"Jumbo" Cox run down one of the tired, dirty-gray beasts, toss a rope about its body and drag it, snarling and biting at the rope, to a horrid death. She didn't like "Jumbo."

"Cherokee Bill" Ridge rode up with Paul Dunkin to talk with her and Uncle Billy after the hunt. Bill told of Gabe Horner's developing plans for "staking" him and Tom Winger to a thousand head of steers in the spring.

"We goin' to fix up a new ranch right down there." He pointed to a thin arrow of young timber bordering a draw that fell away from the bluff on which their horses stood. "Tom, he's goin' to stay with the G. H. cattle an' I'm goin' to be foreman of the W-R outfit!" Bill added this proudly, receiving their congratulations with a grin.

As the news of her engagement spread about, Nan found that nearly every one had a good word for Harvey. They called him a good worker, said he was a man you could depend on. Henry Day, of The Big Store at Big Grove, who had an informal banking business amongst thrifty Indians, cattlemen, haymen and farmers, when he congratulated Nan, added impressively:

"Harvey'll be a rich man some day if he keeps on the way he's goin'!"

Nan liked this general approval, liked the importance and the excitement of being engaged. Harvey was not demonstrative, and the love-making between them was

shy and restrained; and yet there were times when Nan felt terrified at the prospect of marriage.

Her aunt surprised her in one of these moments on a day when Harvey had been called away to Kansas City for a week and before going had taken her in his arms to offer vehement caresses, leaving her frightened and dismayed. When he had gone, she sat staring out of the window, her hands twisted in her lap, her face haunted by an unnamed fear. Susan Dines's entry and a casual question broke down her restraint and she burst into tears.

"Why, Nancy, what is it?" the old woman asked, hurrying to put affectionate arms about the girl.

"Oh, Aunty, I don't know-I-I'm afraid sometimes; sometimes Harvey scares me." She buried her face in her aunt's shoulder, clung to her.

"Well, now, honey lamb, of course you are. What girl wouldn't be? Thinkin' of marriage, wasn't you; that it won't be the same as sweetheartin'? But Harvey's a good man an' he loves you. You've got to remember that, times when you think maybe he's a brute an' don't understand you an' you wish you was back here in your own little room. But, Nancy, life means changes, destroyin' an' buildin', growin' an' dyin', never satisfied with what's done to-day. As long's you both love each other things won't be hard. There's a lot of fool talk about the hardships of marriage for the woman, but if it's the right kind of match it leads to a wonderful kind of happiness that's so fine

it just makes you ache. Only when it ain't right— well, you read about terrible things, women bein' beaten by men, women an' men bein' shot by jealous husbands an' wives, wives runnin' off with other men, husbands leavin' their wives. That's love an' marriage turned The great thing is to be friends after you're married, real friends, able to give an' take an' get along with one another day in an' day out.

sour.

Nan was comforted.

"Harvey is good, isn't he, Aunty! And I mean to be a good wife, and make a nice home for him-and Dad. It's fine that he wants to have Dad with us! We three 'll be the best partners ever." She smiled. "I want Harvey and me to be like you and Uncle Billy, happy and sweet, helping to build up the country."

"You will, Nancy, never fear; an' you'll find more in marriage as you go on with it. An', then, honey lamb, maybe there'll be babies, children for you both to love, an’. . .

There were tears in their eyes as they kissed.

Gradually, as the weeks passed, Harvey's attitude toward Nan began to change. The anxious suitor became the complacent ruler. He demanded full accounts of her plans, her thoughts, her every act. He asked endless clumsy questions about her friendships with the brothers of her girl friends, Paul Dunkin, Nat Ross, Charley Thompson, Stan McClellan. He wanted

to be told all about the quarrel with Ruby Engel. Of Tom, however, he never spoke.

At first Nan was flattered by his absorption, his jealous guardianship; it seemed a proof of his treasuring love. But she began to chafe under it. Harvey seemed to be trying to contract her circle of friends, to restrict her interests, to reproach her for any thought not directly concerned with himself.

However, she consoled herself with the conviction that he would "get over being silly" after they were married; and the belief that her beloved father would be with them, that he would have congenial work with Harvey, that the three would toil helpfully together, sustained her in moments of doubt more than she realized.

Always practical, Harvey urged a wedding early in March; he wanted to make certain changes in his house, which he had bought from Vergil.

"An' we'll go to Kansas City for our weddin' trip, Nan," Harvey said. "I want to go up an' take delivery of some hayin' machinery, anyway, an' it'll fit in just right."

Nan consented, and began thinking of her own preparations.

O

CHAPTER XXI

THE DEEPENING SHADOW

NE morning, "Jumbo" Cox appeared at the
Dines gate leading a young, trim-bodied mare,

curried to a shining gloss and outfitted with a silver-studded side-saddle, a flat-plaited halter, a silver-decorated bridle, a hair stake rope and with a beautiful little quirt hanging from the upright horn of the saddle.

"What a beauty, Jumbo!" she exclaimed, as the cowboy, dismounting, came toward her leading the

mare.

"She's yourn now, Nan." He handed over the reins, grinned at her bewilderment and added: “She's a present from Gabe, an' her name's Chiquita. Here, they's a letter that goes with her." Cox gave her Horner's note of cordial good wishes.

Nan was surprised and touched by the cattleman's remembrance, and wild with delight over Chiquita. She read Horner's note to Susan Dines and her uncle, who both admired the mare. Dines remembered, with an unspoken tribute to the generosity of the cattleman, Horner's remark:

"Nan an' Tom 'd sure make a grand pair!"

Harvey came to supper, was shown Chiquita, ap