The trip to the Ricker ranch was uneventful, the girls maintaining a tired silence. They had passed through an ordeal that would have tried the nerves of strong men. At the ranch, Mason hastily got the Marshal’s car ready and they started for the ride home. Bud insisted on remaining at the Ricker ranch to look after the men and prisoners when they came in.

Mason drove at a moderate speed, and gradually the girls came out of their listless mood.

“Cheer up,” Mason said gaily, “I’ll soon have you home right side up with care, and you will get a grand welcome, I can assure you. Roy, the aviator, flew home with the good news as soon as he found out that we had made your rescue, and it would be just like him to come sailing back this way any minute.”

“You’re very good to us,” Josephine murmured, leaning back in the seat with a tired sigh.

He glanced at them quizzically.

“What you girls need is a good rest to-night and you will be all right in the morning,” he said, compassionately.

Halfway to the ranch they saw the daring aviator heading towards them. The birdman was flying at a dizzy height and when directly over them he went into a series of loops after which he banked the airplane sharply and continued along with them to the ranch. It would be useless to try to describe the joy of the girls’ anxious parents when they found them safe in their arms.

In the evening, Bud came in with Percy Vanderpool and the cowboys. Jean Barry the deputy had come with them to run the Marshal’s car back to the Ricker ranch. The Marshal was to remain at the ranch until the wounded prisoners could be moved. He would then lodge them in jail and return East to an important criminal case. He sent hearty congratulations to the girls on their timely escape from the outlaws, and promised to visit Bar X again in the near future.

The next day Mason was kept busy about the ranch until noon. Roy had just returned from a flight to Trader’s Post and brought back a message for Mason. It was from his father, saying he was coming to take his mother and sister home.

The news that his father was coming to Bar X ranch pleased him immensely, and he hastened to break the news to his mother and sister.

His mother seemed glad, but Ethel’s face clouded when she heard her father was coming.

“What’s the matter, sis?” he cried in wonder. “Don’t you want to go home?”

“Of course not,” she answered in a vexed tone. “Why, I have been here scarcely a month, and it is much more pleasant out here this time of the year than in a stuffy city.”

“Well, you can take the matter up with Dad when he comes,” he said briefly, starting for the door. “Roy is going to take me to Trader’s Post to see if they have got my car repaired.”

Josephine had just entered the room and he paused, with his hand on the door knob. She was dressed in a stunning creation of champagne silk and he gazed at her in silent admiration.

“How do you like my new dress, Sir Jack?” she asked, making him a curtsy. “My, but you are a busy man. I am going to play lady for a few days, and I intended to ask you to take me down to Rover’s kennel. Father tells me the poor dog has been acting sick lately, and I want to see if there is anything I can do for him.”

“Certainly I’ll go with you,” he answered readily; “I will tell Roy not to wait for me and will join you in a minute.”

Roy agreed to make the trip alone, and when Mason arrived at the kennel, Josephine was bending over Rover. The dog was frisking around her and joyously barking a welcome.

“There’s nothing the matter with Rover, he’s merely lonesome to see you,” he said.

They had taken seats on a rustic bench between two cottonwood trees. Josephine was fondly watching the dog’s antics.

“Oh, I am so glad there is nothing the matter with him. He was the means of saving my life once, you know.”

“That time, I remember well,” he answered, a feeling of gloom stealing over him.

He was thinking of her deep concern over Bud’s injury when she was rescued from the brute Tom Powers.

“I suppose you would have been better pleased yesterday if Bud had been the one to rescue you,” he said, a little ungallantly.

“What makes you think that?” her face was averted from him.

“Well, you love him, don’t you?” he put the question bluntly.

Josephine was silent and he relentlessly repeated his question.

“No, I—I—love some one else,” the girl faltered at last.

His breath came in quick gasps.

“I don’t suppose I have the right to know, but is it one of the Gaylor boys you love?”

“No.”

“Well, is it anybody I know?”

“Yes, and he’s an awful thickhead, but—I—I-love—him just the same.”

He turned away in irritation.

“Well, I should think a girl of your intellect would pick out a man with brains, anyway,” he said wrathfully.

“I—I—have, but—at times, he’s such a fool.”

He turned slowly and looked at her in exasperation. The girl’s head had sunk forward, and he heard her sobbing softly.

“Josephine!”

Quickly he bent over her and raised her face to his as he gathered her in his arms. Her eyes were shining through her tears like beautiful stars, and he saw a light in them that thrilled him. He kissed away the tears as she lay quiet and passive in his arms.

“Josephine, you love me?” he whispered in wondering delight.

“Silly boy,” she managed to gasp, “I have loved you from the first time we met. Now, unhand me, you villain. Here come Ethel and Bud and they will see us.”

