stand. He stretched his head forward,
+straining-to lift himself away from that horrible, clinging suction. His
+efforts only forced him down--down--always down!
+
+Carolyn June's own feet were in the sand. She threw herself from the
+saddle--as far to one side and ahead of the horse as she could. With her
+weight removed perhaps Old Blue could get out. Anyway it was death to
+stay on the horse. Perhaps alone she could escape--she was lighter--the
+sand might hold her up--by moving rapidly surely she could go that short
+twenty-five feet to the firm ground ahead of her. At the first step she
+sank half-way to her thigh. She fell forward thinking to crawl on her
+hands and knees. Her arms went into the mass to the shoulder.
+Silently--without a word--but with horrible fear gripping her heart she
+fought the sand. She sank deeper--slowly--steadily--surely. The hellish
+stuff closed about her body to the waist. If she only had
+something--anything--solid to hold to! She took off her hat, grasped the
+edges of the brim, reached her arms out and tried to use the frail disk
+of felt for a buoy. It held a moment then gradually settled below the
+surface of the shifting, elusive substance. Again and again she lifted
+the hat free from the sand and sought to place it so it would bear a
+part at least of her weight. Her efforts were vain. The insidious mass
+crept higher and higher on her body. She remembered reading that one
+caught in the quicksand by his struggles only hastened his own
+destruction. She tried to be perfectly still. In spite of all she was
+sinking--sinking--the sand was engulfing her.
+
+During all her struggles Carolyn June remained silent. She had not
+thought to cry out. Somehow she could not realize that she was to die.
+The sun was bright, the sky cloudless, the trees along the river-bank
+barely swayed in a little breeze! How beautiful the world! How queer
+that such a little distance away was the green grass of the meadow and
+the firm black earth in which it was rooted and she--she was held fast
+and helpless in the embrace of the deadly sand! Strange thoughts rushed
+through her mind. She wondered what they would think at the ranch when
+night came and she did not return. Would they know? Would they guess the
+thing that had happened? Would the sand draw her down--down--until it
+covered her so none would ever know where or how she died? She looked at
+Old Blue. "Poor old fellow!" she whispered, "I am sorry--I didn't
+know--it looked so white and firm and safe!" The sand was half-way up
+the sides of the horse and he swayed his body in pathetic, futile
+efforts to free himself.
+
+A strange calm came over Carolyn June. So this was the end? She was to
+die alone, horribly, in the treacherous sands of the Cimarron? Surely it
+could not be--God would not let her die! She was so young! She had just
+begun to live--She thought of Hartville, her father, the old friends.
+How far away they seemed! How queer it was--she could not image in her
+mind any of the familiar scenes, the face of her father or any of the
+friends she had known so well! She tried to think of her Uncle Josiah,
+Ophelia, Skinny Rawlins--poor fellow, how susceptible was his big,
+innocent, boyish heart! She called each one up in a mental effort to
+remember how they had looked, the sound of their voices--they were only
+names--dim shadowy names! There was nothing in the whole world but Old
+Blue--herself--and the sand--the sand--an eternity of sand pulling,
+dragging, sucking her down! She closed her eyes tightly, thinking to
+shut out the impression of utter loneliness. The face of the Ramblin'
+Kid flashed into her mind! She could see him! She saw him lying under
+the shed, as he had looked that morning, his head resting on the saddle,
+his eyes gazing steadily into her own; she saw him again as he had
+looked when she stung him with her harsh words at the gate. She seemed
+to see the agonized humility in his expression and hear the low
+tenseness of his voice as he repeated aloud the words she had used--"An
+ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" She laughed almost hysterically. "Why
+can I see him--just him--and not the others? Has he come to--to--haunt
+me?" she finished with a gasp.
+
+The sand had reached her breast. How long before it clutched at her
+throat? Her mouth? Her eyes? Ah, would she hold up her arm as she went
+down--down--and reach out her hand as if to wave the world a last, long
+farewell? "I will--I will!" she cried, the pressure around her body
+almost stopping her breath, "I--I--will--and--wiggle my fingers to the
+end!" she added with a choking half-hysterical laugh, so tightly did she
+cling to life. Her mood changed. "I--guess--I ought to pray!" she said,
+"but--I--God--God knows anyhow!" her voice trailing away to a whisper as
+if she had grown suddenly, utterly, tired. She stretched out her hands
+once more with the hat, trying to use it to buoy her up. Under the
+weight of her arms it sank in the sand. She tossed it to one side. "It
+will--stay--on top by itself," she choked. "I--I--will leave it--maybe
+they will find it--and know--" She felt her senses were leaving her.
+Even yet she had not called for help. It had not occurred to her that
+rescue was possible. As if it were an echo to her thoughts there came
+the throbbing tattoo of hoofs pounding the earth. She listened intently.
+Some one was riding down the lane toward the river from the ranch! The
+horse was evidently running--running madly, desperately. Would he cross
+at the upper or lower ford? Her heart pulsed with heavy dull throbs. The
+sand was crushing her chest. A wave of weakness swept over her. She
+almost fainted. At that instant Captain Jack, carrying the Ramblin' Kid,
+leaped through an opening in the willows and stopped--his front feet
+plowing the firm ground at the edge of the quivering beach of sand.
+
+"Pure luck!" the Ramblin' Kid breathed fervently, his eye quickly
+measuring the distance to the nearly exhausted girl; "she's close enough
+I can reach her with th' rope! God, if it'll only hold!" Already the
+coils were in his hand. With a single backward fling of the noose and
+forward toss he dropped the loop over the head of Carolyn June.
+
+"Pull it up--close--under your arms!" he commanded shortly, "an' hang on
+with your hands to take th' strain off your body!"
+
+The girt obeyed without a word.
+
+He double half-hitched the rope to the horn of the saddle, swung
+Captain Jack around. "Look out!" he called to the girl as he started
+away from the brink of the sand. "Steady, Boy, be careful--" to the
+broncho. The slack gradually tightened. The strain drew on Carolyn
+June's arms till it seemed they would be pulled from the sockets. The
+rope cut cruelly into her body under her shoulders. She wanted to
+cry--to scream--to laugh. She did neither. She threw back her head and
+clung with all her strength to the rough lariat, stretched taut as a
+cable of steel.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid leaned forward in the saddle, his body half turned,
+eyes looking back along the straight line of the severely tested rope.
+He swore softly, steadily, under his breath. "God--if it will only
+hold--if it only don't break!"
+
+Slowly, surely, the little stallion leaned his weight against the
+tensely drawn riata and Carolyn June felt herself lifted, inch by inch,
+out of the sand that engulfed her. At last she fell forward--her body
+free. Without stopping the horse the Ramblin' Kid continued away from
+the river-bank and dragged the girl across the yielding surface to the
+solid earth and safety. The instant she was where he could reach her he
+whirled Captain Jack and rode quickly back. Carolyn June was trying to
+get to her feet when he sprang from the broncho and helped her to the
+firm ground on which he stood. She was panting and exhausted.
+
+"Get--get--Old Blue out!" she gasped and dropped limply down on the
+grass, fingering at the rope to remove it from around her body.
+
+"Danged if she ain't got more heart than I thought she had!" the
+Ramblin' Kid said to himself as he lifted the loop from over her head.
+"I'm goin' to," he said aloud, "if I can--but--I'm afraid he's gone.
+I'll try anyhow--you lay there an' rest--" at the same time remounting
+his horse.
+
+The sand covered the rump of Old Blue. The saddle, Parker's it was, was
+nearly submerged, only the horn and cantle showing above the slimy mass.
+His head, neck and the top of his withers were yet exposed. He still
+struggled, wallowing feebly, vainly resisting the downward pull of the
+sand. Crouching, as if fascinated by the terrible scene, Carolyn June
+watched as the Ramblin' Kid, waiting his opportunity, at the instant the
+horse in the sand lifted his head deftly flung the rope over his neck.
+With a short jerk of the wrist he tightened the noose till it closed
+snugly about the throat of the broncho. Again turning Captain Jack away
+from the bank he urged him slowly forward. The rope stiffened. The
+little stallion bunched himself and desperately strained against the
+dead weight of Old Blue, multiplied many times by the suction of the
+sand. The Ramblin' Kid leaned far over the neck of Captain Jack to give
+the horse the advantage of his own weight and looked back, watching the
+supreme efforts of the mired broncho as he fought to climb out of the
+sand. A moment it looked as if the little roan would drag him out.
+Slowly he seemed to be raising and moving forward. There was a sharp
+snap. Half-way down its length the lariat parted. At the weak spot the
+strain was too great. Captain Jack plunged forward to his knees, his
+nose rooting the earth, and the Ramblin' Kid barely saved himself from
+pitching over the horse's head.
+
+"That's what I was dreadin'--" he said as he turned and rode back to the
+edge of the sand.
+
+Carolyn June gazed, wide-eyed, speechless with horror, at the horse in
+the sand. When the rope broke, Old Blue, with a groan almost human, sank
+back and quickly settled down until only his head and part of his neck
+were exposed to view. The Ramblin' Kid looked at the broken rope--the
+end fastened around the throat of Old Blue had whipped back and was
+lying far beyond the cowboy's reach. The piece half-hitched to the
+saddle horn was too short for another throw. Old Blue was doomed.
+Carolyn June saw him sinking gradually, surely, into the sand. It seemed
+ages. His eyes appealed with dumb pathos to the group on the bank. They
+could hear his breath coming in harsh, terrible gasps. The sand seemed
+to be deliberately torturing him as though it were some hellish thing,
+alive and of fiendish cunning, that grasped its victim and then paused
+in his destruction to gloat over his hopeless agony.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid sat Captain Jack and watched.
+
+"Why did God ever want to make that stuff anyhow!" sprang hoarsely from
+his lips. He was torn between blind unreasoning anger at the quicksand
+and pity for the struggling horse. Suddenly he jerked the forty-four,
+always on his saddle, from its holster. As the gun swung back and then
+forward there was a crashing report and Old Blue's head dropped, with a
+convulsive shudder, limp on the sand.
+
+Carolyn June screamed and buried her face in her hands.
+
+At the sound of the shot Captain Jack stiffened and stood rigid. The
+Ramblin' Kid, his face white and drawn, sat and looked dry-eyed at the
+red stream oozing from the round hole just below the brow-band of the
+bridle on the head of the horse he had killed.
+
+"I--I--would have wanted somebody to do it to me!" he said softly and
+rode to the side of the girl huddled on the ground. He dismounted and
+stood, without speaking, looking down at her shaking form. After a time
+she looked up, through eyes drenched with tears, into his face. Then as
+if drawn by an irresistible impulse--one she could not deny--she turned
+her head and looked at the spot where Old Blue had fought his last
+battle with the quicksands of the Cimarron. A crimson stain, already
+darkening, on the white surface; a few square feet of disturbed and
+broken sand, even now settling into the smooth, innocent-looking
+tranquillity that hid the death lurking in its depths; a short length
+of rope, one end drawn beneath the sand, the other lying in a sprawling
+coil; her hat resting a little distance to one side, were all that
+remained to tell the story of the grim tragedy of the morning. She
+shuddered and looked once more into the pain-filled eyes of the Ramblin'
+Kid.
+
+"We'd better be goin'," he said quietly, "you're wet an' them clothes
+must be uncomfortable. You can ride Captain Jack!"
+
+She stood up weak and trembling.
+
+"I--I--thought Captain Jack was an outlaw," she said with a faint
+smile. "He won't let me ride him, will he?"
+
+"He'll let you," the Ramblin' Kid answered dully, "no woman ever has
+rode him--or any other man only me--but he'll let you!"
+
+As she approached the stallion he raised his head and looked at her with
+a queer mixture of curiosity and antagonism, curving his neck in a
+challenging way.
+
+"Jack!" the Ramblin' Kid spoke sharply but kindly to the horse, "be
+careful! It's all right, Boy--you're goin' to carry double this one
+time!"
+
+The broncho stood passive while the Ramblin' Kid helped Carolyn June to
+his back.
+
+"You set behind," he said, "it'll be easier to hold on an' I can handle
+th' horse better!"
+
+She slipped back of the saddle and he swung up on to the little roan.
+With one hand Carolyn June grasped the cantle of the saddle, the other
+she reached up and laid on the arm of the Ramblin' Kid--the touch sent a
+thrill through her body and the cowboy felt a response that made his
+heart quiver as they turned and rode toward the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For a mile neither spoke.
+
+"I--I--am sorry for what--I said this morning," Carolyn June whispered
+at last haltingly, feeling intuitively that the cruel words--"an
+ignorant, savage, stupid brute"--were repeating themselves in her
+companion's mind.
+
+"It's all right," he answered without looking around and in a voice
+without emotion, "it was th' truth--" with a hopeless laugh. "I'm a
+damn' fool besides!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+QUICK WITH A VENGEANCE
+
+Old Heck rode in advance of Charley and Bert as the trio returned from
+repairing the fences wrecked by the flood that had swept over the east
+bottom-lands of the Quarter Circle KT. All morning he had been silent
+and morose. Only when necessary had he spoken while he directed the
+cowboys at their labor, helped them reset posts, or untangle twisted
+wires and build up again that which the rush of water had torn down. The
+damage had not been great and by noon the fence was as good as new. As
+soon as the breaks were mended the moody owner of the Quarter Circle KT
+mounted his horse and started for the house.
+
+"Them women coming or something has got Old Heck's goat," Bert remarked
+to Charley as they climbed on their horses and followed a moment later.
+
+"Something's got it," Charley answered, "he ain't acted natural all
+day--do you reckon he's sore because Parker took the widow to town?"
+
+"Darned if I know," Bert said doubtfully, "that might be it."
+
+"Well, he's feverish and disagreeable for some reason or other and
+that's the way people generally get when they're jealous," Charley
+observed sagely.
+
+"He hadn't ought to be," Bert argued, "it's Parker's day to keep company
+with Ophelia, and Old Heck and him agreed to split."
+
+"If he's in love he won't split," Charley retorted with conviction, "I
+never saw two men take turn about loving the same woman yet. It can't be
+done!"
+
+"The woman wouldn't object, would she?" Bert queried.
+
+"Probably not," Charley replied, "at least not as long as double doses
+of affection was coming her way. From what I've heard most of 'em sort
+of enjoy having as many men make love to 'em as possible, but--" he
+paused.
+
+"But what?"
+
+"They kick if a man loves several women at once!" was the sophisticated
+reply. "But as far as that's concerned," he continued, speaking as a man
+wise in the ways of the world, "men and women ain't much different in
+that respect. When it comes to loving, both sides are plumb willing to
+divide up 'a-going' but want it to be clean exclusive when it comes to
+'coming!'"
+
+"It's funny, ain't it?" Bert commented.
+
+"No, it ain't funny," Charley declared. "It's just natural--"
+
+"Maybe Parker and Old Heck will have a fight about Ophelia," Bert
+suggested hopefully. "Which do you suppose would lick?"
+
+"It's hard telling," Charley said thoughtfully. "Old Heck's the
+heaviest, but Parker's pretty active."
+
+"Well, it sure does seem like wherever women are trouble is, don't it?"
+Bert observed meditatively.
+
+"Blamed if it don't," Charley agreed; "there's something about them
+that's plum agitating!"
+
+Old Heck, riding a short distance ahead of the cowboys, was troubled
+with similar thoughts. He was trying to analyze his own feelings. Years
+without association with womankind had made him come to regard them with
+a measure of indifference and suspicion. He had developed the idea that
+women existed chiefly for the purpose of disorganizing the morale of the
+masculine members of the race. He was very sincere in this belief. Yet
+he was forced, now, to confess that he found something interesting in
+having a couple of attractive females at the Quarter Circle KT. The
+situation was not so disagreeable as he had expected. Already he was
+proud of his kinship to Carolyn June. She was a niece worth while.
+Ophelia also had proved herself a pleasant surprise. He had pictured her
+as a strong-minded, assertive, modernized creature who would probably
+discourse continuously and raspingly about the evils of smoking,
+profanity, poker, drinking and other natural masculine impulses.
+Instead, she had proved herself, so far, a perfect lady. Without doubt
+she was the most sensible widow he had ever met. The thought of Parker's
+long, intimate ride with her to Eagle Butte made him uncomfortable. It
+was a darned fool arrangement--that agreement that he and his foreman
+were to divide time in the entertainment of Ophelia. He could have done
+it alone just as well as not. Anyway the dual plan was liable to cause
+confusion. Oh, well, Parker would be out on the beef hunt next week. By
+rights it ought not start for ten days yet, but--well, it wouldn't hurt
+to move it up a little. He would do that. Then he remembered the frank
+admiration the cowboys had shown toward Carolyn June. This suggested
+complications in that direction.
+
+"Thunderation!" he said aloud, "it's a good thing we fixed it up for
+just Skinny to make love to her--if we hadn't there'd have been a
+regular epidemic of bu'sted hearts on this blamed ranch! There wouldn't
+have been a buckaroo on the place that could have kept from mooning
+around sentimental--unless it was th' Ramblin' Kid," he added; "that
+blamed cuss is too independent and indifferent to fall in love with any
+female!"
+
+At the barn Charley and Bert overtook Old Heck. The three unsaddled and
+fed their horses and started toward the house for dinner. Sing Pete had
+seen them coming and immediately pounded the triangle.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's gone somewhere again," Bert observed as he noticed
+the Gold Dust maverick alone in the circular corral. "Captain Jack's not
+with the filly--"
+
+"Yonder th' Ramblin' Kid comes now," Charley said, looking toward the
+north; "he's been over to the river--what the devil kind of a
+combination is that?" he exclaimed as he got a better view of the horse
+coming up the lane. "Him and that girl both are riding Captain Jack."
+
+"Blamed if they ain't," Bert said curiously; "it's a wonder Captain
+Jack'll let them. But how does that come, anyhow? Where's Skinny? I
+thought it was his job to ride herd on Carolyn June--"
+
+"It is his job," Old Heck interrupted, "I don't understand--something
+must have gone wrong," he added excitedly as the stallion with his
+double burden drew near. "Carolyn June's all wet and she's lost her
+hat."
+
+Turning his horse toward the house, when he reached the end of the lane
+and with but a glance at the trio standing at the barn, the Ramblin' Kid
+rode straight to the back-yard gate. Old Heck and the cowboys hurried
+across the open space and reached the gate just as Carolyn June rather
+stiffly dismounted from the little roan. Her hair was disarranged, her
+riding suit soiled and wet from the sand and water, but her eyes were
+bright, cheeks flushed, and she showed only a trace of nervousness.
+
+"What's the matter?" Old Heck asked uneasily, "what's happened? Where's
+Skinny?"
+
+In a few words, while the Ramblin' Kid sat silently on the back of
+Captain Jack, Carolyn June told of the ride across the river; the
+meeting with Pedro and the message he brought that the cattle were out
+and some had been killed by lightning; of sending Skinny with the
+Mexican to help with the steers; of her return alone toward the ranch,
+the struggle in the quicksand and the death of the horse she had been
+riding.
+
+"Poor Old Blue--poor old fellow!" she finished with a little catch in
+her voice.
+
+Old Heck's cheeks whitened as he listened.
+
+"Good lord," he half-groaned, "you had a close call! It's lucky th'
+Ramblin' Kid saw you coming toward the upper ford--if he hadn't--you'd
+never got out! But go on into the house and get some dry clothes on.
+Boys, we'll have to hurry up and eat dinner and then go help get them
+steers back. I wish Parker was here--we'll need all the help we can get.
+You'd better catch up another horse," he continued, speaking to the
+Ramblin' Kid, "Captain Jack is probably worn out from chasing that Gold
+Dust maverick last night, and if you ain't too tired yourself, go with
+us--"
+
+"I ain't too tired," the Ramblin' Kid replied quietly, "I'll go--an'
+ride Captain Jack--he ain't done up." He took the broncho to the corral,
+removed the saddle and turned him in with the outlaw mare. After giving
+the horses fresh hay--there was water in the corral, supplied by a small
+ditch that was fed from the larger irrigation canal and which ran under
+one side of the fence--he joined the others at dinner.
+
+An hour later Old Heck, Bert, Charley and the Ramblin' Kid rode away
+from the ranch to help Chuck, Skinny and Pedro round up and return to
+the big pasture the cattle that had broken out and were rushing toward
+their old range on the Purgatory.
+
+Carolyn June was left alone with Sing Pete, the Chinese cook at the
+Quarter Circle KT. She still felt somewhat shaken from her experience of
+the morning, although a bath, clean dry clothing and the meal had
+refreshed her considerably. She carried a chair to the front porch,
+thinking to spend the afternoon resting. The events of the day raced in
+review through her mind. It did not seem possible so much could have
+happened in so short a time. Only yesterday had Ophelia and she arrived
+at the ranch. Already she had the feeling that they both were fixtures,
+and had been indefinitely, at the Quarter Circle KT. The elemental
+atmosphere of the range country had completely enveloped her, seemed to
+have absorbed her, and made her a part of it. Some way she rather
+delighted in this sensation of permanency. Her rescue by the Ramblin'
+Kid and the close view she had been able to get of his impulses made her
+thrill with a queer mixture of admiration and pity for him even while
+his brutal answer when she had apologized for her harsh words still
+echoed in her mind.
+
+"Gracious," she thought with a whimsical smile, "things move fast in
+this western country!"
+
+She had seen, already, that both her Uncle Josiah and Parker were
+yielding to the charms of Ophelia. The fancy made her chuckle. She
+remembered Skinny's too rapidly developing tenderness toward herself.
+"Poor fellow," she murmured, slowly shaking her head, "I wish he
+wouldn't! But I suppose he can't help it--I wonder why men are always
+falling in love with me, anyhow? I'm sure I don't try to make them! I
+never saw one yet I really wanted to care--" she stopped suddenly while
+a warm flush spread over her body as the Ramblin' Kid was imaged rather
+vividly in her mind. "Nonsense!" she said aloud with a soft, throaty
+laugh. "Carolyn June, you are getting silly!"
+
+She sprang up and went into the house.
+
+"Sing Pete," she said, stepping into the kitchen, "may I have some
+sugar--I'd like the lumpy kind if you have it?"
+
+"Sure! You have him sugal--how muchee you want?" as he held out to her a
+tin containing squares of the desired article.
+
+"Oh, enough to win a heart!" Carolyn June answered laughing, at the same
+time taking a handful from the can.
+
+"You eat him?" Sing Pete asked with a grin.
+
+"No," she replied, "I feed it to broncho--to Gold Dust maverick. Some
+folks sprinkle salt on bird's tail to catch him--I put sugar on horse's
+tongue to make him love me--"
+
+"Lamblin' Kid, he do that. Allee time him gettee sugal for Clap'n Jack!"
+
+"Feeds 'Clap'n Jack' sugar, does he?" Carolyn June said pensively.
+"Captain Jack's a nice little broncho," she added, "he deserves sugar."
+She paused a moment. "'Lamblin' Kid's' a funny fellow, don't you think
+so, Sing Pete?" she finished idly.
+
+"Not funny--him dangelous!" the Chinaman replied earnestly. "He gettee
+velly mad 'cause I puttee butter in can so cat catchee his head in an'
+go lound an' lound--buckee like a bloncho--havee lots a good time! He
+not talkee much, Lamblin' Kid don't--just dangelous--that's all!"
+
+Carolyn June felt sudden interest.
+
+"When did he get mad about the cat?" she asked quietly.
+
+"Allee same to-day--when you an' Skinny go 'way. Lamblin' Kid cussee me
+lot--tellee me not do him any more. Him dangelous! I not do him next
+time!" Sing Pete explained seriously.
+
+"You are wise, Sing Pete," Carolyn June laughed as she left the kitchen
+by the back door and started toward the corral where the Gold Dust
+maverick was restlessly pacing about. "Don't do it any more! 'Lamblin'
+Kid' is 'dangelous'--dangerous in ways that you don't understand!" she
+finished softly, her eyes lit with a strange light and her heart elated
+and beating quickly because of what the Chinese cook had told her.
+
+The outlaw filly leaped to the far side of the corral and stood
+trembling, her head up and breath coming in whistling snorts of
+defiance and fear, as Carolyn June opened the gate and stepped boldly
+inside. Apparently paying no attention to the frightened horse, the girl
+walked to the center of the corral and facing the mare leaned her back
+against the snubbing post. Both stood perfectly still while the eyes of
+each appraised the other.
+
+After a time the filly seemed to relax and she slowly lowered her head,
+yet watching, alertly, the motionless figure of Carolyn June. The girl
+talked to the horse, her words gentle, her voice soothing and low. The
+Gold Dust maverick became quieter still. Presently she circled the
+corral, trotting swiftly and crowding closely against the fence. Carolyn
+June turned, keeping her eyes always on the broncho, and continued the
+quiet pleading of her voice. It was an hour before the filly shyly and
+cautiously came up to the girl--before curiosity mastered her fear.
+Carolyn June held out her hand and the outlaw nosed it timidly, ready
+instantly to spring away. A lump of sugar was pressed into the Gold Dust
+maverick's mouth--she drew back, working the morsel about with her
+tongue and lips and finally spitting it out. Several times this was
+repeated. At last the beautiful creature tasted the sugar and greedily
+ate the lumps, permitting Carolyn June gently to stroke the velvety
+muzzle. Then the girl's hand crept higher and higher on the horse's neck
+and after a little an arm was slipped over the filly's neck.
+
+"You darling!" Carolyn June breathed softly, "I love you! I wonder what
+the Ramblin' Kid would say if he knew I was stealing your heart?" she
+added demurely as she laid her face against the silky mane of the mare.
+
+She remained at the corral until the afternoon was nearly gone. The
+poplars along the front-yard fence were beginning to throw their shadows
+across the corral. When at last Carolyn June started to return to the
+house the filly followed her to the gate of the corral and whinnied a
+little protest against her going.
+
+"I don't believe you are a bit mean," the girl said as she looked back
+affectionately at the nervous, high-strung animal; "you are just lonely
+and want to be loved--and understood--that is all, and I doubt if you'd
+buck a single buck if I rode you right this minute!"
+
+As she reached the gate the Clagstone "Six" glided quietly down the
+grade from the bench and a moment later Ophelia and Parker joined
+Carolyn June on the porch. The widow's cheeks were glowing and Parker
+looked embarrassed and rather upset. His arms were full of bundles.
+
+"Have a good time?" Carolyn June greeted them.
+
+"Fine," Ophelia replied, "spent oodles of money shopping, saw the
+minister's wife, talked with the editor of the paper and we are going to
+organize a Chapter--I think we shall call it 'The Amazons of Eagle
+Butte.'"
+
+"Great," Carolyn June laughed, "you are a hustler, Ophelia! Uncle
+Josiah will have a fit. Does Parker know?"
+
+"Yes," the widow answered, her eyes twinkling, as she looked at the
+sweating foreman of the Quarter Circle KT. "I told him all about it and
+he is going to give us his moral support."
+
+"Where is Skinny?" Parker interrupted hastily, looking more uneasy and
+foolish than ever; "why ain't he here?"
+
+Carolyn June told of the happenings of the morning.
+
+"My dear, my dear!" Ophelia cried, shuddering when she heard of Carolyn
+June's narrow escape from the quicksand. "You must never cross that
+terrible river again! It's too horrible to think about!"
+
+"It was just 'experience,'" Carolyn June said lightly. "I don't mind it
+a bit now that it is over. Of course," she added seriously, "I feel
+badly about Old Blue--and losing Parker's saddle."
+
+"Don't worry about the saddle, I can get new riding gear lots easier
+than Old Heck could have got another niece!"
+
+"Carolyn June needs a saddle of her own," Ophelia suggested.
+
+"I am going to get one; and then I'll ride the Gold Dust maverick!"
+
+"I doubt if th' Ramblin' Kid will let you ride the filly," Parker said,
+"he's funny that way--"
+
+"I think he will," Carolyn June interposed. "I'll steal her if no other
+way!"
+
+"Maybe he will, but it's doubtful," Parker continued, "but Old Heck is
+aiming to get you a saddle. He spoke about it this morning when we were
+getting the car out to go to town--"
+
+"Dear old uncle," Carolyn June said warmly, "I love him already--don't
+you, Ophelia?"
+
+Parker colored and looked quickly, with a worried expression on his
+face, at the widow. She flushed also.
+
+"That's personal, my dear," she answered, "and rather abrupt!"
+
+Parker went out to put the Clagstone "Six" in the garage.
+
+"Carolyn June," Ophelia said when they were alone, "I have made a
+discovery--"
+
+"It is?" questioningly.
+
+"That western Texas is the 'quickest' country in the world!" the widow
+answered.
+
+"Please explain," Carolyn June said, "although," demurely, with certain
+memories fresh in her mind, "I fancy I can almost guess--"
+
+"Yesterday," Ophelia continued rather breathlessly, "we arrived at the
+Quarter Circle KT; last night at the supper table I met Mr. Parker for
+the first time; ten minutes later he kicked me--accidentally, I
+think--on the shins; I saw him again at breakfast this morning; to-day
+we drove to Eagle Butte and this afternoon"--she paused and then with a
+quick, nervous laugh finished--"he asked me to marry him!"
+
+"Good lord," Carolyn June gasped, "that is--'pronto'--as these cowboys
+say! 'Quick' with a vengeance! There must be something in this western
+air that makes them do it!"
+
+"It was all I could do this morning to keep Skinny from--" she started
+to say, then shifted again to the subject of Parker. "Did he know that
+you are--"
+
+"National Organizer for the 'Movement,'" Ophelia filled in. "Yes, I had
+already confessed. I told him as we were driving to town--and the
+other--the shock--came just after we crossed the bridge when we were
+returning home!"
+
+"He is a bold, dangerous man!" Carolyn June exclaimed, in mock
+seriousness, "trying to get ahead of Uncle Josiah!"
+
+"I inferred as much," the widow explained; "he told me that to-morrow
+would be your uncle's 'day'--whatever he meant by that; the next he, Mr.
+Parker himself, would be 'around' again. 'Unless Old Heck took some fool
+notion or other;' before long he would be away on the beef hunt and one
+can never tell what might happen while one is gone and, well, that's the
+way he felt about it, so he just said it--"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Naturally was completely surprised, entirely non-committal, and made no
+definite agreement!" Ophelia laughed softly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+OLD HECK'S STRATEGY
+
+It was late when Old Heck and the cowboys returned to the ranch. The
+runaway cattle had been overtaken on the sand-hills beyond the North
+Springs and it took the entire afternoon to bunch them and work the
+restless animals back to the Quarter Circle KT, into the big pasture,
+and repair the fence so it was safe to leave them for the night.
+
+Ophelia, Carolyn June and Parker were in the front room when Old Heck
+and the hungry cowboys clattered, long after dark, into the kitchen for
+the supper Sing Pete had kept warm for them.
+
+After the meal Skinny went into the room where Parker and the women
+were. Old Heck followed and talked for a few moments with Parker about
+the affairs of the ranch, then joined the cowboys at the bunk-house
+where they had gone directly after leaving the table. On Skinny's bed
+Parker had tossed a bundle.
+
+"What in thunder do you reckon Skinny's been buying, now?" Chuck
+questioned as he picked up the package and examined it curiously.
+"Blamed if it don't feel like a shirt."
+
+"I'll bet that's what it is," Bert said with a laugh as Old Heck
+stepped inside the door, "the darn fool has gone and got him a white
+shirt--"
+
+"Who has?" Old Heck asked, hearing only the latter part of Bert's
+remark.
+
+"Skinny," Charley answered for Bert, "he's fixing up to make love in
+style--"
+
+"Aw, the blamed idiot," Old Heck grunted, then glancing over toward
+Parker's bed: "--Did you notice whether Parker got him one, too, or
+not?"
+
+Before the question was answered Parker and Skinny appeared at the
+bunk-house door.
+
+"What's the matter?" Chuck said, still holding the bundle in his hand,
+"--ain't it too early for lovers to bu'st up for the night? Or did the
+widow and Carolyn June blow out the lights on you--"
+
+"Forget it, you danged fool!" Skinny said crossly. "Can't you ever get
+over your dog-goned craziness? They was just tired and went to bed. Give
+me that package, it's mine and private!" reaching for the bundle.
+
+Chuck, with a laugh, threw it at him. It landed on the Ramblin' Kid's
+bunk where the latter was lying, his clothing still on, his eyes staring
+straight up while he smoked a cigarette.
+
+"When are you going to ride the Gold Dust maverick?" Skinny asked as he
+picked up the package.
+
+For a moment the Ramblin' Kid did not answer. Then, without changing his
+position, replied:
+
+"I don't know as I'll ever ride her. Maybe I'll turn her loose again on
+th' range."
+
+"What did you catch her for?" Bert queried. "Don't you want her?"
+
+"I caught her, 'cause I wanted to," the Ramblin' Kid answered, "but that
+ain't no sign I intend to keep her. Hell, what's the use?" he finished
+indifferently.
+
+"If you want to sell her," Old Heck said, "I'll buy her."
+
+"She ain't for sale," the Ramblin' Kid answered shortly, "not to
+anybody."
+
+"She would be a thunderin' sight better off if she was used."
+
+"Would she?" the Ramblin' Kid questioned dully. "I ain't so sure about
+that."
+
+"Of course she would," Old Heck insisted, "she'd be fed regular and--"
+
+"An' be mauled around by some darned human!" the Ramblin' Kid
+interrupted with sudden vehemence. "If I was a horse," he continued,
+speaking passionately while his black eyes burned with the spirit of
+rebellion, "I'd rather be a short-grass cay-use nippin' th' scatterin'
+feed on th' north hills an' be free to snort an' raise hell when I
+blamed please than have my belly stuffed with alfalfa hay three times a
+day an' have to gnaw th' iron of some damned man's bit in my mouth or
+carry his saddle on my back!"
+
+Silence followed the outburst.
+
+Old Heck and the cowboys knew the Ramblin' Kid was in one of his
+"moods," and experience had taught them that at such times argument was
+neither discreet nor safe. The thing they did not know was that his
+heart was torn by memory of the agony of Old Blue in the quicksand and
+his mind tortured by the picture of dumb suffering a bullet from his own
+gun had, that morning, mercifully ended.
+
+After a time he spoke again, more quietly and with a note of weariness
+in his voice:
+
+"Oh, well, I reckon I'll keep th' filly. In a day of two, when she gets
+rested up a little, I'll ride her,"
+
+"You ought to break her for Carolyn June," Skinny suggested.
+
+"Had I?" the Ramblin' Kid said with a queer laugh--it was just the
+thought that was in his mind and against which he was struggling.
+"That's a bright idea! Maybe I'll study about it an' take a notion to do
+it. If I do she can ride th' maverick When you an' her go on your
+honeymoon--"
+
+"What's a honeymoon?" Skinny queried innocently.
+
+"It's what two people take when they first get married; go off somewhere
+by themselves--like they was locoed--to find out how bad they got
+stung!" the Ramblin' Kid laughingly answered.
+
+"We'd better all go to bed," Old Heck said; "it's late and we have to
+get up early in the morning. Parker, you and some of the boys will have
+to go skin them dead steers--we've got to save the hides at least."
+
+"Old Heck wants to go to sleep so he can dream about the widow," Chuck
+snickered, "it's his turn again to-morrow to love her--"
+
+"How did she act to-day, Parker?" Bert broke in; "was she pretty
+affectionate?"
+
+"Aw, shut up! Ain't you got any respect for anything--"
+
+"I'll bet he proposed to her and she throwed him down," Chuck hazarded,
+not realizing how nearly he had come to guessing the truth.
+
+Parker looked angrily at Chuck, then his cheeks grew red, he bent over
+and began tugging at his boots in an effort to hide the tell-tale
+confusion in his eyes.
+
+Old Heck furtively studied the face of his foreman.
+
+"Or else she confessed to being a Bolshevik or local-optionist or
+something and the news broke his heart," Charley volunteered, joining in
+the baiting of the range-boss.
+
+"She didn't neither confess," Parker denied hastily, aggravated into a
+reply, "she ain't either one of them! She's an 'Organizer--'"
+
+Dead silence greeted this sudden announcement. Every eye was turned in
+astonishment on Parker while Old Heck and the boys awaited further
+explanation. Parker offered no additional information.
+
+"She's a what?" Old Heck finally managed to whisper, leaning toward
+Parker, while a look of fear and incredulity spread over his face.
+
+Parker noticed the anguish in Old Heck's eyes and a sudden new look of
+cunning came into his own.
+
+"An 'Organizer' I said," he repeated impressively, "she's an 'Organizer'
+for some kind of 'Movement' or other--"
+
+"A dis-organizer, you'd better say!" Chuck laughed uncertainly, "judging
+from the way she's got you and Old Heck stampeding already!"
+
+"Great guns!" Old Heck half groaned, "what--what sort of
+a--a--'Movement' did she say it was, anyhow?"
+
+"Swiss, probably!" came in a chuckling undertone from the direction of
+the Ramblin' Kid's bed. "Hell, what's the difference?"
+
+"She said it was connected someway with 'feminine obligations and
+woman's opportunity,'" Parker answered, ignoring the frivolous
+interruptions.
+
+"I know what she is!" Charley exclaimed, "--it's just what I expected!
+She's one of these self-starting female suffragettes! That's what she
+is. I knowed she was too gentle acting to be harmless!"
+
+"She just had to break loose sooner or later," Bert said in an awed
+voice.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck murmured hopelessly. "Holy gosh a'mighty!"
+
+The owner of the Quarter Circle KT was really shocked and worried. He
+had surrendered quickly to his first impression concerning the widow.
+The original meeting at Eagle Butte, when she and Carolyn June appeared
+as visions of feminine loveliness, as contrasted with the homely cook
+and her daughter whom he and Skinny had mistaken for, and feared were,
+the Quarter Circle KT's prospective guests, had caused a psychic effect
+on his feelings toward Ophelia. The sense of relief that came when he
+found that the cook was not Ophelia, together with the widow's
+unexpected graciousness, had instantly disarmed his suspicions and,
+metaphorically speaking, hurled his heart into her lap. He had found the
+widow charming, interesting, very feminine, and already dreams had
+shaped themselves in his mind. The sudden revelation that Parker had
+made brought tremendous disappointment. Ophelia had not shown the least
+indication of obnoxious strong-mindedness or that disagreeable
+intellectuality which Old Heck firmly believed was a necessary attribute
+of all women who participated in politics or "movements."
+
+Ophelia was an "Organizer"! It was unbelievable! The thought gave him a
+sickening feeling at the pit of his stomach and actually made his head
+ache.
+
+Old Heck's first impulse, when Parker made the startling announcement,
+was to assert his authority as boss of the outfit and annul the
+every-other-day arrangement whereby he and his foreman were to share and
+share alike in the widow's society. He would let Parker do it all--have
+her all of the time! He wouldn't take any chances! On second thought he
+decided to wait at least another day. Besides, it was against his
+principles, contrary to the ethics of the range, to back up on a bargain
+and he never asked an employee to do a thing he hadn't the courage to do
+himself. He would stick it out, come what may, and see the thing through
+to a finish. However, there was still a means of escape. If Ophelia
+developed any really serious suffragette tendencies during the next day
+or two he would go on the beef hunt himself and let Parker remain at the
+ranch!
+
+When finally he went to sleep Ophelia was still on his mind. The first
+thought that came to him when he awakened the next morning was the
+sickening news Parker had brought.
+
+Old Heck and the cowboys were silent and had about them an air of
+depression when they filed into the kitchen for breakfast.
+
+Each cast furtive, curious glances at Ophelia. The information that she
+was an "Organizer"--presumably for a "Movement" involving woman's
+political rights--caused them to view her with a kind of reverential awe
+and fear. The widow and Carolyn June, apparently, were wholly
+unconscious of the thoughts in the minds of the men. Both women were as
+innocent-looking and attractive as ever--matching with their early
+morning freshness the bowl of roses Carolyn June, before the call to
+breakfast, had gathered and placed on the table.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid sat at the right of Carolyn June. It was the first
+time they had met at the table. He said nothing and seemingly was lost
+in thought. When they had entered the kitchen Carolyn June and he had
+spoken and for a moment he looked into her eyes with an expression that
+caused her own to drop and the warm blood to rush over her throat and
+face. She had felt that same sensation of "soul-nakedness" she
+experienced when she looked into his eyes that first time when she was
+at the circular corral and he was lying under the shed. Neither spoke of
+the incidents of the previous day.
+
+The other cowboys and Old Heck studied Ophelia with a sort of
+fascination, casting shy upward glances at her from over their plates.
+
+Parker and the Ramblin' Kid only, were at ease and undisturbed.
+
+"You wouldn't think she was one by looking at her, would you?" Chuck
+said in an undertone to Charley.
+
+"Some of them's so blamed slick they can't hide it."
+
+"I reckon that's right," Chuck whispered back, "it's an awful jolt to
+Old Heck, ain't it?"
+
+"Yes, he's taking it pretty hard," Charley mumbled.
+
+"Her forehead does bulge out a good deal in front, when you come to look
+at it, don't it?" Chuck observed under his breath.
+
+"Quite a lot," Charley answered in the same tone; "that's one
+indication!"
+
+Parker gazed at the widow with an expression undeniably adoring. Old
+Heck saw it and straightened up with a look of sudden resolution on his
+face. If Parker wasn't afraid of Ophelia, by golly, he wouldn't be! The
+widow had returned the foreman's look with understanding, while more
+than a trace of tenderness and sympathy was registered in her eyes.
+
+"To-morrow is Sunday," Old Heck announced suddenly with startling
+distinctness, "and we'll get things in shape to begin the beef round-up
+on Monday!"
+
+There was immediate interest.
+
+"I'll be darned," the Ramblin' Kid murmured half audibly, "Old Heck is
+goin' to 'Uriah' Parker!"
+
+"Huh?" Skinny queried across the table.
+
+"Nothin'," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a laugh, "I was just reminded
+of somethin' I read in a book one time--"
+
+Carolyn June caught the subtle reference to the Bible story of King
+David's unfortunate romance with another man's "woman" and chuckled.
+
+"Ain't you starting the beef hunt too early?" Charley asked.
+
+"I don't know as I am," Old Heck answered doggedly.
+
+"Aw, that'll put us right in the middle of it on the Fourth of July when
+the Rodeo is going on in Eagle Butte--" Bert began.
+
+"And I ain't going to miss that, either," Chuck interrupted, "that
+Y-Bar outfit over on the Vermejo took everything in the two-mile
+sweepstakes last year and they've been bragging about it ever since.
+They think that Thunderbolt horse of theirs can't be beat. I was going
+to put Silver Tip in this year. He can put that black in second place--"
+
+"No, he can't," the Ramblin' Kid remarked quietly, "--you'd lose your
+money. There's only one animal on th' Kiowa range that can outrun that
+Vermejo horse."
+
+"What animal is that?" Charley asked.
+
+"She's in th' circular corral," the Ramblin' Kid answered laconically.
+
+"The Gold Dust maverick?" Bert questioned.
+
+"That's the one I mean," the Ramblin' Kid replied in a low voice, "for
+two miles--or five--there ain't nothin' in western Texas, or Mexico
+either, that can catch her."
+
+"Why don't you take her in when the Rodeo is on and run her in the
+sweepstakes then?" Chuck asked eagerly. "I ain't caring what Kiowa horse
+gets the money just so that Y-Bar outfit is taken down a notch or two.
+Ever since they got that Thunderbolt horse and beat Old Heck's
+Quicksilver with him they've been crowing over the Quarter Circle KT and
+I'm getting plumb sick of it--"
+
+"Old Heck lost three thousand dollars on that race!" Bert interrupted
+rather triumphantly.
+
+"I didn't neither," Old Heck corrected sullenly, "it was only
+twenty-five hundred!"
+
+"Well, that Vermejo crowd has got a hundred of mine," Chuck said
+vindictively, "but I don't give a darn for that--I'd be willing to lose
+twice that much again just to set that Thunderbolt horse of theirs back
+in second place!"
+
+"Why don't you run the outlaw filly?" Charley asked coaxingly of the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Yes, go on and put her in," Skinny urged, "--you ought to!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid remained silent, seemingly indifferent to the teasing
+of the others.
+
+Carolyn June leaned over and said, in a voice audible only to him, while
+her eyes grew mellow with a look that tested his composure to the
+uttermost but which wrung no sign from him:
+
+"Please, race the maverick--I--want you to--Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+It was the first time she had used his name in speaking directly to him
+and the tone in which it was spoken made him tremble in spite of
+himself. For a moment he returned her gaze. Her words and manner were so
+different that by their very difference they reminded him of what she
+had called him yesterday--"an ignorant, savage, stupid brute"--when he
+had refused to interfere with the cat when its head was caught in the
+can. He started to make a cynical reply. Then he remembered her sympathy
+for Old Blue, her apology later for the harsh words--anyhow he knew or
+felt in his heart they were true--and suddenly he seemed to see the
+pink satin garter he still carried in his pocket. The look that came
+into his eyes made Carolyn June lower her own. He smiled a whimsical but
+hopeless smile, as, replying apparently to the pleading of Charley and
+Skinny, he said, softly, the single word:
+
+"Maybe!"
+
+Old Heck had forgotten the annual Rodeo held in Eagle Butte, for some
+days each summer, around the Fourth of July. His sudden determination
+and eagerness to have the beef round-up begin earlier than usual in
+order to get Parker away from the widow had driven all else but that one
+idea from his mind. The protests reminded him of his oversight. He had
+not intended to deprive the cowboys of the opportunity to enjoy the one
+big event happening yearly in the Kiowa country and which temporarily
+turned Eagle Butte, for a few days each summer, into a seething
+metropolis of care-free humanity.
+
+"I think it's a darned shame to spring the beef hunt so it will
+interfere with the Rodeo," Bert grumbled, "--and us have to be out on
+the hills wrangling steers while the celebration is going on!"
+
+"I'm not-goin! to be out on th' hills then," the Ramblin' Kid said
+quietly but with unchangeable finality.
+
+"You can all go to the Rodeo," Old Heck interposed, not feeling just
+right in his conscience about sending Parker away in advance of the time
+expected, and wishing to make amends,"--Parker and all of you. You can
+'break' the round-up for a few days during the Rodeo and what cattle
+you've got gathered by then can be turned into the big pasture and held
+there till it's over. That'll let you all get into Eagle Butte for the
+Fourth--I'd like to see that blamed Thunderbolt horse beat myself! But
+we'll start the beef hunt Monday the way I said in the first place--"
+
+"Who's going to cook, this year, on the round-up?" Charley queried. "You
+can't take the Chink from here this time, can you?"
+
+"I reckon Sing Pete'll have to go along as usual," Old Heck answered;
+"it'll make it a little unhandy at the ranch, but--"
+
+"Ophelia and I can 'batch' while you are gone," Carolyn June suggested.
+"We won't mind being alone and it will be fun to cook our own meals."
+
+"We will enjoy it," Ophelia added agreeably.
+
+"You ain't going to be alone," Old Heck said; "Skinny and me will be
+here. When it comes to the cooking maybe between the four of us we can
+get along some way!"
+
+"Well, if the round-up's got to start Monday," Parker declared sullenly
+as they left the table, "I'll have to go down to town again to-day and
+get me a new saddle. Mine was on Old Blue."
+
+"I'll go with you," Old Heck said in a conciliatory way. "Charley and
+the other boys can be working on them dead steers till we get back.
+We'll go in the car and ought to make the round-trip by noon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+FIXING FIXERS
+
+The widow and Carolyn June were alone at the house. Old Heck and Parker
+went immediately from the breakfast table to the garage to get the car
+out to go to Eagle Butte. The cowboys were at the barn preparing to
+begin the day's work. Skinny had excused himself, ostensibly to attend
+to some ranch chores, but in reality to get away to the bunk-house and
+"fix up" for the day's courtship of Carolyn June. He planned, when the
+cowboys were gone, to put on the white shirt Parker brought, yesterday,
+from Eagle Butte.
+
+"Ophelia," Carolyn June said mysteriously as they stepped out on the
+front porch and filled their lungs with the clean air of the morning,
+"you made a 'discovery' yesterday, I believe?" pausing questioningly.
+
+"Yes," the widow smiled, recalling their conversation relative to
+Parker's abrupt proposal of marriage.
+
+"To-day," Carolyn June continued impressively, "it is my turn--I have
+made one!"
+
+"And it is?"
+
+"You and I have been 'framed!'" was the answer spoken solemnly yet
+scarcely louder than a whisper, while the brown eyes of Carolyn June
+sparkled with a mixture of suppressed anger, merriment and indignation.
+
+"Framed?" the widow repeated inquiringly, "just what does 'framed' mean,
+my dear?"
+
+"Framed means," Carolyn June replied wisely, "'tricked,' 'jobbed,'
+'jinxed,' 'fixed,' or whatever it is people do to people when they
+scheme to do something to them without the ones to whom they are doing
+it knowing how it is done!"
+
+"Exceedingly lucid, my love," the widow laughed, "but you are so
+agonizingly fond of suspense--"
+
+"Come inside," Carolyn June said as she led the way into the house, "and
+in a dark corner--no, that would be too near to the walls and their
+proverbial 'ears,' in the center of the room is better--I will expose
+the whole diabolical plot!"
+
+At the end of the reading table they stopped and faced each other.
+
+"And now?" Ophelia said, expectantly.
+
+"And now," Carolyn June repeated, her voice low and carefully guarded.
+"Listen: Before Ophelia Cobb and Carolyn June Dixon ever arrived at this
+Quarter Circle KT their 'lovers' were already picked out for
+them--officially chosen, delegated, appointed, foreordained and
+everything! The 'arrangements' had all been made--"
+
+"I don't understand," the widow said, bewildered by the rapid flow of
+legal-sounding words.
+
+"Nor did I at first," Carolyn June went on, "but I have figured it all
+out! I have 'discovered' what all this mysterious hinting about
+'arrangements,' 'the agreement,' 'Old Heck's day,' 'Parker's time,'
+'Skinny's job,' and so forth means! I have studied it out. Why is Skinny
+Rawlins thrown into my lap as my 'regular' lover? It's his 'job'--that
+is why! And why the day-and-day-about courting of yourself by Uncle
+Josiah and Parker? It is the 'agreement'--the one is to have you one day
+and the other the next! Before we came some such arrangement was fixed
+up. I am sure of it--"
+
+"Impossible," Ophelia protested, "preposterous!"
+
+"Outrageous!" Carolyn June added vehemently, "but truth just the same!
+To start with they didn't want us to come. That telegram lying about
+them all having the smallpox proved as much. We were, for some reason or
+other, considered 'afflictions,' Why, I don't know. I guess they thought
+we were a pair of female vampires or something and had to be disposed of
+in advance to prevent our stirring things up and causing a lot of
+murders or suicides or duels on the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"I can't believe it," Ophelia muttered as if stunned. "Why, that would
+be 'dealing' with us just as though we were cattle!"
+
+"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed vindictively, her anger for the
+moment getting the better of her sense of the ridiculous, "they 'dealt'
+in us! More than likely they played poker to decide how to divide us
+up--to see who should love you and which should love me! As if the heart
+of a woman can be made to run in a groove cut to order by the hand of
+any masculine--insect!" she finished, thoughtless of the incongruous
+metaphor.
+
+"Then Skinny and your Uncle Josiah," the widow murmured, "and
+Parker--are--are--pretending?"
+
+"No," Carolyn June answered, "they started out 'pretending,' but they've
+stepped into their own trap! They are painfully serious now--they are
+'intending!'"
+
+"What shall we do about it?" Ophelia asked helplessly.
+
+"We ought to assassinate them!" Carolyn June snapped, then laughed as
+the absurdity of the situation dawned upon her and her sense of humor
+overcame the moment of anger and indignation. "I have it--I've got it!
+We will Vamp' them in dead earnest! We'll fix the 'fixers,' we'll frame
+the 'framers'!"
+
+"But how?" doubtfully.
+
+"From now on," Carolyn June replied decisively, "I am going to flirt,
+individually and collectively--desperately and wickedly--with the whole
+male population of this ranch! We'll show them what premeditated
+love-making really is! When it comes to Uncle Josiah and, well, possibly
+Parker, you will have to take care of that giddy pair yourself and,
+incidentally, you might work some on Charley Saunders," mentioning the
+oldest of the cowboys. "I'll just flicker an eyelid occasionally at
+Parker, unless you object?"
+
+"Not in the least," Ophelia answered, blushing a trifle.
+
+"Well, then, we will make it a free-for-all," Carolyn June said, "and--"
+
+"How about the Ramblin' Kid?" the widow interrupted, "do you think he is
+one of the conspirators--is in on the--the--'frame-up?' Is he also to be
+a 'Victim'?"
+
+Carolyn June colored the least bit, paused a moment before she replied,
+then said rather stiffly:
+
+"He--yes, he is probably having more fun watching us being 'officially'
+made love to than any other one of the entire bunch. The Ramblin' Kid
+will have to take his medicine along with the rest! Every man-thing on
+the Quarter Circle KT--eliminating Sing Pete from that classification
+--is my meat!"
+
+"When does the slaughter begin?" Ophelia laughed.
+
+"Right now!" Carolyn June answered. "War is declared--"
+
+She stopped suddenly as a step sounded on the porch and a moment later
+Skinny entered the room. He was painfully "dressed up." The instant Old
+Heck and Parker, in the Clagstone "Six," started for Eagle Butte and the
+cowboys disappeared down the lane in the direction of the big pasture,
+Skinny struggled into the white shirt. He planned to try its effect on
+Carolyn June while the others were away. If it did not produce results
+he would slip back to the bunk-house before they returned and change
+again to his normal dress.
+
+When Skinny stepped into the room he was fully conscious of his unusual
+appearance. The morning was warm and he had not put on a coat. The shirt
+billowed over his shoulders, arms and chest in a snowy cloud. It seemed
+impossible to Skinny that anything in all the world could be so vividly,
+persistently white as the cloth that literally enveloped the upper half
+of his body. It actually gleamed. The sleeves of the shirt were too
+long. A pair of sky-blue, rosette-fastened, satin ribbon sleeve-holders
+above his elbows kept the cuffs from slipping over his hands. Parker had
+been unable to get the purple necktie and had brought, instead, one that
+was a solid Shamrock green. Skinny swore when he saw the tie, but
+decided to wear it anyhow. Parker had explained by saying he had
+forgotten the errand until he was starting from town and then stepped
+into Old Leon's--a cheap general store in Eagle Butte--and purchased the
+outfit from the Jew. That accounted also for the surplus length of
+sleeve--the shirt was a size and a half larger than Skinny had ordered
+and for which Parker declared positively he had asked. Eternal hatred
+for all Hebrews was born in Skinny's heart the moment he saw the layout.
+But, well, it was there; he was anxious to see if a white shirt would
+have any effect, and he would wear it anyway.
+
+Skinny knew instantly that he made an impression on Carolyn June.
+
+She looked at him once and was speechless!
+
+"By gosh," he said to himself, "Chuck was right! It sure does beat hell
+how clothes affect a woman!"
+
+Carolyn June, unquestionably, was overcome. The surprise had been too
+much for her. He had knocked her cold! The shirt had done the work! She
+bit nervously at the nail of her thumb, pressed desperately against her
+teeth. Her whole body trembled. Her face flamed scarlet. Skinny saw her
+agitation and resolved at that moment that he would never again be
+without a white shirt!
+
+Ophelia also was visibly affected. The widow gave one look at Skinny,
+glanced quickly at Carolyn June, then, with her hands clasped tightly
+against her breast, she leaned weakly against the table and chewed at
+her underlip. She started to speak and stopped.
+
+"Well, I--I--got back!" Skinny said, breaking the spell while he grinned
+somewhat sheepishly and yet with an air of complete satisfaction.
+
+"I--I--see you--did!" Carolyn June choked hysterically.
+
+"I was gone longer than I aimed to be," Skinny continued, rapidly
+gaining confidence as he saw the confusion of the women; "after I got
+the chores done I concluded to fix up a little. This is the first time I
+ever wore this shirt," he went on, feeling that a bit of explanation was
+entirely proper and would probably help in restoring the composure of
+Carolyn June and the widow. "Parker just brought it out yesterday and it
+was a good deal of trouble to make the collar work right. It seemed like
+it was pretty stiff or something. Generally speaking the whole outfit's
+bigger than it really ought to be, but maybe it'll shrink up some when
+it's washed," he finished in a casual matter-of-fact way.
+
+"It--it--is wonderful!" Carolyn June stammered, "it is--I don't think I
+ever saw one that was--was--whiter--"
+
+"It looked that way to me," Skinny interrupted as if glad some one else
+had noticed a peculiarity of the garment that already had troubled him
+somewhat, "I thought it was uncommonly white!"
+
+"Perhaps it just seems that way because we are not used to it," Ophelia
+suggested sympathetically.
+
+"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed feverishly, "it is because we are
+not used to it--it will be perfectly all right when we have looked at it
+a little more!"
+
+Skinny decided he would risk the gauntlet of comment from Parker, Old
+Heck and the cowboys and wear the shirt the rest of the day.
+
+Carolyn June was really sorry for Skinny, but--she needed air--she felt
+she must have it.
+
+"Please," she cried suddenly and with, an effort, "excuse me! I--I--have
+something I wish to do! You," speaking to Skinny, "and Ophelia stay here
+and visit each other a while!"
+
+Without waiting for an answer she stepped quickly into the kitchen,
+asked Sing Pete for a handful of sugar and hurried out to the circular
+corral.
+
+"Oh, Skinny, Skinny, you are so funny," she laughed aloud as she went
+through the back-yard gate. "It breaks my heart to break your heart--but
+you are one of the 'fixers' and you've got to be 'fixed.'"
+
+The Gold Dust maverick at first was shy when Carolyn June opened the
+gate and entered the corral. After a few moments she recognized the girl
+and was soon eating the sugar from the hand of Carolyn June. Before the
+supply was exhausted the friendship and confidence of the two, begun
+yesterday, was firmly reestablished. The maverick allowed Carolyn June
+to swing her weight from the glossy withers, to clasp her arms tightly
+about the trim, clean-built neck, and when, after an hour, the girl
+started toward the house, the outlaw mare protested so eagerly against
+being left alone that she turned back to the corral and leaning against
+the fence stroked the soft muzzle thrust between the bars.
+
+Carolyn June was cooing endearing terms to the filly and playing with
+the quivering underlip when she heard a horse galloping swiftly up the
+lane and past the barn. Instinctively she stepped back and turned just
+as the Ramblin' Kid, riding Captain Jack, wheeled around the end of the
+shed near the corral.
+
+His sudden appearance surprised her. She had thought he was with the
+cowboys over at the upland pasture helping skin the steers killed by the
+lightning.
+
+When they left the ranch the Ramblin' Kid had ridden away with Charley
+and the others, but not with any intention of going to the big pasture.
+Where the road turned toward the lower ford he held Captain Jack to the
+left.
+
+"Ain't you going with us," Charley Saunders asked, "and help skin them
+steers?"
+
+"No," the Ramblin' Kid replied quietly. "I ain't. I've got something
+else to do. Anyhow, I ain't a butcher--I work with live cattle, not dead
+ones!" he concluded as Captain Jack continued in the direction of the
+upper crossing.
+
+"He's the independentest darn' cuss I ever saw!" Charley remarked to his
+companions as the Ramblin' Kid disappeared. "It's a wonder Old Heck
+don't fire him."
+
+"He can't," Bert laughed. "Th' Ramblin' Kid don't stay at the Quarter
+Circle KT by the grace of Old Heck, but by the choice of th' Ramblin'
+Kid! Anyhow, he's too good with horses--" His voice trailed away to a
+low mutter as they turned in among the willows and cottonwood trees
+along the bank of the Cimarron.
+
+At the upper crossing on almost the same spot where he had lifted
+Carolyn June from the quicksand to the solid ground of the meadow land,
+the Ramblin' Kid stopped Captain Jack. He looked out over the placid,
+unbroken surface of the sand-bar and saw the end of the broken rope
+coiled loosely where Old Blue had been drawn under. A few yards away the
+white felt hat Carolyn June had tossed to one side, to be a mute and
+pathetic messenger of her fate, when she thought death was certain,
+still rested on the smooth surface of the sand. It was to get the hat
+the Ramblin' Kid had come again to the scene of yesterday's tragedy. He
+had seen it lying there when Carolyn June and he rode away on Captain
+Jack and thought then of trying to get it, but the part of the broken
+rope attached to his saddle was too short to reach it and it was
+impossible to secure it in any other way. Chuck had returned the
+Ramblin' Kid's rope to him yesterday when they were after the runaway
+steers and it was now on his saddle. He lightly tossed the noose so that
+it fell circling the object he sought. Gently flicking the rope toward
+him he tightened the loop about the crown of the hat and drew it to the
+edge of the quicksand. He picked up the hat, looked curiously at it,
+remounted Captain Jack, paused a moment and gazed at the treacherous
+surface beneath which the body of Old Blue was hidden and with a
+savagely muttered something about "th' damned stuff!" whirled the little
+stallion and rode rapidly in the direction from which he came.
+
+As Captain Jack galloped along the lane the Ramblin' Kid looked at the
+hat curiously, turning it first one way and then the other. With a
+laugh he reached into his pocket and drew out the pink satin garter. An
+expression of tenderness, followed by a look of deep humility that
+quickly changed into savage anger, came into his eyes as he looked first
+at the hat, soiled and dirty, and then at the dainty bit of elastic he
+held in his hand.
+
+"A swell pair of souvenirs," he said bitterly, "for an 'ign'rant,
+savage, stupid brute' of a cow-puncher to be packin' around!"
+
+Before reaching the barn the Ramblin' Kid dropped the garter again into
+his pocket. Rounding the end of the shed he rode Captain Jack directly
+up to Carolyn June. Dismounting, he left the little roan standing, not
+troubling to drop the reins over the broncho's head, stepped toward the
+girl and extended the hat, saying simply and without emotion.
+
+"Here's your hat!"
+
+There was no embarrassment now or humility in his eyes as he looked
+steadily at Carolyn June. His expression was as cold as if the one to
+whom he spoke was an utter stranger.
+
+"I--" Carolyn June hesitated, "oh, I thank you! It was kind of you to
+think about it and ride back--back--there," she involuntarily
+shuddered when she thought of the upper crossing, "and get it!"
+
+The simple, unexpected thoughtfulness of the deed touched her. It was
+the natural, instinctive act of a gentleman. She had forgotten the hat.
+He had not. As she looked at him she felt that, someway, she might have
+known such a thing was exactly what he would do.
+
+"You're welcome," he said quietly, starting to turn away.
+
+A spirit of mischief suddenly flared up in her heart. She thought of the
+pink elastic she had lost and which she believed he was carrying now in
+his pocket.
+
+"Is the hat all--didn't you--" she intended to say "find something
+else?" but quickly stopped. The Ramblin' Kid paused and turned again
+toward Carolyn June. She hesitated in confusion. It had flashed to her
+mind that if he had the garter he would not lie about it. He would say
+as much and offer to return it to her. Someway, she did not wish
+that--she wanted him to keep it, but she did not want him to know that
+she wanted her garter to be carried by him!
+
+His black eyes looked keenly at her, as if they would force from her
+lips the thing she evidently dared not say.
+
+"I--I was just getting acquainted with the Gold Dust maverick!" Carolyn
+June finished lamely with a nervous laugh.
+
+"You want to be careful," the Ramblin' Kid said with the slightest curl
+of his lips at her obvious shifting of meanings, "she ain't exactly a
+'lady's animal' yet. She'll fight. Skinny started to go in th' corral
+this morning an' had to back up. Th' maverick went at him to kill.
+She's goin' to be a 'one-man' horse th' same as Captain Jack."
+
+"Perhaps it was because she was afraid of him," Carolyn June suggested.
+
+"Maybe it was because Skinny was afraid of her," the Ramblin' Kid
+chuckled.
+
+"Aren't you going to ride the filly in that race at Eagle Butte?" she
+asked suddenly with a hint of coquetry in her eyes and voice.
+
+"Why?" he shot back at her, observing the changed inflection and look.
+
+"I--I--would like you to," Carolyn June murmured demurely as she
+followed up the feminine method of mastering a man, "it would be fun to
+see her run!"
+
+"Is that all?" the Ramblin' Kid asked gently and with a peculiar
+emphasis.
+
+"Isn't that enough?" the girl countered in a tone bordering close to the
+tender.
+
+The answer was slow in coming.
+
+"Th' Gold Dust maverick will be in th' sweepstakes," the Ramblin' Kid
+finally said, a note of contempt in his voice. "I'll ride her"--as he
+jerked the saddle from Captain Jack, turned the stallion into the
+corral, then started toward the bunk-house, while Carolyn June moved
+away in the direction of the back-yard gate--"I'll ride her," he
+repeated, emphasizing strongly the last ten words, "_to beat that
+Thunderbolt horse from over on th' Vermejo_".
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+A DANCE AND A RIDE
+
+Old Heck and Parker returned from Eagle Butte before noon. Parker
+climbed silently from the Clagstone "Six" and lifting out a new saddle
+went toward the stable. Old Heck carried another--a beautiful thing,
+artistically scrolled, the horn and stirrups silver trimmed--and laid it
+on the front porch as Carolyn June, Ophelia and Skinny stepped out of
+the big room.
+
+"It's yours," he said to Carolyn June.
+
+"Oh, you darling old uncle!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around his
+neck and giving a tight squeeze while she kissed him full on the mouth.
+
+He reddened. "I ain't so darned old!" he laughed as he withdrew from her
+embrace and, glancing up, caught sight of Skinny in the immaculate
+shirt. "My Gawd!" he whispered under his breath.
+
+Parker immediately saddled a horse and rode away to join the cowboys at
+their work. Lunches for the party had been taken with them when they
+left the ranch in the morning. During the trip to Eagle Butte Old Heck
+and his foreman had talked but little. There was a feeling of restraint
+between Parker and him that made each hesitate to start a conversation
+that would be almost certain to work around to a discussion of
+Ophelia--a subject uppermost in the minds of both.
+
+At noon the Ramblin' Kid came to the house for dinner.
+
+He and Skinny occupied their usual places. He looked once at Skinny's
+shirt, murmured softly and in a tone of infinite disgust and pity,
+"Hell!" then ate his food in silence. During the meal Carolyn June
+ignored him, but smiled tenderly and often at Skinny. Old Heck and the
+widow, at the far end of the table, carried on a low-voiced dialogue.
+
+During the afternoon the Ramblin' Kid remained away from the house. A
+couple of times, glancing out of the window, Carolyn June saw him at the
+circular corral petting and caressing Captain Jack or the Gold Dust
+maverick.
+
+When Sing Pete hammered the iron triangle announcing supper Parker and
+the cowboys had returned, the hides from the dead steers had been
+unloaded and the men were ready for the meal.
+
+As Carolyn June and Ophelia went into the kitchen they exchanged a look
+of understanding. Skinny lagged behind Old Heck. He dreaded the shock of
+the white shirt on the other cowboys. When he stepped into the room his
+face flamed scarlet and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. He
+expected merciless, sarcastic chiding--thinly veiled but cruel. He was
+disappointed. The cowboys looked at him for a moment, exchanged winks,
+then sat silently and solemnly down to the table. The presence of the
+women had saved, for the time being, the suffering Skinny.
+
+Carolyn June distributed tender words and velvety looks impartially
+among the younger cowboys, while Ophelia alternated sweet nothings
+between Parker and Old Heck, with an occasional sidelong glance at
+Charley that brought a heightened color to his sun-browned cheeks.
+
+Chuck sighed dolefully.
+
+"Why so sad?" Carolyn June asked gently, looking with melting sympathy
+at the pensive cowboy.
+
+"I--I--was just thinking of a--a--funeral I saw once!" he answered,
+gazing steadily and with pretended awe at Skinny's white shirt. "Some
+colors always remind me of funerals or--or--weddings!" he explained.
+
+A suppressed snicker circled the table.
+
+"Don't be down-hearted," Carolyn June laughed, "it may not go that far.
+
+"Uncle Josiah," she added suddenly, "Ophelia and I have a wonderful
+surprise for you and the boys."
+
+Old Heck looked at her without replying while he awaited an explanation.
+
+"We are going to give a dance!" Carolyn June went on.
+
+"A dance?" he repeated incredulously, "when--"
+
+"To-night--in the front room," she hastened to explain, "not a big
+dance--just a little one for you and the boys. The graphophone will
+furnish music, there are some good one-step and waltz records--Skinny
+and I were playing them this afternoon--and every blessed cowboy on the
+Quarter Circle KT must be there!"
+
+A short silence followed her words, then a chorus of "We'll be there!"
+greeted her.
+
+"In an hour," Carolyn June said, smiling sweetly at the cowboys, as they
+left the kitchen, "everybody be back at the house. We'll fix the room
+and have it ready--don't any one bother to 'dress up,'" she added as an
+afterthought.
+
+"Old Heck's niece acts kind of stampedish, don't she?" Bert remarked as
+Parker and the cowboys filed out of the back-yard gate toward the
+bunk-house.
+
+"Yes," Charley answered. "I'm going to shave."
+
+"So am I," said Chuck, as they hurried in the direction of their
+sleeping quarters.
+
+"Me, too," laughed Bert. "Gee, didn't Skinny shine in that shirt?" as
+they disappeared inside the building and there was a rush to hunt out
+razors, brushes and other toilet necessities or clean handkerchiefs and
+ties.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid alone seemed uninterested. He dropped down on his bed
+and idly watched the others prepare for the evening's diversion.
+
+"Ain't you going?" Chuck asked him, noticing his indifference.
+
+A short, half-cynical laugh with "Oh, maybe I'll go set on the porch
+an' listen to th' music!" was the answer.
+
+When Parker and the cowboys reappeared at the house it was plain that
+all had disobeyed Carolyn June's injunction not to "dress up." Each had
+paid tribute in some way, by a smooth-scraped face, a dean shirt, a tie
+or something, to the vanity of his own heart and the desire for the good
+opinion of either Carolyn June or the widow.
+
+Both women noticed it. They exchanged glances while Carolyn June softly
+whispered to Ophelia: "Stir them up--it's coming to them!"
+
+The widow smiled understandingly.
+
+Old Heck fidgeted uncomfortably. The situation was entirely beyond his
+control. By right he and Ophelia ought to be sitting there quietly
+making love, while Skinny and Carolyn June, in another corner of the
+room or out on the porch, were doing the same thing. He would just have
+to await developments.
+
+Parker was elated. Carolyn June's proposal had broken up Old Heck's
+evening alone with the widow. Perhaps--the thought thrilled the foreman
+--Ophelia herself had planned it!
+
+"Skinny can keep the graphophone working," Carolyn June laughed. "Put on
+a one-step first," she said as he rather grudgingly went to the corner
+and started the music. "Come on, Bert, we'll dance this one," she cried
+merrily, as she stepped up to the blushing cowboy and put her hand, with
+a tender little pressure, on his arm. "It's 'ladies' night,' you
+know--Ophelia, pick your pardner!"
+
+"Aw--don't you reckon you ought to choose one of the others first?"
+Bert, considerably embarrassed by the sudden attention, mumbled as he
+moved with pretended reluctance but secret eagerness out on to the
+floor.
+
+"I know who I want to dance with!" Carolyn June whispered significantly
+with another squeeze of his arm while her warm breath fanned his cheek.
+
+For a moment Ophelia stood as if undecided while Old Heck and Parker
+each tried by their looks to register unconcern, their hearts meanwhile
+leaping with uncertain expectancy and hope. Suddenly turning from both
+and going up to Charley, she said softly and with well-feigned shyness:
+
+"I--I--please, won't you dance this one with me?"
+
+"With the most exceeding pleasure!" Charley replied gallantly, arising
+and reaching out his hands.
+
+Parker and Old Heck gulped their astonishment and disappointment--each
+swallowing as if he had something in his throat that would not go
+down--and glared savagely at each other.
+
+Skinny next put on a waltz record. Carolyn June and Chuck swung through
+its dreamy rhythm while her hair brushed the cowboy's neck and her eyes,
+half closed, looked alluringly into his. "I--I--could do this
+forever--with you!" she breathed, accenting the last word and making
+Chuck want to yell for joy.
+
+At the beginning of the waltz Ophelia paused a moment before Old Heck,
+glanced demurely at Parker, took a step toward the latter, turned
+quickly to the first and flooding him with a look of tenderness held out
+her hands while she spoke the simple entreaty:
+
+"Please!"
+
+Old Heck leaped to his feet, hitched nervously at the belt of his
+trousers, ran his fingers around the inside of his collar, and, with a
+look of triumph at Parker, led the widow through the dance. She
+permitted her body to relax and lean against her partner, dancing with
+an abandon that not only fired the emotions of Old Heck to fever heat,
+but was as well like dippers of oil on the flame of the foreman's
+jealousy.
+
+Parker gritted his teeth and followed Old Heck with a look that meant
+nothing less than the desire to kill!
+
+As Ophelia and Old Heck, and Carolyn June with Chuck circled the room
+Skinny leaned weakly against the graphophone. He was tortured
+agonizingly by the strange action of Carolyn June. He was her lover, her
+official, absolute lover! Why did she want to go and get things all
+mixed up like this? It wasn't fair. The other boys were not supposed to
+make love to her! They had elected him to do it and he was getting
+along all right till she thought of having this blamed fool dance. He
+began to doubt the efficacy of the white shirt and frequently drew one
+of the loose, baggy sleeves--rapidly losing their snowy
+spotlessness--across his face to rid himself of beads of perspiration.
+
+The waltz was followed by another one-step and Ophelia granted this
+favor to Parker while Old Heck sat and swore steadily under his
+breath--regretful that he had not sent the foreman and the cowboys out
+on the beef hunt a week ago!
+
+Outside, the Ramblin' Kid half-reclined on the edge of the porch. With a
+cigarette between his teeth, a sneering smile on his lips, he watched,
+through the open door, the group within. He was convinced now that
+Carolyn June was utterly frivolous. She danced and flirted with Bert,
+Chuck, Charley--and even Pedro--one after the other and occasionally
+Parker. Poor Skinny alone was neglected. She seemed to have forgotten
+that he existed save when, from time to time, she suggested that he put
+this or that record on the graphophone. To each of the cowboys she
+whispered tender little sentiments, gave soulful looks and insinuating
+smiles--all but caressed them openly. Ophelia did like things to Old
+Heck, Parker and Charley.
+
+In very truth it was a "slaughter."
+
+It was hot. After an hour Carolyn June stepped out on the porch for a
+breath of air while Skinny sought in the cabinet for a record she had
+asked him to play. The Ramblin' Kid straightened up as she came out of
+the door. He was disgusted, angry, heart-sickened. He had seen enough
+and was starting to leave.
+
+Carolyn June had noticed the absence of the Ramblin' Kid. She had
+believed, all evening, he was on the porch and that was the real reason
+she had come outside. She saw him. "Oh, is--is--that you, Ramblin'
+Kid?" she exclaimed as if surprised, and went quickly to where, at the
+sound of her voice, he had paused.
+
+He did not answer. The light shone full on his face and he knew that she
+knew--and had known before she spoke--that he was there. His eyes were
+filled with a look queerly blending scorn, loathing, pity and pain.
+
+"Why--why--don't you come in and dance?" she asked lightly, not certain
+of his mood.
+
+"I don't want to," he replied coldly: "anyhow--" he added with a sneer
+and a brutal laugh as he slowly moved away in the darkness, "when I
+decide to _hug_ I'll hug in private!"
+
+Carolyn June started almost as though he had struck her. The taunt was
+an insult! A flood of anger swept over her. "The brute!" she whispered
+passionately and with utter contempt in her voice. She stood a moment.
+Suddenly she remembered the reckless abandon with which she had been
+dancing and flirting with the cowboys inside the house. Her face flamed
+scarlet. She looked out into the blackness toward the circular corral.
+Her expression changed and a pitying smile crossed her lips: "Poor
+Ramblin' Kid--he just--does not understand!" she murmured and stepped
+back into the house.
+
+As the Ramblin' Kid passed through the back-yard gate he muttered
+savagely under his breath: "Playin' with their hearts like marbles--th'
+damned fools!" He paused a moment and added, as though tired, "Oh, well,
+I reckon she thinks she has to do it--it's her breed--she was raised
+that way I guess!"
+
+The snuffling sound of a horse blowing hay-powder or other dust from its
+nostrils came from the direction of the circular corral. The Ramblin'
+Kid stopped in his walk and turning went thoughtfully through the
+darkness toward where Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were
+quietly feeding. He leaned against the bars of the corral and looked at
+the shadowy forms of the two horses standing a little distance away.
+Captain Jack quit eating and came to the fence.
+
+"God! Little Horse"--the Ramblin' Kid spoke tensely and without
+repression--"why can't humans be as decent an' honest as you?"
+
+The black dome of night was studded with innumerable stars that gleamed
+like points of silver sprinkled over a canopy of somber velvet some
+infinite hand had flung, in a great arch, from rim to rim of a sleeping
+world. The call of a night bird shrilled softly from the cottonwood
+trees along the Cimarron. A hint of a breeze swung idly from the west
+and rustled the leaves in the tops of the poplars in front of the house.
+Faintly as a distant echo came the wailing strains of a waltz, drifting
+out from the lighted windows and the open door of the room where Carolyn
+June and Ophelia, in a spirit of sport and for revenge, juggled the
+hearts of men afraid of nothing in all the world but the look in a
+Woman's eyes.
+
+The music tortured the soul of the Ramblin' Kid. It breathed the
+unfathomable strife of life--of love, longing, hope, despair--almost,
+yet subtly, elusively, would not tell the eternal "Why?" of all things.
+
+Not heeding time, he stood and listened. The crunching sound made by the
+Gold Dust maverick, munching at the pile of hay on the ground in the
+corral, blended with and seemed a queer accompaniment to the melody that
+came from the scene of revelry up at the house.
+
+The orange disk of a late-rising moon showed above the rim of the
+sand-hills at the lower end of the valley. The Ramblin' Kid watched
+it--until it grew into a rounded plate of burnished, glistening silver.
+The Gold Dust maverick was suddenly flooded with a glare of light as the
+moonbeams poured over the top of the shed and streamed through the bars
+of the circular corral. The filly lifted her head.
+
+An impulse to ride--ride--ride, to get away from it all--far out on the
+wide unpeopled plains where there was nothing above but God, and the
+unmeasured depths of His heavens, and nothing beneath but the earth and
+the rhythmic beat of his horse's feet, came over the Ramblin' Kid. Men,
+and the works of men--their passions, their strifes, their
+foolishness--and women--women who played with love--he wanted to forget,
+to leave miles and miles behind.
+
+He started to open the gate, thinking to saddle Captain Jack and obey
+the impulse of the moment. Carolyn June's words, spoken of the Gold Dust
+maverick: "It would be fun to see her run!" and uttered lightly and in a
+spirit of coquetry that morning when she teased him to enter the outlaw
+filly in the race against the Thunderbolt horse from the Vermejo, came
+to his mind. The selfishness of the plea maddened him. She cared nothing
+for the price in effort--the straining muscles, the panting breath--the
+agony the beautiful mare must pay to defeat the black wonder from the
+other part of the range. She wanted only to see the maverick run--to
+coax him to yield and run the filly merely to please the cheap vanity of
+her sex! No doubt also she counted on entertainment when, to-morrow, he
+would ride the outlaw for the first time. It would be a kind of
+show--the battle for mastery between himself and the high-bred untamed
+mare. The whole bunch--Old Heck, Parker, Ophelia, Carolyn June, the
+cowboys--yes, even that damned Chink--unquestionably would be crowded
+about the corral to watch the fear and pain of the maverick as she
+learned her first hard lesson of servitude to man! They would laugh at
+her frenzied efforts to throw him.
+
+He would fool them. He would ride the filly to-night!
+
+He went to the shed, slipped his legs into the worn leather chaps, took
+saddle, bridle, blanket and rope and returned to the corral.
+
+Stepping inside he closed the gate behind him.
+
+Captain Jack came to him and nosed at his shoulder.
+
+"No, Little Man," the Ramblin' Kid said gently, "this ain't your turn.
+You can go with us though, if you want to!" he laughed.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick stood, half-afraid, at the other side of the
+corral. She had not yet wholly conquered her dread of him. She did not,
+however, offer to fight as she had done that morning when Skinny entered
+the enclosure.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid spoke to the filly and, as she began to move shyly
+away, with one toss threw the loop over her head. The instant the mare
+felt the rope she stopped and stood trembling a moment, then came
+straight up to him. She was "rope-wise." The experience at the North
+Springs the night he caught her, and when she had, three separate times,
+been cruelly thrown by this same rope; had taught the Gold Dust maverick
+the power that lay in those pliant strands.
+
+She flinched from the touch of the blanket. The Ramblin' Kid worked
+easily, carefully, but in absolute confidence, with her. As he
+cautiously saddled the mare he talked in a low, drawling monotone,
+uttering endearing phrases and occasionally slipping a lump of sugar--a
+supply of which he had got that night from the kitchen--into her mouth.
+She ate it ravenously.
+
+"Darn, Little One," he laughed, "you sure have got a sweet tooth--you
+gobble that sugar like an Indian squaw eatin' choc'late candy!"
+
+At last the mare was saddled. Still holding to the rope, the Ramblin'
+Kid, without trying to get the filly to follow, moved over and opened
+the gate, giving it a push and swinging it wide. During the performance
+the Gold Dust maverick stood perfectly still, save for a constant
+chewing at the iron bit between her teeth.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid went quietly up to her, coiling the slack of the rope
+as he advanced. Without bothering to tighten the reins, but watching
+closely the look in the maverick's big brown eyes and the nervous
+twitching of her ears, he laid one hand on the withers of the outlaw,
+with the other he grasped the horn of the saddle and slipping his foot
+in the stirrup swung quickly and lightly on to her back.
+
+For the space of a deep breath the maverick crouched, grew tense in
+every muscle, slowly arched her back, gathered herself together for a
+great effort.
+
+A quiet smile curled the lips of the Ramblin' Kid as he looked down on
+the curving neck of the beautiful creature.
+
+With a tremendous leap the Gold Dust maverick sprang high into the air,
+lunging forward while all her hoofs were off the ground. Her forefeet
+came down across the back of Captain Jack--she had all but cleared the
+little roan. The shock almost threw the stallion to the ground. As he
+surged from under her the filly slid and sprawled on her shoulder and
+side. Instantly she was on her feet, the Ramblin' Kid still in the
+saddle. His spurs had not touched the mare--instead he had been careful
+not to let their steel points so much as ruffle the golden-chestnut hair
+of her belly or flank. Only when the outlaw fell had he thrown forward
+his right leg and hooked the sharp rowels into the strong fiber of the
+forward cinch. With the left hand he loosely held the reins, giving the
+maverick her head--the other hand he brushed with a caressing upward
+movement along her glossy neck.
+
+Twice the Gold Dust maverick circled the corral, plunging, bucking
+"side-winding," desperately--her nose between her knees, squealing
+pitifully--as she tried vainly to rid herself of the weight of the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Go to it, Baby Girl, go to it!" he chuckled; "you've got to learn!
+Sooner or later you'll find out it can't be done!" He rode limply,
+loosely, low in the saddle, and while he made no effort to urge the
+filly into greater frenzy he did not try in any way to prevent her
+bucking her hardest in, the futile attempts to hurl him off her back.
+
+The second time the outlaw mare came to the gate she whirled and dashed
+through the opening, out of the corral, across the open space, past the
+corner of the front-yard fence and along the road that led up to the
+bench and toward Eagle Butte. Captain Jack trotted around the corral
+once, then followed at a long, swinging gallop.
+
+The noise of the filly bucking inside the corral reached the ears of the
+dancers in the big room at the house.
+
+"What in thunderation's that commotion?" Old Heck exclaimed, starting
+up--he and Ophelia had just finished a two-step and Skinny was winding
+the graphophone to play his favorite, the alluring _La Paloma_.
+
+There was an instant's pause, then a rush for the door.
+
+Carolyn June reached the porch just in time to see the Gold Dust
+maverick "hitting the breeze"--careering madly, wildly pitching as she
+ran past the opening in front of the house and up the road out on the
+bench. It was almost as though a phantom horse and rider had passed
+before her sight.
+
+"Lord! Look at them go!" Charley cried admiringly.
+
+At first the girl had not recognized the outlaw mare or her rider.
+
+"Who--what--is it?" she asked Chuck, who was standing beside her.
+
+Bert answered for Chuck. "It's that darn-fool Ramblin' Kid--he's riding
+the Gold Dust maverick!" he said. "Ain't that just like the blamed
+idiot--to go and ride that filly to-night?"
+
+"Aw, he's liable to do anything," Charley commented, "he's--"
+
+Before the sentence was finished the beautiful mare and her apparently
+careless rider, with Captain Jack a hundred yards behind, disappeared
+over the brink of the bench and in the silence that followed the group
+on the porch heard only the distant thudding of hoofs beating an ever
+fainter tattoo through the calm, moonlit night.
+
+Carolyn June went back into the house with conflicting emotions surging
+through her heart. She believed she knew why the Ramblin' Kid had
+elected to ride the outlaw filly to-night. But her thoughts she kept to
+herself.
+
+For an hour longer the dance continued. But not with the spirit of
+earlier in the evening. The interruption took something of the eagerness
+to punish Old Heck, Parker and the cowboys, out of the heart of Carolyn
+June. A bit of doubt that the role she and Ophelia were playing was
+worthy of true womanhood crept into her mind.
+
+When the widow and Carolyn June were alone Ophelia laughed.
+
+"Whew!" she exclaimed, "that was a strenuous party! I've danced till my
+feet ache! Do you think our little 'counterplot' was a success?"
+
+"Entirely!" Carolyn June replied with an uncertain chuckle. "Uncle
+Josiah, Parker and Charley will dream dreams about you and fight duels
+in their sleep to-night!"
+
+"I think the others--" the widow started to say, then pausing, finished:
+"Wasn't it queer the Ramblin' Kid decided to ride that outlaw horse
+to-night instead of coming to the house to dance?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," Carolyn June answered indifferently.
+
+"I guess it's as Charley says," Ophelia remarked: "'You can't tell what
+th' Ramblin' Kid's liable to do'--"
+
+"I suppose not," Carolyn June replied wearily as she went into her room.
+"Good night!"
+
+"Good night!" Ophelia echoed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+YOU'LL GET YOUR WISH
+
+It was a silent group that gathered in the bunk-house after the dance.
+Old Heck, Parker, Charley and the other cowboys had been unduly
+stimulated by the music, the laughter and the bright smiles of Carolyn
+June and Ophelia. When they stepped out of the house into the cool night
+these all were left behind. The cow-men quickly sobered down and by the
+time they reached their sleeping quarters on the faces of all were
+half-ashamed looks as if they had been playing at a game not quite
+dignified enough or proper for men of maturity and seriousness.
+
+All were thoughtful and none seemed eager to start conversation.
+
+Skinny was dejected and utterly miserable.
+
+He felt that he had been cruelty treated. Carolyn June had acted all
+evening as though his only object in living was to stand in the corner
+and wind up that blamed graphophone, while she openly flirted with the
+other cowboys. Skinny was grateful to the Ramblin' Kid who, alone of all
+the cow-punchers, had decency enough to stay away and not interfere with
+the original agreement. The Ramblin' Kid had some sense and was square.
+He had realized that any fellow officially elected to make
+love--especially when he didn't want to do it in the first place--ought
+to be allowed to go ahead and make it without having a lot of darned
+buckaroos butting in on the job.
+
+The way the others had acted was a regular disgrace!
+
+Chuck, Bert, Charley and Pedro were nervously happy. In the heart of
+each was a thrill, caused by the memory of some secret--or what he
+thought was a secret--manifestation of Carolyn June's interest. Perhaps
+it was no more than the brushing of a stray whiff of odorous brown hair
+against a weather-tanned cheek, the pulsing of a warm breath on the side
+of a muscular neck, a melting look from a pair of luminous eyes, some
+low-spoken word or the pressure of a hand, but whatever it was, each of
+the cowboys was reasonably certain he had been singled out for special
+favors. Charley was doubly blessed. In addition to Carolyn June's
+seductive advances he had the memory, also, of Ophelia's attentions. His
+mind was awhirl with the effort to figure out which one, by rights, he
+ought to consider as a permanent possibility.
+
+Old Heck and Parker were in a quandary.
+
+Neither was sure of his standing with Ophelia although each had reason
+to believe that he was her favorite. Her interest in Charley added an
+unexpected and perplexing equation to their problem.
+
+"Gosh," Chuck finally exclaimed, "that dance sure was some blow out!"
+
+"I should say it was!" Bert agreed emphatically and with a satisfied
+grin. "But didn't that widow act funny for an 'anti-he' suffragette?"
+
+Old Heck looked up, startled, as if he had been reminded of a
+disagreeable subject and one he wished to forget.
+
+"Are you plumb positive that she is one, Parker?" Chuck asked.
+
+"I told you what she was," Parker growled, "she's an 'Organizer' for
+some sort of 'Movement' or other."
+
+"Well, I'll be blamed if her 'movements' to-night showed any 'anti-he'
+inclinations," Charley interrupted. "She carried on more like a female
+vampire than one of these advocaters of woman's rights!"
+
+"Aw, shut up and go to bed," Old Heck grunted. "It's too late to start
+any argument!"
+
+The moon crept across the heavens and was hanging above the shadowy
+peaks of the Costejo Mountains when the Ramblin' Kid returned to the
+sleeping Quarter Circle KT, slipped the saddle from the back of the Gold
+Dust maverick and turned the filly and Captain Jack into the circular
+corral.
+
+He had ridden the outlaw mare almost to Eagle Butte.
+
+She had learned her lesson. She knew, when he caressed her muzzle and
+pressed the last lump of sugar into her mouth, before he turned away to
+the bunk-house, that the Ramblin' Kid was not only her master but her
+friend as well--understanding and sympathetic. Never again would she
+doubt his will or resist the gentle yet firm strength of his hand. From
+that moment the Gold Dust maverick, like Captain Jack, was a one-man
+horse, ready to serve, to trust and obey only the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"You little beauty," he laughed tenderly as he playfully shook the
+underlip of the filly and started toward the gate, "--you're a
+runner--gee!--but you're a runner!"
+
+The others were fast asleep when the Ramblin' Kid noiselessly opened the
+door of the bunk-house, went in, and without undressing, stretched
+himself on his bed.
+
+Old Heck awakened the cowboys as the sun poured its first slanting rays
+through the open un-draped window.
+
+The stir aroused the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He made no move to arise.
+
+"Ain't you going to get up?" Old Heck said garrulously.
+
+"When I damn please!" was the independent reply. "Skinny, tell th' Chink
+to keep me a cup of hot coffee!"
+
+Old Heck snorted but said no more.
+
+Parker and the cowboys dressed silently, half-moodily. They hardly knew
+yet how they felt after the excitement of the night before. Skinny
+started to put on the white shirt, looked at it contemptuously a
+moment, and with a muttered oath threw it viciously on the bed.
+
+In a few moments the Ramblin' Kid was left alone in the bunk-house. He
+lay, hands clasped at the back of his head, studying. His eyes were
+closed, but he was not asleep. Presently he smiled and opened his eyes.
+He drew the pink satin elastic from his pocket and looked at it. "That's
+a hell of a thing to be packin'--wonder why I keep it?" he muttered. It
+suddenly occurred to him that if he was not at breakfast Carolyn June
+would think he was afraid or ashamed to meet her. He got up,
+straightened his disarranged clothes, went to the house and after
+stopping at the ditch by the fence and washing his face, walked
+indifferently into the kitchen and sat down at his regular place. The
+others already were eating. Carolyn June glanced at him with a
+meaningless smile and acknowledged, without feeling, his quiet "Good
+morning!"
+
+The cowboys were nervous. Memory of last night was fresh in their minds.
+It made them cautious in their talk.
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June, also, were a bit restrained.
+
+They were not sure but they had started more than it would be easy to
+stop. The expressions in the eyes of the cowboys paid tribute to the
+success of the two women's efforts at wholesale heart-wrecking. The
+child-like acceptance of a simple flirtation as the real thing, by
+these husky riders of the range, was little less than appalling.
+
+It all but frightened Carolyn June and the widow.
+
+Old Heck saw the worship in the eyes of the cowboys.
+
+"Things sure are in a devil of a mix-up!" he growled to himself.
+
+Skinny was so dejected Carolyn June felt half-guilty and tried to cheer
+him up. She began talking, in a low voice, directly to the
+melancholy-looking cowboy.
+
+"To-day--or some time--when the others are away," she said caressingly,
+"you and I will dance all the dances by ourselves!"
+
+His heart leaped joyously. He was sorry, now, that he had not put on the
+white shirt. He resolved, after a while, to sneak out to the bunk-house
+and change.
+
+The confidential talk between Carolyn June and Skinny galled Chuck. He
+decided to break it up.
+
+"What was your idea in riding the Gold Dust maverick last night?" he
+said abruptly to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+There was a general pause for the answer. Carolyn June stopped in the
+middle of a sentence and looked curiously at the Ramblin' Kid. He took
+his time to reply.
+
+"Because I wanted to!" was the slow unsatisfactory retort.
+
+"Why didn't you wait till to-day, so the rest of us could see how she
+acted?" Charley asked.
+
+"What do you think you are"--he started to say--"a bunch of lawyers
+cross-examinin' a witness?" thought better of it and with a careless
+laugh answered: "If you're huntin' entertainment, why don't you go up to
+Eagle Butte to th' picture show? Th' maverick an' me ain't no
+exhibition!"
+
+"Did she buck?" Charley continued, ignoring the sarcastic remark.
+
+"Some," the Ramblin' Kid drawled.
+
+"What you going to do with the filly while we're out on the beef hunt?"
+Chuck queried, wishing to keep the conversation general.
+
+"Ride her!" was the laconic reply.
+
+"Ain't you afraid she'll break away from the _caballero_ and you'll lose
+her again?" Charley asked.
+
+"When I ain't usin' her I'll 'neck' her to Captain Jack," the Ramblin'
+Kid answered patiently, referring to the method of fastening a wild
+horse to one that is gentle and prevent its running away, by attaching a
+short length of rope to the neck of each. "I don't believe she'd leave
+th' stallion anyhow!"
+
+"By golly," Chuck said earnestly and half-pleadingly, "I wish you'd put
+her against that Y-Bar outfit's Thunderbolt horse in the two-mile
+sweepstakes this year! It would be--"
+
+"Fun to see her run!" the Ramblin' Kid interrupted, looking up quickly
+and straight into the eyes of Carolyn June as he finished the
+contemptuous quotation of her words, spoken the day before at the
+corral. She flushed, but gazed back at him without flinching. "Well," he
+continued, "I reckon you'll get your wish--th' maverick is goin' to run
+against th' Vermejo horse!"
+
+"The Fourth of July is a week from next Wednesday," Charley said
+calculatingly. "The Rodeo starts on Tuesday, the roping and bucking
+finals come on Thursday. That makes the big race come Friday--a week
+from next Friday, ain't it?"
+
+"That's right," Bert concurred. "Th' Ramblin' Kid's got nearly two weeks
+to get the maverick in shape."
+
+"Nothing will be in shape for anything," Old Heck broke in, getting up
+from the table, "unless we move around and get things ready to begin the
+beef round-up to-morrow morning. Some of you boys will have to bring in
+those saddle horses from across the river. Each one of you can ride your
+regular 'string' this year"--alluding to the term used to designate the
+group of several horses used exclusively by each individual rider
+working on a round-up. "Skinny won't be with you, but you'd better take
+his horses along for extras. Parker can be getting the grub-wagon in
+shape--I reckon you'll have to work Old Tom and Baldy on it. Sing Pete
+ought to be able to handle them."
+
+"Where do we start in?" Charley asked as they went toward the barn.
+
+"Over in the Battle Ridge country," Old Heck answered, "and work
+everything east of the big pasture first. It'll take just about a week
+to clean up that side--it's pretty rough riding over there. Then you can
+finish the west end after the Rodeo is over."
+
+"What all you aiming to gather?" Bert queried.
+
+"Everything above a three-year-old," Old Heck replied in a businesslike
+way; "pick up the dry cows, too, if they're fat enough. Prices are
+better than usual and I want to sell pretty close on account of that
+storm knocking the hay the way it did the other night. There'll be three
+hundred and fifty or four hundred good beef critters on the east range.
+You ought to have them bunched and in the big pasture by Saturday night.
+Then, until the Rodeo is over you can all do what you darn' please--"
+
+"I know what I'm going to do," Chuck laughed.
+
+"What?" Bert asked.
+
+"Draw all my wages, borrow all I can, and make a clean-up on that Y-Bar
+outfit on the race between the Gold Dust maverick and Thunderbolt!" he
+exclaimed vindictively.
+
+"Probably there will be some of the rest of us have a little Quarter
+Circle KT money up on that race, too," Charley insinuated.
+
+"I know blamed well there will be!" Old Heck added earnestly as they
+scattered to go about their respective employments.
+
+It was a busy Sunday at the Quarter Circle KT. Chuck, Charley and Pedro
+spent the morning and most of the afternoon getting the saddle horses
+from across the river. Bert helped Parker and Old Heck about the ranch.
+Sing Pete baked a supply of light-bread and stocked the grub-wagon with
+provisions. The Ramblin' Kid volunteered to "ride-line" on the big
+pasture and see that the Diamond Bar steers had not broken out again. He
+rode a sorrel colt--one that had had its "first-riding" in the circular
+corral the day before Carolyn June and Ophelia arrived at the Quarter
+Circle KT. When he came to the corner of the pasture where the bodies of
+the cattle, killed by lightning, lay, a flock of buzzards were tearing
+at the carcasses. As the gorged creatures flapped heavily into the air
+the young broncho wheeled, and bucking frantically, jolted away from the
+gruesome scene. The Ramblin' Kid forced the animal to turn about and
+made him pass, rearing and plunging, among the skinless and already
+decaying forms. Before sundown the Ramblin' Kid was back at the ranch.
+
+In the afternoon Skinny and Carolyn June went for a ride down the
+valley. It was her first opportunity to try the new saddle. Skinny was
+mounted on Old Pie Face and Carolyn June rode Browny, a dependable old
+cow-horse.
+
+"Gee," Carolyn June remarked as they passed the circular corral. "I'd
+like to ride the Gold Dust maverick with this outfit!"
+
+"It would be a dandy combination," Skinny said admiringly, "but I doubt
+if anybody but th' Ramblin' Kid will ever be able to ride the filly. So
+far, she acts like she's going to be a worse one-man horse than Captain
+Jack is. She tried to kill me yesterday when I went into the corral!"
+
+"What makes her that way?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"Blamed if I know," Skinny replied, "some horses are naturally like
+that. Th' Ramblin' Kid says it ain't in the horse--it's in the human. If
+the human don't understand the horse the horse won't trust the human and
+where there ain't trust there's fear and where there's fear there's
+hate. He's got some funny ideas!"
+
+"Sounds sort of sensible, though, doesn't it?" Carolyn June said
+musingly.
+
+"Maybe it does," Skinny retorted, "but he goes a little too far with his
+fool notions sometimes, it seems to me."
+
+"How is that?" Carolyn June questioned.
+
+"Well, for one thing," Skinny replied, "he says any man or woman a horse
+don't trust ain't a good man or woman for a human to depend on--says
+they ain't right inside! It looks to me like that's a pretty hard slam
+on people just because some darned idiot of a broncho won't make up with
+them!"
+
+Carolyn June leaned back in the saddle and laughed.
+
+"Some 'range philosopher'--this Ramblin' Kid person!" she exclaimed
+lightly. "Where did he come from and who is he, anyway?"
+
+"Nobody knows," Skinny answered; "he just kind of growed up, here in
+the Southwest. I've heard that his mother died when he was born and his
+father was a preacher or something doing missionary work--I reckon
+that's what you'd call it--among the Mexicans and Indians and got the
+smallpox while he was nursing them through an epidemic and it killed
+him, which left th' Ramblin' Kid an orphan when he wasn't much more than
+a baby. The Mexicans or Indians took care of him till he was old enough
+to ride and then he began to ramble around and has always kept it up
+just as if he was hunting for something--"
+
+"How interesting!" Carolyn June exclaimed, "almost like a story!"
+
+"It is kind of unusual," Skinny continued, "of course it may not all be
+true, but one thing is sure--th' Ramblin' Kid seems to have some sort of
+fascination for the Greasers and the Indians; they all worship him, and
+he's a witch when it comes to handling horses!"
+
+"He seems to be," Carolyn June commented thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes," Skinny answered, "look how that Gold Dust maverick has made right
+up with him--I don't believe she ever will have anything to do with
+anybody else!"
+
+Carolyn June laughed softly to herself. She did not tell Skinny of her
+visits to the circular corral and that the outlaw mare already had
+accepted her as a good friend.
+
+She and Skinny loafed idly as far down the valley as the Narrows, and
+when Sing Pete sounded the supper gong they were again back at the
+house.
+
+After the evening meal the cowboys hung around the house for a while
+until a suggestive look from Old Heck caused them reluctantly to follow
+him to the bunk-house, leaving Parker and Skinny with Ophelia and
+Carolyn June.
+
+It was the foreman's last evening with the widow before the beef
+round-up. She was rather diffident and held him in safe channels of
+conversation. Skinny and Carolyn June sat on the porch until it was
+quite dark, then went into the house. She drummed carelessly and lightly
+on the keys of the piano--her thoughts evidently far away. Parker and
+Skinny left the house early. At the door the foreman whispered to the
+widow:
+
+"Don't forget what I spoke about coming out from town!"
+
+Ophelia flushed and murmured, "No, indeed, but--" she did not finish the
+sentence. She was about to say, "don't build false hopes!"
+
+When Parker and Skinny entered the bunk-house Old Heck and all the
+cowboys except the Ramblin' Kid were asleep. He was half-reclining on
+his bed, smoking. At the entrance of Skinny and Parker be got up and
+without speaking strolled outside and through the darkness toward the
+circular corral. The night was warm and the stuffy air of the
+bunk-house, together with the noisy snoring of Old Heck, made him
+restless. He stood a few moments looking at Captain Jack and the Gold
+Dust maverick. Then, moving back into the shed, dropped down and laid
+with his shoulders and head on his saddle, which was thrown on the
+ground under the shelter. The side of the building, next to the corral,
+was open and the Ramblin' Kid could see, from where he was lying, the
+dark bulks of the two horses at the farther side of the corral.
+
+Ophelia went directly to bed after Skinny and Parker left.
+
+Carolyn June sat for a while in the Morris chair in the large room. She
+seemed abstracted and in a mood for meditation. The vague history Skinny
+had given her of the life of the Ramblin' Kid interested her. She
+thought it explained a good many of his elemental impulses and
+idiosyncrasies. He was a creature of the plains. In his life among the
+Indians and Mexicans he had absorbed their stoical ways and almost
+brutal directness, yet, sometimes he showed a sensitiveness that was
+utterly impossible for Carolyn June to understand. Her thoughts turned
+to the Gold Dust maverick. To-morrow Ramblin' Kid would take the filly
+away for the round-up. She truly loved the beautiful mare. She would
+slip out, while the others slept, and have one more visit with the
+splendid creature. Rising, Carolyn June passed out through the kitchen,
+stopped for a handful of sugar--she had learned where Sing Pete kept the
+can--and bareheaded and without a wrap walked swiftly out to the
+circular corral.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard Carolyn June step up to the gate of the corral
+and from the heavy shadow in which he lay saw the light dress and
+instinctively recognized this late visitor to Captain Jack and the Gold
+Dust maverick His first impulse was to call out and warn her to keep
+away from the horses--that both were dangerous for men to fool with,
+much less was it safe for a woman to undertake familiarities with them.
+His next thought was that his sudden appearance would only startle the
+girl and--well, cause a lot of useless talk. He remained quiet.
+
+A low trill came from the throat of Carolyn June. The two horses stopped
+feeding and looked around toward the gate. The bird-like call was
+repeated. The Ramblin' Kid was astonished to see Captain Jack and the
+outlaw mare move eagerly in the direction from whence the sound had
+come. He heard Carolyn June talking to the bronchos in soft endearing
+tones. After a moment she opened the gate and stepped inside the corral.
+
+"Well, I'll be--!" he breathed inaudibly.
+
+For half an hour Carolyn June petted the little stallion and the Gold
+Dust maverick. Both animals seemed hungry for her caresses.
+
+"Oh, you darling--you wonder!" the Ramblin' Kid Heard Carolyn June
+say, as she gave the maverick's head a tight squeeze just before running
+lightly back to the house. "I hope you beat that old Y-Bar horse so bad
+he'll never want to run again! Even if that Ramblin' Kid lover of
+yours," she added softly, "does think I'm nothing but a silly
+woman-thing and hates me with all his queer, lonesome heart!"
+
+"Well, I'll be damned!" the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed when she was gone.
+
+He raised himself on one elbow and lay thus for a long time silently
+thinking.
+
+At last he got up, went to the corral gate, and he himself stepped
+inside with the horses. He gave Captain Jack's ear a loving twitch, then
+turned to the Gold Dust maverick. She permitted him, without protest, to
+fondle her head and neck. His hand lingered long on the silky mane in
+which, a little while before, Carolyn June had twined her fingers.
+
+"Oh, Queen of th' Range!" he said with a low laugh, unconsciously using
+the poetical phrase, as he gave the warm cheek of the filly a tender
+parting pinch before turning away to go to the bunk-house, "we'll whip
+that devil-horse of th' Vermejo--we'll show that Thunderbolt runner what
+hearts that ain't afraid an' nimble hoofs can do!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+THE ELITE AMUSEMENT PARLOR
+
+An hour after breakfast, on Monday morning, Old Heck, Ophelia, Skinny
+and Carolyn June Were alone at the Quarter Circle KT. Parker and the
+cowboys were climbing out on the sand-hills north of the Cimarron,
+traveling in the direction of Battle Ridge, where the beef hunt was to
+begin.
+
+The circular corral was empty.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was riding the Gold Dust maverick. Captain Jack was
+with the saddle horses which Pedro, the Mexican, had wrangled on ahead
+of the other riders an hour before.
+
+The filly made no effort to throw the Ramblin' Kid on this her second
+riding. She seemed perfectly willing to carry the burden on her back.
+Carolyn June watched the beautiful mare as she stepped lightly and
+daintily along beside the other horses, and when the group disappeared
+among the rolling ridges across the river the ranch someway seemed
+deserted and she felt strangely alone, although Ophelia, Old Heck and
+Skinny were standing at her side.
+
+Sing Pete followed the riders, jolting along in the grub-wagon,
+awkwardly driving, with much clucking and pidgin-English, Old Tom and
+Baldy hitched to the heavy, canvas-covered vehicle with its
+"box-kitchen" and mess-board protruding gawkily out from the rear.
+
+Old Heck heaved a sigh of relief. There was a feeling of serene peace in
+his heart, now that Parker and the cowboys were safely away on the
+round-up. In Skinny's heart the feeling was echoed.
+
+For a week or more they would be able to love Ophelia and Carolyn June
+without the constant fear of interruption.
+
+Only one thing troubled Old Heck. The widow had not yet exposed her hand
+in that suffragette movement or whatever it was. He dreaded the form in
+which it might, sooner or later, break out. But at that he would be glad
+to have it over. At present he felt as though he were sitting on the
+edge of a volcano, or above an unexplored blast of dynamite at the
+bottom of a well. Meanwhile he would have to wait and watch--and hope
+for the best.
+
+The week that followed was heaven and hell, mixed together, for Old Heck
+and Skinny.
+
+The women were lovely and lovable to the last degree, but cautious and
+tormentingly self-restrained when it came to loving. At the first
+intimation of dangerous sentimentality on the part of Old Heck the widow
+would suddenly and without an instant's warning change the subject. When
+Skinny had been pensive and silent for half an hour or so and would then
+start, in a halting and quivering voice, to say something, Carolyn June
+invariably interrupted with a remark about the weather, the Gold Dust
+maverick, the Ramblin' Kid, Old Heck, Sing Pete, the yellow cat, the
+coming Rodeo, Ophelia or something else.
+
+They paired on the work of preparing the meals, Carolyn June and Skinny
+and Ophelia and Old Heck taking shift and shift about in the kitchen. In
+this way the work was made a joke, with friendly rivalry between the
+couples in the preparation of tasty dishes.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny surprised the women with their knowledge of cooking.
+Nor was there the least embarrassment on the part of either when, with
+one of Sing Pete's aprons tied about his waist, he worked at the range
+or kitchen table. As a matter of course every cow-man must know
+something of how to cook a meal and, also, naturally and as a matter of
+course, Old Heck and Skinny, without the slightest thought that it was
+"womanish" or beneath the "dignity" of men, peeled potatoes, fried meat,
+washed dishes or did whatever there was to do.
+
+Indeed each was proud of his skill.
+
+Ophelia herself was clever, particularly at making biscuits and dainty
+salads.
+
+Carolyn June's sole accomplishment in the art of preparing food was the
+making of coffee-jelly. This she had learned at college--taught,
+perhaps, by the other girls during stolen midnight frolics. Probably
+this, also, was the reason she usually made it the last thing at night
+before Skinny and Old Heck left to go to the bunk-house. Coffee-jelly
+was the regular, inevitable, evening meal dessert for the entire week.
+
+"It ain't so very filling," Skinny remarked the first time he tasted the
+delicate dish, "but it's tender and has a dandy flavor!"
+
+Carolyn June blushed at the compliment.
+
+"It is pretty good," Old Heck agreed, "but these biscuits Ophelia made
+are just what was needed to set it off!"
+
+The widow smilingly showed her pleasure.
+
+Twice during the week Skinny rode "line" on the big pasture to look
+after the Diamond Bar steers. Carolyn June accompanied him. Each time
+she rode Browny, the old cow-horse. On these days Old Heck and Ophelia,
+in the Clagstone "Six," drove to Eagle Butte. The second trip to town
+Ophelia asked to be left at the minister's house. Old Heck was to call
+in an hour and get her. During the hour he slipped into the dentist's
+and had his teeth cleaned. When the tobacco-blackened tartar was scraped
+away they were surprisingly white and even. He stopped at the drug store
+and bought a tooth-brush and a tube of paste.
+
+Ophelia noticed the wonderful improvement in his appearance, guessed the
+reason, and the thought sent a warm thrill through her body.
+
+"Like a big boy," she laughed to herself, "when he begins to wash his
+neck and ears!"
+
+"It ain't healthy to have your teeth so dirty," Old Heck explained,
+coloring and in an apologizing manner, when Skinny discovered him, after
+supper that evening, carefully scrubbing his molars.
+
+Skinny watched the performance, saw the result, and murmured:
+
+"Guess I'll get me one of them layouts!"
+
+On Friday the quartette went to Eagle Butte, Old Heck driving, with
+Ophelia beside him, and Carolyn June and Skinny in the rear seat of the
+Clagstone "Six."
+
+It was on this trip, while Ophelia and Carolyn June were in the Golden
+Rule doing some shopping, that Old Heck and Skinny strolled into the
+Elite Amusement Parlor. Lafe Dorsey, owner of the Y-Bar outfit and to
+whom belonged the black Thunderbolt horse; Newt Johnson, Dave Stover and
+"Flip" Williams--the latter three cowboys on the big Vermejo ranch--were
+playing a four-handed game of billiards at one of the tables near the
+front of the place.
+
+Dorsey noticed the entrance of the pair from the Quarter Circle KT. All
+were range men and were well known to one another. The Y-Bar owner had
+been drinking. Boot-leg liquor was obtainable, if one knew how and
+where, in Eagle Butte.
+
+"Hello, there, Old Heck!" Dorsey greeted them hilariously and with a
+half-leer. "Howdy, Skinny! How's the Cimarron? Don't reckon you've
+taught Old Quicksilver to run yet, have you?" with a boisterous laugh
+as he referred to the race in which Thunderbolt had defeated Old Heck's
+crack stallion.
+
+The taunt stung Old Heck while it called out a suppressed snicker from
+the cowboys who were with Dorsey and the loafers in the pool-room. The
+bull-like guffaw of Mike Sabota, the gorilla-built, half-Greek
+proprietor of the Amusement Parlor roared out above the ripple of
+laughter from the others. The racing feud between the Y-Bar and the
+Quarter Circle KT was well known to all and Sabota himself had cleaned
+up a neat sum when the black horse from the Vermejo had outstepped the
+runner from the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Old Heck reddened at Dorsey's words but replied quietly:
+
+"The Cimarron is middling--just middlin'. No, we ain't been paying much
+attention to teaching horses how to run lately. Old Quicksilver's pretty
+fair. Of course he ain't the best horse in the world but he'll do for
+cows and general knocking around. Horses are a good deal like men, you
+know, Dorsey--there's always one that's a little bit better!"
+
+The Vermejo cow-man colored at the thrust.
+
+"Any of you Quarter Circle KT fellers going in on anything at the Rodeo,
+this year?" one of the Y-Bar riders asked Skinny before Dorsey could
+reply.
+
+"Charley said he might go in on the 'bull-dogging' and Bert is figuring
+some on the bucking events--but I don't reckon they'll either one
+enter," Skinny carelessly; "both of them got first money in them
+entries last year and they ain't caring much. The Mexican," referring to
+Pedro, "will probably do some roping--"
+
+"What about you and the Ramblin' Kid?" Flip Williams interrupted, "ain't
+neither of you going to take part?"
+
+"Probably not," Skinny drawled. "I ain't aiming to, and I don't know
+what th' Ramblin? Kid is figuring on. He ain't much for showing off. He
+only rode in the bucking contest last year because after that Cyclone
+horse killed Dick Stanley everybody said there wasn't any one that could
+ride him and the blamed little fool just wanted to demonstrate that
+there was. You never can tell what he'll do, though. He may be intending
+to go in on something or other."
+
+"Guess you people ain't got anything out there for the two-mile
+sweepstakes this year, have you?" Dorsey broke in with a sneer. "Old
+Thunderbolt's too much for them sand-hill jumpers from the Cimarron."
+
+"Oh, I don't know as he is," Old Heck said in a voice emotionless as an
+Indian's. "The Quarter Circle KT will probably be represented in the big
+event. It seems to me I heard Chuck mention entering that Silver Tip
+colt of his and, let's see, I believe th' Ramblin' Kid said something
+about running a new filly he's been riding some, didn't he, Skinny?"
+
+"Since I come to think of it I believe he did," Skinny answered as if
+it were a matter without especial interest; "if I remember right he did
+speak something of it a day or two ago."
+
+"Well, bring 'em on!" Dorsey exclaimed boastfully, "the Y-Bar will take
+all the money you Kiowa fellers feel like contributing! Old
+Thunderbolt's as fit as a new rawhide rope and is just aching to rake in
+another three or four thousand of Quarter Circle KT _dinero_ if you
+people have got the nerve to back your judgment!"
+
+There was a dead hush as the crowd in the pool-room waited for Old
+Heck's reply to Dorsey's drunken challenge.
+
+"We'll kind of remember that invitation, Dorsey," Old Heck said in tones
+as hard and smooth and cold as ice, while his gray eyes narrowed and
+bored the boastful cow-man like points of steel, "we'll sort of bear in
+mind that suggestion of yours. The Quarter Circle KT will send a horse
+into the big race that will beat that Thunderbolt critter of yours just
+three times as bad as he set old Quicksilver back--and we'll give you
+action on any amount of money, cattle or anything else you want to name!
+You can put your friends here in on it too, if you want to--" with a
+scornful glance around the pool-room at the loafers in the place. "Come
+on, Skinny," he added as he started toward the door, "more than likely
+Ophelia and Carolyn June are through with their trading and ready to go
+home."
+
+All stood silent until Skinny and Old Heck stepped out of the door,
+then Mike Sabota broke into a coarse, taunting laugh. As they turned up
+the street Old Heck and Skinny heard Dorsey and the crowd inside join in
+the merriment.
+
+"Damn that fool, Dorsey!" Old Heck exclaimed viciously, as he heard the
+shouts of derisive laughter. "I'm going to wipe him out on that race--if
+he's got the guts to come across and back up that Thunderbolt horse as
+hard as he blows about him!"
+
+"I think I'll hook Sabota for a few hundred on the sweepstakes, myself,"
+Skinny replied with a good deal of feeling, "I don't like the way that
+dirty cuss acts any better than I like Dorsey's bragging!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia were waiting when Old Heck and Skinny arrived
+at the Golden Rule.
+
+When the Clagstone "Six" whirled past the Amusement Parlor a few moments
+later Dorsey and Sabota were standing in the door.
+
+Carolyn June glanced at them.
+
+"Heavens," she said as her eyes rested an instant on the burly,
+low-browed, Greek proprietor of the place, "what a big brute of a
+looking fellow that is!"
+
+The two men stared insolently at the occupants of the car and as it
+passed Sabota made some remark, evidently vulgar, that caused Dorsey to
+burst into another round of coarse laughter.
+
+Old Heck was moody during the drive home.
+
+For nearly two years Dorsey had been crowing because of the defeat of
+Quicksilver by the black racer from the Vermejo. It was becoming more
+than idle jesting. It looked as if, for some reason, he was trying to
+torment Old Heck until something serious was started. Old Heck was a
+good loser but he was growing tired of the persistent nagging. He had
+not whimpered at the loss of the twenty-five hundred dollars Dorsey won
+from him on the race. Even the humiliation of seeing his best horse put
+in second place by the Y-Bar animal had been endured philosophically and
+without malice because he believed the thing had been run square and the
+faster horse had won. But Dorsey on every occasion since had, drunk or
+sober, boasted of Thunderbolt's victory and taken a devilish delight in
+rubbing it in on the owner of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+To-day the Vermejo cattleman had been worse than usual, due, no doubt,
+to the rotten boot-leg whisky the brute-like proprietor of Eagle Butte's
+rather disreputable Amusement Parlor was supposed secretly to dispense
+to those who had the price and the "honor" to keep sacred the source of
+supply.
+
+Old Heck was sore and he was ready to go the limit in backing the Gold
+Dust maverick. Both he and Skinny had purposely refrained from
+mentioning the horse the Ramblin' Kid would enter. The fame of the
+outlaw filly extended throughout all of southwestern Texas and if the
+Vermejo crowd had learned that the Ramblin' Kid had finally caught her
+and was intending to put her against Thunderbolt it was doubtful if the
+black horse would be entered at all in the sweepstakes. Even if he was,
+Dorsey and his crowd would be shy of the betting.
+
+This was one reason Old Heck had so played the conversation that Dorsey
+definitely threw down the challenge and which was so coldly accepted.
+
+The Vermejo cow-man would have to come in heavy on the betting or be
+placed in the role of a bluffer.
+
+By the time they reached the ranch Old Heck's good humor was restored.
+He thoroughly enjoyed the supper Skinny and Carolyn June prepared and
+joked the girl about her coffee-jelly.
+
+"She's learning how to make French toast, now," Skinny said proudly; "it
+won't be long till she's a darned good cook!"
+
+"Why not?" Carolyn June laughed. "See who I have to teach me!" and
+Skinny flushed while his heart hammered joyously.
+
+"Well, I reckon anybody could live on fried bread and coffee-jelly in a
+pinch," Old Heck joked back, "but for my part I'd be a good deal happier
+to mix a biscuit or two like Ophelia makes once in a while in with
+it"--giving the widow a worshipful look.
+
+It was Ophelia's turn to register pleasurable confusion.
+
+After supper Old Heck and the widow washed the dishes. When they were
+finished Ophelia went into the front room. Old Heck took a glass of
+water, stepped out of the kitchen door, and diligently scrubbed his
+teeth. While he was still at it Skinny came out with a dipper in his
+hand and sheepishly drawing a tooth-brush from his hip pocket faithfully
+imitated the actions of the other.
+
+"I figure a man's taking a lot of chances if he don't keep his teeth
+clean and everything," Skinny spluttered as the water splashed down his
+chin.
+
+"Yes, that's right," Old Heck agreed, "there's germs and so on in them!"
+as he flipped the water from his own brush, dried his lips on his
+shirtsleeve and turned back into the kitchen.
+
+The next morning, Saturday, Old Heck came to the breakfast table again
+in a pensive mood.
+
+"I was thinking about that man Dorsey," Skinny remarked, observing Old
+Heck's mental depression and attributing it to the meeting the day
+before in the pool-room at Eagle Butte. "Do you reckon the filly can
+really beat that Thunderbolt horse?"
+
+"Of course she can," Old Heck answered. "Th' Ramblin' Kid knows. All I'm
+afraid is that when Dorsey finds out it's the Gold Dust maverick
+Thunderbolt has got to go up against he won't bet much on it."
+
+"The boys ought to be in to-day," Skinny said, abruptly switching the
+subject; "they figured on getting the Battle Ridge cattle gathered and
+in the big pasture by to-night, didn't they?"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck replied, "that was what was in my mind. Parker will
+be--" he stopped suddenly, "butting in again" he had started to say but
+caught himself and finished lamely, "--probably pretty anxious to hurry
+through as soon as possible and get the beef animals in the upland
+pasture!"
+
+"How are you going to work things when he gets back?" Skinny asked with,
+a significant look at Old Heck.
+
+"Blamed if I know--" Old Heck said uncertainly, stopping before he
+finished the sentence. He understood what Skinny meant and just that had
+been worrying him. He had reached the point where he could not endure
+the thought of going back to the old arrangement of day and day about
+with Parker in the enjoyment of the widow's society. Yet if Parker, on
+his return, insisted on dividing Ophelia's time with him in conformity
+with their original agreement, Old Heck knew he would have to yield. He
+thought for a moment he would get the widow away from Skinny and Carolyn
+June after breakfast and make a full confession of the whole thing, ask
+her to marry him, and have it done with. But he had not yet been able to
+get at the bottom of Ophelia's suffragette activities. What if she
+married him and then suddenly broke loose as a speech-maker or something
+for woman's rights? It wouldn't pay to take the risk. "It sure does keep
+a man guessing!" he murmured under his breath, the sweat starting to
+bead his forehead from the mental effort to solve the problem before
+him.
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia exchanged sly winks as they guessed the thing
+that was in Old Heck's mind.
+
+Skinny, himself, was a bit worried as the time drew near for the return
+of the cowboys. He hoped Carolyn June wouldn't spring another dance or
+similar opportunity for indiscriminate love-making.
+
+Nor had Carolyn June forgotten that to-day was Saturday and Parker and
+the cowboys were expected back from the first half of the beef round-up.
+The week had been pleasant enough but she had missed the Ramblin' Kid
+and the Gold Dust maverick more than she cared to confess. She wondered
+if the outlaw filly would remember her.
+
+Saturday was a day of considerable tension for all at the Quarter Circle
+KT. Night came and Parker and the cowboys had not returned. Nor did they
+come on Sunday. Evidently the beef round-up had gone more slowly than
+was expected.
+
+It was late Monday afternoon when the grub-wagon grumbled and creaked
+its way up the lane and stopped near the back-yard gate. Sing Pete
+climbed clumsily down from the high seat. Old Heck and Skinny unhitched
+Old Tom and Baldy while the Chinese cook chattered information about
+Parker, the cowboys and the round-up. He had left the North Springs
+early that morning. Two nights before the herd had run--it was a
+stampede--some sheep had been where the cattle were bedded. Maybe that
+was it. Chuck and Bert were on night guard and could not hold them. The
+steers mixed badly with the rangers. Nearly two days it took to gather
+them again. That was why they were late. Now everything was all right
+The cattle were being driven to the big pasture. Pedro would be along
+soon with the saddle cavallard. By dark maybe the others would be at the
+ranch.
+
+It was midnight before Parker and the cowboys came in.
+
+When Carolyn June stepped out on the porch Tuesday morning she glanced
+toward the circular corral, which for more than a week had been empty.
+Her heart gave a leap of delight.
+
+Captain Jack was standing at the bars of the corral and behind him the
+early sunlight glinted on the chestnut sides of the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+THE GRAND PARADE
+
+Eagle Butte was a jam of humanity. It was Tuesday noon. At one o'clock
+the Grand Parade would circle the mile track at the "Grounds"--a hundred
+level acres enclosed by a high board fence lying at the west edge of
+Eagle Butte, between the Cimarron River and the road that led out to the
+Vermejo--swing down the main street of the town, return again to the
+enclosed area, flow once more past the grandstand, salute the judges of
+the coming events, and the Fifth Annual Independence Rodeo of Eagle
+Butte would be officially opened.
+
+Special excursion rates had brought thousands from all parts of western
+Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. Hundreds of tourists, sight-seeing the
+West, had so arranged their itineraries that they might be present at
+the big exhibition of riding, roping, racing, bull-dogging and other
+cow-country arts,--arts rapidly becoming mere memories of a day too
+quickly passing.
+
+Moving-picture machine operators were seeking advantageous locations for
+their outfits; pedestrians dodged, indiscriminately, high-powered
+automobiles and plunging bronchos; the old and the new were slapped
+together in an incongruous jumble in the streets of Eagle Butte.
+
+The best range men and women of the West were gathered in the western
+Texas town.
+
+New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Texas
+herself, were represented by their most famous riders, ropers,
+bull-doggers, cow-experts, and noted outlaw horses.
+
+There were many masqueraders.
+
+Imitation cow-people, they were, made up in fancy wild-west costumes,
+long-haired chaps, mammoth black sombreros, gaudy neck-cloths,
+silver-spangled saddles, spurs and bridles--typical moving-picture
+cowboys, cowgirls and rough riders. But there were, as well, hundreds of
+real range people. People whose business it is to work every day at the
+"stunts" they were, for the next five days, to play at for the pleasure
+of proving their skill and winning the applause of the multitude of
+spectators packed each day in the grandstand behind the judges' box at
+the Eagle Butte Rodeo.
+
+Every outfit in western Texas sent its most clever riders.
+
+Indians and Mexicans, in picturesque attire, sprinkled the milling mass
+of humanity with a dash of rainbow color.
+
+Dance-halls were running, fare layouts were operating, roulette wheels
+were spinning. For the time, with the consent of the sheriff and other
+reformed authorities, Eagle Butte tried hard to be as Eagle Butte was
+twenty--thirty--years ago.
+
+The entire Quarter Circle KT crowd left the ranch early Tuesday
+morning'. Parker had surprised Old Heck, and filled his mind with
+misgivings, by calling him to one side after breakfast and stammering:
+
+"I--I--reckon you'd just as well go ahead the rest of this week
+and--and--look after the widow by yourself--"
+
+"What's the matter?" Old Heck asked suspiciously; "have you found out
+anything dangerous about that 'Movement' or whatever it is Ophelia's
+mixed up in?"
+
+"No, it ain't that," Parker assured him, "I just thought I'd kind
+of--well, like to be free, to knock around at the Rodeo without being
+bothered with a woman or anything."
+
+The truth was Parker was trying to hedge. When he had got away on the
+beef hunt and began to figure things out he had come to doubt the wisdom
+of his sudden infatuation for the widow. Thinking it over, out on the
+open range, he was appalled by his rash, headlong falling in love. He
+had never married, nor had he, until Ophelia came, been even near it.
+Someway, the moment Carolyn June and the widow arrived at the Quarter
+Circle KT some sort of devil seemed to possess him. He couldn't explain
+it. Maybe it had been just an impulse to get ahead of Old Heck. Whatever
+it was, Parker was worried. What would he do with a wife if he had one?
+All he wanted now was to let the thing blow over. Perhaps the widow
+would forget his impetuous proposal or fall in love with Old Heck.
+
+Old Heck, his heart filled with a queer mixture of elation and
+uncertainty--with a sort of joy and sinking sensation all at
+once--agreed to Parker's suggestion.
+
+Parker rode into Eagle Butte with the cowboys. Old Heck, Ophelia, Skinny
+and Carolyn June went in the Clagstone "Six." Chuck led Old Pie Face for
+Skinny to ride in the parade and Bert took Red John, Old Heck's most
+showy saddle horse--a long-legged, high-stepping, proud-headed, bay
+gelding--for Carolyn June to use, for she, too, had declared her
+intention of joining in the grand promenade with which the Rodeo would
+open.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid left the Gold Dust maverick in the circular corral and
+rode Captain Jack to Eagle Butte. It would be necessary for him to
+register the filly, with the entry judges, on the first day of the Rodeo
+if she was to run in the two-mile sweepstakes.
+
+The rules of the Rodeo required, also, that all who expected to
+participate in any of the events of the coming week must "show" in the
+grand march or parade. The animals that were to be used might also be
+paraded, but this was not compulsory.
+
+Accompanied by Chuck, the Ramblin' Kid went directly to the entry
+offices of the Rodeo, which were roughly boxed-up compartments under
+the rear of the grandstand.
+
+A group of "hot-dog" vendors and "concession spielers" looked curiously
+at the two as they left Captain Jack and Silver Tip, with bridle reins
+dropped over their heads, standing in front of the office and stepped
+inside.
+
+Lafe Dorsey and Flip Williams were at the clerk's desk.
+
+The Vermejo cattleman had just registered Thunderbolt, with Flip as
+rider, for the big race.
+
+They looked around as the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck came in.
+
+"Well, is the Quarter Circle KT getting up sand enough to go against old
+Thunderbolt again?" Dorsey asked with a curl of his lip and an ugly
+sneer.
+
+"Oh, I reckon we've got a little nerve left," Chuck answered with mock
+humility, "not much, but a little, maybe. I was going to put Silver Tip
+in the sweepstakes," he went on, "but I guess I won't. Th' Ramblin'
+Kid's got an entry and it looks like a darned shame for one outfit to
+want to hog it all and grab first and second money both, so I'll stay
+out this time."
+
+"You talk pretty loud," Dorsey snarled, catching instantly, as Chuck
+intended he should, the covert slur at the black Y-Bar stallion. "Maybe
+your money won't make so damned much noise!"
+
+"Here's a couple hundred," Chuck said, pulling a roll of bills from his
+shirt pocket. "I'll invest that much on my judgment that Thunderbolt
+ain't as good as you think he is."
+
+"I'll take it!" Dorsey snapped, jerking a wad of money from his own
+pocket and counting out the amount which he handed to the clerk as
+stake-holder. "And here's another hundred--or a thousand if you want
+it!"
+
+"That two hundred is about all I can handle this morning," Chuck
+laughed. "But I understand Old Heck's aiming to bet a little," he
+drawled suggestively; "probably you'd like to see him?"
+
+"I'll see him--and raise him till he squeals!" Dorsey sneered.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid ignored the tilt between Dorsey and Chuck and leaned
+indifferently against the counter waiting for the clerk to fill out the
+entry blank.
+
+"Event?" the clerk questioned.
+
+"Two-mile run," was the quiet answer.
+
+"Rider--and horse?" glancing up.
+
+Dorsey and Flip paused and turned their heads to catch the names the
+Ramblin' Kid gave.
+
+"I'm the rider, I reckon," the Ramblin' Kid replied, "I guess you know
+who I am. Th' name of th' horse? Well, now ain't that funny?" he said
+with a little laugh, "I never have bothered to name that critter yet!
+But--oh, hell, what's the difference? We'll just call her 'Ophelia' for
+th' time bein'--in honor of a lady-widow that's visitin' out at th'
+ranch!"
+
+"The Quarter Circle KT's getting to be quite a female institution,
+ain't it?" Dorsey said contemptuously. "I suppose this wonder horse of
+yours is one of the ranch fillies and regular lightning!"
+
+For a second the Ramblin' Kid's eyes narrowed, then he replied coldly to
+the last half of Dorsey's sentence:
+
+"Well, th' filly's been runnin' in that neighborhood an'"--with a laugh
+that had in it just the hint of a sneer--"she's pretty fair--good
+enough, I figure, to beat hell out of old Thunderbolt!"
+
+"Are you backing that with money?" Dorsey and Flip spoke together.
+
+"No," the Ramblin' Kid answered slowly, "money ain't no object with me
+in a horse-race. I don't run 'em for that purpose. Anyhow, poker is my
+favorite method of gamblin'!"
+
+Dorsey and Flip whirled angrily out of the office and walked rapidly
+toward the stables where they had left their horses.
+
+After reserving a box stall, which was to be occupied by Captain Jack
+and the Gold Dust maverick, the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck left the entry
+office and mounting their bronchos rode toward the section of the
+grounds, over by the stables, where the parade was already forming.
+
+As they passed through the entrance to the track and the inside field
+which lay beyond Chuck and the Ramblin' Kid rode within a few feet of
+the Clagstone "Six," which was parked near the east end of the
+grandstand. Old Heck and Ophelia were in the front seat of the car
+watching the riders assemble for the parade. Carolyn June was standing
+on the running-board waiting for Skinny to come with Old Pie Face and
+Red John, the boys having left the horses at the stables.
+
+Carolyn June looked up with a bright smile at Chuck. As her eyes met the
+Ramblin' Kid's there was a question in them. She was not sure yet that
+she had forgiven him for the brutal rebuff the night of the dance. If
+there was any feeling in his heart, either of resentment or otherwise,
+toward the girl the Ramblin' Kid hid it. The look he gave her was one of
+unfathomable humility and indifference.
+
+Chuck wheeled Silver Tip to the side of the car and stopped. His eyes
+were filled with frank admiration as he gazed at the girl. Her cheeks
+were flushed with excitement, her white felt hat sat jauntily on the
+crown of brown hair, her eyes were sparkling and in the close-fitting
+riding suit she was the picture of youthful charm and grace. The
+Ramblin' Kid nodded to Old Heck, glanced at Ophelia with a smile, looked
+steadily an instant at Carolyn June and raising his hat to the two women
+passed on with the remark: "I reckon I'll go on over an' see what
+they're doin'."
+
+"Has he entered the outlaw filly for the sweepstakes, yet?" Old Heck
+asked Chuck as the Ramblin' Kid reined Captain Jack down the race track.
+
+"Yes," Chuck answered, "he signed her up."
+
+"Did he name her as the Gold Dust maverick?" Old Heck inquired
+anxiously.
+
+"No," Chuck grinned, "he called her 'Ophelia!'"
+
+Old Heck leaned back in the seat and roared with laughter in which
+Carolyn June and the widow joined.
+
+"Dorsey was there," Chuck said with another grin, "he'd just finished
+entering Thunderbolt for the big race when th' Ramblin' Kid and me got
+to the registering office. I bet him two hundred dollars. He was
+bragging a good deal--"
+
+Old Heck's eyes flashed and the mirth left them.
+
+"He was blowing, was he?" he said with a hard laugh, "the damn--darned
+fool!" he corrected, remembering Ophelia at his side. "Well, 'egg' him
+on--the higher he flies the worse he'll flop when he bu'sts a wing!"
+
+In the parade Skinny rode with Carolyn June. Parker and the Quarter
+Circle KT cowboys were in a group directly behind them. The Vermejo
+crowd, with Dorsey himself mounted on Thunderbolt, had a place just
+ahead of Skinny and Carolyn June. The beautiful black Y-Bar stallion was
+really a wonderful horse. Speed, strength and endurance radiated with
+every movement of the glossy, subtle body. Without doubt he was the most
+handsome animal on the grounds. Dorsey was a splendid rider and a
+man--he was in the early forties--of striking appearance. He was fully
+conscious of the magnificent showing he made on Thunderbolt. The racer
+danced proudly, prancing forward in short, graceful leaps as the column
+swept past the grandstand and the consolidated Eagle Butte and Vegas
+bands crashed out the strains of a stirring march. A ripple of applause
+ran over the crowd in the grandstand as Dorsey, at the head of the
+Vermejo cowboys, rode by the judges' box. He lifted his sombrero and
+waved it in pleased acknowledgment.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was in line a little distance behind Carolyn June,
+Skinny and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys. He rode alone just back of a
+quartette of Indians from down on the Chickasaw.
+
+His plain rigging, the slick, smoothly worn, leather chaps, the
+undecorated saddle, bridle and spurs, his entire work-a-day outfit
+contrasted vividly with the gaudy get-up of most of the other riders.
+Captain Jack moved along easily and freely, but quietly, and with an air
+of utter boredom with all the show and confusion about him. The Ramblin'
+Kid's attitude, whole appearance, matched perfectly the mood of his
+horse. He sat loosely in the saddle and carelessly smoked a cigarette.
+The truth was his mind was far from the pageant of which he and the
+little stallion were a part. He scarcely heard the music nor did he seem
+to see the thousands of human beings, packed tier above tier, under the
+mammoth roof of the grandstand. His thoughts were at the upper crossing
+of the treacherous Cimarron, out at the Quarter Circle KT; he was seeing
+again, Carolyn June, as she looked up into his eyes when he dragged her
+out of the quicksand--he was hearing, once more, her cry of agony as the
+bullet from his gun buried itself in the brain of Old Blue.
+
+Louder hand-clapping, stamping of feet, and calling voices, than any
+that had sounded before, rolled out from the grandstand as the lone
+rider, on the quiet, unexcited little roan, came down the stretch in
+front of the great crowd.
+
+Carolyn June looked back, saw the waving hats and handkerchiefs, heard
+hundreds of voices shouting:
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid! Th' good old Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+The crowd had recognized him as the slender rider who, a year ago, after
+the untamable Cyclone horse had killed Dick Stanley before their eyes
+and in front of where they sat, had ridden, straight-up and scotching
+him at every jump, that vicious, murderous-hearted outlaw.
+
+Carolyn June's eyes moistened and she felt a thrill of pride.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid barely glanced at the sea of faces, a faint smile hung
+for an instant on his lips, as he jerked his hand, the one in which he
+held the cigarette, to the brim of his hat when he came opposite the
+judges' stand.
+
+When the parade swung down the wide, one-sided, main street of Eagle
+Butte, Mike Sabota, from the door of the Elite Amusement Parlor,
+watched it pass. He was standing there, by the side of the lanky
+marshal and surrounded by a group of pool-room loafers and "carnival
+sharks" when Carolyn June and Skinny came by. She looked around in time
+to see him staring, with a vulgar leer, straight into her eyes.
+
+"There is that big, dirty, animal-looking fellow we saw the other day!"
+she said, with a frown of disgust, to Skinny. "He's horrible--"
+
+Skinny glanced at Sabota.
+
+"Yes, he is ornery," he said. "He runs that joint and boot-legs on the
+side. He's got a reputation as a slugger and keeps the crowd around him
+buffaloed. They say he killed a feller--beat him to death--in a fight
+over at Sapulpa before he came to Eagle Butte. I don't like the filthy
+cuss. He's mean!"
+
+"He looks it!" Carolyn June exclaimed, with the uncomfortable feeling
+that the big Greek's look had touched her with something vile and
+unclean.
+
+After the parade disbanded Carolyn June and Skinny rode back to the car
+where Old Heck and Ophelia had remained.
+
+"You made a darned good-looking cowgirl!" Old Heck said proudly to her
+as she stopped Red John by the side of the Clagstone "Six."
+
+"She and Skinny both presented a very fine appearance!" the widow added,
+while Carolyn June playfully blew a kiss at each in acknowledgment of
+the compliment. Skinny sat on Old Pie Face and felt a warm glow of
+satisfaction at the words of Old Heck and Ophelia. He had known all the
+time that Carolyn June and he had shown up well, but he was glad to find
+that others besides himself had noticed it.
+
+Dorsey, on a black stallion, cantered past.
+
+A moment later the Ramblin' Kid came jogging off the race course on
+Captain Jack. He threw up his hand in greeting and passed on out of the
+grounds.
+
+Parked next to the Clagstone "Six" was a handsome touring car, occupied
+by a party consisting of a girl about Carolyn June's own age, a woman a
+few years older and a couple of immaculately dressed young men who wore
+flaring brimmed black felt hats that contrasted absurdly with their
+expensively tailored suits. Evidently all were "big town" people from a
+distance--very "superior" and patronizing in their attitude toward the
+"natives." They had been free and voluble in their comments on the
+various riders. Dorsey, on the magnificent Thunderbolt, drew a murmur of
+admiration from the lips of the girl. As the Ramblin' Kid, the next
+moment, rode by on Captain Jack one of the young fellows said loudly and
+with a laugh of ridicule:
+
+"Look at that one, Bess," addressing the girl; "there's the 'wild and
+woolly' West for you! I'll bet if that horse sneezed he'd fall down and
+the lonesome-looking little runt that's riding him would tumble off and
+root his nose in the dust!"
+
+A cackle of derisive laughter greeted the cheap witticism.
+
+Before any of the others could speak Carolyn June's eyes blazed with
+sudden wrath. She turned her body in the saddle and faced the speaker,
+her hands tightly clenched, her cheeks white with passion and her lip
+curling wickedly.
+
+"Which shows," she said slowly, every word stinging like the bite of a
+whip-lash, "that you are running, true to form and there is one fool, at
+least, still unslaughtered! That"--she continued with a proud toss of
+her head--"'lonesome-looking little runt' is the Ramblin' Kid! Not
+another man in Texas can ride the horse he is on--and there is not a
+horse in Texas that he can't ride!"
+
+She turned again toward the Quarter Circle KT group and a shamed silence
+settled over the swell "out-of-town" car.
+
+Old Heck chuckled with delight at Carolyn June's show of temper.
+
+A whirlwind program of racing, roping, bull-dogging--this event is that
+in which a rider springs from a running horse, grasps by the horns a
+wild steer running at his side, twists the animal's head up and backward
+and so throws it down and then holds the creature on the
+ground--rough-riding and other Rodeo sports followed immediately after
+the parade.
+
+Pedro and Charley Saunders were the only Quarter Circle KT cowboys
+participating in the events of the first day of the Rodeo. The Mexican
+did a fancy roping stunt in front of the grandstand and finished his
+exhibition directly before the Clagstone "Six" in which Carolyn June,
+Ophelia, Old Heck and Skinny were sitting. At the conclusion of his
+performance Pedro bowed to the little audience in the car and swept his
+sombrero before him with all the courtly grace of a great matador.
+Carolyn June generously applauded the dark-skinned rider from the
+Cimarron and waved a daintily gloved hand in acknowledgment of his skill
+with the rope. Skinny gritted his teeth while a pang of jealousy shot
+through his heart.
+
+Charley took part in the bull-dogging event. He drew a black steer,
+rangey built, heavy and wicked. When he lunged from his horse on to the
+horns of the brute it dragged him for a hundred feet before he could
+check its mad flight. At last he slowly forced its nose in the air and
+with a quick wrench of the head to one side threw its feet from under
+it. Man and beast went down in a heap--the neck of the steer across the
+cowboy's body. A groan went up from the crowd in the grandstand and
+Carolyn June's cheeks paled with horror--it looked as if one horn of the
+creature had pierced Charley's breast. But it had missed by the fraction
+of an inch. Straightening himself up to a sitting posture the cowboy
+bent forward and sunk his teeth in the upper lip of the prostrate animal
+and threw up both hands as a signal to the judges that the brute was
+"bulldogged." But the fight had been too hard for him to win first
+place. Buck Wade, a lanky cow-puncher from Montana, in three seconds
+less time, had thrown a brindle Anchor-O steer and taken first money.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Before the sun dipped into the Costejo peaks the Ramblin' Kid left the
+Rodeo and returned alone to the Quarter Circle KT. He told Parker and
+the cowboys, all of whom intended to remain in Eagle Butte every night
+during the Rodeo, that he would be back in town the next afternoon and
+bring with him the Gold Dust maverick. Word had been passed among the
+Quarter Circle KT crowd to keep Dorsey and his bunch in the dark as long
+as possible regarding the fact that the filly, Ophelia, was the famous
+outlaw mare of the lower Cimarron.
+
+After supper Parker, Chuck, Bert and Charley drifted into the Elite
+Amusement Parlor. The place was crowded. Mike Sabota immediately singled
+out the Quarter Circle KT group and began jollying them about the coming
+two-mile sweepstakes. Dorsey and Flip Williams had been in the pool-room
+earlier in the evening and told him of the Ramblin' Kid's entry of the
+filly against the Thunderbolt horse.
+
+Within ten minutes Bert and Charley had placed two hundred and fifty
+dollars each against five hundred of Sabota's money that the Vermejo
+stallion would not finish in first place in the big race.
+
+Old Judge Ivory, who happened to be present, was agreed upon as
+stake-holder.
+
+"That Thunderbolt horse, he is the devil," Sabota laughed evilly as the
+money was handed over to the gray-haired judge. "And Satan, he takes
+care of his own!"
+
+"Well!" Parker drawled, "if you feel inclined to send any more money to
+hell I might help you--" pulling a wad of bills from his pocket and
+throwing the certificates on the soft-drink bar at which they were
+standing.
+
+Sabota's eyes gleamed greedily.
+
+"I think there's two thousand in this roll," Parker continued, "and I'm
+willing to bet it all that the Ramblin' Kid's filly not only goes under
+the wire first in the two-mile run, but that she'll be kicking dirt in
+old Thunderbolt's face--if he ain't too damned far behind--when she does
+it!"
+
+The Greek covered the wager eagerly.
+
+As Judge Ivory pocketed the money Dorsey and Flip Williams stepped into
+the pool-room. Sabota glanced up.
+
+"These Quarter Circle KT _hombres_ are getting bad," he laughed
+sneeringly to Dorsey; "they think th' Ramblin' Kid's got a colt that can
+beat Thunderbolt!"
+
+"The Ramblin' Kid must have a hell of a fast horse!" Dorsey snarled
+contemptuously, "a hell of a fast horse!" he repeated, "when the Ramblin'
+Kid himself declines to risk a dollar of his own money on the running
+qualities of the critter!" referring to the conversation a few hours
+before in the entry judges' office.
+
+As he finished speaking he turned and looked squarely into the cold gray
+eyes of Old Heck who, with Skinny, had entered the Amusement Parlor
+while Dorsey was talking and heard the Vermejo cattleman's sneering
+insinuation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+MOCHA AND JAVA
+
+Old Heck and Skinny had left Ophelia and Carolyn June at the Occidental
+Hotel, where a room was reserved by Old Heck for the use of the two
+women during the Rodeo. They had then gone direct to Mike Sabota's place
+for the express purpose of running into Dorsey and his crowd. Old Heck
+knew that if any large bets were to be laid on the two-mile sweepstakes
+the only chance would be to place them before the Ramblin' Kid brought
+the Gold Dust maverick to Eagle Butte and the Vermejo bunch discovered
+the identity of the horse Thunderbolt was up against.
+
+The Quarter Circle KT cow-men stepped into the pool-room at exactly the
+instant most favorable for their purpose.
+
+Dorsey had made his boast in the presence of a crowd.
+
+He would hardly dare back up without covering, at least to some
+worth-while extent, his words with his money.
+
+For a full minute Old Heck drilled Dorsey with a look such, as a hound
+dog might have in his eyes after he has cornered a coyote and pauses
+before he springs.
+
+Instinctively the crowd stepped back from the two cattlemen while a
+death-like hush fell over the place.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid don't need to back the filly with his money, Dorsey,"
+Old Heck said slowly and in a voice audible in every part of the room;
+"I'm here to back her with mine! You've done a lot of talking--now,
+damn you, cover your chatter with coin or shut up!" the end of the
+sentence coming like the crack of a whip.
+
+With a nervous laugh the Vermejo cattleman jerked a wallet from his
+pocket.
+
+"Here's a thousand that says Thunderbolt does the same thing to the
+Ramblin' Kid's filly that he done to Quicksilver!" Dorsey snapped.
+
+Old Heck threw back his head and laughed scornfully.
+
+"A thousand? I thought you were a sport, Dorsey!" he sneered. "Match
+this," he continued, reaching for his check-book and fountain pen and
+quickly filling out a check payable to "Cash" for ten thousand dollars,
+which he laid on the hardwood bar. "Match that, or admit you're a cheap,
+loud-howlin' bluffer!"
+
+Dorsey paused just an instant as he noted the amount of the check.
+
+"I'll match it!" he exclaimed, flushing angrily, drawing his own
+check-book from his pocket, and then, carried away by his passion
+added, throwing down the bars completely as Old Heck had hoped he would,
+"and go with you to the end of the trail!"
+
+"Good!" Old Heck laughed, "now you are talking like a sport! Let's see,"
+he added calculatingly, "how many Y-Bar cattle do you figure you've got
+running on the Vermejo range--five thousand?"
+
+"There's that many," Dorsey started to say.
+
+"Call it fifty-five hundred!" Old Heck flung at him. "Steer for steer,
+cow for cow, hoof for hoof--I'll put Quarter Circle KT critters against
+every brute you own that th' Ramblin' Kid lands his horse tinder the
+wire ahead of Thunderbolt!"
+
+Dorsey paled, then a purple-red of fury spread over his neck and face,
+and with an oath he cried:
+
+"I'll call you!"
+
+Bills of sale were drawn and turned over to Judge Ivory, to be
+delivered, after the race, to the winner.
+
+"Now," Old Heck said with a hard laugh, "maybe you'd like to own the
+Quarter Circle KT ranch, Dorsey? It's worth twice as much as your
+Vermejo holdings but I'll just give you that percentage of odds and call
+it an even bet that your black stallion don't outrun the little animal
+th' Ramblin' Kid has entered in the sweepstakes!"
+
+But Dorsey did not answer except with a muttered: "Hell, a man's crazy
+that--" He had gone his limit. He had suddenly come to his senses and
+grown suspicious.
+
+Before Skinny and Old Heck left the pool-room the former managed to get
+a bet of five hundred dollars with Sabota.
+
+The next afternoon the Ramblin' Kid rode into Eagle Butte on Captain
+Jack. By his side he led the Gold Dust maverick. The noise and confusion
+in the streets filled the mare with nervousness and she crowded closely
+against the little roan stallion. Before he got the outlaw filly to the
+stables a half dozen cowboys had recognized the Cimarron maverick.
+Within an hour Dorsey and Sabota knew the identity of the Ramblin' Kid's
+entry in the big race that was to be run Friday afternoon and which was
+the big and closing event of the Rodeo.
+
+The Greek was furious.
+
+Wednesday night he called "Gyp" Streetor, a carnival tout, who had one
+time been a jockey but was ruled off the track for crooked work and was
+now picking up "easies" at the Eagle Butte Rodeo, into a side room of
+the Amusement Parlor.
+
+For half an hour the two talked earnestly and furtively.
+
+"Nothin' doin'--absolutely nothin'!" the tout finally said in reply to
+some suggestion of Sabota's. "That Captain Jack horse would murder any
+man but th' Ramblin' Kid that tried to get in the stall--"
+
+"Well, by hell!" the Greek exclaimed, clenching his hairy fists, while
+his mouth twitched with passion, "that filly's got to be kept out of the
+sweepstakes someway or other--"
+
+"You can't get to her, I tell you," Gyp said sullenly, then with a look
+of cunning suddenly coming into his eyes: "They say she's a one-man
+brute like the stallion--nobody can ride her but th' Ramblin' Kid,"
+significantly looking at Sabota. "If you could--but he don't drink!"
+
+The Greek laughed.
+
+"There are other ways!" he said. "He eats, don't he? Listen: To-morrow
+and Friday you take that 'sandwich and coffee' run at the stables--"
+referring to the concession to peddle lunch stuff among the horsemen who
+seldom left their charges, a concession which Sabota, with other
+privileges, had purchased the right to operate. "Th' Ramblin' Kid eats
+off the trays--it will be your business to see that he ain't feeling
+well when the sweepstakes is called! I'll get the 'pills' for you
+to-night--"
+
+"No killin', Sabota!" Gyp warned.
+
+"Just enough to put him out for an hour or two!" the Greek answered.
+
+Wednesday night the Ramblin' Kid slept in the stall with the Gold Dust
+maverick and Captain Jack. Thursday he remained close to the horses.
+Thursday night he again slept on a pile of hay in one corner of the
+box-compartment. Under no circumstances would he leave the animals.
+Occasionally Parker or some of the Quarter Circle KT cowboys came down
+to the stables.
+
+Each night Old Heck and Skinny, with Carolyn June and Ophelia, after the
+evening program was concluded, drove out to the ranch in the Clagstone
+"Six," returning early the following day.
+
+Friday forenoon Old Heck drove the car down to the stall in which
+Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were confined. The two horses
+were standing, side by side, with their heads out of the door, the upper
+half of which was swung back. The Ramblin' Kid leaned against the door
+at the side of the horses.
+
+To Carolyn June he looked tired and worn.
+
+"How's the filly?" Old Heck asked, as the outlaw mare sprang back away
+from the door when the car stopped.
+
+"She's all right."
+
+"Hadn't you ought to exercise her?" Skinny asked.
+
+"She don't need it," the Ramblin' Kid replied with a note of weariness
+in his voice. "She'll get enough exercise this afternoon!"
+
+"You're all right, yourself, are you?" Old Heck asked a bit anxiously.
+
+"Of course I'm all right," was the rather impatient reply. "Don't be
+uneasy," he added with a laugh; "--th' filly'll be in th' race an' beat
+old Thunderbolt!"
+
+"Good luck!" Carolyn June cried, as Old Heck turned the car about and
+started back toward the grandstand.
+
+"Good luck!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered to himself, watching the car as
+it whirled away. "Ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" he repeated bitterly,
+then with a queer smile in which was a world of tenderness he pulled the
+pink satin elastic garter he had picked up at the circular corral, from
+his pocket and looked at it long and wistfully. "Good luck?" he
+exclaimed again questioningly. "Well, maybe that little jigger'll bring
+it!" and he slipped the band back in his pocket.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid acts like he's got the blues this morning," Skinny
+said as the Clagstone "Six" rolled away from the stables. "He looks to
+me like a feller that's in just the right humor to get on a whale of a
+drunk--"
+
+"That's one thing about him you can depend on," Old Heck broke in, "--he
+never poisons himself with liquor. That's why when he says he'll do
+anything you can bet all you've got he'll do it!"
+
+"Well, if he ever does break loose," Skinny retorted, "it'll be sudden
+and wild!"
+
+"Probably," Old Heck replied as though there wasn't the slightest danger
+of such an eventuality.
+
+That morning Gyp purposely avoided going as far, with his stock of
+provisions, as the stall in which were Captain Jack and the Gold Dust
+maverick. Nor did he come with his lunch tray and tin pot of coffee
+until nearly one o'clock.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid had no breakfast. To secure it he would have been
+required to leave the horses. That he would not do. Of course he might
+have told Old Heck or Skinny to bring or send him something, but he did
+not feel inclined to mention, in the presence of Carolyn June and
+Ophelia, that he was hungry. Anyhow, well, they were having a good time
+and what was the use of bothering them?
+
+When Gyp finally came with the lunch the Ramblin' Kid was outside the
+stall and had walked a little way up the stable street. Captain Jack and
+the filly were in a compartment at the end of the string of stalls. The
+one next to it, back toward the grandstand, was unoccupied, and
+adjoining that was a hay room. Gyp stopped opposite the open door of the
+compartment in which the bales of hay and straw were piled. He paused a
+moment and turned as if to go back.
+
+"Hold on there!" the Ramblin' Kid called to him. "What you tryin' to do?
+Starve me to death?"
+
+"D' last thing I'd want to do, Bo!" Gyp laughed good-naturedly. "Did I
+miss you this mornin'? Here, come inside where I can set this bloomin'
+junk down on a bale of hay for a minute an' I'll fix you up!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid followed Gyp into the stall.
+
+The tout stooped over, with his back to the other, and slipped a capsule
+containing a white powder into a coffee cup which he filled quickly with
+the black liquid from the tin pot he carried. He handed the cup to the
+Ramblin' Kid. The latter took it and sat down on a bale of hay lying
+opposite. The coffee was just hot enough to melt, instantly, the capsule
+and not too warm to drink at once. The Ramblin' Kid was thirsty as well
+as hungry. Lifting the cup to his lips, while Gyp, fumbling for a
+sandwich, watched him furtively, he drained it without stopping.
+
+"That's--what was in that?'" he asked, eying the tout keenly. "It tastes
+like--!"
+
+"Just good old Mocha an' Java!" Gyp interrupted lightly. "Maybe it's a
+little strong. Here, take another one!" reaching for the cup.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid started to hand the cup to Gyp to be refilled--a queer
+numbness swept over him--the cup fell from his hand--he swayed--tensed
+his body in an effort to get up--mumbled thickly:
+
+"What th'--what th'--?"
+
+The tout backed away toward the door, crouching like a cat ready to
+spring, his beady eyes half-frightened, watching the poison deaden the
+faculties of the other. He leaped through the door, glanced up and down
+the stable street--deserted at that hour except for a few drowsy
+attendants lounging in front of their stalls--jerked the door shut,
+hooked the open padlock through the iron fastenings, snapped its jaws
+together and muttered, as he hurried away:
+
+"I guess that guy won't ride the Gold Dust maverick in any two-mile
+sweepstakes to-day!"
+
+As the door slammed shut the Ramblin' Kid pitched forward, unconscious,
+on the bale of hay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE SWEEPSTAKES
+
+The Clagstone "Six" was parked, Friday afternoon, in its usual place
+near the east end of the grandstand and close to the entrance to the
+track. Old Heck and Ophelia were alone in the car. Carolyn June and
+Skinny, on Pie Face and Red John, watched the afternoon program from the
+"inside field" across the race track. Parker and the Quarter Circle KT
+cowboys were also mounted on their horses and in the field opposite the
+grandstand.
+
+Never had there been such a jam at a Rodeo held in Eagle Butte.
+
+The two-mile sweepstakes, itself the "cow-man's classic" and the great
+derby event of western Texas, always drew record crowds the day on which
+it was run.
+
+This Friday the grandstand creaked under its load of humanity.
+
+The racing feud between the Quarter Circle KT and the Y-Bar and the
+thousands of dollars Old Heck and Dorsey were known to have bet on their
+respective favorites acted as tinder on the flame of public interest in
+the big event.
+
+Thunderbolt had a great reputation. Last year, and the year before, he
+had mastered the field of runners put against him.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick--named in the race "Ophelia"--was a wonder horse
+in the minds of the people of western Texas who had heard of the
+beautiful, almost super-creature, that had tormented, with her speed and
+endurance, the riders of the Cimarron and now at last was caught, and to
+be ridden in the sweepstakes, by the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+At two-forty a special exhibition of "Cossack Riding"--participated in
+by Lute Larsen, of Idaho; Jack Haines, from Texas, and Curly Piper, a
+Colorado cowboy, finished in front of the grandstand.
+
+The announcer trained his megaphone on the vast crowd:
+
+"The next event," he bellowed, "two-mile sweepstakes! Purse one thousand
+dollars! Five entries! Naming them in their order from the pole:
+Thunderbolt, black Y-Bar stallion, Flip Williams, rider; Say-So, roan
+gelding, from the Pecos River, Box-V outfit, Jess Curtis, rider;
+Ophelia, Gold Dust filly, the Cimarron outlaw from the Quarter Circle
+KT, th' Ramblin' Kid, rider; Prince John, sorrel gelding, from Dallas,
+Texas, 'Snow' Johnson, rider; Dash-Away, bay mare, from Jackson Hole,
+Wyoming, Slim Tucker, rider. Race called at three o'clock sharp! Horse
+failing to score on the dot will be ruled out! Range saddles to be used.
+Entries for the two-mile sweepstakes will show at once on the track!"
+
+Dead silence ensued during the announcer's drawling oration.
+
+It was followed by the hum of five thousand voices as they chattered in
+eager expectancy.
+
+The band crashed out _Dixie_ and a medley of southern melodies.
+
+Chuck and Bert reined their bronchos up to Parker.
+
+"We're going over and see how th' Ramblin' Kid is making it," Chuck
+said. "He might need that filly herded a little to get her through this
+jam." And they galloped their horses across the track toward the
+stables.
+
+Carolyn June and Skinny decided to watch the sweepstakes from the car,
+with Old Heck and Ophelia. They rode Pie Face and Red John over to the
+Clagstone "Six." Carolyn June dismounted and stepped up on the
+running-board of the car, holding Red John loosely by the bridle rein.
+
+"Gee," she laughed, "but I'm nervous!"
+
+Old Heck reached over and patted her hand.
+
+"Wait till they start to run before you get hysterical," he chuckled.
+"There'll be time enough then for excitement!" One could never have
+told, by his actions, that within the next few moments he would lose or
+win fifty thousand dollars.
+
+Chuck pulled Silver Tip to a stop in front of the stall where Captain
+Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were standing.
+
+"They're getting ready for the sweepstakes!" he called, thinking the
+Ramblin' Kid was in the compartment with the horses. "You'd better be
+putting your rigging on the filly," as he slid from his broncho and
+stepped to the door of the stall.
+
+There was no answer. He peered into the half-gloom of the place.
+
+It was empty save for the two horses.
+
+"That's funny as thunder," he said, puzzled, to Bert. "Where'd you
+reckon th' Ramblin' Kid is?"
+
+"Darned if I know--ain't he there?" Bert answered, riding up so he could
+look into the door.
+
+"Look around a little," Chuck said anxiously. "Maybe he's just stepped
+away for a minute--Hey!" he called to an attendant of a stall a short
+distance down the stable street, "have you seen anything of th' Ramblin'
+Kid--the feller that has these horses?"
+
+"Naw," was the careless answer, "I ain't seen him for two hours."
+
+"Something must be wrong!" Chuck exclaimed. "You stay here and watch!
+I'll go see Old Heck--maybe he knows where he is."
+
+"Hell, yes!" Bert said as the other started Silver Tip in a run toward
+where the Clagstone "Six" was parked. "He's got to be found! Nobody else
+but him can ride the maverick!"
+
+At the car, before his horse was fairly stopped, Chuck leaned over and
+asked, tensely:
+
+"Have any of you people seen th' Ramblin' Kid?"
+
+Old Heck straightened up.
+
+"Ain't he at the stables?" he inquired uneasily. "He was there this
+morning--"
+
+"No," Chuck replied hurriedly, "he's been gone two hours!"
+
+"Good lord," Old Heck exclaimed, "he's got to be found! The race starts
+in ten minutes."
+
+"And nobody but him can ride the filly!" Skinny interrupted. "I wonder
+if he's--" he started to say "drunk," but stopped as Carolyn June looked
+quickly at him. The word was in both their minds.
+
+"It ain't natural!" Old Heck cried; "there must be something dirty! You
+boys go look for him; I'll, keep my eyes open here!"
+
+As Old Heck said "dirty" the picture of Mike Sabota flashed into Carolyn
+June's mind. Some intuition seemed to couple, in her inner
+consciousness, the big Greek with the Ramblin' Kid's disappearance.
+
+The horses for the two-mile sweepstakes were already beginning to come
+on to the track. Flip Williams was walking Thunderbolt up and down in
+front of the grandstand, trying to keep the high-spirited stallion quiet
+until time came to mount; the rider of Say-So was doing the same thing
+with his entry; Slim Tucker was already sitting on Dash-Away, the trim
+Wyoming mare standing unruffled near the starting line, while Snow
+Johnson, like Tucker, already on his mount, was circling Prince John in
+wide loops behind the others.
+
+Carolyn June was stunned for a moment by the thought that had come into
+her mind when the picture of the burly Greek flashed before her. She
+clenched her hands and her cheeks whitened.
+
+"Come on, Skinny!" she said suddenly, stepping off the running-board of
+the car and swinging on to Red John, "we'll go help look for the
+Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+She whirled the big bay around the end of the grandstand and rode in a
+fast gallop straight for the box stall, Skinny and Chuck following close
+behind her. A quick resolution formed in her mind: "Nobody but the
+Ramblin' Kid could ride the filly?"
+
+_She could ride the mare_!
+
+Even if the Ramblin' Kid was not found Sabota and his crowd should not
+be allowed to win by dirty work--if dirty work had been done!
+
+At the stall Carolyn June sprang from Red John.
+
+Bert was nervously walking about, calling occasionally the name of the
+missing Quarter Circle KT cowboy.
+
+"Have you found him?" Carolyn June asked as Skinny and Chuck came up
+behind her.
+
+"No," Bert answered glumly, "he ain't showed up yet! There ain't no
+signs of him around here."
+
+"What'll we do?" Skinny asked excitedly. "The race is almost ready to
+start and--do you reckon you could ride the filly, Bert?" he finished
+with a gleam of hope.
+
+"I doubt it, but, well, I'll try her--if Captain Jack'll let me get her
+out."
+
+"You boys keep back!" Carolyn June interrupted, stepping to the door of
+the stall and opening it, "Captain Jack knows me and--I--I--think the
+filly does, too--I can handle her--" as she stepped boldly inside the
+compartment with the horses.
+
+"Don't go in there!" Skinny cried, "Car--Carolyn June, they'll kill
+you!"
+
+"You boys keep away!" she laughed. "And don't get the horses nervous!
+They won't hurt me!" she answered, going ahead toward the animals.
+
+Captain Jack looked at her suspiciously an instant
+
+"Jack-Boy--Jack-Boy!" she called with a caress in her voice. "Careful!
+We're friends!" The attitude of the stallion changed instantly and the
+menace was gone from his eyes.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick heard the voice and with a friendly little nicker
+rubbed her head against the outstretched hand.
+
+In a corner was the Ramblin' Kid's saddle, bridle, blanket and worn
+leather chaps.
+
+With a light pat of the outlaw filly's cheek Carolyn June turned and
+began quickly and deftly putting the riding gear on the beautiful mare.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For an hour and a half the Ramblin' Kid lay as he had fallen when he
+started to hand the coffee cup back to Gyp. Breathing heavily, his face
+flushed, he was as one in the deep stupor of complete intoxication. At
+last he stirred uneasily. An unconscious groan came from his lips. His
+eyes opened. In them was a dazed, puzzled look. Where was he? He tried
+vainly to remember--the clean life, the iron constitution and
+youth--aided perhaps by an indomitable subconscious will protesting
+against this something that had happened to him--were throwing off the
+effects of the drug hours before an ordinary man would have regained
+even a hint of sensibility.
+
+He stood up--reeling unsteadily. He was deathly sick. Lightning flashes
+of pain throbbed through his head. Waves of blackness rolled before his
+eyes. Surges of numbness swept over his legs and arms. He tried hard to
+remember. There was something--what was it? Th'--th'--what th'
+hell?--_th' race_! That was it--th'--th'--th' sweepstakes! In an instant
+the thought was gone. It kept beating back: _Th' sweepstakes--th'
+race_--What time was it? Had it been run? He staggered to the door. It
+was locked! His head was bursting. If he could only get over the nausea.
+He felt his knees start to give way. No! No! My God, he wouldn't give
+up! He--oh, yes. _Th' race! Captain Jack--no--th'--th'--maverick--he had
+to ride_--He must get out! There was a--a--window--sometimes they had
+them--in the back of the stalls. Maybe the hay was over it. He climbed
+on the bales. Behind them he could see the opening. God, he was weak!
+With the sweat of terrible nausea bursting from every pore of his body
+he pulled the bales back. He fell over the bale on which he had been
+lying. One hand brushed his hat which had fallen from his head.
+Mechanically, with stiff fingers, he picked it up and jammed it on
+again. Then he climbed--crawled--over the hay and pitched forward
+through the opening, in a limp heap, on the ground outside.
+
+For a moment he lost consciousness completely again: _Th'--th' race--th'
+maverick! he mustn't forget_--
+
+He fought his way to his feet and groped along back of the building--the
+stall--which way was it? Down there? No--the other way--
+
+As Carolyn June tightened the rear cinch on the Gold Dust maverick and
+turned toward the door of the stall with: "Look out, boys--I'm coming
+out!" the Ramblin' Kid, clutching at the side of the building, reeled
+around the corner of the stall. The cowboys saw him. He himself saw only
+black shapes where their horses were.
+
+"Good God!" Skinny cried, "he's drunk!"
+
+Carolyn June heard Skinny's exclamation at the instant the Ramblin' Kid,
+catching at the half-open door, almost fell into the stall. His eyes
+stared with a dull, puzzled, unrecognizing vacancy first at Carolyn June
+and then the Gold Dust maverick. "_Who th' hell_--" he mumbled stiffly.
+"What--th'--oh, yes--there's th' filly--_th'--th'--race_. It
+must--be--time. Th' mare's saddled! That's--that's--funny! I can't
+remember. Th' race--th' sweepstakes--that's it--"
+
+Reaching over he jerked the reins from the hand of Carolyn June.
+
+"Who--who--get the--" came like the thick growl of a beast from his
+throat. "You--you--can't ride--she'll--_she'll--kill--_"
+
+Carolyn June shrank back as if she had been struck. She pressed her
+hands against her cheeks and stepped away with a look of horror and
+disgust as the Ramblin' Kid backed out of the stall with the Gold Dust
+maverick. Outside he fumbled grotesquely at the silky mane and climbed
+weakly into the saddle.
+
+Chuck and Bert started toward him.
+
+"Get--the--hell--" he snarled as he saw their horses--mere shadow shapes
+they were to him--approach.
+
+"Let him alone!" Skinny said. "He's drunk! You'll just scare the filly
+and make her hurt him!"
+
+The boys let him go.
+
+With blanched cheeks Carolyn June mounted Red John and with Skinny, Bert
+and Chuck, rode back to the Clagstone "Six." Her heart was utterly sick.
+So this was it? It had come out--the brute--the beast that was in him!
+
+They reached the car as the Ramblin' Kid, at the horse entrance, at the
+other end of the grandstand, came on the track with the Gold Dust
+maverick.
+
+Old Heck looked up when the group approached. He saw the agony in
+Carolyn June's eyes and started to speak.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's drunk," Skinny said dully. "He showed up--yonder he
+is--" as the beautiful copper-tinted, chestnut filly appeared behind the
+other horses entered for the two-mile sweepstakes.
+
+"Drunk?" Old Heck cried incredulously. "Are you sure?"
+
+"Watch him!" Chuck said miserably.
+
+The starter was standing with arm outstretched and flag ready to fall.
+The filly came down the track jumping nervously from side to side in
+short springing leaps. The starter paused, watch in hand. A shout of
+admiration and wonder went up from the crowd as the splendid creature
+dancing down the track was recognized. The next instant it was succeeded
+by a cry of horror that rolled in a great wave from a thousand throats.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid is drunk! He's drunk--the mare will kill him!" as they
+saw the slim rider weaving limply in the saddle, his head dropped
+forward as if he were utterly helpless.
+
+"Rule that horse off the track!" Dorsey, who was standing with Mike
+Sabota, in a box-seat just below the judges' stand, shouted as he saw
+the Ramblin' Kid, even in his half-conscious condition, reining the Gold
+Dust maverick with consummate skill into position, "her rider's drunk!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard the voice and--by some miracle of the
+mind--recognized it, although his eyes, set and glassy, could not see
+the speaker.
+
+He turned his head in the direction from which the cry came and
+answered, slowly measuring each word:
+
+"Go--go--t' hell--you--you--_coyote_!"
+
+The next instant the starter dropped the flag. As it went down the filly
+crouched and reared straight into the air.
+
+That one second gave the other horses the start.
+
+Then the outlaw mare leaped forward directly behind Thunderbolt, running
+against the inside rail. Say-So, the Pecos horse, jammed close to the
+side of the black stallion; Snow Johnson, rider of Prince John, pushed
+the big sorrel ahead with his nose at the roan's tail; Dash-Away hugged
+against the heels of Prince John. The Gold Dust maverick was "pocketed!"
+
+A breathless hush fell over the crowd in the grandstand after the first
+mighty roar:
+
+"They're off!"
+
+Black devils of torture clutched the throat, the mind, the body of the
+Ramblin' Kid. Streams of fire seemed to be flowing through his veins. He
+couldn't see--he was blind. "What th'--what th'--hell!" he muttered over
+and over. He was vaguely conscious of the thunder of hoofs around
+him--under him. Dimly, black shadows were rushing along at his side. He
+fought with all his will to master his faculties. Where was he? What was
+it? Was it a--a--stampede? What? _Oh, yes, th' race--th'--th'--
+sweepstakes--that--that was it_--Over and over the fleeting flashes of
+consciousness kept throwing this one supreme idea on the mirror of his
+mind!
+
+Not a word was spoken by any of the party at the Clagstone "Six" as the
+five fastest horses ever on the Eagle Butte track swept past the car
+toward the first quarter-turn of the course.
+
+Carolyn June's face was as white as marble. Her breast heaved and fell
+as if it would burst. Dry-eyed, every nerve tense, she stared at the
+straining racers. Unconsciously she gripped into hard knots of flesh and
+bone, both hands, while she bit at her underlip until a red drop of
+blood started from the gash made in the tender skin by her teeth.
+
+"_Drunk_!" she thought, "_drunk!_ Beastly drunk--and throwing away the
+greatest race ever run on a Texas track!"
+
+Old Heck sat impassive as though carved from stone and said nothing.
+
+Ophelia nervously chewed at the finger of her glove while her eyes
+moistened with sympathy and pity.
+
+Skinny, Chuck and Bert sat gloomily, moodily, on their bronchos and
+watched Thunderbolt lead the quintette of running horses.
+
+For the life of him Skinny could not keep from thinking of the five
+hundred dollars he had bet with Sabota, on the race, and the number of
+white shirts and purple ties he might have bought with the money!
+
+Over in the track-field Parker, Charley and Pedro saw the start of the
+race and each swore softly and silently to himself.
+
+Sing Pete, alone of the Quarter Circle KT crowd, in the jam of the
+grandstand, stretched his neck and followed with inscrutable eyes the
+close-bunched racers. The start had puzzled him, yet he murmured
+hopefully:
+
+"Maybe all samee Lamblin' Kid he beatee hell out of 'em yet!"
+
+The loyal Chinese cook had wagered the savings of a dozen years on the
+speed of the Gold Dust maverick's nimble legs and his faith in the
+"Lamblin' Kid."
+
+A blanket might have covered the five horses as they swung around the
+first mile.
+
+The speed-mad animals roared down the homestretch, finishing the first
+half of the race in the almost identical position each had taken in the
+getaway.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid rode the mile more as an automaton than as a living,
+conscious human being. He had no memory of time, place, events--save for
+the instants of rationality he forced his will to bring.
+
+Gradually, though, his mind was clearing.
+
+But which was it--the first half?--the last half? How long had they been
+running? How many times had they gone around the track? He could not
+remember!
+
+Down the straight stretch the racers came in a mighty whirlwind of
+speed.
+
+"Thunderbolt is taking it!"
+
+"The Y-Bar horse leads!"
+
+"Th' black's got 'em!" roared from the throats of the crowd in the
+grandstand and the mass of humanity crushing the railing along the
+track.
+
+Dorsey and Sabota leaped to the edge of the box as the horses thundered
+past the judges' stand. The voice of the owner of Thunderbolt shrieked
+out in a hoarse bellow:
+
+"Hold him to it, Flip! Keep your lead--you've got the filly!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard again--or thought he heard again--the voice of
+the Vermejo cattleman. He caught, as an echo, a note of triumph in it.
+It was like a tonic to his drug-numbed faculties.
+
+Suddenly he saw clearly. He had just a glimpse of Sabota standing by the
+side of Dorsey. He understood. In a flash it all came to him. The first
+half of the great sweepstakes race was behind them! Once more they were
+to circle the track. The glistening black rump of Thunderbolt rose and
+fell just ahead of the Gold Dust maverick's nose--at her side, crowding
+her against the rail, was another horse. Which one? It didn't matter!
+Back of it was another. He was "_pocketed_!" Hell, no wonder Thunderbolt
+was ahead of the outlaw mare!
+
+Half-way around the quarter-turn he pulled the filly down.
+
+She slackened ever so little. Thunderbolt--the horse at her side--all of
+them--shot ahead.
+
+He was behind the bunch--clear of the field!
+
+The crowd saw the filly dart to the right. It looked as though she would
+go over the outside rail before the Ramblin' Kid swung her, in a great
+arch, to the left clear of, but far behind, the other horses.
+
+He was crazy! The Gold Dust maverick was getting the better of the
+Ramblin' Kid. He had lost control of the wonderful mare!
+
+So thought the thousands watching the drama on the track before them.
+
+Away over, next to the outside fence, on the far side of the track, open
+now before him for the long outfield stretch, the Rambling Kid
+straightened the Gold Dust maverick out. The other racers were still
+bunched against the inner rail--lengths ahead of the filly.
+
+Leaning low on the neck of the maverick, the Ramblin' Kid began talking,
+for the first time, to the horse he rode.
+
+"_Baby--Baby! Girl_!" he whispered incoherently almost. "_Go--go_--damn
+'em! _'Ophelia'_"--he laughed thickly, reeling in the saddle.
+"_Hell_--_no--'Little--Little--Pink Garter!--that's--that's--_what y'
+are! Little--Pink--Garter_--" he repeated irrationally. "_That's
+it--show 'em--damn 'em--show 'em what--what runnin'--what real runnin'
+is!_" fumbling caressingly at the mare's neck with hands numb and stiff
+and chuckling pitifully, insanely, while his face was drawn with agony
+nearly unendurable.
+
+Then the Gold Dust maverick ran!
+
+Never had ground flowed with such swiftness under the belly of a horse
+on a Texas track.
+
+"Good God!" Skinny yelled, "looky yonder! He's passin' them! Th'
+Ramblin' Kid is passin' 'em!"
+
+No one answered him.
+
+His voice was drowned in the mighty roar that surged from five thousand
+throats and rolled in waves of echoing and re-echoing sound across the
+field.
+
+"He's ridin' round 'em!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid is goin' around them!"
+
+"Great heavens! Look at that horse go!"
+
+"She's a-flyin'! _She's a-flyin_'!"
+
+The Gold Dust maverick closed the gap--she caught Dash-Away--she
+evened up with Prince John--she left the big sorrel behind--she passed
+Say-So--nose to nose for a few rods she ran opposite the black
+wonder--the Thunderbolt horse from the Vermejo.
+
+Flip Williams, spurs raking the flanks of Dorsey's stallion, looked
+around.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid leaned toward him:
+
+"Hell--why--don't you--_make that--thing run_!" he sneered at the Y-Bar
+rider.
+
+The next instant the Gold Dust maverick's neck and shoulders showed in
+the lead of the Y-Bar stallion.
+
+At the turn for the home stretch the outlaw filly shot ahead of the
+wonderful black horse from the Vermejo, swung close to the inside rail,
+and like a flash of gold-brown darted down the track toward the wire.
+
+The grandstand was turned into a madhouse of seething humanity. The
+immense crowd came to its feet roaring and shrieking with frenzy. Men
+smashed their neighbors with clenched fists--not knowing or caring how
+hard or whom they struck--or that they themselves were being hit. Women
+screamed frantically, hysterically, tears streaming from thousands of
+eyes because of sheer joy at the wonderful thing the Gold Dust maverick
+was doing. Even the stolid Sing Pete was jumping up and down, shouting:
+
+"_Come on--come on--Lamblin' Kid! Beat 'em--beatee hell out of 'em_!"
+
+Full three lengths in the lead of the "unbeatable" Thunderbolt the Gold
+Dust maverick flashed under the wire in front of the judges!
+
+Dorsey, shaken in every nerve, lips blue as though he were stricken with
+a chill, reeled out of the box from which he had watched his whole
+fortune swept away by the speed of the Cimarron mare. At his side,
+profaning horrible, obscene oaths staggered Mike Sabota.
+
+Old Heck, white-faced, but his lips drawn in a smile of satisfaction,
+stood up in the Clagstone "Six" and watched the Ramblin' Kid--his eyes
+set and staring, his body twitching convulsively, check the filly, swing
+her around, ride back to the judges' stand, weakly fling up a hand in
+salute and then, barely able to sit in the saddle, rein the Gold Dust
+maverick off the track and ride toward the box stall.
+
+Skinny drew a hand across his eyes and looked at Carolyn June.
+
+Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+OLD HECK GOES TO TOWN
+
+It was Monday morning, clear and cloudless, with a whiff of a breeze
+kissing the poplars along the front-yard fence at the Quarter Circle KT.
+On the sand-hills north of the Cimarron, Pedro was pushing the saddle
+cavallard toward Rock Creek, where the last half of the beef round-up
+was to begin. Parker and the cowboys were just splashing their bronchos
+into the water at the lower ford. Sing Pete, on the high seat of the
+grub-wagon, was once more clucking and cawing at Old Tom and Baldy as
+they drew the outfit along the lane and followed the others to the open
+range.
+
+Old Heck, Skinny, Ophelia and Carolyn June again were alone at the
+Quarter Circle KT.
+
+The Eagle Butte Rodeo had closed, with one last riotous carnival of
+wildness at midnight Saturday night.
+
+Once more the straggling town, its pulse gradually beating back to
+normal, lay half-asleep at the foot of the sun-baked butte that stood
+silent and drowsy beyond the Sante Fe tracks.
+
+Tom Poole, the lank marshal, loafed as usual about the Elite Amusement
+Parlor, over which hung a sullen quiet reflecting the morbid emotions of
+Mike Sabota, its brutish-built proprietor, resulting from his heavy
+losses on Thunderbolt in the two-mile sweepstakes when the Gold Dust
+maverick, ridden by the drug-crazed Ramblin' Kid, darted under the wire
+lengths ahead of the black Vermejo stallion.
+
+Friday evening Old Heck had met Dorsey in the pool-room.
+
+Judge Ivory handed over to the owner of the Quarter Circle KT the Y-Bar
+cattleman's check for ten thousand dollars and the bill of sale he had
+recklessly given and which transferred to Old Heck all the cattle the
+Vermejo rancher owned.
+
+Dorsey was game.
