They offered their services, and much advice; they quietly joked about the price of horses; but the Dean laughed at their jokes, listened to their advice, and said that he thought the sheriff of Yavapai County could be trusted to handle the case.
To Helen only Kitty told of her last interview with Patches.

And Helen, shocked and surprised at the thoroughness with which the man had brought about Kitty's freedom and peace of mind, bade the girl forget and be happy.
When the crisis was passed, and Phil was out of danger, Kitty returned to her home, but every day she and Helen drove across the meadows to see how the patient was progressing.

Then one day Helen said good-by to her Williamson Valley friends, and went with Stanford to the home he had prepared for her.

And after that Kitty spent still more of her time at the house across the wash from the old Acton homestead.
It was during those weeks of Phil's recovery, while he was slowly regaining his full measure of health and strength, that Kitty learned to know the cowboy in a way that she had never permitted herself to know him before.

Little by little, as they sat together under the walnut trees, or walked slowly about the place, the young woman came to understand the mind of the man.