XV. A NEW TRAIL
XVI. OF SARAH NEVADA MONTAGUE
XVII. MISS MONTAGUE USES HER OWN FACE
XVIII. "FIVE REELS--500 LAUGHS"
XIX. THE TRAGIC COMEDIAN
XX. ONWARD AND UPWARD




CHAPTER I


DIRTY WORK AT THE BORDER


At the very beginning of the tale there comes a moment of puzzled
hesitation. One way of approach is set beside another for choice,
and a third contrived for better choice. Still the puzzle persists,
all because the one precisely right way might seem--shall we say
intense, high keyed, clamorous? Yet if one way is the only right
way, why pause? Courage! Slightly dazed, though certain, let us be
on, into the shrill thick of it. So, then--

Out there in the great open spaces where men are men, a clash of
primitive hearts and the coming of young love into its own! Well had
it been for Estelle St. Clair if she had not wandered from the
Fordyce ranch. A moment's delay in the arrival of Buck Benson, a
second of fear in that brave heart, and hers would have been a fate
worse than death.