“I don’t care,” he said recklessly, holding her fast. “Anyway, they are going into the house.”

“You received a message from your father about noon time?” she asked dreamily.

“Yes.”

“I’ll be very much pleased to meet him. I wonder if he will like me?”

“The idea! Of course he will. How can he possibly help liking you?”

“Well Sir Jack, just because you like me, that’s no sign everybody else will,” she said demurely.

“Why, you’ll be winding Dad around your little finger in less than thirty minutes after he gets here, and I’ll bet my life on it.”

“Say,” he added, “do you know that Ethel is crazy about this part of the country and doesn’t want to go back home with Dad?”

“Don’t you know the reason?”

“Reason,” he echoed.

“It’s Bud,” she said simply.

“Bud,” he cried in bewilderment. “Do you mean to tell me that Ethel is in love with Bud Anderson?”

“Yes, but I don’t see any harm in that, Bud is a fine fellow.”

“I know,” he said thoughtfully. “Lord, but it will be a shock to Dad. Josephine, I just happened to think of something. Why did you draw the picture of that butterfly on the envelope Rick sent through to me?”

“I wrote that letter right after Roy’s airplane appeared to us, and I was going to draw a picture of the airplane, but Ricker stood over me and I didn’t dare to. He even wanted to know what the butterfly meant, and I told him that it was a sign between us so you would know the letter was written by me. You see I was trying to let you know that we had seen Roy’s airplane, and I knew you were expecting him out here. We gave up hope of Roy finding you as we thought he was lost in the mountains.”

“He was lost in the mountains, but he found us all right, and later I will tell you all about it,” he said, looking fondly at her. “I was sure that butterfly meant something, but couldn’t figure it out. You little beauty, when Dad comes I am going to take you to New York and we will get married there. Would you be willing to leave your home here, and live with me in New York?”

Roy was returning in his airplane, and right over them he began making loops and hair raising nose dives, finally going into a tail spin.

Josephine watched him breathlessly until Mason repeated his question.

“I would like very much to live in New York, if I thought I could get along with your father,” she answered naively. “Sir Jack, I want you to make me a promise. Please don’t go up in that airplane again. If Roy wants to risk his neck, I’m sure I don’t want you to risk yours.”

“All right,” he laughed, “I promise, so you see we will get along famously.”

Josephine smiled contentedly.

“And another thing,” she said, eyeing him seriously. “I will want to have my saddle horse, Fleet, and my dog, Rover, with me if I live in New York. I never could leave them here and be happy.”

“I will have them shipped along with us when we go,” he declared, “and I am going to buy you a nice white chummy roadster car when we get home and you can drive it all by yourself.”

“That won’t be any fun unless you go with me,” she pouted.

“Oh, I will be with you so much that you will be glad to get rid of me once in a while.”

She voiced a quick protest.

“Let’s go into the house and tell the people,” he cried boyishly.

They went in and Mason directly looked up Josephine’s father and received his hearty consent to giving his daughter’s hand in marriage, but when he told him he intended to take her to New York to live, the old man almost broke down.

In the meantime, Ethel informed her mother and Josephine that she was engaged to marry Bud Anderson. The two girls planned on a double wedding in New York, after which Bud was to take his bride back to Nevada.

A week later Mason’s father arrived, and the first thing his son did was to take him with his mother and sister into a room, where he told him all about the events leading up to Ricker’s death, and a general account of all the counterfeiter’s plots and the final round-up of the outlaw gang. He saved the fact about his own and Ethel’s coming marriage until the last, and then he waited patiently for the explosion he knew would follow. At this latest news, his father looked blankly first at his wife, then at son and daughter.

“Huh,” he snorted, after he had recovered from his surprise. “Things must move pretty rapidly in this part of the country. Wait until I see Tom Walters and have a talk with him. Then I will give you my opinion on the subject.”

The banker stalked into the ranch owner’s office and the two held a consultation behind closed doors.

Josephine was working in the kitchen, but she had heard the banker voice his sentiment. Mason joined her and saw a troubled look in her eyes.

“My, such a bear,” she said gravely, “how will I ever get along with him?”

“That is just Dad’s way,” he replied earnestly. “Dad was brought up in the old school, and never does things by halves. Don’t worry, sweetheart, I have enough money in my own right, left me by an aunt of mine. I shall marry you in spite of him, but you will have Dad eating out of your hand after he sees you.”

Josephine could hear her father and the banker chuckling over old times like two schoolboys, and her face brightened as she listened.

“Dad is all right and you will soon get used to his bluff ways,” Mason insisted, leading her into the parlor.

