e murmured, "Are you sure you are not after ANYbody?"
The emphasis on the last word was so plain that a shrewder love-maker
than Slim would have been deceived.

"Eh? What's that?"

Polly turned her back to him with assumed bashfulness. Slim's courage
arose at the sight. "Well, I reckon this is a pat hand for me, and
that's the way I'm a-goin' to play it, if I've got the nerve."

Slim smoothed down his tangled hair, and brushed off some of the dust
which whitened his shoulders. "Look yeah, Miss Polly--"

Then his courage failed him, and he stopped. Polly glanced at him, to
help him over the hard places. Slim was greatly embarrassed. "My
heart is right up in any throat. Well, I might as well spit it out,"
he thought aloud.

Again Slim started toward the girl to tell her of his love, and again
his courage failed him, although Polly was doing her best to help him.

"Look yeah, Miss Polly, I've been after somebody for a long time now--"

"Horse-thief?" asked Polly coquettishly.

"No, heart-thief," blurted Slim.

"Stealing hearts ain't no harm."

"Well, just the same, I'm goin' to issue a writ of replevin, an' try
for to git mine back," laughed Slim.

He was about to slip his arm about her waist when she turned and faced
him. The action so disconcerted him that he jumped backward, as if the
girl was about to attack him.

"Where is it?" asked Polly.

Slim, deeply in earnest, replied: "You know it's hid. You know just
as well as I kin tell you."

Polly became remorseful. She realized how much Slim was suffering, and
she was sorry that her answer to him would be a disappointment.

"Please don't say any more, Slim,"--as she stepped away from him. Slim
followed her up, and, speaking over her shoulder, said: "I can't help
it. You've got my feelin's stampeded now, an' they sure has to run.
I've had an itchin' in my heart for you ever since I first knowed you.
You come from Kentucky--well, I was kinder borned up that way
myself--in Boone County, an' that sorter makes--well, if it did, what I
want to know is--"

Slim hesitated, and nervously hauled at his chaps.

"Will you be my--"

Frightened at his boldness, he clapped his hand over his mouth.

"Can I be your--" he began again.

Angry at himself, he said under his breath: "I'll never get this damn'
thing out of my system." In his earnestness he doubled up his fist and
shook it behind the girl's back. Suddenly she turned, and found his
clenc