So-long, Jed."

It would not have been her choice to ride home with the lieutenant of
rangers, but since her father had made the appointment publicly she
did not care to make objection. Yet she took care to let Fraser see
that he was in her black books. The men rode toward the rear of the
herd, one on each side, and Arlie fell in beside her old playmate,
Dick. She laughed and talked with him about a hundred things in which
Steve could have had no part, even if he had been close enough to
catch more than one word out of twenty. Not once did she even look his
way. Quite plainly she had taken pains to forget his existence.

"It was Briscoe's turn the other day," mused the Texan. "It's mine
now. I wonder when it will be Dick's to get put out in the cold!"

Nevertheless, though he tried to act the philosopher, it cut him that
the high-spirited girl had condemned him. He felt himself in a false
position from which he could not easily extricate himself. The worst
of it was that if it came to a showdown he could not expect the simple
truth to exonerate him.

From where they rode there drifted to him occasionally the sound of
the gay voices of the young people. It struck him for the first time
that he was getting old. Arlie could not be over eighteen, and Dick
perhaps twenty-one. Maybe young people like that thought a fellow of
twenty-seven a Methusaleh.

After a time the thirsty cattle smelt water and hit a bee line so
steadily for it that they needed no watching. Every minute or two one
of the leaders stretched out its neck and let out a bellow without