nded crack in the mouth.
Sure it was a crack! Lorenzo went over the counter backward an' landed
like a pack load of wood. An' he didn't git up.

"'Mister Bruce,' said Isbel, 'an' you fellars who heerd thet lyin'
greaser, I did meet Ellen Jorth. An' I lost my head. I 'I kissed
her.... But it was an accident. I meant no insult. I apologized--I
tried to explain my crazy action.... Thet was all. The greaser lied.
Ellen Jorth was kind enough to show me the trail. We talked a little.
Then--I suppose--because she was young an' pretty an' sweet--I lost my
head. She was absolutely innocent. Thet damned greaser told a
bare-faced lie when he said she liked me. The fact was she despised
me. She said so. An' when she learned I was Jean Isbel she turned her
back on me an' walked away."'

At this point of his narrative the old man halted as if to impress
Ellen not only with what just had been told, but particularly with what
was to follow. The reciting of this tale had evidently given Sprague
an unconscious pleasure. He glowed. He seemed to carry the burden of
a secret that he yearned to divulge. As for Ellen, she was deadlocked
in breathless suspense. All her emotions waited for the end. She
begged Sprague to hurry.

"Wal, I wish I could skip the next chapter an' hev only the last to
tell," rejoined the old man, and he put a heavy, but solicitous, hand
upon hers.... Simm Bruce haw-hawed loud an' loud.... 'Say, Nez Perce,'
he calls out, most insolent-like, 'we air too good sheepmen heah to hev
the wool pulled over our eyes. We shore know what y'u meant by Ellen
Jorth. But y'u wasn't smart when y'u told her y'u was Jean Isbel! ...
Haw-haw!'

"Isbel flashed a strange, surprised look from the red-faced Bruce to
Greaves and to the other men. I take it he was wonderin' if he'd heerd
right or if they'd got the same hunch thet 'd come to him. An' I reckon
he determined to make sure.

"'Why wasn't I smart?' he asked.

"'Shore y'u wasn't smart if y'u was aimin' to be one of Ellen Jorth's
lovers,' said Bruce, with a leer. 'Fer if y'u hedn't give y'urself
away y'u could hev been easy enough.'

"Thar was no mistakin' Bruce's meanin' an' when he got it out some of
the men thar laughed. Isbel kept lookin' from one to another of them.
Then facin' Greaves, he said, deliberately: 'Greaves, this drunken
Bruce is excuse enough fer a show-down. I take it that you are
sheepmen, an' you're goin' on Jorth's side of the fence