+
+"You put it on me," he said to Old Heck "but the Ramblin' Kid won square
+and I'm not squealing!"
+
+Old Heck turned the check slowly over in his hand and looked at it with
+a quizzical frown on his face:
+
+"I reckon this is good?"
+
+"It's my exact balance," Dorsey replied; "I saw to that this morning."
+
+For a long minute Old Heck studied the bill of sale that made him owner
+of every cow-brute burnt with the Y-Bar brand.
+
+"My men will gather the cattle within fifteen days," Dorsey said dully,
+noting the half-questioning look on Old Heck's face, "or you can send
+your own crew, just as you please. I suppose you'll meet me half-way and
+receive the stock in Eagle Butte?"
+
+"Can Thunderbolt run?" Old Heck asked irrelevantly.
+
+"Not as fast as that imp of hell of the Ramblin' Kid's!" Dorsey answered
+instantly and with a short laugh.
+
+Old Heck chuckled.
+
+"You say you'll turn the Y-Bar cattle over to me within fifteen days?"
+he asked again, reverting to a study of the paper he held in his hand.
+
+"Yes," Dorsey replied; "is that satisfactory?"
+
+"You're a pretty good sport, after all, Dorsey," Old Heck said quietly.
+"I'll cash this check"--glancing at the yellow slip of paper--"and this
+thing, here--we'll just tear it up!" as he reduced the bill of sale to
+fragments. "Keep your cattle, Dorsey," he added, "ten thousand dollars
+is enough for you to pay for your lesson!"
+
+Dorsey flushed a dull red.
+
+"I ain't asking--"
+
+"I know you're not," Old Heck interrupted, "and that's the reason I tore
+up that bill of sale!"
+
+"Old Heck," Dorsey said, his voice trembling, "you're white! I'd like to
+shake--"
+
+The rival cattlemen gripped hands and the racing feud between the
+Quarter Circle KT and the Y-Bar was ended.
+
+A week later Dorsey sent Flip Williams to the Quarter Circle KT. The
+Vermejo cowboy led the beautiful black stallion that had mastered
+Quicksilver and had in turn been whipped by the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+"Dorsey said, Tell Old Heck Thunderbolt's a pretty good saddle horse,'"
+Flip explained, "'and he'd do to change off with Quicksilver once in a
+while! So he sent him over as a sort of keepsake!'"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid did not return to the Quarter Circle KT until late
+Sunday night. After the two-mile sweepstakes he was horribly ill. All
+Friday night he laid, in a semi-conscious condition, in the stall with
+Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+Parker and some of the cowboys visited the stall after the race, but
+they thought the Ramblin' Kid was drunk and the best thing was to allow
+him to sleep it off.
+
+"I can't figure it out," Chuck said as they turned away, "he never did
+get drunk before that I knew of--"
+
+"You can't tell what he's liable to do," Charley interrupted, "he sure
+took an awful chance getting on a tear at the time he did!"
+
+"Well, he won the race," Parker said admiringly, "drunk or sober, you've
+got to give him credit for that!"
+
+Saturday the Ramblin' Kid got Pedro to stay with the horses while he
+went over to the Elite Amusement Parlor. He had nothing to say to Sabota
+or any of the loafers in the place.
+
+He was looking for Gyp Streetor.
+
+Until Sunday afternoon he searched Eagle Butte, trying to find the tout.
+All he wanted was to locate the man who had sold him that cup of
+coffee--he could remember drinking the coffee; after that until the
+following morning all was hazy.
+
+But Gyp was gone.
+
+When the Gold Dust maverick, with the Ramblin' Kid swaying uncertainly
+on her back, had appeared on the track for the two-mile run, the tout,
+his eyes like those of a harried rat, sneaked out of the crowd in front
+of the book-makers' booths and hurried toward the Santa Fe railroad
+yards. An hour later he slipped into an empty freight car--part of a
+train headed for the West--and Eagle Butte saw him no more.
+
+It was midnight Sunday when the Ramblin' Kid reached the Quarter Circle
+KT, turned Captain Jack and the outlaw filly into the circular corral,
+and without disturbing Old Heck, Parker, or the cowboys, already asleep
+in the bunk-house, sought his bed.
+
+Monday morning he was at breakfast with the others.
+
+Throughout the meal the Ramblin' Kid was silent. Carolyn June, still
+shocked by what she thought was his intoxication the day of the race,
+and believing he had remained in Eagle Butte over Saturday night and
+Sunday to continue the debauch, ignored him.
+
+None of the others cared to question him and the Ramblin' Kid himself
+volunteered no information.
+
+Once only, Old Heck mentioned the race.
+
+"That was a pretty good ride you made in the two-mile event," he said,
+addressing the Ramblin' Kid; "it looked at first like the filly--"
+
+"You won your money, didn't you?" the Ramblin' Kid interrupted in a tone
+that plainly meant there was nothing further to be said.
+
+That was the only reference to the incidents of Friday afternoon.
+
+After breakfast the Ramblin' Kid saddled the Gold Dust maverick, turned
+Captain Jack with the cavallard, and with Parker and the other Quarter
+Circle KT cowboys rode away to help gather the beef cattle from the west
+half of the Cimarron range.
+
+The week that followed passed quickly.
+
+During the entire period the Kiowa lay under a mantle of sunshine by day
+and starlit skies by night.
+
+Carolyn June once more provided the evening dessert of coffee-jelly and
+Skinny finished teaching her the art of dipping bread in milk and egg
+batter, frying it in hot butter, and calling the result "French toast"
+
+Skinny again put on the white shirt and the shamrock tinted tie. He had
+not dared to wear what Chuck called his "love-making rigging" during the
+week of the Rodeo. It would have made him entirely too conspicuous among
+the hundreds of other cowboys gathered at Eagle Butte for the big
+celebration. Situations filled with embarrassment would have been almost
+certain to develop.
+
+"It's getting so it needs a washing a little," Skinny remarked to
+Carolyn June the first time he reappeared in the once snowy garment.
+
+He was quite right.
+
+Carolyn June herself had noticed that the shirt had lost some of its
+immaculateness.
+
+"It doesn't look hardly as white as it did at first!"
+
+"No, it don't," Skinny answered seriously. "I guess I'll wash it
+to-morrow. I never did wash one but I reckon it ain't so awful hard to
+do--"
+
+"I'll help you," Carolyn June volunteered. "I've never washed one
+either, but it will be fun to learn how!"
+
+The next day they washed the shirt.
+
+The ceremony was performed in the kitchen after they had finished doing
+the breakfast dishes. Ophelia, after water for a vase of roses, came
+into the room while Skinny was rinsing the shirt in the large tin
+dishpan.
+
+The garment was a sickly yellow.
+
+"Darned if I know what's wrong with it," Skinny said, a trifle
+discouraged, while Carolyn June, her sleeves rolled above dimpled
+elbows, stood by and watched the slushy operation. "Carolyn June and me
+both have blamed near rubbed our fingers off trying to get it to look
+right again but somehow or other it don't seem to work."
+
+"Did you put bluing in your rinse water?" Ophelia asked with a laugh.
+
+"Bluing?" Carolyn June and Skinny questioned together. "What does that
+do to it?"
+
+"Bleaches it--makes it white," the widow replied with another laugh as
+she returned to the front room.
+
+"By golly, maybe that's what it needs!" Skinny exclaimed hopefully.
+
+"Of course," Carolyn June cried gaily. "How silly we were not to think
+of it! Any one ought to know you put bluing in the water when you wash
+things. Wonder if Sing Pete has any around anywhere?"
+
+They searched the kitchen shelves and found a pint bottle, nearly full,
+of the liquid indigo compound.
+
+"How much do you suppose we ought to put in?" Carolyn June asked,
+pulling the cork from the bottle and holding it poised over the pan of
+water in which the shirt, a slimy, dingy mass, floated drunkenly.
+
+"Darned if I know," Skinny said, scratching his head. "She said it would
+make it white--I reckon the more you put in the whiter the blamed
+thing'll be. Try about half of it at first and see how 'it works!"
+
+"Gee, isn't it pretty?" Carolyn June gurgled as she tipped the bottle
+and the waves of indigo spread through the water, covering the shirt
+with a deep crystalline blue.
+
+"You bet!" Skinny exclaimed. "That ought to fix it!"
+
+It did.
+
+The shirt, when finally dried, was a wonderful thing--done in a sort of
+mottled, streaky, marbled sky and cloud effect.
+
+But Skinny wore it, declaring he liked it better--that it more nearly
+matched the shamrock tie--than when it was "too darned white and
+everything!"
+
+To Parker and the boys on the beef hunt everything was business.
+
+The days were filled with hard riding as they gathered the cattle,
+bunched the fat animals, cut out and turned back those unfit for the
+market, stood guard at night over the herd, steadily and rapidly cleaned
+the west half of the Kiowa range of the stuff that was ready to sell.
+
+It was supper-time on one of the last days of the round-up.
+
+The outfit was camped at Dry Buck. Bed rolls, wrapped in dingy gray
+tarpaulins or black rubber ponchos, were scattered about marking the
+places where each cowboy that night would sleep. The herd was bunched a
+quarter of a mile away in a little cove backed by the rim of sand-hills.
+Captain Jack and Silver Tip, riderless but with their saddles still on,
+were nipping the grass near the camp--the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck were to
+take the first watch, until midnight, at "guard mount." Parker and the
+cowboys were squatted, legs doubled under them, their knees forming a
+table on which to hold the white porcelain plate of "mulligan," in a
+circle at the back of the grub-wagon. Sing Pete trotted around the group
+and poured black, blistering-hot coffee into the unbreakable cups on the
+ground at the side of the hungry, dusty riders.
+
+The sun had just dipped into the ragged peaks of the Costejo range and a
+reddish-purple crown lay on the crest of Sentinel Mountain forty miles
+to the southeast.
+
+"It looks to me like Parker's sort of losing out," Chuck suddenly
+remarked, as he wiped his lips on the back of his hand after washing
+down a mouthful of the savory stew with gulps of steaming coffee.
+"Ophelia stuck closer than thunder to Old Heck all through the Rodeo."
+
+Parker reddened and growled: "Aw, hell--don't start that up again!"
+
+"By criminy, she didn't stick any closer to Old Heck than Skinny stuck
+to Carolyn June," Bert complained. "Nobody else had a look-in!"
+
+"Skinny's sure earning his money," Charley muttered half enviously.
+
+"Bet he's got on that white shirt and having a high old time right now!
+They're probably in the front room and she's playing _La Paloma_ on the
+piano while Old Skinny's setting back rolling his eyes up like a bloated
+yearling!" Chuck laughed.
+
+"And Old Heck and Ophelia are out on the porch holding hands and looking
+affectionate while the mosquitos are chewing their necks and ankles!"
+Bert added with a snicker.
+
+"Her and Old Heck'll probably be married before we get back," Chuck said
+solemnly, with a wink at the Ramblin' Kid and a sly glance in the
+direction of Parker.
+
+"Do you reckon there's any danger of it?" Parker asked in a voice that
+showed anxiety, but not of the sort the cowboys thought.
+
+"They're darned near sure to," Chuck replied seriously, heaving what he
+tried to make resemble a sigh of sympathy.
+
+"What makes you think so?" Parker questioned, seeking confirmation from
+the lips of other, of a hope that had been rising in his heart since the
+first moment he had begun to regret his rash proposal of marriage to the
+widow.
+
+"Well, for one thing"--Chuck began soberly--"the way they'd look at each
+other--"
+
+"I saw her squeeze Old Heck's arm once!" Bert interrupted.
+
+"Aw, she's done that lots of times," Chuck said airily; "that ain't
+nothing special! But the worst indication was them flowers she wore on
+her bosom every day--_Old Heck bought 'em_!" he finished dramatically,
+leaning over and speaking tensely as though it pained him immeasurably
+to break the news to Parker while he fixed on Old Heck's rival a look he
+imagined was one of supreme pity.
+
+"Yeah, he had them sent up from Las Vegas," Bert added, picking up the
+cue and lying glibly. "I saw the express agent deliver a box of them to
+him one day. There was four dollars and eighty cents charges on 'em!"
+
+A gleam, which the cowboys misunderstood, came into Parker's eyes.
+
+"Why don't you and Old Heck fight a duel about Ophelia?" Bert suggested
+tragically and in a voice that was aimed to convey sympathy to the
+Quarter Circle KT foreman. "You could probably kill him!"
+
+"Sure, that's the way they do in books," Chuck urged.
+
+"Yes," the Ramblin' Kid broke in with a slow drawl, "fight one with
+sour-dough biscuits at a hundred yards! That'd be sensible--then both of
+you'd be genuine heroes!"
+
+"Gosh, th' Ramblin' Kid's awake!" Bert laughed. "How does it happen you
+ain't fell in love with Carolyn June?" he asked, turning toward the
+slender, dark-eyed, young cowboy. "So far you're the only one that's
+escaped. The rest of us are breaking our hearts--"
+
+For an instant the Ramblin' Kid flashed on Bert a look of hot anger
+while a dull red glow spread over his sun-tanned cheeks.
+
+"There's enough damned fools loose on th' Kiowa range without me bein'
+one, too!" he retorted slowly, getting up and going toward Captain Jack.
+
+"Blamed if he'll stand a bit of joshing on that subject!" Bert
+muttered, his own face flushing from the look the Ramblin' Kid had
+given him.
+
+"Not a darned bit," Chuck added, "but it is funny; the way he shys off
+from Carolyn June!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid ain't interested in women," Charley said, as they
+pitched their plates to one side and the meal was finished. "He ain't
+the kind that bothers with females!"
+
+When Chuck had idly suggested that Old Heck and Ophelia might be married
+before Parker and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys returned to the ranch
+from the beef hunt, he did not know it, but the words he spoke in jest
+voiced the very thought at the same instant in the mind of Old
+Heck--miles away though he was. Perhaps it was mental telepathy, thought
+vibration, subconscious soul communication--or a mere coincident, that
+caused Chuck, far out on the open range, to speak the thing Old Heck,
+sitting at supper with Carolyn June, Ophelia and Skinny, at the Quarter
+Circle KT was thinking.
+
+Ever since Parker had voluntarily surrendered during the Rodeo, his
+right to alternate, day and day about, with Old Heck in the widow's
+society, the owner of the Quarter Circle KT had been watching Ophelia,
+covertly and carefully, for any sign of "Movements" or an outbreak as a
+dreaded suffragette.
+
+While he watched her the widow was becoming more and more a necessity in
+the life of Old Heck.
+
+The night of the conversation between Parker and the cowboys, away over
+at Rock Creek, Old Heck sat at the supper table in the kitchen at the
+ranch and debated in his mind the future relationships of Parker,
+Ophelia and himself. In a few days Parker would return. Almost certainly
+the foreman would again wish to share, fifty-fifty, in the courtship of
+the widow. Old Heck felt that if such were so those odd days, when
+Parker was with Ophelia, would be little less than hell. Yet, he dreaded
+that suffragette business. If she would only break loose and let him see
+how bad she was liable to be he could easily make up his mind. He was
+almost ready to take a chance, to ask Ophelia to marry him and settle it
+all at once.
+
+Throughout the meal he was moody. After supper he had little to say and
+the next few days he brooded constantly over the matter.
+
+Tuesday Parker and the cowboys were expected to return with the beef
+cattle. Monday morning, at breakfast, the widow asked Old Heck if he
+would take her to Eagle Butte that day.
+
+"I must see the minister's wife," she said, as Old Heck steered the
+Clagstone "Six" up the grade that led out to the bench and to Eagle
+Butte, "--it is very important"
+
+Old Heck murmured assent and drove silently on. Probably she was going
+to start a "Movement" or something to-day! To-morrow, Parker would be
+back. It sure did put a man in a dickens of a fix!
+
+Before they reached the long bridge across the Cimarron a mile from
+Eagle Butte Old Heck's mind was made up.
+
+"You want to stop at the preacher's house?" he asked.
+
+"If you please," Ophelia replied, "for some little time. There are
+things to discuss--"
+
+"Would you mind if I drove around to the court-house first?" Old Heck
+questioned again.
+
+"Not at all," she answered sweetly.
+
+A few moments later Old Heck stopped the Clagstone "Six" in front of the
+yellow sandstone county building. Leaving Ophelia in the car with the
+remark, "I'll be out in a minute!" he went inside and hurried along the
+dark corridor that led to the clerk's office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+A SHAME TO WASTE IT
+
+In Old Heck's eyes was a set, determined look when he came out of the
+court-house and stepped up to the Clagstone "Six" in which he had left
+Ophelia a few moments before. The end of a long yellow envelope
+protruded from the side pocket of his coat. His face was flushed and his
+hand trembled slightly as he opened the door of the car and climbed into
+the front seat beside the widow. He pressed his foot on the "starter,"
+threw the clutch into gear and turning the car about drove slowly toward
+the home of Reverend Hector R. Patterson, Eagle Butte's only resident
+clergyman.
+
+He did not speak until the car stopped at the gate of the little
+unpainted parsonage beside the white, weather-boarded church.
+
+"Wait a minute," he said as Ophelia started to get out of the Clagstone
+"Six," "maybe I'll go in with you!"
+
+"Splendid," the widow replied, settling again against the cushions. "I'd
+be delighted to have you come along and I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Patterson
+would be glad to see you!"
+
+"Well, it--it"--Old Heck stammered, not knowing how to begin what he
+wanted to say--"it--it all depends on you! Here"--he said abruptly as a
+bright thought came to him--"read that and--and--tell me what you think
+about it!" at the same time pulling the yellow envelope from his pocket
+and handing it to Ophelia.
+
+With a questioning lift of her eyebrows the widow drew the folded,
+official-looking document from the envelope.
+
+"Why, it's a--it's a--" she started to say and stopped confused, her
+cheeks blazing crimson.
+
+"It's a marriage license--" Old Heck said, coming to her rescue, "--made
+out for you and me. I--I--didn't know what to tell the clerk when he
+asked me how old you was--so I just guessed at it!"
+
+The widow looked shyly down at the names written on the document.
+
+The license granted "Ophelia Cobb, age _twenty-three_, of Hartville,
+Connecticut, and Josiah Alonzo Heck, age forty-eight, of Kiowa County,
+Texas," the right to marry.
+
+Ophelia's actual years were thirty-nine!
+
+From under drooping lashes she glanced up suspiciously into the earnest
+gray eyes beside her. She saw that Old Heck had been sincere in his
+"guess."
+
+"But--but--"
+
+"I know it's kind of unexpected," Old Heck interrupted nervously,
+"--perhaps I had ought to have said something about it first, but, well,
+I figured I'd go on and get the license and show that my intentions was
+good and--and--sort of risk the whole thing on one throw! It always
+seemed like there was something missing at the Quarter Circle KT," he
+went on, his voice grown softer and trembling a bit, "and--and when you
+came I--I--found out what it was--"
+
+Ophelia sat silently with downcast eyes, her pulse racing, the license
+unfolded on her lap, while she bit uncertainly at the tip of the finger
+of her glove.
+
+"I--I--know I ain't very good-looking or--or--anything," Old Heck
+continued, "but I thought maybe you--you--liked me a little--enough
+anyhow to get married--that is if you--. Oh-h--thunder, Ophelia!" he
+exclaimed in despair, feeling that he was hopelessly floundering,
+"I--I--love you! Please let's use that license! Let's use it right away
+--to-day--and get it over with!" he urged as the widow still hesitated.
+
+"But--I--I'm not suitably dressed--" she stammered.
+
+"I think that dress you've got on is the prettiest goods I ever saw in
+my life," he interrupted, looking adoringly at the clinging summer
+fabric caressing Ophelia's shapely form, "I always did think it would be
+awful appropriate for us to--to--get married in!" he finished
+pleadingly.
+
+"But--Carolyn June and--and--Parker--" Ophelia murmured.
+
+At the mention of Parker, Old Heck started while a look of anguish came
+into his eyes. So she loved Parker! That was why she was so backward, he
+thought. Well, the Quarter Circle KT foreman was a little
+better-looking, maybe, and some younger! He couldn't blame her.
+
+His head dropped. For a moment Old Heck was silent, a dull, sickening
+hurt gripping his heart. A deep sigh escaped from his lips. He reached
+over and picked up the license.
+
+"I--I--guess I made a mistake," he said numbly. "We'll just--just--tear
+this thing up and forget about it!"
+
+Ophelia looked demurely up at him, her mouth twitching. One small gloved
+hand slipped over and rested on the strong brown fingers that held the
+license. Roses flamed over the full round throat and spread their blush
+to her cheeks. Her eyes were like pools of liquid blue:
+
+"Don't tear it--it--up!" she whispered with a little laugh--a laugh that
+sent the blood leaping, like fire, through Old Heck's veins, "it--it
+would be a shame to waste it!"
+
+For an instant Old Heck was dazed. He looked at her as if he could not
+believe he had heard aright. Suddenly a wave of undiluted happiness
+swept over him.
+
+"Ophelia!" he cried huskily. "Oh, Ophelia!" and the minister's three
+small sons, pausing in their play in the grassless yard at the side of
+the house, while they watched the beautiful car standing in front of
+the parsonage gate, saw the owner of the Quarter Circle KT, in broad
+daylight, on the principal residence street of Eagle Butte, before the
+eyes of the whole world--if the whole world cared to look--throw his
+arms around the plump lady sitting beside him and press one long,
+rapturous kiss on her moist, unresisting lips!
+
+A moment later Ophelia and Old Heck, both much embarrassed but
+tremulously happy, stepped inside the door of the parsonage.
+
+They were driving away from the minister's house--going to the
+Occidental Hotel for a little all-by-their-ownselves "wedding
+luncheon"--before either thought of the matter concerning which Ophelia
+had desired to see the clergyman's wife.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Old Heck exclaimed, "you forgot that consultation or
+whatever it was with Mrs. Patterson to start your woman's suffrage
+'movement'--"
+
+"To start my what?"
+
+"Your 'woman's rights,' 'female voter's organization'--or whatever it
+is!" Old Heck explained, a new-born tolerance in his voice. "I didn't
+mean to interfere with your political activities--"
+
+Ophelia threw back! her head, while a ripple of laughter trilled out
+above the purr of the Clagstone "Six."
+
+"Why, my dear--dear--Old Boy!" she cried, "I am not engaged in
+'political activities,' or 'suffragette movements!' Of course," she
+continued archly, "I believe women ought to be allowed to vote--if they
+haven't intelligence enough for that they haven't brains enough to be
+good 'pardners' with their husbands--"
+
+"By gosh, you're right!" Old Heck agreed, "I never thought of it that
+way before!"
+
+"And," she continued, "naturally I shall vote whenever the opportunity
+comes, but I'm not an 'Organizer' for anything of that kind. Mrs.
+Patterson and I are going to organize the wives, sisters and
+sweethearts, in Eagle Butte, into a club for the study of 'Scientific
+and Efficient Management of the Home!' We think we should be as
+proficient in those arts--and which we believe are peculiarly womanly
+functions--as the men are in the direction of the more strenuous
+business affairs in which they themselves are engaged."
+
+"So that's what you're an 'Organizer' for?" Old Heck queried while a
+radiant contentment spread over his face.
+
+"That is it," Ophelia said simply, adding with a most becoming
+heightening of color, "it is so we will be--will be--better wives!"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck breathed fervently. "My Gawd! The Lord has been good
+to me to-day!"
+
+While Old Heck and Ophelia were in Eagle Butte getting married, Skinny
+and Carolyn June had been riding line on the upland pasture fence. They
+had just returned to the Quarter Circle KT, unsaddled their horses,
+turned them into the pasture, gone to the house and stopped a moment on
+the front porch to watch the glow in the west--the sun was dipping into
+a thundercap over the Costejo Mountains--when the Clagstone "Six" rolled
+down the grade and up to the string of poplars before the house.
+
+"Gee, we thought you two had eloped!" Carolyn June laughed as the couple
+climbed out of the car and came, rather bashfully, in at the gate. Old
+Heck and Ophelia looked at each other guiltily.
+
+"We did come darn near it!" Old Heck chuckled, plunging at once into the
+task of breaking the news. "We got married--I reckon you'd call that the
+next thing to eloping!"
+
+"Got married?" Skinny and Carolyn June cried together.
+
+"Who--who--got married?" Skinny repeated incredulously.
+
+"Ophelia and me," Old Heck answered with a sheepish grin but proudly.
+"Who else did you think we meant? We just thought," he continued by way
+of explanation, "we'd go ahead and do it kind of private and save a lot
+of excitement and everything!"
+
+Carolyn June threw her arms around Ophelia and kissed her.
+
+"Good-by, chaperon," she laughed With a half-sob in her throat,
+"h--hello, 'Aunt.'" Then she strangled Old Heck with a hug that made him
+gasp.
+
+"What the devil--are you trying to do--choke me?"
+
+"Well, by thunder, Old Heck!" Skinny finally managed to ejaculate, "it
+was the sensiblest thing you ever done! I--I've--been"--with a sidelong
+look at Carolyn June--"kind of figuring on doing it myself!"
+
+Carolyn June saw the expression in Skinny's eyes. A pained look came
+into her own. She had known, for a long while, that sooner or later
+there would have to come an understanding between this big, overgrown,
+juvenile-hearted cowboy and herself. She resolved then that it should
+come quickly. Further delay would be cruel to him. Besides, she was sick
+of flirtations. Her disappointment in the character of the Ramblin' Kid,
+her realization of his weakness, when he had gotten, as she believed,
+beastly drunk at the moment so much depended on him the day of the
+two-mile sweepstakes, had hurt deeply. Somehow, even his magnificent
+ride and the fact that, in spite of his condition, he won the race, had
+not taken the sting away. She had thought the Ramblin' Kid was
+real--rough and crude, perhaps, but all man, rugged-hearted and honest.
+Sometimes she wondered if the queer unexplainable antagonism between
+herself and the sensitive young cowboy had not, in a measure, been
+responsible for his sudden moral breaking down. The thought caused her
+to lose some of that frivolity that inspired the dance and the wild
+flirtations she carried on that night with all the cowboys of the
+Quarter Circle KT. After all, these plain, simple-acting men of the
+range were just boys grown big in God's great out-of-doors where things
+are taken for what they seem to be. No wonder an artless look from
+sophisticated brown eyes swept them off their feet!
+
+She made up her mind to disillusion Skinny at once.
+
+After supper the quartette gathered in the front room.
+
+"Come on, Skinny," Carolyn June said with forced gaiety, "let us take a
+walk. That pair of cooing doves"--with a playfully tender glance at
+Ophelia and Old Heck--"wish nothing so much as to be permitted to
+'goo-goo' at each other all by their little lonelies!"
+
+Bareheaded she and Skinny strolled out the front gate and along the road
+that led up to the bench. At the top of the grade they sat down, side by
+side, on a large boulder that hung on the brink of the bench. The
+Quarter Circle KT lay before them--restful and calm in the shadows of
+early evening. The poplars along the front-yard fence stood limp in the
+silent air. Across the valley the sand-hills were mellowing with the
+coming softness of twilight. Up the river, to the west, beyond Eagle
+Butte, a summer thunder-cloud was climbing higher and higher into the
+sky. In the direction of Dry Buck, far toward the northwest, a fog of
+dust was creeping along the horizon, gradually approaching the upland
+pasture. Skinny saw it.
+
+"By golly," he cried, "that's either Parker and the boys coming in with
+the cattle--or else it's a band of sheep! It surely can't be
+'woollys'--they never get over in there! If it's our outfit, though,
+they've got through quicker than they figured!"
+
+A few moments later the dim bulk of the "grub-wagon" appeared, miles
+away, slowly crawling toward the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For a time Skinny and Carolyn June were silent.
+
+Skinny's hand crept slyly across the rock and found the pink fingers of
+Carolyn June. She did not draw away.
+
+"Carolyn June," he whispered haltingly, "Carolyn June--I--Old Heck and
+Ophelia have got married--let's you and--and--"
+
+"Please, Skinny, don't say it!" she interrupted, her voice trembling.
+"I--I know what you mean! It hurts me. Listen, Skinny"--she hurried on,
+determined to end it quickly--"maybe you will despise me, but--I like
+you, truly I do--but not _that_ way! I don't want to grieve you--I wish
+us to be just good friends--that's why I'm telling you! Let's be
+friends, Skinny--just friends--we can't be any more than that--"
+
+Skinny understood. A dull, throbbing pain tightened about his throat.
+His fingers gripped Carolyn June's hand an instant and then relaxed. The
+whole world seemed suddenly blank.
+
+"Can't you--won't you--ever--ca--care?" he asked in a voice filled with
+despair.
+
+"I do care, boy," she replied softly, "I do care--but not that way! Oh,
+Skinny," she exclaimed, wishing to make it as easy as possible for the
+sentimental cowboy at her side, "maybe I have done wrong to let you go
+ahead, but, well, I found out--I guessed the 'arrangements'--how you had
+been chosen to make 'love' to me and how Parker and Uncle Josiah were to
+divide Ophelia between them. Perhaps that is why I have flirted so--just
+to punish you all! Truly, Skinny, I'm sorry. Please don't hate me
+like--like--the Ramblin' Kid does!" she finished with a shaky little
+laugh.
+
+"He--don't hate you," Skinny answered dully, "at least I don't think th'
+Ramblin' Kid hates you--or anybody. And you knowed all the time that I
+was getting paid to make love to you? Well, I was," he added chokingly,
+"but I'd have done it for nothing if I'd had the chance!"
+
+"Yes, Skinny," she replied, "I knew--I know--and I don't blame you!"
+
+"I don't blame you, either," he said humbly, "it was a--a--excuse me,
+Carolyn June--a damned mean trick to frame up on you and Ophelia that
+way--but we didn't know what to do with you! I reckon," he continued in
+the same despairing tone, "I was a blamed fool!"
+
+For a long moment they sat silent.
+
+"Carolyn June," Skinny finally said, a sigh of resignation breaking from
+his lips, "I'll be what you said--just a good friend--I always will be
+that to you! But before we start in, do you mind if I--if I--go up to
+Eagle Butte and get--drunk!"
+
+In spite of herself she laughed. But in it was a tenderness almost
+mother-like.
+
+"Poor disappointed, big boy," she answered and her eyes filled, "if it
+will make you happy, go ahead and get--get--drunk, 'soused,' all
+over--just this once!"
+
+With only a passing pang Carolyn June was willing for Skinny to get
+drunk--to do the thing she had been scarcely able to forgive in the
+Ramblin' Kid!
+
+For an instant she wondered why.
+
+A half-hour later Skinny and Carolyn June went silently down the grade
+to the ranch house. They had gone up the hill--lovers; they
+returned--"good friends"--and such they would always be.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was nearly ten o'clock when Sing Pete stopped the grub-wagon at the
+bunk-house; Pedro wrangled the saddle cavallard into the pasture below
+the barn; Parker and the cowboys jogged their bronchos to the stable
+door and the Ramblin' Kid, riding the Gold Dust maverick--Captain Jack
+at her heels--rode to the circular corral, jerked the saddle from the
+filly's back and turned the little roan stallion and the outlaw mare
+inside the corral.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny heard the commotion and went out to where Parker and
+the cowboys were unsaddling their horses.
+
+"Well, you got through, did you?" Old Hack questioned casually.
+
+"Yes," Parker replied, "we've got the beef critters in I guess--they're
+in the upland pasture. There are seven hundred and ninety, I think it
+is, that'll do for the market."
+
+"That's pretty good," Old Heck answered with satisfaction. "We'll push
+them right on into Eagle Butte to-morrow or next day and ship them. The
+cars will be in to-night, the agent said. I'm sending them to Chicago
+this time. I'd like to see you, private, a minute, Parker!" he finished
+abruptly.
+
+"What do you want?" Parker asked suspiciously, as he followed Old Heck
+around the corner of the barn.
+
+"It's about Ophelia--" Old Heck began.
+
+Parker's heart leaped and then dropped with a sickening foreboding of
+something disagreeable. The widow, he thought instantly, had told Old
+Heck about that darned fool proposal of marriage and was going to insist
+on him coming across and making good! There was no way out.
+
+"I--I--reckon I'll have to do it if she's determined," Parker stuttered;
+"but--aw, hell--I must have been crazy--"
+
+"Who's determined on what?" Old Heck asked, puzzled by the queer jumble
+coming from the lips of the Quarter Circle KT foreman, "and how crazy?"
+
+"Ophelia determined on marrying me!" Parker blurted out.
+
+"Ophelia marry _you_?" Old Heck exclaimed. "Marry you! She can't! Her
+and me have already done it. We got married to-day--that was what I
+wanted to tell you!"
+
+Momentarily a pang of regret shot through Parker's heart. It was quickly
+followed by a sense of relief.
+
+"You--you--and Ophelia married?" he stammered.
+
+"We sure are," Old Heck answered positively. "We done it to-day!"
+
+Suddenly Parker determined to "cover up."
+
+"My, lord!" he half-groaned, pretending terrible grief, "this is awful!
+It--it--come so sudden--but there ain't no hard feelings, Old Heck!
+I--I--wish you both joy and happiness!"
+
+"Darned if that ain't white of you, Parker!" Old Heck exclaimed,
+immensely relieved. "I won't forget it! When you and the boys take them
+steers to Chicago, stay over a week or so and have a good time and count
+it in on expenses!"
+
+Parker turned his head and in the darkness winked solemnly at a yellow
+star above the peak of Sentinel Mountain.
+
+He and Old Heck started toward the house.
+
+"Hey, you fellows!" Old Heck called, pausing and turning toward the barn
+where the cowboys were putting away their saddles, "when you get through
+all of you come on up to the house! Ophelia and me's married and the
+bride is waiting to be congratulated!"
+
+"Good lord," Charley gasped, "hear that, fellers? Old Heck said him and
+the widow's married!"
+
+"Gosh!" Chuck laughed, "it must have been a jolt to Parker! I bet his
+heart's plumb bu'sted!"
+
+As soon as their saddles were put away the cowboys hurried toward the
+house. They met the Ramblin' Kid, crossing from the circular corral to
+the bunk-house.
+
+"Come on," Bert called to him, "Old Heck and Ophelia's gone and got
+married! We're going up to the house to sympathize with the widow!"
+
+"I ain't needed," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a careless laugh. "You
+fellers can take my 'love' to th' afflicted couple!"
+
+After the cowboys had gone to the house Skinny went and got Old Pie
+Face. Stopping at the stable, he saddled the pinto and strolled over to
+the bunk-house. The Ramblin' Kid was lying stretched on his bed. Skinny
+rolled the white shirt carefully into a bundle and wrapped a newspaper
+around it.
+
+"What you goin' to do?" the Ramblin' Kid asked.
+
+"I'm goin' to town!" Skinny answered shortly. "I'm going up to Eagle
+Butte and get on a hell of a drunk--if I can get hold of any boot-leg
+whisky--Carolyn June and me have bu'sted up on our love-making!"
+
+"Going to get drunk, are you?" the Ramblin' Kid queried with a note of
+scorn in his voice, "an' forget your sorrows?"
+
+"Yes," Skinny retorted, "I'm going to get drunk as you was the day of
+the race!"
+
+"Drunk as I was th' day of th' race?" the Ramblin' Kid repeated
+quizzically. "Oh, hell, yes--now I understand--" pausing, while a smile
+curled his lips.
+
+"Yes," Skinny retorted again. "Where'd you get yours that day?"
+
+"Never mind," was the answer. "I guess I'll go to Eagle Butte with you!
+You'll need somebody to ride herd on you while you're snortin' around.
+Anyhow, I feel like goin' on a tear myself--not a drunk--a man's a
+darned fool that'll let any woman make a whisky barrel out of him! But I
+got an itchin' for a little poker game or somethin'. Wait till I get
+Captain Jack!"
+
+"Where's Skinny and th' Ramblin' Kid?" Old Heck asked after he and
+Parker and the cowboys were at the house and the first flush of
+embarrassment had passed.
+
+Carolyn June thought she knew where Skinny was, but did not answer.
+
+"I don't know what's become of Skinny," Parker said. "Th' Ramblin' Kid's
+probably out mopin' somewhere. I think he's getting ready to 'ramble'
+again--he's been acting plumb despondent ever since the Rodeo in Eagle
+Butte!"
+
+Carolyn June stepped to the door. Dimly through the darkness she saw
+two riders pass up the grade that led to the bench and turn their horses
+to the west, toward Eagle Butte, and ride straight into the outflung
+shadow of the thunder-storm--from which now and then leaped jagged
+flashes of lightning--and which was rolling from the Costejo Mountains
+across the Kiowa range in the direction of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Silent and with a heavy heart she turned away from the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+THE GREEK GETS HIS
+
+It was long after midnight when the Ramblin' Kid and Skinny rode into
+Eagle Butte and the heels of Captain Jack and Old Pie Face echoed
+noisily on the board floor of the livery stable as the bronchos turned
+into the wide, open doorway of the barn. A drowsy voice from the
+cubby-hole of an office called:
+
+"In just a minute--I'll be out!"
+
+"Aw, thunder," Skinny answered, "go on back to sleep, we'll find stalls
+and put 'em up!"
+
+Captain Jack and Old Pie Face cared for, Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid
+stepped out into the deserted street.
+
+Eagle Butte was sleeping.
+
+Here and there a blaze of light from a store window invited belated
+passers to covet the bargains offered within; a half-dozen incandescent
+bulbs, swung on cross-wires at intervals along the street, glowed feebly
+as if weary with the effort to beat back the darkness clutching at the
+throat of the town; over the sidewalk in front of the Elite Amusement
+Parlor an illuminated red and green sign told that Mike Sabota's place
+was still open; across the porch of the Occidental Hotel and spilling
+itself on the ground out in the street a stream of light guided weary
+travelers to the portals of that ancient, though hospitable,
+institution; from the sides of the Butte beyond the railroad tracks a
+coyote yelped shrilly a jerky, wailing challenge--a dozen dogs, suddenly
+aroused in different parts of the town, answered.
+
+"Pretty dead-lookin'," the Ramblin' Kid remarked. "Let's go down to
+Sabota's."
+
+"All right," Skinny replied, and they moved down the street.
+
+The pool-room offered nothing of interest. A couple of traveling men,
+waiting for the early morning train, were playing a listless game of
+billiards at one of the tables; a pair of Jap sugar-beet workers and a
+negro section hand sat half-asleep and leaned against the wall; "Red"
+Jackson, Sabota's chief lieutenant, with an air of utter boredom,
+lounged behind the soft-drink bar. Sabota was not there.
+
+"What's happened to everybody?" Skinny asked; "where's Mike?"
+
+"Everybody's got religion, I guess," Red yawned, "and gone to bed. What
+do you want with Sabota?" looking suspiciously at the Ramblin' Kid;
+"he's over at Vegas; won't be back till to-morrow--or to-day it is now,
+I reckon--evening sometime!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid and me have been out in the rain," Skinny said
+suggestively, "and thought we might take cold--"
+
+"Nothing doing!" Red laughed, "ain't a drop around! When Mike gets back
+he'll fix you up, maybe--that's what he's gone after!"
+
+"We'd just as well go to bed!" Skinny grumbled disgustedly to the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"I reckon," was the laconic answer.
+
+They returned to the hotel, roused the clerk from his doze, secured a
+room and retired.
+
+It was eight o'clock when they got up.
+
+Both went directly to the livery stable and saw that Captain Jack and
+Old Pie Face were properly attended to. While at the barn Skinny took
+the bundle he had wrapped in the bunk-house at the ranch from the saddle
+where he had tied it.
+
+"What's that?" the Ramblin' Kid queried.
+
+"It's that darned shirt!" Skinny retorted. "I'm going to make Old Leon
+eat it--it wasn't the size Parker asked for!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid laughed, but said nothing.
+
+They returned to the hotel and had breakfast. Manilla Endora waited on
+them. Before Carolyn June and Ophelia came to the Quarter Circle KT
+Manilla's yellow hair and blue eyes were the flames that fanned the
+affections of Skinny. He felt guilty as, sweetly as ever and without a
+hint of reproach, Manilla took their orders and served them with their
+ham and eggs and coffee.
+
+After breakfast Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid explored the town.
+
+Eagle Butte had come to life. The stores were open. Business was brisk.
+The "dray" was delivering the express accumulated the night before at
+the depot. Here and there a morning shopper was passing along the
+street. At the post-office there was quite a crowd.
+
+Skinny carried the shirt, wrapped in the soggy, rain-soaked newspaper.
+As he and the Ramblin' Kid came near the dingy, general merchandise
+establishment kept by the squint-eyed Jew from whom Parker had bought
+the unfortunate garment a sudden look of cunning gleamed in the eyes of
+Skinny. He laughed aloud. A box of eggs, ten or twelve dozen it
+contained, was set, with other farm produce, in a display on the
+sidewalk at the side of the door of the store.
+
+"Hold on a minute," Skinny said to the Ramblin' Kid, stopping in front
+of the Jew's place of business, "I got an idea--By golly," he continued
+argumentatively and with apparent irrelevancy, in a loud voice, "I tell
+you I'm the lightest man on my feet in Texas!" and he winked knowingly
+at the Ramblin' Kid. "I can walk on eggs and never bu'st a one! I've
+done it and"--as Leon came to the door--"I'll bet four-bits I can jump
+in that box of eggs right there and never crack a shell!" The Ramblin'
+Kid understood.
+
+"Aw, you're crazy," he laughed. "I don't want to win your money!"
+
+"What's the matter?" Leon asked curiously, having heard only part of
+Skinny's boast.
+
+"This locoed darn' fool thinks he can walk on them eggs an' not mash
+'em!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed again. "He wants to bet me four-bits he
+can--"
+
+"Walk on them eggs and not preak them?" Leon exclaimed disdainfully.
+"You ought to lock him up! He iss crazy!"
+
+"By gosh," Skinny argued, "you don't realize how light-footed I am--I
+can jump on them, I tell you, and I got money to back it up!" And he
+pulled a half-dollar from his pocket.
+
+"Put away your money, you blamed idiot--" the Ramblin' Kid began.
+
+"I'll bet him four-bits he can't!" Leon cried, jerking a coin from his
+own pocket.
+
+Skinny and Leon each handed the Ramblin' Kid fifty cents.
+
+"By thunder, I can," Skinny said, pausing, "that is, I'm willing to bet
+my money on it--"
+
+"Vhy don't you go ahead and do it, then?" Leon exclaimed. "Vat you
+standing there for? Vhy don't you do it if you're so light on your
+feet?"
+
+"Well, I can!" Skinny argued, still hesitating.
+
+"Den go ahead and chump--chump I told you--into the box!" Leon shouted
+excitedly.
+
+Skinny jumped. The eggs crushed under the heels of his riding boots. In
+an instant the box was filled with a squashy mass of whites, yolks and
+broken shells. Skinny pawed around until there wasn't a whole egg left
+in the box.
+
+At the first crunch Leon laughed hilariously.
+
+"I knowed you'd lose!" he cackled. "Giff me the money!"
+
+"You win, Leon!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed, handing over the wager.
+"Skinny wasn't as delicate on his feet as he thought he was!"
+
+"Thunderation, that's funny!" Skinny said soberly as he stepped out of
+the box; "it wouldn't work that time! Something must have slipped!"
+
+With a grin he calmly unwrapped the one-time white shirt and with it
+began to wipe the slimy mess from his boots.
+
+"The next time you won't be so smart!" Leon cried, then paused in
+consternation, his eyes riveted on the scrambled mixture in the box.
+"But mine eggs!" he exclaimed, suddenly suspicious. "Who pays for the
+eggs? There vas twelve dozen--they are worth seventy cents a dozen--that
+is more as eight dollars. Pay me for the eggs!"
+
+"Pay, hell!" Skinny said. "I didn't agree to furnish no eggs! You won my
+fifty cents and th' Ramblin' Kid gave it to you--"
+
+"That's right, Leon," the Ramblin' Kid chuckled, "you got th'
+four-bits--that's all you won!"
+
+"But pay me--" Leon whined.
+
+"I'll pay you, you dirty crook!" Skinny snapped as he slapped the
+soppy, egg-splattered shirt in Leon's face. "I'll pay you with that! The
+next time," he added as he and the Ramblin' Kid started down the
+street--"anybody asks for a size fifteen shirt don't give them a sixteen
+and a half!"
+
+The day was spent idling about town waiting for Sabota to return so
+Skinny could get some whisky and drown his disappointment in love in
+intoxicated forgetfulness.
+
+After supper Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid went to the picture
+show--Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were "movie nights" in Eagle
+Butte--and saw a thrilling "wild-west" drama in which a band of Holstein
+milk cows raced madly through an alfalfa field in a frenzied,
+hair-raising stampede! When the show was over the Ramblin' Kid started
+toward the livery barn.
+
+"What you going to do?" Skinny queried.
+
+"I was just goin' to get Captain Jack," the Ramblin' Kid replied.
+
+"What for?" Skinny asked as they moved toward the barn. "There ain't no
+hurry about getting back to the ranch. We won't be going out till
+to-morrow or next day--there ain't no use getting the horses out
+to-night."
+
+"I don't know," the Ramblin' Kid answered, without stopping, "I just got
+a hunch to get him in case I need him. Anyhow, it won't hurt him to
+stand out a while--they've been eatin' all day."
+
+"Then I'll get Old Pie Face, too," Skinny replied.
+
+They saddled the bronchos and rode out of the barn.
+
+"Where'll we go?" Skinny asked.
+
+"Reckon we'd better go back down to Sabota's," the Ramblin' Kid said as
+they turned their horses in the direction of the pool-room, "if you
+still insist on makin' a blamed fool of yourself an' gettin' drunk.
+Maybe Mike's back by now. Anyhow, there might be a little poker game
+goin' on--I saw a couple of the fellers from over on th' Purgatory come
+in a while ago!"
+
+They left Captain Jack and Pie Face standing, with bridle reins dropped,
+across the street and in the broad shaft of light streaming from the
+open door of the pool-room, and went into the resort.
+
+The place was well filled. Sabota had returned, evidently with an ample
+supply of the fiery stuff he called "whisky." Like vultures that
+unerringly seek and find the spot where a carcass has fallen the thirsty
+of Eagle Butte had gathered at the Elite Amusement Parlor.
+
+Inside the door of the pool-room and at the left, as one entered, was a
+hardwood bar eighteen or twenty feet long and over which at one time, in
+the days before Eagle Butte "reformed," had been dispensed real
+"tarantula juice." The back bar, with its big mirrors and other
+fixtures, was as it had been when the place was a regular saloon. At the
+right of the room, opposite the bar, were several round, green-topped
+card tables. In the rear was the billiard and pool equipment, which
+entitled the place to the name "pool-room." Just across from the farther
+end of the bar and near the last card table a half-dozen hard-looking,
+small-town "toughs"--creatures who loafed about Sabota's and aided him,
+as occasion required, in his boot-legging operations or other
+questionable enterprises--were lounging, some standing, some sitting,
+watching a slow poker game going on at the last table. Cards, under the
+laws of Texas, are taboo, but for some reason Sabota managed to get by
+and games were allowed in his place.
+
+The two cowboys the Ramblin' Kid had mentioned, a rancher from the
+irrigated section near Eagle Butte and "Jeff" Henderson, one of Sabota's
+henchmen, who was playing for the house, were sitting in at the game.
+
+Half-way down the room at one side against the wall a mechanical player
+piano was grinding out garish, hurdy-gurdy music.
+
+"Red" Jackson was dispensing soft drinks from behind the bar.
+
+Sabota himself, with one heel caught on the brass foot-rail, was leaning
+indolently but with a lordly air against the front of the polished,
+imitation mahogany counter.
+
+He had been drinking and was in his shirt-sleeves.
+
+As Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid stepped into the pool-room Sabota glanced
+around. For an instant he eyed the Ramblin' Kid keenly while a nasty
+sneer curled his lips. As they approached he turned the grin into a
+hypocritical smile of welcome. The Ramblin' Kid barely noticed the Greek
+and passed on to where the card game was in progress. Skinny paused and
+said something in a low tone to Sabota. The two walked to the rear end
+of the bar where the proprietor of the place in turn spoke to Red and
+the latter furtively handed a pint bottle to the cowboy and which he
+dropped into the bosom of his flannel shirt.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was recognized by the cowboys from the Purgatory.
+
+"Come on and get into the game!" one of them invited, moving over.
+
+"Yes," Henderson added, hitching his own chair to one side to make room
+for another, "the cards are running like"--he paused--"like the Gold
+Dust maverick for everybody but the house!" There was a laugh at the
+subtle reference to the outlaw filly that had cost Sabota so much in
+losses on the sweepstakes at the Rodeo.
+
+The Greek scowled.
+
+"In that case," the Ramblin' Kid drawled, "I reckon I'll ride 'em a few
+rounds!" dropping into the chair he had dragged forward and which placed
+him with his back toward the bar.
+
+"What they costin' a stack?" he questioned, reaching to the left breast
+pocket of his shirt for a roll of bills.
+
+In the same pocket was the pink satin garter Carolyn June had lost the
+morning of his first meeting with her at the circular corral.
+
+"Five bones!" Jeff answered languidly.
+
+"Well, give me a couple of piles," the Ramblin' Kid replied, glancing
+around at the cowboy sitting at his right, who had invited him into the
+game. "How's the Purgatory?"
+
+As the bills came from the Ramblin' Kid's pocket the silver butterfly
+clasp of the garter caught in the paper currency and the elastic band
+was drawn out and dropped, at the side of his chair, on the floor next
+to Sabota.
+
+The Greek and Skinny saw, at the same time, the dainty satin ribbon.
+
+Sabota stepped quickly forward and with the toe of his shoe kicked the
+garter toward the bar, where all could see it.
+
+"Look what th' Ramblin' Kid's been carrying!" he exclaimed with a coarse
+laugh. "Some size garter, that!" And guessing at random that it had
+belonged to Carolyn June, he added: "Old Heck's niece must be--damned
+convenient and accommodating!"
+
+A laugh started from the lips of the crowd. It was instantly checked and
+a dead silence followed as the Ramblin' Kid looked around, saw Sabota
+leering down at the trinket and heard his vulgar insinuation. He slowly
+pushed his chair back from the table and with eyes half-closed--the lids
+tightening until there were but narrow slits through which the black
+pupils burned like drops of jet--he began slowly to straighten up. Not a
+sound came from his lips save the deep, regular breathing those sitting
+near could hear and which was like a bellows fanning embers into a white
+heat. His mouth was drawn back in a smile, almost caressing in its
+softness, but a thousand times more menacing than the black scowl on the
+face of the Greek.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid's gun was at his hip, but he made no move to draw it.
+
+Sabota watched the slender young cowboy. A look of contempt and derision
+was in his eyes. The Greek was no taller, but full eighty pounds heavier
+than the other. But he forgot that the other's lithe body moving with
+the calm, undulating grace of a panther preparing to spring was all
+clean youth, muscle and courage, unbroken by any debauchery!
+
+"That's a hell of a thing for a _man_ to pack," the giant bully cried
+nastily, "and it's a hell of a _lady_ that gives it to a man to pack!"
+
+With a sneering laugh he raised his foot and brought it down on the
+garter, grinding the silver clasp and the satin ribbon under the sole of
+his shoe.
+
+"You damned black cur!" The Rambling' Kid spoke scarcely louder than a
+whisper, yet his voice echoed throughout the tense silence of the room.
+"_I'll put my heel in your face for that_!"
+
+Sabota threw back his head to laugh.
+
+For a second of time the Ramblin' Kid crouched, then shot through the
+air like a wire spring drawn far back and suddenly released, and with
+an his hundred and forty pounds of nerve and sinew behind it his right
+fist smashed the big Greek squarely on the half-open mouth, splitting
+the thick lip wide and causing a red stream to spurt from the gash.
+Sabota staggered back and, would have fallen had he not crashed against
+the hardwood bar.
+
+As the Greek reeled away from the garter the Ramblin' Kid stooped
+quickly forward, picked up the elastic and dropped it again into his
+pocket.
+
+With a roar like a mad bull Sabota rushed his slight antagonist. Lunging
+forward, blind with rage, he aimed a murderous blow at the head of the
+Ramblin' Kid. The cowboy ducked, but not in time to escape the wide
+swing of the massive, hairy fist. The Greek's knuckles raked the side of
+the Kid's face and the blood rained down his cheek from a cruel cut
+under the eye. The Ramblin' Kid spun around like a top and for the
+fraction of a second stood swaying uncertainly.
+
+For a moment they faced each other, crouching, watching for an opening.
+Sabota's great hands worked convulsively, eager to grasp and crush his
+wiry opponent; the Ramblin' Kid, with lips curled back from white teeth,
+like a pure-bred terrier circling a mastiff, bent forward, every muscle
+tense as drawn copper, his eyes cold as a rattler's as he searched for a
+place to strike!
+
+The crowd in the pool-room instinctively kept far back and gave the
+unequal combatants ample room.
+
+From Sabota's lips poured a steady torrent of blasphemy. The Ramblin'
+Kid made no sound as, with body swaying slowly from side to side, his
+shoulders heaved with the full, heavy breaths that reached to the bottom
+of his lungs.
+
+Suddenly, like some wild beast, Sabota sprang forward. The Ramblin' Kid
+met him--in mid-air--right and left jolting, almost at the same
+instant, into the beefy jaws of the Greek. At the impact a claw-like
+hand shot out and the gorilla fingers of the left hand of the brute-man
+the Ramblin' Kid fought, closed over the throat of the cowboy. Sabota
+threw his right arm around the back of his antagonist, gripping the
+shoulder on the far side of his body and drew the slender form toward
+him--pinning the Ramblin' Kid's left arm and hand to his side.
+
+Skinny's hand dropped to the butt of his gun and rested there.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid struggled desperately in the strangling grasp of the
+crazed Greek. The two reeled back and forth, crashing chairs and tables
+to the floor, and lunged against the bar. The Ramblin' Kid's gun fell
+from its scabbard at the side of the brass foot-rail. Sabota's eyes
+glared down into the face of the man he was choking to death--gleaming
+with the ferocity of an animal gone mad--Awhile bloody foam spewed from
+his bleeding lips. The cowboy's face was beginning to flush a terrible
+purple as the breath was gradually crushed from his body.
+
+As the Greek forced him back, bending him down and over, the Ramblin'
+Kid, his eyes burning like fire while a million flashes of light seemed
+to stab the darkness before them and needles darted through every fiber
+of his flesh, wrenched his right arm free and gripping the back of
+Sabota's shirt with his left hand to give purchase to the blow, with all
+the strength left in his body, drove the knuckles of his right fist into
+the left temple of the Greek.
+
+The blow went home.
+
+A film, like a veil drawn across the fiendish glare in them, spread over
+the eyes of Sabota, his grip on the throat of the cowboy relaxed and as
+a bull, struck by the hammer of the butcher, he dropped to the floor.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid crouched, panting, over the massive bulk.
+
+Sabota slowly opened his eyes and started to raise his battered head.
+With a laugh the cowboy swung terrible right and left blows into the
+Greek's face. The head dropped back.
+
+Again the Ramblin' Kid stooped low, waiting for another sign of life
+from the prostrate form.
+
+Red Jackson slipped from behind the bar, half bent forward, moved
+stealthily up behind the Ramblin' Kid; one hand drawn partly back held,
+by the neck, a heavy beer bottle. Skinny saw his intention. Instantly
+the Quarter Circle KT cowboy's forty-four was jerked from its holster
+and the blue-steel barrel swung against the side of the bartender's
+head. He pitched over in a limp heap and the bottle crushed against the
+brass foot-rail, breaking into a thousand fragments. A half-dozen of
+Sabota's crowd started forward. Skinny's gun whipped around in front of
+him.
+
+"Keep back, y' sons-of-hell!" he snarled, "Sabota's gettin' what's
+coming to him!"
+
+The Greek's eyes opened. His fingers touched the butt of the Ramblin'
+Kid's revolver and began to close slowly over the handle of the weapon.
+
+"Make him quit," one of the pool-room loafers whined; "he's killed him!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid saw Sabota reach for the gun. He answered the speaker
+and the Greek's effort to get the forty-four at the same time:
+
+"Not yet--_but now_!" he cried with a low laugh and leaped with both
+heels squarely on the bloody face of Sabota! There was a horrible
+crunching sound as of bones and flesh being ground into pulp. The
+fingers about to close on the handle of the revolver grew limp, the
+Greek's head, a hideous, scarcely recognizable mass, slumped to one side
+and lay perfectly still.
+
+An instant longer the Ramblin' Kid looked at him, then reached over,
+picked up his gun and slipped it into the holster at his hip.
+
+As he straightened up, Tom Poole, the marshal, rushed into the
+pool-room. He covered the Ramblin' Kid with his revolver and placed him
+under arrest.
+
+"You don't need to get excited, Tom!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed. "I
+didn't do nothin' but kill that damned black cur layin' there! Come
+on--I want to get out in th' air--I never like to stay around where dead
+skunks are!"
+
+They moved toward the door.
+
+Poole dropped his gun back in its scabbard and walked at the side of the
+now apparently peaceful young cowboy.
+
+At the door the marshal looked around:
+
+"Some of you fellers get the doctor or undertaker--whichever he
+needs--and take care of Sabota!" he called to the group around the body
+of the Greek.
+
+Like a flash the muzzle of the Ramblin' Kid's gun was pressed against
+the side of Poole.
+
+"Put 'em up, Tom!" he snapped, "_I_ don't want to kill you, but I will
+if I have to--I ain't goin' to rot in no jail just for stampin' a dirty
+snake-to death!"
+
+The marshal's hands shot into the air as if operated by springs.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid, with his left hand, jerked Poole's revolver from its
+holster. He backed into the street toward where Captain Jack and Old Pie
+Face were standing, still with his own gun covering the officer.
+
+"Jack!" he cried sharply, "meet me!"
+
+The little stallion moved toward him.
+
+With the thumb of the hand in which he held the marshal's gun the
+Ramblin' Kid threw open the breech and flipped the shells on the ground.
+He tossed the empty forty-four to one side, threw the reins over
+Captain Jack's head and the next instant was in the saddle. The broncho
+wheeled and was gone, in a dead run, toward the west.
+
+The marshal rushed into the street and picked up his gun, jerked some
+cartridges from his belt, slipped them into the cylinder and fired
+quickly at the fleeing horse and rider.
+
+The bullets whistled past the ear of the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He raised his own weapon, half-turned in the saddle, dropped the muzzle
+of the gun forward until it pointed at the flashes spitting from the
+officer's revolver. His finger started to tighten on the trigger.
+
+"Hell," he muttered, "what's the use? Tom's just doin' what he thinks he
+has to do!" and the Ramblin' Kid slipped the gun, unfired, back into its
+holster.
+
+A moment later Captain Jack whirled to the right across the Santa Fe
+tracks and bearing a little to the east, in the direction of Capaline,
+the dead volcano that rises out of the lavas northwest of the Quarter
+Circle KT, between the Purgatory and the Cimarron, disappeared in the
+black starlit night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+MOSTLY SKINNY
+
+It is a week to the day since the fight in the Elite Amusement Parlor in
+Eagle Butte. Since the Ramblin' Kid, followed by the wicked sing of the
+bullets from the marshal's gun, disappeared in the darkness no word has
+come from the fugitive cowboy, who beat to a pulp the burly Greek.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick paces uneasily about in the circular corral and
+the Quarter Circle KT has settled into the hum-drum routine of ranch
+life.
+
+Parker, Charley, Chuck and Bert are gone to Chicago with the train-load
+of beef cattle. Skinny bosses a gang of "picked-up" hay hands Old Heck
+brought out from Eagle Butte to harvest the second cutting of alfalfa.
+Pedro rides line daily on the upland pasture and Sing Pete hammers the
+iron triangle morning, noon and night, announcing the regular arrival of
+meal-time. The Chinaman is careful when he throws out empty
+tomato-cans--turning back the tin to make it impossible for the yellow
+cat again to fasten his head in one of the inviting traps, and the cook
+would imperil the hope of the return of his soul to the flowery Orient
+before he would put butter in the bottom of a can to entice the animal
+into trouble.
+
+Old Heck and Ophelia are like a pair of nesting doves and there is a new
+vigor to the step of the owner of the Quarter Circle KT, a revived
+interest in affairs generally; years seem to have fallen from his
+shoulders.
+
+Carolyn June smiles sweetly as ever at Skinny, spends much time riding
+alone over the valley and hills; in her eyes there has come a more
+thoughtful--often a wistful--expression.
+
+Sabota did not die.
+
+After the escape of the Ramblin' Kid the marshal reentered the pool-room
+and had the big Greek removed to the hotel. A doctor was called and set
+as well as possible the broken jaws, the crushed nose, picked out the
+fragments of bone and the loosened teeth, sewed up the terrible gashes
+on Sabota's face and left the bully groaning and profaning in
+half-conscious agony.
+
+The night of the fight Skinny took Old Pie Face back to the barn.
+
+The cowboy's heart was heavy with remorse. He blamed himself for all the
+trouble. Had he not wanted to make a fool of himself and get drunk the
+Ramblin' Kid would not have come to Eagle Butte, the fight would not
+have occurred, the friend he had ridden with through storm and
+sunshine--whom he had stood "night guard" and fought mad stampedes into
+"the mill"--would not now be an outcast sought by the hand of the law.
+
+News of the beating the Ramblin' Kid gave Sabota traveled fast.
+
+It was flashed over Eagle Butte that the Greek was dead.
+
+"So th' Ramblin' Kid killed old Sabota, did he?" the hostler at the
+livery barn asked Skinny as he stepped out to care for the cowboy's
+horse. "What was it over? Sabota having th' Ramblin' Kid 'doped' the day
+of the sweepstakes?"
+
+Skinny looked keenly, searchingly, at the stableman.
+
+"What do you mean--'Sabota having th' Ramblin' Kid doped?'" he asked
+sharply.
+
+"Why, didn't you know?" the hostler replied. "I thought everybody
+knowed. Gyp Streetor told me about it the day of the race--I used to
+know Gyp when he was a kid back east. I saw him as he was beating it to
+get out of town. He borrowed five dollars from me. Said Sabota hired him
+to put 'knock-out' in some coffee for th' Ramblin' Kid and he reckoned
+the dose wasn't big enough or something. Anyhow, it didn't hold him
+under long as they thought it would and when he saw the Gold Dust
+maverick show up on the track he got scared--was afraid it would leak
+out or th' Ramblin' Kid would suspect him and try to 'get' him after the
+race, so he ducked out of town--"
+
+"You ain't lying about that?" Skinny asked.
+
+"What would I want to lie about it for?" the other replied. "Wasn't
+that what made th' Ramblin' Kid kill the Greek?"
+
+"No, it was something else," Skinny answered; "but Sabota ain't dead.
+He's just crunched up pretty bad--th' Ramblin' Kid jumped on him, like
+Captain Jack did on that feller from the Chickasaw that tried to steal
+him!"
+
+Skinny's mind was in a whirl.
+
+So the Ramblin' Kid was not drunk the day of the race! He was drugged--
+sick--yet, in spite of everything, rode the Gold Dust maverick and beat
+the black wonder-horse from the Vermejo! Lord! and they had all thought
+he was on a tear!
+
+The bottle of whisky was still in the bosom of Skinny's shirt.
+
+He had not touched it. He felt a sudden revulsion for the vile stuff.
+
+"Here," he said, jerking the flask from its hiding-place and handing it
+to the hostler, "maybe you'd like that bottle of 'rot-gut'--I've swore
+off!"
+
+"I ain't," the stableman laughed and took it eagerly.
+
+Skinny remained in town that night and the next day, waiting for Parker
+and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys to come in with the beef cattle. They
+arrived about noon. Old Heck drove in with the Clagstone "Six." Ophelia
+and Carolyn June came with him. Skinny met them when Old Heck stopped
+the in front of the Occidental Hotel. He told them, while they still
+sat in the automobile, of the fight and the escape of the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"A drunken brawl!" Carolyn June thought, a wave of disgust sweeping over
+her.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid hadn't touched a drop," Skinny said, explaining the
+fight and almost as if he were answering her unspoken thought. "If he'd
+been drinking, I reckon Sabota would have killed him instead of his
+beating the Greek blamed near to death. I know now what he used to mean
+when he'd say, 'A man's a fool to put whisky in him when he's facin' a
+tight squeeze!' The little devil sure needed everything he had--nerve
+and head and muscle and all--for the job he tackled last night!"
+
+Skinny didn't tell them that his hand had rested on the handle of his
+own gun--determined that he, himself, would kill Sabota if the brute
+succeeded in choking the Ramblin' Kid to death.
+
+"What was the fight about?" Old Heck asked.
+
+"A pink ribbon or something with a little silver do-funny on it--it
+looked like a sleeve-holder or a garter--dropped out of th' Ramblin'
+Kid's pocket and Sabota made a nasty remark about it," Skinny said.
+
+Carolyn June caught her breath and her face flushed.
+
+"The Greek said something about Carolyn June, I didn't just hear what,"
+Skinny continued, "and then he smashed the ribbon under his foot. The
+next instant th' Ramblin' Kid was trying to kill him!
+
+"It's a pity he didn't succeed!" Old Heck exclaimed. "The damned filthy
+whelp--excuse me, Ophelia, for cussing, but I just had to say It!"
+
+"It's all right," was the laughing rejoinder, "I--I--wanted to say it
+myself!"
+
+Carolyn June's eyes glowed. Her heart felt as if a weight had been
+lifted from it So, the Ramblin' Kid had kept the odd souvenir, and he
+cared--he cared!
+
+"Go ahead," she whispered to Skinny; "what then?"
+
+"I reckon that's about all," Skinny answered. "Th' Ramblin' Kid smashed
+Sabota and as he staggered back, picked up the ribbon--then he didn't
+quit till he thought the Greek was dead. Tom Poole arrested him, but th'
+Ramblin' Kid got the drop on him and got away. He was justified in
+beating Sabota up anyhow," he added, "on account of the dirty cuss
+hiring a feller to 'dope' him so he couldn't ride the maverick the day
+of the big race--"
+
+"'Dope' him?" Old Heck interrupted, puzzled.
+
+"Yes," Skinny explained, "the Greek had a feller named Gyp Streetor put
+some stuff in th' Ramblin? Kid's coffee. He wasn't drunk at all--he was
+just poisoned with 'knock-out!'"
+
+"Good lord!" Old Heck exclaimed. "And he rode that race when he was
+drugged! While we all thought he'd gone to pieces and was drunk!"
+
+Carolyn June's cheeks suddenly turned pale. He cared, but he was gone!
+Perhaps never to come back! It seemed as if an iron hand was clutching
+at her throat!
+
+She and Ophelia went into the hotel and Old Heck and Skinny drove the
+car over to the stock-yards where the cattle were being loaded.
+
+After Parker and the cowboys were on their way east with the steers and
+before he returned to the ranch Old Heck went into the room in which
+Sabota lay. The Greek's head was a mass of white bandages. His eyes
+battered and swollen shut, he could not see the face of his visitor.
+
+For a moment Old Heck looked at him, his lips parted in a smile of
+contempt lightened with satisfaction.
+
+"Well, Sabota," he said at last, "th' Ramblin' Kid didn't quite do his
+duty, did he? If he had gone as far as he ought to you wouldn't be
+laying there--they'd just about now be hiding your dirty carcass under
+six feet of 'dobe!'"
+
+Sabota mumbled some guttural, unintelligible reply.
+
+"Listen, you infernal skunk," Old Heck went on coldly, "as quick as
+you're able to travel you'll find Eagle Butte's a right good place to
+get away from! You understand what I mean. If I catch you around, well,
+I won't use no fists!" And without waiting for an answer he turned and
+left the room.
+
+The owner of the Quarter Circle KT then hunted lip the marshal of Eagle
+Butte.
+
+"Tom," he said, "I reckon you'll be looking some for th' Ramblin' Kid,
+after what happened last night, won't you?"
+
+The marshal had heard of Sabota's effort to have the young cowboy
+drugged the day of the race and also the immediate cause for the fight.
+
+"Oh, I don't know as I will," he said, "unless the Greek makes some
+charge or other. I don't imagine he'll do that"
+
+"I know blamed well he won't!" Old Heck interrupted. "But how about th'
+Ramblin' Kid putting his gun in your ribs--resisting an officer and so
+on?"
+
+"Putting his gun in my ribs? Resisting an officer?" the lanky Missourian
+answered with a sly grin; "who said he put a gun on me--or resisted an
+officer or anything? I ain't heard nothing about it!"
+
+Two days later Sabota, with the help of "Red" Jackson, managed to get to
+the Santa Fe station. He was able to travel and he did travel. Jackson
+said he went to the "Border." Eagle Butte did not know or care--the
+Cimarron town was through with him.
+
+When Old Heck, Carolyn June and Ophelia returned to the Quarter Circle
+KT the evening of the day following the fight, the Gold Dust maverick
+whinnied lonesomely from the circular corral as the Clagstone "Six"
+stopped in front of the house.
+
+"What are we going to do with that filly?" Old Heck asked, looking at
+the beautiful creature with her head above the bars of the corral gate.
+
+"I am going to ride her!" Carolyn June said softly. "Until the Ramblin'
+Kid comes back and claims her she is mine! She loves me and I can handle
+her!"
+
+"I'm afraid--" Old Heck started to protest.
+
+"You need not be," Carolyn June interrupted, "the Gold Dust maverick and
+I know each other--she understands me and I understand her--she will be
+perfectly gentle with me!"
+
+The next day Carolyn June rode the wonderful outlaw mare. It was as she
+said. The filly was perfectly gentle with her. After that, every day,
+the girl saddled the Gold Dust maverick and, unafraid, took long rides
+alone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night the cattle were shipped Skinny had supper in Eagle Butte. He
+sat alone at a small table at one side of the dining-room in the
+Occidental Hotel. The cowboy was the picture of utter misery. Parker,
+Charley, Chuck, Bert were gone to Chicago with steers; the Ramblin' Kid
+was gone--nobody knew where; Skinny's dream about Carolyn June was
+gone--she didn't love him, she just liked him; even his whisky was gone,
+he had given it to the hostler at the barn; he didn't have any friends
+or anything.
+
+"What's the matter, Skinny?" Manilla Endora, the yellow-haired waitress,
+asked softly, as she stepped up to the table and looked down a moment at
+the dejected cowboy. There was something in her voice that made Skinny
+pity himself more than ever. It made him want to cry. "What's wrong?'
+Manilla repeated almost tenderly.
+
+"Everything!" Skinny blurted out, dropping his head on his arms. "The
+whole blamed works is shot to pieces!"
+
+A little smile stole over Manilla's rosy lips.
+
+"I know what it is," she said gently, unreproachfully; "it's that girl,
+Carolyn June. Yes, it is," as Skinny started to interrupt. "Oh, I don't
+blame you for falling for her!" she went on. "She is nice--but, well,
+Skinny-boy," her voice was a caress, "Old Heck's niece is not the sort
+for you. You and her wouldn't fit at all--the way you wanted--and
+anyhow, there--there--are others," coloring warmly.
+
+Skinny looked up into the honest blue eyes.
+
+"You ain't sore at me or anything are you, Manilla?" he asked.
+
+"Sore?" she answered. "Of course not!"
+
+Hope sprung again into his heart. "I--I--thought maybe you would be," he
+stammered.
+
+"Forget it!" she laughed. "The old world still wobbles!"
+
+"Manilla, you--you're a peach!" he cried.
+
+She chuckled. "Did you hear about that dance next Saturday night after
+the picture show?" she asked archly.
+
+"No. Is there one?" with new interest in life.
+
+"Yes," she replied, her lashes drooping demurely; "they say the music is
+going to be swell."
+
+"If I come in will you--will we--go, Manilla?" he asked eagerly.
+
+They would.
+
+"Poor Skinny," Manilla murmured to herself as she went to the kitchen to
+get his order, "poor cuss--he can't keep from breaking his heart over
+every skirt that brushes against him, but"--and she laughed
+softly--"darn his ugly picture, I like him anyhow!"
+
+After supper Skinny hurried to the Golden Rule store. It was still open.
+
+"Give me a white shirt--number fifteen," he said to the clerk; "and be
+blamed sure it's the right size--they ain't worth a cuss if they're too
+big!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+A GIRL LIKE YOU
+
+A lone rider guided his horse in the early night, among the black lavas,
+on the desolate desert near Capaline, the dead volcano. He rode to the
+south, in the direction of the Cimarron. Silently, steadily, like a dark
+shadow, the broncho picked his way among the fields of fire-blistered
+rock and held his course, unerringly, through the starlit gloom hanging
+over the earth before the late moon should flash its silver disk above
+the sand-hills miles to the east.
+
+The rider was the Ramblin' Kid; the little horse--Captain Jack.
+
+For a week, following the fight in Eagle Butte, the Ramblin' Kid had
+found shelter in the hut of "Indian Jake"--a hermit Navajo who, long
+ago, turned his face toward the flood of white civilization rolling over
+the last pitiful remnants of his tribe and drifted far toward the land
+of the rising sun. Among the scenes of desolation around the grimly cold
+volcano, alone, the old Indian made his last stand, and in a rude cabin,
+beside a tiny spring that seeped from under the black rock on the
+mountain-side, lived in splendid isolation--silent, brooding, desiring
+only to be left in peace with his few ponies, his small herd of cattle
+and the memories and traditions of his people.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid and the lonely Navajo were friends since the Ramblin'
+Kid could remember.
+
+The aged Indian's face was pitted with horrible scars--marks of the same
+disease that had cost the wandering cowboy his father and left him,
+years ago, an orphan, almost worshiped, because of the sacrifice his
+parent had made fighting the epidemic among the tribes of the Southwest.
+
+Often the "Young Whirlwind"--the name by which the Indians knew the
+Ramblin' Kid and which old Jake himself always called the cowboy--spent
+a night, sometimes days, with his stoical friend among the lavas.
+
+To him the cabin door was always open.
+
+As Captain Jack, followed by the bullets from the marshal's revolver,
+dashed madly down the street of Eagle Butte, instinctively the Ramblin'
+Kid had turned the stallion toward the hut of the old Navajo.
+
+The fugitive cowboy believed Sabota was dead.
+
+Naturally the law would demand vengeance, even though the brutal Greek
+had deserved to die. Posses, undoubtedly, would scour the country,
+searching for his slayer. The Quarter Circle KT would be watched.
+
+There was no regret in the heart of the Ramblin' Kid. Instead he felt a
+strange elation. With his fists and heels he had beaten the giant Greek
+into a lifeless mass!
+
+"'Ign'rant--savage--stupid--brute!" he muttered as Captain Jack sped
+from the scene of fight; "I reckon she _was pretty near right!_"
+
+At gray dawn he swung down from the back of the little stallion at the
+door of the Indian's hut.
+
+Old Jake asked no questions.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid himself volunteered:
+
+"Killed a man--Sabota--got to lay low, Jake--some three, four, five
+days! Then I go--south--Mexico!"
+
+"The Young Whirlwind had cause?" the Navajo grunted sententiously.
+
+"Sure--plenty!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed, slipping his hand to his
+breast pocket and caressing the pink satin garter.
+
+"It is good," the Indian said. "The Navajo will watch!"
+
+For seven days the Ramblin' Kid rested, securely, in the lonely hut
+among the lavas and "pot-holes" of the desert. Then he saddled Captain
+Jack and when the full shadow of night had settled over the desolation
+about him mounted the little broncho and turned him to the south, in the
+direction of the Cimarron, toward the Quarter Circle KT, where the Gold
+Dust maverick waited, alone, in the corral.
+
+Carolyn June could not sleep. The night was more than half gone and
+still she sat on the front porch and watched the gradual spread of a
+misty, silvery sheen over the brow of the bench and the distant peaks of
+the shadowy Costejo range as the pale moon, in its last half, lifted
+itself above the sand-hills at the gap through which the Cimarron
+tumbled out of the valley.
+
+Old Heck and Ophelia had retired hours ago.
+
+The Quarter Circle KT was sleeping. From the meadows the heavy odor of
+wilted alfalfa hung on the night air as the dew sprinkled the windrows
+of new-cut hay.
+
+A strange restlessness filled the heart of the girl.
+
+Something seemed to be holding her in a tense, relentless grip. She had
+no desire to seek her room. Indeed, she felt that the air of the house
+would stifle her. She arose and strolled idly through the gate, past the
+bunk-house where Skinny, Pedro and the hay hands snored peacefully, as
+she wandered aimlessly through the slanting moonlight down to the
+circular corral.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick seemed to reflect the girl's own uneasy mood.
+
+The filly moved with quick nervous strides about the corral. As Carolyn
+June leaned against the bars and stretched out her hand the mare
+whinnied softly, tossed her head, nosed an instant the white fingers and
+trotted in a circle around the enclosure.
+
+"What's the matter, Heart o' Gold?" Carolyn June laughed
+sympathetically, "can't you either?"
+
+In the shed at the side of the corral, on the spot where, that first
+morning, the Ramblin' Kid's saddle had rested and the cowboy slept,
+Carolyn June's own riding gear was lying. She glanced at the outfit For
+a second she fancied she saw again the slender form stretched in the
+shadow upon the ground while a pair of black inscrutable eyes looked
+with unfathomable melancholy up into her own.
+
+"Seein' things!" she laughed jerkily, with a little catch in her throat.
+"I'll ride it off!"
+
+Quickly she stepped over, picked up the saddle, bridle and blanket,
+returned to the corral gate, swung it open and entered.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick came to her, as if eager, herself, to get out
+into the night.
+
+A moment later Carolyn June was in the saddle and the mare, dancing
+lightly, pranced out of the gate. She turned swiftly toward the grade
+that led out to the bench and to Eagle Butte. They had almost reached
+the foot of the grade, when some impulse caused Carolyn June to whirl
+the filly about and gallop back past the barn and down the lane toward
+the Cimarron.
+
+As the feet of the outlaw mare splashed into the water at the lower ford
+the Ramblin' Kid rode past the corner of the upland pasture fence and
+stopped Captain Jack on the brink of the ridge looking down at the
+crossing. Below him the river whirled in dark eddies under the
+overhanging curtains of cottonwoods and willows; the Quarter Circle KT
+lay in the hollow of the valley, like a faint etching of silent
+restfulness; through the tops of the trees a white splash of moonlight
+struck on the smooth level surface of the treacherous quicksand bar that
+had drawn Old Blue down to an agonizing death and from which, scarcely a
+month ago, the Ramblin' Kid had dragged Carolyn June.
+
+This, the Ramblin' Kid believed, was his last long look at the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+He would ride down to the circular corral, turn out the Gold Dust
+maverick--give her again to the range and freedom--and while the
+unconscious sleepers at the ranch dreamed he would pass on, silently,
+toward the south and Mexico should throw about him her black arms of
+mystery!
+
+For a while he sat and gazed down on the shadowy scene while his mind
+throbbed with memory of the incidents of the last few weeks. He drew the
+pink satin garter from his pocket, looked at it a long moment--suddenly
+crushed it tightly in his hand while his eyes closed as if renouncing a
+vision that had come before them--then carefully, that the dainty thing
+might not be lost, replaced it in the pocket that was over his heart.
+
+At last he swung to the ground and tightened the front cinch of his
+saddle.
+
+As he pulled the leather into place the sound of nervous hoofs kicking
+the gravel on the grade that led to the ridge on which he stood
+shattered the silence around him. The Ramblin' Kid whirled and faced the
+direction in which the approaching horse, would appear. His hand dropped
+to his gun and without raising the weapon from his hip he leveled it to
+cover the turn in the road a few feet away.
+
+The waxy mane of the outlaw filly rocked into view as she sprang up and
+around the turn on to the ridge.
+
+On the maverick's back, bareheaded, her brown hair tumbled about her
+neck, was Carolyn June.
+
+Captain Jack pricked forward his ears at the sound of hoofs and as the
+beautiful mare leaped around the turn and appeared above the bank of the
+grade the little roan squealed a nicker of recognition. The filly sprang
+forward, swerved to the side of the stallion, and with an answering
+whinny stopped.
+
+"Oh!" Carolyn June gasped, as the horses met and she saw the Ramblin'
+Kid, his gun still in his hand, standing beside Captain Jack.
+
+There was a brief, questioning silence.
+
+"What th' hell!" he breathed.
+
+"What the--'_hell_--yourself!" she laughed nervously. "Is--this--is this
+a hold-up?"
+
+"What are _you_ doin' here--this time of night--an' on that filly?" he
+asked without heeding her question.
+
+"I'm riding that--this--filly!" Carolyn June shot back independently.
+"And what are _you_ doing here--at this time of--Oh," she added,
+before he could answer, "I--I--believe my saddle's slipping!" and she
+swung lightly from the back of the outlaw mare.
+
+"That filly'll kill you," he began.
+
+"She will not!" Carolyn June interrupted with a pout. "I--I--guess
+you're not the only one, Mister 'Nighthawk,' that knows the way to the
+heart of a horse! If you were just as wise about--" but she stopped, her
+blush hidden as she turned her back to the rising moon.
+
+"They was made for each other!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered to himself.
+Then he spoke aloud: "I reckon you know," he said slowly, "why I'm
+ridin' at night--about me killin' Sabota--I'm leavin'--"
+
+"But Sabota isn't dead," she interrupted again. "You don't need to go
+away!"
+
+"Sabota ain't dead!" the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed. "Then I'll go back to
+Eagle Butte instead of--Mexico!"
+
+"Why?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"To finish th' job!" and his voice was dangerously soft.
+
+"You can't finish it," she laughed. "He isn't in Eagle Butte! The Greek
+has gone away and--well, it--it--was a good 'job'--good enough the way
+you did it! I--I--don't want you 'teetotally' to kill him--clear, all
+the way dead," she stammered. "The way it is you--you--won't have
+to--leave!"
+
+"What's th' difference?" he said dully. "It's time I was ramblin'
+anyhow!"
+
+"Is it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Listen, Ramblin' Kid," she broke in, "I--I--know all about
+everything--about what started the fight--"
+
+"You do?" looking quickly and keenly at her. "Who told you?"
+
+"Skinny," she answered; "he saw it. Said it was a pale pink ribbon or
+something with a little silver 'do-funny' on it!" she finished with a
+laugh.
+
+"I--I--reckon you want it back, then?" the Ramblin' Kid said, reaching
+to his left breast. "You wouldn't want--"
+
+"Did I say I wanted it?" Carolyn June questioned naively.
+
+"And I know," she hurried on, "about you being drugged the day of the
+race! Why didn't you say you were sick? We--we--thought you were drunk!"
+
+"Nobody asked me," he answered without interest.
+
+"Does everybody have to--to--ask you everything?" she questioned
+suggestively. "Don't you ever--ever--'ask' anybody anything yourself?"
+
+"What are you tryin' to do?" he said almost brutally, "play with me like
+you played with them other blamed idiots th' night of th' dance?"
+
+"You're mean--" she started to say.
+
+"Am I?" he interrupted, and spoke with sudden intenseness. "Maybe you
+think I am. Maybe you think a lot of things. Maybe you think God put
+them brown eyes in your face just so you could coax men, with a look out
+of them, to love you an' then laugh because th' damned fools do it!"
+
+"You're unfair!" she replied. "I was just paying the boys back the night
+of the dance for--for--'framing' up on Ophelia and me the way they did!"
+
+For a moment they looked squarely into each other's eyes. Captain Jack
+and the Gold Dust maverick nosed each other over the shoulders of their
+dismounted riders.
+
+"Oh, well, it don't matter," the Ramblin' Kid finally said, wearily; "it
+don't matter, you're what you are an' I reckon you can't help it!"
+
+Carolyn June said nothing.
+
+"I--I--was goin' to turn th' filly back to th' range," he continued in
+the same emotionless voice, "but--well, you can have her--I'll trade her
+to you for--for--th' thing that started th' fight. You can ride th'
+maverick till you go back east--"
+
+"I'm not going back east," she said in a hurt tone, "at least not for a
+long time. Dad is going to--to--get me a stepmother! He's going to marry
+some female person and he doesn't need me so I'm going to live--most of
+the time--with Uncle Josiah and Ophelia! Anyhow I--I--like it out
+west--or that is--I did like it--"
+
+There was another little period of silence between them.
+
+"Ramblin' Kid," Carolyn June spoke suddenly very softly, "Ramblin'
+Kid--why--why do you hate me?"
+
+"Me hate you?" he answered slowly. "I don't hate _you_--I hate myself!"
+
+"Yourself?" with a questioning lift of her voice.
+
+"Yes, myself!" he replied with a short, bitter laugh. "Why shouldn't
+I--bein' an 'ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!'"
+
+Carolyn June flinched as he repeated the cruel words she herself had
+spoken, it seemed, now so long ago.
+
+"You are right!" she said, after a pause, while a ripple of quivering,
+mischievous laughter leaped from her lips and she laid her hand lightly
+on his arm. "Oh, Ramblin' Kid, you are indeed an 'ign'rant, savage,
+stupid brute!' You are 'ign'rant,'" she continued while he looked at her
+with a puzzled expression in his eyes, "of the ways of a woman's heart;
+you are 'savage'--in the defense of a woman's honor; you are
+'stupid'--not to see that it is the _man_ a woman wants and not the thin
+social veneer; you are a 'brute'--an utter brute, Ramblin' Kid--
+to--to--make a girl almost tell you--tell you--that she--she--"
+
+The sentence was not finished.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid caught her by both shoulders. He pushed her back--arm's
+length--and held her while the clean moonlight poured down on her
+upturned face and his black eyes searched her own as though to read her
+very soul.
+
+An instant she was almost frightened by the agony that was in his face.
+
+Then she opened her mouth and laughed--such a laugh as comes only from
+the throat of a woman when love is having its way!
+
+"By God!" he whispered, his voice hoarse with passion, his hot breath
+fanning the brown hair on her forehead; "this has gone far enough! I'll
+tell you what you want me to say--I'll say it! And it's the truth--I
+love you--love you--_love you_! Yes!" And he shook her toward him. "Do
+you hear me? I love you--love you--so much it hurts! Now laugh! Now make
+fun of me! I know I'm a fool. I know where I stand! I know I don't
+belong in your crowd--I ain't fit to mix with 'em! I ain't been raised
+like you was raised. You don't need to tell me that! I know it already!
+I know there's somethin' a man has to have besides what he gets on th'
+open range among th' cattle--an' th' bronchos--an' th' 
+rattlesnakes--he's got to be ground in th' mill of schoolin'--of books;
+he's got to be hammered into shape under th' heels of 'civilization';
+he's got to be trained to jump through and roll over an' know which fork
+to eat with before a girl like you--"
+
+His hands relaxed, but before his fingers loosened their grip on her
+shoulders Carolyn June's own soft palms reached up and caught the man's
+sun-tanned cheeks between them. Her eyes burned back into its own. Once
+more the laugh rippled from the full pulsing throat.
+
+"Ramblin' Kid, oh, Ramblin' Kid," she murmured, while the long lashes
+lifted over brown pools tenderness, "a man--my man--does not need to be
+or to know all of those things, any of those things, before a girl like
+me--"
+
+He crushed her to him and stopped the words on her lips.
+
+"My God--don't fool me--be sure you know!" he cried, his whole body
+quivering with the intensity of his feelings; "don't tell me you love
+me--unless you mean it! I can stand to love you--without hope--in
+silence--alone! But I can't--an' I swear I wont, be lifted up to Paradise
+just to be dropped again into the depths of hell! Don't say you love me
+unless you know it is _all_ love! Half love ain't love--it's a lie! An'
+love ain't to play with! Don't insult God by makin' a joke of th' thing
+He made an' planted in th' hearts of all Creation to hold th' Universe
+together."
+
+"Ramblin' Kid," she whispered softly, "God himself is looking down into
+my heart!"
+
+He smothered her mouth with his own--they drank each other in, their
+souls mingled in a mad-sense-reeling, time-defying pressure of lips!
+
+It was their hour, as was the next and yet the one that followed that.
+
+When the old-rose of dawn melted the gray above the sand-hills behind
+them and the white moon was fading in the zenith above the Kiowa; when
+the cottonwoods beside the Cimarron began to shake their leaves in the
+morning breeze that tripped across the valley; when the low buildings of
+the Quarter Circle KT silhouetted against the bench beyond the meadows;
+when the smooth surface of the beach of quicksand under which the body
+of Old Blue was hidden began to look smoother yet and still more firm,
+the Ramblin' Kid and Carolyn June parted.
+
+"I'm goin' away," he said; "I'm goin' away, Carolyn June, but I'm goin'
+for another reason now. I'm goin' away an' make myself so you'll never
+have a chance to be ashamed of me! I'm goin' away an' learn how to talk
+without cussin' 'most every other word--I'm goin' away an' get that
+polish I know; women love in men th' same as they love their own shoes
+to be shiny an' their own dresses to be soft an' dainty! When I've got
+that I'll come back! I ain't goin' to Mexico. I'm going to ride into
+that world that you come out of an' when I'm so you'll be proud to walk
+in that world with me--when I'm so you won't need to apologize for me in
+Hartville or any other place, I'm comin' back an' a preacher can O.K.
+th' bargain you an' me have made! Will you keep faith an' be true,
+Carolyn June? Will you keep faith an' be true--? Will you be waitin'?"
+
+"I'll be waiting," she whispered, "--and keep faith and be true!"
+
+And he rode away into the face of the red glow rising above the
+sand-hills. He rode away--to meet the morning sun--hidden yet behind the
+eastern horizon--to conquer himself, to master the ways of men, in the
+world that lay beyond!
+
+Carolyn June watched him go.
+
+Then she guided the outlaw filly down the grade, across the Cimarron and
+along the lane, in the gently stirring dawn, back to the still sleeping
+Quarter Circle KT. In her heart was a song; in her eyes a new light; in
+her soul a great peace--on her lips, a smile. She carried in her bosom
+their secret--hers and the Ramblin' Kid's--and she knew he would return,
+for he would not lie.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ramblin' Kid, by Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLIN' KID ***
+
+***** This file should be named 10374-8.txt or 10374-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/3/7/10374/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
diff --git a/old/10374-8.zip b/old/10374-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2cc5a60
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10374-8.zip
diff --git a/old/10374.txt b/old/10374.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba16358
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10374.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9536 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ramblin' Kid, by Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Ramblin' Kid
+
+Author: Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+Posting Date: December 22, 2009 [EBook #10374]
+Release Date: December 3, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLIN' KID ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RAMBLIN' KID
+
+
+BY EARL WAYLAND BOWMAN
+
+
+FRONTISPIECE BY W.H.D. KOERNER
+
+
+
+
+1920
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I A NIGHT LETTER
+
+II A BLUFF CALLED
+
+III WHICH ONE'S WHICH
+
+IV THE UNUSED PLATE
+
+V A DUEL OF ENDURANCE
+
+VI YOU'RE A BRUTE
+
+VII THE GREEDY SANDS
+
+VIII QUICK WITH A VENGEANCE
+
+IX OLD HECK'S STRATEGY
+
+X FIXING FIXERS
+
+XI A DANCE AND A RIDE
+
+XII YOU'LL GET YOUR WISH
+
+XIII THE ELITE AMUSEMENT PARLOR
+
+XIV THE GRAND PARADE
+
+XV MOCHA AND JAVA
+
+XVI THE SWEEPSTAKES
+
+XVII OLD HECK GOES TO TOWN
+
+XVIII A SHAME TO WASTE IT
+
+XIX THE GREEK GETS HIS
+
+XX MOSTLY SKINNY
+
+XXI A GIRL LIKE YOU
+
+
+
+
+THE RAMBLIN' KID
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+A NIGHT LETTER
+
+Sand and gravel slithered and slid under the heels of Old Pie Face as
+Skinny Rawlins whirled the broncho into the open space in front of the
+low-built, sprawling, adobe ranch house of the Quarter Circle KT and
+reined the pinto to a sudden stop. Skinny had been to Eagle Butte and
+with other things brought back the mail. It was hot, late June, the time
+between cutting the first crop of alfalfa and gathering, from the open
+range, the beef steers ready for the summer market. Regardless of the
+heat Skinny had ridden hard and his horse was a lather of sweat. A
+number of cowboys lounged, indolently, in the shade of the bunk-house,
+smoking cigarettes and contentedly enjoying the hour of rest after the
+noon-day dinner. Another, lean-built, slender, boyish in appearance and
+with strangely black, inscrutable eyes, stepped from around the corner
+of the house as Skinny jerked Old Pie Face to a standstill.
+
+"Where's Old Heck?" Skinny asked excitedly. "I brought the mail--here,
+take it to him!"
+
+The other, known on the Kiowa and the range of western Texas and Mexico
+only as "the Ramblin' Kid," strolled leisurely out through the sagging,
+weight-swung gate and up to the panting horse from which Skinny had not
+yet dismounted.
+
+"Asleep, I reckon," he replied in a voice peculiarly low and deliberate,
+"--what's your spontaneousness about? You act like a special d'livery or
+somethin'."
+
+"Old Heck's got a letter," Skinny said, jerkily; "maybe's it's bad news
+an' he ought to have it quick," as the Ramblin' Kid reached for a yellow
+envelope held in the outstretched hand.
+
+At that instant Old Heck, owner and boss of the Quarter Circle KT cow
+outfit, stepped from the shadow of the open ranch-house door. He was
+short and stocky, red-faced, somewhere near the fifties, and a
+yellowish-gray mustache hung over tobacco blackened lips. Overalls, a
+checked blue and white shirt, open at the throat, boots into which the
+trousers legs were loosely jammed comprised his attire. He was
+bareheaded and the sun glistened on a wrinkly forehead, topped by a thin
+sprinkling of hair.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked drowsily, his small, gray-blue eyes
+blinking in the yellow sun-glare and still sluggish from the nap
+disturbed by the noise of Skinny's arrival.
+
+"Nothin'. Skinny's just got a letter an' is excited about it," the
+Ramblin' Kid said, handing the envelope to him. "It's for you."
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck exclaimed, "it's a telegram!"
+
+The cowboys resting in the shade of the bunk-house rose to their feet,
+sauntered over and surrounded Old Heck and the Ramblin' Kid, commenting
+meanwhile, frankly and caustically, on the fagged condition of the
+broncho Skinny was on:
+
+"Must 'a' been scared, the way you run that horse," Parker, range
+foreman of the Quarter Circle KT, a heavy-built, sandy-complexioned man
+in the forties, remarked witheringly to Skinny as the cow-puncher
+climbed from the saddle and slid to the ground.
+
+"He's mine, I reckon," Skinny retorted, "an' I figure it's nobody's
+darn' business how I ride him--anyhow I brought Old Heck a telegram!" he
+added triumphantly.
+
+"Blamed if he didn't!" Charley Saunders, with a trifle of awe, pretended
+or real, in his tone, said. "It sure is!"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck repeated, slowly turning the envelope over in his
+hand, "it's a telegram! Wonder what it's about?"
+
+"Why don't you open it and see?" Parker suggested.
+
+"Yes, open th' blamed thing and find out," Skinny encouraged.
+
+"I--I've a notion to," Old Heck whispered.
+
+"Go on and do it, it won't take but a minute," Charley Saunders
+entreated.
+
+"Maybe he's one of these mind-readers and can read it through the
+envelope," Bert Lilly volunteered.
+
+"Aw, shut up and give him a chance!"
+
+Trembling, Old Heck tore open the envelope and silently read the
+message.
+
+"My Gawd!" he groaned again. "The worst has come to the worst!"
+
+"That ought to make it middlin' bad," Charley remarked soberly.
+
+"Ought to," Bert added sententiously.
+
+Parker crowded forward on sympathy bent.
+
+"Tell us what's in it," he said; "if it's sorrowful we'll be plumb glad
+to condole!"
+
+"It's worse than sorrowful--"
+
+"Melancholical?" Skinny inquired.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck said again, his weatherworn features working
+convulsively, "it's more than a mortal man can endure and stand!"
+
+"Bet somebody's dead!" Bert whispered to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Probably. Most everybody gets to be sooner or later," was the answer
+without emotion.
+
+Sing Pete, Chinese cook for the outfit, dish-rag over his shoulder,
+edged out of the kitchen door and shuffled around to the group.
+Glimpsing the yellow slip of paper held in the shaking hand of Old Heck
+and the awed interest of the cowboys gathered about the boss, he
+queried:
+
+"Teleglam?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Teleglam? Maybe alle samee somebody sickee?" he continued, cheerfully
+confident that questions enough would ultimately bring a reply. He was
+rewarded:
+
+"What do you know about 'teleglams'? You slant-eyed burner of
+beef-steaks!"
+
+"Who's it from?" Charley asked. "Anybody we know--"
+
+"My Gawd," Old Heck mourned once more, "she's comin'!"
+
+"Who's she?" Parker coaxed.
+
+"A female," Old Heck replied, "she's a female!"
+
+"The darned old cuss has had a wife sometime and run off from her and
+deserted her and she's pursuing him and trailing him down to earth!"
+Chuck Slithers, doubting Thomas of the outfit and student of Sherlock
+Holmes, cunningly suggested. "I always imagined he was a varmint with a
+past--a' ex-heart breaker of innocent women or a train-robber or--"
+
+"Aw, hell," the Ramblin' Kid rebuked, "him have a wife? Don't insult th'
+female population!"
+
+"_Carramba!_" exclaimed Pedro Valencia, Mexican line-rider for the
+Quarter Circle KT, "perhaps she will stick him with the dagger, or shoot
+him with the gun when she arrive! The ladies with love kill quick when
+the love is--what you call him?--the jilt?"
+
+"And I'd almost forgot I ever had one!" Old Heck continued talking as if
+to himself.
+
+"What'd I tell you?" Chuck exulted.
+
+"Shut up! He's confessin'--let him alone an' he'll get it out of his
+conscience sooner or later!"
+
+"Had a what?" Parker urged sympathetically. "Maybe you didn't have
+one--maybe you only imagined you did!"
+
+"Had a brother--anyhow a half a one--our mothers was the same but
+different fathers on account of mine dyin' when I was little and his
+marrying our mother again; we was playmates together in our innocent
+childhood and infancy until I run away and went to sea and finally
+anchored on the Kiowa and got to raisin' cattle--"
+
+"Where does he come in at?" Parker questioned.
+
+"He said it was a female, to start with," Skinny added.
+
+"--and his name is Simeon Dixon on account of his father's being the
+same thing, and he went in the street railroad business in a place named
+Hartville in Connecticut, and he got married and had a wife--she was
+Zithia Forbes, and she's dead, and I knowed that, and he's rich I reckon
+and--"
+
+"An' Amrak begat Meshak an' Meshak begat Zimri an' Zimri was th' founder
+of th' House of Old Heck," the Ramblin' Kid chanted. "What in thunder
+does details amount to, anyhow?"
+
+"But you was mournin' about a she!" Parker insisted.
+
+"Well, I reckon it ain't a wife--at least not the one I was thinking
+about," Chuck murmured disappointedly, "but I bet he's had one somewhere
+in his vari'gated career and is hiding out from her in fear an'
+tremblin'--"
+
+"And there will not be the grand, the beautiful murder?" Pedro sighed,
+questioningly.
+
+"Wait a minute," Skinny pleaded, "--give him air!"
+
+"--and he's got a female daughter--and I didn't know that--and he's--oh,
+Gawd!--he's sending her out to the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"How big is she?" Parker whispered.
+
+"She's--she's twenty-two--"
+
+"Inches around or what?" Charley gasped.
+
+"--and Ophelia is coming with her--Ophelia Cobb--C-o-double-b it is--is
+coming with her for a chaperon--"
+
+"Great guns!" Skinny breathed,"--two females!"
+
+"Hold still and I'll read it--no, you do it, Parker--I'm too full of
+emotion--my voice'd quiver--"
+
+Parker read:
+
+    "Josiah Heck, Eagle Butte, Texas:
+
+    "Am sending my daughter, Carolyn June, out to your ranch
+    for a while. She needs a change. She has broke all the
+    he-human hearts in Hartville--that is all of them old
+    enough or young enough to be broke--and is what's called
+    a love-stimulator and won't settle. She is twenty-two
+    and it's time she was calmed. Hoping six months on the
+    Kiowa range will gentle her quite a lot, I am
+    sympathetically your 1/2 brother, Simeon.
+
+    "P.S.--Mrs. Ophelia Cobb, a lady widow, is coming with
+    her for a chaperon. Beware of both of them. They will
+    arrive at Eagle Butte the 21st.--S."
+
+"Gee, it's a long one!" Chuck said admiringly.
+
+"It's one of these 'Night Letters,'" Parker explained.
+
+"I knowed it was bad news," Skinny exclaimed, "--poor old Heck!"
+
+"Better say, 'Poor we all!'" Bert declared. "Farewell peace and joy on
+the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"The Lord have mercy on Old Heck!" Charley cried with dramatic fervor.
+
+"Holy smoke," Parker murmured desperately, "_two of them on the
+twenty-first--and that's to-morrow!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+A BLUFF CALLED
+
+The Quarter Circle KT was a womanless ranch. Came now, like a bolt from
+the clear sky or the sudden clang of a fire-alarm bell, the threat of
+violation of this Eveless Eden by the intrusion of a pair of strange and
+unknown females. The arrival of the telegram telling of the coming of
+Carolyn June Dixon, Old Heck's niece, and Ophelia Cobb, her chaperon,
+filled with varying emotions the hearts of Old Heck, Parker and the
+cowboys.
+
+To Old Heck their presence meant nothing less than calamity. Long years
+of he-man association had made him dread the petty restraints he
+imagined would be imposed by intimate contact with womankind. Good lord,
+a man wouldn't be able even to cuss freely, and without embarrassment,
+with a couple of women in the house and prowling around the ranch!
+
+Skinny, Bert, Chuck, Pedro, Charley, the Ramblin' Kid, even the Chink
+cook and Parker, quivered with excitement and curiosity behind thinly
+veiled pretense of fear and horror. Secretly they rejoiced. It was
+marvelous news borne by the telegram Skinny brought. Here would be
+diversion ample, unusual, wholly worth while and filled with
+possibilities of romance as luring as the first glimpse of a strange new
+land shadowed with mystery and promise of thrilling adventure.
+
+Sing Pete paddled back to the unfinished business of the kitchen,
+chattering excitedly. The cowboys stood mutely and stared at Old Heck
+and the fatal slip of yellow paper.
+
+"What'll I do?" Old Heck asked the group despairingly. "They'll ruin
+everything."
+
+"Can't you head 'em off, somehow?" Parker suggested.
+
+"Can't be done. They're already on their way and probably somewhere this
+side of Kansas City by now."
+
+"Find out which train they're on and let the Ramblin' Kid and me cut
+across to the Purgatory River bridge and wreck it," Skinny Rawlins,
+always tragic, darkly advised.
+
+"I ain't particular about killin' females," the Ramblin' Kid objected,
+"besides, we ain't got no dynamite."
+
+"Send them a telegram and say Old Heck's dead and not to come," Bert
+Lilly volunteered.
+
+"Aw, you blamed idiot, they'd come anyhow then, just to attend the
+funeral--"
+
+"I got an idea," Chuck Slithers exclaimed; it's a telegram too. Send
+them one C.O.D. in care of the train that will get to Eagle Butte the
+twenty-first and tell them we've all got the smallpox and we're sorry
+but everybody's dangerously sick and to please answer!"
+
+"That might work," Parker said; "they'd be mighty near sure not to want
+to catch it."
+
+"We'll try it," Old Heck agreed. "Chuck wants to ride over to Eagle
+Butte anyway and he can have the depot agent send it and wait for a
+reply."
+
+"Go get your horse ready, Chuck," Parker said, "we'll write it while
+you're saddlin' up!"
+
+Chuck hurried to the corral while Old Heck went into the house for
+pencil and writing-paper. Parker and the cowboys moved in a group to the
+shade of the porch in front of the house.
+
+"What'll we tell them?" Old Heck asked, reappearing with writing
+materials. "Here, Parker, you write it."
+
+"Dear niece Carolyn June Dixon and Chaperon: Sorry, but there's an
+epidemic of smallpox at the Quarter Circle KT and you can't come. Chuck
+is dying with it. Old Heck's plumb prostrated, Bert is already broke
+out, Pedro is starting to and Skinny Rawlins and the Ramblin' Kid are
+just barely able to be up. I love you too much to want you to catch it.
+Please go back to Hartville and give my regards to your pa and don't
+expose yourself. Answer by return telegram so I'll know your intentions.
+Affectionately and absolutely your Uncle Josiah Heck," Parker read after
+writing a few moments. "How's that?"
+
+"Sounds all right."
+
+"Got it ready?" Chuck called from the fence, while Silver Tip, the
+trim-built half-blood Hambletonian colt he was riding, reared and
+pranced, eager for the road and a run.
+
+"For lord's sake hurry up, Chuck," Old Heck yelled as the Ramblin' Kid
+handed the paper to Chuck and the cowboy whirled his horse into a gallop
+toward Eagle Butte. "Have the agent send it in care of whatever train
+they might be on and get an answer, then come back as quick as possible
+--waiting is agony!"
+
+It was a long afternoon for Old Heck and the cowboys of the Quarter
+Circle KT. A band of colts were in the circular corral to be gentled to
+rope, saddle and hackamore. Old Heck sat on the top pole of the corral
+and moodily watched the struggle of the men and horses in the dry, dusty
+enclosure as one by one each young broncho was roped, saddled and
+ridden. Frequently he turned longing eyes toward Eagle Butte, anxious
+for sight of the cloud of dust from which Chuck would emerge bringing,
+he hoped, word that Carolyn June and Ophelia Cobb had heeded the
+misleading message.
+
+The sun crept across the western sky and dropped lower and lower until
+it hung at last, a blazing disk of fire, close above the highest peaks
+of the Costejo mountain range. The poplars in front of the house flung
+slim black shadows across the low adobe buildings and splashed the tip
+of their shade in the dust-cloud that filled with haze the corral a
+hundred yards away. Sing Pete stepped from the door and beat a tattoo on
+the iron triangle suspended by a piece of wire from the lowest branch of
+a mesquit tree at the corner of the house, announcing by the metallic
+clamor that the work of the day was finished and supper was ready and
+waiting. Parker swung back the heavy gate at the corral entrance and the
+dozen colts, sweat streaks on heads and backs and bellies where
+hackamore, saddle and cinches told of the lessons of the afternoon,
+pushing and jamming and with a clatter of hoofs, whirled out to freedom,
+around the stable and down a lane into an open meadow.
+
+Kicking off their chaps the cowboys tossed them on the riding gear,
+piled already against the fence of the corral, and straggled stiffly
+toward the house. On the wire enclosing the back yard Sing Pete had hung
+a couple of heavy towels, coarse and long. Some basins and several
+chunks of yellow laundry soap were on a bench beside an irrigation ditch
+that ran along the fence just inside the gate. Old Heck, Parker and the
+cowboys stopped at the ditch, pitched their hats on the grass and
+dipping water from the ditch scoured the dust and sweat from their faces
+and hands.
+
+All were silent as if each was troubled with thoughts too solemn to be
+spoken aloud.
+
+At last, Skinny, handing a towel to Bert after drying his own
+sun-tanned face and hands, remarked inanely:
+
+"Chuck ain't come, has he?"
+
+"Slupper!" Sing Pete called.
+
+They filed into the kitchen and each took his regular place at the long,
+oilcloth covered table. The food, wholesome, plain and abundant, was
+already served.
+
+Silently each heaped his plate with the viands before him while Sing
+Pete circled the table pouring coffee into the white porcelain cups. The
+Quarter Circle KT was famous for the excellence of its grub and the
+Chink was an expert cook.
+
+"Lordy, oh, lordy," Old Heck groaned, "it don't seem possible them women
+are coming!"
+
+"Maybe they won't," Parker sympathized. "When they get that telegram
+they ought to turn around and go back--"
+
+"Chuck's coming!" Bert Lilly exclaimed at that moment and the sound of a
+horse stopping suddenly at the front of the house reached the ears of
+the group at the table.
+
+"Go ask him if he got an answer, somebody, quick!" Old Heck cried.
+
+As Charley Saunders sprang to his feet Chuck yelled, "They got it and
+sent an answer! I got one--" and rushed excitedly through the house and
+into the kitchen waving an envelope, twin to the one Skinny had brought
+earlier in the day. "They're on Train Number Seventeen, the agent
+said--"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck gasped, "what does it say? Give it here!" reaching
+for the message the cowboy held in his hand.
+
+"Good lord, it didn't work!" he groaned as he read the telegram and
+handed it across the table to Parker.
+
+"Read it out loud," several spoke at once.
+
+"'We've both had it,'" Parker read, "'and are not afraid. Anyhow we
+think you are a darned old lovable liar. Will arrive according to
+schedule. If you are not a liar we'll nurse you back to health and
+happiness. If you are, watch out! Your affectionate but suspicious
+little niece Carolyn June Dixon. Postscript: Are there any nice wild,
+untamed, young cowboys out there?--Carolyn J.'"
+
+"Hell-fire!" Skinny said, "what'll we do?"
+
+No answer. Chuck went moodily out to attend to his horse, and the meal
+was finished in silence. Even Sing Pete seemed deeply depressed. After
+supper Old Heck straightened up and in a do-or-die tone said:
+
+"We'll all go out where it's cool and hold a caucus and figure what
+ought to be done."
+
+"There ain't nothing we can do but surrender, as far as I can see,"
+Parker observed gloomily as they gathered on the porch in front of the
+house. "They seem plumb determined to arrive--"
+
+"I've already give up hope," Old Heck answered, "but what will we do
+with them when they get here? We can't just brand 'em and turn them
+loose on the range."
+
+"I make a motion we elect Skinny to ride herd on 'em!" Bert Lilly
+suggested.
+
+"Damned if I do!" Skinny exclaimed uneasily.
+
+"It's a good idea," Parker said. "From all accounts the young one
+expects to be made love to and if she ain't she'll probably be weeping
+around all the time--"
+
+"Well, I can't stand sobbin'!" Old Heck declared. "Any female is hard
+enough to endure and one that gets to mourning is plumb distasteful!
+
+"That's probably the best thing to do," he continued, "just appoint
+Skinny to be official love-maker to Carolyn June while she's at the
+Quarter Circle KT. It will probably save confusion--"
+
+"I brought the telegram telling about them coming and I've done my
+share," Skinny protested; "somebody else can be delegated to do the
+love-making!"
+
+"That's just the reason it ought to be your job," Old Heck argued; "you
+went and got the telegram in the first place and are sort of responsible
+for them being here."
+
+"Aw, let th' Ramblin' Kid do it," Skinny pleaded, "he's an easy talker
+and everything--"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid straightened up and started for the gate.
+
+"Where you going?"
+
+"To catch Capt'n Jack," he drawled; "after that for a little ride down
+to th' Pecos or over in Chihuahua somewhere a couple hundred miles. I
+decline with enthusiasm to fall in love on th' spur of th' moment for
+any damned outfit!"
+
+"You come on back," Parker called, "Skinny'll have to do it. He can have
+all his time for it and just pretend he's in love and sort of entertain
+her. He don't need to go and do it in earnest. Come on back, you darned
+chump, I need you on the beef hunt!"
+
+"What'll I have to do?" Skinny asked cautiously.
+
+"Just set on the front porch with her at night and make your eyes roll
+up like a calf's that's being branded and kind of sigh heart-broken once
+in a while," Bert volunteered. "It'll be easy when you get used to it--"
+
+"If you know so much about it why don't you enlist yourself?" Skinny
+asked irritably. "Some of you fellows go on and volunteer," he pleaded
+dolefully.
+
+"I would in a minute," Chuck chipped in, "if I was good-looking like
+Skinny and had a white shirt--"
+
+"What's a white shirt got to do with it?"
+
+"Listen to the innocent child," Chuck laughed, "as if any darned fool
+didn't know that the first thing a professional love-maker has to have
+is a white shirt!"
+
+"That settles it," Skinny declared with emphasis, "I won't wear a white
+shirt to make love to no blamed woman--"
+
+"Chuck's locoed," the Ramblin' Kid interposed; "you don't need to have
+no white shirt--of course it would be better but it ain't downright
+necessary--women don't fall in love with shirts, it's what's inside of
+them."
+
+"Where did you find out so much about women?" Bert queried.
+
+"I didn't find out--I'm just guessin'--"
+
+"There ain't no use arguing," Old Heck broke in. "Skinny will have to be
+expert love-maker for that Carolyn June niece of mine--I'll allow him
+ten dollars a month more wages while he's doing it. I ain't going to
+have her writing letters to her pa and telling him she didn't have no
+conveniences or nothing. Anyhow, she's young and I reckon it's sort of
+necessary."
+
+"What about th' other one--Ophelia Cobb or whoever she is?" Bert Lilly
+asked.
+
+"She's past the age for it, probably," Parker said uneasily.
+
+"They don't pass it," the Ramblin' Kid interrupted laconically; "when
+females get too old to want to be made love to they die--"
+
+"I'd like to know where in hell a juvenile like you got your education
+about women!" Bert insisted to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"I ain't got none--I'm just guessing I told you," the other replied,
+"but it's the truth, anyhow."
+
+"Well, if I've got to make love to the young one Old Heck or Parker or
+somebody's got to do it for the other one," Skinny declared positively.
+
+"Ophelia don't need it," Old Heck said hastily, "she's a widow and has
+done been--"
+
+"Widows are th' worst," the Ramblin' Kid drawled; "they've had
+experience an' don't like to give it up."
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's right," Chuck broke in. "I read a book once that
+said that's the way they are. It's up to Old Heck or Parker to represent
+Cupid to the widow--"
+
+"Who the hell's Cupid?" Skinny asked curiously.
+
+"He's a dangerous little outlaw that ain't got no reg'lar range," the
+Ramblin' Kid answered for Chuck.
+
+"I'll not do it--" Old Heck and Parker spoke at once.
+
+"Then I won't either," Skinny declared flatly, "I'll quit the dog-goned
+Quarter Circle KT first!"
+
+"Let Sing Pete make love to the widow," Bert suggested.
+
+"No, no! Me busy cookee," Sing Pete, who had been listening from the
+open doorway, jabbered and darted, frightened, back into the house.
+
+"Anyhow I'd kill him if he did," the Ramblin' Kid said softly; "no
+darned Chink can make love to a white woman, old, young or indifferent,
+in my presence an' live!"
+
+"Well, Old Heck'll have to do it, then," Skinny said; "hanged if I'm
+going to be the only he-love-maker on this ranch!"
+
+"Let Parker and Old Heck divide up on Ophelia," Chuck advised, "one of
+them can love her one day and the other the next--"
+
+"That's reasonable," Bert declared, "she'd probably enjoy a change
+herself."
+
+"I tell you I ain't got time," Parker protested.
+
+"Neither have I," Old Heck added.
+
+"All right then, I ain't either!" Skinny declared. "If you two ain't
+willing to take turn about with the widow and love her off and on
+between you I'll be everlastingly hell-tooted if I'm going to stand for
+a whole one by myself all of the time! I'll go on strike first and start
+right now!"
+
+"We'll stay with you, Skinny," the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed with a laugh,
+"th' whole bunch will quit till Parker an' Old Heck grants our demands."
+
+"We'll all quit!" the cowboys chorused.
+
+"Oh, well, Parker," Old Heck grumbled, "I reckon we'll have to do it!"
+
+"It won't be hard work," the Ramblin' Kid said consolingly, "all you got
+to do is set still an' leave it to Ophelia. Widows are expert
+love-makers themselves an' know how to keep things goin'!"
+
+It was settled. Skinny Rawlins, at an increase of ten dollars a month on
+his wage, protestingly, was elected official love-maker to Carolyn June
+Dixon, Old Heck's niece, speeding unsuspectingly toward the Quarter
+Circle KT, and Old Heck and Parker between them were to divide the
+affections of Ophelia Cobb, widow and chaperon.
+
+In the mind of every cowboy on the ranch there was one thought
+unexpressed but very insistent that night, "Wonder what She looks like?"
+thinking, of course, of Carolyn June.
+
+Old Heck and Parker also were disturbed by a common worry. As each sank
+into fitful sleep, thinking of Ophelia Cobb, the widow, and his own
+predestinated affinity he murmured:
+
+"What if she insists on getting married?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+WHICH ONE'S WHICH
+
+Eagle Butte sprawled hot and thirsty under the melting sunshine of
+mid-forenoon. It was not a prepossessing town. All told, no more than
+two hundred buildings were within its corporate limits. A giant mound,
+capped by a crown of crumbling, weather-tinted rock, rose abruptly at
+the northern edge of the village and gave the place its name. Cimarron
+River, sluggish and yellow, bounded the town on the south. The dominant
+note of Eagle Butte was a pathetic mixture of regret for glories of
+other days and clumsy ambition to assume the ways of a city. Striving
+hard to be modern it succeeded only in being grotesque.
+
+The western plains are sprinkled with towns like that. Towns that once,
+in the time of the long-horn steer and the forty-four and the nerve to
+handle both, were frankly unconventional. Touched later by the black
+magic of development, bringing brick buildings, prohibition, picture
+shows, real-estate boosters, speculation and attendant evils or benefits
+as one chooses to classify them, they became neither elemental nor
+ethical--mere gawky mimics of both.
+
+When western Texas was cow-country and nothing else Eagle Butte at
+least was picturesque. Flickering lights, gay laughter--sometimes curses
+and the sounds of revolver shots, of battles fought close and quick and
+to a finish--wheezy music, click of ivory chips, the clink of glasses,
+from old Bonanza's and similar rendezvous of hilarity lured to the
+dance, faro, roulette, the poker table or the hardwood polished bar.
+
+The Mecca it was in those days for cowboys weary with months on the
+wide-flung range.
+
+To-day Eagle Butte is modest, mild and super-subdued.
+
+A garage, cement built, squatty and low and painfully new, its
+wide-mouthed entrance guarded by a gasoline pump freshly painted and
+exceedingly red, stands at the eastern end of the single, broad,
+un-paved business street. All of the stores face one way--north--and
+look sleepily across at the railroad track, the low-eaved, yellow, Santa
+Fe station and the sunburnt sides of the butte beyond. Opposite the
+station the old Occidental Hotel with its high porch, wide steps, narrow
+windows, dingy weather-board sides and blackened roof, still stands to
+remind old-timers of the days of long ago.
+
+A city marshal, Tom Poole, a long, slim, Sandy-mustached Missourian,
+completes the picture of Eagle Butte. Regularly he meets the arriving
+trains and by the glistening three-inch nickel star pinned to his left
+suspender announces to the traveling world that here, on the one time
+woolly Kiowa, law and order at last prevail. Odd times the marshal farms
+a ten-acre truck patch close to the river at the southern edge of the
+town. Pending the arrival of trains he divides his time between the
+front steps of the old hotel and the Elite Amusement Parlor, Eagle
+Butte's single den of iniquity where pocket pool, billiards,
+solo--devilish dissipations these!--along with root beer, ginger ale,
+nut sundaes, soda-pop, milk shakes and similar enticements are served to
+those, of reckless and untamed temperaments.
+
+From the open door of the pool hall the marshal saw a thin, black streak
+of smoke curling far out on the horizon--a dozen miles--northeast of
+Eagle Butte.
+
+"Seventeen's comin'," he remarked to the trio of idlers leaning against
+the side of the building; "guess I'd better go over an' see who's on
+her," moving as he spoke out into the sizzling glare of the almost
+deserted street. Glancing toward the east his eyes fastened on a cloud
+of dust whirling rapidly along the road that came from the direction of
+the lower Cimarron.
+
+"Gosh, lookey yonder," he muttered, "that must be Old Heck drivin' his
+new automobile--th' darn fool is goin' to bust something some day,
+runnin' that car the way he does!"
+
+Walking quickly, to escape the heat, he crossed the street to the
+station.
+
+Two minutes later the cloud of dust trailed a rakish, trim-lined,
+high-powered, purring Clagstone "Six" to a stop in front of the
+Occidental Hotel and Old Heck and Skinny Rawlins climbed glumly and
+stiffly from the front seat, after the thirty-minute, twenty-mile run
+from the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Old Heck had his peculiarities. One of them was insistence for the
+best--absolutely or nothing. The first pure-bred, hot-blood stallions
+turned on the Kiowa range carried the Quarter Circle KT brand on their
+left shoulders. He wanted quality in his stock and spent thousands of
+dollars importing bulls and stallions to get it. When the automobile
+came it was the same. No jit for the erratic owner of the last big
+genuine cow-ranch on the Cimarron. Consequently the beautiful car--a car
+fit for Fifth Avenue--standing now in front of the old hotel in Eagle
+Butte.
+
+The smoke on the northeastern sky-line was yet some miles away.
+
+The lanky marshal had reached the station.
+
+"It's a good thing there's prohibition in this town," Skinny muttered as
+he stepped from the car and started brushing the dust from his coat;
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause I'd go get drunk if there wasn't--. Wonder if a feller could get
+any boot-leg liquor?"
+
+"Better leave it alone," Old Heck warned, "that kind's worse than none.
+It don't make you drunk--just gives you the hysterical hydrophobia!'
+
+"Well, I'd drink anything in an emergency like this if I had it,"
+Skinny declared doggedly.
+
+"Train's comin'," Old Heck said shortly; "reckon we'd better go over to
+the depot--"
+
+"Let's wait here till they get off first," Skinny said. "We can see them
+from where we are and kind of size 'em up and it won't be so sudden."
+
+"Maybe that would be better," Old Heck answered.
+
+A moment later Number Seventeen, west-bound Santa Fe passenger train,
+stopped at the yellow station. The rear cars were obscured from the view
+of Skinny and Old Heck by freight sheds along the track. With the
+exception of the engine, baggage, mail and express cars, which were
+hidden by the depot, the rest of the train was in plain sight.
+
+A couple of men got off the day coach. These were followed by a gawky,
+weirdly dressed girl of uncertain age carrying an old-fashioned
+telescope traveling bag. At sight of the girl Skinny caught his breath
+with a gasp. Immediately following her was the tallest, homeliest woman
+he had ever seen. Thin to the point of emaciation, a wide striped,
+ill-fitting dress of some cheap material accentuated the angular lines
+of her body. A tiny narrow-brimmed hat, bright green, with a white
+feather, dingy and soiled, sticking straight up at the back made her
+more than ever a caricature. The woman also carried a bag. The two
+stepped up to the marshal, standing at the cornet: of the station,
+apparently asking him a question. He answered, pointing as he did to
+Old Heck and Skinny leaning silently against the side of their car. The
+woman and girl started toward them.
+
+Fascinated, the cow-men watched them approach.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck hoarsely whispered, "that's them!"
+
+"Let's go!" Skinny exclaimed, sweat starting in unheeded beads on his
+forehead. "Good lord, let's get in the car and go while we got a
+chance!"
+
+Old Heck made a move as if to comply, then stopped. "Can't now," he said
+gloomily, "it's too late!"
+
+As Old Heck turned the woman shrieked in a rasping voice:
+
+"Hey--hey you! Wait a minute!"
+
+The cow-men looked around and stared dumbly, dazedly, at her.
+
+"Can I get you to take me an' my daughter out to that construction camp
+where they're buildin' a ditch or something?" she asked; "that policeman
+said maybe we could get you to--" she continued. "I got a job cookin'
+out there an' Lize here is goin' to wait on table."
+
+Old Heck, still looking up in her eyes, with horror written on every
+line of his face, his lips twitching till he could scarcely speak,
+finally managed to say:
+
+"Ain't--ain't you Ophelia?"
+
+"Ophelia? Ophelia who?" she asked, then before he could speak she
+answered his question: "Ophelia--huh! No, I ain't Ophelia! I'm Missus
+Jasamine Swope an' a married woman an' you'd better not try to get fresh
+or--"
+
+Simultaneous with Old Heck's question, Skinny, his eyes riveted on the
+dowdy girl, asked in a voice barely audible:
+
+"Are you--are you Carolyn June?"
+
+"No, I ain't Carolyn June," she snorted. "Come on, ma; let's go! Them
+two's crazy or white slavers or somethin'!"
+
+Expressing their scorn and disdain by the angry flirt of their skirts,
+the woman and girl whirled and walked briskly away toward the garage at
+the end of the street.
+
+"Praise th' heavens," Old Heck breathed fervently as he gazed
+spell-bound after the retreating pair, "it wasn't them!"
+
+"Carolyn June and the widow probably went back after all," Skinny said
+without, looking around and with the barest trace of disappointment, now
+that the danger seemed past, in his voice. "Maybe they got to thinking
+about that telegram and decided not to come at last."
+
+"More than likely that was it," Old Heck answered.
+
+Steps sounded behind them. Skinny and Old Heck turned and again they
+almost fainted at what they saw. The marshal, a leather traveling bag
+in each hand, accompanied by two smartly dressed women, approached.
+
+"These ladies are huntin' for you," he said to Old Heck, dropping the
+bags and mopping his face with the sleeve of his shirt. "Guess they're
+some kind of kin folks," he added.
+
+Concealed by the freight sheds Carolyn June Dixon and Ophelia Cobb had
+stepped from the Pullman at the rear of the train, unseen by Old Heck
+and Skinny. Nor had either noticed, being engrossed with the couple that
+had left than a moment before, the trio coming across from the station.
+
+As the cook and her daughter by their very homeliness had appalled and
+overwhelmed them, these two, Ophelia and Carolyn June, by their exactly
+opposite appearance stunned Old Heck and Skinny and rendered them
+speechless with embarrassment. Both were silently thankful they had
+shaved that morning and Skinny wondered if his face, like Old Heck's,
+was streaked with sweat and dust.
+
+For a moment the group studied one another.
+
+Carolyn June held the eyes of Skinny in mute and helpless admiration.
+Despite the heat of the blazing sun she looked fresh and dean and
+pleasant--wholly unsoiled by the marks of travel. A snow-white Panama
+hat, the brim sensibly wide, drooped over cheeks that were touched with
+a splash of tan that suggested much time in the open. An abundance of
+hair, wonderfully soft and brown, showing the slightest glint of coppery
+red running it in vagrant strands, fluffed from under the hat. The
+skirt of her traveling suit, some light substantial material, reached
+the span of a hand above the ankle. White shoes, silk stockings that
+matched and through which glowed the faint pink of firm, healthy, young
+flesh, lent charm to the costume she wore. Her lips were red and moist
+and parted over teeth that were strong and white. A saucy upward tilt to
+the nose, hinting that Carolyn June was a flirt; brown eyes that were
+level almost with Skinny's and that held in them a laugh and yet deep
+below the mirth something thoughtful, honest and unafraid, finished the
+wreck of the cowboy's susceptible heart. Trim and smooth was Carolyn
+June, suggesting to Skinny Rawlins a clean-bred filly of saddle strain
+that has developed true to form.
+
+Old Heck gazed in equal awe at the more mature Ophelia.
+
+Somewhere near forty she may have been, cozily plump and solid. She had
+gray-blue eyes that were steady and frank yet clearly accustomed to
+being obeyed. Her hair was a trifle darker in shade than the silky brown
+on the head of Carolyn June. She was dressed with immaculate neatness
+and taste and carried that well-preserved assurance no woman in the
+world save the American of mature development acquires.
+
+There was energy in every line of her body and Ophelia gave Old Heck,
+the embarrassed owner of the Quarter Circle KT, more thrills in that one
+moment of silent scrutiny than he ever before had felt in the presence
+of any woman.
+
+As they looked, Skinny and Old Heck instinctively, a bit awkwardly
+perhaps, removed the Stetsons they wore on their heads.
+
+"Howdy-do!" Old Heck finally managed to say.
+
+Skinny gulped like an echo, another "Howdy-do!" in the direction of
+Carolyn June.
+
+"I reckon you are Carolyn June and Missus Ophelia Cobb," Old Heck
+stammered "Which one of you is which?" unconsciously paying tribute to
+the well preserved youthfulness of the widow.
+
+"Oh, Ophelia, beware!" Carolyn June laughed, not in the least offended;
+"the gay old rascal is at it already!"
+
+"He didn't mean nothing" Skinny interposed, sensing that Old Heck some
+way had made a blunder. "I guess you must be Carolyn June?" looking
+questioningly at the girl.
+
+"Excuse me," Old Heck said, "I'm your uncle, I suppose, and this is
+Skinny Rawlins--"
+
+"Howdy-do; I'm glad to meet you," Skinny muttered, reaching for the hand
+Carolyn June frankly extended.
+
+"I'm glad, too," she replied candidly; "and this is Mrs. Ophelia
+Cobb--just Ophelia--Uncle Josiah," Carolyn added, turning to Old Heck
+who clumsily shook hands with the widow while his weather-tanned face
+flushed a burning, uncomfortably red.
+
+"We was expecting you," he said, retaining life hold on her hand.
+
+"That was very kind," Ophelia murmured. "I am sure we are delighted to
+be here."
+
+"Now I guess we are all acquainted," Carolyn June said with a little
+laugh. "It's easy for folks to get acquainted, isn't it?" turning
+suddenly to Skinny.
+
+"Seems like it after they once get started," Skinny answered.
+
+"We'd better be heading for home I reckon," Old Heck said, releasing at
+last the widow's hand and lifting the bags in the car. "Sing Pete will
+have dinner ready by the time we get there."
+
+"We have some trunks," Carolyn June said, "can we take them with us?"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck replied, "get in, and we'll drive over to the depot and
+get them."
+
+With Carolyn June and Ophelia in the rear seat and Skinny and himself in
+the front Old Heck drove the car across to the station and the trunks
+were fastened with ropes on the hood of the engine and running-boards of
+the car.
+
+As they started away Carolyn June asked:
+
+"Which way now, Uncle Josiah?"
+
+"Out to the ranch."
+
+"Hadn't we better stop at the drug store," she asked soberly, "and get
+some medicine?"
+
+"Medicine? Who for?" Old Heck inquired innocently.
+
+"Why, the patients, of course," Carolyn June answered with a
+mischievous chuckle.
+
+"What patients?"
+
+"Out at the Quarter Circle KT where that epidemic of smallpox is
+raging!" she answered sweetly.
+
+"That's all a mistake," Old Heck said hastily; "we thought is was
+smallpox but it wasn't--"
+
+"No, everybody's got over it," Skinny added nervously; "they're all
+cured!"
+
+"Yes, they was just broke out with the heat and didn't have the smallpox
+at all--" Old Heck explained.
+
+"Liars, both of them," Carolyn June said laughingly to Ophelia; "they
+just didn't want us to come!"
+
+"Very likely," Ophelia answered.
+
+"No, honest, we thought we had it," Old Heck stammered.
+
+"We were plumb uneasy for fear you wouldn't arrive," Skinny declared.
+"After we found out it wasn't smallpox we were going to send a special
+delivery message and tell you it was all a misunderstanding and to come
+anyhow!"
+
+"Shall we forgive them?" Carolyn June asked the widow.
+
+"Perhaps, this time--their first offense!"
+
+"I'll tell you," Carolyn June said, "well suspend sentence pending good
+behavior!"
+
+Skinny leaned close to Old Heck.
+
+"Stop a minute at the Golden Rule," he whispered; "I want to do some
+personal trading."
+
+"If it ain't important," Old Heck answered, "we oughtn't to take the
+time. What do you want to buy?"
+
+"I want to get me a white shirt--"
+
+"Gosh," Old Heck exclaimed, "that bad already! What'll he be in week?"
+
+"Did you speak, Uncle Josiah?" Carolyn asked.
+
+"Huh--no, I--Skinny just thought I was going to hit a rock!" he
+answered, and giving the engine more gas, he headed the car, at a
+thirty-mile clip, toward the east and the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+The party rode in silence. The speed of the car and the fan of the warm
+wind against their faces made conversation difficult. A mile from Eagle
+Butte they crossed the long, low, iron-railed bridge over the Cimarron
+River and climbed out on to the bench away from the bottom lands. From
+that point on to the Quarter Circle KT the road followed the brow of the
+bench on the south side of the river. It was smooth and good.
+
+Carolyn June thrilled at the bigness of it all as they swept quickly
+past the irrigated district close to the town and sped out on the open
+unfenced range. For miles the country was level with here and there
+arroyos cross-sectioning into the river valley. Long stretches with the
+barest undulations made driving a joy and the winding road was a natural
+speedway. Scattered over the plain were dusters of mesquit and in the
+low sags where moisture was near the surface patches of thorns. Carolyn
+June loved the width and breadth of the great range, strange and new to
+her. Here was freedom sweeping as the winds of heaven. Dimly, on the
+southern horizon she could see the blue outline of Sentinel Mountain
+standing alone out on the plain. To the left green pasture-lands lay
+along the river. A narrow strip of cottonwood trees marked the curving
+path of the Cimarron. Beds of white quicksand, treacherous and fatal and
+dreaded by every rider of the open country could be seen, occasionally,
+through openings in the trees showing the bed of the river itself. In
+the distance behind them was Eagle Butte, towering above the town they
+had left a few brief moments before, and beyond that the Costejo
+Mountains, rugged and massive and covered in part on their lower slopes
+with blue-green thickets of pine. Across the river was a choppy sea of
+sand-dunes stretching away to the north as far as sight could reach.
+Here and there a high-flung mound, smooth and oval or capped with ledges
+of black, glistening rode broke the monotony of the view.
+
+Engrossed in the study of the almost primitive picture Carolyn June
+forgot the flight of time and the speed at which they were traveling.
+
+"Yonder's the ranch!" Skinny announced suddenly, turning half around in
+his seat and pointing ahead and to the left toward the river.
+
+The valley widened till it was a mile or more across. The Cimarron swung
+sharply to the north and hugged the foot of the bench as if unwilling
+to spoil the meadowlands past which it flowed. In a great
+half-crescent--"Quarter Circle," Old Heck called it--the green
+basin-like area lay spread out before them. It was a half dozen miles in
+length, reaching from the canyon gate at the upper end of the valley
+where the river turned abruptly northward, to the narrow gorge at the
+south through which it disappeared.
+
+A blue crane lazily flapped across the valley.
+
+"Seven thousand acres in the bottoms," Skinny volunteered.
+
+"Beautiful!" Carolyn breathed.
+
+"Splendid!" Ophelia exclaimed.
+
+Half-way down the valley, a quarter of a mile from the bench, the
+buildings of the Quarter Circle KT clustered together in a group--the
+low adobe house, bunk shack, stables, graineries. Out in the fields were
+hay yards with half-built stacks of alfalfa--over the tops of the stacks
+white tarpaulins. In a pasture beyond the house were horses and cattle,
+perhaps a hundred head in all. Climbing the hills north of the river
+were a number of moving figures, dimly seen through the haze.
+
+"Are those cattle," Carolyn June asked, "those things across the river?"
+
+"Where?" Skinny inquired.
+
+"Over there, on the hills," pointing toward the objects.
+
+Old Heck glancing in the direction she indicated answered for Skinny:
+
+"That's Parker and the boys, going over to the North Springs--they're
+checking up on some yearlings we just turned across from this side of
+the range." Then, speaking to Skinny: "They've already had their dinner
+and won't be in till supper-time--"
+
+"Are they cowboys?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"I reckon," Old Heck responded.
+
+"Is Skinny one?" she inquired naively.
+
+"Sort of, I suppose," Old Heck chuckled while Skinny felt his face
+coloring up with embarrassment, "but not a wild one."
+
+"Oh, who is that?" Carolyn June cried suddenly as a lone rider whirled
+out of the corral, around the stables, and his horse sprang into a
+gallop straight down the valley toward the harrows at its lower end.
+
+"That," Skinny said after a quick glance, "oh, that's th' Ramblin'
+Kid--Where in thunder do you reckon the darned fool's going now?" he
+added to Old Heck.
+
+"Can't tell nothing about where he's going," Old Heck said. "He's liable
+to be heading for anywhere. What's he riding?" he asked without looking
+up.
+
+"Captain Jack," Skinny replied. "Wonder if he ain't going over to Battle
+Ridge to find out if it's so about them sheep coming in over there?"
+
+"Maybe," Old Heck grunted, "either that or else he's took a notion to
+hunt that Gold Dust maverick again"--referring to a strange, wonderfully
+beautiful, outlaw filly that had appeared on the Kiowa range a year
+before and tormented the riders by her almost fiendish cunning in
+dodging corral or rope--"if he's riding Captain Jack that's probably
+what he's after."
+
+"Who is he, what's his real name?" Carolyn June asked with interest.
+
+"Just th' Ramblin' Kid, as far as I know," Old Heck answered.
+
+"Does he live at the Quarter Circle KT?" Carolyn June continued
+curiously as she studied the slender form rising and falling with the
+graceful rhythm of his horse's motion--as if man and animal were a
+single living, pulsing creature.
+
+"Off and on," Old Heck replied, "when he wants to he does and when he
+don't he don't. He's a witch with horses and knows he's always got a job
+if he wants it, and I reckon that makes him kind of undependable about
+staying in any one place long at a time. That's why they call him th'
+Ramblin' Kid--he's liable to ramble any minute."
+
+The car curled down the narrow dugway off of the bench and a moment
+later stopped at the gate in front of the ranch house of the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+"We're here," Skinny said, as Sing Pete, the Chinese cook, appeared at
+the open door.
+
+"They've come, Sing Pete," Old Heck called, climbing out of the car;
+"this is them! Is dinner ready?"
+
+"All leady--waitee!" the Oriental answered, shuffling out to the car to
+help with the luggage and twisting and squirming as he kept bowing in
+greeting.
+
+"This is great!" Carolyn June said, as she stepped on the long cool
+porch in front of the house and paused a moment before entering the open
+door, "--it's cool and pleasant, I'm going to like it," she added, as
+she went into the big low-ceilinged room.
+
+The floor was bare of carpet but spotlessly clean; shades, but no
+curtains, were over the windows; in the center stood a large flat-topped
+reading table; at one end of the table was a Morris chair upholstered in
+brown Spanish leather; a wolf-skin rug was thrown on the floor before an
+old-fashioned Mexican fire-place built into one corner of the room; in
+another corner was a smaller table on which was a graphophone; a rocker
+and several chairs were set about the room and against the north wall;
+between two doors, evidently opening into twin bedrooms, was an upright
+grand piano--.
+
+"Oh, a piano!" Carolyn June exclaimed delightedly noticing the
+instrument. "Who plays?"
+
+"Nobody," Old Heck answered foolishly, "I--I--well, what's the use of
+lying?--I bought it one day, before prohibition come, when I was drunk
+and just had it brought out because I didn't know what else to do with
+it--"
+
+"You funny old uncle!" Carolyn June laughed, "I love you
+already.--Ophelia plays," she added.
+
+"Not so well or so much as Carolyn June," Ophelia said.
+
+"Maybe we'll have some music then some day; that ain't canned," Skinny
+suggested eagerly.
+
+"You women can use them rooms," Old Heck said, referring to the doors on
+each side of the piano. "Parker and me did have them but we've arranged
+to sleep in the bunk-house while you are here."
+
+"Carolyn June and I need but one," Ophelia said, "it isn't fair to run
+you out--"
+
+"You ain't running us," Old Heck answered, "we've talked it over and
+would rather."
+
+After dinner Ophelia and Carolyn June spent their time in settling
+themselves in their rooms. A small bath closet connected the two--crude
+a bit and somewhat unfinished; but a hot tub, the water supplied from a
+tank at the kitchen range, was enjoyed by both.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny helped with the trunks and then withdrew to the
+bunk-house.
+
+Old Heck shaved and Skinny put on a clean shirt.
+
+Skinny was not sure but this official love-making job was going to be
+interesting work and Old Heck himself was uncertain whether to cuss or
+rejoice--sometimes he was almost sorry to-morrow would be Parker's day
+to love and entertain Ophelia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE UNUSED PLATE
+
+At sundown, when Parker and the cowboys rode in from the northern hills,
+the Quarter Circle KT lay under a mantle of sullen, torturing heat. Not
+a breath of air fanned the poplars, straight and motionless, in front of
+the house. The sun buried itself in a solid wall of black that rose
+above the Costejo peaks, hidden now in the shadow of the coming storm.
+The horses were dripping with sweat--their coats as glossy and wet as if
+they had swum the river. At the corral the animals wearily tossed their
+heads, low hung with exhaustion, seeking to shift the sticky clutch of
+head-stall or hackamore, while their riders dismounted and quickly
+removed saddle and riding gear. Freed from their burdens the bronchos
+dragged tired heels through the dust as they whirled and trotted
+unsteadily away to the pasture, eager to roll and relax their aching
+muscles.
+
+"Holy cats, but it's hot!" Bert Lilly exclaimed as he slipped off his
+chaps and started toward the house, leaving saddle and outfit lying
+beside the gate of the corral.
+
+"Better put them things in the shed," Parker advised, "looks like a
+whale of a storm is coming."
+
+"Reckon that's right," Bert answered, turning back and carrying his
+riding gear into the shelter where the other cowboys already had taken
+theirs.
+
+"Wonder if them women come?" Chuck Slithers queried as they moved toward
+the gate.
+
+"More than likely--Bet Skinny and Old Heck have had a hell of a time
+making love to 'em," Charley Saunders remarked.
+
+"You want to be careful about cussin'," Parker warned. "It ain't polite
+when women are around!"
+
+"Listen at him!" Bert said with a laugh, "practising already--Parker is
+getting polite--to-morrow is his day to be affectionate to the widow,
+Ophelia--"
+
+"Which is she, Parker," Charley asked soberly, "a grass or natural?"
+
+"Shut up, you blamed fools, they're liable to hear you," Parker growled
+angrily. "Anyhow, it ain't my fault they come!"
+
+"Parker oughtn't to kick," Chuck chimed in, "look at poor old
+Skinny--he's got a steady job lovin' the other one!"
+
+"Darned if I wouldn't rather love both of them at once," Charley
+observed, "than to take another ride like that was to-day. I'm kind of
+anxious to see what they look like," he continued.
+
+"Well, don't go and get excited at the supper table and eat your pie
+with a spoon!" Chuck laughed.
+
+"Aw, hell," Charley retorted, "I guess I know how to act--"
+
+"Old Heck's going to buy some finger-bowls for you to wash your hands
+in," Bert said scornfully, "him and Parker--"
+
+"Shut up, I told you, you darned idiots," Parker snapped. "They're out
+on the front porch and can hear you!"
+
+"Be careful about your cussin'--" Bert mimicked with a snicker.
+
+Notwithstanding their raillery every man in the group, including Pedro,
+gave unusual care to scrubbing his face and smoothing his hair
+preparatory to entering the kitchen for supper and where they would
+meet, for the first time, Ophelia and Carolyn June.
+
+Sing Pete glided out of the kitchen door and hammered the triangle
+announcing the evening meal.
+
+At the instant Parker and the cowboys filed into the kitchen from the
+rear, Ophelia and Carolyn June, followed by Old Heck and Skinny Rawlins,
+both looking sheepish and somewhat ashamed, stepped into the room from
+the front.
+
+All stood waiting and Old Heck, ill at ease and in a voice that
+trembled, gave the party formal introduction:
+
+"Missus Ophelia Cobb and Miss Carolyn June Dixon," motioning first at
+the widow and then the girl, "Mister Parker, Mister Bert Lilly, Mister
+Charley Saunders, Mister Chuck Slithers, Mister Pedro Valencia--"
+indicating each in turn with his hand as he called the names, "--I
+reckon you're already acquainted with Skinny!"
+
+The cowboys mumbled greetings which Carolyn June and Ophelia graciously
+acknowledged.
+
+Sing Pete had laid two extra covers.
+
+"You boys can take your regular places--all except you, Parker," Old
+Heck said, "--you set at that side on this end," pointing to the seat at
+the left next to the head of the table. "Carolyn June, you can set at
+that end and Ophelia at this end--I'll set here," taking the seat at the
+widow's right and directly across from Parker.
+
+This placed Old Heck, Bert Lilly, Pedro and Skinny Rawlins on the right
+of the table in the order named, Skinny sitting at the end on Carolyn's
+left. On the opposite side sat Parker, Chuck Slithers and Charley. Next
+to Charley, at the right of Carolyn June, and opposite Skinny, was a
+vacant chair.
+
+"Who is this for?" Carolyn June inquired, indicating the unoccupied
+seat.
+
+"That's th' Ramblin' Kid's place," Old Heck replied; "he may come in and
+again he mayn't--"
+
+"It was him you saw to-day," Skinny added, "riding down toward the
+Narrows when we was coming from Eagle Butte."
+
+"Do you know; where he went, Parker?" Old Heck asked.
+
+"No. When we started over to the Springs he was here. Said he reckoned
+we could get along without him and he wouldn't go--"
+
+"He's just got one of them lonesome spells," Bert said, "and wanted to
+get off by himself somewhere."
+
+"He knowed we was going to have company, too," Chuck observed.
+
+"More than likely that's why he went," Skinny suggested.
+
+"Is he afraid of women?" Carolyn June laughed.
+
+"Not particularly," Skinny replied; "he don't bother with them, that's
+all."
+
+"I think he went after that Gold Dust maverick," Charley said. "He'll
+probably come in when he sees how it's going to storm--"
+
+"He don't give a darn for storms," Bert declared. "--Pass them frijoles,
+Pedro.--Remember that time it blowed the hay derrick down and he
+wouldn't come to the house, just stayed out and watched the wind and
+lightning?"
+
+"He is funny that way," Charley admitted.
+
+"Well, he'll never catch that mare," Parker said, "she's too--"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," Chuck interrupted, "look how he has tamed Captain
+Jack," referring to the Ramblin' Kid's own horse, one time a famous
+renegade.
+
+"How was that?" Carolyn June inquired carelessly.
+
+"Captain Jack was an outlaw, too," Bert explained. "He run over on the
+East Mesa on the Una de Gata. Charley and me and th' Ramblin' Kid got
+him to going one day when there was some ranch mares in his bunch. One
+of them was a hand-raised filly, was a pet and she was--well, pretty
+hot! We worked them over the rim of the Mesa and into the canyon, it
+was a box-gorge from where they hit it to its head, and at the upper end
+there was a wing corral. The mare swung up the canyon towards the ranch
+and--Jack wouldn't quit her! We was pounding right on their heels and
+before he knowed it we had them penned--"
+
+"That shows what happens when a he-thing goes locoed over a female
+critter," Chuck whispered to Parker; "you and Old Heck want to watch
+out!"
+
+"Be careful, you danged fool!" Parker hissed as he kicked at Chuck's
+shins under the table. Excited, he made a mistake in the foot he should
+have used and viciously slammed his left toe against Ophelia's dainty
+ankle.
+
+The widow looked startled and suddenly sat up very straight in her
+chair.
+
+Parker realized his error, turned red, choked, leaned close to Chuck and
+breathed hoarsely, "I'll kill you some day for that!"
+
+"He sure went crazy when he found he was corraled," Charley said, "and
+forgot all about the mare."
+
+"He sure did," Bert continued, while Carolyn June listened intently,
+"and was plumb wild to bu'st down the pen and be free again. Charley nor
+me didn't want him and so th' Ramblin' Kid said he'd take him. Just then
+Tony Malush--we was punchin' for him--come riding up and was going to
+shoot Captain Jack on account of wanting to clean the range of the
+outlaw stallions. He yanked out his gun and started to pull a drop on
+old Jack's head. Th' Ramblin' Kid jerked his own forty-four and told
+Tony he'd kill him if he shot the renegade broncho. Tony backed up, but
+it made him sore and he fired th' Ramblin' Kid. The darned little cuss
+set there a minute thinking, then slid off his horse, stripped him of
+riding gear, flung saddle, blanket and bridle over the bars into the
+corral. Before we knowed what he was aiming to do he climbed up and
+dropped down inside, on foot, with just his rope, and faced that outlaw
+battin' around trying to get outside--"
+
+Carolyn June leaned forward on the table listening with breathless
+interest. The others stopped eating and gave all their attention to the
+story Bert was telling.
+
+"Captain Jack saw him, stopped for just a second, sort of surprised,
+then went right at th' Ramblin' Kid--head down, eyes blazin' like coals,
+mouth wide open, ears laid back and strikin' with both front feet--"
+
+"He was some wicked!" Charley ejaculated.
+
+"He sure was," Bert went on. "Tony and Charley and me just set on our
+horses stunned--thinkin' th' Kid had gone clean loco and was flirtin'
+with certain and pronto death. As Captain Jack rushed him th' Ramblin'
+Kid give a jump sideways, his rope went true, a quick run to the
+snubbin' post and he throwed him dead! The broncho hit his feet, give a
+squeal and come straight back! Th' Ramblin' Kid run once more, yankin'
+like blazes to get the slack! That time when he went down--well, before
+we realized it, th' Ramblin' Kid had him bridled and saddled and was
+safe on deck--"
+
+"I'm tellin' you too, Captain Jack went higher than a kite when he felt
+the rowels in his flanks!" Charley interrupted.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid yelled for us to let him out," Bert continued.
+"Charley and me flung down the bars to the corral and Captain Jack come
+out sun-fishin' and hittin' the breeze like a streak of twisted
+lightning! That was just before dinner in the forenoon. That afternoon
+and night th' Ramblin' Kid rode the outlaw to the Hundred and
+One--ninety miles away! We didn't see either of them any more for a
+month and when they hit the Kiowa again Captain Jack was a regular baby
+after th' Ramblin' Kid and would follow him around like a dog--"
+
+"That's the way he's been ever since," Charley said, "them two are just
+like sweethearts."
+
+"Nobody else ever rides him--" Bert added.
+
+"They can't," Chuck said. "He's a one-man horse and th' Ramblin' Kid is
+the man. Captain Jack would die for th' Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+"Yes, and kill any one else if he could!" Parker exclaimed.
+
+"Has no one but--but the Ramblin' Kid"--Carolyn June hesitated queerly
+over the name--"ever ridden him?"
+
+"Never that we know of," Bert said; "several have tried it--the last
+one was a fellow from down on the Chickasaw. Guess he was trying to
+steal him. Anyway, we was all up at Eagle Butte and had left our horses
+out in front of the Occidental Hotel while we was in the dining-room
+eating our dinners. We got outside just in time to see the stranger hit
+the ground and Captain Jack jump on him with all four feet doubled up in
+a bunch--he's buried in that little graveyard you might have noticed on
+the hill this side of the river bridge."
+
+"Killed him?" Carolyn June gasped.
+
+"Seemed like it." Bert answered, with a grin; "anyway, we buried him."
+
+"What did the--the Ramblin' Kid do?" she asked.
+
+"He just laughed kind of soft and scornful," Skinny said, "and got on
+Captain Jack and rode away while we was picking the fellow up!"
+
+During the rest of the meal Carolyn June's eyes looked frequently and
+curiously at the unused plate at her right. She felt, some way, that an
+affront had been shown her by the absence of the one for whom it was
+laid. The other cowboys, it was quite evident to her intuitive woman's
+mind, had looked forward with considerable eagerness to the arrival of
+herself and Ophelia. The Ramblin' Kid, at the very moment almost of
+their reaching the Quarter Circle KT, had deliberately mounted Captain
+Jack and ridden away. It seemed like little less than an intentional
+snub! In addition to the half-resentment she felt, there remained in
+her mind an insistent and tormenting picture of the slender, subtle,
+young rider swaying easily to the swing of Captain Jack as he galloped
+down the valley earlier in the day.
+
+Bert, Charley, Chuck, before the meal was finished cast frankly admiring
+glances at Carolyn June and Skinny plainly was gaining confidence at a
+rapid rate, while Pedro, silent throughout it all, kept, almost
+constantly, his half-closed eyes fixed in a sidelong look at the girl at
+the end of the table.
+
+Attention and admiration, Carolyn June expected from men. They had
+always been hers. She was beautiful and was conscious of it. Had the
+cowboys of the Quarter Circle KT not registered appreciation of her
+charms by their looks Carolyn June would have believed something was
+wrong with her dress or the arrangement of her hair. Her eyes--she was
+sure of them--without effort lured men to her feet.
+
+"It's hotter than blue blazes in here," Old Heck said when all had
+finished; "we'd better go out into the big room. Maybe Carolyn June will
+play some on the piano."
+
+"The boys and me will go on out on the porch," Parker said as they
+reached the front room, speaking significantly to Old Heck, but in a
+tone both Ophelia and Carolyn June heard. "We'll leave you and Skinny
+with the ladies and not intrude--"
+
+"You won't be intruding if you remain," Ophelia said brightly. "Carolyn
+June and I are not partial at all and want you to feel that we enjoy
+meeting you all."
+
+"Yes, stay," Carolyn June added, somewhat reluctant that of the entire
+group only one should be left to the wiles of her unconsciously
+intentional coquetry; "there is plenty of room in here and it's cool--"
+
+"We're much obliged," Bert said, "but we'd better do the way Parker
+mentioned. Anyhow that was the agreement."
+
+"Agreement?" Ophelia spoke with a questioning lift of her brows.
+
+"Yes," Chuck said, evidently trying to relieve the embarrassment of Old
+Heck, Parker and Skinny who looked daggers at Bert when he spoke of an
+agreement, "Parker and Old Heck was to take turn about--"
+
+"Bert meant," Parker interrupted hastily, "--he meant they--they had to
+agree not to loaf in this room before Old Heck would give them jobs on
+the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck added quickly, "that was the bargain on account
+of--of--getting it mussed up and everything and making too much work for
+Sing Pete to clean it up!"
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June looked curiously at each other as if they
+suspected some secret that had to do with their presence at the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+Outside, the cowboys lounged on the porch or lay spread full length on
+the grass smoking their cigarettes, and silent. Each was busy with
+thoughts of his own. Carolyn June had been very impartial during the
+evening meal, distributing her smiles and little attentions freely among
+them all. Now she was sitting at the piano playing snatches of random
+melodies as they came to her mind, while Skinny sat stiffly on a
+high-backed chair at the corner of the instrument.
+
+A drone of voices reached the ears of Parker and the cowboys as Old
+Heck, skilfully led on by Ophelia, told about the ranch, the Kiowa range
+and the traditions of western Texas.
+
+"Can you play _La Paloma?_" Skinny asked as Carolyn June paused after
+running over a dainty and vivacious one-step, memories of which made her
+think of Hartville and the fashionable ballrooms where she had reigned
+as princess at least if not as queen, and which seemed now very far
+away.
+
+"I'm afraid not--unless I have the music, but I'll try," she answered,
+and her fingers again sought the keys.
+
+The dreamy Mexican air drifted seductively out on the sultry motionless
+night.
+
+Bert looked through the window and saw Skinny lean back in his chair,
+his eyes closed and an expression of supreme content stealing over his
+face.
+
+"Skinny's gone--he's surrendered," he said to Chuck, lying full length
+on the porch at his side; "look at the poor cuss with his eyes shut and
+grinning as if he was seeing visions of Paradise!"
+
+"That combination would capture most anybody," Chuck answered. "I'm
+starting to feel affectionate myself."
+
+Bert didn't reply, Chuck having expressed too nearly his own swelling
+emotions.
+
+"Uncle Josiah!" Carolyn June called, suddenly whirling around on the
+piano stool as she finished the last bars of _La Paloma_, "may I have a
+horse?"
+
+Old Heck, grown silent under the spell of the music, and, like Skinny,
+sitting dreaming dreams that almost frightened him, started quickly.
+
+"A--a what?" he asked.
+
+"A horse--" she answered, "a broncho to ride!"
+
+"Oh, uh--sure! Skinny, go get her one!" he replied confusedly.
+
+"Not now," Carolyn June laughed, "to-morrow--any time, whenever I want
+to use it!"
+
+"Can you ride?" Skinny asked eagerly.
+
+"Ever since I can remember," Carolyn June said, "daddy has kept
+horses--I love 'em! Ophelia rides, too," she added.
+
+"In automobiles--" Ophelia corrected.
+
+"That's a good arrangement," Skinny said; "it will make everything work
+out all right."
+
+"I don't understand," Carolyn June said; "what arrangement?"
+
+"We'd better be going to bed, Skinny," Old Heck interposed anxiously,
+"it's getting late!"
+
+"Guess we had," Skinny said reluctantly. "Gosh, it's warm to-night!"
+
+"You can leave the door and windows open," Old Heck said to Ophelia and
+Carolyn June as he and Skinny moved toward the door; "we don't have
+burglars out here."
+
+Parker and the cowboys straightened up when they heard Skinny and Old
+Heck preparing to leave and went around the corner of the building
+toward the bunk-house.
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June stepped out on the porch with Old Heck and
+Skinny.
+
+The air was oppressively still and hot. The black cloud bank that had
+hung over the Costejo Mountains earlier in the evening now covered the
+whole western half of the sky. Night sounds seemed almost stifled by the
+suffocating heat. From the pasture below the stables the faint call of a
+kill-deer suddenly shrilled out, followed by intense silence. No
+lightning flash filled the wall-like blackness slowly creeping over the
+earth from the west. A pale glow on the rim of the rolling hills across
+the valley, herald of the moon not yet above the horizon, intensified
+the pall beneath the approaching cloud. A sullen roar, throbbing
+angrily, rising and falling in volume, could be heard coming out of the
+depths of the storm.
+
+"Acts like it's going to be a bad one," Old Heck observed, studying the
+cloud they all were watching.
+
+"Wicked," Skinny said, "one of them mutterin' kind until it breaks and
+then all hell tears loose."
+
+"If th' Ramblin' Kid is out in the sand-hills to-night he'll--"
+
+A withering stream of fire poured from the cloud almost over their
+heads; it was accompanied by a crashing peal of thunder that rocked the
+earth under their feet and stopped the words on Old Heck's lips. The
+flame lighted the whole valley. They had an instant's glimpse of a
+writhing, overhanging curtain of dust and rain sweeping toward them. In
+the glare they saw a giant cottonwood that stood alone in the meadow
+west of the house reel and sway like a drunken thing and pitch to the
+earth.
+
+"It's here! It struck that tree!" Old Heck yelled. "Run for the
+bunk-house, Skinny, maybe we can make it! You women go inside and shut
+the door!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia sprang--were blown almost--inside the house and
+slammed the door as another bolt fell, flooding the room with a blaze
+that made the light from the lamp on the reading table seem faint and
+dim. Old Heck and Skinny darted around the corner as the tempest pulled
+and tugged at the buildings of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For an hour Ophelia and Carolyn June sat and listened to the storm and
+while it still raged went to bed.
+
+Carolyn June fell asleep watching the incessant glare of the lightning
+as flash after flash filled the room with light and illumined the world
+outside, while the rain and wind lashed the trees in the garden near
+her window. Above the tumult the words of Old Heck: "If the Ramblin' Kid
+is out in the sand-hills to-night"--kept repeating themselves over and
+over in her mind. Try as she would, she could not shut out the picture
+of a slender young rider, alone, far out on the range in the storm-mad
+night, unsheltered from the fury and wrath of the elements.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+A DUEL OF ENDURANCE
+
+When the storm broke over the Quarter Circle KT the Ramblin' Kid was
+twenty miles away following the Gold Dust maverick. Old Heck's surmise
+that he had gone in search of the outlaw filly was but half correct. It
+was not with the definite purpose of trying for the renegade mare that
+he had mounted Captain Jack and headed him toward the Narrows at the
+moment Carolyn June Dixon and Ophelia Cobb arrived at the ranch. Nor was
+it to escape meeting the women. Their coming meant nothing to the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He simply wanted to be alone.
+
+The ride with Parker and the boys to the North Springs meant talk. The
+Ramblin' Kid did not want to talk. He wanted to be with his thoughts,
+his horse and silence.
+
+Should he happen on to the maverick he might give her a run. Since her
+first appearance on the Kiowa, the Ramblin' Kid had seen her many times.
+More than once, from a distance, he had watched the mare, getting a line
+on her habits. Sooner or later he expected to test Captain Jack's
+endurance and skill against the filly's speed and cunning. Without
+success other riders of the Kiowa had tried to corral the outlaw or get
+within roping throw of her shapely head. So far she had proved herself
+faster and more clever than any horse ridden against her. The Ramblin'
+Kid believed Captain Jack was master of the beautiful mare, that in a
+battle of nerve and muscle and wind the roan stallion could run her
+down. Some day he would prove it.
+
+At the Narrows the trail forked. One branch turned sharply to the right
+and followed a coulee out on to the divide between the Cimarron and the
+lower Una de Gata; the other swung toward the river, slipped into it,
+crossed the stream, and was lost in the sand-hills beyond.
+
+The broncho, of his own will, at the prongs of the road wheeled up the
+coulee and climbed out on the level bench south of the Cimarron. A
+half-dozen miles away Sentinel Mountain rose abruptly out of the plain.
+Toward the lone butte Captain Jack turned. He knew the place. On the
+north slope there was a tiny spring, fenced with wire to keep the stock
+from trampling it into a bog; near by was a duster of pinon trees; below
+the seep in the narrow gorge was a thin strip of willows. It was a
+favorite rendezvous sought by the Ramblin' Kid when in moods such as now
+possessed him. Silently he rode to the group of pinons and dismounted.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid stretched himself under the trees while Captain Jack
+drank at the little water course. Then, with his bridle off, the
+broncho fed contentedly on the bunch grass along the hillside. After a
+time Captain Jack quit feeding and came into the shade of the pinons.
+The Ramblin' Kid, flat on his back, stared through the scant foliage of
+the trees into the sky--overcast now with a dim haze, forerunner of the
+storm gathering above the Costejo peaks. Thousands of feet in the air a
+buzzard, merely a black speck, without motion of wings, wheeled in
+great, lazy, ever-widening circles.
+
+As the sun dropped into the cloud bank in the west a band of mares and
+colts came from that direction and rounded a spur of Sentinel Mountain.
+At their heads was the most beautiful horse ever seen on the Kiowa
+range.
+
+In color a coppery, almost golden, chestnut sorrel; flaxen mane and
+tail, verging on creamy white; short-coupled in the back and with
+withers that marked the runner; belly smooth and round; legs trim and
+neat as an antelope's and muscled like a panther's; head small, carried
+proudly erect and eyes full and wonderfully clear and brown.
+
+"Th' filly!" the Ramblin' Kid breathed, "with a bunch of Tony Malush's
+Anchor Bar mares and colts!"
+
+Captain Jack saw the range horses and lifted his head.
+
+"Psst!" the Ramblin' Kid hissed and the neigh was stopped.
+
+The rangers moved toward the east and over the crest of a ridge a
+quarter of a mile away. On the flat beyond the rise they stopped, the
+colts immediately teasing the mares to suck. The filly withdrew a short
+distance from the herd and stood alert and watchful.
+
+For half an hour the Ramblin' Kid studied the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+He looked at the clouds climbing higher and higher in the west, then
+long and thoughtfully at Captain Jack.
+
+"Let's get her, Boy!" he murmured; "let's go an' get her!"
+
+His mind made up, the Ramblin' Kid slipped the bridle again on Captain
+Jack, removed the saddle and with the blanket wiped the sweat from the
+broncho's back, smoothed the blanket, reset the saddle, carefully
+tightened front and rear cinches and mounting the little stallion guided
+him slowly down the ravine in the direction of the horses on the flat. A
+hundred yards away the mares and colts, alarmed by the sudden
+half-whinny, half-snort, from the filly, discovered the approaching
+horse and rider.
+
+Instantly the wild horses crowded closely together and galloped toward
+the Una de Gata. Captain Jack leaped into a run, rushing them. The
+maverick wheeled quickly and dashed away to the south alone.
+
+"Her pet trick!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered as he headed Captain Jack
+after the nimble creature. "She absodamnedlutely will not bunch--seems
+to know a crowd means a corral, a rope and at last a rider on her
+shapely back!"
+
+For two miles it was a race. The Ramblin' Kid held Captain Jack to a
+steady run a couple of hundred yards in the rear of the speeding mare.
+At last he pulled the stallion down to a trot. The Gold Dust maverick
+answered by running another fifty yards and then herself settling into
+the slower stride. "Like I thought," the Ramblin' Kid said to himself,
+"it's a case of wear her out--a case of seasoned old muscle against
+speedy young heels!"
+
+It became a duel of endurance between Captain Jack, wiry, toughened and
+fully matured, with heavier muscles, and the nimble, lighter-footed Gold
+Dust mare.
+
+At dark they were on the edge of the Arroyo Grande and Captain Jack had
+closed the distance between them until less than a hundred yards was
+between the heels of the filly and the head of the stallion behind her.
+She turned east along the arroyo, followed it a mile, seeking a
+crossing, then doubled straight north toward the Cimarron. Captain Jack
+hung to her trail like a hound. In the blackness that preceded the storm
+she could not lose him. With almost uncanny sureness he picked her
+out--following, following, never giving the maverick a moment's rest.
+Yet it seemed that the distance she kept ahead was measured, so alert
+and watchful was she always. Both were dripping with sweat. Try as he
+would, it seemed impossible for Captain Jack to win those few yards
+that would put the filly in reach of the rope the Ramblin' Kid held
+ready to cast until the inky darkness made it impossible to risk a
+throw.
+
+The mare splashed into the Cimarron.
+
+A dazzling zigzag flash of lightning, the first of the storm, and the
+Ramblin' Kid saw the filly struggling in the yellow wind-whipped
+current. A moment later and Captain Jack was swimming close behind her.
+On the north side of the river the mare yielded to the drive of the
+tempest and turned east down the stream. A rocky gorge running at right
+angles toward the north offered shelter from the lashing wind and rain.
+Up the ravine the maverick headed. A rush of muddy water down the canyon
+sent pursued and pursuer slipping and sliding and climbing for safety
+high up on the brush-covered, torrent-swept hillside. The constant blaze
+and tremble of lightning illumined the whole range. A wolf, terrified by
+the storm, seeking cover, crouched in the shelter of a black rock-cliff.
+The Ramblin' Kid saw the creature. His hand instinctively slipped under
+his slicker and gripped the gun at his hip.
+
+"Hell! what's th' use of killin' just to kill?" he murmured. His hold on
+the gun relaxed. A bolt of lightning slivered the rock above the wolf;
+there was an acrid odor of burning hair. The next flash showed the wolf
+stretched dead twenty feet below the cliff. "Well, I'll be damned!" the
+Ramblin' Kid whispered as he bowed his head before the gale, "that was
+funny! Guess God himself figured it was time for that poor cuss to die!"
+
+In the last quarter of the night, at the North Springs, when the storm
+had spent itself and the white moon looked down on a drenched and
+flood-washed earth, the 'Ramblin' Kid dropped his rope over the head of
+the Gold Dust maverick--barely twenty feet ahead of the horse he
+rode--conquered by the superior nerve, muscle and endurance of Captain
+Jack, still the greatest outlaw the Kiowa range had ever known!
+
+The touch of the rope fired the filly to a supreme effort; she lunged
+forward; Captain Jack set himself for the shock--he threw her cold, full
+length, in the soft mud; instantly the little stallion sprang forward to
+give the mare slack, she came to her feet, squealing piteously, and
+plunged desperately ahead--again Captain Jack braced himself for the jar
+and put her down, "It's hell, Little Girl," the Ramblin' Kid said with a
+catch in his throat; "but you've got to learn!" The third time the
+maverick tested the rope and the third time Captain Jack threw her in a
+helpless heap. That time when she got to her feet she stood trembling in
+every muscle until Captain Jack came up to her side and the Ramblin' Kid
+reached out and laid his hand on the beautiful mane. She had learned.
+Never again would the wonderful creature tighten a rope on her neck.
+
+Trailing the filly, the Ramblin' Kid forced her back toward the
+Cimarron, into its raging flood, multiplied a hundredfold by the
+torrential rain of the night; side by side she and Captain Jack swam the
+stream, and in the gray dawn, while the Quarter Circle KT still slept,
+he turned the mare and Captain Jack into the circular corral. He removed
+the saddle from Captain Jack, took the rope from the filly's neck, threw
+the horses some hay and on the dry ground under the shed by the corral,
+lay down and went to sleep.
+
+For fourteen hours, without rest, the Ramblin' Kid had ridden.
+
+The sun was up when Sing Pete electrified the Quarter Circle KT into
+life and action by the jangle of the iron triangle sending out the
+breakfast call.
+
+Old Heck stepped to the door of the bunk-house and looked out across the
+valley. The Cimarron roared sullenly beyond the meadow. The lower field
+was a lake of muddy water, backed up from the gorge below. He glanced
+toward the circular corral.
+
+"What th'--Who left horses up last night?" he asked of the cowboys
+dressing sleepily inside the bunk-house.
+
+"Nobody," Parker answered for the group.
+
+Skinny Rawlins came to the door. "It's Captain Jack," he said, "and--and
+darned if th' Ramblin' Kid ain't got the filly!"
+
+"Aw, he couldn't have caught her last night," Bert Lilly said.
+
+"Well, she's there," Skinny retorted, "somebody's corraled her--that's
+certain!"
+
+Hurriedly dressing, the cowboys crowded out of the bunk-house and down
+to the circular corral. The Gold Dust maverick leaped to the center of
+the enclosure as the group drew near and stood with head up, eyes
+flashing and nostrils quivering, a perfect picture of defiance and fear.
+The swim across the river had washed the mud from her mane and sides and
+she was as clean as if she had been brushed.
+
+"Lord, she's a beauty!" Chuck Slithers exclaimed.
+
+"Sure is--be hell to ride, though!" Bert commented. "Wonder where the
+Ramblin' Kid is--"
+
+"S-h-hh! Yonder he is," Charley Saunders said, observing the figure
+under the shed, "--asleep. Come on away and let him rest!"
+
+"Breakfast's ready anyhow," Old Heck added.
+
+"And Skinny ain't shaved or powdered his face yet--" Chuck laughed;
+"these lovers ought to fix themselves up better!"
+
+"Shut up, you blamed idiot, ain't you got no respect?" Parker said as
+they turned toward the house.
+
+"Listen at Parker, he's one of them, too," Chuck continued; "this is his
+day to be a sweetheart to the widow!"
+
+"I'd rather have Skinny's job," Bert said with a snicker, "I'd be afraid
+of Ophelia--"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She acts too gentle to start with"--"
+
+"Give her time," Charley suggested, "she'll bu'st loose when she gets
+better acquainted!"
+
+"Her and Old Heck got pretty well introduced last night, holding hands
+the way they did, and--"
+
+"Dry up," Old Heck interposed with a foolish grin, "and come on to
+breakfast!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia were charmingly fresh and interesting in dainty
+blue and lavender morning gowns. A bowl of roses, plucked by Ophelia
+from the crimson rambler by the south window, rested in the center of
+the table. The cowboys saw the flowers and exchanged glances. Old Heck
+and Skinny blushed.
+
+Carolyn June noticed the vacant place at her right.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid ain't up yet," Skinny volunteered.
+
+"Then the storm did drive him to shelter, after all?" Carolyn June asked
+with the barest trace of contempt in her voice.
+
+"I wouldn't hardly say that," Bert Lilly remarked, holding his cup for
+Sing Pete to fill with coffee; "--he brought in the Gold Dust maverick."
+
+"Yes," Chuck said with mock gravity, "it was quite an undertaking--he
+sprinkled salt on her tail--"
+
+"How clever!" Ophelia exclaimed, looking interested, "and is that the
+way they catch--mavericks?" stumbling over the unusual word.
+
+"Chuck's joking," Parker said; "he always was foolish--"
+
+"Uncle Josiah," Carolyn June asked suddenly, "can you take Ophelia to
+Eagle Butte to-day?"
+
+"I--Parker can," Old Heck answered, "if he can drive the car. Still
+there are probably some pretty bad washouts--"
+
+Ophelia looked quickly at Old Heck, interested by the note she detected
+in his voice.
+
+"I--I--got some work to do," he continued, "if you could wait till
+to-morrow"--addressing the widow--"I could more than likely go myself--"
+
+"I guess I can handle the car all right," Parker said, looking
+significantly at Old Heck; "the roads will be dried up in a little
+while."
+
+"It's Parker's day anyhow and he don't want to miss--" Chuck started to
+say.
+
+"After breakfast," Old Heck interrupted, scowling at the cowboy, "Chuck
+and Pedro had better both ride-line on the upper pasture. The cattle
+probably went against the fence in the storm last night and knocked off
+a lot of wire. Of course, Skinny will have to stay here," he added, "and
+the rest of us, except Parker, ought to look after the fences in the
+east bottoms--from the looks of the river this morning a lot of posts
+and wire must be washed out."
+
+"Whoever gets up the saddle horses had better catch them in the pasture
+corral," Parker declared, "it won't do to turn them in with that wild
+filly and Captain Jack."
+
+"I think I shall go see that wonderful filly," Carolyn June said as
+they left the table, "she may be the particular broncho I will want to
+ride--"
+
+"Not much," Old Heck objected, "these outlaws ain't exactly the kind of
+horses for women to fool with. You can use Old Blue. He's gentle."
+
+"Did I tell you I wanted a 'gentle horse'?" Carolyn June asked with a
+bit of impatience.
+
+"No, but I figured that was the kind you'd need on account of being
+raised back east--"
+
+"Well, I am going to see the Gold Dust maverick," Carolyn June said with
+emphasis, "and if she suits me I'll--I'll ride her!"
+
+"I'll go with you," Skinny offered as Carolyn June stepped from the
+kitchen door and started toward the circular corral.
+
+"Never mind!" she spoke shortly, "--you can go catch 'Old Blue'
+and"--with scorn in her voice--"if he's able to walk, maybe it will be
+safe for me to ride him to the end of the lane and back--Ugh! 'Old
+Blue!' The very name sounds as if he was dead!"
+
+"Old Blue's a good horse," Skinny protested, "--we work him on the hay
+derrick--"
+
+But Carolyn June was gone, walking rapidly across the open ground in the
+direction of the corral in which the Ramblin' Kid had turned Captain
+Jack and the Gold Dust filly.
+
+"Jumpin' eats!" Bert exclaimed as the cowboys started toward the stable,
+"didn't the young one show her teeth sudden?"
+
+"Skinny's going to have his hands full if he don't look out," Charley
+Saunders remarked sagely. "Still that kind ain't as dangerous as the
+ones that act plumb gentle like the widow has acted so far."
+
+"Any female is treacherous," Chuck observed grimly. "They're just like
+cinch-binders--you can't tell when they're going to rare up and fall
+over backwards!"
+
+"I'll bet Ophelia turns out to be a W.C.T.U. or something," Bert
+predicted solemnly.
+
+"If she does it's all off with the Quarter Circle KT, because Parker and
+Old Heck are both in love already," Charley said as they rounded the
+corner of the barn.
+
+Carolyn June gave a gasp of admiration as she stepped up to the circular
+corral and saw the Gold Dust maverick closely.
+
+"Oh, you beauty! You adorable beauty!" she breathed.
+
+Captain Jack and the filly were near the fence next to the shed. Carolyn
+June passed in between the low building and the corral to be closer to
+the horses. The sky was cloudless and a wonderful liquid blue; the sun
+glistened on the rich, golden, brown sides of the mare and made her coat
+shine like delicate satin. When Captain Jack and the filly saw Carolyn
+June they stood for a moment as rigid as though cast in bronze, heads
+held high, eyes fixed curiously yet without fear on the slender girlish
+figure.
+
+Captain Jack took a step forward in a half-challenging way. The
+maverick stood perfectly still.
+
+"You beauty," the girl repeated, "you wonderful golden beauty! You are
+going to be my horse--I'm going to ride you--_just you_--"
+
+"You'll get you're neck broke if you do!" a voice, deliberate and of
+peculiar softness, said behind her.
+
+Carolyn June turned, startled, toward the shed from where the voice had
+come. She knew, even before she looked, that the speaker was the
+Ramblin' Kid. Evidently he had just awakened. He had not risen and still
+lay stretched on the ground, his head resting on the saddle he had used
+for a pillow. Carolyn June could not help wondering how long he had been
+lying there studying her back. The thought confused her. In spite of her
+efforts at self-control a slow flush crept over her cheeks. The Ramblin'
+Kid saw it and the faintest hint of a smile showed on his lips--or was
+the suggestion of amusement in the twinkling glance of his eyes? Carolyn
+June could not tell. The subtlety and queerly humble impudence of it
+filled her with anger.
+
+While she looked into his eyes Carolyn June appraised the physical
+appearance of the Ramblin' Kid. Certainly he was not handsome, sprawling
+there in his rough clothing. She knew his age was somewhere near her
+own, perhaps he was a year, surely no more than that, older than
+herself. Yet there was an expression about the face that suggested much
+experience, a sort of settled maturity and seriousness. His mouth,
+Carolyn June thought, showed a trace of cruelty--or was it only
+firmness? The teeth were good. If he stood up her own eyes would have to
+angle upward a trifle to look into his and if hers were brown the
+Ramblin' Kid's were positively black--yes, she would say, a brutal,
+unfathomable black, penetrating and hard. His cheeks were smooth and
+almost sallow they were so dark, and she could tell there was not an
+ounce of flesh save tough sinewy muscle on his body. He was fully
+dressed except for the white weather-beaten Stetson lying beside the
+saddle and the chaps and spurs kicked off and tossed with the bridle and
+rope near by on the ground. A dark woolen shirt open at the throat, blue
+overalls faded and somewhat dingy, black calfskin boots on a pair of
+feet that could not have been larger than sixes, comprised his attire.
+
+So this was the Ramblin' Kid, Carolyn June thought. Someway she had
+pictured him a blue-eyed, yellow-haired sort of composite Skinny
+Rawlins, Chuck, Bert Lilly, Charley Saunders all in one and with the
+face of a boy in the teens!
+
+He was different. She wondered, and almost laughed at the absurd
+thought, if he was bow-legged. A glance at the straight limbs stretched
+in repose on the ground dispelled the doubt.
+
+The suddenness with which the Ramblin' Kid had spoken and the tone he
+used, Carolyn June thought, was utterly unfair. She felt as if she had
+been ambushed. How could she know he was sleeping under the shed? Why
+wasn't he in the bunk-house where he belonged? Her own embarrassment
+made her cross. She wanted to say "damn!" and stamp her foot or throw
+something at him, lying there so completely self-possessed! Instead, she
+looked steadily into the eyes of the Ramblin' Kid. Someway as she looked
+they seemed not so unkind, more sorrowful they were, on closer scrutiny,
+than cruel. She started to speak, her cheeks began to burn--
+
+Without a word she turned and walked rapidly toward the house.
+
+As she moved away Carolyn June felt something snap at her knee. She did
+not stop. Reaching down she gathered the soft folds of the loose gown
+about her and hurried away from the corral.
+
+"God!" the Ramblin' Kid whispered as he straightened up, "she's built
+like th' Gold Dust maverick--an' just as game! They was made for each
+other."
+
+He went to the corral and leaned against the fence, studying the filly
+thoughtfully, while Captain Jack with a friendly whinny came and nosed
+at the fingers thrust through the bars. After a time the mare cautiously
+moved up beside the roan stallion and stretched her own velvety muzzle
+toward the hand the Ramblin' Kid held out.
+
+"You want to be loved, too, you little devil!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed
+gently, "--you thought I was mean last night, didn't you?"
+
+For a while he fooled with the horses, then started toward the kitchen.
+A few steps from where Carolyn June had been standing he glanced down at
+a broad pink satin elastic band lying on the ground. It had been
+fastened with a silver butterfly clasp. The clasp was broken. The
+Ramblin' Kid stooped and picked it up.
+
+"I'll be--!" he chuckled as he fingered, almost reverently, the dainty
+thing, "it's a--a--darned pretty little jigger!"
+
+Smiling whimsically the Ramblin' Kid slipped his find in his pocket and
+sought Sing Pete to tease him for a bite of breakfast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+YOU'RE A BRUTE
+
+Carolyn June went directly to her room when she reached the house. She
+wished to investigate the feeling of looseness at her knee. The satin
+band that belonged there was gone. She felt her cheeks grow hot.
+Doubtless she had lost it at the corral--the Ramblin' Kid would pick it
+up! The thought tormented her. Once more she wanted to swear vigorously
+and with extreme earnestness. Instead she--laughed! It was all so
+absurd. The strange interest this rough cowboy inspired in her; the
+confusion she felt when he had spoken to her--no man among all the
+clever, carefully groomed, ultra-sophisticated suitors she had left in
+Hartville ever stirred her emotions as had the Ramblin' Kid with a few
+drawling words and one long look from his black, inscrutable eyes. That
+look! She had the feeling, someway, that her whole soul was naked before
+it. She was almost afraid of him. It was silly! She detested
+him--or--anyway, he needed punishment! No, he wasn't worth it! He was
+only an ignorant rider of the range--why trouble at all about him?
+
+Quickly changing her dress for a riding suit of khaki--the skirt
+sensibly divided--and the morning slippers for stout, tan, laced boots,
+she stepped into the front room. Ophelia was in her own room dressing to
+go to town. Carolyn June heard voices in the kitchen. Sing Pete's shrill
+chatter mingled with an occasional slow word from the Ramblin' Kid.
+Thought of the garter she had lost flashed into her mind. Perhaps the
+cowboy had not found it. She would run out to the corral and see.
+Passing quickly out the front way Carolyn June hastened again toward the
+circular corral. Old Heck and Parker were at the garage getting the car
+ready for the drive to Eagle Butte; Pedro and Chuck were riding across
+the valley toward the upper pasture. The other cowboys saddled their
+horses near the barn.
+
+As she walked, Carolyn June scanned the ground. At the corral she looked
+carefully where she had been standing. Her search was fruitless. She
+smiled queerly. Again she glanced at the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+"You darling," she whispered, "I am going to have you--I am--I
+absolutely am!"
