As Rob and Harry drew near the disabled automobile, Joyce stepped out into the muddy road and hailed them.  
"You couldn't stop long enough to hitch on here and haul us out, could you, Mr. Holliday?" he asked ingratiatingly, as Rob stopped. "We can't get her started neither way. It's kind of mean to ask a fellow to onhitch, but there's accidents happen to all of us, ain't there?"
 
Rob glanced at the car. Its front wheels were stuck fast in the mudhole; moreover, the bank of the slough was so soft and deep that Joyce could not get power enough into the wheels to force the machine either forward or backward. Rob watched him twice crank the engine and throw open the lever. The car shook violently, but refused to move. It was safe where it was for some time.
 
"You ought to get a couple of heavy rails or fence-posts to pry up the front wheels and run her across."
 
"That's all right, but I don't see any lying round here, do you?" Joyce snapped angrily. Then he added in a more pleasant tone, "I'll make it worth your while to put your team in here. I've got business in town that can't wait."
 
"I'm sorry; so have I," answered Rob.
 
[Pg 123]
 
"Wouldn't twenty-five make it up to you? Here it is." Joyce pulled the gold pieces from his pocket.
 
Rob shook his head. "Business first, pleasure afterward," he said, as the team started ahead. "I'm late as it is. You can get a couple of planks over at the ranch yonder."
 
A little way down the road Rob glanced back. "Now for the last lap," he said. "If that motor will only be kind enough to sulk for half an hour longer, I think we can just about beat him, her or it by a neck. Hurray!"
 
"He hasn't started yet," Harry announced from time to time, looking back to see what progress their rival was making. "Why can't he stick where he is until we get there? The moment he manages to get his machine out of the mud he'll simply open everything and rush past us, and we'll not be in the race at all."
 
"Not much. He'd bust the whole machine wide open if he struck one of these sharp rocks going fast. No, he'll wait until he gets pretty near town, where the roads are smooth, before he hits her up to top speed. So here is where we whirl in and do our level best."
 
Rob merely touched one of the ponies with the whip, and it was enough. Both ponies started on a run.
 
"O Rob! They're running away!" gasped Harry.
 
"Don't worry. I'd hate to see them drop, but I'm[Pg 124] going to get there first, or bust. Where's Joyce now?"
 
Harry turned and knelt on the seat of the swaying buggy. "I don't see him. Yes, there he is! He's started! O Bobs! If we could only go faster!"
 
Rob did not answer. All his attention was on the team. How they could run! With ears back and tails stretched out, they dashed on; behind them swung the buggy, bounding over mudholes and across stones and ruts. Faster and faster the ponies flew.
 
Not daring to look back, Harry clung to the seat with both hands. Behind them came the continual blare of the horn as the motor car crept up on them, drew nearer and nearer, until, as they scrambled up the last hill, the mad clatter of the engine seemed almost in their ears. At the top of the slope, with the main street stretching before them, Rob showed no mercy. With the reins wrapped round his hands, he sat forward on the edge of the seat and urged the horses on.
 
Down the main street they went, missing a wagon, swerving past men who ran out to stop the runaway team, and who then, seeing the motor car behind, understood, and shouted applause. In a moment the quiet street was in an uproar of excitement. Shopkeepers and customers, corner idlers and school children, old men and women, ran pell-mell after the galloping team and the motor car.
 
Of three men on horseback who joined in the chase, one was Garnett. He had reached town about an hour before, but had not wished to put up his horse until Harry and Rob should come in. As soon as he saw[Pg 125] them flying down the street, he rode up, and, by keeping close to the side of the buggy, helped to block the way to those behind.
 
As Rob pulled over to the side of the street toward the land office, Garnett shouted to Harry, "Jump for the door! Jump!"
 
Quick as thought, he reached down from his saddle, caught the girl round the waist as she leaned forward, and swung her from the buggy. He swung himself after her, and sprang up the steps to the office door just time to get between Harry and the sheepman, who reached for the doorknob at the same moment. But instead of all three piling into the room together, they merely fell against the door. For the door was locked.
 
