The Range Boss

t seemed that he had grown more grim and stern-looking since his coming to the Flying W. She saw him, sometimes, laughing quietly with Uncle Jepson; other times she heard him talking ge

e wavered in her convict

not even asking her to accompany him. These omissions worked no great hardship on her, for the days had grown hot and the plains dry and dusty, s

h sitting on the porch, announced that he was "quittin'" and wanted his "time." She did not ask him why he wanted

erson is too fresh." He looked at her impudently. "Bes

on. "You wouldn't dare say

o Pickett, I reckon," he sneered. "Well, Ra

r when she had gone riding alone, she saw Randerson at a distance

rse when she wheeled hers. When their ponies came to a halt near each other it w

ght you ought to know. This mornin' the boys found two

ld be so inhuman as to do that? But I suppose ther

w when they drove their calves off-like any mother would." He eyed her calmly. "I reckon it was Chavis, ma'am. He's got a shack down the crick a ways. He's been there ev

nantly. "If they are that kind o

p them from goin', ma'am. An' we sure don't want them around. But whe

," she ordered; "they shall

ing his animal's muzzle near her stirrup. For he was m

calves?" she asked, as they rode. She looked back over her shou

prove it. We ain't got any evidence, you see. We found the cows, with the calves gone. We know th

complain to

ma'am. But I reckon

ow

much as he can. There ain't no court in the county nearer than Las Vegas, an' that's a hundred an' fifty miles from here. An', mostly, the court don't

way to stop them from st

, and again she turned and looked at him. His face grew grave again,

stopping them-within reason!" she dec

am," he said. "That's a s

you hang them without a court ver

the way,

en who hang others in that manner

s hard to find anybody that will admit he had a hand in it. Nobody knows anything a

imed, "what a b

contended mildly. "Would you have the rustlers

he courts,"

' a man for a crime he's done, than for one man, a judge for instance, orderin' him to be hung? If, we'll say, a hundred men elect a judge to do certain things, is it any more wrong for the hundred men to d

hat provides hanging for rustl

e laws," he said. "They have a right to

er. "What would become of the world if

at can be got at easy, there'd be no sense to it. But out here there's no other w

de and cold-

d turned to see him loo

nished, or hung. You hear about it, or you read about it, an' it don't seem so near you, an' that kind of takes the edge off it. Out here it comes closer, an' it

W they must not be hanged. You must capture them, if possible, and take them to the proper officials, that they may

rrin' to Pickett, I r

e monosyllable back

and she looked at him and saw

o him. You was standin' on the porch, an' I reckon you used your eyes. If you did, you saw

try to shoot you," she charge

You see, I've knowed P

he ground. You had the advantage-you might have taken his pistol away from him, and prevented any further trouble. Instead, you allowed him to keep

m his chan

e of the men about you. They say you are the cleverest of any man in

er with the story of Masten's connection with the affair, but he had no intention of te

o think that he had killed Pickett in pure wantonness, for he had

when they don't get their gun out quick enough. An' that's the man's fault that pulls the gun. There ain't no officials to do any guardin' out here; you've got to do it yourself or it don't get done. A man can't take too many chances-an' live to tell about it. When you know a man's lookin' for you, yearnin' to perforate you, it's just a question of w

uickly at him, nearly convinced. But again the memory of the

ble to think of

ither him or me, an' I kind of got over it. Pickett would have it, ma'am. When I turned my back to him I was hopin' that he wouldn't try to play dirt on me. Do you reckon he oughtn't to have been made to tell you that he had been wron

id with unsmiling sarcasm. "It seems to me that men who go about thinki

hey ain't civil

sort to the methods you used in bringing Pickett to a

es lighted with a deep fire.

o's he'll fight-or a woman, either. Either of 'em will fight when the right thing gets them roused. I expect that deep down in everybod

kill anybody," sh

an' if you stay here long enough some day you'll meet them an' recognize them for your own-an' you'll wonder how you ever got along without them." He looked at her now with a subtle gr

tly," she shot back at him.

ou'd be jealous of the one you loved, an' you

astonished at the turn his talk had taken that she

ea, an' I reckon it's about the oldest thing in the world, next to love an

ls an' men it's the same. A kid-which you won't claim don't love its mother-is jealous of a brother or a sister which it thinks is bein' favored more than him, an' if

romance, ma'am. When a man is so willin' to give up his wife to another man he's sure got a heap tired of her an' don't want her any more. He's got his eye peeled for Number Two, an' he's thankin' his wife's lover for makin' the trail clear for the matrimonial wagon. But givin' up Number One to the other

hat she ought to be offended, but disarmed by his ingenuousness

if you'll look around an' watch them, you'll find they're mostly an unfeelin' kind. You ain't one of them kind, ma'am. I've watched you, a

r. Masten?" she said, loo

"I don't reckon you do, ma'am. Me

hink so?" she dem

irl an' she looked at me as critical as you look at him, some

introducing this subject, and she was determined to make him

h makes you able to make such remarkable deductions. But if you are no more correct in the others than you are i

for she thought hersel

n' you've got the grit to tell where you stand.

ntirely forgot to think of his impertinence in t

ecause you're goin' to love

he utmost respect-that he did not intend to be impertinent-that he seemed as natural as he had been all along. She would have exhibited scorn if she could have s

ever your other shortcomings,

nderin' what made me say it. I expect it's because I've been thinkin' it so strong. Anyway, it's said, an' I can't take it back. I wouldn't want to, for

she said. "I have been hunting high

that was a slip of the tongue. But when I saw the picture, I knowed I was goin' to love

ten me," s

what I've said while you're engaged to Masten. I'm apologizing ma'am. You be loyal to Masten-a

Masten, are you?" she queried, trying her best to be scor

, ma'am. Mebbe some day that thing will be tellin' you the s

ect; "I have heard that the wilderness sometimes makes people dream strange dreams, and I suppos

had taunted him, she had also listened to h