"Flirt with that big, quiet fellow?" she said gravely. "Hal, you're criminal. Besides, you know that I don't flirt. It's just the opposite. When I like a man I'm simply frank about it." "But you have a way of being frank so that a poor devil usually thinks you want to marry him, and then there's the devil to pay. You know it perfectly well." "That's not true, Hal!" "I won't argue. But will you do it?" "Absolutely not!" "It might be quite a game. He may not be altogether a fool. And suppose he were to wake up? Suppose he's simply half-asleep?" He saw a gleam of excitement come in her eyes and wisely left her without another word. After things had reached a certain point Mary could be generally trusted to carry the action on. CHAPTER 20 Jack Hood had ridden out on his rounds with a new horse that morning, and the new horse developed the gait of a plow horse. The result was that grim old Jack reached the house that night with a body racked by the labor of the day and a disposition poisoned for the entire evening. He was met at the stable by Riley, and the sight of him brought a spark for the moment into the eye of the foreman. "You're back, then, and you got Diablo?" "Look yonder." Jack Hood went to the box stall and came back rubbing his hands, but his exultation was cut short by Riley's remark. "He doesn't belong to Hal. Hal was thrown and another gent rode him." The amazement of Jack Hood took the shape of a wild torrent of profanity. He was proud of the ranch which he had controlled for so long, and still prouder of his young master. His creed included two main points--the essential beauty of his daughter and the infallibility of young Hal Dunbar; consequently his great ambition was to unite the two. "Mary took to Hunter pretty kindly," concluded Riley, as they walked back toward the house at the conclusion of the story. The foreman took off his hat and shook back his long, iron-gray hair. "Trust her for that. Something new is always what she wants." "They've got the new well pretty near sunk," said Riley. "Take a look at it?" "All right." But before they had gone halfway down the path onto which Riley had cunningly diverted the older man, he caught Hood's arm and stopped him with a whisper. "Look at that. _Already!_ This Hunter ain't such a slow worker, eh, Jack?"