of the way, haven't we? Keep your eyes
peeled on Cookie," Plimsoll said in a lower voice as the ranch chef went
out of the door with his arms piled with provisions. "He might take a
notion to talk too much. We had to let him in, but he don't have to stay
in. Soon as the boys are away you come back and we'll go out again this
end, if all is clear."

"Where are you going to stow her?" asked Hahn "Leave her here in Split
Rock Cave?"

The callous reference to her as if she was something inanimate chilled
Molly. If only she had a gun! She had laughed at Donald's tenderfoot
insistence upon carrying the one he had brought west as a part of his
outfit and had never attempted to use. The cook's too well thrown rope
would have probably thwarted any move of hers if she had had a weapon.
Her fingers crept up toward her throat touching a slender chain upon
which, ever since she had returned to the Three Star, hung a gold disk,
the coin with which Sandy had gambled, the luck-piece. To Molly, even
now, it was a talisman that held promise. If they left her behind them,
somehow Sandy would unearth her. But that hope died.

"She'll stay in sight and touch," said Plimsoll. "Then we'll know she's
safe. We'll make Windy Gulch to-night and stay there. It's as good a
place as I know. One of us can ride over the mountain to Redding and
mail the letter."

Butch nodded. "Come on, Hahn," he said. "Let's leave 'em together."

Molly cast an involuntary glance at the opening door, watched it close
after the pair of blackguards and braced herself. The issue was at hand.

Plimsoll slid a bolt on the door, brought over one of the makeshift
chairs and placed it in front of Molly, seating himself. His
alcohol-laden breath reached her nauseatingly and she turned her head
aside. As if a trigger had been released Plimsoll's face became inflamed
with a passionate fury. The veins on face and neck swelled and writhed
like little blue snakes, his eyes congested.

"Damn you!" he said. "Don't you turn your head away from me. I'll train
you to better manners before I'm through with you. You'll be jumping to
do what you think I want you to before long. You'll be begging me for
favors. You may think you're too good for me now. You won't presently."

She saw that she had gone too far in her disdain; that she must try to
leash the devils that had broken loose in his brain.

"Just what do you want?" she asked, and her voice seemed not to belong
to her as she