He didn't have to go 'way to town, 'cause he met the man he wanted to see on the way here."

"Now what has come over the spirit of _his_ dreams?" Pen asked herself wonderingly as she got into her riding things. "Well, there is always the refuge of fast riding. That is the only time I can make my tongue behave.

I'll give him no chance to preach, that's sure!"

When they set out on their ride, she was careful not to let the brisk pace falter. They stopped for luncheon at a ranch-house where there were many people at the table; but on the way home, when nearing the big bend, Kurt rode up to her; his detaining hand on the bridle slackened the speed she was striving to maintain.

"I want to say something to you," he began stiffly. "You mustn't think because I say nothing, that I am unmindful of what you have overcome--I--"

She stole a side glance at him. His eyes were as sombre and impenetrable as ever, but his chin worked nervously.

"You mean that I deserve a credit mark for not having lifted the children's banks, or helped myself to the family silver and jewels. It's sweet in you to put such trust in me and commend me for such heroic resistance!"

She jerked her bridle from his grasp and rode furiously on to the house, and had dismounted and escaped to her room before he could overtake her.

CHAPTER IX

Pen found the ranch-house quite deserted the next morning. Kurt had gone to Wolf Creek to purchase cattle and would not return until night. A little scrawled note from Francis apprised her of the fact that Mrs.

Merlin was taking himself, Billy and Betty to spend the day at her own home.

"A whole day alone for the first time in ages!" she thought exultingly.

"It is surely Pen Lamont's day. What shall I do to celebrate? Stop the clock and play with the matches? I must do something stupendous. I know. I will go into town and shop. I will go in style, too."

She took Kingdon's racing car out of the garage, and was soon speeding down the hills with the little thrill of ecstasy that comes from leaving a beaten track.

In town she left the car in front of the hotel and went down the Main street, looking in dismay at the windows loaded with a.s.sorted and heterogeneous lots of feminine apparel. At last she came to a little shop with but three garments on display, all of them quite smart in style.

"You must be a 'lost, strayed or stolen,'" she apostrophized in delight.

She went within and purchased two gowns with all the many and necessary accessories thereto.

"Lucky, Kind Kurt and Bender didn't search me that day," she thought. "I never saw a sheriff or a near-sheriff so slack. If they'd been in my business, they'd have known that you can't always tell what's in the pocket of a ragged frock."

She visited in turn a shoe store, a soda water fountain and a beauty shop.

Then it was the town time for dining, and she returned to the hotel.

"I shouldn't have exhausted the resources of the town so soon," she thought ruefully, as she stood in the office after registering. "I don't know what I will do this afternoon unless I sit in a red plush chair in the Ladies' Parlor and gaze out through the meshes of a coa.r.s.e lace curtain at the pa.s.sers-by. I might call on Bender and see if he'd remember me. Bet his wife would. Maybe something interesting will come along, though."

Something did. It came in the shape of a lean, brown-faced young man.

"Larry, Larry!" she cried. "It's a homecoming to see you. I hadn't any idea what part of the world you were in. What are you doing here?"

"The Thief!" he exclaimed, his dark eyes beaming with pleasure.

"Not so loud. I am Pen Lamont, at present. Incog, you see, under my real name, the least known of any. So don't squeal on me."

"I never gave anyone away yet, Pen, dear. What are you doing in this neck o' the woods?"

"I am in hiding in the hills--at a ranch--quite domesticated. My first glimpse of a home. Like it better than I supposed I could."

"You'd better watch out. Hebler is up in these parts somewhere, I hear.

He'll get you yet, Pen!"

"Hebler! You make my heart stop beating. I hit this trail more to escape him than anything else. What is he here for?"

"For you, I fancy. I ran across Wilks the other day and he said he heard Hebler say, 'He'd get that thief if he never did another thing.' So lay low. Are you here alone in town to-day?"

"Alone and untethered for the first time in ages. Same with you?"

"You're right as to the alone part; but I am not altogether free. I have to give an exhibition fool flight this afternoon in my little old flier.

We'll have dinner together, and the rest of the day. Will you?"

"Will I? Try me."

"What's the idea, Pen?" he asked as they went into the long dining-room and chose a remote table.

"I don't know, Larry. I had one, but I seem to have lost it in trying to pick up others. I'm floundering."

"You've always been in wrong, Pen. Wish you'd find your level. You made me ashamed of my old life. I am string-straight now, thanky."

"I am glad, Larry. You never were crooked, you know--just a bit reckless.

Tell me about yourself."

"You gave me a good steer when you suggested this sky stuff. I don't believe a flying man could be very bad--up there in the clouds in a world all his own. Whenever I felt as if I must break over the traces and go off for a time, I'd just get into my little old flier and hit the high spots and that would give me more thrills than all the thirst parlors ever brought. I am going soon to fly for France. In fact, I'm 'on my way'

now."

"Larry! I _am_ proud of you! But it tugs at my heartstrings to have you go, and in an aeroplane!"

"Did you ever go up, Pen?"

"No; it's about the only exciting thing I haven't done, and it's the only stunt I ever lacked the nerve to tackle."

"Terrors of the unknown? I'm booked for some of that fancy flying this afternoon, and you can watch me from the field."

"I knew this was to be a real day, but I never hoped for such a big handful of luck as seeing you again and in such a good act."

"Always invest heavily in hope, Pen. It is free to all, and you come out ahead because you get your dividends in antic.i.p.ating anyway, and you know antic.i.p.ation--"

"Hold on, Larry, don't be a bromide!"

"Everyone is a bromide now. Sulphides are all in the asylums. I am hoping for a chance to win the _medal militaire_--I mean for the chance to do something worth getting one."

Pen's pleasure in her surrept.i.tious expedition, the delight in shopping and the excitement of meeting some one from her former life had brought a most vivid beauty to her delicate face, and Larry looked at her with an approval that brought forth a sudden wonder.

"Say, Pen!" he exclaimed excitedly, "you haven't got a man up there at your ranch, have you?"