?"

"I don't want no money till I earn it," said Buck.

"Life's gettin' too peaceful for you, eh?" grinned Silent.

"Speakin' of peace," chimed in Purvis, with a liberal wink at the rest
of the gang, "Buck allows he's the boy who c'n bring the dove o' the
same into this camp. He says he knows the way to bring the girl over
there to see reason."

Buck followed the direction of Purvis's eyes and saw Kate sitting on a
rock at a little distance from the shanty in which she lived with her
father. She made a pitiful figure, her chin cupped in her hand, and
her eyes staring fixedly down the valley. He was recalled from her by
the general laughter of the outlaws.

"You fellers laugh," he said complacently, "because you don't know no
more about women than a cow knows about pictures."

"What do you think we should do with her, Solomon?" Buck met the cold
blue eye of Haines.

"Maybe I ain't Solomon," he admitted genially, "but I don't need no
million wives to learn all there is to know about women."

"Don't make a fool of yourself, Buck," said Silent. "There ain't no
way of movin' that damn girl. She's gone on a hunger strike an' she'll
die in it. We can't send her out of the valley. It's hell to have her
dyin' on our hands here. But there ain't no way to make her change her
mind. I've tried pleadin' with her--I've even offered her money. It
don't do no good. Think of that!"

"Sure it don't," sneered Buck. "Why, you poor bunch of yearlin'
calves, she don't need no coaxin'. What she needs is a manhandlin'.
She wants a master, that's what she wants."

"I suppose," said Haines, "you think you're man enough to change her?"

"None of that!" broke in Silent. "D'you really think you could do
somethin' with her, Buck?"

"Can I do somethin' with her?" repeated Buck scornfully. "Why, boys,
there ain't nothin' I can't do with a woman."

"Is it because of your pretty face or your winnin' smile?" growled the
deep bass of Bill Kilduff.

"Both!" said Buck, promptly. "The wilder they are the harder they fall
for me. I've had a thirty-year old maverick eatin' out of my hand like
she'd been trained for it all her life. The edyoucated ones say I'm
'different'; the old maids allow that I'm 'naive'; the pretty ones
jest say I'm a 'man,' but they spell the word with capital letters."

"Daniels, you're drunk," said Haines.

"Am I? It'll take a better man than you to make me sober, Haines!"

The intervening men jumped back, but the d