f Mormon, stowed at ease in
a chair, asleep and snoring.

Sam struck a match and lit a lamp. He struck Mormon mightily between his
shoulders.

"Gawd!" gasped the heavyweight partner. "I been asleep. But there's a
kittle of hot water, Sandy. Where's the--what in time are you totin'? A
gel or a boy?"

"This is Miss Molly Casey," said Sandy gravely, setting down the girl.
"Miss Casey, this is Mr. Peters. Mormon, Miss Molly is goin' to tie up
to the Three Star for a bit."

Mormon, a little sheepish at the suddenly developing age of the girl as
she shook hands with him, recovered himself and beamed at her. "Yo're
sure welcome," he said. "Boss hired you? Cowgirl or cook?"

Sandy noticed the girl's lips quiver and he slipped an arm about her
shoulders. He was not woman-shy with this girl who needed help, and who
seemed a boy.

"Don't you take no notice of him an' his kiddin'," he said. "We'll make
him rustle some grub fo' all of us an' then we-all 'll turn in. I'll
show you yore room. Up the stairs an' the last door on the right. Here's
some matches. There's a lamp on the bureau up there. Give you a call
when supper's ready."

He led her to the door and gave her a friendly little shove, guessing
that she wanted to be alone.

"The kid's lost her father, lost most everything 'cept her dawg," he
said to Mormon. "Thought we might adopt her, sort of, then I thought
mebbe we'd hire her--for mascot."

"Lost her daddy? An' me hornin' in an' tryin' to kid her! I ain't got
the sense of a drowned gopher, sometimes," said Mormon contritely.

"She's game, plumb through, ain't she, Sam? Stands right up to trouble?"

"You bet. Mormon, open up a can of greengages, will ye? I reckon she's
got a sweet tooth, same as me."

Molly Casey was not through standing up to trouble. They coaxed her to
eat and she managed to make a meal that satisfied them. Then she got up
to go to her room, with Grit nuzzling close to her, her fingers in his
ruff, twisting nervously at the strands of hair.

"Do you reckon," she asked the three partners, "that Dad knows he fooled
me when he told me to jump? If I'd known he c'udn't git clear I'd have
stuck--same as he would if I was caught. Do you reckon he knows
that--now?"

"I'd be surprised if he didn't," said Sandy gravely. "You did what he
wanted, anyway."

She shook her head.

"If I'd been on the outside, he w'udn't have jumped, no matter how much
I begged him. I didn't think of the brake. Don't