The Last Straw

to town and Beck drove the pair of strong bays which sw

titudes toward one another and Jane thought that she detected a feeling of curiosity in him, as though he wondered j

divide and began the long

ce from me, I keep th

e. I need i

tioned that water

ed so much and about so many things

He said

it might be well for her to mention i

stepped down to tie the team a girl came out of a store across the way and vaulted i

her insolently with that stare of a type of loafer which is eloquent of a

r brown eyes, and then looked away, her lips

h a spur and he leaped forward. Just that one bound. As he made it the man spoke and with a wrench she set the brown bac

eir way, holding her horse to a mincing trot, for

ht?" she said to th

nd looked up wit

r ears, likely. All

nd the quirt, slung to its wrist, hissed angrily as it cut back

cried. "And tha

nd neck, he doubled over and ran for the shelter of a store. But the girl's wrath was not satisfied. She sent the big horse from street to sidewalk where his hoofs thu

have had thought for other than the thrashing she administered. Endangered by the excited hoofs which were all about him as he ducked and dodged in vain to escape, t

e lithe torso moved with each stroke as she put into the downward swing all the strength she could command, and across t

cry of pain and desperation, he threw out one hand, caught the bridle and in the instant's respite the move gave him stu

uirt as for a final blow, but the man, regaining his feet, fled through the bar room and disappeared. S

but as the girl sat looking into the place a quick silence shut down and when she spoke her

I come into this country I thought maybe I'd get a little respect

talk easy hereafter, every one of you, because so long as I've got a quirt and an arm,

s it struck the horse he sprang sideways, wheeled, and clearing t

s showed in the girl's eyes, but her back was as erect, her shoulder

d Tom Beck as he gave the knot in the tie

e fired with

a g

s magni

at him and the enthusiasm which had been in his face faded. He eyed

ed Jane under her breath.

ur.... Your neighbor and associate? Your companion, Jan

agnificent!" she taunted as she ste

, say, two hours,

ed, and he left her as she turned

ive. Occasionally Dick's eyes wandered from Jane to the other man's face but Tom sat, knees crossed, idly toying with the whip, as indifferent to what was being said as if the others were out of sight and hearing.

a mere cluster of miniature buildings,

s something splendid ab

She sure expressed her op

mer, evi

n after you did, with her

spect of strange men

e a bad hombre like that get set down by a woman. There's something hum

for the chivalry of the country

there ain't much c

o have enjoyed the protecti

d at her

sing to learn how one man defend

uneasily

"I'd been waiting for a chance t

ad none of its usual bluntness; clearly

w a woman such as I am can feel about a thing like that. I think it was the finest thing a man h

not answer, just looked straight ahead with his tell-tale flush deepening

to expect of a man who has mad

eam swept the buckboard forward with a banging and clatter that would have drowned words anyhow, but the fact that he d

f her environment. He had failed in that. He had impressed her only with the fact that Tom Beck had gone out of his way, had taken a chance, to

the face of her best efforts to convince him of fitnes

e had found something new. Here was a man who, in her presence, would plot to humiliate her

efforts to win his open regard. Those things were potent influences, surely, but there was something more fundamental about him, a basic quality which she

for them and Tom carried

k unharnessed, the ho

in' all the way to town an' back

here, Two-Bits, only we di

or you, Tommy, but I thi

self as though, perhaps,

its sighed. "He shore ought to be com

was quiet, to see a tall, silent figure move slowly beneath the cottonwoods, watching the house, pausing at ti

riendship; he had made Webb his sworn enemy by defending her (she had not told him that part of the tale she heard

de suddenly angered her beyond reason and she felt her body shaking as tears sprang into her eyes. The great thing which she desired was just there,

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