close atmosphere of the box and from anger as well, came up like a
jack-in-the-box and glared at Kent. When he had stepped out upon the stable
floor, however, he smiled rather unpleasantly.

[Illustration: He was jeered unmercifully by Fred De Garmo and his crowd]

"If you've told the truth," he said maliciously, "I guess the lady has
pretty near evened things up. If you haven't--if I don't find them both at
the hotel--well--Anyway," he added, with an ominous inflection, "there'll
be other days to settle this in!"

"Why, sure. Help yourself, Fred," Kent retorted cheerfully, and stood where
he was until Fred had gone out. Then he turned and closed the box. "Between
that yellow-eyed dame and the chump that went and left this box wide open
for me to tip Fred into," he soliloquized, while he took down the lantern,
and so sent the shadows dancing weirdly about him, "I've got a bunch of
trouble mixed up, for fair. I wish the son of a gun would fight it out now,
and be done with it; but no, that ain't Fred. He'd a heap rather wait and
let it draw interest!"

Over in the hotel the "yellow-eyed dame" was doing her unsophisticated best
to meet the situation gracefully, and to realize certain vague and rather
romantic dreams of her life out West. She meant to be very gracious, for
one thing, and to win the chivalrous friendship of every man who came to
participate in the rude congratulations that had been planned. Just how
she meant to do this she did not know--except that the graciousness would
certainly prove a very important factor.

"I'm going to remain downstairs," she told Manley, when they reached the
hotel. It was the first sentence she had spoken since he overtook her. "I'm