“I came over to pay my party call,” he explained. “It really wasn’t necessary. A run in the machine is not a formal function.” “Maybe not in Kalamazoo.” “I thought perhaps you had come to get my purse and the sixty-three dollars,” she derided. “No, ma’am; nor yet to get that bunch of cows I was going to rustle from you to buy an auto. I came to ask you to go riding with me.” The audacity of it took her breath. Of all the outrageous things she had ever heard, this was the cream. An acknowledged outlaw, engaged in feud with her retainers over that deadly question of the run of the range, he had sauntered over to the ranch where lived a dozen of his enemies, three of them still scarred with his bullets, merely to ask her to go riding with him. The magnificence of his bravado almost obliterated its impudence. Of course she would not think of going. The idea! But her eyes glowed with appreciation of his courage, not the less because the consciousness of it was so conspicuously absent from his manner. “I think not, Mr. Bannister” and her face almost imperceptibly stiffened. “I don’t go riding with strangers, nor with men who shoot my boys. And I’ll give you a piece of advice, sir. That is, to burn the wind back to your home. Otherwise I won’t answer for your life. My punchers don’t love you, and I don’t know how long I can keep them from you. You’re not wanted here any more than you were at the dance the other evening.” McWilliams nodded. “That’s right. Y’u better roll your trail, seh; and if y’u take my advice, you’ll throw gravel lively. I seen two of the boys cutting acrost that pasture five minutes ago. They looked as if they might be haided to cut y’u off, and I allow it may be their night to howl. Miss Messiter don’t want to be responsible for y’u getting lead poisoning.” “Indeed!” Their visitor looked politely interested. “This solicitude for me is very touching. I observe that both of you are carefully blocking me from the bunkhouse in order to prevent another practice-shot. If I can’t persuade you to join me in a ride, Miss Messiter, I reckon I’ll go while I’m still unpunctured.” He bowed, and gathered the reins for departure. “One moment! Mr. McWilliams and I are going with you,” the girl announced. “Changed your mind? Think you’ll take a little _pasear_, after all?” “I don’t want to be responsible for your killing. We’ll see you safe off the place,” she answered curtly. The foreman fell in on one side of Bannister, his mistress on the other. They rode in close formation, to lessen the chance of an ambuscade. Bannister alone chatted at his debonair ease, ignoring the responsibility they felt for his safety. “I got my ride, after all,” he presently chuckled. “To be sure, I wasn’t expecting Mr. McWilliams to chaperon us. But that’s an added pleasure.” “Would it be an added pleasure to get bumped off to kingdom come?” drawled the foreman, giving a reluctant admiration to his aplomb.