“Oh, not so much.  I punched cattle down on the Hassayampa and in the Mogollons.  Then I drifted up to Alaska.  But I always came back to Arizona.  New Mexico is mighty interesting, and so is Colorado.  California is really the most wonderful State of all, but somehow I can’t keep away from Arizona.”

“Shake!  I never been out of Arizona, except when I was a kid, but she’s the State for me.”

A shadow flickered in the doorway.  Lorry turned to gaze at a delicate slip of a girl, whose big brown eyes expressed both humor and trepidation.

“My daughter Dorothy, Mr. Adams.  This is our neighbor, Dorothy.”

“I’m right glad to meet you, miss.”

And Lorry’s strong fingers closed on her slender hand.  To his robust sense of the physical she appealed as something exceedingly fragile and beautiful, with her delicate, clear coloring and her softly glowing eyes.  What a little hand!  And what a slender arm!  And yet Lorry thought her arm pretty in its rounded slenderness.  He smiled as he saw a turkey feather fluttering on her shoulder.

“Looks like that chicken was gettin’ the best of you,” he said, smiling.

“That’s just it,” she agreed, nothing abashed.  “Father, you’ll have to help.”

“You’ll excuse us, won’t you?  We’ll finish our visit at dinner.”

Lorry had reports to make out.  He dragged a chair to the table.  That man Bronson was all right.  Let’s see—­the thirtieth—­looked stockier in daylight.  Had a good grip, too, and a clear, level eye.  One mattock missing in the lookout cabin—­and the girl; such a slender whip of a girl!  Just like a young willow, but not a bit like an invalid.  Buckley reports that his man will have the sheep across the reservation by the fourth of the month.  Her father had said she was not over-strong.  And her eyes!  Lorry had seen little fawns with eyes like that—­big, questioning eyes, startled rather than afraid.

“Reckon everything she sees up here is just amazin’ her at every jump.  I’ll bet she’s happy, even if she has got lungs.  Now, a fella couldn’t help but to like a girl like that.  She would made a dandy sister, and a fella would just about do anything in the world for such a sister.  And she wouldn’t have to ask, at that.  He would just naturally want to do things for her, because—­well, because he couldn’t help feeling that way.  Funny how some wimmin made a man feel like he wanted to just about worship them, and not because they did anything except be just themselves.  Now, there was that Mrs. Weston.  She was a jim-dandy woman—­but she was different.  She always seemed to know just what she was going to say and do.  And Mrs. Weston’s girl, Alice.  Reckon I’d scrap with her right frequent.  She was still—­”

Dog-gone it!  Where was he drifting to?  Sylvestre’s sheep were five days crossing the reserve.  Smith reported a small fire north of the lookout.  The Ainslee boys put the fire out.  It hadn’t done any great damage.