slip back some night with
the boys an' git yo'r own things, if y'r so dratted stuck on 'em. Come
along now."

She took hold of his wrist with a grip like iron. Shorty had no idea
that a woman could have such strength.

"I want to go back and git my partner," said Shorty. "Me and him 've bin
together all the time we've bin in the army. He'll go along with me,
I'm sure. Me and him thinks alike on everything, and what one starts the
other jines in. I want to go back an' git him."

"I don't like that partner o' your'n. I don't want him. I'll be a better
partner t' yo' than ever he was. Yo' mustn't think more o' him than yo'
do o' me."

"Look here, Sophrony," said Shorty desperately, "I cannot an' will
not go with you to-night. I'm expectin' important letters from home
to-morrow, and I must go back an' git 'em. I've a thousand things to
do before I go away. Have some sense. This thing's bin sprung on me so
suddenly that it ketches me unawares."

With the quickness of a flash she whipped out a long knife from
somewhere, and raised it, and then hesitated a second.

[Illustration: SHE WHIPPED OUT A LONG KNIFE. 189]

"I believe yo're foolin' me, and if I wuz shore I'd{191} stick yo'. But
I'm gwine t' give yo' a chance. Yo' kin go back now, an' I'll come for
yo' ter-morrer. If you go back on me hit'll be a mouty sorry day for
yo'. Mind that now."

Shorty gallantly helped her mount, and then hurried back to camp.

CHAPTER XIV. SHORTY HAS AN ADVENTURE WITH SI

HE GOES OUT TO VISIT MRS. BOLSTER.

SHORTY sauntered thoughtfully back to the tent, and on the way decided
to tell Si the whole occurrence, not even omitting the deceit practiced.

He had to admit to himself that he was unaccountably shaken up by the
affair.

Si was so deeply interested in the revelations that he forgot to blame
Shorty's double-dealing.

"Never had my nerve so strained before," Shorty frankly admitted. "At
their best, women are curiouser than transmogrified hullaloos, and when
a real cute one sets out to hornswoggle a man he might as well lay down
and give right up, for he hain't no earthly show. She gits away with him
every time, and one to spare. That there woman's got the devil in her
bigger'n a sheep, and she come nigher makin' putty o' your Uncle Ephraim
than I ever dreamed of before. It makes me shivery to think about it."

"I don't care if she's more devils in her than the Gadarene swine, she
must be stopped at once," said Si, h