Help yourself, Johnny." Johnny looked at her unsmilingly.

"That," he told her bitterly, "is what I'm trying to do." He did not explain that somewhat cryptical remark, and presently he left her and went to his room.

Mary V felt that she was not being trusted by a person who surely ought to know by this time that he needn't be so secretive about his thoughts and intentions.

If she had not proved her loyalty and her friendship by this time, what did a person want her to do, for gracious sake?
Mary V had rather an unhappy time of it, the next week or so.

She had, for some reason, lost all interest in collecting "Desert Glimpses"; so much so that when her mother told her she must stay close to the ranch lest she meet more of those terrible Mexican bandits, Mary V was very sweet about it and did not argue with her mother at all.