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188 coming along the trail he started on the jump for the corral, leaving Miss Sally in the lurch.

"Well! if that ain't just like you, Ike Stedman!" sputtered the red-haired schoolma'am. "Bringin' that puffin' abomination over this trail. Ain't you afraid it'll buck and throw yuh?"

"I got it gentled—it'll eat right off yuh hand," grinned the foreman of Silver Ranch.

"And I was going to ride in to Bullhide," exclaimed Sally. "I won't be able to catch the pony in a week."

"You hop in with me, Sally," urged Ike, blushing very red. "I'm goin' to Bullhide."

"Go joy-ridin' with you, Mr. Stedman?" responded the schoolma'am. "I don't know about that. Are you to be trusted with that automobile?"

"I tell yuh I got it gentled," declared Ike. "And I got to be moving on mighty quick." He told Sally why in a few words and immediately the young lady was interested.

"That Ruth Fielding! Isn't she a plucky one for a Down-East girl? But she's too young to nurse that sick man. And she'll catch the fever herself like enough."

"Hope not," grunted Ike. "That would be an awful misfortune. She's the nicest little thing that ever grazed on this range—yuh hear me!'

"Well," said Sally, briskly. "I got to go to