CHAPTER XXXV.
A DEAL IN LOVE A few days later Mary Bransford, Sanderson, and Barney Owen were sitting on the porch of the Double A ranchhouse, near where they had sat on the day Mary and Owen and the Dale men had seen Sanderson riding along the edge of the mesa in his pursuit of Williams and the others.
Mary and Sanderson were sitting rather close together at one end of the porch; Barney Owen was sitting near them, on the porch edge, his elbows resting on his knees.
There had been a silence between the three for some time, but at last Sanderson broke it.

He smiled at Mary.
"We'll build that dam--an' the irrigation plant now, mebbe," he said.
"But it's goin' to be a big job.

Williams says it will take a year, or more." "There will be difficulties, too, I suppose," said Mary.
"Sure." "But difficulties do not worry you," she went on, giving him a glowing look.
He blushed.

"We promised each other not to refer to that again," he protested.

"You are breaking your promise." "I just can't help it!" she declared.