"We won't go back," Jed decided. "We'll go on over to th' S Bar S an' put up for th' night." VB said nothing, but of a sudden his heart commenced to hammer away so lustily that the pulse in the back of his neck felt like blows from metal. It was beyond the middle of April, and he knew that Gail must have returned from the coast; for days he had been wondering when he would see her again, had been itching to ask questions of every chance passer who might know of her return. Yet that unaccountable diffidence had kept him from mentioning it even to Jed. Now, though, that he was to go for himself, that he was to see her-- He gripped the Captain fiercely with his knees. He told himself, in an attempt to be sane, that this discomfiture was merely because he had been out of the sight of women so long. They rode into the Thorpe ranch after dark. Lights shone from the windows, and Jed, knowing the place, declared that they were eating. "Hello, Bob!" he cried when Thorpe himself threw the door open. "Keep a couple of stoppers to-night?" "Well, Jed, you're a rough-looking old rascal; but I s'pose we'll have to take you in. Who else--that young animal-tamer, VB?" "Right!" laughed Jed. VB, peering into the lighted room, saw a figure jump up from the table and hurry toward the door. As it came between him and the light it seemed to be crowned with a halo, a radiant, shimmering, golden aura. Then her voice called in welcome: "Hello, Mr. Avery!" Before Jed could make answer she had gone on, as though ignoring him. "Hello, Mr. VB! Aren't you coming in to shake hands?" VB wanted to laugh, like a boy with a new gun; his spirits bubbled up into his throat and twisted into laughter any words that might have formed, but he managed to answer: "I'll feed the Captain--then I'll be in." Without a word she turned back. Long ago--years ago, it seemed--he had drawn away from her to go to the Captain; then it was the love of the horse that took him. Now, however, it was nothing but confusion that drove him away. Not that he held the Captain less dear, but he wanted to put off that meeting with Gail, to delay until he could overcome that silly disorganization of his powers of self-control. Out in the corral he flung his arms about the black's head and laughed happily into the soft neck. "VB, you're a fool--a silly fool!" he whispered. But if it was so, if being a fool made him that happy, he never wanted to regain mental balance. It was a big evening for VB, perhaps the biggest of his life. Bob Thorpe and his family ate with the men. Democracy unalloyed was in his soul. He mingled with them not through condescension, but through desire, and his family maintained the same bearing. Not a cow-puncher in the country but who respected Mrs. Thorpe and Gail and would welcome an opportunity to fight for them.