Trembling with exhaustion and excitement, Harry felt her hand slip as Joyce tried to push her out of the way.
 
"No, you don't, Joyce!" Garnett said roughly, thrusting his arm in front of the sheepman. "You didn't get here first."
 
"This is a put-up job!" began Joyce angrily.
 
"I bet!" was Garnett's grim answer, which brought a laugh from the crowd that had gathered about the steps to see what would happen.
 
"Let me into this office!" Joyce ordered.
 
"The clerk didn't leave the key with me."
 
"This isn't your affair. Get away from that door!"
 
"Get away yourself."
 
"Perhaps I had better go," Harry said in a low tone to Garnett. "I can come back in the morning."
 
[Pg 126]
 
"Not early enough to get what you're after," said Garnett, glancing down at her. "You can hang on a while, can't you, until Rob gets back? He's gone to find out about opening this place. You don't want to have to stand here all night."
 
"All night?"
 
She turned a dismayed face on him. Garnett gazed into it a moment without answering. Never had he seen any girl look as Harry looked now. She was spattered with mud from hair to shoes. She had lost both hat and hairpins on that wild drive, and her brown curls lay in disorder about her neck. Her cheeks were white; even her lips were pale with excitement and weariness. But in her eyes shone the exultation of victory and on her lips was a smile.
 
"I can stand here a week if I have to," she said. "But I hope I shan't have to."
 
"You've got to get into this place first if you want that homestead. Here comes Rob now. Perhaps he's corralled the clerk."
 
Rob elbowed his way through the crowd that was pressing up to stare at Harry. "No use," he said. "The office won't be opened until nine o'clock to-morrow morning. I saw the clerk just as he was leaving town to go to a wedding, and wild horses couldn't have held him. Are you onto your job, sis?"
 
"I guess so. Listen. What is he saying?"
 
Joyce had retreated to the sidewalk. He was not afraid of a fight or unused to one, but for various[Pg 127] reasons he hesitated to try to get possession of the door by force.
 
The jokes of the crowd were becoming more and more irritating to him, however, and suddenly he called out, "I'll give twenty-five dollars to any one who'll break that girl's hold on the door there!"
 
"And I'll give fifty swift kicks to any one who tries it!" cried Garnett.
 
"Wouldn't the young lady like a chair?" a voice said at Harry's elbow.
 
Turning, Harry saw Smoot, the hotel clerk, leaning over the railing of the porch with a chair in his hand.
 
"That's good of you!" she exclaimed gratefully. "I didn't realize how tired I am."
 
"Hungry, too, I guess," suggested Smoot. "If you're going to stick it out all night, you'll need some good chuck to hold you."
 
"I expect I shall," agreed Harry with a tired little laugh.
 
"Say, Smoot," suggested Rob, "can't you go over to Kenny's and tell 'em to send round a tray of grub?"
 
"All right. Anything in particular you'd like, Miss Holliday?"
 
"A gallon or two of water; I'm so thirsty! But don't you want to eat your own suppers?" she said, turning to Rob and Garnett.
 
"Shucks! We don't care when we eat," Garnett assured her. "We'll starve out this bunch first, [Pg 128]anyhow." Then, in a lower tone, he added, "When Joyce sees you're game, he'll let up."
 
"I guess I'm game."
 
"Of course you are. I saw it that first time I spoke to you. Remember?"
 
"On the train?" She laughed. "Indeed I do. And you told me I'd stay. Honestly, I didn't expect to then."
 
"No, you didn't. But you stick to what you tackle. I kind of felt that once you'd camped in Idaho it'd get a strangle hold on you somehow."
 
"Well, it has. Any one seeing me hanging to a doorknob all night must realize that I like Idaho pretty well." She shivered involuntarily as she spoke.
 
"You're half froze. As soon as they come with that grub we'll send for a blanket."
 
"There comes the food now. And Mrs. Kenny. Isn't she the best, though? And I look like—I don't know what."
 
"Like a sure-enough fighter, and that's ............