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"Four greasers--packed me down--the hill--threw me off my ranch--into the road!" panted Helen

She seemed to tell this also to her own consciousness and to realize the er that shook her whole body

"If I'd known--I would have killed them!"

She exclaimed that, full-voiced and hard, with dry, hot eyes on her friends Roy reached out to take her hand, speaking huskily Helen did not distinguish what he said The frightened old wo over the rents in Helen's dress The an to subside, when her blood quieted to let her reason shen she began to do battle with her rage, and slowly to take fearful stock of this consuress in her veins

"Oh, Miss Helen, you looked so turrible, I azed strangely at her bruised wrists, at the one stocking that hung down over her shoe-top, at the rent which had bared her shoulder to the profane gaze of those grinning, beady-eyed Mexicans

"My body's--not hurt," she whispered

Roy had lost some of his whiteness, and where his eyes had been fierce they were now kind

"Wal, Miss Nell, it's lucky no harm's done Now if you'll only see this whole deal clear! Not let it spoil your say of lookin' an' hopin'! If you can only see what's raw in this West--an' love it jest the sah for a future reflection The West was beautiful, but hard In the faces of these friends she began to see thelines, and shadows of pain, of a lean, naked truth, cut as from marble

"For the land's sakes, tell us all about it," importuned Mrs Cass

Whereupon Helen shut her eyes and told the brief narrative of her expulsion from her home

"Shore we-all expected thet," said Roy "An' it's jest as well you're here with a whole skin Beasley's in possession now an' I reckon we'd all sooner hev you away from thet ranch"

"But, Roy, I won't let Beasley stay there," cried Helen

"Miss Nell, shore by the tiray in thet pretty hair You can't put Beasley off with your honest an' rightful claim Al Auchincloss was a hard driver He made enemies an' he made some he didn't kill The evil ot to suffer fer Al's sins, though Al was as good as any man who ever prospered in these parts"