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Show I ROOST FSHP M? z anc m ( 'GRY I AliTl' S COPYRIGHT W.N.U.SE.R.VICE ns ride. We can discus It bettei in the saddle." Jim could not find his tongue. He was vastly concerned with this rldo. After it, would he be ae strong as he was now? To be near her. . . . Jim got on the horse Barnes saddled sad-dled for him and followed Helen who to his surprise took the road back to the ranch house. Perhaps she had forgotten something. But when he turned the bend she was mounting the trail that led up the right If there had been giants on huge steeds pulling Jim back, he still would have kept on. Ills thoughts locked around the astounding fact this was the trail they had ridden down, after that encounter when he had kissed her. Sight and hearing, his sense of all around him, seemed strangely Intensified. In-tensified. The pines whispered, the rocks had a secret voice, the sky turned blue, the white clouds sailed, the black Henrys loomed above and the purple-gray valley deepened Its colors below. Helen halted her horse under the very pine where they had stopped to listen to the hounds and cowboys racing up the ridge after the deer. "My sense of direction seems to be all right," said Helen. "Helen, I fear It's better than your sense of kindness, let me say. . . . Why did you bring me here?" "Please look at my cinch," she replied, coolly. Jim dismounted, more unsure of himself than ever in any of the maDy crucial moments of his career. ca-reer. He did not understand a woman. He could only take Helen literally. . Her saddle cinch was all right, and he rather curtly told her so. "Then maybe it's my stirrup," she went on, lightly, as she removed her booted and spurred foot. "Well, I can't see anything wrong with that, either. . . . Helen." Something thudded on the ground. Her gloves and her sombrero. But they surely had not fallen. She had flung them ! A wave as Irresistible Irre-sistible as the force of the sea CHAPTER XIII Continued IS "Oh, thatl" laughed Helen, and turned away a scarlet face. "It can be explained easily If necessary. . . . Look 1 This glorious country! coun-try! .. . No, I don't ever want to leave It." Somehow Jim got through that long ride of suspense, fear and thrills, and when they reached Grand Junction Just after dark It was none too soon for him. Fortunately he got Helen Into the little Inn before she was recognized, and then returned re-turned to put the tired horses in the care of a stable boy. He was late for supper, having taken time to shave and change his shirt. To his surprise he found Helen radiant. "What do you think Bernie has done?" "It'll be Impossible for me to stay," rejoined Jim briefly. "But thanks for your kindness." "I'll have you manage the ranch give you an Interest, Anything " "Please don't embarrass me further. fur-ther. I can't stay. . . . It's hard to confess but I have had the gall, the absurd luck, to fall In love with your sister. I couldn't help It. . . . I want you to know, however, that It has turned me away from the old outlaw life. I'll go away and begin life again." "By Jove! So that's your trouble. Does Helen know?" "Yes. I told her. It was after she asked me to come and stay at Star ranch. She said she would never feel safe again unless I came. So I had to tell her." "Declare I don't blame her. I'd feel a little safer myself. That devil Hays left his trade-mark on me. Look here. ... By thunder, Wall, It's a blooming mix. I understand under-stand you, and think you're a man to respect and like. Can't we get around the trouble somehow?" "There Is no way, Herrick." "Helen has her own sweet will about everything. If she wants you to stay, you'll stay, that I can as- "Bernie ! ejaculated Jim. "Yes. My brother. This good woman told me. . . . Jim, you are the richer by ten thousand dollars." "Richer? . . . Mel" "Indeed. Bernie offered ten thousand thou-sand dollars for my safe return." "You know I wouldn't take a dollar dol-lar !" flashed Jim. "Weill What do you want, Jim?" she Inquired, with a woman's sweet tantalizing mystery. "However, never mind that now. Listen. Bernie hired all the riders available to hunt for me. Also he found where Hays sold our cattle, and he forced the buyers buy-ers to sell back every head, at the price they paid. He threatened to take the case to Salt Lake City." "That's sure good news. It might have a tendency to end rustling, at least in wholesale bunches. Did you hear how badly your brother was hurt?" "She did not mention that Anyway Any-way It couldn't have been much, for Bernie has been here. . . . Aren't you going to eat any supper? sup-per? Oh, I shall not sleep much tonight. . . . And what shall I tell Bernie? The query was arresting to Jim and lie hastened to direct her mind Into other channels, trying to make her feel concerned that they had still fifty miles to cover. Every movement of that ride next day was a joy and a pang. It seemed as short as the preceding one had been long. Helen was gay, sad, thoughtful, and talkative by turns, but she did not infringe on I mmmM burst over him. But he looked up, outwardly cool. And as he did her gloved hand went to his shoulder. "Nothing the matter with your stirrup," he said huskily. "No. After all, it's not my cinch nor my stirrup. . . . Jim, could any of your western girls have done better than this?" "Than what?" "Than fetching you here to this place where It happened." "Yes. They would have been more merciful." "But since I love you " "You are mad," he cried. "And since I want you presently present-ly to behave somewhat like you did that day." He reeled under that. The truth was almost overwhelming. The strong, earnest light of her eyes told more than her words. Her pallor pal-lor