"If you'd have thought it mean, you'd have told me about it before now," he answered. "Patches was reliable." "Kester an' Linton have sloped," he told her as they rode away from the trees. "This climate was gettin' unhealthy for them." "What makes folks act so foolish?" he questioned, later. "There ain't no way to escape what's got to be. Why can't folks take their medicine without makin' faces?" She knew he referred to Masten, Chavis and Pickett, and she knew that this would be all the reference Randerson would ever make to them. But no answer formed in her mind and she kept silent. When they came to the rock upon which he had found her, he halted and regarded it gravely. "You had me scared that night," he said. "Patches had most run his head off. I was mighty relieved to see you." "I treated you miserably that night," she confessed. "Did you hear me complainin'?" he asked with a gentle smile at her. "I expect, some day, when we're together more, an' you get to lovin' me less than you do now, you'll get peevish ag'in. Married folks always do. But I won't notice it. I'll get on Patches--if he's alive, you wantin' to put off the marriage so long--" "Until the first!" she laughed, in gentle derision. "Well," he said, with pretended gravity, "when a man has waited, as long as I've waited, he gets sort of impatient." He grinned again, and gave her this last shot: "An' mighty _patient_ after!" And they rode on again, through the white sunlight, close together, dreaming of days to come. THE END ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ZANE GREY'S NOVELS May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS A New York society girl buys a ranch which becomes the center of frontier warfare Her loyal superintendent rescues her when she is captured by bandits. A surprising climax brings the story to a delightful close. THE RAINBOW TRAIL The story of a young clergyman who becomes a wanderer in the great western uplands--until at last love and faith awake. DESERT GOLD The story describes the recent uprising along the border, and ends with the finding of the gold which two prospectors had willed to the girl who is the story's heroine. RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE A picturesque romance of Utah of some forty years ago when Mormon authority ruled. The prosecution of Jane Withersteen is the theme of the story. THE LAST OF THE PLAINSMEN This is the record of a trip which the author took with Buffalo Jones, known as the preserver of the American bison, across the Arizona desert and of a hunt in "that wonderful country of deep canons and giant pines" THE HERITAGE OF THE DESERT