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“Lord A’mighty! wasn’t I in luck?” he repeated to himself. “Suppose I’d ‘a’ roped her instead of the old man!”

When he returned from listening for the train he found her washing her hands at the end of her task, and the room in such order as it had never known before. The sight of her standing there, flushed and very womanly, rolling down her sleeves, was more than the young fellow could silently observe.

“I hope the old man’ll be a long time getting well,” he said, abruptly.

“That’s a nice thing to say! What do you mean by such a cruel wish?”

“I see my finish when you go away. No more lonely ranch-life for me.”

“If you start in on that talk again I will not speak to you,” she declared, and she meant it.

“All right, I’ll shut up; but I want to tell you I’m a trailer for keeps, and you can’t lose me, no matter where you go. From this time on I forget everything in the world but you.”

With a look of resolute reproof she rose and joined Mrs. James in the inner room, leaving Roy cowed and a good deal alarmed.

“I reckon I’m a little too swift,” he admitted; “but, oh, my soul! she’s a peach!”

When the train whistled, Lida came out again. “Will you please go to meet the doctor?” she asked, with no trace of resentment in her manner.

“Sure thing; I was just about starting,” he replied, instantly.

While he was gone she asked Mrs. James if she knew the young man, and was much pleased to find that the sharp-tongued landlady had only good words to say of Roy Pierce.

“He’s no ordinary cowboy,” she explained. “If he makes up to you you needn’t shy.”

“Who said he was making up to me? I never saw him before.”

“I want to know! Well, anybody could see with half an eye that he was naturally rustlin’ round you. I thought you’d known each other for years.”

This brought tears of mortification to the girl’s eyes. “I didn’t mean to be taken that way. Of course I couldn’t help being grateful, after all he’d done; but I think it’s a shame to be so misunderstood. It’s mean and low down of him–and poor uncle so sick.”

“Now don’t make a hill out of an ant-heap,” said the old woman, vigorously. “No harm’s done. You’re a mighty slick girl, and these boys don’t see many like you out here in the sage-brush and pinyons. Facts are, you’re kind o’ upsettin’ to a feller like Roy. You make him kind o’ drunk-like. He don’t mean to be sassy.”

“Well, I wish you’d tell him not to do anything more for me. I don’t want to get any deeper in debt to him.”

The Claywall physician came into the little room as silently as a Piute. He was a plump, dark little man of impassive mien, but seemed to know his business. He drove the girl out of the room, but drafted Mrs. James and Roy into service.

“It’s merely a case of indigestion,” said he; “but it’s plenty serious enough. You see, the distended stomach pressing against the heart–“

The girl, sitting in the kitchen and hearing the swift and vigorous movement within, experienced a revulsion to the awe and terror of the midnight. For the second time in her life death had come very close to her, but in this case her terror was shot through with the ruddy sympathy of a handsome, picturesque young cavalier. She could not be really angry with him, though she was genuinely shocked by his reckless disregard of the proprieties; for he came at such a dark and lonely and helpless hour, and his prompt and fearless action in silencing those dreadful cowboys was heroic. Therefore, when the doctor sent Roy out to say that her uncle would live, a part of her relief and joy shone upon the young rancher, who was correspondingly exalted.