“I'm never tired,” averred his sister, readjusting a hat-pin and gathering up her reins. “I always want to go everywhere that you'll take me, Dick. Consider that point settled for the summer. Are you coming, Sir Redmond?” “I think not, thank you,” he said, not quite risen above his rebuff of the morning. “I told Mary I would be back for lunch.” “I was wiser; I refused even to venture an opinion as to when I should be back. Well, 'so-long'!” “You're learning the lingo pretty fast, Trix,” Dick chuckled, when they were well away from Sir Redmond. “Milord almost fell out of the saddle when you fired that at him. Where did you pick it up?” “I've heard you say it a dozen times since I came. And I don't care if he is shocked--I wanted him to be. He needn't be such a perfect bear; and I know mama and Miss Hayes don't expect him to lunch, without us. He just did it to be spiteful.” “Jerusalem, Trix! A little while ago you said he was a dear! You shouldn't snub him, if you want him to be nice to you.” “I don't want him to be nice,” flared Beatrice. “I don't care how he acts. Only, I must say, ill humor doesn't become him. Not that it matters, however.” “Well, I guess we can get along without him, if he won't honor us with his company. Here comes Keith. Brace up, sis, and be pleasant.” Beatrice glanced casually at the galloping figure of Dick's neighbor, and frowned. “You mustn't flirt with Keith,” Dick admonished gravely. “He's a good fellow, and as square a man as I know; but you ought to know he's got the reputation of being a hard man to know. Lots of girls have tried to flirt and make a fool of him, and wound up with their feelings hurt worse than his were.” “Is that a dare?” Beatrice threw up her chin with a motion Dick knew of old. “Not on your life! You better leave him alone; one or the other of you would get the worst of it, and I'd hate to see either of you feeling bad. As I said before, he's a bad man to fool with.” “I don't consider him particularly dangerous--or interesting. He's not half as nice as Sir Redmond.” Beatrice spoke as though she meant what she said, and Dick had no chance to argue the point, for Keith pulled up beside them at that moment. Beatrice seemed inclined to silence, and paid more attention to the landscape than she did to the conversation, which was mostly about range conditions, and the scanty water supply, and the drought. She was politely interested in Keith's ranch, and if she clung persistently to her society manner, why, her society manner was very pleasing, if somewhat unsatisfying to a fellow fairly drunk with her winsomeness. Keith showed her where she might look straight up the coulee to her brother's ranch, two miles away, and when she wished she might see what they were doing up there, he went in and got his field-glass. She thanked him prettily, and impersonally, and focused the glass upon Dick's house--which gave Keith another chance to look at her without being caught in the act.