always a-looking for something new, something out of the big world
that she don't know nothing about."

"Never mind, Bill, don't give up so quick," Willock reproached him,
as they turned away. "She's been having a good look at him all this
time, and it may be she have took a distaste to him already."



CHAPTER XI
THE HALF-OPENED BUD


The two men went into the cabin. An hour later they reappeared,
accompanied by the girl. Wilfred was still seated obediently on
the rock, but at sight of them he rose with a gay laugh and
advanced.

"Come over here in the shade," Willock called, as he strode toward
a grassy bank that sloped up to a line of three cedar trees of
interlocked branches. "Come over here and know her. This is our
gal."

Lahoma looked at the young man with grave interest, taking note of
his garments and movements as she might have examined the skin and
actions of some unknown animal. Bill Atkins also watched him, but
with suspicious eye, as if anticipating a sudden spring on his ward.

"Set down," said Willock, sinking on the grass. "The last man up
is the biggest fool in Texas!"