chance to hang me."

Pauline released him, dabbed at her eyes, and ran, choking, into the
house.

"You've got to be in trouble to make a real hit with Miss Roubideau,"
suggested the lank deputy, a little bitterly. "I'll take those bracelets
off now, Clanton. You can wash for supper."

Polly saw to it, anyhow, that the prisoner had the best to eat there was
in the house. She made a dinner of spring chicken, mashed potatoes, hot
biscuits, jelly, and apple pie.

A rider for the Flying V Y dropped in after they had eaten and bridled
like a turkey cock at sight of Clanton.

"Don't you let him git away from you, Jack," he warned the officer.
"We're allowin' to have a holiday on the sixth up at our place so as to
go to the show. It _is_ the sixth, ain't it?" he jeered, turning to the
handcuffed man on the lounge.

"The sixth is correct," answered Jim coolly, meeting him eye to eye.

"You wouldn't talk that way if Clanton was free," said Goodheart. "You're
taggin' yoreself a bully an' a cheap skate when you do it."

"Say, is that any of yore business, Mr. Deputy Sheriff?"

"It is when you talk to my prisoner. Cut it out, Swartz."

"All right."

The cowpuncher turned to Pauline, who had come to the door and stood
there. "You'll be goin' to the big show on the sixth, Miss Roubideau.
Live-Oaks will be a sure-enough live town that day."

The young woman walked straight up to the big cowpuncher. Her eyes
blazed. "Get out of this house. Don't ever come here again. Don't speak
to me if you meet me."

The Flying V Y rider was taken aback. Like a good many young fellows
within a radius of a hundred miles, he was a candidate for the favor of
Pierre Roubideau's daughter.

"Why, I--I--" he stammered. "I didn't aim for to offend you. This fellow
bushwhacked my boss. He--"

"That isn't true," she interrupted. "He didn't do it."

"Sure he did it. Go-Get-'Em Jim is a killer. A girl like you, Miss
Roubideau, has got no business stickin' up for a bad man who--"

"Didn't you hear me? I told you to go."

"You've been invited to remove yoreself from the place an' become a part
of the outdoor scenery, Swartz," cut in Goodheart, a snap to his jaw.
"I'd take that invite pronto if I was you."

The cowpuncher picked up his hat and walked out. The drawling voice of
the prisoner followed him.

"Don't you worry, Polly. They can't hang me if I ain't there, can they?"

The deputy guessed that Pauline wished to talk alone with Clanto