There was now a grim smile on his face. "You're in for a wetting," he said. "I'm sorry--but it can't be helped. Get your feet off to one side so that you won't get mixed up with the saddle. And keep your head above the water." "Ye-s," she answered tremulously, dreading the ordeal, dreading still more the thought of her appearance when she would finally reach the bank. His pony was in motion instantly, pulling strongly, following out its custom of dragging a roped steer, and Sheila slipped off the saddle and into the water, trying to keep her feet under her. But she overbalanced and fell with a splash, and in this manner was dragged, gasping, strangling, and dripping wet, to the bank. Dakota was off his pony long before she had reached the solid ground and was at her side before she had cleared the water, helping her to her feet and loosening the noose about her waist. "Don't, please!" she said frigidly, as his hand touched her. "Then I won't." He smiled and stepped back while she fumbled with the rope and finally threw it off. "What made you try that shallow?" he asked. "I suppose I have a right to ride where I please?" He had saved her life, of course, and she was very grateful to him, but that was no reason why he should presume to speak familiarly to her. She really believed--in spite of the obligation under which he had placed her--that she hated him more than ever. But he did not seem to be at all disturbed over her manner. On the contrary, looking at him and trying her best to be scornful, he seemed to be laboring heroically to stifle some emotion--amusement, she decided--and she tried to freeze him with an icy stare. "Now, you don't look dignified, for a fact," he grinned, brazenly allowing his mirth to show in his eyes and in the sudden, curved lines that had come around his mouth. "Still, you couldn't expect to look dignified, no matter how hard you tried, after being dragged through the water like that. Now could you?" "It isn't the first time that I have amused you!" she said with angry sarcasm. A cloud passed over his face, but was instantly superseded by a smile. "So you haven't forgotten?" he said. She did not deign to answer, but turned her back to him and looked at her partially submerged pony. "Want to try it again?" he said mockingly. She turned slowly and looked at him, her eyes flashing. "Will you please stop being silly!" she said coldly. "If you were human you would be trying to get my pony out of that sand instead of standing there and trying to be smart!" "Did you think that I was going to let him drown?" His smile had in it a quality of subtle mockery which made her eyes blaze with anger. Evidently he observed it for he smiled as he walked to his pony, coiling his rope and hanging it from the pommel of the saddle. "I certainly am not going to let your horse drown," he assured her, "for in this country horses are sometimes more valuable than people."