Penny of Top Hill Trail

ase cattle and would not return until night. A little scrawled note from Francis apprised her o

Lamont's day. What shall I do to celebrate? Stop the clock and play with the matches? I mu

was soon speeding down the hills with the little thri

ay at the windows loaded with assorted and heterogeneous lots of feminine apparel. At last sh

rayed or stolen,'" she a

two gowns with all the many an

saw a sheriff or a near-sheriff so slack. If they'd been in my business, they'd

fountain and a beauty shop. Then it was the tow

w what I will do this afternoon unless I sit in a red plush chair in the Ladies' Parlor and gaze out through the meshes of a coarse lace curtain

in the shape of a lean,

to see you. I hadn't any idea what part of t

imed, his dark eyes b

Incog, you see, under my real name, the l

, Pen, dear. What are you doi

ite domesticated. My first glimpse of a ho

is up in these parts somewhere,

. I hit this trail more to escape him t

id he heard Hebler say, 'He'd get that thief if he never did

for the first time i

ave to give an exhibition fool flight this afternoon in my little old

I? T

as they went into the long dini

t I seem to have lost it in trying

d find your level. You made me ashamed of my

e crooked, you know-just a bit r

l his own. Whenever I felt as if I must break over the traces and go off for a time, I'd just get into my little old flier and hit the high spot

it tugs at my heartstrings to h

ever go

g I haven't done, and it's the only st

some of that fancy flying this afterno

ever hoped for such a big handful of luck

l, and you come out ahead because you get your divide

rry, don't b

ums. I am hoping for a chance to win the medal militaire-

ent of meeting some one from her former life had brought a most vivid beauty to her del

dly, "you haven't got a man up

of them," she re

ere are two, it's nothing seriou

e the exhibition was to be given. A coatless, t

the aviation agonies so fascinating to the untutored. When he shut off the engine and

t's silly stuff, but it's what the public wants. Sure yo

versa for mine, as

echanic, who had come up. "Take care of th

le, happy-go-lucky boy, but when I saw you take the air, I knew you had come to be something far different. You have the hawk-sense of balance, the sixt

y. "If he loses his sense of equilibrium up there, it's all off;

hen you fly t

colors," he

here is in you, Larry. I am so glad! Don't go out of

the time came when I was grateful. When I found I could make good, I couldn't find you. I wrote every one o

ain. I will give you an addre

ng of you and to-day. But you have told m

but I mean to keep out of Hebler's clutches. Larry, I believe I will let you out here-on the

o or three days yet-w

anyone knew I were in town to-day, it might lead to-developments. Send me you

're the best little

y morning, and that turned her thoughts to Kurt. She wondered if he were of the stuff that bird men are made of. How much more sphinx-like he was, and how different from the keen, alert, business-like flier Larry had shown himself to be! T

the ranch. Dinner was over and the chil

y where she sat alone by the open fire, pensive and distra

ad taken from Bender, nor the little playmate of the children, nor yet

fied definition or analysis-a rapt, exquisite lo

en

emed to remember, hesitat

you been do

aillery crept back momenta

onsequences: "I motored into town by myself; bought some new clo

way and asked her som

as Hebby always said, is to

th a return of his

kly interrupted, "I think I

yet," he u

alone," she re

want to say to you. Jo

erently. "Mr. Westcott fou

as at Westcott

ve seen Jo a n

he demanded in

parture. So Jo was here for the dance, and on field day-and-I think he went back to Westcott's the da

times did

ear my window. Then he came one morning to bring me flowers. I

ou nor he speak of

because I felt that

e silence

sked bitterly, "that

d in surprise. "I

asked you in Chicago and how you left h

y. "I told him where you found me and why.

le another side-glance. She had a sudden, swift insig

continued softly, "is a thie

a boy-younger than y

ue, but with the fait

is chair and came

s eyes narrowing to slit

. Her lips were slightly parted and he could feel the pull of her nerves. For a moment

he rec

d defiantly, and

! I can't see how, with all the shuffling billions of people, the same two, once parted, s

smile on his lips. He had not been misled. He had clear

nowledge was quickly darkened by the remembr