Soon, the two men came out of the office, and Mason immediately presented Josephine to his father.

“So this is Josephine,” the banker said kindly; “my son has written me often about you, and I see where I gain a daughter and lose one.”

In the afternoon they made up a party and showed the elder Mason around the ranch grounds, Josephine taking special charge of him. Afterwards, to Mason, Jr., she confided that he was a dear old man. Mason grinned knowingly, and laughed at her for her former fears.

“Why, I will be a regular outlaw between you and Dad when we get home,” he said in mock alarm.

Roy had already left in his airplane for New York, after first seeing that Mason’s car had been packed and shipped. He had promised to attend the double wedding in New York, and that night Josephine and Mason made plans for the trip East.

The ranch was to be left in charge of Big Joe as he was the acting foreman in Bud’s absence. Josephine and Ethel’s parents completed all the arrangements for leaving the ranch in Big Joe’s charge. The cowboys who were to go East with the party were Scotty, Red, Buck Miller and Tex. Waneda was to go and act as Josephine’s bridesmaid, and all looked forward to the event with great eagerness. Bud had arranged to buy the Ricker ranch where he would live with his bride after their return from New York.

Three days later it was a merry party that boarded a train for the East. The cowboys insisted on wearing their cowboy suits, but each had brought along extra clothes so they could doll up at the wedding.

When the merry party finally arrived in New York they were whisked away from the station in taxicabs to the Mason home on Fifth Avenue. They had arrived in the city at nine P.M. so the cowboys had a chance to see a little of the city with its wonderful dazzling lights. The double wedding was set for the following night, and after their arrival at the Mason home, Mason, Jr., retained two of the taxicabs and gave the drivers instructions to drive the cowboys around the city to any place they wished to go, even if they took all night about it.

Buck Miller had been to New York on several different occasions, and Mason pressed a roll of money into his hands.

“This is my treat, boys, and I want you to have a good time,” he said earnestly; “this taxicab firm is reliable, so you don’t need to fear any trouble from that source, but for the love of Mike, don’t try to shoot the town up.”

He then gave the drivers some orders as to their passengers after which they looked the cowboys over with respect and awe.

“Looks like we had a man’s sized job on our hands to-night, boss,” one of them said, again looking at the cowboys dubiously.

“Just show the boys around and report to me by telephone if anything should happen,” he advised them.

Mason was up bright and early the next morning and called up Roy the aviator, on the telephone. Roy was to be his best man at the wedding, and the aviator agreed to come promptly at seven P.M. as the wedding was set for eight o’clock. Bud was to have Buck Miller act as his best man, and he was getting decidedly nervous as the cowboys had not shown up.

Josephine was to have Waneda act as her bridesmaid, while Ethel had arranged to have one of her girl friends act as hers. About nine o’clock in the morning, it was a tired bunch of cowpunchers that came trooping in, but they declared they had had a grand time, so Mason packed them off to their rooms to get rested up for the evening.

At six o’clock he called them, and laughed heartily as he watched their desperate efforts to struggle into their Sunday clothes. Roy had arrived ahead of time and was laughing and joking with Buck Miller who looked hot and uncomfortable in a new suit.

Percy Vanderpool was there too, and decked out in his usual gorgeous style.

The minister having arrived, the double wedding was performed with simple ceremony. A banquet followed, and Mason made a speech to the cowboys, assuring them he would visit the Bar X ranch the following summer. “And I will bring my wife along with me, boys,” he wound up.

A hearty cheer went up at this statement, and he told them to wine and dine to their hearts’ content. Bud and Ethel were to accompany the cowboys back to Nevada as Bud could spare only ten days away from his new ranch.

Mason and Josephine strolled into the library where Mason Senior always found his favorite retreat.

“Well, Dad,” he said, putting his arms around his bride, “I didn’t stay away a whole year, but I made good.”

“And now, you want the reward I promised you, huh,” his father grunted.

“Certainly, and I want a double reward now, because there are two of us.”

“Indeed, you young scoundrel. Well, I intend to make Josephine a present of a fine house which I bought next door to us. As for you, I am going to place you under charge of my manager at my steel works, and give you a chance to work your way up to his position.”

“That is fine of you, Father,” he cried in delight; “what do you think of the old bear now, Josephine?”

“He’s a dear,” she countered softly.

“Well, Dad, you sent me out West to make good and I won an angel. Is that picture on the wall one you have had enlarged of yourself lately?”

The gruff fellow turned his head to look, and there was a sound suspiciously like a kiss. When he glanced at them again they were listening to the cowboys making merry in the banquet hall.

“By, by, Bar X,” Josephine murmured, smiling contentedly at her husband.

THE END