shoot her in a
perfectly polite way.

So Mary V had gone back with them toward the line fence, because the fat
one rode behind her with a gun and the boy had a gun, too, and they said
they would not tie her hands if she would be good, because there was a
swarm of gnats and little flies that kept pestering so, and she had to
brush them away from her face.

They kept down in hollows, and mostly they had to go single file, with
the boy in front and the detestable one behind. But after awhile they had
to climb over a ridge, and the horses were picking their own way, and the
horrid one got off to one side, where Mary V could see him out of the
corner of her eye. And he was not watching her very closely, and the gun
was not pointing at her as she naturally supposed it would be, from what
he said.

So Mary V very carefully turned in her heel, and watched her chance, and
gave Jake a kick in the ribs. And Jake did exactly as a person expected,
and gave a big jump against the horse of the boy. And the fat one did not
shoot after all, because he thought it was Jake that did it himself.

So Mary V, having reached into her riding shirt and got her gun, whirled
Jake around and took a shot at the fat one before he saw what she meant
to do. And she hit him in the hand where he was holding the gun across
the saddle horn, which was careless of him, but, of course, he never
_dreamed_ that Mary V had a gun and would use it.

So the gun dropped on the ground, and the man tried to grab his hand and
his side at the same time, because the bullet hit his side too. And then
Mary V got Jake down off his hind feet where he had stood with surprise,
and made the boy drop his gun. And they were there on the ground yet,
just where they dropped them, because Mary V thought they were safer
there than being picked up by any one present.

So that was all there was to it. The fat one was all wilted down in the
saddle, and their ponies were used to shooting and just stopped and stood
there thankful that they had an excuse, because the poor things were
terribly hot and sweaty and tired. And Mary V made the boy get off and
back up to her, which was some trouble on account of Jake and the gun she
had to hold ready to shoot, so she only had one hand for Jake, really.
And she was going to take the rag off his head to tie his hands the best
she could under the circumstances, but the boy would not do as she said,
but instead tried to run away and duck into t