The Highgrader

uld give no satisfactory reason for it, but she felt as if something had passed out of her life forever. It was as if the bubbling youth in her were quenched. The outstanding note of

abond she would have given a prompt denial. Neverthele

k. They followed the stream far into the hills, riding along the trail which bordered it. Kilmeny and Ve

er's challenge of a bet on the relative sizes of their catches. But as soon a

of the aspens, she had not the least idea. The voice of a grizzled rider startled her from her d

iss," he no

the heels of it, "You are a

You belong to the Eng

so, though I don't kn

rd What's-his

I do. I'm rath

our crowd having the same name

meny, yo

meny! Yes

don't think the name he went by wa

him that because his people are 'way u

hink

r did-son of some big gun over there.

h a sharp glance from under his heavy gray eye

searching for h

ou ask me, I'd say he was busy losing himself 'way off in Routt County, clear off the map. He used to punch cows up there and he knows all kinds

a assented

cinch. The fishing was all a bluff. The four of them had the hold-up a

chance he didn't do it?"

er pulled off the play. What the oth

versation, hoped she would have luck, strok

r. Moya turned quickly, to see a man drop down the face of a large rock to the ground.

e smile in his blue eyes that claime

re," sh

re ought I to be-in Rout

t in his big brown fist

heard

g down through that grove of pi

lance went up the gulch into wh

. Let's sit d

ger, but she remembered something els

s steadily had in them th

miscreant, I rec

ay it,

ging, neighbor.

think more th

d in him. "I see you have me convict

ions conv

don't understand them?" There was the fain

ning hope newborn in her eager heart. "A

g me guilty, then,"

se could

e waited to he

ed to make one,

you know

en the officers r

efiant. "There was a man up in the

ne contempt her answer came. "Was there another man up there in

he banks of Sunbeam I wanted to see after

ely beneath the olive of her cheek

ted with flippancy the chance she had given

er shoulder, and held her firmly. The eyes th

let you go like th

ir

shoulder, but the masterful look of him stayed her ste

rt. Wild he might be, but surely no cr

mals. This was less than half an hour before the robbery. When you passed us on the road you were anxious about something. You looked back two or three times. Both you and Mr. Colter showed you were

lter's and mine. We certainly were worried about the time we met you. And we d

over her forehead in little escaping tendrils. The fearless

know. D

ainst Captain Kilmeny instead of against

uldn't hav

u would acquit him and c

his ways of thinking. All his life he has

the sardonic frosty smile

ulses was telling tales in the pink

that-so it follows that I must be a crimina

you. I don't quite know how to put it-as if you had been broug

n the poor," he flung back with an acid smile. "But there's law an

he point is that I don't know what your standards are. Law doesn't mean so much to people he

nesty, for instance.

nt to believ

outstretched hand of this slender lance-straight girl whose sweet vital

sure now that

te s

I've been bro

badly-really. Yo

I'm wild a

a smile that took from the words any

ll have it, I am. I reckon my standards even of honesty wouldn't square with yours. I live in a rough mining camp where qu

n, but what he did would be done with his eyes wide open and not from innate weakness. Her heart sang ju

th me now if I ask you,

tly up with a humorous little twist of the eyebrows. Flakes of dappled sunlight

e gulch, a sword cleft in the hills, passed over the grove of young pines through which he

mighty good world,

," she admitted, laughter

rnished lances in battle array, poured its beams over the scar

re," he said with deep content,

to his pronoun. What he me

e to look for it,"

yday troubles that we forget to look. But the joy of lif

aving eye

eve in me-even if I'm not Captain Kilmeny,"

de her cheeks. "If that is a comfort you are welcome to it. I might

ely to disappoint you. What one person thinks is right another knows is wr

riendship is for-t

that out alrea

drawing her soul to his unconsciously. Tingling in every nerve, athrob with an emotion new and inexplicable, she drew a long slow breath and turned her head away.

shock she needed, the effect of a

did she believe me guilty too?" He could not qui

er ask her that?

again and again the trail leading up the gulch. He did not intend to be

iends ar

the fugitive, her gaze on the advancing group. Captain Kilmeny was in the lead and was

aded him out-had him in the open water. Looked to me like a two to one shot, hang it. Mr. Trout develops a bad break to the off and heads unde

l voice Moya roused at once. The

ed India, holdin

red; then gave herself away. "It sur

soundless whistle. Joyce stared in frank amusement. Verinder, rutted in caste and respectability as only a social climber dubious of his position

', Mr.

ut you have the

captain's eyebrows

the America

if by any chance we're of the same family. Happen to be any rela

at him quiet

ns. He was my f

coolly, not in the le

iled past her brother with hand extended. "Glad to meet you, Cousin Ja

member you, all right. Never saw a

appearance. Last time I saw your eye it ha

llen for a week," her brother l

th a guest. Served him jolly w

cture gracefully. Her radiant be

h soft animation. "For, of course, this is an oc

is indiscretion, grew very red in the face. Would h

rom this superb young creature, whose every motion charmed, wh

y, but I reall

had seen on the faces of many men, and swung off into the pines, as elastic-h

h to enjoy a situation so unusual. "Snub

smiled. She kne

the deuce of a cheek, y

n him. "Referring to our cousin, M

ou said y

he family," she in

eyes of velvet. "Of course he's cheeky. How could he be India's cousin and not be that?" sh

the millionaire