His face darkened again, and she hastened to say, "The cattle business is going to boom again soon. They're all dropping out of it fast, but _now_ is the time to get in and buy." The beer came and interrupted her. "Here's to good luck," she said. They drank, and as she daintily touched her lips with her handkerchief she lifted her eyes to him again--strange eyes with lovely green and yellow and pink lights in them not unlike some semi-precious stones. "You don't like me," she said. "Why won't you let me help you?" "You want a square-toed answer?" he asked grimly, looking her steadily in the eyes. She paled a little. "Yes." "There is a girl in Iowa--I make it my business to work for her." Her eyes fell and her right hand slowly turned the mug around and around. When she looked up she seemed older and her eyes were sadder. "That need make no difference." "But it does," he said slowly. "It makes all the difference there is." She became suddenly very humble. "You misunderstand me--I mean, I'll help you both. How do you expect to live?" His eyes fell now. He flushed and shifted uneasily in his chair. "I don't know." Then he unbent a little in saying, "That's what's bothering me right now." She pursued her advantage. "If you marry you've got to quit all this trail business." "Dead sure thing! And that scares me too. I don't know how I'd stand being tied down to a stake." She laid a hand on his arm. "Now see here, Mose, you let me help you. You know all about cattle and the trail, you can shoot and throw a rope, but you're a babe at lots of other things. You've got to get to work at something, settle right down, and dig up some dust. Now isn't that so?" "I reckon that's the size of it." It was singular how friendly she now seemed in his eyes. There was something so frank and gentle in her voice (though her eyes remained sinister) that he began almost to trust her. "Well, now, I tell you what you can do. You take the job I got for you with the Express Company and I'll look around and corral something else for you." He could not refuse to take her hand upon this compact. Then she said with an attempt to be careless, "Have you a picture of this girl? I'd like to see how she looks." His face darkened again. "No," he said shortly, "I never had one of her." She recognized his unwillingness to say more. "Well, good-by, come and see me." He parted from her with a sense of having been unnecessarily harsh with a woman who wished to be his good friend.