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The weeks slipped away and brought with the to the wounded man at Seven Mile He moved froe in the living room, and there, from the bay , he could look out at the varied life of the cattle country Men ca drive, their approach heralded by the bawl of thirsty cattle Others cantered up and bought tobacco and canned goods The stage arrived twice a ith its sack of athered upon the porch of the store, as of yore Phil Sanderson he saw often, Yeager solimpse of Healy's saturnine face

A scarcity of beef and a sharp rise in prices brought the round-up earlier than usual Every spare man was called upon to help comb the hills for the wild steers that ran the wooded water-sheds, as untamed as the deer and the lynx Even the storekeeper, Benwell, was pressed into the service 'Rastus and the nester were the onlybeen recalled to Noches on the collapse of Healy's story

The removal to a distance of the rest of her ad Keller alone with Phyllismistress of the ranch invited Bess Purdy to visit her, and now he never saw her except in the presence of her other guest

Bess took hi upon a spirited war of repartee with him She had not been in the house twenty-four hours before she had unbosomed herself of a derisive confidence

"I don't believe you're a bank robber, at all! I don't believe you are even a rustler! You're a false alar of the girl's challenge But the former defended himself with apparent heat

"What makes you think so? Why should you undermine my reputation with such an assertion? You can't talk that way aboutit, Miss Purdy"

"Well, I don't You don't look it"

"I can't help that You ask Mr Healy He'll tell you I am"

"You'll need a better witness than Brill before I'll believe it"

"And I thought you were going to like me," he lamented

"I like a lot of people who aren't ruffians, but of course I can't admire you so much as if you were a really truly bad man"

"But if I promise to be one?"