imperiousness. "It would suit us considerably better to go on with
you."

"Sorry!" said the man gravely. "I can't take you. Calhoun's a busy
man, and he'll be waiting up at the ranch for me. I told him I was
coming."

There was now no doubt about the colour in Miss Deringham's face. Few
of her wishes bad been denied her hitherto, and most of the men she had
met had been eager to do her bidding, while the scarcely qualified
refusal of this one came as a painful astonishment. The fact that she
should be left in the lonely forest to avoid keeping some rude rancher
waiting was distinctly exasperating.

Deringham, however, smiled a little as he took a wallet from his
pocket. "I can understand it, because I am also a busy man when I'm at
home," he said. "It is a question of the value of your time and Mr.
Calhoun's apparently?"

Though he possibly did not realize it Deringham's tone was a trifling
condescending, and there was something in it which suggested that he
believed anything could be bought with money. He was, however, a
little astonished when the man regarded him gravely out of eyes that
closed a trifle.

"That's just where you're wrong," said he. "If I could have taken you
on to save the lady waiting it would have pleased me. As it is, I
can't, you see."

He said nothing more, but dismounting pulled the boxes out of the wagon