to find out
owners, lookin' up assessment work an' so on. Talk of a boom. I reckon
Plimsoll's twigged that. Lawyer Feeder, who run for state senator an'
whose record's none too dainty, is in cahoots with Jordan an' Plimsoll.
Ed heard they figger on goin' before Judge Vanniman, one of their crowd,
to get an order of court. She's a minor. They can git her away from you.
If we crowd them too hard for them to app'int one of their own ring--an'
they're figgerin' on Plimsoll, he claimin' to be her father's
partner--they'll likely have her put in some institution. An' it's goin'
to be done right sudden. I w'udn't wonder, from all I hear, but what
they're over here ter-morrer with a court order. An' you can't fight the
courts 's long as they're in authority, the way you fought Jim
Plimsoll."

Molly stepped out, eyes flashing, fists clenched, talking passionately.
"I won't go with 'em. I'll run away. They can't take me. Jim Plimsoll is
a damned liar. You won't let 'em take me?" She turned to Sandy, her arms
stretched in appeal.

"No, Molly, I won't. Will we, boys?"

"You can bet everything you got an' ever hope to own we won't," said
Sam.

"That goes for me," echoed Mormon, but he scratched his fringe of hair
in some perplexity.

"Talk don't beat an order of the court," said Miranda Bailey. "Mebbe I
seem sort of vinegary to you, child, but I'm not a bad sort. My brother
Ed has got somethin' to say in this community an' I'm likely to control
a few votes this fall myself. I figger if you came home with me to-day
we c'ud manage to git you placed with us. There's been tattle about you
stoppin' here. You're fifteen--an'...."

"Some folks is jest plumb rotten," flared Molly. "I'm no kid. I ... _oh,
if_ Dad was alive!"

Sandy stood up and slid an arm about her shaking shoulders. She wheeled
and buried her head on his shoulder, sobbing.

"We're powerful obliged to you, Miss Bailey, for what you told us," said
Sandy. "I'm right sure you'd give Molly a fine home, but we got other
plans an' we aim to carry 'em out. Plimsoll's a skunk an' I'll block his
game about the mines ef they amount to anything. Molly's goin' east for
her eddication. She's got plenty money to git the best that's goin' an'
she's goin' to have it."

"Then you better git her 'cross the county line before many hours are
over." Miranda Bailey recognized something better than mere decision in
Sandy's voice, she was not the leading suffragist of the county for