hem, if I can git 'em on," she said, displaying a
pair of white satin slippers. The next instant she had plumped herself
down upon the floor and was trying to encase her feet in a pair of
slippers which were much too small for them. "Remember what fun I made
o' you when you took up with Billy Jackrabbit?" suddenly she asked with
a happy little smile. "What for? sez I. Well, p'r'aps you was right.
P'r'aps it's nice to have someone you really care for--who belongs to
you. P'r'aps they ain't so much in the saloon business for a woman after
all, and you don't know what livin' really is until--" She stopped
abruptly and threw upon the floor the slipper that refused to give to
her foot. "Oh, Wowkle," she went on, taking up the other slipper, "it's
nice to have someone you can talk to, someone you can turn your heart
inside out to."

At last she had succeeded in getting into one slipper and, rising, tried
to stand in it; but it hurt her so frightfully that she immediately sank
down upon the floor and proceeded to pat and rub and coddle her foot to
ease the pain. It was while she was thus engaged that a knock came upon
her cabin door.

"Oh, Lord, here he is!" she cried, panic-stricken, and began to drag
herself hurriedly across the room with the intention of concealing
herself behind the curtain at the foot of the bed; while Wowkle, with
unusual celerity, made for the fire-place, where she stood with her back
to the door, gazing into the fire.

The Girl had only gotten half-way across the room, however, when a voice
assailed her ears.

"Miss, Miss, kin I--" came in low, subdued tones.

"What? The Sidney Duck?" she cried, turning and seeing his head poked
through the window.

"Beg pardon, Miss; I know men ain't lowed up here nohow," humbly
apologised that individual; "but, but--"

Vexed and flustered, the Girl turned upon him a trifle irritably with:

"Git! Git, I tell you!"

"But I'm in grite trouble, Miss," began The Sidney Duck, tearfully. "The
boys are back--they missed that road agent Ramerrez and now they're
taking it out of me. If--if you'd only speak a word for me, Miss."

"No--" began the Girl, and stopped. The next instant she ordered Wowkle
to shut the window.

"Oh, don't be 'ard on me, Miss," whimpered the man.

The Girl flashed him a scornful look.

"Now, look here, Sidney Duck, there's one kind o' man I can't stand, an'
that's a cheat an' a thief, an' you're it," said the Girl, laying great
stress