+
+Turning, her eyes rested on the saddle, chaps and riding gear lying in
+the shed where the Ramblin' Kid had slept. Carolyn June stepped close to
+the outfit.
+
+"I have a notion to--to spit on you!" she said vehemently, "or kick--"
+but she didn't finish the sentence. One tan shoe had been drawn back as
+if to be swung viciously at the inoffensive pile of riding gear; it
+paused, suspended, then gently, almost caressingly, pushed the leather
+chaps which suddenly seemed to Carolyn June to look limp and worn and
+pathetically tired.
+
+As Carolyn June returned to the house Parker drove the car around to the
+front; Old Heck joined the cowboys, already mounting their bronchos, and
+with them rode down the lane in the direction of the lower field. Skinny
+came out of the barn, leading Pie Face and Old Blue. He left the horses
+standing and at the back-yard gate overtook Carolyn June. As they
+stepped inside the yard the Ramblin' Kid appeared at the kitchen door.
+
+"There's the Ramblin' Kid now," Skinny said as they approached. "Hello,
+Kid," he continued, "I see you got the filly--Excuse me, I guess you
+folks ain't acquainted."
+
+Haltingly he introduced them.
+
+Without the flicker of an eyelid the Ramblin' Kid looked into the eyes
+of Carolyn June. He had seen her coming from the corral and guessed
+correctly the reason for her second visit to the enclosure. Indeed at
+that moment his hand was in his pocket toying with the delicate souvenir
+for which she had gone to search. Yet his face was utterly without
+emotion as he lifted his hat and stood aside, acknowledging with formal
+words the introduction. "It's sure a surprisin' day an' pleasant--" he
+finished, emphasizing "surprisin'" and "pleasant" till Carolyn June
+could have sworn there was a veiled taunt in the words he spoke.
+
+She was equally calm. Smiling sweetly and with not a hint of a previous
+meeting she said: "I think I have heard of the Ramblin' Kid." Pausing a
+moment: "It's always peaceful after a storm!" she added enigmatically.
+And the Ramblin' Kid, as Skinny and the girl passed around to the front
+of the house, knew that Carolyn June had hurled a lance!
+
+"A natural born heart-breaker," he said to himself as he went toward the
+bunk-house, "a genuine, full-grown vampire, part intentional an' part
+because it's in her--but she's a pure-bred--" He grew pensive and
+silent, a look of gentleness came to his face, followed quickly by an
+expression of extreme humility. "Oh, hell," he exclaimed aloud, "what's
+th' use!" Entering the building the Ramblin' Kid seated himself at the
+table at the end of the room. He pulled the pink satin elastic from his
+pocket and gazed at it, rubbing the soft fabric tenderly with the end of
+his thumb. His eyes lighted suddenly with anger and contempt. He threw
+the band violently across the room into a corner. "I wasn't raised to
+associate with luxuries like that!" he exclaimed with mingled bitterness
+and scorn, "--a damned ign'rant cow-puncher dreamin' dreams about an
+angel!" he finished with a harsh laugh. For a while he sat silent,
+gazing down at the table. Then he got up, went over and lifted the
+garter from where it had fallen and replaced it in his pocket. "Oh,
+well," he chuckled less bitterly and whimsically added, "--any idiot can
+smile at th' mornin' star even if th' darned thing is beyond his reach!
+Besides, she don't need to ever know--" Leaving the bunk-house he went
+toward the circular corral.
+
+Parker climbed from the car and entered the house, asking if Ophelia was
+ready.
+
+"In just a moment!" the widow called from her room.
+
+"What are you and me going to do?" Skinny asked Carolyn June as they
+stepped on to the porch, "take a ride?"
+
+"On 'Old Blue'?" Carolyn June questioned scornfully, then, with
+resignation, as they went inside the house: "Oh, well--I suppose, after
+a while. I have some letters to write now," and she entered her room
+leaving Skinny standing perplexed by her varying moods. He looked
+foolishly at Parker a moment. Going to the graphophone he put on a
+record--
+
+  "_I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air_!"
+
+wailed disconsolately through the house.
+
+"Good heavens," Carolyn June called, "do you blow bubbles this early in
+the morning?"
+
+"Don't you like it?" Skinny asked soberly. "I thought that was a pretty
+good tune."
+
+"I'm crazy about it!" Carolyn June answered sarcastically. "There and
+then, but not here and now--"
+
+"Where and when?" Skinny queried innocently.
+
+"In the valley of the moon at the end of a perfect day!" she laughed
+back. "--Forgive me, I couldn't help it!"
+
+"What does she mean?" Skinny asked Parker in a whisper. "Is she making
+fun of me?"
+
+"No, you blamed fool," Parker replied, "she feels good and is just
+joking--"
+
+Skinny brightened up immediately.
+
+"That's a good one," he called to Carolyn June with a snicker; "I never
+thought of it before!"
+
+A ripple of laughter came from Carolyn June's room.
+
+"Really, I don't mind," she said; "play _Bubbles_ as much as you like--I
+think it's rather soothing, but truly I must write my letters now so
+Ophelia can take them to town."
+
+Half an hour later Ophelia appeared dressed for the drive to Eagle
+Butte. Carolyn June and Skinny went out on the front porch and watched
+the widow and Parker climb into the Clagstone "Six." As Parker started
+the engine Skinny suddenly called to him. Parker sat with his foot on
+the clutch while Skinny hurried out to the car.
+
+"What do you want?" he asked impatiently, "We've got to be going!"
+
+"Lean over here," Skinny said, his face flushing scarlet, "I want to
+tell you something."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Stop at the Golden Rule and get me a white shirt size number fifteen
+and--a purple necktie if they've got any!" Skinny whispered.
+
+Ophelia heard and choked back a laugh.
+
+"Thunderation, he's plumb locoed!" Parker exclaimed, as he jammed the
+clutch into gear and the car sprang forward.
+
+"Don't forget it, Parker," Skinny called earnestly, "I actually need
+it!"
+
+Carolyn June and Skinny stood on the porch and watched the car climb the
+grade and out on to the bench. The storm of the night before had washed
+the earth clean and cooled the air. A faint after-breeze fanned the
+tree-tops. The Costejo peaks stood out, with stereoscopical clearness,
+against a cloudless sky. The day was a challenge to one who loved the
+open.
+
+"You may saddle 'Old Blue,'" Carolyn June said to Skinny. "--I'll see if
+I can 'stick on him' long enough to ride as far as the river!"
+
+"He's already saddled," Skinny replied, "him and Old Pie Face both."
+
+"Man, dear," she cried in mock misunderstanding, "you surely are not
+expecting me to ride the two of them at once!"
+
+"No," he answered meekly, "Old Pie Face is my horse, I'm going to ride
+him and go with you."
+
+"Indeed!" she exclaimed, then laughing mischievously. "Oh,
+certainly--that's a good one--I hadn't thought of it before!"
+
+"Don't you want me to go?" Skinny asked doubtfully.
+
+"Surely. I should be utterly unhappy if you didn't--I'll get my hat."
+
+"Blamed if I can figure her out," Skinny said to himself as Carolyn June
+ran lightly into the house. "She keeps a feller freezing to death and
+burning up all at once--sort of in heaven and hell both mixed together."
+
+A white, medium-brimmed felt hat was set jauntily on the fluffy brown
+hair when she reappeared. Skinny's heart leaped hungrily. Carolyn June
+was a picture of perfect physical fitness. The cowboy silently wondered
+how long he could keep from making "a complete, triple-expansion, darned
+fool of himself!"
+
+"I'm glad you want me to go," he said, renewing the conversation as they
+started around the house, "because I wanted to and, well, anyhow it's my
+job--"
+
+"What do you mean 'your job'?" Carblyn June asked quickly.
+
+Skinny was stricken silent. He realized he was on dangerous ground. He
+wasn't sure it would be wise to tell her what he meant. Someway he felt
+Carolyn June would resent it if she knew he was drawing wages for
+acting the lover to her. It seemed wholly impossible for him, just at
+that moment, to explain that, although Old Heck was paying him ten
+dollars a month extra salary to court, temporarily, his attractive
+niece, he, Skinny Rawlins, would personally be overjoyed to reverse the
+order and give his entire income, adding a bonus as well, for the
+privilege of continuing indefinitely and of his own choice the more than
+pleasant employment. Yet this was the literal truth, so quickly had his
+susceptible heart yielded to the charms of the girl. But he dared not
+try to tell her. He knew the words would not come and if they did he
+would probably choke on them and she, not believing the truth, would
+detest him. Skinny had heard of men who courted girls of wealth to win
+their money and with sincere contempt he despised these degenerates of
+his sex. Now, suddenly, he felt that he himself was in their class. The
+thought made him sick, actually caused his stomach to quiver with a sort
+of nausea.
+
+"Skinny Rawlins," Carolyn June said sternly, stopping and looking
+straight at the confused and mentally tortured cowboy, "tell me--and
+don't lie--what you meant when you said to go with me was 'your job!'"
+
+Skinny raised his eyes; in them was piteous appeal.
+
+"I meant--I--" he hesitated.
+
+"Tell me the truth," she ordered relentlessly, "or I'll--I'll--do
+something awful!"
+
+"I meant it was my job--" suddenly inspired, he blurted out, "to ride
+Old Pie Face. He's--he's dangerous and has to be rode every so often to
+keep him from getting worse and to-day's the day to ride him!"
+
+"Skinny," Carolyn June spoke gently, "I feel sorry for you. I want to
+like you and I'm disappointed. It breaks my heart to say it but you are
+a liar--you're just a common double dashed liar--like Uncle Josiah was
+when he sent that telegram saying there was smallpox at the Quarter
+Circle KT--"
+
+"Am I?" Skinny asked humbly.
+
+"You are," she retorted impatiently, "and you know it--"
+
+"Do I?" as if dazed.
+
+"You do, and did all the time--"
+
+"Did I?" he felt like a parrot.
+
+"You did!" Carolyn June snapped. "Good heavens," she continued, "why do
+men think they have to lie to women? Common sense and experience ought
+to teach them they can never fool them long--I hoped out here in the big
+West I would find one man who wouldn't lie--"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid won't," Skinny said as if suddenly struck by a bright
+thought, "--he wouldn't lie to you!"
+
+Carolyn June laughed scornfully.
+
+"Oh, yes he would," she declared, "all of them do--every last one of
+the poor frail"--contemptuously--"turtles!"
+
+"But th' Ramblin' Kid wouldn't," Skinny persisted; "he won't lie to
+anybody."
+
+"Not even to a woman?" she questioned incredulously.
+
+"No," he answered positively, "I'm sure he wouldn't."
+
+"And why wouldn't he?" she asked.
+
+"Well," Skinny replied, "for one thing he don't give a darn. Th'
+Ramblin' Kid don't care what anybody, man, woman or anything else thinks
+about him or whether they like what he says or not so there ain't any
+use of him lying. Maybe he wouldn't tell what was in his mind unless you
+asked him, but if you did ask him he'd say what it was whether he
+thought it satisfied you or not. He's funny that way. He just naturally
+don't seem to be built for telling lies and he wouldn't do it--"
+
+"Oh, Skinny, poor simple Skinny!" Carolyn June laughed. "You don't know
+men--men when they're dealing with women! Through all the unnamed years
+of my life I've never found one man who was absolutely truthful when
+talking with a 'female.' They think they have to lie to women. They do
+it either to keep from hurting them--or else they do it intentionally
+for the purpose of hurting them, one or the other! And they are so
+stupid! No man can hide anything long from a woman--"
+
+Reaching over she jerked a spray of tiny roses from the rambler at the
+window near which they were standing; tapping the blossoms against her
+lips, beginning to smile whimsically, she continued: "Why, I can almost
+read your own thoughts right now! If I wanted to I could tell you more
+about what is in your mind than you yourself could tell--"
+
+"Could you?" Skinny said, a guilty look coming in his eyes.
+
+"For one thing," Carolyn June went on, ignoring the inane question, "you
+are in love--"
+
+"I ain't!" the over-hasty denial slipped from his lips unintentionally.
+
+"Lie!" she laughed, "you can't help telling 'em, can you? And you are
+thinking--" She paused while her eyes rested demurely on the roses in
+her hand.
+
+"What am I thinking?" Skinny asked breathlessly.
+
+Before she could reply an agonized spitting, yowling and hissing,
+accompanied by the rattle of tin, came from behind the kitchen. "What's
+that?" Carolyn June cried half frightened at the instant a yellow house
+cat, his head fastened in an old tomato can, came bouncing backward,
+clawing and scratching, from around the corner.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Skinny exclaimed, "it's that darned cat again--Sing Pete
+goes and dabs butter in the bottoms of the cans and the fool cat sticks
+his head in trying to lick it out and gets fastened. It looks like the
+blamed idiot would learn sometime. It's what I call a rotten joke
+anyhow!"
+
+Sing Pete appeared at the kitchen door cackling with fiendish joy at the
+success of his ruse.
+
+Carolyn June stared, apparently stricken dumb by the antics of the
+struggling animal.
+
+"Sun-fish! Go to it--you poor deluded son-of-sorrow!" The Ramblin' Kid,
+who, unnoticed by Carolyn June and Skinny, at that moment had come from
+the corral and stood leaning against the fence, chuckled half pityingly,
+yet making no move toward the creature.
+
+"Catch him and take it off," Carolyn June cried, "it's hurting him!"
+
+Skinny started toward the rapidly gyrating jumble of claws, can and cat.
+
+"I will if the darn' thing'll hold still a minute!" he said.
+
+Carolyn June looked at the Ramblin' Kid, still leaning against the fence
+watching the cat's contortions.
+
+"Why don't you help him?" she asked impatiently. "Skinny can't do it
+alone--can't you see it's choking?"
+
+"No, he's not choking," the Ramblin' Kid replied without moving from
+where he stood, "--he's sufferin' some, but he ain't chokin'. He's got
+quite a lot of wind yet an' is gettin' some valuable experience. That
+cat's what I call a genuine acrobat!" he mused as the terrified
+creature leaped frantically in the air and somersaulted backward,
+striking and clawing desperately to free itself of the can tightly
+wedged on its head.
+
+Carolyn June was accustomed to obedience from men creatures. The
+Ramblin' Kid's indifference to her request, together with his apparent
+cruelty in refusing to aid in relieving the cat from its torturing
+dilemma, angered and piqued the girl.
+
+"Help Skinny take it off, I tell you!" she repeated, "haven't you a
+spark of sympathy--"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid resented her tone and detected as well the note of
+wounded pride. Instinctively he felt that at that instant the cat, with
+Carolyn June, had become a secondary consideration.
+
+"Well, some, I reckon," he answered, speaking deliberately, "generally a
+little, but right now darned little for that old yaller cat. I figure
+he's a plumb free moral agent," he continued as if speaking to himself;
+"he got his head in that can on his own hook an' it's up to him to get
+it out or let it stay in _this time_, just as he pleases--"
+
+"But Sing Pete put butter in the can!" Carolyn June said, arguing.
+
+"He's done it before," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a glance at the
+Chinese cook still gleefully enjoying the results of his cruel joke. "He
+won't no more. But that don't make no difference," he laughed, "th'
+darn' cat hadn't ought to have yielded to temptation!"
+
+"You're a brute!" she exclaimed passionately, "--an ignorant, savage,
+stupid brute--" The harsh words sprang from the lips of Carolyn June
+before she thought. The Ramblin' Kid flinched involuntarily as if he had
+been struck full in the face. A look came in his eyes that almost made
+her regret what she had said.
+
+"I reckon I am," he replied, gazing steadily at her without feeling or
+resentment and speaking slowly, "yes, I'm an 'ign'rant, savage, stupid
+brute,'" deliberately accenting each word as he repeated the stinging
+phrase, "--but--what's the use?" he finished with a mirthless laugh.
+"Anyhow," he added, glancing again at the cat and Skinny's futile
+efforts to catch it, "I ain't interferin' this time, at least, with that
+damned cat!"
+
+Carolyn June knew she had hurt with her unintentionally cruel words. For
+an instant there was a humane impulse to temper their severity.
+
+"I--I--didn't--" she started to say, but the Ramblin' Kid had turned
+and, ignoring the cat, Skinny and herself, was leaning on the fence with
+his back to her, looking off across the valley, apparently lost in
+thought. She did not finish the sentence.
+
+The cat bucked its way to the fence. As it went under the wire the can
+caught on a barb of the lower strand. Jerking furiously, the animal
+freed itself from the can, leaving splotches of hair and hide on the
+ragged edges of tin. Still spitting and clawing, with its tail standing
+out like an enormous yellow plume, it dashed toward the barn, eager to
+put distance between itself and the thing that had been torturing it.
+
+"Gosh a'mighty," Skinny said, sweating with the exertion and the
+excitement of trying to catch the cat, "it'll be noon before we get
+started for that ride!"
+
+"We'll go now," Carolyn June answered, "--before some other horrible
+thing occurs."
+
+"We're going over to the river and maybe out on the sand-hills a ways,"
+Skinny casually remarked to the Ramblin' Kid as Carolyn June and he
+passed through the gate. "Oh, yes," he added, "Chuck said tell you he
+took your rope--there was a weak spot in his and he didn't get it fixed
+yesterday!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid did not answer.
+
+Skinny had been wrong about the Ramblin' Kid not caring what any one
+thought of him. He was supersensitive of his roughness, his lack of
+education and conscious crudeness, and the words of Carolyn June were
+still in his mind. When Skinny and the girl were going toward their
+horses the Ramblin' Kid turned and entered the gate. Sing Pete was still
+at the kitchen door.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid stepped up to him.
+
+"You damned yellow heathen," he said in a level voice, "if you ever play
+that trick on that cat again th' Quarter Circle KT will be shy a cook
+an' your ghost'll be headin' pronto for China!"
+
+Without waiting for a reply he went back to the gate and watched Skinny
+and Carolyn June ride down the lane. The deftness and skill with which
+the girl handled the horse she rode forced a smile of admiration to the
+lips of the Ramblin' Kid. She sat close in the saddle and a glance
+showed she was a born master of horses. "She's a wonder," he said to
+himself, "a teetotal wonder--" A shade of melancholy passed over his
+face. "An ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" he murmured bitterly, "well,
+I reckon she was right--Hell!" he exclaimed aloud, "I wonder if
+Skinny'll remember about that upper crossin' bein' dang'rous with
+quicksand after the rain--Guess he did," he finished as the two riders
+turned to the right toward the lower and more distant river ford and
+disappeared among the willows and cottonwood trees that fringed the
+Cimarron.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+THE GREEDY SANDS
+
+When the Ramblin' Kid, working the rope-conquered and leg-weary Gold
+Dust maverick from the North Springs back to the Quarter Circle KT,
+crossed the Cimarron at dawn Captain Jack and the filly swam a raging,
+drift-burdened river. Less than twelve hours later Carolyn June and
+Skinny, at the lower ford, rode into a stream that again was normal. Old
+Blue and Pie Face splashed through water barely reaching the stirrup
+leathers. Only the fresh rubbish flung out on the meadows by the flood's
+quick anger or lodged in the willows, still bent by the pressure of the
+torrent that had rushed over them and slimy with yellow sediment left on
+their branches and leaves, told the story of the swift rise and fall of
+the Cimarron the night before.
+
+On the bluff north of the river Carolyn June and Skinny checked their
+horses while the girl gazed down on the panorama of green fields, narrow
+lanes, corrals and low buildings of the Quarter Circle KT. The sight
+thrilled her. On all the Kiowa range there was no more entrancing view.
+
+"It's kind of pretty, ain't it?" Skinny ventured.
+
+"Beautiful!" she breathed.
+
+"I'd--I'd like to stand here and look at it always--if you--if you'd
+enjoy it!" he said and was instantly appalled by his own audacity.
+
+Carolyn June flashed a quick look at him.
+
+"We had better go on," she said, then added lightly: "Does it always
+affect you so when you get this view of the valley?"
+
+"No. But, well, somehow it's different this morning--maybe it's because
+you are here!" he blurted out hurriedly.
+
+"Please," she said, starting Old Blue toward the west along the crest of
+the ridge, "don't be sentimental. I'm afraid--" she added, intending to
+say it would spoil their ride.
+
+"You needn't be, with me along!" Skinny interrupted hastily,
+misinterpreting her meaning.
+
+She laughed and without explaining urged her horse forward.
+
+Skinny followed pensively on Old Pie Face.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid, while going from barn to corral, glanced across the
+valley and saw Carolyn June and Skinny as they rode along the ridge. It
+was two miles from the ranch to the bluff on which they were riding, but
+so clear was the rain-washed air that the horses and riders were easily
+recognized. He watched them until they reached the corner of the upland
+pasture. There the roads from the lower and upper fords came together.
+The couple turned north along the fence and disappeared beyond the
+ridge.
+
+For a mile Carolyn June and Skinny rode without speaking. He felt
+already a reaction from his over-boldness of a while ago and silently
+swore at himself for his rashness. She was not eager to resume a
+conversation that had threatened a painfully emotional turn. She was
+quite content to enjoy the fresh air of the morning, the changing scenes
+through which they passed and the easy motion of the horse on which she
+was mounted.
+
+The bronchos pricked forward their ears at the sound of galloping hoofs.
+
+"Somebody's coming," Skinny spoke as Pedro, riding rapidly toward them,
+rounded the point of a low hill a little distance ahead.
+
+"What's wrong?" Skinny questioned, when the three met and stopped their
+horses.
+
+"The pasture fence is bu'sted," Pedro answered; "at the northeast corner
+it is broke. The cattle are out. Ten--fifteen maybe--are dead--the
+lightning strike them perhaps. The others all of them are gone. They go
+pronto, stampede I think, toward the Purgatory. Chuck and me can not get
+them alone--I go to tell Old Heck so the boys will come and help!"
+
+It was plain to Skinny what had occurred. The cattle had drifted before
+the storm until stopped by the wire. While crowded against it a bolt of
+lightning had struck the fence, followed the metal strands, and killed
+the animals touching or nearest to it. In the fright the others plunged
+madly forward and had broken their way to freedom. Five hundred Diamond
+Bar steers, recently bought by Old Heck and brought from the Purgatory
+forty-five miles north of the Quarter Circle KT were out and rushing
+back to their former range.
+
+"You go help Chuck," Skinny said to Pedro. "Carolyn June and me will
+turn around and take the news to Old Heck and send some of the boys to
+help you. If them cattle ain't bunched before they hit the Purgatory and
+get scattered over their old range it will take a month to gather them
+and get them back again!"
+
+"Why don't you yourself go with Pedro and Chuck?" Carolyn June asked
+Skinny. "I can ride to the ranch alone and tell the others about it."
+
+"I'm supposed to stay with--" he begun.
+
+"With me, I presume," she interrupted. "Well, this is one time you
+don't. Go on with the boys. You are needed after those steers a lot more
+than you are to 'herd' me back to the ranch!"
+
+Without waiting to argue she wheeled Old Blue toward the Quarter Circle
+KT. Skinny watched her a moment, then started with Pedro in the other
+direction. Suddenly checking his horse he swung around in the saddle.
+
+"Go back the way we came!" he called after the girl. "Don't try the
+upper ford!"
+
+Carolyn June looked around and threw up her hand, motioning toward the
+north. Thinking that she understood, Skinny touched Old Pie Face with
+the spurs and soon overtook the Mexican.
+
+He was mistaken. Carolyn June had not understood the warning. The
+distance was too great for his words to reach her distinctly. She
+thought he was merely protesting against her going alone. At the fork of
+the road she saw that the trail that led to the upper ford was much the
+nearer way to the ranch. Reining Old Blue into it she rode swiftly along
+the ridge and down the slope toward the dangerous crossing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Ramblin' Kid spent the morning at the circular corral. He was
+studying the moods and working to win the confidence of the Gold Dust
+maverick. He was watching her and thinking always a little ahead of the
+thought that was in the mind of the mare. His love for a horse and
+understanding of the wonderfully intelligent animals was as natural as
+were the brown eyes, the soft low voice, the gentle but strong touch, by
+which it was expressed. He wooed the outlaw filly thoughtfully,
+carefully, as a lover courts a sweetheart. The beautiful creature
+reminded him of Carolyn June. "They was made for each other!" he
+repeated softly as he worked with the mare. From the corral he could see
+the road across the river where Skinny and the girl had gone. Often he
+turned his eyes in that direction.
+
+He was fingering the garter in his pocket and looking toward the river
+when Carolyn June appeared on the ridge as she returned alone to the
+ranch. He stood and watched her. The ugly words she had spoken at the
+gate came into his mind and a bitter smile curled his lips. Still he
+watched the girl, expecting Skinny would ride into view. She turned down
+the ridge toward the upper ford.
+
+"That's funny," he thought, "wonder where Skinny's at?" Then it flashed
+through his mind that something must be wrong for the girl was riding
+alone. "Hell!" he exclaimed aloud, "she's by herself an' headin'
+straight for th' upper ford!" Only an instant he paused. "Jack!" he
+cried sharply, running to the corral gate and swinging it partly open.
+"Come--_quick_!"
+
+The roan stallion started at a trot toward the gate, then, trained to
+obey instantly the word of the master he loved better than life, leaped
+nimbly through the opening. Slamming and fastening the gate the Ramblin'
+Kid ran to the shed, the broncho at his side. He threw the blanket and
+saddle on the little roan, cinched quickly but carefully the double
+gear, slipped the bit into the waiting mouth of the horse and without
+stopping to put on his chaps sprang on Captain Jack's back and whirled
+him in a dead run around the corner of the shed and down the lane toward
+the north. At the pasture corral below the barn he guided the broncho
+close to the fence and scarcely checking him leaned over and lifted a
+rope, coiled and hung on a post near the gate, from its place--the one
+Chuck that morning had left because of the flaw.
+
+"God!" he groaned, "--an' a bad rope!"
+
+He glanced toward the ridge across the river. Carolyn June had
+disappeared down the trail that led to the upper ford.
+
+"Go, Little Man, go--for th' love of God, go!" the Ramblin' Kid
+whispered as he leaned forward over the neck of the horse. Captain Jack
+answered the agonized appeal as he would never have responded to the
+cruel cut of spurs and leaped ahead in a desperate race to beat Old Blue
+and his precious burden to the greedy sands of the Cimarron.
+
+As he rode, the Ramblin' Kid slipped his hand around the coils of the
+rope till his fingers found the broken strands that told of the weakness
+that caused Chuck to leave it behind that morning. Bending over it,
+while his horse ran, he worked frantically to weave a rawhide saddle
+string into the fiber and so strengthen the dangerous spot.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thinking only to reach the ranch as quickly as possible Carolyn June
+guided Old Blue down the trail and through the thin patches of willows
+and cottonwood trees that grew along the river. The stream looked
+innocent enough and the crossing perfectly safe. Swift but apparently
+shallow water flowed close to the northern bank. Beyond that was a
+clean, pebble strewn bar and then a smaller, narrower prong of the
+river. On the south side stretched a white, unbroken expanse of sand a
+hundred feet or more wide and ending against the low slope of the meadow
+land.
+
+At the brink of the stream Old Blue stopped short and refused to go on.
+
+"What's the matter," Carolyn June laughed lightly, "--afraid of getting
+your 'little tootsies' wet?"
+
+The horse reared backward when she tried to urge him ahead and wheeled
+half around in an effort to get away from the water.
+
+"Look here, Old Fellow," she spoke sharply, tightening the reins as she
+touched his flank with her spur, "we haven't time for foolishness!
+Generally, in fact always," accenting the last word, "horses--and
+men--go in the direction I want them to go! Why, you're as
+stubborn--as--as the Ramblin' Kid!" she finished with another laugh as
+Old Blue, with a snort of fear, yet not daring to resist further the
+firm hand and firmer will of his rider, stepped into the water.
+
+"Gee, when you do start you go in a hurry, don't you?" Carolyn June said
+as the broncho went rapidly forward as if eager to negotiate the
+crossing, seeming to know that safety lay in the quickness and lightness
+of his tread. As he lunged ahead the girl had the sensation that the
+saddle was sinking from under her. Reaching the firmer footing of the
+gravel bar in the center of the stream Old Blue tried again to turn
+about.
+
+"Go on!" Carolyn June cried impatiently yet with a feeling somehow of
+impending danger she could not wholly define, "--you've got to do it, so
+you had as well quit your nonsense and go ahead!" at the same time
+raking the horse's sides sharply again with the spurs.
+
+Crossing the shallow branch of the river the broncho reached the smooth,
+firm appearing beach of sand.
+
+With his head down, his muzzle almost touching the ground, as if
+scenting, feeling, his way, he went forward stepping rapidly, easily, as
+possible. At each step his foot slipped lower into the yielding,
+quivering mass. Carolyn June felt him tremble and the sensation that the
+horse was being pulled from under her grew more and more pronounced. She
+noticed how he sank into the sand and observed also the sweat beginning
+to darken the hair on the neck of her mount.
+
+"Pretty soft, isn't it?" she said, speaking to the broncho kindly as
+though to encourage him and perhaps at the same time to allay a bit the
+queer sense of uneasiness she felt, for even yet she did not realize the
+danger into which she had unknowingly ridden.
+
+Half-way to the firm black soil of the southern bank of the stream Old
+Blue's front feet seemed suddenly to give way beneath him. He began to
+plunge desperately. Then it was the truth came to Carolyn June. Her
+cheeks grew white.
+
+"The quicksand!" she exclaimed aloud, at the same time trying to help
+the horse with a lift of the reins. It was too late to turn back. Her
+only salvation lay in reaching the solid ground such a few yards
+ahead--and yet so fearfully far away. Old Blue struggled madly to go
+forward, gaining a little but at each effort sinking deeper into the
+sand. Carolyn June tried to encourage him with words:
+
+"Come on, come on! Good Little Horse--you can make it! Keep
+trying--that's it--now!--you're doing it! Brave Old Blue--don't give
+up--don't give up, Boy!" she pleaded, pity for the horse causing her
+almost to forget her own terrible peril.
+
+It was useless.
+
+Twenty-five feet from safety Old Blue's front quarters went down until
+his breast was against the sand. The hind legs were buried to the
+stifles. He wallowed and floundered helplessly. His hoofs touched
+nothing solid on which to stand. He stretched his head forward,
+straining-to lift himself away from that horrible, clinging suction. His
+efforts only forced him down--down--always down!
+
+Carolyn June's own feet were in the sand. She threw herself from the
+saddle--as far to one side and ahead of the horse as she could. With her
+weight removed perhaps Old Blue could get out. Anyway it was death to
+stay on the horse. Perhaps alone she could escape--she was lighter--the
+sand might hold her up--by moving rapidly surely she could go that short
+twenty-five feet to the firm ground ahead of her. At the first step she
+sank half-way to her thigh. She fell forward thinking to crawl on her
+hands and knees. Her arms went into the mass to the shoulder.
+Silently--without a word--but with horrible fear gripping her heart she
+fought the sand. She sank deeper--slowly--steadily--surely. The hellish
+stuff closed about her body to the waist. If she only had
+something--anything--solid to hold to! She took off her hat, grasped the
+edges of the brim, reached her arms out and tried to use the frail disk
+of felt for a buoy. It held a moment then gradually settled below the
+surface of the shifting, elusive substance. Again and again she lifted
+the hat free from the sand and sought to place it so it would bear a
+part at least of her weight. Her efforts were vain. The insidious mass
+crept higher and higher on her body. She remembered reading that one
+caught in the quicksand by his struggles only hastened his own
+destruction. She tried to be perfectly still. In spite of all she was
+sinking--sinking--the sand was engulfing her.
+
+During all her struggles Carolyn June remained silent. She had not
+thought to cry out. Somehow she could not realize that she was to die.
+The sun was bright, the sky cloudless, the trees along the river-bank
+barely swayed in a little breeze! How beautiful the world! How queer
+that such a little distance away was the green grass of the meadow and
+the firm black earth in which it was rooted and she--she was held fast
+and helpless in the embrace of the deadly sand! Strange thoughts rushed
+through her mind. She wondered what they would think at the ranch when
+night came and she did not return. Would they know? Would they guess the
+thing that had happened? Would the sand draw her down--down--until it
+covered her so none would ever know where or how she died? She looked at
+Old Blue. "Poor old fellow!" she whispered, "I am sorry--I didn't
+know--it looked so white and firm and safe!" The sand was half-way up
+the sides of the horse and he swayed his body in pathetic, futile
+efforts to free himself.
+
+A strange calm came over Carolyn June. So this was the end? She was to
+die alone, horribly, in the treacherous sands of the Cimarron? Surely it
+could not be--God would not let her die! She was so young! She had just
+begun to live--She thought of Hartville, her father, the old friends.
+How far away they seemed! How queer it was--she could not image in her
+mind any of the familiar scenes, the face of her father or any of the
+friends she had known so well! She tried to think of her Uncle Josiah,
+Ophelia, Skinny Rawlins--poor fellow, how susceptible was his big,
+innocent, boyish heart! She called each one up in a mental effort to
+remember how they had looked, the sound of their voices--they were only
+names--dim shadowy names! There was nothing in the whole world but Old
+Blue--herself--and the sand--the sand--an eternity of sand pulling,
+dragging, sucking her down! She closed her eyes tightly, thinking to
+shut out the impression of utter loneliness. The face of the Ramblin'
+Kid flashed into her mind! She could see him! She saw him lying under
+the shed, as he had looked that morning, his head resting on the saddle,
+his eyes gazing steadily into her own; she saw him again as he had
+looked when she stung him with her harsh words at the gate. She seemed
+to see the agonized humility in his expression and hear the low
+tenseness of his voice as he repeated aloud the words she had used--"An
+ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" She laughed almost hysterically. "Why
+can I see him--just him--and not the others? Has he come to--to--haunt
+me?" she finished with a gasp.
+
+The sand had reached her breast. How long before it clutched at her
+throat? Her mouth? Her eyes? Ah, would she hold up her arm as she went
+down--down--and reach out her hand as if to wave the world a last, long
+farewell? "I will--I will!" she cried, the pressure around her body
+almost stopping her breath, "I--I--will--and--wiggle my fingers to the
+end!" she added with a choking half-hysterical laugh, so tightly did she
+cling to life. Her mood changed. "I--guess--I ought to pray!" she said,
+"but--I--God--God knows anyhow!" her voice trailing away to a whisper as
+if she had grown suddenly, utterly, tired. She stretched out her hands
+once more with the hat, trying to use it to buoy her up. Under the
+weight of her arms it sank in the sand. She tossed it to one side. "It
+will--stay--on top by itself," she choked. "I--I--will leave it--maybe
+they will find it--and know--" She felt her senses were leaving her.
+Even yet she had not called for help. It had not occurred to her that
+rescue was possible. As if it were an echo to her thoughts there came
+the throbbing tattoo of hoofs pounding the earth. She listened intently.
+Some one was riding down the lane toward the river from the ranch! The
+horse was evidently running--running madly, desperately. Would he cross
+at the upper or lower ford? Her heart pulsed with heavy dull throbs. The
+sand was crushing her chest. A wave of weakness swept over her. She
+almost fainted. At that instant Captain Jack, carrying the Ramblin' Kid,
+leaped through an opening in the willows and stopped--his front feet
+plowing the firm ground at the edge of the quivering beach of sand.
+
+"Pure luck!" the Ramblin' Kid breathed fervently, his eye quickly
+measuring the distance to the nearly exhausted girl; "she's close enough
+I can reach her with th' rope! God, if it'll only hold!" Already the
+coils were in his hand. With a single backward fling of the noose and
+forward toss he dropped the loop over the head of Carolyn June.
+
+"Pull it up--close--under your arms!" he commanded shortly, "an' hang on
+with your hands to take th' strain off your body!"
+
+The girt obeyed without a word.
+
+He double half-hitched the rope to the horn of the saddle, swung
+Captain Jack around. "Look out!" he called to the girl as he started
+away from the brink of the sand. "Steady, Boy, be careful--" to the
+broncho. The slack gradually tightened. The strain drew on Carolyn
+June's arms till it seemed they would be pulled from the sockets. The
+rope cut cruelly into her body under her shoulders. She wanted to
+cry--to scream--to laugh. She did neither. She threw back her head and
+clung with all her strength to the rough lariat, stretched taut as a
+cable of steel.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid leaned forward in the saddle, his body half turned,
+eyes looking back along the straight line of the severely tested rope.
+He swore softly, steadily, under his breath. "God--if it will only
+hold--if it only don't break!"
+
+Slowly, surely, the little stallion leaned his weight against the
+tensely drawn riata and Carolyn June felt herself lifted, inch by inch,
+out of the sand that engulfed her. At last she fell forward--her body
+free. Without stopping the horse the Ramblin' Kid continued away from
+the river-bank and dragged the girl across the yielding surface to the
+solid earth and safety. The instant she was where he could reach her he
+whirled Captain Jack and rode quickly back. Carolyn June was trying to
+get to her feet when he sprang from the broncho and helped her to the
+firm ground on which he stood. She was panting and exhausted.
+
+"Get--get--Old Blue out!" she gasped and dropped limply down on the
+grass, fingering at the rope to remove it from around her body.
+
+"Danged if she ain't got more heart than I thought she had!" the
+Ramblin' Kid said to himself as he lifted the loop from over her head.
+"I'm goin' to," he said aloud, "if I can--but--I'm afraid he's gone.
+I'll try anyhow--you lay there an' rest--" at the same time remounting
+his horse.
+
+The sand covered the rump of Old Blue. The saddle, Parker's it was, was
+nearly submerged, only the horn and cantle showing above the slimy mass.
+His head, neck and the top of his withers were yet exposed. He still
+struggled, wallowing feebly, vainly resisting the downward pull of the
+sand. Crouching, as if fascinated by the terrible scene, Carolyn June
+watched as the Ramblin' Kid, waiting his opportunity, at the instant the
+horse in the sand lifted his head deftly flung the rope over his neck.
+With a short jerk of the wrist he tightened the noose till it closed
+snugly about the throat of the broncho. Again turning Captain Jack away
+from the bank he urged him slowly forward. The rope stiffened. The
+little stallion bunched himself and desperately strained against the
+dead weight of Old Blue, multiplied many times by the suction of the
+sand. The Ramblin' Kid leaned far over the neck of Captain Jack to give
+the horse the advantage of his own weight and looked back, watching the
+supreme efforts of the mired broncho as he fought to climb out of the
+sand. A moment it looked as if the little roan would drag him out.
+Slowly he seemed to be raising and moving forward. There was a sharp
+snap. Half-way down its length the lariat parted. At the weak spot the
+strain was too great. Captain Jack plunged forward to his knees, his
+nose rooting the earth, and the Ramblin' Kid barely saved himself from
+pitching over the horse's head.
+
+"That's what I was dreadin'--" he said as he turned and rode back to the
+edge of the sand.
+
+Carolyn June gazed, wide-eyed, speechless with horror, at the horse in
+the sand. When the rope broke, Old Blue, with a groan almost human, sank
+back and quickly settled down until only his head and part of his neck
+were exposed to view. The Ramblin' Kid looked at the broken rope--the
+end fastened around the throat of Old Blue had whipped back and was
+lying far beyond the cowboy's reach. The piece half-hitched to the
+saddle horn was too short for another throw. Old Blue was doomed.
+Carolyn June saw him sinking gradually, surely, into the sand. It seemed
+ages. His eyes appealed with dumb pathos to the group on the bank. They
+could hear his breath coming in harsh, terrible gasps. The sand seemed
+to be deliberately torturing him as though it were some hellish thing,
+alive and of fiendish cunning, that grasped its victim and then paused
+in his destruction to gloat over his hopeless agony.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid sat Captain Jack and watched.
+
+"Why did God ever want to make that stuff anyhow!" sprang hoarsely from
+his lips. He was torn between blind unreasoning anger at the quicksand
+and pity for the struggling horse. Suddenly he jerked the forty-four,
+always on his saddle, from its holster. As the gun swung back and then
+forward there was a crashing report and Old Blue's head dropped, with a
+convulsive shudder, limp on the sand.
+
+Carolyn June screamed and buried her face in her hands.
+
+At the sound of the shot Captain Jack stiffened and stood rigid. The
+Ramblin' Kid, his face white and drawn, sat and looked dry-eyed at the
+red stream oozing from the round hole just below the brow-band of the
+bridle on the head of the horse he had killed.
+
+"I--I--would have wanted somebody to do it to me!" he said softly and
+rode to the side of the girl huddled on the ground. He dismounted and
+stood, without speaking, looking down at her shaking form. After a time
+she looked up, through eyes drenched with tears, into his face. Then as
+if drawn by an irresistible impulse--one she could not deny--she turned
+her head and looked at the spot where Old Blue had fought his last
+battle with the quicksands of the Cimarron. A crimson stain, already
+darkening, on the white surface; a few square feet of disturbed and
+broken sand, even now settling into the smooth, innocent-looking
+tranquillity that hid the death lurking in its depths; a short length
+of rope, one end drawn beneath the sand, the other lying in a sprawling
+coil; her hat resting a little distance to one side, were all that
+remained to tell the story of the grim tragedy of the morning. She
+shuddered and looked once more into the pain-filled eyes of the Ramblin'
+Kid.
+
+"We'd better be goin'," he said quietly, "you're wet an' them clothes
+must be uncomfortable. You can ride Captain Jack!"
+
+She stood up weak and trembling.
+
+"I--I--thought Captain Jack was an outlaw," she said with a faint
+smile. "He won't let me ride him, will he?"
+
+"He'll let you," the Ramblin' Kid answered dully, "no woman ever has
+rode him--or any other man only me--but he'll let you!"
+
+As she approached the stallion he raised his head and looked at her with
+a queer mixture of curiosity and antagonism, curving his neck in a
+challenging way.
+
+"Jack!" the Ramblin' Kid spoke sharply but kindly to the horse, "be
+careful! It's all right, Boy--you're goin' to carry double this one
+time!"
+
+The broncho stood passive while the Ramblin' Kid helped Carolyn June to
+his back.
+
+"You set behind," he said, "it'll be easier to hold on an' I can handle
+th' horse better!"
+
+She slipped back of the saddle and he swung up on to the little roan.
+With one hand Carolyn June grasped the cantle of the saddle, the other
+she reached up and laid on the arm of the Ramblin' Kid--the touch sent a
+thrill through her body and the cowboy felt a response that made his
+heart quiver as they turned and rode toward the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For a mile neither spoke.
+
+"I--I--am sorry for what--I said this morning," Carolyn June whispered
+at last haltingly, feeling intuitively that the cruel words--"an
+ignorant, savage, stupid brute"--were repeating themselves in her
+companion's mind.
+
+"It's all right," he answered without looking around and in a voice
+without emotion, "it was th' truth--" with a hopeless laugh. "I'm a
+damn' fool besides!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+QUICK WITH A VENGEANCE
+
+Old Heck rode in advance of Charley and Bert as the trio returned from
+repairing the fences wrecked by the flood that had swept over the east
+bottom-lands of the Quarter Circle KT. All morning he had been silent
+and morose. Only when necessary had he spoken while he directed the
+cowboys at their labor, helped them reset posts, or untangle twisted
+wires and build up again that which the rush of water had torn down. The
+damage had not been great and by noon the fence was as good as new. As
+soon as the breaks were mended the moody owner of the Quarter Circle KT
+mounted his horse and started for the house.
+
+"Them women coming or something has got Old Heck's goat," Bert remarked
+to Charley as they climbed on their horses and followed a moment later.
+
+"Something's got it," Charley answered, "he ain't acted natural all
+day--do you reckon he's sore because Parker took the widow to town?"
+
+"Darned if I know," Bert said doubtfully, "that might be it."
+
+"Well, he's feverish and disagreeable for some reason or other and
+that's the way people generally get when they're jealous," Charley
+observed sagely.
+
+"He hadn't ought to be," Bert argued, "it's Parker's day to keep company
+with Ophelia, and Old Heck and him agreed to split."
+
+"If he's in love he won't split," Charley retorted with conviction, "I
+never saw two men take turn about loving the same woman yet. It can't be
+done!"
+
+"The woman wouldn't object, would she?" Bert queried.
+
+"Probably not," Charley replied, "at least not as long as double doses
+of affection was coming her way. From what I've heard most of 'em sort
+of enjoy having as many men make love to 'em as possible, but--" he
+paused.
+
+"But what?"
+
+"They kick if a man loves several women at once!" was the sophisticated
+reply. "But as far as that's concerned," he continued, speaking as a man
+wise in the ways of the world, "men and women ain't much different in
+that respect. When it comes to loving, both sides are plumb willing to
+divide up 'a-going' but want it to be clean exclusive when it comes to
+'coming!'"
+
+"It's funny, ain't it?" Bert commented.
+
+"No, it ain't funny," Charley declared. "It's just natural--"
+
+"Maybe Parker and Old Heck will have a fight about Ophelia," Bert
+suggested hopefully. "Which do you suppose would lick?"
+
+"It's hard telling," Charley said thoughtfully. "Old Heck's the
+heaviest, but Parker's pretty active."
+
+"Well, it sure does seem like wherever women are trouble is, don't it?"
+Bert observed meditatively.
+
+"Blamed if it don't," Charley agreed; "there's something about them
+that's plum agitating!"
+
+Old Heck, riding a short distance ahead of the cowboys, was troubled
+with similar thoughts. He was trying to analyze his own feelings. Years
+without association with womankind had made him come to regard them with
+a measure of indifference and suspicion. He had developed the idea that
+women existed chiefly for the purpose of disorganizing the morale of the
+masculine members of the race. He was very sincere in this belief. Yet
+he was forced, now, to confess that he found something interesting in
+having a couple of attractive females at the Quarter Circle KT. The
+situation was not so disagreeable as he had expected. Already he was
+proud of his kinship to Carolyn June. She was a niece worth while.
+Ophelia also had proved herself a pleasant surprise. He had pictured her
+as a strong-minded, assertive, modernized creature who would probably
+discourse continuously and raspingly about the evils of smoking,
+profanity, poker, drinking and other natural masculine impulses.
+Instead, she had proved herself, so far, a perfect lady. Without doubt
+she was the most sensible widow he had ever met. The thought of Parker's
+long, intimate ride with her to Eagle Butte made him uncomfortable. It
+was a darned fool arrangement--that agreement that he and his foreman
+were to divide time in the entertainment of Ophelia. He could have done
+it alone just as well as not. Anyway the dual plan was liable to cause
+confusion. Oh, well, Parker would be out on the beef hunt next week. By
+rights it ought not start for ten days yet, but--well, it wouldn't hurt
+to move it up a little. He would do that. Then he remembered the frank
+admiration the cowboys had shown toward Carolyn June. This suggested
+complications in that direction.
+
+"Thunderation!" he said aloud, "it's a good thing we fixed it up for
+just Skinny to make love to her--if we hadn't there'd have been a
+regular epidemic of bu'sted hearts on this blamed ranch! There wouldn't
+have been a buckaroo on the place that could have kept from mooning
+around sentimental--unless it was th' Ramblin' Kid," he added; "that
+blamed cuss is too independent and indifferent to fall in love with any
+female!"
+
+At the barn Charley and Bert overtook Old Heck. The three unsaddled and
+fed their horses and started toward the house for dinner. Sing Pete had
+seen them coming and immediately pounded the triangle.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's gone somewhere again," Bert observed as he noticed
+the Gold Dust maverick alone in the circular corral. "Captain Jack's not
+with the filly--"
+
+"Yonder th' Ramblin' Kid comes now," Charley said, looking toward the
+north; "he's been over to the river--what the devil kind of a
+combination is that?" he exclaimed as he got a better view of the horse
+coming up the lane. "Him and that girl both are riding Captain Jack."
+
+"Blamed if they ain't," Bert said curiously; "it's a wonder Captain
+Jack'll let them. But how does that come, anyhow? Where's Skinny? I
+thought it was his job to ride herd on Carolyn June--"
+
+"It is his job," Old Heck interrupted, "I don't understand--something
+must have gone wrong," he added excitedly as the stallion with his
+double burden drew near. "Carolyn June's all wet and she's lost her
+hat."
+
+Turning his horse toward the house, when he reached the end of the lane
+and with but a glance at the trio standing at the barn, the Ramblin' Kid
+rode straight to the back-yard gate. Old Heck and the cowboys hurried
+across the open space and reached the gate just as Carolyn June rather
+stiffly dismounted from the little roan. Her hair was disarranged, her
+riding suit soiled and wet from the sand and water, but her eyes were
+bright, cheeks flushed, and she showed only a trace of nervousness.
+
+"What's the matter?" Old Heck asked uneasily, "what's happened? Where's
+Skinny?"
+
+In a few words, while the Ramblin' Kid sat silently on the back of
+Captain Jack, Carolyn June told of the ride across the river; the
+meeting with Pedro and the message he brought that the cattle were out
+and some had been killed by lightning; of sending Skinny with the
+Mexican to help with the steers; of her return alone toward the ranch,
+the struggle in the quicksand and the death of the horse she had been
+riding.
+
+"Poor Old Blue--poor old fellow!" she finished with a little catch in
+her voice.
+
+Old Heck's cheeks whitened as he listened.
+
+"Good lord," he half-groaned, "you had a close call! It's lucky th'
+Ramblin' Kid saw you coming toward the upper ford--if he hadn't--you'd
+never got out! But go on into the house and get some dry clothes on.
+Boys, we'll have to hurry up and eat dinner and then go help get them
+steers back. I wish Parker was here--we'll need all the help we can get.
+You'd better catch up another horse," he continued, speaking to the
+Ramblin' Kid, "Captain Jack is probably worn out from chasing that Gold
+Dust maverick last night, and if you ain't too tired yourself, go with
+us--"
+
+"I ain't too tired," the Ramblin' Kid replied quietly, "I'll go--an'
+ride Captain Jack--he ain't done up." He took the broncho to the corral,
+removed the saddle and turned him in with the outlaw mare. After giving
+the horses fresh hay--there was water in the corral, supplied by a small
+ditch that was fed from the larger irrigation canal and which ran under
+one side of the fence--he joined the others at dinner.
+
+An hour later Old Heck, Bert, Charley and the Ramblin' Kid rode away
+from the ranch to help Chuck, Skinny and Pedro round up and return to
+the big pasture the cattle that had broken out and were rushing toward
+their old range on the Purgatory.
+
+Carolyn June was left alone with Sing Pete, the Chinese cook at the
+Quarter Circle KT. She still felt somewhat shaken from her experience of
+the morning, although a bath, clean dry clothing and the meal had
+refreshed her considerably. She carried a chair to the front porch,
+thinking to spend the afternoon resting. The events of the day raced in
+review through her mind. It did not seem possible so much could have
+happened in so short a time. Only yesterday had Ophelia and she arrived
+at the ranch. Already she had the feeling that they both were fixtures,
+and had been indefinitely, at the Quarter Circle KT. The elemental
+atmosphere of the range country had completely enveloped her, seemed to
+have absorbed her, and made her a part of it. Some way she rather
+delighted in this sensation of permanency. Her rescue by the Ramblin'
+Kid and the close view she had been able to get of his impulses made her
+thrill with a queer mixture of admiration and pity for him even while
+his brutal answer when she had apologized for her harsh words still
+echoed in her mind.
+
+"Gracious," she thought with a whimsical smile, "things move fast in
+this western country!"
+
+She had seen, already, that both her Uncle Josiah and Parker were
+yielding to the charms of Ophelia. The fancy made her chuckle. She
+remembered Skinny's too rapidly developing tenderness toward herself.
+"Poor fellow," she murmured, slowly shaking her head, "I wish he
+wouldn't! But I suppose he can't help it--I wonder why men are always
+falling in love with me, anyhow? I'm sure I don't try to make them! I
+never saw one yet I really wanted to care--" she stopped suddenly while
+a warm flush spread over her body as the Ramblin' Kid was imaged rather
+vividly in her mind. "Nonsense!" she said aloud with a soft, throaty
+laugh. "Carolyn June, you are getting silly!"
+
+She sprang up and went into the house.
+
+"Sing Pete," she said, stepping into the kitchen, "may I have some
+sugar--I'd like the lumpy kind if you have it?"
+
+"Sure! You have him sugal--how muchee you want?" as he held out to her a
+tin containing squares of the desired article.
+
+"Oh, enough to win a heart!" Carolyn June answered laughing, at the same
+time taking a handful from the can.
+
+"You eat him?" Sing Pete asked with a grin.
+
+"No," she replied, "I feed it to broncho--to Gold Dust maverick. Some
+folks sprinkle salt on bird's tail to catch him--I put sugar on horse's
+tongue to make him love me--"
+
+"Lamblin' Kid, he do that. Allee time him gettee sugal for Clap'n Jack!"
+
+"Feeds 'Clap'n Jack' sugar, does he?" Carolyn June said pensively.
+"Captain Jack's a nice little broncho," she added, "he deserves sugar."
+She paused a moment. "'Lamblin' Kid's' a funny fellow, don't you think
+so, Sing Pete?" she finished idly.
+
+"Not funny--him dangelous!" the Chinaman replied earnestly. "He gettee
+velly mad 'cause I puttee butter in can so cat catchee his head in an'
+go lound an' lound--buckee like a bloncho--havee lots a good time! He
+not talkee much, Lamblin' Kid don't--just dangelous--that's all!"
+
+Carolyn June felt sudden interest.
+
+"When did he get mad about the cat?" she asked quietly.
+
+"Allee same to-day--when you an' Skinny go 'way. Lamblin' Kid cussee me
+lot--tellee me not do him any more. Him dangelous! I not do him next
+time!" Sing Pete explained seriously.
+
+"You are wise, Sing Pete," Carolyn June laughed as she left the kitchen
+by the back door and started toward the corral where the Gold Dust
+maverick was restlessly pacing about. "Don't do it any more! 'Lamblin'
+Kid' is 'dangelous'--dangerous in ways that you don't understand!" she
+finished softly, her eyes lit with a strange light and her heart elated
+and beating quickly because of what the Chinese cook had told her.
+
+The outlaw filly leaped to the far side of the corral and stood
+trembling, her head up and breath coming in whistling snorts of
+defiance and fear, as Carolyn June opened the gate and stepped boldly
+inside. Apparently paying no attention to the frightened horse, the girl
+walked to the center of the corral and facing the mare leaned her back
+against the snubbing post. Both stood perfectly still while the eyes of
+each appraised the other.
+
+After a time the filly seemed to relax and she slowly lowered her head,
+yet watching, alertly, the motionless figure of Carolyn June. The girl
+talked to the horse, her words gentle, her voice soothing and low. The
+Gold Dust maverick became quieter still. Presently she circled the
+corral, trotting swiftly and crowding closely against the fence. Carolyn
+June turned, keeping her eyes always on the broncho, and continued the
+quiet pleading of her voice. It was an hour before the filly shyly and
+cautiously came up to the girl--before curiosity mastered her fear.
+Carolyn June held out her hand and the outlaw nosed it timidly, ready
+instantly to spring away. A lump of sugar was pressed into the Gold Dust
+maverick's mouth--she drew back, working the morsel about with her
+tongue and lips and finally spitting it out. Several times this was
+repeated. At last the beautiful creature tasted the sugar and greedily
+ate the lumps, permitting Carolyn June gently to stroke the velvety
+muzzle. Then the girl's hand crept higher and higher on the horse's neck
+and after a little an arm was slipped over the filly's neck.
+
+"You darling!" Carolyn June breathed softly, "I love you! I wonder what
+the Ramblin' Kid would say if he knew I was stealing your heart?" she
+added demurely as she laid her face against the silky mane of the mare.
+
+She remained at the corral until the afternoon was nearly gone. The
+poplars along the front-yard fence were beginning to throw their shadows
+across the corral. When at last Carolyn June started to return to the
+house the filly followed her to the gate of the corral and whinnied a
+little protest against her going.
+
+"I don't believe you are a bit mean," the girl said as she looked back
+affectionately at the nervous, high-strung animal; "you are just lonely
+and want to be loved--and understood--that is all, and I doubt if you'd
+buck a single buck if I rode you right this minute!"
+
+As she reached the gate the Clagstone "Six" glided quietly down the
+grade from the bench and a moment later Ophelia and Parker joined
+Carolyn June on the porch. The widow's cheeks were glowing and Parker
+looked embarrassed and rather upset. His arms were full of bundles.
+
+"Have a good time?" Carolyn June greeted them.
+
+"Fine," Ophelia replied, "spent oodles of money shopping, saw the
+minister's wife, talked with the editor of the paper and we are going to
+organize a Chapter--I think we shall call it 'The Amazons of Eagle
+Butte.'"
+
+"Great," Carolyn June laughed, "you are a hustler, Ophelia! Uncle
+Josiah will have a fit. Does Parker know?"
+
+"Yes," the widow answered, her eyes twinkling, as she looked at the
+sweating foreman of the Quarter Circle KT. "I told him all about it and
+he is going to give us his moral support."
+
+"Where is Skinny?" Parker interrupted hastily, looking more uneasy and
+foolish than ever; "why ain't he here?"
+
+Carolyn June told of the happenings of the morning.
+
+"My dear, my dear!" Ophelia cried, shuddering when she heard of Carolyn
+June's narrow escape from the quicksand. "You must never cross that
+terrible river again! It's too horrible to think about!"
+
+"It was just 'experience,'" Carolyn June said lightly. "I don't mind it
+a bit now that it is over. Of course," she added seriously, "I feel
+badly about Old Blue--and losing Parker's saddle."
+
+"Don't worry about the saddle, I can get new riding gear lots easier
+than Old Heck could have got another niece!"
+
+"Carolyn June needs a saddle of her own," Ophelia suggested.
+
+"I am going to get one; and then I'll ride the Gold Dust maverick!"
+
+"I doubt if th' Ramblin' Kid will let you ride the filly," Parker said,
+"he's funny that way--"
+
+"I think he will," Carolyn June interposed. "I'll steal her if no other
+way!"
+
+"Maybe he will, but it's doubtful," Parker continued, "but Old Heck is
+aiming to get you a saddle. He spoke about it this morning when we were
+getting the car out to go to town--"
+
+"Dear old uncle," Carolyn June said warmly, "I love him already--don't
+you, Ophelia?"
+
+Parker colored and looked quickly, with a worried expression on his
+face, at the widow. She flushed also.
+
+"That's personal, my dear," she answered, "and rather abrupt!"
+
+Parker went out to put the Clagstone "Six" in the garage.
+
+"Carolyn June," Ophelia said when they were alone, "I have made a
+discovery--"
+
+"It is?" questioningly.
+
+"That western Texas is the 'quickest' country in the world!" the widow
+answered.
+
+"Please explain," Carolyn June said, "although," demurely, with certain
+memories fresh in her mind, "I fancy I can almost guess--"
+
+"Yesterday," Ophelia continued rather breathlessly, "we arrived at the
+Quarter Circle KT; last night at the supper table I met Mr. Parker for
+the first time; ten minutes later he kicked me--accidentally, I
+think--on the shins; I saw him again at breakfast this morning; to-day
+we drove to Eagle Butte and this afternoon"--she paused and then with a
+quick, nervous laugh finished--"he asked me to marry him!"
+
+"Good lord," Carolyn June gasped, "that is--'pronto'--as these cowboys
+say! 'Quick' with a vengeance! There must be something in this western
+air that makes them do it!"
+
+"It was all I could do this morning to keep Skinny from--" she started
+to say, then shifted again to the subject of Parker. "Did he know that
+you are--"
+
+"National Organizer for the 'Movement,'" Ophelia filled in. "Yes, I had
+already confessed. I told him as we were driving to town--and the
+other--the shock--came just after we crossed the bridge when we were
+returning home!"
+
+"He is a bold, dangerous man!" Carolyn June exclaimed, in mock
+seriousness, "trying to get ahead of Uncle Josiah!"
+
+"I inferred as much," the widow explained; "he told me that to-morrow
+would be your uncle's 'day'--whatever he meant by that; the next he, Mr.
+Parker himself, would be 'around' again. 'Unless Old Heck took some fool
+notion or other;' before long he would be away on the beef hunt and one
+can never tell what might happen while one is gone and, well, that's the
+way he felt about it, so he just said it--"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Naturally was completely surprised, entirely non-committal, and made no
+definite agreement!" Ophelia laughed softly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+OLD HECK'S STRATEGY
+
+It was late when Old Heck and the cowboys returned to the ranch. The
+runaway cattle had been overtaken on the sand-hills beyond the North
+Springs and it took the entire afternoon to bunch them and work the
+restless animals back to the Quarter Circle KT, into the big pasture,
+and repair the fence so it was safe to leave them for the night.
+
+Ophelia, Carolyn June and Parker were in the front room when Old Heck
+and the hungry cowboys clattered, long after dark, into the kitchen for
+the supper Sing Pete had kept warm for them.
+
+After the meal Skinny went into the room where Parker and the women
+were. Old Heck followed and talked for a few moments with Parker about
+the affairs of the ranch, then joined the cowboys at the bunk-house
+where they had gone directly after leaving the table. On Skinny's bed
+Parker had tossed a bundle.
+
+"What in thunder do you reckon Skinny's been buying, now?" Chuck
+questioned as he picked up the package and examined it curiously.
+"Blamed if it don't feel like a shirt."
+
+"I'll bet that's what it is," Bert said with a laugh as Old Heck
+stepped inside the door, "the darn fool has gone and got him a white
+shirt--"
+
+"Who has?" Old Heck asked, hearing only the latter part of Bert's
+remark.
+
+"Skinny," Charley answered for Bert, "he's fixing up to make love in
+style--"
+
+"Aw, the blamed idiot," Old Heck grunted, then glancing over toward
+Parker's bed: "--Did you notice whether Parker got him one, too, or
+not?"
+
+Before the question was answered Parker and Skinny appeared at the
+bunk-house door.
+
+"What's the matter?" Chuck said, still holding the bundle in his hand,
+"--ain't it too early for lovers to bu'st up for the night? Or did the
+widow and Carolyn June blow out the lights on you--"
+
+"Forget it, you danged fool!" Skinny said crossly. "Can't you ever get
+over your dog-goned craziness? They was just tired and went to bed. Give
+me that package, it's mine and private!" reaching for the bundle.
+
+Chuck, with a laugh, threw it at him. It landed on the Ramblin' Kid's
+bunk where the latter was lying, his clothing still on, his eyes staring
+straight up while he smoked a cigarette.
+
+"When are you going to ride the Gold Dust maverick?" Skinny asked as he
+picked up the package.
+
+For a moment the Ramblin' Kid did not answer. Then, without changing his
+position, replied:
+
+"I don't know as I'll ever ride her. Maybe I'll turn her loose again on
+th' range."
+
+"What did you catch her for?" Bert queried. "Don't you want her?"
+
+"I caught her, 'cause I wanted to," the Ramblin' Kid answered, "but that
+ain't no sign I intend to keep her. Hell, what's the use?" he finished
+indifferently.
+
+"If you want to sell her," Old Heck said, "I'll buy her."
+
+"She ain't for sale," the Ramblin' Kid answered shortly, "not to
+anybody."
+
+"She would be a thunderin' sight better off if she was used."
+
+"Would she?" the Ramblin' Kid questioned dully. "I ain't so sure about
+that."
+
+"Of course she would," Old Heck insisted, "she'd be fed regular and--"
+
+"An' be mauled around by some darned human!" the Ramblin' Kid
+interrupted with sudden vehemence. "If I was a horse," he continued,
+speaking passionately while his black eyes burned with the spirit of
+rebellion, "I'd rather be a short-grass cay-use nippin' th' scatterin'
+feed on th' north hills an' be free to snort an' raise hell when I
+blamed please than have my belly stuffed with alfalfa hay three times a
+day an' have to gnaw th' iron of some damned man's bit in my mouth or
+carry his saddle on my back!"
+
+Silence followed the outburst.
+
+Old Heck and the cowboys knew the Ramblin' Kid was in one of his
+"moods," and experience had taught them that at such times argument was
+neither discreet nor safe. The thing they did not know was that his
+heart was torn by memory of the agony of Old Blue in the quicksand and
+his mind tortured by the picture of dumb suffering a bullet from his own
+gun had, that morning, mercifully ended.
+
+After a time he spoke again, more quietly and with a note of weariness
+in his voice:
+
+"Oh, well, I reckon I'll keep th' filly. In a day of two, when she gets
+rested up a little, I'll ride her,"
+
+"You ought to break her for Carolyn June," Skinny suggested.
+
+"Had I?" the Ramblin' Kid said with a queer laugh--it was just the
+thought that was in his mind and against which he was struggling.
+"That's a bright idea! Maybe I'll study about it an' take a notion to do
+it. If I do she can ride th' maverick When you an' her go on your
+honeymoon--"
+
+"What's a honeymoon?" Skinny queried innocently.
+
+"It's what two people take when they first get married; go off somewhere
+by themselves--like they was locoed--to find out how bad they got
+stung!" the Ramblin' Kid laughingly answered.
+
+"We'd better all go to bed," Old Heck said; "it's late and we have to
+get up early in the morning. Parker, you and some of the boys will have
+to go skin them dead steers--we've got to save the hides at least."
+
+"Old Heck wants to go to sleep so he can dream about the widow," Chuck
+snickered, "it's his turn again to-morrow to love her--"
+
+"How did she act to-day, Parker?" Bert broke in; "was she pretty
+affectionate?"
+
+"Aw, shut up! Ain't you got any respect for anything--"
+
+"I'll bet he proposed to her and she throwed him down," Chuck hazarded,
+not realizing how nearly he had come to guessing the truth.
+
+Parker looked angrily at Chuck, then his cheeks grew red, he bent over
+and began tugging at his boots in an effort to hide the tell-tale
+confusion in his eyes.
+
+Old Heck furtively studied the face of his foreman.
+
+"Or else she confessed to being a Bolshevik or local-optionist or
+something and the news broke his heart," Charley volunteered, joining in
+the baiting of the range-boss.
+
+"She didn't neither confess," Parker denied hastily, aggravated into a
+reply, "she ain't either one of them! She's an 'Organizer--'"
+
+Dead silence greeted this sudden announcement. Every eye was turned in
+astonishment on Parker while Old Heck and the boys awaited further
+explanation. Parker offered no additional information.
+
+"She's a what?" Old Heck finally managed to whisper, leaning toward
+Parker, while a look of fear and incredulity spread over his face.
+
+Parker noticed the anguish in Old Heck's eyes and a sudden new look of
+cunning came into his own.
+
+"An 'Organizer' I said," he repeated impressively, "she's an 'Organizer'
+for some kind of 'Movement' or other--"
+
+"A dis-organizer, you'd better say!" Chuck laughed uncertainly, "judging
+from the way she's got you and Old Heck stampeding already!"
+
+"Great guns!" Old Heck half groaned, "what--what sort of
+a--a--'Movement' did she say it was, anyhow?"
+
+"Swiss, probably!" came in a chuckling undertone from the direction of
+the Ramblin' Kid's bed. "Hell, what's the difference?"
+
+"She said it was connected someway with 'feminine obligations and
+woman's opportunity,'" Parker answered, ignoring the frivolous
+interruptions.
+
+"I know what she is!" Charley exclaimed, "--it's just what I expected!
+She's one of these self-starting female suffragettes! That's what she
+is. I knowed she was too gentle acting to be harmless!"
+
+"She just had to break loose sooner or later," Bert said in an awed
+voice.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck murmured hopelessly. "Holy gosh a'mighty!"
+
+The owner of the Quarter Circle KT was really shocked and worried. He
+had surrendered quickly to his first impression concerning the widow.
+The original meeting at Eagle Butte, when she and Carolyn June appeared
+as visions of feminine loveliness, as contrasted with the homely cook
+and her daughter whom he and Skinny had mistaken for, and feared were,
+the Quarter Circle KT's prospective guests, had caused a psychic effect
+on his feelings toward Ophelia. The sense of relief that came when he
+found that the cook was not Ophelia, together with the widow's
+unexpected graciousness, had instantly disarmed his suspicions and,
+metaphorically speaking, hurled his heart into her lap. He had found the
+widow charming, interesting, very feminine, and already dreams had
+shaped themselves in his mind. The sudden revelation that Parker had
+made brought tremendous disappointment. Ophelia had not shown the least
+indication of obnoxious strong-mindedness or that disagreeable
+intellectuality which Old Heck firmly believed was a necessary attribute
+of all women who participated in politics or "movements."
+
+Ophelia was an "Organizer"! It was unbelievable! The thought gave him a
+sickening feeling at the pit of his stomach and actually made his head
+ache.
+
+Old Heck's first impulse, when Parker made the startling announcement,
+was to assert his authority as boss of the outfit and annul the
+every-other-day arrangement whereby he and his foreman were to share and
+share alike in the widow's society. He would let Parker do it all--have
+her all of the time! He wouldn't take any chances! On second thought he
+decided to wait at least another day. Besides, it was against his
+principles, contrary to the ethics of the range, to back up on a bargain
+and he never asked an employee to do a thing he hadn't the courage to do
+himself. He would stick it out, come what may, and see the thing through
+to a finish. However, there was still a means of escape. If Ophelia
+developed any really serious suffragette tendencies during the next day
+or two he would go on the beef hunt himself and let Parker remain at the
+ranch!
+
+When finally he went to sleep Ophelia was still on his mind. The first
+thought that came to him when he awakened the next morning was the
+sickening news Parker had brought.
+
+Old Heck and the cowboys were silent and had about them an air of
+depression when they filed into the kitchen for breakfast.
+
+Each cast furtive, curious glances at Ophelia. The information that she
+was an "Organizer"--presumably for a "Movement" involving woman's
+political rights--caused them to view her with a kind of reverential awe
+and fear. The widow and Carolyn June, apparently, were wholly
+unconscious of the thoughts in the minds of the men. Both women were as
+innocent-looking and attractive as ever--matching with their early
+morning freshness the bowl of roses Carolyn June, before the call to
+breakfast, had gathered and placed on the table.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid sat at the right of Carolyn June. It was the first
+time they had met at the table. He said nothing and seemingly was lost
+in thought. When they had entered the kitchen Carolyn June and he had
+spoken and for a moment he looked into her eyes with an expression that
+caused her own to drop and the warm blood to rush over her throat and
+face. She had felt that same sensation of "soul-nakedness" she
+experienced when she looked into his eyes that first time when she was
+at the circular corral and he was lying under the shed. Neither spoke of
+the incidents of the previous day.
+
+The other cowboys and Old Heck studied Ophelia with a sort of
+fascination, casting shy upward glances at her from over their plates.
+
+Parker and the Ramblin' Kid only, were at ease and undisturbed.
+
+"You wouldn't think she was one by looking at her, would you?" Chuck
+said in an undertone to Charley.
+
+"Some of them's so blamed slick they can't hide it."
+
+"I reckon that's right," Chuck whispered back, "it's an awful jolt to
+Old Heck, ain't it?"
+
+"Yes, he's taking it pretty hard," Charley mumbled.
+
+"Her forehead does bulge out a good deal in front, when you come to look
+at it, don't it?" Chuck observed under his breath.
+
+"Quite a lot," Charley answered in the same tone; "that's one
+indication!"
+
+Parker gazed at the widow with an expression undeniably adoring. Old
+Heck saw it and straightened up with a look of sudden resolution on his
+face. If Parker wasn't afraid of Ophelia, by golly, he wouldn't be! The
+widow had returned the foreman's look with understanding, while more
+than a trace of tenderness and sympathy was registered in her eyes.
+
+"To-morrow is Sunday," Old Heck announced suddenly with startling
+distinctness, "and we'll get things in shape to begin the beef round-up
+on Monday!"
+
+There was immediate interest.
+
+"I'll be darned," the Ramblin' Kid murmured half audibly, "Old Heck is
+goin' to 'Uriah' Parker!"
+
+"Huh?" Skinny queried across the table.
+
+"Nothin'," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a laugh, "I was just reminded
+of somethin' I read in a book one time--"
+
+Carolyn June caught the subtle reference to the Bible story of King
+David's unfortunate romance with another man's "woman" and chuckled.
+
+"Ain't you starting the beef hunt too early?" Charley asked.
+
+"I don't know as I am," Old Heck answered doggedly.
+
+"Aw, that'll put us right in the middle of it on the Fourth of July when
+the Rodeo is going on in Eagle Butte--" Bert began.
+
+"And I ain't going to miss that, either," Chuck interrupted, "that
+Y-Bar outfit over on the Vermejo took everything in the two-mile
+sweepstakes last year and they've been bragging about it ever since.
+They think that Thunderbolt horse of theirs can't be beat. I was going
+to put Silver Tip in this year. He can put that black in second place--"
+
+"No, he can't," the Ramblin' Kid remarked quietly, "--you'd lose your
+money. There's only one animal on th' Kiowa range that can outrun that
+Vermejo horse."
+
+"What animal is that?" Charley asked.
+
+"She's in th' circular corral," the Ramblin' Kid answered laconically.
+
+"The Gold Dust maverick?" Bert questioned.
+
+"That's the one I mean," the Ramblin' Kid replied in a low voice, "for
+two miles--or five--there ain't nothin' in western Texas, or Mexico
+either, that can catch her."
+
+"Why don't you take her in when the Rodeo is on and run her in the
+sweepstakes then?" Chuck asked eagerly. "I ain't caring what Kiowa horse
+gets the money just so that Y-Bar outfit is taken down a notch or two.
+Ever since they got that Thunderbolt horse and beat Old Heck's
+Quicksilver with him they've been crowing over the Quarter Circle KT and
+I'm getting plumb sick of it--"
+
+"Old Heck lost three thousand dollars on that race!" Bert interrupted
+rather triumphantly.
+
+"I didn't neither," Old Heck corrected sullenly, "it was only
+twenty-five hundred!"
+
+"Well, that Vermejo crowd has got a hundred of mine," Chuck said
+vindictively, "but I don't give a darn for that--I'd be willing to lose
+twice that much again just to set that Thunderbolt horse of theirs back
+in second place!"
+
+"Why don't you run the outlaw filly?" Charley asked coaxingly of the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Yes, go on and put her in," Skinny urged, "--you ought to!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid remained silent, seemingly indifferent to the teasing
+of the others.
+
+Carolyn June leaned over and said, in a voice audible only to him, while
+her eyes grew mellow with a look that tested his composure to the
+uttermost but which wrung no sign from him:
+
+"Please, race the maverick--I--want you to--Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+It was the first time she had used his name in speaking directly to him
+and the tone in which it was spoken made him tremble in spite of
+himself. For a moment he returned her gaze. Her words and manner were so
+different that by their very difference they reminded him of what she
+had called him yesterday--"an ignorant, savage, stupid brute"--when he
+had refused to interfere with the cat when its head was caught in the
+can. He started to make a cynical reply. Then he remembered her sympathy
+for Old Blue, her apology later for the harsh words--anyhow he knew or
+felt in his heart they were true--and suddenly he seemed to see the
+pink satin garter he still carried in his pocket. The look that came
+into his eyes made Carolyn June lower her own. He smiled a whimsical but
+hopeless smile, as, replying apparently to the pleading of Charley and
+Skinny, he said, softly, the single word:
+
+"Maybe!"
+
+Old Heck had forgotten the annual Rodeo held in Eagle Butte, for some
+days each summer, around the Fourth of July. His sudden determination
+and eagerness to have the beef round-up begin earlier than usual in
+order to get Parker away from the widow had driven all else but that one
+idea from his mind. The protests reminded him of his oversight. He had
+not intended to deprive the cowboys of the opportunity to enjoy the one
+big event happening yearly in the Kiowa country and which temporarily
+turned Eagle Butte, for a few days each summer, into a seething
+metropolis of care-free humanity.
+
+"I think it's a darned shame to spring the beef hunt so it will
+interfere with the Rodeo," Bert grumbled, "--and us have to be out on
+the hills wrangling steers while the celebration is going on!"
+
+"I'm not-goin! to be out on th' hills then," the Ramblin' Kid said
+quietly but with unchangeable finality.
+
+"You can all go to the Rodeo," Old Heck interposed, not feeling just
+right in his conscience about sending Parker away in advance of the time
+expected, and wishing to make amends,"--Parker and all of you. You can
+'break' the round-up for a few days during the Rodeo and what cattle
+you've got gathered by then can be turned into the big pasture and held
+there till it's over. That'll let you all get into Eagle Butte for the
+Fourth--I'd like to see that blamed Thunderbolt horse beat myself! But
+we'll start the beef hunt Monday the way I said in the first place--"
+
+"Who's going to cook, this year, on the round-up?" Charley queried. "You
+can't take the Chink from here this time, can you?"
+
+"I reckon Sing Pete'll have to go along as usual," Old Heck answered;
+"it'll make it a little unhandy at the ranch, but--"
+
+"Ophelia and I can 'batch' while you are gone," Carolyn June suggested.
+"We won't mind being alone and it will be fun to cook our own meals."
+
+"We will enjoy it," Ophelia added agreeably.
+
+"You ain't going to be alone," Old Heck said; "Skinny and me will be
+here. When it comes to the cooking maybe between the four of us we can
+get along some way!"
+
+"Well, if the round-up's got to start Monday," Parker declared sullenly
+as they left the table, "I'll have to go down to town again to-day and
+get me a new saddle. Mine was on Old Blue."
+
+"I'll go with you," Old Heck said in a conciliatory way. "Charley and
+the other boys can be working on them dead steers till we get back.
+We'll go in the car and ought to make the round-trip by noon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+FIXING FIXERS
+
+The widow and Carolyn June were alone at the house. Old Heck and Parker
+went immediately from the breakfast table to the garage to get the car
+out to go to Eagle Butte. The cowboys were at the barn preparing to
+begin the day's work. Skinny had excused himself, ostensibly to attend
+to some ranch chores, but in reality to get away to the bunk-house and
+"fix up" for the day's courtship of Carolyn June. He planned, when the
+cowboys were gone, to put on the white shirt Parker brought, yesterday,
+from Eagle Butte.
+
+"Ophelia," Carolyn June said mysteriously as they stepped out on the
+front porch and filled their lungs with the clean air of the morning,
+"you made a 'discovery' yesterday, I believe?" pausing questioningly.
+
+"Yes," the widow smiled, recalling their conversation relative to
+Parker's abrupt proposal of marriage.
+
+"To-day," Carolyn June continued impressively, "it is my turn--I have
+made one!"
+
+"And it is?"
+
+"You and I have been 'framed!'" was the answer spoken solemnly yet
+scarcely louder than a whisper, while the brown eyes of Carolyn June
+sparkled with a mixture of suppressed anger, merriment and indignation.
+
+"Framed?" the widow repeated inquiringly, "just what does 'framed' mean,
+my dear?"
+
+"Framed means," Carolyn June replied wisely, "'tricked,' 'jobbed,'
+'jinxed,' 'fixed,' or whatever it is people do to people when they
+scheme to do something to them without the ones to whom they are doing
+it knowing how it is done!"
+
+"Exceedingly lucid, my love," the widow laughed, "but you are so
+agonizingly fond of suspense--"
+
+"Come inside," Carolyn June said as she led the way into the house, "and
+in a dark corner--no, that would be too near to the walls and their
+proverbial 'ears,' in the center of the room is better--I will expose
+the whole diabolical plot!"
+
+At the end of the reading table they stopped and faced each other.
+
+"And now?" Ophelia said, expectantly.
+
+"And now," Carolyn June repeated, her voice low and carefully guarded.
+"Listen: Before Ophelia Cobb and Carolyn June Dixon ever arrived at this
+Quarter Circle KT their 'lovers' were already picked out for
+them--officially chosen, delegated, appointed, foreordained and
+everything! The 'arrangements' had all been made--"
+
+"I don't understand," the widow said, bewildered by the rapid flow of
+legal-sounding words.
+
+"Nor did I at first," Carolyn June went on, "but I have figured it all
+out! I have 'discovered' what all this mysterious hinting about
+'arrangements,' 'the agreement,' 'Old Heck's day,' 'Parker's time,'
+'Skinny's job,' and so forth means! I have studied it out. Why is Skinny
+Rawlins thrown into my lap as my 'regular' lover? It's his 'job'--that
+is why! And why the day-and-day-about courting of yourself by Uncle
+Josiah and Parker? It is the 'agreement'--the one is to have you one day
+and the other the next! Before we came some such arrangement was fixed
+up. I am sure of it--"
+
+"Impossible," Ophelia protested, "preposterous!"
+
+"Outrageous!" Carolyn June added vehemently, "but truth just the same!
+To start with they didn't want us to come. That telegram lying about
+them all having the smallpox proved as much. We were, for some reason or
+other, considered 'afflictions,' Why, I don't know. I guess they thought
+we were a pair of female vampires or something and had to be disposed of
+in advance to prevent our stirring things up and causing a lot of
+murders or suicides or duels on the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"I can't believe it," Ophelia muttered as if stunned. "Why, that would
+be 'dealing' with us just as though we were cattle!"
+
+"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed vindictively, her anger for the
+moment getting the better of her sense of the ridiculous, "they 'dealt'
+in us! More than likely they played poker to decide how to divide us
+up--to see who should love you and which should love me! As if the heart
+of a woman can be made to run in a groove cut to order by the hand of
+any masculine--insect!" she finished, thoughtless of the incongruous
+metaphor.
+
+"Then Skinny and your Uncle Josiah," the widow murmured, "and
+Parker--are--are--pretending?"
+
+"No," Carolyn June answered, "they started out 'pretending,' but they've
+stepped into their own trap! They are painfully serious now--they are
+'intending!'"
+
+"What shall we do about it?" Ophelia asked helplessly.
+
+"We ought to assassinate them!" Carolyn June snapped, then laughed as
+the absurdity of the situation dawned upon her and her sense of humor
+overcame the moment of anger and indignation. "I have it--I've got it!
+We will Vamp' them in dead earnest! We'll fix the 'fixers,' we'll frame
+the 'framers'!"
+
+"But how?" doubtfully.
+
+"From now on," Carolyn June replied decisively, "I am going to flirt,
+individually and collectively--desperately and wickedly--with the whole
+male population of this ranch! We'll show them what premeditated
+love-making really is! When it comes to Uncle Josiah and, well, possibly
+Parker, you will have to take care of that giddy pair yourself and,
+incidentally, you might work some on Charley Saunders," mentioning the
+oldest of the cowboys. "I'll just flicker an eyelid occasionally at
+Parker, unless you object?"
+
+"Not in the least," Ophelia answered, blushing a trifle.
+
+"Well, then, we will make it a free-for-all," Carolyn June said, "and--"
+
+"How about the Ramblin' Kid?" the widow interrupted, "do you think he is
+one of the conspirators--is in on the--the--'frame-up?' Is he also to be
+a 'Victim'?"
+
+Carolyn June colored the least bit, paused a moment before she replied,
+then said rather stiffly:
+
+"He--yes, he is probably having more fun watching us being 'officially'
+made love to than any other one of the entire bunch. The Ramblin' Kid
+will have to take his medicine along with the rest! Every man-thing on
+the Quarter Circle KT--eliminating Sing Pete from that classification
+--is my meat!"
+
+"When does the slaughter begin?" Ophelia laughed.
+
+"Right now!" Carolyn June answered. "War is declared--"
+
+She stopped suddenly as a step sounded on the porch and a moment later
+Skinny entered the room. He was painfully "dressed up." The instant Old
+Heck and Parker, in the Clagstone "Six," started for Eagle Butte and the
+cowboys disappeared down the lane in the direction of the big pasture,
+Skinny struggled into the white shirt. He planned to try its effect on
+Carolyn June while the others were away. If it did not produce results
+he would slip back to the bunk-house before they returned and change
+again to his normal dress.
+
+When Skinny stepped into the room he was fully conscious of his unusual
+appearance. The morning was warm and he had not put on a coat. The shirt
+billowed over his shoulders, arms and chest in a snowy cloud. It seemed
+impossible to Skinny that anything in all the world could be so vividly,
+persistently white as the cloth that literally enveloped the upper half
+of his body. It actually gleamed. The sleeves of the shirt were too
+long. A pair of sky-blue, rosette-fastened, satin ribbon sleeve-holders
+above his elbows kept the cuffs from slipping over his hands. Parker had
+been unable to get the purple necktie and had brought, instead, one that
+was a solid Shamrock green. Skinny swore when he saw the tie, but
+decided to wear it anyhow. Parker had explained by saying he had
+forgotten the errand until he was starting from town and then stepped
+into Old Leon's--a cheap general store in Eagle Butte--and purchased the
+outfit from the Jew. That accounted also for the surplus length of
+sleeve--the shirt was a size and a half larger than Skinny had ordered
+and for which Parker declared positively he had asked. Eternal hatred
+for all Hebrews was born in Skinny's heart the moment he saw the layout.
+But, well, it was there; he was anxious to see if a white shirt would
+have any effect, and he would wear it anyway.
+
+Skinny knew instantly that he made an impression on Carolyn June.
+
+She looked at him once and was speechless!
+
+"By gosh," he said to himself, "Chuck was right! It sure does beat hell
+how clothes affect a woman!"
+
+Carolyn June, unquestionably, was overcome. The surprise had been too
+much for her. He had knocked her cold! The shirt had done the work! She
+bit nervously at the nail of her thumb, pressed desperately against her
+teeth. Her whole body trembled. Her face flamed scarlet. Skinny saw her
+agitation and resolved at that moment that he would never again be
+without a white shirt!
+
+Ophelia also was visibly affected. The widow gave one look at Skinny,
+glanced quickly at Carolyn June, then, with her hands clasped tightly
+against her breast, she leaned weakly against the table and chewed at
+her underlip. She started to speak and stopped.
+
+"Well, I--I--got back!" Skinny said, breaking the spell while he grinned
+somewhat sheepishly and yet with an air of complete satisfaction.
+
+"I--I--see you--did!" Carolyn June choked hysterically.
+
+"I was gone longer than I aimed to be," Skinny continued, rapidly
+gaining confidence as he saw the confusion of the women; "after I got
+the chores done I concluded to fix up a little. This is the first time I
+ever wore this shirt," he went on, feeling that a bit of explanation was
+entirely proper and would probably help in restoring the composure of
+Carolyn June and the widow. "Parker just brought it out yesterday and it
+was a good deal of trouble to make the collar work right. It seemed like
+it was pretty stiff or something. Generally speaking the whole outfit's
+bigger than it really ought to be, but maybe it'll shrink up some when
+it's washed," he finished in a casual matter-of-fact way.
+
+"It--it--is wonderful!" Carolyn June stammered, "it is--I don't think I
+ever saw one that was--was--whiter--"
+
+"It looked that way to me," Skinny interrupted as if glad some one else
+had noticed a peculiarity of the garment that already had troubled him
+somewhat, "I thought it was uncommonly white!"
+
+"Perhaps it just seems that way because we are not used to it," Ophelia
+suggested sympathetically.
+
+"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed feverishly, "it is because we are
+not used to it--it will be perfectly all right when we have looked at it
+a little more!"
+
+Skinny decided he would risk the gauntlet of comment from Parker, Old
+Heck and the cowboys and wear the shirt the rest of the day.
+
+Carolyn June was really sorry for Skinny, but--she needed air--she felt
+she must have it.
+
+"Please," she cried suddenly and with, an effort, "excuse me! I--I--have
+something I wish to do! You," speaking to Skinny, "and Ophelia stay here
+and visit each other a while!"
+
+Without waiting for an answer she stepped quickly into the kitchen,
+asked Sing Pete for a handful of sugar and hurried out to the circular
+corral.
+
+"Oh, Skinny, Skinny, you are so funny," she laughed aloud as she went
+through the back-yard gate. "It breaks my heart to break your heart--but
+you are one of the 'fixers' and you've got to be 'fixed.'"
+
+The Gold Dust maverick at first was shy when Carolyn June opened the
+gate and entered the corral. After a few moments she recognized the girl
+and was soon eating the sugar from the hand of Carolyn June. Before the
+supply was exhausted the friendship and confidence of the two, begun
+yesterday, was firmly reestablished. The maverick allowed Carolyn June
+to swing her weight from the glossy withers, to clasp her arms tightly
+about the trim, clean-built neck, and when, after an hour, the girl
+started toward the house, the outlaw mare protested so eagerly against
+being left alone that she turned back to the corral and leaning against
+the fence stroked the soft muzzle thrust between the bars.
+
+Carolyn June was cooing endearing terms to the filly and playing with
+the quivering underlip when she heard a horse galloping swiftly up the
+lane and past the barn. Instinctively she stepped back and turned just
+as the Ramblin' Kid, riding Captain Jack, wheeled around the end of the
+shed near the corral.
+
+His sudden appearance surprised her. She had thought he was with the
+cowboys over at the upland pasture helping skin the steers killed by the
+lightning.
+
+When they left the ranch the Ramblin' Kid had ridden away with Charley
+and the others, but not with any intention of going to the big pasture.
+Where the road turned toward the lower ford he held Captain Jack to the
+left.
+
+"Ain't you going with us," Charley Saunders asked, "and help skin them
+steers?"
+
+"No," the Ramblin' Kid replied quietly. "I ain't. I've got something
+else to do. Anyhow, I ain't a butcher--I work with live cattle, not dead
+ones!" he concluded as Captain Jack continued in the direction of the
+upper crossing.
+
+"He's the independentest darn' cuss I ever saw!" Charley remarked to his
+companions as the Ramblin' Kid disappeared. "It's a wonder Old Heck
+don't fire him."
+
+"He can't," Bert laughed. "Th' Ramblin' Kid don't stay at the Quarter
+Circle KT by the grace of Old Heck, but by the choice of th' Ramblin'
+Kid! Anyhow, he's too good with horses--" His voice trailed away to a
+low mutter as they turned in among the willows and cottonwood trees
+along the bank of the Cimarron.
+
+At the upper crossing on almost the same spot where he had lifted
+Carolyn June from the quicksand to the solid ground of the meadow land,
+the Ramblin' Kid stopped Captain Jack. He looked out over the placid,
+unbroken surface of the sand-bar and saw the end of the broken rope
+coiled loosely where Old Blue had been drawn under. A few yards away the
+white felt hat Carolyn June had tossed to one side, to be a mute and
+pathetic messenger of her fate, when she thought death was certain,
+still rested on the smooth surface of the sand. It was to get the hat
+the Ramblin' Kid had come again to the scene of yesterday's tragedy. He
+had seen it lying there when Carolyn June and he rode away on Captain
+Jack and thought then of trying to get it, but the part of the broken
+rope attached to his saddle was too short to reach it and it was
+impossible to secure it in any other way. Chuck had returned the
+Ramblin' Kid's rope to him yesterday when they were after the runaway
+steers and it was now on his saddle. He lightly tossed the noose so that
+it fell circling the object he sought. Gently flicking the rope toward
+him he tightened the loop about the crown of the hat and drew it to the
+edge of the quicksand. He picked up the hat, looked curiously at it,
+remounted Captain Jack, paused a moment and gazed at the treacherous
+surface beneath which the body of Old Blue was hidden and with a
+savagely muttered something about "th' damned stuff!" whirled the little
+stallion and rode rapidly in the direction from which he came.
+
+As Captain Jack galloped along the lane the Ramblin' Kid looked at the
+hat curiously, turning it first one way and then the other. With a
+laugh he reached into his pocket and drew out the pink satin garter. An
+expression of tenderness, followed by a look of deep humility that
+quickly changed into savage anger, came into his eyes as he looked first
+at the hat, soiled and dirty, and then at the dainty bit of elastic he
+held in his hand.
+
+"A swell pair of souvenirs," he said bitterly, "for an 'ign'rant,
+savage, stupid brute' of a cow-puncher to be packin' around!"
+
+Before reaching the barn the Ramblin' Kid dropped the garter again into
+his pocket. Rounding the end of the shed he rode Captain Jack directly
+up to Carolyn June. Dismounting, he left the little roan standing, not
+troubling to drop the reins over the broncho's head, stepped toward the
+girl and extended the hat, saying simply and without emotion.
+
+"Here's your hat!"
+
+There was no embarrassment now or humility in his eyes as he looked
+steadily at Carolyn June. His expression was as cold as if the one to
+whom he spoke was an utter stranger.
+
+"I--" Carolyn June hesitated, "oh, I thank you! It was kind of you to
+think about it and ride back--back--there," she involuntarily
+shuddered when she thought of the upper crossing, "and get it!"
+
+The simple, unexpected thoughtfulness of the deed touched her. It was
+the natural, instinctive act of a gentleman. She had forgotten the hat.
+He had not. As she looked at him she felt that, someway, she might have
+known such a thing was exactly what he would do.
+
+"You're welcome," he said quietly, starting to turn away.
+
+A spirit of mischief suddenly flared up in her heart. She thought of the
+pink elastic she had lost and which she believed he was carrying now in
+his pocket.
+
+"Is the hat all--didn't you--" she intended to say "find something
+else?" but quickly stopped. The Ramblin' Kid paused and turned again
+toward Carolyn June. She hesitated in confusion. It had flashed to her
+mind that if he had the garter he would not lie about it. He would say
+as much and offer to return it to her. Someway, she did not wish
+that--she wanted him to keep it, but she did not want him to know that
+she wanted her garter to be carried by him!
+
+His black eyes looked keenly at her, as if they would force from her
+lips the thing she evidently dared not say.
+
+"I--I was just getting acquainted with the Gold Dust maverick!" Carolyn
+June finished lamely with a nervous laugh.
+
+"You want to be careful," the Ramblin' Kid said with the slightest curl
+of his lips at her obvious shifting of meanings, "she ain't exactly a
+'lady's animal' yet. She'll fight. Skinny started to go in th' corral
+this morning an' had to back up. Th' maverick went at him to kill.
+She's goin' to be a 'one-man' horse th' same as Captain Jack."
+
+"Perhaps it was because she was afraid of him," Carolyn June suggested.
+
+"Maybe it was because Skinny was afraid of her," the Ramblin' Kid
+chuckled.
+
+"Aren't you going to ride the filly in that race at Eagle Butte?" she
+asked suddenly with a hint of coquetry in her eyes and voice.
+
+"Why?" he shot back at her, observing the changed inflection and look.
+
+"I--I--would like you to," Carolyn June murmured demurely as she
+followed up the feminine method of mastering a man, "it would be fun to
+see her run!"
+
+"Is that all?" the Ramblin' Kid asked gently and with a peculiar
+emphasis.
+
+"Isn't that enough?" the girl countered in a tone bordering close to the
+tender.
+
+The answer was slow in coming.
+
+"Th' Gold Dust maverick will be in th' sweepstakes," the Ramblin' Kid
+finally said, a note of contempt in his voice. "I'll ride her"--as he
+jerked the saddle from Captain Jack, turned the stallion into the
+corral, then started toward the bunk-house, while Carolyn June moved
+away in the direction of the back-yard gate--"I'll ride her," he
+repeated, emphasizing strongly the last ten words, "_to beat that
+Thunderbolt horse from over on th' Vermejo_".
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+A DANCE AND A RIDE
+
+Old Heck and Parker returned from Eagle Butte before noon. Parker
+climbed silently from the Clagstone "Six" and lifting out a new saddle
+went toward the stable. Old Heck carried another--a beautiful thing,
+artistically scrolled, the horn and stirrups silver trimmed--and laid it
+on the front porch as Carolyn June, Ophelia and Skinny stepped out of
+the big room.
+
+"It's yours," he said to Carolyn June.
+
+"Oh, you darling old uncle!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around his
+neck and giving a tight squeeze while she kissed him full on the mouth.
+
+He reddened. "I ain't so darned old!" he laughed as he withdrew from her
+embrace and, glancing up, caught sight of Skinny in the immaculate
+shirt. "My Gawd!" he whispered under his breath.
+
+Parker immediately saddled a horse and rode away to join the cowboys at
+their work. Lunches for the party had been taken with them when they
+left the ranch in the morning. During the trip to Eagle Butte Old Heck
+and his foreman had talked but little. There was a feeling of restraint
+between Parker and him that made each hesitate to start a conversation
+that would be almost certain to work around to a discussion of
+Ophelia--a subject uppermost in the minds of both.
+
+At noon the Ramblin' Kid came to the house for dinner.
+
+He and Skinny occupied their usual places. He looked once at Skinny's
+shirt, murmured softly and in a tone of infinite disgust and pity,
+"Hell!" then ate his food in silence. During the meal Carolyn June
+ignored him, but smiled tenderly and often at Skinny. Old Heck and the
+widow, at the far end of the table, carried on a low-voiced dialogue.
+
+During the afternoon the Ramblin' Kid remained away from the house. A
+couple of times, glancing out of the window, Carolyn June saw him at the
+circular corral petting and caressing Captain Jack or the Gold Dust
+maverick.
+
+When Sing Pete hammered the iron triangle announcing supper Parker and
+the cowboys had returned, the hides from the dead steers had been
+unloaded and the men were ready for the meal.
+
+As Carolyn June and Ophelia went into the kitchen they exchanged a look
+of understanding. Skinny lagged behind Old Heck. He dreaded the shock of
+the white shirt on the other cowboys. When he stepped into the room his
+face flamed scarlet and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. He
+expected merciless, sarcastic chiding--thinly veiled but cruel. He was
+disappointed. The cowboys looked at him for a moment, exchanged winks,
+then sat silently and solemnly down to the table. The presence of the
+women had saved, for the time being, the suffering Skinny.
+
+Carolyn June distributed tender words and velvety looks impartially
+among the younger cowboys, while Ophelia alternated sweet nothings
+between Parker and Old Heck, with an occasional sidelong glance at
+Charley that brought a heightened color to his sun-browned cheeks.
+
+Chuck sighed dolefully.
+
+"Why so sad?" Carolyn June asked gently, looking with melting sympathy
+at the pensive cowboy.
+
+"I--I--was just thinking of a--a--funeral I saw once!" he answered,
+gazing steadily and with pretended awe at Skinny's white shirt. "Some
+colors always remind me of funerals or--or--weddings!" he explained.
+
+A suppressed snicker circled the table.
+
+"Don't be down-hearted," Carolyn June laughed, "it may not go that far.
+
+"Uncle Josiah," she added suddenly, "Ophelia and I have a wonderful
+surprise for you and the boys."
+
+Old Heck looked at her without replying while he awaited an explanation.
+
+"We are going to give a dance!" Carolyn June went on.
+
+"A dance?" he repeated incredulously, "when--"
+
+"To-night--in the front room," she hastened to explain, "not a big
+dance--just a little one for you and the boys. The graphophone will
+furnish music, there are some good one-step and waltz records--Skinny
+and I were playing them this afternoon--and every blessed cowboy on the
+Quarter Circle KT must be there!"
+
+A short silence followed her words, then a chorus of "We'll be there!"
+greeted her.
+
+"In an hour," Carolyn June said, smiling sweetly at the cowboys, as they
+left the kitchen, "everybody be back at the house. We'll fix the room
+and have it ready--don't any one bother to 'dress up,'" she added as an
+afterthought.
+
+"Old Heck's niece acts kind of stampedish, don't she?" Bert remarked as
+Parker and the cowboys filed out of the back-yard gate toward the
+bunk-house.
+
+"Yes," Charley answered. "I'm going to shave."
+
+"So am I," said Chuck, as they hurried in the direction of their
+sleeping quarters.
+
+"Me, too," laughed Bert. "Gee, didn't Skinny shine in that shirt?" as
+they disappeared inside the building and there was a rush to hunt out
+razors, brushes and other toilet necessities or clean handkerchiefs and
+ties.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid alone seemed uninterested. He dropped down on his bed
+and idly watched the others prepare for the evening's diversion.
+
+"Ain't you going?" Chuck asked him, noticing his indifference.
+
+A short, half-cynical laugh with "Oh, maybe I'll go set on the porch
+an' listen to th' music!" was the answer.
+
+When Parker and the cowboys reappeared at the house it was plain that
+all had disobeyed Carolyn June's injunction not to "dress up." Each had
+paid tribute in some way, by a smooth-scraped face, a dean shirt, a tie
+or something, to the vanity of his own heart and the desire for the good
+opinion of either Carolyn June or the widow.
+
+Both women noticed it. They exchanged glances while Carolyn June softly
+whispered to Ophelia: "Stir them up--it's coming to them!"
+
+The widow smiled understandingly.
+
+Old Heck fidgeted uncomfortably. The situation was entirely beyond his
+control. By right he and Ophelia ought to be sitting there quietly
+making love, while Skinny and Carolyn June, in another corner of the
+room or out on the porch, were doing the same thing. He would just have
+to await developments.
+
+Parker was elated. Carolyn June's proposal had broken up Old Heck's
+evening alone with the widow. Perhaps--the thought thrilled the foreman
+--Ophelia herself had planned it!
+
+"Skinny can keep the graphophone working," Carolyn June laughed. "Put on
+a one-step first," she said as he rather grudgingly went to the corner
+and started the music. "Come on, Bert, we'll dance this one," she cried
+merrily, as she stepped up to the blushing cowboy and put her hand, with
+a tender little pressure, on his arm. "It's 'ladies' night,' you
+know--Ophelia, pick your pardner!"
+
+"Aw--don't you reckon you ought to choose one of the others first?"
+Bert, considerably embarrassed by the sudden attention, mumbled as he
+moved with pretended reluctance but secret eagerness out on to the
+floor.
+
+"I know who I want to dance with!" Carolyn June whispered significantly
+with another squeeze of his arm while her warm breath fanned his cheek.
+
+For a moment Ophelia stood as if undecided while Old Heck and Parker
+each tried by their looks to register unconcern, their hearts meanwhile
+leaping with uncertain expectancy and hope. Suddenly turning from both
+and going up to Charley, she said softly and with well-feigned shyness:
+
+"I--I--please, won't you dance this one with me?"
+
+"With the most exceeding pleasure!" Charley replied gallantly, arising
+and reaching out his hands.
+
+Parker and Old Heck gulped their astonishment and disappointment--each
+swallowing as if he had something in his throat that would not go
+down--and glared savagely at each other.
+
+Skinny next put on a waltz record. Carolyn June and Chuck swung through
+its dreamy rhythm while her hair brushed the cowboy's neck and her eyes,
+half closed, looked alluringly into his. "I--I--could do this
+forever--with you!" she breathed, accenting the last word and making
+Chuck want to yell for joy.
+
+At the beginning of the waltz Ophelia paused a moment before Old Heck,
+glanced demurely at Parker, took a step toward the latter, turned
+quickly to the first and flooding him with a look of tenderness held out
+her hands while she spoke the simple entreaty:
+
+"Please!"
+
+Old Heck leaped to his feet, hitched nervously at the belt of his
+trousers, ran his fingers around the inside of his collar, and, with a
+look of triumph at Parker, led the widow through the dance. She
+permitted her body to relax and lean against her partner, dancing with
+an abandon that not only fired the emotions of Old Heck to fever heat,
+but was as well like dippers of oil on the flame of the foreman's
+jealousy.
+
+Parker gritted his teeth and followed Old Heck with a look that meant
+nothing less than the desire to kill!
+
+As Ophelia and Old Heck, and Carolyn June with Chuck circled the room
+Skinny leaned weakly against the graphophone. He was tortured
+agonizingly by the strange action of Carolyn June. He was her lover, her
+official, absolute lover! Why did she want to go and get things all
+mixed up like this? It wasn't fair. The other boys were not supposed to
+make love to her! They had elected him to do it and he was getting
+along all right till she thought of having this blamed fool dance. He
+began to doubt the efficacy of the white shirt and frequently drew one
+of the loose, baggy sleeves--rapidly losing their snowy
+spotlessness--across his face to rid himself of beads of perspiration.
+
+The waltz was followed by another one-step and Ophelia granted this
+favor to Parker while Old Heck sat and swore steadily under his
+breath--regretful that he had not sent the foreman and the cowboys out
+on the beef hunt a week ago!
+
+Outside, the Ramblin' Kid half-reclined on the edge of the porch. With a
+cigarette between his teeth, a sneering smile on his lips, he watched,
+through the open door, the group within. He was convinced now that
+Carolyn June was utterly frivolous. She danced and flirted with Bert,
+Chuck, Charley--and even Pedro--one after the other and occasionally
+Parker. Poor Skinny alone was neglected. She seemed to have forgotten
+that he existed save when, from time to time, she suggested that he put
+this or that record on the graphophone. To each of the cowboys she
+whispered tender little sentiments, gave soulful looks and insinuating
+smiles--all but caressed them openly. Ophelia did like things to Old
+Heck, Parker and Charley.
+
+In very truth it was a "slaughter."
+
+It was hot. After an hour Carolyn June stepped out on the porch for a
+breath of air while Skinny sought in the cabinet for a record she had
+asked him to play. The Ramblin' Kid straightened up as she came out of
+the door. He was disgusted, angry, heart-sickened. He had seen enough
+and was starting to leave.
+
+Carolyn June had noticed the absence of the Ramblin' Kid. She had
+believed, all evening, he was on the porch and that was the real reason
+she had come outside. She saw him. "Oh, is--is--that you, Ramblin'
+Kid?" she exclaimed as if surprised, and went quickly to where, at the
+sound of her voice, he had paused.
+
+He did not answer. The light shone full on his face and he knew that she
+knew--and had known before she spoke--that he was there. His eyes were
+filled with a look queerly blending scorn, loathing, pity and pain.
+
+"Why--why--don't you come in and dance?" she asked lightly, not certain
+of his mood.
+
+"I don't want to," he replied coldly: "anyhow--" he added with a sneer
+and a brutal laugh as he slowly moved away in the darkness, "when I
+decide to _hug_ I'll hug in private!"
+
+Carolyn June started almost as though he had struck her. The taunt was
+an insult! A flood of anger swept over her. "The brute!" she whispered
+passionately and with utter contempt in her voice. She stood a moment.
+Suddenly she remembered the reckless abandon with which she had been
+dancing and flirting with the cowboys inside the house. Her face flamed
+scarlet. She looked out into the blackness toward the circular corral.
+Her expression changed and a pitying smile crossed her lips: "Poor
+Ramblin' Kid--he just--does not understand!" she murmured and stepped
+back into the house.
+
+As the Ramblin' Kid passed through the back-yard gate he muttered
+savagely under his breath: "Playin' with their hearts like marbles--th'
+damned fools!" He paused a moment and added, as though tired, "Oh, well,
+I reckon she thinks she has to do it--it's her breed--she was raised
+that way I guess!"
+
+The snuffling sound of a horse blowing hay-powder or other dust from its
+nostrils came from the direction of the circular corral. The Ramblin'
+Kid stopped in his walk and turning went thoughtfully through the
+darkness toward where Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were
+quietly feeding. He leaned against the bars of the corral and looked at
+the shadowy forms of the two horses standing a little distance away.
+Captain Jack quit eating and came to the fence.
+
+"God! Little Horse"--the Ramblin' Kid spoke tensely and without
+repression--"why can't humans be as decent an' honest as you?"
+
+The black dome of night was studded with innumerable stars that gleamed
+like points of silver sprinkled over a canopy of somber velvet some
+infinite hand had flung, in a great arch, from rim to rim of a sleeping
+world. The call of a night bird shrilled softly from the cottonwood
+trees along the Cimarron. A hint of a breeze swung idly from the west
+and rustled the leaves in the tops of the poplars in front of the house.
+Faintly as a distant echo came the wailing strains of a waltz, drifting
+out from the lighted windows and the open door of the room where Carolyn
+June and Ophelia, in a spirit of sport and for revenge, juggled the
+hearts of men afraid of nothing in all the world but the look in a
+Woman's eyes.
+
+The music tortured the soul of the Ramblin' Kid. It breathed the
+unfathomable strife of life--of love, longing, hope, despair--almost,
+yet subtly, elusively, would not tell the eternal "Why?" of all things.
+
+Not heeding time, he stood and listened. The crunching sound made by the
+Gold Dust maverick, munching at the pile of hay on the ground in the
+corral, blended with and seemed a queer accompaniment to the melody that
+came from the scene of revelry up at the house.
+
+The orange disk of a late-rising moon showed above the rim of the
+sand-hills at the lower end of the valley. The Ramblin' Kid watched
+it--until it grew into a rounded plate of burnished, glistening silver.
+The Gold Dust maverick was suddenly flooded with a glare of light as the
+moonbeams poured over the top of the shed and streamed through the bars
+of the circular corral. The filly lifted her head.
+
+An impulse to ride--ride--ride, to get away from it all--far out on the
+wide unpeopled plains where there was nothing above but God, and the
+unmeasured depths of His heavens, and nothing beneath but the earth and
+the rhythmic beat of his horse's feet, came over the Ramblin' Kid. Men,
+and the works of men--their passions, their strifes, their
+foolishness--and women--women who played with love--he wanted to forget,
+to leave miles and miles behind.
+
+He started to open the gate, thinking to saddle Captain Jack and obey
+the impulse of the moment. Carolyn June's words, spoken of the Gold Dust
+maverick: "It would be fun to see her run!" and uttered lightly and in a
+spirit of coquetry that morning when she teased him to enter the outlaw
+filly in the race against the Thunderbolt horse from the Vermejo, came
+to his mind. The selfishness of the plea maddened him. She cared nothing
+for the price in effort--the straining muscles, the panting breath--the
+agony the beautiful mare must pay to defeat the black wonder from the
+other part of the range. She wanted only to see the maverick run--to
+coax him to yield and run the filly merely to please the cheap vanity of
+her sex! No doubt also she counted on entertainment when, to-morrow, he
+would ride the outlaw for the first time. It would be a kind of
+show--the battle for mastery between himself and the high-bred untamed
+mare. The whole bunch--Old Heck, Parker, Ophelia, Carolyn June, the
+cowboys--yes, even that damned Chink--unquestionably would be crowded
+about the corral to watch the fear and pain of the maverick as she
+learned her first hard lesson of servitude to man! They would laugh at
+her frenzied efforts to throw him.
+
+He would fool them. He would ride the filly to-night!
+
+He went to the shed, slipped his legs into the worn leather chaps, took
+saddle, bridle, blanket and rope and returned to the corral.
+
+Stepping inside he closed the gate behind him.
+
+Captain Jack came to him and nosed at his shoulder.
+
+"No, Little Man," the Ramblin' Kid said gently, "this ain't your turn.
+You can go with us though, if you want to!" he laughed.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick stood, half-afraid, at the other side of the
+corral. She had not yet wholly conquered her dread of him. She did not,
+however, offer to fight as she had done that morning when Skinny entered
+the enclosure.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid spoke to the filly and, as she began to move shyly
+away, with one toss threw the loop over her head. The instant the mare
+felt the rope she stopped and stood trembling a moment, then came
+straight up to him. She was "rope-wise." The experience at the North
+Springs the night he caught her, and when she had, three separate times,
+been cruelly thrown by this same rope; had taught the Gold Dust maverick
+the power that lay in those pliant strands.
+
+She flinched from the touch of the blanket. The Ramblin' Kid worked
+easily, carefully, but in absolute confidence, with her. As he
+cautiously saddled the mare he talked in a low, drawling monotone,
+uttering endearing phrases and occasionally slipping a lump of sugar--a
+supply of which he had got that night from the kitchen--into her mouth.
+She ate it ravenously.
+
+"Darn, Little One," he laughed, "you sure have got a sweet tooth--you
+gobble that sugar like an Indian squaw eatin' choc'late candy!"
+
+At last the mare was saddled. Still holding to the rope, the Ramblin'
+Kid, without trying to get the filly to follow, moved over and opened
+the gate, giving it a push and swinging it wide. During the performance
+the Gold Dust maverick stood perfectly still, save for a constant
+chewing at the iron bit between her teeth.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid went quietly up to her, coiling the slack of the rope
+as he advanced. Without bothering to tighten the reins, but watching
+closely the look in the maverick's big brown eyes and the nervous
+twitching of her ears, he laid one hand on the withers of the outlaw,
+with the other he grasped the horn of the saddle and slipping his foot
+in the stirrup swung quickly and lightly on to her back.
+
+For the space of a deep breath the maverick crouched, grew tense in
+every muscle, slowly arched her back, gathered herself together for a
+great effort.
+
+A quiet smile curled the lips of the Ramblin' Kid as he looked down on
+the curving neck of the beautiful creature.
+
+With a tremendous leap the Gold Dust maverick sprang high into the air,
+lunging forward while all her hoofs were off the ground. Her forefeet
+came down across the back of Captain Jack--she had all but cleared the
+little roan. The shock almost threw the stallion to the ground. As he
+surged from under her the filly slid and sprawled on her shoulder and
+side. Instantly she was on her feet, the Ramblin' Kid still in the
+saddle. His spurs had not touched the mare--instead he had been careful
+not to let their steel points so much as ruffle the golden-chestnut hair
+of her belly or flank. Only when the outlaw fell had he thrown forward
+his right leg and hooked the sharp rowels into the strong fiber of the
+forward cinch. With the left hand he loosely held the reins, giving the
+maverick her head--the other hand he brushed with a caressing upward
+movement along her glossy neck.
+
+Twice the Gold Dust maverick circled the corral, plunging, bucking
+"side-winding," desperately--her nose between her knees, squealing
+pitifully--as she tried vainly to rid herself of the weight of the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Go to it, Baby Girl, go to it!" he chuckled; "you've got to learn!
+Sooner or later you'll find out it can't be done!" He rode limply,
+loosely, low in the saddle, and while he made no effort to urge the
+filly into greater frenzy he did not try in any way to prevent her
+bucking her hardest in, the futile attempts to hurl him off her back.
+
+The second time the outlaw mare came to the gate she whirled and dashed
+through the opening, out of the corral, across the open space, past the
+corner of the front-yard fence and along the road that led up to the
+bench and toward Eagle Butte. Captain Jack trotted around the corral
+once, then followed at a long, swinging gallop.
+
+The noise of the filly bucking inside the corral reached the ears of the
+dancers in the big room at the house.
+
+"What in thunderation's that commotion?" Old Heck exclaimed, starting
+up--he and Ophelia had just finished a two-step and Skinny was winding
+the graphophone to play his favorite, the alluring _La Paloma_.
+
+There was an instant's pause, then a rush for the door.
+
+Carolyn June reached the porch just in time to see the Gold Dust
+maverick "hitting the breeze"--careering madly, wildly pitching as she
+ran past the opening in front of the house and up the road out on the
+bench. It was almost as though a phantom horse and rider had passed
+before her sight.
+
+"Lord! Look at them go!" Charley cried admiringly.
+
+At first the girl had not recognized the outlaw mare or her rider.
+
+"Who--what--is it?" she asked Chuck, who was standing beside her.
+
+Bert answered for Chuck. "It's that darn-fool Ramblin' Kid--he's riding
+the Gold Dust maverick!" he said. "Ain't that just like the blamed
+idiot--to go and ride that filly to-night?"
+
+"Aw, he's liable to do anything," Charley commented, "he's--"
+
+Before the sentence was finished the beautiful mare and her apparently
+careless rider, with Captain Jack a hundred yards behind, disappeared
+over the brink of the bench and in the silence that followed the group
+on the porch heard only the distant thudding of hoofs beating an ever
+fainter tattoo through the calm, moonlit night.
+
+Carolyn June went back into the house with conflicting emotions surging
+through her heart. She believed she knew why the Ramblin' Kid had
+elected to ride the outlaw filly to-night. But her thoughts she kept to
+herself.
+
+For an hour longer the dance continued. But not with the spirit of
+earlier in the evening. The interruption took something of the eagerness
+to punish Old Heck, Parker and the cowboys, out of the heart of Carolyn
+June. A bit of doubt that the role she and Ophelia were playing was
+worthy of true womanhood crept into her mind.
+
+When the widow and Carolyn June were alone Ophelia laughed.
+
+"Whew!" she exclaimed, "that was a strenuous party! I've danced till my
+feet ache! Do you think our little 'counterplot' was a success?"
+
+"Entirely!" Carolyn June replied with an uncertain chuckle. "Uncle
+Josiah, Parker and Charley will dream dreams about you and fight duels
+in their sleep to-night!"
+
+"I think the others--" the widow started to say, then pausing, finished:
+"Wasn't it queer the Ramblin' Kid decided to ride that outlaw horse
+to-night instead of coming to the house to dance?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," Carolyn June answered indifferently.
+
+"I guess it's as Charley says," Ophelia remarked: "'You can't tell what
+th' Ramblin' Kid's liable to do'--"
+
+"I suppose not," Carolyn June replied wearily as she went into her room.
+"Good night!"
+
+"Good night!" Ophelia echoed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+YOU'LL GET YOUR WISH
+
+It was a silent group that gathered in the bunk-house after the dance.
+Old Heck, Parker, Charley and the other cowboys had been unduly
+stimulated by the music, the laughter and the bright smiles of Carolyn
+June and Ophelia. When they stepped out of the house into the cool night
+these all were left behind. The cow-men quickly sobered down and by the
+time they reached their sleeping quarters on the faces of all were
+half-ashamed looks as if they had been playing at a game not quite
+dignified enough or proper for men of maturity and seriousness.
+
+All were thoughtful and none seemed eager to start conversation.
+
+Skinny was dejected and utterly miserable.
+
+He felt that he had been cruelty treated. Carolyn June had acted all
+evening as though his only object in living was to stand in the corner
+and wind up that blamed graphophone, while she openly flirted with the
+other cowboys. Skinny was grateful to the Ramblin' Kid who, alone of all
+the cow-punchers, had decency enough to stay away and not interfere with
+the original agreement. The Ramblin' Kid had some sense and was square.
+He had realized that any fellow officially elected to make
+love--especially when he didn't want to do it in the first place--ought
+to be allowed to go ahead and make it without having a lot of darned
+buckaroos butting in on the job.
+
+The way the others had acted was a regular disgrace!
+
+Chuck, Bert, Charley and Pedro were nervously happy. In the heart of
+each was a thrill, caused by the memory of some secret--or what he
+thought was a secret--manifestation of Carolyn June's interest. Perhaps
+it was no more than the brushing of a stray whiff of odorous brown hair
+against a weather-tanned cheek, the pulsing of a warm breath on the side
+of a muscular neck, a melting look from a pair of luminous eyes, some
+low-spoken word or the pressure of a hand, but whatever it was, each of
+the cowboys was reasonably certain he had been singled out for special
+favors. Charley was doubly blessed. In addition to Carolyn June's
+seductive advances he had the memory, also, of Ophelia's attentions. His
+mind was awhirl with the effort to figure out which one, by rights, he
+ought to consider as a permanent possibility.
+
+Old Heck and Parker were in a quandary.
+
+Neither was sure of his standing with Ophelia although each had reason
+to believe that he was her favorite. Her interest in Charley added an
+unexpected and perplexing equation to their problem.
+
+"Gosh," Chuck finally exclaimed, "that dance sure was some blow out!"
+
+"I should say it was!" Bert agreed emphatically and with a satisfied
+grin. "But didn't that widow act funny for an 'anti-he' suffragette?"
+
+Old Heck looked up, startled, as if he had been reminded of a
+disagreeable subject and one he wished to forget.
+
+"Are you plumb positive that she is one, Parker?" Chuck asked.
+
+"I told you what she was," Parker growled, "she's an 'Organizer' for
+some sort of 'Movement' or other."
+
+"Well, I'll be blamed if her 'movements' to-night showed any 'anti-he'
+inclinations," Charley interrupted. "She carried on more like a female
+vampire than one of these advocaters of woman's rights!"
+
+"Aw, shut up and go to bed," Old Heck grunted. "It's too late to start
+any argument!"
+
+The moon crept across the heavens and was hanging above the shadowy
+peaks of the Costejo Mountains when the Ramblin' Kid returned to the
+sleeping Quarter Circle KT, slipped the saddle from the back of the Gold
+Dust maverick and turned the filly and Captain Jack into the circular
+corral.
+
+He had ridden the outlaw mare almost to Eagle Butte.
+
+She had learned her lesson. She knew, when he caressed her muzzle and
+pressed the last lump of sugar into her mouth, before he turned away to
+the bunk-house, that the Ramblin' Kid was not only her master but her
+friend as well--understanding and sympathetic. Never again would she
+doubt his will or resist the gentle yet firm strength of his hand. From
+that moment the Gold Dust maverick, like Captain Jack, was a one-man
+horse, ready to serve, to trust and obey only the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"You little beauty," he laughed tenderly as he playfully shook the
+underlip of the filly and started toward the gate, "--you're a
+runner--gee!--but you're a runner!"
+
+The others were fast asleep when the Ramblin' Kid noiselessly opened the
+door of the bunk-house, went in, and without undressing, stretched
+himself on his bed.
+
+Old Heck awakened the cowboys as the sun poured its first slanting rays
+through the open un-draped window.
+
+The stir aroused the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He made no move to arise.
+
+"Ain't you going to get up?" Old Heck said garrulously.
+
+"When I damn please!" was the independent reply. "Skinny, tell th' Chink
+to keep me a cup of hot coffee!"
+
+Old Heck snorted but said no more.
+
+Parker and the cowboys dressed silently, half-moodily. They hardly knew
+yet how they felt after the excitement of the night before. Skinny
+started to put on the white shirt, looked at it contemptuously a
+moment, and with a muttered oath threw it viciously on the bed.
+
+In a few moments the Ramblin' Kid was left alone in the bunk-house. He
+lay, hands clasped at the back of his head, studying. His eyes were
+closed, but he was not asleep. Presently he smiled and opened his eyes.
+He drew the pink satin elastic from his pocket and looked at it. "That's
+a hell of a thing to be packin'--wonder why I keep it?" he muttered. It
+suddenly occurred to him that if he was not at breakfast Carolyn June
+would think he was afraid or ashamed to meet her. He got up,
+straightened his disarranged clothes, went to the house and after
+stopping at the ditch by the fence and washing his face, walked
+indifferently into the kitchen and sat down at his regular place. The
+others already were eating. Carolyn June glanced at him with a
+meaningless smile and acknowledged, without feeling, his quiet "Good
+morning!"
+
+The cowboys were nervous. Memory of last night was fresh in their minds.
+It made them cautious in their talk.
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June, also, were a bit restrained.
+
+They were not sure but they had started more than it would be easy to
+stop. The expressions in the eyes of the cowboys paid tribute to the
+success of the two women's efforts at wholesale heart-wrecking. The
+child-like acceptance of a simple flirtation as the real thing, by
+these husky riders of the range, was little less than appalling.
+
+It all but frightened Carolyn June and the widow.
+
+Old Heck saw the worship in the eyes of the cowboys.
+
+"Things sure are in a devil of a mix-up!" he growled to himself.
+
+Skinny was so dejected Carolyn June felt half-guilty and tried to cheer
+him up. She began talking, in a low voice, directly to the
+melancholy-looking cowboy.
+
+"To-day--or some time--when the others are away," she said caressingly,
+"you and I will dance all the dances by ourselves!"
+
+His heart leaped joyously. He was sorry, now, that he had not put on the
+white shirt. He resolved, after a while, to sneak out to the bunk-house
+and change.
+
+The confidential talk between Carolyn June and Skinny galled Chuck. He
+decided to break it up.
+
+"What was your idea in riding the Gold Dust maverick last night?" he
+said abruptly to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+There was a general pause for the answer. Carolyn June stopped in the
+middle of a sentence and looked curiously at the Ramblin' Kid. He took
+his time to reply.
+
+"Because I wanted to!" was the slow unsatisfactory retort.
+
+"Why didn't you wait till to-day, so the rest of us could see how she
+acted?" Charley asked.
+
+"What do you think you are"--he started to say--"a bunch of lawyers
+cross-examinin' a witness?" thought better of it and with a careless
+laugh answered: "If you're huntin' entertainment, why don't you go up to
+Eagle Butte to th' picture show? Th' maverick an' me ain't no
+exhibition!"
+
+"Did she buck?" Charley continued, ignoring the sarcastic remark.
+
+"Some," the Ramblin' Kid drawled.
+
+"What you going to do with the filly while we're out on the beef hunt?"
+Chuck queried, wishing to keep the conversation general.
+
+"Ride her!" was the laconic reply.
+
+"Ain't you afraid she'll break away from the _caballero_ and you'll lose
+her again?" Charley asked.
+
+"When I ain't usin' her I'll 'neck' her to Captain Jack," the Ramblin'
+Kid answered patiently, referring to the method of fastening a wild
+horse to one that is gentle and prevent its running away, by attaching a
+short length of rope to the neck of each. "I don't believe she'd leave
+th' stallion anyhow!"
+
+"By golly," Chuck said earnestly and half-pleadingly, "I wish you'd put
+her against that Y-Bar outfit's Thunderbolt horse in the two-mile
+sweepstakes this year! It would be--"
+
+"Fun to see her run!" the Ramblin' Kid interrupted, looking up quickly
+and straight into the eyes of Carolyn June as he finished the
+contemptuous quotation of her words, spoken the day before at the
+corral. She flushed, but gazed back at him without flinching. "Well," he
+continued, "I reckon you'll get your wish--th' maverick is goin' to run
+against th' Vermejo horse!"
+
+"The Fourth of July is a week from next Wednesday," Charley said
+calculatingly. "The Rodeo starts on Tuesday, the roping and bucking
+finals come on Thursday. That makes the big race come Friday--a week
+from next Friday, ain't it?"
+
+"That's right," Bert concurred. "Th' Ramblin' Kid's got nearly two weeks
+to get the maverick in shape."
+
+"Nothing will be in shape for anything," Old Heck broke in, getting up
+from the table, "unless we move around and get things ready to begin the
+beef round-up to-morrow morning. Some of you boys will have to bring in
+those saddle horses from across the river. Each one of you can ride your
+regular 'string' this year"--alluding to the term used to designate the
+group of several horses used exclusively by each individual rider
+working on a round-up. "Skinny won't be with you, but you'd better take
+his horses along for extras. Parker can be getting the grub-wagon in
+shape--I reckon you'll have to work Old Tom and Baldy on it. Sing Pete
+ought to be able to handle them."
+
+"Where do we start in?" Charley asked as they went toward the barn.
+
+"Over in the Battle Ridge country," Old Heck answered, "and work
+everything east of the big pasture first. It'll take just about a week
+to clean up that side--it's pretty rough riding over there. Then you can
+finish the west end after the Rodeo is over."
+
+"What all you aiming to gather?" Bert queried.
+
+"Everything above a three-year-old," Old Heck replied in a businesslike
+way; "pick up the dry cows, too, if they're fat enough. Prices are
+better than usual and I want to sell pretty close on account of that
+storm knocking the hay the way it did the other night. There'll be three
+hundred and fifty or four hundred good beef critters on the east range.
+You ought to have them bunched and in the big pasture by Saturday night.
+Then, until the Rodeo is over you can all do what you darn' please--"
+
+"I know what I'm going to do," Chuck laughed.
+
+"What?" Bert asked.
+
+"Draw all my wages, borrow all I can, and make a clean-up on that Y-Bar
+outfit on the race between the Gold Dust maverick and Thunderbolt!" he
+exclaimed vindictively.
+
+"Probably there will be some of the rest of us have a little Quarter
+Circle KT money up on that race, too," Charley insinuated.
+
+"I know blamed well there will be!" Old Heck added earnestly as they
+scattered to go about their respective employments.
+
+It was a busy Sunday at the Quarter Circle KT. Chuck, Charley and Pedro
+spent the morning and most of the afternoon getting the saddle horses
+from across the river. Bert helped Parker and Old Heck about the ranch.
+Sing Pete baked a supply of light-bread and stocked the grub-wagon with
+provisions. The Ramblin' Kid volunteered to "ride-line" on the big
+pasture and see that the Diamond Bar steers had not broken out again. He
+rode a sorrel colt--one that had had its "first-riding" in the circular
+corral the day before Carolyn June and Ophelia arrived at the Quarter
+Circle KT. When he came to the corner of the pasture where the bodies of
+the cattle, killed by lightning, lay, a flock of buzzards were tearing
+at the carcasses. As the gorged creatures flapped heavily into the air
+the young broncho wheeled, and bucking frantically, jolted away from the
+gruesome scene. The Ramblin' Kid forced the animal to turn about and
+made him pass, rearing and plunging, among the skinless and already
+decaying forms. Before sundown the Ramblin' Kid was back at the ranch.
+
+In the afternoon Skinny and Carolyn June went for a ride down the
+valley. It was her first opportunity to try the new saddle. Skinny was
+mounted on Old Pie Face and Carolyn June rode Browny, a dependable old
+cow-horse.
+
+"Gee," Carolyn June remarked as they passed the circular corral. "I'd
+like to ride the Gold Dust maverick with this outfit!"
+
+"It would be a dandy combination," Skinny said admiringly, "but I doubt
+if anybody but th' Ramblin' Kid will ever be able to ride the filly. So
+far, she acts like she's going to be a worse one-man horse than Captain
+Jack is. She tried to kill me yesterday when I went into the corral!"
+
+"What makes her that way?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"Blamed if I know," Skinny replied, "some horses are naturally like
+that. Th' Ramblin' Kid says it ain't in the horse--it's in the human. If
+the human don't understand the horse the horse won't trust the human and
+where there ain't trust there's fear and where there's fear there's
+hate. He's got some funny ideas!"
+
+"Sounds sort of sensible, though, doesn't it?" Carolyn June said
+musingly.
+
+"Maybe it does," Skinny retorted, "but he goes a little too far with his
+fool notions sometimes, it seems to me."
+
+"How is that?" Carolyn June questioned.
+
+"Well, for one thing," Skinny replied, "he says any man or woman a horse
+don't trust ain't a good man or woman for a human to depend on--says
+they ain't right inside! It looks to me like that's a pretty hard slam
+on people just because some darned idiot of a broncho won't make up with
+them!"
+
+Carolyn June leaned back in the saddle and laughed.
+
+"Some 'range philosopher'--this Ramblin' Kid person!" she exclaimed
+lightly. "Where did he come from and who is he, anyway?"
+
+"Nobody knows," Skinny answered; "he just kind of growed up, here in
+the Southwest. I've heard that his mother died when he was born and his
+father was a preacher or something doing missionary work--I reckon
+that's what you'd call it--among the Mexicans and Indians and got the
+smallpox while he was nursing them through an epidemic and it killed
+him, which left th' Ramblin' Kid an orphan when he wasn't much more than
+a baby. The Mexicans or Indians took care of him till he was old enough
+to ride and then he began to ramble around and has always kept it up
+just as if he was hunting for something--"
+
+"How interesting!" Carolyn June exclaimed, "almost like a story!"
+
+"It is kind of unusual," Skinny continued, "of course it may not all be
+true, but one thing is sure--th' Ramblin' Kid seems to have some sort of
+fascination for the Greasers and the Indians; they all worship him, and
+he's a witch when it comes to handling horses!"
+
+"He seems to be," Carolyn June commented thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes," Skinny answered, "look how that Gold Dust maverick has made right
+up with him--I don't believe she ever will have anything to do with
+anybody else!"
+
+Carolyn June laughed softly to herself. She did not tell Skinny of her
+visits to the circular corral and that the outlaw mare already had
+accepted her as a good friend.
+
+She and Skinny loafed idly as far down the valley as the Narrows, and
+when Sing Pete sounded the supper gong they were again back at the
+house.
+
+After the evening meal the cowboys hung around the house for a while
+until a suggestive look from Old Heck caused them reluctantly to follow
+him to the bunk-house, leaving Parker and Skinny with Ophelia and
+Carolyn June.
+
+It was the foreman's last evening with the widow before the beef
+round-up. She was rather diffident and held him in safe channels of
+conversation. Skinny and Carolyn June sat on the porch until it was
+quite dark, then went into the house. She drummed carelessly and lightly
+on the keys of the piano--her thoughts evidently far away. Parker and
+Skinny left the house early. At the door the foreman whispered to the
+widow:
+
+"Don't forget what I spoke about coming out from town!"
+
+Ophelia flushed and murmured, "No, indeed, but--" she did not finish the
+sentence. She was about to say, "don't build false hopes!"
+
+When Parker and Skinny entered the bunk-house Old Heck and all the
+cowboys except the Ramblin' Kid were asleep. He was half-reclining on
+his bed, smoking. At the entrance of Skinny and Parker be got up and
+without speaking strolled outside and through the darkness toward the
+circular corral. The night was warm and the stuffy air of the
+bunk-house, together with the noisy snoring of Old Heck, made him
+restless. He stood a few moments looking at Captain Jack and the Gold
+Dust maverick. Then, moving back into the shed, dropped down and laid
+with his shoulders and head on his saddle, which was thrown on the
+ground under the shelter. The side of the building, next to the corral,
+was open and the Ramblin' Kid could see, from where he was lying, the
+dark bulks of the two horses at the farther side of the corral.
+
+Ophelia went directly to bed after Skinny and Parker left.
+
+Carolyn June sat for a while in the Morris chair in the large room. She
+seemed abstracted and in a mood for meditation. The vague history Skinny
+had given her of the life of the Ramblin' Kid interested her. She
+thought it explained a good many of his elemental impulses and
+idiosyncrasies. He was a creature of the plains. In his life among the
+Indians and Mexicans he had absorbed their stoical ways and almost
+brutal directness, yet, sometimes he showed a sensitiveness that was
+utterly impossible for Carolyn June to understand. Her thoughts turned
+to the Gold Dust maverick. To-morrow Ramblin' Kid would take the filly
+away for the round-up. She truly loved the beautiful mare. She would
+slip out, while the others slept, and have one more visit with the
+splendid creature. Rising, Carolyn June passed out through the kitchen,
+stopped for a handful of sugar--she had learned where Sing Pete kept the
+can--and bareheaded and without a wrap walked swiftly out to the
+circular corral.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard Carolyn June step up to the gate of the corral
+and from the heavy shadow in which he lay saw the light dress and
+instinctively recognized this late visitor to Captain Jack and the Gold
+Dust maverick His first impulse was to call out and warn her to keep
+away from the horses--that both were dangerous for men to fool with,
+much less was it safe for a woman to undertake familiarities with them.
+His next thought was that his sudden appearance would only startle the
+girl and--well, cause a lot of useless talk. He remained quiet.
+
+A low trill came from the throat of Carolyn June. The two horses stopped
+feeding and looked around toward the gate. The bird-like call was
+repeated. The Ramblin' Kid was astonished to see Captain Jack and the
+outlaw mare move eagerly in the direction from whence the sound had
+come. He heard Carolyn June talking to the bronchos in soft endearing
+tones. After a moment she opened the gate and stepped inside the corral.
+
+"Well, I'll be--!" he breathed inaudibly.
+
+For half an hour Carolyn June petted the little stallion and the Gold
+Dust maverick. Both animals seemed hungry for her caresses.
+
+"Oh, you darling--you wonder!" the Ramblin' Kid Heard Carolyn June
+say, as she gave the maverick's head a tight squeeze just before running
+lightly back to the house. "I hope you beat that old Y-Bar horse so bad
+he'll never want to run again! Even if that Ramblin' Kid lover of
+yours," she added softly, "does think I'm nothing but a silly
+woman-thing and hates me with all his queer, lonesome heart!"
+
+"Well, I'll be damned!" the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed when she was gone.
+
+He raised himself on one elbow and lay thus for a long time silently
+thinking.
+
+At last he got up, went to the corral gate, and he himself stepped
+inside with the horses. He gave Captain Jack's ear a loving twitch, then
+turned to the Gold Dust maverick. She permitted him, without protest, to
+fondle her head and neck. His hand lingered long on the silky mane in
+which, a little while before, Carolyn June had twined her fingers.
+
+"Oh, Queen of th' Range!" he said with a low laugh, unconsciously using
+the poetical phrase, as he gave the warm cheek of the filly a tender
+parting pinch before turning away to go to the bunk-house, "we'll whip
+that devil-horse of th' Vermejo--we'll show that Thunderbolt runner what
+hearts that ain't afraid an' nimble hoofs can do!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+THE ELITE AMUSEMENT PARLOR
+
+An hour after breakfast, on Monday morning, Old Heck, Ophelia, Skinny
+and Carolyn June Were alone at the Quarter Circle KT. Parker and the
+cowboys were climbing out on the sand-hills north of the Cimarron,
+traveling in the direction of Battle Ridge, where the beef hunt was to
+begin.
+
+The circular corral was empty.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was riding the Gold Dust maverick. Captain Jack was
+with the saddle horses which Pedro, the Mexican, had wrangled on ahead
+of the other riders an hour before.
+
+The filly made no effort to throw the Ramblin' Kid on this her second
+riding. She seemed perfectly willing to carry the burden on her back.
+Carolyn June watched the beautiful mare as she stepped lightly and
+daintily along beside the other horses, and when the group disappeared
+among the rolling ridges across the river the ranch someway seemed
+deserted and she felt strangely alone, although Ophelia, Old Heck and
+Skinny were standing at her side.
+
+Sing Pete followed the riders, jolting along in the grub-wagon,
+awkwardly driving, with much clucking and pidgin-English, Old Tom and
+Baldy hitched to the heavy, canvas-covered vehicle with its
+"box-kitchen" and mess-board protruding gawkily out from the rear.
+
+Old Heck heaved a sigh of relief. There was a feeling of serene peace in
+his heart, now that Parker and the cowboys were safely away on the
+round-up. In Skinny's heart the feeling was echoed.
+
+For a week or more they would be able to love Ophelia and Carolyn June
+without the constant fear of interruption.
+
+Only one thing troubled Old Heck. The widow had not yet exposed her hand
+in that suffragette movement or whatever it was. He dreaded the form in
+which it might, sooner or later, break out. But at that he would be glad
+to have it over. At present he felt as though he were sitting on the
+edge of a volcano, or above an unexplored blast of dynamite at the
+bottom of a well. Meanwhile he would have to wait and watch--and hope
+for the best.
+
+The week that followed was heaven and hell, mixed together, for Old Heck
+and Skinny.
+
+The women were lovely and lovable to the last degree, but cautious and
+tormentingly self-restrained when it came to loving. At the first
+intimation of dangerous sentimentality on the part of Old Heck the widow
+would suddenly and without an instant's warning change the subject. When
+Skinny had been pensive and silent for half an hour or so and would then
+start, in a halting and quivering voice, to say something, Carolyn June
+invariably interrupted with a remark about the weather, the Gold Dust
+maverick, the Ramblin' Kid, Old Heck, Sing Pete, the yellow cat, the
+coming Rodeo, Ophelia or something else.
+
+They paired on the work of preparing the meals, Carolyn June and Skinny
+and Ophelia and Old Heck taking shift and shift about in the kitchen. In
+this way the work was made a joke, with friendly rivalry between the
+couples in the preparation of tasty dishes.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny surprised the women with their knowledge of cooking.
+Nor was there the least embarrassment on the part of either when, with
+one of Sing Pete's aprons tied about his waist, he worked at the range
+or kitchen table. As a matter of course every cow-man must know
+something of how to cook a meal and, also, naturally and as a matter of
+course, Old Heck and Skinny, without the slightest thought that it was
+"womanish" or beneath the "dignity" of men, peeled potatoes, fried meat,
+washed dishes or did whatever there was to do.
+
+Indeed each was proud of his skill.
+
+Ophelia herself was clever, particularly at making biscuits and dainty
+salads.
+
+Carolyn June's sole accomplishment in the art of preparing food was the
+making of coffee-jelly. This she had learned at college--taught,
+perhaps, by the other girls during stolen midnight frolics. Probably
+this, also, was the reason she usually made it the last thing at night
+before Skinny and Old Heck left to go to the bunk-house. Coffee-jelly
+was the regular, inevitable, evening meal dessert for the entire week.
+
+"It ain't so very filling," Skinny remarked the first time he tasted the
+delicate dish, "but it's tender and has a dandy flavor!"
+
+Carolyn June blushed at the compliment.
+
+"It is pretty good," Old Heck agreed, "but these biscuits Ophelia made
+are just what was needed to set it off!"
+
+The widow smilingly showed her pleasure.
+
+Twice during the week Skinny rode "line" on the big pasture to look
+after the Diamond Bar steers. Carolyn June accompanied him. Each time
+she rode Browny, the old cow-horse. On these days Old Heck and Ophelia,
+in the Clagstone "Six," drove to Eagle Butte. The second trip to town
+Ophelia asked to be left at the minister's house. Old Heck was to call
+in an hour and get her. During the hour he slipped into the dentist's
+and had his teeth cleaned. When the tobacco-blackened tartar was scraped
+away they were surprisingly white and even. He stopped at the drug store
+and bought a tooth-brush and a tube of paste.
+
+Ophelia noticed the wonderful improvement in his appearance, guessed the
+reason, and the thought sent a warm thrill through her body.
+
+"Like a big boy," she laughed to herself, "when he begins to wash his
+neck and ears!"
+
+"It ain't healthy to have your teeth so dirty," Old Heck explained,
+coloring and in an apologizing manner, when Skinny discovered him, after
+supper that evening, carefully scrubbing his molars.
+
+Skinny watched the performance, saw the result, and murmured:
+
+"Guess I'll get me one of them layouts!"
+
+On Friday the quartette went to Eagle Butte, Old Heck driving, with
+Ophelia beside him, and Carolyn June and Skinny in the rear seat of the
+Clagstone "Six."
+
+It was on this trip, while Ophelia and Carolyn June were in the Golden
+Rule doing some shopping, that Old Heck and Skinny strolled into the
+Elite Amusement Parlor. Lafe Dorsey, owner of the Y-Bar outfit and to
+whom belonged the black Thunderbolt horse; Newt Johnson, Dave Stover and
+"Flip" Williams--the latter three cowboys on the big Vermejo ranch--were
+playing a four-handed game of billiards at one of the tables near the
+front of the place.
+
+Dorsey noticed the entrance of the pair from the Quarter Circle KT. All
+were range men and were well known to one another. The Y-Bar owner had
+been drinking. Boot-leg liquor was obtainable, if one knew how and
+where, in Eagle Butte.
+
+"Hello, there, Old Heck!" Dorsey greeted them hilariously and with a
+half-leer. "Howdy, Skinny! How's the Cimarron? Don't reckon you've
+taught Old Quicksilver to run yet, have you?" with a boisterous laugh
+as he referred to the race in which Thunderbolt had defeated Old Heck's
+crack stallion.
+
+The taunt stung Old Heck while it called out a suppressed snicker from
+the cowboys who were with Dorsey and the loafers in the pool-room. The
+bull-like guffaw of Mike Sabota, the gorilla-built, half-Greek
+proprietor of the Amusement Parlor roared out above the ripple of
+laughter from the others. The racing feud between the Y-Bar and the
+Quarter Circle KT was well known to all and Sabota himself had cleaned
+up a neat sum when the black horse from the Vermejo had outstepped the
+runner from the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Old Heck reddened at Dorsey's words but replied quietly:
+
+"The Cimarron is middling--just middlin'. No, we ain't been paying much
+attention to teaching horses how to run lately. Old Quicksilver's pretty
+fair. Of course he ain't the best horse in the world but he'll do for
+cows and general knocking around. Horses are a good deal like men, you
+know, Dorsey--there's always one that's a little bit better!"
+
+The Vermejo cow-man colored at the thrust.
+
+"Any of you Quarter Circle KT fellers going in on anything at the Rodeo,
+this year?" one of the Y-Bar riders asked Skinny before Dorsey could
+reply.
+
+"Charley said he might go in on the 'bull-dogging' and Bert is figuring
+some on the bucking events--but I don't reckon they'll either one
+enter," Skinny carelessly; "both of them got first money in them
+entries last year and they ain't caring much. The Mexican," referring to
+Pedro, "will probably do some roping--"
+
+"What about you and the Ramblin' Kid?" Flip Williams interrupted, "ain't
+neither of you going to take part?"
+
+"Probably not," Skinny drawled. "I ain't aiming to, and I don't know
+what th' Ramblin? Kid is figuring on. He ain't much for showing off. He
+only rode in the bucking contest last year because after that Cyclone
+horse killed Dick Stanley everybody said there wasn't any one that could
+ride him and the blamed little fool just wanted to demonstrate that
+there was. You never can tell what he'll do, though. He may be intending
+to go in on something or other."
+
+"Guess you people ain't got anything out there for the two-mile
+sweepstakes this year, have you?" Dorsey broke in with a sneer. "Old
+Thunderbolt's too much for them sand-hill jumpers from the Cimarron."
+
+"Oh, I don't know as he is," Old Heck said in a voice emotionless as an
+Indian's. "The Quarter Circle KT will probably be represented in the big
+event. It seems to me I heard Chuck mention entering that Silver Tip
+colt of his and, let's see, I believe th' Ramblin' Kid said something
+about running a new filly he's been riding some, didn't he, Skinny?"
+
+"Since I come to think of it I believe he did," Skinny answered as if
+it were a matter without especial interest; "if I remember right he did
+speak something of it a day or two ago."
+
+"Well, bring 'em on!" Dorsey exclaimed boastfully, "the Y-Bar will take
+all the money you Kiowa fellers feel like contributing! Old
+Thunderbolt's as fit as a new rawhide rope and is just aching to rake in
+another three or four thousand of Quarter Circle KT _dinero_ if you
+people have got the nerve to back your judgment!"
+
+There was a dead hush as the crowd in the pool-room waited for Old
+Heck's reply to Dorsey's drunken challenge.
+
+"We'll kind of remember that invitation, Dorsey," Old Heck said in tones
+as hard and smooth and cold as ice, while his gray eyes narrowed and
+bored the boastful cow-man like points of steel, "we'll sort of bear in
+mind that suggestion of yours. The Quarter Circle KT will send a horse
+into the big race that will beat that Thunderbolt critter of yours just
+three times as bad as he set old Quicksilver back--and we'll give you
+action on any amount of money, cattle or anything else you want to name!
+You can put your friends here in on it too, if you want to--" with a
+scornful glance around the pool-room at the loafers in the place. "Come
+on, Skinny," he added as he started toward the door, "more than likely
+Ophelia and Carolyn June are through with their trading and ready to go
+home."
+
+All stood silent until Skinny and Old Heck stepped out of the door,
+then Mike Sabota broke into a coarse, taunting laugh. As they turned up
+the street Old Heck and Skinny heard Dorsey and the crowd inside join in
+the merriment.
+
+"Damn that fool, Dorsey!" Old Heck exclaimed viciously, as he heard the
+shouts of derisive laughter. "I'm going to wipe him out on that race--if
+he's got the guts to come across and back up that Thunderbolt horse as
+hard as he blows about him!"
+
+"I think I'll hook Sabota for a few hundred on the sweepstakes, myself,"
+Skinny replied with a good deal of feeling, "I don't like the way that
+dirty cuss acts any better than I like Dorsey's bragging!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia were waiting when Old Heck and Skinny arrived
+at the Golden Rule.
+
+When the Clagstone "Six" whirled past the Amusement Parlor a few moments
+later Dorsey and Sabota were standing in the door.
+
+Carolyn June glanced at them.
+
+"Heavens," she said as her eyes rested an instant on the burly,
+low-browed, Greek proprietor of the place, "what a big brute of a
+looking fellow that is!"
+
+The two men stared insolently at the occupants of the car and as it
+passed Sabota made some remark, evidently vulgar, that caused Dorsey to
+burst into another round of coarse laughter.
+
+Old Heck was moody during the drive home.
+
+For nearly two years Dorsey had been crowing because of the defeat of
+Quicksilver by the black racer from the Vermejo. It was becoming more
+than idle jesting. It looked as if, for some reason, he was trying to
+torment Old Heck until something serious was started. Old Heck was a
+good loser but he was growing tired of the persistent nagging. He had
+not whimpered at the loss of the twenty-five hundred dollars Dorsey won
+from him on the race. Even the humiliation of seeing his best horse put
+in second place by the Y-Bar animal had been endured philosophically and
+without malice because he believed the thing had been run square and the
+faster horse had won. But Dorsey on every occasion since had, drunk or
+sober, boasted of Thunderbolt's victory and taken a devilish delight in
+rubbing it in on the owner of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+To-day the Vermejo cattleman had been worse than usual, due, no doubt,
+to the rotten boot-leg whisky the brute-like proprietor of Eagle Butte's
+rather disreputable Amusement Parlor was supposed secretly to dispense
+to those who had the price and the "honor" to keep sacred the source of
+supply.
+
+Old Heck was sore and he was ready to go the limit in backing the Gold
+Dust maverick. Both he and Skinny had purposely refrained from
+mentioning the horse the Ramblin' Kid would enter. The fame of the
+outlaw filly extended throughout all of southwestern Texas and if the
+Vermejo crowd had learned that the Ramblin' Kid had finally caught her
+and was intending to put her against Thunderbolt it was doubtful if the
+black horse would be entered at all in the sweepstakes. Even if he was,
+Dorsey and his crowd would be shy of the betting.
+
+This was one reason Old Heck had so played the conversation that Dorsey
+definitely threw down the challenge and which was so coldly accepted.
+
+The Vermejo cow-man would have to come in heavy on the betting or be
+placed in the role of a bluffer.
+
+By the time they reached the ranch Old Heck's good humor was restored.
+He thoroughly enjoyed the supper Skinny and Carolyn June prepared and
+joked the girl about her coffee-jelly.
+
+"She's learning how to make French toast, now," Skinny said proudly; "it
+won't be long till she's a darned good cook!"
+
+"Why not?" Carolyn June laughed. "See who I have to teach me!" and
+Skinny flushed while his heart hammered joyously.
+
+"Well, I reckon anybody could live on fried bread and coffee-jelly in a
+pinch," Old Heck joked back, "but for my part I'd be a good deal happier
+to mix a biscuit or two like Ophelia makes once in a while in with
+it"--giving the widow a worshipful look.
+
+It was Ophelia's turn to register pleasurable confusion.
+
+After supper Old Heck and the widow washed the dishes. When they were
+finished Ophelia went into the front room. Old Heck took a glass of
+water, stepped out of the kitchen door, and diligently scrubbed his
+teeth. While he was still at it Skinny came out with a dipper in his
+hand and sheepishly drawing a tooth-brush from his hip pocket faithfully
+imitated the actions of the other.
+
+"I figure a man's taking a lot of chances if he don't keep his teeth
+clean and everything," Skinny spluttered as the water splashed down his
+chin.
+
+"Yes, that's right," Old Heck agreed, "there's germs and so on in them!"
+as he flipped the water from his own brush, dried his lips on his
+shirtsleeve and turned back into the kitchen.
+
+The next morning, Saturday, Old Heck came to the breakfast table again
+in a pensive mood.
+
+"I was thinking about that man Dorsey," Skinny remarked, observing Old
+Heck's mental depression and attributing it to the meeting the day
+before in the pool-room at Eagle Butte. "Do you reckon the filly can
+really beat that Thunderbolt horse?"
+
+"Of course she can," Old Heck answered. "Th' Ramblin' Kid knows. All I'm
+afraid is that when Dorsey finds out it's the Gold Dust maverick
+Thunderbolt has got to go up against he won't bet much on it."
+
+"The boys ought to be in to-day," Skinny said, abruptly switching the
+subject; "they figured on getting the Battle Ridge cattle gathered and
+in the big pasture by to-night, didn't they?"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck replied, "that was what was in my mind. Parker will
+be--" he stopped suddenly, "butting in again" he had started to say but
+caught himself and finished lamely, "--probably pretty anxious to hurry
+through as soon as possible and get the beef animals in the upland
+pasture!"
+
+"How are you going to work things when he gets back?" Skinny asked with,
+a significant look at Old Heck.
+
+"Blamed if I know--" Old Heck said uncertainly, stopping before he
+finished the sentence. He understood what Skinny meant and just that had
+been worrying him. He had reached the point where he could not endure
+the thought of going back to the old arrangement of day and day about
+with Parker in the enjoyment of the widow's society. Yet if Parker, on
+his return, insisted on dividing Ophelia's time with him in conformity
+with their original agreement, Old Heck knew he would have to yield. He
+thought for a moment he would get the widow away from Skinny and Carolyn
+June after breakfast and make a full confession of the whole thing, ask
+her to marry him, and have it done with. But he had not yet been able to
+get at the bottom of Ophelia's suffragette activities. What if she
+married him and then suddenly broke loose as a speech-maker or something
+for woman's rights? It wouldn't pay to take the risk. "It sure does keep
+a man guessing!" he murmured under his breath, the sweat starting to
+bead his forehead from the mental effort to solve the problem before
+him.
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia exchanged sly winks as they guessed the thing
+that was in Old Heck's mind.
+
+Skinny, himself, was a bit worried as the time drew near for the return
+of the cowboys. He hoped Carolyn June wouldn't spring another dance or
+similar opportunity for indiscriminate love-making.
+
+Nor had Carolyn June forgotten that to-day was Saturday and Parker and
+the cowboys were expected back from the first half of the beef round-up.
+The week had been pleasant enough but she had missed the Ramblin' Kid
+and the Gold Dust maverick more than she cared to confess. She wondered
+if the outlaw filly would remember her.
+
+Saturday was a day of considerable tension for all at the Quarter Circle
+KT. Night came and Parker and the cowboys had not returned. Nor did they
+come on Sunday. Evidently the beef round-up had gone more slowly than
+was expected.
+
+It was late Monday afternoon when the grub-wagon grumbled and creaked
+its way up the lane and stopped near the back-yard gate. Sing Pete
+climbed clumsily down from the high seat. Old Heck and Skinny unhitched
+Old Tom and Baldy while the Chinese cook chattered information about
+Parker, the cowboys and the round-up. He had left the North Springs
+early that morning. Two nights before the herd had run--it was a
+stampede--some sheep had been where the cattle were bedded. Maybe that
+was it. Chuck and Bert were on night guard and could not hold them. The
+steers mixed badly with the rangers. Nearly two days it took to gather
+them again. That was why they were late. Now everything was all right
+The cattle were being driven to the big pasture. Pedro would be along
+soon with the saddle cavallard. By dark maybe the others would be at the
+ranch.
+
+It was midnight before Parker and the cowboys came in.
+
+When Carolyn June stepped out on the porch Tuesday morning she glanced
+toward the circular corral, which for more than a week had been empty.
+Her heart gave a leap of delight.
+
+Captain Jack was standing at the bars of the corral and behind him the
+early sunlight glinted on the chestnut sides of the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+THE GRAND PARADE
+
+Eagle Butte was a jam of humanity. It was Tuesday noon. At one o'clock
+the Grand Parade would circle the mile track at the "Grounds"--a hundred
+level acres enclosed by a high board fence lying at the west edge of
+Eagle Butte, between the Cimarron River and the road that led out to the
+Vermejo--swing down the main street of the town, return again to the
+enclosed area, flow once more past the grandstand, salute the judges of
+the coming events, and the Fifth Annual Independence Rodeo of Eagle
+Butte would be officially opened.
+
+Special excursion rates had brought thousands from all parts of western
+Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. Hundreds of tourists, sight-seeing the
+West, had so arranged their itineraries that they might be present at
+the big exhibition of riding, roping, racing, bull-dogging and other
+cow-country arts,--arts rapidly becoming mere memories of a day too
+quickly passing.
+
+Moving-picture machine operators were seeking advantageous locations for
+their outfits; pedestrians dodged, indiscriminately, high-powered
+automobiles and plunging bronchos; the old and the new were slapped
+together in an incongruous jumble in the streets of Eagle Butte.
+
+The best range men and women of the West were gathered in the western
+Texas town.
+
+New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Texas
+herself, were represented by their most famous riders, ropers,
+bull-doggers, cow-experts, and noted outlaw horses.
+
+There were many masqueraders.
+
+Imitation cow-people, they were, made up in fancy wild-west costumes,
+long-haired chaps, mammoth black sombreros, gaudy neck-cloths,
+silver-spangled saddles, spurs and bridles--typical moving-picture
+cowboys, cowgirls and rough riders. But there were, as well, hundreds of
+real range people. People whose business it is to work every day at the
+"stunts" they were, for the next five days, to play at for the pleasure
+of proving their skill and winning the applause of the multitude of
+spectators packed each day in the grandstand behind the judges' box at
+the Eagle Butte Rodeo.
+
+Every outfit in western Texas sent its most clever riders.
+
+Indians and Mexicans, in picturesque attire, sprinkled the milling mass
+of humanity with a dash of rainbow color.
+
+Dance-halls were running, fare layouts were operating, roulette wheels
+were spinning. For the time, with the consent of the sheriff and other
+reformed authorities, Eagle Butte tried hard to be as Eagle Butte was
+twenty--thirty--years ago.
+
+The entire Quarter Circle KT crowd left the ranch early Tuesday
+morning'. Parker had surprised Old Heck, and filled his mind with
+misgivings, by calling him to one side after breakfast and stammering:
+
+"I--I--reckon you'd just as well go ahead the rest of this week
+and--and--look after the widow by yourself--"
+
+"What's the matter?" Old Heck asked suspiciously; "have you found out
+anything dangerous about that 'Movement' or whatever it is Ophelia's
+mixed up in?"
+
+"No, it ain't that," Parker assured him, "I just thought I'd kind
+of--well, like to be free, to knock around at the Rodeo without being
+bothered with a woman or anything."
+
+The truth was Parker was trying to hedge. When he had got away on the
+beef hunt and began to figure things out he had come to doubt the wisdom
+of his sudden infatuation for the widow. Thinking it over, out on the
+open range, he was appalled by his rash, headlong falling in love. He
+had never married, nor had he, until Ophelia came, been even near it.
+Someway, the moment Carolyn June and the widow arrived at the Quarter
+Circle KT some sort of devil seemed to possess him. He couldn't explain
+it. Maybe it had been just an impulse to get ahead of Old Heck. Whatever
+it was, Parker was worried. What would he do with a wife if he had one?
+All he wanted now was to let the thing blow over. Perhaps the widow
+would forget his impetuous proposal or fall in love with Old Heck.
+
+Old Heck, his heart filled with a queer mixture of elation and
+uncertainty--with a sort of joy and sinking sensation all at
+once--agreed to Parker's suggestion.
+
+Parker rode into Eagle Butte with the cowboys. Old Heck, Ophelia, Skinny
+and Carolyn June went in the Clagstone "Six." Chuck led Old Pie Face for
+Skinny to ride in the parade and Bert took Red John, Old Heck's most
+showy saddle horse--a long-legged, high-stepping, proud-headed, bay
+gelding--for Carolyn June to use, for she, too, had declared her
+intention of joining in the grand promenade with which the Rodeo would
+open.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid left the Gold Dust maverick in the circular corral and
+rode Captain Jack to Eagle Butte. It would be necessary for him to
+register the filly, with the entry judges, on the first day of the Rodeo
+if she was to run in the two-mile sweepstakes.
+
+The rules of the Rodeo required, also, that all who expected to
+participate in any of the events of the coming week must "show" in the
+grand march or parade. The animals that were to be used might also be
+paraded, but this was not compulsory.
+
+Accompanied by Chuck, the Ramblin' Kid went directly to the entry
+offices of the Rodeo, which were roughly boxed-up compartments under
+the rear of the grandstand.
+
+A group of "hot-dog" vendors and "concession spielers" looked curiously
+at the two as they left Captain Jack and Silver Tip, with bridle reins
+dropped over their heads, standing in front of the office and stepped
+inside.
+
+Lafe Dorsey and Flip Williams were at the clerk's desk.
+
+The Vermejo cattleman had just registered Thunderbolt, with Flip as
+rider, for the big race.
+
+They looked around as the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck came in.
+
+"Well, is the Quarter Circle KT getting up sand enough to go against old
+Thunderbolt again?" Dorsey asked with a curl of his lip and an ugly
+sneer.
+
+"Oh, I reckon we've got a little nerve left," Chuck answered with mock
+humility, "not much, but a little, maybe. I was going to put Silver Tip
+in the sweepstakes," he went on, "but I guess I won't. Th' Ramblin'
+Kid's got an entry and it looks like a darned shame for one outfit to
+want to hog it all and grab first and second money both, so I'll stay
+out this time."
+
+"You talk pretty loud," Dorsey snarled, catching instantly, as Chuck
+intended he should, the covert slur at the black Y-Bar stallion. "Maybe
+your money won't make so damned much noise!"
+
+"Here's a couple hundred," Chuck said, pulling a roll of bills from his
+shirt pocket. "I'll invest that much on my judgment that Thunderbolt
+ain't as good as you think he is."
+
+"I'll take it!" Dorsey snapped, jerking a wad of money from his own
+pocket and counting out the amount which he handed to the clerk as
+stake-holder. "And here's another hundred--or a thousand if you want
+it!"
+
+"That two hundred is about all I can handle this morning," Chuck
+laughed. "But I understand Old Heck's aiming to bet a little," he
+drawled suggestively; "probably you'd like to see him?"
+
+"I'll see him--and raise him till he squeals!" Dorsey sneered.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid ignored the tilt between Dorsey and Chuck and leaned
+indifferently against the counter waiting for the clerk to fill out the
+entry blank.
+
+"Event?" the clerk questioned.
+
+"Two-mile run," was the quiet answer.
+
+"Rider--and horse?" glancing up.
+
+Dorsey and Flip paused and turned their heads to catch the names the
+Ramblin' Kid gave.
+
+"I'm the rider, I reckon," the Ramblin' Kid replied, "I guess you know
+who I am. Th' name of th' horse? Well, now ain't that funny?" he said
+with a little laugh, "I never have bothered to name that critter yet!
+But--oh, hell, what's the difference? We'll just call her 'Ophelia' for
+th' time bein'--in honor of a lady-widow that's visitin' out at th'
+ranch!"
+
+"The Quarter Circle KT's getting to be quite a female institution,
+ain't it?" Dorsey said contemptuously. "I suppose this wonder horse of
+yours is one of the ranch fillies and regular lightning!"
+
+For a second the Ramblin' Kid's eyes narrowed, then he replied coldly to
+the last half of Dorsey's sentence:
+
+"Well, th' filly's been runnin' in that neighborhood an'"--with a laugh
+that had in it just the hint of a sneer--"she's pretty fair--good
+enough, I figure, to beat hell out of old Thunderbolt!"
+
+"Are you backing that with money?" Dorsey and Flip spoke together.
+
+"No," the Ramblin' Kid answered slowly, "money ain't no object with me
+in a horse-race. I don't run 'em for that purpose. Anyhow, poker is my
+favorite method of gamblin'!"
+
+Dorsey and Flip whirled angrily out of the office and walked rapidly
+toward the stables where they had left their horses.
+
+After reserving a box stall, which was to be occupied by Captain Jack
+and the Gold Dust maverick, the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck left the entry
+office and mounting their bronchos rode toward the section of the
+grounds, over by the stables, where the parade was already forming.
+
+As they passed through the entrance to the track and the inside field
+which lay beyond Chuck and the Ramblin' Kid rode within a few feet of
+the Clagstone "Six," which was parked near the east end of the
+grandstand. Old Heck and Ophelia were in the front seat of the car
+watching the riders assemble for the parade. Carolyn June was standing
+on the running-board waiting for Skinny to come with Old Pie Face and
+Red John, the boys having left the horses at the stables.
+
+Carolyn June looked up with a bright smile at Chuck. As her eyes met the
+Ramblin' Kid's there was a question in them. She was not sure yet that
+she had forgiven him for the brutal rebuff the night of the dance. If
+there was any feeling in his heart, either of resentment or otherwise,
+toward the girl the Ramblin' Kid hid it. The look he gave her was one of
+unfathomable humility and indifference.
+
+Chuck wheeled Silver Tip to the side of the car and stopped. His eyes
+were filled with frank admiration as he gazed at the girl. Her cheeks
+were flushed with excitement, her white felt hat sat jauntily on the
+crown of brown hair, her eyes were sparkling and in the close-fitting
+riding suit she was the picture of youthful charm and grace. The
+Ramblin' Kid nodded to Old Heck, glanced at Ophelia with a smile, looked
+steadily an instant at Carolyn June and raising his hat to the two women
+passed on with the remark: "I reckon I'll go on over an' see what
+they're doin'."
+
+"Has he entered the outlaw filly for the sweepstakes, yet?" Old Heck
+asked Chuck as the Ramblin' Kid reined Captain Jack down the race track.
+
+"Yes," Chuck answered, "he signed her up."
+
+"Did he name her as the Gold Dust maverick?" Old Heck inquired
+anxiously.
+
+"No," Chuck grinned, "he called her 'Ophelia!'"
+
+Old Heck leaned back in the seat and roared with laughter in which
+Carolyn June and the widow joined.
+
+"Dorsey was there," Chuck said with another grin, "he'd just finished
+entering Thunderbolt for the big race when th' Ramblin' Kid and me got
+to the registering office. I bet him two hundred dollars. He was
+bragging a good deal--"
+
+Old Heck's eyes flashed and the mirth left them.
+
+"He was blowing, was he?" he said with a hard laugh, "the damn--darned
+fool!" he corrected, remembering Ophelia at his side. "Well, 'egg' him
+on--the higher he flies the worse he'll flop when he bu'sts a wing!"
+
+In the parade Skinny rode with Carolyn June. Parker and the Quarter
+Circle KT cowboys were in a group directly behind them. The Vermejo
+crowd, with Dorsey himself mounted on Thunderbolt, had a place just
+ahead of Skinny and Carolyn June. The beautiful black Y-Bar stallion was
+really a wonderful horse. Speed, strength and endurance radiated with
+every movement of the glossy, subtle body. Without doubt he was the most
+handsome animal on the grounds. Dorsey was a splendid rider and a
+man--he was in the early forties--of striking appearance. He was fully
+conscious of the magnificent showing he made on Thunderbolt. The racer
+danced proudly, prancing forward in short, graceful leaps as the column
+swept past the grandstand and the consolidated Eagle Butte and Vegas
+bands crashed out the strains of a stirring march. A ripple of applause
+ran over the crowd in the grandstand as Dorsey, at the head of the
+Vermejo cowboys, rode by the judges' box. He lifted his sombrero and
+waved it in pleased acknowledgment.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was in line a little distance behind Carolyn June,
+Skinny and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys. He rode alone just back of a
+quartette of Indians from down on the Chickasaw.
+
+His plain rigging, the slick, smoothly worn, leather chaps, the
+undecorated saddle, bridle and spurs, his entire work-a-day outfit
+contrasted vividly with the gaudy get-up of most of the other riders.
+Captain Jack moved along easily and freely, but quietly, and with an air
+of utter boredom with all the show and confusion about him. The Ramblin'
+Kid's attitude, whole appearance, matched perfectly the mood of his
+horse. He sat loosely in the saddle and carelessly smoked a cigarette.
+The truth was his mind was far from the pageant of which he and the
+little stallion were a part. He scarcely heard the music nor did he seem
+to see the thousands of human beings, packed tier above tier, under the
+mammoth roof of the grandstand. His thoughts were at the upper crossing
+of the treacherous Cimarron, out at the Quarter Circle KT; he was seeing
+again, Carolyn June, as she looked up into his eyes when he dragged her
+out of the quicksand--he was hearing, once more, her cry of agony as the
+bullet from his gun buried itself in the brain of Old Blue.
+
+Louder hand-clapping, stamping of feet, and calling voices, than any
+that had sounded before, rolled out from the grandstand as the lone
+rider, on the quiet, unexcited little roan, came down the stretch in
+front of the great crowd.
+
+Carolyn June looked back, saw the waving hats and handkerchiefs, heard
+hundreds of voices shouting:
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid! Th' good old Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+The crowd had recognized him as the slender rider who, a year ago, after
+the untamable Cyclone horse had killed Dick Stanley before their eyes
+and in front of where they sat, had ridden, straight-up and scotching
+him at every jump, that vicious, murderous-hearted outlaw.
+
+Carolyn June's eyes moistened and she felt a thrill of pride.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid barely glanced at the sea of faces, a faint smile hung
+for an instant on his lips, as he jerked his hand, the one in which he
+held the cigarette, to the brim of his hat when he came opposite the
+judges' stand.
+
+When the parade swung down the wide, one-sided, main street of Eagle
+Butte, Mike Sabota, from the door of the Elite Amusement Parlor,
+watched it pass. He was standing there, by the side of the lanky
+marshal and surrounded by a group of pool-room loafers and "carnival
+sharks" when Carolyn June and Skinny came by. She looked around in time
+to see him staring, with a vulgar leer, straight into her eyes.
+
+"There is that big, dirty, animal-looking fellow we saw the other day!"
+she said, with a frown of disgust, to Skinny. "He's horrible--"
+
+Skinny glanced at Sabota.
+
+"Yes, he is ornery," he said. "He runs that joint and boot-legs on the
+side. He's got a reputation as a slugger and keeps the crowd around him
+buffaloed. They say he killed a feller--beat him to death--in a fight
+over at Sapulpa before he came to Eagle Butte. I don't like the filthy
+cuss. He's mean!"
+
+"He looks it!" Carolyn June exclaimed, with the uncomfortable feeling
+that the big Greek's look had touched her with something vile and
+unclean.
+
+After the parade disbanded Carolyn June and Skinny rode back to the car
+where Old Heck and Ophelia had remained.
+
+"You made a darned good-looking cowgirl!" Old Heck said proudly to her
+as she stopped Red John by the side of the Clagstone "Six."
+
+"She and Skinny both presented a very fine appearance!" the widow added,
+while Carolyn June playfully blew a kiss at each in acknowledgment of
+the compliment. Skinny sat on Old Pie Face and felt a warm glow of
+satisfaction at the words of Old Heck and Ophelia. He had known all the
+time that Carolyn June and he had shown up well, but he was glad to find
+that others besides himself had noticed it.
+
+Dorsey, on a black stallion, cantered past.
+
+A moment later the Ramblin' Kid came jogging off the race course on
+Captain Jack. He threw up his hand in greeting and passed on out of the
+grounds.
+
+Parked next to the Clagstone "Six" was a handsome touring car, occupied
+by a party consisting of a girl about Carolyn June's own age, a woman a
+few years older and a couple of immaculately dressed young men who wore
+flaring brimmed black felt hats that contrasted absurdly with their
+expensively tailored suits. Evidently all were "big town" people from a
+distance--very "superior" and patronizing in their attitude toward the
+"natives." They had been free and voluble in their comments on the
+various riders. Dorsey, on the magnificent Thunderbolt, drew a murmur of
+admiration from the lips of the girl. As the Ramblin' Kid, the next
+moment, rode by on Captain Jack one of the young fellows said loudly and
+with a laugh of ridicule:
+
+"Look at that one, Bess," addressing the girl; "there's the 'wild and
+woolly' West for you! I'll bet if that horse sneezed he'd fall down and
+the lonesome-looking little runt that's riding him would tumble off and
+root his nose in the dust!"
+
+A cackle of derisive laughter greeted the cheap witticism.
+
+Before any of the others could speak Carolyn June's eyes blazed with
+sudden wrath. She turned her body in the saddle and faced the speaker,
+her hands tightly clenched, her cheeks white with passion and her lip
+curling wickedly.
+
+"Which shows," she said slowly, every word stinging like the bite of a
+whip-lash, "that you are running, true to form and there is one fool, at
+least, still unslaughtered! That"--she continued with a proud toss of
+her head--"'lonesome-looking little runt' is the Ramblin' Kid! Not
+another man in Texas can ride the horse he is on--and there is not a
+horse in Texas that he can't ride!"
+
+She turned again toward the Quarter Circle KT group and a shamed silence
+settled over the swell "out-of-town" car.
+
+Old Heck chuckled with delight at Carolyn June's show of temper.
+
+A whirlwind program of racing, roping, bull-dogging--this event is that
+in which a rider springs from a running horse, grasps by the horns a
+wild steer running at his side, twists the animal's head up and backward
+and so throws it down and then holds the creature on the
+ground--rough-riding and other Rodeo sports followed immediately after
+the parade.
+
+Pedro and Charley Saunders were the only Quarter Circle KT cowboys
+participating in the events of the first day of the Rodeo. The Mexican
+did a fancy roping stunt in front of the grandstand and finished his
+exhibition directly before the Clagstone "Six" in which Carolyn June,
+Ophelia, Old Heck and Skinny were sitting. At the conclusion of his
+performance Pedro bowed to the little audience in the car and swept his
+sombrero before him with all the courtly grace of a great matador.
+Carolyn June generously applauded the dark-skinned rider from the
+Cimarron and waved a daintily gloved hand in acknowledgment of his skill
+with the rope. Skinny gritted his teeth while a pang of jealousy shot
+through his heart.
+
+Charley took part in the bull-dogging event. He drew a black steer,
+rangey built, heavy and wicked. When he lunged from his horse on to the
+horns of the brute it dragged him for a hundred feet before he could
+check its mad flight. At last he slowly forced its nose in the air and
+with a quick wrench of the head to one side threw its feet from under
+it. Man and beast went down in a heap--the neck of the steer across the
+cowboy's body. A groan went up from the crowd in the grandstand and
+Carolyn June's cheeks paled with horror--it looked as if one horn of the
+creature had pierced Charley's breast. But it had missed by the fraction
+of an inch. Straightening himself up to a sitting posture the cowboy
+bent forward and sunk his teeth in the upper lip of the prostrate animal
+and threw up both hands as a signal to the judges that the brute was
+"bulldogged." But the fight had been too hard for him to win first
+place. Buck Wade, a lanky cow-puncher from Montana, in three seconds
+less time, had thrown a brindle Anchor-O steer and taken first money.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Before the sun dipped into the Costejo peaks the Ramblin' Kid left the
+Rodeo and returned alone to the Quarter Circle KT. He told Parker and
+the cowboys, all of whom intended to remain in Eagle Butte every night
+during the Rodeo, that he would be back in town the next afternoon and
+bring with him the Gold Dust maverick. Word had been passed among the
+Quarter Circle KT crowd to keep Dorsey and his bunch in the dark as long
+as possible regarding the fact that the filly, Ophelia, was the famous
+outlaw mare of the lower Cimarron.
+
+After supper Parker, Chuck, Bert and Charley drifted into the Elite
+Amusement Parlor. The place was crowded. Mike Sabota immediately singled
+out the Quarter Circle KT group and began jollying them about the coming
+two-mile sweepstakes. Dorsey and Flip Williams had been in the pool-room
+earlier in the evening and told him of the Ramblin' Kid's entry of the
+filly against the Thunderbolt horse.
+
+Within ten minutes Bert and Charley had placed two hundred and fifty
+dollars each against five hundred of Sabota's money that the Vermejo
+stallion would not finish in first place in the big race.
+
+Old Judge Ivory, who happened to be present, was agreed upon as
+stake-holder.
+
+"That Thunderbolt horse, he is the devil," Sabota laughed evilly as the
+money was handed over to the gray-haired judge. "And Satan, he takes
+care of his own!"
+
+"Well!" Parker drawled, "if you feel inclined to send any more money to
+hell I might help you--" pulling a wad of bills from his pocket and
+throwing the certificates on the soft-drink bar at which they were
+standing.
+
+Sabota's eyes gleamed greedily.
+
+"I think there's two thousand in this roll," Parker continued, "and I'm
+willing to bet it all that the Ramblin' Kid's filly not only goes under
+the wire first in the two-mile run, but that she'll be kicking dirt in
+old Thunderbolt's face--if he ain't too damned far behind--when she does
+it!"
+
+The Greek covered the wager eagerly.
+
+As Judge Ivory pocketed the money Dorsey and Flip Williams stepped into
+the pool-room. Sabota glanced up.
+
+"These Quarter Circle KT _hombres_ are getting bad," he laughed
+sneeringly to Dorsey; "they think th' Ramblin' Kid's got a colt that can
+beat Thunderbolt!"
+
+"The Ramblin' Kid must have a hell of a fast horse!" Dorsey snarled
+contemptuously, "a hell of a fast horse!" he repeated, "when the Ramblin'
+Kid himself declines to risk a dollar of his own money on the running
+qualities of the critter!" referring to the conversation a few hours
+before in the entry judges' office.
+
+As he finished speaking he turned and looked squarely into the cold gray
+eyes of Old Heck who, with Skinny, had entered the Amusement Parlor
+while Dorsey was talking and heard the Vermejo cattleman's sneering
+insinuation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+MOCHA AND JAVA
+
+Old Heck and Skinny had left Ophelia and Carolyn June at the Occidental
+Hotel, where a room was reserved by Old Heck for the use of the two
+women during the Rodeo. They had then gone direct to Mike Sabota's place
+for the express purpose of running into Dorsey and his crowd. Old Heck
+knew that if any large bets were to be laid on the two-mile sweepstakes
+the only chance would be to place them before the Ramblin' Kid brought
+the Gold Dust maverick to Eagle Butte and the Vermejo bunch discovered
+the identity of the horse Thunderbolt was up against.
+
+The Quarter Circle KT cow-men stepped into the pool-room at exactly the
+instant most favorable for their purpose.
+
+Dorsey had made his boast in the presence of a crowd.
+
+He would hardly dare back up without covering, at least to some
+worth-while extent, his words with his money.
+
+For a full minute Old Heck drilled Dorsey with a look such, as a hound
+dog might have in his eyes after he has cornered a coyote and pauses
+before he springs.
+
+Instinctively the crowd stepped back from the two cattlemen while a
+death-like hush fell over the place.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid don't need to back the filly with his money, Dorsey,"
+Old Heck said slowly and in a voice audible in every part of the room;
+"I'm here to back her with mine! You've done a lot of talking--now,
+damn you, cover your chatter with coin or shut up!" the end of the
+sentence coming like the crack of a whip.
+
+With a nervous laugh the Vermejo cattleman jerked a wallet from his
+pocket.
+
+"Here's a thousand that says Thunderbolt does the same thing to the
+Ramblin' Kid's filly that he done to Quicksilver!" Dorsey snapped.
+
+Old Heck threw back his head and laughed scornfully.
+
+"A thousand? I thought you were a sport, Dorsey!" he sneered. "Match
+this," he continued, reaching for his check-book and fountain pen and
+quickly filling out a check payable to "Cash" for ten thousand dollars,
+which he laid on the hardwood bar. "Match that, or admit you're a cheap,
+loud-howlin' bluffer!"
+
+Dorsey paused just an instant as he noted the amount of the check.
+
+"I'll match it!" he exclaimed, flushing angrily, drawing his own
+check-book from his pocket, and then, carried away by his passion
+added, throwing down the bars completely as Old Heck had hoped he would,
+"and go with you to the end of the trail!"
+
+"Good!" Old Heck laughed, "now you are talking like a sport! Let's see,"
+he added calculatingly, "how many Y-Bar cattle do you figure you've got
+running on the Vermejo range--five thousand?"
+
+"There's that many," Dorsey started to say.
+
+"Call it fifty-five hundred!" Old Heck flung at him. "Steer for steer,
+cow for cow, hoof for hoof--I'll put Quarter Circle KT critters against
+every brute you own that th' Ramblin' Kid lands his horse tinder the
+wire ahead of Thunderbolt!"
+
+Dorsey paled, then a purple-red of fury spread over his neck and face,
+and with an oath he cried:
+
+"I'll call you!"
+
+Bills of sale were drawn and turned over to Judge Ivory, to be
+delivered, after the race, to the winner.
+
+"Now," Old Heck said with a hard laugh, "maybe you'd like to own the
+Quarter Circle KT ranch, Dorsey? It's worth twice as much as your
+Vermejo holdings but I'll just give you that percentage of odds and call
+it an even bet that your black stallion don't outrun the little animal
+th' Ramblin' Kid has entered in the sweepstakes!"
+
+But Dorsey did not answer except with a muttered: "Hell, a man's crazy
+that--" He had gone his limit. He had suddenly come to his senses and
+grown suspicious.
+
+Before Skinny and Old Heck left the pool-room the former managed to get
+a bet of five hundred dollars with Sabota.
+
+The next afternoon the Ramblin' Kid rode into Eagle Butte on Captain
+Jack. By his side he led the Gold Dust maverick. The noise and confusion
+in the streets filled the mare with nervousness and she crowded closely
+against the little roan stallion. Before he got the outlaw filly to the
+stables a half dozen cowboys had recognized the Cimarron maverick.
+Within an hour Dorsey and Sabota knew the identity of the Ramblin' Kid's
+entry in the big race that was to be run Friday afternoon and which was
+the big and closing event of the Rodeo.
+
+The Greek was furious.
+
+Wednesday night he called "Gyp" Streetor, a carnival tout, who had one
+time been a jockey but was ruled off the track for crooked work and was
+now picking up "easies" at the Eagle Butte Rodeo, into a side room of
+the Amusement Parlor.
+
+For half an hour the two talked earnestly and furtively.
+
+"Nothin' doin'--absolutely nothin'!" the tout finally said in reply to
+some suggestion of Sabota's. "That Captain Jack horse would murder any
+man but th' Ramblin' Kid that tried to get in the stall--"
+
+"Well, by hell!" the Greek exclaimed, clenching his hairy fists, while
+his mouth twitched with passion, "that filly's got to be kept out of the
+sweepstakes someway or other--"
+
+"You can't get to her, I tell you," Gyp said sullenly, then with a look
+of cunning suddenly coming into his eyes: "They say she's a one-man
+brute like the stallion--nobody can ride her but th' Ramblin' Kid,"
+significantly looking at Sabota. "If you could--but he don't drink!"
+
+The Greek laughed.
+
+"There are other ways!" he said. "He eats, don't he? Listen: To-morrow
+and Friday you take that 'sandwich and coffee' run at the stables--"
+referring to the concession to peddle lunch stuff among the horsemen who
+seldom left their charges, a concession which Sabota, with other
+privileges, had purchased the right to operate. "Th' Ramblin' Kid eats
+off the trays--it will be your business to see that he ain't feeling
+well when the sweepstakes is called! I'll get the 'pills' for you
+to-night--"
+
+"No killin', Sabota!" Gyp warned.