had vanished. She was no longer long-er cool. "Jim, you might have saved me this. But perhaps it Is Just as well. You are laboring under some delusion that I must dispel. ... I want you ask you to stay." "If you are sure I will stay. Only, for G d's sake, don't let It be anything but but " "Love," she added. "Jim, I am iUMfcl 3CJI I "Please Look at My Cinch," She Replied, Re-plied, Coolly. sure. If I were going back to England, Eng-land, I would want you to go, Just the same. . . . It's what you are that has made me love you. There need be no leveling. I lived years down In Robbers' Roost. That changed me blew the cobwebs out of my brain. This wonderful West and you are alike. I want both." "But I am nobody. ... I have nothing," he cried haltingly. "You have everything a woman needs to make her happy and keep her safe. The fact that I did not know what these things really were until lately should not be held against me." "But it might be generosity pity the necessity of a woman of your kind to to pay." "True. It might be. Only It Isn't. ... I brought you here!" Jim wrapped his arms around her and for the reason that he waa ashamed to betray the tears which blinded his eyes, he burled his face in her lap and mumbled that he would worship her to- his dying breath and In the life beyond. She ran soft ungloved hands through his hair and over his temples. tem-ples. "People, cities, my humdrum existence had palled me. I wanted romance, adventure, love. . . . Jim, I regard myself Just as fortunate as you think you are. Lift me off. We'll sit a while under our pine trees. . . . Jim, hold me as you did that other time here 1" THE END. the one subject that crucified Jim. It chanced that as they surmounted sur-mounted the pass that led down Into Star Ranch valley the sun was setting out of a glorious cloud pageant over Wild Horse Mesa and the canyon brakes of the Dirty Devil. Jim judged of Its beauty and profundity by the sudden silence si-lence it enjoined upon his companion. compan-ion. She never spoke another word until Jim halted the team in front of the ranch-house porch. "Home I" she whispered as If she had never expected to see It again. At Jim's halloa Herrick came out on the porch. "By Jove here you are 1" was his greeting, as cool and unemotional as if they were returning return-ing from a day's visit to the village. "Yes, Bernie, here I am thanks to my escort," replied Helen. Jim helped her out, while some cowboys came running. "I'll take the team down," Jim said, hurriedly. "You come In," returned Herrick, as he gripped Jim's hand and gave him a searching glance. He kissed Helen and led her In, with his arm around her. Jim purposely lingered at the task of collecting Helen's worn and muddy luggage, and carried car-ried It In. Brother and sister stood with arms locked, and their gaze was hard to meet. "Jim, you will have supper with us," she said, "I'll leave you and Bernie. . . . Oh, what will a tub and a change feel like I" She gathered up her things and ran out of the living room. "Helen hadn't timo to tell me much," Herrick said. "Hays kidnaped kid-naped her for ransom. Took her to a hellhole down In tho brakes. Robbers' Roost, she called It. Held her there captive. They fought among themselves gambling with my money, lleeseman'g crew found them. There was a battle. In the end you killed Hays and brought Helen back. . . . That's the gist of her story. But I want It In detail." de-tail." "I have all the money, almost to a dollar, Herrick," replied Jim. The Englishman regarded that as of little consequence and urged Jim to a recital of the whole affair. af-fair. Presently Herrick spoke with tomething of gravity: "Helen told me that I wns to keep you at Star ranch. I hope you won't let this Hays debacle drive you away." j sure you. Is there any honorable reason why you ought not stay outside of this unfortunate attachment attach-ment to Helen?" "I leave you to be judge of that," replied Jim, and briefly related the story of his life. "I like your West. I like you westerners 1" Herrick exploded. "Whatever Helen wants is quite right with me. ... I can't conceive con-ceive of her insisting on your staying stay-ing here unless there Is hope for you." . "That Is wild, Herrick. I can't conceive of such a thing. It wouldn't be fair to take her seriously after the horror she's been through and her Intense gratefulness." Helen came In to breakfast next morning attired In the riding habit she had worn on that never-to-be-forgotten day of their ride. "By Jovel" exclaimed Herrick. "If I were you, I'd never want to ride again 1" After greeting her, Jim could only look his admiration and wonder. won-der. "I am taking up my ranch life where it left off with reservations from sad experience," replied Helen, as she tooK her seat "Bernie, we had to trade Jim's horse, Bay. What can he ride today?" "He may take his choice. There are any number of good beasts." "By the way, Jim, I told Tasker to follow U3 at once with our horses. I shall treasure that horse, Gray. A robber's horse I . . . Tasker Tas-ker ought to be here soon, maybe tomorrow." Jim felt the solid earth slipping from under his feet. "I expected to leave today," he said, casually. "But I'll wait until tomorrow. Bay is a horse I hated to part with." "So soon 1" exclaimed Helen, with dark, Inscrutable eyes on him. "Bernie, could you not Induce Jim to stay?" Herrick waved a deprecatory hand. "Bernie has consented to let me share his ranching enterprise," she said. "I'd like to see It pay a reasonable rea-sonable Interest, at least And I have rather conceived the Idea that It'd be difficult, if not Impossible without you." "Not at all," replied Jim, constrainedly. con-strainedly. Presently she arose : "Come, let |