iney was only too glad to lend him a fresh horse and a bran
sack.

It was dusk when he dismounted at the Dale corral. There was a lamp
in the kitchen. Its rays shone out through the open door and made a
rectangle of golden light on the dusty earth. Molly was standing at
the kitchen table. She was stirring something in a bowl. She did not
turn her head when he came to the door.

"Evenin', Molly," said Racey.

"Good evening." Just that.

"Uh. Yore ma around?"

"She's gone to bed." Still the dark head was not raised.

He misunderstood both her brevity and the following silence. He
left his hat on the washbench outside the door and stepped into the
kitchen.

"Don't take it so to heart, Molly," he said, awkwardly.

"It's hard, but--Shucks, lookit, I've got something to tell you."

In very truth he had something to tell her but he had not meant to
tell her so soon.

"Lemme take care of you, Molly--dear. You know I love you, and--"

"Stop!" Molly turned to him an expressionless face. She looked at him
steadily. "You say you love me?" she went on.

"Shore I say it." He was plainly puzzled at her reception of what he
had said. Girls did not act this way in books.

"How about that--that other girl? Marie, I think her name is."

"What about her?"

"A good deal."

"What has she got to do with my loving you, I'd like to know?"

"She loves you."

"Marie? Loves me? Yo're crazy!"

"Oh, am I? If she hadn't loved you do you think for one minute she'd
come riding all the way out here to give you a warning?"

"Marie and I are friends," he admitted. "But there ain't any law
against that."

"None at all." Molly's eyes dropped. Her head turned back. She resumed
her operations with a spoon in the bowl.

"Lookit here, Molly--"

"Don't you call me Molly." Her tone was as lacking in expression as
was her face.

"But you've got to listen to me!" he insisted, desperately. "I tell
you there ain't anything between Marie and me."

"Then there ought to be." Thus Molly. Womanlike she yearned to use her
claws.

"But--"

"Oh, I've heard all about your carryings on with that--creature; how
you talk to her, and people have seen you walking with her on the
street. I saw you myself. Yesterday when Mis' Jackson drove out here
to buy three hens she told me when the girl was arrested and fined for
trying to murder a man you stepped up and paid her fine. Did you?"

"I did. But--"

"There aren't any buts! You've got a nerve