you one of those who assisted at that important function? There
were so many there I don't remember.''

``No, I only read about it. I remember it very well; I had
ridden over twelve miles for the mail that day, and I stopped
half-way back to the ranch and camped out in the shade of a rock
and read all the papers and magazines through at one sitting,
until the sun went down and I couldn't see the print. One of the
papers had an account of your coming out in it, and a picture of
you, and I wrote East to the photographer for the original. It
knocked about the West for three months and then reached me at
Laredo, on the border between Texas and Mexico, and I have had it
with me ever since.''

Miss Langham looked at Clay for a moment in silent dismay and
with a perplexed smile.

``Where is it now?'' she asked at last.

``In my trunk at the hotel.''

``Oh,'' she said, slowly. She was still in doubt as to how to
treat this act of unconventionality. ``Not in your watch?'' she
said, to cover up the pause. ``That would have been more in
keeping with the rest of the story.''

The young man smiled grimly, and pulling out his watch pried back
the lid and turned it to her so that she could see a photograph
inside. The face in the watch was that of a young girl in the
dress of a fashion of several years ago. It was a lovely, frank