"What happened to start you on this line?"

"The lad riding down the road on that piebald pinto. He come
twenty miles out of his way, plumb dressed for a wedding, all to
give me an invite to a dance at Fraser's. Y'u would call that
real thoughtful of him, I expect."

She gayly sparkled. "A real ranch dance--the kind you have been
telling me about. Are Ida and I invited?"

"Invited? Slim hinted at a lynching if I came without y'u."

She laughed softly, merry eyes flashing swiftly at him. "How
gallant you Westerners are, even though you do turn it into
burlesque."

His young laugh echoed hers. "Burlesque nothing. My life wouldn't
be worth a thing if I went alone. Honest, I wouldn't dare."

"Since the ranch can't afford to lose its foreman Ida and I will
go along," she promised. "That is, if it is considered proper
here."

"Proper. Good gracious, ma'am! Every lady for thirty miles round
will be there, from six months old to eighty odd years. It
wouldn't be PROPER to stay at home."

The foreman drove her to Fraser's in a surrey with Ida Henderson
and one of the Lazy D punchers on the back seat. The drive was
over twenty-five miles, but in that silent starry night every