d indignation. "And I
never ast you, neither. I don't know, I'm sure. Some folks has
nerve."

But this time Toby was not to be intimidated. Perhaps it was the
girl's bright smile. Perhaps, with marvelous inspiration, he saw
through her flirtatious methods. Anyway, he remained where he was,
grinning sheepishly up into her face.

"Guess you best push me off. I ain't heavy," he dared her clumsily.

"I sure wouldn't demean myself that way," she retorted. "Gee, me
settin' hands on a feller like you. It would need a prize-fighter."

The acknowledgment of his size and strength was a subtle tribute which
pleased the man, as it was intended to. He preened himself and drew
his knees up into his arms, in an attitude intended to be one of
perfect ease and to show his confidence.

"I sure ain't much of a feller for strength," he said modestly, eyeing
his enormous arms and hands affectionately. "You ought to see Wild
Bill. He--he could eat me, an' never worry his digestion."

Birdie laughed happily. She was always ready to laugh at a man's
attempt at humor. That was her way.

"You are a queer one," she said, seating herself on the opposite edge
of the table, so that she was sufficiently adjacent, and at the
requisite angle at which to carry on her flirtation satisfactorily.
"Say," she went on, with a down drooping of her eyelids, "why ain't
you in there playin' poker? Guess you're missin' heaps o' fun. I wish
I was a 'boy.' I wouldn't miss such fun by sitting around in here."

"Wouldn't you?" Toby grinned, while his brains struggled to find a
happy reply. "Well, you see," he hazarded at last, "poker an' whisky
ain't to be compared to talkin' to a dandy fine gal with yaller hair
an' elegant blue eyes."

He passed one of his great hands across his forehead as though his
attempt had made him perspire. But he had his reward. Birdie contrived
a blush of pleasure, and edged a little nearer to him.

"Gee, you can talk pretty," she declared, her lips parted in an
admiring smile. "It makes me kind o' wonder how you fellers learn it."
Then she added demurely, "But I ain't pretty, nor nothing like you
fellers try to make out. I'm jest an ord'nary sort of girl."

"No you ain't," broke in Toby, feeling that his initial success had
put him on the top of the situation, and that he had nothing now to
fear. Besides, he really felt that Birdie was an uncommonly nice girl,
and, in a vague way, wondered he had never noticed it before.

"T