STILL A REBEL In the swift current of humanity then streaming up and down the cattle range, the reputation of the Halfway House was carried far and near; and for fifty miles east and west, for five hundred miles north and south, the beauty of the girl at the Halfway House was matter of general story.

This was a new sort of being, this stranger from another land, and when applied to her, all the standards of the time fell short or wide.

About her there grew a saga of the cow range, and she was spoken of with awe from the Brazos to the Blue.

Many a rude cowman made long pilgrimage to verify rumours he had heard of the personal beauty, the personal sweetness of nature, the personal kindness of heart, and yet the personal reserve and dignity of this new goddess, whose like was not to be found in all the wide realms of the range.

Such sceptics came in doubt, but they remained silent and departed reverent.