+
+"Just enough to put him out for an hour or two!" the Greek answered.
+
+Wednesday night the Ramblin' Kid slept in the stall with the Gold Dust
+maverick and Captain Jack. Thursday he remained close to the horses.
+Thursday night he again slept on a pile of hay in one corner of the
+box-compartment. Under no circumstances would he leave the animals.
+Occasionally Parker or some of the Quarter Circle KT cowboys came down
+to the stables.
+
+Each night Old Heck and Skinny, with Carolyn June and Ophelia, after the
+evening program was concluded, drove out to the ranch in the Clagstone
+"Six," returning early the following day.
+
+Friday forenoon Old Heck drove the car down to the stall in which
+Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were confined. The two horses
+were standing, side by side, with their heads out of the door, the upper
+half of which was swung back. The Ramblin' Kid leaned against the door
+at the side of the horses.
+
+To Carolyn June he looked tired and worn.
+
+"How's the filly?" Old Heck asked, as the outlaw mare sprang back away
+from the door when the car stopped.
+
+"She's all right."
+
+"Hadn't you ought to exercise her?" Skinny asked.
+
+"She don't need it," the Ramblin' Kid replied with a note of weariness
+in his voice. "She'll get enough exercise this afternoon!"
+
+"You're all right, yourself, are you?" Old Heck asked a bit anxiously.
+
+"Of course I'm all right," was the rather impatient reply. "Don't be
+uneasy," he added with a laugh; "--th' filly'll be in th' race an' beat
+old Thunderbolt!"
+
+"Good luck!" Carolyn June cried, as Old Heck turned the car about and
+started back toward the grandstand.
+
+"Good luck!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered to himself, watching the car as
+it whirled away. "Ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" he repeated bitterly,
+then with a queer smile in which was a world of tenderness he pulled the
+pink satin elastic garter he had picked up at the circular corral, from
+his pocket and looked at it long and wistfully. "Good luck?" he
+exclaimed again questioningly. "Well, maybe that little jigger'll bring
+it!" and he slipped the band back in his pocket.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid acts like he's got the blues this morning," Skinny
+said as the Clagstone "Six" rolled away from the stables. "He looks to
+me like a feller that's in just the right humor to get on a whale of a
+drunk--"
+
+"That's one thing about him you can depend on," Old Heck broke in, "--he
+never poisons himself with liquor. That's why when he says he'll do
+anything you can bet all you've got he'll do it!"
+
+"Well, if he ever does break loose," Skinny retorted, "it'll be sudden
+and wild!"
+
+"Probably," Old Heck replied as though there wasn't the slightest danger
+of such an eventuality.
+
+That morning Gyp purposely avoided going as far, with his stock of
+provisions, as the stall in which were Captain Jack and the Gold Dust
+maverick. Nor did he come with his lunch tray and tin pot of coffee
+until nearly one o'clock.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid had no breakfast. To secure it he would have been
+required to leave the horses. That he would not do. Of course he might
+have told Old Heck or Skinny to bring or send him something, but he did
+not feel inclined to mention, in the presence of Carolyn June and
+Ophelia, that he was hungry. Anyhow, well, they were having a good time
+and what was the use of bothering them?
+
+When Gyp finally came with the lunch the Ramblin' Kid was outside the
+stall and had walked a little way up the stable street. Captain Jack and
+the filly were in a compartment at the end of the string of stalls. The
+one next to it, back toward the grandstand, was unoccupied, and
+adjoining that was a hay room. Gyp stopped opposite the open door of the
+compartment in which the bales of hay and straw were piled. He paused a
+moment and turned as if to go back.
+
+"Hold on there!" the Ramblin' Kid called to him. "What you tryin' to do?
+Starve me to death?"
+
+"D' last thing I'd want to do, Bo!" Gyp laughed good-naturedly. "Did I
+miss you this mornin'? Here, come inside where I can set this bloomin'
+junk down on a bale of hay for a minute an' I'll fix you up!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid followed Gyp into the stall.
+
+The tout stooped over, with his back to the other, and slipped a capsule
+containing a white powder into a coffee cup which he filled quickly with
+the black liquid from the tin pot he carried. He handed the cup to the
+Ramblin' Kid. The latter took it and sat down on a bale of hay lying
+opposite. The coffee was just hot enough to melt, instantly, the capsule
+and not too warm to drink at once. The Ramblin' Kid was thirsty as well
+as hungry. Lifting the cup to his lips, while Gyp, fumbling for a
+sandwich, watched him furtively, he drained it without stopping.
+
+"That's--what was in that?'" he asked, eying the tout keenly. "It tastes
+like--!"
+
+"Just good old Mocha an' Java!" Gyp interrupted lightly. "Maybe it's a
+little strong. Here, take another one!" reaching for the cup.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid started to hand the cup to Gyp to be refilled--a queer
+numbness swept over him--the cup fell from his hand--he swayed--tensed
+his body in an effort to get up--mumbled thickly:
+
+"What th'--what th'--?"
+
+The tout backed away toward the door, crouching like a cat ready to
+spring, his beady eyes half-frightened, watching the poison deaden the
+faculties of the other. He leaped through the door, glanced up and down
+the stable street--deserted at that hour except for a few drowsy
+attendants lounging in front of their stalls--jerked the door shut,
+hooked the open padlock through the iron fastenings, snapped its jaws
+together and muttered, as he hurried away:
+
+"I guess that guy won't ride the Gold Dust maverick in any two-mile
+sweepstakes to-day!"
+
+As the door slammed shut the Ramblin' Kid pitched forward, unconscious,
+on the bale of hay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE SWEEPSTAKES
+
+The Clagstone "Six" was parked, Friday afternoon, in its usual place
+near the east end of the grandstand and close to the entrance to the
+track. Old Heck and Ophelia were alone in the car. Carolyn June and
+Skinny, on Pie Face and Red John, watched the afternoon program from the
+"inside field" across the race track. Parker and the Quarter Circle KT
+cowboys were also mounted on their horses and in the field opposite the
+grandstand.
+
+Never had there been such a jam at a Rodeo held in Eagle Butte.
+
+The two-mile sweepstakes, itself the "cow-man's classic" and the great
+derby event of western Texas, always drew record crowds the day on which
+it was run.
+
+This Friday the grandstand creaked under its load of humanity.
+
+The racing feud between the Quarter Circle KT and the Y-Bar and the
+thousands of dollars Old Heck and Dorsey were known to have bet on their
+respective favorites acted as tinder on the flame of public interest in
+the big event.
+
+Thunderbolt had a great reputation. Last year, and the year before, he
+had mastered the field of runners put against him.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick--named in the race "Ophelia"--was a wonder horse
+in the minds of the people of western Texas who had heard of the
+beautiful, almost super-creature, that had tormented, with her speed and
+endurance, the riders of the Cimarron and now at last was caught, and to
+be ridden in the sweepstakes, by the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+At two-forty a special exhibition of "Cossack Riding"--participated in
+by Lute Larsen, of Idaho; Jack Haines, from Texas, and Curly Piper, a
+Colorado cowboy, finished in front of the grandstand.
+
+The announcer trained his megaphone on the vast crowd:
+
+"The next event," he bellowed, "two-mile sweepstakes! Purse one thousand
+dollars! Five entries! Naming them in their order from the pole:
+Thunderbolt, black Y-Bar stallion, Flip Williams, rider; Say-So, roan
+gelding, from the Pecos River, Box-V outfit, Jess Curtis, rider;
+Ophelia, Gold Dust filly, the Cimarron outlaw from the Quarter Circle
+KT, th' Ramblin' Kid, rider; Prince John, sorrel gelding, from Dallas,
+Texas, 'Snow' Johnson, rider; Dash-Away, bay mare, from Jackson Hole,
+Wyoming, Slim Tucker, rider. Race called at three o'clock sharp! Horse
+failing to score on the dot will be ruled out! Range saddles to be used.
+Entries for the two-mile sweepstakes will show at once on the track!"
+
+Dead silence ensued during the announcer's drawling oration.
+
+It was followed by the hum of five thousand voices as they chattered in
+eager expectancy.
+
+The band crashed out _Dixie_ and a medley of southern melodies.
+
+Chuck and Bert reined their bronchos up to Parker.
+
+"We're going over and see how th' Ramblin' Kid is making it," Chuck
+said. "He might need that filly herded a little to get her through this
+jam." And they galloped their horses across the track toward the
+stables.
+
+Carolyn June and Skinny decided to watch the sweepstakes from the car,
+with Old Heck and Ophelia. They rode Pie Face and Red John over to the
+Clagstone "Six." Carolyn June dismounted and stepped up on the
+running-board of the car, holding Red John loosely by the bridle rein.
+
+"Gee," she laughed, "but I'm nervous!"
+
+Old Heck reached over and patted her hand.
+
+"Wait till they start to run before you get hysterical," he chuckled.
+"There'll be time enough then for excitement!" One could never have
+told, by his actions, that within the next few moments he would lose or
+win fifty thousand dollars.
+
+Chuck pulled Silver Tip to a stop in front of the stall where Captain
+Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were standing.
+
+"They're getting ready for the sweepstakes!" he called, thinking the
+Ramblin' Kid was in the compartment with the horses. "You'd better be
+putting your rigging on the filly," as he slid from his broncho and
+stepped to the door of the stall.
+
+There was no answer. He peered into the half-gloom of the place.
+
+It was empty save for the two horses.
+
+"That's funny as thunder," he said, puzzled, to Bert. "Where'd you
+reckon th' Ramblin' Kid is?"
+
+"Darned if I know--ain't he there?" Bert answered, riding up so he could
+look into the door.
+
+"Look around a little," Chuck said anxiously. "Maybe he's just stepped
+away for a minute--Hey!" he called to an attendant of a stall a short
+distance down the stable street, "have you seen anything of th' Ramblin'
+Kid--the feller that has these horses?"
+
+"Naw," was the careless answer, "I ain't seen him for two hours."
+
+"Something must be wrong!" Chuck exclaimed. "You stay here and watch!
+I'll go see Old Heck--maybe he knows where he is."
+
+"Hell, yes!" Bert said as the other started Silver Tip in a run toward
+where the Clagstone "Six" was parked. "He's got to be found! Nobody else
+but him can ride the maverick!"
+
+At the car, before his horse was fairly stopped, Chuck leaned over and
+asked, tensely:
+
+"Have any of you people seen th' Ramblin' Kid?"
+
+Old Heck straightened up.
+
+"Ain't he at the stables?" he inquired uneasily. "He was there this
+morning--"
+
+"No," Chuck replied hurriedly, "he's been gone two hours!"
+
+"Good lord," Old Heck exclaimed, "he's got to be found! The race starts
+in ten minutes."
+
+"And nobody but him can ride the filly!" Skinny interrupted. "I wonder
+if he's--" he started to say "drunk," but stopped as Carolyn June looked
+quickly at him. The word was in both their minds.
+
+"It ain't natural!" Old Heck cried; "there must be something dirty! You
+boys go look for him; I'll, keep my eyes open here!"
+
+As Old Heck said "dirty" the picture of Mike Sabota flashed into Carolyn
+June's mind. Some intuition seemed to couple, in her inner
+consciousness, the big Greek with the Ramblin' Kid's disappearance.
+
+The horses for the two-mile sweepstakes were already beginning to come
+on to the track. Flip Williams was walking Thunderbolt up and down in
+front of the grandstand, trying to keep the high-spirited stallion quiet
+until time came to mount; the rider of Say-So was doing the same thing
+with his entry; Slim Tucker was already sitting on Dash-Away, the trim
+Wyoming mare standing unruffled near the starting line, while Snow
+Johnson, like Tucker, already on his mount, was circling Prince John in
+wide loops behind the others.
+
+Carolyn June was stunned for a moment by the thought that had come into
+her mind when the picture of the burly Greek flashed before her. She
+clenched her hands and her cheeks whitened.
+
+"Come on, Skinny!" she said suddenly, stepping off the running-board of
+the car and swinging on to Red John, "we'll go help look for the
+Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+She whirled the big bay around the end of the grandstand and rode in a
+fast gallop straight for the box stall, Skinny and Chuck following close
+behind her. A quick resolution formed in her mind: "Nobody but the
+Ramblin' Kid could ride the filly?"
+
+_She could ride the mare_!
+
+Even if the Ramblin' Kid was not found Sabota and his crowd should not
+be allowed to win by dirty work--if dirty work had been done!
+
+At the stall Carolyn June sprang from Red John.
+
+Bert was nervously walking about, calling occasionally the name of the
+missing Quarter Circle KT cowboy.
+
+"Have you found him?" Carolyn June asked as Skinny and Chuck came up
+behind her.
+
+"No," Bert answered glumly, "he ain't showed up yet! There ain't no
+signs of him around here."
+
+"What'll we do?" Skinny asked excitedly. "The race is almost ready to
+start and--do you reckon you could ride the filly, Bert?" he finished
+with a gleam of hope.
+
+"I doubt it, but, well, I'll try her--if Captain Jack'll let me get her
+out."
+
+"You boys keep back!" Carolyn June interrupted, stepping to the door of
+the stall and opening it, "Captain Jack knows me and--I--I--think the
+filly does, too--I can handle her--" as she stepped boldly inside the
+compartment with the horses.
+
+"Don't go in there!" Skinny cried, "Car--Carolyn June, they'll kill
+you!"
+
+"You boys keep away!" she laughed. "And don't get the horses nervous!
+They won't hurt me!" she answered, going ahead toward the animals.
+
+Captain Jack looked at her suspiciously an instant
+
+"Jack-Boy--Jack-Boy!" she called with a caress in her voice. "Careful!
+We're friends!" The attitude of the stallion changed instantly and the
+menace was gone from his eyes.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick heard the voice and with a friendly little nicker
+rubbed her head against the outstretched hand.
+
+In a corner was the Ramblin' Kid's saddle, bridle, blanket and worn
+leather chaps.
+
+With a light pat of the outlaw filly's cheek Carolyn June turned and
+began quickly and deftly putting the riding gear on the beautiful mare.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For an hour and a half the Ramblin' Kid lay as he had fallen when he
+started to hand the coffee cup back to Gyp. Breathing heavily, his face
+flushed, he was as one in the deep stupor of complete intoxication. At
+last he stirred uneasily. An unconscious groan came from his lips. His
+eyes opened. In them was a dazed, puzzled look. Where was he? He tried
+vainly to remember--the clean life, the iron constitution and
+youth--aided perhaps by an indomitable subconscious will protesting
+against this something that had happened to him--were throwing off the
+effects of the drug hours before an ordinary man would have regained
+even a hint of sensibility.
+
+He stood up--reeling unsteadily. He was deathly sick. Lightning flashes
+of pain throbbed through his head. Waves of blackness rolled before his
+eyes. Surges of numbness swept over his legs and arms. He tried hard to
+remember. There was something--what was it? Th'--th'--what th'
+hell?--_th' race_! That was it--th'--th'--th' sweepstakes! In an instant
+the thought was gone. It kept beating back: _Th' sweepstakes--th'
+race_--What time was it? Had it been run? He staggered to the door. It
+was locked! His head was bursting. If he could only get over the nausea.
+He felt his knees start to give way. No! No! My God, he wouldn't give
+up! He--oh, yes. _Th' race! Captain Jack--no--th'--th'--maverick--he had
+to ride_--He must get out! There was a--a--window--sometimes they had
+them--in the back of the stalls. Maybe the hay was over it. He climbed
+on the bales. Behind them he could see the opening. God, he was weak!
+With the sweat of terrible nausea bursting from every pore of his body
+he pulled the bales back. He fell over the bale on which he had been
+lying. One hand brushed his hat which had fallen from his head.
+Mechanically, with stiff fingers, he picked it up and jammed it on
+again. Then he climbed--crawled--over the hay and pitched forward
+through the opening, in a limp heap, on the ground outside.
+
+For a moment he lost consciousness completely again: _Th'--th' race--th'
+maverick! he mustn't forget_--
+
+He fought his way to his feet and groped along back of the building--the
+stall--which way was it? Down there? No--the other way--
+
+As Carolyn June tightened the rear cinch on the Gold Dust maverick and
+turned toward the door of the stall with: "Look out, boys--I'm coming
+out!" the Ramblin' Kid, clutching at the side of the building, reeled
+around the corner of the stall. The cowboys saw him. He himself saw only
+black shapes where their horses were.
+
+"Good God!" Skinny cried, "he's drunk!"
+
+Carolyn June heard Skinny's exclamation at the instant the Ramblin' Kid,
+catching at the half-open door, almost fell into the stall. His eyes
+stared with a dull, puzzled, unrecognizing vacancy first at Carolyn June
+and then the Gold Dust maverick. "_Who th' hell_--" he mumbled stiffly.
+"What--th'--oh, yes--there's th' filly--_th'--th'--race_. It
+must--be--time. Th' mare's saddled! That's--that's--funny! I can't
+remember. Th' race--th' sweepstakes--that's it--"
+
+Reaching over he jerked the reins from the hand of Carolyn June.
+
+"Who--who--get the--" came like the thick growl of a beast from his
+throat. "You--you--can't ride--she'll--_she'll--kill--_"
+
+Carolyn June shrank back as if she had been struck. She pressed her
+hands against her cheeks and stepped away with a look of horror and
+disgust as the Ramblin' Kid backed out of the stall with the Gold Dust
+maverick. Outside he fumbled grotesquely at the silky mane and climbed
+weakly into the saddle.
+
+Chuck and Bert started toward him.
+
+"Get--the--hell--" he snarled as he saw their horses--mere shadow shapes
+they were to him--approach.
+
+"Let him alone!" Skinny said. "He's drunk! You'll just scare the filly
+and make her hurt him!"
+
+The boys let him go.
+
+With blanched cheeks Carolyn June mounted Red John and with Skinny, Bert
+and Chuck, rode back to the Clagstone "Six." Her heart was utterly sick.
+So this was it? It had come out--the brute--the beast that was in him!
+
+They reached the car as the Ramblin' Kid, at the horse entrance, at the
+other end of the grandstand, came on the track with the Gold Dust
+maverick.
+
+Old Heck looked up when the group approached. He saw the agony in
+Carolyn June's eyes and started to speak.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's drunk," Skinny said dully. "He showed up--yonder he
+is--" as the beautiful copper-tinted, chestnut filly appeared behind the
+other horses entered for the two-mile sweepstakes.
+
+"Drunk?" Old Heck cried incredulously. "Are you sure?"
+
+"Watch him!" Chuck said miserably.
+
+The starter was standing with arm outstretched and flag ready to fall.
+The filly came down the track jumping nervously from side to side in
+short springing leaps. The starter paused, watch in hand. A shout of
+admiration and wonder went up from the crowd as the splendid creature
+dancing down the track was recognized. The next instant it was succeeded
+by a cry of horror that rolled in a great wave from a thousand throats.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid is drunk! He's drunk--the mare will kill him!" as they
+saw the slim rider weaving limply in the saddle, his head dropped
+forward as if he were utterly helpless.
+
+"Rule that horse off the track!" Dorsey, who was standing with Mike
+Sabota, in a box-seat just below the judges' stand, shouted as he saw
+the Ramblin' Kid, even in his half-conscious condition, reining the Gold
+Dust maverick with consummate skill into position, "her rider's drunk!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard the voice and--by some miracle of the
+mind--recognized it, although his eyes, set and glassy, could not see
+the speaker.
+
+He turned his head in the direction from which the cry came and
+answered, slowly measuring each word:
+
+"Go--go--t' hell--you--you--_coyote_!"
+
+The next instant the starter dropped the flag. As it went down the filly
+crouched and reared straight into the air.
+
+That one second gave the other horses the start.
+
+Then the outlaw mare leaped forward directly behind Thunderbolt, running
+against the inside rail. Say-So, the Pecos horse, jammed close to the
+side of the black stallion; Snow Johnson, rider of Prince John, pushed
+the big sorrel ahead with his nose at the roan's tail; Dash-Away hugged
+against the heels of Prince John. The Gold Dust maverick was "pocketed!"
+
+A breathless hush fell over the crowd in the grandstand after the first
+mighty roar:
+
+"They're off!"
+
+Black devils of torture clutched the throat, the mind, the body of the
+Ramblin' Kid. Streams of fire seemed to be flowing through his veins. He
+couldn't see--he was blind. "What th'--what th'--hell!" he muttered over
+and over. He was vaguely conscious of the thunder of hoofs around
+him--under him. Dimly, black shadows were rushing along at his side. He
+fought with all his will to master his faculties. Where was he? What was
+it? Was it a--a--stampede? What? _Oh, yes, th' race--th'--th'--
+sweepstakes--that--that was it_--Over and over the fleeting flashes of
+consciousness kept throwing this one supreme idea on the mirror of his
+mind!
+
+Not a word was spoken by any of the party at the Clagstone "Six" as the
+five fastest horses ever on the Eagle Butte track swept past the car
+toward the first quarter-turn of the course.
+
+Carolyn June's face was as white as marble. Her breast heaved and fell
+as if it would burst. Dry-eyed, every nerve tense, she stared at the
+straining racers. Unconsciously she gripped into hard knots of flesh and
+bone, both hands, while she bit at her underlip until a red drop of
+blood started from the gash made in the tender skin by her teeth.
+
+"_Drunk_!" she thought, "_drunk!_ Beastly drunk--and throwing away the
+greatest race ever run on a Texas track!"
+
+Old Heck sat impassive as though carved from stone and said nothing.
+
+Ophelia nervously chewed at the finger of her glove while her eyes
+moistened with sympathy and pity.
+
+Skinny, Chuck and Bert sat gloomily, moodily, on their bronchos and
+watched Thunderbolt lead the quintette of running horses.
+
+For the life of him Skinny could not keep from thinking of the five
+hundred dollars he had bet with Sabota, on the race, and the number of
+white shirts and purple ties he might have bought with the money!
+
+Over in the track-field Parker, Charley and Pedro saw the start of the
+race and each swore softly and silently to himself.
+
+Sing Pete, alone of the Quarter Circle KT crowd, in the jam of the
+grandstand, stretched his neck and followed with inscrutable eyes the
+close-bunched racers. The start had puzzled him, yet he murmured
+hopefully:
+
+"Maybe all samee Lamblin' Kid he beatee hell out of 'em yet!"
+
+The loyal Chinese cook had wagered the savings of a dozen years on the
+speed of the Gold Dust maverick's nimble legs and his faith in the
+"Lamblin' Kid."
+
+A blanket might have covered the five horses as they swung around the
+first mile.
+
+The speed-mad animals roared down the homestretch, finishing the first
+half of the race in the almost identical position each had taken in the
+getaway.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid rode the mile more as an automaton than as a living,
+conscious human being. He had no memory of time, place, events--save for
+the instants of rationality he forced his will to bring.
+
+Gradually, though, his mind was clearing.
+
+But which was it--the first half?--the last half? How long had they been
+running? How many times had they gone around the track? He could not
+remember!
+
+Down the straight stretch the racers came in a mighty whirlwind of
+speed.
+
+"Thunderbolt is taking it!"
+
+"The Y-Bar horse leads!"
+
+"Th' black's got 'em!" roared from the throats of the crowd in the
+grandstand and the mass of humanity crushing the railing along the
+track.
+
+Dorsey and Sabota leaped to the edge of the box as the horses thundered
+past the judges' stand. The voice of the owner of Thunderbolt shrieked
+out in a hoarse bellow:
+
+"Hold him to it, Flip! Keep your lead--you've got the filly!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard again--or thought he heard again--the voice of
+the Vermejo cattleman. He caught, as an echo, a note of triumph in it.
+It was like a tonic to his drug-numbed faculties.
+
+Suddenly he saw clearly. He had just a glimpse of Sabota standing by the
+side of Dorsey. He understood. In a flash it all came to him. The first
+half of the great sweepstakes race was behind them! Once more they were
+to circle the track. The glistening black rump of Thunderbolt rose and
+fell just ahead of the Gold Dust maverick's nose--at her side, crowding
+her against the rail, was another horse. Which one? It didn't matter!
+Back of it was another. He was "_pocketed_!" Hell, no wonder Thunderbolt
+was ahead of the outlaw mare!
+
+Half-way around the quarter-turn he pulled the filly down.
+
+She slackened ever so little. Thunderbolt--the horse at her side--all of
+them--shot ahead.
+
+He was behind the bunch--clear of the field!
+
+The crowd saw the filly dart to the right. It looked as though she would
+go over the outside rail before the Ramblin' Kid swung her, in a great
+arch, to the left clear of, but far behind, the other horses.
+
+He was crazy! The Gold Dust maverick was getting the better of the
+Ramblin' Kid. He had lost control of the wonderful mare!
+
+So thought the thousands watching the drama on the track before them.
+
+Away over, next to the outside fence, on the far side of the track, open
+now before him for the long outfield stretch, the Rambling Kid
+straightened the Gold Dust maverick out. The other racers were still
+bunched against the inner rail--lengths ahead of the filly.
+
+Leaning low on the neck of the maverick, the Ramblin' Kid began talking,
+for the first time, to the horse he rode.
+
+"_Baby--Baby! Girl_!" he whispered incoherently almost. "_Go--go_--damn
+'em! _'Ophelia'_"--he laughed thickly, reeling in the saddle.
+"_Hell_--_no--'Little--Little--Pink Garter!--that's--that's--_what y'
+are! Little--Pink--Garter_--" he repeated irrationally. "_That's
+it--show 'em--damn 'em--show 'em what--what runnin'--what real runnin'
+is!_" fumbling caressingly at the mare's neck with hands numb and stiff
+and chuckling pitifully, insanely, while his face was drawn with agony
+nearly unendurable.
+
+Then the Gold Dust maverick ran!
+
+Never had ground flowed with such swiftness under the belly of a horse
+on a Texas track.
+
+"Good God!" Skinny yelled, "looky yonder! He's passin' them! Th'
+Ramblin' Kid is passin' 'em!"
+
+No one answered him.
+
+His voice was drowned in the mighty roar that surged from five thousand
+throats and rolled in waves of echoing and re-echoing sound across the
+field.
+
+"He's ridin' round 'em!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid is goin' around them!"
+
+"Great heavens! Look at that horse go!"
+
+"She's a-flyin'! _She's a-flyin_'!"
+
+The Gold Dust maverick closed the gap--she caught Dash-Away--she
+evened up with Prince John--she left the big sorrel behind--she passed
+Say-So--nose to nose for a few rods she ran opposite the black
+wonder--the Thunderbolt horse from the Vermejo.
+
+Flip Williams, spurs raking the flanks of Dorsey's stallion, looked
+around.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid leaned toward him:
+
+"Hell--why--don't you--_make that--thing run_!" he sneered at the Y-Bar
+rider.
+
+The next instant the Gold Dust maverick's neck and shoulders showed in
+the lead of the Y-Bar stallion.
+
+At the turn for the home stretch the outlaw filly shot ahead of the
+wonderful black horse from the Vermejo, swung close to the inside rail,
+and like a flash of gold-brown darted down the track toward the wire.
+
+The grandstand was turned into a madhouse of seething humanity. The
+immense crowd came to its feet roaring and shrieking with frenzy. Men
+smashed their neighbors with clenched fists--not knowing or caring how
+hard or whom they struck--or that they themselves were being hit. Women
+screamed frantically, hysterically, tears streaming from thousands of
+eyes because of sheer joy at the wonderful thing the Gold Dust maverick
+was doing. Even the stolid Sing Pete was jumping up and down, shouting:
+
+"_Come on--come on--Lamblin' Kid! Beat 'em--beatee hell out of 'em_!"
+
+Full three lengths in the lead of the "unbeatable" Thunderbolt the Gold
+Dust maverick flashed under the wire in front of the judges!
+
+Dorsey, shaken in every nerve, lips blue as though he were stricken with
+a chill, reeled out of the box from which he had watched his whole
+fortune swept away by the speed of the Cimarron mare. At his side,
+profaning horrible, obscene oaths staggered Mike Sabota.
+
+Old Heck, white-faced, but his lips drawn in a smile of satisfaction,
+stood up in the Clagstone "Six" and watched the Ramblin' Kid--his eyes
+set and staring, his body twitching convulsively, check the filly, swing
+her around, ride back to the judges' stand, weakly fling up a hand in
+salute and then, barely able to sit in the saddle, rein the Gold Dust
+maverick off the track and ride toward the box stall.
+
+Skinny drew a hand across his eyes and looked at Carolyn June.
+
+Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+OLD HECK GOES TO TOWN
+
+It was Monday morning, clear and cloudless, with a whiff of a breeze
+kissing the poplars along the front-yard fence at the Quarter Circle KT.
+On the sand-hills north of the Cimarron, Pedro was pushing the saddle
+cavallard toward Rock Creek, where the last half of the beef round-up
+was to begin. Parker and the cowboys were just splashing their bronchos
+into the water at the lower ford. Sing Pete, on the high seat of the
+grub-wagon, was once more clucking and cawing at Old Tom and Baldy as
+they drew the outfit along the lane and followed the others to the open
+range.
+
+Old Heck, Skinny, Ophelia and Carolyn June again were alone at the
+Quarter Circle KT.
+
+The Eagle Butte Rodeo had closed, with one last riotous carnival of
+wildness at midnight Saturday night.
+
+Once more the straggling town, its pulse gradually beating back to
+normal, lay half-asleep at the foot of the sun-baked butte that stood
+silent and drowsy beyond the Sante Fe tracks.
+
+Tom Poole, the lank marshal, loafed as usual about the Elite Amusement
+Parlor, over which hung a sullen quiet reflecting the morbid emotions of
+Mike Sabota, its brutish-built proprietor, resulting from his heavy
+losses on Thunderbolt in the two-mile sweepstakes when the Gold Dust
+maverick, ridden by the drug-crazed Ramblin' Kid, darted under the wire
+lengths ahead of the black Vermejo stallion.
+
+Friday evening Old Heck had met Dorsey in the pool-room.
+
+Judge Ivory handed over to the owner of the Quarter Circle KT the Y-Bar
+cattleman's check for ten thousand dollars and the bill of sale he had
+recklessly given and which transferred to Old Heck all the cattle the
+Vermejo rancher owned.
+
+Dorsey was game.
+
+"You put it on me," he said to Old Heck "but the Ramblin' Kid won square
+and I'm not squealing!"
+
+Old Heck turned the check slowly over in his hand and looked at it with
+a quizzical frown on his face:
+
+"I reckon this is good?"
+
+"It's my exact balance," Dorsey replied; "I saw to that this morning."
+
+For a long minute Old Heck studied the bill of sale that made him owner
+of every cow-brute burnt with the Y-Bar brand.
+
+"My men will gather the cattle within fifteen days," Dorsey said dully,
+noting the half-questioning look on Old Heck's face, "or you can send
+your own crew, just as you please. I suppose you'll meet me half-way and
+receive the stock in Eagle Butte?"
+
+"Can Thunderbolt run?" Old Heck asked irrelevantly.
+
+"Not as fast as that imp of hell of the Ramblin' Kid's!" Dorsey answered
+instantly and with a short laugh.
+
+Old Heck chuckled.
+
+"You say you'll turn the Y-Bar cattle over to me within fifteen days?"
+he asked again, reverting to a study of the paper he held in his hand.
+
+"Yes," Dorsey replied; "is that satisfactory?"
+
+"You're a pretty good sport, after all, Dorsey," Old Heck said quietly.
+"I'll cash this check"--glancing at the yellow slip of paper--"and this
+thing, here--we'll just tear it up!" as he reduced the bill of sale to
+fragments. "Keep your cattle, Dorsey," he added, "ten thousand dollars
+is enough for you to pay for your lesson!"
+
+Dorsey flushed a dull red.
+
+"I ain't asking--"
+
+"I know you're not," Old Heck interrupted, "and that's the reason I tore
+up that bill of sale!"
+
+"Old Heck," Dorsey said, his voice trembling, "you're white! I'd like to
+shake--"
+
+The rival cattlemen gripped hands and the racing feud between the
+Quarter Circle KT and the Y-Bar was ended.
+
+A week later Dorsey sent Flip Williams to the Quarter Circle KT. The
+Vermejo cowboy led the beautiful black stallion that had mastered
+Quicksilver and had in turn been whipped by the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+"Dorsey said, Tell Old Heck Thunderbolt's a pretty good saddle horse,'"
+Flip explained, "'and he'd do to change off with Quicksilver once in a
+while! So he sent him over as a sort of keepsake!'"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid did not return to the Quarter Circle KT until late
+Sunday night. After the two-mile sweepstakes he was horribly ill. All
+Friday night he laid, in a semi-conscious condition, in the stall with
+Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+Parker and some of the cowboys visited the stall after the race, but
+they thought the Ramblin' Kid was drunk and the best thing was to allow
+him to sleep it off.
+
+"I can't figure it out," Chuck said as they turned away, "he never did
+get drunk before that I knew of--"
+
+"You can't tell what he's liable to do," Charley interrupted, "he sure
+took an awful chance getting on a tear at the time he did!"
+
+"Well, he won the race," Parker said admiringly, "drunk or sober, you've
+got to give him credit for that!"
+
+Saturday the Ramblin' Kid got Pedro to stay with the horses while he
+went over to the Elite Amusement Parlor. He had nothing to say to Sabota
+or any of the loafers in the place.
+
+He was looking for Gyp Streetor.
+
+Until Sunday afternoon he searched Eagle Butte, trying to find the tout.
+All he wanted was to locate the man who had sold him that cup of
+coffee--he could remember drinking the coffee; after that until the
+following morning all was hazy.
+
+But Gyp was gone.
+
+When the Gold Dust maverick, with the Ramblin' Kid swaying uncertainly
+on her back, had appeared on the track for the two-mile run, the tout,
+his eyes like those of a harried rat, sneaked out of the crowd in front
+of the book-makers' booths and hurried toward the Santa Fe railroad
+yards. An hour later he slipped into an empty freight car--part of a
+train headed for the West--and Eagle Butte saw him no more.
+
+It was midnight Sunday when the Ramblin' Kid reached the Quarter Circle
+KT, turned Captain Jack and the outlaw filly into the circular corral,
+and without disturbing Old Heck, Parker, or the cowboys, already asleep
+in the bunk-house, sought his bed.
+
+Monday morning he was at breakfast with the others.
+
+Throughout the meal the Ramblin' Kid was silent. Carolyn June, still
+shocked by what she thought was his intoxication the day of the race,
+and believing he had remained in Eagle Butte over Saturday night and
+Sunday to continue the debauch, ignored him.
+
+None of the others cared to question him and the Ramblin' Kid himself
+volunteered no information.
+
+Once only, Old Heck mentioned the race.
+
+"That was a pretty good ride you made in the two-mile event," he said,
+addressing the Ramblin' Kid; "it looked at first like the filly--"
+
+"You won your money, didn't you?" the Ramblin' Kid interrupted in a tone
+that plainly meant there was nothing further to be said.
+
+That was the only reference to the incidents of Friday afternoon.
+
+After breakfast the Ramblin' Kid saddled the Gold Dust maverick, turned
+Captain Jack with the cavallard, and with Parker and the other Quarter
+Circle KT cowboys rode away to help gather the beef cattle from the west
+half of the Cimarron range.
+
+The week that followed passed quickly.
+
+During the entire period the Kiowa lay under a mantle of sunshine by day
+and starlit skies by night.
+
+Carolyn June once more provided the evening dessert of coffee-jelly and
+Skinny finished teaching her the art of dipping bread in milk and egg
+batter, frying it in hot butter, and calling the result "French toast"
+
+Skinny again put on the white shirt and the shamrock tinted tie. He had
+not dared to wear what Chuck called his "love-making rigging" during the
+week of the Rodeo. It would have made him entirely too conspicuous among
+the hundreds of other cowboys gathered at Eagle Butte for the big
+celebration. Situations filled with embarrassment would have been almost
+certain to develop.
+
+"It's getting so it needs a washing a little," Skinny remarked to
+Carolyn June the first time he reappeared in the once snowy garment.
+
+He was quite right.
+
+Carolyn June herself had noticed that the shirt had lost some of its
+immaculateness.
+
+"It doesn't look hardly as white as it did at first!"
+
+"No, it don't," Skinny answered seriously. "I guess I'll wash it
+to-morrow. I never did wash one but I reckon it ain't so awful hard to
+do--"
+
+"I'll help you," Carolyn June volunteered. "I've never washed one
+either, but it will be fun to learn how!"
+
+The next day they washed the shirt.
+
+The ceremony was performed in the kitchen after they had finished doing
+the breakfast dishes. Ophelia, after water for a vase of roses, came
+into the room while Skinny was rinsing the shirt in the large tin
+dishpan.
+
+The garment was a sickly yellow.
+
+"Darned if I know what's wrong with it," Skinny said, a trifle
+discouraged, while Carolyn June, her sleeves rolled above dimpled
+elbows, stood by and watched the slushy operation. "Carolyn June and me
+both have blamed near rubbed our fingers off trying to get it to look
+right again but somehow or other it don't seem to work."
+
+"Did you put bluing in your rinse water?" Ophelia asked with a laugh.
+
+"Bluing?" Carolyn June and Skinny questioned together. "What does that
+do to it?"
+
+"Bleaches it--makes it white," the widow replied with another laugh as
+she returned to the front room.
+
+"By golly, maybe that's what it needs!" Skinny exclaimed hopefully.
+
+"Of course," Carolyn June cried gaily. "How silly we were not to think
+of it! Any one ought to know you put bluing in the water when you wash
+things. Wonder if Sing Pete has any around anywhere?"
+
+They searched the kitchen shelves and found a pint bottle, nearly full,
+of the liquid indigo compound.
+
+"How much do you suppose we ought to put in?" Carolyn June asked,
+pulling the cork from the bottle and holding it poised over the pan of
+water in which the shirt, a slimy, dingy mass, floated drunkenly.
+
+"Darned if I know," Skinny said, scratching his head. "She said it would
+make it white--I reckon the more you put in the whiter the blamed
+thing'll be. Try about half of it at first and see how 'it works!"
+
+"Gee, isn't it pretty?" Carolyn June gurgled as she tipped the bottle
+and the waves of indigo spread through the water, covering the shirt
+with a deep crystalline blue.
+
+"You bet!" Skinny exclaimed. "That ought to fix it!"
+
+It did.
+
+The shirt, when finally dried, was a wonderful thing--done in a sort of
+mottled, streaky, marbled sky and cloud effect.
+
+But Skinny wore it, declaring he liked it better--that it more nearly
+matched the shamrock tie--than when it was "too darned white and
+everything!"
+
+To Parker and the boys on the beef hunt everything was business.
+
+The days were filled with hard riding as they gathered the cattle,
+bunched the fat animals, cut out and turned back those unfit for the
+market, stood guard at night over the herd, steadily and rapidly cleaned
+the west half of the Kiowa range of the stuff that was ready to sell.
+
+It was supper-time on one of the last days of the round-up.
+
+The outfit was camped at Dry Buck. Bed rolls, wrapped in dingy gray
+tarpaulins or black rubber ponchos, were scattered about marking the
+places where each cowboy that night would sleep. The herd was bunched a
+quarter of a mile away in a little cove backed by the rim of sand-hills.
+Captain Jack and Silver Tip, riderless but with their saddles still on,
+were nipping the grass near the camp--the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck were to
+take the first watch, until midnight, at "guard mount." Parker and the
+cowboys were squatted, legs doubled under them, their knees forming a
+table on which to hold the white porcelain plate of "mulligan," in a
+circle at the back of the grub-wagon. Sing Pete trotted around the group
+and poured black, blistering-hot coffee into the unbreakable cups on the
+ground at the side of the hungry, dusty riders.
+
+The sun had just dipped into the ragged peaks of the Costejo range and a
+reddish-purple crown lay on the crest of Sentinel Mountain forty miles
+to the southeast.
+
+"It looks to me like Parker's sort of losing out," Chuck suddenly
+remarked, as he wiped his lips on the back of his hand after washing
+down a mouthful of the savory stew with gulps of steaming coffee.
+"Ophelia stuck closer than thunder to Old Heck all through the Rodeo."
+
+Parker reddened and growled: "Aw, hell--don't start that up again!"
+
+"By criminy, she didn't stick any closer to Old Heck than Skinny stuck
+to Carolyn June," Bert complained. "Nobody else had a look-in!"
+
+"Skinny's sure earning his money," Charley muttered half enviously.
+
+"Bet he's got on that white shirt and having a high old time right now!
+They're probably in the front room and she's playing _La Paloma_ on the
+piano while Old Skinny's setting back rolling his eyes up like a bloated
+yearling!" Chuck laughed.
+
+"And Old Heck and Ophelia are out on the porch holding hands and looking
+affectionate while the mosquitos are chewing their necks and ankles!"
+Bert added with a snicker.
+
+"Her and Old Heck'll probably be married before we get back," Chuck said
+solemnly, with a wink at the Ramblin' Kid and a sly glance in the
+direction of Parker.
+
+"Do you reckon there's any danger of it?" Parker asked in a voice that
+showed anxiety, but not of the sort the cowboys thought.
+
+"They're darned near sure to," Chuck replied seriously, heaving what he
+tried to make resemble a sigh of sympathy.
+
+"What makes you think so?" Parker questioned, seeking confirmation from
+the lips of other, of a hope that had been rising in his heart since the
+first moment he had begun to regret his rash proposal of marriage to the
+widow.
+
+"Well, for one thing"--Chuck began soberly--"the way they'd look at each
+other--"
+
+"I saw her squeeze Old Heck's arm once!" Bert interrupted.
+
+"Aw, she's done that lots of times," Chuck said airily; "that ain't
+nothing special! But the worst indication was them flowers she wore on
+her bosom every day--_Old Heck bought 'em_!" he finished dramatically,
+leaning over and speaking tensely as though it pained him immeasurably
+to break the news to Parker while he fixed on Old Heck's rival a look he
+imagined was one of supreme pity.
+
+"Yeah, he had them sent up from Las Vegas," Bert added, picking up the
+cue and lying glibly. "I saw the express agent deliver a box of them to
+him one day. There was four dollars and eighty cents charges on 'em!"
+
+A gleam, which the cowboys misunderstood, came into Parker's eyes.
+
+"Why don't you and Old Heck fight a duel about Ophelia?" Bert suggested
+tragically and in a voice that was aimed to convey sympathy to the
+Quarter Circle KT foreman. "You could probably kill him!"
+
+"Sure, that's the way they do in books," Chuck urged.
+
+"Yes," the Ramblin' Kid broke in with a slow drawl, "fight one with
+sour-dough biscuits at a hundred yards! That'd be sensible--then both of
+you'd be genuine heroes!"
+
+"Gosh, th' Ramblin' Kid's awake!" Bert laughed. "How does it happen you
+ain't fell in love with Carolyn June?" he asked, turning toward the
+slender, dark-eyed, young cowboy. "So far you're the only one that's
+escaped. The rest of us are breaking our hearts--"
+
+For an instant the Ramblin' Kid flashed on Bert a look of hot anger
+while a dull red glow spread over his sun-tanned cheeks.
+
+"There's enough damned fools loose on th' Kiowa range without me bein'
+one, too!" he retorted slowly, getting up and going toward Captain Jack.
+
+"Blamed if he'll stand a bit of joshing on that subject!" Bert
+muttered, his own face flushing from the look the Ramblin' Kid had
+given him.
+
+"Not a darned bit," Chuck added, "but it is funny; the way he shys off
+from Carolyn June!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid ain't interested in women," Charley said, as they
+pitched their plates to one side and the meal was finished. "He ain't
+the kind that bothers with females!"
+
+When Chuck had idly suggested that Old Heck and Ophelia might be married
+before Parker and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys returned to the ranch
+from the beef hunt, he did not know it, but the words he spoke in jest
+voiced the very thought at the same instant in the mind of Old
+Heck--miles away though he was. Perhaps it was mental telepathy, thought
+vibration, subconscious soul communication--or a mere coincident, that
+caused Chuck, far out on the open range, to speak the thing Old Heck,
+sitting at supper with Carolyn June, Ophelia and Skinny, at the Quarter
+Circle KT was thinking.
+
+Ever since Parker had voluntarily surrendered during the Rodeo, his
+right to alternate, day and day about, with Old Heck in the widow's
+society, the owner of the Quarter Circle KT had been watching Ophelia,
+covertly and carefully, for any sign of "Movements" or an outbreak as a
+dreaded suffragette.
+
+While he watched her the widow was becoming more and more a necessity in
+the life of Old Heck.
+
+The night of the conversation between Parker and the cowboys, away over
+at Rock Creek, Old Heck sat at the supper table in the kitchen at the
+ranch and debated in his mind the future relationships of Parker,
+Ophelia and himself. In a few days Parker would return. Almost certainly
+the foreman would again wish to share, fifty-fifty, in the courtship of
+the widow. Old Heck felt that if such were so those odd days, when
+Parker was with Ophelia, would be little less than hell. Yet, he dreaded
+that suffragette business. If she would only break loose and let him see
+how bad she was liable to be he could easily make up his mind. He was
+almost ready to take a chance, to ask Ophelia to marry him and settle it
+all at once.
+
+Throughout the meal he was moody. After supper he had little to say and
+the next few days he brooded constantly over the matter.
+
+Tuesday Parker and the cowboys were expected to return with the beef
+cattle. Monday morning, at breakfast, the widow asked Old Heck if he
+would take her to Eagle Butte that day.
+
+"I must see the minister's wife," she said, as Old Heck steered the
+Clagstone "Six" up the grade that led out to the bench and to Eagle
+Butte, "--it is very important"
+
+Old Heck murmured assent and drove silently on. Probably she was going
+to start a "Movement" or something to-day! To-morrow, Parker would be
+back. It sure did put a man in a dickens of a fix!
+
+Before they reached the long bridge across the Cimarron a mile from
+Eagle Butte Old Heck's mind was made up.
+
+"You want to stop at the preacher's house?" he asked.
+
+"If you please," Ophelia replied, "for some little time. There are
+things to discuss--"
+
+"Would you mind if I drove around to the court-house first?" Old Heck
+questioned again.
+
+"Not at all," she answered sweetly.
+
+A few moments later Old Heck stopped the Clagstone "Six" in front of the
+yellow sandstone county building. Leaving Ophelia in the car with the
+remark, "I'll be out in a minute!" he went inside and hurried along the
+dark corridor that led to the clerk's office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+A SHAME TO WASTE IT
+
+In Old Heck's eyes was a set, determined look when he came out of the
+court-house and stepped up to the Clagstone "Six" in which he had left
+Ophelia a few moments before. The end of a long yellow envelope
+protruded from the side pocket of his coat. His face was flushed and his
+hand trembled slightly as he opened the door of the car and climbed into
+the front seat beside the widow. He pressed his foot on the "starter,"
+threw the clutch into gear and turning the car about drove slowly toward
+the home of Reverend Hector R. Patterson, Eagle Butte's only resident
+clergyman.
+
+He did not speak until the car stopped at the gate of the little
+unpainted parsonage beside the white, weather-boarded church.
+
+"Wait a minute," he said as Ophelia started to get out of the Clagstone
+"Six," "maybe I'll go in with you!"
+
+"Splendid," the widow replied, settling again against the cushions. "I'd
+be delighted to have you come along and I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Patterson
+would be glad to see you!"
+
+"Well, it--it"--Old Heck stammered, not knowing how to begin what he
+wanted to say--"it--it all depends on you! Here"--he said abruptly as a
+bright thought came to him--"read that and--and--tell me what you think
+about it!" at the same time pulling the yellow envelope from his pocket
+and handing it to Ophelia.
+
+With a questioning lift of her eyebrows the widow drew the folded,
+official-looking document from the envelope.
+
+"Why, it's a--it's a--" she started to say and stopped confused, her
+cheeks blazing crimson.
+
+"It's a marriage license--" Old Heck said, coming to her rescue, "--made
+out for you and me. I--I--didn't know what to tell the clerk when he
+asked me how old you was--so I just guessed at it!"
+
+The widow looked shyly down at the names written on the document.
+
+The license granted "Ophelia Cobb, age _twenty-three_, of Hartville,
+Connecticut, and Josiah Alonzo Heck, age forty-eight, of Kiowa County,
+Texas," the right to marry.
+
+Ophelia's actual years were thirty-nine!
+
+From under drooping lashes she glanced up suspiciously into the earnest
+gray eyes beside her. She saw that Old Heck had been sincere in his
+"guess."
+
+"But--but--"
+
+"I know it's kind of unexpected," Old Heck interrupted nervously,
+"--perhaps I had ought to have said something about it first, but, well,
+I figured I'd go on and get the license and show that my intentions was
+good and--and--sort of risk the whole thing on one throw! It always
+seemed like there was something missing at the Quarter Circle KT," he
+went on, his voice grown softer and trembling a bit, "and--and when you
+came I--I--found out what it was--"
+
+Ophelia sat silently with downcast eyes, her pulse racing, the license
+unfolded on her lap, while she bit uncertainly at the tip of the finger
+of her glove.
+
+"I--I--know I ain't very good-looking or--or--anything," Old Heck
+continued, "but I thought maybe you--you--liked me a little--enough
+anyhow to get married--that is if you--. Oh-h--thunder, Ophelia!" he
+exclaimed in despair, feeling that he was hopelessly floundering,
+"I--I--love you! Please let's use that license! Let's use it right away
+--to-day--and get it over with!" he urged as the widow still hesitated.
+
+"But--I--I'm not suitably dressed--" she stammered.
+
+"I think that dress you've got on is the prettiest goods I ever saw in
+my life," he interrupted, looking adoringly at the clinging summer
+fabric caressing Ophelia's shapely form, "I always did think it would be
+awful appropriate for us to--to--get married in!" he finished
+pleadingly.
+
+"But--Carolyn June and--and--Parker--" Ophelia murmured.
+
+At the mention of Parker, Old Heck started while a look of anguish came
+into his eyes. So she loved Parker! That was why she was so backward, he
+thought. Well, the Quarter Circle KT foreman was a little
+better-looking, maybe, and some younger! He couldn't blame her.
+
+His head dropped. For a moment Old Heck was silent, a dull, sickening
+hurt gripping his heart. A deep sigh escaped from his lips. He reached
+over and picked up the license.
+
+"I--I--guess I made a mistake," he said numbly. "We'll just--just--tear
+this thing up and forget about it!"
+
+Ophelia looked demurely up at him, her mouth twitching. One small gloved
+hand slipped over and rested on the strong brown fingers that held the
+license. Roses flamed over the full round throat and spread their blush
+to her cheeks. Her eyes were like pools of liquid blue:
+
+"Don't tear it--it--up!" she whispered with a little laugh--a laugh that
+sent the blood leaping, like fire, through Old Heck's veins, "it--it
+would be a shame to waste it!"
+
+For an instant Old Heck was dazed. He looked at her as if he could not
+believe he had heard aright. Suddenly a wave of undiluted happiness
+swept over him.
+
+"Ophelia!" he cried huskily. "Oh, Ophelia!" and the minister's three
+small sons, pausing in their play in the grassless yard at the side of
+the house, while they watched the beautiful car standing in front of
+the parsonage gate, saw the owner of the Quarter Circle KT, in broad
+daylight, on the principal residence street of Eagle Butte, before the
+eyes of the whole world--if the whole world cared to look--throw his
+arms around the plump lady sitting beside him and press one long,
+rapturous kiss on her moist, unresisting lips!
+
+A moment later Ophelia and Old Heck, both much embarrassed but
+tremulously happy, stepped inside the door of the parsonage.
+
+They were driving away from the minister's house--going to the
+Occidental Hotel for a little all-by-their-ownselves "wedding
+luncheon"--before either thought of the matter concerning which Ophelia
+had desired to see the clergyman's wife.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Old Heck exclaimed, "you forgot that consultation or
+whatever it was with Mrs. Patterson to start your woman's suffrage
+'movement'--"
+
+"To start my what?"
+
+"Your 'woman's rights,' 'female voter's organization'--or whatever it
+is!" Old Heck explained, a new-born tolerance in his voice. "I didn't
+mean to interfere with your political activities--"
+
+Ophelia threw back! her head, while a ripple of laughter trilled out
+above the purr of the Clagstone "Six."
+
+"Why, my dear--dear--Old Boy!" she cried, "I am not engaged in
+'political activities,' or 'suffragette movements!' Of course," she
+continued archly, "I believe women ought to be allowed to vote--if they
+haven't intelligence enough for that they haven't brains enough to be
+good 'pardners' with their husbands--"
+
+"By gosh, you're right!" Old Heck agreed, "I never thought of it that
+way before!"
+
+"And," she continued, "naturally I shall vote whenever the opportunity
+comes, but I'm not an 'Organizer' for anything of that kind. Mrs.
+Patterson and I are going to organize the wives, sisters and
+sweethearts, in Eagle Butte, into a club for the study of 'Scientific
+and Efficient Management of the Home!' We think we should be as
+proficient in those arts--and which we believe are peculiarly womanly
+functions--as the men are in the direction of the more strenuous
+business affairs in which they themselves are engaged."
+
+"So that's what you're an 'Organizer' for?" Old Heck queried while a
+radiant contentment spread over his face.
+
+"That is it," Ophelia said simply, adding with a most becoming
+heightening of color, "it is so we will be--will be--better wives!"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck breathed fervently. "My Gawd! The Lord has been good
+to me to-day!"
+
+While Old Heck and Ophelia were in Eagle Butte getting married, Skinny
+and Carolyn June had been riding line on the upland pasture fence. They
+had just returned to the Quarter Circle KT, unsaddled their horses,
+turned them into the pasture, gone to the house and stopped a moment on
+the front porch to watch the glow in the west--the sun was dipping into
+a thundercap over the Costejo Mountains--when the Clagstone "Six" rolled
+down the grade and up to the string of poplars before the house.
+
+"Gee, we thought you two had eloped!" Carolyn June laughed as the couple
+climbed out of the car and came, rather bashfully, in at the gate. Old
+Heck and Ophelia looked at each other guiltily.
+
+"We did come darn near it!" Old Heck chuckled, plunging at once into the
+task of breaking the news. "We got married--I reckon you'd call that the
+next thing to eloping!"
+
+"Got married?" Skinny and Carolyn June cried together.
+
+"Who--who--got married?" Skinny repeated incredulously.
+
+"Ophelia and me," Old Heck answered with a sheepish grin but proudly.
+"Who else did you think we meant? We just thought," he continued by way
+of explanation, "we'd go ahead and do it kind of private and save a lot
+of excitement and everything!"
+
+Carolyn June threw her arms around Ophelia and kissed her.
+
+"Good-by, chaperon," she laughed With a half-sob in her throat,
+"h--hello, 'Aunt.'" Then she strangled Old Heck with a hug that made him
+gasp.
+
+"What the devil--are you trying to do--choke me?"
+
+"Well, by thunder, Old Heck!" Skinny finally managed to ejaculate, "it
+was the sensiblest thing you ever done! I--I've--been"--with a sidelong
+look at Carolyn June--"kind of figuring on doing it myself!"
+
+Carolyn June saw the expression in Skinny's eyes. A pained look came
+into her own. She had known, for a long while, that sooner or later
+there would have to come an understanding between this big, overgrown,
+juvenile-hearted cowboy and herself. She resolved then that it should
+come quickly. Further delay would be cruel to him. Besides, she was sick
+of flirtations. Her disappointment in the character of the Ramblin' Kid,
+her realization of his weakness, when he had gotten, as she believed,
+beastly drunk at the moment so much depended on him the day of the
+two-mile sweepstakes, had hurt deeply. Somehow, even his magnificent
+ride and the fact that, in spite of his condition, he won the race, had
+not taken the sting away. She had thought the Ramblin' Kid was
+real--rough and crude, perhaps, but all man, rugged-hearted and honest.
+Sometimes she wondered if the queer unexplainable antagonism between
+herself and the sensitive young cowboy had not, in a measure, been
+responsible for his sudden moral breaking down. The thought caused her
+to lose some of that frivolity that inspired the dance and the wild
+flirtations she carried on that night with all the cowboys of the
+Quarter Circle KT. After all, these plain, simple-acting men of the
+range were just boys grown big in God's great out-of-doors where things
+are taken for what they seem to be. No wonder an artless look from
+sophisticated brown eyes swept them off their feet!
+
+She made up her mind to disillusion Skinny at once.
+
+After supper the quartette gathered in the front room.
+
+"Come on, Skinny," Carolyn June said with forced gaiety, "let us take a
+walk. That pair of cooing doves"--with a playfully tender glance at
+Ophelia and Old Heck--"wish nothing so much as to be permitted to
+'goo-goo' at each other all by their little lonelies!"
+
+Bareheaded she and Skinny strolled out the front gate and along the road
+that led up to the bench. At the top of the grade they sat down, side by
+side, on a large boulder that hung on the brink of the bench. The
+Quarter Circle KT lay before them--restful and calm in the shadows of
+early evening. The poplars along the front-yard fence stood limp in the
+silent air. Across the valley the sand-hills were mellowing with the
+coming softness of twilight. Up the river, to the west, beyond Eagle
+Butte, a summer thunder-cloud was climbing higher and higher into the
+sky. In the direction of Dry Buck, far toward the northwest, a fog of
+dust was creeping along the horizon, gradually approaching the upland
+pasture. Skinny saw it.
+
+"By golly," he cried, "that's either Parker and the boys coming in with
+the cattle--or else it's a band of sheep! It surely can't be
+'woollys'--they never get over in there! If it's our outfit, though,
+they've got through quicker than they figured!"
+
+A few moments later the dim bulk of the "grub-wagon" appeared, miles
+away, slowly crawling toward the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For a time Skinny and Carolyn June were silent.
+
+Skinny's hand crept slyly across the rock and found the pink fingers of
+Carolyn June. She did not draw away.
+
+"Carolyn June," he whispered haltingly, "Carolyn June--I--Old Heck and
+Ophelia have got married--let's you and--and--"
+
+"Please, Skinny, don't say it!" she interrupted, her voice trembling.
+"I--I know what you mean! It hurts me. Listen, Skinny"--she hurried on,
+determined to end it quickly--"maybe you will despise me, but--I like
+you, truly I do--but not _that_ way! I don't want to grieve you--I wish
+us to be just good friends--that's why I'm telling you! Let's be
+friends, Skinny--just friends--we can't be any more than that--"
+
+Skinny understood. A dull, throbbing pain tightened about his throat.
+His fingers gripped Carolyn June's hand an instant and then relaxed. The
+whole world seemed suddenly blank.
+
+"Can't you--won't you--ever--ca--care?" he asked in a voice filled with
+despair.
+
+"I do care, boy," she replied softly, "I do care--but not that way! Oh,
+Skinny," she exclaimed, wishing to make it as easy as possible for the
+sentimental cowboy at her side, "maybe I have done wrong to let you go
+ahead, but, well, I found out--I guessed the 'arrangements'--how you had
+been chosen to make 'love' to me and how Parker and Uncle Josiah were to
+divide Ophelia between them. Perhaps that is why I have flirted so--just
+to punish you all! Truly, Skinny, I'm sorry. Please don't hate me
+like--like--the Ramblin' Kid does!" she finished with a shaky little
+laugh.
+
+"He--don't hate you," Skinny answered dully, "at least I don't think th'
+Ramblin' Kid hates you--or anybody. And you knowed all the time that I
+was getting paid to make love to you? Well, I was," he added chokingly,
+"but I'd have done it for nothing if I'd had the chance!"
+
+"Yes, Skinny," she replied, "I knew--I know--and I don't blame you!"
+
+"I don't blame you, either," he said humbly, "it was a--a--excuse me,
+Carolyn June--a damned mean trick to frame up on you and Ophelia that
+way--but we didn't know what to do with you! I reckon," he continued in
+the same despairing tone, "I was a blamed fool!"
+
+For a long moment they sat silent.
+
+"Carolyn June," Skinny finally said, a sigh of resignation breaking from
+his lips, "I'll be what you said--just a good friend--I always will be
+that to you! But before we start in, do you mind if I--if I--go up to
+Eagle Butte and get--drunk!"
+
+In spite of herself she laughed. But in it was a tenderness almost
+mother-like.
+
+"Poor disappointed, big boy," she answered and her eyes filled, "if it
+will make you happy, go ahead and get--get--drunk, 'soused,' all
+over--just this once!"
+
+With only a passing pang Carolyn June was willing for Skinny to get
+drunk--to do the thing she had been scarcely able to forgive in the
+Ramblin' Kid!
+
+For an instant she wondered why.
+
+A half-hour later Skinny and Carolyn June went silently down the grade
+to the ranch house. They had gone up the hill--lovers; they
+returned--"good friends"--and such they would always be.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was nearly ten o'clock when Sing Pete stopped the grub-wagon at the
+bunk-house; Pedro wrangled the saddle cavallard into the pasture below
+the barn; Parker and the cowboys jogged their bronchos to the stable
+door and the Ramblin' Kid, riding the Gold Dust maverick--Captain Jack
+at her heels--rode to the circular corral, jerked the saddle from the
+filly's back and turned the little roan stallion and the outlaw mare
+inside the corral.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny heard the commotion and went out to where Parker and
+the cowboys were unsaddling their horses.
+
+"Well, you got through, did you?" Old Hack questioned casually.
+
+"Yes," Parker replied, "we've got the beef critters in I guess--they're
+in the upland pasture. There are seven hundred and ninety, I think it
+is, that'll do for the market."
+
+"That's pretty good," Old Heck answered with satisfaction. "We'll push
+them right on into Eagle Butte to-morrow or next day and ship them. The
+cars will be in to-night, the agent said. I'm sending them to Chicago
+this time. I'd like to see you, private, a minute, Parker!" he finished
+abruptly.
+
+"What do you want?" Parker asked suspiciously, as he followed Old Heck
+around the corner of the barn.
+
+"It's about Ophelia--" Old Heck began.
+
+Parker's heart leaped and then dropped with a sickening foreboding of
+something disagreeable. The widow, he thought instantly, had told Old
+Heck about that darned fool proposal of marriage and was going to insist
+on him coming across and making good! There was no way out.
+
+"I--I--reckon I'll have to do it if she's determined," Parker stuttered;
+"but--aw, hell--I must have been crazy--"
+
+"Who's determined on what?" Old Heck asked, puzzled by the queer jumble
+coming from the lips of the Quarter Circle KT foreman, "and how crazy?"
+
+"Ophelia determined on marrying me!" Parker blurted out.
+
+"Ophelia marry _you_?" Old Heck exclaimed. "Marry you! She can't! Her
+and me have already done it. We got married to-day--that was what I
+wanted to tell you!"
+
+Momentarily a pang of regret shot through Parker's heart. It was quickly
+followed by a sense of relief.
+
+"You--you--and Ophelia married?" he stammered.
+
+"We sure are," Old Heck answered positively. "We done it to-day!"
+
+Suddenly Parker determined to "cover up."
+
+"My, lord!" he half-groaned, pretending terrible grief, "this is awful!
+It--it--come so sudden--but there ain't no hard feelings, Old Heck!
+I--I--wish you both joy and happiness!"
+
+"Darned if that ain't white of you, Parker!" Old Heck exclaimed,
+immensely relieved. "I won't forget it! When you and the boys take them
+steers to Chicago, stay over a week or so and have a good time and count
+it in on expenses!"
+
+Parker turned his head and in the darkness winked solemnly at a yellow
+star above the peak of Sentinel Mountain.
+
+He and Old Heck started toward the house.
+
+"Hey, you fellows!" Old Heck called, pausing and turning toward the barn
+where the cowboys were putting away their saddles, "when you get through
+all of you come on up to the house! Ophelia and me's married and the
+bride is waiting to be congratulated!"
+
+"Good lord," Charley gasped, "hear that, fellers? Old Heck said him and
+the widow's married!"
+
+"Gosh!" Chuck laughed, "it must have been a jolt to Parker! I bet his
+heart's plumb bu'sted!"
+
+As soon as their saddles were put away the cowboys hurried toward the
+house. They met the Ramblin' Kid, crossing from the circular corral to
+the bunk-house.
+
+"Come on," Bert called to him, "Old Heck and Ophelia's gone and got
+married! We're going up to the house to sympathize with the widow!"
+
+"I ain't needed," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a careless laugh. "You
+fellers can take my 'love' to th' afflicted couple!"
+
+After the cowboys had gone to the house Skinny went and got Old Pie
+Face. Stopping at the stable, he saddled the pinto and strolled over to
+the bunk-house. The Ramblin' Kid was lying stretched on his bed. Skinny
+rolled the white shirt carefully into a bundle and wrapped a newspaper
+around it.
+
+"What you goin' to do?" the Ramblin' Kid asked.
+
+"I'm goin' to town!" Skinny answered shortly. "I'm going up to Eagle
+Butte and get on a hell of a drunk--if I can get hold of any boot-leg
+whisky--Carolyn June and me have bu'sted up on our love-making!"
+
+"Going to get drunk, are you?" the Ramblin' Kid queried with a note of
+scorn in his voice, "an' forget your sorrows?"
+
+"Yes," Skinny retorted, "I'm going to get drunk as you was the day of
+the race!"
+
+"Drunk as I was th' day of th' race?" the Ramblin' Kid repeated
+quizzically. "Oh, hell, yes--now I understand--" pausing, while a smile
+curled his lips.
+
+"Yes," Skinny retorted again. "Where'd you get yours that day?"
+
+"Never mind," was the answer. "I guess I'll go to Eagle Butte with you!
+You'll need somebody to ride herd on you while you're snortin' around.
+Anyhow, I feel like goin' on a tear myself--not a drunk--a man's a
+darned fool that'll let any woman make a whisky barrel out of him! But I
+got an itchin' for a little poker game or somethin'. Wait till I get
+Captain Jack!"
+
+"Where's Skinny and th' Ramblin' Kid?" Old Heck asked after he and
+Parker and the cowboys were at the house and the first flush of
+embarrassment had passed.
+
+Carolyn June thought she knew where Skinny was, but did not answer.
+
+"I don't know what's become of Skinny," Parker said. "Th' Ramblin' Kid's
+probably out mopin' somewhere. I think he's getting ready to 'ramble'
+again--he's been acting plumb despondent ever since the Rodeo in Eagle
+Butte!"
+
+Carolyn June stepped to the door. Dimly through the darkness she saw
+two riders pass up the grade that led to the bench and turn their horses
+to the west, toward Eagle Butte, and ride straight into the outflung
+shadow of the thunder-storm--from which now and then leaped jagged
+flashes of lightning--and which was rolling from the Costejo Mountains
+across the Kiowa range in the direction of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Silent and with a heavy heart she turned away from the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+THE GREEK GETS HIS
+
+It was long after midnight when the Ramblin' Kid and Skinny rode into
+Eagle Butte and the heels of Captain Jack and Old Pie Face echoed
+noisily on the board floor of the livery stable as the bronchos turned
+into the wide, open doorway of the barn. A drowsy voice from the
+cubby-hole of an office called:
+
+"In just a minute--I'll be out!"
+
+"Aw, thunder," Skinny answered, "go on back to sleep, we'll find stalls
+and put 'em up!"
+
+Captain Jack and Old Pie Face cared for, Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid
+stepped out into the deserted street.
+
+Eagle Butte was sleeping.
+
+Here and there a blaze of light from a store window invited belated
+passers to covet the bargains offered within; a half-dozen incandescent
+bulbs, swung on cross-wires at intervals along the street, glowed feebly
+as if weary with the effort to beat back the darkness clutching at the
+throat of the town; over the sidewalk in front of the Elite Amusement
+Parlor an illuminated red and green sign told that Mike Sabota's place
+was still open; across the porch of the Occidental Hotel and spilling
+itself on the ground out in the street a stream of light guided weary
+travelers to the portals of that ancient, though hospitable,
+institution; from the sides of the Butte beyond the railroad tracks a
+coyote yelped shrilly a jerky, wailing challenge--a dozen dogs, suddenly
+aroused in different parts of the town, answered.
+
+"Pretty dead-lookin'," the Ramblin' Kid remarked. "Let's go down to
+Sabota's."
+
+"All right," Skinny replied, and they moved down the street.
+
+The pool-room offered nothing of interest. A couple of traveling men,
+waiting for the early morning train, were playing a listless game of
+billiards at one of the tables; a pair of Jap sugar-beet workers and a
+negro section hand sat half-asleep and leaned against the wall; "Red"
+Jackson, Sabota's chief lieutenant, with an air of utter boredom,
+lounged behind the soft-drink bar. Sabota was not there.
+
+"What's happened to everybody?" Skinny asked; "where's Mike?"
+
+"Everybody's got religion, I guess," Red yawned, "and gone to bed. What
+do you want with Sabota?" looking suspiciously at the Ramblin' Kid;
+"he's over at Vegas; won't be back till to-morrow--or to-day it is now,
+I reckon--evening sometime!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid and me have been out in the rain," Skinny said
+suggestively, "and thought we might take cold--"
+
+"Nothing doing!" Red laughed, "ain't a drop around! When Mike gets back
+he'll fix you up, maybe--that's what he's gone after!"
+
+"We'd just as well go to bed!" Skinny grumbled disgustedly to the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"I reckon," was the laconic answer.
+
+They returned to the hotel, roused the clerk from his doze, secured a
+room and retired.
+
+It was eight o'clock when they got up.
+
+Both went directly to the livery stable and saw that Captain Jack and
+Old Pie Face were properly attended to. While at the barn Skinny took
+the bundle he had wrapped in the bunk-house at the ranch from the saddle
+where he had tied it.
+
+"What's that?" the Ramblin' Kid queried.
+
+"It's that darned shirt!" Skinny retorted. "I'm going to make Old Leon
+eat it--it wasn't the size Parker asked for!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid laughed, but said nothing.
+
+They returned to the hotel and had breakfast. Manilla Endora waited on
+them. Before Carolyn June and Ophelia came to the Quarter Circle KT
+Manilla's yellow hair and blue eyes were the flames that fanned the
+affections of Skinny. He felt guilty as, sweetly as ever and without a
+hint of reproach, Manilla took their orders and served them with their
+ham and eggs and coffee.
+
+After breakfast Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid explored the town.
+
+Eagle Butte had come to life. The stores were open. Business was brisk.
+The "dray" was delivering the express accumulated the night before at
+the depot. Here and there a morning shopper was passing along the
+street. At the post-office there was quite a crowd.
+
+Skinny carried the shirt, wrapped in the soggy, rain-soaked newspaper.
+As he and the Ramblin' Kid came near the dingy, general merchandise
+establishment kept by the squint-eyed Jew from whom Parker had bought
+the unfortunate garment a sudden look of cunning gleamed in the eyes of
+Skinny. He laughed aloud. A box of eggs, ten or twelve dozen it
+contained, was set, with other farm produce, in a display on the
+sidewalk at the side of the door of the store.
+
+"Hold on a minute," Skinny said to the Ramblin' Kid, stopping in front
+of the Jew's place of business, "I got an idea--By golly," he continued
+argumentatively and with apparent irrelevancy, in a loud voice, "I tell
+you I'm the lightest man on my feet in Texas!" and he winked knowingly
+at the Ramblin' Kid. "I can walk on eggs and never bu'st a one! I've
+done it and"--as Leon came to the door--"I'll bet four-bits I can jump
+in that box of eggs right there and never crack a shell!" The Ramblin'
+Kid understood.
+
+"Aw, you're crazy," he laughed. "I don't want to win your money!"
+
+"What's the matter?" Leon asked curiously, having heard only part of
+Skinny's boast.
+
+"This locoed darn' fool thinks he can walk on them eggs an' not mash
+'em!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed again. "He wants to bet me four-bits he
+can--"
+
+"Walk on them eggs and not preak them?" Leon exclaimed disdainfully.
+"You ought to lock him up! He iss crazy!"
+
+"By gosh," Skinny argued, "you don't realize how light-footed I am--I
+can jump on them, I tell you, and I got money to back it up!" And he
+pulled a half-dollar from his pocket.
+
+"Put away your money, you blamed idiot--" the Ramblin' Kid began.
+
+"I'll bet him four-bits he can't!" Leon cried, jerking a coin from his
+own pocket.
+
+Skinny and Leon each handed the Ramblin' Kid fifty cents.
+
+"By thunder, I can," Skinny said, pausing, "that is, I'm willing to bet
+my money on it--"
+
+"Vhy don't you go ahead and do it, then?" Leon exclaimed. "Vat you
+standing there for? Vhy don't you do it if you're so light on your
+feet?"
+
+"Well, I can!" Skinny argued, still hesitating.
+
+"Den go ahead and chump--chump I told you--into the box!" Leon shouted
+excitedly.
+
+Skinny jumped. The eggs crushed under the heels of his riding boots. In
+an instant the box was filled with a squashy mass of whites, yolks and
+broken shells. Skinny pawed around until there wasn't a whole egg left
+in the box.
+
+At the first crunch Leon laughed hilariously.
+
+"I knowed you'd lose!" he cackled. "Giff me the money!"
+
+"You win, Leon!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed, handing over the wager.
+"Skinny wasn't as delicate on his feet as he thought he was!"
+
+"Thunderation, that's funny!" Skinny said soberly as he stepped out of
+the box; "it wouldn't work that time! Something must have slipped!"
+
+With a grin he calmly unwrapped the one-time white shirt and with it
+began to wipe the slimy mess from his boots.
+
+"The next time you won't be so smart!" Leon cried, then paused in
+consternation, his eyes riveted on the scrambled mixture in the box.
+"But mine eggs!" he exclaimed, suddenly suspicious. "Who pays for the
+eggs? There vas twelve dozen--they are worth seventy cents a dozen--that
+is more as eight dollars. Pay me for the eggs!"
+
+"Pay, hell!" Skinny said. "I didn't agree to furnish no eggs! You won my
+fifty cents and th' Ramblin' Kid gave it to you--"
+
+"That's right, Leon," the Ramblin' Kid chuckled, "you got th'
+four-bits--that's all you won!"
+
+"But pay me--" Leon whined.
+
+"I'll pay you, you dirty crook!" Skinny snapped as he slapped the
+soppy, egg-splattered shirt in Leon's face. "I'll pay you with that! The
+next time," he added as he and the Ramblin' Kid started down the
+street--"anybody asks for a size fifteen shirt don't give them a sixteen
+and a half!"
+
+The day was spent idling about town waiting for Sabota to return so
+Skinny could get some whisky and drown his disappointment in love in
+intoxicated forgetfulness.
+
+After supper Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid went to the picture
+show--Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were "movie nights" in Eagle
+Butte--and saw a thrilling "wild-west" drama in which a band of Holstein
+milk cows raced madly through an alfalfa field in a frenzied,
+hair-raising stampede! When the show was over the Ramblin' Kid started
+toward the livery barn.
+
+"What you going to do?" Skinny queried.
+
+"I was just goin' to get Captain Jack," the Ramblin' Kid replied.
+
+"What for?" Skinny asked as they moved toward the barn. "There ain't no
+hurry about getting back to the ranch. We won't be going out till
+to-morrow or next day--there ain't no use getting the horses out
+to-night."
+
+"I don't know," the Ramblin' Kid answered, without stopping, "I just got
+a hunch to get him in case I need him. Anyhow, it won't hurt him to
+stand out a while--they've been eatin' all day."
+
+"Then I'll get Old Pie Face, too," Skinny replied.
+
+They saddled the bronchos and rode out of the barn.
+
+"Where'll we go?" Skinny asked.
+
+"Reckon we'd better go back down to Sabota's," the Ramblin' Kid said as
+they turned their horses in the direction of the pool-room, "if you
+still insist on makin' a blamed fool of yourself an' gettin' drunk.
+Maybe Mike's back by now. Anyhow, there might be a little poker game
+goin' on--I saw a couple of the fellers from over on th' Purgatory come
+in a while ago!"
+
+They left Captain Jack and Pie Face standing, with bridle reins dropped,
+across the street and in the broad shaft of light streaming from the
+open door of the pool-room, and went into the resort.
+
+The place was well filled. Sabota had returned, evidently with an ample
+supply of the fiery stuff he called "whisky." Like vultures that
+unerringly seek and find the spot where a carcass has fallen the thirsty
+of Eagle Butte had gathered at the Elite Amusement Parlor.
+
+Inside the door of the pool-room and at the left, as one entered, was a
+hardwood bar eighteen or twenty feet long and over which at one time, in
+the days before Eagle Butte "reformed," had been dispensed real
+"tarantula juice." The back bar, with its big mirrors and other
+fixtures, was as it had been when the place was a regular saloon. At the
+right of the room, opposite the bar, were several round, green-topped
+card tables. In the rear was the billiard and pool equipment, which
+entitled the place to the name "pool-room." Just across from the farther
+end of the bar and near the last card table a half-dozen hard-looking,
+small-town "toughs"--creatures who loafed about Sabota's and aided him,
+as occasion required, in his boot-legging operations or other
+questionable enterprises--were lounging, some standing, some sitting,
+watching a slow poker game going on at the last table. Cards, under the
+laws of Texas, are taboo, but for some reason Sabota managed to get by
+and games were allowed in his place.
+
+The two cowboys the Ramblin' Kid had mentioned, a rancher from the
+irrigated section near Eagle Butte and "Jeff" Henderson, one of Sabota's
+henchmen, who was playing for the house, were sitting in at the game.
+
+Half-way down the room at one side against the wall a mechanical player
+piano was grinding out garish, hurdy-gurdy music.
+
+"Red" Jackson was dispensing soft drinks from behind the bar.
+
+Sabota himself, with one heel caught on the brass foot-rail, was leaning
+indolently but with a lordly air against the front of the polished,
+imitation mahogany counter.
+
+He had been drinking and was in his shirt-sleeves.
+
+As Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid stepped into the pool-room Sabota glanced
+around. For an instant he eyed the Ramblin' Kid keenly while a nasty
+sneer curled his lips. As they approached he turned the grin into a
+hypocritical smile of welcome. The Ramblin' Kid barely noticed the Greek
+and passed on to where the card game was in progress. Skinny paused and
+said something in a low tone to Sabota. The two walked to the rear end
+of the bar where the proprietor of the place in turn spoke to Red and
+the latter furtively handed a pint bottle to the cowboy and which he
+dropped into the bosom of his flannel shirt.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was recognized by the cowboys from the Purgatory.
+
+"Come on and get into the game!" one of them invited, moving over.
+
+"Yes," Henderson added, hitching his own chair to one side to make room
+for another, "the cards are running like"--he paused--"like the Gold
+Dust maverick for everybody but the house!" There was a laugh at the
+subtle reference to the outlaw filly that had cost Sabota so much in
+losses on the sweepstakes at the Rodeo.
+
+The Greek scowled.
+
+"In that case," the Ramblin' Kid drawled, "I reckon I'll ride 'em a few
+rounds!" dropping into the chair he had dragged forward and which placed
+him with his back toward the bar.
+
+"What they costin' a stack?" he questioned, reaching to the left breast
+pocket of his shirt for a roll of bills.
+
+In the same pocket was the pink satin garter Carolyn June had lost the
+morning of his first meeting with her at the circular corral.
+
+"Five bones!" Jeff answered languidly.
+
+"Well, give me a couple of piles," the Ramblin' Kid replied, glancing
+around at the cowboy sitting at his right, who had invited him into the
+game. "How's the Purgatory?"
+
+As the bills came from the Ramblin' Kid's pocket the silver butterfly
+clasp of the garter caught in the paper currency and the elastic band
+was drawn out and dropped, at the side of his chair, on the floor next
+to Sabota.
+
+The Greek and Skinny saw, at the same time, the dainty satin ribbon.
+
+Sabota stepped quickly forward and with the toe of his shoe kicked the
+garter toward the bar, where all could see it.
+
+"Look what th' Ramblin' Kid's been carrying!" he exclaimed with a coarse
+laugh. "Some size garter, that!" And guessing at random that it had
+belonged to Carolyn June, he added: "Old Heck's niece must be--damned
+convenient and accommodating!"
+
+A laugh started from the lips of the crowd. It was instantly checked and
+a dead silence followed as the Ramblin' Kid looked around, saw Sabota
+leering down at the trinket and heard his vulgar insinuation. He slowly
+pushed his chair back from the table and with eyes half-closed--the lids
+tightening until there were but narrow slits through which the black
+pupils burned like drops of jet--he began slowly to straighten up. Not a
+sound came from his lips save the deep, regular breathing those sitting
+near could hear and which was like a bellows fanning embers into a white
+heat. His mouth was drawn back in a smile, almost caressing in its
+softness, but a thousand times more menacing than the black scowl on the
+face of the Greek.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid's gun was at his hip, but he made no move to draw it.
+
+Sabota watched the slender young cowboy. A look of contempt and derision
+was in his eyes. The Greek was no taller, but full eighty pounds heavier
+than the other. But he forgot that the other's lithe body moving with
+the calm, undulating grace of a panther preparing to spring was all
+clean youth, muscle and courage, unbroken by any debauchery!
+
+"That's a hell of a thing for a _man_ to pack," the giant bully cried
+nastily, "and it's a hell of a _lady_ that gives it to a man to pack!"
+
+With a sneering laugh he raised his foot and brought it down on the
+garter, grinding the silver clasp and the satin ribbon under the sole of
+his shoe.
+
+"You damned black cur!" The Rambling' Kid spoke scarcely louder than a
+whisper, yet his voice echoed throughout the tense silence of the room.
+"_I'll put my heel in your face for that_!"
+
+Sabota threw back his head to laugh.
+
+For a second of time the Ramblin' Kid crouched, then shot through the
+air like a wire spring drawn far back and suddenly released, and with
+an his hundred and forty pounds of nerve and sinew behind it his right
+fist smashed the big Greek squarely on the half-open mouth, splitting
+the thick lip wide and causing a red stream to spurt from the gash.
+Sabota staggered back and, would have fallen had he not crashed against
+the hardwood bar.
+
+As the Greek reeled away from the garter the Ramblin' Kid stooped
+quickly forward, picked up the elastic and dropped it again into his
+pocket.
+
+With a roar like a mad bull Sabota rushed his slight antagonist. Lunging
+forward, blind with rage, he aimed a murderous blow at the head of the
+Ramblin' Kid. The cowboy ducked, but not in time to escape the wide
+swing of the massive, hairy fist. The Greek's knuckles raked the side of
+the Kid's face and the blood rained down his cheek from a cruel cut
+under the eye. The Ramblin' Kid spun around like a top and for the
+fraction of a second stood swaying uncertainly.
+
+For a moment they faced each other, crouching, watching for an opening.
+Sabota's great hands worked convulsively, eager to grasp and crush his
+wiry opponent; the Ramblin' Kid, with lips curled back from white teeth,
+like a pure-bred terrier circling a mastiff, bent forward, every muscle
+tense as drawn copper, his eyes cold as a rattler's as he searched for a
+place to strike!
+
+The crowd in the pool-room instinctively kept far back and gave the
+unequal combatants ample room.
+
+From Sabota's lips poured a steady torrent of blasphemy. The Ramblin'
+Kid made no sound as, with body swaying slowly from side to side, his
+shoulders heaved with the full, heavy breaths that reached to the bottom
+of his lungs.
+
+Suddenly, like some wild beast, Sabota sprang forward. The Ramblin' Kid
+met him--in mid-air--right and left jolting, almost at the same
+instant, into the beefy jaws of the Greek. At the impact a claw-like
+hand shot out and the gorilla fingers of the left hand of the brute-man
+the Ramblin' Kid fought, closed over the throat of the cowboy. Sabota
+threw his right arm around the back of his antagonist, gripping the
+shoulder on the far side of his body and drew the slender form toward
+him--pinning the Ramblin' Kid's left arm and hand to his side.
+
+Skinny's hand dropped to the butt of his gun and rested there.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid struggled desperately in the strangling grasp of the
+crazed Greek. The two reeled back and forth, crashing chairs and tables
+to the floor, and lunged against the bar. The Ramblin' Kid's gun fell
+from its scabbard at the side of the brass foot-rail. Sabota's eyes
+glared down into the face of the man he was choking to death--gleaming
+with the ferocity of an animal gone mad--Awhile bloody foam spewed from
+his bleeding lips. The cowboy's face was beginning to flush a terrible
+purple as the breath was gradually crushed from his body.
+
+As the Greek forced him back, bending him down and over, the Ramblin'
+Kid, his eyes burning like fire while a million flashes of light seemed
+to stab the darkness before them and needles darted through every fiber
+of his flesh, wrenched his right arm free and gripping the back of
+Sabota's shirt with his left hand to give purchase to the blow, with all
+the strength left in his body, drove the knuckles of his right fist into
+the left temple of the Greek.
+
+The blow went home.
+
+A film, like a veil drawn across the fiendish glare in them, spread over
+the eyes of Sabota, his grip on the throat of the cowboy relaxed and as
+a bull, struck by the hammer of the butcher, he dropped to the floor.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid crouched, panting, over the massive bulk.
+
+Sabota slowly opened his eyes and started to raise his battered head.
+With a laugh the cowboy swung terrible right and left blows into the
+Greek's face. The head dropped back.
+
+Again the Ramblin' Kid stooped low, waiting for another sign of life
+from the prostrate form.
+
+Red Jackson slipped from behind the bar, half bent forward, moved
+stealthily up behind the Ramblin' Kid; one hand drawn partly back held,
+by the neck, a heavy beer bottle. Skinny saw his intention. Instantly
+the Quarter Circle KT cowboy's forty-four was jerked from its holster
+and the blue-steel barrel swung against the side of the bartender's
+head. He pitched over in a limp heap and the bottle crushed against the
+brass foot-rail, breaking into a thousand fragments. A half-dozen of
+Sabota's crowd started forward. Skinny's gun whipped around in front of
+him.
+
+"Keep back, y' sons-of-hell!" he snarled, "Sabota's gettin' what's
+coming to him!"
+
+The Greek's eyes opened. His fingers touched the butt of the Ramblin'
+Kid's revolver and began to close slowly over the handle of the weapon.
+
+"Make him quit," one of the pool-room loafers whined; "he's killed him!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid saw Sabota reach for the gun. He answered the speaker
+and the Greek's effort to get the forty-four at the same time:
+
+"Not yet--_but now_!" he cried with a low laugh and leaped with both
+heels squarely on the bloody face of Sabota! There was a horrible
+crunching sound as of bones and flesh being ground into pulp. The
+fingers about to close on the handle of the revolver grew limp, the
+Greek's head, a hideous, scarcely recognizable mass, slumped to one side
+and lay perfectly still.
+
+An instant longer the Ramblin' Kid looked at him, then reached over,
+picked up his gun and slipped it into the holster at his hip.
+
+As he straightened up, Tom Poole, the marshal, rushed into the
+pool-room. He covered the Ramblin' Kid with his revolver and placed him
+under arrest.
+
+"You don't need to get excited, Tom!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed. "I
+didn't do nothin' but kill that damned black cur layin' there! Come
+on--I want to get out in th' air--I never like to stay around where dead
+skunks are!"
+
+They moved toward the door.
+
+Poole dropped his gun back in its scabbard and walked at the side of the
+now apparently peaceful young cowboy.
+
+At the door the marshal looked around:
+
+"Some of you fellers get the doctor or undertaker--whichever he
+needs--and take care of Sabota!" he called to the group around the body
+of the Greek.
+
+Like a flash the muzzle of the Ramblin' Kid's gun was pressed against
+the side of Poole.
+
+"Put 'em up, Tom!" he snapped, "_I_ don't want to kill you, but I will
+if I have to--I ain't goin' to rot in no jail just for stampin' a dirty
+snake-to death!"
+
+The marshal's hands shot into the air as if operated by springs.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid, with his left hand, jerked Poole's revolver from its
+holster. He backed into the street toward where Captain Jack and Old Pie
+Face were standing, still with his own gun covering the officer.
+
+"Jack!" he cried sharply, "meet me!"
+
+The little stallion moved toward him.
+
+With the thumb of the hand in which he held the marshal's gun the
+Ramblin' Kid threw open the breech and flipped the shells on the ground.
+He tossed the empty forty-four to one side, threw the reins over
+Captain Jack's head and the next instant was in the saddle. The broncho
+wheeled and was gone, in a dead run, toward the west.
+
+The marshal rushed into the street and picked up his gun, jerked some
+cartridges from his belt, slipped them into the cylinder and fired
+quickly at the fleeing horse and rider.
+
+The bullets whistled past the ear of the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He raised his own weapon, half-turned in the saddle, dropped the muzzle
+of the gun forward until it pointed at the flashes spitting from the
+officer's revolver. His finger started to tighten on the trigger.
+
+"Hell," he muttered, "what's the use? Tom's just doin' what he thinks he
+has to do!" and the Ramblin' Kid slipped the gun, unfired, back into its
+holster.
+
+A moment later Captain Jack whirled to the right across the Santa Fe
+tracks and bearing a little to the east, in the direction of Capaline,
+the dead volcano that rises out of the lavas northwest of the Quarter
+Circle KT, between the Purgatory and the Cimarron, disappeared in the
+black starlit night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+MOSTLY SKINNY
+
+It is a week to the day since the fight in the Elite Amusement Parlor in
+Eagle Butte. Since the Ramblin' Kid, followed by the wicked sing of the
+bullets from the marshal's gun, disappeared in the darkness no word has
+come from the fugitive cowboy, who beat to a pulp the burly Greek.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick paces uneasily about in the circular corral and
+the Quarter Circle KT has settled into the hum-drum routine of ranch
+life.
+
+Parker, Charley, Chuck and Bert are gone to Chicago with the train-load
+of beef cattle. Skinny bosses a gang of "picked-up" hay hands Old Heck
+brought out from Eagle Butte to harvest the second cutting of alfalfa.
+Pedro rides line daily on the upland pasture and Sing Pete hammers the
+iron triangle morning, noon and night, announcing the regular arrival of
+meal-time. The Chinaman is careful when he throws out empty
+tomato-cans--turning back the tin to make it impossible for the yellow
+cat again to fasten his head in one of the inviting traps, and the cook
+would imperil the hope of the return of his soul to the flowery Orient
+before he would put butter in the bottom of a can to entice the animal
+into trouble.
+
+Old Heck and Ophelia are like a pair of nesting doves and there is a new
+vigor to the step of the owner of the Quarter Circle KT, a revived
+interest in affairs generally; years seem to have fallen from his
+shoulders.
+
+Carolyn June smiles sweetly as ever at Skinny, spends much time riding
+alone over the valley and hills; in her eyes there has come a more
+thoughtful--often a wistful--expression.
+
+Sabota did not die.
+
+After the escape of the Ramblin' Kid the marshal reentered the pool-room
+and had the big Greek removed to the hotel. A doctor was called and set
+as well as possible the broken jaws, the crushed nose, picked out the
+fragments of bone and the loosened teeth, sewed up the terrible gashes
+on Sabota's face and left the bully groaning and profaning in
+half-conscious agony.
+
+The night of the fight Skinny took Old Pie Face back to the barn.
+
+The cowboy's heart was heavy with remorse. He blamed himself for all the
+trouble. Had he not wanted to make a fool of himself and get drunk the
+Ramblin' Kid would not have come to Eagle Butte, the fight would not
+have occurred, the friend he had ridden with through storm and
+sunshine--whom he had stood "night guard" and fought mad stampedes into
+"the mill"--would not now be an outcast sought by the hand of the law.
+
+News of the beating the Ramblin' Kid gave Sabota traveled fast.
+
+It was flashed over Eagle Butte that the Greek was dead.
+
+"So th' Ramblin' Kid killed old Sabota, did he?" the hostler at the
+livery barn asked Skinny as he stepped out to care for the cowboy's
+horse. "What was it over? Sabota having th' Ramblin' Kid 'doped' the day
+of the sweepstakes?"
+
+Skinny looked keenly, searchingly, at the stableman.
+
+"What do you mean--'Sabota having th' Ramblin' Kid doped?'" he asked
+sharply.
+
+"Why, didn't you know?" the hostler replied. "I thought everybody
+knowed. Gyp Streetor told me about it the day of the race--I used to
+know Gyp when he was a kid back east. I saw him as he was beating it to
+get out of town. He borrowed five dollars from me. Said Sabota hired him
+to put 'knock-out' in some coffee for th' Ramblin' Kid and he reckoned
+the dose wasn't big enough or something. Anyhow, it didn't hold him
+under long as they thought it would and when he saw the Gold Dust
+maverick show up on the track he got scared--was afraid it would leak
+out or th' Ramblin' Kid would suspect him and try to 'get' him after the
+race, so he ducked out of town--"
+
+"You ain't lying about that?" Skinny asked.
+
+"What would I want to lie about it for?" the other replied. "Wasn't
+that what made th' Ramblin' Kid kill the Greek?"
+
+"No, it was something else," Skinny answered; "but Sabota ain't dead.
+He's just crunched up pretty bad--th' Ramblin' Kid jumped on him, like
+Captain Jack did on that feller from the Chickasaw that tried to steal
+him!"
+
+Skinny's mind was in a whirl.
+
+So the Ramblin' Kid was not drunk the day of the race! He was drugged--
+sick--yet, in spite of everything, rode the Gold Dust maverick and beat
+the black wonder-horse from the Vermejo! Lord! and they had all thought
+he was on a tear!
+
+The bottle of whisky was still in the bosom of Skinny's shirt.
+
+He had not touched it. He felt a sudden revulsion for the vile stuff.
+
+"Here," he said, jerking the flask from its hiding-place and handing it
+to the hostler, "maybe you'd like that bottle of 'rot-gut'--I've swore
+off!"
+
+"I ain't," the stableman laughed and took it eagerly.
+
+Skinny remained in town that night and the next day, waiting for Parker
+and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys to come in with the beef cattle. They
+arrived about noon. Old Heck drove in with the Clagstone "Six." Ophelia
+and Carolyn June came with him. Skinny met them when Old Heck stopped
+the in front of the Occidental Hotel. He told them, while they still
+sat in the automobile, of the fight and the escape of the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"A drunken brawl!" Carolyn June thought, a wave of disgust sweeping over
+her.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid hadn't touched a drop," Skinny said, explaining the
+fight and almost as if he were answering her unspoken thought. "If he'd
+been drinking, I reckon Sabota would have killed him instead of his
+beating the Greek blamed near to death. I know now what he used to mean
+when he'd say, 'A man's a fool to put whisky in him when he's facin' a
+tight squeeze!' The little devil sure needed everything he had--nerve
+and head and muscle and all--for the job he tackled last night!"
+
+Skinny didn't tell them that his hand had rested on the handle of his
+own gun--determined that he, himself, would kill Sabota if the brute
+succeeded in choking the Ramblin' Kid to death.
+
+"What was the fight about?" Old Heck asked.
+
+"A pink ribbon or something with a little silver do-funny on it--it
+looked like a sleeve-holder or a garter--dropped out of th' Ramblin'
+Kid's pocket and Sabota made a nasty remark about it," Skinny said.
+
+Carolyn June caught her breath and her face flushed.
+
+"The Greek said something about Carolyn June, I didn't just hear what,"
+Skinny continued, "and then he smashed the ribbon under his foot. The
+next instant th' Ramblin' Kid was trying to kill him!
+
+"It's a pity he didn't succeed!" Old Heck exclaimed. "The damned filthy
+whelp--excuse me, Ophelia, for cussing, but I just had to say It!"
+
+"It's all right," was the laughing rejoinder, "I--I--wanted to say it
+myself!"
+
+Carolyn June's eyes glowed. Her heart felt as if a weight had been
+lifted from it So, the Ramblin' Kid had kept the odd souvenir, and he
+cared--he cared!
+
+"Go ahead," she whispered to Skinny; "what then?"
+
+"I reckon that's about all," Skinny answered. "Th' Ramblin' Kid smashed
+Sabota and as he staggered back, picked up the ribbon--then he didn't
+quit till he thought the Greek was dead. Tom Poole arrested him, but th'
+Ramblin' Kid got the drop on him and got away. He was justified in
+beating Sabota up anyhow," he added, "on account of the dirty cuss
+hiring a feller to 'dope' him so he couldn't ride the maverick the day
+of the big race--"
+
+"'Dope' him?" Old Heck interrupted, puzzled.
+
+"Yes," Skinny explained, "the Greek had a feller named Gyp Streetor put
+some stuff in th' Ramblin? Kid's coffee. He wasn't drunk at all--he was
+just poisoned with 'knock-out!'"
+
+"Good lord!" Old Heck exclaimed. "And he rode that race when he was
+drugged! While we all thought he'd gone to pieces and was drunk!"
+
+Carolyn June's cheeks suddenly turned pale. He cared, but he was gone!
+Perhaps never to come back! It seemed as if an iron hand was clutching
+at her throat!
+
+She and Ophelia went into the hotel and Old Heck and Skinny drove the
+car over to the stock-yards where the cattle were being loaded.
+
+After Parker and the cowboys were on their way east with the steers and
+before he returned to the ranch Old Heck went into the room in which
+Sabota lay. The Greek's head was a mass of white bandages. His eyes
+battered and swollen shut, he could not see the face of his visitor.
+
+For a moment Old Heck looked at him, his lips parted in a smile of
+contempt lightened with satisfaction.
+
+"Well, Sabota," he said at last, "th' Ramblin' Kid didn't quite do his
+duty, did he? If he had gone as far as he ought to you wouldn't be
+laying there--they'd just about now be hiding your dirty carcass under
+six feet of 'dobe!'"
+
+Sabota mumbled some guttural, unintelligible reply.
+
+"Listen, you infernal skunk," Old Heck went on coldly, "as quick as
+you're able to travel you'll find Eagle Butte's a right good place to
+get away from! You understand what I mean. If I catch you around, well,
+I won't use no fists!" And without waiting for an answer he turned and
+left the room.
+
+The owner of the Quarter Circle KT then hunted lip the marshal of Eagle
+Butte.
+
+"Tom," he said, "I reckon you'll be looking some for th' Ramblin' Kid,
+after what happened last night, won't you?"
+
+The marshal had heard of Sabota's effort to have the young cowboy
+drugged the day of the race and also the immediate cause for the fight.
+
+"Oh, I don't know as I will," he said, "unless the Greek makes some
+charge or other. I don't imagine he'll do that"
+
+"I know blamed well he won't!" Old Heck interrupted. "But how about th'
+Ramblin' Kid putting his gun in your ribs--resisting an officer and so
+on?"
+
+"Putting his gun in my ribs? Resisting an officer?" the lanky Missourian
+answered with a sly grin; "who said he put a gun on me--or resisted an
+officer or anything? I ain't heard nothing about it!"
+
+Two days later Sabota, with the help of "Red" Jackson, managed to get to
+the Santa Fe station. He was able to travel and he did travel. Jackson
+said he went to the "Border." Eagle Butte did not know or care--the
+Cimarron town was through with him.
+
+When Old Heck, Carolyn June and Ophelia returned to the Quarter Circle
+KT the evening of the day following the fight, the Gold Dust maverick
+whinnied lonesomely from the circular corral as the Clagstone "Six"
+stopped in front of the house.
+
+"What are we going to do with that filly?" Old Heck asked, looking at
+the beautiful creature with her head above the bars of the corral gate.
+
+"I am going to ride her!" Carolyn June said softly. "Until the Ramblin'
+Kid comes back and claims her she is mine! She loves me and I can handle
+her!"
+
+"I'm afraid--" Old Heck started to protest.
+
+"You need not be," Carolyn June interrupted, "the Gold Dust maverick and
+I know each other--she understands me and I understand her--she will be
+perfectly gentle with me!"
+
+The next day Carolyn June rode the wonderful outlaw mare. It was as she
+said. The filly was perfectly gentle with her. After that, every day,
+the girl saddled the Gold Dust maverick and, unafraid, took long rides
+alone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night the cattle were shipped Skinny had supper in Eagle Butte. He
+sat alone at a small table at one side of the dining-room in the
+Occidental Hotel. The cowboy was the picture of utter misery. Parker,
+Charley, Chuck, Bert were gone to Chicago with steers; the Ramblin' Kid
+was gone--nobody knew where; Skinny's dream about Carolyn June was
+gone--she didn't love him, she just liked him; even his whisky was gone,
+he had given it to the hostler at the barn; he didn't have any friends
+or anything.
+
+"What's the matter, Skinny?" Manilla Endora, the yellow-haired waitress,
+asked softly, as she stepped up to the table and looked down a moment at
+the dejected cowboy. There was something in her voice that made Skinny
+pity himself more than ever. It made him want to cry. "What's wrong?'
+Manilla repeated almost tenderly.
+
+"Everything!" Skinny blurted out, dropping his head on his arms. "The
+whole blamed works is shot to pieces!"
+
+A little smile stole over Manilla's rosy lips.
+
+"I know what it is," she said gently, unreproachfully; "it's that girl,
+Carolyn June. Yes, it is," as Skinny started to interrupt. "Oh, I don't
+blame you for falling for her!" she went on. "She is nice--but, well,
+Skinny-boy," her voice was a caress, "Old Heck's niece is not the sort
+for you. You and her wouldn't fit at all--the way you wanted--and
+anyhow, there--there--are others," coloring warmly.
+
+Skinny looked up into the honest blue eyes.
+
+"You ain't sore at me or anything are you, Manilla?" he asked.
+
+"Sore?" she answered. "Of course not!"
+
+Hope sprung again into his heart. "I--I--thought maybe you would be," he
+stammered.
+
+"Forget it!" she laughed. "The old world still wobbles!"
+
+"Manilla, you--you're a peach!" he cried.
+
+She chuckled. "Did you hear about that dance next Saturday night after
+the picture show?" she asked archly.
+
+"No. Is there one?" with new interest in life.
+
+"Yes," she replied, her lashes drooping demurely; "they say the music is
+going to be swell."
+
+"If I come in will you--will we--go, Manilla?" he asked eagerly.
+
+They would.
+
+"Poor Skinny," Manilla murmured to herself as she went to the kitchen to
+get his order, "poor cuss--he can't keep from breaking his heart over
+every skirt that brushes against him, but"--and she laughed
+softly--"darn his ugly picture, I like him anyhow!"
+
+After supper Skinny hurried to the Golden Rule store. It was still open.
+
+"Give me a white shirt--number fifteen," he said to the clerk; "and be
+blamed sure it's the right size--they ain't worth a cuss if they're too
+big!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+A GIRL LIKE YOU
+
+A lone rider guided his horse in the early night, among the black lavas,
+on the desolate desert near Capaline, the dead volcano. He rode to the
+south, in the direction of the Cimarron. Silently, steadily, like a dark
+shadow, the broncho picked his way among the fields of fire-blistered
+rock and held his course, unerringly, through the starlit gloom hanging
+over the earth before the late moon should flash its silver disk above
+the sand-hills miles to the east.
+
+The rider was the Ramblin' Kid; the little horse--Captain Jack.
+
+For a week, following the fight in Eagle Butte, the Ramblin' Kid had
+found shelter in the hut of "Indian Jake"--a hermit Navajo who, long
+ago, turned his face toward the flood of white civilization rolling over
+the last pitiful remnants of his tribe and drifted far toward the land
+of the rising sun. Among the scenes of desolation around the grimly cold
+volcano, alone, the old Indian made his last stand, and in a rude cabin,
+beside a tiny spring that seeped from under the black rock on the
+mountain-side, lived in splendid isolation--silent, brooding, desiring
+only to be left in peace with his few ponies, his small herd of cattle
+and the memories and traditions of his people.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid and the lonely Navajo were friends since the Ramblin'
+Kid could remember.
+
+The aged Indian's face was pitted with horrible scars--marks of the same
+disease that had cost the wandering cowboy his father and left him,
+years ago, an orphan, almost worshiped, because of the sacrifice his
+parent had made fighting the epidemic among the tribes of the Southwest.
+
+Often the "Young Whirlwind"--the name by which the Indians knew the
+Ramblin' Kid and which old Jake himself always called the cowboy--spent
+a night, sometimes days, with his stoical friend among the lavas.
+
+To him the cabin door was always open.
+
+As Captain Jack, followed by the bullets from the marshal's revolver,
+dashed madly down the street of Eagle Butte, instinctively the Ramblin'
+Kid had turned the stallion toward the hut of the old Navajo.
+
+The fugitive cowboy believed Sabota was dead.
+
+Naturally the law would demand vengeance, even though the brutal Greek
+had deserved to die. Posses, undoubtedly, would scour the country,
+searching for his slayer. The Quarter Circle KT would be watched.
+
+There was no regret in the heart of the Ramblin' Kid. Instead he felt a
+strange elation. With his fists and heels he had beaten the giant Greek
+into a lifeless mass!
+
+"'Ign'rant--savage--stupid--brute!" he muttered as Captain Jack sped
+from the scene of fight; "I reckon she _was pretty near right!_"
+
+At gray dawn he swung down from the back of the little stallion at the
+door of the Indian's hut.
+
+Old Jake asked no questions.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid himself volunteered:
+
+"Killed a man--Sabota--got to lay low, Jake--some three, four, five
+days! Then I go--south--Mexico!"
+
+"The Young Whirlwind had cause?" the Navajo grunted sententiously.
+
+"Sure--plenty!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed, slipping his hand to his
+breast pocket and caressing the pink satin garter.
+
+"It is good," the Indian said. "The Navajo will watch!"
+
+For seven days the Ramblin' Kid rested, securely, in the lonely hut
+among the lavas and "pot-holes" of the desert. Then he saddled Captain
+Jack and when the full shadow of night had settled over the desolation
+about him mounted the little broncho and turned him to the south, in the
+direction of the Cimarron, toward the Quarter Circle KT, where the Gold
+Dust maverick waited, alone, in the corral.
+
+Carolyn June could not sleep. The night was more than half gone and
+still she sat on the front porch and watched the gradual spread of a
+misty, silvery sheen over the brow of the bench and the distant peaks of
+the shadowy Costejo range as the pale moon, in its last half, lifted
+itself above the sand-hills at the gap through which the Cimarron
+tumbled out of the valley.
+
+Old Heck and Ophelia had retired hours ago.
+
+The Quarter Circle KT was sleeping. From the meadows the heavy odor of
+wilted alfalfa hung on the night air as the dew sprinkled the windrows
+of new-cut hay.
+
+A strange restlessness filled the heart of the girl.
+
+Something seemed to be holding her in a tense, relentless grip. She had
+no desire to seek her room. Indeed, she felt that the air of the house
+would stifle her. She arose and strolled idly through the gate, past the
+bunk-house where Skinny, Pedro and the hay hands snored peacefully, as
+she wandered aimlessly through the slanting moonlight down to the
+circular corral.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick seemed to reflect the girl's own uneasy mood.
+
+The filly moved with quick nervous strides about the corral. As Carolyn
+June leaned against the bars and stretched out her hand the mare
+whinnied softly, tossed her head, nosed an instant the white fingers and
+trotted in a circle around the enclosure.
+
+"What's the matter, Heart o' Gold?" Carolyn June laughed
+sympathetically, "can't you either?"
+
+In the shed at the side of the corral, on the spot where, that first
+morning, the Ramblin' Kid's saddle had rested and the cowboy slept,
+Carolyn June's own riding gear was lying. She glanced at the outfit For
+a second she fancied she saw again the slender form stretched in the
+shadow upon the ground while a pair of black inscrutable eyes looked
+with unfathomable melancholy up into her own.
+
+"Seein' things!" she laughed jerkily, with a little catch in her throat.
+"I'll ride it off!"
+
+Quickly she stepped over, picked up the saddle, bridle and blanket,
+returned to the corral gate, swung it open and entered.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick came to her, as if eager, herself, to get out
+into the night.
+
+A moment later Carolyn June was in the saddle and the mare, dancing
+lightly, pranced out of the gate. She turned swiftly toward the grade
+that led out to the bench and to Eagle Butte. They had almost reached
+the foot of the grade, when some impulse caused Carolyn June to whirl
+the filly about and gallop back past the barn and down the lane toward
+the Cimarron.
+
+As the feet of the outlaw mare splashed into the water at the lower ford
+the Ramblin' Kid rode past the corner of the upland pasture fence and
+stopped Captain Jack on the brink of the ridge looking down at the
+crossing. Below him the river whirled in dark eddies under the
+overhanging curtains of cottonwoods and willows; the Quarter Circle KT
+lay in the hollow of the valley, like a faint etching of silent
+restfulness; through the tops of the trees a white splash of moonlight
+struck on the smooth level surface of the treacherous quicksand bar that
+had drawn Old Blue down to an agonizing death and from which, scarcely a
+month ago, the Ramblin' Kid had dragged Carolyn June.
+
+This, the Ramblin' Kid believed, was his last long look at the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+He would ride down to the circular corral, turn out the Gold Dust
+maverick--give her again to the range and freedom--and while the
+unconscious sleepers at the ranch dreamed he would pass on, silently,
+toward the south and Mexico should throw about him her black arms of
+mystery!
+
+For a while he sat and gazed down on the shadowy scene while his mind
+throbbed with memory of the incidents of the last few weeks. He drew the
+pink satin garter from his pocket, looked at it a long moment--suddenly
+crushed it tightly in his hand while his eyes closed as if renouncing a
+vision that had come before them--then carefully, that the dainty thing
+might not be lost, replaced it in the pocket that was over his heart.
+
+At last he swung to the ground and tightened the front cinch of his
+saddle.
+
+As he pulled the leather into place the sound of nervous hoofs kicking
+the gravel on the grade that led to the ridge on which he stood
+shattered the silence around him. The Ramblin' Kid whirled and faced the
+direction in which the approaching horse, would appear. His hand dropped
+to his gun and without raising the weapon from his hip he leveled it to
+cover the turn in the road a few feet away.
+
+The waxy mane of the outlaw filly rocked into view as she sprang up and
+around the turn on to the ridge.
+
+On the maverick's back, bareheaded, her brown hair tumbled about her
+neck, was Carolyn June.
+
+Captain Jack pricked forward his ears at the sound of hoofs and as the
+beautiful mare leaped around the turn and appeared above the bank of the
+grade the little roan squealed a nicker of recognition. The filly sprang
+forward, swerved to the side of the stallion, and with an answering
+whinny stopped.
+
+"Oh!" Carolyn June gasped, as the horses met and she saw the Ramblin'
+Kid, his gun still in his hand, standing beside Captain Jack.
+
+There was a brief, questioning silence.
+
+"What th' hell!" he breathed.
+
+"What the--'_hell_--yourself!" she laughed nervously. "Is--this--is this
+a hold-up?"
+
+"What are _you_ doin' here--this time of night--an' on that filly?" he
+asked without heeding her question.
+
+"I'm riding that--this--filly!" Carolyn June shot back independently.
+"And what are _you_ doing here--at this time of--Oh," she added,
+before he could answer, "I--I--believe my saddle's slipping!" and she
+swung lightly from the back of the outlaw mare.
+
+"That filly'll kill you," he began.
+
+"She will not!" Carolyn June interrupted with a pout. "I--I--guess
+you're not the only one, Mister 'Nighthawk,' that knows the way to the
+heart of a horse! If you were just as wise about--" but she stopped, her
+blush hidden as she turned her back to the rising moon.
+
+"They was made for each other!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered to himself.
+Then he spoke aloud: "I reckon you know," he said slowly, "why I'm
+ridin' at night--about me killin' Sabota--I'm leavin'--"
+
+"But Sabota isn't dead," she interrupted again. "You don't need to go
+away!"
+
+"Sabota ain't dead!" the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed. "Then I'll go back to
+Eagle Butte instead of--Mexico!"
+
+"Why?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"To finish th' job!" and his voice was dangerously soft.
+
+"You can't finish it," she laughed. "He isn't in Eagle Butte! The Greek
+has gone away and--well, it--it--was a good 'job'--good enough the way
+you did it! I--I--don't want you 'teetotally' to kill him--clear, all
+the way dead," she stammered. "The way it is you--you--won't have
+to--leave!"
+
+"What's th' difference?" he said dully. "It's time I was ramblin'
+anyhow!"
+
+"Is it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Listen, Ramblin' Kid," she broke in, "I--I--know all about
+everything--about what started the fight--"
+
+"You do?" looking quickly and keenly at her. "Who told you?"
+
+"Skinny," she answered; "he saw it. Said it was a pale pink ribbon or
+something with a little silver 'do-funny' on it!" she finished with a
+laugh.
+
+"I--I--reckon you want it back, then?" the Ramblin' Kid said, reaching
+to his left breast. "You wouldn't want--"
+
+"Did I say I wanted it?" Carolyn June questioned naively.
+
+"And I know," she hurried on, "about you being drugged the day of the
+race! Why didn't you say you were sick? We--we--thought you were drunk!"
+
+"Nobody asked me," he answered without interest.
+
+"Does everybody have to--to--ask you everything?" she questioned
+suggestively. "Don't you ever--ever--'ask' anybody anything yourself?"
+
+"What are you tryin' to do?" he said almost brutally, "play with me like
+you played with them other blamed idiots th' night of th' dance?"
+
+"You're mean--" she started to say.
+
+"Am I?" he interrupted, and spoke with sudden intenseness. "Maybe you
+think I am. Maybe you think a lot of things. Maybe you think God put
+them brown eyes in your face just so you could coax men, with a look out
+of them, to love you an' then laugh because th' damned fools do it!"
+
+"You're unfair!" she replied. "I was just paying the boys back the night
+of the dance for--for--'framing' up on Ophelia and me the way they did!"
+
+For a moment they looked squarely into each other's eyes. Captain Jack
+and the Gold Dust maverick nosed each other over the shoulders of their
+dismounted riders.
+
+"Oh, well, it don't matter," the Ramblin' Kid finally said, wearily; "it
+don't matter, you're what you are an' I reckon you can't help it!"
+
+Carolyn June said nothing.
+
+"I--I--was goin' to turn th' filly back to th' range," he continued in
+the same emotionless voice, "but--well, you can have her--I'll trade her
+to you for--for--th' thing that started th' fight. You can ride th'
+maverick till you go back east--"
+
+"I'm not going back east," she said in a hurt tone, "at least not for a
+long time. Dad is going to--to--get me a stepmother! He's going to marry
+some female person and he doesn't need me so I'm going to live--most of
+the time--with Uncle Josiah and Ophelia! Anyhow I--I--like it out
+west--or that is--I did like it--"
+
+There was another little period of silence between them.
+
+"Ramblin' Kid," Carolyn June spoke suddenly very softly, "Ramblin'
+Kid--why--why do you hate me?"
+
+"Me hate you?" he answered slowly. "I don't hate _you_--I hate myself!"
+
+"Yourself?" with a questioning lift of her voice.
+
+"Yes, myself!" he replied with a short, bitter laugh. "Why shouldn't
+I--bein' an 'ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!'"
+
+Carolyn June flinched as he repeated the cruel words she herself had
+spoken, it seemed, now so long ago.
+
+"You are right!" she said, after a pause, while a ripple of quivering,
+mischievous laughter leaped from her lips and she laid her hand lightly
+on his arm. "Oh, Ramblin' Kid, you are indeed an 'ign'rant, savage,
+stupid brute!' You are 'ign'rant,'" she continued while he looked at her
+with a puzzled expression in his eyes, "of the ways of a woman's heart;
+you are 'savage'--in the defense of a woman's honor; you are
+'stupid'--not to see that it is the _man_ a woman wants and not the thin
+social veneer; you are a 'brute'--an utter brute, Ramblin' Kid--
+to--to--make a girl almost tell you--tell you--that she--she--"
+
+The sentence was not finished.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid caught her by both shoulders. He pushed her back--arm's
+length--and held her while the clean moonlight poured down on her
+upturned face and his black eyes searched her own as though to read her
+very soul.
+
+An instant she was almost frightened by the agony that was in his face.
+
+Then she opened her mouth and laughed--such a laugh as comes only from
+the throat of a woman when love is having its way!
+
+"By God!" he whispered, his voice hoarse with passion, his hot breath
+fanning the brown hair on her forehead; "this has gone far enough! I'll
+tell you what you want me to say--I'll say it! And it's the truth--I
+love you--love you--_love you_! Yes!" And he shook her toward him. "Do
+you hear me? I love you--love you--so much it hurts! Now laugh! Now make
+fun of me! I know I'm a fool. I know where I stand! I know I don't
+belong in your crowd--I ain't fit to mix with 'em! I ain't been raised
+like you was raised. You don't need to tell me that! I know it already!
+I know there's somethin' a man has to have besides what he gets on th'
+open range among th' cattle--an' th' bronchos--an' th' 
+rattlesnakes--he's got to be ground in th' mill of schoolin'--of books;
+he's got to be hammered into shape under th' heels of 'civilization';
+he's got to be trained to jump through and roll over an' know which fork
+to eat with before a girl like you--"
+
+His hands relaxed, but before his fingers loosened their grip on her
+shoulders Carolyn June's own soft palms reached up and caught the man's
+sun-tanned cheeks between them. Her eyes burned back into its own. Once
+more the laugh rippled from the full pulsing throat.
+
+"Ramblin' Kid, oh, Ramblin' Kid," she murmured, while the long lashes
+lifted over brown pools tenderness, "a man--my man--does not need to be
+or to know all of those things, any of those things, before a girl like
+me--"
+
+He crushed her to him and stopped the words on her lips.
+
+"My God--don't fool me--be sure you know!" he cried, his whole body
+quivering with the intensity of his feelings; "don't tell me you love
+me--unless you mean it! I can stand to love you--without hope--in
+silence--alone! But I can't--an' I swear I won't, be lifted up to Paradise 
+just to be dropped again into the depths of hell! Don't say you love me
+unless you know it is _all_ love! Half love ain't love--it's a lie! An'
+love ain't to play with! Don't insult God by makin' a joke of th' thing
+He made an' planted in th' hearts of all Creation to hold th' Universe
+together."
+
+"Ramblin' Kid," she whispered softly, "God himself is looking down into
+my heart!"
+
+He smothered her mouth with his own--they drank each other in, their
+souls mingled in a mad-sense-reeling, time-defying pressure of lips!
+
+It was their hour, as was the next and yet the one that followed that.
+
+When the old-rose of dawn melted the gray above the sand-hills behind
+them and the white moon was fading in the zenith above the Kiowa; when
+the cottonwoods beside the Cimarron began to shake their leaves in the
+morning breeze that tripped across the valley; when the low buildings of
+the Quarter Circle KT silhouetted against the bench beyond the meadows;
+when the smooth surface of the beach of quicksand under which the body
+of Old Blue was hidden began to look smoother yet and still more firm,
+the Ramblin' Kid and Carolyn June parted.
+
+"I'm goin' away," he said; "I'm goin' away, Carolyn June, but I'm goin'
+for another reason now. I'm goin' away an' make myself so you'll never
+have a chance to be ashamed of me! I'm goin' away an' learn how to talk
+without cussin' 'most every other word--I'm goin' away an' get that
+polish I know; women love in men th' same as they love their own shoes
+to be shiny an' their own dresses to be soft an' dainty! When I've got
+that I'll come back! I ain't goin' to Mexico. I'm going to ride into
+that world that you come out of an' when I'm so you'll be proud to walk
+in that world with me--when I'm so you won't need to apologize for me in
+Hartville or any other place, I'm comin' back an' a preacher can O.K.
+th' bargain you an' me have made! Will you keep faith an' be true,
+Carolyn June? Will you keep faith an' be true--? Will you be waitin'?"
+
+"I'll be waiting," she whispered, "--and keep faith and be true!"
+
+And he rode away into the face of the red glow rising above the
+sand-hills. He rode away--to meet the morning sun--hidden yet behind the
+eastern horizon--to conquer himself, to master the ways of men, in the
+world that lay beyond!
+
+Carolyn June watched him go.
+
+Then she guided the outlaw filly down the grade, across the Cimarron and
+along the lane, in the gently stirring dawn, back to the still sleeping
+Quarter Circle KT. In her heart was a song; in her eyes a new light; in
+her soul a great peace--on her lips, a smile. She carried in her bosom
+their secret--hers and the Ramblin' Kid's--and she knew he would return,
+for he would not lie.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ramblin' Kid, by Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLIN' KID ***
+
+***** This file should be named 10374.txt or 10374.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/3/7/10374/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
diff --git a/old/10374.zip b/old/10374.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..540d67a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10374.zip
diff --git a/old/old/20031203.10374-8.txt b/old/old/20031203.10374-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4fc9153
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/old/20031203.10374-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9535 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ramblin' Kid, by Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+
+Title: The Ramblin' Kid
+
+Author: Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2003 [EBook #10374]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLIN' KID ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RAMBLIN' KID
+
+
+BY EARL WAYLAND BOWMAN
+
+
+FRONTISPIECE BY W.H.D. KOERNER
+
+
+
+
+1920
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I A NIGHT LETTER
+
+II A BLUFF CALLED
+
+III WHICH ONE'S WHICH
+
+IV THE UNUSED PLATE
+
+V A DUEL OF ENDURANCE
+
+VI YOU'RE A BRUTE
+
+VII THE GREEDY SANDS
+
+VIII QUICK WITH A VENGEANCE
+
+IX OLD HECK'S STRATEGY
+
+X FIXING FIXERS
+
+XI A DANCE AND A RIDE
+
+XII YOU'LL GET YOUR WISH
+
+XIII THE ELITE AMUSEMENT PARLOR
+
+XIV THE GRAND PARADE
+
+XV MOCHA AND JAVA
+
+XVI THE SWEEPSTAKES
+
+XVII OLD HECK GOES TO TOWN
+
+XVIII A SHAME TO WASTE IT
+
+XIX THE GREEK GETS HIS
+
+XX MOSTLY SKINNY
+
+XXI A GIRL LIKE YOU
+
+
+
+
+THE RAMBLIN' KID
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+A NIGHT LETTER
+
+Sand and gravel slithered and slid under the heels of Old Pie Face as
+Skinny Rawlins whirled the broncho into the open space in front of the
+low-built, sprawling, adobe ranch house of the Quarter Circle KT and
+reined the pinto to a sudden stop. Skinny had been to Eagle Butte and
+with other things brought back the mail. It was hot, late June, the time
+between cutting the first crop of alfalfa and gathering, from the open
+range, the beef steers ready for the summer market. Regardless of the
+heat Skinny had ridden hard and his horse was a lather of sweat. A
+number of cowboys lounged, indolently, in the shade of the bunk-house,
+smoking cigarettes and contentedly enjoying the hour of rest after the
+noon-day dinner. Another, lean-built, slender, boyish in appearance and
+with strangely black, inscrutable eyes, stepped from around the corner
+of the house as Skinny jerked Old Pie Face to a standstill.
+
+"Where's Old Heck?" Skinny asked excitedly. "I brought the mail--here,
+take it to him!"
+
+The other, known on the Kiowa and the range of western Texas and Mexico
+only as "the Ramblin' Kid," strolled leisurely out through the sagging,
+weight-swung gate and up to the panting horse from which Skinny had not
+yet dismounted.
+
+"Asleep, I reckon," he replied in a voice peculiarly low and deliberate,
+"--what's your spontaneousness about? You act like a special d'livery or
+somethin'."
+
+"Old Heck's got a letter," Skinny said, jerkily; "maybe's it's bad news
+an' he ought to have it quick," as the Ramblin' Kid reached for a yellow
+envelope held in the outstretched hand.
+
+At that instant Old Heck, owner and boss of the Quarter Circle KT cow
+outfit, stepped from the shadow of the open ranch-house door. He was
+short and stocky, red-faced, somewhere near the fifties, and a
+yellowish-gray mustache hung over tobacco blackened lips. Overalls, a
+checked blue and white shirt, open at the throat, boots into which the
+trousers legs were loosely jammed comprised his attire. He was
+bareheaded and the sun glistened on a wrinkly forehead, topped by a thin
+sprinkling of hair.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked drowsily, his small, gray-blue eyes
+blinking in the yellow sun-glare and still sluggish from the nap
+disturbed by the noise of Skinny's arrival.
+
+"Nothin'. Skinny's just got a letter an' is excited about it," the
+Ramblin' Kid said, handing the envelope to him. "It's for you."
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck exclaimed, "it's a telegram!"
+
+The cowboys resting in the shade of the bunk-house rose to their feet,
+sauntered over and surrounded Old Heck and the Ramblin' Kid, commenting
+meanwhile, frankly and caustically, on the fagged condition of the
+broncho Skinny was on:
+
+"Must 'a' been scared, the way you run that horse," Parker, range
+foreman of the Quarter Circle KT, a heavy-built, sandy-complexioned man
+in the forties, remarked witheringly to Skinny as the cow-puncher
+climbed from the saddle and slid to the ground.
+
+"He's mine, I reckon," Skinny retorted, "an' I figure it's nobody's
+darn' business how I ride him--anyhow I brought Old Heck a telegram!" he
+added triumphantly.
+
+"Blamed if he didn't!" Charley Saunders, with a trifle of awe, pretended
+or real, in his tone, said. "It sure is!"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck repeated, slowly turning the envelope over in his
+hand, "it's a telegram! Wonder what it's about?"
+
+"Why don't you open it and see?" Parker suggested.
+
+"Yes, open th' blamed thing and find out," Skinny encouraged.
+
+"I--I've a notion to," Old Heck whispered.
+
+"Go on and do it, it won't take but a minute," Charley Saunders
+entreated.
+
+"Maybe he's one of these mind-readers and can read it through the
+envelope," Bert Lilly volunteered.
+
+"Aw, shut up and give him a chance!"
+
+Trembling, Old Heck tore open the envelope and silently read the
+message.
+
+"My Gawd!" he groaned again. "The worst has come to the worst!"
+
+"That ought to make it middlin' bad," Charley remarked soberly.
+
+"Ought to," Bert added sententiously.
+
+Parker crowded forward on sympathy bent.
+
+"Tell us what's in it," he said; "if it's sorrowful we'll be plumb glad
+to condole!"
+
+"It's worse than sorrowful--"
+
+"Melancholical?" Skinny inquired.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck said again, his weatherworn features working
+convulsively, "it's more than a mortal man can endure and stand!"
+
+"Bet somebody's dead!" Bert whispered to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Probably. Most everybody gets to be sooner or later," was the answer
+without emotion.
+
+Sing Pete, Chinese cook for the outfit, dish-rag over his shoulder,
+edged out of the kitchen door and shuffled around to the group.
+Glimpsing the yellow slip of paper held in the shaking hand of Old Heck
+and the awed interest of the cowboys gathered about the boss, he
+queried:
+
+"Teleglam?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Teleglam? Maybe alle samee somebody sickee?" he continued, cheerfully
+confident that questions enough would ultimately bring a reply. He was
+rewarded:
+
+"What do you know about 'teleglams'? You slant-eyed burner of
+beef-steaks!"
+
+"Who's it from?" Charley asked. "Anybody we know--"
+
+"My Gawd," Old Heck mourned once more, "she's comin'!"
+
+"Who's she?" Parker coaxed.
+
+"A female," Old Heck replied, "she's a female!"
+
+"The darned old cuss has had a wife sometime and run off from her and
+deserted her and she's pursuing him and trailing him down to earth!"
+Chuck Slithers, doubting Thomas of the outfit and student of Sherlock
+Holmes, cunningly suggested. "I always imagined he was a varmint with a
+past--a' ex-heart breaker of innocent women or a train-robber or--"
+
+"Aw, hell," the Ramblin' Kid rebuked, "him have a wife? Don't insult th'
+female population!"
+
+"_Carramba!_" exclaimed Pedro Valencia, Mexican line-rider for the
+Quarter Circle KT, "perhaps she will stick him with the dagger, or shoot
+him with the gun when she arrive! The ladies with love kill quick when
+the love is--what you call him?--the jilt?"
+
+"And I'd almost forgot I ever had one!" Old Heck continued talking as if
+to himself.
+
+"What'd I tell you?" Chuck exulted.
+
+"Shut up! He's confessin'--let him alone an' he'll get it out of his
+conscience sooner or later!"
+
+"Had a what?" Parker urged sympathetically. "Maybe you didn't have
+one--maybe you only imagined you did!"
+
+"Had a brother--anyhow a half a one--our mothers was the same but
+different fathers on account of mine dyin' when I was little and his
+marrying our mother again; we was playmates together in our innocent
+childhood and infancy until I run away and went to sea and finally
+anchored on the Kiowa and got to raisin' cattle--"
+
+"Where does he come in at?" Parker questioned.
+
+"He said it was a female, to start with," Skinny added.
+
+"--and his name is Simeon Dixon on account of his father's being the
+same thing, and he went in the street railroad business in a place named
+Hartville in Connecticut, and he got married and had a wife--she was
+Zithia Forbes, and she's dead, and I knowed that, and he's rich I reckon
+and--"
+
+"An' Amrak begat Meshak an' Meshak begat Zimri an' Zimri was th' founder
+of th' House of Old Heck," the Ramblin' Kid chanted. "What in thunder
+does details amount to, anyhow?"
+
+"But you was mournin' about a she!" Parker insisted.
+
+"Well, I reckon it ain't a wife--at least not the one I was thinking
+about," Chuck murmured disappointedly, "but I bet he's had one somewhere
+in his vari'gated career and is hiding out from her in fear an'
+tremblin'--"
+
+"And there will not be the grand, the beautiful murder?" Pedro sighed,
+questioningly.
+
+"Wait a minute," Skinny pleaded, "--give him air!"
+
+"--and he's got a female daughter--and I didn't know that--and he's--oh,
+Gawd!--he's sending her out to the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"How big is she?" Parker whispered.
+
+"She's--she's twenty-two--"
+
+"Inches around or what?" Charley gasped.
+
+"--and Ophelia is coming with her--Ophelia Cobb--C-o-double-b it is--is
+coming with her for a chaperon--"
+
+"Great guns!" Skinny breathed,"--two females!"
+
+"Hold still and I'll read it--no, you do it, Parker--I'm too full of
+emotion--my voice'd quiver--"
+
+Parker read:
+
+    "Josiah Heck, Eagle Butte, Texas:
+
+    "Am sending my daughter, Carolyn June, out to your ranch
+    for a while. She needs a change. She has broke all the
+    he-human hearts in Hartville--that is all of them old
+    enough or young enough to be broke--and is what's called
+    a love-stimulator and won't settle. She is twenty-two
+    and it's time she was calmed. Hoping six months on the
+    Kiowa range will gentle her quite a lot, I am
+    sympathetically your 1/2 brother, Simeon.
+
+    "P.S.--Mrs. Ophelia Cobb, a lady widow, is coming with
+    her for a chaperon. Beware of both of them. They will
+    arrive at Eagle Butte the 21st.--S."
+
+"Gee, it's a long one!" Chuck said admiringly.
+
+"It's one of these 'Night Letters,'" Parker explained.
+
+"I knowed it was bad news," Skinny exclaimed, "--poor old Heck!"
+
+"Better say, 'Poor we all!'" Bert declared. "Farewell peace and joy on
+the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"The Lord have mercy on Old Heck!" Charley cried with dramatic fervor.
+
+"Holy smoke," Parker murmured desperately, "_two of them on the
+twenty-first--and that's to-morrow!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+A BLUFF CALLED
+
+The Quarter Circle KT was a womanless ranch. Came now, like a bolt from
+the clear sky or the sudden clang of a fire-alarm bell, the threat of
+violation of this Eveless Eden by the intrusion of a pair of strange and
+unknown females. The arrival of the telegram telling of the coming of
+Carolyn June Dixon, Old Heck's niece, and Ophelia Cobb, her chaperon,
+filled with varying emotions the hearts of Old Heck, Parker and the
+cowboys.
+
+To Old Heck their presence meant nothing less than calamity. Long years
+of he-man association had made him dread the petty restraints he
+imagined would be imposed by intimate contact with womankind. Good lord,
+a man wouldn't be able even to cuss freely, and without embarrassment,
+with a couple of women in the house and prowling around the ranch!
+
+Skinny, Bert, Chuck, Pedro, Charley, the Ramblin' Kid, even the Chink
+cook and Parker, quivered with excitement and curiosity behind thinly
+veiled pretense of fear and horror. Secretly they rejoiced. It was
+marvelous news borne by the telegram Skinny brought. Here would be
+diversion ample, unusual, wholly worth while and filled with
+possibilities of romance as luring as the first glimpse of a strange new
+land shadowed with mystery and promise of thrilling adventure.
+
+Sing Pete paddled back to the unfinished business of the kitchen,
+chattering excitedly. The cowboys stood mutely and stared at Old Heck
+and the fatal slip of yellow paper.
+
+"What'll I do?" Old Heck asked the group despairingly. "They'll ruin
+everything."
+
+"Can't you head 'em off, somehow?" Parker suggested.
+
+"Can't be done. They're already on their way and probably somewhere this
+side of Kansas City by now."
+
+"Find out which train they're on and let the Ramblin' Kid and me cut
+across to the Purgatory River bridge and wreck it," Skinny Rawlins,
+always tragic, darkly advised.
+
+"I ain't particular about killin' females," the Ramblin' Kid objected,
+"besides, we ain't got no dynamite."
+
+"Send them a telegram and say Old Heck's dead and not to come," Bert
+Lilly volunteered.
+
+"Aw, you blamed idiot, they'd come anyhow then, just to attend the
+funeral--"
+
+"I got an idea," Chuck Slithers exclaimed; it's a telegram too. Send
+them one C.O.D. in care of the train that will get to Eagle Butte the
+twenty-first and tell them we've all got the smallpox and we're sorry
+but everybody's dangerously sick and to please answer!"
+
+"That might work," Parker said; "they'd be mighty near sure not to want
+to catch it."
+
+"We'll try it," Old Heck agreed. "Chuck wants to ride over to Eagle
+Butte anyway and he can have the depot agent send it and wait for a
+reply."
+
+"Go get your horse ready, Chuck," Parker said, "we'll write it while
+you're saddlin' up!"
+
+Chuck hurried to the corral while Old Heck went into the house for
+pencil and writing-paper. Parker and the cowboys moved in a group to the
+shade of the porch in front of the house.
+
+"What'll we tell them?" Old Heck asked, reappearing with writing
+materials. "Here, Parker, you write it."
+
+"Dear niece Carolyn June Dixon and Chaperon: Sorry, but there's an
+epidemic of smallpox at the Quarter Circle KT and you can't come. Chuck
+is dying with it. Old Heck's plumb prostrated, Bert is already broke
+out, Pedro is starting to and Skinny Rawlins and the Ramblin' Kid are
+just barely able to be up. I love you too much to want you to catch it.
+Please go back to Hartville and give my regards to your pa and don't
+expose yourself. Answer by return telegram so I'll know your intentions.
+Affectionately and absolutely your Uncle Josiah Heck," Parker read after
+writing a few moments. "How's that?"
+
+"Sounds all right."
+
+"Got it ready?" Chuck called from the fence, while Silver Tip, the
+trim-built half-blood Hambletonian colt he was riding, reared and
+pranced, eager for the road and a run.
+
+"For lord's sake hurry up, Chuck," Old Heck yelled as the Ramblin' Kid
+handed the paper to Chuck and the cowboy whirled his horse into a gallop
+toward Eagle Butte. "Have the agent send it in care of whatever train
+they might be on and get an answer, then come back as quick as possible
+--waiting is agony!"
+
+It was a long afternoon for Old Heck and the cowboys of the Quarter
+Circle KT. A band of colts were in the circular corral to be gentled to
+rope, saddle and hackamore. Old Heck sat on the top pole of the corral
+and moodily watched the struggle of the men and horses in the dry, dusty
+enclosure as one by one each young broncho was roped, saddled and
+ridden. Frequently he turned longing eyes toward Eagle Butte, anxious
+for sight of the cloud of dust from which Chuck would emerge bringing,
+he hoped, word that Carolyn June and Ophelia Cobb had heeded the
+misleading message.
+
+The sun crept across the western sky and dropped lower and lower until
+it hung at last, a blazing disk of fire, close above the highest peaks
+of the Costejo mountain range. The poplars in front of the house flung
+slim black shadows across the low adobe buildings and splashed the tip
+of their shade in the dust-cloud that filled with haze the corral a
+hundred yards away. Sing Pete stepped from the door and beat a tattoo on
+the iron triangle suspended by a piece of wire from the lowest branch of
+a mesquit tree at the corner of the house, announcing by the metallic
+clamor that the work of the day was finished and supper was ready and
+waiting. Parker swung back the heavy gate at the corral entrance and the
+dozen colts, sweat streaks on heads and backs and bellies where
+hackamore, saddle and cinches told of the lessons of the afternoon,
+pushing and jamming and with a clatter of hoofs, whirled out to freedom,
+around the stable and down a lane into an open meadow.
+
+Kicking off their chaps the cowboys tossed them on the riding gear,
+piled already against the fence of the corral, and straggled stiffly
+toward the house. On the wire enclosing the back yard Sing Pete had hung
+a couple of heavy towels, coarse and long. Some basins and several
+chunks of yellow laundry soap were on a bench beside an irrigation ditch
+that ran along the fence just inside the gate. Old Heck, Parker and the
+cowboys stopped at the ditch, pitched their hats on the grass and
+dipping water from the ditch scoured the dust and sweat from their faces
+and hands.
+
+All were silent as if each was troubled with thoughts too solemn to be
+spoken aloud.
+
+At last, Skinny, handing a towel to Bert after drying his own
+sun-tanned face and hands, remarked inanely:
+
+"Chuck ain't come, has he?"
+
+"Slupper!" Sing Pete called.
+
+They filed into the kitchen and each took his regular place at the long,
+oilcloth covered table. The food, wholesome, plain and abundant, was
+already served.
+
+Silently each heaped his plate with the viands before him while Sing
+Pete circled the table pouring coffee into the white porcelain cups. The
+Quarter Circle KT was famous for the excellence of its grub and the
+Chink was an expert cook.
+
+"Lordy, oh, lordy," Old Heck groaned, "it don't seem possible them women
+are coming!"
+
+"Maybe they won't," Parker sympathized. "When they get that telegram
+they ought to turn around and go back--"
+
+"Chuck's coming!" Bert Lilly exclaimed at that moment and the sound of a
+horse stopping suddenly at the front of the house reached the ears of
+the group at the table.
+
+"Go ask him if he got an answer, somebody, quick!" Old Heck cried.
+
+As Charley Saunders sprang to his feet Chuck yelled, "They got it and
+sent an answer! I got one--" and rushed excitedly through the house and
+into the kitchen waving an envelope, twin to the one Skinny had brought
+earlier in the day. "They're on Train Number Seventeen, the agent
+said--"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck gasped, "what does it say? Give it here!" reaching
+for the message the cowboy held in his hand.
+
+"Good lord, it didn't work!" he groaned as he read the telegram and
+handed it across the table to Parker.
+
+"Read it out loud," several spoke at once.
+
+"'We've both had it,'" Parker read, "'and are not afraid. Anyhow we
+think you are a darned old lovable liar. Will arrive according to
+schedule. If you are not a liar we'll nurse you back to health and
+happiness. If you are, watch out! Your affectionate but suspicious
+little niece Carolyn June Dixon. Postscript: Are there any nice wild,
+untamed, young cowboys out there?--Carolyn J.'"
+
+"Hell-fire!" Skinny said, "what'll we do?"
+
+No answer. Chuck went moodily out to attend to his horse, and the meal
+was finished in silence. Even Sing Pete seemed deeply depressed. After
+supper Old Heck straightened up and in a do-or-die tone said:
+
+"We'll all go out where it's cool and hold a caucus and figure what
+ought to be done."
+
+"There ain't nothing we can do but surrender, as far as I can see,"
+Parker observed gloomily as they gathered on the porch in front of the
+house. "They seem plumb determined to arrive--"
+
+"I've already give up hope," Old Heck answered, "but what will we do
+with them when they get here? We can't just brand 'em and turn them
+loose on the range."
+
+"I make a motion we elect Skinny to ride herd on 'em!" Bert Lilly
+suggested.
+
+"Damned if I do!" Skinny exclaimed uneasily.
+
+"It's a good idea," Parker said. "From all accounts the young one
+expects to be made love to and if she ain't she'll probably be weeping
+around all the time--"
+
+"Well, I can't stand sobbin'!" Old Heck declared. "Any female is hard
+enough to endure and one that gets to mourning is plumb distasteful!
+
+"That's probably the best thing to do," he continued, "just appoint
+Skinny to be official love-maker to Carolyn June while she's at the
+Quarter Circle KT. It will probably save confusion--"
+
+"I brought the telegram telling about them coming and I've done my
+share," Skinny protested; "somebody else can be delegated to do the
+love-making!"
+
+"That's just the reason it ought to be your job," Old Heck argued; "you
+went and got the telegram in the first place and are sort of responsible
+for them being here."
+
+"Aw, let th' Ramblin' Kid do it," Skinny pleaded, "he's an easy talker
+and everything--"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid straightened up and started for the gate.
+
+"Where you going?"
+
+"To catch Capt'n Jack," he drawled; "after that for a little ride down
+to th' Pecos or over in Chihuahua somewhere a couple hundred miles. I
+decline with enthusiasm to fall in love on th' spur of th' moment for
+any damned outfit!"
+
+"You come on back," Parker called, "Skinny'll have to do it. He can have
+all his time for it and just pretend he's in love and sort of entertain
+her. He don't need to go and do it in earnest. Come on back, you darned
+chump, I need you on the beef hunt!"
+
+"What'll I have to do?" Skinny asked cautiously.
+
+"Just set on the front porch with her at night and make your eyes roll
+up like a calf's that's being branded and kind of sigh heart-broken once
+in a while," Bert volunteered. "It'll be easy when you get used to it--"
+
+"If you know so much about it why don't you enlist yourself?" Skinny
+asked irritably. "Some of you fellows go on and volunteer," he pleaded
+dolefully.
+
+"I would in a minute," Chuck chipped in, "if I was good-looking like
+Skinny and had a white shirt--"
+
+"What's a white shirt got to do with it?"
+
+"Listen to the innocent child," Chuck laughed, "as if any darned fool
+didn't know that the first thing a professional love-maker has to have
+is a white shirt!"
+
+"That settles it," Skinny declared with emphasis, "I won't wear a white
+shirt to make love to no blamed woman--"
+
+"Chuck's locoed," the Ramblin' Kid interposed; "you don't need to have
+no white shirt--of course it would be better but it ain't downright
+necessary--women don't fall in love with shirts, it's what's inside of
+them."
+
+"Where did you find out so much about women?" Bert queried.
+
+"I didn't find out--I'm just guessin'--"
+
+"There ain't no use arguing," Old Heck broke in. "Skinny will have to be
+expert love-maker for that Carolyn June niece of mine--I'll allow him
+ten dollars a month more wages while he's doing it. I ain't going to
+have her writing letters to her pa and telling him she didn't have no
+conveniences or nothing. Anyhow, she's young and I reckon it's sort of
+necessary."
+
+"What about th' other one--Ophelia Cobb or whoever she is?" Bert Lilly
+asked.
+
+"She's past the age for it, probably," Parker said uneasily.
+
+"They don't pass it," the Ramblin' Kid interrupted laconically; "when
+females get too old to want to be made love to they die--"
+
+"I'd like to know where in hell a juvenile like you got your education
+about women!" Bert insisted to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"I ain't got none--I'm just guessing I told you," the other replied,
+"but it's the truth, anyhow."
+
+"Well, if I've got to make love to the young one Old Heck or Parker or
+somebody's got to do it for the other one," Skinny declared positively.
+
+"Ophelia don't need it," Old Heck said hastily, "she's a widow and has
+done been--"
+
+"Widows are th' worst," the Ramblin' Kid drawled; "they've had
+experience an' don't like to give it up."
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's right," Chuck broke in. "I read a book once that
+said that's the way they are. It's up to Old Heck or Parker to represent
+Cupid to the widow--"
+
+"Who the hell's Cupid?" Skinny asked curiously.
+
+"He's a dangerous little outlaw that ain't got no reg'lar range," the
+Ramblin' Kid answered for Chuck.
+
+"I'll not do it--" Old Heck and Parker spoke at once.
+
+"Then I won't either," Skinny declared flatly, "I'll quit the dog-goned
+Quarter Circle KT first!"
+
+"Let Sing Pete make love to the widow," Bert suggested.
+
+"No, no! Me busy cookee," Sing Pete, who had been listening from the
+open doorway, jabbered and darted, frightened, back into the house.
+
+"Anyhow I'd kill him if he did," the Ramblin' Kid said softly; "no
+darned Chink can make love to a white woman, old, young or indifferent,
+in my presence an' live!"
+
+"Well, Old Heck'll have to do it, then," Skinny said; "hanged if I'm
+going to be the only he-love-maker on this ranch!"
+
+"Let Parker and Old Heck divide up on Ophelia," Chuck advised, "one of
+them can love her one day and the other the next--"
+
+"That's reasonable," Bert declared, "she'd probably enjoy a change
+herself."
+
+"I tell you I ain't got time," Parker protested.
+
+"Neither have I," Old Heck added.
+
+"All right then, I ain't either!" Skinny declared. "If you two ain't
+willing to take turn about with the widow and love her off and on
+between you I'll be everlastingly hell-tooted if I'm going to stand for
+a whole one by myself all of the time! I'll go on strike first and start
+right now!"
+
+"We'll stay with you, Skinny," the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed with a laugh,
+"th' whole bunch will quit till Parker an' Old Heck grants our demands."
+
+"We'll all quit!" the cowboys chorused.
+
+"Oh, well, Parker," Old Heck grumbled, "I reckon we'll have to do it!"
+
+"It won't be hard work," the Ramblin' Kid said consolingly, "all you got
+to do is set still an' leave it to Ophelia. Widows are expert
+love-makers themselves an' know how to keep things goin'!"
+
+It was settled. Skinny Rawlins, at an increase of ten dollars a month on
+his wage, protestingly, was elected official love-maker to Carolyn June
+Dixon, Old Heck's niece, speeding unsuspectingly toward the Quarter
+Circle KT, and Old Heck and Parker between them were to divide the
+affections of Ophelia Cobb, widow and chaperon.
+
+In the mind of every cowboy on the ranch there was one thought
+unexpressed but very insistent that night, "Wonder what She looks like?"
+thinking, of course, of Carolyn June.
+
+Old Heck and Parker also were disturbed by a common worry. As each sank
+into fitful sleep, thinking of Ophelia Cobb, the widow, and his own
+predestinated affinity he murmured:
+
+"What if she insists on getting married?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+WHICH ONE'S WHICH
+
+Eagle Butte sprawled hot and thirsty under the melting sunshine of
+mid-forenoon. It was not a prepossessing town. All told, no more than
+two hundred buildings were within its corporate limits. A giant mound,
+capped by a crown of crumbling, weather-tinted rock, rose abruptly at
+the northern edge of the village and gave the place its name. Cimarron
+River, sluggish and yellow, bounded the town on the south. The dominant
+note of Eagle Butte was a pathetic mixture of regret for glories of
+other days and clumsy ambition to assume the ways of a city. Striving
+hard to be modern it succeeded only in being grotesque.
+
+The western plains are sprinkled with towns like that. Towns that once,
+in the time of the long-horn steer and the forty-four and the nerve to
+handle both, were frankly unconventional. Touched later by the black
+magic of development, bringing brick buildings, prohibition, picture
+shows, real-estate boosters, speculation and attendant evils or benefits
+as one chooses to classify them, they became neither elemental nor
+ethical--mere gawky mimics of both.
+
+When western Texas was cow-country and nothing else Eagle Butte at
+least was picturesque. Flickering lights, gay laughter--sometimes curses
+and the sounds of revolver shots, of battles fought close and quick and
+to a finish--wheezy music, click of ivory chips, the clink of glasses,
+from old Bonanza's and similar rendezvous of hilarity lured to the
+dance, faro, roulette, the poker table or the hardwood polished bar.
+
+The Mecca it was in those days for cowboys weary with months on the
+wide-flung range.
+
+To-day Eagle Butte is modest, mild and super-subdued.
+
+A garage, cement built, squatty and low and painfully new, its
+wide-mouthed entrance guarded by a gasoline pump freshly painted and
+exceedingly red, stands at the eastern end of the single, broad,
+un-paved business street. All of the stores face one way--north--and
+look sleepily across at the railroad track, the low-eaved, yellow, Santa
+Fe station and the sunburnt sides of the butte beyond. Opposite the
+station the old Occidental Hotel with its high porch, wide steps, narrow
+windows, dingy weather-board sides and blackened roof, still stands to
+remind old-timers of the days of long ago.
+
+A city marshal, Tom Poole, a long, slim, Sandy-mustached Missourian,
+completes the picture of Eagle Butte. Regularly he meets the arriving
+trains and by the glistening three-inch nickel star pinned to his left
+suspender announces to the traveling world that here, on the one time
+woolly Kiowa, law and order at last prevail. Odd times the marshal farms
+a ten-acre truck patch close to the river at the southern edge of the
+town. Pending the arrival of trains he divides his time between the
+front steps of the old hotel and the Elite Amusement Parlor, Eagle
+Butte's single den of iniquity where pocket pool, billiards,
+solo--devilish dissipations these!--along with root beer, ginger ale,
+nut sundaes, soda-pop, milk shakes and similar enticements are served to
+those, of reckless and untamed temperaments.
+
+From the open door of the pool hall the marshal saw a thin, black streak
+of smoke curling far out on the horizon--a dozen miles--northeast of
+Eagle Butte.
+
+"Seventeen's comin'," he remarked to the trio of idlers leaning against
+the side of the building; "guess I'd better go over an' see who's on
+her," moving as he spoke out into the sizzling glare of the almost
+deserted street. Glancing toward the east his eyes fastened on a cloud
+of dust whirling rapidly along the road that came from the direction of
+the lower Cimarron.
+
+"Gosh, lookey yonder," he muttered, "that must be Old Heck drivin' his
+new automobile--th' darn fool is goin' to bust something some day,
+runnin' that car the way he does!"
+
+Walking quickly, to escape the heat, he crossed the street to the
+station.
+
+Two minutes later the cloud of dust trailed a rakish, trim-lined,
+high-powered, purring Clagstone "Six" to a stop in front of the
+Occidental Hotel and Old Heck and Skinny Rawlins climbed glumly and
+stiffly from the front seat, after the thirty-minute, twenty-mile run
+from the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Old Heck had his peculiarities. One of them was insistence for the
+best--absolutely or nothing. The first pure-bred, hot-blood stallions
+turned on the Kiowa range carried the Quarter Circle KT brand on their
+left shoulders. He wanted quality in his stock and spent thousands of
+dollars importing bulls and stallions to get it. When the automobile
+came it was the same. No jit for the erratic owner of the last big
+genuine cow-ranch on the Cimarron. Consequently the beautiful car--a car
+fit for Fifth Avenue--standing now in front of the old hotel in Eagle
+Butte.
+
+The smoke on the northeastern sky-line was yet some miles away.
+
+The lanky marshal had reached the station.
+
+"It's a good thing there's prohibition in this town," Skinny muttered as
+he stepped from the car and started brushing the dust from his coat;
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause I'd go get drunk if there wasn't--. Wonder if a feller could get
+any boot-leg liquor?"
+
+"Better leave it alone," Old Heck warned, "that kind's worse than none.
+It don't make you drunk--just gives you the hysterical hydrophobia!'
+
+"Well, I'd drink anything in an emergency like this if I had it,"
+Skinny declared doggedly.
+
+"Train's comin'," Old Heck said shortly; "reckon we'd better go over to
+the depot--"
+
+"Let's wait here till they get off first," Skinny said. "We can see them
+from where we are and kind of size 'em up and it won't be so sudden."
+
+"Maybe that would be better," Old Heck answered.
+
+A moment later Number Seventeen, west-bound Santa Fe passenger train,
+stopped at the yellow station. The rear cars were obscured from the view
+of Skinny and Old Heck by freight sheds along the track. With the
+exception of the engine, baggage, mail and express cars, which were
+hidden by the depot, the rest of the train was in plain sight.
+
+A couple of men got off the day coach. These were followed by a gawky,
+weirdly dressed girl of uncertain age carrying an old-fashioned
+telescope traveling bag. At sight of the girl Skinny caught his breath
+with a gasp. Immediately following her was the tallest, homeliest woman
+he had ever seen. Thin to the point of emaciation, a wide striped,
+ill-fitting dress of some cheap material accentuated the angular lines
+of her body. A tiny narrow-brimmed hat, bright green, with a white
+feather, dingy and soiled, sticking straight up at the back made her
+more than ever a caricature. The woman also carried a bag. The two
+stepped up to the marshal, standing at the cornet: of the station,
+apparently asking him a question. He answered, pointing as he did to
+Old Heck and Skinny leaning silently against the side of their car. The
+woman and girl started toward them.
+
+Fascinated, the cow-men watched them approach.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck hoarsely whispered, "that's them!"
+
+"Let's go!" Skinny exclaimed, sweat starting in unheeded beads on his
+forehead. "Good lord, let's get in the car and go while we got a
+chance!"
+
+Old Heck made a move as if to comply, then stopped. "Can't now," he said
+gloomily, "it's too late!"
+
+As Old Heck turned the woman shrieked in a rasping voice:
+
+"Hey--hey you! Wait a minute!"
+
+The cow-men looked around and stared dumbly, dazedly, at her.
+
+"Can I get you to take me an' my daughter out to that construction camp
+where they're buildin' a ditch or something?" she asked; "that policeman
+said maybe we could get you to--" she continued. "I got a job cookin'
+out there an' Lize here is goin' to wait on table."
+
+Old Heck, still looking up in her eyes, with horror written on every
+line of his face, his lips twitching till he could scarcely speak,
+finally managed to say:
+
+"Ain't--ain't you Ophelia?"
+
+"Ophelia? Ophelia who?" she asked, then before he could speak she
+answered his question: "Ophelia--huh! No, I ain't Ophelia! I'm Missus
+Jasamine Swope an' a married woman an' you'd better not try to get fresh
+or--"
+
+Simultaneous with Old Heck's question, Skinny, his eyes riveted on the
+dowdy girl, asked in a voice barely audible:
+
+"Are you--are you Carolyn June?"
+
+"No, I ain't Carolyn June," she snorted. "Come on, ma; let's go! Them
+two's crazy or white slavers or somethin'!"
+
+Expressing their scorn and disdain by the angry flirt of their skirts,
+the woman and girl whirled and walked briskly away toward the garage at
+the end of the street.
+
+"Praise th' heavens," Old Heck breathed fervently as he gazed
+spell-bound after the retreating pair, "it wasn't them!"
+
+"Carolyn June and the widow probably went back after all," Skinny said
+without, looking around and with the barest trace of disappointment, now
+that the danger seemed past, in his voice. "Maybe they got to thinking
+about that telegram and decided not to come at last."
+
+"More than likely that was it," Old Heck answered.
+
+Steps sounded behind them. Skinny and Old Heck turned and again they
+almost fainted at what they saw. The marshal, a leather traveling bag
+in each hand, accompanied by two smartly dressed women, approached.
+
+"These ladies are huntin' for you," he said to Old Heck, dropping the
+bags and mopping his face with the sleeve of his shirt. "Guess they're
+some kind of kin folks," he added.
+
+Concealed by the freight sheds Carolyn June Dixon and Ophelia Cobb had
+stepped from the Pullman at the rear of the train, unseen by Old Heck
+and Skinny. Nor had either noticed, being engrossed with the couple that
+had left than a moment before, the trio coming across from the station.
+
+As the cook and her daughter by their very homeliness had appalled and
+overwhelmed them, these two, Ophelia and Carolyn June, by their exactly
+opposite appearance stunned Old Heck and Skinny and rendered them
+speechless with embarrassment. Both were silently thankful they had
+shaved that morning and Skinny wondered if his face, like Old Heck's,
+was streaked with sweat and dust.
+
+For a moment the group studied one another.
+
+Carolyn June held the eyes of Skinny in mute and helpless admiration.
+Despite the heat of the blazing sun she looked fresh and dean and
+pleasant--wholly unsoiled by the marks of travel. A snow-white Panama
+hat, the brim sensibly wide, drooped over cheeks that were touched with
+a splash of tan that suggested much time in the open. An abundance of
+hair, wonderfully soft and brown, showing the slightest glint of coppery
+red running it in vagrant strands, fluffed from under the hat. The
+skirt of her traveling suit, some light substantial material, reached
+the span of a hand above the ankle. White shoes, silk stockings that
+matched and through which glowed the faint pink of firm, healthy, young
+flesh, lent charm to the costume she wore. Her lips were red and moist
+and parted over teeth that were strong and white. A saucy upward tilt to
+the nose, hinting that Carolyn June was a flirt; brown eyes that were
+level almost with Skinny's and that held in them a laugh and yet deep
+below the mirth something thoughtful, honest and unafraid, finished the
+wreck of the cowboy's susceptible heart. Trim and smooth was Carolyn
+June, suggesting to Skinny Rawlins a clean-bred filly of saddle strain
+that has developed true to form.
+
+Old Heck gazed in equal awe at the more mature Ophelia.
+
+Somewhere near forty she may have been, cozily plump and solid. She had
+gray-blue eyes that were steady and frank yet clearly accustomed to
+being obeyed. Her hair was a trifle darker in shade than the silky brown
+on the head of Carolyn June. She was dressed with immaculate neatness
+and taste and carried that well-preserved assurance no woman in the
+world save the American of mature development acquires.
+
+There was energy in every line of her body and Ophelia gave Old Heck,
+the embarrassed owner of the Quarter Circle KT, more thrills in that one
+moment of silent scrutiny than he ever before had felt in the presence
+of any woman.
+
+As they looked, Skinny and Old Heck Instinctively, a bit awkwardly
+perhaps, removed the Stetson they wore on their heads.
+
+"Howdy-do!" Old Heck finally managed to say.
+
+Skinny gulped like an echo, another "Howdy-do!" in the direction of
+Carolyn June.
+
+"I reckon you are Carolyn June and Missus Ophelia Cobb," Old Heck
+stammered "Which one of you is which?" unconsciously paying tribute to
+the well preserved youthfulness of the widow.
+
+"Oh, Ophelia, beware!" Carolyn June laughed, not in the least offended;
+"the gay old rascal is at it already!"
+
+"He didn't mean nothing" Skinny interposed, sensing that Old Heck some
+way had made a blunder. "I guess you must be Carolyn June?" looking
+questioningly at the girl.
+
+"Excuse me," Old Heck said, "I'm your uncle, I suppose, and this is
+Skinny Rawlins--"
+
+"Howdy-do; I'm glad to meet you," Skinny muttered, reaching for the hand
+Carolyn June frankly extended.
+
+"I'm glad, too," she replied candidly; "and this is Mrs. Ophelia
+Cobb--just Ophelia--Uncle Josiah," Carolyn added, turning to Old Heck
+who clumsily shook hands with the widow while his weather-tanned face
+flushed a burning, uncomfortably red.
+
+"We was expecting you," he said, retaining life hold on her hand.
+
+"That was very kind," Ophelia murmured. "I am sure we are delighted to
+be here."
+
+"Now I guess we are all acquainted," Carolyn June said with a little
+laugh. "It's easy for folks to get acquainted, isn't it?" turning
+suddenly to Skinny.
+
+"Seems like it after they once get started," Skinny answered.
+
+"We'd better be heading for home I reckon," Old Heck said, releasing at
+last the widow's hand and lifting the bags in the car. "Sing Pete will
+have dinner ready by the time we get there."
+
+"We have some trunks," Carolyn June said, "can we take them with us?"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck replied, "get in, and we'll drive over to the depot and
+get them."
+
+With Carolyn June and Ophelia in the rear seat and Skinny and himself in
+the front Old Heck drove the car across to the station and the trunks
+were fastened with ropes on the hood of the engine and running-boards of
+the car.
+
+As they started away Carolyn June asked:
+
+"Which way now, Uncle Josiah?"
+
+"Out to the ranch."
+
+"Hadn't we better stop at the drug store," she asked soberly, "and get
+some medicine?"
+
+"Medicine? Who for?" Old Heck inquired innocently.
+
+"Why, the patients, of course," Carolyn June answered with a
+mischievous chuckle.
+
+"What patients?"
+
+"Out at the Quarter Circle KT where that epidemic of smallpox is
+raging!" she answered sweetly.
+
+"That's all a mistake," Old Heck said hastily; "we thought is was
+smallpox but it wasn't--"
+
+"No, everybody's got over it," Skinny added nervously; "they're all
+cured!"
+
+"Yes, they was just broke out with the heat and didn't have the smallpox
+at all--" Old Heck explained.
+
+"Liars, both of them," Carolyn June said laughingly to Ophelia; "they
+just didn't want us to come!"
+
+"Very likely," Ophelia answered.
+
+"No, honest, we thought we had it," Old Heck stammered.
+
+"We were plumb uneasy for fear you wouldn't arrive," Skinny declared.
+"After we found out it wasn't smallpox we were going to send a special
+delivery message and tell you it was all a misunderstanding and to come
+anyhow!"
+
+"Shall we forgive them?" Carolyn June asked the widow.
+
+"Perhaps, this time--their first offense!"
+
+"I'll tell you," Carolyn June said, "well suspend sentence pending good
+behavior!"
+
+Skinny leaned close to Old Heck.
+
+"Stop a minute at the Golden Rule," he whispered; "I want to do some
+personal trading."
+
+"If it ain't important," Old Heck answered, "we oughtn't to take the
+time. What do you want to buy?"
+
+"I want to get me a white shirt--"
+
+"Gosh," Old Heck exclaimed, "that bad already! What'll he be in week?"
+
+"Did you speak, Uncle Josiah?" Carolyn asked.
+
+"Huh--no, I--Skinny just thought I was going to hit a rock!" he
+answered, and giving the engine more gas, he headed the car, at a
+thirty-mile clip, toward the east and the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+The party rode in silence. The speed of the car and the fan of the warm
+wind against their faces made conversation difficult. A mile from Eagle
+Butte they crossed the long, low, iron-railed bridge over the Cimarron
+River and climbed out on to the bench away from the bottom lands. From
+that point on to the Quarter Circle KT the road followed the brow of the
+bench on the south side of the river. It was smooth and good.
+
+Carolyn June thrilled at the bigness of it all as they swept quickly
+past the irrigated district close to the town and sped out on the open
+unfenced range. For miles the country was level with here and there
+arroyos cross-sectioning into the river valley. Long stretches with the
+barest undulations made driving a joy and the winding road was a natural
+speedway. Scattered over the plain were dusters of mesquit and in the
+low sags where moisture was near the surface patches of thorns. Carolyn
+June loved the width and breadth of the great range, strange and new to
+her. Here was freedom sweeping as the winds of heaven. Dimly, on the
+southern horizon she could see the blue outline of Sentinel Mountain
+standing alone out on the plain. To the left green pasture-lands lay
+along the river. A narrow strip of cottonwood trees marked the curving
+path of the Cimarron. Beds of white quicksand, treacherous and fatal and
+dreaded by every rider of the open country could be seen, occasionally,
+through openings in the trees showing the bed of the river itself. In
+the distance behind them was Eagle Butte, towering above the town they
+had left a few brief moments before, and beyond that the Costejo
+Mountains, rugged and massive and covered in part on their lower slopes
+with blue-green thickets of pine. Across the river was a choppy sea of
+sand-dunes stretching away to the north as far as sight could reach.
+Here and there a high-flung mound, smooth and oval or capped with ledges
+of black, glistening rode broke the monotony of the view.
+
+Engrossed in the study of the almost primitive picture Carolyn June
+forgot the flight of time and the speed at which they were traveling.
+
+"Yonder's the ranch!" Skinny announced suddenly, turning half around in
+his seat and pointing ahead and to the left toward the river.
+
+The valley widened till it was a mile or more across. The Cimarron swung
+sharply to the north and hugged the foot of the bench as if unwilling
+to spoil the meadowlands past which it flowed. In a great
+half-crescent--"Quarter Circle," Old Heck called it--the green
+basin-like area lay spread out before them. It was a half dozen miles in
+length, reaching from the canyon gate at the upper end of the valley
+where the river turned abruptly northward, to the narrow gorge at the
+south through which it disappeared.
+
+A blue crane lazily flapped across the valley.
+
+"Seven thousand acres in the bottoms," Skinny volunteered.
+
+"Beautiful!" Carolyn breathed.
+
+"Splendid!" Ophelia exclaimed.
+
+Half-way down the valley, a quarter of a mile from the bench, the
+buildings of the Quarter Circle KT clustered together in a group--the
+low adobe house, bunk shack, stables, graineries. Out in the fields were
+hay yards with half-built stacks of alfalfa--over the tops of the stacks
+white tarpaulins. In a pasture beyond the house were horses and cattle,
+perhaps a hundred head in all. Climbing the hills north of the river
+were a number of moving figures, dimly seen through the haze.
+
+"Are those cattle," Carolyn June asked, "those things across the river?"
+
+"Where?" Skinny inquired.
+
+"Over there, on the hills," pointing toward the objects.
+
+Old Heck glancing in the direction she indicated answered for Skinny:
+
+"That's Parker and the boys, going over to the North Springs--they're
+checking up on some yearlings we just turned across from this side of
+the range." Then, speaking to Skinny: "They've already had their dinner
+and won't be in till supper-time--"
+
+"Are they cowboys?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"I reckon," Old Heck responded.
+
+"Is Skinny one?" she inquired naively.
+
+"Sort of, I suppose," Old Heck chuckled while Skinny felt his face
+coloring up with embarrassment, "but not a wild one."
+
+"Oh, who is that?" Carolyn June cried suddenly as a lone rider whirled
+out of the corral, around the stables, and his horse sprang into a
+gallop straight down the valley toward the harrows at its lower end.
+
+"That," Skinny said after a quick glance, "oh, that's th' Ramblin'
+Kid--Where in thunder do you reckon the darned fool's going now?" he
+added to Old Heck.
+
+"Can't tell nothing about where he's going," Old Heck said. "He's liable
+to be heading for anywhere. What's he riding?" he asked without looking
+up.
+
+"Captain Jack," Skinny replied. "Wonder if he ain't going over to Battle
+Ridge to find out if it's so about them sheep coming in over there?"
+
+"Maybe," Old Heck grunted, "either that or else he's took a notion to
+hunt that Gold Dust maverick again"--referring to a strange, wonderfully
+beautiful, outlaw filly that had appeared on the Kiowa range a year
+before and tormented the riders by her almost fiendish cunning in
+dodging corral or rope--"if he's riding Captain Jack that's probably
+what he's after."
+
+"Who is he, what's his real name?" Carolyn June asked with interest.
+
+"Just th' Ramblin' Kid, as far as I know," Old Heck answered.
+
+"Does he live at the Quarter Circle KT?" Carolyn June continued
+curiously as she studied the slender form rising and falling with the
+graceful rhythm of his horse's motion--as if man and animal were a
+single living, pulsing creature.
+
+"Off and on," Old Heck replied, "when he wants to he does and when he
+don't he don't. He's a witch with horses and knows he's always got a job
+if he wants it, and I reckon that makes him kind of undependable about
+staying in any one place long at a time. That's why they call him th'
+Ramblin' Kid--he's liable to ramble any minute."
+
+The car curled down the narrow dugway off of the bench and a moment
+later stopped at the gate in front of the ranch house of the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+"We're here," Skinny said, as Sing Pete, the Chinese cook, appeared at
+the open door.
+
+"They've come, Sing Pete," Old Heck called, climbing out of the car;
+"this is them! Is dinner ready?"
+
+"All leady--waitee!" the Oriental answered, shuffling out to the car to
+help with the luggage and twisting and squirming as he kept bowing in
+greeting.
+
+"This is great!" Carolyn June said, as she stepped on the long cool
+porch in front of the house and paused a moment before entering the open
+door, "--it's cool and pleasant, I'm going to like it," she added, as
+she went into the big low-ceilinged room.
+
+The floor was bare of carpet but spotlessly clean; shades, but no
+curtains, were over the windows; in the center stood a large flat-topped
+reading table; at one end of the table was a Morris chair upholstered in
+brown Spanish leather; a wolf-skin rug was thrown on the floor before an
+old-fashioned Mexican fire-place built into one corner of the room; in
+another corner was a smaller table on which was a graphophone; a rocker
+and several chairs were set about the room and against the north wall;
+between two doors, evidently opening into twin bedrooms, was an upright
+grand piano--.
+
+"Oh, a piano!" Carolyn June exclaimed delightedly noticing the
+instrument. "Who plays?"
+
+"Nobody," Old Heck answered foolishly, "I--I--well, what's the use of
+lying?--I bought it one day, before prohibition come, when I was drunk
+and just had it brought out because I didn't know what else to do with
+it--"
+
+"You funny old uncle!" Carolyn June laughed, "I love you
+already.--Ophelia plays," she added.
+
+"Not so well or so much as Carolyn June," Ophelia said.
+
+"Maybe we'll have some music then some day; that ain't canned," Skinny
+suggested eagerly.
+
+"You women can use them rooms," Old Heck said, referring to the doors on
+each side of the piano. "Parker and me did have them but we've arranged
+to sleep in the bunk-house while you are here."
+
+"Carolyn June and I need but one," Ophelia said, "it isn't fair to run
+you out--"
+
+"You ain't running us," Old Heck answered, "we've talked it over and
+would rather."
+
+After dinner Ophelia and Carolyn June spent their time in settling
+themselves in their rooms. A small bath closet connected the two--crude
+a bit and somewhat unfinished; but a hot tub, the water supplied from a
+tank at the kitchen range, was enjoyed by both.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny helped with the trunks and then withdrew to the
+bunk-house.
+
+Old Heck shaved and Skinny put on a clean shirt.
+
+Skinny was not sure but this official love-making job was going to be
+interesting work and Old Heck himself was uncertain whether to cuss or
+rejoice--sometimes he was almost sorry to-morrow would be Parker's day
+to love and entertain Ophelia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE UNUSED PLATE
+
+At sundown, when Parker and the cowboys rode in from the northern hills,
+the Quarter Circle KT lay under a mantle of sullen, torturing heat. Not
+a breath of air fanned the poplars, straight and motionless, in front of
+the house. The sun buried itself in a solid wall of black that rose
+above the Costejo peaks, hidden now in the shadow of the coming storm.
+The horses were dripping with sweat--their coats as glossy and wet as if
+they had swum the river. At the corral the animals wearily tossed their
+heads, low hung with exhaustion, seeking to shift the sticky clutch of
+head-stall or hackamore, while their riders dismounted and quickly
+removed saddle and riding gear. Freed from their burdens the bronchos
+dragged tired heels through the dust as they whirled and trotted
+unsteadily away to the pasture, eager to roll and relax their aching
+muscles.
+
+"Holy cats, but it's hot!" Bert Lilly exclaimed as he slipped off his
+chaps and started toward the house, leaving saddle and outfit lying
+beside the gate of the corral.
+
+"Better put them things in the shed," Parker advised, "looks like a
+whale of a storm is coming."
+
+"Reckon that's right," Bert answered, turning back and carrying his
+riding gear into the shelter where the other cowboys already had taken
+theirs.
+
+"Wonder if them women come?" Chuck Slithers queried as they moved toward
+the gate.
+
+"More than likely--Bet Skinny and Old Heck have had a hell of a time
+making love to 'em," Charley Saunders remarked.
+
+"You want to be careful about cussin'," Parker warned. "It ain't polite
+when women are around!"
+
+"Listen at him!" Bert said with a laugh, "practising already--Parker is
+getting polite--to-morrow is his day to be affectionate to the widow,
+Ophelia--"
+
+"Which is she, Parker," Charley asked soberly, "a grass or natural?"
+
+"Shut up, you blamed fools, they're liable to hear you," Parker growled
+angrily. "Anyhow, it ain't my fault they come!"
+
+"Parker oughtn't to kick," Chuck chimed in, "look at poor old
+Skinny--he's got a steady job lovin' the other one!"
+
+"Darned if I wouldn't rather love both of them at once," Charley
+observed, "than to take another ride like that was to-day. I'm kind of
+anxious to see what they look like," he continued.
+
+"Well, don't go and get excited at the supper table and eat your pie
+with a spoon!" Chuck laughed.
+
+"Aw, hell," Charley retorted, "I guess I know how to act--"
+
+"Old Heck's going to buy some finger-bowls for you to wash your hands
+in," Bert said scornfully, "him and Parker--"
+
+"Shut up, I told you, you darned idiots," Parker snapped. "They're out
+on the front porch and can hear you!"
+
+"Be careful about your cussin'--" Bert mimicked with a snicker.
+
+Notwithstanding their raillery every man in the group, including Pedro,
+gave unusual care to scrubbing his face and smoothing his hair
+preparatory to entering the kitchen for supper and where they would
+meet, for the first time, Ophelia and Carolyn June.
+
+Sing Pete glided out of the kitchen door and hammered the triangle
+announcing the evening meal.
+
+At the instant Parker and the cowboys filed into the kitchen from the
+rear, Ophelia and Carolyn June, followed by Old Heck and Skinny Rawlins,
+both looking sheepish and somewhat ashamed, stepped into the room from
+the front.
+
+All stood waiting and Old Heck, ill at ease and in a voice that
+trembled, gave the party formal introduction:
+
+"Missus Ophelia Cobb and Miss Carolyn June Dixon," motioning first at
+the widow and then the girl, "Mister Parker, Mister Bert Lilly, Mister
+Charley Saunders, Mister Chuck Slithers, Mister Pedro Valencia--"
+indicating each in turn with his hand as he called the names, "--I
+reckon you're already acquainted with Skinny!"
+
+The cowboys mumbled greetings which Carolyn June and Ophelia graciously
+acknowledged.
+
+Sing Pete had laid two extra covers.
+
+"You boys can take your regular places--all except you, Parker," Old
+Heck said, "--you set at that side on this end," pointing to the seat at
+the left next to the head of the table. "Carolyn June, you can set at
+that end and Ophelia at this end--I'll set here," taking the seat at the
+widow's right and directly across from Parker.
+
+This placed Old Heck, Bert Lilly, Pedro and Skinny Rawlins on the right
+of the table in the order named, Skinny sitting at the end on Carolyn's
+left. On the opposite side sat Parker, Chuck Slithers and Charley. Next
+to Charley, at the right of Carolyn June, and opposite Skinny, was a
+vacant chair.
+
+"Who is this for?" Carolyn June inquired, indicating the unoccupied
+seat.
+
+"That's th' Ramblin' Kid's place," Old Heck replied; "he may come in and
+again he mayn't--"
+
+"It was him you saw to-day," Skinny added, "riding down toward the
+Narrows when we was coming from Eagle Butte."
+
+"Do you know; where he went, Parker?" Old Heck asked.
+
+"No. When we started over to the Springs he was here. Said he reckoned
+we could get along without him and he wouldn't go--"
+
+"He's just got one of them lonesome spells," Bert said, "and wanted to
+get off by himself somewhere."
+
+"He knowed we was going to have company, too," Chuck observed.
+
+"More than likely that's why he went," Skinny suggested.
+
+"Is he afraid of women?" Carolyn June laughed.
+
+"Not particularly," Skinny replied; "he don't bother with them, that's
+all."
+
+"I think he went after that Gold Dust maverick," Charley said. "He'll
+probably come in when he sees how it's going to storm--"
+
+"He don't give a darn for storms," Bert declared. "--Pass them frijoles,
+Pedro.--Remember that time it blowed the hay derrick down and he
+wouldn't come to the house, just stayed out and watched the wind and
+lightning?"
+
+"He is funny that way," Charley admitted.
+
+"Well, he'll never catch that mare," Parker said, "she's too--"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," Chuck interrupted, "look how he has tamed Captain
+Jack," referring to the Ramblin' Kid's own horse, one time a famous
+renegade.
+
+"How was that?" Carolyn June inquired carelessly.
+
+"Captain Jack was an outlaw, too," Bert explained. "He run over on the
+East Mesa on the Una de Gata. Charley and me and th' Ramblin' Kid got
+him to going one day when there was some ranch mares in his bunch. One
+of them was a hand-raised filly, was a pet and she was--well, pretty
+hot! We worked them over the rim of the Mesa and into the canyon, it
+was a box-gorge from where they hit it to its head, and at the upper end
+there was a wing corral. The mare swung up the canyon towards the ranch
+and--Jack wouldn't quit her! We was pounding right on their heels and
+before he knowed it we had them penned--"
+
+"That shows what happens when a he-thing goes locoed over a female
+critter," Chuck whispered to Parker; "you and Old Heck want to watch
+out!"
+
+"Be careful, you danged fool!" Parker hissed as he kicked at Chuck's
+shins under the table. Excited, he made a mistake in the foot he should
+have used and viciously slammed his left toe against Ophelia's dainty
+ankle.
+
+The widow looked startled and suddenly sat up very straight in her
+chair.
+
+Parker realized his error, turned red, choked, leaned close to Chuck and
+breathed hoarsely, "I'll kill you some day for that!"
+
+"He sure went crazy when he found he was corraled," Charley said, "and
+forgot all about the mare."
+
+"He sure did," Bert continued, while Carolyn June listened intently,
+"and was plumb wild to bu'st down the pen and be free again. Charley nor
+me didn't want him and so th' Ramblin' Kid said he'd take him. Just then
+Tony Malush--we was punchin' for him--come riding up and was going to
+shoot Captain Jack on account of wanting to clean the range of the
+outlaw stallions. He yanked out his gun and started to pull a drop on
+old Jack's head. Th' Ramblin' Kid jerked his own forty-four and told
+Tony he'd kill him if he shot the renegade broncho. Tony backed up, but
+it made him sore and he fired th' Ramblin' Kid. The darned little cuss
+set there a minute thinking, then slid off his horse, stripped him of
+riding gear, flung saddle, blanket and bridle over the bars into the
+corral. Before we knowed what he was aiming to do he climbed up and
+dropped down inside, on foot, with just his rope, and faced that outlaw
+battin' around trying to get outside--"
+
+Carolyn June leaned forward on the table listening with breathless
+interest. The others stopped eating and gave all their attention to the
+story Bert was telling.
+
+"Captain Jack saw him, stopped for just a second, sort of surprised,
+then went right at th' Ramblin' Kid--head down, eyes blazin' like coals,
+mouth wide open, ears laid back and strikin' with both front feet--"
+
+"He was some wicked!" Charley ejaculated.
+
+"He sure was," Bert went on. "Tony and Charley and me just set on our
+horses stunned--thinkin' th' Kid had gone clean loco and was flirtin'
+with certain and pronto death. As Captain Jack rushed him th' Ramblin'
+Kid give a jump sideways, his rope went true, a quick run to the
+snubbin' post and he throwed him dead! The broncho hit his feet, give a
+squeal and come straight back! Th' Ramblin' Kid run once more, yankin'
+like blazes to get the slack! That time when he went down--well, before
+we realized it, th' Ramblin' Kid had him bridled and saddled and was
+safe on deck--"
+
+"I'm tellin' you too, Captain Jack went higher than a kite when he felt
+the rowels in his flanks!" Charley interrupted.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid yelled for us to let him out," Bert continued.
+"Charley and me flung down the bars to the corral and Captain Jack come
+out sun-fishin' and hittin' the breeze like a streak of twisted
+lightning! That was just before dinner in the forenoon. That afternoon
+and night th' Ramblin' Kid rode the outlaw to the Hundred and
+One--ninety miles away! We didn't see either of them any more for a
+month and when they hit the Kiowa again Captain Jack was a regular baby
+after th' Ramblin' Kid and would follow him around like a dog--"
+
+"That's the way he's been ever since," Charley said, "them two are just
+like sweethearts."
+
+"Nobody else ever rides him--" Bert added.
+
+"They can't," Chuck said. "He's a one-man horse and th' Ramblin' Kid is
+the man. Captain Jack would die for th' Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+"Yes, and kill any one else if he could!" Parker exclaimed.
+
+"Has no one but--but the Ramblin' Kid"--Carolyn June hesitated queerly
+over the name--"ever ridden him?"
+
+"Never that we know of," Bert said; "several have tried it--the last
+one was a fellow from down on the Chickasaw. Guess he was trying to
+steal him. Anyway, we was all up at Eagle Butte and had left our horses
+out in front of the Occidental Hotel while we was in the dining-room
+eating our dinners. We got outside just in time to see the stranger hit
+the ground and Captain Jack jump on him with all four feet doubled up in
+a bunch--he's buried in that little graveyard you might have noticed on
+the hill this side of the river bridge."
+
+"Killed him?" Carolyn June gasped.
+
+"Seemed like it." Bert answered, with a grin; "anyway, we buried him."
+
+"What did the--the Ramblin' Kid do?" she asked.
+
+"He just laughed kind of soft and scornful," Skinny said, "and got on
+Captain Jack and rode away while we was picking the fellow up!"
+
+During the rest of the meal Carolyn June's eyes looked frequently and
+curiously at the unused plate at her right. She felt, some way, that an
+affront had been shown her by the absence of the one for whom it was
+laid. The other cowboys, it was quite evident to her intuitive woman's
+mind, had looked forward with considerable eagerness to the arrival of
+herself and Ophelia. The Ramblin' Kid, at the very moment almost of
+their reaching the Quarter Circle KT, had deliberately mounted Captain
+Jack and ridden away. It seemed like little less than an intentional
+snub! In addition to the half-resentment she felt, there remained in
+her mind an insistent and tormenting picture of the slender, subtle,
+young rider swaying easily to the swing of Captain Jack as he galloped
+down the valley earlier in the day.
