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 Louise. I'd do anything in the bounds of honor that a man could do, ma'am."

"But you'll not go on to Texas with that herd. Is that what you mean?"

"That's what I mean, Miss Louise."

"Then you can cross me off!"

"Ma'am?" said Tom, starting as if he had been struck.

"I tell you, if that kind of honor means more to you than I do, it's all off between you and me. Do you understand?"

"I hope I don't, Miss Louise."

"What will Cal Withers think of you? What will the sheriff think? What will everybody in McPacken say? They'll all say you're a fool, like they did when you gave up that note. Don't do a fool thing twice, Tom. I tell you again, you can go on to Texas with these cattle, or you can say good-by."

Tom appeared to wilt as if the backbone that Louise had disparaged had suffered a sudden necrosis and crumbled in his skin. He dropped his reins, took hold of the saddle-horn with both hands, clinging as Louise had seen cowboys hold when loaded on their horses in front of the saloon in McPacken.

Tom Laylander was about the sickest looking lad she ever had seen. She did not fully understand until that moment just how much the little chats over their late suppers had done for him. She saw it with exultation, a glow of pride-coming into her face. She was going to save this unsophisticated, old-fashioned boy from him-