instant that he was a gentleman. Even Charlie Sands would probably have
said "them." "They got away very rapidly, and I dare say an automobile
would be---- Did one of them have a red beard?"

"Yes," we told him. "The one who called to us."

Well, he said that on Monday night an express car on the C. & L.
Railroad had been held up. The pursuit had gone in another direction,
but he was convinced from what we said that they were there in Thunder
Cloud Glen!

As Tish said, the situation was changed if there were outlaws about. We
were three defenseless women, and here was a man brought providentially
to us! She asked him at once to join our party and look after us until
we got to civilization again, or at least until the roads were dry
enough to travel on.

"To look after you!" he said with a smile. "I, with a bad leg and no
weapon!"

At that Aggie brought out her new revolver and gave it to him. He
whistled when he looked at it. "Great Scott!" he said. "What a weapon
for a woman! Why, you don't need any help. You could kill all the
outlaws in the county at one loading!"

But finally he consented to take the revolver and even to accept the
shelter of the cave for that night anyhow, although we had to beg him to
do that. "How do you know I'll not get up in the night and take all your
valuables and gallop away on your trusty steed before morning?" he
asked.

"We'll take a chance," Tish said dryly. "In the first place, we have
nothing more valuable than the portable stove; and in the second place,
if you can make Modestine gallop you may have him."

It is curious, when I look back, to think how completely he won us all.
He was young--not more than twenty-six, I think--and dressed for a
walking tour, in knickerbockers, with a blue flannel shirt, heavy low
shoes and a soft hat. His hands were quite white. He kept running them
over his chin, which was bluish, as if a day or two's beard was
bothering him.

We asked him if he was hungry, and he admitted that he could hardly
remember when he had eaten. So we made him some tea and buttered toast,
and opened and heated a can of baked beans. He ate them all.

"Good gracious," he said, with the last spoonful, "what a world it would
be without women!"

At that he fell into a sort of study, looking at the fire, and we all
saw that he looked sad again and rather forlorn.

"Yes," Tish said, "you're all ready enough to shout 'Beware of woman'
until you are hungry or uncomfort