"Choice!" exclaimed Dorn. "Yes, you have. And you're not being cheated. I've stated facts. You are done in this valley. You're ruined _now!_ And Glidden's fate stares you in the face.... Will you sell and leave the country?" "Yes," came the deep reply, wrenched from a stubborn breast. "Go draw up your deeds, then notify us," said Dorn, with finality. Jake opened the door. Stolidly and slowly Neuman went out, precisely as he had entered, like a huge man in conflict with unintelligible thoughts. "Send him home in the car," called Anderson. CHAPTER XXIII For two fleeting days Lenore Anderson was happy when she forgot, miserable when she remembered. Then the third morning dawned. At the breakfast-table her father had said, cheerily, to Dorn: "Better take off your coat an' come out to the fields. We've got some job to harvest that wheat with only half-force.... But, by George! my trouble's over." Dorn looked suddenly blank, as if Anderson's cheery words had recalled him to the realities of life. He made an incoherent excuse and left the table. "Ah-huh!" Anderson's characteristic exclamation might have meant little or much. "Lenore, what ails the boy?" "Nothing that I know of. He has been as--as happy as I am," she replied. "Then it's all settled?" "Father, I--I--" Kathleen's high, shrill, gleeful voice cut in: "Sure it's settled! Look at Lenorry blush!" Lenore indeed felt the blood stinging face and neck. Nevertheless, she laughed. "Come into my room," said Anderson. She followed him there, and as he closed the door she answered his questioning look by running into his arms and hiding her face. "Wal, I'll be dog-goned!" the rancher ejaculated, with emotion. He held her and patted her shoulder with his big hand. "Tell me, Lenore." "There's little to tell," she replied, softly. "I love him--and he loves me so--so well that I've been madly happy--in spite of--of--" "Is that all?" asked Anderson, dubiously. "Is not that enough?" "But Dorn's lovin' you so well doesn't say he'll not go to war." And it was then that forgotten bitterness returned to poison Lenore's cup of joy. "Ah!"... she whispered. "Good Lord! Lenore, you don't mean you an' Dorn have been alone all the time these few days--an' you haven't settled that war question?" queried Anderson, in amaze. "Yes.... How strange!... But since--well, since something happened--we--we forgot," she replied, dreamily. "Wal, go back to it," said Anderson, forcibly. "I want Dorn to help me.... Why, he's a wonder!... He's saved the situation for us here in the valley. Every rancher I know is praisin' him high. An' he sure treated Neuman square. An' here I am with three big wheat-ranches on my hands!... Lenore, you've got to keep him home."