bucks. Bu'sted the bank. An' here's
the 'riginal bet." He showed the gold eagle, put it into her palm.

"Served me, now you take it," he said. "I'll git you a chain fo' it.
It's sure a mascot--same as you are--the Mascot of the Three Star."

She looked up, her eyes, cloudy with wonder at the sight of the money,
shining at her new title. They rested on Sam's arm, bandaged with the
bandanna.

"There's been shootin'," she said. "You're hit. Oh!"

"More of a miss than a hit," replied Sam.

Molly turned to Sandy. Anxiety, affection, something stronger that
stirred him deeply, showed now in her gaze.

"_You_ hurt?"

"Didn't hardly muss a ha'r of my head. Jest a li'l' excitement."

"Tell me all about it."

Sandy gave her a condensed and somewhat expurgated account to which she
listened with her face aglow.

"I wisht I'd been there to see it," she said as he finished.

"It warn't jest the time nor place fo' a young lady," said Sandy. "Main
p'int is we got the money for yo' eddication, like we planned."

The light faded from her face.

"Air you so dead set for me to go away?" she asked.

"See here, Molly." Sandy leaned forward in his chair, talking earnestly.
"You've got the makin' of a mighty fine woman in you. An' paht of you is
yore dad an' paht yore maw. Sabe? They handed you on down an', if you
make the most of yo'se'f, you make the most of them. Me, I've allus been
trubbled with the saddle-itch an' I've wanted the out-of-doors. A chap
writ a poem that hits me once. It stahts in,

"I want free life an' I want free air,
An' I sigh fo' the canter afteh the cattle,
The crack of whips like shots in battle;
The melly of horns an' hoofs an' heads
That wars an' wrangles an' scatters an' spreads,
The green beneath an' the blue above,
An' dash an' danger an' life....

"Somethin' like that. I mayn't have got it jest right, but that's _me_.
The chap that wrote that might have writ pahts of it jest fo' me. He
sure knew what he was writin' erbout. It's called _In Texas, Down by the
Rio Grande_. I've been there. Arizony ain't much differunt."

"It's called _Lasca_," put in Sam. "I seen it in the movies. Had the
po'try strung all through it. It was a love story. This Lasca, she----"

Mormon put a heavy foot over Sam's and he subsided.

"So you see I lost out on a heap," said Sandy. "An' I'm a man. I can git
erlong with less. But fo' a gel, learnin's a grand thing. An' there's
the