e tent door. Murphy was with him. "Boss,"
said Bill, "Murphy has got to see your Greek friend. I got him started
south this noon, but he circled on me and I just picked him up on the
mesa, headed this way. He wanted to come here on the quiet, but I
brought him up in the open."

CHAPTER XX

THE DAY'S WORK

"Women know a loyalty that men scorn while they use it. This
is the sex stamp of women."

MUSINGS OF THE ELEPHANT.

With a quick glance at Sara, Jim rose. "Give Mr. Saradokis and his
friend a chance to talk, of course, Bill. But shut Murphy up tonight and
bring him round to me in the morning."

Bill essayed a salute that was so curiously like bringing his thumb to
his nose that Pen had to turn a laugh into a cough and Jim smiled as he
hurried out of the tent. As soon as the murder trouble was settled, Jim
thought, he would have some sort of a settlement with Sara. His calm
effrontery was becoming unbearable.

After a hurried supper Jim went back to the lower town to keep his eye
on the moving picture show. As he mounted the steps of the little sheet
iron building, a girlish figure hurried to meet him from the shadow of
the ticket office.

"Pen!" cried Jim. "This is no place for you!"

"Oh, lots of women have gone in," protested Pen. "Please, Jim! Sara was
so ugly this evening I just walked out and left him alone and I'm crazy
to see what goes on down here."

Jim glanced in at the open door. The hall was nearly full. "If anything
goes wrong, Penny, I would have my hands full and you might be hurt."

Pen gave a little shiver of anticipation. "Oh, please let me stay,
Still! Just think how shut in I've been all these years."

Even though his common sense protested, Jim was an easy victim to Pen's
pleading eyes and voice. He led the way into the hall. It was an
enthusiastic crowd, that crunched peanuts and pinons and commented
audibly on the pictures. Pictures of city life were the most popular.

"God! That's Fulton street, Brooklyn!" cried a man's voice as a street
scene glided across the screen. "Wish I'd never left it."

"Gee! Look at the street car!" called another man. "I'd give a year of
my life for a trolley ride."

"Look at them trees!" said someone as a view of a middle west farm
followed. "Them are trees, boys, not cable way towers! How'd you like to
shake the sand out of your eyes and see something green?"

"What are you peeved about?