align="right">XXII.

The Test 174 XXIII. A Shy Young Man dines 179 XXIV. Tex borrows a Blacksnake 184 XXV. "They're Runnin' me outa Town" 191 XXVI. For Professional Services 199 XXVII. Clint Frees his Mind 203 XXVIII. On a Cold Trail 211 XXIX. Burnt Brands 219 XXX. Rogues Disagree 226 XXXI. A Pair of Deuces 237 XXXII. The Hold-Up 245 XXXIII. The Man with the Yellow Streak 251 XXXIV. Ramona goes Duck-Hunting 258 XXXV. The Desert 266 XXXVI. Homer Dinsmore escorts Ramona 272 XXXVII. On a Hot Trail 279 XXXVIII. Dinsmore to the Rescue 287 XXXIX. A Cry out of the Night 292 XL. Gurley's Get-Away 296 XLI. Homing Hearts 302 XLII. A Difference of Opinion 310 XLIII. Tex resigns 319 XLIV. Dinsmore gives Information 328 XLV. Ramona deserts her Father 332 XLVI. Loose Threads 338

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OH, YOU TEX!

Day was breaking in the Panhandle. The line-rider finished his breakfast of buffalo-hump, coffee, and biscuits. He had eaten heartily, for it would be long after sunset before he touched food again.

Cheerfully and tunelessly he warbled a cowboy ditty as he packed his supplies and prepared to go.

"Oh, it's bacon and beans most every day,
I'd as lief be eatin' prairie hay."

While he washed his dishes in the fine sand and rinsed them in the current of the creek he announced jocundly to a young world glad with spring:

"I'll sell my outfit soon as I can,
Won't punch cattle for no damn' man."

The tin cup beat time against the tin plate to accompany a kind of shuffling dance. Jack Roberts was fifty miles from nowhere, alone on the desert, but the warm blood of youth set his feet to moving. Why should he not dance? He was