Another surprise was the discovery that Gowan had a remarkably good ear for music and knew even more than the girl about the masters and their works. There was a player attachment to the piano, and the girl and Gowan had a contest, playing the same selections in turn, to see which could get the most expression by means of the mechanical apparatus. If anything, the girl came out second best. At least she said so; but Ashton would not admit it.

Between times the three chatted on a thousand and one topics, the girl always ready to bubble over with animation and merriment. She bestowed her dimpled smiles on both her admirers with strict impartiality and as impartially stimulated each to his best with her tact and gay wit.

At nine o'clock sharp Knowles closed his report and rose from his comfortable seat.

"Time to turn in, boys. Coal oil costs more than sunlight," he announced, in the flat tone of a standing joke. "We'll take a jog down creek to the Bar-Lazy-J ranch, first thing tomorrow, Kid.--Ashton, you'd better start off in the cool, before sunup. Here's my bunch of letters, case I might forget them."

He handed over half a dozen thinly padded envelopes. Gowan was already at the door, hat in hand.

"Good night, Mr. Knowles. Good night, Miss Chuckie. Pleasant dreams!"

he said.

"Same to you, Kid!" replied the girl.

"May I give and receive the same?" asked Ashton.

"Of course," she answered. "But wait a moment, please. I've some letters to go, myself, if you'll kindly take them with Daddy's."

As she darted into a side room, Knowles stepped out after Gowan. When the girl returned, Ashton took the letters that she held out to him and deliberately started to tie them in a packet with those of her father. His sole purpose was to prolong his stay to the last possible moment. But inadvertently his eye caught the name "Blake" on one of the envelopes. His smile vanished; his jaw dropped.

"Why, Mr. Ashton, what is the matter?" said the girl.

"I--I beg your pardon," he replied. "I did not realize that--But it's too absurd--it can't be! You did not mean what you said this afternoon. It can't be you're writing to that man to come here."

"I am," she replied.

"But you can't--you must not. He's the very devil for doing impossible things. He'll be sure to turn loose a flood on you--drown you out--destroy your range!"

"If it can be done, the sooner we know it the better," she argued.

"Daddy says little, but it is becoming a monomania with him--the dread. I wish to put an end to his suspense. Besides, if--if this Mr.

Blake is as remarkable as you and the reports say he is, it will be interesting to meet him. My only fear is that so great an engineer will not think it worth while to come to this out-of-the-way section."

"The big four-flusher!" muttered Ashton.

"How you must dislike him! It makes me all the more curious to see him."

"Does your father know about this letter?" queried Ashton.

"You forget yourself, sir," she said.

Meeting her level gaze, he flushed crimson with mortification. He stood biting his lip, unable to speak.

She went on coldly: "I do not ask you to tell me the cause of your hatred for Mr. Blake. I a.s.sume that you are a gentleman and will not destroy my letter. But even if you should do so, it would mean only a short delay. I shall write him again if I receive no reply to this."

Ashton's flush deepened. "I did not think you could be so hard. But--I presume I deserved it."

"Yes, you did," she agreed, with no lessening of her coldness.

"I see you will not accept an apology, Miss Knowles. However, I give you my word that I will deliver your letter to the postmaster at Stockchute."

He started out, very stiff and erect. As he pa.s.sed through the doorway she suddenly relented and called after him: "Good night, Mr. Ashton!

Pleasant dreams!"

He wheeled and would have stepped back to reply had not Knowles spoken to him from the darkness at the end of the porch: "This way, Ashton.

Kid is waiting to show you to the bunkhouse. You'll find a clean bunk and new blankets. I've also issued you corduroy pants and a pair of leather chaps from the commissary. Those city riding togs aren't hardly the thing on the range. There's a spare saddle, if you want to change off from yours."

"Thank you for the other things; but I prefer my own saddle," replied Ashton.

He now perceived the dim form of Gowan starting off in the starlight, and followed him to the bunkhouse. The other men were already in their beds, fast asleep and half of them snoring. Gowan silently lit a lantern and showed the tenderfoot to an unoccupied bunk in the far corner of the rough but clean building. After a curt request for Ashton to blow out the lantern when through with the light, he withdrew, to tumble into a bunk near the door.

Ashton removed twice as many garments as had the puncher, and slipped in between his fresh new blankets, after several minutes spent in finding out how to extinguish the lantern. For some time he lay listening. He had often read of the practical jokes that cowboys are supposed always to play on tenderfeet. But the steady concert of the snoring sleepers was unbroken by any horseplay. Presently he, too, fell asleep.

