halted inside the threshold. Jean, looking ruddy and winsome in light print dress, with sleeves rolled clear of each plump fore-arm, was spreading great platefuls of hot cakes and desiccated fruits among the more solid viands on the snowy tablecloth. Geoffrey found it difficult to refrain from glancing wolfishly at the good things until his eyes rested upon Miss Savine, and then it cost him an effort to turn them away. Helen reclined on an ox-hide lounge. An early rose rested among the glossy clusters of her thick, dark hair. A faint tinge of crimson showed through the pale olive in her cheek, and he caught the glimmer of pearly teeth between the ripe red lips. In her presence he grew painfully conscious that he was ragged, toil-stained and dusty, though he had made the best toilet he could beside a stream. 

 "I have removed the rock, and have brought the tools back," he said. 

 "How much did the explosives cost you?" asked Helen, and Geoffrey smiled. 

 "If you will excuse me, is not that beside the question? I engaged to remove the boulder, and I have done it," he answered. 

 Ever since her mother's death, Helen Savine had ruled her father and most of the men with whom she came in contact. She had come to the ranch with Mr. Savine, who was interested in many enterprises in the neighborhood and she was prepared to be interested in whatever occurred. Few of her wishes ever had been thwarted, so, naturally, she was conscious of a faint displeasure that a disheveled wanderer should even respectfully slight her question. Placing two silver coins on the table, the said coldly: 

 "Then here are your covenanted wages, and we are obliged to you." 

 Geoffrey handed one of the coins back with a slight inclination of his head.  "Our bargain was one dollar, madam, and I cannot take more. Perhaps you have forgotten," he replied. 

 Helen was distinctly annoyed now. The color grew a little warmer in her cheek and her eyes brighter, but she uttered only a "Thank you," and took up the piece of silver. 

 Jean Graham, prompted by the Westerner's generous hospitality, and a feeling that she had been overlooked, spoke: 

 "You have earned a square meal any way, and you're going to get it," she declared.  "Sit right down there and we'll have supper when the boys come in." 

 Uneasily 

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