“Say! How'n time you goin' to git your trunks loaded into the wagon?” she cried. “You can't do it alone.” Val parsed her lips; she had not thought of that. “But Polycarp will come, by the time I am ready,” she decided. “You couldn't keep him away, Arline; he would be afraid he might miss something, because I suppose ours is the only ranch in the country where the wheels aren't turning smoothly. Polycarp and I can manage.” Hank, grinning under his ragged, brown mustache, handed her the lines. “I've got my orders,” he told her briefly. “I'll watch out the trail's kept clear.” “Oh, thank you. I've so many good friends,” Val answered, giving him a smile to stir his sluggish blood. “Good-bye, Arline. Don't worry about me, there's a dear. I shall not be back before to-morrow night, probably.” Both Arline and Hank stood where they were and watched her out of sight before they turned back to the sordid tasks which made up their lives. “She'll make it--she's the proper stuff,” Hank remarked, and lighted his pipe. Arline, for a wonder, sighed and said nothing. CHAPTER XXIII. CAUGHT! After two nights and a day of torment unbearable, Kent bolted from his work, which would have taken him that day, as it had done the day before, in a direction opposite to that which his mind and his heart followed, and without apology or explanation to his foreman rode straight to Cold Spring Coulee. He had no very definite plan, except to see Val. He did not even know what he would say when he faced her. Michael was steaming from nose to tail when he stopped at the yard gate, which shows how impatience had driven his master. Kent glanced quickly around the place as he walked up the narrow path to the house. Nothing was changed in the slightest particular, as far as he could see, and he realized then that he had been uneasy as well as anxious. Both doors were closed, so that he was obliged to knock before Val became visible. He had a fleeting impression of extreme caution in the way she opened the door and looked out, but he forgot it immediately in his joy at seeing her. “Oh, it's you. Come in, and--you won't mind if I close the door? I'm afraid I'm the victim of nerves, to-day.” “Why?” Kent was instantly solicitous. “Has anything happened since I was here?” Val shook her head, smiling faintly. “Nothing that need to worry _you_, pal. I don't want to talk about worries. I want to be cheered up; I haven't laughed, Kent, for so long I'm afraid my facial muscles are getting stiff. Say something funny, can't you?” Kent pushed his hat far back on his head and sat down upon a corner of the table. “Such is life in the far West--and the farther West you go, the livelier--” he began to declaim dutifully.