wig o' whisky!"
He arraigned the Fort with a crutch.

"What do you think of doing, dad?"

"Ah'll fin' out where thet cuss was las' night--Charley'll help me, y'
see----"

"And then?"

"Ah'll see thet--thet Oliver knows o' this, thet he keeps a' eye on thet
dog-goned----"

"But it'll be easier just to go straight to the Captain; not _I_, but
_you_----"

"Yes, do pa," urged Marylyn. "Oh, Dallas, what's happened?"

The elder girl told of the pole and the bootmarks, treating them
lightly. Then she came back to her father. To find that her argument of
a moment before, for all its short-cut logic, had set him utterly
against the plan he had himself proposed. And now he was for no man's
help, but for a vengeance wreaked with his own gun. Hurling a final defy
toward Shanty Town, he disappeared behind the partition.

No breakfast was eaten that morning. The section-boss was too angry to
taste of food, Marylyn was too frightened, and Dallas had no time. For
she was busy with the mules, currying them and putting them before the
wagon. "Can't help what you think about it this time," she said when
her father asked her where she was going; "I've made up my mind that if
you won't say the Fort, why then I'll have to drive to Clark's for Mr.
Lounsbury. We don't know for sure what that pole meant. We must ask."

"Aw, you ain't got a smitch o' pride," he taunted jealously. "Goin' t'
Lounsbury. Wal! Wal! You think a heap o' him, don' y'? More 'n you do o'
you' father! Thet sticks out like a sore finger."

"No," she answered simply. "I'm putting my pride in my pocket, dad. I'm
going to Mr. Lounsbury because I care so much for you, and for Marylyn.
And I want to say something--I hate to say it--you've almost discouraged
me about Brannon lately. We came here to raise stuff to sell over there.
But I can't see how we can sell over there if we won't even speak to a
soul. It looks as if we're going to give all that up--as if a lot of my
work is for nothing."

It was a new thought for the section-boss. And while Dallas disappeared
behind Betty, he pondered it with hanging head. She came around soon to
hitch Ben's tugs, when her father looked up shamefacedly. "Ah'll tell
y', Dallas," he said, by way of compromise, "ef Lounsbury don't come
back with y'----"

"He will," assured Dallas, stoutly.

"W'y, we'll go t' th' Fort, as you say."

"All right, dad," she replied, giving his back a pat.

He began to hobble up and down. "You ain