and the nice little property Seth left you from a pack of
wolves in the camp that's after them, an' not you, an' what thanks do I
get? All these months I been workin' like the devil to convert you an'
Jose, an' as far as either of you's concerned, I might a darned sight
better have put in my time tryin' to save the soul of a flea. You
couldn't even let a poor, God-forsaken robber like Jose alone. Don't you
know that if you get a thousand husbands they'll all treat you as bad or
worse'n Seth did?"

"He's an angel in heaven right now an' don't you dare say a word against
him, Sadie Nitschkan," cried Mrs. Thomas defensively, "but he was a
devil all the same."

"They'll all be devils," returned Mrs. Nitschkan fatalistically. "They's
no man can stand seein' a feather pillow around all the time an' not
biff it, especially when it can turn on a gallon of tears any time of
the day or night."

Mrs. Thomas made no effort to refute this last aspersion. Instead, she
began to weep loudly and unrestrainedly. "Bob Martin says in his letter
that he hopes I'm havin' a pleasant time," she sobbed. "He don't know
the loneliness, not to say the danger, of being snowed up in these
mountains with a woman that ain't got no more feelin' than to skin you
alive whenever she's a mind to. I ain't afraid of gentlemen, even
husbands, but sometimes when you get to jawin' me, Sadie, with a gun in
your hand, it makes my poor heart go like that, an' I crawl all over
with goose-flesh."

Fortunately, the thaws continued, and if no great quantity of snow fell
between now and then, the first passenger train was scheduled to run
through on the day that Pearl would dance, but Bob Flick, by some method
known to himself, had succeeded in making his journey on the engine, and
thus arrived at Gallito's cabin several days before he was expected,
looking a little more worn than usual and faintly anxious, an expression
which speedily disappeared as he saw the radiant health and spirits of
Pearl. As for her, she was unfeignedly glad to see him.

"I sure have worried a lot about you this winter, Pearl," he said to her
that evening as they two sat a little apart from the rest, Gallito,
Jose, Hugh and Seagreave, who all clustered about the fire, while Pearl,
as usual, had drawn her chair within the warm gloom of the pine-scented
shadow.

"Ain't you silly!" She looked up at him with her heart-shattering,
adorable smile.

"I am always about you," he said. "You're