r.
Still, he took the cigar which Sudden obediently surrendered, and he got
down off his horse and stood with one spurred foot lifted to the second
step of the porch while he felt in his pocket for a match.

"Well, now, Bill's in a hurry, Mary V. We haven't got time--"

"You'd better take time, then! What's the use of Bill going off to
Sinkhole unless he listens to me first? Do you think, for gracious sake,
I've been riding around all over the country with my eyes shut? Or do I
look nearsighted, or _what_? What do you suppose I laid awake all night
for, piecing things that I know together, if you're not going to pay
attention? Do you think, for gracious sake--"

"There, now, we don't want to get all excited, Mary V. Sit down here and
stop for-gracious-saking, and tell dad and Bill what it is you've seen.
If it's anything that'll help run down them horse thieves, you'll get
that Norman car, kitten, if I have to pawn my watch." Sudden gave Bill a
lightened look of hope, and pulled Mary V down beside him on the striped
porch swing. Then he snorted at something he saw. "What's the riding
breeches and boots for? Didn't I tell you--"

"Well, Bill's going to lend me Jake, and I'll be in a hurry."

"Like h--" Bill began explosively, and stopped himself in time.

"Just like that," Mary V told him calmly. "Dad, if Bill doesn't let me
ride Jake, I don't believe I can remember some things I saw down on
Sinkhole range--through the field glasses, from Snake Ridge. I shall
feel so badly I'll just have to go into my room, and lock the door and
cry--all--day--long!" To prove it, Mary V's lips began to quiver and
droop at the corners. To prepare for the deluge, Mary V got out her
handkerchief.

Bill looked unhappy. "That horse ain't safe for yuh to ride," he
temporized. "He's liable to run away and kill yuh. He--"

"I've ridden him twice, and he didn't," Mary V stopped quivering her lips
long enough to retort. "I don't see why people want to be so mean to me,
when I am trying my best to help about those horse thieves, and when I
know things no other person on this ranch suspects, and if they did, they
would simply be stunned at knowing there is a thief on their own pay
roll. And when I just want Jake so I can hel-lp--and Tango is getting so
lazy I simply _can't_ get anywhere with him in a month--" Mary V did it.
She actually was crying real tears, that slipped down her cheeks and made
little dark spots on her blue kimono.

Bill