Oh, Colorado! With your wide prairie and your eternal peaks, your carpeted valleys and your crystalline streams, your fragrant winds and your gift of G.o.d--good men!

He was sitting in the lounge of his hotel one evening, feeling more than usually homesick, when he noticed a beautiful woman sitting near him. Her evening dress was cut well away at the shoulders, displaying a white neck around which a pearl necklace glowed in the light. A ma.s.s of auburn hair was coiled up neatly round her head, with a rebellious little curl streaming down one ear.

The curl fascinated Jim. He thought it ought to be put back in its proper place, but a second's reflection revealed to him the fact that it was intended to trickle thus alluringly. It was there for effect. It enhanced her considerable charm. In the midst of his interested survey she turned and caught his eye. He began to study his boots with an embarra.s.sed blush.

When he ultimately stole another glance at this wealth of feminine beauty he found she was busily engaged in similar scrutiny--of himself. They both smiled. Then she stood up, languidly, and came across to him.

"Pardon me, but you are from the West, aren't you?"

"Right first time."

"Ah, I thought so. You Westerners can't disguise yourselves. I love the West. I was born in Wyoming."

Here at last was a sympathetic soul. Jim edged along a little. She sat down.

"You don't like New York?" she queried.

"I don't," he replied emphatically. "It leaves me gasping for breath."

She nodded.

"I felt like that when first I came down. I wish I were you to be going back again."

Jim laughed.

"But I'm not going back."

She opened her brilliant eyes and then laughed.

"I know. You've made a pile and are now seeing life. Is that it?"

"Something like that."

"I knew it."

Jim was getting his nerve back. It was the first time he had been in close proximity to a powdered back and rouged lips, and the sensation was curious. No man with blood in his veins could help admiring the soft lines of her neck and arms--and Jim had plenty of blood about him.

"Where'd you say you hailed from?" he queried.

"Rock Springs, Wyoming. D'you know it?"

"Know it? I should say! Wal, if that ain't the pink limit!"

"We ran a ranch there," she went on in a rich musical voice. "I wish I was there now, but there's a spell about cities. You'll find that out soon enough."

"I ain't seen much spell about this one," retorted Jim. "Gee! I've never seen such a bunch of blank-mangy-looking men. The wimmen ain't so bad."

She laughed.

"Thank you!"

"And cyards! Suffering Moses! I seen a guy deal a straight flush to himself and no one savvied he'd got the pack sandpapered. Out in Medicine Bow he'd hev' bin filled up with lead to his shoulder-blades. I guess this is a darn bad place."

"You're lovely!" she said merrily. "But when in Rome, do as Rome does. Do you go to dinner in that rig-out?"

Jim felt nervously at his throat.

"What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing. It suits you admirably. But the hotel won't like it."

"See here," he retorted, "I don't give a tinker's cuss what the hotel likes. Anyway, it's decent, which is considerably more'n some of the dresses I've seen. There's a gal with nothin' more'n a bit of muslin she could fold up and put in her mouth. She's got Mother Eve beaten to a frazzle."

They gossiped for half an hour, and then Edith (he heard a friend call her by that name) left him and went to dinner. The next meeting happened on the following day. Edith's company appealed to him. She certainly used a lot of "make-up," and creams that smelt like a chemist's shop; but all New York smelt vile to Jim, so he didn't complain.

Taking his courage in both hands, he invited her to dine with him. She accepted with as much eagerness as maidenly modesty would permit, and Jim went off to lunch in the best hotel in town, to take careful note of the proper procedure of a gentleman "standing treat" to a lady. He got it off fairly well, making notes on a sheet of paper. Then he went to his room and rehea.r.s.ed it all. He started dressing himself about five o'clock, and had nearly got his clothes to his satisfaction by the appointed time--seven-thirty.

The dinner was a roaring success. Conversation was feeble because all his time was taken up in observing correct decorum. Edith sat and regarded him with curious eyes. She wondered, for good reasons, what the emotions of such a man might be. Behind those quiet, simple eyes of his there occasionally flashed something that made her afraid--dreadfully afraid.

She had not wasted time that day. She knew this big, uncultured fellow was James Conlan, late of Topeka Mine--a millionaire.

Jim breathed a huge sigh of relief when they left the dining-hall and walked through the lounge into the wide balcony. He was standing looking out over the street when he noticed her totter and clutch a chair.

"What's wrong?" he gasped.

"I--I feel faint. I----"

She closed her eyes. Here was a situation that had not been rehea.r.s.ed by Jim. He wondered whether he ought to ring the fire alarm or call the police. Edith solved the problem.

"If--you will a.s.sist me--to the elevator----"

He had never thought of that. He grabbed her arm and helped her to the elevator. She still looked pale and distressed.

"Fourteenth floor. No. 633!" she murmured.

They left the elevator at the fourteenth floor. No sooner had the lift disappeared than Edith collapsed on the floor. He looked round for a friend in need, but the corridor was deserted. The door near at hand was numbered 630. So 633 must be near by! He stooped and picked up the still figure as though she were a child. In half a dozen strides he was at 633.

The door was unlocked, so he pushed it open and entered. He found the electric-light switch, and then placed his burden gently on the bed. He was drawing his arm from under her when she opened her eyes.

"Water!"

He searched and found a water decanter and a gla.s.s. She seemed too weak to sit up, so he helped her by placing one arm under her head. She sipped the liquid and looked into his eyes. Then to his utter amazement she clasped both her arms round his neck and pulled his face close to hers.

"h.e.l.l!" he muttered.

"I love you!" she said. "Don't you see I----"

"Say, you're bad!" he said. "Drink some more water----"

He strove to free himself, but finding he could only do so by hurting her, refrained, and tried to bring her to her senses. Undoubtedly she had suddenly gone mad! The ingenuous Jim could find no other solution. He was telling her to "be a good kid" and not "to get fresh," when the door opened and slammed. He looked round to find a tall dark man, in evening dress, surveying him fiercely.

"Good-evening," said the stranger cuttingly. Jim broke away and faced the latter.