dropped in this evening. I was thinking I’d go to-morrow, but now I reckon I’ll stay awhile. Looks as if this place might prove interesting.”

The gray eyes snapped.

“Oh, it’ll be interestin’!” was the ominous prediction. “If you don’t git right outside the Big Wall and stay out—some of the boys will be sleepin’ into new blankets and totin’ a newfangled shotgun, I shouldn’t wonder.”

His gaze dropped to the blankets under her, which[25] were obviously new; then darted to his hammerless gun across the way. When his eyes returned to hers the merriment was gone from them. They glinted like cold blue steel.

[25]

“So that’s the game, eh?” His voice was hard-edged. “To kill a stranger for his gun and money. Well, your ‘boys’ are slow. They were snooping around my camp down by the creek last night, but they didn’t have the nerve to do anything but watch. Thanks for your tip. Hereafter I’ll load my gun with buckshot. You can tell your friends that.”

A flush of anger dyed the girl’s cheeks.

“Oh, that ain’t it!” she denied. “Strangers are safe enough, long’s they mind their own business. But we’ve got no use for sneakin’ spies that den up into the rocks like copperheads. And if you think anybody’s scairt of your buckshot, Mister Spy, jest remember this is old Injun country, and folks was gittin’ kilt into the Traps before your grandpop was borned. If all the dead men that’s been shot and tommyhawked round here should git up all together they’d—they’d shake the hills with their trompin’! You and your buckshot—ha, ha, ha!”

Her scornful laugh stung like a whip-lash. Yet, though his sunburned face grew still redder under its sting, he thought: “Lordy, what a stunning little beauty she is with that color! There’s more than one kind of wildcat in these hills, too. I like this place better every minute.”

Aloud he said: “All right, fair damosel. I don’t know——”

[26]Abruptly she started up—winced and paled as her sprained ankle stabbed with pain—but caught the wall and faced him in righteous wrath.

[26]

“Don’t you cuss me!” she blazed.

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