I'd like to make one
for my Mary. Though I don't know! My hands are so rough I can't handle
embroidery silks very good."

She held up two work distorted hands. "I made this blouse myself," said
Pen. "I'd love to make one for your Mary. Time will hang on my hands
out here, some days."

"That's nice of you," said the little desert woman, taking the gift as
simply as it was offered. "You tell me what materials to get. I guess I
can find some way to pay you up."

"Come to see me, or let me come to see you," exclaimed Pen. "That will
be pay enough. I have few friends, for my husband doesn't like them. But
I can see that he has taken a liking to you two."

"The minute I saw you, I knew something pleasant had happened to me,"
said Jane Ames. "You don't mind having an old woman for an admirer, do
you?"

Pen's dimples showed. "The more I see of men, Mrs. Ames, the better I
like women."

Jane Ames nodded understandingly. "The women I know all have got it hard
one way or another but I guess desert farming ain't the worst thing that
can happen to a woman. Here comes Oscar. I suppose he's mad because I
ain't down at the buckboard counting the minutes till he gets to me.
Good-by, my dear! I'll see you soon."

Pen did not return to the tent house at once. She saw Iron Skull up on
the mountainside watching a group of Indians break out the first line of
a road and she strolled over to talk to him. Jim's letters home had been
full of Iron Skull and Pen felt as if she knew him well.

"How do, Mrs. Saradokis?" said Williams.

"Are they all Indians?" asked Pen staring round-eyed at the group of
workmen.

Iron Skull nodded. "Jicarilla and Mohave Apaches. I've fought with the
older men. They make good workmen if you understand them. Old
Suma-theek over there is one of my best friends."

There might have been fifty of the Indians, stalwart fellows, using pick
and shovel with a deliberate grace that fascinated Pen. She watched in
silence for a moment, then she said:

"Mr. Williams. I'm worried about Jim. Is it really true that they are
trying to oust him?"

Iron Skull looked at Pen's anxious hazel eyes, then out at the ranges.
Then he scratched his head.

"I'm a little worried myself, Mrs. Saradokis. He's up against a bad
proposition and he just won't admit it. I don't like to nag him. You
see, him and me are just naturally partners though I am old enough to be
his father. And there's some ways a man can't nag another man."