ath, 'the old
murderer's game--misguided, mebby, but game.'

"'That may be as it may,' observes Boggs, plenty thoughtful, 'but
after all I regyards these yere details which Sam onfurls as chiefly
valyooable as sheddin' a ray on this Miss Bark. On the chance that she
takes after her old man, from now on I'm goin' to walk 'round her like
she's a swamp.'

"It's ten days after Miss Bark hits camp that things begins to focus.
An old Mexican, the color of a blacksmith's apron, an' his wife, who's
the same prosaic tint, comes creakin' along with a six-mule team--two
wagons, lead an' trail--loaded to the gyards with stock an' fixtures.
Said par'fernalia havin' arrived, Miss Bark busts in the door of the
old deserted Lady Gay, an' takes possession. Armstrong, who runs the
Noo York store, is the owner of the Lady Gay, but onder the
circumstances he allows it'd be the act of a barbarian to interfere.

"Besides, the attitoode of the young lady herse'f is plumb discouragin'.

"'I'd shore admire,' she remarks, as, with the aid of her Mexicans,
she goes tossin' things into p'sition, 'to see some male felon try to
run a bluff about him havin' title to this Lady Gay structure, an'
becomin' my landlord. Men have tyrannized a heap too long as it is
over onprotected women, an' thar's one at least who's took in patient
silence all she will.'

"When Miss Bark's organized, she tacks up over the door a sign which
the painter at the stage station preepar's. It reads:

VOTES FOR WOMEN SALOON

"'Only get it straight,' says Miss Bark when she has us close-herded
at chuck time in the dinin' room of the O. K. Restauraw; 'I ain't
openin' this saloon none with a view to sordid gain. I got money
enough right now to buy an' burn this yere deboshed town of Wolfville,
an' then prance over an' purchase an' apply the torch to that equally
abandoned outfit, Red Dog. What I'm reachin' for is the p'litical
uplift of this camp. Recognizin' whiskey as a permanency an' that
saloons has come to stay, I aims to show folks how them reesorts
should be run. I hopes to see the day when every s'loon'll be in the
hands of ladies. For I holds that once woman controls the nosepaint of
the nation the ballot is bound to follow.'

"Once it's started we-all manages to patronize the Votes For Women
S'loon for a average of three drinks a day. Enright advises it as
safer.

"'Otherwise she might resent it,' explains Enright, 'an' armed to the
te