oney had bought books for the school, and that Tom
Lorrigan himself had paid close to four hundred dollars for the
piano.

They heard that invitations were being sent broadcast, that a crowd
was coming from Pocatello, from Lava, from Jumpoff--invited to come
and spend a day and night in merry-making. Yet no invitation came to
the Devil's Tooth ranch, not a word was said to them by Mary Hope, not
a hint that they were expected, or would be welcome.

Belle met Mary Hope in the trail one day, just a week before the
Fourth. Mary Hope was riding home from school; Belle was driving out
from Jumpoff. It is the custom of the outland places for acquaintances
to stop for a bit of friendly conversation when they meet, since
meetings are so far between. But, though Belle slowed the pintos to a
walk, Mary Hope only nodded, said, "How do you do," and rode on.

"She looked guilty," Belle reported wrathfully to Tom and the boys at
the supper table. "Guilty as sin. She seemed to be afraid I was going
to ask her if I couldn't come to her dance. The little fool! Does she
think for a minute I'd _go?_ She hasn't so much as thanked you for
that piano, Tom. She hasn't said one word."

"Well, I didn't put my name and _ad_-dress on it," Tom palliated the
ingratitude while he buttered a hot biscuit generously. "And there
wasn't any name on the books to show who bought 'em. Maybe she
thinks--"

"I don't care what she thinks! It's the way she acts that counts.
Everybody in Jumpoff has got invitations to her picnic and dance. They
say it's to pay us for the piano--and they think she's doing some
wonderful stunt. And we're left out in the cold!"

"We never was in where it was right warm, since I can remember," said
Al. "Except when we made it warm ourselves."

"Sam Pretty Cow was saying yesterday--" and Duke repeated a bit of
gossip that had a gibe at the Lorrigans for its point. "He got it over
to Hitchcocks. It come from the Douglases. I guess Mary Hope don't
want nothing of us--except what she can get out of us. We been a good
thing, all right--easy marks."

Duke had done the least for her and therefore felt qualified to say
the most. His last sentence did its work. Tom pulled his eyebrows
together, drew his lip between his teeth and leaned back in his chair,
thinking deeply, his eyes glittering between his half-closed lids.

"Easy marks, ay?" he snorted. "The Lorrigans have been called plenty
of things, fur back as I can remember, but