f being caught in the act by some meddlesome
fellow who loved to come snooping around where he had no business, so
Mary V placed the tablet open on the table just as she had found it, and
left the bunk house without deigning to fulfill the errand of mercy that
had taken her there. Why should she trouble to sew the lining in a coat
sleeve for a fellow who pined for a silly flirtation with Venus? Let
Johnny Jewel paw and struggle to get into his coat. Better, let Venus sew
that lining for him!

Mary V stopped halfway to the house, and hesitated. It had occurred to
her that she might add another perfectly withering verse to that poem. It
could start: "While sailing in my airplane boat, I'll ask Venus to mend
my coat."

Mary V started back, searing couplets forming with incredible swiftness
in her brain. How she would flay Johnny Jewel with the keen blade of her
wit! If he thought he was the only person at the Rolling R ranch who
could write poetry, it would be a real kindness to show him his mistake.

Just then Bud Norris and Bill Hayden came up from the corrals, heading
straight for the bunk house. Mary V walked on, past the bunk house and
across the narrow flat opposite the corrals and up on the first bench of
the bluff that sheltered the ranch buildings from the worst of the desert
winds. She did it very innocently, and as though she had never in her
life had any thought of invading the squat, adobe building kept sacred to
the leisure hours of the Rolling R boys.

There was a certain ledge where she had played when she was a child, and
which she favored nowadays as a place to sit and look down upon the
activities in the big corral--whenever activities were taking place
therein--an interested spectator who was not suspected of being within
hearing. As a matter of fact, Mary V could hear nearly everything that
was said in that corral, if the wind was right. She could also see very
well indeed, as the boys had learned to their cost when their riding did
not come quite up to the mark. She made for that ledge now.

She had no more than settled herself comfortably when Bud and Bill came
cackling from the bunk house. A little chill of apprehension went up Mary
V's spine and into the roots of her hair. She had not thought of the
possibilities of that open tablet falling into other hands than Johnny
Jewel's.

"Hyah! You gol-darn witless wight," bawled Bud Norris, and slapped Bill
Hayden on the back and roared. "Hee-yah! Sk