+
+Bert, Charley, Chuck, before the meal was finished cast frankly admiring
+glances at Carolyn June and Skinny plainly was gaining confidence at a
+rapid rate, while Pedro, silent throughout it all, kept, almost
+constantly, his half-closed eyes fixed in a sidelong look at the girl at
+the end of the table.
+
+Attention and admiration, Carolyn June expected from men. They had
+always been hers. She was beautiful and was conscious of it. Had the
+cowboys of the Quarter Circle KT not registered appreciation of her
+charms by their looks Carolyn June would have believed something was
+wrong with her dress or the arrangement of her hair. Her eyes--she was
+sure of them--without effort lured men to her feet.
+
+"It's hotter than blue blazes in here," Old Heck said when all had
+finished; "we'd better go out into the big room. Maybe Carolyn June will
+play some on the piano."
+
+"The boys and me will go on out on the porch," Parker said as they
+reached the front room, speaking significantly to Old Heck, but in a
+tone both Ophelia and Carolyn June heard. "We'll leave you and Skinny
+with the ladies and not intrude--"
+
+"You won't be intruding if you remain," Ophelia said brightly. "Carolyn
+June and I are not partial at all and want you to feel that we enjoy
+meeting you all."
+
+"Yes, stay," Carolyn June added, somewhat reluctant that of the entire
+group only one should be left to the wiles of her unconsciously
+intentional coquetry; "there is plenty of room in here and it's cool--"
+
+"We're much obliged," Bert said, "but we'd better do the way Parker
+mentioned. Anyhow that was the agreement."
+
+"Agreement?" Ophelia spoke with a questioning lift of her brows.
+
+"Yes," Chuck said, evidently trying to relieve the embarrassment of Old
+Heck, Parker and Skinny who looked daggers at Bert when he spoke of an
+agreement, "Parker and Old Heck was to take turn about--"
+
+"Bert meant," Parker interrupted hastily, "--he meant they--they had to
+agree not to loaf in this room before Old Heck would give them jobs on
+the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck added quickly, "that was the bargain on account
+of--of--getting it mussed up and everything and making too much work for
+Sing Pete to clean it up!"
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June looked curiously at each other as if they
+suspected some secret that had to do with their presence at the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+Outside, the cowboys lounged on the porch or lay spread full length on
+the grass smoking their cigarettes, and silent. Each was busy with
+thoughts of his own. Carolyn June had been very impartial during the
+evening meal, distributing her smiles and little attentions freely among
+them all. Now she was sitting at the piano playing snatches of random
+melodies as they came to her mind, while Skinny sat stiffly on a
+high-backed chair at the corner of the instrument.
+
+A drone of voices reached the ears of Parker and the cowboys as Old
+Heck, skilfully led on by Ophelia, told about the ranch, the Kiowa range
+and the traditions of western Texas.
+
+"Can you play _La Paloma?_" Skinny asked as Carolyn June paused after
+running over a dainty and vivacious one-step, memories of which made her
+think of Hartville and the fashionable ballrooms where she had reigned
+as princess at least if not as queen, and which seemed now very far
+away.
+
+"I'm afraid not--unless I have the music, but I'll try," she answered,
+and her fingers again sought the keys.
+
+The dreamy Mexican air drifted seductively out on the sultry motionless
+night.
+
+Bert looked through the window and saw Skinny lean back in his chair,
+his eyes closed and an expression of supreme content stealing over his
+face.
+
+"Skinny's gone--he's surrendered," he said to Chuck, lying full length
+on the porch at his side; "look at the poor cuss with his eyes shut and
+grinning as if he was seeing visions of Paradise!"
+
+"That combination would capture most anybody," Chuck answered. "I'm
+starting to feel affectionate myself."
+
+Bert didn't reply, Chuck having expressed too nearly his own swelling
+emotions.
+
+"Uncle Josiah!" Carolyn June called, suddenly whirling around on the
+piano stool as she finished the last bars of _La Paloma_, "may I have a
+horse?"
+
+Old Heck, grown silent under the spell of the music, and, like Skinny,
+sitting dreaming dreams that almost frightened him, started quickly.
+
+"A--a what?" he asked.
+
+"A horse--" she answered, "a broncho to ride!"
+
+"Oh, uh--sure! Skinny, go get her one!" he replied confusedly.
+
+"Not now," Carolyn June laughed, "to-morrow--any time, whenever I want
+to use it!"
+
+"Can you ride?" Skinny asked eagerly.
+
+"Ever since I can remember," Carolyn June said, "daddy has kept
+horses--I love 'em! Ophelia rides, too," she added.
+
+"In automobiles--" Ophelia corrected.
+
+"That's a good arrangement," Skinny said; "it will make everything work
+out all right."
+
+"I don't understand," Carolyn June said; "what arrangement?"
+
+"We'd better be going to bed, Skinny," Old Heck interposed anxiously,
+"it's getting late!"
+
+"Guess we had," Skinny said reluctantly. "Gosh, it's warm to-night!"
+
+"You can leave the door and windows open," Old Heck said to Ophelia and
+Carolyn June as he and Skinny moved toward the door; "we don't have
+burglars out here."
+
+Parker and the cowboys straightened up when they heard Skinny and Old
+Heck preparing to leave and went around the corner of the building
+toward the bunk-house.
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June stepped out on the porch with Old Heck and
+Skinny.
+
+The air was oppressively still and hot. The black cloud bank that had
+hung over the Costejo Mountains earlier in the evening now covered the
+whole western half of the sky. Night sounds seemed almost stifled by the
+suffocating heat. From the pasture below the stables the faint call of a
+kill-deer suddenly shrilled out, followed by intense silence. No
+lightning flash filled the wall-like blackness slowly creeping over the
+earth from the west. A pale glow on the rim of the rolling hills across
+the valley, herald of the moon not yet above the horizon, intensified
+the pall beneath the approaching cloud. A sullen roar, throbbing
+angrily, rising and falling in volume, could be heard coming out of the
+depths of the storm.
+
+"Acts like it's going to be a bad one," Old Heck observed, studying the
+cloud they all were watching.
+
+"Wicked," Skinny said, "one of them mutterin' kind until it breaks and
+then all hell tears loose."
+
+"If th' Ramblin' Kid is out in the sand-hills to-night he'll--"
+
+A withering stream of fire poured from the cloud almost over their
+heads; it was accompanied by a crashing peal of thunder that rocked the
+earth under their feet and stopped the words on Old Heck's lips. The
+flame lighted the whole valley. They had an instant's glimpse of a
+writhing, overhanging curtain of dust and rain sweeping toward them. In
+the glare they saw a giant cottonwood that stood alone in the meadow
+west of the house reel and sway like a drunken thing and pitch to the
+earth.
+
+"It's here! It struck that tree!" Old Heck yelled. "Run for the
+bunk-house, Skinny, maybe we can make it! You women go inside and shut
+the door!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia sprang--were blown almost--inside the house and
+slammed the door as another bolt fell, flooding the room with a blaze
+that made the light from the lamp on the reading table seem faint and
+dim. Old Heck and Skinny darted around the corner as the tempest pulled
+and tugged at the buildings of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For an hour Ophelia and Carolyn June sat and listened to the storm and
+while it still raged went to bed.
+
+Carolyn June fell asleep watching the incessant glare of the lightning
+as flash after flash filled the room with light and illumined the world
+outside, while the rain and wind lashed the trees in the garden near
+her window. Above the tumult the words of Old Heck: "If the Ramblin' Kid
+is out in the sand-hills to-night"--kept repeating themselves over and
+over in her mind. Try as she would, she could not shut out the picture
+of a slender young rider, alone, far out on the range in the storm-mad
+night, unsheltered from the fury and wrath of the elements.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+A DUEL OF ENDURANCE
+
+When the storm broke over the Quarter Circle KT the Ramblin' Kid was
+twenty miles away following the Gold Dust maverick. Old Heck's surmise
+that he had gone in search of the outlaw filly was but half correct. It
+was not with the definite purpose of trying for the renegade mare that
+he had mounted Captain Jack and headed him toward the Narrows at the
+moment Carolyn June Dixon and Ophelia Cobb arrived at the ranch. Nor was
+it to escape meeting the women. Their coming meant nothing to the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He simply wanted to be alone.
+
+The ride with Parker and the boys to the North Springs meant talk. The
+Ramblin' Kid did not want to talk. He wanted to be with his thoughts,
+his horse and silence.
+
+Should he happen on to the maverick he might give her a run. Since her
+first appearance on the Kiowa, the Ramblin' Kid had seen her many times.
+More than once, from a distance, he had watched the mare, getting a line
+on her habits. Sooner or later he expected to test Captain Jack's
+endurance and skill against the filly's speed and cunning. Without
+success other riders of the Kiowa had tried to corral the outlaw or get
+within roping throw of her shapely head. So far she had proved herself
+faster and more clever than any horse ridden against her. The Ramblin'
+Kid believed Captain Jack was master of the beautiful mare, that in a
+battle of nerve and muscle and wind the roan stallion could run her
+down. Some day he would prove it.
+
+At the Narrows the trail forked. One branch turned sharply to the right
+and followed a coulée out on to the divide between the Cimarron and the
+lower Una de Gata; the other swung toward the river, slipped into it,
+crossed the stream, and was lost in the sand-hills beyond.
+
+The broncho, of his own will, at the prongs of the road wheeled up the
+coulée and climbed out on the level bench south of the Cimarron. A
+half-dozen miles away Sentinel Mountain rose abruptly out of the plain.
+Toward the lone butte Captain Jack turned. He knew the place. On the
+north slope there was a tiny spring, fenced with wire to keep the stock
+from trampling it into a bog; near by was a duster of piñon trees; below
+the seep in the narrow gorge was a thin strip of willows. It was a
+favorite rendezvous sought by the Ramblin' Kid when in moods such as now
+possessed him. Silently he rode to the group of piñons and dismounted.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid stretched himself under the trees while Captain Jack
+drank at the little water course. Then, with his bridle off, the
+broncho fed contentedly on the bunch grass along the hillside. After a
+time Captain Jack quit feeding and came into the shade of the piñons.
+The Ramblin' Kid, flat on his back, stared through the scant foliage of
+the trees into the sky--overcast now with a dim haze, forerunner of the
+storm gathering above the Costejo peaks. Thousands of feet in the air a
+buzzard, merely a black speck, without motion of wings, wheeled in
+great, lazy, ever-widening circles.
+
+As the sun dropped into the cloud bank in the west a band of mares and
+colts came from that direction and rounded a spur of Sentinel Mountain.
+At their heads was the most beautiful horse ever seen on the Kiowa
+range.
+
+In color a coppery, almost golden, chestnut sorrel; flaxen mane and
+tail, verging on creamy white; short-coupled in the back and with
+withers that marked the runner; belly smooth and round; legs trim and
+neat as an antelope's and muscled like a panther's; head small, carried
+proudly erect and eyes full and wonderfully clear and brown.
+
+"Th' filly!" the Ramblin' Kid breathed, "with a bunch of Tony Malush's
+Anchor Bar mares and colts!"
+
+Captain Jack saw the range horses and lifted his head.
+
+"Psst!" the Ramblin' Kid hissed and the neigh was stopped.
+
+The rangers moved toward the east and over the crest of a ridge a
+quarter of a mile away. On the flat beyond the rise they stopped, the
+colts immediately teasing the mares to suck. The filly withdrew a short
+distance from the herd and stood alert and watchful.
+
+For half an hour the Ramblin' Kid studied the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+He looked at the clouds climbing higher and higher in the west, then
+long and thoughtfully at Captain Jack.
+
+"Let's get her, Boy!" he murmured; "let's go an' get her!"
+
+His mind made up, the Ramblin' Kid slipped the bridle again on Captain
+Jack, removed the saddle and with the blanket wiped the sweat from the
+broncho's back, smoothed the blanket, reset the saddle, carefully
+tightened front and rear cinches and mounting the little stallion guided
+him slowly down the ravine in the direction of the horses on the flat. A
+hundred yards away the mares and colts, alarmed by the sudden
+half-whinny, half-snort, from the filly, discovered the approaching
+horse and rider.
+
+Instantly the wild horses crowded closely together and galloped toward
+the Una de Gata. Captain Jack leaped into a run, rushing them. The
+maverick wheeled quickly and dashed away to the south alone.
+
+"Her pet trick!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered as he headed Captain Jack
+after the nimble creature. "She absodamnedlutely will not bunch--seems
+to know a crowd means a corral, a rope and at last a rider on her
+shapely back!"
+
+For two miles it was a race. The Ramblin' Kid held Captain Jack to a
+steady run a couple of hundred yards in the rear of the speeding mare.
+At last he pulled the stallion down to a trot. The Gold Dust maverick
+answered by running another fifty yards and then herself settling into
+the slower stride. "Like I thought," the Ramblin' Kid said to himself,
+"it's a case of wear her out--a case of seasoned old muscle against
+speedy young heels!"
+
+It became a duel of endurance between Captain Jack, wiry, toughened and
+fully matured, with heavier muscles, and the nimble, lighter-footed Gold
+Dust mare.
+
+At dark they were on the edge of the Arroyo Grande and Captain Jack had
+closed the distance between them until less than a hundred yards was
+between the heels of the filly and the head of the stallion behind her.
+She turned east along the arroyo, followed it a mile, seeking a
+crossing, then doubled straight north toward the Cimarron. Captain Jack
+hung to her trail like a hound. In the blackness that preceded the storm
+she could not lose him. With almost uncanny sureness he picked her
+out--following, following, never giving the maverick a moment's rest.
+Yet it seemed that the distance she kept ahead was measured, so alert
+and watchful was she always. Both were dripping with sweat. Try as he
+would, it seemed impossible for Captain Jack to win those few yards
+that would put the filly in reach of the rope the Ramblin' Kid held
+ready to cast until the inky darkness made it impossible to risk a
+throw.
+
+The mare splashed into the Cimarron.
+
+A dazzling zigzag flash of lightning, the first of the storm, and the
+Ramblin' Kid saw the filly struggling in the yellow wind-whipped
+current. A moment later and Captain Jack was swimming close behind her.
+On the north side of the river the mare yielded to the drive of the
+tempest and turned east down the stream. A rocky gorge running at right
+angles toward the north offered shelter from the lashing wind and rain.
+Up the ravine the maverick headed. A rush of muddy water down the canyon
+sent pursued and pursuer slipping and sliding and climbing for safety
+high up on the brush-covered, torrent-swept hillside. The constant blaze
+and tremble of lightning illumined the whole range. A wolf, terrified by
+the storm, seeking cover, crouched in the shelter of a black rock-cliff.
+The Ramblin' Kid saw the creature. His hand instinctively slipped under
+his slicker and gripped the gun at his hip.
+
+"Hell! what's th' use of killin' just to kill?" he murmured. His hold on
+the gun relaxed. A bolt of lightning slivered the rock above the wolf;
+there was an acrid odor of burning hair. The next flash showed the wolf
+stretched dead twenty feet below the cliff. "Well, I'll be damned!" the
+Ramblin' Kid whispered as he bowed his head before the gale, "that was
+funny! Guess God himself figured it was time for that poor cuss to die!"
+
+In the last quarter of the night, at the North Springs, when the storm
+had spent itself and the white moon looked down on a drenched and
+flood-washed earth, the 'Ramblin' Kid dropped his rope over the head of
+the Gold Dust maverick--barely twenty feet ahead of the horse he
+rode--conquered by the superior nerve, muscle and endurance of Captain
+Jack, still the greatest outlaw the Kiowa range had ever known!
+
+The touch of the rope fired the filly to a supreme effort; she lunged
+forward; Captain Jack set himself for the shock--he threw her cold, full
+length, in the soft mud; instantly the little stallion sprang forward to
+give the mare slack, she came to her feet, squealing piteously, and
+plunged desperately ahead--again Captain Jack braced himself for the jar
+and put her down, "It's hell, Little Girl," the Ramblin' Kid said with a
+catch in his throat; "but you've got to learn!" The third time the
+maverick tested the rope and the third time Captain Jack threw her in a
+helpless heap. That time when she got to her feet she stood trembling in
+every muscle until Captain Jack came up to her side and the Ramblin' Kid
+reached out and laid his hand on the beautiful mane. She had learned.
+Never again would the wonderful creature tighten a rope on her neck.
+
+Trailing the filly, the Ramblin' Kid forced her back toward the
+Cimarron, into its raging flood, multiplied a hundredfold by the
+torrential rain of the night; side by side she and Captain Jack swam the
+stream, and in the gray dawn, while the Quarter Circle KT still slept,
+he turned the mare and Captain Jack into the circular corral. He removed
+the saddle from Captain Jack, took the rope from the filly's neck, threw
+the horses some hay and on the dry ground under the shed by the corral,
+lay down and went to sleep.
+
+For fourteen hours, without rest, the Ramblin' Kid had ridden.
+
+The sun was up when Sing Pete electrified the Quarter Circle KT into
+life and action by the jangle of the iron triangle sending out the
+breakfast call.
+
+Old Heck stepped to the door of the bunk-house and looked out across the
+valley. The Cimarron roared sullenly beyond the meadow. The lower field
+was a lake of muddy water, backed up from the gorge below. He glanced
+toward the circular corral.
+
+"What th'--Who left horses up last night?" he asked of the cowboys
+dressing sleepily inside the bunk-house.
+
+"Nobody," Parker answered for the group.
+
+Skinny Rawlins came to the door. "It's Captain Jack," he said, "and--and
+darned if th' Ramblin' Kid ain't got the filly!"
+
+"Aw, he couldn't have caught her last night," Bert Lilly said.
+
+"Well, she's there," Skinny retorted, "somebody's corraled her--that's
+certain!"
+
+Hurriedly dressing, the cowboys crowded out of the bunk-house and down
+to the circular corral. The Gold Dust maverick leaped to the center of
+the enclosure as the group drew near and stood with head up, eyes
+flashing and nostrils quivering, a perfect picture of defiance and fear.
+The swim across the river had washed the mud from her mane and sides and
+she was as clean as if she had been brushed.
+
+"Lord, she's a beauty!" Chuck Slithers exclaimed.
+
+"Sure is--be hell to ride, though!" Bert commented. "Wonder where the
+Ramblin' Kid is--"
+
+"S-h-hh! Yonder he is," Charley Saunders said, observing the figure
+under the shed, "--asleep. Come on away and let him rest!"
+
+"Breakfast's ready anyhow," Old Heck added.
+
+"And Skinny ain't shaved or powdered his face yet--" Chuck laughed;
+"these lovers ought to fix themselves up better!"
+
+"Shut up, you blamed idiot, ain't you got no respect?" Parker said as
+they turned toward the house.
+
+"Listen at Parker, he's one of them, too," Chuck continued; "this is his
+day to be a sweetheart to the widow!"
+
+"I'd rather have Skinny's job," Bert said with a snicker, "I'd be afraid
+of Ophelia--"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She acts too gentle to start with"--"
+
+"Give her time," Charley suggested, "she'll bu'st loose when she gets
+better acquainted!"
+
+"Her and Old Heck got pretty well introduced last night, holding hands
+the way they did, and--"
+
+"Dry up," Old Heck interposed with a foolish grin, "and come on to
+breakfast!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia were charmingly fresh and interesting in dainty
+blue and lavender morning gowns. A bowl of roses, plucked by Ophelia
+from the crimson rambler by the south window, rested in the center of
+the table. The cowboys saw the flowers and exchanged glances. Old Heck
+and Skinny blushed.
+
+Carolyn June noticed the vacant place at her right.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid ain't up yet," Skinny volunteered.
+
+"Then the storm did drive him to shelter, after all?" Carolyn June asked
+with the barest trace of contempt in her voice.
+
+"I wouldn't hardly say that," Bert Lilly remarked, holding his cup for
+Sing Pete to fill with coffee; "--he brought in the Gold Dust maverick."
+
+"Yes," Chuck said with mock gravity, "it was quite an undertaking--he
+sprinkled salt on her tail--"
+
+"How clever!" Ophelia exclaimed, looking interested, "and is that the
+way they catch--mavericks?" stumbling over the unusual word.
+
+"Chuck's joking," Parker said; "he always was foolish--"
+
+"Uncle Josiah," Carolyn June asked suddenly, "can you take Ophelia to
+Eagle Butte to-day?"
+
+"I--Parker can," Old Heck answered, "if he can drive the car. Still
+there are probably some pretty bad washouts--"
+
+Ophelia looked quickly at Old Heck, interested by the note she detected
+in his voice.
+
+"I--I--got some work to do," he continued, "if you could wait till
+to-morrow"--addressing the widow--"I could more than likely go myself--"
+
+"I guess I can handle the car all right," Parker said, looking
+significantly at Old Heck; "the roads will be dried up in a little
+while."
+
+"It's Parker's day anyhow and he don't want to miss--" Chuck started to
+say.
+
+"After breakfast," Old Heck interrupted, scowling at the cowboy, "Chuck
+and Pedro had better both ride-line on the upper pasture. The cattle
+probably went against the fence in the storm last night and knocked off
+a lot of wire. Of course, Skinny will have to stay here," he added, "and
+the rest of us, except Parker, ought to look after the fences in the
+east bottoms--from the looks of the river this morning a lot of posts
+and wire must be washed out."
+
+"Whoever gets up the saddle horses had better catch them in the pasture
+corral," Parker declared, "it won't do to turn them in with that wild
+filly and Captain Jack."
+
+"I think I shall go see that wonderful filly," Carolyn June said as
+they left the table, "she may be the particular broncho I will want to
+ride--"
+
+"Not much," Old Heck objected, "these outlaws ain't exactly the kind of
+horses for women to fool with. You can use Old Blue. He's gentle."
+
+"Did I tell you I wanted a 'gentle horse'?" Carolyn June asked with a
+bit of impatience.
+
+"No, but I figured that was the kind you'd need on account of being
+raised back east--"
+
+"Well, I am going to see the Gold Dust maverick," Carolyn June said with
+emphasis, "and if she suits me I'll--I'll ride her!"
+
+"I'll go with you," Skinny offered as Carolyn June stepped from the
+kitchen door and started toward the circular corral.
+
+"Never mind!" she spoke shortly, "--you can go catch 'Old Blue'
+and"--with scorn in her voice--"if he's able to walk, maybe it will be
+safe for me to ride him to the end of the lane and back--Ugh! 'Old
+Blue!' The very name sounds as if he was dead!"
+
+"Old Blue's a good horse," Skinny protested, "--we work him on the hay
+derrick--"
+
+But Carolyn June was gone, walking rapidly across the open ground in the
+direction of the corral in which the Ramblin' Kid had turned Captain
+Jack and the Gold Dust filly.
+
+"Jumpin' eats!" Bert exclaimed as the cowboys started toward the stable,
+"didn't the young one show her teeth sudden?"
+
+"Skinny's going to have his hands full if he don't look out," Charley
+Saunders remarked sagely. "Still that kind ain't as dangerous as the
+ones that act plumb gentle like the widow has acted so far."
+
+"Any female is treacherous," Chuck observed grimly. "They're just like
+cinch-binders--you can't tell when they're going to rare up and fall
+over backwards!"
+
+"I'll bet Ophelia turns out to be a W.C.T.U. or something," Bert
+predicted solemnly.
+
+"If she does it's all off with the Quarter Circle KT, because Parker and
+Old Heck are both in love already," Charley said as they rounded the
+corner of the barn.
+
+Carolyn June gave a gasp of admiration as she stepped up to the circular
+corral and saw the Gold Dust maverick closely.
+
+"Oh, you beauty! You adorable beauty!" she breathed.
+
+Captain Jack and the filly were near the fence next to the shed. Carolyn
+June passed in between the low building and the corral to be closer to
+the horses. The sky was cloudless and a wonderful liquid blue; the sun
+glistened on the rich, golden, brown sides of the mare and made her coat
+shine like delicate satin. When Captain Jack and the filly saw Carolyn
+June they stood for a moment as rigid as though cast in bronze, heads
+held high, eyes fixed curiously yet without fear on the slender girlish
+figure.
+
+Captain Jack took a step forward in a half-challenging way. The
+maverick stood perfectly still.
+
+"You beauty," the girl repeated, "you wonderful golden beauty! You are
+going to be my horse--I'm going to ride you--_just you_--"
+
+"You'll get you're neck broke if you do!" a voice, deliberate and of
+peculiar softness, said behind her.
+
+Carolyn June turned, startled, toward the shed from where the voice had
+come. She knew, even before she looked, that the speaker was the
+Ramblin' Kid. Evidently he had just awakened. He had not risen and still
+lay stretched on the ground, his head resting on the saddle he had used
+for a pillow. Carolyn June could not help wondering how long he had been
+lying there studying her back. The thought confused her. In spite of her
+efforts at self-control a slow flush crept over her cheeks. The Ramblin'
+Kid saw it and the faintest hint of a smile showed on his lips--or was
+the suggestion of amusement in the twinkling glance of his eyes? Carolyn
+June could not tell. The subtlety and queerly humble impudence of it
+filled her with anger.
+
+While she looked into his eyes Carolyn June appraised the physical
+appearance of the Ramblin' Kid. Certainly he was not handsome, sprawling
+there in his rough clothing. She knew his age was somewhere near her
+own, perhaps he was a year, surely no more than that, older than
+herself. Yet there was an expression about the face that suggested much
+experience, a sort of settled maturity and seriousness. His mouth,
+Carolyn June thought, showed a trace of cruelty--or was it only
+firmness? The teeth were good. If he stood up her own eyes would have to
+angle upward a trifle to look into his and if hers were brown the
+Ramblin' Kid's were positively black--yes, she would say, a brutal,
+unfathomable black, penetrating and hard. His cheeks were smooth and
+almost sallow they were so dark, and she could tell there was not an
+ounce of flesh save tough sinewy muscle on his body. He was fully
+dressed except for the white weather-beaten Stetson lying beside the
+saddle and the chaps and spurs kicked off and tossed with the bridle and
+rope near by on the ground. A dark woolen shirt open at the throat, blue
+overalls faded and somewhat dingy, black calfskin boots on a pair of
+feet that could not have been larger than sixes, comprised his attire.
+
+So this was the Ramblin' Kid, Carolyn June thought. Someway she had
+pictured him a blue-eyed, yellow-haired sort of composite Skinny
+Rawlins, Chuck, Bert Lilly, Charley Saunders all in one and with the
+face of a boy in the teens!
+
+He was different. She wondered, and almost laughed at the absurd
+thought, if he was bow-legged. A glance at the straight limbs stretched
+in repose on the ground dispelled the doubt.
+
+The suddenness with which the Ramblin' Kid had spoken and the tone he
+used, Carolyn June thought, was utterly unfair. She felt as if she had
+been ambushed. How could she know he was sleeping under the shed? Why
+wasn't he in the bunk-house where he belonged? Her own embarrassment
+made her cross. She wanted to say "damn!" and stamp her foot or throw
+something at him, lying there so completely self-possessed! Instead, she
+looked steadily into the eyes of the Ramblin' Kid. Someway as she looked
+they seemed not so unkind, more sorrowful they were, on closer scrutiny,
+than cruel. She started to speak, her cheeks began to burn--
+
+Without a word she turned and walked rapidly toward the house.
+
+As she moved away Carolyn June felt something snap at her knee. She did
+not stop. Reaching down she gathered the soft folds of the loose gown
+about her and hurried away from the corral.
+
+"God!" the Ramblin' Kid whispered as he straightened up, "she's built
+like th' Gold Dust maverick--an' just as game! They was made for each
+other."
+
+He went to the corral and leaned against the fence, studying the filly
+thoughtfully, while Captain Jack with a friendly whinny came and nosed
+at the fingers thrust through the bars. After a time the mare cautiously
+moved up beside the roan stallion and stretched her own velvety muzzle
+toward the hand the Ramblin' Kid held out.
+
+"You want to be loved, too, you little devil!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed
+gently, "--you thought I was mean last night, didn't you?"
+
+For a while he fooled with the horses, then started toward the kitchen.
+A few steps from where Carolyn June had been standing he glanced down at
+a broad pink satin elastic band lying on the ground. It had been
+fastened with a silver butterfly clasp. The clasp was broken. The
+Ramblin' Kid stooped and picked it up.
+
+"I'll be--!" he chuckled as he fingered, almost reverently, the dainty
+thing, "it's a--a--darned pretty little jigger!"
+
+Smiling whimsically the Ramblin' Kid slipped his find in his pocket and
+sought Sing Pete to tease him for a bite of breakfast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+YOU'RE A BRUTE
+
+Carolyn June went directly to her room when she reached the house. She
+wished to investigate the feeling of looseness at her knee. The satin
+band that belonged there was gone. She felt her cheeks grow hot.
+Doubtless she had lost it at the corral--the Ramblin' Kid would pick it
+up! The thought tormented her. Once more she wanted to swear vigorously
+and with extreme earnestness. Instead she--laughed! It was all so
+absurd. The strange interest this rough cowboy inspired in her; the
+confusion she felt when he had spoken to her--no man among all the
+clever, carefully groomed, ultra-sophisticated suitors she had left in
+Hartville ever stirred her emotions as had the Ramblin' Kid with a few
+drawling words and one long look from his black, inscrutable eyes. That
+look! She had the feeling, someway, that her whole soul was naked before
+it. She was almost afraid of him. It was silly! She detested
+him--or--anyway, he needed punishment! No, he wasn't worth it! He was
+only an ignorant rider of the range--why trouble at all about him?
+
+Quickly changing her dress for a riding suit of khaki--the skirt
+sensibly divided--and the morning slippers for stout, tan, laced boots,
+she stepped into the front room. Ophelia was in her own room dressing to
+go to town. Carolyn June heard voices in the kitchen. Sing Pete's shrill
+chatter mingled with an occasional slow word from the Ramblin' Kid.
+Thought of the garter she had lost flashed into her mind. Perhaps the
+cowboy had not found it. She would run out to the corral and see.
+Passing quickly out the front way Carolyn June hastened again toward the
+circular corral. Old Heck and Parker were at the garage getting the car
+ready for the drive to Eagle Butte; Pedro and Chuck were riding across
+the valley toward the upper pasture. The other cowboys saddled their
+horses near the barn.
+
+As she walked, Carolyn June scanned the ground. At the corral she looked
+carefully where she had been standing. Her search was fruitless. She
+smiled queerly. Again she glanced at the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+"You darling," she whispered, "I am going to have you--I am--I
+absolutely am!"
+
+Turning, her eyes rested on the saddle, chaps and riding gear lying in
+the shed where the Ramblin' Kid had slept. Carolyn June stepped close to
+the outfit.
+
+"I have a notion to--to spit on you!" she said vehemently, "or kick--"
+but she didn't finish the sentence. One tan shoe had been drawn back as
+if to be swung viciously at the inoffensive pile of riding gear; it
+paused, suspended, then gently, almost caressingly, pushed the leather
+chaps which suddenly seemed to Carolyn June to look limp and worn and
+pathetically tired.
+
+As Carolyn June returned to the house Parker drove the car around to the
+front; Old Heck joined the cowboys, already mounting their bronchos, and
+with them rode down the lane in the direction of the lower field. Skinny
+came out of the barn, leading Pie Face and Old Blue. He left the horses
+standing and at the back-yard gate overtook Carolyn June. As they
+stepped inside the yard the Ramblin' Kid appeared at the kitchen door.
+
+"There's the Ramblin' Kid now," Skinny said as they approached. "Hello,
+Kid," he continued, "I see you got the filly--Excuse me, I guess you
+folks ain't acquainted."
+
+Haltingly he introduced them.
+
+Without the flicker of an eyelid the Ramblin' Kid looked into the eyes
+of Carolyn June. He had seen her coming from the corral and guessed
+correctly the reason for her second visit to the enclosure. Indeed at
+that moment his hand was in his pocket toying with the delicate souvenir
+for which she had gone to search. Yet his face was utterly without
+emotion as he lifted his hat and stood aside, acknowledging with formal
+words the introduction. "It's sure a surprisin' day an' pleasant--" he
+finished, emphasizing "surprisin'" and "pleasant" till Carolyn June
+could have sworn there was a veiled taunt in the words he spoke.
+
+She was equally calm. Smiling sweetly and with not a hint of a previous
+meeting she said: "I think I have heard of the Ramblin' Kid." Pausing a
+moment: "It's always peaceful after a storm!" she added enigmatically.
+And the Ramblin' Kid, as Skinny and the girl passed around to the front
+of the house, knew that Carolyn June had hurled a lance!
+
+"A natural born heart-breaker," he said to himself as he went toward the
+bunk-house, "a genuine, full-grown vampire, part intentional an' part
+because it's in her--but she's a pure-bred--" He grew pensive and
+silent, a look of gentleness came to his face, followed quickly by an
+expression of extreme humility. "Oh, hell," he exclaimed aloud, "what's
+th' use!" Entering the building the Ramblin' Kid seated himself at the
+table at the end of the room. He pulled the pink satin elastic from his
+pocket and gazed at it, rubbing the soft fabric tenderly with the end of
+his thumb. His eyes lighted suddenly with anger and contempt. He threw
+the band violently across the room into a corner. "I wasn't raised to
+associate with luxuries like that!" he exclaimed with mingled bitterness
+and scorn, "--a damned ign'rant cow-puncher dreamin' dreams about an
+angel!" he finished with a harsh laugh. For a while he sat silent,
+gazing down at the table. Then he got up, went over and lifted the
+garter from where it had fallen and replaced it in his pocket. "Oh,
+well," he chuckled less bitterly and whimsically added, "--any idiot can
+smile at th' mornin' star even if th' darned thing is beyond his reach!
+Besides, she don't need to ever know--" Leaving the bunk-house he went
+toward the circular corral.
+
+Parker climbed from the car and entered the house, asking if Ophelia was
+ready.
+
+"In just a moment!" the widow called from her room.
+
+"What are you and me going to do?" Skinny asked Carolyn June as they
+stepped on to the porch, "take a ride?"
+
+"On 'Old Blue'?" Carolyn June questioned scornfully, then, with
+resignation, as they went inside the house: "Oh, well--I suppose, after
+a while. I have some letters to write now," and she entered her room
+leaving Skinny standing perplexed by her varying moods. He looked
+foolishly at Parker a moment. Going to the graphophone he put on a
+record--
+
+  "_I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air_!"
+
+wailed disconsolately through the house.
+
+"Good heavens," Carolyn June called, "do you blow bubbles this early in
+the morning?"
+
+"Don't you like it?" Skinny asked soberly. "I thought that was a pretty
+good tune."
+
+"I'm crazy about it!" Carolyn June answered sarcastically. "There and
+then, but not here and now--"
+
+"Where and when?" Skinny queried innocently.
+
+"In the valley of the moon at the end of a perfect day!" she laughed
+back. "--Forgive me, I couldn't help it!"
+
+"What does she mean?" Skinny asked Parker in a whisper. "Is she making
+fun of me?"
+
+"No, you blamed fool," Parker replied, "she feels good and is just
+joking--"
+
+Skinny brightened up immediately.
+
+"That's a good one," he called to Carolyn June with a snicker; "I never
+thought of it before!"
+
+A ripple of laughter came from Carolyn June's room.
+
+"Really, I don't mind," she said; "play _Bubbles_ as much as you like--I
+think it's rather soothing, but truly I must write my letters now so
+Ophelia can take them to town."
+
+Half an hour later Ophelia appeared dressed for the drive to Eagle
+Butte. Carolyn June and Skinny went out on the front porch and watched
+the widow and Parker climb into the Clagstone "Six." As Parker started
+the engine Skinny suddenly called to him. Parker sat with his foot on
+the clutch while Skinny hurried out to the car.
+
+"What do you want?" he asked impatiently, "We've got to be going!"
+
+"Lean over here," Skinny said, his face flushing scarlet, "I want to
+tell you something."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Stop at the Golden Rule and get me a white shirt size number fifteen
+and--a purple necktie if they've got any!" Skinny whispered.
+
+Ophelia heard and choked back a laugh.
+
+"Thunderation, he's plumb locoed!" Parker exclaimed, as he jammed the
+clutch into gear and the car sprang forward.
+
+"Don't forget it, Parker," Skinny called earnestly, "I actually need
+it!"
+
+Carolyn June and Skinny stood on the porch and watched the car climb the
+grade and out on to the bench. The storm of the night before had washed
+the earth clean and cooled the air. A faint after-breeze fanned the
+tree-tops. The Costejo peaks stood out, with stereoscopical clearness,
+against a cloudless sky. The day was a challenge to one who loved the
+open.
+
+"You may saddle 'Old Blue,'" Carolyn June said to Skinny. "--I'll see if
+I can 'stick on him' long enough to ride as far as the river!"
+
+"He's already saddled," Skinny replied, "him and Old Pie Face both."
+
+"Man, dear," she cried in mock misunderstanding, "you surely are not
+expecting me to ride the two of them at once!"
+
+"No," he answered meekly, "Old Pie Face is my horse, I'm going to ride
+him and go with you."
+
+"Indeed!" she exclaimed, then laughing mischievously. "Oh,
+certainly--that's a good one--I hadn't thought of it before!"
+
+"Don't you want me to go?" Skinny asked doubtfully.
+
+"Surely. I should be utterly unhappy if you didn't--I'll get my hat."
+
+"Blamed if I can figure her out," Skinny said to himself as Carolyn June
+ran lightly into the house. "She keeps a feller freezing to death and
+burning up all at once--sort of in heaven and hell both mixed together."
+
+A white, medium-brimmed felt hat was set jauntily on the fluffy brown
+hair when she reappeared. Skinny's heart leaped hungrily. Carolyn June
+was a picture of perfect physical fitness. The cowboy silently wondered
+how long he could keep from making "a complete, triple-expansion, darned
+fool of himself!"
+
+"I'm glad you want me to go," he said, renewing the conversation as they
+started around the house, "because I wanted to and, well, anyhow it's my
+job--"
+
+"What do you mean 'your job'?" Carblyn June asked quickly.
+
+Skinny was stricken silent. He realized he was on dangerous ground. He
+wasn't sure it would be wise to tell her what he meant. Someway he felt
+Carolyn June would resent it if she knew he was drawing wages for
+acting the lover to her. It seemed wholly impossible for him, just at
+that moment, to explain that, although Old Heck was paying him ten
+dollars a month extra salary to court, temporarily, his attractive
+niece, he, Skinny Rawlins, would personally be overjoyed to reverse the
+order and give his entire income, adding a bonus as well, for the
+privilege of continuing indefinitely and of his own choice the more than
+pleasant employment. Yet this was the literal truth, so quickly had his
+susceptible heart yielded to the charms of the girl. But he dared not
+try to tell her. He knew the words would not come and if they did he
+would probably choke on them and she, not believing the truth, would
+detest him. Skinny had heard of men who courted girls of wealth to win
+their money and with sincere contempt he despised these degenerates of
+his sex. Now, suddenly, he felt that he himself was in their class. The
+thought made him sick, actually caused his stomach to quiver with a sort
+of nausea.
+
+"Skinny Rawlins," Carolyn June said sternly, stopping and looking
+straight at the confused and mentally tortured cowboy, "tell me--and
+don't lie--what you meant when you said to go with me was 'your job!'"
+
+Skinny raised his eyes; in them was piteous appeal.
+
+"I meant--I--" he hesitated.
+
+"Tell me the truth," she ordered relentlessly, "or I'll--I'll--do
+something awful!"
+
+"I meant it was my job--" suddenly inspired, he blurted out, "to ride
+Old Pie Face. He's--he's dangerous and has to be rode every so often to
+keep him from getting worse and to-day's the day to ride him!"
+
+"Skinny," Carolyn June spoke gently, "I feel sorry for you. I want to
+like you and I'm disappointed. It breaks my heart to say it but you are
+a liar--you're just a common double dashed liar--like Uncle Josiah was
+when he sent that telegram saying there was smallpox at the Quarter
+Circle KT--"
+
+"Am I?" Skinny asked humbly.
+
+"You are," she retorted impatiently, "and you know it--"
+
+"Do I?" as if dazed.
+
+"You do, and did all the time--"
+
+"Did I?" he felt like a parrot.
+
+"You did!" Carolyn June snapped. "Good heavens," she continued, "why do
+men think they have to lie to women? Common sense and experience ought
+to teach them they can never fool them long--I hoped out here in the big
+West I would find one man who wouldn't lie--"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid won't," Skinny said as if suddenly struck by a bright
+thought, "--he wouldn't lie to you!"
+
+Carolyn June laughed scornfully.
+
+"Oh, yes he would," she declared, "all of them do--every last one of
+the poor frail"--contemptuously--"turtles!"
+
+"But th' Ramblin' Kid wouldn't," Skinny persisted; "he won't lie to
+anybody."
+
+"Not even to a woman?" she questioned incredulously.
+
+"No," he answered positively, "I'm sure he wouldn't."
+
+"And why wouldn't he?" she asked.
+
+"Well," Skinny replied, "for one thing he don't give a darn. Th'
+Ramblin' Kid don't care what anybody, man, woman or anything else thinks
+about him or whether they like what he says or not so there ain't any
+use of him lying. Maybe he wouldn't tell what was in his mind unless you
+asked him, but if you did ask him he'd say what it was whether he
+thought it satisfied you or not. He's funny that way. He just naturally
+don't seem to be built for telling lies and he wouldn't do it--"
+
+"Oh, Skinny, poor simple Skinny!" Carolyn June laughed. "You don't know
+men--men when they're dealing with women! Through all the unnamed years
+of my life I've never found one man who was absolutely truthful when
+talking with a 'female.' They think they have to lie to women. They do
+it either to keep from hurting them--or else they do it intentionally
+for the purpose of hurting them, one or the other! And they are so
+stupid! No man can hide anything long from a woman--"
+
+Reaching over she jerked a spray of tiny roses from the rambler at the
+window near which they were standing; tapping the blossoms against her
+lips, beginning to smile whimsically, she continued: "Why, I can almost
+read your own thoughts right now! If I wanted to I could tell you more
+about what is in your mind than you yourself could tell--"
+
+"Could you?" Skinny said, a guilty look coming in his eyes.
+
+"For one thing," Carolyn June went on, ignoring the inane question, "you
+are in love--"
+
+"I ain't!" the over-hasty denial slipped from his lips unintentionally.
+
+"Lie!" she laughed, "you can't help telling 'em, can you? And you are
+thinking--" She paused while her eyes rested demurely on the roses in
+her hand.
+
+"What am I thinking?" Skinny asked breathlessly.
+
+Before she could reply an agonized spitting, yowling and hissing,
+accompanied by the rattle of tin, came from behind the kitchen. "What's
+that?" Carolyn June cried half frightened at the instant a yellow house
+cat, his head fastened in an old tomato can, came bouncing backward,
+clawing and scratching, from around the corner.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Skinny exclaimed, "it's that darned cat again--Sing Pete
+goes and dabs butter in the bottoms of the cans and the fool cat sticks
+his head in trying to lick it out and gets fastened. It looks like the
+blamed idiot would learn sometime. It's what I call a rotten joke
+anyhow!"
+
+Sing Pete appeared at the kitchen door cackling with fiendish joy at the
+success of his ruse.
+
+Carolyn June stared, apparently stricken dumb by the antics of the
+struggling animal.
+
+"Sun-fish! Go to it--you poor deluded son-of-sorrow!" The Ramblin' Kid,
+who, unnoticed by Carolyn June and Skinny, at that moment had come from
+the corral and stood leaning against the fence, chuckled half pityingly,
+yet making no move toward the creature.
+
+"Catch him and take it off," Carolyn June cried, "it's hurting him!"
+
+Skinny started toward the rapidly gyrating jumble of claws, can and cat.
+
+"I will if the darn' thing'll hold still a minute!" he said.
+
+Carolyn June looked at the Ramblin' Kid, still leaning against the fence
+watching the cat's contortions.
+
+"Why don't you help him?" she asked impatiently. "Skinny can't do it
+alone--can't you see it's choking?"
+
+"No, he's not choking," the Ramblin' Kid replied without moving from
+where he stood, "--he's sufferin' some, but he ain't chokin'. He's got
+quite a lot of wind yet an' is gettin' some valuable experience. That
+cat's what I call a genuine acrobat!" he mused as the terrified
+creature leaped frantically in the air and somersaulted backward,
+striking and clawing desperately to free itself of the can tightly
+wedged on its head.
+
+Carolyn June was accustomed to obedience from men creatures. The
+Ramblin' Kid's indifference to her request, together with his apparent
+cruelty in refusing to aid in relieving the cat from its torturing
+dilemma, angered and piqued the girl.
+
+"Help Skinny take it off, I tell you!" she repeated, "haven't you a
+spark of sympathy--"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid resented her tone and detected as well the note of
+wounded pride. Instinctively he felt that at that instant the cat, with
+Carolyn June, had become a secondary consideration.
+
+"Well, some, I reckon," he answered, speaking deliberately, "generally a
+little, but right now darned little for that old yaller cat. I figure
+he's a plumb free moral agent," he continued as if speaking to himself;
+"he got his head in that can on his own hook an' it's up to him to get
+it out or let it stay in _this time_, just as he pleases--"
+
+"But Sing Pete put butter in the can!" Carolyn June said, arguing.
+
+"He's done it before," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a glance at the
+Chinese cook still gleefully enjoying the results of his cruel joke. "He
+won't no more. But that don't make no difference," he laughed, "th'
+darn' cat hadn't ought to have yielded to temptation!"
+
+"You're a brute!" she exclaimed passionately, "--an ignorant, savage,
+stupid brute--" The harsh words sprang from the lips of Carolyn June
+before she thought. The Ramblin' Kid flinched involuntarily as if he had
+been struck full in the face. A look came in his eyes that almost made
+her regret what she had said.
+
+"I reckon I am," he replied, gazing steadily at her without feeling or
+resentment and speaking slowly, "yes, I'm an 'ign'rant, savage, stupid
+brute,'" deliberately accenting each word as he repeated the stinging
+phrase, "--but--what's the use?" he finished with a mirthless laugh.
+"Anyhow," he added, glancing again at the cat and Skinny's futile
+efforts to catch it, "I ain't interferin' this time, at least, with that
+damned cat!"
+
+Carolyn June knew she had hurt with her unintentionally cruel words. For
+an instant there was a humane impulse to temper their severity.
+
+"I--I--didn't--" she started to say, but the Ramblin' Kid had turned
+and, ignoring the cat, Skinny and herself, was leaning on the fence with
+his back to her, looking off across the valley, apparently lost in
+thought. She did not finish the sentence.
+
+The cat bucked its way to the fence. As it went under the wire the can
+caught on a barb of the lower strand. Jerking furiously, the animal
+freed itself from the can, leaving splotches of hair and hide on the
+ragged edges of tin. Still spitting and clawing, with its tail standing
+out like an enormous yellow plume, it dashed toward the barn, eager to
+put distance between itself and the thing that had been torturing it.
+
+"Gosh a'mighty," Skinny said, sweating with the exertion and the
+excitement of trying to catch the cat, "it'll be noon before we get
+started for that ride!"
+
+"We'll go now," Carolyn June answered, "--before some other horrible
+thing occurs."
+
+"We're going over to the river and maybe out on the sand-hills a ways,"
+Skinny casually remarked to the Ramblin' Kid as Carolyn June and he
+passed through the gate. "Oh, yes," he added, "Chuck said tell you he
+took your rope--there was a weak spot in his and he didn't get it fixed
+yesterday!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid did not answer.
+
+Skinny had been wrong about the Ramblin' Kid not caring what any one
+thought of him. He was supersensitive of his roughness, his lack of
+education and conscious crudeness, and the words of Carolyn June were
+still in his mind. When Skinny and the girl were going toward their
+horses the Ramblin' Kid turned and entered the gate. Sing Pete was still
+at the kitchen door.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid stepped up to him.
+
+"You damned yellow heathen," he said in a level voice, "if you ever play
+that trick on that cat again th' Quarter Circle KT will be shy a cook
+an' your ghost'll be headin' pronto for China!"
+
+Without waiting for a reply he went back to the gate and watched Skinny
+and Carolyn June ride down the lane. The deftness and skill with which
+the girl handled the horse she rode forced a smile of admiration to the
+lips of the Ramblin' Kid. She sat close in the saddle and a glance
+showed she was a born master of horses. "She's a wonder," he said to
+himself, "a teetotal wonder--" A shade of melancholy passed over his
+face. "An ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" he murmured bitterly, "well,
+I reckon she was right--Hell!" he exclaimed aloud, "I wonder if
+Skinny'll remember about that upper crossin' bein' dang'rous with
+quicksand after the rain--Guess he did," he finished as the two riders
+turned to the right toward the lower and more distant river ford and
+disappeared among the willows and cottonwood trees that fringed the
+Cimarron.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+THE GREEDY SANDS
+
+When the Ramblin' Kid, working the rope-conquered and leg-weary Gold
+Dust maverick from the North Springs back to the Quarter Circle KT,
+crossed the Cimarron at dawn Captain Jack and the filly swam a raging,
+drift-burdened river. Less than twelve hours later Carolyn June and
+Skinny, at the lower ford, rode into a stream that again was normal. Old
+Blue and Pie Face splashed through water barely reaching the stirrup
+leathers. Only the fresh rubbish flung out on the meadows by the flood's
+quick anger or lodged in the willows, still bent by the pressure of the
+torrent that had rushed over them and slimy with yellow sediment left on
+their branches and leaves, told the story of the swift rise and fall of
+the Cimarron the night before.
+
+On the bluff north of the river Carolyn June and Skinny checked their
+horses while the girl gazed down on the panorama of green fields, narrow
+lanes, corrals and low buildings of the Quarter Circle KT. The sight
+thrilled her. On all the Kiowa range there was no more entrancing view.
+
+"It's kind of pretty, ain't it?" Skinny ventured.
+
+"Beautiful!" she breathed.
+
+"I'd--I'd like to stand here and look at it always--if you--if you'd
+enjoy it!" he said and was instantly appalled by his own audacity.
+
+Carolyn June flashed a quick look at him.
+
+"We had better go on," she said, then added lightly: "Does it always
+affect you so when you get this view of the valley?"
+
+"No. But, well, somehow it's different this morning--maybe it's because
+you are here!" he blurted out hurriedly.
+
+"Please," she said, starting Old Blue toward the west along the crest of
+the ridge, "don't be sentimental. I'm afraid--" she added, intending to
+say it would spoil their ride.
+
+"You needn't be, with me along!" Skinny interrupted hastily,
+misinterpreting her meaning.
+
+She laughed and without explaining urged her horse forward.
+
+Skinny followed pensively on Old Pie Face.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid, while going from barn to corral, glanced across the
+valley and saw Carolyn June and Skinny as they rode along the ridge. It
+was two miles from the ranch to the bluff on which they were riding, but
+so clear was the rain-washed air that the horses and riders were easily
+recognized. He watched them until they reached the corner of the upland
+pasture. There the roads from the lower and upper fords came together.
+The couple turned north along the fence and disappeared beyond the
+ridge.
+
+For a mile Carolyn June and Skinny rode without speaking. He felt
+already a reaction from his over-boldness of a while ago and silently
+swore at himself for his rashness. She was not eager to resume a
+conversation that had threatened a painfully emotional turn. She was
+quite content to enjoy the fresh air of the morning, the changing scenes
+through which they passed and the easy motion of the horse on which she
+was mounted.
+
+The bronchos pricked forward their ears at the sound of galloping hoofs.
+
+"Somebody's coming," Skinny spoke as Pedro, riding rapidly toward them,
+rounded the point of a low hill a little distance ahead.
+
+"What's wrong?" Skinny questioned, when the three met and stopped their
+horses.
+
+"The pasture fence is bu'sted," Pedro answered; "at the northeast corner
+it is broke. The cattle are out. Ten--fifteen maybe--are dead--the
+lightning strike them perhaps. The others all of them are gone. They go
+pronto, stampede I think, toward the Purgatory. Chuck and me can not get
+them alone--I go to tell Old Heck so the boys will come and help!"
+
+It was plain to Skinny what had occurred. The cattle had drifted before
+the storm until stopped by the wire. While crowded against it a bolt of
+lightning had struck the fence, followed the metal strands, and killed
+the animals touching or nearest to it. In the fright the others plunged
+madly forward and had broken their way to freedom. Five hundred Diamond
+Bar steers, recently bought by Old Heck and brought from the Purgatory
+forty-five miles north of the Quarter Circle KT were out and rushing
+back to their former range.
+
+"You go help Chuck," Skinny said to Pedro. "Carolyn June and me will
+turn around and take the news to Old Heck and send some of the boys to
+help you. If them cattle ain't bunched before they hit the Purgatory and
+get scattered over their old range it will take a month to gather them
+and get them back again!"
+
+"Why don't you yourself go with Pedro and Chuck?" Carolyn June asked
+Skinny. "I can ride to the ranch alone and tell the others about it."
+
+"I'm supposed to stay with--" he begun.
+
+"With me, I presume," she interrupted. "Well, this is one time you
+don't. Go on with the boys. You are needed after those steers a lot more
+than you are to 'herd' me back to the ranch!"
+
+Without waiting to argue she wheeled Old Blue toward the Quarter Circle
+KT. Skinny watched her a moment, then started with Pedro in the other
+direction. Suddenly checking his horse he swung around in the saddle.
+
+"Go back the way we came!" he called after the girl. "Don't try the
+upper ford!"
+
+Carolyn June looked around and threw up her hand, motioning toward the
+north. Thinking that she understood, Skinny touched Old Pie Face with
+the spurs and soon overtook the Mexican.
+
+He was mistaken. Carolyn June had not understood the warning. The
+distance was too great for his words to reach her distinctly. She
+thought he was merely protesting against her going alone. At the fork of
+the road she saw that the trail that led to the upper ford was much the
+nearer way to the ranch. Reining Old Blue into it she rode swiftly along
+the ridge and down the slope toward the dangerous crossing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Ramblin' Kid spent the morning at the circular corral. He was
+studying the moods and working to win the confidence of the Gold Dust
+maverick. He was watching her and thinking always a little ahead of the
+thought that was in the mind of the mare. His love for a horse and
+understanding of the wonderfully intelligent animals was as natural as
+were the brown eyes, the soft low voice, the gentle but strong touch, by
+which it was expressed. He wooed the outlaw filly thoughtfully,
+carefully, as a lover courts a sweetheart. The beautiful creature
+reminded him of Carolyn June. "They was made for each other!" he
+repeated softly as he worked with the mare. From the corral he could see
+the road across the river where Skinny and the girl had gone. Often he
+turned his eyes in that direction.
+
+He was fingering the garter in his pocket and looking toward the river
+when Carolyn June appeared on the ridge as she returned alone to the
+ranch. He stood and watched her. The ugly words she had spoken at the
+gate came into his mind and a bitter smile curled his lips. Still he
+watched the girl, expecting Skinny would ride into view. She turned down
+the ridge toward the upper ford.
+
+"That's funny," he thought, "wonder where Skinny's at?" Then it flashed
+through his mind that something must be wrong for the girl was riding
+alone. "Hell!" he exclaimed aloud, "she's by herself an' headin'
+straight for th' upper ford!" Only an instant he paused. "Jack!" he
+cried sharply, running to the corral gate and swinging it partly open.
+"Come--_quick_!"
+
+The roan stallion started at a trot toward the gate, then, trained to
+obey instantly the word of the master he loved better than life, leaped
+nimbly through the opening. Slamming and fastening the gate the Ramblin'
+Kid ran to the shed, the broncho at his side. He threw the blanket and
+saddle on the little roan, cinched quickly but carefully the double
+gear, slipped the bit into the waiting mouth of the horse and without
+stopping to put on his chaps sprang on Captain Jack's back and whirled
+him in a dead run around the corner of the shed and down the lane toward
+the north. At the pasture corral below the barn he guided the broncho
+close to the fence and scarcely checking him leaned over and lifted a
+rope, coiled and hung on a post near the gate, from its place--the one
+Chuck that morning had left because of the flaw.
+
+"God!" he groaned, "--an' a bad rope!"
+
+He glanced toward the ridge across the river. Carolyn June had
+disappeared down the trail that led to the upper ford.
+
+"Go, Little Man, go--for th' love of God, go!" the Ramblin' Kid
+whispered as he leaned forward over the neck of the horse. Captain Jack
+answered the agonized appeal as he would never have responded to the
+cruel cut of spurs and leaped ahead in a desperate race to beat Old Blue
+and his precious burden to the greedy sands of the Cimarron.
+
+As he rode, the Ramblin' Kid slipped his hand around the coils of the
+rope till his fingers found the broken strands that told of the weakness
+that caused Chuck to leave it behind that morning. Bending over it,
+while his horse ran, he worked frantically to weave a rawhide saddle
+string into the fiber and so strengthen the dangerous spot.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thinking only to reach the ranch as quickly as possible Carolyn June
+guided Old Blue down the trail and through the thin patches of willows
+and cottonwood trees that grew along the river. The stream looked
+innocent enough and the crossing perfectly safe. Swift but apparently
+shallow water flowed close to the northern bank. Beyond that was a
+clean, pebble strewn bar and then a smaller, narrower prong of the
+river. On the south side stretched a white, unbroken expanse of sand a
+hundred feet or more wide and ending against the low slope of the meadow
+land.
+
+At the brink of the stream Old Blue stopped short and refused to go on.
+
+"What's the matter," Carolyn June laughed lightly, "--afraid of getting
+your 'little tootsies' wet?"
+
+The horse reared backward when she tried to urge him ahead and wheeled
+half around in an effort to get away from the water.
+
+"Look here, Old Fellow," she spoke sharply, tightening the reins as she
+touched his flank with her spur, "we haven't time for foolishness!
+Generally, in fact always," accenting the last word, "horses--and
+men--go in the direction I want them to go! Why, you're as
+stubborn--as--as the Ramblin' Kid!" she finished with another laugh as
+Old Blue, with a snort of fear, yet not daring to resist further the
+firm hand and firmer will of his rider, stepped into the water.
+
+"Gee, when you do start you go in a hurry, don't you?" Carolyn June said
+as the broncho went rapidly forward as if eager to negotiate the
+crossing, seeming to know that safety lay in the quickness and lightness
+of his tread. As he lunged ahead the girl had the sensation that the
+saddle was sinking from under her. Reaching the firmer footing of the
+gravel bar in the center of the stream Old Blue tried again to turn
+about.
+
+"Go on!" Carolyn June cried impatiently yet with a feeling somehow of
+impending danger she could not wholly define, "--you've got to do it, so
+you had as well quit your nonsense and go ahead!" at the same time
+raking the horse's sides sharply again with the spurs.
+
+Crossing the shallow branch of the river the broncho reached the smooth,
+firm appearing beach of sand.
+
+With his head down, his muzzle almost touching the ground, as if
+scenting, feeling, his way, he went forward stepping rapidly, easily, as
+possible. At each step his foot slipped lower into the yielding,
+quivering mass. Carolyn June felt him tremble and the sensation that the
+horse was being pulled from under her grew more and more pronounced. She
+noticed how he sank into the sand and observed also the sweat beginning
+to darken the hair on the neck of her mount.
+
+"Pretty soft, isn't it?" she said, speaking to the broncho kindly as
+though to encourage him and perhaps at the same time to allay a bit the
+queer sense of uneasiness she felt, for even yet she did not realize the
+danger into which she had unknowingly ridden.
+
+Half-way to the firm black soil of the southern bank of the stream Old
+Blue's front feet seemed suddenly to give way beneath him. He began to
+plunge desperately. Then it was the truth came to Carolyn June. Her
+cheeks grew white.
+
+"The quicksand!" she exclaimed aloud, at the same time trying to help
+the horse with a lift of the reins. It was too late to turn back. Her
+only salvation lay in reaching the solid ground such a few yards
+ahead--and yet so fearfully far away. Old Blue struggled madly to go
+forward, gaining a little but at each effort sinking deeper into the
+sand. Carolyn June tried to encourage him with words:
+
+"Come on, come on! Good Little Horse--you can make it! Keep
+trying--that's it--now!--you're doing it! Brave Old Blue--don't give
+up--don't give up, Boy!" she pleaded, pity for the horse causing her
+almost to forget her own terrible peril.
+
+It was useless.
+
+Twenty-five feet from safety Old Blue's front quarters went down until
+his breast was against the sand. The hind legs were buried to the
+stifles. He wallowed and floundered helplessly. His hoofs touched
+nothing solid on which to stand. He stretched his head forward,
+straining-to lift himself away from that horrible, clinging suction. His
+efforts only forced him down--down--always down!
+
+Carolyn June's own feet were in the sand. She threw herself from the
+saddle--as far to one side and ahead of the horse as she could. With her
+weight removed perhaps Old Blue could get out. Anyway it was death to
+stay on the horse. Perhaps alone she could escape--she was lighter--the
+sand might hold her up--by moving rapidly surely she could go that short
+twenty-five feet to the firm ground ahead of her. At the first step she
+sank half-way to her thigh. She fell forward thinking to crawl on her
+hands and knees. Her arms went into the mass to the shoulder.
+Silently--without a word--but with horrible fear gripping her heart she
+fought the sand. She sank deeper--slowly--steadily--surely. The hellish
+stuff closed about her body to the waist. If she only had
+something--anything--solid to hold to! She took off her hat, grasped the
+edges of the brim, reached her arms out and tried to use the frail disk
+of felt for a buoy. It held a moment then gradually settled below the
+surface of the shifting, elusive substance. Again and again she lifted
+the hat free from the sand and sought to place it so it would bear a
+part at least of her weight. Her efforts were vain. The insidious mass
+crept higher and higher on her body. She remembered reading that one
+caught in the quicksand by his struggles only hastened his own
+destruction. She tried to be perfectly still. In spite of all she was
+sinking--sinking--the sand was engulfing her.
+
+During all her struggles Carolyn June remained silent. She had not
+thought to cry out. Somehow she could not realize that she was to die.
+The sun was bright, the sky cloudless, the trees along the river-bank
+barely swayed in a little breeze! How beautiful the world! How queer
+that such a little distance away was the green grass of the meadow and
+the firm black earth in which it was rooted and she--she was held fast
+and helpless in the embrace of the deadly sand! Strange thoughts rushed
+through her mind. She wondered what they would think at the ranch when
+night came and she did not return. Would they know? Would they guess the
+thing that had happened? Would the sand draw her down--down--until it
+covered her so none would ever know where or how she died? She looked at
+Old Blue. "Poor old fellow!" she whispered, "I am sorry--I didn't
+know--it looked so white and firm and safe!" The sand was half-way up
+the sides of the horse and he swayed his body in pathetic, futile
+efforts to free himself.
+
+A strange calm came over Carolyn June. So this was the end? She was to
+die alone, horribly, in the treacherous sands of the Cimarron? Surely it
+could not be--God would not let her die! She was so young! She had just
+begun to live--She thought of Hartville, her father, the old friends.
+How far away they seemed! How queer it was--she could not image in her
+mind any of the familiar scenes, the face of her father or any of the
+friends she had known so well! She tried to think of her Uncle Josiah,
+Ophelia, Skinny Rawlins--poor fellow, how susceptible was his big,
+innocent, boyish heart! She called each one up in a mental effort to
+remember how they had looked, the sound of their voices--they were only
+names--dim shadowy names! There was nothing in the whole world but Old
+Blue--herself--and the sand--the sand--an eternity of sand pulling,
+dragging, sucking her down! She closed her eyes tightly, thinking to
+shut out the impression of utter loneliness. The face of the Ramblin'
+Kid flashed into her mind! She could see him! She saw him lying under
+the shed, as he had looked that morning, his head resting on the saddle,
+his eyes gazing steadily into her own; she saw him again as he had
+looked when she stung him with her harsh words at the gate. She seemed
+to see the agonized humility in his expression and hear the low
+tenseness of his voice as he repeated aloud the words she had used--"An
+ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" She laughed almost hysterically. "Why
+can I see him--just him--and not the others? Has he come to--to--haunt
+me?" she finished with a gasp.
+
+The sand had reached her breast. How long before it clutched at her
+throat? Her mouth? Her eyes? Ah, would she hold up her arm as she went
+down--down--and reach out her hand as if to wave the world a last, long
+farewell? "I will--I will!" she cried, the pressure around her body
+almost stopping her breath, "I--I--will--and--wiggle my fingers to the
+end!" she added with a choking half-hysterical laugh, so tightly did she
+cling to life. Her mood changed. "I--guess--I ought to pray!" she said,
+"but--I--God--God knows anyhow!" her voice trailing away to a whisper as
+if she had grown suddenly, utterly, tired. She stretched out her hands
+once more with the hat, trying to use it to buoy her up. Under the
+weight of her arms it sank in the sand. She tossed it to one side. "It
+will--stay--on top by itself," she choked. "I--I--will leave it--maybe
+they will find it--and know--" She felt her senses were leaving her.
+Even yet she had not called for help. It had not occurred to her that
+rescue was possible. As if it were an echo to her thoughts there came
+the throbbing tattoo of hoofs pounding the earth. She listened intently.
+Some one was riding down the lane toward the river from the ranch! The
+horse was evidently running--running madly, desperately. Would he cross
+at the upper or lower ford? Her heart pulsed with heavy dull throbs. The
+sand was crushing her chest. A wave of weakness swept over her. She
+almost fainted. At that instant Captain Jack, carrying the Ramblin' Kid,
+leaped through an opening in the willows and stopped--his front feet
+plowing the firm ground at the edge of the quivering beach of sand.
+
+"Pure luck!" the Ramblin' Kid breathed fervently, his eye quickly
+measuring the distance to the nearly exhausted girl; "she's close enough
+I can reach her with th' rope! God, if it'll only hold!" Already the
+coils were in his hand. With a single backward fling of the noose and
+forward toss he dropped the loop over the head of Carolyn June.
+
+"Pull it up--close--under your arms!" he commanded shortly, "an' hang on
+with your hands to take th' strain off your body!"
+
+The girt obeyed without a word.
+
+He double half-hitched the rope to the horn of the saddle, swung
+Captain Jack around. "Look out!" he called to the girl as he started
+away from the brink of the sand. "Steady, Boy, be careful--" to the
+broncho. The slack gradually tightened. The strain drew on Carolyn
+June's arms till it seemed they would be pulled from the sockets. The
+rope cut cruelly into her body under her shoulders. She wanted to
+cry--to scream--to laugh. She did neither. She threw back her head and
+clung with all her strength to the rough lariat, stretched taut as a
+cable of steel.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid leaned forward in the saddle, his body half turned,
+eyes looking back along the straight line of the severely tested rope.
+He swore softly, steadily, under his breath. "God--if it will only
+hold--if it only don't break!"
+
+Slowly, surely, the little stallion leaned his weight against the
+tensely drawn riata and Carolyn June felt herself lifted, inch by inch,
+out of the sand that engulfed her. At last she fell forward--her body
+free. Without stopping the horse the Ramblin' Kid continued away from
+the river-bank and dragged the girl across the yielding surface to the
+solid earth and safety. The instant she was where he could reach her he
+whirled Captain Jack and rode quickly back. Carolyn June was trying to
+get to her feet when he sprang from the broncho and helped her to the
+firm ground on which he stood. She was panting and exhausted.
+
+"Get--get--Old Blue out!" she gasped and dropped limply down on the
+grass, fingering at the rope to remove it from around her body.
+
+"Danged if she ain't got more heart than I thought she had!" the
+Ramblin' Kid said to himself as he lifted the loop from over her head.
+"I'm goin' to," he said aloud, "if I can--but--I'm afraid he's gone.
+I'll try anyhow--you lay there an' rest--" at the same time remounting
+his horse.
+
+The sand covered the rump of Old Blue. The saddle, Parker's it was, was
+nearly submerged, only the horn and cantle showing above the slimy mass.
+His head, neck and the top of his withers were yet exposed. He still
+struggled, wallowing feebly, vainly resisting the downward pull of the
+sand. Crouching, as if fascinated by the terrible scene, Carolyn June
+watched as the Ramblin' Kid, waiting his opportunity, at the instant the
+horse in the sand lifted his head deftly flung the rope over his neck.
+With a short jerk of the wrist he tightened the noose till it closed
+snugly about the throat of the broncho. Again turning Captain Jack away
+from the bank he urged him slowly forward. The rope stiffened. The
+little stallion bunched himself and desperately strained against the
+dead weight of Old Blue, multiplied many times by the suction of the
+sand. The Ramblin' Kid leaned far over the neck of Captain Jack to give
+the horse the advantage of his own weight and looked back, watching the
+supreme efforts of the mired broncho as he fought to climb out of the
+sand. A moment it looked as if the little roan would drag him out.
+Slowly he seemed to be raising and moving forward. There was a sharp
+snap. Half-way down its length the lariat parted. At the weak spot the
+strain was too great. Captain Jack plunged forward to his knees, his
+nose rooting the earth, and the Ramblin' Kid barely saved himself from
+pitching over the horse's head.
+
+"That's what I was dreadin'--" he said as he turned and rode back to the
+edge of the sand.
+
+Carolyn June gazed, wide-eyed, speechless with horror, at the horse in
+the sand. When the rope broke, Old Blue, with a groan almost human, sank
+back and quickly settled down until only his head and part of his neck
+were exposed to view. The Ramblin' Kid looked at the broken rope--the
+end fastened around the throat of Old Blue had whipped back and was
+lying far beyond the cowboy's reach. The piece half-hitched to the
+saddle horn was too short for another throw. Old Blue was doomed.
+Carolyn June saw him sinking gradually, surely, into the sand. It seemed
+ages. His eyes appealed with dumb pathos to the group on the bank. They
+could hear his breath coming in harsh, terrible gasps. The sand seemed
+to be deliberately torturing him as though it were some hellish thing,
+alive and of fiendish cunning, that grasped its victim and then paused
+in his destruction to gloat over his hopeless agony.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid sat Captain Jack and watched.
+
+"Why did God ever want to make that stuff anyhow!" sprang hoarsely from
+his lips. He was torn between blind unreasoning anger at the quicksand
+and pity for the struggling horse. Suddenly he jerked the forty-four,
+always on his saddle, from its holster. As the gun swung back and then
+forward there was a crashing report and Old Blue's head dropped, with a
+convulsive shudder, limp on the sand.
+
+Carolyn June screamed and buried her face in her hands.
+
+At the sound of the shot Captain Jack stiffened and stood rigid. The
+Ramblin' Kid, his face white and drawn, sat and looked dry-eyed at the
+red stream oozing from the round hole just below the brow-band of the
+bridle on the head of the horse he had killed.
+
+"I--I--would have wanted somebody to do it to me!" he said softly and
+rode to the side of the girl huddled on the ground. He dismounted and
+stood, without speaking, looking down at her shaking form. After a time
+she looked up, through eyes drenched with tears, into his face. Then as
+if drawn by an irresistible impulse--one she could not deny--she turned
+her head and looked at the spot where Old Blue had fought his last
+battle with the quicksands of the Cimarron. A crimson stain, already
+darkening, on the white surface; a few square feet of disturbed and
+broken sand, even now settling into the smooth, innocent-looking
+tranquillity that hid the death lurking in its depths; a short length
+of rope, one end drawn beneath the sand, the other lying in a sprawling
+coil; her hat resting a little distance to one side, were all that
+remained to tell the story of the grim tragedy of the morning. She
+shuddered and looked once more into the pain-filled eyes of the Ramblin'
+Kid.
+
+"We'd better be goin'," he said quietly, "you're wet an' them clothes
+must be uncomfortable. You can ride Captain Jack!"
+
+She stood up weak and trembling.
+
+"I--I--thought Captain Jack was an outlaw," she said with a faint
+smile. "He won't let me ride him, will he?"
+
+"He'll let you," the Ramblin' Kid answered dully, "no woman ever has
+rode him--or any other man only me--but he'll let you!"
+
+As she approached the stallion he raised his head and looked at her with
+a queer mixture of curiosity and antagonism, curving his neck in a
+challenging way.
+
+"Jack!" the Ramblin' Kid spoke sharply but kindly to the horse, "be
+careful! It's all right, Boy--you're goin' to carry double this one
+time!"
+
+The broncho stood passive while the Ramblin' Kid helped Carolyn June to
+his back.
+
+"You set behind," he said, "it'll be easier to hold on an' I can handle
+th' horse better!"
+
+She slipped back of the saddle and he swung up on to the little roan.
+With one hand Carolyn June grasped the cantle of the saddle, the other
+she reached up and laid on the arm of the Ramblin' Kid--the touch sent a
+thrill through her body and the cowboy felt a response that made his
+heart quiver as they turned and rode toward the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For a mile neither spoke.
+
+"I--I--am sorry for what--I said this morning," Carolyn June whispered
+at last haltingly, feeling intuitively that the cruel words--"an
+ignorant, savage, stupid brute"--were repeating themselves in her
+companion's mind.
+
+"It's all right," he answered without looking around and in a voice
+without emotion, "it was th' truth--" with a hopeless laugh. "I'm a
+damn' fool besides!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+QUICK WITH A VENGEANCE
+
+Old Heck rode in advance of Charley and Bert as the trio returned from
+repairing the fences wrecked by the flood that had swept over the east
+bottom-lands of the Quarter Circle KT. All morning he had been silent
+and morose. Only when necessary had he spoken while he directed the
+cowboys at their labor, helped them reset posts, or untangle twisted
+wires and build up again that which the rush of water had torn down. The
+damage had not been great and by noon the fence was as good as new. As
+soon as the breaks were mended the moody owner of the Quarter Circle KT
+mounted his horse and started for the house.
+
+"Them women coming or something has got Old Heck's goat," Bert remarked
+to Charley as they climbed on their horses and followed a moment later.
+
+"Something's got it," Charley answered, "he ain't acted natural all
+day--do you reckon he's sore because Parker took the widow to town?"
+
+"Darned if I know," Bert said doubtfully, "that might be it."
+
+"Well, he's feverish and disagreeable for some reason or other and
+that's the way people generally get when they're jealous," Charley
+observed sagely.
+
+"He hadn't ought to be," Bert argued, "it's Parker's day to keep company
+with Ophelia, and Old Heck and him agreed to split."
+
+"If he's in love he won't split," Charley retorted with conviction, "I
+never saw two men take turn about loving the same woman yet. It can't be
+done!"
+
+"The woman wouldn't object, would she?" Bert queried.
+
+"Probably not," Charley replied, "at least not as long as double doses
+of affection was coming her way. From what I've heard most of 'em sort
+of enjoy having as many men make love to 'em as possible, but--" he
+paused.
+
+"But what?"
+
+"They kick if a man loves several women at once!" was the sophisticated
+reply. "But as far as that's concerned," he continued, speaking as a man
+wise in the ways of the world, "men and women ain't much different in
+that respect. When it comes to loving, both sides are plumb willing to
+divide up 'a-going' but want it to be clean exclusive when it comes to
+'coming!'"
+
+"It's funny, ain't it?" Bert commented.
+
+"No, it ain't funny," Charley declared. "It's just natural--"
+
+"Maybe Parker and Old Heck will have a fight about Ophelia," Bert
+suggested hopefully. "Which do you suppose would lick?"
+
+"It's hard telling," Charley said thoughtfully. "Old Heck's the
+heaviest, but Parker's pretty active."
+
+"Well, it sure does seem like wherever women are trouble is, don't it?"
+Bert observed meditatively.
+
+"Blamed if it don't," Charley agreed; "there's something about them
+that's plum agitating!"
+
+Old Heck, riding a short distance ahead of the cowboys, was troubled
+with similar thoughts. He was trying to analyze his own feelings. Years
+without association with womankind had made him come to regard them with
+a measure of indifference and suspicion. He had developed the idea that
+women existed chiefly for the purpose of disorganizing the morale of the
+masculine members of the race. He was very sincere in this belief. Yet
+he was forced, now, to confess that he found something interesting in
+having a couple of attractive females at the Quarter Circle KT. The
+situation was not so disagreeable as he had expected. Already he was
+proud of his kinship to Carolyn June. She was a niece worth while.
+Ophelia also had proved herself a pleasant surprise. He had pictured her
+as a strong-minded, assertive, modernized creature who would probably
+discourse continuously and raspingly about the evils of smoking,
+profanity, poker, drinking and other natural masculine impulses.
+Instead, she had proved herself, so far, a perfect lady. Without doubt
+she was the most sensible widow he had ever met. The thought of Parker's
+long, intimate ride with her to Eagle Butte made him uncomfortable. It
+was a darned fool arrangement--that agreement that he and his foreman
+were to divide time in the entertainment of Ophelia. He could have done
+it alone just as well as not. Anyway the dual plan was liable to cause
+confusion. Oh, well, Parker would be out on the beef hunt next week. By
+rights it ought not start for ten days yet, but--well, it wouldn't hurt
+to move it up a little. He would do that. Then he remembered the frank
+admiration the cowboys had shown toward Carolyn June. This suggested
+complications in that direction.
+
+"Thunderation!" he said aloud, "it's a good thing we fixed it up for
+just Skinny to make love to her--if we hadn't there'd have been a
+regular epidemic of bu'sted hearts on this blamed ranch! There wouldn't
+have been a buckaroo on the place that could have kept from mooning
+around sentimental--unless it was th' Ramblin' Kid," he added; "that
+blamed cuss is too independent and indifferent to fall in love with any
+female!"
+
+At the barn Charley and Bert overtook Old Heck. The three unsaddled and
+fed their horses and started toward the house for dinner. Sing Pete had
+seen them coming and immediately pounded the triangle.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's gone somewhere again," Bert observed as he noticed
+the Gold Dust maverick alone in the circular corral. "Captain Jack's not
+with the filly--"
+
+"Yonder th' Ramblin' Kid comes now," Charley said, looking toward the
+north; "he's been over to the river--what the devil kind of a
+combination is that?" he exclaimed as he got a better view of the horse
+coming up the lane. "Him and that girl both are riding Captain Jack."
+
+"Blamed if they ain't," Bert said curiously; "it's a wonder Captain
+Jack'll let them. But how does that come, anyhow? Where's Skinny? I
+thought it was his job to ride herd on Carolyn June--"
+
+"It is his job," Old Heck interrupted, "I don't understand--something
+must have gone wrong," he added excitedly as the stallion with his
+double burden drew near. "Carolyn June's all wet and she's lost her
+hat."
+
+Turning his horse toward the house, when he reached the end of the lane
+and with but a glance at the trio standing at the barn, the Ramblin' Kid
+rode straight to the back-yard gate. Old Heck and the cowboys hurried
+across the open space and reached the gate just as Carolyn June rather
+stiffly dismounted from the little roan. Her hair was disarranged, her
+riding suit soiled and wet from the sand and water, but her eyes were
+bright, cheeks flushed, and she showed only a trace of nervousness.
+
+"What's the matter?" Old Heck asked uneasily, "what's happened? Where's
+Skinny?"
+
+In a few words, while the Ramblin' Kid sat silently on the back of
+Captain Jack, Carolyn June told of the ride across the river; the
+meeting with Pedro and the message he brought that the cattle were out
+and some had been killed by lightning; of sending Skinny with the
+Mexican to help with the steers; of her return alone toward the ranch,
+the struggle in the quicksand and the death of the horse she had been
+riding.
+
+"Poor Old Blue--poor old fellow!" she finished with a little catch in
+her voice.
+
+Old Heck's cheeks whitened as he listened.
+
+"Good lord," he half-groaned, "you had a close call! It's lucky th'
+Ramblin' Kid saw you coming toward the upper ford--if he hadn't--you'd
+never got out! But go on into the house and get some dry clothes on.
+Boys, we'll have to hurry up and eat dinner and then go help get them
+steers back. I wish Parker was here--we'll need all the help we can get.
+You'd better catch up another horse," he continued, speaking to the
+Ramblin' Kid, "Captain Jack is probably worn out from chasing that Gold
+Dust maverick last night, and if you ain't too tired yourself, go with
+us--"
+
+"I ain't too tired," the Ramblin' Kid replied quietly, "I'll go--an'
+ride Captain Jack--he ain't done up." He took the broncho to the corral,
+removed the saddle and turned him in with the outlaw mare. After giving
+the horses fresh hay--there was water in the corral, supplied by a small
+ditch that was fed from the larger irrigation canal and which ran under
+one side of the fence--he joined the others at dinner.
+
+An hour later Old Heck, Bert, Charley and the Ramblin' Kid rode away
+from the ranch to help Chuck, Skinny and Pedro round up and return to
+the big pasture the cattle that had broken out and were rushing toward
+their old range on the Purgatory.
+
+Carolyn June was left alone with Sing Pete, the Chinese cook at the
+Quarter Circle KT. She still felt somewhat shaken from her experience of
+the morning, although a bath, clean dry clothing and the meal had
+refreshed her considerably. She carried a chair to the front porch,
+thinking to spend the afternoon resting. The events of the day raced in
+review through her mind. It did not seem possible so much could have
+happened in so short a time. Only yesterday had Ophelia and she arrived
+at the ranch. Already she had the feeling that they both were fixtures,
+and had been indefinitely, at the Quarter Circle KT. The elemental
+atmosphere of the range country had completely enveloped her, seemed to
+have absorbed her, and made her a part of it. Some way she rather
+delighted in this sensation of permanency. Her rescue by the Ramblin'
+Kid and the close view she had been able to get of his impulses made her
+thrill with a queer mixture of admiration and pity for him even while
+his brutal answer when she had apologized for her harsh words still
+echoed in her mind.
+
+"Gracious," she thought with a whimsical smile, "things move fast in
+this western country!"
+
+She had seen, already, that both her Uncle Josiah and Parker were
+yielding to the charms of Ophelia. The fancy made her chuckle. She
+remembered Skinny's too rapidly developing tenderness toward herself.
+"Poor fellow," she murmured, slowly shaking her head, "I wish he
+wouldn't! But I suppose he can't help it--I wonder why men are always
+falling in love with me, anyhow? I'm sure I don't try to make them! I
+never saw one yet I really wanted to care--" she stopped suddenly while
+a warm flush spread over her body as the Ramblin' Kid was imaged rather
+vividly in her mind. "Nonsense!" she said aloud with a soft, throaty
+laugh. "Carolyn June, you are getting silly!"
+
+She sprang up and went into the house.
+
+"Sing Pete," she said, stepping into the kitchen, "may I have some
+sugar--I'd like the lumpy kind if you have it?"
+
+"Sure! You have him sugal--how muchee you want?" as he held out to her a
+tin containing squares of the desired article.
+
+"Oh, enough to win a heart!" Carolyn June answered laughing, at the same
+time taking a handful from the can.
+
+"You eat him?" Sing Pete asked with a grin.
+
+"No," she replied, "I feed it to broncho--to Gold Dust maverick. Some
+folks sprinkle salt on bird's tail to catch him--I put sugar on horse's
+tongue to make him love me--"
+
+"Lamblin' Kid, he do that. Allee time him gettee sugal for Clap'n Jack!"
+
+"Feeds 'Clap'n Jack' sugar, does he?" Carolyn June said pensively.
+"Captain Jack's a nice little broncho," she added, "he deserves sugar."
+She paused a moment. "'Lamblin' Kid's' a funny fellow, don't you think
+so, Sing Pete?" she finished idly.
+
+"Not funny--him dangelous!" the Chinaman replied earnestly. "He gettee
+velly mad 'cause I puttee butter in can so cat catchee his head in an'
+go lound an' lound--buckee like a bloncho--havee lots a good time! He
+not talkee much, Lamblin' Kid don't--just dangelous--that's all!"
+
+Carolyn June felt sudden interest.
+
+"When did he get mad about the cat?" she asked quietly.
+
+"Allee same to-day--when you an' Skinny go 'way. Lamblin' Kid cussee me
+lot--tellee me not do him any more. Him dangelous! I not do him next
+time!" Sing Pete explained seriously.
+
+"You are wise, Sing Pete," Carolyn June laughed as she left the kitchen
+by the back door and started toward the corral where the Gold Dust
+maverick was restlessly pacing about. "Don't do it any more! 'Lamblin'
+Kid' is 'dangelous'--dangerous in ways that you don't understand!" she
+finished softly, her eyes lit with a strange light and her heart elated
+and beating quickly because of what the Chinese cook had told her.
+
+The outlaw filly leaped to the far side of the corral and stood
+trembling, her head up and breath coming in whistling snorts of
+defiance and fear, as Carolyn June opened the gate and stepped boldly
+inside. Apparently paying no attention to the frightened horse, the girl
+walked to the center of the corral and facing the mare leaned her back
+against the snubbing post. Both stood perfectly still while the eyes of
+each appraised the other.
+
+After a time the filly seemed to relax and she slowly lowered her head,
+yet watching, alertly, the motionless figure of Carolyn June. The girl
+talked to the horse, her words gentle, her voice soothing and low. The
+Gold Dust maverick became quieter still. Presently she circled the
+corral, trotting swiftly and crowding closely against the fence. Carolyn
+June turned, keeping her eyes always on the broncho, and continued the
+quiet pleading of her voice. It was an hour before the filly shyly and
+cautiously came up to the girl--before curiosity mastered her fear.
+Carolyn June held out her hand and the outlaw nosed it timidly, ready
+instantly to spring away. A lump of sugar was pressed into the Gold Dust
+maverick's mouth--she drew back, working the morsel about with her
+tongue and lips and finally spitting it out. Several times this was
+repeated. At last the beautiful creature tasted the sugar and greedily
+ate the lumps, permitting Carolyn June gently to stroke the velvety
+muzzle. Then the girl's hand crept higher and higher on the horse's neck
+and after a little an arm was slipped over the filly's neck.
+
+"You darling!" Carolyn June breathed softly, "I love you! I wonder what
+the Ramblin' Kid would say if he knew I was stealing your heart?" she
+added demurely as she laid her face against the silky mane of the mare.
+
+She remained at the corral until the afternoon was nearly gone. The
+poplars along the front-yard fence were beginning to throw their shadows
+across the corral. When at last Carolyn June started to return to the
+house the filly followed her to the gate of the corral and whinnied a
+little protest against her going.
+
+"I don't believe you are a bit mean," the girl said as she looked back
+affectionately at the nervous, high-strung animal; "you are just lonely
+and want to be loved--and understood--that is all, and I doubt if you'd
+buck a single buck if I rode you right this minute!"
+
+As she reached the gate the Clagstone "Six" glided quietly down the
+grade from the bench and a moment later Ophelia and Parker joined
+Carolyn June on the porch. The widow's cheeks were glowing and Parker
+looked embarrassed and rather upset. His arms were full of bundles.
+
+"Have a good time?" Carolyn June greeted them.
+
+"Fine," Ophelia replied, "spent oodles of money shopping, saw the
+minister's wife, talked with the editor of the paper and we are going to
+organize a Chapter--I think we shall call it 'The Amazons of Eagle
+Butte.'"
+
+"Great," Carolyn June laughed, "you are a hustler, Ophelia! Uncle
+Josiah will have a fit. Does Parker know?"
+
+"Yes," the widow answered, her eyes twinkling, as she looked at the
+sweating foreman of the Quarter Circle KT. "I told him all about it and
+he is going to give us his moral support."
+
+"Where is Skinny?" Parker interrupted hastily, looking more uneasy and
+foolish than ever; "why ain't he here?"
+
+Carolyn June told of the happenings of the morning.
+
+"My dear, my dear!" Ophelia cried, shuddering when she heard of Carolyn
+June's narrow escape from the quicksand. "You must never cross that
+terrible river again! It's too horrible to think about!"
+
+"It was just 'experience,'" Carolyn June said lightly. "I don't mind it
+a bit now that it is over. Of course," she added seriously, "I feel
+badly about Old Blue--and losing Parker's saddle."
+
+"Don't worry about the saddle, I can get new riding gear lots easier
+than Old Heck could have got another niece!"
+
+"Carolyn June needs a saddle of her own," Ophelia suggested.
+
+"I am going to get one; and then I'll ride the Gold Dust maverick!"
+
+"I doubt if th' Ramblin' Kid will let you ride the filly," Parker said,
+"he's funny that way--"
+
+"I think he will," Carolyn June interposed. "I'll steal her if no other
+way!"
+
+"Maybe he will, but it's doubtful," Parker continued, "but Old Heck is
+aiming to get you a saddle. He spoke about it this morning when we were
+getting the car out to go to town--"
+
+"Dear old uncle," Carolyn June said warmly, "I love him already--don't
+you, Ophelia?"
+
+Parker colored and looked quickly, with a worried expression on his
+face, at the widow. She flushed also.
+
+"That's personal, my dear," she answered, "and rather abrupt!"
+
+Parker went out to put the Clagstone "Six" in the garage.
+
+"Carolyn June," Ophelia said when they were alone, "I have made a
+discovery--"
+
+"It is?" questioningly.
+
+"That western Texas is the 'quickest' country in the world!" the widow
+answered.
+
+"Please explain," Carolyn June said, "although," demurely, with certain
+memories fresh in her mind, "I fancy I can almost guess--"
+
+"Yesterday," Ophelia continued rather breathlessly, "we arrived at the
+Quarter Circle KT; last night at the supper table I met Mr. Parker for
+the first time; ten minutes later he kicked me--accidentally, I
+think--on the shins; I saw him again at breakfast this morning; to-day
+we drove to Eagle Butte and this afternoon"--she paused and then with a
+quick, nervous laugh finished--"he asked me to marry him!"
+
+"Good lord," Carolyn June gasped, "that is--'pronto'--as these cowboys
+say! 'Quick' with a vengeance! There must be something in this western
+air that makes them do it!"
+
+"It was all I could do this morning to keep Skinny from--" she started
+to say, then shifted again to the subject of Parker. "Did he know that
+you are--"
+
+"National Organizer for the 'Movement,'" Ophelia filled in. "Yes, I had
+already confessed. I told him as we were driving to town--and the
+other--the shock--came just after we crossed the bridge when we were
+returning home!"
+
+"He is a bold, dangerous man!" Carolyn June exclaimed, in mock
+seriousness, "trying to get ahead of Uncle Josiah!"
+
+"I inferred as much," the widow explained; "he told me that to-morrow
+would be your uncle's 'day'--whatever he meant by that; the next he, Mr.
+Parker himself, would be 'around' again. 'Unless Old Heck took some fool
+notion or other;' before long he would be away on the beef hunt and one
+can never tell what might happen while one is gone and, well, that's the
+way he felt about it, so he just said it--"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Naturally was completely surprised, entirely non-committal, and made no
+definite agreement!" Ophelia laughed softly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+OLD HECK'S STRATEGY
+
+It was late when Old Heck and the cowboys returned to the ranch. The
+runaway cattle had been overtaken on the sand-hills beyond the North
+Springs and it took the entire afternoon to bunch them and work the
+restless animals back to the Quarter Circle KT, into the big pasture,
+and repair the fence so it was safe to leave them for the night.
+
+Ophelia, Carolyn June and Parker were in the front room when Old Heck
+and the hungry cowboys clattered, long after dark, into the kitchen for
+the supper Sing Pete had kept warm for them.
+
+After the meal Skinny went into the room where Parker and the women
+were. Old Heck followed and talked for a few moments with Parker about
+the affairs of the ranch, then joined the cowboys at the bunk-house
+where they had gone directly after leaving the table. On Skinny's bed
+Parker had tossed a bundle.
+
+"What in thunder do you reckon Skinny's been buying, now?" Chuck
+questioned as he picked up the package and examined it curiously.
+"Blamed if it don't feel like a shirt."
+
+"I'll bet that's what it is," Bert said with a laugh as Old Heck
+stepped inside the door, "the darn fool has gone and got him a white
+shirt--"
+
+"Who has?" Old Heck asked, hearing only the latter part of Bert's
+remark.
+
+"Skinny," Charley answered for Bert, "he's fixing up to make love in
+style--"
+
+"Aw, the blamed idiot," Old Heck grunted, then glancing over toward
+Parker's bed: "--Did you notice whether Parker got him one, too, or
+not?"
+
+Before the question was answered Parker and Skinny appeared at the
+bunk-house door.
+
+"What's the matter?" Chuck said, still holding the bundle in his hand,
+"--ain't it too early for lovers to bu'st up for the night? Or did the
+widow and Carolyn June blow out the lights on you--"
+
+"Forget it, you danged fool!" Skinny said crossly. "Can't you ever get
+over your dog-goned craziness? They was just tired and went to bed. Give
+me that package, it's mine and private!" reaching for the bundle.
+
+Chuck, with a laugh, threw it at him. It landed on the Ramblin' Kid's
+bunk where the latter was lying, his clothing still on, his eyes staring
+straight up while he smoked a cigarette.
+
+"When are you going to ride the Gold Dust maverick?" Skinny asked as he
+picked up the package.
+
+For a moment the Ramblin' Kid did not answer. Then, without changing his
+position, replied:
+
+"I don't know as I'll ever ride her. Maybe I'll turn her loose again on
+th' range."
+
+"What did you catch her for?" Bert queried. "Don't you want her?"
+
+"I caught her, 'cause I wanted to," the Ramblin' Kid answered, "but that
+ain't no sign I intend to keep her. Hell, what's the use?" he finished
+indifferently.
+
+"If you want to sell her," Old Heck said, "I'll buy her."
+
+"She ain't for sale," the Ramblin' Kid answered shortly, "not to
+anybody."
+
+"She would be a thunderin' sight better off if she was used."
+
+"Would she?" the Ramblin' Kid questioned dully. "I ain't so sure about
+that."
+
+"Of course she would," Old Heck insisted, "she'd be fed regular and--"
+
+"An' be mauled around by some darned human!" the Ramblin' Kid
+interrupted with sudden vehemence. "If I was a horse," he continued,
+speaking passionately while his black eyes burned with the spirit of
+rebellion, "I'd rather be a short-grass cay-use nippin' th' scatterin'
+feed on th' north hills an' be free to snort an' raise hell when I
+blamed please than have my belly stuffed with alfalfa hay three times a
+day an' have to gnaw th' iron of some damned man's bit in my mouth or
+carry his saddle on my back!"
+
+Silence followed the outburst.
+
+Old Heck and the cowboys knew the Ramblin' Kid was in one of his
+"moods," and experience had taught them that at such times argument was
+neither discreet nor safe. The thing they did not know was that his
+heart was torn by memory of the agony of Old Blue in the quicksand and
+his mind tortured by the picture of dumb suffering a bullet from his own
+gun had, that morning, mercifully ended.
+
+After a time he spoke again, more quietly and with a note of weariness
+in his voice:
+
+"Oh, well, I reckon I'll keep th' filly. In a day of two, when she gets
+rested up a little, I'll ride her,"
+
+"You ought to break her for Carolyn June," Skinny suggested.
+
+"Had I?" the Ramblin' Kid said with a queer laugh--it was just the
+thought that was in his mind and against which he was struggling.
+"That's a bright idea! Maybe I'll study about it an' take a notion to do
+it. If I do she can ride th' maverick When you an' her go on your
+honeymoon--"
+
+"What's a honeymoon?" Skinny queried innocently.
+
+"It's what two people take when they first get married; go off somewhere
+by themselves--like they was locoed--to find out how bad they got
+stung!" the Ramblin' Kid laughingly answered.
+
+"We'd better all go to bed," Old Heck said; "it's late and we have to
+get up early in the morning. Parker, you and some of the boys will have
+to go skin them dead steers--we've got to save the hides at least."
+
+"Old Heck wants to go to sleep so he can dream about the widow," Chuck
+snickered, "it's his turn again to-morrow to love her--"
+
+"How did she act to-day, Parker?" Bert broke in; "was she pretty
+affectionate?"
+
+"Aw, shut up! Ain't you got any respect for anything--"
+
+"I'll bet he proposed to her and she throwed him down," Chuck hazarded,
+not realizing how nearly he had come to guessing the truth.
+
+Parker looked angrily at Chuck, then his cheeks grew red, he bent over
+and began tugging at his boots in an effort to hide the tell-tale
+confusion in his eyes.
+
+Old Heck furtively studied the face of his foreman.
+
+"Or else she confessed to being a Bolshevik or local-optionist or
+something and the news broke his heart," Charley volunteered, joining in
+the baiting of the range-boss.
+
+"She didn't neither confess," Parker denied hastily, aggravated into a
+reply, "she ain't either one of them! She's an 'Organizer--'"
+
+Dead silence greeted this sudden announcement. Every eye was turned in
+astonishment on Parker while Old Heck and the boys awaited further
+explanation. Parker offered no additional information.
+
+"She's a what?" Old Heck finally managed to whisper, leaning toward
+Parker, while a look of fear and incredulity spread over his face.
+
+Parker noticed the anguish in Old Heck's eyes and a sudden new look of
+cunning came into his own.
+
+"An 'Organizer' I said," he repeated impressively, "she's an 'Organizer'
+for some kind of 'Movement' or other--"
+
+"A dis-organizer, you'd better say!" Chuck laughed uncertainly, "judging
+from the way she's got you and Old Heck stampeding already!"
+
+"Great guns!" Old Heck half groaned, "what--what sort of
+a--a--'Movement' did she say it was, anyhow?"
+
+"Swiss, probably!" came in a chuckling undertone from the direction of
+the Ramblin' Kid's bed. "Hell, what's the difference?"
+
+"She said it was connected someway with 'feminine obligations and
+woman's opportunity,'" Parker answered, ignoring the frivolous
+interruptions.
+
+"I know what she is!" Charley exclaimed, "--it's just what I expected!
+She's one of these self-starting female suffragettes! That's what she
+is. I knowed she was too gentle acting to be harmless!"
+
+"She just had to break loose sooner or later," Bert said in an awed
+voice.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck murmured hopelessly. "Holy gosh a'mighty!"
+
+The owner of the Quarter Circle KT was really shocked and worried. He
+had surrendered quickly to his first impression concerning the widow.
+The original meeting at Eagle Butte, when she and Carolyn June appeared
+as visions of feminine loveliness, as contrasted with the homely cook
+and her daughter whom he and Skinny had mistaken for, and feared were,
+the Quarter Circle KT's prospective guests, had caused a psychic effect
+on his feelings toward Ophelia. The sense of relief that came when he
+found that the cook was not Ophelia, together with the widow's
+unexpected graciousness, had instantly disarmed his suspicions and,
+metaphorically speaking, hurled his heart into her lap. He had found the
+widow charming, interesting, very feminine, and already dreams had
+shaped themselves in his mind. The sudden revelation that Parker had
+made brought tremendous disappointment. Ophelia had not shown the least
+indication of obnoxious strong-mindedness or that disagreeable
+intellectuality which Old Heck firmly believed was a necessary attribute
+of all women who participated in politics or "movements."
+
+Ophelia was an "Organizer"! It was unbelievable! The thought gave him a
+sickening feeling at the pit of his stomach and actually made his head
+ache.
+
+Old Heck's first impulse, when Parker made the startling announcement,
+was to assert his authority as boss of the outfit and annul the
+every-other-day arrangement whereby he and his foreman were to share and
+share alike in the widow's society. He would let Parker do it all--have
+her all of the time! He wouldn't take any chances! On second thought he
+decided to wait at least another day. Besides, it was against his
+principles, contrary to the ethics of the range, to back up on a bargain
+and he never asked an employee to do a thing he hadn't the courage to do
+himself. He would stick it out, come what may, and see the thing through
+to a finish. However, there was still a means of escape. If Ophelia
+developed any really serious suffragette tendencies during the next day
+or two he would go on the beef hunt himself and let Parker remain at the
+ranch!
+
+When finally he went to sleep Ophelia was still on his mind. The first
+thought that came to him when he awakened the next morning was the
+sickening news Parker had brought.
+
+Old Heck and the cowboys were silent and had about them an air of
+depression when they filed into the kitchen for breakfast.
+
+Each cast furtive, curious glances at Ophelia. The information that she
+was an "Organizer"--presumably for a "Movement" involving woman's
+political rights--caused them to view her with a kind of reverential awe
+and fear. The widow and Carolyn June, apparently, were wholly
+unconscious of the thoughts in the minds of the men. Both women were as
+innocent-looking and attractive as ever--matching with their early
+morning freshness the bowl of roses Carolyn June, before the call to
+breakfast, had gathered and placed on the table.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid sat at the right of Carolyn June. It was the first
+time they had met at the table. He said nothing and seemingly was lost
+in thought. When they had entered the kitchen Carolyn June and he had
+spoken and for a moment he looked into her eyes with an expression that
+caused her own to drop and the warm blood to rush over her throat and
+face. She had felt that same sensation of "soul-nakedness" she
+experienced when she looked into his eyes that first time when she was
+at the circular corral and he was lying under the shed. Neither spoke of
+the incidents of the previous day.
+
+The other cowboys and Old Heck studied Ophelia with a sort of
+fascination, casting shy upward glances at her from over their plates.
+
+Parker and the Ramblin' Kid only, were at ease and undisturbed.
+
+"You wouldn't think she was one by looking at her, would you?" Chuck
+said in an undertone to Charley.
+
+"Some of them's so blamed slick they can't hide it."
+
+"I reckon that's right," Chuck whispered back, "it's an awful jolt to
+Old Heck, ain't it?"
+
+"Yes, he's taking it pretty hard," Charley mumbled.
+
+"Her forehead does bulge out a good deal in front, when you come to look
+at it, don't it?" Chuck observed under his breath.
+
+"Quite a lot," Charley answered in the same tone; "that's one
+indication!"
+
+Parker gazed at the widow with an expression undeniably adoring. Old
+Heck saw it and straightened up with a look of sudden resolution on his
+face. If Parker wasn't afraid of Ophelia, by golly, he wouldn't be! The
+widow had returned the foreman's look with understanding, while more
+than a trace of tenderness and sympathy was registered in her eyes.
+
+"To-morrow is Sunday," Old Heck announced suddenly with startling
+distinctness, "and we'll get things in shape to begin the beef round-up
+on Monday!"
+
+There was immediate interest.
+
+"I'll be darned," the Ramblin' Kid murmured half audibly, "Old Heck is
+goin' to 'Uriah' Parker!"
+
+"Huh?" Skinny queried across the table.
+
+"Nothin'," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a laugh, "I was just reminded
+of somethin' I read in a book one time--"
+
+Carolyn June caught the subtle reference to the Bible story of King
+David's unfortunate romance with another man's "woman" and chuckled.
+
+"Ain't you starting the beef hunt too early?" Charley asked.
+
+"I don't know as I am," Old Heck answered doggedly.
+
+"Aw, that'll put us right in the middle of it on the Fourth of July when
+the Rodeo is going on in Eagle Butte--" Bert began.
+
+"And I ain't going to miss that, either," Chuck interrupted, "that
+Y-Bar outfit over on the Vermejo took everything in the two-mile
+sweepstakes last year and they've been bragging about it ever since.
+They think that Thunderbolt horse of theirs can't be beat. I was going
+to put Silver Tip in this year. He can put that black in second place--"
+
+"No, he can't," the Ramblin' Kid remarked quietly, "--you'd lose your
+money. There's only one animal on th' Kiowa range that can outrun that
+Vermejo horse."
+
+"What animal is that?" Charley asked.
+
+"She's in th' circular corral," the Ramblin' Kid answered laconically.
+
+"The Gold Dust maverick?" Bert questioned.
+
+"That's the one I mean," the Ramblin' Kid replied in a low voice, "for
+two miles--or five--there ain't nothin' in western Texas, or Mexico
+either, that can catch her."
+
+"Why don't you take her in when the Rodeo is on and run her in the
+sweepstakes then?" Chuck asked eagerly. "I ain't caring what Kiowa horse
+gets the money just so that Y-Bar outfit is taken down a notch or two.
+Ever since they got that Thunderbolt horse and beat Old Heck's
+Quicksilver with him they've been crowing over the Quarter Circle KT and
+I'm getting plumb sick of it--"
+
+"Old Heck lost three thousand dollars on that race!" Bert interrupted
+rather triumphantly.
+
+"I didn't neither," Old Heck corrected sullenly, "it was only
+twenty-five hundred!"
+
+"Well, that Vermejo crowd has got a hundred of mine," Chuck said
+vindictively, "but I don't give a darn for that--I'd be willing to lose
+twice that much again just to set that Thunderbolt horse of theirs back
+in second place!"
+
+"Why don't you run the outlaw filly?" Charley asked coaxingly of the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Yes, go on and put her in," Skinny urged, "--you ought to!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid remained silent, seemingly indifferent to the teasing
+of the others.
+
+Carolyn June leaned over and said, in a voice audible only to him, while
+her eyes grew mellow with a look that tested his composure to the
+uttermost but which wrung no sign from him:
+
+"Please, race the maverick--I--want you to--Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+It was the first time she had used his name in speaking directly to him
+and the tone in which it was spoken made him tremble in spite of
+himself. For a moment he returned her gaze. Her words and manner were so
+different that by their very difference they reminded him of what she
+had called him yesterday--"an ignorant, savage, stupid brute"--when he
+had refused to interfere with the cat when its head was caught in the
+can. He started to make a cynical reply. Then he remembered her sympathy
+for Old Blue, her apology later for the harsh words--anyhow he knew or
+felt in his heart they were true--and suddenly he seemed to see the
+pink satin garter he still carried in his pocket. The look that came
+into his eyes made Carolyn June lower her own. He smiled a whimsical but
+hopeless smile, as, replying apparently to the pleading of Charley and
+Skinny, he said, softly, the single word:
+
+"Maybe!"
+
+Old Heck had forgotten the annual Rodeo held in Eagle Butte, for some
+days each summer, around the Fourth of July. His sudden determination
+and eagerness to have the beef round-up begin earlier than usual in
+order to get Parker away from the widow had driven all else but that one
+idea from his mind. The protests reminded him of his oversight. He had
+not intended to deprive the cowboys of the opportunity to enjoy the one
+big event happening yearly in the Kiowa country and which temporarily
+turned Eagle Butte, for a few days each summer, into a seething
+metropolis of care-free humanity.
+
+"I think it's a darned shame to spring the beef hunt so it will
+interfere with the Rodeo," Bert grumbled, "--and us have to be out on
+the hills wrangling steers while the celebration is going on!"
+
+"I'm not-goin! to be out on th' hills then," the Ramblin' Kid said
+quietly but with unchangeable finality.
+
+"You can all go to the Rodeo," Old Heck interposed, not feeling just
+right in his conscience about sending Parker away in advance of the time
+expected, and wishing to make amends,"--Parker and all of you. You can
+'break' the round-up for a few days during the Rodeo and what cattle
+you've got gathered by then can be turned into the big pasture and held
+there till it's over. That'll let you all get into Eagle Butte for the
+Fourth--I'd like to see that blamed Thunderbolt horse beat myself! But
+we'll start the beef hunt Monday the way I said in the first place--"
+
+"Who's going to cook, this year, on the round-up?" Charley queried. "You
+can't take the Chink from here this time, can you?"
+
+"I reckon Sing Pete'll have to go along as usual," Old Heck answered;
+"it'll make it a little unhandy at the ranch, but--"
+
+"Ophelia and I can 'batch' while you are gone," Carolyn June suggested.
+"We won't mind being alone and it will be fun to cook our own meals."
+
+"We will enjoy it," Ophelia added agreeably.
+
+"You ain't going to be alone," Old Heck said; "Skinny and me will be
+here. When it comes to the cooking maybe between the four of us we can
+get along some way!"
+
+"Well, if the round-up's got to start Monday," Parker declared sullenly
+as they left the table, "I'll have to go down to town again to-day and
+get me a new saddle. Mine was on Old Blue."
+
+"I'll go with you," Old Heck said in a conciliatory way. "Charley and
+the other boys can be working on them dead steers till we get back.
+We'll go in the car and ought to make the round-trip by noon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+FIXING FIXERS
+
+The widow and Carolyn June were alone at the house. Old Heck and Parker
+went immediately from the breakfast table to the garage to get the car
+out to go to Eagle Butte. The cowboys were at the barn preparing to
+begin the day's work. Skinny had excused himself, ostensibly to attend
+to some ranch chores, but in reality to get away to the bunk-house and
+"fix up" for the day's courtship of Carolyn June. He planned, when the
+cowboys were gone, to put on the white shirt Parker brought, yesterday,
+from Eagle Butte.
+
+"Ophelia," Carolyn June said mysteriously as they stepped out on the
+front porch and filled their lungs with the clean air of the morning,
+"you made a 'discovery' yesterday, I believe?" pausing questioningly.
+
+"Yes," the widow smiled, recalling their conversation relative to
+Parker's abrupt proposal of marriage.
+
+"To-day," Carolyn June continued impressively, "it is my turn--I have
+made one!"
+
+"And it is?"
+
+"You and I have been 'framed!'" was the answer spoken solemnly yet
+scarcely louder than a whisper, while the brown eyes of Carolyn June
+sparkled with a mixture of suppressed anger, merriment and indignation.
+
+"Framed?" the widow repeated inquiringly, "just what does 'framed' mean,
+my dear?"
+
+"Framed means," Carolyn June replied wisely, "'tricked,' 'jobbed,'
+'jinxed,' 'fixed,' or whatever it is people do to people when they
+scheme to do something to them without the ones to whom they are doing
+it knowing how it is done!"
+
+"Exceedingly lucid, my love," the widow laughed, "but you are so
+agonizingly fond of suspense--"
+
+"Come inside," Carolyn June said as she led the way into the house, "and
+in a dark corner--no, that would be too near to the walls and their
+proverbial 'ears,' in the center of the room is better--I will expose
+the whole diabolical plot!"
+
+At the end of the reading table they stopped and faced each other.
+
+"And now?" Ophelia said, expectantly.
+
+"And now," Carolyn June repeated, her voice low and carefully guarded.
+"Listen: Before Ophelia Cobb and Carolyn June Dixon ever arrived at this
+Quarter Circle KT their 'lovers' were already picked out for
+them--officially chosen, delegated, appointed, foreordained and
+everything! The 'arrangements' had all been made--"
+
+"I don't understand," the widow said, bewildered by the rapid flow of
+legal-sounding words.
+
+"Nor did I at first," Carolyn June went on, "but I have figured it all
+out! I have 'discovered' what all this mysterious hinting about
+'arrangements,' 'the agreement,' 'Old Heck's day,' 'Parker's time,'
+'Skinny's job,' and so forth means! I have studied it out. Why is Skinny
+Rawlins thrown into my lap as my 'regular' lover? It's his 'job'--that
+is why! And why the day-and-day-about courting of yourself by Uncle
+Josiah and Parker? It is the 'agreement'--the one is to have you one day
+and the other the next! Before we came some such arrangement was fixed
+up. I am sure of it--"
+
+"Impossible," Ophelia protested, "preposterous!"
+
+"Outrageous!" Carolyn June added vehemently, "but truth just the same!
+To start with they didn't want us to come. That telegram lying about
+them all having the smallpox proved as much. We were, for some reason or
+other, considered 'afflictions,' Why, I don't know. I guess they thought
+we were a pair of female vampires or something and had to be disposed of
+in advance to prevent our stirring things up and causing a lot of
+murders or suicides or duels on the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"I can't believe it," Ophelia muttered as if stunned. "Why, that would
+be 'dealing' with us just as though we were cattle!"
+
+"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed vindictively, her auger for the
+moment getting the better of her sense of the ridiculous, "they 'dealt'
+in us! More than likely they played poker to decide how to divide us
+up--to see who should love you and which should love me! As if the heart
+of a woman can be made to run in a groove cut to order by the hand of
+any masculine--insect!" she finished, thoughtless of the incongruous
+metaphor.
+
+"Then Skinny and your Uncle Josiah," the widow murmured, "and
+Parker--are--are--pretending?"
+
+"No," Carolyn June answered, "they started out 'pretending,' but they've
+stepped into their own trap! They are painfully serious now--they are
+'intending!'"
+
+"What shall we do about it?" Ophelia asked helplessly.
+
+"We ought to assassinate them!" Carolyn June snapped, then laughed as
+the absurdity of the situation dawned upon her and her sense of humor
+overcame the moment of anger and indignation. "I have it--I've got it!
+We will Vamp' them in dead earnest! We'll fix the 'fixers,' we'll frame
+the 'framers'!"
+
+"But how?" doubtfully.
+
+"From now on," Carolyn June replied decisively, "I am going to flirt,
+individually and collectively--desperately and wickedly--with the whole
+male population of this ranch! We'll show them what premeditated
+love-making really is! When it comes to Uncle Josiah and, well, possibly
+Parker, you will have to take care of that giddy pair yourself and,
+incidentally, you might work some on Charley Saunders," mentioning the
+oldest of the cowboys. "I'll just flicker an eyelid occasionally at
+Parker, unless you object?"
+
+"Not in the least," Ophelia answered, blushing a trifle.
+
+"Well, then, we will make it a free-for-all," Carolyn June said, "and--"
+
+"How about the Ramblin' Kid?" the widow interrupted, "do you think he is
+one of the conspirators--is in on the--the--'frame-up?' Is he also to be
+a 'Victim'?"
+
+Carolyn June colored the least bit, paused a moment before she replied,
+then said rather stiffly:
+
+"He--yes, he is probably having more fun watching us being 'officially'
+made love to than any other one of the entire bunch. The Ramblin' Kid
+will have to take his medicine along with the rest! Every man-thing on
+the Quarter Circle KT--eliminating Sing Pete from that classification
+--is my meat!"
+
+"When does the slaughter begin?" Ophelia laughed.
+
+"Right now!" Carolyn June answered. "War is declared--"
+
+She stopped suddenly as a step sounded on the porch and a moment later
+Skinny entered the room. He was painfully "dressed up." The instant Old
+Heck and Parker, in the Clagstone "Six," started for Eagle Butte and the
+cowboys disappeared down the lane in the direction of the big pasture,
+Skinny struggled into the white shirt. He planned to try its effect on
+Carolyn June while the others were away. If it did not produce results
+he would slip back to the bunk-house before they returned and change
+again to his normal dress.
+
+When Skinny stepped into the room he was fully conscious of his unusual
+appearance. The morning was warm and he had not put on a coat. The shirt
+billowed over his shoulders, arms and chest in a snowy cloud. It seemed
+impossible to Skinny that anything in all the world could be so vividly,
+persistently white as the cloth that literally enveloped the upper half
+of his body. It actually gleamed. The sleeves of the shirt were too
+long. A pair of sky-blue, rosette-fastened, satin ribbon sleeve-holders
+above his elbows kept the cuffs from slipping over his hands. Parker had
+been unable to get the purple necktie and had brought, instead, one that
+was a solid Shamrock green. Skinny swore when he saw the tie, but
+decided to wear it anyhow. Parker had explained by saying he had
+forgotten the errand until he was starting from town and then stepped
+into Old Leon's--a cheap general store in Eagle Butte--and purchased the
+outfit from the Jew. That accounted also for the surplus length of
+sleeve--the shirt was a size and a half larger than Skinny had ordered
+and for which Parker declared positively he had asked. Eternal hatred
+for all Hebrews was born in Skinny's heart the moment he saw the layout.
+But, well, it was there; he was anxious to see if a white shirt would
+have any effect, and he would wear it anyway.
+
+Skinny knew instantly that he made an impression on Carolyn June.
+
+She looked at him once and was speechless!
+
+"By gosh," he said to himself, "Chuck was right! It sure does beat hell
+how clothes affect a woman!"
+
+Carolyn June, unquestionably, was overcome. The surprise had been too
+much for her. He had knocked her cold! The shirt had done the work! She
+bit nervously at the nail of her thumb, pressed desperately against her
+teeth. Her whole body trembled. Her face flamed scarlet. Skinny saw her
+agitation and resolved at that moment that he would never again be
+without a white shirt!
+
+Ophelia also was visibly affected. The widow gave one look at Skinny,
+glanced quickly at Carolyn June, then, with her hands clasped tightly
+against her breast, she leaned weakly against the table and chewed at
+her underlip. She started to speak and stopped.
+
+"Well, I--I--got back!" Skinny said, breaking the spell while he grinned
+somewhat sheepishly and yet with an air of complete satisfaction.
+
+"I--I--see you--did!" Carolyn June choked hysterically.
+
+"I was gone longer than I aimed to be," Skinny continued, rapidly
+gaining confidence as he saw the confusion of the women; "after I got
+the chores done I concluded to fix up a little. This is the first time I
+ever wore this shirt," he went on, feeling that a bit of explanation was
+entirely proper and would probably help in restoring the composure of
+Carolyn June and the widow. "Parker just brought it out yesterday and it
+was a good deal of trouble to make the collar work right. It seemed like
+it was pretty stiff or something. Generally speaking the whole outfit's
+bigger than it really ought to be, but maybe it'll shrink up some when
+it's washed," he finished in a casual matter-of-fact way.
+
+"It--it--is wonderful!" Carolyn June stammered, "it is--I don't think I
+ever saw one that was--was--whiter--"
+
+"It looked that way to me," Skinny interrupted as if glad some one else
+had noticed a peculiarity of the garment that already had troubled him
+somewhat, "I thought it was uncommonly white!"
+
+"Perhaps it just seems that way because we are not used to it," Ophelia
+suggested sympathetically.
+
+"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed feverishly, "it is because we are
+not used to it--it will be perfectly all right when we have looked at it
+a little more!"
+
+Skinny decided he would risk the gauntlet of comment from Parker, Old
+Heck and the cowboys and wear the shirt the rest of the day.
+
+Carolyn June was really sorry for Skinny, but--she needed air--she felt
+she must have it.
+
+"Please," she cried suddenly and with, an effort, "excuse me! I--I--have
+something I wish to do! You," speaking to Skinny, "and Ophelia stay here
+and visit each other a while!"
+
+Without waiting for an answer she stepped quickly into the kitchen,
+asked Sing Pete for a handful of sugar and hurried out to the circular
+corral.
+
+"Oh, Skinny, Skinny, you are so funny," she laughed aloud as she went
+through the back-yard gate. "It breaks my heart to break your heart--but
+you are one of the 'fixers' and you've got to be 'fixed.'"
+
+The Gold Dust maverick at first was shy when Carolyn June opened the
+gate and entered the corral. After a few moments she recognized the girl
+and was soon eating the sugar from the hand of Carolyn June. Before the
+supply was exhausted the friendship and confidence of the two, begun
+yesterday, was firmly reestablished. The maverick allowed Carolyn June
+to swing her weight from the glossy withers, to clasp her arms tightly
+about the trim, clean-built neck, and when, after an hour, the girl
+started toward the house, the outlaw mare protested so eagerly against
+being left alone that she turned back to the corral and leaning against
+the fence stroked the soft muzzle thrust between the bars.
+
+Carolyn June was cooing endearing terms to the filly and playing with
+the quivering underlip when she heard a horse galloping swiftly up the
+lane and past the barn. Instinctively she stepped back and turned just
+as the Ramblin' Kid, riding Captain Jack, wheeled around the end of the
+shed near the corral.
+
+His sudden appearance surprised her. She had thought he was with the
+cowboys over at the upland pasture helping skin the steers killed by the
+lightning.
+
+When they left the ranch the Ramblin' Kid had ridden away with Charley
+and the others, but not with any intention of going to the big pasture.
+Where the road turned toward the lower ford he held Captain Jack to the
+left.
+
+"Ain't you going with us," Charley Saunders asked, "and help skin them
+steers?"
+
+"No," the Ramblin' Kid replied quietly. "I ain't. I've got something
+else to do. Anyhow, I ain't a butcher--I work with live cattle, not dead
+ones!" he concluded as Captain Jack continued in the direction of the
+upper crossing.
+
+"He's the independentest darn' cuss I ever saw!" Charley remarked to his
+companions as the Ramblin' Kid disappeared. "It's a wonder Old Heck
+don't fire him."
+
+"He can't," Bert laughed. "Th' Ramblin' Kid don't stay at the Quarter
+Circle KT by the grace of Old Heck, but by the choice of th' Ramblin'
+Kid! Anyhow, he's too good with horses--" His voice trailed away to a
+low mutter as they turned in among the willows and cottonwood trees
+along the bank of the Cimarron.
+
+At the upper crossing on almost the same spot where he had lifted
+Carolyn June from the quicksand to the solid ground of the meadow land,
+the Ramblin' Kid stopped Captain Jack. He looked out over the placid,
+unbroken surface of the sand-bar and saw the end of the broken rope
+coiled loosely where Old Blue had been drawn under. A few yards away the
+white felt hat Carolyn June had tossed to one side, to be a mute and
+pathetic messenger of her fate, when she thought death was certain,
+still rested on the smooth surface of the sand. It was to get the hat
+the Ramblin' Kid had come again to the scene of yesterday's tragedy. He
+had seen it lying there when Carolyn June and he rode away on Captain
+Jack and thought then of trying to get it, but the part of the broken
+rope attached to his saddle was too short to reach it and it was
+impossible to secure it in any other way. Chuck had returned the
+Ramblin' Kid's rope to him yesterday when they were after the runaway
+steers and it was now on his saddle. He lightly tossed the noose so that
+it fell circling the object he sought. Gently flicking the rope toward
+him he tightened the loop about the crown of the hat and drew it to the
+edge of the quicksand. He picked up the hat, looked curiously at it,
+remounted Captain Jack, paused a moment and gazed at the treacherous
+surface beneath which the body of Old Blue was hidden and with a
+savagely muttered something about "th' damned stuff!" whirled the little
+stallion and rode rapidly in the direction from which he came.
+
+As Captain Jack galloped along the lane the Ramblin' Kid looked at the
+hat curiously, turning it first one way and then the other. With a
+laugh he reached into his pocket and drew out the pink satin garter. An
+expression of tenderness, followed by a look of deep humility that
+quickly changed into savage anger, came into his eyes as he looked first
+at the hat, soiled and dirty, and then at the dainty bit of elastic he
+held in his hand.
+
+"A swell pair of souvenirs," he said bitterly, "for an 'ign'rant,
+savage, stupid brute' of a cow-puncher to be packin' around!"
+
+Before reaching the barn the Ramblin' Kid dropped the garter again into
+his pocket. Rounding the end of the shed he rode Captain Jack directly
+up to Carolyn June. Dismounting, he left the little roan standing, not
+troubling to drop the reins over the broncho's head, stepped toward the
+girl and extended the hat, saying simply and without emotion.
+
+"Here's your hat!"
+
+There was no embarrassment now or humility in his eyes as he looked
+steadily at Carolyn June. His expression was as cold as if the one to
+whom he spoke was an utter stranger.
+
+"I--" Carolyn June hesitated, "oh, I thank you! It was kind of you to
+think about it and ride back--back--there," she involuntarily
+shuddered when she thought of the upper crossing, "and get it!"
+
+The simple, unexpected thoughtfulness of the deed touched her. It was
+the natural, instinctive act of a gentleman. She had forgotten the hat.
+He had not. As she looked at him she felt that, someway, she might have
+known such a thing was exactly what he would do.
+
+"You're welcome," he said quietly, starting to turn away.
+
+A spirit of mischief suddenly flared up in her heart. She thought of the
+pink elastic she had lost and which she believed he was carrying now in
+his pocket.
+
+"Is the hat all--didn't you--" she intended to say "find something
+else?" but quickly stopped. The Ramblin' Kid paused and turned again
+toward Carolyn June. She hesitated in confusion. It had flashed to her
+mind that if he had the garter he would not lie about it. He would say
+as much and offer to return it to her. Someway, she did not wish
+that--she wanted him to keep it, but she did not want him to know that
+she wanted her garter to be carried by him!
+
+His black eyes looked keenly at her, as if they would force from her
+lips the thing she evidently dared not say.
+
+"I--I was just getting acquainted with the Gold Dust maverick!" Carolyn
+June finished lamely with a nervous laugh.
+
+"You want to be careful," the Ramblin' Kid said with the slightest curl
+of his lips at her obvious shifting of meanings, "she ain't exactly a
+'lady's animal' yet. She'll fight. Skinny started to go in th' corral
+this morning an' had to back up. Th' maverick went at him to kill.
+She's goin' to be a 'one-man' horse th' same as Captain Jack."
+
+"Perhaps it was because she was afraid of him," Carolyn June suggested.
+
+"Maybe it was because Skinny was afraid of her," the Ramblin' Kid
+chuckled.
+
+"Aren't you going to ride the filly in that race at Eagle Butte?" she
+asked suddenly with a hint of coquetry in her eyes and voice.
+
+"Why?" he shot back at her, observing the changed inflection and look.
+
+"I--I--would like you to," Carolyn June murmured demurely as she
+followed up the feminine method of mastering a man, "it would be fun to
+see her run!"
+
+"Is that all?" the Ramblin' Kid asked gently and with a peculiar
+emphasis.
+
+"Isn't that enough?" the girl countered in a tone bordering close to the
+tender.
+
+The answer was slow in coming.
+
+"Th' Gold Dust maverick will be in th' sweepstakes," the Ramblin' Kid
+finally said, a note of contempt in his voice. "I'll ride her"--as he
+jerked the saddle from Captain Jack, turned the stallion into the
+corral, then started toward the bunk-house, while Carolyn June moved
+away in the direction of the back-yard gate--"I'll ride her," he
+repeated, emphasizing strongly the last ten words, "_to beat that
+Thunderbolt horse from over on th' Vermejo_".
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+A DANCE AND A RIDE
+
+Old Heck and Parker returned from Eagle Butte before noon. Parker
+climbed silently from the Clagstone "Six" and lifting out a new saddle
+went toward the stable. Old Heck carried another--a beautiful thing,
+artistically scrolled, the horn and stirrups silver trimmed--and laid it
+on the front porch as Carolyn June, Ophelia and Skinny stepped out of
+the big room.
+
+"It's yours," he said to Carolyn June.
+
+"Oh, you darling old uncle!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around his
+neck and giving a tight squeeze while she kissed him full on the mouth.
+
+He reddened. "I ain't so darned old!" he laughed as he withdrew from her
+embrace and, glancing up, caught sight of Skinny in the immaculate
+shirt. "My Gawd!" he whispered under his breath.
+
+Parker immediately saddled a horse and rode away to join the cowboys at
+their work. Lunches for the party had been taken with them when they
+left the ranch in the morning. During the trip to Eagle Butte Old Heck
+and his foreman had talked but little. There was a feeling of restraint
+between Parker and him that made each hesitate to start a conversation
+that would be almost certain to work around to a discussion of
+Ophelia--a subject uppermost in the minds of both.
+
+At noon the Ramblin' Kid came to the house for dinner.
+
+He and Skinny occupied their usual places. He looked once at Skinny's
+shirt, murmured softly and in a tone of infinite disgust and pity,
+"Hell!" then ate his food in silence. During the meal Carolyn June
+ignored him, but smiled tenderly and often at Skinny. Old Heck and the
+widow, at the far end of the table, carried on a low-voiced dialogue.
+
+During the afternoon the Ramblin' Kid remained away from the house. A
+couple of times, glancing out of the window, Carolyn June saw him at the
+circular corral petting and caressing Captain Jack or the Gold Dust
+maverick.
+
+When Sing Pete hammered the iron triangle announcing supper Parker and
+the cowboys had returned, the hides from the dead steers had been
+unloaded and the men were ready for the meal.
+
+As Carolyn June and Ophelia went into the kitchen they exchanged a look
+of understanding. Skinny lagged behind Old Heck. He dreaded the shock of
+the white shirt on the other cowboys. When he stepped into the room his
+face flamed scarlet and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. He
+expected merciless, sarcastic chiding--thinly veiled but cruel. He was
+disappointed. The cowboys looked at him for a moment, exchanged winks,
+then sat silently and solemnly down to the table. The presence of the
+women had saved, for the time being, the suffering Skinny.
+
+Carolyn June distributed tender words and velvety looks impartially
+among the younger cowboys, while Ophelia alternated sweet nothings
+between Parker and Old Heck, with an occasional sidelong glance at
+Charley that brought a heightened color to his sun-browned cheeks.
+
+Chuck sighed dolefully.
+
+"Why so sad?" Carolyn June asked gently, looking with melting sympathy
+at the pensive cowboy.
+
+"I--I--was just thinking of a--a--funeral I saw once!" he answered,
+gazing steadily and with pretended awe at Skinny's white shirt. "Some
+colors always remind me of funerals or--or--weddings!" he explained.
+
+A suppressed snicker circled the table.
+
+"Don't be down-hearted," Carolyn June laughed, "it may not go that far.
+
+"Uncle Josiah," she added suddenly, "Ophelia and I have a wonderful
+surprise for you and the boys."
+
+Old Heck looked at her without replying while he awaited an explanation.
+
+"We are going to give a dance!" Carolyn June went on.
+
+"A dance?" he repeated incredulously, "when--"
+
+"To-night--in the front room," she hastened to explain, "not a big
+dance--just a little one for you and the boys. The graphophone will
+furnish music, there are some good one-step and waltz records--Skinny
+and I were playing them this afternoon--and every blessed cowboy on the
+Quarter Circle KT must be there!"
+
+A short silence followed her words, then a chorus of "Well be there!"
+greeted her.
+
+"In an hour," Carolyn June said, smiling sweetly at the cowboys, as they
+left the kitchen, "everybody be back at the house. We'll fix the room
+and have it ready--don't any one bother to 'dress up,'" she added as an
+afterthought.
+
+"Old Heck's niece acts kind of stampedish, don't she?" Bert remarked as
+Parker and the cowboys filed out of the back-yard gate toward the
+bunk-house.
+
+"Yes," Charley answered. "I'm going to shave."
+
+"So am I," said Chuck, as they hurried in the direction of their
+sleeping quarters.
+
+"Me, too," laughed Bert. "Gee, didn't Skinny shine in that shirt?" as
+they disappeared inside the building and there was a rush to hunt out
+razors, brushes and other toilet necessities or clean handkerchiefs and
+ties.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid alone seemed uninterested. He dropped down on his bed
+and idly watched the others prepare for the evening's diversion.
+
+"Ain't you going?" Chuck asked him, noticing his indifference.
+
+A short, half-cynical laugh with "Oh, maybe I'll go set on the porch
+an' listen to th' music!" was the answer.
+
+When Parker and the cowboys reappeared at the house it was plain that
+all had disobeyed Carolyn June's injunction not to "dress up." Each had
+paid tribute in some way, by a smooth-scraped face, a dean shirt, a tie
+or something, to the vanity of his own heart and the desire for the good
+opinion of either Carolyn June or the widow.
+
+Both women noticed it. They exchanged glances while Carolyn June softly
+whispered to Ophelia: "Stir them up--it's coming to them!"
+
+The widow smiled understandingly.
+
+Old Heck fidgeted uncomfortably. The situation was entirely beyond his
+control. By right he and Ophelia ought to be sitting there quietly
+making love, while Skinny and Carolyn June, in another corner of the
+room or out on the porch, were doing the same thing. He would just have
+to await developments.
+
+Parker was elated. Carolyn June's proposal had broken up Old Heck's
+evening alone with the widow. Perhaps--the thought thrilled the foreman
+--Ophelia herself had planned it!
+
+"Skinny can keep the graphophone working," Carolyn June laughed. "Put on
+a one-step first," she said as he rather grudgingly went to the corner
+and started the music. "Come on, Bert, we'll dance this one," she cried
+merrily, as she stepped up to the blushing cowboy and put her hand, with
+a tender little pressure, on his arm. "It's 'ladies' night,' you
+know--Ophelia, pick your pardner!"
+
+"Aw--don't you reckon you ought to choose one of the others first?"
+Bert, considerably embarrassed by the sudden attention, mumbled as he
+moved with pretended reluctance but secret eagerness out on to the
+floor.
+
+"I know who I want to dance with!" Carolyn June whispered significantly
+with another squeeze of his arm while her warm breath fanned his cheek.
+
+For a moment Ophelia stood as if undecided while Old Heck and Parker
+each tried by their looks to register unconcern, their hearts meanwhile
+leaping with uncertain expectancy and hope. Suddenly turning from both
+and going up to Charley, she said softly and with well-feigned shyness:
+
+"I--I--please, won't you dance this one with me?"
+
+"With the most exceeding pleasure!" Charley replied gallantly, arising
+and reaching out his hands.
+
+Parker and Old Heck gulped their astonishment and disappointment--each
+swallowing as if he had something in his throat that would not go
+down--and glared savagely at each other.
+
+Skinny next put on a waltz record. Carolyn June and Chuck swung through
+its dreamy rhythm while her hair brushed the cowboy's neck and her eyes,
+half closed, looked alluringly into his. "I--I--could do this
+forever--with you!" she breathed, accenting the last word and making
+Chuck want to yell for joy.
+
+At the beginning of the waltz Ophelia paused a moment before Old Heck,
+glanced demurely at Parker, took a step toward the latter, turned
+quickly to the first and flooding him with a look of tenderness held out
+her hands while she spoke the simple entreaty:
+
+"Please!"
+
+Old Heck leaped to his feet, hitched nervously at the belt of his
+trousers, ran his fingers around the inside of his collar, and, with a
+look of triumph at Parker, led the widow through the dance. She
+permitted her body to relax and lean against her partner, dancing with
+an abandon that not only fired the emotions of Old Heck to fever heat,
+but was as well like dippers of oil on the flame of the foreman's
+jealousy.
+
+Parker gritted his teeth and followed Old Heck with a look that meant
+nothing less than the desire to kill!
+
+As Ophelia and Old Heck, and Carolyn June with Chuck circled the room
+Skinny leaned weakly against the graphophone. He was tortured
+agonizingly by the strange action of Carolyn June. He was her lover, her
+official, absolute lover! Why did she want to go and get things all
+mixed up like this? It wasn't fair. The other boys were not supposed to
+make love to her! They had elected him to do it and he was getting
+along all right till she thought of having this blamed fool dance. He
+began to doubt the efficacy of the white shirt and frequently drew one
+of the loose, baggy sleeves--rapidly losing their snowy
+spotlessness--across his face to rid himself of beads of perspiration.
+
+The waltz was followed by another one-step and Ophelia granted this
+favor to Parker while Old Heck sat and swore steadily under his
+breath--regretful that he had not sent the foreman and the cowboys out
+on the beef hunt a week ago!
+
+Outside, the Ramblin' Kid half-reclined on the edge of the porch. With a
+cigarette between his teeth, a sneering smile on his lips, he watched,
+through the open door, the group within. He was convinced now that
+Carolyn June was utterly frivolous. She danced and flirted with Bert,
+Chuck, Charley--and even Pedro--one after the other and occasionally
+Parker. Poor Skinny alone was neglected. She seemed to have forgotten
+that he existed save when, from time to time, she suggested that he put
+this or that record on the graphophone. To each of the cowboys she
+whispered tender little sentiments, gave soulful looks and insinuating
+smiles--all but caressed them openly. Ophelia did like things to Old
+Heck, Parker and Charley.
+
+In very truth it was a "slaughter."
+
+It was hot After an hour Carolyn June stepped out on the porch for a
+breath of air while Skinny Bought in the cabinet for a record she had
+asked him to play. The Ramblin' Kid straightened up as she came out of
+the door. He was disgusted, angry, heart-sickened. He had seen enough
+and was starting to leave.
+
+Carolyn June had noticed the absence of the Ramblin' Kid. She had
+believed, all evening, he was on the porch and that was the real reason
+she had come outside. She saw him. "Oh, is.--is--that you, Ramblin'
+Kid?" she exclaimed as if surprised, and went quickly to where, at the
+sound of her voice, he had paused.
+
+He did not answer. The light shone full on his face and he knew that she
+knew--and had known before she spoke--that he was there. His eyes were
+filled with a look queerly blending scorn, loathing, pity and pain.
+
+"Why--why--don't you come in and dance?" she asked lightly, not certain
+of his mood.
+
+"I don't want to," he replied coldly: "anyhow--" he added with a sneer
+and a brutal laugh as he slowly moved away in the darkness, "when I
+decide to _hug_ I'll hug in private!"
+
+Carolyn June started almost as though he had struck her. The taunt was
+an insult! A flood of anger swept over her. "The brute!" she whispered
+passionately and with utter contempt in her voice. She stood a moment.
+Suddenly she remembered the reckless abandon with which she had been
+dancing and flirting with the cowboys inside the house. Her face flamed
+scarlet. She looked out into the blackness toward the circular corral.
+Her expression changed and a pitying smile crossed her lips: "Poor
+Ramblin' Kid--he just--does not understand!" she murmured and stepped
+back into the house.
+
+As the Ramblin' Kid passed through the back-yard gate he muttered
+savagely under his breath: "Playin' with their hearts like marbles--th'
+damned fools!" He paused a moment and added, as though tired, "Oh, well,
+I reckon she thinks she has to do it--it's her breed--she was raised
+that way I guess!"
+
+The snuffling sound of a horse blowing hay-powder or other dust from its
+nostrils came from the direction of the circular corral. The Ramblin'
+Kid stopped in his walk and turning went thoughtfully through the
+darkness toward where Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were
+quietly feeding. He leaned against the bars of the corral and looked at
+the shadowy forms of the two horses standing a little distance away.
+Captain Jack quit eating and came to the fence.
+
+"God! Little Horse"--the Ramblin' Kid spoke tensely and without
+repression--"why can't humans be as decent an' honest as you?"
+
+The black dome of night was studded with innumerable stars that gleamed
+like points of silver sprinkled over a canopy of somber velvet some
+infinite hand had flung, in a great arch, from rim to rim of a sleeping
+world. The call of a night bird shrilled softly from the cottonwood
+trees along the Cimarron. A hint of a breeze swung idly from the west
+and rustled the leaves in the tops of the poplars in front of the house.
+Faintly as a distant echo came the wailing strains of a waltz, drifting
+out from the lighted windows and the open door of the room where Carolyn
+June and Ophelia, in a spirit of sport and for revenge, juggled the
+hearts of men afraid of nothing in all the world but the look in a
+Woman's eyes.
+
+The music tortured the soul of the Ramblin' Kid. It breathed the
+unfathomable strife of life--of love, longing, hope, despair--almost,
+yet subtly, elusively, would not tell the eternal "Why?" of all things.
+
+Not heeding time, he stood and listened. The crunching sound made by the
+Gold Dust maverick, munching at the pile of hay on the ground in the
+corral, blended with and seemed a queer accompaniment to the melody that
+came from the scene of revelry up at the house.
+
+The orange disk of a late-rising moon showed above the rim of the
+sand-hills at the lower end of the valley. The Ramblin' Kid watched
+it--until it grew into a rounded plate of burnished, glistening silver.
+The Gold Dust maverick was suddenly flooded with a glare of light as the
+moonbeams poured over the top of the shed and streamed through the bars
+of the circular corral. The filly lifted her head.
+
+An impulse to ride--ride--ride, to get away from it all--far out on the
+wide unpeopled plains where there was nothing above but God, and the
+unmeasured depths of His heavens, and nothing beneath but the earth and
+the rhythmic beat of his horse's feet, came over the Ramblin' Kid. Men,
+and the works of men--their passions, their strifes, their
+foolishness--and women--women who played with love--he wanted to forget,
+to leave miles and miles behind.
+
+He started to open the gate, thinking to saddle Captain Jack and obey
+the impulse of the moment. Carolyn June's words, spoken of the Gold Dust
+maverick: "It would be fun to see her run!" and uttered lightly and in a
+spirit of coquetry that morning when she teased him to enter the outlaw
+filly in the race against the Thunderbolt horse from the Vermejo, came
+to his mind. The selfishness of the plea maddened him. She cared nothing
+for the price in effort--the straining muscles, the panting breath--the
+agony the beautiful mare must pay to defeat the black wonder from the
+other part of the range. She wanted only to see the maverick run--to
+coax him to yield and run the filly merely to please the cheap vanity of
+her sex! No doubt also she counted on entertainment when, to-morrow, he
+would ride the outlaw for the first time. It would be a kind of
+show--the battle for mastery between himself and the high-bred untamed
+mare. The whole bunch--Old Heck, Parker, Ophelia, Carolyn June, the
+cowboys--yes, even that damned Chink--unquestionably would be crowded
+about the corral to watch the fear and pain of the maverick as she
+learned her first hard lesson of servitude to man! They would laugh at
+her frenzied efforts to throw him.
+
+He would fool them. He would ride the filly to-night!
+
+He went to the shed, slipped his legs into the worn leather chaps, took
+saddle, bridle, blanket and rope and returned to the corral.
+
+Stepping inside he closed the gate behind him.
+
+Captain Jack came to him and nosed at his shoulder.
+
+"No, Little Man," the Ramblin' Kid said gently, "this ain't your turn.
+You can go with us though, if you want to!" he laughed.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick stood, half-afraid, at the other side of the
+corral. She had not yet wholly conquered her dread of him. She did not,
+however, offer to fight as she had done that morning when Skinny entered
+the enclosure.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid spoke to the filly and, as she began to move shyly
+away, with one toss threw the loop over her head. The instant the mare
+felt the rope she stopped and stood trembling a moment, then came
+straight up to him. She was "rope-wise." The experience at the North
+Springs the night he caught her, and when she had, three separate times,
+been cruelly thrown by this same rope; had taught the Gold Dust maverick
+the power that lay in those pliant strands.
+
+She flinched from the touch of the blanket. The Ramblin' Kid worked
+easily, carefully, but in absolute confidence, with her. As he
+cautiously saddled the mare he talked in a low, drawling monotone,
+uttering endearing phrases and occasionally slipping a lump of sugar--a
+supply of which he had got that night from the kitchen--into her mouth.
+She ate it ravenously.
+
+"Darn, Little One," he laughed, "you sure have got a sweet tooth--you
+gobble that sugar like an Indian squaw eatin' choc'late candy!"
+
+At last the mare was saddled. Still holding to the rope, the Ramblin'
+Kid, without trying to get the filly to follow, moved over and opened
+the gate, giving it a push and swinging it wide. During the performance
+the Gold Dust maverick stood perfectly still, save for a constant
+chewing at the iron bit between her teeth.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid went quietly up to her, coiling the slack of the rope
+as he advanced. Without bothering to tighten the reins, but watching
+closely the look in the maverick's big brown eyes and the nervous
+twitching of her ears, he laid one hand on the withers of the outlaw,
+with the other he grasped the horn of the saddle and slipping his foot
+in the stirrup swung quickly and lightly on to her back.
+
+For the space of a deep breath the maverick crouched, grew tense in
+every muscle, slowly arched her back, gathered herself together for a
+great effort.
+
+A quiet smile curled the lips of the Ramblin' Kid as he looked down on
+the curving neck of the beautiful creature.
+
+With a tremendous leap the Gold Dust maverick sprang high into the air,
+lunging forward while all her hoofs were off the ground. Her forefeet
+came down across the back of Captain Jack--she had all but cleared the
+little roan. The shock almost threw the stallion to the ground. As he
+surged from under her the filly slid and sprawled on her shoulder and
+side. Instantly she was on her feet, the Ramblin' Kid still in the
+saddle. His spurs had not touched the mare--instead he had been careful
+not to let their steel points so much as ruffle the golden-chestnut hair
+of her belly or flank. Only when the outlaw fell had he thrown forward
+his right leg and hooked the sharp rowels into the strong fiber of the
+forward cinch. With the left hand he loosely held the reins, giving the
+maverick her head--the other hand he brushed with a caressing upward
+movement along her glossy neck.
+
+Twice the Gold Dust maverick circled the corral, plunging, bucking
+"side-winding," desperately--her nose between her knees, squealing
+pitifully--as she tried vainly to rid herself of the weight of the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Go to it, Baby Girl, go to it!" he chuckled; "you've got to learn!
+Sooner or later you'll find out it can't be done!" He rode limply,
+loosely, low in the saddle, and while he made no effort to urge the
+filly into greater frenzy he did not try in any way to prevent her
+bucking her hardest in, the futile attempts to hurl him off her back.
+
+The second time the outlaw mare came to the gate she whirled and dashed
+through the opening, out of the corral, across the open space, past the
+corner of the front-yard fence and along the road that led up to the
+bench and toward Eagle Butte. Captain Jack trotted around the corral
+once, then followed at a long, swinging gallop.
+
+The noise of the filly bucking inside the corral reached the ears of the
+dancers in the big room at the house.
+
+"What in thunderation's that commotion?" Old Heck exclaimed, starting
+up--he and Ophelia had just finished a two-step and Skinny was winding
+the graphophone to play his favorite, the alluring _La Paloma_.
+
+There was an instant's pause, then a rush for the door.
+
+Carolyn June reached the porch just in time to see the Gold Dust
+maverick "hitting the breeze"--careering madly, wildly pitching as she
+ran past the opening in front of the house and up the road out on the
+bench. It was almost as though a phantom horse and rider had passed
+before her sight.
+
+"Lord! Look at them go!" Charley cried admiringly.
+
+At first the girl had not recognized the outlaw mare or her rider.
+
+"Who--what--is it?" she asked Chuck, who was standing beside her.
+
+Bert answered for Chuck. "It's that darn-fool Ramblin' Kid--he's riding
+the Gold Dust maverick!" he said. "Ain't that just like the blamed
+idiot--to go and ride that filly to-night?"
+
+"Aw, he's liable to do anything," Charley commented, "he's--"
+
+Before the sentence was finished the beautiful mare and her apparently
+careless rider, with Captain Jack a hundred yards behind, disappeared
+over the brink of the bench and in the silence that followed the group
+on the porch heard only the distant thudding of hoofs beating an ever
+fainter tattoo through the calm, moonlit night.
+
+Carolyn June went back into the house with conflicting emotions surging
+through her heart. She believed she knew why the Ramblin' Kid had
+elected to ride the outlaw filly to-night. But her thoughts she kept to
+herself.
+
+For an hour longer the dance continued. But not with the spirit of
+earlier in the evening. The interruption took something of the eagerness
+to punish Old Heck, Parker and the cowboys, out of the heart of Carolyn
+June. A bit of doubt that the role she and Ophelia were playing was
+worthy of true womanhood crept into her mind.
+
+When the widow and Carolyn June were alone Ophelia laughed.
+
+"Whew!" she exclaimed, "that was a strenuous party! I've danced till my
+feet ache! Do you think our little 'counterplot' was a success?"
+
+"Entirely!" Carolyn June replied with an uncertain chuckle. "Uncle
+Josiah, Parker and Charley will dream dreams about you and fight duels
+in their sleep to-night!"
+
+"I think the others--" the widow started to say, then pausing, finished:
+"Wasn't it queer the Ramblin' Kid decided to ride that outlaw horse
+to-night instead of coming to the house to dance?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," Carolyn June answered indifferently.
+
+"I guess it's as Charley says," Ophelia remarked: "'You can't tell what
+th' Ramblin' Kid's liable to do'--"
+
+"I suppose not," Carolyn June replied wearily as she went into her room.
+"Good night!"
+
+"Good night!" Ophelia echoed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+YOU'LL GET YOUR WISH
+
+It was a silent group that gathered in the bunk-house after the dance.
+Old Heck, Parker, Charley and the other cowboys had been unduly
+stimulated by the music, the laughter and the bright smiles of Carolyn
+June and Ophelia. When they stepped out of the house into the cool night
+these all were left behind. The cow-men quickly sobered down and by the
+time they reached their sleeping quarters on the faces of all were
+half-ashamed looks as if they had been playing at a game not quite
+dignified enough or proper for men of maturity and seriousness.
+
+All were thoughtful and none seemed eager to start conversation.
+
+Skinny was dejected and utterly miserable.
+
+He felt that he had been cruelty treated. Carolyn June had acted all
+evening as though his only object in living was to stand in the corner
+and wind up that blamed graphophone, while she openly flirted with the
+other cowboys. Skinny was grateful to the Ramblin' Kid who, alone of all
+the cow-punchers, had decency enough to stay away and not interfere with
+the original agreement. The Ramblin' Kid had some sense and was square.
+He had realized that any fellow officially elected to make
+love--especially when he didn't want to do it in the first place--ought
+to be allowed to go ahead and make it without having a lot of darned
+buckaroos butting in on the job.
+
+The way the others had acted was a regular disgrace!
+
+Chuck, Bert, Charley and Pedro were nervously happy. In the heart of
+each was a thrill, caused by the memory of some secret--or what he
+thought was a secret--manifestation of Carolyn June's interest. Perhaps
+it was no more than the brushing of a stray whiff of odorous brown hair
+against a weather-tanned cheek, the pulsing of a warm breath on the side
+of a muscular neck, a melting look from a pair of luminous eyes, some
+low-spoken word or the pressure of a hand, but whatever it was, each of
+the cowboys was reasonably certain he had been singled out for special
+favors. Charley was doubly blessed. In addition to Carolyn June's
+seductive advances he had the memory, also, of Ophelia's attentions. His
+mind was awhirl with the effort to figure out which one, by rights, he
+ought to consider as a permanent possibility.
+
+Old Heck and Parker were in a quandary.
+
+Neither was sure of his standing with Ophelia although each had reason
+to believe that he was her favorite. Her interest in Charley added an
+unexpected and perplexing equation to their problem.
+
+"Gosh," Chuck finally exclaimed, "that dance sure was some blow out!"
+
+"I should say it was!" Bert Agreed emphatically and with a satisfied
+grin. "But didn't that widow act funny for an 'anti-he' suffragette?"
+
+Old Heck looked up, startled, as if he had been reminded of a
+disagreeable subject and one he wished to forget.
+
+"Are you plumb positive that she is one, Parker?" Chuck asked.
+
+"I told you what she was," Parker growled, "she's an 'Organizer' for
+some sort of 'Movement' or other."
+
+"Well, I'll be blamed if her 'movements' to-night showed any 'anti-he'
+inclinations," Charley interrupted. "She carried on more like a female
+vampire than one of these advocaters of woman's rights!"
+
+"Aw, shut up and go to bed," Old Heck grunted. "It's too late to start
+any argument!"
+
+The moon crept across the heavens and was hanging above the shadowy
+peaks of the Costejo Mountains when the Ramblin' Kid returned to the
+sleeping Quarter Circle KT, slipped the saddle from the back of the Gold
+Dust maverick and turned the filly and Captain Jack into the circular
+corral.
+
+He had ridden the outlaw mare almost to Eagle Butte.
+
+She had learned her lesson. She knew, when he caressed her muzzle and
+pressed the last lump of sugar into her mouth, before he turned away to
+the bunk-house, that the Ramblin' Kid was not only her master but her
+friend as well--understanding and sympathetic. Never again would she
+doubt his will or resist the gentle yet firm strength of his hand. From
+that moment the Gold Dust maverick, like Captain Jack, was a one-man
+horse, ready to serve, to trust and obey only the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"You little beauty," he laughed tenderly as he playfully shook the
+underlip of the filly and started toward the gate, "--you're a
+runner--gee!--but you're a runner!"
+
+The others were fast asleep when the Ramblin' Kid noiselessly opened the
+door of the bunk-house, went in, and without undressing, stretched
+himself on his bed.
+
+Old Heck awakened the cowboys as the sun poured its first slanting rays
+through the open un-draped window.
+
+The stir aroused the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He made no move to arise.
+
+"Ain't you going to get up?" Old Heck said garrulously.
+
+"When I damn please!" was the independent reply. "Skinny, tell th' Chink
+to keep me a cup of hot coffee!"
+
+Old Heck snorted but said no more.
+
+Parker and the cowboys dressed silently, half-moodily. They hardly knew
+yet how they felt after the excitement of the night before. Skinny
+started to put on the white shirt, looked at it contemptuously a
+moment, and with a muttered oath threw it viciously on the bed.
+
+In a few moments the Ramblin' Kid was left alone in the bunk-house. He
+lay, hands clasped at the back of his head, studying. His eyes were
+closed, but he was not asleep. Presently he smiled and opened his eyes.
+He drew the pink satin elastic from his pocket and looked at it. "That's
+a hell of a thing to be packin'--wonder why I keep it?" he muttered. It
+suddenly occurred to him that if he was not at breakfast Carolyn June
+would think he was afraid or ashamed to meet her. He got up,
+straightened his disarranged clothes, went to the house and after
+stopping at the ditch by the fence and washing his face, walked
+indifferently into the kitchen and sat down at his regular place. The
+others already were eating. Carolyn June glanced at him with a
+meaningless smile and acknowledged, without feeling, his quiet "Good
+morning!"
+
+The cowboys were nervous. Memory of last night was fresh in their minds.
+It made them cautious in their talk.
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June, also, were a bit restrained.
+
+They were not sure but they had started more than it would be easy to
+stop. The expressions in the eyes of the cowboys paid tribute to the
+success of the two women's efforts at wholesale heart-wrecking. The
+child-like acceptance of a simple flirtation as the real thing, by
+these husky riders of the range, was little less than appalling.
+
+It all but frightened Carolyn June and the widow.
+
+Old Heck saw the worship in the eyes of the cowboys.
+
+"Things sure are in a devil of a mix-up!" he growled to himself.
+
+Skinny was so dejected Carolyn June felt half-guilty and tried to cheer
+him up. She began talking, in a low voice, directly to the
+melancholy-looking cowboy.
+
+"To-day--or some time--when the others are away," she said caressingly,
+"you and I will dance all the dances by ourselves!"
+
+His heart leaped joyously. He was sorry, now, that he had not put on the
+white shirt. He resolved, after a while, to sneak out to the bunk-house
+and change.
+
+The confidential talk between Carolyn June and Skinny galled Chuck. He
+decided to break it up.
+
+"What was your idea in riding the Gold Dust maverick last night?" he
+said abruptly to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+There was a general pause for the answer. Carolyn June stopped in the
+middle of a sentence and looked curiously at the Ramblin' Kid. He took
+his time to reply.
+
+"Because I wanted to!" was the slow unsatisfactory retort.
+
+"Why didn't you wait till to-day, so the rest of us could see how she
+acted?" Charley asked.
+
+"What do you think you are"--he started to say--"a bunch of lawyers
+cross-examinin' a witness?" thought better of it and with a careless
+laugh answered: "If you're huntin' entertainment, why don't you go up to
+Eagle Butte to th' picture show? Th' maverick an' me ain't no
+exhibition!"
+
+"Did she buck?" Charley continued, ignoring the sarcastic remark.
+
+"Some," the Ramblin' Kid drawled.
+
+"What you going to do with the filly while we're out on the beef hunt?"
+Chuck queried, wishing to keep the conversation general.
+
+"Ride her!" was the laconic reply.
+
+"Ain't you afraid she'll break away from the _caballero_ and you'll lose
+her again?" Charley asked.
+
+"When I ain't usin' her I'll 'neck' her to Captain Jack," the Ramblin'
+Kid answered patiently, referring to the method of fastening a wild
+horse to one that is gentle and prevent its running away, by attaching a
+short length of rope to the neck of each. "I don't believe she'd leave
+th' stallion anyhow!"
+
+"By golly," Chuck said earnestly and half-pleadingly, "I wish you'd put
+her against that Y-Bar outfit's Thunderbolt horse in the two-mile
+sweepstakes this year! It would be--"
+
+"Fun to see her run!" the Ramblin' Kid interrupted, looking up quickly
+and straight into the eyes of Carolyn June as he finished the
+contemptuous quotation of her words, spoken the day before at the
+corral. She flushed, but gazed back at him without flinching. "Well," he
+continued, "I reckon you'll get your wish--th' maverick is goin' to run
+against th' Vermejo horse!"
+
+"The Fourth of July is a week from next Wednesday," Charley said
+calculatingly. "The Rodeo starts on Tuesday, the roping and bucking
+finals come on Thursday. That makes the big race come Friday--a week
+from next Friday, ain't it?"
+
+"That's right," Bert concurred. "Th' Ramblin' Kid's got nearly two weeks
+to get the maverick in shape."
+
+"Nothing will be in shape for anything," Old Heck broke in, getting up
+from the table, "unless we move around and get things ready to begin the
+beef round-up to-morrow morning. Some of you boys will have to bring in
+those saddle horses from across the river. Each one of you can ride your
+regular 'string' this year"--alluding to the term used to designate the
+group of several horses used exclusively by each individual rider
+working on a round-up. "Skinny won't be with you, but you'd better take
+his horses along for extras. Parker can be getting the grub-wagon in
+shape--I reckon you'll have to work Old Tom and Baldy on it. Sing Pete
+ought to be able to handle them."
+
+"Where do we start in?" Charley asked as they went toward the barn.
+
+"Over in the Battle Ridge country," Old Heck answered, "and work
+everything east of the big pasture first. It'll take just about a week
+to clean up that side--it's pretty rough riding over there. Then you can
+finish the west end after the Rodeo is over."
+
+"What all you aiming to gather?" Bert queried.
+
+"Everything above a three-year-old," Old Heck replied in a businesslike
+way; "pick up the dry cows, too, if they're fat enough. Prices are
+better than usual and I want to sell pretty close on account of that
+storm knocking the hay the way it did the other night. There'll be three
+hundred and fifty or four hundred good beef critters on the east range.
+You ought to have them bunched and in the big pasture by Saturday night.
+Then, until the Rodeo is over you can all do what you darn' please--"
+
+"I know what I'm going to do," Chuck laughed.
+
+"What?" Bert asked.
+
+"Draw all my wages, borrow all I can, and make a clean-up on that Y-Bar
+outfit on the race between the Gold Dust maverick and Thunderbolt!" he
+exclaimed vindictively.
+
+"Probably there will be some of the rest of us have a little Quarter
+Circle KT money up on that race, too," Charley insinuated.
+
+"I know blamed well there will be!" Old Heck added earnestly as they
+scattered to go about their respective employments.
+
+It was a busy Sunday at the Quarter Circle KT. Chuck, Charley and Pedro
+spent the morning and most of the afternoon getting the saddle horses
+from across the river. Bert helped Parker and Old Heck about the ranch.
+Sing Pete baked a supply of light-bread and stocked the grub-wagon with
+provisions. The Ramblin' Kid volunteered to "ride-line" on the big
+pasture and see that the Diamond Bar steers had not broken out again. He
+rode a sorrel colt--one that had had its "first-riding" in the circular
+corral the day before Carolyn June and Ophelia arrived at the Quarter
+Circle KT. When he came to the corner of the pasture where the bodies of
+the cattle, killed by lightning, lay, a flock of buzzards were tearing
+at the carcasses. As the gorged creatures flapped heavily into the air
+the young broncho wheeled, and bucking frantically, jolted away from the
+gruesome scene. The Ramblin' Kid forced the animal to turn about and
+made him pass, rearing and plunging, among the skinless and already
+decaying forms. Before sundown the Ramblin' Kid was back at the ranch.
+
+In the afternoon Skinny and Carolyn June went for a ride down the
+valley. It was her first opportunity to try the new saddle. Skinny was
+mounted on Old Pie Face and Carolyn June rode Browny, a dependable old
+cow-horse.
+
+"Gee," Carolyn June remarked as they passed the circular corral. "I'd
+like to ride the Gold Dust maverick with this outfit!"
+
+"It would be a dandy combination," Skinny said admiringly, "but I doubt
+if anybody but th' Ramblin' Kid will ever be able to ride the filly. So
+far, she acts like she's going to be a worse one-man horse than Captain
+Jack is. She tried to kill me yesterday when I went into the corral!"
+
+"What makes her that way?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"Blamed if I know," Skinny replied, "some horses are naturally like
+that. Th' Ramblin' Kid says it ain't in the horse--it's in the human. If
+the human don't understand the horse the horse won't trust the human and
+where there ain't trust there's fear and where there's fear there's
+hate. He's got some funny ideas!"
+
+"Sounds sort of sensible, though, doesn't it?" Carolyn June said
+musingly.
+
+"Maybe it does," Skinny retorted, "but he goes a little too far with his
+fool notions sometimes, it seems to me."
+
+"How is that?" Carolyn June questioned.
+
+"Well, for one thing," Skinny replied, "he says any man or woman a horse
+don't trust ain't a good man or woman for a human to depend on--says
+they ain't right inside! It looks to me like that's a pretty hard slam
+on people just because some darned idiot of a broncho won't make up with
+them!"
+
+Carolyn June leaned back in the saddle and laughed.
+
+"Some 'range philosopher'--this Ramblin' Kid person!" she exclaimed
+lightly. "Where did he come from and who is he, anyway?"
+
+"Nobody knows," Skinny answered; "he just kind of growed up, here in
+the Southwest. I've heard that his mother died when he was born and his
+father was a preacher or something doing missionary work--I reckon
+that's what you'd call it--among the Mexicans and Indians and got the
+smallpox while he was nursing them through an epidemic and it killed
+him, which left th' Ramblin' Kid an orphan when he wasn't much more than
+a baby. The Mexicans or Indians took care of him till he was old enough
+to ride and then he began to ramble around and has always kept it up
+just as if he was hunting for something--"
+
+"How interesting!" Carolyn June exclaimed, "almost like a story!"
+
+"It is kind of unusual," Skinny continued, "of course it may not all be
+true, but one thing is sure--th' Ramblin' Kid seems to have some sort of
+fascination for the Greasers and the Indians; they all worship him, and
+he's a witch when it comes to handling horses!"
+
+"He seems to be," Carolyn June commented thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes," Skinny answered, "look how that Gold Dust maverick has made right
+up with him--I don't believe she ever will have anything to do with
+anybody else!"
+
+Carolyn June laughed softly to herself. She did not tell Skinny of her
+visits to the circular corral and that the outlaw mare already had
+accepted her as a good friend.
+
+She and Skinny loafed idly as far down the valley as the Narrows, and
+when Sing Pete sounded the supper gong they were again back at the
+house.
+
+After the evening meal the cowboys hung around the house for a while
+until a suggestive look from Old Heck caused them reluctantly to follow
+him to the bunk-house, leaving Parker and Skinny with Ophelia and
+Carolyn June.
+
+It was the foreman's last evening with the widow before the beef
+round-up. She was rather diffident and held him in safe channels of
+conversation. Skinny and Carolyn June sat on the porch until it was
+quite dark, then went into the house. She drummed carelessly and lightly
+on the keys of the piano--her thoughts evidently far away. Parker and
+Skinny left the house early. At the door the foreman whispered to the
+widow:
+
+"Don't forget what I spoke about coming out from town!"
+
+Ophelia flushed and murmured, "No, indeed, but--" she did not finish the
+sentence. She was about to say, "don't build false hopes!"
+
+When Parker and Skinny entered the bunk-house Old Heck and all the
+cowboys except the Ramblin' Kid were asleep. He was half-reclining on
+his bed, smoking. At the entrance of Skinny and Parker be got up and
+without speaking strolled outside and through the darkness toward the
+circular corral. The night was warm and the stuffy air of the
+bunk-house, together with the noisy snoring of Old Heck, made him
+restless. He stood a few moments looking at Captain Jack and the Gold
+Dust maverick. Then, moving back into the shed, dropped down and laid
+with his shoulders and head on his saddle, which was thrown on the
+ground under the shelter. The side of the building, next to the corral,
+was open and the Ramblin' Kid could see, from where he was lying, the
+dark bulks of the two horses at the farther side of the corral.
+
+Ophelia went directly to bed after Skinny and Parker left.
+
+Carolyn June sat for a while in the Morris chair in the large room. She
+seemed abstracted and in a mood for meditation. The vague history Skinny
+had given her of the life of the Ramblin' Kid interested her. She
+thought it explained a good many of his elemental impulses and
+idiosyncrasies. He was a creature of the plains. In his life among the
+Indians and Mexicans he had absorbed their stoical ways and almost
+brutal directness, yet, sometimes he showed a sensitiveness that was
+utterly impossible for Carolyn June to understand. Her thoughts turned
+to the Gold Dust maverick. To-morrow Ramblin' Kid would take the filly
+away for the round-up. She truly loved the beautiful mare. She would
+slip out, while the others slept, and have one more visit with the
+splendid creature. Rising, Carolyn June passed out through the kitchen,
+stopped for a handful of sugar--she had learned where Sing Pete kept the
+can--and bareheaded and without a wrap walked swiftly out to the
+circular corral.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard Carolyn June step up to the gate of the corral
+and from the heavy shadow in which he lay saw the light dress and
+instinctively recognized this late visitor to Captain Jack and the Gold
+Dust maverick His first impulse was to call out and warn her to keep
+away from the horses--that both were dangerous for men to fool with,
+much less was it safe for a woman to undertake familiarities with them.
+His next thought was that his sudden appearance would only startle the
+girl and--well, cause a lot of useless talk. He remained quiet.
+
+A low trill came from the throat of Carolyn June. The two horses stopped
+feeding and looked around toward the gate. The bird-like call was
+repeated. The Ramblin' Kid was astonished to see Captain Jack and the
+outlaw mare move eagerly in the direction from whence the sound had
+come. He heard Carolyn June talking to the bronchos in soft endearing
+tones. After a moment she opened the gate and stepped inside the corral.
+
+"Well, I'll be--!" he breathed inaudibly.
+
+For half an hour Carolyn June petted the little stallion and the Gold
+Dust maverick. Both animals seemed hungry for her caresses.
+
+"Oh, your darling--you wonder!" the Ramblin' Kid Heard Carolyn June
+say, as she gave the maverick's head a tight squeeze just before running
+lightly back to the house. "I hope you beat that old Y-Bar horse so bad
+he'll never want to run again! Even if that Ramblin' Kid lover of
+yours," she added softly, "does think I'm nothing but a silly
+woman-thing and hates me with all his queer, lonesome heart!"
+
+"Well, I'll be damned!" the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed when she was gone.
+
+He raised himself on one elbow and lay thus for a long time silently
+thinking.
+
+At last he got up, went to the corral gate, and he himself stepped
+inside with the horses. He gave Captain Jack's ear a loving twitch, then
+turned to the Gold Dust maverick. She permitted him, without protest, to
+fondle her head and neck. His hand lingered long on the silky mane in
+which, a little while before, Carolyn June had twined her fingers.
+
+"Oh, Queen of th' Range!" he said with a low laugh, unconsciously using
+the poetical phrase, as he gave the warm cheek of the filly a tender
+parting pinch before turning away to go to the bunk-house, "we'll whip
+that devil-horse of th' Vermejo--we'll show that Thunderbolt runner what
+hearts that ain't afraid an' nimble hoofs can do!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+THE ELITE AMUSEMENT PARLOR
+
+An hour after breakfast, on Monday morning, Old Heck, Ophelia, Skinny
+and Carolyn June Were alone at the Quarter Circle KT. Parker and the
+cowboys were climbing out on the sand-hills north of the Cimarron,
+traveling in the direction of Battle Ridge, where the beef hunt was to
+begin.
+
+The circular corral was empty.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was riding the Gold Dust maverick. Captain Jack was
+with the saddle horses which Pedro, the Mexican, had wrangled on ahead
+of the other riders an hour before.
+
+The filly made no effort to throw the Ramblin' Kid on this her second
+riding. She seemed perfectly willing to carry the burden on her back.
+Carolyn June watched the beautiful mare as she stepped lightly and
+daintily along beside the other horses, and when the group disappeared
+among the rolling ridges across the river the ranch someway seemed
+deserted and she felt strangely alone, although Ophelia, Old Heck and
+Skinny were standing at her side.
+
+Sing Pete followed the riders, jolting along in the grub-wagon,
+awkwardly driving, with much clucking and pidgin-English, Old Tom and
+Baldy hitched to the heavy, canvas-covered vehicle with its
+"box-kitchen" and mess-board protruding gawkily out from the rear.
+
+Old Heck heaved a sigh of relief. There was a feeling of serene peace in
+his heart, now that Parker and the cowboys were safely away on the
+round-up. In Skinny's heart the feeling was echoed.
+
+For a week or more they would be able to love Ophelia and Carolyn June
+without the constant fear of interruption.
+
+Only one thing troubled Old Heck. The widow had not yet exposed her hand
+in that suffragette movement or whatever it was. He dreaded the form in
+which it might, sooner or later, break out. But at that he would be glad
+to have it over. At present he felt as though he were sitting on the
+edge of a volcano, or above an unexplored blast of dynamite at the
+bottom of a well. Meanwhile he would have to wait and watch--and hope
+for the best.
+
+The week that followed was heaven and hell, mixed together, for Old Heck
+and Skinny.
+
+The women were lovely and lovable to the last degree, but cautious and
+tormentingly self-restrained when it came to loving. At the first
+intimation of dangerous sentimentality on the part of Old Heck the widow
+would suddenly and without an instant's warning change the subject. When
+Skinny had been pensive and silent for half an hour or so and would then
+start, in a halting and quivering voice, to say something, Carolyn June
+invariably interrupted with a remark about the weather, the Gold Dust
+maverick, the Ramblin' Kid, Old Heck, Sing Pete, the yellow cat, the
+coming Rodeo, Ophelia or something else.
+
+They paired on the work of preparing the meals, Carolyn June and Skinny
+and Ophelia and Old Heck taking shift and shift about in the kitchen. In
+this way the work was made a joke, with friendly rivalry between the
+couples in the preparation of tasty dishes.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny surprised the women with their knowledge of cooking.
+Nor was there the least embarrassment on the part of either when, with
+one of Sing Pete's aprons tied about his waist, he worked at the range
+or kitchen table. As a matter of course every cow-man must know
+something of how to cook a meal and, also, naturally and as a matter of
+course, Old Heck and Skinny, without the slightest thought that it was
+"womanish" or beneath the "dignity" of men, peeled potatoes, fried meat,
+washed dishes or did whatever there was to do.
+
+Indeed each was proud of his skill.
+
+Ophelia herself was clever, particularly at making biscuits and dainty
+salads.
+
+Carolyn June's sole accomplishment in the art of preparing food was the
+making of coffee-jelly. This she had learned at college--taught,
+perhaps, by the other girls during stolen midnight frolics. Probably
+this, also, was the reason she usually made it the last thing at night
+before Skinny and Old Heck left to go to the bunk-house. Coffee-jelly
+was the regular, inevitable, evening meal dessert for the entire week.
+
+"It ain't so very filling," Skinny remarked the first time he tasted the
+delicate dish, "but it's tender and has a dandy flavor!"
+
+Carolyn June blushed at the compliment.
+
+"It is pretty good," Old Heck agreed, "but these biscuits Ophelia made
+are just what was needed to set it off!"
+
+The widow smilingly showed her pleasure.
+
+Twice during the week Skinny rode "line" on the big pasture to look
+after the Diamond Bar steers. Carolyn June accompanied him. Each time
+she rode Browny, the old cow-horse. On these days Old Heck and Ophelia,
+in the Clagstone "Six," drove to Eagle Butte. The second trip to town
+Ophelia asked to be left at the minister's house. Old Heck was to call
+in an hour and get her. During the hour he slipped into the dentist's
+and had his teeth cleaned. When the tobacco-blackened tartar was scraped
+away they were surprisingly white and even. He stopped at the drug store
+and bought a tooth-brush and a tube of paste.
+
+Ophelia noticed the wonderful improvement in his appearance, guessed the
+reason, and the thought sent a warm thrill through her body.
+
+"Like a big boy," she laughed to herself, "when he begins to wash his
+neck and ears!"
+
+"It ain't healthy to have your teeth so dirty," Old Heck explained,
+coloring and in an apologizing manner, when Skinny discovered him, after
+supper that evening, carefully scrubbing his molars.
+
+Skinny watched the performance, saw the result, and murmured:
+
+"Guess I'll get me one of them layouts!"
+
+On Friday the quartette went to Eagle Butte, Old Heck driving, with
+Ophelia beside him, and Carolyn June and Skinny in the rear seat of the
+Clagstone "Six."
+
+It was on this trip, while Ophelia and Carolyn June were in the Golden
+Rule doing some shopping, that Old Heck and Skinny strolled into the
+Elite Amusement Parlor. Lafe Dorsey, owner of the Y-Bar outfit and to
+whom belonged the black Thunderbolt horse; Newt Johnson, Dave Stover and
+"Flip" Williams--the latter three cowboys on the big Vermejo ranch--were
+playing a four-handed game of billiards at one of the tables near the
+front of the place.
+
+Dorsey noticed the entrance of the pair from the Quarter Circle KT. All
+were range men and were well known to one another. The Y-Bar owner had
+been drinking. Boot-leg liquor was obtainable, if one knew how and
+where, in Eagle Butte.
+
+"Hello, there, Old Heck!" Dorsey greeted them hilariously and with a
+half-leer. "Howdy, Skinny! How's the Cimarron? Don't reckon you've
+taught Old Quicksilver to run yet, have you?" with a boisterous laugh
+as he referred to the race in which Thunderbolt had defeated Old Heck's
+crack stallion.
+
+The taunt stung Old Heck while it called out a suppressed snicker from
+the cowboys who were with Dorsey and the loafers in the pool-room. The
+bull-like guffaw of Mike Sabota, the gorilla-built, half-Greek
+proprietor of the Amusement Parlor roared out above the ripple of
+laughter from the others. The racing feud between the Y-Bar and the
+Quarter Circle KT was well known to all and Sabota himself had cleaned
+up a neat sum when the black horse from the Vermejo had outstepped the
+runner from the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Old Heck reddened at Dorsey's words but replied quietly:
+
+"The Cimarron is middling--just middlin'. No, we ain't been paying much
+attention to teaching horses how to run lately. Old Quicksilver's pretty
+fair. Of course he ain't the best horse in the world but he'll do for
+cows and general knocking around. Horses are a good deal like men, you
+know, Dorsey--there's always one that's a little bit better!"
+
+The Vermejo cow-man colored at the thrust.
+
+"Any of you Quarter Circle KT fellers going in on anything at the Rodeo,
+this year?" one of the Y-Bar riders asked Skinny before Dorsey could
+reply.
+
+"Charley said he might go in on the 'bull-dogging' and Bert is figuring
+some on the bucking events--but I don't reckon they'll either one
+enter," Skinny carelessly; "both of them got first money in them
+entries last year and they ain't caring much. The Mexican," referring to
+Pedro, "will probably do some roping--"
+
+"What about you and the Ramblin' Kid?" Flip Williams interrupted, "ain't
+neither of you going to take part?"
+
+"Probably not," Skinny drawled. "I ain't aiming to, and I don't know
+what th' Ramblin? Kid is figuring on. He ain't much for showing off. He
+only rode in the bucking contest last year because after that Cyclone
+horse killed Dick Stanley everybody said there wasn't any one that could
+ride him and the blamed little fool just wanted to demonstrate that
+there was. You never can tell what he'll do, though. He may be intending
+to go in on something or other."
+
+"Guess you people ain't got anything out there for the two-mile
+sweepstakes this year, have you?" Dorsey broke in with a sneer. "Old
+Thunderbolt's too much for them sand-hill jumpers from the Cimarron."
+
+"Oh, I don't know as he is," Old Heck said in a voice emotionless as an
+Indian's. "The Quarter Circle KT will probably be represented in the big
+event. It seems to me I heard Chuck mention entering that Silver Tip
+colt of his and, let's see, I believe th' Ramblin' Kid said something
+about running a new filly he's been riding some, didn't he, Skinny?"
+
+"Since I come to think of it I believe he did," Skinny answered as if
+it were a matter without especial interest; "if I remember right he did
+speak something of it a day or two ago."
+
+"Well, bring 'em on!" Dorsey exclaimed boastfully, "the Y-Bar will take
+all the money you Kiowa fellers feel like contributing! Old
+Thunderbolt's as fit as a new rawhide rope and is just aching to rake in
+another three or four thousand of Quarter Circle KT _dinero_ if you
+people have got the nerve to back your judgment!"
+
+There was a dead hush as the crowd in the pool-room waited for Old
+Heck's reply to Dorsey's drunken challenge.
+
+"We'll kind of remember that invitation, Dorsey," Old Heck said in tones
+as hard and smooth and cold as ice, while his gray eyes narrowed and
+bored the boastful cow-man like points of steel, "we'll sort of bear in
+mind that suggestion of yours. The Quarter Circle KT will send a horse
+into the big race that will beat that Thunderbolt critter of yours just
+three times as bad as he set old Quicksilver back--and we'll give you
+action on any amount of money, cattle or anything else you want to name!
+You can put your friends here in on it too, if you want to--" with a
+scornful glance around the pool-room at the loafers in the place. "Come
+on, Skinny," he added as he started toward the door, "more than likely
+Ophelia and Carolyn June are through with their trading and ready to go
+home."
+
+All stood silent until Skinny and Old Heck stepped out of the door,
+then Mike Sabota broke into a coarse, taunting laugh. As they turned up
+the street Old Heck and Skinny heard Dorsey and the crowd inside join in
+the merriment.
+
+"Damn that fool, Dorsey!" Old Heck exclaimed viciously, as he heard the
+shouts of derisive laughter. "I'm going to wipe him out on that race--if
+he's got the guts to come across and back up that Thunderbolt horse as
+hard as he blows about him!"
+
+"I think I'll hook Sabota for a few hundred on the sweepstakes, myself,"
+Skinny replied with a good deal of feeling, "I don't like the way that
+dirty cuss acts any better than I like Dorsey's bragging!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia were waiting when Old Heck and Skinny arrived
+at the Golden Rule.
+
+When the Clagstone "Six" whirled past the Amusement Parlor a few moments
+later Dorsey and Sabota were standing in the door.
+
+Carolyn June glanced at them.
+
+"Heavens," she said as her eyes rested an instant on the burly,
+low-browed, Greek proprietor of the place, "what a big brute of a
+looking fellow that is!"
+
+The two men stared insolently at the occupants of the car and as it
+passed Sabota made some remark, evidently vulgar, that caused Dorsey to
+burst into another round of coarse laughter.
+
+Old Heck was moody during the drive home.
+
+For nearly two years Dorsey had been crowing because of the defeat of
+Quicksilver by the black racer from the Vermejo. It was becoming more
+than idle jesting. It looked as if, for some reason, he was trying to
+torment Old Heck until something serious was started. Old Heck was a
+good loser but he was growing tired of the persistent nagging. He had
+not whimpered at the loss of the twenty-five hundred dollars Dorsey won
+from him on the race. Even the humiliation of seeing his best horse put
+in second place by the Y-Bar animal had been endured philosophically and
+without malice because he believed the thing had been run square and the
+faster horse had won. But Dorsey on every occasion since had, drunk or
+sober, boasted of Thunderbolt's victory and taken a devilish delight in
+rubbing it in on the owner of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+To-day the Vermejo cattleman had been worse than usual, due, no doubt,
+to the rotten boot-leg whisky the brute-like proprietor of Eagle Butte's
+rather disreputable Amusement Parlor was supposed secretly to dispense
+to those who had the price and the "honor" to keep sacred the source of
+supply.
+
+Old Heck was sore and he was ready to go the limit in backing the Gold
+Dust maverick. Both he and Skinny had purposely refrained from
+mentioning the horse the Ramblin' Kid would enter. The fame of the
+outlaw filly extended throughout all of southwestern Texas and if the
+Vermejo crowd had learned that the Ramblin' Kid had finally caught her
+and was intending to put her against Thunderbolt it was doubtful if the
+black horse would be entered at all in the sweepstakes. Even if he was,
+Dorsey and his crowd would be shy of the betting.
+
+This was one reason Old Heck had so played the conversation that Dorsey
+definitely threw down the challenge and which was so coldly accepted.
+
+The Vermejo cow-man would have to come in heavy on the betting or be
+placed in the role of a bluffer.
+
+By the time they reached the ranch Old Heck's good humor was restored.
+He thoroughly enjoyed the supper Skinny and Carolyn June prepared and
+joked the girl about her coffee-jelly.
+
+"She's learning how to make French toast, now," Skinny said proudly; "it
+won't be long till she's a darned good cook!"
+
+"Why not?" Carolyn June laughed. "See who I have to teach me!" and
+Skinny flushed while his heart hammered joyously.
+
+"Well, I reckon anybody could live on fried bread and coffee-jelly in a
+pinch," Old Heck joked back, "but for my part I'd be a good deal happier
+to mix a biscuit or two like Ophelia makes once in a while in with
+it"--giving the widow a worshipful look.
+
+It was Ophelia's turn to register pleasurable confusion.
+
+After supper Old Heck and the widow washed the dishes. When they were
+finished Ophelia went into the front room. Old Heck took a glass of
+water, stepped out of the kitchen door, and diligently scrubbed his
+teeth. While he was still at it Skinny came out with a dipper in his
+hand and sheepishly drawing a tooth-brush from his hip pocket faithfully
+imitated the actions of the other.
+
+"I figure a man's taking a lot of chances if he don't keep his teeth
+clean and everything," Skinny spluttered as the water splashed down his
+chin.
+
+"Yes, that's right," Old Heck agreed, "there's germs and so on in them!"
+as he flipped the water from his own brush, dried his lips on his
+shirtsleeve and turned back into the kitchen.
+
+The next morning, Saturday, Old Heck came to the breakfast table again
+in a pensive mood.
+
+"I was thinking about that man Dorsey," Skinny remarked, observing Old
+Heck's mental depression and attributing it to the meeting the day
+before in the pool-room at Eagle Butte. "Do you reckon the filly can
+really beat that Thunderbolt horse?"
+
+"Of course she can," Old Heck answered. "Th' Ramblin' Kid knows. All I'm
+afraid is that when Dorsey finds out it's the Gold Dust maverick
+Thunderbolt has got to go up against he won't bet much on it."
+
+"The boys ought to be in to-day," Skinny said, abruptly switching the
+subject; "they figured on getting the Battle Ridge cattle gathered and
+in the big pasture by to-night, didn't they?"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck replied, "that was what was in my mind. Parker will
+be--" he stopped suddenly, "butting in again" he had started to say but
+caught himself and finished lamely, "--probably pretty anxious to hurry
+through as soon as possible and get the beef animals in the upland
+pasture!"
+
+"How are you going to work things when he gets back?" Skinny asked with,
+a significant look at Old Heck.
