ld Jake of the Bar T who spoke out then, and spoke straight.

"My boy," says he, "put up your gun. That's right. This here tenderfoot
is bleedin' by spurts, arterial. Bull, see if Doc Stuart is sober." Bull
ran for the doctor. "Only a tenderfoot," says Jake, "insults a cow-boy's
wife--which is death from natural causes. Ma'am," he wagged his finger
at Polly, "'tain't long since you come among us. 'Tain't more'n a day
since you told me and others present that you was marryin' for fun. You
laughed at warnings, and this here Jesse would have shot the man who
warned him. You are a lady, and this boy you married for fun, is goin'
to see you treated as a lady. I own he got rattled first shot, missing
this tenderfoot's heart, which ain't up to average practise; but it's
time you began to see the point of the joke."

They took the tenderfoot away, and we were alone, me watching the pool
of red blood turning brown. Polly sat drumming tunes on the table, her
face turned white, staring out through the window at the noon heat of
the plains. I remember I took a bottle of champagne wine, filled a big
goblet, and drank it off. The flies were buzzing still agin the window.
It made me laugh to think she'd taught me drinking, so I had another,
watching the flies hold congress on the floor. "I see," says Polly, "I
understand now." At that she began to scream.

I should have told you, that after our boys of the Flying Zee quit
Abilene, I pitched a little A tent on the prairie back of Polly's house.
Thar I could see my ponies at grass, and snuff the air clear of that
stinking town.

But from the time I moved into the house, thar was something disturbing
my nose--something uneasy--oh, I don't know what it was, back of all
house smells, which give me a sense of evil, so I could hardly bear to
stay indoors.

And there were signs. I'd come back from some errand into town, to find
a man's track leading into the door, when Polly claimed she had no
visitors. Why should she say she'd been alone all morning, when there's
pipe ashes on the parlor table, or I'd catch the wet smell from a
chewed cigar? She only laughed.

Comin' from town one night--she'd sent me there--I seen a man's shadow
cross the parlor blind. I fired, missing, a fool's act, for it warned
him, and gave him time. The lamp was out before I reached the house, and
Polly with some hysterics getting in my way.

It wouldn't be sense to show a match guiding the stranger's aim, or to