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ll of genial sympathy. "I'll bet a dollar Mex you'd sure like to beat me on the haid with a two by four. But I don't reckon you'll ever get that fond wish gratified. We're not liable to meet up with each other again _pronto_. To-day we're here and to-morrow we're at Yuma, Arizona, say, for life is short and darned fleeting as the poet fellow says." He waved a hand jauntily and turned to go. But he changed his mind. His eye had fallen on a young woman standing at a French window of the house opposite. She was beckoning to him imperiously. The young woman disappeared as he crossed the street, but in a few moments the door opened and she stood there waiting for him. Clay stared. He had never before seen a girl dressed like this. She was in riding-boots, breeches, and coat. Her eyes dilated while she looked at him. "Wyoming?" she asked at last in a low voice. "Arizona," he answered. "All one. Knew it the moment I saw you tie him. Come in." She stood aside to let him pass. That hall, with its tapestried walls, its polished floors, and Oriental rugs, was reminiscent of "the movies" to Clay. Nowhere else had he seen a home so stamped with the mark of ample means. "Come in," she ordered again, a little sharply. He came in and she closed the door. "I'm sopping wet. I'll drip all over the floor." "What are you going to do? You'll be arrested, you know." She stood straight and slim as a boy, and the frank directness of her gaze had a boy's sexless unconsciousness. "Thought I'd give myself up to the marshal." She laughed outright at this. "Not in this town. A stranger like you would have no chance. Listen." There came to them from outside the tap-tap-tap-tap of a policeman's night stick rattling on the curbstone. "He's calling help." "I can explain how it happened." "No. He wouldn't understand. They'd find you guilty." He moved from the rug where he was standing to let the water drip on the hardwood floor. "Sho! Folks are mostly reasonable. I'd tell the judge how it come about." "No." "Well, I can't stay here." "Yes--till they've gone." Her imperative warmed his heart, but he tried to explain gently why he could not. "I can't drag you into this. Like as not the Swede saw me come in." To a manservant standing in the background the young woman spoke. "Jenkins, have Nora clean up the floor and the steps outside. And remember--I don't want the police to know
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