armful of steaming food. Before Buck's widening eyes
she swiftly set forth an array of bread, butter in chunks, crisp
French-fried potatoes, a large slab of ham on one plate and several
fried eggs on another, and above all there was a mighty pewter cup of
coffee blacker than the heart of night. Yearning seized upon Buck
Daniels, but policy was stronger than hunger in his subtle mind. He rose
again; he drew forth the chair opposite his own.

"Ma'am," said Buck Daniels, "ain't you going to favor me by sittin'
down?"

The lady blinked her unfocused eyes.

"Ain't I what?" she was finally able to ask.

"I know," said Buck Daniels swiftly, "that you're terrible busy; which
you ain't got time to waste on a stranger like me."

She turned upon Buck those uncertain and wistful eyes. It was a generous
face. Mouth, cheekbones, and jaw were of vast proportions, while the
forehead, eyes, and nose were as remarkably diminutive. Her glance
lowered to the floor; she shrugged her wide shoulders and began to wipe
the vestiges of dishwater from her freckled hands.

"You men are terrible foolish," she said. "There ain't no tellin' what
you mean by what you say."

And she sank slowly into the chair. It gave voice in sharp protest at
her weight. Buck Daniels retreated to the opposite side of the table
and took his place.

"Ma'am," he began, "don't I look honest?" So saying, he slid half a
dozen eggs and a section of bacon from the platter to his plate.

"I dunno," said the maiden, with one eye upon him and the other plunging
into the future. "There ain't no trusting men. Take 'em by the lot and
they're awful forgetful."

"If you knowed me better," said Buck sadly, disposing of a slab of bread
spread thick with the pale butter and following this with a pile of
fried potatoes astutely balanced on his knife. "If you knowed me better,
ma'am, you wouldn't have no suspicions."

"What might it be that you been doin'?" asked the girl.

Buck Daniels paused in his attack on the food and stared at her.

He quoted deftly from a magazine which had once fallen in his way: "Some
day maybe I can tell you. There's something about your eyes that tells
me you'd understand."

At the mention of her eyes the waitress blinked and stiffened in her
chair, while a huge, red fist balled itself in readiness for action. But
the expression of Buck Daniels was as blandly open as the smile of
infancy. The lady relaxed and an unmistakable blush tinged even h