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The discussion of the moral code which followed was becoming acrimonious and personal to a degree when a peal of girlish laughter echoed from the ranch house and the cowboys beheld Judge Ware and Hardy, accompanied by Miss Lucy and Kitty Bonnair, coming towards their fire.
Wondering at her own acquiescence, Kitty Bonnair obeyed, and with a mysterious smile he stooped down until his lips were close to her ear. "You remind me of my girl," he whispered, "back in St. Louie!" And then with a great laugh he broke away and leapt triumphantly into the saddle. "Whoop-eee!" he yelled. "Watch me fly!" And spreading his arms like a bird he thundered away down the western trail.
Thief and reprobate though he was, and sadly given to leaping upon the table and flying spitefully at dogs, even that rough creature felt the need of love; how much more the sensitive and high-bred man, once poet and scholar, now cowboy and sheep-wrangler, but always the unhappy slave of Kitty Bonnair.
At the last moment Creede abandoned the unprofitable working of The Rolls and ordered the rodéo up onto Bronco Mesa; and Kitty Bonnair, taking advantage of his preoccupation, quietly gave him the slip at the end of their long eastern detour, and turned her pinto's head toward the river.
But before he could stammer his apologies, Kitty Bonnair stood before him the same Kitty, and smiling as he had often seen her in his dreams.
His courage rose before the flattering solicitude of Kitty Bonnair and he resolved then and there to fool Mr. Creede or know the reason why. "Well," he replied, stoutly, "they may look kinder tame alongside of your Arizona lies, but " "Oh, Mr. Lightfoot, do tell me all about it!" broke in Kitty, with an alluring smile. "Colorado is an awfully wild country, isn't it?
Then in a sudden fit of exasperation he packed his grip and hastened across the continent to Washington, to ascertain for himself why the Salagua Forest Reserve was not proclaimed. As for Lucy, her letters were as carefully considered as ever she wrote of everything except the sheep and Kitty Bonnair. Not since she went away had she mentioned Kitty, nor had Hardy ever inquired about her.
"Miss Kitty," he said, "this is my friend, Jefferson Creede Miss Bonnair." "I'm glad to meet you, Mr. Creede," said Kitty, bestowing her hand upon the embarrassed cowboy. "Of course you know Miss Ware!"
It ain't my fault if Miss Bonnair happens to like my company, but Bill and some of the other boys have got their backs up over it, and they've practically gone on a strike. Leastwise we ain't gittin' the cattle, and God knows the range won't more 'n carry what's left.
"Nary one, eh?" he repeated musingly. "Well, when you see one you'll see a million that's been my experience. But say, Rufe, why don't you come and ride with the boys once in a while? The rodéo has been goin' rotten this year we ain't gittin' half of 'em and you'd come in mighty handy. Besides, I've been braggin' you up to Miss Bonnair." He dropped this last as a bait, but Hardy did not respond.
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