The Trail of Conflict

all the maladies and miseries t

ick's day and was quite as pertinent in her case as it might have been in his. To be sure, their maladi

rrish were out from morning till night taking account of stock and checking up. Tommy was riding range and being general utility man. Neither he nor Steve knew how closely she had remained at her desk. She must make good and she must accomplish it without taking too much of Tommy's ti

ck to the epoch-making journey of the pathfinders, Lewis and Clark, some to the first white settlers in the region west of the Mississippi. There were saddles rich in silver filigree which had come from the southwest of the cattle country; there were saddles with short round skirts, open stirrups, narrow an

geurs, rustlers, settlers, prairie-schooners and Indians, you must have seen them all." Her voice had dropped to a whisper. Its tenseness roused her from what was fast becoming a vermil

ditable affair for a person who had never used a typewriter till the week before and who was relying on the hunt-and-punch method for progress. Her already flushed cheeks t

e girl's neck and whisked out again. Jerry looked out longingly, shook her head. "Remember, you're a daughter of toil now," she adjured the vaga

slipping-'thirty head of Guernseys on the--'" A shadow from the open door fell on

liber from the "boys" of the outfit. No one of them would have stood with his hat on in her presence. The stranger's Mexican sombrero, pushed far back on his head, revealed rough red hair; his eyes were a hard blue; his nose suggested the beak of a hawk; his mouth was his best feature, it looked as though it might have been tender before the insidious processes of discouragement and recklessness got in their work. One temple gave the impression of having been knocked in and from the de

best in-charge-of-the-office manner. "The manager is off on the range." She could have cheerf

mistake, but, now that I am here--" He straightened his great shoulders, pulled his soft hat jauntily over one ear with his big ha

of magnificent distances; it would take time for anyone she called to reach the office. Ming and Hopi would be of as much assistance as two Chinese dolls. She must depend u

rer. If you're wise

ust come up from the border. You're the handsomest white girl I've seen in months. Come

o the lips. She l

etter go

ere?" a crisp voice int

te

She sank back in her chair. The stranger wheeled with military preci

a va, mon

Carl, where did

e gripped the stranger's hand as though he would never let it go. The two patted one

rl Beechy, who was my top sergeant in France. That scar he wears was inten

seen such contrition as clouded Beechy's eyes as they met hers. There was not a trace of r

you did, Steve. Mr. Beechy was just going. You-you might not have recognized him had you met hi

of passionate gratitude and admira

rson I expected to s

king for me, Car

been drifting till now--" He broke off the sentence sharply. His face had the curious look which tanned skin has when the blood has been

urn up I thought y

calls it'll have to call so loud that I'll hear it at the

alks like you would be the first to answer the call to the colors. I know you. You jumped i

d. A look of dog-like d

which was belied by his eyes. He looked at Jerry. "I never knew what a man could be till I met the Lieutenant, Mrs. Courtlandt. I'd always thought that a rich guy was bound to be sof

ere, at least stop for chow. Come along to the bunk-house. I want t

I-I thought that it was h

t of the office this week? I thought not," as she colored fa

He twisted his hat awk

urtlandt. I hope t

ut her hand

to us." He gripped the hand she extended. Jerry gave his a warning pressure as she looked up and saw Steve regarding them inte

go, Lie

, she was sure. What strange friendships the war had welded. Braggadocio had slipped from Beechy like a garment the instant he recognized Courtlandt's voice. He had as

he couldn't endure four walls a moment longer. She must be in the open. She pulled down the top of her desk and dashed through

passed. She leaned forward in her saddle, opened a gate and closed it; she hoped the man had noticed with what ease it had been accomplished. Great blooded Shorthorns turned ruminative eyes upon her; she had seen women with that same expression when at a society function another entered as to whose social status they were in doubt. Off in a

neighborly call on the wife of the ex-service man at Bear Creek ranch. Jerry had never seen her,

triangle of land forced its way between the Double O and the X Y Z. She knew the place; Tommy had shown her the dividing fences. From where the rushing water narrowed and whitened over a rocky bed an aged pack-trail staggered into a cuplike ravine.

y neck preened, stepped daintily al

calls me

t, south

ds lead me

ad leads

e miles to

cottonwoods and came suddenly upon a horseman with a small bunch o

oking for Bear Creek ran

. Back of them a scantily timbered hill, in places rich with grass dotted with grazing sheep, g

r? He registered guilt, all right. If he is the owner of B C ranch Un

, full eyes reminded the girl of Ox-eyed Juno. She was dressed in a bungalow apron of h

you lost

saddle. The gold in her brown eyes predominated as sh

am Geraldine Courtlandt, yo

te shell pink. Her expression was

ndt, how human. I-I am Mrs. Jim Ca

ious ranch-house from which the visitor had come. "Thoroughbred," thought the girl as she preceded her hostess in

. The kettle has just boiled. You won't vanish while I'm gone, will you? Promise. I

companionship, and she spent hours and hours riding about the country with never a thought of being neighborly. She looked about the room. What part of it wasn't taken up by a roll-top desk was filled by a table fairly groaning u

ago," she announced breathlessly. Her eyes glowed, her cheeks were flushed. "Of course Jim

ept for Ming Soy and Mrs. Simms, the foreman's wife at Upper Farm, she had not seen a woman. Curious that she had not missed them. Doc Rand had been as neighborly as his busy life permitted; Bruce Greyson had

you. I've been a gourmand

likes

saw your husban

ratively speaking, ten months ago. I call him the Man of Mystery. He never talks about himself, never mentions his people, never has letters, but he's a shark for work and he plays beautif

ke a mammoth red button as Jerry leaned

me and see m

lips quivered

ut it will be after--" Jerry gave th

u madly happy? I must hurry or they'll have

's mind was full of the home she had left behind. What courage Nell Carey had had to follow her man into a wilderness like that. And now a little child was coming. She thought

es his head and raced toward the ranch-house. In the distance she saw two horsemen galloping toward her. Steve and Pete Gerrish! She glanced guiltily at her wrist watch. She was late. Did Steve care enough to be anxious? The thought gave a tingling sense of excitement. As she came

as! La se?ora has been on a

lips as though they were stiff. She had worried him the

she ride! Steve is scared, ma'am. There's

Jerry?" Courtlandt h

rrish's big sorrel. Encouraged by the foreman's quickly suppressed "Haw-ha

e B C

to me that I had been something of a heathen to ignore little Mrs. Carey, though I didn't know that she was little when I we

les of his arms twitch in the second he held her. Before she could speak he had gathered up the bridles of the horses and started for the corral. The brown depths of the girl's eyes were troubled as she looked after him. What menaced the good-comradeship which their arrival a

presence. Somebody's cayuse got rid of some hobbles when the fence was cut where the Double O and the X Y Z join, and a bunch of cal

ar Creek ranch came in! Like a movie close-up came a vision of the solitary horseman she had hailed, the man who had