her as soon as he could.

"So she waited for word from him all summer, and the other day there
came a letter, and the same day she found out that her mother meant
for her to marry some young Mexican blood at Muletown. Then she made
up her mind to go to Will, although he had told her he couldn't send
for her for another month or two. That night she started off alone in
the dark and walked to Muletown. Somebody gave her a ride across the
plain and then she walked to Plumas from the Hermosa pass.

"I made up my mind right then and there that I'd yank that young scrub
back to Plumas quicker'n hell could singe a cat, but she wouldn't tell
me where he was. And maybe I didn't have a skin-your-teeth sort of a
time gettin' it out of her! I just tell you that little girl is cute
enough to take care of herself most anywhere, and don't you forget it!
I coaxed her and she'd coax back, and I threatened her and she'd come
back at me with all the things I'd sworn not to tell, and I wheedled
her as Irish as the pigs in Drogheda, and she'd lie back on the pillow
and smile at me--and all the time just lookin' too sweet and pretty
and sick--well, it was the hardest job I ever tackled. Boys, I sure
reckon that little handful of a girl would have been too many for me
and we'd have been palaverin' yet if she hadn't gone too weak to talk
any more. I saw she was mighty near played out, and I just sicked
myself on for all I was worth. I felt ornery enough to go off and get
horned by a steer, but I reckoned I sure had to. She gave up at last,
when she couldn't hold out any longer, and agreed to let me see the
envelope her letter had come in if I'd kiss the crucifix and swear by
a few more saints that I wouldn't let anybody touch Will, and swear
over again on my knees everything I'd promised her before. I finally
got through with all the religious doin's she could think of, and
then I lit out for the train. I heard it comin' when I left French's
house, and I made a run for it, which was why I didn't tell Judge
Harlin where I was goin'. I couldn't stop to say a word to anybody
without missin' the train and losin' a day.

"The only clue I had was that he was at Chihuahua, and at work at
something, I didn't know what, and I thought likely he was _pasearing_
around under an assumed name, which he was. I nosed around for two
days, layin' low and keepin' mighty quiet, and you better guess I made
a quick scoot through Juarez, too."

The others grinn