Dill turned the leaves of the book slowly, and consciously refrained from looking at Billy. "They were about to leave when I was there. It is a shame. I am very sorry for Flora--she does not want to go. If--" He cleared his throat again and guiltily pretended to be reading a bit, here and there, and to be speaking casually. "If I were a marrying man, I am not sure but I should make love to Flora--h-m-m!--this 'Bachelor's Complaint' here--have you read it, William? It is very--here, for instance--'Nothing is to me more distasteful than the entire complacency and satisfaction which beam in the countenances of a new-married couple'--and so on. I feel tempted sometimes when I look at Flora--only she looks upon me as a--er--piece of furniture--the kind that sticks out in the way and you have to feel your way around it in the dark--awkward, but necessary. Poor girl, she cried in the most heartbroken way when I told her we would not be likely to see her again, and--I wonder what is the trouble between her and Walland? They used to be quite friendly, in a way, but she has not spoken to him, to my certain knowledge, since last spring. Whenever he came to the ranch she would go to her room and refuse to come out until he had left. H-m-m! Did she ever tell you, William?" "No," snapped William huskily, smoking with his head bent and turned away. "I know positively that she cut him dead, as they say, at the last Fourth-of-July dance. He asked her to dance, and she refused almost rudely and immediately got up and danced with that boy of Gunderson's--the one with the hair-lip. She could not have been taken with the hair-lipped fellow--at least, I should scarcely think so. Should you, William?" This time William did not answer at all. Dill, watching his bent head tenderly, puckered his face into his peculiar smile. "H-m-m! They stopped at the hotel to-night--Bridgers, I mean. Drove in after dark from the ranch. They mean to catch the noon train from Tower to-morrow, Bridger told me. It will be an immense benefit, William, when those big through-trains get to running through Hardup. There is some talk among the powers-that-be of making this a division point. It will develop the country wonderfully. I really feel tempted to cut down my investment in a store for the present, and buy more land. What do you think, William?" "Oh, I dunno," said Billy in a let-me-alone kind of tone. "Well, it's very late. Everybody who lays any claim to respectability should be in his bed," Dill remarked placidly. "You say you start at sunrise? H-m-m! You will have to call me so that I can go over to the hotel and get the money to refund what you used of your own. I left my cash in the hotel safe. But they will be stirring early--they will have to get the Bridgers off, you know."