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She deliberately gazed into his eyes Like the eyes of an eagle, they were clear and hard, just noarht, no intelligence in them to prove he understood her The instant separated Ellen is, I was a child," she said "I was lonely--hungry for affection--I was innocent Then I was careless, too, and thoughtless when I should have known better But I hardly understood y'u hts out of my mind I kno--knohat y'u mean--what y'u have et your hunch," he returned, with a change of tone "But I asked you to ot heah to my dad's house And y'u asked me to marry y'u after y'u found y'u couldn't have your ith me To y'u the one didn't mean any more than the other"

"Shore I did more than Simm Bruce an' Colter," he retorted "They never asked you to marry"

"No, they didn't And if I could respect them at all I'd do it because they didn't ask htfully, as he stroked his long mustache

"I'll say to them what I've said to y'u," went on Ellen "I'll tell dad to make y'u let me alone I wouldn't marry one of y'u--y'u loafers to save my life I've ed subtly The whole indolent nonchalance of the man vanished in an instant

"Wal, Miss Jorth, I reckon you mean we're a bad lot of sheepmen?" he queried, in the cool, easy speech of a Texan

"No," flashed Ellen "Shore I don't say sheeps spoke as heswiftly on his heel he left her Outside he encountered Ellen's father She heard Daggs speak: "Lee, yourlittle wildcat is shore heah An' take mah hunch Somebody has been talkin' to her"

"Who has?" asked her father, in his husky voice Ellen knew at once that he had been drinking

"Lord only knows," replied Daggs "But shore it wasn't any friends of ours"

"We cain't stop people's tongues," said Jorth, resignedly "Wal, I ain't so shore," continued Daggs, with his slow, cool laugh "Reckon I never yet heard any daid "