He was wakened by a general stir in the bunkhouse. Day had not yet come, but by the light of a lantern near the door he could see his fellow employes pa.s.sing out. He dressed as hastily as he could in his gloomy corner, putting on his new trousers and the stiff leather chapareras in place of his breeches and leggings. Gowan came in, glanced at him with a trace of surprise, and went out with the lantern.

Ashton followed to the house and around into the side porch. The other men were making their morning toilets by lantern light, each drying face and hands on his own towel. Ashton and Gowan waited their turn at the basins, and together went into the lamplit dining-room, where the j.a.p cook was serving bacon, coffee, and hot bread. Ashton lingered over his meal, hoping to see Miss Isobel. But neither she nor her father appeared.

Gowan had gone out with the other men. Presently he came back to the side door and remarked in almost a friendly tone: "Your hawss is ready whenever you are, Ashton."

"Thanks," said Ashton, rising. "The poor old brute must be rather stiff after the spurring I gave him yesterday."

Gowan did not reply. He had gone out again. Somewhat nettled, Ashton hastened after him. Dawn had come. The gray light in the east was brightening to an exquisite pink. The clear twilight showed the puncher waiting at the front of the house beside a saddled horse. A glance showed Ashton that the saddle and bridle were his own, but that the horse was a big, rawboned beast.

"That's not my pony," he said.

"This here Rocket hawss ain't _any_ pony," agreed Gowan. "He's a man's size hawss. Ain't afraid you'll drop too far when you fall off, are you?"

"You're trying to get me on a bucking bronco!" said Ashton, suspiciously eying the bony, wild-eyed brute.

"He's no outlaw," rea.s.sured Gowan. "Most all our hawsses are liable to prance some when they've et too many rattlers. But Miss Chuckie said you can ride."

"I can," said Ashton, tightening the thong of his sombrero down across the back of his head and b.u.t.toning his coat.

"Roped this Rocket hawss for you because Mr. Knowles wants his mail by sundown," remarked Gowan. "He sh.o.r.e can travel some when he feels like it. Don't know as you'll need your spurs. Here's a five-spot Mr.

Knowles said to hand you by way of advance. Thought you might want to refresh yourself over at Stockchute. Wouldn't rather have another saddle and bridle, would you?"

"Kindly thank Mr. Knowles for me," said Ashton, pocketing the five dollar bill. "No--the horse is hard-mouthed, but I prefer my own saddle and bridle."

He drew his rifle from its sheath, wiped the dew from the b.u.t.t, and tested the mechanism. The horse c.o.c.ked his ears, but stood motionless while the rifle was taken out and replaced. Ashton picked up the reins from the ground and threw them over the horse's head. The beast did not swing around, but his ewe neck straightened and his entire body stiffened to a peculiar rigidity.

Ashton tested the tightness of his saddle girth, and paused to gaze at the closed front door of the house. Aside from his saddle and burlesque sombrero, he looked every inch a puncher, both in dress and in bearing. But Miss Isobel missed the effect of his new _ensemble_.

She missed also the interesting spectacle of his mounting.

If he had never ridden a cow pony he would have been thrown and dragged the instant he put his foot in the narrow metal stirrup. The horse was watching him alertly, every muscle tense. Ashton smiled confidently, spoke to the beast in a quiet tone, and pulled on the off rein. The horse bent his head to the pull, for the moment off his guard. In a twinkling Ashton had his foot in the stirrup and was up in the saddle. His toe slipped into the other stirrup as the horse jumped sideways.

The leap was tremendous, but it failed to unseat Ashton. It was instantly followed by other wild jumps--whirling forward and sidelong leaps, interspersed with frantic plunging and rearing. Gowan looked on, agape with amazement. The tenderfoot stuck fast on his flat little saddle and only once pulled leather. Rocket was not a star bucker, but he had thrown more than one half-baked cowboy.

Finding that he could not unseat his rider, the beast suddenly gave over his plunging, and bolted at furious speed down the smooth slope towards Plum Creek. Before they had gone half a furlong Ashton realized that he was on a blooded horse of unusual speed and a runaway. He could not hope to pull down so tough-mouthed a beast with his ordinary curb. The best he could do was to throw all his weight on the right rein. Unable altogether to resist the steady tug at his head, the racing horse gradually swerved until he was headed across the mesa towards the jagged, snow-streaked twin crests of Split Peak.