shakin' he's
sorta half-talkin' an' half-singin' to her in some kind of talk so near
like Spanish I thought I could ketch some of it.

"By cripes! but that feller was hot good an' plenty over something he
claimed she'd did.

"An' when, half-sobbin' an' singin', she 'peared to be tellin' him she
hadn't, an' to go off an' let her alone, he shook an' abused her more'n
ever, till it struck me it was about time for neighborin' men folks to
hop in an' take a hand, for it was plumb plain she was a pore,
sweet-faced, innercent little crittur that couldn't done no harm to a
hummin' bird.

[Illustration: "BUT BEFORE HE COULD LITE ON HER WITH HIS KNIFE, I HOPPED
OUT OF MY CLOSE-PEN INTO THE CANON"]

"'Bout that time, Mr. Hairyman he hops back a step or two, stands an'
scowls an' grits his teeth at th' gal for a minute, an' then he raises
his knife, sorta crouches for a jump, an' sings out, near as I could
make it out:

"'_Maudite! Folle! Folle! Say Fini!_'

"But before he could lite on her with his knife, I hopped out of my
close-pen into the canon, jammed my .45 in his ear, an' observes:

"'Mr. Hairyman, you're a liar, an' it's Stonewall Kip, of Concho,
tellin' you!'

"'Little _Maudy_ thar _ain't_ full, an' she don't have to _say_ airy a
thing she don't want to; an' if you don't pull your freight sudden for
th' brush, I'll shore shoot six different kinds of meanness outen your
low-down murderin' carcass!'

"Th' way his whiskers skipped over boulders makin' his getaway was some
active, while th' pore little gal she jest drops off in a dead faint an'
lays thar till some folks comes down the gulch an' carries her off.

"Then I takes th' kink outen th' hammer of my gun, sticks her in my
waist-band, an' climbs back an' gits my hat--havin' had more'n enough of
such blasted Op'ra The-_a_-ters.

"An' while I was driftin' through the chute toward the main gate of th'
big pen, to git out, there was th' blamedest cheerin', yellin', an'
hand-clappin' you ever heard away from a stump-speakin', but whatever
she was all about Stonewall didn't stop to ax."

FOOTNOTE:

[J] Reprinted by special permission from "Reminiscences of a Ranchman."
Copyright, 1910, by George H. Doran Company.

[Illustration]

XI.--The Lie[K]

_By Hermann Hagedorn_

"DID you prepare this lesson, Burton?"

Burton, big, athletic, handsome as a movie hero--hesitated a second
before he answered. He was busy picking up a pad which lay under his