t of good it's going to do them. Say," he
called to Flick and Gallito, "it ain't no use drawing your guns, boys. I
guess you two old hands got sense enough to see that. So all you got to
do is to hand over the prisoner. We'll tend to the rest of you later."

"I guess you're all right"--Bob Flick's soft voice had a carrying
quality which caused his words to be heard all over the hall--"but we
all, Gallito and myself here, feel kind of puzzled. Of course, we see
right from the first what the game was and that you were after us,
but we ain't wise yet."

[Illustration: "There stood the Black Pearl alone."]

"Is that so?" sneered the sheriff. "Well, you soon will be. You step
aside from that curtain, and, Bob Flick, my men have orders to wing you
and Gallito both the minute you even start to throw your hands back."

Gallito shrugged his shoulders and threw up his hands and Flick
laughingly waved his in the air.

"I guess you're right there, Bill," he said. "You sure got the argument
of numbers. But say, boys, honest, what bug you all got in your heads?
You see in this land of the free you can't subject me and my friend
Gallito to such indignities as you're a heaping on us. As far as I can
make out, you're only laying up trouble for yourself, and also"--here
there rang a peculiarly menacing note through his soft, southern
voice--"if I'm correct, you're accusing Miss Pearl Gallito of being a
suspicious character, and I'm assuring you now, boys, that either in the
desert or here in the mountains that that's the sort of thing you've got
to answer for."

"Stop your kidding, Bob," said the sheriff, impatiently. He took a rapid
stride forward and with one quick sweep of the arm ripped back the
curtain.

Then he fell back staring, dumb with surprise. For there stood the Black
Pearl alone, a man's coat buttoned across her bare chest, and beneath it
the froth of her rose-colored silk petticoats. She stood nonchalantly
enough, her head thrown back, her hands on her hips, surveying the group
of men with a quick, disdainful smile, and then laughed insolently
across them at Hanson.

"My Lord!" cried the sheriff, recovering himself, "how did you get here?
Why, you just went out of the door."

"Gee! Jose dressed up in her clothes and made a getaway," called a
shrill voice from the rear.

The sheriff swore audibly and violently as he ran to the door. "Here,
three of you boys," he ordered, "stay here and hold these prisoners. It