seemed pondering and thick and slow. There was a burden upon him. The man Bill and his companion lay back against stones and conversed low. Kells stood up in the light of the blaze. He had a pipe at which he took long pulls and then sent up clouds of smoke. There was nothing imposing in his build or striking in his face, at that distance; but it took no second look to see here was a man remarkably out of the ordinary. Some kind of power and intensity emanated from him. From time to time he appeared to glance in Joan's direction; still, she could not be sure, for his eyes were but shadows. He had cast aside his coat. He wore a vest open all the way, and a checked soft shirt, with a black tie hanging untidily. A broad belt swung below his hip and in the holster was a heavy gun. That was a strange place to carry a gun, Joan thought. It looked awkward to her. When he walked it might swing round and bump against his leg. And he certainly would have to put it some other place when he rode.     

       “Say, have you got a blanket for that girl?” asked Kells, removing his pipe from his lips to address Roberts.     

       “I got saddle-blankets,” responded Roberts. “You see, we didn't expect to be caught out.”      

       “I'll let you have one,” said Kells, walking away from the fire. “It will be cold.” He returned with a blanket, which he threw to Roberts.     

       “Much obliged,” muttered Roberts.     

       “I'll bunk by the fire,” went on the other, and with that he sat down and appeared to become absorbed in thought.     

       Roberts brought the borrowed blanket and several saddle-blankets over to where Joan was, and laying them down he began to kick and scrape stones and brush aside.     

       “Pretty rocky place, this here is,” he said. “Reckon you'll sleep some, though.”      

       Then he began arranging the blankets into a bed. Presently Joan felt a tug at her riding-skirt. She looked down.     

       “I'll be right by you,” he whispered, with his big hand to his mouth, “an'       I ain't a-goin' to sleep none.”      

       Whereupon he returned to the camp-fire. Presently Joan, not because she was tired or sleepy, but because 

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