"Oh. You're the fellow!" Mason regarded him attentively. "Now, I don't believe she said a word to Kate about that, and she must have known who it was packed her out of the house. I wonder why she didn't say anything about it to Kate! But she wasn't to blame for leaving you out there, honest she wasn't. I went out to hunt her up--Kate got kinda worried about her--and she told me about you, and we did wait a little while. But it was getting cold, and she was hurt pretty bad and getting kinda wobbly, so I put her on my horse and brought her home. But she left a note for you, and I sent a man back after you with a horse. He come back and said he couldn't locate you. So we thought you'd gone to some other ranch." He stopped and looked quizzically at Ford. "So you're the man! And you're both here for the winter--at least, Kate says she's going to keep her all winter. Gosh! This is getting romantic!" "Don't you believe it!" Ford urged emphatically. "I don't want to bump into her again; a little of her company will last me a long while!" "Oh, you won't meet Jo to-night; Josephine, her name is. She's in bed, and will be for a week or so, most likely. You've just got to come, Ford. Kate'll be down here after you herself, if I go back without you--and she'll give me the dickens into the bargain. I want you to get acquainted with my kid--Buddy. He's down in the river field with the boys, but he'll be back directly. Greatest kid you ever saw, Ford! Only seven, and he can ride like a son-of-a-gun, and wears chaps and spurs, and can sling a loop pretty good, for a little kid! Come on!" "Wel-ll, all right--but Lordy me! I do hate to, Ches, and that's a fact. Women I'm plumb scared of. I never met one in my life that didn't hand me a package of trouble so big I couldn't see around it. Why--" He shut his teeth upon the impulse to confide to Mason his matrimonial mischance. "These two won't. My wife's the real goods, once you get to know her; a little fussy, maybe, over some things--most all women are. But she's all right, you bet. And Josephine's the proper stuff too. A little abrupt, maybe--" "Abrupt!" Ford echoed, and laughed over the word. "Yes, she is what you might call a little--abrupt!" CHAPTER IX Impressions Josephine waited languidly while Kate chose a second-best cushion from the couch and, lifting the bandaged foot as gently as might be, placed it, with many little pats and pulls, under the afflicted member. Josephine screwed her lips into a soundless expression of pain, smiled afterwards when Kate glanced at her commiseratingly, and pulled a long, dark-brown braid forward over her chest. "Do you want tea, Phenie?--or would you rather have chocolate to-day? I can make chocolate just as easy as not; I think I shall, anyway. Buddy is so fond of it and--" "Is that man here yet?" Josephine's tone carried the full weight of her dislike of him.