ered Taylor to Tommy, "but the
ladies have got their minds on this Indian truck."

"Why, I'll just explain--" began Tommy.

"Don't," whispered Lin, joining us. "Yu' know how women are. Once they
take a notion, why, the more yu' deny the surer they get. Now, yu' see,
him and me" (he jerked his elbow towards the Virginian) "must go back to
camp, for we're on second relief."

"And the ladies would sleep better knowing there was another man in the
house," said Taylor.

"In that case," said Tommy, "I--"

"Yu' see," said Lin, "they've been told about Ten Sleep being burned two
nights ago."

"It ain't!" cried Tommy.

"Why, of course it ain't," drawled the ingenious Lin. "But that's what I
say. You and I know Ten Sleep's all right, but we can't report from
our own knowledge seeing it all right, and there it is. They get these
nervous notions."

"Just don't appear to make anything special of not going back to
Riverside," repeated Taylor, "but--"

"But just kind of stay here," said Lin.

"I will!" exclaimed Tommy. "Of course, I'm glad to oblige."

I suppose I was slow-sighted. All this pains seemed to me larger than
its results. They had imposed upon Tommy, yes. But what of that? He
was to be kept from going back to Riverside until morning. Unless they
proposed to visit his empty cabin and play tricks--but that would be
too childish, even for Lin McLean, to say nothing of the Virginian, his
occasional partner in mischief.

"In spite of the Crows," I satirically told the ladies, "I shall sleep
outside, as I intended. I've no use for houses at this season."

The cinches of the horses were tightened, Lin and the Virginian laid
a hand on their saddle-horns, swung up, and soon all sound of the
galloping horses had ceased. Molly Wood declined to be nervous and
crossed to her little neighbor cabin; we all parted, and (as always in
that blessed country) deep sleep quickly came to me.

I don't know how long after it was that I sprang from my blankets in
half-doubting fright. But I had dreamed nothing. A second long,
wild yell now gave me (I must own to it) a horrible chill. I had no
pistol--nothing. In the hateful brightness of the moon my single thought
was "House! House!" and I fled across the lane in my underclothes to
the cabin, when round the corner whirled the two cow-punchers, and I
understood. I saw the Virginian catch sight of me in my shirt, and saw
his teeth as he smiled. I hastened to my blankets, and returne