he repeated the question and
considered it, still with amused scorn, as if debating whether she would
enlighten him or not. "Well--" drawling aggravatingly, "I knew you and
Pop had the knife ready for Ru--Mr. Hanson." Flick's mouth twisted
again. "That wasn't very hard to see. So when you hit the trail, Bob, I
gave him the chance to clear out. I did so, tipped him off, you know.
Now I guess if he'd been wanted bad for anything that would--well, put
him behind the bars, say, he'd have gotten out pretty quick. And,
anyway, if he'd been wanted like that he wouldn't have stayed here so
long, for they wouldn't have had any trouble in nailing a man as well
known as him before, so, you see, I knew it wasn't any of the usual
things. But," and here she stopped and, looking up into his face, spoke
more emphatically, "I gave him the chance, too, to tell me all about
himself and he didn't take it. Now, there isn't a man living that
wouldn't have taken it--under the circumstances--" she spoke with a
deliberately cruel emphasis, and Flick's shoulders contracted a little
as the dart pricked him--"unless it was some mix-up about a woman."

"It's about a woman, all right," grimly.

"What about her?" Pearl's voice cut the air like the swift, downward
stroke of a whip.

"She's his wife," returned Flick. "She's been living up near Colina. She
owns a part of a mine there and has been managing it."

Pearl took this in silence; and they had walked a dozen yards or so
before they spoke again.

"Well, what of it?" she said at last, carelessly, almost gaily.
"Divorces are easy."

His expressionless face showed a cynical amusement, with just a hint of
triumph in the lighting of his eye. He shook his head. "I talked to
her," he said. "She's a good, decent woman, but she ain't quite straight
in her head when it comes to Hanson. He lied to her right along about
the others, even from the first; played fast and loose with her, and
finally eloped with one of his burlesque head-liners. She took it. What
else was there for her to do? But she spends about all of her time
watching her fences to see that there's no divorce in question. He's
done everything, tried to buy her off more than once, but it's no good.
Every place he goes she follows him up sooner or later, and she writes
him letters, too, every once in so often, offering to come back to him.
And he can't get anything on her, for she lives as straight as a string.
Oh, no, Pearl, Mr. Rudolf H