remarked, "'t let yo' know t' le' me alone
hereafter. Now, le's straighten things around here fer a pleasant time."

She initiated her proposed era of good feeling by a sounding kick in the
ribs of the most obstreperous of the dogs, and a slap on the face of a
12-year-old girl, who was the noisest and most pugnacious of the lot.
Each of these set up a howl, but there was a general acquiescence in her
assertion of authority.

[Illustration: JEFF SAT UP AND RUBBED HIMSELF 208]

Jeff Hackberry sat up, scratched and rubbed himself, seemed to be
trying to once more get a full supply of air in his lungs, and turned
a one-eyed glare on his surroundings. The guerrilla whom Si had knocked
down began to show signs of returning consciousness, but no one paid any
attention to him. One of the other two pulled out a piece of tobacco,
split it in two, put the bigger half in his mouth and handed the
remainder to his partner. Both began chewing meditatively and looking
with vacant eyes for the next act in the drama. Shorty regained his gun,
and he and Si looked inquiringly at one another and the mistress of the
ranch.

"Come on up t' the house," she said, starting in that direction. The
rest followed, with Si and Shorty in the lead.

The boys gazed around them with strong curiosity. The interior was like
that of the other log cabins they had seen--a rough puncheon floor for
the single room, a fireplace as big as a barn door, built of rough{209}
stones, with a hearth of undressed flat stones, upon which sat a few
clumsy cooking utensils of heavy cast-iron, three-legged stools for
chairs, a table of rough whip-sawed boards held together by wooden pins.
In two of the corners were beds made of a layer of poles resting upon a
stick supported at one end upon a log in the wall and at the other end
a forked stick driven between the puncheons into the ground below.
Upon this was a pile of beech leaves doing duty as a mattress. The
bed-clothes were a mass of ragged fabrics, sheepskins, etc., used in the
daytime for saddle-blankets and at night upon the bed. There had been
added to them, however, looking particularly good and rich in contrast
with their squalor, several blankets with "U. S." marked upon them.
Around the room were canteens, shoes, and other soldier belongings.

"Have they killed and robbed the men to whom these belonged, or merely
traded whisky for them?" was the thought that instantly flashed through
Si's and Shorty's minds