+
+"Blamed if I know--" Old Heck said uncertainly, stopping before he
+finished the sentence. He understood what Skinny meant and just that had
+been worrying him. He had reached the point where he could not endure
+the thought of going back to the old arrangement of day and day about
+with Parker in the enjoyment of the widow's society. Yet if Parker, on
+his return, insisted on dividing Ophelia's time with him in conformity
+with their original agreement, Old Heck knew he would have to yield. He
+thought for a moment he would get the widow away from Skinny and Carolyn
+June after breakfast and make a full confession of the whole thing, ask
+her to marry him, and have it done with. But he had not yet been able to
+get at the bottom of Ophelia's suffragette activities. What if she
+married him and then suddenly broke loose as a speech-maker or something
+for woman's rights? It wouldn't pay to take the risk. "It sure does keep
+a man guessing!" he murmured under his breath, the sweat starting to
+bead his forehead from the mental effort to solve the problem before
+him.
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia exchanged sly winks as they guessed the thing
+that was in Old Heck's mind.
+
+Skinny, himself, was a bit worried as the time drew near for the return
+of the cowboys. He hoped Carolyn June wouldn't spring another dance or
+similar opportunity for indiscriminate love-making.
+
+Nor had Carolyn June forgotten that to-day was Saturday and Parker and
+the cowboys were expected back from the first half of the beef round-up.
+The week had been pleasant enough but she had missed the Ramblin' Kid
+and the Gold Dust maverick more than she cared to confess. She wondered
+if the outlaw filly would remember her.
+
+Saturday was a day of considerable tension for all at the Quarter Circle
+KT. Night came and Parker and the cowboys had not returned. Nor did they
+come on Sunday. Evidently the beef round-up had gone more slowly than
+was expected.
+
+It was late Monday afternoon when the grub-wagon grumbled and creaked
+its way up the lane and stopped near the back-yard gate. Sing Pete
+climbed clumsily down from the high seat. Old Heck and Skinny unhitched
+Old Tom and Baldy while the Chinese cook chattered information about
+Parker, the cowboys and the round-up. He had left the North Springs
+early that morning. Two nights before the herd had run--it was a
+stampede--some sheep had been where the cattle were bedded. Maybe that
+was it. Chuck and Bert were on night guard and could not hold them. The
+steers mixed badly with the rangers. Nearly two days it took to gather
+them again. That was why they were late. Now everything was all right
+The cattle were being driven to the big pasture. Pedro would be along
+soon with the saddle cavallard. By dark maybe the others would be at the
+ranch.
+
+It was midnight before Parker and the cowboys came in.
+
+When Carolyn June stepped out on the porch Tuesday morning she glanced
+toward the circular corral, which for more than a week had been empty.
+Her heart gave a leap of delight.
+
+Captain Jack was standing at the bars of the corral and behind him the
+early sunlight glinted on the chestnut sides of the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+THE GRAND PARADE
+
+Eagle Butte was a jam of humanity. It was Tuesday noon. At one o'clock
+the Grand Parade would circle the mile track at the "Grounds"--a hundred
+level acres enclosed by a high board fence lying at the west edge of
+Eagle Butte, between the Cimarron River and the road that led out to the
+Vermejo--swing down the main street of the town, return again to the
+enclosed area, flow once more past the grandstand, salute the judges of
+the coming events, and the Fifth Annual Independence Rodeo of Eagle
+Butte would be officially opened.
+
+Special excursion rates had brought thousands from all parts of western
+Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. Hundreds of tourists, sight-seeing the
+West, had so arranged their itineraries that they might be present at
+the big exhibition of riding, roping, racing, bull-dogging and other
+cow-country arts,--arts rapidly becoming mere memories of a day too
+quickly passing.
+
+Moving-picture machine operators were seeking advantageous locations for
+their outfits; pedestrians dodged, indiscriminately, high-powered
+automobiles and plunging bronchos; the old and the new were slapped
+together in an incongruous jumble in the streets of Eagle Butte.
+
+The best range men and women of the West were gathered in the western
+Texas town.
+
+New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Texas
+herself, were represented by their most famous riders, ropers,
+bull-doggers, cow-experts, and noted outlaw horses.
+
+There were many masqueraders.
+
+Imitation cow-people, they were, made up in fancy wild-west costumes,
+long-haired chaps, mammoth black sombreros, gaudy neck-cloths,
+silver-spangled saddles, spurs and bridles--typical moving-picture
+cowboys, cowgirls and rough riders. But there were, as well, hundreds of
+real range people. People whose business it is to work every day at the
+"stunts" they were, for the next five days, to play at for the pleasure
+of proving their skill and winning the applause of the multitude of
+spectators packed each day in the grandstand behind the judges' box at
+the Eagle Butte Rodeo.
+
+Every outfit in western Texas sent its most clever riders.
+
+Indians and Mexicans, in picturesque attire, sprinkled the milling mass
+of humanity with a dash of rainbow color.
+
+Dance-halls were running, fare layouts were operating, roulette wheels
+were spinning. For the time, with the consent of the sheriff and other
+reformed authorities, Eagle Butte tried hard to be as Eagle Butte was
+twenty--thirty--years ago.
+
+The entire Quarter Circle KT crowd left the ranch early Tuesday
+morning'. Parker had surprised Old Heck, and filled his mind with
+misgivings, by calling him to one side after breakfast and stammering:
+
+"I--I--reckon you'd just as well go ahead the rest of this week
+and--and--look after the widow by yourself--"
+
+"What's the matter?" Old Heck asked suspiciously; "have you found out
+anything dangerous about that 'Movement' or whatever it is Ophelia's
+mixed up in?"
+
+"No, it ain't that," Parker assured him, "I just thought I'd kind
+of--well, like to be free, to knock around at the Rodeo without being
+bothered with a woman or anything."
+
+The truth was Parker was trying to hedge. When he had got away on the
+beef hunt and began to figure things out he had come to doubt the wisdom
+of his sudden infatuation for the widow. Thinking it over, out on the
+open range, he was appalled by his rash, headlong falling in love. He
+had never married, nor had he, until Ophelia came, been even near it.
+Someway, the moment Carolyn June and the widow arrived at the Quarter
+Circle KT some sort of devil seemed to possess him. He couldn't explain
+it. Maybe it had been just an impulse to get ahead of Old Heck. Whatever
+it was, Parker was worried. What would he do with a wife if he had one?
+All he wanted now was to let the thing blow over. Perhaps the widow
+would forget his impetuous proposal or fall in love with Old Heck.
+
+Old Heck, his heart filled with a queer mixture of elation and
+uncertainty--with a sort of joy and sinking sensation all at
+once--agreed to Parker's suggestion.
+
+Parker rode into Eagle Butte with the cowboys. Old Heck, Ophelia, Skinny
+and Carolyn June went in the Clagstone "Six." Chuck led Old Pie Face for
+Skinny to ride in the parade and Bert took Red John, Old Heck's most
+showy saddle horse--a long-legged, high-stepping, proud-headed, bay
+gelding--for Carolyn June to use, for she, too, had declared her
+intention of joining in the grand promenade with which the Rodeo would
+open.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid left the Gold Dust maverick in the circular corral and
+rode Captain Jack to Eagle Butte. It would be necessary for him to
+register the filly, with the entry judges, on the first day of the Rodeo
+if she was to run in the two-mile sweepstakes.
+
+The rules of the Rodeo required, also, that all who expected to
+participate in any of the events of the coming week must "show" in the
+grand march or parade. The animals that were to be used might also be
+paraded, but this was not compulsory.
+
+Accompanied by Chuck, the Ramblin' Kid went directly to the entry
+offices of the Rodeo, which were roughly boxed-up compartments under
+the rear of the grandstand.
+
+A group of "hot-dog" vendors and "concession spielers" looked curiously
+at the two as they left Captain Jack and Silver Tip, with bridle reins
+dropped over their heads, standing in front of the office and stepped
+inside.
+
+Lafe Dorsey and Flip Williams were at the clerk's desk.
+
+The Vermejo cattleman had just registered Thunderbolt, with Flip as
+rider, for the big race.
+
+They looked around as the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck came in.
+
+"Well, is the Quarter Circle KT getting up sand enough to go against old
+Thunderbolt again?" Dorsey asked with a curl of his lip and an ugly
+sneer.
+
+"Oh, I reckon we've got a little nerve left," Chuck answered with mock
+humility, "not much, but a little, maybe. I was going to put Silver Tip
+in the sweepstakes," he went on, "but I guess I won't. Th' Ramblin'
+Kid's got an entry and it looks like a darned shame for one outfit to
+want to hog it all and grab first and second money both, so I'll stay
+out this time."
+
+"You talk pretty loud," Dorsey snarled, catching instantly, as Chuck
+intended he should, the covert slur at the black Y-Bar stallion. "Maybe
+your money won't make so damned much noise!"
+
+"Here's a couple hundred," Chuck said, pulling a roll of bills from his
+shirt pocket. "I'll invest that much on my judgment that Thunderbolt
+ain't as good as you think he is."
+
+"I'll take it!" Dorsey snapped, jerking a wad of money from his own
+pocket and counting out the amount which he handed to the clerk as
+stake-holder. "And here's another hundred--or a thousand if you want
+it!"
+
+"That two hundred is about all I can handle this morning," Chuck
+laughed. "But I understand Old Heck's aiming to bet a little," he
+drawled suggestively; "probably you'd like to see him?"
+
+"I'll see him--and raise him till he squeals!" Dorsey sneered.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid ignored the tilt between Dorsey and Chuck and leaned
+indifferently against the counter waiting for the clerk to fill out the
+entry blank.
+
+"Event?" the clerk questioned.
+
+"Two-mile run," was the quiet answer.
+
+"Rider--and horse?" glancing up.
+
+Dorsey and Flip paused and turned their heads to catch the names the
+Ramblin' Kid gave.
+
+"I'm the rider, I reckon," the Ramblin' Kid replied, "I guess you know
+who I am. Th' name of th' horse? Well, now ain't that funny?" he said
+with a little laugh, "I never have bothered to name that critter yet!
+But--oh, hell, what's the difference? We'll just call her 'Ophelia' for
+th' time bein'--in honor of a lady-widow that's visitin' out at th'
+ranch!"
+
+"The Quarter Circle KT's getting to be quite a female institution,
+ain't it?" Dorsey said contemptuously. "I suppose this wonder horse of
+yours is one of the ranch fillies and regular lightning!"
+
+For a second the Ramblin' Kid's eyes narrowed, then he replied coldly to
+the last half of Dorsey's sentence:
+
+"Well, th' filly's been runnin' in that neighborhood an'"--with a laugh
+that had in it just the hint of a sneer--"she's pretty fair--good
+enough, I figure, to beat hell out of old Thunderbolt!"
+
+"Are you backing that with money?" Dorsey and Flip spoke together.
+
+"No," the Ramblin' Kid answered slowly, "money ain't no object with me
+in a horse-race. I don't run 'em for that purpose. Anyhow, poker is my
+favorite method of gamblin'!"
+
+Dorsey and Flip whirled angrily out of the office and walked rapidly
+toward the stables where they had left their horses.
+
+After reserving a box stall, which was to be occupied by Captain Jack
+and the Gold Dust maverick, the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck left the entry
+office and mounting their bronchos rode toward the section of the
+grounds, over by the stables, where the parade was already forming.
+
+As they passed through the entrance to the track and the inside field
+which lay beyond Chuck and the Ramblin' Kid rode within a few feet of
+the Clagstone "Six," which was parked near the east end of the
+grandstand. Old Heck and Ophelia were in the front seat of the car
+watching the riders assemble for the parade. Carolyn June was standing
+on the running-board waiting for Skinny to come with Old Pie Face and
+Red John, the boys having left the horses at the stables.
+
+Carolyn June looked up with a bright smile at Chuck. As her eyes met the
+Ramblin' Kid's there was a question in them. She was not sure yet that
+she had forgiven him for the brutal rebuff the night of the dance. If
+there was any feeling in his heart, either of resentment or otherwise,
+toward the girl the Ramblin' Kid hid it. The look he gave her was one of
+unfathomable humility and indifference.
+
+Chuck wheeled Silver Tip to the side of the car and stopped. His eyes
+were filled with frank admiration as he gazed at the girl. Her cheeks
+were flushed with excitement, her white felt hat sat jauntily on the
+crown of brown hair, her eyes were sparkling and in the close-fitting
+riding suit she was the picture of youthful charm and grace. The
+Ramblin' Kid nodded to Old Heck, glanced at Ophelia with a smile, looked
+steadily an instant at Carolyn June and raising his hat to the two women
+passed on with the remark: "I reckon I'll go on over an' see what
+they're doin'."
+
+"Has he entered the outlaw filly for the sweepstakes, yet?" Old Heck
+asked Chuck as the Ramblin' Kid reined Captain Jack down the race track.
+
+"Yes," Chuck answered, "he signed her up."
+
+"Did he name her as the Gold Dust maverick?" Old Heck inquired
+anxiously.
+
+"No," Chuck grinned, "he called her 'Ophelia!'"
+
+Old Heck leaned back in the seat and roared with laughter in which
+Carolyn June and the widow joined.
+
+"Dorsey was there," Chuck said with another grin, "he'd just finished
+entering Thunderbolt for the big race when th' Ramblin' Kid and me got
+to the registering office. I bet him two hundred dollars. He was
+bragging a good deal--"
+
+Old Heck's eyes flashed and the mirth left them.
+
+"He was blowing, was he?" he said with a hard laugh, "the damn--darned
+fool!" he corrected, remembering Ophelia at his side. "Well, 'egg' him
+on--the higher he flies the worse he'll flop when he bu'sts a wing!"
+
+In the parade Skinny rode with Carolyn June. Parker and the Quarter
+Circle KT cowboys were in a group directly behind them. The Vermejo
+crowd, with Dorsey himself mounted on Thunderbolt, had a place just
+ahead of Skinny and Carolyn June. The beautiful black Y-Bar stallion was
+really a wonderful horse. Speed, strength and endurance radiated with
+every movement of the glossy, subtle body. Without doubt he was the most
+handsome animal on the grounds. Dorsey was a splendid rider and a
+man--he was in the early forties--of striking appearance. He was fully
+conscious of the magnificent showing he made on Thunderbolt. The racer
+danced proudly, prancing forward in short, graceful leaps as the column
+swept past the grandstand and the consolidated Eagle Butte and Vegas
+bands crashed out the strains of a stirring march. A ripple of applause
+ran over the crowd in the grandstand as Dorsey, at the head of the
+Vermejo cowboys, rode by the judges' box. He lifted his sombrero and
+waved it in pleased acknowledgment.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was in line a little distance behind Carolyn June,
+Skinny and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys. He rode alone just back of a
+quartette of Indians from down on the Chickasaw.
+
+His plain rigging, the slick, smoothly worn, leather chaps, the
+undecorated saddle, bridle and spurs, his entire work-a-day outfit
+contrasted vividly with the gaudy get-up of most of the other riders.
+Captain Jack moved along easily and freely, but quietly, and with an air
+of utter boredom with all the show and confusion about him. The Ramblin'
+Kid's attitude, whole appearance, matched perfectly the mood of his
+horse. He sat loosely in the saddle and carelessly smoked a cigarette.
+The truth was his mind was far from the pageant of which he and the
+little stallion were a part. He scarcely heard the music nor did he seem
+to see the thousands of human beings, packed tier above tier, under the
+mammoth roof of the grandstand. His thoughts were at the upper crossing
+of the treacherous Cimarron, out at the Quarter Circle KT; he was seeing
+again, Carolyn June, as she looked up into his eyes when he dragged her
+out of the quicksand--he was hearing, once more, her cry of agony as the
+bullet from his gun buried itself in the brain of Old Blue.
+
+Louder hand-clapping, stamping of feet, and calling voices, than any
+that had sounded before, rolled out from the grandstand as the lone
+rider, on the quiet, unexcited little roan, came down the stretch in
+front of the great crowd.
+
+Carolyn June looked back, saw the waving hats and handkerchiefs, heard
+hundreds of voices shouting:
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid! Th' good old Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+The crowd had recognized him as the slender rider who, a year ago, after
+the untamable Cyclone horse had killed Dick Stanley before their eyes
+and in front of where they sat, had ridden, straight-up and scotching
+him at every jump, that vicious, murderous-hearted outlaw.
+
+Carolyn June's eyes moistened and she felt a thrill of pride.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid barely glanced at the sea of faces, a faint smile hung
+for an instant on his lips, as he jerked his hand, the one in which he
+held the cigarette, to the brim of his hat when he came opposite the
+judges' stand.
+
+When the parade swung down the wide, one-sided, main street of Eagle
+Butte, Mike Sabota, from the door of the Elite Amusement Parlor,
+watched it pass. He was standing there, by the side of the lanky
+marshal and surrounded by a group of pool-room loafers and "carnival
+sharks" when Carolyn June and Skinny came by. She looked around in time
+to see him staring, with a vulgar leer, straight into her eyes.
+
+"There is that big, dirty, animal-looking fellow we saw the other day!"
+she said, with a frown of disgust, to Skinny. "He's horrible--"
+
+Skinny glanced at Sabota.
+
+"Yes, he is ornery," he said. "He runs that joint and boot-legs on the
+side. He's got a reputation as a slugger and keeps the crowd around him
+buffaloed. They say he killed a feller--beat him to death--in a fight
+over at Sapulpa before he came to Eagle Butte. I don't like the filthy
+cuss. He's mean!"
+
+"He looks it!" Carolyn June exclaimed, with the uncomfortable feeling
+that the big Greek's look had touched her with something vile and
+unclean.
+
+After the parade disbanded Carolyn June and Skinny rode back to the car
+where Old Heck and Ophelia had remained.
+
+"You made a darned good-looking cowgirl!" Old Heck said proudly to her
+as she stopped Red John by the side of the Clagstone "Six."
+
+"She and Skinny both presented a very fine appearance!" the widow added,
+while Carolyn June playfully blew a kiss at each in acknowledgment of
+the compliment. Skinny sat on Old Pie Face and felt a warm glow of
+satisfaction at the words of Old Heck and Ophelia. He had known all the
+time that Carolyn June and he had shown up well, but he was glad to find
+that others besides himself had noticed it.
+
+Dorsey, on a black stallion, cantered past.
+
+A moment later the Ramblin' Kid came jogging off the race course on
+Captain Jack. He threw up his hand in greeting and passed on out of the
+grounds.
+
+Parked next to the Clagstone "Six" was a handsome touring car, occupied
+by a party consisting of a girl about Carolyn June's own age, a woman a
+few years older and a couple of immaculately dressed young men who wore
+flaring brimmed black felt hats that contrasted absurdly with their
+expensively tailored suits. Evidently all were "big town" people from a
+distance--very "superior" and patronizing in their attitude toward the
+"natives." They had been free and voluble in their comments on the
+various riders. Dorsey, on the magnificent Thunderbolt, drew a murmur of
+admiration from the lips of the girl. As the Ramblin' Kid, the next
+moment, rode by on Captain Jack one of the young fellows said loudly and
+with a laugh of ridicule:
+
+"Look at that one, Bess," addressing the girl; "there's the 'wild and
+woolly' West for you! I'll bet if that horse sneezed he'd fall down and
+the lonesome-looking little runt that's riding him would tumble off and
+root his nose in the dust!"
+
+A cackle of derisive laughter greeted the cheap witticism.
+
+Before any of the others could speak Carolyn June's eyes blazed with
+sudden wrath. She turned her body in the saddle and faced the speaker,
+her hands tightly clenched, her cheeks white with passion and her lip
+curling wickedly.
+
+"Which shows," she said slowly, every word stinging like the bite of a
+whip-lash, "that you are running, true to form and there is one fool, at
+least, still unslaughtered! That"--she continued with a proud toss of
+her head--"'lonesome-looking little runt' is the Ramblin' Kid! Not
+another man in Texas can ride the horse he is on--and there is not a
+horse in Texas that he can't ride!"
+
+She turned again toward the Quarter Circle KT group and a shamed silence
+settled over the swell "out-of-town" car.
+
+Old Heck chuckled with delight at Carolyn June's show of temper.
+
+A whirlwind program of racing, roping, bull-dogging--this event is that
+in which a rider springs from a running horse, grasps by the horns a
+wild steer running at his side, twists the animal's head up and backward
+and so throws it down and then holds the creature on the
+ground--rough-riding and other Rodeo sports followed immediately after
+the parade.
+
+Pedro and Charley Saunders were the only Quarter Circle KT cowboys
+participating in the events of the first day of the Rodeo. The Mexican
+did a fancy roping stunt in front of the grandstand and finished his
+exhibition directly before the Clagstone "Six" in which Carolyn June,
+Ophelia, Old Heck and Skinny were sitting. At the conclusion of his
+performance Pedro bowed to the little audience in the car and swept his
+sombrero before him with all the courtly grace of a great matador.
+Carolyn June generously applauded the dark-skinned rider from the
+Cimarron and waved a daintily gloved hand in acknowledgment of his skill
+with the rope. Skinny gritted his teeth while a pang of jealousy shot
+through his heart.
+
+Charley took part in the bull-dogging event. He drew a black steer,
+rangey built, heavy and wicked. When he lunged from his horse on to the
+horns of the brute it dragged him for a hundred feet before he could
+check its mad flight. At last he slowly forced its nose in the air and
+with a quick wrench of the head to one side threw its feet from under
+it. Man and beast went down in a heap--the neck of the steer across the
+cowboy's body. A groan went up from the crowd in the grandstand and
+Carolyn June's cheeks paled with horror--it looked as if one horn of the
+creature had pierced Charley's breast. But it had missed by the fraction
+of an inch. Straightening himself up to a sitting posture the cowboy
+bent forward and sunk his teeth in the upper lip of the prostrate animal
+and threw up both hands as a signal to the judges that the brute was
+"bulldogged." But the fight had been too hard for him to win first
+place. Buck Wade, a lanky cow-puncher from Montana, in three seconds
+less time, had thrown a brindle Anchor-O steer and taken first money.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Before the sun dipped into the Costejo peaks the Ramblin' Kid left the
+Rodeo and returned alone to the Quarter Circle KT. He told Parker and
+the cowboys, all of whom intended to remain in Eagle Butte every night
+during the Rodeo, that he would be back in town the next afternoon and
+bring with him the Gold Dust maverick. Word had been passed among the
+Quarter Circle KT crowd to keep Dorsey and his bunch in the dark as long
+as possible regarding the fact that the filly, Ophelia, was the famous
+outlaw mare of the lower Cimarron.
+
+After supper Parker, Chuck, Bert and Charley drifted into the Elite
+Amusement Parlor. The place was crowded. Mike Sabota immediately singled
+out the Quarter Circle KT group and began jollying them about the coming
+two-mile sweepstakes. Dorsey and Flip Williams had been in the pool-room
+earlier in the evening and told him of the Ramblin' Kid's entry of the
+filly against the Thunderbolt horse.
+
+Within ten minutes Bert and Charley had placed two hundred and fifty
+dollars each against five hundred of Sabota's money that the Vermejo
+stallion would not finish in first place in the big race.
+
+Old Judge Ivory, who happened to be present, was agreed upon as
+stake-holder.
+
+"That Thunderbolt horse, he is the devil," Sabota laughed evilly as the
+money was handed over to the gray-haired judge. "And Satan, he takes
+care of his own!"
+
+"Well!" Parker drawled, "if you feel inclined to send any more money to
+hell I might help you--" pulling a wad of bills from his pocket and
+throwing the certificates on the soft-drink bar at which they were
+standing.
+
+Sabota's eyes gleamed greedily.
+
+"I think there's two thousand in this roll," Parker continued, "and I'm
+willing to bet it all that the Ramblin' Kid's filly not only goes under
+the wire first in the two-mile run, but that she'll be kicking dirt in
+old Thunderbolt's face--if he ain't too damned far behind--when she does
+it!"
+
+The Greek covered the wager eagerly.
+
+As Judge Ivory pocketed the money Dorsey and Flip Williams stepped into
+the pool-room. Sabota glanced up.
+
+"These Quarter Circle KT _hombres_ are getting bad," he laughed
+sneeringly to Dorsey; "they think th' Ramblin' Kid's got a colt that can
+beat Thunderbolt!"
+
+"The Ramblin' Kid must have a hell of a fast horse!" Dorsey snarled
+contemptuously, "a hell of a fast horse!" he repeated, "when the Ramblin'
+Kid himself declines to risk a dollar of his own money on the running
+qualities of the critter!" referring to the conversation a few hours
+before in the entry judges' office.
+
+As he finished speaking he turned and looked squarely into the cold gray
+eyes of Old Heck who, with Skinny, had entered the Amusement Parlor
+while Dorsey was talking and heard the Vermejo cattleman's sneering
+insinuation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+MOCHA AND JAVA
+
+Old Heck and Skinny had left Ophelia and Carolyn June at the Occidental
+Hotel, where a room was reserved by Old Heck for the use of the two
+women during the Rodeo. They had then gone direct to Mike Sabota's place
+for the express purpose of running into Dorsey and his crowd. Old Heck
+knew that if any large bets were to be laid on the two-mile sweepstakes
+the only chance would be to place them before the Ramblin' Kid brought
+the Gold Dust maverick to Eagle Butte and the Vermejo bunch discovered
+the identity of the horse Thunderbolt was up against.
+
+The Quarter Circle KT cow-men stepped into the pool-room at exactly the
+instant most favorable for their purpose.
+
+Dorsey had made his boast in the presence of a crowd.
+
+He would hardly dare back up without covering, at least to some
+worth-while extent, his words with his money.
+
+For a full minute Old Heck drilled Dorsey with a look such, as a hound
+dog might have in his eyes after he has cornered a coyote and pauses
+before he springs.
+
+Instinctively the crowd stepped back from the two cattlemen while a
+death-like hush fell over the place.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid don't need to back the filly with his money, Dorsey,"
+Old Heck said slowly and in a voice audible in every part of the room;
+"I'm here to back her with mine! You've done a lot of talking--now,
+damn you, cover your chatter with coin or shut up!" the end of the
+sentence coming like the crack of a whip.
+
+With a nervous laugh the Vermejo cattleman jerked a wallet from his
+pocket.
+
+"Here's a thousand that says Thunderbolt does the same thing to the
+Ramblin' Kid's filly that he done to Quicksilver!" Dorsey snapped.
+
+Old Heck threw back his head and laughed scornfully.
+
+"A thousand? I thought you were a sport, Dorsey!" he sneered. "Match
+this," he continued, reaching for his check-book and fountain pen and
+quickly filling out a check payable to "Cash" for ten thousand dollars,
+which he laid on the hardwood bar. "Match that, or admit you're a cheap,
+loud-howlin' bluffer!"
+
+Dorsey paused just an instant as he noted the amount of the check.
+
+"I'll match it!" he exclaimed, flushing angrily, drawing his own
+check-book from his pocket, and then, carried away by his passion
+added, throwing down the bars completely as Old Heck had hoped he would,
+"and go with you to the end of the trail!"
+
+"Good!" Old Heck laughed, "now you are talking like a sport! Let's see,"
+he added calculatingly, "how many Y-Bar cattle do you figure you've got
+running on the Vermejo range--five thousand?"
+
+"There's that many," Dorsey started to say.
+
+"Call it fifty-five hundred!" Old Heck flung at him. "Steer for steer,
+cow for cow, hoof for hoof--I'll put Quarter Circle KT critters against
+every brute you own that th' Ramblin' Kid lands his horse tinder the
+wire ahead of Thunderbolt!"
+
+Dorsey paled, then a purple-red of fury spread over his neck and face,
+and with an oath he cried:
+
+"I'll call you!"
+
+Bills of sale were drawn and turned over to Judge Ivory, to be
+delivered, after the race, to the winner.
+
+"Now," Old Heck said with a hard laugh, "maybe you'd like to own the
+Quarter Circle KT ranch, Dorsey? It's worth twice as much as your
+Vermejo holdings but I'll just give you that percentage of odds and call
+it an even bet that your black stallion don't outrun the little animal
+th' Ramblin' Kid has entered in the sweepstakes!"
+
+But Dorsey did not answer except with a muttered: "Hell, a man's crazy
+that--" He had gone his limit. He had suddenly come to his senses and
+grown suspicious.
+
+Before Skinny and Old Heck left the pool-room the former managed to get
+a bet of five hundred dollars with Sabota.
+
+The next afternoon the Ramblin' Kid rode into Eagle Butte on Captain
+Jack. By his side he led the Gold Dust maverick. The noise and confusion
+in the streets filled the mare with nervousness and she crowded closely
+against the little roan stallion. Before he got the outlaw filly to the
+stables a half dozen cowboys had recognized the Cimarron maverick.
+Within an hour Dorsey and Sabota knew the identity of the Ramblin' Kid's
+entry in the big race that was to be run Friday afternoon and which was
+the big and closing event of the Rodeo.
+
+The Greek was furious.
+
+Wednesday night he called "Gyp" Streetor, a carnival tout, who had one
+time been a jockey but was ruled off the track for crooked work and was
+now picking up "easies" at the Eagle Butte Rodeo, into a side room of
+the Amusement Parlor.
+
+For half an hour the two talked earnestly and furtively.
+
+"Nothin' doin'--absolutely nothin'!" the tout finally said in reply to
+some suggestion of Sabota's. "That Captain Jack horse would murder any
+man but th' Ramblin' Kid that tried to get in the stall--"
+
+"Well, by hell!" the Greek exclaimed, clenching his hairy fists, while
+his mouth twitched with passion, "that filly's got to be kept out of the
+sweepstakes someway or other--"
+
+"You can't get to her, I tell you," Gyp said sullenly, then with a look
+of cunning suddenly coming into his eyes: "They say she's a one-man
+brute like the stallion--nobody can ride her but th' Ramblin' Kid,"
+significantly looking at Sabota. "If you could--but he don't drink!"
+
+The Greek laughed.
+
+"There are other ways!" he said. "He eats, don't he? Listen: To-morrow
+and Friday you take that 'sandwich and coffee' run at the stables--"
+referring to the concession to peddle lunch stuff among the horsemen who
+seldom left their charges, a concession which Sabota, with other
+privileges, had purchased the right to operate. "Th' Ramblin' Kid eats
+off the trays--it will be your business to see that he ain't feeling
+well when the sweepstakes is called! I'll get the 'pills' for you
+to-night--"
+
+"No killin', Sabota!" Gyp warned.
+
+"Just enough to put him out for an hour or two!" the Greek answered.
+
+Wednesday night the Ramblin' Kid slept in the stall with the Gold Dust
+maverick and Captain Jack. Thursday he remained close to the horses.
+Thursday night he again slept on a pile of hay in one corner of the
+box-compartment. Under no circumstances would he leave the animals.
+Occasionally Parker or some of the Quarter Circle KT cowboys came down
+to the stables.
+
+Each night Old Heck and Skinny, with Carolyn June and Ophelia, after the
+evening program was concluded, drove out to the ranch in the Clagstone
+"Six," returning early the following day.
+
+Friday forenoon Old Heck drove the car down to the stall in which
+Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were confined. The two horses
+were standing, side by side, with their heads out of the door, the upper
+half of which was swung back. The Ramblin' Kid leaned against the door
+at the side of the horses.
+
+To Carolyn June he looked tired and worn.
+
+"How's the filly?" Old Heck asked, as the outlaw mare sprang back away
+from the door when the car stopped.
+
+"She's all right."
+
+"Hadn't you ought to exercise her?" Skinny asked.
+
+"She don't need it," the Ramblin' Kid replied with a note of weariness
+in his voice. "She'll get enough exercise this afternoon!"
+
+"You're all right, yourself, are you?" Old Heck asked a bit anxiously.
+
+"Of course I'm all right," was the rather impatient reply. "Don't be
+uneasy," he added with a laugh; "--th' filly'll be in th' race an' beat
+old Thunderbolt!"
+
+"Good luck!" Carolyn June cried, as Old Heck turned the car about and
+started back toward the grandstand.
+
+"Good luck!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered to himself, watching the car as
+it whirled away. "Ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" he repeated bitterly,
+then with a queer smile in which was a world of tenderness he pulled the
+pink satin elastic garter he had picked up at the circular corral, from
+his pocket and looked at it long and wistfully. "Good luck?" he
+exclaimed again questioningly. "Well, maybe that little jigger'll bring
+it!" and he slipped the band back in his pocket.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid acts like he's got the blues this morning," Skinny
+said as the Clagstone "Six" rolled away from the stables. "He looks to
+me like a feller that's in just the right humor to get on a whale of a
+drunk--"
+
+"That's one thing about him you can depend on," Old Heck broke in, "--he
+never poisons himself with liquor. That's why when he says he'll do
+anything you can bet all you've got he'll do it!"
+
+"Well, if he ever does break loose," Skinny retorted, "it'll be sudden
+and wild!"
+
+"Probably," Old Heck replied as though there wasn't the slightest danger
+of such an eventuality.
+
+That morning Gyp purposely avoided going as far, with his stock of
+provisions, as the stall in which were Captain Jack and the Gold Dust
+maverick. Nor did he come with his lunch tray and tin pot of coffee
+until nearly one o'clock.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid had no breakfast. To secure it he would have been
+required to leave the horses. That he would not do. Of course he might
+have told Old Heck or Skinny to bring or send him something, but he did
+not feel inclined to mention, in the presence of Carolyn June and
+Ophelia, that he was hungry. Anyhow, well, they were having a good time
+and what was the use of bothering them?
+
+When Gyp finally came with the lunch the Ramblin' Kid was outside the
+stall and had walked a little way up the stable street. Captain Jack and
+the filly were in a compartment at the end of the string of stalls. The
+one next to it, back toward the grandstand, was unoccupied, and
+adjoining that was a hay room. Gyp stopped opposite the open door of the
+compartment in which the bales of hay and straw were piled. He paused a
+moment and turned as if to go back.
+
+"Hold on there!" the Ramblin' Kid called to him. "What you tryin' to do?
+Starve me to death?"
+
+"D' last thing I'd want to do, Bo!" Gyp laughed good-naturedly. "Did I
+miss you this mornin'? Here, come inside where I can set this bloomin'
+junk down on a bale of hay for a minute an' I'll fix you up!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid followed Gyp into the stall.
+
+The tout stooped over, with his back to the other, and slipped a capsule
+containing a white powder into a coffee cup which he filled quickly with
+the black liquid from the tin pot he carried. He handed the cup to the
+Ramblin' Kid. The latter took it and sat down on a bale of hay lying
+opposite. The coffee was just hot enough to melt, instantly, the capsule
+and not too warm to drink at once. The Ramblin' Kid was thirsty as well
+as hungry. Lifting the cup to his lips, while Gyp, fumbling for a
+sandwich, watched him furtively, he drained it without stopping.
+
+"That's--what was in that?'" he asked, eying the tout keenly. "It tastes
+like--!"
+
+"Just good old Mocha an' Java!" Gyp interrupted lightly. "Maybe it's a
+little strong. Here, take another one!" reaching for the cup.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid started to hand the cup to Gyp to be refilled--a queer
+numbness swept over him--the cup fell from his hand--he swayed--tensed
+his body in an effort to get up--mumbled thickly:
+
+"What th'--what th'--?"
+
+The tout backed away toward the door, crouching like a cat ready to
+spring, his beady eyes half-frightened, watching the poison deaden the
+faculties of the other. He leaped through the door, glanced up and down
+the stable street--deserted at that hour except for a few drowsy
+attendants lounging in front of their stalls--jerked the door shut,
+hooked the open padlock through the iron fastenings, snapped its jaws
+together and muttered, as he hurried away:
+
+"I guess that guy won't ride the Gold Dust maverick in any two-mile
+sweepstakes to-day!"
+
+As the door slammed shut the Ramblin' Kid pitched forward, unconscious,
+on the bale of hay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE SWEEPSTAKES
+
+The Clagstone "Six" was parked, Friday afternoon, in its usual place
+near the east end of the grandstand and close to the entrance to the
+track. Old Heck and Ophelia were alone in the car. Carolyn June and
+Skinny, on Pie Face and Red John, watched the afternoon program from the
+"inside field" across the race track. Parker and the Quarter Circle KT
+cowboys were also mounted on their horses and in the field opposite the
+grandstand.
+
+Never had there been such a jam at a Rodeo held in Eagle Butte.
+
+The two-mile sweepstakes, itself the "cow-man's classic" and the great
+derby event of western Texas, always drew record crowds the day on which
+it was run.
+
+This Friday the grandstand creaked under its load of humanity.
+
+The racing feud between the Quarter Circle KT and the Y-Bar and the
+thousands of dollars Old Heck and Dorsey were known to have bet on their
+respective favorites acted as tinder on the flame of public interest in
+the big event.
+
+Thunderbolt had a great reputation. Last year, and the year before, he
+had mastered the field of runners put against him.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick--named in the race "Ophelia"--was a wonder horse
+in the minds of the people of western Texas who had heard of the
+beautiful, almost super-creature, that had tormented, with her speed and
+endurance, the riders of the Cimarron and now at last was caught, and to
+be ridden in the sweepstakes, by the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+At two-forty a special exhibition of "Cossack Riding"--participated in
+by Lute Larsen, of Idaho; Jack Haines, from Texas, and Curly Piper, a
+Colorado cowboy, finished in front of the grandstand.
+
+The announcer trained his megaphone on the vast crowd:
+
+"The next event," he bellowed, "two-mile sweepstakes! Purse one thousand
+dollars! Five entries! Naming them in their order from the pole:
+Thunderbolt, black Y-Bar stallion, Flip Williams, rider; Say-So, roan
+gelding, from the Pecos River, Box-V outfit, Jess Curtis, rider;
+Ophelia, Gold Dust filly, the Cimarron outlaw from the Quarter Circle
+KT, th' Ramblin' Kid, rider; Prince John, sorrel gelding, from Dallas,
+Texas, 'Snow' Johnson, rider; Dash-Away, bay mare, from Jackson Hole,
+Wyoming, Slim Tucker, rider. Race called at three o'clock sharp! Horse
+failing to score on the dot will be ruled out! Range saddles to be used.
+Entries for the two-mile sweepstakes will show at once on the track!"
+
+Dead silence ensued during the announcer's drawling oration.
+
+It was followed by the hum of five thousand voices as they chattered in
+eager expectancy.
+
+The band crashed out _Dixie_ and a medley of southern melodies.
+
+Chuck and Bert reined their bronchos up to Parker.
+
+"We're going over and see how th' Ramblin' Kid is making it," Chuck
+said. "He might need that filly herded a little to get her through this
+jam." And they galloped their horses across the track toward the
+stables.
+
+Carolyn June and Skinny decided to watch the sweepstakes from the car,
+with Old Heck and Ophelia. They rode Pie Face and Red John over to the
+Clagstone "Six." Carolyn June dismounted and stepped up on the
+running-board of the car, holding Red John loosely by the bridle rein.
+
+"Gee," she laughed, "but I'm nervous!"
+
+Old Heck reached over and patted her hand.
+
+"Wait till they start to run before you get hysterical," he chuckled.
+"There'll be time enough then for excitement!" One could never have
+told, by his actions, that within the next few moments he would lose or
+win fifty thousand dollars.
+
+Chuck pulled Silver Tip to a stop in front of the stall where Captain
+Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were standing.
+
+"They're getting ready for the sweepstakes!" he called, thinking the
+Ramblin' Kid was in the compartment with the horses. "You'd better be
+putting your rigging on the filly," as he slid from his broncho and
+stepped to the door of the stall.
+
+There was no answer. He peered into the half-gloom of the place.
+
+It was empty save for the two horses.
+
+"That's funny as thunder," he said, puzzled, to Bert. "Where'd you
+reckon th' Ramblin' Kid is?"
+
+"Darned if I know--ain't he there?" Bert answered, riding up so he could
+look into the door.
+
+"Look around a little," Chuck said anxiously. "Maybe he's just stepped
+away for a minute--Hey!" he called to an attendant of a stall a short
+distance down the stable street, "have you seen anything of th' Ramblin'
+Kid--the feller that has these horses?"
+
+"Naw," was the careless answer, "I ain't seen him for two hours."
+
+"Something must be wrong!" Chuck exclaimed. "You stay here and watch!
+I'll go see Old Heck--maybe he knows where he is."
+
+"Hell, yes!" Bert said as the other started Silver Tip in a run toward
+where the Clagstone "Six" was parked. "He's got to be found! Nobody else
+but him can ride the maverick!"
+
+At the car, before his horse was fairly stopped, Chuck leaned over and
+asked, tensely:
+
+"Have any of you people seen th' Ramblin' Kid?"
+
+Old Heck straightened up.
+
+"Ain't he at the stables?" he inquired uneasily. "He was there this
+morning--"
+
+"No," Chuck replied hurriedly, "he's been gone two hours!"
+
+"Good lord," Old Heck exclaimed, "he's got to be found! The race starts
+in ten minutes."
+
+"And nobody but him can ride the filly!" Skinny interrupted. "I wonder
+if he's--" he started to say "drunk," but stopped as Carolyn June looked
+quickly at him. The word was in both their minds.
+
+"It ain't natural!" Old Heck cried; "there must be something dirty! You
+boys go look for him; I'll, keep my eyes open here!"
+
+As Old Heck said "dirty" the picture of Mike Sabota flashed into Carolyn
+June's mind. Some intuition seemed to couple, in her inner
+consciousness, the big Greek with the Ramblin' Kid's disappearance.
+
+The horses for the two-mile sweepstakes were already beginning to come
+on to the track. Flip Williams was walking Thunderbolt up and down in
+front of the grandstand, trying to keep the high-spirited stallion quiet
+until time came to mount; the rider of Say-So was doing the same thing
+with his entry; Slim Tucker was already sitting on Dash-Away, the trim
+Wyoming mare standing unruffled near the starting line, while Snow
+Johnson, like Tucker, already on his mount, was circling Prince John in
+wide loops behind the others.
+
+Carolyn June was stunned for a moment by the thought that had come into
+her mind when the picture of the burly Greek flashed before her. She
+clenched her hands and her cheeks whitened.
+
+"Come on, Skinny!" she said suddenly, stepping off the running-board of
+the car and swinging on to Red John, "we'll go help look for the
+Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+She whirled the big bay around the end of the grandstand and rode in a
+fast gallop straight for the box stall, Skinny and Chuck following close
+behind her. A quick resolution formed in her mind: "Nobody but the
+Ramblin' Kid could ride the filly?"
+
+_She could ride the mare_!
+
+Even if the Ramblin' Kid was not found Sabota and his crowd should not
+be allowed to win by dirty work--if dirty work had been done!
+
+At the stall Carolyn June sprang from Red John.
+
+Bert was nervously walking about, calling occasionally the name of the
+missing Quarter Circle KT cowboy.
+
+"Have you found him?" Carolyn June asked as Skinny and Chuck came up
+behind her.
+
+"No," Bert answered glumly, "he ain't showed up yet! There ain't no
+signs of him around here."
+
+"What'll we do?" Skinny asked excitedly. "The race is almost ready to
+start and--do you reckon you could ride the filly, Bert?" he finished
+with a gleam of hope.
+
+"I doubt it, but, well, I'll try her--if Captain Jack'll let me get her
+out."
+
+"You boys keep back!" Carolyn June interrupted, stepping to the door of
+the stall and opening it, "Captain Jack knows me and--I--I--think the
+filly does, too--I can handle her--" as she stepped boldly inside the
+compartment with the horses.
+
+"Don't go in there!" Skinny cried, "Car--Carolyn June, they'll kill
+you!"
+
+"You boys keep away!" she laughed. "And don't get the horses nervous!
+They won't hurt me!" she answered, going ahead toward the animals.
+
+Captain Jack looked at her suspiciously an instant
+
+"Jack-Boy--Jack-Boy!" she called with a caress in her voice. "Careful!
+We're friends!" The attitude of the stallion changed instantly and the
+menace was gone from his eyes.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick heard the voice and with a friendly little nicker
+rubbed her head against the outstretched hand.
+
+In a corner was the Ramblin' Kid's saddle, bridle, blanket and worn
+leather chaps.
+
+With a light pat of the outlaw filly's cheek Carolyn June turned and
+began quickly and deftly putting the riding gear on the beautiful mare.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For an hour and a half the Ramblin' Kid lay as he had fallen when he
+started to hand the coffee cup back to Gyp. Breathing heavily, his face
+flushed, he was as one in the deep stupor of complete intoxication. At
+last he stirred uneasily. An unconscious groan came from his lips. His
+eyes opened. In them was a dazed, puzzled look. Where was he? He tried
+vainly to remember--the clean life, the iron constitution and
+youth--aided perhaps by an indomitable subconscious will protesting
+against this something that had happened to him--were throwing off the
+effects of the drug hours before an ordinary man would have regained
+even a hint of sensibility.
+
+He stood up--reeling unsteadily. He was deathly sick. Lightning flashes
+of pain throbbed through his head. Waves of blackness rolled before his
+eyes. Surges of numbness swept over his legs and arms. He tried hard to
+remember. There was something--what was it? Th'--th'--what th'
+hell?--_th' race_! That was it--th'--th'--th' sweepstakes! In an instant
+the thought was gone. It kept beating back: _Th' sweepstakes--th'
+race_--What time was it? Had it been run? He staggered to the door. It
+was locked! His head was bursting. If he could only get over the nausea.
+He felt his knees start to give way. No! No! My God, he wouldn't give
+up! He--oh, yes. _Th' race! Captain Jack--no--th'--th'--maverick--he had
+to ride_--He must get out! There was a--a--window--sometimes they had
+them--in the back of the stalls. Maybe the hay was over it. He climbed
+on the bales. Behind them he could see the opening. God, he was weak!
+With the sweat of terrible nausea bursting from every pore of his body
+he pulled the bales back. He fell over the bale on which he had been
+lying. One hand brushed his hat which had fallen from his head.
+Mechanically, with stiff fingers, he picked it up and jammed it on
+again. Then he climbed--crawled--over the hay and pitched forward
+through the opening, in a limp heap, on the ground outside.
+
+For a moment he lost consciousness completely again: _Th'--th' race--th'
+maverick! he mustn't forget_--
+
+He fought his way to his feet and groped along back of the building--the
+stall--which way was it? Down there? No--the other way--
+
+As Carolyn June tightened the rear cinch on the Gold Dust maverick and
+turned toward the door of the stall with: "Look out, boys--I'm coming
+out!" the Ramblin' Kid, clutching at the side of the building, reeled
+around the corner of the stall. The cowboys saw him. He himself saw only
+black shapes where their horses were.
+
+"Good God!" Skinny cried, "he's drunk!"
+
+Carolyn June heard Skinny's exclamation at the instant the Ramblin' Kid,
+catching at the half-open door, almost fell into the stall. His eyes
+stared with a dull, puzzled, unrecognizing vacancy first at Carolyn June
+and then the Gold Dust maverick. "_Who th' hell_--" he mumbled stiffly.
+"What--th'--oh, yes--there's th' filly--_th'--th'--race_. It
+must--be--time. Th' mare's saddled! That's--that's--funny! I can't
+remember. Th' race--th' sweepstakes--that's it--"
+
+Reaching over he jerked the reins from the hand of Carolyn June.
+
+"Who--who--get the--" came like the thick growl of a beast from his
+throat. "You--you--can't ride--she'll--_she'll--kill--_"
+
+Carolyn June shrank back as if she had been struck. She pressed her
+hands against her cheeks and stepped away with a look of horror and
+disgust as the Ramblin' Kid backed out of the stall with the Gold Dust
+maverick. Outside he fumbled grotesquely at the silky mane and climbed
+weakly into the saddle.
+
+Chuck and Bert started toward him.
+
+"Get--the--hell--" he snarled as he saw their horses--mere shadow shapes
+they were to him--approach.
+
+"Let him alone!" Skinny said. "He's drunk! You'll just scare the filly
+and make her hurt him!"
+
+The boys let him go.
+
+With blanched cheeks Carolyn June mounted Red John and with Skinny, Bert
+and Chuck, rode back to the Clagstone "Six." Her heart was utterly sick.
+So this was it? It had come out--the brute--the beast that was in him!
+
+They reached the car as the Ramblin' Kid, at the horse entrance, at the
+other end of the grandstand, came on the track with the Gold Dust
+maverick.
+
+Old Heck looked up when the group approached. He saw the agony in
+Carolyn June's eyes and started to speak.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's drunk," Skinny said dully. "He showed up--yonder he
+is--" as the beautiful copper-tinted, chestnut filly appeared behind the
+other horses entered for the two-mile sweepstakes.
+
+"Drunk?" Old Heck cried incredulously. "Are you sure?"
+
+"Watch him!" Chuck said miserably.
+
+The starter was standing with arm outstretched and flag ready to fall.
+The filly came down the track jumping nervously from side to side in
+short springing leaps. The starter paused, watch in hand. A shout of
+admiration and wonder went up from the crowd as the splendid creature
+dancing down the track was recognized. The next instant it was succeeded
+by a cry of horror that rolled in a great wave from a thousand throats.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid is drunk! He's drunk--the mare will kill him!" as they
+saw the slim rider weaving limply in the saddle, his head dropped
+forward as if he were utterly helpless.
+
+"Rule that horse off the track!" Dorsey, who was standing with Mike
+Sabota, in a box-seat just below the judges' stand, shouted as he saw
+the Ramblin' Kid, even in his half-conscious condition, reining the Gold
+Dust maverick with consummate skill into position, "her rider's drunk!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard the voice and--by some miracle of the
+mind--recognized it, although his eyes, set and glassy, could not see
+the speaker.
+
+He turned his head in the direction from which the cry came and
+answered, slowly measuring each word:
+
+"Go--go--t' hell--you--you--_coyote_!"
+
+The next instant the starter dropped the flag. As it went down the filly
+crouched and reared straight into the air.
+
+That one second gave the other horses the start.
+
+Then the outlaw mare leaped forward directly behind Thunderbolt, running
+against the inside rail. Say-So, the Pecos horse, jammed close to the
+side of the black stallion; Snow Johnson, rider of Prince John, pushed
+the big sorrel ahead with his nose at the roan's tail; Dash-Away hugged
+against the heels of Prince John. The Gold Dust maverick was "pocketed!"
+
+A breathless hush fell over the crowd in the grandstand after the first
+mighty roar:
+
+"They're off!"
+
+Black devils of torture clutched the throat, the mind, the body of the
+Ramblin' Kid. Streams of fire seemed to be flowing through his veins. He
+couldn't see--he was blind. "What th'--what th'--hell!" he muttered over
+and over. He was vaguely conscious of the thunder of hoofs around
+him--under him. Dimly, black shadows were rushing along at his side. He
+fought with all his will to master his faculties. Where was he? What was
+it? Was it a--a--stampede? What? _Oh, yes, th' race--th'--th'--
+sweepstakes--that--that was it_--Over and over the fleeting flashes of
+consciousness kept throwing this one supreme idea on the mirror of his
+mind!
+
+Not a word was spoken by any of the party at the Clagstone "Six" as the
+five fastest horses ever on the Eagle Butte track swept past the car
+toward the first quarter-turn of the course.
+
+Carolyn June's face was as white as marble. Her breast heaved and fell
+as if it would burst. Dry-eyed, every nerve tense, she stared at the
+straining racers. Unconsciously she gripped into hard knots of flesh and
+bone, both hands, while she bit at her underlip until a red drop of
+blood started from the gash made in the tender skin by her teeth.
+
+"_Drunk_!" she thought, "_drunk!_ Beastly drunk--and throwing away the
+greatest race ever run on a Texas track!"
+
+Old Heck sat impassive as though carved from stone and said nothing.
+
+Ophelia nervously chewed at the finger of her glove while her eyes
+moistened with sympathy and pity.
+
+Skinny, Chuck and Bert sat gloomily, moodily, on their bronchos and
+watched Thunderbolt lead the quintette of running horses.
+
+For the life of him Skinny could not keep from thinking of the five
+hundred dollars he had bet with Sabota, on the race, and the number of
+white shirts and purple ties he might have bought with the money!
+
+Over in the track-field Parker, Charley and Pedro saw the start of the
+race and each swore softly and silently to himself.
+
+Sing Pete, alone of the Quarter Circle KT crowd, in the jam of the
+grandstand, stretched his neck and followed with inscrutable eyes the
+close-bunched racers. The start had puzzled him, yet he murmured
+hopefully:
+
+"Maybe all samee Lamblin' Kid he beatee hell out of 'em yet!"
+
+The loyal Chinese cook had wagered the savings of a dozen years on the
+speed of the Gold Dust maverick's nimble legs and his faith in the
+"Lamblin' Kid."
+
+A blanket might have covered the five horses as they swung around the
+first mile.
+
+The speed-mad animals roared down the homestretch, finishing the first
+half of the race in the almost identical position each had taken in the
+getaway.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid rode the mile more as an automaton than as a living,
+conscious human being. He had no memory of time, place, events--save for
+the instants of rationality he forced his will to bring.
+
+Gradually, though, his mind was clearing.
+
+But which was it--the first half?--the last half? How long had they been
+running? How many times had they gone around the track? He could not
+remember!
+
+Down the straight stretch the racers came in a mighty whirlwind of
+speed.
+
+"Thunderbolt is taking it!"
+
+"The Y-Bar horse leads!"
+
+"Th' black's got 'em!" roared from the throats of the crowd in the
+grandstand and the mass of humanity crushing the railing along the
+track.
+
+Dorsey and Sabota leaped to the edge of the box as the horses thundered
+past the judges' stand. The voice of the owner of Thunderbolt shrieked
+out in a hoarse bellow:
+
+"Hold him to it, Flip! Keep your lead--you've got the filly!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard again--or thought he heard again--the voice of
+the Vermejo cattleman. He caught, as an echo, a note of triumph in it.
+It was like a tonic to his drug-numbed faculties.
+
+Suddenly he saw clearly. He had just a glimpse of Sabota standing by the
+side of Dorsey. He understood. In a flash it all came to him. The first
+half of the great sweepstakes race was behind them! Once more they were
+to circle the track. The glistening black rump of Thunderbolt rose and
+fell just ahead of the Gold Dust maverick's nose--at her side, crowding
+her against the rail, was another horse. Which one? It didn't matter!
+Back of it was another. He was "_pocketed_!" Hell, no wonder Thunderbolt
+was ahead of the outlaw mare!
+
+Half-way around the quarter-turn he pulled the filly down.
+
+She slackened ever so little. Thunderbolt--the horse at her side--all of
+them--shot ahead.
+
+He was behind the bunch--clear of the field!
+
+The crowd saw the filly dart to the right. It looked as though she would
+go over the outside rail before the Ramblin' Kid swung her, in a great
+arch, to the left clear of, but far behind, the other horses.
+
+He was crazy! The Gold Dust maverick was getting the better of the
+Ramblin' Kid. He had lost control of the wonderful mare!
+
+So thought the thousands watching the drama on the track before them.
+
+Away over, next to the outside fence, on the far side of the track, open
+now before him for the long outfield stretch, the Rambling Kid
+straightened the Gold Dust maverick out. The other racers were still
+bunched against the inner rail--lengths ahead of the filly.
+
+Leaning low on the neck of the maverick, the Ramblin' Kid began talking,
+for the first time, to the horse he rode.
+
+"_Baby--Baby! Girl_!" he whispered incoherently almost. "_Go--go_--damn
+'em! _'Ophelia'_"--he laughed thickly, reeling in the saddle.
+"_Hell_--_no--'Little--Little--Pink Garter!--that's--that's--_what y'
+are! Little--Pink--Garter_--" he repeated irrationally. "_That's
+it--show 'em--damn 'em--show 'em what--what runnin'--what real runnin'
+is!_" fumbling caressingly at the mare's neck with hands numb and stiff
+and chuckling pitifully, insanely, while his face was drawn with agony
+nearly unendurable.
+
+Then the Gold Dust maverick ran!
+
+Never had ground flowed with such swiftness under the belly of a horse
+on a Texas track.
+
+"Good God!" Skinny yelled, "looky yonder! He's passin' them! Th'
+Ramblin' Kid is passin' 'em!"
+
+No one answered him.
+
+His voice was drowned in the mighty roar that surged from five thousand
+throats and rolled in waves of echoing and re-echoing sound across the
+field.
+
+"He's ridin' round 'em!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid is goin' around them!"
+
+"Great heavens! Look at that horse go!"
+
+"She's a-flyin'! _She's a-flyin_'!"
+
+The Gold Dust maverick closed the gap--she caught Dash-Away--she
+evened up with Prince John--she left the big sorrel behind--she passed
+Say-So--nose to nose for a few rods she ran opposite the black
+wonder--the Thunderbolt horse from the Vermejo.
+
+Flip Williams, spurs raking the flanks of Dorsey's stallion, looked
+around.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid leaned toward him:
+
+"Hell--why--don't you--_make that--thing run_!" he sneered at the Y-Bar
+rider.
+
+The next instant the Gold Dust maverick's neck and shoulders showed in
+the lead of the Y-Bar stallion.
+
+At the turn for the home stretch the outlaw filly shot ahead of the
+wonderful black horse from the Vermejo, swung close to the inside rail,
+and like a flash of gold-brown darted down the track toward the wire.
+
+The grandstand was turned into a madhouse of seething humanity. The
+immense crowd came to its feet roaring and shrieking with frenzy. Men
+smashed their neighbors with clenched fists--not knowing or caring how
+hard or whom they struck--or that they themselves were being hit. Women
+screamed frantically, hysterically, tears streaming from thousands of
+eyes because of sheer joy at the wonderful thing the Gold Dust maverick
+was doing. Even the stolid Sing Pete was jumping up and down, shouting:
+
+"_Come on--come on--Lamblin' Kid! Beat 'em--beatee hell out of 'em_!"
+
+Full three lengths in the lead of the "unbeatable" Thunderbolt the Gold
+Dust maverick flashed under the wire in front of the judges!
+
+Dorsey, shaken in every nerve, lips blue as though he were stricken with
+a chill, reeled out of the box from which he had watched his whole
+fortune swept away by the speed of the Cimarron mare. At his side,
+profaning horrible, obscene oaths staggered Mike Sabota.
+
+Old Heck, white-faced, but his lips drawn in a smile of satisfaction,
+stood up in the Clagstone "Six" and watched the Ramblin' Kid--his eyes
+set and staring, his body twitching convulsively, check the filly, swing
+her around, ride back to the judges' stand, weakly fling up a hand in
+salute and then, barely able to sit in the saddle, rein the Gold Dust
+maverick off the track and ride toward the box stall.
+
+Skinny drew a hand across his eyes and looked at Carolyn June.
+
+Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+OLD HECK GOES TO TOWN
+
+It was Monday morning, clear and cloudless, with a whiff of a breeze
+kissing the poplars along the front-yard fence at the Quarter Circle KT.
+On the sand-hills north of the Cimarron, Pedro was pushing the saddle
+cavallard toward Rock Creek, where the last half of the beef round-up
+was to begin. Parker and the cowboys were just splashing their bronchos
+into the water at the lower ford. Sing Pete, on the high seat of the
+grub-wagon, was once more clucking and cawing at Old Tom and Baldy as
+they drew the outfit along the lane and followed the others to the open
+range.
+
+Old Heck, Skinny, Ophelia and Carolyn June again were alone at the
+Quarter Circle KT.
+
+The Eagle Butte Rodeo had closed, with one last riotous carnival of
+wildness at midnight Saturday night.
+
+Once more the straggling town, its pulse gradually beating back to
+normal, lay half-asleep at the foot of the sun-baked butte that stood
+silent and drowsy beyond the Sante Fe tracks.
+
+Tom Poole, the lank marshal, loafed as usual about the Elite Amusement
+Parlor, over which hung a sullen quiet reflecting the morbid emotions of
+Mike Sabota, its brutish-built proprietor, resulting from his heavy
+losses on Thunderbolt in the two-mile sweepstakes when the Gold Dust
+maverick, ridden by the drug-crazed Ramblin' Kid, darted under the wire
+lengths ahead of the black Vermejo stallion.
+
+Friday evening Old Heck had met Dorsey in the pool-room.
+
+Judge Ivory handed over to the owner of the Quarter Circle KT the Y-Bar
+cattleman's check for ten thousand dollars and the bill of sale he had
+recklessly given and which transferred to Old Heck all the cattle the
+Vermejo rancher owned.
+
+Dorsey was game.
+
+"You put it on me," he said to Old Heck "but the Ramblin' Kid won square
+and I'm not squealing!"
+
+Old Heck turned the check slowly over in his hand and looked at it with
+a quizzical frown on his face:
+
+"I reckon this is good?"
+
+"It's my exact balance," Dorsey replied; "I saw to that this morning."
+
+For a long minute Old Heck studied the bill of sale that made him owner
+of every cow-brute burnt with the Y-Bar brand.
+
+"My men will gather the cattle within fifteen days," Dorsey said dully,
+noting the half-questioning look on Old Heck's face, "or you can send
+your own crew, just as you please. I suppose you'll meet me half-way and
+receive the stock in Eagle Butte?"
+
+"Can Thunderbolt run?" Old Heck asked irrelevantly.
+
+"Not as fast as that imp of hell of the Ramblin' Kid's!" Dorsey answered
+instantly and with a short laugh.
+
+Old Heck chuckled.
+
+"You say you'll turn the Y-Bar cattle over to me within fifteen days?"
+he asked again, reverting to a study of the paper he held in his hand.
+
+"Yes," Dorsey replied; "is that satisfactory?"
+
+"You're a pretty good sport, after all, Dorsey," Old Heck said quietly.
+"I'll cash this check"--glancing at the yellow slip of paper--"and this
+thing, here--we'll just tear it up!" as he reduced the bill of sale to
+fragments. "Keep your cattle, Dorsey," he added, "ten thousand dollars
+is enough for you to pay for your lesson!"
+
+Dorsey flushed a dull red.
+
+"I ain't asking--"
+
+"I know you're not," Old Heck interrupted, "and that's the reason I tore
+up that bill of sale!"
+
+"Old Heck," Dorsey said, his voice trembling, "you're white! I'd like to
+shake--"
+
+The rival cattlemen gripped hands and the racing feud between the
+Quarter Circle KT and the Y-Bar was ended.
+
+A week later Dorsey sent Flip Williams to the Quarter Circle KT. The
+Vermejo cowboy led the beautiful black stallion that had mastered
+Quicksilver and had in turn been whipped by the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+"Dorsey said, Tell Old Heck Thunderbolt's a pretty good saddle horse,'"
+Flip explained, "'and he'd do to change off with Quicksilver once in a
+while! So he sent him over as a sort of keepsake!'"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid did not return to the Quarter Circle KT until late
+Sunday night. After the two-mile sweepstakes he was horribly ill. All
+Friday night he laid, in a semi-conscious condition, in the stall with
+Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+Parker and some of the cowboys visited the stall after the race, but
+they thought the Ramblin' Kid was drunk and the best thing was to allow
+him to sleep it off.
+
+"I can't figure it out," Chuck said as they turned away, "he never did
+get drunk before that I knew of--"
+
+"You can't tell what he's liable to do," Charley interrupted, "he sure
+took an awful chance getting on a tear at the time he did!"
+
+"Well, he won the race," Parker said admiringly, "drunk or sober, you've
+got to give him credit for that!"
+
+Saturday the Ramblin' Kid got Pedro to stay with the horses while he
+went over to the Elite Amusement Parlor. He had nothing to say to Sabota
+or any of the loafers in the place.
+
+He was looking for Gyp Streetor.
+
+Until Sunday afternoon he searched Eagle Butte, trying to find the tout.
+All he wanted was to locate the man who had sold him that cup of
+coffee--he could remember drinking the coffee; after that until the
+following morning all was hazy.
+
+But Gyp was gone.
+
+When the Gold Dust maverick, with the Ramblin' Kid swaying uncertainly
+on her back, had appeared on the track for the two-mile run, the tout,
+his eyes like those of a harried rat, sneaked out of the crowd in front
+of the book-makers' booths and hurried toward the Santa Fe railroad
+yards. An hour later he slipped into an empty freight car--part of a
+train headed for the West--and Eagle Butte saw him no more.
+
+It was midnight Sunday when the Ramblin' Kid reached the Quarter Circle
+KT, turned Captain Jack and the outlaw filly into the circular corral,
+and without disturbing Old Heck, Parker, or the cowboys, already asleep
+in the bunk-house, sought his bed.
+
+Monday morning he was at breakfast with the others.
+
+Throughout the meal the Ramblin' Kid was silent. Carolyn June, still
+shocked by what she thought was his intoxication the day of the race,
+and believing he had remained in Eagle Butte over Saturday night and
+Sunday to continue the debauch, ignored him.
+
+None of the others cared to question him and the Ramblin' Kid himself
+volunteered no information.
+
+Once only, Old Heck mentioned the race.
+
+"That was a pretty good ride you made in the two-mile event," he said,
+addressing the Ramblin' Kid; "it looked at first like the filly--"
+
+"You won your money, didn't you?" the Ramblin' Kid interrupted in a tone
+that plainly meant there was nothing further to be said.
+
+That was the only reference to the incidents of Friday afternoon.
+
+After breakfast the Ramblin' Kid saddled the Gold Dust maverick, turned
+Captain Jack with the cavallard, and with Parker and the other Quarter
+Circle KT cowboys rode away to help gather the beef cattle from the west
+half of the Cimarron range.
+
+The week that followed passed quickly.
+
+During the entire period the Kiowa lay under a mantle of sunshine by day
+and starlit skies by night.
+
+Carolyn June once more provided the evening dessert of coffee-jelly and
+Skinny finished teaching her the art of dipping bread in milk and egg
+batter, frying it in hot butter, and calling the result "French toast"
+
+Skinny again put on the white shirt and the shamrock tinted tie. He had
+not dared to wear what Chuck called his "love-making rigging" during the
+week of the Rodeo. It would have made him entirely too conspicuous among
+the hundreds of other cowboys gathered at Eagle Butte for the big
+celebration. Situations filled with embarrassment would have been almost
+certain to develop.
+
+"It's getting so it needs a washing a little," Skinny remarked to
+Carolyn June the first time he reappeared in the once snowy garment.
+
+He was quite right.
+
+Carolyn June herself had noticed that the shirt had lost some of its
+immaculateness.
+
+"It doesn't look hardly as white as it did at first!"
+
+"No, it don't," Skinny answered seriously. "I guess I'll wash it
+to-morrow. I never did wash one but I reckon it ain't so awful hard to
+do--"
+
+"I'll help you," Carolyn June volunteered. "I've never washed one
+either, but it will be fun to learn how!"
+
+The next day they washed the shirt.
+
+The ceremony was performed in the kitchen after they had finished doing
+the breakfast dishes. Ophelia, after water for a vase of roses, came
+into the room while Skinny was rinsing the shirt in the large tin
+dishpan.
+
+The garment was a sickly yellow.
+
+"Darned if I know what's wrong with it," Skinny said, a trifle
+discouraged, while Carolyn June, her sleeves rolled above dimpled
+elbows, stood by and watched the slushy operation. "Carolyn June and me
+both have blamed near rubbed our fingers off trying to get it to look
+right again but somehow or other it don't seem to work."
+
+"Did you put bluing in your rinse water?" Ophelia asked with a laugh.
+
+"Bluing?" Carolyn June and Skinny questioned together. "What does that
+do to it?"
+
+"Bleaches it--makes it white," the widow replied with another laugh as
+she returned to the front room.
+
+"By golly, maybe that's what it needs!" Skinny exclaimed hopefully.
+
+"Of course," Carolyn June cried gaily. "How silly we were not to think
+of it! Any one ought to know you put bluing in the water when you wash
+things. Wonder if Sing Pete has any around anywhere?"
+
+They searched the kitchen shelves and found a pint bottle, nearly full,
+of the liquid indigo compound.
+
+"How much do you suppose we ought to put in?" Carolyn June asked,
+pulling the cork from the bottle and holding it poised over the pan of
+water in which the shirt, a slimy, dingy mass, floated drunkenly.
+
+"Darned if I know," Skinny said, scratching his head. "She said it would
+make it white--I reckon the more you put in the whiter the blamed
+thing'll be. Try about half of it at first and see how 'it works!"
+
+"Gee, isn't it pretty?" Carolyn June gurgled as she tipped the bottle
+and the waves of indigo spread through the water, covering the shirt
+with a deep crystalline blue.
+
+"You bet!" Skinny exclaimed. "That ought to fix it!"
+
+It did.
+
+The shirt, when finally dried, was a wonderful thing--done in a sort of
+mottled, streaky, marbled sky and cloud effect.
+
+But Skinny wore it, declaring he liked it better--that it more nearly
+matched the shamrock tie--than when it was "too darned white and
+everything!"
+
+To Parker and the boys on the beef hunt everything was business.
+
+The days were filled with hard riding as they gathered the cattle,
+bunched the fat animals, cut out and turned back those unfit for the
+market, stood guard at night over the herd, steadily and rapidly cleaned
+the west half of the Kiowa range of the stuff that was ready to sell.
+
+It was supper-time on one of the last days of the round-up.
+
+The outfit was camped at Dry Buck. Bed rolls, wrapped in dingy gray
+tarpaulins or black rubber ponchos, were scattered about marking the
+places where each cowboy that night would sleep. The herd was bunched a
+quarter of a mile away in a little cove backed by the rim of sand-hills.
+Captain Jack and Silver Tip, riderless but with their saddles still on,
+were nipping the grass near the camp--the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck were to
+take the first watch, until midnight, at "guard mount." Parker and the
+cowboys were squatted, legs doubled under them, their knees forming a
+table on which to hold the white porcelain plate of "mulligan," in a
+circle at the back of the grub-wagon. Sing Pete trotted around the group
+and poured black, blistering-hot coffee into the unbreakable cups on the
+ground at the side of the hungry, dusty riders.
+
+The sun had just dipped into the ragged peaks of the Costejo range and a
+reddish-purple crown lay on the crest of Sentinel Mountain forty miles
+to the southeast.
+
+"It looks to me like Parker's sort of losing out," Chuck suddenly
+remarked, as he wiped his lips on the back of his hand after washing
+down a mouthful of the savory stew with gulps of steaming coffee.
+"Ophelia stuck closer than thunder to Old Heck all through the Rodeo."
+
+Parker reddened and growled: "Aw, hell--don't start that up again!"
+
+"By criminy, she didn't stick any closer to Old Heck than Skinny stuck
+to Carolyn June," Bert complained. "Nobody else had a look-in!"
+
+"Skinny's sure earning his money," Charley muttered half enviously.
+
+"Bet he's got on that white shirt and having a high old time right now!
+They're probably in the front room and she's playing _La Paloma_ on the
+piano while Old Skinny's setting back rolling his eyes up like a bloated
+yearling!" Chuck laughed.
+
+"And Old Heck and Ophelia are out on the porch holding hands and looking
+affectionate while the mosquitos are chewing their necks and ankles!"
+Bert added with a snicker.
+
+"Her and Old Heck'll probably be married before we get back," Chuck said
+solemnly, with a wink at the Ramblin' Kid and a sly glance in the
+direction of Parker.
+
+"Do you reckon there's any danger of it?" Parker asked in a voice that
+showed anxiety, but not of the sort the cowboys thought.
+
+"They're darned near sure to," Chuck replied seriously, heaving what he
+tried to make resemble a sigh of sympathy.
+
+"What makes you think so?" Parker questioned, seeking confirmation from
+the lips of other, of a hope that had been rising in his heart since the
+first moment he had begun to regret his rash proposal of marriage to the
+widow.
+
+"Well, for one thing"--Chuck began soberly--"the way they'd look at each
+other--"
+
+"I saw her squeeze Old Heck's arm once!" Bert interrupted.
+
+"Aw, she's done that lots of times," Chuck said airily; "that ain't
+nothing special! But the worst indication was them flowers she wore on
+her bosom every day--_Old Heck bought 'em_!" he finished dramatically,
+leaning over and speaking tensely as though it pained him immeasurably
+to break the news to Parker while he fixed on Old Heck's rival a look he
+imagined was one of supreme pity.
+
+"Yeah, he had them sent up from Las Vegas," Bert added, picking up the
+cue and lying glibly. "I saw the express agent deliver a box of them to
+him one day. There was four dollars and eighty cents charges on 'em!"
+
+A gleam, which the cowboys misunderstood, came into Parker's eyes.
+
+"Why don't you and Old Heck fight a duel about Ophelia?" Bert suggested
+tragically and in a voice that was aimed to convey sympathy to the
+Quarter Circle KT foreman. "You could probably kill him!"
+
+"Sure, that's the way they do in books," Chuck urged.
+
+"Yes," the Ramblin' Kid broke in with a slow drawl, "fight one with
+sour-dough biscuits at a hundred yards! That'd be sensible--then both of
+you'd be genuine heroes!"
+
+"Gosh, th' Ramblin' Kid's awake!" Bert laughed. "How does it happen you
+ain't fell in love with Carolyn June?" he asked, turning toward the
+slender, dark-eyed, young cowboy. "So far you're the only one that's
+escaped. The rest of us are breaking our hearts--"
+
+For an instant the Ramblin' Kid flashed on Bert a look of hot anger
+while a dull red glow spread over his sun-tanned cheeks.
+
+"There's enough damned fools loose on th' Kiowa range without me bein'
+one, too!" he retorted slowly, getting up and going toward Captain Jack.
+
+"Blamed if he'll stand a bit of joshing on that subject!" Bert
+muttered, his own face flushing front the look the Ramblin' Kid had
+given him.
+
+"Not a darned bit," Chuck added, "but it is funny; the way he shys off
+from Carolyn June!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid ain't interested in women," Charley said, as they
+pitched their plates to one side and the meal was finished. "He ain't
+the kind that bothers with females!"
+
+When Chuck had idly suggested that Old Heck and Ophelia might be married
+before Parker and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys returned to the ranch
+from the beef hunt, he did not know it, but the words he spoke in jest
+voiced the very thought at the same instant in the mind of Old
+Heck--miles away though he was. Perhaps it was mental telepathy, thought
+vibration, subconscious soul communication--or a mere coincident, that
+caused Chuck, far out on the open range, to speak the thing Old Heck,
+sitting at supper with Carolyn June, Ophelia and Skinny, at the Quarter
+Circle KT was thinking.
+
+Ever since Parker had voluntarily surrendered during the Rodeo, his
+right to alternate, day and day about, with Old Heck in the widow's
+society, the owner of the Quarter Circle KT had been watching Ophelia,
+covertly and carefully, for any sign of "Movements" or an outbreak as a
+dreaded suffragette.
+
+While he watched her the widow was becoming more and more a necessity in
+the life of Old Heck.
+
+The night of the conversation between Parker and the cowboys, away over
+at Rock Creek, Old Heck sat at the supper table in the kitchen at the
+ranch and debated in his mind the future relationships of Parker,
+Ophelia and himself. In a few days Parker would return. Almost certainly
+the foreman would again wish to share, fifty-fifty, in the courtship of
+the widow. Old Heck felt that if such were so those odd days, when
+Parker was with Ophelia, would be little less than hell. Yet, he dreaded
+that suffragette business. If she would only break loose and let him see
+how bad she was liable to be he could easily make up his mind. He was
+almost ready to take a chance, to ask Ophelia to marry him and settle it
+all at once.
+
+Throughout the meal he was moody. After supper he had little to say and
+the next few; days he brooded constantly over the matter.
+
+Tuesday Parker and the cowboys were expected to return with the beef
+cattle. Monday morning, at breakfast, the widow asked Old Heck if he
+would take her to Eagle Butte that day.
+
+"I must see the minister's wife," she said, as Old Heck steered the
+Clagstone "Six" up the grade that led out to the bench and to Eagle
+Butte, "--it is very important"
+
+Old Heck murmured assent and drove silently on. Probably she was going
+to start a "Movement" or something to-day! To-morrow, Parker would be
+back. It sure did put a man in a dickens of a fix!
+
+Before they reached the long bridge across the Cimarron a mile from
+Eagle Butte Old Heck's mind was made up.
+
+"You want to stop at the preacher's house?" he asked.
+
+"If you please," Ophelia replied, "for some little time. There are
+things to discuss--"
+
+"Would you mind if I drove around to the court-house first?" Old Heck
+questioned again.
+
+"Not at all," she answered sweetly.
+
+A few moments later Old Heck stopped the Clagstone "Six" in front of the
+yellow sandstone county building. Leaving Ophelia in the car with the
+remark, "I'll be out in a minute!" he went inside and hurried along the
+dark corridor that led to the clerk's office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+A SHAME TO WASTE IT
+
+In Old Heck's eyes was a set, determined look when he came out of the
+court-house and stepped up to the Clagstone "Six" in which he had left
+Ophelia a few moments before. The end of a long yellow envelope
+protruded from the side pocket of his coat. His face was flushed and his
+hand trembled slightly as he opened the door of the car and climbed into
+the front seat beside the widow. He pressed his foot on the "starter,"
+threw the clutch into gear and turning the car about drove slowly toward
+the home of Reverend Hector R. Patterson, Eagle Butte's only resident
+clergyman.
+
+He did not speak until the car stopped at the gate of the little
+unpainted parsonage beside the white, weather-boarded church.
+
+"Wait a minute," he said as Ophelia started to get out of the Clagstone
+"Six," "maybe I'll go in with you!"
+
+"Splendid," the widow replied, settling again against the cushions. "I'd
+be delighted to have you come along and I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Patterson
+would be glad to see you!"
+
+"Well, it--it"--Old Heck stammered, not knowing how to begin what he
+wanted to say--"it--it all depends on you! Here"--he said abruptly as a
+bright thought came to him--"read that and--and--tell me what you think
+about it!" at the same time pulling the yellow envelope from his pocket
+and handing it to Ophelia.
+
+With a questioning lift of her eyebrows the widow drew the folded,
+official-looking document from the envelope.
+
+"Why, it's a--it's a--" she started to say and stopped confused, her
+cheeks blazing crimson.
+
+"It's a marriage license--" Old Heck said, coming to her rescue, "--made
+out for you and me. I--I--didn't know what to tell the clerk when he
+asked me how old you was--so I just guessed at it!"
+
+The widow looked shyly down at the names written on the document.
+
+The license granted "Ophelia Cobb, age _twenty-three_, of Hartville,
+Connecticut, and Josiah Alonzo Heck, age forty-eight, of Kiowa County,
+Texas," the right to marry.
+
+Ophelia's actual years were thirty-nine!
+
+From under drooping lashes she glanced up suspiciously into the earnest
+gray eyes beside her. She saw that Old Heck had been sincere in his
+"guess."
+
+"But--but--"
+
+"I know it's kind of unexpected," Old Heck interrupted nervously,
+"--perhaps I had ought to have said something about it first, but, well,
+I figured I'd go on and get the license and show that my intentions was
+good and--and--sort of risk the whole thing on one throw! It always
+seemed like there was something missing at the Quarter Circle KT," he
+went on, his voice grown softer and trembling a bit, "and--and when you
+came I--I--found out what it was--"
+
+Ophelia sat silently with downcast eyes, her pulse racing, the license
+unfolded on her lap, while she bit uncertainly at the tip of the finger
+of her glove.
+
+"I--I--know I ain't very good-looking or--or--anything," Old Heck
+continued, "but I thought maybe you--you--liked me a little--enough
+anyhow to get married--that is if you--. Oh-h--thunder, Ophelia!" he
+exclaimed in despair, feeling that he was hopelessly floundering,
+"I--I--love you! Please let's use that license! Let's use it right away
+--to-day--and get it over with!" he urged as the widow still hesitated.
+
+"But--I--I'm not suitably dressed--" she stammered.
+
+"I think that dress you've got on is the prettiest goods I ever saw in
+my life," he interrupted, looking adoringly at the clinging summer
+fabric caressing Ophelia's shapely form, "I always did think it would be
+awful appropriate for us to--to--get married in!" he finished
+pleadingly.
+
+"But--Carolyn June and--and--Parker--" Ophelia murmured.
+
+At the mention of Parker, Old Heck started while a look of anguish came
+into his eyes. So she loved Parker! That was why she was so backward, he
+thought. Well, the Quarter Circle KT foreman was a little
+better-looking, maybe, and some younger! He couldn't blame her.
+
+His head dropped. For a moment Old Heck was silent, a dull, sickening
+hurt gripping his heart. A deep sigh escaped from his lips. He reached
+over and picked up the license.
+
+"I--I--guess I made a mistake," he said numbly. "We'll just--just--tear
+this thing up and forget about it!"
+
+Ophelia looked demurely up at him, her mouth twitching. One small gloved
+hand slipped over and rested on the strong brown fingers that held the
+license. Roses flamed over the full round throat and spread their blush
+to her cheeks. Her eyes were like pools of liquid blue:
+
+"Don't tear it--it--up!" she whispered with a little laugh--a laugh that
+sent the blood leaping, like fire, through Old Heck's veins, "it--it
+would be a shame to waste it!"
+
+For an instant Old Heck was dazed. He looked at her as if he could not
+believe he had heard aright. Suddenly a wave of undiluted happiness
+swept over him.
+
+"Ophelia!" he cried huskily. "Oh, Ophelia!" and the minister's three
+small sons, pausing in their play in the grassless yard at the side of
+the house, while they watched the beautiful car standing in front of
+the parsonage gate, saw the owner of the Quarter Circle KT, in broad
+daylight, on the principal residence street of Eagle Butte, before the
+eyes of the whole world--if the whole world cared to look--throw his
+arms around the plump lady sitting beside him and press one long,
+rapturous kiss on her moist, unresisting lips!
+
+A moment later Ophelia and Old Heck, both much embarrassed but
+tremulously happy, stepped inside the door of the parsonage.
+
+They were driving away from the minister's house--going to the
+Occidental Hotel for a little all-by-their-ownselves "wedding
+luncheon"--before either thought of the matter concerning which Ophelia
+had desired to see the clergyman's wife.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Old Heck exclaimed, "you forgot that consultation or
+whatever it was with Mrs. Patterson to start your woman's suffrage
+'movement'--"
+
+"To start my what?"
+
+"Your 'woman's rights,' 'female voter's organization'--or whatever it
+is!" Old Heck explained, a new-born tolerance in his voice. "I didn't
+mean to interfere with your political activities--"
+
+Ophelia threw back! her head, while a ripple of laughter trilled out
+above the purr of the Clagstone "Six."
+
+"Why, my dear--dear--Old Boy!" she cried, "I am not engaged in
+'political activities,' or 'suffragette movements!' Of course," she
+continued archly, "I believe women ought to be allowed to vote--if they
+haven't intelligence enough for that they haven't brains enough to be
+good 'pardners' with their husbands--"
+
+"By gosh, you're right!" Old Heck agreed, "I never thought of it that
+way before!"
+
+"And," she continued, "naturally I shall vote whenever the opportunity
+comes, but I'm not an 'Organizer' for anything of that kind. Mrs.
+Patterson and I are going to organize the wives, sisters and
+sweethearts, in Eagle Butte, into a club for the study of 'Scientific
+and Efficient Management of the Home!' We think we should be as
+proficient in those arts--and which we believe are peculiarly womanly
+functions--as the men are in the direction of the more strenuous
+business affairs in which they themselves are engaged."
+
+"So that's what you're an 'Organizer' for?" Old Heck queried while a
+radiant contentment spread over his face.
+
+"That is it," Ophelia said simply, adding with a most becoming
+heightening of color, "it is so we will be--will be--better wives!"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck breathed fervently. "My Gawd! The Lord has been good
+to me to-day!"
+
+While Old Heck and Ophelia were in Eagle Butte getting married, Skinny
+and Carolyn June had been riding line on the upland pasture fence. They
+had just returned to the Quarter Circle KT, unsaddled their horses,
+turned them into the pasture, gone to the house and stopped a moment on
+the front porch to watch the glow in the west--the sun was dipping into
+a thundercap over the Costejo Mountains--when the Clagstone "Six" rolled
+down the grade and up to the string of poplars before the house.
+
+"Gee, we thought you two had eloped!" Carolyn June laughed as the couple
+climbed out of the car and came, rather bashfully, in at the gate. Old
+Heck and Ophelia looked at each other guiltily.
+
+"We did come darn near it!" Old Heck chuckled, plunging at once into the
+task of breaking the news. "We got married--I reckon you'd call that the
+next thing to eloping!"
+
+"Got married?" Skinny and Carolyn June cried together.
+
+"Who--who--got married?" Skinny repeated incredulously.
+
+"Ophelia and me," Old Heck answered with a sheepish grin but proudly.
+"Who else did you think we meant? We just thought," he continued by way
+of explanation, "we'd go ahead and do it kind of private and save a lot
+of excitement and everything!"
+
+Carolyn June threw her arms around Ophelia and kissed her.
+
+"Good-by, chaperon," she laughed With a half-sob in her throat,
+"h--hello, 'Aunt.'" Then she strangled Old Heck with a hug that made him
+gasp.
+
+"What the devil--are you trying to do--choke me?"
+
+"Well, by thunder, Old Heck!" Skinny finally managed to ejaculate, "it
+was the sensiblest thing you ever done! I--I've--been"--with a sidelong
+look at Carolyn June--"kind of figuring on doing it myself!"
+
+Carolyn June saw the expression in Skinny's eyes. A pained look came
+into her own. She had known, for a long while, that sooner or later
+there would have to come an understanding between this big, overgrown,
+juvenile-hearted cowboy and herself. She resolved then that it should
+come quickly. Further delay would be cruel to him. Besides, she was sick
+of flirtations. Her disappointment in the character of the Ramblin' Kid,
+her realization of his weakness, when he had gotten, as she believed,
+beastly drunk at the moment so much depended on him the day of the
+two-mile sweepstakes, had hurt deeply. Somehow, even his magnificent
+ride and the fact that, in spite of his condition, he won the race, had
+not taken the sting away. She had thought the Ramblin' Kid was
+real--rough and crude, perhaps, but all man, rugged-hearted and honest.
+Sometimes she wondered if the queer unexplainable antagonism between
+herself and the sensitive young cowboy had not, in a measure, been
+responsible for his sudden moral breaking down. The thought caused her
+to lose some of that frivolity that inspired the dance and the wild
+flirtations she carried on that night with all the cowboys of the
+Quarter Circle KT. After all, these plain, simple-acting men of the
+range were just boys grown big in God's great out-of-doors where things
+are taken for what they seem to be. No wonder an artless look from
+sophisticated brown eyes swept them off their feet!
+
+She made up her mind to disillusion Skinny at once.
+
+After supper the quartette gathered in the front room.
+
+"Come on, Skinny," Carolyn June said with forced gaiety, "let us take a
+walk. That pair of cooing doves"--with a playfully tender glance at
+Ophelia and Old Heck--"wish nothing so much as to be permitted to
+'goo-goo' at each other all by their little lonelies!"
+
+Bareheaded she and Skinny strolled out the front gate and along the road
+that led up to the bench. At the top of the grade they sat down, side by
+side, on a large boulder that hung on the brink of the bench. The
+Quarter Circle KT lay before them--restful and calm in the shadows of
+early evening. The poplars along the front-yard fence stood limp in the
+silent air. Across the valley the sand-hills were mellowing with the
+coming softness of twilight. Up the river, to the west, beyond Eagle
+Butte, a summer thunder-cloud was climbing higher and higher into the
+sky. In the direction of Dry Buck, far toward the northwest, a fog of
+dust was creeping along the horizon, gradually approaching the upland
+pasture. Skinny saw it.
+
+"By golly," he cried, "that's either Parker and the boys coming in with
+the cattle--or else it's a band of sheep! It surely can't be
+'woollys'--they never get over in there! If it's our outfit, though,
+they've got through quicker than they figured!"
+
+A few moments later the dim bulk of the "grub-wagon" appeared, miles
+away, slowly crawling toward the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For a time Skinny and Carolyn June were silent.
+
+Skinny's hand crept slyly across the rock and found the pink fingers of
+Carolyn June. She did not draw away.
+
+"Carolyn June," he whispered haltingly, "Carolyn June--I--Old Heck and
+Ophelia have got married--let's you and--and--"
+
+"Please, Skinny, don't say it!" she interrupted, her voice trembling.
+"I--I know what you mean! It hurts me. Listen, Skinny"--she hurried on,
+determined to end it quickly--"maybe you will despise me, but--I like
+you, truly I do--but not _that_ way! I don't want to grieve you--I wish
+us to be just good friends--that's why I'm telling you! Let's be
+friends, Skinny--just friends--we can't be any more than that--"
+
+Skinny understood. A dull, throbbing pain tightened about his throat.
+His fingers gripped Carolyn June's hand an instant and then relaxed. The
+whole world seemed suddenly blank.
+
+"Can't you--won't you--ever--ca--care?" he asked in a voice filled with
+despair.
+
+"I do care, boy," she replied softly, "I do care--but not that way! Oh,
+Skinny," she exclaimed, wishing to make it as easy as possible for the
+sentimental cowboy at her side, "maybe I have done wrong to let you go
+ahead, but, well, I found out--I guessed the 'arrangements'--how you had
+been chosen to make 'love' to me and how Parker and Uncle Josiah were to
+divide Ophelia between them. Perhaps that is why I have flirted so--just
+to punish you all! Truly, Skinny, I'm sorry. Please don't hate me
+like--like--the Ramblin' Kid does!" she finished with a shaky little
+laugh.
+
+"He--don't hate you," Skinny answered dully, "at least I don't think th'
+Ramblin' Kid hates you--or anybody. And you knowed all the time that I
+was getting paid to make love to you? Well, I was," he added chokingly,
+"but I'd have done it for nothing if I'd had the chance!"
+
+"Yes, Skinny," she replied, "I knew--I know--and I don't blame you!"
+
+"I don't blame you, either," he said humbly, "it was a--a--excuse me,
+Carolyn June--a damned mean trick to frame up on you and Ophelia that
+way--but we didn't know what to do with you! I reckon," he continued in
+the same despairing tone, "I was a blamed fool!"
+
+For a long moment they sat silent.
+
+"Carolyn June," Skinny finally said, a sigh of resignation breaking from
+his lips, "I'll be what you said--just a good friend--I always will be
+that to you! But before we start in, do you mind if I--if I--go up to
+Eagle Butte and get--drunk!"
+
+In spite of herself she laughed. But in it was a tenderness almost
+mother-like.
+
+"Poor disappointed, big boy," she answered and her eyes filled, "if it
+will make you happy, go ahead and get--get--drunk, 'soused,' all
+over--just this once!"
+
+With only a passing pang Carolyn June was willing for Skinny to get
+drunk--to do the thing she had been scarcely able to forgive in the
+Ramblin' Kid!
+
+For an instant she wondered why.
+
+A half-hour later Skinny and Carolyn June went silently down the grade
+to the ranch house. They had gone up the hill--lovers; they
+returned--"good friends"--and such they would always be.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was nearly ten o'clock when Sing Pete stopped the grub-wagon at the
+bunk-house; Pedro wrangled the saddle cavallard into the pasture below
+the barn; Parker and the cowboys jogged their bronchos to the stable
+door and the Ramblin' Kid, riding the Gold Dust maverick--Captain Jack
+at her heels--rode to the circular corral, jerked the saddle from the
+filly's back and turned the little roan stallion and the outlaw mare
+inside the corral.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny heard the commotion and went out to where Parker and
+the cowboys were unsaddling their horses.
+
+"Well, you got through, did you?" Old Hack questioned casually.
+
+"Yes," Parker replied, "we've got the beef critters in I guess--they're
+in the upland pasture. There are seven hundred and ninety, I think it
+is, that'll do for the market."
+
+"That's pretty good," Old Heck answered with satisfaction. "We'll push
+them right on into Eagle Butte to-morrow or next day and ship them. The
+cars will be in to-night, the agent said. I'm sending them to Chicago
+this time. I'd like to see you, private, a minute, Parker!" he finished
+abruptly.
+
+"What do you want?" Parker asked suspiciously, as he followed Old Heck
+around the corner of the barn.
+
+"It's about Ophelia--" Old Heck began.
+
+Parker's heart leaped and then dropped with a sickening foreboding of
+something disagreeable. The widow, he thought instantly, had told Old
+Heck about that darned fool proposal of marriage and was going to insist
+on him coming across and making good! There was no way out.
+
+"I--I--reckon I'll have to do it if she's determined," Parker stuttered;
+"but--aw, hell--I must have been crazy--"
+
+"Who's determined on what?" Old Heck asked, puzzled by the queer jumble
+coming from the lips of the Quarter Circle KT foreman, "and how crazy?"
+
+"Ophelia determined on marrying me!" Parker blurted out.
+
+"Ophelia marry _you_?" Old Heck exclaimed. "Marry you! She can't! Her
+and me have already done it. We got married to-day--that was what I
+wanted to tell you!"
+
+Momentarily a pang of regret shot through Parker's heart. It was quickly
+followed by a sense of relief.
+
+"You--you--and Ophelia married?" he stammered.
+
+"We sure are," Old Heck answered positively. "We done it to-day!"
+
+Suddenly Parker determined to "cover up."
+
+"My, lord!" he half-groaned, pretending terrible grief, "this is awful!
+It--it--come so sudden--but there ain't no hard feelings, Old Heck!
+I--I--wish you both joy and happiness!"
+
+"Darned if that ain't white of you, Parker!" Old Heck exclaimed,
+immensely relieved. "I won't forget it! When you and the boys take them
+steers to Chicago, stay over a week or so and have a good time and count
+it in on expenses!"
+
+Parker turned his head and in the darkness winked solemnly at a yellow
+star above the peak of Sentinel Mountain.
+
+He and Old Heck started toward the house.
+
+"Hey, you fellows!" Old Heck called, pausing and turning toward the barn
+where the cowboys were putting away their saddles, "when you get through
+all of you come on up to the house! Ophelia and me's married and the
+bride is waiting to be congratulated!"
+
+"Good lord," Charley gasped, "hear that, fellers? Old Heck said him and
+the widow's married!"
+
+"Gosh!" Chuck laughed, "it must have been a jolt to Parker! I bet his
+heart's plumb bu'sted!"
+
+As soon as their saddles were put away the cowboys hurried toward the
+house. They met the Ramblin' Kid, crossing from the circular corral to
+the bunk-house.
+
+"Come on," Bert called to him, "Old Heck and Ophelia's gone and got
+married! We're going up to the house to sympathize with the widow!"
+
+"I ain't needed," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a careless laugh. "You
+fellers can take my 'love' to th' afflicted couple!"
+
+After the cowboys had gone to the house Skinny went and got Old Pie
+Face. Stopping at the stable, he saddled the pinto and strolled over to
+the bunk-house. The Ramblin' Kid was lying stretched on his bed. Skinny
+rolled the white shirt carefully into a bundle and wrapped a newspaper
+around it.
+
+"What you goin' to do?" the Ramblin' Kid asked.
+
+"I'm goin' to town!" Skinny answered shortly. "I'm going up to Eagle
+Butte and get on a hell of a drunk--if I can get hold of any boot-leg
+whisky--Carolyn June and me have bu'sted up on our love-making!"
+
+"Going to get drunk, are you?" the Ramblin' Kid queried with a note of
+scorn in his voice, "an' forget your sorrows?"
+
+"Yes," Skinny retorted, "I'm going to get drunk as you was the day of
+the race!"
+
+"Drunk as I was th' day of th' race?" the Ramblin' Kid repeated
+quizzically. "Oh, hell, yes--now I understand--" pausing, while a smile
+curled his lips.
+
+"Yes," Skinny retorted again. "Where'd you get yours that day?"
+
+"Never mind," was the answer. "I guess I'll go to Eagle Butte with you!
+You'll need somebody to ride herd on you while you're snortin' around.
+Anyhow, I feel like goin' on a tear myself--not a drunk--a man's a
+darned fool that'll let any woman make a whisky barrel out of him! But I
+got an itchin' for a little poker game or somethin'. Wait till I get
+Captain Jack!"
+
+"Where's Skinny and th' Ramblin' Kid?" Old Heck asked after he and
+Parker and the cowboys were at the house and the first flush of
+embarrassment had passed.
+
+Carolyn June thought she knew where Skinny was, but did not answer.
+
+"I don't know what's become of Skinny," Parker said. "Th' Ramblin' Kid's
+probably out mopin' somewhere. I think he's getting ready to 'ramble'
+again--he's been acting plumb despondent ever since the Rodeo in Eagle
+Butte!"
+
+Carolyn June stepped to the door. Dimly through the darkness she saw
+two riders pass up the grade that led to the bench and turn their horses
+to the west, toward Eagle Butte, and ride straight into the outflung
+shadow of the thunder-storm--from which now and then leaped jagged
+flashes of lightning--and which was rolling from the Costejo Mountains
+across the Kiowa range in the direction of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Silent and with a heavy heart she turned away from the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+THE GREEK GETS HIS
+
+It was long after midnight when the Ramblin' Kid and Skinny rode into
+Eagle Butte and the heels of Captain Jack and Old Pie Face echoed
+noisily on the board floor of the livery stable as the bronchos turned
+into the wide, open doorway of the barn. A drowsy voice from the
+cubby-hole of an office called:
+
+"In just a minute--I'll be out!"
+
+"Aw, thunder," Skinny answered, "go on back to sleep, we'll find stalls
+and put 'em up!"
+
+Captain Jack and Old Pie Face cared for, Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid
+stepped out into the deserted street.
+
+Eagle Butte was sleeping.
+
+Here and there a blaze of light from a store window invited belated
+passers to covet the bargains offered within; a half-dozen incandescent
+bulbs, swung on cross-wires at intervals along the street, glowed feebly
+as if weary with the effort to beat back the darkness clutching at the
+throat of the town; over the sidewalk in front of the Elite Amusement
+Parlor an illuminated red and green sign told that Mike Sabota's place
+was still open; across the porch of the Occidental Hotel and spilling
+itself on the ground out in the street a stream of light guided weary
+travelers to the portals of that ancient, though hospitable,
+institution; from the sides of the Butte beyond the railroad tracks a
+coyote yelped shrilly a jerky, wailing challenge--a dozen dogs, suddenly
+aroused in different parts of the town, answered.
+
+"Pretty dead-lookin'," the Ramblin' Kid remarked. "Let's go down to
+Sabota's."
+
+"All right," Skinny replied, and they moved down the street.
+
+The pool-room offered nothing of interest. A couple of traveling men,
+waiting for the early morning train, were playing a listless game of
+billiards at one of the tables; a pair of Jap sugar-beet workers and a
+negro section hand sat half-asleep and leaned against the wall; "Red"
+Jackson, Sabota's chief lieutenant, with an air of utter boredom,
+lounged behind the soft-drink bar. Sabota was not there.
+
+"What's happened to everybody?" Skinny asked; "where's Mike?"
+
+"Everybody's got religion, I guess," Red yawned, "and gone to bed. What
+do you want with Sabota?" looking suspiciously at the Ramblin' Kid;
+"he's over at Vegas; won't be back till to-morrow--or to-day it is now,
+I reckon--evening sometime!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid and me have been out in the rain," Skinny said
+suggestively, "and thought we might take cold--"
+
+"Nothing doing!" Red laughed, "ain't a drop around! When Mike gets back
+he'll fix you up, maybe--that's what he's gone after!"
+
+"We'd just as well go to bed!" Skinny grumbled disgustedly to the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"I reckon," was the laconic answer.
+
+They returned to the hotel, roused the clerk from his doze, secured a
+room and retired.
+
+It was eight o'clock when they got up.
+
+Both went directly to the livery stable and saw that Captain Jack and
+Old Pie Face were properly attended to. While at the barn Skinny took
+the bundle he had wrapped in the bunk-house at the ranch from the saddle
+where he had tied it.
+
+"What's that?" the Ramblin' Kid queried.
+
+"It's that darned shirt!" Skinny retorted. "I'm going to make Old Leon
+eat it--it wasn't the size Parker asked for!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid laughed, but said nothing.
+
+They returned to the hotel and had breakfast. Manilla Endora waited on
+them. Before Carolyn June and Ophelia came to the Quarter Circle KT
+Manilla's yellow hair and blue eyes were the flames that fanned the
+affections of Skinny. He felt guilty as, sweetly as ever and without a
+hint of reproach, Manilla took their orders and served them with their
+ham and eggs and coffee.
+
+After breakfast Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid explored the town.
+
+Eagle Butte had come to life. The stores were open. Business was brisk.
+The "dray" was delivering the express accumulated the night before at
+the depot. Here and there a morning shopper was passing along the
+street. At the post-office there was quite a crowd.
+
+Skinny carried the shirt, wrapped in the soggy, rain-soaked newspaper.
+As he and the Ramblin' Kid came near the dingy, general merchandise
+establishment kept by the squint-eyed Jew from whom Parker had bought
+the unfortunate garment a sudden look of cunning gleamed in the eyes of
+Skinny. He laughed aloud. A box of eggs, ten or twelve dozen it
+contained, was set, with other farm produce, in a display on the
+sidewalk at the side of the door of the store.
+
+"Hold on a minute," Skinny said to the Ramblin' Kid, stopping in front
+of the Jew's place of business, "I got an idea--By golly," he continued
+argumentatively and with apparent irrelevancy, in a loud voice, "I tell
+you I'm the lightest man on my feet in Texas!" and he winked knowingly
+at the Ramblin' Kid. "I can walk on eggs and never bu'st a one! I've
+done it and"--as Leon came to the door--"I'll bet four-bits I can jump
+in that box of eggs right there and never crack a shell!" The Ramblin'
+Kid understood.
+
+"Aw, you're crazy," he laughed. "I don't want to win your money!"
+
+"What's the matter?" Leon asked curiously, having heard only part of
+Skinny's boast.
+
+"This locoed darn' fool thinks he can walk on them eggs an' not mash
+'em!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed again. "He wants to bet me four-bits he
+can--"
+
+"Walk on them eggs and not preak them?" Leon exclaimed disdainfully.
+"You ought to lock him up! He iss crazy!"
+
+"By gosh," Skinny argued, "you don't realize how light-footed I am--I
+can jump on them, I tell you, and I got money to back it up!" And he
+pulled a half-dollar from his pocket.
+
+"Put away your money, you blamed idiot--" the Ramblin' Kid began.
+
+"I'll bet him four-bits he can't!" Leon cried, jerking a coin from his
+own pocket.
+
+Skinny and Leon each handed the Ramblin' Kid fifty cents.
+
+"By thunder, I can," Skinny said, pausing, "that is, I'm willing to bet
+my money on it--"
+
+"Vhy don't you go ahead and do it, then?" Leon exclaimed. "Vat you
+standing there for? Vhy don't you do it if you're so light on your
+feet?"
+
+"Well, I can!" Skinny argued, still hesitating.
+
+"Den go ahead and chump--chump I told you--into the box!" Leon shouted
+excitedly.
+
+Skinny jumped. The eggs crushed under the heels of his riding boots. In
+an instant the box was filled with a squashy mass of whites, yolks and
+broken shells. Skinny pawed around until there wasn't a whole egg left
+in the box.
+
+At the first crunch Leon laughed hilariously.
+
+"I knowed you'd lose!" he cackled. "Giff me the money!"
+
+"You win, Leon!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed, handing over the wager.
+"Skinny wasn't as delicate on his feet as he thought he was!"
+
+"Thunderation, that's funny!" Skinny said soberly as he stepped out of
+the box; "it wouldn't work that time! Something must have slipped!"
+
+With a grin he calmly unwrapped the one-time white shirt and with it
+began to wipe the slimy mess from his boots.
+
+"The next time you won't be so smart!" Leon cried, then paused in
+consternation, his eyes riveted on the scrambled mixture in the box.
+"But mine eggs!" he exclaimed, suddenly suspicious. "Who pays for the
+eggs? There vas twelve dozen--they are worth seventy cents a dozen--that
+is more as eight dollars. Pay me for the eggs!"
+
+"Pay, hell!" Skinny said. "I didn't agree to furnish no eggs! You won my
+fifty cents and th' Ramblin' Kid gave it to you--"
+
+"That's right, Leon," the Ramblin' Kid chuckled, "you got th'
+four-bits--that's all you won!"
+
+"But pay me--" Leon whined.
+
+"I'll pay you, you dirty crook!" Skinny snapped as he slapped the
+soppy, egg-splattered shirt in Leon's face. "I'll pay you with that! The
+next time," he added as he and the Ramblin' Kid started down the
+street--"anybody asks for a size fifteen shirt don't give them a sixteen
+and a half!"
+
+The day was spent idling about town waiting for Sabota to return so
+Skinny could get some whisky and drown his disappointment in love in
+intoxicated forgetfulness.
+
+After supper Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid went to the picture
+show--Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were "movie nights" in Eagle
+Butte--and saw a thrilling "wild-west" drama in which a band of Holstein
+milk cows raced madly through an alfalfa field in a frenzied,
+hair-raising stampede! When the show was over the Ramblin' Kid started
+toward the livery barn.
+
+"What you going to do?" Skinny queried.
+
+"I was just goin' to get Captain Jack," the Ramblin' Kid replied.
+
+"What for?" Skinny asked as they moved toward the barn. "There ain't no
+hurry about getting back to the ranch. We won't be going out till
+to-morrow or next day--there ain't no use getting the horses out
+to-night."
+
+"I don't know," the Ramblin' Kid answered, without stopping, "I just got
+a hunch to get him in case I need him. Anyhow, it won't hurt him to
+stand out a while--they've been eatin' all day."
+
+"Then I'll get Old Pie Face, too," Skinny replied.
+
+They saddled the bronchos and rode out of the barn.
+
+"Where'll we go?" Skinny asked.
+
+"Reckon we'd better go back down to Sabota's," the Ramblin' Kid said as
+they turned their horses in the direction of the pool-room, "if you
+still insist on makin' a blamed fool of yourself an' gettin' drunk.
+Maybe Mike's back by now. Anyhow, there might be a little poker game
+goin' on--I saw a couple of the fellers from over on th' Purgatory come
+in a while ago!"
+
+They left Captain Jack and Pie Face standing, with bridle reins dropped,
+across the street and in the broad shaft of light streaming from the
+open door of the pool-room, and went into the resort.
+
+The place was well filled. Sabota had returned, evidently with an ample
+supply of the fiery stuff he called "whisky." Like vultures that
+unerringly seek and find the spot where a carcass has fallen the thirsty
+of Eagle Butte had gathered at the Elite Amusement Parlor.
+
+Inside the door of the pool-room and at the left, as one entered, was a
+hardwood bar eighteen or twenty feet long and over which at one time, in
+the days before Eagle Butte "reformed," had been dispensed real
+"tarantula juice." The back bar, with its big mirrors and other
+fixtures, was as it had been when the place was a regular saloon. At the
+right of the room, opposite the bar, were several round, green-topped
+card tables. In the rear was the billiard and pool equipment, which
+entitled the place to the name "pool-room." Just across from the farther
+end of the bar and near the last card table a half-dozen hard-looking,
+small-town "toughs"--creatures who loafed about Sabota's and aided him,
+as occasion required, in his boot-legging operations or other
+questionable enterprises--were lounging, some standing, some sitting,
+watching a slow poker game going on at the last table. Cards, under the
+laws of Texas, are taboo, but for some reason Sabota managed to get by
+and games were allowed in his place.
+
+The two cowboys the Ramblin' Kid had mentioned, a rancher from the
+irrigated section near Eagle Butte and "Jeff" Henderson, one of Sabota's
+henchmen, who was playing for the house, were sitting in at the game.
+
+Half-way down the room at one side against the wall a mechanical player
+piano was grinding out garish, hurdy-gurdy music.
+
+"Red" Jackson was dispensing soft drinks from behind the bar.
+
+Sabota himself, with one heel caught on the brass foot-rail, was leaning
+indolently but with a lordly air against the front of the polished,
+imitation mahogany counter.
+
+He had been drinking and was in his shirt-sleeves.
+
+As Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid stepped into the pool-room Sabota glanced
+around. For an instant he eyed the Ramblin' Kid keenly while a nasty
+sneer curled his lips. As they approached he turned the grin into a
+hypocritical smile of welcome. The Ramblin' Kid barely noticed the Greek
+and passed on to where the card game was in progress. Skinny paused and
+said something in a low tone to Sabota. The two walked to the rear end
+of the bar where the proprietor of the place in turn spoke to Red and
+the latter furtively handed a pint bottle to the cowboy and which he
+dropped into the bosom of his flannel shirt.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was recognized by the cowboys from the Purgatory.
+
+"Come on and get into the game!" one of them invited, moving over.
+
+"Yes," Henderson added, hitching his own chair to one side to make room
+for another, "the cards are running like"--he paused--"like the Gold
+Dust maverick for everybody but the house!" There was a laugh at the
+subtle reference to the outlaw filly that had cost Sabota so much in
+losses on the sweepstakes at the Rodeo.
+
+The Greek scowled.
+
+"In that case," the Ramblin' Kid drawled, "I reckon I'll ride 'em a few
+rounds!" dropping into the chair he had dragged forward and which placed
+him with his back toward the bar.
+
+"What they costin' a stack?" he questioned, reaching to the left breast
+pocket of his shirt for a roll of bills.
+
+In the same pocket was the pink satin garter Carolyn June had lost the
+morning of his first meeting with her at the circular corral.
+
+"Five bones!" Jeff answered languidly.
+
+"Well, give me a couple of piles," the Ramblin' Kid replied, glancing
+around at the cowboy sitting at his right, who had invited him into the
+game. "How's the Purgatory?"
+
+As the bills came from the Ramblin' Kid's pocket the silver butterfly
+clasp of the garter caught in the paper currency and the elastic band
+was drawn out and dropped, at the side of his chair, on the floor next
+to Sabota.
+
+The Greek and Skinny saw, at the same time, the dainty satin ribbon.
+
+Sabota stepped quickly forward and with the toe of his shoe kicked the
+garter toward the bar, where all could see it.
+
+"Look what th' Ramblin' Kid's been carrying!" he exclaimed with a coarse
+laugh. "Some size garter, that!" And guessing at random that it had
+belonged to Carolyn June, he added: "Old Heck's niece must be--damned
+convenient and accommodating!"
+
+A laugh started from the lips of the crowd. It was instantly checked and
+a dead silence followed as the Ramblin' Kid looked around, saw Sabota
+leering down at the trinket and heard his vulgar insinuation. He slowly
+pushed his chair back from the table and with eyes half-closed--the lids
+tightening until there were but narrow slits through which the black
+pupils burned like drops of jet--he began slowly to straighten up. Not a
+sound came from his lips save the deep, regular breathing those sitting
+near could hear and which was like a bellows fanning embers into a white
+heat. His mouth was drawn back in a smile, almost caressing in its
+softness, but a thousand times more menacing than the black scowl on the
+face of the Greek.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid's gun was at his hip, but he made no move to draw it.
+
+Sabota watched the slender young cowboy. A look of contempt and derision
+was in his eyes. The Greek was no taller, but full eighty pounds heavier
+than the other. But he forgot that the other's lithe body moving with
+the calm, undulating grace of a panther preparing to spring was all
+clean youth, muscle and courage, unbroken by any debauchery!
+
+"That's a hell of a thing for a _man_ to pack," the giant bully cried
+nastily, "and it's a hell of a _lady_ that gives it to a man to pack!"
+
+With a sneering laugh he raised his foot and brought it down on the
+garter, grinding the silver clasp and the satin ribbon under the sole of
+his shoe.
+
+"You damned black cur!" The Rambling' Kid spoke scarcely louder than a
+whisper, yet his voice echoed throughout the tense silence of the room.
+"_I'll put my heel in your face for that_!"
+
+Sabota threw back his head to laugh.
+
+For a second of time the Ramblin' Kid crouched, then shot through the
+air like a wire spring drawn far back and suddenly released, and with
+an his hundred and forty pounds of nerve and sinew behind it his right
+fist smashed the big Greek squarely on the half-open mouth, splitting
+the thick lip wide and causing a red stream to spurt from the gash.
+Sabota staggered back and, would have fallen had he not crashed against
+the hardwood bar.
+
+As the Greek reeled away from the garter the Ramblin' Kid stooped
+quickly forward, picked up the elastic and dropped it again into his
+pocket.
+
+With a roar like a mad bull Sabota rushed his slight antagonist. Lunging
+forward, blind with rage, he aimed a murderous blow at the head of the
+Ramblin' Kid. The cowboy ducked, but not in time to escape the wide
+swing of the massive, hairy fist. The Greek's knuckles raked the side of
+the Kid's face and the blood rained down his cheek from a cruel cut
+under the eye. The Ramblin' Kid spun around like a top and for the
+fraction of a second stood swaying uncertainly.
+
+For a moment they faced each other, crouching, watching for an opening.
+Sabota's great hands worked convulsively, eager to grasp and crush his
+wiry opponent; the Ramblin' Kid, with lips curled back from white teeth,
+like a pure-bred terrier circling a mastiff, bent forward, every muscle
+tense as drawn copper, his eyes cold as a rattler's as he searched for a
+place to strike!
+
+The crowd in the pool-room instinctively kept far back and gave the
+unequal combatants ample room.
+
+From Sabota's lips poured a steady torrent of blasphemy. The Ramblin'
+Kid made no sound as, with body swaying slowly from side to side, his
+shoulders heaved with the full, heavy breaths that reached to the bottom
+of his lungs.
+
+Suddenly, like some wild beast, Sabota sprang forward. The Ramblin' Kid
+met him--in mid-air--right and left jolting, almost at the same
+instant, into the beefy jaws of the Greek. At the impact a claw-like
+hand shot out and the gorilla fingers of the left hand of the brute-man
+the Ramblin' Kid fought, closed over the throat of the cowboy. Sabota
+threw his right arm around the back of his antagonist, gripping the
+shoulder on the far side of his body and drew the slender form toward
+him--pinning the Ramblin' Kid's left arm and hand to his side.
+
+Skinny's hand dropped to the butt of his gun and rested there.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid struggled desperately in the strangling grasp of the
+crazed Greek. The two reeled back and forth, crashing chairs and tables
+to the floor, and lunged against the bar. The Ramblin' Kid's gun fell
+from its scabbard at the side of the brass foot-rail. Sabota's eyes
+glared down into the face of the man he was choking to death--gleaming
+with the ferocity of an animal gone mad--Awhile bloody foam spewed from
+his bleeding lips. The cowboy's face was beginning to flush a terrible
+purple as the breath was gradually crushed from his body.
+
+As the Greek forced him back, bending him down and over, the Ramblin'
+Kid, his eyes burning like fire while a million flashes of light seemed
+to stab the darkness before them and needles darted through every fiber
+of his flesh, wrenched his right arm free and gripping the back of
+Sabota's shirt with his left hand to give purchase to the blow, with all
+the strength left in his body, drove the knuckles of his right fist into
+the left temple of the Greek.
+
+The blow went home.
+
+A film, like a veil drawn across the fiendish glare in them, spread over
+the eyes of Sabota, his grip on the throat of the cowboy relaxed and as
+a bull, struck by the hammer of the butcher, he dropped to the floor.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid crouched, panting, over the massive bulk.
+
+Sabota slowly opened his eyes and started to raise his battered head.
+With a laugh the cowboy swung terrible right and left blows into the
+Greek's face. The head dropped back.
+
+Again the Ramblin' Kid stooped low, waiting for another sign of life
+from the prostrate form.
+
+Red Jackson slipped from behind the bar, half bent forward, moved
+stealthily up behind the Ramblin' Kid; one hand drawn partly back held,
+by the neck, a heavy beer bottle. Skinny saw his intention. Instantly
+the Quarter Circle KT cowboy's forty-four was jerked from its holster
+and the blue-steel barrel swung against the side of the bartender's
+head. He pitched over in a limp heap and the bottle crushed against the
+brass foot-rail, breaking into a thousand fragments. A half-dozen of
+Sabota's crowd started forward. Skinny's gun whipped around in front of
+him.
+
+"Keep back, y' sons-of-hell!" he snarled, "Sabota's gettin' what's
+coming to him!"
+
+The Greek's eyes opened. His fingers touched the butt of the Ramblin'
+Kid's revolver and began to close slowly over the handle of the weapon.
+
+"Make him quit," one of the pool-room loafers whined; "he's killed him!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid saw Sabota reach for the gun. He answered the speaker
+and the Greek's effort to get the forty-four at the same time:
+
+"Not yet--_but now_!" he cried with a low laugh and leaped with both
+heels squarely on the bloody face of Sabota! There was a horrible
+crunching sound as of bones and flesh being ground into pulp. The
+fingers about to close on the handle of the revolver grew limp, the
+Greek's head, a hideous, scarcely recognizable mass, slumped to one side
+and lay perfectly still.
+
+An instant longer the Ramblin' Kid looked at him, then reached over,
+picked up his gun and slipped it into the holster at his hip.
+
+As he straightened up, Tom Poole, the marshal, rushed into the
+pool-room. He covered the Ramblin' Kid with his revolver and placed him
+under arrest.
+
+"You don't need to get excited, Tom!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed. "I
+didn't do nothin' but kill that damned black cur layin' there! Come
+on--I want to get out in th' air--I never like to stay around where dead
+skunks are!"
+
+They moved toward the door.
+
+Poole dropped his gun back in its scabbard and walked at the side of the
+now apparently peaceful young cowboy.
+
+At the door the marshal looked around:
+
+"Some of you fellers get the doctor or undertaker--whichever he
+needs--and take care of Sabota!" he called to the group around the body
+of the Greek.
+
+Like a flash the muzzle of the Ramblin' Kid's gun was pressed against
+the side of Poole.
+
+"Put 'em up, Tom!" he snapped, "_I_ don't want to kill you, but I will
+if I have to--I ain't goin' to rot in no jail just for stampin' a dirty
+snake-to death!"
+
+The marshal's hands shot into the air as if operated by springs.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid, with his left hand, jerked Poole's revolver from its
+holster. He backed into the street toward where Captain Jack and Old Pie
+Face were standing, still with his own gun covering the officer.
+
+"Jack!" he cried sharply, "meet me!"
+
+The little stallion moved toward him.
+
+With the thumb of the hand in which he held the marshal's gun the
+Ramblin' Kid threw open the breech and flipped the shells on the ground.
+He tossed the empty forty-four to one side, threw the reins over
+Captain Jack's head and the next instant was in the saddle. The broncho
+wheeled and was gone, in a dead run, toward the west.
+
+The marshal rushed into the street and picked up his gun, jerked some
+cartridges from his belt, slipped them into the cylinder and fired
+quickly at the fleeing horse and rider.
+
+The bullets whistled past the ear of the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He raised his own weapon, half-turned in the saddle, dropped the muzzle
+of the gun forward until it pointed at the flashes spitting from the
+officer's revolver. His finger started to tighten on the trigger.
+
+"Hell," he muttered, "what's the use? Tom's just doin' what he thinks he
+has to do!" and the Ramblin' Kid slipped the gun, unfired, back into its
+holster.
+
+A moment later Captain Jack whirled to the right across the Santa Fe
+tracks and bearing a little to the east, in the direction of Capaline,
+the dead volcano that rises out of the lavas northwest of the Quarter
+Circle KT, between the Purgatory and the Cimarron, disappeared in the
+black starlit night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+MOSTLY SKINNY
+
+It is a week to the day since the fight in the Elite Amusement Parlor in
+Eagle Butte. Since the Ramblin' Kid, followed by the wicked sing of the
+bullets from the marshal's gun, disappeared in the darkness no word has
+come from the fugitive cowboy, who beat to a pulp the burly Greek.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick paces uneasily about in the circular corral and
+the Quarter Circle KT has settled into the hum-drum routine of ranch
+life.
+
+Parker, Charley, Chuck and Bert are gone to Chicago with the train-load
+of beef cattle. Skinny bosses a gang of "picked-up" hay hands Old Heck
+brought out from Eagle Butte to harvest the second cutting of alfalfa.
+Pedro rides line daily on the upland pasture and Sing Pete hammers the
+iron triangle morning, noon and night, announcing the regular arrival of
+meal-time. The Chinaman is careful when he throws out empty
+tomato-cans--turning back the tin to make it impossible for the yellow
+cat again to fasten his head in one of the inviting traps, and the cook
+would imperil the hope of the return of his soul to the flowery Orient
+before he would put butter in the bottom of a can to entice the animal
+into trouble.
+
+Old Heck and Ophelia are like a pair of nesting doves and there is a new
+vigor to the step of the owner of the Quarter Circle KT, a revived
+interest in affairs generally; years seem to have fallen from his
+shoulders.
+
+Carolyn June smiles sweetly as ever at Skinny, spends much time riding
+alone over the valley and hills; in her eyes there has come a more
+thoughtful--often a wistful--expression.
+
+Sabota did not die.
+
+After the escape of the Ramblin' Kid the marshal reentered the pool-room
+and had the big Greek removed to the hotel. A doctor was called and set
+as well as possible the broken jaws, the crushed nose, picked out the
+fragments of bone and the loosened teeth, sewed up the terrible gashes
+on Sabota's face and left the bully groaning and profaning in
+half-conscious agony.
+
+The night of the fight Skinny took Old Pie Face back to the barn.
+
+The cowboy's heart was heavy with remorse. He blamed himself for all the
+trouble. Had he not wanted to make a fool of himself and get drunk the
+Ramblin' Kid would not have come to Eagle Butte, the fight would not
+have occurred, the friend he had ridden with through storm and
+sunshine--whom he had stood "night guard" and fought mad stampedes into
+"the mill"--would not now be an outcast sought by the hand of the law.
+
+News of the beating the Ramblin' Kid gave Sabota traveled fast.
+
+It was flashed over Eagle Butte that the Greek was dead.
+
+"So th' Ramblin' Kid killed old Sabota, did he?" the hostler at the
+livery barn asked Skinny as he stepped out to care for the cowboy's
+horse. "What was it over? Sabota having th' Ramblin' Kid 'doped' the day
+of the sweepstakes?"
+
+Skinny looked keenly, searchingly, at the stableman.
+
+"What do you mean--'Sabota having th' Ramblin' Kid doped?'" he asked
+sharply.
+
+"Why, didn't you know?" the hostler replied. "I thought everybody
+knowed. Gyp Streetor told me about it the day of the race--I used to
+know Gyp when he was a kid back east. I saw him as he was beating it to
+get out of town. He borrowed five dollars from me. Said Sabota hired him
+to put 'knock-out' in some coffee for th' Ramblin' Kid and he reckoned
+the dose wasn't big enough or something. Anyhow, it didn't hold him
+under long as they thought it would and when he saw the Gold Dust
+maverick show up on the track he got scared--was afraid it would leak
+out or th' Ramblin' Kid would suspect him and try to 'get' him after the
+race, so he ducked out of town--"
+
+"You ain't lying about that?" Skinny asked.
+
+"What would I want to lie about it for?" the other replied. "Wasn't
+that what made th' Ramblin' Kid kill the Greek?"
+
+"No, it was something else," Skinny answered; "but Sabota ain't dead.
+He's just crunched up pretty bad--th' Ramblin' Kid jumped on him, like
+Captain Jack did on that feller from the Chickasaw that tried to steal
+him!"
+
+Skinny's mind was in a whirl.
+
+So the Ramblin' Kid was not drunk the day of the race! He was drugged--
+sick--yet, in spite of everything, rode the Gold Dust maverick and beat
+the black wonder-horse from the Vermejo! Lord! and they had all thought
+he was on a tear!
+
+The bottle of whisky was still in the bosom of Skinny's shirt.
+
+He had not touched it. He felt a sudden revulsion for the vile stuff.
+
+"Here," he said, jerking the flask from its hiding-place and handing it
+to the hostler, "maybe you'd like that bottle of 'rot-gut'--I've swore
+off!"
+
+"I ain't," the stableman laughed and took it eagerly.
+
+Skinny remained in town that night and the next day, waiting for Parker
+and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys to come in with the beef cattle. They
+arrived about noon. Old Heck drove in with the Clagstone "Six." Ophelia
+and Carolyn June came with him. Skinny met them when Old Heck stopped
+the in front of the Occidental Hotel. He told them, while they still
+sat in the automobile, of the fight and the escape of the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"A drunken brawl!" Carolyn June thought, a wave of disgust sweeping over
+her.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid hadn't touched a drop," Skinny said, explaining the
+fight and almost as if he were answering her unspoken thought. "If he'd
+been drinking, I reckon Sabota would have killed him instead of his
+beating the Greek blamed near to death. I know now what he used to mean
+when he'd say, 'A man's a fool to put whisky in him when he's facin' a
+tight squeeze!' The little devil sure needed everything he had--nerve
+and head and muscle and all--for the job he tackled last night!"
+
+Skinny didn't tell them that his hand had rested on the handle of his
+own gun--determined that he, himself, would kill Sabota if the brute
+succeeded in choking the Ramblin' Kid to death.
+
+"What was the fight about?" Old Heck asked.
+
+"A pink ribbon or something with a little silver do-funny on it--it
+looked like a sleeve-holder or a garter--dropped out of th' Ramblin'
+Kid's pocket and Sabota made a nasty remark about it," Skinny said.
+
+Carolyn June caught her breath and her face flushed.
+
+"The Greek said something about Carolyn June, I didn't just hear what,"
+Skinny continued, "and then he smashed the ribbon under his foot. The
+next instant th' Ramblin' Kid was trying to kill him!
+
+"It's a pity he didn't succeed!" Old Heck exclaimed. "The damned filthy
+whelp--excuse me, Ophelia, for cussing, but I just had to say It!"
+
+"It's all right," was the laughing rejoinder, "I--I--wanted to say it
+myself!"
+
+Carolyn June's eyes glowed. Her heart felt as if a weight had been
+lifted from it So, the Ramblin' Kid had kept the odd souvenir, and he
+cared--he cared!
+
+"Go ahead," she whispered to Skinny; "what then?"
+
+"I reckon that's about all," Skinny answered. "Th' Ramblin' Kid smashed
+Sabota and as he staggered back, picked up the ribbon--then he didn't
+quit till he thought the Greek was dead. Tom Poole arrested him, but th'
+Ramblin' Kid got the drop on him and got away. He was justified in
+beating Sabota up anyhow," he added, "on account of the dirty cuss
+hiring a feller to 'dope' him so he couldn't ride the maverick the day
+of the big race--"
+
+"'Dope' him?" Old Heck interrupted, puzzled.
+
+"Yes," Skinny explained, "the Greek had a feller named Gyp Streetor put
+some stuff in th' Ramblin? Kid's coffee. He wasn't drunk at all--he was
+just poisoned with 'knock-out!'"
+
+"Good lord!" Old Heck exclaimed. "And he rode that race when he was
+drugged! While we all thought he'd gone to pieces and was drunk!"
+
+Carolyn June's cheeks suddenly turned pale. He cared, but he was gone!
+Perhaps never to come back! If seemed as if an iron hand was clutching
+at her throat!
+
+She and Ophelia went into the hotel and Old Heck and Skinny drove the
+car over to the stock-yards where the cattle were being loaded.
+
+After Parker and the cowboys were on their way east with the steers and
+before he returned to the ranch Old Heck went into the room in which
+Sabota lay. The Greek's head was a mass of white bandages. His eyes
+battered and swollen shut, he could not see the face of his visitor.
+
+For a moment Old Heck looked at him, his lips parted in a smile of
+contempt lightened with satisfaction.
+
+"Well, Sabota," he said at last, "th' Ramblin' Kid didn't quite do his
+duty, did he? If he had gone as far as he ought to you wouldn't be
+laying there--they'd just about now be hiding your dirty carcass under
+six feet of 'dobe!'"
+
+Sabota mumbled some guttural, unintelligible reply.
+
+"Listen, you infernal skunk," Old Heck went on coldly, "as quick as
+you're able to travel you'll find Eagle Butte's a right good place to
+get away from! You understand what I mean. If I catch you around, well,
+I won't use no fists!" And without waiting for an answer he turned and
+left the room.
+
+The owner of the Quarter Circle KT then hunted lip the marshal of Eagle
+Butte.
+
+"Tom," he said, "I reckon you'll be looking some for th' Ramblin' Kid,
+after what happened last night, won't you?"
+
+The marshal had heard of Sabota's effort to Have the young cowboy
+drugged the day of the race and also the immediate cause for the fight.
+
+"Oh, I don't know as I will," he said, "unless the Greek makes some
+charge or other. I don't imagine he'll do that"
+
+"I know blamed well he won't!" Old Heck interrupted. "But how about th'
+Ramblin' Kid putting his gun in your ribs--resisting an officer and so
+on?"
+
+"Putting his gun in my ribs? Resisting an officer?" the lanky Missourian
+answered with a sly grin; "who said he put a gun on me--or resisted an
+officer or anything? I ain't heard nothing about it!"
+
+Two days later Sabota, with the help of "Red" Jackson, managed to get to
+the Santa Fe station. He was able to travel and he did travel. Jackson
+said he went to the "Border." Eagle Butte did not know or care--the
+Cimarron town was through with him.
+
+When Old Heck, Carolyn June and Ophelia returned to the Quarter Circle
+KT the evening of the day following the fight, the Gold Dust maverick
+whinnied lonesomely from the circular corral as the Clagstone "Six"
+stopped in front of the house.
+
+"What are we going to do with that filly?" Old Heck asked, looking at
+the beautiful creature with her head above the bars of the corral gate.
+
+"I am going to ride her!" Carolyn June said softly. "Until the Ramblin'
+Kid comes back and claims her she is mine! She loves me and I can handle
+her!"
+
+"I'm afraid--" Old Heck started to protest.
+
+"You need not be," Carolyn June interrupted, "the Gold Dust maverick and
+I know each other--she understands me and I understand her--she will be
+perfectly gentle with me!"
+
+The next day Carolyn June rode the wonderful outlaw mare. It was as she
+said. The filly was perfectly gentle with her. After that, every day,
+the girl saddled the Gold Dust maverick and, unafraid, took long rides
+alone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night the cattle were shipped Skinny had supper in Eagle Butte. He
+sat alone at a small table at one side of the dining-room in the
+Occidental Hotel. The cowboy was the picture of utter misery. Parker,
+Charley, Chuck, Bert were gone to Chicago with steers; the Ramblin' Kid
+was gone--nobody knew where; Skinny's dream about Carolyn June was
+gone--she didn't love him, she just liked him; even his whisky was gone,
+he had given it to the hostler at the barn; he didn't have any friends
+or anything.
+
+"What's the matter, Skinny?" Manilla Endora, the yellow-haired waitress,
+asked softly, as she stepped up to the table and looked down a moment at
+the dejected cowboy. There was something in her voice that made Skinny
+pity himself more than ever. It made him want to cry. "What's wrong?'
+Manilla repeated almost tenderly.
+
+"Everything!" Skinny blurted out, dropping his head on his arms. "The
+whole blamed works is shot to pieces!"
+
+A little smile stole over Manilla's rosy lips.
+
+"I know what it is," she said gently, unreproachfully; "it's that girl,
+Carolyn June. Yes, it is," as Skinny started to interrupt. "Oh, I don't
+blame you for falling for her!" she went on. "She is nice--but, well,
+Skinny-boy," her voice was a caress, "Old Heck's niece is not the sort
+for you. You and her wouldn't fit at all--the way you wanted--and
+anyhow, there--there--are others," coloring warmly.
+
+Skinny looked up into the honest blue eyes.
+
+"You ain't sore at me or anything are you, Manilla?" he asked.
+
+"Sore?" she answered. "Of course not!"
+
+Hope sprung again into his heart. "I--I--thought maybe you would be," he
+stammered.
+
+"Forget it!" she laughed. "The old world still wobbles!"
+
+"Manilla, you--you're a peach!" he cried.
+
+She chuckled. "Did you hear about that dance next Saturday night after
+the picture show?" she asked archly.
+
+"No. Is there one?" with new interest in life.
+
+"Yes," she replied, her lashes drooping demurely; "they say the music is
+going to be swell."
+
+"If I come in will you--will we--go, Manilla?" he asked eagerly.
+
+They would.
+
+"Poor Skinny," Manilla murmured to herself as she went to the kitchen to
+get his order, "poor cuss--he can't keep from breaking his heart over
+every skirt that brushes against him, but"--and she laughed
+softly--"darn his ugly picture, I like him anyhow!"
+
+After supper Skinny hurried to the Golden Rule store. It was still open.
+
+"Give me a white shirt--number fifteen," he said to the clerk; "and be
+blamed sure it's the right size--they ain't worth a cuss if they're too
+big!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+A GIRL LIKE YOU
+
+Alone rider guided his horse in the early night, among the black lavas,
+on the desolate desert near Capaline, the dead volcano. He rode to the
+south, in the direction of the Cimarron. Silently, steadily, like a dark
+shadow, the broncho picked his way among the fields of fire-blistered
+rock and held his course, unerringly, through the starlit gloom hanging
+over the earth before the late moon should flash its silver disk above
+the sand-hills miles to the east.
+
+The rider was the Ramblin' Kid; the little horse--Captain Jack.
+
+For a week, following the fight in Eagle Butte, the Ramblin' Kid had
+found shelter in the hut of "Indian Jake"--a hermit Navajo who, long
+ago, turned his face toward the flood of white civilization rolling over
+the last pitiful remnants of his tribe and drifted far toward the land
+of the rising sum. Among the scenes of desolation around the grimly cold
+volcano, alone, the old Indian made his last stand, and in a rude cabin,
+beside a tiny spring that seeped from under the black rock on the
+mountain-side, lived in splendid isolation--silent, brooding, desiring
+only to be left in peace with his few ponies, his small herd of cattle
+and the memories and traditions of his people.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid and the lonely Navajo were friends since the Ramblin'
+Kid could remember.
+
+The aged Indian's face was pitted with horrible scars--marks of the same
+disease that had cost the wandering cowboy his father and left him,
+years ago, an orphan, almost worshiped, because of the sacrifice his
+parent had made fighting the epidemic among the tribes of the Southwest.
+
+Often the "Young Whirlwind"--the name by which the Indians knew the
+Ramblin' Kid and which old Jake himself always called the cowboy--spent
+a night, sometimes days, with his stoical friend among the lavas.
+
+To him the cabin door was always open.
+
+As Captain Jack, followed by the bullets from the marshal's revolver,
+dashed madly down the street of Eagle Butte, instinctively the Ramblin'
+Kid had turned the stallion toward the hut of the old Navajo.
+
+The fugitive cowboy believed Sabota was dead.
+
+Naturally the law would demand vengeance, even though the brutal Greek
+had deserved to die. Posses, undoubtedly, would scour the country,
+searching for his slayer. The Quarter Circle KT would be watched.
+
+There was no regret in the heart of the Ramblin' Kid. Instead he felt a
+strange elation. With his fists and heels he had beaten the giant Greek
+into a lifeless mass!
+
+"'Ign'rant--savage--stupid--brute!" he muttered as Captain Jack sped
+from the scene of fight; "I reckon she _was pretty near right!_"
+
+At gray dawn he swung down from the back of the little stallion at the
+door of the Indian's hut.
+
+Old Jake asked no questions.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid himself volunteered:
+
+"Killed a man--Sabota--got to lay low, Jake--some three, four, five
+days! Then I go--south--Mexico!"
+
+"The Young Whirlwind had cause?" the Navajo grunted sententiously.
+
+"Sure--plenty!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed, slipping his hand to his
+breast pocket and caressing the pink satin garter.
+
+"It is good," the Indian said. "The Navajo will watch!"
+
+For seven days the Ramblin' Kid rested, securely, in the lonely hut
+among the lavas and "pot-holes" of the desert. Then he saddled Captain
+Jack and when the full shadow of night had settled over the desolation
+about him mounted the little broncho and turned him to the south, in the
+direction of the Cimarron, toward the Quarter Circle KT, where the Gold
+Dust maverick waited, alone, in the corral.
+
+Carolyn June could not sleep. The night was more than half gone and
+still she sat on the front porch and watched the gradual spread of a
+misty, silvery sheen over the brow of the bench and the distant peaks of
+the shadowy Costejo range as the pale moon, in its last half, lifted
+itself above the sand-hills at the gap through which the Cimarron
+tumbled out of the valley.
+
+Old Heck and Ophelia had retired hours ago.
+
+The Quarter Circle KT was sleeping. From the meadows the heavy odor of
+wilted alfalfa hung on the night air as the dew sprinkled the windrows
+of new-cut hay.
+
+A strange restlessness filled the heart of the girl.
+
+Something seemed to be holding her in a tense, relentless grip. She had
+no desire to seek her room. Indeed, she felt that the air of the house
+would stifle her. She arose and strolled idly through the gate, past the
+bunk-house where Skinny, Pedro and the hay hands snored peacefully, as
+she wandered aimlessly through the slanting moonlight down to the
+circular corral.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick seemed to reflect the girl's own uneasy mood.
+
+The filly moved with quick nervous strides about the corral. As Carolyn
+June leaned against the bars and stretched out her hand the mare
+whinnied softly, tossed her head, nosed an instant the white fingers and
+trotted in a circle around the enclosure.
+
+"What's the matter, Heart o' Gold?" Carolyn June laughed
+sympathetically, "can't you either?"
+
+In the shed at the side of the corral, on the spot where, that first
+morning, the Ramblin' Kid's saddle had rested and the cowboy slept,
+Carolyn June's own riding gear was lying. She glanced at the outfit For
+a second she fancied she saw again the slender form stretched in the
+shadow upon the ground while a pair of black inscrutable eyes looked
+with unfathomable melancholy up into her own.
+
+"Seein' things!" she laughed jerkily, with a little catch in her throat.
+"I'll ride it off!"
+
+Quickly she stepped over, picked up the saddle, bridle and blanket,
+returned to the corral gate, swung it open and entered.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick came to her, as if eager, herself, to get out
+into the night.
+
+A moment later Carolyn June was in the saddle and the mare, dancing
+lightly, pranced out of the gate. She turned swiftly toward the grade
+that led out to the bench and to Eagle Butte. They had almost reached
+the foot of the grade, when some impulse caused Carolyn June to whirl
+the filly about and gallop back past the barn and down the lane toward
+the Cimarron.
+
+As the feet of the outlaw mare splashed into the water at the lower ford
+the Ramblin' Kid rode past the corner of the upland pasture fence and
+stopped Captain Jack on the brink of the ridge looking down at the
+crossing. Below him the river whirled in dark eddies under the
+overhanging curtains of cottonwoods and willows; the Quarter Circle KT
+lay in the hollow of the valley, like a faint etching of silent
+restfulness; through the tops of the trees a white splash of moonlight
+struck on the smooth level surface of the treacherous quicksand bar that
+had drawn Old Blue down to an agonizing death and from which, scarcely a
+month ago, the Ramblin' Kid had dragged Carolyn June.
+
+This, the Ramblin' Kid believed, was his last long look at the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+He would ride down to the circular corral, turn out the Gold Dust
+maverick--give her again to the range and freedom--and while the
+unconscious sleepers at the ranch dreamed he would pass on, silently,
+toward the south and Mexico should throw about him her black arms of
+mystery!
+
+For a while he sat and gazed down on the shadowy scene while his mind
+throbbed with memory of the incidents of the last few weeks. He drew the
+pink satin garter from his pocket, looked at it a long moment--suddenly
+crushed it tightly in his hand while his eyes closed as if renouncing a
+vision that had come before them--then carefully, that the dainty thing
+might not be lost, replaced it in the pocket that was over his heart.
+
+At last he swung to the ground and tightened the front cinch of his
+saddle.
+
+As he pulled the leather into place the sound of nervous hoofs kicking
+the gravel on the grade that led to the ridge on which he stood
+shattered the silence around him. The Ramblin' Kid whirled and faced the
+direction in which the approaching horse, would appear. His hand dropped
+to his gun and without raising the weapon from his hip he leveled it to
+cover the turn in the road a few feet away.
+
+The waxy mane of the outlaw filly rocked into view as she sprang up and
+around the turn on to the ridge.
+
+On the maverick's back, bareheaded, her brown hair tumbled about her
+neck, was Carolyn June.
+
+Captain Jack pricked forward his ears at the sound of hoofs and as the
+beautiful mare leaped around the turn and appeared above the bank of the
+grade the little roan squealed a nicker of recognition. The filly sprang
+forward, swerved to the side of the stallion, and with an answering
+whinny stopped.
+
+"Oh!" Carolyn June gasped, as the horses met and she saw the Ramblin'
+Kid, his gun still in his hand, standing beside Captain Jack.
+
+There was a brief, questioning silence.
+
+"What th' hell!" he breathed.
+
+"What the--'_hell_--yourself!" she laughed nervously. "Is--this--is this
+a hold-up?"
+
+"What are _you_ doin' here--this time of night--an' on that filly?" he
+asked without heeding her question.
+
+"I'm riding that--this--filly!" Carolyn June shot back independently.
+"And what are _you_ doing here--at this time of--Oh," she added,
+before he could answer, "I--I--believe my saddle's slipping!" and she
+swung lightly from the back of the outlaw mare.
+
+"That filly'll kill you," he began.
+
+"She will not!" Carolyn June interrupted with a pout. "I--I--guess
+you're not the only one, Mister 'Nighthawk,' that knows the way to the
+heart of a horse! If you were just as wise about--" but she stopped, her
+blush hidden as she turned her back to the rising moon.
+
+"They was made for each other!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered to himself.
+Then he spoke aloud: "I reckon you know," he said slowly, "why I'm
+ridin' at night--about me killin' Sabota--I'm leavin'--"
+
+"But Sabota isn't dead," she interrupted again. "You don't need to go
+away!"
+
+"Sabota ain't dead!" the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed. "Then I'll go back to
+Eagle Butte instead of--Mexico!"
+
+"Why?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"To finish th' job!" and his voice was dangerously soft.
+
+"You can't finish it," she laughed. "He isn't in Eagle Butte! The Greek
+has gone away and--well, it--it--was a good 'job'--good enough the way
+you did it! I--I--don't want you 'teetotally' to kill him--clear, all
+the way dead," she stammered. "The way it is you--you--won't have
+to--leave!"
+
+"What's th' difference?" he said dully. "It's time I was ramblin'
+anyhow!"
+
+"Is it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Listen, Ramblin' Kid," she broke in, "I--I--know all about
+everything--about what started the fight--"
+
+"You do?" looking quickly and keenly at her. "Who told you?"
+
+"Skinny," she answered; "he saw it. Said it was a pale pink ribbon or
+something with a little silver 'do-funny' on it!" she finished with a
+laugh.
+
+"I--I--reckon you want it back, then?" the Ramblin' Kid said, reaching
+to his left breast. "You wouldn't want--"
+
+"Did I say I wanted it?" Carolyn June questioned naively.
+
+"And I know," she hurried on, "about you being drugged the day of the
+race! Why didn't you say you were sick? We--we--thought you were drunk!"
+
+"Nobody asked me," he answered without interest.
+
+"Does everybody have to--to--ask you everything?" she questioned
+suggestively. "Don't you ever--ever--'ask' anybody anything yourself?"
+
+"What are you tryin' to do?" he said almost brutally, "play with me like
+you played with them other blamed idiots th' night of th' dance?"
+
+"You're mean--" she started to say.
+
+"Am I?" he interrupted, and spoke with sudden intenseness. "Maybe you
+think I am. Maybe you think a lot of things. Maybe you think God put
+them brown eyes in your face just so you could coax men, with a look out
+of them, to love you an' then laugh because th' damned fools do it!"
+
+"You're unfair!" she replied. "I was just paying the boys back the night
+of the dance for--for--'framing' up on Ophelia and me the way they did!"
+
+For a moment they looked squarely into each other's eyes. Captain Jack
+and the Gold Dust maverick nosed each other over the shoulders of their
+dismounted riders.
+
+"Oh, well, it don't matter," the Ramblin' Kid finally said, wearily; "it
+don't matter, you're what you are an' I reckon you can't help it!"
+
+Carolyn June said nothing.
+
+"I--I--was goin' to turn th' filly back to th' range," he continued in
+the same emotionless voice, "but--well, you can have her--I'll trade her
+to you for--for--th' thing that started th' fight. You can ride th'
+maverick till you go back east--"
+
+"I'm not going back east," she said in a hurt tone, "at least not for a
+long time. Dad is going to--to--get me a stepmother! He's going to marry
+some female person and he doesn't need me so I'm going to live--most of
+the time--with Uncle Josiah and Ophelia! Anyhow I--I--like it out
+west--or that is--I did like it--"
+
+There was another little period of silence between them.
+
+"Ramblin' Kid," Carolyn June spoke suddenly very softly, "Ramblin'
+Kid--why--why do you hate me?"
+
+"Me hate you?" he answered slowly. "I don't hate _you_--I hate myself!"
+
+"Yourself?" with a questioning lift of her voice.
+
+"Yes, myself!" he replied with a short, bitter laugh. "Why shouldn't
+I--bein' an 'ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!'"
+
+Carolyn June flinched as he repeated the cruel words she herself had
+spoken, it seemed, now so long ago.
+
+"You are right!" she said, after a pause, while a ripple of quivering,
+mischievous laughter leaped from her lips and she laid her hand lightly
+on his arm. "Oh, Ramblin' Kid, you are indeed an 'ign'rant, savage,
+stupid brute!' You are 'ign'rant,'" she continued while he looked at her
+with a puzzled expression in his eyes, "of the ways of a woman's heart;
+you are 'savage'--in the defense of a woman's honor; you are
+'stupid'--not to see that it is the _man_ a woman wants and not the thin
+social veneer; you are a 'brute'--an utter brute, Ramblin' Kid--
+to--to--make a girl almost tell you--tell you--that she--she--"
+
+The sentence was not finished.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid caught her by both shoulder. He pushed her back--arm's
+length--and held her while the clean moonlight poured down on her
+upturned face and his black eyes searched her own as though to read her
+very soul.
+
+An instant she was almost frightened by the agony that was in his face.
+
+Then she opened her mouth and laughed--such a laugh as comes only from
+the throat of a woman when love is having its way!
+
+"By God!" he whispered, his voice hoarse with passion, his hot breath
+fanning the brown hair on her forehead; "this has gone far enough! I'll
+tell you what you want me to say--I'll say it! And it's the truth--I
+love you--love you--_love you_! Yes!" And he shook her toward him. "Do
+you hear me? I love you--love you--so much it hurts! Now laugh! Now make
+fun of me! I know I'm a fool. I know where I stand! I know I don't
+belong in your crowd--I ain't fit to mix with 'em! I ain't been raised
+like you was raised. You don't need to tell me that! I know it already!
+I know there's somethin' a man has to have besides what he gets on th'
+open range among th' cattle--an' th' bronchos--an' th' rattlesnakes
+--he's got to be ground in th' mill of schoolin'--of books;
+he's got to be hammered into shape under th' heels of 'civilization';
+he's got to be trained to jump through and roll over an' know which fork
+to eat with before a girl like you--"
+
+His Hands relaxed, but before his fingers loosened their grip on her
+shoulders Carolyn June's own soft palms reached up and caught the man's
+sun-tanned cheeks between them. Her eyes burned back into its own. Once
+more the laugh rippled from the full pulsing throat.
+
+"Ramblin' Kid, oh, Ramblin' Kid," she murmured, while the long lashes
+lifted over brown pools tenderness, "a man--my man--does not need to be
+or to know all of those things, any of those things, before a girl like
+me--"
+
+He crushed her to him and stopped the words on her lips.
+
+"My God--don't fool me--be sure you know!" he cried, his whole body
+quivering with the intensity of his feelings; "don't tell me you love
+me--unless you mean it! I can stand to love you--without hope--in
+silence--alone! But I can't--an' I swear I be lifted up to Paradise just
+to be dropped again into the depths of hell! Don't say you love me
+unless you know it is _all_ love! Half love ain't love--it's a lie! An'
+love ain't to play with! Don't insult God by makin' a joke of th' thing
+He made an' planted in th' hearts of all Creation to hold th' Universe
+together."
+
+"Ramblin' Kid," she whispered softly, "God himself is looking down into
+my heart!"
+
+He smothered her mouth with his own--they drank each other in, their
+souls mingled in a mad-sense-reeling, time-defying pressure of lips!
+
+It was their hour, as was the next and yet the one that followed that.
+
+When the old-rose of dawn melted the gray above the sand-hills behind
+them and the white moon was fading in the zenith above the Kiowa; when
+the cottonwoods beside the Cimarron began to shake their leaves in the
+morning breeze that tripped across the valley; when the low buildings of
+the Quarter Circle KT silhouetted against the bench beyond the meadows;
+when the smooth surface of the beach of quicksand under which the body
+of Old Blue was hidden began to look smoother yet and still more firm,
+the Ramblin' Kid and Carolyn June parted.
+
+"I'm goin' away," he said; "I'm goin' away, Carolyn June, but I'm goin'
+for another reason now. I'm goin' away an' make myself so you'll never
+have a chance to be ashamed of me! I'm goin' away an' learn how to talk
+without cussin' 'most every other word--I'm goin' away an' get that
+polish I know; women love in men th' same as they love their own shoes
+to be shiny an' their own dresses to be soft an' dainty! When I've got
+that I'll come back! I ain't goin' to Mexico. I'm going to ride into
+that world that you come out of an' when I'm so you'll be proud to walk
+in that world with me--when I'm so you won't need to apologize for me in
+Hartville or any other place, I'm comin' back an' a preacher can O.K.
+th' bargain you an' me have made! Will you keep faith an' be true,
+Carolyn June? Will you keep faith an' be true--? Will you be waitin'?"
+
+"I'll be waiting," she whispered, "--and keep faith and be true!"
+
+And he rode away into the face of the red glow rising above the
+sand-hills. He rode away--to meet the morning sun--hidden yet behind the
+eastern horizon--to conquer himself, to master the ways of men, in the
+world that lay beyond!
+
+Carolyn June watched him go.
+
+Then she guided the outlaw filly down the grade, across the Cimarron and
+along the lane, in the gently stirring dawn, back to the still sleeping
+Quarter Circle KT. In her heart was a song; in her eyes a new light; in
+her soul a great peace--on her lips, a smile. She carried in her bosom
+their secret--hers and the Ramblin' Kid's--and she knew he would return,
+for he would not lie.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ramblin' Kid, by Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLIN' KID ***
+
+***** This file should be named 10374-8.txt or 10374-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/3/7/10374/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.net/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.net
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     http://www.gutenberg.net/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     http://www.gutenberg.net/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
diff --git a/old/old/20031203.10374-8.zip b/old/old/20031203.10374-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4bd98d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/old/20031203.10374-8.zip
diff --git a/old/old/20031203.10374.txt b/old/old/20031203.10374.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ceb55d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/old/20031203.10374.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9535 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ramblin' Kid, by Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+
+Title: The Ramblin' Kid
+
+Author: Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2003 [EBook #10374]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLIN' KID ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RAMBLIN' KID
+
+
+BY EARL WAYLAND BOWMAN
+
+
+FRONTISPIECE BY W.H.D. KOERNER
+
+
+
+
+1920
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I A NIGHT LETTER
+
+II A BLUFF CALLED
+
+III WHICH ONE'S WHICH
+
+IV THE UNUSED PLATE
+
+V A DUEL OF ENDURANCE
+
+VI YOU'RE A BRUTE
+
+VII THE GREEDY SANDS
+
+VIII QUICK WITH A VENGEANCE
+
+IX OLD HECK'S STRATEGY
+
+X FIXING FIXERS
+
+XI A DANCE AND A RIDE
+
+XII YOU'LL GET YOUR WISH
+
+XIII THE ELITE AMUSEMENT PARLOR
+
+XIV THE GRAND PARADE
+
+XV MOCHA AND JAVA
+
+XVI THE SWEEPSTAKES
+
+XVII OLD HECK GOES TO TOWN
+
+XVIII A SHAME TO WASTE IT
+
+XIX THE GREEK GETS HIS
+
+XX MOSTLY SKINNY
+
+XXI A GIRL LIKE YOU
+
+
+
+
+THE RAMBLIN' KID
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+A NIGHT LETTER
+
+Sand and gravel slithered and slid under the heels of Old Pie Face as
+Skinny Rawlins whirled the broncho into the open space in front of the
+low-built, sprawling, adobe ranch house of the Quarter Circle KT and
+reined the pinto to a sudden stop. Skinny had been to Eagle Butte and
+with other things brought back the mail. It was hot, late June, the time
+between cutting the first crop of alfalfa and gathering, from the open
+range, the beef steers ready for the summer market. Regardless of the
+heat Skinny had ridden hard and his horse was a lather of sweat. A
+number of cowboys lounged, indolently, in the shade of the bunk-house,
+smoking cigarettes and contentedly enjoying the hour of rest after the
+noon-day dinner. Another, lean-built, slender, boyish in appearance and
+with strangely black, inscrutable eyes, stepped from around the corner
+of the house as Skinny jerked Old Pie Face to a standstill.
+
+"Where's Old Heck?" Skinny asked excitedly. "I brought the mail--here,
+take it to him!"
+
+The other, known on the Kiowa and the range of western Texas and Mexico
+only as "the Ramblin' Kid," strolled leisurely out through the sagging,
+weight-swung gate and up to the panting horse from which Skinny had not
+yet dismounted.
+
+"Asleep, I reckon," he replied in a voice peculiarly low and deliberate,
+"--what's your spontaneousness about? You act like a special d'livery or
+somethin'."
+
+"Old Heck's got a letter," Skinny said, jerkily; "maybe's it's bad news
+an' he ought to have it quick," as the Ramblin' Kid reached for a yellow
+envelope held in the outstretched hand.
+
+At that instant Old Heck, owner and boss of the Quarter Circle KT cow
+outfit, stepped from the shadow of the open ranch-house door. He was
+short and stocky, red-faced, somewhere near the fifties, and a
+yellowish-gray mustache hung over tobacco blackened lips. Overalls, a
+checked blue and white shirt, open at the throat, boots into which the
+trousers legs were loosely jammed comprised his attire. He was
+bareheaded and the sun glistened on a wrinkly forehead, topped by a thin
+sprinkling of hair.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked drowsily, his small, gray-blue eyes
+blinking in the yellow sun-glare and still sluggish from the nap
+disturbed by the noise of Skinny's arrival.
+
+"Nothin'. Skinny's just got a letter an' is excited about it," the
+Ramblin' Kid said, handing the envelope to him. "It's for you."
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck exclaimed, "it's a telegram!"
+
+The cowboys resting in the shade of the bunk-house rose to their feet,
+sauntered over and surrounded Old Heck and the Ramblin' Kid, commenting
+meanwhile, frankly and caustically, on the fagged condition of the
+broncho Skinny was on:
+
+"Must 'a' been scared, the way you run that horse," Parker, range
+foreman of the Quarter Circle KT, a heavy-built, sandy-complexioned man
+in the forties, remarked witheringly to Skinny as the cow-puncher
+climbed from the saddle and slid to the ground.
+
+"He's mine, I reckon," Skinny retorted, "an' I figure it's nobody's
+darn' business how I ride him--anyhow I brought Old Heck a telegram!" he
+added triumphantly.
+
+"Blamed if he didn't!" Charley Saunders, with a trifle of awe, pretended
+or real, in his tone, said. "It sure is!"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck repeated, slowly turning the envelope over in his
+hand, "it's a telegram! Wonder what it's about?"
+
+"Why don't you open it and see?" Parker suggested.
+
+"Yes, open th' blamed thing and find out," Skinny encouraged.
+
+"I--I've a notion to," Old Heck whispered.
+
+"Go on and do it, it won't take but a minute," Charley Saunders
+entreated.
+
+"Maybe he's one of these mind-readers and can read it through the
+envelope," Bert Lilly volunteered.
+
+"Aw, shut up and give him a chance!"
+
+Trembling, Old Heck tore open the envelope and silently read the
+message.
+
+"My Gawd!" he groaned again. "The worst has come to the worst!"
+
+"That ought to make it middlin' bad," Charley remarked soberly.
+
+"Ought to," Bert added sententiously.
+
+Parker crowded forward on sympathy bent.
+
+"Tell us what's in it," he said; "if it's sorrowful we'll be plumb glad
+to condole!"
+
+"It's worse than sorrowful--"
+
+"Melancholical?" Skinny inquired.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck said again, his weatherworn features working
+convulsively, "it's more than a mortal man can endure and stand!"
+
+"Bet somebody's dead!" Bert whispered to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Probably. Most everybody gets to be sooner or later," was the answer
+without emotion.
+
+Sing Pete, Chinese cook for the outfit, dish-rag over his shoulder,
+edged out of the kitchen door and shuffled around to the group.
+Glimpsing the yellow slip of paper held in the shaking hand of Old Heck
+and the awed interest of the cowboys gathered about the boss, he
+queried:
+
+"Teleglam?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Teleglam? Maybe alle samee somebody sickee?" he continued, cheerfully
+confident that questions enough would ultimately bring a reply. He was
+rewarded:
+
+"What do you know about 'teleglams'? You slant-eyed burner of
+beef-steaks!"
+
+"Who's it from?" Charley asked. "Anybody we know--"
+
+"My Gawd," Old Heck mourned once more, "she's comin'!"
+
+"Who's she?" Parker coaxed.
+
+"A female," Old Heck replied, "she's a female!"
+
+"The darned old cuss has had a wife sometime and run off from her and
+deserted her and she's pursuing him and trailing him down to earth!"
+Chuck Slithers, doubting Thomas of the outfit and student of Sherlock
+Holmes, cunningly suggested. "I always imagined he was a varmint with a
+past--a' ex-heart breaker of innocent women or a train-robber or--"
+
+"Aw, hell," the Ramblin' Kid rebuked, "him have a wife? Don't insult th'
+female population!"
+
+"_Carramba!_" exclaimed Pedro Valencia, Mexican line-rider for the
+Quarter Circle KT, "perhaps she will stick him with the dagger, or shoot
+him with the gun when she arrive! The ladies with love kill quick when
+the love is--what you call him?--the jilt?"
+
+"And I'd almost forgot I ever had one!" Old Heck continued talking as if
+to himself.
+
+"What'd I tell you?" Chuck exulted.
+
+"Shut up! He's confessin'--let him alone an' he'll get it out of his
+conscience sooner or later!"
+
+"Had a what?" Parker urged sympathetically. "Maybe you didn't have
+one--maybe you only imagined you did!"
+
+"Had a brother--anyhow a half a one--our mothers was the same but
+different fathers on account of mine dyin' when I was little and his
+marrying our mother again; we was playmates together in our innocent
+childhood and infancy until I run away and went to sea and finally
+anchored on the Kiowa and got to raisin' cattle--"
+
+"Where does he come in at?" Parker questioned.
+
+"He said it was a female, to start with," Skinny added.
+
+"--and his name is Simeon Dixon on account of his father's being the
+same thing, and he went in the street railroad business in a place named
+Hartville in Connecticut, and he got married and had a wife--she was
+Zithia Forbes, and she's dead, and I knowed that, and he's rich I reckon
+and--"
+
+"An' Amrak begat Meshak an' Meshak begat Zimri an' Zimri was th' founder
+of th' House of Old Heck," the Ramblin' Kid chanted. "What in thunder
+does details amount to, anyhow?"
+
+"But you was mournin' about a she!" Parker insisted.
+
+"Well, I reckon it ain't a wife--at least not the one I was thinking
+about," Chuck murmured disappointedly, "but I bet he's had one somewhere
+in his vari'gated career and is hiding out from her in fear an'
+tremblin'--"
+
+"And there will not be the grand, the beautiful murder?" Pedro sighed,
+questioningly.
+
+"Wait a minute," Skinny pleaded, "--give him air!"
+
+"--and he's got a female daughter--and I didn't know that--and he's--oh,
+Gawd!--he's sending her out to the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"How big is she?" Parker whispered.
+
+"She's--she's twenty-two--"
+
+"Inches around or what?" Charley gasped.
+
+"--and Ophelia is coming with her--Ophelia Cobb--C-o-double-b it is--is
+coming with her for a chaperon--"
+
+"Great guns!" Skinny breathed,"--two females!"
+
+"Hold still and I'll read it--no, you do it, Parker--I'm too full of
+emotion--my voice'd quiver--"
+
+Parker read:
+
+    "Josiah Heck, Eagle Butte, Texas:
+
+    "Am sending my daughter, Carolyn June, out to your ranch
+    for a while. She needs a change. She has broke all the
+    he-human hearts in Hartville--that is all of them old
+    enough or young enough to be broke--and is what's called
+    a love-stimulator and won't settle. She is twenty-two
+    and it's time she was calmed. Hoping six months on the
+    Kiowa range will gentle her quite a lot, I am
+    sympathetically your 1/2 brother, Simeon.
+
+    "P.S.--Mrs. Ophelia Cobb, a lady widow, is coming with
+    her for a chaperon. Beware of both of them. They will
+    arrive at Eagle Butte the 21st.--S."
+
+"Gee, it's a long one!" Chuck said admiringly.
+
+"It's one of these 'Night Letters,'" Parker explained.
+
+"I knowed it was bad news," Skinny exclaimed, "--poor old Heck!"
+
+"Better say, 'Poor we all!'" Bert declared. "Farewell peace and joy on
+the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"The Lord have mercy on Old Heck!" Charley cried with dramatic fervor.
+
+"Holy smoke," Parker murmured desperately, "_two of them on the
+twenty-first--and that's to-morrow!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+A BLUFF CALLED
+
+The Quarter Circle KT was a womanless ranch. Came now, like a bolt from
+the clear sky or the sudden clang of a fire-alarm bell, the threat of
+violation of this Eveless Eden by the intrusion of a pair of strange and
+unknown females. The arrival of the telegram telling of the coming of
+Carolyn June Dixon, Old Heck's niece, and Ophelia Cobb, her chaperon,
+filled with varying emotions the hearts of Old Heck, Parker and the
+cowboys.
+
+To Old Heck their presence meant nothing less than calamity. Long years
+of he-man association had made him dread the petty restraints he
+imagined would be imposed by intimate contact with womankind. Good lord,
+a man wouldn't be able even to cuss freely, and without embarrassment,
+with a couple of women in the house and prowling around the ranch!
+
+Skinny, Bert, Chuck, Pedro, Charley, the Ramblin' Kid, even the Chink
+cook and Parker, quivered with excitement and curiosity behind thinly
+veiled pretense of fear and horror. Secretly they rejoiced. It was
+marvelous news borne by the telegram Skinny brought. Here would be
+diversion ample, unusual, wholly worth while and filled with
+possibilities of romance as luring as the first glimpse of a strange new
+land shadowed with mystery and promise of thrilling adventure.
+
+Sing Pete paddled back to the unfinished business of the kitchen,
+chattering excitedly. The cowboys stood mutely and stared at Old Heck
+and the fatal slip of yellow paper.
+
+"What'll I do?" Old Heck asked the group despairingly. "They'll ruin
+everything."
+
+"Can't you head 'em off, somehow?" Parker suggested.
+
+"Can't be done. They're already on their way and probably somewhere this
+side of Kansas City by now."
+
+"Find out which train they're on and let the Ramblin' Kid and me cut
+across to the Purgatory River bridge and wreck it," Skinny Rawlins,
+always tragic, darkly advised.
+
+"I ain't particular about killin' females," the Ramblin' Kid objected,
+"besides, we ain't got no dynamite."
+
+"Send them a telegram and say Old Heck's dead and not to come," Bert
+Lilly volunteered.
+
+"Aw, you blamed idiot, they'd come anyhow then, just to attend the
+funeral--"
+
+"I got an idea," Chuck Slithers exclaimed; it's a telegram too. Send
+them one C.O.D. in care of the train that will get to Eagle Butte the
+twenty-first and tell them we've all got the smallpox and we're sorry
+but everybody's dangerously sick and to please answer!"
+
+"That might work," Parker said; "they'd be mighty near sure not to want
+to catch it."
+
+"We'll try it," Old Heck agreed. "Chuck wants to ride over to Eagle
+Butte anyway and he can have the depot agent send it and wait for a
+reply."
+
+"Go get your horse ready, Chuck," Parker said, "we'll write it while
+you're saddlin' up!"
+
+Chuck hurried to the corral while Old Heck went into the house for
+pencil and writing-paper. Parker and the cowboys moved in a group to the
+shade of the porch in front of the house.
+
+"What'll we tell them?" Old Heck asked, reappearing with writing
+materials. "Here, Parker, you write it."
+
+"Dear niece Carolyn June Dixon and Chaperon: Sorry, but there's an
+epidemic of smallpox at the Quarter Circle KT and you can't come. Chuck
+is dying with it. Old Heck's plumb prostrated, Bert is already broke
+out, Pedro is starting to and Skinny Rawlins and the Ramblin' Kid are
+just barely able to be up. I love you too much to want you to catch it.
+Please go back to Hartville and give my regards to your pa and don't
+expose yourself. Answer by return telegram so I'll know your intentions.
+Affectionately and absolutely your Uncle Josiah Heck," Parker read after
+writing a few moments. "How's that?"
+
+"Sounds all right."
+
+"Got it ready?" Chuck called from the fence, while Silver Tip, the
+trim-built half-blood Hambletonian colt he was riding, reared and
+pranced, eager for the road and a run.
+
+"For lord's sake hurry up, Chuck," Old Heck yelled as the Ramblin' Kid
+handed the paper to Chuck and the cowboy whirled his horse into a gallop
+toward Eagle Butte. "Have the agent send it in care of whatever train
+they might be on and get an answer, then come back as quick as possible
+--waiting is agony!"
+
+It was a long afternoon for Old Heck and the cowboys of the Quarter
+Circle KT. A band of colts were in the circular corral to be gentled to
+rope, saddle and hackamore. Old Heck sat on the top pole of the corral
+and moodily watched the struggle of the men and horses in the dry, dusty
+enclosure as one by one each young broncho was roped, saddled and
+ridden. Frequently he turned longing eyes toward Eagle Butte, anxious
+for sight of the cloud of dust from which Chuck would emerge bringing,
+he hoped, word that Carolyn June and Ophelia Cobb had heeded the
+misleading message.
+
+The sun crept across the western sky and dropped lower and lower until
+it hung at last, a blazing disk of fire, close above the highest peaks
+of the Costejo mountain range. The poplars in front of the house flung
+slim black shadows across the low adobe buildings and splashed the tip
+of their shade in the dust-cloud that filled with haze the corral a
+hundred yards away. Sing Pete stepped from the door and beat a tattoo on
+the iron triangle suspended by a piece of wire from the lowest branch of
+a mesquit tree at the corner of the house, announcing by the metallic
+clamor that the work of the day was finished and supper was ready and
+waiting. Parker swung back the heavy gate at the corral entrance and the
+dozen colts, sweat streaks on heads and backs and bellies where
+hackamore, saddle and cinches told of the lessons of the afternoon,
+pushing and jamming and with a clatter of hoofs, whirled out to freedom,
+around the stable and down a lane into an open meadow.
+
+Kicking off their chaps the cowboys tossed them on the riding gear,
+piled already against the fence of the corral, and straggled stiffly
+toward the house. On the wire enclosing the back yard Sing Pete had hung
+a couple of heavy towels, coarse and long. Some basins and several
+chunks of yellow laundry soap were on a bench beside an irrigation ditch
+that ran along the fence just inside the gate. Old Heck, Parker and the
+cowboys stopped at the ditch, pitched their hats on the grass and
+dipping water from the ditch scoured the dust and sweat from their faces
+and hands.
+
+All were silent as if each was troubled with thoughts too solemn to be
+spoken aloud.
+
+At last, Skinny, handing a towel to Bert after drying his own
+sun-tanned face and hands, remarked inanely:
+
+"Chuck ain't come, has he?"
+
+"Slupper!" Sing Pete called.
+
+They filed into the kitchen and each took his regular place at the long,
+oilcloth covered table. The food, wholesome, plain and abundant, was
+already served.
+
+Silently each heaped his plate with the viands before him while Sing
+Pete circled the table pouring coffee into the white porcelain cups. The
+Quarter Circle KT was famous for the excellence of its grub and the
+Chink was an expert cook.
+
+"Lordy, oh, lordy," Old Heck groaned, "it don't seem possible them women
+are coming!"
+
+"Maybe they won't," Parker sympathized. "When they get that telegram
+they ought to turn around and go back--"
+
+"Chuck's coming!" Bert Lilly exclaimed at that moment and the sound of a
+horse stopping suddenly at the front of the house reached the ears of
+the group at the table.
+
+"Go ask him if he got an answer, somebody, quick!" Old Heck cried.
+
+As Charley Saunders sprang to his feet Chuck yelled, "They got it and
+sent an answer! I got one--" and rushed excitedly through the house and
+into the kitchen waving an envelope, twin to the one Skinny had brought
+earlier in the day. "They're on Train Number Seventeen, the agent
+said--"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck gasped, "what does it say? Give it here!" reaching
+for the message the cowboy held in his hand.
+
+"Good lord, it didn't work!" he groaned as he read the telegram and
+handed it across the table to Parker.
+
+"Read it out loud," several spoke at once.
+
+"'We've both had it,'" Parker read, "'and are not afraid. Anyhow we
+think you are a darned old lovable liar. Will arrive according to
+schedule. If you are not a liar we'll nurse you back to health and
+happiness. If you are, watch out! Your affectionate but suspicious
+little niece Carolyn June Dixon. Postscript: Are there any nice wild,
+untamed, young cowboys out there?--Carolyn J.'"
+
+"Hell-fire!" Skinny said, "what'll we do?"
+
+No answer. Chuck went moodily out to attend to his horse, and the meal
+was finished in silence. Even Sing Pete seemed deeply depressed. After
+supper Old Heck straightened up and in a do-or-die tone said:
+
+"We'll all go out where it's cool and hold a caucus and figure what
+ought to be done."
+
+"There ain't nothing we can do but surrender, as far as I can see,"
+Parker observed gloomily as they gathered on the porch in front of the
+house. "They seem plumb determined to arrive--"
+
+"I've already give up hope," Old Heck answered, "but what will we do
+with them when they get here? We can't just brand 'em and turn them
+loose on the range."
+
+"I make a motion we elect Skinny to ride herd on 'em!" Bert Lilly
+suggested.
+
+"Damned if I do!" Skinny exclaimed uneasily.
+
+"It's a good idea," Parker said. "From all accounts the young one
+expects to be made love to and if she ain't she'll probably be weeping
+around all the time--"
+
+"Well, I can't stand sobbin'!" Old Heck declared. "Any female is hard
+enough to endure and one that gets to mourning is plumb distasteful!
+
+"That's probably the best thing to do," he continued, "just appoint
+Skinny to be official love-maker to Carolyn June while she's at the
+Quarter Circle KT. It will probably save confusion--"
+
+"I brought the telegram telling about them coming and I've done my
+share," Skinny protested; "somebody else can be delegated to do the
+love-making!"
+
+"That's just the reason it ought to be your job," Old Heck argued; "you
+went and got the telegram in the first place and are sort of responsible
+for them being here."
+
+"Aw, let th' Ramblin' Kid do it," Skinny pleaded, "he's an easy talker
+and everything--"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid straightened up and started for the gate.
+
+"Where you going?"
+
+"To catch Capt'n Jack," he drawled; "after that for a little ride down
+to th' Pecos or over in Chihuahua somewhere a couple hundred miles. I
+decline with enthusiasm to fall in love on th' spur of th' moment for
+any damned outfit!"
+
+"You come on back," Parker called, "Skinny'll have to do it. He can have
+all his time for it and just pretend he's in love and sort of entertain
+her. He don't need to go and do it in earnest. Come on back, you darned
+chump, I need you on the beef hunt!"
+
+"What'll I have to do?" Skinny asked cautiously.
+
+"Just set on the front porch with her at night and make your eyes roll
+up like a calf's that's being branded and kind of sigh heart-broken once
+in a while," Bert volunteered. "It'll be easy when you get used to it--"
+
+"If you know so much about it why don't you enlist yourself?" Skinny
+asked irritably. "Some of you fellows go on and volunteer," he pleaded
+dolefully.
+
+"I would in a minute," Chuck chipped in, "if I was good-looking like
+Skinny and had a white shirt--"
+
+"What's a white shirt got to do with it?"
+
+"Listen to the innocent child," Chuck laughed, "as if any darned fool
+didn't know that the first thing a professional love-maker has to have
+is a white shirt!"
+
+"That settles it," Skinny declared with emphasis, "I won't wear a white
+shirt to make love to no blamed woman--"
+
+"Chuck's locoed," the Ramblin' Kid interposed; "you don't need to have
+no white shirt--of course it would be better but it ain't downright
+necessary--women don't fall in love with shirts, it's what's inside of
+them."
+
+"Where did you find out so much about women?" Bert queried.
+
+"I didn't find out--I'm just guessin'--"
+
+"There ain't no use arguing," Old Heck broke in. "Skinny will have to be
+expert love-maker for that Carolyn June niece of mine--I'll allow him
+ten dollars a month more wages while he's doing it. I ain't going to
+have her writing letters to her pa and telling him she didn't have no
+conveniences or nothing. Anyhow, she's young and I reckon it's sort of
+necessary."
+
+"What about th' other one--Ophelia Cobb or whoever she is?" Bert Lilly
+asked.
+
+"She's past the age for it, probably," Parker said uneasily.
+
+"They don't pass it," the Ramblin' Kid interrupted laconically; "when
+females get too old to want to be made love to they die--"
+
+"I'd like to know where in hell a juvenile like you got your education
+about women!" Bert insisted to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"I ain't got none--I'm just guessing I told you," the other replied,
+"but it's the truth, anyhow."
+
+"Well, if I've got to make love to the young one Old Heck or Parker or
+somebody's got to do it for the other one," Skinny declared positively.
+
+"Ophelia don't need it," Old Heck said hastily, "she's a widow and has
+done been--"
+
+"Widows are th' worst," the Ramblin' Kid drawled; "they've had
+experience an' don't like to give it up."
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's right," Chuck broke in. "I read a book once that
+said that's the way they are. It's up to Old Heck or Parker to represent
+Cupid to the widow--"
+
+"Who the hell's Cupid?" Skinny asked curiously.
+
+"He's a dangerous little outlaw that ain't got no reg'lar range," the
+Ramblin' Kid answered for Chuck.
+
+"I'll not do it--" Old Heck and Parker spoke at once.
+
+"Then I won't either," Skinny declared flatly, "I'll quit the dog-goned
+Quarter Circle KT first!"
+
+"Let Sing Pete make love to the widow," Bert suggested.
+
+"No, no! Me busy cookee," Sing Pete, who had been listening from the
+open doorway, jabbered and darted, frightened, back into the house.
+
+"Anyhow I'd kill him if he did," the Ramblin' Kid said softly; "no
+darned Chink can make love to a white woman, old, young or indifferent,
+in my presence an' live!"
+
+"Well, Old Heck'll have to do it, then," Skinny said; "hanged if I'm
+going to be the only he-love-maker on this ranch!"
+
+"Let Parker and Old Heck divide up on Ophelia," Chuck advised, "one of
+them can love her one day and the other the next--"
+
+"That's reasonable," Bert declared, "she'd probably enjoy a change
+herself."
+
+"I tell you I ain't got time," Parker protested.
+
+"Neither have I," Old Heck added.
+
+"All right then, I ain't either!" Skinny declared. "If you two ain't
+willing to take turn about with the widow and love her off and on
+between you I'll be everlastingly hell-tooted if I'm going to stand for
+a whole one by myself all of the time! I'll go on strike first and start
+right now!"
+
+"We'll stay with you, Skinny," the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed with a laugh,
+"th' whole bunch will quit till Parker an' Old Heck grants our demands."
+
+"We'll all quit!" the cowboys chorused.
+
+"Oh, well, Parker," Old Heck grumbled, "I reckon we'll have to do it!"
+
+"It won't be hard work," the Ramblin' Kid said consolingly, "all you got
+to do is set still an' leave it to Ophelia. Widows are expert
+love-makers themselves an' know how to keep things goin'!"
+
+It was settled. Skinny Rawlins, at an increase of ten dollars a month on
+his wage, protestingly, was elected official love-maker to Carolyn June
+Dixon, Old Heck's niece, speeding unsuspectingly toward the Quarter
+Circle KT, and Old Heck and Parker between them were to divide the
+affections of Ophelia Cobb, widow and chaperon.
+
+In the mind of every cowboy on the ranch there was one thought
+unexpressed but very insistent that night, "Wonder what She looks like?"
+thinking, of course, of Carolyn June.
+
+Old Heck and Parker also were disturbed by a common worry. As each sank
+into fitful sleep, thinking of Ophelia Cobb, the widow, and his own
+predestinated affinity he murmured:
+
+"What if she insists on getting married?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+WHICH ONE'S WHICH
+
+Eagle Butte sprawled hot and thirsty under the melting sunshine of
+mid-forenoon. It was not a prepossessing town. All told, no more than
+two hundred buildings were within its corporate limits. A giant mound,
+capped by a crown of crumbling, weather-tinted rock, rose abruptly at
+the northern edge of the village and gave the place its name. Cimarron
+River, sluggish and yellow, bounded the town on the south. The dominant
+note of Eagle Butte was a pathetic mixture of regret for glories of
+other days and clumsy ambition to assume the ways of a city. Striving
+hard to be modern it succeeded only in being grotesque.
+
+The western plains are sprinkled with towns like that. Towns that once,
+in the time of the long-horn steer and the forty-four and the nerve to
+handle both, were frankly unconventional. Touched later by the black
+magic of development, bringing brick buildings, prohibition, picture
+shows, real-estate boosters, speculation and attendant evils or benefits
+as one chooses to classify them, they became neither elemental nor
+ethical--mere gawky mimics of both.
+
+When western Texas was cow-country and nothing else Eagle Butte at
+least was picturesque. Flickering lights, gay laughter--sometimes curses
+and the sounds of revolver shots, of battles fought close and quick and
+to a finish--wheezy music, click of ivory chips, the clink of glasses,
+from old Bonanza's and similar rendezvous of hilarity lured to the
+dance, faro, roulette, the poker table or the hardwood polished bar.
+
+The Mecca it was in those days for cowboys weary with months on the
+wide-flung range.
+
+To-day Eagle Butte is modest, mild and super-subdued.
+
+A garage, cement built, squatty and low and painfully new, its
+wide-mouthed entrance guarded by a gasoline pump freshly painted and
+exceedingly red, stands at the eastern end of the single, broad,
+un-paved business street. All of the stores face one way--north--and
+look sleepily across at the railroad track, the low-eaved, yellow, Santa
+Fe station and the sunburnt sides of the butte beyond. Opposite the
+station the old Occidental Hotel with its high porch, wide steps, narrow
+windows, dingy weather-board sides and blackened roof, still stands to
+remind old-timers of the days of long ago.
+
+A city marshal, Tom Poole, a long, slim, Sandy-mustached Missourian,
+completes the picture of Eagle Butte. Regularly he meets the arriving
+trains and by the glistening three-inch nickel star pinned to his left
+suspender announces to the traveling world that here, on the one time
+woolly Kiowa, law and order at last prevail. Odd times the marshal farms
+a ten-acre truck patch close to the river at the southern edge of the
+town. Pending the arrival of trains he divides his time between the
+front steps of the old hotel and the Elite Amusement Parlor, Eagle
+Butte's single den of iniquity where pocket pool, billiards,
+solo--devilish dissipations these!--along with root beer, ginger ale,
+nut sundaes, soda-pop, milk shakes and similar enticements are served to
+those, of reckless and untamed temperaments.
+
+From the open door of the pool hall the marshal saw a thin, black streak
+of smoke curling far out on the horizon--a dozen miles--northeast of
+Eagle Butte.
+
+"Seventeen's comin'," he remarked to the trio of idlers leaning against
+the side of the building; "guess I'd better go over an' see who's on
+her," moving as he spoke out into the sizzling glare of the almost
+deserted street. Glancing toward the east his eyes fastened on a cloud
+of dust whirling rapidly along the road that came from the direction of
+the lower Cimarron.
+
+"Gosh, lookey yonder," he muttered, "that must be Old Heck drivin' his
+new automobile--th' darn fool is goin' to bust something some day,
+runnin' that car the way he does!"
+
+Walking quickly, to escape the heat, he crossed the street to the
+station.
+
+Two minutes later the cloud of dust trailed a rakish, trim-lined,
+high-powered, purring Clagstone "Six" to a stop in front of the
+Occidental Hotel and Old Heck and Skinny Rawlins climbed glumly and
+stiffly from the front seat, after the thirty-minute, twenty-mile run
+from the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Old Heck had his peculiarities. One of them was insistence for the
+best--absolutely or nothing. The first pure-bred, hot-blood stallions
+turned on the Kiowa range carried the Quarter Circle KT brand on their
+left shoulders. He wanted quality in his stock and spent thousands of
+dollars importing bulls and stallions to get it. When the automobile
+came it was the same. No jit for the erratic owner of the last big
+genuine cow-ranch on the Cimarron. Consequently the beautiful car--a car
+fit for Fifth Avenue--standing now in front of the old hotel in Eagle
+Butte.
+
+The smoke on the northeastern sky-line was yet some miles away.
+
+The lanky marshal had reached the station.
+
+"It's a good thing there's prohibition in this town," Skinny muttered as
+he stepped from the car and started brushing the dust from his coat;
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause I'd go get drunk if there wasn't--. Wonder if a feller could get
+any boot-leg liquor?"
+
+"Better leave it alone," Old Heck warned, "that kind's worse than none.
+It don't make you drunk--just gives you the hysterical hydrophobia!'
