The Last Straw

l's Hole. The big brown which carried her picked his way slowly down the t

dark, eyes filled with a brooding, but the mouth th

consideration, something which stirred resentment, it was evident

dary!" she muttered and r

s footing than before and when they reached the level he crashed through the brush at a high lope, leaping little

tching her come and as the girl swung down, before the

back thar. I shore thought the dev

iled

he girl said as she d

d languidly a

see

per and watched 'em ...

to talk to her a

no friends with her!

rds and her face wa

asier for us if you played like you w

to its side and spre

e ... but there's somethin' in me, in here,"-a palm to her breast-"that won't let me. I can steal

enough like her," he persisted.

l that I want. She's had all the things I've never had. She's got clothes, lots of pretty clothes; she's lived in t

What makes me hate folks tha

to the westward. He shook his head rather helplessly and then looked at the girl who stood befor

had it ... always. That's all I

bewildered little girl. "I'd like to be like other girls. I'd like to have friend

matter wit

in' 'em has soured me. I've watched other outfits grow big an' rich an' nothin' like that has ever com

a weakling, dispirited to a point where his rese

knowed what it was to set out a norther in a wagon. She's never lived on buckskin

's got. Why don't folks get res

pathos in

an an

that matters, daughte

an remember. Mebby if you hadn't said it

uneasily and looked a

have found it out yourself. I've

d I do without you? You're the only one I've ever knowed ... real well. You're the only one who's ever been good to me!" She put

ded, a

me a little mite long

ously, as if they might be overheard. "Sometimes I get afeerd. Lately, since we've come here, I've been afeerd. It's t

what, Alf?"

ged his

caught ag

f, you can't get caught an' sent

per and gripped her

s where you come in ... helpin' me scheme! I ain't afeerd of havin' 'em come up on m

it was goin' to be owned by a tenderfoot

er nodde

s what we got to watch out for. 'Course, it's easy pickin', with this gal tryin' to run things herself, an' what

cross you, Alf, I'd get 'em i

her father looked at her with a r

ant to be a man ... an' a hard man! Sometimes

o reply an

in' iron has built many a fortune, an

enough, Alf, to have a regular h

he muttered. "Ours has been bad a

wly into the west, drawing steely night to cover its garden. A sharp star bored its way through the failing light and stood half way between

herself. "Friends ... an' respe

makes me hate