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So this was Sue Latrop the girl from Boston. Frances looked at her keenly as she turned to look at the Western girl. "My dear! Fancy! So glad to know you," she said, handling her horse remarkably well with one hand and putting out her right to Frances. The latter urged Molly nearer. But the pinto was not on her good behavior this morning. She had been too badly treated at the corral.
"I don't see that I am called upon to give her a good word," sneered Miss Latrop. "She is a rough, rude, quite impossible person. I fail to see wherein she deserves any consideration at my hands. I declare! to hear you girls, one would think this cowgirl was of some importance." Frances came quietly away from the window, postponing her dusting in that quarter until later.
"Hasn't the Captain asked you for a dance?" queried her friend, roguishly. "I should say not!" gasped Sue. "Fancy!" "You must not act as though his invitation insulted you, Sue Latrop," said one of the other girls, rather tartly. "You might as well understand, first as last, that we are all fond of Captain Rugley.
Frances seized the rope hanging at her saddle. Pratt had shouted a warning, too. The visitors scattered. But for once Sue Latrop did not manage her mount to the best advantage. "Look out, Sue!" "Quick! He'll have you!" These and other warnings were shouted. With lowered front the black steer was charging the horse the girl from Boston rode.
It looked as though Sue Latrop owed her salvation to the young man. "Hurrah for Pratt!" yelled one of the other young fellows from the city, and most of the guests both male and female took up the cry. Pratt had tumbled off his own grey pony with Sue in his arms. "You're re'lly a hero, Pratt! What a fine thing to do," the girl from Boston gasped. "Fancy my being under that poor horse."
They spoke of inconsequential things on the veranda, where Ming served cool drinks; and then the Amarillo young man rode away. "Sue Latrop and that crowd will be out to-morrow, I expect," he said, as he departed. "Don't know when I can get over again, Frances. I'll have to beau them around a bit." "Good-bye, Pratt," said Frances, without comment.
Sue felt that she had laid herself open to ridicule, and it did hurt Sue Latrop to think that her young friends were laughing at her. As for the dinner, that was a revelation to the girl from Boston. The service, if a bit odd, was very good. And the silver, cut glass, napery, and all were as rich as Sue had ever seen.
She knew that Sue Latrop worshiped the tangible signs of wealth, as she understood them. Cattle, and range lands, and horses, and a great, rambling house like this at the Bar-T, impressed the girl from Boston very little. But jewels would appeal to her empty head as nothing else could. Frances knew this very well. She knew that she could overawe the Boston girl with a display of these gems.
"Wake up, Sue, it's over!" exclaimed one of the other girls, shaking the young lady from Boston. Sue Latrop came to herself slowly. She had never realized the Spirit of the West before, nor appreciated what it meant to have battled for and grown up with a frontier community. "Is is that all true?" she whispered to Pratt. "Is what all true?" he asked, rather blankly.
"And Miss Rugley?" asked another. "Oh, I guess you'll find them together somewhere," snapped Sue Latrop. She had felt neglected by her "hero" for the last hour, and was in the sulks, accordingly. Pratt, however, came in alone. He had bagged several jacks. Altogether Silent Sam and the Mexican had destroyed more than a score of the pests, and the dogs had torn to pieces two or three beside.
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