"I'm tremendously obliged to you," he said, and his voice was vibrant. "You have been most kind. How can I repay you?" "Oh, that's all right," she replied, in true Western fashion. "I wanted to see the folks up here, anyhow. This is no jaunt at all for me." And, looking at her powerful figure, and feeling the trap-like grip of her cinch hand, he knew she spoke the truth. Frank had saddled his own horse, and was planning to ride over the hill with her; but to this she objected. "I'm going to leave Pete here for Mr. Norcross to ride," she said, "and there's no need of your going." Frank's face soured, and with instant perception of the effect her refusal might have on the fortunes of the stranger, she reconsidered. "Oh, come along! I reckon you want to get shut of some mean job." And so she rode away, leaving her ward to adjust himself to his new and strange surroundings as best he could, and with her going the whole valley darkened for the convalescent. III WAYLAND RECEIVES A WARNING Distance is no barrier to gossip. It amazed young Norcross to observe how minutely the ranchers of the valley followed one another's most intimate domestic affairs. Not merely was each man in full possession of the color and number of every calf in his neighbor's herd, it seemed that nothing could happen in the most remote cabin and remain concealed. Any event which broke the monotony of their life loomed large, and in all matters of courtship curiosity was something more than keen, it was remorseless. Living miles apart, and riding the roads but seldom, these lonely gossips tore to tatters every scrap of rumor. No citizen came or went without being studied, characterized, accounted for, and every woman was scrutinized as closely as a stray horse, and if there was within her, the slightest wayward impulse some lawless centaur came to know it, to exult over it, to make test of it. Her every word, her minutest expression of a natural coquetry was enlarged upon as a sign of weakness, of yielding. Every personable female was the focus of a natural desire, intensified by lonely brooding on the part of the men. It was soon apparent to the Eastern observer that the entire male population for thirty miles around not only knew McFarlane's girl; but that every unmarried man--and some who were both husbands and fathers--kept a deeply interested eye upon her daily motion, and certain shameless ones openly boasted among their fellows of their intention to win her favor, while the shy ones reveled in secret exultation over every chance meeting with her. She was the topic of every lumber-camp, and the shining lure of every dance to which the ranch hands often rode over long and lonely trails.