+
+"Well, I'd drink anything in an emergency like this if I had it,"
+Skinny declared doggedly.
+
+"Train's comin'," Old Heck said shortly; "reckon we'd better go over to
+the depot--"
+
+"Let's wait here till they get off first," Skinny said. "We can see them
+from where we are and kind of size 'em up and it won't be so sudden."
+
+"Maybe that would be better," Old Heck answered.
+
+A moment later Number Seventeen, west-bound Santa Fe passenger train,
+stopped at the yellow station. The rear cars were obscured from the view
+of Skinny and Old Heck by freight sheds along the track. With the
+exception of the engine, baggage, mail and express cars, which were
+hidden by the depot, the rest of the train was in plain sight.
+
+A couple of men got off the day coach. These were followed by a gawky,
+weirdly dressed girl of uncertain age carrying an old-fashioned
+telescope traveling bag. At sight of the girl Skinny caught his breath
+with a gasp. Immediately following her was the tallest, homeliest woman
+he had ever seen. Thin to the point of emaciation, a wide striped,
+ill-fitting dress of some cheap material accentuated the angular lines
+of her body. A tiny narrow-brimmed hat, bright green, with a white
+feather, dingy and soiled, sticking straight up at the back made her
+more than ever a caricature. The woman also carried a bag. The two
+stepped up to the marshal, standing at the cornet: of the station,
+apparently asking him a question. He answered, pointing as he did to
+Old Heck and Skinny leaning silently against the side of their car. The
+woman and girl started toward them.
+
+Fascinated, the cow-men watched them approach.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck hoarsely whispered, "that's them!"
+
+"Let's go!" Skinny exclaimed, sweat starting in unheeded beads on his
+forehead. "Good lord, let's get in the car and go while we got a
+chance!"
+
+Old Heck made a move as if to comply, then stopped. "Can't now," he said
+gloomily, "it's too late!"
+
+As Old Heck turned the woman shrieked in a rasping voice:
+
+"Hey--hey you! Wait a minute!"
+
+The cow-men looked around and stared dumbly, dazedly, at her.
+
+"Can I get you to take me an' my daughter out to that construction camp
+where they're buildin' a ditch or something?" she asked; "that policeman
+said maybe we could get you to--" she continued. "I got a job cookin'
+out there an' Lize here is goin' to wait on table."
+
+Old Heck, still looking up in her eyes, with horror written on every
+line of his face, his lips twitching till he could scarcely speak,
+finally managed to say:
+
+"Ain't--ain't you Ophelia?"
+
+"Ophelia? Ophelia who?" she asked, then before he could speak she
+answered his question: "Ophelia--huh! No, I ain't Ophelia! I'm Missus
+Jasamine Swope an' a married woman an' you'd better not try to get fresh
+or--"
+
+Simultaneous with Old Heck's question, Skinny, his eyes riveted on the
+dowdy girl, asked in a voice barely audible:
+
+"Are you--are you Carolyn June?"
+
+"No, I ain't Carolyn June," she snorted. "Come on, ma; let's go! Them
+two's crazy or white slavers or somethin'!"
+
+Expressing their scorn and disdain by the angry flirt of their skirts,
+the woman and girl whirled and walked briskly away toward the garage at
+the end of the street.
+
+"Praise th' heavens," Old Heck breathed fervently as he gazed
+spell-bound after the retreating pair, "it wasn't them!"
+
+"Carolyn June and the widow probably went back after all," Skinny said
+without, looking around and with the barest trace of disappointment, now
+that the danger seemed past, in his voice. "Maybe they got to thinking
+about that telegram and decided not to come at last."
+
+"More than likely that was it," Old Heck answered.
+
+Steps sounded behind them. Skinny and Old Heck turned and again they
+almost fainted at what they saw. The marshal, a leather traveling bag
+in each hand, accompanied by two smartly dressed women, approached.
+
+"These ladies are huntin' for you," he said to Old Heck, dropping the
+bags and mopping his face with the sleeve of his shirt. "Guess they're
+some kind of kin folks," he added.
+
+Concealed by the freight sheds Carolyn June Dixon and Ophelia Cobb had
+stepped from the Pullman at the rear of the train, unseen by Old Heck
+and Skinny. Nor had either noticed, being engrossed with the couple that
+had left than a moment before, the trio coming across from the station.
+
+As the cook and her daughter by their very homeliness had appalled and
+overwhelmed them, these two, Ophelia and Carolyn June, by their exactly
+opposite appearance stunned Old Heck and Skinny and rendered them
+speechless with embarrassment. Both were silently thankful they had
+shaved that morning and Skinny wondered if his face, like Old Heck's,
+was streaked with sweat and dust.
+
+For a moment the group studied one another.
+
+Carolyn June held the eyes of Skinny in mute and helpless admiration.
+Despite the heat of the blazing sun she looked fresh and dean and
+pleasant--wholly unsoiled by the marks of travel. A snow-white Panama
+hat, the brim sensibly wide, drooped over cheeks that were touched with
+a splash of tan that suggested much time in the open. An abundance of
+hair, wonderfully soft and brown, showing the slightest glint of coppery
+red running it in vagrant strands, fluffed from under the hat. The
+skirt of her traveling suit, some light substantial material, reached
+the span of a hand above the ankle. White shoes, silk stockings that
+matched and through which glowed the faint pink of firm, healthy, young
+flesh, lent charm to the costume she wore. Her lips were red and moist
+and parted over teeth that were strong and white. A saucy upward tilt to
+the nose, hinting that Carolyn June was a flirt; brown eyes that were
+level almost with Skinny's and that held in them a laugh and yet deep
+below the mirth something thoughtful, honest and unafraid, finished the
+wreck of the cowboy's susceptible heart. Trim and smooth was Carolyn
+June, suggesting to Skinny Rawlins a clean-bred filly of saddle strain
+that has developed true to form.
+
+Old Heck gazed in equal awe at the more mature Ophelia.
+
+Somewhere near forty she may have been, cozily plump and solid. She had
+gray-blue eyes that were steady and frank yet clearly accustomed to
+being obeyed. Her hair was a trifle darker in shade than the silky brown
+on the head of Carolyn June. She was dressed with immaculate neatness
+and taste and carried that well-preserved assurance no woman in the
+world save the American of mature development acquires.
+
+There was energy in every line of her body and Ophelia gave Old Heck,
+the embarrassed owner of the Quarter Circle KT, more thrills in that one
+moment of silent scrutiny than he ever before had felt in the presence
+of any woman.
+
+As they looked, Skinny and Old Heck Instinctively, a bit awkwardly
+perhaps, removed the Stetson they wore on their heads.
+
+"Howdy-do!" Old Heck finally managed to say.
+
+Skinny gulped like an echo, another "Howdy-do!" in the direction of
+Carolyn June.
+
+"I reckon you are Carolyn June and Missus Ophelia Cobb," Old Heck
+stammered "Which one of you is which?" unconsciously paying tribute to
+the well preserved youthfulness of the widow.
+
+"Oh, Ophelia, beware!" Carolyn June laughed, not in the least offended;
+"the gay old rascal is at it already!"
+
+"He didn't mean nothing" Skinny interposed, sensing that Old Heck some
+way had made a blunder. "I guess you must be Carolyn June?" looking
+questioningly at the girl.
+
+"Excuse me," Old Heck said, "I'm your uncle, I suppose, and this is
+Skinny Rawlins--"
+
+"Howdy-do; I'm glad to meet you," Skinny muttered, reaching for the hand
+Carolyn June frankly extended.
+
+"I'm glad, too," she replied candidly; "and this is Mrs. Ophelia
+Cobb--just Ophelia--Uncle Josiah," Carolyn added, turning to Old Heck
+who clumsily shook hands with the widow while his weather-tanned face
+flushed a burning, uncomfortably red.
+
+"We was expecting you," he said, retaining life hold on her hand.
+
+"That was very kind," Ophelia murmured. "I am sure we are delighted to
+be here."
+
+"Now I guess we are all acquainted," Carolyn June said with a little
+laugh. "It's easy for folks to get acquainted, isn't it?" turning
+suddenly to Skinny.
+
+"Seems like it after they once get started," Skinny answered.
+
+"We'd better be heading for home I reckon," Old Heck said, releasing at
+last the widow's hand and lifting the bags in the car. "Sing Pete will
+have dinner ready by the time we get there."
+
+"We have some trunks," Carolyn June said, "can we take them with us?"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck replied, "get in, and we'll drive over to the depot and
+get them."
+
+With Carolyn June and Ophelia in the rear seat and Skinny and himself in
+the front Old Heck drove the car across to the station and the trunks
+were fastened with ropes on the hood of the engine and running-boards of
+the car.
+
+As they started away Carolyn June asked:
+
+"Which way now, Uncle Josiah?"
+
+"Out to the ranch."
+
+"Hadn't we better stop at the drug store," she asked soberly, "and get
+some medicine?"
+
+"Medicine? Who for?" Old Heck inquired innocently.
+
+"Why, the patients, of course," Carolyn June answered with a
+mischievous chuckle.
+
+"What patients?"
+
+"Out at the Quarter Circle KT where that epidemic of smallpox is
+raging!" she answered sweetly.
+
+"That's all a mistake," Old Heck said hastily; "we thought is was
+smallpox but it wasn't--"
+
+"No, everybody's got over it," Skinny added nervously; "they're all
+cured!"
+
+"Yes, they was just broke out with the heat and didn't have the smallpox
+at all--" Old Heck explained.
+
+"Liars, both of them," Carolyn June said laughingly to Ophelia; "they
+just didn't want us to come!"
+
+"Very likely," Ophelia answered.
+
+"No, honest, we thought we had it," Old Heck stammered.
+
+"We were plumb uneasy for fear you wouldn't arrive," Skinny declared.
+"After we found out it wasn't smallpox we were going to send a special
+delivery message and tell you it was all a misunderstanding and to come
+anyhow!"
+
+"Shall we forgive them?" Carolyn June asked the widow.
+
+"Perhaps, this time--their first offense!"
+
+"I'll tell you," Carolyn June said, "well suspend sentence pending good
+behavior!"
+
+Skinny leaned close to Old Heck.
+
+"Stop a minute at the Golden Rule," he whispered; "I want to do some
+personal trading."
+
+"If it ain't important," Old Heck answered, "we oughtn't to take the
+time. What do you want to buy?"
+
+"I want to get me a white shirt--"
+
+"Gosh," Old Heck exclaimed, "that bad already! What'll he be in week?"
+
+"Did you speak, Uncle Josiah?" Carolyn asked.
+
+"Huh--no, I--Skinny just thought I was going to hit a rock!" he
+answered, and giving the engine more gas, he headed the car, at a
+thirty-mile clip, toward the east and the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+The party rode in silence. The speed of the car and the fan of the warm
+wind against their faces made conversation difficult. A mile from Eagle
+Butte they crossed the long, low, iron-railed bridge over the Cimarron
+River and climbed out on to the bench away from the bottom lands. From
+that point on to the Quarter Circle KT the road followed the brow of the
+bench on the south side of the river. It was smooth and good.
+
+Carolyn June thrilled at the bigness of it all as they swept quickly
+past the irrigated district close to the town and sped out on the open
+unfenced range. For miles the country was level with here and there
+arroyos cross-sectioning into the river valley. Long stretches with the
+barest undulations made driving a joy and the winding road was a natural
+speedway. Scattered over the plain were dusters of mesquit and in the
+low sags where moisture was near the surface patches of thorns. Carolyn
+June loved the width and breadth of the great range, strange and new to
+her. Here was freedom sweeping as the winds of heaven. Dimly, on the
+southern horizon she could see the blue outline of Sentinel Mountain
+standing alone out on the plain. To the left green pasture-lands lay
+along the river. A narrow strip of cottonwood trees marked the curving
+path of the Cimarron. Beds of white quicksand, treacherous and fatal and
+dreaded by every rider of the open country could be seen, occasionally,
+through openings in the trees showing the bed of the river itself. In
+the distance behind them was Eagle Butte, towering above the town they
+had left a few brief moments before, and beyond that the Costejo
+Mountains, rugged and massive and covered in part on their lower slopes
+with blue-green thickets of pine. Across the river was a choppy sea of
+sand-dunes stretching away to the north as far as sight could reach.
+Here and there a high-flung mound, smooth and oval or capped with ledges
+of black, glistening rode broke the monotony of the view.
+
+Engrossed in the study of the almost primitive picture Carolyn June
+forgot the flight of time and the speed at which they were traveling.
+
+"Yonder's the ranch!" Skinny announced suddenly, turning half around in
+his seat and pointing ahead and to the left toward the river.
+
+The valley widened till it was a mile or more across. The Cimarron swung
+sharply to the north and hugged the foot of the bench as if unwilling
+to spoil the meadowlands past which it flowed. In a great
+half-crescent--"Quarter Circle," Old Heck called it--the green
+basin-like area lay spread out before them. It was a half dozen miles in
+length, reaching from the canyon gate at the upper end of the valley
+where the river turned abruptly northward, to the narrow gorge at the
+south through which it disappeared.
+
+A blue crane lazily flapped across the valley.
+
+"Seven thousand acres in the bottoms," Skinny volunteered.
+
+"Beautiful!" Carolyn breathed.
+
+"Splendid!" Ophelia exclaimed.
+
+Half-way down the valley, a quarter of a mile from the bench, the
+buildings of the Quarter Circle KT clustered together in a group--the
+low adobe house, bunk shack, stables, graineries. Out in the fields were
+hay yards with half-built stacks of alfalfa--over the tops of the stacks
+white tarpaulins. In a pasture beyond the house were horses and cattle,
+perhaps a hundred head in all. Climbing the hills north of the river
+were a number of moving figures, dimly seen through the haze.
+
+"Are those cattle," Carolyn June asked, "those things across the river?"
+
+"Where?" Skinny inquired.
+
+"Over there, on the hills," pointing toward the objects.
+
+Old Heck glancing in the direction she indicated answered for Skinny:
+
+"That's Parker and the boys, going over to the North Springs--they're
+checking up on some yearlings we just turned across from this side of
+the range." Then, speaking to Skinny: "They've already had their dinner
+and won't be in till supper-time--"
+
+"Are they cowboys?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"I reckon," Old Heck responded.
+
+"Is Skinny one?" she inquired naively.
+
+"Sort of, I suppose," Old Heck chuckled while Skinny felt his face
+coloring up with embarrassment, "but not a wild one."
+
+"Oh, who is that?" Carolyn June cried suddenly as a lone rider whirled
+out of the corral, around the stables, and his horse sprang into a
+gallop straight down the valley toward the harrows at its lower end.
+
+"That," Skinny said after a quick glance, "oh, that's th' Ramblin'
+Kid--Where in thunder do you reckon the darned fool's going now?" he
+added to Old Heck.
+
+"Can't tell nothing about where he's going," Old Heck said. "He's liable
+to be heading for anywhere. What's he riding?" he asked without looking
+up.
+
+"Captain Jack," Skinny replied. "Wonder if he ain't going over to Battle
+Ridge to find out if it's so about them sheep coming in over there?"
+
+"Maybe," Old Heck grunted, "either that or else he's took a notion to
+hunt that Gold Dust maverick again"--referring to a strange, wonderfully
+beautiful, outlaw filly that had appeared on the Kiowa range a year
+before and tormented the riders by her almost fiendish cunning in
+dodging corral or rope--"if he's riding Captain Jack that's probably
+what he's after."
+
+"Who is he, what's his real name?" Carolyn June asked with interest.
+
+"Just th' Ramblin' Kid, as far as I know," Old Heck answered.
+
+"Does he live at the Quarter Circle KT?" Carolyn June continued
+curiously as she studied the slender form rising and falling with the
+graceful rhythm of his horse's motion--as if man and animal were a
+single living, pulsing creature.
+
+"Off and on," Old Heck replied, "when he wants to he does and when he
+don't he don't. He's a witch with horses and knows he's always got a job
+if he wants it, and I reckon that makes him kind of undependable about
+staying in any one place long at a time. That's why they call him th'
+Ramblin' Kid--he's liable to ramble any minute."
+
+The car curled down the narrow dugway off of the bench and a moment
+later stopped at the gate in front of the ranch house of the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+"We're here," Skinny said, as Sing Pete, the Chinese cook, appeared at
+the open door.
+
+"They've come, Sing Pete," Old Heck called, climbing out of the car;
+"this is them! Is dinner ready?"
+
+"All leady--waitee!" the Oriental answered, shuffling out to the car to
+help with the luggage and twisting and squirming as he kept bowing in
+greeting.
+
+"This is great!" Carolyn June said, as she stepped on the long cool
+porch in front of the house and paused a moment before entering the open
+door, "--it's cool and pleasant, I'm going to like it," she added, as
+she went into the big low-ceilinged room.
+
+The floor was bare of carpet but spotlessly clean; shades, but no
+curtains, were over the windows; in the center stood a large flat-topped
+reading table; at one end of the table was a Morris chair upholstered in
+brown Spanish leather; a wolf-skin rug was thrown on the floor before an
+old-fashioned Mexican fire-place built into one corner of the room; in
+another corner was a smaller table on which was a graphophone; a rocker
+and several chairs were set about the room and against the north wall;
+between two doors, evidently opening into twin bedrooms, was an upright
+grand piano--.
+
+"Oh, a piano!" Carolyn June exclaimed delightedly noticing the
+instrument. "Who plays?"
+
+"Nobody," Old Heck answered foolishly, "I--I--well, what's the use of
+lying?--I bought it one day, before prohibition come, when I was drunk
+and just had it brought out because I didn't know what else to do with
+it--"
+
+"You funny old uncle!" Carolyn June laughed, "I love you
+already.--Ophelia plays," she added.
+
+"Not so well or so much as Carolyn June," Ophelia said.
+
+"Maybe we'll have some music then some day; that ain't canned," Skinny
+suggested eagerly.
+
+"You women can use them rooms," Old Heck said, referring to the doors on
+each side of the piano. "Parker and me did have them but we've arranged
+to sleep in the bunk-house while you are here."
+
+"Carolyn June and I need but one," Ophelia said, "it isn't fair to run
+you out--"
+
+"You ain't running us," Old Heck answered, "we've talked it over and
+would rather."
+
+After dinner Ophelia and Carolyn June spent their time in settling
+themselves in their rooms. A small bath closet connected the two--crude
+a bit and somewhat unfinished; but a hot tub, the water supplied from a
+tank at the kitchen range, was enjoyed by both.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny helped with the trunks and then withdrew to the
+bunk-house.
+
+Old Heck shaved and Skinny put on a clean shirt.
+
+Skinny was not sure but this official love-making job was going to be
+interesting work and Old Heck himself was uncertain whether to cuss or
+rejoice--sometimes he was almost sorry to-morrow would be Parker's day
+to love and entertain Ophelia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE UNUSED PLATE
+
+At sundown, when Parker and the cowboys rode in from the northern hills,
+the Quarter Circle KT lay under a mantle of sullen, torturing heat. Not
+a breath of air fanned the poplars, straight and motionless, in front of
+the house. The sun buried itself in a solid wall of black that rose
+above the Costejo peaks, hidden now in the shadow of the coming storm.
+The horses were dripping with sweat--their coats as glossy and wet as if
+they had swum the river. At the corral the animals wearily tossed their
+heads, low hung with exhaustion, seeking to shift the sticky clutch of
+head-stall or hackamore, while their riders dismounted and quickly
+removed saddle and riding gear. Freed from their burdens the bronchos
+dragged tired heels through the dust as they whirled and trotted
+unsteadily away to the pasture, eager to roll and relax their aching
+muscles.
+
+"Holy cats, but it's hot!" Bert Lilly exclaimed as he slipped off his
+chaps and started toward the house, leaving saddle and outfit lying
+beside the gate of the corral.
+
+"Better put them things in the shed," Parker advised, "looks like a
+whale of a storm is coming."
+
+"Reckon that's right," Bert answered, turning back and carrying his
+riding gear into the shelter where the other cowboys already had taken
+theirs.
+
+"Wonder if them women come?" Chuck Slithers queried as they moved toward
+the gate.
+
+"More than likely--Bet Skinny and Old Heck have had a hell of a time
+making love to 'em," Charley Saunders remarked.
+
+"You want to be careful about cussin'," Parker warned. "It ain't polite
+when women are around!"
+
+"Listen at him!" Bert said with a laugh, "practising already--Parker is
+getting polite--to-morrow is his day to be affectionate to the widow,
+Ophelia--"
+
+"Which is she, Parker," Charley asked soberly, "a grass or natural?"
+
+"Shut up, you blamed fools, they're liable to hear you," Parker growled
+angrily. "Anyhow, it ain't my fault they come!"
+
+"Parker oughtn't to kick," Chuck chimed in, "look at poor old
+Skinny--he's got a steady job lovin' the other one!"
+
+"Darned if I wouldn't rather love both of them at once," Charley
+observed, "than to take another ride like that was to-day. I'm kind of
+anxious to see what they look like," he continued.
+
+"Well, don't go and get excited at the supper table and eat your pie
+with a spoon!" Chuck laughed.
+
+"Aw, hell," Charley retorted, "I guess I know how to act--"
+
+"Old Heck's going to buy some finger-bowls for you to wash your hands
+in," Bert said scornfully, "him and Parker--"
+
+"Shut up, I told you, you darned idiots," Parker snapped. "They're out
+on the front porch and can hear you!"
+
+"Be careful about your cussin'--" Bert mimicked with a snicker.
+
+Notwithstanding their raillery every man in the group, including Pedro,
+gave unusual care to scrubbing his face and smoothing his hair
+preparatory to entering the kitchen for supper and where they would
+meet, for the first time, Ophelia and Carolyn June.
+
+Sing Pete glided out of the kitchen door and hammered the triangle
+announcing the evening meal.
+
+At the instant Parker and the cowboys filed into the kitchen from the
+rear, Ophelia and Carolyn June, followed by Old Heck and Skinny Rawlins,
+both looking sheepish and somewhat ashamed, stepped into the room from
+the front.
+
+All stood waiting and Old Heck, ill at ease and in a voice that
+trembled, gave the party formal introduction:
+
+"Missus Ophelia Cobb and Miss Carolyn June Dixon," motioning first at
+the widow and then the girl, "Mister Parker, Mister Bert Lilly, Mister
+Charley Saunders, Mister Chuck Slithers, Mister Pedro Valencia--"
+indicating each in turn with his hand as he called the names, "--I
+reckon you're already acquainted with Skinny!"
+
+The cowboys mumbled greetings which Carolyn June and Ophelia graciously
+acknowledged.
+
+Sing Pete had laid two extra covers.
+
+"You boys can take your regular places--all except you, Parker," Old
+Heck said, "--you set at that side on this end," pointing to the seat at
+the left next to the head of the table. "Carolyn June, you can set at
+that end and Ophelia at this end--I'll set here," taking the seat at the
+widow's right and directly across from Parker.
+
+This placed Old Heck, Bert Lilly, Pedro and Skinny Rawlins on the right
+of the table in the order named, Skinny sitting at the end on Carolyn's
+left. On the opposite side sat Parker, Chuck Slithers and Charley. Next
+to Charley, at the right of Carolyn June, and opposite Skinny, was a
+vacant chair.
+
+"Who is this for?" Carolyn June inquired, indicating the unoccupied
+seat.
+
+"That's th' Ramblin' Kid's place," Old Heck replied; "he may come in and
+again he mayn't--"
+
+"It was him you saw to-day," Skinny added, "riding down toward the
+Narrows when we was coming from Eagle Butte."
+
+"Do you know; where he went, Parker?" Old Heck asked.
+
+"No. When we started over to the Springs he was here. Said he reckoned
+we could get along without him and he wouldn't go--"
+
+"He's just got one of them lonesome spells," Bert said, "and wanted to
+get off by himself somewhere."
+
+"He knowed we was going to have company, too," Chuck observed.
+
+"More than likely that's why he went," Skinny suggested.
+
+"Is he afraid of women?" Carolyn June laughed.
+
+"Not particularly," Skinny replied; "he don't bother with them, that's
+all."
+
+"I think he went after that Gold Dust maverick," Charley said. "He'll
+probably come in when he sees how it's going to storm--"
+
+"He don't give a darn for storms," Bert declared. "--Pass them frijoles,
+Pedro.--Remember that time it blowed the hay derrick down and he
+wouldn't come to the house, just stayed out and watched the wind and
+lightning?"
+
+"He is funny that way," Charley admitted.
+
+"Well, he'll never catch that mare," Parker said, "she's too--"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," Chuck interrupted, "look how he has tamed Captain
+Jack," referring to the Ramblin' Kid's own horse, one time a famous
+renegade.
+
+"How was that?" Carolyn June inquired carelessly.
+
+"Captain Jack was an outlaw, too," Bert explained. "He run over on the
+East Mesa on the Una de Gata. Charley and me and th' Ramblin' Kid got
+him to going one day when there was some ranch mares in his bunch. One
+of them was a hand-raised filly, was a pet and she was--well, pretty
+hot! We worked them over the rim of the Mesa and into the canyon, it
+was a box-gorge from where they hit it to its head, and at the upper end
+there was a wing corral. The mare swung up the canyon towards the ranch
+and--Jack wouldn't quit her! We was pounding right on their heels and
+before he knowed it we had them penned--"
+
+"That shows what happens when a he-thing goes locoed over a female
+critter," Chuck whispered to Parker; "you and Old Heck want to watch
+out!"
+
+"Be careful, you danged fool!" Parker hissed as he kicked at Chuck's
+shins under the table. Excited, he made a mistake in the foot he should
+have used and viciously slammed his left toe against Ophelia's dainty
+ankle.
+
+The widow looked startled and suddenly sat up very straight in her
+chair.
+
+Parker realized his error, turned red, choked, leaned close to Chuck and
+breathed hoarsely, "I'll kill you some day for that!"
+
+"He sure went crazy when he found he was corraled," Charley said, "and
+forgot all about the mare."
+
+"He sure did," Bert continued, while Carolyn June listened intently,
+"and was plumb wild to bu'st down the pen and be free again. Charley nor
+me didn't want him and so th' Ramblin' Kid said he'd take him. Just then
+Tony Malush--we was punchin' for him--come riding up and was going to
+shoot Captain Jack on account of wanting to clean the range of the
+outlaw stallions. He yanked out his gun and started to pull a drop on
+old Jack's head. Th' Ramblin' Kid jerked his own forty-four and told
+Tony he'd kill him if he shot the renegade broncho. Tony backed up, but
+it made him sore and he fired th' Ramblin' Kid. The darned little cuss
+set there a minute thinking, then slid off his horse, stripped him of
+riding gear, flung saddle, blanket and bridle over the bars into the
+corral. Before we knowed what he was aiming to do he climbed up and
+dropped down inside, on foot, with just his rope, and faced that outlaw
+battin' around trying to get outside--"
+
+Carolyn June leaned forward on the table listening with breathless
+interest. The others stopped eating and gave all their attention to the
+story Bert was telling.
+
+"Captain Jack saw him, stopped for just a second, sort of surprised,
+then went right at th' Ramblin' Kid--head down, eyes blazin' like coals,
+mouth wide open, ears laid back and strikin' with both front feet--"
+
+"He was some wicked!" Charley ejaculated.
+
+"He sure was," Bert went on. "Tony and Charley and me just set on our
+horses stunned--thinkin' th' Kid had gone clean loco and was flirtin'
+with certain and pronto death. As Captain Jack rushed him th' Ramblin'
+Kid give a jump sideways, his rope went true, a quick run to the
+snubbin' post and he throwed him dead! The broncho hit his feet, give a
+squeal and come straight back! Th' Ramblin' Kid run once more, yankin'
+like blazes to get the slack! That time when he went down--well, before
+we realized it, th' Ramblin' Kid had him bridled and saddled and was
+safe on deck--"
+
+"I'm tellin' you too, Captain Jack went higher than a kite when he felt
+the rowels in his flanks!" Charley interrupted.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid yelled for us to let him out," Bert continued.
+"Charley and me flung down the bars to the corral and Captain Jack come
+out sun-fishin' and hittin' the breeze like a streak of twisted
+lightning! That was just before dinner in the forenoon. That afternoon
+and night th' Ramblin' Kid rode the outlaw to the Hundred and
+One--ninety miles away! We didn't see either of them any more for a
+month and when they hit the Kiowa again Captain Jack was a regular baby
+after th' Ramblin' Kid and would follow him around like a dog--"
+
+"That's the way he's been ever since," Charley said, "them two are just
+like sweethearts."
+
+"Nobody else ever rides him--" Bert added.
+
+"They can't," Chuck said. "He's a one-man horse and th' Ramblin' Kid is
+the man. Captain Jack would die for th' Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+"Yes, and kill any one else if he could!" Parker exclaimed.
+
+"Has no one but--but the Ramblin' Kid"--Carolyn June hesitated queerly
+over the name--"ever ridden him?"
+
+"Never that we know of," Bert said; "several have tried it--the last
+one was a fellow from down on the Chickasaw. Guess he was trying to
+steal him. Anyway, we was all up at Eagle Butte and had left our horses
+out in front of the Occidental Hotel while we was in the dining-room
+eating our dinners. We got outside just in time to see the stranger hit
+the ground and Captain Jack jump on him with all four feet doubled up in
+a bunch--he's buried in that little graveyard you might have noticed on
+the hill this side of the river bridge."
+
+"Killed him?" Carolyn June gasped.
+
+"Seemed like it." Bert answered, with a grin; "anyway, we buried him."
+
+"What did the--the Ramblin' Kid do?" she asked.
+
+"He just laughed kind of soft and scornful," Skinny said, "and got on
+Captain Jack and rode away while we was picking the fellow up!"
+
+During the rest of the meal Carolyn June's eyes looked frequently and
+curiously at the unused plate at her right. She felt, some way, that an
+affront had been shown her by the absence of the one for whom it was
+laid. The other cowboys, it was quite evident to her intuitive woman's
+mind, had looked forward with considerable eagerness to the arrival of
+herself and Ophelia. The Ramblin' Kid, at the very moment almost of
+their reaching the Quarter Circle KT, had deliberately mounted Captain
+Jack and ridden away. It seemed like little less than an intentional
+snub! In addition to the half-resentment she felt, there remained in
+her mind an insistent and tormenting picture of the slender, subtle,
+young rider swaying easily to the swing of Captain Jack as he galloped
+down the valley earlier in the day.
+
+Bert, Charley, Chuck, before the meal was finished cast frankly admiring
+glances at Carolyn June and Skinny plainly was gaining confidence at a
+rapid rate, while Pedro, silent throughout it all, kept, almost
+constantly, his half-closed eyes fixed in a sidelong look at the girl at
+the end of the table.
+
+Attention and admiration, Carolyn June expected from men. They had
+always been hers. She was beautiful and was conscious of it. Had the
+cowboys of the Quarter Circle KT not registered appreciation of her
+charms by their looks Carolyn June would have believed something was
+wrong with her dress or the arrangement of her hair. Her eyes--she was
+sure of them--without effort lured men to her feet.
+
+"It's hotter than blue blazes in here," Old Heck said when all had
+finished; "we'd better go out into the big room. Maybe Carolyn June will
+play some on the piano."
+
+"The boys and me will go on out on the porch," Parker said as they
+reached the front room, speaking significantly to Old Heck, but in a
+tone both Ophelia and Carolyn June heard. "We'll leave you and Skinny
+with the ladies and not intrude--"
+
+"You won't be intruding if you remain," Ophelia said brightly. "Carolyn
+June and I are not partial at all and want you to feel that we enjoy
+meeting you all."
+
+"Yes, stay," Carolyn June added, somewhat reluctant that of the entire
+group only one should be left to the wiles of her unconsciously
+intentional coquetry; "there is plenty of room in here and it's cool--"
+
+"We're much obliged," Bert said, "but we'd better do the way Parker
+mentioned. Anyhow that was the agreement."
+
+"Agreement?" Ophelia spoke with a questioning lift of her brows.
+
+"Yes," Chuck said, evidently trying to relieve the embarrassment of Old
+Heck, Parker and Skinny who looked daggers at Bert when he spoke of an
+agreement, "Parker and Old Heck was to take turn about--"
+
+"Bert meant," Parker interrupted hastily, "--he meant they--they had to
+agree not to loaf in this room before Old Heck would give them jobs on
+the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck added quickly, "that was the bargain on account
+of--of--getting it mussed up and everything and making too much work for
+Sing Pete to clean it up!"
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June looked curiously at each other as if they
+suspected some secret that had to do with their presence at the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+Outside, the cowboys lounged on the porch or lay spread full length on
+the grass smoking their cigarettes, and silent. Each was busy with
+thoughts of his own. Carolyn June had been very impartial during the
+evening meal, distributing her smiles and little attentions freely among
+them all. Now she was sitting at the piano playing snatches of random
+melodies as they came to her mind, while Skinny sat stiffly on a
+high-backed chair at the corner of the instrument.
+
+A drone of voices reached the ears of Parker and the cowboys as Old
+Heck, skilfully led on by Ophelia, told about the ranch, the Kiowa range
+and the traditions of western Texas.
+
+"Can you play _La Paloma?_" Skinny asked as Carolyn June paused after
+running over a dainty and vivacious one-step, memories of which made her
+think of Hartville and the fashionable ballrooms where she had reigned
+as princess at least if not as queen, and which seemed now very far
+away.
+
+"I'm afraid not--unless I have the music, but I'll try," she answered,
+and her fingers again sought the keys.
+
+The dreamy Mexican air drifted seductively out on the sultry motionless
+night.
+
+Bert looked through the window and saw Skinny lean back in his chair,
+his eyes closed and an expression of supreme content stealing over his
+face.
+
+"Skinny's gone--he's surrendered," he said to Chuck, lying full length
+on the porch at his side; "look at the poor cuss with his eyes shut and
+grinning as if he was seeing visions of Paradise!"
+
+"That combination would capture most anybody," Chuck answered. "I'm
+starting to feel affectionate myself."
+
+Bert didn't reply, Chuck having expressed too nearly his own swelling
+emotions.
+
+"Uncle Josiah!" Carolyn June called, suddenly whirling around on the
+piano stool as she finished the last bars of _La Paloma_, "may I have a
+horse?"
+
+Old Heck, grown silent under the spell of the music, and, like Skinny,
+sitting dreaming dreams that almost frightened him, started quickly.
+
+"A--a what?" he asked.
+
+"A horse--" she answered, "a broncho to ride!"
+
+"Oh, uh--sure! Skinny, go get her one!" he replied confusedly.
+
+"Not now," Carolyn June laughed, "to-morrow--any time, whenever I want
+to use it!"
+
+"Can you ride?" Skinny asked eagerly.
+
+"Ever since I can remember," Carolyn June said, "daddy has kept
+horses--I love 'em! Ophelia rides, too," she added.
+
+"In automobiles--" Ophelia corrected.
+
+"That's a good arrangement," Skinny said; "it will make everything work
+out all right."
+
+"I don't understand," Carolyn June said; "what arrangement?"
+
+"We'd better be going to bed, Skinny," Old Heck interposed anxiously,
+"it's getting late!"
+
+"Guess we had," Skinny said reluctantly. "Gosh, it's warm to-night!"
+
+"You can leave the door and windows open," Old Heck said to Ophelia and
+Carolyn June as he and Skinny moved toward the door; "we don't have
+burglars out here."
+
+Parker and the cowboys straightened up when they heard Skinny and Old
+Heck preparing to leave and went around the corner of the building
+toward the bunk-house.
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June stepped out on the porch with Old Heck and
+Skinny.
+
+The air was oppressively still and hot. The black cloud bank that had
+hung over the Costejo Mountains earlier in the evening now covered the
+whole western half of the sky. Night sounds seemed almost stifled by the
+suffocating heat. From the pasture below the stables the faint call of a
+kill-deer suddenly shrilled out, followed by intense silence. No
+lightning flash filled the wall-like blackness slowly creeping over the
+earth from the west. A pale glow on the rim of the rolling hills across
+the valley, herald of the moon not yet above the horizon, intensified
+the pall beneath the approaching cloud. A sullen roar, throbbing
+angrily, rising and falling in volume, could be heard coming out of the
+depths of the storm.
+
+"Acts like it's going to be a bad one," Old Heck observed, studying the
+cloud they all were watching.
+
+"Wicked," Skinny said, "one of them mutterin' kind until it breaks and
+then all hell tears loose."
+
+"If th' Ramblin' Kid is out in the sand-hills to-night he'll--"
+
+A withering stream of fire poured from the cloud almost over their
+heads; it was accompanied by a crashing peal of thunder that rocked the
+earth under their feet and stopped the words on Old Heck's lips. The
+flame lighted the whole valley. They had an instant's glimpse of a
+writhing, overhanging curtain of dust and rain sweeping toward them. In
+the glare they saw a giant cottonwood that stood alone in the meadow
+west of the house reel and sway like a drunken thing and pitch to the
+earth.
+
+"It's here! It struck that tree!" Old Heck yelled. "Run for the
+bunk-house, Skinny, maybe we can make it! You women go inside and shut
+the door!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia sprang--were blown almost--inside the house and
+slammed the door as another bolt fell, flooding the room with a blaze
+that made the light from the lamp on the reading table seem faint and
+dim. Old Heck and Skinny darted around the corner as the tempest pulled
+and tugged at the buildings of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For an hour Ophelia and Carolyn June sat and listened to the storm and
+while it still raged went to bed.
+
+Carolyn June fell asleep watching the incessant glare of the lightning
+as flash after flash filled the room with light and illumined the world
+outside, while the rain and wind lashed the trees in the garden near
+her window. Above the tumult the words of Old Heck: "If the Ramblin' Kid
+is out in the sand-hills to-night"--kept repeating themselves over and
+over in her mind. Try as she would, she could not shut out the picture
+of a slender young rider, alone, far out on the range in the storm-mad
+night, unsheltered from the fury and wrath of the elements.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+A DUEL OF ENDURANCE
+
+When the storm broke over the Quarter Circle KT the Ramblin' Kid was
+twenty miles away following the Gold Dust maverick. Old Heck's surmise
+that he had gone in search of the outlaw filly was but half correct. It
+was not with the definite purpose of trying for the renegade mare that
+he had mounted Captain Jack and headed him toward the Narrows at the
+moment Carolyn June Dixon and Ophelia Cobb arrived at the ranch. Nor was
+it to escape meeting the women. Their coming meant nothing to the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He simply wanted to be alone.
+
+The ride with Parker and the boys to the North Springs meant talk. The
+Ramblin' Kid did not want to talk. He wanted to be with his thoughts,
+his horse and silence.
+
+Should he happen on to the maverick he might give her a run. Since her
+first appearance on the Kiowa, the Ramblin' Kid had seen her many times.
+More than once, from a distance, he had watched the mare, getting a line
+on her habits. Sooner or later he expected to test Captain Jack's
+endurance and skill against the filly's speed and cunning. Without
+success other riders of the Kiowa had tried to corral the outlaw or get
+within roping throw of her shapely head. So far she had proved herself
+faster and more clever than any horse ridden against her. The Ramblin'
+Kid believed Captain Jack was master of the beautiful mare, that in a
+battle of nerve and muscle and wind the roan stallion could run her
+down. Some day he would prove it.
+
+At the Narrows the trail forked. One branch turned sharply to the right
+and followed a coulee out on to the divide between the Cimarron and the
+lower Una de Gata; the other swung toward the river, slipped into it,
+crossed the stream, and was lost in the sand-hills beyond.
+
+The broncho, of his own will, at the prongs of the road wheeled up the
+coulee and climbed out on the level bench south of the Cimarron. A
+half-dozen miles away Sentinel Mountain rose abruptly out of the plain.
+Toward the lone butte Captain Jack turned. He knew the place. On the
+north slope there was a tiny spring, fenced with wire to keep the stock
+from trampling it into a bog; near by was a duster of pinon trees; below
+the seep in the narrow gorge was a thin strip of willows. It was a
+favorite rendezvous sought by the Ramblin' Kid when in moods such as now
+possessed him. Silently he rode to the group of pinons and dismounted.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid stretched himself under the trees while Captain Jack
+drank at the little water course. Then, with his bridle off, the
+broncho fed contentedly on the bunch grass along the hillside. After a
+time Captain Jack quit feeding and came into the shade of the pinons.
+The Ramblin' Kid, flat on his back, stared through the scant foliage of
+the trees into the sky--overcast now with a dim haze, forerunner of the
+storm gathering above the Costejo peaks. Thousands of feet in the air a
+buzzard, merely a black speck, without motion of wings, wheeled in
+great, lazy, ever-widening circles.
+
+As the sun dropped into the cloud bank in the west a band of mares and
+colts came from that direction and rounded a spur of Sentinel Mountain.
+At their heads was the most beautiful horse ever seen on the Kiowa
+range.
+
+In color a coppery, almost golden, chestnut sorrel; flaxen mane and
+tail, verging on creamy white; short-coupled in the back and with
+withers that marked the runner; belly smooth and round; legs trim and
+neat as an antelope's and muscled like a panther's; head small, carried
+proudly erect and eyes full and wonderfully clear and brown.
+
+"Th' filly!" the Ramblin' Kid breathed, "with a bunch of Tony Malush's
+Anchor Bar mares and colts!"
+
+Captain Jack saw the range horses and lifted his head.
+
+"Psst!" the Ramblin' Kid hissed and the neigh was stopped.
+
+The rangers moved toward the east and over the crest of a ridge a
+quarter of a mile away. On the flat beyond the rise they stopped, the
+colts immediately teasing the mares to suck. The filly withdrew a short
+distance from the herd and stood alert and watchful.
+
+For half an hour the Ramblin' Kid studied the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+He looked at the clouds climbing higher and higher in the west, then
+long and thoughtfully at Captain Jack.
+
+"Let's get her, Boy!" he murmured; "let's go an' get her!"
+
+His mind made up, the Ramblin' Kid slipped the bridle again on Captain
+Jack, removed the saddle and with the blanket wiped the sweat from the
+broncho's back, smoothed the blanket, reset the saddle, carefully
+tightened front and rear cinches and mounting the little stallion guided
+him slowly down the ravine in the direction of the horses on the flat. A
+hundred yards away the mares and colts, alarmed by the sudden
+half-whinny, half-snort, from the filly, discovered the approaching
+horse and rider.
+
+Instantly the wild horses crowded closely together and galloped toward
+the Una de Gata. Captain Jack leaped into a run, rushing them. The
+maverick wheeled quickly and dashed away to the south alone.
+
+"Her pet trick!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered as he headed Captain Jack
+after the nimble creature. "She absodamnedlutely will not bunch--seems
+to know a crowd means a corral, a rope and at last a rider on her
+shapely back!"
+
+For two miles it was a race. The Ramblin' Kid held Captain Jack to a
+steady run a couple of hundred yards in the rear of the speeding mare.
+At last he pulled the stallion down to a trot. The Gold Dust maverick
+answered by running another fifty yards and then herself settling into
+the slower stride. "Like I thought," the Ramblin' Kid said to himself,
+"it's a case of wear her out--a case of seasoned old muscle against
+speedy young heels!"
+
+It became a duel of endurance between Captain Jack, wiry, toughened and
+fully matured, with heavier muscles, and the nimble, lighter-footed Gold
+Dust mare.
+
+At dark they were on the edge of the Arroyo Grande and Captain Jack had
+closed the distance between them until less than a hundred yards was
+between the heels of the filly and the head of the stallion behind her.
+She turned east along the arroyo, followed it a mile, seeking a
+crossing, then doubled straight north toward the Cimarron. Captain Jack
+hung to her trail like a hound. In the blackness that preceded the storm
+she could not lose him. With almost uncanny sureness he picked her
+out--following, following, never giving the maverick a moment's rest.
+Yet it seemed that the distance she kept ahead was measured, so alert
+and watchful was she always. Both were dripping with sweat. Try as he
+would, it seemed impossible for Captain Jack to win those few yards
+that would put the filly in reach of the rope the Ramblin' Kid held
+ready to cast until the inky darkness made it impossible to risk a
+throw.
+
+The mare splashed into the Cimarron.
+
+A dazzling zigzag flash of lightning, the first of the storm, and the
+Ramblin' Kid saw the filly struggling in the yellow wind-whipped
+current. A moment later and Captain Jack was swimming close behind her.
+On the north side of the river the mare yielded to the drive of the
+tempest and turned east down the stream. A rocky gorge running at right
+angles toward the north offered shelter from the lashing wind and rain.
+Up the ravine the maverick headed. A rush of muddy water down the canyon
+sent pursued and pursuer slipping and sliding and climbing for safety
+high up on the brush-covered, torrent-swept hillside. The constant blaze
+and tremble of lightning illumined the whole range. A wolf, terrified by
+the storm, seeking cover, crouched in the shelter of a black rock-cliff.
+The Ramblin' Kid saw the creature. His hand instinctively slipped under
+his slicker and gripped the gun at his hip.
+
+"Hell! what's th' use of killin' just to kill?" he murmured. His hold on
+the gun relaxed. A bolt of lightning slivered the rock above the wolf;
+there was an acrid odor of burning hair. The next flash showed the wolf
+stretched dead twenty feet below the cliff. "Well, I'll be damned!" the
+Ramblin' Kid whispered as he bowed his head before the gale, "that was
+funny! Guess God himself figured it was time for that poor cuss to die!"
+
+In the last quarter of the night, at the North Springs, when the storm
+had spent itself and the white moon looked down on a drenched and
+flood-washed earth, the 'Ramblin' Kid dropped his rope over the head of
+the Gold Dust maverick--barely twenty feet ahead of the horse he
+rode--conquered by the superior nerve, muscle and endurance of Captain
+Jack, still the greatest outlaw the Kiowa range had ever known!
+
+The touch of the rope fired the filly to a supreme effort; she lunged
+forward; Captain Jack set himself for the shock--he threw her cold, full
+length, in the soft mud; instantly the little stallion sprang forward to
+give the mare slack, she came to her feet, squealing piteously, and
+plunged desperately ahead--again Captain Jack braced himself for the jar
+and put her down, "It's hell, Little Girl," the Ramblin' Kid said with a
+catch in his throat; "but you've got to learn!" The third time the
+maverick tested the rope and the third time Captain Jack threw her in a
+helpless heap. That time when she got to her feet she stood trembling in
+every muscle until Captain Jack came up to her side and the Ramblin' Kid
+reached out and laid his hand on the beautiful mane. She had learned.
+Never again would the wonderful creature tighten a rope on her neck.
+
+Trailing the filly, the Ramblin' Kid forced her back toward the
+Cimarron, into its raging flood, multiplied a hundredfold by the
+torrential rain of the night; side by side she and Captain Jack swam the
+stream, and in the gray dawn, while the Quarter Circle KT still slept,
+he turned the mare and Captain Jack into the circular corral. He removed
+the saddle from Captain Jack, took the rope from the filly's neck, threw
+the horses some hay and on the dry ground under the shed by the corral,
+lay down and went to sleep.
+
+For fourteen hours, without rest, the Ramblin' Kid had ridden.
+
+The sun was up when Sing Pete electrified the Quarter Circle KT into
+life and action by the jangle of the iron triangle sending out the
+breakfast call.
+
+Old Heck stepped to the door of the bunk-house and looked out across the
+valley. The Cimarron roared sullenly beyond the meadow. The lower field
+was a lake of muddy water, backed up from the gorge below. He glanced
+toward the circular corral.
+
+"What th'--Who left horses up last night?" he asked of the cowboys
+dressing sleepily inside the bunk-house.
+
+"Nobody," Parker answered for the group.
+
+Skinny Rawlins came to the door. "It's Captain Jack," he said, "and--and
+darned if th' Ramblin' Kid ain't got the filly!"
+
+"Aw, he couldn't have caught her last night," Bert Lilly said.
+
+"Well, she's there," Skinny retorted, "somebody's corraled her--that's
+certain!"
+
+Hurriedly dressing, the cowboys crowded out of the bunk-house and down
+to the circular corral. The Gold Dust maverick leaped to the center of
+the enclosure as the group drew near and stood with head up, eyes
+flashing and nostrils quivering, a perfect picture of defiance and fear.
+The swim across the river had washed the mud from her mane and sides and
+she was as clean as if she had been brushed.
+
+"Lord, she's a beauty!" Chuck Slithers exclaimed.
+
+"Sure is--be hell to ride, though!" Bert commented. "Wonder where the
+Ramblin' Kid is--"
+
+"S-h-hh! Yonder he is," Charley Saunders said, observing the figure
+under the shed, "--asleep. Come on away and let him rest!"
+
+"Breakfast's ready anyhow," Old Heck added.
+
+"And Skinny ain't shaved or powdered his face yet--" Chuck laughed;
+"these lovers ought to fix themselves up better!"
+
+"Shut up, you blamed idiot, ain't you got no respect?" Parker said as
+they turned toward the house.
+
+"Listen at Parker, he's one of them, too," Chuck continued; "this is his
+day to be a sweetheart to the widow!"
+
+"I'd rather have Skinny's job," Bert said with a snicker, "I'd be afraid
+of Ophelia--"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She acts too gentle to start with"--"
+
+"Give her time," Charley suggested, "she'll bu'st loose when she gets
+better acquainted!"
+
+"Her and Old Heck got pretty well introduced last night, holding hands
+the way they did, and--"
+
+"Dry up," Old Heck interposed with a foolish grin, "and come on to
+breakfast!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia were charmingly fresh and interesting in dainty
+blue and lavender morning gowns. A bowl of roses, plucked by Ophelia
+from the crimson rambler by the south window, rested in the center of
+the table. The cowboys saw the flowers and exchanged glances. Old Heck
+and Skinny blushed.
+
+Carolyn June noticed the vacant place at her right.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid ain't up yet," Skinny volunteered.
+
+"Then the storm did drive him to shelter, after all?" Carolyn June asked
+with the barest trace of contempt in her voice.
+
+"I wouldn't hardly say that," Bert Lilly remarked, holding his cup for
+Sing Pete to fill with coffee; "--he brought in the Gold Dust maverick."
+
+"Yes," Chuck said with mock gravity, "it was quite an undertaking--he
+sprinkled salt on her tail--"
+
+"How clever!" Ophelia exclaimed, looking interested, "and is that the
+way they catch--mavericks?" stumbling over the unusual word.
+
+"Chuck's joking," Parker said; "he always was foolish--"
+
+"Uncle Josiah," Carolyn June asked suddenly, "can you take Ophelia to
+Eagle Butte to-day?"
+
+"I--Parker can," Old Heck answered, "if he can drive the car. Still
+there are probably some pretty bad washouts--"
+
+Ophelia looked quickly at Old Heck, interested by the note she detected
+in his voice.
+
+"I--I--got some work to do," he continued, "if you could wait till
+to-morrow"--addressing the widow--"I could more than likely go myself--"
+
+"I guess I can handle the car all right," Parker said, looking
+significantly at Old Heck; "the roads will be dried up in a little
+while."
+
+"It's Parker's day anyhow and he don't want to miss--" Chuck started to
+say.
+
+"After breakfast," Old Heck interrupted, scowling at the cowboy, "Chuck
+and Pedro had better both ride-line on the upper pasture. The cattle
+probably went against the fence in the storm last night and knocked off
+a lot of wire. Of course, Skinny will have to stay here," he added, "and
+the rest of us, except Parker, ought to look after the fences in the
+east bottoms--from the looks of the river this morning a lot of posts
+and wire must be washed out."
+
+"Whoever gets up the saddle horses had better catch them in the pasture
+corral," Parker declared, "it won't do to turn them in with that wild
+filly and Captain Jack."
+
+"I think I shall go see that wonderful filly," Carolyn June said as
+they left the table, "she may be the particular broncho I will want to
+ride--"
+
+"Not much," Old Heck objected, "these outlaws ain't exactly the kind of
+horses for women to fool with. You can use Old Blue. He's gentle."
+
+"Did I tell you I wanted a 'gentle horse'?" Carolyn June asked with a
+bit of impatience.
+
+"No, but I figured that was the kind you'd need on account of being
+raised back east--"
+
+"Well, I am going to see the Gold Dust maverick," Carolyn June said with
+emphasis, "and if she suits me I'll--I'll ride her!"
+
+"I'll go with you," Skinny offered as Carolyn June stepped from the
+kitchen door and started toward the circular corral.
+
+"Never mind!" she spoke shortly, "--you can go catch 'Old Blue'
+and"--with scorn in her voice--"if he's able to walk, maybe it will be
+safe for me to ride him to the end of the lane and back--Ugh! 'Old
+Blue!' The very name sounds as if he was dead!"
+
+"Old Blue's a good horse," Skinny protested, "--we work him on the hay
+derrick--"
+
+But Carolyn June was gone, walking rapidly across the open ground in the
+direction of the corral in which the Ramblin' Kid had turned Captain
+Jack and the Gold Dust filly.
+
+"Jumpin' eats!" Bert exclaimed as the cowboys started toward the stable,
+"didn't the young one show her teeth sudden?"
+
+"Skinny's going to have his hands full if he don't look out," Charley
+Saunders remarked sagely. "Still that kind ain't as dangerous as the
+ones that act plumb gentle like the widow has acted so far."
+
+"Any female is treacherous," Chuck observed grimly. "They're just like
+cinch-binders--you can't tell when they're going to rare up and fall
+over backwards!"
+
+"I'll bet Ophelia turns out to be a W.C.T.U. or something," Bert
+predicted solemnly.
+
+"If she does it's all off with the Quarter Circle KT, because Parker and
+Old Heck are both in love already," Charley said as they rounded the
+corner of the barn.
+
+Carolyn June gave a gasp of admiration as she stepped up to the circular
+corral and saw the Gold Dust maverick closely.
+
+"Oh, you beauty! You adorable beauty!" she breathed.
+
+Captain Jack and the filly were near the fence next to the shed. Carolyn
+June passed in between the low building and the corral to be closer to
+the horses. The sky was cloudless and a wonderful liquid blue; the sun
+glistened on the rich, golden, brown sides of the mare and made her coat
+shine like delicate satin. When Captain Jack and the filly saw Carolyn
+June they stood for a moment as rigid as though cast in bronze, heads
+held high, eyes fixed curiously yet without fear on the slender girlish
+figure.
+
+Captain Jack took a step forward in a half-challenging way. The
+maverick stood perfectly still.
+
+"You beauty," the girl repeated, "you wonderful golden beauty! You are
+going to be my horse--I'm going to ride you--_just you_--"
+
+"You'll get you're neck broke if you do!" a voice, deliberate and of
+peculiar softness, said behind her.
+
+Carolyn June turned, startled, toward the shed from where the voice had
+come. She knew, even before she looked, that the speaker was the
+Ramblin' Kid. Evidently he had just awakened. He had not risen and still
+lay stretched on the ground, his head resting on the saddle he had used
+for a pillow. Carolyn June could not help wondering how long he had been
+lying there studying her back. The thought confused her. In spite of her
+efforts at self-control a slow flush crept over her cheeks. The Ramblin'
+Kid saw it and the faintest hint of a smile showed on his lips--or was
+the suggestion of amusement in the twinkling glance of his eyes? Carolyn
+June could not tell. The subtlety and queerly humble impudence of it
+filled her with anger.
+
+While she looked into his eyes Carolyn June appraised the physical
+appearance of the Ramblin' Kid. Certainly he was not handsome, sprawling
+there in his rough clothing. She knew his age was somewhere near her
+own, perhaps he was a year, surely no more than that, older than
+herself. Yet there was an expression about the face that suggested much
+experience, a sort of settled maturity and seriousness. His mouth,
+Carolyn June thought, showed a trace of cruelty--or was it only
+firmness? The teeth were good. If he stood up her own eyes would have to
+angle upward a trifle to look into his and if hers were brown the
+Ramblin' Kid's were positively black--yes, she would say, a brutal,
+unfathomable black, penetrating and hard. His cheeks were smooth and
+almost sallow they were so dark, and she could tell there was not an
+ounce of flesh save tough sinewy muscle on his body. He was fully
+dressed except for the white weather-beaten Stetson lying beside the
+saddle and the chaps and spurs kicked off and tossed with the bridle and
+rope near by on the ground. A dark woolen shirt open at the throat, blue
+overalls faded and somewhat dingy, black calfskin boots on a pair of
+feet that could not have been larger than sixes, comprised his attire.
+
+So this was the Ramblin' Kid, Carolyn June thought. Someway she had
+pictured him a blue-eyed, yellow-haired sort of composite Skinny
+Rawlins, Chuck, Bert Lilly, Charley Saunders all in one and with the
+face of a boy in the teens!
+
+He was different. She wondered, and almost laughed at the absurd
+thought, if he was bow-legged. A glance at the straight limbs stretched
+in repose on the ground dispelled the doubt.
+
+The suddenness with which the Ramblin' Kid had spoken and the tone he
+used, Carolyn June thought, was utterly unfair. She felt as if she had
+been ambushed. How could she know he was sleeping under the shed? Why
+wasn't he in the bunk-house where he belonged? Her own embarrassment
+made her cross. She wanted to say "damn!" and stamp her foot or throw
+something at him, lying there so completely self-possessed! Instead, she
+looked steadily into the eyes of the Ramblin' Kid. Someway as she looked
+they seemed not so unkind, more sorrowful they were, on closer scrutiny,
+than cruel. She started to speak, her cheeks began to burn--
+
+Without a word she turned and walked rapidly toward the house.
+
+As she moved away Carolyn June felt something snap at her knee. She did
+not stop. Reaching down she gathered the soft folds of the loose gown
+about her and hurried away from the corral.
+
+"God!" the Ramblin' Kid whispered as he straightened up, "she's built
+like th' Gold Dust maverick--an' just as game! They was made for each
+other."
+
+He went to the corral and leaned against the fence, studying the filly
+thoughtfully, while Captain Jack with a friendly whinny came and nosed
+at the fingers thrust through the bars. After a time the mare cautiously
+moved up beside the roan stallion and stretched her own velvety muzzle
+toward the hand the Ramblin' Kid held out.
+
+"You want to be loved, too, you little devil!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed
+gently, "--you thought I was mean last night, didn't you?"
+
+For a while he fooled with the horses, then started toward the kitchen.
+A few steps from where Carolyn June had been standing he glanced down at
+a broad pink satin elastic band lying on the ground. It had been
+fastened with a silver butterfly clasp. The clasp was broken. The
+Ramblin' Kid stooped and picked it up.
+
+"I'll be--!" he chuckled as he fingered, almost reverently, the dainty
+thing, "it's a--a--darned pretty little jigger!"
+
+Smiling whimsically the Ramblin' Kid slipped his find in his pocket and
+sought Sing Pete to tease him for a bite of breakfast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+YOU'RE A BRUTE
+
+Carolyn June went directly to her room when she reached the house. She
+wished to investigate the feeling of looseness at her knee. The satin
+band that belonged there was gone. She felt her cheeks grow hot.
+Doubtless she had lost it at the corral--the Ramblin' Kid would pick it
+up! The thought tormented her. Once more she wanted to swear vigorously
+and with extreme earnestness. Instead she--laughed! It was all so
+absurd. The strange interest this rough cowboy inspired in her; the
+confusion she felt when he had spoken to her--no man among all the
+clever, carefully groomed, ultra-sophisticated suitors she had left in
+Hartville ever stirred her emotions as had the Ramblin' Kid with a few
+drawling words and one long look from his black, inscrutable eyes. That
+look! She had the feeling, someway, that her whole soul was naked before
+it. She was almost afraid of him. It was silly! She detested
+him--or--anyway, he needed punishment! No, he wasn't worth it! He was
+only an ignorant rider of the range--why trouble at all about him?
+
+Quickly changing her dress for a riding suit of khaki--the skirt
+sensibly divided--and the morning slippers for stout, tan, laced boots,
+she stepped into the front room. Ophelia was in her own room dressing to
+go to town. Carolyn June heard voices in the kitchen. Sing Pete's shrill
+chatter mingled with an occasional slow word from the Ramblin' Kid.
+Thought of the garter she had lost flashed into her mind. Perhaps the
+cowboy had not found it. She would run out to the corral and see.
+Passing quickly out the front way Carolyn June hastened again toward the
+circular corral. Old Heck and Parker were at the garage getting the car
+ready for the drive to Eagle Butte; Pedro and Chuck were riding across
+the valley toward the upper pasture. The other cowboys saddled their
+horses near the barn.
+
+As she walked, Carolyn June scanned the ground. At the corral she looked
+carefully where she had been standing. Her search was fruitless. She
+smiled queerly. Again she glanced at the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+"You darling," she whispered, "I am going to have you--I am--I
+absolutely am!"
+
+Turning, her eyes rested on the saddle, chaps and riding gear lying in
+the shed where the Ramblin' Kid had slept. Carolyn June stepped close to
+the outfit.
+
+"I have a notion to--to spit on you!" she said vehemently, "or kick--"
+but she didn't finish the sentence. One tan shoe had been drawn back as
+if to be swung viciously at the inoffensive pile of riding gear; it
+paused, suspended, then gently, almost caressingly, pushed the leather
+chaps which suddenly seemed to Carolyn June to look limp and worn and
+pathetically tired.
+
+As Carolyn June returned to the house Parker drove the car around to the
+front; Old Heck joined the cowboys, already mounting their bronchos, and
+with them rode down the lane in the direction of the lower field. Skinny
+came out of the barn, leading Pie Face and Old Blue. He left the horses
+standing and at the back-yard gate overtook Carolyn June. As they
+stepped inside the yard the Ramblin' Kid appeared at the kitchen door.
+
+"There's the Ramblin' Kid now," Skinny said as they approached. "Hello,
+Kid," he continued, "I see you got the filly--Excuse me, I guess you
+folks ain't acquainted."
+
+Haltingly he introduced them.
+
+Without the flicker of an eyelid the Ramblin' Kid looked into the eyes
+of Carolyn June. He had seen her coming from the corral and guessed
+correctly the reason for her second visit to the enclosure. Indeed at
+that moment his hand was in his pocket toying with the delicate souvenir
+for which she had gone to search. Yet his face was utterly without
+emotion as he lifted his hat and stood aside, acknowledging with formal
+words the introduction. "It's sure a surprisin' day an' pleasant--" he
+finished, emphasizing "surprisin'" and "pleasant" till Carolyn June
+could have sworn there was a veiled taunt in the words he spoke.
+
+She was equally calm. Smiling sweetly and with not a hint of a previous
+meeting she said: "I think I have heard of the Ramblin' Kid." Pausing a
+moment: "It's always peaceful after a storm!" she added enigmatically.
+And the Ramblin' Kid, as Skinny and the girl passed around to the front
+of the house, knew that Carolyn June had hurled a lance!
+
+"A natural born heart-breaker," he said to himself as he went toward the
+bunk-house, "a genuine, full-grown vampire, part intentional an' part
+because it's in her--but she's a pure-bred--" He grew pensive and
+silent, a look of gentleness came to his face, followed quickly by an
+expression of extreme humility. "Oh, hell," he exclaimed aloud, "what's
+th' use!" Entering the building the Ramblin' Kid seated himself at the
+table at the end of the room. He pulled the pink satin elastic from his
+pocket and gazed at it, rubbing the soft fabric tenderly with the end of
+his thumb. His eyes lighted suddenly with anger and contempt. He threw
+the band violently across the room into a corner. "I wasn't raised to
+associate with luxuries like that!" he exclaimed with mingled bitterness
+and scorn, "--a damned ign'rant cow-puncher dreamin' dreams about an
+angel!" he finished with a harsh laugh. For a while he sat silent,
+gazing down at the table. Then he got up, went over and lifted the
+garter from where it had fallen and replaced it in his pocket. "Oh,
+well," he chuckled less bitterly and whimsically added, "--any idiot can
+smile at th' mornin' star even if th' darned thing is beyond his reach!
+Besides, she don't need to ever know--" Leaving the bunk-house he went
+toward the circular corral.
+
+Parker climbed from the car and entered the house, asking if Ophelia was
+ready.
+
+"In just a moment!" the widow called from her room.
+
+"What are you and me going to do?" Skinny asked Carolyn June as they
+stepped on to the porch, "take a ride?"
+
+"On 'Old Blue'?" Carolyn June questioned scornfully, then, with
+resignation, as they went inside the house: "Oh, well--I suppose, after
+a while. I have some letters to write now," and she entered her room
+leaving Skinny standing perplexed by her varying moods. He looked
+foolishly at Parker a moment. Going to the graphophone he put on a
+record--
+
+  "_I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air_!"
+
+wailed disconsolately through the house.
+
+"Good heavens," Carolyn June called, "do you blow bubbles this early in
+the morning?"
+
+"Don't you like it?" Skinny asked soberly. "I thought that was a pretty
+good tune."
+
+"I'm crazy about it!" Carolyn June answered sarcastically. "There and
+then, but not here and now--"
+
+"Where and when?" Skinny queried innocently.
+
+"In the valley of the moon at the end of a perfect day!" she laughed
+back. "--Forgive me, I couldn't help it!"
+
+"What does she mean?" Skinny asked Parker in a whisper. "Is she making
+fun of me?"
+
+"No, you blamed fool," Parker replied, "she feels good and is just
+joking--"
+
+Skinny brightened up immediately.
+
+"That's a good one," he called to Carolyn June with a snicker; "I never
+thought of it before!"
+
+A ripple of laughter came from Carolyn June's room.
+
+"Really, I don't mind," she said; "play _Bubbles_ as much as you like--I
+think it's rather soothing, but truly I must write my letters now so
+Ophelia can take them to town."
+
+Half an hour later Ophelia appeared dressed for the drive to Eagle
+Butte. Carolyn June and Skinny went out on the front porch and watched
+the widow and Parker climb into the Clagstone "Six." As Parker started
+the engine Skinny suddenly called to him. Parker sat with his foot on
+the clutch while Skinny hurried out to the car.
+
+"What do you want?" he asked impatiently, "We've got to be going!"
+
+"Lean over here," Skinny said, his face flushing scarlet, "I want to
+tell you something."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Stop at the Golden Rule and get me a white shirt size number fifteen
+and--a purple necktie if they've got any!" Skinny whispered.
+
+Ophelia heard and choked back a laugh.
+
+"Thunderation, he's plumb locoed!" Parker exclaimed, as he jammed the
+clutch into gear and the car sprang forward.
+
+"Don't forget it, Parker," Skinny called earnestly, "I actually need
+it!"
+
+Carolyn June and Skinny stood on the porch and watched the car climb the
+grade and out on to the bench. The storm of the night before had washed
+the earth clean and cooled the air. A faint after-breeze fanned the
+tree-tops. The Costejo peaks stood out, with stereoscopical clearness,
+against a cloudless sky. The day was a challenge to one who loved the
+open.
+
+"You may saddle 'Old Blue,'" Carolyn June said to Skinny. "--I'll see if
+I can 'stick on him' long enough to ride as far as the river!"
+
+"He's already saddled," Skinny replied, "him and Old Pie Face both."
+
+"Man, dear," she cried in mock misunderstanding, "you surely are not
+expecting me to ride the two of them at once!"
+
+"No," he answered meekly, "Old Pie Face is my horse, I'm going to ride
+him and go with you."
+
+"Indeed!" she exclaimed, then laughing mischievously. "Oh,
+certainly--that's a good one--I hadn't thought of it before!"
+
+"Don't you want me to go?" Skinny asked doubtfully.
+
+"Surely. I should be utterly unhappy if you didn't--I'll get my hat."
+
+"Blamed if I can figure her out," Skinny said to himself as Carolyn June
+ran lightly into the house. "She keeps a feller freezing to death and
+burning up all at once--sort of in heaven and hell both mixed together."
+
+A white, medium-brimmed felt hat was set jauntily on the fluffy brown
+hair when she reappeared. Skinny's heart leaped hungrily. Carolyn June
+was a picture of perfect physical fitness. The cowboy silently wondered
+how long he could keep from making "a complete, triple-expansion, darned
+fool of himself!"
+
+"I'm glad you want me to go," he said, renewing the conversation as they
+started around the house, "because I wanted to and, well, anyhow it's my
+job--"
+
+"What do you mean 'your job'?" Carblyn June asked quickly.
+
+Skinny was stricken silent. He realized he was on dangerous ground. He
+wasn't sure it would be wise to tell her what he meant. Someway he felt
+Carolyn June would resent it if she knew he was drawing wages for
+acting the lover to her. It seemed wholly impossible for him, just at
+that moment, to explain that, although Old Heck was paying him ten
+dollars a month extra salary to court, temporarily, his attractive
+niece, he, Skinny Rawlins, would personally be overjoyed to reverse the
+order and give his entire income, adding a bonus as well, for the
+privilege of continuing indefinitely and of his own choice the more than
+pleasant employment. Yet this was the literal truth, so quickly had his
+susceptible heart yielded to the charms of the girl. But he dared not
+try to tell her. He knew the words would not come and if they did he
+would probably choke on them and she, not believing the truth, would
+detest him. Skinny had heard of men who courted girls of wealth to win
+their money and with sincere contempt he despised these degenerates of
+his sex. Now, suddenly, he felt that he himself was in their class. The
+thought made him sick, actually caused his stomach to quiver with a sort
+of nausea.
+
+"Skinny Rawlins," Carolyn June said sternly, stopping and looking
+straight at the confused and mentally tortured cowboy, "tell me--and
+don't lie--what you meant when you said to go with me was 'your job!'"
+
+Skinny raised his eyes; in them was piteous appeal.
+
+"I meant--I--" he hesitated.
+
+"Tell me the truth," she ordered relentlessly, "or I'll--I'll--do
+something awful!"
+
+"I meant it was my job--" suddenly inspired, he blurted out, "to ride
+Old Pie Face. He's--he's dangerous and has to be rode every so often to
+keep him from getting worse and to-day's the day to ride him!"
+
+"Skinny," Carolyn June spoke gently, "I feel sorry for you. I want to
+like you and I'm disappointed. It breaks my heart to say it but you are
+a liar--you're just a common double dashed liar--like Uncle Josiah was
+when he sent that telegram saying there was smallpox at the Quarter
+Circle KT--"
+
+"Am I?" Skinny asked humbly.
+
+"You are," she retorted impatiently, "and you know it--"
+
+"Do I?" as if dazed.
+
+"You do, and did all the time--"
+
+"Did I?" he felt like a parrot.
+
+"You did!" Carolyn June snapped. "Good heavens," she continued, "why do
+men think they have to lie to women? Common sense and experience ought
+to teach them they can never fool them long--I hoped out here in the big
+West I would find one man who wouldn't lie--"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid won't," Skinny said as if suddenly struck by a bright
+thought, "--he wouldn't lie to you!"
+
+Carolyn June laughed scornfully.
+
+"Oh, yes he would," she declared, "all of them do--every last one of
+the poor frail"--contemptuously--"turtles!"
+
+"But th' Ramblin' Kid wouldn't," Skinny persisted; "he won't lie to
+anybody."
+
+"Not even to a woman?" she questioned incredulously.
+
+"No," he answered positively, "I'm sure he wouldn't."
+
+"And why wouldn't he?" she asked.
+
+"Well," Skinny replied, "for one thing he don't give a darn. Th'
+Ramblin' Kid don't care what anybody, man, woman or anything else thinks
+about him or whether they like what he says or not so there ain't any
+use of him lying. Maybe he wouldn't tell what was in his mind unless you
+asked him, but if you did ask him he'd say what it was whether he
+thought it satisfied you or not. He's funny that way. He just naturally
+don't seem to be built for telling lies and he wouldn't do it--"
+
+"Oh, Skinny, poor simple Skinny!" Carolyn June laughed. "You don't know
+men--men when they're dealing with women! Through all the unnamed years
+of my life I've never found one man who was absolutely truthful when
+talking with a 'female.' They think they have to lie to women. They do
+it either to keep from hurting them--or else they do it intentionally
+for the purpose of hurting them, one or the other! And they are so
+stupid! No man can hide anything long from a woman--"
+
+Reaching over she jerked a spray of tiny roses from the rambler at the
+window near which they were standing; tapping the blossoms against her
+lips, beginning to smile whimsically, she continued: "Why, I can almost
+read your own thoughts right now! If I wanted to I could tell you more
+about what is in your mind than you yourself could tell--"
+
+"Could you?" Skinny said, a guilty look coming in his eyes.
+
+"For one thing," Carolyn June went on, ignoring the inane question, "you
+are in love--"
+
+"I ain't!" the over-hasty denial slipped from his lips unintentionally.
+
+"Lie!" she laughed, "you can't help telling 'em, can you? And you are
+thinking--" She paused while her eyes rested demurely on the roses in
+her hand.
+
+"What am I thinking?" Skinny asked breathlessly.
+
+Before she could reply an agonized spitting, yowling and hissing,
+accompanied by the rattle of tin, came from behind the kitchen. "What's
+that?" Carolyn June cried half frightened at the instant a yellow house
+cat, his head fastened in an old tomato can, came bouncing backward,
+clawing and scratching, from around the corner.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Skinny exclaimed, "it's that darned cat again--Sing Pete
+goes and dabs butter in the bottoms of the cans and the fool cat sticks
+his head in trying to lick it out and gets fastened. It looks like the
+blamed idiot would learn sometime. It's what I call a rotten joke
+anyhow!"
+
+Sing Pete appeared at the kitchen door cackling with fiendish joy at the
+success of his ruse.
+
+Carolyn June stared, apparently stricken dumb by the antics of the
+struggling animal.
+
+"Sun-fish! Go to it--you poor deluded son-of-sorrow!" The Ramblin' Kid,
+who, unnoticed by Carolyn June and Skinny, at that moment had come from
+the corral and stood leaning against the fence, chuckled half pityingly,
+yet making no move toward the creature.
+
+"Catch him and take it off," Carolyn June cried, "it's hurting him!"
+
+Skinny started toward the rapidly gyrating jumble of claws, can and cat.
+
+"I will if the darn' thing'll hold still a minute!" he said.
+
+Carolyn June looked at the Ramblin' Kid, still leaning against the fence
+watching the cat's contortions.
+
+"Why don't you help him?" she asked impatiently. "Skinny can't do it
+alone--can't you see it's choking?"
+
+"No, he's not choking," the Ramblin' Kid replied without moving from
+where he stood, "--he's sufferin' some, but he ain't chokin'. He's got
+quite a lot of wind yet an' is gettin' some valuable experience. That
+cat's what I call a genuine acrobat!" he mused as the terrified
+creature leaped frantically in the air and somersaulted backward,
+striking and clawing desperately to free itself of the can tightly
+wedged on its head.
+
+Carolyn June was accustomed to obedience from men creatures. The
+Ramblin' Kid's indifference to her request, together with his apparent
+cruelty in refusing to aid in relieving the cat from its torturing
+dilemma, angered and piqued the girl.
+
+"Help Skinny take it off, I tell you!" she repeated, "haven't you a
+spark of sympathy--"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid resented her tone and detected as well the note of
+wounded pride. Instinctively he felt that at that instant the cat, with
+Carolyn June, had become a secondary consideration.
+
+"Well, some, I reckon," he answered, speaking deliberately, "generally a
+little, but right now darned little for that old yaller cat. I figure
+he's a plumb free moral agent," he continued as if speaking to himself;
+"he got his head in that can on his own hook an' it's up to him to get
+it out or let it stay in _this time_, just as he pleases--"
+
+"But Sing Pete put butter in the can!" Carolyn June said, arguing.
+
+"He's done it before," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a glance at the
+Chinese cook still gleefully enjoying the results of his cruel joke. "He
+won't no more. But that don't make no difference," he laughed, "th'
+darn' cat hadn't ought to have yielded to temptation!"
+
+"You're a brute!" she exclaimed passionately, "--an ignorant, savage,
+stupid brute--" The harsh words sprang from the lips of Carolyn June
+before she thought. The Ramblin' Kid flinched involuntarily as if he had
+been struck full in the face. A look came in his eyes that almost made
+her regret what she had said.
+
+"I reckon I am," he replied, gazing steadily at her without feeling or
+resentment and speaking slowly, "yes, I'm an 'ign'rant, savage, stupid
+brute,'" deliberately accenting each word as he repeated the stinging
+phrase, "--but--what's the use?" he finished with a mirthless laugh.
+"Anyhow," he added, glancing again at the cat and Skinny's futile
+efforts to catch it, "I ain't interferin' this time, at least, with that
+damned cat!"
+
+Carolyn June knew she had hurt with her unintentionally cruel words. For
+an instant there was a humane impulse to temper their severity.
+
+"I--I--didn't--" she started to say, but the Ramblin' Kid had turned
+and, ignoring the cat, Skinny and herself, was leaning on the fence with
+his back to her, looking off across the valley, apparently lost in
+thought. She did not finish the sentence.
+
+The cat bucked its way to the fence. As it went under the wire the can
+caught on a barb of the lower strand. Jerking furiously, the animal
+freed itself from the can, leaving splotches of hair and hide on the
+ragged edges of tin. Still spitting and clawing, with its tail standing
+out like an enormous yellow plume, it dashed toward the barn, eager to
+put distance between itself and the thing that had been torturing it.
+
+"Gosh a'mighty," Skinny said, sweating with the exertion and the
+excitement of trying to catch the cat, "it'll be noon before we get
+started for that ride!"
+
+"We'll go now," Carolyn June answered, "--before some other horrible
+thing occurs."
+
+"We're going over to the river and maybe out on the sand-hills a ways,"
+Skinny casually remarked to the Ramblin' Kid as Carolyn June and he
+passed through the gate. "Oh, yes," he added, "Chuck said tell you he
+took your rope--there was a weak spot in his and he didn't get it fixed
+yesterday!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid did not answer.
+
+Skinny had been wrong about the Ramblin' Kid not caring what any one
+thought of him. He was supersensitive of his roughness, his lack of
+education and conscious crudeness, and the words of Carolyn June were
+still in his mind. When Skinny and the girl were going toward their
+horses the Ramblin' Kid turned and entered the gate. Sing Pete was still
+at the kitchen door.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid stepped up to him.
+
+"You damned yellow heathen," he said in a level voice, "if you ever play
+that trick on that cat again th' Quarter Circle KT will be shy a cook
+an' your ghost'll be headin' pronto for China!"
+
+Without waiting for a reply he went back to the gate and watched Skinny
+and Carolyn June ride down the lane. The deftness and skill with which
+the girl handled the horse she rode forced a smile of admiration to the
+lips of the Ramblin' Kid. She sat close in the saddle and a glance
+showed she was a born master of horses. "She's a wonder," he said to
+himself, "a teetotal wonder--" A shade of melancholy passed over his
+face. "An ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" he murmured bitterly, "well,
+I reckon she was right--Hell!" he exclaimed aloud, "I wonder if
+Skinny'll remember about that upper crossin' bein' dang'rous with
+quicksand after the rain--Guess he did," he finished as the two riders
+turned to the right toward the lower and more distant river ford and
+disappeared among the willows and cottonwood trees that fringed the
+Cimarron.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+THE GREEDY SANDS
+
+When the Ramblin' Kid, working the rope-conquered and leg-weary Gold
+Dust maverick from the North Springs back to the Quarter Circle KT,
+crossed the Cimarron at dawn Captain Jack and the filly swam a raging,
+drift-burdened river. Less than twelve hours later Carolyn June and
+Skinny, at the lower ford, rode into a stream that again was normal. Old
+Blue and Pie Face splashed through water barely reaching the stirrup
+leathers. Only the fresh rubbish flung out on the meadows by the flood's
+quick anger or lodged in the willows, still bent by the pressure of the
+torrent that had rushed over them and slimy with yellow sediment left on
+their branches and leaves, told the story of the swift rise and fall of
+the Cimarron the night before.
+
+On the bluff north of the river Carolyn June and Skinny checked their
+horses while the girl gazed down on the panorama of green fields, narrow
+lanes, corrals and low buildings of the Quarter Circle KT. The sight
+thrilled her. On all the Kiowa range there was no more entrancing view.
+
+"It's kind of pretty, ain't it?" Skinny ventured.
+
+"Beautiful!" she breathed.
+
+"I'd--I'd like to stand here and look at it always--if you--if you'd
+enjoy it!" he said and was instantly appalled by his own audacity.
+
+Carolyn June flashed a quick look at him.
+
+"We had better go on," she said, then added lightly: "Does it always
+affect you so when you get this view of the valley?"
+
+"No. But, well, somehow it's different this morning--maybe it's because
+you are here!" he blurted out hurriedly.
+
+"Please," she said, starting Old Blue toward the west along the crest of
+the ridge, "don't be sentimental. I'm afraid--" she added, intending to
+say it would spoil their ride.
+
+"You needn't be, with me along!" Skinny interrupted hastily,
+misinterpreting her meaning.
+
+She laughed and without explaining urged her horse forward.
+
+Skinny followed pensively on Old Pie Face.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid, while going from barn to corral, glanced across the
+valley and saw Carolyn June and Skinny as they rode along the ridge. It
+was two miles from the ranch to the bluff on which they were riding, but
+so clear was the rain-washed air that the horses and riders were easily
+recognized. He watched them until they reached the corner of the upland
+pasture. There the roads from the lower and upper fords came together.
+The couple turned north along the fence and disappeared beyond the
+ridge.
+
+For a mile Carolyn June and Skinny rode without speaking. He felt
+already a reaction from his over-boldness of a while ago and silently
+swore at himself for his rashness. She was not eager to resume a
+conversation that had threatened a painfully emotional turn. She was
+quite content to enjoy the fresh air of the morning, the changing scenes
+through which they passed and the easy motion of the horse on which she
+was mounted.
+
+The bronchos pricked forward their ears at the sound of galloping hoofs.
+
+"Somebody's coming," Skinny spoke as Pedro, riding rapidly toward them,
+rounded the point of a low hill a little distance ahead.
+
+"What's wrong?" Skinny questioned, when the three met and stopped their
+horses.
+
+"The pasture fence is bu'sted," Pedro answered; "at the northeast corner
+it is broke. The cattle are out. Ten--fifteen maybe--are dead--the
+lightning strike them perhaps. The others all of them are gone. They go
+pronto, stampede I think, toward the Purgatory. Chuck and me can not get
+them alone--I go to tell Old Heck so the boys will come and help!"
+
+It was plain to Skinny what had occurred. The cattle had drifted before
+the storm until stopped by the wire. While crowded against it a bolt of
+lightning had struck the fence, followed the metal strands, and killed
+the animals touching or nearest to it. In the fright the others plunged
+madly forward and had broken their way to freedom. Five hundred Diamond
+Bar steers, recently bought by Old Heck and brought from the Purgatory
+forty-five miles north of the Quarter Circle KT were out and rushing
+back to their former range.
+
+"You go help Chuck," Skinny said to Pedro. "Carolyn June and me will
+turn around and take the news to Old Heck and send some of the boys to
+help you. If them cattle ain't bunched before they hit the Purgatory and
+get scattered over their old range it will take a month to gather them
+and get them back again!"
+
+"Why don't you yourself go with Pedro and Chuck?" Carolyn June asked
+Skinny. "I can ride to the ranch alone and tell the others about it."
+
+"I'm supposed to stay with--" he begun.
+
+"With me, I presume," she interrupted. "Well, this is one time you
+don't. Go on with the boys. You are needed after those steers a lot more
+than you are to 'herd' me back to the ranch!"
+
+Without waiting to argue she wheeled Old Blue toward the Quarter Circle
+KT. Skinny watched her a moment, then started with Pedro in the other
+direction. Suddenly checking his horse he swung around in the saddle.
+
+"Go back the way we came!" he called after the girl. "Don't try the
+upper ford!"
+
+Carolyn June looked around and threw up her hand, motioning toward the
+north. Thinking that she understood, Skinny touched Old Pie Face with
+the spurs and soon overtook the Mexican.
+
+He was mistaken. Carolyn June had not understood the warning. The
+distance was too great for his words to reach her distinctly. She
+thought he was merely protesting against her going alone. At the fork of
+the road she saw that the trail that led to the upper ford was much the
+nearer way to the ranch. Reining Old Blue into it she rode swiftly along
+the ridge and down the slope toward the dangerous crossing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Ramblin' Kid spent the morning at the circular corral. He was
+studying the moods and working to win the confidence of the Gold Dust
+maverick. He was watching her and thinking always a little ahead of the
+thought that was in the mind of the mare. His love for a horse and
+understanding of the wonderfully intelligent animals was as natural as
+were the brown eyes, the soft low voice, the gentle but strong touch, by
+which it was expressed. He wooed the outlaw filly thoughtfully,
+carefully, as a lover courts a sweetheart. The beautiful creature
+reminded him of Carolyn June. "They was made for each other!" he
+repeated softly as he worked with the mare. From the corral he could see
+the road across the river where Skinny and the girl had gone. Often he
+turned his eyes in that direction.
+
+He was fingering the garter in his pocket and looking toward the river
+when Carolyn June appeared on the ridge as she returned alone to the
+ranch. He stood and watched her. The ugly words she had spoken at the
+gate came into his mind and a bitter smile curled his lips. Still he
+watched the girl, expecting Skinny would ride into view. She turned down
+the ridge toward the upper ford.
+
+"That's funny," he thought, "wonder where Skinny's at?" Then it flashed
+through his mind that something must be wrong for the girl was riding
+alone. "Hell!" he exclaimed aloud, "she's by herself an' headin'
+straight for th' upper ford!" Only an instant he paused. "Jack!" he
+cried sharply, running to the corral gate and swinging it partly open.
+"Come--_quick_!"
+
+The roan stallion started at a trot toward the gate, then, trained to
+obey instantly the word of the master he loved better than life, leaped
+nimbly through the opening. Slamming and fastening the gate the Ramblin'
+Kid ran to the shed, the broncho at his side. He threw the blanket and
+saddle on the little roan, cinched quickly but carefully the double
+gear, slipped the bit into the waiting mouth of the horse and without
+stopping to put on his chaps sprang on Captain Jack's back and whirled
+him in a dead run around the corner of the shed and down the lane toward
+the north. At the pasture corral below the barn he guided the broncho
+close to the fence and scarcely checking him leaned over and lifted a
+rope, coiled and hung on a post near the gate, from its place--the one
+Chuck that morning had left because of the flaw.
+
+"God!" he groaned, "--an' a bad rope!"
+
+He glanced toward the ridge across the river. Carolyn June had
+disappeared down the trail that led to the upper ford.
+
+"Go, Little Man, go--for th' love of God, go!" the Ramblin' Kid
+whispered as he leaned forward over the neck of the horse. Captain Jack
+answered the agonized appeal as he would never have responded to the
+cruel cut of spurs and leaped ahead in a desperate race to beat Old Blue
+and his precious burden to the greedy sands of the Cimarron.
+
+As he rode, the Ramblin' Kid slipped his hand around the coils of the
+rope till his fingers found the broken strands that told of the weakness
+that caused Chuck to leave it behind that morning. Bending over it,
+while his horse ran, he worked frantically to weave a rawhide saddle
+string into the fiber and so strengthen the dangerous spot.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thinking only to reach the ranch as quickly as possible Carolyn June
+guided Old Blue down the trail and through the thin patches of willows
+and cottonwood trees that grew along the river. The stream looked
+innocent enough and the crossing perfectly safe. Swift but apparently
+shallow water flowed close to the northern bank. Beyond that was a
+clean, pebble strewn bar and then a smaller, narrower prong of the
+river. On the south side stretched a white, unbroken expanse of sand a
+hundred feet or more wide and ending against the low slope of the meadow
+land.
+
+At the brink of the stream Old Blue stopped short and refused to go on.
+
+"What's the matter," Carolyn June laughed lightly, "--afraid of getting
+your 'little tootsies' wet?"
+
+The horse reared backward when she tried to urge him ahead and wheeled
+half around in an effort to get away from the water.
+
+"Look here, Old Fellow," she spoke sharply, tightening the reins as she
+touched his flank with her spur, "we haven't time for foolishness!
+Generally, in fact always," accenting the last word, "horses--and
+men--go in the direction I want them to go! Why, you're as
+stubborn--as--as the Ramblin' Kid!" she finished with another laugh as
+Old Blue, with a snort of fear, yet not daring to resist further the
+firm hand and firmer will of his rider, stepped into the water.
+
+"Gee, when you do start you go in a hurry, don't you?" Carolyn June said
+as the broncho went rapidly forward as if eager to negotiate the
+crossing, seeming to know that safety lay in the quickness and lightness
+of his tread. As he lunged ahead the girl had the sensation that the
+saddle was sinking from under her. Reaching the firmer footing of the
+gravel bar in the center of the stream Old Blue tried again to turn
+about.
+
+"Go on!" Carolyn June cried impatiently yet with a feeling somehow of
+impending danger she could not wholly define, "--you've got to do it, so
+you had as well quit your nonsense and go ahead!" at the same time
+raking the horse's sides sharply again with the spurs.
+
+Crossing the shallow branch of the river the broncho reached the smooth,
+firm appearing beach of sand.
+
+With his head down, his muzzle almost touching the ground, as if
+scenting, feeling, his way, he went forward stepping rapidly, easily, as
+possible. At each step his foot slipped lower into the yielding,
+quivering mass. Carolyn June felt him tremble and the sensation that the
+horse was being pulled from under her grew more and more pronounced. She
+noticed how he sank into the sand and observed also the sweat beginning
+to darken the hair on the neck of her mount.
+
+"Pretty soft, isn't it?" she said, speaking to the broncho kindly as
+though to encourage him and perhaps at the same time to allay a bit the
+queer sense of uneasiness she felt, for even yet she did not realize the
+danger into which she had unknowingly ridden.
+
+Half-way to the firm black soil of the southern bank of the stream Old
+Blue's front feet seemed suddenly to give way beneath him. He began to
+plunge desperately. Then it was the truth came to Carolyn June. Her
+cheeks grew white.
+
+"The quicksand!" she exclaimed aloud, at the same time trying to help
+the horse with a lift of the reins. It was too late to turn back. Her
+only salvation lay in reaching the solid ground such a few yards
+ahead--and yet so fearfully far away. Old Blue struggled madly to go
+forward, gaining a little but at each effort sinking deeper into the
+sand. Carolyn June tried to encourage him with words:
+
+"Come on, come on! Good Little Horse--you can make it! Keep
+trying--that's it--now!--you're doing it! Brave Old Blue--don't give
+up--don't give up, Boy!" she pleaded, pity for the horse causing her
+almost to forget her own terrible peril.
+
+It was useless.
+
+Twenty-five feet from safety Old Blue's front quarters went down until
+his breast was against the sand. The hind legs were buried to the
+stifles. He wallowed and floundered helplessly. His hoofs touched
+nothing solid on which to stand. He stretched his head forward,
+straining-to lift himself away from that horrible, clinging suction. His
+efforts only forced him down--down--always down!
+
+Carolyn June's own feet were in the sand. She threw herself from the
+saddle--as far to one side and ahead of the horse as she could. With her
+weight removed perhaps Old Blue could get out. Anyway it was death to
+stay on the horse. Perhaps alone she could escape--she was lighter--the
+sand might hold her up--by moving rapidly surely she could go that short
+twenty-five feet to the firm ground ahead of her. At the first step she
+sank half-way to her thigh. She fell forward thinking to crawl on her
+hands and knees. Her arms went into the mass to the shoulder.
+Silently--without a word--but with horrible fear gripping her heart she
+fought the sand. She sank deeper--slowly--steadily--surely. The hellish
+stuff closed about her body to the waist. If she only had
+something--anything--solid to hold to! She took off her hat, grasped the
+edges of the brim, reached her arms out and tried to use the frail disk
+of felt for a buoy. It held a moment then gradually settled below the
+surface of the shifting, elusive substance. Again and again she lifted
+the hat free from the sand and sought to place it so it would bear a
+part at least of her weight. Her efforts were vain. The insidious mass
+crept higher and higher on her body. She remembered reading that one
+caught in the quicksand by his struggles only hastened his own
+destruction. She tried to be perfectly still. In spite of all she was
+sinking--sinking--the sand was engulfing her.
+
+During all her struggles Carolyn June remained silent. She had not
+thought to cry out. Somehow she could not realize that she was to die.
+The sun was bright, the sky cloudless, the trees along the river-bank
+barely swayed in a little breeze! How beautiful the world! How queer
+that such a little distance away was the green grass of the meadow and
+the firm black earth in which it was rooted and she--she was held fast
+and helpless in the embrace of the deadly sand! Strange thoughts rushed
+through her mind. She wondered what they would think at the ranch when
+night came and she did not return. Would they know? Would they guess the
+thing that had happened? Would the sand draw her down--down--until it
+covered her so none would ever know where or how she died? She looked at
+Old Blue. "Poor old fellow!" she whispered, "I am sorry--I didn't
+know--it looked so white and firm and safe!" The sand was half-way up
+the sides of the horse and he swayed his body in pathetic, futile
+efforts to free himself.
+
+A strange calm came over Carolyn June. So this was the end? She was to
+die alone, horribly, in the treacherous sands of the Cimarron? Surely it
+could not be--God would not let her die! She was so young! She had just
+begun to live--She thought of Hartville, her father, the old friends.
+How far away they seemed! How queer it was--she could not image in her
+mind any of the familiar scenes, the face of her father or any of the
+friends she had known so well! She tried to think of her Uncle Josiah,
+Ophelia, Skinny Rawlins--poor fellow, how susceptible was his big,
+innocent, boyish heart! She called each one up in a mental effort to
+remember how they had looked, the sound of their voices--they were only
+names--dim shadowy names! There was nothing in the whole world but Old
+Blue--herself--and the sand--the sand--an eternity of sand pulling,
+dragging, sucking her down! She closed her eyes tightly, thinking to
+shut out the impression of utter loneliness. The face of the Ramblin'
+Kid flashed into her mind! She could see him! She saw him lying under
+the shed, as he had looked that morning, his head resting on the saddle,
+his eyes gazing steadily into her own; she saw him again as he had
+looked when she stung him with her harsh words at the gate. She seemed
+to see the agonized humility in his expression and hear the low
+tenseness of his voice as he repeated aloud the words she had used--"An
+ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" She laughed almost hysterically. "Why
+can I see him--just him--and not the others? Has he come to--to--haunt
+me?" she finished with a gasp.
+
+The sand had reached her breast. How long before it clutched at her
+throat? Her mouth? Her eyes? Ah, would she hold up her arm as she went
+down--down--and reach out her hand as if to wave the world a last, long
+farewell? "I will--I will!" she cried, the pressure around her body
+almost stopping her breath, "I--I--will--and--wiggle my fingers to the
+end!" she added with a choking half-hysterical laugh, so tightly did she
+cling to life. Her mood changed. "I--guess--I ought to pray!" she said,
+"but--I--God--God knows anyhow!" her voice trailing away to a whisper as
+if she had grown suddenly, utterly, tired. She stretched out her hands
+once more with the hat, trying to use it to buoy her up. Under the
+weight of her arms it sank in the sand. She tossed it to one side. "It
+will--stay--on top by itself," she choked. "I--I--will leave it--maybe
+they will find it--and know--" She felt her senses were leaving her.
+Even yet she had not called for help. It had not occurred to her that
+rescue was possible. As if it were an echo to her thoughts there came
+the throbbing tattoo of hoofs pounding the earth. She listened intently.
+Some one was riding down the lane toward the river from the ranch! The
+horse was evidently running--running madly, desperately. Would he cross
+at the upper or lower ford? Her heart pulsed with heavy dull throbs. The
+sand was crushing her chest. A wave of weakness swept over her. She
+almost fainted. At that instant Captain Jack, carrying the Ramblin' Kid,
+leaped through an opening in the willows and stopped--his front feet
+plowing the firm ground at the edge of the quivering beach of sand.
+
+"Pure luck!" the Ramblin' Kid breathed fervently, his eye quickly
+measuring the distance to the nearly exhausted girl; "she's close enough
+I can reach her with th' rope! God, if it'll only hold!" Already the
+coils were in his hand. With a single backward fling of the noose and
+forward toss he dropped the loop over the head of Carolyn June.
+
+"Pull it up--close--under your arms!" he commanded shortly, "an' hang on
+with your hands to take th' strain off your body!"
+
+The girt obeyed without a word.
+
+He double half-hitched the rope to the horn of the saddle, swung
+Captain Jack around. "Look out!" he called to the girl as he started
+away from the brink of the sand. "Steady, Boy, be careful--" to the
+broncho. The slack gradually tightened. The strain drew on Carolyn
+June's arms till it seemed they would be pulled from the sockets. The
+rope cut cruelly into her body under her shoulders. She wanted to
+cry--to scream--to laugh. She did neither. She threw back her head and
+clung with all her strength to the rough lariat, stretched taut as a
+cable of steel.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid leaned forward in the saddle, his body half turned,
+eyes looking back along the straight line of the severely tested rope.
+He swore softly, steadily, under his breath. "God--if it will only
+hold--if it only don't break!"
+
+Slowly, surely, the little stallion leaned his weight against the
+tensely drawn riata and Carolyn June felt herself lifted, inch by inch,
+out of the sand that engulfed her. At last she fell forward--her body
+free. Without stopping the horse the Ramblin' Kid continued away from
+the river-bank and dragged the girl across the yielding surface to the
+solid earth and safety. The instant she was where he could reach her he
+whirled Captain Jack and rode quickly back. Carolyn June was trying to
+get to her feet when he sprang from the broncho and helped her to the
+firm ground on which he stood. She was panting and exhausted.
+
+"Get--get--Old Blue out!" she gasped and dropped limply down on the
+grass, fingering at the rope to remove it from around her body.
+
+"Danged if she ain't got more heart than I thought she had!" the
+Ramblin' Kid said to himself as he lifted the loop from over her head.
+"I'm goin' to," he said aloud, "if I can--but--I'm afraid he's gone.
+I'll try anyhow--you lay there an' rest--" at the same time remounting
+his horse.
+
+The sand covered the rump of Old Blue. The saddle, Parker's it was, was
+nearly submerged, only the horn and cantle showing above the slimy mass.
+His head, neck and the top of his withers were yet exposed. He still
+struggled, wallowing feebly, vainly resisting the downward pull of the
+sand. Crouching, as if fascinated by the terrible scene, Carolyn June
+watched as the Ramblin' Kid, waiting his opportunity, at the instant the
+horse in the sand lifted his head deftly flung the rope over his neck.
+With a short jerk of the wrist he tightened the noose till it closed
+snugly about the throat of the broncho. Again turning Captain Jack away
+from the bank he urged him slowly forward. The rope stiffened. The
+little stallion bunched himself and desperately strained against the
+dead weight of Old Blue, multiplied many times by the suction of the
+sand. The Ramblin' Kid leaned far over the neck of Captain Jack to give
+the horse the advantage of his own weight and looked back, watching the
+supreme efforts of the mired broncho as he fought to climb out of the
+sand. A moment it looked as if the little roan would drag him out.
+Slowly he seemed to be raising and moving forward. There was a sharp
+snap. Half-way down its length the lariat parted. At the weak spot the
+strain was too great. Captain Jack plunged forward to his knees, his
+nose rooting the earth, and the Ramblin' Kid barely saved himself from
+pitching over the horse's head.
+
+"That's what I was dreadin'--" he said as he turned and rode back to the
+edge of the sand.
+
+Carolyn June gazed, wide-eyed, speechless with horror, at the horse in
+the sand. When the rope broke, Old Blue, with a groan almost human, sank
+back and quickly settled down until only his head and part of his neck
+were exposed to view. The Ramblin' Kid looked at the broken rope--the
+end fastened around the throat of Old Blue had whipped back and was
+lying far beyond the cowboy's reach. The piece half-hitched to the
+saddle horn was too short for another throw. Old Blue was doomed.
+Carolyn June saw him sinking gradually, surely, into the sand. It seemed
+ages. His eyes appealed with dumb pathos to the group on the bank. They
+could hear his breath coming in harsh, terrible gasps. The sand seemed
+to be deliberately torturing him as though it were some hellish thing,
+alive and of fiendish cunning, that grasped its victim and then paused
+in his destruction to gloat over his hopeless agony.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid sat Captain Jack and watched.
+
+"Why did God ever want to make that stuff anyhow!" sprang hoarsely from
+his lips. He was torn between blind unreasoning anger at the quicksand
+and pity for the struggling horse. Suddenly he jerked the forty-four,
+always on his saddle, from its holster. As the gun swung back and then
+forward there was a crashing report and Old Blue's head dropped, with a
+convulsive shudder, limp on the sand.
+
+Carolyn June screamed and buried her face in her hands.
+
+At the sound of the shot Captain Jack stiffened and stood rigid. The
+Ramblin' Kid, his face white and drawn, sat and looked dry-eyed at the
+red stream oozing from the round hole just below the brow-band of the
+bridle on the head of the horse he had killed.
+
+"I--I--would have wanted somebody to do it to me!" he said softly and
+rode to the side of the girl huddled on the ground. He dismounted and
+stood, without speaking, looking down at her shaking form. After a time
+she looked up, through eyes drenched with tears, into his face. Then as
+if drawn by an irresistible impulse--one she could not deny--she turned
+her head and looked at the spot where Old Blue had fought his last
+battle with the quicksands of the Cimarron. A crimson stain, already
+darkening, on the white surface; a few square feet of disturbed and
+broken sand, even now settling into the smooth, innocent-looking
+tranquillity that hid the death lurking in its depths; a short length
+of rope, one end drawn beneath the sand, the other lying in a sprawling
+coil; her hat resting a little distance to one side, were all that
+remained to tell the story of the grim tragedy of the morning. She
+shuddered and looked once more into the pain-filled eyes of the Ramblin'
+Kid.
+
+"We'd better be goin'," he said quietly, "you're wet an' them clothes
+must be uncomfortable. You can ride Captain Jack!"
+
+She stood up weak and trembling.
+
+"I--I--thought Captain Jack was an outlaw," she said with a faint
+smile. "He won't let me ride him, will he?"
+
+"He'll let you," the Ramblin' Kid answered dully, "no woman ever has
+rode him--or any other man only me--but he'll let you!"
+
+As she approached the stallion he raised his head and looked at her with
+a queer mixture of curiosity and antagonism, curving his neck in a
+challenging way.
+
+"Jack!" the Ramblin' Kid spoke sharply but kindly to the horse, "be
+careful! It's all right, Boy--you're goin' to carry double this one
+time!"
+
+The broncho stood passive while the Ramblin' Kid helped Carolyn June to
+his back.
+
+"You set behind," he said, "it'll be easier to hold on an' I can handle
+th' horse better!"
+
+She slipped back of the saddle and he swung up on to the little roan.
+With one hand Carolyn June grasped the cantle of the saddle, the other
+she reached up and laid on the arm of the Ramblin' Kid--the touch sent a
+thrill through her body and the cowboy felt a response that made his
+heart quiver as they turned and rode toward the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For a mile neither spoke.
+
+"I--I--am sorry for what--I said this morning," Carolyn June whispered
+at last haltingly, feeling intuitively that the cruel words--"an
+ignorant, savage, stupid brute"--were repeating themselves in her
+companion's mind.
+
+"It's all right," he answered without looking around and in a voice
+without emotion, "it was th' truth--" with a hopeless laugh. "I'm a
+damn' fool besides!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+QUICK WITH A VENGEANCE
+
+Old Heck rode in advance of Charley and Bert as the trio returned from
+repairing the fences wrecked by the flood that had swept over the east
+bottom-lands of the Quarter Circle KT. All morning he had been silent
+and morose. Only when necessary had he spoken while he directed the
+cowboys at their labor, helped them reset posts, or untangle twisted
+wires and build up again that which the rush of water had torn down. The
+damage had not been great and by noon the fence was as good as new. As
+soon as the breaks were mended the moody owner of the Quarter Circle KT
+mounted his horse and started for the house.
+
+"Them women coming or something has got Old Heck's goat," Bert remarked
+to Charley as they climbed on their horses and followed a moment later.
+
+"Something's got it," Charley answered, "he ain't acted natural all
+day--do you reckon he's sore because Parker took the widow to town?"
+
+"Darned if I know," Bert said doubtfully, "that might be it."
+
+"Well, he's feverish and disagreeable for some reason or other and
+that's the way people generally get when they're jealous," Charley
+observed sagely.
+
+"He hadn't ought to be," Bert argued, "it's Parker's day to keep company
+with Ophelia, and Old Heck and him agreed to split."
+
+"If he's in love he won't split," Charley retorted with conviction, "I
+never saw two men take turn about loving the same woman yet. It can't be
+done!"
+
+"The woman wouldn't object, would she?" Bert queried.
+
+"Probably not," Charley replied, "at least not as long as double doses
+of affection was coming her way. From what I've heard most of 'em sort
+of enjoy having as many men make love to 'em as possible, but--" he
+paused.
+
+"But what?"
+
+"They kick if a man loves several women at once!" was the sophisticated
+reply. "But as far as that's concerned," he continued, speaking as a man
+wise in the ways of the world, "men and women ain't much different in
+that respect. When it comes to loving, both sides are plumb willing to
+divide up 'a-going' but want it to be clean exclusive when it comes to
+'coming!'"
+
+"It's funny, ain't it?" Bert commented.
+
+"No, it ain't funny," Charley declared. "It's just natural--"
+
+"Maybe Parker and Old Heck will have a fight about Ophelia," Bert
+suggested hopefully. "Which do you suppose would lick?"
+
+"It's hard telling," Charley said thoughtfully. "Old Heck's the
+heaviest, but Parker's pretty active."
+
+"Well, it sure does seem like wherever women are trouble is, don't it?"
+Bert observed meditatively.
+
+"Blamed if it don't," Charley agreed; "there's something about them
+that's plum agitating!"
+
+Old Heck, riding a short distance ahead of the cowboys, was troubled
+with similar thoughts. He was trying to analyze his own feelings. Years
+without association with womankind had made him come to regard them with
+a measure of indifference and suspicion. He had developed the idea that
+women existed chiefly for the purpose of disorganizing the morale of the
+masculine members of the race. He was very sincere in this belief. Yet
+he was forced, now, to confess that he found something interesting in
+having a couple of attractive females at the Quarter Circle KT. The
+situation was not so disagreeable as he had expected. Already he was
+proud of his kinship to Carolyn June. She was a niece worth while.
+Ophelia also had proved herself a pleasant surprise. He had pictured her
+as a strong-minded, assertive, modernized creature who would probably
+discourse continuously and raspingly about the evils of smoking,
+profanity, poker, drinking and other natural masculine impulses.
+Instead, she had proved herself, so far, a perfect lady. Without doubt
+she was the most sensible widow he had ever met. The thought of Parker's
+long, intimate ride with her to Eagle Butte made him uncomfortable. It
+was a darned fool arrangement--that agreement that he and his foreman
+were to divide time in the entertainment of Ophelia. He could have done
+it alone just as well as not. Anyway the dual plan was liable to cause
+confusion. Oh, well, Parker would be out on the beef hunt next week. By
+rights it ought not start for ten days yet, but--well, it wouldn't hurt
+to move it up a little. He would do that. Then he remembered the frank
+admiration the cowboys had shown toward Carolyn June. This suggested
+complications in that direction.
+
+"Thunderation!" he said aloud, "it's a good thing we fixed it up for
+just Skinny to make love to her--if we hadn't there'd have been a
+regular epidemic of bu'sted hearts on this blamed ranch! There wouldn't
+have been a buckaroo on the place that could have kept from mooning
+around sentimental--unless it was th' Ramblin' Kid," he added; "that
+blamed cuss is too independent and indifferent to fall in love with any
+female!"
+
+At the barn Charley and Bert overtook Old Heck. The three unsaddled and
+fed their horses and started toward the house for dinner. Sing Pete had
+seen them coming and immediately pounded the triangle.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's gone somewhere again," Bert observed as he noticed
+the Gold Dust maverick alone in the circular corral. "Captain Jack's not
+with the filly--"
+
+"Yonder th' Ramblin' Kid comes now," Charley said, looking toward the
+north; "he's been over to the river--what the devil kind of a
+combination is that?" he exclaimed as he got a better view of the horse
+coming up the lane. "Him and that girl both are riding Captain Jack."
+
+"Blamed if they ain't," Bert said curiously; "it's a wonder Captain
+Jack'll let them. But how does that come, anyhow? Where's Skinny? I
+thought it was his job to ride herd on Carolyn June--"
+
+"It is his job," Old Heck interrupted, "I don't understand--something
+must have gone wrong," he added excitedly as the stallion with his
+double burden drew near. "Carolyn June's all wet and she's lost her
+hat."
+
+Turning his horse toward the house, when he reached the end of the lane
+and with but a glance at the trio standing at the barn, the Ramblin' Kid
+rode straight to the back-yard gate. Old Heck and the cowboys hurried
+across the open space and reached the gate just as Carolyn June rather
+stiffly dismounted from the little roan. Her hair was disarranged, her
+riding suit soiled and wet from the sand and water, but her eyes were
+bright, cheeks flushed, and she showed only a trace of nervousness.
+
+"What's the matter?" Old Heck asked uneasily, "what's happened? Where's
+Skinny?"
+
+In a few words, while the Ramblin' Kid sat silently on the back of
+Captain Jack, Carolyn June told of the ride across the river; the
+meeting with Pedro and the message he brought that the cattle were out
+and some had been killed by lightning; of sending Skinny with the
+Mexican to help with the steers; of her return alone toward the ranch,
+the struggle in the quicksand and the death of the horse she had been
+riding.
+
+"Poor Old Blue--poor old fellow!" she finished with a little catch in
+her voice.
+
+Old Heck's cheeks whitened as he listened.
+
+"Good lord," he half-groaned, "you had a close call! It's lucky th'
+Ramblin' Kid saw you coming toward the upper ford--if he hadn't--you'd
+never got out! But go on into the house and get some dry clothes on.
+Boys, we'll have to hurry up and eat dinner and then go help get them
+steers back. I wish Parker was here--we'll need all the help we can get.
+You'd better catch up another horse," he continued, speaking to the
+Ramblin' Kid, "Captain Jack is probably worn out from chasing that Gold
+Dust maverick last night, and if you ain't too tired yourself, go with
+us--"
+
+"I ain't too tired," the Ramblin' Kid replied quietly, "I'll go--an'
+ride Captain Jack--he ain't done up." He took the broncho to the corral,
+removed the saddle and turned him in with the outlaw mare. After giving
+the horses fresh hay--there was water in the corral, supplied by a small
+ditch that was fed from the larger irrigation canal and which ran under
+one side of the fence--he joined the others at dinner.
+
+An hour later Old Heck, Bert, Charley and the Ramblin' Kid rode away
+from the ranch to help Chuck, Skinny and Pedro round up and return to
+the big pasture the cattle that had broken out and were rushing toward
+their old range on the Purgatory.
+
+Carolyn June was left alone with Sing Pete, the Chinese cook at the
+Quarter Circle KT. She still felt somewhat shaken from her experience of
+the morning, although a bath, clean dry clothing and the meal had
+refreshed her considerably. She carried a chair to the front porch,
+thinking to spend the afternoon resting. The events of the day raced in
+review through her mind. It did not seem possible so much could have
+happened in so short a time. Only yesterday had Ophelia and she arrived
+at the ranch. Already she had the feeling that they both were fixtures,
+and had been indefinitely, at the Quarter Circle KT. The elemental
+atmosphere of the range country had completely enveloped her, seemed to
+have absorbed her, and made her a part of it. Some way she rather
+delighted in this sensation of permanency. Her rescue by the Ramblin'
+Kid and the close view she had been able to get of his impulses made her
+thrill with a queer mixture of admiration and pity for him even while
+his brutal answer when she had apologized for her harsh words still
+echoed in her mind.
+
+"Gracious," she thought with a whimsical smile, "things move fast in
+this western country!"
+
+She had seen, already, that both her Uncle Josiah and Parker were
+yielding to the charms of Ophelia. The fancy made her chuckle. She
+remembered Skinny's too rapidly developing tenderness toward herself.
+"Poor fellow," she murmured, slowly shaking her head, "I wish he
+wouldn't! But I suppose he can't help it--I wonder why men are always
+falling in love with me, anyhow? I'm sure I don't try to make them! I
+never saw one yet I really wanted to care--" she stopped suddenly while
+a warm flush spread over her body as the Ramblin' Kid was imaged rather
+vividly in her mind. "Nonsense!" she said aloud with a soft, throaty
+laugh. "Carolyn June, you are getting silly!"
+
+She sprang up and went into the house.
+
+"Sing Pete," she said, stepping into the kitchen, "may I have some
+sugar--I'd like the lumpy kind if you have it?"
+
+"Sure! You have him sugal--how muchee you want?" as he held out to her a
+tin containing squares of the desired article.
+
+"Oh, enough to win a heart!" Carolyn June answered laughing, at the same
+time taking a handful from the can.
+
+"You eat him?" Sing Pete asked with a grin.
+
+"No," she replied, "I feed it to broncho--to Gold Dust maverick. Some
+folks sprinkle salt on bird's tail to catch him--I put sugar on horse's
+tongue to make him love me--"
+
+"Lamblin' Kid, he do that. Allee time him gettee sugal for Clap'n Jack!"
+
+"Feeds 'Clap'n Jack' sugar, does he?" Carolyn June said pensively.
+"Captain Jack's a nice little broncho," she added, "he deserves sugar."
+She paused a moment. "'Lamblin' Kid's' a funny fellow, don't you think
+so, Sing Pete?" she finished idly.
+
+"Not funny--him dangelous!" the Chinaman replied earnestly. "He gettee
+velly mad 'cause I puttee butter in can so cat catchee his head in an'
+go lound an' lound--buckee like a bloncho--havee lots a good time! He
+not talkee much, Lamblin' Kid don't--just dangelous--that's all!"
+
+Carolyn June felt sudden interest.
+
+"When did he get mad about the cat?" she asked quietly.
+
+"Allee same to-day--when you an' Skinny go 'way. Lamblin' Kid cussee me
+lot--tellee me not do him any more. Him dangelous! I not do him next
+time!" Sing Pete explained seriously.
+
+"You are wise, Sing Pete," Carolyn June laughed as she left the kitchen
+by the back door and started toward the corral where the Gold Dust
+maverick was restlessly pacing about. "Don't do it any more! 'Lamblin'
+Kid' is 'dangelous'--dangerous in ways that you don't understand!" she
+finished softly, her eyes lit with a strange light and her heart elated
+and beating quickly because of what the Chinese cook had told her.
+
+The outlaw filly leaped to the far side of the corral and stood
+trembling, her head up and breath coming in whistling snorts of
+defiance and fear, as Carolyn June opened the gate and stepped boldly
+inside. Apparently paying no attention to the frightened horse, the girl
+walked to the center of the corral and facing the mare leaned her back
+against the snubbing post. Both stood perfectly still while the eyes of
+each appraised the other.
+
+After a time the filly seemed to relax and she slowly lowered her head,
+yet watching, alertly, the motionless figure of Carolyn June. The girl
+talked to the horse, her words gentle, her voice soothing and low. The
+Gold Dust maverick became quieter still. Presently she circled the
+corral, trotting swiftly and crowding closely against the fence. Carolyn
+June turned, keeping her eyes always on the broncho, and continued the
+quiet pleading of her voice. It was an hour before the filly shyly and
+cautiously came up to the girl--before curiosity mastered her fear.
+Carolyn June held out her hand and the outlaw nosed it timidly, ready
+instantly to spring away. A lump of sugar was pressed into the Gold Dust
+maverick's mouth--she drew back, working the morsel about with her
+tongue and lips and finally spitting it out. Several times this was
+repeated. At last the beautiful creature tasted the sugar and greedily
+ate the lumps, permitting Carolyn June gently to stroke the velvety
+muzzle. Then the girl's hand crept higher and higher on the horse's neck
+and after a little an arm was slipped over the filly's neck.
+
+"You darling!" Carolyn June breathed softly, "I love you! I wonder what
+the Ramblin' Kid would say if he knew I was stealing your heart?" she
+added demurely as she laid her face against the silky mane of the mare.
+
+She remained at the corral until the afternoon was nearly gone. The
+poplars along the front-yard fence were beginning to throw their shadows
+across the corral. When at last Carolyn June started to return to the
+house the filly followed her to the gate of the corral and whinnied a
+little protest against her going.
+
+"I don't believe you are a bit mean," the girl said as she looked back
+affectionately at the nervous, high-strung animal; "you are just lonely
+and want to be loved--and understood--that is all, and I doubt if you'd
+buck a single buck if I rode you right this minute!"
+
+As she reached the gate the Clagstone "Six" glided quietly down the
+grade from the bench and a moment later Ophelia and Parker joined
+Carolyn June on the porch. The widow's cheeks were glowing and Parker
+looked embarrassed and rather upset. His arms were full of bundles.
+
+"Have a good time?" Carolyn June greeted them.
+
+"Fine," Ophelia replied, "spent oodles of money shopping, saw the
+minister's wife, talked with the editor of the paper and we are going to
+organize a Chapter--I think we shall call it 'The Amazons of Eagle
+Butte.'"
+
+"Great," Carolyn June laughed, "you are a hustler, Ophelia! Uncle
+Josiah will have a fit. Does Parker know?"
+
+"Yes," the widow answered, her eyes twinkling, as she looked at the
+sweating foreman of the Quarter Circle KT. "I told him all about it and
+he is going to give us his moral support."
+
+"Where is Skinny?" Parker interrupted hastily, looking more uneasy and
+foolish than ever; "why ain't he here?"
+
+Carolyn June told of the happenings of the morning.
+
+"My dear, my dear!" Ophelia cried, shuddering when she heard of Carolyn
+June's narrow escape from the quicksand. "You must never cross that
+terrible river again! It's too horrible to think about!"
+
+"It was just 'experience,'" Carolyn June said lightly. "I don't mind it
+a bit now that it is over. Of course," she added seriously, "I feel
+badly about Old Blue--and losing Parker's saddle."
+
+"Don't worry about the saddle, I can get new riding gear lots easier
+than Old Heck could have got another niece!"
+
+"Carolyn June needs a saddle of her own," Ophelia suggested.
+
+"I am going to get one; and then I'll ride the Gold Dust maverick!"
+
+"I doubt if th' Ramblin' Kid will let you ride the filly," Parker said,
+"he's funny that way--"
+
+"I think he will," Carolyn June interposed. "I'll steal her if no other
+way!"
+
+"Maybe he will, but it's doubtful," Parker continued, "but Old Heck is
+aiming to get you a saddle. He spoke about it this morning when we were
+getting the car out to go to town--"
+
+"Dear old uncle," Carolyn June said warmly, "I love him already--don't
+you, Ophelia?"
+
+Parker colored and looked quickly, with a worried expression on his
+face, at the widow. She flushed also.
+
+"That's personal, my dear," she answered, "and rather abrupt!"
+
+Parker went out to put the Clagstone "Six" in the garage.
+
+"Carolyn June," Ophelia said when they were alone, "I have made a
+discovery--"
+
+"It is?" questioningly.
+
+"That western Texas is the 'quickest' country in the world!" the widow
+answered.
+
+"Please explain," Carolyn June said, "although," demurely, with certain
+memories fresh in her mind, "I fancy I can almost guess--"
+
+"Yesterday," Ophelia continued rather breathlessly, "we arrived at the
+Quarter Circle KT; last night at the supper table I met Mr. Parker for
+the first time; ten minutes later he kicked me--accidentally, I
+think--on the shins; I saw him again at breakfast this morning; to-day
+we drove to Eagle Butte and this afternoon"--she paused and then with a
+quick, nervous laugh finished--"he asked me to marry him!"
+
+"Good lord," Carolyn June gasped, "that is--'pronto'--as these cowboys
+say! 'Quick' with a vengeance! There must be something in this western
+air that makes them do it!"
+
+"It was all I could do this morning to keep Skinny from--" she started
+to say, then shifted again to the subject of Parker. "Did he know that
+you are--"
+
+"National Organizer for the 'Movement,'" Ophelia filled in. "Yes, I had
+already confessed. I told him as we were driving to town--and the
+other--the shock--came just after we crossed the bridge when we were
+returning home!"
+
+"He is a bold, dangerous man!" Carolyn June exclaimed, in mock
+seriousness, "trying to get ahead of Uncle Josiah!"
+
+"I inferred as much," the widow explained; "he told me that to-morrow
+would be your uncle's 'day'--whatever he meant by that; the next he, Mr.
+Parker himself, would be 'around' again. 'Unless Old Heck took some fool
+notion or other;' before long he would be away on the beef hunt and one
+can never tell what might happen while one is gone and, well, that's the
+way he felt about it, so he just said it--"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Naturally was completely surprised, entirely non-committal, and made no
+definite agreement!" Ophelia laughed softly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+OLD HECK'S STRATEGY
+
+It was late when Old Heck and the cowboys returned to the ranch. The
+runaway cattle had been overtaken on the sand-hills beyond the North
+Springs and it took the entire afternoon to bunch them and work the
+restless animals back to the Quarter Circle KT, into the big pasture,
+and repair the fence so it was safe to leave them for the night.
+
+Ophelia, Carolyn June and Parker were in the front room when Old Heck
+and the hungry cowboys clattered, long after dark, into the kitchen for
+the supper Sing Pete had kept warm for them.
+
+After the meal Skinny went into the room where Parker and the women
+were. Old Heck followed and talked for a few moments with Parker about
+the affairs of the ranch, then joined the cowboys at the bunk-house
+where they had gone directly after leaving the table. On Skinny's bed
+Parker had tossed a bundle.
+
+"What in thunder do you reckon Skinny's been buying, now?" Chuck
+questioned as he picked up the package and examined it curiously.
+"Blamed if it don't feel like a shirt."
+
+"I'll bet that's what it is," Bert said with a laugh as Old Heck
+stepped inside the door, "the darn fool has gone and got him a white
+shirt--"
+
+"Who has?" Old Heck asked, hearing only the latter part of Bert's
+remark.
+
+"Skinny," Charley answered for Bert, "he's fixing up to make love in
+style--"
+
+"Aw, the blamed idiot," Old Heck grunted, then glancing over toward
+Parker's bed: "--Did you notice whether Parker got him one, too, or
+not?"
+
+Before the question was answered Parker and Skinny appeared at the
+bunk-house door.
+
+"What's the matter?" Chuck said, still holding the bundle in his hand,
+"--ain't it too early for lovers to bu'st up for the night? Or did the
+widow and Carolyn June blow out the lights on you--"
+
+"Forget it, you danged fool!" Skinny said crossly. "Can't you ever get
+over your dog-goned craziness? They was just tired and went to bed. Give
+me that package, it's mine and private!" reaching for the bundle.
+
+Chuck, with a laugh, threw it at him. It landed on the Ramblin' Kid's
+bunk where the latter was lying, his clothing still on, his eyes staring
+straight up while he smoked a cigarette.
+
+"When are you going to ride the Gold Dust maverick?" Skinny asked as he
+picked up the package.
+
+For a moment the Ramblin' Kid did not answer. Then, without changing his
+position, replied:
+
+"I don't know as I'll ever ride her. Maybe I'll turn her loose again on
+th' range."
+
+"What did you catch her for?" Bert queried. "Don't you want her?"
+
+"I caught her, 'cause I wanted to," the Ramblin' Kid answered, "but that
+ain't no sign I intend to keep her. Hell, what's the use?" he finished
+indifferently.
+
+"If you want to sell her," Old Heck said, "I'll buy her."
+
+"She ain't for sale," the Ramblin' Kid answered shortly, "not to
+anybody."
+
+"She would be a thunderin' sight better off if she was used."
+
+"Would she?" the Ramblin' Kid questioned dully. "I ain't so sure about
+that."
+
+"Of course she would," Old Heck insisted, "she'd be fed regular and--"
+
+"An' be mauled around by some darned human!" the Ramblin' Kid
+interrupted with sudden vehemence. "If I was a horse," he continued,
+speaking passionately while his black eyes burned with the spirit of
+rebellion, "I'd rather be a short-grass cay-use nippin' th' scatterin'
+feed on th' north hills an' be free to snort an' raise hell when I
+blamed please than have my belly stuffed with alfalfa hay three times a
+day an' have to gnaw th' iron of some damned man's bit in my mouth or
+carry his saddle on my back!"
+
+Silence followed the outburst.
+
+Old Heck and the cowboys knew the Ramblin' Kid was in one of his
+"moods," and experience had taught them that at such times argument was
+neither discreet nor safe. The thing they did not know was that his
+heart was torn by memory of the agony of Old Blue in the quicksand and
+his mind tortured by the picture of dumb suffering a bullet from his own
+gun had, that morning, mercifully ended.
+
+After a time he spoke again, more quietly and with a note of weariness
+in his voice:
+
+"Oh, well, I reckon I'll keep th' filly. In a day of two, when she gets
+rested up a little, I'll ride her,"
+
+"You ought to break her for Carolyn June," Skinny suggested.
+
+"Had I?" the Ramblin' Kid said with a queer laugh--it was just the
+thought that was in his mind and against which he was struggling.
+"That's a bright idea! Maybe I'll study about it an' take a notion to do
+it. If I do she can ride th' maverick When you an' her go on your
+honeymoon--"
+
+"What's a honeymoon?" Skinny queried innocently.
+
+"It's what two people take when they first get married; go off somewhere
+by themselves--like they was locoed--to find out how bad they got
+stung!" the Ramblin' Kid laughingly answered.
+
+"We'd better all go to bed," Old Heck said; "it's late and we have to
+get up early in the morning. Parker, you and some of the boys will have
+to go skin them dead steers--we've got to save the hides at least."
+
+"Old Heck wants to go to sleep so he can dream about the widow," Chuck
+snickered, "it's his turn again to-morrow to love her--"
+
+"How did she act to-day, Parker?" Bert broke in; "was she pretty
+affectionate?"
+
+"Aw, shut up! Ain't you got any respect for anything--"
+
+"I'll bet he proposed to her and she throwed him down," Chuck hazarded,
+not realizing how nearly he had come to guessing the truth.
+
+Parker looked angrily at Chuck, then his cheeks grew red, he bent over
+and began tugging at his boots in an effort to hide the tell-tale
+confusion in his eyes.
+
+Old Heck furtively studied the face of his foreman.
+
+"Or else she confessed to being a Bolshevik or local-optionist or
+something and the news broke his heart," Charley volunteered, joining in
+the baiting of the range-boss.
+
+"She didn't neither confess," Parker denied hastily, aggravated into a
+reply, "she ain't either one of them! She's an 'Organizer--'"
+
+Dead silence greeted this sudden announcement. Every eye was turned in
+astonishment on Parker while Old Heck and the boys awaited further
+explanation. Parker offered no additional information.
+
+"She's a what?" Old Heck finally managed to whisper, leaning toward
+Parker, while a look of fear and incredulity spread over his face.
+
+Parker noticed the anguish in Old Heck's eyes and a sudden new look of
+cunning came into his own.
+
+"An 'Organizer' I said," he repeated impressively, "she's an 'Organizer'
+for some kind of 'Movement' or other--"
+
+"A dis-organizer, you'd better say!" Chuck laughed uncertainly, "judging
+from the way she's got you and Old Heck stampeding already!"
+
+"Great guns!" Old Heck half groaned, "what--what sort of
+a--a--'Movement' did she say it was, anyhow?"
+
+"Swiss, probably!" came in a chuckling undertone from the direction of
+the Ramblin' Kid's bed. "Hell, what's the difference?"
+
+"She said it was connected someway with 'feminine obligations and
+woman's opportunity,'" Parker answered, ignoring the frivolous
+interruptions.
+
+"I know what she is!" Charley exclaimed, "--it's just what I expected!
+She's one of these self-starting female suffragettes! That's what she
+is. I knowed she was too gentle acting to be harmless!"
+
+"She just had to break loose sooner or later," Bert said in an awed
+voice.
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck murmured hopelessly. "Holy gosh a'mighty!"
+
+The owner of the Quarter Circle KT was really shocked and worried. He
+had surrendered quickly to his first impression concerning the widow.
+The original meeting at Eagle Butte, when she and Carolyn June appeared
+as visions of feminine loveliness, as contrasted with the homely cook
+and her daughter whom he and Skinny had mistaken for, and feared were,
+the Quarter Circle KT's prospective guests, had caused a psychic effect
+on his feelings toward Ophelia. The sense of relief that came when he
+found that the cook was not Ophelia, together with the widow's
+unexpected graciousness, had instantly disarmed his suspicions and,
+metaphorically speaking, hurled his heart into her lap. He had found the
+widow charming, interesting, very feminine, and already dreams had
+shaped themselves in his mind. The sudden revelation that Parker had
+made brought tremendous disappointment. Ophelia had not shown the least
+indication of obnoxious strong-mindedness or that disagreeable
+intellectuality which Old Heck firmly believed was a necessary attribute
+of all women who participated in politics or "movements."
+
+Ophelia was an "Organizer"! It was unbelievable! The thought gave him a
+sickening feeling at the pit of his stomach and actually made his head
+ache.
+
+Old Heck's first impulse, when Parker made the startling announcement,
+was to assert his authority as boss of the outfit and annul the
+every-other-day arrangement whereby he and his foreman were to share and
+share alike in the widow's society. He would let Parker do it all--have
+her all of the time! He wouldn't take any chances! On second thought he
+decided to wait at least another day. Besides, it was against his
+principles, contrary to the ethics of the range, to back up on a bargain
+and he never asked an employee to do a thing he hadn't the courage to do
+himself. He would stick it out, come what may, and see the thing through
+to a finish. However, there was still a means of escape. If Ophelia
+developed any really serious suffragette tendencies during the next day
+or two he would go on the beef hunt himself and let Parker remain at the
+ranch!
+
+When finally he went to sleep Ophelia was still on his mind. The first
+thought that came to him when he awakened the next morning was the
+sickening news Parker had brought.
+
+Old Heck and the cowboys were silent and had about them an air of
+depression when they filed into the kitchen for breakfast.
+
+Each cast furtive, curious glances at Ophelia. The information that she
+was an "Organizer"--presumably for a "Movement" involving woman's
+political rights--caused them to view her with a kind of reverential awe
+and fear. The widow and Carolyn June, apparently, were wholly
+unconscious of the thoughts in the minds of the men. Both women were as
+innocent-looking and attractive as ever--matching with their early
+morning freshness the bowl of roses Carolyn June, before the call to
+breakfast, had gathered and placed on the table.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid sat at the right of Carolyn June. It was the first
+time they had met at the table. He said nothing and seemingly was lost
+in thought. When they had entered the kitchen Carolyn June and he had
+spoken and for a moment he looked into her eyes with an expression that
+caused her own to drop and the warm blood to rush over her throat and
+face. She had felt that same sensation of "soul-nakedness" she
+experienced when she looked into his eyes that first time when she was
+at the circular corral and he was lying under the shed. Neither spoke of
+the incidents of the previous day.
+
+The other cowboys and Old Heck studied Ophelia with a sort of
+fascination, casting shy upward glances at her from over their plates.
+
+Parker and the Ramblin' Kid only, were at ease and undisturbed.
+
+"You wouldn't think she was one by looking at her, would you?" Chuck
+said in an undertone to Charley.
+
+"Some of them's so blamed slick they can't hide it."
+
+"I reckon that's right," Chuck whispered back, "it's an awful jolt to
+Old Heck, ain't it?"
+
+"Yes, he's taking it pretty hard," Charley mumbled.
+
+"Her forehead does bulge out a good deal in front, when you come to look
+at it, don't it?" Chuck observed under his breath.
+
+"Quite a lot," Charley answered in the same tone; "that's one
+indication!"
+
+Parker gazed at the widow with an expression undeniably adoring. Old
+Heck saw it and straightened up with a look of sudden resolution on his
+face. If Parker wasn't afraid of Ophelia, by golly, he wouldn't be! The
+widow had returned the foreman's look with understanding, while more
+than a trace of tenderness and sympathy was registered in her eyes.
+
+"To-morrow is Sunday," Old Heck announced suddenly with startling
+distinctness, "and we'll get things in shape to begin the beef round-up
+on Monday!"
+
+There was immediate interest.
+
+"I'll be darned," the Ramblin' Kid murmured half audibly, "Old Heck is
+goin' to 'Uriah' Parker!"
+
+"Huh?" Skinny queried across the table.
+
+"Nothin'," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a laugh, "I was just reminded
+of somethin' I read in a book one time--"
+
+Carolyn June caught the subtle reference to the Bible story of King
+David's unfortunate romance with another man's "woman" and chuckled.
+
+"Ain't you starting the beef hunt too early?" Charley asked.
+
+"I don't know as I am," Old Heck answered doggedly.
+
+"Aw, that'll put us right in the middle of it on the Fourth of July when
+the Rodeo is going on in Eagle Butte--" Bert began.
+
+"And I ain't going to miss that, either," Chuck interrupted, "that
+Y-Bar outfit over on the Vermejo took everything in the two-mile
+sweepstakes last year and they've been bragging about it ever since.
+They think that Thunderbolt horse of theirs can't be beat. I was going
+to put Silver Tip in this year. He can put that black in second place--"
+
+"No, he can't," the Ramblin' Kid remarked quietly, "--you'd lose your
+money. There's only one animal on th' Kiowa range that can outrun that
+Vermejo horse."
+
+"What animal is that?" Charley asked.
+
+"She's in th' circular corral," the Ramblin' Kid answered laconically.
+
+"The Gold Dust maverick?" Bert questioned.
+
+"That's the one I mean," the Ramblin' Kid replied in a low voice, "for
+two miles--or five--there ain't nothin' in western Texas, or Mexico
+either, that can catch her."
+
+"Why don't you take her in when the Rodeo is on and run her in the
+sweepstakes then?" Chuck asked eagerly. "I ain't caring what Kiowa horse
+gets the money just so that Y-Bar outfit is taken down a notch or two.
+Ever since they got that Thunderbolt horse and beat Old Heck's
+Quicksilver with him they've been crowing over the Quarter Circle KT and
+I'm getting plumb sick of it--"
+
+"Old Heck lost three thousand dollars on that race!" Bert interrupted
+rather triumphantly.
+
+"I didn't neither," Old Heck corrected sullenly, "it was only
+twenty-five hundred!"
+
+"Well, that Vermejo crowd has got a hundred of mine," Chuck said
+vindictively, "but I don't give a darn for that--I'd be willing to lose
+twice that much again just to set that Thunderbolt horse of theirs back
+in second place!"
+
+"Why don't you run the outlaw filly?" Charley asked coaxingly of the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Yes, go on and put her in," Skinny urged, "--you ought to!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid remained silent, seemingly indifferent to the teasing
+of the others.
+
+Carolyn June leaned over and said, in a voice audible only to him, while
+her eyes grew mellow with a look that tested his composure to the
+uttermost but which wrung no sign from him:
+
+"Please, race the maverick--I--want you to--Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+It was the first time she had used his name in speaking directly to him
+and the tone in which it was spoken made him tremble in spite of
+himself. For a moment he returned her gaze. Her words and manner were so
+different that by their very difference they reminded him of what she
+had called him yesterday--"an ignorant, savage, stupid brute"--when he
+had refused to interfere with the cat when its head was caught in the
+can. He started to make a cynical reply. Then he remembered her sympathy
+for Old Blue, her apology later for the harsh words--anyhow he knew or
+felt in his heart they were true--and suddenly he seemed to see the
+pink satin garter he still carried in his pocket. The look that came
+into his eyes made Carolyn June lower her own. He smiled a whimsical but
+hopeless smile, as, replying apparently to the pleading of Charley and
+Skinny, he said, softly, the single word:
+
+"Maybe!"
+
+Old Heck had forgotten the annual Rodeo held in Eagle Butte, for some
+days each summer, around the Fourth of July. His sudden determination
+and eagerness to have the beef round-up begin earlier than usual in
+order to get Parker away from the widow had driven all else but that one
+idea from his mind. The protests reminded him of his oversight. He had
+not intended to deprive the cowboys of the opportunity to enjoy the one
+big event happening yearly in the Kiowa country and which temporarily
+turned Eagle Butte, for a few days each summer, into a seething
+metropolis of care-free humanity.
+
+"I think it's a darned shame to spring the beef hunt so it will
+interfere with the Rodeo," Bert grumbled, "--and us have to be out on
+the hills wrangling steers while the celebration is going on!"
+
+"I'm not-goin! to be out on th' hills then," the Ramblin' Kid said
+quietly but with unchangeable finality.
+
+"You can all go to the Rodeo," Old Heck interposed, not feeling just
+right in his conscience about sending Parker away in advance of the time
+expected, and wishing to make amends,"--Parker and all of you. You can
+'break' the round-up for a few days during the Rodeo and what cattle
+you've got gathered by then can be turned into the big pasture and held
+there till it's over. That'll let you all get into Eagle Butte for the
+Fourth--I'd like to see that blamed Thunderbolt horse beat myself! But
+we'll start the beef hunt Monday the way I said in the first place--"
+
+"Who's going to cook, this year, on the round-up?" Charley queried. "You
+can't take the Chink from here this time, can you?"
+
+"I reckon Sing Pete'll have to go along as usual," Old Heck answered;
+"it'll make it a little unhandy at the ranch, but--"
+
+"Ophelia and I can 'batch' while you are gone," Carolyn June suggested.
+"We won't mind being alone and it will be fun to cook our own meals."
+
+"We will enjoy it," Ophelia added agreeably.
+
+"You ain't going to be alone," Old Heck said; "Skinny and me will be
+here. When it comes to the cooking maybe between the four of us we can
+get along some way!"
+
+"Well, if the round-up's got to start Monday," Parker declared sullenly
+as they left the table, "I'll have to go down to town again to-day and
+get me a new saddle. Mine was on Old Blue."
+
+"I'll go with you," Old Heck said in a conciliatory way. "Charley and
+the other boys can be working on them dead steers till we get back.
+We'll go in the car and ought to make the round-trip by noon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+FIXING FIXERS
+
+The widow and Carolyn June were alone at the house. Old Heck and Parker
+went immediately from the breakfast table to the garage to get the car
+out to go to Eagle Butte. The cowboys were at the barn preparing to
+begin the day's work. Skinny had excused himself, ostensibly to attend
+to some ranch chores, but in reality to get away to the bunk-house and
+"fix up" for the day's courtship of Carolyn June. He planned, when the
+cowboys were gone, to put on the white shirt Parker brought, yesterday,
+from Eagle Butte.
+
+"Ophelia," Carolyn June said mysteriously as they stepped out on the
+front porch and filled their lungs with the clean air of the morning,
+"you made a 'discovery' yesterday, I believe?" pausing questioningly.
+
+"Yes," the widow smiled, recalling their conversation relative to
+Parker's abrupt proposal of marriage.
+
+"To-day," Carolyn June continued impressively, "it is my turn--I have
+made one!"
+
+"And it is?"
+
+"You and I have been 'framed!'" was the answer spoken solemnly yet
+scarcely louder than a whisper, while the brown eyes of Carolyn June
+sparkled with a mixture of suppressed anger, merriment and indignation.
+
+"Framed?" the widow repeated inquiringly, "just what does 'framed' mean,
+my dear?"
+
+"Framed means," Carolyn June replied wisely, "'tricked,' 'jobbed,'
+'jinxed,' 'fixed,' or whatever it is people do to people when they
+scheme to do something to them without the ones to whom they are doing
+it knowing how it is done!"
+
+"Exceedingly lucid, my love," the widow laughed, "but you are so
+agonizingly fond of suspense--"
+
+"Come inside," Carolyn June said as she led the way into the house, "and
+in a dark corner--no, that would be too near to the walls and their
+proverbial 'ears,' in the center of the room is better--I will expose
+the whole diabolical plot!"
+
+At the end of the reading table they stopped and faced each other.
+
+"And now?" Ophelia said, expectantly.
+
+"And now," Carolyn June repeated, her voice low and carefully guarded.
+"Listen: Before Ophelia Cobb and Carolyn June Dixon ever arrived at this
+Quarter Circle KT their 'lovers' were already picked out for
+them--officially chosen, delegated, appointed, foreordained and
+everything! The 'arrangements' had all been made--"
+
+"I don't understand," the widow said, bewildered by the rapid flow of
+legal-sounding words.
+
+"Nor did I at first," Carolyn June went on, "but I have figured it all
+out! I have 'discovered' what all this mysterious hinting about
+'arrangements,' 'the agreement,' 'Old Heck's day,' 'Parker's time,'
+'Skinny's job,' and so forth means! I have studied it out. Why is Skinny
+Rawlins thrown into my lap as my 'regular' lover? It's his 'job'--that
+is why! And why the day-and-day-about courting of yourself by Uncle
+Josiah and Parker? It is the 'agreement'--the one is to have you one day
+and the other the next! Before we came some such arrangement was fixed
+up. I am sure of it--"
+
+"Impossible," Ophelia protested, "preposterous!"
+
+"Outrageous!" Carolyn June added vehemently, "but truth just the same!
+To start with they didn't want us to come. That telegram lying about
+them all having the smallpox proved as much. We were, for some reason or
+other, considered 'afflictions,' Why, I don't know. I guess they thought
+we were a pair of female vampires or something and had to be disposed of
+in advance to prevent our stirring things up and causing a lot of
+murders or suicides or duels on the Quarter Circle KT!"
+
+"I can't believe it," Ophelia muttered as if stunned. "Why, that would
+be 'dealing' with us just as though we were cattle!"
+
+"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed vindictively, her auger for the
+moment getting the better of her sense of the ridiculous, "they 'dealt'
+in us! More than likely they played poker to decide how to divide us
+up--to see who should love you and which should love me! As if the heart
+of a woman can be made to run in a groove cut to order by the hand of
+any masculine--insect!" she finished, thoughtless of the incongruous
+metaphor.
+
+"Then Skinny and your Uncle Josiah," the widow murmured, "and
+Parker--are--are--pretending?"
+
+"No," Carolyn June answered, "they started out 'pretending,' but they've
+stepped into their own trap! They are painfully serious now--they are
+'intending!'"
+
+"What shall we do about it?" Ophelia asked helplessly.
+
+"We ought to assassinate them!" Carolyn June snapped, then laughed as
+the absurdity of the situation dawned upon her and her sense of humor
+overcame the moment of anger and indignation. "I have it--I've got it!
+We will Vamp' them in dead earnest! We'll fix the 'fixers,' we'll frame
+the 'framers'!"
+
+"But how?" doubtfully.
+
+"From now on," Carolyn June replied decisively, "I am going to flirt,
+individually and collectively--desperately and wickedly--with the whole
+male population of this ranch! We'll show them what premeditated
+love-making really is! When it comes to Uncle Josiah and, well, possibly
+Parker, you will have to take care of that giddy pair yourself and,
+incidentally, you might work some on Charley Saunders," mentioning the
+oldest of the cowboys. "I'll just flicker an eyelid occasionally at
+Parker, unless you object?"
+
+"Not in the least," Ophelia answered, blushing a trifle.
+
+"Well, then, we will make it a free-for-all," Carolyn June said, "and--"
+
+"How about the Ramblin' Kid?" the widow interrupted, "do you think he is
+one of the conspirators--is in on the--the--'frame-up?' Is he also to be
+a 'Victim'?"
+
+Carolyn June colored the least bit, paused a moment before she replied,
+then said rather stiffly:
+
+"He--yes, he is probably having more fun watching us being 'officially'
+made love to than any other one of the entire bunch. The Ramblin' Kid
+will have to take his medicine along with the rest! Every man-thing on
+the Quarter Circle KT--eliminating Sing Pete from that classification
+--is my meat!"
+
+"When does the slaughter begin?" Ophelia laughed.
+
+"Right now!" Carolyn June answered. "War is declared--"
+
+She stopped suddenly as a step sounded on the porch and a moment later
+Skinny entered the room. He was painfully "dressed up." The instant Old
+Heck and Parker, in the Clagstone "Six," started for Eagle Butte and the
+cowboys disappeared down the lane in the direction of the big pasture,
+Skinny struggled into the white shirt. He planned to try its effect on
+Carolyn June while the others were away. If it did not produce results
+he would slip back to the bunk-house before they returned and change
+again to his normal dress.
+
+When Skinny stepped into the room he was fully conscious of his unusual
+appearance. The morning was warm and he had not put on a coat. The shirt
+billowed over his shoulders, arms and chest in a snowy cloud. It seemed
+impossible to Skinny that anything in all the world could be so vividly,
+persistently white as the cloth that literally enveloped the upper half
+of his body. It actually gleamed. The sleeves of the shirt were too
+long. A pair of sky-blue, rosette-fastened, satin ribbon sleeve-holders
+above his elbows kept the cuffs from slipping over his hands. Parker had
+been unable to get the purple necktie and had brought, instead, one that
+was a solid Shamrock green. Skinny swore when he saw the tie, but
+decided to wear it anyhow. Parker had explained by saying he had
+forgotten the errand until he was starting from town and then stepped
+into Old Leon's--a cheap general store in Eagle Butte--and purchased the
+outfit from the Jew. That accounted also for the surplus length of
+sleeve--the shirt was a size and a half larger than Skinny had ordered
+and for which Parker declared positively he had asked. Eternal hatred
+for all Hebrews was born in Skinny's heart the moment he saw the layout.
+But, well, it was there; he was anxious to see if a white shirt would
+have any effect, and he would wear it anyway.
+
+Skinny knew instantly that he made an impression on Carolyn June.
+
+She looked at him once and was speechless!
+
+"By gosh," he said to himself, "Chuck was right! It sure does beat hell
+how clothes affect a woman!"
+
+Carolyn June, unquestionably, was overcome. The surprise had been too
+much for her. He had knocked her cold! The shirt had done the work! She
+bit nervously at the nail of her thumb, pressed desperately against her
+teeth. Her whole body trembled. Her face flamed scarlet. Skinny saw her
+agitation and resolved at that moment that he would never again be
+without a white shirt!
+
+Ophelia also was visibly affected. The widow gave one look at Skinny,
+glanced quickly at Carolyn June, then, with her hands clasped tightly
+against her breast, she leaned weakly against the table and chewed at
+her underlip. She started to speak and stopped.
+
+"Well, I--I--got back!" Skinny said, breaking the spell while he grinned
+somewhat sheepishly and yet with an air of complete satisfaction.
+
+"I--I--see you--did!" Carolyn June choked hysterically.
+
+"I was gone longer than I aimed to be," Skinny continued, rapidly
+gaining confidence as he saw the confusion of the women; "after I got
+the chores done I concluded to fix up a little. This is the first time I
+ever wore this shirt," he went on, feeling that a bit of explanation was
+entirely proper and would probably help in restoring the composure of
+Carolyn June and the widow. "Parker just brought it out yesterday and it
+was a good deal of trouble to make the collar work right. It seemed like
+it was pretty stiff or something. Generally speaking the whole outfit's
+bigger than it really ought to be, but maybe it'll shrink up some when
+it's washed," he finished in a casual matter-of-fact way.
+
+"It--it--is wonderful!" Carolyn June stammered, "it is--I don't think I
+ever saw one that was--was--whiter--"
+
+"It looked that way to me," Skinny interrupted as if glad some one else
+had noticed a peculiarity of the garment that already had troubled him
+somewhat, "I thought it was uncommonly white!"
+
+"Perhaps it just seems that way because we are not used to it," Ophelia
+suggested sympathetically.
+
+"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed feverishly, "it is because we are
+not used to it--it will be perfectly all right when we have looked at it
+a little more!"
+
+Skinny decided he would risk the gauntlet of comment from Parker, Old
+Heck and the cowboys and wear the shirt the rest of the day.
+
+Carolyn June was really sorry for Skinny, but--she needed air--she felt
+she must have it.
+
+"Please," she cried suddenly and with, an effort, "excuse me! I--I--have
+something I wish to do! You," speaking to Skinny, "and Ophelia stay here
+and visit each other a while!"
+
+Without waiting for an answer she stepped quickly into the kitchen,
+asked Sing Pete for a handful of sugar and hurried out to the circular
+corral.
+
+"Oh, Skinny, Skinny, you are so funny," she laughed aloud as she went
+through the back-yard gate. "It breaks my heart to break your heart--but
+you are one of the 'fixers' and you've got to be 'fixed.'"
+
+The Gold Dust maverick at first was shy when Carolyn June opened the
+gate and entered the corral. After a few moments she recognized the girl
+and was soon eating the sugar from the hand of Carolyn June. Before the
+supply was exhausted the friendship and confidence of the two, begun
+yesterday, was firmly reestablished. The maverick allowed Carolyn June
+to swing her weight from the glossy withers, to clasp her arms tightly
+about the trim, clean-built neck, and when, after an hour, the girl
+started toward the house, the outlaw mare protested so eagerly against
+being left alone that she turned back to the corral and leaning against
+the fence stroked the soft muzzle thrust between the bars.
+
+Carolyn June was cooing endearing terms to the filly and playing with
+the quivering underlip when she heard a horse galloping swiftly up the
+lane and past the barn. Instinctively she stepped back and turned just
+as the Ramblin' Kid, riding Captain Jack, wheeled around the end of the
+shed near the corral.
+
+His sudden appearance surprised her. She had thought he was with the
+cowboys over at the upland pasture helping skin the steers killed by the
+lightning.
+
+When they left the ranch the Ramblin' Kid had ridden away with Charley
+and the others, but not with any intention of going to the big pasture.
+Where the road turned toward the lower ford he held Captain Jack to the
+left.
+
+"Ain't you going with us," Charley Saunders asked, "and help skin them
+steers?"
+
+"No," the Ramblin' Kid replied quietly. "I ain't. I've got something
+else to do. Anyhow, I ain't a butcher--I work with live cattle, not dead
+ones!" he concluded as Captain Jack continued in the direction of the
+upper crossing.
+
+"He's the independentest darn' cuss I ever saw!" Charley remarked to his
+companions as the Ramblin' Kid disappeared. "It's a wonder Old Heck
+don't fire him."
+
+"He can't," Bert laughed. "Th' Ramblin' Kid don't stay at the Quarter
+Circle KT by the grace of Old Heck, but by the choice of th' Ramblin'
+Kid! Anyhow, he's too good with horses--" His voice trailed away to a
+low mutter as they turned in among the willows and cottonwood trees
+along the bank of the Cimarron.
+
+At the upper crossing on almost the same spot where he had lifted
+Carolyn June from the quicksand to the solid ground of the meadow land,
+the Ramblin' Kid stopped Captain Jack. He looked out over the placid,
+unbroken surface of the sand-bar and saw the end of the broken rope
+coiled loosely where Old Blue had been drawn under. A few yards away the
+white felt hat Carolyn June had tossed to one side, to be a mute and
+pathetic messenger of her fate, when she thought death was certain,
+still rested on the smooth surface of the sand. It was to get the hat
+the Ramblin' Kid had come again to the scene of yesterday's tragedy. He
+had seen it lying there when Carolyn June and he rode away on Captain
+Jack and thought then of trying to get it, but the part of the broken
+rope attached to his saddle was too short to reach it and it was
+impossible to secure it in any other way. Chuck had returned the
+Ramblin' Kid's rope to him yesterday when they were after the runaway
+steers and it was now on his saddle. He lightly tossed the noose so that
+it fell circling the object he sought. Gently flicking the rope toward
+him he tightened the loop about the crown of the hat and drew it to the
+edge of the quicksand. He picked up the hat, looked curiously at it,
+remounted Captain Jack, paused a moment and gazed at the treacherous
+surface beneath which the body of Old Blue was hidden and with a
+savagely muttered something about "th' damned stuff!" whirled the little
+stallion and rode rapidly in the direction from which he came.
+
+As Captain Jack galloped along the lane the Ramblin' Kid looked at the
+hat curiously, turning it first one way and then the other. With a
+laugh he reached into his pocket and drew out the pink satin garter. An
+expression of tenderness, followed by a look of deep humility that
+quickly changed into savage anger, came into his eyes as he looked first
+at the hat, soiled and dirty, and then at the dainty bit of elastic he
+held in his hand.
+
+"A swell pair of souvenirs," he said bitterly, "for an 'ign'rant,
+savage, stupid brute' of a cow-puncher to be packin' around!"
+
+Before reaching the barn the Ramblin' Kid dropped the garter again into
+his pocket. Rounding the end of the shed he rode Captain Jack directly
+up to Carolyn June. Dismounting, he left the little roan standing, not
+troubling to drop the reins over the broncho's head, stepped toward the
+girl and extended the hat, saying simply and without emotion.
+
+"Here's your hat!"
+
+There was no embarrassment now or humility in his eyes as he looked
+steadily at Carolyn June. His expression was as cold as if the one to
+whom he spoke was an utter stranger.
+
+"I--" Carolyn June hesitated, "oh, I thank you! It was kind of you to
+think about it and ride back--back--there," she involuntarily
+shuddered when she thought of the upper crossing, "and get it!"
+
+The simple, unexpected thoughtfulness of the deed touched her. It was
+the natural, instinctive act of a gentleman. She had forgotten the hat.
+He had not. As she looked at him she felt that, someway, she might have
+known such a thing was exactly what he would do.
+
+"You're welcome," he said quietly, starting to turn away.
+
+A spirit of mischief suddenly flared up in her heart. She thought of the
+pink elastic she had lost and which she believed he was carrying now in
+his pocket.
+
+"Is the hat all--didn't you--" she intended to say "find something
+else?" but quickly stopped. The Ramblin' Kid paused and turned again
+toward Carolyn June. She hesitated in confusion. It had flashed to her
+mind that if he had the garter he would not lie about it. He would say
+as much and offer to return it to her. Someway, she did not wish
+that--she wanted him to keep it, but she did not want him to know that
+she wanted her garter to be carried by him!
+
+His black eyes looked keenly at her, as if they would force from her
+lips the thing she evidently dared not say.
+
+"I--I was just getting acquainted with the Gold Dust maverick!" Carolyn
+June finished lamely with a nervous laugh.
+
+"You want to be careful," the Ramblin' Kid said with the slightest curl
+of his lips at her obvious shifting of meanings, "she ain't exactly a
+'lady's animal' yet. She'll fight. Skinny started to go in th' corral
+this morning an' had to back up. Th' maverick went at him to kill.
+She's goin' to be a 'one-man' horse th' same as Captain Jack."
+
+"Perhaps it was because she was afraid of him," Carolyn June suggested.
+
+"Maybe it was because Skinny was afraid of her," the Ramblin' Kid
+chuckled.
+
+"Aren't you going to ride the filly in that race at Eagle Butte?" she
+asked suddenly with a hint of coquetry in her eyes and voice.
+
+"Why?" he shot back at her, observing the changed inflection and look.
+
+"I--I--would like you to," Carolyn June murmured demurely as she
+followed up the feminine method of mastering a man, "it would be fun to
+see her run!"
+
+"Is that all?" the Ramblin' Kid asked gently and with a peculiar
+emphasis.
+
+"Isn't that enough?" the girl countered in a tone bordering close to the
+tender.
+
+The answer was slow in coming.
+
+"Th' Gold Dust maverick will be in th' sweepstakes," the Ramblin' Kid
+finally said, a note of contempt in his voice. "I'll ride her"--as he
+jerked the saddle from Captain Jack, turned the stallion into the
+corral, then started toward the bunk-house, while Carolyn June moved
+away in the direction of the back-yard gate--"I'll ride her," he
+repeated, emphasizing strongly the last ten words, "_to beat that
+Thunderbolt horse from over on th' Vermejo_".
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+A DANCE AND A RIDE
+
+Old Heck and Parker returned from Eagle Butte before noon. Parker
+climbed silently from the Clagstone "Six" and lifting out a new saddle
+went toward the stable. Old Heck carried another--a beautiful thing,
+artistically scrolled, the horn and stirrups silver trimmed--and laid it
+on the front porch as Carolyn June, Ophelia and Skinny stepped out of
+the big room.
+
+"It's yours," he said to Carolyn June.
+
+"Oh, you darling old uncle!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around his
+neck and giving a tight squeeze while she kissed him full on the mouth.
+
+He reddened. "I ain't so darned old!" he laughed as he withdrew from her
+embrace and, glancing up, caught sight of Skinny in the immaculate
+shirt. "My Gawd!" he whispered under his breath.
+
+Parker immediately saddled a horse and rode away to join the cowboys at
+their work. Lunches for the party had been taken with them when they
+left the ranch in the morning. During the trip to Eagle Butte Old Heck
+and his foreman had talked but little. There was a feeling of restraint
+between Parker and him that made each hesitate to start a conversation
+that would be almost certain to work around to a discussion of
+Ophelia--a subject uppermost in the minds of both.
+
+At noon the Ramblin' Kid came to the house for dinner.
+
+He and Skinny occupied their usual places. He looked once at Skinny's
+shirt, murmured softly and in a tone of infinite disgust and pity,
+"Hell!" then ate his food in silence. During the meal Carolyn June
+ignored him, but smiled tenderly and often at Skinny. Old Heck and the
+widow, at the far end of the table, carried on a low-voiced dialogue.
+
+During the afternoon the Ramblin' Kid remained away from the house. A
+couple of times, glancing out of the window, Carolyn June saw him at the
+circular corral petting and caressing Captain Jack or the Gold Dust
+maverick.
+
+When Sing Pete hammered the iron triangle announcing supper Parker and
+the cowboys had returned, the hides from the dead steers had been
+unloaded and the men were ready for the meal.
+
+As Carolyn June and Ophelia went into the kitchen they exchanged a look
+of understanding. Skinny lagged behind Old Heck. He dreaded the shock of
+the white shirt on the other cowboys. When he stepped into the room his
+face flamed scarlet and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. He
+expected merciless, sarcastic chiding--thinly veiled but cruel. He was
+disappointed. The cowboys looked at him for a moment, exchanged winks,
+then sat silently and solemnly down to the table. The presence of the
+women had saved, for the time being, the suffering Skinny.
+
+Carolyn June distributed tender words and velvety looks impartially
+among the younger cowboys, while Ophelia alternated sweet nothings
+between Parker and Old Heck, with an occasional sidelong glance at
+Charley that brought a heightened color to his sun-browned cheeks.
+
+Chuck sighed dolefully.
+
+"Why so sad?" Carolyn June asked gently, looking with melting sympathy
+at the pensive cowboy.
+
+"I--I--was just thinking of a--a--funeral I saw once!" he answered,
+gazing steadily and with pretended awe at Skinny's white shirt. "Some
+colors always remind me of funerals or--or--weddings!" he explained.
+
+A suppressed snicker circled the table.
+
+"Don't be down-hearted," Carolyn June laughed, "it may not go that far.
+
+"Uncle Josiah," she added suddenly, "Ophelia and I have a wonderful
+surprise for you and the boys."
+
+Old Heck looked at her without replying while he awaited an explanation.
+
+"We are going to give a dance!" Carolyn June went on.
+
+"A dance?" he repeated incredulously, "when--"
+
+"To-night--in the front room," she hastened to explain, "not a big
+dance--just a little one for you and the boys. The graphophone will
+furnish music, there are some good one-step and waltz records--Skinny
+and I were playing them this afternoon--and every blessed cowboy on the
+Quarter Circle KT must be there!"
+
+A short silence followed her words, then a chorus of "Well be there!"
+greeted her.
+
+"In an hour," Carolyn June said, smiling sweetly at the cowboys, as they
+left the kitchen, "everybody be back at the house. We'll fix the room
+and have it ready--don't any one bother to 'dress up,'" she added as an
+afterthought.
+
+"Old Heck's niece acts kind of stampedish, don't she?" Bert remarked as
+Parker and the cowboys filed out of the back-yard gate toward the
+bunk-house.
+
+"Yes," Charley answered. "I'm going to shave."
+
+"So am I," said Chuck, as they hurried in the direction of their
+sleeping quarters.
+
+"Me, too," laughed Bert. "Gee, didn't Skinny shine in that shirt?" as
+they disappeared inside the building and there was a rush to hunt out
+razors, brushes and other toilet necessities or clean handkerchiefs and
+ties.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid alone seemed uninterested. He dropped down on his bed
+and idly watched the others prepare for the evening's diversion.
+
+"Ain't you going?" Chuck asked him, noticing his indifference.
+
+A short, half-cynical laugh with "Oh, maybe I'll go set on the porch
+an' listen to th' music!" was the answer.
+
+When Parker and the cowboys reappeared at the house it was plain that
+all had disobeyed Carolyn June's injunction not to "dress up." Each had
+paid tribute in some way, by a smooth-scraped face, a dean shirt, a tie
+or something, to the vanity of his own heart and the desire for the good
+opinion of either Carolyn June or the widow.
+
+Both women noticed it. They exchanged glances while Carolyn June softly
+whispered to Ophelia: "Stir them up--it's coming to them!"
+
+The widow smiled understandingly.
+
+Old Heck fidgeted uncomfortably. The situation was entirely beyond his
+control. By right he and Ophelia ought to be sitting there quietly
+making love, while Skinny and Carolyn June, in another corner of the
+room or out on the porch, were doing the same thing. He would just have
+to await developments.
+
+Parker was elated. Carolyn June's proposal had broken up Old Heck's
+evening alone with the widow. Perhaps--the thought thrilled the foreman
+--Ophelia herself had planned it!
+
+"Skinny can keep the graphophone working," Carolyn June laughed. "Put on
+a one-step first," she said as he rather grudgingly went to the corner
+and started the music. "Come on, Bert, we'll dance this one," she cried
+merrily, as she stepped up to the blushing cowboy and put her hand, with
+a tender little pressure, on his arm. "It's 'ladies' night,' you
+know--Ophelia, pick your pardner!"
+
+"Aw--don't you reckon you ought to choose one of the others first?"
+Bert, considerably embarrassed by the sudden attention, mumbled as he
+moved with pretended reluctance but secret eagerness out on to the
+floor.
+
+"I know who I want to dance with!" Carolyn June whispered significantly
+with another squeeze of his arm while her warm breath fanned his cheek.
+
+For a moment Ophelia stood as if undecided while Old Heck and Parker
+each tried by their looks to register unconcern, their hearts meanwhile
+leaping with uncertain expectancy and hope. Suddenly turning from both
+and going up to Charley, she said softly and with well-feigned shyness:
+
+"I--I--please, won't you dance this one with me?"
+
+"With the most exceeding pleasure!" Charley replied gallantly, arising
+and reaching out his hands.
+
+Parker and Old Heck gulped their astonishment and disappointment--each
+swallowing as if he had something in his throat that would not go
+down--and glared savagely at each other.
+
+Skinny next put on a waltz record. Carolyn June and Chuck swung through
+its dreamy rhythm while her hair brushed the cowboy's neck and her eyes,
+half closed, looked alluringly into his. "I--I--could do this
+forever--with you!" she breathed, accenting the last word and making
+Chuck want to yell for joy.
+
+At the beginning of the waltz Ophelia paused a moment before Old Heck,
+glanced demurely at Parker, took a step toward the latter, turned
+quickly to the first and flooding him with a look of tenderness held out
+her hands while she spoke the simple entreaty:
+
+"Please!"
+
+Old Heck leaped to his feet, hitched nervously at the belt of his
+trousers, ran his fingers around the inside of his collar, and, with a
+look of triumph at Parker, led the widow through the dance. She
+permitted her body to relax and lean against her partner, dancing with
+an abandon that not only fired the emotions of Old Heck to fever heat,
+but was as well like dippers of oil on the flame of the foreman's
+jealousy.
+
+Parker gritted his teeth and followed Old Heck with a look that meant
+nothing less than the desire to kill!
+
+As Ophelia and Old Heck, and Carolyn June with Chuck circled the room
+Skinny leaned weakly against the graphophone. He was tortured
+agonizingly by the strange action of Carolyn June. He was her lover, her
+official, absolute lover! Why did she want to go and get things all
+mixed up like this? It wasn't fair. The other boys were not supposed to
+make love to her! They had elected him to do it and he was getting
+along all right till she thought of having this blamed fool dance. He
+began to doubt the efficacy of the white shirt and frequently drew one
+of the loose, baggy sleeves--rapidly losing their snowy
+spotlessness--across his face to rid himself of beads of perspiration.
+
+The waltz was followed by another one-step and Ophelia granted this
+favor to Parker while Old Heck sat and swore steadily under his
+breath--regretful that he had not sent the foreman and the cowboys out
+on the beef hunt a week ago!
+
+Outside, the Ramblin' Kid half-reclined on the edge of the porch. With a
+cigarette between his teeth, a sneering smile on his lips, he watched,
+through the open door, the group within. He was convinced now that
+Carolyn June was utterly frivolous. She danced and flirted with Bert,
+Chuck, Charley--and even Pedro--one after the other and occasionally
+Parker. Poor Skinny alone was neglected. She seemed to have forgotten
+that he existed save when, from time to time, she suggested that he put
+this or that record on the graphophone. To each of the cowboys she
+whispered tender little sentiments, gave soulful looks and insinuating
+smiles--all but caressed them openly. Ophelia did like things to Old
+Heck, Parker and Charley.
+
+In very truth it was a "slaughter."
+
+It was hot After an hour Carolyn June stepped out on the porch for a
+breath of air while Skinny Bought in the cabinet for a record she had
+asked him to play. The Ramblin' Kid straightened up as she came out of
+the door. He was disgusted, angry, heart-sickened. He had seen enough
+and was starting to leave.
+
+Carolyn June had noticed the absence of the Ramblin' Kid. She had
+believed, all evening, he was on the porch and that was the real reason
+she had come outside. She saw him. "Oh, is.--is--that you, Ramblin'
+Kid?" she exclaimed as if surprised, and went quickly to where, at the
+sound of her voice, he had paused.
+
+He did not answer. The light shone full on his face and he knew that she
+knew--and had known before she spoke--that he was there. His eyes were
+filled with a look queerly blending scorn, loathing, pity and pain.
+
+"Why--why--don't you come in and dance?" she asked lightly, not certain
+of his mood.
+
+"I don't want to," he replied coldly: "anyhow--" he added with a sneer
+and a brutal laugh as he slowly moved away in the darkness, "when I
+decide to _hug_ I'll hug in private!"
+
+Carolyn June started almost as though he had struck her. The taunt was
+an insult! A flood of anger swept over her. "The brute!" she whispered
+passionately and with utter contempt in her voice. She stood a moment.
+Suddenly she remembered the reckless abandon with which she had been
+dancing and flirting with the cowboys inside the house. Her face flamed
+scarlet. She looked out into the blackness toward the circular corral.
+Her expression changed and a pitying smile crossed her lips: "Poor
+Ramblin' Kid--he just--does not understand!" she murmured and stepped
+back into the house.
+
+As the Ramblin' Kid passed through the back-yard gate he muttered
+savagely under his breath: "Playin' with their hearts like marbles--th'
+damned fools!" He paused a moment and added, as though tired, "Oh, well,
+I reckon she thinks she has to do it--it's her breed--she was raised
+that way I guess!"
+
+The snuffling sound of a horse blowing hay-powder or other dust from its
+nostrils came from the direction of the circular corral. The Ramblin'
+Kid stopped in his walk and turning went thoughtfully through the
+darkness toward where Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were
+quietly feeding. He leaned against the bars of the corral and looked at
+the shadowy forms of the two horses standing a little distance away.
+Captain Jack quit eating and came to the fence.
+
+"God! Little Horse"--the Ramblin' Kid spoke tensely and without
+repression--"why can't humans be as decent an' honest as you?"
+
+The black dome of night was studded with innumerable stars that gleamed
+like points of silver sprinkled over a canopy of somber velvet some
+infinite hand had flung, in a great arch, from rim to rim of a sleeping
+world. The call of a night bird shrilled softly from the cottonwood
+trees along the Cimarron. A hint of a breeze swung idly from the west
+and rustled the leaves in the tops of the poplars in front of the house.
+Faintly as a distant echo came the wailing strains of a waltz, drifting
+out from the lighted windows and the open door of the room where Carolyn
+June and Ophelia, in a spirit of sport and for revenge, juggled the
+hearts of men afraid of nothing in all the world but the look in a
+Woman's eyes.
+
+The music tortured the soul of the Ramblin' Kid. It breathed the
+unfathomable strife of life--of love, longing, hope, despair--almost,
+yet subtly, elusively, would not tell the eternal "Why?" of all things.
+
+Not heeding time, he stood and listened. The crunching sound made by the
+Gold Dust maverick, munching at the pile of hay on the ground in the
+corral, blended with and seemed a queer accompaniment to the melody that
+came from the scene of revelry up at the house.
+
+The orange disk of a late-rising moon showed above the rim of the
+sand-hills at the lower end of the valley. The Ramblin' Kid watched
+it--until it grew into a rounded plate of burnished, glistening silver.
+The Gold Dust maverick was suddenly flooded with a glare of light as the
+moonbeams poured over the top of the shed and streamed through the bars
+of the circular corral. The filly lifted her head.
+
+An impulse to ride--ride--ride, to get away from it all--far out on the
+wide unpeopled plains where there was nothing above but God, and the
+unmeasured depths of His heavens, and nothing beneath but the earth and
+the rhythmic beat of his horse's feet, came over the Ramblin' Kid. Men,
+and the works of men--their passions, their strifes, their
+foolishness--and women--women who played with love--he wanted to forget,
+to leave miles and miles behind.
+
+He started to open the gate, thinking to saddle Captain Jack and obey
+the impulse of the moment. Carolyn June's words, spoken of the Gold Dust
+maverick: "It would be fun to see her run!" and uttered lightly and in a
+spirit of coquetry that morning when she teased him to enter the outlaw
+filly in the race against the Thunderbolt horse from the Vermejo, came
+to his mind. The selfishness of the plea maddened him. She cared nothing
+for the price in effort--the straining muscles, the panting breath--the
+agony the beautiful mare must pay to defeat the black wonder from the
+other part of the range. She wanted only to see the maverick run--to
+coax him to yield and run the filly merely to please the cheap vanity of
+her sex! No doubt also she counted on entertainment when, to-morrow, he
+would ride the outlaw for the first time. It would be a kind of
+show--the battle for mastery between himself and the high-bred untamed
+mare. The whole bunch--Old Heck, Parker, Ophelia, Carolyn June, the
+cowboys--yes, even that damned Chink--unquestionably would be crowded
+about the corral to watch the fear and pain of the maverick as she
+learned her first hard lesson of servitude to man! They would laugh at
+her frenzied efforts to throw him.
+
+He would fool them. He would ride the filly to-night!
+
+He went to the shed, slipped his legs into the worn leather chaps, took
+saddle, bridle, blanket and rope and returned to the corral.
+
+Stepping inside he closed the gate behind him.
+
+Captain Jack came to him and nosed at his shoulder.
+
+"No, Little Man," the Ramblin' Kid said gently, "this ain't your turn.
+You can go with us though, if you want to!" he laughed.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick stood, half-afraid, at the other side of the
+corral. She had not yet wholly conquered her dread of him. She did not,
+however, offer to fight as she had done that morning when Skinny entered
+the enclosure.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid spoke to the filly and, as she began to move shyly
+away, with one toss threw the loop over her head. The instant the mare
+felt the rope she stopped and stood trembling a moment, then came
+straight up to him. She was "rope-wise." The experience at the North
+Springs the night he caught her, and when she had, three separate times,
+been cruelly thrown by this same rope; had taught the Gold Dust maverick
+the power that lay in those pliant strands.
+
+She flinched from the touch of the blanket. The Ramblin' Kid worked
+easily, carefully, but in absolute confidence, with her. As he
+cautiously saddled the mare he talked in a low, drawling monotone,
+uttering endearing phrases and occasionally slipping a lump of sugar--a
+supply of which he had got that night from the kitchen--into her mouth.
+She ate it ravenously.
+
+"Darn, Little One," he laughed, "you sure have got a sweet tooth--you
+gobble that sugar like an Indian squaw eatin' choc'late candy!"
+
+At last the mare was saddled. Still holding to the rope, the Ramblin'
+Kid, without trying to get the filly to follow, moved over and opened
+the gate, giving it a push and swinging it wide. During the performance
+the Gold Dust maverick stood perfectly still, save for a constant
+chewing at the iron bit between her teeth.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid went quietly up to her, coiling the slack of the rope
+as he advanced. Without bothering to tighten the reins, but watching
+closely the look in the maverick's big brown eyes and the nervous
+twitching of her ears, he laid one hand on the withers of the outlaw,
+with the other he grasped the horn of the saddle and slipping his foot
+in the stirrup swung quickly and lightly on to her back.
+
+For the space of a deep breath the maverick crouched, grew tense in
+every muscle, slowly arched her back, gathered herself together for a
+great effort.
+
+A quiet smile curled the lips of the Ramblin' Kid as he looked down on
+the curving neck of the beautiful creature.
+
+With a tremendous leap the Gold Dust maverick sprang high into the air,
+lunging forward while all her hoofs were off the ground. Her forefeet
+came down across the back of Captain Jack--she had all but cleared the
+little roan. The shock almost threw the stallion to the ground. As he
+surged from under her the filly slid and sprawled on her shoulder and
+side. Instantly she was on her feet, the Ramblin' Kid still in the
+saddle. His spurs had not touched the mare--instead he had been careful
+not to let their steel points so much as ruffle the golden-chestnut hair
+of her belly or flank. Only when the outlaw fell had he thrown forward
+his right leg and hooked the sharp rowels into the strong fiber of the
+forward cinch. With the left hand he loosely held the reins, giving the
+maverick her head--the other hand he brushed with a caressing upward
+movement along her glossy neck.
+
+Twice the Gold Dust maverick circled the corral, plunging, bucking
+"side-winding," desperately--her nose between her knees, squealing
+pitifully--as she tried vainly to rid herself of the weight of the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"Go to it, Baby Girl, go to it!" he chuckled; "you've got to learn!
+Sooner or later you'll find out it can't be done!" He rode limply,
+loosely, low in the saddle, and while he made no effort to urge the
+filly into greater frenzy he did not try in any way to prevent her
+bucking her hardest in, the futile attempts to hurl him off her back.
+
+The second time the outlaw mare came to the gate she whirled and dashed
+through the opening, out of the corral, across the open space, past the
+corner of the front-yard fence and along the road that led up to the
+bench and toward Eagle Butte. Captain Jack trotted around the corral
+once, then followed at a long, swinging gallop.
+
+The noise of the filly bucking inside the corral reached the ears of the
+dancers in the big room at the house.
+
+"What in thunderation's that commotion?" Old Heck exclaimed, starting
+up--he and Ophelia had just finished a two-step and Skinny was winding
+the graphophone to play his favorite, the alluring _La Paloma_.
+
+There was an instant's pause, then a rush for the door.
+
+Carolyn June reached the porch just in time to see the Gold Dust
+maverick "hitting the breeze"--careering madly, wildly pitching as she
+ran past the opening in front of the house and up the road out on the
+bench. It was almost as though a phantom horse and rider had passed
+before her sight.
+
+"Lord! Look at them go!" Charley cried admiringly.
+
+At first the girl had not recognized the outlaw mare or her rider.
+
+"Who--what--is it?" she asked Chuck, who was standing beside her.
+
+Bert answered for Chuck. "It's that darn-fool Ramblin' Kid--he's riding
+the Gold Dust maverick!" he said. "Ain't that just like the blamed
+idiot--to go and ride that filly to-night?"
+
+"Aw, he's liable to do anything," Charley commented, "he's--"
+
+Before the sentence was finished the beautiful mare and her apparently
+careless rider, with Captain Jack a hundred yards behind, disappeared
+over the brink of the bench and in the silence that followed the group
+on the porch heard only the distant thudding of hoofs beating an ever
+fainter tattoo through the calm, moonlit night.
+
+Carolyn June went back into the house with conflicting emotions surging
+through her heart. She believed she knew why the Ramblin' Kid had
+elected to ride the outlaw filly to-night. But her thoughts she kept to
+herself.
+
+For an hour longer the dance continued. But not with the spirit of
+earlier in the evening. The interruption took something of the eagerness
+to punish Old Heck, Parker and the cowboys, out of the heart of Carolyn
+June. A bit of doubt that the role she and Ophelia were playing was
+worthy of true womanhood crept into her mind.
+
+When the widow and Carolyn June were alone Ophelia laughed.
+
+"Whew!" she exclaimed, "that was a strenuous party! I've danced till my
+feet ache! Do you think our little 'counterplot' was a success?"
+
+"Entirely!" Carolyn June replied with an uncertain chuckle. "Uncle
+Josiah, Parker and Charley will dream dreams about you and fight duels
+in their sleep to-night!"
+
+"I think the others--" the widow started to say, then pausing, finished:
+"Wasn't it queer the Ramblin' Kid decided to ride that outlaw horse
+to-night instead of coming to the house to dance?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," Carolyn June answered indifferently.
+
+"I guess it's as Charley says," Ophelia remarked: "'You can't tell what
+th' Ramblin' Kid's liable to do'--"
+
+"I suppose not," Carolyn June replied wearily as she went into her room.
+"Good night!"
+
+"Good night!" Ophelia echoed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+YOU'LL GET YOUR WISH
+
+It was a silent group that gathered in the bunk-house after the dance.
+Old Heck, Parker, Charley and the other cowboys had been unduly
+stimulated by the music, the laughter and the bright smiles of Carolyn
+June and Ophelia. When they stepped out of the house into the cool night
+these all were left behind. The cow-men quickly sobered down and by the
+time they reached their sleeping quarters on the faces of all were
+half-ashamed looks as if they had been playing at a game not quite
+dignified enough or proper for men of maturity and seriousness.
+
+All were thoughtful and none seemed eager to start conversation.
+
+Skinny was dejected and utterly miserable.
+
+He felt that he had been cruelty treated. Carolyn June had acted all
+evening as though his only object in living was to stand in the corner
+and wind up that blamed graphophone, while she openly flirted with the
+other cowboys. Skinny was grateful to the Ramblin' Kid who, alone of all
+the cow-punchers, had decency enough to stay away and not interfere with
+the original agreement. The Ramblin' Kid had some sense and was square.
+He had realized that any fellow officially elected to make
+love--especially when he didn't want to do it in the first place--ought
+to be allowed to go ahead and make it without having a lot of darned
+buckaroos butting in on the job.
+
+The way the others had acted was a regular disgrace!
+
+Chuck, Bert, Charley and Pedro were nervously happy. In the heart of
+each was a thrill, caused by the memory of some secret--or what he
+thought was a secret--manifestation of Carolyn June's interest. Perhaps
+it was no more than the brushing of a stray whiff of odorous brown hair
+against a weather-tanned cheek, the pulsing of a warm breath on the side
+of a muscular neck, a melting look from a pair of luminous eyes, some
+low-spoken word or the pressure of a hand, but whatever it was, each of
+the cowboys was reasonably certain he had been singled out for special
+favors. Charley was doubly blessed. In addition to Carolyn June's
+seductive advances he had the memory, also, of Ophelia's attentions. His
+mind was awhirl with the effort to figure out which one, by rights, he
+ought to consider as a permanent possibility.
+
+Old Heck and Parker were in a quandary.
+
+Neither was sure of his standing with Ophelia although each had reason
+to believe that he was her favorite. Her interest in Charley added an
+unexpected and perplexing equation to their problem.
+
+"Gosh," Chuck finally exclaimed, "that dance sure was some blow out!"
+
+"I should say it was!" Bert Agreed emphatically and with a satisfied
+grin. "But didn't that widow act funny for an 'anti-he' suffragette?"
+
+Old Heck looked up, startled, as if he had been reminded of a
+disagreeable subject and one he wished to forget.
+
+"Are you plumb positive that she is one, Parker?" Chuck asked.
+
+"I told you what she was," Parker growled, "she's an 'Organizer' for
+some sort of 'Movement' or other."
+
+"Well, I'll be blamed if her 'movements' to-night showed any 'anti-he'
+inclinations," Charley interrupted. "She carried on more like a female
+vampire than one of these advocaters of woman's rights!"
+
+"Aw, shut up and go to bed," Old Heck grunted. "It's too late to start
+any argument!"
+
+The moon crept across the heavens and was hanging above the shadowy
+peaks of the Costejo Mountains when the Ramblin' Kid returned to the
+sleeping Quarter Circle KT, slipped the saddle from the back of the Gold
+Dust maverick and turned the filly and Captain Jack into the circular
+corral.
+
+He had ridden the outlaw mare almost to Eagle Butte.
+
+She had learned her lesson. She knew, when he caressed her muzzle and
+pressed the last lump of sugar into her mouth, before he turned away to
+the bunk-house, that the Ramblin' Kid was not only her master but her
+friend as well--understanding and sympathetic. Never again would she
+doubt his will or resist the gentle yet firm strength of his hand. From
+that moment the Gold Dust maverick, like Captain Jack, was a one-man
+horse, ready to serve, to trust and obey only the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"You little beauty," he laughed tenderly as he playfully shook the
+underlip of the filly and started toward the gate, "--you're a
+runner--gee!--but you're a runner!"
+
+The others were fast asleep when the Ramblin' Kid noiselessly opened the
+door of the bunk-house, went in, and without undressing, stretched
+himself on his bed.
+
+Old Heck awakened the cowboys as the sun poured its first slanting rays
+through the open un-draped window.
+
+The stir aroused the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He made no move to arise.
+
+"Ain't you going to get up?" Old Heck said garrulously.
+
+"When I damn please!" was the independent reply. "Skinny, tell th' Chink
+to keep me a cup of hot coffee!"
+
+Old Heck snorted but said no more.
+
+Parker and the cowboys dressed silently, half-moodily. They hardly knew
+yet how they felt after the excitement of the night before. Skinny
+started to put on the white shirt, looked at it contemptuously a
+moment, and with a muttered oath threw it viciously on the bed.
