uttered the words that showed no tremor.

"You! Not for love, my beauty! Because you are good to look at--yes. But
I'll take my time. I'll sip at the dish, my dear. I've got a big score
to settle and I'll do it properly. We'll go over some of the items."

He got up and emptied a bottle that still held a generous measure. He
staggered slightly and fumbled the chair as he sat down again. Molly
watched him intently. If only he got sufficiently drunk. Before the rest
came back. Perhaps she could get his own gun? Plimsoll laid a familiar
finger on her knee and instantly loathing showed in her eyes. He
laughed.

"Using that busy li'l' brain of yours, eh? Figurin' I'll get drunk.
Want to play Delilah? Nothin' doin', m' dear. I made that booze and I
know just how it treats me, sabe? Now then.

"Your guardian angel Sandy chiseled me out of my share in the Molly Mine
belongin' to me 'count of grubstakin' your father."

"That's a lie."

"That's easy to say when it nets you a fortune. Easy to go back on a
dead man's agreement. Four-flushing Sandy Bourke...."

Molly suddenly slipped back into the primitive. Something seemed to
click and the refinement she had learned and used so far fell like a
cloak that is dropped for freedom in battle. With the malignment of
Sandy and her father she was Molly Casey, daughter of a Desert Rat, once
more.

"That's another damned lie," she said.

"Haven't forgotten how to swear, have you?"

"I've heard how Sandy Bourke chased your rotten-hearted jumpers out off
the claim and gave you until sun-up to sneak out of town. I've heard how
you were afraid to look at him through the smoke but went galloping off
while the whole camp laughed at you. Sandy a four-flusher! A coyote'll
fight when it's cornered, but you...."

She had heard the whole story from Keith. It was a favorite tale of the
promoter's. He used it as publicity across his dinner table. It gave the
right touch of adventure to Casey Town. Plimsoll grew slowly livid.

"Heard all about it, did you?" he said slowly. "Then you know some of
the score. And I can wipe off what I owe Sandy Bourke through you. And
there are more items. There was the first time we met. I haven't
forgotten that. There was the kiss you said you tried to bite out after
you'd burned the doll I gave you. You told about that the next time I
kissed you in the hammock at Three Star. You tried to rub out that kiss,
too. Maybe the next ones will stay put."

"That w