Might  you  come  along  to  the  ranch  ?  Mrs.  Trichell
— she ’s  the  owner — Ah  reckon  she  ’ll  be  purty  glad
to  fix  you  up.”

Bluebonnet  hesitated  for  a  moment.  There  was
something  about  him  at  once  repulsive  and  at¬
tractive.  Perhaps  this  stranger’s  appearance  was
providential.  Yet,  the  thought  of  being  led  away
by  him  was  not  welcome.  Bluebonnet  entertained
a  suspicion  that  he  was  a  spy  of  a  wandering  gypsy
outfit  and  that  Pemella  had  by  some  means  gotten
into  communication  with  him.  Would  she  be  led
back  to  another  gypsy  camp  and  held  until  Pemella
arrived?  Yet  what  if  she  refused  to  go  with  him?
It  might  incense  this  stranger  who  she  noticed  car¬
ried  a  gun  slung  low  at  his  hip.  She  decided  it
would  be  better  to  accept  his  proferred  kindness,
to  trust  to  his  honesty  and  follow  him.
“Yes,  I’ll  go,”  Bluebonnet  accepted  with  an  as¬
sumed  glint  of  pleasure.  ‘  ‘  How  far  is  the  ranch  ?  ’  ’

“Wal,  now,  some  folks  calls  it  three  miles  but
to  us  with  hosses  we  calls  it  aroun’  the  bend.  Ah
reckon  you’re  not  ’quainted  in  these  parts?”

Bluebonnet  jumped  to  the  ground  while  Tu-
lane’s  gloating  eye  ranged  over  her  from  head  to
foot.  Then  he  mounted  Nep  and  pulled  Bluebon¬
net  up  back  of  him.
