When she came back after graduation, however, she saw that her father needed her companionship more than she needed college. And, again, she was too domestic by nature to really long for a higher education.
She was glad now—oh! so glad—that she had remained at Sunset Ranch during these last few months. Her father had died with her arms about him. As far as he could be comforted, Helen had comforted him.
But now, as she rode up the rocky trail, she murmured to herself:
“If I could only clear dad’s name!”
Again she raised her eyes and saw a buckskin pony and its rider getting nearer and nearer to the summit.
“Get on, Rose!” she exclaimed. “That chap will beat us out. Who under the sun can he be?”
“HELEN CREPT ON HANDS AND KNEES TO THE EDGE OF THE BLUFF.”
(Page 14)
She was sure the rider of the buckskin was no Sunset puncher. Yet he seemed garbed in the usual chaps, sombrero, flannel shirt and gay neckerchief of the cowpuncher.