+
+In a few moments the Ramblin' Kid was left alone in the bunk-house. He
+lay, hands clasped at the back of his head, studying. His eyes were
+closed, but he was not asleep. Presently he smiled and opened his eyes.
+He drew the pink satin elastic from his pocket and looked at it. "That's
+a hell of a thing to be packin'--wonder why I keep it?" he muttered. It
+suddenly occurred to him that if he was not at breakfast Carolyn June
+would think he was afraid or ashamed to meet her. He got up,
+straightened his disarranged clothes, went to the house and after
+stopping at the ditch by the fence and washing his face, walked
+indifferently into the kitchen and sat down at his regular place. The
+others already were eating. Carolyn June glanced at him with a
+meaningless smile and acknowledged, without feeling, his quiet "Good
+morning!"
+
+The cowboys were nervous. Memory of last night was fresh in their minds.
+It made them cautious in their talk.
+
+Ophelia and Carolyn June, also, were a bit restrained.
+
+They were not sure but they had started more than it would be easy to
+stop. The expressions in the eyes of the cowboys paid tribute to the
+success of the two women's efforts at wholesale heart-wrecking. The
+child-like acceptance of a simple flirtation as the real thing, by
+these husky riders of the range, was little less than appalling.
+
+It all but frightened Carolyn June and the widow.
+
+Old Heck saw the worship in the eyes of the cowboys.
+
+"Things sure are in a devil of a mix-up!" he growled to himself.
+
+Skinny was so dejected Carolyn June felt half-guilty and tried to cheer
+him up. She began talking, in a low voice, directly to the
+melancholy-looking cowboy.
+
+"To-day--or some time--when the others are away," she said caressingly,
+"you and I will dance all the dances by ourselves!"
+
+His heart leaped joyously. He was sorry, now, that he had not put on the
+white shirt. He resolved, after a while, to sneak out to the bunk-house
+and change.
+
+The confidential talk between Carolyn June and Skinny galled Chuck. He
+decided to break it up.
+
+"What was your idea in riding the Gold Dust maverick last night?" he
+said abruptly to the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+There was a general pause for the answer. Carolyn June stopped in the
+middle of a sentence and looked curiously at the Ramblin' Kid. He took
+his time to reply.
+
+"Because I wanted to!" was the slow unsatisfactory retort.
+
+"Why didn't you wait till to-day, so the rest of us could see how she
+acted?" Charley asked.
+
+"What do you think you are"--he started to say--"a bunch of lawyers
+cross-examinin' a witness?" thought better of it and with a careless
+laugh answered: "If you're huntin' entertainment, why don't you go up to
+Eagle Butte to th' picture show? Th' maverick an' me ain't no
+exhibition!"
+
+"Did she buck?" Charley continued, ignoring the sarcastic remark.
+
+"Some," the Ramblin' Kid drawled.
+
+"What you going to do with the filly while we're out on the beef hunt?"
+Chuck queried, wishing to keep the conversation general.
+
+"Ride her!" was the laconic reply.
+
+"Ain't you afraid she'll break away from the _caballero_ and you'll lose
+her again?" Charley asked.
+
+"When I ain't usin' her I'll 'neck' her to Captain Jack," the Ramblin'
+Kid answered patiently, referring to the method of fastening a wild
+horse to one that is gentle and prevent its running away, by attaching a
+short length of rope to the neck of each. "I don't believe she'd leave
+th' stallion anyhow!"
+
+"By golly," Chuck said earnestly and half-pleadingly, "I wish you'd put
+her against that Y-Bar outfit's Thunderbolt horse in the two-mile
+sweepstakes this year! It would be--"
+
+"Fun to see her run!" the Ramblin' Kid interrupted, looking up quickly
+and straight into the eyes of Carolyn June as he finished the
+contemptuous quotation of her words, spoken the day before at the
+corral. She flushed, but gazed back at him without flinching. "Well," he
+continued, "I reckon you'll get your wish--th' maverick is goin' to run
+against th' Vermejo horse!"
+
+"The Fourth of July is a week from next Wednesday," Charley said
+calculatingly. "The Rodeo starts on Tuesday, the roping and bucking
+finals come on Thursday. That makes the big race come Friday--a week
+from next Friday, ain't it?"
+
+"That's right," Bert concurred. "Th' Ramblin' Kid's got nearly two weeks
+to get the maverick in shape."
+
+"Nothing will be in shape for anything," Old Heck broke in, getting up
+from the table, "unless we move around and get things ready to begin the
+beef round-up to-morrow morning. Some of you boys will have to bring in
+those saddle horses from across the river. Each one of you can ride your
+regular 'string' this year"--alluding to the term used to designate the
+group of several horses used exclusively by each individual rider
+working on a round-up. "Skinny won't be with you, but you'd better take
+his horses along for extras. Parker can be getting the grub-wagon in
+shape--I reckon you'll have to work Old Tom and Baldy on it. Sing Pete
+ought to be able to handle them."
+
+"Where do we start in?" Charley asked as they went toward the barn.
+
+"Over in the Battle Ridge country," Old Heck answered, "and work
+everything east of the big pasture first. It'll take just about a week
+to clean up that side--it's pretty rough riding over there. Then you can
+finish the west end after the Rodeo is over."
+
+"What all you aiming to gather?" Bert queried.
+
+"Everything above a three-year-old," Old Heck replied in a businesslike
+way; "pick up the dry cows, too, if they're fat enough. Prices are
+better than usual and I want to sell pretty close on account of that
+storm knocking the hay the way it did the other night. There'll be three
+hundred and fifty or four hundred good beef critters on the east range.
+You ought to have them bunched and in the big pasture by Saturday night.
+Then, until the Rodeo is over you can all do what you darn' please--"
+
+"I know what I'm going to do," Chuck laughed.
+
+"What?" Bert asked.
+
+"Draw all my wages, borrow all I can, and make a clean-up on that Y-Bar
+outfit on the race between the Gold Dust maverick and Thunderbolt!" he
+exclaimed vindictively.
+
+"Probably there will be some of the rest of us have a little Quarter
+Circle KT money up on that race, too," Charley insinuated.
+
+"I know blamed well there will be!" Old Heck added earnestly as they
+scattered to go about their respective employments.
+
+It was a busy Sunday at the Quarter Circle KT. Chuck, Charley and Pedro
+spent the morning and most of the afternoon getting the saddle horses
+from across the river. Bert helped Parker and Old Heck about the ranch.
+Sing Pete baked a supply of light-bread and stocked the grub-wagon with
+provisions. The Ramblin' Kid volunteered to "ride-line" on the big
+pasture and see that the Diamond Bar steers had not broken out again. He
+rode a sorrel colt--one that had had its "first-riding" in the circular
+corral the day before Carolyn June and Ophelia arrived at the Quarter
+Circle KT. When he came to the corner of the pasture where the bodies of
+the cattle, killed by lightning, lay, a flock of buzzards were tearing
+at the carcasses. As the gorged creatures flapped heavily into the air
+the young broncho wheeled, and bucking frantically, jolted away from the
+gruesome scene. The Ramblin' Kid forced the animal to turn about and
+made him pass, rearing and plunging, among the skinless and already
+decaying forms. Before sundown the Ramblin' Kid was back at the ranch.
+
+In the afternoon Skinny and Carolyn June went for a ride down the
+valley. It was her first opportunity to try the new saddle. Skinny was
+mounted on Old Pie Face and Carolyn June rode Browny, a dependable old
+cow-horse.
+
+"Gee," Carolyn June remarked as they passed the circular corral. "I'd
+like to ride the Gold Dust maverick with this outfit!"
+
+"It would be a dandy combination," Skinny said admiringly, "but I doubt
+if anybody but th' Ramblin' Kid will ever be able to ride the filly. So
+far, she acts like she's going to be a worse one-man horse than Captain
+Jack is. She tried to kill me yesterday when I went into the corral!"
+
+"What makes her that way?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"Blamed if I know," Skinny replied, "some horses are naturally like
+that. Th' Ramblin' Kid says it ain't in the horse--it's in the human. If
+the human don't understand the horse the horse won't trust the human and
+where there ain't trust there's fear and where there's fear there's
+hate. He's got some funny ideas!"
+
+"Sounds sort of sensible, though, doesn't it?" Carolyn June said
+musingly.
+
+"Maybe it does," Skinny retorted, "but he goes a little too far with his
+fool notions sometimes, it seems to me."
+
+"How is that?" Carolyn June questioned.
+
+"Well, for one thing," Skinny replied, "he says any man or woman a horse
+don't trust ain't a good man or woman for a human to depend on--says
+they ain't right inside! It looks to me like that's a pretty hard slam
+on people just because some darned idiot of a broncho won't make up with
+them!"
+
+Carolyn June leaned back in the saddle and laughed.
+
+"Some 'range philosopher'--this Ramblin' Kid person!" she exclaimed
+lightly. "Where did he come from and who is he, anyway?"
+
+"Nobody knows," Skinny answered; "he just kind of growed up, here in
+the Southwest. I've heard that his mother died when he was born and his
+father was a preacher or something doing missionary work--I reckon
+that's what you'd call it--among the Mexicans and Indians and got the
+smallpox while he was nursing them through an epidemic and it killed
+him, which left th' Ramblin' Kid an orphan when he wasn't much more than
+a baby. The Mexicans or Indians took care of him till he was old enough
+to ride and then he began to ramble around and has always kept it up
+just as if he was hunting for something--"
+
+"How interesting!" Carolyn June exclaimed, "almost like a story!"
+
+"It is kind of unusual," Skinny continued, "of course it may not all be
+true, but one thing is sure--th' Ramblin' Kid seems to have some sort of
+fascination for the Greasers and the Indians; they all worship him, and
+he's a witch when it comes to handling horses!"
+
+"He seems to be," Carolyn June commented thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes," Skinny answered, "look how that Gold Dust maverick has made right
+up with him--I don't believe she ever will have anything to do with
+anybody else!"
+
+Carolyn June laughed softly to herself. She did not tell Skinny of her
+visits to the circular corral and that the outlaw mare already had
+accepted her as a good friend.
+
+She and Skinny loafed idly as far down the valley as the Narrows, and
+when Sing Pete sounded the supper gong they were again back at the
+house.
+
+After the evening meal the cowboys hung around the house for a while
+until a suggestive look from Old Heck caused them reluctantly to follow
+him to the bunk-house, leaving Parker and Skinny with Ophelia and
+Carolyn June.
+
+It was the foreman's last evening with the widow before the beef
+round-up. She was rather diffident and held him in safe channels of
+conversation. Skinny and Carolyn June sat on the porch until it was
+quite dark, then went into the house. She drummed carelessly and lightly
+on the keys of the piano--her thoughts evidently far away. Parker and
+Skinny left the house early. At the door the foreman whispered to the
+widow:
+
+"Don't forget what I spoke about coming out from town!"
+
+Ophelia flushed and murmured, "No, indeed, but--" she did not finish the
+sentence. She was about to say, "don't build false hopes!"
+
+When Parker and Skinny entered the bunk-house Old Heck and all the
+cowboys except the Ramblin' Kid were asleep. He was half-reclining on
+his bed, smoking. At the entrance of Skinny and Parker be got up and
+without speaking strolled outside and through the darkness toward the
+circular corral. The night was warm and the stuffy air of the
+bunk-house, together with the noisy snoring of Old Heck, made him
+restless. He stood a few moments looking at Captain Jack and the Gold
+Dust maverick. Then, moving back into the shed, dropped down and laid
+with his shoulders and head on his saddle, which was thrown on the
+ground under the shelter. The side of the building, next to the corral,
+was open and the Ramblin' Kid could see, from where he was lying, the
+dark bulks of the two horses at the farther side of the corral.
+
+Ophelia went directly to bed after Skinny and Parker left.
+
+Carolyn June sat for a while in the Morris chair in the large room. She
+seemed abstracted and in a mood for meditation. The vague history Skinny
+had given her of the life of the Ramblin' Kid interested her. She
+thought it explained a good many of his elemental impulses and
+idiosyncrasies. He was a creature of the plains. In his life among the
+Indians and Mexicans he had absorbed their stoical ways and almost
+brutal directness, yet, sometimes he showed a sensitiveness that was
+utterly impossible for Carolyn June to understand. Her thoughts turned
+to the Gold Dust maverick. To-morrow Ramblin' Kid would take the filly
+away for the round-up. She truly loved the beautiful mare. She would
+slip out, while the others slept, and have one more visit with the
+splendid creature. Rising, Carolyn June passed out through the kitchen,
+stopped for a handful of sugar--she had learned where Sing Pete kept the
+can--and bareheaded and without a wrap walked swiftly out to the
+circular corral.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard Carolyn June step up to the gate of the corral
+and from the heavy shadow in which he lay saw the light dress and
+instinctively recognized this late visitor to Captain Jack and the Gold
+Dust maverick His first impulse was to call out and warn her to keep
+away from the horses--that both were dangerous for men to fool with,
+much less was it safe for a woman to undertake familiarities with them.
+His next thought was that his sudden appearance would only startle the
+girl and--well, cause a lot of useless talk. He remained quiet.
+
+A low trill came from the throat of Carolyn June. The two horses stopped
+feeding and looked around toward the gate. The bird-like call was
+repeated. The Ramblin' Kid was astonished to see Captain Jack and the
+outlaw mare move eagerly in the direction from whence the sound had
+come. He heard Carolyn June talking to the bronchos in soft endearing
+tones. After a moment she opened the gate and stepped inside the corral.
+
+"Well, I'll be--!" he breathed inaudibly.
+
+For half an hour Carolyn June petted the little stallion and the Gold
+Dust maverick. Both animals seemed hungry for her caresses.
+
+"Oh, your darling--you wonder!" the Ramblin' Kid Heard Carolyn June
+say, as she gave the maverick's head a tight squeeze just before running
+lightly back to the house. "I hope you beat that old Y-Bar horse so bad
+he'll never want to run again! Even if that Ramblin' Kid lover of
+yours," she added softly, "does think I'm nothing but a silly
+woman-thing and hates me with all his queer, lonesome heart!"
+
+"Well, I'll be damned!" the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed when she was gone.
+
+He raised himself on one elbow and lay thus for a long time silently
+thinking.
+
+At last he got up, went to the corral gate, and he himself stepped
+inside with the horses. He gave Captain Jack's ear a loving twitch, then
+turned to the Gold Dust maverick. She permitted him, without protest, to
+fondle her head and neck. His hand lingered long on the silky mane in
+which, a little while before, Carolyn June had twined her fingers.
+
+"Oh, Queen of th' Range!" he said with a low laugh, unconsciously using
+the poetical phrase, as he gave the warm cheek of the filly a tender
+parting pinch before turning away to go to the bunk-house, "we'll whip
+that devil-horse of th' Vermejo--we'll show that Thunderbolt runner what
+hearts that ain't afraid an' nimble hoofs can do!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+THE ELITE AMUSEMENT PARLOR
+
+An hour after breakfast, on Monday morning, Old Heck, Ophelia, Skinny
+and Carolyn June Were alone at the Quarter Circle KT. Parker and the
+cowboys were climbing out on the sand-hills north of the Cimarron,
+traveling in the direction of Battle Ridge, where the beef hunt was to
+begin.
+
+The circular corral was empty.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was riding the Gold Dust maverick. Captain Jack was
+with the saddle horses which Pedro, the Mexican, had wrangled on ahead
+of the other riders an hour before.
+
+The filly made no effort to throw the Ramblin' Kid on this her second
+riding. She seemed perfectly willing to carry the burden on her back.
+Carolyn June watched the beautiful mare as she stepped lightly and
+daintily along beside the other horses, and when the group disappeared
+among the rolling ridges across the river the ranch someway seemed
+deserted and she felt strangely alone, although Ophelia, Old Heck and
+Skinny were standing at her side.
+
+Sing Pete followed the riders, jolting along in the grub-wagon,
+awkwardly driving, with much clucking and pidgin-English, Old Tom and
+Baldy hitched to the heavy, canvas-covered vehicle with its
+"box-kitchen" and mess-board protruding gawkily out from the rear.
+
+Old Heck heaved a sigh of relief. There was a feeling of serene peace in
+his heart, now that Parker and the cowboys were safely away on the
+round-up. In Skinny's heart the feeling was echoed.
+
+For a week or more they would be able to love Ophelia and Carolyn June
+without the constant fear of interruption.
+
+Only one thing troubled Old Heck. The widow had not yet exposed her hand
+in that suffragette movement or whatever it was. He dreaded the form in
+which it might, sooner or later, break out. But at that he would be glad
+to have it over. At present he felt as though he were sitting on the
+edge of a volcano, or above an unexplored blast of dynamite at the
+bottom of a well. Meanwhile he would have to wait and watch--and hope
+for the best.
+
+The week that followed was heaven and hell, mixed together, for Old Heck
+and Skinny.
+
+The women were lovely and lovable to the last degree, but cautious and
+tormentingly self-restrained when it came to loving. At the first
+intimation of dangerous sentimentality on the part of Old Heck the widow
+would suddenly and without an instant's warning change the subject. When
+Skinny had been pensive and silent for half an hour or so and would then
+start, in a halting and quivering voice, to say something, Carolyn June
+invariably interrupted with a remark about the weather, the Gold Dust
+maverick, the Ramblin' Kid, Old Heck, Sing Pete, the yellow cat, the
+coming Rodeo, Ophelia or something else.
+
+They paired on the work of preparing the meals, Carolyn June and Skinny
+and Ophelia and Old Heck taking shift and shift about in the kitchen. In
+this way the work was made a joke, with friendly rivalry between the
+couples in the preparation of tasty dishes.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny surprised the women with their knowledge of cooking.
+Nor was there the least embarrassment on the part of either when, with
+one of Sing Pete's aprons tied about his waist, he worked at the range
+or kitchen table. As a matter of course every cow-man must know
+something of how to cook a meal and, also, naturally and as a matter of
+course, Old Heck and Skinny, without the slightest thought that it was
+"womanish" or beneath the "dignity" of men, peeled potatoes, fried meat,
+washed dishes or did whatever there was to do.
+
+Indeed each was proud of his skill.
+
+Ophelia herself was clever, particularly at making biscuits and dainty
+salads.
+
+Carolyn June's sole accomplishment in the art of preparing food was the
+making of coffee-jelly. This she had learned at college--taught,
+perhaps, by the other girls during stolen midnight frolics. Probably
+this, also, was the reason she usually made it the last thing at night
+before Skinny and Old Heck left to go to the bunk-house. Coffee-jelly
+was the regular, inevitable, evening meal dessert for the entire week.
+
+"It ain't so very filling," Skinny remarked the first time he tasted the
+delicate dish, "but it's tender and has a dandy flavor!"
+
+Carolyn June blushed at the compliment.
+
+"It is pretty good," Old Heck agreed, "but these biscuits Ophelia made
+are just what was needed to set it off!"
+
+The widow smilingly showed her pleasure.
+
+Twice during the week Skinny rode "line" on the big pasture to look
+after the Diamond Bar steers. Carolyn June accompanied him. Each time
+she rode Browny, the old cow-horse. On these days Old Heck and Ophelia,
+in the Clagstone "Six," drove to Eagle Butte. The second trip to town
+Ophelia asked to be left at the minister's house. Old Heck was to call
+in an hour and get her. During the hour he slipped into the dentist's
+and had his teeth cleaned. When the tobacco-blackened tartar was scraped
+away they were surprisingly white and even. He stopped at the drug store
+and bought a tooth-brush and a tube of paste.
+
+Ophelia noticed the wonderful improvement in his appearance, guessed the
+reason, and the thought sent a warm thrill through her body.
+
+"Like a big boy," she laughed to herself, "when he begins to wash his
+neck and ears!"
+
+"It ain't healthy to have your teeth so dirty," Old Heck explained,
+coloring and in an apologizing manner, when Skinny discovered him, after
+supper that evening, carefully scrubbing his molars.
+
+Skinny watched the performance, saw the result, and murmured:
+
+"Guess I'll get me one of them layouts!"
+
+On Friday the quartette went to Eagle Butte, Old Heck driving, with
+Ophelia beside him, and Carolyn June and Skinny in the rear seat of the
+Clagstone "Six."
+
+It was on this trip, while Ophelia and Carolyn June were in the Golden
+Rule doing some shopping, that Old Heck and Skinny strolled into the
+Elite Amusement Parlor. Lafe Dorsey, owner of the Y-Bar outfit and to
+whom belonged the black Thunderbolt horse; Newt Johnson, Dave Stover and
+"Flip" Williams--the latter three cowboys on the big Vermejo ranch--were
+playing a four-handed game of billiards at one of the tables near the
+front of the place.
+
+Dorsey noticed the entrance of the pair from the Quarter Circle KT. All
+were range men and were well known to one another. The Y-Bar owner had
+been drinking. Boot-leg liquor was obtainable, if one knew how and
+where, in Eagle Butte.
+
+"Hello, there, Old Heck!" Dorsey greeted them hilariously and with a
+half-leer. "Howdy, Skinny! How's the Cimarron? Don't reckon you've
+taught Old Quicksilver to run yet, have you?" with a boisterous laugh
+as he referred to the race in which Thunderbolt had defeated Old Heck's
+crack stallion.
+
+The taunt stung Old Heck while it called out a suppressed snicker from
+the cowboys who were with Dorsey and the loafers in the pool-room. The
+bull-like guffaw of Mike Sabota, the gorilla-built, half-Greek
+proprietor of the Amusement Parlor roared out above the ripple of
+laughter from the others. The racing feud between the Y-Bar and the
+Quarter Circle KT was well known to all and Sabota himself had cleaned
+up a neat sum when the black horse from the Vermejo had outstepped the
+runner from the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Old Heck reddened at Dorsey's words but replied quietly:
+
+"The Cimarron is middling--just middlin'. No, we ain't been paying much
+attention to teaching horses how to run lately. Old Quicksilver's pretty
+fair. Of course he ain't the best horse in the world but he'll do for
+cows and general knocking around. Horses are a good deal like men, you
+know, Dorsey--there's always one that's a little bit better!"
+
+The Vermejo cow-man colored at the thrust.
+
+"Any of you Quarter Circle KT fellers going in on anything at the Rodeo,
+this year?" one of the Y-Bar riders asked Skinny before Dorsey could
+reply.
+
+"Charley said he might go in on the 'bull-dogging' and Bert is figuring
+some on the bucking events--but I don't reckon they'll either one
+enter," Skinny carelessly; "both of them got first money in them
+entries last year and they ain't caring much. The Mexican," referring to
+Pedro, "will probably do some roping--"
+
+"What about you and the Ramblin' Kid?" Flip Williams interrupted, "ain't
+neither of you going to take part?"
+
+"Probably not," Skinny drawled. "I ain't aiming to, and I don't know
+what th' Ramblin? Kid is figuring on. He ain't much for showing off. He
+only rode in the bucking contest last year because after that Cyclone
+horse killed Dick Stanley everybody said there wasn't any one that could
+ride him and the blamed little fool just wanted to demonstrate that
+there was. You never can tell what he'll do, though. He may be intending
+to go in on something or other."
+
+"Guess you people ain't got anything out there for the two-mile
+sweepstakes this year, have you?" Dorsey broke in with a sneer. "Old
+Thunderbolt's too much for them sand-hill jumpers from the Cimarron."
+
+"Oh, I don't know as he is," Old Heck said in a voice emotionless as an
+Indian's. "The Quarter Circle KT will probably be represented in the big
+event. It seems to me I heard Chuck mention entering that Silver Tip
+colt of his and, let's see, I believe th' Ramblin' Kid said something
+about running a new filly he's been riding some, didn't he, Skinny?"
+
+"Since I come to think of it I believe he did," Skinny answered as if
+it were a matter without especial interest; "if I remember right he did
+speak something of it a day or two ago."
+
+"Well, bring 'em on!" Dorsey exclaimed boastfully, "the Y-Bar will take
+all the money you Kiowa fellers feel like contributing! Old
+Thunderbolt's as fit as a new rawhide rope and is just aching to rake in
+another three or four thousand of Quarter Circle KT _dinero_ if you
+people have got the nerve to back your judgment!"
+
+There was a dead hush as the crowd in the pool-room waited for Old
+Heck's reply to Dorsey's drunken challenge.
+
+"We'll kind of remember that invitation, Dorsey," Old Heck said in tones
+as hard and smooth and cold as ice, while his gray eyes narrowed and
+bored the boastful cow-man like points of steel, "we'll sort of bear in
+mind that suggestion of yours. The Quarter Circle KT will send a horse
+into the big race that will beat that Thunderbolt critter of yours just
+three times as bad as he set old Quicksilver back--and we'll give you
+action on any amount of money, cattle or anything else you want to name!
+You can put your friends here in on it too, if you want to--" with a
+scornful glance around the pool-room at the loafers in the place. "Come
+on, Skinny," he added as he started toward the door, "more than likely
+Ophelia and Carolyn June are through with their trading and ready to go
+home."
+
+All stood silent until Skinny and Old Heck stepped out of the door,
+then Mike Sabota broke into a coarse, taunting laugh. As they turned up
+the street Old Heck and Skinny heard Dorsey and the crowd inside join in
+the merriment.
+
+"Damn that fool, Dorsey!" Old Heck exclaimed viciously, as he heard the
+shouts of derisive laughter. "I'm going to wipe him out on that race--if
+he's got the guts to come across and back up that Thunderbolt horse as
+hard as he blows about him!"
+
+"I think I'll hook Sabota for a few hundred on the sweepstakes, myself,"
+Skinny replied with a good deal of feeling, "I don't like the way that
+dirty cuss acts any better than I like Dorsey's bragging!"
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia were waiting when Old Heck and Skinny arrived
+at the Golden Rule.
+
+When the Clagstone "Six" whirled past the Amusement Parlor a few moments
+later Dorsey and Sabota were standing in the door.
+
+Carolyn June glanced at them.
+
+"Heavens," she said as her eyes rested an instant on the burly,
+low-browed, Greek proprietor of the place, "what a big brute of a
+looking fellow that is!"
+
+The two men stared insolently at the occupants of the car and as it
+passed Sabota made some remark, evidently vulgar, that caused Dorsey to
+burst into another round of coarse laughter.
+
+Old Heck was moody during the drive home.
+
+For nearly two years Dorsey had been crowing because of the defeat of
+Quicksilver by the black racer from the Vermejo. It was becoming more
+than idle jesting. It looked as if, for some reason, he was trying to
+torment Old Heck until something serious was started. Old Heck was a
+good loser but he was growing tired of the persistent nagging. He had
+not whimpered at the loss of the twenty-five hundred dollars Dorsey won
+from him on the race. Even the humiliation of seeing his best horse put
+in second place by the Y-Bar animal had been endured philosophically and
+without malice because he believed the thing had been run square and the
+faster horse had won. But Dorsey on every occasion since had, drunk or
+sober, boasted of Thunderbolt's victory and taken a devilish delight in
+rubbing it in on the owner of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+To-day the Vermejo cattleman had been worse than usual, due, no doubt,
+to the rotten boot-leg whisky the brute-like proprietor of Eagle Butte's
+rather disreputable Amusement Parlor was supposed secretly to dispense
+to those who had the price and the "honor" to keep sacred the source of
+supply.
+
+Old Heck was sore and he was ready to go the limit in backing the Gold
+Dust maverick. Both he and Skinny had purposely refrained from
+mentioning the horse the Ramblin' Kid would enter. The fame of the
+outlaw filly extended throughout all of southwestern Texas and if the
+Vermejo crowd had learned that the Ramblin' Kid had finally caught her
+and was intending to put her against Thunderbolt it was doubtful if the
+black horse would be entered at all in the sweepstakes. Even if he was,
+Dorsey and his crowd would be shy of the betting.
+
+This was one reason Old Heck had so played the conversation that Dorsey
+definitely threw down the challenge and which was so coldly accepted.
+
+The Vermejo cow-man would have to come in heavy on the betting or be
+placed in the role of a bluffer.
+
+By the time they reached the ranch Old Heck's good humor was restored.
+He thoroughly enjoyed the supper Skinny and Carolyn June prepared and
+joked the girl about her coffee-jelly.
+
+"She's learning how to make French toast, now," Skinny said proudly; "it
+won't be long till she's a darned good cook!"
+
+"Why not?" Carolyn June laughed. "See who I have to teach me!" and
+Skinny flushed while his heart hammered joyously.
+
+"Well, I reckon anybody could live on fried bread and coffee-jelly in a
+pinch," Old Heck joked back, "but for my part I'd be a good deal happier
+to mix a biscuit or two like Ophelia makes once in a while in with
+it"--giving the widow a worshipful look.
+
+It was Ophelia's turn to register pleasurable confusion.
+
+After supper Old Heck and the widow washed the dishes. When they were
+finished Ophelia went into the front room. Old Heck took a glass of
+water, stepped out of the kitchen door, and diligently scrubbed his
+teeth. While he was still at it Skinny came out with a dipper in his
+hand and sheepishly drawing a tooth-brush from his hip pocket faithfully
+imitated the actions of the other.
+
+"I figure a man's taking a lot of chances if he don't keep his teeth
+clean and everything," Skinny spluttered as the water splashed down his
+chin.
+
+"Yes, that's right," Old Heck agreed, "there's germs and so on in them!"
+as he flipped the water from his own brush, dried his lips on his
+shirtsleeve and turned back into the kitchen.
+
+The next morning, Saturday, Old Heck came to the breakfast table again
+in a pensive mood.
+
+"I was thinking about that man Dorsey," Skinny remarked, observing Old
+Heck's mental depression and attributing it to the meeting the day
+before in the pool-room at Eagle Butte. "Do you reckon the filly can
+really beat that Thunderbolt horse?"
+
+"Of course she can," Old Heck answered. "Th' Ramblin' Kid knows. All I'm
+afraid is that when Dorsey finds out it's the Gold Dust maverick
+Thunderbolt has got to go up against he won't bet much on it."
+
+"The boys ought to be in to-day," Skinny said, abruptly switching the
+subject; "they figured on getting the Battle Ridge cattle gathered and
+in the big pasture by to-night, didn't they?"
+
+"Yes," Old Heck replied, "that was what was in my mind. Parker will
+be--" he stopped suddenly, "butting in again" he had started to say but
+caught himself and finished lamely, "--probably pretty anxious to hurry
+through as soon as possible and get the beef animals in the upland
+pasture!"
+
+"How are you going to work things when he gets back?" Skinny asked with,
+a significant look at Old Heck.
+
+"Blamed if I know--" Old Heck said uncertainly, stopping before he
+finished the sentence. He understood what Skinny meant and just that had
+been worrying him. He had reached the point where he could not endure
+the thought of going back to the old arrangement of day and day about
+with Parker in the enjoyment of the widow's society. Yet if Parker, on
+his return, insisted on dividing Ophelia's time with him in conformity
+with their original agreement, Old Heck knew he would have to yield. He
+thought for a moment he would get the widow away from Skinny and Carolyn
+June after breakfast and make a full confession of the whole thing, ask
+her to marry him, and have it done with. But he had not yet been able to
+get at the bottom of Ophelia's suffragette activities. What if she
+married him and then suddenly broke loose as a speech-maker or something
+for woman's rights? It wouldn't pay to take the risk. "It sure does keep
+a man guessing!" he murmured under his breath, the sweat starting to
+bead his forehead from the mental effort to solve the problem before
+him.
+
+Carolyn June and Ophelia exchanged sly winks as they guessed the thing
+that was in Old Heck's mind.
+
+Skinny, himself, was a bit worried as the time drew near for the return
+of the cowboys. He hoped Carolyn June wouldn't spring another dance or
+similar opportunity for indiscriminate love-making.
+
+Nor had Carolyn June forgotten that to-day was Saturday and Parker and
+the cowboys were expected back from the first half of the beef round-up.
+The week had been pleasant enough but she had missed the Ramblin' Kid
+and the Gold Dust maverick more than she cared to confess. She wondered
+if the outlaw filly would remember her.
+
+Saturday was a day of considerable tension for all at the Quarter Circle
+KT. Night came and Parker and the cowboys had not returned. Nor did they
+come on Sunday. Evidently the beef round-up had gone more slowly than
+was expected.
+
+It was late Monday afternoon when the grub-wagon grumbled and creaked
+its way up the lane and stopped near the back-yard gate. Sing Pete
+climbed clumsily down from the high seat. Old Heck and Skinny unhitched
+Old Tom and Baldy while the Chinese cook chattered information about
+Parker, the cowboys and the round-up. He had left the North Springs
+early that morning. Two nights before the herd had run--it was a
+stampede--some sheep had been where the cattle were bedded. Maybe that
+was it. Chuck and Bert were on night guard and could not hold them. The
+steers mixed badly with the rangers. Nearly two days it took to gather
+them again. That was why they were late. Now everything was all right
+The cattle were being driven to the big pasture. Pedro would be along
+soon with the saddle cavallard. By dark maybe the others would be at the
+ranch.
+
+It was midnight before Parker and the cowboys came in.
+
+When Carolyn June stepped out on the porch Tuesday morning she glanced
+toward the circular corral, which for more than a week had been empty.
+Her heart gave a leap of delight.
+
+Captain Jack was standing at the bars of the corral and behind him the
+early sunlight glinted on the chestnut sides of the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+THE GRAND PARADE
+
+Eagle Butte was a jam of humanity. It was Tuesday noon. At one o'clock
+the Grand Parade would circle the mile track at the "Grounds"--a hundred
+level acres enclosed by a high board fence lying at the west edge of
+Eagle Butte, between the Cimarron River and the road that led out to the
+Vermejo--swing down the main street of the town, return again to the
+enclosed area, flow once more past the grandstand, salute the judges of
+the coming events, and the Fifth Annual Independence Rodeo of Eagle
+Butte would be officially opened.
+
+Special excursion rates had brought thousands from all parts of western
+Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. Hundreds of tourists, sight-seeing the
+West, had so arranged their itineraries that they might be present at
+the big exhibition of riding, roping, racing, bull-dogging and other
+cow-country arts,--arts rapidly becoming mere memories of a day too
+quickly passing.
+
+Moving-picture machine operators were seeking advantageous locations for
+their outfits; pedestrians dodged, indiscriminately, high-powered
+automobiles and plunging bronchos; the old and the new were slapped
+together in an incongruous jumble in the streets of Eagle Butte.
+
+The best range men and women of the West were gathered in the western
+Texas town.
+
+New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Texas
+herself, were represented by their most famous riders, ropers,
+bull-doggers, cow-experts, and noted outlaw horses.
+
+There were many masqueraders.
+
+Imitation cow-people, they were, made up in fancy wild-west costumes,
+long-haired chaps, mammoth black sombreros, gaudy neck-cloths,
+silver-spangled saddles, spurs and bridles--typical moving-picture
+cowboys, cowgirls and rough riders. But there were, as well, hundreds of
+real range people. People whose business it is to work every day at the
+"stunts" they were, for the next five days, to play at for the pleasure
+of proving their skill and winning the applause of the multitude of
+spectators packed each day in the grandstand behind the judges' box at
+the Eagle Butte Rodeo.
+
+Every outfit in western Texas sent its most clever riders.
+
+Indians and Mexicans, in picturesque attire, sprinkled the milling mass
+of humanity with a dash of rainbow color.
+
+Dance-halls were running, fare layouts were operating, roulette wheels
+were spinning. For the time, with the consent of the sheriff and other
+reformed authorities, Eagle Butte tried hard to be as Eagle Butte was
+twenty--thirty--years ago.
+
+The entire Quarter Circle KT crowd left the ranch early Tuesday
+morning'. Parker had surprised Old Heck, and filled his mind with
+misgivings, by calling him to one side after breakfast and stammering:
+
+"I--I--reckon you'd just as well go ahead the rest of this week
+and--and--look after the widow by yourself--"
+
+"What's the matter?" Old Heck asked suspiciously; "have you found out
+anything dangerous about that 'Movement' or whatever it is Ophelia's
+mixed up in?"
+
+"No, it ain't that," Parker assured him, "I just thought I'd kind
+of--well, like to be free, to knock around at the Rodeo without being
+bothered with a woman or anything."
+
+The truth was Parker was trying to hedge. When he had got away on the
+beef hunt and began to figure things out he had come to doubt the wisdom
+of his sudden infatuation for the widow. Thinking it over, out on the
+open range, he was appalled by his rash, headlong falling in love. He
+had never married, nor had he, until Ophelia came, been even near it.
+Someway, the moment Carolyn June and the widow arrived at the Quarter
+Circle KT some sort of devil seemed to possess him. He couldn't explain
+it. Maybe it had been just an impulse to get ahead of Old Heck. Whatever
+it was, Parker was worried. What would he do with a wife if he had one?
+All he wanted now was to let the thing blow over. Perhaps the widow
+would forget his impetuous proposal or fall in love with Old Heck.
+
+Old Heck, his heart filled with a queer mixture of elation and
+uncertainty--with a sort of joy and sinking sensation all at
+once--agreed to Parker's suggestion.
+
+Parker rode into Eagle Butte with the cowboys. Old Heck, Ophelia, Skinny
+and Carolyn June went in the Clagstone "Six." Chuck led Old Pie Face for
+Skinny to ride in the parade and Bert took Red John, Old Heck's most
+showy saddle horse--a long-legged, high-stepping, proud-headed, bay
+gelding--for Carolyn June to use, for she, too, had declared her
+intention of joining in the grand promenade with which the Rodeo would
+open.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid left the Gold Dust maverick in the circular corral and
+rode Captain Jack to Eagle Butte. It would be necessary for him to
+register the filly, with the entry judges, on the first day of the Rodeo
+if she was to run in the two-mile sweepstakes.
+
+The rules of the Rodeo required, also, that all who expected to
+participate in any of the events of the coming week must "show" in the
+grand march or parade. The animals that were to be used might also be
+paraded, but this was not compulsory.
+
+Accompanied by Chuck, the Ramblin' Kid went directly to the entry
+offices of the Rodeo, which were roughly boxed-up compartments under
+the rear of the grandstand.
+
+A group of "hot-dog" vendors and "concession spielers" looked curiously
+at the two as they left Captain Jack and Silver Tip, with bridle reins
+dropped over their heads, standing in front of the office and stepped
+inside.
+
+Lafe Dorsey and Flip Williams were at the clerk's desk.
+
+The Vermejo cattleman had just registered Thunderbolt, with Flip as
+rider, for the big race.
+
+They looked around as the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck came in.
+
+"Well, is the Quarter Circle KT getting up sand enough to go against old
+Thunderbolt again?" Dorsey asked with a curl of his lip and an ugly
+sneer.
+
+"Oh, I reckon we've got a little nerve left," Chuck answered with mock
+humility, "not much, but a little, maybe. I was going to put Silver Tip
+in the sweepstakes," he went on, "but I guess I won't. Th' Ramblin'
+Kid's got an entry and it looks like a darned shame for one outfit to
+want to hog it all and grab first and second money both, so I'll stay
+out this time."
+
+"You talk pretty loud," Dorsey snarled, catching instantly, as Chuck
+intended he should, the covert slur at the black Y-Bar stallion. "Maybe
+your money won't make so damned much noise!"
+
+"Here's a couple hundred," Chuck said, pulling a roll of bills from his
+shirt pocket. "I'll invest that much on my judgment that Thunderbolt
+ain't as good as you think he is."
+
+"I'll take it!" Dorsey snapped, jerking a wad of money from his own
+pocket and counting out the amount which he handed to the clerk as
+stake-holder. "And here's another hundred--or a thousand if you want
+it!"
+
+"That two hundred is about all I can handle this morning," Chuck
+laughed. "But I understand Old Heck's aiming to bet a little," he
+drawled suggestively; "probably you'd like to see him?"
+
+"I'll see him--and raise him till he squeals!" Dorsey sneered.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid ignored the tilt between Dorsey and Chuck and leaned
+indifferently against the counter waiting for the clerk to fill out the
+entry blank.
+
+"Event?" the clerk questioned.
+
+"Two-mile run," was the quiet answer.
+
+"Rider--and horse?" glancing up.
+
+Dorsey and Flip paused and turned their heads to catch the names the
+Ramblin' Kid gave.
+
+"I'm the rider, I reckon," the Ramblin' Kid replied, "I guess you know
+who I am. Th' name of th' horse? Well, now ain't that funny?" he said
+with a little laugh, "I never have bothered to name that critter yet!
+But--oh, hell, what's the difference? We'll just call her 'Ophelia' for
+th' time bein'--in honor of a lady-widow that's visitin' out at th'
+ranch!"
+
+"The Quarter Circle KT's getting to be quite a female institution,
+ain't it?" Dorsey said contemptuously. "I suppose this wonder horse of
+yours is one of the ranch fillies and regular lightning!"
+
+For a second the Ramblin' Kid's eyes narrowed, then he replied coldly to
+the last half of Dorsey's sentence:
+
+"Well, th' filly's been runnin' in that neighborhood an'"--with a laugh
+that had in it just the hint of a sneer--"she's pretty fair--good
+enough, I figure, to beat hell out of old Thunderbolt!"
+
+"Are you backing that with money?" Dorsey and Flip spoke together.
+
+"No," the Ramblin' Kid answered slowly, "money ain't no object with me
+in a horse-race. I don't run 'em for that purpose. Anyhow, poker is my
+favorite method of gamblin'!"
+
+Dorsey and Flip whirled angrily out of the office and walked rapidly
+toward the stables where they had left their horses.
+
+After reserving a box stall, which was to be occupied by Captain Jack
+and the Gold Dust maverick, the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck left the entry
+office and mounting their bronchos rode toward the section of the
+grounds, over by the stables, where the parade was already forming.
+
+As they passed through the entrance to the track and the inside field
+which lay beyond Chuck and the Ramblin' Kid rode within a few feet of
+the Clagstone "Six," which was parked near the east end of the
+grandstand. Old Heck and Ophelia were in the front seat of the car
+watching the riders assemble for the parade. Carolyn June was standing
+on the running-board waiting for Skinny to come with Old Pie Face and
+Red John, the boys having left the horses at the stables.
+
+Carolyn June looked up with a bright smile at Chuck. As her eyes met the
+Ramblin' Kid's there was a question in them. She was not sure yet that
+she had forgiven him for the brutal rebuff the night of the dance. If
+there was any feeling in his heart, either of resentment or otherwise,
+toward the girl the Ramblin' Kid hid it. The look he gave her was one of
+unfathomable humility and indifference.
+
+Chuck wheeled Silver Tip to the side of the car and stopped. His eyes
+were filled with frank admiration as he gazed at the girl. Her cheeks
+were flushed with excitement, her white felt hat sat jauntily on the
+crown of brown hair, her eyes were sparkling and in the close-fitting
+riding suit she was the picture of youthful charm and grace. The
+Ramblin' Kid nodded to Old Heck, glanced at Ophelia with a smile, looked
+steadily an instant at Carolyn June and raising his hat to the two women
+passed on with the remark: "I reckon I'll go on over an' see what
+they're doin'."
+
+"Has he entered the outlaw filly for the sweepstakes, yet?" Old Heck
+asked Chuck as the Ramblin' Kid reined Captain Jack down the race track.
+
+"Yes," Chuck answered, "he signed her up."
+
+"Did he name her as the Gold Dust maverick?" Old Heck inquired
+anxiously.
+
+"No," Chuck grinned, "he called her 'Ophelia!'"
+
+Old Heck leaned back in the seat and roared with laughter in which
+Carolyn June and the widow joined.
+
+"Dorsey was there," Chuck said with another grin, "he'd just finished
+entering Thunderbolt for the big race when th' Ramblin' Kid and me got
+to the registering office. I bet him two hundred dollars. He was
+bragging a good deal--"
+
+Old Heck's eyes flashed and the mirth left them.
+
+"He was blowing, was he?" he said with a hard laugh, "the damn--darned
+fool!" he corrected, remembering Ophelia at his side. "Well, 'egg' him
+on--the higher he flies the worse he'll flop when he bu'sts a wing!"
+
+In the parade Skinny rode with Carolyn June. Parker and the Quarter
+Circle KT cowboys were in a group directly behind them. The Vermejo
+crowd, with Dorsey himself mounted on Thunderbolt, had a place just
+ahead of Skinny and Carolyn June. The beautiful black Y-Bar stallion was
+really a wonderful horse. Speed, strength and endurance radiated with
+every movement of the glossy, subtle body. Without doubt he was the most
+handsome animal on the grounds. Dorsey was a splendid rider and a
+man--he was in the early forties--of striking appearance. He was fully
+conscious of the magnificent showing he made on Thunderbolt. The racer
+danced proudly, prancing forward in short, graceful leaps as the column
+swept past the grandstand and the consolidated Eagle Butte and Vegas
+bands crashed out the strains of a stirring march. A ripple of applause
+ran over the crowd in the grandstand as Dorsey, at the head of the
+Vermejo cowboys, rode by the judges' box. He lifted his sombrero and
+waved it in pleased acknowledgment.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was in line a little distance behind Carolyn June,
+Skinny and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys. He rode alone just back of a
+quartette of Indians from down on the Chickasaw.
+
+His plain rigging, the slick, smoothly worn, leather chaps, the
+undecorated saddle, bridle and spurs, his entire work-a-day outfit
+contrasted vividly with the gaudy get-up of most of the other riders.
+Captain Jack moved along easily and freely, but quietly, and with an air
+of utter boredom with all the show and confusion about him. The Ramblin'
+Kid's attitude, whole appearance, matched perfectly the mood of his
+horse. He sat loosely in the saddle and carelessly smoked a cigarette.
+The truth was his mind was far from the pageant of which he and the
+little stallion were a part. He scarcely heard the music nor did he seem
+to see the thousands of human beings, packed tier above tier, under the
+mammoth roof of the grandstand. His thoughts were at the upper crossing
+of the treacherous Cimarron, out at the Quarter Circle KT; he was seeing
+again, Carolyn June, as she looked up into his eyes when he dragged her
+out of the quicksand--he was hearing, once more, her cry of agony as the
+bullet from his gun buried itself in the brain of Old Blue.
+
+Louder hand-clapping, stamping of feet, and calling voices, than any
+that had sounded before, rolled out from the grandstand as the lone
+rider, on the quiet, unexcited little roan, came down the stretch in
+front of the great crowd.
+
+Carolyn June looked back, saw the waving hats and handkerchiefs, heard
+hundreds of voices shouting:
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid! Th' good old Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+The crowd had recognized him as the slender rider who, a year ago, after
+the untamable Cyclone horse had killed Dick Stanley before their eyes
+and in front of where they sat, had ridden, straight-up and scotching
+him at every jump, that vicious, murderous-hearted outlaw.
+
+Carolyn June's eyes moistened and she felt a thrill of pride.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid barely glanced at the sea of faces, a faint smile hung
+for an instant on his lips, as he jerked his hand, the one in which he
+held the cigarette, to the brim of his hat when he came opposite the
+judges' stand.
+
+When the parade swung down the wide, one-sided, main street of Eagle
+Butte, Mike Sabota, from the door of the Elite Amusement Parlor,
+watched it pass. He was standing there, by the side of the lanky
+marshal and surrounded by a group of pool-room loafers and "carnival
+sharks" when Carolyn June and Skinny came by. She looked around in time
+to see him staring, with a vulgar leer, straight into her eyes.
+
+"There is that big, dirty, animal-looking fellow we saw the other day!"
+she said, with a frown of disgust, to Skinny. "He's horrible--"
+
+Skinny glanced at Sabota.
+
+"Yes, he is ornery," he said. "He runs that joint and boot-legs on the
+side. He's got a reputation as a slugger and keeps the crowd around him
+buffaloed. They say he killed a feller--beat him to death--in a fight
+over at Sapulpa before he came to Eagle Butte. I don't like the filthy
+cuss. He's mean!"
+
+"He looks it!" Carolyn June exclaimed, with the uncomfortable feeling
+that the big Greek's look had touched her with something vile and
+unclean.
+
+After the parade disbanded Carolyn June and Skinny rode back to the car
+where Old Heck and Ophelia had remained.
+
+"You made a darned good-looking cowgirl!" Old Heck said proudly to her
+as she stopped Red John by the side of the Clagstone "Six."
+
+"She and Skinny both presented a very fine appearance!" the widow added,
+while Carolyn June playfully blew a kiss at each in acknowledgment of
+the compliment. Skinny sat on Old Pie Face and felt a warm glow of
+satisfaction at the words of Old Heck and Ophelia. He had known all the
+time that Carolyn June and he had shown up well, but he was glad to find
+that others besides himself had noticed it.
+
+Dorsey, on a black stallion, cantered past.
+
+A moment later the Ramblin' Kid came jogging off the race course on
+Captain Jack. He threw up his hand in greeting and passed on out of the
+grounds.
+
+Parked next to the Clagstone "Six" was a handsome touring car, occupied
+by a party consisting of a girl about Carolyn June's own age, a woman a
+few years older and a couple of immaculately dressed young men who wore
+flaring brimmed black felt hats that contrasted absurdly with their
+expensively tailored suits. Evidently all were "big town" people from a
+distance--very "superior" and patronizing in their attitude toward the
+"natives." They had been free and voluble in their comments on the
+various riders. Dorsey, on the magnificent Thunderbolt, drew a murmur of
+admiration from the lips of the girl. As the Ramblin' Kid, the next
+moment, rode by on Captain Jack one of the young fellows said loudly and
+with a laugh of ridicule:
+
+"Look at that one, Bess," addressing the girl; "there's the 'wild and
+woolly' West for you! I'll bet if that horse sneezed he'd fall down and
+the lonesome-looking little runt that's riding him would tumble off and
+root his nose in the dust!"
+
+A cackle of derisive laughter greeted the cheap witticism.
+
+Before any of the others could speak Carolyn June's eyes blazed with
+sudden wrath. She turned her body in the saddle and faced the speaker,
+her hands tightly clenched, her cheeks white with passion and her lip
+curling wickedly.
+
+"Which shows," she said slowly, every word stinging like the bite of a
+whip-lash, "that you are running, true to form and there is one fool, at
+least, still unslaughtered! That"--she continued with a proud toss of
+her head--"'lonesome-looking little runt' is the Ramblin' Kid! Not
+another man in Texas can ride the horse he is on--and there is not a
+horse in Texas that he can't ride!"
+
+She turned again toward the Quarter Circle KT group and a shamed silence
+settled over the swell "out-of-town" car.
+
+Old Heck chuckled with delight at Carolyn June's show of temper.
+
+A whirlwind program of racing, roping, bull-dogging--this event is that
+in which a rider springs from a running horse, grasps by the horns a
+wild steer running at his side, twists the animal's head up and backward
+and so throws it down and then holds the creature on the
+ground--rough-riding and other Rodeo sports followed immediately after
+the parade.
+
+Pedro and Charley Saunders were the only Quarter Circle KT cowboys
+participating in the events of the first day of the Rodeo. The Mexican
+did a fancy roping stunt in front of the grandstand and finished his
+exhibition directly before the Clagstone "Six" in which Carolyn June,
+Ophelia, Old Heck and Skinny were sitting. At the conclusion of his
+performance Pedro bowed to the little audience in the car and swept his
+sombrero before him with all the courtly grace of a great matador.
+Carolyn June generously applauded the dark-skinned rider from the
+Cimarron and waved a daintily gloved hand in acknowledgment of his skill
+with the rope. Skinny gritted his teeth while a pang of jealousy shot
+through his heart.
+
+Charley took part in the bull-dogging event. He drew a black steer,
+rangey built, heavy and wicked. When he lunged from his horse on to the
+horns of the brute it dragged him for a hundred feet before he could
+check its mad flight. At last he slowly forced its nose in the air and
+with a quick wrench of the head to one side threw its feet from under
+it. Man and beast went down in a heap--the neck of the steer across the
+cowboy's body. A groan went up from the crowd in the grandstand and
+Carolyn June's cheeks paled with horror--it looked as if one horn of the
+creature had pierced Charley's breast. But it had missed by the fraction
+of an inch. Straightening himself up to a sitting posture the cowboy
+bent forward and sunk his teeth in the upper lip of the prostrate animal
+and threw up both hands as a signal to the judges that the brute was
+"bulldogged." But the fight had been too hard for him to win first
+place. Buck Wade, a lanky cow-puncher from Montana, in three seconds
+less time, had thrown a brindle Anchor-O steer and taken first money.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Before the sun dipped into the Costejo peaks the Ramblin' Kid left the
+Rodeo and returned alone to the Quarter Circle KT. He told Parker and
+the cowboys, all of whom intended to remain in Eagle Butte every night
+during the Rodeo, that he would be back in town the next afternoon and
+bring with him the Gold Dust maverick. Word had been passed among the
+Quarter Circle KT crowd to keep Dorsey and his bunch in the dark as long
+as possible regarding the fact that the filly, Ophelia, was the famous
+outlaw mare of the lower Cimarron.
+
+After supper Parker, Chuck, Bert and Charley drifted into the Elite
+Amusement Parlor. The place was crowded. Mike Sabota immediately singled
+out the Quarter Circle KT group and began jollying them about the coming
+two-mile sweepstakes. Dorsey and Flip Williams had been in the pool-room
+earlier in the evening and told him of the Ramblin' Kid's entry of the
+filly against the Thunderbolt horse.
+
+Within ten minutes Bert and Charley had placed two hundred and fifty
+dollars each against five hundred of Sabota's money that the Vermejo
+stallion would not finish in first place in the big race.
+
+Old Judge Ivory, who happened to be present, was agreed upon as
+stake-holder.
+
+"That Thunderbolt horse, he is the devil," Sabota laughed evilly as the
+money was handed over to the gray-haired judge. "And Satan, he takes
+care of his own!"
+
+"Well!" Parker drawled, "if you feel inclined to send any more money to
+hell I might help you--" pulling a wad of bills from his pocket and
+throwing the certificates on the soft-drink bar at which they were
+standing.
+
+Sabota's eyes gleamed greedily.
+
+"I think there's two thousand in this roll," Parker continued, "and I'm
+willing to bet it all that the Ramblin' Kid's filly not only goes under
+the wire first in the two-mile run, but that she'll be kicking dirt in
+old Thunderbolt's face--if he ain't too damned far behind--when she does
+it!"
+
+The Greek covered the wager eagerly.
+
+As Judge Ivory pocketed the money Dorsey and Flip Williams stepped into
+the pool-room. Sabota glanced up.
+
+"These Quarter Circle KT _hombres_ are getting bad," he laughed
+sneeringly to Dorsey; "they think th' Ramblin' Kid's got a colt that can
+beat Thunderbolt!"
+
+"The Ramblin' Kid must have a hell of a fast horse!" Dorsey snarled
+contemptuously, "a hell of a fast horse!" he repeated, "when the Ramblin'
+Kid himself declines to risk a dollar of his own money on the running
+qualities of the critter!" referring to the conversation a few hours
+before in the entry judges' office.
+
+As he finished speaking he turned and looked squarely into the cold gray
+eyes of Old Heck who, with Skinny, had entered the Amusement Parlor
+while Dorsey was talking and heard the Vermejo cattleman's sneering
+insinuation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+MOCHA AND JAVA
+
+Old Heck and Skinny had left Ophelia and Carolyn June at the Occidental
+Hotel, where a room was reserved by Old Heck for the use of the two
+women during the Rodeo. They had then gone direct to Mike Sabota's place
+for the express purpose of running into Dorsey and his crowd. Old Heck
+knew that if any large bets were to be laid on the two-mile sweepstakes
+the only chance would be to place them before the Ramblin' Kid brought
+the Gold Dust maverick to Eagle Butte and the Vermejo bunch discovered
+the identity of the horse Thunderbolt was up against.
+
+The Quarter Circle KT cow-men stepped into the pool-room at exactly the
+instant most favorable for their purpose.
+
+Dorsey had made his boast in the presence of a crowd.
+
+He would hardly dare back up without covering, at least to some
+worth-while extent, his words with his money.
+
+For a full minute Old Heck drilled Dorsey with a look such, as a hound
+dog might have in his eyes after he has cornered a coyote and pauses
+before he springs.
+
+Instinctively the crowd stepped back from the two cattlemen while a
+death-like hush fell over the place.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid don't need to back the filly with his money, Dorsey,"
+Old Heck said slowly and in a voice audible in every part of the room;
+"I'm here to back her with mine! You've done a lot of talking--now,
+damn you, cover your chatter with coin or shut up!" the end of the
+sentence coming like the crack of a whip.
+
+With a nervous laugh the Vermejo cattleman jerked a wallet from his
+pocket.
+
+"Here's a thousand that says Thunderbolt does the same thing to the
+Ramblin' Kid's filly that he done to Quicksilver!" Dorsey snapped.
+
+Old Heck threw back his head and laughed scornfully.
+
+"A thousand? I thought you were a sport, Dorsey!" he sneered. "Match
+this," he continued, reaching for his check-book and fountain pen and
+quickly filling out a check payable to "Cash" for ten thousand dollars,
+which he laid on the hardwood bar. "Match that, or admit you're a cheap,
+loud-howlin' bluffer!"
+
+Dorsey paused just an instant as he noted the amount of the check.
+
+"I'll match it!" he exclaimed, flushing angrily, drawing his own
+check-book from his pocket, and then, carried away by his passion
+added, throwing down the bars completely as Old Heck had hoped he would,
+"and go with you to the end of the trail!"
+
+"Good!" Old Heck laughed, "now you are talking like a sport! Let's see,"
+he added calculatingly, "how many Y-Bar cattle do you figure you've got
+running on the Vermejo range--five thousand?"
+
+"There's that many," Dorsey started to say.
+
+"Call it fifty-five hundred!" Old Heck flung at him. "Steer for steer,
+cow for cow, hoof for hoof--I'll put Quarter Circle KT critters against
+every brute you own that th' Ramblin' Kid lands his horse tinder the
+wire ahead of Thunderbolt!"
+
+Dorsey paled, then a purple-red of fury spread over his neck and face,
+and with an oath he cried:
+
+"I'll call you!"
+
+Bills of sale were drawn and turned over to Judge Ivory, to be
+delivered, after the race, to the winner.
+
+"Now," Old Heck said with a hard laugh, "maybe you'd like to own the
+Quarter Circle KT ranch, Dorsey? It's worth twice as much as your
+Vermejo holdings but I'll just give you that percentage of odds and call
+it an even bet that your black stallion don't outrun the little animal
+th' Ramblin' Kid has entered in the sweepstakes!"
+
+But Dorsey did not answer except with a muttered: "Hell, a man's crazy
+that--" He had gone his limit. He had suddenly come to his senses and
+grown suspicious.
+
+Before Skinny and Old Heck left the pool-room the former managed to get
+a bet of five hundred dollars with Sabota.
+
+The next afternoon the Ramblin' Kid rode into Eagle Butte on Captain
+Jack. By his side he led the Gold Dust maverick. The noise and confusion
+in the streets filled the mare with nervousness and she crowded closely
+against the little roan stallion. Before he got the outlaw filly to the
+stables a half dozen cowboys had recognized the Cimarron maverick.
+Within an hour Dorsey and Sabota knew the identity of the Ramblin' Kid's
+entry in the big race that was to be run Friday afternoon and which was
+the big and closing event of the Rodeo.
+
+The Greek was furious.
+
+Wednesday night he called "Gyp" Streetor, a carnival tout, who had one
+time been a jockey but was ruled off the track for crooked work and was
+now picking up "easies" at the Eagle Butte Rodeo, into a side room of
+the Amusement Parlor.
+
+For half an hour the two talked earnestly and furtively.
+
+"Nothin' doin'--absolutely nothin'!" the tout finally said in reply to
+some suggestion of Sabota's. "That Captain Jack horse would murder any
+man but th' Ramblin' Kid that tried to get in the stall--"
+
+"Well, by hell!" the Greek exclaimed, clenching his hairy fists, while
+his mouth twitched with passion, "that filly's got to be kept out of the
+sweepstakes someway or other--"
+
+"You can't get to her, I tell you," Gyp said sullenly, then with a look
+of cunning suddenly coming into his eyes: "They say she's a one-man
+brute like the stallion--nobody can ride her but th' Ramblin' Kid,"
+significantly looking at Sabota. "If you could--but he don't drink!"
+
+The Greek laughed.
+
+"There are other ways!" he said. "He eats, don't he? Listen: To-morrow
+and Friday you take that 'sandwich and coffee' run at the stables--"
+referring to the concession to peddle lunch stuff among the horsemen who
+seldom left their charges, a concession which Sabota, with other
+privileges, had purchased the right to operate. "Th' Ramblin' Kid eats
+off the trays--it will be your business to see that he ain't feeling
+well when the sweepstakes is called! I'll get the 'pills' for you
+to-night--"
+
+"No killin', Sabota!" Gyp warned.
+
+"Just enough to put him out for an hour or two!" the Greek answered.
+
+Wednesday night the Ramblin' Kid slept in the stall with the Gold Dust
+maverick and Captain Jack. Thursday he remained close to the horses.
+Thursday night he again slept on a pile of hay in one corner of the
+box-compartment. Under no circumstances would he leave the animals.
+Occasionally Parker or some of the Quarter Circle KT cowboys came down
+to the stables.
+
+Each night Old Heck and Skinny, with Carolyn June and Ophelia, after the
+evening program was concluded, drove out to the ranch in the Clagstone
+"Six," returning early the following day.
+
+Friday forenoon Old Heck drove the car down to the stall in which
+Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were confined. The two horses
+were standing, side by side, with their heads out of the door, the upper
+half of which was swung back. The Ramblin' Kid leaned against the door
+at the side of the horses.
+
+To Carolyn June he looked tired and worn.
+
+"How's the filly?" Old Heck asked, as the outlaw mare sprang back away
+from the door when the car stopped.
+
+"She's all right."
+
+"Hadn't you ought to exercise her?" Skinny asked.
+
+"She don't need it," the Ramblin' Kid replied with a note of weariness
+in his voice. "She'll get enough exercise this afternoon!"
+
+"You're all right, yourself, are you?" Old Heck asked a bit anxiously.
+
+"Of course I'm all right," was the rather impatient reply. "Don't be
+uneasy," he added with a laugh; "--th' filly'll be in th' race an' beat
+old Thunderbolt!"
+
+"Good luck!" Carolyn June cried, as Old Heck turned the car about and
+started back toward the grandstand.
+
+"Good luck!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered to himself, watching the car as
+it whirled away. "Ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!" he repeated bitterly,
+then with a queer smile in which was a world of tenderness he pulled the
+pink satin elastic garter he had picked up at the circular corral, from
+his pocket and looked at it long and wistfully. "Good luck?" he
+exclaimed again questioningly. "Well, maybe that little jigger'll bring
+it!" and he slipped the band back in his pocket.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid acts like he's got the blues this morning," Skinny
+said as the Clagstone "Six" rolled away from the stables. "He looks to
+me like a feller that's in just the right humor to get on a whale of a
+drunk--"
+
+"That's one thing about him you can depend on," Old Heck broke in, "--he
+never poisons himself with liquor. That's why when he says he'll do
+anything you can bet all you've got he'll do it!"
+
+"Well, if he ever does break loose," Skinny retorted, "it'll be sudden
+and wild!"
+
+"Probably," Old Heck replied as though there wasn't the slightest danger
+of such an eventuality.
+
+That morning Gyp purposely avoided going as far, with his stock of
+provisions, as the stall in which were Captain Jack and the Gold Dust
+maverick. Nor did he come with his lunch tray and tin pot of coffee
+until nearly one o'clock.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid had no breakfast. To secure it he would have been
+required to leave the horses. That he would not do. Of course he might
+have told Old Heck or Skinny to bring or send him something, but he did
+not feel inclined to mention, in the presence of Carolyn June and
+Ophelia, that he was hungry. Anyhow, well, they were having a good time
+and what was the use of bothering them?
+
+When Gyp finally came with the lunch the Ramblin' Kid was outside the
+stall and had walked a little way up the stable street. Captain Jack and
+the filly were in a compartment at the end of the string of stalls. The
+one next to it, back toward the grandstand, was unoccupied, and
+adjoining that was a hay room. Gyp stopped opposite the open door of the
+compartment in which the bales of hay and straw were piled. He paused a
+moment and turned as if to go back.
+
+"Hold on there!" the Ramblin' Kid called to him. "What you tryin' to do?
+Starve me to death?"
+
+"D' last thing I'd want to do, Bo!" Gyp laughed good-naturedly. "Did I
+miss you this mornin'? Here, come inside where I can set this bloomin'
+junk down on a bale of hay for a minute an' I'll fix you up!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid followed Gyp into the stall.
+
+The tout stooped over, with his back to the other, and slipped a capsule
+containing a white powder into a coffee cup which he filled quickly with
+the black liquid from the tin pot he carried. He handed the cup to the
+Ramblin' Kid. The latter took it and sat down on a bale of hay lying
+opposite. The coffee was just hot enough to melt, instantly, the capsule
+and not too warm to drink at once. The Ramblin' Kid was thirsty as well
+as hungry. Lifting the cup to his lips, while Gyp, fumbling for a
+sandwich, watched him furtively, he drained it without stopping.
+
+"That's--what was in that?'" he asked, eying the tout keenly. "It tastes
+like--!"
+
+"Just good old Mocha an' Java!" Gyp interrupted lightly. "Maybe it's a
+little strong. Here, take another one!" reaching for the cup.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid started to hand the cup to Gyp to be refilled--a queer
+numbness swept over him--the cup fell from his hand--he swayed--tensed
+his body in an effort to get up--mumbled thickly:
+
+"What th'--what th'--?"
+
+The tout backed away toward the door, crouching like a cat ready to
+spring, his beady eyes half-frightened, watching the poison deaden the
+faculties of the other. He leaped through the door, glanced up and down
+the stable street--deserted at that hour except for a few drowsy
+attendants lounging in front of their stalls--jerked the door shut,
+hooked the open padlock through the iron fastenings, snapped its jaws
+together and muttered, as he hurried away:
+
+"I guess that guy won't ride the Gold Dust maverick in any two-mile
+sweepstakes to-day!"
+
+As the door slammed shut the Ramblin' Kid pitched forward, unconscious,
+on the bale of hay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE SWEEPSTAKES
+
+The Clagstone "Six" was parked, Friday afternoon, in its usual place
+near the east end of the grandstand and close to the entrance to the
+track. Old Heck and Ophelia were alone in the car. Carolyn June and
+Skinny, on Pie Face and Red John, watched the afternoon program from the
+"inside field" across the race track. Parker and the Quarter Circle KT
+cowboys were also mounted on their horses and in the field opposite the
+grandstand.
+
+Never had there been such a jam at a Rodeo held in Eagle Butte.
+
+The two-mile sweepstakes, itself the "cow-man's classic" and the great
+derby event of western Texas, always drew record crowds the day on which
+it was run.
+
+This Friday the grandstand creaked under its load of humanity.
+
+The racing feud between the Quarter Circle KT and the Y-Bar and the
+thousands of dollars Old Heck and Dorsey were known to have bet on their
+respective favorites acted as tinder on the flame of public interest in
+the big event.
+
+Thunderbolt had a great reputation. Last year, and the year before, he
+had mastered the field of runners put against him.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick--named in the race "Ophelia"--was a wonder horse
+in the minds of the people of western Texas who had heard of the
+beautiful, almost super-creature, that had tormented, with her speed and
+endurance, the riders of the Cimarron and now at last was caught, and to
+be ridden in the sweepstakes, by the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+At two-forty a special exhibition of "Cossack Riding"--participated in
+by Lute Larsen, of Idaho; Jack Haines, from Texas, and Curly Piper, a
+Colorado cowboy, finished in front of the grandstand.
+
+The announcer trained his megaphone on the vast crowd:
+
+"The next event," he bellowed, "two-mile sweepstakes! Purse one thousand
+dollars! Five entries! Naming them in their order from the pole:
+Thunderbolt, black Y-Bar stallion, Flip Williams, rider; Say-So, roan
+gelding, from the Pecos River, Box-V outfit, Jess Curtis, rider;
+Ophelia, Gold Dust filly, the Cimarron outlaw from the Quarter Circle
+KT, th' Ramblin' Kid, rider; Prince John, sorrel gelding, from Dallas,
+Texas, 'Snow' Johnson, rider; Dash-Away, bay mare, from Jackson Hole,
+Wyoming, Slim Tucker, rider. Race called at three o'clock sharp! Horse
+failing to score on the dot will be ruled out! Range saddles to be used.
+Entries for the two-mile sweepstakes will show at once on the track!"
+
+Dead silence ensued during the announcer's drawling oration.
+
+It was followed by the hum of five thousand voices as they chattered in
+eager expectancy.
+
+The band crashed out _Dixie_ and a medley of southern melodies.
+
+Chuck and Bert reined their bronchos up to Parker.
+
+"We're going over and see how th' Ramblin' Kid is making it," Chuck
+said. "He might need that filly herded a little to get her through this
+jam." And they galloped their horses across the track toward the
+stables.
+
+Carolyn June and Skinny decided to watch the sweepstakes from the car,
+with Old Heck and Ophelia. They rode Pie Face and Red John over to the
+Clagstone "Six." Carolyn June dismounted and stepped up on the
+running-board of the car, holding Red John loosely by the bridle rein.
+
+"Gee," she laughed, "but I'm nervous!"
+
+Old Heck reached over and patted her hand.
+
+"Wait till they start to run before you get hysterical," he chuckled.
+"There'll be time enough then for excitement!" One could never have
+told, by his actions, that within the next few moments he would lose or
+win fifty thousand dollars.
+
+Chuck pulled Silver Tip to a stop in front of the stall where Captain
+Jack and the Gold Dust maverick were standing.
+
+"They're getting ready for the sweepstakes!" he called, thinking the
+Ramblin' Kid was in the compartment with the horses. "You'd better be
+putting your rigging on the filly," as he slid from his broncho and
+stepped to the door of the stall.
+
+There was no answer. He peered into the half-gloom of the place.
+
+It was empty save for the two horses.
+
+"That's funny as thunder," he said, puzzled, to Bert. "Where'd you
+reckon th' Ramblin' Kid is?"
+
+"Darned if I know--ain't he there?" Bert answered, riding up so he could
+look into the door.
+
+"Look around a little," Chuck said anxiously. "Maybe he's just stepped
+away for a minute--Hey!" he called to an attendant of a stall a short
+distance down the stable street, "have you seen anything of th' Ramblin'
+Kid--the feller that has these horses?"
+
+"Naw," was the careless answer, "I ain't seen him for two hours."
+
+"Something must be wrong!" Chuck exclaimed. "You stay here and watch!
+I'll go see Old Heck--maybe he knows where he is."
+
+"Hell, yes!" Bert said as the other started Silver Tip in a run toward
+where the Clagstone "Six" was parked. "He's got to be found! Nobody else
+but him can ride the maverick!"
+
+At the car, before his horse was fairly stopped, Chuck leaned over and
+asked, tensely:
+
+"Have any of you people seen th' Ramblin' Kid?"
+
+Old Heck straightened up.
+
+"Ain't he at the stables?" he inquired uneasily. "He was there this
+morning--"
+
+"No," Chuck replied hurriedly, "he's been gone two hours!"
+
+"Good lord," Old Heck exclaimed, "he's got to be found! The race starts
+in ten minutes."
+
+"And nobody but him can ride the filly!" Skinny interrupted. "I wonder
+if he's--" he started to say "drunk," but stopped as Carolyn June looked
+quickly at him. The word was in both their minds.
+
+"It ain't natural!" Old Heck cried; "there must be something dirty! You
+boys go look for him; I'll, keep my eyes open here!"
+
+As Old Heck said "dirty" the picture of Mike Sabota flashed into Carolyn
+June's mind. Some intuition seemed to couple, in her inner
+consciousness, the big Greek with the Ramblin' Kid's disappearance.
+
+The horses for the two-mile sweepstakes were already beginning to come
+on to the track. Flip Williams was walking Thunderbolt up and down in
+front of the grandstand, trying to keep the high-spirited stallion quiet
+until time came to mount; the rider of Say-So was doing the same thing
+with his entry; Slim Tucker was already sitting on Dash-Away, the trim
+Wyoming mare standing unruffled near the starting line, while Snow
+Johnson, like Tucker, already on his mount, was circling Prince John in
+wide loops behind the others.
+
+Carolyn June was stunned for a moment by the thought that had come into
+her mind when the picture of the burly Greek flashed before her. She
+clenched her hands and her cheeks whitened.
+
+"Come on, Skinny!" she said suddenly, stepping off the running-board of
+the car and swinging on to Red John, "we'll go help look for the
+Ramblin' Kid!"
+
+She whirled the big bay around the end of the grandstand and rode in a
+fast gallop straight for the box stall, Skinny and Chuck following close
+behind her. A quick resolution formed in her mind: "Nobody but the
+Ramblin' Kid could ride the filly?"
+
+_She could ride the mare_!
+
+Even if the Ramblin' Kid was not found Sabota and his crowd should not
+be allowed to win by dirty work--if dirty work had been done!
+
+At the stall Carolyn June sprang from Red John.
+
+Bert was nervously walking about, calling occasionally the name of the
+missing Quarter Circle KT cowboy.
+
+"Have you found him?" Carolyn June asked as Skinny and Chuck came up
+behind her.
+
+"No," Bert answered glumly, "he ain't showed up yet! There ain't no
+signs of him around here."
+
+"What'll we do?" Skinny asked excitedly. "The race is almost ready to
+start and--do you reckon you could ride the filly, Bert?" he finished
+with a gleam of hope.
+
+"I doubt it, but, well, I'll try her--if Captain Jack'll let me get her
+out."
+
+"You boys keep back!" Carolyn June interrupted, stepping to the door of
+the stall and opening it, "Captain Jack knows me and--I--I--think the
+filly does, too--I can handle her--" as she stepped boldly inside the
+compartment with the horses.
+
+"Don't go in there!" Skinny cried, "Car--Carolyn June, they'll kill
+you!"
+
+"You boys keep away!" she laughed. "And don't get the horses nervous!
+They won't hurt me!" she answered, going ahead toward the animals.
+
+Captain Jack looked at her suspiciously an instant
+
+"Jack-Boy--Jack-Boy!" she called with a caress in her voice. "Careful!
+We're friends!" The attitude of the stallion changed instantly and the
+menace was gone from his eyes.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick heard the voice and with a friendly little nicker
+rubbed her head against the outstretched hand.
+
+In a corner was the Ramblin' Kid's saddle, bridle, blanket and worn
+leather chaps.
+
+With a light pat of the outlaw filly's cheek Carolyn June turned and
+began quickly and deftly putting the riding gear on the beautiful mare.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For an hour and a half the Ramblin' Kid lay as he had fallen when he
+started to hand the coffee cup back to Gyp. Breathing heavily, his face
+flushed, he was as one in the deep stupor of complete intoxication. At
+last he stirred uneasily. An unconscious groan came from his lips. His
+eyes opened. In them was a dazed, puzzled look. Where was he? He tried
+vainly to remember--the clean life, the iron constitution and
+youth--aided perhaps by an indomitable subconscious will protesting
+against this something that had happened to him--were throwing off the
+effects of the drug hours before an ordinary man would have regained
+even a hint of sensibility.
+
+He stood up--reeling unsteadily. He was deathly sick. Lightning flashes
+of pain throbbed through his head. Waves of blackness rolled before his
+eyes. Surges of numbness swept over his legs and arms. He tried hard to
+remember. There was something--what was it? Th'--th'--what th'
+hell?--_th' race_! That was it--th'--th'--th' sweepstakes! In an instant
+the thought was gone. It kept beating back: _Th' sweepstakes--th'
+race_--What time was it? Had it been run? He staggered to the door. It
+was locked! His head was bursting. If he could only get over the nausea.
+He felt his knees start to give way. No! No! My God, he wouldn't give
+up! He--oh, yes. _Th' race! Captain Jack--no--th'--th'--maverick--he had
+to ride_--He must get out! There was a--a--window--sometimes they had
+them--in the back of the stalls. Maybe the hay was over it. He climbed
+on the bales. Behind them he could see the opening. God, he was weak!
+With the sweat of terrible nausea bursting from every pore of his body
+he pulled the bales back. He fell over the bale on which he had been
+lying. One hand brushed his hat which had fallen from his head.
+Mechanically, with stiff fingers, he picked it up and jammed it on
+again. Then he climbed--crawled--over the hay and pitched forward
+through the opening, in a limp heap, on the ground outside.
+
+For a moment he lost consciousness completely again: _Th'--th' race--th'
+maverick! he mustn't forget_--
+
+He fought his way to his feet and groped along back of the building--the
+stall--which way was it? Down there? No--the other way--
+
+As Carolyn June tightened the rear cinch on the Gold Dust maverick and
+turned toward the door of the stall with: "Look out, boys--I'm coming
+out!" the Ramblin' Kid, clutching at the side of the building, reeled
+around the corner of the stall. The cowboys saw him. He himself saw only
+black shapes where their horses were.
+
+"Good God!" Skinny cried, "he's drunk!"
+
+Carolyn June heard Skinny's exclamation at the instant the Ramblin' Kid,
+catching at the half-open door, almost fell into the stall. His eyes
+stared with a dull, puzzled, unrecognizing vacancy first at Carolyn June
+and then the Gold Dust maverick. "_Who th' hell_--" he mumbled stiffly.
+"What--th'--oh, yes--there's th' filly--_th'--th'--race_. It
+must--be--time. Th' mare's saddled! That's--that's--funny! I can't
+remember. Th' race--th' sweepstakes--that's it--"
+
+Reaching over he jerked the reins from the hand of Carolyn June.
+
+"Who--who--get the--" came like the thick growl of a beast from his
+throat. "You--you--can't ride--she'll--_she'll--kill--_"
+
+Carolyn June shrank back as if she had been struck. She pressed her
+hands against her cheeks and stepped away with a look of horror and
+disgust as the Ramblin' Kid backed out of the stall with the Gold Dust
+maverick. Outside he fumbled grotesquely at the silky mane and climbed
+weakly into the saddle.
+
+Chuck and Bert started toward him.
+
+"Get--the--hell--" he snarled as he saw their horses--mere shadow shapes
+they were to him--approach.
+
+"Let him alone!" Skinny said. "He's drunk! You'll just scare the filly
+and make her hurt him!"
+
+The boys let him go.
+
+With blanched cheeks Carolyn June mounted Red John and with Skinny, Bert
+and Chuck, rode back to the Clagstone "Six." Her heart was utterly sick.
+So this was it? It had come out--the brute--the beast that was in him!
+
+They reached the car as the Ramblin' Kid, at the horse entrance, at the
+other end of the grandstand, came on the track with the Gold Dust
+maverick.
+
+Old Heck looked up when the group approached. He saw the agony in
+Carolyn June's eyes and started to speak.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid's drunk," Skinny said dully. "He showed up--yonder he
+is--" as the beautiful copper-tinted, chestnut filly appeared behind the
+other horses entered for the two-mile sweepstakes.
+
+"Drunk?" Old Heck cried incredulously. "Are you sure?"
+
+"Watch him!" Chuck said miserably.
+
+The starter was standing with arm outstretched and flag ready to fall.
+The filly came down the track jumping nervously from side to side in
+short springing leaps. The starter paused, watch in hand. A shout of
+admiration and wonder went up from the crowd as the splendid creature
+dancing down the track was recognized. The next instant it was succeeded
+by a cry of horror that rolled in a great wave from a thousand throats.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid is drunk! He's drunk--the mare will kill him!" as they
+saw the slim rider weaving limply in the saddle, his head dropped
+forward as if he were utterly helpless.
+
+"Rule that horse off the track!" Dorsey, who was standing with Mike
+Sabota, in a box-seat just below the judges' stand, shouted as he saw
+the Ramblin' Kid, even in his half-conscious condition, reining the Gold
+Dust maverick with consummate skill into position, "her rider's drunk!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard the voice and--by some miracle of the
+mind--recognized it, although his eyes, set and glassy, could not see
+the speaker.
+
+He turned his head in the direction from which the cry came and
+answered, slowly measuring each word:
+
+"Go--go--t' hell--you--you--_coyote_!"
+
+The next instant the starter dropped the flag. As it went down the filly
+crouched and reared straight into the air.
+
+That one second gave the other horses the start.
+
+Then the outlaw mare leaped forward directly behind Thunderbolt, running
+against the inside rail. Say-So, the Pecos horse, jammed close to the
+side of the black stallion; Snow Johnson, rider of Prince John, pushed
+the big sorrel ahead with his nose at the roan's tail; Dash-Away hugged
+against the heels of Prince John. The Gold Dust maverick was "pocketed!"
+
+A breathless hush fell over the crowd in the grandstand after the first
+mighty roar:
+
+"They're off!"
+
+Black devils of torture clutched the throat, the mind, the body of the
+Ramblin' Kid. Streams of fire seemed to be flowing through his veins. He
+couldn't see--he was blind. "What th'--what th'--hell!" he muttered over
+and over. He was vaguely conscious of the thunder of hoofs around
+him--under him. Dimly, black shadows were rushing along at his side. He
+fought with all his will to master his faculties. Where was he? What was
+it? Was it a--a--stampede? What? _Oh, yes, th' race--th'--th'--
+sweepstakes--that--that was it_--Over and over the fleeting flashes of
+consciousness kept throwing this one supreme idea on the mirror of his
+mind!
+
+Not a word was spoken by any of the party at the Clagstone "Six" as the
+five fastest horses ever on the Eagle Butte track swept past the car
+toward the first quarter-turn of the course.
+
+Carolyn June's face was as white as marble. Her breast heaved and fell
+as if it would burst. Dry-eyed, every nerve tense, she stared at the
+straining racers. Unconsciously she gripped into hard knots of flesh and
+bone, both hands, while she bit at her underlip until a red drop of
+blood started from the gash made in the tender skin by her teeth.
+
+"_Drunk_!" she thought, "_drunk!_ Beastly drunk--and throwing away the
+greatest race ever run on a Texas track!"
+
+Old Heck sat impassive as though carved from stone and said nothing.
+
+Ophelia nervously chewed at the finger of her glove while her eyes
+moistened with sympathy and pity.
+
+Skinny, Chuck and Bert sat gloomily, moodily, on their bronchos and
+watched Thunderbolt lead the quintette of running horses.
+
+For the life of him Skinny could not keep from thinking of the five
+hundred dollars he had bet with Sabota, on the race, and the number of
+white shirts and purple ties he might have bought with the money!
+
+Over in the track-field Parker, Charley and Pedro saw the start of the
+race and each swore softly and silently to himself.
+
+Sing Pete, alone of the Quarter Circle KT crowd, in the jam of the
+grandstand, stretched his neck and followed with inscrutable eyes the
+close-bunched racers. The start had puzzled him, yet he murmured
+hopefully:
+
+"Maybe all samee Lamblin' Kid he beatee hell out of 'em yet!"
+
+The loyal Chinese cook had wagered the savings of a dozen years on the
+speed of the Gold Dust maverick's nimble legs and his faith in the
+"Lamblin' Kid."
+
+A blanket might have covered the five horses as they swung around the
+first mile.
+
+The speed-mad animals roared down the homestretch, finishing the first
+half of the race in the almost identical position each had taken in the
+getaway.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid rode the mile more as an automaton than as a living,
+conscious human being. He had no memory of time, place, events--save for
+the instants of rationality he forced his will to bring.
+
+Gradually, though, his mind was clearing.
+
+But which was it--the first half?--the last half? How long had they been
+running? How many times had they gone around the track? He could not
+remember!
+
+Down the straight stretch the racers came in a mighty whirlwind of
+speed.
+
+"Thunderbolt is taking it!"
+
+"The Y-Bar horse leads!"
+
+"Th' black's got 'em!" roared from the throats of the crowd in the
+grandstand and the mass of humanity crushing the railing along the
+track.
+
+Dorsey and Sabota leaped to the edge of the box as the horses thundered
+past the judges' stand. The voice of the owner of Thunderbolt shrieked
+out in a hoarse bellow:
+
+"Hold him to it, Flip! Keep your lead--you've got the filly!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid heard again--or thought he heard again--the voice of
+the Vermejo cattleman. He caught, as an echo, a note of triumph in it.
+It was like a tonic to his drug-numbed faculties.
+
+Suddenly he saw clearly. He had just a glimpse of Sabota standing by the
+side of Dorsey. He understood. In a flash it all came to him. The first
+half of the great sweepstakes race was behind them! Once more they were
+to circle the track. The glistening black rump of Thunderbolt rose and
+fell just ahead of the Gold Dust maverick's nose--at her side, crowding
+her against the rail, was another horse. Which one? It didn't matter!
+Back of it was another. He was "_pocketed_!" Hell, no wonder Thunderbolt
+was ahead of the outlaw mare!
+
+Half-way around the quarter-turn he pulled the filly down.
+
+She slackened ever so little. Thunderbolt--the horse at her side--all of
+them--shot ahead.
+
+He was behind the bunch--clear of the field!
+
+The crowd saw the filly dart to the right. It looked as though she would
+go over the outside rail before the Ramblin' Kid swung her, in a great
+arch, to the left clear of, but far behind, the other horses.
+
+He was crazy! The Gold Dust maverick was getting the better of the
+Ramblin' Kid. He had lost control of the wonderful mare!
+
+So thought the thousands watching the drama on the track before them.
+
+Away over, next to the outside fence, on the far side of the track, open
+now before him for the long outfield stretch, the Rambling Kid
+straightened the Gold Dust maverick out. The other racers were still
+bunched against the inner rail--lengths ahead of the filly.
+
+Leaning low on the neck of the maverick, the Ramblin' Kid began talking,
+for the first time, to the horse he rode.
+
+"_Baby--Baby! Girl_!" he whispered incoherently almost. "_Go--go_--damn
+'em! _'Ophelia'_"--he laughed thickly, reeling in the saddle.
+"_Hell_--_no--'Little--Little--Pink Garter!--that's--that's--_what y'
+are! Little--Pink--Garter_--" he repeated irrationally. "_That's
+it--show 'em--damn 'em--show 'em what--what runnin'--what real runnin'
+is!_" fumbling caressingly at the mare's neck with hands numb and stiff
+and chuckling pitifully, insanely, while his face was drawn with agony
+nearly unendurable.
+
+Then the Gold Dust maverick ran!
+
+Never had ground flowed with such swiftness under the belly of a horse
+on a Texas track.
+
+"Good God!" Skinny yelled, "looky yonder! He's passin' them! Th'
+Ramblin' Kid is passin' 'em!"
+
+No one answered him.
+
+His voice was drowned in the mighty roar that surged from five thousand
+throats and rolled in waves of echoing and re-echoing sound across the
+field.
+
+"He's ridin' round 'em!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid is goin' around them!"
+
+"Great heavens! Look at that horse go!"
+
+"She's a-flyin'! _She's a-flyin_'!"
+
+The Gold Dust maverick closed the gap--she caught Dash-Away--she
+evened up with Prince John--she left the big sorrel behind--she passed
+Say-So--nose to nose for a few rods she ran opposite the black
+wonder--the Thunderbolt horse from the Vermejo.
+
+Flip Williams, spurs raking the flanks of Dorsey's stallion, looked
+around.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid leaned toward him:
+
+"Hell--why--don't you--_make that--thing run_!" he sneered at the Y-Bar
+rider.
+
+The next instant the Gold Dust maverick's neck and shoulders showed in
+the lead of the Y-Bar stallion.
+
+At the turn for the home stretch the outlaw filly shot ahead of the
+wonderful black horse from the Vermejo, swung close to the inside rail,
+and like a flash of gold-brown darted down the track toward the wire.
+
+The grandstand was turned into a madhouse of seething humanity. The
+immense crowd came to its feet roaring and shrieking with frenzy. Men
+smashed their neighbors with clenched fists--not knowing or caring how
+hard or whom they struck--or that they themselves were being hit. Women
+screamed frantically, hysterically, tears streaming from thousands of
+eyes because of sheer joy at the wonderful thing the Gold Dust maverick
+was doing. Even the stolid Sing Pete was jumping up and down, shouting:
+
+"_Come on--come on--Lamblin' Kid! Beat 'em--beatee hell out of 'em_!"
+
+Full three lengths in the lead of the "unbeatable" Thunderbolt the Gold
+Dust maverick flashed under the wire in front of the judges!
+
+Dorsey, shaken in every nerve, lips blue as though he were stricken with
+a chill, reeled out of the box from which he had watched his whole
+fortune swept away by the speed of the Cimarron mare. At his side,
+profaning horrible, obscene oaths staggered Mike Sabota.
+
+Old Heck, white-faced, but his lips drawn in a smile of satisfaction,
+stood up in the Clagstone "Six" and watched the Ramblin' Kid--his eyes
+set and staring, his body twitching convulsively, check the filly, swing
+her around, ride back to the judges' stand, weakly fling up a hand in
+salute and then, barely able to sit in the saddle, rein the Gold Dust
+maverick off the track and ride toward the box stall.
+
+Skinny drew a hand across his eyes and looked at Carolyn June.
+
+Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+OLD HECK GOES TO TOWN
+
+It was Monday morning, clear and cloudless, with a whiff of a breeze
+kissing the poplars along the front-yard fence at the Quarter Circle KT.
+On the sand-hills north of the Cimarron, Pedro was pushing the saddle
+cavallard toward Rock Creek, where the last half of the beef round-up
+was to begin. Parker and the cowboys were just splashing their bronchos
+into the water at the lower ford. Sing Pete, on the high seat of the
+grub-wagon, was once more clucking and cawing at Old Tom and Baldy as
+they drew the outfit along the lane and followed the others to the open
+range.
+
+Old Heck, Skinny, Ophelia and Carolyn June again were alone at the
+Quarter Circle KT.
+
+The Eagle Butte Rodeo had closed, with one last riotous carnival of
+wildness at midnight Saturday night.
+
+Once more the straggling town, its pulse gradually beating back to
+normal, lay half-asleep at the foot of the sun-baked butte that stood
+silent and drowsy beyond the Sante Fe tracks.
+
+Tom Poole, the lank marshal, loafed as usual about the Elite Amusement
+Parlor, over which hung a sullen quiet reflecting the morbid emotions of
+Mike Sabota, its brutish-built proprietor, resulting from his heavy
+losses on Thunderbolt in the two-mile sweepstakes when the Gold Dust
+maverick, ridden by the drug-crazed Ramblin' Kid, darted under the wire
+lengths ahead of the black Vermejo stallion.
+
+Friday evening Old Heck had met Dorsey in the pool-room.
+
+Judge Ivory handed over to the owner of the Quarter Circle KT the Y-Bar
+cattleman's check for ten thousand dollars and the bill of sale he had
+recklessly given and which transferred to Old Heck all the cattle the
+Vermejo rancher owned.
+
+Dorsey was game.
+
+"You put it on me," he said to Old Heck "but the Ramblin' Kid won square
+and I'm not squealing!"
+
+Old Heck turned the check slowly over in his hand and looked at it with
+a quizzical frown on his face:
+
+"I reckon this is good?"
+
+"It's my exact balance," Dorsey replied; "I saw to that this morning."
+
+For a long minute Old Heck studied the bill of sale that made him owner
+of every cow-brute burnt with the Y-Bar brand.
+
+"My men will gather the cattle within fifteen days," Dorsey said dully,
+noting the half-questioning look on Old Heck's face, "or you can send
+your own crew, just as you please. I suppose you'll meet me half-way and
+receive the stock in Eagle Butte?"
+
+"Can Thunderbolt run?" Old Heck asked irrelevantly.
+
+"Not as fast as that imp of hell of the Ramblin' Kid's!" Dorsey answered
+instantly and with a short laugh.
+
+Old Heck chuckled.
+
+"You say you'll turn the Y-Bar cattle over to me within fifteen days?"
+he asked again, reverting to a study of the paper he held in his hand.
+
+"Yes," Dorsey replied; "is that satisfactory?"
+
+"You're a pretty good sport, after all, Dorsey," Old Heck said quietly.
+"I'll cash this check"--glancing at the yellow slip of paper--"and this
+thing, here--we'll just tear it up!" as he reduced the bill of sale to
+fragments. "Keep your cattle, Dorsey," he added, "ten thousand dollars
+is enough for you to pay for your lesson!"
+
+Dorsey flushed a dull red.
+
+"I ain't asking--"
+
+"I know you're not," Old Heck interrupted, "and that's the reason I tore
+up that bill of sale!"
+
+"Old Heck," Dorsey said, his voice trembling, "you're white! I'd like to
+shake--"
+
+The rival cattlemen gripped hands and the racing feud between the
+Quarter Circle KT and the Y-Bar was ended.
+
+A week later Dorsey sent Flip Williams to the Quarter Circle KT. The
+Vermejo cowboy led the beautiful black stallion that had mastered
+Quicksilver and had in turn been whipped by the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+"Dorsey said, Tell Old Heck Thunderbolt's a pretty good saddle horse,'"
+Flip explained, "'and he'd do to change off with Quicksilver once in a
+while! So he sent him over as a sort of keepsake!'"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid did not return to the Quarter Circle KT until late
+Sunday night. After the two-mile sweepstakes he was horribly ill. All
+Friday night he laid, in a semi-conscious condition, in the stall with
+Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick.
+
+Parker and some of the cowboys visited the stall after the race, but
+they thought the Ramblin' Kid was drunk and the best thing was to allow
+him to sleep it off.
+
+"I can't figure it out," Chuck said as they turned away, "he never did
+get drunk before that I knew of--"
+
+"You can't tell what he's liable to do," Charley interrupted, "he sure
+took an awful chance getting on a tear at the time he did!"
+
+"Well, he won the race," Parker said admiringly, "drunk or sober, you've
+got to give him credit for that!"
+
+Saturday the Ramblin' Kid got Pedro to stay with the horses while he
+went over to the Elite Amusement Parlor. He had nothing to say to Sabota
+or any of the loafers in the place.
+
+He was looking for Gyp Streetor.
+
+Until Sunday afternoon he searched Eagle Butte, trying to find the tout.
+All he wanted was to locate the man who had sold him that cup of
+coffee--he could remember drinking the coffee; after that until the
+following morning all was hazy.
+
+But Gyp was gone.
+
+When the Gold Dust maverick, with the Ramblin' Kid swaying uncertainly
+on her back, had appeared on the track for the two-mile run, the tout,
+his eyes like those of a harried rat, sneaked out of the crowd in front
+of the book-makers' booths and hurried toward the Santa Fe railroad
+yards. An hour later he slipped into an empty freight car--part of a
+train headed for the West--and Eagle Butte saw him no more.
+
+It was midnight Sunday when the Ramblin' Kid reached the Quarter Circle
+KT, turned Captain Jack and the outlaw filly into the circular corral,
+and without disturbing Old Heck, Parker, or the cowboys, already asleep
+in the bunk-house, sought his bed.
+
+Monday morning he was at breakfast with the others.
+
+Throughout the meal the Ramblin' Kid was silent. Carolyn June, still
+shocked by what she thought was his intoxication the day of the race,
+and believing he had remained in Eagle Butte over Saturday night and
+Sunday to continue the debauch, ignored him.
+
+None of the others cared to question him and the Ramblin' Kid himself
+volunteered no information.
+
+Once only, Old Heck mentioned the race.
+
+"That was a pretty good ride you made in the two-mile event," he said,
+addressing the Ramblin' Kid; "it looked at first like the filly--"
+
+"You won your money, didn't you?" the Ramblin' Kid interrupted in a tone
+that plainly meant there was nothing further to be said.
+
+That was the only reference to the incidents of Friday afternoon.
+
+After breakfast the Ramblin' Kid saddled the Gold Dust maverick, turned
+Captain Jack with the cavallard, and with Parker and the other Quarter
+Circle KT cowboys rode away to help gather the beef cattle from the west
+half of the Cimarron range.
+
+The week that followed passed quickly.
+
+During the entire period the Kiowa lay under a mantle of sunshine by day
+and starlit skies by night.
+
+Carolyn June once more provided the evening dessert of coffee-jelly and
+Skinny finished teaching her the art of dipping bread in milk and egg
+batter, frying it in hot butter, and calling the result "French toast"
+
+Skinny again put on the white shirt and the shamrock tinted tie. He had
+not dared to wear what Chuck called his "love-making rigging" during the
+week of the Rodeo. It would have made him entirely too conspicuous among
+the hundreds of other cowboys gathered at Eagle Butte for the big
+celebration. Situations filled with embarrassment would have been almost
+certain to develop.
+
+"It's getting so it needs a washing a little," Skinny remarked to
+Carolyn June the first time he reappeared in the once snowy garment.
+
+He was quite right.
+
+Carolyn June herself had noticed that the shirt had lost some of its
+immaculateness.
+
+"It doesn't look hardly as white as it did at first!"
+
+"No, it don't," Skinny answered seriously. "I guess I'll wash it
+to-morrow. I never did wash one but I reckon it ain't so awful hard to
+do--"
+
+"I'll help you," Carolyn June volunteered. "I've never washed one
+either, but it will be fun to learn how!"
+
+The next day they washed the shirt.
+
+The ceremony was performed in the kitchen after they had finished doing
+the breakfast dishes. Ophelia, after water for a vase of roses, came
+into the room while Skinny was rinsing the shirt in the large tin
+dishpan.
+
+The garment was a sickly yellow.
+
+"Darned if I know what's wrong with it," Skinny said, a trifle
+discouraged, while Carolyn June, her sleeves rolled above dimpled
+elbows, stood by and watched the slushy operation. "Carolyn June and me
+both have blamed near rubbed our fingers off trying to get it to look
+right again but somehow or other it don't seem to work."
+
+"Did you put bluing in your rinse water?" Ophelia asked with a laugh.
+
+"Bluing?" Carolyn June and Skinny questioned together. "What does that
+do to it?"
+
+"Bleaches it--makes it white," the widow replied with another laugh as
+she returned to the front room.
+
+"By golly, maybe that's what it needs!" Skinny exclaimed hopefully.
+
+"Of course," Carolyn June cried gaily. "How silly we were not to think
+of it! Any one ought to know you put bluing in the water when you wash
+things. Wonder if Sing Pete has any around anywhere?"
+
+They searched the kitchen shelves and found a pint bottle, nearly full,
+of the liquid indigo compound.
+
+"How much do you suppose we ought to put in?" Carolyn June asked,
+pulling the cork from the bottle and holding it poised over the pan of
+water in which the shirt, a slimy, dingy mass, floated drunkenly.
+
+"Darned if I know," Skinny said, scratching his head. "She said it would
+make it white--I reckon the more you put in the whiter the blamed
+thing'll be. Try about half of it at first and see how 'it works!"
+
+"Gee, isn't it pretty?" Carolyn June gurgled as she tipped the bottle
+and the waves of indigo spread through the water, covering the shirt
+with a deep crystalline blue.
+
+"You bet!" Skinny exclaimed. "That ought to fix it!"
+
+It did.
+
+The shirt, when finally dried, was a wonderful thing--done in a sort of
+mottled, streaky, marbled sky and cloud effect.
+
+But Skinny wore it, declaring he liked it better--that it more nearly
+matched the shamrock tie--than when it was "too darned white and
+everything!"
+
+To Parker and the boys on the beef hunt everything was business.
+
+The days were filled with hard riding as they gathered the cattle,
+bunched the fat animals, cut out and turned back those unfit for the
+market, stood guard at night over the herd, steadily and rapidly cleaned
+the west half of the Kiowa range of the stuff that was ready to sell.
+
+It was supper-time on one of the last days of the round-up.
+
+The outfit was camped at Dry Buck. Bed rolls, wrapped in dingy gray
+tarpaulins or black rubber ponchos, were scattered about marking the
+places where each cowboy that night would sleep. The herd was bunched a
+quarter of a mile away in a little cove backed by the rim of sand-hills.
+Captain Jack and Silver Tip, riderless but with their saddles still on,
+were nipping the grass near the camp--the Ramblin' Kid and Chuck were to
+take the first watch, until midnight, at "guard mount." Parker and the
+cowboys were squatted, legs doubled under them, their knees forming a
+table on which to hold the white porcelain plate of "mulligan," in a
+circle at the back of the grub-wagon. Sing Pete trotted around the group
+and poured black, blistering-hot coffee into the unbreakable cups on the
+ground at the side of the hungry, dusty riders.
+
+The sun had just dipped into the ragged peaks of the Costejo range and a
+reddish-purple crown lay on the crest of Sentinel Mountain forty miles
+to the southeast.
+
+"It looks to me like Parker's sort of losing out," Chuck suddenly
+remarked, as he wiped his lips on the back of his hand after washing
+down a mouthful of the savory stew with gulps of steaming coffee.
+"Ophelia stuck closer than thunder to Old Heck all through the Rodeo."
+
+Parker reddened and growled: "Aw, hell--don't start that up again!"
+
+"By criminy, she didn't stick any closer to Old Heck than Skinny stuck
+to Carolyn June," Bert complained. "Nobody else had a look-in!"
+
+"Skinny's sure earning his money," Charley muttered half enviously.
+
+"Bet he's got on that white shirt and having a high old time right now!
+They're probably in the front room and she's playing _La Paloma_ on the
+piano while Old Skinny's setting back rolling his eyes up like a bloated
+yearling!" Chuck laughed.
+
+"And Old Heck and Ophelia are out on the porch holding hands and looking
+affectionate while the mosquitos are chewing their necks and ankles!"
+Bert added with a snicker.
+
+"Her and Old Heck'll probably be married before we get back," Chuck said
+solemnly, with a wink at the Ramblin' Kid and a sly glance in the
+direction of Parker.
+
+"Do you reckon there's any danger of it?" Parker asked in a voice that
+showed anxiety, but not of the sort the cowboys thought.
+
+"They're darned near sure to," Chuck replied seriously, heaving what he
+tried to make resemble a sigh of sympathy.
+
+"What makes you think so?" Parker questioned, seeking confirmation from
+the lips of other, of a hope that had been rising in his heart since the
+first moment he had begun to regret his rash proposal of marriage to the
+widow.
+
+"Well, for one thing"--Chuck began soberly--"the way they'd look at each
+other--"
+
+"I saw her squeeze Old Heck's arm once!" Bert interrupted.
+
+"Aw, she's done that lots of times," Chuck said airily; "that ain't
+nothing special! But the worst indication was them flowers she wore on
+her bosom every day--_Old Heck bought 'em_!" he finished dramatically,
+leaning over and speaking tensely as though it pained him immeasurably
+to break the news to Parker while he fixed on Old Heck's rival a look he
+imagined was one of supreme pity.
+
+"Yeah, he had them sent up from Las Vegas," Bert added, picking up the
+cue and lying glibly. "I saw the express agent deliver a box of them to
+him one day. There was four dollars and eighty cents charges on 'em!"
+
+A gleam, which the cowboys misunderstood, came into Parker's eyes.
+
+"Why don't you and Old Heck fight a duel about Ophelia?" Bert suggested
+tragically and in a voice that was aimed to convey sympathy to the
+Quarter Circle KT foreman. "You could probably kill him!"
+
+"Sure, that's the way they do in books," Chuck urged.
+
+"Yes," the Ramblin' Kid broke in with a slow drawl, "fight one with
+sour-dough biscuits at a hundred yards! That'd be sensible--then both of
+you'd be genuine heroes!"
+
+"Gosh, th' Ramblin' Kid's awake!" Bert laughed. "How does it happen you
+ain't fell in love with Carolyn June?" he asked, turning toward the
+slender, dark-eyed, young cowboy. "So far you're the only one that's
+escaped. The rest of us are breaking our hearts--"
+
+For an instant the Ramblin' Kid flashed on Bert a look of hot anger
+while a dull red glow spread over his sun-tanned cheeks.
+
+"There's enough damned fools loose on th' Kiowa range without me bein'
+one, too!" he retorted slowly, getting up and going toward Captain Jack.
+
+"Blamed if he'll stand a bit of joshing on that subject!" Bert
+muttered, his own face flushing front the look the Ramblin' Kid had
+given him.
+
+"Not a darned bit," Chuck added, "but it is funny; the way he shys off
+from Carolyn June!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid ain't interested in women," Charley said, as they
+pitched their plates to one side and the meal was finished. "He ain't
+the kind that bothers with females!"
+
+When Chuck had idly suggested that Old Heck and Ophelia might be married
+before Parker and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys returned to the ranch
+from the beef hunt, he did not know it, but the words he spoke in jest
+voiced the very thought at the same instant in the mind of Old
+Heck--miles away though he was. Perhaps it was mental telepathy, thought
+vibration, subconscious soul communication--or a mere coincident, that
+caused Chuck, far out on the open range, to speak the thing Old Heck,
+sitting at supper with Carolyn June, Ophelia and Skinny, at the Quarter
+Circle KT was thinking.
+
+Ever since Parker had voluntarily surrendered during the Rodeo, his
+right to alternate, day and day about, with Old Heck in the widow's
+society, the owner of the Quarter Circle KT had been watching Ophelia,
+covertly and carefully, for any sign of "Movements" or an outbreak as a
+dreaded suffragette.
+
+While he watched her the widow was becoming more and more a necessity in
+the life of Old Heck.
+
+The night of the conversation between Parker and the cowboys, away over
+at Rock Creek, Old Heck sat at the supper table in the kitchen at the
+ranch and debated in his mind the future relationships of Parker,
+Ophelia and himself. In a few days Parker would return. Almost certainly
+the foreman would again wish to share, fifty-fifty, in the courtship of
+the widow. Old Heck felt that if such were so those odd days, when
+Parker was with Ophelia, would be little less than hell. Yet, he dreaded
+that suffragette business. If she would only break loose and let him see
+how bad she was liable to be he could easily make up his mind. He was
+almost ready to take a chance, to ask Ophelia to marry him and settle it
+all at once.
+
+Throughout the meal he was moody. After supper he had little to say and
+the next few; days he brooded constantly over the matter.
+
+Tuesday Parker and the cowboys were expected to return with the beef
+cattle. Monday morning, at breakfast, the widow asked Old Heck if he
+would take her to Eagle Butte that day.
+
+"I must see the minister's wife," she said, as Old Heck steered the
+Clagstone "Six" up the grade that led out to the bench and to Eagle
+Butte, "--it is very important"
+
+Old Heck murmured assent and drove silently on. Probably she was going
+to start a "Movement" or something to-day! To-morrow, Parker would be
+back. It sure did put a man in a dickens of a fix!
+
+Before they reached the long bridge across the Cimarron a mile from
+Eagle Butte Old Heck's mind was made up.
+
+"You want to stop at the preacher's house?" he asked.
+
+"If you please," Ophelia replied, "for some little time. There are
+things to discuss--"
+
+"Would you mind if I drove around to the court-house first?" Old Heck
+questioned again.
+
+"Not at all," she answered sweetly.
+
+A few moments later Old Heck stopped the Clagstone "Six" in front of the
+yellow sandstone county building. Leaving Ophelia in the car with the
+remark, "I'll be out in a minute!" he went inside and hurried along the
+dark corridor that led to the clerk's office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+A SHAME TO WASTE IT
+
+In Old Heck's eyes was a set, determined look when he came out of the
+court-house and stepped up to the Clagstone "Six" in which he had left
+Ophelia a few moments before. The end of a long yellow envelope
+protruded from the side pocket of his coat. His face was flushed and his
+hand trembled slightly as he opened the door of the car and climbed into
+the front seat beside the widow. He pressed his foot on the "starter,"
+threw the clutch into gear and turning the car about drove slowly toward
+the home of Reverend Hector R. Patterson, Eagle Butte's only resident
+clergyman.
+
+He did not speak until the car stopped at the gate of the little
+unpainted parsonage beside the white, weather-boarded church.
+
+"Wait a minute," he said as Ophelia started to get out of the Clagstone
+"Six," "maybe I'll go in with you!"
+
+"Splendid," the widow replied, settling again against the cushions. "I'd
+be delighted to have you come along and I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Patterson
+would be glad to see you!"
+
+"Well, it--it"--Old Heck stammered, not knowing how to begin what he
+wanted to say--"it--it all depends on you! Here"--he said abruptly as a
+bright thought came to him--"read that and--and--tell me what you think
+about it!" at the same time pulling the yellow envelope from his pocket
+and handing it to Ophelia.
+
+With a questioning lift of her eyebrows the widow drew the folded,
+official-looking document from the envelope.
+
+"Why, it's a--it's a--" she started to say and stopped confused, her
+cheeks blazing crimson.
+
+"It's a marriage license--" Old Heck said, coming to her rescue, "--made
+out for you and me. I--I--didn't know what to tell the clerk when he
+asked me how old you was--so I just guessed at it!"
+
+The widow looked shyly down at the names written on the document.
+
+The license granted "Ophelia Cobb, age _twenty-three_, of Hartville,
+Connecticut, and Josiah Alonzo Heck, age forty-eight, of Kiowa County,
+Texas," the right to marry.
+
+Ophelia's actual years were thirty-nine!
+
+From under drooping lashes she glanced up suspiciously into the earnest
+gray eyes beside her. She saw that Old Heck had been sincere in his
+"guess."
+
+"But--but--"
+
+"I know it's kind of unexpected," Old Heck interrupted nervously,
+"--perhaps I had ought to have said something about it first, but, well,
+I figured I'd go on and get the license and show that my intentions was
+good and--and--sort of risk the whole thing on one throw! It always
+seemed like there was something missing at the Quarter Circle KT," he
+went on, his voice grown softer and trembling a bit, "and--and when you
+came I--I--found out what it was--"
+
+Ophelia sat silently with downcast eyes, her pulse racing, the license
+unfolded on her lap, while she bit uncertainly at the tip of the finger
+of her glove.
+
+"I--I--know I ain't very good-looking or--or--anything," Old Heck
+continued, "but I thought maybe you--you--liked me a little--enough
+anyhow to get married--that is if you--. Oh-h--thunder, Ophelia!" he
+exclaimed in despair, feeling that he was hopelessly floundering,
+"I--I--love you! Please let's use that license! Let's use it right away
+--to-day--and get it over with!" he urged as the widow still hesitated.
+
+"But--I--I'm not suitably dressed--" she stammered.
+
+"I think that dress you've got on is the prettiest goods I ever saw in
+my life," he interrupted, looking adoringly at the clinging summer
+fabric caressing Ophelia's shapely form, "I always did think it would be
+awful appropriate for us to--to--get married in!" he finished
+pleadingly.
+
+"But--Carolyn June and--and--Parker--" Ophelia murmured.
+
+At the mention of Parker, Old Heck started while a look of anguish came
+into his eyes. So she loved Parker! That was why she was so backward, he
+thought. Well, the Quarter Circle KT foreman was a little
+better-looking, maybe, and some younger! He couldn't blame her.
+
+His head dropped. For a moment Old Heck was silent, a dull, sickening
+hurt gripping his heart. A deep sigh escaped from his lips. He reached
+over and picked up the license.
+
+"I--I--guess I made a mistake," he said numbly. "We'll just--just--tear
+this thing up and forget about it!"
+
+Ophelia looked demurely up at him, her mouth twitching. One small gloved
+hand slipped over and rested on the strong brown fingers that held the
+license. Roses flamed over the full round throat and spread their blush
+to her cheeks. Her eyes were like pools of liquid blue:
+
+"Don't tear it--it--up!" she whispered with a little laugh--a laugh that
+sent the blood leaping, like fire, through Old Heck's veins, "it--it
+would be a shame to waste it!"
+
+For an instant Old Heck was dazed. He looked at her as if he could not
+believe he had heard aright. Suddenly a wave of undiluted happiness
+swept over him.
+
+"Ophelia!" he cried huskily. "Oh, Ophelia!" and the minister's three
+small sons, pausing in their play in the grassless yard at the side of
+the house, while they watched the beautiful car standing in front of
+the parsonage gate, saw the owner of the Quarter Circle KT, in broad
+daylight, on the principal residence street of Eagle Butte, before the
+eyes of the whole world--if the whole world cared to look--throw his
+arms around the plump lady sitting beside him and press one long,
+rapturous kiss on her moist, unresisting lips!
+
+A moment later Ophelia and Old Heck, both much embarrassed but
+tremulously happy, stepped inside the door of the parsonage.
+
+They were driving away from the minister's house--going to the
+Occidental Hotel for a little all-by-their-ownselves "wedding
+luncheon"--before either thought of the matter concerning which Ophelia
+had desired to see the clergyman's wife.
+
+"Gee whiz!" Old Heck exclaimed, "you forgot that consultation or
+whatever it was with Mrs. Patterson to start your woman's suffrage
+'movement'--"
+
+"To start my what?"
+
+"Your 'woman's rights,' 'female voter's organization'--or whatever it
+is!" Old Heck explained, a new-born tolerance in his voice. "I didn't
+mean to interfere with your political activities--"
+
+Ophelia threw back! her head, while a ripple of laughter trilled out
+above the purr of the Clagstone "Six."
+
+"Why, my dear--dear--Old Boy!" she cried, "I am not engaged in
+'political activities,' or 'suffragette movements!' Of course," she
+continued archly, "I believe women ought to be allowed to vote--if they
+haven't intelligence enough for that they haven't brains enough to be
+good 'pardners' with their husbands--"
+
+"By gosh, you're right!" Old Heck agreed, "I never thought of it that
+way before!"
+
+"And," she continued, "naturally I shall vote whenever the opportunity
+comes, but I'm not an 'Organizer' for anything of that kind. Mrs.
+Patterson and I are going to organize the wives, sisters and
+sweethearts, in Eagle Butte, into a club for the study of 'Scientific
+and Efficient Management of the Home!' We think we should be as
+proficient in those arts--and which we believe are peculiarly womanly
+functions--as the men are in the direction of the more strenuous
+business affairs in which they themselves are engaged."
+
+"So that's what you're an 'Organizer' for?" Old Heck queried while a
+radiant contentment spread over his face.
+
+"That is it," Ophelia said simply, adding with a most becoming
+heightening of color, "it is so we will be--will be--better wives!"
+
+"My Gawd!" Old Heck breathed fervently. "My Gawd! The Lord has been good
+to me to-day!"
+
+While Old Heck and Ophelia were in Eagle Butte getting married, Skinny
+and Carolyn June had been riding line on the upland pasture fence. They
+had just returned to the Quarter Circle KT, unsaddled their horses,
+turned them into the pasture, gone to the house and stopped a moment on
+the front porch to watch the glow in the west--the sun was dipping into
+a thundercap over the Costejo Mountains--when the Clagstone "Six" rolled
+down the grade and up to the string of poplars before the house.
+
+"Gee, we thought you two had eloped!" Carolyn June laughed as the couple
+climbed out of the car and came, rather bashfully, in at the gate. Old
+Heck and Ophelia looked at each other guiltily.
+
+"We did come darn near it!" Old Heck chuckled, plunging at once into the
+task of breaking the news. "We got married--I reckon you'd call that the
+next thing to eloping!"
+
+"Got married?" Skinny and Carolyn June cried together.
+
+"Who--who--got married?" Skinny repeated incredulously.
+
+"Ophelia and me," Old Heck answered with a sheepish grin but proudly.
+"Who else did you think we meant? We just thought," he continued by way
+of explanation, "we'd go ahead and do it kind of private and save a lot
+of excitement and everything!"
+
+Carolyn June threw her arms around Ophelia and kissed her.
+
+"Good-by, chaperon," she laughed With a half-sob in her throat,
+"h--hello, 'Aunt.'" Then she strangled Old Heck with a hug that made him
+gasp.
+
+"What the devil--are you trying to do--choke me?"
+
+"Well, by thunder, Old Heck!" Skinny finally managed to ejaculate, "it
+was the sensiblest thing you ever done! I--I've--been"--with a sidelong
+look at Carolyn June--"kind of figuring on doing it myself!"
+
+Carolyn June saw the expression in Skinny's eyes. A pained look came
+into her own. She had known, for a long while, that sooner or later
+there would have to come an understanding between this big, overgrown,
+juvenile-hearted cowboy and herself. She resolved then that it should
+come quickly. Further delay would be cruel to him. Besides, she was sick
+of flirtations. Her disappointment in the character of the Ramblin' Kid,
+her realization of his weakness, when he had gotten, as she believed,
+beastly drunk at the moment so much depended on him the day of the
+two-mile sweepstakes, had hurt deeply. Somehow, even his magnificent
+ride and the fact that, in spite of his condition, he won the race, had
+not taken the sting away. She had thought the Ramblin' Kid was
+real--rough and crude, perhaps, but all man, rugged-hearted and honest.
+Sometimes she wondered if the queer unexplainable antagonism between
+herself and the sensitive young cowboy had not, in a measure, been
+responsible for his sudden moral breaking down. The thought caused her
+to lose some of that frivolity that inspired the dance and the wild
+flirtations she carried on that night with all the cowboys of the
+Quarter Circle KT. After all, these plain, simple-acting men of the
+range were just boys grown big in God's great out-of-doors where things
+are taken for what they seem to be. No wonder an artless look from
+sophisticated brown eyes swept them off their feet!
+
+She made up her mind to disillusion Skinny at once.
+
+After supper the quartette gathered in the front room.
+
+"Come on, Skinny," Carolyn June said with forced gaiety, "let us take a
+walk. That pair of cooing doves"--with a playfully tender glance at
+Ophelia and Old Heck--"wish nothing so much as to be permitted to
+'goo-goo' at each other all by their little lonelies!"
+
+Bareheaded she and Skinny strolled out the front gate and along the road
+that led up to the bench. At the top of the grade they sat down, side by
+side, on a large boulder that hung on the brink of the bench. The
+Quarter Circle KT lay before them--restful and calm in the shadows of
+early evening. The poplars along the front-yard fence stood limp in the
+silent air. Across the valley the sand-hills were mellowing with the
+coming softness of twilight. Up the river, to the west, beyond Eagle
+Butte, a summer thunder-cloud was climbing higher and higher into the
+sky. In the direction of Dry Buck, far toward the northwest, a fog of
+dust was creeping along the horizon, gradually approaching the upland
+pasture. Skinny saw it.
+
+"By golly," he cried, "that's either Parker and the boys coming in with
+the cattle--or else it's a band of sheep! It surely can't be
+'woollys'--they never get over in there! If it's our outfit, though,
+they've got through quicker than they figured!"
+
+A few moments later the dim bulk of the "grub-wagon" appeared, miles
+away, slowly crawling toward the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+For a time Skinny and Carolyn June were silent.
+
+Skinny's hand crept slyly across the rock and found the pink fingers of
+Carolyn June. She did not draw away.
+
+"Carolyn June," he whispered haltingly, "Carolyn June--I--Old Heck and
+Ophelia have got married--let's you and--and--"
+
+"Please, Skinny, don't say it!" she interrupted, her voice trembling.
+"I--I know what you mean! It hurts me. Listen, Skinny"--she hurried on,
+determined to end it quickly--"maybe you will despise me, but--I like
+you, truly I do--but not _that_ way! I don't want to grieve you--I wish
+us to be just good friends--that's why I'm telling you! Let's be
+friends, Skinny--just friends--we can't be any more than that--"
+
+Skinny understood. A dull, throbbing pain tightened about his throat.
+His fingers gripped Carolyn June's hand an instant and then relaxed. The
+whole world seemed suddenly blank.
+
+"Can't you--won't you--ever--ca--care?" he asked in a voice filled with
+despair.
+
+"I do care, boy," she replied softly, "I do care--but not that way! Oh,
+Skinny," she exclaimed, wishing to make it as easy as possible for the
+sentimental cowboy at her side, "maybe I have done wrong to let you go
+ahead, but, well, I found out--I guessed the 'arrangements'--how you had
+been chosen to make 'love' to me and how Parker and Uncle Josiah were to
+divide Ophelia between them. Perhaps that is why I have flirted so--just
+to punish you all! Truly, Skinny, I'm sorry. Please don't hate me
+like--like--the Ramblin' Kid does!" she finished with a shaky little
+laugh.
+
+"He--don't hate you," Skinny answered dully, "at least I don't think th'
+Ramblin' Kid hates you--or anybody. And you knowed all the time that I
+was getting paid to make love to you? Well, I was," he added chokingly,
+"but I'd have done it for nothing if I'd had the chance!"
+
+"Yes, Skinny," she replied, "I knew--I know--and I don't blame you!"
+
+"I don't blame you, either," he said humbly, "it was a--a--excuse me,
+Carolyn June--a damned mean trick to frame up on you and Ophelia that
+way--but we didn't know what to do with you! I reckon," he continued in
+the same despairing tone, "I was a blamed fool!"
+
+For a long moment they sat silent.
+
+"Carolyn June," Skinny finally said, a sigh of resignation breaking from
+his lips, "I'll be what you said--just a good friend--I always will be
+that to you! But before we start in, do you mind if I--if I--go up to
+Eagle Butte and get--drunk!"
+
+In spite of herself she laughed. But in it was a tenderness almost
+mother-like.
+
+"Poor disappointed, big boy," she answered and her eyes filled, "if it
+will make you happy, go ahead and get--get--drunk, 'soused,' all
+over--just this once!"
+
+With only a passing pang Carolyn June was willing for Skinny to get
+drunk--to do the thing she had been scarcely able to forgive in the
+Ramblin' Kid!
+
+For an instant she wondered why.
+
+A half-hour later Skinny and Carolyn June went silently down the grade
+to the ranch house. They had gone up the hill--lovers; they
+returned--"good friends"--and such they would always be.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was nearly ten o'clock when Sing Pete stopped the grub-wagon at the
+bunk-house; Pedro wrangled the saddle cavallard into the pasture below
+the barn; Parker and the cowboys jogged their bronchos to the stable
+door and the Ramblin' Kid, riding the Gold Dust maverick--Captain Jack
+at her heels--rode to the circular corral, jerked the saddle from the
+filly's back and turned the little roan stallion and the outlaw mare
+inside the corral.
+
+Old Heck and Skinny heard the commotion and went out to where Parker and
+the cowboys were unsaddling their horses.
+
+"Well, you got through, did you?" Old Hack questioned casually.
+
+"Yes," Parker replied, "we've got the beef critters in I guess--they're
+in the upland pasture. There are seven hundred and ninety, I think it
+is, that'll do for the market."
+
+"That's pretty good," Old Heck answered with satisfaction. "We'll push
+them right on into Eagle Butte to-morrow or next day and ship them. The
+cars will be in to-night, the agent said. I'm sending them to Chicago
+this time. I'd like to see you, private, a minute, Parker!" he finished
+abruptly.
+
+"What do you want?" Parker asked suspiciously, as he followed Old Heck
+around the corner of the barn.
+
+"It's about Ophelia--" Old Heck began.
+
+Parker's heart leaped and then dropped with a sickening foreboding of
+something disagreeable. The widow, he thought instantly, had told Old
+Heck about that darned fool proposal of marriage and was going to insist
+on him coming across and making good! There was no way out.
+
+"I--I--reckon I'll have to do it if she's determined," Parker stuttered;
+"but--aw, hell--I must have been crazy--"
+
+"Who's determined on what?" Old Heck asked, puzzled by the queer jumble
+coming from the lips of the Quarter Circle KT foreman, "and how crazy?"
+
+"Ophelia determined on marrying me!" Parker blurted out.
+
+"Ophelia marry _you_?" Old Heck exclaimed. "Marry you! She can't! Her
+and me have already done it. We got married to-day--that was what I
+wanted to tell you!"
+
+Momentarily a pang of regret shot through Parker's heart. It was quickly
+followed by a sense of relief.
+
+"You--you--and Ophelia married?" he stammered.
+
+"We sure are," Old Heck answered positively. "We done it to-day!"
+
+Suddenly Parker determined to "cover up."
+
+"My, lord!" he half-groaned, pretending terrible grief, "this is awful!
+It--it--come so sudden--but there ain't no hard feelings, Old Heck!
+I--I--wish you both joy and happiness!"
+
+"Darned if that ain't white of you, Parker!" Old Heck exclaimed,
+immensely relieved. "I won't forget it! When you and the boys take them
+steers to Chicago, stay over a week or so and have a good time and count
+it in on expenses!"
+
+Parker turned his head and in the darkness winked solemnly at a yellow
+star above the peak of Sentinel Mountain.
+
+He and Old Heck started toward the house.
+
+"Hey, you fellows!" Old Heck called, pausing and turning toward the barn
+where the cowboys were putting away their saddles, "when you get through
+all of you come on up to the house! Ophelia and me's married and the
+bride is waiting to be congratulated!"
+
+"Good lord," Charley gasped, "hear that, fellers? Old Heck said him and
+the widow's married!"
+
+"Gosh!" Chuck laughed, "it must have been a jolt to Parker! I bet his
+heart's plumb bu'sted!"
+
+As soon as their saddles were put away the cowboys hurried toward the
+house. They met the Ramblin' Kid, crossing from the circular corral to
+the bunk-house.
+
+"Come on," Bert called to him, "Old Heck and Ophelia's gone and got
+married! We're going up to the house to sympathize with the widow!"
+
+"I ain't needed," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a careless laugh. "You
+fellers can take my 'love' to th' afflicted couple!"
+
+After the cowboys had gone to the house Skinny went and got Old Pie
+Face. Stopping at the stable, he saddled the pinto and strolled over to
+the bunk-house. The Ramblin' Kid was lying stretched on his bed. Skinny
+rolled the white shirt carefully into a bundle and wrapped a newspaper
+around it.
+
+"What you goin' to do?" the Ramblin' Kid asked.
+
+"I'm goin' to town!" Skinny answered shortly. "I'm going up to Eagle
+Butte and get on a hell of a drunk--if I can get hold of any boot-leg
+whisky--Carolyn June and me have bu'sted up on our love-making!"
+
+"Going to get drunk, are you?" the Ramblin' Kid queried with a note of
+scorn in his voice, "an' forget your sorrows?"
+
+"Yes," Skinny retorted, "I'm going to get drunk as you was the day of
+the race!"
+
+"Drunk as I was th' day of th' race?" the Ramblin' Kid repeated
+quizzically. "Oh, hell, yes--now I understand--" pausing, while a smile
+curled his lips.
+
+"Yes," Skinny retorted again. "Where'd you get yours that day?"
+
+"Never mind," was the answer. "I guess I'll go to Eagle Butte with you!
+You'll need somebody to ride herd on you while you're snortin' around.
+Anyhow, I feel like goin' on a tear myself--not a drunk--a man's a
+darned fool that'll let any woman make a whisky barrel out of him! But I
+got an itchin' for a little poker game or somethin'. Wait till I get
+Captain Jack!"
+
+"Where's Skinny and th' Ramblin' Kid?" Old Heck asked after he and
+Parker and the cowboys were at the house and the first flush of
+embarrassment had passed.
+
+Carolyn June thought she knew where Skinny was, but did not answer.
+
+"I don't know what's become of Skinny," Parker said. "Th' Ramblin' Kid's
+probably out mopin' somewhere. I think he's getting ready to 'ramble'
+again--he's been acting plumb despondent ever since the Rodeo in Eagle
+Butte!"
+
+Carolyn June stepped to the door. Dimly through the darkness she saw
+two riders pass up the grade that led to the bench and turn their horses
+to the west, toward Eagle Butte, and ride straight into the outflung
+shadow of the thunder-storm--from which now and then leaped jagged
+flashes of lightning--and which was rolling from the Costejo Mountains
+across the Kiowa range in the direction of the Quarter Circle KT.
+
+Silent and with a heavy heart she turned away from the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+THE GREEK GETS HIS
+
+It was long after midnight when the Ramblin' Kid and Skinny rode into
+Eagle Butte and the heels of Captain Jack and Old Pie Face echoed
+noisily on the board floor of the livery stable as the bronchos turned
+into the wide, open doorway of the barn. A drowsy voice from the
+cubby-hole of an office called:
+
+"In just a minute--I'll be out!"
+
+"Aw, thunder," Skinny answered, "go on back to sleep, we'll find stalls
+and put 'em up!"
+
+Captain Jack and Old Pie Face cared for, Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid
+stepped out into the deserted street.
+
+Eagle Butte was sleeping.
+
+Here and there a blaze of light from a store window invited belated
+passers to covet the bargains offered within; a half-dozen incandescent
+bulbs, swung on cross-wires at intervals along the street, glowed feebly
+as if weary with the effort to beat back the darkness clutching at the
+throat of the town; over the sidewalk in front of the Elite Amusement
+Parlor an illuminated red and green sign told that Mike Sabota's place
+was still open; across the porch of the Occidental Hotel and spilling
+itself on the ground out in the street a stream of light guided weary
+travelers to the portals of that ancient, though hospitable,
+institution; from the sides of the Butte beyond the railroad tracks a
+coyote yelped shrilly a jerky, wailing challenge--a dozen dogs, suddenly
+aroused in different parts of the town, answered.
+
+"Pretty dead-lookin'," the Ramblin' Kid remarked. "Let's go down to
+Sabota's."
+
+"All right," Skinny replied, and they moved down the street.
+
+The pool-room offered nothing of interest. A couple of traveling men,
+waiting for the early morning train, were playing a listless game of
+billiards at one of the tables; a pair of Jap sugar-beet workers and a
+negro section hand sat half-asleep and leaned against the wall; "Red"
+Jackson, Sabota's chief lieutenant, with an air of utter boredom,
+lounged behind the soft-drink bar. Sabota was not there.
+
+"What's happened to everybody?" Skinny asked; "where's Mike?"
+
+"Everybody's got religion, I guess," Red yawned, "and gone to bed. What
+do you want with Sabota?" looking suspiciously at the Ramblin' Kid;
+"he's over at Vegas; won't be back till to-morrow--or to-day it is now,
+I reckon--evening sometime!"
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid and me have been out in the rain," Skinny said
+suggestively, "and thought we might take cold--"
+
+"Nothing doing!" Red laughed, "ain't a drop around! When Mike gets back
+he'll fix you up, maybe--that's what he's gone after!"
+
+"We'd just as well go to bed!" Skinny grumbled disgustedly to the
+Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"I reckon," was the laconic answer.
+
+They returned to the hotel, roused the clerk from his doze, secured a
+room and retired.
+
+It was eight o'clock when they got up.
+
+Both went directly to the livery stable and saw that Captain Jack and
+Old Pie Face were properly attended to. While at the barn Skinny took
+the bundle he had wrapped in the bunk-house at the ranch from the saddle
+where he had tied it.
+
+"What's that?" the Ramblin' Kid queried.
+
+"It's that darned shirt!" Skinny retorted. "I'm going to make Old Leon
+eat it--it wasn't the size Parker asked for!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid laughed, but said nothing.
+
+They returned to the hotel and had breakfast. Manilla Endora waited on
+them. Before Carolyn June and Ophelia came to the Quarter Circle KT
+Manilla's yellow hair and blue eyes were the flames that fanned the
+affections of Skinny. He felt guilty as, sweetly as ever and without a
+hint of reproach, Manilla took their orders and served them with their
+ham and eggs and coffee.
+
+After breakfast Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid explored the town.
+
+Eagle Butte had come to life. The stores were open. Business was brisk.
+The "dray" was delivering the express accumulated the night before at
+the depot. Here and there a morning shopper was passing along the
+street. At the post-office there was quite a crowd.
+
+Skinny carried the shirt, wrapped in the soggy, rain-soaked newspaper.
+As he and the Ramblin' Kid came near the dingy, general merchandise
+establishment kept by the squint-eyed Jew from whom Parker had bought
+the unfortunate garment a sudden look of cunning gleamed in the eyes of
+Skinny. He laughed aloud. A box of eggs, ten or twelve dozen it
+contained, was set, with other farm produce, in a display on the
+sidewalk at the side of the door of the store.
+
+"Hold on a minute," Skinny said to the Ramblin' Kid, stopping in front
+of the Jew's place of business, "I got an idea--By golly," he continued
+argumentatively and with apparent irrelevancy, in a loud voice, "I tell
+you I'm the lightest man on my feet in Texas!" and he winked knowingly
+at the Ramblin' Kid. "I can walk on eggs and never bu'st a one! I've
+done it and"--as Leon came to the door--"I'll bet four-bits I can jump
+in that box of eggs right there and never crack a shell!" The Ramblin'
+Kid understood.
+
+"Aw, you're crazy," he laughed. "I don't want to win your money!"
+
+"What's the matter?" Leon asked curiously, having heard only part of
+Skinny's boast.
+
+"This locoed darn' fool thinks he can walk on them eggs an' not mash
+'em!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed again. "He wants to bet me four-bits he
+can--"
+
+"Walk on them eggs and not preak them?" Leon exclaimed disdainfully.
+"You ought to lock him up! He iss crazy!"
+
+"By gosh," Skinny argued, "you don't realize how light-footed I am--I
+can jump on them, I tell you, and I got money to back it up!" And he
+pulled a half-dollar from his pocket.
+
+"Put away your money, you blamed idiot--" the Ramblin' Kid began.
+
+"I'll bet him four-bits he can't!" Leon cried, jerking a coin from his
+own pocket.
+
+Skinny and Leon each handed the Ramblin' Kid fifty cents.
+
+"By thunder, I can," Skinny said, pausing, "that is, I'm willing to bet
+my money on it--"
+
+"Vhy don't you go ahead and do it, then?" Leon exclaimed. "Vat you
+standing there for? Vhy don't you do it if you're so light on your
+feet?"
+
+"Well, I can!" Skinny argued, still hesitating.
+
+"Den go ahead and chump--chump I told you--into the box!" Leon shouted
+excitedly.
+
+Skinny jumped. The eggs crushed under the heels of his riding boots. In
+an instant the box was filled with a squashy mass of whites, yolks and
+broken shells. Skinny pawed around until there wasn't a whole egg left
+in the box.
+
+At the first crunch Leon laughed hilariously.
+
+"I knowed you'd lose!" he cackled. "Giff me the money!"
+
+"You win, Leon!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed, handing over the wager.
+"Skinny wasn't as delicate on his feet as he thought he was!"
+
+"Thunderation, that's funny!" Skinny said soberly as he stepped out of
+the box; "it wouldn't work that time! Something must have slipped!"
+
+With a grin he calmly unwrapped the one-time white shirt and with it
+began to wipe the slimy mess from his boots.
+
+"The next time you won't be so smart!" Leon cried, then paused in
+consternation, his eyes riveted on the scrambled mixture in the box.
+"But mine eggs!" he exclaimed, suddenly suspicious. "Who pays for the
+eggs? There vas twelve dozen--they are worth seventy cents a dozen--that
+is more as eight dollars. Pay me for the eggs!"
+
+"Pay, hell!" Skinny said. "I didn't agree to furnish no eggs! You won my
+fifty cents and th' Ramblin' Kid gave it to you--"
+
+"That's right, Leon," the Ramblin' Kid chuckled, "you got th'
+four-bits--that's all you won!"
+
+"But pay me--" Leon whined.
+
+"I'll pay you, you dirty crook!" Skinny snapped as he slapped the
+soppy, egg-splattered shirt in Leon's face. "I'll pay you with that! The
+next time," he added as he and the Ramblin' Kid started down the
+street--"anybody asks for a size fifteen shirt don't give them a sixteen
+and a half!"
+
+The day was spent idling about town waiting for Sabota to return so
+Skinny could get some whisky and drown his disappointment in love in
+intoxicated forgetfulness.
+
+After supper Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid went to the picture
+show--Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were "movie nights" in Eagle
+Butte--and saw a thrilling "wild-west" drama in which a band of Holstein
+milk cows raced madly through an alfalfa field in a frenzied,
+hair-raising stampede! When the show was over the Ramblin' Kid started
+toward the livery barn.
+
+"What you going to do?" Skinny queried.
+
+"I was just goin' to get Captain Jack," the Ramblin' Kid replied.
+
+"What for?" Skinny asked as they moved toward the barn. "There ain't no
+hurry about getting back to the ranch. We won't be going out till
+to-morrow or next day--there ain't no use getting the horses out
+to-night."
+
+"I don't know," the Ramblin' Kid answered, without stopping, "I just got
+a hunch to get him in case I need him. Anyhow, it won't hurt him to
+stand out a while--they've been eatin' all day."
+
+"Then I'll get Old Pie Face, too," Skinny replied.
+
+They saddled the bronchos and rode out of the barn.
+
+"Where'll we go?" Skinny asked.
+
+"Reckon we'd better go back down to Sabota's," the Ramblin' Kid said as
+they turned their horses in the direction of the pool-room, "if you
+still insist on makin' a blamed fool of yourself an' gettin' drunk.
+Maybe Mike's back by now. Anyhow, there might be a little poker game
+goin' on--I saw a couple of the fellers from over on th' Purgatory come
+in a while ago!"
+
+They left Captain Jack and Pie Face standing, with bridle reins dropped,
+across the street and in the broad shaft of light streaming from the
+open door of the pool-room, and went into the resort.
+
+The place was well filled. Sabota had returned, evidently with an ample
+supply of the fiery stuff he called "whisky." Like vultures that
+unerringly seek and find the spot where a carcass has fallen the thirsty
+of Eagle Butte had gathered at the Elite Amusement Parlor.
+
+Inside the door of the pool-room and at the left, as one entered, was a
+hardwood bar eighteen or twenty feet long and over which at one time, in
+the days before Eagle Butte "reformed," had been dispensed real
+"tarantula juice." The back bar, with its big mirrors and other
+fixtures, was as it had been when the place was a regular saloon. At the
+right of the room, opposite the bar, were several round, green-topped
+card tables. In the rear was the billiard and pool equipment, which
+entitled the place to the name "pool-room." Just across from the farther
+end of the bar and near the last card table a half-dozen hard-looking,
+small-town "toughs"--creatures who loafed about Sabota's and aided him,
+as occasion required, in his boot-legging operations or other
+questionable enterprises--were lounging, some standing, some sitting,
+watching a slow poker game going on at the last table. Cards, under the
+laws of Texas, are taboo, but for some reason Sabota managed to get by
+and games were allowed in his place.
+
+The two cowboys the Ramblin' Kid had mentioned, a rancher from the
+irrigated section near Eagle Butte and "Jeff" Henderson, one of Sabota's
+henchmen, who was playing for the house, were sitting in at the game.
+
+Half-way down the room at one side against the wall a mechanical player
+piano was grinding out garish, hurdy-gurdy music.
+
+"Red" Jackson was dispensing soft drinks from behind the bar.
+
+Sabota himself, with one heel caught on the brass foot-rail, was leaning
+indolently but with a lordly air against the front of the polished,
+imitation mahogany counter.
+
+He had been drinking and was in his shirt-sleeves.
+
+As Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid stepped into the pool-room Sabota glanced
+around. For an instant he eyed the Ramblin' Kid keenly while a nasty
+sneer curled his lips. As they approached he turned the grin into a
+hypocritical smile of welcome. The Ramblin' Kid barely noticed the Greek
+and passed on to where the card game was in progress. Skinny paused and
+said something in a low tone to Sabota. The two walked to the rear end
+of the bar where the proprietor of the place in turn spoke to Red and
+the latter furtively handed a pint bottle to the cowboy and which he
+dropped into the bosom of his flannel shirt.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid was recognized by the cowboys from the Purgatory.
+
+"Come on and get into the game!" one of them invited, moving over.
+
+"Yes," Henderson added, hitching his own chair to one side to make room
+for another, "the cards are running like"--he paused--"like the Gold
+Dust maverick for everybody but the house!" There was a laugh at the
+subtle reference to the outlaw filly that had cost Sabota so much in
+losses on the sweepstakes at the Rodeo.
+
+The Greek scowled.
+
+"In that case," the Ramblin' Kid drawled, "I reckon I'll ride 'em a few
+rounds!" dropping into the chair he had dragged forward and which placed
+him with his back toward the bar.
+
+"What they costin' a stack?" he questioned, reaching to the left breast
+pocket of his shirt for a roll of bills.
+
+In the same pocket was the pink satin garter Carolyn June had lost the
+morning of his first meeting with her at the circular corral.
+
+"Five bones!" Jeff answered languidly.
+
+"Well, give me a couple of piles," the Ramblin' Kid replied, glancing
+around at the cowboy sitting at his right, who had invited him into the
+game. "How's the Purgatory?"
+
+As the bills came from the Ramblin' Kid's pocket the silver butterfly
+clasp of the garter caught in the paper currency and the elastic band
+was drawn out and dropped, at the side of his chair, on the floor next
+to Sabota.
+
+The Greek and Skinny saw, at the same time, the dainty satin ribbon.
+
+Sabota stepped quickly forward and with the toe of his shoe kicked the
+garter toward the bar, where all could see it.
+
+"Look what th' Ramblin' Kid's been carrying!" he exclaimed with a coarse
+laugh. "Some size garter, that!" And guessing at random that it had
+belonged to Carolyn June, he added: "Old Heck's niece must be--damned
+convenient and accommodating!"
+
+A laugh started from the lips of the crowd. It was instantly checked and
+a dead silence followed as the Ramblin' Kid looked around, saw Sabota
+leering down at the trinket and heard his vulgar insinuation. He slowly
+pushed his chair back from the table and with eyes half-closed--the lids
+tightening until there were but narrow slits through which the black
+pupils burned like drops of jet--he began slowly to straighten up. Not a
+sound came from his lips save the deep, regular breathing those sitting
+near could hear and which was like a bellows fanning embers into a white
+heat. His mouth was drawn back in a smile, almost caressing in its
+softness, but a thousand times more menacing than the black scowl on the
+face of the Greek.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid's gun was at his hip, but he made no move to draw it.
+
+Sabota watched the slender young cowboy. A look of contempt and derision
+was in his eyes. The Greek was no taller, but full eighty pounds heavier
+than the other. But he forgot that the other's lithe body moving with
+the calm, undulating grace of a panther preparing to spring was all
+clean youth, muscle and courage, unbroken by any debauchery!
+
+"That's a hell of a thing for a _man_ to pack," the giant bully cried
+nastily, "and it's a hell of a _lady_ that gives it to a man to pack!"
+
+With a sneering laugh he raised his foot and brought it down on the
+garter, grinding the silver clasp and the satin ribbon under the sole of
+his shoe.
+
+"You damned black cur!" The Rambling' Kid spoke scarcely louder than a
+whisper, yet his voice echoed throughout the tense silence of the room.
+"_I'll put my heel in your face for that_!"
+
+Sabota threw back his head to laugh.
+
+For a second of time the Ramblin' Kid crouched, then shot through the
+air like a wire spring drawn far back and suddenly released, and with
+an his hundred and forty pounds of nerve and sinew behind it his right
+fist smashed the big Greek squarely on the half-open mouth, splitting
+the thick lip wide and causing a red stream to spurt from the gash.
+Sabota staggered back and, would have fallen had he not crashed against
+the hardwood bar.
+
+As the Greek reeled away from the garter the Ramblin' Kid stooped
+quickly forward, picked up the elastic and dropped it again into his
+pocket.
+
+With a roar like a mad bull Sabota rushed his slight antagonist. Lunging
+forward, blind with rage, he aimed a murderous blow at the head of the
+Ramblin' Kid. The cowboy ducked, but not in time to escape the wide
+swing of the massive, hairy fist. The Greek's knuckles raked the side of
+the Kid's face and the blood rained down his cheek from a cruel cut
+under the eye. The Ramblin' Kid spun around like a top and for the
+fraction of a second stood swaying uncertainly.
+
+For a moment they faced each other, crouching, watching for an opening.
+Sabota's great hands worked convulsively, eager to grasp and crush his
+wiry opponent; the Ramblin' Kid, with lips curled back from white teeth,
+like a pure-bred terrier circling a mastiff, bent forward, every muscle
+tense as drawn copper, his eyes cold as a rattler's as he searched for a
+place to strike!
+
+The crowd in the pool-room instinctively kept far back and gave the
+unequal combatants ample room.
+
+From Sabota's lips poured a steady torrent of blasphemy. The Ramblin'
+Kid made no sound as, with body swaying slowly from side to side, his
+shoulders heaved with the full, heavy breaths that reached to the bottom
+of his lungs.
+
+Suddenly, like some wild beast, Sabota sprang forward. The Ramblin' Kid
+met him--in mid-air--right and left jolting, almost at the same
+instant, into the beefy jaws of the Greek. At the impact a claw-like
+hand shot out and the gorilla fingers of the left hand of the brute-man
+the Ramblin' Kid fought, closed over the throat of the cowboy. Sabota
+threw his right arm around the back of his antagonist, gripping the
+shoulder on the far side of his body and drew the slender form toward
+him--pinning the Ramblin' Kid's left arm and hand to his side.
+
+Skinny's hand dropped to the butt of his gun and rested there.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid struggled desperately in the strangling grasp of the
+crazed Greek. The two reeled back and forth, crashing chairs and tables
+to the floor, and lunged against the bar. The Ramblin' Kid's gun fell
+from its scabbard at the side of the brass foot-rail. Sabota's eyes
+glared down into the face of the man he was choking to death--gleaming
+with the ferocity of an animal gone mad--Awhile bloody foam spewed from
+his bleeding lips. The cowboy's face was beginning to flush a terrible
+purple as the breath was gradually crushed from his body.
+
+As the Greek forced him back, bending him down and over, the Ramblin'
+Kid, his eyes burning like fire while a million flashes of light seemed
+to stab the darkness before them and needles darted through every fiber
+of his flesh, wrenched his right arm free and gripping the back of
+Sabota's shirt with his left hand to give purchase to the blow, with all
+the strength left in his body, drove the knuckles of his right fist into
+the left temple of the Greek.
+
+The blow went home.
+
+A film, like a veil drawn across the fiendish glare in them, spread over
+the eyes of Sabota, his grip on the throat of the cowboy relaxed and as
+a bull, struck by the hammer of the butcher, he dropped to the floor.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid crouched, panting, over the massive bulk.
+
+Sabota slowly opened his eyes and started to raise his battered head.
+With a laugh the cowboy swung terrible right and left blows into the
+Greek's face. The head dropped back.
+
+Again the Ramblin' Kid stooped low, waiting for another sign of life
+from the prostrate form.
+
+Red Jackson slipped from behind the bar, half bent forward, moved
+stealthily up behind the Ramblin' Kid; one hand drawn partly back held,
+by the neck, a heavy beer bottle. Skinny saw his intention. Instantly
+the Quarter Circle KT cowboy's forty-four was jerked from its holster
+and the blue-steel barrel swung against the side of the bartender's
+head. He pitched over in a limp heap and the bottle crushed against the
+brass foot-rail, breaking into a thousand fragments. A half-dozen of
+Sabota's crowd started forward. Skinny's gun whipped around in front of
+him.
+
+"Keep back, y' sons-of-hell!" he snarled, "Sabota's gettin' what's
+coming to him!"
+
+The Greek's eyes opened. His fingers touched the butt of the Ramblin'
+Kid's revolver and began to close slowly over the handle of the weapon.
+
+"Make him quit," one of the pool-room loafers whined; "he's killed him!"
+
+The Ramblin' Kid saw Sabota reach for the gun. He answered the speaker
+and the Greek's effort to get the forty-four at the same time:
+
+"Not yet--_but now_!" he cried with a low laugh and leaped with both
+heels squarely on the bloody face of Sabota! There was a horrible
+crunching sound as of bones and flesh being ground into pulp. The
+fingers about to close on the handle of the revolver grew limp, the
+Greek's head, a hideous, scarcely recognizable mass, slumped to one side
+and lay perfectly still.
+
+An instant longer the Ramblin' Kid looked at him, then reached over,
+picked up his gun and slipped it into the holster at his hip.
+
+As he straightened up, Tom Poole, the marshal, rushed into the
+pool-room. He covered the Ramblin' Kid with his revolver and placed him
+under arrest.
+
+"You don't need to get excited, Tom!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed. "I
+didn't do nothin' but kill that damned black cur layin' there! Come
+on--I want to get out in th' air--I never like to stay around where dead
+skunks are!"
+
+They moved toward the door.
+
+Poole dropped his gun back in its scabbard and walked at the side of the
+now apparently peaceful young cowboy.
+
+At the door the marshal looked around:
+
+"Some of you fellers get the doctor or undertaker--whichever he
+needs--and take care of Sabota!" he called to the group around the body
+of the Greek.
+
+Like a flash the muzzle of the Ramblin' Kid's gun was pressed against
+the side of Poole.
+
+"Put 'em up, Tom!" he snapped, "_I_ don't want to kill you, but I will
+if I have to--I ain't goin' to rot in no jail just for stampin' a dirty
+snake-to death!"
+
+The marshal's hands shot into the air as if operated by springs.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid, with his left hand, jerked Poole's revolver from its
+holster. He backed into the street toward where Captain Jack and Old Pie
+Face were standing, still with his own gun covering the officer.
+
+"Jack!" he cried sharply, "meet me!"
+
+The little stallion moved toward him.
+
+With the thumb of the hand in which he held the marshal's gun the
+Ramblin' Kid threw open the breech and flipped the shells on the ground.
+He tossed the empty forty-four to one side, threw the reins over
+Captain Jack's head and the next instant was in the saddle. The broncho
+wheeled and was gone, in a dead run, toward the west.
+
+The marshal rushed into the street and picked up his gun, jerked some
+cartridges from his belt, slipped them into the cylinder and fired
+quickly at the fleeing horse and rider.
+
+The bullets whistled past the ear of the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+He raised his own weapon, half-turned in the saddle, dropped the muzzle
+of the gun forward until it pointed at the flashes spitting from the
+officer's revolver. His finger started to tighten on the trigger.
+
+"Hell," he muttered, "what's the use? Tom's just doin' what he thinks he
+has to do!" and the Ramblin' Kid slipped the gun, unfired, back into its
+holster.
+
+A moment later Captain Jack whirled to the right across the Santa Fe
+tracks and bearing a little to the east, in the direction of Capaline,
+the dead volcano that rises out of the lavas northwest of the Quarter
+Circle KT, between the Purgatory and the Cimarron, disappeared in the
+black starlit night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+MOSTLY SKINNY
+
+It is a week to the day since the fight in the Elite Amusement Parlor in
+Eagle Butte. Since the Ramblin' Kid, followed by the wicked sing of the
+bullets from the marshal's gun, disappeared in the darkness no word has
+come from the fugitive cowboy, who beat to a pulp the burly Greek.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick paces uneasily about in the circular corral and
+the Quarter Circle KT has settled into the hum-drum routine of ranch
+life.
+
+Parker, Charley, Chuck and Bert are gone to Chicago with the train-load
+of beef cattle. Skinny bosses a gang of "picked-up" hay hands Old Heck
+brought out from Eagle Butte to harvest the second cutting of alfalfa.
+Pedro rides line daily on the upland pasture and Sing Pete hammers the
+iron triangle morning, noon and night, announcing the regular arrival of
+meal-time. The Chinaman is careful when he throws out empty
+tomato-cans--turning back the tin to make it impossible for the yellow
+cat again to fasten his head in one of the inviting traps, and the cook
+would imperil the hope of the return of his soul to the flowery Orient
+before he would put butter in the bottom of a can to entice the animal
+into trouble.
+
+Old Heck and Ophelia are like a pair of nesting doves and there is a new
+vigor to the step of the owner of the Quarter Circle KT, a revived
+interest in affairs generally; years seem to have fallen from his
+shoulders.
+
+Carolyn June smiles sweetly as ever at Skinny, spends much time riding
+alone over the valley and hills; in her eyes there has come a more
+thoughtful--often a wistful--expression.
+
+Sabota did not die.
+
+After the escape of the Ramblin' Kid the marshal reentered the pool-room
+and had the big Greek removed to the hotel. A doctor was called and set
+as well as possible the broken jaws, the crushed nose, picked out the
+fragments of bone and the loosened teeth, sewed up the terrible gashes
+on Sabota's face and left the bully groaning and profaning in
+half-conscious agony.
+
+The night of the fight Skinny took Old Pie Face back to the barn.
+
+The cowboy's heart was heavy with remorse. He blamed himself for all the
+trouble. Had he not wanted to make a fool of himself and get drunk the
+Ramblin' Kid would not have come to Eagle Butte, the fight would not
+have occurred, the friend he had ridden with through storm and
+sunshine--whom he had stood "night guard" and fought mad stampedes into
+"the mill"--would not now be an outcast sought by the hand of the law.
+
+News of the beating the Ramblin' Kid gave Sabota traveled fast.
+
+It was flashed over Eagle Butte that the Greek was dead.
+
+"So th' Ramblin' Kid killed old Sabota, did he?" the hostler at the
+livery barn asked Skinny as he stepped out to care for the cowboy's
+horse. "What was it over? Sabota having th' Ramblin' Kid 'doped' the day
+of the sweepstakes?"
+
+Skinny looked keenly, searchingly, at the stableman.
+
+"What do you mean--'Sabota having th' Ramblin' Kid doped?'" he asked
+sharply.
+
+"Why, didn't you know?" the hostler replied. "I thought everybody
+knowed. Gyp Streetor told me about it the day of the race--I used to
+know Gyp when he was a kid back east. I saw him as he was beating it to
+get out of town. He borrowed five dollars from me. Said Sabota hired him
+to put 'knock-out' in some coffee for th' Ramblin' Kid and he reckoned
+the dose wasn't big enough or something. Anyhow, it didn't hold him
+under long as they thought it would and when he saw the Gold Dust
+maverick show up on the track he got scared--was afraid it would leak
+out or th' Ramblin' Kid would suspect him and try to 'get' him after the
+race, so he ducked out of town--"
+
+"You ain't lying about that?" Skinny asked.
+
+"What would I want to lie about it for?" the other replied. "Wasn't
+that what made th' Ramblin' Kid kill the Greek?"
+
+"No, it was something else," Skinny answered; "but Sabota ain't dead.
+He's just crunched up pretty bad--th' Ramblin' Kid jumped on him, like
+Captain Jack did on that feller from the Chickasaw that tried to steal
+him!"
+
+Skinny's mind was in a whirl.
+
+So the Ramblin' Kid was not drunk the day of the race! He was drugged--
+sick--yet, in spite of everything, rode the Gold Dust maverick and beat
+the black wonder-horse from the Vermejo! Lord! and they had all thought
+he was on a tear!
+
+The bottle of whisky was still in the bosom of Skinny's shirt.
+
+He had not touched it. He felt a sudden revulsion for the vile stuff.
+
+"Here," he said, jerking the flask from its hiding-place and handing it
+to the hostler, "maybe you'd like that bottle of 'rot-gut'--I've swore
+off!"
+
+"I ain't," the stableman laughed and took it eagerly.
+
+Skinny remained in town that night and the next day, waiting for Parker
+and the Quarter Circle KT cowboys to come in with the beef cattle. They
+arrived about noon. Old Heck drove in with the Clagstone "Six." Ophelia
+and Carolyn June came with him. Skinny met them when Old Heck stopped
+the in front of the Occidental Hotel. He told them, while they still
+sat in the automobile, of the fight and the escape of the Ramblin' Kid.
+
+"A drunken brawl!" Carolyn June thought, a wave of disgust sweeping over
+her.
+
+"Th' Ramblin' Kid hadn't touched a drop," Skinny said, explaining the
+fight and almost as if he were answering her unspoken thought. "If he'd
+been drinking, I reckon Sabota would have killed him instead of his
+beating the Greek blamed near to death. I know now what he used to mean
+when he'd say, 'A man's a fool to put whisky in him when he's facin' a
+tight squeeze!' The little devil sure needed everything he had--nerve
+and head and muscle and all--for the job he tackled last night!"
+
+Skinny didn't tell them that his hand had rested on the handle of his
+own gun--determined that he, himself, would kill Sabota if the brute
+succeeded in choking the Ramblin' Kid to death.
+
+"What was the fight about?" Old Heck asked.
+
+"A pink ribbon or something with a little silver do-funny on it--it
+looked like a sleeve-holder or a garter--dropped out of th' Ramblin'
+Kid's pocket and Sabota made a nasty remark about it," Skinny said.
+
+Carolyn June caught her breath and her face flushed.
+
+"The Greek said something about Carolyn June, I didn't just hear what,"
+Skinny continued, "and then he smashed the ribbon under his foot. The
+next instant th' Ramblin' Kid was trying to kill him!
+
+"It's a pity he didn't succeed!" Old Heck exclaimed. "The damned filthy
+whelp--excuse me, Ophelia, for cussing, but I just had to say It!"
+
+"It's all right," was the laughing rejoinder, "I--I--wanted to say it
+myself!"
+
+Carolyn June's eyes glowed. Her heart felt as if a weight had been
+lifted from it So, the Ramblin' Kid had kept the odd souvenir, and he
+cared--he cared!
+
+"Go ahead," she whispered to Skinny; "what then?"
+
+"I reckon that's about all," Skinny answered. "Th' Ramblin' Kid smashed
+Sabota and as he staggered back, picked up the ribbon--then he didn't
+quit till he thought the Greek was dead. Tom Poole arrested him, but th'
+Ramblin' Kid got the drop on him and got away. He was justified in
+beating Sabota up anyhow," he added, "on account of the dirty cuss
+hiring a feller to 'dope' him so he couldn't ride the maverick the day
+of the big race--"
+
+"'Dope' him?" Old Heck interrupted, puzzled.
+
+"Yes," Skinny explained, "the Greek had a feller named Gyp Streetor put
+some stuff in th' Ramblin? Kid's coffee. He wasn't drunk at all--he was
+just poisoned with 'knock-out!'"
+
+"Good lord!" Old Heck exclaimed. "And he rode that race when he was
+drugged! While we all thought he'd gone to pieces and was drunk!"
+
+Carolyn June's cheeks suddenly turned pale. He cared, but he was gone!
+Perhaps never to come back! If seemed as if an iron hand was clutching
+at her throat!
+
+She and Ophelia went into the hotel and Old Heck and Skinny drove the
+car over to the stock-yards where the cattle were being loaded.
+
+After Parker and the cowboys were on their way east with the steers and
+before he returned to the ranch Old Heck went into the room in which
+Sabota lay. The Greek's head was a mass of white bandages. His eyes
+battered and swollen shut, he could not see the face of his visitor.
+
+For a moment Old Heck looked at him, his lips parted in a smile of
+contempt lightened with satisfaction.
+
+"Well, Sabota," he said at last, "th' Ramblin' Kid didn't quite do his
+duty, did he? If he had gone as far as he ought to you wouldn't be
+laying there--they'd just about now be hiding your dirty carcass under
+six feet of 'dobe!'"
+
+Sabota mumbled some guttural, unintelligible reply.
+
+"Listen, you infernal skunk," Old Heck went on coldly, "as quick as
+you're able to travel you'll find Eagle Butte's a right good place to
+get away from! You understand what I mean. If I catch you around, well,
+I won't use no fists!" And without waiting for an answer he turned and
+left the room.
+
+The owner of the Quarter Circle KT then hunted lip the marshal of Eagle
+Butte.
+
+"Tom," he said, "I reckon you'll be looking some for th' Ramblin' Kid,
+after what happened last night, won't you?"
+
+The marshal had heard of Sabota's effort to Have the young cowboy
+drugged the day of the race and also the immediate cause for the fight.
+
+"Oh, I don't know as I will," he said, "unless the Greek makes some
+charge or other. I don't imagine he'll do that"
+
+"I know blamed well he won't!" Old Heck interrupted. "But how about th'
+Ramblin' Kid putting his gun in your ribs--resisting an officer and so
+on?"
+
+"Putting his gun in my ribs? Resisting an officer?" the lanky Missourian
+answered with a sly grin; "who said he put a gun on me--or resisted an
+officer or anything? I ain't heard nothing about it!"
+
+Two days later Sabota, with the help of "Red" Jackson, managed to get to
+the Santa Fe station. He was able to travel and he did travel. Jackson
+said he went to the "Border." Eagle Butte did not know or care--the
+Cimarron town was through with him.
+
+When Old Heck, Carolyn June and Ophelia returned to the Quarter Circle
+KT the evening of the day following the fight, the Gold Dust maverick
+whinnied lonesomely from the circular corral as the Clagstone "Six"
+stopped in front of the house.
+
+"What are we going to do with that filly?" Old Heck asked, looking at
+the beautiful creature with her head above the bars of the corral gate.
+
+"I am going to ride her!" Carolyn June said softly. "Until the Ramblin'
+Kid comes back and claims her she is mine! She loves me and I can handle
+her!"
+
+"I'm afraid--" Old Heck started to protest.
+
+"You need not be," Carolyn June interrupted, "the Gold Dust maverick and
+I know each other--she understands me and I understand her--she will be
+perfectly gentle with me!"
+
+The next day Carolyn June rode the wonderful outlaw mare. It was as she
+said. The filly was perfectly gentle with her. After that, every day,
+the girl saddled the Gold Dust maverick and, unafraid, took long rides
+alone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night the cattle were shipped Skinny had supper in Eagle Butte. He
+sat alone at a small table at one side of the dining-room in the
+Occidental Hotel. The cowboy was the picture of utter misery. Parker,
+Charley, Chuck, Bert were gone to Chicago with steers; the Ramblin' Kid
+was gone--nobody knew where; Skinny's dream about Carolyn June was
+gone--she didn't love him, she just liked him; even his whisky was gone,
+he had given it to the hostler at the barn; he didn't have any friends
+or anything.
+
+"What's the matter, Skinny?" Manilla Endora, the yellow-haired waitress,
+asked softly, as she stepped up to the table and looked down a moment at
+the dejected cowboy. There was something in her voice that made Skinny
+pity himself more than ever. It made him want to cry. "What's wrong?'
+Manilla repeated almost tenderly.
+
+"Everything!" Skinny blurted out, dropping his head on his arms. "The
+whole blamed works is shot to pieces!"
+
+A little smile stole over Manilla's rosy lips.
+
+"I know what it is," she said gently, unreproachfully; "it's that girl,
+Carolyn June. Yes, it is," as Skinny started to interrupt. "Oh, I don't
+blame you for falling for her!" she went on. "She is nice--but, well,
+Skinny-boy," her voice was a caress, "Old Heck's niece is not the sort
+for you. You and her wouldn't fit at all--the way you wanted--and
+anyhow, there--there--are others," coloring warmly.
+
+Skinny looked up into the honest blue eyes.
+
+"You ain't sore at me or anything are you, Manilla?" he asked.
+
+"Sore?" she answered. "Of course not!"
+
+Hope sprung again into his heart. "I--I--thought maybe you would be," he
+stammered.
+
+"Forget it!" she laughed. "The old world still wobbles!"
+
+"Manilla, you--you're a peach!" he cried.
+
+She chuckled. "Did you hear about that dance next Saturday night after
+the picture show?" she asked archly.
+
+"No. Is there one?" with new interest in life.
+
+"Yes," she replied, her lashes drooping demurely; "they say the music is
+going to be swell."
+
+"If I come in will you--will we--go, Manilla?" he asked eagerly.
+
+They would.
+
+"Poor Skinny," Manilla murmured to herself as she went to the kitchen to
+get his order, "poor cuss--he can't keep from breaking his heart over
+every skirt that brushes against him, but"--and she laughed
+softly--"darn his ugly picture, I like him anyhow!"
+
+After supper Skinny hurried to the Golden Rule store. It was still open.
+
+"Give me a white shirt--number fifteen," he said to the clerk; "and be
+blamed sure it's the right size--they ain't worth a cuss if they're too
+big!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+A GIRL LIKE YOU
+
+Alone rider guided his horse in the early night, among the black lavas,
+on the desolate desert near Capaline, the dead volcano. He rode to the
+south, in the direction of the Cimarron. Silently, steadily, like a dark
+shadow, the broncho picked his way among the fields of fire-blistered
+rock and held his course, unerringly, through the starlit gloom hanging
+over the earth before the late moon should flash its silver disk above
+the sand-hills miles to the east.
+
+The rider was the Ramblin' Kid; the little horse--Captain Jack.
+
+For a week, following the fight in Eagle Butte, the Ramblin' Kid had
+found shelter in the hut of "Indian Jake"--a hermit Navajo who, long
+ago, turned his face toward the flood of white civilization rolling over
+the last pitiful remnants of his tribe and drifted far toward the land
+of the rising sum. Among the scenes of desolation around the grimly cold
+volcano, alone, the old Indian made his last stand, and in a rude cabin,
+beside a tiny spring that seeped from under the black rock on the
+mountain-side, lived in splendid isolation--silent, brooding, desiring
+only to be left in peace with his few ponies, his small herd of cattle
+and the memories and traditions of his people.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid and the lonely Navajo were friends since the Ramblin'
+Kid could remember.
+
+The aged Indian's face was pitted with horrible scars--marks of the same
+disease that had cost the wandering cowboy his father and left him,
+years ago, an orphan, almost worshiped, because of the sacrifice his
+parent had made fighting the epidemic among the tribes of the Southwest.
+
+Often the "Young Whirlwind"--the name by which the Indians knew the
+Ramblin' Kid and which old Jake himself always called the cowboy--spent
+a night, sometimes days, with his stoical friend among the lavas.
+
+To him the cabin door was always open.
+
+As Captain Jack, followed by the bullets from the marshal's revolver,
+dashed madly down the street of Eagle Butte, instinctively the Ramblin'
+Kid had turned the stallion toward the hut of the old Navajo.
+
+The fugitive cowboy believed Sabota was dead.
+
+Naturally the law would demand vengeance, even though the brutal Greek
+had deserved to die. Posses, undoubtedly, would scour the country,
+searching for his slayer. The Quarter Circle KT would be watched.
+
+There was no regret in the heart of the Ramblin' Kid. Instead he felt a
+strange elation. With his fists and heels he had beaten the giant Greek
+into a lifeless mass!
+
+"'Ign'rant--savage--stupid--brute!" he muttered as Captain Jack sped
+from the scene of fight; "I reckon she _was pretty near right!_"
+
+At gray dawn he swung down from the back of the little stallion at the
+door of the Indian's hut.
+
+Old Jake asked no questions.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid himself volunteered:
+
+"Killed a man--Sabota--got to lay low, Jake--some three, four, five
+days! Then I go--south--Mexico!"
+
+"The Young Whirlwind had cause?" the Navajo grunted sententiously.
+
+"Sure--plenty!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed, slipping his hand to his
+breast pocket and caressing the pink satin garter.
+
+"It is good," the Indian said. "The Navajo will watch!"
+
+For seven days the Ramblin' Kid rested, securely, in the lonely hut
+among the lavas and "pot-holes" of the desert. Then he saddled Captain
+Jack and when the full shadow of night had settled over the desolation
+about him mounted the little broncho and turned him to the south, in the
+direction of the Cimarron, toward the Quarter Circle KT, where the Gold
+Dust maverick waited, alone, in the corral.
+
+Carolyn June could not sleep. The night was more than half gone and
+still she sat on the front porch and watched the gradual spread of a
+misty, silvery sheen over the brow of the bench and the distant peaks of
+the shadowy Costejo range as the pale moon, in its last half, lifted
+itself above the sand-hills at the gap through which the Cimarron
+tumbled out of the valley.
+
+Old Heck and Ophelia had retired hours ago.
+
+The Quarter Circle KT was sleeping. From the meadows the heavy odor of
+wilted alfalfa hung on the night air as the dew sprinkled the windrows
+of new-cut hay.
+
+A strange restlessness filled the heart of the girl.
+
+Something seemed to be holding her in a tense, relentless grip. She had
+no desire to seek her room. Indeed, she felt that the air of the house
+would stifle her. She arose and strolled idly through the gate, past the
+bunk-house where Skinny, Pedro and the hay hands snored peacefully, as
+she wandered aimlessly through the slanting moonlight down to the
+circular corral.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick seemed to reflect the girl's own uneasy mood.
+
+The filly moved with quick nervous strides about the corral. As Carolyn
+June leaned against the bars and stretched out her hand the mare
+whinnied softly, tossed her head, nosed an instant the white fingers and
+trotted in a circle around the enclosure.
+
+"What's the matter, Heart o' Gold?" Carolyn June laughed
+sympathetically, "can't you either?"
+
+In the shed at the side of the corral, on the spot where, that first
+morning, the Ramblin' Kid's saddle had rested and the cowboy slept,
+Carolyn June's own riding gear was lying. She glanced at the outfit For
+a second she fancied she saw again the slender form stretched in the
+shadow upon the ground while a pair of black inscrutable eyes looked
+with unfathomable melancholy up into her own.
+
+"Seein' things!" she laughed jerkily, with a little catch in her throat.
+"I'll ride it off!"
+
+Quickly she stepped over, picked up the saddle, bridle and blanket,
+returned to the corral gate, swung it open and entered.
+
+The Gold Dust maverick came to her, as if eager, herself, to get out
+into the night.
+
+A moment later Carolyn June was in the saddle and the mare, dancing
+lightly, pranced out of the gate. She turned swiftly toward the grade
+that led out to the bench and to Eagle Butte. They had almost reached
+the foot of the grade, when some impulse caused Carolyn June to whirl
+the filly about and gallop back past the barn and down the lane toward
+the Cimarron.
+
+As the feet of the outlaw mare splashed into the water at the lower ford
+the Ramblin' Kid rode past the corner of the upland pasture fence and
+stopped Captain Jack on the brink of the ridge looking down at the
+crossing. Below him the river whirled in dark eddies under the
+overhanging curtains of cottonwoods and willows; the Quarter Circle KT
+lay in the hollow of the valley, like a faint etching of silent
+restfulness; through the tops of the trees a white splash of moonlight
+struck on the smooth level surface of the treacherous quicksand bar that
+had drawn Old Blue down to an agonizing death and from which, scarcely a
+month ago, the Ramblin' Kid had dragged Carolyn June.
+
+This, the Ramblin' Kid believed, was his last long look at the Quarter
+Circle KT.
+
+He would ride down to the circular corral, turn out the Gold Dust
+maverick--give her again to the range and freedom--and while the
+unconscious sleepers at the ranch dreamed he would pass on, silently,
+toward the south and Mexico should throw about him her black arms of
+mystery!
+
+For a while he sat and gazed down on the shadowy scene while his mind
+throbbed with memory of the incidents of the last few weeks. He drew the
+pink satin garter from his pocket, looked at it a long moment--suddenly
+crushed it tightly in his hand while his eyes closed as if renouncing a
+vision that had come before them--then carefully, that the dainty thing
+might not be lost, replaced it in the pocket that was over his heart.
+
+At last he swung to the ground and tightened the front cinch of his
+saddle.
+
+As he pulled the leather into place the sound of nervous hoofs kicking
+the gravel on the grade that led to the ridge on which he stood
+shattered the silence around him. The Ramblin' Kid whirled and faced the
+direction in which the approaching horse, would appear. His hand dropped
+to his gun and without raising the weapon from his hip he leveled it to
+cover the turn in the road a few feet away.
+
+The waxy mane of the outlaw filly rocked into view as she sprang up and
+around the turn on to the ridge.
+
+On the maverick's back, bareheaded, her brown hair tumbled about her
+neck, was Carolyn June.
+
+Captain Jack pricked forward his ears at the sound of hoofs and as the
+beautiful mare leaped around the turn and appeared above the bank of the
+grade the little roan squealed a nicker of recognition. The filly sprang
+forward, swerved to the side of the stallion, and with an answering
+whinny stopped.
+
+"Oh!" Carolyn June gasped, as the horses met and she saw the Ramblin'
+Kid, his gun still in his hand, standing beside Captain Jack.
+
+There was a brief, questioning silence.
+
+"What th' hell!" he breathed.
+
+"What the--'_hell_--yourself!" she laughed nervously. "Is--this--is this
+a hold-up?"
+
+"What are _you_ doin' here--this time of night--an' on that filly?" he
+asked without heeding her question.
+
+"I'm riding that--this--filly!" Carolyn June shot back independently.
+"And what are _you_ doing here--at this time of--Oh," she added,
+before he could answer, "I--I--believe my saddle's slipping!" and she
+swung lightly from the back of the outlaw mare.
+
+"That filly'll kill you," he began.
+
+"She will not!" Carolyn June interrupted with a pout. "I--I--guess
+you're not the only one, Mister 'Nighthawk,' that knows the way to the
+heart of a horse! If you were just as wise about--" but she stopped, her
+blush hidden as she turned her back to the rising moon.
+
+"They was made for each other!" the Ramblin' Kid muttered to himself.
+Then he spoke aloud: "I reckon you know," he said slowly, "why I'm
+ridin' at night--about me killin' Sabota--I'm leavin'--"
+
+"But Sabota isn't dead," she interrupted again. "You don't need to go
+away!"
+
+"Sabota ain't dead!" the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed. "Then I'll go back to
+Eagle Butte instead of--Mexico!"
+
+"Why?" Carolyn June asked.
+
+"To finish th' job!" and his voice was dangerously soft.
+
+"You can't finish it," she laughed. "He isn't in Eagle Butte! The Greek
+has gone away and--well, it--it--was a good 'job'--good enough the way
+you did it! I--I--don't want you 'teetotally' to kill him--clear, all
+the way dead," she stammered. "The way it is you--you--won't have
+to--leave!"
+
+"What's th' difference?" he said dully. "It's time I was ramblin'
+anyhow!"
+
+"Is it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Listen, Ramblin' Kid," she broke in, "I--I--know all about
+everything--about what started the fight--"
+
+"You do?" looking quickly and keenly at her. "Who told you?"
+
+"Skinny," she answered; "he saw it. Said it was a pale pink ribbon or
+something with a little silver 'do-funny' on it!" she finished with a
+laugh.
+
+"I--I--reckon you want it back, then?" the Ramblin' Kid said, reaching
+to his left breast. "You wouldn't want--"
+
+"Did I say I wanted it?" Carolyn June questioned naively.
+
+"And I know," she hurried on, "about you being drugged the day of the
+race! Why didn't you say you were sick? We--we--thought you were drunk!"
+
+"Nobody asked me," he answered without interest.
+
+"Does everybody have to--to--ask you everything?" she questioned
+suggestively. "Don't you ever--ever--'ask' anybody anything yourself?"
+
+"What are you tryin' to do?" he said almost brutally, "play with me like
+you played with them other blamed idiots th' night of th' dance?"
+
+"You're mean--" she started to say.
+
+"Am I?" he interrupted, and spoke with sudden intenseness. "Maybe you
+think I am. Maybe you think a lot of things. Maybe you think God put
+them brown eyes in your face just so you could coax men, with a look out
+of them, to love you an' then laugh because th' damned fools do it!"
+
+"You're unfair!" she replied. "I was just paying the boys back the night
+of the dance for--for--'framing' up on Ophelia and me the way they did!"
+
+For a moment they looked squarely into each other's eyes. Captain Jack
+and the Gold Dust maverick nosed each other over the shoulders of their
+dismounted riders.
+
+"Oh, well, it don't matter," the Ramblin' Kid finally said, wearily; "it
+don't matter, you're what you are an' I reckon you can't help it!"
+
+Carolyn June said nothing.
+
+"I--I--was goin' to turn th' filly back to th' range," he continued in
+the same emotionless voice, "but--well, you can have her--I'll trade her
+to you for--for--th' thing that started th' fight. You can ride th'
+maverick till you go back east--"
+
+"I'm not going back east," she said in a hurt tone, "at least not for a
+long time. Dad is going to--to--get me a stepmother! He's going to marry
+some female person and he doesn't need me so I'm going to live--most of
+the time--with Uncle Josiah and Ophelia! Anyhow I--I--like it out
+west--or that is--I did like it--"
+
+There was another little period of silence between them.
+
+"Ramblin' Kid," Carolyn June spoke suddenly very softly, "Ramblin'
+Kid--why--why do you hate me?"
+
+"Me hate you?" he answered slowly. "I don't hate _you_--I hate myself!"
+
+"Yourself?" with a questioning lift of her voice.
+
+"Yes, myself!" he replied with a short, bitter laugh. "Why shouldn't
+I--bein' an 'ign'rant, savage, stupid brute!'"
+
+Carolyn June flinched as he repeated the cruel words she herself had
+spoken, it seemed, now so long ago.
+
+"You are right!" she said, after a pause, while a ripple of quivering,
+mischievous laughter leaped from her lips and she laid her hand lightly
+on his arm. "Oh, Ramblin' Kid, you are indeed an 'ign'rant, savage,
+stupid brute!' You are 'ign'rant,'" she continued while he looked at her
+with a puzzled expression in his eyes, "of the ways of a woman's heart;
+you are 'savage'--in the defense of a woman's honor; you are
+'stupid'--not to see that it is the _man_ a woman wants and not the thin
+social veneer; you are a 'brute'--an utter brute, Ramblin' Kid--
+to--to--make a girl almost tell you--tell you--that she--she--"
+
+The sentence was not finished.
+
+The Ramblin' Kid caught her by both shoulder. He pushed her back--arm's
+length--and held her while the clean moonlight poured down on her
+upturned face and his black eyes searched her own as though to read her
+very soul.
+
+An instant she was almost frightened by the agony that was in his face.
+
+Then she opened her mouth and laughed--such a laugh as comes only from
+the throat of a woman when love is having its way!
+
+"By God!" he whispered, his voice hoarse with passion, his hot breath
+fanning the brown hair on her forehead; "this has gone far enough! I'll
+tell you what you want me to say--I'll say it! And it's the truth--I
+love you--love you--_love you_! Yes!" And he shook her toward him. "Do
+you hear me? I love you--love you--so much it hurts! Now laugh! Now make
+fun of me! I know I'm a fool. I know where I stand! I know I don't
+belong in your crowd--I ain't fit to mix with 'em! I ain't been raised
+like you was raised. You don't need to tell me that! I know it already!
+I know there's somethin' a man has to have besides what he gets on th'
+open range among th' cattle--an' th' bronchos--an' th' rattlesnakes
+--he's got to be ground in th' mill of schoolin'--of books;
+he's got to be hammered into shape under th' heels of 'civilization';
+he's got to be trained to jump through and roll over an' know which fork
+to eat with before a girl like you--"
+
+His Hands relaxed, but before his fingers loosened their grip on her
+shoulders Carolyn June's own soft palms reached up and caught the man's
+sun-tanned cheeks between them. Her eyes burned back into its own. Once
+more the laugh rippled from the full pulsing throat.
+
+"Ramblin' Kid, oh, Ramblin' Kid," she murmured, while the long lashes
+lifted over brown pools tenderness, "a man--my man--does not need to be
+or to know all of those things, any of those things, before a girl like
+me--"
+
+He crushed her to him and stopped the words on her lips.
+
+"My God--don't fool me--be sure you know!" he cried, his whole body
+quivering with the intensity of his feelings; "don't tell me you love
+me--unless you mean it! I can stand to love you--without hope--in
+silence--alone! But I can't--an' I swear I be lifted up to Paradise just
+to be dropped again into the depths of hell! Don't say you love me
+unless you know it is _all_ love! Half love ain't love--it's a lie! An'
+love ain't to play with! Don't insult God by makin' a joke of th' thing
+He made an' planted in th' hearts of all Creation to hold th' Universe
+together."
+
+"Ramblin' Kid," she whispered softly, "God himself is looking down into
+my heart!"
+
+He smothered her mouth with his own--they drank each other in, their
+souls mingled in a mad-sense-reeling, time-defying pressure of lips!
+
+It was their hour, as was the next and yet the one that followed that.
+
+When the old-rose of dawn melted the gray above the sand-hills behind
+them and the white moon was fading in the zenith above the Kiowa; when
+the cottonwoods beside the Cimarron began to shake their leaves in the
+morning breeze that tripped across the valley; when the low buildings of
+the Quarter Circle KT silhouetted against the bench beyond the meadows;
+when the smooth surface of the beach of quicksand under which the body
+of Old Blue was hidden began to look smoother yet and still more firm,
+the Ramblin' Kid and Carolyn June parted.
+
+"I'm goin' away," he said; "I'm goin' away, Carolyn June, but I'm goin'
+for another reason now. I'm goin' away an' make myself so you'll never
+have a chance to be ashamed of me! I'm goin' away an' learn how to talk
+without cussin' 'most every other word--I'm goin' away an' get that
+polish I know; women love in men th' same as they love their own shoes
+to be shiny an' their own dresses to be soft an' dainty! When I've got
+that I'll come back! I ain't goin' to Mexico. I'm going to ride into
+that world that you come out of an' when I'm so you'll be proud to walk
+in that world with me--when I'm so you won't need to apologize for me in
+Hartville or any other place, I'm comin' back an' a preacher can O.K.
+th' bargain you an' me have made! Will you keep faith an' be true,
+Carolyn June? Will you keep faith an' be true--? Will you be waitin'?"
+
+"I'll be waiting," she whispered, "--and keep faith and be true!"
+
+And he rode away into the face of the red glow rising above the
+sand-hills. He rode away--to meet the morning sun--hidden yet behind the
+eastern horizon--to conquer himself, to master the ways of men, in the
+world that lay beyond!
+
+Carolyn June watched him go.
+
+Then she guided the outlaw filly down the grade, across the Cimarron and
+along the lane, in the gently stirring dawn, back to the still sleeping
+Quarter Circle KT. In her heart was a song; in her eyes a new light; in
+her soul a great peace--on her lips, a smile. She carried in her bosom
+their secret--hers and the Ramblin' Kid's--and she knew he would return,
+for he would not lie.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ramblin' Kid, by Earl Wayland Bowman
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMBLIN' KID ***
+
+***** This file should be named 10374.txt or 10374.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/3/7/10374/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.net/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.net
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     http://www.gutenberg.net/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     http://www.gutenberg.net/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
diff --git a/old/old/20031203.10374.zip b/old/old/20031203.10374.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..964e8e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/old/20031203.10374.zip