e anything much. That was a wicked old pine knot."

"I'll say she was, boy! But about the razor?" Keddie kept on.

Again Hiram could not answer.

"Why, that's easy!" laughed Heine Schultz. "They was gonta give Jo a
shave!"

Jo and Hiram walked together behind the rest and talked as the party
returned to the wagons. For the first time she told him of what her
skinners had had to report when they were over their sickness following
the doping at Ragtown. One and all, they said, they had been invited
to the little cabin of the girl who ran the shooting gallery for a
drink; after having fired several strings of shots and "joshed" with
her out in front. From there they had gone to the Palace, and
afterward, being dazed and feeling drowsy, had wandered in a group into
the Dugout, a place that they seldom frequented, and could remember
nothing after that.

"Why--why--do they think Lucy doped them?" cried Hiram.

Jo shrugged. "They can't remember drinking anywhere but with her and
in the Palace," she said. "They got it one place or the other, Hiram."

"The Palace, of course, then. Why--Lucy--she----"

"Is a friend of Al Drummond," Jo helped him out, her red lips set.

"Did you find out whether or not Drummond was in Ragtown at the time?"

"I looked into all that I dared, but it was nine days before I got
back. Oh, I had an awful time, with nobody to help me but a few green
men I'd picked up at Julia--finding the horses and all. But Huber got
his hay!" she added proudly. "When I got back to Ragtown, of course
nobody remembered whether Drummond had been there that day or not. He
goes and comes frequently, you know. And I didn't dare press
questions. I told the boys to keep still about it all. I thought that
best."

"Was Drummond there on your last trip in?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Beaten up? I'm sure I must have left my mark on all three of them."

"I didn't get to see him, but no one said anything about any injury."

"Much as we dislike him, it's hard to think that Drummond would be
concerned in such a plot," Hiram remarked.

"Plot?"

"Of course, Jo."

"Against me? What have I done?"

"We're getting nowhere with such speculation, Jo," said Hiram. "We
boys will just have to keep our eyes open and see what we can find out.
There's more back of it than the idea to tantalize you because you beat
Al Drummond in the freighting game. I wish I knew what the razor was
for."

"Of course, they weren